Israel Matzav

Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs' new 'hasbara' video

I've seen some criticism of this video on social media, but I actually think it's great and urge you all to spend three minutes or so watching it.

Let's go to the videotape.


Can't really argue with three quarters of a million views in three days, can you?

Labels: hasbara, Israel is a Jewish state, Israel is my home, Israel's Foreign Ministry

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:56 PM 3 comments

Increasingly likely bus bombing was a terror attack UPDATE - Critically injured person is the bomber

The Jerusalem Mayor's spokesman has already confirmed that the explosion on an empty Jerusalem bus this afternoon was a terror attack....

Israeli media now reporting that investigators increasingly convinced that Jerusalem bus bombing was terror attack

— Chemi Shalev (@ChemiShalev) April 18, 2016

Update - Israeli mayor's spokeswoman says a bomb caused an explosion on a bus in #Jerusalem in which 16 people were wounded

— Sky News Newsdesk (@SkyNewsBreak) April 18, 2016

#BREAKING: Israeli Officials Say a Bomb Caused Jerusalem Bus Explosion - https://t.co/qqowXXo1nD pic.twitter.com/U9jMFrqtaI

— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) April 18, 2016

UPDATE 7:44 PM

Confirmed: #Jerusalem explosion is first bus bombing in Israel since November 2012. Critically injured person seems to be bomber.

— Daniel Nisman (@DannyNis) April 18, 2016

UPDATE 7:50 PM

Here's a better picture of the two burning buses:


UPDATE 7:55 PM

And now Jerusalem's police chief has confirmed that it was a terror attack.

Israeli police now saying that the explosion on the Jerusalem bus was definitely the result of a bomb

— Jonah Mandel (@mandeljonah) April 18, 2016

Labels: Israel is my home, Jerusalem, Palestinian terrorism

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:41 PM 0 comments

Jerusalem

Jerusalem. Just Jerusalem (Hat Tip: Jack W).

Labels: East Jerusalem, Israel is my home, Jerusalem, Jerusalem is the capital of Israel

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:48 PM 2 comments

A European view of Jews in Jerusalem

For the record, as far as the Europeans are concerned, I too am an 'illegal fanatic Jewish settler.' And proud of it.

By the way, has anyone else noticed that the Hussein Obama administration has thus far had NOTHING to say about this?

Labels: BDS, East Jerusalem, European Union, Israel is my home, Jerusalem is the capital of Israel

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:28 AM 1 comments

Shades of Yitzchak Shamir: Housing units in 'east' Jerusalem approved day before Kerry arrival

Back in the late '80's and early '90's, we had a feisty Prime Minister named Yitzchak Shamir.

A former Lehi commander, Shamir wasn't going to be kept down. Every time then-President George H.W. Bush sent an emissary to see Shamir, on the day of or the day before the emissary's arrival, a new 'settlement' went up.

Are we seeing it happening again, albeit with the comparatively gutless Netanyahu hiding behind some low level functionaries?

On Wednesday, the day before US Secretary of State John FN Kerry is due to arrive, the Jerusalem Municipality quietly announced that 69 more Jewish homes in 'east' Jerusalem's Har Homa neighborhood have been green-lighted.

The Jerusalem Municipality on Wednesday approved construction permits for 69 new homes in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Har Homa, just one day before US Secretary of State John Kerry is due to arrive in hopes of rekindling direct Israeli Palestinian talks.

The homes are the tail end of large project of more than 1,000 units in Har Homa that was approved in August 2011 and for which tenders were issued in April 2012, according to the non-governmental group Peace Now and Jerusalem city councilman Meir Margalit (Meretz).

The contractor who won the bid on these last remaining 69 homes, had submitted the paper work regarding their construction to the Jerusalem Municipality's Local Planning Committee.
On Wednesday it issued construction permits for the project. The contractor is now authorized to start building.

The Jerusalem Municipality said said that the construction permit was given to a private contractor for a project that had already been approved for Har Homa. It added that city has not right to deprive property owners of their rights.

Somewhere Yitzchak Shamir is jumping for joy at this clever ploy. And we should be too. After all, Jerusalem is the capital of the Jewish people and the Jewish state.

Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Binyamin Netanyahu, East Jerusalem, George H. W. Bush, Har Homa, Israel is my home, Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, John Kerry, Yitzchak Shamir

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:26 PM 3 comments

State Department hits bottom, digs deeper

Which Republican candidate is going to be all over this first?

The following is a partial transcript of a press briefing at the US State Department a few hours ago (Hat Tip: Joe L).

Q: Yesterday there was a bit of a kerfuffle over an announcement that was made by the department about the travel of your boss. Is it the State Department's position that Jerusalem is not part of Israel?

MS. NULAND: Well, you know that our position on Jerusalem has not changed. The first media note was issued in error, without appropriate clearances. We reissued the note to make clear that undersecretary, acting undersecretary for -- our -- Kathy Stevens will be travelling to Algiers, Doha, Amman, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. With regard to our Jerusalem policy, it's a permanent-status issue. It's got to be resolved through the negotiations between the parties.

Q: Is it the view of the -- of the United States that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, notwithstanding the question about the embassy -- the location of the U.S. embassy?

MS. NULAND: We are not going to prejudge the outcome of those negotiations, including the final status of Jerusalem.

Q: Does that -- does that mean that you do not regard Jerusalem as the capital of Israel?

MS. NULAND: Jerusalem is a permanent-status issue. It's got to be resolved through negotiations.

Q: That seems to suggest that you do not regard Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Is that correct or not?

MS. NULAND: I have just spoken to this issue --

Q: (Inaudible.)

MS. NULAND: -- and I have nothing further to say on it.

Q: You've spoken to the issue --

MS. NULAND: Yeah.

Q: -- but (haven't answered ?) the question. And I think there's a lot of people out there who are interested in hearing a real answer and not saying -- and not trying to duck and say that this has got to be resolved by negotiations between the two sides.

MS. NULAND: That is our --

Q: What is the capital of Israel?

MS. NULAND: Our policy with regard to Jerusalem is that it has to be solved through negotiations. That's all I have to say on this issue.

Q: What is the capital of Israel according --

MS. NULAND: Our embassy, as you know, is located in Tel Aviv.

Q: So does that mean you regard Tel Aviv as the capital of Israel?

MS. NULAND: The issue on Jerusalem has to be settled through negotiations.

....

Q: I just want to go back to -- I want to clarify something, perhaps give you an "out" on your Jerusalem answer. Is it your -- is it your position that all of Jerusalem is a final-status issue, or do you think -- or is it just East Jerusalem?

MS. NULAND: Matt, I don't have anything further to what I've said 17 times on that subject. OK?

Q: All right. So hold on. So I just want to make sure. You're saying that all of Jerusalem, not just East Jerusalem, is a final-status issue.

MS. NULAND: Matt, I don't have anything further on Jerusalem to what I've already said.

I'm embedding the video of the briefing below. The questioning starts at 20:48 and goes until 22:40. They come back to it later at 43:45. The questioner in each case is Matthew Lee of the AP. There's also a good exchange with Lee about the P-5+1 negotiations in the 24:45 area.

Let's go to the videotape. For those who don't have the patience, there's an edited version below.



Full text of the video is here.

You also may want to see this memo from 1962, which shows that 50 years ago (when there were 11 countries that had their embassies in Jerusalem), the US had a policy of discouraging other countries from locating their embassies in Jerusalem. Of course, in 1962, 'east' Jerusalem was occupied by Jordan.

Hussein Obama says that Jerusalem 'must remain united,' and then he says that he has Israel's back. What could go wrong?

UPDATE 1:46 AM

Here's an edited version of the video with just the Jerusalem parts.

Let's go to the videotape.



It is true that in the early 1960's (and probably going back before that to David Ben Gurion declaring Jerusalem the capital in 1949), the US position was that all of Jerusalem was to be the subject of negotiations. But for at least the 20 years before President Obama took office, the US position SEEMED to be that it was only 'east' Jerusalem that was the subject of negotiations. In fact, the US bought land on which to locate an embassy several years ago. It's in 'west' Jerusalem.

UPDATE 3:31 AM

Welcome Power Line readers.

You may also want to see this update.

Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Israel is my home, Jerusalem is the capital of Israel

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:32 AM 1 comments

Step Up for Israel

I was asked to show you this video, which asks how you can change the way the world sees Israel.

Let's go to the videotape.

Labels: Israel is my home

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:34 AM 2 comments

One state or two?

This is a panel discussion with Yishai Fleisher (radio host and director of Eye On Zion Media), Dimitri Diliani (Fatah Revolutionary Council), and Alan Baker (retired Israeli Ambassador to Canada).

Leland Vittert is based in Jerusalem for Fox News. Fox News is the owner of the original content.

The 18-minute edited version of this program presented here was prepared by Eye On Zion Media which is an education and outreach project of the non-profit organization Kumah.

A 34 minute version of this program is available on request. Please email shalom@kumah.org to request the long version.

I think Yishai does quite well here.

Let's go to the videotape.

Labels: Israel is a Jewish state, Israel is my home, two-state solution

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:29 PM 1 comments

A new neighborhood in Jerusalem

A new neighborhood was dedicated in Jerusalem on Thursday nights. Maaleh HaZeitim features 119 brand new apartments and is located on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.

Let's go to the videotape.



Unfortunately, Friday brought this demonstration from (mostly Israeli) leftists.

Let's go to the videotape.



Here is some background on Maaleh HaZeitim:

Some background:

The 14.5 dunams of Ma'aleh Hazeitim were purchased over 100 years ago by Nissan Bak and Moshe Witteburg.

The Jordanian government confirmed their ownership in 1964 when an Arab tried to claim the land. Jordan held it in trust for the Jewish owners.

Irving Moskowitz bought the land in 1984.

In 1998 Moskowitz started building there.

In May 2011 the Antisemitic left began violently protesting the fact that Jews are living on legally purchased and uncontested land.

Oh, yes, it's in what the Obama administration calls 'east' Jerusalem. But why shouldn't Jews be allowed to live there?

Labels: Israel is a Jewish state, Israel is my home, Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, Maaleh HaZeitim

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:29 AM 1 comments

A Jewish response to Obama

Here's Manhigut Yehudit Chairman Moshe Feiglin with a Jewish response to President Obama. This was taped on Sunday - obviously before Netanyahu spoke and maybe even before Obama spoke at AIPAC on Sunday, but I doubt Netanyahu would (or could) make Moshe change a single word.

This is a great response.

Let's go to the videotape. Hebrew with English subtitles.

Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Israel is a Jewish state, Israel is my home, Moshe Feiglin

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:44 PM 2 comments

'Realism' exposed as fantasy

Jonah Goldberg draws inspiration from his first trip to Israel.

In Egypt, the popular uprising unfolding is not about Israel but about autocratic brutality, economic stagnation and skyrocketing prices. The same goes for Tunisia as well as the popular protests brutally crushed by Iran's mullahs in 2009. Turkey is not Islamifying because of the Palestinians. Al Qaeda surely hates Israel, but its roots lay in hatred of the Saudi royal family and the Islamist ambitions of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood.

And yet the "realist" fantasy that an Arabs-first (or Muslims-first) foreign policy will yield rich rewards endures. The French have followed that advice for generations. They nurtured the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in exile. They give special preference to their former colonies. They pander to Arab sensibilities. And what has it gotten them? A lot of burning cars but few lucrative oil deals.

As we've recently been reminded, Israel is the only truly democratic regime in the region, and therefore the most stable. But, we are told, if we were only more conciliatory to corrupt dictatorial regimes and more sympathetic to the "Arab street," the region would be more stable. (Ironically, this is very close to Israel's own position, no doubt because it will take any peace it can get.)

No doubt this is what the solons of American foreign policy hear from their Arab and Muslim interlocutors. And it is certainly what the autocrats in the Middle East want everyone to believe, starting with their own subjects. Tyrants always want to focus on scapegoats, insults to national honor and shadowy enemies. Why apologize for skyrocketing bread prices when you can demonize the "Zionist entity"?

Addressing the real problems in the region is just too hard, particularly when any effort to take attention off the Palestinians is greeted with outrage from an anti-Israel industry that cravenly singles out Israel as the worst human rights abuser in the neighborhood. Israel puts Arab critics in the Knesset. Egypt, Iran and Saudi Arabia put them in jail or in an unmarked grave.

All of this would be just as true if Israel retreated to the 1949 armistice lines tomorrow.

Indeed, it would be just as true. But a week or a month or a year or five years afterward, there would be no Israel, or there would be a lot of dead Jews (God forbid). And that, my friends, is what this is really about.

Welcome to Israel, Jonah.

Read the whole thing.

Labels: Egypt, Israel is a Jewish state, Israel is my home, Palestinians, realists' fantasy, Tunisia, Turkish obsession with Israel

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:41 PM 2 comments

If Israel were my home

As it happens, Israel is my home and has been for more than 19 years now. But for those of you who are still living in the diaspora, here's the US - Israel page of a website that compares living conditions between countries. Israel actually comes out pretty favorably in most of these comparisons (Hat Tip: Lance K).

Labels: Israel is my home

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:43 AM 1 comments