Wednesday, November 22, 2017

From Ian:

Girl injured in 2011 Jerusalem bombing dies of her wounds
A woman who was wounded as a girl in a March 2011 bombing in Jerusalem succumbed to her wounds Wednesday, after more than six years in a coma.

Hodaya Asulin had been heading home to the Mevo Horon settlement when a bomb hidden in a backpack exploded at a bus stop outside the Jerusalem International Convention Center.

The blast killed British national Mary Jean Gardner and injured dozens of passersby.

In November 2013, a military court in the West Bank sentenced Palestinian Hussein Ali Qawasmeh to life in prison for orchestrating the terror bombing.


Asulin, who was 14 at the time of the attack, had been unconscious for the six and a half years since, receiving round-the-clock care from family, friends and volunteers.

She succumbed to her wounds early in the morning at the Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem in Jerusalem

“Her fight for her life inspired people to do so much good over these past six and a half years. It’s impossible to describe,” her uncle Rafi Asulin told The Times of Israel.
NY Post Editorial: John Kerry’s Mideast idiocy
Recordings have just surfaced of a speech the then-secretary of state gave in Dubai last December — where he explained that the failure to reach an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal is . . . Israel’s fault.

“The Palestinians have done an extraordinary job of remaining committed to nonviolence,” he said — ignoring that fact that the Palestinian Authority rewards terrorists (“martyrs”) and their survivors with cash stipends and has its schools teach Jew-hatred.

And Hamas, which rules Gaza and is now once again partnering with the PA’s Fatah leadership, doesn’t even pretend to believe in nonviolence: It’s dedicated to Israel’s destruction and to atrocities against Jews.

Kerry also complained that “the majority of the Cabinet currently in the Israeli government has publicly declared they are not ever for a Palestinian state.” Actually, most simply won’t support one as long as Palestinians refuse to accept Israel’s right to exist.

The secretary even managed to ignore his own experience: Kerry spent months wringing concessions out of Israel for a possible peace deal — only to have PA chief Mahmoud Abbas reject the draft out of hand, and refuse further negotiations.

Sadly, President Barack Obama fully shared Kerry’s “up is down” denial of reality. No wonder their leadership left the world in such a mess.

PMW: Proud Palestinian parents of "Martyrs": "The blood... made gardens bloom"
A private university in Ramallah held a memorial for five student terrorists who died as "Martyrs." At the event, a mother of one of the terrorists spoke on behalf of the families and stated:

"The blood of the Martyrs has watered the ground and made gardens bloom"
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Nov. 20, 2017]

The official PA daily further reported that she "expressed pride at being the mother of a Martyr who did not hesitate to sacrifice his blood and soul for his homeland and people."

Likewise a father of one of the terrorists "emphasized that the blood of the Martyrs is a beacon that lights the path to liberation and freedom."

Coordinator of the Fatah Shabiba Student Movement at Modern University College Hussein Ajouli "repeated the commitment and loyalty to... the blood of our people's Martyrs, among them the Martyrs of Modern University College who have ascended [to Heaven] in defense of the honor and for the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Jerusalem, and Palestine." Fatah official Jamal Muhaisen was also present at the event.

Among the five terrorists, one attempted to ram his car into Israeli soldiers, another stabbed and wounded an Israeli soldier, and a third attempted to stab an Israeli soldier. The fourth was injured during a confrontation with Israeli security forces and later died of his wounds, while the fifth died of a fatal disease after being released from an Israeli prison.

  • Wednesday, November 22, 2017
  • Elder of Ziyon


From European Jewish News:

BRUSSELS---The European parliament has endorsed a proposal of its president, Antonio Tajani, to systematically deny access to all persons, groups, or entities involved in terrorist acts.

The decision followed a complaint by several MEPs after Palestinian terrorist Leila Khaled, a senior member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), was invited last September to speak in the European Parliament at a conference hosted by two Spanish far-left MEPs. She used that platform to praise extremist violence and demonize Jews.  She glorified terrorism and trivialized the Holocaust.  "Don’t you see a similarity between Nazi actions and Zionist actions in Gaza?," she declared. "While the Nazis were tried in Nuremberg, no one has ever tried the Zionists," she said.

‘’The European Parliament’s Bureau unanimously endorsed the President’s proposal to systematically deny access to all persons, groups, or entities involved in terrorist acts, as listed in the annexed Council Decision (CFSP) 2017/1426,’’  the parliament's Directorate General fo Security and Safety said in an information notice.

‘’In view of that decision, and in the context of combatting terrorism, Members of the European Parliament and Political Groups are requested not to invite persons listed in the Council Decision or individuals representing entities or groups on that list, nor to facilitate their access to Parliament. In addition, these persons, entities, and groups may not be promoted through audio-visual presentations or other events on Parliament’s premises.’’

‘’I am happy that we have eventually established what should have been obvious before!,“ commented Czech MEP Tomas Zdechovský (European People's Party, EPP) who was the initiator of the complaints to President Tajani.

''The Council may adopt some amendments now, so we can be sure the situation with Leila Khaled will not happen again,“ Zdechovsky added.
The question is why they allowed her to begin with.




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  • Wednesday, November 22, 2017
  • Elder of Ziyon


The official Palestinian news agency, Wafa, has an article that claims that Israel is violating the terms of UN Security Council resolution 242 which was passed on November 22,1967. It is nonsense, but that's never stopped them before.

The most contentious piece of the resolution is, of course, the deliberate omission of the word "the" from the call of  "Withdrawal of Israel armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict."

Interestingly, it includes an Arabic translation of the resolution that accurately translates that part without the "the."

In the debate before and after the vote, delegates to the UN Security Council were quite aware of the missing "the" and the implication that Israel would not have to withdraw from all the territories. The Syrian representative denounced the resolution for exactly that reason. The Russian and French delegates said that they choose to interpret it as if the "the" was there. The British delegate, Lord Caradon, who drafted the resolution, was insistent that the resolution's wording was exactly what was intended.

Here is what Israeli foreign minister*  Abba Eban said. It is remarkable how much of it applies today.
I regret that this meeting should have begun with the statement that we heard from the representative of Syria. On his interpretation of the resolution I have nothing to say, but on his comments on my country's policy I must say a few words.

The Syrian utterance speaks for itself; it was a hymn of hate and aggression trumpeted by the Government which, more than any other, was responsible for disrupting the tranquility of the Middle East in 1966 and 1967. The Syrian representative has repeated the revolting attempt to hang the odious Nazi label on the only people that sustained the full brunt and fury of Nazism without interruption or compromise for all the twelve Nazi years. What a sorry spectacle it is to see a tribunal of peace thus transformed into an arena of hate.

The policy of the Israel Government and nation remains as it was when I formulated it in the Security Council on 13 and 16 November [1375th and 1379th meetings], namely that we shall respect and fully maintain the situation embodied in the cease-fire agreements until it is succeeded by peace treaties between Israel and the Arab States ending the state of war, establishing agreed, recognized and secure territorial boundaries, guaranteeing free navigation for all shipping, including that of Israel, in all the waterways leading to and from the Red Sea, committing all signatories to the permanent and mutual recognition and respect of the sovereignty, security and national identity of all Middle Eastern States, and ensuring a stable and mutually guaranteed security. Such a peace settlement, directly negotiated and contractually confirmed, would create conditions in which refugee problems could be justly and effectively solved through international and regional co-operation.

Those are our aims and positions. They emerge from five months of international discussion, unchanged, unprejudiced and intact. It is now understood as axiomatic that movement from the cease-fire lines can be envisaged only in the framework of a lasting peace establishing recognized and secure boundaries.

The time has come to adapt the Middle Eastern situation to the general principles and concepts which regulate the international order. Let us be done, after nineteen years, with truces, armistices and "demarcation lines based on military considerations" which leave territorial problems unsolved. The relations between States in the Middle East for nineteen years have been fragile, anomalous, indeterminate and unresolved. The hour is ripe for building a stable and durable edifice within which the peoples of the eastern Mediterranean can pursue their separate national vocations and their common regional destiny. The tensions and rancours of the past cannot be ended overnight, but if the relations of States in the Middle East are contained in a permanent and contractually binding framework the patient task of reconciliation can go forward.

The Security Council, like the General Assembly, has consistently refused to endorse proposals which would have sought a return to the ambiguity, vulnerability and insecurity in which we have lived for nineteen years. It has now adopted a resolution of which the central and primary affirmation is the need for "the establishment of a just and lasting peace" based on secure and recognized boundaries. There is a clear understanding that it is only within the establishment of permanent peace with secure and recognized boundaries that other principles can be given effect. As my delegation and others have stated, the establishment for the first time of agreed and secure boundaries as part of a peace settlement is the only key which can unlock the present situation and set on foot a momentum of constructive and peaceful progress. As the representative of the United Kingdom indicated in his address on 16 November, the action to be taken must be within the framework of a permanent peace and of secure and recognized boundaries. It has been pointed out in the Security Council, and it is stated in the 1949 Agreements, that the armistice demarcation lines have never been regarded as boundaries so that, as the representative of the United States has said, the boundaries between Israel and her neighbors: "must be mutually worked out and recognized by the parties themselves as part of the peace-making process" [1377th meeting, para. 65].

We continue to believe that the States of the region, in direct negotiation with each other, have the sovereign responsibility for shaping their common future. It is the duty of international agencies at the behest of the parties to act in the measure that agreement can be promoted and a mutually accepted settlement can be advanced. We do not believe that Member States have the right to refuse direct negotiation with those to whom they address their claims. It is only when they come together that the Arab States and Israel will reveal the full potentialities of a peaceful settlement.

There were proposals, including those submitted by three Powers and then by the Soviet Union, which failed to win the necessary support because they rested in our view on the wrong premise that a solution could be formed on the basis of a return to the situation of 4 June. We hold that that premise has no logical or moral international basis. Similarly, the failure to understand that Israel's action last June was a response to aggression has prevented certain Governments from keeping pace with the development of international thinking. Israel notes, however, that recent Soviet statements and drafts reflect an understanding that the establishment of peace requires, amongst other things, an explicit respect of Israel's national identity and international rights.

I also note that the Soviet text [S/8253], like that of the United States [S/8229], included a reference to the need for curbing the destructive and wasteful arms race. I hope that the absence of this provision in the text on which the Council has voted does not mean that that objective will be lost from sight.

The termination of this debate takes us into a new phase, of which the center lies not here in New York, but in the Middle East. What will henceforward be decisive is not the particular words of an enabling resolution, but the spirit and attitude and policies of the Middle Eastern States. One of the points most strongly emphasized around this table and in all the exchanges which I and my associates have been privileged to have with representatives of Member States is that the only peace that can be established in the Middle East is one that the Governments of the Middle East build together. Peace can grow by agreement. It cannot be imposed. Our Governments in the area must look more and more towards each other. For it is only from each other that they can obtain the satisfaction of their most vital need, the need of peace.

I reiterate that in negotiations with our neighbors we shall present a concrete vision of peace. Before saying what that vision is, I should like to make one comment on the course of this debate with special reference to the remarks of the Indian representative. The establishment of a peace settlement, including secure and recognized boundaries, is quite different from what he had been proposing, namely, withdrawal, without final peace, to demarcation lines. The representative of India has now sought to interpret the resolution in the image of his own wishes. For us, the resolution says what it says. It does not say that which it has specifically and consciously avoided saying.

Thus, if the representative of India is in any predicament, he should not escape it by reading into a text adjectives and place-names which do not occur in the text. He must know that the crucial specifications to which he referred were discussed at length in consultations and deliberately and not accidentally excluded in order to be non-prejudicial to the negotiating position of all parties. The important words in most languages are short words, and every word, long or short, which is not in the text, is not there because it was deliberately concluded that it should not be there.

I have said that we would, in peace negotiations, present a vision and a program of peace. I draw attention to the ideas which I proposed to the General Assembly at its 1577th meeting on 3 October 1967 under the heading of an "agenda for peace". In direct negotiation, we would seek the discussion of juridical problems, including the establishment of peace treaties instead of cease-fire or armistice lines; security and territorial problems, including the establishment of permanent and agreed frontiers of peace and security; population problems, involving regional effort and international co-operation to resolve the problems of displaced populations created by wars and perpetuated by belligerency; economic questions, including the replacement of blockades and boycotts by intense economic co-operation; communications problems, including the opening of the Middle East to a free and normal flow of commerce; cultural and scientific problems, involving an attempt to substitute the best traditions of Arab-Jewish co-operation for the recent tensions and disputes, thus ending the epoch of alienation and hostility.

These are the horizons to which we shall address ourselves. For all the States and peoples of the Middle East, they hold the promise of a new and better age.
Syria responded:

Mr. TOMEH (Syria): The test of the success or failure of any major resolution can be measured only by its results. The future will prove whether or not the resolution adopted today will secure the cause of peace in the Middle East
I have listened very carefully to Mr. Eban's statement and his interpretation of the resolution, but not equally so to the acrimonious part about Syria, which is to be expected. His interpretation of the withdrawal only confirms, but in a very roundabout way, the full intent of Israel to consolidate its gains as a result of its aggression, which was amply explained in my statement to the Council. Again, the words spoken are denied by the intent expressed and the deed achieved. I should have liked Mr. Eban to have denied some of the facts and occurrences which I brought out in my statement. However, it is to be noted that the following sentence occurred in Mr. Eban's statement: "Peace... cannot be imposed" [supra, para. 92]. I should like to quote what I said in my statement about peace, which was the following: "A lasting peace cannot be imposed by force. One does not open the way for it by seizing another's property and demanding certain concessions before that property is given back to its legal, lawful Owner." [supra, para. 25.] Mr. Eban went on to attribute aggressive acts and intentions to Syria, I need not go into the details of what happened on 7 April 1967, which we put before the Council when an attack was perpetrated against Syria, and which included seven sorties by the Israel air force, with a battle ensuing that took place over Damascus, the capital of Syria.
Finally and briefly I should like to comment on the description given by Mr. Eban of my statement as a "hymn of hate" [supra, para. 83]. That is really an amazing interpretation because, reduced to its basic principles, my statement invokes two of the Ten Commandments: "Thou shalt not kill"; and "Thou shalt not covet" other people's property. That two of the Ten Commandments should be interpreted as a "hymn of hate" is really beyond my understanding, but the twisting of words and meanings can result in anything. We condemn killing and the stealing of other people's property most strongly and most vehemently, whether it has been committed by Nazi Germany against the innocent Jews, the French, the Danes or the people of any other country which it occupied, just as we condemn it most strongly and vehemently when it is committed by the Israelis against the Arabs--by Dayan and Begin and justified by Mr. Eban.

And Eban responded to him again:

Mr. EBAN (Israel): I do not propose to maintain the discussion with the representative of Syria, except to say that if he is interested in the document of Hebrew literature to which he referred I recommend that he should not stop short with two commandments but should also study the statement "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor", because the quotations which he put in my mouth were not there.
I intervene for another purpose, which is to say that I am communicating to my Government for its consideration nothing except the original English text of the draft resolution as presented by the original sponsor on 16 November. Having studied that text, document S/8247, my Government will determine its attitude to the Security Council's resolution in the light of its own policy, which is as I have stated it.
(h/t zee for correction)



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  • Wednesday, November 22, 2017
  • Elder of Ziyon
Here is an entire alphabet book that is a more accurate depiction of the "P is for Palestine" children's book that was in the news recently.

A is for Arab, that's what we were called
Before we made up the Palestinian myth to the world.

B is for Bomb, to blow up some Jews
That's how we manage to stay in the news.

C is for Car-rammings, a more recent mission
A great way to kill without using ammunition.

D is for Dhimmi, both Christians and Jews
Second class citizens in Islamic rules

E is for Everything, from the river to the sea
Until we gain it all we'll pretend we're not free

F is for Fatah, our "moderate"side
In Arabic we show that in English we lied

G is for Grenade, we don't want to brag
But we love them so much they are on the Fatah flag

H is for Hummus, a food we pretend
To have invented. (For political ends.)

I is for Incitement, which we learned from our fathers
We teach our kids to want to be martyrs

J is for Jesus, who in our opinion
Was the first martyr who was Palestinian

K is for Kidnapping, which we try hard to do
Because 1000 of our fighters is worth only one Jew.

L is for Love, but not for a wife
Because we love death as others love life

M is for massacres, at Munich and Ma'alot
And Dalal Mughrabi murdering kids on the Coastal Road

N is for Never, our slogan for years
Never agree to peace if we shed enough crocodile tears

O is for Occupation, we complain all the time
(but we believe Jews are "settlers" inside the Green Line)

P is for peace, (which we can't pronounce)
The PLO Phased Plan to end Israel we never renounced

Q is for Qassam, our rockets are great
When they land on Jewish schools - we celebrate

R is for Rocks, to aim at Jews' heads
Candy for all if they - or our kids - end up dead

S is for Suicide Bomb, and we're proud to state
That this  is a field in which we innovate

T is for Tunnels, we spend millions on
Our kids dig them up from dusk until dawn

U is for UNRWA, which puts food on our plates
And their schools  teach us to continue to hate

V is for Victory, even though we always lose
But we pretend we won, to fool leftist Jews

W is for What We Want  the two state solution to do:
One state for the Arabs - and the other one too.

X is for eXactly how much we don't care
To reach a peace agreement that leaves Israel there

Y is for Years that we don't have a state
We could have had several - but we'd rather hate

Z is for Zero - the chances that we'll
Elect a real leader who'll make peace with Israel







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Tuesday, November 21, 2017

From Ian:

College to host Linda Sarsour at 'women of color' conference
Mount Holyoke College will host a leadership conference next semester exclusively for “women of color,” featuring known anti-Zionist Linda Sarsour.

Sarsour, one of several leaders behind the record-setting Women’s March in Washington D.C., allegedly supports the implementation of Sharia Law, endorsed the throwing of rocks at Israeli cars, and even called Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu “a waste of a human being.”

"If students do not show up and claim space, they are making a choice and sending a message that they don’t need it."

The 2018 Women of Color Trailblazers Leadership Conference will be open to students and community members and will ultimately “provide a space to celebrate the lives and accomplishments of women of color.”

The conference will be keynoted by the founders of the anti-Trump Women’s March, including Tamika Mallory, Carmen Perez, and Sarsour, a frequent critic of Israel whom many people consider to be anti-Semitic.

In the spirit of inclusivity, the event is open to “all individuals (from ages 4 and up) who self- identify as women of color,” according to its event page. No men of color, nor white women, will be permitted to attend.
New School under fire for putting Linda Sarsour on anti-Semitism panel
A private university in New York City is hosting a panel on combating anti-Semitism -- but there's at least one glaring problem, according to critics: an avowed anti-Zionist protester is among the so-called experts.

Brooklyn-born Muslim activist Linda Sarsour is set to be a panelist at the New School's Nov. 28 event, "Anti-Semitism and the Struggle for Justice."

Sarsour has previously said “nothing is creepier than Zionism,” has lauded National of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan and objected to the Jewish right to return to Israel.

Further, the event, which is moderated by Amy Goodman of Democracy Now, appears to reject anti-Semitism while also exhibiting an anti-Israel stance.

“When anti-Semitism is redefined as criticism of Israel, critics of Israeli policy become accused and targeted more than the growing far-right,” the event description reads.

The New School, which says it was founded on principles of tolerance, social justice, and free intellectual exchange, told Fox News, in a statement, the school has “been contacted by several individuals who have expressed their concerns about the university’s participation.”

The New York Post Editorial Board labeled the event an Orwellian “fake panel...meant to promote Israel-bashing.”

The Jerusalem Post Editorial Board slammed it as “a forum of ‘antisemites on antisemitism’” that “makes as much sense as a KKK forum on civil rights.”

Mass-murdering Charles Manson and mass-murdering Ahlam Tamimi: Who's more monstrous?
Manson's conviction arose from the murders of nine people. By comparison, our daughter's murderer was convicted in an Israeli court - after confessing to all the charges - of the murder of fifteen people. (A sixteenth person, a young mother, has been comatose from the moment of the Sbarro pizzeria explosion more than 16 years ago until today.) Tamimi has said for the record that she wished the toll were higher.

Like Manson, Ahlam Tamimi is a woman with a mission. But unlike Manson, she never needed to ask for parole which, in any event, the court which tried and sentenced her strongly recommended should be perpetually refused. But she walked free anyway, thanks to the catastrophic Gilad Shalit Deal of 2011 ["19-Oct-11: Haaretz: Shalit prisoner swap marks 'colossal failure' for mother of Israeli bombing victim"]. And did we mention that she is regarded as a national hero throughout the Arab world? And had her own TV program to propagate her values throughout the Arabic-speaking world from January 2012 until September 2016? (The program continues but she is no longer its presenter.)

Living free as a bird in Amman, Jordan, where she was born and where her family lives, she has happily (very happily) boasted of the central role she took in the planning and execution of the Sbarro pizzeria massacre. She has spoken of the pride she felt when fleeing the scene of the massacre that awful day, in the company of exultant fellow Arabs who were elated by the fresh news of a massacre in the center of Jerusalem. She has said on camera that she wished she could have told them it was she who did it.

She presented the evening news a few hours later on a Palestinian Arab television station in Ramallah called Istiklal, opening naturally enough with big news of a "resistance" activity in "Occupied Jerusalem" and the many dead Jews, especially the many dead Jewish children. How that evil creature's heart must have soared.

  • Tuesday, November 21, 2017
  • Elder of Ziyon
From Haaretz:
The Trump administration is reconsidering its position on closing the Palestinian mission in Washington, said Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki on Tuesday morning.
The Trump administration began to reconsider the move following threats by the Palestinian Authority’s leadership that Ramallah would cut its ties with Washington, Maliki told the official Voice of Palestine radio station.
Notice that Maliki isn't saying that he negotiated with the US. He claims that the US caved to Palestinian threats.

Whether it is true or not, it shows exactly how Palestinians - and Arabs at large - have related to the West for over a century. "Do what we say or else!"

But look at this reaction to the US idea of closing the mission.
Fatah leader Raafat Alian called on Arab and Islamic countries to take a serious and clear stance against the recent US threat to close the offices of the PLO in Washington.
Alian said in a press statement on Tuesday that this political blackmail is contrary to all conventions and international laws and resolutions related to the Palestinian issue and the peace process in general.
Really? It is against international laws and conventions? Can he name one?

It isn't like the world doesn't notice these kind of idiocy,  threats and lies. It is that no one expects any better from the Palestinians.





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  • Tuesday, November 21, 2017
  • Elder of Ziyon


His voice is now a shadow of the spine tingling, hair raising, rich sound his throat once produced. The small man with the huge smile that was standing on stage, in front of me, is a living legend. That is why the audience came. Most were already aware that he can no longer sing like he once could but that didn’t really matter. How often do you have the opportunity to see a legend?

Yehoram Gaon was born in 1939. Next month he will turn 78, older than the re-established State of Israel.

In between songs he told the audience stories from his history, which is also our history, the history of our country. Some were funny, about performances as part of the Yarkon Bridge Trio (where he sang with Arik Einstein and Benny Amdursky). He talked about getting the theater role that changed his life, lead role in the musical Kazablan. Other stories were touching in the heart rending way that only Israeli stories can be.

Ours are not the fantasy stories in a novel or even those of the best thriller, adventure movies. Ours are the original saga, documented in the most popular book ever written and still continuing, to this day.

Yehoram Gaon told of the terror of the Yom Kippur war when Israelis did not know if the young country would survive, or if it would be the final genocide of the Jewish people. He had been called to perform for soldiers stationed in the Sinai desert, almost at the border with Egypt. The soldiers request him to sing Me’al Pisgat Har Hazofim, a song about Jerusalem.   

Think about that. So far from home, in such danger, they wanted to hear the ode to Jerusalem that declares:
“Hundreds of generations I dreamed of you, to be granted to see the light of your face, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Shine your face to your sons! From your ruins, I will build you!”

He told us: “I must tell you, I sang quite nicely. I was a little offended when they all ran away.” He thought that they were being attacked or were about to be hit by a missile but the soldiers were running to a command-car that had suddenly arrived at their desert position. It was Rabbi Goren, the Rabbi who was there when the Temple Mount was freed, the Rabbi who insisted the holy Tomb of the Patriarchs remain under Jewish administration. This man, a walking symbol of holiness and connection to the land of Israel, had two bags in his hands, full of small books of Psalms.

Yehoram Gaon’s face twisted in anguish as he recounted how the soldiers grabbed the tiny books, shoving them in to every pocket available, as if wrapping themselves in holiness. As if the Psalms would serve as a barrier, as armor, guarding them from the bullets and the bombs.

Next Yehoram Gaon sang a song about the heroic rescue at Entebbe. The song explains that every Jew is connected to Israel and to Jerusalem, like to a mother through the umbilical cord and each of her sons are connected to each other, for better or worse. That this nation will not allow her children to be left to the “mercy” of strangers. 

Finishing the original song, Yehoram Gaon explained that a new stanza had been added to the song in honor of Major Roi Klein who died in Lebanon to save his soldiers. Heroism mixes with heroism, one generation to the next and we pray for the day that heroism is no longer necessary.



Yehoram Gaon ended the show with the audience enthusiastically singing with him.

I found myself thinking about a decorative plate my mother owns. It is ceramic, and rather hideous, but I love it anyway. No matter where we lived, that plate was always there. It is a sign of home. Yehoram Gaon is like that too. His songs were what I heard as a child in Detroit. His voice was my connection to the Israeli experience. Now I was among the audience listening to him, forgiving the weakness in his voice for the beauty he has granted us all for so many years. His stories, his songs are our experiences; the glory and wonder of this nation, the trials and tribulations we have endured.

His songs are Israel. They mean home.





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From Ian:

Palestinians freeze all US contacts over threat to shutter PLO office in DC
The Palestinians have frozen all contacts with the United States after it decided to close their representative office in Washington, officials said on Tuesday.

“In practice by closing the office they are freezing all meetings and we are making that official,” Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki told AFP.

A spokesman for the Palestine Liberation Organization confirmed that it had received instructions from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas “regarding closing down all communication lines with the Americans.”

The Palestinian move comes as the Trump administration seeks to broker the long-out-of-reach Israeli-Palestinian peace deal.

Speaking in the Spanish Parliament today, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said the Palestinians were “committed to a historic peace deal [with Israel] under the auspices of President Trump.”
Caroline Glick: Holding the PLO accountable
Is the PLO’s long vacation from accountability coming to an end? How about the State Department’s? In 1987 the US State Department placed the PLO on its list of foreign terrorist organizations. The PLO was removed from the list in 1994, following the initiation of its peace process with Israel in 1993.

As part of the Clinton administration’s efforts to conclude a long-term peace deal between the PLO and Israel, in 1994 then president Bill Clinton signed an executive order waiving enforcement of laws that barred the PLO and its front groups from operating in the US. His move enabled the PLO to open a mission in Washington.

In 2010, then president Barack Obama upgraded the mission’s status to the level of “Delegation General.” The move was seen as a signal that the Obama administration supported moves by the PLO to initiate recognition of the “State of Palestine” by European governments and international bodies.

Whereas Obama’s PLO upgrade was legally dubious, the PLO’s campaign to get recognized as a state breached both of its agreements with Israel and the terms under which the US recognized it and permitted it to operate missions on US soil.
Palestinians: If You Do Not Give Us Everything, We Cannot Trust You
The Palestinians are once again angry -- this time because the Trump administration does not seem to have endorsed their position regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Palestinians are also angry because they believe that the Trump administration does not want to force Israel to comply with all their demands.

Here is how the Palestinians see it: If you are not with us, then you must be against us. If you do not accept all our demands, then you must be our enemy and we cannot trust you to play the role of an "honest" broker in the conflict with Israel.

Last week, unconfirmed reports once again suggested that the Trump administration has been working on a comprehensive plan for peace in the Middle East. The full details of the plan remain unknown at this time.

However, what is certain -- according to the reports -- is that the plan does not meet all of the Palestinians' demands. In fact, no peace plan -- by Americans or any other party -- would be able to provide the Palestinians with everything for which they are asking.

  • Tuesday, November 21, 2017
  • Elder of Ziyon
Marc Goldberg has written a great first-hand memoir of what it is like to be an IDF grunt in the territories during the second intifada.

Goldberg, who wrote about some of this in his blog, made aliyah from England and joined the IDF as a "lone soldier." He dreamed to become Chief of Staff.

But things didn't work out how he wanted.

In "Beyond the Green Line," Goldberg gives a great description of how the IDF selects who will go to which unit. For example, the officers aren't looking at recruits who are the strongest or fastest - but the ones who help their fellow soldiers.

Marc is nothing if not honest. He describes his problems learning Hebrew, his disappointment at not making it into the Sayeret Tzanhanim and instead joining Orev, and his experiences at boot camp. Goldberg tries to be the best soldier he can be and he is a wonderful storyteller as he describes the tough training he went through - which is nothing like what you see in movies about the US Army.

After he finally passes and becomes a paratrooper, he is ready to face the enemy. But in 2003, the enemy was not the Syria army - it was the Palestinian terrorists of the second intifada.

The new soldier knows he is doing important work. But it is hardly what he wanted. He has to watch Arab families whose home needs to become lookouts for operations elsewhere in the Arab city. He mans checkpoints, finding Arabs with sheep in their trunk. He confronts British "peacemakers" who try to get under his skin.

But he also picks up suspected suicide bombers. Acting as s lookout, he notices the crucial clue necessary to catch two wanted terrorists.

Goldberg tries on occasion to inject some humanity in this strange situation where the IDF needs to operate among a mostly civilian population. He kicks a soccer ball back and forth with an Arab kid. At one point he even feeds a bunch of kids who would otherwise have been throwing rocks.

And Goldberg is not shy about describing his frustration at going on meaningless missions. In Nablus, his unity tried to enforce a curfew - and everyone ignored them. Rubber bullets were shot - no reaction from the people going about their business. Finally tear gas - and the people avoided the tear gas but remained doing their business.

Goldberg is chosen (probably because he knows English) to babysit Birthright participants. Even more bizarrely, he is then chosen to go to America and be a prop for very rich Jews to raise money or show off their IDF connections. He felt guilty that he was being treated to this luxury while his buddies were slogging through the rain and mud.

The most exciting part of the book is where Goldberg and his team get hit with a booby-trapped bomb. Luckily, the bomb had no shrapnel or ball bearings - it knocked them down but on one was injured.

Goldberg also describes the not-so-nice parts of the IDF. Sometimes, soldiers do things they aren't supposed to; they do take advantage of the Arabs in ways beyond what the mission requires. And he is sick about it.

Finally, Goldberg describes his difficulty at adjusting back to civilian life, in his usual uncensored style. He is as hard on himself as he is on anyone else.

This book is not about heroism or major battles. It is an account of a lone soldier, who must follow commands even when they make no sense, and who is not allowed to fight the way he was trained. Goldberg is unsparing in his descriptions of what this life is like, the frustrations, the abuses but also the successes when a wanted man or woman is apprehended and people's lives are saved. This is the war that Israel is forced to fight, a war that soldiers are not trained for, but as with everything else, the IDF needs to improvise- sometimes imperfectly -  to secure the Jewish state.





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  • Tuesday, November 21, 2017
  • Elder of Ziyon
An Israeli blogger called Ben Tzion was recently in Saudi Arabia, taking selfies of himself with Saudis.

Here he is in a Riyadh hotel - wearing a keffiyeh featuring a Star of David pattern:


Here he is in the second holiest site of Islam in Medina, the Prophet's Mosque:

 At that same mosque he is carrying his tallit (Jewish prayer shawl) and tefillin bag!



This one-man peace mission is, frankly, amazing.

But now that these photos are being published, the Arab media is going a bit nuts. There are several articles about this today, all of which say that his visit "a wave of condemnation and disdain among activists on social networking sites."

They didn't notice the tallit bag, yet.

The comments at the Al Jazeera Facebook page are mostly, but not entirely, negative, with some pointing out that Jews are allowed to visit mosques. (Ben Tzion didn't try to sneak into Mecca, which would be forbidden by Islamic law.)






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  • Tuesday, November 21, 2017
  • Elder of Ziyon


UNRWA spokesperson Chris Gunness was interviewed by Xinhua where he did what he always does: lying, exaggerating and blaming Israel for horrible things the Palestinians do to each other.

 The spokesperson for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) Christopher Gunness warned the precarious situation of both UNRWA and Gaza Strip.
UNRWA, which is considered the world's oldest humanitarian organization, remains on the edge of its financial predicament with the growing humanitarian crisis in the region that are overshadowing the growing dependency of Palestinian refugees on the services of UNRWA.
The Red Cross is 153 years old, more than twice the age of UNWRA. Not sure if this was Xinhua's mistake or if they parroted Gunness.

"The world may not be paying attention to them, but the situation in Gaza has gotten incrementally worse hour by hour, while that attention has drifted to other parts of the world," he said, warning that "you now have 64 percent unemployment," which is a "record."
 Yes, world. Stop paying attention to Yemen where literally tens of thousands of children are starving to death (as opposed to Gaza, where the number is zero.)  Yemen has five times more people in danger of dying than Gaza has people.

Stop paying attention to Syria, where more Palestinians have been killed than in the Gaza wars - yet where UNRWA's fundraising is far more muted. And, of course, don't even consider any humanitarian crises in sub-Saharan Africa where there are wars and famine. Gaza faces unemployment!

In recent months, it was made public that 95 percent of the water in Gaza is undrinkable and power outages last for long hours every day, which has lead to a series of setbacks in the health, reconstruction and psychological situation of Gazans, among others.
Gunness said despite this dark situation, he sees a ray of hope for Gaza in the Palestinian national unity government that has recently taken over the executive bodies in the coastal enclave, after rival political parties Hamas and Fatah signed a reconciliation deal in Cairo last October, ending a decade of the control of the Islamic Hamas movement on Gaza.
So the PA is the savior of Gaza?

The entire reason that Gaza is having a crisis now, the reason that there is such a shortage of drinking water and sewage treatment,  is because the PA has reduced electricity and medicines there - and those restrictions are still in place!

The very people who have created the current crisis in Gaza are the ones that Gunness is praising. He bases his entire fundraising effort on demonizing Israel. He will not say a single bad thing about Hamas or the PA, not about their infighting and not about their support for terror and their prioritizing buying weapons over helping people in Gaza. Of course he won't talk about how UNRWA itself teaches children about how wonderful it is to sacrifice your life by attacking Jews.

Gunness is a thoroughly despicable man in every respect.






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Monday, November 20, 2017

From Ian:

I’m A Latina Who Works For The ADL. JVP’s Attack
For months now, the far-left anti-Zionist group Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) has been targeting our exchange program with Israel with a campaign called “Deadly Exchange”. Now, ADL is a 104-year-old organization, and becoming targets of both fair criticism and inaccurate attacks from the right and the left of the political spectrum comes with the territory for an established institution like ours. But in my time at ADL, I’ve been especially surprised at JVP’s ignorance, dangerous dogmatism and blind efforts at intersectional cause-making.

In their campaign against our program — a program that is designed to save lives — JVP makes the case that American Jewish institutions are responsible for rising levels of police brutality and racism against minorities here in the United States, thanks to their support for these types of exchanges between American and Israeli law enforcement agencies.

In other words, JVP believes Jewish institutions control how the police racially profile people of color in the United States.

I was shocked by this attack. It hewed so closely to anti-Semitic canards about the Jews secretly controlling the levers of power. How could a Jewish organization make such a hateful claim?

This radical — and willful — misunderstanding of our program was compounded last week when JVP came to protest ADL at our New York headquarters.

As the head of communications for the organization, I went to greet them and to receive their petition. But I was only seconds into my conversation with a JVP spokesperson before she demanded to know: Why didn’t ADL send anyone to hear their stories?

“I’m right here,” I said, confused.

Then she asked me point blank how a woman of color could work for ADL. Hadn’t I personally experienced racial profiling?

Yes, she actually asked me that.

Read more: http://forward.com/opinion/national/387789/im-a-latina-who-works-for-the-adl-jvps-attacks-shocked-me/
When Was the "Palestinian People" Created? Google Has the Answer.
All people born in British Mandatory Palestine between 1923-1948 (today's Israel) had "Palestine" stamped on their passports at the time. But when they were called Palestinians, the Arabs were offended. They complained: "We are not Palestinians, we are Arabs. The Palestinians are the Jews".

After invading Arab armies were routed and the Arabs who had fled the war wanted to return, they were considered a fifth column and not invited back. The Arabs who had loyally remained in Israel during the war, however, and their descendants, are still there and make up one fifth of the population. They are known as Israeli Arabs; they have the same rights as Christians and Jews, except they are not required to serve in the army unless they wish to.

"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality, today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese." – PLO leader Zuheir Mohsen, interview in the Dutch newspaper Trouw, March 1977.

#BDSfail
Israel's economic data came out. Guess what? The campaign to destroy Israel through economic boycotts is not only unfair, misleading and wrong, but it's also a failure. Again.


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