Love of the Land: May 2018

Thursday, May 31, 2018

The Goal of Those European Union and Palestinian Illegal "Facts on the Ground" - by Bassam Tawil

The coming weeks will be a test of Israel's sovereignty and resolve. At the same time, the weeks ahead will also expose the real intentions of the PA and the European NGOs and governments who continue to bankroll illegal construction and land seizure in areas recognized by international law to be under Israeli jurisdiction.

Bassam Tawil..
Gatestone Institute..
31 May '18..

What the Palestinian Authority, the European Union, Israel's High Court of Justice, three Israeli towns, and the Jahalin tribe have in common is the Bedouin settlement of Khan al-Akhmar.

The battle for this Arab settlement has been waged in the international media and the Israeli Supreme Court for more than a decade, and its story is a microcosm of the Arab-Israel conflict, complete with alternative narratives, shifting alliances, unclear lines of responsibility and murky vested interests.

The first problem is that Khan al Akhmar is located in an area, unpoetically named Area C, where, according to the United Nations, "Israel retains near exclusive control, including over law enforcement, planning and construction."

This small cluster of Bedouin homes is actually sitting on land in an Israeli township, Kfar Adumim, at a strategic crossroads between Jerusalem, the Dead Sea, and the outlying Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem, making it crucial both to the Israelis and the Palestinians.

Until fairly recently, the residents of the Arab settlement -- a branch of the Jahalin tribe of Bedouin -- had lived in southern Israel. At some point in the 1970s, a feud broke out between different branches of the tribe, and the Jahalin fled northward, and arrived in the Maaleh Adumim region in the late 1970s, where they have remained ever since.

Like almost all other Bedouin in the Middle East, they began to abandon their nomadic lifestyle in favor of more permanent settlements and livelihoods not dependent on shepherding. Unfortunately, this branch of the tribe set up camp in a strategically critical area near a major highway, and began tapping into municipal water and electricity lines for subsistence.

Here is the other problem: since the 1980s, when their squatter's camp began to take shape, it has always been illegal as well as impractical. Its proximity to the highway has been posing a safety hazard for the Bedouin children who play alongside it, as well as for the motorists who must avoid being hit by the rocks thrown at their vehicles. Out of literally dozens of these incidents reported in the press, here are a few examples:

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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.

Why and How International Farhud Day Stymies Invented Palestinian History - by Edwin Black

...Invented Palestinian history also asserts that present-day Israelis are almost entirely transplants from such alien regions as the Ukraine, Poland, Brooklyn, and Germany — or descendants thereof. Remembering the Farhud helps us understand that almost half the early Jewish families in newly-declared Israel were not from across the sea, but rather from across the river, across the bridge, down the road, and plucked from the same culture.

Edwin Black..
Algemeiner.com..
30 May '18..

When International Farhud Day was proclaimed at a conference convened at the United Nations headquarters on June 1, 2015, its proponents wanted to achieve more than merely establish a commemoration of the ghastly 1941 Arab-Nazi pogrom in Baghdad that killed and injured hundreds of Iraqi Jews. Farhud means violent dispossession. The Farhud but the first bloody step along the tormented path to the ultimate expulsion of some 850,000 Jews from across the Arab world. That systematic expulsion ended centuries of Jewish existence and stature in those lands.

Jews had thrived in Iraq for 2,700 years, a thousand years before Muhammad. But all that came to end when the mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, led the broad Arab-Nazi alliance in the Holocaust that produced a military, economic, political, and ideological common cause with Hitler. Although Husseini spearheaded an international pro-Nazi, anti-Jewish Islamic movement from India to Central Europe to the Middle East, it was in Baghdad — a 1,000-kilometer drive from Jerusalem — that he launched his robust coordination with the Third Reich.

In 1941, Iraq still hosted Britain’s Anglo-Persian Oil Company, which controlled the region’s oil. Hitler wanted that oil to propel his invasion of Russia. The Arabs, led by Husseini, wanted the Jews out of Palestine and Europe’s persecuted Jews kept away from the Middle East. Indeed, Husseini persuasively argued to Hitler that Jews should not be expelled to Palestine but rather to “Poland,” where “they will be under active control.” Translation: send Jews to the concentration camps. Husseini had visited concentration camps. He had been hosted by architect of the genocide Heinrich Himmler, and the mufti considered Shoah engineer Adolf Eichmann not only a great friend, but a “diamond” among men.

Nazi lust for oil and Arab hatred of Jews combined synergistically June 1–2, 1941, burning the Farhud into history.

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To Michael Chabon, from Biblical Hebron - by Yishai Fleisher

The Jewish community of Hebron does not "gaze out in scorn" at our Arab neighbors. We have many friends and colleagues among the Arab community -- those who reject Jihad. We often meet with Sheikhs and Mukhtars in Hebron and in nearby villages. It is people like Michael Chabon, who don't know much about the reality on the ground, that prefer to paint Hebron as endlessly violent and in conflict.

Yishai Fleisher..
JNS.org..
30 May '18..

At a recent graduation of Hebrew Union College in Los Angeles, novelist Michael Chabon berated the Jewish community of Hebron:

“I abhor an enclave, too, a gated community, a restricted country club, or a clutch of 800 zealots lodged in illusory safety behind a wall made from the bodies of teenage soldiers, gazing out in scorn and lordly alarm at the surrounding 200,000 residents of the city of Hebron,” he said.

So here are a few points to consider in answering Chabon:

1. While today Hebron Jews number only 800, consider that together with our adjacent sister city Kiryat Arba we are a block of 10,000 Jews. Furthermore, we are a tourist destination for 700,000 visitors and pilgrims yearly, including thirty-five thousand just on Shabbat Chayei Sarah. The Israeli government coalition has backed Jewish rights in Hebron and recently normalized purchase of Arab properties, given authorization to build 31 new apartments, and given the Jewish community of Hebron status as an independent community. Moreover, Nikki Haley has consistently stated that the U.S. Government’s decision to leave UNESCO was a direct result of that organization’s effort to rebrand the Tomb of the Fathers and Mothers in Hebron as a Palestinian World Heritage Site. Michael, while you may try to marginalize us, the people of Israel and the U.S. Government stand with Hebron!

2. The IDF defends Hebron for two reasons: Jews have every historical right to be in Hebron, and at the same time we are under constant attack from the Jihad. It is not our zealousness which provokes violence, but rather a hateful ideology that has taken hold of our region. Michael, why do give the attackers a pass while blaming the victim?

3. The Jewish community of Hebron does not “gaze out in scorn” at our Arab neighbors. We have many friends and colleagues among the Arab community — those who reject Jihad. We often meet with Sheikhs and Mukhtars in Hebron and in nearby villages. It is people like Michael Chabon, who don’t know much about the reality on the ground, that prefer to paint Hebron as endlessly violent and in conflict. Michael, look past your bias and see that there is also much hope in Hebron!

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Wednesday, May 30, 2018

Normalization, Boycotts and Palestinian "Treason" - by Bassam Tawil

...The Palestinians' anti-normalization campaign against Israel means that Palestinians are not interested in peace with Israel. What they seek is not peace with Israel, but peace without Israel. They want to see Israel gone from the Middle East. They want to see Jews vanish from the region. The Palestinians' problem is not with a settlement or a checkpoint or a fence. They have a problem with the existence of Israel in any borders.

Bassam Tawil..
Gatestone Institute..
30 May '18..

Palestinian leaders have spent the past few months calling for boycotts of Israel and the US. The most recent call came just a few weeks ago, when Palestinian Authority leaders and officials called on all countries to boycott the inauguration ceremony of the US embassy in Jerusalem.

One of the officials who called for boycotting the ceremony was Ahmed Majdalani, a member of the PLO Executive Committee, and a top advisor to President Mahmoud Abbas. Majdalani is also famous for his repeated calls in the past few years for boycotting Israel in all fields.

Now, it seems that Majdalani is being forced to taste the same medicine he has been prescribing for Israel and the US. His efforts to promote boycotts of Israel and the US have backfired. Ironically, the boycotter Majdalani is now being boycotted by his own people. This is what happens when all you preach to your people day and night is hatred, incitement and boycotts. Eventually, you yourself become affected by the same messages of hate and brainwashing.

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(Versions 1-7) How the BBC News website covers Gaza terrorists’ mortar attacks - by Hadar Sela

...Despite the areas under attack being less than a two-hour drive away from the BBC’s Jerusalem bureau, once again the corporation’s audiences did not see any interviews with Israeli civilians affected by the terror attacks.

Version 1 on Middle East page

Hadar Sela..
BBC Watch..
30 May '18..

Just before 7 a.m. on May 29th residents of Israeli communities near the border with the Gaza Strip had to rush for cover as a barrage of twenty-five mortars was fired by terrorists. Roughly an hour later another two mortars were fired and just after 09:30 a third attack took place.

“At least 28 mortar shells were fired at southern Israel in at least three separate barrages Tuesday morning as sirens blared throughout the area, the army said, amid heightened tensions along the Gaza border.

One person was lightly injured by shrapnel in his shoulder and was being treated at the Soroka medical center in Beersheba. […]

“The army said its Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted the majority of the incoming shells from the first barrage.

One of the shells struck a tree in the yard of a kindergarten in the Eshkol region, less than an hour before students were due to arrive, a spokesperson for the community said. […]

The kindergarten that was hit by a mortar shell — along with all other schools in the area — opened as usual on Tuesday, despite the attack.”

Attacks with both mortars and rockets were renewed in the afternoon hours – including on more distant towns such as Ofakim and Ashkelon – and continued into the evening and night. By 9 p.m. local time at least 70 projectiles (some of which were Iranian-made) had been launched, several Israeli civilians and soldiers had been wounded and Hamas and the second largest armed terror faction in Gaza – the Palestinian Islamic Jihad – had issued a statement claiming joint responsibility for the attacks.

The IDF responded to the attacks throughout the day with strikes on military positions in the Gaza Strip and, separately, destroyed a cross-border tunnel – the tenth in recent months.

So how did the BBC News website cover the day’s events?

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Ignorance, platitudes and the myth of the ‘Gaza massacre’ - by Maurice Hirsch

...In reality, international law clearly permits Israel to use force, even lethal force, to defend itself and its population from homicidal terrorists.

Lt. Col. (res) Maurice Hirsch..
blogs.timesofisrael.com..
29 May '18..
Link: http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/the-myth-of-the-gaza-massacre/

Aron Keller’s recent article (May 16, 2018), “Gaza massacre should be a turning point for British Jews”, is a prime example of how ignorance, combined with baseless platitudes, unfortunately frame the thoughts of some of British Jewry.

In his article he claims that the 14 May “bloodbath” and “massacre” of Palestinians in the Gaza strip should bring “true friends of Israel” to “loudly and forcefully condemn” her instead of excusing her actions.

The fundamental mistake made by Keller, is to completely misunderstand and misrepresent the events in Gaza that started on March 30th.

Only when these events are presented, in their entirety, can any judgement be made regarding the events and their outcome. So let’s examine the facts.

The months preceding March 30th saw a rise in terrorist activity from the Gaza strip. Improvized explosive devices (IED’s) were planted by terrorists on and around the security fence that separates Gaza from Israel and Israeli forces were attacked. On February 17th, four IDF soldiers, operating in Israel, were injured.

Alongside the rise in terrorist activities, Hamas pushed forward in its preparations for the “Great March of Return”. The goals of the ‘March’ were very clear – Wipe Israel off the face of the map by flooding it with hundreds of thousands of ‘Palestinian refugees’. On April 7, Yahya Sinwar, the Gaza head of the internationally recognized terrorist organization Hamas, clearly described the goal of the ‘March’ saying “We will take down the border and we will tear their hearts from their bodies.”

Even the Palestinian Authority, which is no friend of Israel, criticised the Hamas. As reported by Palestinian Media Watch, on April 6, one of Mahmoud Abbass’ senior advisers accused Hamas of deliberately encouraging civilians to endanger themselves and said that the Hamas is saying to the Gazans, “You Palestinians, our people, go and die so that we’ll go to the TV and media with strong declarations.”

Tuesday, May 29, 2018

A double helping of BBC ‘Nakba’ backgrounder - by Hadar Sela

...The BBC did not tell its audiences who wrote this backgrounder but whichever BBC journalist did so, it is blatantly obvious that he or she had no intention whatsoever of providing audiences with the full range of historical background and factual information which would enhance their understanding of the issue. Instead, the BBC’s funding public got a double dose of promotion of a one-sided political narrative in which Palestinians are exclusively portrayed as totally passive victims and all mention of the responsibility of the Arab leaders who rejected the 1947 Partition Plan and subsequently started the war that led to their displacement is missing.

Hadar Sela..
BBC Watch..
29 May '18..

On May 15th the BBC News website published a backgrounder titled “Why Nakba is the Palestinians’ most sombre day, in 100 and 300 words“.

“Palestinians have been protesting at Gaza’s border with Israel in the lead up to the the [sic] most mournful day in their calendar. The date, which falls on 15 May each year, commemorates events which caused Palestinians to lose their homes and become refugees. They refer to it as al-Nakba, or the Catastrophe.

Here it is briefly explained, in both 100 words and 300 words.”

Why the BBC thought its audiences needed a double helping of explanations was not explained.

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Answering the Question: Did Israel Use “Disproportionate Force” to Protect the Gaza Fence? - by Amb. Alan Baker

...This “peaceful” protest involved: lobbing explosive devices against the fence and the Israeli soldiers defending it; attaching explosive devices to the fence to explode and kill Israeli soldiers trying to dismantle them; launching incendiary devices attached to kites and balloons to fall on Israeli residents of the villages close to the fence across the dividing line and burn Israel fields and agricultural produce; as Hamas organized these attacks above ground, its engineers are still excavating attack tunnels 10 meters below to allow terrorists to infiltrate Israel; ...

Amb. Alan Baker..
Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs..
Vol. 18, No. 13..
28 May '18..

The recent, ongoing flood of international criticism and censure against Israel, and specifically the time-worn mantra accusing Israel of a “disproportionate and indiscriminate” response to the Hamas–organized “Peaceful March of Return,” calls for comment as to the bona fides of those who so easily and glibly make such accusations.

Perhaps the most obvious, blatant, and fatuous example of this new spate of Israel-bashing is the rehashing of the accusation that Israel acted in a “disproportionate and indiscriminate” manner. This is repeated by European leaders whenever Israel is obliged to defend itself and its territory.

Pavlovian European Responses

This automatic allegation was most recently voiced by the EU foreign affairs representative, Federica Mogherini, and other senior European leaders, who did not bother to indulge themselves in ascertaining the facts of the situation.

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BBC World Service audiences get distorted account of Kerem Shalom closure - by Hadar Sela

...apparently what passes for “accurate and impartial news [..] of the highest editorial standards” at the BBC.

Hadar Sela..
BBC Watch..
28 May '18..

As regular readers will be aware, the BBC failed to adequately report on three separate incidents of severe vandalism at the Kerem Shalom crossing carried out by Palestinian rioters – on the instruction of Hamas – on May 4th, May 11th and May 14th.

The sole reference to the May 4th incident came in the form of twenty-two words in a BBC News website report on another topic that was published the following day:

“On Saturday, Israel accused Hamas of setting fire to gas supplies and damaging crossing points where humanitarian supplies are brought into Gaza.”

The May 11th incident was completely ignored and, despite the corporation’s extensive coverage of the events of May 14th, the fact that Palestinian rioters once again set fire to the sole commercial crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip was not reported to BBC audiences.

The day after the second incident on May 11th it was announced that the crossing would have to be closed while repairs were underway.

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Monday, May 28, 2018

The Hashemite Kingdom and a Jerusalem battlefield of names and identities - by Arnold Roth

...No one is going to lose too much sleep in our part of the world because of Jordanian huffing and puffing over the names of places they continue to dream of dominating - and of destroying.

Arnold/Frimet Roth..
This Ongoing War..
28 May '18..

It won't be surprising to regular readers when we say that we keep an eye on what the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan does. And that we wish people would pay closer attention to some of the disturbing things that happen there.

An article in yesterday's Jordan Times ["Changing Arabic names of Jerusalem heritage sites is attempt to ‘Judaise’ city - study", May 27, 2018] provides an illustration. (The emphasis is ours):

The Israeli occupation has changed the Arabic names of 667 archaeological and heritage sites in Jerusalem with the aim of “Judaising the city” and “erasing its historical and religious identity”, according to a recent study.
“Replacing the Arabic names is part of a long-term and systematic attempt to distort facts and falsify the real identity of the holy city until the future generation forgets its Arab and Islamic identity,” Ibrahim Bazazo, researcher and dean of the Faculty of Tourism and Hospitality at the University of Jordan told The Jordan Times on Sunday.

The study was conducted over the course of three years by Jordanians Omar Jawabreh, Mohammad Sarayreh, Haitham Abdelraza and Bazazo, under the title “Towards Sustainable Documentation of Geographical Names of Touristic and Heritage Sites in Occupied Jerusalem Using Geographical Information System [GIS]”. Researchers used documents dating back to the 18th and 19th centuries, including holy books, historical and geographical atlases..."

It goes on in this vein, accusing the enemy of "forcing a ‘Judaised’ identity" and blaming "the Israeli occupation" for replacing "Arabic names not only from all signs and banners but also from school books and official curricula". (The very loaded issue of school books offers an egregious example of a Jordanian talent for skating on thin ice.)

Perhaps to bolster the mean-spirited and essentially untrue Jordanian allegations with a little gravitas, the government-controlled newspaper refers to some thoughts of its ruler:

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Introducing the BBC’s ‘Great Return March’ magical disappearing act - by Hadar Sela

...The public purposes laid down in the BBC’s charter oblige it to provide its audiences with “accurate and impartial news, current affairs and factual programming of the highest editorial standards”. In order to meet that obligation the BBC would have had to inform audiences of the fact that Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad had claimed a very high proportion of those the BBC spent days describing as “protesters” on multiple channels and platforms. Significantly, it failed to do so.

Hadar Sela..
BBC Watch..
28 May '18..

Over the past few weeks we have documented some of the BBC’s coverage of the ‘Great Return March’ events that began at the end of March. Between March 30th and early May, BBC reporting was sporadic but as the anticipated May 14th climax approached – and with it the chance to promote the notion of linkage between the pre-planned events along the Gaza Strip-Israel border and the opening of the US embassy in Jerusalem – the pace of coverage increased, as the examples below demonstrate.

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Human shields (part 2): Gazans to put injured people on boats and set sail, to nowhere - by Elder of Ziyon

...judging from how the media covered Gaza, we can expect this gimmick to work as well

Elder of Ziyon..
27 May '18..

From Middle East Monitor:

The Gaza Strip will set off a flotilla of ships on Tuesday in a bid to break the 12-year-long Israeli blockade on the Palestinian territory.

“This trip will carry the hopes and dreams of the Palestinian people for freedom,” Salah Abdul-Ati, a member of a Palestinian committee tasked with breaking the siege, told a press conference in the Gaza City on Sunday.

He said the first ship will set sail on Tuesday morning, with a number of injured Gazans and patients aboard.

He, however, did not specify the first stop of the ship.

This is the naval equivalent of the "Return march" riots.

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Sunday, May 27, 2018

Why the Media’s Palestine Narrative Reads Like Fan Fiction - by Matthew R.J. Brodsky

Recent events in Gaza demonstrate the growing chasm between reporting and reality.

Matthew R.J. Brodsky..
The Weekly Standard..
25 May '18..

The growing chasm between reality and reporting regarding the Palestinian-Israeli conflict was in stark relief during the recent events in Gaza. The prevailing narrative was that strong-armed Israelis were shooting and killing unarmed peaceful Palestinian protesters, when in fact there were a series of violent riots planned by Hamas as cover while they attempted to breach the security fence, pour into Israel, and kidnap or kill Israelis. The majority of those killed were terrorists or affiliated with Gaza-based terrorist movements, which is information provided by the terrorist groups themselves.

Regardless of how one feels about Israel or the Palestinian quest for statehood, establishing what happened should have been a straightforward task given the abundance of verifiable evidence as the events unfolded. Unfortunately, this grotesque failure to report facts accurately or put them in context reached this point after several decades during which news outlets cemented the conflict narrative as a story focused on Israeli actions alone.

A comprehensive explanation for this behavior was offered by Matti Friedman in his August 2014 Tablet magazine article “An Insider’s Guide to the Most Important Story on Earth.” As a reporter and editor in the Jerusalem bureau of the Associated Press from 2006 to 2011, he witnessed the prevailing narrative take hold and concluded, “Many of the people deciding what you will read and see from here view their role not as explanatory but as political. Coverage is a weapon to be placed at the disposal of the side they like.”

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Appalled by ADL’s mourning Hamas deaths as ‘horrific tragedy’ - by Morton Klein/Liz Berney

No one should mourn the deaths of Nazis, Al-Qaeda terrorists, ISIS terrorists—or Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists who were killed while trying to breach Israel’s security fence to murder Jews.

Morton Klein/Liz Berney..
JNS.org..
25 May '18..

It’s painfully shocking that Anti-Defamation League head Jonathan Greenblatt recently wrote on ADL’s website: “It is a horrific tragedy that so many people have been killed and wounded at the Gaza border.” This broad statement was not limited to the tiny minority who were not members of a terrorist group. (And even that minority joined violent riots whose goal was to breach Israel’s border fence and descend upon nearby Jewish communities, schools and day-care centers—and all of Israel—to murder innocent Jews.) Thus, we must ask: How is the death of mostly Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorists a “horrific tragedy?”

In fact, the deaths of these terrorists prevented a real “horrific tragedy”—the murder of thousands of innocent Jews who would have been slain if Hamas’s violent rioters had succeeded.

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Abbas, David Friedman, and the Power of Photos - by Yoni Tobin

...Many may be quick to label the situation a double standard. The term double standard does not apply, however, because the term implies that two sides are held to different standards. Here, one side is held to virtually no standard at all. The international news media, NGOs, and governmental bodies all remain deathly silent on incitement, and will continue to do so long as false balance remains in fashion.

Yoni Tobin..
Algemeiner.com..
25 May '18..

If a picture is usually worth a thousand words, when it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a picture is worth a million.

Just as informative as a picture, however, is the context in which it is presented. An unfavorable caption or description can influence perception of a situation just as directly as the photo itself.

Take, for instance, the outcry relating to two recent photographs — one involving Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, and the other involving US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman.

On Monday, President Abbas was photographed in the Itishari Arab Hospital in Ramallah, where he was being treated for pneumonia. In the photograph, Abbas is pictured sitting and reading al-Hayat al-Jadida, the official Palestinian Authority newspaper. The scene appears innocuous enough — until one notices a massive political cartoon on the back of the newspaper depicting an Israeli soldier poisoning a Palestinian baby.

The very next day, during a routine visit to Bnei Brak for an event conducted by Achiya — an Israeli non-profit charity organization — Ambassador Friedman appeared in a picture in front of an altered photo depicting the Third Temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, in place of the Dome of the Rock and the al-Aqsa Mosque.

Two incidents. Two controversies. And in the aftermath, two public relations teams frantically scrambling to repair the PR nightmare.

Only that isn’t what happened.

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Friday, May 25, 2018

Thomas Friedman's latest on Gaza, again leaves one to wonder how this stuff even gets published - by Martin Sherman

His latest piece is a “masterful” blend of personal bile and bias, liberally laced with logical inconsistencies, factual inaccuracies and even blatant non sequiturs.

Martin Sherman..
JNS.org..
24 May '18..

What if all two million Palestinians of Gaza marched to the Israeli border fence with an olive branch in one hand and a sign in Hebrew and Arabic in the other, saying, “Two states for two peoples: We, the Palestinian people of Gaza, want to sign a peace treaty with the Jewish people—a two-state solution based on the 1967 borders, with mutually agreed adjustments. – Thomas L. Friedman, Hamas, Netanyahu and Mother Nature, New York Times, May 22, 2018.

… the American conduct of the peace process bears an unhappy resemblance to the custom of treating diseases by placing leeches on the body of the afflicted person: It was based on an inadequate understanding of the pathology it attempted to cure, it did not solve the problem it was intended to fix, and it sometimes made it substantially worse. – Michael Mandelbaum, The Peace Process Is an Obstacle to Peace, Commentary, April 14, 2016.

The really disconcerting thing about The New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman is that at times, he can actually produce some sensible and insightful articles, as long as he is not writing (or more precisely, ranting) on Israel. Or Donald Trump. Or the Palestinians. Or Barack Obama …

Sadly, however, whenever he makes one of his far-too-frequent forays into any of these “touchy” topics, his journalistic output invariably degenerates into patently partisan pamphleteering.

But even compared to his past inanities, his latest column, “Hamas, Netanyahu and Mother Nature,” is a real doozy—a “masterful” blend of personal bile and bias, liberally laced with logical inconsistencies, factual inaccuracies and even blatant non sequiturs.

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Surprise? Rejecting shipments of medicines, Hamas Gaza health ministry complains of lack of medicines - by Elder of Ziyon

Propaganda once again wins over reality, and the world is eager to believe the lies.

Elder of Ziyon..
23 May '18..

The Gaza Health Ministry, run by Hamas, is complaining that its pharmacies are suffering from a severe shortage of medicines.

The director of the ministry said that there is significant depletion in their stocks of drugs, especially some antibiotics and blood dilution drugs such as Heparin and Clyxan.

"Despite the arrival of quantities of drugs donated to the ministry, but in light of the huge number of casualties and the great depletion from them these medicines do not fill the deficit," he said.

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Palestinian Lives Matter? In Damascus as well as in Gaza? - by Liel Leibovitz

...If you’re not outraged now, you don’t really believe, like me, that Palestinian lives matter. And if you were only outraged when Israel killed 50 Hamas terrorists trying to attack it, well, there’s an age-old term that accurately describes how you feel about Jews.

Liel Leibovitz..
Tabletmag.com..
23 May '18..

Last week, I wrote a piece lamenting the fact that tens of thousands of Palestinians were being manipulated by a murderous terrorist organization to risk their lives for no other reason than its maniacal commitment to the destruction of the state of Israel. Many readers, including some former friends, wrote to tell me that I was a heartless monster for failing to sufficiently empathize with the Palestinians, and the accusation stung: Staunchly supporting Israel does and should not mean being unable to feel deeply moved by the despair of Gaza’s inhabitants, even if their calamity was brought about chiefly by their homicidal warlords.

And so, in the spirit of empathy, I’d like to offer a challenge of my own to all those—in the media, in prominent progressive organizations, and elsewhere—who were so rattled by the riots in Gaza. Call it a reality-based thought experiment. Here goes:

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Thursday, May 24, 2018

Being accessories to terror at the Gaza border - by Stephen M. Flatow

...If your staff circulates a propaganda video, and you don’t specifically disown and condemn it, then that constitutes a de facto endorsement.

Stephen M. Flatow..
JNS.org..
23 May '18..

The Gaza border conflict is being fought on two battlefields simultaneously. One is the battle at the border fence, where the aggressors use Molotov cocktails, pipe bombs, rocks, sling shots, burning tires and flaming kites. The other is the battle for the hearts and minds of the American public, where the aggressors use distortions, omissions, fabrications and innuendo.

In the battle for public opinion, Israel faces two formidable opponents: the far-left wing of the Democratic Party and a large number of major news-media outlets. The two work hand in hand, feeding off one another, with belligerent political figures repeatedly appearing as commentators and then in turn issuing statements against Israel, which eager news hounds blast across the headlines.

Israeli Deputy Cabinet Minister Michael Oren had some very interesting things to say about this problem last week in a conference call with pro-Israel activists in the United States. The call was sponsored by American Friends of Likud and the Endowment for Middle East Truth.

Oren served as Israel’s ambassador to the United States from 2009 to 2013. He’s a political moderate who represents the centrist Kulanu Party in the governing coalition. Over the years, he has emerged as one of Israel’s most effective English-language spokesmen and is known for his measured tone. There are no hysterics when he speaks. He sure didn’t mince words, however, in his assessment of those who are misrepresenting and even rationalizing the Gaza mobs.

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Can You Imagine? Not Even Tom Friedman Believes NY Times Gaza News Coverage - by Ira Stoll

...So the Times news columns imagine “widespread international anger,” “international censure,” “intensified international attention and censure,” and “the world paying attention.” Friedman, on the other hand, writes that “so few Arabs, so few Europeans, so few anybody, rose to Hamas’s defense. People are fed up with it.” These two depictions of reality, if not flat-out contradictory, are at least in tension with each other.

Ira Stoll..
Algemeiner.com..
23 May '18..

How was the New York Times’ coverage of the Gaza suicide-riots? So off-target that not even the Times’ own Pulitzer Prize-winning op-ed columnist, Thomas Friedman, believed it.

The Times news columns had been insisting that the suicide-riots (to use a term I picked up from a Weekly Standard editorial) were drawing international sympathy and attention to the Palestinian cause. Perhaps this was wishful thinking, or a self-fulfilling prophecy, but, in any event, that was the Times’ story, and it was sticking to it, at least until Friedman came along.

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How BBC News makes a story disappear by changing photo captions - by Hadar Sela

...Once again the narrative – or “our message” as it is described in this item’s title – that the BBC intends to communicate to its audiences is amply clear.

Hadar Sela..
BBC Watch..
23 May '18..

On May 15th the BBC News website’s ‘In Pictures’ page published an item headlined “‘Hear our message’: Gaza border violence in pictures” which related to the previous day’s events and opened by telling audiences that:

“Monday was the deadliest day since violent unrest returned to the Gaza Strip border fence with Israel almost two months ago.

Palestinian protests were fuelled by the opening of the new US embassy in Jerusalem.

Israeli troops guarding the border killed at least 58 people and injured almost 3,000.”

Obviously “violent unrest” did not just appear out of the blue at the end of March: it was meticulously planned weeks in advance. BBC audiences have however been told nothing of what was organised, by whom, when and why and that means that the corporation can continue to promote false linkage between the pre-planned violence along the border and the relocation of the US embassy to an existing building in Jerusalem.

Notably, this item has not been updated to inform BBC audiences that 50 of the people killed on May 14th were – according to Hamas – linked to that terrorist organisation.

Scattered among the photographs are what the BBC describes at the bottom of the report as “witness interviews” gathered by “Reuters and AFP news agencies”. Notably, those ‘witnesses’ – identified only by their first name – tell only one side of the story.

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Wednesday, May 23, 2018

The Shafting of Palestinians and Human Rights by Pro-Palestinian Human Rights Organizations - by Bassam Tawil

...Each of the human rights organizations approached benefit immensely from the extremely generous support of foreign governments and charities such as the New Israel Fund and other well-known "liberal" foundations. The response the attorneys received speaks volumes.

Bassam Tawil..
Gatestone Institute..
21 May '18..

During the past 14 years, dozens of lawsuits have been filed in the Israeli judicial system by Arabs who have fled the Palestinian Authority (PA) and were given refuge in Israel. The sheer volume of cases and their remarkable similarity led the Israeli justice system to combine them and hear them as a unified case, heard in Jerusalem District Court, Justice Moshe Drori presiding, in 2017.

In each case, the victims, Palestinian Arabs living in PA-controlled areas, were suspected of collaborating with Israel -- a "crime" that can include anything from warning authorities of impending acts of terrorism to selling land to Jews.

These suspected "collaborators," after their abduction by the Palestinian Police, were imprisoned in the PA's dungeons and subjected to unspeakable torture. In their testimony before the court, the victims described brutal beatings, broken teeth, sexual assault, exposure to extreme heat and cold, being forced to sit on broken glass bottles, being hung repeatedly in various positions, and "medical treatment" by the Palestinian Authority's prison doctors that included injections of urine directly into their veins. In many cases, suspected collaborators were executed outright; other times, they were tortured to death and their family members raped and tortured. Even infants were not spared. These methods remain in force; this is how the Palestinian Authority deals with anyone suspected of cooperating with Jews: Death or torture.

During the trial, attorney for the Palestinian Authority changed their defense. First, they denied any involvement; later admitted that their police force had indeed "made arrests." They also tried to claim that due process had been adhered to throughout the period of incarceration.

A few months ago, Justice Drori found the Palestinian Authority directly responsible for the imprisonment and torture or murder of the 52 Palestinian plaintiffs, and required the PA to compensate the victims accordingly. In his decision, Justice Drori pointed to the overwhelming and incontrovertible evidence of torture, and the shocking similarity between the victims' testimony, which covers nearly 2,000 pages.

To collect compensation from the Palestinian Authority, however, the victims are required to submit a variety of medical and psychological assessments -- tests often expensive to run and which the Palestinians cannot afford. To help their clients, the Palestinians' attorneys, Barak Kedem and Aryeh Arbus, applied to 15 human rights organizations for assistance -- a "Who's Who" of human rights activism in the Israel-Arab conflict that are always the most vocal in the struggle against the Israeli "occupation," and regularly condemn the plight of Palestinian and Israeli Arabs under Israeli "occupation." These organizations are the greatest activists against demolition of homes belonging to terrorists' families, and the leaders of the fight against the "oppression" of Arabs by the Israel Police and the IDF, which they refer to as "occupation forces."

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As expected, BBC’s ‘Dateline London’ airs defamation of Israel but relevant facts concealed - by Hadar Sela

...In those nine minutes viewers did however see two mentions of a “massacre”, two references to “slaughter”, one allegation of “indiscriminate execution” and two references to “murder” – as well as portrayal of Israel’s government as a “barbaric regime” – all of which went completely unchallenged by the BBC presenter and with no right of reply afforded to the country accused of such acts.

Hadar Sela..
BBC Watch..
22 May '18..

Readers may recall that in July 2017 the BBC responded to a complaint concerning an edition of ‘Dateline London’ in which contributor Nabila Ramdani voiced some vicious, off-topic, anti-Israel slurs by saying that:

“We have spoken to the production team and presenter to remind them of the need to ensure that any contentious remarks are challenged and questioned, at whatever point they are made during the programme.”

In January 2018, the BBC responded to yet another complaint concerning falsehoods and anti-Israel smears promoted by Nabila Ramdani on the same programme by claiming that such calumnies are part of a “legitimate debate”.

“Our aim is simply to provide enough information for viewers to make up their own minds. This may include hearing opinions or accounts which some people may personally disagree with, but which individuals may be fully entitled to present in the context of a legitimate debate.”

Nabila Ramdani of course was not expressing an “opinion” – she was intentionally making false statements (such as the allegation that Palestinians “are routinely murdered in their thousands” and the claim that the intent of US military aid to Israel is “to ruin their [Palestinians’] lives”) which inevitably influenced viewer opinion because they were not challenged by the programme’s presenter.

BBC Watch hence submitted an additional complaint on that issue and in early April we received a response that included the following:

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