Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, December 17, 2018

On young Americans' lack of Jewish engagement (a brief Twitter thread)

Carly Pildis, a political organizer and advocacy professional who writes for Tablet, tweeted this last week:

Here is my hot take on American Jews and assimilation. My generation is broke. We are struggling to make it month to month. This is a big part of what’s driving lack of engagement. We are exhausted from working multiple jobs. Create affordable informal spaces that recognize this.

When Israelis talk about assimilation they often fail to understand the high cost of entry to living the Jewish life of our dreams. Access to Judaism is not free in the Diaspora. It is expensive, inconvenient and not always available to us.

We must talk about the economic realities American Jewish families are facing when we talk assimilation and identity. Otherwise we will not be successful in creating a vibrant Jewish future.

This is probably too important a topic to tackle on Twitter, but here was my response:

Maybe I'm not in on the pulse of the larger young US Jewish community, but this does sound more like lack of commitment rather than lack of money, @CarlyPildis.

My mother in law a"h just passed away. She didn't have a good Jewish education growing up in Missouri but she happily, without complaint, drove 100 miles a day to bring her kids to Hebrew school before selling their dream house to be walking distance to the school.

Of course money is an issue, but that can be addressed - if someone actually cares about the issue.

Chabad is all over, and they offer free Shabbat meals to anyone who asks.

Online, you can join any Jewish community of any level of observance you want.

Meetups are easy to organize and can be free.

"Partners in Torah" let you find someone to study Jewish topics for free.

How hard it is to look at the website of a local synagogue and see what programs they offer that you can attend?

How hard is it nowadays to start your own Facebook group and find like-minded Jews to discuss anything under the sun? If people are serious, online would become IRL.

Not to generalize, but if seeing the latest movie or play is a higher priority for American Jews than study or teaching their kids about the religion, then we are in sad shape.

I'm not only talking Orthodoxy, either. Plenty of Reform Jews are committed to Judaism - I might disagree with their practice but I admire their commitment.

Back in college I used to study Talmud with a woman preparing to become a Reform rabbi!

Americans now spend 11 hours a day on screen time. Please don't tell me that all your Jewish friends don't have any time to prioritize Judaism over Twitter and TV - or that most cannot afford HBO and Netflix.

The time is there. It is a question of priority.

I just Googled 'Jewish study resources" and found lots of amazing programs out there (start here: How to Learn More About Judaism Online | My Jewish Learning)

Are you telling me your friends can't figure out how to do that?

If Judaism is less important than Game of Thrones, time and exhaustion isn't the problem.

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I had an interesting experience recently that gave me direct exposure to many of the dynamics you’ve read about on this site regarding the behavior of anti-Israel activists on college campuses and the reaction they generate.

Without naming names or places, I was asked to present “the other side” at a college-level class in response to a student’s previous two-day class-time harangue directed against the Jewish state.

Apparently, students in this psych class were given the opportunity to lead class discussion on one of the themes of the course, which gave one person the opportunity to present on “discrimination” with you-know-who presented as the Apartheid-level discriminator (with intersectionality-laden accusations against the US thrown in for good measure). Since the teacher was out at a conference for the period this student presented, as well as the following class, this gave our local advocate the chance to spend two days inveighing against Israel.

The experience was disconcerting enough for one student that she reached out for help and advice and, long-and-short, this led to me coming to class to present an alternative point of view.

Presenting “the other side” implies that responding to someone else’s allegations was what was expected, although an alternative would have been to spend the class period telling the truth about Israel’s enemies as aggressively as the original presenter shared her lies. But taking into account the audience (in this case, older undergrads and graduate students at a prestigious university), I thought it better to actually provide them a lesson in social psychology with the war against Israel used as an example of toxic behavior that can infect entire societies (including Israel’s enemies).

Now I did include a number of important truths in the discussion, including humanizing both sides in the conflict while also pointing out facts that confound “the narrative,” such as the Palestinian alliance with Hitler in World War II, the support the British Empire provided Israel’s foes – including splitting Jordan off from “Palestine” and leading Jordanian troops in 1948 – and the expulsion of Jews from the Arab world. Each one of these facts was unknown to the students in the room, which allowed me to challenge the credibility of the original presenter without attacking anyone directly.

Such behavior was not a two-way street, however. For almost from the start the student who had been given the floor previously began to insert more of her accusations into the discussion, in the form of “innocent” questions. But when I responded sternly, but politely, that such questions could wait until the end of my talk (the same rules she insisted on when she had the floor) and did not let her dominate Q&A at the expense of her classmates, she resorted to the old fallback of getting upset and breaking into tears over the fact that any side other than hers was allowed in her presence.

This tactic is called “Argumentation from Outrage” and is an old staple of BDS “dialog,” although in this age of “coddling,” it has been used to increasing effect to shut down debate through what has been termed “crybullying.”

One thing that became apparently pretty quickly is how discombobulated Israel’s accusers become when they don’t have complete control of the microphone. It may just be that this particular person was not an effective partisan, at least with regard to challenging someone who knew what they were talking about and was ready to stand his ground. But it may also represent the sort of atrophying of argumentation skill among those who insist that no dialog can take place with anyone not ready to agree with everything they say in advance.

Did my presentation sway anyone? Hard to tell. While I was surprised how little these older college students knew about the Middle East beyond what they were told in this class, I remembered someone once pointing out how little many pro-Israel advocates know about other hotspots (how much do you really know about the situation in Burma, for example?), which suggested we should approach educating others on topics of importance to us with humility.

I’d like to think that exposure to truth presented respectfully, coupled with watching the rude behavior of a classmate who fell apart when she could not dominate the discussion to spread her false narratives got them thinking that maybe the world was not as black and white as they’d been told.

Time will tell…

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12/17 Links Pt1: Palestinians: Shooting a Pregnant Woman and Lying; Glick: The U.S. Government Still Thinks Lebanon and Hezbollah Are Different; For Palestinians, Incitement Is a Way of Life

From Ian:

Amb. Alan Baker: The Palestinian Claim to Statehood: An Open Letter to PLO Negotiator Saeb Erekat
Affairs)

PLO Negotiator Saeb Erekat denounced Australia's recognition of West Jerusalem as Israel's capital, stating that "East Jerusalem, under international law, is an integral part of the occupied Palestinian territory."

Since we had worked together on the 1995 Oslo Interim Agreement, I responded on Twitter: Saeb - you're not a lawyer. There's no violation of international law in recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital. You seem to confuse international law with UN resolutions which are not international law.

Permit me to remind you and your colleagues of some basic facts and truths: A Palestinian state does not exist because it cannot fulfill the accepted international law criteria for statehood.

The fact that the PLO is committed by the Oslo Accords to negotiate with Israel on the issue of the permanent status of the territories is indicative of the fact that permanent status has not yet been agreed upon, and thus there can be no Palestinian state.

Basing their claim to statehood on a 2012 non-binding General Assembly resolution is totally flawed, manipulative, and misleading. The General Assembly is not empowered to establish states.

Since the PLO is not a state, it therefore cannot be party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), which is specifically open only to states. The fact that the Palestinians politically manipulated the UN and ICCÂ into viewing them as a state is legally flawed and has yet to be reviewed juridically.

Rather than going to such great efforts to manipulate and abuse the international community, and trying to bypass the negotiating process, the Palestinians need to restore their credibility as a viable negotiating partner and return to that process immediately.

Palestinians: Shooting a Pregnant Woman and Lying

Consider, for example, what PLO Secretary General Saeb Erekat, who describes himself as the "chief Palestinian negotiator," had to say about the Israeli authorities' pursuit of the terrorists. Erekat, in a bizarre statement, claimed that the Israeli "intrusion into Ramallah was carried out with the backing of US President Donald Trump." Erekat, too, called on the international community to hold Israel accountable for its "crimes" and to provide international protection for the Palestinians.

What is strange about Erekat's statement is that he is suggesting that Israel needed permission from Trump to send its troops into Ramallah to catch the terrorists who murdered three people. What is also strange is that Erekat believes that the Israeli attempt to capture terrorists is a "crime" for which Israel should be held accountable in the global arena.

Yet, the bizarre PA statements continue. Take the remark made by Osama Qawassmeh, a senior Fatah official and spokesmen, who claimed that the Israeli military operation in Ramallah was actually aimed against Abbas himself. For Qawassmeh, the Israeli army "stormed" Ramallah because of Abbas's rejection of Trump's yet-to-be-announced plan for peace in the Middle East. As if that were not enough, the Fatah official went on to argue that the Israeli army's attempt to catch the terrorists was also linked to Abbas's opposition to a recent US resolution at the UN General Assembly that condemns Hamas for repeatedly firing rockets at Israel and inciting violence.

This absurd charge reflects the twisted logic of Abbas and his representatives in Ramallah. For them, the real problem is not the shooting of a pregnant woman or the killing of two soldiers. Instead, the Palestinian leaders, including Abbas, are pointing an accusatory finger at Israel for having the audacity to send its soldiers to capture Palestinian terrorists and prevent additional attacks against Israeli citizens. Needless to say, the Israeli soldiers who entered Ramallah never went close to Abbas's office or home and certainly had no intention of targeting him or any of his officials. In fact, not a single Palestinian Authority or Fatah official was arrested or harmed by the Israeli troops.

Caroline Glick: The U.S. Government Still Thinks Lebanon and Hezbollah Are Different

According to the Israeli media, during his meeting with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Brussels last Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked for the U.S. to impose an economic embargo on Lebanon.

Pompeo reportedly rejected Netanyahu’s request.

The meeting between the two men took place on the eve of Israel’s initiation of Operation Northern Shield last Tuesday. The operation is a military effort geared towards sealing Hezbollah’s offensive subterranean attack tunnels. It follows Israel’s stunning revelation that it had discovered the locations of Hezbollah’s attack tunnels, perhaps Hezbollah’s most secret undertaking.

According to Netanyahu, Hezbollah launched its offensive tunnel project in 2014. The existence of the tunnel program was known to almost no one in the organization.

Hezbollah’s tunnels traverse the border between Lebanon and Israel. Hezbollah reportedly intended to have the tunnels serve as a means to invade Israeli territory rapidly and undetected. It is the declared goal of Hezbollah to conquer northern Israel in its next war against the Jewish state.

The Trump administration’s rejection of Israel’s request to impose economic sanctions on Lebanon signals that it supports Israel’s efforts to neutralize the threat that Hezbollah poses, with its powerful army and massive arsenal of short and long range missiles. But — like the Bush and Obama administrations before it — it rejects Israel’s interpretation of the relations between Hezbollah and the Lebanese government and armed forces.

The disparity between the U.S. and Israeli positions on the nature of Hezbollah’s relationship with the Lebanese government and Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) emerged during the Second Lebanon War in 2006. At that time, then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice demanded that Israel not attack Lebanese government targets. This despite the government’s open support for Hezbollah and the LAF’s assistance to Hezbollah during the war, particularly through the provision of targeting data for Hezbollah missile crews.

According to the 1883 book Egypt, Palestine, and Phoenicia: A Visit to Sacred Lands, by Félix Bovet, throughout the 19th century Palestine was not really under the real authority of the Ottoman Empire, but with some exceptions the towns acted independently.

So how did the Palestinian Arabs act when they had a decent measure of autonomy?

Not at all like a people. In fact, they acted the opposite of how a people would act - they only fought each other and identified with their tribes and towns, not at all as Palestinians.

The Turkish Government is not absolutely without power in Palestine, but it is without authority. Its power extends as far as the range of a pistol-shot or the reach of a bayonet. It has not that sort of ascendency which, everywhere else, and even in other Ottoman provinces, adds to the real power of a government, and makes it respected or feared even in the absence of its agents. The pacha is obeyed when he is present; they send to him from Damascus, to stay with him during the Easter festivities, a reinforcement of 800 soldiers, to enable him to protect the pilgrims, and to save him from the recriminations of the French and Russian consuls. While he keeps his troops, order reigns in Jerusalem, and even, to a certain extent, in the immediate neighbourhood of the city; but when the 800 soldiers have returned to Damascus, the pacha can no longer answer for anything.

In a word, though the Turks are, it is true, one of the powers that rule in Palestine, there are many others by the side of it. Each tribe preserves a sort of independence, and carries on its affairs on its own account; there are whole villages which pay taxes, not to the pacha, but to some Bedouin emir, and there is many a district of Palestine in which the representative of the Porte could not adventure himself without as much certainty of being robbed as any chance comer. During my stay in Palestine, notwithstanding the presence at that time of the Turkish soldiers, the Arab tribes were fighting with each other at Hebron, and some caravans of pilgrims returning to Jaffa were robbed at a few hours' distance from Jerusalem.....

We, with our customs, can scarcely imagine such a state of things. It seems to us as if a society could not exist in a condition of complete anarchy, and that the inhabitants of Palestine would, in a short time, have either destroyed each other, or else submitted themselves to some one tyrant more powerful than the rest. This conclusion would be logical, if we were speaking of a country as thickly inhabited as the European states, and in which the necessities of existence were of a nature less simple than they are in the East. But this condition of things, which, besides, differs but slightly from that which has prevailed over almost the whole of Europe during some part of the middle ages, is not new in Palestine. This country finds itself once more in very much the same condition as in the time of Abraham. We do not see there, in that distant age, any state of much extent, but only towns absolutely independent of each other, each with its king or scheikh, entering into alliances or carrying on war with each other, according to the circumstances of the moment. Then, as now, between the towns belonging to the different tribes, other nomad tribes pitched their tents on the plains and on the sides of the hills, wandering from north to south, with their huge flocks, and no other possessions under the sun, but a few wells dug by their fathers and some caves in which to bury their chiefs ;— possessions often attacked, occasions of contention, of mutual accommodation, and of wars. ....The East never grows old; institutions and empires come into existence and fall into ruins, but manners and customs are unchangeable. The race of Abraham is of a vigorous fibre; Israel, it is well known, never bent its stiff neck; || the iron sceptre of Rome broke, without subduing, it; dispersed among the nations, like a ball driven far by the wind, it mingled among them without ever losing its distinctness. As to Ishmael, I doubt whether those who have observed his race could define better than is already done in Genesis the indocile and defiant character which it has retained even to our own day, and to which indeed it owes the persistence of its nationality. "Ishmael will be a wild man, his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him."*

At least in 1883, there was clearly no "Palestinian people." It was just a bunch of towns and villages who would fight or ally as necessary, with no sense whatsoever of national unity or pride. And certainly none of these people self-identified as "Palestinian."

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Academic calls Jews racist for getting Marc Lamont Hill fired @myHNN

At History News Network and the Stanford University Press blog, Michael R. Fischbach - professor of history at Randolph-Macon College, and author of Black Power and Palestine: Transnational Countries of Color - says that CNN's firing of Marc Lamont Hill is part of a "long history" of Jews targeting uppity blacks:

When noted black intellectual Marc Lamont Hill spoke at the UN last month about justice for the Palestinian people, critics like those in the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) were quick to condemn him.

....Yet some of the most insightful criticisms of the way Hill was treated pointed out the controversy’s racial context: Hill’s was just the most recent case in a long history of blacks being publicly excoriated for “daring” to speak out on the great issues of the day in ways that defy white conventions. This was particularly true when discussing the Arab-Israeli conflict in a manner that challenges the carefully circumscribed discourse enforced by strongly pro-Israeli groups like the ADL.

This has happened before. Indeed, next year, 2019, marks the fortieth anniversary of a similar brouhaha that erupted when another black man very much in the public eye dared to challenge the rigidly pro-Israeli understanding of Americans’ approach to the Middle East: the Andrew Young Affair.
In August 1979, President Jimmy Carter forced the American ambassador to the UN, Andrew Young, to resign following revelations that Young had secretly met once with an official from the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in violation of an American pledge to Israel not to deal with the PLO in any way. Young, the highest-ranking black official in the Carter administration, had met the official to advance American policy aims but nonetheless was fired after facing a barrage of hostile public criticism, notably by American Jewish organizations.

When it was soon revealed that the American ambassador to Austria, a Jewish industrialist from Cleveland named Milton Wolf, also had met several times with PLO officials earlier that year but without similar repercussions, African-Americans exploded in fury and rallied behind Young.

So since Jewish groups have managed to get two blacks fired in 40 years, clearly there is a pattern of racism here.

Obviously.

Oh, Fischbach didn't directly call Jews racist. No, of course not. The headline just says that he's "raising this question."

So I'm not going to directly call him an antisemite. No, of course not. He just likes to single out Jewish organizations for using their inordinate power to destroy the careers of uppity black personalities that they don't like.

Just since I started this blog, we Elders have also managed to get rid of Octavia Nasr, Jim Clancy and Diana Magnay over their bias - all from CNN.

Well, none of them are black, but who cares? Fischbach is a history professor, and if he sees a pattern of two incidents over four decades, then he clearly sees things that no one else can.

Hold on - one other black CNN commentator, Roland Martin, was suspended and ultimately let go - for encouraging people to bash gays. Obviously GLAAD, which demanded his suspension, is racist, right?

No. In today's universe, saying that gays are racist is obviously wrong. But saying that Jews are racist on little more proof is perfectly acceptable.

Why History News Network allowed this bigotry to be published is another story. The story doesn't come anywhere close to proving Fischbach's theory that Jews are racist, but it sure indicates that Michael R. Fischbach is a different type of bigot.

Fischbach, by complete coincidence, has spoken at a pro-BDS conference and features a poster in his office that shares Marc Lamont Hill's desire for the destruction of the Jewish state, and no other state on the planet.

(h/t phil d.)

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From Brookings, last May:

Egypt’s worrying population boom fails to generate the same headline attention as terrorist attacks, the impact of economic reforms on the poor, the country’s hyper-constrained politics, or accusations of human rights violations. Yet, the very real dangers it poses were highlighted when the head of the country’s statistical agency, Abu Bakr el-Gendy, called this seemingly irrepressible tide a “catastrophe.” To Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, it is a “challenge as critical as terrorism.”

The numbers are certainly daunting. In 2000, the United Nations estimated that Egypt’s population would hit 96 million in 2026. They were off by about 10 years. In 2017, there were some 104.5 million Egyptians, of which 9.5 million lived outside the country. The 2006 census counted 73 million people, an annual increase of 2.6 percent since then. Unless the fertility rate of 3.47 changes, by 2030, Egypt’s population is expected to grow to 128 million.

On Egyptian TV show "Paper and Pen," Dr. Hoda Abdol Monem Zakaria, a professor of political sociology and one of the twelve members in the Supreme Media Regulatory Council, agreed with the TV host Nishat Dehi that overpopulation is part of the US/Jewish plot.

The official Egyptian government website for the Supreme Media Regulatory Council doesn't even bother mentioning the US part of the plot, saying only that Zakaria said that Egypt's population crisis is "a Jewish scheme, because we will not be able to accomplish any national project" with the anticipated population crisis.

Other Arabic media picked up on the interview without any negative comment on blaming the Jews for Egyptians having too many babies.

(h/t WC)

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12/16 Links: 'Our baby united the Jewish people’ say parents from Ofra terror attack; Palestinian Red Crescent honors murderers, respects the Martyrs’ blood; IDF uncovers 4th Hezbollah cross-border attack tunnel

From Ian:

'Our baby united the Jewish people’ say parents from Ofra terror attack

Amichai Ishran, the father of the the infant who died following the terror attack outside Ofra, said his son managed to unite the Jewish people during the three days he was alive.

During an emotional press conference held in Shaarei Tzedek Hospital by Amichai and his wife Shira who were both shot and wounded last Sunday, the two bereaved parents gave heartfelt thanks to the outpouring of love they said they have felt following the terror attack which they said had given them physical and psychological strength.

“Our baby, Amiad Israel, managed to unite the Jewish people in the three days he was alive, something most people never manage to do during their entire lives,” said Amichai.

“Everyone wanted to come and help us and wish us well, secular, religious, haredi, from across the spectrum of Israeli society,” he continued.

Amichai said that the Jewish people should take the importance of unity to heart from the death of their baby, and remain united despite differences of opinion.

“We are brothers first and foremost, that they will not succeed in taking from us. They can stab us, shoot us, run us over, throw stones at us, murder us, murder our children, but they cannot break us, we wont let them,” he said emotionally.

Bennett, 8 other ministers join protest against government response to terror

Nine government ministers, including Jewish Home leader Naftali Bennett and four members of the ruling Likud party, joined a protest against the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday, accusing him of being weak on combating a spate of West Bank terror attacks.

Bennett addressed the rally outside the Prime Minister’s Office, where he accused Netanyahu of failing to protect Israelis against terror attacks, before tearing into the premier at the cabinet meeting over his security policy.

Speaking to the crowd of some 200 right-wing activists calling for a tougher response to recent terror attacks in the West Bank, Education Minister Bennett said that the “security establishment… has chosen the rights of Palestinians over the security of Israelis.”

Bennett said that when Netanyahu appointed himself defense minister two weeks ago — a position that the Jewish Home leader had unsuccessfully demanded for himself — he “promised a change in policy, to restore power” over Israel’s enemies.

“That has not happened yet,” Bennett charged in front of a banner reading, “We’re done being silent because we’re sick of dying.”

“Bibi, resign, you are not wanted anymore!” the crowd chanted, using the nickname of the prime minister.

Hamas spokesman takes picture of funeral of 3 day old baby who died after being attacked by a Palestinian terrorist in utero with headline "I Feel No Sympathy for the Settlers". Piece is published by Hamas propaganda site.

Just kidding. It's @gideonle and @haaretzcom. pic.twitter.com/mMEHKutrSD
— The Mossad (@TheMossadIL) December 16, 2018

Netanyahu warns Hamas after spate of terror attacks

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday he had issued a warning to Hamas after recent deadly attacks in the West Bank, including two shootings claimed by the Gaza-based terrorist group.

Netanyahu referred to a controversial Gaza ceasefire in November that ended the worst escalation between Israel and Hamas since a 2014 war.

“I conveyed a clear message to Hamas — we won’t accept a situation of a truce in Gaza and terror in Judea and Samaria,” Netanyahu told a cabinet meeting, using the biblical name for the West Bank.

“We will exact a high price for them,” he said of the attacks.

Hamas runs the Gaza Strip but also has a presence in the West Bank.

Netanyahu’s comments came after two soldiers were shot dead at a bus stop outside the outpost of Givat Assaf, in the central West Bank.

Hamas leader ‘not denying’ that West Bank terror attacks were ordered from Gaza

Hamas Politburo chairman Ismail Haniyeh said on Sunday he does not deny that orders to carry out recent deadly terror attacks in the West Bank came from the Gaza Strip.

Haniyeh made the remark during a speech he delivered to tens of thousands of Hamas supporters in a Gaza City square at a rally marking the 31st anniversary of the terror group’s founding.

“I will also respond to the Zionists who are saying what is happening in the West Bank is based on directives and arrangements from Gaza,” Haniyeh said in the hour-long speech. “This is an accusation we do not deny… because it is a source of pride reigning over all of us.”

IDF Central Command chief Maj. Gen. Nadav Padan said last week that Hamas was behind recent shooting attacks in the West Bank.

“In the past few days, a Hamas terror group cell managed to harm us and exact from us a heavy price,” Padan said on Thursday. “We will pursue them and settle the score with this cell.”

Hamas cartoon shows a Jew afraid of his own shadow

From the Hamas news site Palestine Today, in an article celebrating attacks on Jews in the West Bank:

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An article I mentioned yesterday from Palestine Information Center includes an interesting statistic:

According to recent statistics, the Christian community in the Gaza Strip is getting smaller with about 730 Christians living currently in the enclave, most of whom belong to the Greek Orthodox Church.

Last year there were over a thousand Christians in Gaza. News stories said there were 1,200 in 2016, In 2009 there were 3000.

How are they getting out, if Gaza is under siege?

Some might be managing to escape through Egypt when that country opens its borders, but Hamas and Egypt severely restrict who can leave Gaza and who can leave Egypt altogether.

The answer can be found from an interview with an anti-Israel Christian cleric earlier this year:

“Every year Christians have one permit to leave and visit the holy places on Easter and Christmas,” and many of them stay there," explained [Father Mario] da Silva, speaking to ACI Prenza.

So when 250 Gazans have already received permits to go to Bethlehem for Christmas, the Christian population of Gaza may be reduced to 500 or so by the end of the year.

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A heartwarming story came out last week as a video was produced ahead of a Bob Marley festival in Israel.

This year, the initiators of the festival, Shmulik Bar-Dan and Bella Malkin, decided to shoot a clip for the Marley song One Love, an unusual clip to be shared by adults and children from all over the Middle East.

The song was performed by members of the writer-group "Kach Rasta", who are also responsible for all the arrangements. "We filmed forty children from a school in Baka al-Garbiyeh, photographed in a children's home on Kibbutz Magal, in a nursery in Herzliya, we filmed members of African-Israeli gospel from Eritrea and Sudan, and a few Breslov Chassidim," says Malkin.

But then they saw a good news story here about Gaza residents who sent peace messages to Israel with the aid of pigeons from the Gaza Strip, and the article about Lisa Miara, the Israeli who established a rescue center in Iraq for children rescued from ISIS and refugee children from Syria.

When Malkin turned to them to offer them to participate in the clip, they responded with great enthusiasm.. In Gaza, a class of elementary school girls was photographed in the clip after learning about the song and its messages. "They knew that they were filming an Israeli clip that would be distributed on YouTube to the whole world, and they were very enthusiastic about this idea and the possibility of pulling out a message of peace from Gaza," Malkin says.

The addition of the children of northern Iraq to the clip moved her even more. "To think that children who yesterday were threatened by ISIS sing today 'One Love' is perhaps the most powerful thing I have experienced working with Marley's songs," Malkin says. "Lisa told me that these are the first words they learned in English, and when they filmed the clip, Word and word, and wanted to convey the message that we are all human beings, and we all run to sing and to love."

Here's the video:

This video showing people of all ages, colors and nationalities singling about peace and love violates both the BDS rules and Palestinian Authority law.

The BDS Movemenr, which pretends to support peace, is against anyone cooperating with Israel in any cultural projects, so therefore the Syrians, Iraqis and Gaza children who sang here are, to their minds, collaborators with the Zionist entity and not interested in peace.

The Palestinian Authority is against any "normalization" with Israel, and the only Israelis they agree to deal with are the ones who support their aims to destroy Israel. A non-political project with Israelis who want peace is forbidden for Palestinians. In a way, it is good that the children on this video are from Gaza where they cannot be punished by the PA, although how Hamas reacts is an open question.

Throughout the Arab world there are many committees and groups against "normalization" with Israel as well, and possibly this video violates Iraqi and Syrian laws.

The one nation that yearns for peace is the one that is painted as hating peace, and the people who pretend that they only want peace are the ones who are upset at a peace video.

To be fair, Ma'an's article about this video is not judgmental. But as the video gains popularity, expect to see a major backlash in the Palestinian and other Arabic media against the idea of any cooperation with Israelis, even for something as non-offensive as this.

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12/15 Links: Douglas Murray: Why are Jewish people ‘wandering’ again?; Australia recognizes West Jerusalem as Israel’s capital; Bar Refaeli to Co-Host Eurovision 2019 in Tel Aviv

From Ian:

Douglas Murray: Why are Jewish people ‘wandering’ again?

Like many other Jews, it is the discovery that anti-Semitism has crept up on them from the political Left that is one of the propelling factors for such a move. It is one of the cruellest ironies of our day that the place of last resort for Jews worldwide should have become the primary focus of hatred by people who – among other things – like to think of themselves as ‘progressive’ and on the side of minority groups.

However, the most heart-breaking comment – which should be widely heard across Britain and Europe – is what Lewis said as he arrived in Israel. “We’re a wandering people, and it’s time to wander again,” he said. “People just don’t want to see it.” He also knows other people considering the same path.

Perhaps they will see it in due course. One of the most haunting phrases in fiction in recent years is the moment in Michel Houellebecq’s novel Submission in which the French law professor learns that his student, and lover (who is Jewish) is planning to leave France and go to Israel to live. As she mentions it, Houellebecq’s character reflects that “I don’t have an Israel”.

To that haunting phrase of Houellebecq’s invention can now be added Lewis’s terrible one. There are many things that people can say are emblematic of an era. But that statement, “It’s time to wander again”, is as sobering and disturbing a phrase as I have heard. With implications that go deep as well as wide.

Whether words mean anything in the current era (where they often seem to mean whatever anyone wants them to) is one matter. Whether actions count for much in an era deluged by unprecedented noise and images, is another. But it seems to me that the words and actions last week of this one Jewish man and his partner should count for something. And should be thought upon by anybody who still cares to think.

Melanie Phillips: Is the State of Israel supping with the devil

The visit to Israel this week by Italian deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini has provoked criticism and dismay within the Jewish world.

Salvini, who heads Italy’s right-wing “populist” Lega party, is controversial because of his anti-immigration stance.

Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin declined to meet him, citing “scheduling issues.” Rivlin’s view of political parties such as Lega were made clear, however, when he told CNN that the whole world needed to work against xenophobia, discrimination and antisemitism.

“There are neo-fascist movements today that have considerable and very dangerous influence, and sometimes they also express their strong support for the State of Israel,” he said.

Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, would seem to disagree. Indeed, he has gone out of his way to embrace leaders who, although some insist they are just conservative nationalists, are described by others as neo-fascists.

Among such politicians are Hungary’s prime minister Viktor Orbán, who has introduced what he calls an “illiberal democracy”; the Austrian chancellor, Sebastian Kurz, who heads a coalition including a party whose first two leaders were former SS officers; the Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte, who supports extra-judicial killing for drug-users and other criminals; and the new president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, who opposes just about everything on the progressive agenda.

So what’s going on? Well obviously, Israel needs all the friends it can get. Its overarching goal is to ensure its survival. If it were too fastidious about its allies, it would place itself in far greater danger.

Netanyahu’s calculation is that the new “populist” parties, which overwhelmingly support Israel, can be encouraged to shatter the monolithic animosity against it in both the European Union and the United Nations.

Moreover, when it comes to supporting Israel, these “authoritarian” leaders are putting liberal Western Europe to shame.

MEMRI: Former Hamas Leader Khaled Mashal Calls For West Bank 'Guerrilla Warfare,' States: 'I Resist, Therefore I Am'

Former chairman of the Hamas Political Bureau Khaled Mashal said that resistance is the basis of day-to-day life for people under occupation, and that just as people say "I think, therefore I am," the Palestinians say: "I resist, therefore I am." Explaining that the abandonment of Jihad leads to humiliation and death, Mashal said that resistance is the pinnacle of life. He criticized Fatah for not engaging in "resistance" and added: "The West Bank, which spans over 5,600 square kilometers, and which has mountains and valleys... has everything necessary for guerrilla warfare." Mashal's comments aired on Al-Jazeera Network (Qatar) on December 2, 2018.

To view the clip of Khaled Mashal on MEMRI TV, click here or below.

"The Quran Goes Even Further Than That By Defining Jihad, Resistance, And Self-Defense As The Essence Of Life"

Khaled Mashal: "For peoples under occupation, resistance is the natural way of life. It is the basis of day-to-day life. This is because it is inconceivable that we live under daily suffering and all of its implications under occupation, without living our daily lives with the resistance. It is the natural and reciprocal response. Just like they say: 'I think, therefore I am, as Palestinians and as a great nation that is creative when it comes to resisting, we say: 'I resist, therefore I am.'

"The Quran goes even further than that by defining Jihad, resistance, and self-defense as the essence of life. 'Oh you who believe, respond to Allah and to the Messenger, when he calls you to that which gives you life.' Indeed, this is the case. The abandonment of Jihad leads to humiliation and death. Hence, resistance is the pinnacle of life. A person who lives under occupation, and who does not resist, is in fact dead.

"A country cannot be liberated and rights cannot be restored without resistance. It is not possible. Without resistance, the occupation cannot be defeated or forced to retreat. Every means of power must be put to use.

"[The West Bank] Has Everything Necessary For Guerilla Warfare – Why Are We Not Preparing For That?"

Former Hamas Leader Khaled Mashal Calls for West Bank "Guerrilla Warfare," States: "I Resist, Therefore I Am" pic.twitter.com/OyZr0Ehc0q
— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) December 14, 2018

The Hamas mouthpiece Palestine Information Center claims:

An international organization concerned with defending the rights of Christians in the Middle East and Northern Africa on Saturday said that Israel has not issued permits to Christians in Gaza to visit the West Bank, especially Bethlehem, during the Christmas holiday.

The organization issued a statement saying that Gaza Christians have not been given the necessary permits to enter the West Bank to participate in the Christmas celebrations or visit their relatives.

It affirmed that all the Christians who had applied for permits this year were rejected except those over the age of 55.

The name of this "international organization" is not given.

But the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem issued a press release:

On November 27, and for the Christmas celebrations, the Israeli military authorities approved 500 permits for Palestinian Christians of Gaza to have access to East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

“Last year, 300 permits were given to the Christians in Gaza to celebrate Christmas in Bethlehem, but only to people over the age of 55,” said Fr. Mario da Silva, Parish priest of Gaza. “This year, 500 permits were approved by Israel. But until this moment, we have only received around 250 permits for people over the age of 55 and between the ages of 16 and 35. However, children under the age of 16 were not included.”

So much for the claims of this "international organization."

(h/t Tomer Ilan)

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