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Israel Tag

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 08, 2015 20 Comments
The Knife Intifada continues, with daily attempted stabbings. Today in Israel an Arab woman was shot dead by an Israeli security guard at Beitar Ilit. The woman was trying to reach a bus stop in the community, where presumably she would have stabbed waiting passengers or entered the bus and conducted a stabbing attack there. That's what the headlines emphasized. But she was shot only after she pulled out a knife from her pocketbook and lunged at the Israeli man: (Video source: Col. Peter Lerner Twitter)

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 07, 2015 25 Comments
The Knife Intifada has demonstrated, once again, that the core conflict between Israel and Palestinians is not over final borders or "the occupation" of Judea and Samaria by Israel. As Prof. Miriam Elman has pointed out at Legal Insurrection, What Do Palestinians Really Want? New Study Reveals Disturbing Answers, Palestinians hold deeply anti-Jewish views and do not accept the legitimacy of any Jewish national entity. Those findings are consistent with some inconvenient history: The Grand Mufti, Hitler and the “Knife Intifada.” [caption id="attachment_146826" align="alignnone" width="600"][Haj Amin al-Husseini meeting with Adolf Hitler (December 1941)] Der Führer empfing in Gegenwart des Reichsministers des Auswärtigen von Ribbentrop den Grossmufti von Palästina, Sayid Amin al Husseini, zu einer herzlichen und für die Zukunft der arabischen Länder bedeutungsvollen Unterredung. 9.12.41 Presse Hoffmann [Haj Amin al-Husseini meeting with Adolf Hitler (December 1941)][/caption]So it was of great interest for me to read An interview with Benny Morris by Prof. Gabriel Noah Brahm at Fathom Journal.  Morris is the "controversial" Israeli historian who first pissed off the "right wing" by questioning some of the foundational beliefs as to how Israel came into being, and then equally pissing off the left by focusing on the role of anti-Jewish hate in the Arab opposition to the creation of Israel. Morris' views were explaind in the Middle East Forum in this interview in 2010 Benny Morris: "The 1948 War Was an Islamic Holy War" (emphasis added):

Posted by Miriam Elman on November 05, 2015 31 Comments
As we’ve noted in a number of prior posts, for weeks Palestinian politicians and religious authorities have been invoking wild conspiracy theories in official print, TV and social media channels often centered on claims that Jews are putting Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque in danger. In reality no Jews are “violently invading” the Al-Aqsa mosque, much less praying there. But the campaign of lies is encouraging Palestinian young people to believe that their community is under attack, and that Islam’s honor and its holy sites need defending. So Palestinian leaders are a big part of the problem. But now a new study suggests that elites aren’t just instigating the terror — they’re also reacting to deep-seated attitudes popularly held among “ordinary” Palestinians.

Posted by David Gerstman on November 04, 2015 10 Comments
Former President Bill Clinton's said last week in Israel in commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin, that peace is up to Israel. As the Associated Press reported:
"He refused to give up his dream of peace in the face of violence," Clinton, who formed a close bond with Rabin when both were in office, said to roars of applause. "The next step will be determined by whether you decide that Yitzhak Rabin was right, that you have to share the future with your neighbors ... that the risks for peace are not as severe as the risk of walking away from it. Those of us who loved him and love your country are praying that you will make the right decision."
Even last year, Clinton indicated that he didn't believe that Netanyahu could make peace. But this is false history, as Jonathan Tobin at Commentary pointed out, "if there is anything that the last 22 years have taught us it is that it clearly not up to the Israeli people."

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 04, 2015 20 Comments
[Featured Image via Fight Back News] Moshe Halbertal is a law professor at New York University, and Professor of Jewish Thought and Philosophy, Hebrew University in Israel. He lectures widely on the ethics of war, particularly asymetric war of the type Israel faces. Prof. Halbertal was scheduled to deliver a lecture on November 3 at the University of Minnesota Law School, Protecting Civilians: Moral Challenges of Asymmetric Warfare:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 01, 2015 21 Comments
Unfortunately, Palestinian propaganda promises those "martyred" while killing or attempting to kill Jews an after-life of glory and paradise. This, of course, perpetuates the conflict and death on all sides. In a twist on that theme, two Palestinians shot and killed while carrying out knifing attacks were posthumously married at a funeral of one of them in Hebron. The video was posted on Facebook by the Palestinian Information Center which also tweeted the link. https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=912887278747348 The Times of Israel provides more details:

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on October 29, 2015 1 Comment
India’s largest corporate house Reliance Industries has announced its plans to make big and long-term investments in Israel. Reliance Industries, a Fortune 500 Company owned by billionaire Mukesh Ambani, is the largest private sector company in India with a market capitalisation of well over $40 billion. Founded in 1966, Reliance Industries made its initial fortune in oil and natural gas sector. Recently, the company has invested billions of dollars in building a telecommunications network across India. The state-of-the-art nationwide cellular network build at the cost of estimated $15 billion opens new possibilities in retail, finance and healthcare. The company is looking for Israeli know-how and talent to fully exploit these possibilities, creating services for 100-200 million potential customers across the Indian sub-continent. Talking to Israeli media, managing partner of the company’s venture capital arm GenNext, Vivek Rai Gupta said that his company was working to build a nationwide customer base and there would be “no limit” on company’s investment in Israel. Israeli financial news website Globes Einglish quoted Gupta saying:
"We want to hook up to the Israeli ecosystem, and to discover more innovative companies that can enhance the value of the cellular network whose deployment we're completing right now," GenNext managing partner Vivek Rai Gupta, currently visiting Israel, said in "Globes" interview. "The network [mobile network reaching 800 cities] we're setting up is only a pipeline, and we're looking for interesting things through which we can provide value for our users in India."
Mobile-based technology carries the promise of improving everyday life for millions of Indians living in rural and remotely accessible regions -- from proving healthcare, vocational education, banking to even coordinating disaster relief.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 26, 2015 25 Comments
Among the wave of attacks on Jews in Israel was the attack on Bus No. 185:
Shortly after 8 p.m. on October 12, 22-year-old Muhammad Shamasne boarded bus No. 185 near the entrance to Jerusalem and stabbed a 19-year-old Israel Defense Forces soldier and unsuccessfully tried to grab his gun. Shamasne was shot and killed by police while passengers were attempting to subdue him.
You may remember that attack because we featured one of the heroes. Yair Ben-Shabat, an Israeli Seniors martial arts expert, helped subdue one of the attackers … with his nunchucks.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 25, 2015 39 Comments
"As a Jew" is a phrase that starts the conversation for some left-wing Jews when it comes to Israel, and particularly "the occupation." The establishment of Jewish identity at the start serves as the shield for what is to follow: A completely one-sided, factually inaccurate, historically-skewed bashing of Israel. Such an Op-Ed was published in The Washington Post on October 23, 2015, by Professors Steven Levitsky (Harvard) and Glen Weyl (U. Chicago)[note: Weyl just joined Microsoft], We are lifelong Zionists. Here’s why we’ve chosen to boycott Israel. The opening reads as many "as a Jew" openings read: "We are lifelong Zionists. Like other progressive Jews ...." The Op-Ed is a caricature of the self-absorbed, selfish, ahistorical "as a Jew" argument which is at the heart of progressive Jewish opposition to Israel, often expressed through the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. It's mostly, if not all, about making the "as a Jews" feel good about themselves, justifying their own existences by putting the existences of Israelis at risk. I'll go over the Op-Ed later in this post. But first, it's helpful to consider this description of the "as a Jew" phenomenon as it relates to progressive anti-Zionist Jews:

Posted by Michael Harris on October 24, 2015 18 Comments
"It often happens in the middle of an otherwise pleasant day -- you’re shopping, or walking across a college campus, and you encounter THEM. They’re holding signs that claim Israel is an “apartheid state” and charge Israel with committing “genocide” against Palestinians. They’re calling for boycotts against Israeli products, and divestment from companies that do business with Israel. You know supporting Israel is the right thing to do. And you’re not alone. For decades, polls have shown a large plurality, usually a majority, of Americans back Israel. But here’s the problem: you don’t know how to respond – or if you even should – to these Israel haters. This is an all-too-familiar sight, and has become more frequent in the past decade as Israel-bashing extremists have taken their hostility into the public square. Their words don’t represent a simple disagreement with specific actions or policies of the Israeli government. Instead, they’re an open call for the elimination of the one country that shares American values in a region full of despots and anti-American fanatics. Simply put, they’re not just promoting a Palestinian state, they’re demanding that it replace the Jewish one." This is the opening of my new book, "Winning A Debate with an Israel-Hater", published earlier this month by Shorehouse Books.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 23, 2015 11 Comments
We have seen various levels of incitement in recent weeks, frequently involving false claims of Israeli murder of Palestinians. Palestinian knife-attackers who are shot dead frequently are portrayed as the victim. The most infamous example of such incitement was when Mahmoud Abbas claimed in a televised speech that a 13-year old Arab boy who stabbed a 13-year old Jewish boy was executed by Israel. In fact, the 13-year old Arab boy was alive and being treated (he was not shot, a car hit him during the attack) in an Israeli hospital; he since has been discharged. When Israel showed video of him in the hospital to dispel Abbas' lie and to try to calm the situation, Israel was accused of violating the boy's privacy (seriously). Another incitement took place yesterday, over the death of Hashem Azzeh, a 54-year old Palestinian live in the section of Hebron (H2) which by a 1997 agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority is under complete Israeli security control. Hashem is described as a "peace activist" struggling to survive with his family in the Israeli-controlled section of Hebron. That section, as I reported from my trip to Hebron and the Cave of the Patriarchs last June, is part of what was a several-hundred year old Jewish community which was driven out during 1929 Arab riots, in which 67 Jews in Hebron were massacred. That small section of town has been reclaimed by a few hundred Israeli Jews, causing daily strife and requiring a heavy Israeli military presence. There are tall metal sniper shields to protect people and armed soldiers almost at every corner. There have been attacks on Arabs as well as on Jews, and Hebron is one of the most difficult situations of conflict.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on October 22, 2015 4 Comments
Rapid industrialisation and population growth of recent years has increasingly put pressure in India’s limited water resources. Earlier this week, China’s announcement to construct a mega-dam on Brahmaputra river, that also runs through the eastern part of India, has revived regional tensions between the two Asian giants -- once again reminding that water could well be the source of future conflicts, just as oil and energy resources today. Securing water demand for a billion-strong population is one of the biggest challenges facing India today. In recent years, Israel has become India’s leading partner in water management and clean technologies. During Indian President Pranab Mukherjee's historic visit to Israel earlier this month, both countries signed series of agreements aimed at expanding this bilateral technological cooperation. Indian news website Boom Live described the extent of water scarcity faced by the country and need for further strengthening the cooperation with Israel in water technology:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 21, 2015 41 Comments
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a controversial statement as he was leaving for Germany on the role of Haj Amin al-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. Netanyahu's statement suggesting that the idea of genocide against the Jews of Europe originated with the Mufti and not Hitler was overstatement, and quickly walked back by Netanyahu (but not before Netanyahu's political enemies had a field day with it). But there is a silver lining in Netanyahu's political gaffe -- people now are talking about the role of the Grand Mufti in the European genocide. We have discussed the Mufti's Nazi-sympathies and assistance here before, so it's not new to us. But given the current "Knife Intifada," in which the agitation to kill Jews is pervasive in Palestinian culture, it's clear that there is a direct line from the Mufti's Nazi-affiliation to the Jew hatred that motivates the current conflict. Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic tweeted out a link to this study from 2005, National Socialism and Anti-Semitism in the Arab World. It's very lengthy, so read the whole thing. Here is an excerpt:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 20, 2015 4 Comments
Last Friday MSNBC used an anti-Israel series of maps [Featured Image] frequently spread by "pro-Palestinian" boycott activists. The map sequence purports to show "Palestinian Loss of Land" since 1946. As we documented in our post, MSNBC uses anti-Israel propaganda map, the maps are a lie both individually and in sequence. The land in the first map was part of the British Mandate of Palestine, not a country of Palestine, and most of the land on the map was public land, not land owned privately by Palestinian Arabs. The second map, the UN partition plan, was the division of land the Arabs rejected and went to war over. The third map, post Israel Independence, purports to show the West Bank and Gaza as Palestinian, but in fact that land was controlled by Jordan and Egypt, respectively. The last map, showing Palestinian control under the Oslo Accords, represents a gain of land, not loss. This annotation of the maps has some of the details. Map That Lies - Annotated With all that in mind, here's the original MSNBC broadcast:

Posted by Miriam Elman on October 20, 2015 8 Comments
In a previous post, I noted that the U.S.-Israel military relationship remains solid. But back in 1948, America failed to support Israel militarily when the fledgling Jewish state needed it most. In fact, as former Middle East peace envoy Dennis Ross writes in his important new book, the U.S. government was downright hostile to Israel in its early years. Ross, who now serves as the William Davidson Distinguished Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and as Distinguished Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy at Georgetown University, notes that nearly all of President Harry S. Truman’s major foreign policy advisors saw the emergence of Israel as “doom and gloom for the United States.” At the time, this was also the predominant view within America's national security establishment. Support for the Jewish state was considered of “no strategic benefit.” The fear (totally unfounded, as Ross points out) was that it would come “at enormous cost to our relations with the Arabs.” In a chapter devoted to the Truman presidency, Ross describes how most leading U.S. national security officials at the time were on a “mission against the Jewish state.” Then senior members of the State Department, the Pentagon, and the CIA maintained a “hostile posture toward the Jewish state and continued to see only risks associated with U.S. support for it.” Most also thought it highly “improbable that the Jewish state would survive over any considerable period of time.” So the consensus was that siding with the Arabs was the safer bet. To be sure, as Ross rightly remarks, “Truman was a good friend of Israel.” But the “actual support he provided was limited.”

Posted by New Neo on October 19, 2015 14 Comments
What are the roots of the stabbing intifada? Jeffrey Goldberg takes a long time to say it, but he gets some of it said. It's not a "cycle of violence" where both sides are similar. One side is lying and inciting its people to violence, and this has been going on at least since the 1920s in very similar fashion. The current dispute concerns the history of the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock, and access to those sites. The NY Post says it more succinctly, and adds a few more things, such as the latest incident of what one might call the Muhammed al Durah phenomenon, complete with the cooperation of our State Department:
...Wednesday...Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said in a speech that Israeli security forces “executed” an innocent 13-year-old boy, Ahmad Mansara, “in cold blood.”

Posted by Miriam Elman on October 18, 2015 6 Comments
For years we've been reporting how President Obama has been trying to insert as much daylight as possible between the United States and Israel. But the reality is that the American-Israeli “special relationship” will weather the storm of this “needlessly combative” administration. Israel is wildly popular among the American public. Americans recognize the shared values and common interests that bind the two countries together. A congressional majority understands the threats Israel faces from the region’s oppressive dictatorships which routinely call for Israel’s destruction, and from political and religious leaders who incite their people to murder Jews.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 17, 2015 15 Comments
There is a standard fixture at anti-Israel BDS rallies and events -- a map purporting to show loss of Palestinian land to Israel. But it's a completely misleading and false map. Yet MSNBC used it on air today -- a demonstration of how Big Lies become truth when repeated often enough: The map has been debunked so many times in the past, a simple Google search would have demonstrated the problem. Elder of Ziyon blog has written a definitive taken down of the map in 2012, The Map That Lies. The Tower magazine has an exhaustive research post on why the map is a lie, The Mendacious Maps of Palestinian “Loss”.  Even The Economist had an explanation why the map was deceptive in 2010, when blogger Andrew Sullivan used the map. Most important is that Map 1, which purports to show "Palestinian land" as comprising most of the British Mandate (after Britain already has lopped off most of the Mandate land to create Jordan) does not show "Palestinian" land at all. As Elder of Ziyon explained, that land was mostly public land, and there was no country of Palestine:
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