Friday, May 31, 2019

You shall again plant vineyards upon the mountains of Samaria - by Michael Freund

More than 2,500 years ago, the Prophet Jeremiah (31:4) foretold, "You shall again plant vineyards upon the mountains of Samaria." With the stroke of a pen, and a healthy dose of national pride, the government of Israel can and must do its part to help bring that vision to life.

Michael Freund..
Pundicity/JPost..
30 May '19..
Link: http://www.michaelfreund.org/22756/time-to-rebuild-northern-samaria

In recent weeks, a growing chorus of voices has emerged calling attention to a painful episode that took place 14 years ago in the hills and plains of northern Samaria, when four Jewish communities were pointlessly uprooted and destroyed as part of Ariel Sharon's so-called Disengagement Plan.

Sensing that the time may finally be right to correct this grievous wrong, prominent members of parliament, including Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein, have spoken out in favor of the passage of a bill that would undo the injustice that was wrought. Such a move is long overdue and should be a top priority for the next government.

The withdrawal from Homesh, Sa-Nur, Ganim and Kadim is the "forgotten expulsion," one largely overshadowed by the simultaneous pullout from Gaza which occurred in the summer of 2005. Hundreds of Jews who had built their lives in the communities, some of which dated back to the late 1970s, were traumatically forced out of their homes with little or no explanation.

Indeed, why Sharon decided to bulldoze the four flourishing villages in northern Samaria, which had no connection at all to Gaza, remains largely a mystery until today. Some suggest that he did so to send a signal that his aim in destroying Gaza Jewry was not merely a feint in order to save all of Judea and Samaria.

But to fully appreciate the folly of the move, consider the following. Whereas Gaza was emptied of Jews and turned over to hostile Palestinian forces, the four Samarian towns were emptied of Jews yet remained under full Israeli control, which is still the case today.

In other words, the Jews living there were expelled not because Israel was handing the territory over to our foes, but for no apparent reason at all. This was a senseless and cruel act, driven by politics yet devoid of morality and logic.

And with benefit of hindsight, many have come to acknowledge this.

Thursday, May 30, 2019

A left turn? Actually, there's nothing new about Avigdor Liberman - by Dr. Aaron Lerner

Last night PM Netanyahu charged that Avigdor Liberman is "now" part of the left after forcing snap elections for the second time. In truth - Liberman has ALWAYS been left! Here is something I wrote over two years ago:

Dr. Aaron Lerner..
IMRA..
30 May '19..
Link: http://www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=73518





Weekly Commentary: Liberman Consistent: Border Inferior to pre- '67, 3rd
Party-Based Security, Multiple Sovereignties
Dr. Aaron Lerner 15 March, 2017

There's nothing new about Minister of Defense Avigdor Liberman's positions.

From the very start of his political career he has advocated:

#1. Redrawing Israel's borders to remove large Arab communities. The resulting lines would be militarily inferior to the terrible pre-'67 border. While Liberman promises the move would dramatically reduce the Arab population inside Israel this assertion ignores that the affected Israeli Arabs could opt to change their official place of residence to a location remaining inside Israel and/or successfully challenge their unilateral loss of Israeli citizenship in the Supreme Court.

#2. Relying on third parties for security. In his 2004 book, "My Truth" he proposed that Jordanian and Egyptian security forces take responsibility for the West Bank and Gaza Strip respectively. Later he proposed that NATO forces be deployed.

#3. The West Bank and Gaza Strip not being within a non-Israeli sovereignty envelope. Again - either Jordan and Egypt or simply Palestinian sovereignty.

Each of these key features of Liberman's positions is radically different from those of the national camp in general and Binyamin Netanyahu in particular.

Wednesday, May 29, 2019

Los Angeles Times Op-Ed Sweetens the Destruction of Israel - by Simon Plosker

This call for a one-state solution, while presented in the language of liberalism, equal rights and justice, is nothing more than Bisharat’s politically correct method for bringing about the destruction of Israel as a Jewish state. Palestinian rejectionism has played a significant role in wrecking all initiatives for a Palestinian state living side by side with an Israeli one. Bisharat’s opinion piece is an admittance that his one-state solution is just that – a single Palestinian state where Israel currently exists.

Simon Plosker..
Honest Reporting..
26 May '19..

The concepts of equal rights and justice are embedded in the American psyche. US academic of Palestinian descent, George Bisharat is well aware of this when he makes his case for a one-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the LA Times. But what looks like a winning formula couched in the language of human rights and equality is actually a thinly veiled way of sweetening the pill of advocating for Israel’s destruction as a Jewish state.

Bisharat’s prescription:

The way forward will be difficult, but it could start with a compassionate declaration from Palestinians, along the lines of South Africa’s Freedom Charter, committing to a just society that includes both Israeli Jews and Palestinians. Such a declaration should embrace a broad, multi-faceted and contemporary vision of justice for this troubled land.


Without even mentioning the word ‘apartheid,’ Bisharat has conflated the end of the South African apartheid regime with a solution to his Israel problem.

Needless to say, Israel is not apartheid South Africa.

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Tuesday, May 28, 2019

The EU proudly presents: An ‘ancient village’ is born - by Naomi Kahn

A joint project of the P.A. and the European Union is taking over a strategic area in the center of Gush Etzion, “restoring” an historic village that never existed.

Naomi Kahn..
JNS.org..
27 May '19..

The Palestinian Authority, aided by the European Union, is taking control of a strategic area in the heart of the Etzion Bloc, between Highway 60 and Neveh Daniel.

Over the past two years, the P.A. has created, out of thin air, a “historic” village—that just so happens to be located on a strategic point adjacent to the Jerusalem-Hebron highway. The name given to this new “ancient” village: Shoshkhalah.



Yishai Hemo, Judea and Samaria field coordinator for Israeli NGO Regavim, describes the methodology: “Over the course of the past two years, activists from the Arab town of Al Khader, backed by P.A. and European Union funding, occupied the ruins of two ancient shomerot (watchman’s huts)—primitive stone structures used by passing shepherds or farmers as shelter from the elements—that dot the landscape in the Jerusalem and Sataf areas. They renovated these abandoned structures and turned them into homes—and from that point, in very short order, totally new structures have been added in the surrounding area.”

The signs posted on the refurbished buildings, proudly bearing the European Union emblem, explain that the site is an ancient village—Shoshkhalah—despite the fact that aerial photos paint a completely different picture: In the past two years, more than 15 homes have been built in this “village,” each connected to solar power infrastructure and water tanks paid for by the Europeans.

(Continue to Full Column)

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Monday, May 27, 2019

Palestinian Fauxtography: Gaza Pink T-Shirt Scam? - by Simon Plosker

Has that purple piece of children’s furniture been deliberately placed there for the benefit of the photographers? And how does the pink t-shirt look like it has just returned from the launderette?

Simon Plosker..
Honest Reporting..
27 May '19..

There’s nothing more pernicious than the charge that Israel deliberately targets Palestinian children. It’s something that the Palestinians and Israel-haters want the world to believe. But if you can’t supply a dead child’s body, you need to produce imagery that will suggest that a child was a victim of Israel. That’s where Fauxtography comes in.

One way to do this is through the deliberate staging of photos or footage, something that HonestReporting looked at in our Shattered Lens study of Photo Bias. So, for example, the deliberate placement of children’s toys at the scene of an Israeli air strike has been a favored ploy.

A piece in The Independent on the financial plight of UNRWA includes an accompanying and barely related video shot by correspondent Bel Trew in Gaza from the scene of what was presumably an Israeli air strike. There is no commentary, no subtitling and no context.

Amidst the rubble, most of which is concrete, one thing catches the eye – what appears to be a purple piece of furniture, most likely a girl’s. A Palestinian man holds up a child’s bright pink t-shirt.

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What a surprise. Guardian continues in its long tradition of infantilzing Palestinians - by Adam Levick

We’re not at all optimistic that the Guardian will head our advice and begin viewing Palestinian decisions as an important factor in analysing the conflict, in part because the ideology the media group is institutionally wedded to demands a narrative in which Palestinians exist solely as passive victims of Israel, the only party that matters.

Adam Levick..
UK Media Watch..
26 May '19..

In the context of the long Guardian history of anti-Israel venom, the following passage in a piece by their Jerusalem correspondent Oliver Holmes is hardly among the most egregious examples. Yet, it’s an apt illustration of one of their consistent patterns of bias: myopic coverage that focuses almost entirely on Israel whilst erasing Palestinians.

The article “Donald Trump’s peace conference will fail, Palestinian say”, May 20, notes Palestinians’ rejection of the US sponsored “Peace to Prosperity” workshop to be held in Bahrain next month, and includes the following background:

Expectations for a successful agreement are low. The Palestinians, citing Trump’s pro-Israel bias, have pre-emptively rejected US mediation and it is not clear if a delegation will attend. Meanwhile, Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, has expressed open disdain for peace efforts and categorically ruled out a Palestinian state.

First, whilst it’s at least arguable that Netanyanu has effectively ruled out a Palestinian state, the claim by Holmes that he has expressed “open disdain for peace efforts” is extremely misleading. Though Netanyahu was a long critic of the Oslo Peace Process, his skepticism didn’t prevent him, during his first stint as prime minister, from agreeing to significant Oslo-related territorial withdrawals – The Wye River Memorandum and the Hebron Protocols.

Further, during the Obama Administration, Netanyahu not only consistently agreed to engage in US sponsored talks without preconditions, but also implemented an unprecedented 10 month settlement freeze to induce Mahmoud Abbas to come to the table. Despite this Israeli concession, Abbas still refused to participate in talks for the first nine months of the 10 month freeze, “leaving virtually no time for substantive progress before the freeze expired”.

When US peace efforts resumed several years later, after John Kerry became Secretary of State, Abbas again demanded preconditions before he agreed to talks – the release of over 100 pre-Oslo prisoners – all of whom were convicted of violent terror offences. Though Netanyahu agreed to this Palestinian demand, talks broke down in 2014.

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Sunday, May 26, 2019

Confronting the myth of ‘white, colonial’ Israel - by Lyn Julius

Israel represents the return to self-determination of an indigenous Middle Eastern people after centuries of subjugation and colonization.

Lyn Julius..
JNS.org..
23 May '19..

According to the late Israeli author Amos Oz, when his father was growing up in eastern Europe, the graffiti on the walls read “Jews go back to Palestine.” For centuries, Jews were considered swarthy aliens in Europe. This trend reached its tragic nadir with the mass Nazi extermination of the Jews as racial untermenschen.

Nowadays, the inverse message is in evidence—not so much on walls, but in the media, on campus and in the writings of academics and journalists obsessed with identity politics. Jews are portrayed as members of a privileged and powerful elite—white Westerners who came to colonize and steal land from the “native” Palestinian people. As a result, Jews are excluded from “intersectionality”—the idea that oppressed social groups, especially in the United States, stand up for each other.

This anti-Zionist, postcolonial trend in which Jews can never be victims has lately been insinuating itself into the ideology of the radical left of the U.S. Democratic Party. Positioning Israel as a white European colonialist aggressor delegitimizes Ashkenazi Jews as interlopers. This canard denies the Levantine origin, genes, culture, religion and language of Jews from Europe and the Americas.

The sin is compounded by the erasure from the narrative of Mizrahi Jews (Jews from Arab and Muslim countries), who now form the majority of Israeli Jews. These Jews are from now-extinct communities founded long before the Arab Muslim imperialist conquest subjugated indigenous peoples to Arabization and Islam. In the 20th century, a million Mizrahi Jews were dispossessed and forced to flee as refugees.

(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, May 24, 2019

Why President Trump’s Middle East Initiative Is Doomed To Fail No Matter What He Does - by Jonathan S. Tobin

As futile as their quest seems, Jared Kushner’s plan is also a breath of fresh air after decades of American efforts to accommodate Palestinians’ unwillingness to admit that they’ve lost their long war against Zionism.

Jonathan S. Tobin..
TheFederalist.com..
23 May '19..

For once, the foreign policy establishment and the veterans of past U.S. administrations are at least partly right about President Donald Trump. His Middle East peace initiative, the first part of which is due to be unveiled next month at an “economic workshop” in Bahrain, won’t succeed. The “ultimate deal” that will end the conflict between Israel and Palestine certainly won’t be struck at that meeting.

The Palestinian Authority has already made it clear that it won’t attend the Bahrain event or negotiate on the basis of Trump’s plan. Longtime State Department peace processor Aaron David Miller wasn’t wrong when he told The New York Times that if the United States could have “bought peace in the Middle East through economic development,” it would have done so long ago.

That means that it is almost certain the president will be denied the satisfaction of brokering a deal that eluded his predecessors. Under the current circumstances, Palestinian leadership and the political culture that sustains them simply won’t allow it. But that is not the only way to look at the Trump/Kushner plan.

A Template for Peace

For all of the abuse the administration is taking from the establishment for attempting the impossible, by sticking to a plan that puts economics first and refusing to prioritize pandering to Palestinian intransigence, as all his successors have done, Trump is creating a template for peace that makes sense. Even more to the point, it is being welcomed by most of the Arab world.

(Continue to Full Post)

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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Thursday, May 23, 2019

By any realistic standard, the U.S. embassy’s move to Jerusalem has been a resounding success - by Evelyn Gordon

By any realistic standard, the embassy move has been a resounding success. In the space of just one year, countries around the world have gone from a situation in which recognizing Jerusalem was unthinkable to one in which it is being discussed, debated and even acted upon. And as long as this trend continues, it’s only a matter of time until actual embassy moves follow.

Evelyn Gordon..
Analysis from Israel..
23 May '19..
Linkhttp://evelyncgordon.com/one-year-later-the-us-embassy-move-has-produced-lasting-gains/

The first anniversary of the U.S. embassy’s move to Jerusalem sparked multiple articles in the Israeli press declaring it a failure for both U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. From the left-wing Haaretz to the centrist Times of Israel, headlines trumpeted the fact that only one minor country, Guatemala, has followed America’s lead. And even that might prove fleeting, as several candidates in next month’s Guatemalan election have pledged to return the embassy to Tel Aviv.

All this is true, but it also misses the point. And it thereby obscures the real and lasting gains of the embassy move.

To understand why, it’s worth recalling America’s own history on this issue. In 1995, Congress passed the Jerusalem Embassy Act, which ordered the embassy relocated from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. It was approved by overwhelming bipartisan majorities in both the House (374-37) and the Senate (93-5). And in every subsequent election, every presidential candidate, whether Republican or Democratic, pledged to honor this directive.

Yet despite this consensus, it still took more than 20 years for the move to happen. Successive presidents, both Republican and Democratic, proved reluctant to defy international opposition. Consequently, they exercised a provision of the law allowing the move to be postponed due to national security considerations. These presidential waivers were renewed every six months for more than two decades.

In contrast, recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital was never been mooted as a possibility by any other country in the world. Outside America, not a single mainstream party, whether liberal or conservative, ever considered an embassy move, much less actively supported the idea.

Expecting other countries to go from having never even thought about moving their embassies to actually doing so in the space of just 12 months was always fatuous. Indeed, I warned a year ago that “Jerusalem isn’t going to be flooded with new embassies anytime soon.” If it took America more than two decades to move its embassy despite a bipartisan consensus that was codified in legislation, it will clearly take time for countries that have only just started considering the issue to reach the point of being ready to actually make the move.

What Trump’s decision did accomplish, however, was to break the global taboo on thinking and talking about this idea. Never again will recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital be an inconceivable option. Indeed, in many countries, it has already become a hotly debated one. And the more the idea is discussed, the more realistic the possibility becomes.

Wednesday, May 22, 2019

Introducing Hanan Ashrawi, long-term friend of terror - by Stephen M. Flatow

Nobody is denying the PLO senior official access to the world’s media outlets. But America is under no obligation to open its doors to those who endorse and consort with terrorists.

Stephen M. Flatow..
JNS.org..
21 May '19..

Hanan Ashrawi is a senior official of an organization that includes in its ranks those who are on the U.S. government list of terrorist groups. If that’s not sufficient grounds to deny her a visa to America, then what is?

Ashrawi is a member of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization. The PLO consists of groups that practice terrorism though are not on the U.S. list (for political reasons), such as Fatah; and groups that practice terrorism and are on the U.S. list, such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

Founded in 1967, the PFLP is a Marxist gang that has carried out numerous terrorist attacks. It was a pioneer of airplane hijackings in the 1970s. It murdered 29-year-old Harold Rosenthal of Philadelphia—a member of the staff of U.S. Sen. Jacob Javits, Republican of New York (and a former member of the staff of Sen. Walter Mondale, Democrat of Minnesota)—in a grenade-and-machine gun attack on the El Al terminal at the Istanbul airport on Aug. 11, 1976.

The PFLP’s bloody rap sheet also includes the murder of an Israeli cabinet minister and the butchering of American rabbis (and an Israeli Druze policeman) in a synagogue in Jerusalem’s Har Nof neighborhood.

It’s no surprise that Ashrawi is comfortable helping run an organization that includes the PFLP. After all, she has on many occasions publicly endorsed terrorism.

(Continue to Full Column)

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Tuesday, May 21, 2019

Clarity: Hamas and Islamic Jihad are Terrorist Organizations and Should be Treated as Such - by Guy Millière

"Firing 600 rockets at civilian targets in a neighboring country is an act of war... and as such it grants the nation-state [Israel] the authority under the international law of armed conflict not just to disable the specific military assets used to carry it out but to destroy those who carried it out... It's time for the world community to stop imposing these double standards on Israel, and start doing what international law requires: holding Hamas responsible for the devastation that results from Israel's legal, necessary, and proper responses to its provocations. Only then will Hamas know that if it sows the wind, it could truly reap the whirlwind..." — David French, National Review, May 6, 2019.

Guy Millière..
Gatestone Institute..
21 May '19..

On May 5 and 6, 700 rockets were fired from Gaza into Israeli territory in less than 48 hours. It was the most intensive rocket offensive on Israel to date. Four people were killed: three Israelis and one Palestinian Arab worker. One of the Israelis was hit in his car by an anti-tank missile. The Israeli military retaliated and resumed targeted killings. One was to a Hamas member, Hamed al-Khoudary, considered responsible for the transfer of Iranian funds to the armed factions in Gaza. On May 6, a spokesman from Islamic Jihad and Hamas announced a ceasefire and said they had got "what they wanted".

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a short statement: "We struck a powerful blow against Hamas and Islamic Jihad. The campaign is not finished, and it will require patience and careful judgment. We're prepared for its continuation".

Various Israeli politicians, including members of the parties negotiating to be in the new governing coalition Netanyahu is building, said that the reprisals had been insufficient.

"The ceasefire, in the circumstances it was reached under, has no gains for Israel", noted Likud MK Gideon Saar. "The time between each round of violent attacks against Israel and its citizens is shrinking, and terror organizations in Gaza are strengthening. The fighting hasn't been ended, just pushed off."

Television interviews broadcast by the Israeli news channels show that the population of the south of the country is upset and would apparently like more drastic action.

The Israeli left accused Netanyahu of sparing Hamas in order to keep Palestinians divided, weaken the Palestinian Authority (PA) and prevent the resumption of talks that could lead to the creation of a "Palestinian state". Yoram Yuval, a professor at the University of Haifa, wrote in the daily Yedioth Aharonoth that Netanyahu was keen to continue, "claiming that there is no one on the Palestinian side to talk to, thereby avoiding any peace arrangement that would require the return of territories and the evacuation of settlements".

These accusations are without merit.

(Continue to Full Article)

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 
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Monday, May 20, 2019

The British White Paper: 80 Years Later - by Larry Domnitch

This move by the British came as the culmination of over 20 years of intermittent waves of Arab terror, and at the end of three years of devastating Arab riots in British Mandatory Palestine.

Larry Domnitch..
Algemeiner..
19 May '19..

Eighty years ago, an ominous and devastating policy was enacted by the British government that would wreak severe destruction upon the Jewish people.

The MacDonald White Paper, named after the colonial Foreign Secretary Malcolm MacDonald, was proposed on May 17 and ratified on May 22, 1939. That week, British commitments to facilitate a Jewish state under the terms of the 1917 Balfour Declaration were essentially nullified. The White Paper also denied Jews desperately needed refuge as the Nazi threat emerged.

On November 9, 1938, the British government announced its intention to invite representatives of the Arabs in Palestine and nearby countries to confer with Jewish representatives at a London conference in search of a solution to the vast differences between them. The proposed meetings were a futile venture, as the Arabs refused to even sit with the Jews. Separate meetings were held, and they ended predictably with no resolution.

Under the MacDonald White Paper, the Peel Commission’s 1937 recommendation of the partition of the land of Israel was rejected. Jewish immigration would be restricted to 15,000 per year over the next five years, and land purchases by Zionists would be severely restricted as well. Any further immigration after the five years would be determined by the Arab majority, which would essentially terminate the Zionist enterprise.

This move by the British came as the culmination of over 20 years of intermittent waves of Arab terror, and at the end of three years of devastating Arab riots in British Mandatory Palestine.

The fact that the British Mandate over Palestine was a responsibility granted by an outside party, the League of Nations at San Remo in 1922, and therefore did not exclusively grant carte blanche to the British to act as they pleased, meant little since that organization was now of minimal importance. Anyway, who would hold the British accountable when their respective nations also had imposed severe quotas on Jewish immigration?

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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, May 19, 2019

The pervasive anti-Israel bias at Human Rights Watch that it is beyond repair - by Petra Marquardt-Bigman

I don’t quite see why Israel should give a work permit to employees of foreign NGOs who come to work for the demise of the Jewish state. By trying to force Israel to host a longtime anti-Israel activist, HRW has provided a stark reminder of its bias and its arrogant attitude that it has no need to even pretend to be impartial. But this is arguably not only about Israel. If an organization is so shameless about its bias towards one country, it seems reasonable to question how much ideological fixations affect its work on other countries. The apparently widespread idea that an organization working on human rights must be assumed to reflect the highest ethical standards and should be automatically exempt from scrutiny and criticism is certainly not justified.

Petra Marquardt-Bigman..
Legal Insurrection..
18 May '19..

In the first part of my documentation of the bias of Human Rights Watch, I focused on HRW’s “Israel and Palestine Country Director” Omar Shakir.

I demonstrated that, given his long record of anti-Israel activism, it is laughable for HRW to insist that Shakir would be able or even willing to impartially monitor Israel’s human rights record.

Indeed, HRW is playing a cynical game by demanding that Israel grant Shakir a work permit, because what they are essentially saying is: we hired a veteran anti-Israel activist and are paying him to continue his efforts to rid the world of its only Jewish state, and we insist that for the sake of “human rights,” Israel must host him.

Since HRW is a well-funded and influential NGO that enjoys near-immunity from media criticism, it is all the more important to realize that Shakir’s case should serve as a reminder of HRW’s institutional bias against Israel.

As I will document in this second part, this bias was widely criticized a decade ago, and it is not only Shakir’s case that illustrates that this criticism remains valid. Top HRW officials like well-paid veteran executive director Ken Roth and Sarah Leah Whitson of the Middle East and North Africa Division are almost eager to openly display their pronounced bias against Israel. Their conduct reflects HRW’s adoption of an anti-Zionist agenda almost two decades ago.

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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. Is there room in the academy for honest scholarship on Israel? - by Jonathan S. Tobin

The smearing of scholars for publishing a journal that examined misleading attacks on the Jewish state exposes the intellectual dishonesty of academic Israel-bashers.

Jonathan S. Tobin..
JNS.org..
17 May '19..

The old joke about academia is that the arguments in the faculty lounges are so nasty because the stakes involved are so small. That’s often true about most things that go on in the narrow world of intellectual specialists, who guard their university department fiefdoms with jealous ferocity. They conduct their scholarly wars with publications that are written in academic jargon that is virtually indecipherable to the general reader. Their feuds are epic in their bitterness, but happily of little concern to the rest of society, which can easily ignore the doings of this tribe of underpaid and generally disgruntled people who have earned the right to have the letters Ph.D. after their names.

But there are some academic arguments about which the rest of us would do well to pay attention. One such is the brawl that has started among the members of the Association for Israel Studies, in which a number of members are outraged that some AIS scholars have published a journal devoted to the topic of how language is used to delegitimize Zionism and the State of Israel. The special issue of the Summer 2019 edition of Israel Studies was titled “Word Crimes: Reclaiming the Language of the Israel-Palestinian Conflict.”

But rather than earn the plaudits of their colleagues, the editors and authors involved have been subjected to scathing attacks for their supposed lack of scholarship, their bias and for being lightweights unworthy of being published in a peer-reviewed journal.

(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, May 17, 2019

Palestinian narrative and the need to rethink the ‘nakba,’ not repeat it - by Jonathan S. Tobin

A rethinking of why the “catastrophe” happened is essential to the sea change in Palestinian political culture that is a necessary precondition for their leaders to be able to accept peace. But as Tlaib’s remarks made clear, the sad truth is that they are still not ready; they are still unprepared to think honestly about their tragic past.

Jonathan S. Tobin..
JNS.org..
16 May '19..

The debates about Holocaust references made by Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) are starting to die down. Like almost everything that happens these days, partisanship was far more important in determining the outcome than the substance of the controversy. The Palestinian-American congresswoman engaged in some outrageous historical revisionism and an attempt to cast the creation of Israel as a Nazi-like crime in which innocent Palestinian Arabs were made to pay for the sins of others. But Democrats, including some of its most stalwart pro-Israel members, were not prepared to censure someone like Tlaib, one of her party’s young rock stars, even if they would have condemned without reservation any Republican who had used those same words.

But there’s more to this story. Tlaib’s comments matter because they are an accurate reflection of the way Palestinians think about history. They fit in perfectly with the rhetoric of this week’s commemoration of “Nakba Day,” in which the “tragedy” or “catastrophe” of Israel’s creation—and the subsequent dispossession of hundreds of thousands of Arabs—is lamented in full force.

“Nakba Day” is the inverse reflection of Israel’s Yom Ha’atzmaut (Independence Day). There’s no denying that what happened 71 years ago, when the Jews regained sovereignty over part of their ancient homeland, was a tragedy for Palestinian Arabs. By the time Israel’s War of Independence ended, several hundred thousand Arabs had fled from or been forced out of their homes. It was a consequence of the bitter fighting that resulted in the deaths of 1 percent of the total Jewish population, in addition to the subsequent expulsion of an equal number of Jewish refugees from their homes in the Arab world.

(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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Thursday, May 16, 2019

Arafat, Abbas and Fatah: Where Mistaken Assumptions are Often Uncritically Heralded as Truths - by Sean Durns

We are all capable,” the writer George Orwell once warned, “of believing things which we know to be untrue, and then, when we are finally proved wrong, impudently twisting the facts to show that we were right.” But, he added, “sooner or later a false belief bumps up against a solid reality” – and “usually on a battlefield.” Orwell’s warning is certainly applicable on the battlefield of the Israel-Islamist conflict, where mistaken assumptions are often uncritically heralded as truths.

Sean Durns..
Opinion/JPost..
13 May '19..
Link: https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/How-moderate-and-secular-is-Fatah-589608

We are all capable,” the writer George Orwell once warned, “of believing things which we know to be untrue, and then, when we are finally proved wrong, impudently twisting the facts to show that we were right.”

But, he added, “sooner or later a false belief bumps up against a solid reality” – and “usually on a battlefield.”

Orwell’s warning is certainly applicable on the battlefield of the Israel-Islamist conflict, where mistaken assumptions are often uncritically heralded as truths.

One such belief – championed by press and pundits alike – is that Fatah, the movement that dominates the Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization, is both “moderate” and “secular.”

Evidence, however, suggests otherwise.

To be sure, Fatah is both more moderate and secular than its Gaza-based competitors like Hamas – a Muslim Brotherhood derivative – or Iranian proxies like Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Popular Resistance Committees. But make no mistake: Fatah is neither moderate nor particularly secular, as those terms are often understood. The group’s history makes this clear.

Fatah was formed 60 years ago this October, when 20 or so men gathered in a Kuwaiti home. They chose the name Harakat al-Tahrir al-Filastiniyya (Palestinian Liberation Movement), whose acronym reversed spells Fatah – meaning “conquest.”

The movement had a decidedly immoderate objective: the destruction of the Jewish nation of Israel.

Yasser Arafat, Fatah’s leader for the next 45 years, proved adept at making broad statements that wouldn’t alienate potential followers.

As Arafat explained, “We do not have any ideology – our goal is the liberation of our fatherland by any means necessary.” As for the means, Arafat exhorted: “It is the commandos who will decide the future” of the Palestinian movement.

Indeed, not only did Fatah embrace terrorism, its dehumanizing rhetoric and depiction of the Jewish state as an illegitimate “other” practically demanded that it do so. Israel, Arafat said, was “an embodiment of neo-Nazism... intellectual terrorism and racial exploitation.”

As Arafat said in a March 29, 1970, interview with The Washington Post, “The goal of our struggle is the end of Israel, and there can be no compromise.”

ACCORDINGLY, throughout the 1960s, ‘70s and ‘80s, Fatah carried out numerous terrorist attacks that targeted Israeli civilians. The group fed regional instability by carrying out assaults from Jordan, Egypt, Syria and Lebanon, with varying levels of support from those governments. Many of the attacks were planned by Khalil al-Wazir, a top Arafat aide who went by the nom de guerre Abu Jihad (“father of jihad”).

On March 1, 1973, Fatah operatives carried out an attack in Khartoum, Sudan, murdering an American ambassador and his deputy chief of mission.

Although the terrorists identified themselves not as Fatah but as Black September, communications intercepted by the US National Security Agency led the CIA to conclude that “the operation was carried out with the full knowledge and personal approval” of Fatah head Yasser Arafat.

But some persisted in seeing moderation – despite evidence to the contrary. As the journalist Ronen Bergman recounts in Rise and Kill First – his history of Israel’s intelligence agencies – even after Khartoum, CIA officials wined and dined Ali Hassan Salameh, who was head of Fatah’s Force 17, its counterintelligence unit and Arafat’s bodyguards.

The CIA even gave Salameh a custom leather holster for his pistol and helped organize the terrorist’s honeymoon in Hawaii and Disneyland, in which a “senior official escorted the couple wherever they went, including on all the rides in the California theme park.”

Among Force 17’s star operatives was Imad Mughniyah, who would later join Iran’s Lebanese proxy Hezbollah.

Wednesday, May 15, 2019

“Nakba” and the Infantilizing of Arab Aggression - by Daniel Krygier

The Orwellian “Nakba” narrative is false on numerous levels. It denies 3000 years of uninterrupted Jewish history in Israel while at the same time inventing the Arab Neverland “Palestine.” Secondly, it inverts reality by presenting the Arab aggressors as “victims” while demonizing Jews defending their national freedom as “aggressors.” The Arab refugee issue did not happen in a vacuum but was a direct result of the Arab side’s failed annihilationist policy against the Jewish state.

Daniel Krygier..
MiDA..
14 May "19..

Imagine if Germans today would annually mourn that Nazi Germany lost World War II and call it “disaster” that it failed to wipe out all Jews during the Holocaust. This is exactly what Arab extremists and their global supporters do when they annually equate the failure to wipe out the Jewish state in 1948 with “Nakba” or “disaster”. The Arab nationalist historian George Antonius originally coined the term “Nakba”in the 1920s. Ironically, it debunks the myth of a historical “Palestinian” nation by lamentingly referring to the separation of Arabs in the British Palestine Mandate from their Arab brothers and sisters in French-controlled Syria.

Throughout history, losing wars was always unpleasant. This is particularly true for losing aggressors. Post-1945 Germany and Japan paid a heavy price for their failed aggressive assault on humanity. Nuclear bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing countless Japanese civilians. Berlin and many other German cities were in ruins. Several million German soldiers and civilians were killed during World War II. Twelve million Germans became refugees and fled or were expelled from much of Central and Eastern Europe. While these national experiences were traumatic for Berlin and Tokyo, post-1945 Germany and Japan were nevertheless forced to take responsibility for their past aggression.

By contrast, the “Nakba” myth does exactly the opposite. Seven decades after the pan-Arab aggression failed to wipe out reborn Israel, the global “Nakba” cult is the only case in human history where a failed genocidal aggression is equated with “victimhood.”

(Continue to Full Article)

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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Flying under the radar on the Temple Mount - by Hillel Fendel and Chaim Silberstein

The battle for Jerusalem and its holy sites thus continues with full force, even if under the radar of most news outlets and consumers. As history marches on before our eyes, let us not stand passively by.

Hillel Fendel/Chaim Silberstein..
JNS.org..
14 May '19..

It was the driest of headlines, betraying nothing of the dramatic and even historic significance of the events it heralded. “Police forces operating on the Temple Mount,” read the ticker late Saturday night. The news brief below it gave just a tiny bit more detail, adding that the police were moving Muslim worshippers out of the Temple Mount area.

What was really going on?

A representative of the Temple Mount Movement’s Joint Task Force was able to provide the full story.

Generally, Muslim worshippers on the Temple Mount—our holiest site, the Holy of Holies of the two ancient Temples—pack up around sunset and go home for the night. But that’s not what happened this time. Hundreds of Muslims, led by a band of stocking-masked men, decided to hole up in the holy compound. Planning to riot and throw firebombs the next morning, they would thus prevent the normal opening of the Mount and deter tourists and Jewish visitors.

This, of course, is the ultimate goal of these terrorists: to detach the Jewish people from the source of their national strength and history. Funded and led by radical Islamist elements, they have attacked tourists on various occasions, as well as the police, with rocks, fireworks, iron rods and even firebombs.

Not that this past Saturday night was the only time they ever tried this trick.

(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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Tuesday, May 14, 2019

Surprise? EU to cover Palestinian Authority salaries and pensions for month of April - by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik

The P.A. cut salaries of public employees by 50 percent to continue to fund terrorists and their families after Israel began withholding tax revenues earlier this year.

Itamar Marcus/Nan Jacques Zilberdik..
JNS.org..
12 May '19..

The European Union has pledging to give the Palestinian Authority 15 million euros to cover the salaries of public employees—salaries that leader Mahmoud Abbas cut to keep up the P.A.’s payments to imprisoned and released terrorists, wounded terrorists and the families of dead terrorists.

Abbas has declared that the P.A. is “obligated” to continue rewarding the terrorist prisoners and families of so-called “martyrs.”

Earlier this year, Israel decided to withhold from the tax money it collects on behalf of the P.A. an amount equaling the sum the P.A. pays to terrorist prisoners. These prisoners include mass murderers and heads of terror organizations. In response, the P.A. has refused to accept all the tax money, amounting to over 50 percent of its budget, thereby inflicting a serious financial crisis on itself.

To overcome this crisis—and in order to have money available to continue to pay the terrorists in full—the P.A. cut the salaries of its public employees by 50 percent.

According to the Palestinian Media Watch NGO, Abbas then turned to Europe for money, claiming Israel was responsible for the P.A.’s self-inflicted crisis.

The European Union has now answered his appeal.

(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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Monday, May 13, 2019

Omar Shakir and the Shameless Anti-Israel Bias of Human Rights Watch (Part 1) by Petra Marquardt-Bigman

The long history of anti-Israel bias by Shakir and HRW is a critical consideration for Israel in deciding whether Shakir has a “right” to remain in the country as a human rights worker.

Petra Marquardt-Bigman..
Legal Insurrection..
11 May '19..

Israel has refused to renew a visa for Omar Shakir of Human Rights Watch (HRW) to remain in Israel as a human rights worker, based on his long history of anti-Israel activism. This has caused a storm of controversy and lawsuits, leading to the fair question: Is Shakir entitled to a work visa to promote human rights if what he really is promoting is anti-Israel activism and the destruction of Israel?

Not surprisingly, the international media has taken Shakir’s side.

Under the title “Israel plans to deport a U.S. human rights activist. Democrats are pushing back,” the Washington Post recently reported about the case of Shakir, director of the HRW office for Israel and the Palestinian territories. A few weeks earlier, the paper had published an op-ed by Shakir under the title “Israel wants to deport me for my human rights work.”

Needless to say, many other outlets have covered this story in similar terms.

In most cases, the implications of the articles are clear: the Jewish state has been exposed by HRW as a serial abuser of human rights, and it now wants to do its dirty work without being closely monitored by a respected organization like HRW. But it’s a false narrative.

Since all too many influential politicians, public figures and journalists are apparently unaware of the truly shameless bias HRW has long held against Israel, it is time for a reminder.

(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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Sunday, May 12, 2019

The First Lesson to Learn From the 700 Rockets Fired at Israel - by Moshe Phillips

The UN and the rest of these critics of Israel owe the Jewish state an apology. We shouldn’t hold our breath waiting for that, though. Instead, we must remember an important lesson of the Gaza offensives and the 700 rockets: the blockade works, and must remain in place, no matter what.

Moshe Phillips..
Algemeiner.com..
09 May '19..

Terrorists from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad fired approximately 700 rockets at Israel in a coordinated May offensive. Tragically, four Israelis were killed. But how is that possible? One would think that 700 terrorist rockets would have caused much heavier Israeli losses.

When Israel fires missiles at enemy targets, they strike with deadly, pinpoint accuracy. For example, they have been known to hit a single terrorist in a vehicle, or one apartment in the middle of a dense neighborhood. Yet when Hamas and Islamic Jihad fire rockets into Israel, the vast majority of them land in empty fields, parking lots, or other uninhabited sites.

The difference is not that Israeli soldiers have better aim. The difference is that the Israeli army has the latest equipment and the most sophisticated computer systems necessary to ensure that their missiles hit the desired targets. Meanwhile, the Palestinians are actually trying to cause as much damage and death as possible — but their rockets still don’t make accurate landings. Why? Because the Palestinians don’t have that technology. And the reason they don’t is partly because of the Israeli blockade of Gaza.

And yet, the United Nations has been leading the charge against the blockade for years.

(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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