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Israel Tag

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 13, 2016 4 Comments
There have been a series of assinations of top Hezbollah commanders in the recent past, including Imad Mughniyeh (mastermind of almost all attacks on Israel and the U.S.), his son Imad Mughniyeh (who was killed along with several high level operatives and an Iranian general), Hassan Laqqis (key Hezbollah link to Iranian weapons procurement) and Samir Kuntar (who killed an Israeli girl by smashing her head against the rocks on a beach). In some of the cases (Imad Mughniyeh) Israeli involvement was clear, in the others it's presumed. Hezbollah just lost another top commander, the brother-in-law of Imad Mughniyey, and its top commander in Syria, Mustafa Amine Badreddine. The BBC reports:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on May 12, 2016 6 Comments
As part of the Israeli Independence Day celebrations, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hosted a live question and answer session on Twitter. Respondents tweeted questions using the #AskNetanyahu hashtag. Typical of most hashtag events, ne'er do wellers loaded up #AskNetanyahu with all kinds of silly questions. Unlike most hashtag events, Netanyahu responded.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 12, 2016 4 Comments
You may recall the name Janna Jihad. Janna is a member of the Tamimi clan from Nabi Saleh. Among the more infamous Tamimi members is Ahlam Tamimi, the woman who organized the Sbarro Pizza restaurant suicide bombing in 2001, and then broke out with a huge smile when she learned that more children actually were killed than she thought. The Tamimi clan also has a sophisticated media operation. Under the guidance of Bassem Tamimi and his wife, Tamimi and other village children are used as media props to confront Israeli soldiers for the cameras, including throwing rocks, hoping to create a viral image or video.

Posted by Miriam Elman on May 11, 2016 8 Comments
The Day of Remembrance for the Fallen Soldiers of Israel and Victims of Terrorism (Yom Ha’zikaron) began yesterday when a memorial siren at 8:00 p.m. brought Israel to a standstill. It marked the start of the commemoration day nationwide, with an official state candle-lighting ceremony at the Western Wall (the Kotel) in Jerusalem also taking place at that time. https://twitter.com/Hilajes81/status/730323383284604929 Another two-minute siren wailed this morning across Israel.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 10, 2016 4 Comments
Today is Israel Memorial Day, in which those killed in combat and in terrorist attacks are remembered. One of my goals is to follow up on the victims of the Knife Intifada. Last week I updated regarding the murder of Israeli mother Dafna Meir, who was stabbed in her home by a Palestinian teen in front of her children; the 16 year old was recently convicted. When I travel to Israel again, currently planned for June, I hope to meet with several of the families. You may recall our on February 19, 2016, report on the murder of Tuvia Yanai Weissman, 21, who was stabbed to death in a supermarket while he was shopping with his wife and baby daughter. When he saw the Palestinians stabbing other shoppers, he rushed towards them and fought them with his bare hands, but was killed in the process.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 08, 2016 8 Comments
As you know if you have been reading Legal Insurrection for years, we regularly track Gallup and Pew surveys of attitudes among Americans of the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. What we see is that support for Israel among the entire U.S. population remains at near historical highs. For example, the Gallup survey released in February 2016 demonstrated that Americans still overwhelmingly support Israel:
The survey shows that support for Israel versus the Palestinians remains near historical highs, slightly up from last year:
Americans’ views about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict remained steady over the past year, with 62% of Americans saying their sympathies lie more with the Israelis and 15% favoring the Palestinians. About one in four continue to be neutral, including 9% who sympathize with neither side, 3% who sympathize with both, and 11% expressing no opinion.

Posted by Miriam Elman on May 08, 2016 11 Comments
In the saturated market of U.S. anti-Israel activism, the political organization Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) plays a starring role. In many posts (see a partial list here), we’ve highlighted how JVP provides the façade of American Jewish support for pro-BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) organizations arrayed against the Jewish state. By presenting itself as the Jewish justification for BDS, the group gives “cover” to political and economic war on Israel, insulating BDS from allegations of anti-Semitism and providing it with a veneer of legitimacy. On its website, JVP boasts over 60 member-led chapters across the United States and more than 200,000 online supporters. These days it also has increased access to funding, which it uses to promote and publicize its “high profile” anti-Israel activism.

Posted by Mary Chastain on May 05, 2016 2 Comments
Iowa Governor Terry Branstad confirmed he will sign a bill that will not allow public companies to do business with firms involved in Israel boycotts. Iowa's Senate passed House File 2331 last week in a 38-9 vote. The legislators hope the bill counters "efforts of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement." Palestinian groups began the movement in 2005 as a way to money and goods from Israel. "I just think it is wrong to be boycotting our friend and ally, Israel," declared Gov. Branstad. "There is a lot of opportunity for us to do business with them, and I don’t believe we ought to be penalizing Israel, of all countries. They are one of our best friends and allies. This is something I strongly support."

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 05, 2016 7 Comments
If you spend any time reading propaganda from the anti-Israel movement, you will hear how Israel imprisons Palestinian "children," meaning anyone under the age of 18. Of course, many if not most of those children were participating in attacks on Israelis and are 15, 16 and 17 year olds who have both the power and the will to kill. One of the hallmarks of the so-called Knife Intifada is knife attacks perpetrated by young teens, with devastating effect. If you don't think a 13-year old with a knife is dangerous, than you have never been attacked by a 13-year old with a knife. One of those attacks by a Palestinian "child" killed Israeli mother Dafna Meir, in front of her children. We reported on the attack on January 17, 2016:

Posted by Mary Chastain on May 05, 2016 2 Comments
NATO has accepted Israel's request to establish an office at the headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. The decision went through because Turkey decided to stop opposing Israel's attempts at opening an office at NATO. A non-NATO country needs unanimous consent from all NATO members in order to collaborate with the organization.

Posted by Mary Chastain on May 04, 2016 8 Comments
Kuwait Airways has decided to stop all of their inter-European flights instead of accepting Israeli passengers. The Lawfare Project filed civil and criminal complaints against the airlines in Geneva, Switzerland, over their discrimination policies. They claimed the policy violated "the Swiss Penal Code as well as the Swiss constitution, which protects individuals from discrimination based on race, religion and ethnicity." "By cancelling these lucrative flight paths rather than admitting Israelis on KAC flights, the airline--a wholly owned instrumentality of the Kuwaiti government--is demonstrating its commitment to discrimination even while exposing itself to enormous pecuniary loss," wrote Lawfare Project in a statement.

Posted by Mike LaChance on May 03, 2016 7 Comments
The newest offering from Prager University asks an interesting question. Why are there still Palestinian refugees and no Jewish refugees? Dumisani Washington of Christians United for Israel hosts the video and points out a number of facts which are frequently ignored by critics of Israel.

Posted by Miriam Elman on May 02, 2016 1 Comment
This past week during Passover, Palestinians rioted and assaulted several Jews on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, Judaism’s most sacred site. As we highlighted in an earlier post, the mere sight of Jews at their holiest place was seen by Muslims there as an affront. Two Jewish men who dared to pray were beaten up. Other Jewish visitors were harassed with verbal taunts and Israeli police and border patrol units also came under attack. But the Temple Mount wasn’t the only place where Muslims rioted against Jewish worshippers this Passover. On April 27, Jews making a pilgrimage to Joseph’s Tomb, located near the biblical city of Shechem, were also set upon by Muslim rioters.

Posted by Miriam Elman on May 01, 2016 6 Comments
This past week, during the intermediate days of Passover (Chol Hamoed), nearly 900 Israeli Jews, roughly 100 to 300 per day, ascended Jerusalem’s Temple Mount. Thousands of tourists also visited the sacred place over the course of the week. The site is the place of the two Jewish Temples in antiquity. It’s considered Judaism’s “holiest of holies” and is treasured by Jews across the planet. [caption id="attachment_136001" align="alignnone" width="600"]The Jewish Temple, replica The Jewish Temple, replica[/caption]

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 30, 2016 1 Comment
Earlier today I saw a tweet by Arsen Ostrovsky regarding the bombing of Mike's Place in Tel Aviv in 2003: https://twitter.com/Ostrov_A/status/726424919148470272 I had heard of it, but only vaguely. The list of Palestinian suicide bombings is so enormously long, I couldn't remember the details. It was not one of the higher profile bombings, unlike the Dolphinarium disco (21 dead), the Sbarro Pizza restaurant (15 dead including 7 children), or the Park Hotel Passover Seder (30 dead). As with other Palestinian terror attacks I have researched and written about, I learned that there were stories within stories, and surprises that made terror from decades ago so real today: So I set out to learn the story of the suicide bombing at Mike's Place.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on April 28, 2016 2 Comments
Anti-Israel boycott campaign, the so-called BDS movement, and other anti-Israel groups are carrying out a coordinated campaign to hijack the May Day demonstrations in Germany with an aim of spreading their anti-Semitic and anti-Israel message. The blatant anti-Semitism and the hatred of Israel these groups propagates is getting so repugnant that it is unnerving even the old left-wingers who otherwise never missed a chance of criticising the Jewish State. The attempts by some moderate groups to keep anti-Israel agitators from taking over the Labour Day events have failed. A resolution tabled by a prominent left-wing activist Jutta Ditfurth seeking to expel openly anti-Semitic groups from the event was rejected overwhelmingly by the organising committee, forcing Ditfurth and her environmentalist group groups to leave the alliance.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 23, 2016 8 Comments
By now, it is common for supporters of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement on campuses to interrupt speeches and chant "Long Live the Intifada." At UT-Austin, the chant was shouted by a group from the Palestine Solidarity Committee as they interrupted an event put on by the Israeli Studies Department. The group was led by law student Mohammed Nabulsi, who will be interning at "Palestine Legal," which serves as the lawfare division of the BDS movement: Similar chants we have covered at Legal Insurrection include Northeastern University, San Francisco State, City University of NY, and UC-Davis. The Intifada is the bloody campaign of terror launched by Palestinians mostly against Jewish civilians.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 22, 2016 3 Comments
Tonight is the First Night of Passover, in which we celebrate the Exodus from Egypt. My favorite passage from the traditional Passover Haggadah is one that is evergreen:
"For not just one alone has risen against us to destroy us, but in every generation they rise against us to destroy us; and the Holy One, blessed be He, saves us from their hand!"
If you have been reading Legal Insurrection the past years, you understand that this passage remains as true today as ever before. Fourteen years ago, during the 2nd Intifada, a Palestinian suicide bomber blew up a Passover seder at the Park Hotel in the seaside town of Netanya, Israel:
The suicide bomber, Abd El-Basset Oudeh (resident of Tulkarm, born in 1977), arrived at the hotel disguised as a woman after shaving off his beard and moustache, putting on makeup, and wearing a straight hair wig. He wore women's shoes, blue feminine-cut jeans, a brown shirt, and a brown leather jacket with a leopard-print collar. A fake Israeli ID card in a woman's name completed the disguise. The explosive belt worn by the suicide bomber was designed as a vest with pockets that hid approximately 10kg of explosives.
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