“Hebrew Year Abroad”? Bashing opportunities to study Hebrew in Israel - by Ethan Dayan

A university that succumbs to the pressure of students making a claim based on a proven lie to serve a greater motive is not a stable one.

Ethan Dayan..
JNS.org..
01 September '20..

This month it was revealed that the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) moved its “Hebrew Year Abroad” scheme from Hebrew University in Jerusalem to Haifa University. The University of West London has also severed ties with Hebrew U and is yet to announce a replacement Hebrew program. If British universities continue to contribute to this wave of capitulation to anti-Israel activism, students may not have the opportunity to learn Hebrew abroad at all.

Many observers blame a recent open letter signed by more than 100 Students’ Union Officers that condemned all 11 universities in the United Kingdom partnered with Hebrew U. The letter claimed that its Mount Scopus campus trespassed Israel’s 1949 Armistice line with Jordan and was therefore “participating in the illegal occupation of East Jerusalem.” However, the European Union embassy in Israel has affirmed that the campus is in “Israel proper,” and consequently, “not located on occupied territory.”

SOAS’s divorce from Hebrew U following this letter was met with robust backlash from pro-Israel organizations such as Israel Academia Monitor, the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the Pinsker Centre, which reported on the decision before the official announcement. They suggested that the timidity of the Academic Board and the Hebrew professors reporting to it were responsible.

Anti-Israel activists remain conflicted about the outcome. Although Yara Derbas, a member of the pro-BDS campaign group “Apartheid Off-Campus” focused on the territorial issue specific to Hebrew U, another article from the same group framed Haifa as a lateral move. They claim that “both institutions are equally complicit in Israel’s occupation. … The fight must continue until SOAS is no longer affiliated with any complicit universities.” They used the guise of international law to intimidate the university into a separation yet only succeeded in moving the chessboard. It will be harder for them to do the same with Haifa.

In summary, the open letter was based on factually invalid premises attached to controversial international legal theories. The authors admit their objection is inconsequential to their goals because any other Israeli university is considered equally guilty of colonial occupation. They likely knew that such a sentiment would be regarded as too extreme to be effective. Judging by the result, their math checked out.

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Question. Is It Only in Israel Where Human Rights Activists Fight Against Human Rights? - by Sheri Oz

...Close to two million people of all religions, from Israel and around the world, visit the Cave of the Patriarchs each year. There is no other site like it in the world that is not accessible! This situation is a disgrace. And it is a serious infraction of human rights.

Sheri Oz..
Israel Diaries..
21 August '20..

I wonder if it is only in Israel or concerning Israel that we find human rights activists fighting human rights. And our government does not seem to know how to deal with it. In this case, we have a supposed human rights organization fighting the human rights of the disabled, the elderly and young children to pray in the Cave of the Patriarchs; currently the prayer halls are totally inaccessible to them. In fact, Moti Ohayon and others have been seriously injured from falls while being carried up the steps in his wheelchair when all they wanted to do was pray at the site of the graves of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Sarah, Rebecca, and Leah, and even, it is believed, at the burial places of Adam and Eve.

The committee responsible for overseeing the project to build an accessibility elevator is dillydallying and not convening to deal with the delay. And this is after all the documents were signed by the Prime Minister, Minister of Defence and Finance Minister.

What a disappointment to all who saw their ability to safely pray at the holy site just over the horizon!

Background to the Elevator Project

In an article published in November 2019, I wrote:

The request to make the site accessible to all was first submitted in 2003 by the Hebron Jewish Community Committee to the military authority. This was followed by repeated attempts by a number of organizations to raise awareness of the dire need for an elevator. When no action was taken, supposedly because of security issues and concerns of changing the status quo between the Jewish and Palestinian populations in the city, Btzalmo took up the mantle and, for the last few years, [campaigned] tirelessly by writing letters to those with the power to carry out the project and by ensuring that the media keep the topic alive.

The Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee is responsible for the project. At their meeting in July 2019, committee members agreed that this was a humanitarian project of utmost importance. It was also clear that the elevator was required in order to be in compliance with international law stating that all public buildings must be accessible. Repeated requests for coordination with the Hebron municipality, which was given authority over building permits as per the 1997 Hebron Agreement signed by Netanyahu and Arafat, were ignored. (Israel had offered to make the Muslim entrance accessible at the same time as they were working on the Jewish entrance.) At the committee meeting, members wondered aloud how long they would wait for the Hebron mayor to respond before deciding to proceed without his involvement. It was hoped that the prayer halls would be accessible by Passover 2020.

Finally, in February 2020, all the documents approving the project were signed by the requisite ministers — the Prime Minister, the Defence Minister and the Finance Minister. After years of attempting to coordinate the accessibility project together with the Hebron municipality and being ignored, the only way to move forward was for Israel to expropriate the land required to build the elevator (about 4-10 square meters) and a path from the parking area up to the base of the site (about 150 meters long).

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Surprise? Another Anti-Israel Lie Pushed by Palestinian Activist - by Dexter Van Zile

The result is that the entire premise of the article — which accuses the United States of denying human rights activists access to satellite images they can use to document alleged Israeli misdeeds against the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza — is destroyed. They’ve had access to the images since 2012.

Dexter Van Zile..
Algemeiner..
06 August '20..

When people say or write things, they should try to avoid contradicting themselves on a factual or logical basis. This is the essence of the “Liar’s Paradox.”

This lesson was lost on the folks at Foreign Policy (FP), who published a piece by Palestinian activist Zena Agha titled “Israel Can’t Hide Evidence of Its Occupation Anymore.” The piece, which appeared on FP’s website on August 3, 2020, contradicts itself in a pretty obvious way.

The gist of the article is that a US law passed by Congress in 1996 has made it impossible for human rights activists to get high-definition satellite images of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, making them unable to document Israeli actions in those areas.

The article then reports breathlessly that this law was recently amended, giving human rights activists the information they need to document the evil acts against the Palestinians.

But when read closely, the article (a) reveals that the law only applied to US companies, and that (b) high-definition images of Israel and the Gaza Strip and West Bank have been available on the global market for most of the past decade, rendering the law in question meaningless.

The result is that the entire premise of the article — which accuses the United States of denying human rights activists access to satellite images they can use to document alleged Israeli misdeeds against the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza — is destroyed.

They’ve had access to the images since 2012.

Here’s the background:

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Beinart’s further step in the international demonization of the Jewish State - by Karen Bekker

To put it another way, either you think that Jews can live safely and peacefully as a minority in a Palestinian-majority state, or you think they can’t. If they can, then settlements have not precluded a two-state solution with a contiguous Palestinian state in most of the West Bank. If they can’t, then creating a Palestinian-majority state in all the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea won’t fix that.

Karen Bekker..
JNS.org..
28 July '20..

Last December, in an article on CAMERA’s website, I asked whether Peter Beinart was advocating for a one-state solution to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. If so, I argued, he should state this clearly, rather than obfuscating, and he should also be honest about what such a state has the potential to look like.

Earlier this month, he did one of those two things; that is, he came out against the continued existence of Israel as a Jewish state in widely discussed essays in The New York Times and in the recently relaunched Jewish Currents, as well as in a segment on CNN. Instead, he argued, Israel should become a bi-national state, “Israel-Palestine.”

Despite an extremely negative response from the Jewish community, The New York Times again gave him its considerable platform to allow him to continue to promote his plan for dissolution of the Jewish State in a podcast last Thursday.

As my CAMERA colleague, Gilead Ini, has explained at length, Beinart’s long essay fails spectacularly in the honesty department, and treats Arab violence against Jews–not just since the State of Israel was reborn in 1948, but beforehand, as well–with extreme callousness. Shalem College Fellow Daniel Gordis, too, writes that Beinart is “so manipulative of his own readership.”

Beyond those points and others made in the many commentaries on Beinart’s proposal, however, is an overlooked yet massive logical flaw in his argument: Beinart’s underlying premise negates his own conclusion.

(Continue to Full Column)

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Anyone surprised that J Street is attempting to desecrate Tisha B’Av? by Stephen M. Flatow

It may be hard to believe that any self-described Jewish organization could so viciously distort the meaning of a sacred Jewish day. But J Street has never met a Jewish religious commemoration that it hasn’t turned into a propaganda weapon for slamming Israel.

Stephen M. Flatow..
JNS.org..
Tisha B'Av '20..

If you thought Tisha B’Av was about the destruction of the holy temples and two Jewish states in ancient times, think again. According to J Street, the real meaning of the day is that the Israeli government is oppressing the Palestinian Arabs and will thereby cause the destruction of the Jewish state in our own times.

It may be hard to believe that any self-described Jewish organization could so viciously distort the meaning of a sacred Jewish day. But J Street has never met a Jewish religious commemoration that it hasn’t turned into a propaganda weapon for slamming Israel.

On Passover, J Street complained about the “plagues” for which it blames Israel, such as “the plague of home destruction.” According to J Street’s “Haggadah,” if the Israeli army undertakes a court-sanctioned dismantling of a home used by terrorists, then it is to blame for “encouraging retaliatory terrorist attacks.”

On Rosh Hashanah, when Jews engage in cheshbon hanefesh—the “accounting of the soul,” meaning spiritual introspection and self-assessment—J Street announced that everyone should “engage in cheshbon hanefesh” over Israel’s “demolition of Palestinian villages.”

Israel, of course, does not demolish Palestinian villages. J Street was referring to instances in which handfuls of illegal Arab settlers squat on Israeli land, call themselves a “village” and then accuse Israel of “demolishing” them when the police dare to enforce the law. But as far as J Street is concerned, if facts get in the way of the narrative, well, just push them aside.

Considering the way J Street has mangled the meaning of other sacred days on the Jewish calendar, maybe I shouldn’t be surprised at J Street’s crude exploitation of Tisha B’Av. But that doesn’t make it any more acceptable.

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Stephen M. Flatow is a vice president of the Religious Zionists of America, an attorney in New Jersey and the father of Alisa Flatow, who was murdered in an Iranian-sponsored Palestinian terrorist attack in 1995. His book, “A Father’s Story: My Fight for Justice Against Iranian Terror,” is now available on Kindle.

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 dishonest attempt to end Israel. And then write the book - by Liat Collins

Beinart’s idea of Judaism is based on a cult-like belief in “Tikkun Olam,” mending the world. But breaking Israel won’t mend anything. Beinart is not making an honest attempt to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict but a dishonest attempt to end Israel. And then write the book.

Liat Collins..
My Word/JPost..
16 July '20..
Link: https://www.jpost.com/opinion/my-word-beyond-beinarts-states-of-the-mind-635344

Peter Beinart is back with a vengeance – and an idea. Beinart, who periodically provokes a publicity storm, must be pleased with the response to his latest articles. People are talking about him again. In an opinion piece last week with the headline “I No Longer Believe in a Jewish State,” published in The New York Times (of course), Beinart wrote: “Now liberal Zionists must make our decision... It’s time to abandon the traditional two-state solution and embrace the goal of equal rights for Jews and Palestinians. It’s time to imagine a Jewish home that is not a Jewish state.” The op-ed was a shorter version of an essay for Jewish Currents.

Beinart is the sort of progressive who hopes to be ahead of his time – changing the discourse and applying pressure in the age of bullying political correctness to try to change facts on the ground.

The articles and subsequent interviews show that Beinart looks to the South African model for inspiration. This has the double effect of falsely equating Israel with the apartheid regime, always satisfying for anti-Zionist liberals, and making the point that with enough pressure through the Boycott, Sanctions and Divestment movement, Israel will agree to give up and disappear.

The essay in Jewish Currents had the title: “Yavne: A Jewish Case for Equality in Israel-Palestine.” From this, we’re meant to believe that Beinart not only knows modern Israeli history to a fault, but is also an expert on its ancient past.

“When Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai asked the Roman Emperor to give him Yavne, he was acknowledging that a phase of Jewish history had run its course,” writes Beinart. “It was time for Jews to imagine a different path. That time has come again. Imagine a country in which, at sundown on the 27th of Nissan, the beginning of Yom HaShoah – Holocaust Remembrance Day – Jewish and Palestinian co-presidents lower a flag in Warsaw Ghetto Square at Yad Vashem as an imam delivers the Islamic du‘a’ for the dead. Imagine those same leaders, on the 15th of May, gathering at a restored cemetery in the village of Deir Yassin, the site of a future Museum of the Nakba, which commemorates the roughly 750,000 Palestinians who fled or were expelled during Israel’s founding, as a rabbi recites El Malei Rachamim, our prayer for the dead.

“That’s what Yavne can mean in our time. It’s time to build it.”

You can almost hear John Lennon’s “Imagine” playing in the background.

It’s easier to deconstruct Beinart’s thinking than build his Utopia – at least, it is for those of us who live here, in the Jewish state he wants to erase.

Question. Should the Jewish community provide a ‘safe space’ for anti-Zionists? Jonathan S. Tobin

A community that wishes to have a future must understand that Israel provides the bedrock upon which Jewish civilization will rest. Those who wish to destroy that foundation deserve no “safe space.”

Jonathan S. Tobin..
JNS.org..
15 July '20..

A prominent Jewish writer used the bully pulpit of The New York Times op-ed section last week to call for the elimination of the Jewish state. At the same time, an assistant rabbi at one of the nation’s largest and most prestigious synagogues took to Twitter to vent his anger at those who say the Jews are “indigenous” to the land of Israel.

Both Peter Beinart and Rabbi Andrue Kahn received some furious feedback. The debates about Beinart’s conversion to anti-Zionism and Kahn’s absurd doctrinaire woke linguistics was not without value, as it brought out into the open just how prevalent the dangerous ideas they are promoting. It also shone a light on the way such radicalism is not only undermining traditional liberal Jewish support for Israel, but also working its way into the mainstream.

Beinart and those who rallied behind Rabbi Andy’s dubious cause believe that anyone who stands up for Zionism and Israel isn’t only wrong, but represents the past, while the anti-Zionists are the Jewish future. As a result, they believe that it is incumbent on the Jewish community not only to listen to the kids who they think are cheering Beinart and Kahn, but to provide them with a “safe space” where they can be protected from the scorn being meted out to anti-Zionists from those who write in defense of Israel, Zionism and Jewish rights.

Kahn’s belief that Jews couldn’t be called “indigenous” was so outrageous that his boss, Temple Emanu-El Senior Rabbi Bruce Davidson, felt constrained to write a letter to the Forward newspaper disassociating the synagogue from his position. Davidson rightly noted that such a stance lends weight to those who wish to deny Jewish rights and history. That, in turn, provoked a response from hundreds of prominent liberal Jews who signed a letter of support of Kahn.

The question is: Are they right to assert that the woke left is the future of American Jewry?

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Surprise? Israel’s Critics Want to Destroy It — Not Improve It - by Adam Levick

Whereas Israeli leaders must reject annexation and continually work to keep the two-state solution alive, less they forfeit their very right to exist, nothing whatsoever is asked of Palestinian leaders. They aren’t asked to create, as Zionists leaders did in the decades before 1948, the apparatuses of statehood — healthy proto-state political and civil institutions that would inspire faith that Palestine won’t become a failed state.

Adam Levick..
Algemeiner..
15 July '20..

Guardian journalist Jonathan Freedland begins his recent Jewish Chronicle op-ed, “What next, if the two state dream is dead?” thusly:

Though annexation itself seems to be up in the air, one of annexation’s expected consequences is already materializing: a crisis of faith among those whose Zionist belief in the legitimacy of a Jewish state depended on there being at least the possibility of an eventual two-state solution, but who now see that prospect vanish before their eyes.

Freedland’s op-ed was addressing a recent 7,000 word piece by Peter Beinart calling for Jews to embrace a one-state, non-Zionist future, published at Jewish Currents — a shorter version of which was published by The New York Times.

You can read CAMERA’s response to Beinart’s call for the end of a Jewish state here, but Freedland’s framing of the crisis is interesting, as it — correctly — casts the (former) Zionism of Beinart and his allies as contingent upon a particular political outcome with the Palestinians. This contingent Zionism suggests that the very legitimacy of Israel is not, as with all other countries, to quote Abba Eban, “axiomatic and unreserved” — but is permanently “suspended in mid-air” awaiting others’ moral approval.

Contingent Zionism negates and erases the fact that Israel is, by any objective measure, a dynamic, successful, and democratic state; and demands, as the condition for political and moral international legitimacy, that it facilitate the creation of a Palestinian state. Conversely, this political calculus appears to conclude that no moral demands should be made of Palestinians for them to be granted the right to statehood and legitimacy.

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Peter Beinart's intellectual journey towards anti-Zionism and self-immolation - by David M. Weinberg

The progressive Pope, Peter Beinart, seeks to denude the Jewish state of its rightful place among the nations. Alas, he seems to have decayed into a cocoon; inside a reactionary, defeatist brain that secretes poison. In this venal endeavor Beinart will fail.

David M. Weinberg..
A Citadel Defending Zion..
10 July '20..
Link: https://davidmweinberg.com/2020/07/10/the-beinart-betrayal/

The Pope of “liberal Zionism,” American Jewish journalist Peter Beinart, has ditched the Jewish state. “It is time for liberal Zionists to abandon the goal of Jewish-Palestinian separation and embrace the goal of Jewish-Palestinian equality” in one unitary state, he wrote in a caustic 7,000-word essay and New York Times op-ed article this week.

For Beinart, the Jewish state is a “cancer,” a “dehumanization (of Palestinians) masquerading as realism.” “The price of a Jewish state that favors Jews over Palestinians,” he rules, “is too high.” And “the notion of a state for Palestinians separated from a state for Jews, has failed.” Ergo, “it’s time to envision a Jewish home that is a Palestinian home, too.” In other words, disassemble the Jewish state and replace it with a binational state.

He blames “Jewish trauma” from the Holocaust for the “unfortunate Zionist obsession” with Jewish statehood. He alleges that “Jews have retroactively projected Nazism’s exterminationist program” onto the peace-seeking and civil rights-seeking Palestinians. He lauds Joint List leader Ayman Odeh’s call for “liberation of both peoples” in a binational state, and decrees that “only Palestinian freedom can make Jews whole.”

For anybody who has followed Beinart’s denouement from a proponent of “prophetic Zionism” (which is a concocted progressive concept) to a shill for Israel’s enemies, this does not come as a surprise. Nonetheless, it is sad and revolting. It tells us something frightening about the intellectual journey towards anti-Zionism and self-immolation that is underway on the American Jewish left.

Beinart’s degeneration tracks back to an infamous 2010 essay on “The Crisis of Zionism,” which ridiculously blamed right-wing Israel for disaffiliation among young American Jews, and which advocated a “Zionist BDS” – a boycott of settlement goods.

The book-length version of the same rant was launched at a J Street conference in 2012, where Beinart urged the Obama administration to bash Israel because of its “morally repugnant” settlement policies and its “unlawful and unjustified” assertion of sovereignty over united Jerusalem.

Later that year, he shimmied over to the dark side by declaring Hamas the victim of backwards-looking Western policy. Inverting cause and effect, Beinart asserted that Hamas was obstructionist and violent only because it had not been fairly and properly “engaged.” Poor Hamas, you see, never had been given an “incentive” to abide by a ceasefire, he wrote. Beinart’s insane solution was to undercut Mahmoud Abbas, and “incentivize” and empower Hamas in the West Bank.

Dear Latest Woker - Jews aren’t indigenous to Israel? According to whom? - by Jonathan S. Tobin

A woke rabbi who launched a Twitter war over the meaning of a word demonstrated how leftist politics pollutes language and cancels Jewish rights.

Jonathan S. Tobin..
JNS.org..
09 July '20..

There are a lot of things wrong with woke culture. While the impulse to demonstrate solidarity with the oppressed and opposition to bad things like racism is, in principle, praiseworthy, the virtue signaling is insufferable. As is the tone of self-righteous disapproval emanating from the woke towards all those that don’t measure up to their standards.

As a friend’s daughter eloquently summed up the problem, no matter how hard you try, “there’s always a woker fish” who will wind up shaming you for insufficient ardor for supposedly righteous causes. That means the competition to out virtue signal and shame lesser beings can lead even seemingly nice people to do and say things that are not only obnoxious, but actually have dangerous implications.

And that is the problem with Rabbi Andrue J. Kahn, assistant rabbi at New York’s famed Temple Emanu-El, the landmark Reform cathedral on Fifth Avenue. “Rabbi Andy,” as he styles himself on social media, seems like a well-meaning young man and posts lots of cute pictures on Instagram. And although he’s just one out of a staff of five rabbis (plus two with emeritus status) at that historic institution, he’s generally regarded as a comer in the world of liberal Judaism. So when he decided to rant on Twitter about something, it provoked a controversy that made news.

As his Twitter account demonstrates, Rabbi Andy is up to date as far as supporting things that woke rabbis should support, like abortion rights, Native American rights, why Black Lives Matter and smearing President Donald Trump’s supporters as anti-Semites. He also knows what to oppose, including America’s Founding Fathers, the Zionist Organization of America and, significantly, a letter signed by famous writers and artists against “cancel culture” and the repression of free speech that it encourages.

In other words, Rabbi Andy, like so many other well-meaning young liberal Jews, is just fine with cancel culture. Indeed, he’s ready to cancel the entire Jewish people, and by implication, Zionism and Israel, to demonstrate his impatience with the non-woke.

As part of his sermonizing about the wrongs of white supremacy and its companion evil, “white Jewishness,” the rabbi is particularly upset with the notion that the Jews are “indigenous” to Israel.

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Understanding Beinart, Understanding the Collapse of Liberal Zionism - by Jonathan S. Tobin

The retreat of the defeated to Yavne is an image that has nothing to say to Israelis. Rather, it is an apt metaphor for the failures of an American Jewish organized world drenched in ignorance and Jewish illiteracy that is suffering both a demographic implosion and a crisis of faith. The surrender of the self-described leading exponent of liberal Zionism speaks volumes about the failures of American Jewry.

Jonathan S. Tobin..
JNS.org..
08 July '20..

There’s a reason why most Israelis find it difficult to listen patiently to lectures from liberal American Jews. For Israelis, their country is a real place filled with real people and perplexing dilemmas that have no easy solutions. But for all too many American Jews, Israel is a dreamland—a place for intellectual tourism where we can project our own insecurities and anxieties on the Jewish state while expressing our moral superiority over the lesser beings who live there and lack our wisdom.

Which brings us to the problem of Peter Beinart.

Beinart, the former editor of The New Republic and columnist for The Atlantic, sought to carve out a place for himself as the leading liberal critic of Israel with his 2012 book The Crisis of Zionism. The book was as spectacularly ignorant as it was arrogant in its refusal to acknowledge the reality of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.

The conceit of the work was that Israelis needed to rise above their fears and recognize that a two-state solution was within easy reach. Anything that contradicted his assumptions—like the nature of Palestinian political culture or the continued rejectionism and obsession with the fantasy of Israel’s destruction—was either rationalized or ignored. Too immersed in their unseemly quest for security and profit, Israelis could only overcome the “crisis” of the title by listening to the wisdom of Beinart, a righteous American pilgrim, whose manifest good intentions should have generated respect and deference from his recalcitrant Israeli pupils.

Much to Beinart’s chagrin, rather than take the advice of a leading American public intellectual to heart, Israelis ignored it. In the eight years since then, Israel has endured more violence and political controversy while the Palestinians have continued to reject peace, whether along the lines laid out by President Barack Obama (whose alleged bona fides as a friend of the Jewish people was discussed at length in his book) or the less generous terms offered by President Donald Trump.

(Continue to Full Column)

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If you are a believer in Israeli democracy, then stop trying to override it - by Jonathan S. Tobin

Those Americans who claim to care about Israel are entitled to their opinions about its policies, but they have no business declaring that they are defending democracy by essentially seeking to invalidate it. Israel has many problems, and there are valid criticisms to be made of its new government. However, the only real threat to Israeli democracy comes from those who are falsely claiming to be its defenders.

Jonathan S. Tobin..
JNS.org..
04 May '20..

Israel’s critics talk a lot about threats to its democracy. When they use this phrase, they are generally referring to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his supporters, who are widely damned in the international media as would-be authoritarians with no respect for the rule of law.

Netanyahu bears his fair share of the blame for his country’s problems. But if there’s a real foe of democracy in the Jewish state, it isn’t him. It’s his opponents who want an out-of-control judiciary and foreign powers to override the verdict of Israel’s voters.

That became plain again this week when left-wing opponents of Netanyahu asked Israel’s High Court of Justice to invalidate the coalition government he forged with erstwhile rival Blue and White Party leader Benny Gantz. The petitioners say the court should intervene in the process and declare that a person who is currently under indictment on criminal charges—as is the case with Netanyahu—should be ruled ineligible to be prime minister.

Irrespective of whether or not it would have been wise for Netanyahu to resign when he was indicted or his right to be considered innocent until proven guilty, there was no law in the books that compelled him to do so. Indeed, according to Israeli law, he can remain in office while being tried and even convicted until his last appeal has been denied.

Let’s hope it never comes to that. However, as the dialogue between the judges for the lawyers for both the plaintiffs and the opponents of the petition illustrated on the first day of arguments, there is no legal foundation for the court to declare that the will of a majority of the Knesset—the Netanyahu-Gantz coalition will command the support of more than 70 members of the 120-person parliament—is to be not only ignored, but suppressed in the name of an undefined notion of good government with no basis in law.

Chief Justice Esther Hayut made this clear when she demanded that the lawyers who were asking the court to declare that Netanyahu could not serve as prime minister to give her a good reason to do so:

“Show us something! A law? A verdict? From this country’s [history]? From [somewhere else] in the world? Something! After all, [you’re asking us to set] a global precedent? You want us to rule without a basis simply according to your personal opinion?”

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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.  

As Palestinian leaders continue to rob from their own people. … - by Yoni Michane

Anti-Israel activists may wish to continue to live in an alternate universe, but in doing so, they are simultaneously imposing a double-standard on the Jewish state while perpetuating Palestinian suffering.

Yoni Michane..
JNS.org..
29 April '20..

A former employee of Amnesty International, Hind Khoudary, has been denounced for getting a Gaza peace activist arrested by Hamas authorities. The reason? Journalist Rami Aman, of the Gaza Youth Committee, held a virtual meeting with his Israeli counterparts over Zoom, which has become increasingly popular around the world as a means of maintaining social ties during the coronavirus pandemic.

Organized by Israeli peace activists, the Zoom conference was titled and presented as “Meet Gazan Activists.” The event description detailed the expectations of the conference call: “Finally, an opportunity to speak with Gazans who not only do not hate us but are working tirelessly to open channel of communication between Gazans and Israelis.” Khoudary, who identified herself on social media as an international research consultant for Amnesty International, denounced Aman in a Facebook post, now removed, and tagged three Hamas officials. Aman was arrested on April 9 has not been heard from since then.

Hamas’s Interior Ministry spokesman Eyad al-Bozom explained after the arrest: “Holding any activity or any contact with the Israeli occupation under any cover is a crime punishable by law and is treason to our people and their sacrifices.” Hamas’s brutality is, at least, consistent with its 1988 Charter, which proclaims under, Article 6:

“The Islamic Resistance Movement is a distinct Palestinian Movement which owes its loyalty to Allah, derives from Islam its way of life and strives to raise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine.”

Anti-Israel activists may wish to continue to live in an alternate universe, where Israel’s terrestrial and naval blockades are the culprits for the lack of civil liberties that Palestinians in the Gaza Strip experience. But in doing so, they are simultaneously imposing a double-standard on the Jewish state while perpetuating Palestinian suffering in Gaza.

(Continue to Full Column)

Yoni Michanie, a former paratrooper in the Israel Defense Forces, holds a master’s degree in diplomacy and international security from IDC Herzliya. He is an Israel advocate, public speaker, Middle East analyst, and a campus advisor and strategic planner at CAMERA.

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. 

When peace activists essentially hijacked the nation’s day of mourning - by Jonathan S. Tobin

We should mourn all victims of senseless violence, be they Jews, Arabs or any other people. But we should be wary of efforts to establish a false analogy between those who died to save Jewish lives and those whose purpose was to spill Jewish blood.

Jonathan S. Tobin..
JNS.org..
28 April '20..

Outside of Israel, it was the alternative ceremony that got the most coverage. The official commemoration of Yom Hazikaron—the country’s Memorial Day that occurs the day before celebrating the Jewish state’s Independence Day—began with a one-minute siren that sounded throughout the country and continued at the Western Wall, where President Reuven Rivlin and Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi led a small ceremony that, due to the coronavirus pandemic, had no audience.

Most Israelis, all too many of whom have lost a loved one or friend who was killed during the country’s wars or as a result of terrorism, will deal with the pain of this day of remembrance each in their own way though they will not be able to go to cemeteries, which are closed this year because of the ongoing lockdown.

But outside of Israel, most of the attention was neither on official efforts to remember the fallen nor the private grief of the families. Instead, much of the press was reporting about the efforts of peace activists to essentially hijack the nation’s day of mourning and turn it into a day devoted to promoting coexistence and mutual recognition of the suffering of both Israelis and Palestinians.

This “Joint Memorial Day” event, which was started in 2006 by Israeli parents of fallen soldiers, is organized by two groups with both Israeli and Palestinian members: Combatants for Peace and Parents Circle Families Forum. But this year, it received an outpouring of support from American Jewish groups, including the Reform movement’s Union of Reform Judaism, J Street, the New Israel Fund, Peace Now, as well as the openly anti-Zionist IfNotNow and Churches for Middle East Peace, an interfaith Christian group that is also deeply hostile to the Jewish state.

(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.   

(Excellent) Investigation: How Anti-Israel Activists Are Hijacking The Coronavirus Crisis And Turning It Against Israel - by Samantha Mandeles

Anti-Israel activists routinely hijack causes, events, and crises unrelated to Israel, and that phenomenon is playing out again with the coronavirus pandemic, providing the ‘usual suspects’ with yet another issue to exploit.

Samantha Mandeles..
Legal Insurrection..
09 April '20..

We have written a lot about how anti-Israel activists routinely hijack causes, events, and crises unrelated to Israel, using “intersectional” theory to turn those issues against the Jewish state.

That phenomenon is playing out again with the coronavirus pandemic, providing the ‘usual suspects’ with yet another issue to exploit.

The figures and groups who have hijacked this crisis, as detailed below, include: self-identified “Jewish” anti-Israel organizations such as Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and IfNotNow (INN); so-called human rights watchdog organizations such as Human Rights Watch (HRW) and B’tselem; deeply anti-Zionist blogs such as Mondoweiss and Electronic Intifada; multiple chapters and student leaders from Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP); domestic Islamist groups such as American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) and the Al-Awda Right of Return Coalition; Islamist leaders such as Abbas Hamideh and Linda Sarsour; conspiracy-peddling ‘academics’ such as Asad Abukhalil and Steven Salaita; and gullible enablers such as “journalist” Ben Norton and CodePink co-director Ariel Gold.

(Continue to Full Report)

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 broken clock is right twice a day, but J Street? Virus, shmirus; let’s focus on the Palestinians! - by Stephen M. Flatow

Talk about tone-deaf! Completely oblivious to the suffering of American citizens, J Street’s top priority is to give American money to two of the most vicious America-hating regimes in the world.

Stephen M. Flatow..
JNS.org..
07 April '20..

The whole world is changing—but not for J Street, which, virus or no virus, is still devoting itself to persuading members of U.S. Congress to embrace the Palestinian cause.

Over the past several weeks, J Street was mobilizing its supporters around the country to urge them to “demand the administration release vital assistance to help the Palestinians combat the coronavirus pandemic.”

Think about that. In the midst of an epidemic that has left U.S. hospitals desperately short of emergency equipment and has resulted in millions of Americans losing their jobs, J Street is trying to convince the government to give millions of taxpayers’ dollars to two anti-American terrorist regimes: the Palestinian Authority and Hamas.

Talk about tone-deaf! Completely oblivious to the suffering of American citizens, J Street’s top priority is to give American money to two of the most vicious America-hating regimes in the world.

It’s not just a matter of priorities. It’s not just that most Americans don’t want their money going to anti-American regimes. It’s also a matter of funding terrorists.

(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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Clearly there is a right to vote, but not to dismantle the state - by Jonathan S. Tobin

In comparing Arab doctors to Joint List Knesset members, Israel’s critics are exploiting the coronavirus pandemic to promote the lie that Zionism is racism.

Jonathan S. Tobin..
JNS.org..
17 March '20..

It seems like a devastating argument. If Israeli Jews are willing to accept life-saving treatment from Arab doctors, why won’t they give their representatives in the Knesset a seat in the country’s government?

That’s the point The New York Times’ Jerusalem bureau chief David Halbfinger made last week both on Twitter and in an article that made the same point. It’s been echoed elsewhere in features in the Israeli press.

But the premise is false. The idea that objections to giving anti-Zionist Arab parties a role in the government of Israel is racist is more than a cheap shot aimed at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his supporters. The attempt to use the coronavirus pandemic as a way of chipping away at the legitimacy of a Jewish state demonstrates that Israel’s critics consider the catastrophic spread of a deadly disease as merely just another opportunity to take pot shots at Zionism.

It’s important to separate two arguments being made here. One is about the yearlong standoff between Netanyahu and his political opponents as the two sides continue to battle over who will lead the country’s next government, and whether the votes of Knesset members who support Israel’s enemies should be the deciding factor. The other is a more fundamental question about whether Israel can be both a state devoted to protecting the national rights of the Jewish people while granting equal rights to non-Jewish citizens.

Of course, Jews gratefully accept treatment from Arab doctors and nurses working in the country’s hospitals. Arabs—both those who are citizens of Israel and residents of the territories—also accept the care they got from the far larger number of Jewish doctors and nurses that work in the same medical facilities. It should also be pointed out that even the families of hostile Palestinian terror groups based in Gaza or the West Bank have been admitted to Israeli hospitals, where they are treated with the same scrupulous devotion that any Jew gets.

So when Dr. Ahmad Tibi, a physician who also serves as a Knesset member of the Joint Arab List, which won 15 seats in the Knesset earlier this month, claims that Jews who would accept his services as a doctor, but don’t want him deciding who will be prime minister, are racists and hypocrites, he isn’t being honest.

(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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If You Will It, It Is No Dream…But Only On Our Terms - by Dr. Asaf Romirowsky

The necessity of a Jewish nation state was a foundational premise for the founding fathers of Zionism, no matter what their political persuasion. That understanding was once shared by most American Jews, particularly in the aftermath of the Holocaust. Today, however, the idea of Jewish statehood is no longer a unifying principle but a wedge issue for American Jews.

Peter Beinart speaking at Temple De Hirsch Sinai,
Seattle, Washington

Dr. Asaf Romirowsky..
BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 1,445..
10 February '20..
Link: https://besacenter.org/perspectives-papers/jewish-statehood-american-jews/

In his address to the Zionist Congress in London on August 2, 1900, Theodor Herzl said:

Zionism demands a publicly recognized and legally secured home in Palestine for the Jewish people. This platform, which we drew up three years ago, is unchangeable. It must have responded to a very deep necessity, a very old longing of our people, otherwise its effects would be inexplicable. There is no need of my enumerating these effects at the present day. Everyone knows them, everyone sees and hears them. Four years ago in speaking of a Jewish nation one ran the risk of being thought ridiculous. Today he makes himself ridiculous who denies the existence of a Jewish nation. A glance at this hall, where our people is represented by delegates from all over the world, suffices to prove this.

The Zionist enterprise has evolved over the past 120 years but has always been predicated on the reestablishment of Jewish statehood in the ancestral homeland. The collective memory of Jewish statelessness and powerless was vivid during the early decades of the Jewish State. Left, right or center, the founding fathers of Zionism were all motivated by the imperative of Jewish statehood as both a manifestation of the Jewish People’s right to national self-determination and a means of lessening Jewish vulnerability and increasing the likelihood of Jewish survival.

This foundational axiom was also widely understood by American Jews, particularly in the aftermath of the Holocaust. Statehood was seen as the necessary extension of the shared sense of Jewish nationhood that had existed for millennia, a sense of unity and even destiny that went beyond culture or even religion.

Today, however, among an increasing number of American Jews, the idea of a Jewish state is no longer a building block but rather a wedge issue.

The very idea of nations and nation states may be suspect in the 21st century, but no other national movement evokes so uniquely visceral a reaction as does Zionism. No other term for a national movement has been infamously defined by the UN as “a form of racism and racial discrimination”—an epithet assigned to it by a bigoted coalition led by the Soviet Union. And no other definition has caused so much anxiety among a movement’s putative supporters and rendered them so unwilling to stand up for their cause. Too many American Jewish supporters of Israel live in fear of being declared racist by enemies of Zionism, or by those who purport to be so “enlightened” that they can see through the façade of Israeli democracy.

Those individuals take it upon themselves to distinguish between the “good” and the “bad” parts of Israel and avail themselves freely of the all-purpose evil of the “occupation.” Today’s left and progressive circles use the 1967 “Green Line” as a red herring in their representation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the American Jewish community. Journalist Peter Beinart, one of the driving forces behind this trend, claims “the American Jewish establishment and the Zionist establishment [render themselves] morally corrupt by defending the indefensible, for defending an occupation that holds millions of people occupied”.

In spite of various “peace processors”, Palestinian terrorists keep shattering their profile - by Stephen M. Flatow

Sometimes, the J Streeters get a little carried away with themselves. They seem to think that just because they are the subject of flattering feature stories in The New York Times or on CNN, it means that the winds of public opinion are blowing their way. But the meager support that the “teen terrorist” bill has garnered so far suggests otherwise.

Stephen M. Flatow..
JNS.org..
24 January '20..

The latest Palestinian Arab stabbings of Jews in Israel won’t get much attention since fortunately, nobody was killed. Attacks that don’t involve fatalities are considered by the international news media to be insignificant; editors call them “dog bites man” stories. But the circumstances of the attacks are, in fact, quite significant.

Near Hebron, a 17-year-old Palestinian Arab stabbed and wounded a Jewish passerby. In Jerusalem, a 50-year-old Palestinian Arab woman charged towards Israeli police officers, brandishing a knife.

A 50-year-old woman completely shatters the profile of the “typical” Palestinian Arab terrorist. Supposedly, terrorists are mostly single men in their 20s. A 50-year-old woman, quite possibly a mother with children still at home, is exactly the kind of person who gets less scrutiny from security guards because they don’t expect her to be a terrorist.

What does that tell us? That Palestinian Arab terrorists come in all ages and genders, all economic brackets and social circumstances. Time and again, Israeli Jews have been attacked by terrorists who are younger or older than the “typical” terrorist. Employed or unemployed. Single or with families.

Many self-anointed “experts” on the Middle East situation insist that poverty or unemployment is the root cause of Palestinian Arab terrorism. The terrorists are supposedly jobless young men who feel “hopeless” or “frustrated” at their economic prospects.

Thus, these “experts” say, the solution is to throw more money at the Palestinian Arabs or to let more of them cross into Israel. Not too long ago, former Obama “peace processor” David Makovsky was urging Israel to admit 100,000 workers from Gaza each day. How does that advice look in the wake of the mass violence perpetrated at the Gaza border over the past year? How many of those who were trying to burn down Israeli fields and murder Israeli soldiers should be admitted?

(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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An Open Letter to the Honorable Emmanuel Macron, President of France - by Dexter Van Zile

Why does France allow its sovereign territory in Jerusalem to be used as a staging ground for attacks on Jewish sovereignty in Israel?

Dexter Van Zile..
TOI Blog..
22 January '20..
Link: https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/an-open-letter-to-emmanuel-macron-president-of-france/

To the Honorable Emmanuel Macron, President of France:

I just saw a video of your confrontation with the Israeli police at St. Anne’s Church in the Old City of Jerusalem. It was a brief vignette posted on Twitter, so I don’t know exactly what happened, but it looks like you were protecting the status of the church as sovereign French territory. It seems to be one of the goals you had for yourself before your current trip to Jerusalem.

I hope Israelis will reserve judgement about the confrontation. Like you said in the video, “Nobody has to provoke nobody.”

Words to live by!

I also hope the confrontation between you and the Israeli security officials doesn’t turn into a contretemps that gets distorted to make modern day Jews look like the folks who stoned St. Stephen all those years ago. Given that you praised Israeli security officials for protecting you while walking through the Old City, I don’t think it will.

But you never know. There’s a lot of demand for that sort of narrative these days and a lot of people in Jerusalem make a living meeting that demand. In fact, one person who has provided that sort of narrative, Yusef Daher, runs the Jerusalem Inter Church Center (JICC) whose office is located in St. Anne’s compound. While he’s there, Daher enjoys the protection of French sovereignty, which you so ardently defended.

In the past, Daher has portrayed legitimate Israeli security measures at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher as a huge act of oppression against Christians worldwide. For example, Daher has unfairly portrayed Israeli efforts to prevent a stampede outside the church as an evil act against Christians in Jerusalem.

But I digress . . .

Let’s face it. The Old City is a stressful place to be. It is imbued with a lot of religious meaning and for the unprepared, Jerusalem can be a rough place to visit. Part of the shock is to see all these ordinary people, sovereign Jews especially, living out their daily lives in a city that is as central to the Western imagination and memory as Athens, Paris and Rome.

As a wise Christian friend of mine who lives in the Holy Land once told me, “People come to the Holy Land with a lot of baggage. When they get off the plane in Tel Aviv their baggage gets multiplied by a factor of 10,” he said. “And when they step into Jerusalem it gets multiplied by 100.”

Given that French sovereignty over St. Anne’s dates back to the 1800s, it’s likely the Israelis will have some sympathy for you. They know the importance of protecting sovereignty. If there is one group of people who know the dangers of losing sovereignty even better than the French, it’s the Israelis.

It’s interesting to note that that one of your predecessors, Jacques Chirac generated some controversy when he visited St. Anne’s in 1996. Apparently, St. Anne’s is a pretty neuralgic place for French Presidents.

Vraiment!

I don’t mean to add to your headaches, but given that you just defended French sovereignty over St. Anne’s in the Old City of Jerusalem, I feel compelled to ask you some questions about how France administers the property. The central issue is this: Why does France allow its sovereign territory in Jerusalem to be used by the JICC, which is led by Daher, as a staging ground for ideological and theological attacks on Jewish sovereignty in Israel?

If you pardon the expression, that doesn’t seem . . . kosher.

I raised this question with the folks in France’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2018 and no one got back to me.

I even asked officials from the White Fathers, the Catholic religious order that operates St. Anne’s. They were pretty tight-lipped, but the one thing they did say is that St. Anne’s Monastery enjoys diplomatic protection, “just like an embassy.”

So, here is the relevant text of an email that I sent to the folks in France’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in an email sent, interestingly enough, on June 6, 2018:

I am currently writing an article about an organization called the Ecumenical Accompaniment Program in Palestine/Israel (EAPPI). EAPPI is an institution of the World Council of Churches (WCC) that sends activists into Israel and the West Bank. The organization has come under increasing scrutiny and criticism from a number of institutions and commentators in Israel and elsewhere for its tendency to promote anti-Israel propaganda both in the Holy Land and in the home country of EAPPI activists.

EAPPI is closely affiliated with another WCC institution — the Jerusalem Interchurch Center — whose general secretary, a Palestinian Christian by the name of Yusef Daher, has posted ugly anti-Israel propaganda on his Facebook page.