Love of the Land

Friday, February 9, 2018

The most Israel can do is to bring the liquid of life to the border, where it will only be met with chaos and darkness - by Smadar Bat Adam

...The fact is that the deterioration of Gaza's water aquifers is a perfect reflection of the deterioration of the Oslo Accords. It is not a military or diplomatic issue, but rather a refusal to take any responsibility for providing basic infrastructure that is essential for maintaining the most fundamental aspects of life – preventing disease and death. If only they dug sewer tunnels for the betterment of Gaza rather than terror tunnels to the detriment of Israel.

Smadar Bat Adam..
Israel Hayom..
08 February '18..
Link: http://www.israelhayom.com/opinions/like-water-for-gaza/

According to a 2016 Haaretz interview with Adnan Ghosheh, a senior water and sanitation specialist at the World Bank, the Gaza Strip will become uninhabitable for human beings by 2020.

This grim forecast is supported by the Institute for National Security Studies in a report titled "Water and Energy Crisis in Gaza: Snapshot 2017."

According to the report, the "lack of clean water for domestic use and unsafe sanitary conditions pose a serious public health threat to the two million people living in the Gaza Strip. By now, large amounts of untreated wastewater have already crossed Gaza's borders and created additional repercussions for several neighboring communities in Egypt and Israel, with Israel at one point forced to close two of its beaches."

When unlimited drinking water flows from the taps in Ashkelon, just north of Gaza, it is too easy to accuse Israel of unjustly dividing this precious resource, as self-righteous Israelis, and Europeans, sometimes do. These voices continue to condescend, absolving the local leadership of any responsibility. But it is the Palestinian leaders who actually bear the blame for this disgraceful situation.

The fact is that the deterioration of Gaza's water aquifers is a perfect reflection of the deterioration of the Oslo Accords. It is not a military or diplomatic issue, but rather a refusal to take any responsibility for providing basic infrastructure that is essential for maintaining the most fundamental aspects of life – preventing disease and death. If only they dug sewer tunnels for the betterment of Gaza rather than terror tunnels to the detriment of Israel.

It very well may be that in their heart of hearts, at least as far as water is concerned, the residents of Gaza actually miss Israeli rule. In the days of direct Israeli administration of Gaza, Arabs had access to the same good water their Jewish neighbors enjoyed, coming from 1,400 local wells. The drilling of the coastal aquifer was supervised and the water was pumped with great care.

But then, in 2005, Israel withdrew from Gaza, and the water industry was left unsupervised. Unbridled drilling quadrupled the number of wells to around 6,000, with most being dug by individuals in crisis because Hamas authorities failed to provide the population with basic amenities. The lack of investment in a sewage systems resulted in the contamination of the water in the aquifers. Leaky pipes now lose around 38% of the water that runs through them, according to 2017 World Bank report. No one is even mentioning the notion of recycling waste water for use in agriculture and very little has been done to increase water supply through desalination.

When the Truth is Treated as Hate Speech - by Varda Meyers Epstein

...I knew what was bugging the Quora moderators here, I won’t pretend I didn’t. They didn’t want me speaking of “Jews” and “Arabs” but of “Zionist settlers” and “Palestinians villagers” as the OP did. They didn’t want me to challenge the assertions of the poster, but see things from his or her point of view.

Varda Meyers Epstein..
Judean Rose/Elder of Ziyon..
07 February '18..

On January 22, I answered this question on Quora:

Why do you think there is so much violence between, the Zionist settlers and Palestinian villagers in the West Bank? Can the Ask an Israeli/Ask A Palestinian project help quell some of that violence?

I responded as follows:

The question is by way of asserting an untruth: that there is some sort of mutuality to the Arab war against the Jews (see: The Arab War Against the Jews). Jews don’t attack Arabs. The opposite is true: Arabs attack Jews.

This fact has nothing to do with settlement, which has only to do with housing. There is nothing wrong with housing, by the way, unless you believe that Jews have no right to live in homes. Which would be an extremely racist position to hold.

This project you mention is total anti-Israel propaganda because of the question it asks, which, like the question you ask, asserts an untruth, and there is no balance to the assertion. The project cannot quell what does not exist.

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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.

Reviewing the BBC’s presentation of Jerusalem history or lack thereof - by Hadar Sela

...There is of course nothing new about the BBC's failure to provide its audiences with the full range of information that would enhance their understanding of the background to stories concerning Jerusalem. But while that practice has been in evidence for years, the failure to provide even one accurate, impartial and comprehensive account of the relevant history of the city which was the topic of dozens of BBC reports on multiple platforms in one month alone is obviously remarkable.

Hadar Sela..
BBC Watch..
08 February '18..

The US administration’s announcement of its recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital on December 6th 2017 prompted an exceptionally large number of BBC reports on all its various platforms.

In six of the twenty-two written reports on the story that appeared on the BBC News website throughout December, no historical background was given at all. In eight of those articles audiences were given ‘background information’ on the city of Jerusalem that eliminated its history prior to June 1967 – for example:

“Israel occupied the area in the 1967 Middle East war and regards the entire city as its indivisible capital. The Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state, and according to 1993 Israel-Palestinian peace accords, its final status is meant to be discussed in the latter stages of peace talks.

Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem has never been recognised internationally, and all countries, including Israel’s closest ally the US, maintain their embassies in Tel Aviv, Israel’s commercial capital.

Since 1967, Israel has built a dozen settlements, home to about 200,000 Jews, in East Jerusalem. These are considered illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this.” [emphasis added] BBC News website, 4/12/17

And:

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In the War on Terror, Europe is no Friend of Israel - by Judith Bergman

There is something fundamentally wrong that while Israel uses its expertise to save European citizens from terrorism, Europe supports and funds Arab terrorism against Israeli citizens.

Judith Bergman..
MiDA..
07 February '18..
Link: http://en.mida.org.il/2018/02/07/war-terror-europe-no-friend-israel/

Israel is famous for its security expertise and countries throughout the world seek it out, knowing that it is virtually unmatched.

India, many of the countries of Africa as well as Europe are among the beneficiaries of Israel’s security know-how and intelligence sharing. Yes, the same Europe which in the words of EU Foreign Policy chief Federica Mogherini, is the largest collective contributor to the PA, the terrorist entity that continues to incite, orchestrate and financially reward terrorism.

Recently, a report in the German magazine, Der Spiegel, revealed that Israel is part of a secret counter- terrorism coalition that gathers intelligence on ISIS terrorists who return from Syria to Europe. The intelligence collection and anti-terror campaign reportedly includes 21 states. Benjamin Netanyahu also recently said that Israel had helped thwart several dozen major terror attacks in Europe, even attacks involving ‘civil aviation’.

“When we talk about ISIS it’s important to understand that Israel helps Europe in two fundamental ways”, Netanyahu said, “The first is that we have, through our intelligence services, provided information that has stopped several dozen major terrorist attacks, many of them in European countries. Some of these could have been mass attacks, of the worst kind that you have experienced on the soil of Europe and even worse, because they involve civil aviation. Israel has prevented that, and thereby helped save many European lives.”

Nations should help each other out, there is no question about that. Terrorism is an international problem and it must be fought across borders. Still, something is wrong with this picture. Take this example: Back in November 2015, a specific intelligence warning from Israel led German authorities to call off a soccer game between Germany and the Netherlands. Around the same time, however, German department stores were removing Israeli wine from their shelves because the European Union had released its new guidelines about labeling Israeli goods from Judea and Samaria, the Golan Heights and east Jerusalem.

There is something fundamentally wrong about the fact that Israel uses its expertise to save European citizens from terrorism, while Europe uses its taxpayer money to support and enable terrorism against Israeli citizens.

The Ahed Tamimi PR promotion continues on BBC World Service radio - by Hadar Sela

...The fact that five days later the BBC chose to broadcast yet another report in which that crucial context was not provided to audiences indicates once again that the corporation and its Middle East editor have self-conscripted to a political campaign that has now included no fewer than ten separate reports on Ahed Tamimi since December 19th.

Hadar Sela..
BBC Watch..
07 February '18..

When two different BBC platforms promoted filmed reports by the BBC’s Middle East editor last week on the topic of Ahed Tamimi and her upcoming trial, many called out the bias and manipulation evident in Jeremy Bowen’s reports and in particular the fact that, while concealing from audiences the fact that the charges against Tamimi include incitement, he disingenuously promoted the false notion that she has been charged with terrorism offences because of a “slap”.

Jeremy Bowen is of course well-known for being impervious to any criticism – which he takes very grudgingly – and so it did not come as much of a surprise to see that, despite the flaws in his report having been called out, five days later an audio version that is very similar to the filmed reports was aired on the BBC World Service radio programme ‘Newshour‘.

Presenter Razia Iqbal began by promoting Bowen’s ‘terrorism’ red herring once again.

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When media treats Palestinian street theatre as real life - by Adam Levick

...The omission of this small detail gets to the heart of the double standards in coverage of the conflict: foreign journalists covering the region are so careful not to amplify or accept at face value the “hasbara” disseminated by the Israeli government or pro-Israel groups, yet seem perfectly willing to report (as real news) such staged protests and other forms of political street theatre.

Adam Levick..
UK Media Watch..
06 February '18..

The Independent did what it often does when reporting on Israeli removal of illegal, EU funded buildings in Area C (areas of the West Bank under full Israeli control): they illustrated the story with a photo designed to maximize the desired narrative of Palestinian dispossession.

The photo used for the article (Israel demolishes EU-funded Palestinian classrooms in occupied West Bank, Feb. 5) leaves the impression that the demolition of their classroom – funded by the EU in an attempt to create ‘facts on the ground‘ in the contentious E-1 area connecting Ma’ale Adumim with the rest of Jerusalem – forced Palestinians to learn while sitting outside amidst the rubble.

The photo caption used by the Indy also leaves this impression:

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Palestinian "Leaders", Ramallah and the Atrocities No One Talks About - by Khaled Abu Toameh

...The money Abbas spent on the new plane could have saved the lives of thousands of Palestinians in Syria and the Gaza Strip. Abbas, however, could not care less. In his view, the needs of his people are the responsibility of the world. He wants everyone but himself to continue funneling financial aid to the Palestinians. For him, delivering a speech before the EU Parliament or the UN General Assembly easily takes precedence over the Palestinians who are dying due to lack of medicine and food. With such leaders, the Palestinians do not need enemies.

Khaled Abu Toameh..
Gatestone Institute..
06 February '18..

A Palestinian refugee camp has been under siege for more than 1,660 days. Hundreds of the camp residents have been killed, while tens of thousands have been forced to flee from their homes.

Those who have remained in the camp -- mostly the elderly, women and children -- live in unspeakable sanitary conditions and drink polluted water.

More than 200 Palestinians from the camp, which has been under siege since 2103, have died as a result of lack of food or medicine. The conditions in the refugee camp, by any standard, are horrific.

Why have most of us not heard about the hair-raising "living" conditions that characterize this camp? Because it is not located in the West Bank or the Gaza Strip.

The name of the camp is Yarmouk, and it is located about five miles from the Syrian capital of Damascus.

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Tuesday, February 6, 2018

Surprise! Newsweek Makes Up News: Again. - by Daniel Pomerantz

...Aside from being openly biased against Israel on Twitter, Tom O’Connor has a consistent track record of simply making up “news.” All of which begs the question: why does Newsweek continue to give O’Connor a platform at all?

Daniel Pomerantz..
Honest Reporting..
04 February '18..

UPDATE:

Since publication of the critique below, much of the Newsweek editorial staff has been fired, and there is speculation the publication might close entirely. Newsweek is also being investigated for lying about its finances and its web traffic.

***

There are few journalistic lapses more obvious and unprofessional than simply making up a statement by a public figure. Yet Newsweek’s serial offender Tom O’Connor has done exactly that: again.

In his Newsweek article entitled, “Middle East’s Next Oil War? Israel Threatens Lebanon Over Hezbollah and Natural Gas,” O’Connor fantasizes that at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) conference on January 29:

Israel has threatened to invade Lebanon amid a recent spat over natural resources and militant groups that, once again, raised tensions between the longtime foes.

He then claims that at the same conference Israel’s Minister of Defense, Avigdor Liberman:

…threatened to wage a full-scale war against Lebanon if Hezbollah launched any attacks against Israel.

This is about to be the simplest news critique I’ve ever written:

Liberman never said that in his speech. Period.

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BBC continues silence on Gaza weapons smuggling - by Hadar Sela

...The myth that medical services in Gaza are affected by the blockade is one that has been promoted in the past in BBC content, along with similar fables concerning fuel and the allegation that the counter-terrorism measures are ‘collective punishment’.

Hadar Sela..
BBC Watch..
06 February '18..

In the past we have documented several examples (see ‘related articles’ below) of the BBC’s serial failure to report stories concerning attempts to smuggle goods into the Gaza Strip for the purpose of terrorism.

Another such story recently came to light but it too has not received any BBC coverage.

“Israeli authorities at the Kerem Shalom Crossing foiled an attempt to smuggle into the Gaza Strip explosive components for long-range projectiles hidden inside packages of medical supplies, the Defense Ministry said in a statement Sunday morning.

The explosive material was intercepted by security authorities this past week after crates with containers of medical equipment destined for the Strip were removed and packages inside the containers were taken to a laboratory for additional testing. […]

The materials seized by authorities were then identified as a central component in the preparation of explosive charges and in the high-trajectory projectiles fired toward Israel from the Gaza Strip.”

Just last month BBC audiences heard a Hamas official blame Gaza’s poor medical care on Israeli counter-terrorism measures without any challenge from his interviewer. The myth that medical services in Gaza are affected by the blockade is one that has been promoted in the past in BBC content, along with similar fables concerning fuel and the allegation that the counter-terrorism measures are ‘collective punishment’.

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Seems the EU continues to build illegal settlements, just to complain when Israel demolishes them - by Elder of Ziyon

...The irony is that the UN is saying what a terrible crime it is to relocate a few dozen families who are nomadic anyway, but it insists that over a half million Jews who have lived in the same area for decades (and many of whose ancestors lived there much longer) must be ethnically cleansed from the area they call "Palestine."

Elder of Ziyon..
05 February '18..

From the UN yesterday:

Statement by acting Humanitarian Coordinator for the OPT, Roberto Valent, on the Israeli authorities’ destruction of donor-funded classrooms in the Palestinian community of Abu Nuwar I am deeply concerned by the Israeli authorities’ demolition this morning of two donor-funded classrooms (3rd and 4th grade), serving 26 Palestinian school children in the Bedouin and refugee community of Abu Nuwar, located in Area C on the outskirts of Jerusalem. The demolition was carried out on grounds of lack of Israeli-issued permits, which are nearly impossible to obtain.

Abu Nuwar is one of the most vulnerable communities in need of humanitarian assistance in the occupied West Bank. The conditions it faces also represent those of many Palestinian communities, where a combination of Israeli policies and practices –including demolitions and restricted access to basic services, such as education – have created a coercive environment that violates the human rights of residents and generates a risk of forcible transfer. This is the sixth demolition or confiscation incident in Abu Nuwar school by the Israeli authorities since February 2016.

This means that for the past two years, every four months, the EU builds an illegal school building and Israel tears it down.

Does it sound like the EU really cares about educating the kids? They could arrange transportation to another school if they wanted, for example.

These games are clearly meant not to help Palestinians but to embarrass Israel, with photos of demolished buildings that they claim were schools that probably never had any classes.

Abu Nawar is located in the E1 section that connects Ma'ale Adumim with the rest of Jerusalem. That is really what this is all about - the international community is hell bent on stopping Israel from connecting the two.

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Monday, February 5, 2018

The Polish Holocaust Law is Poland’s Problem, Not Israel’s - by Alex Grinberg

While the Polish law calling for punishment of those accusing Poland for the Holocaust is problematic and undemocratic, it is more foolish than it is antisemitic.

Alex Grinberg..
MiDA..
04 February '18..
Link: http://en.mida.org.il/2018/02/04/polish-holocaust-law-polands-problem-not-israels/

The storm stirred in Israel and the world by the Polish law regarding Polish crimes during the Holocaust included quite a bit of rhetoric, superficiality and ignorance. It is important therefore, to set the record straight both historically and factually.

The lower house of the Polish parliament (the Sim) approved the bill authorizing the Institute of National Remembrance – Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation (Act of 18 December 1998 (Polish Journal of Laws of 2016, item 1575) – to impose a fine and imprisonment of up to three years for “distorting the historical truth about the Polish people and state”. The law requires the approval of the Polish Senate and the President.

This is the language of the bill:

“Whoever claims, publicly and contrary to the facts, that the Polish Nation or the Republic of Poland is responsible or co-responsible for Nazi crimes committed by the Third Reich, … or for other felonies that constitute crimes against peace, crimes against humanity or war crimes, or whoever otherwise grossly diminishes the responsibility of the true perpetrators of said crimes – shall be liable to a fine or imprisonment for up to 3 years. … Irrespective of the regulations in force at the location of committing the criminal act, this Act shall apply to Polish and foreign citizens in the event of committing the offences … .”

Opinions over the law are divided In Poland itself. Not only between nationalist anti-Semites and liberal-leftists by the way, though this division does exist of course. Wittek Duch of the “History” website, for example, supports the proposed law hesitantly, stressing that the punishment will apply to those who accuse the Polish people as a whole of complicity in the crimes of the Nazis, but not in specific cases of certain Poles such as in the Jedwabne Pogrom. In addition, the punishment will not be automatic because it applies to a violation of the historical truth that has no known and clear consent, and therefore the court will need the assistance of historians.

On the other hand, the liberal website Oko claims that the law is bad in every way: First of all, Poland got into trouble with Israel, with the Ukraine (the law also applies to Ukraine) and, indeed, to all of Europe. Second, the site mentions that only authoritarian states such as Turkey and Russia have a criminal penalty for “distorting historical truth.” Third, there is a fear that those who discuss the Jedwabne massacre may be sent to jail. It should be noted that the current version of the law, after the amendments, states that artists and researchers will be exempt from it.

Between Poles and Ukrainians

The attempt to shape historical memory through criminal law and punishment is indeed foolish and authoritarian. It will make Poland a mockery in Europe and place it closer to the provinces of Putin and Erdogan. No one in Poland is looking for a crisis with Israel either, especially when relations between the two countries are good and close.

However, it is important to adhere to the truth and not to be attributed to the law, foolish as it will be, that which it is not. It is neither anti-Semitic nor the rewriting of history, as stupid as it may be.

It is equally important to pay attention to the context in which such laws are created. The current Polish government is taking clearly non-liberal and undemocratic measures, but Poland is still a democratic country and the law is still expected to be discussed and amended, like other problematic laws. In Poland there are anti-Semitic and anti-democratic trends and anti-Semitism. This is a fact, but neither a surprising or exciting innovation. There is also the other side of the coin though, which usually escapes the eyes of the media.

The attitude of Israelis to Poland and Poles is superficial and ignorant. In the Israeli public perception, the Holocaust is perceived as a uniform black hole, with no special differences between nations. To many, there is no real difference between the peoples of Eastern Europe. Ukrainians, Poles, and Slovaks are all perceived as anti-Semitic and haters of Israel. The historical memory of Polish anti-Semitism is automatically transferred to a solid historical perspective on Polish crimes during the Holocaust.

The hate that is the real impediment to Israeli-Palestinian peace - by Stephen M. Flatow

...As long as Palestinians attempt to stone Jews to death for the crime of entering an Arab town or planting a tree on a hill, peace will indeed remain an elusive dream.

Stephen M. Flatow..
W. Post/Letters to the Editor..
04 February '18..
Link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-hate-that-is-the-real-impediment-to-israeli-palestinian-peace/2018/02/04/a72c9ff8-09cd-11e8-998c-96deb18cca19_story.html?utm_term=.45fc3ddbb974

In his Jan. 31 op-ed, “Crowding out a peace deal in the Mideast,” David Ignatius claimed that the existence of Jewish communities in the Judea-Samaria/West Bank region is the main obstacle to peace. Why should that be the case? The Jewish towns are located in the portion of the territories controlled by Israel, while 98 percent of the Palestinian Arabs reside in the portion controlled by the Palestinian Authority. Israel is not demanding the expulsion of Arabs from the Palestinian Authority areas; why should Arabs insist on the expulsion of Jews from the Israeli areas?

The real obstacle to peace was mentioned at the end of Mr. Ignatius’s column, when he noted that the Israeli army has posted signs outside Palestinian towns that read: “The entrance for Israeli citizens is forbidden. Dangerous to your lives.” Israeli Jews know from bitter experience that merely entering a Palestinian town is a danger to their lives.

The same week as Mr. Ignatius’s column, Israeli children celebrated the Jewish version of Arbor Day by planting trees on an empty West Bank hillside. Sadly, a Palestinian mob began throwing rocks at the children, seriously injuring one. As long as Palestinians attempt to stone Jews to death for the crime of entering an Arab town or planting a tree on a hill, peace will indeed remain an elusive dream.

Stephen M. Flatow, Long Branch, N.J.

The writer is vice president of the Religious Zionists of America and father of Alisa Flatow, who was murdered in an Iranian-sponsored Palestinian terrorist attack in 1995.

The embarrassing violence of Ahed Tamimi and its fig-leafers - by Arnold Roth

...The reality is that Ahed Tamimi has been groomed, trained, weaponized, hardened and massively exposed for years - and by the same manipulative pair of people the whole way: Mummy and Daddy. This is all a matter of the public record that remains just as public when reporters who ought to know better choose to ignore the record.

Arnold/Frimet Roth..
This Ongoing War..
04 February '18..

We have more than the regular amount of interest in the in-your-face bigotry and incitement-to-extreme-violence of the loathsome Tamimi clan of Nabi Saleh. We have explained why over and again in past posts.

But for anyone fresh to this blog or to us - the parents of Malki Roth - or to the news industry's sickening and highly-selective fixation with the nedia-centric doings of the Tamimis, we suggest to start here:

24-Dec-17: Nabi Saleh, the media and a Tamimi child's journey

19-Dec-17: Uncovering some of Nabi Saleh's hideous buried secrets

01-Sep-15: A tale of two villages: one devoted to non-violence, another that actually exists

29-Aug-15: Revisiting a Palestinian Arab village and its monsters

17-Mar-13: A little village in the hills, and the monsters it spawns

With the background in mind, think now about the stream of news articles during the past six weeks that have delivered up softball versions of Tamimi analysis, driven by another (in a long series) of self-engineered "clashes" with the IDF in which the star is, as always, the always-carefully-coiffed Ahed Tamimi.

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Sunday, February 4, 2018

BBC now reports on designation of a terror group it previously ignored but... - by Hadar Sela

...Readers were also not told that the other two groups on the list are suspected of having ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. Hence when they read at the end of the report that the US Secretary of State said that “[t]hese designations target key terrorist groups and leaders – including two sponsored and directed by Iran” [emphasis added], BBC audiences would not understand that, in addition to Harakat al-Sabireen, he was referring to Hamas. As regular readers know, the BBC has long refrained from producing any meaningful reporting on the topic of Iranian funding of Hamas terror.

Hadar Sela..
BBC Watch..
04 February '18..

On January 31st the BBC News website published a report titled “Ismail Haniya: US designates Hamas leader as terrorist“.

“The United States has designated the political leader of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas as a terrorist and imposed sanctions on him.

The state department said Ismail Haniya had “close links with Hamas’ military wing” and been a “proponent of armed struggle, including against civilians”.”

That presentation failed to inform BBC audiences that the US announcement concerning the man described last year by the BBC as “a pragmatist” also included the following:

“Haniyeh has close links with Hamas’ military wing and has been a proponent of armed struggle, including against civilians. He has reportedly been involved in terrorist attacks against Israeli citizens.” [emphasis added]

The report went on:

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David Ben-Gurion's 1940 Mission to Rouse the Fighting Spirit of American Jews - by Rick Richman

As millions of Jews fell under the Nazi yoke, Zionism’s foremost leader came to America with one goal. He didn’t achieve it.

Rick Richman..
Mosaic Magazine..
17 January '18..

In 1940, as millions of Jews came under Nazi control in the countries conquered by Hitler, and as the route to safety in Palestine remained closed by the British Mandatory power, three of Zionism’s greatest leaders traveled to America. They came at different times, on separate missions, but all three—Chaim Weizmann, the president of the Zionist Organization, Vladimir (Ze’ev) Jabotinsky, the leader of the Revisionist Zionist movement, and David Ben-Gurion, the Labor Zionist leader who headed the Jewish Agency in Palestine—shared a single goal: to win support in America for a Jewish army to fight the Nazis alongside the British.

This article focuses on Ben-Gurion, the last to come. Writing to his wife Paula before leaving London for the United States, he said he wanted “to see with my own eyes what we can expect from America in wartime.” In particular, he wrote, “I want to know the extent of the contribution America’s Jews are prepared to make for the life of their own people.”

Ben-Gurion would remain in America for four months, on a visit that—like those of his two predecessors—would reveal a great deal not only about American Jews but also about their Zionist visitors. The following brief account draws on Ben-Gurion’s diary, translated into English for the first time, as well as on letters and other contemporaneous documents, most of them previously unpublished.

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EU report portrays Jewish development of Jerusalem historical sites ‘touristic settlement’

Report claims that development at the City of David, and a planned cable car to bring tourists to the Western Wall are “a political tool to modify the historical narrative and to support, legitimize, and expand settlements."

JNS.org..
02 February '18..

A European Union report leaked to The Guardian newspaper expressed ire over Israeli tourism in and around Jerusalem’s Old City, calling the ongoing development of Jewish infrastructure a form of “touristic settlement.”

The EU Heads of Mission in Jerusalem issued a report warning that the development of Jewish tourism in the ancient City of David, currently located within a heavily populated Palestinian neighborhood, and a planned cable car that would transport tourists from the Western sections of the city to the Western Wall plaza within the Old City, were “a political tool to modify the historical narrative and to support, legitimize, and expand settlements.” The report asserts that the projects promote the “historic continuity of the Jewish presence in the area at the expense of other religions and cultures.”

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Saturday, February 3, 2018

Israeli democracy vs. daddy's latifundia - by Erez Tadmor

...Over the last 40 years, most power centers have not intersected with Israeli democracy. While the public has undergone mostly positive ethical, political, cultural and sociological changes, the key central positions and the senior professional establishment are almost completely immune to these changes. A generation comes and goes, but positions for judges, lawyers, lecturers, generals, division heads and senior managers are all divvied up among the members of the tribe by the old lords of the manor, enlightened only in their own eyes and in the eyes of their descendants. The few changes that have affected the Left have been against their will and were very unwelcome.

Erez Tadmor..
Israel Hayom..
01 Feburuary '18..
Link: http://www.israelhayom.com/opinions/not-your-daddys-state-anymore/

On Tuesday, the organization Physicians for Human Rights announced that 63 doctors, psychologists and social workers had undergone training at their offices on how to fill out paperwork in a way that might prevent the planned deportation of illegal migrants.

Israel has given illegal African migrants until the end of March to accept a $3,500 stipend and voluntarily depart or face imprisonment. This policy has sparked a country-wide debate on the issue that includes a left-wing campaign comparing the deportation to the Holocaust.

But if we look behind Physicians for Human Rights' laundered words, we will find an organized effort to teach professionals how to take advantage of their licenses and status to mislead the state and undermine the policies of the elected government.

In an enlightened country governed by the rule of law, this should result in these individuals' immediate dismissal and the revocation of their licenses to practice. They are a disgrace to their profession and they are abusing the public's trust. But judging from the acceptable norms in our public service sector, Israel is not and has never been an enlightened country.

This effort is just a drop in the deluge of bizarre initiatives in recent weeks, which included petitions signed by doctors, academics, diplomats, psychologists, artists, pilots and even classical musicians. The petitions reflected an ugly, anti-democratic mentality.

The problem is these power centers – the oligarchy-like professional unions that dominate a large portion of the professional fields and senior bureaucratic positions. These people feel like they are better than the public and above the law. The rules and guidelines of public service do not apply to them – rules are too trivial and insignificant for people with such hyper-developed consciences as the Israeli Left.

The deluge of petitions, much like the absurd civil disobedience threats, reflect a political phenomenon that has been largely ignored in public discourse: The latifundia mentality accepted in the old elite circles. Latifundium in Latin is an estate on a large parcel of land. The Roman Empire handed out latifundia to nobles or soldiers it wanted to reward.

So while we naively believe that the duty of public servants is to serve the public, many in the public service sector actually view their posts and jurisdictions as a sort of family-owned estate that has belonged to them for generations, or at least since "the Left founded the state." In other words, they own the deed to the state.

ICAHD bring antisemitism into the Church. The story of the ‘sick’ Israelis - by David Collier

What now Rosemary? How many lies does a man have to tell inside your church about Israel, before you begin to realise that the entire ICAHD message was unacceptable? What do you call it when someone deliberately tries to demonise Jews in Israel? To specifically try to brainwash those listening into believing that those Jews in Israel are monsters that need to be saved from themselves? At what point when he compares his false rendition of history to the Holocaust are you willing to call it antisemitic? How do you repair the damage that you have done?

David Collier..
Across the Great Divide..
01 February '18..

Yesterday was a distressing day. When I go to these events, I usually promise myself that I will not fall prey to the obvious bait set out in front of me. Sometimes, even I cannot remain calm in the face of the spiteful and twisted message that is put across. This ICAHD event was one of those.

Reverend Rosemary Fletcher and ICAHD

I am almost of the mind to simply direct this blog towards Reverend Rosemary Fletcher. Rosemary is the Minister at the Marlborough Road Methodist Church in St Albans. I was there, 1 February 2018, for a talk by Tim and Mayonne Coldicott titled ‘Saving Israel – What next for the Palestinians?’ A ‘fine event’ in a Church, that clearly seeks to save the Israelis from themselves. The Coldicott’s represent a group called the ‘Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions’ (ICAHD).

ICAHD suffered ‘financial collapse‘ in 2012 due to a lack of reliable donors. They changed their method of operations to seek sources of additional funding. Who better to fleece than good-hearted Christians in Europe? Thus, ICAHD activists these days look for churches with Ministers naive enough to allow them to spew their poison onto the innocent people in the audience. They have been described by NGO Monitor as an NGO that ‘does nothing to advance coexistence and instead promotes extreme views which fuel the conflict‘.

The ICAHD event

Reverend Rosemary Fletcher and I have never met before. Nor have I been inside her church. When I arrived yesterday, about 50 people sat waiting for the event to begin. Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) literature was spread over two tables near the entrance. The PSC have no interest in truth or peace whatsoever. They still have 9/11 truthers and Holocaust Deniers turning up at their AGM. When you see PSC literature inside a church then you know you are inside enemy territory.

The talk was delivered by Tim Coldicott and lasted about 45 minutes. Tim is a perfect presenter for a church audience. He is well presented, well-spoken and looks like a caring, learned, aged man. Presentation counts, especially if you need people to buy heavily into the content.

From the moment that Coldicott began to speak, to the moment he finished, he fed the audience an unforgivable and disgraceful demonisation of Israelis and Zionist history. I am used to distortion, I am also used to a heavy bias, or someone overcooking the Palestinian perspective of things. But this was more than that. Coldicott dehumanised the Israeli Jews, he ripped history apart, he scrubbed clean the streets of all Jewish blood and placed lie on-top of lie in an attempt to convince the audience, that to save Israelis from themselves, they simply had to destroy the Jewish state.

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U.S. Designates a Hamas Terrorist , a "Terrorist". ‘Moderate’ Palestinian ‘Peace Negotiator’ Outraged - by Sean Durns

...Erekat said that the “PLO rejects and condemns the U.S. finance department's decision to add Islamic Hamas movement chief Ismail Haniyeh to the terrorist list." Both the PLO and the PA, which rules the West Bank (Judea and Samaria), are dominated by the Fatah movement and led by Mahmoud Abbas. All three entities, as well as Abbas, are frequently labeled “moderate” by the press.

Ismail Haniyeh

Sean Durns..
CAMERA Snapshots..
31 January '18..
Link: http://blog.camera.org/archives/2018/02/moderate_palestinian_peace_neg.html

On Jan. 31, 2018 the United States State Department announced that top Hamas operative Ismail Haniyeh was now listed as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT). Less than twenty-four hours later, the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) chief “peace negotiator,” Saeb Erekat, decried the United States’ decision. Hamas is a U.S.-designated terrorist group that rules the Gaza Strip and calls for the destruction of Israel.

In a Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) press statement, Erekat said that the “PLO rejects and condemns the U.S. finance department's decision to add Islamic Hamas movement chief Ismail Haniyeh to the terrorist list." Both the PLO and the PA, which rules the West Bank (Judea and Samaria), are dominated by the Fatah movement and led by Mahmoud Abbas. All three entities, as well as Abbas, are frequently labeled “moderate” by the press.

The State Department noted that Haniyeh “has been involved in terrorist attacks against Israeli citizens” and “Hamas has been responsible for an estimated 17 American lives killed in terrorist attacks.” Haniyeh is the head of the terror group’s so-called “political bureau.” As Matthew Levitt, a former U.S. Treasury Department terror analyst, noted in his 2006 book Hamas: Politics, Charity and Terrorism in the Service of Jihad, all factions of Hamas are closely intertwined; claims that the political branch does not coordinate with the so-called “military bureau” that carries out attacks are false.

Making Deserts Bloom Not Only in Israel, But Around the World - by Judith Bergman

Just as the land of Israel flourished with the return of the Jewish people, the State of Israel is now helping other nations thrive. What exactly have social justice warriors done to help the world?

Judith Bergman..
MiDA..
01 February '18..
Link: http://en.mida.org.il/2018/02/01/israel-making-deserts-bloom-around-world/

The Jewish holiday of Tu BiShvat, celebrated today, marks the revival of nature. In Israel, Tu BiShvat is celebrated as an ecological awareness day, and trees are planted in celebration. Over a million Israelis take part in Tu BiShvat tree-planting activities annually. This, a custom developed during the early days of the Zionist movement to popularize the land reclamation and afforestation efforts in the land of Israel.

Over the past 100 years, Israel has gained vast knowledge and expertise in agriculture, reforestation and hydrology, developed as a consequence of necessity. Modern Israel continues quietly to extend its knowledge, including drip irrigation, water treatment – such as desalination and the recycling of wastewater – to Africa, Asia, and even California. Just as the land of Israel flourished with the return of the Jewish people, so too is the State of Israel now helping other nations to thrive.

While so-called social justice warriors rant and demonstrate against Israel, the question that no one asks is, what have these perpetual protesters ever done for the environment, and the truly poor of this world? The answer is – very little. Social justice war is an exercise in futile moral narcissism, the focus of which is to make social justice warriors feel good about themselves.

Israel, on the other hand, has been helping other nations flourish for decades, even when the reborn modern Jewish state itself was still very poor. Israel’s official international development cooperation program, Mashav, was launched in late 1957. Its aim was sharing with the rest of the developing world the know-how and technologies which provided the basis for Israel’s own rapid development. Israel has been, and effectively still is, a laboratory for development solutions.

Israel cultivated a strong relationship with Africa from the earliest beginnings, when the newly ‎decolonized African nations emerged. Taking the relevant expertise it accumulated during its own development experience as a young country facing similar challenges, Israel sent thousands of Israeli experts in agriculture, hydrology, ‎regional planning, public health, engineering, community services, medicine and scores of other fields ‎throughout Africa between 1958 and 1973. Thousands of Africans trained in Israel during the same time ‎‎(So much for Israeli “apartheid.”). Unlike Europeans, who lived in their own, segregated compounds, the Israelis lived among the Africans they came to ‎assist on the African continent (again, so much for Israeli ‎‎”apartheid.”). ‎

Former Prime Minister Golda Meir wrote in her 1975 memoirs, “My Life,” that like Africa, “… we had shaken off foreign rule; like them, we had had to learn how to ‎reclaim the land, how to increase the yields of our crops. … We couldn’t offer Africa money or arms, but on ‎the other hand we were free of the taint of the colonial exploiters because all that we wanted from Africa ‎was friendship. Let me at once anticipate the cynics. Did we go into Africa because we wanted votes at ‎the United Nations? Yes, of course that was one of our motives — and a perfectly honorable one — which I ‎never … concealed either from myself or from the Africans. But it was far from being the most important ‎motive. … The main reason for our African ‘adventure’ was that we had something we wanted to pass on ‎to nations that were even younger and less experienced than ourselves.”

Anyone Surprised that Incitement in UNRWA Schools Continues Unabated? - by Dr. Arnon Gross

320,000 Arab students studying in UNRWA educational institutions are exposed from an early age to hatred of Jews and encouragement of terrorism

Dr. Arnon Gross..
MiDA..
31 January '18..
Link: http://en.mida.org.il/2018/01/31/incitement-unrwa-schools-continues-unabated/

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestinian refugees and their descendants is responsible for the education of about a quarter of Palestinian schoolchildren in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. UNRWA maintains and operates ninety-six schools throughout Judea and Samaria, in addition to 276 educational institutions in the Gaza Strip.

Arab terrorist organizations have used the institutions themselves as bases for terrorist activity and the digging of tunnels into Israel. In addition to that, an examination of the contents taught in schools reveals a comprehensive system of incitement and education for hatred from a very young age, all under the official auspices and assistance of the United Nations.

The vast majority of textbooks used in UN schools are produced and distributed by the Palestinian Authority. In schools in Gaza, students in addition to PA books, use books published by the Hamas government.

In general, the textbooks of the Palestinian Authority are characterized by three basic principles regarding the Jewish-Israeli dimension: de-legitimization of the State of Israel and the very presence of the Jews in Israel, the demonization of Israel and the Jews, and the call for a violent struggle for the liberation of Palestine, including pre-1967 borders, and against coexistence with Israel.

As part of this call for violent struggle, schoolchildren are encouraged to take part in hostilities by presenting the struggle against Israel as an inevitable need, including the violent return of the descendants of the refugees to pre-1967 Palestine.

Another way to glorify the violent struggle is to glorify Jihad and death while fighting for Islam (Shahada). Those Palestinians who participate in this struggle are called heroes and role models, and there are even cases in which the students are openly encouraged to be like them and take part in wartime activities.

There's now a $5 million reward for bringing the terrorist Ahlam Tamimi to justice - by Arnold Roth

...How hard will it be to track this confessed murderer down? You might be surprised. Within Jordan, for reasons worth pondering, she's not thought of as a jihadist felon at all but more as a national hero of "resistance" and other related things. She shared a prominent speaking platform just a few weeks ago in Amman with no less than a former Jordanian prime minister and several current and former national level politicians.

Arnold/Frimet Roth..
This Ongoing War..
31 January '18..

Established in 1984, Rewards for Justice, a program of the US State Department has the goal of bringing

international terrorists to justice and prevent acts of international terrorism against U.S. persons or property... Since the inception of the Rewards for Justice program in 1984, the United States Government has paid more than $145 million to over 90 people who provided actionable information that put terrorists behind bars or prevented acts of international terrorism worldwide. [The program's website]

Federal criminal charges were announced last March against Ahlam Tamimi, the mastermind of the 2001 Jerusalem Sbarro pizzeria massacre. Our daughter Malki, 15, was one of the people, mostly children, killed in that Hamas-driven terror outrage. Tamimi described herself as Hamas' first woman agent.

If you follow our blog, it won't be news to you that Tamimi has been living a celebrity's life in Amman, Jordan since her extorted release from an Israeli prison cell in the 2011 Shalit Deal. She was the only one of the 1,027 terrorists freed in that catastrophic transaction who was sent into "exile" in Jordan. Since she was born in Jordan in 1980 and lived in Jordan, getting her education there until a couple of years before executing the Sbarro attack and went back to living in Jordan today with a cousin who is now her husband, it's not really exile and never was.

There is one practical result of the decision to send her to Jordan that's worth noting:

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Why polls on a Palestinian state are a fantasy - by Stephen M. Flatow

The “Palestinian state” that 47 percent of Israeli Jews would favor is a creature of the Steinmetz Center’s imagination. A permanently peaceful, totally demilitarized, terror-fighting Palestinian state that won’t insist on flooding Israel with “refugees.” Who wouldn’t want such a neighbor? Frankly, I’m surprised only 47 percent of Israeli Jews voiced their support.

Stephen M. Flatow..
JNS.org..
30 January '18..

Ever wonder why polls consistently show that a large portion of the Israeli public supports creating a Palestinian state?

How can it be that despite the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) support for terrorism, violations of the Oslo Accords and non-stop anti-Israel incitement, so many Israelis seem to be in favor of establishing a Palestinian state next door? Could it be that the answer is found in the asking?

Just last week, newspaper headlines announced that according to a new poll, 47 percent of Israeli Jews still support Palestinian statehood. The poll was carried out by the Tami Steinmetz Center for Peace Research, at Tel Aviv University.

But as with most news about Israel, you need to dig behind the headlines to find out the real story. In this case, the real story is the wording that the Steinmetz Center used. The question which got that 47 percent figure was loaded with false assumptions and completely unrealistic expectations. In other words, the poll offered a fantasy.

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Friday, February 9, 2018

Thursday, February 8, 2018

Wednesday, February 7, 2018

Tuesday, February 6, 2018

Monday, February 5, 2018

Sunday, February 4, 2018

Saturday, February 3, 2018

Friday, February 2, 2018

Thursday, February 1, 2018

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