Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, August 21, 2017

The Nazi threat (Divest This!)

There are two historical lenses that can be applied to the recent horrific events in Charlottesville and their aftermath.

The first would be what I’ll call the Cable Street analysis, which considers the violent clashes between outright Nazis and their supporters and violent counter-demonstrators as an extension or repetition of what happened in 1936 when Oswald Mosley – leader of the British Union of Fascists (BUF) – opted for a show of strength by marching thousands of his supporters through the East End of London.

To counter that protest, an opposition of tens of thousands (largely made up of Jewish and Leftist opponents of the Fascists) showed up and met Mosley’s marchers with sticks, rocks, eggs and dung. Even with police trying to protect the marchers and keep the peace, the inevitable violence led to riots and an ultimate disbursal of the Nazis.

This show of force demonstrated that, unlike in Germany and Italy, the Fascists could not count on finding a critical mass of support among the British public. Whether because of this failure, or because Britain was at war with Europe’s Fascists three years later, Mosley and his Black Shirts ended up a humiliated rump vs. the nucleus of leadership for a Fascist Britain.

The Battle of Cable Street, while large and fierce, was just one of many violent battles between proponents of rival Right and Left-wing ideologies fighting for supremacy on the Continent between the two World Wars, fights that provide a different lens to think about our present situation.

For while “Reds” and “Black Shirts” in Europe claimed to be in violent opposition to one another, one can also view their fight as competition for the same souls: those ready to abandon Liberalism and the Enlightenment for ideologies promising a new messianic future: whether that of a worker’s paradise or blood-and-soil nationalist empire.

Unlike Britain, where the Liberal order protected and asserted itself, taking advantage of Fascism’s proven weakness, but not falling for the illusion that opposition to Nazism translated into political virtue, the continent became divided between rival ideological empires responsible for history’s most costly World War (which took the likes of 50 million) and most costly social experiment (Marxism – which cost the lives of an additional 100+ million).

So are today’s clashes an attempt to halt a genuine Nazi advance a la Cable Street, or a new front on the age-old battle between civilization and ruthlessness?

One way to tell is by analyzing the relationship between the actual threat and the level and nature of the response to that threat. While I’ll admit to getting a certain thrill in seeing torch-wielding Nazis flee in panic when faced with an outraged mob (much like the visceral pleasure of seeing Nazis gunned down in the movies), I can’t quite convince myself that the nation or the world faces a resurgent Fascist movement ready to try again to take over the planet.

Certainly our nation is broken into ideological camps that, for a variety of reasons, neither talk to nor understand each other. But we have a choice between following this trend further into extremes (where every political battle is cast as one between Commies and Nazis), or stopping to catch our breath to determine if this is the direction we want to travel in as a nation.

As we consider our options, the Jewish condition (which again is being thrust upon us) can serve as a valuable means to measure political health. Regarding the latest Nazi slogan “You Will Not Replace Us,” the “You,” after all refers, to the Jews. So might those tearing signs bearing those words out of the hands of their opponents stop for a moment to consider similar phrases (such as “The Jews are our Dogs”) as part of the same problem? If so, that’s a step in the right direction.

But if current opponents of today’s self-styled Nazis instead try to lump the villains of Charlottesville, Donald Trump and Israel into a single package that will be the target of their attacks over the coming months and years, we may learn the truth behind a saying frequently attributed (inaccurately) to Winston Churchill and Huey Long: that if fascism comes to America, it will be called “Anti-Fascism.”

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

In Hebrew, they are terror attacks. In Arabic, they are "operations."

Today there was another car ramming attack in Marseille, although police are not calling it a terror attack.

There is as of yet no universal English phrase for these types of attacks. "Vehicle attacks," "vehicular attacks," "ramming attacks" - all are dependent on the still evolving style guides of different news agencies.

But there are well-accepted phrases describig vehicle attacks in Hebrew and in Arabic.

In Hebrew, there is a specific term for these kinds of attacks as well: פיגוע דריסה, "pigua drisa" meaning "ramming attack." But in Hebrew the word "pigua" specifically refers to terror attacks.

I saw the story reported in Arabic but the Google Translate phrase for the type of attack was not accurate. Google Translate has not yet caught up with common usage. In Arabic, the consistent term for vehicle ramming attacks is عملية دهس, "eamaliat dahs" which literally means "ramming operation."

In Arabic, these are akin to military operations. In Hebrew, they are terror attacks.

The reason, of course, is that Palestinians were the ones who innovated these kinds of attacks, and they were reported in Arabic media in terms of being heroic military operations against Israelis. The phrase stuck even when reporting on Nice or Barcelona, since the shorthand that implicitly finds these attacks to be heroic remains as part of modern Arabic.

The first vehicle attack I am aware of was indeed Palestinian. It was in 2001 when an Arab bus driver aimed his bus at a group of soldiers at the Azor junction, killing seven soldiers and one civilian and injuring 26.

It was the first "heroic ramming operation." It occurred some nine years before Al Qaeda first recommended that tactic in its "Inspire" magazine.

Every time that the media reports on these types of attacks and pretends that they are a new European phenomenon, they are purposefully obscuring the fact that these attacks are yet another gift that Palestinian terrorists have given the world.

(h/t Ibn Boutros)

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

Along with the Egyptian siege and the Gulf Arab siege comes the siege by the Palestinian Authority itself:

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas reportedly threatened Sunday to cut off all financial support to the Gaza Strip, unless the Hamas terror group which controls the coastal enclave works together with Abbas’s Fatah party.

The comments came during a meeting with Israeli lawmakers, during which the Palestinian leader also said the Trump administration was in chaos and not moving forward on peace efforts.

According to Israel’s Channel 2, when MK Zahava Galon, of the dovish Meretz party, chided Abbas for having cut payments for Israeli electricity earlier this year, Abbas responded that he might not stop there.

“We transfer $1.5 billion a year, but after Hamas declared its own government, we discontinued 25 percent of our support to Gaza,” Abbas said, according to the report.

“We fear that if there is no change soon, that will gradually reach 100%,” he said.

Earlier this year, Abbas said he would stop transferring some money to Israel to pay for electricity in the Strip. Israel refused to make up the difference, leading to fears of a looming humanitarian crisis in the impoverished enclave already beset by problems providing drinking water and treating sewage.

Yes, the head of the Palestinian Authority is threatening nearly half of its population with a complete loss of electricity, medicine, and funding for teachers and other critical infrastructure.

The Egyptians have essentially shut down their border to Gaza, except for some Hajj pilgrims, for four months now.

The Gulf Arab states have declared Gaza's de facto rulers to be terrorists and (with the exception of Qatar) have stopped providing funds for the Gaza Strip.

The only people who actually seem to be trying to help the citizens of Gaza from sickness and starvation are - Israeli Jews.

Galon had told Abbas she disapproved of steps taken by the Palestinian leader to isolate the Gaza Strip as a means of pressuring Hamas, the de facto ruler of the enclave.

Israel's left-wing parties are more pro-Palestinian than Palestinians are.

The only country that Amnesty and Human Rights Watch and the UN single out for Gaza's problems is the country that has been sending electricity and fuel and aid to Gaza and that has been treating its patients. All while most fellow Arabs have told Gaza's citizens to drop dead.

The irony is almost too perfect, and yet invisible to the world's NGOs and media.

(h/t Yoel)

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

Sheikh Raed Salah, terror supporter, complains that Jewish prisoners are abusing him

Awwww...

From Al Rai:

The head of the Islamic Movement inside the occupied Palestinian territory, Sheikh Raed Salah, was subjected to verbal and physical abuse inside the Israeli prison.

A member of the defense of the President of the Islamic Movement inside the 1948 Palestine, lawyer Khaled Zbarqa, told Al Rai about the fear and anxiety for the life of Sheikh Salah and his safety as he was attacked and threatened by Jewish prisoners inside the prison, and this is indicative of the fact that the inflammatory rhetoric that the Sheikh has been exposed to by Netanyahu personally and his ministers in his government, created a hostile atmosphere to the sheikh through threats and abuse. He confirmed that the attack included verbal and physical beatings by Jewish prisoners inside the prison.

The guy whose entire life is built around inciting Arabs to kill Jews is complaining about Israelis inciting to kill him.

Of course, Raed Salah has no evidence of incitement by Netanyahu, and the amount of evidence of his incitement could fill volumes. And here is a nice cartoon he posted on Facebook just last month:

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

08/20 Links: Why Anti-Zionism Is Anti-Semitism; When Feminists Join Islamist Terrorists;

From Ian:

Dr. Mordechai Kedar: The Hajj and the struggle for Islamic leadership

What can we look forward to this year when the Hajj to Mecca approaches? I do not know, but I will not be surprised if the political tension between the Saudis and Iran, particularly after the Sunni ISIS defeats, Shiite Hezbollah victories and Iran's moving into Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, finds an outlet during the Hajj. It could be in the form of a Shiite boycott of Mecca or Saudi violence against any Shiites who attempt the pilgrimage to Mecca.
In June, Jerusalem became the site of the struggle ("Ribat") between Islam, the religion that expects to take the place of Judaism and Christianity, and Judaism, which is in the midst of a return to its former status as a living, worthy religion. The background of the struggle is the renewal of Jewish sovereignty on the Temple Mount. During the short period of Muslim demonstrations for the right to enter the Al Aqsa Mosque without "Jewish" security checks, Saudi Arabia's voice was conspicuously absent.
The reason for the Saudi silence was the fear that the Muslim Brotherhood and those over whom they hold sway would raise the Al Aqsa Mosque to a level of importance that could contest the centrality of Mecca in Islam.
This plan was heard in Muslim Brotherhood media pronouncements. In 2012, for example, Safwat Higazi, the Muslim Brotherhood's chief spokesman in Egypt, said that the capital of the Islamic Caliphate that can unite all the Arab nations "is not Mecca, not Medina, not Cairo, but Jerusalem. (h/t Elder of Lobby)

Why Anti-Zionism Is Anti-Semitism

One in Three British Jews Consider Leaving UK, Majority Thinks Labour Party Harbours Anti-Semites

In interviews with thousands of British Jews, almost a third of them said they have considered leaving the United Kingdom over the past two years due to antisemitism.
The findings are part of a report published Sunday by the Campaign Against Antisemitism watchdog group, which conducted since 2015 interviews with more than 10,000 British Jews together with the YouGov market research company.
In interviews conducted in 2016 and 2017 with a combined sample population of 7,156 respondents, 37 percent of them said they have been concealing in public signs that would indicate that they are Jewish.
Only 59 percent of the respondents since 2015 said they feel welcome in the United Kingdom and 17 percent said they feel unwelcome.
Only 39 percent of respondents from 2015 onward said they trust justice authorities to prosecute perpetrators of antisemitic hate crimes.
Three-quarters of the people interviewed said they feel that recent political events have resulted in increased hostility towards Jews. Since 2015, 80 percent of respondents said they believe that the Labour Party is harboring antisemites in its ranks.
In 2015, Jeremy Corbyn, a far-left politician who in 2009 called Hezbollah and Hamas his “friends,” was elected to lead Labour. Corbyn said last year that he regrets calling the terrorists his friends but Jewish groups in the United Kingdom and beyond have accused him of whitewashing antisemitism and allowing it to grow among the many thousands of supporters who joined Labour in support of his policies.

2015: JC poll reveals 88 per cent of British Jews have not considered leaving UK

The vast majority of Britain’s Jews have no intention of packing their bags despite rising concern about safety after the Paris attacks, according to an authoritative new poll for the JC.
Almost nine out of 10 – 88 per cent - say that they have not considered quitting the UK since last week’s atrocities, compared to just 11 per cent who have thought of leaving.
Among 18-34 year olds, however, the percentage of those who say they have considered leaving jumps to over 17 per cent.
Considering overall safety in the wake of the murders in Paris, nearly a third report feeling “much more concerned”.
When asked about their personal safety, three-quarters still feel secure – over three times more than those who do not.
Seventeen per cent feel “very safe and 58 per cent “quite safe”, compared to 19 per cent who feel “quite unsafe” and only three per cent “very unsafe”. The remaining three per cent are undecided.

According to Palestinian media, a man who moved from Gaza to Sweden was murdered yesterday.

Reports say that Mohammed al-Bazem, 28, was shot in the head and neck as he opened his door yesterday.

Original reports said that he was a former prisoner in Israeli prisons, but his father denies that. He says that he moved to Sweden in 2008 after his brother was killed in the first Gaza War (which seems unlikely since that war ended in 2009 and chances are Israel didn't allow anyone to emigrate during the war).

According to his father, al-Bazem complained about a loud party that was happening on the apartment above his about an hour before his death. The father, seemingly knowing lots of details from thousands of miles away, says that the party featured alcohol and drug abuse.

And one of the residents in that apartment is a Jew.

What more evidence do you need?

Ma'an is now reporting as fact "A Jewish man shot Mohammed from close range, killing him with two bullets in the head and neck" even though its headline says that there is still ambiguity surrounding the case.

Police in are saying nothing beyond that a young man was shot to death in his apartment.

UPDATE: Palestine Today say it was two Jews who killed him.

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

I missed this: Rasmea Odeh admitted role in terror in 1980 interview

Supporters of terrorist Rasmea Odeh are upset that the judge in her sentencing hearing didn't allow her to finish reading her long statement that had little to do with her actual case and was simply an anti-Israel polemic.

Odeh did not get very far before Judge Drain interrupted her the first time. “This case is about you making false statements in immigration applications.”

Odeh interjected saying “This is my first and last chance to speak. Palestinians are not terrorists” and then continued with her prepared statement.

Odeh continued to tell the history of the UN conventions that say Palestinians have the right to resist occupation, questioning why like the early Americans, Palestinians are not given the right to fight for their independence, and that the US government has supported the Israeli occupation of Palestine by selling arms illegally to the Israeli government to use against the Palestinians. Judge Drain interrupted two more times saying “This is not important. This is not the place to talk about that.”

After Odeh said “This government must be held responsible for the Palestine occupation and the colonization of our country. Israel has no right to exist as an apartheid state,” Judge Drain interrupted the last time with a threat. “If you continue, I fill find you in contempt and you will find yourself locked up.”

Undeterred by this direct threat by the judge, Odeh concluded, “It was unjust they locked me in jail, tortured me, raped me and destroyed my house. I will raise my voice to say we have the right to struggle for our country.”

Like many terrorists, Odeh has intended to use the US court system as a platform to push propaganda. The judge pointed out that this all has nothing to do with her lying on her immigration application and stopped her. (Odeh still got her full statement published in anti-Israel media.)

What I hadn't noticed until now (although of course Legal Insurrection noticed this in 2014) was that Odeh had directly admitted to a role in British Consulate bombing in 1969 that her supporters claim she was tortured into confessing. I have already shown that her friend admitted on video Rasmea's involvement specifically in the supermarket bombing, but Rasmea herself admitted that she was involved in the attempted British Consulate bombing a few days later in a long interview published in the Journal for Palestine Studies in 1980:

I returned to the West Bank in early 1969 and was arrested on February
28 and accused of involvement in the supermarket explosion in West
Jerusalem and another in the British Consulate. We had placed a bomb there
to protest Britain's decision to furnish arms to Israel. Actually we placed two
bombs, the first was found before it went off so we placed another.

Later, she claims that Israeli prison authorities showed her other people being tortured, and she says:

They showed me all these things so that I would confess to things I didn't know of, but I didn't confess what I did know.

This is besides her detailed confession, which can be seen in Arabic (Odeh falsely claims that she was forced to sign a Hebrew confession that she did not understand,) where she describes her roles in both the Supersol bombing and the failed British Consulate bombing.

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

Clashes at Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon kill at least three

At least one person was killed and several others were injured on Saturday – the third day of clashes between Palestinian security forces and militant group Badr in Ain el Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp near Sidon, Lebanon, local sources said

Saturday's clashes broke out after fighters belonging to the mainstream Palestinian group Fatah, led by the West Bank-based Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, fired at a district where the leader of the armed group was believed to be taking cover.

Scores of families were forced to flee the area.

The fighting began on Thursday after armed men – allegedly sympathetic to Bilal Badr, a militant wanted in connection with “terrorism” – fired at the headquarters of a joint security force, comprising the main Palestinian factions of Fatah and Hamas, inside the camp. Two people were killed in that fighting.

The clashes eased on Friday before intensifying again on Saturday, forcing dozens of families to flee the camp and seek shelter in Sidon mosques.

The sound of fierce gunfire and rocket fire could be heard outside the camp as black smoke billowed over Ain al Hilweh.

The fighting shook the Al Tiri district a few metres (yards) away from a Lebanese army position.

By longstanding convention, the Lebanese army does not enter Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, leaving the factions themselves to handle security.

Ein al Hilweh is the crowded "refugee" camp that the Lebanese built a wall around, complete with watchtowers. It is a real prison for Palestinians so they can kill each other without Lebanese police bothering to worry about it.

The Arab world loves Palestinians so much, don't they?

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

08/19 Links: Well-intentioned antisemitism; Hamas summer camp teaches youths to ‘liberate Palestine’

From Ian:

Well-intentioned antisemitism

As long as Europeans continue to turn a blind eye to the egregious antisemitism that saturates Palestinian society – such as the Palestinian Authority’s payment of stipends to terrorists who murder civilians and their families – its explicitly antisemitic teachings proliferate.
These include gems such as that Jews are descendants of “apes and pigs” that is ingrained in young Palestinian children from birth, the public embrace and praise of terrorists, the purposeful misinformation campaigns aimed at inciting violence against Jews, (note, not Israelis, but “Yahood”). As long as this continues and Europe ignores it, what evidence do we have that they’ve learned anything at all from the Holocaust? Many Germans, at least initially, wanted to see their country rise again after the disaster of WWI, possibly motivated not as much by racism as by the well-being of their country. They felt they had been given unfair treatment following the Treaty of Versailles and were taught the Jews were to blame. How is this different from what Palestinians teach their children? European governments continue to fund the PA, which utilizes many of the same dehumanizing tactics that the Nazis used.
It is these same tactics which made it far too easy for an entire country to ignore the murder of an ethnic group of six million people.
Why then should a Palestinian terrorist, who was raised to hate the same dehumanized group, have any hesitation about murdering them? Why shouldn’t he or she, when taught from birth that the Jews are to blame for all the terrible problems in Palestine? In German eyes, the country was unfairly treated following WWI and merely wanted to restore the “greatness” of Germany. How is that different from the mantra of “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free?” Why on Earth should Palestinians make peace with Israel when this is what they’re taught? The hypocrisy when it comes to condemning the only Jewish state is no different from the well-intentioned antisemitism that led to the Holocaust. Europeans ought to be the first to condemn Palestinian antisemitism and the last to provide international and political support as it follows the path of repeating the sins of Europe’s past.

Palestinian killed trying to stab Israeli officer in West Bank

Border Police officers shot and killed a Palestinian as he tried to stab one of them at a flashpoint West Bank junction on Saturday, police and medics said. One officer was lightly wounded in the incident.
The Palestinian approached the officers standing at the Tapuah Junction in the northern West Bank. When they called on him to halt, he pulled out a knife and tried to attack them. He was shot and killed, police said.
One officer was lightly wounded in the leg and was being treated by IDF medics and the Magen David Adom rescue service, the MDA said.
Medics initially said the officer, 21, had been stabbed, but later said it appeared that he was wounded by shrapnel from the shots fired. He was taken to the Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikvah for further treatment.
The Tapuah Junction has been a frequent site of stabbing attacks in recent months.
Police said the attacker was a 17-year-old from the West Bank city of Tul Karem.
The Palestinian Health Ministry identified him as Qutaiba Zahran. Channel 2 reported that he had left a note for his parents, saying that he had gone out to carry out a “revenge attack” and not to mourn him because he was now a “martyr”

Israel’s former counter terrorism chief warns: IS will carry out chemical attack

Islamic State is in its death throes but the worst is yet to come, the former head of Israel’s Counter-Terrorism Bureau, Brigadier General Nitzan Nuriel, said Friday, warning that the terror group could carry out a chemical attack.
“Western society must get used to the fact that terrorism is part of our life,” Nuriel said, speaking to Israel’s Army Radio. “We must get used to this, not in the sense of sitting around waiting for the next attack, and not in the sense of stopping to go abroad or to stop living, but in the sense of seeing who can improve the actions or processes that may help push back the next attack and make it an attack that will not claim large numbers of casualties.”
Nuriel, a 30-year IDF veteran, was speaking in the wake of the Barcelona and Cambrils terror attacks. At least 14 people were killed and some 130 were wounded in the two attacks. Islamic State claimed responsibility.
Nuriel said that even though the group was in steep decline, it still had the ability to inflict great harm
“I, sadly, was among those who said, ‘I told you so,’ those who said that 2017 will be a bloody year in Europe,” he said.
“I think the worst is yet to come. What we are witnessing is the death throes of death of the physical infrastructure of Islamic State in the region, and these will regrettably be accompanied by many incidents of this kind and worse. I, for one, believe that a chemical terror attack is ahead of us,” he said, adding that “Islamic State has the knowledge, the capabilities and the means. I think they have already made the decision. All that remains is the operation in which this will happen.”

08/18 Links Pt2: Leftists Cheer Murderer Rasmea Odeh; Chloe Valdary: My Journey to Zionism

From Ian:

IsraellyCool: Message to Richard Spencer, Racist

Not-so dear Richard Spencer,
I am sure you are as surprised as most of us that you got your say on Israeli television (the one place in the world the Jews really do control the media). Not only that, but the anchor was way too polite to you, considering your detestable views on Jews and other groups.
But I want to specifically address your calling yourself a White Zionist during that interview in the sense of claiming you care about “your people” (i.e. Whites) and want a secure homeland for yourselves.
Sure, there are those who think you have a point – even some fellow Jews. But I hate to break it to you – they don’t understand what Zionism – or even Judaism – is truly about.
As someone who does, allow me to educate you.
Zionism is nothing more than the national movement for the return of the Jewish people to their homeland and the resumption of Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel. You see, since we were exiled thousands of years ago, we never gave up hope of returning. This is expressed in our Jewish prayers and religious observance.
Zionism is not about racial superiority or making life hell for others – despite the claims of your fellow antisemites and ignoramuses (including some of my fellow Jews). It is about our history, our religion, our beliefs. We are taught not to “oppress a stranger” – we are to live in peace with our fellow non-Jewish citizens. Except those who try to kill us – the Torah also gives us the mandate to defend ourselves. After all, the 10 Commandments say “Do Not Murder”, not “Do Not Kill” – an acknowledgement of killing in self-defense.

Judean Peoples Front: Berl Katznelson On Self-Hating Jews

There is a movement among Zionists on the Left in Israel to commemorate Labor Zionist leader Berl Katznelson with his own day of remembrance, in the same way that Revisionist Zionist leader Ze’ev Jabotinsky is. While I am firmly in the Revisionist camp, I recognize that Israel would not have been reestablished without the hard work, steadfastness and vision of many pioneering Zionist leftists like Katznelson and he is surely worthy of a day in his honor.
We were again reminded of the clarity of thinking when we saw the latest article by Naomi Dann of Jewish Voice for ~~Peace~~ Palestine in the Forward.

We won’t link to it because we don’t want to drive traffic to such a disgusting screed. But you can find it here:
http://forward.com/opinion/380384/richard-spencer-might-be-the-worst-person-in-america-but-hes-right-about-is/
Suffice it to say that Dann has decided that she does in fact agree with Alt-White leader Richard Spencer on one thing: anti-Zionism. Rather than engage in serious introspection at the fact that the core of her identity is shared by a rabid racist & Jew-hater, Dann instead argues that in just this one instance, Spencer is correct.
I have already explained why Zionism is in no way comparable to white nationalism, but am not surprised Dann hasn’t read it. Jew-hatred, like all forms of bigotry, clouds the mind and blinds one’s vision to anything that contradicts it. JVP’s entire reason for being is to act as a blue-and-whitewashing shield for Jew-haters and after defending Jihadists for years, it is not surprising they are now doing so for Nazis as well.
Sadly Dann and JVP are not special or new as Jewish Jew-haters have been around as long as Jews have.

Caroline Glick: Trump and the Jews

In other words, for the Forward, pro-Israel American Jews of the type assaulted by antifa and its comrades, and pro-Israel presidential advisers are more dangerous to the community than Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas, and of course, Sarsour herself who embraces Jew-killing terrorists and says that Jewish Israel-supporters must be shunned.
Trump’s electoral victory was a revolutionary event in US history. Tens of millions of American voters supported Trump because he promised to “drain the swamp,” in Washington and serve the needs of the people who the swamp cast asunder.
A big part of that swamp is the Left that insists it is above criticism while its opponents on the Right are deplorable racists unworthy of consideration. When Trump called out the far Left along with the neo-Nazis for their violence at Charlottesville, he was keeping his pledge to his voters and upending one of the most cherished myths of the hated “establishment.”
Given that the white supremacists and radical leftists converge in their hatred of Jews, it is important for the American Jewish community and for America as a whole to embrace Trump’s actions. He is not engaging in moral equivalence between good and evil. He is exercising moral clarity. Without such clarity, the forces of Jew-hatred in the US will never be defeated. Without such clarity, the political position, security and freedom of American Jews will grow increasingly imperiled.
Israel’s job, to the extent it has one in the current fight plaguing the US, is to point out this truth, not join the bandwagon in obfuscating it. Trump is far from a perfect mouthpiece for this essential battle against Jew-haters on the Right and the Left.
But at least he is using his mouth to sound the battle cry. For this he should be applauded by Israelis and American Jews alike.

Ramallah amusement park ride collapse injures 21 children (video)

Palestinian officials have closed the Sky Land amusement park a week after a ride collapsed.

There is some dramatic video of the incident (starting around 0:35):

An entire week later, Palestinian officials decided that maybe they should check the other rides there.

In other news...the poor oppressed Palestinians have amusement parks.

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

11 years after the Second Lebanon War, Hezbollah is again threatening Israel. Their latest is a Hebrew language campaign: “What to take with you when Hezbollah strikes Israel”: Flashlight because they are going to attack the power stations, pills to ease the anxiety, sneakers to run fast, and a gas mask for when they attack the ammonia storage tanks.

Hezbollah, backed by Iran, (empowered by the Iran deal and the vacuum left in the areas where ISIS has been defeated) is waiting for the right time to attack Israel. Their war against us never ended. It was temporarily paused 11 years ago.

This is what I wrote on August 28, 2006:

Friends from overseas have written congratulating me on the cease-fire. Now, they assume, everything is ok again. Others asked why I haven’t written any articles or personal letters in these last few days. The two are connected.

Everything is not ok. This “cease-fire” is a joke. A practical joke. Like pushing someone down a flight of stairs, watching them break their neck and then laughing.

I can go outside again. I can go to work, go shopping, visit with family and friends. That is wonderful. The problem is why I am able to do these things -for the same reason I could do them for the past six years – not because there is peace but because Hezbollah decided it was not to their benefit to attack. Yet.

Last month Hezbollah decided it was time to attack Israel. On July 12th they infiltrated our country, crossing our sovereign borders, killed people, took hostages and simultaneously launched a full-blown attack on our cities (a point that many conveniently forget or ignore). Israel fought back. She had no other choice.

We had missiles raining down on our heads. Some four thousand missiles. Friends and family were in constant danger. Businesses were ruined. Our loved ones died and others became scarred for life. We had so many people killed here it was comparable to having 9/11 happen twice in a single month.

Now people assume that we Israelis are happy that this horrible time is over.

That’s just the problem – it’s not over.

I look at the faces of the people around me and I see no happiness. No calm. Everyone is tense. Everyone knows the next war is around the corner.

Cease-fire?

Our soldiers are still in Lebanon, still in danger, still fighting Hezbollah. This is being done on a “low flame”, one the world feels able to ignore. Our soldiers are uncovering weapons caches, destroying Hezbollah bunkers, trying to get as much done as possible before UNIFIL deploys and becomes Hezbollah’s new human shields.

We have already gotten wind of something very serious: UN soldiers being warned by Hezbollah not to enter certain towns and areas in southern Lebanon, orders with which the soldiers, of course, comply. Their personal safety is, of course, more important to them then preventing Hezbollah rearming. The UN soldiers aren’t fighting for the existence of their country.

Cease-fire? A cease-fire isn’t peace. It isn’t even a truce. A cease-fire is simply an agreement to take a break in the fighting. In this case, even that modest goal has not been achieved in its totality. Hezbollah is still shooting at Israeli soldiers, they have not ceased to fire.

So now we get to why I haven’t written. The answer is simple. I’m angry. In fact, I am seething.

There is good reason to be angry at the current Israeli government for their many failures in managing this war. Many things were done poorly, to the detriment of us all. It is correct to say that Israel’s acceptance of a cease-fire agreement which does not achieve any of the goals in fighting a war in the first place namely – eliminating the terrorist threat on our border and retrieving our hostages – is caving into terrorism. The cease fire sends a terrible message to the Jihadists – terrorism is an effective strategy.

There is good reason to be angry at Hezbollah and yet I am not angry at them. I do not hate my would-be killers. I understand them. They were taking action congruent to their ideals and goals.

There is one thing that angers me more than the viciousness of Hezbollah or the incompetence of the current Israeli government. America. I am revolted by America.

I was born in America and taught to love America. I grew up on the values of life, liberty and justice for all. I was taught that these are the core values of the good old US of A.

My family moved to Israel when I was 13. I didn’t want to leave America. In my new room in Israel I bought a poster of an American flag so I could see it every day. Sometimes I recited the Pledge of Allegiance, just to make sure I remembered it.

That is the person who is now telling you that she is disgusted with America.

After 9/11 America spoke up and announced “we will lead the war on terrorism!” Never mind that Israel has been fighting that war for years. America said that those who are friends with terrorists are no friend of America; that people must not be allowed to terrorize others, that everyone has the right to life, liberty and justice. That America would help those in need attain those goals.

Then Israel was attacked. We were fighting for our very existence. America said to the world “leave Israel alone, what they are doing is necessary for Israel AND for Lebanon” which was true. And then someone in the American government came up with the brilliant idea of a cease-fire.

The editor of the Wall Street Journal wrote an article (that frankly shocked me), the premise being – Condoleezza Rice was hoodwinked into agreeing to support a cease-fire that isn’t worth the paper it’s written on, convinced Israel to go along with it and now the poor misguided woman feels like the international community lied to her (or at least should feel that way). It seems the writer of this article believes Ms. Rice to be both stupid and ignorant. I don’t believe that for one moment and that is why I am angry.

Condoleezza Rice knows that the UN will not protect Israel. Since when has the UN taken steps to stop terrorism, slaughter and genocide of innocents – in any country? Condoleezza Rice knows that UNIFIL soldiers will not fight Hezbollah. No one will disarm the terrorist organization. No one will enforce a weapons embargo on Hezbollah. No one will force Hezbollah to give us back our hostages. She knows all these things and even so she, and the president that she represents, were eager to shove a cease-fire down Israel’s throat.

Why were they so eager? Are they stupid? Naive? I certainly don’t think so. There is only one reason I can think of – polls.

Support for the fight against terrorism dropped in the polls. Consensus that America should back her ally Israel in her battle for survival evaporated, so the American government decided to preserve what power it has left and cave into terrorism. They decided to throw Israel to the crocodiles in the hope that America would be eaten last.

The America I was raised to love was a sanctuary. A strong fortress of freedom that would protect those who were being persecuted. Years later here I am, an American, living in a different country, one that America professes to be friends with and America says what amounts to: “lay down and die because it is not convenient for me to look out for you. It is too much trouble for me to allow you to look out for yourself so – don’t.”

America professes wonderful values, principles and ideals but does not live by them. America knows what is right but does not follow through when the correct path becomes uncomfortable.

Hezbollah live and die by their values and principles.

Who am I supposed to respect more?

This cease-fire is no prize. The only group that benefits from the cease-fire is Hezbollah and possibly, in the short term, the American government benefits in the polls a bit. In the long term this cease-fire endangers Israel, America and all western countries. It reinforces the knowledge that Jihadists already have – terrorism is a very effective political strategy. The west obviously would rather stick its head in the sand then look the threat in the face. This is the reaction the terrorists hope for, it is easy to achieve their goals when no one is watching (not to mention blocking!) them. The cease–fire is no prize for Lebanon either. They will continue to be held hostage by Hezbollah.

I still believe that life, liberty and justice for all are magnificent values. I believe the Lebanese deserve to experience them. I believe Israel deserves them as well. All the Israelis I know hold these same beliefs.

Even our weak, incompetent government tried to create the situation where we could live according to the ideals I was once taught America considered to be everyone’s basic rights. They tried. They failed. Why? Because America stopped them.

Israel is a country bruised and battered. We weep and we wait for the next round of fighting. Sooner or later Israel, Lebanon and the rest of the world will have to deal with the consequences of this “cease-fire” that isn’t. When it comes, the people of Israel will fight.

We, at least, know what we are fighting for.

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.