Saturday, September 30, 2017

Israeli Identity: What Has Changed This Year? - by Maj. Gen. (res.) Gershon Hacohen

...The tension between forging a unified nation and preserving the riches of multicultural variety should be seen as a fortunate advantage. This perpetual tension, which the Jewish people has experienced since it came into existence, is also its uniqueness.

Maj. Gen. (res.) Gershon Hacohen..
BESA Center Perspectives No. 599..
29 September '17..
Link: https://besacenter.org/perspectives-papers/israeli-identity/


External threats to our existence as Israelis create an awareness of a common fate. It is tempting to focus on such threats, because they provide a comfort zone in which security-political experts can ask the familiar question: how will we continue to defend our existence over the coming year? By concentrating on this question, we have found a way to repress basic questions about Israeli identity.

Beyond anxiety over our common fate as residents of this country stands a key question: do we still have anything in common? This debate, which has gathered steam over the past year, invites us to reconsider who we are and what we expect from our joint existence as a nation.

This past year, the Israeli identity crisis was expressed in new ways in the public discourse. President Reuven Rivlin described it in terms of the four tribes of the state of Israel: the religious, the secular, the ultra-Orthodox, and the Arabs. Amnon Rubinstein addressed the issue in his book The Tribes of the State of Israel: Together and Separately – Liberalism and Multiculturalism in Israel. Haaretz has devoted many articles to the topic.

Notwithstanding the president’s view, a focus on the deep structure of Israeli society, especially among the Jews, reveals an important common denominator, one that is more and more evident in the synagogues. Between Mizrahi and Ashkenazi Jews there are differences of formulation, not of essence. Hence a new trend is apparent in large synagogues in Tel Aviv: the conducting of frequent integrated prayer quorums and the use of blended versions of prayers.

Not only is there a new trend of integration of communities, but religious and secular Israelis are intermingling. Israeli sociologists largely concur with one another that “secular Jews are the majority.” They tend to identify the large numbers who identify as traditional as a secular subdivision – “secular lite.” As sociologist Oz Almog put it, “The majority of Israeli society is secular and traditional.”

Based on the same data, however, one can propose a different perspective and a contrasting conclusion. If we merely change the point of departure for the distinction between secular and religious – if we agree that not everyone who drives on Shabbat is necessarily secular, as in the case of Shalom Asayag in the fascinating TV series The 1980s – we can assert that the majority of Israeli Jewish society is religious and traditional. Those of a pronounced secular bent are in the minority.

Friday, September 29, 2017

(Video) Adon Haselihot - Erez Yechiel

Adon HaSelichot epitomizes for me everything that the time period leading up to, and including Yom Kippur is about. This rendition has both Hebrew and English subtitles.

Love of the Land
09 Tishrei 5778






With wishes of a G'mar Chatima Tova, Besorot Tovot, and a Shana Tovah.


Uploaded by  on Sep 13, 2009


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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'Balcony Over Jerusalem' as Another Example of Myopic, Anti-Israel Journalism - by Jerold Auerbach

...his book earns a comfortable niche among the more misguided critiques of the solitary democratic state in the Middle East.

Jerold Auerbach..
Algemeiner.com..
28 September '17..

After the Oslo Accords were signed, Australian journalist John Lyons believed that “the world was on the brink of resolving one of the most relentless conflicts in history.” In 2009, he arrived in Jerusalem, where he spent six years as the Australian’s Middle East correspondent. Balcony Over Jerusalem is Lyons’ memoir of his deepening disenchantment with the Jewish state.

An obsession with “occupation through settlements” frames the indictment of Israel that guides Lyons’ narrative. According to Lyons, his transformation on Israel began more than a decade earlier, during his first visit to Hebron. Drawn to the “raw conflict” in that ancient Jewish city — the burial place of the biblical patriarchs and matriarchs, and the site of King David’s first capital — Lyons fixates on Israeli “cruelty.” In the most prosperous West Bank Arab city, inhabited by 200,000 Palestinians and several hundred Jews, he focuses on the “occupying” Israeli army that protects their tiny enclave, which was decimated by Arab rioting in 1929, and rebuilt after the Six-Day War.

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Now that the Palestinian Arabs are embraced by Interpol... - by Arnold Roth

...With Interpol having now opened its arms to Attallah and the Palestinian police, we're thinking - like commentators who frequently ask when speaking of events in our area - what could possibly go wrong.

Arnold/Frimet Roth..
This Ongoing War..
28 September '17..

Interpol voted this week to admit the Palestinian Authority civil police as a full member in what Al Jazeera calls "a new victory in its drive for international representation despite strong Israeli opposition".

This raises some pretty deep concerns here in Israel where the assumedly-secure sharing of intelligence on terrorism is viewed as a life-and-death matter by ordinary folk.

The current head of the PA police is modestly referred to in formal documents and press releases as "His Excellency Major General Hazim Attallah". He was appointed to the role in March 2008, promoting a US official to submit this brief backgrounder up the reporting chain. It eventually found its way into Wikileaks. Some highlights...

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Thursday, September 28, 2017

Facing Palestinianism and raw antisemitism at the Labour Party Conference 2017 - by David Collier

...Palestinianism is a disease that is anathema to freedom, to debate, to openness and to human rights. It will infect those who catch the disease with antisemitism just as it provides them with the denial mechanism to protest their innocence.

David Collier..
Across the Great Divide..
28 September '17..

I have spent all week in Brighton, at the 2017 Labour Party Conference. This was my first visit to the conference. As someone who dislikes the ideological straitjacket of political affiliation, it will probably be my last.

From the suffocating presence of ‘Palestinian solidarity’ to an obvious tolerance for rabid antisemites, this week was deeply unsettling. There were times where the atmosphere was scary. How do we confront growing antisemitism? More importantly how dangerous is the growing antisemitism inside the Labour party, a confident party, that sees itself as the next government?

At the Conference

The venue, the Brighton centre. I have the conference programme in my hand. About 150 stalls in total, spread out on the several floors of the Centre. Each person at the conference is given a name tag, worn by placing a ‘lanyard’ around the neck. The PSC had brought ‘Palestine Solidarity’ lanyards, and it is clearly the item they want everyone to take from their stall.

I also note they have ‘runners’, people walking off with several PSC lanyards in their hands. One was looking for people running other stalls, who were willing to wear them. This badge of identification was eventually seen on many of the visiting crowd. It is both a brilliant PR strategy and is symbolic of an aggressive movement that works on sectarian identity politics, spreading throughout the Labour undergrowth.

What is ‘Palestine Solidarity’?

And this is exactly where the Labour Party problem with antisemitism begins. For most Jews, this situation is deeply unsettling. There is a fundamental misunderstanding in the Labour Party, that is based on profound ignorance, of exactly what ‘Palestine Solidarity’ actually means.

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The Fabrication and Fiction of "Dwindling" Christians in Israel ...by Dexter Van Zile

Mainstream media often alleges that Israel is inhospitable toward its Christian inhabitants resulting in a dramatic decline in their numbers. In fact, just the opposite is true.

Dexter Van Zile..
JerusalemJournal.net..
27 September '17..

One of the most enduring methods of de-legitimizing Israel is to portray it as a bad place for non-Jews, Christians especially, to live. Oftentimes, Palestinian Christians will describe Israel as behaving like Jews in First Century Jerusalem as described in the New Testament. Jews in Israel mistreated Jesus back in the day, and now Jews are mistreating his modern-day followers.

To buttress this narrative, anti-Zionists will play around with the numbers of Christians living in the country to falsely assert that Israel’s Christian population is “dwindling” when, in fact, it has grown substantially since the War for Independence in 1948/49.

Oftentimes, commentators point out that Christians amounted to 20 percent of the people who lived in the area that is now included in the Jewish State and that today, Christians are only two percent or less of the population and as a result, the population is decreasing. The implication is that Israel, the Jewish state, is inhospitable for Christians and is unworthy of Christian support.

The alleged decline of Christianity in the Jewish state is a prevalent theme that has been promoted in number of outlets such as the Catholic Near East Welfare Agency (CNEWA), the Associated Press, Sojourners, National Geographic, and by 60 Minutes.

Fair-minded Christians who want to respond to the notion that Israel is bad for Christians need to know one thing:

The number of indigenous Christians in the Jewish state has increased by almost 300 percent since the War for Independence.

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The Washington Post Once Again Pushing the ‘Despair’ Excuse for Palestinian Terrorism - by Sean Durns

...As with other Palestinian terrorists who have murdered Jews, the family of al-Jamal will receive payments from the PA—a practice enshrined in law as CAMERA noted in a recent Op-Ed in The Hill. Unsurprisingly, this also went unmentioned by the Palestinian leadership—and The Post that often uncritically quotes them.

Sean Durns..
CAMERA Snapshots..
26 September '17..

A Washington Post report on a Sept. 26, 2017 Palestinian terror attack pushed the narrative that “despair” and “frustration” over the lack of a Palestinian state was a motivating factor in anti-Jewish violence ("Palestinian shoots dead 3 Israelis at settlement near Jerusalem").

The dispatch, by Post reporter Ruth Eglash and Jerusalem bureau chief Loveday Morris, provided details about the attack in which a 37-year-old Palestinian named Nimr Mahmoud al-Jamal murdered an Israeli policeman and two security guards at the entrance to Har Adar in the West Bank (Judea and Samaria). Al-Jamal, who worked in Har Adar, opened fire shortly after 7 a.m., murdering the three men and wounding another Israeli.

In an otherwise informative article, The Post uncritically repeated the claim that “Palestinians say such attacks are caused by frustration stemming from 50 years of occupation.” However, as CAMERA has frequently noted, Arab anti-Jewish violence—including terrorist attacks—predates Israel’s acquisition of disputed territories in the 1967 Six Day War (for example, see "Anti-Jewish Violence in Pre-State Palestine," Aug 23, 2009).

According to CAMERA's BBC Watch, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) encourages the media to push the narrative that “despair” and “frustration” over the lack of a Palestinian state are the motivating factor behind terror attacks. (see “Reviewing BBC compliance with PLO media guidance,” Dec. 8, 2015). The Post, and others, frequently seem to follow these PLO-approved talking points.

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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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Wednesday, September 27, 2017

Do Advocates for Palestinians Actually Ever Listen to Palestinians? - by Mitchell Bard

...The selective outrage and morality of advocates for the Palestinians is apparent from their silence when it comes to the mistreatment of Palestinians by their own leaders. This hypocritical obsession with Israel’s real and imagined sins highlights their insincerity, and reveals that most care less about the welfare of the Palestinians than the demonization, if not destruction, of Israel.

Mitchell Bard..
Algemeiner.com..
26 September '17..

If you pay any attention to advocates and supporters of the Palestinians who live outside the Middle East, you would think that the Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip are mostly interested in settlements, boycotts, “occupation,” savaging Israel and achieving a two-state solution. You have to wonder if these activists ever speak to Palestinians who live in the territories — because when pollsters ask for their opinion, it becomes clear that their actual views are quite different.

The Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR) conduced its latest poll this month, and found that “an overwhelming majority of the Palestinian public is worried about the future of liberties in Palestine.” Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank, and Hamas in Gaza, both deny Palestinians their basic civil rights: freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom of the press and freedom of assembly. Women’s rights are virtually nonexistent, and there is zero tolerance of LGBTQ Palestinians.

As I’ve written before, advocates who claim to care deeply about the welfare of the Palestinians never stand up for the Palestinians’ rights when they’re abused by the Palestinian Authority (PA), or criticize the authoritarian rule of Abbas. When was the last time that the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, Arab American Institute, Students for Justice in Palestine, Jewish Voice for Peace, CAIR or any other pro-Palestinian group spoke out against the abuses? They only find their voices if they can find some way to blame the Jews — because they prefer anti-Israel propaganda to aiding the Palestinians.

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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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Media, Terror Attacks and the Har Adar Headline Fails - by Simon Plosker

...Ultimately CNN and the New York Times may both claim that there is nothing technically incorrect with their references to crossings or checkpoints. Nonetheless, in a situation where nuance is frequently lacking and terminology is often abused, this becomes important.

Simon Plosker..
Honest Reporting..
26 September '17..

A Palestinian terrorist shot and killed an Israeli border policeman and two civilian guards outside the Israeli community of Har Adar, which straddles the Green Line near Jerusalem. A fourth Israeli is currently hospitalized in moderate condition. The Palestinian was killed by responding security forces.

According to media reports, the 37-year-old Palestinian, Nimer Mahmoud Ahmad Jabbar, was a father of four from a nearby village and had a permit to work in Har Adar. After arousing the suspicion of the guards, Jabbar pulled out a pistol, hitting his victims at close range.

For the Daily Mail’s Mail Online, however, the use of scare quotes around “terror attack” appeared to question whether this was actually what occurred.

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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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No surprises as BBC editorial policy on terror continues in Har Adar attack report - by Hadar Sela

...From version six onward readers found yet another mantra which, although frequently promoted by the BBC, fails to provide audiences with the information and background necessary for full understanding of the reasons for the breakdown of that round of negotiations.

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

Just over an hour after a terror attack took place in Har Adar on September 26th the BBC News published its first report on the incident under the superfluously punctuated headline “Palestinian gunman ‘kills three Israelis’ in West Bank”.

Over the next six hours numerous amendments were made to that report as information emerged but – in line with usual BBC policy – none of its versions described the incident as terrorism or the attacker as a terrorist.

From its second version, readers of the report found promotion of PLO messaging in what has over the past two years been a standard insert in BBC reports on attacks against Israelis.

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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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Tuesday, September 26, 2017

Palestinian 'Reconciliation' has no intention of abandoning its murderous, genocidal agenda - by Bassam Tawil

...In the eyes of Hamas, the "reconciliation" agreement should serve as functional sharing between the PA and Hamas, with each side playing the role it wants. Abbas will go on pretending he wants peace, while Hamas builds more tunnels and acquires additional weapons.

Bassam Tawil..
Gatestone Institute..
25 September '17..

The Palestinian terror group Hamas has once again made clear that its true intention is to pursue the fight against Israel until the "liberation of Palestine, from the (Jordan) river to the (Mediterranean) sea." Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, says that despite the latest "reconciliation" agreement reached with the Palestinian Authority (PA) under the auspices of the Egyptian government, it will continue to prepare for war with Israel.

While some Western analysts have misinterpreted the agreement as a sign that Hamas is moving towards moderation and pragmatism, leaders of the Islamist movement maintain that under no circumstances will they agree to lay down their weapons. Hamas is, in fact, continuing full-speed-ahead digging tunnels under the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel. Hamas is planning to use the tunnels to smuggle armed terrorists into Israel.

Just last week, two Hamas terrorists were killed when the tunnels in which they were working collapsed, in separate incidents in the Gaza Strip. The terrorists were identified as Khalil Al-Dumyati and Yusef Abu Abed.

The news about the collapse of the tunnels coincided with the reports of the new "reconciliation" agreement reached in Cairo between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority (PA). This means that while the Egyptians and Abbas's representatives were discussing with Hamas leaders ways of ending their 10-year-long dispute and achieving "national unity," Hamas terrorists were busy tunneling under the Gaza Strip to prepare for attacks on 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. 
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The BBC’s terror attacks definition of convenience - by Hadar Sela

...In other words, when it is convenient for a particular purpose the BBC is perfectly happy to acknowledge both the existence and the scale of terrorism against Israelis. But when the corporation reports on (some of) those attacks in Israel, it deliberately refrains from describing them as terror because it is concerned about its own image and does “not wish to appear to be taking sides”.

Hadar Sela..
BBC Watch..
25 September '17..

The double standard evident in the language used by the BBC when reporting terror attacks in differing locations is regularly discussed on these pages and has been the subject of numerous complaints to the BBC.

In April of this year the BBC responded to one such complaint by stating that:

“Where there is an ongoing geopolitical conflict – as in the Middle East – to use the term “terror attack” or similar might be seen to be taking sides. There are those who might consider the actions of the Israeli government to be considered as terrorist acts.

In a situation where a country that is not involved in a direct physical combat comes under attack, it may be reasonable to construe that as a terrorist incident.

The use of such terminology is never an exact science but where a continuing conflict exists, it is reasonable that the BBC would not wish to appear to be taking sides.”

Regrettably, that response subsequently received endorsement from the UK’s communications regulator OFCOM.

The cynical approach behind the BBC’s policy came into full view last week in an interview with an Israeli guest in the September 19th edition of the BBC Radio 4 programme ‘Today‘ that was described as follows in the running order:

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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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Monday, September 25, 2017

Suarez's State of Terror: Hateful fiction from an academic charlatan - by David Collier

...He is surprised that we call the book antisemitic. He shouldn’t be. State of Terror is a book that fabricates lies about Jews. It distorts quotes to make most Jews look like monsters. It invents episodes, inverts the meaning of content and strips the context away to dehumanise every Jewish action. It isn’t just about Zionist Jews either.

David Collier..
Across the Great Divide..
24 September '17..

Alongside Jonathan Hoffman, I spent part of the summer inside the National Archives at Kew, checking some of the sources that Thomas Suarez had used to build his argument for the book ‘State of Terror’. The findings were inexcusable. Suarez distorted the documents to such a degree that history was unrecognisable.

At times Suarez had simply inverted the meaning of a document. At others, I felt we were looking at entirely different files. From the perspective of someone who respects historicity and spends much time sewing together the complex tapestry of historical context, Thomas Suarez is an academic charlatan.

Recently, Thomas Suarez has been spreading his hate-filled mythical tale in the United States. He also found time to respond to the report. What an empty response it was.

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Sunday, September 24, 2017

Surprise? Diana Buttu claims Palestinians are arrested for ‘criticising Israel’ - by Adam Levick

...Buttu’s allegations in the Guardian, characterising Israel’s crackdown on incitement to terror as an ‘assault on Palestinian dissent’, are both context-free and counter-factual – essentially everything you’d expect from a PLO propagandist with such well-documented record of lying about the Jewish state.

Adam Levick..
UK Media Watch..
24 September '17..

Former PLO adviser Diana Buttu has a history of not telling the truth about Israel.

During interviews in the early to mid 2000s, Buttu claimed (on several media outlets) that “between the period of 1997 until the year 2000 there wasn’t a single Israeli who died of a suicide bombing inside Israel”. However, as CAMERA revealed at the time, 24 Israeli civilians were killed in six separate Palestinian suicide attacks during that period.

During the 2009-09 Israeli war with Hamas, Buttu bizarrely alleged, during interviews on CNN and Fox News, that rockets fired from Gaza “do not have explosive heads.” In fact, Palestinian rockets carried between 9-18 kilograms of explosives.

At a Harvard conference in 2012, she repeated the lie about ‘rockets without explosive heads’ and added another one, claiming that “there weren’t any grad rockets fired in 2008 and 2009.” Actually, as CAMERA revealed, dozens were fired.

More recently, CAMERA caught Buttu in another lie, complaining to journalist David Remnick (in a Sept. New Yorker article) that the Israeli hit show Fauda never mentions the word “occupation”, and that the series doesn’t show “a single checkpoint”. However, contrary to Buttu’s claim, the word “occupation” is heard in “Fauda” and checkpoints do appear.

Her latest smear against Israel was published in the Guardian.

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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 True Enemies of the Palestinians? Like to Guess? - by Bassam Tawil

...Instead of removing Hamas from power, Abbas appears to be moving towards emboldening his Islamist enemies, who continue to denounce him as a "traitor" and "puppet" in the hands of Israel and the US. Even if the new agreement is implemented, Hamas and Abbas's Palestinian Authority will continue to be at each other's throats. Yet the two do have something in common: both are true enemies of the Palestinians, who continue to pay a heavy price for corrupt leaders who only care only for their jobs and bank accounts.

Bassam Tawil..
Gatestone Institute..
20 September '17..

Since 2007, Hamas and the Palestinian Authority (PA) have announced at least four "reconciliation" agreements to end their rivalry, which began a year earlier when Hamas won the Palestinian legislative elections. This week, under the auspices of the Egyptian authorities, the two rival Palestinian parties announced yet another deal to patch up their differences and achieve "national unity."

The latest agreement between Hamas and the PA requires the Islamist movement to dismantle its shadow government in the Gaza Strip -- known as the Administrative Committee. It was this shadow government that prompted PA President Mahmoud Abbas to impose a number of punitive measures against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, including cutting off salaries to civil servants, forcing thousands of employees into early retirement, halting payments for electricity supplied by Israel and reducing medicine supplies to hospitals in the Gaza Strip.

The Egyptian-engineered "reconciliation" agreement is being described by some Palestinians as a "historic" deal and a "positive development" toward ending the schisms and discord among the Palestinians. But judging from the reactions of Palestinians, the agreement holds little promise. Only the non-skeptical few think that the agreement will differ from all the previous, non-implemented ones.

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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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Terrorist Rasmea Odeh deported. Her last lie ever on U.S. soil, published in the Chicago Sun-Times. - by William A. Jacobson

...This lying terrorist murderer became the darling of the anti-Israel left, including groups such as Jewish Voice for Peace and the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights (formerly known as the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation). Those groups, and many others, continue to back Rasmea despite the overwhelming evidence of falsehood. Is there anything Rasmea will NOT lie about? Apparently not.

William A. Jacobson..
Legal Insurrection..
23 September '17..

The story of Rasmea Odeh is the story of a terrorist and confirmed liar.

We’ve documented both aspects of her life exhaustively. She was a military member of the terrorist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Yet she claims she was just a political activist.

Rasmea participated in at least two bombings in 1969, of a supermarket in Jerusalem that killed two students and the attempted bombing of the British consulate.

Rasmea then lied on her visa and naturalization papers, denying being a member of a terrorist group or having committed terrorist acts. She also denied EVER having been convicted or imprisoned, when in fact she was convicted in 1970 of the bombing and served 10 years in Israeli prison before being released in a prisoner exchange for an Israeli soldier captured in Lebanon.

Rasmea concocted a personal narrative that was a lie. She claimed she only confessed to the bombings after 25 days of sexual torture, when in fact she confessed one day after arrest. There also is a mountain of independent evidence of her guilt, including the videotaped statements of her two co-conspirators made years later for pro-Palestinian films.

After being arrested in Chicago for immigration fraud in 2013, Rasmea then concocted a defense predicated on the lie that she suffered from PTSD which caused her not to understand the questions on the immigration and naturalization forms. In her plea deal, Rasmea admitted that was a lie, and that she fully understood the questions, knowingly lied, and her answers were not the result of PTSD or any other mental condition.

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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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Saturday, September 23, 2017

Incitement and fake news, Palestinian style - by Stephen M. Flatow

...The PA tells 17-year-olds that killers of Jews will be hailed as “martyrs” and “heroes.” PA-paid Muslim preachers assure potential terrorists of heavenly rewards for stabbing and bombing. PA officials convince Palestinian teens that Israelis are vile, dangerous monsters who deserve to be killed. And then those teens pick up knives and go looking for Jews to kill. The cause-and-effect is obvious. Why can’t the world see that?

Stephen M. Flatow..
JNS.org..
19 September '17..

A little-reported stabbing incident, coupled with a large dose of Palestinian Authority-generated fake news, have revealed pretty much everything you need to know about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

It all began Aug. 18. Qatiba Zahran, age 17, left his hometown of Alar, near the city of Tulkarm, armed with a large knife. He was looking for an Israeli Jew to stab.

He couldn’t find any Israelis in Alar, or in Tulkarm, because they have been under the control of the Palestinian Authority since 1995. That was when then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin withdrew Israel’s forces from the areas where 98 percent of the Palestinian Arabs reside.

Note that Qatiba Zaharn was born in 2000. Meaning that he has lived under the rule of Palestinian Authority his entire life. He has not lived under direct “Israeli occupation.” There are no “Israeli settlers” endangering the residents of Alar or Tulkarm.

Odd! We are always being told that Israel’s “occupation” and “settlers” are what provoke Palestinians to stab, bomb, and shoot Jews. So how can one explain what motivated young Qatiba Zahran to pick up that knife?

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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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Wednesday, September 20, 2017

L'Shana Tova 5778! (Video) Over All of These

Love of the Land..
Erev Rosh Hashana..
29 Elul 5778..





Wishing one and all,
a Shana Tovah,
a year of Besorot Tovot,
a year of redemption for Am Yisrael,
and Eretz Israel.



Uploaded by letzshmo on May 30, 2011

Al Kol Eleh Words:
Naomi Shemer
Melody: Naomi Shemer

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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When the shofar calls out, wake up and be renewed because there is hope for our future - by Dror Eydar

...Wake up and be renewed because there is hope for our future, and the rifts in our lives will give way to a loud blast of the shofar for our freedom: "Out with the old year and its curses; in with the new year and its blessings." Shanah Tovah.

Dror Eydar..
Israel Hayom..
First Published 02 October '16..
Link: http://www.israelhayom.com/2016/10/02/time-to-create-a-positive-reality/

A new year doesn't start from scratch; rather it is the accumulation of its predecessors, years both good and bad.

Nor does a new beginning erase what preceded it; we begin anew with the accrued beginnings and endings of the past. Even if we didn't reach what we had hoped for, even if we didn't achieve the goals we had set for ourselves a year or two ago, we must not despair. What may seem like failure has actually created some kind of change -- our efforts have made an impression on reality, and what appears on the surface is not the same as what is happening in the depths.

We are a nation with revolutionary spiritual and moral messages, but their practical application is dependent on lengthy historical processes. There is no "quick fix." Evolution, not revolution, "the gently flowing waters of Shiloah" (Isaiah 8:6). The return to Zion also takes time. There is no need to force the matter in every way possible. And this is not just the salvation of the nation, but also salvation of the individual, the human being, his soul, his spirit and his heart. All that we haven't managed to accomplish this year, we will continue next year. Patience.

1.

After we were exiled from our land and were distanced from it and from a healthy national life, the naturalness of the time cycle dissolved. Time lost its fullness and was reduced to only its religious aspect: Times of day (for prayers and the time-dependent mitzvot), times of the week (Shabbat and the other days), times of the year (holidays) and more. "Since the day that the Temple was destroyed, the Holy One, blessed be He, has nothing in this world but the four cubits of Halachah [Jewish law] alone" (Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Berachot 8a). From the beginning of the year, only the Day of Judgment remains. Global judgment, which will sentence humanity and the universe to their future in the upcoming year. Fear of this judgment is thick in the air, "mysterium tremendum" (a mystery that causes man to tremble), King of Judgment. Then the shofars will be blown. "This day, the world is born anew, and all creation awaits Your judgment," (from "Hayom Harat Olam," a prayer read on Rosh Hashanah).

But we live in this good land, and during this special time, we do not feel fear, but renewal and exaltation. I have always thought it is no coincidence that the school year starts at this time. Think of the excitement we felt as students and as parents of young students beginning a new year at school. One cannot deny the gap that exists for us between the religious story and the story of nature and culture.

It was an "Only in Israel" moment - by Varda Meyers Epstein

...No longer was anyone grousing about long lines first thing on a Sunday morning in the supermarket, no longer was anyone worried about paying for the holiday, or getting the cooking done. No longer was anyone panicked about punching a clock at work. All that was gone. Just like that.

Varda Meyers Epstein..
Judean Rose/Elder of Ziyon..
19 September '17..

Maybe you've heard of the phenomenon known as "only in Israel." It may seem self-explanatory: something that could only happen in Israel, which is true. But it's more than that. It's a flavor, a culture. You only know it's happened when it hits you, and you wouldn't know what you were seeing unless you'd spent some time in Israel, living among Israelis.

"Only in Israel" is so well known a phrase that people often abbreviate it, especially on social media. "OIL," they'll comment, which is ironic, considering that nope: oil was not one of the things God gave Israel. At least not that we're aware, up until now.

There's a Facebook group where people share their moving "Only in Israel" stories. Because they are moving. Besides which sharing and reading "Only in Israel" stories can change a blah, or no-good-very-bad-day to a better one.

The thing is, an "Only in Israel" moment doesn't happen that often. Which is one reason these moments are so beloved, so precious. You have to not be looking for them. They have to catch you unawares. That's part of the charm of "Only in Israel" moments.

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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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Tuesday, September 19, 2017

The problem being Muslims want to take away ALL Jewish holy sites - by Elder of Ziyon

...This wholesale theft of an entire history seems a bit more serious than Israelis saying falafel is their national dish. But there are more articles about how Israel's supposed "cultural appropriation" than Muslim theft and attempted theft.

Elder of Ziyon..
18 September '17..

With all of the talk about the Temple Mount, it is sometimes easy to forget that every single Jewish holy site is also claimed by Muslims today as being exclusively Islamic.

Think about that. Muslims do not want to allow the Jews, who they claim to respect, to have a single holy site of their own. They have attempted to steal every one, from major Jewish shrines to relatively minor ones.

Today's Palestine Today has a story about how Jews "broke into" the Tomb of the Patriarchs.

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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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Judicial Activism and Israel's Supreme Court Shielding of Hamas Officials from Consequences - by Evelyn Gordon

...The court’s judicial activism impedes the government’s ability to set policy in almost every walk of life, as I detailed in Mosaic last year, and several rulings over the past few months rightly outraged many members of Israel’s ruling parties. But last week’s ruling may have been a tipping point: In response, Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked and her Jewish Home party submitted legislation to curb the court’s excesses. Whether it will pass remains to be seen. But this outrageous ruling in defense of Hamas legislators amply shows why it should.

Evelyn Gordon..
Analysis from Israel..
18 September '17..
Link: http://evelyncgordon.com/israel-courts-shield-hamas-officials-from-consequences/

When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, he’ll undoubtedly devote part of his speech to the need to fight terrorist organizations. What he probably won’t mention is that in Israel, the fight is often hamstrung by the Supreme Court’s out-of-control judicial activism, as evidenced by last week’s mind-boggling ruling denying the government the right to revoke the Israeli residency of people serving in the Palestinian legislature or cabinet on behalf of Hamas.

In 2006, three Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem were elected to the Palestinian parliament on behalf of the Hamas-affiliated Change and Reform party, while a fourth was appointed to the Palestinian cabinet on behalf of that party. Israel responded by revoking their Israeli residency rights.

To most people, this would sound like a no-brainer. Many democracies view serving in a foreign government as grounds for revocation of citizenship because holding a policy-level position in one country’s government is considered to require a level of commitment to that country, which conflicts with one’s loyalty to the other country. Indeed, both America and Israel have such rules for their own citizens in policy-level positions; that’s why, for instance, when Michael Oren became ambassador to the U.S., he had to forfeit his American citizenship, despite the fact that America and Israel are close allies.

But these four Palestinians weren’t just serving in a foreign government; they were doing so on behalf of Hamas – a terrorist organization sworn to Israel’s destruction. This, as the Israeli government correctly argued in court, constituted a massive “breach of trust” toward Israel.

Rasmea and The Radical Radicle: Where An Online Student Journal Joins ‘Fake Academia’

...One thing I am not sure of, however, is the meaning of “peer-reviewed” in this particular context: are the peers one’s students or are they faculty? If one’s fellow students, then it may be a case of the blind leading the blind, something that would seriously down-grade the value of this journal to anyone other than the authors’ proud parents. If faculty are the ones doing the peer review, then I would expect more rigourous adjudication of papers than is evident in the two examples I am critiquing here.

Sheri Oz..
Israel Diaries..
18 September '17..

Rasmea Odeh is unfairly maligned, according to a paper showcased on Reed College’s online journal. Fake academia at its best! This critique was prepared in honour of Odeh’s deportation from the USA scheduled for tomorrow. (Sept. 19th)

Providing an outlet for publishing student papers is a wonderful apprenticeship for budding academics. Misused, however, it can raise a new generation engaging in “fake academia” that I think is even more insidious and dangerous than “fake news”. Here is what Reed College says about its student journal, called Radicle (the part of the seed that sprouts):

Reed Anthropology Review is the student-powered and peer-reviewed annual journal of anthropology at Reed College. Sponsored by the Department of Anthropology and operated by students, for students, it is a space for highlighting Reed’s undergraduate work that is informed by anthropological method and theory.

Now, to be sure, I am not educated in anthropological method and theory, but I do know a thing or two or more about the Middle East and I think I am able to understand an academic paper, even one filled to the brim with jargon. If there are particular terms with which I am unfamiliar, I have no problem accessing definitions on the Web. Therefore, I anticipated an interesting read when I discovered that two articles in the 2017 volume of Radicle pertained to my favourite topic, Israel and the Middle East. Both articles were written by Sophie Spencer-Zavos.

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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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Monday, September 18, 2017

The reality of Technion-Cornell vs. the rants of Steven Salaita - by Divest This!

...Every few years, our Temple is blessed by a visit from young Israeli soldiers traveling through Boston, and I’ve always been stunned by the seriousness and maturity of kids not much older than my recent high-school graduate. And it is these serious young men and women who then go on to university and from there become the next generation of Technion professors, business leaders, or successes in a thousand other fields (all the while continuing to contribute to the defense of their homeland). In a contest between such serious people and freaks and weirdos like Steven Salaita, who has the upper hand?

Jonathan Marks..
Divest This!/Elder of Ziyon..
18 September '17..

Fair Fight

I’ve talked a number of times about how unfair the fight is between Israel and her defamers.
Those defamers, after all, have a militant goal: the elimination of the Jewish state. With that goal as their North Star, strategies to weaken that state or make its destruction appear noble and just become clear, as do tactics to achieve those strategic aims (such as BDS). In addition, the sociopathic nature of Israel’s enemies gives them the power to manipulate others while feeling no guilt over their own destructive, ruthless behavior.

In contrast, nearly all Israelis and friends of Israel do not want to see enemies eliminated. In fact, our greatest dream (i.e., our goal) is not to see Palestinians/Arabs/Muslims destroyed, but rather to live at peace with them (or at least be left in peace by them). With such non-militant goals driving our enterprise, it’s no surprise that we cannot gin up the kind of hatred needed to drive decades-long hostile counter-campaigns. And our unwillingness to use others as means to an end means we are not ready to manipulate neutrals in order to use them as weapons in our political campaigns.

While I still hold to this analysis, some recent events also got me thinking of another way to look at “the fight,” one in which the odds can seem stacked in Israel’s favor.

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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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