Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, October 20, 2019

10/20 Links: To whom does the land of Israel belong?; Why America can't escape the Middle East; Caroline Glick: Netanyahu, the media and the fate of Israeli democracy

From Ian:

The League of Nations 1923 “Any attempt to negate the Jewish People’s right to Palestine, Eretz-Israel, and to deny them access and control in the area designated for the Jewish People by the League of Nations is a serious infringement of international law. The Origin and Nature of the “Mandate for Palestine”

The entire point of this written exercise is to arm the Jewish People of Eretz Israel with Biblical, Historic and Legal facts, in order to combat the lies of their enemies. An enemy who have illegally migrated, and invaded into the Jewish State of Eretz Israel.

By constantly attacking and criticizing Israel, the West has emboldened Islamitic terrorists to attack even the Western nations within their own boarders. Since the Western World is in need of leaders, these nations take the cowardly way out, they try to appease their violent Islamitic enemy, by blaming Israel for their unwillingness to make peace. When at every step Israel is trying to move forward, they are met with murder, terrorism, lies and deceit, and a very frightened and useless Western World.

IT IS ALL ONE BIG LIE

Vladimir Lenin – “ A lie told often enough becomes the truth.”

Joseph Goebbels – “ If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually believe it.”

Hitler – “ If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed.”

Isa Blagden writer, – “If a lie is only printed often enough it becomes a quasi-truth and if such a truth is repeated often enough, it becomes an article, of belief, a dogma and men will die for it.(The Crown of Life,1869 )

Lying is a weapon of choice, used Against the Jewish people of Eretz Israel

The same lying sinister forces were at work against the Jewish people in the past. They were actively at work in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah 2,500 years ago when the Jewish remnants returned from the Persian Empire, to rebuild and resettle Jerusalem and the Jewish territories.

These ungodly lying forces are alive and well today working through Arab leaders both inside and outside of Israel. Deceit and Lying are a major strategy used by the Islamic Jihadists who wish to destroy the Israel of today. They are aided by the “politically correctness” of the Left Wing Western World, which is another way of saying, they are Anti-G-d, Anti-Semitic, and Anti- Judaeo Christian Ethics

Jonathan S. Tobin: Why America can't escape the Middle East

As Obama discovered after his withdrawal from Iraq and humiliating "red line" fiasco in Syria, the price of dishonor can be quite high.

Having washed his hands of those countries and punted their fate to Iran and Russia, it wasn't long before a new threat arose. The establishment of IS and its so-called caliphate in large portions of Syria and Iraq was the logical consequence of Obama's policies. As that terror group expanded the territory under its control, and videos of the hideous atrocities it committed went viral, Obama had little choice but to reverse course and commit to fighting IS.

Trump made an issue of the failure of Obama's half-hearted campaign against the Islamic State and vowed to defeat the group. And that's exactly what he did after winning the 2016 election. But with IS largely, but not completely defeated, he has now reverted to his instinctual isolationism, vowing to avoid any more involvement in Syria and leaving the Kurds to their own devices after years of promises from Washington that they would not be abandoned.

Some Americans outside the Beltway, including some supporters of Israel, have no problem with what he's done in Syria because they are blind supporters of the president. Others share his ignorance of a complex conflict and see no reason why Americans should be part of it.

As Obama found out after the atrocities perpetrated by the Islamic State aroused the anger of the public, Trump or his successor will have to respond to Turkish atrocities or those of the next Islamist terror group that will fill the vacuum he is creating by withdrawing US forces.

Islamist terror is an international problem, and not just something the Israelis and the Arabs have to worry about. Israel can defend itself, but actions that make its neighborhood even more dangerous undermine its security. Beyond that, allowing Turkey and Iran to do as they like in the region ultimately harms everyone, including Americans who have yet to absorb the fact that their safety is no longer ensured by the oceans that separate them from other continents. Unfortunately, Republicans and Democrats who still imagine Americans can simply go home and avoid further involvement in the Middle East's wars are engaging in magical thinking rather than supporting a coherent strategy.

In latest sign of thaw, Israel sending official to anti-Iran summit in Bahrain

A senior official is confirmed to attend a security conference in Bahrain on Monday, a source in the Gulf country told The Times of Israel, in the latest significant sign of warming ties between parts of the Arab world and Israel.

A senior Foreign Ministry official working on regional security and counter-terrorism, whose name was withheld by Israel’s military censor for security reasons, will represent Israel at the Working Group on Maritime and Aviation Security.

Starting Monday, the two-day event is expected to deal mainly with efforts to thwart the Islamic Republic’s growing regional aggression. Delegates are set to discuss the protection of vessels in the Persian Gulf from Iranian attacks, as well as the prevention of the smuggling of weapons and weapons of mass destruction and the protection of civil aviation.

The meeting, co-hosted by Bahrain, the US and Poland, is part of the so-called Warsaw Process, which started with the Ministerial to Promote a Future of Peace and Security in the Middle East that took place in the Polish capital earlier this year. That conference, co-sponsored by Poland and the US, was originally billed as part of global efforts to counter Iran, but was later toned-down and instead focused on the vaguer goal of seeking stability in the Middle East.

The Foreign Ministry did not deny that it was sending a representative to Manama for the conference on maritime and aviation security. In a terse statement sent to The Times of Israel, the ministry said: “Israel participates in the post-Warsaw process.”

Iran brags that its players drop out of chess tournaments to avoid playing Israel

Iran's Mehrnews says:

As the fifth round of World Youth Chess Championships in India continued in India, the young Iranian female chess player Mobina Alinasab defeated a player from the host country to reach the top of the table of the competitions with 4.5 points.

Another Iranian chess player Mohammad Amin Tabatabei drew against an Indian opponent to rank 25th on the list of the best chess players with 3 points.

Arian Gholami was the third Iranian representative who avoided competing against a player from the Zionist regime of Israel and did not continue the championships.

I don't quite understand this, as Gholami is playing in the Open U18 tournament, and I do not see any Israelis in that tournament.

(I only see one Israeli playing, in the Girl U18, and no matches between her and any Iranian.)

Gholami was still playing at the end of the competition.

While it is unclear what exactly happened, Iran is still bragging about not letting its players compete against Israelis, and for that alone the International Chess Federation should ban Iran from any tournaments at all.

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Just some garden variety antisemitism from Kashmir

From Kashmir Watch by By Sajjad Shaukat:

When we talk about the control of the United States and the world, there is no difference between the Khazarian Mafia, Jews and Israel. In this regard, many intellectuals like Don Allen and others reveal, “The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR)…was part of a conspiracy to gain control of both US political parties to use them as instruments…seventy-three percent of the members of the Council on Foreign Relations are Jews. There are a number of organizations that comprise the Invisible Government that runs America and the world…from behind the scenes. A Jewish group which is in control of national governments and multinational corporations promotes world government through control of the military, media, foundation grants and education including NGOs…and controls and guides the issues of the day, and thus they control most options available. They will manage the money, the land, the food, and the guns of everyone in the world.”

In the words of Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, “It is long been clear that the pro-Israel, ultra-Zionist network have absolute control over the United States. The idea that our leaders are pursuing America’s vital national interests abroad…is a myth.”

Nevertheless, it is most surprising to note that especially since the orchestrated drama of the 9/11 attacks on the one side, Khazarian Jewish Mafia has been acting upon its evil designs by targeting the non-Zionist Americans and entire international community, while, on the other, it is, rapidly, jeopardizing its financial interests by destabilizing the global economy, which shows cognitive dissonance of the Mafia.

They really think we are so stupid as to endanger our own wealth to destabilize the world economy? We have septillions of dollars!

God, these antisemites are so stupid!

I found a variant of this article published seen months ago in some self-published site called Taste Style Mag (really!) with this headline and illustration:

Not surprisingly, this same author has written about the "Khazarian Jewish Mafia" at Veteran's Today.

Far Right, Far Left - the antisemitism is the same.

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10/19 Links: Hillel Neuer: Another UN blow to human rights; Does Angela Merkel Deserve a Prize for Zionism?; Sacha Baron Cohen makes Nazi analogy to slam Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook policy

From Ian:

Hillel Neuer: Another UN blow to human rights

In 1946, in the aftermath of the horrors of World War II, Eleanor Roosevelt founded the UN Commission on Human Rights, to reaffirm the principles of human dignity. That her dream has turned into a recurring nightmare was confirmed on Thursday when some of the world’s worst regimes were once again elected to the 47-nation UN body, renamed in 2006 under a failed bid at reform, as the Human Rights Council.

Who are the UN’s new world judges on human rights?

Absurdly, Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro is one.

Though the council’s rules stipulate that members must “uphold the highest standards” of human rights, the UN General Assembly chose the narco-criminal regime from Caracas.

Despite promises of a socialist paradise, President Maduro has devastated his country, starved his own people and crushed pro-democracy dissidents.

The government’s repression includes targeting opposition leaders like Leopoldo López, who was thrown into prison for three years and is still under house arrest. According to the NGO Foro Penal, as of April 2019 there were more than 900 political prisoners across Venezuela.

Maduro’s failed policies have produced political instability, hunger, poverty and soaring crime rates. Millions are ill and dying for lack of food, medicine and basic necessities. Four million have fled. Electing Maduro to the council was obscene.

Second, the world body elected Libya, another failed state, where armed groups execute and torture civilians with almost complete impunity. Captured African migrants are bought and sold on open slave markets.

Third, although anti-racism is supposedly the defining credo of the UN, the General Assembly elected the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, where an estimated 500,000 people live in slavery.

Does Angela Merkel Deserve a Prize for Zionism?

German Interior Ministry statistics claim that 90% of the anti-Semitic hate crimes reported in Germany in 2018 were committed by "far right" persons. The EU's Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA), however, found that only 13% of the attacks were attributed to those with a "right-wing political view."

Germany provides millions of euros annually to organizations that promote anti-Israel BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) and "lawfare" campaigns, anti-Zionism, antisemitism, and violence, according to NGO Monitor.

"Why is Merkel being awarded the Theodor Herzl Award? Because her representative at the United Nations abstains in anti-Israel resolutions — and thereby de facto supports them? The same official who equates Hamas rocket attacks on Israeli civilians with Israel's demolition of the homes of Palestinian terrorists? For not relocating the German embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, as the United States did, and also warning other countries against taking such a step? For all this, she gets the Theodor Herzl Award?" — Henryk Broder, German Political Commentator, Die Achse des Guten.

"And that is just the beginning. There is a great possibility that thanks to today's politics Germany will become Judenrein [free of Jews]. Wir schaffen das (We can do it)." — Dr. Rafael Korenzecher, Publisher, Jüdische Rundschau.

Special Representative Hook: While the United States was still in the JCPOA, Iran expanded its ballistic missile activities to partners across the region, including Hizballah, helping them produce a greater number of rockets & missiles. This arsenal is then used to target Israel. pic.twitter.com/96JkpEH8Gf
— Department of State (@StateDept) October 18, 2019

'Israel doesn't need any outsider to tell it what to do'

Martin Weiss has served as Austria's ambassador to Israel for exactly four years. His name might sound Jewish and his lively, relaxed nature is a good fit for the Israeli pace of life, but in two weeks, Weiss will depart the Austrian Embassy in Tel Aviv for the Austrian Embassy in Washington, DC. That demonstrates his status, but also the importance of Israel in Austrian diplomacy.

Indeed, in Weiss' time as ambassador – and with his help – Israel and Austria have enjoyed their closest ties in history. Given the loaded history between the Jewish and Austrian peoples, ("Let's admit it, there were mostly 'downs,'" he says with characteristic frankness) – the increasing closeness of the last few years is not something to be taken for granted.

Austria is not only the birthplace of Adolf Hitler but also elected a Jewish chancellor who hated Israel, Bruno Kreisky; knowingly elected as president former Wehrmacht officer Kurt Waldheim; saw huge support for long-time Freedom Party of Austria Chairman Jörg Haider, widely considered to have been a Nazi sympathizer; and was one of the last countries to acknowledge the part it played in the mass murder of its Jewish citizens during the Holocaust.

Only in the past few years have we seen signs that the Austrian leadership is truly able to address the country's past honestly and seriously. In a speech two years ago at a conference of the American Jewish Committee in Jerusalem, former Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said things that had never been uttered by his predecessors: "Many Austrians supported the system which killed over 6 million Jews from all over Europe and beyond. Among them, 60,000 fellow Austrian Jewish citizens in Austria alone. It took Austria a long time to be honest about its past. I have to admit that there were many people in Austria who did nothing to fight the Nazi regime. Far too many actively supported these horrors and even were perpetrators."

Kurz strengthened Austria's ties with Israel in general and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in particular. This was due in part to Weiss, who is a close associate. Now that Weiss' time as ambassador to Israel is up, he sat down with Israel Hayom for a special interview.

10/18 Links Pt2: Melanie Phillips: From Congress to classrooms: Reframing the Israel narrative; Jonathan S. Tobin: When Israel’s haters endorse a Jewish candidate; Why Eisenhower deleted the Jews

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: From Congress to classrooms: Reframing the Israel narrative

Those who consider themselves to be centrists because they back a “two-state solution” may not grasp the full extent of the big lie about Israel because they themselves have swallowed it, at least in part.

For fundamental to this benign-sounding rubric is a lethal misreading of the problem to which it is the purported solution. It assumes that this is a conflict over the parceling out of land between two sides with a legitimate claim to that land.

Not so. This is an Arab war of extermination against the State of Israel. The only proper response to such a war is to defeat it. A state of Palestine that was instead created for those still bent on Israel’s destruction would merely hand them the means to achieve their unconscionable aim.

Reconceptualizing this existential war as a conflict over territory creates a false moral equivalence between the actual Arab aggressors and their actual Israeli victims. As a consequence, Israel’s refusal to accept what would be terms of surrender to those still aiming to destroy it has been transformed into a stance of unforgivable belligerency.

This, in turn, has facilitated the whole narrative of colonialist dispossession, illegality, occupation, aggression, abuses of human rights and all the rest of the crimes so falsely laid at Israel’s door, in addition to the anti-Jewish venom that inevitably bubbles up to the surface in that particular sewer.

If the road to hell is paved with good intentions, the path to the resurgence of anti-Semitism in the West – now so brazenly paraded by the hard-left – has been laid by the so-called centrist advocates of the “two-state solution.”

That’s why this resurgence would not be stopped by the disappearance from the political scene of either Jeremy Corbyn or “the Squad” of U.S. congresswomen. It will not be stopped by better pro-Israel advocacy on campus. It will not even be stopped by removing certain education materials from British or American schools, desirable or necessary as all such developments are in themselves.

This poisonous tide will only begin to be turned if those who think themselves to be custodians of the center-ground realize the extent to which they too have drunk the Middle Eastern Kool-Aid.

Jonathan S. Tobin: When Israel’s haters endorse a Jewish candidate

It’s not clear whether the Squad, let alone Sarsour and Amer, can help Sanders keep up with Warren, who seems to have eclipsed the fading Joe Biden as the Democratic frontrunner. But she may not be radical or anti-Israel enough for AOC and her friends, as well as the likes of Sarsour.

But more important than the fate of his candidacy is the way that these anti-Semitic Israel-haters are using Sanders to legitimize their positions and further advance their efforts to ensure that support for BDS is a mainstream, rather than a marginal, force within the Democratic Party. Indeed, we should expect that Omar and Sarsour will trot out their endorsements of Sanders in the future as fake proof that they are not anti-Semites, despite an abundance of evidence to the contrary.

Right now, most Democrats are transfixed by the competition among their presidential candidates and their debates over how big they want government to be, as well as how much they will allow radical identity politics to dominate public discourse. Yet the steady advances made by peddlers of intersectional myths that demonize Israel, such as Tlaib, in mainstreaming their noxious ideology is a story that’s not getting enough attention.

The failure of the other Democratic candidates to call Sanders to account for his embrace of anti-Semites is discouraging. But in a party where Omar and Tlaib are treated as heroines and victims of right-wing smears rather than purveyors of hate, that isn’t realistic. Indeed, Warren’s efforts to snatch Tlaib’s endorsement away from Sanders indicates that despite the support of most of their congressional caucus and a plurality of their voters for Israel, the future of radical anti-Semites in the Democratic is all too bright.

Michael Medved: ‘I Will Make of You a Great Nation’

Starting in 1881, some 2.5 million desperate, destitute eastern European Jews washed up on American shores to connect an ancient text to a young nation’s sense of its own special destiny. For the implacably confident citizens of the surging United States, these exotic newcomers provided new perspective on three mystical Genesis verses that had resonated with their forebears since the earliest days of British settlement.

“Go for yourself from your land, from your relatives, and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you,” God commands Abraham (still called Abram at that point in the text). The Almighty reassures the puzzled patriarch by pledging a world- changing outcome to this directed journey into the unknown: “And I will make of you a great nation; I will bless you, and make your name great, and you shall be a blessing.”

The Pilgrims and Puritans prayed for similar benedictions and connected their own “errand into the wilderness” with Abraham’s fateful mission to build a new, godly life in a promised land he hadn’t even seen. Proudly identifying themselves as “New Testament Hebrews,” they also cherished the biblical idea that the other tribes of earth would one day earn reward or punishment based on their treatment of the new nation God had decreed into existence. “I will bless those who bless you, and him who curses you I will curse,” the Lord assures Abraham and, by implication, his descendants, far into the future. “And all the families of the earth shall bless themselves by you” (Genesis 12:1–3).

With this formulation in mind, many of the radical Protestant doers and dreamers who ultimately planted a new civilization in North America embraced the notion that their cosmic purpose involved the protection of the children of Abraham—an idea they expressed in sermons and scholarly treatises long before any actual Jews turned up in their struggling New World outposts.

In 1648, for instance, a member of Parliament named Sir Edward Nicholas wrote an influential pamphlet that blamed England’s present problems on “the strict and cruel laws now in force against the most honorable nation of the world, the nation of the Jews, a people chosen by God.” This startling new attitude and Sir Edward’s bold description of the Jews as “our brethren” represented a striking departure from the well-established medieval view that they constituted “the spawn of Satan” and were worthy of torture, genocide, and expulsion.

Saudi girls go crazy for K-pop (videos)

The concert by BTS in a stadium in Riyadh last week brought thousands of screaming Saudi women - fully covered.

As this video shows, that didn't stop them from dancing.

It is sort of amazing.

pic.twitter.com/LA0dsnsdYa
— TURKI ALALSHIKH (@Turki_alalshikh) October 11, 2019

There has naturally been a backlash from both staunch Muslims and from human rights activists against the group playing in the kingdom, but it is nice to see Saudi women stepping out, even if only a little.

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10/18 Links Pt1: Pompeo to ‘Post’: Israel has right to act in Syria, U.S. will stop Iran; The Recent Deterioration in Syria May Break Israel’s Political Deadlock; Poll: 3/4 of Iranians Against Ending Nuclear Enrichment

From Ian:

Trump Envoy Kushner to Visit Israel at End of Month to Assess Possibility of Unveiling Long-Awaited Peace Plan

President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner will visit Israel at the end of the month in preparation for unveiling the administration’s “deal of the century” plan for Israeli-Palestinian peace.

The Israeli news site Walla reported that Kushner will likely meet with both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his top rival, Blue and White party leader Benny Gantz, to assess the political situation in Israel, which is currently in flux as neither Netanyahu nor Gantz appears currently able to form a government following September’s Knesset elections.

If it takes place, this would be Kushner’s first meeting with Gantz. The Trump administration, which is widely perceived as staunchly pro-Netanyahu, avoided meeting Gantz until just after the September vote, when US Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt and US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman did so for the first time.

Trump had planned to reveal his peace plan in January, but held off due to pending Israeli elections in April, which proved inconclusive, prompting another delay until a second round of elections. These also resulted in no clear winner, forcing the administration to postpone the release of the plan again until a governing coalition could be formed, a possibility that looks remote at the moment.

Pompeo to ‘Post’: Israel has right to act in Syria, U.S. will stop Iran

Despite the withdrawal of US troops from Syria, Israel retains operational freedom to defend itself and America remains committed to closely watching the Iraqi-Syrian border to help prevent the transfer of Iranian arms into the country, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told The Jerusalem Post on Friday in an exclusive interview.

“Our administration’s been very clear,” he said. “Israel has the fundamental right to engage in activity that ensures the security of its people. It’s at the very core of what nation states not only have the right to do but an obligation to do.”

Regarding the Iraqi-Syrian border, which Israeli intelligence believes is used by Iran to smuggle weapons into Syria and Hezbollah, Pompeo said that American forces would continue to watch the area closely.

“The president has committed to continuing that activity that the US has been engaged in now for a couple of years and is aimed at countering ISIS and providing us situational awareness in the region,” he said. “We know this is a corner where Iran has attempted to move weapon systems across into Syria, into Lebanon, that threatens Israel and we are going to do everything we can to make sure we have the capacity to identify those so that we can collectively respond appropriately.”

Pompeo spoke to the Post in Jerusalem shortly after completing a two-hour meeting Friday morning with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Mossad chief Yossi Cohen. He was accompanied to the meeting by US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman and James Jeffrey, the US special envoy on Syria. Pompeo arrived in Israel a day after meeting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who agreed to a five-day ceasefire to allow Kurdish forces to evacuate the border region.

Israeli politicians and defense officials have raised concerns that the US pullout from Syria will strengthen Iran. Pompeo dismissed that possibility and said that the administration remained committed – like it has been – to stopping Iran and preventing it from obtaining nuclear weapons. He said that all options were on the table in the event that Iran broke out toward a bomb.

The Recent Deterioration in Syria May Break Israel’s Political Deadlock

If Benjamin Netanyahu fails to form a governing coalition by October 24, President Reuven Rivlin will have to choose between granting him a two-week extension or, more likely, giving Benny Gantz of the centrist Blue and White party a chance to form a coalition. As of last week, coalition negotiations had stalled, but in the past few days several parties began making conciliatory gestures. Vivian Bercovici explains why:

[T]he deliverance from the present national stasis may have come in the form of White House chaos. Donald Trump’s recent decision to withdraw American troops from northern Syria has plunged the region into a new round of volatility and chaos. . . . Trump’s erratic conduct seems to have jolted Israeli leadership into a more wakeful state of mind, and catalyzed discussions around the possibility of a unity coalition being formed imminently.

The jarringly abrupt withdrawal of U.S. troops from northern Syria and the ensuing mayhem present a critical security challenge to Israel. Suddenly, . . . we heard grudging rumblings: that Blue and White will sit with Likud under Netanyahu’s leadership and “hold its nose”; that the ultra-Orthodox parties are even grumbling along the same lines and may sit with Blue and White and Avigdor Liberman’s [right wing, but staunchly secularist] Yisrael Beytenu.

There are now reports of further discussion to cobble together a quick governing coalition in order that the country may function, primarily because of the increasingly volatile and deteriorating regional security situation. The “compromise” being discussed is that there will be no legislation considered on matters of religion and state, in effect putting on ice, for the meantime, the root of the ongoing political impasse. However, . . . Benny Gantz dismissed the buzz as meaningless chatter.

Events in Syria and the region nonetheless may [still] stave off the surreal possibility of a third election in one year. The state needs a functioning government, and that imperative is more fundamental and important than any leader or party.

Netanyahu: Gantz planning government with backing of ‘dangerous’ Arab parties

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday charged that Blue and White leader Benny Gantz intends to form a minority government with outside support from the mostly Arab Joint List alliance, warning such a move would endanger Israel’s security.

Netanyahu, who is nearing the end of a period given to him to try, so far unsuccessfully, and form a government, appears to be returning to his election campaign stance of appearing to demonize the Arab parties and tar Gantz as a leftist.

In a post on his Facebook page, Netanyahu said that Gantz had rejected his offers for a unity government and charged that he, together with Blue and White number two Yair Lapid and Yisrael Beytenu’s Avigdor Liberman, had refused to rule out the minority government option.

“Establishing a minority government that relies on the Joint List is an anti-Zionist act that endangers our security,” Netanyahu wrote, accusing Joint List leaders Ayman Odeh and Ahmad Tibi of supporting Palestinian terror and Hezbollah.
Members of the Joint List Ayman Odeh, left, and Ahmad Tibi consult with President Reuven Rivlin on who should form the the next government, at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem, on September 22, 2019. (Menahem Kahana/Pool via AP)

Netanyahu also accused Lapid and Liberman of “holding Gantz hostage” to their personal ambitions.

Liberman reacted to the post, saying it was a sign of Netanyahu’s “desperation,” and accused the prime minister of hypocrisy, saying he had a long history of cooperating with Arab parties.

Palestinian asylum seekers in Europe are not fleeing Israel - they are fleeing Hamas

Haaretz has an article on how many Gazans are seeking asylum in Belgium.

Even though the UN considers many of them to be "Palestine refugees" under the UNRWA definition, that isn't enough to actually gain asylum anywhere in the world, because asylum is for real refugees who have a real fear of persecution in their home country - which does not apply to Arabs in Israel or in the territories.

Not from Israel, at least.

The Palestinian refugees seeking asylum in Belgium (and all of Europe) are not seeking protection from Israel - but from Hamas.

Adel Atieh, the deputy head of the Palestinian mission to the European Union, points out that eleven years ago, there were only 3,000 Palestinians in Belgium. Today, however, Atieh estimates that that there are around 10,000 Palestinian asylum seekers living there, with as many as 98 percent of them hailing from the Strip.

“Based on the argument that there are human rights violations under Hamas and that their security is under threat by the Hamas militia, Palestinians from the Strip traditionally had much higher chances to get asylum in Belgium than Palestinians from the West Bank,” says Atieh. “A lot of them came after the 2008-2009 and the 2014 wars,” he adds.

We have noted that the only Palestinians who seek asylum worldwide are claiming persecution from Hamas in the past.

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Israel's Kan network has an expose on how the Palestinian Authority is endangering their citizens' lives by forbidding their people to be treated in Israeli hospitals - but they allow their own relatives to go.

Earlier this year, Mahmoud Abbas claimed that the PA was paying Israeli hospitals too much to treat Palestinians, and that the Israeli hospitals were charging too much for their treatment. This charge was repeated earlier this week when Palestinian Prime Minister Mohamed Shtayyeh said this to Physicians for Human Rights.

In fact, Palestinians would be charged about 30% less than Israelis for similar procedures.

The hospital decision happened at the same time that Israel started to withhold tax revenues that were going to pay terrorists, so Abbas' decision in the end was petty and vindictive - and caused Palestinians to accept sub-par treatments.

The PA says it can send patients to Egypt and Jordan, and they are cheaper, but they simply aren't as good. Just last week a woman went to Jordan for treatment and returned in a coffin.

A few years ago, an Arab-Israeli doctor who worked at a hospital in Ramallah convinced some of his Jewish colleagues to participate in complex surgery. The surgery took about ten hours and was a success. But the hospital manager was furious. "How could you bring in Israelis (Jews), this is normalization, it is not allowed," he raged. The Arab-Israeli doctor never did it again.

But for relatives of Palestinian Authority leaders, Israeli hospitals are available - and the PA pays for them!

Mahmoud Abbas stayed in a Palestinian hospital, but brought in an Israeli doctor. His wife went to Israel for treatment. So did Jibril Rajoub.

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When Arabs used the Temple Mount as a base for terror operations

As Arab media daily publish stories about how Jews are "desecrating" the Temple Mount by existing, let's look back at a couple of stories from The Palestine Post in 1938:

July 31:

October 18:

This editorial from January 1939 shows how the Muslim terrorists used the Temple Mount as a base of operations:

The idea that the Muslim world would be upset at the real desecration of the Al Aqsa Mosque by the Palestinian Arabs of the 1930s was, of course, a fantasy.

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10/17 Link Pt2: Does American Jewry’s Future Include Officers Guarding Us In Riot Gear?; No separating anti-Zionist agitation from Jew-hatred; Sanders, Klobuchar, Castro, Bennet and Buttigieg to Attend J Street Conference

From Ian:

Does American Jewry’s Future Include Officers Guarding Us In Riot Gear?

Passing on religious rituals was something I remember looking forward to before I became a mother. Little did I know that the Jewish High Holidays in 2019 would hardly resemble the holidays of my childhood.

Growing up in the 1980s and ‘90s, anyone could walk into my suburban New York synagogue for Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippur. Sure, adults were supposed to have tickets, but there was no bouncer by the door. We had two local police officers who stood out on the street directing traffic for those two holidays, but that was explained by my synagogue’s location atop a hill; drivers climbing that hill couldn’t see the larger-than-usual stream of pedestrians from afar.

After 9/11, the synagogue I attended in D.C. added year-round security. Whenever I arrived from work for Friday evening services, I faced a security guard and a bag check.

The level of security at synagogues, Jewish schools, and Jewish community centers has only increased since then. Some of these buildings have video camera buzzer systems, security guards, or police officers. This is all to protect American Jews while we pray, socialize, and educate our children. In the wake of attacks in Pittsburgh and Poway, California, that trend is unlikely to reverse itself.

The Heroes in Halle

Since well before the Halle attack, the resounding call of Jewish leaders has been that the time for words against anti-Semitism has passed and that what is needed now in Germany is action.

The Halle synagogue used to have a visible police presence. But a year ago, rather than heed the warnings of Jewish community leaders who were witnessing the resurgence of German anti-Semitism, the authorities in Halle discontinued police protection. Max Privorozki, the head of the Jewish community in Halle, said he had asked in vain for police protection for Jewish holidays and complained about the complete lack of police patrols. Holger Stahlknecht, the state interior minister of Saxony-Anhalt, all but called him a liar and, despite what seemed like obvious failures, defended his police forces.

The German government provided no police protection, funding for security guards, or other means of physical defense for the Halle synagogue. According to the police chronology, the first police officers arrived eight minutes after they received the emergency call, which was four minutes after the terrorist had already left the synagogue.

In Halle the Jews were left to save themselves.

For this they relied on the synagogue’s security system, donated by the Jewish Agency for Israel, with funding from the Helmsley Charitable Trust. Those security cameras made it possible for the Jews inside to make quick informed decisions to shelter in place and barricade the doors. The frustrated terrorist, unable to open the door, wondered aloud, “maybe they will come outside.” Thanks to the security system, there was no chance of that. Jewish Agency Chairman Isaac Herzog was not exaggerating when he said, “That donation saved lives.”

BBC Arabic describes Halle shooting as attack on kebab shop and does not mention attempted synagogue massacre

A report on the Halle synagogue attack on the BBC Arabic website fails to mention antisemitism or Jews, stating simply that “some German news outlets say it happened near a synagogue but this cannot be confirmed.”

This was despite the fact that the motivations of the attacker and the target — a synagogue on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar — were entirely clear and indeed could in fact easily be confirmed from the livestream video that the attacker himself posted online.

The article reports that two people were killed in a gunfire incident and that the assailant fired in the direction of a kebab shop, noting that he “also threw a bomb on a cemetery”, rather than explaining that the cemetery was in the synagogue compound, which was the gunman’s primary target.

The perpetrator has since confirmed that he was motivated by antisemitism and indeed had published an antisemitic manifesto prior to the attack. The incident comes at a time of growing antisemitism in Germany.

Campaign Against Antisemitism is disgusted that the BBC could run such a misleading story on a sensitive topic, but this is also not wholly surprising in view of the history of strained relations between the Corporation and the Jewish community.

It’s often be helpful to boil down debates over Israel, the Middle East and anti-Semitism to their logical core in order to best understand the actual arguments being made (or dodged).

For example, discussion of who gets to determine whether someone’s behavior is anti-Semitic is based on this general argument, widely accepted in most circles:

Premise 1: Minority groups are victims of discrimination and bigotry

Premise 2: Victims of discrimination and bigotry best understand when it is directed against them

Conclusion: Minority groups best understand when discrimination and bigotry is directed against them

Note that this is a valid argument, in that accepting the premises requires you to accept the conclusion (the definition of logical validity).

One of the useful results of distilling an argument (especially one written originally in more lengthy or complex prose) into a structured, valid argument is that it requires you to write premises in a way that exposes their strengths and weaknesses. This is important because, to be any good, an argument must be both valid and sound with soundness defined as having premises that are either true or something a reasonable person would accept as highly likely to be true.

In the case of the valid two-premise argument above, the first premise is a statement of fact, and the second one also seems like something most people would agree is reasonable, so this argument is both valid and sound. But looks what happens if we add one more premise to the argument:

Premise 1: Minority groups are victims of discrimination and bigotry

Premise 2: Victims of discrimination and bigotry best understand when it is directed against them

Premise 3: Jews are a minority group

Conclusion: Jews best understand when bigotry and discrimination [i.e., anti-Semitism] is directed against them

This too is a valid argument and the new premise we just added is also a statement of fact, as strong or stronger than Premise 1 that appears in both versions of the argument.

Yet those who say that Jews use accusations of anti-Semitism as a smoke screen to cover up the crimes of the Jewish state must reject this three-premise argument in order to claim that Jews are not allowed to determine when anti-Semitism is and is not taking place.

One way to do this is to reject our new premise that says that Jews are a minority, which is the reasoning behind attempts to portray Jews as “white,” a status that would eliminate them from the category of “minority group.” As just noted, however, it is a fact that Jews ARE a minority and, as history shows, a minority that has been victimized by bigotry and discrimination, up to and including attempted genocide.

In light of this, moving Jews into the “white” column requires a separate argument that might run something like:

Premise 1: Many Jews, especially in America, enjoy wide success

Premise 2: Any group in which members enjoy wide success is not a discriminated-against minority

Conclusion: Jews are not a discriminated-against minority

This argument is also valid, but notice that one could easily substitute other minority groups in premise one to justify eliminating them from the role of victims of bigotry. Reactionaries who claim every accusation of racism is a form of “race hustling,” for example, would justify their claim based on a version of this argument that swaps out Jews with another minority group. Yet it is doubtful anyone embracing this argument when applied to Jews would welcome a version that follows the same principle but applies it to other minorities.

This isolates the fact that Jews are being singled out as a special case (a form of argumentation called “special pleading”) best distilled into this final version of our (really their) argument:

Premise 1: Minority groups are victims of discrimination and bigotry

Premise 2: Victims of discrimination bigotry best understand when it is directed against them

Premise 3: Jews are a minority group

Premise 4: Jews, and only Jews, cannot be trusted when it comes to determining discrimination and bigotry directed against them

Conclusion: Minority groups, except for Jews, best understand when bigotry and discrimination is directed against them

Notice that in this special pleading, our new Premise 4, which is designed to eliminate Jews – and Jews alone – from the category of minorities allowed to determine when they are targets of bigotry, is itself a textbook example of anti-Jewish bigotry (i.e., anti-Semitism).

So one argument for claiming Jews, and Jews alone, cannot identify bigotry directed against them would leave every minority group defenseless, while the other requires actually embracing bigotry. Perhaps this is why those advocating this and other self-serving anti-Israel positions spend so much time shrieking, accusing and threatening since, in their heart of hearts, they know they have no argument.

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