Thursday, May 25, 2017

 Vic Rosenthal's Weekly Column


Another mass murder in the name of the Islamic jihad, this time in Manchester.

The  New York Times counted 13 deadly Islamic terrorist attacks in Europe alone over the past two years. The worst was in Paris on the night of November 13, 2015 in which 130 people were murdered in six coordinated attacks. The Manchester suicide bombing, in which “only” 22 were killed (but then, half of these were children) was the fourth deadliest. In the same time period there were several wholesale jihad-inspired murders in the US, and here in Israel literally hundreds of “retail” terrorist attacks in which 49 people have been killed and 737 injured.

Western responses to this onslaught have consistently missed the point. But before we can evaluate them, we need to ask why the jihadists are killing us. The reasons may not be what we think.

The objective of the jihad is to change our behavior and our society to move it toward an Islamic future. The ultimate goal is that all the nations of the world will live under Islamic rule,  according to shari’a (Islamic law). Christians and Jews will be permitted to live as dhimmis (protected people), with limited rights and paying the special tax, the jizya. No other form of religious worship will be permitted, and “polytheists” or “idolaters” like Hindus may have no choice but to convert to Islam or die. Muslims will tell you that this is for our own good, because Islamic society is the best and most just of all possible arrangements, but those of us accustomed to Jewish, Christian or humanistic (Enlightenment) values might disagree.

Jihadists understand that Muslim armies are not capable of conquering the West by force of arms and imposing shari’a. So they are employing a more complicated strategy. Part of it is to increase Muslim populations in the West by migration and by daw’a (persuasion). The massive migrations into Europe, which are primarily of Muslims, may be in part a deliberate strategy and in part a side effect of conflicts and economic pressures in the Middle East and Africa, but they have become the engine of the jihad. Some elements in Europe even encouraged migration, seeing it as an answer to the low birthrates among native Europeans. No matter – the Muslims are there, and are keeping, even intensifying, their commitment to the struggle to propagate Islam.

Even a country like France, which may have as much as 10% of its population Muslims is far from having a Muslim majority which could impose shari’a by democratic means (although probably it would be a case of “one man, one vote, one time.”) So the jihad has to progress by persuading non-Muslims to accept Islam.

Some number of them can be persuaded by the attractions offered by Islam – beautiful mosques, fervent believers – fervent Christians are a rarity in post-Christian Europe – the mystique of an “eastern” faith, the desire to belong to something supra-national, and similar things. We can call this “positive persuasion,” persuasion by the positive properties of the faith.

There is another kind of persuasion, however, which we can call “negative persuasion.” It works by creating pain and fear in the subject, and then presenting the acceptance of Islam as a way to ameliorate the distress. It is similar to the way some military training regimens break the spirit of recruits with cruelty, fatigue and humiliation, and then present the surrender of self to the organization as a way to regain self-respect. Negative persuasion works by inducing Stockholm Syndrome in its subjects, who identify with someone who oppresses them in order to stop the oppression.

Islamic terrorism is a form of negative persuasion. In order to be effective, it must be cruel enough to shock the subjects, which is one reason that Muslim terrorists often choose targets where there are children, like the Manchester bombing or the many acts of Palestinian Arab terrorists in Israel against schools, school buses, kindergartens, discos, and so on. A terrorist act needs to be well-publicized, and is randomized in such a way that an average person will think “that could have been me, or my child.” It is intended to show the power and superiority of Islam, so victims are sometimes humiliated or even tortured. Sometimes, in order to illustrate the terrorist’s power of life or death, terrorists make a selection among their victims, and kill only Jews or non-Muslims, release women, and so on.

A successful major attack is usually followed by a wave of conversions to Islam, as those people who are susceptible to Stockholm Syndrome follow their irrational but emotionally powerful impulse to align themselves with the terrorists, whom they – perhaps subconsciously – feel will no longer hurt them.

In many, perhaps most, people, the syndrome is not strong enough to make them become Muslims. But it does make them more sensitive to Muslim demands and concerns; to accept limitations on speech and expression (as in the case of the Danish Cartoons) that would not otherwise be acceptable; or to take on strongly pro-Muslim political opinions. Much of the staff of the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz, for example, regularly expresses opinions that are so anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian that the paper is sometimes called “the Palestinian newspaper published in Hebrew.”

Terrorism as negative persuasion is a deliberate strategy used by the PLO. Recently, an acquaintance said that he always worried whenever there were negotiations between Israel and the PLO, because “that’s when the buses start blowing up.” At the same time that they are negotiating, the PLO ramps up terrorism in order to send the message that Israelis would be better off if they submit to its demands.

Given this analysis, how should we react to terrorism like the Manchester bombing? Well, here is a classic example of how not to, from an editorial in the inimitable NY Times (and similar sentiments appeared throughout the “responsible” media):

Meanwhile, as hard as it is amid the shock and the mourning, it is important to recognize this attack for what it is: an attempt to shake Britain — and, by extension, the rest of Europe and the West — to its core, and to provoke a thirst for vengeance and a desire for absolute safety so intense, it will sweep away the most cherished democratic values and the inclusiveness of diverse societies.
The Islamic State wants nothing more than to watch Western democracies embrace its mad version of a holy war pitting Muslims against Christians, the newly arrived against others. This has been the goal of other attacks in Europe. …
In Britain, as in the rest of Europe and in the United States, it is critical that immigrants, especially Muslims, are not stigmatized. As Richard Barrett, former director of global counterterrorism operations at MI6, Britain’s foreign intelligence agency, said, “engaging the [Muslim] community and letting the community inform us” is one way “to understand why people do this” and to prevent future attacks.

The editorial is wrong by 180 degrees about the reason for the attack. The last thing the terrorists want is to “provoke a thirst for vengeance.” The opposite: they want to paralyze us with fear so that we will not dare to act to reduce immigration of Muslims, or even to speak freely about Islam. What destroys our “cherished democratic values” is not fighting back, but submission.

The writer warns us not to criticize Islam, Muslims or immigrants; indeed, as Barrett says, let them define the significance of this event for us! And you can bet that they will define it – by explaining that Britain has treated Muslims badly in Iraq and Afghanistan and therefore had it coming, just as Osama Bin Laden blamed 9/11 on American support for Israel.

“The inclusiveness of diverse societies,” which the writer places on the level of “our most cherished democratic values,” is actually a measure of instability when what we are inclusive of are Muslims and Islam.

There is a great deal of concern about whether murderer Salman Abedi was working for Da’esh, which claimed credit for his act. The Times writes that “It is still unclear whether Mr. Abedi acted alone or as part of a network.” And then it continues,  “No one yet knows what motivated him to commit such a horrific deed.”

Whether he acted alone is perhaps important to counterterrorism professionals, whose job it is to stop killers like Abedi, but it is irrelevant to the second question, whose answer is obvious.

What motivated him was Islam.



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From Ian:

A Terrorist’s Teenage Target
I was 17 when the bombing happened — just a few years older than many of the kids murdered this Monday night at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England. It was June 1, 2001, and I decided to go out to the Dolphinarium, a disco on the beach in Tel Aviv, with three of my friends: Liana, Oksana and Tanya.
We went to that club almost every weekend. It was the summer before our mandatory army service, and we planned to spend it together — dancing, biking, swimming and tanning.
Girls could get in to the club free before midnight — and we didn’t have any money, so we decided to go early. We bought a bottle of cheap vodka from a convenience store and hung out on the beach talking and taking sips until we saw a crowd start to gather outside the door at 11:30 p.m.
Tanya and I got into the line on the left-hand side of the door; Oksana and Liana went to the right so we could all get in faster. Then, at 11:44 p.m., a Hamas suicide bomber blew himself up at the entrance to the club.

Everything went mute. To this day, I don’t know if I lost consciousness. All I know is that I had flown some distance in the air, and everywhere I looked there were dead bodies. It seemed that every single person in that line had been murdered except for me. Liana died on the spot. A total of 21 people were killed, 16 of them were teenagers.
From Manchester to Jerusalem, a War on Our Way of Life
The Ariana Grande concert was not a random target. This was a deliberate and calculated jihadist terrorist attack against a group of people they particularly despise: Western girls and women whose strength, choice, and independence make them feel threatened.
It fits a grim litany of crimes. Soft targets such as nightclubs and concert halls have been targeted before in Paris, Orlando, and Istanbul and it is the sad reality with which Israel has been dealing with for decades. The car rammings, the knife attacks, and other ways to kill infidels. Israel, in many ways, is the ground zero of modern terrorism.
The same ideology responsible for British authorities now having to collect and piece together what is left of the bodies of our children in the heart of Manchester, claimed the lives of 21 Israelis, 16 of them teenagers, when suicide bomber Said Khutari blew himself up at the Dolphinarium discotheque in Tel Aviv in 2001 at the height of the second intifada. He, too, murdered in the name of Islamic jihad and had ties to Hamas.
Terrorist groups come in different shapes and forms. They operate under their own names and are tied to local contexts. But, ultimately, they are united in the same Islamist fanaticism that leads Hamas to wrap suicide vests around children in Gaza just as it makes Islamic State ban music by sword wherever they go.
Try blaming that on Western foreign policy and you quickly run out of arguments. What connects the dots between terrorist attacks across the world — from Jerusalem to Manchester or Baghdad and Stockholm — is the global jihadist insurgency that has declared war on our way of life.
Europe chose to sacrifice its children to the Islamic Moloch
When did European governments decide that our children, from Nice to Manchester, must be sacrified to radical Islam and that they are to become a photo opportunity for newspapers?
Europe cries over the innocent victims. Then it plunges into its indolent normality and continues chatting.
There is an enemy, it needs to be collared and fought by paying the necessary price to defend freedom and life in the West. And yes, it is a very high price.
Europe must learn to respond the way the Russians did after Beslan, the Ossetian school where Islamic terrorists butchered hundreds of children and innocent people. Or like Israelis did after the attack at the Dolphinarium in Tel Aviv. Otherwise, Europe will reach the point where the soldiers of Allah will have to be hunted down, from door to door, as in Mosul and Raqqa.
Is it possible that Europe's leaders have chosen to avoid fighting because they are all childless?
“Est regis tueri cives." It is the king's duty to protect citizens. Or do we think that, to continue enjoy our lazy lifestyle, we must feed the Islamic Moloch, like the god of Carthage, which demanded the sacrifice of children in return for the preservation of the city?

  • Thursday, May 25, 2017
  • Elder of Ziyon

The Jordanian government strongly condemned the "storming" of a a group of "radical Jewish activists" to the Temple Mount,  warning Israel of "hurting the feelings of Muslims."

Jordanian Minister for Media Affairs and official government spokesman Mohammad Momani said that "the Jordanian government strongly condemns the blatant Israeli aggression to enable Jewish extremists to storm the Al-Aqsa Mosque yards, as this represents a violation of the sanctity of the place and hurting the feelings of Muslims around the world." .

Israeli police arrested several Jews for attempting to pray on their holiest site, which the Jordanian media reported, but they are blaming Israel anyway.

Momani said that Jordan "holds the Israeli government as the occupying power responsible for compromising the Al-Aqsa Mosque and of encouraging hundreds of settlers to desecrate the area."

This is state-sanctioned antisemitism. Not that anyone in the "human rights" community cares much.



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  • Thursday, May 25, 2017
  • Elder of Ziyon


Palestinian terror groups have been very upset over President Trump lumping Hamas in with Al Qaeda, ISIS and Hezbollah in his speech in Riyadh this week.

But Gulf Arab media has not had any problem with it.

Then came this story out of the Gulf:

JEDDAH: Tensions rose in the Gulf on Tuesday after a series of controversial comments attributed to Qatar’s emir, in a row that led to the blocking of Doha-aligned news websites in some neighboring states.
Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani’s alleged comments, carried by the official state news agency QNA, apparently saw him endorse Iran, Hamas and Hezbollahstrongly diverging from the stance of Qatar’s Gulf neighbors.
Doha claimed the report was the result of a hacking attack — but its Gulf neighbors responded nonetheless, particularly after the same comments were repeated in more than one language, on more than one outlet and at various times of the day in a manner which makes the story true and the hacking seem less likely. 
Was it a hacking attack? There seems to have been a simultaneous and obvious hack of QNA's Twitter account where they reported that Qatar had withdrawn its ambassadors to other Arab Gulf states, so there is a good possibility that this was a sophisticated and coordinated hack.

But practically every word attributed to Al Thani, accurately or not, is in fact true.

Sheikh Tamim also seems to have praised Iran, which even the previous US administration under President Obama labeled as the “biggest state sponsor of terror.”
The emir reportedly said: “There is no wisdom in harboring hostility toward Iran.”
Despite the emir allegedly saying that the relations with Israel are “good,” he went on to describe Hamas — which is designated as a terrorist organization by the US, EU and Israel and is condemned even by Arab countries for firing missiles toward civilians — as the “official representative of Palestinians.”
Despite this apparent endorsement of Hamas, the emir seems to have still refuted allegations of his country supporting terror. Yet many claim Doha supports both Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, which is designated a terrorist group by some fellow GCC countries.
The emir reportedly also criticized the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt for waging a campaign against Doha. All three countries are fierce critics of the Muslim Brotherhood. However, the emir seems to have not mentioned Saudi Arabia by name.
He did seem, however, to criticize what he described as “exaggerated” arms deals and said that countries should be spending such funds on development projects. That was an apparent attack on the recent enormous Saudi-US arms deals signed in Riyadh during President Trump’s visit.
The emir is said to have credited Al-Udeid Air Base, which houses the biggest US Air Force base in the region, with protecting Doha from some neighboring countries, without mentioning any names.
Whether the comments attributed to the emir are real or not, much of it reflects what was previously being reported by Qatari media outlets attacking Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain.
 I don't think Qatar ever officially supported Hamas to the degree of calling it the official representative of Palestinians - but it might believe that. Qatar has almost alone poured huge amounts of money into the terror group. Hamas' "political head" lives in Qatar.  Qatar also has hosted Hamas conferences, including one earlier this month where Qatar helped Hamas try to rehabilitate its image with its new "political document" that didn't change its positions.

And, Qatar has surprisingly good relations with Israel in cooperating with the Jewish state to provide building materials and aid to Gazans, a far higher amount of visible cooperation than other Gulf states.

 Qatar maintains strong ties with Iran as well.

While QNA may indeed have been hacked, much of the "news" it reported fairly accurately reflected Qatari policy.

The real news story isn't the hack. It is the Arab reaction. And that reaction shows that the Palestinian terror groups have lost much of their appeal to the Arab nations that used to fund them all generously.

The reactions from the other Gulf states to the incident show that the rest of the Arab world is far more upset over statements of support of Hamas than of statements of "good relations" with Israel!





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This caption of a Getty Images/AFP photo in the New York Times site seems to have been written by the NYT, not Getty":


Israeli police removed a peace activist from outside the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem’s Old City on Wednesday during a demonstration by far-right Israelis. Credit Ahmad Gharabli/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The "peace activists" were members of far-left, anti-Israel groups like IfNotNow and one literally called "All That's Left."

These groups, in order to accommodate the most extreme anti-Israel voices while pretending to be Jewish, explicitly say that they have no position on whether Israel has a right to exist to begin with. .

The "demonstration by far-right Israelis" was the annual Jerusalem Flag March, attended by tens of thousands of normal Israelis every year.

Here they are at Damascus Gate, where the "peace protesters" were trying to stop them by linking arms across the gate, the reason the police removed them..


There sure are a lot of "right wing Israelis":


The New York Times is saying that people who oppose Jerusalem being a united city are "peace activists" while those who march with Israeli flags in its capital are "far right Israelis."

That, my friends, is the type of bias that the mainstream media has against Israel.

UPDATE: Tamar Sternthal of CAMERA tells me that the caption came from AFP:





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Wednesday, May 24, 2017

  • Wednesday, May 24, 2017
  • Elder of Ziyon
This is a brand new video from KeepJerusalem.org.




Here's a graphic from their site.



(h/t Shraga)






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From Ian:

Douglas Murray: Islamists are very clear about what they want – we just aren’t listening
Theresa May and other politicians stress we will never give in. And they are right to do so. But beneath the defiance lie deep, and deeply unanswered, questions. Questions which publics across Europe are increasingly dwelling on, but which their political representatives dare not acknowledge.
Exactly a year ago, Greater Manchester Police staged a carefully prepared mock terrorist attack in the city’s shopping centre to test response capabilities. At one stage an actor playing a suicide bomber burst through a doorway and detonated a fake device while shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ (‘Allah is Greatest’). The intention, obviously, was to make the scenario realistic. But the use of the jihadists’ signature sign-off sent social media into a spin. Soon community spokesmen were complaining on the media. One went on Sky to talk about the need ‘to have a bit of religious and cultural context when they’re doing training like this in a wider setting about the possible implications’.
Assistant Chief Constable Garry Shewan was hauled before the press. ‘On reflection,’ he admitted, ‘we acknowledge that it was unacceptable to use this religious phrase immediately before the mock suicide bombing, which so vocally linked this exercise with Islam. We recognise and apologise for the offence that this has caused.’ Greater Manchester’s police and crime commissioner, Tony Lloyd, followed up: ‘It is frustrating the operation has been marred by the ill-judged, unnecessary and unacceptable decision by organisers to have those playing the parts of terrorists to shout “Allahu Akbar” before setting off their fake bombs. It didn’t add anything to the event, but has the potential to undermine the great community relations we have in Greater Manchester.’ Perhaps when the blood has been cleared from the pavements of Manchester, someone could ask how many lives such excruciating societal stupidity – from pulpit to police force – has saved, or ever will save?
In Piccadilly Gardens, at lunchtime on the day after the attacks, crowds of people listened to a busker play the usual post-massacre playlist: ‘All You Need is Love’ and ‘Everything’s Gonna Be Alright.’ But just like the renditions of ‘Imagine’, the buskers are wrong. We need to do more than imagine. We need more than love. Everything is not all right. We need to address this problem, and start at the roots. Otherwise, our societies will continue to be caught between people who mean what they say and a society which won’t even listen. And so they’ll keep meeting, these two worlds.
On Monday night, Ariana Grande was in her traditional suspenders, singing: ‘Don’t need permission / Made my decision to test my limits / ’Cause it’s my business, God as my witness… / I’m locked and loaded / Completely focused.’ Outside, waiting, was someone who was really focused. It is time we made some effort to focus, too.
How can you claim to fight jihad while promoting the PLO?
How can we fight jihad in the West while spending our entire diplomatic capital on creating a state for the trailblazers of that jihad? How can we reward jihadists for their supremacist ideology? When the president talks about making “a deal,” that means creating a Jew-free state in Judea (the irony!), where Jews must be uprooted from their homes and their cemeteries disinterred (this was done during the Gaza pullout). At the same time, Arabs would still be allowed to live in the remaining microscopic Israel. In fact, the reason there are demographic issues in the so-called West Bank in the first place is because every time Arabs illegally occupied it, they killed or expelled all the Jews. Yet when Jews liberated it, they didn’t return the favor. Thus they had to start from zero every time. Why should we reward the evil supremacist ideology by allowing them to achieve the fruits of their supremacism?
President Trump is definitely in a better place than the past president when it comes to identifying the evil losers. But until he turns to Abbas and the PLO leadership and calls them evil losers, he will continue promoting willful blindness towards the actual evil we are fighting. It’s not too late for him to abandon the mistakes of the first few months and finally stick a fork in the PLO jihad. That would drain the ultimate swamp championed and idolized by the worst elements of the American and global political establishment.
Col Kemp: Manchester bombing attack on the innocent MUST be the final straw in battle against terror
The government must make MI5’s job easier, by reducing the number of terrorist suspects in this country.
All non-British citizens involved in extremism must be deported – that includes those preaching, financing, supporting or preparing for terrorism. Dual citizens must be stripped of British citizenship and deported.
Those who leave the UK to murder, rape and torture with the Islamic State or other jihadist groups must not be allowed to return. They are the most dangerous – blooded in battle and trained in sophisticated acts of mass violence.
Internment must be seriously considered for British citizens who cannot be deported or prosecuted yet intelligence shows are involved in terrorism.
These are draconian measures and they may well infringe the human rights of terrorists. But better that than to leave them free to violently deprive innocent British men, women and children of their lives.
How many more scenes of carnage on our streets must we endure, with teenage boys and girls ripped apart by explosives and shrapnel designed to cause maximum death, wounding and disfigurement, before we take serious action?


A negotiation is supposed to be about two sides compromising, each side giving up, giving in, giving something, until both sides come to a place of agreement, to that all important state of, "I can live with that."

So when is a negotiation not a negotiation? When it's between Israel and the PA. They, the PA, never give anything. The most they do is heap scorn on Israel for its offerings, deemed paltry by the PA.

Trump asked Bibi to come up with some goodwill gestures in the run up to president's trip to the Middle East. The Prime Minister came up with a package that includes the 24-hour operation of the Allenby Border Crossing through September, the development of the industrial zone in Tarkumiya, and building permits for homes in Area C.

And of course, Ahmad Majdalani, a close friend of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, immediately pronounced these gestures, "meaningless."

“This is an attempt to beautify and market the occupation,” Majdalani told The Jerusalem Post. “We need to end the occupation and realize the two-state solution—these minimal measures do not do that.”

Now, the funny thing here (funny=ironic, not funny=ha ha), is that Bibi also promised the people of Amona that he would build them homes in Area C. That was why they, with broken hearts, agreed to leave their homes, to let their homes be destroyed. They didn't want to fight the government. 

To add insult to injury, this many policemen were brought for the Amona evacuation, though the people had already agreed to leave. 


But the government didn't keep its side of the bargain. For four months now, since February, the people of Amona have lived in a school dormitory, parents sharing crowded rooms with children. There's no privacy. It's no way to raise a family, be a family.

Nothing has been built for the Jews of Amona. The entire project has been stalled, predictably bogged down in bureaucracy.

This dormitory is sterile. It's no substitute for the beautiful homes the people of Amona were forced to leave.

But you better believe it, when Bibi says he'll build homes for Arabs in Area C, it will get done. And the entire time, Majdalani and others of his ilk will be denigrating these gestures, calling all this bounty "meaningless."

He'll spit on our gesture while the people of Amona try to get on with their lives, waking up each morning to the reality of being homeless from inside a school dormitory, after having their homes destroyed by the government, their faith in the government destroyed due to promises unmet.

Life in a dormitory for a family in Amona means living out of boxes and bags in cramped conditions.

All they can think about, dream about, the people of Amona, are those homes Bibi promised to build them in Area C. Why then, does Majdalani call these free homes built for his people, this economic goodwill package "meaningless?"

Because the Arabs don't dream of homes and they don't want to develop anything. They don't have an economy and that's by design. They want one thing only: they want the Jews gone.

And while this is all that resides in their hearts, the deep desire to get rid of the Jews, Bibi is going to give them all these things they don't want and don't care about, while the people of Amona have nothing.


Did Bibi lie to the people of Amona? Or did he just not try hard enough to fulfill his promises to them?

Does it matter? The feelings of betrayal run deep in the people of Amona. And when the people of Amona see those houses go up for Arabs who call them "meaningless," how is that supposed to make them feel?

The people of Amona negotiated in good faith. Not because they wanted to, but because they were given no choice. They left peaceably, agreed to the temporary housing in exchange for permanent housing, which should have already materialized and has not.
Dinner in a dormitory for one family in Amona. It's just not right.

But unlike the Jews of Amona, unlike the Israeli government, the Arabs do not negotiate. They simply take what we give them and denounce it. And then encourage their people to kill us in the streets of our homeland.

Bibi didn't dangle a prize before the PA, he gave them a prize. But the Arabs don't want prizes. Offering them economic incentives? Waste of time.

The Arabs' sole goal is to kick the Jews out, not to bring home any prizes. They aren't looking for prizes. They want the Jews OUT.
No closets or drawers for the people of Amona. Where would they put them?
And in fact, this whole thing smells. The Israeli government offering homes, industrial complexes, and commercial development to the PA in Area C, just as they made the more modest promise of homes for the people of Amona. Only in the latter case, to their own people, they lied.

You will see how quickly those "meaningless" homes go up for the Arabs. While the people of Amona? Who knows how long they'll languish, crowded on top of each other in dormitories. Because now that they left and their homes are destroyed, no one much cares what happens to them. The main thing was getting them out, getting their homes torn down.

Children of Amona live, sleep, eat, pray, and play in a cramped dorm room, because what Bibi promised did not happen.

Because Arabs.

These two stories are not new stories. What we've seen with Amona, we saw with Gush Katif. And Majdalani, too, said that the government's goodwill package isn't novel.

“We are familiar with these measures,” said Majdalani. “They were announced on other occasions in the past and did not succeed to lead to the end of the occupation.”

He's right about that. None of what we gave the Arabs ended their infernal occupation of our homeland.

Nothing we give them will do that.


h/t Dov Epstein for contributing his thoughts to this one


(Photo credits: Shannon Nuszen)



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suicide bomber vestJerusalem, May 24 - The Joint List alliance of mostly-Arab parties in the Knesset issued its condemnation of Monday night's bombing outside a concert in Manchester, England, after ascertaining that the terrorist attack everyone was discussing was not aimed at Jews or Israel.

List chairman Ayman Odeh contact the British ambassador in Israel Tuesday morning to convey his condolences to the people of Britain, following extensive consultations with fact-checkers and communications personnel to determine that it was acceptable to issue such condolences, and that he would not, heaven forbid, thereby imply that it was a bad thing when Israelis are targeted for terrorism.

"In a conversation with David Quarrey, the Ambassador of Britain, I expressed my sincere condolences to the families of Manchester; Daesh are the enemies of all humanity," Odeh tweeted, noting to his staff that the conversation and tweet took place so many hours after the attack because it would not do to express such condolences to Jewish Israelis facing Palestinian terrorism.

"When a Palestinian resistance fighter sneaks into a Jewish teenager's room and slits her throat as she sleeps, we cannot be seen as condemning that without qualification, or even expressing condolences, let alone 'sincere' condolences," he explained. "It's a totally different situation from a Salafi jihadi strapping a bomb packed with nails to himself and detonating it outside an Arianna Grande concert where lots of kids were in attendance. That of course must not be confused with a heroic Palestinian resistance fighter doing the same thing at a cafe or night club full of Israelis, including children. So I had to make very sure the terrorist attack everyone was talking about in fact took place not in Israel, and not against Jews or Israelis, but Britain. That verification took some time, which is why it was only this morning that I was able to talk to the ambassador to offer unqualified sympathy."

Still, Odeh's message to Britain did not satisfy some members of his political alliance. "I saw no mention of Palestinian suffering under occupation," observed MK Haneen Zoabi. "Does our chairman wish to imply that there is a context in which bringing that up is out of place? I hope not. He must realize that the project of liberating the oppressed Palestinian people involves leveraging every single interaction to maintain awareness and centrality of the Palestinian cause, ad nauseam. We cannot do that if the world is distracted even for a few moments by such trivialities as the suffering of non-Palestinians."



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From Ian:

Israel Celebrates 50th Anniversary of the Reunification of Jerusalem
Israel on Wednesday celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the reunification of its capital city, Jerusalem.
Jerusalem was secured by Israeli forces on June 7, 1967, corresponding to the 28th day of the Jewish month of Iyar, after two days of fighting with Jordan.
In an account of the battle to retake Jerusalem, journalist Abraham Rabinovich wrote that when the Six Day War first broke out with Egypt, Israel had sent a message to Jordan’s King Hussein asking him not to join the fighting. But Hussein, who had entered into a defense pact with Egypt, instead chose to put his forces under the command of an Egyptian general.
Although Jordanian forces began firing against Israeli positions, Israel did not attack Jordan until Jordanian forces broke into Israeli-held western Jerusalem and that Radio Cairo reported that Mount Scopus — which remained in Israeli hands after the 1948 War of Independence —
was captured. While the report turned out to be false, it was seen by Israel as an expression of Egypt’s intent.
After two days of fighting, Israeli troops surrounded the Old City of Jerusalem, the last Arab position in the city. At 9 AM the following morning, the Israeli cabinet approved an operation to retake the Old City. Israeli forces entered through the Lion’s Gate and made their way to the Temple Mount, facing little resistance.
Yom Yerushalayim
Today Israel celebrates the reunification of Jerusalem on the 28th of Iyyar 5727 (June 7th 1967) after nineteen years of Jordanian occupation.
Among the buildings in the Old City of Jerusalem that were destroyed during the Jordanian occupation was the Hurva Synagogue.
“On May 27, 1948, Jordanian soldiers forced entry into the side of the 84-year old Hurva synagogue by detonating a 200-liter barrel of explosives. They came back and blew up the entire synagogue two days later. […]
Destroyed as described in the 1948 War of Independence, various reconstruction plans were shelved until the new millennium. Finally, followed the ruling of leading Halachist rabbi Shalom Elyashiv (1910-2012), it was rebuilt to its former design and magnificence.
Indeed, the keen observer should be able to trace where the original masonry is lovingly incorporated into the synagogue’s eastern wall.”
An American in war-torn Jerusalem witnesses the battle for the Temple Mount
Abraham Rabinovich is an American journalist and author of several books on recent Israeli history. The following is a firsthand account of his experiences in the battle for Jerusalem during the Six Day War.
The background murmur of news from the Middle East had suddenly taken on a different pitch. It was mid-May 1967; Egypt was moving its army into the Sinai desert, expelling UN peacekeepers and closing the Tiran Straits to Israel-bound shipping. I had started work a few months before at a new daily on Long Island. On the last Sunday in May, I drove out of New York City and spent an hour walking up and down a country road to think it through. Should I? Could I? What would happen if?
The next morning, I told my editor that I had decided to fly to Israel to witness whatever was going to happen. If it were possible to consider my absence as two-week annual leave, I said, I would appreciate it. He agreed, even though I had not been there long enough to be entitled to leave time. “Two weeks,” he said. “War or no war.”
On May 31 I flew to Tel Aviv on a two-week ticket. Apart from yeshiva students returning to studies, one of the few passengers on the plane was Mandy Rice-Davies, who had been involved four years before in the Profumo sex scandal that rocked the British government. She was married now to a Tel Aviv nightclub owner. A yeshiva student pointed her out to me and she agreed to a brief interview. When I asked whether she realized that she was flying to a country that might soon be at war, she replied with British pluck. “Yes. That’s where I should be. I live there now.”

  • Wednesday, May 24, 2017
  • Elder of Ziyon
The PFLP terror group in Gaza held a rally where they declared that they were not terrorists.



And what was happening on top of that truck?

They were simultaneously shooting, hanging, stabbing and beheading an effigy of the US President. While wearing masks.



They got a nice crowd, too.

Here's the full video:


(h/t Yoel)




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The terror attack in Manchester reminded me of a different attack. There too young people left their homes to have a good time and ended the night in the hospital, or worse. There too we saw parents frantically searching for their children, not knowing if they were dead or alive.

The attack in Manchester was one for the people of Britain, the attack in the Dolfinarium was one of many for the people of Israel. We’ve seen this happen again and again but for the children of Israel the world does not stop. Tears and prayers don’t help much but it is more than what the children of Israel receive. For some reason their lives, our lives, matter less.

While the media is focused on Manchester I want to tell you a story from Tel Aviv. From Manchester to Tel Aviv and back again we see that terror is terror.

On June 1, 2001 a Hamas terrorist walked into a Tel Aviv dance club and blew himself up murdering 21 young Israelis and injuring 132.

Jenya Dorfman was 15 years old.

The story below is not her story. 

Jenya’s story is that of a happy, dancing girl. A regular teenager.
This is the story of a pure gesture on night of horrors, the story of humanity and kindness on the deepest and most basic level.

From Manchester to Tel Aviv and back again we may not be able to prevent horror from entering our lives but we can choose to be like Faina and Frank.

The events of a single night created an unbreakable connection between Faina and Frank. Two people, from worlds apart, they would normally never have met but that night was no normal night. Their story is not that of a romance but it is a story of love. Theirs is a story of humanity and kindness on the deepest and most basic level.

It was a Friday night. Frank Eggmann, assistant to the Ambassador of Switzerland posted in Israel was in his room. Suddenly he heard the sound of an enormous explosion. A suicide bomber had blown himself up in the midst of a crowd of teenagers waiting to enter their favorite disco, the Dolfinarium.

Frank ran down the street to the Dolfinarium to see if he could help. He was witness to untold horrors. Youth blown to bits. Frank searched for someone he could help. Frank approached a boy who was lying on the ground but as he drew near he realized that the boy was dead; there was nothing Frank could do for him. A girl lying on the ground caught his eye. She was severely wounded, bleeding from a head injury. Frank knew he lacked the medical skills needed to assist Jenya so he did the only thing he could think of doing. He sat on the ground next to her and held her hand.
Meanwhile, Faina, Jenya’s mother, was at a birthday party. Jenya usually went with her to such events but Faina understood when her daughter said she’d rather go out with her friends that night. At the party Faina ate and talked with her friends. Faina never dreamt that at that very moment her beloved only child was on the ground, holding the hand of the assistant to the Ambassador of Switzerland as she lay dying.

Frank sat with Jenya while she bled. All he could do was be with her. Frank and Jenya were surrounded by ugliness and pain, screaming and blood, life pouring out on cement. The two of them, an island of prayer in a sea of madness.

That night one terrorist directed his life’s blood to killing children, to causing pain to as many people as possible. The terrorist sacrificed his humanity on the alter of hatred. Frank, in contrast, placed all of his humanity in the hand of a fifteen year old girl.

Faina did not have a good time at the party and she didn’t know why. She felt an enormous weight on her heart and she desperately wanted to go home. Someone told Faina that there had been an attack at the disco. At first she wasn’t worried but when Jenya did not answer her cell phone Faina started to become nervous. Friends drove Faina home; she prayed the whole way.

Faina hoped to find Jenya safely at home but the house was empty. A neighbor said that three wild-eyed and shaking teenagers had come looking for Faina, to say that Jenya was hurt and taken to the hospital. The hospital emergency phone lines were swamped so Faina did the only thing she could – she got a friend to take her to the hospital in search of her wounded child. It was probably hope that took Faina to Wolfson hospital where they treat the “mild” to “moderate” cases. Faina fought through a hellish scene of frantic families, friends, ambulances, police cars, sirens and shouting only to be given the terrifying news – Jenya was at Ichilov hospital, where the “serious” cases are taken. When Faina finally found her daughter, Jenya had already slipped into a coma. For 18 long days Jenya retained her fragile hold on life but while Faina was at her side all day, each day Jenya was already gone. Faina never got to talk to her beloved child again. Simply to hold Jenya’s hand and feel her squeezing her back would have meant the world to Faina.

The day after the attack Frank had scanned the papers for Jenya’s picture. He was pleased that he didn’t see her face amongst those of the dead children. Frank searched for her in the hospitals but didn’t find her. Something drove him on and on in his search. Frank went from hospital room to hospital room, visiting with the wounded and their families. Over one hundred teenagers were wounded in the attack and Frank saw most of them. Amongst so many faces and stories it was Jenya that was seared into his mind. Frank wanted very much to find her, to find her family.

Faina had heard that Frank had been at the scene of the attack and that he had done everything in his power to comfort a dying girl. Faina wanted desperately for it to have been Jenya. A mother had spent fifteen years raising her child, taking care of her, enjoying her personality, watching her dance and laugh and when her baby needed her she wasn’t there to protect her. With all her soul Faina yearned for there to have been someone there to make things a little less horrible for her precious child.

The day after the attack, a picture was published of Jenya with Frank next to her, holding her hand as she lay bleeding. Faina heard about the picture and wanted to see it so that she could find out if it was Jenya Frank had been with or not. There was great reluctance to send the picture, the organization that had it was afraid to further traumatize a bereaved mother by showing her such a difficult picture. It was five months before Faina saw the picture, before she discovered that it was Jenya’s hand that Frank held that night.


Frank had cut-out and kept the photo of him with Jenya. He wanted to find her mother and tell her about her daughter’s last moments.

When they finally met face to face, Frank told Faina everything he could remember about that night. Faina was grateful to hear the details, for her it was like extending Jenya’s life by a few extra moments.

It comforts Faina to know that Frank was with Jenya. A beautiful, dancing, pixie child like Jenya should never have had such violence and hatred directed at her. Thanks to Frank Jenya’s last experience was that of kindness and compassion, not horror. Etched into his heart and mind, Frank cannot forget Jenya and through her, Faina. The slaughter of innocents brought them together, kindness created a bond between them.

Two people from different cultures, with different languages and backgrounds, living on different continents, are connected by an unbreakable bond. No amount of time or distance will change this for it has nothing to do with the amount of contact or communication between them. Theirs is the bond of kindness, of a hand holding a hand in a night of terror. The purity of this gesture on a night of horrors tells the story of humanity and kindness on the deepest and most basic level. This gesture did not stop at Jenya, it was passed on, through her to Faina who became its beneficiary. The strength of this seemingly small gesture is that which is given by what some would call God and what I call Love. A child can be murdered but even a small act of Love lives on.





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