Twitter today suspended the account of our daughter's murderer, a modest step toward justice

...Whatever the case, the world is a better and safer place with Ahlam Tamimi's voice lowered by several notches. Next step: Tamimi's extradition to the United States to face federal criminal charges. The obstacle preventing that for the moment is that Jordan is refusing to honor its 1995 extradition treaty agreement with the United States.

Our murdered daughter Malki, cuddling her
very disabled, and much loved, youngest sister

Arnold/Frimet Roth..
This Ongoing War..
12 April '17..

Readers of this blog know that Ahlam Tamimi, the mastermind of the Jerusalem Sbarro pizzeria massacre lives freely as a cherished and very public celebrity in Amman, the capital of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

From there, she has had access since October 2011 to the kind of mass-media platforms that aspiring cigarette manufacturers can only dream of: Facebook, Twitter, her own weekly television program, frequent invitations to speak in front of public gatherings of university and high school students, trade unionists and professional guilds not only in Jordan but in other Arab world destinations including Algeria (December 2011), the Gaza Strip (via live video link, addressing a mass rally in January 2012); Kuwait (July 2012 and again March 2014); Lebanon (April 2012 and again January 2015); Qatar (April 2012, again December 2013); Tunisia (April 2012 and again November 2015); and Yemen (April 2014).

Her message is sharp and focused: encouragement for the fighting spirit of the Palestinian Arab terrorists behind bars in Israel, and of their families; encouragement for more frequent and more deadly terror attacks on Israelis and those who stand with them; encouragement of a pro-Hamas, pro-Moslem Brotherhood absolutist message of rejection and destruction directed at anything and everything Jewish and Israeli.

(Continue to Full Post)

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. 

.

A Remorseless Killer and the Myth of the Palestinian Mandela - by Dexter Van Zile

...It is time to stop using the image of Nelson Mandela as a club to beat Israel and start using it as a yardstick to measure Palestinian efforts for peace.

Dexter Van Zile..
The Tower..
April-May '17..

Someday, Mahmoud Abbas, who is in his early 80s, is going to end his term as president of the Palestinian Authority, whether through exile, retirement, or death. Afterwards, of course, there will be a struggle to replace him.

One possible successor is Marwan Barghouti, a PA official who is currently serving multiple life sentences in an Israeli prison for his involvement in the murder of five Israelis during the Second Intifada.

In November 2014, Barghouti called for an uprising against Israel, which, if heeded, will likely kill many Israelis and Palestinians. Nevertheless, Barghouti is regularly described as a “Palestinian Nelson Mandela.” Mandela, of course, spent many years in prison before earning the trust of his adversaries and eventually becoming president of South Africa. As president, Mandela achieved some measure of reconciliation between blacks and whites and, as a result, has been enshrined as a kind of secular saint, much like Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. John Carlin, author of Invictus: Nelson Mandela and the Game that Made a Nation, which was made into a moving film in 2009, described Mandela as “the anti-Hitler.”

(Continue to Full Article)

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. 

.

Why ‘this night’ is still different - by Gerald Steinberg

...Replacement theology is explicitly invoked by the leaders of the church-based boycotts, as well as in justifying Palestinian and Muslim rejection of the Jewish return to active status on the world stage. From this theological position, it is more convenient to erase this history than to deal with the assertion of Jewish rights that date back 4,000 years. In the face of this campaign, the Passover Seder is our collective opportunity to reclaim and reassert Jewish history and the centrality of this legacy.

Gerald M. Steinberg..
Times of Israel..
First posted 05 April '12..
Link: http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/why-this-night-is-still-different/

Over 90 percent of Israeli Jews, we are told, celebrate the Passover Seder. For a society that is often described as predominantly secular, or even anti-religious, this is a very high proportion.

But the continuing centrality of this tradition, which has endured for over 3,500 years, should not be surprising. As Jews, we are defined by our common history, with the Exodus from Egypt, from slavery into freedom, and the entry into the Land of Israel as the defining events. The Seder is a reaffirmation of this legacy, and its centrality to Jewish continuity.

In 1947, David Ben-Gurion appeared before the United Nations Commission, weighing Jewish and Arab claims to this land:

Three hundred years ago, a ship called the Mayflower left for the New World… Is there a single Englishman who knows the exact date and hour of the Mayflower’s launch? …Do they know how many people were in the boat? Their names? What they wore? What they ate?

Not to be taken for granted, a celebration from generation to generation - by Nadav Shragai

...Indeed, neither the birthday of the Jewish people nor the birthday of the Jewish state, linked together by the chain of generations, lie within the realm of normalcy or self-evidence. While there is no problem getting used to their existence, we must always remember, recite and repeat, making sure such milestones are never taken for granted.

Nadav Shragai..
Israel Hayom..
First Published 14 April '14..
Link: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=8075

It was a damp night in 1878. David Gutman was speaking to a group of pioneers who had joined him in celebrating the first Seder night on land known as Mulabbis, what later became the settlement of Petach Tikva.

"Today we are the first birds to greet the light of dawn," prophesied Gutman, an optimistic and tireless man. The reality in which they lived was quite dismal, rife with diseases and complicated by an existential struggle. But on that Seder evening, the pioneers bandied about their comprehensive vision of hope, liberation and light. (These details and more were revealed recently with the publication of Yoel Moshe Solomon's personal diary, by his family).

Tonight, 136 (now 139) years later, in much more prosperous times, living under true sovereignty and independence, we will mark Judaism's original independence day, the day our nation was born some 3,500 years ago. While this original independence day doesn't try to compete with modern Israel's Independence Day three weeks from now, it does imbue a phrase we will shortly recite with contemporary credence: "The nation of Israel, throughout the generations."

Gutman and his friends, just like Hillel who "put Pesach matzah and bitter herbs together and ate them," Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Yehoshua and their colleagues in Bnei Brak, or other generations of Jews, imagined themselves -- as individuals and as a nation -- going out from Egypt. If the generations of Jews had never imagined themselves undertaking that journey and establishing the traditional Seder evening, it's doubtful whether we would even be able to speak about a state of the Jewish people.

How BBC News website passes off anti-Israel hate fest as ‘academic conference’ - by Hadar Sela

...Nevertheless, the BBC News website elected to inaccurately pass off a patently political event as an “academic conference”, to portray delegitimisation and defamation of Israel and Jews as “critique of Israeli state policy”, to depict Richard Falk as a benign academic and to steer audiences towards the view that the event’s organisers suffer “chilling repression”. How all that got past the supposed BBC editorial standards of accuracy and impartiality is anyone’s guess.

Hadar Sela..
BBC Watch..
06 April '17..

Tucked away on the ‘Hampshire & Isle of Wight’ regional page in the ‘England’ section of the BBC News website’s UK page is an article published on March 31st 2017 under the headline “‘Chilling repression’ leads to Southampton conference move“.

The BBC website’s visitors are told that:

“An academic conference which raises legal questions about the state of Israel has got under way at the third attempt.

The three-day meeting opened in Cork, Republic of Ireland, after two failed efforts to hold it in Southampton.

The organisers, two professors from the University of Southampton, accused their employer of blocking the event in 2015 and 2016.”

Later on, readers find the following:

(Continue to Full Post)

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. 

.

It may be a dangerous and difficult neighborhood but have you seen my neighbors?

...These are our neighbors, our husbands, fathers, brothers and sisters but even this is a very incomplete image. The protectors of Israel, our heroes are most often, everyday people. They are the grey people you would never look twice at. They are not necessarily men, or strong, or even Jewish. Israel does not divide by religion, race or gender but by values. By people who stand for what is right and people who do not.

Stranger shields father and newborn
with his own body
(Operation Protective Edge 2014)

Forest Rain..
Inspiration from Zion..
First Posted 25 October '15..

There is a parable that says:

When God created the world he decided that Israel would be the land of the chosen people, the land of the Jews. The angels approached God, saying: “You are giving the Jews a land flowing with milk and honey in the heart of the world. Don’t you think it will make the other nations of the earth feel you are playing favorites?”

And God answered: “Yes, that is true… But have you seen the neighborhood?”

In reality, Israel was not “flowing with milk and honey” until Israelis made it so. We were not blessed with a land rich in any of what would normally be considered natural resources. What we have are human resources, the creativity and the drive to make something out of nothing. To solve problems and improve the world, for ourselves and for others.

On the other hand our “neighborhood” could easily be considered awful. We are surround by hostile countries. Blessed with similar (and often better) resources than Israel, our neighbors not only strive to destroy us but do very little to improve life for their own people. Continuing the neighborhood allegory, it is like living in a gang-riddled neighborhood where the neighbors not only break in to your home to steal your things (and possibly rape or murder your family on the way), they also leave their own homes to rot, neglecting their own children so that they too become criminals and even murderers.

It would be easy to look at Israel and conclude that this is a land of opportunity, of beauty and miracles plagued with the violence of the terrible neighborhood we are living in. Watching wave after wave of terror attack batter the people of Israel, it would be easy to think that this is a frightening place to live, that anyone in their right mind would do everything possible to escape the danger.

You could… however that would be missing the important point entirely.

(Continue to Full Post)

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. 

.

Revisiting a 2014 story ignored by the BBC – and why it matters - by Hadar Sela

...Untold stories such as that of Ayala Shapira are no less important than the fatal attacks which do make BBC headlines in helping audiences to understand Israel’s policies, counter-terrorism measures and the concerns of the Israeli people. The fact that such stories are ignored also means that when Israel is obliged to respond to rising terrorism, audiences and BBC journalists alike are unable to put events into their appropriate context and thus arrive at uninformed and inaccurate conclusions. Any media organisation genuinely committed to fully informing its audiences would make efforts to periodically report that essential context.

Photo credit: Jerusalem Post

Hadar Sela..
BBC Watch..
09 April 17..

Back in December 2014 we noted the absence of any BBC coverage of a serious terror attack.

“…at around 18:30 local time on December 25th – a father and his eleven year-old daughter who were driving home near Ma’ale Shomron in Samaria were attacked with a petrol bomb which set their vehicle on fire.

“The girl suffered third degree burns over the majority of her body and face and was placed in an induced coma.

Professor Zeev Rotstein, director of the Sheba Medical Center, said that she suffered life threatening burns to her torso, head, arms and legs, and that “we will do everything in order to save her life.””

The little girl who was badly burned in that attack, Ayala Shapira, is now thirteen years old and recently, as reported by Ynet, together with her mother she travelled to the European parliament to tell her story.

(Continue to Full Post)

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. 

.

Not everything's gloom and doom for the family of murder-by-vehicle attacker - by Arnold Roth

...So for the Hamed clan, a little upset perhaps by last night's reduction in their sense of justice and dignity: hang in there! The World Council of Churches is on its way! And for the members of WCC-affiliated churches, we feel your shame.

Single family house in Silwad: Somehow,
 they manage to get by
[Image Source: Israellycool]

Arnold/Frimet Roth..
This Ongong War..
07 April '17..

Some follow-on reports arising from the killing yesterday of a young IDF serviceman outside Ofra in a vehicle-borne terror attack.

According to Ynet today:

- Malak Hamed is the 21-year-old resident of Silwad [population roughly 6,000] who killed Elchai Tahar-Lev הי"ד and injured another soldier in that car-ramming attack on Thursday.
- He had been arrested in 2015 for trying to illegally penetrate Geva Binyamin (also known as Adam) on Jerusalem's northern edge. He was held in custody at the time and then released after three months. Evidently not long enough.
- A joint task force of the IDF, Shin Bet, and Israel and Border Police took control of the homes of Malak Hamed's extended family on Thursday night. Hamed's brother was arrested during the operation.
- Six cars in their control were seized after being identified as stolen vehicles. In addition, NIS 40,000 in cash was seized on the suspicion of being used to fund terrorism.
- The extended Hamed family is said to be linked to Hamas. Nine members of the family have committed terrorist crimes in the Judea and Samaria districts over the years.

(Continue to Full Post)

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. 

.

Surprise? BBC News report does not include the words terror, terrorism or terrorist - by Hadar Sela

It is worth remembering that since the surge in terror attacks in late 2015, the BBC has consistently failed to provide its audiences with any serious reporting on the topic of incitement and glorification of terrorism by Palestinian officials.

Hadar Sela..
BBC Watch..
07 April '17..

On the morning of April 6th a vehicular attack took place near Ofra. One IDF soldier -Sgt. Elhai Teharlev, aged 20 – was murdered and another injured. The perpetrator was apprehended.

Shortly after news of the attack broke the BBC News website published a report titled “Israeli killed in West Bank car-ramming attack” which was later amended after the victim’s name was released.

“An Israeli soldier has been killed and another Israeli hurt in a Palestinian car-ramming attack in the occupied West Bank, the Israeli military says.

The military said the driver was taken into custody after the incident near the Jewish settlement of Ofra. […]

Witnesses told Israeli media that the car approached a bus stop at the Ofra junction, on the Route 60 highway north-east of Ramallah, and then accelerated towards the two Israelis waiting there.”

As usual – and in sharp contrast to many of the BBC’s reports on the vehicular attack in London just two weeks ago – the article does not include the words terror, terrorism or terrorist.

(Continue to Full Post)

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. 

.

Do Palestinians Want a Two-State Solution? Actually most Palestinians say otherwise. - by Daniel Polisar

Western statesmen and politicians have long asserted that the two-state solution commands majority support on the ground. Most Palestinians say otherwise.

Daniel Polisar..
Mosaicmagazine.com..
03 April '17..

Last December, while defending the Obama administration’s decision to allow passage of a UN Security Council resolution condemning Israel’s settlement policy, outgoing Secretary of State John Kerry laid out the options facing Israelis and Palestinians:

[I]f the choice is one state, Israel can either be Jewish or democratic—it cannot be both—and it won’t ever really be at peace. Moreover, the Palestinians will never fully realize their vast potential in a homeland of their own with a one-state solution. Most on both sides understand this basic choice, and that’s why it’s important that polls of Israelis and Palestinians show there is still strong support for the two-state solution—in theory. They just don’t believe that it can happen.

In emphasizing the “strong” popular support on both sides for a two-state solution, Kerry was following in his own footsteps. Whether in public statements or in private meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders, he had repeatedly cited polling evidence to advance his case for a two-state solution throughout his four-year tenure at the State Department.

(Continue to Full Article)

Daniel Polisar is executive vice-president and a member of the faculty at Shalem College in Jerusalem. A Ph.D. in political science, he focuses on the challenges of liberalization in the Palestinian Authority, Israel’s constitutional development, and Palestinian and Israeli public opinion.

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. 

.

That Palestinian Authority Problem - by Jonathan Tobin

...This situation continues because Abbas thinks his foreign sugar daddies have no leverage over him. PA leaders and their families have stolen billions in aid they received during the last two decades without ever being held accountable. More to the point, the PA would collapse if it could not continue doling out salaries to supporters for the no show and no work jobs that are the basis of its political power.

Jonathan Tobin..
Israel Hayom..
06 April '17..
Link: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=18789

This week, critics were given another reason to be outraged about the massive funds given by the United States and its Western allies to the Palestinian Authority. A new study from the Hebrew University revealed that one of the PA's elementary school textbooks "teaches students to be martyrs, demonizes and denies the existence of Israel, and focuses on a 'return' to an exclusively Palestinian homeland."

The textbook is the latest evidence that -- contrary to former U.S. President Barack Obama's claim that it was a force for peace -- the PA has been actively fomenting hate against Israel and educating its children to oppose peace with Israel and coexistence with Jews since it was empowered by the Oslo Accords in 1993. Since then, new generations of Palestinian Arabs have been inculcated in a version of national identity that is inextricably tied to a war against Zionism.

Those who want to hold the PA and its leader Mahmoud Abbas accountable advocate withholding U.S. funds until they stop supporting terror. But they must still answer this daunting question: Will depriving the PA of the money that keeps the kleptocratic West Bank government functioning do more harm than good? While the Israeli government has been vocal in condemning incitement it has been conspicuously silent about putting teeth into those criticisms.

The reason for that is obvious. The question is not whether the PA condones and even subsidizes the behavior that makes peace an impossible dream. Rather it is whether it is a sleazy partner that neither Israel nor the West can afford to lose. Were its foreign sponsors to cease the subsidies that provide the cash that keeps it in business, Israel would be forced to assume direct control over the West Bank and do without the help of the PA's ambivalent security services. Since no one in Jerusalem wants that to happen, the PA must be considered too big to fail.

ISIS adopts Hamas terror tactic because it gets results - by Evelyn Gordon

...ISIS obviously bears primary blame for all civilian deaths in Mosul. But a portion of that blame is shared by every journalist, “human rights” activist, politician and demonstrator who blamed Israel rather than Hamas for civilian deaths in Gaza–because they are the ones who persuaded ISIS that deliberately sacrificing civilians is an effective way to fight a war.

Evelyn Gordon..
Analysis from Israel..
06 April '17..
Link: http://evelyncgordon.com/isis-borrows-a-tactic-from-hamas/

The U.S. Army recently announced that it has horrifying video footage of Islamic State fighters herding Iraqi civilians into buildings in Mosul. The plan was not to use them as human shields–that is, to announce their presence in the hope of deterring American airstrikes. Rather, ISIS was deliberately trying to ensure that American troops killed them, by “smuggling civilians into buildings, so we won’t see them and trying to bait the coalition to attack,” an army spokesman said at a briefing for Pentagon reporters. The motive, he explained, was hope that massive civilian casualties would produce such an outcry that the U.S. would halt airstrikes altogether.

There’s an important point to this story which the spokesman neglected to mention: This tactic is borrowed directly from Hamas. And it was borrowed because the world’s response to successive Hamas-Israel wars convinced ISIS that creating massive civilian casualties among residents of its own territory is an effective strategy.

Admittedly, Hamas hasn’t yet been caught on video actually herding civilians into buildings before launching attacks from them. But there’s plenty of evidence that Hamas prevented civilians from leaving areas whence it was launching rockets or other attacks at Israel, thereby deliberately exposing them to retaliatory strikes.

During the 2014 Gaza war, for instance, the Israel Defense Forces warned civilians to evacuate the town of Beit Lahiya before launching air strikes at Hamas positions. But according to Palestinian human rights activist Bassem Eid, who based himself on interviews with Palestinians in Gaza, Hamas gunmen showed up and warned that anyone who left the town would be treated as a collaborator. Since Hamas executes collaborators, that was equivalent to saying that anyone who tried to leave would be killed on the spot. Thus, faced with the alternative of certain death at Hamas’s hands, most Beit Lahiya residents understandably opted to stay and take their chances with the IDF.

There’s also plenty of evidence that Hamas deliberately launched attacks from buildings where it knew civilians were present. Just last month, for instance, I wrote about a case during the 2009 Gaza war in which Hamas directed sniper fire at Israeli troops from the third floor of a well-known doctor’s home, thereby forcing the soldiers to choose between becoming sitting ducks or shooting back and risking civilian casualties. Unbeknownst to the soldiers, Hamas was also storing explosives in the house (using civilian buildings as arms caches or wiring them with explosives is standard practice for Hamas). Consequently, when the soldiers fired at the Hamas position, an unexpectedly large explosion ensued, killing three of the doctor’s daughters and one of his nieces.

Amplifying Balfour agitprop yet again at BBC News - by Hadar Sela

The BBC cannot claim to be providing its audiences with accurate and impartial coverage of the topic of the already redundant – yet ongoing – ‘Balfour Apology Campaign’ if it reports – and amplifies – support for that campaign from certain British parliamentarians without also clarifying to audiences their record on Israel and their links to organisations connected to a Palestinian terror group proscribed by the British government.

Hadar Sela..
BBC Watch..
06 April '17..

Last July the BBC News website chose to amplify Palestinian Authority agitprop in an article misleadingly titled “Palestinians plan to sue Britain over 1917 Balfour act” which was discussed here at the time.

Last October the BBC News website gave a whitewashed account of an event at the House of Lords at which veteran anti-Israel campaigner Jenny Tonge hosted a re-launch of the ‘Balfour Apology Campaign’ run by the Hamas-linked ‘Palestinian Return Centre’ (PRC).

In January 2017 the BBC refrained from reporting on related statements made by the Palestinian Authority’s Riyad al Maliki.

“When I met the British foreign secretary, I told him very clearly what we expect. We expect them to apologize, to accept their historical responsibility, to acknowledge [their culpability], and to pay reparations.” [emphasis added]

“So far, we haven’t heard from them. The current escalation on their part makes us consider [possible] Palestinian action with regard to all those issues, including our action with regard to the Balfour Declaration. I won’t be divulging anything by saying that we have made plans for action in the framework of our embassies and our communities in Europe and Britain, and plans to mobilize civil society institutions in Britain and elsewhere.” [emphasis added]

The British government has of course made it clear on several occasions that it has no intention of apologising for the Balfour Declaration.

(Continue to Full Post)

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. 

.

By All Means. Let Me Show You Genocide Under Israeli Occupation - by Sheri Oz

...If the PA wants to deceitfully inflate population data in order to scare Israel with the “demographic time bomb” whereby Muslims will outnumber Jews if we declare sovereignty over all of Judea & Samaria, then let them do that. If they want to lie and accuse Israel of committing genocide against the Arabs living under the PA, let them do that. Do they not realize, however, that these two lies cancel each other out?

Sheri Oz..
Israel Diaries..
05 April '17..








By chance I came across census statistics for the town of Idhna, near Hebron, in Judea & Samaria. I put the numbers onto a table and this is what I got:

This means that under the British, the town showed an increase of between 33 and 46 people per year (1922-1945) or 3.5%. Under Jordanian occupation (until 1967), this went up to 80 people, or 1.9%, per year. We have no way of knowing what proportion of this was by migration to the town or natural growth, nor how many people left Idhna over those years.

Two population statistics sites (PRB and Index Mundi) quote a figure of 2-3% annual population growth up until 2014 for the entire Judea & Samaria region, which they call The West Bank, of course. According them, this rate of growth is currently one of the highest in the world. If you are interested, you can compare this to annual population growth rates in Jordan, Israel, the USA and China,...

(Continue to Full Post)

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. 

.

Unsurprisingly, BBC ignores another story of Hamas abuse of humanitarian aid - by Hadar Sela

...Since the 2014 conflict the BBC has put considerable effort into persuading its audiences that the dire economic and social conditions in the Gaza Strip are primarily attributable to Israel – while serially ignoring Hamas’ abuse of its civilian population and misappropriation of resources intended to better their lives. Perhaps unsurprisingly then, this latest story of Hamas abuse of charity and humanitarian aid has not received any BBC coverage.

Hadar Sela..
BBC Watch..
05 April '17..

Two weeks have passed since the Israeli security services announced the arrest of a resident of the Gaza Strip suspected of channelling to Hamas aid and funds provided by Turkey.

“The manager of the Gaza branch of the Turkish International Cooperation and Development Agency (TIKA), Muhammad Murtaja, was arrested last month on suspicion that he was working on behalf of Hamas, the Shin Bet announced on Tuesday. […]

According to the security agency, Murtaja took advantage of his position in TIKA in order to direct funds and resources away from “meaningful humanitarian projects” and toward Hamas’s military wing.

One apparent scam detailed by the security service allowed “millions of shekels” to be given to Hamas members in food and cash.”

As the Jerusalem Post reports, Murtaja was arrested in February while travelling from Gaza to Turkey, via Israel.

(Continue to Full Post)

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. 

.

Some Thoughts Concerning Shifrah Leaving the Big Tent - by Caroline Glick

“If I will have to choose between losing more lives of Israelis, whether they are civilians or soldiers, or losing you, I will sadly, sorrowfully, rather lose you.”And as Ohana noted, “Each and every one of them [was] targeted to kill us.”

Caroline Glick..
Column One/JPost..
03 April '17..
Link: www.jpost.com/Opinion/Column-One-Leaving-the-big-tent-486004

The divided between Israelis and American Jews seems to be growing. Indications of the widening gap came last week with reports of a confrontation between an American Jewish activist and four members of Knesset, from across the political spectrum, at a synagogue near Boston.

As reported at The Algemeiner, at the end of a forum at Brookline’s Congregation Kehillath Israel, an audience member named Shifrah told the four Israeli lawmakers, “You are losing me and you are losing many, many people in the Jewish community… I cannot look the other way when three Israeli teenagers are brutally murdered and the response is to kill 2,300 Palestinians [in Operation Protective Edge in 2014]. I want to know what you are doing to make peace with the Palestinians. I want to know what the government is doing to make peace.”

Despite the general fractiousness of Israeli politics, the lawmakers, who spanned the Right-Left spectrum, rejected the woman’s claims. Not one of them was willing to accept her view that Israel was morally impaired for defending itself from Hamas’s terror war against it. Each in his or her own way pointed out that the woman’s question exposed a callous indifference and utter ignorance to the actual situation in Israel.

Speaking last, Likud MK Amir Ohana noted that Israel didn’t enter into its war with Hamas three years ago because of the execution and abduction of the three youths by Palestinian terrorists. Israel went to war against Hamas in Operation Protective Edge because the terrorist regime in Gaza began pummeling Israel with tens of thousands of mortars, rockets and missiles.

Ohana concluded, “If I will have to choose between losing more lives of Israelis, whether they are civilians or soldiers, or losing you, I will sadly, sorrowfully, rather lose you.”

To a degree, the Brookline exchange was a watershed event. This is true for two reasons.

First, there was the unanimity of the responses. And second, the lawmakers were willing to walk away from the increasingly vocal anti-Israel faction of the American Jewish community.

Shifrah’s statement was a moral and criminal indictment of Israel. It was also an egregious slander of the entire country.

Shifrah stood before a crowd of American Jews at a synagogue and alleged libelously that in retribution for the murder of three boys, Israel maliciously killed 2,300 innocent Gazans.

And the Knesset members told her not to let the flap slam her on her way out of the pro-Israel tent.

This action was long in the making and long overdue. For more than a decade, American Jews led by radical rabbis and thought leaders have been threatening Israel.

Something you rarely read about Marwan Barghouti the killer - by Arnold Roth

Barghouti, the terrorist thug, is not an orchestrator. He's not (just) a jailed terrorist. He's a convicted murderer. From experience, it's exceedingly rare for him to be called that in news reports.

Arnold/Frimet Roth..
This Ongoing War..
04 April '17..

Times of Israel has a report today ["Jailed Fatah terrorist organizing hunger strikes, protests"] by Avi Issacharoff, its high-profile Middle East analyst, that focuses on the latest manouveurings by Marwan Barghouti to stay in the public spotlight.

We added this to the comments section at the foot of the article:

News sites ought to be very careful about how they describe convicted felons who have a political role to play. How they're labeled in the news has a strong impact on how they're viewed. Almost no one goes back and does their own research. They rely on the "experts".

Marwan Barghouti and his Fatah handlers must be pleased by the headline of this story. They are probably also happy for him to be described as "jailed for life by Israel for orchestrating a string of murders during the Second Intifada..." as he is in this report.

(Continue to Full Post)

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. 

.

A silence as loud as the standing ovation for a murderer in Chicago on Sunday - by Elder of Ziyon

Where are the liberals who are suddenly so sensitive to antisemitism during all of these calls to eliminate the Jewish state, to deny Jewish self-determination and to support terror attacks against Jews in the name of "resistance"? Their silence is as loud as the standing ovation for a murderer in Chicago on Sunday.

Elder of Ziyon..
03 April '17..

In an opinion piece in the New York Times, Michelle Goldberg of Slate writes about racism on the right but also tries to compare and contrast it with antisemitism.

I was struck by this section:

The president and his associates mix anti-Semitic dog whistles with frank attacks on Muslims, immigrants and refugees. The paradox is that in today’s America, coded anti-Semitism is more of a political taboo than open Islamophobia.

There is no doubt that the words of President Trump and his advisors are parsed to the nth degree to find the alleged antisemitic dog-whistle messages.

But the liberal side of America is completely deaf to the antisemitic dog whistles from their own.

The most egregious case this week is the almost complete silence from the Left on the promotion of terrorist Rasmea Odeh as somehow a symbol of liberalism and justice. Anyone who accepts the lie that Odeh was innocent of her role in a 1969 supermarket bombing is nothing but an antisemite, someone who will bend over backwards to justify the deaths of innocent Jews in Israel.

(Continue to Full Post)

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. 

.

Diplomas for Terror and the Unashamed Glorification of Murderers - by Bassam Tawil

...And so it continues: the unashamed glorification of murderers; terrorists paraded as role models and paragons of virtue to yet another generation of Palestinians. Under these conditions of unremitting incitement, no Palestinian can talk about peace with Israel. When President Abbas visits the White House, it will be interesting to see if his "peace" stance includes a discussion of the Diploma for Terror.

Bassam Tawil..
Gatestone Institute..
03 April '17..

Palestinians who are being held in Israeli prisons are "a model for sensibility and national culture and constitute a pillar for the establishment of a Palestinian state." This glorification of Palestinian prisoners, many of whom are behind bars for murdering Jews, was issued last week by Fayez Abu Aitah, a senior representative of President Mahmoud Abbas's ruling Fatah faction.

Abu Aitah's words of appreciation for murderers of Jews came during a visit he paid to Hatem al-Maghari, a Palestinian Authority (PA) policeman who was released last week after serving 17 years in prison for his role in the lynching of two Israeli reserve soldiers who mistakenly entered Ramallah. Upon his arrival at his home in the town of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, Al-Maghari received a hero's welcome. Hundreds of Palestinians have since converged on his home to congratulate him on his release from prison and heap praise him on for his "contribution" to the Palestinian cause.

Abbas's Fatah was quick to embrace al-Maghari as "one of our sons" in order to send a message to Palestinians that the Fatah faction is also involved in terror attacks against Israel. For years, Fatah's opponents have been accusing it of abandoning the "armed struggle" in favor of a peace process with Israel. Groups such as Hamas, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and Palestinian Islamic Jihad continue to criticize Fatah for not being sufficiently active in the terror campaign against Israel.

The release of al-Maghari provided an opportunity for Fatah to remind its Palestinian enemies of its "contribution" to the war against Israel.

(Continue to Full Post)

Bassam Tawil is a scholar based in the Middle East.

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. 

.

Falling victim to the media's "most ethical" behavior - by Frimet Roth

...Please share this post with your friends. You will thereby help to intensify the pressure that is vital to achieving Tamimi's extradition by the Jordanian king. Our meeting here with the people from the US Department of Justice three weeks ago persuaded us that that is the only chance we have of seeing this evil woman brought to justice.

Frimet Roth..
The Good, The Bad, The Ugly..
02 April '17..



Like many of you, I've been cleaning, sorting and finding the unexpected these days.

Yesterday, a birthday card that the entire family gave our Malki on her 11th birthday turned up. Each of us had written our wishes and mine read:

"My Dearest Mali,
You are a constant source of נחת [Hebrew: pleasure] to us - may you continue in your דרך [Hebrew: way] until מאה ועשרים שנה years [120 years is the traditional Jewish wish for a full lifespan] in good health... And not to worry about a profession; you seem blessed with the skills of an extremely competent עוזרת [Hebrew: cleaning lady - she always tidied up after me] as well as a very talented finder. [She always located the many items I constantly misplaced]. What more can one wish for? Of course, if those fields don't pan out for you there are always those musical, mathematical and artistic talents to fall back on (though we'd be understandably disappointed in that event). In the meantime, עלי והצליחי [Hebrew: Rise and succeed] and enjoy!
Love, Mom"

She only lived another four and a half years. The pain of longing for her is indescribable.

But there is another pain that I can convey. Its source is the injustice of her murderer's freedom and continued incitement to kill more Jews. And the sympathy she garners from the mainstream media.

(Continue to Full Post)

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. 

.

Eddie Izzard, Palestinian Discrimination and Who Will Have the Last Laugh - by Dr. Michael Curtis

...This is the time for a real “red line,” one dividing those who offer genuine criticism of Israel policy and suggestions to change them, and those who urge delegitimizing and extermination of the State of Israel, denying the right of the Jewish People to self-determination, and propounding antisemitism. As a result of his experience Eddie Izzard can help draw that line. The comedian will have the last laugh.

Dr. Michael Curtis..
American Thinker..
02 April '17..
Link: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2017/04/eddie_izzard_the_comedian_confronts_palestinian_discrimination.html


A saying attributed to the great boxer, the Brown Bomber Joe Louis, about to fight Billy Conn in June 1941, is “You can run but you can’t hide.” Conn did not hide and did well until he was knocked out in the 13th round. In March 2017, British comedian, actor, and writer, Eddie Izzard did not hide, nor was he knocked out, but he withdrew from running “for freedom” in a marathon run because of opposition to him on the part of the organizers, the Palestinian Campaign for the Cultural and Academic Boycott of Israel, and Artists for Palestine UK (APUK), part of the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) movement against Israel.

Eddie Izzard is an unusual figure, born in Aden, then a British colony and now part of Yemen, to British parents, well known for his stand-up comedy routine with stream of consciousness delivery, and rambling monologues, his outspokenness, and a private life that includes cross-dressing and ambivalent sexuality. His comedy routine is popular, but as a result of it he was accused of a heinous offense.

On March 30, 2017, Izzard had entertained an audience at the Shlomo Group Arena in Tel Aviv. Because of this gig, the Palestinian officials in control of the marathon that was held the next day, though not the official Palestinian Authority, said he could not run in the marathon. They refused to accept Izzard’s explanation that he was “trying to be balanced by doing something in Israel and then in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.”

Izzard is no stranger to political issues. He is a prominent supporter and heavy contributor to the British Labour Party, and may run for Mayor of London. He campaigned against Brexit and for the UK to stay in the European Union. He can be regarded as one of Britain’s prominent do-gooders. Among other things he is an Ambassador of UNICEF (UN Children’s Fund), travelling to various places like Djibouti to meet and comfort child refugees, to Iraq to report on Syrian children refugee crisis, and to Kenya. He provided help for Amnesty International in dealing with the breast cancer issue in Burma. He has donated money to various organizations: one is for the U.K. veterans of World War II on whose behalf he travelled to Norway in June 2009 for a memorial event; another is Sport Relief, a charity event bringing together sport and entertainment.

It is ironic that Izzard was stopped, and perhaps thought it best to stop, running in the Palestinian marathon. He is in fact well known for his performances in a number of marathons. In 2016, he ran 27 marathons in tribute to Nelson Mandela’s 27 years in prison during the South African apartheid regime. In 2009, he had run 43 marathons in 51 days for Sport Relief.

Welcome to Cork, Ireland. Politely wishing the Jews to a nasty death - by David Collier

This was only the first day, and there are many notes to work through as I put together a complete picture of this event as it unfolds. Needless to say there is plenty more to come. And when it is done, I will be more than happy to return to London. As pretty as Ireland may be, it has done itself no favours by allowing such a vile hatred to be expressed so openly. There is no place for a Jewish state in this academic world. If these people had their way, the Jews would once more be victims of violent destruction. Hidden behind the veneer of academic talk is just the same old request. They just discuss it all in a more polite manner.

David Collier..
Across the Great Divide..
31 March '17..

Today I am in Cork, Southern Ireland. This is a story that began two years ago, with a failed attempt by a twisted academic at Southampton, to place a fake academic veneer on part of the delegitimise Israel campaign. Those that suggest this is not true are simply not listening to the organisers, the speakers or even the delegates. Activism as a central theme was ever present. There is little denying that this conference is about attempting to place additional tools in the arsenal of the anti-Israel activist. Indeed, it is clearly the primary purpose.

Two failed attempts to hold a conference in Southampton, sandwiched between legal attempts to force the hand of the university, has led us all to Southern Ireland and to Cork, where finally, Oren Ben-Dor got to hold his circus of hate. This, even though the University at Cork, distanced themselves from the event.

I have just sat through the first day of the three-day conference. I will put together a more complete write up of the entire event when it has finished. I am away from home and do not have access to many of my files for referencing. So today I just want to put some initial thoughts into words.

The setting for today was the impressive Cork County Hall. We are informed that filming is not permitted, which makes life more difficult for someone to report accurately on an event such as this. The organisation, was professionally done. The conference is split into themes, each building part of a picture that sets out to destroy Israel’s standing as a legitimate state. Just as was intended two years ago, in Southampton, each subject is discussed by a panel, all of who were presenting papers on the topic.

Of about 50 academics present, only one would consider himself Zionist. Almost all the others support the boycott of Israel, and most call openly for its demise. There were a few opening remarks to a room of maybe 170 people, and we were underway.

(Continue to Full Post)

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. 

.

Ahlam Tamimi, our daughter's grinning, boasting murderer, decides she's actually innocent - by Arnold Roth

...So to be clear: though she didn't do anything and says she knows nothing about the charges against her, there's no shortage of videos showing Tamimi boasting of systematically selecting a site (Sbarro) that attracts crowds of children; of the joy she felt at learning how many lives she had extinguished; about the rising pleasure of the people sitting with her as she fled the scene in a Jerusalem-to-Ramallah Arab taxi who were thrilled at the news of a growing death toll coming in over the radio about the massacre... and what a battle she faced to not admit to them that she was the bomber.

Arnold/Frimet Roth..
This Ongoing War..
31 March '17..

The woman who masterminded the massacre at Jerusalem's Sbarro pizzeria on August 9, 2001 and who was subsequently tried and sentenced (after confessing to all 15 counts of homicide) is now, finally, the subject of a United States warrant for her arrest and extradition to the US. (The Al Jazeera version of the background, along with our commentary, is here.)

Jordan, where she has been living freely since October 2011, has had an extradition treaty with the US since 1995. But it began claiming two weeks ago that the treaty has no effect... for reasons no one should take seriously.

Ignore the specious legalities. Jordan refuses to hand her over to the US because she is a national hero to the Jordanians, 70% of whom are Palestinian Arabs. To make that clearer: she's a hero not because she is innocent (no one seriously claims that) but because she did plan and she did carry out the killings of Israelis. That's what makes them proud.

Most of the people she killed were children. All were Jewish; the majority were religiously-observant Jews. None of this is coincidental. It was central to the killer's plan.

Our daughter Malki who was 15 years old was among those blown to pieces.

(Continue to Full Post)

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. 

.

Uncle Max and that inevitable two-state solution discussion at the seder table - by Vic Rosenthal

It’s time to say “dayenu” to the 2-state solution. The starting point must be defensible borders, not a Palestinian state. Of course the Palestinians would find this approach unacceptable, but they also find any 2-state deal that doesn’t provide for the ultimate replacement of the Jewish state with an Arab one equally unacceptable. So why does it matter? Why do you think we followed Moshe out of comfortable Egypt and into the desert, Uncle Max? It wasn’t in order to create ‘Palestine’!

Vic Rosenthal..
Abu Yehuda..
31 March '17..







So we are sitting around the seder table with our American Uncle Max and he says,

[I] remain convinced that a two-state solution is the only outcome that would quell ongoing incidents of violence, maintain Israel as a secure, Jewish and democratic state, and provide a just and stable future for the Palestinians.

Having had the traditional four cups of wine, my first, immediate reaction would be to say something about 1993 calling and wanting its policy back. But actually this and other surprisingly stupid things appeared in a letter signed by 191 members of the US Congress, read at AIPAC by Nancy Pelosi, and sent to Donald Trump.

Many things have happened in the past 24 years, both in the US and especially in the Middle East, but for these (mostly Democratic) lawmakers, nothing has changed. One wonders exactly what could happen that would change their minds, which seem to have accepted the necessity of an additional partition of the land of Israel as an article of faith.

My second thought is an almost overwhelming feeling of fatigue over the fact that this irrational and dangerous idea will not go away, and that I am yet again forced to argue about it.

So, pay attention, Uncle Max. I am not going to repeat this like the verses of Had Gadya.

(Continue to Full Post)

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. 

.