Love of the Land: June 2017

Friday, June 30, 2017

Abbas's Lies and Palestinian Child Victims. Will the last sick Palestinian child please stand up? - by Bassam Tawil

...Like Hamas, Abbas sacrifices these sick children in Gaza and slanders the name of Israel, to divert attention from his responsibility for the tragedies that have befallen the residents of the Gaza Strip.

Bassam Tawil..
Gatestone Institute..
30 June '17..

Palestinian children are the latest victims of the power struggle between the two rival Palestinian factions, the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Hamas.

PA President Mahmoud Abbas has declared war on the Gaza Strip as part of his effort to prompt Palestinians living there to revolt against the ruling Hamas administration. It appears that Abbas and Hamas are determined to fight to the last ill Palestinian child.

Abbas is hoping that a series of punitive measures he has taken, which include reducing electricity and medical supplies and cutting off salaries to many Palestinians, will lead to the collapse of Hamas, paving the way for the return of his PA to the Gaza Strip. Abbas has had a grudge against Hamas ever since the Islamist movement expelled his PA and loyalists from the Gaza Strip ten years ago.

Abbas's war on the Hamas may seem justified. Nonetheless, it smacks of hypocrisy and is accompanied by a smear campaign against Israel.

Instead of accepting responsibility for their punitive actions against Hamas and the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, Abbas and his PA are falsely trying to put the blame on Israel. They are telling their people and the rest of the world that Israel bears the full and sole responsibility for the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip. This, of course, is a wide-eyed lie as well as another blood libel against Israel.

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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.

Not Easy but The Washington Post Manages to Outdo the BBC with Anti-Israel Headline - by Sean Durns

In a Feb. 11, 2017 tweet, Post Jerusalem bureau chief William Booth claimed that “every major attack in Israel & West Bank gets covered in Wapo NYT etc and we dig deeper.” That, however, is demonstrably false.

Sean Durns..
CAMERA Snapshots..
28 June '17..
Link: http://blog.camera.org/archives/2017/06/_the_washington_post_manages_t.html

The Washington Post not only failed to offer a full-length report on the June 16, 2017 terror attack in which a 23-year old Israeli Border Policewoman, Hadas Malka, was murdered, it also made misleading changes to an AP dispatch on the attack.

Malka was stabbed to death by a Palestinian assailant in a coordinated terrorist attack in Jerusalem’s Old City. She was attacked while responding to the scene of another terrorist attack in which two Palestinian attackers opened fire on an Israeli Border Police patrol at Zedekiah’s Cave in the Muslim Quarter. Israeli authorities killed all three Palestinian terrorists.

The initial AP report on the attack was titled "Palestinian attackers killed after killing Israeli officer." This headline made clear to AP readers the important chain of events and noted the death of the Israeli officer.

The Washington Post, however, made questionable edits to the AP brief it republished in the print version of its June 18, 2017 edition. The headline chosen by The Post was “3 Palestinians killed after attacks on police”—omitting the death of the Israeli officer and failing to mention that the Palestinians killed were terrorists carrying out an attack. As CAMERA pointed out to Post staff, this violates the ethics code of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ). SPJ calls for journalists to "Make certain that headlines, news teases and promotional material, photos, video, audio, graphics, sound bites and quotations do not misrepresent. They should not oversimplify or highlight incidents out of context."

Do Turkish men beat and sometimes kill their wives because of Israeli occupation? by Burak Bekdil

...So, tell us, Ms. Simonovic: Do Turkish men beat and sometimes kill their wives because of Israeli occupation? Is there "a clear link" between Turkey's rising numbers indicating violence against women and "Israel's prolonged occupation?"

Burak Bekdil..
Gatestone Institute..
28 June '17..

The United Nations panels lovingly practice hypocrisy all the time. In 2016, a UN debate revolved around the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), which voted to blame Israel for Palestinian domestic violence. This year's show was hardly different in the content of nonsense. The executive director of UN Watch, Hillel Neuer, asked Dubravka Simonovic, UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, at a session on June 12: "Ms. Simonovic, in other words, what you are saying is as follows: 'When Palestinian men beat their wives, it's Israel's fault.'"

At first glance it sounds like dark humor, but it is not. Not just one but two reports presented before the UNHRC by Simonovic argue that Israel is to blame for Palestinian violence against women, through "a clear linkage between the prolonged occupation and violence".

Where, Neuer asked Simonovic, is the data? There is data, but not the kind that Simonovic would prefer to believe exists.

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Thursday, June 29, 2017

A different take on the Western Wall controversy - by Stephen M. Flatow

...I understand that the Western Wall developments have ignited strong feelings in both camps. I do not doubt the sincerity of those sentiments. I am not taking a position or advocating any particular proposal. I am merely asking everyone to keep a little perspective.

Stephen M. Flatow..
JNS.org..
28 June '17..

The headlines of the Jewish press this week were filled with stories about angry American Jews arriving in Israel and denouncing the Israeli government’s decision regarding egalitarian prayer at the Western Wall.

Jerry Silverman, head of the Jewish Federations of North America, called the government’s decision “a direct insult” to diaspora Jewry and vowed to launch a “campaign” to “fight back.” Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, said the battle to reverse the decision is “worth fighting for.” A statement issued by the top institutions of Conservative Judaism declared that “the rising influence of an intolerant religious establishment”—as exemplified by the Western Wall decision—is “an existential threat to [Israel’s] future.”

This week’s other headlines, however, reported some threats to Israel that are genuinely existential, not merely a rhetorical flourish.

Mortar shells fired from Syria struck the Golan Heights on three consecutive days. A Hamas rocket hit the Sha’ar Hanegev region of southern Israel. There are new warnings of possible attacks on Israel’s northern towns from southern Lebanon, where the Iranian proxy Hezbollah has positioned more than 100,000 missiles.

I understand that the Western Wall developments have ignited strong feelings in both camps. I do not doubt the sincerity of those sentiments. I am not taking a position or advocating any particular proposal. I am merely asking everyone to keep a little perspective.

Jerry Silverman does not live on the Golan Heights, Rick Jacobs does not reside in Sha’ar Hanegev and the American leaders of Conservative Judaism do not live in towns along the Israel-Lebanon border.

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Stephen M. Flatow, a vice president of the Religious Zionists of America, is an attorney in New Jersey. He is the father of Alisa Flatow, who was murdered in an Iranian-sponsored Palestinian terrorist attack in 1995.

No surprise as BBC’s Bowen repeats his ‘no human shields in Gaza’ claims - by Hadar Sela

...Having publicly claimed that he did not come across human shields in the few days he was in Gaza in the summer of 2014, three years later he cannot accommodate the ample evidence that shows otherwise. Having promoted his own pseudo-legal interpretations of the Law of Armed Combat in his 2014 reporting from Gaza, he is incapable of subsequently adjusting that view in line with the facts. That, of course, is what happens when the agenda takes precedence over the actual story.

Hadar Sela..
BBC Watch..
28 June '17..

BBC Radio 4’s series ‘Our Man in the Middle East’ continued on June 16th with episode 15 – titled “Missiles and the Ballot Box” – which was devoted to Jeremy Bowen’s view of the Gaza Strip.

“Jeremy Bowen explores Gaza, the Palestinian territory controlled by Hamas, the Islamic resistance movement. It’s not a place you would chose [sic] for a Mediterranean holiday, though the Palestinians used to dream of developing a tourist industry, he says. “Israel could recapture Gaza in days if it wanted to. But then it would be responsible for around a million children and about the same number of angry adults. Palestinians can’t destroy a state as strong as Israel. But Israel can’t bludgeon Palestinians into submission either.””

Refraining from informing audiences that hopes of economic development in the Gaza Strip were killed off by, among other things, the Islamist take-over of the territory, Bowen opens the programme with the theme promoted in that synopsis.

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Wednesday, June 28, 2017

A new rule that applies only to Israel: "Give free electricity" - by Elder of Ziyon

...But for some reason they aren't insisting that anyone in the world do anything to help Gazans except the one nation that Gaza has attacked with rockets thousands of times.

Elder of Ziyon..
27 June '17..

"Human rights" organizations have created a new rule that applies to Israel and Israel only:

Israel must provide free electricity to its enemies.

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The surreal spectacle of Israeli generals lobbying for Palestinian terrorists - by Caroline Glick

...The best way to end this situation is for the government to shut down the Civil Administration and get the IDF out of the governing business in Judea and Samaria. So long as the government continues to empower unaccountable generals to administer civilian areas instead of its accountable, civilian bureaucracy, we will continue to be confronted with the surreal spectacle of Israeli generals lobbying for Palestinian terrorists.

Caroline Glick..
Our World/JPost..
27 June '17..
Link: http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Our-World-The-PLOs-IDF-lobbyists-497984

Should the United States pay Palestinian terrorists? For the overwhelming majority of Americans and Israelis this is a rhetorical question.

The position of the American people was made clear – yet again – last week when US President Donald Trump’s senior envoys Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt met with Palestinian Authority chairman and PLO chief Mahmoud Abbas and repeated Trump’s demand that the PA cut off the payments.

Not only did Abbas reject their demand, he reportedly accused the presidential envoys of working as Israeli agents.

Abbas’s treatment of Kushner and Greenblatt was in line with his refusal to even meet with US Ambassador David Friedman, reportedly because he doesn’t like Friedman’s views.

The most amazing aspect of Abbas’s contemptuous treatment of the Trump administration is that he abuses Trump and his senior advisers while demanding that Trump continue funding him in excess of half a billion dollars a year, and do so in contravention of the will of the Republican-controlled Congress.

Abbas’s meeting last week took place as the Taylor Force Act makes its way through Congress.

Named for Taylor Force, the West Point graduate and US army veteran who was murdered in March 2016 in Tel Aviv by a Palestinian terrorist, the Taylor Force Act will end US funding of the PA until it ends its payments to terrorists and their families – including the family of Force’s murderer Bashar Masalha.

The Taylor Force Act enjoys bipartisan majority support in both the House and the Senate. It is also supported by the Israeli government.

Given the stakes, what could possibly have possessed Abbas to believe he can get away with mistreating Trump and his envoys? Who does he think will save him from Congress and the White House? Enter Commanders for Israel’s Security (CIS), stage left.

The naive fairytale of Avi Shlaim, a foolish old man and the adoring church goers - by David Collier

...Shlaim lives in a fantasy world, where the two-state solution is on the table, ready to be signed, if only Israel were accommodating enough, humane enough, to agree to the peace on offer. Yet he talks within an environment where that option does not exist to those who take the Palestinian side. The anti-Israel drumbeat is a one state drumbeat. ‘From the river to the sea’. When you empower it, whatever you may prefer, you empower those that seek the destruction of the State of Israel. The naive fairytale of Avi Shlaim becomes truly dangerous in an environment such as this.

David Collier..
Across the Great Divide..
27 June '17..

It is the 27th June 2017. I have just returned from an event at St James’s Church, an Anglican church in Piccadilly, London. It has a history of anti-Israel activism. Tonight Avi Shlaim was speaking at the ‘Embrace Annual Lecture’. The official subject was to ‘explore Britain’s historical and current relationship with Palestine’. The main drumbeat provided another anti-Israel festival. This one was delivered with the impeccable presentation and captivating tones of Avi Shlaim.

This event wouldn’t have gone ahead without an anti-Israel under-current. The main purpose of the evening was to raise funds for ‘Palestinian refugees’, wherever they may be. When it came to the fund raising speech, we were even told that some ‘Palestinians’ in Akko (Israel) are living in what is basically a refugee camp. With this level of distortion trying to send church goers reaching for their wallets, a little balance would have been a very distracting and self-destructive strategy. It was simply not going to happen.

But I find events like this far more dangerous, far more damaging, than a university hate-fest or Al Quds day march. At a university, the hate is in your face, out in the open. Everyone knows the score. Here in the church it is very different. The hate is hidden, insidious and dealt out with a smile. Avi Shlaim starts speaking, and with a CV like his, who would doubt his words. A packed crowd of about two hundred and fifty, are about to feed from the poison tree, believing it to be hand-picked, freshly squeezed, fruit juice. The type of fruit juice the people in this church would buy in Waitrose.

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Tuesday, June 27, 2017

Israelis, URJ and the struggle for the Kotel - by Vic Rosenthal

...Jacobs’ arrogance and presumption to pontificate about what Israel must do perhaps obscures the false assumption he makes about the “majority of Jews in Israel and the world.” Even the most secular Israelis don’t agree that American Reform Jews should decide what Israel does in the holy places that were regained with the blood of its soldiers. They may passionately hate the Rabbinate, but it is our Rabbinate that they hate.

Vic Rosenthal..
Abu Yehuda..
27 June '17..

(A number of excellent observations. Great post!)

The Kotel Hama’aravi (Western Wall) is not actually the holiest place in Judaism – that is the Temple Mount, the actual site of the First and Second Temples – but for various reasons it has become the holiest place at which it is practical for Jews to pray. It is administered by an organization called The Western Wall Heritage Foundation, chaired by Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovich, “the Rabbi of the Kotel.” It is considered an Orthodox synagogue.

In 1988, the Women of the Wall (WoW) organization was founded in order to obtain the right for women to pray at the Kotel with Torah scrolls and wearing a tallit (prayer shawl). They did not ask for mixed prayer with men, just a relaxation of the rules concerning how they could pray with other women in the women’s section of the Kotel. This would not violate Orthodox halacha (religious law), but is in opposition to the rules established by the Rabbi of the Kotel and the customs of strictly observant Jews (among others, the prohibition against women chanting out loud in the presence of men).

Customs differ over time and place. While it can be shocking to see a custom that one has grown up with violated – consider the (non-religious) customs concerning gender and restrooms – changes can and do happen.

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Why Abbas Cannot and Will Not Stop Funding Terrorists - by Bassam Tawil

...Judging from Abbas's rage-response to the demand to halt payments to terrorists and their families, it seems that Abbas and his cohorts in Ramallah plan to continue their same old antics.

Bassam Tawil..
Gatestone Institute..
26 June '17..

For the record, this is not a defense of Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas or of funding terrorists. It is simply an explanation of what is taking place. Nonetheless, it is worth noting that the idea of ending payments to Palestinian terrorists and their families is a challenging one, to say the least. Old habits, especially of hate, are hard to break.

The practice of paying salaries to terrorists and the families of "martyrs" is as old as the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which was founded in 1964. It did not start after the establishment of the Palestinian Authority (PA) in 1994. Nor did this practice start after Abbas was elected as president of the PA in January 2005.

Prior to the establishment of the PA, the PLO relied solely on Arab and Islamic financial aid to pay salaries to imprisoned terrorists and the families of those killed in terror attacks against Israel.

But after most of the Arab countries turned their backs on the PLO, following its support for Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait and the subsequent establishment of the PA, the Europeans and Americans became the major donors to the Palestinians -- including payments to the terrorists and their families.

The PLO is not the only organization that rewards terrorists and their families. Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other Palestinian groups have also been paying monthly stipends to terrorists and their kin. This is their way of expressing their gratitude to those who have chosen to "sacrifice" their lives by trying to murder Jews. It is also their way of encouraging young people to join the war of terrorism against Israel. The financial aid sends a specific message: Palestinians who are prepared to die in the service of murdering Jews need not worry about the welfare of their families.

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Surprise? NYT Marks Six-Day War Anniversary With Jerusalem Map Obliterating Jewish Presence - by Ira Stoll

...These kinds of sloppy errors mount up — like a proverbial mountain of olives. All of them — olive ‘em? — create the distinct impression that the Times doesn’t quite have an accurate handle of the geography or history of Jerusalem.

Ira Stoll..
Algemeiner.com..
26 June '17..

Whatever one makes of the long news article the New York Times ran out under the headline “50 Years After War, East Jerusalem Palestinians Confront a Life Divided,” the maps that appeared along with it are just indefensible.

They look like someone forgot to proofread them, or as if they were lifted from some flunking high-school student’s geography term paper.

One map features a red square labeled “Damascus Gate” floating what appears to be nearly an eighth of a mile away from the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem. It makes it appear, inaccurately, as if the “gate” is a freestanding attraction rather than an entrance to the Old City.

The same map features a depiction of the Old City with the “Muslim Quarter” and “Al Aqsa Mosque” labeled — but with no label showing the Jewish Quarter or the Western Wall. It’s as if either the cartographer started doing the map project with the Muslim sites, then got bored and took a break and forgot to finish, or as if there’s an effort deliberately to obliterate all trace of Jewish connection to the Old City.

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Monday, June 26, 2017

Another UN SC resolution violation ignored, goes unreported by the BBC - by Hadar Sela

...Predictably – given its already poor record of informing audiences about Hizballah violations of that UN SC resolution – the BBC has to date not found this story newsworthy.

Hadar Sela..
BBC Watch..
26 June '17..

As has been noted here on numerous occasions in the past, the BBC not only routinely ignores the topic of Hizballah’s continuous violations of UN Security Council resolution 1701, but has even whitewashed them.

In April of this year BBC News chose to ignore the story of Hizballah conducting press tours in an area in which, according to that resolution, it is not supposed to operate and another story that emerged last week looks likely to get the same treatment.

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Hard Data About A Hard Problem: What Gazans Really Want - by David Pollock

...What could account for this striking dichotomy, in which Gazans are personally more moderate long-term than West Bankers, yet also more likely to attribute maximalist intentions to the PA? The answer almost certainly lies in the differing direct experiences of these two Palestinian populations. Gazans are much more familiar with the devastating consequences of endless war against Israel. And West Bankers are much more familiar with the equivocal policies of the PA.

David Pollock..
Washingtoninstitute.org..
20 June '17..
Link: http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/fikraforum/view/what-gazans-really-want-hard-data-about-a-hard-problem

This month marks the tenth anniversary of the violent Hamas coup that took control over the 1.9 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. There is still no end in sight to their predicament – but this is most certainly not because Hamas enjoys popular support among the local population. In fact, reliable data from a new survey conducted there May 16-25 by a professional, independent Palestinian pollster demonstrate that only 14 percent of Gazans self-identify as Hamas supporters. That is far behind the popularity of Fatah, which runs the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority (PA), which garners 41 percent of Gazans’ self-professed affiliation. Indeed, the large majority of Gazans – 77 percent, including 41 percent who feel strongly about it – agree that “the PA should send officials and security officers to Gaza, to take over the administration there.”

So why, despite this popular will, does nothing change in Gaza? It is because the PA has refused to assert its role in that territory, while Hamas has refused to risk its rule by holding any elections there for the past decade. The result is continued Hamas rule, by force of arms. And the people of Gaza know it; three-quarters, up sharply from 35 percent in the previous June 2015 poll, now say that elections should require Hamas to “give up its separate armed units.” Since Hamas has no intention of doing that, there are no elections, and the people of Gaza are left with no choice in the matter.

Moreover, key Hamas policies are also highly unpopular in Gaza. Hamas rockets started a disastrous war against Israel in July 2014; but then as now, the overwhelming majority of Gazans (80 percent today) want Hamas to “preserve a cease-fire with Israel.” And more surprisingly, on the political level, the majority of Gazans (62 percent) also say that “Hamas should stop calling for Israel’s destruction, and instead accept a permanent two-state solution based on the 1967 borders.”

Gaza as the Ultimate Indictment of ‘Two-Statism’ - by Martin Sherman

The real humanitarian solution to the plight of Gaza lies not in its reconstruction, but in its deconstruction.

Martin Sherman..
Algemeiner.com..
23 June '17..

“…the prospective Palestinian state is bound to be a failed and repressive entity, and a permanent danger to its Israeli and Jordanian neighbors.”

— Elliott Abrams, briefing to the Middle East Forum, June 15, 2017.

“Hamas wants Israel to supply it with electricity ‘or else,’ but there is no reason why Israel should submit to Hamas extortion. It is not Israel’s obligation to satisfy the needs of a population that continues, through its ongoing support of Hamas, to pursue Israel’s destruction.”

— Efraim Inbar, “Gaza in the Dark Is Not So Terrible,” June 18, 2017.

“What is the point of raising and spending many millions of dollars to rebuild the Gaza Strip just so it can be destroyed in the next war? It’s a harsh question. Given the region’s tragic history, it is also inevitable.”

– New York Times Editorial, October 10, 2014.

Once again Gaza is in the news.

Once again the specter of “humanitarian disaster” hovers over the population on the coastal enclave, the hapless victims of the hopelessly ill-conceived endeavor to foist statehood on the Palestinian Arabs.

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Sunday, June 25, 2017

Israel, Newsweek and a Laundry List of Lies - by Daniel Pomerantz

...Consider this: if you must misstate reality in order to support your claims, isn’t it possible that you’re just plain wrong? More disturbingly: why did a magazine as high profile as Newsweek give an anti-Israel activist a platform to broadcast his agenda-driven tirade under the guise of legitimate, mainstream “journalism?”

Daniel Pomerantz..
Honest Reporting..
25 June '17..

An article in Newsweek twists a quote by Israel’s Minister of Defense, Avigdor Lieberman, into an entire diatribe against Israel. In his fantasy driven tirade, journalist Tom O’Connor comes to the astounding conclusion that all of Israel…isn’t Israel.

The quote by Lieberman:

We will not agree to the return of a single refugee to within the ‘67 borders.

The statement is an apparent rejection of the Palestinian Authority’s negotiating demand: that even after a Palestinian state is formed, they would hold the right to settle Palestinians outside of their own state, and inside Israel instead. Though Minister Lieberman does not control government policy on this issue, his statement is nonetheless newsworthy as one, potentially influential, voice within Israel’s government.

Yet Newsweek’s Tom O’Connor was not content to simply report this news. He had to weave a tale of fiction instead.

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Iran’s Real Missile Target? It Wasn’t Syria - by Michael Rubin

...Iran’s immediate target might have been the Islamic State, but its ideological goal remains eradication of Israel. That the former commander of the Revolutionary Guards tweeted acknowledgment of such goal should not be as easily erased as his tweet. After all, Iran deal or not, it is the Revolutionary Guards and not Zarif who are in charge of the military applications of Iran’s nuclear program.

Michael Rubin..
Commentary magazine..
20 June '17..
Link: https://www.commentarymagazine.com/foreign-policy/middle-east/iran/irans-real-missile-target-wasnt-syria/

On June 18, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps launched missiles into Syria in retaliation for a terrorist attack on Iran’s parliament and Ayatollah Khomeini’s tomb the previous week. While these missiles appear to have caused no casualties, Iranian officials were clear that their target went far beyond the Islamic State. According to the Tehran Times:

Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, commander of the IRGC aerospace unit, hailed the missile raids, saying any more evil act against Iran will result in “costly consequences.” “Our enemies should know that Tehran is not London or Paris,” Hajizadeh stated, a reference to the European capitals coming under numerous terrorist attacks over the past years. Iran vowed quick revenge after ISIS suicide bombers and gunmen stormed the parliament and the mausoleum of Imam Khomeini on June 7, killing 18 and injuring at least 56. In a statement released after the attacks, the IRGC vowed avenge, saying, “The spilling of any pure blood will not go unanswered.” Also, Major General Mohammad Baqeri, head of the Iranian armed forces, pledged “unforgettable lessons” to terrorists and their backers after the Tehran assault. Former IRGC chief Mohsen Rezaei tweeted, “This was just the beginning of the revenge. Harsher slap is underway.” Rezaei also called the missile attacks “the message of Iran’s authority” to “the supporters of terrorism.”

Ahmad Majidyar, an Iran analyst at the Middle East Institute and a talented Iran-watcher, noted that Rezaei tweeted, “Mr. Netanyahu, this was just the message of Zolfiqar (missile); the message of Shahab and Zelzal is much stronger!” before erasing his tweet.

Former Secretary of State John Kerry has recently been making the rounds lobbying for a Nobel Peace Prize. Last week, for example, he traveled to Norway where he sat on a podium with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. There, both criticized the Gulf Arab state and the current U.S. administration. In Kerry’s quest for the prize, he either lied about U.S. allies or leaked highly classified intelligence by detailing the (still-classified) contents of conversations. Either way, he sought to depict himself as a peacemaker when, in reality, he emboldened and resourced the main source of instability in the region. In his quest to secure an accord and to cement his own personal legacy at any strategic cost, he watered down language about Iran’s ballistic missile program. This provided Iran with cover, or at least enough legal ambiguity, to pursue its ballistic missile program.

Fishman's Gaza Water Libel Actually Unsupported By Gazan Academics - by Sheri Oz

...I guess Alex Fishman ran out of topics to write about because this month he raised the old issue of Gaza’s dire water straits.

Sheri Oz..
Israel Diaries..
24 June '17..

Even as two engineers from Gaza tells the true story, Ynetnews publishes a water libel fable on behalf of Hamas .

I guess Alex Fishman ran out of topics to write about because this month he raised the old issue of Gaza’s dire water straits. According to Fishman the problem is because Israel is not willing to continue providing Gaza with free electricity:

The . . . large and modern wastewater treatment facility built by the World Bank in the northern strip in 2013 has yet to be activated because there is no electricity, and Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman is telling Hamas: Stop digging tunnels and you’ll get everything—electricity, a port, etc. That makes sense. But it’s exactly how Israel’s governments have been brainwashing us over the years with axioms aimed at preserving the status quo and serving political needs. [emphasis mine]

Pardon me for my stupidity but I do not understand what brainwashing is going on here nor how it is relevant to the fact that the World Bank actually built a “large and modern wastewater treatment facility” in Gaza that is going to waste because the Palestinian Authority (PA) refuses to pay for the electricity needed to run it (and to run everything else modern and essential). Is it not possible that the PA is refusing to pay for electricity as a way to make Israel look bad and preserve “the status quo and serve the[ir] political needs” to make Israel look like the demon and keep up the farce of everything is Israel’s fault?

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Friday, June 23, 2017

Murder by social media (is anyone at Twitter reading this?) - by Arnold Roth

..."We live at a time when the media are stronger than guns". Given how jihad-minded killers have been emerging, ready for murderous action, in practically every corner of the world in the past handful of years, how can anyone doubt that this cold-blooded savage is right? Meanwhile her Twitter account is alive and active. Is anyone at Twitter paying any attention?

Arnold/Frimet Roth..
This Ongoing War..
23 June '17..

Update: We're pleased to see that Twitter last night (Saturday) shut down the hateful account of the FBI fugitive who masterminded the bombing of the Sbarro pizzeria in Jerusalem. Our daughter Malki, 15, was one of her many victims.

Our very sincere thanks to all the good people who helped us in publicizing the existence of the account and in bringing it to the attention of Twitter.

Ahlam Tamimi, our daughter Malki's confessed murderer, has a Twitter account.

She has had one for years. Actually more than one. The latest Tamimi Twitter account replaces the one about which we - and many other people responding to a campaign we spearheaded in April 2017 - complained to Twitter. After an intense effort, that Twitter account was shut down. So too was her Facebook page.

As we wrote in a blog post here about ten weeks ago:

We think this means the many requests we and our followers... filed with Twitter were heard. Whatever the case, the world is a better and safer place with Ahlam Tamimi's voice lowered by several notches...

But now, as we said a moment ago, she has another Twitter account. For now, we're not publicizing its address. We don't want to contribute to her gaining any more followers; not even one more. She created it in May.

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PS. to the BBC’s coverage of the Jerusalem terror attack - by Hadar Sela

...The BBC will not of course produce any follow-up reporting on that or any other Palestinian Authority or Fatah glorification of terrorism. That means that when the next attack comes around, the corporation can once again tell its funding public that “Israel says” that incitement fuels terrorism while continuing to sidestep any real accurate and impartial journalism on the issue.

Hadar Sela..
BBC Watch..
21 June '17..

As readers no doubt recall, the BBC’s report on the terror attack that took place in Jerusalem on June 16th failed to tell audiences that ISIS had claimed the attack or that Hamas had rejected that claim of responsibility, saying that one of the terrorists was its own operative and that the other two belonged to the PFLP.

“Early on Saturday morning, Hamas rejected IS’s claim of responsibility, saying the three belonged to Palestinian terrorist organizations.

“The claim by the Islamic State group is an attempt to muddy the waters,” said Sami Abou Zouhri, spokesman for the terrorist group which runs the Gaza strip.

The attack was carried out by “two Palestinians from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and a third from Hamas,” he said.”

Moreover, in the final version of the BBC’s report readers found the following distorted portrayal of a statement from Israeli officials saying that there was no indication that the terrorists were connected to ISIS:

“Police said there was “no indication” of a link between the suspects and a terror group.”

As far as BBC audiences are concerned, therefore, the attack was perpetrated by three people unconnected to any organisation.

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The Conviction Rate in IDF Military Court Tribunals: Is it Too High? - by Karen Bekker

What does a commonly cited statistic about Israeli military courts really tell us?

Karen Bekker..
CAMERA Middle East Issues..
21 June '17..

One anti-Israel talking point that has been cropping up recently is the claim that nearly 100 percent of trials of Palestinians in Israeli military courts in the West Bank end in convictions. This statistic has been repeated in Newsweek and in the Washington Post.

The main source for this claim is a 2011 report from Haaretz, which cites “data in the military courts' annual report, which has been obtained by Haaretz.” There is no link to the report, nor any title given to identify it, and it does not appear to be publicly available.

Haaretz tells us that

According to the report, 9,542 cases were wrapped up in 2010, of which 2,016 involved hostile terror activity, 763 disorderly conduct and the rest Palestinians staying illegally in Israel, traffic offenses and criminal activity.

The report states that 25 cases ended in full acquittal, meaning that the conviction rate is 99.74 percent.

The implication of those who repeat the statistic in the context of anti-Israel articles is that the high conviction rate is evidence that the Israeli military courts are lacking in due process, and that the Palestinian defendants who are tried in them are not being treated fairly. A closer look at the facts, however, reveals that this is not so.

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Concerning Palestinians, It’s Lights Out at the Washington Post - by Sean Durns

...In a June 5, 2017, interview live streamed on Facebook, Post Jerusalem bureau chief William Booth claimed that the paper seeks to detail how “ordinary Palestinians… conduct their daily lives.” If so, it is failing — horribly.

Sean Durns..
Algemeiner.com..
22 June '17..

In recent months, the Washington Post has put the phrase “democracy dies in darkness” on its masthead — the first time that the paper has ever officially adopted a slogan. Yet, when it comes to the Arab-Israeli conflict, Post readers have been left in the dark about critical information and events.

The Post seems incapable of reporting on the Palestinians, unless the stories can somehow be connected to Israel. A look at recent coverage offers some examples.

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Thursday, June 22, 2017

Drama and Palestinian lies. Will the West notice that the curtain has gone down on the show? - by Bassam Tawil

...The PA leadership has indeed softened its tone against Trump and his advisors since they won the election. Yet this modified tone has one goal: for the PA to avoid accusations of being anti-peace. In fact, the PA leadership has changed its tone, not its tune. We are witnessing a tactical and temporary move on the part of the Palestinians. This play-acting will end soon enough. The question remains, will the West notice that the curtain has gone down on the show?

Bassam Tawil..
Gatestone Institute..
22 June '17..

US envoys Jason Greenblatt and Jared Kushner, who met this week in Jerusalem and Ramallah with Israeli and Palestinian Authority (PA) officials to discuss reviving the peace process, have discovered what previous US Middle East envoys learned in the past two decades -- that the PA has not, cannot, and will not change.

During their meeting in Ramallah with PA President Mahmoud Abbas, the two US emissaries were told that the Palestinians will not accept anything less than an independent state along on the pre-1967 lines with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Abbas also made it clear that he has no intention to make concessions on the "right of return" for Palestinian "refugees." This means he wants a Palestinian state next to Israel while flooding Israel with millions of Palestinian "refugees" and turning it, too, into another Palestinian state.

At the meeting, Abbas also reiterated his demand that Israel release all Palestinian prisoners, including convicted murderers with Jewish blood on their hands, as part of any peace agreement. The release of terrorists in the past has only resulted in increased terrorism against Israel.

According to Abbas's spokesperson, Nabil Abu Rudaineh, the PA president told Kushner and Greenblatt that a "just and comprehensive peace should be based on all United Nations resolutions (pertaining to the Israeli-Arab conflict) and the (2002) Arab Peace Initiative." Translation: Israel must withdraw to the indefensible pre-1967 lines and allow armed Palestinian factions to sit on the hilltops overlooking Ben Gurion Airport and Tel Aviv.

Abbas's position reflects accurately the policy of the PA leadership over the past two decades -- a policy that has been regularly relayed to all previous US administrations, successive Israeli governments and the international community.

To his credit, Abbas has been nothing short of consistent.

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To be humanitarian means disarming Hamas, pure and simple - by Prof. Hillel Frisch

One of the most widespread myths about Gaza is that it is wallowing in poverty and forever on the verge of a humanitarian crisis as a result of the Israeli and Egyptian blockade. But indicators such as life expectancy, growth in imports, and electricity demand suggest that the Gazan standard of living is rising, not declining. If a genuine humanitarian crisis were to loom, the solution would be simple: disarm Hamas and divert its considerable expenditures on terrorism to the improvement of the welfare of Gaza’s inhabitants.

Prof. Hillel Frisch..
BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 503..
20 June '17..
Link: https://besacenter.org/perspectives-papers/gazas-humanitarian-crisis-fake-news/

The internet and social media have made the creation, rapid dissemination, and perpetuation of myths a feature of political life. One of the most widespread is the myth that Gaza is wallowing in poverty and forever on the verge of a humanitarian crisis as a result of the Israeli and Egyptian blockade.

There is no shortage of compelling evidence to dispel this myth. Life expectancy, for example, is highly correlated with the good life. Japan, Singapore, and Norway lead the world in life expectancy. The bottom of the list contains countries in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia, for example Bangladesh.

The myth-makers would like you to think Gaza is also towards the bottom of the list, but it isn’t. Quite the opposite, in fact. Gaza’s life expectancy of 74 is above both the world average (68 in 2010) and the average in the Arab states. This means that more than 3.8 billion people are living shorter, and probably harsher, lives than Gazans.

The difference in life expectancy between Gaza and those at the bottom of the list is in fact quite staggering. Life expectancy in Angola, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Cote D’Ivoire, and other countries ranges from 50.1 to 55 years, according to the World Health Organization.

Were Gaza on the list, it would rank 86th out of 189 countries. That would place it alongside Paraguay and Samoa, hardly states that conjure images of abject poverty. But why resort to facts?

Perhaps, one might argue, life expectancy in Gaza is a quirk of fate. Or perhaps it is declining because of the blockade imposed on Gaza. The blockade was put in place because Hamas, the murderous terrorist organization that took over Gaza ten years ago, specializes in bombing buses full of Israeli citizens, fires missiles from hospitals (as the United Arab Emirates Red Crescent Society accused Hamas of doing), and launches assaults against Israeli civilian neighborhoods.

Reality check: life expectancy in Gaza has not declined, and the blockade no longer exists. Before the brief curtailment of goods into Gaza from Israel in 2007, 10,400 trucks laden with goods entered Gaza monthly from Israel (these figures are from OCHA, the bitterly anti-Israeli UN agency). In 2016, 14,460 trucks of produce crossed from Israel into Gaza per month, a 34.6% increase from before the imposition of the so-called blockade. This means the purchasing power of Gazans has not declined (taking into account demographic growth).

NY Times Publishes ‘Correction’ With Two Errors on Jerusalem Terror Attack - by Ira Stoll

...Whatever else can be said for this episode, it’s not an example of Times journalism at its best. And if you think you might file a complaint with the newspaper’s public editor about it, forget it; the Times has eliminated the job.

Ira Stoll..
Algemeiner.com..
21 June '17..

The New York Times has published a correction emphasizing that it doesn’t consider Jerusalem’s Old City part of Israel — and highlighting the newspaper’s own double standards and failures to grasp basic geography.

The correction, in the June 21 print edition of the Times, reads as follows:

Because of an editing error, an article on Saturday about knife attacks in the Old City section of East Jerusalem referred incorrectly to a claim of responsibility for the attacks by the Islamic State. It was not the group’s first for attacks on territory internationally recognized as part of Israel; the status of East Jerusalem is disputed.

What the Times doesn’t report, but is disclosed by the website Newsdiffs.org, which tracks the stealth changes to Times articles published online, is that this Times correction is itself a correction of an earlier version of the correction.

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