"Moderate" Palestinian Arab president-for-life rolls out red carpet for a murdering "Fatah knight" - by Arnold Roth

...As far as we can tell, there was trivial-to-no news reporting coverage (other than in Israel) for the public honoring by our peace partner of this unrepentant murderer of Israeli civilians.

Arnold/Frimet Roth..
This Ongoing War..
20 April '18..

While Palestinian Arab extremism is currently being driven from Gaza, and along with it the bulk of media attention from the Arab world and more broadly, the envious Fatah factionists of the Palestinian Authority are not far behind. And constantly on the look for opportunities to grab some of the limelight.

Mahmoud Abbas, who in addition to regaling in the title of president of the Palestinian Authority heads Fatah, features in a Times of Israel news report that shines some light - or perhaps it's more appropriate to say darkness - on how the moderate strain of Palestinianism views the cold-blooded murder of Israeli civilians.

The report describes the gala welcome-home reception bestowed on Rajaei Haddad. He recently completed serving a 20-year sentence in an Israel prison for murder. Naturally, he's hailed in their circles (literally) as “a leader, a hero, and a fighter.”

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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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Accepting Palestinian Culture That Treats Killers as Role Models - by Jonathan Tobin

...Theirs is a culture that denies history and turns morality on its head by treating killers as role models. Palestinians believe it is unreasonable to ask them to give it up. But if their conflict with Israel is ever to be solved, that is exactly what they must do.

Jonathan S. Tobin..
Commentary Magazine..
27 October '16..
Link: https://www.commentarymagazine.com/terrorism/accepting-palestinian-culture-terrorism/

Palestinians are incredulous. When the Palestine Media Watch website noted that, for the fourth time, the Palestinian Authority had named one of its schools after the late head of the 1970’s terror group Black September, the news created a bit of an uproar in Israel. A spokesperson for Prime Minister Netanyahu accused the PA of glorifying terrorists, but the response from the PA wasn’t the least bit defensive. Though the Obama administration continues to insist that the PA is a partner for peace, the PA gave a telling answer to the Israeli charge. The Palestinian Authority official in charge of Tulkarem—the district where the most recent Salah Khalaf school was dedicated—said the following: “The occupation [Israel] is delusional if it thinks the Palestinian people can change its culture.”

This statement reveals something that most peace process advocates and critics of Israel either don’t understand or willfully miss. The PA’s repeated refusals of Israeli peace offers isn’t rooted in how many homes are built by Israelis in existing West Bank settlements or differences over where the border between a putative Palestinian state and Israel should be drawn. Rather, the problem is something far more deep-seated: culture.

As poll after poll of Palestinian public opinion has shown over the years, support for violence against Israelis and Jews and the rejection of Israel’s legitimacy isn’t merely a policy preference or a position taken by the PA at the United Nations. It is rooted in a Palestinian political culture that views the Jews as having no rights to any part of the country, and sees violence taken against them is an act of patriotism.

Like his boss, Yasir Arafat, Khalaf’s role in history as the author of some of the most brazen and depraved terror incidents of the postwar era secured him a place of honor among Palestinians. Black September claimed to be distinct from the Palestine Liberation Organization but was, in fact, under Arafat’s orders. In that capacity, Khalaf planned the 1972 Munich Olympic massacre of Israeli athletes, a series of airplane hijackings, as well as the assassination of two American diplomats in Sudan. Like Arafat, Khalaf later posed as enough of a moderate to convince Secretary of State James Baker that he was someone that the U.S. should deal with. He was never held accountable by the U.S. for his attacks on Americans, let alone Israelis. And he was eventually killed by a member of the Abu Nidal splinter group as part of an internecine Palestinian conflict.

(PMW Video) Glorifying terrorists and terror

...Official PA TV reporter: "Martyr Bashar Masalha, 22, ascended to Heaven in Jaffa on March 8 [2016] (i.e., he was shot after killing US tourist)... He returned and was embraced by the soil of his homeland as a Martyr."

Palestinian Media Watch..
24 May '16..

Terrorist murderer of US tourist glorified as “Martyr” 11 times on official PA TV



Official PA TV newsreader: "In Qalqilya, hundreds of citizens accompanied the body of Martyr Bashar Masalha [to his burial]..."

Official PA TV reporter: "After delays by Israel in the transfer of his body, Martyr Bashar Masalha’s family, from the village of Hajja, east of Qalqilya, received their son in the evening... The Martyr Bashar returned from Qalqilya to his village Hajja in a procession... His family, friends, and people of the region took it upon themselves to ensure that this [burial] would be a large national wedding (i.e., to the 72 Virgins in Paradise) befitting of Martyrs... The Martyr was accompanied to his last resting place in the cemetery for Martyrs in Hajja..."
Official Palestinian Authority TV May 21, 2016

Funeral participant: "Despite the delays by the Israeli side transferring the Martyr’s body… the PA did everything it could and applied national and political pressure to the other side so they would transfer the Martyr’s body. Despite what they (i.e., the Israelis) did, the Palestinian will prevailed and we received the Martyr’s body..."

Official PA TV reporter: "Martyr Bashar Masalha, 22, ascended to Heaven in Jaffa on March 8 [2016] (i.e., he was shot after killing US tourist)... He returned and was embraced by the soil of his homeland as a Martyr."

Bashar Masalha – 22-year-old Palestinian terrorist who carried out a stabbing attack, murdering Taylor Force, an American tourist, and injuring 11, in Tel Aviv-Jaffa on March 8, 2016. Masalha was shot and killed by Israeli police.

A Martyr's funeral is considered a wedding to the 72 Virgins in Paradise, in Islam.

Click here for full PMW Bulletin, Official PA media glorifies murderer of US tourist, Taylor Force

Link: http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=458&fld_id=458&doc_id=18017

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 well as a big vote to follow our good friend Kay Wilson on Twitter.

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Hungering, thirsting, just dying for fresh victims

...We don't expect the Allan clan to give thanks. But it's striking that no mainstream media channel has seen fit to at least mention that the facility which has saved this Islamic Jihad terrorist's life has frequently been rocket-attacked by his fellow savages-in-arms, and almost certainly will be again when they can.

Arnold/Frimet Roth..
This Ongoing War..
21 August '15..

Muhammad Allan, a Palestinian Arab, is widely depicted in parts of the social media right now as a hunger-striker unjustly detained, a veritable "freedom fighter", "courageously resisting tyranny". And of course "gentle, conscientious and well-respected".

Multi-media campaigns like the one in which he now features usually come with gentle backgrounders ("loved kittens, spoke nicely to his sisters") plus lawyers, mothers and protesters. This one is from that same template, along with media distortions, half-truths and inaccuracies.

A 31-year-old Arab lawyer, the man is indeed a hunger striker and has been since June. He became comatose earlier this week and then regained consciousness in Barzilai Medical Center, Ashkelon, on Tuesday where he has been getting Israeli medical care. The following day, Wednesday, Israel's High Court ordered that he be freed from administrative detention "due to his deteriorating medical condition, including the revelation Wednesday afternoon that his brain had been damaged." More than this,

Deputy High Court President Elyakim Rubinstein and justices Hanan Melcer and Neal Hendel held that due to his health situation, Allan’s family members could visit him on an unrestricted basis, as if he were not a detainee. [Jerusalem Post]

Once the court had ruled, one of his lawyers told Reuters that the 65-day hunger strike was done:

"The story is over, administrative detention is canceled, and therefore there is no strike," said lawyer Jameel Khatib. But a hospital spokeswoman said it would not have been possible for Allan to make such a decision, since he was not conscious or aware of his surroundings... [Jerusalem Post]

Hunger striker's mother in the Ashkelon hospital where his life
is being saved by Israeli medicine, despite his best efforts [Image Source]
Internal contradictions happen. No one seems too concerned for factual accuracy when Palestinian Arab figures are being elevated to mythic/heroic status against all the evidence. For us news consumers, we're left to distinguish among the available menu items of fantasy, exaggeration, political spin and ordinary empirical facts.

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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 well as a big vote to follow our good friend Kay Wilson on Twitter, 

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Reminders that terrorist savages have a sentimental side

...Is there anything a reasonable person can learn about terrorism and what it does to people - especially to those who worship it and its practitioners - by considering this small handful of reactions to just one Islamist massacre?

Remembering the Sbarro massacre - from
 the savage's standpoint [Image Source]

Arnold/Frimet Roth..
This Ongoing War..
10 August '15..

Yesterday (Monday), we commemorated the anniversary of a massive explosion that ripped through a pizzeria crowded with children in the center of Israel's capital city. It was a catastrophe that upended lives, futures and attitudes and - in relatively small measure - influenced public policies, at least for a time.

We are the parents of one of the children murdered there that day. In fact, a majority of the 15 lives lost in the attack by an Islamist terrorist gang on Sbarro in Jerusalem were children. (A 16th victim, a mother whose child was then two years old, remains in a vegetative state to this day.)

August 9, as it has been for the past fourteen years, was a time for writing and tweeting and receiving back messages of strength and support from the people in our lives who care for our well-being. But if we take a brief look at the Arab world - parts of it, at any rate - yesterday was a day of memories for them too.

But of a very different kind, as we found by Googling today:

This Facebook account celebrates the anniversary because of the 19 "Zionists" killed at Sbarro Jerusalem. That most of them were children goes unmentioned, perhaps because of the sheer transcendental joy of the celebration. And if they overstate the death toll by 4, so what? The human bomb is offered hearty congratulations on his fine achievement. The page has gotten 190 Likes and 13 Shares between the time it was launched on Sunday morning and 5:00 pm today, Monday, Jerusalem time.

The Sahafah Arabiah website, based in Egypt, has a tribute page honoring the killing of 20 "Zionists" at Sbarro. (Actual death tolls are evidently a minor detail once the Islamists have crossed the "massacre" threshold.) Referring to the guitar case carried on the human bomb's back and in reality filled with thousands of nails along with ten kilograms of tightly-packed explosives, the writers of the page wax lyrical about "playing melodies of revenge". It seems music does that to you, if you're inclined a certain way.

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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 well as a big vote to follow our good friend Kay Wilson on Twitter, 

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The triumph and the silence: A killer's fame and what it reveals about her world

...Does the absence of criticism throughout the Arab world mean they support the deliberate killing of the innocent people among their enemy? Does their silence mean they support the murder of children as Tamimi certainly does, and they want to see it happen again and again as she certainly does?

Our daughter's happy, happy, happy murderer - a celebrity who now travels
widely throughout the Arab world to universal Arab and Islamic acclaim: 
a hero of the Arab world [Image captured from this video interview]

Arnold/Frimet Roth..
This Ongoing War..
03 August '15..

This coming Wednesday is the day (in the Hebrew calendar) on which we remember the lives and deaths of our beloved daughter and her best friend by going up to their graves on the outskirts of Jerusalem.

We rarely do this, but given the turbulence now affecting life in our city and our land these past few days, we feel it's time to re-run a previous post. This one, below, expresses very painful - but timely - thoughts about silence, hatred and extremism.

The article below first appeared in this blog (and reprinted elsewhere) on August 21, 2012.

What might civilized people be thinking when sociopaths bask in adulation?

After receiving some offline comments on the Tamimi speech we publicized yesterday, we have a few further thoughts to share. The urge to do this is triggered by a sense that something deeply disturbing is going on; it's being ignored or willfully not noticed by people who ought to be noticing.

When a politician or public figure on our side of the fence makes an ignorant or dumb or smart or incisive statement, particularly when it's about the Arabs (you know the examples), his/her comments are greeted with near-instant analysis and frequently with condemnation from a global array of press and politicians. The Arab media focus obsessively on such things. Outside the Arab/Islamic world, we frequently see European, American, Australian and other critics drawing wide inferences about how those specific Israeli views are going to bring on the next Black Plague or an increase in pogroms in France. The claim, at minimum, is that irreparable harm is going to be caused to the souls and DNA of innocent Israeli children, to world peace and so on.

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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 well as a big vote to follow our good friend Kay Wilson on Twitter, 

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A society defines itself by whom it chooses to elevate to the status of icon and hero

...An unconfirmed report of the death of terrorist operative Samir Kuntar offers a reminder that a culture that extols a child-killer reveals its values.

Steven Stotsky..
CAMERA Media Analyses..
31 July '15..

On July 29, 2015 the Israeli media reported that Samir Kuntar, a former member of a Palestinian terrorist group and a current collaborator with the Syrian regime and Hezbollah was killed in an Israeli airstrike. While Kuntar's death has not been confirmed, it is, nevertheless, worth recalling who Kuntar is and why his possible demise was deemed newsworthy.

Kuntar is an icon to Israel's enemies. He is hailed as a hero by Hezbollah in Lebanon, formally honored by the Syrian regime and Iran and his past actions are celebrated across the region. After his release from incarceration in Israel in July 2008, he was greeted with much jubilation upon his arrival in Lebanon.

Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed proxy force in Lebanon, has long accorded Kuntar a special status. Prior to Israel's decision to release him, Hezbollah had demanded his release in exchange for the bodies of Israeli soldiers in Hezbollah's custody and threatened to kidnap Israelis for use as bargaining chips. The bloody war in the summer of 2006 initiated by Hezbollah was launched in part to gain the release of Kuntar from Israeli imprisonment.

According to the New York Times, after Kuntar's 30-year sentence in Israel was completed and he was allowed to return to Lebanon, a mass rally was held in which a banner hoisted above the crowd proclaimed, "God's Achievement Through Our Hands." At the rally, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah extolled Kuntar and the crowd chanted, "Samir, Samir, Samir."

Kuntar was feted by the Syrian regime of Bashar Assad, where he was presented with the Syrian Order of Merit. During the ceremony, the Syrian dictator waxed eloquent, "His being here with us and his determination to promote Arab rights, despite everything he's been through, has turned him into a symbol of the struggle for freedom across the Arab world and the whole world."

Kuntar's celebrity tour did not end there. He also traveled to Iran, where he received yet another award from then Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

As evidence of his popular appeal in the region, the Lebanese affiliate of Al Jazeera, the Qatar-based satellite news station, welcomed him home by throwing an on-air birthday party that included a large frosting-covered cake. The station's bureau chief hailed him as a "pan-Arab hero."

According to the Jerusalem Post, the Lebanese government shut down to celebrate Kuntar's return. Haaretz reported that then Lebanese President Emile Lahoud called the event "dear to my heart. I view Samir Kuntar as one of my sons and I wish the couple a happy life."

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas praised Kuntar, calling him the "great Samir Kuntar."

Dear President Abbas by Vic Rosenthal

...What did you expect? After a hundred years of terrorism directed at us, some members of our nation have learned to imitate yours. We’re human too. We have our criminals, our assassins, and even our terrorists. Of course we don’t treat them as heroes. We don’t broadcast incitement on our radio and television stations. Rabbis don’t exhort their congregations every Shabbat to go out and kill Arabs. We don’t hand out sweets when a murder is committed.

Vic Rosenthal..
Abu Yehuda..
01 August '15..
Link: http://abuyehuda.com/2015/08/dear-president-abbas/

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is calling for an international commission of inquiry to investigate the terrorist attack, presumably by Jewish militants, that took the life of an 18-month old baby and severely injured his parents and siblings in the village of Duma, in Samaria.

Mahmoud Abbas
Palestinian Authority
Ramallah

Dear President Abbas,

I’m writing to express my horror at the vicious terror attack that occurred yesterday in Duma, and my hopes that the survivors will have a full and speedy recovery. I’m sure that virtually all Israelis join me in this.

You see, we know how you feel.

I can only imagine how the surviving members of the Dawabsha family feel, but there are countless remnants of Jewish families ripped apart by terrorism who don’t need to imagine.

For at least a hundred years, Palestinian Arabs have been murdering our children, our athletes (you personally know something about that one), our bus passengers, pizza eaters, disco-goers and random Jews in the wrong place at the wrong time. They’ve been shot, stabbed, blown up, beaten or burned to death, or had their throats slit. Whole families, like the Dawabshas, have been destroyed.

You have sent your bestial terrorist filth out to kill us and then welcomed them back, dripping blood, as heroes.

And it turns out, not so surprisingly, that we have bestial terrorist filth amongst us as well. What did you expect? After a hundred years of terrorism directed at us, some members of our nation have learned to imitate yours.

Guess Who Rewards Terrorists for the Number of Jews They Kill?

...The Barghouti and Ramadan cases are just two of hundreds of terrorists who are rewarded for their actions – not in a blind, faceless program, but in a meticulous, exacting official process that can remain in place for years. The money is represented to donor countries as “government salaries.” Most taxpayers in donor countries have no idea that their well-intended money is actually financing the flames of terrorism.

Edwin Black..
The Algemeiner..
08 February '15..

Last year, Congressional legislators were astonished to learn that the Palestinian Authority was issuing monthly payouts totaling between $3 and 7 million as salaries and other financial rewards to specific terrorists and their families.

The money was channeled, in part, through the Ministry of Prisoners pursuant to the Law of the Prisoner. The law set forth a graduated scale, pegging monthly salaries to the length of Israeli jail sentences, which generally reflects the severity of the crime and the number of people killed and/or injured.

Thousands of documents, newly obtained by this reporter through a lawsuit to unseal court-protected files, demonstrate that these payouts are not blind automated payments. Rather, senior Palestinian Authority officials as high as President Mahmoud Abbas scrutinize the details of each case, the specific carnage caused, and the personal details of each terrorist act before approving salaries and awarding honorary ranks in either the PA government or the military.

Ministry of Prisoners spokesman Amr Nasser has explained, “We are very proud of this program and we have nothing to hide.” Nonetheless, in response to the international furor, the Palestinian Authority announced that it would replace the Ministry of Prisoners with an outside PLO commission known as the Higher National Commission for Prisoners and Detainees Affairs.

The PA is dependent upon foreign donor countries to supply much of its budget, which now exceeds $4.2 billion annually. About ten percent of the PA budget, more than $400 million, is contributed annually by United States foreign aid. The U.S. and many other countries have enacted laws forbidding any payments when the monies directly or indirectly support or encourage terrorism.

The interdepartmental bureaucratic notations the Palestinian Authority has recorded on each terrorist before approving the level of salaried compensation is extensive. For example, one prominent case involved Ahmad Talab Mustafa Barghouti, who personally coordinated numerous terrorist acts. These included a January 2002 shooting spree on Jaffa Street in Jerusalem, killing two and wounding 37; a March 2002 shooting spree at a Tel Aviv restaurant, killing three and wounding 31; and finally a March 27, 2002, attempt to smuggle an explosive suicide belt in an ambulance. The Israel Defense Forces arrested Ahmad. On July 30, 2002, a military court concluded that he was responsible for murdering 12 Israelis, and Barghouti was sentenced to 13 life sentences.

According to on-going internal Palestinian Authority security reviews dated February 3, 2009, and July 6, 2009, Barghouti’s special compensation began retroactively to July 1, 2002, the first of the month that the 13 life sentences were imposed. At the time of his arrest, Barghouti was a Sergeant in the Palestinian Police. As a reward, while in an Israeli prison, Barghouti’s annual salary of 12,953 Israeli shekels was continued and gradually escalated when he was promoted to First Sergeant.

Sanctifying Martyrs and Monsters

...Heroes they will inevitably be, and thousands may be moving on their path as Mashaal says. But unlike others elevated by Palestinian Arab society to that status, they are not going to take part in any future extortion-driven release deals. They will not study for a university degree at the expense of Israeli taxpayers like us. They won't be walking free again as media cameramen snap and flash around them. Above all, their arms are never going to be raised high by two-faced politicians playing to impassioned crowds braying for more killings, more revenge, more martyrs.

The street scene outside the burnt-out
hide-away in Hebron after the elimination 
of the fugitives in a firefight [Image Source]

Arnold/Frimet Roth..
This Ongoing War..
01 October '14..

The kidnapping and cold-blooded murder of three unarmed teen-age Israeli boys in June 2014 horrified and to a great extent united the Israeli public. The names and fates of Eyal Yifrach, 19, Gilad Shaar, 16, and Naftali Frenkel, 16, implanted in the Israeli collective consciousness since the events of three months ago, make concrete the terrorist passions animating the Islamist savages just across Israel's border with the Gaza Strip and the murder-addicted Hamas regime dug in there.

Rarely have Israelis had a clearer sense of what we stand for, what they stand for, and the unbridgeable gulf that separates us from them.

An audio record of the frantic call to an emergency number by one of the ways is part of that collective experience. In it, we hear a whispered call for help, followed by shouting and shots. Right after that, Marwan Al-Qawasmi and Amer Abu Aisheh, the killers, are heard laughing and rejoicing.

Others involved in the plot were arrested fairly quickly. But the two principal terrorists evaded capture from the time of the kidnap and murder until their demise on Tuesday September 23, 2014. The two fugitives were located shortly before that, and the Hebron residence in which they were hiding was surrounded by Israeli security forces. What happened next, according to Reuters:

(Continue)

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. Check-it out!
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Still searching for outraged moderate Palestinian Arab voices

...We're also wondering about the liberals, the humanists, the defenders of human rights, living far from the Middle East, who have given their support to the Palestinian Arabs. We still hope to unearth their condemnations of the process by which a man who murders innocent children is transformed by government officials into a hero and a figure whose actions deserve to be emulated.

Frimet/Arnold Roth..
This Ongoing War..
11 May '14..

We wrote a few days ago on an issue about which we are especially passionate, even while we realize it's one that moves relatively few people in political life or in the media. We called [see "6-May-14: In search of appalled, sickened Palestinian Arabs" ] for published Arabic-language articles that condemn

the ongoing satanic strategy that continues to drag Palestinian Arab society - along with those who give such pathological forms of education their passive or active support - down into the gutter of human society and history. Strong words? What else to call a process in which the leadership of an entire society - Abbas and his PA; Hamas; the Palestinian Islamic Jihad - seeks to turn its pre-teen children into human bombs?

We're offering to republish those Arabic articles here, translated into English. It's a serious offer, and a serious search. If those voices exist in Arabic, it's in everyone's interests that people come to know about them.

This search got started a week ago after a widely-reported ceremony honoring the burial of the remains of a certain human bomb. (If it's not obvious, we think the use of the expression "suicide bomber" is wrong on multiple levels, and we hope it disappears.) And when we say widely-reported, we of course mean widely-reported in the Arabic-speaking world. In the English, French and Spanish language editions of the online Arab media, and in the English-language mainstream news media, there has been barely a mention of the obscene al-Masri funeral. We described it here ["6-May-14: In search of appalled, sickened Palestinian Arabs"] including photos and links to videos.

(Continue)

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. Check-it out!
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Reading The Writing On The Wall

...But what about the moderate voices in Palestinian Arab society? Where are they? And what of the liberals, the humanists, the defenders of human rights, living far from the Middle East, who have given their support to the Palestinian Arabs? Have they lost their voices? Or their moral compass?

Frimet/Arnold Roth
This Ongoing War..
08 May '14..

No one seriously expects the corrupt and terrorism-addicted Palestinian Arab leadership to engage in moments of genuine introspection. Were they able to comprehend the moral depravity of throwing a celebratory funeral for a religiously-inspired psychopath like the one they held a week ago ["5-May-14: The making of a martyr: it takes more than a village"], the world would have seen them quickly back down and change direction.

In truth, there is little rational basis, on the available evidence, to expect this to happen. On terrorism, they remain as committed as ever to their course.

But what about the moderate voices in Palestinian Arab society? Where are they? And what of the liberals, the humanists, the defenders of human rights, living far from the Middle East, who have given their support to the Palestinian Arabs? Have they lost their voices? Or their moral compass?

Perhaps they simply don't know it happened. So then we must let them know. Please help us by pointing them to this: "6-May-14: In search of appalled, sickened Palestinian Arabs".

Link: http://thisongoingwar.blogspot.co.il/2014/05/8-may-14-writing-on-wall.html

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. Check-it out!
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In search of appalled, sickened Palestinian Arabs

...When it comes to murder and incitement to murder of Israelis and of Jews, they are not moderate; they are enthusiastic. In last Wednesday's funeral procession in Tubas, they participated, heart and soul, to ensure the strongest possible message of support, encouragement, adulation for acts of calculated murder like the one in which the dead human bomb had engaged, and that stole the life of our daughter Malki.

Frimet/Arnold Roth..
This Ongoing War..
06 May '14..

Yesterday's post ["5-May-14: The making of a martyr: it takes more than a village"] reported on the state funeral given to the remaining body parts of a Palestinian Arab human bomb.

He exploded in August 2001 inside a restaurant filled with Jews, and died a happy young man, perhaps even an ecstatic one. His life, in accordance with the insane religious dogmas that had been pumped into his head, had reached its point of fulfillment.

Our post made the point that representatives of the major segments of Palestinian Arab society took part in last week's funeral.

If you were looking for moderates - say, the so-called moderates of the Mahmoud Abbas regime - they were indeed there but they were not moderating anything. When it comes to murder and incitement to murder of Israelis and of Jews, they are not moderate; they are enthusiastic. In last Wednesday's funeral procession in Tubas, they participated, heart and soul, to ensure the strongest possible message of support, encouragement, adulation for acts of calculated murder like the one in which the dead human bomb had engaged, and that stole the life of our daughter Malki. They amplified this message of hatred and jihad via the official Palestinian Arab state media, as did the Hamas regime in Gaza. They wanted everyone to know - at least, everyone who speaks Arabic.

As for publishing the same news in other languages, they were much less interested. Try (just as one random example) finding any mention on the English-language, Bethlehem-based, high profile European-funded Maan News Agency website. But Maan's Arabic side [here] has all the death-cult worship an Arabic reader with an interest in such things could want. Interesting, no?

(Continue)

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Abbas, the PA and preparations to inter another of their inspirational heroes

...Stand by for more of the same as the Palestinian Authority, probably with its new business partner Hamas (who long ago claimed al-Masri as one of its heroes), prepares to celebrate the life and death of the human bomb who murdered 15 innocents. In fact, it's begun...

As the remains are received from
Israel, the celebrations begin.
That's al-Masriin the poster [Image Source]

Frimet/Arnold Roth..
This Ongoing War..
30 April '14..

From Israel National News this morning

Israel Returns Body of Sbarro Terrorist to PA | Dalit Halevi | First Published: 4/30/2014, 1:13 AM | Israel has returned to the Palestinian Authority (PA) the bodies of four terrorists who carried out deadly terrorist attacks against Israelis, including the body of the terrorist who blew himself up in the Sbarro restaurant in Jerusalem in 2001. The PA-based Safa news agency reported on Tuesday that the terrorists... In addition to Izz al-Din al-Masri, the Sbarro suicide bomber, Israel also reportedly handed the body of suicide bomber... The attack at the Sbarro restaurant in Jerusalem in August of 2001 was one of the deadliest terror attacks in Israel’s history, and it took place during the Second Intifada, also known as the Oslo War. 16 people were killed in the Sbarro attack [our comment: actually fifteen but a victim remains unconscious today as she has for the past twelve and a half years] including five members of the Schijveschuurder family from the community of Neria in Binyamin. Ahlam Tamimi, the female terrorist who drove [our comment: not true; she accompanied him by by bus and taxi cab; her major contribution to this crime was not the accompanying but the planning of the massacre before it was executed] the suicide bomber to the attack, was released in 2011 in the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange.

For the record, the Israeli decision to hand over the body of Al-Masri, the human bomb whose explosion caused so much devastation, grief and ongoing pain to so many Israelis, was made on the basis of zero consultation with the families of his victims. There was also no pre-hand-over official notification to the news media or to the judicial system as far as we know. The Arab media are the sole source of the news.

What next? Will the human bomb be quietly buried in an unmarked grave, with a nondescript marker identifying the place of his remains? Will this happen in the dead of night so that civilized people will not be offended, and so that their civilized lives can go on undisturbed?

Perhaps in some parallel universe.

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(Video) Mr. Kerry, perhaps another reason your project goes "poof".

"...This fighter may have died and her soul may have ascended to Heaven, but still our mothers give birth to thousands like Dalal, and she still walks among us. Dalal Mughrabi has given us a lot, and I personally am proud to attend the Dalal Mughrabi School, which bears this pioneering name."

LOTL..
14 April '14..





While likely that Secretary of State Kerry has given some thought to additional reasons behind his personal crusade's most recent failure, perhaps the following escaped his notice.

This from Palestinian Media Watch:

The purpose of the PA TV program was explained by the TV host:
"Today we are in the Dalal Mughrabi School [in Gaza], to get to know the Palestinian Martyr and fighter..."

Other children and teachers in the school were also interviewed.



Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNwKL6W7xdU

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. Check-it out! 

Who Might Think That Lying About Abbas Will Bring Peace?

...But if the president continues to double down on a policy of letting the Palestinians off the hook, it is laying the groundwork for a repeat of the same disaster that ended the Oslo process. The resulting bloodshed should be blamed primarily on Abbas. But Obama, and those Israelis who continue to lie about Abbas for what they believe is the sake of peace, will also bear some responsibility.

Jonathan S. Tobin..
Commentary Magazine..
17 March '14..

With Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas meeting today with President Obama, the focus on the Middle East peace process has shifted, at least for the moment, away from Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and his alleged shortcomings. But while Netanyahu’s most recent meeting with the president was preceded by an Obama interview with Bloomberg’s Jeffrey Goldberg in which the Israeli was lambasted and Abbas praised, there was no such ambush for the Palestinian. Most everybody in Washington and a great many Israelis are at pains to paint Abbas in the best possible light. When Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon accurately described the Palestinian as someone who would never be a partner for a final peace agreement, Cabinet colleague Tzipi Livni and Israeli President Shimon Peres both spoke up in his defense.

Livni, who has at times criticized Abbas herself, did not specifically refute any of Yaalon’s points but preferred instead to say that his shortcomings and record were irrelevant to the task at hand and must be put aside. Peres spoke in the same vein saying that Abbas was a “good partner” and that the point of the talks was to move ahead toward peace regardless of the obstacle. That seems much in line with the American approach that is to never directly criticize Palestinian incitement and the refusal of Abbas and his fellow Fatah members to give up their hopes of flooding Israel with the descendants of the 1948 refugees.

In short, peace process advocates believe the only way to plow ahead to an agreement is to keep the pressure up on Netanyahu to give the maximum while treating Abbas with kid gloves, all the while fearing to offend him or to give his enemies within Fatah, not to mention Hamas and Islamic Jihad rivals, any ammunition with which to attack him as soft on the Israelis. Anything else, they tell us, risks blowing up the process leaving no hope for peace.

But the problem here isn’t so much the double standard for Netanyahu or even the blatant dishonesty involved in American and Israeli officials attesting to the sincerity and good intentions of the Palestinian leader. It’s that this theory of peace negotiating has already been tried and failed with disastrous results.

I know it’s hard for many in the mainstream media to think back as far as last week or last month (ancient history in the news business), let alone 10, 15, or 20 years back. But the theory of negotiating with the Palestinians that is being employed by both the Obama administration and Israelis like Livni and Peres, was already tried in the 1990s.

Dear New York Times - It's Called Hero Worship

...Abbas congratulated the prisoners and their relatives for their freedom. “We promise you that this will not be the last one and there will be other batches of the heroes in the near future,” he said, ... WAFA

Pesach Benson..
Honest Reporting Backspin..
05 Janiary '14..

A NY Times staff-ed mostly blames you-know-who for the impasse of peace efforts. The Gray Lady’s entitled to its views, but screwing up the facts is unforgivable.

As part of the negotiating process, Mr. Netanyahu agreed to release 104 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails over nine months rather than halt settlement construction. But when Mr. Abbas welcomed the latest group to the West Bank this week, Mr. Netanyahu accused him of embracing terrorists, even though Mr. Abbas never condoned the prisoners’ crimes.

Say what? Abbas only called the prisoners “heroes” after the December and October releases.

Memo to the Times: a hero is “a person who is admired for great or brave acts or fine qualities.”

Abbas didn’t just condone the blood on everyone’s hands. This was hero worship.

Link: http://honestreporting.com/hero-worship-at-the-new-york-times/

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. Check-it out! 
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Another Palestinian Arab hero of sterling character

...It is a shame that Barghouti is starving himself to death. He deserves a much more painful demise. Luckily, the media has grown tired of the prisoner hunger strikes (especially when none of them ever seem to actually die, since these are "modified" hunger strikes, whatever that means) and no one really cares any more about these publicity stunts.

Elder of Ziyon..
06 August '13..




From Ma'an:

The Palestinian minister of prisoners’ affairs on Tuesday warned of possible deaths among hunger-striking prisoners and highlighted that their health had seriously deteriorated.

Issa Qaraqe said any tragic results at this stage would result in serious escalation amid prisoners and lead to negative consequences which could affect US efforts to restart peace negotiations between the Palestinians and Israel.

Hanan al-Khatib, a lawyer from the ministry of prisoners’ affairs, who visited the Jordanian hunger striker Abdullah Barghouthi in hospital, confirmed he was in real danger after 95 days on hunger strike.

According to al-Khatib, Barghouthi “can’t feel his left hand and can’t stand up.”

He also suffers from spells of dizziness, she added, highlighting that he also has symptoms of kidney and liver troubles and could face kidney failure if he continues with the strike.

Barghouthi has already lost 30 kilograms, according to al-Khatib quoting his doctors.

He has been hospitalized at Haemek Medical Center in Afula in northern Israel since shortly after he started a hunger strike on May 2.

Al-Khatib had noted earlier that he was chained to his hospital bed by his legs and his left hand.

Poor Abdallah Bargouthi! He must be a good guy for the Palestinian minister of prisoners' affairs to be so concerned for his well-being.

An earlier Ma'an article, from July 20, gives slightly more details:

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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. Check-it out!.

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Memory, honor, shame: this is how it works

...But even if Mahmoud Abbas and his words of inspiration, calling yesterday to the continuing generation of Palestinian Arabs to seek out Jewish victims of their own, sticks in the collective memory of his people longer and more effectively than Malki's memory does on our side of the fence, this much remains clear. People of conscience, decency and goodwill - people with a genuine passion for peace, tolerance, co-existence and life - will prefer to remember the children on our side who hold charity bazaars and musical concerts to honour the memory of those whom they seek to emulate.

Frimet/Arnold Roth..
This Ongoing War..
18 July '13..

We have long assumed no one comes to this blog unless they want to know how we feel about things. So we permit ourselves without too much apology to express personal reflections here on life through the prism of our personal experiences.

That's why we wrote here ["15-Jul-13: Summer reveries don't have quite the same golden gentle glow for us as they do for others"] a couple of days ago about things that might seem only distantly connected, if at all, to events in the war against the terrorists. But in reality, we think the way you look at memories and, in a way, at history, is highly influential on what you do when confronted with terrorism. And since we think almost everyone everywhere is confronted with terrorism and in rising measure, even while they themselves might not see it that way, the issue of memory seems to us more than just important. It's a defining characteristic of societies and political leadership.

Yesterday, as that post of ours from July 15 noted, was the day our murdered daughter's life is remembered each year here in the Jerusalem community where we live. (Not the annual graveside service - that's going to happen on July 28.) It's a peer event: the teenagers who were Malki's social circle started it eleven years ago, a year after her brutal murder in a Hamas attack. And each year, the cohort that comes after the one before - always 16 and 17 year olds, always from here in the 'hood or from the social circle made up by members of the Ezra youth organization which was such a large part of Malki's life - continue it....

As it happens, we were not alone yesterday in expressing our remembrances and respect for lives ended. This is from today's Jerusalem Post.

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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.

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