Wednesday, October 31, 2018

The progressive West's fetishising of Palestinian extremists - by Stephen Daisley (Please Share)

...As Israel forges once inconceivable ties with Saudi Arabia and Oman, as the Palestinian state runs perilously low on sand in the hourglass, those who claim to stand in solidarity with them will continue to objectify, fetishise and patronise the Palestinians. They have no interest in actual liberation; a Palestinian state would rob them of their little morality play in the desert. The Palestinians will go on being pin-ups and go on being stateless.

Stephen Daisley..
The Spectator..
28 October '18..

He is bare-chested, muscular and not unattractive. A Palestinian flag blazes in one hand, a slingshot is strained taut in the other. All around him is smoke and press photographers. Aed Abu Amro, a 20-year-old Gazan, is rioting on the boundary between the Hamas-run statelet and Israel’s southern frontier. The terrorist organisation has been fomenting disorder there for months now, a function of its viral victims strategy: provoke the Israel Defence Forces into retaliating and let images of dead Palestinians zip their way onto every smartphone on the planet. If only Hamas put that kind of ingenuity into governing, Gaza might not have a 44 per cent unemployment rate.

As a live Palestinian, Amro, who was snapped mid-rampage on Monday, will not have the same impact on low-information media consumers. He has, however, stirred that morbid romanticism which draws Western progressives to the Palestinians, ever since Laleh Khalili, a professor at SOAS, tweeted the photograph and the words ‘Holy shit what an image’ on Tuesday. Khalili’s tweet has been retweeted 48,000 times and liked 124,000 times.

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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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Blaming Israel is so much easier - by Elder of Ziyon

...The fact that Abbas is so eager to put his people's lives at risk barely ranks as an issue in the West. If he is willing to have his own people die for the sake of his political goals, why does anyone seriously think he can be trusted when he claims he wants peace with Israel?

Elder of Ziyon..
31 October '18..

The Gaza Ministry of Health issued a statement about the critical shortage of immunosuppressant and other drugs in Gaza, jeopardizing the health and life of hundreds of patients who have had successful kidney transplants.

Without those drugs, the patients may have to return to going on dialysis, their new kidneys becoming useless.

There are 333 kidney transplant patients in Gaza, and hundreds more with renal failure who need medicines desperately.

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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. 

The Time to Restore Deterrence in Gaza is Now - by Isi Leibler

Hamas has repeatedly pledged that it will not halt the border protests or cease the launch of balloons. Would any other country tolerate this situation, responding only with tit-for-tat destruction of empty Hamas facilities, causing minimal disruption?

Isi Leibler..
Israel Hayom/Opinion..
30 October '18..
Link: http://www.israelhayom.com/opinions/restore-deterrence-in-gaza-now/

Israel was created as a haven for the Jewish people. It has an obligation to protect all its citizens, yet it has failed to do so for the residents living close to the Gaza Strip border.

The time has come to say to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman: Enough is enough.

To summarize the situation:

Hamas' unyielding objective is the destruction of the Jewish state and murder of Jews.

Most Gazan residents are unemployed and impoverished but foreign aid has been diverted to military purposes.

Iranian financial and military support has created a military infrastructure throughout the Strip utilizing mosques, hospitals and schools as weapon storage bases and launching sites.

Hamas dispatches terrorists into Israel to murder Jews. Those who succeed are hailed as heroes and financially rewarded.

Hamas has built many tunnels to infiltrate terrorists behind Israeli lines. The IDF possesses sophisticated equipment that has identified and destroyed most of the tunnels.

Hamas orchestrates a protest campaign that, since March 30, regularly brings thousands to the Israeli border for "peaceful demonstrations" that include hurling firebombs, firing weapons, throwing rocks and storming the border. The IDF seeks to avoid lethal responses, but when endangered, it has taken firm action. Over 200 Palestinians – many identified as Hamas operatives – have been killed.

The Palestinians have been floating balloons into Israel carrying flammable material and bombs. To date, they have destroyed thousands of acres of agricultural land, impoverishing many farmers in the area.

Mutual hostility has led the PA to cut funds for electricity and fuel for Gaza's residents and to threaten the salaries of civil servants in the Strip.

Under such circumstances, Hamas became desperate and intimidated and announced it was willing to enter a temporary truce with Israel if the blockade of goods and services was lifted.

Egyptian-mediated negotiations have led to little progress, although recently, statements have been repeated that a truce was about to be implemented.

In the meantime, the world has become accustomed to the border protests and incendiary balloons. Many – including some misguided Jews – are accusing us of needlessly killing "peaceful demonstrators."

Hamas has repeatedly pledged that it will not halt the border protests or cease the launch of balloons.

Would any other country tolerate this situation, responding only with tit-for-tat destruction of empty Hamas facilities, causing minimal disruption?

Tuesday, October 30, 2018

Question. Is There a Political Solution for Gaza? - by Prof. Hillel Frisch

A good place to begin answering these questions would be the Syrian civil war, the greatest episode of violence in the Middle East in at least three decades.

Prof. Hillel Frisch..
JPost/Opinion..
27 October '18..
Linkhttps://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Is-there-a-political-solution-for-Gaza-570452

Tzipi Livni, the MK for the Zionist Union camp, claims not only that there is a political solution to Gaza, but that it could have been pulled off as early as in 2009. She claims forcefully that there was widespread agreement then – between the Obama administration, the Palestinian Authority under Abbas and the Egyptians – to have the PA turn the financial screws on the fledgling Hamas government. That would have supposedly culminated in Hamas’s capitulation to disarm while Abbas’s security forces took over the Strip they lost two years earlier.

So great was the consensus between these actors, Livni claims, that this strategy would have resulted in a Security Council resolution. The only impediment to implementing this strategy, in her view, was and remains Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his (extreme) right-wing government.

The obvious questions that spring to mind in listening to Livni are: Since when does consensus between outside powers (not backed by military force) in the Middle East ever matter on the ground? And since when was any Security Council resolution worth more than the paper it was written on?

A good place to begin answering these questions would be the Syrian civil war, the greatest episode of violence in the Middle East in at least three decades. Countless Security Council resolutions were passed and at least five rounds of intensive negotiations between the opposition and outside forces took place. To what avail? None.

Two-Faced Barbarity and the New Palestinian "Concern" for International Conventions - by Bassam Tawil

...The families of the Palestinian terrorists held in Israeli prisons know where their sons are. They also know that their sons are receiving proper medical treatment and are whiling away their days reading, exercising and watching television. But the Israelis held by Hamas can only dream of seeing daylight as they languish in captivity. When Hamas cries foul over the proposed Israeli law, the true foulness rests in their two-faced barbarity.

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

Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist group that rules the Gaza Strip, does not like a bill making its way through Israel's Knesset that would prevent visits by family members of terrorists in Israeli prisons. The bill, sponsored by MK Oren Hazan (Likud), would prevent such visits to terrorists who are members of groups that hold Israeli prisoners and deny them visits.

"Because Israel is an advanced democracy committed to human rights conventions to which the terrorist organizations are not committed, an intolerable situation results. The terrorist organizations, as a strategy, kidnap and hold Israeli citizens without regard for their conditions and without allowing them visits, which seriously harms the morale and the national strength of the State of Israel," the bill's explanatory notes say.

In response, Hamas denounced Israel's proposed law as "racist," and said in a statement that it was a "flagrant violation of all laws and humanitarian conventions." Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem claimed that the bill was "part of Israel's policy to impose restrictions on the prisoners."

Suddenly, Hamas is concerned about "international law and humanitarian conventions"? Not quite. There is a catch. Hamas is only concerned about them when Palestinian terrorists are involved. As for the rights of Israelis held by Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist group apparently still believes they are not entitled to any rights.

The proposed law actually is a response to Hamas's refusal to provide details about four Israelis being held in the Gaza Strip.

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Did anyone notice that the PLO just officially said it supports terror - by Elder of Ziyon

...Western pundits need to stop interpreting their words according to their own wishful thinking. Interpret them according to the Palestinian leaders' own thinking.

Elder of Ziyon..
29 October '18..

Times of Israel reports:

A top Palestinian body on Monday passed a motion urging Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to suspend all agreements with Israel and revoke recognition of the Jewish state until Israel formally recognizes a Palestinian state on the 1967 lines.

We recognize the right to resist the occupation in all methods that comply with international law,” the Palestinian Central Council, a Palestine Liberation Organization decision-making body, said in its decision.

The body, convening in Ramallah, said Palestinians should end “all forms” of security coordination with Israel and nullify several financial agreements that it said were being “ignored” by Jerusalem.

The vote is not binding, and a final decision rests with Abbas. Previous votes by the council in January 2018 and in 2015 to suspend security coordination with Israel were not implemented.

In recent years, Abbas has threatened multiple times to nix agreements between the Palestinians and Israel, but he has not moved to do away with them.

The PA president said last week, however, that his Ramallah-based government would not be able sidestep the decisions the Central Council makes at its upcoming meeting, calling the PLO body “the highest Palestinian authority.”

Let's look at the bolded text.

A typical Western reporter and diplomat will interpret that as saying that the peace loving PLO, which has promised to eschew violence in 1993, is saying that it will continue to only support
"non-violent resistance."

But Palestinian leaders and their Western apologists actually claim that Palestinian terror is allowed under international law.

The Fatah Platform of 2009 says this explicitly:

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Monday, October 29, 2018

The romanticising of violence on the BBC News website - by Hadar Sela

...Nevertheless, as we see, the BBC did indeed consider it appropriate to provide amplification to the politically motivated romanticisation of an image of a person participating in violent rioting encouraged, organised and facilitated by a terror group.

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

On October 25th an article by Chris Bell titled “Gaza protest image likened to famous Delacroix painting” appeared on the BBC Trending blog and the ‘Middle East’ page of the BBC News website.

Readers were told that:

“It’s a picture which has spawned thousands of words online.

Captured by photojournalist Mustafa Hassona, a bare-chested Palestinian holding a large flag wields a sling over his head in Gaza on Monday.

It was snapped amid violent protests on a beach close to the border with Israel. Demonstrators burnt tyres and threw stones at Israeli forces, who responded with tear gas and live fire. Gaza’s health ministry said 32 Palestinians were wounded.” [emphasis added]

Readers did not discover until towards the end of the article that “Gaza’s health ministry” is run by the same terror group that organises and facilitates the violent rioting now in its seventh month.

Neither were they informed that in addition to burning tyres and throwing stones, the rioters on that beach on October 22nd engaged in additional activities which – had Bell bothered to mention them – would have helped audiences understand why the use of live fire was necessary.

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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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(Excellent) The Making of the Land:They Learned How to Farm and How to Fight - by Douglas Feith

If your child came home from college and said she was challenged by a classmate who claimed that Palestine is Arab land stolen by the Jews, could you provide her with a response?

Douglas Feith..
Tablet..
24 October '18..

Last autumn was the Balfour Declaration’s hundredth birthday. This month marks a hundred years since Britain’s General Allenby completed his World War I conquest of Palestine and Syria. These centenaries relate to the most important–the most basic–argument that anti-Zionists use against Israel today.

It’s the assertion that Palestine is Arab land and the Jews had no right to steal it from the Palestinian Arabs. In its somewhat more sophisticated form, the argument is that British imperialists had no right to steal the Palestinians’ country and give it to the Jews.

If you had a child in college and she came home and said she was challenged on this point by a classmate, could you provide her with a response?

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Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 
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Haaretz Lead Story: Outrage over Pittsburgh Massacre from Rivlin,Herzog, Bennett and....Sarsour? - by Tamar Sternthal

...Haaretz‘s inexplicable inclusion of Sarsour’s condemnation of the synagogue massacre alongside those of Israeli leaders is puzzling. Moreover, the paper’s failure to note Sarsour’s bear hug of Farrakhan, “the pied-piper of hate,” is downright reprehensible, and gives a false hechsher (kosher stamp) to a purveyor of anti-Semitism.

Tamar Sternthal..
CAMERA..
29 October '18..

In its leading story today on the murderous shooting spree which left 11 dead at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh yesterday, Haaretz cites the outraged responses from leading Israeli figures like President Reuven Rivlin, Jewish Agency Chairman Isaac Herzog, Education and Diaspora Affairs Minister Naftali Bennett, Executive Director of the Conservative Movement Yizhar Hess and Consul General of Israel in New York Dani Dayan. Then, as if it’s the most natural thing to do, the page-one, above the fold article (“11 killed in Pittsburgh synagogue shooting; gunman held at scene,” and online here) closes this round-up of reactions from high profile Israelis with a quote from “American Palestinian Women’s March leader Linda Sarsour.”

In addition to being an anti-Israel activist who advocates for the end of the Jewish state, Sarsour is also a longtime fan of noted anti-Semite Louis Farakkhan, biographical information which Haaretz withheld from readers and which makes her inclusion among Israeli leaders expressing their shock and outrage particularly jarring.

The article, by Amir Tibon, Noa Landau, Judy Maltz and Allison Kaplan Sommer states:

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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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Sunday, October 28, 2018

Jaber Abu Hemesa the latest Palestinian terrorist “work accident” - by William A. Jacobson

...These border attacks began last spring under the name of the “Great March of Return.” From the start, these were not mere protests, but military-style attempts to tear down the border fence, with minors often put out front for the cameras. Huge tire fires were set to create a smokescreen.

William A. Jacobson..
Legal Insurrection..
28 October '18..

Consider this part of the Palestinian terrorist “work accident” series.

A “work accident” is a commonly used term to refer to Palestinian terrorists who die by their own hand when explosives or explosive devices they are handling detonate prematurely. We have covered many such incidents.

We appear to have another member of the club, during Hamas-led attempts to breach the Gaza border.

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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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Question: Where is the IDF finesse? - by Brig. Gen. (res.) Zvika Fogel

I understand the difficulty of making the decision to go to war. But I don't understand the lack of creative ideas and initiative. I get the feeling that security officials don't believe in our capabilities and, maybe worse, don't believe in the righteousness of our path and in our right to not only defend ourselves but also to launch an attack to ensure our continued existence and quality of life.

Brig. Gen. (res.) Zvika Fogel..
Israel Hayom..
28 October '18..
Link: http://www.israelhayom.com/opinions/where-is-the-idf-finesse/?redirected=310959

That's it, enough! I have realized that none of the defense establishment leaders sitting in the situation assessment with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants a war. No one is recommending an operation, nothing. The defense minister, the chief of staff, the head of the Mossad, the head of the Shin Bet security agency, and the head of the National Security Council apparently think that victory is impossible, that we can't defeat the enemy in the Gaza Strip.

They are certainly telling themselves, "With our luck, and Iron Dome to protect us, why get dragged into a war? We have excellent pilots and unmanned aircraft that know how to make noise, frighten, and destroy. If we can't create deterrence, let's at least show them that we have more weapons than they do. … So for now, it's better to let the guys in Gaza use up their stocks of rockets and mortars."

Soon, the fires in our fields will be put out because they'll no longer have balloons and condoms to which to attach fuses and send over the fence, and we'll stop inhaling smoke because they won't have any more tires to burn. Pretty soon we'll block the underground tunnel and undersea threats so we can keep sending them fuel that will be used strictly to produce electricity and construction materials to build homes because that will create employment for the Palestinians of Gaza.

I realize that everyone in charge of our security is recommending to the prime minister that we not fall for the Islamist provocation, because we have the strength to withstand it after 70 years of this stuff.

Other than that, who will we be fighting against – the lightning that happened to cause a rocket that happened to be aimed at Beersheba to be fired? Or against the Islamic Jihad, which is merely an organization supported by Iran and is trying to stir up discord between us and our friends in Hamas, and also ease the pressure in Syria? In short, our defense and security leaders are pushing a strategy of leaving things as they are?

An incomprehensible policy of sustaining the enemy in Gaza - by Martin Sherman

No less delusional (and detrimental) is the hypothesis that efforts to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza will somehow serve to promote stability and quell the violence.

Dr. Martin Sherman..
JNS.org..
26 October '18..

The policy of trying to placate Hamas with enhanced humanitarian aid is sadly no less farcical than trying to convert a man-eating tiger into a cuddly bunny rabbit by offering it a diet of premium carrots

Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman ordered … [the] reopen[ing of] the Kerem Shalom and Erez border crossings in Gaza. The defense ministry said that the decision was made after consultations with security officials – Ynet news, Oct. 21, 2018.

Most of the resources entering the Gaza Strip go toward digging tunnels and manufacturing rockets. – Brig. Gen. Yehuda Fuchs, outgoing head of IDF’s Gaza Division, The Times of Israel, Oct. 24, 2018.

On Oct. 13, Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman announced resolutely that Israel would not resume the supply of fuel to Gaza until the rioting on the fence stops.

On Oct. 24, Defense Minister Lieberman announced that Israel would resume the supply of fuel, despite the fact that rioting on the fence continued unabated.

The juxtaposition of these two diametrically contradictory declarations of intent starkly underscores the utter lack of any coherent strategy on the part of Israel regarding Gaza.

Indeed, ever since Israel’s foolhardy unilateral withdrawal in 2005, the military capabilities of the terror organization that rules that hapless enclave—and those of its even more radical off-shoots—have been developed to levels inconceivable back then.

(Continue to Full Column)

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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Friday, October 26, 2018

Empowering Terrorists: Jordanian Law Permits the Murder of Israelis - by Dr. Edy Cohen

Jordanian soldier Ahmad Musa Dakasma, the notorious murderer of seven Israeli schoolgirls, was recently released from prison after serving 20 years. His name is back in the headlines following a series of posts he wrote recently encouraging the murder of Jews inside Israel. Dakasma claims that such incitement is consistent with Jordanian law, citing an addition to the State Security Law of 2013. Israel should demand that Jordan immediately abolish this addition to the law and stop Dakasma from inciting the murder of Jews.

Dr. Edy Cohen..
BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 988..
26 October '18..

Jordanian soldier Ahmad Mussa Dakasma, the murderer of seven Israeli schoolgirls in Naharayim on March 13, 1997, was released from prison in March 2017 after serving only 20 years for the heinous massacre. Many Israelis well remember the kneeling of King Hussein during his visit to the families of the murdered.

If you thought the liberated murderer had repented, or at least come to regret his actions, you are wrong. Dakasma’s name has been in the headlines again in recent days after he wrote a series of posts inciting the murder of Jews and encouraging people to carry out attacks inside Israel.

On October 2, he posted this on Facebook: “Every time I’m sad I remember that I murdered a few Zionists [the Israeli girls], and then I feel calm and my conscience is quiet, and sadness leaves me.” The post was removed following many requests from Israelis. On the same day, he wrote in another post: “Anyone who calls for resistance and can enter Israeli territory even as a tourist – and does not carry out an attack against the Zionists – is just a talker.” This post has not been removed, despite complaints. In another post that was removed, the terrorist called for the murder of Israeli children on the grounds that when they grow up they will serve as security guards.

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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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Show and Tell: One of the Worst Chapters in Palestinian School Books. - by Itamar Marcus

So if it weren’t scary enough for the children to be told they have to go out and kill, PA educators teach them that “heroes” are willing to fearlessly die as martyrs.

Itamar Marcus..
Opinion/JPost..
24 October '18..
Link: https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/One-of-the-worst-chapters-in-Palestinian-schoolbooks-570228

If you want to know why Palestinian children believe that killing Israelis is model behavior, all you have to do is look at a chapter in one of their schoolbooks.

PA schoolbooks have been criticized ever since Palestinian Media Watch wrote the first report on them in 1998, and the newest books in some respects are the worst ever. However, one chapter stands out in its overt promotion of terrorism. This chapter, appearing in the fifth-grade Arabic Language book published in 2017, serves as a window to understanding the PA leadership’s profoundly twisted values.

The chapter starts innocently by stressing the importance of heroes to national identity and national pride: “Heroes have an important position in every nation… the people – even if they are divided over many things – they all agree regarding the pride in their heroes…”

The schoolbook continues and teaches students that feeling pride is not enough. Society takes numerous active steps to honor its heroes: “[We] sing their praise, learn the history of their lives, name our children after them, and name streets, squares, and prominent cultural sites after them…”

In short, society assures that heroes are never forgotten. They might have lived in earlier times, but by naming streets and squares after them and singing their praise, these heroes remain in Palestinian consciousness.

The next message is most important: The children are taught that these heroes are not merely memories of the past they are the role models for the future: “Every one of us wishes to be like them.”

Until now this messaging is not problematic, however, all that changes when the schoolbook presents the 10 people who PA educators promote as the role models Palestinian children should emulate. The list of Palestinian heroes includes no scientists, no doctors, no engineers, no singers, no athletes, nor any artists. There have been three Muslim Nobel Prize laureates in science and two in literature, but they are not on the list of Palestinian heroes.

Who are the Palestinian heroes then according to the PA schoolbook? They are 10 Muslim combatants from the first century of Islam through the 21st century. And possibly the worst name on this list of role models is terrorist mass-murderer Dalal Mughrabi.

Thursday, October 25, 2018

Welcome to Wafa: The Palestinian propaganda factory - by Elder of Ziyon

When real journalism is forbidden, something has to fill the vacuum - and that is the propaganda of the PA, paid for by your tax dollars. They don't only decide what stories to cover up by intimidating and jailing journalists, but they also decide what lies to propagate.

Elder of Ziyon..
25 October '18..

While the recent Human Rights Watch report about torture and human rights violations under the PA and Hamas touches on the topic of intimidation of journalists, as far as I can tell no one has really reported on the depth of the problem, and what it means for any desired "State of Palestine."

As in many autocratic nations, there is an official Palestinian news agency, Wafa. The writers are anonymous but are certainly on the PA payroll - paid by the governments of the world.

They regularly write what they are paid to write, much of which are anti-Israel screeds.. They talk about "the occupation" and "Jewish extremists" and "Jewish fanatics" who want to visit holy sites and the articles fawn over the wonderful leadership of Mahmoud Abbas and his cronies.

There are no bylines. There is no way to write a letter to the editor. There are no means to correct errors.

No one would consider this to be journalism - it is pure naked propaganda.

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Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 
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Justice was not achieved – it was denied - by Justin Amler

While she gets to walk the hallways of an Israeli institution in comfort, Jewish students in the United States are intimidated because of the activities that Lara Alqasem was part of and led.

Justin Amler..
MiDA..
25 October '18..

On the twenty first day of the month of February 1969, ordinary people were shopping in a busy supermarket on Agron street in Jerusalem. People were doing what all people do, every hour of every day, in every place, in every city in the world. Some were buying milk. Others were buying snacks. Some were looking to buy chicken for Shabbat. Others were buying candles. Some were buying baby food, or diapers or towels, or plastic spoons, or a thousand other ordinary, everyday things. In a corner of the supermarket sat a toddler eating pretzels, waiting as his mother ran in to grab some last minute item.

Ordinary people, Christians, Muslims and Jews, doing ordinary things on an ordinary day.

What was just an ordinary day, was not to end that way though. While these simple things that we all tend to do were going on, a bomb placed in the supermarket exploded, ripping through the aisles and through the lives of hundreds of people.

It was a bomb planted by an Arab terrorist, designed to kill ordinary, innocent people going about their daily lives – men, women, children, mothers, fathers. Nine people, including the toddler sitting eating pretzels in the corner, were injured that fateful day and two people were killed – 21 year old Leon Kanner of Netanya and 22 year old Eddie Joffe of Tel Aviv. They were roommates and both were students at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

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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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Ahlam Tamimi admits she planned the Sbarro massacre, yet for parts of the media, she remains 'an accomplice' - by Arnold Roth

Other than that Ahlam Tamimi is an acclaimed hero among Palestinian Arabs and in Jordanian society in general (which is overwhelmingly composed of Palestinian Arabs); that she has been provided with support, protection, privilege and exposure that arguably no mass murderer in history has enjoyed at the hands of any government; and that the victims of her malevolence were mainly Jewish children (unlike every other Jordanian extradited to the US); and that she has publicly and for the record admitted, indeed boasted, about her central role in the bombing and the resulting deaths...

Arnold/Frimet Roth..
This Ongoing War..
25 October '18..

In a piece about FBI Most Wanted fugitive terrorist Ahlam Tamimi published yesterday, the Washington Post breezily describes our daughter's murderer this way:

For Israelis, the Tamimis are a group of provocateurs intent on manipulating the media to hurt the country’s image. One cousin [of Ahed], Ahlam Tamimi, was an accomplice to a suicide bombing. "

At this point, we know a lot about Ahlam Tamimi. Here's how she herself details the central role she took in the 2001 Sbarro pizzeria massacre:

Interviewer: "Who chose Sbarro [restaurant, as the target of the attack]?"

Ahlam Tamimi: "I did. For nine days I examined the place very carefully and chose it after seeing the large number of patrons at the Sbarro restaurant. My mission was just to choose the place and to bring the martyrdom-seeker (i.e. the human bomb, a young man called Al-Masri). [I made] the general plan of the operation but carrying it out was entrusted to the martyrdom-seeker."
..."

Interviewer: "Do you know how many children were killed in the restaurant?"

Ahlam Tamimi: "Three children were killed in the operation, I think."

Interviewer: "Eight."

Ahlam Tamimi (smiling): "Eight? Eight!"

This is the monster that Jordan's King Abdullah refuses to extradite to the United States despite the US Department of Justice's request under a valid extradition treaty that has existed between those two countries since 1995 and under which multiple Jordanian felons have been extradited to face trial in US courts.

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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, October 24, 2018

Jews Defending Themselves Seems to Be What Bothers the UN and Europe - by Judith Bergman

The UN and EU, who completely ignored terrorist arson, missiles and general destruction aimed at Israel for the past eight months, have now suddenly woken up. The prospect of Jews defending themselves is more than they can bear.

Judith Bergman..
MiDA..
23 October '18..

As Hamas violence along the border with Israel intensified, UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Nickolay E. Mladenov, tweeted on Friday that “In light of today’s planned Gaza march, I urge all to exercise restraint, to proceed in a peaceful manner, and to avoid escalation. The UN is working with Egypt and its partners to avoid violence, address all humanitarian issues and support reconciliation”.

The day before, EU ambassador to the UN, Joanne Adamson, said at the UN, “We expect the de-facto authorities in Gaza to do their utmost to prevent further escalation. The EU urges all actors concerned to act with utmost restraint to avoid further loss of life, to prevent any escalation, to not encourage resort to violence, and to not exploit the demonstrations for other means. While recalling Israel’s right to self-defense, we expect the Israeli authorities to respect the principle of necessity and proportionality in its use of force. Serious questions have risen about the proportionate use of force which must be addressed through independent and transparent investigation …Facts must also be established regarding reports about violent attacks against Israel under the guise of the protests”.

“Reports”? The EU apparently thinks that Israel is making it all up, even while acknowledging, a little earlier in the statement that “Launching of incendiary kites and balloons has now continued for over half a year”. Now, they are demanding investigations into whether Israel has used ‘disproportionate force’ against this jihadist attack storm and are calling for Israel to show ‘restraint’?

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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 right to criticize Israel is beside the point - by Jonathan S. Tobin

The issue isn’t whether it’s OK to criticize the government of a democracy, but whether that democracy has a right to exist and to defend itself.

Jonathan S. Tobin..
JNS.org..
23 October '18..

In an election season in which we are awash in polls, we’ve now been given one more telling us something that everybody already knew. A new group founded by Jewish Democrats called the Jewish Electorate Institute has commissioned and published a poll that says Jewish voters back Democrats over Republicans by a 74-26 margin in the upcoming midterm elections. For good measure, it also informs us that Jews disapprove of U.S. President Donald Trump’s performance in office by a 75-25 margin.

This is what the news business calls a “dog bites man” story. But there was one question the survey raised that is worthy of comment: whether or not American Jews thought they had a right to criticize Israel’s government. A majority of them believe they do, with 59 percent saying that you could be both pro-Israel and still disagree with some or many of the Israeli government’s policies.

This result is being trumpeted by groups critical of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government as proof that they are more representative of American Jewish opinion than those U.S. Jews who are supportive of the government. It is also put forward as a vindication of sorts for a liberal Zionist perspective on the Middle East conflict that argues that American Jews not only have a right to oppose Netanyahu’s policies, but a duty to push for pressure on the Jewish state to change its ways while still being able to claim the label of pro-Israel.

But those heralding its results are missing the point. The issue isn’t whether it’s OK to criticize the government of a democracy, but whether that democracy has a right to exist and to defend itself. Even more to the point, the key question is whether Israel’s voters have a right to have their judgment respected by those who would like to push foreign governments to put intolerable pressure on their government to do things its people have clearly said they oppose.

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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, October 23, 2018

Surprise? BBC World Service radio adopts the PLO’s language - by Hadar Sela

In this latest item BBC World Service audiences heard just one view of the story (which unsurprisingly happens to dovetail with that of the PLO) while the BBC presenter adopted and amplified misleading terminology promoted by the PLO for political purposes and in doing so, compromised the BBC’s objectivity.

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

The October 19th afternoon edition of the BBC World Service radio programme ‘Newshour‘ included an item relating to the previous day’s announcement by the US Secretary of State concerning the merging of the American embassy and consulate general in Jerusalem into a single diplomatic mission.

Programme presenter James Menendez introduced his interviewee (from 0:45:04 here) as follows:

[emphasis in italics in the original, emphasis in bold added]

Menendez: “Until a few months ago America’s embassy in Israel was in Tel Aviv. Its diplomatic mission to the Palestinians was at the consulate general in Jerusalem. But in May – as you may remember – the embassy moved to Jerusalem; America recognising what Israel has always maintained: that Jerusalem is its capital. That was condemned by Palestinians as well as all the other members of the UN Security Council.”

Failing to clarify that no UN Security Council resolution was in fact passed on that topic, Menendez went on

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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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Heroes, hoodlums and homes in Hebron - by Michael Freund

That legacy and the love for the land which he embodied, will now live on in the Hebron Jewish neighborhood that will bear his name.


Michael Freund..
Pundicity/JPost..
22 October '18..
Link: http://www.michaelfreund.org/21731/heroes-homes-hebron

Earlier this week, the cabinet passed a welcome decision that was long overdue. For the first time since 2002, the government approved the construction of 31 Jewish housing units in Hebron, thereby allowing the city's Jewish community to continue to grow.

That it took 16 years to grant permission to Hebron's Jews to build is remarkable, for it underlines how successive governments have failed to muster the requisite courage needed to fortify and expand the Jewish presence in the City of the Patriarchs. There is simply no reason it should be so difficult for Jews to build in the place where our founding father, Abraham, lived and was buried.

But perhaps more importantly, the cabinet decision underlines the perseverance and determination of Hebron's Jews, whom the international media and much of Israel's Left continuously vilify without end. For despite all the challenges they face in living in a city that is largely a hotbed of Palestinian hostility and terrorism, their heroic dedication to resettling one of the holiest cities in the Land of Israel is something that should inspire us all.

Recall that over two decades ago, under the terms of the Hebron Accord signed with the PLO, the city was divided. About 80% of it was turned over to Palestinian control and is known as H1, while the rest, referred to as H2 and home to nearly 1,000 Jews and tens of thousands of Arabs, is governed by the Israeli military.

To get a sense of the belligerence of the local Palestinian population, one need only look as far as the man they chose to elect as their mayor, Tayseer Abu Sneineh. A prominent member of Fatah, Abu Sneineh was one of four Palestinians who took part in a terrorist attack in Hebron on May 2, 1980, in which he and his comrades opened fire and tossed grenades at a group of yeshiva students who had just returned from festive Shabbat evening prayers at the Tomb of the Patriarchs. Six young Jews, including two American citizens and a Canadian, were murdered, and 20 others were wounded.

Though Abu Sneineh and his cohorts were captured, convicted and sentenced to life in prison, they were subsequently released in a prisoner exchange.

Last year, 37 years after he spilled innocent blood, Abu Sneineh was rewarded by Hebron's Palestinian electorate with a resounding victory in the mayoral contest. What does it say about a society that elevates convicted murderers to positions of power?

Monday, October 22, 2018

Trading Israeli sovereignty for PR - by Vic Rosenthal

...One usually sensible journalist praised the decision to allow Alqasem to enter, because “it proves that the system works” and “showed just how democratic Israel really is.” But in fact it proved the opposite: that the system of laws does not work, because it is often overridden by considerations of public relations. And it has absolutely nothing to do with democracy, unless the next step is to give Lara Alqasem citizenship because her grandparents were “Palestinian.”

Vic Rosenthal..
Abu Yehuda..
21 October '18..
Link: http://abuyehuda.com/2018/10/trading-sovereignty-for-pr/

I live in a country in which everything is negotiable, everything is negotiated, nothing is final, and nothing is really forbidden, at least for our enemies.

Graduate student Lara Alqasem, the former president of a BDS-supporting, Israel-hating, university “Students for Justice in Palestine” chapter, was turned back at the border because there is a law that entry is forbidden to a non-citizen “if he, the organization or the body he acts on behalf of knowingly issues a public call for boycotting Israel.” If leading a chapter of SJP doesn’t fit this criterion, nothing does.

The decision of the security service to bar her was initially supported by an administrative court, and then upheld on appeal by the Tel Aviv District Court. But Israel’s Supreme Court threw out the earlier decisions and ruled that she could be admitted. The Court accepted her contention (possibly untrue) that she hadn’t engaged in boycott activity since April 2017, said that the SJP chapter she belonged to was small and unimportant, and argued that since she wanted to study in Israel, she couldn’t have really believed in boycotting Israel. And the justices wanted to avoid giving the impression that, God forbid, she was being excluded for her political opinions.

I could criticize the court opinion in detail, but I’m not going to do that. Just two points: first, even if her SJP chapter (at the University of Florida) was small, the national organization is one of the prime movers of the BDS movement in the US, having introduced countless boycott resolutions at American universities, organizing “Israel apartheid week,” and engaging in intimidation of pro-Israel students.

And second, one of the leaders of the BDS movement, Omar Barghouti, is a Ph.D candidate at Tel Aviv University. So the fact that Alqasem also wants to study here proves nothing.

I assume that since two lower courts supported the decision of the security service to prevent her admission, it was reasonable from a legal standpoint. The Supreme court rarely interferes in such cases. But this time it chose to find reasons to do so. In other words, it thought the political consequences of keeping her out were worse than allowing her in. And this is what I dispute.

The Court acted (quite predictably) according to the principle – also adhered to by the government in its dealings with the terrorists of Gaza, and illegal Bedouin encampments – that nothing is worse than looking illiberal. Its decision, which was probably intended to improve Israel’s image in the world, in practice eviscerated the law that was passed to prevent subversive activity inside our borders, and will encourage more activists to try to enter the country so they can participate in demonstrations and get street cred to help promote anti-Israel activity back home.