JVP's “Deadly Exchange”- It’s time to speak out against anti-Zionists who seek to turn Blacks against Jews - by William A. Jacobson

With the spike in antisemitic violence in and around NYC, the campaign by Jewish Voice for Peace and other anti-Zionist groups to blame Israel and American Jews for police shootings of minorities takes on deadly implications.

William A. Jacobson..
Legalinsurrection.com..
29 December '19..

The recent spike in attacks on Jews in the greater New York City area follows a pattern that does not fit with the media portrayal of violence against Jews being solely a ‘white nationalist’ problem. All or almost all of the attacks were perpetrated by non-whites, including the deadly shooting in Jersey City, street attacks in Brooklyn, and the machete attack in Monsey.

While this seems to come out of nowhere, in fact there has been a highly organized and aggressive campaign to stoke and exploit pre-existing racial tensions against Jews as part of anti-Israel activist tactics. The effort goes back decades to Louis Farrakhan, who serves as an inspiration for “intersectional” activists like Tamika Mallory, Carmen Perez, and Linda Sarsour, formerly of the Women’s March.

But more than anything in recent years, anti-Zionist groups, including anti-Zionist purportedly Jewish groups, have sought to turn Blacks against Jews for the purpose of demonizing Israel by blaming Israel and American Jewish groups for domestic police violence and other policing problems.

Leading the way has been the anti-Zionist non-Jewish group calling itself “Jewish Voice for Peace” (JVP), which launched the “Deadly Exchange” campaign in 2017 falsely tying anti-terrorism training of U.S. police chiefs during short visits to Israel with police violence in the U.S. That “Deadly Exchange” campaign now has spread more broadly to the anti-Israel community, where various groups led by JVP seek to disrupt and terminate U.S.-Israel police exchanges.

As detailed below, the recent deadly shooting of Jews in Jersey City was by a Black supremacist group which espoused conspiracy theories eerily similar to the Deadly Exchange propaganda. While not all of the recent attacks can be tied to such conspiracy theories, what cannot be denied is that JVP and the other anti-Zionist groups promoting Deadly Exchange are playing a deadly game by promoting false claims of American and Israeli Jewish responsibility for police shootings.

(Continue to Full Post)

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

.

Israel is doing a really terrible job of erasing its non-Jewish history - by Elder of Ziyon

Here's the thing: Jews are secure in their own history in the land, which is why they have no problem publicizing the others who have lived there. Arabs, on the other hand, are not nearly as secure in their history, so they are the ones what need to erase the Jewish parts of history.

Elder of Ziyon..
29 December '19..

From JPost:

The Antiquities Authority announced Sunday that a juglet full of rare 1,200-year-old gold coins was discovered in an excavation in Yavne just before the festival.

As revealed by IAA coin expert Robert Kool, the coins date back to the early Abbasid Period, 9th century CE. The period marked the beginning of a golden age for the Muslim empire, with the Abbasid rulers acquiring international status and promoting art, science, commerce and industry. According to Kool, among the coins was a dinar from the reign of Caliph Harun al-Rashid (786-809 CE), whose court was the setting of many parts of the world-renowned One Thousand and One Nights– also known as Arabian Nights.

“The hoard also includes coins that are rarely found in Israel,” Kool said. “These are gold dinars issued by the Aghlabid dynasty that ruled in North Africa, in the region of modern Tunisia, on behalf of the Abbasid Caliphate centered in Baghdad,” he added.

But I thought Israel was weaponizing archaeology to erase all Muslim history!

It gets "worse" - the Israel Antiquities Authority even admits there was a Persian presence in the fourth century CE!

(Continue to Full Post)

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

.

Palestinian Leaders, Corruption and the Fear of Opinion Polls - by Khaled Abu Toameh

Palestinian leaders fear that reports about corruption could contribute to a drying up of international funding of the PA. If donor countries got whiff of the fact that their taxpayers' money is being squandered and stolen by senior PA officials, the cash cow might just kick over the PA bucket

Khaled Abu Toameh..
Gatestone Institute..
27 December '19..

Palestinian Authority leaders are upset: a survey published on December 11 by Transparency International, a global organization that "gives voice to the victims and witnesses of corruption," found that corruption is increasing in the PA and in five Arab countries.

Transparency International said that its survey, called "Global Corruption Barometer (GCB) – Middle East and North Africa," revealed that "almost two-thirds of all people (65%) in six countries surveyed think that corruption is getting worse in their country, and that their governments are not doing enough to end corruption."

The GCB report, one of the largest, most detailed surveys of citizens' views on corruption and experiences of bribery, incorporates the views of more than 6,600 citizens from Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Sudan and Tunisia, according to Transparency International.

"For the first time, the GCB also measures the prevalence of wasta, or the use of personal connections, to access public services, in three countries: Jordan, Lebanon and Palestine," it said in a statement. "Despite the relatively low bribery rates in countries like Jordan and Palestine, citizens often resort to wasta in order to get public services they need."

According to the survey, more than one in three Jordanians, Palestinians and Lebanese who accessed pubic services used wasta in the previous 12 months. "This is equivalent to approximately 3.6 million people," Transparency International noted.

The survey also found that "in Lebanon, Palestine and Jordan, one in five people experiences sexual extortion -- or sextortion -- when accessing a government service, or knows someone who has."

In addition, the survey revealed that one in five Arabs, including Palestinians, paid a bribe to access public services, such as health care and education.

Majdi Abu Zaid, Executive Director of the Palestinian Coalition for Accountability and Integrity (AMAN), said that the findings of Transparency International were consistent with a recent poll his group conducted among Palestinians.

(Continue to Full Post)

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

.

The ICC: Just another way for the Palestinians to avoid peace - by Jonathan S. Tobin

The pending ICC prosecution of Israel is a travesty of justice. But the motive for this farce is that it provides an alternative to talks and an end to the war on Zionism.

Jonathan S. Tobin..
JNS.org..
26 December '19..

The announcement by Fatou Bensouda, the chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, that she is prepared to begin an investigation into Israeli “war crimes” was a significant victory for those who have sought to use the court to help delegitimize the Jewish state. Bensouda has asked the tribunal in The Hague for authorization to probe the conduct of the Israel Defense Forces during the 2014 Gaza War, as well as throughout Hamas’s efforts to breach the border fence as part of its “March of Return” Friday-afternoon campaign during the last two years.

What’s more, Bensouda is also seeking authorization to treat Jews living in the West Bank and parts of Jerusalem as a war crime.

That the prosecutor also said that she was interested in investigating Hamas’s activities is being treated by some critics of Israel as evidence of her impartiality. But the brief that she seeks shows that her goal is to attack Israel, rather than to defend justice.

The focus of anger over Bensouda’s decision, however, should not be limited to the ICC. As outrageous as her stand may be, the reason this is happening is not just because a Gambian lawyer whose résumé includes a stint as the chief legal adviser to a brutal dictator decided to target the Jewish state. Rather, it’s just the latest evidence that the Palestinian Authority, which originated the complaint, would rather seek to wage legal war against Israel than to negotiate with it, and possibly end their century-long war on Zionism and the Jews.

(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. 

.

Reality: There are no judges in The Hague - by Prof. Avi Bell

As long as Israel continues to treat the ICC as an entity operating with good intentions, rather than under a biased political and diplomatic agenda, it will continue to lose its fights.

 ..

Prof. Avi Bell
Israel Hayom..
24 December '19..
Link: https://www.israelhayom.com/opinions/there-are-no-judges-in-the-hague/

Israel's strategy for dealing with the International Criminal Court has collapsed.

Fatou Bensouda, the ICC's chief prosecutor, has already adopted doubtful legal arguments made by the Palestinians that: The PLO comprises a state; all parts of Israel that were under illegal occupation by Jordan and Egypt from 1948-1967 – including the Old City of Jerusalem – belong to the state of Palestine; Jewish settlements are an international crime; and IDF soldiers are war criminals. Therefore, we already know what the results of the "investigation" will be and what "evidence" will be collected.

Meanwhile, the many crimes by the Palestinians, from torture and anti-Jewish apartheid policy to acts of terrorism and killing and the intent to commit genocide are not considered enough of a basis for the ICC prosecution to launch an investigation.

The restriction that Bensouda attached to her decision to proceed with an investigation into alleged Israeli "war crimes" only makes the situation worse. When she announced the investigation, she asked three judges to confirm that a state of Palestine existed that was sovereign over all parts of the Gaza Strip, Judea and Samaria as well as east Jerusalem. A year and a half ago, those same judges ruled that the prosecution needed to move ahead with another anti-Israel case, claims by Turkish allies on the Comoro Islands that the Shayetet commandos and the military command that oversaw them in the raid on the Mavi Marmara vessel in 2010 committed war crimes. We know what the ruling will be, and the ICC will become the first international tribunal to rule that the "state of Palestine" is sovereign over all disputed areas of Jerusalem, and Judea and Samaria.

Legal Blindness, the International Criminal Court and Israel - by Daniel Pomerantz

Applying a unique law to Jews that is not applied to any other people or religion, is both illegal and racist.

Daniel Pomerantz..
Honest Reporting..
23 December '19..

The International Criminal Court (ICC) is supposed to prosecute perpetrators of the worst types of crimes, like genocide, mass deportation, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

At the request of the Palestinian Authority, the ICC’s prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, announced last week that she is prepared to open a formal inquiry into whether Israel has committed war crimes: by building residential communities, which are often called “settlements.” She’s also investigating alleged IDF crimes during the 2014 Gaza war and last year’s riots along the Israel-Gaza border. She is currently waiting for a final confirmation from the International Criminal Court’s judges that she has jurisdiction to investigate. But this week’s news focused primarily on the legality of settlements.

Much of the world calls the area in question the “West Bank,” a name applied by Jordan during its 19-year occupation from 1948 until 1967, and still used by much of the international community today. Previously the area was called, “Judea and Samaria,” after its ancient Jewish inhabitants. For now, I will refer to the area simply as the “disputed territories,” as they are the subject of a very real and ongoing, dispute.

This is not a question of whether Jewish settlements in the disputed territories are right or wrong, which is a topic of debate even among Israelis. Nor is it a question of whether Jews or Palestinians have historic, legal or emotional connections to this land. The question is whether building Jewish communities in the disputed territories is an illegal war crime.

(Continue to Full Post)

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

.

Past time to shut down the Palestinian Hanukkah and Christmas scams - by Jonathan S. Tobin

An effort to appropriate the holidays in order to delegitimize Israel denies Jewish history and ignores the truth about the fate of the Christian minority in Arab lands.

Jonathan S. Tobin..
JNS.org..
23 December '19..

It used to be confined to an annual piece of theater staged by the Palestinian Authority every Christmas. The festivities in P.A.-governed Bethlehem are primarily aimed at promoting Christian tourism. But statements alleging that Jesus was a Palestinian have always accompanied the activities there, including a parade to the Church of the Nativity.

The efforts by the late terrorist chieftain Yasser Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas, his successor as head of the P.A., to appropriate Christmas as a prop for their war on Israel have generally been dismissed as holiday nonsense by sensible people. But there’s more to this than just the desire of the Palestinian leadership to exploit the fact that the international press pays attention to events in the otherwise sleepy city in the Judean hills south of Jerusalem once a year.

At the heart of this effort is something far more insidious than what has seemed at times to be more of a P.A. attempt at photo-bombing the Christmas Eve coverage than doing any substantial harm to Israel’s image. Promoting the claim that Jesus was a Palestinian or that the Arab inhabitants of what was called Judea 2,000 years are the real Jews is denying and delegitimizing Jewish history and identity. Though some who either rationalize or wink at these Palestinians claims think this is basically harmless, it’s nothing less than a classic theme of anti-Semitism, whose ultimate goal is the destruction of Israel and the genocide of the real Jews.

(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. 

..

A flare of light from the darkness comes to remind us of what was, is and can still be - by Daniel Greenfield

But that old light is still the light of possibilities. It burns to remind us of the extraordinary things that our ancestors did and of the extraordinary assistance that they received. We cannot always expect oil to burn for eight days, just as we cannot always expect the bullet to miss or the rocket to fall short. And yet even in those moments of darkness the reminder of the flame is with us for no darkness lasts forever and no exile, whether of the body of the spirit, endures. Sooner or later the spark flares to life again and the oil burns again. Sooner or later the light returns.

Daniel Greenfield..
Sultan Knish..
22 December '19..

A candle is a brief flare of light. A wick dipped in oil burns and then goes out again. The light of Chanukah appears no different. Briefly there is light and warmth and then darkness again.

Out of the exile of Babylon, the handful that returned to resettle and rebuild the land faced the might of new empires. The Jews who returned from the exile of one evil empire some twenty-six hundred years ago were forced to decide whether they would be a people with their own faith and history, or the colony of another empire, with its history and beliefs.

Jerusalem's wealthy elites threw in their lot with the empire and its ways. But out in the rural heartland where the old ways where still kept, a spark flared to life. Modi'in. Maccabee.

And so war came between the handfuls of Jewish resistance fighters from a small town in the hinterlands and the Hellenized elites of the big city, between those who wished to be Jews and those who wanted to be pawns in an empire, between the tradition of the priests and the progress of a new order, between the Maccabees and the armies of Antiochus IV’s Selecuid empire. A war that had its echoes in the past and would have it again in the future as lightly armed and untrained armies of Jewish soldiers would go on to fight in those same hills and valleys against the Romans and eventually the armies of six Arab nations.

The Syrian Greek armies were among the best of their day. The Maccabees were living in the backwaters of Israel, a nation that had not been independently ruled since the armies of Babylon had flooded across the land, destroying everything in their path.

(Continue to Full Post)

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

.

The Report: Amnesty International- From Bias to Obsession by David Collier

Although the evidence in the report is all about Amnesty, it is time we had this conversation more generally about this type of human rights NGO. Read the report and be as shocked and sickened as I was discovering it all. And then let us all start doing something about it.

David Collier..
Beyond the Great Divide..
22 December '19..

My report into Amnesty International is now published and the 200-page analysis is available as a PDF for download. This research was some of the most challenging I have undertaken. I linked to dozens of Amnesty social media accounts and monitored the output of over 40 staff / volunteers. Many of the case studies concern people who are (or were) instrumental in directing Amnesty’s focus. The research took several months and hundreds of thousands of social media posts were logged. The project was commissioned by Jewish Human Rights Watch

Amnesty International bias

Most people know that Amnesty International is biased to some degree, but even knowing this, I was still shocked at what I found.

There are clear political and discriminatory influences at work at Amnesty. Targets are not chosen for their actions but rather for their identity. A controversial action by India is almost certain to receive attention. Persecuted Christians are blatantly ignored. Attacking Israel is top of the list. Pakistan can literally make opposition figures disappear and Amnesty International can rarely even be bothered to yawn.

Every part of Amnesty’s arsenal spends a disproportionate amount of time attacking Israel. When fused together in a coordinated manner, the focus appears obsessive and persecutory. Campaigns against Israel are visibly better funded, more frequent and promoted with far more energy – than anything else Amnesty International undertakes. More worrying still is the alignment between Amnesty’s anti-Israel campaigns and the aims of the BDS movement, which leave little room for doubt that it is coordinated rather than coincidental. This claim will not surprise you once you have read the sections on their recruitment policy and their campaigns.

(Continue to Full Post)

Please Share Full Report - PDF Download

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. 

.

Surprise? Guess who’s leading your child’s tour of Israel? - by Stephen M. Flatow

An American University trip with the theme of “social justice” will offer a “dual-narrative immersive experience” that will feature “both the Israeli and Palestinian narratives.”

Stephen M. Flatow..
JNS.org..
19 December '19..

The problem of anti-Semitic intimidation on American college campuses is serious, and hopefully, U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent executive order will help combat it. But an equally significant problem is the deeply entrenched anti-Israel bias in the lectures, discussions and even the student trips abroad that our sons and daughters are participating at many universities today.

Case in point: an upcoming trip to “Israel and Palestine” for students who attend American University in our nation’s capital.

The official description of the trip employs all the usual clichés that indicate the organizers’ slant without being too overt about their bias.

It will be a “dual-narrative immersive experience,” which will feature “both the Israeli and Palestinian narratives.” That means the students will be taught that the “Israeli narrative” (in which Israel has a right to exist) and the “Palestinian narrative” (in which Israelis are Nazis and Israel’s creation was an act of racist colonialist aggression) are equally valid.

Subscribe to The JNS Daily Syndicate by email and never miss our top stories
Your email
According to the web site, the theme of the trip will be “social justice,” and “in order for social justice anywhere to be achieved, a true and lasting peace rooted in a power structure based on equity, security and justice must take shape.” In progressive-speak, that means Israeli policies are unjust, the Palestinian Arabs are innocent victims, and Israel must be pressured to make more concessions to the Palestinian Authority.

The itinerary of the trip posted on the university’s website is short on details, but there are some clues as to its flavor.

(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. 

.

Hamas, Thirty-Two Years Later, More Committed Than Ever - by Khaled Abu Toameh

Now that Hamas has again – clearly – reminded the world that it has not changed and continues to seek the destruction of Israel, the question is: Why are some world leaders, governments and organizations continuing to embrace the leaders of the movement?

Surprise? Endorses Hamas and supports
 its agenda and ideology

Khaled Abu Toameh..
Gatestone Institute..
18 December '19..

The Palestinian Hamas movement this week celebrated its 32nd anniversary by reminding everyone of its main goal: the destruction of Israel. This message is proof that Hamas has not – and will not – change its charter, originally published in 1988. It is also a powerful message to those who may have deluded themselves into believing that Hamas has transformed into a non-violent Palestinian faction.

This charter, also known as the Covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement, states that Hamas's "struggle against the Jews is very great and very serious" and calls for replacing Israel with an Islamic state. "There is no solution for the Palestinian issue except through Jihad (holy war)," the charter says. "Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors. Renouncing any part of Palestine means renouncing part of the religion [of Islam]."

Thirty-two years later, the leaders of Hamas have again shown that they remain more committed than ever to their covenant, particularly regarding the desire to replace Israel with an Islamic state.

In this regard, Hamas deserves credit for being straightforward about its true intention. In statements marking the anniversary of the founding of Hamas, the movement's leaders again demonstrated that they do not mince their words.

(Continue to Full Post)

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

.

Looks familiar? BDS, 1956: Arab firms tried to boycott "Jewish businesses" worldwide - by Elder of Ziyon

Nowadays, the Israel haters like to boycott "Zionist" businesses - to say "Jewish" is too crude. But there is a direct line from the Arab boycott to today's BDS - just because the messaging is more sophisticated doesn't mean the goals and bigotry aren't the same.

Elder of Ziyon..
17 December '17..

Today's BDS movement is a direct descendant of the Arab boycott of the 1950s and 60s against Israel.

Then, as now, the boycott isn't against Israel, but Jews. No boycott list today includes Israeli Arab companies but only Jewish owned businesses in Israel.

The Arab League in 1956 was a bit cruder. They had an explicit policy of not doing business with any companies with Jews in major roles.

This is from the same Congressional Record I quoted from yesterday.

The American Jewish Congress has in its possession correspondence from Arab firms located In Saudi Arabia, canceling contracts with American Jewish businesses because of a directive promulgated by the Saudi Arabian Chamber of Commerce, but unquestionably inspired by the Saudi Arabian Government, instructing Saudi Arabian firms to discontinue all relations with businesses abroad owned or controlled by Jews or that employ Jews. These letters state that any contract negotiated in violation of this directive will be subject to summary cancellation and that any merchandise imported into Saudi Arabla from firms employing Jews abroad will run the risk of confiscation. The Saudi Arabian Government evidently requires its domestic import companies to obtain affirmative and positive assurances that their business associates abroad are free of all Jewish connections,

The nature of the discrimination is clearly reflected in the following excerpts from letters in our files received by American firms owned by Jews from their Saudi Arabian customers

(Continue to Full Post)

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

.

A U.S. elected official, a Jordanian king, a terrorist and the feeling of talking to a wall - by Arnold Roth

With few exceptions, mainstream editors and reporters in the news industry won't touch this battle we as bereaved parents are waging to see our child's killer stand trial in Washington on the US Federal charges she faces. But we plan to keep pressing on. For us, it's a matter of justice.

Arnold/Frimet Roth..
This Ongoing War..
16 December '19..

About six weeks ago, we noticed a Jordanian news report about an official visit to the sumptuous palace of Jordan's ruler by a senior US Congressman, Representative Adam Smith.

A Democrat, Smith represents Washington state's 9th Congressional district. Before that he served in the Washington State Senate. He has been a member of the House Armed Services Committee since 1997 and is its current chairman.

The details of his formal visit to the royal palace appeared on the website of Jordan's embassy in Washington DC. They also appeared on the website of Jordan's Royal Hashemite Court and a little later in the government-controlled Jordan Times.

We noted and commented on the visit here.

Smith's was one of three Congressional Delegation visits to the royal place in Amman that we know of between the first week of October and the first week of November. There may have been others that we didn't spot. We're new to the business of tracking the activities of US Congress people when they're outside the US. The US new media seem to pay them little attention.

Why is this an issue for us?

If you know anything about our blog, you will be aware that Jordan is refusing to extradite the Islamist savage who bombed the Sbarro pizzeria in Jerusalem. And that this flies in the face of years of Jordan complying with the bilateral extradition treaty that has been in effect since 1995.

Our 15 year old daughter Malki was one of the many children inside the pizzeria who were blown to pieces. Ahlam Tamimi, whom we consider a monster, has taken credit for years - on television, in the print media, on multiple social media platforms - for selecting the site (the large number of Jewish children was the key factor) and for personally bringing the bomb to the door of the pizzeria just before fleeing to save herself. She calls it "my operation" and has never denied the charges. She has publicly and repeatedly confessed.

(Continue to Full Post)

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

.

The NY Times, International Law and the Legitimacy of Jewish Settlements - by Jerold Auerbach

If ancient history is on the side of Jewish settlements, international law ever since World War I reinforces their legitimacy.

Jerold Auerbach..
Algemeiner..
13 December '19..

“Most of my ethnic group,” New York Times columnist Paul Krugman recently wrote (evading his identity as a Jew), “understands that Trump is bad for the Jews.” Why? According to the paper’s Jerusalem bureau chief David Halbfinger, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s announcement that the United States does not consider Israeli settlements to be a violation of international law was an unwarranted “political gift” from the Trump administration to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The truth of Pompeo’s statement was, to Halbfinger, irrelevant.

Such judgements — whether by publishers, editors, columnists or Jerusalem bureau chiefs — have long reflected the conventional Times wisdom that Jewish statehood is bad for Jews, especially assimilated American Jews, lest they be accused of divided loyalty. The problem with their reflexively negative response to the reality of Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria — the biblical homeland of the Jewish people — is that Jewish history and international law undermine their claim.

The Hebron tombs of the patriarchs and matriarchs, the most ancient Jewish holy site, are located in biblical Judea. King David reigned from Hebron before relocating his throne to Jerusalem. Samaria was the capital of the northern Kingdom of Israel in the 9th and 8th centuries BCE. More than a millennium before the emergence of Islam, Jewish history was embedded in Judea and Samaria. Despite Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s absurd claim that Palestinians are descended from ancient Canaanites, “Palestinians” had yet to make their appearance as a distinctive people, nor would they until well into the 20th century.

If ancient history is on the side of Jewish settlements, international law ever since World War I reinforces their legitimacy.

(Continue to Full Column)

Jerold S. Auerbach is the author of Print to Fit: The New York Times, Zionism and Israel 1896-2016, published by Academic Studies Press.

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. 

.

From the River, to the Sea: Palestinian Americans and Leftist Jews push vision of a Jew-free (and improbably progressive) "Palestine" - by Elder of Ziyon

It is had to imagine a less tolerant state than the one that Palestinians in the PA and Hamas controlled areas themselves want - these numbers are in Taliban territory. These so-called progressives do not lift a finger to help Palestinians change their xenophobic, antisemitic and intolerant attitudes. Instead, they are gaslighting uninformed liberals in the West into thinking a Palestinian state would be a beacon of light and equality.

Elder of Ziyon..
12 December '19..

Israel-haters pretending to be Palestinian activists in the US have started a new initiative to create a vision for a Jew-free Middle East while pretending to be progressive.

The "Justice for All" campaign, on a new website called "FreedomFuture.org," was set up by the BDSers from the Adalah Justice Project and the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights. Together with many partners like Jewish Voice for Peace, the American Friends Service Committee, the Democratic Socialists of America they have a list of "demands" that use all he correct "progressive" buzzwords while building a case to ethnically cleanse Jews from the river to the sea, meaning an entire Middle East that is Judenfrei.

Demands include Palestinian self-determination (including in Israel), the "right of return" (where there is full freedom for Palestinians to live wherever they want but Jews have no such right,) "freedom for all Palestinians" which is just a veiled accusation that Israel discriminates against all non-Jews, and the "the right to resist our oppression" in which they never say that "resistance" is only peaceful - meaning it includes terrorism.

All of these codewords have been used for years to fool liberals into thinking that destroying the Jewish state is a valorous cause.

(Continue to Full Post)

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

.

Different but doable. In Europe, Israel needs a bottom-up approach to diplomacy - by Evelyn Gordon

The problem with traditional diplomacy is that it generally focuses on high-level officials, both elected politicians and civil servants. These are people with zero incentive to rock the boat on Israel’s behalf because they would rather spend their political capital on issues that most of their countrymen (and they themselves) actually care about, which rarely include Israel and the Palestinians. And in Europe, not rocking the boat means adhering to the anti-Israel consensus that has long dominated the E.U. Thus while this kind of diplomacy remains essential for numerous issues, it often isn’t effective at generating change.

Evelyn Gordon..
JNS.org..
11 December '19..

For years, I considered Europe a lost cause from Israel’s perspective and decried the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s Euro-centric focus, arguing that it should instead devote more effort to places like Africa, Asia and South America, which seemed to offer better prospects for flipping countries into the pro-Israel camp. But the past few years have proven that Europe isn’t hopeless—if Israel changes its traditional modus operandi.

This has been evident, first of all, in the alliances that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has formed with several countries in eastern and southern Europe, resulting in these countries repeatedly blocking anti-Israel decisions at the European Union level. Previously, Israeli diplomacy had focused overwhelmingly on Western Europe. Netanyahu’s key insight was that conservative, nationalist governments seeking to preserve their own nation-states would have more instinctive sympathy for a Jewish state than the liberal universalists who dominate in Western Europe, and whose goal is to replace nation-states with an ever-closer European union.

But as several recent events show, even Western Europe isn’t a lost cause. The difference is that there, conventional high-level diplomacy won’t work. Rather, the key to change is the fact that most Europeans, like most people everywhere, don’t really care that much about Israel, the Palestinians or their unending conflict. Consequently, small groups of committed activists can exert a disproportionate influence on policy.

(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. 

.

Who would've thought? EU ignores - and promotes! - Palestinian child abuse for Human Rights Day - by Elder of Ziyon

By not only ignoring this indoctrination of Palestinian children into a culture of martyrdom and jihad - and by funding that same message through Palestinian schools - the EU is enabling and promoting Palestinian child abuse.

Elder of Ziyon..
11 December '19..





From an EU press release:

Each year, 10th of December marks the day, when the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted with a view to express a universal commitment towards the respect and protection of human rights for all individuals without discrimination. This year, UDHR turns 71 and we also celebrate the 30th anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Yet fundamental human rights continue to be challenged around the world, including in the occupied Palestinian territory. Palestinian children in particular face significant obstacles in accessing basic services and enjoying their fundamental human rights. Some of the obstacles are developmental in nature and at times linked to cultural and religious issues as, for example, the case with child marriage or gender based violence. However, the major factor that impedes the full realization of children’s rights in the oPt is the decades-long Israeli occupation, including the Gaza blockade. It is clear that children are disproportionately affected by the conflict and occupation. An unacceptable number of Palestinian child casualties have been attributed to Israeli forces and many Palestinian children are held in detention by Israeli forces over security offences. Moreover, restrictions on the freedom of movement severely impact on Palestinian children’s enjoyment of their fundamental human rights, including the right to education and the right to health.

According to the EU, Palestinian youth face some relatively minor human rights challenges from cultural or religious factors, but the real problem is Israel.

Not a single word about how the Palestinian political leadership abuses children as policy.

The official Fatah Facebook page published this video only last month of a girl reciting a poem glorifying children killing themselves for "martyrdom."

"His mother promised him a gift if he finished his food. The boy wondered in excitement: 'Is it a toy?' His mother approached him with a glowing look while carrying the gift. He looked, and it was a rifle! He shouted loudly: 'O Mommy! Mommy! What is this? Is this the gift?' She picked him up, hugged him, and said: 'My son, we were not created for happiness. In my eyes, you are meant for Martyrdom!' …

(Continue to Full Post)

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

.

Surprise? "Pro-Israel" J-Street, without evidence, demands the US investigate Israel misuse of aid - by Elder of Ziyon

If there is zero evidence of misuse of funds, and an existing audit mechanism to ensure that there is no misuse of funds, why ask for an investigation into misuse of funds? There is no fire, and there is no smoke, except from J-Street's massive smoke machine meant to obscure rather than reveal the truth.

Elder of Ziyon..
10 December '19..

You know the expression "where there's smoke, there's fire"?

Not when someone has a gigantic smoke machine. And that is exactly what J-Street builds.

From a J-Street mailing:

Let’s make sure US aid is being used for Israel’s defense, and not the demolition of Palestinian homes. 

Join us in backing a new effort in Congress to ensure that US military assistance is being used in compliance with current US law, for Israel’s defense and not in connection with the displacement of Palestinians.

....[W]e’re strongly backing a new congressional letter, initiated by Reps. Ro Khanna, Anna Eshoo and Steve Cohen, pushing for greater accountability in ensuring that US aid to Israel is only being used for legitimate defense purposes -- and that equipment purchased with our tax-payer dollars is not being used to displace Palestinians.

Over a dozen members have already joined the Khanna-Eshoo-Cohen letter, expressing concern over the dramatic rise in demolitions this year.

The members ask -- pursuant to the Arms Export Control Act -- for the administration to report back to Congress on whether US-supplied equipment has been used for such demolitions and whether such use constitutes a breach of any existing restrictions.

As I have reported previously, there already is an audit process in place to see where every dollar of US aid is spent in Israel.

Does J-Street have any evidence that Israel is somehow bypassing the existing controls and spending US money on other things? If you read the many reports from the Congressional Research Service about aid to Israel, there doesn't seem to be any. US aid is earmarked for specific, targeted programs from the F-35 fighter to anti-rocket defense systems.

(Continue to Full Post)

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

.

A Reality Check: Palestinian Arab Volunteers in the British Army in WWII - by Col (Res.) Dr. Raphael G. Bouchnik-Chen

A recent study recounts the purportedly unknown story of Palestinian Arab volunteers fighting the Nazis during WWII. Haaretz used this finding as an opportunity to mock PM Benjamin Netanyahu, who has pointed out that the Mufti of Jerusalem was a close ally of Hitler. Yet the Mufti’s position as “the most important Arab Quisling” is indisputable, while most of the study’s conclusions are dubious and inconsistent with historical facts.

Col (Res.) Dr. Raphael G. Bouchnik-Chen..
BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 1,367..
09 December '19..
Link: https://besacenter.org/perspectives-papers/palestinian-arabs-british-army/

Israel’s Declaration of Independence notes the historic role played by Palestinian-Jewish volunteers to the British Army during WWII:

In WWII the Jewish Community of this country contributed its full share to the struggle of the freedom- and peace-loving nations against the forces of Nazi wickedness and, by the blood of its soldiers and its war effort, gained the right to be reckoned among the peoples who founded the United Nations.

It is hardly surprising that upon the British declaration of war on Nazi Germany, the Jewish Agency Executive and Vaad Leumi (National Council) rallied to the Allied standard. The two Jewish organizations jointly announced that everyone in the Yishuv (the Jewish community in Mandatory Palestine) between the ages of 18 and 50 should aid the British army. Within the first week of the war, more than 130,000 members of the Yishuv had volunteered to join the British army.

This enthusiastic response was in spite of the May 1939 British White Paper, which reneged on London’s obligation under the 1922 League of Nations mandate to facilitate the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine in line with the 1917 Balfour Declaration and instead envisaged a unitary state in Palestine in which Jews would be reduced to a position of permanent minority. David Ben-Gurion, the head of the Jewish Agency, hoped simultaneously to reassure both the Yishuv and the Mandate government by stating, with Solomonic nuance, “We will fight the White Paper as if there is no war, and fight the war as if there is no White Paper.”

Israeli professor Mustafa Abbasi views that history differently. In April 2019, he published an article (in Hebrew) titled “Palestinians fighting Against Nazis: The Story of Palestinian Volunteers in the Second World War” (Cathedra Quarterly). In the words of the article’s abstract:

During WWII about 12,000 Palestinian Arabs volunteered to serve in the British army. These volunteers participated actively in battles in North Africa and Europe. Many of them lost their lives, others were wounded, and many are still missing. It is interesting that despite this vital contribution of the Palestinian people and their leadership in the war against the Nazis, especially among the opposition parties, the attention of historians has been mostly directed toward the meeting held between the Mufti of Jerusalem and Hitler.

Taking this claim for granted, the Israeli leftist daily Haaretz seized the opportunity to ridicule PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s 2015 assertion that the Mufti had urged Hitler to annihilate the Jews. In the wake of the criticism this statement had elicited, Netanyahu said his intention was not to absolve Hitler of culpability for the Holocaust but to note that “the Mufti played an important role in the Final Solution.”

This clarification is right on target. The Mufti’s contribution to the Nazi war effort was infinitely greater than his above-noted meeting with Hitler, in which he offered the formation of an Arab legion to fight on Germany’s side and the Nazi tyrant promised to destroy “the Jewish element residing in the Arab sphere under the protection of British power [i.e., the Yishuv]” with the Palestinian Arabs given an active role in this genocide. The Mufti’s contribution ranged from his involvement in the 1941 pro-Nazi military coup in Iraq, to his wartime broadcasting of Nazi propaganda to the Arab and Muslim worlds, to his recruitment of a Muslim SS division that fought on the Russian front, to his repeated incitement of Heinrich Himmler, Hitler’s murderous henchman with whom he established a close personal relationship, to exterminate European Jewry. So deep was Hajj Amin Husseini’s involvement with the Nazis that a contemporary British intelligence report described him as the “most important Arab Quisling” (after the infamous Norwegian Nazi collaborator).