Hatikvah is Our National Anthem - by Sheri Oz

...If every country has the right to select its own anthem and vote the anthem into law as is customary to do, then Israel has that same inalienable right. Jews have the right to sing out about our nationalistic pride without that reflecting badly on our democracy. And each and every non-Jewish citizen of this land has the right to decide how to position himself or herself among us.

Sheri Oz..
Israel Diaries..
21 July '18..

There are some Israelis – Jews and Arabs alike – who over the years have argued that Hatikva is abhorrent to our non-Jewish citizens and should be changed. It is (bad) enough we are a Jewish country, they seem to imply; no need to add insult to injury by vocally and emotionally proclaiming our eons-long Jewish dream to be free in our own land. Where does that leave the Arabs and other non-Jews? How can we resolve that tension between being a Jewish country (and trying to be proud of that) and still be democratic and not discriminate against our non-Jewish citizens?

Well, too late! It is now fixed in law. Hatikva is our national anthem.

In any case, in a separate article, I discussed the issue: I argued that as sovereigns in our own indigenous homeland, we are free to write our future according to our values. If our values are Jewish supremacist, then that is the way the country will grow, but if our values are moral and inclusive, that means that all our citizens, Jews and non-Jews, will continue to have equal rights to pursue their individual and family goals (but not national goals that would undermine the nation of Israel).

For those who contend that non-Jews cannot stand up and sing Hatikva, let me present you with one Druze man’s feelings about HaTikva:

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(Video) Temple Destruction: The Story of the Last Jewish Refugees

Archaeologist Eli Shukron describing the discovery of the tunnel and the story of the last Jewish refugees hiding in the tunnel after the days of the Temple Destruction by the Romans

City of David..
cityofdavid.org..
First Posted 09 August '16..








Link: http://www.cityofdavid.org.il/en/news/temple-destruction-story-last-refugees

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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Tisha B'Av (9th of Av) and the memory that commands us to live - by Dror Eydar

Remembering this day is what enabled us to arise from the ashes and return to our land after being on the margins of history for centuries. Here we are, in our independent country, 1,948 years after the Second Temple was destroyed, and the memory is still alive and well, infusing us with motivation, inspiration and strength. Thanks to the power of memory, we were wise enough to keep our assimilation a matter of appearance only, because we were expecting to wake from this long nightmare at any moment and restore ourselves to what we used to be.

Dror Eydar..
Israel Hayom..
First posted 01 August '17..
Link: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=19587

Today is Tisha B'Av. We remember the destruction of our country and our Temples, or the reasons for that. Today is Tisha B'Av, and all the troubles visited upon us as a nation and as individuals are buried under and bound up with the pain of this day.

The Prophet Jeremiah, who foretold the destruction of the Temple in the sixth century BCE, put this at the very top of the lamentations that are read out each year: "Judah has gone into exile because of affliction and hard servitude; she dwells now among the nations, but finds no resting place; her pursuers have all overtaken her in the midst of her distress" (Lamentations 1:3).

Remembering this day is what enabled us to arise from the ashes and return to our land after being on the margins of history for centuries. Here we are, in our independent country, 1,947 years after the Second Temple was destroyed, and the memory is still alive and well, infusing us with motivation, inspiration and strength. Thanks to the power of memory, we were wise enough to keep our assimilation a matter of appearance only, because we were expecting to wake from this long nightmare at any moment and restore ourselves to what we used to be. Thanks to the power of memory, Rabbi Moshe Ben Nahman (the Ramban) arrived in Jerusalem in the year 1267 to re-establish the city's Jewish population, and the memory of Jerusalem gave the Jews expelled from Spain the courage and comfort to keep going in the countries where they scattered.

Today is Tisha B'Av, and if it weren't for this day, we would not have survived as a people. We would not know our traditions or our history, and we would not have brought the world the great spiritual treasures we created in the Diaspora. If it weren't for Tisha B'Av and the memory of grieving for Zion, Zionism would never have been born, and a sovereign Israel would have remained confined to the pages of history, never again to become a living entity.

UNRWA: Creator and sustainer of the perverse and vicious Palestinian "refugee" weapon - by Vic Rosenthal

...The fact that the Western countries have tolerated this perverse and vicious system for so long is a massive moral failure on their part. The UN, the European Union, and the US State Department share in the blame. Israel, the target of this infernal mechanism, has suffered wars and terrorism for decades because of it. And generations of “refugees” have had their chances for a normal life foreclosed.

Vic Rosenthal..
Abu Yehuda..
20 July "18..
Link: http://abuyehuda.com/2018/07/the-perverse-and-vicious-palestinian-refugee-weapon/

Suppose someone told you that they wanted to take a billion and a half dollars of American and European taxpayer money each year, and use it to raise an army.

It would feed and house more than five million people, and educate the children to prepare them for the future role as soldiers to overrun a particular country. The teachers would in many (or most) cases be members of organizations recognized in your country as terrorist groups.

This army would be required to live in camps in various countries. But its soldiers would not be allowed to become citizens of those countries.

Membership in the army would be hereditary, and child allowances would be calibrated to incentivize reproduction. There would be no need for members to work, since they would receive a dole regardless of employment. In any case, there are few options for work in the camps.

The members do not have passports. They are not allowed to settle anywhere else in the world. They are told that the only way to change their status is to overrun the target country and take “back” their homes from the current residents. But only 0.4% of them ever lived in the target country, and this was more than 70 years ago.

Of course I am talking about “Palestinian refugees” and the organization that supports and nurtures them is called UNRWA, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine.

Question. Can pro-BDS anti-Semites redefine anti-Semitism? - by Jonathan Tobin

Four lies spread by groups that support anti-Semitic incitement and BDS efforts to eradicate Israel need to be debunked.

Jonathan Tobin..
JNS.org..
19 July '18..

At first glance, it sounds reasonable. There is nothing wrong with seeking to differentiate criticism of Israel from anti-Semitism. After all, Israelis criticize Israel’s democratically elected government every day. Like any other nation, its leaders are fallible and its policies can be opposed, even if you cherish the Jewish state.

But the attempt by Jewish Voice for Peace and 35 other far-left groups to essentially redefine anti-Semitism in order to sanitize the BDS movement falls flat. What they are doing is the moral equivalent of giving criminals the power to rewrite the law so as to render their convictions null and void. The declaration signed by these organizations organized by JVP is rooted in four lies. These lies involve the nature of BDS and anti-Zionism, the claim that Israel as an apartheid state, and that anti-BDS laws repress free speech.

The statement claims that Jews are under siege from a rising tide of anti-Semitism around the world but notes only the activities of white supremacists and racists on the far-right, while ignoring the actions of left-wing Jew-haters. It goes on then to claim that efforts by supporters of Israel to brand the BDS as anti-Semitic is not only unjust, but a diversion from what they think is the real fight against anti-Semitism.

It’s true that right-wing anti-Semitism still exists. But the notion that these forces are the only or even the principal threat to the Jews—or that the Trump administration and the Israeli government are aiding and abetting anti-Semitism, or are examples of authoritarian regimes—is false.

The most potent and prevalent form of anti-Semitism today is the one that JVP supports: the BDS movement, and the way that anti-Zionism is used as a thin veil for hate and violence against Jews.

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Okay, I'll Talk About Occupation - by Yisrael Medad

For all Birthright participants, past, present and future, who are worried they may not really be told anything on occupation when in Israel (or were told something on their campuses/from friends and were hoping to learn something to combat what they felt are lies), here's the nitty-gritty:

Yisrael Medad..
My Right Word..
17 July '18..
Link: http://myrightword.blogspot.com/2018/07/okay-ill-talk-about-occupation.html

There is an occupation. Two, in fact. At least.

As a result of non-stop Arab terror throughout the 1950s and 1960s (heard of the fedayeen and the PLO's Fatah, all operational before 1967?), Israel was forced to defend itself in June 1967. Yes, defend. The administration of the territories taken in that war is a "belligerent occupation". That's the first occupation.

But don't be fooled. The term "belligerent" doesn't mean that Israel's administration is belligerent (some will try to fool you and rewrite the definition like this: 'Military occupation occurs when a belligerent state invades the territory of another state'. Israel was not 'belligerent' in the way that is phrased. It was threatened, water route closed off, UN supervisors kicked out of Sinai and Jordan actually invaded Jerusalem and shelled Israeli locations. Oh, and there was no "state of Palestine"). The use of 'belligerent' was simply to indicate that it resulted from a war like in this definition: "belligerent occupation [is] established as a consequence of an armed conflict, that is to say through the conduct of hostilities". And Israel fought a war that was defensive, against hostile countries. And it was a just war. And justified. And moral.

Just by the way: "the 1949 Geneva Conventions do not contain a definition of belligerent occupation".

UPDATE: Some claim this - "The Fourth Geneva Convention applies to the West Bank, to the Gaza Strip, and to the entire City of Jerusalem, in order to protect the Palestinians living there." Others point to the fact that the Convention is between High Contracting Parties and as there never was a state called "Palestine", and no legal political sovereignty therein, Israel need protect anybody there but not because they are "Palestinians" but because they are humans who deserve humanitarian rights. What anti-occupationists do is to extend this misrepresentation and use humanitarian law to leverage political rights. That's cheating.

The second occupation could very well be the Arab occupation of Eretz-Yisrael but more on that later.

There is nothing wrong in using "Judea & Samaria".

Judea and Samaria (in Hebrew, Yehuda v'Shomron) is the correct name for the territory that Jordan occupied beginning in 1949 until Israel assumed its administration in 1967. As regards who is the legal sovereign, there is a dispute. So, okay, it's "disputed territory". Some actually think it is "liberated territory". For sure it was included in the area of the historic Jewish homeland that was to become the Jewish state as decided by the League of Nations in 1922.

Reality and How the World Really Views Israel - by Shoshana Bryen

...The nations of the world want to know what Israel knows and have what Israel has -- whether they have formal diplomatic relations with Jerusalem or not.

Shoshana Bryen..
Jewish Policy Center/Gatestone Institute..
18 July '18..

Israel and the Iroquois Nation came together this week -- In Israel -- at the Lacrosse World Championship. The Iroquois Nation team was subjected to enormous pressure to boycott, but they steadfastly refused to be swayed. The Iroquois, who invented Lacrosse in about 1100 CE, know a thing or two about indigenous peoples reclaiming their land. And they know a thing or two about Israel. Bravo to them.

There are those who insist that Israel is "isolated," that it lacks friends and allies. Israel's place in the larger world, however -- except, perhaps, in the halls of the UN -- is expanding, not only with the Iroquois Nation, but with the nations of the world that want to know what Israel knows and have what Israel has, whether they have formal diplomatic relations with Jerusalem or not.

Israel's expansive sharing of water, solar and agricultural technology is legendary, as is Israel's emergency rapid response team. But military cooperation underpins freedom of navigation in the air and on the seas – the source of international prosperity through trade – and secures people in their borders. Security makes everything else possible, and Israel is in the center of the universe of security cooperation.

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Surprise? BBC News amplifies terror group and political NGO in crossing report - by Hadar Sela

...The BBC’s public purposes oblige it to “provide accurate and impartial news […] of the highest editorial standards so that all audiences can engage fully with issues across the UK and the world”. Apparently BBC News website editors are of the opinion that the amplification of baseless propaganda slogans such as “crime against humanity” from a terror faction and “illegal collective punishment” from a political NGO which claims to represent the interests of “Gaza residents” that have burned thousands of acres of farmland, woodland and nature reserves in three months of terror attacks, contributes to audience understanding of this story.

Hadar Sela..
BBC Watch..
18 July '18..

On July 17th a report titled “Israel suspends fuel deliveries to Gaza over arson attacks” appeared on the BBC News website’s Middle East page. The article opened with a reasonable account of the story:

“Israel has tightened restrictions on its only cargo crossing with the Gaza Strip, after Palestinians carried out fresh attacks with incendiary balloons.

No fuel will enter through Kerem Shalom until Sunday, but food and medicine deliveries will still be permitted. [emphasis added]

Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said it was responding to “continued terror attempts” by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas.”

The report also gave readers a reasonable account of the hostilities that took place on July 14th.

“On Saturday, the Israeli military carried out waves of air strikes across the coastal territory in response to some of the most intensive bombardments from Gaza since the 2014 war between Israel and Hamas.

Two Palestinians were killed and 14 others wounded in the Israeli strikes, while four Israelis were wounded when more than 200 rockets and mortars were fired towards southern Israel.

The violence subsided after Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants agreed to a ceasefire brokered by Egypt.”

As was the case when previous restrictions were announced a week before, the BBC presented lower figures for the area of land (7,500 acres) destroyed in Palestinian arson attacks and the monetary value ($2 million) of that damage than is actually the case.

...

The most notable aspect of this report, however,

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Israel has the duty to protect its citizens. Our European duty is to stand in solidarity with Israel and its people. - by Uwe Becker

As long as the Palestinians do not stop their industry of death, the EU must freeze any aid it gives them. The Mayor of Frankfurt, Germany, in a special column

Uwe Becker..
MiDA..
17 July '18..

Israel has not only the right to defend itself, but the Israeli government has the duty to protect its citizens.

Over the past hours, days and weeks, the terror organization Hamas has set hundreds and hundreds of acres of farming fields in the South of Israel on fire. Hamas has sent firebombs to homes of Israeli families and attacked Israeli children, women and men with a hailstorm of mortars and rockets.

Hamas has organized and orchestrated violent mass riots along the border fence to Israel with the declared aim to break the fence and infiltrate the country for another wave of terror against Israeli civilians. It is the worst terror since the last escalation in 2014.

Hamas destroyed the border crossing at Kerem Shalom, through which the Gaza Strip is supplied with food, goods and medicine for the Palestinian people. But Hamas doesn’t care for its own people. For the corrupt Hamas leaders, their own people, Palestinians who also seek peace, freedom and prosperity, are just figures on their playing board.

The bad social and economic situation of Gaza is not the result of Israeli policy, but of the violent Hamas regime, that is governing the Gaza strip since violently overthrowing the Fatah in 2007 after Israel withdrew in 2005.

Democracy, the rule of law, equal rights for women and men and the freedom of opinion, of press and of religion end where the political responsibility of the Palestinian organizations begins, although most of the Palestinian women, men and children long for freedom, peace and security in the same way that Israelis do.

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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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Prayers for the dead, prayers for the living - by Arnold Roth

...But losing a child to triumphant, barbarous murder is an experience – I can tell you from first-hand knowledge – that fiercely concentrates a person’s mind. It forces you to look very closely at what the enemy wants. And then to decide what our side wants.

Devastation at Sbarro pizzeria, Jerusalem,
August 9, 2001

Arnold/Frimet Roth..
This Ongoing War..
17 July '18..

There's going to be a public discussion this evening in London about the events we mention below. What we write in this blog post will, we hope, reach the people gathered at JW3 and be understood as a constructive contribution to a fraught but important dialogue:

We’re living in morally confused times.

The handful of young British Jews, a few dozen according to reports, who assembled in Parliament Square in mid-May and solemnly said Kaddish for 62 dead Palestinian Arab Gazans, surely didn’t see themselves as compromising any principles or betraying any values.

They likely felt they were on moral high ground by being in solidarity with unfortunate, peaceful, unarmed, aggrieved protesters who clashed with Israeli army bullets on Gaza’s side of the Hamas/Israel border.

Our fifteen year old daughter Malki was murdered in Jerusalem by a woman foot soldier in the Hamas fighting forces. This happened in the Battle of Sbarro Pizzeria. That young female terrorist saw herself as unarmed too - as a protestor and as aggrieved. This she expressed by planting a bomb – a walking, breathing human bomb – in the pizza place.

After the massacre was done, she said she chose that site because at two in the afternoon it attracted children. She needed dead children. Lots of dead Jewish children.

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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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Introducing Palestinians' Latest "Apartheid Fatwa" - by Bassam Tawil

...One can only imagine the response of the international community had the Chief Rabbi of Israel issued a decree banning Jews from doing business with Muslims. But in the instance of the Palestinian mufti and his superiors in Ramallah, everything seems to be fine -- once again, the international community turns a blind eye to the Palestinian leaders' apartheid and their terrorizing of their own people.

Bassam Tawil..
Gatestone Institute..
17 July '18..

If anyone wanted further proof that no Palestinian leader would ever be able to recognize Israel's right to exist, it was provided recently in the form of yet another religious decree, or fatwa, issued by the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Sheikh Mohammed Hussein. It is a fatwa that basically tells Muslims: "We will kill you, punish you in many ways, if we catch you selling land or homes to Jews."

The fatwa makes it clear that no Muslim is entitled to sell his or her land -- or transfer ownership over it -- to "enemies," a reference to Jews. The implications are extremely serious. Anyone who violates this religious opinion or decree will face various forms of punishment, ranging from being boycotted to the death sentence.

The fatwa, which was published by the mufti on July 10, has attracted no attention from the international media or those parties that keep telling us how keen they are about achieving peace between Palestinians and Israel. Human rights organizations around the world do not seem to be bothered at all by such threats against Muslims.

According to the fatwa, it is considered a "betrayal of Allah, His Messenger and Islam" to sell land to the "enemies" or accept compensation for it. The Muslims, it states, are obligated to boycott anyone who violates the ruling, refrain from marrying the "sinners" or doing any business with them. Taking matters to their most extreme, Muslims are prohibited from attending the funeral of -- or even burying in a Muslim cemetery -- anyone who dares to sell land or a house to a Jew.

In his statement, the mufti reminded all Palestinians that the Supreme Fatwa Council in east Jerusalem had already issued a similar decree back in 1996.

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A significant change of attitude is required to defeat Hamas - by Vic Rosenthal

...A ceasefire agreement was reached Saturday night with Hamas and Islamic Jihad, broken only by a few mortar shells. But Islamic Jihad says the ceasefire doesn’t include incendiary devices, which was one of Israel’s main demands, and as I write this they have been trying to prove that it is their God-given right to burn our country. So here is my (rhetorical) question: why and how did it happen that they got to set the rules?

Vic Rosenthal..
Abu Yehuda..
16 July '18..
Link: http://abuyehuda.com/2018/07/new-thinking-required-to-defeat-hamas/

Back when music came on Bakelite discs that spun at 78 rpm, the very fragile records would crack easily. When you tried to play a cracked disc, often the stylus (what everyone called the “needle”) would strike the crack and slip back into the groove it had just played, causing the last few seconds of the music to repeat. And repeat. And repeat.

This is the genesis of the expression “like a broken record.” And I am like a broken record.

Friday night Israel was hit with about 174 rockets and mortar shells fired from Gaza by our enemies in Hamas and other factions, whose credo is that for reasons having to do with religion and a narrative of lies, the Jews of Israel should be dead. Several Israelis were injured when rockets hit a synagogue and a private home in the city of Sderot.

Those of you who are thinking “but occupation, blockade, cycle of violence, open-air prison, blah blah” and so on can stop reading. I have nothing to say to you. Go read Gideon Levy in Ha’aretz. If you don’t know by now that this conflict is about killing Jews because they are Jews, you aren’t going to learn, at least not from me. You are part of the problem.

The recent escalation comes after a 15-year old child soldier was shot trying to climb the border fence to kill Jews, and an IDF officer was seriously injured by a grenade thrown over the fence. And in the background is several months of arson by firebombs attached to kites and balloons sent over the fence, which have burned thousands of acres of farmland and nature reserves, destroying plants and animals that will take decades to return.

Latest PSR Polls: What do the Palestinian Arabs want? What do they believe? What do they think? - by Arnold Roth

...There is literally no possibility of a deeply split society (which is what the Palestinian Arabs surely have) even starting the process of adjusting their expectations towards the compromise that peace necessarily demands. That will remain true so long as the leadership is steeped in personal and institutional corruption, a total unwilling to surrender power or even submit to elections and obsessively focused on the need for outsiders - the UN agencies in general and UNRWA in particular - to solve Palestinian Arabs' economic and development problems. Though they never seem to be asked about this by pollsters, what will it take for ordinary Palestinian Arabs to see that their collective destiny depends on them and their own initiatives?

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

The last time we addressed the important matter of Palestinian Arab opinion polls ["04-Apr-18: Here's (one view of) what the Palestinian Arabs want"] we started this way:

Palestinian Arab polls of Palestinian Arab opinion can be valuable tools for understanding what they think at any given time. And no less importantly, how accurate the assessments of what they want for the future are. And to be blunt about this, they're invariably more valuable by far than media guesses about what the Palestinian Arabs think and want. Claims are made freely and often about Palestinian Arab aspirations. Very often, though, the data tell a story that's at total variance from what's being claimed about them. That's why we have chosen from time to time to publicize here the results of opinion polls conducted by relatively respected organizations within Palestinian Arab society.

We stand by every word of that.

The Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR) has just posted the findings of its latest opinion poll conducted in "the West Bank and the Gaza Strip between 25 June and 1 July 2018". PSR is headed by a respected professional, Dr. Khalil Shikaki. We know him only by his work and reputation; we have no personal connection. We have reported on his organization's past findings at intervals over the past four years...

The latest PSR Public Opinion Poll is Number 68 and was released yesterday. It's based on a survey sample of 2,150 adults interviewed face to face in 127 randomly selected locations. Margin of error is 2.5%. Some of the findings that caught our attention:

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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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How a Westmont Scholar's Depiction of Jewish Settlers as the "Repugnant Other" Hinders Peace - by Dexter Van Zile

...In this anti-historical and demonizing frame, modern-day Jews are an amalgam of the evil Romans and corrupt Jewish leaders who conspired to murder Jesus in First Century Jerusalem. The Palestinians are marginal and innocent first century Jews living under Roman occupation. Israeli peace activists (whose credibility was destroyed by Arafat’s refusal to make peace when he had the chance) are stand-ins for Jesus who weeps over the inability of those stiff-necked Jews in Jerusalem to know and do the things that make for peace. Anyone who applies this frame to the Israel-Palestinian conflict is not a peacemaker, or even a hitchhiker, but a sleepwalker through the Holy Land

Maybe Bruce Fisk has done the world a favor

Dexter Van Zile..
CAMERA..
16 July '18..

Apparently, it’s an occupational hazard for Christian Bible scholars to think ill of Israel and its Jewish citizens. This tendency doesn’t afflict every Christian scholar of the Bible, but the fact is, some of the people who should be most committed to preaching a Biblical message of love and forbearance have a difficult — if not impossible — time offering much consideration to Israeli Jews. Some of these scholars say and write hateful falsehoods about Israeli Jews who attempt to defend themselves from hostile attacks from their Palestinian neighbors, many of whom are motivated by an virulent antisemitism rooted in the Koran and Islamic doctrine.

New Testament scholars in particular are vulnerable to the temptation of casting modern day Jews into the frame of Jewish and Roman villainy laid out in the Gospels. By using these frames to interpret the conflict, these Christian scholars do not promote love or peace, but instead broadcast a contemptuous and hateful commentary on the Israel-Palestinian conflict that demonizes Israelis and gives Palestinians a pass.

This scripturally-rooted narrative of Jewish villainy offered by Christian scholars like Naim Ateek, Walter Brueggeman and Gary Burge has helped pave the way for a resurgence of antisemitism in the Western church. This narrative has engendered indifference to the suffering Israelis have endured over the past several decades and given license to Palestinian violence and hostility against the Jewish people.

It is as if the early church fathers who sought to destroy the prestige of the Jewish people in order to promote the ascendancy of Christianity have come alive again in the 21st century to work their evil against the Jewish state.

Modern-day practitioners of these old/new polemics ignore the warnings offered by Jules Isaac in his book, The Teaching of Contempt. In this text published in 1962, Isaac laments how anti-Jewish hostility remained a persistent aspect of the Christian faith, despite numerous warnings about the evils of antisemitism from church leaders. “There is a Christian anti-Semitism,” he wrote. “Whether conscious or unconscious, it is perennial and virulent, of great scope and intensity.”

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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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In Israel's case, the BDS muck of the Irish - by Michael Freund

...Those who stood by silently during the greatest atrocity ever committed by mankind have no moral authority to lecture the Jewish people about their struggle for survival. Whether Irish parliamentarians or mayors like it or not, Israel and its presence in Judea and Samaria are here to stay.

Michael Freund..
Pundicity/JPost..
15 July '18..
Link: http://www.michaelfreund.org/21391/ireland-israel-boycott

The Emerald Isle lost a lot of its luster this past week when Ireland's Senate chose to adopt a bill that can best be described as obtuse but, more accurately, as profoundly antisemitic at its core.

Passed by a vote of 25 to 20, with 14 abstentions, the legislation would criminalize the import or sale of items produced by Jews, and only by Jews, in Judea and Samaria. It even goes so far as to impose a sentence of up to five years in prison, and fines of €250,000, on those who violate its terms.

While the Irish government opposed the statute, and it still faces various obstacles before becoming law, the decision by the upper body of the Irish parliament to give its stamp of approval to a discriminatory measure singling out Jews is morally obscene.

Consider the following. Under the terms of the bill, a product manufactured by a Palestinian-owned factory in Bethlehem would face no hurdle in being sold in shops throughout Dublin.

But if the exact same item were to be produced by a Jewish-owned factory just a few kilometers down the road in Gush Etzion, its import into the Irish Republic could land a person behind bars.

In other words, although cloaked in opposition to Israel's presence in Judea and Samaria, this legislation in fact boils down to a matter of discrimination based on a person's religious beliefs.

This shameful and offensive bill must not be allowed to become law and Israel should make it clear to Irish officials that bilateral relations between the two countries hinge on it being scrapped forthwith.

Sadly, this is but the latest in a series of high-profile incidents in recent months in which Ireland has excelled at siding with Israel's enemies.

New Falsehoods Uncovered in Gaza Cancer Patients Article - by Tamar Sternthal

...In short, far from “Fighting fake stories with real ones,” as a New Yorker advertising banner which appears at times on top of the severely flawed Gaza cancer patient article boasts, the esteemed publication is churning out fake stories of its own. CAMERA has contacted editors to request corrections on these points. Stay tuned for an update.

Tamar Sternthal..
CAMERA..
12 July '18..

Since CAMERA compelled The New Yorker to correct the false claim earlier this month that there are no MRI machines in the Gaza Strip, the media watch organization uncovered additional falsehoods which require correction in the June 28 article (“Many Gazan Women Are No Longer Able to Enter Israel for Cancer Treatment,” Ruth Margalit).

First, the article falsely alleges: “since the beginning of 2018, with no announcement of a change in policy, more than half of applications for medical permits from Gaza have been turned down or left unanswered, according to Physicians for Human Rights – Israel, or P.H.R.I., a nonprofit organization that represents many of these patients.” PHRI provided The New Yorker with false information, and The New Yorker unfortunately passed on PHRI’s inaccurate information to readers without any qualification or clarification. This false information is likewise repeated as fact in the prominent photo caption at the top of the article (as well as in a widely retweeted New Yorker tweet).

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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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British media batter Israel with some of the most biased headlines since 2014 - by Adam Levick

...One final note about the headline choices. Editors focused on the fact that the Israeli attack on military targets Saturday was the “heaviest barrage” by the IDF since the 2014 war. However, it’s quite telling that they decided not to focus on the fact that the nearly 200 rockets fired at Israel on Saturday represents the single largest volley of Gaza rockets launched on any single day since the 2014 war. So, headlines which read “Israel pummels Gaza with heaviest bombardment since 2014” could just as easily have read: “Gaza pummels Israel with heaviest bombardment since 2014”.

Adam Levick..
UK Media Watch..
15 July '18..

British media outlets published reports on the latest violence between Israel and Gaza terror groups, characteristically muddling the sequence of events by highlighting the Israeli response to Gaza terror, whilst downplaying or ignoring completely the terror itself.

Here’s what occurred.

On Friday night, an Israeli soldier was moderately wounded by shrapnel from a grenade lobbed at him from the northern Gaza Strip during violent riots by thousands of Palestinians at the border.

Early on Saturday morning, the IDF attacked sites used by Palestinians to build and distribute incendiary kites – bombs which have caused thousands of fires and destroyed over 7,400 acres of land, context regarding the current tensions between Israel and Gaza largely ignored by the media.

Israel’s air force also bombed two attack tunnels near the border.

Later Saturday morning, terrorists fired scores of rockets on Israeli communities in the south, forcing thousands to flee for bomb shelters, and included a direct hit on a home in Sderot, injuring four members of the same family.

In response, the IDF launched “its largest bombing campaign against Hamas targets…since the 2014 Gaza war” hitting dozens of military sites. More rockets were fired from Gaza late Saturday night, but a ceasefire, negotiated by Egyptian intelligence and the UN secretary-general’s envoy to the region, slowly took hold.

So, to summarize:

- The ongoing Hamas kite bomb campaign, which cause up to 20 fires in Israel a day, continued.
- Ongoing, Hamas inspired, Palestinian violence at the Gaza border continued on Friday, and included a grenade attack which injured an Israeli soldier.
- IAF launches a limited number of attacks on Hamas military positions in response to the grenade attack.
- Hamas and Islamic Jihad launched nearly 200 rockets at Israeli communities along the south, injuring three civilians.
- IAF launch over 40 attacks on Gaza military positions, including a direct hit on a Hamas battalion command in northern Gaza, which was completely destroyed – though fighters had evacuated the position and nobody was killed.

Here’s a quick run down of the headlines. Some failed to convey the accurate sequence of events, whilst others actually ignored entirely the Gaza terror attacks which precipitated the violence.

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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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Who would've thought? Inaccuracies, politicised framing and salad on BBC R4 ‘Woman’s Hour’ - by Hadar Sela

...Aired on the day that Khan’s cookery book was published, this item obviously includes political messaging that will come as no surprise to those familiar with Yasmin Khan’s campaigning record. Listeners to ‘Woman’s Hour’ were not however informed that Khan is “associated with a particular viewpoint” as BBC editorial guidelines require and hence were unable to put the politically motivated claims and messaging they heard in an item portrayed as being about food into their appropriate context.

Hadar Sela..
BBC Watch..
15 July '18..

Readers may recall that last month we took note of a BBC report in which the programme presenter described an Israeli Arab as ‘Palestinian’ even though the person in question had not identified himself as such.

“According to a study carried out last year by the Israel Democracy Institute just 14% of the Arab citizens of Israel define their primary identity as Palestinian. However, even in the contemporary era of race and gender self-identification, one BBC World Service radio presenter appears to have granted himself the prerogative of deciding how Israel’s Arab citizens should be defined.”

That issue arose again in the July 12th edition of the BBC Radio 4 programme ‘Woman’s Hour’ which included a segment described in the synopsis thus:

“Writer and cook Yasmin Khan’s travels took her from the olive groves of the West Bank and the fruit markets of Jerusalem to the first micro-brewery in Bethlehem [sic]. While breaking bread with the Palestinian people she learnt about the realities of their everyday lives. Yasmin joins Jenni to Cook the Perfect…Fattoush.”

Despite Fattoush being a dish found across the Middle East, in response to a question in the introduction from presenter Jenni Murray, Khan told listeners that “Fattoush is just a classic Palestinian salad”.

Although the BBC Academy’s style guide instructs that “in day-to-day coverage of the Middle East you should not affix the name ‘Palestine’ to Gaza or the West Bank – rather, it is still an aspiration or an historical entity”, listeners heard Yasmin Khan make repeated references to ‘Palestine’.

Khan: “…I thought it was so important to try and use food as a way of sharing stories from Palestine…”

Khan:”…in Palestine the olive tree and, you know, olive oil really represents both Palestinian culture, their connection to the land and every Palestinian has an olive tree kind of in their garden…”

“Every Palestinian”? Really?

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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 Continuing Fail: The Israeli Labor Party and Its Palestinian “Partner” - by Prof. Shmuel Sandler

The low standings of the Zionist Camp list in public opinion polls floated a new demand for change at the top. As a result, the Labor party, the Zionist Camp’s senior partner, is again challenging its newly elected chairman, Avi Gabai. Despite replacing its leaders with each election campaign, Labor has never made a comeback to govern Israel. Because it is identified with Ramallah’s demands in any future settlement, Labor has suffered electoral punishment. An analysis of Labor’s performance over the past two decades reveals that its leadership has not yet internalized that instead of replacing its frontrunner, it should replace its alleged partner for a durable peace in the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Prof. Shmuel Sandler..
BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 891..
11 July '18..
Link: https://besacenter.org/perspectives-papers/israel-labor-party-palestinians/

The low standings of the Zionist Camp list, formed before the last elections in 2014 by Labor, headed by Yitzhak Herzog, and the Movement party, headed by former foreign minister Tzipi Livni, floated a new demand for change at the top. The Labor party is thus once again challenging its newly elected chairman, Avi Gabai. But if Labor leaders want their party to become a real contender for the office of Prime Minister and an alternative to Likud rule, they should replace their partner for a durable solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict rather than replace their own leaders.

What made the situation more acute was the election of Herzog, the former leader of Labor, as Chairman of the Jewish Agency. His decision to run for that position reflected his realization that the chances of his party winning the next elections are very slim. His victory means he has to leave the Knesset, where he served as head of the opposition. Gabai cannot serve in that position as he is not a Member of the Knesset. He is thus forced to select a new MK to serve as head of the opposition.

The two contenders are Livni and Shelly Yechimovich, who supported Gabai during the last Labor primaries. Whomever Gabai chooses, the real issue in Labor politics is the threat to his leadership at the forthcoming elections.

Labor has replaced eight chairpersons in the past twenty years. What the leadership of Labor refuses to recognize is that its main problem is not who leads the party but its identification with the failed Oslo process, which installed the PLO leadership in Ramallah and Gaza (before its loss to Hamas in 2007). A short analysis of the 40 years since Labor’s defeat in 1977 after having ruled Israel since its inception – a turning point in in Israel’s political history – shows that the problem is not one of leadership but of political identity.

Is Israel the Only Country with No Right to a Normal Foreign Policy? - by Evelyn Gordon

...“While Israel’s unique security and other requirements understandably impel it to develop as wide a network of relationships as it can,” he said, “I think it will want to avoid finding its own democratic identity tarnished by, of its own choosing, aligning less with the club of democracies and more with this very different coalition.” This is simply ridiculous.

Evelyn Gordon..
Analysis from Israel..
15 July '18..
Link: http://evelyncgordon.com/the-only-country-with-no-right-to-a-normal-foreign-policy/

The news that Hungary’s prime minister will visit Israel next week has sparked outrage from liberal Jews both in Israel and abroad. Opponents raise two main objections. One would be serious if true, but it doesn’t seem to be. The other is sheer hypocrisy–and it’s an excellent example of the way liberal Jews routinely hold Israel to standards they apply to no other country on earth.

The hypocritical objection is that Viktor Orban is an authoritarian. “Sad company to keep,” tweeted Brookings Institute fellow Tamara Cofman Wittes after hearing that Orban was definitely coming and Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte (who is admittedly more problematic) might be. Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro also questioned the wisdom of welcoming Orban and other authoritarians. “While Israel’s unique security and other requirements understandably impel it to develop as wide a network of relationships as it can,” he said, “I think it will want to avoid finding its own democratic identity tarnished by, of its own choosing, aligning less with the club of democracies and more with this very different coalition.”

This is simply ridiculous. Aside from the fact that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also regularly hosted liberal leaders like German Chancellor Angela Merkel (several times) and Barack Obama, with French President Emmanuel Macron reportedly planning to visit later this year, the reality is that most countries in the world today are authoritarian, and even a growing number of Western democracies have authoritarian leaders. Thus, any country which wants to maintain relationships with more than a handful of other countries will end up hosting a lot of authoritarian leaders, which is why every other Western democracy also does so.

In fact, other Western democracies often host leaders considerably more objectionable than Orban, and with less justification. I can understand hosting Vladimir Putin or Xi Jinping despite their aggressive foreign policies; Russia and China are too important to be ignored. But just this month, Switzerland and Austria welcomed Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, as did France and Italy in 2016, even though Rouhani’s government is actively abetting the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of people in Syria and Yemen and brutally crushing dissent at home. That’s far worse than hosting Orban, whose government isn’t killing anyone.

Moreover, Hungary is genuinely important to Israel’s core foreign policy interests, since it has repeatedly helped quash anti-Israel decisions by Israel’s largest trading partner, the European Union. What vital contributions does Iran make to Europe’s core interests that justify overlooking its complicity in mass murder?