As expected, more inadequate BBC reports on the Airbnb story - by Hadar Sela

...The BBC did not bother to inform its audiences that Airbnb hosts in a plethora of countries including Algeria, Malaysia and Bangladesh would “have no choice but to discriminate against guests based on national or ethnic origin” because those countries do not allow entry to the holders of Israeli passports. As in the previous written report, readers were not informed that Airbnb does business in numerous other disputed locations – for example northern Cyprus and Western Sahara.

Hadar Sela..
BBC Watch..
23 November '18..

Despite having already published a report on exactly the same story late the previous evening, on the morning of November 20th the BBC News website published an article titled “Airbnb: Israeli uproar as firm bars West Bank settlements“.

A video embedded into the article also appeared separately on the BBC News website’s Middle East page on November 21st under the title “The West Bank homes being dropped from Airbnb“.

In that filmed report from Gush Etzion – where Jews purchased land long before the Jordanian invasion and occupation in 1948 – viewers were told that:

“Built on land occupied after the 1967 Six Day War, the settlements are seen as illegal under international law.”

In the written report readers were similarly told that:

“Jewish settlements in territory occupied by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war are considered illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this.”

Obviously this story in particular requires full audience understanding of the topic of ‘settlements’ and ‘international law’ but nevertheless the BBC elected once again to ignore its editorial obligation of “due impartiality” by erasing from audience view the existence of legal opinions which contradict the BBC’s selected narrative.

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Ensuring sovereignty over Jerusalem is a legal battle Israel cannot afford to lose - by Prof. Hillel Frisch

More important than achieving international recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital is the necessity of ensuring Israeli sovereignty over the city itself. This means prohibiting Palestinian Authority officials from residing in Jerusalem, especially those involved in surveillance and intimidation of Arab residents and the organization of protest and incitement against Jewish residents. Establishing a liaison office at the Israeli police department in Jerusalem would allow Arab Jerusalemites to report harassment.

Dr. Hillel Frisch..
BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 1,012..
22 November '18..
Link: https://besacenter.org/perspectives-papers/jerusalem-sovereignty-arab-residents/..

Benjamin Netanyahu takes pride in having played a key role in President Trump’s decision to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Israel’s capital and in coaxing other states to follow his example. At the same time, there are worrying signs that in Jerusalem itself, the government is failing to ensure Israeli sovereignty over a united Jerusalem. It is allowing a substantial Palestinian Authority presence in the Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem, from which they intimidate and coerce Jerusalem’s Arab residents to further the PA’s interests and undermine Israeli sovereignty.

The recent abduction in Ramallah and prolonged incarceration of Issam Aqel, a Jerusalem resident, by the PA’s General Intelligence Agency, for selling land in Jerusalem, and Israeli moves against the abduction reveal how extensive and intimidating is the PA’s presence in Jerusalem.

To begin with, the abduction only came to light because the Jerusalem resident was a citizen of the US, a fact that emboldened the family to publicize the event. One suspects that the abduction of other Arab residents who are not fortunate enough to be US citizens may never have come to light for fear of further retribution by the PA.

Worse yet, Aqel had gone to the Israeli police before his visit to Ramallah to warn the authorities that he might be in danger. He evidently hoped the Israeli police would react promptly in case he was abducted. Aqel carried a blue identity card and is an official resident of Jerusalem. He had hoped that this would protect him.

Yet when Aqel was first abducted, the Israeli police did nothing, claiming that he had left voluntarily for Ramallah. It was only after his arrest hit the news that the Israeli authorities responded by arresting Adnan Gheith, a long-time Fatah activist in Jerusalem, and Jihad al-Faqih, an officer in the PA’s General Intelligence in charge of Jerusalem. Gheith has a long record of leading violent demonstrations against the police and Jewish inhabitants in Silwan and of organizing both violent and non-violent vigils surrounding the Temple Mount.

Wikimedia Israel: Let my photos go… by Rachel Neiman

After stealth operation of several months, 28,000 photos of pre-state Israel are finally released to public by Wikimedia Israel. Check out the best pictures here.

Rachel Neiman..
Israel21c.org..
21 November '18..

Information wants to be free! Those words were the virtual banner carried aloft by users of the worldwide web, before the advent of Web 2.0 and the Internet’s commercialization.

Occasionally, that spirit still breaks through as it did last week when Wikimedia Israel — the local chapter of the worldwide Wikimedia movement — announced that in a stealth operation over several months, it had released 28,000 images of pre-state Israel to the public domain.

Why go about things surreptitiously? Wikimedia Israel stated that in the past, it had approached but received pushback from several organizations in possession of images whose copyright had expired 50 years from publication, as per the Israeli Copyright Act of 2007.

Dating from 1900 to 1946, these photographs unquestionably belong in the public domain but “were not accessible for search, study, research and use by the public in Israel and throughout the world.”

Citing the Wikimedia Foundation vision statement – “Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge” – Wikimedia Israel said it “decided to act on behalf of the public and to release images on sites in the State of Israel using technological tools.”

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Question. BDS is now going after Puma. Why not Intel, Qualcomm, IBM, Microsoft, Apple? - by Elder of Ziyon

One further irony: 88% of all Palestinian exports are to Israel; 63% of Palestinian imports come from Israel. What would happen to the Palestinian economy if Palestinian Arabs decided to adhere to BDS rules - which BDS pretends was created by Palestinians?

Elder of Ziyon..
22 November '18..

I received an email from a BDS group celebrating the planned boycott of Jewish homes in Judea and Samaria by AirBnB, and signalling the next corporate target:

The holiday season is prime time to push BDS campaigns for Palestinian rights and help folks learn about the oppression Palestinians are facing.

For example: Puma, the athletic wear company, sponsors the Israel Football Association, which puts on soccer matches in those same West Bank settlements that Airbnb just pledged to pull out of. The call to boycott Puma is an opportunity to tell the story of how Israel’s building of these settlements denies Palestinian rights such as restricting their freedom movement, including that of Palestinian athletes.

Puma signed on to provide training apparel, footwear and other equipment for the Israel Football Association in July, replacing Adidas, which denied any political basis for not renewing its sponsorship.

BDS is very selective in its targets. While they claim that they boycott all Israeli products, somehow they never tell their members to boycott Intel...

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Until Israelis are given a credible alternative, Netanyahu will remain Israel’s indispensable man - by Jonathan S. Tobin

...To put Netanyahu’s current position in perspective, it’s necessary to think back to when it looked as if he was done for good. After a meteoric rise to the top and beating out Shimon Peres in 1996, Netanyahu’s first term as prime minister was less than a ringing success.

Jonathan S. Tobin..
JNS.org..
21 November '18..

He did it again. Despite being placed in an impossible position by the resignation of Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman over accepting another ceasefire with Hamas, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu managed to keep his coalition government alive.

Netanyahu called the bluff of Minister of Education Naftali Bennett, who threatened to topple the government if he wasn’t named defense minister after Lieberman’s parting. That meant that when the dust cleared, one right-wing rival was sidelined, and the other exposed as unwilling or unable to take on the prime minister and set off a crisis that would force early elections.

It was yet another successful maneuver by the man who has presided over Israel since 2009, and is very likely to be put in a position to lead it for at least another four years when the country goes to the polls to elect a new Knesset either in the spring or later in 2019.

The graveyards are full of people who thought they were indispensable, and Netanyahu’s run of victories can’t last forever. But the prime minister’s frenemies within his coalition, as well as his open foes in the opposition, know that he currently stands alone when Israeli voters consider who should lead them.

This would be an extraordinary achievement for anyone, but when you consider the political hurdles that Netanyahu has overcome, it’s downright remarkable. Nevertheless, a sober analysis of the situation reveals that his triumphs say more about the lack of other options than it does about his personal greatness. For all of his deft management of the government, the failure of his opponents on both the left and the right to come up with rational alternatives has kept him as the only person most observers think has a chance of leading the next Israeli government.

(Continue to Full Column)

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 Washington Post’s irredeemable ‘reporting’ on UNRWA - by Sean Durns

A picture, the saying goes, is worth a thousand words. And this particular picture is worth more than the thousands of words and images that The Washington Post has produced in its pathetic “reporting” on UNRWA.

Sean Durns..
CAMERA.org...
20 November '18..

Washington Post reporting on the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) continues to omit key context and mislead readers. A Nov. 19, 2018 front-page dispatch, “U.S. cuts add to Palestinians’ misery,” adds to the paper’s poor coverage of the U.N. organization. The Post is unable, or perhaps unwilling, to offer straightforward reporting on the agency.

Originally envisioned as a temporary agency, UNRWA was created in 1949, following the unsuccessful attempt by several Arab states to destroy Israel. Over time, UNRWA developed into the only U.N. organization whose stated mission is to assist a specific group of refugees, Palestinian Arabs. All other refugee populations in the world fall under the jurisdiction of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Importantly, UNRWA’s definition of “refugee” is not dependent on need and even applies to citizens of recognized states, such as Jordan.

Oddly, UNRWA considers individuals living in areas ruled by Palestinians—as well as descendants of those who fled during and before Israel’s 1948 War of Independence—to be Palestinian “refugees.” As CAMERA has noted, according to UNRWA’s spurious definition, the twenty-year-old, Los Angeles-born millionaire fashion model, Bella Hadid, is considered a “refugee” from a seventy-year old event that occurred after Arab countries rejected a U.N. plan for a Jewish state and an Arab state, opting for war instead. Further, UNRWA has become the only refugee agency in the world whose purpose is not to resettle refugees (“UNRWA Has Changed the Definition of Refugee,” Foreign Policy Magazine, Aug. 17, 2018).

Instead of helping resettle refugees, UNRWA schools and facilities have been used to promote hatred and murder of Israelis.

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Surprise? Despite Striving to Avoid War, The Independent Calls Netanyahu “Warmongering” - by Emmanuel Miller

...From beginning to end, this analysis is riddled with mistakes, misunderstandings, contradictions and a paucity of context. One can only hope that Trew will properly research her articles in future.

Emmanuel Miller..
Honest Reporting..
19 November '18..

With events in Israel and Gaza moving rapidly, many column inches have been dedicated to analysis of developments. While pieces frequently lean one way or another, few in the mainstream media have been as poorly written as this one, by The Independent’s Middle East correspondent Bel Trew, describing Benjamin Netanyahu as “a once-warmongering prime minister”.

From the very beginning, this confused jumble of an analysis piece misunderstands events in Israel, what Israelis think, and what their motivations are. That Trew is actually an experienced, knowledgeable former reporter for The Times of London, makes it all the more bewildering.

The article opens with Trew accusing Israelis of not thinking straight about how to react to a massive onslaught of rockets from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ): “The logic doesn’t seem right: the very people fed up of living under a barrage of rockets from Gaza rejecting a ceasefire between their government in Israel and the fighters that are firing at them.”

Such a statement may be excusable coming from an opinionated college student, but is less in keeping with Trew’s credentials as a seasoned reporter.

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Good Question. Why are Jeremy Corbyn Facebook pages managed by Hamas puppets in Gaza? - by David Collier

...What is certain is this, if a Putin propaganda agent in Moscow was running Jeremy Corbyn Facebook pages, people would probably want to look long and hard at the issue. Will they do the same when it is connected to a radical Islamic terror enclave? That’s the question.

David Collier..
Beyond the Great Divide..
21 November '18..

Since the recent outbreak of violence in Gaza and Israel, I have been working on research that looks at Hamas PR and the speed in which it is delivered from Gaza to global anti-Israel activists. I thought I had left Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party behind. I was wrong.

Background

The research is looking at ‘independent’ social media journalists in Gaza and how they are pushing raw Hamas propaganda directly into the veins of anti-Israel activism worldwide. The very notion of press independence and Gaza is absurd. Hamas controls Gaza and everybody inside knows it. I will give just a few examples here:

- Mohammad Lafi, 24-year-old rapper from the Jabalia Refugee Camp in Gaza, held for five days in January 2017 by Hamas authorities after he released a music video entitled “Your Right” that called for people to demonstrate and participated in protests around the electricity crisis. (See report).
- Fouad Jarada, 34-year-old journalist with the Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation, arrested in June 2017 by Hamas forces three days after a Facebook post critical of a Hamas ally and a string of critical news reports. Authorities held him for more than two months on charges of “harming revolutionary unity,”. (ibid)
- Gazan journalist and activist Amer Balousha published a post on Facebook in which he wondered whether his leaders’ mothers also have to sleep on the floor in order to cool themselves down in the unbearable summer heat. In response he received private Facebook threats which he ignored. A few days later he was called to appear at Hamas’ Internal Security where he was beaten and held for weeks. (see report).
- In April 2017 Hamas arrested 17 activists and journalists charged with “spreading false rumors and news through social networking sites.”. (see report).
- ‘The prisons run by Hamas that I observed were typical of prisons in a third-world country. What was the most depressing is the charges pressed against prisoners, and how normalized those charges were. One man who I spoke with was a journalist who “misused technology.” Another was simply a “Palestinian Authority employee.” Another was a young lawyer who “insulted high authorities” in a moment of anger. They had all been brought in to be “disciplined,” which means terrorized, humiliated and scared into submission’. (see report)

International journalists know the drill, but are physically safer (they just won’t be let in again) but threats are still directed to the locals they work with. Gazan social media activists, sitting vulnerable in their homes with their families – they have no protection at all.

Pallywood

Yet it cannot end there. There is also a Hamas propaganda machine that churns out material it wants delivered to the gullible global community. This industry has even been given a name ‘Pallywood’. In the age of social media, with no filter at all between Hamas HQ and the online community, there is little doubt that much of what comes out from Gaza is nothing more than a Hamas directed newsreel. Logically, if Hamas control Gaza, if local independent reporters cannot write anything against Hamas and if some social media activists have 100,000s of followers, it would be beyond reason to suggest Hamas and these activists do not have an operational relationship.

Why wouldn’t Hamas use their power to control a pipeline with an audience of millions? The relationship can be one of ‘cooperation through intimidation’, but it need not be. With no alternative but to tow the Hamas line, why wouldn’t a social media player seek potential rewards for doing so?

(Continue to Full Article)

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Which ‘Occupied Territories’ Are Still Available on Airbnb? Northern Cyprus, Western Sahara, Tibet ... by Ben Cohen

...Further north, in the coastal town of Girne, more than 300 properties were shown as available, with an equivalent number in Famagusta — ironically the port city from where the ships of the 2010 “Freedom Flotilla” to the “occupied” Gaza Strip, sponsored by a leading Turkish Islamist organization, began their journey.

Ben Cohen..
Algemenier..
20 November '18..

Travelers looking for a vacation on the wrong side of an internationally-recognized “Green Line” needn’t fret now that global rentals agency Airbnb is boycotting properties in Israeli communities in the West Bank — they can use Airbnb’s services in the “Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus” instead.

A Tuesday morning search of Airbnb’s listings for a last-minute Thanksgiving holiday vacation showed the availability of more than 1,000 apartments and villas in Northern Cyprus — a Greek territory invaded and occupied by Turkey in July 1974, in a brutal war inflicted by Ankara on Greek and native Turkish Cypriots alike.

More than 150,000 Greek Cypriots were driven from their homes during ethnic cleansing operations carried out by Turkish forces. Hundreds of Greek women were raped by Turkish soldiers, in what one Greek writer called “one of the darkest and most agonizingly painful aspects” of the 1974 invasion. Following the invasion, Turkey consolidated its hold over 40 percent of the island of Cyprus — but its satellite republic continues to be regarded by the entire international community as “occupied territory.”

For now, though, residents of Northern Cyprus — including thousands of Turkish “settlers” who moved to the island from mainland Turkey after 1974 — can freely advertise their properties on Airbnb.

In the Turkish part of Nicosia — known as the world’s last divided capital because of the physical, UN-supervised “Green Line” that cuts the city in half — 78 properties were displayed by Airbnb as available for rent between Nov. 23-30. Further north, in the coastal town of Girne, more than 300 properties were shown as available, with an equivalent number in Famagusta — ironically the port city from where the ships of the 2010 “Freedom Flotilla” to the “occupied” Gaza Strip, sponsored by a leading Turkish Islamist organization, began their journey.

(Continue to Full Column)

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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Ramallah on the Hudson: Columbia University’s Center for Palestine Studies - by A. J. Caschetta

...If Columbia University abides by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of anti-Semitism (as adopted by both the State Department and Department of Education), it will have to re-examine both the work and influence of the Center for Palestine Studies, where the professors for the liberation of “Palestine” are trying to turn the Upper West Side into the Upper West Bank.

A. J. Caschetta..
The Tower..
19 November '18..

The Trump administration may have closed the PLO’s Mission in Washington, D.C., but its Morningside Heights Mission is open for business. I refer to Columbia University’s Center for Palestine Studies (CPS), an Ivy League clearinghouse for PLO propaganda and the demonization of Israel. Call it the PLO’s American academic wing.

When the CPS opened more than eight years ago, founding co-director Rashid Khalidi promised that it would avoid doing “anything that’s directly related to any political activism.” This is laughable. What Khalidi meant is that the CSP would not participate in anti-Israel activism, but this is a lie. The faculty members who comprise the center’s experts are rivaled only by the faculty of Birzeit University for their anti-Israel advocacy.

It might, in fact, take a Center for Palestine Studies to examine thoroughly the history of Palestinian organizations devoted to political violence. But instead, Columbia has assembled the anti-Israel all-stars of academia, such as Joseph Massad, who has called for “the continuing resistance of Palestinians in Israel and the Occupied Territories to all the civil and military institutions that uphold Jewish supremacy.” Another member of CPS is Hamid Dabashi, who wrote that Israel is a “key actor” in “every dirty treacherous ugly and pernicious act happening in the world.”

In addition to being a professor at Columbia’s Middle East Institute and co-director of the CPS, Khalidi also happens to be a former member of the PLO, as Martin Kramer has shown. Not since Columbia hired former Weather Underground member Kathy Boudin at its School of Social Work has it given a platform to “reformed” terrorists. At least Boudin expressed remorse, even if it was insincere. Not so Khalidi, a Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS ) advocate whose views have remained consistent since his PLO days, though they are now masked in the academic patois of post-colonialism.

Brinkley Messick, the CPS’s other founding co-director, hyped it as the first academic center devoted to the study of Palestinian Arabs. “Very simply,” he gushed, “there’s never been a dedicated space … for this kind of research.”

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Christian Opposition to Israel Requires a Christian Response - by Dexter Van Zile

...Given their dependent status, Jewish leaders in the United States are not in any position to complain about the ineffective response offered by their friends and allies in the Christian world, but they can no longer kid themselves about what has happened in the American mainline. And neither can Christians themselves.

Dexter Van Zile..
Algemeiner..
19 November '18..

“Is our alternative truly only between malevolent enemies and condescending friends?”

That tortured query was issued by Hannah Arendt in 1941, after Jules Romains — a prominent French writer and longtime PEN president — complained that Jews were not sufficiently grateful for his efforts to save them from the Nazi menace. After fighting for the passage of a resolution condemning antisemitism at a meeting of PEN (over the objections of H.G. Wells) and helping Jewish intellectuals escape France after the Nazis took over, Romains was angry at the apparent ingratitude from Jews for his work on their behalf. And he said so publicly.

“You complain in fact very loudly and articulately about the ingratitude of Jews for whom you have done so much,” Arendt wrote in response to Romains’ complaints.

But at the risk of alienating a protector of Jewish lives, Arendt declared that the last thing Romains should worry about was whether Jews were grateful for his good works. By protecting the lives of Jews and helping them escape their fate under Nazi rule, Romains was defending the “freedom and honor” of the people of France who were also under the boot of the Nazi regime, she said. Arendt went on to ask if Romains understood that the “arrogant demand for gratitude from a protector cuts deeper than the open hostility of antisemites?”

The underlying message that Arendt had for Romains was that by standing in solidarity with Jews during their time of trial, he was protecting the better parts of himself and the country he called home. In other words, Romains’ work on behalf of Jews in France wasn’t just about Jews, but France as well.

If Arendt were alive and watching the efforts to staunch the flow of anti-Zionism that has taken root in mainline Protestant churches in the US today, she might utter a tortured query similar to the one she offered in 1941. It would go something like, “Is our alternative truly only between malevolent enemies and ineffective friends?”

(Continue to Full Column)

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 BBC News website framing of the Airbnb listings story - by Hadar Sela

...The BBC did not bother to clarify to its audiences that the said ‘report’ produced by the political NGOs ‘Human Rights Watch’ and ‘Kerem Navot’ is actually a political campaign focusing exclusively on Jewish Israelis which makes no mention whatsoever of Airbnb’s business in additional disputed locations around the world.

Hadar Sela..
BBC Watch..
20 November '18..

Late on November 19th the BBC News website published a report headlined “Airbnb removes Israeli West Bank listings” which was soon re-titled “Airbnb removes Israeli West Bank settlement listings”.

One hundred and twenty-three of the article’s 422 words summarised the announcement put out by the company while 129 words described subsequent reactions from the PLO’s Saeb Erekat, the Israeli tourism minister and a relevant Israeli organisation.

One hundred and fourteen words were given over to background information, including the BBC’s standard partisan mantra concerning ‘international law’:

“The West Bank settlements are considered illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this.”

Readers were also told that:

(Continue to Full Post)

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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Europe's Continuing Support for NGO Anti-Israel Incitement in Gaza and the West Bank - by Pinchas Inbari

A network of NGOs is vital in a weakened society like the one under the Palestinian Authority’s rule. The problem is that this network has been taken over by very radical elements that have turned it into a stage for anti-Israel propaganda and a barrier to U.S. peace initiatives. Without Europe’s support these radical elements could not exist. And the damage is double because Europe absorbs their toxic messages while any possible European relationship with pragmatic elements in the West Bank is obstructed by the dominance of these NGOs.

Pinchas Inbari..
Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs..
No. 617..
19 November '18..

The latest round of violence in Gaza, called the “March of Return,” which began on March 30, 2018, was not initiated by Hamas but by civil-society organizations known as “non-governmental organizations (NGOs).” At first, Hamas was halfhearted in its support, but when the marches began and captured headlines in the Middle East and the world, Hamas took charge of the activities and pushed the original organizers—the civil-society contingent—out of the way.

The organizations that instigated the return marches and sparked the latest violent eruption in Gaza are the same ones that were behind the flotillas to Gaza, including the infamous Mavi Marmara, and they have launched subsequent flotillas.

In the Palestinian power structure, two main forces, Fatah and Hamas, are usually seen as contending with each other. Yet in light of the recent events in Gaza – and the outbreak of opposition in Ramallah to Mahmoud Abbas’ sanctions against Gaza – it is also important to take note of the NGO network.

The NGOs’ activity in Gaza has gained momentum. Ramallah, the political hub of the Palestinians, is host to a dense network of NGOs.1

There is a major difference between the respective civil societies in Gaza and Ramallah. In Gaza, the network is closely-linked to the Muslim Brotherhood in Europe and the European “Red-Green” alliance, comprised of the European Left and the Muslim Brotherhood. The NGO network in Ramallah, however, belongs to the historical Palestinian Left – the former Communists and the Marxist terror organizations such as the Popular Front, the Democratic Front, and so on. Were it not for the Ramallah NGOs, these movements would have vanished long ago from the Palestinian political landscape. Europe, which finances this network, is essentially preserving them; without its support, they would not exist.

(Continue to Full Article)

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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Anti-Semitic incitement that opposes the Jewish people's right to self-determination in its only homeland - by Dror Eydar

The controversy surrounding the nation-state law, which defines Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people, crops up at every junction because it touches on our very existence and identity in this land.

Dror Eydar..
Israel Hayom..
16 November '18..
Link: http://www.israelhayom.com/2018/11/16/another-type-of-anti-semitic-incitement/




1.

When Lt. Col. M. was killed in the course of a botched military intelligence operation in Gaza, it galvanized a number of irresponsible lawmakers to again stir up the incitement against the nation-state law – legislation that defines Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people.

The law's provisions, including the assertion that only Jews have a right to self-determination, have angered Israel's non-Jewish citizens, who view the law as discriminatory and offensive.

One example of this incitement was Zionist Union MK Shelly Yachimovich's recent tweet, in which she didn't hesitate to post a photo of the slain officer – whose identity has not been released for publication – and his children, and conclude with "great pain" that "his death in battle shines an even more appalling light on the racist and despicable nation-state law, which states that citizens who aren't Jewish are second-class citizens."

Great pain? Perhaps cynical pain. The law doesn't "state" anything about the (equal) citizenship of non-Jews. It touches only on the issue of nationality, which has nothing to do with ethnic groups or minorities, which are not a nationality.

The publisher of Israeli newspaper Haaretz Amos Schocken wasn't far behind Yachimovich. He called the nation-state law "fascist" and characterized its supporters as having "divorced the principles outlined in the Declaration of Independence." He added more generally that "one need not go as far as the crematoria to identify fascism."

Schocken may not be aware of this, but the word "Jewish" and its various iterations are mentioned about 20 times in the Declaration of Independence. Only in one place, the document says "The State of Israel … will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex." Here, equality is promised in a civil context, without regard to nationality. National equality is a path toward a state that enshrines all nationalities – in other words, the death of the Jewish state.

We have grown tired of the constant "racist" and "fascist" (and worse) accusation against those who uphold our national identity. These types of stupid accusations deserve a response in the same language: Anyone who opposes the Jewish people's right to self-determination in its only homeland is an anti-Semite, even if he is a Jew. He, too, is racist – how else can you explain the desire to strip the Jews of their nationality while at the same time acknowledging the nationalities of our Muslim neighbors or of the European Christian peoples?

When Palestinians are Arresting Women, Where are the Media? - by Bassam Tawil

...yet another example of how the West gives the Palestinians a pass to violate human rights and crack down on dissent, while remaining obsessed with Israel. Moreover, it is another example of the hypocrisy of Abbas, who condemns Israel for combating terrorism and incitement, while he throws Palestinian women in jail.

Bassam Tawil..
Gatestone Institute..
19 November '18..

Last August, the Palestinian Authority (PA) protested because Israel arrested a Palestinian woman from Hebron on charges of incitement and affiliation with Hamas. The 42-year-old woman, Lama Khater, is also known as a strong critic of the President Mahmoud Abbas and his Palestinian Authority.

Khater's scathing attacks on Abbas and his government, however, did not stop the Palestinian Authority from condemning Israel and demanding her immediate release.

This was not the first time that the Palestinian Authority has condemned Israel for arresting a Palestinian woman who voiced criticism of Abbas and his policies. Last year, the Palestinian Authority condemned Israel for arresting Khaleda Jarrar, a senior member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, one of several PLO terrorist groups. Jarrar was arrested by Israel for membership in a terrorist group and incitement.

The incidents concerning Khater and Jarrar came to mind this week as Palestinian sources revealed that Mahmoud Abbas's security forces in the West Bank arrested two Palestinian women.

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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 the Israeli political system became captive to the whims of the Palestinian leadership - by Prof Efraim Karsh

In the 25 years since the signing of the Oslo accord in September 1993, just one of the 10 reigning Israeli governments completed its entire tenure.

Prof. Efraim Karsh..
Opinion/JPost..
18 November '18..
Link: https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Libermans-resignation-and-the-naive-search-for-peace-572226

It is a historical irony that last week’s resignation of defense minister Liberman came on the heels of the 23rd anniversary of Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination, for it can clearly be seen as the latest casualty of the slain prime minister’s “peace legacy.” Not merely because the move was triggered by the latest conflagration along the Gaza Strip, transformed by the Oslo “peace process” into an ineradicable terrorist entity that murdered and maimed thousands of Israelis and made the lives of countless others a living hell, but because the process has destabilized the Israeli political system and made it captive to the whims of the Palestinian leadership.

In the 25 years since the signing of the Oslo accord in September 1993, just one of the 10 reigning Israeli governments completed its entire tenure, with one term ended by the unprecedented assassination of the incumbent prime minister. Meanwhile, parliament’s average lifespan dropped from 3.6 years to three years and an unprecedented number of parties were formed, torn apart and disbanded.

Surprise? BBC World Service radio programme presents an inverted portrayal of Gaza rocket attacks - by Hadar Sela

...Obviously the basic editorial aim behind this item – which Ben James had told listeners was “your guide to the important stuff happening now” – was to promote a sense of false equivalence between the actions of terrorist groups deliberately targeting civilians and a regular army targeting the assets of those terrorist organisations. In promoting that aim the producers of this programme blithely sacrificed the accuracy and impartiality to which the BBC claims to adhere as well as the first of the corporation’s public purposes.

Hadar Sela..
BBC Watch..
16 November '18..

As we saw in a previous post, the lead item in the November 13th edition of the BBC World Service radio programme OS – formerly ‘Outside Source’ – was described in its synopsis thus:

“It’s the heaviest exchange of aerial fire between Israeli soldiers and Hamas militants since the full-blown conflict in 2014. The violence follows an Israeli special forces operation inside Gaza which went wrong late on Sunday, causing the deaths of Palestinian militants and an Israeli soldier. We hear from local people living in Gaza.”

After listeners had been given some bizarre and entirely one-sided ‘context’ to that story (with no mention whatsoever of the fact that Hamas has been attacking Israeli civilians with rockets and mortars for 17 years), presenter Ben James introduced his first inadequately identified interviewee in what he had previously described as “your guide to the important stuff happening now”.

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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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Simone O’Broin, drunken tirades, and the white supremacy of the Palestinian cause and BDS - by David Collier

...The expletives deflect from the important element of the video. Simone O’Broin comes across as a racist, clearly displaying a white supremacy mindset in the words that she hurls at the Air India employees. She mentions her credentials as an ‘International Human rights Lawyer for the Palestinian people about a dozen times.

David Collier..
Beyond the Great Divide..
16 December '18..

Last Saturday, Simone O’Broin, ‘let rip’ with a drunken rant aboard an Air India flight from Mumbai to London Heathrow. She has since been arrested for a racially aggravated public disorder offence. Simone O’Broin (also know as Simone Burns) is a UK trained International Lawyer that has worked for years for anti-Israel groups. This is a video of the foul mouth tirade. Pay less interest to the alcohol driven expletives than the underlying message:



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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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Ireland, Colombia, and Israel: Clearly Not Birds of a Feather - by Stephen M. Flatow

...Robinson and Gilmore don’t understand that the Palestinian Arabs are not the same as the Irish or the Colombians. Over the past 25 years, the Palestinian Authority has raised an entire generation through schools, news media, and a popular culture that inculcate hatred of Jews, glorification of violence, and a life’s mission of bringing about the destruction of Israel. No diplomatic initiative, negotiating scheme, or peace process can change that.

Stephen M.Flatow..
Algemeiner..
16 November '18..

Two former Irish government officials who visited Israel recently declared that they know the way to resolve the Israeli-Arab conflict: Both sides just need “leaders who genuinely want to resolve the issues,” they announced. Gee, why have the rest of us never thought of that before?

Sometimes, I marvel at the number of foreigners who believe that they have come up with the magical solution for peace in the Middle East. You hear such drivel from journalists like Thomas Friedman, who seems to believe that he was born with the unique wisdom to solve every international problem, and from Jewish left-wing “peace” groups that genuinely believe they are the only ones in the Jewish community who want peace. Believe me, they are not.

Most of all, you hear it from ex-diplomats. Those who have been involved in negotiating in one part of the world seem to assume that they are therefore uniquely equipped to negotiate any situation or conflict.

The worst, of course, are the former US diplomats who spent more than 20 years trying to shove a Palestinian state down Israel’s throat in the name of “peace.” These days, practically every major newspaper article about some aspect of Arab-Israeli diplomacy includes some obnoxious comment from one or more of these “experts.”

(Continue to Full Column)

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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Your 15 Question Gaza Conflict Quiz - by David M. Weinberg

I dare you to answer these 15 questions about Israel’s ongoing conflict with Hamas in Gaza without cracking a bitter smile and heaving a sigh of cynical disbelief.

David M. Weinberg..
A Citadel Defending Zion..
16 November '18..
Link: https://www.davidmweinberg.com/2018/11/16/your-gaza-conflict-quiz/






1. How long do you think that the current ceasefire with Hamas will hold?

a. Several more hours

b. One week

c. One month

d. Until the end of Avigdor Lieberman’s tenure as defense minister, tomorrow

2. What do you call this past week’s fighting?

a. A skirmish

b. A round of conflict

c. An operation

d. A war.

3. When this ceasefire inevitably is shattered by Hamas, Israel will then do which of the following?

a. Assassinate the entire Hamas leadership

b. Again cut-off electricity and gas supplies to Gaza for a few weeks

c. Bomb some more empty buildings in Gaza

d. Agree to another ceasefire

4. Prime Minister Netanyahu is worried that the ceasefire with Hamas will hurt his political standing with residents of Sderot and other hard-hits southern regions, and instead they will vote for whom?

a. United Arab List

b. Yesh Atid

c. Yisrael Beteinu

d. Bayit Yehudi

5. How many such military “operations” has Israel been forced into since the unilateral withdrawal of settlements and the IDF from Gaza in 2005?

a. Three

b. Four

c. Five

d. Depends on how you define “operation,” and who cares; the point is that Israel hasn’t deterred Hamas from attacking