Nathan Thrall's NY Times Ode to Palestinian Violence

...It's hard to imagine The New York Times proudly featuring a similar piece that clinically discusses the supposed positives of killing teens at a Manchester concert hall, running down pedestrians on a London street, or bombing a black church in the American south. That type of dehumanizing treatment is reserved for the murder of Israeli Jews.

Ricki Hollander/Gilead Ini..
CAMERA Media Analyses..
07 June '17..

The New York Times devoted the front page of its Sunday Review section to a 2000-word opinion piece by Nathan Thrall that condones Palestinian violence and terrorism as an effective means to chase Israel out of the West Bank. In the process, the article twists the facts and makes incoherent, internally contradictory arguments.

In Thrall's cartoonish view, Israel is an unstoppable, land-greedy monster, guilty of "subjugating" Palestinians whose only shortcoming, the author suggests, is not being violent enough, whether because they are too weak or too willing to cooperate and compromise with Israel.

Justifying Anti-Israel Violence

It is hard to miss Thrall's repeated references to anti-Israel violence — and the subtext of those references. He notes that the threat of Palestinian violence has failed because Israel "has repeatedly demonstrated that it can endure and outlast whatever bursts of resistance the divided and exhausted Palestinians can muster." This apparent disappointment is underscored by Thrall's use of the euphemism "bursts of resistance" to describe Palestinian violence which, in actuality, includes the brutal slaughter and maiming of men, women, children, and infants in shopping malls, city buses, pizza shops, and in the street.

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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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We cannot afford to embrace a program that hinges on best case assumptions - by Dr. Aaron Lerner

...because a sovereign Palestinian state that decides to send the IDF packing would continue to be a sovereign Palestinian state. And if you can't think of a scenario under which the Palestinians find a way to pulls this off then you either are operating under the working assumption that the Palestinians will actually be permanently satisfied with the "deal" or have absolutely no respect for their intelligence and drive. 

Dr. Aaron Lerner..
IMRA Weekly Commentary..
08 June '17..
Link: http://www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=72545

A sovereign Palestinian state with a Palestinian agreement that the IDF can operate within its territory.

That's the "deal" Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu apparently has in mind. And it’s a "best case assumption" deal (see below).

I say "apparently" because Netanyahu had Minister Tzachi Hanegbi on the radio today to pitch his talking point that if post WWII sovereign Japan and Germany could agree to the then permanent deployment of foreign troops in their countries that the Palestinians can agree to the deployment of the IDF within their sovereign state.

But that's not the question!

I fear that the presentation of this argument lulls us into making the incredibly reckless assumption that if the Palestinians were to sign an agreement that the IDF can operate within their sovereign territory that this would somehow miraculously resolve the fundamental - I daresay existential - problem with having a sovereign Palestinian state.

And it wouldn't.

That's because a sovereign Palestinian state that decides to send the IDF packing would continue to be a sovereign Palestinian state.

And if you can't think of a scenario under which the Palestinians find a way to pulls this off then you either are operating under the working assumption that the Palestinians will actually be permanently satisfied with the "deal" or have absolutely no respect for their intelligence and drive.

We cannot afford to embrace a program that hinges on best case assumptions.

Giving pompous interviews to gushing reporters, but do admit there is no ‘occupation’ - by Stephen M. Flatow

...I say “thank you” to Waldman, for being honest about her opposition to Israel’s existence as an independent Jewish state. I offer her my thanks for openly admitting that when she speaks of “the occupation,” she is not talking just about Israel’s presence in part of Judea and Samaria. She is talking about Israel’s very existence. Let’s see how many other interviewers ask her about that.

Stephen M. Flatow..
JNS.org..
07 June '17..

Noted literary couple Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman have discovered a new cause: the evils of “the Israeli occupation of the Palestinians.”

Having become experts on the subject after one brief visit to a few sites in the region, Chabon and Waldman have now edited an anthology of essays about “the occupation.” And they are busy on the lecture circuit, giving pompous interviews to gushing reporters and basking in the limelight that only political correctness can offer.

This past week, The Forward published a glowing four (!) page feature on the Chabon-Waldman anti-occupation crusade. In her introductory backgrounder, author/interviewer Talya Zax hailed the “insights” that Chabon and Waldman, “two mainstays of the Jewish literary world,” supposedly gleaned from leading a group of American writers on a visit to the disputed territories.

“Responding to what they saw,” Zax wrote, “the anthologized writers took on subjects ranging from activism in the Shuafat Refugee Camp, the only Palestinian camp that falls under Israeli jurisdiction, to the world of Palestinian soccer.”

Wait, what?

Did Zax just call it “the only Palestinian camp that falls under Israeli jurisdiction?”

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Abbas, Crocodile Tears and Terrorism - by Bassam Tawil

Abbas not only stays silent when his own people mow down Israelis: he names streets and squares after such "heroes." Moreover, he rewards them and their families financially, with the help of American and European taxpayer money.

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

Who says that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas does not condemn terror attacks against civilians?

As it turns out, he and his Palestinian Authority (PA) do indeed condemn terrorism -- when it is directed against anyone but an Israeli. Israeli blood, it seems, is different.

Abbas led the international outcry after the June 3 London Bridge terror attack that left seven people dead and 48 injured.

A brief statement issued by Abbas's office read:

"The President of the State of Palestine, Mahmoud Abbas, on Sunday condemned the terror attack in the British capital of London. His Excellency (Abbas) offered his deep condolences to Britain - its queen, government and people, and to the families of the victims of the terror assault. He affirmed his permanent rejection of all forms of terrorism."

This statement is in line with others Abbas has made recently. Just two weeks ago, Abbas, during a joint press conference with visiting U.S. President Donald Trump in Bethlehem, condemned the May 23 terror attack in the British city of Manchester, the deadliest attack in the United Kingdom since July 7, 2005, in which 23 people were killed and 119 were injured, 23 critically.

Abbas described the terror attack as a "heinous crime" and said that the Palestinians were prepared to work with the U.S. as "partners in the war on terrorism in our region and the world."

Two days later, Abbas was among the first leaders to condemn a terror attack that killed 28 Coptic Christians in central Egypt. Once again, Abbas said that he and the Palestinians stood with Egypt and its president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, in the war against terrorism.

This verbal charade has been going on for some time.

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Another BBC failure to give audiences the full story in UNHRC article - by Hadar Sela

...Yet again we see that despite the fact that it not infrequently quotes and promotes UN produced material, the BBC refrains from providing its audiences with the full range of information necessary for understanding of the story of the UN’s endemic bias against Israel.

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

The BBC has a long history of failing to properly report the UN Human Rights Council’s institutional bias against Israel and has never addressed the issue of why that frequently and overtly displayed prejudice exists.

In an article specifically referring to that bias, one would nevertheless have expected BBC audiences to be provided with the relevant factual information in the BBC’s own words. However, the report titled “US warning over its UN Human Rights Council role” which appeared on the BBC News website’s ‘US & Canada’ and ‘Middle East’ pages on June 6th presents the subject in equivocal language.

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‘The only good Jew is a dead Jew’ (the Suarez – Barkan threshold) - by David Collier

...The anti-Zionist separates Jews into good and bad. The dividing line between the two? The Suarez – Barkan threshold. The point an escaping refugee arrives in British Palestine and thus, becomes the evil Zionist of the revisionist narrative. Or in far simpler terms: ‘The only good Jew, is a dead one’. It is worth understanding the message because it underlines almost every argument an anti-Zionist makes. A point no Zionist Jew should ever forget.

David Collier..
Across the Great Divide..
06 June '17..

‘The only good Jew is a dead Jew’. A horrific statement not so openly suggested in Europe or the USA in 2017. In reality, this line is actually being propagated in almost every university campus in the west. Yes, it is camouflaged, but do not let that distract us from the sickening message underneath. Let me explain.

Thomas Suarez recently published a work of revisionist history titled ‘State of Terror’. What Suarez did is simple. He engaged in research using the British archives in Kew as a way of proving what he already believed, that Israel is a nasty little state created by nasty people, who did awful things. With a highly distorted personal radar, careful document selection, and an unerring ability to misinterpret intentions, Suarez produced a piece of writing far removed from both historicity and context.

Because therein lies the rub, part of the missing context of the book is the Holocaust.

When I pointed this out on Twitter, I received a response from anti-Zionist Jew and founder of ‘Boycott from within’ Ronnie Barkan:

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When a Journalist Shills For Palestinians; Slams Israel, Omits Basic Facts - by Daniel Pomerantz

...It is certainly fair for a journalist to explore the subjective experience of a Palestinian interviewee. It is even fair to investigate the very real burden that some checkpoints create in Palestinian daily life. Yet hiding context, covering up inconvenient facts, disguising opinions as news, and utterly neglecting to include any balancing statements, clearly violates the professional standards of ABC News, 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..
06 June '17..






Sophie McNeill has a history of advocacy journalism. She has openly dedicated herself to:

…frame stories from the point of view of the people who are “really suffering.”

McNeill made it clear that when she said “people who are really suffering,” she meant Palestinians. And while there’s nothing wrong with presenting one, agenda-driven side to a complex story, it is not journalism. It is activism. In fact, HonestReporting previously published an in-depth review of Sophie McNeill’s unsuitability to report actual news.

Which is why it is so disturbing that Australia’s ABC News employs a self proclaimed, and openly biased advocate to report from Israel and the Palestinian territories.

In fact, ABC News’s own ethical rules clearly require:

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Pallywood 2017 - The meaning of the UNRWA-Becky Anderson gaffes by Richard Landes

In any universe of journalistic integrity, Enderlin would have lost his job 17 years ago – or at least over the course of the next 17 years. And Becky Anderson should lose her job yesterday. Don’t hold your breath. We live in a world where fake-news is a regular element of mainstream journalism.

Richard Landes..
Augean Stables..
06 June '17..

Those paying attention to matters of Pallywood, or the faking of news in order to target a given population with lethal narratives, had a double feast yesterday and today. First UNRWA, the UN agency for helping the Palestinian refugees, used a picture of a forlorn Syrian girl, living in ruins caused by the wars of rule and resistance in that part of the Arab political world, to relay a lethal narrative about Israel, all for the benefit of fundraising for the work of UNRWA.

Even those unaware of how much UNRWA employees are either Hamas agents or their dhimmis, can appreciate the moral degradation involved here. Appealing dishonestly to people’s pitying concern for Palestinians, by providing a heavy dollop of moral Schadenfreude about Israel, in order to raise money to prolong the victimization of Gazans.

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The Palestinians the international media don't talk about -- and the reason why. - by Caroline Glick

...The most pressing duty of the American Jewish community then is to finally recognize the nature of the battle they are beset by and fight it as hard as they can. The long-suffering Palestinians will no doubt thank them for doing so.

Caroline Glick..
Frontpagemag.com..
06 June '17..
Link: http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/266909/palestinian-suffering-and-israel-caroline-glick

How can we explain the international community’s indifference to Palestinian suffering? Every day, angry bands of protesters burn the flag of Israel, call for the destruction of the Jewish state and insist that Israel and its Jewish citizens be shunned from polite society and thrown out of the global economy all in the name of opposing “the Occupation.”

Although the breathless protesters insist that all their efforts are directed toward the Palestinians, as it works out, none of their assaults on Israel have improved the Palestinians’ lot. To the contrary, their protests have given a free pass to those that do the most to harm Palestinians.

The angry, hateful protests against Israel tell us nothing about either the history of the Palestinians’ relations with the Jewish state or their present circumstances.

And what are those circumstances? Consider the stories of two different groups of Palestinian prisoners.

Trying to use the Six Day War as fundraising fodder for UNRWA - Elder of Ziyon

...UNRWA doesn't want the world to know the truth - that it is simply a self-perpetuating bureaucracy that should have been dismantled in the 1950s. If that would have happened, the majority of people who claim to be Palestinian today would be in much better shape because the Arab nations would have been forced to take care of them instead of fobbing them off to the UN.

Elder of Ziyon..
06 June '17..







I received this email from UNRWA-USA, entitled "50 years of occupation. Still refugees."

This week marks a devastating anniversary for Palestinians: 50 years of the occupation of the West Bank including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip.
In 1967, UNRWA had already been providing services to Palestine refugees displaced by the Nakba for 17 years. The Naksa -- the new wave of displacement caused by the June 1967 war and subsequent Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza -- warranted the establishment of 10 new refugee camps, and UNRWA expanding its services to newly displaced Palestinians in need. Refugees still live in these camps today.
Please continue to stand with Palestine refugees.
For decades, generations of Palestinians -- refugees and non-refugees -- have persevered as their land is confiscated, their families separated, and their rights repeatedly violated. UNRWA will continue to stand with Palestine refugees, no matter what, until they receive a just and durable solution to their plight.
Today, and every day, we remember those, still refugees, living under an occupation that becomes more entrenched every day. We honor them as they continue to hope for a brighter future.

It's funny, because in 1967 these "refugees" were in camps in Jordan and Gaza, under foreign control. Today they are in camps in the West Bank and Gaza under the control of their own people. They are no worse off from the "occupation" than they were under Jordanian occupation; in fact their lives are markedly better in the West Bank (and in Gaza, the only reason things are worse is because of Hamas, not Israel, which tried to build houses for them and got a UN resolution condemning Israel for that desire.)

Now they have hospitals, universities, far improved health care and far better jobs for the most part compared to 1967. Yet UNRWA wants to make it sound like it is Israel that is making their lives miserable.

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BBC’s Six Day War backgrounder video falls very short - by Hadar Sela

...Once again we see that the BBC is not in the least committed to providing its audiences with the full range of accurate and impartial information that would enhance their knowledge and understanding of an event it so vigorously promotes.

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

On June 5th a video billed “1967 Six Day War – in 60 seconds” appeared on the BBC News website’s main homepage and its Middle East page.

The video itself is titled “Six Day War: What happened – in 60 seconds” and its synopsis reads:

“In June 1967, Israel and Arab countries fought a war which lasted six days, but changed the face of the Middle East.”

The video’s opening frame tells viewers that they are about to learn “How the conflict unfolded”. However, the events which caused Israel to launch what the BBC rightly recognises as “a pre-emptive strike” are bizarrely erased from this account.

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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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NY Times Marks Six-Day War Anniversary With ‘Morally Wrong…Inaccurate’ Piece - by Ira Stoll

...It sure looks like Mr. Soros has gotten his money’s worth with his investment in the International Crisis Group and Mr. Thrall, who got a big Sunday splash in the New York Times to smear Israel, inaccurately.

Ira Stoll..
Algemeiner.com..
05 June '17..

The lead article in the New York Times Sunday Review section — the old “Week in Review” — is headlined “Israel’s Everlasting Occupation.”

The article claims:

official Israeli and Palestinian population statistics indicate that Jews have been a minority in the territory Israel controls for several years now, and with no repercussions: A majority of the world’s nations still speak of undemocratic rule by a Jewish minority as a hypothetical future, not an unacceptable present.

That’s not accurate. At year-end 2016, the Israeli Jewish population was 6.45 million and the Israeli Arab population was 1.796 million, and there were 345,000 “others.” The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, meanwhile, counted a Palestinian population of 2.9 million in the West Bank and 1.8 million in Gaza.

The key point here is that Gaza is not “territory Israel controls.” In fact, Israel withdrew from Gaza unilaterally in 2005, uprooting and evacuating the Jews who lived there. The place is now ruled by Hamas, a terrorist group opposed to the existence of Israel. If Israel controlled it, Hamas wouldn’t be in charge there. It is true that Israel patrols its borders with Gaza, but that doesn’t constitute “control.” The error would be like counting the Hispanic population of Mexico as part of that of the United States just because the United States maintains a border patrol along the Rio Grande.

Subtract Gaza, and there is unquestionably a Jewish majority. Even if you add together the entire West Bank and all of Israel, 6.45 million Jews are more than 1.796 million Israeli Arabs and 2.9 million West Bank Palestinians. It isn’t even close.

And that’s just the beginning of the problems with the Times article

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Watch the chilling joy of a terror-massacre mastermind - by Arnold Roth

... Two minutes later, they said on the radio that the number had increased to five. I wanted to hide my smile, but I just couldn't. Allah be praised, it was great. As the number of dead kept increasing, the passengers were applauding. They didn't even know that I was among them. On the way back [to Ramallah], we passed a Palestinian police checkpoint, and the policemen were laughing. One of them stuck his head in and said: 'Congratulations to us all.' Everybody was happy...

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

If you're already familiar with the details of our daughter Malki's murder in the Sbarro pizzeria massacre of August 9, 2001, this post probably will not add much to your knowledge or state of mind.

We are currently trying to get the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan to co-operate with the US Department of Justice and extradite our child's killer and the chief planner of the massacre, Ahlam Tamimi, to the US.

In the course of our efforts, we are referring a number of agencies, governments and specific individuals to video clips that throw light on the woman and the things she has said on video since being released by the Israeli government in the 2011 Shalit prisoner-exchange deal.

We created this post for that purpose.

Tamimi lives today in complete freedom in Jordan with her husband Nizar Tamimi (they are cousins, and he too is a prematurely-freed murderer), where she enjoys extraordinary protection by the king and his regime.

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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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Question. What do you say to someone who just tried to murder you? - by Vic Rosenthal

...Yes, she should not have been cursed while lying critically wounded, but what do you say to someone who just tried to murder you? Yes, it is a shame that a young person who could have grown up to have children and grandchildren of her own will now only be a memory. But even a 16-year old can make very permanent choices, and with the help of the society that molded her, she made hers. Maybe the Palestinian Authority will name a school after her.

Vic Rosenthal..
Abu Yehuda..
04 June '17..
Link: http://abuyehuda.com/2017/06/what-do-you-say-to-someone-who-just-tried-to-murder-you/

I felt sorry and sad when I saw the 16-year old Arab girl lying in the road after she was shot. She was someone’s daughter and she could have had a life.

She stabbed a soldier getting off a bus at Mevo Dotan in Samaria and tried to stab another. After she was shot, the soldiers called for medical assistance. Before it arrived, one or two of the soldiers or civilians present cursed her, told her to die and called her a particularly offensive name in Arabic (video here). She received first aid, and was evacuated to a hospital where she later died.

Gideon Levy thinks this incident illustrates our depravity:

There wasn’t even one soldier there with a shred of compassion or humanity. One has to recognize the magnitude of hatred felt by soldiers of the occupying army towards the nation they lord over. One has to see the extent to which they’ve lost their humanity. How can anyone be joyful over a dying schoolgirl? Cursing someone suffering like that is no less evil than shooting her.

The article claims that she was left to bleed to death and not offered medical attention, which is false. The video is less than a minute long. It did not show her being treated at the scene and placed in the ambulance.

But the most important way in which Levy distorts the truth is this. He wrote:

One has to recognize the magnitude of hatred felt by soldiers of the occupying army towards the nation they lord over.

It has nothing to do with “occupying” and the soldiers don’t see themselves as “lord[ing]” over another “nation.” All of that is ideology projected on the inside of Levy’s eyelids.

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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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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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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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 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.

(Continue to Full Story and Photos)

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.