When local pro-Israel groups respond quickly, the anti-semitic “Deadly Exchange” campaign can be defeated - by Miriam Elman

In Rhode Island, the small but active RI Coalition for Israel immediately responded to the Jewish Voice for Peace pressure campaign, and the Rhode Island State Police (as well as Boston Police) did not cancel their Israel trips.

Miriam Elman..
legalinsurrection.com..
09 December '18..

Anti-Israel activists thrive in darkness. On campuses and municipalities, they spend months and sometimes years planning attacks on Israel that are often unveiled only at the last second, leaving Israel advocates scrambling.

That is unfolding with a vile antisemitic campaign called “Deadly Exchange,” which seeks to blame Israel and American Jewish groups for domestic U.S. problems in the policing of minority communities. Run by the misleadingly named Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), Deadly Exchange seeks to exploit pre-existing domestic racial tensions to stoke antisemitism in order to turn minority communities against Israel.

JVP achieved it’s first success for “Deadly Exchange” this past spring in Durham, NC and no one saw it coming until it was too late. Now the Vermont State Police and the Northampton, MA police department have pulled out of a scheduled ten-day police training seminar in Israel sponsored by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).

The ADL has been funding this exchange program for high-ranking U.S. state police and federal law enforcement officials for nearly two decades. The current program, ADL’s New England Leadership Seminar in Israel: Resiliency and Counter-Terrorism, began on December 2nd and will conclude this week on December 11th.

It’s reportedly the first time in the history of the program that political pressure led police officials to withdraw after they had initially signed up to attend.

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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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Again, Gaza terror smuggling not newsworthy for the BBC - by Hadar Sela

...The BBC – which is of course committed to helping its funding public understand “the world around them” – has so far ignored this story, thereby passing up yet another opportunity to help its audiences understand why Israel’s counter-terrorism measures are necessary – even as it continues to focus their attentions on the “appalling human rights situation inside Gaza”.

Hadar Sela..
BBC Watch..
23 November '17..

Earlier this month BBC One viewers heard Andrew Marr portray Israeli counter-terrorism measures along the border with the Gaza Strip as follows during an interview with the Israeli prime minister:

Marr: “Now what is also clear, however, is that your policy for Gaza is not working: the policy of having a kind of cordon around Gaza, restricting what can come in and out – a kind of blockade of Gaza – has actually increased the power of Hamas in Gaza and mobilised the population behind Gaza because of the appalling human rights situation inside Gaza. This policy is simply not working.”

As has been noted here on many occasions, the BBC’s portrayal of that topic is usually at best superficial and at worst misleading and politically motivated. In the past audiences have seen or heard restrictions on the movement of people and very specific materials in and out of the Gaza Strip inaccurately described as “collective punishment” or a “siege”.

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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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When the Cost of European Arrogance is Lives - by Daniel Pomerantz

...Consider that over 20% of Israel’s population is Arab, as are all of its neighboring countries, and the conclusion is obvious: for all its challenges, Israel understands how to live with Muslim neighbors and how to protect against Islamic terror. Europe, on the other hand, does not. Yet if the speakers at the ICT conference are any indication, European leaders have yet to face and accept this hard truth. And the people of Europe are paying for this mistake with their lives.

Daniel Pomerantz..
Honest Reporting..
17 September '17..

Last week I attended the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism conference in connection with Israel’s Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya (the “IDC Herzliya”).

Speakers and attendees included military, diplomats and experts from every region of the world. All echoed one similar theme: do not underestimate Islamic State (ISIS), nor its likely replacements.

(Full disclosure, in addition to my work at HonestReporting I am also an adjunct faculty member and lecturer at the IDC. HonestReporting France’s Walter Ben Artzi is a student at the IDC, as is HR intern Veronika Becvarova who contributed to this article.)

Islamic State is not the “JV Team”

Former president Barak Obama once referred to terror groups in Syria and Iraq (including Islamic State) as the “JV team,” a sports metaphor indicating that he did not feel they pose a serious threat. American Presidents including Obama and Trump as well as various pundits have referred to Islamic State as being well on its way to defeat, pointing in particular to loss of territory.

Most experts at the ICT conference disagreed.

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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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A Smug But Deadly EU Blind Spot on Israel - by Evelyn Gordon

...But European officials, entrenched in their smug belief that anti-Israel terror has nothing to do with the terror they face, are incapable of acknowledging that Israel’s experience might be relevant. And therefore, people died who might still be alive had the lessons of Palestinian terror against Israel been learned.

Evelyn Gordon..
Commentary Magazine..
20 July '16..
Link: https://www.commentarymagazine.com/terrorism/terror-deadly-eu-blind-spot-on-israel/

Following last week’s terror attack in Nice, a Belgian Jewish organization issued a highly unusual statement charging that, had European media not spent months “ignoring” Palestinian terror against Israel out of “political correctness,” the idea of a truck being used as a weapon wouldn’t have come as such a shock. But it now turns out that European officials did something much worse than merely ignoring Palestinian attacks: They issued a 39-page report, signed by almost every EU country, blaming these attacks on “the occupation” rather than the terrorists. The obvious corollary was that European countries had no reason to fear similar attacks and, therefore, they didn’t bother taking precautions that could have greatly reduced the casualties.

The most shocking part of the Nice attack was how high those casualties were: The truck driver managed to kill 84 people before he was stopped. By comparison, as the New York Times reported on Monday, Israel has suffered at least 32 car-ramming attacks since last October, yet all these attacks combined have killed exactly two people (shootings and stabbings are much deadlier). Granted, most involved private cars, but even attacks using buses or heavy construction vehicles never approached the scale of Nice’s casualties. The deadliest ramming attack in Israel’s history, in 2001, killed eight.

Firstly, this is because Israel deploys massive security for mass gatherings like Nice’s Bastille Day celebrations, forcing Palestinian assailants to make do with less densely-populated targets, like bus stops or light rail stops, which greatly lowers the death toll. As an Israeli police spokesman told the New York Times, an Israeli event comparable to the one in Nice would entail “a 360-degree enclosure of the area, with layers of security around the perimeter,” including major roads “blocked off with rows of buses, and smaller side streets with patrol cars,” plus a massive police presence reinforced by counterterrorism units “strategically placed to provide a rapid response, if needed.”

Secondly, Israeli security personnel have no qualms about using deadly force against terrorists in mid-rampage if less lethal means would take longer to succeed because they understand that the best way to save innocent lives is to stop the attack as quickly as possible. This lesson was driven home by a 2008 attack in which a Palestinian plowed a heavy construction vehicle into a crowded Jerusalem street. A policewoman tried to stop him without killing him; she wounded him and then climbed into the cab to handcuff him. But while she was trying to cuff him, he managed to restart the vehicle and kill another person before he was shot dead.

Doron Zahavi, Fighter for Israel

...Whoever is recruited to 504 has agreed to put his or her life in danger. And while they have been exposed to stabbing and betrayal, not a single one of them serving in this distinguished unit have been trained what to do when they're being stabbed in the back by their own countrymen.

Dr. Reuven Berko..
Israel Hayom..
06 January '14..

Doron Zahavi, from the Israel Defense Force's elite 504 intelligence unit, is a hero, but he was abandoned on the front lines. Bypassing the deleterious campaign against him, this is my attempt to clear his name.

Because of his special abilities, the state sent Zahavi to mix with our bitterest enemies, acting as an agent in their midst. He and others like him spent years of their lives in interrogation rooms trying to extract critical, life-saving information from terrorists. He joined missions penetrating deep into enemy territory to capture conniving terrorists.

Whoever is recruited to 504 has agreed to put his or her life in danger. And while they have been exposed to stabbing and betrayal, not a single one of them serving in this distinguished unit have been trained what to do when they're being stabbed in the back by their own countrymen.

The enemy doesn't rule out using any missile or means. Senior Hezbollah official Mustafa Dirani chose to kill one of our finest sons with a baseball bat. The situation is absurd: One of the most senior officers in a terrorist organization, who dreamed to kill Israeli citizens and was involved in air force navigator Ron Arad's imprisonment, is demanding compensation from Israel because, according to him, he was humiliated, threatened with rape and other indecent acts (which included, among other things, baseball-bat abuse).

When I saw footage of Dirani's interrogation in the media, I was unpleasantly surprised by its shallowness. Dirani -- a veteran of the Hezbollah system that rapes women and children in Lebanon and Syria, ties the tormented bodies of its enemies to the backs of cars and drags them through the streets, denails and electrocutes its prisoners -- must have giggled to himself at the offensive "sexual" acts being done to him while he was dressed in his underwear.

I am proud to admit that in the past I was also a fighter like Zahavi. I can also recite the lofty ethical code guiding his actions; I know the officers involved in his line of work. Because of this, I can empathize with Zahavi's public battle to clear his name. As a professional experienced in motivational theory, I have asked myself more than once: Why do certain individuals here have the perverse desire to inflict damage on our country, both inside Israel and internationally? Without thinking, as someone who recruited and ran agents, I can occasionally pick out the journalists denigrating our country, the type attacking Zahavi and his actions today, with the perfect mix of personality traits and motivation that had they been among our enemies back in the day would have made great agents. Such personalities are multifaceted, comprising a mixture of perceived deprivation, an inferiority complex and self-hatred, a sort of "know it all," undeserved air of superiority and the belief that their betrayal is justified and that their countrymen, in their stupidity, simply cannot understand it.

Israel Excluded Again from Counterterror Summit?

Rick Richman..
Commentary/Contentions..
06 December '12..

Michael Rubin’s incisive post on the apparent exclusion of Israel from another meeting of the Global Counterterrorism Forum (GCTF) identifies a significant effect of U.S. acquiescence in the exclusion: an implicit U.S. endorsement of the drive to delegitimize Israel, by signaling that even on the issue of counterterrorism (on which Israel has obvious knowledge and expertise); even in the case of a prominent international forum on that subject (co-founded and co-chaired by the United States); and even though the U.S. has repeatedly announced its “commitment” to the inclusion of Israel, the U.S. will continue to permit Israel’s exclusion.

There is another unfortunate effect, highlighted by the way the issue was treated at yesterday’s State Department press conference, where the deputy spokesman announced that Secretary Clinton would participate in the December 14 ministerial meeting of the GCTF. The following colloquy occurred:

Freezing Israel Out of Counter-terror Conferences

Michael Widlanski..
The Algemeiner..
15 July '12..

Top security experts in Israel are worried about the Obama Administration’s attitude to radical Muslim governments in the region and by Obama’s willingness to freeze Israel out of two recent high-level counter-terror conferences.

Israel broke the back of Arab suicide terror attacks in 2002, reducing them to near zero, but the US did not invite Israel to a counter-terror conference in Turkey last month, nor to a similar parley in Madrid last week, apparently to placate the Islamist government of Turkey, which has itself supported the Hamas terror group in Gaza.

The US was so concerned about offending Turkey, it seems, that Under-Secretary of State Maria Otero, one of the top State Department officials, specifically did not mention Israel among the countries that have been victims to terror attacks.

“Israel has been one of the key counterterrorism allies of the United States for 30 years,” observed Dr. Dore Gold, Israel’s former ambassador to the United Nations in an interview with The Algemeiner.

“Its absence from an American-sponsored counter-terror conference raises questions that need to be answered,” said Dr. Gold, an expert on the Persian Gulf region who was born and educated in the US.

Gordon - Israel Continues to Thwart Terror Attacks from PA-Controlled West Bank

Evelyn Gordon..
www.jinsa.org..
12 June '12..



On May 10, the official Israel Defense Forces blog posted an article titled "The 2012 Terror Attacks Against Israel You Never Heard About." The title is somewhat misleading, since in fact, none of these attacks actually took place: They were thwarted by the IDF's unsung but daily counterterrorism operations in the West Bank.

While one or two items on the list seem questionable, most could undoubtedly have been deadly attacks. There are no innocent reasons for carting bombs around.

On April 11, for instance, soldiers caught a Palestinian at a checkpoint near Nablus "carrying improvised explosive devices, three knives and 50 bullets." On April 21, two Palestinian teens were caught near Tapuach Junction with five pipe bombs, a gun and ammunition. On April 24, soldiers found four improvised bombs in the bags of two Palestinians crossing a checkpoint near Jericho. On April 28, two Palestinians were caught trying to smuggle four pipe bombs through yet another West Bank checkpoint. On May 7, soldiers caught a Palestinian teen with three pipe bombs near Tapuach Junction. On May 10, two other Palestinians were caught near Tapuach Junction "carrying 2 explosive devices and 3 prepped firebombs."

It's not surprising that this activity goes largely unreported; soldiers doing their job shouldn't be unusual enough to be newsworthy. But this low profile could become a real security hazard for Israel in light of Egypt's presidential elections, whose final round is scheduled for mid-June.

Fresnozionism - Hillary Clinton snubs Israel, apologizes for US counterterrorism

Fresnozionism.org..
10 June '12..






News item:

The United States blocked Israel’s participation in the Global Counterterrorism Forum’s (GCTF) first meeting in Istanbul on Friday, despite Israel’s having one of the most extensive counterterrorism experiences in the world.

Israel was excluded from the meeting due to fierce objections by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a Washington-based source told Globes news…

Twenty-nine countries are participating in the GCTF, ten of which are Arab and/or Muslim countries.

The GCTF was created (and is undoubtedly mostly funded by) the US. According to the State Department,

The U.S. proposed the creation of the GCTF to address the evolving terrorist threat in a way that would bring enduring benefits by helping frontline countries and affected regions acquire the means to deal with threats they face. It is based on a recognition that the U.S. alone cannot eliminate every terrorist or terrorist organization. Rather, the international community must come together to assist countries as they work to confront the terrorist threat.

Given that the most ‘frontline’ country facing terrorist threats is Israel, which has been subjected to terrorism on an almost daily basis since its birth, one would expect that Israel would be among the founding members of the GCTF.

Nope. Israel was not included among the membership, and as we see from the above, is not even permitted to attend its meetings as a non-member.

Rubin - Obama’s New Anti-Terrorist Group - Israel Left Out

Islamist and Pro-Terrorist Turkish Regime Annointed as Co-Leader

Barry Rubin
Rubin Reports
pajamasmedia.com
14 September '11

http://pajamasmedia.com/barryrubin/2011/09/14/obama%E2%80%99s-new-anti-terrorist-group-islamist-and-pro-terrorist-turkish-regime-annointed-as-co-leader-israel-left-out/

Every time I strongly criticize the Obama Administration’s foreign policy, there are those who think calling this president’s policy incredibly disastrous is an exaggeration. Within a few hours, however, this government proves my criticism to be accurate by still another astonishingly damaging, wrong-headed action . Here is the latest example.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has announced the establishment of a new Global Counterterrorism Forum (GCTF). According to the statement, this initiative is the main activity in the administration’s effort to organize a framework for the international counterterrorism effort. In other words, it is very important.

But when I read the announcement, I can’t help but think: there goes another several hundred million dollars. Is this group actually going to do something that cannot be done by existing organizations? Is the best way to fight terrorism to create new bureaucracies with office space, high-paid staff, international travel, more useless documents, and expensive conferences?

The statement explains the purpose of this new organization:

“To address the evolving terrorist threat…by helping frontline countries and affected regions acquire the means to deal with threats they face. It is based on a recognition that the U.S. alone cannot eliminate every terrorist or terrorist organization. Rather, the international community must come together to assist countries as they work to confront the terrorist threat.”

The language is, of course, that of Obama Administration multilateralism. Yet what is the motive of a country to help eliminate terrorists? Self-interest because those countries or their interests are being attacked by those groups. And when do they not do so? When they support the terrorists’ aims. Thus, Turkey, Egypt, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, and Pakistan are not going to be allies in the battle against Hamas, Hizballah, and radical Islamist groups generally. Will more American-sponsored training increase Pakistan’s effectiveness when corruption and political policy makes its military protect, even help, al-Qaida?

Ettinger - Preemption, not retaliation

Yoram Ettinger
Israel Hayom
22 August '11

http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=375


The recent surge in Palestinian terrorism forces Israel to revisit the fundamentals of counter-terrorism.

For example, the most effective defense against terrorism – operationally, financially and morally – is not retaliation and a limited, surgical offensive, but a comprehensive, decisive, sustained, disproportionate and preemptive ground offensive, which aims to obliterate terror infrastructures and capabilities, bringing the enemy to submission. A decisive defeat of terrorism requires a victory over – and not coexistence or ceasefire agreements with – terrorism. We need to uproot – not just stop – terrorism.

Any response to terrorism that falls short of devastating the ideological, political, financial, logistic and operational terrorist infrastructures only serves to reassure terrorists that they are immune to annihilation. Moreover, it nurtures their hope-driven terrorism. They hope to destroy Israel’s defiance, wreck Israel’s steadfastness, and sustain the momentum of sweeping Israeli ideological and territorial retreats between the years 1993-2011.

Furthermore, a limited response to terrorism exacerbates wars of attrition – the terrorists' dream and the nightmare of democratic societies. The limited-retaliation response to terrorism adds fuel to the fire of terrorism, feeding the self-defeating assumption that there is no military solution to terrorism, thus eroding Israel’s deterrence.

Contrary to that self-defeating assumption, Palestinian terrorism was curtailed by 90 percent when, in 2002, Israel's military took over the Palestinian breeding grounds of terrorism in Beit Jallah, Bethlehem, Hebron, Ramallah, Jenin, Nablus and other major towns in Judea and Samaria. Israeli military re-engagement with these areas – rather than the security fence or wall – reasserted Israel's steadfastness in the battle against Palestinian terrorism.

The more defensive and retaliation-driven the Israeli response to terrorism, the more emboldened Palestinian terrorists become, and the less confidence Israelis have in their government’s ability to safeguard personal and national security. As a result, the country's mental fatigue becomes more taxing, and Israelis become less convinced of their cause.

The addiction to a defensive posture and limited response has been embraced by Israel since the signing of the 1993 Oslo Accord, in an effort to resuscitate the “peace” process, which has triggered far more hate-education, terrorism and non-compliance than the pre-Oslo reality. Two-hundred and fifty Israelis were murdered by Palestinian terrorism in the 15 years prior to Oslo, but over 2,000 have been murdered in the 18 years since.

Limited response has also been implemented in order to soothe international public opinion - which is never satisfied with Israeli concessions - thus recklessly subordinating national security to public diplomacy considerations. Sometimes it yields a false sense of security and enhances short-term tactical popularity. However, limited response always undermines long-term strategic interests and international respect towards Israel, unleashing more pressure on Israel, radicalizing Palestinian terrorism and distancing the region from peace.

Will Israel’s response to the current wave of Palestinian terrorism perpetuate the terrorist-preferred war of attrition? Or will it be a milestone on the road to reclaiming the pre-Oslo Israeli status as a role-model of deterrence, defiance of the odds, determination and gumption in the battle against terrorism, which paved the road to the 1948 Declaration of Independence, the 1967 Six Day War, the 1970 deterrence of the Syrian invasion of Jordan, the 1976 Entebbe Operation and the 1981 bombing of Saddam’s nuclear reactor?

Rather than retreating toward the pre-1967 ceasefire lines, Israel should take charge of the breeding ground of terrorism, which would enhance Israel's power of deterrence, human-intelligence and interception capabilities. It would reduce the Palestinian ability to conduct hate-education, to incite, to recruit, train, manufacture and smuggle terrorist and military hardware, to plan, maneuver and perpetrate terrorist activities. It would reduce Palestinian terrorism by 90%!

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Terrorists Beware, Israel Fights Terror Worldwide! Israel Straight Talk

Avi Abelow
Israel Straight Talk
IST #48
12 April '11



Recently a Hamas operative was kidnapped in the Ukraine and some terrorists were killed in the desert of Sudan. The Terrorist supporting countries blame Israel for these incidents. Israel has officially acknowledged the kidnapping in the Ukraine but not of the incident in Sudan. Regardless, terrorists should be afraid of Israel no matter where they are around the world. We are proud of Israel for hunting down terrorists wherever they are.



Share this video to support Israel in its fight against global jihad terrorism. Visit us on http://www.facebook.com/israelstraighttalk and let us know what you think. All comments and questions are welcome.

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West Bank Shows There Is a Military Solution to Terror

Evelyn Gordon
Contentions/Commentary
14 December '10

The “expert” report Max cited yesterday, which declared Afghanistan unwinnable even while acknowledging progress in the war, reflects a broader problem: the claim that “there is no military solution to terror” has become virtually unchallenged dogma among Western intelligentsia. Yet as Israel’s experience in the West Bank shows, terrorist organizations can be defeated — if their opponents are willing to invest the requisite time and resources.

In March 2002, Israel was at the height of a terrorist war begun in 2000 that ultimately claimed more victims — mainly civilians — than all the terror of the preceding 53 years combined. Every day saw multiple attacks, and a day without fatalities was rare. But then Israel launched a multi-year military campaign that steadily reduced Israeli fatalities from a peak of 450 in 2002 to 13 in 2007.

Last month, Haaretz published two other statistics reflecting this success: the number of wanted terrorists in the West Bank, once in the hundreds, is now almost zero. And Israeli troop levels in the West Bank are lower than they have been since the first intifada began in 1987.

(Read full "West Bank Shows There Is a Military Solution to Terror")

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Note for Israel-PA Talks: It Wasn't The Luck of the Irish But Effective Counter-Terrorism That Brought Peace

Barry Rubin
The Rubin Report
30 August '10

As direct Israeli-Palestinian direct talks restart it is useful to recall the use and misuse of an analogy to the case of Northern Ireland.

In October 2001, British Foreign Minister Jack Straw visited Washington and held a press conference with his U.S. counterpart, Secretary of State Colin Powell. Powell bubbled over about how the Irish agreement supposedly showed:

"An example of what can be achieved when people of good will come together, recognize they have strong differences, differences that they have fought over for years, but it's time to put those differences aside in order to move forward and to provide a better life for the children of Northern Ireland."

This is the sort of naive optimism (let's all just get along, peace is the natural order of things, everybody is really moderate at heart) that Americans so often evince. As the great French intellectual Raymond Aron once explained, "The Americans always have the tendency to believe that wars result from misunderstanding or accidents and suppose that no one could possibly want a war."

In this case, though, Straw dumped cold water on Powell's world view." What he said is worth quoting fully:

(Read full post)

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