Change: Trump demands Sbarro murderer's extradition, tells 'Palestinians' to end incitement
One of Haaretz's editorials today speculated that ultimately, the 'Palestinians' will have to save Israel from enacting a 'two-state solution.' Israel Radio's midnight news gave two signals that the 'Palestinians' are being put in a position where they will have to behave properly, or there will be no support from the United States for a 'Palestinian state.'
First, the United States has demanded that Jordan extradite Ahlam Tamimi, who planned the Sbarro suicide bombing 16 years ago and drove the bomber to the downtown Jerusalem restaurant.
Tamimi scouted for a target before leading the bomber, Izz al-Din
Shuheil al-Masri, to the Sbarro restaurant. They arrived just before
2:00 pm, when the restaurant was filled with customers, dozens of women,
children and babies, and pedestrian traffic outside was at its peak.
Tamimi
departed before Al-Masri, thought to be carrying a rigged guitar case
or wearing an an explosive vest weighing 5 to 10 kilograms of
explosives, nails, nuts and bolts, detonated his bomb.
She is
currently a television host in Jordan, has hosted Hamas arch-terrorist
Saleh Arouri (who ordered the kidnapping of three Jewish teenagers in
June 2014), bragged of her involvement in others murders of Israelis and
is considered as a symbol of the Palestinians fight.
Israel Radio reported that Tamimi was sentenced to 16 life sentences (15 Israelis were murdered in the bombing and a 16th - Chana Nachenberg - is in a vegetative state to this day), but was released as part of the 'terrorists for Gilad' trade in 2011. Israel Radio said that two of the terrorists' victims were US citizens (I think it was actually more than two - Malki Roth and Shoshana Heyman HY"D were also American citizens).
Jordan may have a tough call to make, honoring its strong alliance to
the US, with trying to avoid offending its majority Palestinian
population and an anti-extradition trend in its court system, according
to Shurat Hadin which is representing the family of the victim Chana
Nachenberg (Finers and Nachenbergs) who was grievously injured in the
bombing and remains in Israel in a coma even until now.
According
to Shurat HaDin President Nitsana Darshan-Leitner: "We are glad that
the US Department of Justice has decided to move forward against this
notorious mass murderer. We have been requesting for a long time that
this unrepentant Palestinian terrorist be rearrested, extradited and
prosecuted by American law enforcement officials."
"It was
outrageous that Israel released this criminal with so much innocent
blood on her hands and who has publicly rejoiced that she killed 8
Jewish children. For too long Jordan has become a safe haven for
Palestinian terrorists and, hopefully, this is a change of policy for
the new Trump administration, to start to pursue the numerous
Palestinians who have killed US citizens in Israel," she said.
Chana
Nachenberg's father, Yitzhak Bennett Finer, has responded: "We applaud
the efforts of the Department of Justice in trying to bring Tamimi to
justice and we hope they'll be successful. Our daughter Chana Nachenberg
had the prime of her life taken from her because she has spent the past
15 and half years in a vegetative state on a respirator as a result of
this inhuman act of the heinous bombing of Sbarros. Her daughter Sarah
has grown up without a mother and her husband David without the love of
his wife."
Jordan is highly unlike to extradite Tamimi. If the royal family is about anything, it's about self-preservation. Extraditing Tamimi (whose clan includes prominent Jordanian lawyers) would bring about fighting that has been unseen since the Black September uprising in 1970. There is almost no chance that King Abdullah will take that risk to keep the United States happy.
In a second report this evening, Israel Radio reported that the United States' Jerusalem Consulate's readout of Trump envoy Jason Greenblatt's meeting with 'moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud AbbasAbu Mazen today included a demand that the 'Palestinians' stop incitement to terrorism.
During a meeting at the Palestinian
Authority’s headquarters in Ramallah, Abbas committed to combat
Palestinian incitement, the statement said. The Palestinian leader and
Greenblatt also discussed building up the PA’s security forces,
advancing the peace process, and improving the Palestinian economy.
According to the readout, Abbas told
Greenblatt that “he believes that under President Trump’s leadership a
historic peace deal is possible, and that it will enhance security
throughout the region.”
“President Abbas committed to preventing inflammatory rhetoric and incitement,” the statement added.
The government of Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu has been adamant that PA-sanctioned media and school
curriculum are responsible for inciting terrorism.
...
The Palestinian daily al-Quds cited sources in
the US Congress who said Greenblatt warned Abbas that US lawmakers are
working to condition US aid to the Palestinians — with the exception of
security assistance — on ending incitement, including payments to the
families of Palestinian terrorists.
The PA pays monthly stipends to families who
have a member who is considered to have been “martyred,” which usually
means being killed by an Israeli while carrying out a terror attack or
suspected attack, or who is spending time in Israeli prison for
perpetrating a terrorist act.
The US government has already taken measures
to ensure its aid isn’t funneled to the families of terrorists. That
includes paying the debts of the PA directly, rather than transferring
funds into the PA’s coffers.
In the 12th year of his four-year term, Abu Dodobird may have finally found an American President who is willing to stand up to him. The 'Palestinians' must be really disappointed that Hillary Clinton lost the election. Heh.
Lawless: Obama trying to handcuff Trump on Middle East
Greetings from Israel. I am home again (briefly).
President Hussein Obama is trying to handcuff President Elect Donald Trump's Middle East policy.
Washington DC insiders widely expect the president to launch a bold
effort to constrain the president-elect's options in dealing with the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict by supporting unilateral international
recognition of Palestinian statehood, possibly in the UN Security
Council.
...
In seeking to overturn longstanding precedent and thwart the expressed
policy positions of his successor, Obama presumably hopes that
supporting (or not vetoing) a UN Security Council resolution on
Palestinian statehood will create an irreversible fait accompli
that will eventually spur Israel to make concessions, like a settlement
freeze, which will in turn strengthen moderates on the Palestinian side.
It's the same thinking that led the United States to make concession after concession in the Iran nuclear deal,
and it is likely to backfire in the same way. Unilateral recognition of
a Palestinian state will communicate to Palestinian leaders that they
do not need to concede anything and validate the use and incitement of
violence, vindicating hardliners.
Until the Palestinian leadership can recognize
and accept a Jewish state in the land of Israel, the United States must
continue working to prevent international recognition of a Palestinian
state.
Anyone still want to claim that the Obama administration is the 'most pro-Israel administration evah'? If yes, it's time to take your blinders off.
Now with subtitles: 'Palestinian' father sends his toddler son to throw stones at soldiers
Here's the full video with subtitles of the 'Palestinian' father sending his son to throw stones at IDF soldiers.
Palestinian Media Watch reported today that the 'Palestinians' have released a falsified version of the video that takes out the kid shaking hands with one of the soldiers (0:29 in the video).
It's come to this: Israel Television begging 'human rights watch' for comment on 3-year old 'Palestinian' throwing stones at soldiers
Shavua tov, a good week to everyone.
Over the weekend, IDF Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner (who runs foreign and social media for the IDF spokesperson's office) posted the following video of a flag waving 'Palestinian' toddler being sent by his father to throw stones at IDF troops.
The so-called 'protectors' of human rights have had NOTHING to say about this video. The Israel Broadcast Authority is now begging 'human rights watch' and Sarah Leah Whitson (who once raised money from the Saudis by bragging about how bad her organization makes Israel look) to comment.
Is Facebook responsible for 'Palestinian' terrorism?
These sorts of accusations are not new, but Israeli Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan has accused Facebook of partial responsibility for Thursday's murder of 13-year old Hallel Yaffa Ariel.
Erdan said on Saturday that the social network fails to block posts inciting violence and also sabotages the work of Israeli police.
"Some of the victims' blood is on Zuckerberg's hands," he told Channel 2. "Facebook has turned into a monster. The younger generation in the Palestinian Authority runs its entire discourse of incitement and lies and finally goes out to commit murderous acts on Facebook's platform."
Erdan's comments touched on Facebook posts by the terrorist who murdered an Israeli girl, Hallel Yaffa Ariel, in Kiryat Arba last week. Mohammed Nasser Tra'ayra, 19, from the Palestinian village of Bani Na'im, had been praising terrorists and voiced his wish to die a "martyr's death" on Facebook in the days before the attack.
Erdan said Facebook "could have reported to the police or defense officials about the post put up by that despicable murderer."
Well yeah, if they saw it, but I have my doubts that Facebook reviews every post that goes onto its site within a few days after posting, particularly if no one calls it to their attention. The IDF, which monitors Facebook itself, is far more likely to pick up a terror threat that quickly.
On the other hand, Erdan is right that Facebook does provide a platform for terrorists to plan and to incite others to join them.
Facebook's reaction to Erdan's accusations begs the question.
Facebook said in response that it works regularly with safety organizations and policy makers worldwide "to ensure people know how to use Facebook safely. There is no place for content encouraging violence, direct threats, terror or hatred on our platform. We have clear community rules intended to help people what is allowed on Facebook and we call on people to use our reporting devices if they find content they believe breaks these rules, so we can examine each case and take rapid action. Facebook has a regular dialog with the government on these issues."
Look at the picture atop this post and tell me whether you still believe Facebook has any credibility on this issue. In fact, Erdan's more general accusations against Facebook carry a lot more weight than the specific accusations relating to this incident.
He said that when the police ask Facebook for help, "when it comes to a Judea and Samaria [West Bank] settlers, Facebook doesn't cooperate and sets a high bar for removing inciting content and posts."
The Knesset is considering legislation requiring Facebook to immediately block and remove inciting posts. It will be interesting to see whether the legislation passes and whether it brings any change to Facebook's operations here.
Two videos 'celebrating' first 'Palestinian' suicide bombing in Jerusalem in more than a decade
Over the weekend, Israeli media released videos of 'Palestinians' celebrating the first successful suicide bombing in Jerusalem in more than a decade. Watching these videos will give you an indication of the continued Jew-hatred here in Israel.
This one is from Gaza (and not Jerusalem as it says in the blog post where I got it). Let's go to the videotape.
And the second one says it's from Bethlehem, but is actually the Abu Srour family (which lives near Bethlehem) and is the same video I posted here.
Let's go to the videotape.
But give them a 'state' and they'll stop celebrating every time someone
tries to murder us, just like they'll stop educating their children to
murder us. Right....
In Bethelehem, 'Palestinians' celebrate bus bomber
We now know who blew up that bus in Jerusalem on Monday. Abdel Hamid Abu Srour, 19, a resident of the Aida refugee camp near
Bethlehem who is suspected of detonating an explosive on a bus in
southern Jerusalem that left 20 others injured, died on Wednesday
following multiple surgeries. Yes, we even try to save the lives of those who come to murder us. Crazy, aren't we?
The 'Palestinians' in Bethlehem held a march last night to support Abu Srour. His mother handed out candies.
But give them a 'state' and they'll stop celebrating every time someone tries to murder us, just like they'll stop educating their children to murder us. Right....
It has been a totally crazy week work-wise (hence the light posting), and it's only going to get worse - I'm flying early tomorrow morning to the US for about a week and a half. Multiple destinations....
I still Tweet more often than I post....
Suspected 'Palestinian' hackers hacked into Israel's Channel 2 on Friday night. (The link goes to the video - I didn't post the video because it would play automatically and I did not see a way to disable that).
During the airing of a popular television show "Big Brother" on
Channel 2, the broadcast was briefly interrupted by a clip showing
images of terror attacks and threatening messages in Hebrew.
"Stay in your homes," begins the ominous text. "The story is not over...there is more to come."
At the bottom of the message reads in Arabic: "Al-Quds Intifada."
Al-Quds
intifada refers to the rash of terrorist violence Israel has experience
for some six months, seeing nearly 30 Israelis killed and dozens more
injured.
Earlier in the day, the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) together with the IDF and Israel Police shut down an Islamic Jihad media channel in Ramallah, according to security forces.
The
move comes one day after the security-diplomatic cabinet approved a
decision to close Palestinian media outlets that incite to terrorism
against Israelis. The decision was taken following a spate of
Palestinian knife and firearm attacks around the country in recent days.
The Falastin Al-Yom outlet is a television broadcast station, which also uses social media networks to send out its content.
The
channel's manager, 34-year-old Faruk Aliat, from Bir Zeit, an Islamic
Jihad operative who has been in an Israeli prison in the past, was
arrested during the raid.
The move to shut down inciting media is long overdue.
Abu Mazen last night in Beit Lechem: We oppose murder or bloodshed of any person without connection to his sex/origin/religion. Our opposition will continue to be peaceful and we will not encourage otherwise.
Today, a 15-year old was arrested in connection with the murder of Daphna Meir HY"D (May God Avenge her blood), a mother of six children who was murdered in her own home in front of her children on Sunday. How does a 15-year old become incited to murder?
This video is from 'Palestinian' television in October of 2015. The senior 'Palestinian' official was commenting on the murders of Eitam and Naama Henkin HY"D (on which Abu Mazen had no comment - see the link).
When a child is fed this kind of support for murder with his mother's milk and thereafter for all of his brief life, is it really surprising that he decides that his duty is to murder Jews in front of their children (God Forbid)?
Abu Mazen doesn't oppose bloodshed. He lives for it. He's a liar.
And for this we can thank President Hussein Obama and his European Union friends, which continue to let the 'Palestinian Authority' off scot free for this type of incitement.
The 11-year old has told police that he wanted to die a 'martyr.'
The 11-year-old, a sixth grader from Shuafat,
is the youngest assailant arrested to date in the current upsurge of
Palestinian terrorism. He is too young to face charges under current
Israeli law; the 14-year-old is facing charges of attempted murder.
In their interrogation, the two children said
they carried out the attack as an act of revenge, without planning in
advance and with no encouragement from any adults.
“I met my cousin at the entrance to school,”
said the 11-year-old, who was not named.
“The headmistress refused to let us in because our parents had not paid
tuition. My cousin told me that on the way to school he wanted to carry
out a stabbing attack but did not succeed because all the travelers were
senior citizens,” said the boy.
The 14-year-old allegedly convinced his
younger cousin to carry out an attack. The two first boarded a bus and
looked for the opportune moment and target.
“We travelled from Shuafat to Damascus Gate in
order to stab a soldier but did not do it because the soldiers were in
groups and we didn’t find one standing alone,” recalled the 11-year-old.
“Then he told me ‘let’s do an attack together to revenge the death of
Muhammad Ali.’ He opened his bag and showed me the knife. At Damascus
Gate I bought a pair of scissors and then we boarded the light rail and
looked for Jews to stab.”
Two light rail security guards boarded the
train, but the boys decided “not to stab them because there were two of
them. Later on one of them got off and we immediately attacked the one
that remained.”
“I stabbed him in his head, my cousin stabbed
him in his chest and stomach until the guard pushed me and fired three
bullets in my stomach,” said the 11-year-old.
The two cousins had decided they were ready to
die as shahids, or martyrs, he said. The younger one said in the
interrogation that none of their family members knew about their
intentions.
My youngest son (son #5, child number 8) is an 11-year old 6th grader. He was raised differently....
This type of behavior is the result of incitement in the official 'Palestinian' media. It's being paid for by you, me, and anyone else who pays taxes to a country that supports the 'Palestinian Authority.' It is long past high time that the 'Palestinian Authority' and its leader, Abu Bluff, pay a price for their support of terrorism by incitement in the media.
A watchdog group, UN Watch, reports that staffers at a major United
Nations agency with a long history of encouraging Palestinian terrorism,
the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), is inciting the latest spate of attacks in Israel. From the UN Watch press release:
UN staffers are using the imprimatur of their official positions to incite Palestinian stabbing and shooting attacks against Israeli Jews, with one UN-identified employee calling on Facebook to “stab Zionist dogs,” according to a new report issued today by UN Watch, the Geneva-based non-governmental organization that is accredited by the United Nations with the mandate to monitor the world body’s compliance with its charter.
UN Watch submitted the report today to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, UNRWA chief Pierre Krähenbühl, and U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power, whose government’s $400 million annual grant makes it the largest funder of UNRWA.
“The UN and top funders of UNRWA such as the United States government must act immediately to terminate employees who are inciting murderous anti-Semitism and fueling the deadly pandemic of Palestinian attacks against Israeli Jews that have claimed innocent men, women and children, aged 13 to 78,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch.
“Despite UNRWA’s promise, in the wake of our previous report, to take action and dismiss UNRWA perpetrators of incitement, there has been no accountability whatsoever,” said Neuer. “On the contrary, UNRWA’s main response has been to try and intimidate UN Watch.”…
Although we are over $18 trillion in debt (officially, with the unofficial total many times higher), the U.S. government not only redistributes $400 million a year to support the UNRWA’s promotion of terrorism; our government also redistributes a staggering $5 billion per annum to Palestinians: the people carrying out the yet another intifada, the people who elected Hamas – a formally designated terrorist organization under American law – to govern Gaza, and the people whose U.S.-supported Palestinian Authority has voluntarily formed a unity government with Hamas.
I can think of one place where the next President of the United States can look to cut the budget. But will s/he?
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.
And thanks Slimy Shimon for bringing us the disaster known as Oslo. The 'Palestinians' were on the verge of defeat 22 years ago. You brought them back to life.
Obama may consider himself Jewish but that doesn't make him Israeli
Some of you might recall that Times of Israel editor in chief David Horovitz once told me that he could not live in Israel if he believed there was no chance of 'peace' with the 'Palestinians.' But David isn't as naive as that statement might make you think, and he has been a vocal critic of President Obama. In a devastating piece in Wednesday's Times of Israel, he blasted Obama's claim that he 'knows how we feel.'
What you so evidently haven’t fully
internalized, however, is the extent to which we Israelis in the middle
ground — the non-zealots, the ones who don’t want to annex the West Bank and subvert our democracy, and who don’t
want a single binational entity between the river and the sea that puts
an end to Jewish statehood — have been battered by recent history, and
continue to be battered by the events unfolding all around us.
You seek to assure us that this deal with Iran
is in our own best interests when we know that Iran — which almost
daily calls for our destruction — will paint any agreement as a victory
and a vindication, and will utilize that ostensible victory to step up
its efforts to harm us, via terrorism and via its proxy armies in
Lebanon and Gaza, while also continuing to do its utmost to cheat and
bully its way to the bomb. We know that the deal will cement this
bleakest of regimes in power in Tehran, and that it was your negotiators
who blinked, who never forced the regime to choose between survival and
its nuclear program, when the financial leverage was available to
impose that choice.
You implore us, again and again, to give more
thought to the plight of the Palestinians, to turn away from leadership —
in the seemingly ever-present shape of Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu — that peddles the politics of fear, and instead to choose the
path of optimism and opportunity. But Israel just elected Netanyahu
again, ignoring your entreaties, because the evidence of danger outweighed the evidence upon which to build hope. And here’s the irony, Mr. President: Your policies and your rhetoric haven’t helped.
You complained in the interview that there are
lots of “filters” between you and the Israeli people, who therefore are
not getting your message directly. (This, amusingly, in an interview
conveyed verbatim into the living rooms of the people of Israel, in
prime time, on our most-watched television channel; the full interview is also online here.) Believe me, Mr. President, the problem is not with the messenger. The problem is with the message, and the actions.
...
Have you truly internalized the fact that five years ago, Israel was
contemplating relinquishing the Golan Heights, the high strategic
ground, for a peace deal with Bashar Assad. Where would that have left
us now? Utterly vulnerable to the brutal spillover of anarchic violence
across that border.
Have you really, truly internalized that
Israel left southern Lebanon in 2000 and Gaza in 2005, to the applause
and reassurance of the international community, only to see the vicious
terrorist armies of Hezbollah and Hamas fill the respective vacuums?
Have you really, honestly, utterly internalized that Hamas booted out
the forces of the relatively moderate Mahmoud Abbas from Gaza in a
matter of hours in 2007, and that there is every reason to believe that
Hamas would seek to do the same in the West Bank were Israel to do as
you wish, and pull out? And Hamas in the West Bank would entirely
paralyze this country. A single Hamas rocket that landed a mile from the
airport last summer prompted two-thirds of foreign airlines to stop
flying to Israel for a day and a half — including all the major US
airlines. A single rocket. Hamas rule in the West Bank would close down
our entire country.
...
But here’s where, with the greatest respect,
you’ve failed us thus far, Mr. President. You got the settlement freeze
six years ago, you got the prisoner releases in 2013, but what did you
wrest from Abbas? Did he stop the incitement against Israel? Did he
moderate his positions on the “right of return”? You fault Netanyahu for
his bleak wordview, but did you castigate Abbas for entering a
governing partnership which gives Hamas veto power over his ministers?
Did you tell him, sorry, that’s not going to work for us? No. You said
you’d keep right on dealing with him.
You berate Netanyahu for ruling out
Palestinian statehood on election eve, dismiss his subsequent
re-endorsement of a two-state solution as full of “so many caveats” as
to be unrealistic, and warn that Israel is consequently losing
international credibility, and that this makes it harder for you to
defend us internationally. But love or loathe Netanyahu, his concerns,
Mr. President, are compelling. Hamas did anticipate reducing Israel to rubble last summer, and only the extraordinary performance of Iron Dome prevented this. Hamas would try to take over the West Bank if we pulled out — and then to tunnel under and fire rockets over our borders.
Abbas has not encouraged his people to
internalize Jewish sovereign legitimacy in this part of the world. And
along with that hope you espied for a better future there is hatred,
too, in so many young Palestinian faces. Think of the toxin that must
have been absorbed by the 16-year-old Palestinian who stabbed to death
an 18-year-old Israeli soldier, Eden Atias, asleep next to him on a bus
in Afula, northern Israel, in November 2013. Think of your daughters, of
around that age, as I think of my children, and recognize how remote
from their most basic, decent, humane instincts is an act such as that,
and how systematic and relentless the climate of anti-Israel hostility
must be in the Abbas-controlled West Bank to have produced that killer
and others like him. The expansion of settlements discredits moderates,
and makes it easier for terrorist groups to recruit, but that’s not the
root of the hatred, the root of the conflict. At its heart, the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict marches bloodily on because the Palestinian
leadership refuses to acknowledge that the Jewish nation has any
legitimacy here.
And you, Mr. President, so ready to fault us
for failures, ready even in your interview to cite American failures and
mistakes and lost values, have failed to insist on a similar
self-reflection, and morality, and assertion of humane values from the
Palestinians and their leadership.
Yes, we are mighty Israel, a military force to
be reckoned with, an economic powerhouse, and they are the poor
Palestinians, ostensibly only seeking statehood. But take a step back
and we are a tiny sliver of land, nine miles wide at our narrowest
point, on the western edge of a vast landmass filled with hundreds of
millions of people largely hostile to the very fact of our existence. If
our enemies were to lay down their weapons right now, Mr. President,
there would be peace. If we were to lay down our weapons, our country
would be destroyed. And therefore, Mr. President, we will need a great
deal more reassurance before we dare to hope.
Read the whole thing. Obviously, I don't agree with everything he said, but this will give you some idea why the Right keeps winning elections in this country.
Autopsy confirms: Terrorist Abu Ein died of a heart attack
An autopsy attended by 'Palestinian,' Jordanian and Israeli doctors has confirmed that terrorist Zeid Abu Ein died of a heart attack which began at a violent demonstration on Wednesday.
Initially, Hussein
al-Sheikh, a top Palestinian official, told Reuters that Jordanian and
Palestinian doctors involved in the late night examination of the body
said Ziad Abu Ein, 55, had died from being struck, inhaling tear gas and
not receiving prompt medical attention.
However, the report, being led by Palestinian, Jordanian and Israeli
pathologists, said the death was caused by blockage in the coronary
artery, and there were signs of light internal bleeding and localized
pressure on the neck.
The deceased suffered from heart disease, and there was evidence that
plaque buildup were clogging more than 80% of his blood vessels, as
well as signs that he had suffered heart attacks in the past.
Dr. Hen Kugel, the
Israeli doctor who took part in the autopsy, told Ynet that the report
was not final and that they were awaiting on the return of some tests,
however "we know what happended there – he died from a heart attack. He
had significant blockage of the arteries and his heart was in bad shape.
When they grabbed his neck it caused massive stress which led to
bleeding and then full blockage which is what killed him."
"There is no disagreement with the Palestinians about this, the only
thing we still need to find out about is wounding to his front teeth,
tongue and windpipe. These could be a result of resuscitation attempts
or an attack as the Palestinians claim, but it doesn’t matter, he died
because of his heart and stress," Dr. Kugel said.
But the 'Palestinians' will blame Israel anyway, and this will be another excuse for incitement to violence anyway.
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
