JINO's protest David Friedman's nomination to be US Ambaassador to Israel
Several 'as a Jews' protested David Friedman's nomination as US Ambassador to Israel in a Senate hearing on Thursday.
Let's go to the videotape.
One of the things that upsets the JINO's is David's connection to the yeshiva in Beit El (a connection that is likely the result of one of his children studying there - that's usually how these connections are formed).
As the Senate holds a confirmation hearing Thursday on the nomination
of David Friedman, he could face grilling about his ties to Beit El, a
community north of Jerusalem located in the heart of the occupied
territory Palestinians demand for an independent state.
A bankruptcy attorney from the Five Towns area of Long Island,
Friedman is a major donor to Beit El and serves as the president of the
American Friends of Beit El Yeshiva, the U.S. fundraising arm of the
settlement’s Jewish seminary and affiliated institutions, including high
schools, an Israeli military prep academy, a newspaper for the
religious Jewish settler community and the right-wing news site Arutz
Sheva.
They make the entire town sound like shnorrers (beggars). In fact, the 'American Friends' setup is entirely legal - nearly every school in Israel that raises money in the US has one in order for donors to qualify for 501(c)(3) deductions. Each of the other institutions likely has its own 'American Friends' with the likely exception of Arutz Sheva, which the last time I checked was a commercial venture.
But even by Trump’s new standards, Friedman appears to be extreme.
Friedman is a fervent supporter of the settlements and an outspoken
opponent of Palestinian statehood.
“I have expressed my skepticism about two-state state solutions
because of what I perceive as the Palestinians inability to denounce
terrorism and recognize Israel as a legitimate state,” Friedman said.
If that's 'extreme,' I don't many Orthodox Jews in the United States or Israel who aren't extremists.
In Beit El, the Friedman Faculty House, which bears his and his wife’s
names on the facade, is built on private Palestinian land without
permission from its Palestinian landowners, according to the
anti-settlement watchdog Kerem Navot.
And now CBS is accepting claims by Israel's Hebrew 'Palestinian' daily as 'facts.' Prove it.
Israel's Leftist youth do something good, but would they do it for 'settlers'?
The Jerusalem Post reports that a conglomeration of 'Zionist' youth groups has been collecting winter clothes and blankets for Syrian refugees.
The items have been taken to a collection point, a representative
confirmed to JTA. From there, a partner aid organization is facilitating
the delivery of the goods to the refugees, who won’t know their country
of origin. The representative said the delivery date and method could
not be revealed due to the sensitive nature of the situation.
Because if the Syrians found out they were coming from the 'Zionist entity,' they'd probably burn them, even if they didn't really want to turn them away, because... 'Palestine uber alles.'
“I thought people would be reluctant to support an effort they would not
get credit for,” Gilad Perry, Dror Israel’s international
collaborations director, said in a statement. “I was amazed to see how
wrong I was. The generosity of people just caring for those who suffer
from the cold winter on the other side of the border, in an ‘enemy
country,’ overwhelmed me.”
Amazing. Leftist Israelis willing to do something for which they won't get any credit except in an article in the JPost.... Oh wait, how do you know they're Leftist? Well, if you're an Israeli, you recognize two of the three names of the groups involved, and there's a hint at the end of the article.
HaNoar HaOved VeHaLomed (Youth Who Work and Learn) is a sister movement
of Habonim Dror, long affiliated with the Labor Zionist movement.
So please forgive my cynicism. I'm all in favor of helping out Syrian refugees with clothes and blankets (but not with letting them unvetted into Israel, the US or any other western country). And there ought to be a lesson from the fact that Israelis are helping these poor people while they get nothing from any of the oil-rich Gulf countries.
But I have to ask another question. Suppose - just suppose - that there were Jewish revenants (known in the international media as 'settlers') who were expelled from their homes in Judea and Samaria and Gaza, who were out in the cold and the rain today who had no warm clothing and no blankets. Would the Leftist Zionist movements be willing to take up collections for them too? They'd even say thank you. You wouldn't have to cut out all the Israeli labels for them. And you could even get credit for helping them. So would the Labor Zionist movements help them?
Sadly, I think we already know the answer to that question. This is from a post I did in May 2012, citing statistics from the summer of 2011 - six years after the Jews of Gush Katif in Gaza were expelled from their homes. Hint: There were no Labor Zionists lining up to help the Jews of Gush Katif, with or without credit.
Perhaps this is the time to look at some statistics regarding the Jewish
refugees from Gaza, who were expelled from their homes seven years ago
this summer. This is from a United Nations report(!) from June 2011.
About 230 of the 1,450 families from Gush Katif (16 percent) have moved into permanent homes, according to a December 2010 report released by the Gush Katif “committee”.
Unemployment among former Gush Katif residents is running at about 18
percent, while under-employment is 20 percent, said the “committee”.
Before the withdrawal, unemployment was 5 percent, with 85 percent
working in Gush Katif, according to JobKatif, an NGO created to help former residents rebuild their livelihoods.
While
unemployment is much worse in Gaza, the unemployment rate among the
evacuees is about double the rate of the general Israeli population.
Children have faced adjustment issues and the divorce rate increased,
along with financial problems, say former residents. Government
compensation that was received, was lower than the value of the land and
did not allow farmers to re-establish their farms, according to the
“committee”.
Shilat Kahalani, spokesperson for the Mateh
Binyamin Regional Council which covers 42 Israeli settlements in the
West Bank (known as Judea and Samaria to Israelis), told IRIN that many
former Gush Katif residents wanted to rebuild their homes and lives in
the West Bank, but were prevented from doing so by a building
moratorium which was only lifted in September 2010, having been in
force for 10 months.
About
380 farms existed in Gushi Katif (of which 240 were operational), but
only 28 percent of the owners of agricultural land have resumed
farming. Most business owners, too, have not returned to their trade
and were not appropriately compensated, according to the “committee”.
“Disengaging a community is not something that can be rebuilt easily,
and many families never received promised full financial support,”
Kahalani said.
A June 2010 report
on the findings of the Israeli “State Commission of Inquiry into the
Handling of the Evacuees from Gush Katif and Northern Samaria by the
Authorized Authorities”, placed blame on the state of Israel.
“The State of Israel failed in its handling of the evacuees,” it said.
“Five years after, most of the evacuees are still living in temporary
caravan sites; the construction of most of the permanent housing has
not yet commenced; and the decisive majority of the public structures
in the evacuees’ new settlements have not yet been built.”
“It
was a mission of the government to settle people in Gaza,” said former
Gush Katif resident Debbie Rosen, and “there must be a solution for
every settler”. She received half the value of her home in Gush Katif,
and she and her six children are still waiting for their new house to
be built, she added.
And for those who think that the
Ulpana neighborhood is going to be 'evacuated' quietly with the soldiers
called in to do the job embracing the residents in tears, consider
this.
“People in my community are unwilling to be evacuated
because on a personal level they witnessed the awful outcomes of such a
disengagement on the lives of the Gush Katif evacuees,” Binyamin council
spokesperson Kahalani said.
That might have something to do with the violence in Amona during my last trip to the US a couple of weeks ago (violence that I did not have time to cover).
If only the Labor Zionists cared as much for their own as they do for the other....
As of July 2014, the UN estimates a population of 2,731,052 in the 'West Bank' of which 83% are 'Palestinian Arab,' 33.7% are aged 0-14, and 21.7% are aged 15-24.
As of July 2014,the UN estimates a population of 1,816,379 in Judenrein Gaza, of which 44.7% are 0-14 years old.
Israelis thumb their noses at US and EU: Housing prices in 'settlements' skyrocket
For those who are new or otherwise wondering why I put 'settlements' in scare quotes in the title to this post, it's because I hate the term. To me at least, it gives an impression of being something temporary, and I cannot think of any place populated by Jews in Israel as being a temporary home. Temporary homes for Jews only exist in the diaspora where we are supposed to pine for our imminent return to the land of Israel, and not in Israel itself. Surely as we sit a few days before Tisha b'Av, the fast that commemorates the destruction of the two Temples, we must understand that our forefathers were not sitting around waiting for their homes to be destroyed, even if they knew through the prophets that it was going to happen. Enough for my soapbox.
Israelis are becoming more secure that in fact the land of Israel - all of Israel - will remain ours. As a result, Jews are snapping up homes in Judea and Samaria as fast as they can be built, and prices are skyrocketing. The picture above is a partial view of Givat Zev, which is right outside Jerusalem, and which has been growing by leaps and bounds, filling more and more of the land that has been considered part of that town before the 1993 Oslo Accords. The picture was taken in April of this year.
But what's more impressive, as you will see in this article, is that Kfar Tapuach, which is not part of a 'settlement bloc' like Givat Zev, has also seen its home prices rising.
The
first time Michal Ronen traveled to her rental apartment in this Jewish
settlement in the occupied Palestinian territories, a firebomb struck
her bus.
“I was so hysterical,” she said. “I thought that happens every time.”
Now Ms. Ronen and her husband are looking to buy a home in Kfar Tapuach.
The
eagerness of Israelis to own a home on disputed land is an increasingly
important political and financial barrier to a comprehensive
Israeli-Palestinian peace based on two neighboring states, critics of
settlement expansion say.
Israel
has said that settlements aren’t an impediment to a two-state solution
because many of them could be exchanged for Israeli territory in a
future deal.
Prices
are rising faster in many Jewish settlements than in major cities such
as Jerusalem and Tel Aviv because of strong demand from Israeli home
buyers. Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu’s government is increasing the
incentives for settlers, despite objections from the U.S. and other
world powers to expanding the settlements.
Israel
would almost certainly have to compensate settlers for moving from any
land included in a future Palestinian state, according to researchers at
the Tel Aviv-based Macro Center for Political Economics. That would
amount to billions of dollars, depending on the number of settlers who
had to relocate, the center estimated.
Indeed. I don't trust 'Peace Now' for anything, so take this with a grain of salt, but look at this graphic.
It should be noted that all of the 'West Bank settlements' noted above are in 'settlement blocs,' areas that Israel says it would keep in any conceivable 'peace settlement' with the 'Palestinians.' The United States committed, during the Bush administration, that Israel would in fact be allowed to keep the 'settlement blocs,' a promise that was reneged upon by the self-proclaimed 'most pro-Israel administration evah.' Congress backed the Bush commitment.
While home prices have risen because people want to move to Judea and Samaria because it appears safe to do so, that 'safety' theoretically ought to exist only in the 'settlement blocs.' None of that explains the meteoric rise in prices in Kfar Tapuach:
In Kfar Tapuach, where Ms. Ronen lives, the price of land has more than
tripled in the past five years, according to data from Israel-based
property website Madlan.
...
Residents
of Kfar Tapuach, a settlement of roughly 200 families near the
Palestinian city of Nablus, said house prices have benefited from the
growth of a university in the nearby settlement of Ariel.
Ms.
Ronen said she and her husband, Yuval, moved to the settlement because
Mr. Ronen studies engineering at the university. They live there with
their three children. “We now really want to buy a house,” she said,
adding that they say it has to be now because prices are “going up
crazy.”
Well yeah, but tripled? Ariel has had the university for many years (although it got university status officially in 2012). And Israel is not like the US where you need a Bachelor's degree to be a plumber.
Yes, some of the rise is explained by straight supply and demand calculations: Under pressure from the self-proclaimed 'most pro-Israel administration evah' Israel has underbuilt even in the 'settlement blocs.' But if people felt they needed to worry constantly about being expelled from Judea and Samaria for a 'Palestinian state,' there would be no demand.
Bottom line: The rise in price is best explained by the fact that Israelis feel secure that their land will not be turned over to the 'Palestinians.' And that's good for everyone. Actions should have consequences.
IDF thumbs its nose at Europe, US State Department seethes
Four and a half years ago, the Europeans commenced a new strategy to try to force Israel to commit suicide: They began building illegally for the 'Palestinians' in areas that are classified as Area C. At the time I wrote:
When Israel entered into the Oslo Accords in 1993-1995, the entire area
of Judea and Samaria was split into three parts. 'Area A,' which mostly
comprised the seven major cities in Judea and Samaria, and which
contained most of the Arab population of the area, was to be under
'Palestinian' control. 'Area B' was to be under 'Palestinian' civilian
control with Israel responsible for security. 'Area C,' which includes
most of the Jewish cities and towns in Judea and Samaria, was to be
under complete Israeli control.
Under the Oslo Accords, there
were no restrictions on Israeli building in Area C. Those who negotiated
the Oslo Accords envisioned an eventual 'Palestinian autonomy' within
Areas A and B. There was no intent to establish a 'Palestinian state,'
and certainly no promises from Israel that one would be established. In
fact, the opposite was true. This is from Prime Minister Rabin's last
speech to the Knesset - in which he was advocating for a Knesset
endorsement of 'Oslo 2' - on October 5, 1995:
We view the
permanent solution in the framework of State of Israel which will
include most of the area of the Land of Israel as it was under the rule
of the British Mandate, and alongside it a Palestinian entity which
will be a home to most of the Palestinian residents living in the Gaza
Strip and the West Bank.
We
would like this to be an entity which is less than a state, and which
will independently run the lives of the Palestinians under its
authority. The borders of the State of Israel, during the
permanent solution, will be beyond the lines which existed before the
Six Day War. We will not return to the 4 June 1967 lines.
And these are the main changes, not all of them, which we envision and want in the permanent solution:
A. First
and foremost, united Jerusalem, which will include both Ma'ale Adumim
and Givat Ze'ev -- as the capital of Israel, under Israeli sovereignty,
while preserving the rights of the members of the other faiths,
Christianity and Islam, to freedom of access and freedom of worship in
their holy places, according to the customs of their faiths.
B. The security border of the State of Israel will be located in the Jordan Valley, in the broadest meaning of that term.
C. Changes
which will include the addition of Gush Etzion, Efrat, Beitar and
other communities, most of which are in the area east of what was the
"Green Line," prior to the Six Day War.
D. The establishment of blocs of settlements in Judea and Samaria, like the one in Gush Katif.
That's a far cry from what the 'international community' and the Obama administration are attempting to push on us today.
For a long time, Israel ignored the illegal European building. But the Europeans are obsessed with destroying the Jewish state (that's the strongest lesson I am learning from Tuvia Tenenboim's Catch the Jew), and the IDF has finally decided enough is enough.
The IDF on Tuesday morning razed five unauthorized Palestinian modular structures in the South Hebron region of the West Bank, three of which had been funded by the European Union. [Note the EU flag on the trailer - CiJ].
...
The five structures in question were part of the village of Um al-Kheir,
which is located next to the settlement of Carmel. Three of them were
newly built, very close to the security fence around Carmel.
The non-governmental group B’Tselem, which has opposed such
actions, released a video of the demolition, which showed the shovel of a
crane taking down the structure within minutes as the villagers
watched.
Israel is apparently going to begin taking illegal 'Palestinian' building seriously.
On Sunday, Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked visited the South Hebron Hills
to see the unauthorized Palestinian construction for herself.
“I
saw on this trip a tremendous amount of illegal Palestinian building in
Area C, with the help of foreign funding. We can’t allow for a double
standard when it comes to building. It’s not clear to me how those who
fight against Jewish building in Judea and Samaria are a leading force
in illegal Palestinian building,” Shaked said.
But on Monday - before the demolitions happened - the Obama-Clinton-Kerry State Department - the foreign policy czars of the self-proclaimed 'most pro-Israel administration evah' - was seething.
“We are concerned by the accelerated rate of demolitions undertaken by
Israeli authorities that continue in the West Bank as well as east
Jerusalem,” State Department Press Office Director Elizabeth Trudeau
told reporters in Washington at the daily briefing.
Funny - don't they demolish illegal buildings in the US?
The day the Republican party moved squarely into the pro-Israel corner
Yes, it's late again.
Here's video from Tuesday Republican national party platform committee meeting in which what is almost certainly the most pro-Israel platform ever by a US political party is adopted.
'Palestinians' whine to pollsters over Sunni Arabs preferring their own interests
There's a very detailed poll of 'Palestinian' public opinion out ('Palestinian' public opinion tends to be more measurable than in other places in the Arab Islamic world - they learned from Israel). While I may come back to this poll eventually, I'd like to focus on this part for a minute. Keep in mind that this is 'Palestinian' public opinion and not Sunni Arab or other Arabs or Muslims.
(7) The Arab World, war in Syria, ISIS, and US elections:
78% say the Arab World is too preoccupied with its own concerns, internal
conflicts, and the conflict with Iran and that Palestine is no longer the
Arab’s principal or primary issue or cause. Only 20% think Palestine remains
the Arab’s principle cause.
They finally are starting to understand that the Arab world is tired of them. It's the anti-Semitic Europeans who have been carrying the ball for the 'Palestinians' for many years now. While the Arab world has not made peace with us, there is a de facto detente, and this a result of shared interests and not love. But the bottom line is that the Arab world has abandoned the 'Palestinians' even more so than it did previously.
59% believe that there is an Arab Sunni alliance with Israel against Iran
despite the continued Israeli occupation of Arab land while 30% believe that
the Arabs would not ally themselves with Israel until it ends its occupation
and allows the creation of a Palestinian state.
I'm with the majority. Just from what we know, there is an alliance, and I'd estimate that it's even stronger behind the scenes. The 30% who think that the Arabs wouldn't ally themselves with Israel to save their own necks is simply unrealistic.
In light of the escalating conflict in Syria and the emergence of three main
parties to the conflict, we asked the public for its view on the party it
views as the more preferable or the one it views as the least harmful. The
largest percentage (40%) chose the Free Syrian army, 18% chose Bashar Asad
and his army, and 5% chose the extreme religious opposition, such as ISIS.
23% said they do not like any of the three parties.
The Syrian Free Army will go down in history as one of the biggest (of many) foreign policy mistakes by the Obama administration. The FSA could have become a 'moderate' (in relative terms) group had Obama and Clinton chosen to aid it in 2011-12. They did not. Now, it's nearly as Islamist as ISIS. Why Trump isn't pounding Clinton on this....
An overwhelming majority of 88% believes that ISIS is a radical group that
does not represent true Islam and 8% believe it does represent true Islam.
4% are not sure or do not know. In the Gaza Strip, 16% (compared to 3% in
the West Bank) say ISIS represents true Islam.
79% support and 18% oppose the war waged by Arab and Western countries
against ISIS.
This is actually a pleasant surprise.
We asked the public about the US elections and which presidential candidate,
Hilary Clinton or Donald Trump, it viewed best for the Palestinians. A large
majority (70%) said there is no difference between the two candidates, while
12% said Clinton is better and 7% said Trump is better.
I'd love to see a survey of what US citizens in Israel think of the US elections.... I don't like either of them, and am tempted to 'stay home.'
Leader of self-proclaimed 'most pro-Israel administration evah' backs BDS (in Judea and Samaria)
President Hussein Obama signed into law today a bill that includes extensive provisions targeting the boycott, divest, sanction (BDS) movement that seeks to destroy trade with Israel. However, in a signing statement (of the type to which he objected during the Bush administration and vowed that his administration would never issue), Obama objected to language that referred to 'Israeli controlled territory' and announced that his administration would not enforce the law against companies and countries that boycott the 'settlements.'
“I have directed my administration to strongly
oppose boycotts, divestment campaigns, and sanctions targeting the
State of Israel,” Obama said in a signing statement. “As long as I am
president, we will continue to do so. Certain provisions of this act, by
conflating Israel and ‘Israeli-controlled territories,’ are contrary to
longstanding bipartisan United States policy, including with regard to
the treatment of settlements.”
Obama further said in the statement that
“consistent with longstanding constitutional practice” the
administration would negotiate with other countries under the law “in a
manner that does not interfere with my constitutional authority to
conduct diplomacy,” language used in signing statements to signal that a
president will not apply a part of a law that does not comport with US
foreign policy.
The BDS portion of the law, backed by the
American Israel Public Affairs Committee, was authored by Rep. Peter
Roskam, R-Ill. and Rep. Juan Vargas, D-Calif.
There are multiple bills under consideration
in Congress and in over 20 state legislatures targeting BDS. Many of the
state bills mandate the divestment of state funds, including pensions,
from entities that boycott Israel and a number of those bills extend
protection to the settlements. Illinois and South Carolina have passed
into law in recent months anti-BDS bills that include protection for
settlements.
The Florida legislature this week passed a law
that includes settlement protections, and it awaits signing by Governor
Rick Scott. A similar bill was introduced this week in the Ohio
legislature.
The war against the 'settlements' comes to TripAdvisor
Sorry for not posting for a couple of days - I've been swamped with work.
The war against the 'settlements' has come to AirBnB and to TripAdvisor. The Washington Post's William Booth reports that the 'Palestinians' are protesting the offering of rooms in 'settlements' on the popular Bed and Breakfast site, and that the result has been a rush by 'settlers' to list more homes (Hat Tip: Memeorandum).
The Airbnb host said that once his guests see the view, “nobody wants
to talk politics.” Igal Canaan, a Jewish settler, threw open the doors
of his designer apartment to reveal a jaw-dropping panorama of blue sky
and Judean wilderness.
“In the morning, you can see shepherds
with their flocks,” said Canaan, pointing out a distant village often
associated with the birth of the prophet Jeremiah. “The view is totally
biblical.”
All this, plus swimming pool, kitchenette, fast WiFi and maybe a “welcome” bottle of wine, just 20 minutes from Jerusalem, for about $80 per night.
The guest reviews call it awesome — but according to the Palestinians, it is also very wrong.
That's about what Mrs. Carl and I pay for the zimmer we occasionally rent in the Galilee (which includes a jacuzzi but not a swimming pool) and it's a heck of a lot closer to our Jerusalem home. Hmmm.
A few weeks ago, Saeb Erekat, secretary general of the Palestine
Liberation Organization, sent a terse letter to Airbnb chief executive
Brian Chesky in San Francisco, warning that his company was “effectively
promoting the illegal Israeli colonization of occupied land.”
Airbnb said in a statement to the Associated Press that it “follows law and regulations where it can do business.”
Indeed they do. And the government of Israel certainly has no problem with 'settlers'revenants renting out their homes. And perhaps Saeb - the 'Palestinians' perennial chief negotiatorbottle washer should have kept his mouth shut.
So what did some Jewish settlers with an extra bedroom do?
“Ever since the Palestinians started complaining, our people took this
as a challenge and have been rushing to Airbnb to list their
properties,” said Miri Maoz-Ovadia, a spokeswoman for the Binyamin
Regional Council.
Israel's Hebrew 'Palestinian' Daily: Ezra Schwartz deserved to die
Haaretz, Israel's Hebrew 'Palestinian' daily, has published an article (accessible only behind a paywall, and I will not pay to access the full article) that implies that Ezra Schwartz, the Massachusetts teenager who was murdered last month in a terror attack, deserved to die because his yeshiva sent him to volunteer at an 'illegal West Bank outpost.' They even call it an 'Exclusive.'
The reality is that most Israelis don't pay to read Haaretz - in print or online - and it is only read by the European and US elites for whom the online service exists. They are the target market for articles like this one - the BDS'ers and the elites who try to ban Israeli products from Europe's supermarkets.
The reality also is that if your child attends an identifiably Zionist year-in-Israel program, they will probably visit places across the green line in Judea and Samaria or 'east' Jerusalem at some point. Those places might include 'illegal outposts.' There is no difference where you are going to hand out charity. A Jew is a Jew wherever he or she may be.
And the reality also is that the terrorists who murdered Ezra and tried to murder his friends had no clue why Ezra and his friends were there, and really didn't care why they were there. The terrorists were just looking for Jews to murder as they have for the last 150 years in this country.
Shame on the lowlife scum at Haaretz for dancing on Ezra's grave.
Hassan Nasrallah pays a shiva call... to a 'Palestinian' terrorist's father
Shavua Tov and a good week to everyone from New York City (okay, one of the boroughs).
Hezbullah chieftain Hassan Nasrallah paid a shiva (condolence) call by phone on Saturday to the family of Asharqat Katani. Katani was a 16-year old 'Palestinian' terrorist who was neutralized after attempting to stab Israelis at a hitchhiking post in Samaria this past week.
According to the Hezbollah-affiliated satellite television station
Al-Meyadeen, Nasrallah told the woman's father that his daughter
reminded the Lebanese Shi'ite leader of his son, Hadi, who was killed in
battle with IDF soldiers in Lebanon in 1997.
A portion of the
conversation between Nasrallah and the Palestinian father was aired on
Al-Meyadeen. At the end of their phone call, Nasrallah asked if there
was anything he could do for the family.
The father responded
that he would be pleased if Nasrallah mentioned his daughter's name
during his next speech. The Hezbollah leader agreed to do so.
Too bad Nasrallah did not offer to resettle the family in Lebanon.
Jeffrey Goldberg gets it... and most Israelis do too
This past week has been a surprising eye-opener for some people. Take, for instance, the Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg.
When violence against Jews occurs
inside Israel, or on the West Bank, a consensus tends to be reached
quickly by outside analysts and political leaders, one that holds that
such violence represents the inevitable consequence of Israel’s
occupation and settlement of Palestinian territory. John Kerry, the U.S.
secretary of state, said in an appearance
earlier this week at Harvard that, “What’s happening is that unless we
get going, a two-state solution could conceivably be stolen from
everybody. And there’s been a massive increase in settlements over the
course of the last years.” He went on to say, “Now you have this
violence because there’s a frustration that is growing, and a
frustration among Israelis who don’t see any movement.”
(On Friday morning, speaking with NPR’s Steve Inskeep, Kerry revised and extended his comments, criticizing Abbas—in a passive way — for the violence: “There's no excuse for the violence. ... And
the Palestinians need to understand, and President Abbas has been
committed to nonviolence. He needs to be condemning this, loudly and
clearly. And he needs to not engage in some of the incitement that his
voice has sometimes been heard to encourage.”)
It is sometimes difficult for policymakers such as Kerry, who has
devoted so much time and energy to the search for a solution to the
Israeli-Arab impasse, to acknowledge the power of a particular
Palestinian narrative, one that obviates the possibility of a solution
that allows Jews national and religious equality. Writing in Haaretz,
the left-center political scientist Shlomo Avineri describes an
important disconnect that often goes unnoticed, even in times like
these: Many Palestinians believe that “this is not a conflict between
two national movements but a conflict between one national movement (the
Palestinian) and a colonial and imperialistic entity (Israel).” He goes
on to write, “According to this view, Israel will end like all colonial
phenomena—it will perish and disappear. Moreover, according to the
Palestinian view, the Jews are not a nation but a religious community,
and as such not entitled to national self-determination which is, after
all, a universal imperative.”
Avineri, like most sensible
analysts, understands the many and variegated reasons for the continued
failure of the peace process:
[M]utual distrust between the two populations, internal pressures
from the rejectionists on both sides, Yasser Arafat’s repeated
deceptions, the murder of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, the electoral
victories of Likud in Israeli elections, Palestinian terrorism,
continuing Israeli settlement activities in the territories, the bloody
rift between Fatah and Hamas, American presidents who did too little
(George W. Bush) or too much and in a wrong way (Barack Obama), the
political weakness of Mahmoud Abbas, governments headed by Netanyahu
that did everything possible to undermine effective negotiations. All
this is true, and everyone picks and chooses what fits their views and
interests—but beyond all these lies a fundamental difference in the
terms in which each side views the conflict, a difference many tend or
choose to overlook.
The violence of the past two weeks, encouraged by
purveyors of rumors who now have both Israeli and Palestinian blood on
their hands, is rooted not in Israeli settlement policy, but in a
worldview that dismisses the national and religious rights of Jews.
There will not be peace between Israelis and Palestinians so long as
parties on both sides of the conflict continue to deny the national and
religious rights of the other.
Daniel Gordis speaks for many, if not most, Israelis, who finally understand that the conflict isn't about borders or 'settlements.' It's about Israel's very existence.
What Israelis are coming to understand by virtue of the fact that the
attackers are not Palestinians living in refugee camps but Israeli Arabs
— who have access to Israeli health care, Israeli education, Israel's
free press and right of assembly, protection for gays and lesbians and
much more — is that this latest round of violence is simply the newest
battle in the War of Independence that Israel has been fighting for 68
years now.
The war began even before Israel was a state — Arabs attacked Israel
not when David Ben-Gurion declared independence on May 14, 1948, but
when the United Nations General Assembly voted — on November 29, 1947 —
to create a Jewish state. When formal independence followed some six
months later, the attacking Arab militias were replaced by standing
armies of five Arab nations — Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and even
Iraq (which joined the fray even though it did not share a border with
Israel).
Over the years, the enemies have shifted (Israel signed peace treaties
with Egypt and Jordan, but now there are the Palestinians and Iran is
both pursuing a weapon of mass destruction and declaring that Israel
must be destroyed) and the methods have changed (standing Arab armies
have been replaced by terrorism at home and an international campaign to
delegitimize Israel in the UN and beyond). But the basic goal of
Israel's enemies remains the destruction of the Jewish state.
Increasingly, Israelis (who, polls show, overwhelmingly would like to
get out of the West Bank and live peacefully alongside a Palestinian
State that would recognize Israel) fear that while for us this is a
conflict that can be settled by adjusting borders and guaranteeing
security for both sides, for our enemies this is an all-or-nothing
battle in which the only end would be for Israel to disappear.
And Gordis, who is about as moderate as American immigrants come, writes that the current round of violence might mean the end of any pretense of a 'peace process.'
Israeli Jews have taken note — and the consequences are likely to be
longstanding.
While Israelis are feeling vulnerable, they are also
feeling abandoned. When Secretary of State John Kerry said that he would
not "point fingers from afar" at who was responsible for the violence,
and called the latest attacks part of a "revolving cycle that damages
the future for everybody," he convinced Israelis once again that the
present American administration has abandoned any ability to distinguish
right from wrong, just from unjust, wise from destructive. America is
hopelessly irrelevant in the Middle East, which means that Israel is
sadly very alone.
When Americans fret in the months and years to come that the peace
process is stuck, Israelis hope that they will remember that when the
violence broke out again, the world's newspapers ignored it. When Abbas
said Israel had murdered a 13-year-old Palestinian attacked and the
Israeli press then published a photo showing the boy sitting in an
Israeli hospital bed, Abbas did not retract and the world ignored his
mendacity.
When the American secretary of state was asked to comment on why the
new round of violence erupted, he refused to mention Abbas and said he
would not point fingers. When Palestinians incited, Israeli Arabs (20%
of Israel's population) who picked up knives convinced many Israelis
that they were enemies, not fellow citizens.
Israelis hope that people will remember all that, but we also know better.
...
Why? Is it because Israelis do not want peace? Is it because we do not
understand that our future would be better if Palestinians could have a
democratic, functioning state? Is it because we're oblivious to their
legitimate complaints?
No. It's simply that we know, with no doubt, that for our enemies, this
is a conflict not about borders but about our very right to be here. We
know that, overwhelmingly, the Arab world is still committed to driving
us out of this land. So we'll stay, and tough it out — whatever the
world thinks of the steps we have to take — for as long as it takes. For
as Golda Meir put it decades ago with her characteristic wit, "Israelis
have a secret weapon — we have nowhere else to go."
Indeed, many (if not most) of us have no place else to go. And even if we did, most of us are not going to leave.
And the world is just going to have to learn to deal with that.
Security cabinet likely to adopt these proposed actions from Netanyahu on 'Palestinian' terrorism
Israel's security cabinet is meeting tonight and the Prime Minister's Office has released a list of proposed measures it is likely to adopt (via Chico Menashe):
Terrorists' homes will be destroyed. The Prime Minister has charged the Attorney General to find a way to shorten the legal procedures for doing so.
Increased forces in Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem as necessary. Thousands of police have already been added in Jerusalem and hundreds more will be added. The police will enter deeply into 'east' Jerusalem neighborhoods and no one will be exempt because of his location.
The status quo on the Temple Mount will be maintained.
No Israeli citizens will be allowed to take the law into their own hands.
Advancing the paving of bypass roads.
Use of administrative detention against rioters.
The Prime Minister demanded forceful action against inciters, including those on social media.
The Prime Minister demanded the prosecution of bystanders and shopkeepers who did not help the terror victims in the Old City of Jerusalem on Saturday night and even injured them (see the video two posts down).
Netanyahu: "We will not tolerate a situation where a Jewish woman has been stabbed and not only do bystanders not help her, they curse and even kick her. Those people will be brought to justice."
Expediting the adoption of laws that will hold minors and their parents criminally liable for throwing stones, Molotov cocktails and fireworks.
Rah, rah etc.
Sorry, but I don't see much new here. What's missing is IDF activity against the root causes of the terror - the terror organizations. Many organizations have rushed to take credit for the attacks over the last few days. The leadership of those organizations should be meeting up with hellfire missiles. The sooner the better.
While I don't agree with everything in this analysis, Udi Segal raises much cause for concern regarding the current situation involving the 'Palestinians.'
Another reason that Islamism has for the most part been halted in Judea
and Samaria can be traced to the fact that the Fatah movement is in a
fight for its very survival. It knows that failure would spell the end
for it, and Hamas would show it no mercy. When it comes to religious
fanaticism, the formula of “bad is good” applies.
This formula
is what guides the spread of radical Islamism. It is the source of
horror and shock that is generated by the specter of Shi’ite Islam as
represented by Iran and the Revolutionary Guards. The Islamic Republic
has spent a great deal of money financing terrorism as well as a costly
nuclear program.
The extremist Sunni organization, Islamic
State, took things a step further. Its actions dwarf the brutality of
the Al Quds Force. Even al-Qaida looks like a cute, cuddly teddy bear in
comparison. Have the people who have come under ISIS rule seen their
lives improve? The answer is no. Bad is good.
If we were to take a
peek at what is going on with our neighbors to the northeast, we are
left to wonder - is there anyone enjoying the situation in Syria now?
No. There is a brutal civil war there in which a quarter million people
have been butchered. As a country, Syria is in ruins. Its infrastructure
is crumbling. Its economy is in shambles. Its citizens are being
slaughtered, and those who survived are witnesses to acts that will stay
with them as personal and national traumas for generations to come.
Millions
have become refugees who have streamed into Jordan and Turkey. Now,
wretched and without any possessions, they knock on the doors of Europe.
Is this Arab pride? Is this Syrian courage? Hezbollah has lost 1,400
guerillas, more than one-tenth of its fighting force. ISIS is conquering
territory and losing some as well, bombing and being bombarded. Things
are bad, for everyone involved.
And this is precisely the goal.
For extremist Islam, bad is good. Only the destruction of the
foundations of contemporary Western culture and a return to the stone
age - in its simplest and historic meaning - will usher in the rule of
sharia, the austere form of Islam that was in effect 500 years ago. That
will pave the way for the establishment of the Islamic caliphate.
It
is quite an ambitious goal - taking apart the artificial entities
imposed by the West, including statehood, institutions of law and order,
economic structure, and norms of morality and regulations. The goal is
to destroy everything and wash it over with Islamism, some of whose
adherents believe is engaged in a war of armageddon.
This toxic
mix could easily merge with the rising tide of terror and rebellion
percolating in the Palestinian territories. With despair the dominant
theme, the Palestinians could decide to take everything apart. Even
Abbas, the serial threatener, is planning a provocation of his own by
announcing at the United Nations that he is handing back the keys to the
Palestinian Authority.
Read the whole thing. My own view is that this is the time to rule with an iron fist. That's why (as those who follow me on Twitter already know) I am all in favor of the new rules of engagement that allow the police and the IDF to shoot at stone throwers. The stone throwers are attempted murderers, and showing them mercy is a mistake. They are a deadly force and the law of proportionality requires responding to them with deadly force. Fortunately, the IDF has been able to shut much of the weapons flow to Judea and Samaria that led to the 'second intifada' 15 years ago, and there is no reason to let up now.
The most significant proposal is on banking, where large Israeli
institutions have daily dealings with major European banks, while also
providing loans and financing to Israeli businesses and individuals
based in the settlements.
Under European Commission guidelines from 2013, EU- and
member-state-funded lending cannot be provided to Israeli entities
operating in the occupied territories.
With the British government holding a controlling stake in some banks
following the financial crisis, that would in theory prevent those
banks providing financing to Israeli counterparts that have dealings in
the settlements.
"Do day-to-day dealings between European and Israeli banks comply
with the EU requirement not to provide material support to the
occupation?" the report asks, saying it is an issue that EU member
states have yet to resolve.
The issue extends into loans and mortgages. An Israeli with dual
European citizenship should, in theory, not be able to use a settlement
property as collateral for a European loan since Israeli-issued property
deeds are not recognised.
Another area in which the EU may be in violation of its own rules
relates to European charities that are tax-exempt while using funds to
support activities in the settlements, which the EU regards as illegal
under international law.
And the report questions whether Europe should accept qualifications
from academic, medical and other Israeli institutions based in the West
Bank given that it does not recognise Israel's sovereignty over the
territory.
Likewise, there is a question mark over whether the EU should be
dealing with Israeli institutions - such as the Ministry of Justice and
the national police headquarters - which are based in East Jerusalem.
Is this what we can expect next?
UPDATE 8:28 PM
A very interesting Twitter conversation: EU in Israel denies that any of this is going to happen.
But there are other reasons the Palestine issue has lost much of its
luster for many Arabs. One reason was cited the other evening by a
Jordanian businessman, Abu Furas, at a Ramadan fast-breaking dinner in
London. “Today, no Arab feels safe in his country,” he said.
“Ironically, the sole exceptions are Palestinians in the West Bank
because they know Israel will defend them if ISIS attacks. Even in Gaza,
most people secretly believe that Israel is their ultimate protection
against ISIS fighters trying to strike roots in the Sinai.”
Though the idea of Arabs being saved by Israel from massacre by their
own brethren sounds fantastic, events on the ground lend it some
weight.
Palestinians living in the Yarmouk refugee camp in Syria have been
massacred both by Bashar al-Assad’s troops and throat-cutting mujahideen
from ISIS. The massacre of Christians, Yazidis and Druze minorities by Islamist groups in Syria and Iraq contrasts with the safety those groups enjoy in Israel.
For weeks, Jordan has been bracing itself for an attack by ISIS on
Zarqa, a Palestinian-majority city near Syria. Such a move would bring
ISIS close to the West Bank and Israel proper, in which case, some
Jordanians believe, the Jewish state would stop its spread.
“Today, Arabs see that their own house is on fire,” says a Dubai
businessman. “In such a situation one could hardly think of burning
someone else’s house.”
There is no one else to save the Arabs. The United States? Couldn't care less. Europe? Will run away faster than you can say 'Yazidi.' The Gulf Countries? Don't know how to operate most of their toys. Only Israel will save its Arab population from ISIS.
The Illinois House and Senate may vote by Friday, April 24 on HB4011 and
SB1761, respectively. These bills would prohibit state agencies and
state retirement services from entering into contracts or investing in
companies that choose to boycott Israeli businesses ... including businesses based in [Judea and Samaria].
The Samaria Revenants Committee has put out a video attacking Israel's Left as collaborators with European (neo) Nazis.
Let's go to the videotape.
Does it go too far? Let's just say that one of the reasons it has caused such an uproar here is that there is a lot of truth to the accusations.... Note that the coin being flipped to each collaborator is a Euro and the Europeans heavily fund Israel's Leftist NGO's.
But I have to say that the Left has gone way out of line in response, accusing the Prime Minister of being behind the video. The revenants are nearly as critical of Netanyahu as they are of the Left.
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
