Should Israel issue visas for people to advocate for the destruction of the country?

...Countries throughout the world issue visas to visit, to work, and other similar activities. There is no country in the world that issues a visa for people to advocate for the destruction of the host country, nor is there any county in the the world that would be expected to let such a person stay after violating the terms of their visa. Quite simply: Israel should be held to the same standards as every other country on Earth.

Daniel Pomerantz..
Honest Reporting..
30 August '16..

Earlier this month, Israel announced a new policy: to deport BDS activists currently in, or attempting to enter, the country.

BDS means “Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions,” and bills itself as a human rights movement with the goal of isolating Israel in the international community. BDS activists strongly criticized the new Israeli policy as “anti-democratic,” “irrational,” and “heightened repression.”

But is any of that true?

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The Palestinian Scouts hero who murdered my father - by Micah Lakin Avni

There is no greater impediment to peace than bringing up children to see murderers of innocent civilians as heroic role models.

Micah Lakin Avni..
Times of Israel..
29 August '16..
Link: http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/the-palestinian-scouts-hero-who-murdered-my-father/




What follows is the text of a letter that I sent to Mr. Scott Teare, Secretary General of the World Organization of the Scout Movement. The WOSM is the umbrella organization for 164 National Scout Organizations, including the Zofim in Israel.

Dear Mr. Teare,

On October 13, 2015, Baha Alyan and an accomplice, boarded public bus number 78 in Jerusalem and committed a heinous terrorist attack. They brutally murdered three innocent civilians, and injured fifteen others. My beloved father, Richard Lakin, was among those murdered. Alyan and his accomplice shot my 76-year-old father in the head, and then, after he fell to the ground, stabbed him multiple times in the head, face, chest and stomach, severing most of his vital organs.

My father was a kind, gentle-hearted man who dedicated his life to education and promoting peaceful coexistence. Generations of scouts passed under his loving wing as principal of Hopewell Elementary School in Glastonbury, Connecticut, USA. In 2007 he published a book called “Teaching as an Act of Love” summarizing his life’s work and educational philosophy. The message of his book is that every child is a miracle that should be nurtured with love.

This week I was shocked to discover that the Palestinian Scout Association (PSA), which six months ago was accepted as a full member in the World Organization of the Scout Movement, is training its scout leaders to see a cold-blooded terrorist murderer as their role model. The PSA leadership training course that started last week is named the “Martyr – Leader Baha Alyan Course,” after the terrorist Alyan who murdered my father. Below is a screen shot of the PSA website showing a picture of the terrorist murderer Alyan in Palestinian Scouts uniform. On the website is an article about the course.

Screen shot from Palestinian Scout Association Website showing terrorist murderer Alyan in Palestinian Scouts uniform in its promo for the “Leader Baha Alyan Course” [Aug. 25, 2016]

Upon further review, I learned that since becoming full members of the World Organization of the Scout Movement, the Palestinian Scout Association leaders have been actively glorifying Alyan as a role model for Palestinian youth. Take for example a March 30, 2016 article in the Official Palestinian Authority daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida on events marking the anniversary of the Jenin Scouts’ club founding. These included an activity to test Scouts’ blood type that was held at the club headquarters under the banner of “Scouting in your way, O [scout] leader Baha [Alyan].” From the article, as translated by Palestinian Media Watch: “The [scout] leader Jamal Fa’our said that the [scout] leader Martyr (Shahid) Baha Alyan is an example for every scout, and noted that Baha died as a Martyr while fulfilling his holy duty.”

Unemployment? All Gazans are Equal, But Some Gazans Are More Equal Than Others

...being shut down for five days in any random year makes hiring the son of a Hamas leader, as a corporate insurance policy, a very good investment.

Elder of Ziyon..
30 August '16..





Palestinian media are reporting that Hazem Ismail Haniyeh got a nice job as a manager of the computer department with Gaza's only mobile phone company, Jawwal, the day after he graduated.

He is the son of....

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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. 

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The NY Times’ concern for the plight of the Palestinians is touching, but... by Ira Stoll

...As the president of Shalem College in Jerusalem, the eminent Middle East scholar Martin Kramer, wrote on his Facebook page about the Times editorial: “I’m betting that in Riyadh, Abu Dhabi, Cairo, Jerusalem, and even Ramallah, nobody cares what the cranky Gray Lady of Manhattan mumbles. And really, why should they?” It’s a good question.

Ira Stoll..
Algemeiner.com..
30 August '16..
Link: http://www.algemeiner.com/2016/08/30/cranky-new-york-times-editorialists-fester-over-palestinian-grievances-amid-warming-israeli-arab-regional-ties/

With a presidential election underway, along with a genocide in Syria involving the use of chemical weapons, the New York Times chooses to devote the choice real estate of its lead Sunday editorialto, of all things, the warming ties between Israel and Sunni Arab countries like Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

Fine. Maybe the Times wants to cheer the good news of warming relations between Jerusalem, Cairo and Riyadh? Alas, not exactly. Instead, the newspaper is sounding the alarm. The last sentence of the first paragraph of the editorial warns that the improved relations “could also leave the Palestinians in the dust, a worrisome prospect.”

The newspaper returns to that theme in the editorial’s conclusion: “The danger is that these countries will find more value in mending ties with each other and stop there, thus allowing Palestinian grievances, a source of regional tension for decades, to continue to fester.”

For the Times, it seems, it always comes down to what’s best for the Palestinian Arabs.

As the president of Shalem College in Jerusalem, the eminent Middle East scholar Martin Kramer, wrote on his Facebook page about the Times editorial: “I’m betting that in Riyadh, Abu Dhabi, Cairo, Jerusalem, and even Ramallah, nobody cares what the cranky Gray Lady of Manhattan mumbles. And really, why should they?”

It’s a good question.

When the Media Disregards Rule of Law For Palestinian “Human Rights” Narrative

...what’s more compelling – the dry legal case and the status of Area C, under full Israeli civil and military control as agreed under the Oslo process, or a story of Israeli soldiers and settlers evicting poor Bedouin farmers from their homes. Unfortunately we already know the answer. That doesn’t, however, make it right.

Simon Plosker..
Honest Reporting..
30 August '16..

Nothing fits the media framing of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict better than supposedly impoverished Palestinians defending their homes and property from IDF bulldozers sent to clear them out of “their lands.” Add a neighboring Jewish settlement to the mix, some criticism from the international community and you get the perfect storm.

Even armed with facts to back up its case, Israel can almost never win in the eyes of the media where emotional impact always trumps cold, hard facts. So a photo of an elderly Palestinian woman or a small child standing next to the rubble of what they claimed to be their home will always take priority over an Israeli court document rendering that home as illegally built.

In every respect, the framework and language of “human rights” beats the rule of law. And if you believe that Israel’s control over any part of Judea and Samaria/ the West Bank is illegal or illegitimate then the rule of law becomes an irrelevance.

The Palestinians and so-called human rights organizations know the impact of negative publicity for Israel and the damage that can be inflicted through stories such as that of the Palestinian village of Susiya as featured in the Washington Post and an op-ed from a UN official in The Guardian.

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The only relevant question today, is what does Israel intend to do next? - by Caroline Glick

16 years after the failed Camp David summit, the fiction of the two-state solution is about to be shattered once and for all. 

Caroline Glick..
Our World/JPost..
29 August '16..
Link: http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Our-world-The-end-of-Mahmoud-Abbas-466366





Like it or not, the day is fast approaching when the Palestinian Authority we have known for the past 22 years will cease to exist.

PA leader Mahmoud Abbas’s US-trained Palestinian security forces have lost control over the Palestinians cities in Judea and Samaria. His EU- and US-funded bureaucracies are about to lose control over the local governments to Hamas. And his Fatah militias have turned against him.

Palestinian affairs experts Pinchas Inbari of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and Khaled Abu Toameh of the Gatestone Institute have in recent weeks reported in detail about the insurrection of Fatah militias and tribal leaders against Abbas’s PA.

In Nablus, Fatah terrorist cells are in open rebellion against PA security forces. Since August 18, Fatah cells have repeatedly engaged PA forces in lethal exchanges, and according to Inbari, the town is now in a state of “total anarchy.”

In Hebron, tribal leaders, more or less dormant for the past 20 years, are regenerating a tribal alliance as a means of bypassing the PA, which no longer represents them. Their first major action to date was to send a delegation of tribal leaders to meet with King Abdullah of Jordan.

Even in Ramallah, the seat of Abbas’s power, the PA is losing ground to EU-funded NGOs that seek to limit the PA’s economic control over the groups and their operations.

All of this fighting and maneuvering is taking place against the backdrop of the encroaching PA municipal elections, scheduled for October 8.

Hamas is widely expected to win control over most of the local governments in Judea and Samaria. Hamas’s coming takeover of the municipalities is likely playing a role in decisions by Fatah terrorist cells to reject the authority of the PA. Many of those cells can be expected to transfer their allegiance to Hamas once the terrorist group wins the elections.

Given his Fatah party’s looming electoral defeat, more and more PA functionaries are wondering why Abbas doesn’t use the growing anarchy in Palestinian cities as a reason to cancel them. Abbas seems to have calculated that Israel will step in and, as it has repeatedly done over the past 20 years, cancel the elections for him.

Media organs Abbas controls are full of conspiracy theories whose bottom line is that Israel is not canceling the elections Abbas declared because it is in cahoots with Hamas and other “collaborators” to undermine the PA.

Although Israel, of course, is in cahoots with no one, it is the case that the government has apparently finally lost its patience with Abbas and is looking past him.

Repeated angry denunciations by government leaders of Abbas for his lead role in inciting violence against Israelis, leading the international movement to delegitimize Israel, refusing to negotiate anything with its leaders, and radicalizing Palestinian society, are finally being translated into policy.

Anti-Jewish Violence in Pre-State Palestine, Pre-Dates Israel's So-Called "Occupation"

Attacks by Arabs against Jews in Israel pre-dates Israeli settlements, pre-dates Israel's so-called "occupation," and pre-dates the establishment of the State of Israel. On the 87th anniversary of the brutal massacre in Safed (Gregorian calendar), just days after an even larger massacre of Jews in Hebron, CAMERA documents the oft-neglected history of Arab violence in pre-state Palestine.

Ricki Hollander..
CAMERA Media Analysis..
23 August '16..

Arab violence against Jews is often alleged to have begun with the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 or as a result of Israel's capture in 1967 of territories occupied by Jordan. But even before the Mandate for Palestine was assigned to Great Britain by the Allies at the San Remo Conference (April 1920) and endorsed by the League of Nations (July 1922), Palestinian Arabs were carrying out organized attacks against Jewish communities in Palestine. Systematic violence began in early 1920 with murderous assaults by groups of local Arabs against settlements in the north and by Muslim pilgrims against Jerusalem's Jews. Again in 1921, Arab rioters attacked Jews in Jaffa and its environs. The primary agitator behind these attacks was Haj Amin al Husseini, who marshalled Arab discontent over Jewish immigration into violent riots.

In 1929, Husseini and his associates fomented a violent jihad as they called upon Muslims to "defend" their holy places from the Jews. As a result, pogroms were carried out across Palestine. Arab villagers sympathetic to Jews were often targets of murderous attacks by their Arab brethren as well. British forces were sharply criticized for not policing the territory adequately, for sympathizing with the Arabs, and for standing by and allowing havoc to be wreaked upon Jewish communities in Palestine.

In 1936, the Arab Higher Committee, led by Grand Mufti Husseini, launched a campaign of anti-Jewish violence across Palestine. Accompanied by a six-month-long strike, the campaign became known as "The Arab Revolt." As the British increasingly became targets of Arab violence, they used massive force to suppress the aggression. The revolt was finally quashed in 1939. The resulting White Paper of 1939 reversed British commitment to a Jewish State (the raison d'etre of the Mandate) and drastically limited Jewish immigration into Palestine.

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Give the UN Diplomatic Immunity for Terror? - by Jonathan Tobin

...The UN has been a cesspool of corruption and anti-Semitism for so long that to speak of salvaging its reputation is a fool’s errand. Yet this incident shows how little the world body actually cares for the welfare of ordinary Palestinians, who are being shortchanged of desperately needed assistance to bolster their Islamist rulers’ military infrastructure.

Jonathan S. Tobin..
Commentary Magazine..
29 August '16..
Link: https://www.commentarymagazine.com/uncategorized/2139125-give-the-united-nations-immunity-for-terror/

Since ancient times, nations have granted immunity to diplomats from arrest or mistreatment. Without such immunity, diplomacy is virtually impossible and breaches of this tradition—such as the 1979 assault on the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and the hostage crisis that followed—are not only heinous crimes but also proof of the breakdown of the rule of law anywhere such conduct is tolerated. But this important principle has sometimes been expanded to shield diplomats from the consequences of ordinary illegal behavior. As any resident of New York City knows, diplomatic license plates are a license to park illegally and not pay the tickets they are assessed. But for the United Nations, the concept of immunity has now taken a completely new meaning: any employee of the world body, even those without any diplomatic status whatsoever, are entitled to aid terrorist groups with impunity.

That’s the position the UN is taking on the case of Waheed Borsh, a Palestinian engineer who works for the United Nations Development Program, an agency tasked with assisting building projects in poor countries. Borsh has worked for the UNDP since 2003, a group that has become even more important since the 2014 war between Israel and Hamas that resulted in the destruction of many homes in Gaza. But rather than carry out the UN’s mandate to rebuild civilian infrastructure and homes, Borsh was discovered to have been transferred 300 tons of building materials to the Qassam Brigades—Hamas’s military arm—in order to build a naval jetty from which it conducts operations and smuggling. Borsh also used his influence to ensure that the rebuilding of homes of Hamas officials was a UNDP priority. This meant that thanks to Borsh, the UNDP was subsidizing a terrorist group’s activities.

The UN said it was “greatly concerned” by the allegations and has “zero tolerance” for wrongdoing–a stance belied by the way all of its agencies have allowed themselves to be co-opted by Hamas in Gaza. But it nevertheless asserted this past week in a letter that Borsh should be released from Israeli custody because he should be considered to have diplomatic immunity.

The technical legality of this assertion is dubious. If any local employee of the United Nations, let alone, one of an embassy or consulate anywhere, is considered to have the immunity tradition accords actual diplomats the entire concept is called into question. It’s bad enough when real diplomats commit crimes and then are allowed to return home, albeit in disgrace. More common is when diplomats involved in spying—an activity not wholly unrelated to the business of foreign policy.

But while those with diplomatic passports must be accorded a fair amount of latitude for countries to feel free to exchange representatives, giving employees of UN agencies a free pass for blatantly illegal conduct is absurd. Even more outrageous is the notion that those who aid terrorist organizations should be treated with kid gloves.

An Arafat legacy, an artificial construction. Perhaps it's time to bury it. - by Michael Lumish

...This being the case, it raises the question of why Jewish people are under any ethical or moral obligation to recognize "Palestinian" nationhood to begin with?

Michael Lumish..
Israel Thrives..
28 August '16

Almost everyone recognizes the "Palestinians" as a nation, but the main question is whether or not they will ever create a state?

The general idea among most westerners is that peace can only be achieved via the two-state solution (TSS). There are prominent voices that disagree, such as Caroline Glick and Martin Sherman, both of the Jerusalem Post - Sherman, it should be noted, is also a prominent contributor to Jews Down Under - but the general consensus among western governments, including, of course, the Obama Administration, is that the only viable solution is the creation of a Palestinian-Arab state to represent the "Palestinian" nation.

In a recent piece for the Gatestone Institute, Louis René Beres discusses the fact that Israel will only accept a Palestinian-Arab state on its borders if it is demilitarized. Anyone who thinks that such an Israeli requirement is unreasonable can simply go beat sand because there is no way that the Jews of the Middle East are going to live under the threat of a Palestinian-Arab army on their border.

However, he also points out that even if such a provision were agreed to by Abbas and his people it would never hold up. As an Emeritus Professor of International Law at Purdue University, he probably knows what he's talking about. The take-away is that under international law - whatever that is, exactly - there are all sorts of means and methods by which the Palestinian-Arabs could bypass anti-militarization provisions.

When, and if, the Palestinian-Arabs ever agree to a state for themselves it will not be demilitarized.

On the contrary, its primary function will be that of a big Arab club against the Jewish minority in the Middle East.

This being the case, it raises the question of why Jewish people are under any ethical or moral obligation to recognize "Palestinian" nationhood to begin with?

This is why more and more of us are putting the word "Palestinian" in quotation marks.

It is becoming increasingly difficult for Jewish people, and friends, to recognize an alleged nation that only came into existence within living memory for the specific purpose of undermining Jewish sovereignty on traditional Jewish land.

The "Palestinian" nation is distinct from the rest of the Arab world in only one significant way.

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Delusion, Arrogance and the Denial of Agency to the Palestinians

...Shira’s statement contains a fundamental mistake: the belief, part of what Dr. Kenneth Levin calls the “Oslo Syndrome,” that it is in our power to change reality enough to cause the Palestinians to make peace.” A corollary, which she also enunciates, is that if we haven’t succeeded, we (our leaders) just haven’t tried hard enough. We haven’t been creative enough or we haven’t had the “courage” to make the concessions that – if we only would take the risk – would bring peace.

Etgar Keret

Vic Rosenthal..
Abu Yehuda..
28 August '16..

Like most popular Israeli authors, Etgar Keret leans left. There are lots of reasons for this, which include the fact that the literary establishment here doesn’t exactly welcome writers that don’t fit politically. But in any event, I find him entertaining.

His memoir “The Seven Good Years” (שבע השנים הטובות) which I was reading yesterday is not an especially political book, but one passage was revealing. In it, Keret tells about a discussion he had with his wife, Shira Geffen, about whether their then 3-year old son, Lev, should serve in the army when he grows up. Keret is speaking:

“Listen to yourself.” I said. “You’re talking as if serving in the army is an extreme sport. But what can we do? We live in a part of the world where our lives depend on it. So what you’re actually saying is that you’d rather have other people’s children go into the army and sacrifice their lives while Lev enjoys his life here without taking any risks or shouldering the obligations the situation calls for.”

“No,” my wife responded. “I’m saying that we could have reached a peaceful solution a long time ago, and we still can. And that our leaders allow themselves not to do that because they know that most people are like you: they won’t hesitate to put their children’s lives into the government’s irresponsible hands.”

The chapter concludes with Keret and his wife agreeing to disagree, while they will both spend the next 15 years working for “family and regional peace.” That certainly isn’t how such a discussion would end in my house, assuming that my wife would be silly enough to offer this argument (believe me, she wouldn’t).

My guess is that Keret agrees with the position he allows his wife to articulate, but that isn’t important. What is important is that the second paragraph presents an argument that is taken seriously by the Left, and even considered a legitimate response to the first paragraph.

Shira’s statement contains a fundamental mistake: the belief, part of what Dr. Kenneth Levin calls the “Oslo Syndrome,” that it is in our power to change reality enough to cause the Palestinians to make peace.” A corollary, which she also enunciates, is that if we haven’t succeeded, we (our leaders) just haven’t tried hard enough. We haven’t been creative enough or we haven’t had the “courage” to make the concessions that – if we only would take the risk – would bring peace.

This is an arrogant position, and one that denies agency to the Palestinians. Some things aren’t only up to us. Today’s State of Israel has a great deal of power, but it does not have the power to change what is in the hearts of the Palestinians: a combination of false narratives, religious principles, shame, anger, envy and hatred.

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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. 

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How Are Israeli Leftists Like Teens Who Don’t Practice Safe Sex? - by Sheri Oz

...The risk to the teenager who does not use a condom is, of course, a potential STD or pregnancy. The risk to the left-winger who does not take seriously the right’s assessments of danger is the aiding and abetting of terror or war. However, convincing either the teenager of the wisdom in using contraception or the left-winger of the wisdom in regarding the Palestinian Arabs with respectful suspicion rather than unfettered empathy is a sometimes seemingly insurmountable challenge. Cognitive errors are not easily challenged.

Sheri Oz..
Israel Diaries..
23 August '16..

I have come to the conclusion that Israeli leftists are just like teenagers who don’t feel the need to use condoms to protect against sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and unwanted pregnancy. Here is why:

Leftists must have a lot of confidence in themselves and, perhaps more remarkably, in Israel’s enemies, to accuse Israeli right-wingers of baseless fear mongering. Israeli and Jewish leftists seem to think that if we just give up Judea & Samaria peace will ensue: terrorists will no longer have any reason to blow us up or stab us or attack us with their cars and they will live happily ever after alongside us Jews.

I do not know what they think is meant when Palestinian Arabs shout “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!”

But I think it may have something to do with the fact that they consider us Jews as occupiers, not just of Judea & Samaria, but of all of Israel.

It seems to me that leftists are in a kind-of cognitive dissonance regarding this small thing.

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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. 

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As Arab Support for Palestinians’ Utter Self-Absorption Frays - by Evelyn Gordon

...The Palestinian cause didn’t become a Western obsession by mere chance; it became a Western obsession in large part because the Arab/Islamic world spent decades relentlessly telling Westerners that this was the Middle East’s biggest problem. By now, this view has become entrenched dogma in the West, and it clearly won’t lose that position overnight. But as Arab/Islamic countries start downgrading the importance of the Palestinian issue, this will eventually have an impact on the West as well.

Evelyn Gordon..
Analysis from Israel..
28 August '16..

In my last post, I explained some of the reasons why Israel’s diplomatic future looks promising despite the ongoing freeze in the peace process. But two other factors are also likely to have a positive impact down the road. The first is that the Arabic/Islamic world, which for years was at the forefront of pushing the notion that the Palestinian issue is the world’s number-one problem, is starting to get fed up with the Palestinians’ utter self-absorption at a time when so many Arabs and Muslims are suffering far worse. The second is a small but growing cadre of Israeli Arabs who are proud citizens of Israel and willing to defend its cause overseas.

For an example of the first development, consider the blistering interview with a Palestinian spokesman conducted last month by Orient News TV, a Dubai-based Syrian opposition station. Interviewer Dima Wannous relentlessly pressed her guest, Muhammad Masharqa, on why the Palestinian issue should be “the world’s number one cause.” Following are some of the points she raised with him, as translated by MEMRI:

In 1948, the years of the Nakba, the Palestinian people were driven out of their homes and their land. Approximately 750,000 people were displaced … 750,000 Palestinians were displaced, only 150,000 of whom were expelled from Palestine. The others remained in their historical homeland, although in different places. If you take the total figure of 750,000, this is equal to the number of people who fled Syria and Iraq in the past three months. I repeat the question in another way, because you did not answer me the first time. Why is the Palestinian cause the world’s number one cause…

How come yours is the world’s number one cause? With all the great crimes perpetrated by the Israeli enemy – how many people were killed in the Palestinian ‘Land Day?’ You know better than me. Six people were killed…

Saddam Hussein was idolized by the masses for firing 36 or 39 Scud missiles at Tel Aviv, while he was perpetrating crimes on a daily basis against his own people. The Palestinian greatly appreciated Saddam Hussein for this deed. If we want to talk about the Palestinians’ approach to the liberation of the peoples, is it conceivable for them to support a murderer, an arch-killer, a dictator … just because he fired missiles at Tel Aviv? What about the [Iraqi] people?

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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. 

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BBC’s 2014 reports on Gaza’s power plant revisited - by Hadar Sela

...A year later, the claims of deliberate targeting of the power plant were shown to be false but no effort was made to correct the misleading impressions and inaccurate information in those reports which still remain available online.

Hadar Sela..
BBC Watch..
28 September '16..











Readers may recall that on July 29th 2014 the BBC devoted considerable coverage to the story of an explosion at a power plant in the Gaza Strip.

““Power plant destroyed” screamed the sub-heading in a BBC News website report on July 29th 2014.Power plant written

That article was among numerous items produced by the BBC on the same day which included content relating to what the BBC immediately concluded was an Israeli strike on Gaza’s power station. BBC journalists extensively promoted that version of the story despite the fact that Israeli sources had stated that the power plant was not deliberately targeted.

Viewers of BBC television news programmes (along with visitors to the website) saw reports by Chris Morris, Ian Pannell and Martin Patience and Chris Morris. They heard statements such as the following one from Ian Pannell:

“Israel wants to weaken Hamas any way it can, which includes hitting Gaza’s only power station – adding to the misery of those who live here.”

Listeners to BBC World Service radio’s ‘Newshour‘ on July 29th heard Chris Morris make the following baseless allegation:

“And it is Gaza’s only power plant so there are electricity cuts in Gaza City, there could be problems with water supply because many of the area’s water pumps also rely on that power plant. So if that was a deliberate Israeli attempt to cause economic pain – which is certainly how most Palestinians will see it – then it could be fairly successful.” [emphasis added]

Just over two weeks later, both television viewers and visitors to the BBC News website were again reminded of the story in filmed and written reports by Yolande Knell.”

A year later, the claims of deliberate targeting of the power plant were shown to be false but no effort was made to correct the misleading impressions and inaccurate information in those reports which still remain available online.

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The biggest threat to Abbas’s rule over the West Bank - by Khaled Abu Toameh

...His pathetic attempt to persuade Palestinian businessmen to invest their money in PA-controlled areas at a time when the flames are engulfing his backyard is yet another sign of the man’s refusal — or inability — to see the reality on the ground. This is the same president who claims that he is seeking to lead his people toward statehood and a better future. Incredibly, Abbas can probably continue to fool world leaders into believing that he and the Palestinian Authority are prepared for statehood. Yet the blood pouring out in Nablus and other Palestinian cities and villages is proof positive that Abbas is on his way to losing control over the West Bank, just as he lost the Gaza Strip to Hamas in 2007.

Khaled Abu Toameh..
Gatestone Institute..
26 August '16..
H/T Ruth King..

Hours after his security officers lynched a detainee, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas urged Palestinian businessmen living abroad to support the Palestinian economy by investing in the Palestinian territories. The Palestinian Authority (PA), he asserted, was “working to provide security and safety to encourage investment.”

According to Abbas, “The Palestinian territories are living in a state of security stability, which we are working to provide for residents and investors alike by enforcing the rule of law and enhancing transparency and accountability.”

It must be nice to create your own reality, especially if your true reality is that of the 81-year-old Abbas.

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Shocking! We Israelis Can’t Even Get A Darned Blockade Right! - by Sheri Oz

...Anyway, here is what is boring about the siege Israel is mismanaging

Sheri Oz..
Israel Diaries..
27 August '16..

I’m going to show you in a moment why watching the Israeli blockage of Gaza is an irritating example of Jewish ineptitude. Jews pride themselves on their inventiveness and on being a start-up nation. I guess we are too busy thinking up new apps and medical miracles and the mundane business of running a blockade just gets overlooked. Either that, or our hearts just aren’t in it. The result is a boring litany of blockade incompetence.

But first I want to show you how the idea of a blockade and siege is used for propaganda.

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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. 

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Haaretz, You'll manage without us - by Prof. Asher Maoz

...A piece of free advice for Schocken, Levy, and Misgav: Instead of complaining that the floor is slanted, they would do better to spare a moment to look in the mirror.

Prof. Asher Maoz..
Israel Hayom..
26 August '16..
Link: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=35953

The people at Haaretz don't understand how it happened. They could more or less accept subscribers abandoning them: The paper is the knight of conscience and those who cancel their subscriptions are crazy right-wingers, and shallow, of course. Sometimes the paper's response is more childish than condescending: Anyone who doesn't read Haaretz isn't worthy of reading Haaretz.

But such things are more difficult to say about journalist and author Irit Linur, who was their own flesh and blood, a woman of the Left who wrote a weekly column in the Haaretz weekend supplement.

In a letter to the paper's publisher, Amos Schocken, in which she explained why she had decided to cancel her subscription, Linur wrote: "After reading Haaretz daily for decades, I've reached the conclusion that you and I don't live in the same place. A growing number of the articles in your newspaper reek of foreign journalism that treats Israel like somewhere else, far off and repulsive. I feel that the State of Israel fundamentally revolts you. But that's it -- not me. I don't want to subscribe to a newspaper that tries in every way to make me ashamed of my Zionism, my patriotism and my intelligence, three qualities that are most precious to me."

In response, Schocken played the innocent: "It's odd to me that someone can say that Haaretz is an anti-Zionist newspaper, when in my eyes it is absolutely a Zionist paper and always has been."

Can Russia be Israel’s ally? - by Vic Rosenthal

...Can Putin be trusted? No, of course not. Regardless of the propaganda flowing from his psychological warfare factories, he is not sentimental about Jews. The ex-KGB officer is not sentimental about anything. But I think he is smart enough to understand the potential stability that a strong Israel – the only nation in the Middle East that can at the same time be powerful without also being tempted to engage in aggression against its neighbors – would give to the eastern Mediterranean region, which incidentally contains large reserves of natural gas.

Vic Rosenthal..
Abu Yehuda..
25 August '16..

It’s hard to understand Vladimir Putin’s attitude toward Jews.

On the one hand, Putin-controlled media continues to pour out vulgar anti-Jewish memes, including a recent TV program in which Jews sunk the Titanic, blew up Chernobyl and took down the World Trade Center. And Russia has surprising connections and influence in European radical right-wing political parties like Hungary’s Jobbik, France’s National Front and more.

On the other hand, at the same time, Russia is hosting a conference of 500 European rabbis in order to discuss the problem of Jew hatred in Europe, and in January Putin even suggested that Jews fleeing Europe should go to Russia. Jews “should come here, to Russia. They left the Soviet Union; now they should come back,” he said.

On the one hand, there appear to be good relations between Putin and Israel’s PM Netanyahu. Arrangements in place to prevent accidental clashes between Israeli and Russian air forces operating in Syria seem to be working. It does not seem to be the case that Putin is preventing Israel from taking action against attempts to transfer game-changing weapons to Hezbollah.

On the other hand, Russia is supplying modern weapons to Iran, and it appears to be cooperating with the Iranian regime’s project to control the arc of land from its eastern border through Iraq, Syria and Lebanon to the Mediterranean, as well as opening a direct line through Anbar province in Iraq, via Jordan, to Israel’s midsection. This is not “good for the Jews.”

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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. 

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Doable and Being Done. Decoupling Diplomacy from ‘Peace’ - by Evelyn Gordon

...When you add in the fact that Israel already has strong bases of support in the West – even in hostile Europe, as activist Ariel Bolstein discovered on a recent tour of British pubs – there’s no reason to think Israel’s relations with the West will remain hostage to the Palestinian issue forever. The real mistake would be for Israel to throw up its hands and insist no improvement is possible rather than preparing to take advantage of new opportunities if they arise. And that, based on its record, doesn’t seem like a mistake this government will make.

Evelyn Gordon..
Analysis from Israel..
27 August '16..
Link: http://evelyncgordon.com/decoupling-diplomacy-from-peace/..

In a world where entire countries are collapsing, it’s not surprising that the collapse of a decades-old diplomatic axiom has been largely ignored. This axiom holds that Israel’s international relations are dependent on the fate of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Relations will improve if the government makes progress toward peace and worsen if the peace process stalemates. Yet Israel today, under a government widely (though wrongly) deemed its “most right-wing ever” and equally widely (though equally wrongly) blamed for the nonexistent peace process, has been expanding and deepening its diplomatic relationships at a dizzying pace, as the past week once again shows.

On Monday, on the way home from a visit to Guinea–a Muslim-majority country with which Israel resumed relations this summer after a 49-year hiatus–Foreign Ministry Director General Dore Gold stopped off in another African country with which Israel still has no formal ties. According to Haaretz, no Israeli diplomat has ever before been invited to this country. That same day, Kazakhstan’s defense minister came to Israel to meet with his Israeli counterpart prior to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s planned visit to this Muslim-majority country later this year. According to the Jerusalem Post, that will make Netanyahu the first sitting Israeli premier ever to visit Central Asia. And while Nigerian opposition has apparently stalled a bid by several African countries to invite Netanyahu to this year’s summit of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the president of Togo has announced that he will host a meeting between Netanyahu and ECOWAS leaders next spring, in yet another first. Nor are such developments unusual these days; just last month, I wrote a post listing several other such firsts.

Granted, the main impetus for this change has nothing to with Israel; rather, it’s the global upsurge in Islamist terror, which has spurred more and more countries to seek to benefit from Israel’s unhappily vast experience in combating such terror. Nevertheless, it’s no accident that these blossoming diplomatic ties are happening specifically under a “right-wing” government.

Netanyahu and his cabinet have been able to exploit this opening to the fullest precisely because they never bought the diplomatic axiom so beloved of the Israeli left. Had the government actually believed diplomatic success depended on progress in the peace process, it wouldn’t have invested much effort on trying to expand Israel’s ties with the traditionally pro-Palestinian non-Western world at a time when the peace process was stalemated because it would consider such efforts doomed to failure. And in fact, before Netanyahu took office in 2009, Israeli diplomacy did focus almost exclusively on the West.

But Netanyahu and certain other key cabinet ministers (most notably former foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman) have toiled for years to improve ties with non-Western countries. Thus when changing geopolitical circumstances provided an opportunity, they were fully prepared to seize it, with a skill that won admiration even from diehard critics like Haaretz columnist Ari Shavit.

The Palestinian Authority has never acted seriously against the terrorists, and never will - by Stephen Flatow

...Let's be grateful Israel's security forces have once again pre-empted the terrorists. But at the same time, let's learn an important lesson from this latest episode: the Palestinian Authority has never acted seriously against the terrorists, and never will. The PA regards the terrorists as "martyrs" and "heroes," and it says so every day in its newspapers, radio shows, and television programs. It allows them to operate freely, and sometimes even directly assists them. This week's photograph proves it yet again.

Stephen M. Flatow..
JNS.org..
24 August '16..

It's one of the most disturbing photos from Israel that I've seen in years.

I'm referring to this week's image of the hundreds of Palestinian terrorist weapons captured in Israeli raids. It was enough to send shivers down one's spine. And it revealed more about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict than all the panel discussions, research papers, and expert analyses with which we are always being bombarded.

Friends of Israel often complain about what they say is the Israeli Foreign Ministry's inadequate effort to make Israel's case to the international community. And those complaints are not entirely without merit. But somebody in the foreign ministry's "hasbara" division deserves credit for coming up with a simple, yet incredibly effective way of demonstrating what Israel is up against: show their weapons.

Telling the world that hundreds of terrorists have been arrested, or thousands of weapons captured is mind-numbing. They're just numbers. The public yawns and turns the page. But recall what the Israelis did after capturing in Jan. 2002 the Karine A, the Palestinian ship seized by Israeli commandos. They didn't just issue a press release about the 50 tons of arms, or the 700,000 rounds of ammunition on board. They actually spread the weapons out, on the ground, for the photographers and television cameras. And they reached as far as the eye--and the lens--could see.

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Reframing and politicising an animal welfare story at BBC News - by Hadar Sela

...Clearly telling BBC audiences the story of the relocation of abused animals from the Khan Younis zoo was of much less interest to Yolande Knell than the opportunistic promotion of her long apparent political agenda.

Hadar Sela..
BBC Watch..
25 August '16..

A filmed report which appeared on the BBC News website’s homepage as well as on its ‘World’ and ‘Middle East’ pages on August 24th revisited the location of a previous BBC report from April 2012.

Back then, the report titled “Gaza zoo resorts to displaying stuffed animals” told audiences that:

“A zoo owner in Gaza has had to resort to displaying stuffed animals, because of a shortage of live ones.

Mohamed Owaida from the Khan Younis Zoo says it is proving too costly to feed his living animals, and he can not always get live specimens through the Israeli blockade of the Gaza strip.”

Around the same time, the Times of Israel also produced a report about that zoo.

“Flies swarm around some of the 10 animals that have been embalmed so far. The makeshift cages housing the exhibits — fashioned from fencing salvaged from Jewish settlements that Israel dismantled in 2005 — are littered with empty soda cans and other trash.

An emaciated-looking stuffed lion, its coat patchy and mangy, lies on an exhibit cobbled together from crates and shipping pallets. A monkey had missing limbs. A porcupine had a hole in its head.

The zoo’s 65 live animals, which include ostriches, monkeys, turtles, deer, a llama, a lion and a tiger, don’t fare much better. During a recent visit, children poked chocolate, potato chips and bread through the wire. There’s no zookeeper on the premises. Gaza has no government body that oversees zoos, and medical treatment is done by consulting over the phone with zoo veterinarians in Egypt.[…]

Owner Mohammed Awaida said he opened the “South Forest Park” in 2007, only to lose a number of animals during Israel’s military offensive against Hamas that began in December 2008. During the three-week offensive, launched in response to rocket attacks on Israel, Awaida said he could not reach the zoo, and many animals died of neglect and starvation.”

Earlier this year the international animal charity ‘Four Paws’ began trying to save the remaining animals in Khan Younis.

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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. 

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Surprise? Reuters Headline Describes Palestinian Attacker As "Driver"

...The disappearance of the post might seem strange. But then again, it sure would look bad if Baker's own bureau repeatedly publishes headlines of the type that he himself said were "horrible." And it does look bad. But might look equally bad for a journalist to surreptitiously delete his own tweets.

Gilead Ini..
CAMERA Snaphots..
24 August '16..

The Israeli army today reported that a Palestinian attacker was killed after he stabbed a soldier.

But a Reuters headline about the attack suggests the man was killed while doing no more than driving his car: "Israeli soldier shoots dead Palestinian driver in West Bank: army."

By contrast, here's how Reuters described an incident in Belgium earlier this month in which an attacker was killed after slashing police officers:

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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. 

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The Poll that Headlines Got Wrong. Two State Solution is Most Sincerely Dead

...The "two state solution" isn't a final solution. It’s clearly a step towards something else. Hint: They oppose a demilitarized state 81.6%:16.0% !!

Dr. Aaron Lerner..
IMRA Weekly Commentary..
24 August '16..
Link: http://www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=71312

The headlines covering a poll of Palestinians and Israelis this week claimed that there is still slightly more support for the "two-state solution" than opposition.

But if you spend 60 seconds actually reading the poll results you will understand that the Palestinian street is dead set against the two-state solution.

Let's walk through some key results of the Joint Poll conducted by the Israel Democracy Institute (IDI) in Jerusalem and the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR) in Ramallah, in partnership with and support from the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) and with funding from the European Union (EU).

Let's focus on the results for Palestinians from the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem interviewed between June 2 and 4, 2016.

When questioned regarding support for a two state solution, there was indeed a 50.9%:47.6% majority for a two state solution.

But most - 58.3% - oppose dropping further claims against Israel or considering the conflict over if a two-state solution is implemented.

The "two state solution" isn't a final solution. It’s clearly a step towards something else.

Hint: They oppose a demilitarized state 81.6%:16.0% !!

When Israel is not involved, assaults on freedom of the media and expression do not interest them

One might wonder if the human rights groups neglect these abuses because of their continued obsession with destroying Israel.

Ahmed Said (left) and Mahmoud Abu Awwad (right)
are two journalists living in the Gaza Strip who
were recently arrested by Hamas security forces.

Khaled Abu Toameh..
Gatestone Institute..
23 August '16..

Palestinian journalists are at the top of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Hamas hit-list in the crackdown occurring alongside preparations for the Palestinian local and municipal elections, scheduled for October 8.

The crackdown is part of an ongoing campaign by the two rival parties to silence critics in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Neither Hamas nor the PA tolerates a free and independent media -- especially on the eve of a crucial election that could have far-reaching political implications in the Palestinian arena.

A Hamas victory in the upcoming elections would be catastrophic for President Mahmoud Abbas and his Palestinian Authority. Such an electoral outcome would be tantamount to a vote of no-confidence in their policies and performance.

Hamas, for its part, is investing a huge amount of resources in the election campaign, in hopes that the results would further boost its standing among Palestinians. Hamas fears that a defeat would undermine its power in the Gaza Strip and pave the way for its collapse.

As the election campaign heats up, it is clear that Hamas and the PA agree on one thing: intensifying their repressive measures against Palestinian journalists.

This media crackdown is essentially ignored by international human rights organizations. Why? One reason is that when Israel is not involved, assaults on freedom of the media and expression do not interest them.

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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. 

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