Moroccans upset at the microaggression of an Israeli flag - by Elder of Ziyon

...Air pollution, clean water shortages, poisonous chemicals in food - all of that pales in importance to the feelings of Arabs who know that their country is hosting the Jewish state.

Elder of Ziyon..
07 November '16..

This week is the Marrakech Climate Conference - COP 22, the followup to the Paris Climate Agreement last year.

The Israeli Ministry of Environmental Protection is heavily involved in the conference, and it released a very impressive book-length document that describes well over 200 Israeli companies that have technologies to help the world's environment, in the categories of Climate, Solid Waste Management, Water Resources, Building and Construction, Agriculture and Extreme Events and Disasters. Any way you look at it, Israel is a leader in environmental protection, and as such must be a key player in any conference on the topic.

But...it is in Marrakech, Morocco.

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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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Understanding the Human Rights Assaults on Israel - by Elliott Abrams

...Antisemitism means denying the right of Jews to exist collectively as Jews with the same rights as everyone else. It takes different forms in different ages. In the Middle Ages, Jews were hated because of their religion. In the nineteenth and early twentieth century they were hated because of their race. Today they are hated because of their nation state, the state of Israel. It takes different forms but it remains the same thing: the view that Jews have no right to exist as free and equal human beings.

Elliott Abrams..
Pressure Points..
07 November '16..
Link: http://blogs.cfr.org/abrams/2016/11/07/understanding-the-human-rights-assaults-on-israel/

Given that Israel is the freest nation in the Middle East, and the only stable democracy there, the steady assault on Israel by human rights groups and by enemies of Israel using human rights language has always been particularly reprehensible. But it has also been hard to understand: why attack Israel precisely where its record is in fact exemplary by any international standard?

Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks has explained it, concisely. Speaking to the European Parliament in September, in a presentation entitled “The Mutating Virus: Understanding Antisemitism,” Sacks said this:

Throughout history, when people have sought to justify anti-Semitism, they have done so by recourse to the highest source of authority available within the culture. In the Middle Ages, it was religion. So we had religious anti-Judaism. In post-Enlightenment Europe it was science. So we had the twin foundations of Nazi ideology, Social Darwinism and the so-called Scientific Study of Race. Today the highest source of authority worldwide is human rights. That is why Israel—the only fully functioning democracy in the Middle East with a free press and independent judiciary—is regularly accused of the five cardinal sins against human rights: racism, apartheid, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing and attempted genocide.

Rabbi Sacks’s explanation is in fact doubly powerful. Not only does he explain why Israel’s enemies choose the language of human rights, he also reminds us that the central motivation of those critics is, quite simply, anti-Semitism. As he explained,

Palestinian Police Officer Commits Terror Attack. Where's the Coverage?

...According to a March 18, 2016 United States Congressional Research Service (CRS) report, U.S. Foreign Aid to Palestinians, that security aid is “aimed at countering” U.S.-designated terrorist organizations, such as Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad and “establishing the rule of law for an expected Palestinian state.” What that Palestinian state might look like can perhaps be discerned from its institutions and apparent values and those tasked with upholding them.

Sean Durns..
CAMERA Snapshots..
03 November '16..
Link: http://blog.camera.org/archives/2016/11/wheres_the_coverage_palestinia_17.html

A Palestinian Authority (PA) police officer attacked and wounded three Israeli Defense Force (IDF) soldiers on Oct. 31, 2016. The terrorist assault, by PA security forces officer Muhammed Turkeman, went ignored by major U.S. news media outlets.

According to The Times of Israel, Turkeman approached an IDF checkpoint called Focus that is outside of the Jewish community of Beit El, and “opened fire with an AK-47 assault rifle at the troops stationed there (“Palestinian cop wounds 3 IDF soldiers in a shooting attack,” Oct. 31, 2016).” Turkeman was shot and killed by IDF forces, but not before he had managed to wound three of them, one seriously.

A Lexis-Nexis search of U.S. print news media, including The Washington Post, USA Today, The Washington Times and USA Today, showed not a single mention of the terrorist attack.

Fatah, the movement that dominates the PA and is often labeled “moderate” by many in the Western press, celebrated the terror attack. In a Nov. 1, 2016 report, Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), a non-profit organization which monitors Arab media in eastern Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank (Judea and Samaria), pointed out that on their Facebook page Fatah praised Turkeman as a “heroic martyr” and a “martyr police officer.”

PMW noted that Fatah also shared an image on social media of Turkeman in his police uniform and carrying an AK-47. Additionally, “A picture of the Al-Aqsa Mosque appeared together with photos of the terrorist in one of the posts. This connects the terrorist and his attack to the ‘defense and protection’ of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, perpetuating the Palestinian Authority's libel that the al-Aqsa Mosque is in danger from an Israeli attack.”

Reuters’ Leaky Water Story - by Simon Plosker

...Update 2: Despite the Reuters story being debunked and failing to include any Israeli response, Haaretz has republished it on its website. Out of all the media outlets to run the story, Haaretz had the ability to follow up with Israeli sources to verify the credibility of the story. It chose not to, preferring to run with an anti-Israel piece. Disgusting but, sadly, not surprising.

Simon Plosker..
Honest Reporting..
03 November '16..

The issue of water rights and claims that Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza are going thirsty, are repeatedly used as a stick with which to beat Israel. But these claims are also more often than not false. The latest is a story from Reuters headlined: “As water dries up, West Bank village thirsts for a less precarious supply.”

A mountainous Palestinian community in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Al Jab’a differs in many ways from surrounding Israeli settlements but it shares one worry with its neighbors – a shortage of water. …

Residents of Al Jab’a, who once had to walk for hours daily to fetch water, do have limited access to Israeli water supplies in their concrete homes due to a reservoir, pipeline and a pump built in 2013 by an Italian non-governmental organization.

But the water provided is not enough, according to families in Al Jab’a, a village of about 150 houses 12 km (7 miles) southwest of Bethlehem. They also fear their system could be demolished as it was not officially approved.

The story continues with alleged restrictions on the village’s water supply:

But numerous rural and Bedouin communities in the West Bank are not connected to a network run by Israel’s national water company, Mekorot, which is responsible for supplying water to Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied territory.

Except that Mekorot is not responsible for supplying Palestinians with water. This is the responsibility of the Palestinian Water Authority. As NGO Monitor points out, water issues are dictated by the mutually agreed 1995 Oslo II Interim Agreement:

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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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Balfour Declaration, November 2016 - by Colonel Richard Kemp

...But as Lloyd George said of this great venture: "Can you recall any movement worth prosecuting that has not encountered obstacles? Can you recall one persevered in with courage and faith where such obstacles have not been overcome in the end?" David Lloyd George, as in so much else, was of course right. And the words of this Welshman who saw so much in common between his own tiny country and the homeland of the Jews, whose nonconformist upbringing gave him a feeling of familiarity with the Holy Land, are words that should guide those of us who support the State of Israel today: "This Mandate [for the Jewish national home] must be carried out not nervously and apologetically but firmly and fearlessly."

Richard Kemp..
Gatestone Institute..
06 November '16..

This week we enter the centenary year of the Balfour Declaration. This document, signed on November 2, 1917 by the British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour, was the first recognition by one of the world's great powers -- in fact at the time the greatest power in the world -- of the right of the Jewish people to their national homeland in Palestine.

It was the single most significant step taken in restoring Jewish self-determination in their historic territories. Under the San Remo Resolution three years later, the Balfour Declaration was enshrined in international law, leading inexorably to the 1947 UN partition plan and ultimately to the proclamation of the State of Israel by David Ben Gurion on May 14, 1948.

As Britain, Israel and the free world begin to mark this monumental anniversary, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas demands an apology from the UK.

The man whose constitutional tenure as Palestinian leader expired seven years ago, yet remains in place. The man who raised funds for the 1972 massacre in Munich of 11 Israeli Olympic athletes. The man who misused millions of dollars of international aid intended for the welfare of his people. The man who dismissed as a "fantastic lie" the six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust.

This man demands an apology. Of course he does. And in demanding that Britain apologise for a 99-year-old statement supporting a national home for the Jewish people, he exposes his true position, and the true position of all factions of the Palestinian leadership: that the Jewish people have no right to a national home; the Jewish State has no right to exist. According to Abbas, Palestine, from the River Jordan to the Mediterranean Sea, belongs to the Arabs and only to the Arabs.

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Colonel Richard Kemp was Commander of British Forces in Afghanistan. He served in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, the Balkans and Northern Ireland and was head of the international terrorism team for the UK Joint Intelligence Committee.

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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BBC ‘frequent flyer’ Saeb Erekat's other messaging - by Hadar Sela

...With Erekat tipped by Yolande Knell as one of Mahmoud Abbas’ potential successors, BBC audiences’ understanding of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict would of course be enhanced were they provided with some insight into the stance that he (along with other potential candidates) presents to his domestic audience rather than just the PR messaging promoted for Western ears.

Hadar Sela..
BBC Watch..
06 November '16..

In her recent article (previously discussed here) concerning the question of who will succeed Mahmoud Abbas in his roles as president of the Palestinian Authority, chair of the PLO and head of the Fatah party the BBC Jerusalem bureau’s Yolande Knell informed audiences that:

“One potential post-Abbas scenario would see the division of his titles: President, head of Fatah, and Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO).

If different individuals took these jobs it would allow for a more collective political leadership.

This might involve Saeb Erekat, chief negotiator and secretary general of the PLO, and Nasser al-Kidwa, a former foreign minister and representative to the UN who is also nephew of the revered late leader, Yasser Arafat.

BBC audiences are of course familiar with Saeb Erekat due to his frequent appearances on the corporation’s various platforms. They are however considerably less well-informed with regard to the views expressed by Saeb Erekat when communicating with his own people rather than with the audiences of Western media organisations.

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

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Surprise? Palestinians v. Mass Transit - by Jonathan Tobin

...No one who loves Jerusalem–be they Jew, Christian or Muslim–would think of blowing it up under any circumstances, let alone as a protest against an effort to make it a better place to live. Opposition to the light rail system is yet one more indication that Palestinians are unreconciled to coexistence, let alone a two-state solution.

Jonathan S. Tobin..
Commentary Magazine..
04 November '16..
Link: https://www.commentarymagazine.com/foreign-policy/middle-east/israel/2160999-palestinians-v-mass-transit-jerusalem/

The Palestinians already had a long list of grievances against the state of Israel. Some are understandable, albeit a function of the conflict they have refused to end. Some are not reasonable. Their objection to the expansion of Jerusalem’s light rail system falls into the latter category. The thinly-veiled threats of terror from Palestinian Authority officials, who claim that the extension of mass transit to the Old City and the Western Wall will “explode” Jerusalem, are not just irrational. They are yet another sign that the PA considers any excuse for exacerbating the conflict a higher priority than what is good for the city’s residents. It’s also a clear sign of their intentions for the city’s future, which ought to send a chill down the spines of those who imagine a two-state solution would bring peace.

The light rail project, which was begun in the 1990s, has been a remarkable success for Israel’s capital. It has made getting around the congested city more manageable and has, as The Tower noted in August, done much to improve the lives of both its Jewish and Arab population. Though Israel has been rightly criticized for not providing the same level of municipal services to Arab neighborhoods as to Jewish ones—an unfortunate truth that is, in part, the result of Arab non-participation in local government—the light rail is an example of a project that works for both communities. Even the left-wing Haaretz newspaper reported that it had contributed greatly to social cohesion and integration of Jews and Arabs in the city, as well as to the entire city’s economic well-being.

But that is perhaps exactly why Palestinian leaders have consistently opposed it. The light rail became the target of sabotage and arson from Palestinian terror groups specifically because it united the entire city. Even though affordable and convenient mass transit brought economic benefits to Arabs as well as Jews, the PA and Hamas regard it as a symbol of the “occupation” and a threat to efforts to re-partition the capital.

While their past efforts to undermine improvements to the city’s insufficient infrastructure contradicted their other complaints about the unequal resources devoted to Arab neighborhoods, the threats about the Western Wall expansion represent the kind of incitement that could lead to mass bloodshed.

The PA has sought to politicize improvements to the Old City before with results that were catastrophic. The opening of excavated ancient tunnels that led to the Wall in 1996 were used as a pretext for terrorism, which cost the lives of Jews as well as Arabs. The purposes of those protests, just as threats about a light rail extension to the Old City (which would be constructed in such a manner as to do nothing to the Old City Walls and any other historic buildings or homes) was not to highlight discrimination or even high-handed behavior by the Israelis toward Arabs. Rather, the point is to resist anything that makes permanent both the Jewish presence there or the city’s unity. The attempt to depict mass transit as yet another mythical threat to the mosques on the Temple Mount is a canard aimed at promoting religious hatred and violence.

The Necessity of Bringing Israel’s Supreme Court into the 21st Century - by Vic Rosenthal

...The Supreme Court is the most important and powerful institution in the state that is still firmly in the hands of the old left-wing elite. Even if you think it is a benevolent despot, it is still a despot. Shaked’s bill to end its incestuous means of reproduction is a good start to bringing it in line with the rest of the nation.

Vic Rosenthal..
Abu Yehuda..
04 November '16..

The latest battle in Israel’s ongoing struggle to define itself is being fought over the way Supreme Court justices are selected. The 15 justices are appointed by a judicial selection committee of 9 members:

- The Minister of Justice, who chairs the committee,
- One additional cabinet minister, chosen by the cabinet (i.e., the government),
- Two Knesset members, one from the coalition and one from the opposition,
- Two members of the Bar Association, selected by the association, and
- Three current justices of the Supreme Court, including the President of the Court (Chief Justice).

Presently, a super-majority of 7 committee members is required to approve a candidate. This gives the existing court justices a veto power, and – since the Court and the Bar Association lean leftward – gives left-of-center candidates a significant advantage. It also means that the Court is self-selecting and unaccountable.

The Israeli Supreme Court has far more power than the US Supreme Court. Rules about justiciability (what matters are in the purview of the Court) and standing (who can petition the court) are far looser than in other democracies; any citizen can petition the Court about any action of the government. It can throw out a law passed by the Knesset even if there’s no litigation about it. Or it can let it be known before a bill is passed that it will not approve it in its present form, and thereby force changes.

The Court greatly expanded its role and its power as a result of the activities of Aharon Barak, who was a justice from 1978-95, and its President from 1995-2006. The American jurist Richard Posner explains just how much power Barak placed in the hands of the Court (his hands!) in a review of one of Barak’s books. It is eye-opening.

Many Israelis feel that that it is unacceptable that in a democratic country so much power is held by an institution that is almost entirely not accountable to the people or its elected representatives. On the other hand, there is great respect for the Court and for the importance of having an independent judiciary and a rule of law.

The present Minister of Justice, Ayelet Shaked, has submitted a bill to the Knesset to change the rules so that only a simple majority of 5 members will be required. This would eliminate the veto power held by the current justices.

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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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Suarez, SOAS Palestine Society and evil Zionists that control the world - by David Collier

The people watching the event, are invested in the modern fight against Israel’s existence. The base of their belief is the Naqba myth, the tale of a one-sided, pre-planned expulsion. Their history begins in 1948. People like Suarez provide pillars on which this narrative can stand, and for this the SOAS audience are thankful. Suarez helps to reinforce the vision of the Zionist monster in their heads. Yet there is an absence of critical thinking. There is no attempt to challenge or address the tale Suarez has spun at SOAS. There are rarely many questions. He provided a service, he can go home now. Unless of course there are Zionists in the room.

David Collier..
Across the Great Divide..
03 November '16..

I was inside one of the hot spots of radical Islam in London – SOAS. We came to hear Tom Suarez promote his book, ‘State of Terror’. I had not heard of Suarez, and he is a musician, not a historian. The book is published by Karl Sabbagh, who provided one of the speeches at the House of Lords event that saw the Zionists blamed for the holocaust. The only endorsements on the book were from Jenny Tonge and Ilan Pappe. My expectations were low.

My expectations should have been much lower. Suarez is an example of how someone can make a new career out of hating Israel without academic training or even a basic historical knowledge of the conflict. His methodology was clear, ‘I hate Zionists/Jews’, but to write a book, I need to make some citations, and he went off to find some.

Suarez doesn’t come with a backstory or a bio. There is no introduction. From the moment Suarez opened his mouth, until his pillar of sand had been swept aside by several people in the room, Tom Suarez built a narrative that was dripping with hard-core antisemitic undertones.

The basic script was difficult to believe. He has no grounding in history, nor does he seem to have academic research skills. He is clearly not well read, nor does he use diverse source material. What he does is plunder a single archive. Seeking out anything that can seem sinister. This quote, this thought, this demand, then becomes the driving force for the entire Zionist movement.

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

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When women's rights would have harmed J Street's Palestinian statehood campaign - by Stephen M. Flatow

...Yet, just as J Street refused for two years to speak out about the mistreatment of a Jewish woman on its staff, it has refused to speak out about the mistreatment of Palestinian women by the Palestinian Authority (PA).

Stephen M. Flatow..
JNS.org..
03 November '16..

J Street's controversial response to the sexual harassment of one of its staff members raises questions as to whether its attitude toward women's rights is compromised by its political goals.

After J Street learned, in 2014, that one of its staff members had been sexually harassed, it terminated its relationship with the harasser, Israeli journalist and Palestinian state advocate, Ari Shavit. But J Street has now admitted that it never said a word about Shavit's behavior to the other Jewish groups that have been organizing Shavit's speeches around the country.

J Street's two-year silence on the abuse of an American Jewish woman was wrong. J Street's silence about the abuse of Palestinian women is wrong, too, and both situations may well be related.

J Street's central mission has been to bring about creation of a Palestinian state next to Israel. One of the reasons many Israelis are skeptical about that proposal is that "Palestine" would be a brutal totalitarian state. Israelis understand that brutal totalitarian states often invade neighboring countries.

If Israelis believed a Palestinian state would be a tolerant, pluralistic, democratic state, where the rights of minorities and women were protected, creating such a state would seem a lot less threatening to Israel.

So, yes, Palestinian women's rights matter. They matter because it's a question of justice and equality. And they matter because the issue reveals a lot about what kind of neighbor a Palestinian state would be.

Yet, just as J Street refused for two years to speak out about the mistreatment of a Jewish woman on its staff, it has refused to speak out about the mistreatment of Palestinian women by the Palestinian Authority (PA).

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Stephen M. Flatow, an attorney in New Jersey, is the father of Alisa Flatow, who was murdered in an Iranian-sponsored Palestinian terrorist attack in 1995.

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

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The Balfour Declaration: A 67-Word Message That Changed the World - by Jonathan Tobin

...the Balfour anniversary isn’t merely a historical milestone for the Jews. It is also an apt reminder of why the Palestinians remain stuck in a mindset that makes peace unattainable.

David Lloyd George, right and Winston Churchill, center, at the
memorial service for Lord Arthur James Balfour at Westminster Abbey,
London on March 22, 1930. (AP Photo)

Jonathan S. Tobin..
Commentary Magazine..
03 November '16..
Link: https://www.commentarymagazine.com/foreign-policy/middle-east/2160865why-battle-over-balfour-declaration/

Ninety-nine years ago, a 67-word message changed the world. The Balfour Declaration, issued on November 2, 1917, is generally considered the moment when the dream of the rebirth of Jewish sovereignty in their ancient homeland began to come to fruition. But while Jews around the world plan to spend the coming year celebrating the anniversary with efforts such as the Balfour 100 Project, the fact that Palestinians are still seeking to refight the battle over it tells us all we need to know why peace between Arabs and Jews remains nowhere in sight a century later.

The declaration was a letter sent from Britain’s Foreign Secretary to Lord Lionel Rothschild, a leader of that country’s Jewish community:

His Majesty’s government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.

Britain was then fighting for its life. The outcome of World War I was still very much in doubt at the time. Its forces had already invaded Palestine, then a possession of the Ottoman Empire, which was allied with the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary. Scientist Chaim Weizmann and other members of the Zionist movement influenced Balfour and others in the government, led by Prime Minister David Lloyd-George, to see the return of the Jews as an act of justice. In addition to their sympathy for the idea of creating a home for a persecuted people in the land of the Bible, the British were also under the misapprehension that doing so would generate more support for Britain from American and Russian Jews. In truth, Jews had little influence on U.S. policy and none at all in a Russia, which would soon exit the war after the Bolshevik coup the following month. But even though these philo-Semitic statesmen were also motivated in part by anti-Semitic myths about Jewish power, what they did was to set in motion a process that would lead to the British taking possession of Ottoman territory after Turkey’s defeat.

In 1922, the League of Nations gave Britain a Mandate to govern Palestine after World War I, the purpose of which was to create just such a “national home.” But though this helped facilitate more Jewish immigration and the creation of institutions that would prove essential to Israel’s birth, the British soon tired of the task. The British administration was largely sympathetic to the Arab population and often stood by as Arab mobs launched pogroms and placed strict limits on the ability of the Jews to defend themselves. Only 17 years after the Mandate was issued, the British effectively repudiated its terms by placing draconian limits on immigration and land purchases, seemingly forestalling any hope for a Jewish state.

This act of appeasement aimed at conciliating the Arabs also had the effect of trapping millions of European Jews, who might have looked to Palestine as a place to escape the Nazis. After World War II, the British continued to do their best to repress Jewish immigration and hopes for a state. When, in 1947, the United Nations passed a resolution that partitioned Western Palestine (the Eastern portion on the other side of the Jordan River had already been set aside to create what is now the Kingdom of Jordan) into Jewish and Arab states, the British withdrew. The Arabs rejected partition and launched a war to destroy the newborn Jewish state. Their defeat led to the creation of a Palestinian refugee problem (ironically up until 1948 the term “Palestinian” solely referred to Jews living in the country; not Arabs), and the conflict that continues to this day.

Palestinian statehood now won’t solve a single problem, but assuredly will create a lot of new ones - by Evelyn Gordon

Demanding that the PA finally dismantle those refugee camps and take responsibility for their residents off UNRWA’s hands would be an excellent place to start.

Evelyn Gordon..
Analysis from Israel..
03 November '16..
Link: http://evelyncgordon.com/a-message-in-refugee-camp-unrest/

Reuters has finally noticed what Israeli papers have been reporting for a while: West Bank refugee camps are seething. And unlike in the past, when most of the anger was aimed at Israel, “These days most of the wrath is aimed at [Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud] Abbas himself and his failure to keep his promises.” Western observers are watching anxiously, Reuters says, because they fear an eruption of violence. But they ought to be watching for another reason: Nothing casts more doubt on the wisdom of the West’s drive for Palestinian statehood now than the PA’s treatment of the refugee camps over its 22 years of existence.

The case for Palestinian statehood makes obvious sense in the abstract: Palestinians need a state where they can promote their people’s welfare, just as Jews need a state where they can promote their people’s welfare. It’s not that Israel did nothing for the Palestinians during its decades of governing the territories. Palestinian life expectancy jumped by 50 percent under Israeli rule, infant mortality plummeted by more than two-thirds, literacy rates and living standards skyrocketed, and so forth. Indeed, every hospital and university in the West Bank was built by Israel, as were most of those in Gaza.

Nevertheless, there are many things Israel didn’t do, and the refugee camps are Exhibit A. Granted, Israel left the camps intact mainly because its one attempt to provide refugees with better housing back in the 1970s elicited such brutal opposition from the PLO–which threatened to kill refugees who accepted the offer–that it backed down. But regardless of the reason, the refugee camps are precisely the kind of open sore that Palestinian statehood is theoretically supposed to solve.

In reality, however, the PA has done nothing for the refugees. More than two decades after the PA’s establishment, the refugees’ schooling, healthcare and welfare allowances are still provided and funded wholly by UNRWA, the UN agency created especially for this purpose. Or, to be more precise, by the Western countries that fund most of UNRWA’s budget. Nor has the PA moved a single refugee into better housing. And this isn’t because Israel has somehow prevented it from doing so; most of the refugee camps are located in Area A, the part of the West Bank under full Palestinian control. It’s because the PA has no interest in doing so. As one resident of Balata, a refugee camp near Nablus, complained to Reuters, “The president [Abbas] hasn’t visited even once”–despite being in the 11th year of his four-year term.

Uncharted waters and significant diplomatic visits to help Israel navigate its next moves - by Caroline Glick

...Given the dramatic changes in the global power balance, and their implications for Israel, Netanyahu’s decision to fly to visit these four countries just after the US elections tells us that he gets it. At a time of regional and global turbulence and uncertainty, in the context of swiftly multiplying threats, this is no small matter.

Caroline Glick..
Opinion/JPost..
31 October '16..
Link: http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Netanyahus-critical-foreign-tour-471341

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s upcoming trips to Australia, Singapore, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan might be the most significant diplomatic visits he makes in his tenure in office. The trips will take place against the backdrop of two major international shifts that cast Israel into uncharted waters as a small state with a dizzying array of strategic threats arrayed against it. The states that he will visit are all well-positioned to help Israel navigate its next moves.

The first shift is the US’s political crackup.

Next week American voters will choose their next president. The major candidates, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and Republican nominee Donald Trump, are the weakest candidates to have ever stood for the highest office in the land. Their rise is a testament to the weakening, if not the unraveling of the glue that has held America together since the Civil War.

The unraveling of the US electorate comes against the backdrop of the diminution of US military power. The US’s multi-trillion dollar investment in inconclusive if not failed wars in the Middle East over the past 15 years has come at the expense of military modernization. The F-35 program has sucked up the majority of the remaining research and development funds.

And it has yet to produce a reliable airplane.

Worse, the F-35’s long and problematic gestation period has given Russia and China the time and opportunity to develop air defense systems capable of neutralizing the F-35’s stealth systems.

Those systems were supposed to be its chief advantage as the next generation fighter for the US and its allies.

The deterioration of the US’s military capabilities has gone hand in hand with the US’s apparent loss of strategic rationality.

This is apparent worldwide, but is nowhere more obvious than in the Middle East.

President Barack Obama’s decision to effectively abandon the US’s major allies in the Middle East in favor of cultivating ties with Iran has made the region far more dangerous to the US and its spurned allies than it was eight years ago.

Lost in the glare of Arafat worship - by Elder of Ziyon

...While Israelis are building and creating and innovating, Palestinians cannot move beyond the Arafat era...

Elder of Ziyon..
02 November '16..

In the weeks before the 12th anniversary of Yasir Arafat's death, his face is all over the Palestinian Arab news.

The Fatah Facebook page is literally filled with images of Arafat. It has hundreds, and scores have been posted in the past month before this minor anniversary.

More interestingly, Mahmoud Abbas is relegated to a minor role in the Fatah Facebook page, with only occasional stories about him. He is lost in the glare of Arafat worship.

So Abbas does what he has to do - he tries to get some of Arafat's popularity reflected on him.

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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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Peace-maker Saeb Erekat's barbarians and heroes - by Arnold Roth

...“She started screaming, the children saw me and also started screaming, then I stabbed her in her upper body another three or four times. She tried to fight me and tried to take the knife from me. The two children who were there were still screaming, but she continued to resist, so I pushed her, and overpowered her,” he said,....Astonishingly Erekat, who means barbarians like these when he praises his heroes, keeps getting invited to appear on global TV programs and keeps being taken seriously. We're baffled.

Arnold/Frimet Roth..
This Ongoing War..
03 November '16..

He appears to crave publicity. And he gets plenty of it in parts of the mainstream news-reporting industry where his self-flattering claims to being a peace-maker are taken seriously.

He also gets his op eds published in the likes of the New York Times, The Guardian and the Washington Post; is a featured interview subject on the BBC, Aljazeera, PBS and NPR; and manages to insert himself into what he calls "the forces of moderation in this region".

Some serious talent there.

But for our part, we have long felt that Saeb Erekat (and his under-appreciated ability to issue and then serially retract dramatic resignations over several decades) gets less attention than his self-promoting showboating, stunning flexibility in invoking history and outlandish disrespect for truthfulness would justify.

Here's a good recent starting point - a report from a few days ago in which he makes plain the kind of "peace" he has in mind as he goes about making it.

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

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Russia, China and Lessons of the UNESCO Vote - by Maj. Gen. (res.) Yaakov Amidror

...Israelis who cultivate the pipe dream of substituting Israel's long-term bond with the US for an alliance with China and Russia should take a long, hard look at the votes of Moscow and Beijing at UNESCO, where they joined in denial of Jewish links to Jerusalem. Russian and Chinese policies lack the ethical basis that is so prevalent in US policy, and the chances of forging a similar long-term bond with either are slim.

Maj. Gen. (res.) Yaakov Amidror..
BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 375..
02 November '16..
Link: http://besacenter.org/perspectives-papers/375-amidror-lessons-unesco-vote/

The recent resolution by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) denying the Jewish link to the Temple Mount and the Western Wall in Jerusalem is so absurd and detached from reality that it is hard to believe it was passed by what is supposed to be one of the world's most respected international bodies.

It does, however, clarify certain realities: that the Arab claims are devoid of logic, and that the international community readily capitulates to Palestinian whims because of its own cowardice.

The Arab-Muslim bloc was prominent among the states that voted in favor of the resolution, unfortunately proving, yet again, the "no partner" assertion by Israelis who are wary of negotiations with the Palestinians. After all, if this is what the Palestinians and Arabs believe, what point is there in talking?

If Israel and the Jewish people have no historic or religious link to the Temple Mount and Jerusalem, the Palestinians could move to debunk Israel's claim to any of its historic homeland. This would make any negotiations into which they subsequently entered an act of deceit meant to eliminate the Jewish state. Of course, if the Palestinians can secure international achievements such as UNESCO resolutions, they have no need for peace talks in the first place.

Of the nations that voted in favor of the resolution, China's and Russia's voting patterns stand out. Beijing is a rising global economic power that is trying to rival the US, while Moscow is trying to extricate itself from the international corner it finds itself in following the collapse of the Soviet Union's communist empire.

They are each pursuing a dynamic foreign policy that is putting pressure on the US. China is pushing the US in the South China Sea, and Russia is pushing the US in Eastern Europe and the Middle East.

In the case of the UNESCO resolution, however, the Chinese and Russian votes, in opposition to that of the US, were a sign of weakness, not strength.

BBC compromises ‘historical record’ by absence of follow-up reporting - by Hadar Sela

...The absence of any follow-up to the BBC’s reporting on this story (and many similar ones) means that despite suspects having been arrested, indicted and one already sentenced, as far as the BBC’s “historic public record” is concerned, Mr Levlovich’s death was still “apparently” caused by “a rock-throwing attack” and BBC audiences have no idea who carried out that attack or that it was in fact an act of terror.

Hadar Sela..
BBC Watch..
02 November '16..

Anyone searching online for BBC content providing information about the September 13th 2015 rock-throwing attack which caused the death of Alexander Levlovich – regarded as having been the first incident in the surge of terrorism that began in the autumn of 2015 – will find the following vague descriptions of the incident: [all emphasis added]

1) “The Israeli prime minister has vowed to “use all necessary means” to stop stone throwers after an Israeli man died in a car crash linked to such an attack. […]

Alexander Levlovitz died in a car accident apparently caused by a rock-throwing attack in Jerusalem. […]

Mr Levlovitz died and two passengers were reportedly injured after their car was pelted with stones on Monday. Police are investigating the incident.” (BBC News website, September 16th, 2015)

2) “On Monday an Israeli man died after his car was pelted with rocks.” (BBC News website, September 16th, 2015)

3) “An Israeli motorist died earlier in the week in an accident apparently caused by a rock-throwing attack in Jerusalem.” (BBC News website, September 19th, 2015)

The wording used in those reports clearly fails to give readers any idea of the identity of the perpetrators of the attack and their motives. Moreover, when the arrest of suspects was announced two weeks after the attack, the BBC refrained from covering the story.

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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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Pro-Palestinian Vs. No-Palestinian: There Is Another Way, And The Dare Stands. - by Sheri Oz

...The choice is theirs and theirs alone. They just have to decide to re-write their future all by themselves. Do I believe they can do that, or that they even want to? Not very likely, I think. And even if the answer was “yes”, how long would it take me to trust them? A very long time. But I never say never. And the dare stands.

Sheri Oz..
Israel Diaries..
02 November '16..

Here is a unique proposal – become the newest indigenous people in the world. In other words, Palestinian Arabs, you can write your own future. I dare you to. Or, you can continue to bask in the attention afforded you as you persist in the victimhood imposed upon you years ago by your fellow Arabs, based upon an imaginary past.

* * * * *

Pro-Palestinians want to see one state “between the river and the sea”; in other words, they want Israel to cease to exist. No-Palestinians deny the Palestinian Arabs the right to define their own identity. I am an Okay-You-Want-To-Be-Palestinian-But Not-Like-That kind of person. If you really want a name that symbolizes subjugation and failure, that is your prerogative; but does it mean you really have to be a failed People?

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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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But there is one document that the British really should apologize for - by Elder of Ziyon

...Six million were murdered. Tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands, would have been saved if it wasn't for the British White Paper. The disgusting policy of appeasement of what the paper paper literally called "Arab terrorists" - led to the deaths of untold numbers of Jews. If anyone is going to ask for apologies from the British, it should be the Jewish people for the immoral policy that sentenced so many of our relatives to death.

A Jewish demonstration against
the White Paper, 1939

Elder of Zion..
01 November '16..

On this 99th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, Arabs are starting a major campaign to force Great Britain to apologize for issuing it.

This is absurd, of course, for a number of reasons. The The Balfour Declaration was incorporated into the San Remo Resolution and became international law that set aside the entire area of Palestine to become a Jewish national home. This law is still effective today. The campaign is really an effort to deny Jews their right to self-determination.

But there is one document that the British really should apologize for.

The 1939 White Paper severely restricted Jewish immigration to Palestine at the very moment that the Jews of Europe faced death.

The British who wrote it pretended that it was all fair and proper, of course:

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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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Obama is still seeking a Middle East legacy? by Jonathan Schanzer

...President Obama may be the last man on earth to get the memo, but after decades of fruitless efforts to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict it might be wiser for the U.S. to step back until the Palestinians recognize that peace cannot be imposed from the outside. If Mr. Obama is still seeking a Middle East legacy at this late stage in his presidency, his best move is do nothing to make it worse.

Jonathan Schanzer..
Opinion/Wall St. Journal..
31 October '16..
Link: http://www.wsj.com/articles/obamas-israel-surprise-1477956091

The Middle East has few bright spots these days, but one is the budding rapprochement between Israel and its Sunni Arab neighbors, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, thanks to shared threats from Iran and Islamic State. Now the Obama Administration may have plans to wreck even that.

Israeli diplomats gird for the possibility that President Obama may try to force a diplomatic resolution for Israel and the Palestinians at the United Nations. The White House has been unusually tight-lipped about what, if anything, it might have in mind. But our sources say the White House has asked the State Department to develop an options menu for the President’s final weeks.

One possibility would be to sponsor, or at least allow, a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlement construction, perhaps alongside new IRS regulations revoking the tax-exempt status of people or entities involved in settlement building. The Administration vetoed such a resolution in 2011 on grounds that it “risks hardening the position of both sides,” which remains true.

But condemning the settlements has always been a popular way of scoring points against the Jewish state, not least at the State Department, and an anti-settlement resolution might burnish Mr. Obama’s progressive brand for his post-presidency.

Mr. Obama may also seek formal recognition of a Palestinian state at the Security Council. This would run afoul of Congress’s longstanding view that “Palestine” does not have the internationally recognized attributes of statehood, including a defined territory and effective government, though Mr. Obama could overcome the objection through his usual expedient of an executive action, thereby daring the next President to reverse him.

Both actions would be a boon to the bullies in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, while also subjecting Israeli citizens and supporters abroad to new and more aggressive forms of legal harassment. It could even criminalize the Israeli army—and every reservist who serves in it—on the theory that it is illegally occupying a foreign state. Does Mr. Obama want to be remembered as the President who criminalized Israeli citizenship?

Thoughts About An Anti-Israel Activist in Syria - by Jonathan Marks

...It’s no mystery why the organizers of the conference invited Khalek–who thinks the “Western media narrative” is tilted against Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad–to speak on the effects of sanctions on Syria. It is more of a mystery why a woman who thinks chefs should spurn an event in Tel Aviv for fear of legitimizing Israel agreed to speak at a conference that also has Assad regime officials on its roster.

Jonathan Marks..
Commentary Magazine..
01 November '16..
Link: https://www.commentarymagazine.com/foreign-policy/middle-east/rania-khalek-anti-israel-activist-fine-with-syria/

If journalist-activist Rania Khalek did not exist, someone would have to invent her.

A prominent supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, she has proven herself unable to maintain the distinction between the Zionists and Jews, which BDS supporters insist that they carefully make. In December 2013, in the Electronic Intifada, Khalek proposed that the left-wing journal The Nation has a “problem with Palestinians.” Why? It hosted a forum on the boycott movement that included “four Jews and one Palestinian.” Never mind that a majority of the panel favored the boycott. Jew-counting is the best way to determine a journal’s stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The BDS movement also wants to deny that it really singles out the Jewish state. True, BDS supporters say, not all the world’s suffering takes place on the West Bank. But, whether because Israel and the U.S. have a special relationship, or because better things are expected of Israel than an Iran or Syria, Israel should be subjected to special pressure. To put it another way, because Israel is not a pariah state, it should be treated more harshly than pariah states.

But Khalek is incapable of walking even this line. A week ago, reporting from Lebanon, she seemed shocked that people there seem more consumed with Syria and ISIS than the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In other words, it is not only Americans who have a special relationship with Israel, or those otherwise inclined to think well of Israel, who should focus on Israel instead of on conflicts that have already taken hundreds of thousands of lives. Rather, everyone, including those who actually live in a region falling apart for reasons that have nothing to do with Israel, is expected to focus on BDS.

"Pravda on the Hudson" is out of touch with Israel’s mainstream - by Lyn Julius

...As one commenter on the NYT thread put it: “It’s the Ashkenazi wealthy elite – the arbiters of culture and what should be proper politics and thought – that are the ones who are most contemptuous of the poorer Mizrahim, but the same sector is always ready to excuse Palestinian behavior and terror while blaming their own country for everything and anything, an exercise in Left self-flagellation… just before they go back to their expensive high-rise Tel Aviv condos.”

Lyn Julius..
Times of Israel..
30 October '16..
Link: http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/the-ny-times-is-out-of-touch-with-israels-mainstream/

Anyone who follows the news about Israel in the western media could not have failed to notice a feature about Israel’s culture minister Miri Regev (pictured) in the New York Times magazine recently.

Regev’s profile by Ruth Margalit ran to 6,000 words and pulled no punches: despite her personal warmth and underneath her blood-red lipstick, Miri Regev is a female Donald Trump — vulgar, populist, bigoted. The article’s title: ‘Israel’s culture commissar’ left no doubt that Regev was not interested in promoting culture – rather, she was in place to censor it.

Among such acts of stalinism is her walk-out in protest at the rap of a poem by the anti-Zionist Palestinian Mohammed Darwish. She has threatened to cut funding to Israel’s film industry, with its penchant for producing pro-Palestinian, or even anti-Zionist films.

So far has the NYT, dubbed Pravda on the Hudson, moved to the anti-Zionist left, that what the NYT deems Regev’s ‘McCarthyist’ attacks on ‘freedom of speech’ are in fact a mainstream position in Israel.

Regev has declared a cultural war against Israel’s Tel Aviv elite. Their output does not reflect the ‘low-brow’ culture of half of Israel’s population, those Israelis who hail from Arab and Muslim countries and were resettled in Israel’s border towns in the 1950s and 60s. Traditionally, the culture of the ‘peripheria’ has attracted a fraction of the public finds allocated to cultural projects. Regev, who boasts that she has never read Chekhov, is determined to change all that.

The far left, personified by Ms Margalit, has never been shy to push a narrative of ‘discrimination’ by Israel’s Ashkenazi establishment against the more disadvantaged Mizrahim. But now Mizrahim – and particularly Mizrahi women – occupy prominent posts in the Netanyahu government. There is Gila Gamliel, of Yemeni and Libyan parentage, Tsipi Hotovely, of Georgian heritage, Ayelet Shaked, who is half-Iraqi, and Miri Regev herself, whose parents come from Morocco.

Barely noticed by the western media, the Mizrahim are now the Israeli establishment. In deploring Regev’s broadsides against Israel’s European cultural elitists, the irony is that the NYT is ranging itself on the side the elitists. The NYT mis-describes Regev’s family as immigrants, not refugees from Arab antisemitism. Margalit’s article makes no attempt to understand how Regev’s background has shaped her political views.

As one commenter on the NYT thread put it: “It’s the Ashkenazi wealthy elite – the arbiters of culture and what should be proper politics and thought – that are the ones who are most contemptuous of the poorer Mizrahim, but the same sector is always ready to excuse Palestinian behavior and terror while blaming their own country for everything and anything, an exercise in Left self-flagellation… just before they go back to their expensive high-rise Tel Aviv condos.”

For Israel’s left, it is a bitter pill to swallow that an alliance of Mizrahi voters and hawkish Soviet immigrants has ensured, now and in the future, that the old Labor and leftist parties should remain in the wilderness.

And that’s probably the real reason for Margalit’s bitter hatchet-job in the New York Times.

Lyn Julius is a journalist and co-founder of Harif, an association of Jews from the Middle East and North Africa in the UK

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

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The prospect of a Fatah-Hamas unity certainly gets the world salivating, but... by Khaled Abu Toameh

...Israel and the rest of the world are currently facing two Palestinian camps: one (Hamas) that does not want to make peace with Israel because it believes Israel ought not to exist, and the second (Fatah) that cannot make peace with Israel because it is too weak to do so. The next US administration, whatever political persuasion it may be, would do well to mark this reality.

Khaled Abu Toameh..
Gatestone Institute..
30 October '16..

This has become predictable. Given two minutes of breath, Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas resorts to the old tactic of courting Hamas as a way of hiding from the disaffection of his own Fatah faction. The overtures towards Hamas are a smokescreen for what many Palestinians are beginning to perceive as the beginning of a revolt against Abbas.

Last week, Abbas held a surprise meeting in Qatar with Hamas leaders Ismail Haniyeh and Khaled Mashaal. The meeting reportedly considered ways of ending the longstanding dispute between Fatah and Hamas and achieving "national reconciliation."

Abbas aides said the meeting also dealt with the possibility of forming a Palestinian "national unity" government and holding long-overdue presidential, parliamentary and municipal elections in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The unexpected meeting was held under the auspices of the rulers of Qatar, a country that has long been the Number One sponsor of the Muslim Brotherhood organization, of which Hamas is an offshoot.

The surprising nature of the meeting between Abbas and the Hamas leaders makes sense: for one thing, the two sides had, prior to the encounter, denied that it would take place.

Moreover, the meeting came only weeks after Fatah and Hamas traded allegations over the cancellation of the Palestinian municipal election, supposed to be held in the West Bank and Gaza Strip on October 8. Tensions between the two rival parties have since been mounting over the cancellation of the local election, with each side holding the other responsible for "foiling the democratic, electoral process."

So what is really behind Abbas's latest decision to throw himself into the open arms of Hamas? Is the PA president suddenly smitten with genuine concern for "national reconciliation", or did something else prompt him to rush to Qatar?

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Khaled Abu Toameh, an award-winning journalist, is based in Jerusalem.

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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