The Oslo Israeli-Occupation Accords? - by Sheri Oz

...The point is, therefore, that you cannot have signed a legal document agreeing to the current situation and then turn around and claim that you are occupied. Well, I suppose you can, and unfortunately many people believe the occupation-lie. It is time to remind everyone that the Palestinian Arab leaders agreed to the facts on the ground as they are today.

Sheri Oz..
Israel Diaries..
04 June '17..

Those who regard Israel as occupying the West Bank (Judea & Samaria) should reconsider the issue in view of the way they regard legally binding contracts.

All countries have legal ages of majority, the age at which an individual can sign a legally binding contract. In the USA, for example, contracts can only be signed by those over the age of 18. In some countries, 21 is the age at which contracts become legally binding. Therefore, it seems reasonable to assume that the signatories to the Oslo Accords were old enough to be legally bound by the contracts they co-signed on behalf of their respective populations. For those who are not familiar with the individuals involved, a photo (above) taken at the time should dispel any doubt about the matter of age of majority.

This means, furthermore, that successive leaders are likewise bound by the set of agreements collectively called the Oslo Accords, unless and until a replacement contract is drawn up and signed by similarly authorized individuals.

From “Occupation” to Self-Administration

Without going into an accounting of how either side of the agreement has not lived up to expectations detailed in the Accords, it is important that we point out the relevance of the Oslo Accords to the so-called Israeli occupation.

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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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Gazan Refugees in Greece: We Fled Hamas, not Israel - by Evelyn Gordon

...The testimony of these Gazan refugees in Greece provides a rare opportunity to hear what Palestinians say when they’re out of reach of their own repressive governments and can speak freely. It thereby offers a glimpse at the true source of much Palestinian suffering – and a rebuke to all the journalists, diplomats, and NGOs who have collaborated with both Palestinian governments to hide this truth from the world.

Evelyn Gordon..
Analysis from Israel..
03 June '17..
Link: http://evelyncgordon.com/gazans-in-greece-we-fled-hamas-not-israel/

If you ask Palestinians in either Gaza or the West Bank who’s responsible for their suffering, most would probably say Israel. But what would they say if they were safely overseas and no longer needed to fear their own governments? That’s not a question reporters, diplomats, or nongovernmental organizations usually bother asking. We now have an answer to it, at least with regard to Palestinians who fled Gaza. They left not because of anything Israel did, but because of persecution by Gaza’s Hamas-run government

Their testimony was brought by Haaretz reporter Zvi Bar’el, who went to Greece in search of Syrian refugees but accidentally stumbled instead on Palestinians from Gaza–thousands of them, by their own count. One Gazan refugee estimated there were about 6,000 Palestinians from Gaza in Athens alone. The Badil Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights says the real figure is probably higher.And that’s just those who have been able to leave. Many would like to but are stuck in Gaza because the border crossing to Egypt is open only a few days per month. Even when it’s open, only a few hundred people per day can leave. Osama, one of the Palestinians Bar’el interviewed, said that when he left Gaza (via a cross-border smuggling tunnel) over 25,000 people were on the waiting list to leave via the official border crossing.

And why have so many Gazans fled or tried to flee? The Palestinians Bar’el met had a uniform answer: Hamas. Not a single one of them even mentioned Israel in their responses.

Big surprise? Rajoub denies saying Israel should control the Western Wall - by Elder of Ziyon

...one would have thought that Israeli reporters would know by now to parse these liars' words more strictly and not assume that when they say something, they actually mean what they are making it sound like.

Elder of Ziyon..
04 June '17..

From Times of Israel:

A top Palestinian official said Saturday that the Palestinians recognize the Western Wall as a Jewish holy site that must remain under Jewish sovereignty.

The comments from Fatah Central Committee member Jibril Rajoub constitute a departure from the formal Palestinian position that brands all of Jerusalem’s Old City as occupied territory which must become part of a Palestinian state, and run counter to the Palestinians’ long-running campaign to deny a Jewish historical connection to Jerusalem.

Speaking to Israel’s Channel 2 TV, Rajoub, who is also head of the Palestinian Football Association, was praising US President Donald Trump’s efforts to reach a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians and commenting on his visit last month to Israel and the West Bank.

“He went to the Western Wall, which we understand is a holy place to the Jews. In the end, it must remain under Jewish sovereignty. We have no argument about that. This is a Jewish holy place,” said Rajoub, who is sometimes touted as a successor to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

This was widely reported in Israeli media and AFP had the story as well.

But Rajoub now denies that he meant that Israel should have any control over the Kotel.

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Is Trump committed to actually stopping Palestinian incitement, instead of just talking about it - by Stephen M. Flatow

...But for Telhami and the other American delegates to the committee, who were operating on instructions from the Clinton White House and State Department, the real goal was not to stop incitement. Their goal was to keep the “peace process” going. Confronting the PA on incitement might cause a crisis in the “peace process.” So instead of siding with the truth, the U.S. representatives chose to be “evenhanded” and not take sides.

Stephen M. Flatow..
JNS.org..
31 May '17..

It was heartening to hear that President Donald Trump privately confronted Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas on his incitement of terrorism and payments to terrorists. The question is whether the Trump administration will confine itself to rhetoric or follow up with concrete steps regarding the Palestinians and terrorism.

An unnamed “Palestinian official” has told various media outlets that during the recent Trump-Abbas meeting in Bethlehem, Trump said, “You lied to me in Washington when you talked about commitment to peace, but the Israelis showed me you were personally responsible for incitement.”

According to the report, Trump “made it clear to Abbas that he must curb anti-Israeli incitement in the Palestinian education system, saying Abbas cannot turn a blind eye to Palestinian incitement and pay stipends to terrorists’ families while simultaneously setting conditions that hinder any progress in the peace talks.”

Abbas’s reported response is very important, because it gives us a clue as to how he may try to wiggle out of the controversy.

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Stephen M. Flatow, a vice president of the Religious Zionists of America, is an attorney in New Jersey. He 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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Treating Pal Arab terrorists as heroes - and the funding that lets it keep happening - by Arnold Roth

...Kuperwasser closes by observing that the Palestinian Arabs accuse Israel - endlessly, in case this is not obvious - of refusing to make peace while Abbas and the PA merrily and openly - and using other people's money - provide rich rewards to terrorists and their families. It all amounts to a brazen act of incitement that ensures a constant supply of cannon fodder, weaponized children and cheap ammunition for their ongoing war against us.

Arnold/Frimet Roth..
This Ongoing War..
02 June '17..

Yosef Kuperwasser used to be in charge of Israel's military intelligence research before moving into a key civilian role as Director General of the Ministry of International Affairs and Strategy. Ending his military career as an IDF Brigadier General, he has authored some influential papers along the way on how to deal with terror and is reputed to be an adviser to various counter-terrorism-minded non-Israelis including some governments. He has contributed opinion pieces to numerous publications and from personal experience he has views worth hearing.

In what seems to us an important contribution to the often-stifled discussion about the Palestinian Authority incitement scheme we have for years called Rewards for Terror, Kuperwasser quantifies the stunning extent of payments made by the perpetually-insolvent Palestinian Authority for the benefit of terrorists and their families - including the families of terrorists killed on the job. His article started out as a speech he gave to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on May 29, 2017.

His essay, "Palestinian Authority Paid Out Over $1 Billion for Terror Over the Past Four Years" was published this Tuesday on the Tablet Magazine website [here]. In it, Kuperwasser estimates that during the past four years, the PA - whose president-for-life since 2005 is the far-from-moderate 'moderate' Mahmoud Abbas - has made Rewards for Terror payments of about NIS 4 billion - about US$1.12 billion.

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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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Actually, Israel's Goodwill Gestures Send Wrong and Quite Often Fatal Messages - by Bassam Tawil

...The Palestinian line is that Israel's steps are "insufficient" and "unhelpful." Its concessions are regarded as gestures of a terrified people and as the rightful reward for terrorism. Far from satiating the appetite of the terrorists, such steps prompt them to step up their attacks against Israelis. The next time Americans and Europeans think of asking Israel to cede yet more to the Palestinians, let them consider what Israel might be receiving in return, other than the spilling of more Jewish blood.

Bassam Tawil..
Gatestone Institute..
02 June '17..

The West suffers under a major misconception concerning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: that "goodwill gestures" and territorial concessions on the part of Israel boost the prospects of peace in the Middle East. The facts, suggest that precisely the opposite is true.

Last week, Israel's Channel 10 television station reported that the U.S. administration was pushing Israel to transfer parts of Area C -- areas under full Israeli security and civilian control in the West Bank -- to the control of Mahmoud Abbas's Palestinian Authority (PA). According to the report, the U.S. believes that the transfer of the territory to the PA would be a "goodwill step" towards the Palestinians, paving the way for the revival of the stalled peace process with Israel.

This assumption, of course, has already proven wrong. The experiences of the past few decades have shown clearly that Israeli concessions have always sent the wrong message to the Palestinians.

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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? BBC World Service on counter-terrorism: Israeli measure is ‘highly controversial’ - by Hadar Sela

...In short, even in a programme specifically relating to security and counter-terrorism that ostensibly sets out to inform listeners what other countries do to “minimise the risk to their citizens” and even as we see that the BBC clearly appreciates both the purpose and the efficacy of the anti-terrorist fence, the corporation cannot resist promoting its knee-jerk “controversial” theme and refrains from informing audiences of the actual statistics relating to the reduction in attacks following construction of the structure.

Hadar Sela..
BBC Watch..
02 June '17..

Over the last decade and a half BBC audiences have grown very used to hearing Israel’s anti-terrorist fence described as “controversial” or even worse. Despite the fact that the BBC’s ‘style guide’ instructs its staff to use the term ‘barrier’ to describe the structure, audiences very often hear or see it described as “the wall”. Not only is it is extremely rare for audiences to be informed of that counter-terrorism measure’s record of effectiveness, but BBC produced content frequently promotes the propaganda myth that it is intended to facilitate a “land grab” rather than to curb the number of Palestinian terror attacks against Israeli civilians.

Following the terror attack in Manchester the BBC World Service radio programme ‘Newshour Extra’ – presented by Owen Bennett-Jones – devoted its May 27th edition to the question “How Can We Make Our Cities Safe?“.

“In the wake of the suicide bomb attack at a concert venue in Manchester, Newshour Extra this week is asking how major cities around the world can minimise the risk to their citizens from such atrocities. Owen Bennett Jones and his guests consider urban security, counter-terrorism, and the compromises different cities make between civil liberties and public safety.”

Although one might have thought that Israel – with its sadly considerable experience of tackling that topic – would have featured in such a discussion, the sole brief reference to Israeli counter-terrorism measures appeared at 14:41 when Bennett-Jones addressed a bizarrely expressed question to one of his three guests; Professor Bill Durodie of the University of Bath.

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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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The dilemma and the critical security principle - by Dr. Aaron Lerner

...To repeat: it doesn't matter how many people with security backgrounds sign advertisements in the New York Time - we need to have military and security control over all of the territory west of the Jordan. That's the principle. Period.

Dr. Aaron Lerner..
IMRA Weekly Commentary..
01 June '17..
Link: http://www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=72538



Here is the dilemma:

"The current administration fervently wishes to put something on the table. We have positions that are important for us, but that doesn’t mean that these are acceptable to them."
Prime Minister Netanyahu in a closed meeting with Likud MKs last Monday

"In order to assure our existence we need to have military and security control over all of the territory west of the Jordan [River]."
Prime Minister Netanyahu to Army Radio last Tuesday

"We will not accept any agreement that keeps any Israeli soldier on the land of the independent state of Palestine."
Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesman for President Mahmoud Abbas last Wednesday

So we have a necessary condition for a deal that the Palestinians reject.

And if you want to be realistic - even if they agreed on paper to it, the commitment would be meaningless since once there is a sovereign Palestinian state they can unilaterally drop the arrangement and remain a sovereign state.

We must make clear at every juncture that this requirement is indeed a necessary condition for a deal.

Make it clear that as someone who stated with all of his heart that he was our friend and that he would respect our needs that we EXPECT President Trump to include this principle in his set of principles.

I want to make this clear: the principle that "Israel's security needs will be met" is NOT the vague principle that a true friend of Israel puts on the table.

The Washington Post's shameless piece, essentially Palestinian propaganda, disguised as news

...hiding context, covering up inconvenient facts, disguising opinions as news, and utterly neglecting to include any balancing statements, clearly violates the professional standards of the Washington Post, as well as basic common sense. Even worse: absolving Palestinians of all responsibility for a genuinely complex and dangerous situation, while utterly vilifying Israelis, is beyond unprofessional: it is just plain wrong.

Daniel Pomerantz..
Honest Reporting..
28 May '17..

Professional ethics require objectivity, balance and context, so that a news reader may fully understand a story and make their own, informed judgments about any moral issues involved.

Which is why it is so disturbing that The Washington Post should suddenly throw its reputation for professionalism out the window when addressing checkpoints: in favor of slamming Israel in a shameless piece of what is essentially Palestinian propaganda, disguised as news.

The Washington Post’s own ethical rules clearly state [emphasis added]:

Washington Post reporters and editors are pledged to approach every assignment with the fairness of open minds and without prior judgment. The search for opposing views must be routine. Comment from persons accused or challenged in stories must be included. The motives of those who press their views upon us must routinely be examined, and it must be recognized that those motives can be noble or ignoble, obvious or ulterior…
…No story is fair if it omits facts of major importance or significance. Fairness includes completeness.

Is it really acceptable for Washington Post journalists to flagrantly violate the rules of their own newspaper?

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The Story of the Liberation of Jerusalem a Century Ago - by Lenny Ben-David

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Jerusalem’s unification in the Six-Day War. It also marks the 100th anniversary of a fierce World War I battle that saved the city from destruction.

Lenny Ben-David..
Mosaicmagazine.com..
22 May '17..

On Yom Yerushalayim, which this year falls on May 24, Israel will celebrate the 50th anniversary of Jerusalem’s unification in June 1967. Marking the climax of a swift defensive victory over the armies of Egypt, Syria, and Jordan, the battle for the Holy City resulted in dramatically altering its political, religious, and geographic status.

But this year also marks another anniversary: the centenary of a fierce World War I battle that not only saved Jerusalem from physical destruction but rescued its entire Jewish population from squalor, starvation, plague, exile, and death. In the scope of Jewish history, the liberation of Jerusalem in December 1917 ranks with the salvation holidays of Hanukkah and Purim.

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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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Ehud Barak: Undercuting Israel’s Security, Blatantly Ignoring Danger - by Maj. Gen. (res.) Gershon Hacohen

Former PM Ehud Barak’s arguments in favor of withdrawal from Judea and Samaria undercut Israel’s security and are a departure from the Oslo Accords’ security vision. Israel would be wise to present President Trump with actual facts on this issue.

Maj. Gen. (res.) Gershon Hacohen..
BESA Center Perspectives No. 482..
31 May 31 '17..
Link: https://besacenter.org/perspectives-papers/ehud-barak-danger/

(While disagreeing as well with Hacohen's alternative, the questions he has asked are excellent YH)

US President Donald Trump’s visit to Israel seems to have triggered a new campaign over the future of the Jewish people in the land of its forefathers, and former Prime Minister Ehud Barak has joined the ranks of those whose hopes for Israeli concessions in Judea and Samaria and Jerusalem have been rekindled.

In a piece published in Haaretz last week that sharply criticized author Micah Goodman’s book Catch 67: The Ideologies behind the Disagreements Tearing Israel Apart, Barak sought to weigh in on the question of whether Israel can properly defend itself in the event it withdraws from Judea and Samaria.

Barak’s answer was decisive: Israel’s refusal to separate from the Palestinians and withdraw to the 1967 lines – with certain exceptions for the big settlement blocs – is “a definite threat to the future of the Zionist project,” while the threats that may arise following a withdrawal are “military technical risks.” He was dismissive of the Right’s premise that such territorial concessions are potentially extremely dangerous, arguing that “Israel is the strongest country in the region militarily, strategically and economically and – if we craft our relations with the United States skillfully – also diplomatically.”

According to Barak, if Israel succeeds in navigating the moves it is expected to pursue, it would be able to deal with any military threat that may rear its head.

But history has proven that even superpowers can fail. One needs to look no further than the Russians and the Americans in Afghanistan.

Since the 2005 disengagement from the Gaza Strip, Israel has a clear point of reference as to the nature of the potential threat a Palestinian state may constitute. By similar logic, one can argue that what happened in the Gaza Strip – i.e., the terrorist threat it poses to the border-adjacent communities – could happen in Judea and Samaria, only this time, it would be the majority of the cities in Israel’s center and coastal plain that would be targeted.

An Exercise in Creative Writing: Breaking the Silence’s Book Project - by Prof. Gerald Steinberg

...As one of the many advocacy groups in the New Israel Fund network that place the blame for the conflict entirely on Israel, Breaking the Silence (a small NGO with a large budget) has been unable to convince many Israelis of the wisdom and practicality of its perspective. Israelis know the reality, including the basic issues of Palestinian rejectionism, terrorism, and incitement, and are not buying the simplistic NGO narrative.

Prof. Gerald Steinberg..
Algemeiner.com..
30 May '17..

Kingdom of Olives and Ash, edited by fiction writers Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman and prepared in cooperation with the highly controversial (understatement) Israeli NGO “Breaking the Silence,” is being published to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the 1967 war.

More than a literary work, this book is a political project, which, like most of Breaking the Silence’s activities, seeks to persuade an audience of non-Israelis and non-Palestinians.

As one of the many advocacy groups in the New Israel Fund network that place the blame for the conflict entirely on Israel, Breaking the Silence (a small NGO with a large budget) has been unable to convince many Israelis of the wisdom and practicality of its perspective. Israelis know the reality, including the basic issues of Palestinian rejectionism, terrorism, and incitement, and are not buying the simplistic NGO narrative.

As a result, this group has turned its passions and coffers towards international audiences with a superficial understanding of Israeli reality, in an attempt to force fundamental policy changes under the slogan of “ending the occupation.” This strategy is amplified by the millions of shekels it receives from European governments, church groups, and other actors that do not have Israel’s best interests in mind.

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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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Knowingly deceptive: Saying "50-year occupation" without mentioning Khartoum - by Elder of Ziyon

...If someone thinks that "occupation" is the ultimate evil and doesn't have a word to say about the Arab leaders' decision to reject peace in exchange for virtually all the land Israel gained in 1967, then that person doesn't care about "occupation" or peace - they support the old Arab genocidal attitude towards Jews in the Middle East.

Elder of Ziyon..
30 May '17..

There are lots of articles being published in recent and upcoming weeks about the Six Day War and its legacy.

Any article that talks about "occupation" and "colonialism" and all the other evils that are ascribed to Israel, that do not mention the Khartoum Resolution of September 1, 1967, is an example of deceit.

The main paragraph of the Khartoum Resolution said:

The Arab Heads of State have agreed to unite their political efforts at the international and diplomatic level to eliminate the effects of the aggression and to ensure the withdrawal of the aggressive Israeli forces from the Arab lands which have been occupied since the aggression of June 5. This will be done within the framework of the main principles by which the Arab States abide, namely, no peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, no negotiations with it, and insistence on the rights of the Palestinian people in their own country.

That last sentence means "destroy Israel," by the way. It was not referring to the territories in any way. Nobody at all demanded a Palestinian state in the territories in 1967.

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‘Our Man in the Middle East’ recycles his ‘Israeli Right killed the peace process’ theory - by Hadar Sela

...Bowen’s story ends there, with no mention of the Clinton peace plan, the 2005 Gaza withdrawal, the fact that Israelis elected Ehud Olmert – who ran on a platform of disengagement from Judea & Samaria – in 2006 or Olmert’s 2008 offer to the Palestinians. Such inconvenient facts would of course detract from Bowen’s very transparent aim to steer BBC audiences towards the simplistic and inaccurate view that the Israeli Right-wing murdered the peace process, while propagating the illusion of passive Palestinians devoid of all agency or responsibility.

Hadar Sela..
BBC Watch..
29 May '17..

Part five of Jeremy Bowen’s series ‘Our Man in the Middle East’ was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on May 19th. Titled “Recipe for Disaster“, the programme’s subject matter is described as follows in the synopsis:

‘How the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin changed the region’s history, as remembered by BBC Middle East Editor Jeremy Bowen. “No political killing in the twentieth century was more successful,” he argues, observing the dramatic effects on the Oslo peace process. “Perhaps there was a moment for peace, and it came, and went.”‘

Like additional episodes in the series, this programme revisits a topic that Bowen has addressed before: in this case in November 2015 when he produced an article headlined with what is for him a rhetorical question – “Did Rabin assassination kill the best chance for peace?”. Nothing in Bowen’s approach has changed since then and his take away messaging once again leaves audiences in no doubt as to which side in the Arab-Israeli conflict killed off “hope” and “peace”.

Remarkably, Bowen’s 25 years in the Middle East have not done anything to improve his Hebrew pronunciation skills and listeners hear the former Israeli prime minister’s surname presented as ‘Ra-bean‘ throughout the programme.

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Another example of PA glorification of terrorism ignored at BBC - by Hadar Sela

It therefore did not come as much of a surprise when a women’s centre in a village under PA control was recently dedicated to Dalal Mughrabi but what is unusual – and hence newsworthy – is the reaction of one of the refurbished building’s funders....However, four days after it broke, none of the BBC’s locally based correspondents has yet covered this story.

Hadar Sela..
BBC Watch..
29 May '17..

Earlier this month the BBC’s new man in Jerusalem told World Service listeners that Israel “has long accused Palestinian officials of using sport to glorify terrorism”.

As was noted here at the time:

“Of course BBC audiences are consistently denied the information which would enable them to know whether “Palestinian officials” do indeed use sport to glorify terrorism and Bateman failed to inform listeners that just a day prior to his report, Rajoub’s Palestinian Football Association organised a tournament named after a terrorist responsible for the murders of 125 Israelis.”

Neither are BBC audiences informed about additional ways in which the Palestinian Authority and Fatah regularly glorify terrorism and promote incitement, such as naming schools, streets and squares after terrorists.

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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? NY Times Unleashes Barrage of 5 Op-Eds Savagely Hostile to Israel - by Ira Stoll

...It’s one thing to see the Stephens hire triggering antisemitic or anti-Israel tropes in other publications. It’s another to see them erupting in the columns of the Times itself.

Ira Stoll..
Algemeiner.com..
28 May '17..

When the New York Times opinion page hired Bret Stephens and Bari Weiss, two outspoken Zionist veterans of the Wall Street Journal, a friend of mine warned me that the hires could be a mixed blessing from a pro-Israel perspective.

Now all the anti-Israel editors already at the Times will feel like they can let loose with impunity, because the hiring of Stephens and Weiss provides a ready response to accusations of “bias.” So said my friend.

Or, as I put it back on April 13, writing about Stephens: “Anyone who thinks the Times hiring of him was motivated primarily by a desire to respond to the paper’s pro-Israel critics might want to think again.”

My friend’s warning turned out to be prophetic.

In the weeks since the news of the Stephens and Weiss hires broke, the Times has — as if compensating — unleashed a barrage of op-eds savagely hostile to Israel and Jewish interests. Among them:

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This story begins in Tel Aviv, not Manchester - by David Collier

...Hamas, the civilian murdering radical Islamic terror group can be praised, and nobody would even blink. Only if that link is crossed, if somehow ISIS becomes the identifier, only then do we move into ‘unacceptable’ mode.

David Collier..
Across the Great Divide..
26 May '17..

This story begins in Tel Aviv, not Manchester. In a few days it will be exactly sixteen years since the Dolphinarium massacre. A terror attack against a discotheque that killed 21 Israelis, 16 of them teenagers. The terrorist, Saeed Hotari, was linked to Hamas. The target: Children.

On March 4 1996 two thirteen-year-old boys left their homes to go to Dizengoff Centre. They were friends and it was the first time they had gone out without parental supervision. It was the evening of the Jewish festival of Purim. They dressed in a Purim costume, roamed the centre as thirteen-year old’s do, and then left to take a bus back home. Kobi Zaharon and Yovav Levi never made it to the bus stop.

As they left the mall, a suicide bomber from the radical Islamic terror group Hamas, blew himself up outside the Dizengoff Centre. The streets were full of kids in fancy dress.

The bomber, twenty-four-year-old Abdel-Rahim Ishaq, deliberately targeted children.

Three days ago, a Muslim man carried explosives into a Manchester venue that was full of children and detonated the bomb. Driven by a sickening Islamic ideology, Salman Abedi ruined hundreds of lives. Twenty-two people were brutally slain, many more have suffered life changing injuries, and hundreds of others have had their lives dramatically altered.

Salman Abedi deliberately targeted children. As is likely, others probably helped him choose the target.

His being a Muslim is integral to the story. If he were Hindu, Christian or Jewish this would never have happened. This was a vile, brutal, cowardly and unforgivable attack on innocent children who were all out enjoying a special moment in their lives. This was an attack on the very heart of our society.

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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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Reality vs. the Over-Dramatization of Israel’s “Dilemma” - by Dr. Max Singer

...Israel is not facing a dilemma about how much, if any, land to give up from the West Bank, because the Palestinians will not agree to take land and cannot be forced to do so. The Palestinian community sees peace with Israel as defeat in their 100-year struggle.

Dr. Max Singer..
BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 479..
28 May '17..
Link: https://besacenter.org/perspectives-papers/overdramatization-israel-dilemma/


Ehud Barak recently had a long review in Haaretz of Micah Goodman’s important new book, Catch 67, to which Goodman responded the following week. Goodman argues that Israel’s 1967 victory created a “catch” or trap reflected in Israel’s current dilemma, in which both sides (the Israeli political left and right) are correct. Barak disagrees. In his view, the choice is clear: the left is correct.

Both Barak’s own view and his telling of Goodman’s ignore the reality of Israel’s actual choices today. We are not facing a dilemma about giving up territory. We are facing a distasteful task, and a need for patience over a period of decades.

Israel does not now have a choice about giving the Palestinians land or creating a Palestinian state; Israel is therefore not facing a dilemma.

While there are undoubtedly peace-seeking Palestinians, as a community, the Palestinians have not even begun to discuss the possibility of making a peace that accepts Israel and ends the Palestinian effort to gain all the land “from the river to the sea.” Nor have they begun public discussion of the possibility of most of the “refugees” settling outside Israel. Without debate among Palestinians, there is no way they can give up their determination to destroy Israel and make a genuine peace.

There is zero chance that there could be a real peace agreement now regardless of how much land Israel would be willing to give up.. A true two-state solution would finally defeat Palestinian and Arab efforts of a century, and they are not yet ready to accept defeat. Whatever disagreement there is among Israelis about how much land, if any, Israel should give up to get peace, that disagreement is not what is standing in the way of peace.

Manchester, media and politicians: Moved by some terrorist attacks, not so much by others - by Frimet Roth

...By now you may be asking, as I am, why the murder of Jewish children in Jerusalem is not deemed as horrific and intolerable as that of the children in Manchester. I have one explanation for the double standard and it starts with an "A". What's yours?

Frimet Roth..
The Good, The Bad, The Ugly..
26 May '17..

The entire sane world is united in its condemnation of the Manchester terror bombing. It has been particularly shocked by the targeting of children and teens, describing it as barbaric, cruel and horrific. Undoubtedly the only appropriate reaction.

But it is also puzzling.

Because it contrasts so starkly with the world's recent response to another terrorist who targeted children and teens and murdered. I refer to the Hamas mastermind of the Sbarro massacre on August 9, 2001, Ahlam Tamimi.

My daughter, Malki, among the fifteen murdered then, was, like so many of the Manchester victims, fifteen years old when she died.

What do you think these outraged news commentators and world leaders would say were the perpetrator of the Manchester attack freed, celebrated as a hero and given refuge by an ally of key Western powers?

Can you imagine them just blowing that off?

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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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Actually, the Two State Solution Is Immoral, Racist And Inhumane To The Arabs - by Sheri Oz

...I am NOT talking about Israel’s security and I am NOT talking about us leaving our holy sites in their hands (even though I am against this) — I am talking about the humanitarian crisis that would characterize the lives of those left behind the wall that would mark the permanent border between us and them.

Sheri Oz..
Israel Diaries..
26 May '17..

I wouldn’t wish the Two State Solution on my worst enemies. Yet that is what leftist organizations in Israel and abroad are doing – wishing the Two State Solution on our neighbours. They cry out for us to stop the “occupation”, arguing that the occupation is immoral and oppressive to the Arabs living in the Palestinian Authority (PA). They want us to separate from the Palestinian Arabs, with them on one side of a permanent border and us on the other side. They claim that this is the only humane way to preserve the Jewish majority and democracy in Israel and at the same time provide the Palestinian Arabs with the autonomy to which they think they have some kind of right.

Yet the autonomy they offer is a sub-state. Granted, it would be called The State of Palestine, but it would not patrol its own border with Jordan, for example, (Israel would) and it will not be allowed to have an army. Whether or not it will have an airport remains to be seen, and the huge numbers of currently internationally recognized “refugees” will not be allowed in. The only way for the PA to sign such a humiliating “peace treaty” would be for the Arabs to finally accept that they were defeated by Israel in 1967. If this is the deal, then it will be largely a capitulation by the Arabs, largely a unilateral deal not all that different from when we unilaterally left Gaza.

And we only have to look to Gaza to see what is immoral, racist and inhumane to the Arabs living there after we divorced them.

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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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A big hypocrisy alert: Who's building a wall, with 4 watchtowers, around 100,000 Palestinians?

...the silence from NGOs, the UN, Palestinian leaders and world media over what can literally be called a prison, with concrete walls and watchtowers, being built by the Lebanese government, shows how sickeningly hypocritical the entire world is. No one gives a damn about Palestinians unless Jews can be blamed.

Elder of Ziyon..
26 May '17..

You know how "human rights" groups and "pro-Palestinian" groups love to say that Israel puts Palestinians in Gaza as well as the West Bank in an "open-air prison"?

You know how the media will exhaustively cover any defensive measures Israel does to protect itself from terrorists that live among the Palestinians as "collective punishment"?

You know how Israel's security fence that has saved hundreds or thousands of lives is routinely denounced because it inconveniences some Arabs?

You know how Palestinian leaders will send official complaints to the UN for everything Israel does, or allegedly does, that has the slightest impact on the slightest number of Palestinian Arabs?

Finally, a final question: How much have you read or heard about a literal open-air prison, complete with watchtowers, being built around a Palestinian UNRWA camp in Lebanon that houses some 120,000 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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Surprise? For NY Times, the new man in Jerusalem is just as biased as the old one - by Stephen M. Flatow

...At least 14 Israelis (including two Israeli Arabs mistaken for Jews) have been stoned to death by Palestinians since the 1980s. It was only by a miracle that they did not claim a 15th victim in Hawara May 18. But you wouldn’t know that from reading Fisher’s fairy tale-account in The New York Times.

Stephen M. Flatow..
JNS.org..
24 May '17..

Anybody who thought the new Jerusalem bureau chief of The New York Times would be any less pro-Palestinian than his predecessor was sadly mistaken.

Ian Fisher replaced Peter Baker as head of The Times’s Jerusalem bureau in January. Many of Fisher’s articles in recent months have been slanted against Israel, but his coverage of the lynching attempt in the Palestinian Arab village of Hawara May 18 was the worst so far.

The facts of the - episode are well-documented in a graphic video that can be seen on YouTube. Arabs waving PLO flags and anti-Israel placards gather in the center of the town and begin shouting slogans. An Israeli civilian automobile—easily distinguished by the color of its license plate—happens to drive by. The sight of a Jew fills the mob with bloodlust. They surround the car and begin hurling large rocks at it.

In the video, you can see a Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance blocking the Israeli car from advancing. The driver of the ambulance later claimed he was trying to navigate around the mob. That’s an obvious lie. You can see the ambulance has stopped in front of the Israeli car, and is not moving at all as the rock-throwers try to murder the Israeli driver.

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Stephen M. Flatow, a vice president of the Religious Zionists of America, is an attorney in New Jersey. He 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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Jerusalem, Palestinians and the World's Need to Drive Out Destructive Fantasies - by Shireen Qudosi

...Palestinians would be better served addressing bedrock issues in their own society, including holding their people accountable for the hate indoctrinated into the hearts and minds of every Palestinian as soon as they learn to walk and talk. Stop financially supporting families of terrorists. Stop calling terrorists martyrs. Stop sacrificing your children and celebrating their deaths.

Shireen Qudosi..
Gatestone Institute..
25 May'17..

The most iconic moment of President Donald Trump's visit to the Middle East was not his "speech on Islam"; it was his visit to the Western Wall in Jerusalem.

The Western Wall is a contested space, and that controversy has bled outside Israel's borders. U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson recently reignited the debate, mentioning the Wall as being in "Jerusalem", instead of in Israel. It is a play on language often used to deny Israeli sovereignty over a space that clearly belongs to the Jewish people, as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, quickly rectified in response.

How we talk about religion matters. If we want to be effective in moving forward, it is important to be truthful. The truth is that Israel won the Six Day War, thereby liberating eastern Jerusalem from Jordan, which had seized it illegally when it attacked Israel in 1948-49 and expelled all Jews from eastern Jerusalem.

Israel has earned the right to reclaim Jerusalem fully. This also means that the Palestinians and other powers such as the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the UN and domestic interest groups do not get a veto over reality. If the new foreign policy standard is to work together to combat destructive forces, then it is also important to recognize that it is destructive to start a discussion from positions of falsehoods.

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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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BBC Middle East editor’s ‘impartiality’ on view in Jerusalem - by Hadar Sela

Once again Jeremy Bowen provides a glimpse into the ‘impartial’ viewpoints that underpin his Middle East reporting and editing.

Hadar Sela..
BBC Watch..
25 May '17..

The Oxford Dictionary defines the word triumphalism as meaning “excessive exultation over one’s success or achievements (used especially in a political context)”.

That word was used by the BBC’s Middle East editor in a ‘question’ posed in a Tweet sent on May 24th showing what he termed “Religious Zionists” – rather than just Israelis – celebrating Jerusalem Day.

In contrast to Bowen’s inaccurate interpretation of the meaning of the holiday, ...

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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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