The story of a Jewish boy called Haim - by David Collier

...So these radical anti-Zionists. The ones who make up stories, blur the lines and use false logic. They want people to join them in attacking the Jewish state. Not in theory, but in practice. It isn’t 1903 anymore. Haim lives. They don’t want you to attack the Chinese lad, nor the Russian. Not the Arab, nor the African. They all want you just to help throw stones at the Jew. Of all of the people that live around you, it is only the Jewish one they want to kill. Now tell me. How is that NOT antisemitic?

David Collier..
Across the Great Divide..
21 October '16..

Many years ago, I had a frantic evening visit from two very old, and very close Jewish friends. They suggested there was something urgent they needed to discuss, and just a short while later, Anna and Martin were sitting opposite from me, sipping some strong exotic alcoholic concoction. I remember, just before they spoke, wondering which one of them had been diagnosed with the terminal illness.

As it happened neither had. Anna was expecting. To many people reading this, confusion now reigns. Why was this not a moment of unbridled happiness?

It is a long and complicated story that I need not retell now, but health issues presented deep and troubling considerations. The pregnancy itself was in many ways unexpected. They consulted all their friends and family. Conflicting opinions were the order of the day.

I gave my advice. What I personally encouraged them to do is of no relevance to this story. Several months after that discussion, Anna gave birth. It was a very problematic but ultimately successful delivery.

Today Haim is a successful and happy adult. If we were to make a list of what constitutes success, Haim would score highly in almost every single one. Yet my word, this Jewish lad has enemies. In a sickening turn of events, some act as if Haim’s life is somehow up for debate. There are actually people who publicly suggest they want Haim killed.

Not the Chinese kid or the boy from Pakistan. Not the Russian or the South African, nor the Brit or the African. They see the little Jewish kid, and it is *only* him they want ‘removed’.

These people are the modern day anti-Zionists.

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Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

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Jerusalem’s Walls, Breached Again - by Jonathan S. Tobin

...In a negotiation predicated by a genuine mutual commitment to coexistence, Jerusalem might be shared in some way and Jews might continue to live in peace and security in places like Shilo, just as Arabs live inside pre-1967. But instead, the Palestinians continue to act in a manner that is the moral equivalent of the Roman attack on the wall that the Romans destroyed 1,946 years ago. That’s a thought that should only stiffen the resolve of Israel and its friends to ensure that Jerusalem’s walls are never again breached.

AP Photo/Oded Balilty

Jonathan S. Tobin..
Commentary Magazine..
20 October '16..
Link: https://www.commentarymagazine.com/foreign-policy/middle-east/israel/2151376-jerusalem-walls-breached-again/

In a saner era, the latest archeological discovery in Jerusalem would be the sort of thing only academics or ancient history buffs would care about. But in a month when UNESCO has voted repeatedly to treat Jerusalem’s holiest spots as if they were solely Muslim, the dig that located the site where the Romans breached the capital’s walls during the great Jewish revolt in 70 C.E. is of more than academic interest. It is not only yet another reminder of the insidious nature of the war still being waged to extinguish the rebirth of Jewish sovereignty in the Jewish homeland.

The details of the discovery are exciting to those who care about this chapter of history during which the second Jewish commonwealth ended. Archeologists have uncovered the remains of the “Third Wall” that protected the northern extremity of the capital during the Roman siege that ended in the city’s destruction as well as the burning of the Second Temple. The dig, which was supervised by the Israel Antiquities Authority, also found the remains of one of the guard towers that dotted the defensive structure as well as stones that were the ammunition for catapults the Romans used to pummel and ultimately break through the wall, as the historian Josephus attested. The defeat of the defenders at this spot gave the Romans the chance to get inside the city. It would take them another two and a half months to get through the other two inner walls and begin the orgy of murder and destruction that ended Jewish independence for two millennia.

It is hardly surprising that such fascinating artifacts could be found in the heart of Jerusalem. And that is the problem for the Palestinians and their supporters in institutions like UNESCO. All you have to do to prove the existence of historic Jewish ties to Jerusalem is to start digging virtually anywhere in the city or, for that matter, anywhere in the country. That’s why Palestinians and their supporters are so quick to resist archeological work in and around the Old City such as the separate dig at the City of David—a site that points to an even more ancient Jewish kingdom a thousand years before the Romans laid waste to the city.

Pretending, as the Palestinians and now the majority at the UN agency that claims to be its educational, scientific and cultural organization do, that the Temple Mount and the Western Wall—the heart of the Jewish city that the Third Wall was built to protect—is Muslim a statement of astonishing ignorance. The stones of the Temple Mount and the remains of part of its outer enclosure that make up the Wall are living evidence of 3,000 years of Jewish history as well as the events and places that are integral to the beginnings of Christianity. But it’s far more than that. This revisionism is at the heart of a century-old effort to deny Jewish history and the rights of the Jewish people to their homeland and its capital.

A country I can assume the best of and be correct - by Forest Rain

...There was no fuss on the news because it was obvious. Why make a fuss? Of course we would help. That is my Israel, a country I can assume the best of and be correct.

Forest Rain..
Inspiration from Zion..
20 October '16..

What assumptions do you make about your country?

This past week I caught myself making a dramatic assumption about my country, Israel.

I was watching the news about Hurricane Matthew with Tal, Lenny’s eldest son (18 years old). We saw images from the US, mostly of flooding. Pity for the people whose homes were damaged welled up inside me. As difficult as that situation was, it was the images from Haiti that took my breath away, giving new meaning to the word “devastation”. It looked like the winds had peeled the homes from the ground, spun them around in the air and flung the pieces in every direction.

Quietly Tal asked, “We sent them aid, right?”

“We must have” I answered. “If we haven’t done so yet, we’ll send help soon.”

What an assumption! We both recognized people in desperate need and automatically assumed that our country, tiny Israel, would send Haiti help from half way around the world.

It doesn’t matter that we are far away.

It doesn’t matter that the people of Haiti aren’t Jewish. Our nation doesn’t have much of a connection to theirs. It’s not a location Israelis tend to frequent. Israel doesn’t even have a resident embassy in Haiti.

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Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

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Should I Be A BDS Activist? Take This Quiz To Find Out - by Sheri Oz

Is BDS — Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel — the social activism for you? Check it out. It’s easier than you think.

Am I BDS activist material?

Sheri Oz..
Israel Diaries..
20 October '16..

BDS is believed by many to be the best way to fight against what they believe is Israeli occupation of Palestinian land and suppression of the people. It includes academic boycotts discouraging cooperation with Israeli institutions of higher learning and research and even individual researchers, avoiding buying products and goods from Israel, and refusing to invest in portfolios that include firms dealing with arms or other military investments in Israel.

In case you are not yet convinced that you want to join in the BDS movement, take the following short quiz. It should provide you with a rough indication of how important the relevant issues are to you and will suggest the kind of activism that might suit you best.

The BDS Activist Quiz

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Truth be told, UNESCO isn't the only one to blame... - by Michael Freund

...So by all means, let our diplomatic representatives holler and protest UNESCO's unforgivable slur against Jews and the Temple Mount. But at the same time, let's start treating the site with the dignity and sanctity that it deserves, and allow Jews who wish to pray there to do so freely.

Michael Freund..
Pundicity/JPost..
20 October '16..
Link: http://www.michaelfreund.org/19303/unesco-jerusalem

The scandalous decision by UNESCO to expunge the Jewish identity of the Temple Mount has aroused howls of protest from across the political spectrum, and rightly so.

Meeting on Tuesday in Paris, the 58-member Executive Board of the UN agency affirmed a resolution which caters to Islamic extremism by labeling the site a Muslim shrine while ignoring mountains of evidence dating back 3,000 years regarding its sanctity for the Jewish people.

The UNESCO vote is a slap in the face to history, archaeology and theology, and represents an assault on the very foundations of the Judeo-Christian tradition that underpins Western civilization. But even as Israel points an accusatory finger or two at the UN group, the government would do well to consider whether perhaps its own policies may have contributed to this farce.

After all, Israel bars Jews from praying on the Temple Mount, limits their access to the site and has allowed the Muslim Wakf which oversees it to destroy ancient archaeological relics there in the past. If this is how the Jewish state itself treats Jerusalem's Temple Mount, then should it really come as a surprise when other nations seek to downplay or obfuscate our connection to it? Just yesterday, for example, an 18-year-old Israeli was arrested, according to media reports, "on suspicion of having bowed while visiting the Mount."

I'm no lawyer, but since when can a person be arrested because he might have bowed down while visiting a public place? And even if he did bow, where exactly in the criminal code is such an act forbidden? How sadly ironic that this took place during Succot, when each day in the additional Mussaf prayer, we ask God to rebuild the Temple to which "we will ascend and appear and bow before You during our three pilgrimage seasons."

Similar examples unfortunately abound. A chilling You- Tube video shot back in January shows big, burly Israeli policemen surrounding an Israeli teen on the Temple Mount and detaining him after he put his hand over his eyes and appeared to recite the Shema prayer. And just last week, five Israeli teens were arrested when they prayed at the entrance gate before setting foot on the Mount, even though a district court judge had previously ordered the police to allow them to do so.

For years, Jews ascending the Temple Mount have faced all sorts of restrictions such as limits on the hours they can visit and prohibitions against carrying a Bible, a prayer book or an Israeli flag. There have even been cases where police arrested Jews for moving their lips in a manner suggesting that they may have uttered a silent prayer.

What kind of message does this send to the world about how Israel relates to the Temple Mount, our holiest site? Sure, the UNESCO resolution is patently absurd and is worthy of all condemnation. It is akin to suggesting that Rome has no historical connection with the Colosseum, Athens has no claim to the Parthenon, and New York has no link to Yankee Stadium.

Who Would've Thought? Fatah Prepares for War with Israel - by Khaled Abu Toameh

...The Fatah-affiliated militia inauguration of its own "military" academy in the Gaza Strip is a novel move. In recent years, Fatah armed groups have posted videos of their men undergoing military training orchards and fields, far from the watchful eyes of their rivals in Hamas. Now it seems that Hamas has nothing to fear from the Fatah militants, as Israel is the sole target.

Khaled Abu Toameh..
Gatestone Institute..
20 October '16..

Some 300 members of the Palestinian Fatah faction, headed by Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas, have begun receiving "military training" in the Gaza Strip in preparation for war with Israel.

The armed wing of Fatah, Aqsa Martyrs Brigades - The Martyr Nidal Al-Amoudi Division, announced that its members have been enrolled in a new military academy for training "fighters" in the Gaza Strip. The academy, inaugurated recently in the Gaza Strip, would train the "fighters" on various fighting methods "in the context of a program for preparing for any future battle" with the "Zionist enemy."

The Nidal Academy was named for Nidal Al-Amoudi, a top Fatah militant killed by the Israel Defense Forces on January 13, 2008, after he carried out a series of armed attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers during the Second Intifada. "The academy has been named after the commander Nidal Al-Amoudi (Abu Hussein) to fulfill his dream of qualifying the fighters militarily, morally, religiously and revolutionarily," explained a statement released by the Fatah armed group. Noting that some 300 "fighters" have already joined the academy, the group said that they have begun undergoing training in various methods of warfare.

"We have pledged to prepare an army of fighters by devoting our full abilities and energies to consolidate the option of armed struggle as the only means to liberate Palestine," the group declared.

The Martyr Nidal Al-Amoudi Division is one of several Fatah-affiliated militias that continue to operate in the Gaza Strip despite Hamas's violent takeover of the area in the summer of 2007. These groups pose no threat to the Hamas regime, which is why they are allowed to operate freely in different parts of the Gaza Strip. The groups' explicit policy is to prepare for war with Israel and launch terror attacks against Israelis. Hamas, however, which expelled their leaders from the Gaza Strip and continues to persecute dozens of Fatah activists in the Gaza Strip, is not on their hit list.

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Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

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The Myth of Palestinian Arabs as the Indigenous Population of Mandatory Palestine

...To be sure, some Arabs are descendants of the indigenous occupants. But waves of immigration into the Holy Land brought Jews, Arabs, and others to the territories, to the point that most of today's Arabic-speakers do not trace their roots back for centuries.

Sheree Roth..
Middle East Quarterly..
Fall 2016..

The assertion that Palestinian Arabs are the indigenous population is central in their dispute with Israel. The message is that Jews stole and now occupy the land of the indigenous Arab population. Rarely challenged, the claim is widespread, such as this statement from Henry Cattan, a Palestinian Christian jurist and writer born in Jerusalem:

The Palestinians are the original and continuous inhabitants of Palestine from time immemorial.[1]

Palestinian Authority (PA) president Mahmoud Abbas elaborated this claim in a recent speech:

Our narrative says that we were in this land since before Abraham. I am not saying it. The Bible says it. The Bible says, in these words, that the Palestinians existed before Abraham. So why don't you recognize my right?[2]

Saeb Erekat, the PA's chief negotiator, stated:

I am the son of Jericho. ... the proud son of the Netufians and the Canaanites. I've been there for 5,500 years before Joshua Bin Nun came and burned my hometown Jericho.[3]

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Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

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B'Tselem and the attempted undermining of Israeli democracy with lies - by Ze'ev Jabotinsky

...There is no symmetry here, because the policy that El-Ad was trying to promote through external intervention goes against the will of the sovereign entity, the people, as reflected in the Knesset. The executive director is trying to undermine the foundations of Israeli democracy, which is representative and parliamentary. Someone who fails over and over to achieve a majority for a particular worldview, no matter how right it might be in his eyes, must accept the decision of the majority. The spirit of democracy prohibits him from attempting to lead a foreign body to impose policies that go against what the majority wants.

Ze'ev Jabotinsky..
Israel Hayom..
18 October '16..
Link: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=17435

B'Tselem Executive Director Hagai El-Ad lied in his speech in an informal U.N. Security Council meeting titled "The settlements as an obstacle to peace and a two-state solution." It was also the opening shot in a Palestinian gambit to promote an anti-Israel resolution on the settlements. El-Ad's intentional misrepresentation was based on the claim that all settlements in Judea and Samaria are illegal because of what he calls "international agreement that the settlements are illegal."

This claim is mistaken in three respects:

The first and most important one is that according to international law, only the Jewish people has the right to sovereignty, including the right to build communities in the western part of the Land of Israel, which includes Judea and Samaria and the Gaza Strip. This is because the State of Israel was established eight hours before the British Mandate ended, which gave it sovereignty over the entire territory that had been given as a mandate to the British by the League of Nations in a unanimous vote so that they could prepare the leaders of the Jewish people, through the Zionist movement, to take on the task of building a state. This was a precise implementation of Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations, which is part of formal international law.

The second mistake is Meretz Chairwoman Zehava Galon's argument that the B'Tselem executive director had the same right to speak abroad as does the prime minister of Israel. Except that as long as the prime minister is acting within the framework of his legally defined authority to set policy that is backed by the representative of sovereignty -- namely the Knesset -- he must promote that policy in every possible forum, even if the B'Tselem leader doesn't like it. There is no symmetry here, because the policy that El-Ad was trying to promote through external intervention goes against the will of the sovereign entity, the people, as reflected in the Knesset. The executive director is trying to undermine the foundations of Israeli democracy, which is representative and parliamentary. Someone who fails over and over to achieve a majority for a particular worldview, no matter how right it might be in his eyes, must accept the decision of the majority. The spirit of democracy prohibits him from attempting to lead a foreign body to impose policies that go against what the majority wants.

UNESCOs moral infirmity - by Vic Rosenthal

...Fixing this is a long-term task, which will require attention at the highest levels of government. But a response to UNESCO’s challenge is needed now. Israel has a responsibility, not just to itself, but to the Jewish people of whom it aspires to be the protector, to force UNESCO members to override this resolution with another that explicitly recognizes the Jewish connection to Jerusalem and its holy sites.

Vic Rosenthal..
Abu Yehuda..
18 October '16..

If Algeria introduced a resolution declaring that the earth was flat and that Israel had flattened it, it would pass by a vote of 164 to 13 with 26 abstentions. – Abba Eban

What’s next? A UNESCO decision denying the connection between peanut butter and jelly? Batman and Robin? Rock and roll? – Binyamin Netanyahu

או”מ שמום (UN, shmoo-en) – David Ben Gurion

It seems like everyone in the country is talking about the Palestinian-prompted UNESCO resolution which calls the Temple Mount and Western Wall only by their Muslim designations, implying that there is no Jewish connection to these sites. Not only does the phrase “Temple Mount” not appear, but the document refers to the “Al-Aqṣa Mosque/Al-Ḥaram Al-Sharif,” suggesting that the entire Mount is part of or identical to a mosque.

Israelis have responded with wall-to-wall condemnation of the resolution; even Israel Radio’s pre-holiday music program played numerous songs about Jerusalem, which the DJ carefully noted were “dedicated to UNESCO.” The resolution crossed a red line, the one that separates the supposed “political criticism of Israel” from outright Jew-hatred, although everybody knows that unofficially that line was crossed long ago. But people are angry, and want action. They don’t want to hear, yet again, “it’s the UN, what do you expect?” The feeling is that we don’t have to take this abuse, not the physical abuse of terrorism and not the delegitimization that pours from the “international community” on a continuous basis. We know that the purpose of delegitimization is to set the stage for the destruction of our state and the Jewish nation.

The reality and importance of the connection of Jerusalem and the holy sites to the Jewish people doesn’t need to be proven; no one halfway literate can honestly ignore the historical and archaeological evidence; no one can deny that the texts of Judaism and Christianity – and even Islam for that matter – refer to the Jewish Temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Only “Palestinians,” a people that created itself with the help of Soviet psychological warfare experts some 50 or so years ago, have ever had the chutzpah to say that all this is false.

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Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

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What exactly do the Palestinian Arabs think and feel now? - by Arnold Roth

...If all of this were not sufficiently dis-spiriting (and let's be frank - it really is and it mostly has been for at least five generations now), consider what the people on the far side of the fence want to happen after a State of Palestine has been established and after all (repeat: all) the "issues in dispute" (that's a quote) are resolved.

Arnold/Frimet Roth..
This Ongoing War..
18 October '16..

There are people who try to understand the Palestinian Arabs by watching CNN or reading the New York Times. For us, it makes far more sense to reach for Palestinian Arab sources and and work from there.

Once again, we're looking in this post at what the Palestinian Arabs think, based on what they tell the pre-eminent Palestinian Arab opinion polling organization, the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research [website] headed by a respected figure, Prof. Khalil Shikaki.

In a report published three weeks ago, PSR reported these findings

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Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

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Why the active Arab terror in Jerusalem? by Dr. Mordechai Kedar

Why is there active Arab terror in Jerusalem and almost none in other Israeli cities with large Arab populations?

Dr. Mordechai Kedar..
Israelnationalnews.com..
16 October '16..
H/T Sally Zahav..
Link: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/19626

Hope, not despair, is the reason for Islamic-Arab terror in Jerusalem. A glance at the Islamic-Arab map of terror against Jews makes the picture clear: The terror attacks in Jerusalem are on a larger scale and are more complex and intensive than in other Israeli cities which have a significant Israeli Arab Islamic population - Jaffa, Nazareth, Acre and Haifa. That is what gives rise to the question – why the Arab terror in Jerusalem? What makes this city such an attractive goal for terrorists and terror?

In previous articles, we discussed the historical and religious factors behind Israel's conflict with its neighbors; namely, that Israel's very existence and its capital's establishment in Jerusalem pose a religious challenge for Muslims, who view Islam as the true religion while Judaism, like Christianity, is considered a religion of lies. The return of the Jews to their homeland and historic capital city puts the lie to that concept and threatens Islam's status in the world.

In addition to the religious component, there is the nationalist one: Israel's existence is a reflection of the Arab failure to prevent its establishment in 1948 and the additional failure of the Arab nations in every war whose main goal was the destruction of the entire State of Israel. The Arab nations were humiliated - and making peace with Israel is an admission of the continuing shame they feel at the very existence of a Jewish state.

However, all this does not explain why the Arabs living in Jaffa, Haifa, Nazareth and Acre (Akko) for the most part do not take up terror, while many of the Arabs living in Jerusalem spend their days and nights planning terror attacks. Some say that the proximity of the Al Aqsa Mosque is the reason, but that is not true, because the Muslims in Jaffa and Nazareth consider Al Aqsa to be holy as much as the Jerusalem Arabs do, and still they avoid committing terrorist attacks while the Jerusalem Arabs are actively involved in terror .

There has to be another difference between Jerusalem and the other Israeli cities with sizable Arab populations. One could claim that the difference is a result of the length of time Israel is in control of these cities: The four cities of Nazareth, Acre, Haifa and Jaffa have been under Israeli sovereignty for 68 years, while Jerusalem's Arab neighborhoods have been part of the Jewish State for only 50 years. But the four cities were tranquil and free of terror way before Israel's 50th birthday, so why aren't 50 years enough to calm down the Arab-Muslims in Jerusalem?

The answer is elementary. There is a fundamental difference between Jewish control in Jaffa, Haifa, Nazareth and Acre and Jewish control of Jerusalem. It has to do with the finality of Israeli sovereignty: from that day in June 1949 when armistice - by no means peace!! - agreements were signed in Rhodes between Israel and its Arab neighbors, the Arabs in those four cities realized that they had been transformed permanently, against their will, into citizens of Israel - and will remain that way unless Israel disappears (inshallah!). While Israel exists, there is no other possibility open to them, and that means the end of the struggle and a coming to terms on some level with Israeli sovereignty, whether or not they like it.

UNESCO Chief Irina Bokova Weighs In On Temple Mount Resolution But ... by Gilead Ini

...As with the UNESCO's skewed resolution, news reports that describe the Western Wall as the holiest place for Jews, or that inform readers the Temple Mount is among the holiest areas for Muslims while neglecting to note its stature in Judaism, contribute to a distorted understanding of religious, cultural and historical factors that bind Israel to the area. That distortion is the whole point of UNESCO's language. And the dictators' club that helped push through the recent resolution will likely ensure similarly inflammatory wording appears in future resolutions. That's to be expected. Will journalists, for their part, make sure to get it right more consistently moving forward?

Gilead Ini..
CAMERA Media Analyses..
17 October '16..

When UNESCO passed its draft resolution casting the Temple Mount, the most sacred ground in Judaism, as an exclusively Muslim site, Palestinian leaders were quick to capitalize. "This is an important message to Israel that it must end its occupation and recognize the Palestinian state and Jerusalem as its capital with its sacred Muslim and Christian sites," a spokesman for the Palestinian president said after the vote.

The spokesman, Nabil Abu Rudaineh, was signaling that Jerusalem is holy to Muslims and Christian — not Jews. As with Palestinian claims that Jews have no history in the city, the takeaway is that Israel has no claim to Jerusalem at all, including the Western Wall and the Temple Mount. And if that's the case, it should be a straightforward exercise to demand Israel withdraw from the eastern portion of Jerusalem, or even to deny Jews the right to live in areas like Jerusalem's Jewish Quarter where, not withstanding the name of that neighborhood, they are cast as usurping settlers.

It further follows that if Israel doesn't pick up and leave eastern Jerusalem, where under this narrative the country has no spiritual anchor, it must be for no other reason than a reprehensible refusal to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict. Responsibility for the continued conflict, then, resides solely with Israel. And so Israel must be severely punished.

Others take the idea even further: As goes Jerusalem, so goes all of Israel. Jews, according to some anti-Israel activists, have no real business being in, or returning to, either locale. (Recall journalist Helen Thomas's demand that Jews leave Israel and go to "Poland" and "Germany.")

Just as Palestinians understood the implications of UNESCO's word choice, so too did the resolution's many critics.

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Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

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Antisemitism or anti-Zionism, 10 questions for the Dean of Lichfield - by David Collier

...Do you think, given the history of the blood libel and classic antisemitic tropes, that suggesting Jewish Zionists are like vampires in any way helped to expose the truth or assist in the search for peace?

David Collier..
Across the Great Divide..
17 October '16..

Last week I attended a conference on ‘Palestine’ that was promoted by the Dean of Lichfield and held at Lichfield Cathedral. My feelings on what occurred were detailed in a piece that I wrote upon my return. That article was widely shared.

I received emails in response from both the Bishop of Lichfield and the Archbishop of Canterbury. The emails informed me they had forwarded the story of my experience to the Dean of Lichfield.

Two days after this, the Dean of Lichfield posted a public ‘non-statement’ that included this section:

“Our recent weekend conference ‘Holding Palestine in the Light – the context of the conflict’ was an attempt to help people understand the complexity of the situation and what roads to peace are available for all the people of the Holy Land, Israelis and Palestinians. There were some passionate exchanges and contributions from the floor representing very diverse views.”

This statement is entirely false. This conference was about ‘Palestine’ and on that particular topic there was no attempt to present diverse views. What was presented was a narrow part of the spectrum, ranging from ‘Israel is to blame’ to ‘Israel is entirely to blame’.

What he no doubt meant, is what I often encounter at Palestinian Society meetings on campus. The presentation of a list of Israeli crimes, followed by a range of possible punishments with a few different ‘red lines’ to add diversity and spice. 100 different reasons to hate Israel.

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Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

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When the Israeli Left Crosses the Line - by Jonathan S. Tobin

...Peace Now and B’Tselem have the right to say what they like wherever they choose to say it. But those who join with Israel’s outright foes at the UN, of all places, in an effort to overthrow the verdict of Israeli democracy or to deny Jewish rights and security should not expect anything but contempt from Israelis and those who care about the Jewish state’s survival.

Jonathan S. Tobin..
Commentary Magazine..
16 October '16..
Link: https://www.commentarymagazine.com/foreign-policy/middle-east/israel/the-israeli-left-crosses-a-line-peace-now/

It was business as usual at the United Nations on Friday as the Security Council devoted a session to criticizing Israel. Just to make sure that the argument was skewed the event was titled “Illegal Israeli Settlements: Obstacles to Peace and the Two-State Solution.” So rather than a debate about the legality of settlements or whether they (as opposed to Palestinian intransigence) are really the main obstacle to peace, what occurred was a Star Chamber proceeding with the one Jewish state in the dock. The usual suspects decried the presence of Jews in the West Bank, lamented the lack of a Palestinian state, and counseled that unless Israel changes its ways, it will face unspecified consequences.

But there was one thing that differentiated this day from all the Israel-bashing sessions that preceded it: the presence of two left-wing Jewish organizations to add their voices to the chorus of condemnation. Representatives from Americans for Peace Now and B’Tselem, an organization that bills itself as a human-rights group while working to undermine the efforts of the Israeli Defense Forces, showed up at the UN to join the gang tackle of the Jewish state.
The testimony provided by the two groups was correctly contradicted by Israel’s UN representative, who pointed out the conflict is driven by Palestinian hate rather than Israeli home-building. But their decision to appear raises a serious question about the ethics involved in taking an active part in an effort designed to delegitimize Israel on the international stage. It’s fair to ask whether it is appropriate for any organization that identifies as either Jewish or Israeli to assist a world body that is riddled with anti-Semitism in conducting a kangaroo-court procedure in which the Jewish state is judged guilty beforehand.

The most egregious aspect of the presence of these two groups is the assertion made by Peace Now’s Lara Friedman that her participation at the meeting was due to what she said was the “harsh climate” in Israel for human-rights groups. Their work was, she said, too important to be “silenced.” But no one is silencing Peace Now or B’Tselem in Israel.

It’s true that left-wing non-governmental organizations that seek to support the Palestinians against Israel are not particularly popular there these days. The 23 years of Palestinian terrorism and rejection of peace since the signing of the Oslo Accords have caused popular support for these groups to collapse. In particular, activities of outfits like B’Tselem and “Breaking the Silence,” which have taken steps to frustrate the IDF’s efforts in responding to the current “stabbing intifada,” have brought them into general disrepute.

Those who seek to sacrifice Jewish lives on the altar of their political aspirations - by Dror Eydar

...The Jewish religion found a way to atone for feelings of guilt and sin: repentance (confession), prayer and charity. "Human rights" organizations like B'Tselem have returned to the ways of the ancient religions, which can be found today in radical Islam: They are not satisfied with verbal repentance for what they believe is Israel's guilt, rather they seek to sacrifice Jewish lives on the altar of their political aspirations. It would not be only Jewish lives cut short by the radical Left's crime of stupidity, but also the lives of Palestinians, ...

Dror Eydar..
Israel Hayom..
16 October '16..
Link: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=37145

Between Yom Kippur and the Sukkot holiday, B'Tselem Director Hagai Elad sat among Israel's sworn haters and provided the world with an excuse to forcefully enter the Jewish state and to impose its own agenda.

Organizations like B'Tselem and their comrades among the radical Left speak of democracy, while they themselves scorn it and the nation that decided differently. In contrast with its false propaganda, this group enjoys the tolerance of Israeli democracy, which allows it to fool the world with its constant slandering in the name of distorted morality. The half-truths that Elad used, devoid of historical and geopolitical context, will advance diplomatic terrorism against us -- something that will ultimately translate into real terrorism, because "even the Israelis themselves are saying," and so any struggle against them is justified

If we search for a parallel to the shameful radical Left, we will find it among the more shocking faction of the ultra-Orthodox Neturei Karta sect, whose members pose for photographs with Israel's enemies, including former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. They are just like "the Sanballats" (after Samaritan leader Sanballat the Horonite) in the Second Temple period, "the enemies of Judah and Benjamin," who "lodged an accusation against the people of Judah and Jerusalem" and slandered the Returnees of Zion to the Persian Empire (Ezra 4:1-6). The radical Left also behaves like a religious cult, ignoring reality when it contradicts its beliefs. The world must know that Elad is the counterpart to the late Moshe Hirsch, the ludicrous "foreign minister" of the haredi sect.

One big difference. The Jewish religion found a way to atone for feelings of guilt and sin: repentance (confession), prayer and charity. "Human rights" organizations like B'Tselem have returned to the ways of the ancient religions, which can be found today in radical Islam: They are not satisfied with verbal repentance for what they believe is Israel's guilt, rather they seek to sacrifice Jewish lives on the altar of their political aspirations. It would not be only Jewish lives cut short by the radical Left's crime of stupidity, but also the lives of Palestinians, who would be abandoned to the cruel leadership of movements like Hamas and the Islamic State group. This is the practical significance of the wanton urging by Elad and his ilk to "end the occupation" or to establish "a Palestinian state."

The Village Idiot - by Paula R. Stern

...The sun will rise tomorrow morning; the Temple Mount will still be the place where our Holy Temples stood. Tomorrow, next month, next year, next century. Laugh. The village idiot is called an idiot for a very good reason. UNESCO has merely proven the title to be aptly assigned.

Paula R. Stern..
A Soldier's Mother..
15 October '16..

The village idiot is a much loved character in the story that is humanity. Much loved...up to a point where the love turns to something more bitter. The village idiot is the one who cannot see that which stands before his very eyes and when shown the object of his denial, the village idiot continues to deny reality.

The village idiot astounds the other villagers by managing to come up with the wrong conclusion...every damn time. Facts mean nothing, proof is wasted. What the villagers quickly learn is that the idiot is what he will always be - blind, stubborn and worthy of nothing more than our pity.

As we walk through our lives, enriched with love of land and country, family and our people, the village idiot remains...well, an idiot.

UNESCO is the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization whose slogan is "Building peace in the minds of men and women." Perhaps as a misguided effort to further that slogan, the 58-member organization passed a draft resolution about some place called Al-Aqṣa Mosque/Al-Ḥaram Al-Sharif. They managed to write an entire five page resolution without once mentioning the irrefutable fact that the mosques to which this resolution refers, sit atop what has been known and called throughout history as The Temple Mount.

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Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

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Obama and the Blame That Bibi Bears - by Martin Sherman

...Despite all the chatter about the unprecedentedly close intelligence and military cooperation between Israel and the US, a far from implausible case could be made for the claim that the Obama administration is — intentionally or otherwise — laying the foundations for Israel’s demise.

Martin Sherman..
Algemeiner.com..
14 October '16..

“If the aim of the Israeli government is to prevent a peace deal with the Palestinians, now or in the future, it’s close to realizing that goal. Last week, it approved the construction of a new Jewish settlement in the West Bank, another step in the steady march under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to build on land needed to create a Palestinian state…The Obama administration, with every justification, strongly condemned the action as a betrayal of the idea of a two-state solution in the Middle East. But Mr. Netanyahu obviously doesn’t care what Washington thinks, so it will be up to President Obama to find another way to preserve that option before he leaves office.”

— “At the Boiling Point with Israel,” the New York Times Editorial Board, October 6, 2016.

Last week, the New York Times descended to a new low, with the publication of a particularly infuriating and offensive anti-Israel editorial that was so distortive, deceptive and deceitful regarding the Jewish state and its democratically elected prime minister that some less charitable souls than I might almost be tempted to say that it would have done Der Stürmer proud.

The New York Times’ anti-Jewish innuendo

Doubtless, many will claim that even the slightest hint that any such comparison is even vaguely valid is wildly inappropriate. True, the Times editorial did not sport a crude cartoon of a conniving, hooked nosed, money-grasping Jewish prime minister. But it did include virtually everything else.

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Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

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Why the U.S. State Dept. won't acknowledge the truth about Fatah

...Obama's political agenda--his entire policy concerning Israel and the Palestinian Arabs--conflicts with telling the truth about Fatah. No matter how loudly Abbas's Fatah cheers for terrorists, the Obama administration will never do more than make vague allusions to "the statements glorifying this reprehensible and cowardly attack," without ever identifying who is doing the glorifying.

Stephen M. Flatow..
JNS.org..
14 October '16..

The U.S. State Department denounced the latest terrorist attack in Jerusalem by condemning “the statements glorifying this reprehensible and cowardly attack.”

At first, it might seem like good news President Barack Obama's administration finally acknowledged and criticized the horrendous glorification of terrorist attacks we read about almost every day.

Until you notice the State Department forgot to mention one little thing--the identity of those it condemned. Who exactly has been making statements "glorifying" the attack? Who called the terrorist a hero and a martyr? Who defended and justified the murder of an Israeli Jewish grandmother?

The answer is...

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Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

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"We Are Proud of You. You Killed Jews!" - by Bassam Tawil

...A Palestinian who goes to meet with a Jew is strongly condemned and accused of seeking "normalization" with the enemy. But a Palestinian who carries a knife or rifle and sets out to kill Jews gains the stars of a "martyr" and wins nearly universal Palestinian praise. This is the current mindset in Palestinian society, the fruit of decades of Palestinian incitement and delegitimization of Israel. This is the inevitable result -- as in the Spanish Inquisition, the French Revolution, the Turkish Genocide of the Armenians, Rwanda, Darfur, or Nazi Germany -- of the poisoning of a people.

Bassam Tawil..
Gatestone Institute..
14 October '16..

The family of Musbah Abu Sbeih say they are "very proud" of what their 40-year-old son did. So are many Palestinians representing all walks of life in Palestinian society. Members of his family, including his parents and daughter, have appeared on too may TV stations to keep track of to commend Abu Sbeih. They have even gone out onto the streets to hand out sweets in jubilation over the terror attack that he carried out in Jerusalem this week, which resulted in the death of a 60-year-old grandmother and a 29-year-old police officer.

Abu Sbeih is now the latest "hero" of many Palestinians, and not only by his family. He is being hailed as a "brave" man and a "hero" because he woke up in the morning, grabbed an M-16 assault rifle and set out to kill as many Jews as possible. His mission was "successful": he managed to shoot and kill two Jews before he himself was eliminated by policemen.

In a video that he left behind, Abu Sbeih claimed that he carried out the terror attack in response to visits to the Temple Mount by Jews. He claimed (falsely) that these visits were part of an Israeli scheme to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount.

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Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

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A discussion of rights? The time has come for us to return to speaking this language as well - by Nadav Shragai

...But the Jewish connection to Jerusalem and its holy sites first and foremost relies on the Bible, "our mandate to the Land of Israel," as our first Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion put it. The connection appears in the Mishnah, the Gemarah and even the Quran, as well as in the writings of Muslim historians and, of course, in the writings of Roman historian Flavius Josephus and others. The time has come to renew the discussion of rights. The Muslims are speaking in this language. The time has come for us to return to speaking it as well.

Nadav Shragai..
Israel Hayom..
14 October '16..
Link: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=17407

The UNESCO resolution that casts doubt on the Jewish connection to the Temple Mount and the Western Wall is so untrue, so idiotic and baseless that one's immediate reaction is to refer to Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook's response to the Shaw Commission when he was asked more than 80 years ago to prove Jewish ties to these sites. He told them that the truth was so clear and obvious that any evidence would only weaken it: "It is similar to one who raises a candle to increase the brightness of the sun's light," he said.

But UNESCO has been hiding the "sun's light" for years, ignoring the terrible Muslim destruction of antiquities on the Temple Mount, "Islamizing" Rachel's Tomb and calling it a mosque, and shutting its eyes to the long list of archaeological finds from the Temple Mount area that drive the Muslims crazy for one central reason: They prove the ancient Jewish connection to the Temple Mount and its retaining walls. Especially the Western Wall. Jews have prayed at the foot of these walls for many generations and at the foot of the Western Wall, all 488 meters (1,600 feet) of it, for more than 1,000 years. The Jews even received Turkish decrees confirming their rights to the Western Wall.