Amnesty's use of a deceptive press release to cover for Hamas’ human shields policy - by Emanuel Miller

...For a self-described human rights organization, it’s hard to understand how a commitment to human rights is being served when Amnesty allows itself to be used as cover for Hamas’ human shields policy, in which the terror group embeds itself in civilian infrastructure in order to conceal its presence and avert being struck, even after being discovered.

Emanuel Miller..
Honest Reporting..
30 July '19..

It’s a compelling story, one sure to be picked up by journalists, but beyond the usual anti-Israel agitprop, it’s a tale of deception and dishonesty that should leave Amnesty International shamefaced.

A show called “Obliterated,” sponsored by the prominent human rights organization, was said to have been due to be performed exactly one year after the destruction of a Gaza theater.

In fact, the play was never due to have been performed at all — the whole thing was a PR stunt.

In an email sent to people who had signed up for what was advertised as a free, one-night only performance, playwright Ahmed Masoud and actress Maxine Peake openly admitted to the devious trick: “There was never a play or a show. I didn’t write it and Maxine never rehearsed it.” This was confirmed when an Amnesty International UK press officer told HonestReporting, “they have cancelled it, and intended to cancel it.”

Despite openly admitting to registrants that the play was never written, a press release circulated by Amnesty International to announce the show was being pulled totally neglected to acknowledge that the cancellation was premeditated. The press release, seen by countless journalists, failed to mention that the play was never written, and that from the very outset, no performance was actually planned. Consequently, multiple news outlets picked up on the press release and failed to report the full story.

The episode should act as a cautionary tale to journalists not to rely on press releases for more than one reason.

The stunt was designed to draw attention to the first anniversary of the destruction of the al-Mishal Cultural Center in Gaza. In its press release, Amnesty wrote:

The scheduled performance – which is fully booked – would have marked exactly one year since the destruction by an Israeli airstrike of the Mishal Cultural Centre last year, the only working theatre in Gaza which housed numerous arts projects in the beleaguered Palestinian territory.

That’s one way to describe the theater. A more objective statement would have recognized that the theater was believed to have served as a command and control center for the Hamas terrorist group in Gaza in its ongoing hostilities against Israel.

(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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Question: Where is our apology, Barak? - by Helen Nesser Assad

...we do not need Barak's request for forgiveness, nor are we interested in one. Our friends and brothers, veterans of the IDF and defense establishment, who unlike Barak, did not abandon us, continue to accompany us in our struggles and our difficulties and have done so since that fateful day. Their friendship will not compensate for the crime, but it at least shows us that there are those in this country who are decent and moral and no less importantly, people of conscience.

Helen Nesser Assad..
Israel Hayom..
29 July '19..
Link: https://www.israelhayom.com/opinions/where-is-our-apology-barak/

Israel Democratic Party leader Ehud Barak apologized last week for the deaths of 13 Israeli Arabs during the riots of October 2000, which marked the outbreak of the Second Intifada. He was prime minister at the time. There are quite a few people who are willing to be moved by this, even though they understand this is nothing more than a stunt, a transparent ploy to garner votes ahead of the September election.

I am not moved by this apology; in fact I find it infuriating. I can only speak for myself, but I believe quite a few of my brothers and sisters in the South Lebanon Army community in Israel are now asking themselves: Where is our apology?

I am a bereaved daughter and sister. Quite a few Israelis, mainly IDF officers and senior defense system officials who dealt with southern Lebanon within their framework of their service, know my family as the "dynasty of death." My father, four of my brothers and two of my nephews were killed in that terrible war in South Lebanon. My brothers were wearing South Lebanon Army uniforms when they fell in battle. I was recently recognized by the Defense Ministry as a bereaved sister.

I have lived in Israel since the 1990s. I built a life in Haifa, established a family and sent my sons to serve in the military. I do not regret this. As the daughter of a South Lebanon Army family, I continue to believe in the historic alliance between the Israel Defense Forces and the South Lebanon Army. I also believe that there is more to this alliance than security interests. We are joined together by common values, a shared war ethic, and I also believe, a shared destiny. Those who have not fought shoulder to shoulder, and those who were not there and did not witness this comradeship with their own eyes cannot understand the significance of this alliance. I remember, as a girl, my parents hosting IDF soldiers, officers, and sometimes very senior IDF officers, in their home. We treated them like family, no less.

Who would have thought that the day would come when this alliance would be violated? We never guessed the day would come when the IDF would abandon southern Lebanon without preparing us in advance. There were those who somehow succeeded in gathering some of their possessions and their family and taking them across the border. The rest were abandoned to their fate, meaning to Hezbollah. It seems to me a majority of Israelis can imagine the bloodbath that ensued.

Janna Jihad 2019 U.S. Tour: Rewarding Palestinian child exploitation, Janna Jihad goes to Congress - by Petra Marquadt-Bigman

13-year-old Janna Jihad’s US tour, organized by anti-Israel extremists including American Muslims for Palestine and Code Pink, is just the latest example of Tamimi Clan children being exploited for propaganda purposes.

Petra Marquadt-Bigman..
Legal Insurrection..
28 July '19..

While the 18th anniversary of the Sbarro pizzeria suicide bombing in Jerusalem on August 9 is approaching, Janna Jihad, a young relative of the terrorist Ahlam Tamimi who planned and helped perpetrate the massacre, is on a US speaking tour.

Janna Jihad is only 13, but she has already been groomed for years by the Tamimis to succeed her cousin Ahed Tamimi as the youthful, innocent face tasked with hiding the clan’s murderous hatred of Israel.

Janna Jihad 2019 U.S. Tour

Janna Jihad’s current PR tour in the US is apparently sponsored by the South African organization Shamsaan that seems devoted to promoting the Tamimi child stars (more on Shamsaan below); support for organizing and hosting events has also been provided by the far-left fringe group Code Pink and the extremist group American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) as well as other anti-Israel organizations like the misleadingly named Jewish Voice for Peace.

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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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J Street, BDS and the willful blindness of the liberal peaceniks - by Ben-Dror Yemini

Some boycotts are justified, whether imposed by a state or individuals, but the drive to boycott the State of Israel is certainly nothing but an effort to deny Jews the right to self-determination, whatever so-called pro-peace organizations tell themselves

Ben-Dror Yemini..
Ynetnews/Opinion..
27 July '19..
Link: https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-5556925,00.html

Ilhan Omar, a member of the US House of Representatives, is a clear supporter of the pro-Israel boycott BDS movement. Recently, she proposed a bill that supports boycotts, all boycotts, as freedom of expression, which sounds wonderful.

While most Democrats did not buy her into her sophistry, fear not, for J Street rushed in to support her.

"We do not support BDS," the organization stated, reiterating its old position in favor of two states, "but we are also in favor of freedom of expression."

How kind.

If we thought that Omar was breaking records for disingenuity, given that freedom of expression interests her as much as snow in summer and hatred of Israel is what really motivates her, J Street has actually managed to bypass her.

The Palestinian Abandonment of Oslo Agreements Window of Opportunity? - by Dr. Aaron Lerner

On the simplest level, this Palestinian move would relieve Israel from the need to continue with current policy of postponing substantive Israeli action until after President Trump's team concedes that the "Deal of the Century" is dead.

Dr. Aaron Lerner..
IMRA Weekly Commentary..
27 August '19..
Link: http://www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=73540

A committee composed of the PLO’s Executive Committee, Fatah’s Central Committee and the PA is set to meet to draw up concrete mechanisms with a specific timeline for the implementation of the Palestinian leadership’s decision to suspend ALL the agreements signed with Israel - including
security cooperation.

The official PLO news agency - WAFA - noted that in apparent reference to the security coordination, Mahmoud al-Aloul, deputy chairman of President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement told Voice of Palestine radio today that "The Palestinian leadership's decision to suspend the agreements signed with Israel includes all the agreements signed with it and does not exclude anything."

If indeed the Palestinians are serious about this, the challenge for Israeli leadership today is to exploit this unilateral Palestinian move to Israel's benefit rather than detriment.

On the simplest level, this Palestinian move would relieve Israel from the need to continue with current policy of postponing substantive Israeli action until after President Trump's team concedes that the "Deal of the Century" is dead.

Fighting the Boycott-Divestment-Sanctions (BDS) movement (Part 2) - by Victor Rosenthal

BDS is all about delegitimizing and demonizing Israel. But where is the legitimacy in the claims of the Palestinian Arabs, who are at best descendants of colonialist invaders from Arabia, and at worst the children of 19th and 20th century migrants? And we don’t need to make up stories in order to demonize the Palestinian Arabs

Victor Rosenthal..
Abu Yehuda..
23 July '19..
Link: http://abuyehuda.com/2019/07/fighting-bds-part-ii/





Falsehood flies, and the truth comes limping after it. – Jonathan Swift

Summary of Part I:

The Boycott-Divestment-Sanctions (BDS) movement is not intended as an economic weapon against Israel, and has not succeeded as such. It does not seek to attain its stated objectives of forcing Israel to withdraw from the territories, grant rights to Arab citizens, or accept the “return” of Arab refugees. Rather, it is a cognitive weapon to facilitate the demonization and delegitimization of the Jewish state, which it does by providing opportunities for the promulgation of various “big lies” about Israel and its conflicts.

Such remedies as anti-boycott laws are unnecessary (there is little danger of economic damage from BDS). Worse, they play directly into the hands of Israel’s enemies. Every controversy about BDS, every resolution that is debated on a university campus or church board, in a union hall or the US Congress, provides a platform for the same false accusations of apartheid, racism, war crimes, and even genocide, as well as a reprise of the false historical and political Palestinian narrative.

The demonization and delegitimization of Israel present a real physical danger, because they affect the target populations, both the “street” in Western countries and their decision-makers. The effect is to increase tolerance of terrorism against Israel, to reduce support (such as the supply of arms) during wartime, to justify forcing dangerous “solutions” to the conflict, to prevent Israel from obtaining decisive victory in armed conflicts, and so on.

How should Israel and her supporters respond?

A cognitive attack demands a cognitive response. As we’ve seen, legal or legislative attempts to stop boycotts actually help BDS achieve its goal by providing loci for the promulgation of anti-Israel memes. Traditionally, Israeli “hasbara” in response to BDS has taken the form of denying its accusations. We insist that we are not an apartheid state, note that Arab citizens have full civil rights, and try to disprove particular accusations of mistreatment of Palestinian Arabs and war crimes.

But by repeating the accusations in order to deny them, we give them additional currency, and make formerly unthinkable concepts at least debatable. For example, anyone who knows anything about South African apartheid or Nazi genocide knows that there is absolutely no similarity between them and Israeli treatment of Palestinian Arabs. But if the lie is constantly repeated, it becomes a question to be taken seriously, with pros and cons. This is similar to the way Holocaust deniers claim that the existence of gas chambers at Auschwitz is an “open historical question.”

There is also the constant flow of what can be called “nuisance libels.” The most well-known and consequential of these is the alleged killing of the boy Mohammed al-Durah by the IDF in 2000, but it is just one of hundreds or thousands of accusations of murder, mayhem, or mistreatment that are alleged against Israel on a continual basis. It is trivially easy to make an accusation with the flimsiest of proof, but refutation requires time and effort. As Swift said, falsehood flies and truth limps. And of course the controversy itself is the objective, as former US President Lyndon Johnson well understood.

Our sporadic, reactive, and generally less-than-serious approach to the cognitive war that we are in (whether we know it or not) has so far proven ineffective. But why shouldn’t our cognitive war fighting follow the same principles that inform Israel’s doctrine of traditional, “kinetic” warfare? In other words, why shouldn’t we take the offensive and bring the war to the enemy’s own territory? Let’s see what this might mean in terms of cognitive warfare.

The new Palestinian Authority textbooks are even worse than the old ones - by Ken Cohen

Those who doubt any imminent resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict need look no further than the new Palestinian school books to become even more pessimistic.

Ken Cohen..
FLAME/JNS.org..
24 July '19..

There was great hope and anticipation several years ago when the Palestinian Authority announced that it was completely replacing its K-12 school textbooks. But new editions merely confirm obsessive Palestinian hatred of Jews and rejection of peace with Israel.

The older Palestinian textbooks were filled with ugly anti-Zionist—and anti-Semitic—propaganda. Shockingly, this pervasive spirit of distortion and hate wasn’t only employed in history textbooks, but also dominated language, math and even science lessons.

The original P.A. textbooks were in use for about 20 years, having been published following the Oslo Accords. (Prior to that, Palestinian schools had continued to use Jordanian textbooks published before the 1967 Six-Day War.)

Over the past three years the P.A. has released the full set of new textbooks—and they are even worse than the old ones in teaching Jew-hatred, fictionalized history and a profound glorification of martyrdom, terrorism and hate. Though Western liberals continue to place the onus of peace-making on Israel, these materials make clear the Palestinians’ dedication to waging war.

The Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se) recently published its reports on the textbooks—replete with examples—that demonstrate the horrific indoctrination being inflicted on Palestinian youth by their educators.

(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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As expected, spitting in the face of cooperation with Israel - by Ruthie Blum

Had Saud and the rest of the delegation been in the area a mere two days earlier, they would have encountered bright-red Arabic graffiti spray-painted on the Kotel HaKatan—a portion of the Western Wall on the Temple Mount—calling for the “slaughter of all Jews.” Thanks to closed-circuit TV footage, the perpetrators, young women from eastern Jerusalem, were apprehended. Sadly, however, the larger culprit—the hate-filled poison these girls imbibed with their mothers’ milk—is not only still at large; it’s purposely and perpetually fostered, as well as heavily funded.

Ruthie Blum..
JNS.org..
23 July '19..

If further proof were needed to illustrate the futility of diplomatic overtures to the Palestinian Authority, Monday’s attack on a pro-Israel Saudi in Jerusalem is a good example.

As part of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s regional strategy to forge ties with formerly hostile Muslim-Arab states, the Israeli Foreign Ministry invited a delegation of six media personalities from Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt to see the Jewish state for themselves. Up close and personal.

As a precautionary measure for their safe return home, their identities were not disclosed.

The only exception was Mahmoud Saud, a law student and blogger from Saudi Arabia, who regularly tweets about his unabashed support for Israel in general and the Netanyahu government in particular. This is clearly why Saud not only agreed, but was proud, to be photographed with the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman and Likud Knesset member Avi Dichter.

At a meeting with Dichter at the Knesset on Monday morning, one member of the delegation said, “This visit to Israel is like touring a dreamland. If only we would be able to bring hundreds of people from our countries, so that when they go back they can tell what they saw and felt.”

Indeed.

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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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Would This Work Better? Racist, Sexist, Homophobic, Reactionary, Totalitarian Palestine - by Divest This!

Perhaps it is our general wussiness that keeps us on the course of dialog, discussion, argument, persuasion and compromise, rather than jumping into the sewer with those who have made it their life’s work to see the world’s one Jewish state dismantled. Although given the state of Israel and the Jewish world – vulnerable though it might be – versus the hell on earth Israel’s enemies have constructed for themselves, perhaps hanging on to our humanity is a wise strategic, as well as a moral choice.

Divest This!
Elder of Ziyon..
22 July "19..

It dawned on me that all of Israel’s friends and defenders have been wasting our time over the last several decades.

Instead of writing thoughtful essays that provide facts and perspectives while making the case for the Jewish state, or organizing talks, educational programs or other campaigns that present arguments in favor of our cause or against our foes, we could all have spent that time doing something much simpler, so simple that it requires almost no thought.

So what could we have been doing, rather than bombarding the world with longwinded explanations based on facts and logic?

The answer is simplicity itself, and so easy to implement. For all it would involve would be to never use the term Palestine or Palestinian without first prefixing it with the string of pejoratives titling this piece.

We would not have to be mindless robots uttering the same phrase over and over again. Certainly whenever we find ourselves in debate, we would make sure the words “racist, sexist, homophobic, reactionary, totalitarian” precede the use of any reference to Palestine, Palestinians, the Palestinian Authority and Hamas (and maybe their friends and allies throughout the Middle East). But we could get creative with the ways we slip those words into the discussion over and over and over again. For instance:

Comparative: Yes, there is a difference between the racist, sexist, homophobic, reactionary, totalitarian, corrupt Palestinian authority and the racist, sexist, homophobic, reactionary, totalitarian, religious fanatics in Hamas. But the two have important things in common: they’re both racist, sexist, homophobic, reactionary totalitarians.

Generous: You are free to support all the racist, sexist, homophobic, reactionary, totalitarian political movements you like, including the racist, sexist, homophobic, reactionary, totalitarian Palestinian movement. Just don’t also demand to be considered progressive, much less tell us you get to decide who is anti-racist and who isn’t.

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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 myth and fantasy of Hebron’s Shuhada Street - by Steve Frank

Like the rest of the Palestinian narrative, the myth of an apartheid Shuhada Street is grounded in misrepresentations, omissions and facts taken out of context.

Steve Frank..
JNS.org..
21 July '19..

Shuhada Street is a half-mile long road in the Palestinian city of Hebron in Israel’s West Bank. It was once the thriving market center of the city, frequented by Palestinians and Israelis daily. Today it is a virtual ghost town, largely shut down by the Israeli military for security reasons. It has become central to the Palestinian narrative and the symbol of an alleged Israeli apartheid that underlies the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against the State of Israel.

Why Shuhada Street was closed, how the commercial center of Hebron has moved less than a mile from the now abandoned Shuhada Street and become a thriving market district seldom if ever visited by outsiders, and a place where Jews (not just Israelis, but Jews from any country) are banned is a story seldom told in full. It represents the true story of “apartheid” in Hebron. I visited the city last week and expose the myth of Shuhada Street for the first time here.

The Jewish connection to Hebron dates back almost 4,000 years to when Abraham, the father of Judaism, came to the Land of Israel and settled in the city. Abraham purchased a plot of land, known as the Cave of the Patriarchs, as a burial plot. The site is considered to be the final resting place of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob and Leah, the Patriarchs and Matriarchs of the Jewish religion. It is also said that King David was anointed king in Hebron and that Hebron was the first capital of Israel, until it was moved to Jerusalem.

As a result of this historic significance, Jews have prayed in Hebron since biblical times, and with a few interruptions have lived there continuously. Hebron is considered to be the second holiest city for Jews after Jerusalem.

Hebron has a long and complicated history, having been conquered by many invading peoples, including the Babylonians, Romans, Byzantines, Muslim Arabs, Crusaders, Ottomans, Mamelukes and the British. Following the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, Hebron was captured and occupied by the Jordanian Arab Legion. During the Jordanian occupation, which lasted for 20 years, until 1967, Jews were not permitted to live in the city, nor to visit or pray at the Jewish holy sites in the city. No one complained of “apartheid.”

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Steve Frank is an attorney, retired after a 30-year career as an appellate lawyer with the United States Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. Mr. Frank’s writings on Israel, the law and architecture have appeared in numerous publications including the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, the Jerusalem Post, the Times of Israel, and Moment Magazine.

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 Murder of Malki Roth, and Jordan’s Refusal to Extradite Her Smiling Killer - by Karen Harradine

With the 18th anniversary of the heinous Sbarro slaughter coming up in a few weeks, it’s time for the Trump administration to find its voice and call for justice. Tamimi must be extradited to the US to stand trial for her evil deed. Arnold and Frimet Roth should not need to wait any longer. They have suffered enough.

Karen Harradine..
Algemeiner..
19 July '19..
Link: https://www.algemeiner.com/2019/07/19/the-murder-of-malki-roth-and-jordans-refusal-to-extradite-her-killer/

Losing a child is devastating for any parent. But for Arnold and Frimet Roth, their loss is truly intolerable because the smiling murderer of their daughter Malki lives a life of freedom and comfort — protected by the Jordanian government.

Malki was only 15 years old when Ahlam Tamimi masterminded the terror attack that killed her at Jerusalem’s Sbarro restaurant on August 9, 2001. Fourteen other innocents, including seven children, were murdered, and 122 others wounded.

In 2011, Tamimi, a cousin of the notorious Ahed Tamimi, was freed from an Israeli prison under the terms of the controversial Gilad Shalit deal. She was whisked away to Jordan, where she has been courted ever since by Arab and Western media as some sort of heroic “resistance fighter.”

Tamimi’s life is one of luxury and privilege, thanks to the lucrative salary she receives from Hamas, which is indirectly financed by Western governments who contribute to the corrupt United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNWRA). Tamimi has never denied her role in the Sbarro terror attack, and her pride in slaughtering Jews is on display for anyone to see when she parades herself on television.

After a long campaign by the Roths to seek justice for Malki, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) officially filed charges against Tamimi in 2017, and announced that they would seek her extradition to stand trial in the US. The FBI also added her to their most wanted list of terrorists.

For those who thought that justice would finally be achieved, Jordan’s reaction was a shock. Despite having established a mutual extradition treaty with the US in 1995, the Jordanian government claimed that the treaty hadn’t been ratified in their parliament — and have thus denied the request.

Seriously, is it really the end of democracy in Israel? - by Douglas Altabef

Israel is a society that certainly has problems, pressures and tensions that cry out for leadership. Happily, the democratic health of our society is just not one of them.

Douglas Altabef..
Israelnationalnews.com..
17 July '19..
Link: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/24164

One of the recurrent drumbeats heard from certain quarters in Israel is that we are teetering on the brink of losing our democratic bearings. There are those who hear it in distant thunder claps, while others think it has already happened. To them, we are already in the morass of some kind of (pick as many as you like) theocratic, populistic, authoritarian, fascistic regression.

What are the signs of this 'capitulation'? Actually there is a common thread here. They mostly concern decisions made, or positions that the Left disagrees with.
What are the signs of this 'capitulation'? Actually there is a common thread here. They mostly concern decisions made, or positions that the Left disagrees with. One prominent example is criticizing the unfettered discretion of a Supreme Court that increasingly sees itself as a court of first instance, and one that applies its own non-definable standards for what it deems to be judiciable.

Others involve pushing back against strident criticism of our society by cultural or academic elites, who evidently believe that theirs are perspectives beyond question, let alone reproach.

There is an interesting commonality to all the doomsaying. It tends to be said in the context of outcomes, not of process.

Now, the classic way of assessing whether a society is democratic is how it conducts itself. Do people feel free to voice their opinions? Is the press unfettered in its reporting of the news (forgetting whether or not such reporting is accurate)? Are dissenting opinions tolerated? Is there an attempt to exclude other voices or perspectives from the public square?

Democratic societies are such for the ways they conduct themselves rather than for the policies they end up choosing – so long as those policies do not impinge on how a society conducts itself.

It seems to me that Israel fares quite well, both in absolute and relative terms in how we are able to conduct ourselves.

In relative terms, we look around the Western world, and see true intimidation, mostly by the Left, for those who either do not subscribe to their views, or worse, oppose them. The Progressive movement in America is increasingly taking on Jacobin proportions, where opposing views and speakers who espouse them are not to be allowed to speak or even appear. The frightening mob that constitutes Antifa – anti-fascism – is actually the very embodiment of totalitarian repression.

Intersectionality has decided which identity groups, causes and points of view are acceptable, and which need be shut out and shut down. Free speech is increasingly being perceived negatively as a way for privileged whites to maintain themselves, not as the content-free pillar of a liberal democratic society.

Does this sound like the situation here in Israel?

Please, If You Want to Help Israel, Stop Using the Word "Conflict" - by Varda Meyers Epstein

In a conflict, there's no question of guilt or blame or innocence. There are just two rivals lashing out at each other in perfect equality, both fighting for the same thing. Which is so much nicer, after all, than thinking about the men who kill Jewish babies in their strollers and cribs, solely on the basis of their religion.

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

If you really want to help Israel, please lose the word “conflict” from your vocabulary. There is no such thing as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. A conflict is two sides attacking each other. This is simply not the case when it comes to Israel and the Arabs. The Arabs attack, the Israelis defend.

People like the notion of a “conflict.” It’s the American way. It’s tidy.

Americans like to think, “It takes two to tango,” which really means “It takes two parties to have a conflict and we prefer a conflict to one party attacking the other so let’s call it that."

It's not only Americans, of course. Progressives, in general, like to say things like, “There’s bloodshed on both sides,” as if the cause of blood being shed has no import, no weight. A dead murderer is equal in death to his victim, therefore the cause of death must be also be equal. One fact creates the other, in spite of the truth.

So if you have a home invasion and the cops come and shoot someone who just killed your family member, is that also "bloodshed on both sides?" https://t.co/6kdbEZxTqQ

— (((Varda Epstein))) (@epavard) July 16, 2019

Because people have this need for parity, for fairness. But this situation does not satisfy the necessary conditions that define conflict.

A conflict must have two parties at odds with each other. You don’t have that here. In the case of Israel, you have one side minding its own business and interests.


The losers, meanwhile, can’t cope with reality. They won’t make the best of a situation and you can’t make them. They prefer to maim, kill, and destroy: an adult version of the two-year-old tantrum, albeit an evil version. Because two-year-olds aren’t responsible in any moral sense for their choices. But adults, are.

In this case, the adults, who happen to be Arabs, know just how bad it is to, for instance, kill a ten-month-old infant in her stroller by sniper fire. This makes the act evil, which means that in no sense is such an attack at all like a two-year-old’s tantrum. It is, instead, a willful act of ugly violence. A deed of the Devil.

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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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Proclaiming Israel to be an apartheid state is both racist and a lie - by Karen Harradine and Paul T Horgan

...And this is all why anyone who uses the term ‘apartheid state’ in association with Israel cannot be taken at all seriously. Firstly, they are being anti-Semitic by the standards of the IHRA. Secondly, it is a provably bogus comparison. Thirdly, it tacitly supports terrorism. The term should be banished from our media as much as any other racist epithet.

Karen Harradine/Paul T Horgan..
conservativewoman.co.uk..
16 July '19..

Sharing some of my many painful memories of growing up in apartheid South Africa with Paul, my co-writer of this post, one stood out in particular. On a hot summer’s day my mother had fetched me from school, as she always did. Driving up a steep hill on our way home she suddenly stopped the car, rolled down her window and asked a man on the street if he wanted a lift.

She had noticed the elderly black man, in dusty clothes, leaning heavily on a stick as he struggled to walk up this hill. As he got into the car he started to cry and pray, thanking my mother and praising her for having the courage to help a black person. That act, of helping a black person classified as an ‘inferior race’ by apartheid laws, was an aberration in our separate and unequal society.

This ailing black man was barred from whites’ only buses and hospitals, both amenities far better than anything black South Africans were permitted to use. His fragility, caused by decades of deprivation under successive apartheid governments, encapsulates the suffering of millions under the apartheid regime. Those who accuse Israel of being an apartheid state belittle this man’s suffering.

The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) defines any comparison between Nazi Germany and Israel as anti-Semitism. Anti-Semites attempt to bypass that by making false comparisons between apartheid South Africa and Israel. This rhetoric is designed to smear Israel as a ‘racist’ country and is yet another attempt to delegitimise the Jewish state.

But they fail to grasp that accusing Israel of being racist is not only wrong but also a form of anti-Semitism under the IHRA definition.

This libel stems from the hate-fest that was the 2001 UN ‘anti-racism’ conference, held in Durban. This conference birthed not only the insidious Boycott Disinvest Sanctions campaign but also the unholy concept that being anti-Israel is a requisite for proclaiming anti-racist credentials.

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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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How anti-Zionists legitimize anti-Semitism - by Jonathan S.Tobin

The fight against anti-Semitism on college campuses must start by properly labeling Israel’s foes as purveyors of hate speech.

Jonathan S.Tobin..
JNS.org..
15 July '19..



(The following are adapted remarks by JNS editor in chief Jonathan S. Tobin, which were delivered at the U.S. Department of Justice Summit on Combating Anti-Semitism on July 15, 2019.)

It’s an honor to be here at the central address of American law enforcement to discuss how we can best combat anti-Semitism, and it is very encouraging that the Department of Justice has chosen to highlight this issue in this manner.

This panel is tasked with probing the question of anti-Semitism on college campuses. It is, of course, a matter of no small irony that college campuses are among the places in this country where anti-Semitic sentiment has become commonplace, and where Jews feel the most threatened by a culture of intolerance. That institutions that are supposed to be strongholds of independent inquiry and progressive values have become the beachheads on this continent for the spread of what the State Department calls a rising a tide of anti-Semitism that has been sweeping across the globe is shocking. But for anyone who has paid attention to the academic world in the last generation, it is hardly a surprise.

The reasons for this boils down to one key fact: the growing popularity of anti-Zionism and the way that ideology has been used to legitimize anti-Semitism, and to create a hostile atmosphere in academic circles and on some campuses where Jews feel not only marginalized, but often also intimidated and threatened. Support for the movement to boycott, divest and sanction Israel (BDS) has not only gained a foothold in academia but in many university departments; opposition to its discriminatory goal and tactics marks both dissident academics and students as pariahs to be shunned, shouted down or worse, a situation that is particularly threatening to Jews.

The reason is clear. Jews were attacked for many reasons over the centuries—all of them having everything to do with the obsessions of the anti-Semites, and little or noting to do with what they actually did or said. But today, the State of Israel and its people and supporters are the stand-in for hateful Jewish stereotypes of the past.

(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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Surprised by NY Times’ Partisan Reporting on J Street's Birthright Alternative Tour? - by Emanuel Miller

J Street’s tours may or may not be worthy of coverage, but in publishing a piece devoid of context and piercing questions, the New York Times is acting as a shill for those who spend their time highlighting Israel’s every flaw.

Emanuel Miller..
Honest Reporting..
14 July '19..

Ever wondered how fringe organizations like IfNotNow and Breaking the Silence wield so much influence on the public discourse on Israel?

It’s not because these organizations are well-financed or organized, although that certainly helps. It’s because these organizations are set up primarily to create catchy, often-sensationalized media narratives about injustices which are packaged neatly for enthusiastic and ignorant journalists to write about. Oppression, segregation, colonialism, and collective punishment are the name of their game.

For the unacquainted, Birthright is a free trip to Israel sponsored in part by the Israeli government, and in part by private donors, to young men and women of Jewish heritage. The trip is largely apolitical, and endeavors to provide Jewish youth with an opportunity to connect with their roots, learn about the Jewish people, and visit a country with undeniable ties to their Judaism. Despite being as mainstream and apolitical as could be, the organization has come under fire from some who demand that it tackle Israel’s relationship with the Palestinians in greater detail, with the two aforementioned organizations hijacking multiple Birthright tours to score political points and make headlines in 2018.

One year later, another American Jewish organization catering to a left-leaning audience, the self-described “Pro-Israel, Pro-Peace” J Street, has launched its own version of the famous free trip to Israel. In keeping with J Street’s political agenda, this tour puts Israel’s actions vis-a-vis the Palestinians under the spotlight.

J Street has every right to its own tour of Israel, even if the move is provocative. New York Times Jerusalem bureau chief David Halbfinger, however, owes the public a better account of the tour than the one made in the July 10 edition the New York Times, entitled “Absorbing a Different Slice of a Jewish Birthright – An Unflinching View Of Israeli Occupation.”

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The proposition that he, Saint Ehud, will be Israel’s splendid seraphic savior. I’m not buying. by David M. Weinberg

His violent discourse disqualifies him from leading this country again, not to mention his pillaging of Jerusalem.

Cartoon of Ehud Barak:
 Roni Gordon, Israel Hayom

David M. Weinberg..
A Citadel Defending Zion..
12 July '19..
Link: https://www.davidmweinberg.com/2019/07/12/ehud-baraks-bluster-and-plunder/

Former prime minister Ehud Barak’s truculent and self-serving brand of politics is the last thing that Israel needs today. No thank you.

Barak is promoting his political comeback with near-messianic zeal, preening self-confidence, sky-high arrogance, and the most violent political language heard in this country in decades.

In dozens of speeches across the country and in aggressive social media posts, Barak has been savaging Prime Minister Netanyahu and anybody to the right of him as “dark and dangerous ultra-nationalists who are undermining the foundations of Zionism and Israeli democracy.”

Barak talks madly about the “shattering of Israeli democracy” (– nonsense, Israeli democracy is robust!), and the “darkest days Israel has known” (– another absurd claim).

Worst of all is his frequent use of the “f” and “a” words – fascism and apartheid – to describe the policies of his conservative opponents.

In one speech I heard, Barak hurled the epithet “fascist” at Netanyahu three times and “apartheid” at right-wing West Bank policies another three times. He then accused all Israelis to his political right of wearing Nazi-style “selection eyeglasses” (mishkefei selectzia shel hayamin) – which is a disgusting political slur whether used by an anti-Semitic non-Jew or a born-again wannabe Israeli leader.

Barak delivers all this dreadful demagoguery alongside incessant use of the epithet “messianic” in describing policies of the right wing. This, of course, is supremely ironic, since the only messianism that exists in abundance in Ehud Barak’s presence is his own messianic self-assurance.

Barak’s wild exaggerations and exceedingly belligerent characterizations are shocking. His vehement denigration of others and unrestrained use of near anti-Semitic and pseudo-BDS language about Israel and Netanyahu is unacceptable.

In fact, Barak’s demonizing language is the type of speech that would undermine any democracy. In other words, Barak is guilty of the accusations he throws at anyone who dares to disagree with him. And this makes a mockery of his pompously named Israel “Democratic” Party.

I sense that Barak’s feral ambitions and obvious hatreds have propelled him into the deep end. In my mind, the violent discourse disqualifies Barak from leading this country again, and that’s before we get to discussion of his dismal political record.

Ha'aretz is the Nakba - by Victor Rosenthal

I would like to understand what Schocken, Levy, and the others see when they stand in front of the mirror. After all, they are Israelis too. Does this cause them to feel the “shame” that they want all of us to feel? Or do they see themselves as courageous fighters for the “truth,” which is that Israelis are murderers and Arabs saintly victims? It’s the latter, of course. They are not “self-hating” Jews, because they clearly love and value themselves. It’s just the Jewish people that they hate.

Victor Rosenthal..
Abu Yehuda..
11 July '19..
Link: http://abuyehuda.com/2019/07/the-nakba-that-is-haaretz/




One who becomes compassionate instead of cruel, will ultimately become cruel instead of compassionate…
Midrash Kohelet Rabba (a discussion of this is here)

The lead editorial in Ha’aretz today is headlined “The Nakba isn’t Going Away,” and it touts a longer article by investigative journalist Hagar Shezaf published last week, about how Defense Ministry personnel have collected and sealed documents that describe the alleged expulsion and other ill-treatment of Arabs at the time of Israel’s War of Independence and afterwards.

The editorial accuses Israel of “expulsion, looting, murder and rape” in 1948. There is no doubt that some of these things did occur, although it is also true that we were far kinder to the Arabs than they would have been to us if they had won. I don’t object to the publication of such facts, although Ha’aretz has a tendency to exaggerate the extent and cruelty of our deeds and to accept the narrative of our enemies uncritically. What I do violently object to is their attribution of moral guilt and demand for some kind of accounting for it toward the Palestinians.

The editorial concludes:

Israel at age 71 is strong enough to address the moral failings of its past. The Nakba won’t go away. It’s still there in the landscape, in the rows of pear cactus of the abandoned villages, in the many arched houses of Jaffa and Haifa, and in the memory of the Palestinian community in Israel, and in the territories and across the border.

Instead of censoring and concealing things, the history of Israel’s establishment and the Palestinian society that was uprooted should be studied and taught. Commemoration signs should be put up at the sites of destroyed villages, and the moral dilemmas that have accompanied Israel since 1948 should be faced. Such recognition won’t resolve the conflict, but it will place dialogue between Jews and Palestinians in Israel on a foundation of truth instead of lies, shame and concealment.

No, this is absolutely not what “should” happen. Israel was born in war, a war that was forced on it by Arabs who couldn’t abide Jewish sovereignty, and who planned – in the words of Abdul Rahman Azzam, Secretary-General of the Arab League – “a war of extermination and momentous massacre which will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacre and the Crusades.” A pity, for the Ha’aretz editorial board, that we won the war and now have “moral failings” to address as a result. But we did, and there is no reason to be apologetic about it, or to get nostalgic over the losses of our enemies, who, incidentally, have not stopped murdering us whenever the opportunity presents itself.

Perhaps they wouldn’t be murdering us today if we had followed the same policy in 1967 that the Jordanians did when they conquered Judea/Samaria and part of Jerusalem in 1948. Every single Jew living in areas under their control was forced to leave at gunpoint. Some were murdered. Synagogues were destroyed, gravestones uprooted, and not a trace of the former Jewish inhabitants was allowed to remain. Did newspapers in Jordan call for a “dialogue” or agonize about their “moral failures?” To ask the question is to answer it.

The Truth about Jerusalem’s City of David – The Lies about Silwan - by Nadav Shragai

...it appears that, as in the case of the Temple Mount compound, the acrimony and slander concerning the City of David stem in part from the inability of the inciters to deal with the Jewish past of the site, which is adjacent to the heart of Jerusalem – the Temple Mount. At a time when Palestinians are rewriting the history of Jerusalem – both the Jewish and the Muslim history – and trying to prove that they were in the city before the Jews were (despite what modern research tells us), the City of David is for them another item in their large fabric of denial of any Jewish tie to Jerusalem, its sites, and its holy places.

Nadav Shragai..
Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs..
Institute for Contemporary Affairs #624..
July '19..

On July 1, 2019, a photo of the U.S. ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, and U.S. envoy, Jason Greenblatt, striking a thin and symbolic wall with a sledgehammer – a wall built to separate two parts of the ancient Pilgrimage Road – became the headline of the whole event.

This is one of the most sensational archaeological discoveries to be made in Jerusalem since Israel’s establishment. On this road, which was remarkably preserved under the ashes of the Roman destruction, many thousands of Jews – according to the historical descriptions – walked in Second Temple times after a ritual bath in the Shiloah Pool about 700 meters from the Temple Mount.

Over the past five years, Israeli archaeologists have uncovered 350 meters of this road including numerous artifacts that bring back to life the last battle in Jerusalem, about 2,000 years ago, between the Jewish rebels and the Romans.

Friedman attended the dedication ceremony not only to express recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the City of David area, but also to admire a magnificent archaeological endeavor of the Israel Antiquities Authority, replete with discoveries and finds. Although this enterprise was dedicated by Israel on June 30, it began more than a hundred years ago at a site excavated by non-Israeli archaeologists, at a time when the State of Israel did not exist and Jerusalem was under Muslim rule.

Archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority, closely supervised by safety engineers (in line with the world’s strictest standards), have been searching for or excavating the Pilgrimage Road – mistakenly known as the Herodian Road – only since the beginning of the 2000s. But they and the Antiquities Authority are not the first to look for this road or excavate it. They were preceded in the period of Jordanian rule by the British archaeologist Kathleen Kenyon, who uncovered the more northern parts of the Pilgrimage Road and also warned that the City of David should be excavated hastily before the Jordanians paved a road there – which is indeed what they eventually did. Kenyon was preceded by an archaeological research delegation during the period of the British Mandate. And this delegation was preceded at the end of the nineteenth century, in the time of Ottoman rule, by the archaeologists Jones Bliss and Archibald Dickie.

Before discussing the many discoveries from the new excavation, we first need to disprove the allegation that it endangers the homes of the residents of the Arab neighborhood of Silwan.

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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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How the Palestinian Strategy of Lies Subverts the Promise of a Palestinian Future - by James Sinkinson

We all know who is to blame in the Palestinian narrative: the Jews and Israel. This is perhaps the greatest tragedy and greatest harm of the Palestinian lies. Because these lies tell a story not of struggle, achievement, or heroism—but rather a narrative of victimhood, failure, rejection, hopelessness … and ultimately a tale that allows Palestinian leaders to disavow responsibility for their own future and that of their people.

James Sinkinson..
FLAME..
09 July '19..
Link: https://www.factsandlogic.org/how-the-palestinian-strategy-of-lies-subverts-the-promise-of-a-palestinian-future/

Among the many powerful messages of the disturbing new HBO miniseries “Chernobyl,” one of the most distressing involves the culture of abject lying that permeated political society—and therefore life—in the USSR in the mid-Eighties.

This culture exacerbated the Chernobyl disaster and cost hundreds, if not thousands, of lives due to delays in addressing the explosion’s true magnitude and causes.

The opening lines of the series’ first episode instantly brought to mind the Palestinians’ similar unashamed dedication to falsehood:

“What is the cost of lies? It’s not that we’ll mistake them for the truth. The real danger is that if we hear enough lies, we no longer recognize the truth at all. What can we do then? What else is left but to abandon even the hope of truth and content ourselves instead with stories. In these stories it doesn’t matter who the heroes are—all we want to know is, who’s to blame.”

A sterling example of Palestinian prevarication occurred just last week, as Israel opened to tourists the recently excavated “Pilgrimage Road” in Jerusalem, which devout Jews used to get to the Temple two thousand years ago. In response to this undeniable, tangible evidence of a Jewish connection to Jerusalem, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat claimed the road is a “lie that has nothing to do with history.”

Erekat was merely following a tradition venerated and emulated by other Palestinian leaders, most famously Yasser Arafat, who, on the ninth day of the Camp David Summit in 2000, tried in vain to convince U.S. President Bill Clinton that “Solomon’s Temple was not in Jerusalem, but in Nablus.”

Since Muslims lost control over the Temple Mount in the 1967 Six-Day War, the myth that no Jewish temple existed in Jerusalem has become an article of faith among Palestinians. Ironically, until Israel became a state in 1948 official Muslim guidebooks all agreed that the location of King Solomon’s Temple on the Temple Mount was “beyond dispute.”

‘PalExpo’ 2019: An exercise in how to use cotton candy as a means of delivering poison - by David Collier

That all this could take place anywhere in 2019 is scary. But this didn’t take place in some private hut in an anonymous remote town. It took place in London Olympia, a major venue in the heart of our capital city. The speakers were Professors and MPs. And walking out of the conference the attendees felt wound up and confident enough to hurl abuse and spit at the Jews they saw outside, knowing there would be no price to pay. Nobody really cares. That isn’t just unsettling – we are in dangerous territory now.

David Collier..
Beyond the Great Divide..
08 July '19..

The ‘PalExpo’ came back to London for 2019. A large, two day ‘celebration’ of Palestinian culture, history and arts. It is extremely clever marketing. In theory there is nothing wrong with Palestinians holding an exhibition of culture, but the show was built for a far more sinister purpose than teaching dabke. There are two parts to the PalExpo and whilst the main exhibition hall had a range of activities from vase painting to date picking, a chain of political talks delivered the lies and the constant drumbeat of delegitimisation. Even the children’s games they had spread out pushed little but decontextualised propaganda. For example a ‘bowling alley’, where the skittles represent the wall, and they carried logos of companies that people are meant to boycott. A real game for kids:

And this is not to mention the exhibits on the settlements, checkpoints and so on. They even had a UN tent from 1949. It is an exercise in how to use cotton candy as a means of delivering poison.

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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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