When speaking with liberal-minded folks about solutions to the Arab-Israeli conflict, including the recently revealed &#8220;Deal of the Century,&#8221; inevitably the question of Arab buy-in arises. “Will the Palestinians accept it?” is the oft-heard refrain.
While this may seem to be a pretty reasonable question, it actually reveals a fundamental lack of understanding of the Middle East.
Here is a true story involving one of my mentors, Dr. Mordechai Kedar. It helpfully illustrates Middle East thinking.
Kedar has crafted an alternative vision to the &#8220;two-state solution&#8221; that is called the “<a href="http://www.palestinianemirates.com/contact.html">emirates plan</a>.” He presented it to a well-known sheikh in Judea and Samaria (i.e., the “West Bank”). The sheikh listened attentively to Kedar and in the end, announced: “I like it. It is good for us. Now you will have to force it upon me.”
Why did the sheikh, who liked the plan and thought it was good for his people, say this strange phrase, “now you will have to force it upon me?”
For a knower of the Middle Eastern mind, the answer is obvious. No self-respecting Arab can publicly proclaim support for a plan that recognizes Israel a regional sovereign. It’s simply against a basic tenet of Islamic law: No non-Islamic entity may exercise jurisdiction over a landmass once controlled by Islam.
Moreover, there is Islam’s corollary: Arab nationalism. The jingoistic Arab world has tried to defeat Israel in numerous wars and attacks. They lost, and they know it — but the dream of Arab nationalism lives on in their hearts.
So, what the sheikh was saying to Kedar was: While I like your plan, please respect my honor and my need to avoid looking weak to my nation or disloyal to my religion by publicly surrendering to your plan. Help me save face by forcing your plan on me — that way I maintain my dignity and we can move forward together.
Israel is a small Jewish enclave within the massive, and predominantly Arab, Middle East. It is therefore important to understand the regional mindset. While in the West, seeking consent and acquiescence is a sign of respect, equality, and moral uprightness, in the Middle East that same attitude may be insensitive. Trying to elicit public Arab buy-in can inadvertently put Arabs in the uncomfortable position of having to openly repudiate their religion and their nationalism — even if they like the plan.
Ironically, we have arrived at a time where much of the Arab world is looking for an <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/historic-arab-states-welcome-trumps-israeli-palestinian-peace-plan">excuse to wind down</a> the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/fleisher-end-100-year-arab-israeli-war-yishai-fleisher">100-year war</a> against Israel, which, they realize is fruitless and continues only to their own detriment. Moreover, there is real pressure. The Egyptians fear both the ISIS presence in the Sinai and the threat of homegrown Muslim Brotherhood jihadis overthrowing the Sisi government. Even more urgently, the threat of Iran is very real for the Saudis, who are facing Shiite incursions on all of their borders. As strange as it sounds, today both Egypt and Saudi Arabia desperately need Israel for their own security reasons.
However, while these Arab countries feel pressure to line up with Israel to defend their strategic positions, as leaders of Arab nationalism and authentic Islam, they still need to publicly save face.
That is why the Trump plan smartly kept the &#8220;two-state solution&#8221; on the table so that Arab states could pay lip service to the creation of a Palestine. This allowed Arab representatives to sit at the White House in their traditional robes as the deal was being unveiled. Yet the real effect of Arab states accepting the tenets of the deal was not the creation of an independent Palestine at all. Rather, it was the recognition of Israel as a legitimate Jewish entity in the Middle East — with its capital in Jerusalem and with rights in Judea and Samaria.
Shocking! And with regard to Palestine, the Arab states heard and acquiesced to the call on Palestinians to disarm, to stop paying for terror, to stop incitement — to basically give up the war with Israel. This was truly revolutionary. By agreeing to an Israel in the &#8220;West Bank&#8221; and also a defanged Palestine, the Arab states, quietly and without public pronouncement, essentially agreed to an end of hostilities with the Jewish state.
The Palestinian leadership, naturally, is up in arms. But it is not only their former Sunni Arab state allies who have turned their backs on them — it is also the proverbial Arab street. Many “West Bank” Arabs are tired of the pointless war with Israel and are tired of the corrupt Palestinian Authority. It is for this reason that there have barely been any protests against the &#8220;Deal of the Century&#8221; — just as there was a muted reaction to the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital by the Trump administration.
Yet, while many Arabs want to end hostilities, it is a mistake to pine for public Arab buy-in. Israel is anathema to both their Arab nationalism and a core tenet of Islam — and if they must swallow the existence of Israel, they prefer it play out as coercion, or at least a gradual and quiet acceptance rather than voluntary proclamations of &#8220;peace in our time.&#8221; In the end, helping the Arab world transition from war to cooperation is a delicate task and it will surely benefit Israel. But the Muslim world, which is hungry for prosperity, modernity, and reform, stands to gain even more.
Yishai Fleisher is the International Spokesman for the Jewish Community of Hebron.

Israel map

FLEISHER: The Myth Of Arab Buy-In

Egypt

Islam

Islamic State (ISIS)

Israel

Palestinians

Radical Islam

Radical Islamic Terror

Saudi Arabia

The recent attack on Saudi Arabian oil is a watershed moment in the Middle East balance of power. It is also an opportunity.
It is yet unclear what exactly happened. A combination of drones and missiles coming directly from Iran or from their associates — the Houth rebels in Yemen — struck at the Khurais oil field and the al-Abqaiq facility, Saudi Arabia’s largest oil processing plant. The strike may have knocked out potentially half of the Saudi oil production, and has already affected global crude oil prices.
Sword Dancing is Not Enough
The danger of the Persian war machine, about which Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and former U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton have repeatedly warned, is once again rearing its ugly head. No longer content with small attacks against Israel from proxies in Gaza and Southern Lebanon, Iran is now brazenly striking the strategic installations of its most hated foe — Saudi Arabia.
The greatest ire of Iran’s Shiite leaders is not reserved for the Jewish state. Rather, the mullahs crave control of the Arabian peninsula&#8217;s Muslim holy cities of Mecca and Medina in order to prove that their interpretation of Islam has Allah’s mandate. The Sunni House of Saud is thus the Iranian mullahs&#8217; ultimate target.
Indeed, the Saudis know all too well how serious the Iranian threat is — and they understand the brilliant way in which Iran has learned to use proxies like Hamas and Hezbollah against Israel. Now, with the southern tip of the Arabian peninsula being infiltrated by the Houthis, the Saudis feel the Iranian noose tightening around their necks. And while the Saudis are the world’s third largest military spenders and are pretty good at doing the proverbial sword dance with dignitaries, the truth is that the Kingdom is just not that good at actually fighting.
Filling the American Power Vacuum
For years, the American defense umbrella has been the real protection of the Saudi kingdom. The deal was straightforward: The Saudis provide steady oil and buy expensive military hardware and America provides defense. But now things are changing. America’s shale oil revolution has transformed the U.S. into a leading oil producer and, consequently, Saudi oil reserves are simply less critical to the U.S. than they have been in the past. Coupled with the Trump administration’s &#8220;America First&#8221; mantra and a concomitant disinclination to be the world’s police force, a reality has emerged in which U.S. forces may be less likely to come to Saudi aid.
For the Saudis, Kuwaitis, Emiratis, and denizens of other smaller Sunni states, the Iranian attack on the Saudi oil installations — and the thus-far weak American response — is a harbinger of a horrific and not-so-distant future. If left unchecked, it could mean a historic change in the regional balance of power with the aggressive Shiite movement overshadowing historic Sunni regional domination.
The West, the Sunni Arab states, and Israel cannot allow Iran to fill the regional power vacuum that may be left in America’s wake. The solution to the crisis may be an Israeli defense umbrella.
Israel is the natural candidate to become the regional power broker, peacekeeper, and defense provider for Saudi Arabia and the Sunni states. Israel has the intelligence capability, the firepower, the air force, and even the naval capacity to contain the Iranian regime and help maintain a healthy regional balance.
Instead of the U.S. global policing model, Israel would take its place locally as a regional power that is closely allied with the U.S.
A Change in Arab Thinking
To achieve an Israeli defense umbrella, the Saudis are going to have to swallow their religious and nationalistic pride and accept the Jews as, well, their de facto saviors.
This is not such a stretch, since the House of Saud was able to stomach American (Christian) military defense. Israeli (Jewish) power may therefore not be all that different. Moreover, Israel is a better bet for Saudi defense, considering that it is closer and more nimble in dealing with Iran.
The change in Saudi attitudes toward Israel, furthermore, is already taking place with bloggers and broadcasters making overt comments of acceptance towards the Jewish state.
A Change in Jewish Thinking
Israel has long self-identified as a small, defensive minority in the Middle East. The Jewish state would have to mentally adjust to a more robust and muscular disposition in order for regional realignment to work.
Israel possesses the military might and has already engaged Iran in various ways, including bombings of secret Iranian weapons shipments to Syria. However, the mindset of the big boy on the block — the regional leader, the keeper of the peace — is not yet fully developed in Israel.
The Cost of Israeli Protection
Israel has a self-interest in pushing Iran back. But still, saving the House of Saud is not a foregone conclusion. If Israel is to spread its defense umbrella over the Sunni states, it should demand payment in kind.
The price for Israeli protection? Getting rid of the Palestinian-Arab problem.
The Saudis must commit to ending support for the &#8220;two-state solution,&#8221; which calls for an independent Palestinian-Arab state on Jewish land. Among other alternatives, the Saudis can force their own Jordanian Hashemite family to give back to Palestinians the Jordanian citizenship that was taken away from them in 1988 by Jordan&#8217;s King Abdullah. Under this approach, Palestinians can continue to live in the Israeli territories as Israeli residents, but would exercise their right to vote in the nearby Jordanian kingdom.
And obviously, if the Saudis want Israeli defense, they must dry up all remaining funding for jihadist education throughout the Arab world and abroad.
In the end, an Israeli defense umbrella would allow for steady oil flow, would mitigate the Iranian threat, and would lead to a Middle East that is more stable, more prosperous, and more cooperative. However, the Arabs, the Jews, and the Americans alike would have to break out of calcified notions of the past in order to make room for an advantageous regional realignment of the future.
Yishai Fleisher is the International Spokesman for the Jewish Community of Hebron.

MBS Saudi Arabia

FLEISHER: The Much-Needed Israeli Defense Umbrella

Foreign Policy

Iran

Middle East

“Peace to Prosperity” was the name of the economic “workshop” organized by Jared Kushner, Jason Greenblatt and Steven Mnuchin in Bahrain. The topic was bettering the Palestinian economy with the hope of creating a more congenial atmosphere for co-existence between Israel and the Palestinian-Arabs living in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) and Gaza.
The event was plush, with Gulf Arabs dressed in pristine white tunics and <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/.premium-in-bahrain-air-of-israeli-arab-normalization-and-a-message-to-iran-1.7410754">where</a> “Israeli and Arab businessmen openly mingled at the non-alcoholic cocktail parties.&#8221; Fortune magazine <a href="https://fortune.com/2019/06/30/bahrain-summit-middle-east/">described</a> the global gathering: “Over 300 top delegates came from 30 countries, from Australia and Argentina; Dubai and Delhi; Nigeria and Norway; and even such unlikely pairings as Saudi Arabia and Qatar or Greece and Turkey.”
Almost all observers agreed that there was hope in the air.
Palestinians Are Not Buying What Jared Kushner Is Selling
However, while some Palestinian-Arab business leaders did come to Bahrain, the Palestinian Authority (PA) boycotted the event, and Time magazine summarized their feeling with the <a href="https://time.com/5617713/kushner-deal-century-manama-palestinians/">headline</a>: “Palestinians Are Not Buying What Jared Kushner Is Selling.”
Indeed, judging by the lack of progress in actual Israeli-Palestinian relations, the conference was an ostensible failure. But, as is often true in the Middle East, there was an unspoken agenda at the Bahrain “workshop” — and seen by that light, the gathering was a monumental success.
The Subtext of Bahrain: Normalization of Israel
While the Palestinian-Israeli conflict was the context of the Bahrain gathering, the subtext, and maybe bigger story, was the normalization of Israel among the elites of the Arab states.
First, there was the welcoming atmosphere for all participants, which should not be taken for granted since Israelis, until very recently, were barred from entering Bahrain at all.
Then, Bahraini Foreign Minister Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/bahrain-fm-to-times-of-israel-israel-is-here-to-stay-and-we-want-peace-with-it/">spoke</a> with Israeli press on the sidelines of the workshop and told them: “Israel is a country in the region &#8230; and it’s there to stay, of course &#8230; we want better relations with it, and we want peace with it.”
Later, in a classic Middle East double-speak, the same Al Khalifa, when talking with the Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya news channel <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/bahrains-khalifa-says-interviews-to-israelis-nowhere-near-normalization/">said</a>: “There are those who say this is normalization. This is not normalization. This is not even a step toward normalization.”
But it was too late: The normalization cat was out of the bag.
Tracks for Regional Peace in Abu Dhabi 
The Bahrain workshop was soon followed by yet another high-level meeting between Israeli officials and Gulf state leaders. Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz took part in a U.N. climate conference in Abu Dhabi and met with an unnamed “senior U.A.E. official” to discuss “regional issues and relations between the countries” — a victory in and of itself, given that Israel and the U.A.E. do not maintain formal diplomatic ties.
The meeting focused on “the need to deal with the Iranian threat and Iran’s support for terrorism in the region.” The two officials also discussed cooperation and economic ties, and finally, Katz presented his “Tracks for Regional Peace” initiative — a proposal to link Israel’s rail network through Jordan to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states.
If accepted, the plan would open up the region for travel, give Arab states access to Israel’s Mediterranean ports, and grant Israel trade access to the Arab world.
The message out of Abu Dhabi was the same as the one out of Bahrain — Israel’s normalization in Arab eyes.
The End of the 100-Year War
The Arab world has been fighting against the existence of a Jewish State since the British empire in 1917 issued the famous Balfour Declaration, which stated that &#8220;His Majesty&#8217;s government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.&#8221;
In the failed hopes of destroying the small Jewish State, many wars have been fought and much blood has been spilled in the last century. But today, there are three reasons why powerful Arab states are looking to bury the hatchet with the people they attempted to destroy not so long ago:
The first reason is the grudging recognition that Israel has simply been victorious. The Arabs have failed to destroy Israel, and the Jewish State is flourishing in almost every parameter, successfully settling its people on the land that it claims.
The second reason is connected to the first — “if you can&#8217;t beat &#8217;em, join &#8217;em.” Many Arabs have begun realizing that since the war against the Jews hasn&#8217;t brought any real results, except regional stagnation, they ought to shift gears out of war and into business and prosperity.
And the third — and most visceral — reason that Arabs states are looking favorably upon Israel is the Iranian threat.
Everyone knows Iran endangers Israel, but Shiite Iran is much hungrier to take over the lands of the Sunni Arabs and the holy cities Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia than it is to enter into a nuclear standoff with the Jewish State. For a long time, Gulf Arabs relied on the U.S. for defense, but now, with a sense that America is less interested in being their bodyguard, the Arab eyes are, ironically, looking to the military power of Israel for their protection. The enemy of my enemy, as it is said, is my friend.
For many Arabs, it is obvious that the century-long war against Israel has yielded nothing. So instead of the war and the resulting stagnation, regional prosperity is the new focus. Additionally, the only regional force that can contain the aggressiveness of Iran is Israel.
Therefore, regional realignment and the normalization of Israel is now in the Arab world&#8217;s collective interest.
Those Who Never Miss an Opportunity
Israel’s former representative at the U.N., Abba Eban, said years ago that “the Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity,” and Bahrain workshop was no different.
The PA boycotted the event, threatened anyone who would support it, and heartlessly refused to discuss a $50 billion plan to alleviate the suffering of its own governed people.
For the PA/PLO and Hamas, war with Israel is their raison d&#8217;etre — and a key fundraising strategy from patrons like Qatar, Iran, and some European countries who pay for the continued war on Israel in the guise of “humanitarian” assistance.
But for many Arabs states, the Palestinians have become a group who stands between them and normalization with Israel — something which would give them regional prosperity and personal security — and the end of the failed 100-year war.
Yishai Fleisher is the International Spokesman of the Jewish community of Hebron and an Israeli broadcaster.

FLEISHER: The End Of The 100-Year Arab-Israeli War

Jared Kushner

Qatar

Steve Mnuchin

A few weeks ago, the leaders of the Jewish community of Hebron, Israel got an invitation to an Iftar celebration &#8212; the traditional Muslim nightly feast at the end of each day of the month-long Ramadan daytime fast &#8212; in the Jabari section of Arab-run Hebron. The location was not surprising to us since we have been working for years with the host, Sheikh Ashraf Jabari, a businessman, and a local clan chieftain. Many groups that have come to see the Jewish section of Hebron have also been brought to Sheikh Jabari&#8217;s house to learn about Arab-Jewish cooperation.
However, attending the first fully catered Kosher Iftar meal honoring Jewish guests in Arab Hebron was definitely an exciting proposal.
A Small-Time Terrorist Repents
As we approached the Jabari house for the Iftar, we could tell that the atmosphere was going to be festive. Yet one thing was glaring: This event was super-secured &#8212; not by a team of Israeli sharpshooters, but by dozens of Jabari&#8217;s Arab private security guards.
And there was good reason to be cautious. A few years back, another Hebron Arab, Muhammad Jabber, went out on a limb for peace and suffered as a result. Jabber (not to be confused with Jabari) was once a small-time terrorist identified with Hamas. He had planned an operation to blow up soldiers in the southern Israeli city of Be&#8217;er Sheva but was caught before it was implemented. In Israeli prison, Jabber began to have doubts about how evil Israel really was. He saw the treatment of his fellow inmates and then later, after his release, he witnessed the decency with which Israeli soldiers treated Palestinian-Arab children. This was not the Israeli devil he had been taught to hate for so long.
Jabber&#8217;s world-view began to change, and so did his religion. In prison, he became an Ahmadiyyan, adhering to a more moderate sect of Islam, and began to preach a doctrine of tolerance towards Israel and Jews. He ultimately went public with his views on <a href="https://www.mako.co.il/news-israel/local-q3_2017/Article-4e51645dfd07d51004.htm">Israeli TV</a> and began hosting visiting groups of Jews and non-Jews at his house.
The Fateful Tweet&#8203;
During Ramadan two years ago, an Israeli parliamentarian, Rabbi Yehuda Glick, came to break bread with Jabber at his Iftar meal. The two posed for a &#8220;selfie&#8221;, and Glick <a href="https://twitter.com/yehudahglick/status/904271442782679041">posted</a> it to his Twitter feed, where it was widely retweeted and even covered in the press. Yet soon after the happy gathering, Jabber was ominously summoned by the Palestinian Authority (PA) for a &#8220;talk.&#8221; He arrived at the PA offices in Hebron and was immediately arrested. Apparently, the photo of Glick and Jabber at the Iftar was the last straw for the PA.
The charge against Jabber? Acting against the Palestinian-Arab national interest.
Jabber was taken to <a href="https://www.srugim.co.il/214187-&#1488;&#1497;&#1512;&#1495;-&#1488;&#1514;-&#1495;&#1489;&#1512;-&#1492;&#1499;&#1504;&#1505;&#1514;-&#1497;&#1492;&#1493;&#1491;&#1492;-&#1490;&#1500;&#1497;&#1511;-&#1493;&#1504;&#1506;&#1510;&#1512;">prison</a> in Jericho. We at the Jewish community of Hebron, along with Rabbi Glick, immediately sprung to action to help free him. We reached out to the TV station that covered his story, but they were not interested. We called the Israeli military governor who is in touch with the Palestinian-Arab police &#8212; nothing. We contacted the U.S. ambassador and he certainly tried. But no one seemed able to get Jabber out of the PA jail in which he sat for the mere &#8220;crime&#8221; of being not-anti-Israel.
Meanwhile, the &#8220;two-state solution&#8221; cartel was totally indifferent to Muhammad Jabber&#8217;s plight.
Finally, after 40 days, Jabber was released from PA jail. But he wouldn&#8217;t talk. He had been publicly humiliated &#8212; the PA barred him from working in Hebron, his children were told that their father was a cursed collaborator, and there were rumors that he had been tortured while in Jericho prison. Jabber no longer hosts any groups, &#8212; he lays low now. He and any Hebron Arab who harbor pro-Israel sentiments got the message loud and clear: Tolerance will not be tolerated and there will be no joint Iftars with the Jews.
The Great-Grandson of an Arab Nazi
Yet here we were still going to a Kosher Iftar in Hebron. Unlike Jabber, Sheikh Jabari can be openly pro-Israel. Commanding a clan of forty-thousand &#8212; he does not feel himself beholden to the PA. The event at his house was even co-hosted by the &#8220;settlers&#8221; &#8212; the <a href="https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Grassroots-partnership-aims-to-boost-Israeli-Palestinian-business-ties-581260">Judea and Samaria Chamber of Commerce and Industry</a>, a joint Israeli-Palestinian group working to strengthen economic ties between Palestinian-Arabs and Jews in Judea and Samaria (i.e., the &#8220;West Bank&#8221;). Jabari is a founding member.
The Jerusalem Post, who had a reporter present, <a href="https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Eying-Trump-Palestinians-settlers-hold-kosher-Hebron-Iftar-celebration-589679">quoted</a> Jabari&#8217;s talk at the historic Iftar: &#8220;This meal is meant to reinforce the growing trend in which economic/business connections can strengthen relations and friendship, by way of leading people to a more positive place. Breaking the fast together, at a joint meal in the city of Hebron, clearly symbolizes our ability to bridge any type of gaps.&#8221;
And Jabari was not alone in his belief. One of the notable Palestinian-Arab representatives at the dinner was <a href="https://twitter.com/YishaiFleisher/status/1128025220533706752">Khaldun Husseini</a>, whose great-grandfather, the notorious <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amin_al-Husseini#Ties_with_the_Axis_Powers_during_World_War_II">Nazi collaborator</a> Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin el Husseini, spurred the infamous 1929 jihadist riot in Hebron in which 67 Jews were slaughtered and the Jewish presence in Hebron was ended until 1967.
But Khaldun told me he wants no part in his great-grandfather&#8217;s dark infamy &#8212; he wants a healthy, normal life, good business, and good relations with Israel.
The Progressives&#8217; War on Peace
At the end of the evening, we gathered for a group photo. Uri Karzen, the director general of the Jewish community of Hebron, <a href="https://twitter.com/UriKarzen/status/1128047363132620800">tweeted</a> the picture along with words: &#8220;First #Iftar in #Hebron with Kosher food. We are laying the groundwork for peace between people and economic prosperity for all.&#8221;
Within a few hours, this tweet was retweeted by Jason Greenblatt, President Trump&#8217;s Middle East-centric special representative for international negotiations, <a href="https://twitter.com/jdgreenblatt45/status/1128369965986402304">who added</a>: &#8220;Groundwork for peace indeed! A wonderful example of what could be possible.&#8221;
Beautiful stuff, right? &#8220;Settlers&#8221; and Palestinian-Arabs breaking bread and working for a better future &#8212; you would think that the whole pro-peace camp would be smiling and cheering us on.
Nope. The Palestinian Authority junta and its &#8220;liberal&#8221; supporters had a different take altogether. The story of the Kosher Iftar threatened a pillar of their narrative: That the religious &#8220;settlers&#8221; are irredeemably violent and bigoted against Arabs &#8212; and that the only way forward is to extract the Jews from Judea and Samaria to enable a &#8220;two-state solution.&#8221;
And so the hard-Left immediately set out to delegitimize the Kosher Iftar and the American support of it.
First, Yehuda Shaul, co-founder of the controversial far-left Breaking the Silence NGO, opined in the UK&#8217;s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/may/17/trumps-deal-century-peace-israel-palestine">Guardian</a>: &#8220;Though Greenblatt uses a joint settler-Palestinian iftar to claim that we are on our path towards peace, that is meaningless when Palestinians still cannot walk on major roads in their biggest West Bank city.&#8221;
Then, Issa Amro, the founder of Youth Against Settlements, and a darling of the Left, railed in the <a href="https://forward.com/opinion/424522/theres-no-such-thing-as-coexistence-between-unequals/">Forward</a>: &#8220;This explains Greenblatt&#8217;s tweet. Trump, his son-in-law Jared Kushner, and Greenblatt are looking for any Palestinian willing to accept their Peace Plan, devoid as it is of human rights.&#8221;
Accepting an Invitation to Bahrain
On the 22nd of May, the Associated Press (AP) published an <a href="https://www.apnews.com/85db45e9fdee4bd9aaa369ebc94b6fca">article</a> featuring a picture of Jabari and Ambassador David Friedman entitled, &#8220;Rejecting taboos, Palestinian businessman welcomes US plan&#8221;
Indeed, Ashraf Jabari is the only Palestinian-Arab to have accepted the Trump administration&#8217;s invitation to an economic summit in Bahrain &#8212; and while Jabari will attend merely as a Palestinian-Arab business leader &#8212; he has crossed the PA, which has rejected any overtures from the Trump administration and has refused to attend the summit.
In the same article, Ahmed Majdalani, a senior PA official, speaking about Jabari, said that any Palestinian-Arab who participates in the Bahrain conference &#8220;is no more than a collaborator for the Americans and Israel.&#8221;
In the Middle East, a &#8220;collaborator&#8221; is a traitor &#8212; and a traitor won&#8217;t last long. Indeed, one of the sheikh&#8217;s assistants told me that known terrorists have called to tell Jabari he&#8217;s a dead man.
In contrast, Greenblatt <a href="https://twitter.com/jdgreenblatt45/status/1131614188734963712">tweeted</a> out the AP article along with hopeful words: &#8220;Thank you Ashraf Jabari for your open-minded approach to our upcoming econ workshop. Couldn&#8217;t agree more w you: &#8216;What have we gained from bloodshed &amp; separation? Nothing&#8230;We need to look at what went wrong &amp; do something different so we can make it right.&#8217;&#8221;
Not Your Grandpa&#8217;s Hebron
The ancient city of Hebron is at a crossroads. While the pro-peace camp rails against efforts at normalization, and the PA bullies anyone who tries it, there are thousands of people in the city, Jews and Arabs alike, who are seeking new leaders and a new path.
At the Iftar, speaker after speaker made the point that Hebron is home to the Tomb of the Biblical Patriarchs and Matriarchs, which includes the tomb of Abraham. The Bible records how Abraham was buried by his two sons together &#8212; Isaac and Ishmael, and how the two brothers were able to make peace, despite years of tension over the inheritance of Abraham&#8217;s birthright. If Jews and Arabs can come together to honor their joint father, then maybe Hebron, a place of tension and conflict, can be the place where a brighter future can be created for the next generation.
Or at least it can be a place where common ground can be found &#8212; even if only at a Kosher Iftar.

Yishai Fleisher is the International Spokesman for the Jewish Community of Hebron.

FLEISHER: The Fascinating First-Person Tale Of The Kosher Iftar Of Hebron, Israel

Judaism

The recent landslide election of Benjamin Netanyahu and the ascendancy of the Israeli Right has deepened the rift between Israeli and American Jews &#8212; the latter of whom disproportionately identify with the political Left.
Days after the Israeli election, nine leading American liberal Jewish groups sent a letter to the American president they hate so much and worked so hard to prevent his becoming a president. In it, they urged Trump to preserve the &#8220;two-state solution&#8221; in the face of a pledge by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to annex the so-called &#8220;West Bank&#8221; territory, also known as Judea and Samaria.
Four ostensibly pro-Israel Jewish Democrats &#8212; Reps. Eliot Engel and Nita Lowey of New York, Ted Deutch of Florida, and Brad Schneider of Illinois &#8212; released a similar letter warning Israel not to annex parts of Judea and Samaria because, yet again, such a move would endanger the two-state solution.
And in an article days after Netanyahu&#8217;s election, Daniel Sokatch, the CEO of the ultra-liberal umbrella group New Israel Fund, wrote:
<blockquote>
A move to annex the occupied territories would corrode Israel&#8217;s international standing, rupture its relationship with the American Jewish community and likely extinguish any remaining chance for a two-state solution between Israelis and Palestinians.
</blockquote>
We have reached a point where American Jews are calling upon the American president to override the will of the Israeli people on matters of Israeli national security.
The Chutzpah of the American Jewish Liberal Leadership
Such is the clamor of American liberal Jewish leadership to preserve the failed two-state solution &#8212; which calls on Israel to cut 20 percent of its New Jersey-sized landmass and give over the most storied stretches of the Promised Land to the corrupt crooks of the PLO and the terrorist group Hamas.
Yet the last Israeli election proved, and many polls reflect, that Israelis &#8212; as opposed to the American Jewish liberal leadership &#8212; are done with the two-state solution. In the aftermath of the 2005 withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and the immediate takeover by jihadist group Hamas which led to three full-out wars and innumerable rockets being fired on Israel, most Israelis came to the conclusion that the &#8220;land for peace&#8221; policy is a failure. Israelis have now voiced that opinion democratically.
Much to the frustration of the American liberal Jewish establishment, the Israeli sovereignty movement, to which Netanyahu alluded and which calls for Israel to control the ancestral Jewish homeland of Judea and Samaria, is gaining momentum. And in Washington, the Trump Administration is the first presidential administration not to be reflexively pro-two-state solution. Indeed, rumors from the Beltway whisper that the Trump Administration&#8217;s much-ballyhooed &#8220;Deal of the Century&#8221; does not call for Palestinian statehood at all.
Red State Jews and Blue State Jews
Being an Israeli Jew with conservative nationalistic leanings, I am often asked, especially when visiting the American heartland, why is it that American Jews are predominantly liberal? American gentiles are downright mystified as to why any Jewish person would be against what they perceive to be a natural link between conservatism and Judeo-Christian biblical values &#8212; values which, one would think, would be commonly held by Jews. Many gentiles also want to know why liberal Jews are anti-Trump and pro-Palestinian &#8212; a staunchly pro-Israel president and a pseudo-entity that many Americans perceive to be the enemy of the Jewish state.
In his 2018 New York Times article entitled, &#8220;How America&#8217;s Jews Learned to Be Liberal,&#8221; Steven Weisman quotes an American Jewish Committee poll which found that &#8220;Israelis approve of President Trump&#8217;s handling of United States-Israeli relations by 77 percent&#8230; But only 34 percent of American Jews feel the same way.&#8221;
Weisman concludes: &#8220;Israelis are red-state Jews. American Jews are blue-state &#8212; politically liberal in their outlook.&#8220;
To be sure, there are many American Jews on the political Right who agree with Israeli nationalist policies, and there are Israelis on the political Left who are much closer to the American Jewish liberal consensus. However, the broad trends of American Jewish liberalism and Israeli Jewish nationalism are apparent.
Why do American Jews Tend to be Liberal?
Throughout the centuries, from Ukraine to England, and from Yemen to Syria, Jews lived in countries prone to anti-Semitic violence. Jews were often victims of intolerance, xenophobia, and exclusion. Yet they were able to thrive in these places by succeeding financially, excelling educationally, and by gaining social status.
In an effort to mitigate the dangers of the host country, Jews also employed a sophisticated defense mechanism &#8212; the teachings of liberalism. At the university, in the courts, in the banks, and in their dealings with local authority, Jews sent out a message of tolerance, diversity, and inclusion in hope that the host society would internalize those values and that the Jews would benefit and be spared. This strategy worked until catastrophes such as the English Edict of Expulsion of 1290, the Spanish Expulsion of 1492, and the rise of Nazism in Germany came along.
Anti-Trumpism as Self-Preservation
Today&#8217;s American Jews may not feel themselves to be living in a hostile country &#8212; and America is indeed a great country that has allowed Jews to thrive and live in peace. Still, the U.S. is a majority-gentile host country and not a Jewish state. Even with a high rate of public success and participation, Jews living in America feel a 2,000-year-old subconscious impulse to broadcast the values of tolerance and multiculturalism in an effort to mitigate any potential ferocity on the part of the ruling host.
The anti-Trump fervor that has seized American Jewry can be readily understood in this light. The American Jewish Left sees in Trump a personification of ultra-nationalism which, their collective memory tells them, leads directly to violent anti-Semitism. While President Trump seems to be completely pro-Jewish, American liberal Jews manage to paint him in anti-Semitic colors, seeing him as the source of white nationalism and the dangerous &#8220;alt-Right.&#8221;
&#8220;Bring him down before he brings us down! Stop the growth of nationalism before it becomes full blown Nazism! Defang the potentially violent ruler using the messaging of liberalism while you still can!&#8221; These are instinctive and classical reactions of liberal diaspora Jewry.
Why Israelis Tend to be Nationalistic
In contrast, the modus operandi of Israeli Jews is not like that of the Diaspora Jews at all. The Jewish state is just that: An ethnic-national Jewish state in the ancient Land of Israel. The collective unconscious of Israelis tells them that they live in their own land, speak their ancient language, are rightful sovereigns, and are in the process of rebuilding the Third Commonwealth.
The message that is conveyed to the elected officials from the average Israeli citizen is not of liberalism at all, but is rather: &#8220;Rule in strength! Defeat the enemy! Defend our family nation-state and do not be overly-liberal to our foes! Never again!&#8221;
In this light, Israeli support of the current American president makes sense: Trump is understood to be a determined, defense-minded fellow sovereign, a strong ruler, and an ally.
Many American Jews are dumbfounded at the nearly ubiquitous Israeli approval of a man they detest so much. But from across the pond, and in the tough Middle East reality, things look quite different. Trump&#8217;s nationalism and certitude might threaten American liberal Jews, but these characteristics play well in Israel where those very characteristics are needed and admired.
Immigration Policy and the Wall
Another example of the difference in outlook between American and Israeli Jews can be seen in immigration policy. American liberal Jews perceive themselves to be an ethnic-religious minority in America and descendants of recent immigrants. They tend to identify with potential incomers &#8212; and therefore call for a liberal immigration policy. Unsurprisingly then, Trump&#8217;s tough stance on Muslim and Mexican immigration is perceived as a direct attack on American liberal Jews and their values.
The Israeli Jew, however, sees it quite differently. For many Israelis, African or Arab migration to Israel is seen as a threat &#8212; a concerted effort to chip away at the Jewish state from the inside and endanger Israel&#8217;s stability. In Israel, Trump&#8217;s wall policy is understood to be a normal course of action for a sovereign nation surrounded by hostile countries. Indeed, Israel itself has put up defensive walls!
Clearly, the contrast in the reality of Israeli Jews and American Jews leads to policy prescriptions that are drastically different. The very modes of thinking about these problems are oceans apart.
For Some, Nationalism Looks Like Fascism
So if Israeli Jews are red-state Jews and American Jews are blue-state Jews, it is not surprising that they often collide with one another.
American liberal Jews tend to see the &#8220;Palestinians&#8221; as a downtrodden minority, but Israelis, in large measure, see them as part of hostile Arab Middle East majority. Similarly, the &#8220;West Bank&#8221; which the American liberal establishment continues to see as &#8220;occupied&#8221; is seen by a majority of Israelis as an integral part of our ancestral homeland. The same goes for the behavior of the Israeli army, which American liberals often see as being too forceful, while Israelis, whose children serve on the front lines, often see as being too restrained.
In turn, many Israelis discount American liberal Jewry&#8217;s policy prescriptions. Without verbalizing it, Israelis wonder whether American Jews, whose approach to statecraft is one of a powerful and vocal minority in a host country, can give useful advice to Israeli Jews who drive tanks and fly jets in defense of their own threatened yet sovereign Jewish state.
Israel&#8217;s Security is NOT a Jewish Issue
Recently, I was in Washington and sat with a Christian red-state congressman. We talked about Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria and the position of the &#8220;settlers&#8221; &#8212; Jews proudly living in the ancestral homeland and blocking a jihadist takeover &#8212; who clearly favor Israeli control of the areas in which they live. Suddenly, the congressman asked me: &#8220;OK, but what will my colleagues, the Democratic Jewish congressmen, say about this?&#8221;
I replied: &#8220;Congressman, do you ask these Democratic Jewish congressmen how to vote on issues of abortion? Of course not. So why would you ask them about Judea and Samaria? What should be done with these territories is an Israeli issue &#8212; not a Jewish issue. The American liberal congressmen don&#8217;t serve the Israeli constituency, they haven&#8217;t served in the Israeli army, and they don&#8217;t bear the burden of dealing with jihadism. They don&#8217;t own this issue.&#8221;
Indeed, when it comes to policy issues in the Jewish world, there should be a distinction between general Jewish issues and local ones. General Jewish issues might be the question of conversion, or even of religious control at the Western Wall. However, the issues of Israel foreign policy, Israel security, dealing with Palestinians, decisions on Judea and Samaria, Knesset election &#8212; these are not general Jewish issues, but rather are Israeli issues. The loud parading and weighing-in of the collective American liberal Jewish voice on strictly Israeli issues is illogical, patronizing, and shameful.
Loving Israel to Death
American Jews and Israeli Jews are two related communities living across the ocean who share DNA, familiarity, goodwill, a love of the Torah, and a love of the homeland. However, we live very different lives and have consequently developed a very different mindset.
Rather than fighting about it, the way forward is to adopt a posture of mutual respect and support where possible &#8212; but also allow for some daylight between one another when dealing with respective regional policy issues. It&#8217;s great to pipe up because it shows love and care, but on the other hand, since the American Jewish and Israeli realities and perspectives are so different, it is also good to know when to butt out.
Those American Jews who publicly defend Israel&#8217;s choices give voice to the Israeli policies in the halls of American power &#8212; and that is an important task. Yet those American liberal Jewish voices who have become detractors from Israeli policy should have less sway. They endanger the U.S.-Israel alliance and, frankly, endanger Israel&#8217;s security. They advocate for bad policy, like the misbegotten &#8220;two-state solution,&#8221; for a region they do not understand and in circumstances they do not share. They go against the will of the Israeli people and give Jewish cover to anti-Israel forces. Their mindset and behavior are that of a minority ethnic group living in a host country, and not like that of Israel &#8212; a sovereign state, an American ally, and a burgeoning regional power dealing with the harsh everyday reality of the Middle East.

Yishai Fleisher is the International Spokesman of the Jewish Community of Hebron and an Israeli broadcaster.

FLEISHER: The Clash Of American Liberal Jewry And Israeli Nationalism

Trump Administration

Recently, The New Yorker printed a <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/a-guided-tour-of-hebron-from-two-sides-of-the-occupation&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1548738286881000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFAO2W84Q7EJjJngkHzFeYKllvnMg" href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/a-guided-tour-of-hebron-from-two-sides-of-the-occupation" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">hit-piece</a> against the Jews living in the heart of Judea entitled, &#8220;A Guided Tour of Hebron, from Two Sides of the Occupation.&#8221; The unintentionally ironic title &#8220;from Two Sides&#8221; is the key to understanding the article because the two sides it shows come from the hard-Left and radical Islamism, respectively.
Indeed, the article is another example of the collaboration between the hard-Left and radical Islamism, movements that have coordinated to delegitimize Israel&#8217;s right to retain land liberated in the Six Day War as a way to delegitimize Israel as a whole. Now, they have specifically set their crosshairs on Hebron in the &#8220;West Bank&#8221; because they understand the centrality of Hebron to Jewish peoplehood, to its land and history. Additionally, they see the small and isolated Jewish community within the big Arab city of Hebron and ruled by the Palestinian Authority as an easy next target.
Two years ago it was the U.N.&#8217;s turn, a division of the hard-Left, to strike at Hebron. They got their heritage and history branch, UNESCO, to declare that the Tomb of the Forefathers and Mothers in Hebron &#8212; a 2,000-year-old Jewish structure, sitting atop the 3,800-year-old tombs of the Biblical founders of Judaism &#8212; was, in fact, a Palestinian Heritage Site in need of protection from Israel.
This shocking negation of basic Jewish history by a &#8220;legitimate&#8221; U.N. body brought out the ire of Israel and much of the rest of the Jewish world as well. Ambassador Nikki Haley, who had stated that she would not tolerate U.N. anti-Semitism, led the United States&#8217; angry departure from UNESCO, specifically in response to the anti-Hebron resolution.
But the war on Jewish Hebron&#8217;s legitimacy continued. A few months ago, Arab and far-Left Jewish members of Israel&#8217;s parliament organized a meeting called &#8220;Hebron First,&#8221; which called for the ethnic cleansing of Jews from Hebron as a first step in exiling Jews from the Biblical heartland. This initiative was stopped by Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein. Instead, Edelstein gathered almost every minister in the sitting government for an event that heaped praise on the heroic Jewish community of Hebron and gave assurances that Israeli building in Hebron will continue.
Now comes this New Yorker article &#8212; a blot even in today&#8217;s low standards for journalism &#8212; full of mistakes, lies, and obfuscations &#8212; but mostly, an effort to delegitimize the Jewish presence in Hebron by casting it in a dark light. [The Left&#8217;s most successful tactic is simply to put scary music in the background of anything they want to smear.]
Painting a morose portrait of Hebron Arabs suffering at the hands of the Israeli army, the article neglects to note that Arab Hebron is actually the &#8220;West Bank&#8217;s&#8221; richest city, with five billion Shekels in exports to Israel yearly. 80% of Hebron has no Israeli army presence, and Jews live in only 3% of the city. Out of Hebron&#8217;s 20 square kilometers, there is one short street where Arab traffic has been limited by the Israeli army as a result of recurring terror attacks on the Jewish community there. And, of course, the terror keeps coming because much of the city has, sadly, succumbed to radical Islamism, with over 80% of Arabs voting for Hamas in the recent municipal elections.
Not surprisingly, the Jewish story of Hebron is also missing in The New Yorker&#8217;s narrative. Jews have been living in Hebron for 3,200 years, almost without interruption, sometimes as an ethnic majority, and other times as an ethnic minority. That ended in a horrific act of ethnic cleansing, when an Islamist riot ripped through Hebron in 1929 murdering 67 Jewish men, women, and children, and which led to the British ousting of Hebron&#8217;s Jews. In the 1967 Six Day War, Israel took control of Hebron, and Jews began to repatriate the city.
Every licensed tour guide knows these basic facts, but these were absent or obscured in the &#8220;Guided Tour of Hebron&#8221; New Yorker article.
Instead of historical facts, The New Yorker generously quoted Issa Amro, a provocateur whose daily bread is to foment friction between Jews and Arabs, and whose organization &#8220;Youth Against Settlements&#8221; calls for, you guessed it, the destruction of the small Jewish community in Hebron. Amro has pocketed untold amounts of money from his &#8220;peace&#8221; work (he recently completed building two new apartment complexes in Arab Hebron) and is also a paid employee of the Palestinian Authority. The Israeli army has indicted him on 17 counts, many in connection to acts of violence, yet the Left celebrates Amro because he carries the self-proclaimed liberal credential of &#8220;Non-Violent.&#8221;
The other voice in The New Yorker article &#8212; making up the second of the &#8220;Two Sides&#8221; of the story &#8212; is Yehuda Shaul, co-founder of Breaking the Silence, a far-Left European-funded organization in Israel dedicated to besmirching Hebron&#8217;s Jewish community and especially the Israeli soldiers who protect it. On their crafted tour of Hebron, students and diplomats are restricted to the one street with limited Arab access. But the wealthy Arab city, which is forbidden to entry by Jewish Israelis, is never seen. [The other great trick of the haters is to show a small sliver of something dark, then portray it as the whole truth.]
Breaking the Silence features prominently as a legitimate voice in this article, yet it is not seen that way in Israel. In July 2018, the Israeli government passed the &#8220;Breaking the Silence&#8221; Law, barring the organization from speaking in schools. Education Minister Naftali Bennett said. &#8220;Breaking the Silence long ago crossed the red lines beyond legitimate discourse when they started libeling Israel in the international arena.&#8221; Videos of Israelis soldiers calling Breaking the Silence liars have gone viral.
Yet only these two voices &#8212; one belonging to radical Islamists, the other to the far-Left, and both clearly agendized to destroy Jewish Hebron &#8212; are the tellers of Hebron&#8217;s tale in The New Yorker. The buzzword &#8220;occupation&#8221; abounds in the text, but the Jewish connection to Hebron, one that predates Islam by 2,200 years, is given short shrift. Jewish violence from 25 years ago is highlighted, but the daily Arab violence somehow gets a pass.
The goal of the article, as well as the hard-Left/radical-Islamist alliance which it mouths, is clear: do everything to delegitimize Israel&#8217;s presence in its ancestral homeland by labeling it &#8220;occupation&#8221; &#8212; and help create the illusion that the Islamist effort to ethnically cleanse Jews from Hebron is actually kosher freedom fighting for justice and rights.
In a tweet response to The New Yorker article, Ari Ozick, a digital entrepreneur and tech blogger wrote: &#8220;Your attempt at touring/seeing two sides of the story is sort of like going to see the USSR with an official tour group, and then, for perspective, asking the head of the East German Stasi for a private tour. I don&#8217;t mind one-sided reporting, just don&#8217;t call it reporting.&#8221;
Yishai Fleisher is the International Spokesman for the Jewish Community of Hebron. Follow him at @YishaiFleisher.