A "sh**ty little country" can't count on the West.

Shoshana Bryen..
American Thinker..
05 December '12..

Before Israel sat in the UN dock facing Mahmoud Abbas, a man who denied the Holocaust in his doctoral dissertation and denies the link between Jews, the land of Israel, and Jerusalem, the Israeli government said the Palestinian statehood gambit would not be cost free.

The UN pronounced itself open to the idea of statehood for two unconnected pieces of territory run half by a terrorist organization and half by a man whose single elected term ran out more than half a decade ago -- and whose two halves are at war with one another -- while both halves agree that the establishment of the State of Israel (and Jordan) was a mistake that needs correcting either by war or by politics. Israel's retaliation was twofold -- withholding about half of the money the Palestinian Authority owes the Israeli Electric Corporation, and announcing planning measures for houses to be built in the future in area E-1 just east of Jerusalem.

The easiest way to stop the houses would be for the Europeans to tell their Palestinian friends, "Look, the Israelis are serious -- and we just gave up our leverage with them by voting for your statehood status. If you want to find contiguous land for your state, you'd better sit down with them right now and talk borders before they fill up the whole damned thing." Instead, they're hyperventilating and yelling at Israel. It is partly because the mention of houses for Jews really does give them the heebie-jeebies, but also because it is a way to divert attention from their own sorry performance -- siding with those who plan to replace the State of Israel with Palestine.

France, for example, the only European country to agree that the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem should be listed as a Palestinian UNESCO Heritage Site, pressured Spain on the vote by threatening to veto Spain's EU bailout plan. Spain caved. The U.S. voted against the measure, but it is not without some responsibility for the results, and Secretary of State Clinton quickly castigated Israel publicly for insensitivity:

The PM's Message Was No Blunder

Jonathan S. Tobin..
Commentary/Contentions..
05 December '12..

The conventional wisdom about the Israeli government’s decision to allow new building projects in Jerusalem in the E1 area between the city and the Ma’ale Adumim suburb is that it was a blunder. Critics of Prime Minister Netanyahu claim the move has worsened relations with the United States, alienated European nations and heightened the country’s diplomatic isolation. Others claim that in doing so he has “distracted” the world from concentrating on the nuclear threat from Iran. Even worse, most of his detractors are sure that the only reason he did it was to appease more extreme members of his party so as to secure their support in the upcoming Knesset election. Seen in that light, calling it a blunder would seem to be charitable.

But like most pieces of conventional wisdom, the assumption that Netanyahu has hurt his country is not accurate. Even if shovels went in the ground in the E1 area tomorrow — something that actually won’t happen for a long time, if ever — Israel would be no more or less isolated than it was the day before the announcement. Nor would relations with the Obama administration be any better. All Netanyahu has done is to remind his country’s critics that Israel isn’t willing to lie down and accept the false narrative about the West Bank and Jerusalem that was swallowed whole at the United Nations last week. As Seth wrote earlier, this won’t change Israel’s relationship with Europe. The focus on the European and American positions on settlements has obscured the fact that the primary audience for this move is in Ramallah, not Paris, London or Washington. The E1 decision sends a necessary signal to the Palestinians lest they be deceived by their triumph in the General Assembly. What Netanyahu has done is to show Israel won’t give up an inch of territory unless the Palestinians return to the negotiating table and even then, only if they agree to end the conflict for all time.

The Palestinian Authority tried the UN gambit in order to avoid negotiations with Israel that might place its leader Mahmoud Abbas back in the embarrassing position of having to flee from another Israeli offer of statehood. While he has no intention of ever being put on the spot in that matter again, Abbas may be under the impression that the Israelis can be hammered into more unilateral concessions by means of foreign pressure.

The major asset Israel tends to overlook - Our independence.

Hanoch Daum..
Israel Opinion/Ynet..
04 December '12..

If I were one of the Israeli ambassadors who were summoned for a reprimand by their European host countries I would say: What do you want from me? I wasn't even in the country. But the truth is that we will withstand this minor diplomatic crisis, mainly because the other option is far more dangerous.

The State of Israel has all sorts of assets, but the sympathy of the European countries is not among the important ones. It is certainly not as important as another asset we tend to overlook: Our independence.

The world's empathy is important when rockets are fired at Israel from the south, but it is more important to take out those who are doing the firing. The same goes for the diplomatic arena: If attacked, we must return fire.

There is a certain fact that the European countries have been repressing: The Palestinians have persistently rejected peace. Hillary Clinton mentioned this at the Saban Forum. She said Barak offered Arafat everything. Olmert also spoke of how he offered Abbas everything, including the holy sites in Jerusalem. In both cases the Israeli leaders returned empty handed.

Arab Media - Disseminator Of Fabrications, Conspiracy Theories

MEMRI..
Special Dispatch No.5076..
04 December '12..

In an article titled "Why Do The Arabs Prefer Lies Over Truth?," Arab-Israeli writer Dr. Salman Masalha slammed the Arab media for spreading ridiculous fabrications and conspiracy theories instead of presenting its readers with true facts.


The following are excerpts from the article, which was posted November 26, 2012 on the website Elaph.com.[1]

"Everybody doubtless remembers how, a few years ago, some Arab media spread stories about a bizarre Israeli plot, namely that the Mossad had sent trained sharks to attack tourists on the beaches of Sinai. Here is what the papers said: 'After repeated [shark] attacks, the local authorities in southern Sinai broke their silence, and the governor announced that the sharks were attacking the tourists under orders from the Israeli Mossad.' Some high officials from the tourism authorities in Cairo likewise announced that the [shark attacks] were part of an Israeli plot aimed at harming tourism in Egypt.

"Earlier, Egyptian media had published exciting news of a different sort, but also pertaining to a conspiracy by the Mossad. They claimed that the Mossad had inserted into the Egyptian markets large quantities of drugs that stimulate sexual desire in women, in order to undermine the foundations of the Egyptian society and family. In this context, it should be mentioned that periodic reports on Internet statistics indicate that Arabs take first place in the world in searching for the term 'sex' and its derivatives on the Internet. These statistics are the best reflection of the Arabic obsession with anything related to sex.

"This Arab condition merits research by specialists in the fields of sociology and psychology, and I admit that I do not have the professional tools to address the subject in a scientific way. All I can do is point to this chronic disease that is eating away at the bones of Arab societies. Suffice us to mention some fatwas that reflect this chronic disease, such as a recently published fatwa permitting sex with a corpse. These fatwas are known to Arabs and non-Arabs, in the East and the West, so we do not need to say any more on this necrophilia.

Real journalists vs. terrorist combatants using cameras as a weapon.

Gary Osen..
Times of Israel..
04 December '12..

Added to the usual chorus of criticism directed at Israeli military operations generally, the recently concluded Operation Pillar of Defense has spawned a relatively novel charge: that Israel deliberately targeted journalists covering the conflict in Gaza.

On November 18, for example, Reporters Without Borders condemned Israeli air strikes that it claimed targeted “news organizations in Gaza City,” arguing that “even if the targeted media support Hamas, this does not in any way legitimize the attacks.” Among the targets Reporters Without Borders objected to was a missile strike that allegedly injured three employees of “Al Aqsa TV”, the official Hamas-run television channel. A few days later, Human Rights Watch followed suit issuing an FAQ that asserted that Hamas-operated civilian broadcast facilities could become military targets if “used to send military orders or otherwise concretely to advance Hamas’s armed campaign against Israel” but were “not rendered legitimate military targets simply because they broadcast pro-Hamas or anti-Israel propaganda.”

Then on November 20, the Committee to Protect Journalists criticized the IDF for a missile strike that killed Mahmoud al-Kumi and Hussam Salama, described by Hamas’s Al-Aqsa TV as its cameramen who “were covering events in the Al-Shifaa neighborhood of central Gaza when a missile hit their vehicle at around 6 p.m.” The IDF later identified one of the targets as Muhammed Abu Shamala, a senior leader of Hamas’ military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, and a key architect of Hamas’s weapons smuggling efforts in Gaza, though it still remains unclear whether Mr. Shamala was injured in the strike.

The peace process. Who killed it?

Fresnozionism.org..
04 December '12..

The so-called ‘peace process’ was based on UN Security Council resolutions 242 and 338, and the most serious attempt to implement them on the ground was the Oslo Accords, agreements signed in 1993-95.

Although both sides complained about violations of the Oslo Accords — Israel complained about continued incitement and terrorism, which increased sharply after Arafat’s return from exile in Tunis, and the Palestinians complained that Israel was not withdrawing fast enough — the final nail of Oslo’s coffin was hammered in by Mahmoud Abbas, when he asked the UN to declare ‘Palestine’ a state.

Art. XXXI.7 of the 1995 Interim Agreement says “Neither side shall initiate or take any step that will change the status of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip pending the outcome of the permanent status negotiations”). This is exactly what Abbas did, and he can’t blame it on unaccountable terrorist factions, as Arafat liked to do after his assassins murdered Jews.

Israelis always understood Oslo as a compromise — that neither side would get everything that it wanted. But the PLO always saw it as a surrender agreement, and became ‘frustrated’ (and everyone knows how Palestinians behave when that happens) when Israel didn’t simply withdraw from all of the territories in return for nothing.

The father of all peace processes was UN Security Council Resolution 242, which called for Israel to withdraw from territories conquered in 1967, and for

Termination of all claims or states of belligerency and respect for and acknowledgment of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of every State in the area and their right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force.

Land for peace and secure borders. At first the Arabs wouldn’t even consider an agreement that promised peace (see the “Three No’s“). But more recently, they proposed the “Arab Initiative,” which calls for complete Israeli withdrawal, assumption of guilt, and right of return for Arab refugees (what a deal!).

The decision of the UN General Assembly to grant Palestine non-member state status in all of the territories conquered in 1967 directly contradicts resolution 242 because it gives all of the territories to Palestine, without guaranteeing Israel secure boundaries or peace.

Arlene Kushner From Israel: Saying No!

Arlene Kushner..
04 December '12..

There is a paucity of good news in this part of the world right now. But this qualifies. As I face down the bitter truths of what the governments of the Western world (Canada excepted) want from us, I know there is recourse only to Heaven, and to our own strength.

What the world demands of us is neither rational, nor fair, nor benign.

And so, when our prime minister faces the governments of the US and Britain and France, and refuses to back down, I feel a gladness. And, as always, I pray that this strength should continue and grow.

From a source in the Prime Minister's Office has come this statement:

Israel will "continue to stand up for its vital interests even in the face of international pressure.

"The Palestinian unilateral moves at the UN are a blatant and fundamental violation of agreements to which the international community was a guarantor. No one should be surprised that Israel is not sitting with its arms folded in response to the unilateral Palestinian steps."

What is more, the source stated that Israel would take further steps if the Palestinians went ahead with more unilateral moves.

According to Yisrael Hayom, Netanyahu said that "those who had voiced their opposition should have considered the ramifications before allowing Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to embarrass Israel at the United Nations."

http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=6622

All in all, members of the Israel government do not seem unduly distressed by the international furor.

When prognosticators of a diplomatic tsunami jump into action

Boaz Bismuth..
Israel Hayom..
04 December '12..

Calling an ambassador home is an unusual step, particularly in a relationship between two friendly countries. Officials in London and Paris are furious about Israel's decision to advance plans for settlement construction in the E1 area near Jerusalem, but we are nowhere near a point where the British and French ambassadors in Israel would be summoned to their home countries for consultations.

Europe does not like Israeli settlements in general. It even more strongly objects to construction in E1, which it views as a red flag. But Europe has many other troubles at the moment — severe unemployment, economic recession, illegal immigration — so there is a limit to how angry it can become about Israeli settlement construction in Judea and Samaria.

The diplomatic price paid by Israel was that its ambassadors in Paris, London and Stockholm were called in on Monday for meetings at the Foreign Ministry buildings in those capital cities. A similar step was taken by Spain, as if that country has no bigger problems than Israeli settlement construction.

In Israel, prognosticators of a diplomatic tsunami jumped into action. Europe, they predicted, would spank Israel abnormally harshly. Meanwhile, at the meetings in Europe, Israel's ambassadors were only being reprimanded. Not pleasant, but also not terrible.

After all, why should European countries consider calling their ambassadors home when this was already being done for them in Israel? The French newspapers Le Monde and Le Figaro reported that Britain and France were considering harsh sanctions against Israel. The source of this report was the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

It seems that this is the climate in which we now live. Yesterday, it was Haaretz. The day before this, it was former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert who, while on a trip in the U.S., criticized the decision of Israel's democratically elected government. This is the same government that, according to polls, would survive a return to politics by Olmert, if he chooses to re-enter the ring.

Is there a "Palestinian State?"

Emmanuel Navon..
For the Sake of Zion..
04 December '12..

Since the signature of the Oslo Agreements, the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) has often threatened to unilaterally declare statehood, even though it did just that in 1988 in Algiers. Abbas himself never formerly declared independence. In his speech at the UN General Assembly in September 2011, he clarified that a Palestinian state had already been declared by Arafat in Algiers in 1988. After the vote of the UN General Assembly on 29 November 2012, Abbas claimed that an independent Palestinian state now exists. It doesn’t.

For a start, General Assembly resolutions are mere recommendations. Resolution 181 recommended the partition of the British Mandate but it did not establish the State of Israel. Likewise, last week’s resolution did not establish a State of Palestine. The General Assembly does not and cannot establish states.

According to international law, an entity must meet four criteria in order to claim statehood: 1. It must exercise effective and independent governmental control; 2. It must possess a defined territory over which it exercises such control; 3. It must have the capacity to freely engage in foreign relations; 4. It must have effective and independent control over a permanent population.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) meets none of the above criteria.

The “Doomsday” Hill. Reuters Blames Israel.

(Image via Flickr/Kim-bodia)

Pesach Benson..
Honest Reporting/Backspin..
04 December '12..






It’s an otherwise forgettable analysis of Israeli plans to develop E1. Could Reuters possibly have come up with a more sensationalized headline?

“Doomsday” hill may be one Israeli settlement too far

Doomsday?

By whipping up hysteria, Reuters distracts readers from the real doomsday of December 21, when the Mayan calendar ends and the apocalypse begins.

Take a deep breath. As Elliott Abrams explains, the E1 controversy is “much ado about little.”

And as I explained earlier this week, despite the hype, E1 doesn’t divide the West Bank in two.

Now where can I get one of those doomsday survival kits?

Link: http://honestreporting.com/blame-israel-for-doomsday/

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Opposing “country-specific” resolutions -- and then adopt 21 on Israel

Click to enlarge

UN Watch Briefing..
Vol. 396..
03 December '12..

In an astonishing display of hypocrisy, numerous U.N. country delegates gave impassioned speeches last Tuesday objecting to resolutions criticizing the murderous regimes of Iran, North Korea and Syria, saying they rejected the very notion of singling out countries; and then they proceeded, mere moments later, to adopt a resolution — which many of them also co-sponsored — singling out democratic Israel.

According to a UN Watch report, featured on Canadian TV and now going viral on Facebook, there will be a total of 21 one-sided resolutions targeting the Jewish state in this session of the U.N. General Assembly -- and only 4 on the rest of the world combined.

Here were the objections supposedly made in the name of high principle, from the U.N.'s Nov. 27 debate:

"Thirsting for Peace and Happiness" in a World Without Enemies

...There was deep, inexpressible grief for those who died; but the Israeli public as a whole was in a fighting spirit—defiant, resilient, and determined. Strangers bolstered each other’s morale. Every day provided examples of mutual aid. People hosted families of complete strangers for extended periods of time in their homes. We dreamed, thought, and argued—about how we might win a war that will probably last a generation...

Aryeh Tepper..
jewishideasdaily.com..
03 December '12..

In Isaac Babel’s 1931 short story "Argamak," a Jewish intellectual "thirsting for peace and happiness" joins a Red cavalry division made up of Jew-hating Cossacks. The division commander understands the Jew’s strange choice. So, he takes a prized stallion from one of the Cossacks and gives it to the Jew to ride. The Cossack is furious. The Jew, sensing the Cossack's hatred, asks the commander, “Why did you give me an enemy?" Not bothering to disguise his contempt, the commander explains, “I understand you completely. . . . Your aim is to live without making enemies. . . . Everything you do is aimed that way—so you won't have any enemies.”

More than 80 years later, Babel’s Jews still live.

During Israel's recent mini-war with Hamas, the online Slate magazine published an article by its legal writer, Dahlia Lithwick, titled, “I Didn’t Come Back to Jerusalem to Be in a War.” Lithwick lived in Israel as a child in 1977, the year of Anwar Sadat’s visit to the Israeli Knesset. She recently returned there with her children for another year, in part to enlarge their horizons beyond an American world made up of “equal parts comfort and Lego.” She did not expect the enlargement to include a war with Hamas.

The article began with a memory of peace—Sadat’s visit, in honor of which Lithwick and her little brother “stayed up half the night making an enormous Egyptian flag.” It ended with a dream of peace, asserting that, in defiance of the war being waged outside her window, “We have nothing but peace left to talk about.” Between the dreams, Lithwick tried to come to grips with her own feelings about what was obviously a psychologically painful situation for her. But she also claimed to capture the mood in Israeli society as a whole: “Trust me when I tell you that everyone—absolutely everyone—is suffering and sad. . . . It’s fucking sad. Everyone I know is sad.”

The piece also attempted to transcend the conflict, studiously avoiding exclusive identification with Israeli suffering. It worried about not just “our friends here who are being called up” but the “innocent children on either side are being traumatized by growing up in this way” and the “harrowing accounts of burnt-out basements and baby shoes on each side” of the conflict. “I am worried,” wrote the author, “about terrified children in Gaza.”

Slate’s editor tweeted Lithwick’s piece as “brilliant.” It was praised as compelling reportage by punditsphere inhabitants like Andrew Sullivan. And it took courage for Lithwick to write her article—and to go to Israel, beyond “comfort and Lego,” in the first place. The problem is, the article’s portrayal of Israel’s national mood contradicts everything I know from my experience of having lived through three wars in Israel and the Israeli media’s coverage of this one.

I was in Israel during the 2000-2005 Al-Aqsa intifada, when buses and coffee shops were blowing up; the 2006 war in Lebanon, when missiles were falling on Israeli civilians in the north; and the 2008 war in Gaza, when missiles were falling on Israeli civilians in the south. There was deep, inexpressible grief for those who died; but the Israeli public as a whole was in a fighting spirit—defiant, resilient, and determined. Strangers bolstered each other’s morale. Every day provided examples of mutual aid. People hosted families of complete strangers for extended periods of time in their homes. We dreamed, thought, and argued—about how we might win a war that will probably last a generation.

And what should Israel do?

Yoram Ettinger..
Israel Hayom..
03 December '12..

The November 29, 2012 U.N. vote to upgrade the Palestinian Authority to a “nonmember observer state” — in violation of the 1993 Oslo Accords — was an expected derivative of Israel’s policy toward the PA since 1993 — critical concessions, retreats, indecisiveness, submission to pressure and appeasement.

What has Israel done since 1993?

Unprecedented Israeli concessions — such as the legitimization, importation and arming of 60,000 Palestinian terrorists from Sudan, Iraq, Yemen, Libya, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Tunisia and the evacuation of the Gaza Strip and 40 percent of Judea and Samaria — resulted in unprecedented Palestinian hate-education and incitement, terrorism and noncompliance.

The flabbier the Israeli policy and the frailer the Israeli response to Palestinian terrorism, the more flagrant is the Palestinian abrogation of agreements. For instance, 270 Israelis were murdered by Palestinian terrorists between 1978 and the 1993 signing of the Oslo Accords, compared with some 2,000 murdered since Oslo, mostly by PLO terrorists. In 2000, Prime Minister Barak offered to uproot all Jewish settlements; Mahmoud Abbas and Arafat responded with an unparalleled wave of suicide bombings in the pre-1967 area of Israel. Prime Minister Sharon’s 2005 uprooting of 25 Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria and Gaza induced an unprecedented barrage of missiles on pre-1967 Israel. Israel’s inaction in the face of the 2009-2012 amassing of long-range missiles in Gaza triggered a daily barrage of missiles at pre-1967 Israel.

The post-Oslo conduct by Mahmoud Abbas and Arafat — role models of intra-Arab subversion and international terrorism, Holocaust deniers and allies of the Communist Bloc, Khomeini, Saddam Hussein, bin Laden, North Korea and Hugo Chavez — has reaffirmed that the PLO does not change its spots, only its tactics. Mahmoud Abbas is not troubled by the size — but by the existence — of the Jewish state in the Middle East.

The systematic Palestinian effort to leverage terrorism and diplomacy to eliminate the Jewish state, behooves Israel to resurrect the steadfastness and defiance which characterized most Israeli prime ministers from Ben-Gurion through Shamir.

What should Israel do?

The historical fantasies and fabrications of Mahmoud Abbas

Fresnozionism.org..
03 December '12..

In my post yesterday, I mentioned Mahmoud Abbas’ ugly speech to the UN. Of course the votes of all the representatives were predetermined, but the juxtaposition of Abbas’ remarks to the affirmative votes points up the international hypocrisy surrounding Israel and the Palestinians, as well as a striking ignorance of history.

Abbas began by describing the recent operation in Gaza, whose purpose was to end the missile bombardment of southern Israel and which was carried out with care and precision unprecedented in military history — certainly with far more care than has been employed by NATO in its operations in Libya and elsewhere — as “Israeli aggression,” and refers to “men, women and children murdered along with their dreams, their hopes, their future and their longing to live an ordinary life and to live in freedom and peace.”

He does not, of course, mention the hundreds of short and long-range missiles aimed at the civilian population of Israel before and during the war, a war crime which would have become a bloody atrocity as well had it not been for Israel’s ability to protect its people (albeit at great expense). Later he even suggests that the operation was in response to his UN initiative, and not to the rockets falling on Israeli towns!

He refers several times to Palestinian children, while he well knows that rockets were launched at Israel from residential locations in Gaza and near to schools, thus making human shields out of them.

Then he turns to the primal source of Palestinian resentment, the nakba, in full historical revisionist mode:

Paula Stern - The History of E-1

Paula R. Stern..
A Soldier's Mother..
03 December '12..




The world is up in arms, as it so loves to be. What is it about now?

No, no - not Syria and the violence there. Not Afghanistan; certainly not Iran. They aren't condemning Turkish television fining the Simpsons for mocking God; or a social club at Harvard University saying Jews need not apply. No, it isn't about Hungary cataloging Jews as they would cattle and certainly nothing about Iranian warships sailing towards Sudan.

It's all about a mountain that sits between Maale Adumim and Jerusalem. Even left-wing papers in Israel mistakenly write that Israel is threatening to "bisect" the West Bank and the news is filled with country after country condemning Israel for damaging chances for peace. Chances for peace? We were at war two weeks ago and little has changed. There are currently NO chances for peace on the table. In fact, there is no table.

No, no, no - what we have is a mountain - not a very tall one, smaller even than the ones next to it on three sides.

It is barren, but for a road that snakes its way up to a midpoint where a large police station has been built - barren, but for that building. No one lives there - no one has.

The land was once part of the Ottoman Empire - no village, no homes, no dwellings. Sheep and goats sometimes graze on the lower areas of the hills, but that's about it. When the Ottoman's made way for the British, it was under their rule, and still nothing but the camels and the sheep and the goats and, perhaps, an occasional ground hog.

In the 1920s, England cut off 2/3 of the land that was called Palestine and gave it to the Hashemites - and thus Jordan was born. The remaining 1/3 was ruled by the British until 1947, including that land that today we call E1. In 1948, the Arabs chose war over peace, death over life. They attacked and lost - but they got E1 - the barren land between Jerusalem's eastern border and the west bank of the Jordan River.

Europe Shows Once Again that Palestinian Violence Pays

Evelyn Gordon..
Commentary/Contentions..
03 December '12..

Just in case there were any doubts, last week provided conclusive proof: Yes, Palestinian violence pays. And the so-called “enlightened” countries–those Western states who claim to deplore violence and favor the peaceful resolution of conflicts–are the very ones who will reward violence the most. That’s precisely what happened with the Palestinians’ successful bid for UN recognition as a nonmember observer state.

Most European countries understood that this move would at best not advance the peace process, and at worst hinder it. So some had planned to vote no, while others planned to abstain. But then Hamas dramatically escalated its rocket fire on Israel, forcing Israel to respond; Hamas thus became the center of world attention while the Palestinian Authority was sidelined. So in an effort to give the PA a boost, European governments switched their votes at the last minute: Those who had planned to vote no abstained, and those who had planned to abstain voted yes. In other words, they agreed to support something they had previously considered “unhelpful” just because Hamas fired lots of rockets at Israel.

But the hypocrisy doesn't end there. These same European countries are now furious at Israel’s response: They thought they had an understanding with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Israel would let the UN vote pass quietly. And in fact, they did. The only minor detail they’re overlooking is that Netanyahu agreed not to retaliate for the UN vote in exchange for what he thought was a European commitment to either vote against or abstain. In short, the Europeans reneged on their side of the unwritten deal, but are furious that Israel isn't upholding its side anyway.

The Classic Thug Extortion Trick - Abbas and the Palestinians

Douglas Murray..
Gatestone Institute..
03 December '12..

Watching Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas make his speech to the UN General Assembly, I suspect the same jolting thought passed through my head as it did for a lot of the viewers': "Isn't this guy meant to be the moderate?"

Coming so soon after the latest Hamas rocket-barrage against Israel, the almost physical need to hold onto that dead paradigm can still occasionally override most of the facts. On one side are the Palestinian rocket-launching squads about whom nothing apparently can be done. Then on the other side are the other Palestinians, led by moderates, who just want to sit down and negotiate if they could only find time out of their busy schedules.

Even those of us who know and follow the Palestinian Authority can find ourselves slipping into this narrative: These are the moderates and those are the extremists, and we have to choose between the two.

Except that then you get another golden opportunity to hear Mahmoud Abbas in full moderate flight mode, and you have to rethink it all over again.

When Abbas stood up to take the floor in front of the UN and the world last Thursday, he might have started with a concession. He might have started with a bid for peace or a reaching out to the Israelis. But no, he started once again, in time-honored fashion, with an attack on Israel. And the usual array of hilarious untruths and half-truths.

"Palestine comes today to the United Nations General Assembly…"

Not even a full sentence in and already the "Wrong" buzzer sounds. "Palestine" comes today? Which Palestine? Gaza? West Bank? "Palestine" is not a single entity. It is hopelessly divided. It makes the average boxing tournament look like a meeting of minds.

After all – and as he must surely know – Abbas himself has not even been to the Gaza since 2007. And not because the wicked Zionists have stopped him from doing so, but because his Palestinian brothers in Hamas have such a bad track record for shooting and hurling from high buildings most of Mr. Abbas's erstwhile Fatah colleagues in Gaza, as during the 2007 Hamas coup.

Deadly dangerous games and those who play them

Frimet/Arnold Roth..
This Ongoing War..
03 December '12..

We started this blog some years ago out of immense frustration.

Living here in a democratic society, humanistic values are taken for granted. Human rights can actually be obtained, if need be, by turning to the media, the law and public opinion; no small quality here in this part of the world. We saw over time and particularly after the events of 2001 how a deadly combination of media reporting (sometimes malicious, sometimes manipulated, sometimes incompetent and superficial) and political hypocrisy produced a result in which the war by the terrorists against Israelis went under-reported and was and is, tragically, little understood.

Being the parents of a child murdered in a deliberate and greatly-celebrated massacre of children in the center of the country's capital city makes us feel there's no need to dwell on the consequences of such lethal factors. To us, it's clear that people need to hear about the terrorism and the terrorists. For the most part, that does not happen.

Today there's a reminder of how this sickening duplicity/stupidity/hypocrisy works. It concerns sport.

An Associated Press report from this past Saturday says there's yet another world-wide campaign to damage Israel by appealing to uninvolved parties - in this case footballers - to boycott an international sporting competition that is set to take place here next year.

(Continue)

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(+Video) Benefits of Higher Education - Cheerlead Hamas & Call for the Murder of Jews

Richard L. Cravatts..
frontpagenews.com..
03 December '12..

As an example of what the insightful commentator Melanie Phillips referred to as a “dialogue of the demented” in her book, The World Turned Upside Down, Northeastern University’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), paralleling the moral incoherence of anti-Israel activists demonstrating elsewhere in American and European cities, sponsored a November 15th Boston rally in support of Gaza and, presumably, its genocidal thugocracy, Hamas.


Published on Nov 16, 2012 by Joan Livingston

The members of SJP who attended Tuesday’s demonstration, along with their fellow travelers of anti-Semites, Israel haters, and such psychologically mystifying groups as Jewish Voice for Peace, apparently were not sufficiently concerned when some 12,000 rockets and mortars were launched almost daily into southern Israeli towns from Gaza by Hamas over the past seven years, aimed at civilian targets for no other reason than the intended victims were Jews. In fact, nearly 600 rockets plunged into Israeli neighborhoods just since the start of Operation Pillar of Defense, Israel’s current campaign to suppress further assaults on its populace.

Once Hamas began to deploy more sophisticated, and lethal, Iranian-supplied Fajr-5 rockets, able to reach Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, Israel finally retaliated, as it had in 2008-2009 during Operation Cast Lead, with targeted strikes against Hamas. Despite surgical strikes against terrorist targets, some 100 Palestinians have been killed so far, and the inevitable civilian casualties were immediately elevated by Israel’s worldwide critics to “crimes against humanity,” “genocide,” and “disproportionate” responses to what they evidently believe to be a mere inconvenience for the Israelis upon whom rockets and mortars have incessantly rained down. “Israel’s assault on Gaza will not be tolerated,” Northeastern’s SJP wrote on its Facebook page, lacking any context or the possibility that Hamas’ actions may have contributed to the current conflict, and they called on supporters “to take a stand against these ongoing massacres!”

Granting Israeli citizenship that facilitates terror

Sarah Honig..
Another Tack..
02 December '12..

There was no reason for the shocked reactions in Israel following the disclosure that the suspected perpetrator of the bus bombing in Tel Aviv last week (21 Nov.) was a Palestinian Arab who had been granted Israeli citizenship to facilitate a “family reunion.”

This category of Arab Israelis had been implicated before in terror, espionage, assorted conspiracies to undermine Israeli security and a surfeit of random crime.

Hence, any sense of surprise is misplaced. If anything, this should serve as a reminder. Too many have, for example, forgotten Shadi Tubassi, the suicide bomber who murdered 16 Israelis at a Haifa restaurant a decade ago. He too was allowed here for “family reunion.”

The danger is so potent that even our ultra-liberal High Court of Justice had seen fit – on several occasions, despite its proclivities – not to disallow government attempts (via citizenship legislation provisions) to stem the tide of Palestinian migration into Israel proper. That migration is seen by many as the implementation by the back door of what the Palestinians dub their “right of return.”

One of the most frequent arguments in favor of relinquishing beyond-the-Green-Line territory is the need to safeguard our Jewish majority. That’s why Jerusalem so steadfastly rejects the Palestinians’ insistence on their right to inundate Israel with the progeny of purported Palestinian refugees.

Yet while demographic apprehensions are regarded as cogent on the territorial issue, Israel has incongruously flung the door open to the precise demographic peril that dominates our polemics.

Unbeknownst to most Israelis, the Oslo Accords made possible a steady stream of Arab immigration via family reunion schemes, directly adding well over 140,000 Arabs to Israel’s population in the 1990s. Additionally, untold thousands likely reside here illegally. Israel’s Arab communities are awash with illegals and the police fear to crack down.

Some 100,000 Palestinians work in Israel. It’s time to revoke and/or discontinue their work permits. Anything less puts us all at risk. The general public is unaware that the numbers of Arabs from beyond the Green Line employed in Israel has nearly reached levels that existed prior to the 2000 intifada.

What Could Make an Israeli Party Dangerous?

Jonathan S. Tobin..
Commentary/Contentions..
02 December '12..

Polls don’t show former Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni’s new political party having much of an impact on the Israeli electorate, but she is enjoying some success in attracting veteran politicians to her banner. Seven members of the Kadima party that she led in the last elections have jumped over to the Movement, as her party is dubbed. More importantly, she has attracted Amram Mitzna, a former leader of the Labor Party to run with Livni. Mitzna, who led Labor in the 2003 election against Ariel Sharon’s Likud, is likely to be named to the number two slot under Livni. In announcing his decision, Mitzna denounced the administration of Prime Minister Netanyahu as a “failed government” and said the right-wing tilt of the Likud Knesset list made it “dangerous.”

But Mitzna, who was highly regarded for his service as a general in the Israeli army and as mayor of Haifa, is hardly in a position to say the ideas of his opponents are dangerous. Mitzna is, after all, one of the original advocates of one of the worst decisions in the country’s history: the unilateral withdrawal from Gaza that led to the creation of a Hamas terrorist state on Israel’s doorstep.

Arlene Kushner From Israel - So-Far, So-Good

Arlene Kushner..
02 December '12..

Other obligations prevent me from reviewing background on our historical and legal rights to the land today. But I do not want to let the day go by without an update on the "Abbas-UN" situation:

And as I write, it is, so-far, so-good, because I'm seeing no backtracking on Israeli government announcements. The contrary, actually.

In several quarters the Israeli response to Abbas's move at the UN elicited surprise because just days ago a decision had been made -- which I wrote about -- to keep a low profile and wait and see how matters progressed.

It seems clear to me that what turned the situation about was not the fact that Abbas went to the General Assembly, but the outrageous way in which he spoke about Israel from that podium. It likely pushed a lot of buttons. (If you see Netanyahu's statement to the Cabinet, link below, he alludes to this.)

~~~~~~~~~~

Now I am reading that 1,000 housing units may be built in area E1 between Ma'ale Adumim and Jerusalem. The mayor of the city, Benny Kashriel, says he has plans for 3,500 units waiting for approval.

There are some very specific reasons why the prospect of Israel building in E1 elicits an exceedingly strong opposition in the US and elsewhere: It is often said that were Israeli housing to be constructed in this area it would prevent a contiguous Palestinian state from being established. But this is not so -- there is certainly area to the east of Ma'ale Adumim that could, in theory, be established as part of a Palestinian state.

No, the alarm is about the fact that our building directly to the east of Jerusalem would prevent the Arabs from moving into that area so that they would abut Jerusalem and be able to establish eastern Jerusalem, most particularly the heavily Arab portion of eastern Jerusalem, as their capital. What they insist has to be contiguous is the area from Ramallah, moving down adjacent to eastern Jerusalem and into Abu Dis and south to Bethlehem. Simply abutting all-Jewish Pisgat Ze'ev or Har Homa would not do it for them. See the map. Otherwise, there is no, "Jerusalem as the capital of two states."

How about that.

Israel freed from bonds of Oslo by Palestinian resolution

Fresnozionism.org..
02 December '12..

The UN decision to give ‘Palestine’ non-member observer state status is not likely to have any consequences on the ground. ‘Palestine’ lacks the properties of a state, and words cannot make it one. It is also not surprising that a UN General Assembly vote went against Israel, either. To paraphrase Abba Eban, if Palestine introduced a resolution that the earth is flat and Israel had flattened it, it would get 138 votes. Only 8 countries joined Israel in voting ‘no’, and of those, only the US, Canada and the Czech Republic are important (the others were the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau and Panama).

The Czechs probably remember what it is like to have foreign nations decree that part of their country should be handed over to an evil, racist enemy intent on swallowing the rest; other Europeans, even the Germans (who abstained), seem to have poorer memories.

Some things I noticed:

The Truly Unique Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert

Jonathan S. Tobin..
Commentary/Contentions..
02 December '12..

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s political options at home are limited. His breach-of-trust conviction and his pending corruption trial are preventing him from running in next month’s Knesset election. But even if he could run, the fact that the overwhelming majority of Israelis reject his position on the peace process would give him no chance to defeat Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. So he has done what he and other Israeli political has-beens always do: go to the United States and receive applause from their country’s critics.

To that end, he was in Washington yesterday criticizing his country’s government and saying that Netanyahu’s decision to approve building projects in Jerusalem and its suburb was a “slap in the face” to President Obama. He believes the project to build in the so-called E1 area that connects Maale Adumim with the city was an insult to the president, especially after the United States stood by Israel during the conflict with Gaza and at the United Nations. Olmert is right to say that Obama’s recent support for the alliance has been exemplary and there’s little doubt the administration would have preferred if Israel would have taken its punishment at the UN meekly rather than by showing that it would stick up for its rights. But Olmert’s assertion that the building in the E1 area undermines a two-state solution is belied by his own behavior while in office.

It should be remembered that Olmert offered the Palestinian Authority a state in almost all of the West Bank, Gaza and a share in Jerusalem with the PA to be compensated for Israel’s retention of the settlement blocs with swaps of territory. Among those areas to be held by Israel was the Maale Adumim bloc of suburbs just outside of Jerusalem.

Whenever he is in America earning speaking honorariums from liberal groups, Olmert is always careful to praise PA head Mahmoud Abbas as a genuine partner for peace, even though he didn’t accept Olmert’s proposal just as his predecessor Yasir Arafat rejected Ehud Barak’s offers. Olmert claims that if he had just had a few more months in office, the two could have crafted a deal and brought about peace. But such assertions are either delusional or mendacious.

True and False - Israel’s Motives Behind the Gaza War

Barry Rubin..
GLORIA Center..
02 December '12..

One of the many distortions written about Israel during this latest Israel-Hamas war is that the Israeli government was motivated to act by the fact that elections in Israel are being held on January 22. In other words, the motive is attributed to partisan rather than defensive motives. While this is only one of many inaccurate claims, it is a good illustrative example of how ignorance and malice combine in constructing an artificial picture of Israel.

First, by attributing the war to internal politics the actual motive is made to disappear. The most common distortion on Israel’s behavior in the Gaza Strip has been to ignore the main factor shaping it. If it were not for persistent cross-border attacks, Israel would never intervene militarily inside the Gaza Strip at all.

Even at the best of times, rockets and mortars are fired into Israel from the Gaza Strip and there are attempts at cross-border attacks, both against soldiers on the border and deep-penetration terrorist operations against civilians. These are often carried out by smaller groups like Islamic Jihad and a range of Salafist and al-Qaida affiliated organization.

Hamas likes to maintain the pretense, helped by some in the West, that the Hamas regime has no responsibility for these events. In fact, though, they act with its tacit permission and at times its active assistance. When such groups do anything directly against Hamas’s interests, they are quickly and ruthlessly repressed. When they attack Israel supposedly against the preference of Hamas, the regime does nothing.

If the Israeli military campaign was in response to events on the ground, events initiated by Hamas, it was not conditioned by forthcoming elections. But if elections are given as the cause, it can be claimed that Israel had no reasonable motive and no need to go to war.

The Fallacy of E-1 Contiguity Returns

TS..
Camera/Snapshots..
02 December '12..






With Israel's announcement that it plans to proceed with construction in Area E-1, east of Jerusalem, earlier falsehoods about that land reemerge. Thus, Ha'aretz reports that construction in E-1

would effectively bisect the West Bank and sever the physical link between the Palestinian territories and Jerusalem.

Similarly, the New York Times reports:

Construction in E1, in West Bank territory that Israel captured in the 1967 war, would connect the large Jewish settlement of Maale Adumim to Jerusalem, dividing the West Bank in two. The Palestinian cities of Ramallah and Bethlehem would be cut off from the capital, making the contiguous Palestinian state endorsed by the United Nations last week virtually impossible.

So is it true that construction in E-1 would bisect the West Bank, and severing Palestinian contiguity, and cutting off Palestinian areas from Jerusalem? The answer is no. As CAMERA pointed out in 2005 ("The Contiguity Double Standard"):

Palestinian contiguity in the West Bank would be no more cut off with the so-called E-1 corridor than would Israeli contiguity if Israel were to withdraw to its pre-1967 borders, even with slight modifications.

Here's why. First, take a look at this map of the region:

As arch terrorist prepares to visit vipers' nest, reporters see major changes in his basic principles. Or do they?

Frimet/Arnold Roth..
This Ongoing War..
02 December '12..

One of the world's most prominent terrorists, Khaled Mashaal, since 2004 the "main leader" of the Hamas terror organization and the head of its political bureau since 1996, is going to make his first-ever visit [source: Washington Post] to the Gaza Strip this week.

WaPo is calling this "a sign of increasing boldness" after Hamas "held its own against an Israeli military offensive" and will be his chance to "congratulate its leaders and fighters for battling Israel" according to a senior - but "careful" - Hamas official in Gaza who "spoke on condition of anonymity because of security concern".

It's a propitious time to take a look at some of the open silliness that routinely affects media "experts" when they deal with the practitioners of child-murder.

(Continue)

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Heads-up to the Media - Check Those Civilian Casualty Claims

Steven Stotsky..
CAMERA Media Analyses..
30 November '12..

Each time Israel mounts a substantial military response to escalating Palestinian attacks, Palestinians and their advocates accuse the Jewish state of carrying out attacks that mainly kill civilians. To support their accusations they cite casualty tallies provided to them by Palestinian officials and by various human rights groups with a presence in Gaza. These tallies consistently count most of the Palestinian fatalities and wounded as civilians.

Because the media has been loath to scrutinize the figures provided to them and are often inclined to favor Palestinian accounts over Israeli army accounts, it has fallen to non-media research groups like CAMERA (Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America) and ICT (International Institute for Counter Terrorism in Herzliya, Israel) to offer direct and circumstantial evidence that the ratio of civilian to combatant casualties is significantly exaggerated.

A leading Palestinian source of fatality information in Gaza is the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR). During hostilities, PCHR publishes daily reports identifying individual Palestinian fatalities in Gaza. During Operation Cast Lead (Dec. 27, 2008 to Jan. 18, 2009) and in Operation Pillar of Defense from Nov. 14 through Nov. 22, 2012, PCHR used a similar method of categorizing Gazan fatalities.

PCHR described individual fatalities as either a "member of an armed group", a "member of the Palestinian resistance", a "civilian" or simply reported a name and age without any label. However, in its summation of fatalities, those not labeled were automatically added to the civilian tally.

A substantial portion of those labeled as civilian and most of those not given any label were young men. In fact, adult males under the age of 40 described as civilians or not given any label make up nearly a third of the fatalities.

Tarring Israeli Development near Jerusalem. Who else? NYT.

Leo Rennert..
American Thinker..
30 November '12..

The Dec. 1 New York Times article ("Housing Move in Israel Seen as Setback for a Two-State Plan") by Jerusalem bureau chief Jodi Rudoren about Israeli plans to develop new housing units east of Jerusalem is a highly inflammatory anti-Israel piece that doesn't stand up to rigorous fact-checking. Its main charge, quite erroneous, is that the project would doom creation of a contiguous Palestinian state on the West Bank.

Here's Rudoren's lead paragraph: "Israel is moving forward with development of Jewish settlements in a contentious area east of Jerusalem, defying the United States by advancing a project that has long been condemned by Washington as effectively dooming any prospect of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."

Fleshing out her indictment of Israel, Rudoren adds that "if such a project were to go beyond blueprints, it could prevent the creation of a viable, contiguous Palestinian state."

The area in question, known as E-1, would, she writes, link Jerusalem with the Israeli West Bank city of Maale Adumim to the east of the capital. In the process, Rudoren contends, it would end up cutting the West Bank in two by making it impossible for Palestinian road traffic to proceed from Ramallah in the north to Bethlehem in the south. Territorial contiguity for a Palestinian state would be out the window. The West Bank would be split in two.

Western media and governments, including Washington, have for many years endorsed the Palestinian view. But that doesn't necessarily mean that it has a factual basis.

What are the facts?

(Video) To Hijack Grandpa Abraham? Never!

hebronvideo
01 December '12..









Hebron is where the forebears of the Jewish People lived are buried. Lately, the Palestinian Authority is working to destroy the unique Jewish bond to the Tomb of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs in Hebron demanding that it be declared a National Palestinian Heritage Site.


Published on Dec 1, 2012 by hebronvideo

Make your opinion known. Learn more at www.Hebron.com

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Israel Plans J’lem Housing After UN Vote

Alana Goodman..
Commentary/Contentions..
30 November '12..

Peace Now is calling this a “deal breaker for the two-state solution,” which is a great joke after yesterday’s UN debacle. This is Israel’s reply to the Palestinian Authority’s resolution, and why not? You’d think shredding the 17-year-old Oslo framework might merit some sort of response.

The New York Times reports:

As the United Nations General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to upgrade the Palestinians’ status Thursday night, Israel took steps toward building housing in a controversial area of East Jerusalem known as E1, where Jewish settlements have long been seen as the death knell for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

A senior Israeli official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said on Friday that the decision was made late Thursday night to move forward on “preliminary zoning and planning preparations” for housing units in E1, which would connect the large settlement of Maale Adumim to Jerusalem and therefore make it impossible to connect the Palestinian cities of Ramallah and Bethlehem to Palestinian neighborhoods of East Jerusalem. Israel also authorized the construction of 3,000 housing units in other parts of East Jerusalem and the West Bank, the official said.

Whatever your thoughts on the settlements, this is hardly an eye-for-an-eye retribution. It’s not an explicit violation of any agreements by Israel. Compare that to the PA’s UN bid, which violates article XXXI, sec. 7 of the Oslo accords, which states “Neither side shall initiate or take any step that will change the status of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip pending the outcome of the permanent status negotiations.” (It’s not as if the PA was unaware of that — a member of the Fatah Central Committee said earlier this month that the day after the vote, Oslo would be null and void).

The Sad Story of Palestinian “Leadership”

Elliott Abrams..
Pressure Points..
30 November '12..

Nabil Sha’ath has been a top Palestinian official for decades, serving as foreign minister, ambassador to the UN, planning minister, and in many other posts. He has been in the Fatah Party Central Committee and the Palestine Legislative Council. He accompanied Yasser Arafat to the United Nations as early as 1974. He was for years a key negotiator with Israel, and was a central figure in the PLO’s delegation at the Madrid Conference. My own experience with him was in 2003, when he was part of a Palestinian delegation to Washington. There he was one of several Palestinian Authority (PA) leaders who met with President Bush. Afterwards, Sha’ath told the press the following:

President Bush said to all of us: ‘I’m driven with a mission from God. God would tell me, George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan. And I did, and then God would tell me, George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq… And I did. And now, again, I feel God’s words coming to me, Go get the Palestinians their state and get the Israelis their security, and get peace in the Middle East. And by God I’m gonna do it.’

As the White House said at the time, this was a complete fabrication. No other Palestinian who met with the President made such a claim, and Sha’ath was of course never alone with the President. It was simply false, start to finish. In the aftermath, the PA leaders were told not to bring Sha’ath to Washington in future visits because no one would see him. From 2003 to 2008 he stayed away, but I am told he has been around again in the last four years under a different U.S. president. If that is accurate it was a mistake for the Obama administration, for the problem with Sha’ath was not that he had insulted George Bush but that he had demonstrated he was simply untrustworthy.

Sha’ath is back in the news. He was a member of the Palestinian delegation to the UN last week, has just published an op-ed in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, and went to Gaza right after the recent fighting to give a speech that MEMRI reported.

Here are some of the things he said to Israelis on November 29:

With attention focused on the UN, Gaza remains true to core values.

Frimet/Arnold Roth..
This Ongoing War..
30 November '12..

It's a sunny and pleasant Friday here in Jerusalem. But in the south of Israel, it has been considerably less pleasant.

Perhaps intending to show just how broadly the Palestinian Arabs view their own national aspirations and how very flexible their leadership, their terrorist rocket-men fired a missile into Israel's Sha'ar Hanegev region around midnight this past night (between Thursday and Friday) and then again around 6:25 this morning. Yes, there is a ceasefire, but such matters are not always taken as seriously on the ground as they are in the air (the airwaves, that is).

In the words of the BBC, today was the day when

The UN General Assembly has voted overwhelmingly to recognise Palestine as a non-member observer state - a move strongly opposed by Israel and the US. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said this was the "last chance to save the two-state solution" with Israel. Israel's UN envoy said the bid pushed the peace process "backwards", while the US said the move was "unfortunate". The Palestinians can now take part in UN debates and potentially join bodies like the International Criminal Court. The assembly voted 138-9 in favour, with 41 nations abstaining. Hundreds of Palestinians celebrated on the streets of Ramallah, in the West Bank after the result was announced.

Other voices, as well as other activities - witness the rocket-men's unsuccessful efforts to yet again try to kill them some Israelis this morning - are part of today's events. Times of Israel covered a different aspect of the voices from Ramallah that somehow are not being so well observed from outside this area:

(Continue)

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