Sunday, November 30, 2014

What the Western Media Gets Wrong About Israel

...This summer, with Yazidis, Christians, and Kurds falling back before the forces of radical Islam not far away from here, this ideology’s local franchise launched its latest war against the last thriving minority in the Middle East. The Western press corps showed up en masse to cover it. This conflict included rocket barrages across Israel and was deliberately fought from behind Palestinian civilians, many of whom died as a result. Dulled by years of the “Israel story” and inured to its routine omissions, confused about the role they are meant to play, and co-opted by Hamas, reporters described this war as an Israeli onslaught against innocent people. By doing so, this group of intelligent and generally well-meaning professionals ceased to be reliable observers and became instead an amplifier for the propaganda of one of the most intolerant and aggressive forces on earth. And that, as they say, is the story.

A rally in support of Islamic Jihad
at Al-Quds University in East
Jerusalem, in November 2013
 (Courtesy of Matti Friedman)
Matti Friedman..
The Atlantic..
30 November '14..

During the Gaza war this summer, it became clear that one of the most important aspects of the media-saturated conflict between Jews and Arabs is also the least covered: the press itself. The Western press has become less an observer of this conflict than an actor in it, a role with consequences for the millions of people trying to comprehend current events, including policymakers who depend on journalistic accounts to understand a region where they consistently seek, and fail, to productively intervene.

An essay I wrote for Tablet on this topic in the aftermath of the war sparked intense interest. In the article, based on my experiences between 2006 and 2011 as a reporter and editor in the Jerusalem bureau of the Associated Press, one of the world’s largest news organizations, I pointed out the existence of a problem and discussed it in broad terms. Using staffing numbers, I illustrated the disproportionate media attention devoted to this conflict relative to other stories, and gave examples of editorial decisions that appeared to be driven by ideological considerations rather than journalistic ones. I suggested that the cumulative effect has been to create a grossly oversimplified story—a kind of modern morality play in which the Jews of Israel are displayed more than any other people on earth as examples of moral failure. This is a thought pattern with deep roots in Western civilization.

But how precisely does this thought pattern manifest itself in the day-to-day functioning, or malfunctioning, of the press corps? To answer this question, I want to explore the way Western press coverage is shaped by unique circumstances here in Israel and also by flaws affecting the media beyond the confines of this conflict. In doing so, I will draw on my own experiences and those of colleagues. These are obviously limited and yet, I believe, representative.

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Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work as well as a big vote to follow our good friend Kay Wilson on Twitter
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Europe’s Unsurprising Role in the “Jewish State” Law

...For a number of years, anti-Zionist political groups and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have sought to reverse the definition of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people, and replace it by a state “of all of its citizens”. Many of these NGOs receive major foreign government funding, both directly and through church aid agencies, to promote this objective under the facade of human rights and democracy. They are also very active in demonization campaigns around the world,which single-out Israel for boycotts and other political attacks.

Gerald M. Steinberg..
Times of Israel..
30 November '14..

In the debate on the proposed “Jewish state law”, much of the criticism erases the context that brought this issue to the political center at this time. Claims of “racism” and “discrimination” that have echoed through the media and in the Knesset reduce an important and complex issue to simplistic and misleading slogans.

This initiative cannot be understood without considering the ongoing campaigns to erode and eventually erase the essential Jewish framework of Zionism. For a number of years, anti-Zionist political groups and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have sought to reverse the definition of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people, and replace it by a state “of all of its citizens”. Many of these NGOs receive major foreign government funding, both directly and through church aid agencies, to promote this objective under the facade of human rights and democracy. They are also very active in demonization campaigns around the world,which single-out Israel for boycotts and other political attacks.

For example, an Israel-based group known as Zochrot (Remembrance), which accuses Israel of “ethnic cleansing,” among other libels, held a film festival on the “Nakba and Return” at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque on November 27-29. Such events and the advertising campaigns that surround them promote the Palestinian myth of a “right of return”, which, if it were implemented, would end Israel’s existence as the nation-state of the Jewish people. Zochrot’s activities demonizing the Jewish state are funded by organizations (including many “humanitarian” church groups) who in turn receive money from the governments of the UK, Belgium, Germany, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, France, and Switzerland.

Could it be? Is Turkey providing cover for Hamas terror?

...Tonight there are reports in many news channels [for instance, "Isis launches attack on Kobani from inside Turkey for first time", The Guardian, November 29, 2014] that jihadists from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terror forces have launched an attack on the beleagured border town of Kobane, Syria, from inside Turkish territory. Turkey is officially and energetically [here] denying that too.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of
Turkey hosts Khaled Mashaal 
and Ismail Haniyeh
of Hamas in his Ankara bureau, June 18, 2013 

[Image Source: Turkish Prime Minister's Press Office]
Frimet/Arnold Roth..
This Ongoing War..
29 November '14..

Since the disclosures made in Israel two days ago about Turkey's involvement in a major Hamas terrorism initiative directed at killing yet more Jews and sowing ever-greater chaos in Jerusalem, we have been paying extra attention to what is making news in Turkey.

(For the background, see this post: "27-Nov-14: Hamas terrorist ring is busted; Israel says the handlers operate from Turkey; Qatar is involved")

Let's start with the Turkish 'denials' of involvement in hosting, tolerating or otherwise co-operating with the terrorists of Hamas. Ynet yesterday published a not-so-comprehensive refutation of the allegations:

Turkey denies harboring Hamas terror command | Ynet, November 28, 2014 | Itamar Eichner | Turkey denied on Friday the claim that Hamas planned terrorist attacks from headquarters in Istanbul. The Shin Bet made the accusation on Thursday, setting off a diplomatic face-off between Israel and Turkey. Turkish sources argued that the Shin Bet's announcement was meant to demonize Turkey and sabotage attempts to mend the countries' diplomatic ties. Israel requested NATO and the American government to take steps against Turkey in response. "It's illogical for a NATO member to host a terrorist organization that trains and plans terror attacks on its soil," said the Israeli statement. Turkish diplomats were enraged by Israel's allegations, calling them "lies and deception... There are elements in Israel who are trying to torpedo the attempts to smooth things out between the two countries and turn a new leaf. They are telling lies, as though Hamas operates in Turkey with the government's knowledge. Turkey has a dialogue with Hamas, but will absolutely not allow any terror organization to operate on its soil."

Had Ynet quoted Turkish names or Turkish titles, the broad, but entirely non-specific, Turkish statements might have had some persuasive value. But they did not. It's simply "Turkey denied" and "diplomats said". So we went looking elsewhere.

So far, the only article we have found (Turkish, but published in English) is from the website of the Turkish newspaper, Daily Sabah. It published the denials of Turkish involvement with the busted Hamas gang ["Top Hamas Official Denies Israel's Claims of Hamas Fighters Trained in Turkey", November 2, 2014], by interviewing a person it oddly sees as a credible source: Osama Hamdan, the man who runs Hamas operations in Lebanon. The 'unimpeachable' Hamdan clears things up by saying (direct quote):

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Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work as well as a big vote to follow our good friend Kay Wilson on Twitter
.

The Continuing Saga of the British Royals, Arabs, and Israel

...There are really only three logical explanations. The first is that the British royals only like to visit royals, and try to stay away from republics. But Prince Charles has visited Egypt time after time, so there goes that theory...

Elliott Abrams..
Pressure Points..
27 November '14..

The bizarre story of the refusal of British royals to visit Israel, while they are constantly in the Arab world, continues.

I wrote about this phenomenon here, last February, when Prince Charles visited Saudi Arabia. As I noted then, the Queen has never set foot in Israel and Prince Charles set foot there briefly only once, for the Rabin funeral.

By contrast, in just the month of November 2014 we found Prince Andrew and Prince Harry at what the Foreign Office must have considered a diplomatic necessity: the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Prince Andrew also visited Saudi Arabia (at the request of the Foreign Office, it was announced).

And Prince Harry also visited Oman. Now with all due respect, Oman is a country of 3.6 million people with a GDP of $80 billion. Israel is a country of 8 million people with a GDP of about $300 billion. No point in laboring the comparison, but one might add that Prince Charles visited Oman in 2013 and the Queen herself visited there in 2010.

Saturday, November 29, 2014

(Video) Ambassador Prosor addresses UNGA debate on the Question of Palestine

"Today’s debate is not about speaking for peace or speaking for the Palestinian people – it is about speaking against Israel."

IsraelinUN..
25 Nov '14..
H/T Kay..


Ambassador Prosor's remarks at the UN General Assembly as part of the international day of solidarity with the Palestinian People debate. This debate commemorates the UN's Partition Plan for Palestine, and results in numerous anti-Israel resolutions.



Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1--Os_apR0&feature=youtu.be

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work as well as a big vote to follow our good friend Kay Wilson on Twitter
.

Friday, November 28, 2014

The European Union Encouragement of and Involvement in Illegal Building in Area C

...Between the lines, the hypocrisy of the European Union is exposed, blaming Israel for taking unilateral steps, whilst simultaneously being directly, deeply and heavily involved in illegal and unilateral activity to the benefit of the Palestinian Authority.

Regavim..
regavim.org.il/
November '14..

Over many years, the Palestinian Authority (PA) has benefitted from the virtually unqualified support of the European Union. Unqualified in its automatic siding with the PA and against Israel on diplomatic issues, and unqualified in its financial support and regular donations amounting to hundreds of millions of Euros annually. In recent years, European support has moved from passive diplomatic and financial assistance to a situation of active cooperation in illegal building which the Palestinian Authority has been advancing unilaterally since 2009, as part of its strategic plan to create a Palestinian state de facto, while avoiding the need for negotiations with Israel.

One of the central goals of this plan is the development of building initiatives specifically in Area C, (which is defined by the Oslo Accords as under full Israeli control) with the intent of chipping away at this area bit by bit, and thus creating a strip of territory between the area of Hebron, Samaria, and Jericho. This strip would endanger the security of the State of Israel and its ability to defend itself within defensible borders.

A basic ambivalence over the nation’s very identity?

...Mahmoud Abbas is required to acknowledge that Israel is a Jewish state. He refuses to do so, thus underlining his aim to destroy it. So why are the Israeli opponents of this measure adopting precisely the same position? The answer is that despite their protestations, such opponents are profoundly ambivalent about the Jewish nature of the State of Israel – and none are more ambivalent than the lawyers. With universalism now the religion of the human-rights obsessed judiciary, the very idea of the Jewishness of the state is deeply problematic to them.

Melanie Phillips..
As I See It/JPost..
27 November '14..

The tremendous row over the proposal of a “Jewish nation-state” basic law is ridiculously overblown and politically driven. It also goes to the heart of the most fundamental and toxic division in Israeli society – over the nation’s very identity.

The text of this bill, which the political parties are currently hammering out from various alternative drafts for presentation to the Knesset, would enshrine in a constitutional basic law Israel’s identity as a Jewish state.

Earlier this week, the issue detonated a political explosion when Tzipi Livni and Yair Lapid threatened to bring down the coalition over what they said was the measure’s attack on Israel’s democratic character. The enemies of Israel from within and without, delighted to have yet another stick with which to beat the beleaguered country still further, duly wielded it with glee.

A number of distinguished legal figures, however, also leapt to denounce the measure.

Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein said certain aspects would lead to a “deterioration of the democratic characteristic of the state.”

Prof. Mordechai Kremnitzer and Attorney Amir Fuchs of the Israel Democracy Institute said: “It shifts the democratic element from the center to the far margins. In other words, it would amount to a veritable revolution that would alter fundamentally the constitutional regime that has existed in the State of Israel since its founding.”

Really? How can that possibly be the case? The proposed bill would not supersede or contradict in any way the basic law that already exists guaranteeing equal civil and political rights.

Kremnitzer and Fuchs say the measure does not in itself recognize democratic rights and therefore downgrades them. But it is understood that the bill currently being prepared will include a number of principles endorsed by the prime minister, including the following statement: “The State of Israel is a democratic state, established on the foundations of liberty, justice and peace envisioned by the prophets of Israel, and which fulfills the personal rights of all its citizens, under law.”

It would affirm the right to “the preservation of one’s culture, heritage, language and identity” for “every resident of Israel, irrespective of their religion, race or ethnicity.”

The one and only thing it would reserve for the Jewish people alone is “the right to express national self-determination within the State of Israel.” That, after all, is the meaning of a Jewish state.

Moreover, the suggestion that such an affirmation in law is revolutionary or divisive plays fast and loose with history. A previous version of this law, crafted by the former intelligence chief and centrist politician Avi Dichter, was backed by 40 Knesset members including 20 from Tzipi Livni’s own previous Kadima party.

And a commitment to bring forward such a law was part of the coalition agreement.

This row is based on a number of fundamental confusions. The first is between Israel’s national identity and the form of government it chooses to employ. Israel is a Jewish state because the Jews are a nation and Israel is the nation-state of the Jews alone. That does not mean that Israelis who are not Jews cannot enjoy equal civil and religious rights.

Israel is also their country, for sure; but it is not – indeed, cannot be by definition – their nation-state.

Indeed, this distinction goes back to the foundational document of Israel’s creation, the 1917 Balfour Declaration, which in stating that nothing should endanger the “civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities” deliberately omitted political rights because this was specifically to be the homeland by right of the Jews alone.

Ah, say Kremnitzer and Fuchs, but the proposed bill does not confer any collective rights on non-Jews and so therefore denies the Arabs their democratic rights. But this is an extraordinary claim. Giving Arabs collective rights would mean that they could break Israel apart – for example, if the Arabs of the Galilee or the Negev were to choose to secede – or else turn Israel into a binational state. In other words, destroy it as the Jewish homeland.

And there are many who want to do precisely that. Such existential annihilation is precisely what the global delegitimization campaign being waged so devastatingly against Israel aims to achieve.

But like many of the proposed bill’s most bitter critics, Kremnitzer and Fuchs state: “It goes without saying that we agree that Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people.”

Well if that is the case, why are they dead set against enshrining it in a basic law? They say it simply doesn’t need to be repeated. But why should repeating it present such a problem? Mahmoud Abbas is required to acknowledge that Israel is a Jewish state. He refuses to do so, thus underlining his aim to destroy it.

When extremists trust that time is on their side

...The radical Islamic focus on Israel serves as an easy rallying point for the masses in the Middle East and Europe; however, the goal of jihad for many Muslims extends beyond eliminating or subjugating Israeli Jews.


Mitchell Bard..
Gatestone Institute..
25 November '14..

What makes negotiations with Iran, ISIS, Hamas or any other Islamist group impossible is that their leaders believe they are acting according to the immutable word of God. America, Israel, other Muslims with whom they disagree, cannot do anything to satisfy them except "submit" (the Arabic word "Islam" means "submission"). As Egyptian cleric Muhammad Hussein Ya'qub said in a televised sermon in 2009, "If the Jews left Palestine to us, would we start loving them? Of course not. The Jews are infidels not because I say so but because Allah does... They aren't our enemies because they occupy Palestine; they would be our enemies even if they had not occupied anything."

Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad and other terror groups do not conceal their intentions. The Hamas covenant explicitly calls for Israel's destruction and does not distinguish between Israelis and Jews:

Our struggle against the Jews is very great and very serious... It strives to raise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine... It is one of the links in the chain of the struggle against the Zionist invaders...

The Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him salvation, has said: "The Day of Judgment will not come about until Muslims fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say, 'O Muslims, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him'".... There is no solution for the Palestine question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors. Palestine is an Islamic land.

Regrettably, this is why "solving the conflict with the Palestinians," or even recognizing a Palestinian State, will not bring peace and tranquility to the Middle East.

The radical Islamic focus on Israel serves as an easy rallying point for the masses in the Middle East and Europe; however, the goal of jihad for many Muslims extends beyond eliminating or subjugating Israeli Jews. According to caliph 'Umar ibn al-Khattab, any land previously occupied by Muslims cannot be surrendered. No single Arab regime -- or number of regimes acting together -- has the right to break this trust and give up any of this land, whether in Israel or Spain (Al-Andalus). Reconquering the lands is considered a solemn religious duty, but the obligation does not stop there; as an ISIS recruiter told Der Spiegel, the Koran says that one should kill or expel unbelievers wherever one finds them.

Thursday, November 27, 2014

When "the killing of Jews now transcends all other considerations."

...The Arabs’ failure to annihilate newborn Israel, and their follow-up masquerade as downtrodden innocents, made it desirable to omit from the memories of willingly bamboozled world-opinion and mercilessly indoctrinated Arab masses what happened 67 years ago on the outskirts of mundane Petach Tikva – in the very center of the Jewish heartland, right at home, hardly in a distant usurping empire. That was when Arabs by their own conscious decision set off what they now bewail as their Nakba – the catastrophe that left many of them dispossessed and Israel sovereign and resilient beyond even its founders’ dreams.

Sir Alexander Cadogan:
 “the killing of Jews now
transcends all other
considerations.”
Sarah Honig..
Another Tack..
26 November '14..

The 67th anniversary tomorrow of the UN General Assembly’s Partition Resolution is intrinsically relevant to the recent decisions by several European parliaments and Sweden’s new leftwing government to recognize a State of Palestine. The UN Resolution of November 29, 1947 underscores the bias and hubris of the international community’s preachers-cum-omniscients.

Stockholm’s world-affairs neophytes – newly-elected Prime Minister Stefan Lofven and his foreign minister Margot Wallström – have ostensibly taken it upon themselves to educate us Israelis about our existential predicaments. It’s a safe bet they don’t care to know about pivotal UN Resolution 181.

We could regard their move as a self-serving attempt to curry favor with Sweden’s growing Muslim electorate. But we’ll be charitable and assume that it all springs from their misguided acceptance of the bogus axiom that a Palestinian state had existed from time immemorial and that it was cruelly overrun in an act of unprovoked aggression by Israel on June 5, 1967.

Ever since, it’s alleged, the state of Palestine had been under occupation. In other words, Israel had violently extinguished Palestine’s flourishing sovereignty. This is today’s self-evident, universally worshiped gospel. No substantiation thereof is necessary and any deviation therefrom is sacrilege.

Truth is strictly taboo, lest it expose the fraudulence of the entire premise. No one wants to know that there never-ever was a Palestinian state – not in all annals of mankind. There are advantages to deception, especially when it yields realpolitik perks. Thus the dysfunctional family of nations is more than happy to clasp to its selectively loving bosom another fictitious Arab addition.

This is where Resolution 181 becomes the vital touchstone. It goes right to the very heart of the conflict between Jews and Arabs – a conflict which had long predated Israel’s birth. This conflict isn’t and never was about a Palestinian state.

There would have been no strife were the establishment of such a state the ultimate objective of the Arab world. A Palestinian Arab state could have been declared independent in keeping with Resolution 181 – together with Israel – but no Arab would hear of it.

In Early November 30, 1947, a mere few hours after the resolution was adopted, embryonic Israel was thrust against its will into its War of Independence.

Initially November 30th couldn’t be differentiated from what preceded it – unprovoked Arab attacks on Jews wherever they could be ambushed, which was mostly on the roads (an Arab penchant well into the 21st Century). Moreover, by the 1949 Armistice there would be over 6000 Jewish dead, a full one-percent of the fledgling state’s beleaguered population.

And that wasn’t all. The blood-letting continued on-and-off during all ensuing decades. The greatest escalation was triggered by the 1993 “threat of peace” – by what false prophets, led by Shimon Peres, promised us was the dawning of the blissful Osloite era.

Peace victims,” as then-premier Yitzhak Rabin depicted them in his inimitable Orwellian Newspeak, are still being offered on the altar of an accommodation which hinges on the establishment of a Palestinian state – the very state which the Arab world rejected with vehement violence in 1947.

The Arabs’ failure to annihilate newborn Israel, and their follow-up masquerade as downtrodden innocents, made it desirable to omit from the memories of willingly bamboozled world-opinion and mercilessly indoctrinated Arab masses what happened 67 years ago on the outskirts of mundane Petach Tikva – in the very center of the Jewish heartland, right at home, hardly in a distant usurping empire.

That was when Arabs by their own conscious decision set off what they now bewail as their Nakba – the catastrophe that left many of them dispossessed and Israel sovereign and resilient beyond even its founders’ dreams.

Be alert when things are said about terror from both sides of one mouth

...The latest phase in this peekaboo now-you-see-it-now-you-don't performance by Abbas' government comes with a PA TV program on Tuesday that declares the axe men of the Har Nof synagogue killings as heroes for the cause, referring to "the death of 2 Palestinians as martyrs from occupation police fire", conveniently and despicably ignoring the knives, axes and guns in the hands of the two Abu Jamals as they launched a ferocious attack on unarmed men at prayer.

Frimet/Arnold Roth..
This Ongoing War..
26 November '14..

Even in an Internet-rich age, television continues to strongly influence what we know and think. And in places where access to a range of varying ideas and opinions is greatly limited, its role is even larger. The villages, towns and cities of the Palestinian Authority are a good example.

Here's a video clip (translated to English by the invaluable Palestinian Media Watch team) from their version of Good Morning, America (and Good Morning Australia, and Good Morning Tanganyika etc), the typical sort of light-hearted fare that people watch while grabbing some breakfast and heading out to face the day and its challenges. Only it's light-hearted in a very specific way that prevails in places where the values of terror and its attractions have become central to the way ordinary lives are lived.



The presenter in this show is Mai Abu Asab. Her program goes to air every Friday (weekend) morning under the name Good Morning Jerusalem. If we were fed a daily diet of this sort of messaging, we might not have the views about hatred, racism and terror that we do; many other rational and emotionally healthy people might react like us.

The channel is the one owned, operated and marketed by the government that runs the Palestinian Authority. The PA is the terror-friendly regime headed by Mahmoud Abbas, currently in the tenth year of his four-year presidential term. Abbas has our attention this week because of his gymnastic approach to juggling his public views on terror: unreservedly against it in English and strongly for it in Arabic.

(Continue)

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work as well as a big vote to follow our good friend Kay Wilson on Twitter
.

We are home. We are staying. We're not going away.

...Israel is not just a “Jewish refuge,” that’s too defensive. Israel is a Jewish opportunity, a Zionist laboratory, a great human adventure. We are writing a glorious new chapter in Jewish history here, in today’s greatest collective Jewish people project...We respond to Palestinian nihilism with Zionist idealism. We answer Palestinian-imposed death with Jewish –and Israeli -- life.

Gil Troy..
Center Field/JPost..
26 November '14..

e Palestinian movement’s self-destructive streak continues. A week after the barbaric butchering of Jews praying in Har Nof, we can already declare: their terrorism failed. These nihilists mistake our tears as signs of weakness. But these tears energize us. The Palestinians and their collaborators worldwide should have learned by now: We are home. We are staying. We are not going away.

Note, during the massacre, many people, including the 30-year-old Druze policeman, Zidan Saif, ran toward danger to save others, not away from it to save themselves. Such selflessness reflects a vibrant community terrorists cannot terrorize.

The ugly slaughter united Israel in love. One of the 25 orphaned by the attack, Michal Levine, the daughter of Rabbi Kalman Levine, told Arutz Sheva that while flying home from Miami, strangers comforted her: “a Chabad rabbi and a leftist couple from Israel. They cried together with me.” Palestinian terrorists foster this sweet, primal communal unity, even if Israelis sometimes forget it amid passionate political debates.

Zionist resilience repudiating anti-Zionist evil is an old story. When terrorists killed his teenage cousin in 2001, Rabbi Yehoshua Fass moved to Israel – establishing Nefesh b’Nefesh which has helped over 40,000 people move since. That’s Zionist math – we overcompensate for each tragedy exponentially. Every act of terror unifies Israelis and reinforces Zionism’s mission. Each death, each injury, makes a Palestinian state less likely and the Jewish state stronger.

We are home. Israel is the Jewish people’s homeland. The link is deep and enduring, meaningful and nourishing, multi-dimensional and mutually reinforcing.

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Israeli Arabs Prefer Israel to Palestinian Authority. Where's the Coverage?

...Smooha points out that his own annual opinion survey, the Index of Arab-Jewish Relations in Israel (based on a random representative sample of 700 face-to-face interviews of those 18 and up, taken in fall 2013), shows that 63.5% of Arabs said Israel is a good place to live. It also found that only 20.9% of the Arabs are willing to move to a Palestinian state. These facts seem to undermine the popular media narrative. Is that the reason we’re forced to ask… Where’s the coverage?

Sarit Catz..
CAMERA/Snapshots..
25 November '14..

The mainstream media relishes reporting on a proposed bill being debated in Israel that would identify the Jewish state as the nation-state of the Jewish people. News outlets are falling over themselves to quote the bill’s critics and Israel’s critics, regurgitating the tired accusations about Israel’s broken or failing or stained democracy and how anti-Arab and racist Israel must be.

But, they are utterly silent about a new poll released by Israel’s Channel 10 News and conducted by the Statnet Research Institute, headed by Israeli Arab statistician Yousef Makladeh. Israel Today reports:

Makladeh asked fellow Arabs plainly and clearly: "Under which authority do you prefer to live, Israel or the Palestinian Authority?"

A full 77 percent of respondents chose Israel.

The vast majority – over three quarters – of Israeli Arabs prefer to live under the “racist” “apartheid regime” of Israel rather than under the Palestinian Authority.

Misunderstanding Democracy and the Police Commandant

Excellent question. Will he resign or be forced to do so?

Police Insp.-Gen. Yohanan Danino
Yisrael Medad..
My Right Word..
25 November '14..




The 'wisdom' of a police officer, the most senior in the force:

It's a mistake to allow right-wing MKs on Temple Mount, Police Chief Danino says

“Anyone who wants to change the status quo on the Temple Mount should not be allowed up there,” Police Insp.-Gen. Yohanan Danino said Tuesday, criticizing Attorney General Yehudah Weinstein for enabling right-wing politicians to incite Arab unrest by visiting the disputed holy site.


...Citing an “extreme right-wing agenda to change the status quo on the Temple Mount,” Danino made his position clear: “We say leave the Temple Mount alone.”

The police chief, whose force has been beleaguered by months of rioting and terrorist attacks, added that declarations by politicians, such as Moshe Feiglin, to change current policy does little more than incite the “Muslim world.”

First, he clashes with another government official.

Second, he misunderstands democracy.

How and Why UNRWA Perpetuates the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

...Promoting hate is not incidental to UNRWA’s mission. It is UNRWA’s mission. This suggests it values neither Jewish life nor Palestinian life, and it certainly doesn’t believe Palestinians are entitled to a dignified existence. Why would Hamas weapons show up at an UNRWA school? Why wouldn’t they show up there? Where else would be more appropriate?

Seth Mandel..
Commentary Magazine..
25 November '14..

Part of the coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is pretending to hold actors and institutions involved to a higher set of expectations than experience would dictate. Over the course of last summer’s war between Hamas in Gaza and the Israel Defense Forces, this meant propagating the idea that it was in any way shocking when the terrorist organization’s weapons–stockpiled for the express purpose of killing Jews in a maniacal, genocidal campaign–turned up, repeatedly, at schools run by UNRWA: the UN agency dedicated to keeping Palestinians living like refugees in perpetuity.

So now it’s unclear precisely how to react to a raft of stories demonstrating the reason it wasn’t surprising to find Hamas weapons in UNRWA schools: because UNRWA teachers and principles share Hamas’s violently anti-Semitic ideology. Yet in fact this is newsworthy, for an important reason beyond the obvious. First, though, it’s instructive to see just what American taxpayers are getting for their UNRWA money.

On November 20, after the Har Nof massacre in which Palestinian terrorists murdered four rabbis in a Jerusalem synagogue, the Algemeiner reported:

Popular Jewish blogger Elder of Ziyon has amassed evidence of UNRWA employees lauding the Jerusalem attack, among them Maha al Mosa, an UNRWA teacher in Syria who prayed for the two terrorists to be accepted in “paradise” as “martyrs,” Ibrahim Hajjar, another teacher based in Hebron, who published a poem praising the terrorists, and another Syrian-based teacher who, using a pseudonym, posted a celebratory picture of Adolf Hitler on his Facebook page.

The latest outrage centers on Naief al-Hattab, school director of UNRWA’s Zaitoun Elementary School Boys “B” and former school headmaster of Shijia Elementary School Boys “A” for Refugees. Writing on his Facebook page, al-Hattab congratulated the terrorists on their “wonderful revenge.” Al-Hattab, who shook hands with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon on his visit to Gaza in October, has previously posted inflammatory statements and images, among them one of a young child brandishing a sub-machine gun. It is not clear whether this child is related to al-Hattab, or whether he attends the Zaitoun Elementary School which al-Hattab runs.

Elder of Ziyon followed up with two more posts, the latest one coming today, on an UNRWA teachers group posting various jihadist media and anti-Israel incitement. And that brings us to the reason UNRWA’s exploits are important. We already know what UNRWA does; it exists to perpetuate Palestinian poverty and statelessness while pocketing American taxpayer cash. It’s a scam, but at this point it’s certainly no secret.

But these latest stories are good examples of why UNRWA does what it does. The organization keeps Palestinians mired in desperation because they agree with the Hamas struggle to eliminate Israel. And the UNRWA schools are where they can exert the utmost control over Palestinian minds, shaping them to abhor the Jewish people and to value bigotry and terrorism over education and productive job training.

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

The ghosts of ethnic cleansing are still very much with us

...Nazism had a great following in the Arab world and influenced reactionary movements, such as the Muslim Brotherhood, founded in 1928. Arab collaborators with the Nazis, such as the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, were never tried for war crimes in 1945. Instead, antisemitism in Arab states, much of it using Nazi tropes and memes, has soared to stratospheric heights. The ghosts of Nazi-inspired genocide and ethnic cleansing are still with us. The victims are still the same victims: the Jews and their state, heretical Muslims, Kurds, non-Muslim minorities. We can begin to exorcise these ghosts by learning about past wrongs – beginning on 30 November.

Lyn Julius..
Times of Israel..
25 November '14..

On 30 November, schools, ministries and organisations in Israel and worldwide will be marking a new day in the calendar — a day to remember the flight of Jewish refugees from Arab countries and the destruction of their ancient communities.

It is often said that these Jews paid the price for the creation of Israel. In revenge for the mass exodus of Palestinian Arab refugees, Arab mobs and governments turned on their defenceless Jewish citizens. But in truth, there is sound evidence that even before the establishment of Israel, and before the great mass of Arab refugees had fled, Arab governments were conspiring to victimise their Jews and dispossess them of their land and property.

This week, 67 years ago, saw anti-Jewish tensions reach new highs in Palestine and the Arab world as Arab delegates ramped up their rhetoric at the UN, which was due to vote on the Partition of Palestine.

According to UN records the Egyptian delegate, Heykal Pasha, was already warning on 24 November 1947 about the consequences of establishing a Jewish state in Palestine:

“the United Nations…should not lose sight of the fact that the proposed solution might endanger a million Jews living in Muslim countries…creating anti-Semitism in those countries even more difficult to root out than the anti-Semitism which the Allies tried to eradicate in Germany…making the UN…responsible for very grave disorders and for the massacre of a large number of Jews.”

Heykal Pasha’s words were prefaced with talk of ‘massacre’ ‘riots’ and ‘war between two races’. According to Yaakov Meron, Pasha’ s threats were not confined to Egypt but repeatedly mentioned Jews in other Muslim countries. They were not uttered on the intiative of Egypt but were ‘the outcome of prior coordination between Arab states then represented at the UN and the Arab league.”

The Palestinian delegate, Jamal Al-Hussayni, said the Jews’ situation in the Arab world “will become very precarious. Governments in general have always been unable to prevent mob excitement and violence.”

Syrian UN representative Faris Al-Khuri is quoted in the New York Times as far back as 19 February 1947 stating that: “Unless the Palestinian problem is settled, we shall have difficulty in protecting the Jews in the Arab world.”

A Jewish publication reported: “With the entire Arabic press fulminating against the perfidy of Zionism, and with Arab politicians rousing their underfed and enervated masses to a dangerous pitch of hysteria, the threats were certainly not empty.”

Once More, The Temple Mount is the Heart of the Matter

Make no mistake. This is the Palestinian strategic plan. The biggest mistake we can make is to ignore, to diminish it or deny it. What we need now is clear eyed leadership that understands that the Temple Mount has become the crucible in which the future of Jerusalem and Israel will be shaped. We must not shirk our history and we cannot endanger our future. We must rise to the challenge.

Matan Peleg/Douglas Altabef..
israelnationalnews.com..
24 November '14..




In Jewish tradition, the Temple Mount, Har Habayit, is uniquely holy, special and significant.

Not only the site of the site of the First and Second Temples, the Mount, Mount Moriah, is considered to be the site of where Abraham sacrificed Isaac, Jacob dreamed of the ladder ascending to heaven, and in some interpretations, the site of Gan Eden itself.

And while our political leaders are eager to mute its significance, our adversaries have correctly perceived its importance. In true supersecessionist fashion, they have raised the Temple Mount as an existential issue in the form of mythical threats to the Al Aqsa mosque.

Al Aqsa occupies a corner of the Mount, part of the Herodian extension of the plateau, not considered to be of any significant stature by Jews, and frankly, a place of zero interest to us.

However, employing the classic meme of bogeyman-like threats to it, anti-Israel forces from within and from without Israel, have found in Al Aqsa, the all-encompassing grievance and the great rallying cry for attacking Israel and any Jew that happens to be in it.

Once again the Arabs have hauled out the Big Lie, the threats to Al Aqsa, and the accusations of Judaizing the Temple Mount, which in turn reflect the Great Projection: their own deep-seated desire to throw us off the Mount,

Throwing Jews off the Mount by screaming about what we are supposedly doing to them (which of course is what they clearly want to do to us) is part of the crucial battle for the control of Jerusalem, and by extension all of Israel.

Our enemies rightfully appreciate that if we surrender on that which is most important to us, we will eventually surrender on everything else.

This is no mere turf war disagreement, nor a dispute about a modus vivendus for shared sacred space. Rather, the Temple Mount is for our adversaries the symbol of religious sovereignty, and by extension political sovereignty.

Never ones to use nuance or subtlety or even to be dissuaded by the facts, our adversaries have been admirably “on message:” Jews are trying to destroy Al Aqsa, Jews are trying to rid us of their connection to the Mount, Jews are trying to Judaize Jerusalem starting right here on the Temple Mount.

The hope and the expectation is that the world will rally to their cause, and that their insistence, backed by horrific violence, will intimidate Israelis into placating them by ceding Jewish rights and the time immemorial Jewish connection to the Mount.

When destroying their own children's lives may even be the best option in their eyes

...The nausea-inducing Palestinian Arab leadership's disregard of the welfare of their own people's children is hardly a new phenomenon. Most people have heard of the famous epigram attributed to the late prime minister of Israel, Golda Meir, who said to the National Press Club in Washington nearly sixty years ago: Peace will come only when the Arabs love their children more than they hate ours. Too true then, even more strikingly true today. So many decades; so little advancement.

Frimet/Arnold Roth..
This Ongoing War..
25 November '14..

Khaled Abu Toameh, writing for the Gatestone Institute today, reviews the unsatisfied list of demands the jihadists of Hamas have made in the three months since the latest phase of their ongoing war with Israel segued into a ceasefire, explains why they are not going to get what they want, and predicts a bad outcome:

The only option Hamas faces, therefore, is to attack Israel again as a way of ridding itself of the severe crisis in the Gaza Strip and the growing frustration among Palestinians living there. Hamas's biggest fear is that this frustration will be translated into disillusionment with its regime. That is why Hamas is now seeking to direct the anger on the Palestinian street toward Israel...

Hamas is now talking about an imminent "explosion" against Israel if the promises to rebuild Gaza are not fulfilled. Some Hamas representatives even have the audacity to hold Israel fully responsible for hindering the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip...

Hamas's threats against Israel should be taken seriously, especially in light of reports that the movement is continuing to prepare for another war. Hamas not only continues to dig tunnels under the border with Israel [as we wrote here: "23-Nov-14: Gaza's wealth and where it is - and is not - going"]; it has also been test-firing rockets into the Mediterranean Sea...

Hamas does not have much left to lose in another military confrontation with Israel. The killing of a few hundred more Palestinians in the Gaza Strip will allow Hamas to shift attention from its failure to rebuild the Gaza Strip to blaming Israel for "waging another war" on the Palestinians...

Hamas is also hoping that another war will further increase anti-Israel sentiment around the world and earn the Palestinians even more sympathy.

Hamas continues to funnel jihad-centric hatred into the heads, hearts and blood stream of Gaza's children ensuring a steady stream of willing cannon fodder. Of all the options open to the Gazan regime, the one that focuses on the well-being, safety and health of their people, and especially their children, comes stone, motherless last. Bottom of the list. Not worthy of serious consideration.

(Continue)

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work as well as a big vote to follow our good friend Kay Wilson on Twitter
.

The Driving Engine of Israeli-Palestinian Conflict - Sunni Political Islam

...Arab Sunni Muslim identity, by contrast, is one predicated on triumph and conquest as the natural state of affairs, now accompanied by the humiliating, bewildering current state of failure and subjection. Hence the enormous, murderous rage at the present state of defeat to a people seen as naturally subordinate: the Jews. Hence the absolute refusal to accept history's apparent verdict, and the latest furious attempt to dislodge the enemy.

"What must not happen is that this political
conflict becomes a religious conflict,
" German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter
Steinmeier warned last week.
Jonathan Spyer..
Middle East Forum/PJMedia..
22 November '14..

An oft-repeated sentiment currently doing the rounds in discussions of the Israeli-Palestinian issue is that it is imperative that the conflict not become a "religious" one. This sentiment, guaranteed to set heads nodding in polite, liberal company, stands out even within the very crowded and competitive field of ridiculous expressions of historical ignorance found in discussion of the Israeli-Palestinian issue.

This sentiment is connected to the recent wave of terror attacks in Jerusalem, which are the result of Palestinian claims that Israel is seeking to alter the "status quo" at the Temple Mount. As this theory goes, up until now this conflict had mainly been about competing claims of land ownership and sovereignty, but it is now in danger of becoming about "religion," and hence turning even more intractable. So this must be prevented.

In objective reality, the conflict between Jews and Arab Muslims over the land area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea has been, from its very outset, inseparable from "religion."

On the Arab/Palestinian/Muslim side, recent events in the Levant (specifically in Syria and Iraq) ought to have taught us just how very flimsy and contingent the supposed "secular, national" identities of the local populations are. Both these identities have now largely been eclipsed, replaced by sectarian, ethnic, and religious markers of loyalty. As Professor Mordechai Kedar pointed out in a recent article, there is no reason to think that a "Palestinian" national identity is any stronger or more durable than either of these neighboring constructs.

This does not mean, of course, that the Arabic-speaking population of the area is not mobilized for struggle. The events of recent days suggest a murderous commitment to the fight. The engine for this commitment, however, is a religious one.

The engine is the determination to prevent the Jews from in any way, be it ever so minor, infringing on the situation of de facto Arab Muslim domination of the Temple Mount/ Haram al-Sharif area. This commitment is not a new development; it has in fact been the driving force of the conflict throughout.

The very first major instances of Arab Muslim violence against Jews in the 20th century were related to this self-same area. In 1929, it was precisely an attempt by Jews to assert Jewish prayer rights at the Western Wall that led to a furious Arab and Muslim counter-reaction. This reaction led to the slaughter of over one hundred Jews and the destruction of an ancient Jewish community (in Hebron).

The supposed threat to the mosques at the Haram al-Sharif and the alleged desire of the Jews to build the Third Temple continued to form a staple in Arab propaganda against the Zionists in the 1930s and 1940s. This was a time when the nascent Palestinian "national" movement was led by a man holding a position of religious authority: Jerusalem Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini.

This centrality of religion continued to fire the various movements fighting Israel. The very name "Fatah," for example, which is often – absurdly — described as a "secular" movement, is a religious term. "Fatah" is in Arabic a term literally meaning to "open," but is used in context to mean "to conquer a land for Islam."

Monday, November 24, 2014

A matter of more than some importance to not give them the narrative

...Two myths — the existence of a wronged “Palestinian people” and the peaceful intentions of the PLO. They are the received wisdom in most of the world. Why shouldn’t they be? We and most of our leaders don’t dispute it!

Vic Rosenthal..
Abu Yehuda..
24 November '14..
Link: http://abuyehuda.com/2014/11/dont-give-them-the-narrative/

Narrative is everything in information warfare.

If you give your enemy the narrative, then the game is tilted in his favor from the start.

Palestinian Arabs constantly repeat the myth that they are an indigenous people and we stole their land. This is an article of faith in Europe, the UK, American campuses, Tel Aviv coffee houses and the White House.

Our officials act as though they believe this. They offer to ‘return’ land to the ‘Palestinians’ in return for security from their terrorism. They feel guilty about ‘Palestinian refugees’ whose ancestors mostly left to escape a war that they and their allies started and who were kept in refugee camps because the Arab states and (later) the PLO wanted them there to be an army against Israel.

The myth is made-up history. They aren’t indigenous. They are mostly Arabs from Syria, Egypt and other places whose ancestors arrived here in the 19th and 20th centuries. And they would have lost nothing if they and their allies hadn’t waged war against us. We don’t owe them anything.

The PLO pretended to want a peaceful state alongside Israel. Our leaders, again, acted as though the believed this. We brought it back from the dead, gave it a base next door to us, armed and funded it. But it is the same terrorist gang that it was in 1972, when it murdered our athletes in Munich. Thousands of Jews (and not a few Arabs) died because of this monumental stupidity.

Two myths — the existence of a wronged “Palestinian people” and the peaceful intentions of the PLO. They are the received wisdom in most of the world. Why shouldn’t they be? We and most of our leaders don’t dispute it!

Another Hamas Let's Dance Moment: Rebuild Gaza or We'll Attack Israel

...Any Hamas attack on Egypt will undoubtedly draw a very strong response from the Egyptian army -- one that would surely deal a deadly blow to Hamas and its supporters in the Gaza Strip. And Hamas is not going to initiate a crisis with the UN out of fear that such a move would rally the world against the movement and end the international organizations' services and relief work in the Gaza Strip. The only option Hamas faces, therefore, is to attack Israel again as a way of ridding itself of the severe crisis in the Gaza Strip and the growing frustration among Palestinians living there.

Khaled Abu Toameh..
Gatestone Institute..
24 November '14..



Hamas is once again threatening to attack Israel, this time over the failure of the international community and the Palestinian Authority to fulfill their promises to rebuild the Gaza Strip in the aftermath of Operation Protective Edge.

Hamas leaders are particularly angry with the Palestinian Authority [PA] and its president, Mahmoud Abbas, whom they accuse of hindering efforts to rebuild hundreds of destroyed homes in the Gaza Strip.

Hamas is also angry with the Egyptians for closing the Rafah border crossing after a terror attack in Sinai in which 32 Egyptian soldiers were killed.

Moreover, Hamas has rejected the United Nations plan to reconstruct the Gaza Strip on the pretext that it "sidelines" the Islamist movement and allows Israel to decide who would benefit from the work. "The UN plan is unacceptable and ineffective," said Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri.

According to the UN plan, which was announced in September, the PA government will be responsible for repairing damaged homes and public sector projects, while the UN will focus on schools, clinics and "basic utilities.'"

The construction materials intended for the Gaza Strip, according to the plan, would have to be approved by Israeli authorities.

Hamas is opposed to the UN plan mainly because it denies the Islamist organization any role in the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip. Hamas is also worried that the involvement of the Palestinian Authority in the reconstruction effort would undermine Hamas's control over the Gaza Strip, and allow Abbas and his Fatah faction to take credit for helping the Palestinians living there.

Last month, a donor conference in Cairo pledged $5.4 billion for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip.

However, Hamas maintains that since then, the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have not seen any of the promised funds. Hamas has also strongly denied claims by some PA officials that it had asked for 20% of the funds for itself.

The Palestinian Authority envoy to Egypt, Barakat al-Farra, accused Hamas of obstructing the reconstruction drive; he added that the movement was seeking to lay its hands on 20% of the funds earmarked for the Gaza Strip. Hamas, for its part, claims that the PA is seeking to lay its hands on more than half the funds promised by the Cairo donor conference.

Rising tensions between Hamas and Mahmoud Abbas's Palestinian Authority are the real reason why the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip has still not started. These tensions reached their peak with the recent bombings that targeted the homes and vehicles of 15 senior Abbas loyalists in the Gaza Strip. Abbas has held Hamas responsible for the attacks -- a charge that the Islamist movement has strongly denied.

Egypt's decision to close the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip is also responsible for the delay in implementing the reconstruction plan.

Although Hamas has openly accused the PA, UN and Egypt of obstructing the reconstruction scheme, it is now threatening to resume its terror attacks on Israel.

Hamas cannot launch terror attacks against the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank thanks to the presence of the Israel Defense Forces [IDF] there. Hamas will also refrain from doing so to avoid being accused by Palestinians of "destroying national unity." Hamas does not want to be held responsible for Palestinian civil war.

Who cares about rebuilding Gazan lives?

...A strange form of warfare, no? But it tells a reasonable person something about the relative values of the human societies on the two sides.

Kerem Shalom crossing seen from the Israeli
side, August 2014 
More than an ordinary
stream of trucks; a lifeline [
Image Source]
Frimet/Arnold Roth..
This Ongoing War..
23 November '14..

If you have not already seen our post from earlier today (including video) of Hamas trumpeting the tunnels they are busy digging and/or repairing in order to murder more Jews ["23-Nov-14: Gaza's wealth and where it is - and is not - going"], please do that before reading on. It's at the top of the list of messages Hamas is delivering to its captive population and the larger Arabic-speaking world.

Back? OK, so if it's not the thugs of Hamas (and it is surely not), who is taking seriously the need of the Palestinian Arab Gazans for repaired houses and a better life? From the Jerusalem Post:

Under an arrangement reached last month to ensure that building materials needed to rebuild the thousands of homes destroyed in the seven-week Operation Protective Edge are not diverted to build terror tunnels or manufacture rockets, the UN is to present Israeli engineers with construction plans, and the engineers will determine how much cement is needed. That cement then will be allowed into Gaza in stages, to enable inspection to ensure that it is being used for the designated purpose. If it is determined that the cement is being stolen and used for other purposes, the supply will stop. A recent assessment conducted by the UN found that more than 100,000 homes in Gaza remained damaged or destroyed. The first batch of construction materials since the Gaza military operation in the summer entered the Strip from Israel in September... ["25,000 Gazans to get access to construction materials to rebuild homes", jpost.com, November 22, 2014]

Keep in mind the mentality of the parties concerned.

(Continue)

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work as well as a big vote to follow our good friend Kay Wilson on Twitter
.

The Closing of Rafah - A Tale of Two Narratives

...Front page news? “Israel Turns Gaza Into Prison.” UN Security Council resolution? “Urgently demands that the Government of Israel open the passage and permit those needing medical attention to reach doctors and hospitals.” The U.S. State Department? Perhaps it says “We are deeply troubled by the humanitarian dimension and believe the passage should be opened immediately….” Marches and demonstrations in European capitals? “This is Genocide!” signs say. Nope. Because the crossing in question is Rafah crossing, between Gaza and Egypt not Israel, and the country keeping it closed is Egypt.

Elliott Abrams..
Pressure Points..
23 November '14..

Think about this: Israel closes the major crossing point into Gaza. Thousands of Gazans are stranded in other countries and cannot get home. In Gaza a thousand more people, in need of medical treatment outside, cannot get out. They are “suffering from medical problems including kidney failure, cancer and blood-related diseases [and] seek urgent treatment or further diagnosis….” A health ministry official says “If the closure continues, their health conditions will deteriorate and we may start to witness some deaths.”

Another report states that “Officials of the Palestinian Authority say they are growing increasingly resentful….for continuing the closure of the…border crossing…which has now been closed for over a month.” This report says the number of stranded Palestinians is now 3,500, in addition to the thousand inside Gaza who need medical care outside.

Front page news? “Israel Turns Gaza Into Prison.” UN Security Council resolution? “Urgently demands that the Government of Israel open the passage and permit those needing medical attention to reach doctors and hospitals.” The U.S. State Department? Perhaps it says “We are deeply troubled by the humanitarian dimension and believe the passage should be opened immediately….” Marches and demonstrations in European capitals? “This is Genocide!” signs say.

Nope. Because the crossing in question is Rafah crossing, between Gaza and Egypt not Israel, and the country keeping it closed is Egypt. The Palestinians are “resentful,” in that story, about the government of Egypt. The health conditions of the people who are “suffering from medical problems” are suffering because of Egypt.