Netanyahu, Sisi, Obama and the UN Resolution on Israeli Settlements - by Elliott Abrams

...I had actually thought Mr. Obama would veto, because a refusal to do so would certainly do damage to his party–a party that has suffered electoral defeats at the congressional and state level throughout his presidency. But if the information I received was right, he was more interested in departing with another smack at Israel.

Elliott Abrams..
Pressure Points..
22 December '16..
Link: http://blogs.cfr.org/abrams/2016/12/22/netanyahu-sisi-obama-and-the-united-nations-resolution-on-israeli-settlements/

The United Nations Security Council was scheduled to vote today (Thursday, December 22) on an Egyptian-sponsored resolution on Israeli settlement activity.

Egypt, the Arab representative on the Security Council right now, pulled the resolution this morning, so there will be no vote. There are several mysteries here, including why Egypt did that, and how President Obama planned to vote: yes, abstain, or veto.

First, it’s important to realize just how bad the resolution was. Here’s part: The Security Council–

J Street, hypocrisy and Holocaust analogies: you can’t have it both ways - by Stephen M. Flatow

...So pardon me if I'm not impressed by J Street's indignation about David Friedman. When it consistently speaks out against Holocaust analogies—including those made by its executive committee member, Aaron Rice; its donor, George Soros; and its endorsee, Keith Ellison—then J Street might be taken a little more seriously. But I’m not going to hold my breath.

Stephen M. Flatow..
JNS.org..
21 December '16..

J Street and like-minded groups are denouncing Donald Trump’s ambassador-designate to Israel, David Friedman, over a comment Friedman once made comparing Jewish advocates of the Palestinian cause to Jews who collaborated with the Nazis.

I'm not particularly comfortable with Holocaust analogies. But I'm also not particularly comfortable with hypocrisy. In a fundraising email this week, J Street denounced Friedman's "horrifically offensive rhetoric." Yet just days ago, the same J Street publicly endorsed a candidate for the chairmanship of the Democratic Party who compared President George W. Bush to Adolf Hitler.

U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), who is seeking to head the Democratic National Committee, made his Hitler remark in 2007, so J Street can't dismiss it as something he said when he was in college. And Ellison's remark was videotaped, so nobody can claim it was edited or taken out of context.

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Stephen M. Flatow, a vice president of the Religious Zionists of America, is an attorney in New Jersey. He is the father of Alisa Flatow, who was murdered in an Iranian-sponsored Palestinian terrorist attack in 1995.

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

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Looking for opportunities to advance his political fortunes. Also: he has GREAT hair.

...Alas, we came away knowing that the only thing to know about Lapid is what we already knew: He sure does have great hair.

Elder of Ziyon..
Varda Epstein/Judean Rose..
21 December '16..

Love him or hate him, Bibi's all we've got at present. There really is no one else on the Israeli political spectrum who cuts such an appropriately statesmanlike figure as Benjamin Netanyahu. Which is why he's the second-longest running Israeli prime minister after David Ben Gurion. Israelis know that Bibi's it.

This doesn't mean that the other politicians aren't going to angle themselves into position for a takeover, hostile or otherwise. You'll always see Naftali Bennett , for instance, using any issue du jour as a platform to knock Bibi while at the same time taking credit for any progress made on said issue. Yair Lapid, too, is always looking for opportunities to advance his political fortunes. He has a knack for speaking and videos of his speeches always go over well on social media. Also: he has GREAT hair.

Finally, Lapid, unlike Bennett, is not right wing. Which could theoretically make him palatable to the mainstream media, which hates Netanyahu with a passion. They hate Netanyahu because President Obama hates Netanyahu, and they, the mainstream media, always do Obama's bidding.

Now it's interesting to watch all this angling for power and position on either side of the Atlantic. We Israelis watch President Obama as he blames Russia for interfering with the American election. We find this especially ironic, considering that Obama's State Department interfered with Israeli elections to the tune of $349,276 in taxpayer's money.

So no. It's not a new idea: trying to find someone, anyone, who might take over from Bibi, if not now, then at some future point in time. And so Ruth Eglash's interview with Yair Lapid in the Washington Post makes perfect sense...

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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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Latest NY Times Smear: Zionism Is Illiberal, Antisemitic - by Ira Stoll

...By propagating the antisemite’s negative caricature of Israel, complete with the dual loyalty canard, Professor Boehm himself is the one who is advancing ideas traditionally associated with antisemites. It’s far worse than the “anti-Semitic tropes” that Professor Boehm accuses Donald Trump of trafficking in. Professor Boehm’s false accusation that Zionism is illiberal is itself an antisemitic trope — all the more so because Jewish nationalism is the one that the professor, enabled by the Times, chooses to single out among all others for attack.

Omri Boehm. Photo: Twitter.

Ira Stoll..
Algemeiner.com..
21 December '16..

In what seems like its never-ending quest to smear the Jewish state and its supporters, the New York Times has managed to come up with a new one, or perhaps a new variation on an old one: Zionism is antisemitism.

At least, that seems to be the accusation made in a lengthy and barely comprehensible screed by Omri Boehm, an assistant professor of philosophy at the New School for Social Research. The Times published it as part of “The Stone,” which is described as, “A forum for contemporary philosophers and other thinkers on issues both timely and timeless,” and led by series moderator Simon Critchley, another NSSR philosophy professor.

Perhaps the Times, which recently announced it is vacating eight floors of its headquarters, has laid off so many journalists that it now has to rely on academic “moderators” instead of veteran editors. But whatever the back story, this article is one that would have been better off staying confined to the philosophy department of the New School, or better yet, to Professor Boehm’s brain, rather than being inflicted on New York Times readers (and linked from the newspaper’s online home page, as it was for some time this week).

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More of Ira Stoll’s media critique, a regular Algemeiner feature, can be found here.

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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(Video) Old Historians, New Historians, No Historians: The Derailed Debate on 1948

Was Israel born in sin? Alleged atrocities launched by the Jews during the 1948 War, the birth of the Palestinian refugee problem, the conduct of the War of Independence, and the ensuing issues of the Arab-Israeli conflict refuse to disappear from our horizon 70 years later.

TheJerusalemCenter
Published on Dec 21, 2016
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqAXFi7rWFw


Dr. Raphael Israeli contends that these recriminations are exaggerated and some historians are guilty of not having consulted the Arabic sources. They show that the basic hatred and rejection of nascent Israel by the Arabs would have been remained unchanged regardless of Israel’s actions.



Dr. Raphael Israeli, born in Fes, Morocco, currently teaches Islamic, Chinese, and Middle Eastern History at Hebrew University. He has been a Fellow of the Jerusalem Center since the 1970s and is the author of over 50 books and some 100 scholarly articles in the fields of Islamic radicalism, Islamic terrorism, the modern Middle East, and Islam in China and Asia.

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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Berlin terror attack coverage again highlights double standards of BBC - by Hadar Sela

...With the corporation having consistently refrained from describing vehicular attacks (and all other types of attacks) against Israelis as terrorism, the double standards so often evident in its reporting of terrorism in different locations are once again on display to BBC audiences – who of course have never seen a BBC article billed ‘A year of terror in Israel’.

Hadar Sela..
BBC Watch..
20 December '16..

The BBC’s coverage of the vehicular terror attack in Nice on July 14th 2016 highlighted the differences in the terminology used to describe and define that attack as opposed to the language used when reporting similar attacks against Israelis.

When a vehicular attack occurred in Berlin on the evening of December 19th, the BBC News website’s initial report on the incident – oddly titled “Berlin Breitscheidplatz: Lorry kills 12 at Christmas market” – was amended less than two hours after its initial publication to include a sub-heading posing the question “Terror attack?”

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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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One Ambassador and Two States - by Jonathan S. Tobin

...If Friedman’s appointment signals that Trump intends to cease second-guessing Israel’s sensible refusal to make suicidal concessions and that they will discard the idea that it is America’s duty to save Israel from itself, all friends of Israel should welcome it. The same applies to Friedman’s support for the idea of ending the illogical and damaging American policy of refusing to accept that even West Jerusalem is Israeli territory and the location of its capital. Rather than a sign of extremism, Trump’s tapping of his friend for this post may actually be an indication of a new realism in Washington.

Jonathan S. Tobin..
Commentary Magazine..
20 December '16..
Link: https://www.commentarymagazine.com/foreign-policy/middle-east/israel/one-ambassador-and-two-states-david-friedman/

Haaretz reports that JStreet and other left-wing Jewish organizations believe they can turn Donald Trump’s nomination of attorney David Friedman to be U.S. ambassador to Israel into a test of their strength on Capitol Hill. But the result of that test may not be what they are hoping for. The notion that a president’s choice for an ambassadorial post can be thwarted because of statements that place him at odds with the views of previous administrations rather than that of the one he will serve is an odd one

The conflict about his publicly-stated opposition to a two-state solution isn’t so much about Friedman as it about the delusions about the peace process that his leftist critics and their media megaphones still labor under. Nor is it one that is likely to arouse much opposition in the Republican-controlled Senate that will be inclined, as is the tradition, to respect a president’s right to choose the people he trusts for key positions.

A large percentage of each president’s ambassadorial choices are assumed to be contributors, political allies or cronies in every administration. That was as true of Barack Obama as it will be of Trump or any other president. The only grounds on which such appointments are generally blocked relate to the integrity of the nominee, which in this case is not in question, and not whether a non-politician like Friedman has always refrained from voicing controversial views. Moreover, Friedman’s status as a friend of the president-elect as well as someone who has been a key advisor on Middle East issues makes him an ideal choice for this posting. Having America’s representative in Israel be someone with a good idea of how Trump thinks and with the president’s ear makes more sense than having some veteran State Department hand who is hostile to the new president in such a crucial job.
But the real issue here is policy.

There are three major lessons for Israel in the ruins of Aleppo - by David Collier

...Suggestions of peace are empty talk made against the backdrop of a moment in time. An unseen tsunami may be on the way even as the pressure to make concessions is applied. Long term strategic planning is undertaken by those who foolishly think history is predictable when viewed forwards.Today’s powers, today’s friends, cannot promise anything for tomorrow. It is far more logical, far more supported, to suggest that in the next 50 years, millions of innocent people will die in conflict and the world will just shrug its shoulders, than to suggest a new era of peace is coming. There are three major lessons for Israel in the ruins of Aleppo:

David Collier..
Across the Great Divide..
20 December '16..

It is difficult not to be moved by events in Syria. The images from Aleppo, Syria are heart-breaking. It is also fair to say, most of us in the west, despite vocally shouting that ‘something needs to be done’, haven’t got much idea about exactly what. Syria is a tale of 1000 trenches with 2000 armies.

During the ‘Arab spring’ in 2011, I remember being engaged in debate over events in Libya. As ‘interventionists’ were encountering difficulty coordinating international support for anti-Gaddafi action, I was pointing towards Syria, worried international impotence was signaling to Assad he could act with impunity. Action in Libya was the ‘easy’ choice.

At the time, most commentary over the ‘Arab Spring’ was positive. Thousands of experts, mostly liberal elites listening to the sound of their own echo, applauding the ‘rising up’ of the Arab street. This policy brief from the European Policy Centre discusses how Europe should ‘open up’ to ‘democracies in the making’. Brian Whitaker in the Guardian suggested on 14/3/2011 that “the Arab spring is brighter than ever”.

My pessimism in conversations on the topic was unwelcome. Nobody wanted the input of the doomsayer. Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri in the Guardian led with a headline “Arabs are democracy’s new pioneers”. They asked “what these new experiments in freedom and democracy will teach the world over the next decade?” It is now 2016, we are half way into that ‘next decade’. This piece is in answer to that puzzle.

In the beginning

To do this I must start this story 20 years earlier. To be precise at 3.30am on 18th January 1991.

At that time, I was huddled inside a ‘sealed room’. In reality this was just a room specially decorated with masking tape and plastic sheeting, designed to increase my chance of surviving a chemical attack. I didn’t speak Hebrew, and the information given on the radio was linguistically out of my reach. One of my neighbours kept their dog leashed outside their house and I’d frequently sneak over to let it run free for a while. So when the sirens came, I first ran to free ‘Lady’ to share my protection against chemical attack. So, there we sat in the sealed room, two loners, taking our chances together.

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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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NYT in Full-Fledged Frothing Freakout Frenzy Over Friedman Pick - by Ira Stoll

...Friedman isn’t being chosen for the job of secretary of state or national security adviser — or even special Middle East coordinator. His job as ambassador would be to represent and counsel the president and the secretary of state, not to set the policy. Yet the Times doesn’t seem willing to provide its readers with grounded, realistic perspective on this. It prefers, instead, to fuel the anti-Trump panic prevalent among its urban, liberal readers. That’s not independent journalism. It’s just a left-wing echo chamber.

Ira Stoll..
Algemeiner.com..
19 December '16..

How freaked out is the New York Times over Donald Trump’s decision to nominate David Friedman as the American ambassador to Israel?

Extremely, to judge by the newspaper’s completely over-the-top coverage of the nomination.

The Times first covered the news of the nomination with a hostile article in Friday’s paper that the Algemeiner responded to that day.

Then the New York Times did something it reserves for the rarest of situations. It ran the same news again, this time on page one. Saturday’s paper piled on with a front page story headlined: “David Friedman, Choice for Envoy To Israel, Is Hostile to Two State Efforts.” That article was the product of a team of no less than eight — eight! — Times personnel, working from four different cities: “Isabel Kershner reported from Jerusalem, and Sheryl Gay Stolberg from Washington. Reporting was contributed by Russ Buettner and Maggie Haberman from New York, Sewell Chan from London, and Irit Pazner Garshowitz from Jerusalem. Jack Begg and Alain Delaquérière contributed research.”

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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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With a Smile and a Laugh: Welcome to the World of Western-Funded Terrorism

...The terrorist had good reason to laugh in the face of the judge. He knows that Abbas, the Palestinian Authority, or some other entity will look after his family and him while he is sitting in prison. He knows that thanks to Western donations to the Palestinians, his family and he will enjoy monthly payments. The family will even be exempt from paying school and university tuition, as well as their electric and water bills, which will be fully covered by the PA government, directly or indirectly. He also knows that if and when he is released from prison, his chances of finding a job in the public sector are much higher than those of someone who did not kill a Jew or spend time in an Israeli prison.

Bassam Tawil..
Gatestone Institute..
19 December '16..

Killing Jews has become a profitable business. Palestinians who think of launching a terror attack against Jews can rest assured that their well-being and that of their family will be guaranteed while they are in Israeli prison. Here is how it works:

The Western-funded Palestinian Authority (PA) government, through its various institutions, provides a monthly salary and different financial benefits to jailed Palestinian terrorists and their families. Upon their release, they will continue to receive financial aid, and are given top priority when it comes to employment in the public sector. Their chances of getting a job with the PA government are higher than those who went to university, because by carrying out an attack against Jews they become heroes, entitled to a superior job and salary.

For the record, these people have not been imprisoned for running a red light. Most of them are behind bars because they have masterminded suicide bombings and other terror attacks that have killed and maimed hundreds of innocent civilians during the past few decades. In the U.S., these convicted Palestinian terrorists would have been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, or the death penalty. What they would not be receiving are the privileges offered to them by Abbas and the PA leadership.

Ready for a dose of linguistic reality? In addition to his title as president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas is also chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). So it makes no difference at all whether the PA or the PLO is paying salaries to the terrorists: the same man is authorizing the funds. In reality, the PA and the PLO are one and the same. Israel signed the Oslo Accords with the PLO, and as a result of these agreements, the PA was created. We are dealing with the same people and same ideology.

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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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Israel's Arab MKs, terror and questions of loyalty - by Nadav Shragai

...The first question is also relatively easy to address: Some Arab MKs are, in fact, considerably more loyal to the Palestinian cause and its emissaries -- who are very often terrorists and murderers of Jews -- than to the Israeli Knesset. Only a country that has gone completely mad and is incapable of drawing a clear line between freedom of expression and democracy, and incitement and terror, allows MKs such as these to continue serving in its legislative branch.

Nadav Shragai..
Israel Hayom..
19 December '16..
Link: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=17915

The allegations Sunday that Joint Arab List MK Basel Ghattas smuggled 12 cellular phones to security prisoners in Ketziot prison, while visiting a member of the terrorist cell that murdered IDF soldier Moshe Tamam, should not exactly come as a surprise.

Ghattas, who in the past has supported boycotts against Israel, is a cousin of former Balad MK Azmi Bashara, who was suspected of spying for Hezbollah and who fled the country. Meanwhile, several of his colleagues in the Israeli Knesset often behave as if they are members of the Palestinian parliament in Ramallah.

Joint Arab List MK Ahmad Tibi, for example, used to be Yasser Arafat's adviser on Israel. Tibi was even reprimanded harshly by the Knesset Ethics Committee after saying, "There is no higher value than Shahada [a declaration of Islamic faith]," and that "the shahid [martyr] is the trailblazer, who draws the path to freedom and liberty with his own blood." To this day, Joint Arab List MK Hanin Zoabi refuses to call the kidnappers and murderers of the three teenage boys from Gush Etzion terrorists. Joint Arab List MK Jamal Zahalka has met with senior Hamas officials.

The problem with some of the Arab MKs is twofold. Like their Jewish Knesset colleagues, upon being sworn in, they vowed to uphold allegiance to the State of Israel and its laws and to faithfully fulfill their duties in the Knesset. But their conduct, and not for the first time, raises two fundamental questions. One, where do their loyalties truly lie? To Israel and its laws? Or to the Palestinians in Gaza and Judea and Samaria, and to the terrorists who harm the security of the country and murder Jews?

British PM Theresa May, the Balfour Declaration and how words matter - by Sheri Oz

...Britain can be proud, therefore, of its part in the re-establishing of Israel, as a modern state, on the lands of our ancient Jewish Homeland. Just let them word it correctly from now on. OK?

Sheri Oz..
Israel Diaries..
19 December '16..

How can one small statement, get it so wrong! I am obviously pleased to see the British Prime Minister stand up for Israel and for the historic Balfour Declaration against the ridiculous rantings of Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian Authority, calling to sue Britain for having issued the Declaration.

However, language is important. At the Annual Conservative Friends of Israel luncheon on December 12th, Prime Minister Theresa May declared her pride in:

creating a homeland for the Jewish people.

You see, herein lies a major reason for Israel’s problems on the stage of public opinion. The wording.

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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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Someone deeply committed to Israel’s security and to its well-being - by Elliott Abrams

...I do not share all of Mr. Friedman’s views, but I am delighted that the United States will soon have an envoy who can do what the Israeli ambassador in Washington can do: call home and speak to the top guy. I’m very pleased that we’ll have an ambassador who has known the country to which he is accredited for decades and won’t need briefing books to learn its geography. I think it’s great that we’ll have someone deeply committed to Israel’s security and to its well-being

Elliott Abrams..
Pressure Points..
18 December '16..
Link: http://blogs.cfr.org/abrams/2016/12/18/the-next-ambassador-to-israel/

President-Elect Trump’s choice of David M. Friedman as his ambassador to Israel has occasioned both appropriate news coverage, and a barrage of nasty, ignorant, politically biased comments.

Most of those comments (including the poison-pen editorial in The New York Times) have informed readers that Mr. Friedman is unfit for this post because he is a “bankruptcy lawyer” lacking diplomatic experience. I was previously unaware that being a “bankruptcy lawyer” was equivalent to a crime of moral turpitude, but that is in any event an odd description of Mr. Friedman. In fact he is one of the top lawyers in that field in the United States, year after year being so listed in articles about the very best American lawyers. The New York Times tells us that he has since 1994 been a partner at a firm called Kasowitz, Benson, Torres, & Friedman, but does not bother to tell readers that he is in fact the Friedman of Kasowitz, Benson, Torres, & Friedman–a firm whose name was changed when he joined it, and which he has helped build to about 350 lawyers in seven cities. He is also a self-made man, the son of an Orthodox rabbi who came to the practice of law without the benefit of wealth or fancy connections.

To the Times all that is irrelevant; presumably they would prefer a fellow at a white-shoe Wall Street firm whose father or grandfather had been a diplomat, who belonged to the right clubs, and who rather than soil himself with the actual practice of law opens doors and makes connections. But I doubt most Americans take that view, and Mr. Trump did not. I’ve met Mr. Friedman once; we connected because I have a son who works in the Kasowitz firm. What do you learn from one meeting? Only that you’re dealing with one smart cookie, and that his involvement with Israeli affairs for decades has given him a far better insight than the average diplomat.

When Time magazine lies about Jerusalem - by Elder of Ziyon

...This is really a poor article, and its bias and lies show that Time isn't trying to explain the facts - it is trying to hide them.

Elder of Ziyon..
18 December '16..

Time magazine has an article that pretends to be a backgrounder on the legal status of Jerusalem, and it gets it quite wrong in a number of respects. Every single thing it gets wrong is against Israel, showing that this is a lesson in media bias.

After the Second World War, the State of Israel was established and gradually recognized ‘de jure’ — or lawfully — by most of the world’s countries. However, although the U.N. recognized the state of Israel in 1948, allowing it to become a member state, it placed the whole city of Jerusalem under international control (a ‘corpus separatum’) on Dec. 13 1949. Despite this, most governmental offices moved to the city.

UN General Assembly resolution 303(4) was passed on December 9, not December 13th. It did not place Jerusalem under international control - General Assembly resolutions cannot do that - it merely said "its intention that Jerusalem should be placed under a permanent international regime."

Time is lying.

Crucially, the United States voted against this resolution.

Here is what happened on December 13th:

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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 U.S. Embassy relocation as a true litmus test - by Yoram Ettinger

...The relocation of the U.S. Embassy to Israel's eternal capital, Jerusalem, will implement U.S. law, the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995, which enjoys massive support on Capitol Hill and beyond, but was not implemented by presidents who used national security as an excuse for noncompliance.

Yoram Ettinger..
Israel Hayom..
18 December '16..
Link: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=17901

Terminating the State Department policy which refers to the whole of Jerusalem as an international (not Israeli) city, recognizing unified Jerusalem as Israel's capital, and relocating the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, represent a litmus test of President-elect Donald Trump's resolve to make America great again by defying Arab/Muslim pressure and threats, as well as overruling the politically correct establishment of the State Department.

Moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem is, also, a litmus test of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's intent to leverage the nonconventional Trump/Pence worldview, which abhors domestic and international political correctness, respects firmness and the defiance of odds, recognizes Israel as a unique ally in the battle against the ayatollahs and Islamic terrorism, and is aware that U.S. national security interests transcend the Palestinian issue.

The decision to relocate the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem will usher in the Trump era, setting President Trump apart from his predecessors, underscoring the independence of U.S. unilateral -- rather than multinational -- action, distinguishing him from the U.S. and international foreign policy establishment and setting his worldview apart from that of the U.N., while reflecting the state of mind of most Americans.

Establishing the U.S. Embassy in Israel's capital will signal Trump's determination to resurrect the U.S. posture of deterrence, which has been eroded in recent years, underlying a realization that succumbing to pressure and threats fuels violence, while defying them deters rogue elements and advances security and the prospects of peace. For example, in 2011, the State Department warned the White House against vetoing a U.N. Security Council condemnation of Israel's settlement policy, lest it fuel terrorism. Contrary to the December 1988 U.S. recognition of the Palestine Liberation Organization and the 1993 Israel-PLO Oslo Accord -- which intensified Palestinian terrorism and hate education -- vetoing the U.N. Security Council resolution was not followed by bloodshed.

While moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem would not undermine or prejudge the peace process -- since the Embassy will be located in pre-1967 Israeli west Jerusalem -- a failure to implement the law will further radicalize the Arabs, who cannot afford to be less demanding than the U.S., thus presenting more obstacles to the pursuit of peace.

The relocation of the U.S. Embassy to Israel's eternal capital, Jerusalem, will implement U.S. law, the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995, which enjoys massive support on Capitol Hill and beyond, but was not implemented by presidents who used national security as an excuse for noncompliance.

Surprise! Four articles in the NY Times against David Friedman in one day - by Elder of Ziyon

...I still have not seen a decent argument against moving the embassy to Jerusalem within the Green Line, and the NYT is not adding any. It obfuscates the issue, making it sound like the Arabs have a valid claim on Israel within the Green Line. US diplomats visit Jerusalem routinely without any Arab objection, because after all it is where Israel's leaders live and work. It is a silly fiction that the 45 minute drive between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem is needed for peace. This isn't a reasoned objection to Friedman. This is an obsession.

Elder of Ziyon..
17 December '16..

Friday's New York Times had four articles against Donald Trump's choice to be the US ambassador to Israel.

Yes - four articles in one day. Two "news" articles, one editorial, and one op-ed.

The main news article on Friedman was "David Friedman, Choice for Envoy to Israel, Is Hostile to Two-State Efforts."

David M. Friedman, an Orthodox Jewish bankruptcy lawyer from Long Island, is Donald J. Trump’s pick for ambassador to Israel, despite his lack of diplomatic experience and frequent statements that flout decades of bipartisan American policy.
“Bankruptcy law and involvement with settlements are not normally seen as an appropriate qualifications for the job,” one of its former occupants, Martin S. Indyk, said on Friday. “But then these are not normal times.”

Nah, no bias there, to quote Indyk first. As if no American president has ever appointed an ambassadorship to someone with no diplomatic experience before. Oh, wait - Obama and previous presidents have done so routinely, handing out ambassadorships to fundraisers fortheir campaigns, sometimes with good results and sometimes with embarrassingly bad results.

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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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Know why he’ll get the ambassador he wants? Because he will be the president. - by Jonathan Tobin

...Suffice it to say that if you believe the current Israel-Palestinian impasse is a stain on Israel’s moral position in the region, you are free to feast on your own self-righteousness, but your perspective is astoundingly askew. Just to take this week alone, there’s a genocide going on about 300 miles to Israel’s northeast, a nightmarish pseudo-caliphate is enslaving women another 200 miles to the east of that, and a barbaric theocracy with a “destroy the Jewish state” doctrine is amassing power another 400 miles further east of that. The idea that Israel, by comparison to its region, is morally compromised is nothing less than unworldly preening.

Jonathan S. Tobin..
Commentary Magazine..
16 December '16..
Link: https://www.commentarymagazine.com/foreign-policy/middle-east/israel/david-friedman-ambassador-has-left-the-building/

“Personnel is policy.” That’s one of the great cliches of Washington staffing, and we have an example of its truth in Donald Trump’s nomination of the New York bankruptcy lawyer David Friedman to be his ambassador to Israel.

Much will be made of the blunt Friedman’s very harsh words about left-wing Jewish groups and about President Obama, and these will be used in an effort to derail his nomination. Friedman wrote an op-ed earlier this year likening JStreet to the kapos—the Jews who worked for the Nazis policing their own people. It was wrong of him to do so, but it’s something in the heat of a rhetorical moment I myself have done in relation to a disgusting Jewish cartoonist who uses images out of Der Sturmer to portray Israelis he doesn’t like, so I can appreciate Friedman’s emotional impulse. That impulse comes from a deep sense of anger at Jews who use their Jewishness as a shield and weapon simultaneously to delegitimize the democratic actions of a democratic Jewish state. It is about defending your people against those who you believe are siding with your people’s enemies. In the case of JStreet, Friedman’s feelings are merited even if his analogy was wrong. (And just as I apologized for my use of the term “kapo,” he’d probably do himself some good if he said he’d gone too far in that case—which would, by the way, give him a second shot at explaining why JStreet is egregious in front of a far larger audience.)

Other arguments will be advanced against his nomination, like the fact that Friedman has no diplomatic experience. This is disingenuous. Every administration appoints ambassadors with no diplomatic experience, and aside from generalized bitching, official Washington accepts the practice without complaint. Besides which, one of the ways people get diplomatic experience is to become appointed diplomats. What this really means is that Friedman is neither a member of the foreign service or of the foreign-policy establishment. Well, big deal. Trump is the president and he need not find his Israeli ambassador from the ranks of the permanent State Department bureaucracy or from the membership list of the Council on Foreign Relations. And unlike many ambassadorial appointments, he’s not being rewarded for his financial support.

Amona? How many times before we lose our national soul? - by Vic Rosenthal

...Do we care about Judea and Samaria and the Jews that live there? If so, we need to commit, to act as though we truly are the sovereign power; as Annika Hernroth-Rothstein wrote, to make a marriage and not just an extended engagement. Zionism demands it. If not – well, I don’t want to think about the alternative.

Vic Rosenthal..
Abu Yehuda..
16 December '16..

I have avoided writing about Amona until now. This is because the legal issues surrounding the notion of land ownership in Judea and Samaria are so arcane that one legal scholar (email correspondence) wrote that “the number of people who have a good understanding of West Bank property law can be counted on one hand.” And I don’t want to add to the noise by writing yet another amateur legal brief about it. There are, though, some things that are clear and worth saying.

First of all, let me state my prejudices: I do not believe Jews living in Judea and Samaria are an “obstacle to peace,” nor do I think that Jewish communities there are illegal or even “illegitimate,” whatever that means. Indeed, I think that Jews settling anywhere in the land of Israel are performing a religious and Zionist mitzvah, and I’m all for it. Those who find this position offensive can stop reading now.

The last time I mentioned Amona, someone took me to task for advocating “land theft.” It’s private Palestinian land, he said. What more do you need to know? Well, actually there is a great deal to know. Some of the complexities are discussed here. It’s worthwhile reading if you care about more than slogans.

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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 is a Palestinian terrorist attack not worthy of serious attention? - by Stephen M. Flatow

...the fact that The New York Times and Washington Post reprinted the AP's lie doesn't make it any less of a lie.

Stephen M. Flatow..
JNS.org..
15 December '16..

When is a Palestinian terrorist attack not worthy of serious attention, in the eyes of America's major daily newspapers?

When there's no way to make the Palestinian attacker look sympathetic, of course.

In Jerusalem Dec. 14, a Palestinian terrorist named Khamad Khadr Ashikh stabbed two Israeli police officers and a 12-year-old Israeli boy in the head with a large screwdriver.

The New York Times has a bureau in Israel, with a staff of reporters. So does the Washington Post. Either of them could have sent a reporter to the hospital to interview the victims. Their reporter could have called the victims' families. He or she could have visited Khamad Khadr Ashikh's home town, and asked his relatives and neighbors whether they consider the stabber to be a terrorist or a hero. The Times or the Post at least could have told its readers what the Palestinian Authority (PA) was saying about the attack on PA-controlled television and radio stations.

But that kind of reporting is fraught with risk, if you have a pro-Palestinian agenda. Hospitalized stabbing victims inevitably generate sympathy for Israel's side. Palestinian neighbors and relatives typically praise perpetrators of anti-Jewish violence, so that would make the Palestinian cause look bad. As for the PA, its official print, TV and radio outlets always portray Palestinian terrorists as heroes—so acknowledging what the PA is saying would further discredit the Palestinian cause.

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Stephen M. Flatow, a vice president of the Religious Zionists of America, is an attorney in New Jersey. He is the father of Alisa Flatow, who was murdered in an Iranian-sponsored Palestinian terrorist attack in 1995.

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

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Proleptic Dhimmis Versus the US Embassy in Jerusalem - by Elder of Ziyon

...They treat Muslims like they are irrational, crazy people who must be handled with kid gloves or else they will turn deadly - and too many Muslims embrace that role because it gives them power over the dhimmis. This same logic is used by some Western leaders to demand that Israel act in certain ways - because of the anticipatory violence of Muslims against Western targets if Israel doesn't adhere to the proleptic dhimmi demands. Don't build in Jerusalem, don't enforce zoning laws, don't perform archaeological digs - all of these are demands on Israel by proleptic dhimmis of the West in far greater volume than by Arab leaders in recent years

Elder of Ziyon..
15 December '16..

Professor Richard Landes coined a wonderful phrase, "proleptic dhimmitude." It refers to the actions of Westerners who take what they believe to be pro-Muslim positions in anticipation of supremacist Muslim threats and demands.

Real dhimmis under Muslim rule live in fear that their Muslim leaders will target them if they do not act in a subservient manner. Proleptic dhimmis act as if Muslims are their leaders, too, and they go beyond Muslim demands in their zeal to appease them ahead of time.

There is no better example of proleptic dhimmitude than the gnashing of teeth over the possibility (which seems more and more likely) that Donald Trump will move the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

MSNBC's Chris Matthews sputtered on Tuesday:

Why are we moving the embassy to — to Jerusalem at a time that the whole place over there could blow up? Why do we something that's right in the face of the Palestinians, right in the face of the Jordanians, the Saudis, the Egyptians. The one thing they say is leave you know, the Dome of the Rock alone, leave are — the hopeful capital of a Palestinian state alone. Don't desecrate it by saying it's the capital of Israel at this point?

Matthews is not arguing that there is a legal reason not to move the embassy. He is not arguing that such a move would violate even Islamic law.

In fact, Matthews is showing incredible ignorance because any embassy move would occur in the part of Jerusalem that was under Israeli control since 1948.

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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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