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Israel Tag

Several media watch dog groups (see here and here) have blasted reports published in The Independent, International Business Times, Times of London, and other news outlets for falsely accusing Israel of cutting off drinking water to Palestinians in the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Each of these news outlets picked up a blatantly incorrect Al Jazeera report that initially included no response from Israel. They ran their own stories with it, accompanied by headlines denunciating Israel for maliciously working to deprive Palestinians of water. https://twitter.com/AJEnglish/status/742968004686778368

We know that media outrage and exaggeration, combined with biased anti-Israel Non-Governmental Organizations and U.N. agencies, form a strategic asset for terrorist groups like Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. The international reaction to Israeli self-defense measures ignores actual international legal standards, and substitutes completely politicized measures, such as "disproportionality." That term does not mean that one side suffers more than the other in a war; rather it is a case by case measure of whether the threat to innocent civilians in a particular military strike is disproportionate to the military value to be achieved. Israel goes to extraordinary measures to comply with the laws of war, but it doesn't matter to the media and the anti-Israel propaganda machine. Hamas and Hezbollah deliberately store and fire rockets from civilian areas for this very reason. http://youtu.be/A_fP6mlNSK8

What should be first of its kind, a leading German bank has shut down an account connected to the anti-Israel boycott campaign -- also know by the acronym of BDS. Commerzbank, Germany’s second largest bank, closed the account of anti-Israel and pro-BDS website “Der Semit”. The action is expected to have implications for other banks providing services to groups affiliated to the BDS campaign throughout Germany. Israeli Minister for Public Security Gilad Erdan welcomed the decision taken by Commerzbank and urged other European banks to take similar steps against anti-Israel and anti-Semitic groups raising funds and carrying out transactions in Europe.

While the U.S. mainstream media is still busy churning out stories pondering on the motives of the shooter who killed 50 people in a Gay Club on Orlando, making it the worst terrorist attack since 9/11, the people in Israel are bracing up for another wave of intensified terror. The Gaza-based Islamic terrorist group Hamas has declared a “Month of Jihad” against Israel during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The Hamas call for a month-long "Jihad-athon" came just a day before two armed Arab terrorists opened fire inside a Tel Aviv restaurant, killing four Israelis and wounding at least 16 others on Wednesday, June 8. Following the deadly attack, Hamas issued a statement saying the two terrorists were members of its group. On its official Twitter account the Islamist group praised the shooting of Israeli civilians as “heroic” and warned of more attacks to follow during the Muslim month of 'prayer and fasting'.

One of the goals of my recent trip to Israel was to meet with the families of the victims of the ongoing Palestinian violence, sometimes referred to as the Knife or Stabbing Intifada. Of course, the Knife or Stabbing Intifada hasn't only been knives and it hasn't only been stabbings -- there have been shootings and cars turned into deadly weapons. Unfortunately, because my two-week trip was reduced to three days because I had return to the U.S. due to a family medical emergency, I did not get to meet with any families. I was to meet with the widow of Yaakov Don, but the call to me came just 30 minutes before our meeting, and I had to cancel. With the news today of another terrorist shooting, this time in Tel Aviv, it's important to remember that the Tel Aviv attack is just one in dozens of attacks the past few months. You probably don't recognize the name Yaakov Don. But you may remember the name Ezra Schwarz, the American Teenager Murdered in Palestinian Attack on November 19, 2015.

Two gunmen allegedly dressed as Orthodox Jews killed four people at the Sarona Market in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Wednesday. The police managed to shoot and disarm the gunmen. Three people remain in critical condition while four others have serious injuries. Police have not confirmed if the gunmen dressed as Orthodox Jews as one eyewitness claimed. https://twitter.com/Conflicts/status/740643767129116672

For the past decade, anti-Israel activists in the United States and Europe have called on pension funds, universities and churches to sell their stock in companies that do business with Israel, particularly its defense establishment. They have also called for people and governments to boycott Israel, its products and services. It’s part of the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign that seeks to isolate Israel from the international economy and force the Jewish state to make concessions to the Palestinians. BDS proponents say they want to promote human rights and peace between Israel and the Palestinians, but it’s hard to ignore that their criticism is nearly always directed at Israel while groups like Hamas and Hezbollah are given a pass. The effect is not to promote peace, but to portray Israel’s efforts to defend itself as immoral and indefensible.

Leftist media and BDS supporters have railed against New York Governor Andrew Cuomo's executive order that will not allow state agencies to engage with businesses that participate in the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement (BDS) against Israel. They have thrown around typical scare words like "blacklist" and "McCarthyism" while praising a "grassroots" movement meant to economically deprive America's lone ally and stable nation in the Middle East. But as Eugene Kontorovich, law professor at Northwestern points out, the blacklist label does not apply because the government uses these lists against Iran and Sudan: https://twitter.com/EVKontorovich/status/739896419595784193 https://twitter.com/EVKontorovich/status/739897109420343296

Despite heavy campaigning against this move by the misnamed Jewish Voice for Peace, New York joins the growing number of states to divest public funds supporting the BDS movement against Israel. In an executive order, Governor Cuomo takes a "first-in-the-nation action [to] ensure that no state agency or authority engages in or promotes any investment activity that would further the harmful and discriminatory Palestinian-backed Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign in New York State." From the Governor's office:
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today issued Executive Order No. 157 directing state entities to divest all public funds supporting the Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israel. The first-in-the-nation action will ensure that no state agency or authority engages in or promotes any investment activity that would further the harmful and discriminatory Palestinian-backed Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign in New York State. The Governor made the announcement at the Celebrate Israel Parade.

Tomorrow (June 5) is Yom Yerushalayim (Jerusalem Day). The newest addition to the Jewish calendar, it’s held on the 28th day of the Hebrew month of Iyar—six weeks after the Passover seder and one week before the eve of the holiday of Shavuot. In June 1967, 28 Iyar was the third day of the Six Day War. As I discussed in a post for last year’s Yom Yerushalayim, the day celebrates the reunification of Israel’s capital city, when Jewish forces brought Jerusalem “back to Jewish sovereignty”. There’s a huge amount of information and research on the two-day (June 6-7, 1967) Battle for Jerusalem, when the 55th Paratroopers Brigade retook the Old City and liberated Jewish holy places from an illegal Jordanian occupation.

Bernie Sanders made some waves recently by putting two well-known anti-Israel polemicists on the Democratic Party platform committee, Cornel West and James Zogby. It looks like a platform fight over Israel is in the offing, A Split Over Israel Threatens the Democrats’ Hopes for Unity:
A bitter divide over the Middle East could threaten Democratic Party unity as representatives of Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont vowed to upend what they see as the party’s lopsided support of Israel. Two of the senator’s appointees to the party’s platform drafting committee, Cornel West and James Zogby, on Wednesday denounced Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and said they believed that rank-and-file Democrats no longer hewed to the party’s staunch support of the Israeli government. They said they would try to get their views incorporated into the platform, the party’s statement of core beliefs, at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia in July....

Scheduled from May 25th through June 3rd, Tel Aviv Pride is a week-long series of events that celebrate gay life. For over nearly two decades, it’s become one of the city’s most popular annual festivals. Tens of thousands of gay Israelis and LGBTQ tourists from around the world enjoy the extravaganza, which seems to get bigger and better each year with new events added and more people taking part. But for anti-Israel gay activists, Tel Aviv Pride is a means for discrediting the one state in the Middle East which actually treats its gay community with dignity and respect. Below I highlight the latest campaign to put Tel Aviv Pride Week into service for BDS (boycott, divestment, and sanctions).

As of now, I'm still planning on heading to Israel at the end of next week, though that could always change last minute. Family health issues seem under control at the moment, and I'm going with one of my daughters so I really didn't want to cancel if at all possible. I think I'll have some interesting perspectives, based on what's currently planned. As before, there will be an emphasis on security-related issues. I found this video, tweeted out by Becky Griffin, of interest. https://twitter.com/dorothyofisrael/status/736564981995606016 Here's the video:

The official Palestinian Authority television celebrated the death of U.S. tourist Taylor Force, calling his murderer a martyr 11 times in the broadcast. From the report:
Official PA TV newsreader: "In Qalqilya, hundreds of citizens accompanied the body of Martyr Bashar Masalha [to his burial]..." Official PA TV reporter: "After delays by Israel in the transfer of his body, Martyr Bashar Masalha’s family, from the village of Hajja, east of Qalqilya, received their son in the evening... The Martyr Bashar returned from Qalqilya to his village Hajja in a procession... His family, friends, and people of the region took it upon themselves to ensure that this [burial] would be a large national wedding (i.e., to the 72 Virgins in Paradise) befitting of Martyrs... The Martyr was accompanied to his last resting place in the cemetery for Martyrs in Hajja..."

This past Sunday more than 1,500 people—along with dozens of members of the media and press—attended The Jerusalem Post’s 5th Annual Conference in New York City. The one-day event, themed “Israel, the U.S. and the Free World Facing Global Terror,” was held at the Marriot Marquis Hotel in the heart of Times Square and Manhattan’s theater district. JPost annual conference 2016 logo According to the pre-conference publicity, the annual conference—which in the past has proved to be “both newsworthy and dazzling”—was predicted to be the “best and biggest yet”. It was indeed.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told French Prime Minister Manuel Valls he wants to hold a one-on-one meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas instead of a multinational conference in Paris. Netanyahu thinks Abbas will use the conference as a way to ignore direct negotiations with Israel. France has scheduled the peace talks for the beginning of June without Israel or Palestinian Authority representatives. From The Times of Israel:
“The Palestinian Authority does not see the French initiative as an inducer for negotiations, but as a way to avoid them,” he said. Instead, Netanayhu said, he would be willing to meet Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas “in Paris or wherever,” and hold face-to-face negotiations without international mediation. “Every difficult issue will be on the table,” he said.
France plans to host another conference with Israel and Palestine in the autumn.

Terrorist group Hamas plans to conduct public executions in Gaza in an attempt to bring down crime. Ismail Jaber, the group's attorney general, said he wants them to "take place before a large crowd." Hamas has thirteen men waiting for their execution after the courts convicted them "of murder connected to robberies." Officials can seek the death penalty for "collaborators, murderers and drug traffickers." If Hamas conducts the executions, the numbers could push them past Saudi Arabia. The kingdom houses 31.5 million people and executed 153 in 2015. Hamas will commit more death penalties since they have a population on 1.8 million.