Israel Must Not Repeat the Mistake of Releasing Terrorists

It has been reported that Israel is close to reaching a deal with Hamas stipulating that Israel will release hundreds of terrorists--including convicted killers--in exchange for 33 hostages. Allegedly, the price for each released female Israeli soldier will be 50 terrorists. If this deal takes place, it will be an unmitigated disaster not only for Israel and the Jewish people, but for the West, because this will represent a tremendous victory for Hamas specifically and Islamic terrorists in general; it will demonstrate that terrorism works, that Israel is weak, and that if you resist Israel long enough then Israel will surrender. Israel's Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich blasted the proposed deal as a "catastrophe for the national security of the State of Israel. We will not be part of a surrender deal that would include releasing arch-terrorists, ending the war, and erasing the achievements that cost us so much."

In the wake of Hamas's October 7, 2023 mass casualty terrorist attack, I explained the Islamic concepts of Dar al-Islam versus Dar al-Harb, and I defined what victory must look like for Israel: 

1) Hamas is eliminated as a functioning terrorist, military, and political entity.

2) Hamas' state sponsors--including but perhaps not limited to Iran and Qatar--must pay reparations for the killed, for the injured, and for the destruction of property.

3) All hostages held by Hamas must be released immediately and unconditionally.

Israel has fought Hamas--and Hezbollah, Iran, and the Houthis--for over a year and has failed to accomplish any of the above goals while losing over 800 soldiers in combat. It is not enough to kill a few top Hamas and Hezbollah leaders and to kill or capture several thousand foot soldiers, because doing so did not eliminate Hamas as a functioning entity, did not punish Hamas' state sponsors, and did not secure the unconditional release of all hostages.

Israel has a pathetic history of turning not quite victory into total defeat. In 2011, Netanyahu signed off on a deal with Hamas, releasing over 1000 terrorists in exchange for Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier held captive by Hamas. One of those released terrorists was Yahya Sinwar, the architect of Hamas's October 7, 2023 mass casualty terrorist attack during which Hamas killed more than 1200 people and took more than 250 hostages. One lesson that Sinwar learned while he was incarcerated in Israel is that Israel will pay almost any price in exchange for hostages, and that is a major reason that the October 7, 2023 attack included plans to take hostages. Sinwar terrorized Israel in three ways on that day (and ever since, even after Israel belatedly eliminated him): 

1) Hamas not only raped, tortured, and beheaded victims but Hamas livestreamed these horrors to inspire their followers and break Israel's spirit while proudly displaying the barbarism at the heart of radical Islam.

2) Hamas committed mass murder to devastate the Jewish people with a one day death toll not seen since the Holocaust.

3) Hamas took hostages to use as bargaining chips for the release of thousands of terrorists.

The title of Caroline Glick's column about the Shalit deal--"A Pact Signed in Jewish Blood"--says it all, and she wrote some prescient words about Israel's colossal blunder (emphasis added):

Untold numbers of Israelis who are now sitting in their succas and celebrating Jewish freedom, who are driving in their cars, who are standing on line at the bank, who are sitting in their nursery school classrooms painting pictures of Torah scrolls for Simhat Torah will be killed for being Jewish while in Israel because Netanyahu has made this deal. The unrelenting pain of their families, left to cope with their absence, will be unimaginable.

This is a simple fact and it is beyond dispute.

It is also beyond dispute that untold numbers of IDF soldiers and officers will be abducted and held hostage. Soldiers now training for war or scrubbing the floors of their barracks, or sitting at a pub with their friends on holiday leave will one day find themselves in a dungeon in Gaza or Sinai or Lebanon undergoing unspeakable mental and physical torture for years. Their families will suffer inhuman agony.

The only thing we don't know about these future victims is their names. But we know what will become of them as surely as we know that night follows day.

Netanyahu has proven once again that taking IDF soldiers hostage is a sure bet for our Palestinian neighbors. They can murder the next batch of Sinais and Gals, Noas and Ruths. They can kill thousands of them. And they can do so knowing all along that all they need to do to win immunity for their killers is kidnap a single IDF soldier.

There is no downside to this situation for those who believe all Jews should die.

In 2011, Glick predicted the hostage crisis that has taken place in Gaza since October 7, 2023, and it must be emphasized that the current proposed deal will ultimately not be about rescuing 33 hostages but rather about condemning hundreds--if not thousands--of people to be slaughtered. 

It is heart-rending to read the pleas to Netanyahu "Leave no hostage behind," because Netanyahu is compounding the insanity underlying previous lopsided deals by not even bringing every hostage home with this proposed deal. Minister Orit Strock (Religious Zionist Party) declared, "There are prices that should not be paid, certainly not before everything in the world changes, just before we can fight again without any restrictions. Just before the end of Biden's term, to come and make a deal whose exorbitant price suits a period that is almost over--it's not an achievement, it's an injustice and a lack of national responsibility. We need to cry out these things, we need to awaken these things. We need to talk about the hostages who, as it seems now, will be left behind. I call on all my friends in the government, do not ignore this price. Be brave enough to say no to this agreement."

There are still approximately 100 hostages (or bodies) being held by Hamas; what happens to the dozens who are not included in this deal? Netanyahu is betraying Israel and the Jewish people, and in one fell swoop he is poised to wipe out whatever hard-earned gains Israel made on the battlefield, because Hamas' leaders lounging in luxury in Qatar* do not care about the Hamas foot soldiers Israel killed in Gaza; those foot soldiers are just cannon fodder to Hamas, which also not only does not care about Arab civilian suffering but uses (and exaggerates) that suffering for propaganda purposes. 

Hamas' October 7, 2023 mass casualty terrorist attack exposed Israel's strategic and tactical vulnerabilities, and this proposed exchange reveals Israel's political weakness: Israel consistently permits her enemies to fight limited liability wars in which her enemies never suffer significant, permanent consequences for their actions. Israel should make it clear that the response to terrorism and war waged against her will not only be total victory on the battlefield but also the enactment of permanent political and demographic changes--Israel should annex Judea, Samaria, and Gaza, and Israel should complete the population exchange initiated in 1948 when the Arab and Islamic states expelled almost 1,000,000 Jews. We have seen for over 100 years--dating back to before the rebirth of the Jewish State in the Land of Israel--that a large number of Arabs and Muslims will never accept peaceful coexistence with the Jewish people, so we have passed the point where the obvious solution must be enacted: Jews (and any Arabs/Muslims who will live in peace with Jews) living in Israel, and Arabs/Muslims who are unwilling to peacefully coexist with Israel living in any one of their more than 20 Arab/Muslim sovereign states spread out from Morocco all the way to Pakistan (a legacy of Arab/Muslim colonization of Africa, the Mideast, and Asia).

No self-respecting nation suffering what Israel suffered at the hands of Hamas would leave Hamas intact in Gaza--or leave Gaza under Arab/Muslim control--in the wake not just of the October 7 atrocities but in the wake of 20 years of Hamas atrocities. Israel tried the experiment of letting the Arabs/Muslims rule in Gaza, and the result of that experiment proved that the experiment should never be repeated. Israel must control Gaza to be safe, and Hamas must lose Gaza as a consequence of losing a war that Hamas started.

Imagine if Israel had never given up the land that she captured in self-defense in 1956, 1967, 1973, and 1982. The Arabs/Muslims would be much less inclined to attack Israel if they knew that losing the ensuing war would mean permanently losing land. That is the way that normal nations wage war. Israel has tried to live by a "purity of arms" concept that is neither acknowledged nor respected by the rest of the world that slanders Israel as a genocidal apartheid state--but it is better to be slandered while controlling land and having peace than to be slandered while losing land and having no peace.

The Islamic terrorists boast that they will defeat Israel (and then the West, mind you--never forget that) because "We love death more than you love life." The  foundational documents for Hamas and Hezbollah explicitly state their goal to destroy Israel; unless Israel comes to grips with the reality that this is a kill or be killed situation, Israel's survival is in deep peril. 

*--As I noted in a recent article, it is imperative that President Trump confront Qatar for sponsoring Islamic terrorism and no longer perpetuate the lie that Qatar is a helpful mediator.

President Joe Biden Funds the PLO's "Pay for Slay" Jew-Killing Program

On Monday, I wrote about how biased media coverage of Arab terrorist attacks against Jewish people gives aid and comfort to the terrorists. It is important to note that perhaps the biggest sponsor of these terrorist attacks--to the tune of over $1 billion--is President Joe Biden's administration. The PLO's "Pay for Slay" program provides $2000-$3000 per month to terrorists who are imprisoned in Israel for killing Jews. Killing Jews pays five times more than being a teacher in that part of the world. The PLO's priorities could not be clearer. As Arab/Muslim terrorists often proudly declare, "We love death more than you love life." Self-proclaimed "progressives" who bash Israel while ignoring Arab atrocities are not only endangering the lives of Jews but they are encouraging a death-affirming culture that poses a threat to freedom and peace everywhere.

The PLO has publicly stated "Our war is with the Jews." Their war is not about national liberation or opposing colonialism or any of the empty slogans that self-proclaimed "progressives" and other fellow travelers use to justify and excuse the PLO's main raison d'etre: killing Jews.

America First Legal has filed suit against President Biden and Secretary of State Blinken to demand that Biden and Blinken abide by the stipulations of the Taylor Force Act and stop funding the Palestinian Authority, which is run by the PLO. Here is a statement from America First Legal Senior Counsel Reed D. Rubinstein:

Last Sabbath, seven innocent people were murdered at their house of worship by a Palestinian terrorist. In response to this news, tens of thousands of Palestinians took to the streets to hand out candy and "celebrate" the heinous crime, just as they did after 9/11. Violating both the letter and spirit of the Taylor Force Act, the Biden Administration has given over a billion U.S. taxpayer dollars to benefit the Palestinian Authority knowing full well that this money means more terror, more corruption, and more death. As the Palestinians brag about the cash bounties paid for each dead and wounded Israeli, Biden merely winks, and writes them another massive check.

West Point graduate Taylor Force was a U.S. Army veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan who was murdered by Arab terrorists in Israel. His parents Stuart and Robbi Force declared:

My wife and I continue to be very upset about the murderous actions by Palestinian terrorists in Israel, with the most recent victims being the death of seven innocent people and five injured as they were leaving synagogue this past Friday night in Jerusalem, followed by the attempted murder of a father and son by a 13-year-old Palestinian terrorist the next morning.  The Taylor Force Act, named after our son, was passed by Congress and signed by President Trump to stop this Pay to Slay. Yet the Biden Administration has resumed payments to the PA notwithstanding its Pay to Slay program. Until the maiming and murder of innocents stops, there will be no hope for peace. And, until the Biden Administration stops facilitating Palestinian terrorism, the PA has no reason to stop its reprehensible behavior. For the sake of the thousands horrifically impacted now and in the future, Robbi and I call upon President Biden to stop sending fungible taxpayer dollars to the PA that will end up funding terrorism.

Donald Trump was a distasteful candidate for President for reasons that you do not have to be a self-proclaimed "progressive" to understand; life-long conservatives have publicly condemned him and refused to support him. That being said, Joe Biden has been a terrible President in many ways--including his defining moment when he facilitated the triumph of the Taliban--but one of the most distasteful is his staunch support for terrorism against Jews, a policy which is not only immoral but is contrary to the interests of the United States specifically and Western democracies broadly. President Biden and Vice President Harris can spare all of us their empty statements about valuing diversity and their vacuous photo opportunities during various Jewish holidays; those words and deeds are less than meaningless when accompanied by providing money used to pay terrorists who slaughter Jewish men, women, and children. 

Sadly, President Franklin Roosevelt's abandonment of the Jewish people during the Holocaust did little to reduce his popularity among Jewish voters, so there is not much reason to think that President Biden's funding of anti-Jewish terrorism will reduce his popularity among Jewish voters. We must hope that both parties put forth better candidates in 2024, and that voters choose wisely.

Media Outlets Provide Biased, Distorted Coverage of Arab Terrorist Attacks Against Jews

Antisemitic media bias in the form of slanted coverage of terrorist attacks in which Arabs murder Jews because they are Jews is not new, but it is shameful--and as long as it persists those of us who value truth must be vigilant in speaking out forcefully against it. Antisemitic media bias targeting Israel is part of a larger problem that I have discussed in many articles, including Distorting the Truth to Serve a Supposedly Greater Good Destroys the Credibility of Journalists, and Threatens the Future of Democracy. 

Some of the most recent examples of antisemitic media bias targeting Israel are mentioned in SHAME ON YOU! Media Distorts Palestinian’s Murder of Israeli Children:

This week, a Palestinian terrorist named Hussein Qaraqa murdered three innocent Israeli civilians. The victims were two brothers, Asher Menachem and Yaakov Yisrael Paley, and 20-year-old Asher Shlomo Lederman. Qaraqa smashed his car into a crowd of people at a bus stop in Jerusalem a few hours before the Sabbath.

Six-year-old Yaakov Yisrael died on Friday, and his 8-year-old brother Asher Menachem succumbed on Sunday to the injuries Qaraqa inflicted on him...

The AP's headline revealed the direction the coverage takes: "Palestinian man, Israeli child die as bloodshed rises."

The AP describes Qaraqa murdering children in the passive voice, portraying the killings as something that happened to the victims, not something Qaraqa did.

Specifically, the AP states: "Asher Menahem Paley, 8, died a day after a Palestinian man rammed a car into a bus stop in an Israeli settlement in the eastern half of the contested capital, which Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war."

First, Qaraqa didn't ram his car into a bus stop. He rammed into a crowd of Jewish Israelis, a common tactic used by Palestinian terrorists trying to kill Israeli Jews.

Second, the neighborhood (Ramot) where Qaraqa murdered three Israelis is not a "settlement." It is an area within Jerusalem that is fully under Israeli control and is home to a thriving Jewish community, including synagogues, schools, high-end restaurants, and shopping centers.

Third, the AP refuses to say from whom Israel "captured" the area "in the 1967 Mideast war." It was Jordan, not any entity calling itself "Palestine." Israel "captured" Jerusalem, the Jewish people's eternal capital, from Arab occupiers: the Jordanians.

"His 6-year-old brother was killed in the car-ramming, along with a man in his 20s," continues the AP.

"Was killed"? Who killed this 6-year-old child, AP? Palestinian murderer Hussein Qaraqa. That's who...

In addition to AP's skewed coverage, a CNN headline said: "Two dead including child as car rams people at Jerusalem bus stop."

"This wasn't a self driving car @CNN," Israel's Foreign Ministry tweeted in response on Twitter. "The driver a Palestinian terrorist *intentionally* rammed into a bus stop packed with children and families traveling before Shabbat."

The AP and CNN are running the same foul plays from the same disgusting playbook that media outlets and self-proclaimed "progressives" consistently use in their relentless campaign to delegitimize Israel, the only democratic nation in the Mideast: using the passive voice to bury the message that Muslim Arabs intentionally target innocent Jews for murder, distorting historical truths, and falsely portraying current realities. Media coverage of Israel--and other topics, including Chinese repression--will continue to be biased and flawed until consumers of that media coverage demand better coverage and insist that media outlets stop propagating lies.

After Muslim Arab terrorist attacks against Jews, Muslim Arabs pour into the streets to celebrate throughout the Mideast. The Muslim Arabs often publicly state their belief that in the long run they will destroy Israel because "We love death more than you love life." Every time a media outlet downplays Muslim Arab violence and slanders Israel, that media outlet is encouraging the spread of hatred and of murderous violence. Even if you don't care at all about Jews or Israel, you should not be so naive to believe that Muslim Arab terrorism fully unleashed will limit itself to killing Jews; the terrorism that you see--or don't see, because media outlets minimize it or ignore it--in Israel today will be on our doorsteps tomorrow (and we have already seen more than a glimpse of this not only with the 9/11 attacks, but also with many other acts of Muslim Arab terrorism against the United States and against Americans around the world). Israel is the canary in the coal mine, the warning about a threat that endangers free societies around the world, because the adherents of the radical ideology that seeks to destroy Israel will not be satisfied until every non-Muslim converts to Islam or is killed.

Palestinian Authority Destroys Historical Sites That Provide Evidence of the Jewish Connection to the Land of Israel

The Jewish people have had a documented and continuous presence in the Land of Israel for over 3000 years. As Ryan Bellerose eloquently explains, the Jewish people are the indigenous people of the Land Israel: 

Even the most novice researcher looking into falsehoods perpetrated by Palestinian leaders would quickly find other blatant lies aimed at delegitimizing the history of the Jewish people, like the time Yasser Arafat told Bill Clinton there was never a Jewish temple in Jerusalem, or the time Ekrima Sabri, former Jerusalem mufti and chairman of the Supreme Islamic Council in Jerusalem, said, "After 25 years of digging, archaeologists are unanimous that not a single stone has been found related to Jerusalem’s alleged Jewish history."

These are the proponents of the false narrative attempting to rebuke the indigenous status of the Jewish people in the land of Israel.

I got involved in this struggle because I was seeing nonindigenous people make arguments that are detrimental to actual indigenous people, arguments that attempt to rewrite our history. The idea that "Palestinian Arab" conquerors could become indigenous through conquering the Jewish people, even though the term "Palestinian" was only used in reference to Jews before 1948, is anathema. While Arabs claim to be related to the descendants of Israel through blood, it’s just another way to say that they acted like all conquerors, raping and pillaging and then settling and subsuming the locals. Native North Americans especially understand that simply conquering indigenous people does not grant one indigenous status.

The archaeological evidence in the Land of Israel confirms the deep, historical Jewish connection to the Land of Israel, which is precisely why the Palestinian Authority and other Arab organizations make so many efforts to literally pave over that evidence. The most recent example of Arab destruction of Jewish historical landmarks can be found in PA destroys Hasmonean fortress, declares area "Palestinian national archaeological park."

Why should non-Jewish people care about the destruction of Jewish landmarks in the Land of Israel? Aside from the fact that cultural genocide is abhorrent and is supposedly opposed by self-proclaimed "progressives," destruction of history inevitably leads to destruction of lives. I recall when the Taliban destroyed Buddha statues in Afghanistan and the world reacted with indifference--until the 9/11 attacks made it clear that the Taliban and their al-Qaeda allies have global ambitions and are not content to "merely" commit cultural genocide on a regional basis. The Taliban's resurgence in Afghanistan in the wake of America's timid and disorganized retreat is an important defeat for Western civilization and a milestone victory for Islamic extremism.

George Orwell famously and memorably warned about the danger of history disappearing "down the memory hole." If we sit by silently and let the Palestinian Authority erase the Jewish people from the history of the Land of Israel, more than just the Jewish people will suffer, because the Arab and Islamic terrorists are not content to just kill every Jew in Israel. There is a reason that they refer to Israel as "The Little Satan" and the United States as "The Great Satan." Arab and Islamic terrorism poses a global threat to Western civilization, so this is about a lot more than just a regional conflict between Jews and Arabs/Muslims. The sooner that the West understands this, the better. Hopefully that understanding will come before there is another 9/11-style attack.

Western Academics and Media Outlets Perpetuate Violence by Promoting Arab Terrorists and Arab Terrorism

Many self-proclaimed "progressives" who claim to support the downtrodden actually support genocide against the Jewish people. That is a bold statement, but it is true, and it is most unfortunate that many Western media outlets and academics glorify anti-Jewish violence while ignoring the true history of the Jewish people, including the heroic legacy of the Jewish Brigade.

In Hijackers, Bombers, and Masterminds: Meet The West’s 5 Favorite Palestinian Terrorists, Chaim Lax declares:

One of the defining characteristics of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been the use of terrorism by Palestinian organizations and individuals in order to harm Israeli civilians and to further their political goals through violent means.

These terrorist attacks have taken the lives of thousands of Israelis, and have left countless others wounded and traumatized.

Despite their role in inflicting violence on innocent civilians, a number of Palestinian terrorists have developed an international following, with activists, artists, and academics glorifying their actions and ideas.

The five Arab terrorists he highlights are Leila Khaled, Rasmea Odeh, Marwhan Barghouti, Ghassan Kanafani, and Ahmad Sa'adat. Lax details the terrorism resumes of each person, and he also describes the many ways that Western media outlets and/or academics promote the actions and beliefs of these terrorists instead of condemning anti-Jewish violence. He concludes, "For peace to come between Israel and the Palestinians, the voices of Leila Khaled, Rasmea Odeh, and Marwan Barghouti need to be replaced with the voices of Palestinians who advocate for peace and cooperation. And by finally calling out the dastardly deeds of these enemies of peace, the media can help turn back the process of normalization that has been taking place with regard to people and groups who are motivated solely by the desire to destroy."

It is also worth noting that Congresswoman Cori Bush, who marches in lockstep with self-proclaimed "Squad" members Rashida Tlaib, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Ilhan Omar, works with a fundraiser who proudly calls for burning alive every Israeli. Bush's ties to Neveen Ayesh, who is the Government Relations Coordinator for the American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) chapter in St. Louis, Missouri, are not the focus of media condemnation, nor does the Democratic Party feel it necessary to clarify that it does not support burning Israelis alive and does not want fundraising support from those who support burning Israelis alive. If you don't understand why this is problematic, then just imagine that Cori Bush were a Republican receiving fundraising support from the Ku Klux Klan. Do you think that media members might say something about that, and do you think that there would be widespread condemnation of the Republican Party unless/until the Republican Party disassociated itself from that member of Congress?

I am not impressed by, and refuse to listen to, those who are only interested in hate speech emanating from one corner of the room, because such people are self-serving hypocrites. I condemn hatred from both sides of the aisle, and I only respect those who do likewise.

It is not new for progressives to have an attitude toward the Jewish people ranging from indifference to active hostility. In The Abandonment of the Jews: America and the Holocaust 1941–1945, David Wyman noted that President Franklin Roosevelt--the darling of progressives past and present--could have done much more to save Jews during the Holocaust. It is well-documented that the New York Times reported about the Holocaust while also deemphasizing its importance, which mirrors the distorted way that the self-proclaimed "newspaper of record" covers Israel today. 

It is incumbent on progressives who do not support anti-Jewish violence to repudiate not only anti-Jewish violence but also anti-Jewish rhetoric. People on the Left are very vocal about how much words matter when words are uttered by certain individuals from the Right, but such condemnations are hollow and hypocritical if they are not directed in equal measure toward individuals and organizations on the Left who traffic in hate speech. It is not enough for the Left to selectively condemn the Right, or for the Right to selectively condemn the Left; hate speech is hate speech no matter who says it, and no matter the other policy positions of the person uttering the hate speech.

Western Media Organizations Promote Anti-Israel Propaganda

It still has not been definitively determined who killed antisemitic journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, but in an opinion piece titled How Western dupes help propagate murderous Palestinian lies, Melanie Phillips makes some important observations about how the investigation has been handled: 

...any fair-minded person would say the Israelis are more likely to be telling the truth. They said that having gone into Jenin to root out terrorists responsible for a recent wave of murderous attacks, their forces had come under "substantial fire." After studying what evidence they had, it looked as if Abu Akleh had been felled by a Palestinian bullet.

This was because, in a video from the scene, Arabs are heard shouting: "We hit a soldier; he is lying on the ground." Since no Israeli soldier had been hurt, however, the suspicion was that this was Abu Akleh.

Moreover, Honest Reporting's translated commentary on this video contains another crucial line. After the shouts about a soldier on the ground, there’s a further shout: "It's a woman."

Hamas, which immediately removed her body, rejected Israel's suggestion of a joint investigation to establish who did kill her and are refusing to hand over the bullet they removed from her body while insisting that the Israelis fired the fatal shot.

By contrast, the Israelis have made no assertions they can't back up. They have pointed out the obvious fact that the truth can't be established unless Hamas operatives bring forward relevant evidence. The fact that they are refusing to co-operate suggests that they have something to hide.

In a court of law, the burden of proof is on the prosecution, not the defense. Journalists would be well-advised to apply a similar standard. In other words, the Israelis (or anyone else being accused) are innocent until proven guilty, not guilty until proven innocent. Moreover, journalists should give more weight to information from credible sources than from unreliable sources--and a democratic country is a more reliable source than a terrorist organization. Here, when the democratic country (Israel) has been open and transparent while the terrorist organization (Hamas) has suppressed information and hindered the investigation, it is clear that media organizations should assign more credibility to what the democratic country says than what the terrorist organization says.

Unfortunately, Western media organizations consistently display blind trust in terrorist organizations while simultaneously displaying tremendous (and unwarranted) skepticism regarding Israel. Phillips cites several specific examples, including a falsely reported 2000 incident that is still used by anti-Israel propagandists:

In 2000, French TV footage purported to show 12-year-old Mohammed al-Dura dying under a hail of Israeli bullets in the "West Bank." In fact, the TV station had edited out of the footage a section in which the boy--who had been declared dead a few moments earlier--could be clearly seen alive and moving.

Yet the image of that child clinging to his father moments before he "died" was used as the iconic recruiting sergeant for countless acts of murder perpetrated against Israelis, Diaspora Jews and Westerners.

Meanwhile, Jenin itself was the scene of the infamous blood libel in 2002 when the western media recycled wild Palestinian claims that the Israelis had committed a cold-blooded massacre of thousands of Palestinian Arabs.

Phillips cites a more recent example as well:

Through such gullibility, ignorance or malevolence, the Western media have turned themselves into accomplices of a diabolical agenda.

This is again on display in Eleven Days in May, a new movie about last year’s "Operation Guardian of the Walls" in the Gaza Strip when Israel bombed the Hamas terrorist infrastructure to stop the rocket attacks aimed at killing Israeli civilians.

The fact was that the 11-day Israeli bombardment of Gaza, deploying a volume of munitions so large that in the hands of any other army it would have left an enormous toll of dead civilians, killed hardly any at all. The barrage produced a vastly smaller proportion of dead civilians to combatants than has ever been achieved by American, British or any other armed forces.

According to Israel's Meir Amit Terrorism and Information Centre, 234 Gazans had been killed--nearly half of whom were Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad combatants. Of the 95 killed who had no terrorist affiliation, 52 were children--nine of whom were killed by Hamas's own rockets falling short.

Yet Eleven Days in May, narrated by Kate Winslet and directed by Gaza-based filmmaker Mohammed Sawwaf and the British filmmaker Michael Winterbottom, features heart-wrenching interviews with the families of the dead children. These interviews are grossly decontextualized to constitute a manipulative Hamas propaganda film aimed at demonizing Israel.

While the media organizations that shamelessly promote lies deserve the bulk of the blame for their misconduct, Israel could and should do a lot more to correct inaccuracies that are asserted about her and her policies. Shimon Peres once asserted that as long as Israel has good policies she does not need public relations, and that if Israel has bad policies then public relations will not help. It is doubtful that a single country, business, or public official conducts their affairs based on such asinine thinking. That kind of "logic" is one example of why Moshe Sharett, Israel's second Prime Minister, once said that he would "rend my clothes in mourning for the State if he (Peres) becomes a minister in the Israeli government." Peres eventually served in several ministerial positions--including Prime Minister--and his failure to comprehend the importance of not just having good policies but explaining those policies is a flaw shared by many in Israel. Israel does not fight vigorously enough against the false narratives about her, and those false narratives have consequently become accepted truth for far too many people.

Arab/Islamic Terrorism, Buoyed by Support from Self-Proclaimed "Progressives," Continues to Take Lives in Israel

Yesterday, axe-wielding terrorists murdered three Jews in Israel, causing 16 children to become orphans. At least four other people were injured in the attack. One of the 16 orphaned children, a six year old boy, was with his father (Yonatan Habakuk, age 44) and saw his father killed while fighting the terrorists. As is always the case, Palestinian Arabs celebrated the murders, and flooded social media outlets with calls for more attacks against Jews. The harsh reality is that this is not about a political dispute or about "land for peace"; this is about Arab/Islamic terrorism that seeks to kill Jews worldwide and to destroy Israel. 

Witnesses heard the terrorists scream "Allahu Akbar," the rallying cry long-used by Arab/Islamic terrorists when they attack Jews. The terrorists believe that God is on their side--and they know that self-proclaimed "progressives" support them every step of the way. It is said that love is blind; the Left's love affair with Jew-murdering terrorists is blind to a host of awful truths, including that the Palestinian Authority's support of Russia's invasion of Ukraine continues the trend of Palestinian Arab support for tyranny. 

The silence of the "Squad" and other self-proclaimed "progressives" about terrorist attacks targeting Jews is something that all voters should remember on Election Day. A vote for any "Squad" member or sympathizer is a vote supporting antisemitism and anti-Zionism, and is a vote expressing support for Arab/Islamic terrorists killing Jews; that may be a harsh reality for many to accept--particularly for left-wing Jews--but it is the truth, and we see numerous examples of the consequences of elections. For example, newly appointed White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has a long and well-documented history of antisemitism/anti-Zionism. The so-called moderate inhabiting the White House is either not as moderate as some of his supporters hoped/expected, or he feels powerless to resist the lobbying from the self-proclaimed "progressives" who dictate their demands to him; either way, the results are the same, and those results are not good for the United States, let alone for victims of terrorism.

Mort Klein, CEO of the Zionist Organization of America, issued a statement expressing his outrage at Jean-Pierre's appointment: "As a child of Holocaust survivors and as an American Jew, I am both appalled and frightened that Biden has chosen as his principal deputy press secretary, Ms. Jean-Pierre, who has shown essentially antisemitic hostility toward Israel and is willing to lie about and vilify Israel and Jews to promote her ugly Israelophobic agenda. Americans should be deeply concerned that this outrageous, incomprehensible anti-Israel, pro-terrorist and pro-Iran appointment indicates the dangerous direction the Biden administration is going to take against America’s greatest ally Israel and U.S.-Israel relations." 

Garry Kasparov correctly lamented that America used to be about striving for excellence but that the last two Presidential elections have been about choosing the lesser of two evils. I echo his call to reject both the American Left's embrace of socialism and the American Right's embrace of Donald Trump, and I hope that our country can provide leadership to the Free World instead of embracing mindless slogans and destructive ideologies.

Kalman Liebskind Explains the Harsh Reality that Israel--and the Rest of the World--Must Face

An article by Kalman Liebskind in the Israeli newspaper Maariv brilliantly explained concepts about Israel, antisemitism, and anti-Zionism that far too many people are unable or unwilling to understand.

The truths that Liebskind bluntly describes are important, and they are truths that many Jews are afraid to speak and many non-Jews refuse to admit. For example, he declares, "Our fear of calling the enemy by its name, our fear of him in general, and the confusion that freezes the backbone for too many of those who control the country, are what bring us, again and again, to the same situation. Anyone who does not know how to define the enemy and is not willing to fight and defeat him, will find himself, every few months, helpless, not understanding why this is happening to him. Therefore, an entire country, with its security forces, holds its breath every year, to see what the Muslims have prepared for us this time in Ramadan. Will there be lynchings of Jews this time too? Will Jews be stoned in the streets of Jerusalem? Will bus riders in the capital city be injured? And perhaps they will burn synagogues again?"

Liebskind's blistering criticism of the evasive, meek language used by Israeli ministers to describe Arab/Islamic terrorism against Jews also could be applied to the various ways that many media members distort the truth. Liebskind wryly notes that Yair Lapid invented the "game" of "how to explain why the Arabs murder Jews, without saying 'Arab' and without saying 'Jews.'" Americans are familiar with this "game" that is also played by the Associated Press, CNN, The New York Times, and far too many other media outlets.

 

Liebskind minces no words with his analogy about the calls to banish Jewish worship at the Temple Mount because Arabs attack Jewish worshipers: "Since there are men roaming the streets who harass women, it is best that women remain at home. This will prevent the pretext for harassment." Can you imagine a self-proclaimed "progressive" uttering such nonsense regarding women? Yet, that is exactly what they expect of innocent Jews who are attacked by Arabs---stay home to "prevent the pretexts for harassment."

The notion that there is no such thing as objective truth--that everyone has his or her own "truth"--is a dangerous seed that could sprout into a malignant growth that destroys Western civilization. It is interesting that the same people who assert that Critical Race Theory is not being taught, does not exist, and is not dangerous also argue that there should not be any laws against teaching CRT to young children. If it is not being taught, does not exist, and is not dangerous, then why would anyone object to laws clarifying that it should not be taught? At worst, such laws would be superfluous, but it is not clear how such laws could cause harm.

 

Obviously, CRT exists and its influence is increasingly being felt throughout our society whether or not it is being explicitly taught in every school. One of the many dangerous ideas that it promotes and that is gaining currency is that there is no such thing as objective truth and thus the concept of objective truth is a tool of oppression used by the majority (read: white people). Founders of Critical Race Theory admit that CRT rejects foundational concepts of Western civilization, as Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic explain in their book Critical Race Theory: An Introduction: "Unlike traditional civil rights, which embraces incrementalism and step-by-step progress, critical race theory questions the very foundations of the liberal order, including equality theory, legal reasoning, Enlightenment rationalism and neutral principles of constitutional law." The sound principles that Critical Race Theory seeks to subvert and destroy are what separates this country from such failed and failing states as the Soviet Union, Iran, North Korea, Syria, and Cuba. Those sound principles are also the thinking tools that help someone understand why it is "poshlust" to make assertions such as "America is no better than Russia" or "We all share in Germany's guilt"--or, pertaining to Israel's existential fight for survival versus Arab/Islamic terrorist states and terrorist groups, "One person's terrorist is another person's freedom fighter." It is tragic that academics, media members, and politicians often act as if there is no difference between George Washington and Yasser Arafat.

 

Israel's failure to come to grips with the desperate reality of her situation--and the willingness of the rest of the world to ignore or even encourage anti-Jewish terrorism--potentially threatens not only Israel's existence but the viability of the West in the face of determined opposition from evil forces such as Putin's Russia, Communist China, and the various tyrannical Arab/Islamic states (including but not limited to Iran, Syria, and Saudi Arabia--three countries that have American blood on their hands).

 

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Here is a link to Liebskind's original article in Hebrew: https://www.maariv.co.il/journalists/Article-912791

This English translation of Liebskind's article is provided by Women for Israel's Tomorrow (Women in Green), one of the few organizations that speaks the truth about Israel and defends the right of the Jewish people to live in peace in Israel:

"The day will come when we will have courageous leadership here, who will say: Jerusalem and the Temple Mount is entirely ours"

by Kalman Liebskind April 23, 2022

At the end of this week, we must say a big thank you to the Arabs. Again and again, we have neglected to explain to ourselves what we are doing here, and what Jerusalem is for us. Again and again, they do not allow us to ignore it. On calm days, we must admit, it is easier for us to ignore. On such days, we can tell ourselves that if only Jenin was not "occupied," and if only we didn't upset the Palestinians, and if only we did not want to go up to Eviatar or inhabit Homesh, this place would be all calm and relaxed.

But then, just when we think that the formula we've invented is proving itself, the Arabs come and remind us of what Shlomo Zalman Zoref, Joel Yosef Solomon's grandfather, understood, who was murdered by Arabs back in 1851, for his activity in building Jerusalem. Jerusalem is the heart. It is the center. It is the reason of reasons. Our ancestors, in the East and in the West, dreamed of it, in Morocco, in Poland and in Ethiopia.

And we, who have the privilege of being here, what do we do? We assist in the enemy's propaganda. We explain that when the Arabs burn Jewish property in the Shimon Hatzadik neighborhood, it is because a Jew poked his finger in their eye. And when they have massive riots and attack the building of the Ministry of Justice, it is because we did not act correctly when we did not allow them to sit on the steps of the Nablus Gate. And that marching in our capital city with the national flag, a few hundred meters from the municipal building, it is a provocation. And when the ELAD or Ateret Cohanim NGO redeems land, they are radical settlers, and all they want to do is to set the Middle East on fire. And especially, when there is no "occupation" and a Palestinian state is finally established, the Arabs will leave us alone.

But then, every time we get confused, the Arabs come–from Umm al-Fahm to Ramallah, from Taibeh to Gaza–and scream "al Aqsa." Do not deceive yourselves. They are warning us. Do not tell yourselves stories. The battle is over Jerusalem. For the Temple Mount, which is in the heart of Jerusalem. For the place which is the historical and national justification for Jewish existence here.

And we, for our part, can continue to bow before them in the hope that they will spare us. To allow their inciters to enter the Temple Mount freely, waving the Hamas and Isis flags, and praise the "martyrs" and turn the mosques into bases for attacking officers of the Israel Police and the Jewish worshipers at the Western Wall. We can also continue to harass the Jews who ascend to the Mount, as if they were the ones causing the problem. But none of this will relax the Arabs, until it becomes clear to everyone that our holiest place--is theirs. And as mentioned, they push us to the wall and force us to decide. It may not happen soon, but it will happen. The day will come when we will no longer have any choice, and we will have to tell ourselves what brought us specifically to this place, after the long exile, and what the Holy City is for us.

And when that day comes, and we have courageous leadership, not leaders who humiliate themselves by submissive visits to the King of Jordan, requesting him to help us manage our holy place, we will make clear to the world what should have been obvious. Jerusalem is entirely ours, and the Temple Mount is entirely ours, and from this stance, and only from this stance, of sovereigns, we will allow every Muslim to pray as he pleases.

And on that day, we will also need to make clear what should have been simple and obvious. Which is that whenever the place of Muslim prayer serves violence and terror, the Temple Mount will be closed to Muslims and open to Jews. Only to Jews. Because when there is violence and terror, as strange as it sounds in the present situation, it is the violent ones who will pay the price, not the victims of the violence. And we also must make it clear that this idea, that a calm place is where there are no Jews, was tried in Europe and we have no desire to do the same thing here, in the Jewish State.

Language Laundering

Just so I won't be misunderstood, I totally admire Channel 12 News for dedicating two and a half minutes at the start of its program to this event. Why so? Such events, tainted with antisemitism, occur here in Israel on a daily basis. Sometimes the Arabs attack Jews with rocks, sometimes with Molotov cocktails, sometimes they set cars on fire and sometimes they beat haredim on the light rail or on their way to the Western Wall. These events almost never receive coverage on the news. Not on Channel 12 or the other channels.

And then the question arises--why is antisemitism important to that journalist only when it happens overseas? One explanation might be, I assume, that this is the norm. A Jew that is attacked here in Israel is just part of the boring routine. A Jew that is attacked in New York arouses curiosity. There are, of course, other explanations, and I would like to suggest one of them here. When a Jew is attacked in New York, we all can all allow ourselves to express a clear position on what has happened to him without getting into a political argument. On the other hand, constant reporting on Arabs attacking Jews on a daily basis in the Land of Israel would force us to reflect on their hatred, their terror and the illusion that it is possible to live side by side with them in peace. All of these are things that news editors are not always happy to publicize.

Here is a small example. At the end of the first Passover holy day I listened, in the car, to the 22:00 o'clock news on Channel 2. The news opened with a report on "a terrorist armed with a knife, a resident of the village of Silwad," who was caught near the fence of the town of Beit El. The news editor was careful not to use the word "Arab" in the description of the detainee, although this detail was important but we will not hold the editor to account for this. After all, when they tell us "terrorist," we all understand which group he belongs to.

The next item reported that the Magistrate's Court in Haifa extended the incarceration of a 15-year-old girl, a resident of the city, who had stabbed a 47-year-old man for nationalist reasons. This is already more disturbing. We know that the young woman is Arab and that the person who was stabbed is a Jewish man and that this is, actually, the reason for her act. So why not tell us these simple facts? Wait--there's more. Later on in the same news broadcast there was another report, which spoke of a 22-year-old man, a "resident of the Negev," being arrested for throwing rocks at a vehicle on the Arava Road. A check the next day confirmed what any listener might have assumed, that it was a young man who was part of the Bedouin diaspora. If so, why not tell us this explicitly?

Inaction

This is not a media story. This story is a story about the country, the government, the police and the judicial system, which are not capable of saying who the enemy is out loud. Why? Because it is unpleasant for them. Because it doesn't sound good. Because it sounds racist to say that there is a war for this Land, and that the enemy is an Arab and a Muslim. It is easier and more pleasant to think that the Palestinians want peace, except for a few terror organizations that get in the way, and that Israeli Arabs desire co-existence and calm, except for those who join ISIS from Sakhnin and who join ISIS from Umm el Fahm, who make everyone else look bad.

In one of my recent columns, I mentioned the how-sounding texts that senior members of the present government publish after attacks, in an acrobatic attempt to condemn the attack without saying who did it, why he did it or against whom he did it. This is so for Minister Amar Bar-Lev, who is convinced that the terrorists' goal was to "harm our attempts to celebrate the Spring holidays." Minister Merav Michaeli, who is sure that the terrorists only want to harm "peace and normalization" wrote similar things. It was the same with Minister Nitzan Horowitz, who, after the attack in Hadera, wrote that terrorists are "a common threat to Jews and Arabs." Yair Lapid as well, invented the game of "how to explain why the Arabs murder Jews, without saying 'Arabs' and without saying 'Jews.'"

In previous attacks, he explained that the terrorists' intention is to harm us "in our fabric of everyday life" and cause us "to hate and be angry with one another." This week, a member of his party, Vladimir Beliak, tweeted that he tried to mock everyone that was critical of the fact that the Shura Council holds the fate of the government in its hands, while living in peace for years with a right-wing government "that were totally dependent on the council of Torah Sages and the rebbe from Gur."

MK Beliak, who chose this comparison, just after the Islamic Council decided to boycott the coalition because of the police action against violent Arab rioters, seems, as mentioned, like an excellent student of his party's leader. From his point of view, it does not matter if it is Jews or Arabs, on our side or on the enemy's side. If there are two councils and both are religious, then we are dealing with similar organizations.

So it is correct that when there is a battle between us and the terrorists, one council causes a political crisis as a result of a terror attack and the other council recites psalms for our success, but from the point of view of the MK from Yesh Atid, they are both the same. Or, as Yair Lapid summarized this week: "The riots this morning on the Temple Mount are inexcusable and against the spirit of the religions that we believe in." Understand? There are a few religions here, we are not specifically connected with any one of them, we have no preference for any one specifically, we are not fans of any of the groups, and the government of Israel is like the referee who is sent to make sure that the game is played by the rules.

Just like Ehud Olmert, who this week explained on Galei Tsahal, that "There should have been a courageous and responsible decision--when there is tension, Jews should not ascend to the Temple Mount during Ramadan. There will be no disaster, and it will prevent the pretext that jihadists seek to set fire to the area." Or, in clearer language, from other worlds: Since there are men roaming the streets who harass women, it is best that women remain at home. This will prevent the pretext for harassment.

Our fear of calling the enemy by its name, our fear of him in general, and the confusion that freezes the backbone for too many of those who control the country, are what bring us, again and again, to the same situation. Anyone who does not know how to define the enemy and is not willing to fight and defeat him, will find himself, every few months, helpless, not understanding why this is happening to him. Therefore, an entire country, with its security forces, holds its breath every year, to see what the Muslims have prepared for us this time in Ramadan. Will there be lynchings of Jews this time too? Will Jews be stoned in the streets of Jerusalem? Will bus riders in the capital city be injured? And perhaps they will burn synagogues again?

Stop being Understanding

Therefore, it seems to me that the formula has to change. The myths that except for a few terror organizations, the Palestinians desire peace, must be put to rest. We must do this as well regarding the stories about Israeli Arabs--that except for a few weeds, they desire serene co-existence.

After tens of thousands of Israeli Arabs fought us in the events of 2000, after the masses that participated a year ago in the lynchings and rock-throwing and attacks and arson. After dozens of terrorists, who came from Israeli towns, after this public voted time after time for people who support the murderers of Jews, and who see themselves as representatives of Palestinians in the Israeli legislature, the time has come for a change of concept. To see Israeli Arabs as people who identify with our enemy's battle. A small number of them go out and kill themselves, some applaud silently, others go out in demonstrations and wave the enemy's flags and others simply declare that they view themselves as Palestinians and expect us to understand.

Therefore, we must stop being understanding. This understanding costs us in blood, and causes us the scenes that we saw in Lod and Acre a year ago, and the scenes from Be'er Sheva a month ago, and the scenes of throwing rocks in Nazareth and Umm el Fahm and Bir al-Maksur and Jerusalem this week. True, we must not generalize and those who object to terror and desire co-existence must be treated accordingly, but for all the rest, there is no choice but to be suspicious of them. What do we do with this insight? First of all, we change our opinion and conclude what we must. There is a difference between someone who demonstrates against vaccines or for an increase in benefits for the handicapped, and those who demonstrate with a Palestinian flag in Haifa. True, they are all demonstrating, but only one of them is an enemy.

Who is a Terrorist?

And it is interesting to examine this matter. A few weeks ago, I wrote here, that "not all Arabs are terrorists, but all terrorists are Arabs." Some readers, among them journalists, tweeted, expressing amazement at these words. After all, while it is true that for every thousand Arab attacks on Jews, there is one Jewish attack on an Arab, it is impossible to ignore even this one attack. Therefore, how can one say that "all terrorists are Arabs?"

So there are two groups who are puzzled. One of them is composed of people who are naïve but confused. The others choose to remain neutral in the battle between us and the enemy. For both groups, here is the simple explanation. The expression "terrorist" is not intended to describe a person who committed murder or attempted to commit murder. We all know of heinous murders where no one thought of labeling the murderer a terrorist.

Thus, for example, a person who murdered the girl Rose Pizem and threw her body in a suitcase into the Yarkon River, committed a shocking act, but it is not terror. Who is a terrorist? A terrorist is someone who harms a Jew/Israel as part of his battle against the State of Israel/Zionism/the Jewish People. The murderers who fired shots in Hadera a few weeks ago are terrorists. The murderer who stabbed people in Be'er Sheva is a terrorist. Ami Popper, who murdered seven Palestinians, committed a horrific act, but he is not a terrorist. He was a criminal who committed terrible and horrible crimes, but this does not make him a terrorist.

This is the story of a state that was established in the homeland of the Jewish People, and the enemies who are trying to fight it, its citizens and Jews in general. Whoever is part of this fight is a terrorist/enemy. Others are not and this has no connection with the severity of their acts.

I suspect that a person who labels as terrorist, anyone who harms a person of another religion or another ethnicity, does not do so because he is not sufficiently linguistically sophisticated, but because he wants to see our fight here as someone with no position, observing the events from the sidelines, like a fan of the Barcelona team watching the Tel Aviv Derby. There are Jews, there are Arabs--each side harms the other. If it began and ended with a few leftists and a few journalists, it would be okay. But when you understand that this is the view of the police, the judicial system and some senior ministers in our government, you understand more easily how we got into this situation.

 

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Further Reading: 

In international law, only one nation has rights to the Land of Israel

 

The above article is an excellent summary of international law pertaining to the Land of Israel, but if you just want the layperson's summary without the accompanying documentation here it is: "If the Arabs ask now why we were given the Land of Israel, we will ask why they were given the rest of the Middle East, because it was a combined partition resolution, and if the Jewish part of the partition is called into question, then the Arab part of it must inevitably be called into question as well." 

 

In other words, a person living in Egypt, Jordan, Syria, or any other country created in the 20th century after the fall of the Ottoman Empire is in no credible position to question the legal basis of the modern rebirth of Israel; not only are the ancient Jewish ties to the Land of Israel indisputable, but the legal process by which Israel was created mirrors the same legal process that created the Arab/Islamic countries bordering Israel.

Your Tax Dollars at Work: USAID Contractor Repeatedly Celebrates Terrorist Attacks Against Jews

Do you wonder how your tax dollars--specifically the tax dollars allocated for foreign aid projects--are spent? Wonder no more. Here are some social media posts made by an employee for Proximity International—a prime contractor for USAID (U.S. Agency for International Development) that provides funds for several projects that receive U.S. aid dollars:

1) In reference to the April 7, 2022 terrorist attack that killed three Israelis, Rawan Abu-Salieh tweeted, "The news is sweeter than a tray of knafeh [dessert] after iftar."

2) Two weeks ago, Abu Salieh praised a March 29 terrorist attack in Israel, commenting, "shoot and don't have mercy" and describing the terrorist as a "heroic martyr."

3) At least a dozen other social media posts similar to the two cited above were exposed by the Washington Free Beacon before Abu Salieh deleted her Twitter account. The posts date back at least as far as 2015, when she reacted to a terrorist stabbing of an Israeli victim by declaring, "May God not heal you and may our Lord defend the operative."

Abu-Salieh has since been fired, and Proximity International has disavowed her hate-filled social media posts--but those posts were made over a period of several years during which she worked for an organization charged with disseminating U.S. aid. The vetting processes for how aid is distributed, for how employees are hired, and for monitoring the hatred spewed by employees after they are hired all must be improved. 

Bonnie Glick, a former deputy administrator at USAID, explained to the Washington Free Beacon that the vetting process must be more closely scrutinized: "When someone like the woman who has been flagged is working on a variety of different USAID contracts, the onus is on USAID to actively vet. The vetting of key staff should disqualify the contract or grant recipient if they have key personnel who are acting in ways that are anathema to USAID's values."

In 2021, the Government Accounting Office (GAO) criticized USAID for not taking enough action during 2015-19 to ensure that U.S. funds were not provided to terrorist organizations. This is not just about one rogue employee disseminating hatred via social media; this is about a climate and culture that is sympathetic to Arab/Islamic terrorism and hostile to Jews and Israelis.

We have many members of Congress who love the limelight, and who often shout the lie about Israel being an "apartheid state," so the silence of the "Squad" and self-proclaimed "progressives" about real life and death issues--about U.S. tax dollars being used to finance terrorism--is deafening and telling, and is something that we should all remember when we cast our votes (as we should also note well the lunatic fringe spewing hate on the opposite side of the political spectrum). Congress controls the country's purse strings, but we the people control who is in Congress.

BDS Supporters Want to Bring Anti-Jewish Terrorism to America

Authorities are investigating a subway attack involving smoke grenades and a hail of bullets in New York City--the city with, by far, the largest Jewish population in the world. This attack has many earmarks of a terrorist operation, but in the current media climate such attacks are usually only labeled "terrorist" if the attacker is of the "correct" ethnicity and/or if the victims are of the "correct" ethnicity. It must be mentioned that American antisemites hope to bring anti-Jewish terrorism to America; it is not sufficient for supporters of BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions--only directed at Israel, because self-proclaimed "progressives" falsely insist that Israel is the world's only "apartheid state") to slander Israel, and to give aid and comfort to Arab/Islamic terrorists who kill Jews, but BDS supporters are publicly calling for the "intifada" to be globalized:

Amid the ongoing terror wave that has killed nearly a dozen Israelis in the past week, a pro-BDS group in New York City held a rally in front of the offices of the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (FIDF) on Wednesday urging to "globalize the intifada."

During the event, the leader of the group Nerdeen Kiswani, who heads the group Within Our Lifetime (WOL), led the chant ­"from New York to Palestine, globalize the intifada," in what can be perceived as a call to conduct acts of terror against Israelis or Jews in other places around the world.

Attendees there chanted: "There is only one solution, intifada revolution" and "whose streets? Our streets!"

If American politicians, media members, and voters continue to be blind, deaf, and dumb about Arab/Islamic terrorism against Jews, the BDS supporters may indeed get their wish that such killings take place as regularly in America as they do now in Israel.  

It is fascinating to observe (1) which stories mainstream media outlets cover, (2) how stories are covered, and (3) which stories mainstream media outlets choose not to cover. 

 

Arab/Islamic Terrorists Torch Joseph's Tomb, A Jewish Holy Site That They Have Repeatedly Targeted

One of the cherished traditions of Arab/Islamic terrorists is to damage--and sometime destroy--Jewish holy sites in Israel. This is done not only to terrorize Jews individually and collectively, but also to wipe out the historical evidence that Israel is, in fact, the ancient Jewish national homeland. Joseph's Tomb in Shechem--the mainstream media often calls this city Nablus--has repeatedly been the target of Arab/Islamic terrorists. 

After an Arab/Islamic terrorist attack in October 2000 that not only damaged the site but culminated in the killing of an Israeli soldier, the Israeli government shamefully evacuated the area; imagine for a moment that terrorists desecrated the Statue of Liberty, killed an American soldier in the process, and America responded by ceding control of the Statue of Liberty to the terrorists! That is an apt analogy, though it should be noted that Joseph's Tomb has been a Jewish holy site for millennia, while the Statute of Liberty is less than 150 years old.

Arab/Islamic terrorists just targeted Joseph's Tomb again, torching the site a week before Passover begins. Will Israel have the necessary self-respect and courage to reclaim control of the site, rebuild it, and take whatever steps are necessary to prevent terrorists from ever attacking it again? Will self-proclaimed "progressives" who regularly speak out about a host of real and imagined injustices have anything to say about the latest Arab/Islamic terrorist outrage? 

If you are a student of history, you know the sad answers to both questions.

"Our War is With the Jews": Main PLO Faction Admits the Truth

Self-proclaimed "progressives" slander Israel as an "apartheid state" but turn a blind eye and silent mouth toward Arab/Islamic terrorism directed at Jews. What is more racist than targeting people for slaughter based on religious beliefs and/or ethnic background? That is precisely what the Palestinian Authority's sickening "pay for slay" program does, and make no mistake that this is about killing Jews, not about "resisting" any so-called "occupation." A leader from the Fatah party--the ruling party in the Palestinian Authority--recently declared, "Our war is with the Jews."  When will President Biden condemn without hesitation or reservation the Palestinian Authority? When will the self-righteous "Squad" speak out against the Palestinian Authority's war "with the Jews"? When will the United States stop pressuring Israel to make concessions that (1) do not create peace and (2) embolden Israel's enemies to escalate their war "with the Jews"? If you are a Michigan voter, please do yourself, your state, your country, and the world a favor by voting for Janice Winfrey over Rashida Tlaib so that we can begin the process of ridding Congress of the "Squad" that can find little good to say about our country, that does little good for our country, and provides aid/comfort to murderous enemies of democracy and peace.

The most recent Arab/Islamic terrorist attack in Israel killed three people and wounded at least 12. One of the murder victims was former Israeli Olympic athlete and current Paralympics and Olympics kayak team coach Barak Lufan, a father of three, while the other two murder victims were childhood friends Tomer Morad and Eytam Magini. Magini was engaged and was celebrating his upcoming wedding. Click the links to learn more about the lives cut short violently, prematurely, and senselessly by Arab/Islamic terrorism. This is what the "Squad" condones, and this is what Amnesty International condones: anyone who tells lies about a democracy while providing support for murderous regimes and organizations is complicit in the murders committed by those regimes and organizations.

Terrorists have easy access to Israel because Israel has kept its borders open so that Muslims can observe Ramadan, but if the Arab/Islamic leaders continue to actively sponsor terrorism and if the Arab/Islamic communities in Israel continue to openly celebrate murderous attacks against Jews then the Israeli government must change its border policies and security policies, because a government's primary responsibility is to protect the lives of its citizens.

The Palestinian Authority and the Arab/Islamic states that sponsor the PA are not secular or democratic, and it is doubtful that they will be any time in the future; their way of thinking, their way of life, and their fundamental goals are diametrically opposed to the United States' way of thinking, way of life, and fundamental goals. Funding the PA is neither smart "realpolitik," nor is it ethical, nor does it further our interests in any way--and the evils that we either finance or tolerate overseas have a nasty way of hitting us when we least expect it: the U.S. government did not care very much about the Arab/Islamic terrorist who assassinated Rabbi Meir Kahane, but years later (after the 9/11 attacks) "a Congressional investigation revealed that bin Laden had paid the legal fees of El Sayed Nosair, the man who murdered Rabbi Meir Kahane on November 5, 1990. Failing to distinguish between good and evil prevented U.S. authorities from fully investigating the Kahane murder and discovering the connections between Nosair, Omar Abdel-Rahman (the 'blind Sheikh') and bin Laden's al Qaeda; at the time, Kahane's murder was blithely dismissed by the media and by the U.S. government as a radical Arab killing a prominent Jewish figure but we now know that this crime was the first terrorist act committed on American soil by the group that eventually attacked the World Trade Center in 1993: bin Laden's confederates failed to bring down the Twin Towers that time but the next group that bin Laden sent succeeded eight years later. The idea that Kahane and bin Laden are equally radical and equally dangerous is an example of the pernicious, fallacious thinking that Vladimir Nabokov called 'poshlost.' There are not two equally valid sides regarding Kahane and bin Laden; Kahane proposed political solutions (with which one is free to agree or disagree), while bin Laden proposed (and delivered) mass murder around the globe; it is impossible to act correctly without making correct distinctions."

Nabokov wrote, "Listing in one breath Auschwitz, Hiroshima, and Vietnam is seditious poshlost." Similarly fallacious moral equivalencies are regularly seen not only on social media but also on traditional media platforms. The inability or unwillingness to make correct distinctions is a major problem infecting our public discourse. 

Israel has a right to exist just like every other sovereign nation. Israeli citizens have a right to live their lives without having to wonder if an Arab/Islamic terrorist is lurking in the street waiting to slaughter them. Israel even has a right to be wrong: no country's policies are perfect, but no one would dare suggest of any other country that it is OK for that country's enemies to attack her citizens and murder them in cold blood. Arab/Islamic countries and organizations do not have a right to engage in murderous attacks that they and others falsely describe as "resistance." 

The Palestinian Authority's Sickening "Pay for Slay" Program Must be Eliminated

Arab/Islamic terrorists kill in no small part because it is profitable--for them and/or for their families--to kill. Eliminating--or at least minimizing--terrorism's profitability is an important method for decreasing terrorism. Let's also be up front about debunking the notion that it is somehow racist to refer to Arab/Islamic terrorists or Arab/Islamic terrorism; the people who are committing these terrorist acts shout "Allahu Akbar" (God is great) and "Itbach al-yahud" (kill the Jews), and post videos citing their Islamic religious and/or Arab nationalistic motivations, while the nations and organizations that sponsor Arab/Islamic terrorism make it clear that they believe the murders they commit are justified for religious and/or nationalistic reasons. That does not mean that all Arabs or Muslims are terrorists any more than condemning Russian atrocities means that all Russians or all white people or all Christians are to blame for Russia's war against Ukraine--but it does mean that Arab/Islamic terrorism exists and must be confronted, just like Russia's violations of international law exist and must be confronted.

One would think that people who oppose military interventions would be enthusiastic about cutting off funding for Arab/Islamic terrorists, so it is odd that many of the politicians who speak most fervently against military interventions also oppose cutting off funding to nations and organizations that sponsor terrorism; anyone who turns a blind eye to the massive amount of funding being provided to Arab/Islamic terrorists is making sure that there will be more violence and more bloodshed, not less.

It is no secret that Iran is a leading state sponsor of Arab/Islamic terrorism, nor is it a secret that the Palestinian Authority's "pay for slay" program provides an enormous economic incentive to commit terrorist acts (and yes, I know that Iranians are Persians, not Arabs--that does not change the reality that the Iranian government sponsors Arab/Islamic terrorism not just in and against Israel, but around the world).

The amount of funding provided to Arab/Islamic terrorists by the Palestinian Authority alone is as staggering as it is sickening, as reported in Terror Pays: 20 Years After Passover Seder Massacre, Terrorists Rewarded with Millions:

We recently marked the twentieth anniversary of the infamous Passover Seder Massacre. As families sat down to participate in the Passover dinner at the Park Hotel in Netanya, a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up murdering 30 people and injuring another 160.

Every month, the Palestinian Authority spends tens of thousands of shekels/dollars/euros to reward the family of the suicide bomber and pay salaries to the terrorists who were arrested for their part in the massacre.

Among the terrorists arrested for the attack are: 

Abbas Al-Sayid – Arrested May 2002 – Main planner of the attack – Sentenced to 35 life sentences

Fathi Hatib – Arrested May 2002 – Convicted for transporting the suicide bomber – Sentenced to 29 life sentences

Muhannad Shreim – Arrested May 2002 – Financed the attack – Sentenced to 29 life sentences

Muamar Al-Sheikh – Arrested May 2002 – deputy of Abbas Al-Sayid – Sentenced to 29 life sentences

Each one of the terrorists above has by now been paid over one million shekels by the PA as a reward for their participation in the murder of 30 Israelis.

The payments to the perpetrators of the Passover Seder Massacre are just a small part of a large trend. Palestinian Media Watch notes the vast amount of money that the PA spends to sponsor terrorism:

..."according to financial reports published by the PA, in the entire year of 2021, the PA wage bill for the entire Ministry of Health (employees of the ministry, doctors, nurses etc.) was 892,607,850 shekels ($273,331,528)."

In comparison, Ramallah has spent 840 million shekels ($256 million) in 2021 on "financial rewards to imprisoned terrorists, released terrorists, wounded terrorists and the families of dead terrorists." That's an estimate because the Palestinian Authority is not transparent about how it accounts for for its controversial pay-for-slay stipends.

In 2020, for example, Palestinian leaders showed European officials a fake budget with terror stipends erased.

The Palestinians have been forced to fudge their numbers because of the Taylor Force Act of 2018, which halted U.S. aid to the Palestinians as long as terror stipends were being paid out.

The Act was is named for Taylor Force, a American graduate student who was stabbed to death by Bashar Masalha, a 21-year-old Palestinian in a Jaffa stabbing spree in 2016. Masalha injured 11 other people before he was shot and killed by police officers. Congress took action after learning that Masalha's family was benefiting from the stipends.

Arab/Islamic terrorists often boast that they will defeat Israel and America in the long run because they love death more than we love life, and we must take that message seriously, lest they succeed in destroying secular democracies. We must prove our love for life not by being seduced by fraudulent ideologies that traffic in false moral equivalencies, but rather by proving equal to the challenge of combating Arab/Islamic terrorism economically, politically, and militarily.

I call on all self-proclaimed "progressives" who piously lecture Israel about what policies she should follow while being silent about the terror war that has been waged against Israel for decades to instead direct their focus and their power to demanding that the Palestinian Authority immediately stop financing terrorism, and instead use those funds to improve the lives of the residents of the Palestinian Authority. Criticizing Israel while ignoring--or even praising--the Palestinian Authority is like attacking a mugging victim while praising and giving money to the people who did the mugging. No clear-thinking person can take seriously a so-called "progressive" agenda that completely misreads who are the victims and who are the terrorists in the Mideast: point blank, if you can't figure out that blowing up innocent people who are celebrating Passover is wrong--no matter how much you may disagree with a particular Israeli policy--then I have no interest in or respect for your so-called "progressive" agenda regarding any other issue. If you side with dictatorships, terrorists, and murderers, then go see how interested those dictatorships, terrorists, and murderers are in making the world more "progressive." The term "useful idiot" is the perfect description for anyone who thinks that supporting the terrorist war against Israel somehow helps downtrodden people anywhere.

Nothing New to See in Israel: Arab/Islamic Terrorists Kill Jews, World Remains Silent

Within the past seven days, Arab/Islamic terrorists have murdered 11 Israelis in separate attacks conducted throughout Israel, including a series of shootings just hours ago during which five Israelis were slain. This is probably news to you, because Arab/Islamic terrorists intentionally targeting Jews is not considered newsworthy by many news outlets, and because self-proclaimed "progressives"--including those who identify as Jews--do not want to call attention to antisemitism, because antisemitism does not fit in with the false narratives that self-proclaimed "progressives" promulgate against Israel.

Arab/Islamic terrorists have been targeting Jews not only in Israel but around the world for a long time, because virulent antisemitism is widely accepted and promoted throughout the Arab/Islamic world. The recent spike in violence in Israel can be attributed at least in part to Amnesty International's Disgraceful Anti-Israel Report, the hijacking of apartheid as a weapon used to bludgeon Israel in the court of public opinion, the current U.S. administration's reluctance to confront Iran's sponsorship of terrorism and Iran's rapidly developing nuclear weapons program, and the growing mainstream acceptance of anti-Zionist and antisemitic propaganda. There will be no peace in Israel--and Jews will continue to be murdered--as long as Arabs and Muslims believe (1) that the world is on their side against Israel and (2) that Israel can be annihilated through violence without serious consequences. It would be helpful if the U.S. government stopped coddling the Palestinian Authority, whose "pay for slay" policies not only encourage Arabs to murder Jews but make it profitable to do so.

For those who insist that Israel is to blame, imagine a world without Israel. Would there be peace in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Yemen, and in so many other Arab and/or Muslim countries that are wracked by civil wars and/or at war with each other? Would Israel's destruction lead to a blossoming of democracy, free speech, protection of religious and ethnic rights, and a higher standard of living in the Mideast? Anyone who believes that is ignorant of the region's history, and of human nature; the problems that afflict the Middle East are not caused by Israel's existence, nor would those problems be cured if Israel ceased to exist. 

The very fact that Jews can be killed with impunity even in the Jewish State amplifies why a Jewish State--with a military, a police force, and a court system--is necessary: for nearly 2000 years, Jews had no homeland of their own, no government, no military. Now, it is sadly still possible to kill Jews, but at least the Jewish people have at their disposal the means to protect themselves. It could be argued that the Israeli government could and should do even more to protect her citizens, but at least the Jewish State has the capability of self-defense. 

Self-proclaimed "progressives" deride the notion of evil in general, and they mock the notion that there is an "Axis of Evil"--but their denial that evil exists does not create a world without evil. Rather, such denials help evildoers get away with their evil acts, as we see not only regarding Arab/Islamic terrorism, but also in Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and China's persecution of the Uyghurs.

Has anyone from the self-proclaimed, self-righteous "Squad" ever condemned a single Arab/Islamic terrorist attack? Has the "Squad" articulated a meaningful and sensible policy to deal with Russia or China? Or has the "Squad" focused on their own alleged victimhood at the expense of real victims who are being murdered around the world? Why would anyone listen to, support, or vote for individuals who exhibit such a narcissistic obsession with their own self-interest while attacking the basic foundations of our society and demonstrating depraved indifference to human suffering around the world?