The European Union's Hypocritical, Patronizing Attitude Towards Israel - by Amb. Alan Baker

The fact that the Palestinian leadership proudly pays salaries to terrorists (and their families) who have killed Israelis – in clear violation of Palestinian obligations in the Oslo Accords, as well as in other international counter-terrorism conventions and resolutions – does not appear to concern the EU representative to the peace process.

Amb. Alan Baker..
JPost/Opinion..
03 October '19..
Link: https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/The-EUs-hypocritical-patronizing-attitude-toward-Israel-603650

The curious article in The Jerusalem Post (“Peace needs international law and political will,” September 21), by European Union Special Representative for the Middle East Peace Process Susanna Terstal, is indicative of a serious and worrying lack of awareness as well as considerable possible ignorance by the EU as to the legal and political realities inherent in the peace process.

The EU representative evidently believes that incessant repetition of the phrase “two-state solution” adds some element of legitimacy and feasibility to the idea. But the two-state solution has never been agreed-upon between Israel and the Palestinians, and does not figure in any of the agreements between them. It is nothing more than an expression of wishful thinking within the UN and the EU.

To the contrary, the Oslo Accords, to which the EU itself is a signatory, clearly leaves the issue of the permanent status of the territories to be decided in negotiations. The accords do not predetermine the outcome of the negotiations. Thus, whether the outcome will be one, two or three states, or a federation or confederation, remains on the negotiating table. This cannot be dictated by the EU, however much they might be enamored with the idea of a two-state solution.

By incessantly plying a two-state solution, the EU is in fact prejudging an agreed negotiating issue and going against its own responsibilities as a signatory to the Oslo Accords.

In referring to electioneering suggestions by Israeli leaders to “apply sovereignty,” the EU representatives complain that unilateral modification of the Oslo Accords “undermines the entire agreement” and “dismantles Oslo.”

One wonders why the EU did not view the recent declarations by the Palestinian leadership canceling the territorial division between areas A, B and C in a similar light. Did this not undermine the accords?

Similarly, where was the EU when the Palestinian foreign minister formally declared in Japan that the Palestinians had no intention of returning to negotiations with Israel?

BTW, whatever happened to the Palestinian ‘diplomatic tsunami’? - by Jonathan S. Tobin

Anti-Zionists may still be able to intimidate some people, like pop stars who visit Israel, but in the real world and even at the United Nations, their cause is an afterthought.

Jonathan S. Tobin..
JNS.org..
04 October '19..

It was only eight years ago that supporters of Israel were trembling at the possibility that support for the Jewish state would soon be washed away by a “diplomatic tsunami” that would be unleashed by the Palestinians at the United Nations.

In the spring of 2011, President Barack Obama demanded that Israel negotiate the creation of an independent Palestinian state based on the 1967 armistice lines. The Palestinian Authority chose not to embrace Obama’s initiative, but instead embarked on a campaign to get the United Nations to recognize their statehood without first requiring them to make peace with Israel. Figures such as then Defense Minister Ehud Barak predicted that such a “tsunami” meant “Israel’s delegitimization was in sight.” For Barak and others who still believed in the Oslo peace process even after its collapse a decade earlier in the violence of the Second Intifada, the prospect of such total international isolation meant that Israel had no choice but to withdraw from the West Bank and part of Jerusalem, regardless of the consequences.

Eight years later, no one speaks of a Palestinian tsunami at the United Nations—or anywhere else, for that matter. Instead, the only places where efforts to delegitimize Israel seem to be succeeding is on the social-media pages of pop stars. While Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas’s annual sojourn to the United Nations last month was greeted with yawns, the only recent success that haters of Israel can claim was the bullying this week of singer Demi Lovato.

(Continue to Full Column)

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(Excellent) PM Netanyahu’s fate and the future of Israeli democracy - by Jonathan S. Tobin

The flimsy corruption charges he’s facing are creating a precedent that is a greater threat to the rule of law and the future of Israel than anything he’s charged with doing.

Jonathan S. Tobin..
JNS.org..
03 October '19..

This week a legal proceeding is taking place that may have as much if not more to do with the future of Israel’s government as the stalemated negotiations to form a new governing coalition. Lawyers representing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are presenting evidence to Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit in four days of hearings that are his last chance to stop indictments on corruption charges. The prime minister’s attorneys say they are presenting new evidence. Yet the expectation is that Mandelblit, who has already signaled his willingness to formally charge Netanyahu on three separate cases of alleged wrongdoing, is just going through the motions and will, in due course, decide that the prime minister will be put on trial and face jail time if convicted.

The unseemly spectacle of a prime minister called on the carpet in this fashion has been widely depicted as being more about preventing Israeli democracy from being subverted by a criminal would-be tyrant as it is about Netanyahu’s fight for his freedom. However, even those who disagree strongly with the prime minister’s policies should be opposed to the manner in which he may be taken down. Far from being a defense of Israeli democracy, the effort to destroy him via the legal system is actually a greater threat to the future of the Jewish state than anything the prime minister has allegedly done.

(Continue to Full Column)

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The toxicity of Palestinian solidarity – the obsessive stepping stone to antisemitism - by David Collier

Palestinian solidarity has created a travesty. Not only does picking up a Palestinian flag require you to support a fictitious narrative. It means you adopt toxic beliefs and it holds everyone hostage – even the Palestinians.

David Collier..
Beyond the Great Divide..
02 October '19..

What is Palestinian solidarity? Last week, I sat and witnessed a mainstream political party in the UK deliberately spit in the face of the Jewish community. The problem of growing antisemitism extends far beyond the shores of the UK and recently inside the US Democratic Party, we have seen a similar struggle *begin* to surface. So is Palestinian solidarity related to rising antisemitism, where does this animosity come from – and how is it being allowed to successfully propagate?

If this were simply swastika wearing Jew hatred resurfacing, you would hope it would be easily identified. Which tends to suggest that it isn’t – or if it is – then at the very least much of it is well disguised.

Layers and institutions


There are several layers to the problem of rising antisemitism and the ‘obsession’ that was frequently referenced during the Labour Party conference is only one of those layers. Half a million people die in conflict each year – another half a million through interpersonal violence. There is climate and conflict induced famine, and whole regions that experience horrific abuse of women and minority groups. The world is home to rampant sex, child and people trafficking. Nobody can even tell you the level of modern slavery because there isn’t enough money or political will to deal with the problem. Yet the democratic state of Israel is always the first item on the agenda.

That obsession is institutionally racist against Jews. It does not matter what the excuses are, just as it did not matter what the Met Police used as an excuse for the disproportionate attention towards ‘non-whites’. Nor its dismissal of the relevant community concerns. The Palestine obsession, partially driven by circumstance and partially by people who hate Jews, combines to create an institutionally racist environment.

If you or your organisation are not willing to address the Apartheid system in Mecca, Christian persecution in Pakistan or the abuse of women throughout Asia and Africa – because you cannot raise a consensus or do not want to alienate those sitting around your table – then opting to pick on Israel becomes the institutionally racist choice. It explains the Labour Party obsession and the growing problem in the United States – as well as the fixation on Israel by the UN, Amnesty International and far beyond. Continually picking on just one tiny group of people and ignoring all the real human rights abusers in the world is not just hypocrisy – it is racism.

(Continue to Full Post)

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Surprise? Palestinians Steal Electricity, Then Blame Israel - by Bassam Tawil

The controversy surrounding the unpaid electricity debts is yet another example of the Palestinians' unceasing search for ways to blame Israel for self-inflicted miseries. Instead of assuming responsibility for the electricity theft and unpaid bills and taking punitive measures against the offenders, the Palestinians are doing what they do best: trying their utmost to convince the world that it is all Israel's fault.

Bassam Tawil..
Gatestone Institute..
01 October '19..

For a long time now, many Palestinians have refused to pay their bills to the Arab-owned Jerusalem District Electricity Company (JDEC).

Many other Palestinians, taking a more direct line of theft, have been stealing electrical power from their company, a crime punishable by fines and/or incarceration in any country that respects law and order. The thieves do so by directly hooking to the power line ("cable hooking") or tampering with electric meters.

The JDEC purchases electricity from the Israel Electric Corporation (IEC), the largest supplier of electrical power in Israel. However, because of the electricity theft and widespread non-payment of electrical bills, the JDEC has not been able to pay its debts to the Israeli supplier, IEC.

On September 22, the IEC announced that it has begun cutting power supply to some Palestinian villages and cities in the West Bank to put pressure on the Palestinians to pay their debt of 1.7 billion shekels (about $483 million). The IEC has been trying for years to collect the debt, which over the years has continued to grow. While there has been sporadic payment of some of this debt, the Palestinian Authority (PA) has not forwarded any money to the Israeli company since January 2019, when Israel cut by about half the money it transfers to the Palestinians because of the salaries the PA pays to families of terrorists.

While the Palestinians openly admit that their company loses millions of dollars each year because of the non-payment and electricity theft, they are at the same time claiming to the world that Israel is imposing "collective punishment" on them by cutting the power supply. The Palestinians, in short, are asking the international community to condemn Israel for daring to demand that they pay their debts for the electricity they purchase from the IEC.

(Continue to Full Post)

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

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Jordan's King Abdullah says that no crisis has done more global damage than "Palestinian-Israeli conflict" - by Elder of Ziyon

Israel has done far more to save and preserve Muslim history in Jerusalem than King Hussein ever did. The difference is that Israel also preserves Jewish history, and King Hussein and his father before him did everything they could to erase that. The hypocrisy is off the charts. And this is the "moderate" Jordan, with a king who seems cool and modern with excellent English.

Elder of Ziyon..
27 September '19..

Jordan's King Abdullah, in his speech to the UN, said literally nothing about Jordan.

Most of his speech was to support "Palestine" and to insult Israel.

But this section was so over the top as to sound like a parody:

My friends,
Collective action is also vital for ending bitter crises and conflicts. And no crisis has done more global damage than the core conflict in my region, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict

Global damage?

(Continue to Full Post)

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Surprise? Denying Jerusalem's Jewish History Despite Archaeological Evidence - by Lawrence A. Franklin

"Rewriting the history of the Land of Israel in order to deny Israel's right to exist is central to Palestinian Authority (PA) policy. Long before it started the PA terror campaign (the 'Intifada,' 2000-2005), the PA was fighting a history war – erasing Jewish history and replacing it with a fabricated Palestinian history."

Lawrence A. Franklin..
Gatestone Institute..
26 September '19..

The City of David Foundation recently delivered a major blow to the Arab effort to erase Judaism's 3,000-year ties to Jerusalem. On September 9, the foundation's leading archaeologist, Eli Shukron, announced the discovery of a 2,600-year-old royal seal, found near the Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem, which bears the name (in Hebrew) of Adenyahu, a son of King David mentioned in the biblical Book of Kings.

As has been true with previous archaeological discoveries in Israel, however, this one is unlikely to put a dent in the long-term international campaign to delegitimize the Jewish state by rewriting and distorting its history, even by renaming the Jewish sites Rachel's Tomb near Bethlehem to "Bilal ibn Rabah mosque" (it was never a mosque) and Hebron's Tomb of the Patriarchs the Ibrahimi Mosque.

This international campaign of delegitimization, moreover, far predates the establishment of the modern Jewish state.

The ancient Romans tried to strip the area of it Jewish identity to make it more Roman by renaming Judea "Syria Palaestina."

Later, Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan, the fifth caliph of the Umayyad dynasty of Syria -- who ruled during the late 7th century -- employed the tactic of delegitimizing both Judaism and Christianity by constructing the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, atop the biblical spot where Abraham was prepared to sacrifice his son, Isaac -- also the site of the twice-destroyed Jewish Temples. The famous Western Wall, a retaining structure of the Temple Mount, is all that remains of their existence.

In contemporary times, a version of this tactic of revisionist history was attempted by the late PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, who -- during the US-brokered Palestinian-Israeli peace talks at Camp David in 2000 -- tried to assert that the first and second Jewish temples were not erected in Jerusalem, but rather miles away in Nablus.

That episode followed a staggering report, three years earlier, by the Palestinian Ministry of Information, according to which no archaeological excavations in Jerusalem had supposedly ever unearthed Jewish artifacts.

(Continue to Full Post)

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How Hamas Leaders Continue Fooling Palestinians - by Bassam Tawil

The problem... is when your father is a senior terrorist leader who devotes himself to inciting against Israel and Jews and encouraging other young Palestinians to sacrifice their lives in the war against Israel. Hamad, like the rest of the Hamas leaders, would never send his own son to attack soldiers at the border with Israel.

Bassam Tawil..
Gatestone Institute..
25 September '19..

The leaders of Hamas, the Palestinian terror group ruling the Gaza Strip since 2007, seem to have hearts of stone regarding the suffering of the people living under their regime.

These leaders have no problem sending Palestinians to risk their lives near the border with Israel, while they and their families enjoy a comfortable life. More than 250 Palestinians have been killed and thousands injured in clashes with the Israel Defense Forces since the beginning of the Hamas-sponsored weekly protests near the Gaza-Israel border in March 2018.

While the protests are continuing and more Palestinians continue to put their lives at risk at the behest of the Hamas leadership, the terror group's senior officials are busy throwing lavish parties for their family members and upgrading their personal treasuries. It is as if the Hamas leaders were telling their people: Sacrifice yourself for the cause of destroying Israel and killing Jews so that we and our families can continue to live it up.

The latest example of this exploitation of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip surfaced in the form of a video of the birthday celebration of 20-year-old Mohammed, son of senior Hamas official Ghazi Hamad.

(Continue to Full Post)

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

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How do Israelis Near Gaza Cope With the Gaza Rocket Threat? - by Tracy Alexander

So, who are the people living on Israel’s most active military front; where ordinary life goes hand in hand with conditions unimaginable to those in the West? How do these residents contend with the reality of witnessing the carnage of the ongoing conflict up close?

Tracy Alexander..
Honest Reporting..
24 September '19..

Walking through the streets of any southern Israeli neighborhood, the untrained eye could be led to believe that life there is no different to any other city or community in the country. In fact, one might need to be alerted to the pieces of infrastructure unique to a region which, for almost two decades, has endured the threat of rockets being fired from Gaza, compelling residents to run for cover.

In Kibbutz Alumim, less than three kilometers from the coastal enclave, Israel’s well-known air defense system, the Iron Dome, can be seen sitting up on a hill pointing towards the sky, in full view, as residents mosey through their neighborhood.

Meantime, underground, Israel’s military is building a defensive wall against Hamas attack tunnels.

Life in the Sha’ar HaNegev region is anything but ordinary.

A thin barbed wire fence is all that blocks the view from Israel into Gaza, where now a thick cloud of smoke is all but permanent since those Great March of Return protests began in 2016.

One could mistakenly believe an Israeli child had neglected their kite in the garden, looking at it laying torn and deteriorating in a family’s back yard. In reality, this is the remnant of an arson device flown over the border fence into Israeli territory from Gaza.

While the first Palestinian rocket was fired from Gaza in 2001, the launches have increased after Israel withdrew from the Strip in 2005.

Since the disengagement, more than 13,000 rockets and mortars have been fired at Israel.

In the most intense barrage, Palestinians fired more than 600 rockets in one weekend in May 2019.

So, who are the people living on Israel’s most active military front; where ordinary life goes hand in hand with conditions unimaginable to those in the West?

How do these residents contend with the reality of witnessing the carnage of the ongoing conflict up close?

(Continue to Full Post)

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

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Joint Arab List’s not so ‘historic’ recommendation of Gantz on its way to history’s dust bin - by Alex Trainman

The announcement is neither historic, influential, or practical. The 10 Arab Knesset members who went ahead and recommended Gantz over Netanyahu have no intention of joining a coalition led by either candidate.

Alex Traiman..
JNS.org..
23 September '19..

Israeli and international media have been making a lead story out of the Joint Arab List’s recommendation of Benny Gantz for prime minister, calling the recommendation “historic.” In regard to Israel’s current election deadlock, the announcement isn’t historic, influential or practical. And while the recommendation is important on some levels, it is so for reasons other than coalition-building.

For weeks leading up to Israel’s elections and in the days since, media have been counting Arab parties within the left-wing bloc led by the Blue and White Party’s Gantz. The purpose of this addition was to give Israelis the perception that Gantz’s bloc could establish a majority coalition government.

Since recommending Yitzhak Rabin the early 1990s to help promote the now-failed Oslo Accords, which were meant to facilitate the creation of a Palestinian state on lands which Israel liberated from Jordan and Egypt in 1967, Arab parties have not recommended any candidate to Israel’s president to become prime minister following an election.

The Arab parties made it perfectly clear why they were recommending Gantz: because they want to push out Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. For 10 years, Netanyahu has been a beacon of strength and has emerged at the very front of the global fight against radical Islam. Under his watch, the Jewish state has transformed into a regional military and economic superpower, as neighboring Gulf nations have seen oil revenues plummet and other Mideast States have descended into complete chaos.

Until proven otherwise, Gantz has yet to earn the respect of Israel’s allies, let alone its enemies. Furthermore, in both the April and September election campaigns, Netanyahu has singled out the Arab parties for anti-Zionist values.

With Netanyahu now fighting for his political career, the Arab parties now are hoping they can be the straw that breaks the camel’s back and help usher out the prime minister’s decade-long tenure.

(Continue to Full Column)

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If these photos enrage you, you just may be an antisemite - by Elder of Ziyon

The Arab articles about "storming settlers" invariably mention that they are protected by a group of armed Israeli police. Now, why is that?

Elder of Ziyon..
20 September '19..

Ma'an, the independent Palestinian news agency, published an article saying that "448 settlers stormed the courtyard of the Al-Aqsa Mosque" in the past week.

In English, this means that 448 Jews visited the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism. This week there were more Jewish visitors than usual because election day is a holiday in Israel.

Ma'an goes on: "Hundreds of settlers, accompanied by Jewish rabbis, stormed the courtyards of Al-Aqsa and performed Talmudic rituals, with security protection from the occupation forces."

In case that doesn't anger the Arab audience of the article enough, they published a photo of these storming settlers.

(Continue to Full Post)

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

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Question. Do Palestinian Leaders Want a Better Life for Their People? - by Khaled Abu Toameh

In this longstanding and deadly game, Palestinian leaders use their people as sacrificial pawns for the sake of prolonging the conflict with Israel and forcing the international community, including the UN, to go on funding millions of refugees – apparently, forever.

Khaled Abu Toameh..
Gatestone Institute..
20 September '19..

Are the Lebanese seeking to get rid of the Palestinians living in Lebanon? Many Palestinians seem to think that the Arab country they have been living in for decades has plans to throw them out.

Palestinian factions, meanwhile, are working in precisely the opposite direction, trying to stop the Palestinians from leaving their refugee camps. The factions want the refugees to continue living in misery and poverty so that they can continue to use them as pawns in the conflict with Israel.

They are hoping that the continued presence of refugee camps will keep the issue of the refugees at the center of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

In recent weeks, many Palestinians have been flocking the embassies of several Western countries in Lebanon asking to be granted asylum for humanitarian reasons.

In an unprecedented move, hundreds of Palestinians last month staged a sit-in strike outside the Canadian Embassy in Beirut. The protesters demanded that the Canadian authorities allow mass emigration of Palestinians to Canada.

The protest coincided with an online campaign launched by Palestinians in Lebanon to demand that Western countries grant them asylum for humanitarian reasons.

The campaign is being held under the title "Emigration is not Treason" -- a reference to allegations (by some Palestinians) that those who are seeking to resettle in Western states are betraying their people and relinquishing their alleged "right of return" for refugees and their descendants to their former homes in Israel.

"Yes to emigration to any country where we Palestinians can live in dignity, and thanks to our brothers in Lebanon for hosting us," wrote Hussam, one of the Palestinians behind the campaign.

The Palestinians have been joined by some Lebanese citizens who say they, too, want to emigrate to Western countries.

Ahmed Fawwal, one of the organizers of the protest outside the Canadian Embassy, said that similar demonstrations will be held in the coming days in front of the Australian and German embassies in the Lebanese capital. The father of six, who works as a cab driver, said that young people were seeking to emigrate from Lebanon because they are being denied basic rights.

(Continue to Full Post)

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

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The Independent’s Clueless Staff Editorial on Israeli Elections - by Simon Plosker

The Independent’s editors evidently need a lesson in politics, history and geography when it comes to Israel if this clueless staff editorial is anything to go by.

Simon Plosker..
Honest Reporting..
19 September '19..

The disdain shown towards Israel by The Independent is obvious. While there is clearly a visceral and nasty attitude, the paper’s staff editorial (paywall) on the Israeli elections also demonstrates an embarrassing level of ignorance.

Referring to Blue and White party leader Benny Gantz, The Independent says that he

is making some brave noises about constructing a “national unity” government, comprising his own movement and a variety of smaller left-wing groups, and possibly with the tacit support of Israeli Arab parties.

Oh dear. It doesn’t take a politics degree to understand that a national unity government by definition is one that comprises of parties from both sides of the aisle joining together. Blue and White is considered to be part of the center-left bloc of Israeli parties. That means that any coalition government comprising it along with smaller left-wing parties would be a center-left coalition, not a national unity government.

Amidst all of the complicated political machinations currently taking place right now in Israel, a national unity government, if it were to come about, would be based on Blue and White with Likud.

National suicide – a liberal value

The Independent continues:

Although the liberal and pluralistic credentials of the Blue and White Party can be overstated – it remains opposed to the Palestinian right of return and supports Jerusalem as the undivided national capital – a Gantz premiership would at least mark a fresh start for Israel.

In fact, no mainstream Zionist political parties from left to right support the Palestinian right of return. This includes the Labor party and even the staunchly left-wing Democratic Union (formerly Meretz).

The right of return effectively means the destruction of Israel as a Jewish state. Is The Independent seriously suggesting that Israel is not liberal or pluralistic because it rejects a policy that would bring about its own destruction?

At least we now know that The Independent believes national suicide is a liberal value.

(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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Anyone surprised? Stopping foreign interference in Israel’s elections - by Douglas Altabef

The left’s hypocrisy regarding foreign interference in elections aside, such interference is both dangerous and illegal.

Douglas Altabef..
JNS.org..
18 September '19..

The 2016 U.S. presidential election was inflamed by, among other issues, accusations that Russia had interfered with the electoral process in the hope of getting Donald Trump elected.

The outraged claim was that elections were an internal matter and that foreign interference was a threat to American sovereignty, not to mention the integrity of a sacrosanct aspect of citizenship, namely the right to vote. Most of the outcry came from the left; the sense was that whatever interference might have taken place was meant to hurt Hillary Clinton.

But this partisan anger was nevertheless couched in righteous indignation concerning the need to maintain national elections as just that—national, and free of foreign interference.

In Israel, the issue of foreign interference has been proven, not just alleged. In 2015, the V15 organization spent significant funds, including some $350,000 that came indirectly from the U.S. State Department, in a failed effort to unseat Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. V15 was found to have connections with the Obama administration, and all of its funding was American.

So blatant was this attempt that in 2017, legislation, widely known as the V15 Law, was passed by the Knesset to prevent foreign and foreign-funded non-political party actors from interfering in Israel’s elections.

Well, as they say in show biz, “feet gotta dance.” The left couldn’t care less about the law, let alone the principles behind it. All that matters to the left is that they get their way.

(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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Fugitive Jordanian Bomber: With Jordan's King Abdullah II visiting the United States again, things worth knowing - by Arnold Roth

Jordan has never refused to extradite until the Tamimi case. Indeed it has extradited a string of Jordanian terrorists who are now imprisoned in the US. So what makes Tamimi different? We think it's that she is the first Jordanian whose extradition was requested by the US and who confesses openly to have specifically targeted Jews in the attack. Jewish children, to be more exact about it.

Arnold/Frimet Roth..
This Ongoing War..
18 September '19..

This week, as he has done for several years, Jordan's absolute ruler is in New York, ostensibly to attend and to speak at the annual opening session of the UN General Assembly.

It is possible he will be officially received in the US halls of power again as he has on his many previous visits. Given the context, this is surprising - even bizarre.

We are the parents of Malki Roth whose confessed killer, a Jordanian woman called Ahlam Tamimi, lives free as a bird under the explicit protection of the Jordanian government. This despite her having facing US Federal terrorism charges and being on the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorist list. She is a Jordanian celebrity - not despite the bombing she masterminded in Jerusalem that was intended to kill as many Jewish children as possible but because of it.

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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 elections that determined the future of the conflict - by Jonathan S. Tobin

Israeli voters won’t determine whether peace is possible. That happened when Abbas succeeded Arafat and subsequently refused to hold another vote.

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

On the eve of the second Israeli election of 2019, there is no shortage of apocalyptic rhetoric about the potential consequences of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s re-election. From The New York Times editorial column to the Forward’s opinion pages, we’re once again hearing the same stale rhetoric about how another Likud-led government will mark the decline and fall of Israeli democracy, the end of the Israel-Diaspora relationship, torpedo U.S. support for the Jewish state and cause the final collapse of any hope for peace with the Palestinians. That last point of view was best articulated by Washington Post editorial-page editor Jackson Diehl, who, like many liberal pundits, believes that Netanyahu’s promise to apply Israeli law to West Bank settlements and to hold onto the Jordan Valley forever ensures that peace will never be possible with the Palestinians.

Let’s leave aside the likelihood that Netanyahu statements are just campaign rhetoric that won’t be turned into action. Israeli law already applies to the settlements, and annexation, even of the Area C territory where Jewish communities are located, is still unlikely. As for the Jordan Valley, Netanyahu’s chief rival—the Blue and White Party’s Benny Gantz—has said that his position on the issue is no different than that of the prime minister. What most Americans—Jewish and non-Jewish alike—still fail to understand is the broad consensus among Israelis on security issues and the peace process. That consensus holds that the Palestinians have no real interest in peace, and that in the absence of a peace partner, the kind of territorial concessions Israel’s liberal friends demand it make wouldn’t be so much unwise as insane.

That’s why all the talk about Israel’s latest election deciding the future of the peace process isn’t just wrong, but ignores the fact that this question was actually determined in an election held 14 years ago, as well as in one that didn’t happen four years later.

By that I refer to the vote that took place on Jan. 9, 2005 when Mahmoud Abbas was elected president of the Palestinian Authority, succeeding Yasser Arafat.

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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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“Disneyfication”? NY Times’ Jerusalem Cable Car and the Architecture of Bias - by Simon Plosker

Ultimately, this story is typical of the New York Times: what is at its core a scheme to improve access to historical tourism sites in a city with significant transport challenges is instead critiqued not on grounds of architecture, design or effectiveness but on political grounds. The cable car may not be to everyone’s taste and is certainly contentious but the New York Times and Michael Kimmelman have created a framework where Israel’s plans are sinister and malevolent; designed specifically to maintain an “occupation” of its own capital city and to promote the Judaization of Jerusalem.

Simon Plosker..
Honest Reporting..
15 September '19..

The New York Times architecture critic Michael Kimmelman accuses Israel of carrying out the “Disneyfication” of Jerusalem in reference to a planned cable car network connecting the Old City. The article, however, is less “Disneyfication” and more politicization on the part of the writer.

The scene is set in the opening paragraph:

The skyline is still dominated by the city’s great Muslim and Christian shrines: the gold, glistening Dome of the Rock and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, where Jesus was said to have been buried.

For it is these sites that Kimmelman evidently sees as the legitimate religious identity of Jerusalem at the expense of its Jewish sites. Kimmelman is clearly an architect rather than an historian for in his second paragraph, he inaccurately describes the Western Wall as “the holiest site in the Jewish world.”

In fact, while the Western Wall is the holiest site that Jews are allowed to pray, the Temple Mount, the site of two ancient Jewish temples is, in fact, Judaism’s holiest site. The New York Times itself has previously corrected this error, prompted by HonestReporting.

Kimmelman is perfectly entitled to critique the Israeli cable car plan on the grounds of architecture and design. Indeed, one of the critics he interviews is Moshe Safdie, the architect responsible for many Israeli building projects including within Jerusalem. But Kimmelman goes further:

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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 critics who deny Jerusalem’s past and its future - by Jonathan S. Tobin

A plan for cable cars to take worshippers to the Old City is debatable, but calling it a nefarious Israeli plan to ‘Judaize’ the capital reveals the motivations of some critics.

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

Its critics have accused Israel of a lot of terrible things over the course of its 71 years of existence, but The New York Times has now added one more to the list that will particularly resonate with intellectuals. While Israeli policies in Jerusalem since its reunification in 1967 have often been blasted, a recently approved proposal to deal with the city’s seemingly insoluble traffic problems is being put down as “Disneyfication.”

The accusation that Jews are trashing the holy city and turning it into a theme park was the focus of a feature published this week by the Times. The cable-car scheme is fair game for criticism from architects and others who worry about the potential aesthetic damage to the ancient capital. But the subtext of the campaign against the initiative goes far deeper than whether or not it will make Jerusalem look like a Swiss ski resort or even Disneyworld. For Times architecture critic Michael Kimmelman and many of the Israel-bashers he quotes in his piece, the real story is about how Israel is seeking to emphasize Jerusalem’s Jewish history.

The object of their scorn is a cable car that will start its journey at the First Station cultural complex in western Jerusalem and then travel over the Hinnom Valley to a stop at Mount Zion before landing in the City of David archeological park in eastern Jerusalem. There, visitors and worshippers will be able to tour the historic excavations at the site and walk to the Western Wall via recently excavated underground passageways that were taken by pilgrims on their way to the Second Temple 2,000 years ago. If planners have their way, this line will be the first of many that will crisscross the city in the future, delivering people to destinations that would otherwise require them to navigate jammed streets.

The project is a solution to a problem that is readily apparent to anyone who visits Jerusalem—and other ancient cities, for that matter, that were not built for modern-day concerns.

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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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Surprise? Large majority of Palestinians say the conflict should continue even AFTER they get a state - by Elder of Ziyon

Here we have actual evidence that a two-state solution is not a solution at all. Rather, Palestinians themselves say that it should bring more terror and attacks.

Elder of Ziyon..
12 September '19..

The Washington Institute for Near East Policy keeps slowly releasing the results of a poll of Palestinian opinion from July. We looked at some earlier results, and the new releases are just as awful.

Mostly consistent across generations... was rejection of permanent peace with Israel. Asked if a two-state solution should be “the end of conflict with Israel,” just 34% of young West Bank respondents answered yes; the proportion was even lower among older residents (25%).

In Gaza, overall opinions on this and many related issues were somewhat more moderate, but the generational difference was reversed there: 38% of young Gazan respondents said that a two-state solution should end the conflict, while 46% of their elders agreed with that ideal.

Averaging these numbers out, the number of Palestinians who want to keep the conflict going even after they get a state outnumbers those who disagree by a 2-1 margin.

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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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Actually, Palestinians are tired of being the only refugees denied the right to resettlement - by Evelyn Gordon

It’s time for the world to choose: Either admit that the Palestinians aren’t actually refugees or finally start treating them as real refugees by granting them the basic right of resettlement.

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

Hundreds of Palestinian refugees demonstrated outside the Canadian Embassy in Beirut on Sept. 5 to request asylum in Canada or the European Union, the second such protest in the last month. The most surprising aspect of these demonstrations is that they have been so long in coming. Only now, after more than 70 years, are Palestinians publicly protesting the fact that they alone, of all the world’s refugees, are denied the most basic of refugee rights—the right to seek resettlement in a safe third country.

All other refugees worldwide are handled by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, which resettles tens of thousands of refugees in third countries every year. But Palestinian refugees aren’t allowed to apply to UNHCR; they are handled by the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, an agency created exclusively for them. And UNRWA hasn’t resettled a single refugee in its 70 years of existence.

The only option it offers the refugees and their descendants is eternal limbo: awaiting a “return” to Israel that will never happen. Thus it’s unsurprising that the protesters also assailed UNRWA for depriving them of “their most basic rights.”

Moreover, this refusal to grant Palestinians a right of resettlement enjoys the full support of so-called human-rights organizations and self-proclaimed advocates of human rights like the European Union. Thus it’s equally unsurprising that groups like Amnesty and Human Rights Watch completely ignored the demonstration.

Of course, one could legitimately argue (as I frequently have) that most Palestinians simply aren’t genuine refugees. Granted, those who demonstrated in Lebanon face discrimination due to their nationality: Not only are they denied citizenship, but as the Associated Press noted, they have “no access to public services, limited employment opportunities and no rights to ownership.”

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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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