Love of the Land: August 2018

Friday, August 31, 2018

Does the facade of military expertise justify the sacrifice of Israel’s long-term interests for short-term gains? - by Evelyn Gordon

Military men are good at solving militarily problems, but they’re no better than anyone else, and often worse, at understanding political problems. Yet their facade of expertise often cows politicians into deferring to them.

Evelyn Gordon..
JNS.org..
30 August '18..

As I’ve written before, I’d support plunging UNRWA into financial crisis, since that might force it to reform. But Washington can’t cut its donations much more than it already has—from $360 million last year to just $60 million this year. And judging by the results, it hasn’t caused a crisis at all.

Admittedly, you wouldn’t guess this from listening to UNRWA Commissioner-General Pierre Kraehenbuehl or from reading the numerous media reports that uncritically parrot his claims. Kraehenbuehl has repeatedly said the organization faces “its worst crisis ever,” a genuinely “existential” danger. He even threatened not to open UNRWA schools this year, though he later backtracked.

But in real life, the agency has laid off 113 workers in Gaza, 154 in the West Bank and around 100 in Jordan—about 370 in total. If that sounds like a lot, then you haven’t read UNRWA’s website, which proudly declares the agency “one of the largest United Nations programs, with over 30,000 personnel.” In short, these “extensive” cutbacks, as one media report termed them, total a little more than 1 percent of UNRWA’s enormous staff. That’s not something most organizations would label a crisis.

Moreover, UNRWA wouldn’t have any crisis at all if it weren’t outrageously overstaffed. It has almost three times as many employees as the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, though the latter agency, which cares for all non-Palestinian refugees and displaced people worldwide, serves 12 times as many people. In other words, UNRWA has one employee for every 167 “refugees,” while UNHCR has one for every 5,200.

Nor would UNRWA have any problem if it didn’t endlessly expand its refugee rolls by including every refugee’s descendent for all eternity, even though most aren’t refugees at all, since they’re either citizens of other countries or residents of the West Bank and Gaza, which the United Nations itself deems the “State of Palestine.” The agency doesn’t even bother delisting many who are dead. In short, it has many ways to cut costs without causing a crisis.

Defense officials’ second fallacy is that Hamas providing services in UNRWA’s stead would somehow be bad.

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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.

Any Surprise? ‘Guardian’ Op-Ed Defends View That Israel Has No Right to Exist - by Adam Levick

...Anti-Zionism not a theoretical argument, but a radical campaign that seeks the destruction of an actually existing nation-state. Anti-Zionists such as Khalidi don’t say nation-states shouldn’t exist. They say that only the Jewish state shouldn’t exist.

Adam Levick..
Algemeiner..
30 August '18..

The headline of a Guardian op-ed by Ahmad Samih Khalidi (“Siding with the Palestinian struggle is not antisemitic”) is of course a straw man, as nobody claims that merely “siding with the Palestinians” is antisemitic. Khalidi, a former adviser to both Yasser Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas, has a broader goal: to defend those who object to the continued existence of a Jewish state, based on the “profound injustice” at the root of Zionism.

In an effort to legitimize his anti-Zionism, Khalidi grossly misleads readers by claiming that “Jewish opposition to Zionism has a long and distinguished history.” In fact, whilst there was a lively debate before Israel declared independence on the question of Zionism, today, Jewish opposition to the living, breathing state of Israel represents a minuscule, politically irrelevant fringe.

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Thursday, August 30, 2018

Beinart and The Forward : Leftist anti-Zionism whose roots are still in the same anti-Semitic Marxist sewer - by Daniel Greenfield

Karl Marx was right about one thing. There is a struggle between Judaism and the left. For the left to win, Judaism must be destroyed. And Beinart and The Forward are still waging his war on Judaism. And the Jews of Israel are winning through the traditional Jewish strategy of surviving. Every Jewish child born in Israel, every Jewish home that rises on a hill, is a defeat for Beinart, The Forward, and the left.

...Beinart, an anti-Jewish activist of
Jewish descent, is the perfect fit for an
anti-Jewish tabloid of Jewish descent.

Daniel Greenfield..
Sultan Knish..
29 August '18..

Anti-Israel activist Peter Beinart had spent years arguing that Hamas was a potentially moderate organization. Then when he was questioned at Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport, he played victim.

But as Caroline Glick notes, there was every reason for Israeli authorities to question Beinart’s visit, because the anti-Israel BDS activist had participated in anti-Israel protests in Israel. Beinart was not, despite his claims, detained. He was asked about his participation in that protest by the Center for Jewish Nonviolence. The Center, despite its name, is used by Jewish Voice for Peace members, a BDS hate group, which also, despite its name, advocates for and supports terrorists who attack Israel.

JVP members are on the banned list. Beinart had participated in a protest organized by a group that it used as a vehicle. So it’s completely normal that he was asked about it just as visitors to this country are asked about their membership in prohibited organizations such as the Nazi, Communist and other totalitarian parties. The BDS blacklist that bigots like Beinart rave about is no different than the United States blacklist on anyone who “has used a position of prominence to endorse terrorism.”

That’s the BDS movement.

JVP declared that it was proud to host Rasmea Odeh. Odeh had been convicted of a supermarket bombing in Israel that killed Edward Joffe and Leon Kanner: two Hebrew University students. It called the terrorist an “inspiration” and used the hashtag, #HonorRasmea. That’s using “a position of prominence to endorse terrorism” which gets you banned from both the United States and Israel.

Beinart writes for The Forward, a paper notorious for attacks on Israel and Jews that veer into the anti-Semitic. Typically anti-Semitic Forward headlines include, "3 Jewish Moguls Among Eight Who Own as Much as Half the Human Race” and "Why We Should Applaud The Politician Who Said Jews Control The Weather."

Beinart, an anti-Jewish activist of Jewish descent, is the perfect fit for an anti-Jewish tabloid of Jewish descent. The Forward's rebranding dropped the "Jewish" part of its name in 2015. That was also the year that Beinart accused Holocaust survivor, Elie Wiesel of a “tendency, to whitewash Jewish behavior.”

"He is largely blind to the harm Jews cause," Beinart railed against Wiesel in terms ominously similar to those used by anti-Semites. Israel, he claimed, "leads gentiles of goodwill to fear that if they criticize Israel they’ll be called anti-Semites." Peter Beinart or Richard Spencer: who wore the bigotry best?

But the gauzy line between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism is if anything even thinner among obsessive Israel bashers of Jewish origin like Beinart or The Forward’s Jane Eisner, its radical editor who stripped the lefty tabloid of its Jewishness, but not of its poisonous hatred of Jews. On the cocktail party circuit, Beinart is misleadingly billed as a ‘liberal Zionist.’ Like the Holy Roman Empire, he’s neither a liberal nor a Zionist. Neither liberals nor Zionists excuse Hamas or blame the victims of terror for their own deaths.

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BBC attempts to erase Hamas’ role in ‘Great Return March’ violence - by Hadar Sela

...Ridiculously though, the BBC would now apparently have its audiences believe that Hamas has nothing at all to do with the weekly violent rioting that it has organised, facilitated and encouraged for the past five months.

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

On August 28th a filmed report titled “Bullet shatters Palestinian cyclist’s Asian Games dream” was posted on the BBC News website’s ‘Middle East’ page.

“The Asian Games continues in the Indonesian capital Jakarta until 2 September, with 18,000 athletes participating.

One Palestinian cyclist could not fulfil his dream of competing after he was shot during a Gaza strip demonstration, which has left Alaa Al-Daly with one leg. But he is determined to not let it stop him cycling.”

Together with the interviewee’s unconfirmed and unquestioned account of his story, viewers see statements from the BBC itself which once again reinforce its chosen narrative concerning the ‘Great Return March’.

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Wednesday, August 29, 2018

Hamas and its women take center-stage again in Hevron - by Arnold Roth

...Those calls (here for instance, and here and here and here and all over the social media) from widely-varied Arab sources, and not only Arab, for Israel to free the females being held in its prisons for terror offences come from a deep and cynical appreciation of the strategic value of women's roles in jihad. It's a fatal mistake for us to fall victim to their blandishments. As for the gang, we think there are some more disclosures not yet made.

Arnold/Frimet Roth..
This Ongoing War..
29 August '18..

The uncovering of a significant Hamas terror cell based in the Hevron area, and the central role in it taken by females, was cleared for publication in a Shin Bet announcement yesterday (Tuesday). Ynet says initial indictments have been filed in the Judea Military Court.

Some of the key disclosures:

- A special focus on women - dozens of them from the Hevron area are reported to have been recruited into Hamas via this initiative.

- Cell leaders received "money, messages, and instructions" from Hamas terror leaders based outside Israel - including (according to Haaretz) Haroun Nasser Adin, another of several Shalit Deal beneficiaries now operating from Turkey. (See "29-Jan-18: Freeing unrepentant terrorists and the horrors it has brought" for some commentary on the scale of the ongoing Shalit Deal catastrophe.)

- The cell, made up of dozens of Palestinian Arabs, "promoted" Hamas activity in the area including recruiting new members for its work; coordinating via mosques; gathering intelligence; engaging in incitement via sermons and the social media; giving support to prisoners' families; transferring messages and instructions; moving funds around to finance terror.

- An attempt, in the words of an Israel National News report, "to take control of the Hevron municipality and various charities in the city".

- The establishment of a local committee to be the Hevron operational arm of Hamas' headquarters.

That committee is said to be headed by a woman named Dina al-Karmi. Who is she?

Ynet gives her name as Dina al-Said. An Arab source calls her Donya Sa'id and fleshes out the description in this nauseatingly disingenuous way: "the wife a Palestinian man who was killed by the army several years ago". An unfortunate accident?

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Surprise! NY Times Doubles Up on Flawed Coverage of US Aid To Palestinians - by Ira Stoll

...I understand that news organizations often publish a first news story and a second follow-up story with reaction to the news. In this case, though, both Times articles included the news and reaction to it. I also understand that sometimes the content of news articles is driven by logistics of time zones or local holidays as much as by any editorial agenda. Even stipulating those points, however, this Times one-two punch seemed as if it could have used some better editing.

Ira Stoll..
Algemeiner.com..
28 August '18..

The New York Times is so worked up about what it describes as the Trump administration’s reduction in aid to the Palestinian Arabs that it covered the news not once, but twice.

The first article was in Saturday’s Times, under the print headline, “$200 Million in U.S. Aid To Palestinians Is Redirected.” It began, “The Trump administration announced on Friday that it would not spend more than $200 million set aside for Palestinian aid in the West Bank and Gaza, the latest in a series of measures that have infuriated the Palestinians.”

This first article was odd for several reasons. Despite the first sentence about having “infuriated the Palestinians,” not a single Palestinian is quoted in the Times article. Instead, for reaction, the Times finds “J Street, a liberal Jewish organization that advocates better relations between Israel and the Palestinians,” as well as “Josh Block of the Israel Project, a right-leaning advocacy group.” And “a spokesman for the Israeli Embassy in Washington.”

Then the article contradicts itself. “Mr. Trump has largely abandoned the role American presidents have for decades sought to play as a broker between Israel and the Palestinians,” the Times reports. Then it refers to “efforts by Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, to forge a wide-ranging Middle East peace deal.”

Also odd is the Times claim that in recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, President Trump was “reversing decades of American foreign policy.” In fact a US law, the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995, states as “the policy of the United States” that “Jerusalem should be recognized as the capital of the state of Israel.” That law also includes as a congressional “finding,” “Since 1950, the city of Jerusalem has been the capital of the State of Israel.”

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Truth be told, we know the Palestinian Authority sponsors terror - by Brig.-Gen. (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser

Israel claims it does everything to protect its citizens, but won't call the PA out as a 'terror-sponsoring entity' or change tactics accordingly

Brig.-Gen. (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser..
Times of Israel/Blog..
27 August '18..
Link: https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/author/yossi-kuperwasser/

Recent moves of the US administration on the Palestinian arena (deducting $200 million from US aid and probably adopting a new approach on Palestinian refugees) are signs that as we approach the 25th anniversary of the Oslo Accords (signed on September 13 1993) there are finally international players that are ready to call a spade a spade. In this spirit, it is high time to admit that the Palestinian Authority, the main product of the agreements, is a “terror-sponsoring entity,” committed to the Palestinian struggle aimed at completely fixing the injustice it sees in Zionism. It was like that from the day it was established and it promises to stick to this identity in the future. Yet, until recently we were willfully blind to it.

The PA, repeatedly declares that it is determined to keep paying salaries to terrorists arrested in Israeli prisons or released from them, as well as to the families of terrorists who died while performing their terror attacks. PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas stated that “even if we are left with one penny, we are going to use it to pay the salaries to the (terrorist) prisoners.” This came in response to the American and Israeli awakening to the reality about the PA, as represented in the “Taylor Force Act” that denies the PA American aid until it stops paying those salaries and revokes the law according to which they are paid, and the Israeli equivalent law that deducts from the taxes collected by Israel for the PA and transferred to it the sum it pays to the terrorists (both laws were recently enacted but were not yet implemented. According to a press report American officials explained that the cut in US aid was intended to avoid the need to activate the Taylor Force Act).

In the PA 2018 budget, salaries to incarcerated and released terrorists will amount to NIS 550 million ($153 million). The amount allocated for the families of those killed or wounded in the struggle against Zionism is set at NIS 687 million ($190 million). Altogether, the expenditures for supporting terror in the 2018 Palestinian Authority budget is NIS 1.278 billion ($355 million). This sum constitutes 7 percent of the total budget, similar to the last several years, and amounts to 45.8% of foreign aid to the PA expected in 2018.

The budget for real welfare support is NIS 841 million ($233 million). In 2017, it was NIS 826 million ($229.4 million) and was used for paying 118,000 families under the poverty line NIS 750 -1,800 ($208 – $500), compared with NIS 1,400 to 12,000 ($388-$3,333) a month that is paid to an imprisoned terrorist,

These details are especially problematic as the Palestinian terror continues. Among the recipients of the salaries are the families of the terrorists who murdered Hadas Malka, a policewoman stabbed to death at the Damascus Gate on June 16, 2017, the families of the Israeli Arabs from Umm-Al-Fahm who murdered two Israeli policemen on the Temple Mount on July 14, 2017, the terrorist who murdered three members of the Solomon family on July 19, 2017, the family of the terrorist who murdered Yotam Ovadia on July 27, 2018, and many more.

Tuesday, August 28, 2018

Corbyn and his acolytes: Cheerleaders for the real forces of imperialism in the Middle East - by Lyn Julius

Arab and Muslim antisemitism did not begin with the creation of Israel. For 14 centuries of Muslim rule, Jews lived as a subjugated dhimmi minority with few rights. Israel’s Mizrahi citizens have long memories: they will fight to prevent a return to “colonised” dhimmi status in a Corbyn-approved majority-Arab state.

Lyn Julius..
The JC..
26 August '18..
Link: https://www.thejc.com/comment/comment/the-jewish-exodus-which-corbyn-ignores-jeremy-corbyn-anitsemitism-1.468886

Hardly a day goes by without another shocking revelation of Jeremy Corbyn’s association with antisemites. But while most of us recoil at Corbyn’s documented support for his “friends” Hamas and Hezbollah, his appearances on the Iranian-funded Press TV, and his tribute to the perpetrators of the Munich massacre, little has been said about the intellectual underpinnings of the ideological world-view that Corbyn has clung to for 40 years. It is time that they were debunked from a Sephardi or Mizrahi perspective.

I doubt whether Corbyn has heard of Mizrahi or Sephardi Jews. Did he know that 850,000 Jewish refugees fled Arab and Muslim antisemitism in a single generation?

Would it appall him that ancient communities once numbering many thousands of Jews — from Morocco in the West to Yemen in the East — were driven to extinction (barely 4,500 are left), their property stolen and their rich heritage erased? Maybe he will blame the Zionists — or say that the Jews left of their own free will.

The evidence of a forced Jewish exodus is incontrovertible, however. The Jews fled in larger numbers than the Palestinians from Israel. The majority of Jews were escaping harassment, intimidation, violence and persecution — ranging from arrests and imprisonment to execution on trumped-up charges. Theirs was the largest mass movement of non-Muslims until the post-2003 flight of Christians from Iraq.

Clearly, Corbyn’s revulsion for the state of Israel lies at the heart of his belief system. Many believe he has been reluctant to accept the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism so that he might continue to call the Jewish state “racist”and allow offensive comparisons between Zionists and Nazis. He insists on distinguishing between “good” anti-Zionist Jews and “bad” Jews — the great majority of whom identify with Israel.

Yet the bitter experiences of Middle Eastern and North African Jews teach us that the distinction between Jews and Zionists cannot be maintained for long.

Israel's High Court of Justice: Are you out of your ****** mind? - by Paula Stern

...In what world, in what country, would its leaders extend such kindness to the families of murderers, terrorists and killers? Israel had hoped to put pressure on Hamas to make a trade. This has been denied by the High Court, which sided with Hamas family members over bereaved Israelis.

Paula Stern..
Israel Blogger..
27 August '18..

I was raised to watch my language; to speak “like a lady.” And I try. Mostly. I really do. But sometimes, it happens. A word comes to my mind and try as I might to think in the asterisk, that word is there. I won’t say it. I won’t write it, but I just can’t help thinking it. Luckily, it is rare and usually, to be honest, deserved. For example, this morning, I read that the High Court of Israel ordered the government to offer immediate medical treatment for five women from Gaza.

Now, I’m all in favor of Israel’s amazing track record of treating injured and sick people from all over the world. I love that we bring them (often at our expense) here to our wonderful and advanced hospitals. That there are thousands and thousands of people from distant lands who have had heart operations, advanced cancer treatments and more…and then return home, healthy and whole to live what we hope will be a long and healthy life.

As human beings, these five women deserve treatment. But then again, three Israeli families have rights too. One family has the right to hold and hug their son, who is, we believe, alive. And two families have the right to closure, to have the remains of their sons brought home and buried in a place they can visit. They are, we believe, no longer alive but still they are ours.

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A giant first step to reducing the malevolent impact of UNRWA - by Sarah N. Stern

The Trump administration opposing the Palestinian claim for the “right of return” would be a historic development—not just to the American taxpayer, the Jewish people and the State of Israel, but to the Palestinians themselves.

Sarah N. Stern..
JNS.org..
27 August '18..

U.S. President Donald Trump gave the Jewish people a gift of historic proportions by taking the issue of Jerusalem off the table back in December. On Aug. 25, President Trump gave a gift that is arguably of equal or greater value to the Jewish nation by significantly reducing by $200 million the aid that the United States gives to UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine.

PLO Secretary General Saeb Erekat predictably called the decision “disgraceful,” and said that President Trump was “meddling in the internal affairs of other people in an attempt to impact their national options.”

Since when is it that an American president deciding how to spend U.S. taxpayer dollars is considered “meddling in the affairs of other people”?

Beyond that, according to an Aug. 25 report on Israeli Channel 2 news, the Trump administration announced that it will oppose the Palestinian claim for the “right of return” for the descendants of the original Palestinian refugees displaced by the 1948 war.

If true, this would be a historic development—not just to the American taxpayer, the Jewish people and the State of Israel, but to the Palestinians themselves.

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Monday, August 27, 2018

Clearly the Palestinian boycott of the US administration did not include receiving funds from the Americans - by Bassam Tawil

The Palestinians are entitled to voice their anger at the US. However, if they are so fed up with the US that they are even boycotting US administration officials, why are they demanding that the Americans continue to supply them with hundreds of millions of dollars each year?

Bassam Tawil..
Gatestone Institute..
27 August '18..

The question of Palestinian responsiveness is once again on display as Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas and his senior officials in Ramallah step up their verbal attacks on the US administration after its decision to cut $200 million in American financial aid to the Palestinians.

Abbas and the PA leadership are again behaving like spoiled, angry children whose candy has been taken away from them, hurling abuse at the Trump administration. Recall that earlier this year, Abbas called US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman a "son of a dog."

For the past 9 months, the Palestinian leaders have been waging a massive and unprecedented campaign of incitement and abuse against Trump and his administration. This campaign began immediately after Trump announced his decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital in December 2017, and the campaign is continuing to this day as a reply to the US decision to slash $200 million from the American financial aid to the Palestinians.

Significantly, the PA and its leaders were the ones who initiated the crisis with the US administration. Their dissatisfaction with Trump's announcement on Jerusalem may be understandable, but they chose to take their protest to an extreme by boycotting the US administration and waging a smear campaign against Trump and his "Jewish advisors and envoys."

It is clear that the Palestinian boycott of the US administration did not include receiving funds from the Americans. One the one hand, the Palestinians have been boycotting and badmouthing US administration officials. On the other hand, Abbas and his representatives are now crying that the US administration is slashing $200 million of its financial aid to the Palestinians. If this isn't cheek in its finest form, what is?

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Bizarre Palestinian FA claims amplified in BBC Sport report - by Hadar Sela

...How the generous yet uncritical amplification of those statements from the Palestinian Football Association can be claimed to enhance audience understanding of the story is of course unclear.

Hadar Sela..
BBC Watch..
26 August '18..

As readers no doubt recall, back in June the BBC News website published a report on the cancellation of a friendly football match between Israel and Argentina which falsely promoted the notion of its linkage to events along the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel while avoiding relevant background to the story that was seen in a report from a different BBC department.

Four weeks later, following communication from BBC Watch, some amendments were made to that report.

As was noted here at the time, the BBC did not produce any follow-up reporting on that story after FIFA announced that it had begun disciplinary proceedings against the Palestinian Football Association head, Jibril Rajoub, in relation to his call to Lionel Messi’s fans in “Arab states, Islamic states, in Asia, in Africa, and in states that are friends of the Palestinian people” to burn replica shirts and photographs “and renounce him”.

On August 24th FIFA announced the result of that disciplinary and the following day a report appeared on the BBC Sport website, initially under the rather confusing headline “Lionel Messi: Palestinian FA president Jibril Rajoub banned for ‘inciting hatred and violence’” and illustrated using an image showing political graffiti.

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The Guardian's Continued Promotion of Hamas Claim That Israel Bombed Gaza ‘Cultural Center’ - by Adam Levick

...But, of course, the possibility that Hamas put civilians at risk and likely committed a war crime by using the Said al-Mishal Center as a base for its security forces, isn’t part of The Guardian‘s narrative.

Adam Levick..
Algemeiner..
26 August '18..

The Guardian’s coverage of the 2014 summer Gaza war was defined by a failure to challenge Hamas claims and an obfuscation of evidence demonstrating that the terror group routinely used hospitals, mosques, schools, and homes to launch rockets, store weapons, hide command centers, shelter military personnel, and conceal tunnel shafts.

The Guardian’s Jerusalem correspondent during that war was Peter Beaumont.

The reporting by their new Jerusalem correspondent, Oliver Holmes, during the recent round of fighting between Hamas and Israel suggests that this tradition of taking Hamas claims at face value while ignoring or downplaying evidence that contradicts their narrative will continue.

This pattern of bias was on display in reports on an attack that occurred on August 9. In three separate articles, encompassing more than 2,500 words, The Guardian promoted the desired Hamas narrative that the IDF attacked, for no military reason, the Said al-Mishal Center in Gaza City.

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Sunday, August 26, 2018

Israel and Good Journalism Drown in Roll Call's Shallow Waters - by Sean Durns

Roll Call’s July 27th report is notable not only for its length, but for its shallowness and omissions. It was long on superficiality and short on truth. Perhaps Roll Call is taking too literally the advice of another close observer of American politics, the American humorist and writer Mark Twain, who allegedly jested that “truth is the most valuable thing that we have, let us economize it.”

Sean Durns..
CAMERA..
24 August '18..

A 2,907-word article by Roll Call, the Washington D.C.-based newspaper that covers political and legislative news on Capitol Hill, was littered with omissions that distort the nature of U.S.-Israel relations (“Divide Over Israel Widens in Democratic Party,” July 27, 2018). The report, ostensibly about changing attitudes towards Israel on the American left, relied exclusively on questionable sources and heralded legislation and a movement that both have links to U.S.-designated terrorist groups.

Roll Call’s dispatch argued that the Democratic Party is increasingly disenchanted with Israel—and implied that the Jewish state itself is to blame for this shift. Given Roll Call correspondent Rachel Oswald’s complete reliance on sources that are at best, hypercritical of Israel, and at worst, antisemitic, the paper’s conclusion is as unsurprising as it is wrong and superficial.

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The Israel they are seeing is just the tip of the iceberg, but is something that truly speaks to their sensibilities - Dror Eydar

Israel and China are two ancient, glorious civilizations, but unlike the Jews, the Chinese remained in their land throughout their history. In order to truly understand a nation, we cannot go just by headlines – we must learn its history and aspirations.

Dror Eydar..
Israel Hayom..
24 August '18..
Link: http://www.israelhayom.com/2018/08/24/the-tip-of-the-iceberg/

I have had a number of opportunities to meet and chat with Chinese people – students, business women, researchers and members of academia, to name a few. I was told to talk to them about Israel, the Jewish people, our history and our culture. I automatically assumed that we did not have very much in common, aside from the fact that both our civilizations are ancient and glorious.

Imagine that we are looking at the sea right now, I would say to them. We are looking at waves, sea spray, birds flying overhead. And then, right in the middle of this giant body of water, we spot an island. Would it be wise to focus only on the island and ignore everything that surrounds it? The depths of the ocean are far greater and more powerful than this tiny piece of land that we discovered.

The renowned psychoanalyst Carl Jung once compared consciousness to an island in the ocean of the subconscious. The information we can glean from what our eyes can see is not enough to fully judge a person. A person's deeds and words are also insufficient to provide a complete picture. These things are too superficial. A person's history, biography, family, social background and education all come into play. A person's dreams and secret passions are also an important component that cannot be immediately seen. These are immensely important elements of any human being's personality and are therefore the key to understanding them.

As much as this holds true for human beings, it is even more applicable to nations and peoples. Newspaper headlines and politicians' speeches are certainly not enough to form a well-rounded opinion. Even the actions of individual members of a nation are not enough to formulate an accurate idea, whatever their prominence. These things are, again, too superficial. The nation's history, its religion, its mythology, the oral history that has been passed down through the generations for thousands of years, its customs, its heritage, its language and so many other factors are what make up the DNA of a nation.

When it comes to ancient cultures, this comprehensive view is even more important. I always tell my Chinese conversation partners that our two peoples survived the test of time. We created glorious civilizations. But there is one key difference: You stayed in one place and developed for yourself, generation after generation. Invaders who came in and thought they defeated you ultimately became a part of you. You endured catastrophes, no doubt, but your land was never destroyed, and you were never exiled the way the Jews were.

Unlike you, I tell them, we spent a significant portion of our history in exile. We twice endured great destruction, we were exiled again and again, and we were subjected to countless national tragedies. Hundreds of us wandered from place to place across the globe, looking for a place to rest. Many times we imagined that we had found a home, where we could settle and forget our troubles – each time we contributed to the local economy, culture and scientific community and even tried to adopt the local patriotism – but every time, we were eventually expelled. So we continued to wander in hopes of finding a better place.

Evidently Not All Palestinian Blood Is Equal - By Dr. Edy Cohen

Recently, the human rights organization AGPS published a report documenting 3,840 cases of Palestinians killed since the beginning of the Syrian war in 2011 – nearly four times the number of those killed during the six years of the first intifada (December 1987-September 1993). The circumstances of the deaths were shelling, shooting, or torture in the interrogation rooms of prisons throughout Syria. Mahmoud Abbas remained silent and did not condemn Bashar Assad or Iran. Palestinian blood in the West Bank and Gaza appears to be worth far more than the blood of Palestinians elsewhere in the world. This is because Palestinians who are killed by IDF fire serve as a bulwark against Israel, whether by the Arab states or by the Western world.

The Yarmouk refugee camp, which
was home to tens of thousands,
was utterly demolished

Dr. Edy Cohen..
BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 930..
24 August '18..
Link: https://besacenter.org/perspectives-papers/palestinians-syria-killed/

A recently published report by the Action Group for Palestinians in Syria (AGPS), a human rights group, documented 3,840 cases of Palestinians who have been killed since the onset of the Syrian civil war in 2011 – nearly four times as many as those killed during the six years of the first intifada (December 1987-September 1993). The causes of death ranged from artillery shelling to shootings to torture in the regime’s infamous prisons across the country.

In addition to this report, the Syrian regime released for the first time a list of names that included 548 killed Palestinians. While the regime’s report did not note their causes of death, rights groups agree that those Palestinians died as a result of being tortured, starved, and deprived of adequate medical treatment.

The AGPS also said that 1,682 Palestinians are still missing, their fates unknown. According to some assessments, these Palestinians were either killed at some time during the bloody civil war or – “in the best case” – are still in prison. Therefore, at least 5,522 Palestinians have either been killed or have gone missing since 2011.

Along with those killed or missing, tens of thousands of Palestinians in Syria have lost their homes and employment. The Yarmouk refugee camp, which was home to tens of thousands, was utterly demolished over the course of the war. Before the camp was destroyed, the Assad regime laid siege to it. During that time, images of emaciated Palestinians began emerging in Syrian opposition media outlets.

Despite these horrors, not one official in the Palestinian Authority publicly condemned the Assad regime.

This is incredible. Where is the outcry from the PA, Arab and global news outlets, rights groups, Palestinian and Arab politicians? Where is their denunciation of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s war crimes against the Palestinians? Why isn’t every single Arab lawmaker in Israel excoriating the Syrian dictator?

Saturday, August 25, 2018

Nearly $1 million: What aid funds handed to the Abbas regime have done for savages who kill Jews - by Arnold Roth

...the incentive scheme for more terror is once again openly included in the PA budget. They don't care about being criticized. They care about Palestinian Arab public opinion. And their voters want more incentives for terror, not less. Which surely means more terror ahead, not less.

The only portrait we want to show in this post is this
one of our daughter, Malki. She was 15 years old
when these barbarians carried out their evil plot.

Arnold/Frimet Roth..
This Ongoing War..
24 August '18..

Yesterday, we published a post ["23-Aug-18: New data: How the terrorists who bombed the Sbarro pizzeria fared financially"] focusing on the sums of money that, according to computations done by the fine team at Palestinian Media Watch (for whose input we are very grateful), have funded the lifestyles of the Sbarro bombing gang and, where relevant, their heirs.

Those Sbarro-related payments are rapidly approaching a million dollars and increase monthly. The Palestinian Authority, which pays out the cash,, is perpetually insolvent.

The incentive value of sums like those paid out, and continuing to be paid month after month, in encouraging ever more Arab-on-Israeli terror is clear.

There's also much to be learned from knowing more about those Hamas terrorists - what they did, what's become of them. Even people relatively well-informed about Israel's experience at the hands of Palestinian Arab terrorists are unaware of much of the detail below.

We prepared these brief profiles. The terrorists named below - with the exception of the one who appears at the bottom of the list - were all involved in the 2001 Battle of the Sbarro Pizzeria (their names are listed alphabetically by surname).

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Friday, August 24, 2018

New data: How the terrorists who bombed the Sbarro pizzeria fared financially - by Arnold Roth

...Meanwhile, the Mahmoud Abbas regime's slavish devotion to financially incentivizing ever more terror among its people is highlighted in this news report from ten days ago.

Arnold Roth/Frimet Roth..
This Ongoing War..
24 August '18..

The numbers in the chart below are a dramatically-upward revision of data that were released two weeks ago. They take account of more members of the Hamas gang that carried out the August 9, 2001 atrocity at Jerusalem's Sbarro pizzeria. The bottom line in this new chart - US$843,841 - is almost three times the first calculation.

Our thanks to the good people of Palestinian Media Watch who focus energy, determination and sustained effort on bringing to light the heavily-camouflaged, massively-destructive Rewards for Terror scheming that is at the core of the Palestinian Authority's ethos and actions.

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Mr. President: The Palestinians already got ‘their turn’, again, again and again - by Stephen M. Flatow

The Palestinian Authority still won’t fulfill its obligations in the Oslo Accords, such as disarming, outlawing and extraditing terrorists, or ending incitement. It won’t even negotiate with Israel.

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

President Donald Trump said this week that following the move of the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, now the Palestinian Arabs “will get something very good because it’s their turn next.”

Somebody ought to explain to the president that the Palestinians have already had “their turn”—again and again and again.

They got their turn in 1921, when the British separated the eastern 78 percent of Palestine, declared it off-limits to Jews and established the Palestinian Arab state of “Trans-Jordan,” whose name was later changed to “Jordan.”

They got their turn in 1937, when the British government’s Peel Commission proposed to give the Arabs a second Palestinian state, comprising most of western Palestine, with a tiny Jewish state alongside it.

They got another turn in 1938, when another British government body, the Woodhead Commission, proposed to give the Arabs an even larger part—and the Jews an even smaller part—of western Palestine.

They got yet another turn in 1939, when the British White Paper blocked off almost all Jewish immigration, precisely at the moment that the Jews in Europe were trying to flee from Hitler. All the British asked in return was that the Palestinian Arabs support the Allies, not the Nazis, in World War II. The Arabs supported the Nazis anyway.

Yet more turns were coming for the ever-coddled Arabs of Palestine.

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Thursday, August 23, 2018

The BDS movement against Israel? A case where the Nazi comparison does make sense. - by Benjamin Weinthal/Asaf Romirowsky

...There has been no shortage of Democrats and Republicans falsely accusing each other of Nazism over the last two decades. While the reckless and unjustified use of “Nazi” as an adjective is on an inflationary upward trend, the comparison between BDS and the Nazi era warrants being drawn. If the rapid spread of BDS in Europe is to be stopped, the BDS campaign should be recognized as a moral pariah that threatens both Jews and non-Jews.

Benjamin Weinthal/Asaf Romirowsky..
The Hill/Opinion..
22 August '18..

In a remarkable finding in their May report, intelligence officials of the German state of Baden Württemberg wrote that propaganda from the neo-Nazi party Der Dritte Weg (The Third Way) calling to boycott Israeli products “roughly recalls similar measures against German Jews by the National Socialists, for example, on April 1, 1933 (the slogan: 'Germans! Defend yourselves! Don't buy from Jews!')"

The historical significance of the parallel between contemporary calls to boycott Israeli products and the Hitler movement’s economic warfare against German Jewish businesses should not be ignored.

The Nazi efforts to strangle Jewish companies in order to isolate and dehumanize German Jews was a nascent phase of the Holocaust. Hence the boycott campaign against Israel is just another dangerous recurrence of history in a new form.

Fast forward to 2005: According to the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement’s declaration targeting the Jewish state, a key demand is the return of all “Palestinian refugees” to Israel. The “return” of the alleged millions of Palestinians refugees—based on a bogus definition of refugee status—would spell dissolution of the Jewish state. Anti-Semitism at its core is about discrimination against Jews.

The proliferation of pro-BDS activities in Germany prompted Felix Klein, the German government commissioner for the fight against anti-Semitism, to write in the daily Die Welt in August that “the BDS movement is antisemitic in its methods and goals.” He added that BDS’s “Don’t buy!” stickers on products from the Jewish state are “methods from the Nazi period.”

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