Palestinian Media and Terrorism: Why Allow Facts to Get in the Way? - by Bassam Tawil

The rhetoric and fabrications of the Palestinian media are simply part of a longstanding Palestinian campaign of incitement against Israel and Jews. For this media ensemble, truth is just another word for nothing left to lie about.

Bassam Tawil..
Gatestone Institute..
28 August '19..

Rina Shnerb, the 17-year-old teenager who was killed in a Palestinian terror attack in the West Bank on August 23, was born and raised in the Israeli city of Lod. She had never lived in a settlement in the West Bank. Moreover, she never served in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) or any security agency, as she was too young to be recruited for service.

Rina was killed in a bomb explosion when she and her family were visiting the popular Ein Buvin spring near the West Bank city of Ramallah. Her father, Eitan, and brother, Dvir, were injured when an explosive device planted near the spring went off.

Why are the details about Rina's hometown and her age worth mentioning? Because the Palestinian media has again engaged in a campaign of fabrications and lies to justify the terror attack and the murder of an innocent Jewish teenager.

Lod is not a settlement. It is a city located in the Central District of Israel, and even has an Arab population of 30%.

The Palestinian media, however, does not feel comfortable reporting the facts about the terror attack. In the eyes of Palestinian new editors and journalists, Rina was a "settler" and a "soldier." By using such terms, the Palestinians are trying to create the impression that she was not an innocent teenager, but a Jew who lived in a settlement and was even serving in the IDF.

This type of misinformation is aimed at sending a message that Rina was a legitimate target because she was one of hundreds of thousands of Jewish settlers living in the West Bank and an active member of the IDF. The Palestinian public, for its part, is often quick to endorse such lies to justify terror attacks against Jews.

What is particularly disturbing is that even the media controlled by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas chose to spread the lie that the murdered teenager was a "settler" and "soldier."

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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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Hebron: The rightness of return - by Nadav Shragai

For 52 years, the Jews of Hebron have been trying to get back the land that was stolen from them in the riots of 1929, but the government is doing so only incrementally, usually after terrorist attacks. Now the attorney general has approved a plan to clear and rebuild the city's market area in an attempt to bring Jews back.

Nadav Shragai..
Israel Hayom..
27 August '19..
Link: https://www.israelhayom.com/2019/08/27/the-right-of-return/

A yellowing 212-year-old document, dating from 1807, in which the Shariah court deeds 4.5 dunams (1.1 acres) of land currently known as the "Hebron wholesale market" to "the Jew Haim Mitzri, who is responsible for the Jewish population" for the sum of 120,000 grushim, is an important starting point for the story of the struggle that the Jewish population of Hebron is now waging. Jews were evicted from that land during the riots of 1929, which happened 90 years ago this week. The Arabs of Hebron built their market on the land only three years before the 1967 Six-Day War and were evicted themselves in 1994. The Jews returned to the "market" seven years later, in 2006, a day before the major clashes in Amona. They were once again evicted, this time with understandings of the political and military apparatuses in place.

Shortly thereafter, the Jewish residents of Hebron were told that the market would be rented to the Jewish community in Hebron and used for family residences. That promise has yet to be fulfilled. Now, 13 years later, a legal opinion has been issued – on paper, at least – that allows the Jews to return to their own land. Now Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has to make a decision that most of the MKs in the outgoing government coalition support, but he is still hesitant.

There are two other figures in the story of the Hebron market land. The first, who is doing everything he can to return Jews to their land, is Rabbi Amram Yifrach (the grandfather of the late Eyal Yifrach, one of the three teens kidnapped and murdered by Hamas terrorists in 2014).

Yifrach currently serves as head of the board of directors of the Sephardi community's Magen Avot organization, which inherited a large part of the Sephardi Jewish property in Hebron, including the market area. Yifrach succeeded Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu and granted the Jewish population of Hebron the legal authority to hold onto the market area and settle Jewish residents there.

"90 years after the slaughter and five years after the murder of my grandson and his friends, there is no reason not to right a historical wrong and return the people of Israel to their borders and close the circle," Yifrach told Israel Hayom last week.

Yifrach, who joined the movement to renew the Jewish population in Kiryat Arba 52 years ago, would be happy if one of the homes that were to be built in the market would be named after his grandson, who often visited him in Kiryat Arba and even studied at Shavei Hebron Yeshiva, near the market. He is calling on Netanyahu to stop dawdling: "Now is the time to act. Later, it could be too late."

Unlike Yifrach, Hebron Mayor Tayseer Abu Sneineh is doing everything in his power to keep Jews from returning to their land. Abu Sneineh was convicted of murdering six yeshiva students in a terrorist attack at Beit Hadassah in 1980. Abu Sneineh was released in a prisoner exchange deal after serving only two years behind bars. In his mayoral election campaign, he bragged about the murder.

Abu Sneineh and the Palestinian Authority are openly working together to "strangle" the Jewish community in Hebron by building hundreds of housing units around the small Jewish neighborhoods and offering benefits to Arab residents who move there. The mayor is even waging a bitter battle over a construction permit that was issued two years ago to build the Hezekiah neighborhood. By filing appeal after appeal, he has so far managed to block the construction of the 31 apartments planned for the area. The land for the new neighborhood, which is slated to be named after Rabbi Chaim Hezekiah Medini, author of the halachic encyclopedia "Sdei Chemed," who lived and studied there, was purchased by the fifth Chabad rebbe some 120 years ago. The plot lies next to Beit Romano, which is home to the Shavei Hebron Yeshiva.

The Likud, the Yamina list (formerly the New Right), and Shas are pressing Netanyahu to make a decision about the construction before the Sept. 17 election. Interior Minister Aryeh Deri has promised to help, and Likud ministers Zeev Elkin, Yariv Levin, Moshe Kahlon, and Likud MK Gideon Sa'ar are all busy with the issue. In Yamina, Ayelet Shaked is leading the fight for construction. As justice minister, Shaked made a herculean effort to end the ongoing construction freeze that the Hebron Jewish community has suffered under for about 20 years.

But Netanyahu is hesitant. In January 1997, the first Netanyahu government adopted the Hebron Protocol, which put 80% of the city under full Palestinian control. At the same time, Netanyahu made a commitment under the same agreement "to work to protect all the conditions and requirements needed to ensure the existence, security, and solidity of the Hebron Jewish community." But moments before the Trump administration's "deal of the century" is due to be announced, it doesn't look like Netanyahu will do anything without prior agreement from the Americans – which he hasn't yet received.

Israel, Iran and Trump: Behind the rhetoric - by Ruthie Blum

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has had faith that Washington would be his key ally in any confrontation with the Islamic Republic. It was Trump, after all, who withdrew from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

Ruthie Blum..
JNS.org..
27 August '19..

Referring to a Talmudic dictum relating to self-defense, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a video clip on Sunday morning, explaining the preemptive strike launched by the Israel Defense Forces in Syria on Saturday night.

“If someone rises up to kill you, kill him first,” he began, before uncharacteristically acknowledging that the IDF was behind the airstrikes, which were carried out after the Israeli defense establishment discovered that a special Quds Force unit was dispatched by Iran to Syria to murder Israelis on the Golan Heights with explosives-laded drones.

Standing next to a somber-looking IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi, Netanyahu stressed that the “complex” military operation was undertaken to thwart a “very imminent” Iranian threat, and declared that Israel would continue to uncover and prevent further such plans by the regime in Tehran.

In a veiled reference to Lebanon—home base of the Iranian terrorist proxy Hezbollah—Netanyahu then warned, “Any country that enables the use of its territory for attacks on Israel will suffer the consequences.”

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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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Why are Lutherans Asking the US to Subsidize Terror-Supporting Palestinian Authority? - by Dexter Van Zile

For all their talking about promoting peace in the Holy Land, mainline Protestants keep doing two things: They make it harder for Israel to defend itself from murderous attacks like the one that killed Rina Shnerb on August 23, and they keep making it easier for Palestinians to get away with perpetrating these attacks. That’s what the ELCA is supporting.

Dexter Van Zile..
Algemeiner..
26 August '19..

Earlier this month, the Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) passed a resolution that calls on the US government to subsidize the Palestinian Authority (PA) as it pays salaries to murderers and terrorists serving time in Israeli jails.

Proponents of the resolution, which was passed by the assembly “en banc” (without any debate, along with a number of other resolutions), would likely say that it does not ask the US government to directly subsidize the Palestinian Authority — but instead, calls on Congress to send millions of dollars to Augusta Victoria Hospital (AVH) in East Jerusalem.

Only a grinch could say no to such a thing. Giving money to a hospital is a good thing, right?

The problem is that AVH needs US money because the PA hasn’t been able to pay its bills to the facility.

According to ELCA documents, the Palestinian Authority owes a total of $95 million to a network of six hospitals in East Jerusalem, of which Augusta Victoria is a part. It’s a big deal, because many Palestinians rely on AVH for treatment of chronic illnesses.

A fact-sheet produced by the ELCA states that the hospital “offers specialized care not available in other hospitals in the West Bank and Gaza, including radiation therapy for cancer patients and pediatric hemodialysis” and that “approximately 30 percent of the cancer patients treated at AVH are from Gaza.”

Despite being unable to fund this hospital, however, the PA has managed to find money to fund its”pay-to-slay” program, which pays salaries to terrorists and the families of terrorists serving time in Israeli jails for killing Israeli civilians (among other things).

The worse the crime is, the more money the killers and families get.

The PA’s pay-to-slay program monetizes dead Jews in a manner akin to how the US government paid bounties for the scalps of Native Americans in the early 1860s. It incentivizes murders like that of 17-year-old Rina Shnerb, who was recently killed while hiking with her father and brother. If her killers are caught and sent to prison (we pray that they are), they will receive a salary for their crimes.

PA President Mahmoud Abbas made it perfectly clear that he is more interested in paying terrorists than in taking care of his people, when he declared in July 2018: “Even if we have only a penny left, it will only be spent on the families of the martyrs and the prisoners, and only afterwards will it be spent on the rest of the people.”

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Dexter Van Zile is the Christian Media Analyst for the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting (CAMERA).

Surprise? ‘The Squad’ Co-Sponsors Bill Claiming Israel Tortures Children, And Parrots Other Terrorist Propaganda - by Warren Henry

The claims made in the bill originate mostly from a group that could be described as the propaganda arm of a terrorist organization.

Warren Henry..
The Federalist..
26 August '19..

Many Americans now know that Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar—two members of “the squad” of far-left congresswomen so much in the news—were recently barred from traveling to Israel to agitate for the anti-Israel boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement. Fewer know all four members of “the squad,” including Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rep. Pramila Jayapal, have co-sponsored a bill that accuses the Jewish state of torturing children. Fewer still know the claims made in the bill originate mostly from a group that could be described as the propaganda arm of a terrorist organization.

The so-called “Promoting Human Rights for Palestinian Children Living Under Israeli Military Occupation Act“ was re-introduced in the House by Rep. Betty McCollum, whose congressional district neighbors Omar’s in Minnesota. Until recently, McCollum was considered a supporter of Israel, but a critic of its government.

In February, however, she condemned “[t]he right-wing, extremist government of Benjamin Netanyahu and its apartheid-like policies,” adding “there are now members of Congress who are not willing to ignore the Israeli government’s destructive actions because they are afraid of losing an election.”

McCollum’s invective prompted Mark Mellman of the Democratic Majority for Israel to respond that Netanyahu “came to office in a fair and democratic election in which every Arab citizen of Israel had the same right to vote as any Jewish citizen.” Mellman added that “by suggesting that Jews have disproportionate influence on U.S. elections, the Congresswoman exploits an anti-Semitic trope widely used by far right forces from Czarism to fascism.”

McCollum’s bill, while not directly exploiting the anti-Semitic trope of blood libel, trades on the accusation that Israel treats non-Jewish children cruelly and inhumanely.

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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 much-needed and vital battle for Israel’s open spaces - by Gershon Hacohen

The purpose of our struggle also used to be clear and we'd be wise to embrace it again: We aspire to an existence in the land of our forefathers in all its fields and open spaces, not just behind our gated "villas in the jungle."

Maj. Gen. (res.) Gershon Hacohen..
Israel Hayom..
25 August '19..
Link: https://www.israelhayom.com/opinions/the-fight-for-the-open-space/

The murderous terrorist attack at Danny Spring near Ein Buvin is a reflection of the ancient struggle over territorial control.

The story is about far more than mere unbridled evil striking down a father and his children on a Friday afternoon summer hike. It's a simple matter: Jews and Arabs aren't only fighting over freedom of movement in the open space, but over who controls it. This struggle assumes many different forms, spanning all corners of the land, from the Galilee to the Negev. From the Palestinian perspective, Jews can perhaps exist in their city high-rises and engage in their white-collar occupations, high-tech, and commerce – this is their place as Jews. The open space, on the other hand – the fields, springs, and pastures – these the Arab must control. We should examine the significance of the "villa in the jungle" metaphor, posited by Ehud Barak to describe Israel's existential experience. In their fervor for security, the Jews deem to only exist in spaces surrounded by fences, a type of upscale, safe ghetto whose boundaries they dare not exit.

At the Risk of Further Upsetting Ms. Rashida Tlaib - by Shoshana Bryen

Israelis live not only with checkpoints, but with intrusive security in airports, schools, shopping centers, concert halls, and other places because all have been attacked by people — Palestinians, not Costa Ricans or Laotians or Nepalese — intent on killing them. And yet Israel is here, strong, vibrant, growing, democratic, and tolerant of everyone except those openly dedicated to its destruction. If that further upsets Ms. Tlaib, so be it.

Shoshana Bryen..
Jewish Policy Center..
21 August '19..

Rashida Tlaib was in tears over the conditions in which her grandmother lives in the West Bank, and furious that her mother, an American citizen, was forced to go through a “checkpoint” from Israel once in order to visit her. “As a young girl, visiting Palestine to see my grandparents, I watched as my mother had to go through dehumanizing checkpoints — even though she was a United States citizen and proud American.” She was so sad. Teary. Emotional. Distraught.

In light of that …

Is it insensitive to point out that international Arab wars in 1948, 1956, 1967, 1973, 1982, terror wars (so-called intifadas) in 1989 and 2001, and rocket wars in 2006, 2009, and 2014 have all been started by Arab states or Palestinian leaders against the state of Israel with the intention of destroying it?

It is, perhaps, rude to point out that in the 1949 war of annihilation he declared on Israel, the King of Jordan scooped up the territory that had been allocated for a Palestinian-Arab state. It’s probably uncharitable to mention that he annexed the Palestinian-allotted territory in a move recognized only by Great Britain and Pakistan, but no one was moved to do anything about it. And pitiless to mention that Tlaib’s grandmother was thus illegally occupied from 1949 – 1967. By Jordan. And thick-skinned, perhaps, to point out that Israel only entered the Palestinian picture when the Jordanian king — in a mind-bogglingly stupid moment — entered 1967’s Six-Day War on the fourth day and managed to lose all of his illegally held possessions.

And given what Ms. Tlaib considers to be her grandmother’s suffering, it seems hardhearted to point out that there were no checkpoints during the Jordanian occupation because no Israeli person — no Jewish person — ever passed from Israel into Jordanian-held Jerusalem at all between 1949 and 1967. No Jewish person could pray at the holiest of Jewish sites and 58 synagogues on the eastern side of the city were dynamited and destroyed. And no Jordanian or Palestinian person was permitted by Jordan to pass from Jordan into Israel during that period for work, medical care, or school.

It really is harsh to point out that after Israel acquired the West Bank territory and, in the course, defending itself from the king’s weak-mindedness, Palestinian workers were permitted to travel to and work in Israel — and still are. Some 100,000 – 110,000 Palestinians currently work in Israel and another 30,000 work in West Bank communities. Is it callous to note that those checkpoints were the result of Palestinian terrorism that ended any hope of free or casual passage?

No. It is not.

Amidst the Tlaib/Omar Uproar — Terror Victims Risk Being Forgotten - by Karen Harradine

Malki Roth is a real victim, not Omar or Tlaib. Those who wish to show that they care about justice must not stand shoulder to shoulder with those who hate Israel. Instead, they should pressure Jordan into extraditing Tamimi to account for her crimes in a US court. These wise words from Deuteronomy — “justice, justice shall you pursue” -– have never been more relevant than this week.

Karen Harradine..
Algemeiner..
22 August '19..
Link: https://www.algemeiner.com/2019/08/22/amid-tlaib-omar-uproar-terror-victims-risk-being-forgotten/

August 20 was no ordinary day. It marked the 18th Hebrew memorial date of the murder of Malki Roth and 15 other innocents at the hands of the terrorist Ahlam Tamimi and her collaborators.

Malki’s parents, Arnold and Frimet Roth, have yet to see justice done. As I previously wrote, Tamimi remains free in Jordan, living a life of comfort and privilege.

Malki’s story is being lost amid the roar of misguided support for Representatives Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar after they were banned from Israel.

During her response to the ban, Tlaib wasted no time in spreading lies and smears about Israel. She tearfully recounted her “memories” of a visit to her family there as a “young girl,” and watching her mother go through “dehumanizing checkpoints.” Tlaib is 43 years old. This means she must have visited Israel either in the 1980s or the 1990s — when the security checkpoints did not exist.

Tlaib’s insistence that Israel dismantle the security checkpoints, which protect Israelis from Islamist terrorism, could easily lead to more Jewish blood being spilled.

In response to Tlaib and Omar, Frimet Roth said that if the security checkpoints had been built much earlier, the life of her daughter Malki, and thousands of others, could have been saved.

This should have been the real story, not the false heroics of Tlaib and Omar. Their anti-Israel and antisemitic agenda to vilify Jews is there for all to witness.

Who would've thought? To Tlaib trip organizer, murderers are 'heroes' - by Moshe Phillips

...Shooting an American Jewish nature photographer in the head was a “military operation” and the shooter was a “hero.” That’s the group that Tlaib put in charge of her proposed trip to Israel. The House Ethics Committee should immediately investigate this sordid episode. It should insist that Tlaib explain the nature of her relationship with Miftah and the reasons behind her decision to embrace those who praise the murderer of a member of a US senator’s family.

On, March 11, 1978, Rubin was
photographing birds at the Maagan
Michael kibbutz in northern Israel. She
was approached by a group of men who
killed her and stole her car. She was
 the first of 33 people to die in the attack.
(Wikipedia)

Moshe Phillips..
Israel Hayom..
21 August '19..
Link: https://www.israelhayom.com/opinions/to-tlaib-trip-organizer-murderers-are-heroes/

First, they praised the terrorist who murdered a US senator’s niece. Then they were chosen by Rep. Rashida Tlaib to organize her now-canceled trip to Israel.

Tlaib’s outrageous choice of the pro-terrorist group Miftah to run her trip is a slap in the face of the United States Congress and deserves to be investigated by the House Ethics Committee.

The fact that Tlaib chose Miftah to organizer her trip is no secret; it was widely reported by major news media. The problem is that nobody is explaining what Miftah really is. The New York Times, for example, reported only that Miftah is a group “that promotes ‘global awareness and knowledge of Palestinian realities.’”

Ironically, one the “Palestinian realities” of which Miftah reminds us is that the Palestinian Authority and its American supporters regard Palestinian Arab murderers of American citizens as heroes.

The official Miftah website features an essay by one of the group’s leaders, Johara Baker, profusely praising Dalal Mughrabi, the murderer of Gail Rubin, the niece of the late US Senator Abraham Ribicoff (D-Conn.).

PM Netanyahu’s carrot-and-stick policy on Gaza - by Ruthi Blum

What’s clear at this moment, though, is that anyone accusing Netanyahu of “having no policy” is either in denial or just dead wrong.

Ruthi Blum..
JNS.org..
20 August '19..

Of all the criticism lobbed at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu these days, the claim that he has been exercising restraint towards the terrorists in Gaza to distract from his legal battles and guarantee victory in the fast-approaching Sept. 17 Knesset elections is the most ridiculous. As any member of the Israeli public and political echelon is keenly aware, the one thing that should worry Netanyahu’s opponents is a war.

This is particularly true today, when Israeli residents of the Gaza-border communities—the “envelope” around the Hamas-ruled enclave—are suffering from an understandable mixture of fatigue and fury. Traumatized by living under daily threat of death and destruction with only minimal respite between rockets, riots and incendiary balloons will do that. Especially considering the fact that while Palestinian children in Gaza attend summer camps where they learn how to kill Jews, the Israeli kids on the other side of the fence spend their vacation listening for Red Alert sirens telling them to take cover in the nearest bomb shelter.

That the politicians to the right of Netanyahu’s ruling Likud Party have been shouting about a lack of Israeli deterrence makes perfect sense. Though only a handful of such candidates believes in reoccupying Gaza—and the rest don’t really have a viable plan other than applying even more Israeli firepower in the ongoing battle of attrition—all of those running on right-wing tickets are telling the electorate that Netanyahu, whose re-election is the only shot they have at being players in the next government, needs a fierce hawkish push.

But those to the left of Netanyahu also are accusing him of being weak in the face of Palestinian violence. This is not merely hypocritical. It is evidence that even much of the so-called “peace camp” is trying to attract voters who see no chance for peace in the foreseeable future, with or without the soon-to-be-unveiled White House plan.

(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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The Critical Debate Over What Should Be Learned from the Gaza Disengagement - by Maj. Gen. (res.) Gershon Hacohen

The debate over the interpretation of the clear and present danger emanating from Gaza in the wake of the 2005 unilateral disengagement holds the key to saving Israel from the dangers attending the creation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank.

Maj. Gen. (res.) Gershon Hacohen..
BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 1,257..
16 August '19..
Link: https://besacenter.org/perspectives-papers/gaza-disengagement-lessons/

In the summer of 2005, as Israel’s unilateral disengagement from Gaza drew near, the self-styled “Council for Peace and Security” issued a declaration – signed by hundreds of former senior officers and security officials – that promised that “the disengagement will improve Israel’s security situation.” Fourteen years later, many of these “security experts” – including newly retired general turned leftwing politician Yair Golan – continue to maintain that the disengagement from the Gaza Strip altered Israel’s security situation for the better. They base their claim mainly on comparisons between the number of wounded and killed in the period preceding the disengagement and in the years since.

They do not take into account, however, the massive disruption of the normal life of the country – from the ongoing suffering caused to many Israelis, to the huge investments poured into protecting communities and building another barrier with a price tag far exceeding 4 billion shekels, to the heavy cost of the three large-scale operations (2008-9, 2012, 2014) and the numerous rounds of fighting. The costs of Operation Protective Edge (2014) alone – including total military and civilian outlays and calculations for lost productivity – came out to over 10 billion shekels. The “experts” also ignore the balance of terror, and consequent loss of Israeli freedom of action, that Hamas has established with its rockets and that enables it to upset routines on the Israeli home front at will.

Above all, by making the number of casualties the main criterion by which to assess the security situation, as US generals did in Vietnam to cover up their abysmal failures, the “experts” ignore the fact that a national-security equation does not by any means depend primarily on the number of wounded and killed. If that were indeed the key criterion, most struggles for national liberation would not have happened.

It is no coincidence that those claiming that the unilateral disengagement improved Israel’s security situation are also those who favor further withdrawals in the West Bank. The inevitable linkage between what has transpired in Gaza since the IDF’s departure and the uprooting of the communities in the summer of 2005, and what is likely to occur if a similar step is carried out in the West Bank, calls for comprehensive and critical reassessment of all that has happened in Gaza over the past 14 years.

Palestineism, the Very Embodiment of Toxic Racism - by FirstOneThrough

Palestinian Arabs could achieve sovereignty and statehood in Gaza and Areas A and B tomorrow, but Palestineism has more malicious demands: that Israel not be a Jewish State; that Jews be forbidden from living anywhere in Palestine; and that Jews be denied access and rights to their holy sites. It is Palestineism that is the roadblock to creating a state of Palestine and an enduring peace in the region, nothing else.

FirstOneThrough..
18 August '19..

Racism is a form of hatred which believes that all members of a particular group are inferior and/or evil. In itself, it is ugly but not dangerous, a localized noxious belief system based on bigotry. Racism becomes toxic when it spreads and obtains power.

Such is the state of Palestineism, the effort to weaken, shrink and destroy Israel because it is a Jewish State, as well as to vilify Jews and deny their rights, history and dignity in the Jewish holy land.

The Arab World

Palestineism has been present in the Arab and Muslim world for a hundred years.

Denying Jews and the Jewish State has been at the forefront of the Palestineism. Even before Jews reestablished Jewish sovereignty in their holy land in 1948, Arabs rioted and killed Jews throughout the 1920’s and 1930’s, and petitioned the British who oversaw the Palestine Mandate to bar and limit the entry of Jews during the Holocaust in Europe. When Israel declared itself a Jewish state, the armies of five neighboring Arab Muslim countries invaded with the stated desire to destroy it completely. The Arabs evicted Jews from all lands they seized and specifically forbade Jews from obtaining citizenship (Article 3). Fellow Arab and Muslim nations followed suit, with ten Arab and Muslim countries expelling one million Jews after Israel was founded, irrespective of whether their fellow Jewish countrymen were Zionists.

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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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Paul Findley, the Congressman Who Hated Israel - by Jonathan Schanzer

...As a result of the changes in American culture and attitudes, what used to be considered beyond the pale is slowly becoming mainstream. For Omar and her fellow travelers, this means that displaying overt animosity toward Israel comes at little to no cost. I never asked him personally, but Paul Findley would almost certainly have approved.

Jonathan Schanzer..
Pundicity/Commentary..
September '19..
Link: http://schanzer.pundicity.com/23084/the-congressman-who-hated-israel

Consider this scenario: A legislator from the Midwest targets Israel with a passion and vitriol that smacks of anti-Semitism. The legislator alleges that Israel's supporters in Washington are bought off with Jewish money and that they have too much influence over our politics. When many Americans express their outrage at such comments, the legislator invokes the right to free speech and insists that the sentiments expressed were all for the just cause of getting American policy on a more reasonable and moral path.

This has been the dynamic surrounding Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar's disturbing comments about Israel and America's relationship with the Jewish state. But Omar's false accusations and the outrage they've generated are not without precedent. She is not the first U.S. representative to give public voice to vicious anti-Israel (and anti-American) bigotry and claim the mantle of righteousness. Before Omar, there was the Republican congressman Paul Findley, who died August 9 at the age of 98.

Findley represented Illinois's 20th district from 1961 to 1983. For many years of his congressional career, his foreign-policy ideas were relatively anodyne. As he put it, "I just plain had no interest in the Middle East." This made sense, as his constituents were not much interested in the Middle East, either. But in the late 1970s, after a trip to South Yemen to secure the release of a detained constituent, he had a chance interaction with representatives of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). He soon claimed to have gotten PLO Chairman Yasir Arafat to "put down on paper" an agreement to "establish peace [and] avoid controversy with Israel, if an independent Palestine were established on the West Bank and Gaza, with a connecting corridor." (In an interview Findley granted in 2013, he admitted that Arafat "approved, but declined to sign" this piece of paper.)

The following year, Findley took his ties with Arafat a step further and invited the infamous PLO terror leader for talks in New York City. Findley even called himself "Arafat's best friend in Congress."

At the time, Findley may not have understood why his diplomatic freelancing and his legitimizing of the PLO prompted alarm. He claimed he was merely eminently diplomatic. A former Hill staffer says that Findley "saw himself as a kind of secretary of state for Congress." The staffer recalls that concerned professionals from the pro-Israel community paid several personal visits to Findley's Capitol Hill offices to address the congressman's PLO outreach. But the more they engaged, the more Findley strengthened his pro-PLO positions.

Findley was clearly chafed by them, and was also angry at his congressional colleagues for not following his lead. Looking back, he wrote, "scores of times over the years, I have sat in committee and in the chamber of the House of Representatives as my colleagues behaved, as an undersecretary of state once described them, like 'trained poodles' jumping through hoops held for them." The "them" referred to pro-Israel organizations.

Question. Who’s funding illegal Palestinian settlements in Area C? Nearly 10,000 cases - by Edwin Black

To create a de facto Palestinian state without further negotiation or even diplomatic consultation with the Israelis, European countries—individually and through the European Union—have pumped hundreds of millions of euros annually into scores of illegal building.

Edwin Black..
JNS.org..
15 August '19..

“Area C,” which comprises some 60 percent of the West Bank, also known as Judea and Samaria, has become highly volatile again. In the past, debate has centered on Jewish settlements. Now, “illegal Palestinian settlements” sprouting across the region are under the spotlight.

According to Israeli activist watchdog groups such as Regavim, during the last five years, illegal Palestinian settlements and infrastructure have sprawled across more than 9,000 dunams in more than 250 Area C locations, supported by more than 600 kilometers of illegally constructed access roads and more than 112,000 meters of retaining walls and terracing. This massive works project is being conducted in broad daylight, often heralded by tall announcement placards and press releases.

Israeli government officials contacted did not dispute the Regavim numbers. In exasperation, one military spokesman close to the Area C files estimated “close to 10,000” illegal construction efforts are now underway, adding they feel “powerless to stop them.”

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Actually, all narratives are not equal. Some are just antisemitic lies. - by Elder of Ziyon

To those on the Palestinian side, the narrative has nothing to do with truth. The narrative itself is meant to delegitimize the undeniable Jewish connection to the land. This is why their "narrative" includes the Khazar theory, the idea that the Jewish kingdoms only existed for a short time, that the Temples were not in Jerusalem if they ever existed at all, that archaelogy has not supported the existence of a Jewish people on the land, that history really begins in 1917 and Zionists are European colonialists. No, it is not competing narratives. It is the truth versus antisemitic lies.

Elder of Ziyon..
14 August '19..

Palestinian Authority prime minister Mohammad Shtayyeh met with members of Congress yesterday, and told them, "Israel is waging the war of the narrative, and are pushing the Jewish narrative to control Jerusalem and Palestine, denying the Islamic and Christian narrative, but we are proud of our narrative. The conflict is not a religious conflict, but a political conflict."

There are narratives - and there are lies. The last sentence proves that the Palestinian narrative is the lie, because the only reason he brought up the idea of it not being a religious conflict is because he wants to deny the Jewish religious and historical connection to Israel.

Palestinians make this into a religious conflict every day, by invoking the Al Aqsa Mosque as being under attack, for example. But they know that to a largely Christian audience, the Bible supports the Jewish view, so they want to downplay their own hijacking of Islam to inflate the importance of Al Aqsa and Jerusalem, which were roundly ignored by the Muslim world before Zionism.

There was an interesting article in Gulf newspaper Al Khaleej by Hafez Barghouti where he attacks the ideas that Palestine is not written in the Quran or Bible and that Mohammed's night journey to the "farthest mosque" - "Al-Aqsa" - was not a miraculous flight on a winged steed to Jerusalem but an ordinary journey to a mosque in Arabia, to Taif or the Al-Ja'aranah Mosque near Mecca.

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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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Who would've thought? Mahmoud Abbas’s time-machine politics dooms peace (again) - by Jonathan S. Tobin

...In theory, those who still hold to that belief might be right. But Israelis and Palestinians don’t live in a theoretical world in which dividing adjacent land into states coexisting peacefully is the obvious answer to their problems. They live in the real world, where the only Palestinian leaders are the Islamists of Hamas, who still seek the deaths of Jews, and the “moderates” of Fatah led by Abbas, who is selling his people a fairy tale about Canaanites who will somehow use a historical time machine to expel the descendants of Joshua.

Jonathan S. Tobin..
JNS.org..
13 August '19..

It turns out that the events of 1967 in which Israel took possession of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, the Golan Heights and reunited Jerusalem isn’t the only historical event that Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas wishes to erase from the pages of history. Nor is the reversal of the verdict of 1948, when the Jews regained sovereignty over part of their ancient homeland, or 1917, when the Balfour Declaration set the Jews on a path towards statehood, the only other items on his counter-factual wish list. It turns out that Abbas wants to go back a lot further than that in making his demands.

His real problem is with the biblical book of Joshua.

That’s right. Rather than simply go back to the 19th century, his latest speech revealed that the new starting point for the Palestinian quest for “justice” is some time in the 13th century BCE. That’s the approximate date historians give to when the tribes of Israel began the conquest of the land of Canaan they had been promised when they left Egypt a generation beforehand.

That is the clear implication of a speech Abbas gave this week while visiting a Palestinian refugee camp in the West Bank, during which he declared that the Jewish interlopers in the country would eventually be expelled, and that not a brick of their “settlements” would eventually be left standing.

“They will be in the dustbins of history, and they will remember that this land is for its people, its residents and the Canaanites who were here 5,000 years ago. We are the Canaanites,” he declared.

The breathtaking scope of his boasts will be dismissed by those who view faith in the ultimate success of the peace process with the Palestinians as a kind of religion that is impervious to all contrary proof.

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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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Gaza Summer Camp, a Time for Fun? - by Stephen M. Flatow

Young boys in Gaza go through military training, running obstacle courses and crawling under barbed wire with what appears to be live fire overhead, in addition to “campers” field-stripping rifles while blindfolded. (BTW, no members of JVP or IfNotNow have applied to undermine the program YH)

Stephen M. Flatow..
JNS.org..
12 August '19..

Many parents of my age remember striving to be able to send their children to summer camp. Now, as grandparents, we see our own children doing the same. I believed then, as I do now, that summer camp is a time when children make new friendships—many of which last into their adult years—grow emotionally and learn what we call “people skills.”

Somewhere in the boxes that accumulated over the years in our basement are videotapes of our five children at summer camp. We see our kids in various activities—playing baseball and basketball, jumping into the pool, holding the rabbits in the “nature shack,” and, the mother of all activities, “color war.”

Color war is a good kind of war; it’s bloodless, unless you bang your nose during a hotly contested rebound under a basketball hoop, and perhaps the most fun part of it is watching your child sing his or her heart out in the song competition. In the end, one team won, the other lost, and the war came to an end. You hope your child comes away with the lesson that competition requires teamwork, and that, in turn, builds character.

Videos have now emerged of children at summer camp practicing for war of a different sort. For instance, from Turkey there’s a video that has gone viral of a teacher prompting a group of young girls in a camp setting by shouting the word yahudiye—Turkish for “to the Jew,” which results in the children responding by raising their fists and shouting “death.”

The video is seemingly so disturbing within Turkey that a member of its parliament has demanded an explanation from the government as to how this could have happened.

Perhaps more chilling than the Turkish episode are the video scenes coming out of Gaza’s summer camps. No basketball contests or visits to the nature shack. No, instead we are treated to young boys going through military training, running obstacle courses and crawling under barbed wire with what appears to be live fire overhead. We are also shown images of these “campers” field-stripping rifles while blindfolded. This is done in all armies to simulate nighttime fighting conditions.


i24

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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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It is clear that the time has come for Palestinians to take a hard look at themselves, but... - by Bassam Tawil

This is the hate that has been embedded in the hearts and minds of Palestinians toward Israel and Jews. When Palestinians run to link the Palestinian slaughter of a Jewish teen to a Muslim feast and the tradition of sacrificing sheep, it is clear that the time has come for Palestinians to take a hard look at themselves – and if they are nonetheless unwilling to do so, perhaps the international community might finally bring a mirror to them.

Bassam Tawil..
Gatestone Institute..
09 August '19..

Palestinians are again celebrating the murder of a Jew – this time 18-year-old Dvir Sorek, an unarmed off-duty soldier who was fatally stabbed and whose body was discovered August 8 on rocky ground in the Gush Etzion settlement bloc near Bethlehem.

Not even a single Palestinian has condemned the ruthless killing of the teenager. The Palestinian Authority (PA), whose leader, Mahmoud Abbas, has previously said that he is opposed to terrorism, apparently does not see a need to denounce the killing of Sorek.

Instead, the Palestinian Authority continued to issue multiple statements condemning Israel for "violating international law" for building new housing units for Jewish families in the West Bank. The statements, issued hours after the terrorist attack in Gush Etzion, made no reference to the murder of the Jewish teen.

In the eyes of the Palestinian Authority leadership, the inauguration of a new neighborhood in a settlement is a "major crime" that needs to be brought before the International Criminal Court.

Here is what Mahmoud Abbas's spokesman, Nabil Abu Rudaineh, had to say about the building of the housing units in the settlement of Bet El, north of the West Bank city of Ramallah:

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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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Temple Destruction: The Story of the Last Jewish Refugees (Video)

Archaeologist Eli Shukron describing the discovery of the tunnel and the story of the last Jewish refugees hiding in the tunnel after the days of the Temple Destruction by the Romans

City of David..
cityofdavid.org..
First Posted 09 August '16..








Link: http://www.cityofdavid.org.il/en/news/temple-destruction-story-last-refugees

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 two-state solution is both indefensible—and, worse, irresponsible and dangerous. - by Jim Sinkinson

...if you support the two-state solution—or know people who do—here’s a list of seven questions those advocates need to answer honestly and convincingly. Without answers—resolution of the huge problems absolutely preventing two states—the two-state solution is no solution at all.

Jim Sinkinson..
The Flame..
06 August '19..
Link: https://www.factsandlogic.org/two-state-solution-answer-these-7-tough-questions/

It's been an article of faith for most recent U.S. Presidents, Western European nations and many American politicians today that peace between Israel and the Palestinians can only be achieved through the so-called "two-state solution"—two states for two peoples living in peace and security.

Certainly, sympathy for the Palestinian people’s national aspirations is understandable, as is heartfelt sadness that they’re forced to live under the oppression of their leadership. Unfortunately, sympathy and pity alone can’t solve the intractable problems inherent in the two-state solution—and most adherents to the position seem to ignore these formidable obstacles and jump instead to a fantasy ending

So, if you support the two-state solution—or know people who do—here's a list of seven questions those advocates need to answer honestly and convincingly. Without answers—resolution of the huge problems absolutely preventing two states—the two-state solution is no solution at all.

1. Why won't the Palestinian Arabs recognize Israel as the national home of the Jewish people? This is the single greatest stumbling block preventing a Palestinian state. For 71 years, the Arabs have steadfastly refused to accept the Jewish state—preserving the hope that someday the Jews will be driven from the Holy Land. Indeed, according to a recent poll, 57% of Palestinians believe their main national goal should be a one-state solution, reclaiming all of historic Palestine from the river to the sea. While it's clear that Western intellectuals want a two-state solution, does it make sense to insist on something Palestinian leaders or people don't want?

2. When will the two warring Palestinian factions—Hamas and Fatah—reconcile? Ever since Hamas, the totalitarian Islamist group, won Palestinian elections in 2006 and then violently seized Gaza, it has waged war with the "establishment" Fatah party in Judea-Samaria (the West Bank). Not only are Gaza and the West Bank separated geographically, but for 13 bitter years these two factions have failed to end hostilities, despite their own ardent efforts and those of other Arab nations, most notably Egypt. Until Fatah and Hamas declare peace, there's no entity with whom Israel can negotiate peace.

3. When will Hamas retract its sworn mission to destroy Israel? Hamas, the terrorist group that controls Gaza, is today allied with Iran, which itself advocates Israel's destruction and supports the Palestinian terrorists with tens of millions of dollars in annual aid. How can Israel achieve security when the Hamas charter and its every action focus on eliminating the Jewish state by military force?

4. When will the Palestinians hold national elections? Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was elected to a four-year term in 2005. He has now served 14 years without standing for election again, and neither Palestinians in Judea-Samaria nor Gaza have held national elections since 2006, effectively making both territories dictatorships. Above all, the Palestinians have no tradition of or institutional infrastructure to support democracy. Is this a sustainable model for the next Arab state?

The 18th anniversary of a very bitter Jerusalem bombing anniversary - by Sarah N. Stern

After American largess and Israeli know-how, the Jordanians have been offering safe haven to a cold-blooded murderer of American citizens who has made a career out of her crime.

Sarah N. Stern..
EMET/JNS.org..
07 August '19..
Link: https://www.jns.org/opinion/a-very-bitter-jerusalem-bombing-anniversary/

Aug. 9 marks the 18th anniversary of a very dark day. That was the day that Ahlam Tamimi calmly picked up Izz-al-Din Shuheil al Masri from his home in al-Aqabah in Judea (the West Bank) and serenely delivered him to the Sbarro pizzeria shop in Jerusalem. That was the site Ms. Tamimi had intentionally scoped out because it was a popular eatery frequented by families, singles and Jews of all ages.

It had been a sultry day and many young students, who were off from school during the long summer recess, were looking for ways to spend their time. One of these students, Malki Roth, entered the restaurant with her best friend, Mihal Raziel. At the same time, Izz Al-Din entered the restaurant and—using a guitar case rigged with nuts, bolts and nails, together with a suicide vest rigged with 10 kilograms of explosives—detonated himself. The explosion rocked the nearby vicinity, murdering 15 people, eight of them children.

Two of the murdered were American citizens: 15-year-old Roth, and Judith Greenbaum, 31, who was five months pregnant at the time. A third American, Chana Nachenberg, lies in a permanent vegetative state.

Immediately after the bombing, Ahlam Tamimi was on a Palestinian bus back to Ramallah, and described what happened as news reached them about the mounting death toll. “As the number of dead kept increasing, the passengers were applauding. They didn’t even know that I was among them … ,” she said. “On the way back [to Ramallah], we passed a Palestinian police checkpoint, and the policemen were laughing. One of them stuck his head in and said: ‘Congratulations to us all.’ Everybody was happy.”

Herein lies the heart of the matter regarding the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, which also pertains to our treatment of the Hashemite Kingdom.

(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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