And I ‎will keep ‎returning, until the dream becomes reality

...Yes, there ‎were the expected criers, yelling Allahu akbar as ‎we passed. There were ‎strangers and neighbors, friends and foes, but none of it mattered because ‎I ‎had arrived and I stood in the sun wondering why I had not always been ‎there.‎ I asked my guide why he kept coming and he told me it was to keep ‎the dream alive. I knew ‎what he meant, immediately, and as we walked up ‎the steps I also knew what had broken my ‎heart in that session many weeks ‎earlier. ‎

Annika Hernroth-Rothstein..
Israel Hayom..
11 February '15..


I have a dream

‎"And it shall come to pass in the last days that the mountain of the Lord's house ‎shall be ‎established at the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the ‎hills; and all of the nations ‎shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, ‎Come. And let us go up to the mountain of ‎the Lord, to the house of the God of ‎Jacob. And he will teach us of his ways, and we shall walk in ‎his paths: for out of ‎Zion shall go forth Torah, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem" (Isaiah ‎‎2:3‎).‎

Something shifted in me this past October, after learning about the ‎assassination attempt on ‎Rabbi Yehuda Glick. The Temple Mount had represented ‎an ache in my heart, but stayed there, ‎as elusive as a dream. Every time I ‎visited the Western Wall, I felt sadness and loss, knowing that ‎I was so close, yet ‎so far away, but somehow I had accepted the status quo and settled for ‎this ‎state of silent complacency. ‎

Then someone drove up on a motorcycle and tried cutting down a man who ‎had kept the dream ‎alive for all of us, and I knew in my heart that this could ‎not stand. ‎

A few months later, I went to the Limmud conference in England to give lectures ‎and to learn. ‎Between planning my own sessions and giving them, I went to ‎listen to a British Orthodox rabbi ‎talk about Jewish prayer on the Temple ‎Mount. I knew beforehand it was a liberal crowd, and ‎perhaps I should have ‎stayed away. I didn't, however, and 45 minutes later I found my ‎stomach ‎turning. ‎

In the middle of the lecture, the rabbi showed a short clip of Glick ‎speaking about our right to ‎pray on the Temple Mount, and why the ‎withholding of those rights should have consequences. ‎The audience ‎murmured, and as the video faded to black, the rabbi asked them, ‎‎"What is it he is ‎really saying?"‎

In my opinion, Glick is to the Jewish world what Martin Luther King ‎Jr. was to the U.S. civil ‎rights movement. Glick is putting the Temple Mount in ‎the context where it belongs: as a human ‎rights issue, making the injustice ‎of it all so blatantly clear. Much like Dr. King in his day, Glick is ‎being ‎criticized for challenging what is now the status quo and putting the issue on ‎the top of the ‎agenda, and this critique comes from the police, politicians and ‎religious leaders alike. ‎

But as I sat there, what I heard was a predominantly Jewish audience ‎call Glick a troublemaker, ‎an inciter, guilty of causing a third intifada. I felt ‎like I was losing my footing. I was heartbroken, ‎but I couldn't really pinpoint why. ‎

Israel-ISIS Analogy? CNN’s Zakaria Puts Foot in Mouth Again

...What’s the secret of Zakaria’s charmed life on CNN? Viewers see what CNN management still won't; in addition to plagiarism and insufficiently cited sources, misplaced appeals to authority and tortuous analogies do not make Zakaria a foreign policy expert. Rather, they undermine his pretense to being one

Myron Kaplan..
CAMERA Snapshots..
10 February '15..

Fareed Zakaria’s take on Feb. 9, 2015 cited the Irgun, a covert Jewish group in British Mandatory Palestine, as an inspiration for ISIS’ (Islamic State in Iraq and Syria) terrorism barbarianism. Irgun was one of three Jewish underground military organizations in 1945-1948 that fought to bring about the end of the U.N. Mandate and the establishment of a Jewish state. Zakaria has demonstrated a compulsion to see Israel darkly, regardless of facts (examples here, here, here), and this is one more piece in the pattern.

Here, Zakaria implicitly equates ISIS to Irgun — Islamic fundamentalists who commit mass murder of children, trade captured minority women as "wives" and "execute" prisoners by beheading and immolation to Jewish nationalists who attempted to avoid non-combatant casualties.

ISIS slaughters and enslaves as many as it can of those opposing its ideology bent on establishing a world wide caliphate under sharia (Islamic law). But the Irgun, a small group numbering less than 2000, aimed primarily at destroying property. It did not target noncombatants, let alone insist at gunpoint that non-Jews convert to Judaism, on its way to compelling Britain to remove its troops from what was to become Israel.

Question - Why Don't the British Like Israel?

...True, Jews are deeply integrated into British society and have felt secure for decades. But incidents of antisemitic violence have been escalating and even notables like the Jewish director of television of the BBC have expressed fear about the future of Jews in the country. Antisemitism, interwoven and often indistinguishable from anti-Zionism, has reemerged full force. New statistics on antisemitic incidents prove that the British climate is changing for the worse.
Why the animosity against Israel, which extends from the political left to the right, and across all social classes? Four sources may be suggested, each with roots in the 20th century.

Alexander H . Joffe..
MEF/Times of Israel..
05 February '15..

A recent poll shows that Britons regard Israel less favorably than any other country besides North Korea. The results came as a shock to Israelis and supporters of Israel, but they shouldn't have. After all, British supporters of the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement are widespread, blood libels about the Palestinian 'genocide' and Israeli organ harvesting are heard from members of the peerage, and Israel remains one of the few countries the British royal family hasn't visited.

True, Jews are deeply integrated into British society and have felt secure for decades. But incidents of antisemitic violence have been escalating and even notables like the Jewish director of television of the BBC have expressed fear about the future of Jews in the country. Antisemitism, interwoven and often indistinguishable from anti-Zionism, has reemerged full force. New statistics on antisemitic incidents prove that the British climate is changing for the worse.

Why the animosity against Israel, which extends from the political left to the right, and across all social classes? Four sources may be suggested, each with roots in the 20th century.

First, the British Establishment, comprised of elite schools and universities, government and idea setting industries like the media, arguably never recovered from the loss of the Empire. This should not be understood as a lament for the Empire so much as the manner in which it was lost, and for what the upper classes have come to believe should have been the outcome.

Britain won World War II but quickly lost the peace. Bankrupt, Britain was only preserved by an enormous loan in 1946 from the United States. Britain's most important colony, India, became independent in 1947 and promptly split with Pakistan at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives and tens of millions of refugees. But it was Palestine, which at its peak was garrisoned by 100,000 British soldiers unable to keep the peace, which rankled most.

Losing the empire was bad enough, but losing Palestine to the Jews was a unique humiliation. Zionist anti-British violence, above all the destruction of the King David Hotel, resonated strongly for decades. It is also only now being understood that the British establishment had fought a covert war for decades against France in Syria and Lebanon, and had encouraged Arab states to invade the infant State of Israel. This strategy also backfired, helping usher in revolutionary regimes that overthrew British allies and reducing British influence still further. These multiple failures embittered the British Establishment for decades.

More recently, however, a wave of politically correct guilt has swept over the British Establishment. In this revisionist view the British Empire, unlike any other empire over the preceding 5000 years, was a singular source of evil in the world, and the impact in Palestine, uniquely so.

Gazan child abuse, again preparing children to kill and be killed. Where's the outrage?

...Something hideous is being done to the children of Gaza. Those doing it declare it's what Islam demands. As far as we can tell, Islam's adherents in other places are largely silent. This cannot be because they don't know it's happening. It cannot be that the guardians of children's rights - or human rights - don't know. Could it be they don't want to know? Or want us to understand?

Gaza: one of the flocked children [Image Source]

Arnold/Frimet Roth..
This Ongoing War..
10 February '15..

Many of us are not fully sensitive to the way our emotional reaction to news stories is a function of how it is reported. The tone of news articles - critical, supportive, cynical, angry, amused - is something that editors, writers and the people who write the headlines and add the pictures understand well. Consumers of the news? Not so much.

Agence France Presse, one of the world's major packagers and syndicators of news reporting and imagery, and the oldest (founded in 1835), provides news outlets throughout the world with many of the stories they publish. From conversations, we sense that the role of the large packagers - including Reuters, Associated Press and Xinhua - is barely comprehended by end-users. But their influence, as newspapers lack the profitability and cash to employ their own reporters in the many (often troubled) locations where news is made, is vast.

So a person might think that with a heavy and growing responsibility for getting those stories right, AFP (which is still entirely owned by the French government) and the others would make efforts to present things in a balanced, objective way, free of editorializing and bias.

Which brings us to a story that AFP syndicated out to its news customers in the last 24 hours. It's datelined Gaza, and describes systematic child abuse carried out yet again, on a colossal scale, by the thugs of certain outlawed terrorist organizations operating in dark Islamist/Moslem Brotherhood-controlled corners of the world, and the outrage from the many organizations, those with the huge budgets and the heart-rending websites and a mandate to speak for the urgent need to protect innocent children, loudly condemning the facts presented in the article.

Actually we're being sarcastic. Today's AFP report, headlined "Gaza youngsters flock to Hamas training camps", does no such thing, though the facts describe a humanitarian disaster of global significance.

(Continue)

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 as well as a big vote to follow our good friend Kay Wilson on Twitter, 
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Peace, Promises, Palestinians and Israeli Elections

...Herzog and Livni can promise -- as much as they want -- Israeli voters that they will "revive" the peace process with the Palestinians. But what the voters need to realize is that the Palestinian Authority has already made a strategic decision to try to force a solution on Israel through the international community, and not negotiations. The voters also need to know that any deal with Abbas and the PA is not a recipe for peace and coexistence.

The slogan of the Zionist Camp party coalition,
led by Isaac Herzog (left) and Tzipi Livni, is
"It's us or him [Netanyahu]". Khaled Abu Toameh
writes that Palestinians seem to have joined
the "Just Not Bibi" or "Anyone But Bibi" campaign
 being waged by Herzog and Livni.
(Image source: Zionist Camp)

Khaled Abu Toameh..
Gatestone Institute..
10 February '15..

So far, the Palestinians have shown little interest, if any at all, in the upcoming Israeli elections, slated for March 17.

But if there is one thing most Palestinians would like to see, it is the removal of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and right-wing parties from power.

The Palestinians, in many ways, seem to have joined the "Just Not Bibi" (Netanyahu's nickname), or "Anyone But Bibi," campaign launched by the heads of his rival Zionist Camp, Isaac Herzog and Tzipi Livni.

In private, some Palestinian Authority [PA] officials in Ramallah expressed their hope this week that Netanyahu will be defeated in the election.

Although the PA's official policy is not to meddle in the internal affairs of Israel, these officials also voiced hope that Herzog and Livni will form the next government.

"Anyone is better than Netanyahu," said a senior official in Ramallah. Although we are skeptical about the positions of Herzog and Livni, we still believe that they are good for the Palestinians and the peace process."

One official pointed out that Herzog has travelled to Ramallah at least twice over the past two years to meet with President Mahmoud Abbas.

"Unlike Netanyahu, Herzog and Livni do see President Mahmoud Abbas as a peace partner," the official said. "This is already a good sign that they are planning to adopt a completely different policy."

Indeed, Herzog himself has given the Palestinians good reason to be hopeful. After meeting with President Abbas in Ramallah in December 2003, Herzog stated: "My impression was that we have a partner willing to go far to achieve peace, to take creative, brave steps on core issues."

Similarly, the Palestinians say they have been encouraged by Livni's readiness to make "far-reaching concessions" for the sake of peace. They point to a recent interview Livni gave to The Jerusalem Post, in which she did not rule out the possibility of dividing Jerusalem. In that interview, she also said that while Abbas "was once a terrorist, he isn't anymore."

Echoing Palestinian enthusiasm toward Livni, Al-Jazeera's "Palestine Papers," which were revealed in 2011, quoted former PLO negotiator Ahmed Qurei as telling her: "I'd vote for you."

Absurdities and Israel - Vaccines, Racists, and the Discriminatory Standard

...But even a cursory examination of the charge would show that Adalah's list includes, along with other completely innocuous statutes, Israel's law that withholds certain benefits from families (of any ethnicity or religion) that don't immunize their children....Discriminatory? Of course not. And it's safe to say that no other country is slurred in this way for policy meant to ensure immunizations. Israel is singled out with rhetorical abuse for rather mundane public health policy. Editors at major newspapers are playing along.

Gilead Ini..
CAMERA Snapshots..
04 February '15..




Some politicians are saying some things about vaccine and the role the government plays in public health.

And here's what The Wall Street Journal stated yesterday on that subject:

Government doesn’t “force” parents to vaccinate children. The states impose penalties (such as barring attendance in public schools) on those who pose a risk to public health by refusing vaccinations against infectious diseases.

Yes, in the United States, government often penalizes those who don't vaccinate their children. It's been that way for a long time. Why, then, hasn't US immunization policy been described as racist in the pages of major newspapers? You see, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal have both relayed the absurd charge that Israel's policy penalizing families that don't immunize children amounts to anti-Arab discrimination.

Again and again, The Times has treated as credible the comically absurd list of supposedly discriminatory laws promulgated by the anti-Israel advocacy group Adalah. Israel has "50 discriminatory Israeli laws," a recent Op-Ed claimed, citing Adalah. Same thing on the news pages. Wall Street Journal fact-checkers also gave a pass to the same charge.

Dearest Jodi. Guess What Keeps Palestinian Lovers Apart?

...But the bottom line of this issue is not about Israeli rules. It’s about a Palestinian people and its leadership that has consistently rejected every opportunity for peace including four times in the last 15 years. When the Palestinians are prepared to give up their dream of Israel’s extinction and recognize the legitimacy of a Jewish state no matter where its borders are drawn, free passage between peaceful countries won’t be an issue. Until then, Palestinian lovers stuck in the two areas should send their complaints to Fatah and Hamas and not to Israel via the New York Times.

Jonathan S. Tobin..
Commentary Magazine..
09 February '15..

Who doesn’t sympathize with the plight of two lovers separated by a heartless bureaucracy? Certainly not Jodi Rudoren, the Jerusalem bureau chief of the New York Times who, with the assistance of one of the paper’s stringers in Gaza, wrote a story published yesterday in which the star-crossed romance of a Gaza woman and a Nablus man serves to highlight Israeli restrictions on the movement of Palestinians between the Hamas-run strip and the West Bank. The situation of teacher Dalia Shurrab and social media marketer Rashed Sameer Faddah is worthy of sympathy. But as much as the story Rudoren has written casts the Israelis as the villain of the piece, the real culprits are not to be found in the Jewish state. Palestinians who would like to see more liberal travel policies should address their anger to their leaders whose war on Israel is responsible for their inconvenience. Those who would like the borders of these areas to resemble the ones that separate Canada from the United States can’t at the same time support the ongoing war to extinguish the existence of the Jewish state.

There’s no doubt that Shurrab and Faddah appear to be innocent victims of a struggle that has nothing to do with the efforts of two individuals to find happiness. But when you are a citizen of an area ruled by a terrorist group pledged to fight a genocidal terrorist war against your neighbor, is it really fair to cry foul when the government of that country isn’t particularly interested in facilitating your travel?

Palestinians and their foreign supporters apparently think so. They believe that Israel should let Palestinians from Gaza come and go as they please and settle in the West Bank if they like. In a better and more peaceful world, that shouldn’t be a problem. Indeed, if the Palestinian Authority that runs the West Bank and/or the Hamas government in Gaza were ever prepared to make peace with Israel, it might be possible. As Rudoren points out, a commitment to facilitating free travel between the two Palestinian areas was part of the original Oslo Accords. That seems to paint the Israelis as not only hard-hearted but also treaty breakers. But the truth is a little more complicated than that.

Were Israel and the territories as peaceful as the Israelis who helped draft the Oslo Accords assumed they would be once their deal was signed then free passage might make sense. But the reality of Oslo was very different from the “New Middle East” fantasies popularized more than 20 years ago by Shimon Peres and others who championed the accords. Under PA leader and arch terrorist Yasir Arafat, both regions became hotbeds of terror and incitement. Free passage, which was a matter of course during the pre-Oslo period of Israeli rule, was impossible under those circumstances. Once Arafat turned down then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak’s two offers of statehood and independence in 2000 and 2001 and launched a terrorist war of attrition, it become even less likely. After Hamas seized control of Gaza in a bloody coup in 2007, even Western nations that were not sympathetic to Israel agreed that the area had to be kept in quarantine lest the terrorists exploit travel to further their bloody ends.

Perhaps Friedman could please go protect somebody else?

...The President has acknowledged on occasion that he had no strategy for one or another occurrence in the world. But using Friedman and others to hammer home the price the President will extract from those who meddle where they aren't wanted, the outline of his Iran strategy is clear enough

Shoshana Bryen..
Gatestone Institute..
09 February '15..

Thomas Friedman of The New York Times does not want Israel mucking in American policy-making toward Iran, and so counsels Prime Minister Netanyahu to cancel his planned speech to the U.S. Congress. He seems to believe Iran's determined march toward nuclear weapons and genocidal rhetoric about Israel, in fact, has nothing to do with Israel, and that Israel should avoid getting in America's way. But understand that Friedman is only trying to protect Israel.

Personally, I'm still dubious that the U.S. and Iran will reach a deal that will really defuse Iran's nuclear weapons program. Such a failure would be very serious and could end up, one day, with the U.S. deciding it has to use military force to set back Iran's program. We surely don't want Iran to get a bomb that sets off a nuclear arms race in an already unstable Middle East.

But, even if we do use force, success is hardly assured and the blowback unpredictable. That is why it is absolutely not in Israel's interest to give even the slightest appearance of nudging America toward such a military decision. Israel should stay a million miles away from that decision, making clear that it is entirely a U.S. matter. Because, if we do have to strike Iran, plenty of Americans will not be happy. And if it fails, or has costly consequences for us and our military, you can be sure a lot more Americans will not be happy — and some will ask, "How did we get into this mess?" One of the first things they'll dig out will be Netanyahu's speech to Congress.

Why in the world would Israel risk putting itself in that situation?

The short answer is that it is not "entirely a U.S. matter." It is Israel's head on the block, and its Prime Minister is weighing the political fallout of irritating a President who is generally irritated with Israel vs. nuclear fallout. But isn't it sweet of Friedman to want to save Israel from the risk of the wrath of the American people -- who, in his telling, don't appear to be terribly clever.


It is highly unlikely that the Obama administration will strike Iran to preempt an Iranian strike on Israel. Can Friedman imagine how many Americans "will not be happy" if we take military action against a country that hasn't attacked us, but threatens to attack someone else -- anyone else? They will have a point.

"And if it fails…a lot more Americans will not be happy." Is he suggesting that Israel would be responsible for a U.S. military failure over Iran? Or that Americans can be made to blame Israel? Instead of calling that scenario outrageous, Friedman suggests again that Israel subordinate its national security concerns to American politics. If U.S. military action were to fail, the blame should accrue to U.S. strategy, planning and execution, not to Israel's justifiable concern that it is #1 on the "hit list." The American public is likely to understand that, even if the President and Friedman would have it be different.

Maybe this should be put in the context of Friedman's earlier opining on Israeli meddling in American affairs. Just over a year ago he wrote that the Jews have purchased the U.S. Congress, which, in his view, is too stupid or too blinded by Jewish money to carefully consider the facts of Iranian nuclear development:

How Brian Williams (and Tom Brokaw) betrayed my family by Sherri Mandell

...Of course I knew the station wanted to use us to ignite emotion in its viewers. I knew that the media was about conflict, drama and ratings. But how could they malign and betray us like that? How could they mislead us into thinking that they were going to tell our story, our story alone? Nobody had informed us that my son’s murder would be folded into a specious debate about the settlements.

Sherri Mandell..
Times of Israel..
09 February '15'

Many people were surprised or shocked over the recent revelations that NBC anchor Brian Williams lied about his experiences on a helicopter in Iraq. I was not. The nature of TV news is to stage drama. It’s got to look and sound good on the screen for better ratings. Williams got caught up in his own fantasy: too many years, perhaps, of reporting the news.

When Williams interviewed my family in our home, he similarly staged a false drama in order to sell a story. And in that process, he betrayed us and his viewers.

Brian Williams interviewed our family in the late of summer 2004 about our son Koby’s murder. We sat on the nubby sofas in our sunroom in Tekoa, in the West Bank, and he told us that he had been in the neighborhood — in Greece for the summer Olympics — and that is how he came to be in Israel. I looked at his pressed pants, his shiny black shoes, his clean shirt: impeccable.

Tom Brokaw was still the anchor of NBC news but I knew that Williams was set to take over in the following months. I asked Mr. Williams: “Do you have any special education about this part of the world?”

“No,” he said, to his credit. “I wish I did have more knowledge.”

I wasn’t surprised. After my son’s murder, I felt sure that journalists who interviewed us would be specialists in some way, experts in the history and cultures and religions of this region. But that was rarely the case. Knowledge was certainly not a prerequisite for an interviewer.

After talking about how we came to Israel, we told Mr. Williams that Koby and Yosef had been eighth-grade boys who cut school, went hiking in the canyon behind our home in 2001, and were murdered by Palestinians terrorists, beaten with rocks.

He sympathized and then asked whether Seth had a gun. Seth said yes—he had one locked in a safe upstairs in the bedroom.

“Would you mind going upstairs and getting the gun so we can film you with it?” his producer asked Seth.

Seth said no. We both realized that they wanted to stage a scene – to reinforce a stereotype, a visual of the angry rifle-toting, trigger-happy settler.

Brian Williams interviewed us for about a half an hour. We told him how Koby was not to blame, that the Palestinians had incited violence. We were told that the story would appear on NBC news sometime in the next week.

When a Convict's Tall Tale is All That's Fit to Print

...After a Palestinian was charged and convicted of transferring funds to Hamas, he and his supporters insisted he was arrested for drawing anti-Israel cartoons. The New York Times apparently prefers that version, and didn't bother pointing out that even the cartoonist's lawyer has been open about the actual charges.

CAMERA Staff..
05 February '15..

The Palestinians are "more than just victims." That, at least, is what New York Times public editor Margaret Sullivan said in her recent piece on the newspaper's coverage of the Arab-Israeli conflict, in which she called on editors and reporters to "strengthen the coverage of Palestinians," among other things.

But Sullivan's colleagues didn't seem to get the memo. Muhammad Sabaaneh, for example, is just a victim, according to The New York Times. He insists he was arrested for publishing provocative anti-Israel cartoons in his brother's book. And his word is so strong, or his description of victimhood at Israeli hands is so enticing, that Times reporters accepted the claim as fact — and as the only "fact" readers needed to know about.

Here's how the newspaper described his recent arrest and conviction:

Mr. Sabaaneh's cartoons have at times gotten him in trouble with the Israeli authorities. In February 2013 he was detained at the crossing between Jordan and the West Bank and was held for five months in an Israeli prison. He has said that he was charged in a military court with collaboration with the Islamist militant group Hamas because he had published some cartoons in a book written by his brother, who is a member.

Note that the first sentence is stated as fact, in the voice of New York Times reporters, who seem to credulously accept Sabaaneh's version of the arrest relayed in the paragraph's last sentence. But there are other versions of the arrest — more credible versions — that newspaper should have shared with readers. And it's not only Israel that pokes holes in his account. It's Sabaaneh's own lawyer.

Radio Netherlands Worldwide spoke with Sabaaneh's lawyer, who told the Dutch public broadcaster that his client was charged with helping Hamas after he "received funds from abroad during his recent visit to the Jordanian capital of Amman and tried to enter the Palestinian territories." The North American Desk of the IDF spokesmen's unit says Sabaaneh was sentenced in April 2013 to five months in prison for transferring money to a terror organization.

Guess Who Rewards Terrorists for the Number of Jews They Kill?

...The Barghouti and Ramadan cases are just two of hundreds of terrorists who are rewarded for their actions – not in a blind, faceless program, but in a meticulous, exacting official process that can remain in place for years. The money is represented to donor countries as “government salaries.” Most taxpayers in donor countries have no idea that their well-intended money is actually financing the flames of terrorism.

Edwin Black..
The Algemeiner..
08 February '15..

Last year, Congressional legislators were astonished to learn that the Palestinian Authority was issuing monthly payouts totaling between $3 and 7 million as salaries and other financial rewards to specific terrorists and their families.

The money was channeled, in part, through the Ministry of Prisoners pursuant to the Law of the Prisoner. The law set forth a graduated scale, pegging monthly salaries to the length of Israeli jail sentences, which generally reflects the severity of the crime and the number of people killed and/or injured.

Thousands of documents, newly obtained by this reporter through a lawsuit to unseal court-protected files, demonstrate that these payouts are not blind automated payments. Rather, senior Palestinian Authority officials as high as President Mahmoud Abbas scrutinize the details of each case, the specific carnage caused, and the personal details of each terrorist act before approving salaries and awarding honorary ranks in either the PA government or the military.

Ministry of Prisoners spokesman Amr Nasser has explained, “We are very proud of this program and we have nothing to hide.” Nonetheless, in response to the international furor, the Palestinian Authority announced that it would replace the Ministry of Prisoners with an outside PLO commission known as the Higher National Commission for Prisoners and Detainees Affairs.

The PA is dependent upon foreign donor countries to supply much of its budget, which now exceeds $4.2 billion annually. About ten percent of the PA budget, more than $400 million, is contributed annually by United States foreign aid. The U.S. and many other countries have enacted laws forbidding any payments when the monies directly or indirectly support or encourage terrorism.

The interdepartmental bureaucratic notations the Palestinian Authority has recorded on each terrorist before approving the level of salaried compensation is extensive. For example, one prominent case involved Ahmad Talab Mustafa Barghouti, who personally coordinated numerous terrorist acts. These included a January 2002 shooting spree on Jaffa Street in Jerusalem, killing two and wounding 37; a March 2002 shooting spree at a Tel Aviv restaurant, killing three and wounding 31; and finally a March 27, 2002, attempt to smuggle an explosive suicide belt in an ambulance. The Israel Defense Forces arrested Ahmad. On July 30, 2002, a military court concluded that he was responsible for murdering 12 Israelis, and Barghouti was sentenced to 13 life sentences.

According to on-going internal Palestinian Authority security reviews dated February 3, 2009, and July 6, 2009, Barghouti’s special compensation began retroactively to July 1, 2002, the first of the month that the 13 life sentences were imposed. At the time of his arrest, Barghouti was a Sergeant in the Palestinian Police. As a reward, while in an Israeli prison, Barghouti’s annual salary of 12,953 Israeli shekels was continued and gradually escalated when he was promoted to First Sergeant.

When the EU flouts international law constructing illegal West Bank settlements

...So what does the EU have to say in its defense? Well according to Jake Wallis Simons who broke this story for the Daily Mail, Brussels spokeswoman Maja Kocijancic simply denied that any of the above is taking place. And when presented with the photographic evidence of the EU flag fluttering over the illegal hilltop outposts she refused to make any further comment. Welcome to the Orwellian world of Brussels federalism.

Tom Wilson..
Commentary Magazine..
06 February '15..

The European Union’s opposition to Israel’s West Bank settlements is well known. Preventing Jews from having homes on the biblical hills of Judea and Samaria is apparently a top foreign-policy priority for Brussels. Of course in attempting to justify their fixation with this matter the Eurocrats generally appeal to international law, making mention of its stipulations in the gravest tones. But now it turns out that the EU has been flouting international law and backing illegal West Bank settlements after all. In fact, it’s been funding and building them directly. Only these West Bank settlements aren’t for Jews, they’re for Palestinians. So apparently the rules don’t apply.

A report by the Israeli NGO Regavim has revealed that in recent years the EU has funneled millions of euros into constructing more than 400 housing units in 17 illegal settlements. Somewhat bizarrely these outposts fly the EU federal flag and are staffed by EU personnel boldly dressed in EU uniform. But unlike Israel’s West Bank settlements which have a disputed legal status, there can be no doubt that these EU settlements are in clear and open breach of international law.

The settlements in question have been built by the EU in Area C of the West Bank. Under the Oslo II agreement signed in 1995, clause 2 of article 27 gives Israel full and exclusive authority over all planning and construction within Area C of the West Bank. This is an agreement that not only the Palestinian Authority signed up to, but one that the European Union is a signatory of as well. As such, that treaty has the status of binding international law which the EU is obliged to uphold. Worse still, these illegal settlements are guarded by aggressive EU workers who have been caught threatening Israeli soldiers and onlookers with rocks.

So what does the EU have to say in its defense? Well according to Jake Wallis Simons who broke this story for the Daily Mail, Brussels spokeswoman Maja Kocijancic simply denied that any of the above is taking place. And when presented with the photographic evidence of the EU flag fluttering over the illegal hilltop outposts she refused to make any further comment. Welcome to the Orwellian world of Brussels federalism.

Foreign money, its suppliers and the Palestinian Arab terror it buys

...We dream of the day when an indictment appears connecting the organizations and the people - their names, their shames - with the evil that makes the Palestinian Arab empire of terror possible.

Arnold/Frimet Roth..
This Ongoing War..
08 February '15..

Edwin Black, the noted investigative author/reporter ("IBM and the Holocaust", "Financing the Flames") published an expose this week ["PA studies details of each terrorist act before issuing salaries | Newly obtained documents show meticulous process by which martyrdom status, payment levels, honorary ranks are determined", Times of Israel, February 6, 2015] in which he details how Palestinian Arab government officials systematically compute and arrange payment of financial rewards for terrorists captured or killed by Israel.

[S]enior Palestinian Authority officials as high as President Mahmoud Abbas scrutinize the details of each case, the specific carnage caused, and the personal details of each terrorist act before approving salaries and awarding honorary ranks in either the PA government or the military. Ministry of Prisoners spokesman Amr Nasser has explained, “We are very proud of this program and we have nothing to hide.”

We write here about terrorism, especially its Palestinian Arab flavour, because our family's life has been painfully affected by it to an unbearable degree. Perhaps people expect that our perspective, along with the sources of information into which we tap, comes with being privileged 'insiders'. But we're certainly not. Our information comes from sources that are publicly accessible, augmented with occasional personal meetings with public figures, almost always foreigners, rarely Israelis. In short, anyone who wants to can find it.

So when we see how Palestinian Arab terrorism and corruption are being funded (and they certainly are) by taxpayer money from countries whose citizens have no discernible interest in encouraging or supporting it, we feel like screaming. Or writing.

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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 as well as a big vote to follow our good friend Kay Wilson on Twitter, 
.

Hamas and the nexus of global jihad by Caroline Glick

...As the administration’s continued embrace of the Muslim Brotherhood despite its full membership in the terrorist nexus that threatens the US and all of its closest allies, along with its desperate courtship of the Iranian mullahs, makes clear, the Obama administration has chosen to appease rather than combat America’s worst enemies. Perhaps the most sympathetic interpretation of Livni’s and Herzog’s unwarranted and harmful assaults against Netanyahu is that they simply cannot accept that the world has changed. But the trends are clear. The only responsible thing that Israel can do is to act accordingly. Today Israel’s closest ally is Egypt. Under Obama, the US is a force to be worked around, not worked with.

Caroline Glick..
CarolineGlick.com..
06 February '15..

On Wednesday, Hamas leader in Gaza Mahmoud Zahar called on Hamas terrorists in Lebanon and Syria to attack Israel “to help us liberate Palestine.”

At the same time, Zahar denied that Hamas has been involved in the terrorist insurgency in Egypt. As he put it, “Our guns are always trained on the enemy,” that is, Israel.

The Egyptian regime was not impressed by Zahar’s protestations.

Last Saturday, an Egyptian court upheld an October 2014 decision by the Egyptian government to outlaw Hamas’s terrorist shock forces Izzadin Kassam, and designate it a terrorist organization.

Both the government’s initial designation and the court’s decision were in some sense, watershed events. They represent the first time an Arab regime ever defined any Palestinian terrorist organization as a terrorist group.

But in truth, Egypt had no choice. Despite its insistent protestations that the Jews are its only enemies, Hamas, the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, has been a major player, indeed, arguably the key player in the jihadist insurgency in the Sinai Peninsula that threatens to destroy the political, economic and military viability of the Egyptian state. The declared purpose of the insurgency is to overthrow the regime of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and integrate Egypt into Islamic State’s “caliphate.”

Last week saw yet another devastating terror assault against Egyptian security forces and civilians in Sinai and in cities around Egypt. Thirty- two people, mainly soldiers, were killed in a coordinated, multifaceted attack that included Hamas’s three signature modes of operation – mortars, rockets and suicide bombings.

Last week’s assault, like almost all previous ones, was credited to Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, a jihadist group that has pledged allegiance to Islamic State and declared Sinai a province of its “caliphate.”

According to a report by Yoram Schweitzer from the Institute for National Security Studies, Hamas members were among the original founders of Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis. The Egyptian government views Hamas-controlled Gaza as the rear headquarters of the group. In founding the group, Hamas cooperated with local Salafist Beduin and with al-Qaida terrorists who escaped Egyptian prisons during the January 2011 uprising against then-president Hosni Mubarak.

From the outset, Egyptian security forces alleged that Hamas terrorists conducted the prison breaches. Among the other Islamists released during the jail breaks was Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Morsi.

Morsi reportedly used Hamas terrorists as his regime’s Praetorian guard. They were charged with protecting the Muslim Brotherhood regime from protesters who opposed his moves to rapidly transform Egypt into an Islamist state and the spearhead of the Brotherhood’s sought-for global caliphate.

From an ideological perspective, there is no distinction between the Brotherhood and Hamas. From an organizational perspective, the Palestinian Muslim Brotherhood branch has no difficulty integrating its forces seamlessly into the wider Muslim Brotherhood operational structure to serve what it views as their common ends.

And this brings us back to the insurgency in Sinai. In addition to claiming that Hamas enables Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, Cairo accuses Hamas of having directly carried out several mass casualty terror attacks against its security forces. The most recent one, carried out in late October 2014, killed 31 soldiers. It precipitated Cairo’s decision to expand its security zone between Gaza and Sinai from 1 to 2 kilometers and begin emptying the Egyptian side of the border-straddling city of Rafah. It was also the catalyst for the government’s decision to label Izzadin Kassam a terrorist group.

The timing of last week’s attack indicates the close coordination between Hamas-Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis and the Muslim Brotherhood. As The Washington Free Beacon reported, two days before the attacks the Muslim Brotherhood issued a call for “a long, uncompromising jihad” in Egypt.

Hebron through the lens and mind of the febrile imagination

Dear Cody - Believe it or not, they are called safety bars and on the 2nd floor and above they do ensure that the children don't fall out the window to the stone pavement below. And no, they are not caged in their houses.

"Pictured here, a young #Palestinian, 
caged in their house, looks out
the window as #Israelimilitary...."

Yosef..
LOTL..
07 February '15..

As is true most every week, today's Hebron Casbah Tour had its normal retinue of European and American "activists" tagging along for the hour it takes. All in all, a rather sad and pathetic assembly, but certainly a dedicated collection, ensuring by their presence the continuing high levels of tension and violence in the area. Our friend Cody O'Rourke of CPT, is just a cut above the rest in having a rather febrile imagination when staging and captioning his photos. Below, an example from Cody's most recent excursions into the realm of pure fantasy.

 

codyorourke

3 hours ago

Pictured here, a young #Palestinian, caged in their house, looks out the window as #Israeli military, border police, and #Jewish settlers fill their streets, unable to leave because of restrictions.

Dear Cody,

Believe it or not, they are called safety bars and on the 2nd floor and above they do ensure that the children don't fall out the window to the stone pavement below. And no, they are not caged in their houses.


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 as well as a big vote to follow our good friend Kay Wilson on Twitter, 
.

Understanding why Netanyahu will go to America

...So why, as my correspondent asks, is Netanyahu making a big balagan if it will not stop Iran? The answer is that he knows that the US, under Obama and probably even under a Republican president, will not take the only action that could be effective. He knows that it will not make a credible military threat and, if necessary, carry it out. Although we might argue that it is in America’s interest to do so, few Americans agree at this point. He also knows that when there is absolutely no time left, when inaction will result in our waking up tomorrow to find that an enemy that has sworn to destroy our state has nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them, that he will be obligated to give the order to strike first and destroy those weapons....

Vic Rosenthal..
Abu Yehuda..
06 February '15..
Link: http://abuyehuda.com/2015/02/why-netanyahu-will-go-to-america/



As the discussion of PM Netanyahu’s upcoming visit to the US to speak before Congress heats up on both sides of the world, I received an email from an Israeli correspondent. In part, he wrote,

…one could ask why is Netanyahu risking bi-partisan support of Israel over this? Why he is making this speech now when it is not really going to stop Iran? Or prevent some kind of Obama appeasement deal with Iran? Is it as the cynics claim all for election purposes? Or does the Prime Minister believe that more sanctions will actually lead Iran to reverse its race to nuclear weaponry? Doesn’t the Prime Minister understand that what he himself has said about the regime in Tehran is true? That their goal is to have weapons of mass destruction which will enhance their power in a way so as to totally transform power relations in the Middle East? Not to speak of giving them a means to when the moment is right for them possibly aim at realizing a major goal, the destruction of Israel? Doesn’t he understand that all the talk and the threat and the sanctions are not going to do the job? Doesn’t he understand that Iran understands an absence of military threat means a green light for them?

I’ve asked the same question myself. I’ll add that the visit might even hurt the PM in the upcoming election, because it’s given his opponents the only real issue they can deploy against him. What else is there? Deposit bottles?

I agree with my correspondent that even if Netanyahu persuades Congress to pass a sanctions bill, and even if Obama can’t circumvent it, and even if (and we are already in unlikely territory) such sanctions would severely impact the Iranian economy, they would not stop Iran’s nuclear weapons program.

Iran’s program has been a top national priority for more than a decade. Iran has made great sacrifices to get to where it is now, and it is not likely to stop because the price of bread for the average citizen is rising. A regime that shoots down anti-government protesters in the street can ignore popular discontent and will allocate its resources where it sees fit.

The so-called ‘bad deal’ that the Obama Administration is cooking up will make it more comfortable for Iran to become a nuclear weapons state. It will make it harder for other countries (Israel) to take action against Iran. But they will get nuclear weapons even without it, unless they are stopped by force or the threat thereof.

So why, as my correspondent asks, is Netanyahu making a big balagan if it will not stop Iran?

The answer is that he knows that the US, under Obama and probably even under a Republican president, will not take the only action that could be effective. He knows that it will not make a credible military threat and, if necessary, carry it out. Although we might argue that it is in America’s interest to do so, few Americans agree at this point.

He also knows that when there is absolutely no time left, when inaction will result in our waking up tomorrow to find that an enemy that has sworn to destroy our state has nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them, that he will be obligated to give the order to strike first and destroy those weapons.

EU ‘is breaking international law’ by funding illegal West Bank building projects

Maja Kocijancic, a Brussels-based EU spokesperson, denied that this was happening. ‘The EU's funding will provide training and expertise, to help the relevant Palestinian Authority (PA) Ministries to plan and build new infrastructure and enable people to reclaim and rebuild their land there,’ she said. ‘To date, no construction has started yet under these programmes. The EU is not funding illegal projects.'When shown sequences of photographs showing construction taking place, she declined to comment. She also did not comment on an EU-Oxfam sign stating that the 'main activities' of construction work are 'rehabilitation and reclamation' of land.

A man in EU uniform threatens
Israeli soldiers and bystanders with
a rock on the West Bank in 2012

Jake Wallis Simons..
dailymail.co.uk..
05 February '15..

The EU is acting illegally by funding unauthorised Palestinian building in areas placed under Israeli control by international law, say an NGO, international lawyers and MEPs.

More than 400 EU-funded Palestinian homes have been erected in Area C of the West Bank, which was placed under Israeli jurisdiction during the Oslo Accords – a part of international law to which the EU is a signatory.

The Palestinian buildings, which have no permits, come at a cost of tens of millions of Euros in public money, a proportion of which comes from the British taxpayer.

This has raised concerns that the EU is using valuable resources to take sides in a foreign territorial dispute.
Official EU documentation reveals that the building project is intended to ‘pave the way for development and more authority of the PA over Area C (the Israeli area)’, which some experts say is an attempt to unilaterally affect facts on the ground.

Locally, the villages are known as the ‘EU Settlements’, and can be found in 17 locations around the West
Bank. They proudly fly the EU flag, and display hundreds of EU stickers and signs. Some also bear the logos of Oxfam and other NGOs, which have assisted in the projects.

Questions have also been asked about the conduct of EU workers in the region, after a picture emerged of a man in EU uniform threatening soldiers and bystanders with a rock outside a settlement in 2012. An EU spokesperson declined to comment on the picture.

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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 as well as a big vote to follow our good friend Kay Wilson on Twitter, 
.

Israel - Turning Security Lemons into High-Tech Lemonade

...Israel isn’t the only country in the world that has been at war for decades. But few other countries have taken this obvious drawback and leveraged it into a spate of high-tech development that is benefiting people all over the globe. That determination to turn lemons into lemonade is a major source of Israel’s success–and not just in high-tech.

Evelyn Gordon..
Commentary Magazine..
05 February '15..

Bloomberg released its annual Global Innovation Index this week, and Israel was ranked fifth worldwide. Given Israel’s reputation as the “start-up nation,” that may not seem surprising (in fact, it should, but that’s a topic for another post). Yet “start-up nation” has become such a cliché that it often obscures one of the most important–and admirable–qualities behind Israel’s tech successes: a consistent determination to turn lemons into lemonade.

This is true in many walks of Israeli life. Back in 2007, for instance, I wrote a column about the astounding fact that after losing a child in a war or terror attack, Israeli parents had repeatedly responded not with a desire for revenge, but with a desire to commemorate their child by doing something to make the world a better place. Consequently, bereaved parents in Israel have set up everything from public parks to foundations that help families care for special-needs children.

In the high-tech field, this same quality has led Israel to respond to a horrendous security environment by creating products that not only serve immediate defense needs, but have the potential to benefit humanity as a whole. And this response has played a major role in fueling its tech boom.

Take, for instance, the Iron Dome anti-missile system, which was born of the grim need to deal with nonstop rocket fire from Hamas-run Gaza. Though the system proved spectacularly successful during last summer’s war, it initially seemed to have limited application; few other countries routinely suffer rocket attacks from their neighbors.

Now, however, an Israeli-Canadian partnership is busy turning the technology behind Iron Dome into a system for smart electrical grid management. As the Jerusalem Post reported last month, “The same algorithms that help Iron Dome respond to complex inputs quickly and efficiently were applied to monitoring and controlling the electric grid,” which will both save energy and help reduce blackouts. The new technology “has the potential to change grid management in North America and beyond,” according to Henri Rothschild, president of the Canada-Israel Industrial R&D Foundation, which helped broker the joint venture.

The Middle East and the Ghosts of Auschwitz

...The ghosts of Auschwitz are still haunting Sudan, Nigeria, Pakistan, Gaza, Iraq, Iran and a hundred other places. The victims are Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, Yazidis and numberless others. The Nazis began with the Jews. The Muslim saying is, “First the Saturday people, then the Sunday people.” Auschwitz is what happens when we fail to take threats like that seriously because we want peace at any price.

Daniel Greenfield..
Sultan Knish..
04 February '15..

In exile in Argentina, the world’s most wanted man was writing a defense of the indefensible.

He rejected “so-called Western culture” whose bible “expressly established that everything sacred came from the Jews.” Instead he looked to the “large circle of friends, many millions of people” whose good opinion of his crimes he wanted.

These millions of people were not in Germany. They weren’t even in Argentina.

His fellow Nazis had abandoned him after deciding that the murder of millions of Jews was indefensible and had to be denied instead of defended. But he did not want to be denied. He wanted to be admired.

“You 360 million Mohammedans to whom I have had a strong inner connection since the days of my association with your Grand Mufti of Jerusalem,” Adolf Eichmann, the architect of the Holocaust wrote. “You, who have a greater truth in the surahs of your Koran, I call upon you to pass judgment on me.”

Eichmann knew he could expect a good verdict from a religion whose prophet had ordered the ethnic cleansing of Jews and which believes the end will “not come until the Muslims fight the Jews and kill them. When a Jew hides behind a rock or a tree, it will say, ‘O Muslim, O servant of Allah! There is a Jew behind me, come and kill him!’”

There was Eichmann’s Hadith Holocaust with even the rocks and trees finding Jews for the Islamic SS. A more literal judgment came Eichmann’s way five years later in Jerusalem when Israeli agents used extraordinary rendition to seize him and bring him to trial. But the Muslim world had issued its own verdict long ago when the Mufti of Jerusalem had come to Europe urging the extermination of the Jews. “This is your best opportunity to get rid of this dirty race… Kill the Jews,” the Mufti had ranted to fellow Muslims.

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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 as well as a big vote to follow our good friend Kay Wilson on Twitter, 
.

Good possibility that Obama’s interference in Israel’s elections may backfire

...While President Obama says he does not want to be accused of interference in Israel's elections, Jeremy Bird is advising V15, a grassroots movement whose purpose is to unseat Benjamin Netanyahu. One also wonders why Israel's Labor Party, while sharing V15's agenda, denies any connection to it. V15 is backed by "OneVoice," a political NGO that has received funding from the US State Department.

Dr. Emmanuel Navon..
i24 News..
04 February '15..

There is something deeply disingenuous about the mutual accusations of foreign interference in Israel's election. Human nature is the same on both sides of the political divide, and hypocrisy is bipartisan. But, sometimes, one side gets the trophy. To the charge of foreign involvement and of illegal party funding, the Israeli left typically replies that Benjamin Netanyahu is the pot calling the kettle black since his American friend Sheldon Adelson also funds him indirectly via the Israel Hayom newspaper. The difference, of course, is that Netanyahu does not deny that Adelson is his friend and that he established Israel Hayom to challenge Yediot Aharonot. The Israeli left, on the other hand, denies that it enjoys the support of the V15 organization and of the Obama Administration.

There is likewise a difference between Netanyahu hiring a Republican strategist and President Obama "lending" his campaign guru Jeremy Bird to Netanyahu's political rivals - not least because Obama explained that he would not meet with Netanyahu in Washington so as not to be perceived as favoring one candidate (just in case anyone suspected Obama of praying for Bibi's reelection). Bill Clinton also campaigned against Netanyahu in the 1990s, but at least he did not try to hide it. In 1996, Clinton hosted Labor candidate Shimon Peres at the White House right before the Israeli elections. In the 1999 Israeli elections, Clinton sent Democratic pollster and political strategist Stanley Greenberg to Israel to help Labor candidate Ehud Barak.

While President Obama says he does not want to be accused of interference in Israel's elections, Jeremy Bird is advising V15, a grassroots movement whose purpose is to unseat Benjamin Netanyahu. One also wonders why Israel's Labor Party, while sharing V15's agenda, denies any connection to it. V15 is backed by "OneVoice," a political NGO that has received funding from the US State Department. OneVoice's website lists among its "Honorary Board of Advisors" Israeli politicians from the Labor party such as Labor-Hatnua candidates for the 20th Knesset Danny Attar and Yoel Hasson (slots 15 and 16, respectively), as well as former Labor MKs Colette Avital and Ephraim Sneh.

The State Department gives money to many NGOs around the world, including to OneVoice. But OneVoice backs a political organization (V15) that is directly involved in Israel's 2015 elections. V15 and OneVoice share the same office in Tel-Aviv. While OneVoice claims that the money it has received from the State Department was not used to fund V15, US Senator Ted Cruz and US Representative Lee Zeldin suspect otherwise and have asked Secretary of State John Kerry to provide evidence that US taxpayer money is not being used to influence the outcome of the upcoming Israeli election.