A Very Clever Kind of Lie: Accusing Israel of Future Crimes - By Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld

One tool of verbal demonization that is extremely difficult for Israel to combat is accusations of crimes it supposedly will commit in the future. These are far more difficult to contest than outright lies about current events. An example of this kind of manipulative lie is a remark in an interview by the outgoing French ambassador to the US, Gérard Araud, in which he said that Israel will officially be an apartheid state in the future.

Gérard Araud is a long-time anti-Israel
basher and vocal antisemite

Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld..
BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 1,168..
09 May '19..
Link: https://besacenter.org/perspectives-papers/accusing-israel-crimes/

Outgoing French ambassador to the US Gérard Araud is a long-time anti-Israel basher and vocal antisemite. In a parting interview with the Atlantic, he said that Israel will have to either make Palestinians totally stateless or turn them into its citizens. “They won’t make them citizens of Israel,” he said. “So they will have to make it official…which is an apartheid. There will be officially an apartheid state. They are in fact already.”

Peculiar semantics aside, Araud’s slander is smart. It levels an accusation about what may happen in the future, which is extremely difficult to refute. If someone tells an individual, “You are a rapist,” proof can be demanded. But if one says instead, “You will be a rapist someday,” nothing has to be proven. The falsehood of the hateful accusation is not made fully clear until the accused person dies. By placing his emphasis on Israel’s future ignominy as an apartheid state, Araud feels comfortable throwing in the aside that Israel is already such a state.

Of all people, a French ambassador should be among the last to slander Israel in this way.

After France’s defeat by the Germans in 1940, the elected parliament of the French Third Republic ended its existence by naming Philippe Pétain head of state, and subsequent governments turned France into a country that was far worse than an apartheid state. Vichy France, still autonomous, banned Jews from many professions, including the civil service. Eventually it confiscated Jewish businesses entirely. It held tens of thousands of Jewish refugees in concentration camps. The Vichy regime handed over many tens of thousands of Jews to the Germans, who then deported them to their deaths.

There was massive wartime collaboration between the French and the Germans. Post-war French governments did not want to assume responsibility for Vichy’s acts. This was the case even though Pétain had come to power legally. Socialist president François Mitterrand, who served from 1981 to 1995, was once a Vichy employee. He changed sides and joined the resistance in 1942. He was clearly well aware of Vichy’s crimes, yet refused to accept France’s responsibility for them.

It was only in 1995 under Jacque Chirac, the center-right successor to Mitterrand as president of the Fifth French Republic, that the country’s official policy finally changed. In July of that year, Chirac admitted France’s role in the murder of Jews, whom it had not protected and instead delivered to their executioners. In a memorial ceremony, he said France had given the Nazis assistance in arresting Jews as a step on the way to their murder. He said: “We maintain toward them an unforgivable debt.”

Yom Ha'Atzmaut -The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is about this one day - by Jonathan S. Tobin

Like any human creation, Israel is imperfect and faces problems. But what its people have done in the last 71 years is something few rational people would have imagined possible. In our own time and with our own eyes, we have seen 71 years of miracles as the Jewish state survived, thrived and enriched the lives of all Jews, even if they resided elsewhere. That should give us confidence that problems that seem impossible to surmount will be overcome, as they have been throughout the last seven decades. Though the very fact of its existence continues to spur the enemies of the Jewish people to go on fighting, it is no reason to despair or to succumb to the lies of those who slander it. To the contrary, Israel’s strength and survival in the face of continued opposition is even more reason to celebrate.

Jonathan S. Tobin..
JNS.org..
08 May '19..

Much of the discussion about Israel and the Palestinians revolves around one question: Why does the conflict continue? Most of those who offer answers, especially veteran Middle East “experts” who have been advocating for and helping to promote the peace process for decades, spin a complicated tale in which Israel’s unwillingness to make concessions is put forward as just as much, if not more, responsible for the lack of peace than Palestinian intransigence and terrorism.

But though the region’s history during the course of the last century is complex, the answer to the question is actually quite simple. The conflict continues because the Jewish state exists.

That’s a daunting thought as Israelis spend Yom Ha’atzmaut (Independence Day) watching fireworks, and enjoying barbecues and other holiday activities. It would be much easier to think that the conflict, which Israelis can’t evade because they spend the day right beforehand marking the solemn observance of Yom Hazikaron (Memorial Day), when those who fell in defense of their nation and victims of terror are remembered. The two days are not something that can be neatly cordoned off.

(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. 

.

Jihadi missiles, Israeli mourning, yet somehow, in spite of it all - by Ruthie Blum

Four families whose names will always be noted and quoted together by virtue of their shared tragedy over the course of a single fateful weekend. What they will not be, however, is forgotten. Unlike the terrorists with a grip on Gaza—who have spent the billions of dollars, euros and shekels earmarked for “rehabilitation” on deadly weapons, while using their people as hapless human shields and faceless cannon fodder—Israelis honor every individual casualty of war.

Ruthie Blum..
JNS.org..
07 May '19..

Reeling after three days of nonstop rocket barrages from Gaza, and fully aware that the ceasefire with Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists is temporary, Israelis are preparing for this year’s Yom Hazikaron (Memorial Day) ceremonies with particular sadness and no small degree of frustration.

This evening, when the Jewish state enters into a 24-hour mourning period for all the fallen soldiers and civilian victims of terrorism who have been killed since its inception, four new names will have been added to the list. Four new sets of spouses, children, parents and siblings will have earned the dreaded label of “bereaved.”

Each will wish he or she could have turned the clock back to the minute before Moshe Agadi, Moshe Feder, Ziad al-Hamamda and Pinchas Menachem Pashwazman were murdered by missile fire that changed the course of their history.

(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. 

.

One Could Think There’s Nothing Progressive About Terrorists Targeting Civilians—Except When Israelis Are the Victims - by Aaron Kliegman

...In a great irony, however, these progressive voices are not only anti-Israel, but also anti-Palestinian. After all, Hamas is the same group that, in March, brutally suppressed Palestinian protesters who were demonstrating against Hamas's tyrannical rule, which has left Gaza in an almost apocalyptic state. Unemployment is astonishingly high, there are frequent blackouts, the sewage system is terrible—indeed, Palestinians in Gaza have no hope, and that is because of Hamas. More generally, progressives like Omar, Tlaib, and Sarsour never say a word about Palestinian suffering in Syria, Lebanon, and elsewhere; they only seem to care when Israel is involved. Is it possible that they care more about hurting Israel than helping the Palestinians?

Aaron Kliegman..
Washington Free Beacon..
06 May '19..

On Friday afternoon, a Palestinian sniper injured two Israeli soldiers stationed at the border with Gaza. It appears the sniper's main target was a senior Israeli military officer, who was unhurt. Israel responded by bombing a compound belonging to Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist organization in control of Gaza, killing two militants. The next day, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, or PIJ, another terrorist group operating in Gaza, began barraging Israel with rockets, targeting civilians indiscriminately. Acting in self-defense, Israel launched retaliatory strikes, hitting attack tunnels, military compounds, weapons storage sites, and rocket launching and production facilities.

By the time both sides reached a ceasefire on Monday morning local time, Hamas and PIJ had fired nearly 700 rockets at Israel, killing at least four Israelis and injuring more than 200 others. Israel, meanwhile, launched hundreds of strikes in Gaza, where at least 25 people were killed, including several terrorists. Also among the dead were, most tragically, a pregnant woman and a baby. Anti-Israel forces of course rushed to blame the Jewish state for the deaths, portraying Israelis as bloodthirsty savages. As usual, they were either lying or ignorant. It turns out that Hamas killed the pregnant Palestinian and her infant niece. Indeed, 90 rockets launched by Hamas and PIJ failed to reach Israel and landed inside Gaza, according to reports. It is unclear how many of the Palestinians' deaths were caused by Palestinian rockets, but Hamas and PIJ's violent obsession with destroying the Jewish state only hurts the people for whom they claim to fight.

(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. 

.

Gaza and the Israeli Left. Repeated mistakes and lessons not learned. - by Meir Indor

According to the Left's plan, IDF soldiers will enter Gaza to clean out the tunnels, bunkers, homes and secret weapons stashes and then hand the Palestinian Authority a spotless Gaza Strip. The IDF will then withdraw.

Meir Indor..
Israel Hayom..
06 May '19..
Link: https://www.israelhayom.com/2019/05/06/weve-already-seen-this-movie/

What is behind the “diplomatic arrangement plan” for the Gaza Strip, which the Left has been peddling? As a rule of thumb, its mouthpieces avoid getting into detail; they know the public, mainly the mothers of soldiers, won’t like their plan once they learn what it entails.

Behind the term “arrangement” is their plan to reconquer Gaza and transfer it to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. If all goes according to the Left’s design, the IDF will enter Gaza in a ground operation; soldiers and tanks, with air cover, will clean out the tunnels, bunkers, homes and secret weapons stashes and hand Abbas a spotless Gaza Strip. The IDF will then withdraw, to be replaced by the PA’s security forces from Ramallah.

We’ve already been in this movie. Following the disengagement from Gaza we transferred the territory to Abbas and the PA’s security apparatus. Two years later, the heads of these security services found themselves being hurled off of buildings to their deaths. Hamas seized control. Who will prevent another Hamas coup, once the IDF leaves upon concluding this Left-driven operation? After all, Hamas is stronger, better trained and more organized than the PA. How can the PA be inserted into a territory it can’t seize on its own? But – so goes the argument – the PA is still functioning in Judea and Samaria.

We cannot compare Gaza to Judea and Samaria, where the PA is buttressed on the ground by the IDF and Shin Bet security agency. So who will protect the PA in Gaza?

Surprise? Dishonest Headlines Parrot Hamas Claim - by Emanuel Miller

As HonestReporting tweeted on Sunday, journalists are responsible for telling the whole story, not just the parts that fit in with their worldview. Anything less is a professional failure.

Emanuel Miller..
Honest Reporting..
05 May '19..

Any journalist worth their salt knows that their work requires describing what has happened, and reporting the whole story. When reporters are unable to determine exactly what happened, standard procedure is to report what the various parties claim, and let the readers make their own judgments.

Those simple standards, however, were repeatedly not met by numerous reporters covering the latest flare-up of violence between Israel and terror organizations Hamas and Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip.

More than 600 rockets have been fired at Israel since Saturday morning, and Israel is responding by targeting terrorists, as well as Islamic Jihad and Hamas’s facilities. Amid the ongoing exchange of fire, a pregnant woman and her 14-month old daughter were killed in unclear circumstances. Despite the IDF refusing to accept responsibility for the deaths, Palestinian sources were predictably swift to blame Israel, and the British media quickly picked up on the story.

The IDF later put out a statement on Twitter, reading: “Today we can say with certainty, after looking into the event, that they were killed as a result of an explosion of combustible materials during the activation of a Hamas explosive device.” A later tweet went further, accusing journalists of complicity, saying they had “amplified the lie.”

Headline Fails

More than any other part of an article, headlines matter the most. The vast majority of people don’t read any given article, only skimming through newspapers and social media feeds. As such, headlines frame the way people read and remember stories.

Despite the paucity of evidence to back up the claim that the IDF was responsible for the deaths, numerous media services parroted the claims put out by the Hamas-run Gazan Ministry of Health – frequently in the most prominent place – the headline.

(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. 

.

A 10th escalation is too much - Gadi Yarkoni

A 10th escalation is too much. It is time for the prime minister to live up to his obligation to the residents of Gaza border communities and the citizens of Israel as a whole.

Gadi Yarkoni..
Israel Hayom..
05 May '19..
Link: https://www.israelhayom.com/opinions/things-have-to-change/

The citizens of Israel are paying a bitter price for the last 18 years of an absence of a policy on the Gaza Strip and the “containment” approach to the events of the past year.

As deterrence erodes in the face of rocket fire, arson balloons, and terrorism along the border fence, Hamas is raising its head. It is expanding its rocket fire to communities far from the border and lobbing insane barrages at the Israel-Gaza frontier. All this is taking place at a sensitive time for Israel, when the country wants quiet more than anything: Remembrance Day for Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terrorism, Independence Day, and the Eurovision song competition. Hamas knows it.

If the decision-makers had meted out an unequivocal response a year ago, or a year and a half ago, when the border incidents began, this wouldn’t be our reality now. For a year, we near the border issued repeated warnings: “Today, it’s us – tomorrow, it will be you.” And “you” doesn’t just refer to residents of Ashdod and Kiryat Gat, but to all the citizens who are now getting excited for the Eurovision.

Terrorist attacks against residents of the Gaza border communities began more than a year ago. Since then, an entire region of the country has become the victim of a terrorist organization that is extorting our entire nation. This equation has to change.

(update) Once again, world media assumes baby probably killed by Hamas rocket was killed by Israel - by Elder of Ziyon

Mistake #1: Assuming that all Gaza casualties are the result of Israeli airstrikes. Traditionally, the number of Gaza rockets that fall short and never reach Israel, or that explode as they are fired, is over 35% -and sometimes as high as 80%!. Between June 12-25 (2014), terrorists fired 41 rockets at Israel, of which 24 exploded in Gaza, killing one child and injuring six more children. That is a 58% failure rate.

Elder of Ziyon..
05 May '19..

We've seen this happen so many times before.

On Saturday evening, the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry reported that a 14-month-old Palestinian child, Saba Mahmoud Hamdan Abu Arar, had been killed and her mother, Falastin Saleh Abu Arar, when an Israeli airstrikes hit their house in Gaza City. Several hours later, the ministry said that Falastin had succumbed to her wounds.

On Twitter, the Israel Defense Forces’ Arabic-language spokesman said the mother and child did not appear to have been killed in an Israeli attack.

Adraee indicated that the deaths may have been caused by a failed rocket attack against Israel, noting that many of the projectiles fired at Israel were launched from within populated areas.

“There are more and more indications reaching us from the Gaza Strip that put serious doubt on the truth of the statement from Hamas’s healthy ministry about the death of the baby Saba Mahmoud Hamdan Abu Arar and her mother Falastin Saleh Abu Arar,” Maj. Avichay Adraee wrote in a tweet.

“According to these indications, the death was caused by terrorist activities by Palestinian militants and not by an Israeli strike,” he said.

But AFP headlines the story, "250 rockets fired from Gaza, Israeli response kills four including baby."

The Independent wrote "A pregnant mother and her 14-month-old baby girl have been killed by an Israeli airstrike, as cross-border violence continues near Gaza."

ITV: "Palestinian baby and pregnant mother killed in Gaza airstrikes."

CNN: "250 rockets fired from Gaza at Israel; 1-year-old child among those killed in retaliatory airstrikes."

Reporters have made this mistake before. I listed a bunch of them a few years ago in an open letter to journalists on not making assumptions during these flareups in Gaza:

Mistake #1: Assuming that all Gaza casualties are the result of Israeli airstrikes

(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. 

.

Hamas, Hezbollah and the terror group double standard - by Sean Durns

Like Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist groups, Hezbollah calls for the destruction of the Jewish state. And like them, Hezbollah is often described as merely a “militant group” as opposed to the more accurate “terrorist organization.”

Sean Durns..
JNS.org..
01 May '19..

Many members of the Western press seem to have two standards for covering terrorist groups: one for those whose primary target is Israel, and another for everyone else. An examination of recent news coverage proves it.

Few examples better highlight the media’s double standard on terrorist groups than reporting on the so-called “March of Return,” which began in the spring of 2018, and has waxed and waned in intensity ever since. Although many commentators incorrectly characterized the “march” as a grassroots “protest” by Palestinians at the Israel-Gaza border, in reality, Hamas—the U.S.-designated terror group that rules the Gaza Strip—orchestrated it for propaganda purposes.

Armed Hamas operatives, as well as those from other Palestinian terrorist organizations, including the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) and others were interspersed among unarmed Palestinian civilians attempting to break into Israel.

Israeli authorities responded with a mixture of live fire and non-lethal munitions; the former targeting terror leaders and those perpetrating violent acts, and the latter, including tear gas and rubber rounds, aimed at dispersing the thousands who had gathered at the border under the auspices of Hamas and other terror organizations.

Hamas and the other Palestinian terror groups involved hoped to put international pressure on Israel to end or reduce a blockade that Jerusalem had initiated to curtail the flow of arms to the terror group. Hamas also wanted increased international aid to fill its coffers. To achieve these objectives—and to elicit widespread condemnation of the Jewish state—Hamas sacrificed its own people. Terrorists used mirrors and burned tires to obscure the vision of IDF snipers who were specifically targeting the terror leaders hiding among civilians. And children and the disabled were bused in with the hope that they’d catch an errant bullet and perhaps make for a good headline.

IDF targeting proved superior, however, and detailed analyses by the Meir Amit Intelligence and Information Center soon showed that a majority of the Palestinians killed during the “Great Return March” were affiliated with terrorist groups. Hamas itself acknowledged as much.

(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. 

.

Palestinians Drop Their Mask On Payment To Killers. Will J-Street et al Remain Silent? - by Dr. Aaron Lerner

How does J-Street react to this news? Silence is morally unacceptable. What about Meretz? Peace Now? And of course, all the Democratic Party representatives who are constantly criticizing the Jewish State ostensibly on moral grounds? Now is not the time for silence.

Dr. Aaron Lerner..
IMRA Weekly Commentary..
02 May, 2019..
Link: http://www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=73503

For years now Palestinian officials have been arguing that the money the PA gives to Palestinian prisoners and their families is nothing more that humanitarian assistance.

But now the mask is off.

The European Union Forum has proposed that the PA provide payments to Palestinian prisoners and their families according to their economic needs rather than their status based of the severity of what they did to Israelis.

Here is the response of Qadri Abu Bakr, Chairman of the Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs Commission of the Palestinian Authority:

"The prisoners are freedom fighters and from our standpoint they have the standing of members of the security forces and therefore no Palestinian leader can agree to such a proposal."
Jack Khoury - Haaretz 2 May, 2019.

Let me spell this out: carefully crafted sound bites notwithstanding, the official position of the PA is that no matter how gruesome the attack, no matter how shocking the victims, the Palestinian Authority will reward Palestinian who murder Israelis in accordance with the severity of the attack that they carry out.

With no exception.

A prominent D.C. Synagogue will mourn Palestinians, ignore Israeli Independence Day - by Stephen M. Flatow

I do not question the right of Sixth and I to do this. I question the wisdom and morality of their decision to publicly proclaim that Israel and the Palestinian Arabs are morally equivalent. They are not.

Stephen M. Flatow..
JNS.org..
01 May '19..

A prominent synagogue in Washington, D.C., will mark Israel’s 71st birthday by mourning “Palestinian losses” alongside Israeli terror victims, and refrain from holding any kind of Israeli independence celebration.

It’s the latest example of an appalling “both sides” mentality that blurs right and wrong, good and evil, and Israel and its would-be destroyers.

On Tuesday evening, May 7, Israelis—and Jews around the world—will hold solemn Yom Hazikaron ceremonies to remember the approximately 25,000 Israeli Jews murdered by invading Arab armies and Palestinian Arab terrorists since 1948.

But at the Sixth and I Historic Synagogue in the nation’s capital, a different kind of ceremony will be held. Called the “Israeli-Palestinian Memorial Day Ceremony,” participants will gather together for what they describe as “a memorial based on the values of hope, solidarity and non-violence. Hear from Israelis and Palestinians as they share their families’ stories of loss.”

Yes, Palestinian Arabs have been killed in the course of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

But that doesn’t make them all “victims.” And that doesn’t mean they should all be “mourned.” That doesn’t place them all on the same moral level.

In the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs, Israel is the victim and the Palestinian Arabs are the aggressors. Nobody is saying Israel is perfect. No country is perfect. No army is perfect. But we still should be able to make the basic distinction between right and wrong. We still should have enough sense to distinguish between cops and robbers.

(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. 

.

The Clash Of American Liberal Jewry And Israeli Nationalism - by Yishai Fleisher

Those American Jews who publicly defend Israel’s choices give voice to the Israeli policies in the halls of American power — and that is an important task. Yet those American liberal Jewish voices who have become detractors from Israeli policy should have less sway. They endanger the U.S.-Israel alliance and, frankly, endanger Israel’s security. They advocate for bad policy, like the misbegotten "two-state solution," for a region they do not understand and in circumstances they do not share. They go against the will of the Israeli people and give Jewish cover to anti-Israel forces. Their mindset and behavior are that of a minority ethnic group living in a host country, and not like that of Israel — a sovereign state, an American ally, and a burgeoning regional power dealing with the harsh everyday reality of the Middle East.

Yishai Fleisher..
Dailywire.com..
30 April '19..
Link: https://www.dailywire.com/news/46595/fleisher-clash-american-liberal-jewry-and-israeli-yishai-fleisher

The recent landslide election of Benjamin Netanyahu and the ascendancy of the Israeli Right has deepened the rift between Israeli and American Jews — the latter of whom disproportionately identify with the political Left.

Days after the Israeli election, nine leading American liberal Jewish groups sent a letter to the American president they hate so much and worked so hard to prevent his becoming a president. In it, they urged Trump to preserve the "two-state solution" in the face of a pledge by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to annex the so-called "West Bank" territory, also known as Judea and Samaria.

Four ostensibly pro-Israel Jewish Democrats — Reps. Eliot Engel and Nita Lowey of New York, Ted Deutch of Florida, and Brad Schneider of Illinois — released a similar letter warning Israel not to annex parts of Judea and Samaria because, yet again, such a move would endanger the two-state solution.

And in an article days after Netanyahu’s election, Daniel Sokatch, the CEO of the ultra-liberal umbrella group New Israel Fund, wrote:

A move to annex the occupied territories would corrode Israel’s international standing, rupture its relationship with the American Jewish community and likely extinguish any remaining chance for a two-state solution between Israelis and Palestinians.

We have reached a point where American Jews are calling upon the American president to override the will of the Israeli people on matters of Israeli national security.

The Chutzpah of the American Jewish Liberal Leadership

Such is the clamor of American liberal Jewish leadership to preserve the failed two-state solution — which calls on Israel to cut 20 percent of its New Jersey-sized landmass and give over the most storied stretches of the Promised Land to the corrupt crooks of the PLO and the terrorist group Hamas.

Yet the last Israeli election proved, and many polls reflect, that Israelis — as opposed to the American Jewish liberal leadership — are done with the two-state solution. In the aftermath of the 2005 withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and the immediate takeover by jihadist group Hamas which led to three full-out wars and innumerable rockets being fired on Israel, most Israelis came to the conclusion that the "land for peace" policy is a failure. Israelis have now voiced that opinion democratically.

Dominique (Dom), British terrorists and the Mike’s Place bombing - by David Collier

This is Hamas and this is radical Islamic terrorism. The same terrorism that strikes in London, Paris, New York, Columbo, Nairobi, Cairo and anywhere else they manage to detonate their bombs. Terrorism that deliberately destroys lives. When people knowingly align with Hamas, when they call them ‘friends’, when they say ‘Kaddish‘ for Hamas terrorists – there is no excusing or forgiving such an ethical loss of direction. Even today, Hamas have martyr pages for these terrorists. People who wanted to kill civilians in pubs. This wasn’t the only time that someone I knew was killed by terrorists in Israel, but Dominique was part of my world. In an obscene twist, so were the terrorists. Because it took place shortly after midnight, most of those involved in the attack recognised the 30th April as the anniversary. For me it will always be the 29th. That was the last time I saw Dominique Haas smile.

David Collier..
Beyond the Great Divide..
29 April '19..

The 29th April is always a sombre day for me. Sixteen years ago today (29th April 2003), I was talking to a friend of mine ‘Dom’, about a new business adventure she was starting. I was eating a cake, a sample that she had brought me to taste. Dom came to pay for a flight I had sorted out for her. She had been to France to see her family and when she wanted to return from Paris, she’d call, I’d book the flight, and we’d settle once she had arrived. We chatted, I told her the cake was delicious and then we said our goodbyes. It must have been about 11am. ‘See you later’ I think I said to her. I wouldn’t though, in fact I never saw her alive again.

I had known Dominique (Dom) for about six years. Like many from Western Europe trying to find their way in Tel Aviv, Dom was part of the tourist crowd. A few hostels and pubs littered the Ben Yehuda, Allenby area and were full of working travellers. Thousands of young Europeans gravitated towards Tel Aviv’s Mediterranean shore. The hostels supplied the work, the pubs the recreation. Dom had been part of the scenery for a long time. I had first met her in the late 1990’s and if I remember rightly, at the time she worked in a launderette that doubled as a billiard/pool hall. We had been in touch ever since. Dominique was extremely popular and since I had my own tourism related business, Dominque was always sending me new customers.

Dom, the Buzz Stop and Mike’s Place

Dom worked for a while at a beachfront pub called the ‘Buzz Stop’. Originally sited near the ‘dolphinarium’ on the Southern beaches of Tel Aviv, the owner Eli, eventually moved it to the centre of town, near what was then the American Embassy. In 2001 another pub opened next door -a live blues music bar called Mike’s Place. Dominique switched from working at the Buzz Stop to Mike’s Place. She worked at Mike’s Place from the day that it opened. I frequented both. They were my local hang-outs and I knew most of the regulars.

The 29th April 2003 arrived and the second Intifada was still going strong. In January there had been a massacre in Tel Aviv’s Central Bus Station – a double suicide bombing. March saw a suicide bomb massacre in Haifa and another bombing in Netanya. In April Kfar Saba was the target of a suicide bombing. There were going to be four additional suicide bombings in May.

But Mike’s place was a pub on a beach front and full of tourists. It was a world away from the conflict. The evening of the 29th had been busy. It was Tuesday night- ‘Jam night’ for the Blues bar and everyone inside was having fun. Yet just a few hundred yards away in Hayarkon Street, two men were busy getting ready to kill.

(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. 

.

No offer that allows the continued existence of a Jewish state will be acceptable to them. No, it’s not about “race”. by Victor Rosenthal

The Jew-hatred that burns so hot among the Palestinian Arabs, nurtured over the years by the Palestinian leadership and tolerated and even subsidized by the West, is the single most important factor that prevents a peaceful end to the conflict here. But that doesn’t fit Bernie and Beto’s worldview. They worry about the human rights of the Palestinian Arabs, but don’t notice that the right to life of the Jews in Israel is threatened by an array of dozens of countries, including some that are armed to the teeth with rockets aimed at Israel. They think that Israel has not offered enough to the Palestinians, despite the fact that she offered far more than she could afford several times, and the offers were rejected – because no offer that allows the continued existence of a Jewish state will be acceptable to them.

Victor Rosenthal..
Abu Yehuda..
28 April '19..
Link: http://abuyehuda.com/2019/04/no-its-not-about-race/

Americans need to take a vacation from using the word “racist,” at least in connection with Israel, because they don’t have the slightest idea of what they are talking about, and it’s insulting as hell. Especially from presidential hopefuls:

That [US-Israel] relationship, if it is to be successful, must transcend partisanship in the United States, and it must be able to transcend a prime minister who is racist, as he warns about Arabs coming to the polls, who wants to defy any prospect for peace as he threatens to annex the West Bank, and who has sided with a far-right, racist party in order to maintain his hold on power. – Beto O’Rourke

I just believe that the United States should deal with the Middle East on a level playing field basis. In other words, the goal must be to try to bring people together and not just support one country, which is now run by a right-wing – dare I say – racist government. – Bernie Sanders

I know that Americans are obsessed with race. It’s understandable, given the historical facts that half of the country had a slavery-based economy until 1865, that vicious legally-sanctioned discrimination against the descendants of those slaves persisted until the 1960s, and that racial hatreds – on the part of both whites and blacks – are still prevalent in American society.

This is an American problem. It is not Israel’s problem, although Israel’s problem is based in history, too. It is the history of violent Arab/Muslim rejection of Jewish sovereignty anywhere in the region, which is championed today by the Palestinian Arab leadership represented by the PLO and Hamas.

Israel’s problem is not race-related. Jews and Arabs are closer genetically than Jews – even Ashkenazi Jews – and Europeans. It is not color-related. Jews and Arabs both come in all colors. It is not even an ethnic conflict, since Jews and Arabs can and do get along – despite many cultural differences – in Israel, in environments where the influence of the PLO and Hamas is weak.

Our conflict is a violent political conflict. But unlike similar conflicts all over the world, ours is not allowed to end. The Jewish people has spiritual, historical, legal, aboriginal, and moral rights to what we call the Land of Israel, and we’ve defended those rights through several wars. But for two main reasons, the conflict cannot be ended.

One reason is that the Western world is not happy with the idea of a sovereign Jewish state. It doesn’t like the idea of an ethnic nation-state in general, and it doesn’t like the idea of a Jewish one in particular. It has internalized the KGB-developed narrative of a Palestinian people whose “human rights” are denied by the very existence of a Jewish state. So the West keeps pushing various “solutions,” and the Arabs keep rejecting the ones that allow the Jewish state to continue to exist.

Israel is not the one denying the Palestinians an independent state - by Aaron Kliegman

...The Palestinians could take a few notes. So too could the media and anti-Israel politicians, who only perpetuate the conflict by giving the Palestinians a pass on accepting responsibility for their own stateless plight.

Aaron Kliegman..
Freebeacon.com..
27 April '19..

It is easy to forget that, in 1947, when the United Nations recommended the creation of a Jewish state in Mandatory Palestine, the international body also recommended the creation of an Arab state—what would today be a national home for the Palestinians. The idea was to partition the land into two separate entities—in other words, a two-state solution. Indeed, in 1988, the Palestine National Council described the partition resolution as what "still provides those conditions of international legitimacy that ensure the right of the Palestinian Arab people to sovereignty." Yet at the time of the resolution, the Arabs—no one used the term "Palestinians" then—boycotted the U.N. Special Committee on Palestine, which the General Assembly empowered to make recommendations about the future government of the territory, rejecting both the partition and a single, binational state. Then the Arabs completely, and unambiguously, rejected the General Assembly's partition plan, believing that, once the British left Mandatory Palestine, they would defeat the Jews and control the entire area. Of course the Arabs failed, despite the help of several armies. The Jewish state of Israel, established in 1948, endured, and the Palestinian Arabs, who could have had their own state, remained stateless.

Since then, the Palestinians have repeatedly turned down offers of statehood. First, they did not seek the West Bank when Jordan controlled it from 1949 to 1967. Only when the land was back in Israeli control following the Six-Day War did the Palestinians again call it disputed. Twelve years later, Israel worked to offer the Palestinians autonomy, which would have been a major step toward full independence, to no avail. Then in 2000 and 2008, Israel offered the Palestinians control of virtually all of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, with a capital in East Jerusalem. Each time the Palestinians rejected the offer, even waging a violent uprising against the Israelis following the failure in 2000. One would be hard-pressed to find another national independence movement, beyond the Palestinian one, that has turned down formal offers of statehood in the territory they claim. Indeed, the Palestinians have, time and again, set new standards for stubbornness.

And yet, despite this history, most of the world seems to blame Israel for the Palestinians' situation.

(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. 

.

The Good Prince, the Bad Prince and the Iran Deal - by Victor Rosenthal

...I know I am not exaggerating when I say that President Trump is a controversial figure in the US. But he is not controversial in Israel, where almost everyone agrees that he has been the most pro-Israel president – in terms of actual actions, not just words – since Truman. And most Israelis would be happy to see him re-elected in 2020. But that’s up to American voters to decide. And unfortunately, perhaps in part because Trump has been so pro-Israel, many of his opponents have moved in the opposite direction. Six of the most likely candidates to oppose Trump have said that if elected they would restore US participation in the nuclear deal – that is, they would remove the sanctions re-imposed by President Trump.

Victor Rosenthal..
Abu Yehuda..
25 April '19..
Link: http://abuyehuda.com/2019/04/the-good-prince-and-the-iran-deal/

It’s become a truism that the hatred and harassment of individual Jews and Jewish communities that once was prevalent in the lands of the diaspora before the rebirth of a Jewish state has since morphed into loathing and persecution of that state.

There are other parallels. Jewish communities in Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East had a precarious existence, depending on the good will of the local prince or emir. If the ruler liked the Jews – or, probably more correctly – found them more useful than despicable, they could live their lives relatively undisturbed. If, on the other hand – well, you know the story.

Today the position of the Jewish state is also dependent on powerful people and entities far beyond Israel’s control. In particular, the State of Israel is strongly affected by the policies and actions of the US. In America, foreign policy, and especially practical actions and reactions to events in the international arena, are primarily in the hands of the president and his appointees. These days, the President of the United States is the “prince” whose attitude most affects whether Israel thrives or withers.

Israel could have tried harder to reduce her dependence on the US and her susceptibility to pressure from the American government. She should have. I would like to believe that the desirability of this is becoming evident to Israeli officials, but the pull of “free” military hardware is hard to ignore. And there is some truth in the idea that Israelis simply admire the US and value a close relationship with her.

In recent times, Khamenei has been playing Haman to the American president’s Ahasuerus. The Iranian playbook calls for Israel to be battered by simultaneous attacks from Hezbollah’s and Hamas’ rocket forces, and invaded by proxies from both the North and South. The regime is working on increasing the number, payloads, defensibility, and accuracy of the rockets in the hands of her proxies as well as in Iran herself. At the same time she is developing new proxies by establishing Iraqi Shiite militias in Syria, modeled on the Lebanese Hezbollah. All this is intended to be shielded under a nuclear umbrella, whose development is proceeding.

Taken by itself, it seems that war between Israel and Iran is guaranteed. But there is one other possibility – the only alternative that I can imagine, given the objectives of the Iranian regime. And that is that the regime can be toppled by internal opposition encouraged by economic pressure from the US.

It’s a longshot, because a regime that is demonstrably willing to shoot down anti-government protesters in the street, that is buttressed by paramilitary militias, and that terrorizes and murders opposition figures, is hard to overthrow. The regime is quite prepared to control the allocation of resources in such a way that the general population suffers bitterly as long it remains in power, so economic pressure needs to be tough and protracted.

The alternative is a very destructive war for both Israel and Iran. If it comes to this, then I would hope that Israel will strike preemptively and hard. But that’s another discussion.

Is there any people that deserve a state less than Palestinian Arabs (assuming they actually constitute a people)? - by Ken Cohen

Their entire brief history shows that their primary aspiration is the destruction of Israel and the genocide of its Jewish citizens. In the event they are successful in this horrific pursuit, getting a state of their own would just be a residual bonus.

Ken Cohen..
JNS.org..
23 April '19..

With U.S. President Donald Trump’s peace plan due to be announced in June, there is the unnerving possibility that Palestinian Arabs may take a giant step towards statehood. Such a move would inevitably lead to warfare and bloodletting in the Middle East.

In the absence of a clear path to statehood—which the Trump plan is unlikely to provide—Palestinian Arabs would likely respond in the only way they have known: terror and violence. Yet that violence, which Israel has contained for decades, would pale in comparison to the long-term explosions that would follow Palestinian statehood (or even its approximation).
Often overlooked, though, is this more profound reality: The Palestinian Arabs have no reasonable basis for achieving statehood.

Indeed, when it comes to peoples around the world seeking their own countries, Palestinian aspirations are the most unworthy.

(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. 

.

Truth be told, who denied the Palestinians an independent state? Not Israel - by Jonathan S. Tobin

Why does “The New York Times” continue to deny historical truth in its latest lament about the plight of the Palestinians?

Jonathan S. Tobin..
JNS.org..
22 April '19..

According to The New York Times, the re-election of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has left Palestinian families seeing “no light at the end of the tunnel.”

A feature published on the front page of Monday’s Times focuses on the despair felt by Palestinian families about the current stalemate in the peace process. They know that the Palestinian Authority that rules over their cities, towns and villages is horribly corrupt and unable to conclude a peace deal with Israel. And they understand that Israelis have no more faith in the prospects of peace than they do.

The piece shows that some Palestinians are rethinking the ideology that has fueled a century-long war on Zionism. But they also don’t mention a basic fact that defines the current situation: The Palestinian leadership has repeatedly rejected compromises that would have given them the statehood they claim to want. It’s interesting that nowhere in the 1,000-word article does the Times take notice of this fact.

This omission speaks volumes not only about the ignorance and obtuse nature of the criticism of Israel that emanates from the paper, but also about the chattering classes and foreign-policy establishment that take their cues about the Middle East from its pages.

(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. 

.

The Anti-Defamation League's distortion of the annexation debate - by Stephen M. Flatow

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu never called for the “annexation of the West Bank.” What he said was that he might propose extending Israeli law to Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria.

Stephen M. Flatow..
JNS.org..
22 April '19..

Some liberal American Jewish organizations are urging U.S. President Donald Trump to oppose Israeli annexation of any part of Judea and Samaria. Some conservative Jewish organizations are urging the opposite. Good. It’s time we had a full debate in the American Jewish community about this issue. Serious dialogue and a meaningful conversation are long overdue.

Unfortunately, the Anti-Defamation League has gotten the conversation off to a poor start by distorting and misrepresenting some of the key facts that need to be considered.

In an op-ed in The Forward, ADL spokesman Kenneth Jacobson began by noting that the ADL was one of the signatories on the letter denouncing “any steps by Israel to annex territory in the West Bank.”

But as the op-ed progressed, Jacobson’s language became more and more slippery. By the third paragraph, he had gone from “steps to annex territory in the West Bank” to talking about outright “annexation of the West Bank”—that is, the whole thing.

That’s a red herring because Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu never called for “annexation of the West Bank.” What he actually said was that he might propose extending Israeli law to Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria.

Not content with having altered Netanyahu’s words, the ADL spokesman then proceeded to argue against what Netanyahu didn’t say. Jacobson listed all sorts of frightening things that might ensue as a “result of annexing the West Bank.”

(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. 

.

A sovereign nation owes no explanations to foreign “masters” or patrons - by Forest Rain

...Colonized Jews hate being told that they are colonized. The idea that the culture of the land in which they live dominated and swallowed up their Jewish identity is repugnant. Historically Jews have preferred to believe that are happily integrated and welcome in the society in which they live (“I’m not Jewish, I’m a German of the Mosiac faith”). Historically it has been non-Jewish neighbors who taught Jews otherwise. Colonization is a harsh definition, it is more common to hear the softer terminology: “diaspora mentality” which means having the mentality of a scattered people, living at the mercy of others. In other words, this is the mentality of people who are not sovereign and lack the power to determine their own fate.

Forest Rain..
Inspiration from Zion..
20 April '19..

There are two kinds of people who hate strong Jews: your run-of-the-mill Jew haters (classical antisemites) and colonized Jews.

2000 years of living as unwelcome guests in other people’s lands have taken a toll on the Jewish People. Putting your head down, being quiet in the face of abuse and minimizing signs of Jewishness have become habits, so deeply ingrained that many fail to recognize their existence. Judaism upholds the sanctity of life and, because of this, actions taken by Jews to hide their Jewishness in order to survive were approved. Even religious traditions were changed in order to adapt to the realities of living in places where it was not necessarily a good idea to be “too Jewish” – for example, lighting and placing the Hanukah candles inside the home rather than in a public place where everyone passing by can see.

The re-establishment of the Jewish State led to a new alignment of powers. Now the classical antisemites can direct their Jew-hatred at the Jewish State rather than their Jewish neighbors. The oldest hatred has been reborn with modern branding: “I don’t hate Jews, I just hate Israel.” Or, an even more sophisticated version: “I don’t hate Jews or Israelis, I just hate the Israeli government.”

For colonized Jews the statements are different. The fact that these are said by Jews and seem more “nuanced” makes them harder for most people to address: “I love Israel, that’s why I hate the policies of the Israeli government.” Or “Why does Israel have to make waves and cause problems? Why was it necessary to move the embassy to Jerusalem? Pass the Nation-State Law? Those things were obvious and just upset people.”

Colonized Jews hate being told that they are colonized. The idea that the culture of the land in which they live dominated and swallowed up their Jewish identity is repugnant. Historically Jews have preferred to believe that are happily integrated and welcome in the society in which they live (“I’m not Jewish, I’m a German of the Mosiac faith”). Historically it has been non-Jewish neighbors who taught Jews otherwise.

Colonization is a harsh definition, it is more common to hear the softer terminology: “diaspora mentality” which means having the mentality of a scattered people, living at the mercy of others. In other words, this is the mentality of people who are not sovereign and lack the power to determine their own fate.

It is important to note that while Jews who live in the diaspora are more likely to have a diaspora mentality, there are plenty of Israelis with the same mindset.


This terminology enrages those who it most aptly describes.

(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. 

.