Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, March 23, 2018

03/23 Links Pt2: Aussie tax slayer, Is Australian foreign aid being used to incite terrorism?; Anti-Israel hate at an anti-racism rally in Scotland; If Corbyn wins, emigrating to Israel is my clear escape route

From Ian:

Aussie tax slayer Is Australian foreign aid being used to incite terrorism?

According to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade website, Australia will contribute $43.8 million to the ‘Palestinian Territories’ in 2017-18. DFAT explains ‘Australia seeks to align its support with the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) objectives’.

Well, the PA’s objectives include providing incentive payments to terrorists who injure and kill innocent Israeli civilians. In the event that the terrorist is caught and convicted, there is a sliding scale based on the length of the jail term – the more serious the terror crime, the more money paid. Alternatively, if the terrorist dies during his/her act of terror or is subsequently killed by the Israeli Defense Force, police or by an armed civilian, then there is also a Palestinian Authority Martyrs’ Fund to pay a lifetime benefit to families of dead terrorists.

The programs have been labelled as ‘Slay for Pay’ by critics. The PA announced on March 5 that it would increase payments under these programs for terrorism from US$350 million in 2017 to US$403 million in 2018!

In 2017 the amount paid by the PA to terrorists and their families equated to about 50 per cent of total foreign aid received. The unit payments are relatively enormous. According Palestinian Media Watch, convicted terrorists in prison can receive 12,000 shekels per month plus bonuses of 300 shekels per wife, 50 shekels per child and extra for being resident in Israel and Jerusalem. This can amount to about US$3,500 per month. By contrast, a teacher employed by the PA receives roughly $615 per month.

There have been occasions when captured terrorists questioned by Israeli authorities have confirmed that their primary motive was to gain financial benefits to improve the lives of their families.When challenged, the PA repeatedly refuses to stop the provision of financial incentives for terrorism, calling it welfare.

CAMERA Op-Ed: The Palestinian Authority 'Pays to Slay' and the Media is M.I.A.

The Palestinian Authority (PA), the U.S.-backed, aid-dependent entity that rules the West Bank, pays salaries to terrorists and their families. Congress is currently considering legislation to prevent American tax dollars from being used for this purpose, which incentivizes Palestinian terrorism. Major media outlets, however, are failing to fully cover either the PA's policy or the possible legislation—called The Taylor Force Act—that seeks to prevent Americans from unwittingly financing terrorism.

The proposed law is named after a murdered U.S. veteran.

On March 9, 2016, a former U.S. Army officer named Taylor Force was stabbed to death by a Palestinian terrorist in Israel. Force, 28, had survived deployments in war zones like Iraq and Afghanistan, only to be murdered while being part of a tour group for Vanderbilt University, where he was an MBA student studying global entrepreneurship. Ten other people were stabbed before Israeli police killed the attacker.

As a reward for his deed, that family of Force's killer will now get lifetime payments doled out by the Palestinian Authority. The PA passed laws in 2004 and 2013 stipulating that convicted terrorists and their families will receive monthly “payments.” The 2004 law specifies that the money be for the “fighting sector,” which it referred to as an “integral part of the fabric of Palestinian society.”

What the Palestinian ‘fighting sector' makes

The Palestinian Authority pays significant sums for what it has chosen to prioritize legislatively and culturally. According to a Jan. 9, 2018 report by Israel's defense ministry, the PA paid terrorists and their families over $347 million dollars in 2017—$160 million for jailed and released prisoners and $190 for their families.

As Sander Gerber, a senior fellow at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, and Doug Feith, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, have pointed out: The payments and benefits are predicated in part on the length of the sentence; the more people murdered or injured, the greater the payoff.

Toby Young: If Corbyn wins, emigrating to Israel is my clear escape route

I’m currently in Israel on a press trip organised by Bicom — the Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre. Bicom does a good job of getting experts on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to give talks to journalists and I’ve attended a few in their London offices. But this is the first time I’ve been on one of their legendary excursions to the Holy Land, which they organise about six times a year. In essence, you’re given a whistle-stop tour of the country while being briefed at every turn by senior ministers and officials on both sides of the divide. It’s seventh heaven for foreign policy nerds, but I also have another reason for being here, which is to weigh up the pros and cons of emigrating to Israel.

Believe it or not, my entire family is eligible for citizenship under the Law of Return because Caroline’s father is Jewish. And the idea of moving here is genuinely appealing because I’ve been fanatically pro-Israel since falling in love with the place aged 17. I had just failed all my O-levels and was mooning about feeling like an outcast when my father decided to send me to a kibbutz. It turned out to be the perfect antidote to my adolescent funk.

I found everything about Israel, particularly its origins, deeply affecting, and in spite of not being Jewish I felt as if I’d discovered my people at last. I was inspired by the example of pioneering Zionists like Theodor Herzl to take control of my own destiny. I would return to England, retake my O-levels, go to a sixth form and, God help me, apply to Oxford. And when it all worked out, I felt as if Israel and the wonderful example of its founders had saved me and I swore an oath that I would always defend the country from its detractors. In the 37 years since, I have done my best to keep that promise and been back several times to renew my vows.

Many aspects of contemporary Israel make it an attractive place to live. It is a vibrant liberal democracy, the only truly democratic country in the Middle East. It has a first-rate higher education system, low unemployment and a booming economy. Sustained growth in GDP has transformed Tel Aviv into a sophisticated metropolis, with many of the same cultural amenities as London and New York, and the country is well equipped to withstand any major downturn in the global economy, being virtually self-sufficient in food production.

The UK's condescending press release to Israel

From the British Foreign Office:

Minister for the Middle East, Alistair Burt MP said:

The conviction and sentencing of Ahed Tamimi is emblematic of how the unresolved conflict is blighting the lives of a new generation, who should be growing up together in peace, but continue to be divided.

The treatment of Palestinian children in Israeli military detention remains a human rights priority for the UK. We will continue to call upon Israel to improve its practices in line with international law and obligations.

We have offered to help the Israeli authorities through expert-to-expert talks with UK officials. The offer still stands and we hope Israel will take us up on it. While we recognise that Israel has made some improvements, it needs to do much more to safeguard vulnerable people in its care.

What an unbelievably condescending statement. The UK, the paradigm of colonialism for centuries, is telling Israel that it can dispatch "experts" on human rights because how Israel treats prisoners under 18 is clearly a "human rights priority" for England.

I am reminded of what Menachem Begin said in 1981 to the US for its desire to "punish" Israel:
" Are we a vassal state of yours? Are we a banana republic? Are we youths of fourteen who, if they don't behave properly, are slapped across the fingers?"

As I wrote in January after a similar statement from Ward:

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.

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Just another antisemitic article from Jordan

From Assawsana.com:

...In order to love Jordan and to belong to it and to defend the interests of its people, we are resuming the march of parents and grandparents and fighting the Jews inside. We have not changed loyalties. We will not deny the sacrifices of our great-grandfathers. Authentic Arab nationalism, and hostility to Israel

As a result of the attitudes we have taken against Jews at home and abroad, against corruption, against the approach of dependency and impoverishment of the country and the people, and of course against the Jordanian-Israeli treaty of 1994, we pay the price of oppression, deprivation and marginalization.

Today we are the weakest party in the equation. The ruling elite in the country no longer sees Israel as an enemy, and my father and his sons are no longer the solid internal wall on which the regime was based many days in the past.

Yes, there is a suspicious and semi-declared alliance between Jews inside and abroad, they are partners in the interests and privileges and plunder huge wealth, while the vast majority of our people pay a high price, which we are today, and does not need explanation.

Aw, come on, elaborate!

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03/23 Links Pt1: Israeli ministers praise appointment of John Bolton; UN demands compensation from Israel for Gaza war; Palestinians call to put US ambassador Friedman on ‘global terror list’

From Ian:

Israeli ministers praise appointment of John Bolton

Two ministers from the right-wing Jewish Home party and another from the ruling Likud party congratulated former US ambassador to the UN John Bolton on Friday for his appointment as US President Donald Trump’s new national security adviser.

Education Minister Naftali Bennett tweeted that it was a “great appointment” and that Bolton, considered a foreign policy hawk who is opposed to the Iran nuclear deal, was a “stalwart friend of Israel.”

Environment Minister Ze’ev Elkin of Likud said Bolton was “not unknown to Israel.

“He has been, unquestionably, a friend of Israel for many years, including in his position as US ambassador to the UN,” Elkin told Tel Aviv radio station 102 FM. “I have no doubt it will be comfortable for us to work with him.”

Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked posted in Hebrew that “President Trump continues to appoint true friends of Israel to senior positions. John Bolton is one of the most outstanding.”

Bringing in Bolton, White House appears to stiffen against Palestinians, Iran

US President Donald Trump’s decision to nominate hawkish former diplomat John Bolton as his national security adviser brings a figure known for pushing for pre-emptive strikes on burgeoning nuclear powers as well as skepticism toward Palestinian statehood into the administration’s powerful inner circle.

On Tuesday, Trump announced on Twitter that former US Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton would replace H.R. McMaster as his chief in-house adviser on national security issues.

McMaster had been expected to leave later this year, but Bolton’s nomination shocked Washington.

A vocal advocate of the Iraq war, he has also advocated preemptive strikes against North Korea and war with Iran.

With the White House preparing to unveil its Mideast peace plan in the near future, the ascension of Bolton, who has declared the two-state solution dead, could further chill the administration’s chances of getting moribund negotiations off the ground.

While McMaster was not a main player in the Israeli-Palestinian portfolio during his tenure, national security advisers past have been deeply involved. In the Obama administration, Susan Rice and Tom Donilon, both held that role and spent substantial time trying to forge a peace agreement between the sides.

Gatestone Chairman, Ambassador John R. Bolton, Selected by President Trump as National Security Advisor

Gatestone Institute is so proud that its chairman, Ambassador John R. Bolton, will be leading the United States' National Security Council. We warmly congratulate both him and President Donald J. Trump on an appointment that is great for America, great for its allies and great for the free world.

Congratulations to our former UN Watch board member John Bolton on being named next U.S. National Security Adviser. @UN, now you'd really better watch out. pic.twitter.com/AozQSkhLcS
— UN Watch (@UNWatch) March 23, 2018

Palestinians slam Trump national security adviser pick John Bolton

A senior Palestinian official on Friday slammed US President Donald Trump’s choice of John Bolton as his new national security adviser.

Trump on Thursday announced that Bolton, an Iran hawk and former United Nations ambassador, would replace army general H.R. McMaster.

Bolton is known for his strong support for Israel and hostility to the Iranian regime.

He has previously said the idea of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is dead.

“This man has a long history of hostility to Palestinians, dating to when he was at the United Nations, where he was protecting Israeli immunity,” senior Palestinian official Hanan Ashrawi told AFP, referring to US vetoes of UN resolutions targeting Israel.

With Bolton’s appointment, she said, the Trump administration “has joined with extremist Zionists, fundamentalist Christians and white racists.”

“All this will lead to a devastating reality for Palestine and the region.”

Yisrael Medad: What Does John Bolton Say About Israel?

Last June, Ambassador John Bolton was awarded the Ingeborg Rennert Center for Jerusalem Studies Guardian of Zion Award.

The Center, affiliated with Bar-Ilan University, conducted the ceremony at the King David Hotel at which my wife and I were privileged to attend. It was established at Bar-Ilan University in 1995 by US Jewish community leaders Ingeborg Hanna and Ira Leon Rennert as an expression of their commitment to the preservation and advancement of Jerusalem's unique heritage. Integrating studies on the history, archaeology, geography, demography, economy and sociology of Jerusalem, the Rennert Center has become the foremost academic center in the international academic community studying aspects of Jerusalem's past and present.

The guests were great, including Caroline Glick among many. Caroline has a post on his 2005 speech at ZOA. The food was excellent. And the atmosphere, as Bolton spoke, became more electric.

I had heard him a few years ago in New York at an event of American Likud.

To understand that, here are some selections from his full remarks:
"I don't believe there is a future for the two-state solution. We have been pursuing it for 70 years without success. I don’t think year 71 of pursuing it will make any change...[we should] advocate[d] for a three-state solution which would merge Gaza with Egypt, and parts of the West Bank with Jordan"

"I don't think there is a viable Palestinian state. I don't think there are institutions on the Palestinian side that can live up to the commitments of a treaty with Israel, that could give Israel or the US or anyone confidence that such a state could provide for the wellbeing of the Palestinian people or could resist takeover by terrorist elements. That's why to me the best solution for the Palestinians is to tie them in to existing economies and societies where the potential for a better life for them and their families is real, rather than pursuing a political objective that ultimately won't work and certainly won't benefit the daily lives of average Palestinians"

"Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. That isn't going to change. And putting the American embassy on a piece of ground well within the existing green line isn't going to offend anybody who is serious themselves about wanting peace. And I have a further objection. I don't think anybody should tell the US where it puts its embassy, anywhere."

Ambassador John Bolton - The President of Red Eye

NGO Monitor upsets the UN by calling out antisemitism

UN Watch isn't the only one going to the UNHRC and giving them a piece of their mind...Bravo Anne!

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"Palestine Marathon" is purely political. (Are there even any runners?)

Today is the "Palestine Marathon."

From photos of the event in Ma'an, it is obvious that sports is the last thing on the minds of the organizers as well as the participants.

The route is specifically chosen to maximize the participants' view of the separation barrier.

The route was chosen quite deliberately: ""The race starts at the Church of Nativity in the centre of the Old City of Bethlehem taking the runners through Bethlehem, through two refugee camps – Al Aida and Ad Dheisheh – and along the Wall deemed illegal by the International Court of Justice in 2004, but still standing, separating Palestinians from their land and each other and preventing the basic human right to freedom of movement."

The promotional materials emphasize that the point of the marathon is about "rights", and the EU is an enthusiastic partner in this political event:

Yes, let's take down the fence and allow the birds of peace to fly. And resume suicide bombings of Israeli buses.

I didn't see any photos of anyone actually running! They are all seemingly strolling around the route.

Notice also that the logo of the marathon erases Israel - not that this bothers the EU partners.

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Historic Air India flight from Tel Aviv also passed over Oman, besides Saudi Arabia

Much has been made over the initial Air India flight from Tel Aviv that passed over Saudi airspace, the first time that a flight from Israel was allowed to go over that route.

But if you look at the map, flight AI140 had to go over another Arab country as well - Oman. it seems to have specifically avoided going over UAE airspace.

Oman is barely mentioned in most articles on this flight.

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Jordanian MPs want to prevent Jewish investors from becoming citizens. Not Israelis - Jews.

From The Jordan Times, last month:

A group of MPs on Wednesday called for excluding Israelis from a recent decision to grant nationality to individuals who invest in the country under certain conditions.

In a memorandum they submitted to the Lower House speaker’s office to be forwarded to the government, a total of 18 lawmakers demanded that the government reword its recent decision to grant facilities to investors, including nationality, so that Israeli businesspeople are ineligible to benefit from the incentive.

The memo did not mention whether 1948 Palestinians, who hold Israeli citizenship, should be included in the exception, but they stressed that “Jewish” investors must be banned from benefitting from the new regulations, which are aimed at luring capital into the country.

The Cabinet on Monday set several conditions for individuals seeking to obtain Jordanian citizenship, including a zero-interest, five-year $1.5 million deposit at the Central Bank of Jordan (CBJ), or buying treasury bonds valued the same amount at an interest rate to be decided by CBJ and for a period of no less than 10 years.

Under the recent decision, investors can also buy securities at $1.5 million, from an active investment portfolio or invest $1 million in SMEs for five years at least to become a Jordanian national.

To obtain permanent residency, any non-Jordanian can buy a property worth no less than JD200,000, provided that the Lands and Survey Department confirms the value, for 10 years without selling the property in question or dispose it in any manner.

The Jordan Times is lying.

Every Arabic article about this memorandum doesn't say a word about Israelis - only Jews. And the memorandum itself, reproduced below, doesn't mention Israelis - only Jews.

18 members of Jordan's parliament eagerly signed a memo that is explicitly and unambiguously antisemitic. They did this without any fear of backlash from their fellow parliamentarians or Arab media.

Their own media happily whitewashed it in English.

And over a month later - not one Arabic site that I can find has even the slightest negative thing to say about a potential law to exclude Jews from a law that everyone else in the world can take advantage of.

(h/t Mike)

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03/22 Links Pt2: The Latest Israel Boycott Lie; Dershowitz on Israel at 70: ‘A Light Unto the World’; Children throughout Norway to collect millions for PA terror

From Ian:

The Latest Israel Boycott Lie

When you complain that the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement discriminates on the basis of national identity, you are nowadays met with a contemptuous sniff. Proponents of an academic boycott insist that individual Israeli academics are not targets; rather, institutional arrangements with Israeli universities—study abroad programs, for example—are. Similarly, the cultural boycott does not target individual Israeli artists, but artists and artistic groups that enjoy some sort of government sponsorship. Look, dummy, they say, our guidelines are crystal clear! This “is a boycott of Israeli cultural institutions, not Israeli individuals.”

In the case of the academic boycott, this distinction between individuals and institutions is paper-thin. Until fairly recently, the U.S. Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel had this to say about its commitment to principle: “In principle, since the call is specifically for institutional, not individual boycott, [activities involving Israeli academics] do not violate the boycott. However, all academic exchanges with Israeli academics do have the effect of normalizing Israel and its politics of occupation and apartheid.” Therefore, “academics could consider whether equally valuable contributions might not be made by non-Israeli colleagues; whether an invitation to a Palestinian intellectual might be preferable; whether the exchange is intellectually or pedagogically essential.” In other words, we’re against boycotting individual Israeli academics, but please see what you can do about boycotting Israeli academics.

Comically, the guidelines explain that individual academics are being boycotted because the movement is decentralized, not because BDS advocates should try to avoid exchanges with Israeli academics despite the fact that they literally just said that was the preferred outcome. “It may also be that as a consequence of the boycott Israeli academics are now having a harder time publishing outside the country, participating in formal exchanges, sitting on boards and international committees, and the like,” the guidelines continued.

These guidelines have quietly disappeared, but their disappearance probably has more to do with their foolish revelation of BDS hypocrisy than a change of heart.

Alan Dershowitz on Israel at 70: ‘A Light Unto the World’

Ahead of Israel’s 70th birthday in May, longtime Harvard University Law professor, attorney and author Alan Dershowitz announced that he is donating an ambucycle to Israel’s volunteer medic organization — United Hatzalah — in honor of his 80th birthday.

JNS interviewed Mr. Dershowitz about this gift, to hear his thoughts on Israel at 70, and to ask what the next seven decades in Israel might look like.

Q: What prompted you and your friends to donate an ambucycle to United Hatzalah for Israel’s 70th anniversary?

A: There is a group of guys I’ve known since kindergarten. We’ve known each other for 75 years, more or less. And we try to spend several weekends a year together, and try to get together on New Year’s Eve. We all went to yeshivah in Borough Park in Brooklyn together.

We went different ways, but we are still very close. We are turning 80 this year, and we thought it would be nice commemoration of our birthdays to do something that saves lives, and I can’t imagine a charity more worthy than Hatzalah. It has led the way in quick availability on the scenes of acts of terrorism. And so we all agreed to make contributions and to dedicate this ambucycle on Yom Ha’atzmaut (Israel’s Independence Day).

Q: What do you think of when you reflect on Israel at 70?

A: No country in the history of the world ever contributed more to the welfare of humankind in such a short period of time than Israel. Hatzalah is a perfect representative of that.

In Hatzalah, you have Jews and Arabs, Christians and Muslims, atheists, religious secular, etc. all working together to save lives. It represents the best of Israel. People call Israel the startup nation, and I call it the life-saving nation.

Israel has saved lives through its medical technological breakthroughs, through its agricultural breakthroughs and through its pharmaceutical breakthroughs. Israel saves lives in teaching the world how to prevent terrorism, in teaching the world how to absorb immigrants. … Israel has really been a light unto the world for 70 years, and I think it’s important to commemorate and look forward.

Gazans are planning "The Great Return March," a gimmick where thousands of Gazans will try to simply walk into Israel on Land Day, March 30, the first day of Passover.

I mentioned this last month before the date was set.

The subtext of the march is that the IDF doesn't act the way that the Arab media portrays it, because that IDF would simply shoot anyone approaching the border.

The IDF is taking this seriously. According to Arab media, it is installing another layer of barbed wire fencing at the border to dissuade anyone from coming.

Palestine Today has a photo essay of Israeli equipment leveling land and installing barbed wire on Tuesday.

Bradley Burston of Haaretz is cheering the idea of Palestinians "returning" to Israel (paywalled):

Many [IDF] soldiers, in between prayers and calls of duty, silently hoped against hope that ...one day, truly non-violent protest would take the place of interminable, immutable conflict, and drive a wedge into the mechanics of occupation.
I was one of them. And, now that it seems to be happening, this is my confession: I want this to succeed.

But the protest isn't against the "occupation." It is against the existence of the Jewish state.

Is Burston that clueless as to the meaning of "194," the UNGA resolution that Palestinians purposefully misread to give them the unlimited right to overrun Israel, or is he malicious?

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Vic Rosenthal's Weekly Column

Israel and the Jewish people have no enemy more vile than the PLO and its dominant faction, Fatah.

The PLO was founded in 1964 by the Arab league as a “Palestinian” organization whose goal was the “liberation of Palestine through armed struggle.” In 1969 it was taken over by Yasser Arafat’s Fatah group, which has controlled it ever since. In 1993-4, the Oslo agreements between Israel and the PLO created the Palestinian Authority (PA), which rules the areas in which 95% or more of the Arabs of Judea and Samaria live. The PA is run by the PLO (despite the victory by Hamas in the last PA election, held in 2006) and its Chairman is Mahmoud Abbas, who is also the head of the PLO and of Fatah.

Probably more Israeli Jews have been murdered by the PLO and its factions than any other terrorist group, including Hamas and Hezbollah. The PLO has gone out of its way to kill Jewish civilians and especially children, as it did in the Moshav Avivim school bus massacre (very interesting link), the Ma’alot massacre, and the Bus of Blood incident (also called the Coastal Road massacre). Here is a list of PLO “operations” until 2004. There have been plenty more since.

In the early 1990s the PLO was isolated in its exile in Tunis and other places, with few recent terrorist atrocities to its “credit” (the ugly Achille Lauro hijacking in 1985 was an exception). But in 1993, the so-called “architects of Oslo” – Yossi Beilin, Yair Hirschfeld, Ron Pundak, Uri Savir, and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres – negotiated an agreement with the PLO which recognized it as the legitimate representative of the “Palestinian people,” and brought PLO terrorists back to Israel to form the PA. Here is how historian Efraim Karsh described the result:

For Israel, it has been the starkest strategic blunder in its history, establishing an ineradicable terror entity on its doorstep, deepening its internal cleavages, destabilizing its political system, and weakening its international standing. For the West Bank [sic] and Gaza Palestinians, it has brought subjugation to the corrupt and repressive PLO and Hamas regimes, which reversed the hesitant advent of civil society in these territories, shattered their socioeconomic wellbeing, and made the prospects of peace and reconciliation with Israel ever more remote.

In their naiveté and delusive wishful thinking, the “architects” believed Arafat’s assurances that he had renounced terrorism and would change the PLO Covenant to delete those articles calling for the violent destruction of the Jewish state. Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin had his doubts, but could not oppose the fait accompli from the start without being seen as “against peace,” and he soon came under massive pressure from US President Clinton to make a deal.

Arafat immediately began his double game of talking peace in English to the international community and inciting violence in Arabic to his people. Karsh notes,

The next eleven years until Arafat's death on November 11, 2004, offered a recapitulation, over and over again, of the same story. In addressing Israeli or Western audiences, the PLO chairman (and his erstwhile henchmen) would laud the "peace" signed with "my partner Yitzhak Rabin." To his Palestinian constituents, he depicted the accords as transient arrangements required by the needs of the moment. He made constant allusion to the "phased strategy" and the Treaty of Hudaibiya—signed by Muhammad with the people of Mecca in 628, only to be disavowed a couple of years later when the situation shifted in the prophet's favor—and insisted on the "right of return," the standard Palestinian/Arab euphemism for Israel's destruction through demographic subversion.

The supposedly renounced terrorism continued, with Arafat secretly providing funds to terror operatives and even cooperating with Hamas (the one thing they seem to be able to agree upon is the value of killing Jews). After the failure of the Camp David and Taba talks in 2000-1, Arafat sparked the vicious Second Intifada in which the PLO and Hamas together murdered more than 1000 Israeli Jews, mostly civilians, and in which more than 3000 Palestinian Arabs lost their lives.

Most importantly, as soon as he took power Arafat opened what I call the Death Factory, the systematic indoctrination with anti-Israel and anti-Jewish propaganda of Palestinian Arabs in schools and mosques, and via official PA and Fatah newspapers, radio, TV, and websites. More than mere propaganda, the Death Factory teaches Arabs, especially young people, that the greatest achievement in the life of a Palestinian is to kill as many Jews as possible, even – especially – if the killer becomes a martyr in the process. The greatest Palestinian heroes are such martyrs, like Dalal Mughrabi, a young woman who took part in the Bus of Blood massacre. Countless schools, squares, sports facilities, and so on are named after Mughrabi and other exemplars of Palestinism. Hamas, following Arafat’s lead, opened its own Death Factory, featuring children’s TV programs and kindergartens where the children are taught to hate and encouraged to kill as soon as they are able.

Arafat’s successor, the Holocaust-denying, Jew-hating Mahmoud Abbas, has been careful not to be caught directly ordering terrorism. But he continued and expanded the Death Factory, and often lauds captured or martyred terrorists as heroes. In addition to Palestinian nationalism and appeals to Arab honor, traditional antisemitic themes both from the Islamic and European traditions are included. Although the PLO under both Arafat and Abbas has promised numerous times to stop such incitement, it has never done so.

Today, social media have become a force multiplier, amplifying and disseminating the message. In fact, as a result of the autonomous nature of social media, it is doubtful that the Death Factory could be shut down completely even if the PA and Hamas would stop incitement in its own media and schools.

If this were not enough, the PA scandalously pays salaries to the families of terrorists imprisoned by Israel for security offenses, or killed while attempting acts of terrorism. The monthly payments are proportional to the length of the sentence, so the family of a mass murderer who has received multiple life sentences will be paid the most. The PA also will pay to build a new house for the family of a terrorist whose home is demolished. Despite great international pressure – after all, practically all of the PA’s money comes from international donors – Abbas has said that he will never end the program, which in 2016 paid $318 million to the families of “martyrs” and prisoners.

The combination of lifetime indoctrination and incitement with financial incentives has led to a situation in which almost every Arab from the PA, and even some Arab citizens of Israel, have become potential murderers, and in which it is becoming increasingly dangerous to walk the streets or to wait at a bus stop. Arab children as young as 13 have perpetrated terror attacks. Although there has been anti-Jewish terrorism in Israel from the period before the founding of the state, the prevalence of “sudden jihad syndrome” by Arabs unaffiliated with terror groups is unprecedented.

There is no easy solution that doesn’t involve using a time machine to go back to 1993 and intercept the Oslo folly, but there are some things that should be obvious by now:

First and foremost, we must realize that the PLO is an enemy of the state of Israel and the Jewish people. Jews are being murdered regularly by Palestinian Arab terrorists because they are encouraged and paid by the PLO to do so. In effect the PLO has “taken out a contract ” on the Jewish people. Paying a hit man to kill someone is considered murder in civilized countries, and his refusal to stop doing this makes Mahmoud Abbas a murderer. He should be arrested and imprisoned.

We can’t completely shut down the Death Factory because it will continue via social media. But surely we can stop incitement on PA media. TV and radio stations that incite murder or transmit anti-Jewish material can be put off the air. Newspapers can be closed down. Websites can be blocked. We don’t need to ask permission; just do it.

Insofar as the PLO is our enemy, we are not obligated to cooperate with it in any way. In fact, we are at war with the PLO, and cooperation with the enemy in time of war is treason. We should not transfer funds to the PA – which is the PLO under another name – or grant work permits to its citizens. We should encourage our allies to stop funding the PA as well.

We have gotten used to cooperating with the PA because we believe it keeps a lid on terrorism, but what that means is that we are allowing ourselves to be extorted by blackmail and threats. And regardless of our subservience, terrorism continues and grows over time, since we never defeat our enemy.

We don’t have a time machine that would enable someone to snatch the pen out of Rabin’s hand, but recognizing the seriousness of the mistake we made is the first step to fixing it.

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03/22 Links Pt1: Palestinian claim to Dead Sea Scrolls may be next up at UNESCO; Senate Democrats Prevent Stand-Alone Vote for Taylor Force Act; Get Hamas Off Twitter

From Ian:

IDF Blog: The Intel operation behind the attack on the Syrian nuclear facility in 2007

For two years, the Military Intelligence Directorate worked with the Israeli intelligence community to collect information about the growing Syrian nuclear facility. It began with a hunch and a collection of sensitive information, continued with the recognition of suspicious buildings, and ended with the identification and destruction of the nuclear facility. Here’s the intelligence process behind the operation, step-by-step:

The beginning stages of intel-gathering

After major discoveries were made from 2005 until the beginning of 2007, it was determined that Syria was acting secretly within the nuclear field.

The Military Intelligence Directorate began to take-on the challenge: the Research Department of the Directorate established a large-scale team to analyze indications of Syrian nuclear efforts and strategies. Later on, the intelligence collection units outside of the military assisted in gathering information.

During this period of time, the Military Intelligence Directorate collected a number of key details that became the grounds for the attack:

Towards the end of 2004: Military intelligence and the Mossad collected information that foreign specialists were aiding a nuclear project in Syria.

January 2006: This was the first time it was suggested that a nuclear facility was being established in Syria. This was an important turning point in the understanding of it. Following this, the Military Intelligence Directorate collected vital information regarding the beginning process of a nuclear facility.

April 2006: A nuclear facility was identified as a result of research conducted by the Military Intelligence Directorate and intelligence community.

November 2006: Additional activity in the nuclear field was observed. With time, more aspects of Syrian nuclear efforts were revealed, specifically intensive contact with nuclear elements necessary for the operation of a nuclear facility.

Palestinian claim to Dead Sea Scrolls may be next up at UNESCO

The next “prize” the Palestinians will likely claim as their own at UNESCO will probably be the archeological site of Qumran and its Dead Sea Scrolls, Shimon Samuels of the Simon Wiesenthal Center said on Wednesday.

He spoke at a panel on the denial of Jewish history in international organizations at the Foreign Ministry-sponsored sixth Global Forum for Combating Antisemitism in Jerusalem.

Samuels chronicled the Palestinians’ success at having attributed to themselves biblical and cultural sites, including Jewish ones, on the World Heritage List since joining the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization as a member state in 2011.

The World Heritage Committee ascribed to “Palestine” Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity in 2012; the agricultural terraces of Battir, site of the ancient Jewish fortress at Betar, in 2014; and Hebron’s Tomb of the Patriarchs in 2017.

The Palestinian Authority has a tentative list of 13 additional sites it seeks to register at UNESCO.

Out of that list the Palestinians are next likely to seek cultural ownership of the Qumran Caves and Dead Sea Scrolls, said Samuels, who is the director of international relations for the Wiesenthal Center.

This request may come up at the next meeting of UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee this July in Bahrain, he told the conference.