This is what Jews on college campuses across America may soon have to face: people who believe that an intifada should be launched against them. On November 15, 2019, at a pro-Gaza rally in Times Square in New York, speakers led the crowd in chanting. “There is only one solution: Intifada, revolution!” and “Intifada in every classroom.”
As <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TI9j8PBlotY">Memri</a> reports, Nerdeen Kiswani of an organization called Within Our Lifetime shouted, “Intifada! Intifada! There is only one solution: Intifada, revolution!” Husam Kaid of the City College New York branch of Students for Justice in Palestine, echoed, “There is only one solution: Intifada, revolution!” He shouted, “The intifada does not have to be in Gaza or Palestine! We’re going to have an intifada in every classroom! We are going to have an intifada on every college campus! We are going to shut down all the Zionist events and start an Intifada everywhere!”
Kaid yelled, “Just the other day, as Gaza was being bombed, the Zionist leader, Consul general Dani Dayan, was invited to speak at Harvard law and 100 students walked out of his talk and they shut the whole event down! Got to do that on every college campus! Let’s shut down all the Zionists and start an intifada everywhere we are!&#8221;
Sayel Kayed, a pro-BDS activist belonging to American Muslims for Palestine, yelled, “We are here today to let everybody know that Palestine has a right to defend itself. Palestine. We have a right to resistance. It is a God-given right. People ask, ‘Does Israel have a right to exist?’ No! Israel has no right to exist on Palestinian land.” He called out to the crowd, “Does Israel have a right to exist?
The crowd yelled back, “No!”
Kayed: “Does Israel have a right to exist?”
Crowd: “No!”
Kayed: “Does Palestine have a right to resist it?”
Crowd: “Yes!”
Kayed: “Does Palestine have a right to resist it?”
Crowd: “Yes!”
Kayed then made abundantly clear what he meant when he said, “Israel has no right to exist on Palestinian land.” He yelled, “Palestine is all of Palestine: from the river to the sea.”
He added, “It is not that complicated. Give us our land back and you will have peace. Otherwise, resistance to the end until every inch of Palestine is free.” He shouted, “Free, free, Palestine. Are we going to join the struggle?”
Crowd: “Yes!”
Kayed: “When Palestine resists, is that terrorism?”
Crowd: “No!”
According to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Institute_for_Counter-Terrorism">International Institute for Counter-Terrorism</a>, during the Second Intifada, 887 of the 1,137 Israelis murdered in attacks from September 2000 – 2005 were civilians. Just between May 2001 and May 2002 there were these massacres: five Israelis murdered by a suicide bomber at the HaSharon Mall in May 2001; 21 Israelis murdered by a suicide bomber at the Dolphinarium Discotheque in June 2001; 15 Israelis murdered by a suicide bomber at Sbarro’s Pizza in August 2001, including six children and a 31-year-old woman who was the only child of her parents and was five months pregnant; 11 Israelis murdered in a bus bombing on Ben Yehuda Street in Jerusalem on December 1, 2001; 12 more Israelis murdered the very next day in a Haifa suicide bombing; 11 more Israelis murdered in a bus attack 10 days later in Immanuel; six Israelis murdered in an attack at a bas-mitzvah in January 2002; 11 more Jews killed in an attack on a yeshiva in March 2002, including a five-month-old child; 11 Jews murdered in a bombing at café Moment in March 2002; 30 Israelis killed as they celebrated Passover in Netanya on March 27, 2002; 16 Israelis murdered in a suicide bombing four days later at the Matzah restaurant, and 16 Israelis murdered in Rishon LeZion in May 2002.
Video of rally below:
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PALESTINIAN-ISRAEL-CONFLICT-UNREST

WATCH: Activists For Palestinians Threaten: Your College Campus Will Be Scene Of Intifadas

Israel

Palestinians

The Napoleonic-era French diplomat Talleyrand famously offered a rather harsh assessment of the Bourbons after they regained power decades after the French Revolution that overthrew them: “They have learned nothing and forgotten nothing.” The same might be said for a coterie of American diplomats who, decades after the failure of the Oslo Accords peace process of the 1990s, have failed to learn the lessons of Oslo&#8217;s failure. Worse still, many Western news outlets repeat their claims — many of which have been disproven by both history and experience — as gospel truth.
In last Sunday&#8217;s edition of The Washington Post, Aaron David Miller and Daniel Kurtzer, both former U.S. State Department officials, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/lets-not-pretend-washington-ever-really-tried-to-stop-israeli-settlements/2019/11/21/2fc18316-0c96-11ea-97ac-a7ccc8dd1ebc_story.html" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/lets-not-pretend-washington-ever-really-tried-to-stop-israeli-settlements/2019/11/21/2fc18316-0c96-11ea-97ac-a7ccc8dd1ebc_story.html&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1574888237582000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFFtqdKQX8xdEfehadfC60p-kVo3g">lambasted</a> the Trump administration’s recent <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-the-trump-administration-is-absolutely-correct-to-call-israeli-settlements-legal">announcement</a> that it would not consider Israeli construction in the West Bank (Judea and Samaria), or “settlements,” to be “illegal.” The decision, Miller and Kurtzer claim, has “compromised, if not killed” the possibility for any U.S.-brokered “peace deal” between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
They assert that the decision violates international law. <a href="https://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/294359/israels-rights-in-the-west-bank-under-international-law" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/294359/israels-rights-in-the-west-bank-under-international-law&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1574888237583000&amp;usg=AFQjCNE-8RFb84eA-Gbp-IwmxuYIhmsq4w">However</a>, the League of Nations Palestine Mandate, Article 6 (1922) encourages “close settlement by Jews on the land” west of the Jordan River. The U.N. Charter (1945), Chapter 12, Article 80 (“the Palestine article”) upheld the Mandate’s position, as did the San Remo Resolution (1920) and the Anglo-American Convention (1924), which either recognized or assumed the legality of Jewish settlement.
Miller and Kurtzer add: “The United States has known for decades how damaging settlement activity is in the search for peace — Palestinians cannot trade land for peace if they don’t possess the land.”
But the veteran diplomats have it backwards: U.N. Security Council Resolution 242, adopted shortly after Israel seized territories from Jordan, Egypt, and Syria in a 1967 war of self-defense, assumed “peace-for-land” negotiations; first the Arab side would commit to peace with Israel, then Israelis would withdraw from some of the land.
Miller and Kurtzer have misdiagnosed the problem at the root of the conflict. Palestinian-Arab leaders consider all of Israel to be a “settlement” — an “occupation.” And there’s a huge body of evidence to prove it.
Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) has <a href="https://palwatch.org/analysis/97" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://palwatch.org/analysis/97&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1574888237583000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEfClXxrHHlebOd717VruCYKiaLqQ">documented</a> how official Palestinian Authority (PA) media routinely refer to all of Israel as “occupied” and deny any Jewish connection to the land. The PA itself uses <a href="https://palwatch.org/page/12774" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://palwatch.org/page/12774&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1574888237583000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHQWGntsTl5fQ3FSTKJeWDpNGVqSA">maps</a> that depict all of Israel as “Palestine” and its leaders have <a href="https://freebeacon.com/national-security/fiery-speech-palestinian-president-abbas-condemns-united-states-threatens-violence-denies-jewish-history/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://freebeacon.com/national-security/fiery-speech-palestinian-president-abbas-condemns-united-states-threatens-violence-denies-jewish-history/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1574888237583000&amp;usg=AFQjCNG_vvSH7W2SfgJTk7lMeSh8vAr0tQ">asserted</a> that Jews have no historical link to Jerusalem, a city whose historical and religious ties to Judaism predate the creation of Islam by thousands of years.
Indeed, &#8220;settlements&#8221; would be a moot point if the Palestinian leadership had accepted U.S. and Israeli offers for statehood in 2000 at Camp David, 2001 at Taba, and 2008 after the Annapolis Conference. Each of these proposals would have given Palestinian leaders a state and the overwhelming majority of the West Bank. Yet, the PA rejected each offer — without so much as a counteroffer. The 2008 Israeli <a href="https://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/195315/missed-opportunity-olmert-abbas-and-media-bias" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/195315/missed-opportunity-olmert-abbas-and-media-bias&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1574888237583000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHhU0cmZJMsoDaS1OA2FCazaKqZTw">offer</a>, which provided for a Palestinian state with its capital in eastern Jerusalem, was the basis for U.S. attempts to restart negotiations in 2014 and 2016, both of which were <a href="https://www.algemeiner.com/2016/02/29/the-palestinian-authority-repudiates-oslo-and-no-one-reports-or-cares/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.algemeiner.com/2016/02/29/the-palestinian-authority-repudiates-oslo-and-no-one-reports-or-cares/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1574888237583000&amp;usg=AFQjCNH0RHR-l_OTbyqyBHIl97r6SVroKQ">also rejected</a> by PA President Mahmoud Abbas.
The PA’s refusal to resolve outstanding issues in bilateral talks is a violation of the Oslo Accords, which created the PA and remains the basis for its legitimacy. But the PA also <a href="https://mfa.gov.il/mfa/foreignpolicy/peace/guide/pages/israel-plo%20recognition%20-%20exchange%20of%20letters%20betwe.aspx" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://mfa.gov.il/mfa/foreignpolicy/peace/guide/pages/israel-plo%2520recognition%2520-%2520exchange%2520of%2520letters%2520betwe.aspx&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1574888237583000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFZZU947pFwBwWUcnWgd-NzRBhvNQ">violates</a> Oslo — which Miller and Kurtzer championed when in government — in more grotesque ways.
The PA has continued to pay salaries to those who carry out attacks against Jews — even increasing the amount by 11.8% in 2019 alone, as PMW noted in a July 4, 2019 Jerusalem Post <a href="https://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/PA-increases-salaries-to-terrorists-in-2019-despite-financial-crisis-report-594600" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/PA-increases-salaries-to-terrorists-in-2019-despite-financial-crisis-report-594600&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1574888237583000&amp;usg=AFQjCNF9Un9rY4uSU0mORb0zV7yVvq0Wjg">report</a>. As the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA) has <a href="https://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/international-affairs/333662-how-the-palestinian-authoritys-social-safety-net" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/international-affairs/333662-how-the-palestinian-authoritys-social-safety-net&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1574888237583000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFlPfTZLreQ8608uef_JG1u5BL2gg">detailed</a>, the PA’s decision to pay terrorists and their families is enshrined in the PA&#8217;s own laws, passed in 2004 and amended in 2013, stipulating that convicted terrorists <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2017/04/28/palestinians-are-rewarding-terrorists-the-u-s-should-stop-enabling-them/?utm_term=.9aafce51bbb9" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2017/04/28/palestinians-are-rewarding-terrorists-the-u-s-should-stop-enabling-them/?utm_term%3D.9aafce51bbb9&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1574888237583000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFw2r0vy_iOtIri-Ke0cvUfrYb2JA">receive</a> monthly “salaries.” Further, cash grants and priority civil service job placements are offered to those who carry out terror attacks.
Streets, sports teams, tournaments, and even schools are <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/missing-the-palestinian-after-terror-after-party" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/missing-the-palestinian-after-terror-after-party&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1574888237583000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGYDQixaNXx05jAhdHQF5jKRDp3Mw">named</a> after murderers of Jews. In but one example, in October 2015, the PA Ministry of Education <a href="http://blog.camera.org/archives/2015/10/moderate_palestinian_authority.html" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://blog.camera.org/archives/2015/10/moderate_palestinian_authority.html&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1574888237583000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGzAZCLgOBUMqYbjzjvUWSWRanh7A">announced</a> that it would plant olive trees and place signs with the names of terrorists who have died murdering Israelis. One of these terrorists, Muhannad Shafeq Halabi, killed two Israelis and stabbed a two-year old child in an October 8, 2015 terror attack in Jerusalem. For his actions, Halabi was posthumously <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2015/12/30/palestinian-bar-association-grants-honorary-degree-to-terrorist-who-murdered-two-israelis/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2015/12/30/palestinian-bar-association-grants-honorary-degree-to-terrorist-who-murdered-two-israelis/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1574888237583000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGjCR_PmISArtnY84MvO61WdFc_1A">awarded</a> an honorary law degree by the PA Bar Association.
This is par for the course for the Palestinian-Arab leadership. Yasser Arafat, Abbas’s predecessor, acted similarly. In a May 10, 1994 <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;rct=j&amp;q=&amp;esrc=s&amp;source=web&amp;cd=2&amp;cad=rja&amp;uact=8&amp;ved=2ahUKEwiOycnJxLjdAhUlheAKHV47A88QFjABegQICRAB&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F1994%2F05%2F20%2Fworld%2Frabin-says-arafat-s-jihad-remark-set-back-peace-effort.html&amp;usg=AOvVaw3gpH0UWmxGZMhql_BuuEVm" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.google.com/url?sa%3Dt%26rct%3Dj%26q%3D%26esrc%3Ds%26source%3Dweb%26cd%3D2%26cad%3Drja%26uact%3D8%26ved%3D2ahUKEwiOycnJxLjdAhUlheAKHV47A88QFjABegQICRAB%26url%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fwww.nytimes.com%252F1994%252F05%252F20%252Fworld%252Frabin-says-arafat-s-jihad-remark-set-back-peace-effort.html%26usg%3DAOvVaw3gpH0UWmxGZMhql_BuuEVm&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1574888237583000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHhbD7E-yXz6jR7YnxGdWweX9vhMg">speech</a> in South Africa — and in another one on August 21, 1995 at Al-Azhar University in Cairo — Arafat compared his decision to participate in the Oslo process to deceptions that the Prophet Muhammad engaged in against rival tribes. As he <a href="http://washingtonjewishweek.com/34878/the-post-gets-lost-inside-a-dead-terrorists-bedroom/editorial-opinion/voices/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://washingtonjewishweek.com/34878/the-post-gets-lost-inside-a-dead-terrorists-bedroom/editorial-opinion/voices/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1574888237584000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEiuj6dbwPGR_dkngM2s-EUd-Kbfw">stated</a> in a 1996 speech in Stockholm: “We plan to eliminate the State of Israel and establish a purely Palestinian state. We will make life unbearable for Jews by psychological warfare and population explosion. … We Palestinians will take over everything, including all of Jerusalem.”
If Miller and Kurtzer’s argument were true, Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza in 2005 or from most of the West Bank in the 1990s would have enhanced peace. Instead, a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-israel-must-destroy-hamas-once-and-all-josh-hammer">genocidal terror group</a> that calls for Israel’s destruction, Hamas, was emboldened, winning Gaza elections soon after Israel&#8217;s unilateral withdrawal. And as CAMERA analyst Steve Stotsky has <a href="https://www.camera.org/article/the-straight-facts-about-the-palestinian-authority-and-fighting-terrorism/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.camera.org/article/the-straight-facts-about-the-palestinian-authority-and-fighting-terrorism/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1574888237584000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEpFGT8nRFb_WlWN3NGX2JGqqYqLg">documented</a>, terror attacks increased after Oslo, as well.
Put simply: It is asinine to believe that Jewish home construction in Judea and Samaria is more “damaging” to peace than a faux “peace partner” honoring and celebrating those who stab Jewish babies. Palestinian-Arab terrorism, and indeed the 1964 creation of the PLO, predate the much-ballyhooed &#8220;1967 borders.&#8221;
Palestinian-Arab leaders have shown no interest in changing. And regrettably, the same can be said for some policymakers, journalists, and pundits who remain wedded to an idea long after its failure passed from opinion into the realm of fact.
&nbsp;
The writer is a Senior Research Analyst for the Washington, D.C. office of CAMERA, the 65,000-member, Boston-based Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis.

Israel map

DURNS: Slow Learning In The Middle East

Foreign Policy

Middle East

State Department

Trump Administration

Washington Post

On Tuesday, a prominent politically and religiously conservative Jewish organization <a href="https://coalitionforjewishvalues.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/191126-Letter-to-Rep-Levin.pdf">took 106 House Democrats to task</a> for signing a &#8220;false and misleading&#8221; <a href="https://andylevin.house.gov/sites/andylevin.house.gov/files/112119%20Letter%20to%20SecState%20on%20Israeli%20settlements%20FINAL.pdf">letter</a> with respect to the Trump administration&#8217;s recent unilateral decision to declare that so-called Israeli &#8220;settlements&#8221; are legal. The group, the <a href="http://coalitionforjewishvalues.org">Coalition for Jewish Values</a> (CJV), identifies as &#8220;the largest rabbinic public policy organization in America&#8221; and &#8220;represent[s] over 1000 traditional Orthodox rabbis in matters of public policy.&#8221;
As The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-trump-administration-announces-major-policy-shift-toward-israel-no-longer-views-israels-west-bank-settlements-as-violation-of-international-law">reported</a> last Monday, &#8220;the Trump administration &#8230; revers[ed] an Obama-era policy and now does not view Israel’s settlements in [Judea and Samaria] as a violation of international law.&#8221; &#8220;The establishment of Israeli civilian settlements in the West Bank is not, per se, inconsistent with international law,&#8221; Secretary of State Mike Pompeo explained at the time.
Led by Jewish Rep. Andy Levin (D-MI), 106 House Democrats responded to Pompeo with a <a href="https://andylevin.house.gov/sites/andylevin.house.gov/files/112119%20Letter%20to%20SecState%20on%20Israeli%20settlements%20FINAL.pdf">scathing letter</a> that issued strong legal and policy objections to the Trump administration&#8217;s bold move. &#8220;If the U.S. unilaterally abandons international and human rights law, we can only expect a more chaotic and brutal twenty-first century for Americans and our allies, including the Israeli people,&#8221; the tendentious screed concluded.
CJV responded with a <a href="https://coalitionforjewishvalues.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/191126-Letter-to-Rep-Levin.pdf">powerful letter</a> of its own that systemically picks apart Rep. Levin&#8217;s own missive. &#8220;The signatories demonstrated an alarmingly callous attitude towards Israelis, their self-determination, and their human rights,&#8221; said Rabbi Steven Pruzansky, CJV eastern regional vice president, in a press release accompanying the letter. “Jews were ethnically cleansed from towns in Judea and Samaria in 1929 and 1936, and then driven out entirely by Jordan in 1948 — yet the signatories claim that the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits them from moving back. It is hard not to read that claim as unsympathetic to Jews and history.&#8221;
&#8220;The worst part of the letter is its condemnation of the ‘halting of aid’ to the West Bank and Gaza,&#8221; wrote Rabbi Avrohom Gordimer, chairman of the CJV Rabbinic Circle, in the same accompanying press release. &#8220;The Trump Administration is withholding that aid in accordance with the <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/1625" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/1625&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1574865012259000&amp;usg=AFQjCNH2DG36GfN00nK17AmvQwIRvWBNBw">Taylor Force Act</a> and the <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/senate-bill/2946" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/senate-bill/2946&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1574865012259000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGhKmoofli7pqfkeQG6Tr4VDZaxLQ">Anti-Terrorism Clarification Act</a> of 2018, because the Palestinian Authority, UNRWA (the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East) and Hamas were using U.S. funds to encourage and reward terrorism. For members of Congress to declare that ‘this administration has undermined America’s moral standing’ by denying funding for terror turns reality on its head.”
Reached for exclusive comment by The Daily Wire, frequent Daily Wire contributor and CJV Managing Director <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/author/rabbi-yaakov-menken">Rabbi Yaakov Menken</a> opined: &#8220;Notice the first four signatories are all Jewish. This is what&#8217;s called window dressing. Word to the wise: If you claim to be pro-Israel, and sign a letter regarding Israel along with Reps. Omar, Tlaib, and Ocasio-Cortez, you&#8217;re fooling no one but yourself. It&#8217;s amazing to see congressmen telling the administration to ignore Acts of Congress. All the more so when those Acts prevent U.S. tax dollars from being spent to encourage terrorism.&#8221;
In a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-the-trump-administration-is-absolutely-correct-to-call-israeli-settlements-legal">Daily Wire op-ed</a> last week, I strongly applauded the Trump administration for its courageous move with respect to Judea and Samaria.

Efrat, Israel

Traditional Rabbi Group Blasts House Democrats Over ‘False And Misleading’ Letter On Israeli ‘Settlements’

Democratic Party

Judaism

Mike Pompeo

Last week, Israeli prosecutors charged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with three counts of corruption. At the core of the indictment is an accusation that Netanyahu accepted bribes in the form of positive press coverage (or more precisely, reduction in negative coverage). In exchange, Netanyahu allegedly advanced the interests of two powerful Israeli media organizations.
The unprecedented designation by prosecutors of press coverage as a currency for bribery has far-reaching implications on the freedom of the press, and could curtail journalists’ ability to report the truth.
For example, the morning after Netanyahu’s indictment, several prominent journalists and editors called for Netanyahu&#8217;s immediate resignation, thereby creating public pressure for his removal. If Netanyahu resigns, and one of those journalists later receives some sort of benefit from the new government, such as an exclusive interview, then according to last week’s precedent, that journalist could be exposed to charges of bribery.
Another challenge to freedom of the press that arose from last week’s indictment relates to journalists’ complex, multi-layer relations with their sources — a process that certainly includes a lot of give and take. A journalist&#8217;s interaction with sources, including politicians, is now suddenly under scrutiny — criminal scrutiny! With such restrictions, it is possible that many journalists&#8217; headline-grabbing exposures, such as Watergate, would have not been uncovered.
There are those in Israel who dismiss this by arguing that the indictment has nothing to do with freedom of the press, but rather with Netanyahu’s corruption. For decades, alas, Israeli prosecutors and investigators sought to find wrongdoing by Netanyahu and his <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/ag-to-handle-sara-netanyahu-s-bottle-deposit-scandal-1.5366779">family</a>. “This is the best they could come up with,” explained one commentator about the prime minister&#8217;s indictment. Decades of searching for misconduct now resulting in such a bizarre charge could paradoxically be interpreted by some as a testament to Netanyahu’s integrity. Indeed, many around the world were quick to condemn the Israeli prosecutor’s action. For example, Mark Levin <a href="https://twitter.com/marklevinshow/status/1197644963061882882">tweeted</a>: “I’ve carefully reviewed these charges and they’re outrageous. This is an assault on freedom of the press and the investigation was corrupt.”
But there is also another side to the story. Israel is a hub for global innovations: Turning air into water, saving lives through medical breakthroughs, generating cutting-edge ideas that alter long-held beliefs. In this realm, perhaps the revolutionary treatment of press coverage by Israeli prosecutors, who are revered around the legal world for their high professionalism, awakens the issue of the power of the press and brings it for debate in the global public square.
After all, the media shape people’s minds. Why should it not be held accountable? Should journalists and media outlets be investigated about what really motivates their coverage? For example, the BBC, which influences millions of British citizens, has long been perceived to have a positive bias toward the European Union (EU) and to give negative coverage to the Brexit campaign. It was then revealed that the BBC has <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/02/06/bbc-faces-brexit-bias-accusations-4m-eu-funding/">allegedly been the recipient</a> of millions of Euros from the EU. Similar realities exist with other news outlets around the world. Some are open about their bias — and are even proud of it.
Decisions by journalists and editors can make or break the careers of politicians and influence the outcomes of elections. Nowhere is this more paramount than in the case of Netanyahu, who, along with his family, has been a subject of a smear campaign by the Israeli media for over 25 years now. The negative press has been so extreme that even Netanyahu’s arch-rival, Arab Joint List Knesset Member Ahmed Tibi, who was a close associate of PLO leader Yasser Arafat, came to Netanyahu’s defense in 2010. Tibi denounced what he labeled the “inhuman treatment” of Netanyahu’s wife. In an emotional speech from the podium of the Knesset, he stated: ”I will do whatever it takes to unseat you, but will never use attacks on your wife and family to do so.”
With media outlets deploying their enormous power to achieve their objectives, such as to unseat Netanyahu or to reject Brexit, perhaps Israeli prosecutors taking the lid off the sanctity of the freedom of the press should not be brushed off so quickly. Granted, there are other problematic aspects of Netanyahu’s indictment, such as the allegation of selective enforcement (many politicians received positive coverage, but none were indictment). Alan Dershowitz, for example, argued earlier this year that “to bring down a duly elected prime minister on the basis of an expansive and unprecedented application of a broad and expandable criminal statute, endangers democracy.&#8221;
No matter what one thinks about the merits of the indictment, one thing is clear: A historic debate about the freedom of the press has been launched.
&nbsp;
Gol Kalev analyzes trends in Zionism, Europe and global affairs. For more of his articles: <a href="http://europeandjerusalem.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://europeandjerusalem.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1574865012618000&amp;usg=AFQjCNE0a1_7ZfpExUVJPpsBaQ_UwuzfLw">europeandjerusalem.com.</a>

Benjamin Netanyahu

KALEV: Netanyahu’s Indictment Could Be A Game-Changer For Freedom Of The Press

Freedom of the Press

Media

I recognized that look in their eyes. It was the same look I received several times throughout my service with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in Judea and Samaria. A look that showed the trauma of years of anti-Semitic indoctrination. When I was a soldier, I understood that look. After all, these Palestinian teens in Judea and Samaria had been, throughout their entire lives, led to believe that Jews were European colonialists who had no connection to the land and had orchestrated the displacement of the Palestinian people in 1948. I could at least understand the logic behind that look.
Receiving it by nearly one hundred students in the University of Florida on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/958292104537679/">November 19th</a> completely disoriented me. A similar look, with the only difference being that it was driven by the adoption of false information about the conflict and not necessarily blatant anti-Semitism.
These students did not know me. They did not know my story, and they were definitely not interested in dialogue. Had they been interested in a discussion filled with opportunities to challenge my premises, perhaps they would have stayed and listen to my ultimate message:
We need to humanize Palestinians. The way we will humanize Palestinians is by making a very clear distinction between the people and the leadership. Then we can hold the leadership accountable for repressing its own population for decades and refusing to abandon the rejectionist attitudes towards peace with a Jewish state. An attitude that, if abandoned, could have granted the Palestinian people a state as far back as 1937 with the <a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-peel-commission">Peel Commission</a>. That is what my presentation, “Why There is No Palestinian State,” sought to discuss.
As the majority of students participated in the protest and walked out of the room, nearly thirty students stayed behind, eager to find out more. Among the students who stayed were two reporters for the school’s newspaper, The Independent Alligator, and I rejoiced. I thought perhaps those who decided to walk out of the room because the content of the presentation would challenge their preconceived notions would discover that my intentions were to use objective historical truths to engage in meaningful dialogue.
The protestors decided to hold a vigil for Palestinians who had died in Gaza after Israeli air attacks during armed escalation that was recently ended by a temporary ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Had the protestors stayed for the Q&amp;A session, they would have learned about how civilians in Gaza are used as human shields. They would have learned that Israeli airstrikes only served as a form of retaliation against a terrorist organization that was targeting Israeli civilians indiscriminately with a barrage of over 350 <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-hits-islamic-jihad-launchpads-as-over-200-rockets-fired-into-israel/">rockets</a>.
But the role of the Palestinian leadership as an obstacle to peace is an inconvenient truth.
I offered the reporters a full interview after my speaking engagement. I answered all their questions with the outmost transparency; after all, they were professional enough to stay throughout my entire presentation and listen to what I had come to say. I was questioned about my experience in the army and the message I sought to leave the audience with my presentation. After a long night, I returned to my hotel and woke up early the next morning to see the article: “Hundreds protest Israel Defense Forces speaker at Little Hall Tuesday night,” <a href="https://www.alligator.org/news/hundreds-protest-israel-defense-forces-speaker-at-little-hall-tuesday/article_c8698c78-0b4a-11ea-92d7-e7720dcad3b9.html">published</a>. The title, blatantly inaccurate, set the tone for a piece of writing that violated basic journalistic ethical norms. Not only were my quotes largely ignored or cut in half, but the article was dedicated to quoting the students who decided to storm out of the room without hearing a word out of my mouth.
Twelve thousand dollars. That is the average amount paid by students at the University of Florida for <a href="https://www.ufl.edu/">tuition</a> after financial aid is applied. Nearing $50,000 per bachelor’s degree, one has to wonder — what type of education are the students who walked out interested in receiving? Do they want to remain in a social bubble that will continue to serve as an echo chamber for all their preconceived notions — even if they are erroneous?
More importantly, did the newspaper achieve its purpose of shedding light unto a story or did it perpetuate darkness and ignorance by refusing to publish the content of the presentation they had come to hear? The authors of this horrendous article not only failed to uphold journalistic ethics, but they also failed their own student body.
Towards the end of my interview with The Independent Alligator, I was asked:
“What message would you like to give to all those students who walked out in the protest?”
Despite the clear attempts to silence my message, I will answer that question now.
My message to the nearly one hundred students — not hundreds, as it was inaccurately described by the paper — who walked out is simple:
If you are planning to go into debt for at least five to ten years after you complete your undergraduate education, at least have the courage to challenge your own positions. Your conviction was not proven by your decision to preemptively exit the room before I began speaking; rather, it would have been proven if your positions would have remained the same after hearing everything I came to say.
I would hope that the school’s administration might consider the negative implications of this protest and take this as an opportunity to encourage its students to accept the principal factor guiding all of academia: Open-mindedness.
&nbsp;
<a style="font-style: italic;" href="https://yonimichanie.org">Yoni Michanie</a> is a former IDF Paratrooper and has a MA in Diplomacy and International Security from IDC Hertzeliya. He is an Israel advocate, public speaker, Middle East analyst, and is campus advisor and strategic planner for the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA).

Florida Gators logo

MICHANIE: I Was Just Protested At The University Of Florida For Being A Zionist

First Amendment

Florida

Free Speech

Israel Defense Forces (IDF)

Protest

Students for Justice in Palestine

As executive vice president of One Israel Fund, the premier organization that raises funds for the safety and welfare of the Jewish communities in Judea, Samaria, and the Jordan Valley I am extremely happy that the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-the-trump-administration-is-absolutely-correct-to-call-israeli-settlements-legal">United States of America has officially recognized</a> what we have always known: That the settlements are not in violation of international law.
This past month there have been amplified attacks on Israel — both physical attacks from terrorist combatants and verbal attacks disguised as humanitarian condemnations. These attacks come from people who hate Israel for its mere existence — for serving as a home for Jews worldwide. Israel is the only true refuge for the Jewish people, who have been seeing a global resurgence of anti-Semitic violence and vandalism.
Although Israel is the home of the Jewish people, it is far from safe. Israel is under constant threat from terrorism. There are dozens of terrorist organizations that list destroying Israel and its people as its primary goal, and Israel is surrounded by Islamic nations that refuse to acknowledge the nation’s right to exist.
This most recent criticism stems from Israel using targeted air strikes in the Gaza Strip and along its Syrian border to stop terrorists, including the killing of a top commander of terrorist organization Islamic Jihad. Israel has to continually do this in order to protect its citizens and others who want to live in peace from the threat of future terrorism. Israel has a right to defend itself.
No other nation in the world would be so harshly viewed for protecting its people from terrorists. And no other nation would be so commonly censured for responding to ongoing assaults on its people.
As executive vice president of One Israel Fund, I see on a daily basis how much restraint Israel shows toward its enemies and I see how vulnerable Israelis living in Judea and Samaria are. Along with our organization&#8217;s expert director of security projects, Marc Provisor, I and my staff work to supply security and medical needs in a region of Israel that is often overlooked, sometimes inadvertently but more often in a concerted and determined effort to delegitimize these areas. Among many other projects, we have upgraded firefighting equipment in response to arson attacks, installed surveillance camera systems in Jewish communities, purchased armored vests for civilian security chiefs and emergency medical personnel, and mapped communication deficiencies so we could upgrade and improve emergency communications.
Amazingly, despite the constant attacks and threats, the Israelis living in Judea, Samaria, and the Jordan Valley not only choose to remain in their homes but choose to form good relations with the Arabs living around them. Terrorism never wins and One Israel Fund is proud to work proactively, and sometimes in conjunction with the Israel Defense Forces, to keep Jewish communities safe.
I have seen firsthand how many of these Jews coexist peacefully with their Arab neighbors. Their lives are intertwined — as neighbors, as people who just want to coexist in peace and as colleagues. Many Arabs in these regions are employed by Israeli businesses and shops.
It is for this reason that the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement is so faulty; BDS hurts both Jews and Arabs who work in these companies. BDS proponents claim their movement is a protest meant to better the lives of Arabs in Israel, yet they ignore atrocities happening daily to millions of Arabs living in other Middle Eastern countries, where women and gays are denied basic human rights and where there is no chance for upward mobility. Many of these oppressed Arabs are also of Palestinian decent. Instead, they target Israel. The reason is simple: Hating Israel is a thinly veiled way to hate Jews.
Recently, the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/kalev-european-political-opposition-to-the-jewish-state-should-not-be-taken-lightly">European Court of Justice mandated</a> that all goods produced in Israeli settlements must be labeled as such in order to “prevent consumers from being misled as to the fact that the State of Israel is present in the territories concerned as an occupying power and not as a sovereign entity.” This move is capricious and unfairly targets Israel. There are many nations that, unlike Israel, actually illegally occupy regions and subjugate that region’s people, and yet Europe is only adding this label to Israeli products. I am disgusted to see religious discrimination be codified into European law.
BDS and this recent European law do nothing to help Arabs in Israel; its sole exploit — and I believe sole goal — is to delegitimize Israel and its right to be a sovereign nation. Some <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-the-pro-israel-case-against-u-s-military-aid-to-israel">progressives in America have argued</a> that military aid should be tied to settlements, with less American support for Israel due to the settlements. This is simply foolish. Israel is one of America’s closest allies and the only true democracy in the Middle East. Weakening that bond would be unwise. America receives much from this relationship, including invaluable information regarding its own enemies in the region — information that has saved countless U.S. soldiers on the battlefield.
The media often portrays Israel as the aggressor, but that is far from the truth. Israel is a nation doing its best to protect its people while respecting the rights of all other people. As a nation formed with Jewish values, Israel values all life and often goes out of its way to preserve even the lives of its enemies.
In 2005, Israel unilaterally withdrew from Gaza. It displaced Jewish families and destroyed Jewish businesses, all for the sake of peace. And the reward was terrorism. The result was secret tunnels to smuggle weapons and conduct cross-border terror infiltrations, as well as the non-stop threat of rocket and mortar attacks.
Jews want nothing less than to live peacefully with their Arab neighbors but, while we work toward that dream, we cannot slack on security. Israel must protect its citizens and defend the values for which it stands.
&nbsp;
Scott Feltman is the executive vice president of One Israel Fund, an American philanthropy.

Dead Sea Israel

FELTMAN: All We Truly Want Is Peace

In a move that will only further buttress the Trump administration&#8217;s well-deserved claim to being the most pro-Israel American presidency since the 1948 founding of the Jewish state, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-trump-administration-announces-major-policy-shift-toward-israel-no-longer-views-israels-west-bank-settlements-as-violation-of-international-law">announced</a> today that it shall henceforth be the policy of the United States that Israeli &#8220;settlements&#8221; — Jews living in the biblical Jewish heartland of Judea and Samaria — do not, by their very existence, violate international law.
&#8220;After carefully studying all sides of the legal debate, this [a]dministration agrees with President Reagan [that] [t]he establishment of Israeli civilian settlements in the West Bank is not per se inconsistent with international law,&#8221; Pompeo said. Former top Trump administration Middle East peace negotiator <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-trump-administration-right-un-can-never-josh-hammer">Jason Greenblatt</a> further broke down the administration&#8217;s move on <a href="https://images1.ynet.co.il/static/video/vpreview.html?m3u8=https://besttv227-hls-video-ynet.cdn.it.best-tv.com/1119/16c995093f4d46ed55f7bffed4c648f4/master.m3u8&amp;hd1080=0">Israeli television</a>: &#8220;The right [legal] result &#8230; is that Israeli settlements are not per se illegal,&#8221; he explained.
This is a <a href="https://twitter.com/josh_hammer/status/1196495392466231296">paradigm-altering</a> and inspired decision for which the Trump administration deserves effusive praise. It is manifestly correct on the black-letter <a href="https://www.youtube.com/embed/AYZBjoeeehg?autoplay=0">international law merits</a>, symbolic in its courageous defiance of the sclerotic groupthink of the ubiquitously anti-Semitic &#8220;international community,&#8221; and stakes out a bold moral starting point in the longstanding fight for Judea and Samaria — which is ground zero in the fight for Western civilization itself.
In many academic, legal, and political circles the world over, it is taken as something of an unassailable given that Israeli &#8220;settlements&#8221; built over the 1967 armistice line are illegal under well-established principles of international law. In reality, nothing could be further from the case. As legal academic Eugene Kontorovich has painstakingly <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYZBjoeeehg">pressed for years</a> and as Elliott Hamilton once <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-down-israeli-occupation-myth-elliott-hamilton">argued</a> here at The Daily Wire, it is Israel that actually has the preeminent modern-day legal claim to the biblical Jewish heartland of Judea and Samaria — a.k.a the &#8220;West Bank.&#8221;
Israel&#8217;s claim is based on the Balfour Declaration, the League of Nations&#8217; 1922 Mandate for Palestine, the San Remo Conference, <a href="https://www.algemeiner.com/2011/09/22/article-80-and-the-un-recognition-of-a-“palestinian-state”/">U.N. Charter Article 80</a>, the Arabs&#8217; decision to refuse the U.N.&#8217;s November 1947 partition plan in lieu of attempting to commit genocidal jihad against the Jews, and Israel&#8217;s subsequent victories in the defensive wars against invading Arab foes in both 1967 and 1973. The lands that today constitute Judea and Samaria were never, ever in their entire history part of a sovereign state called &#8220;Palestine&#8221;; on the contrary, they were merely <a href="http://www.sixdaywar.org/content/jordanianocuupationjerusalem.asp">illegally occupied</a> by the Hashemite kingdom of Jordan between Israel&#8217;s independence in 1948 and Israel&#8217;s miraculous victory in the Six Day War of 1967. Watch Kontorovich&#8217;s fuller explication of Israel&#8217;s clearly superior legal claim to Judea and Samaria:
<iframe title="Disputing Occupation: Israel&#039;s Borders and Settlements in International Law" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/AYZBjoeeehg?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Yet for all its black-letter legal correctness, the Trump administration&#8217;s decision is arguably even more indispensable for its pure symbolism. In reversing Obama presidency-era legal precedent and re-asserting the Reagan presidency-era belief that Israeli &#8220;settlements&#8221; are not legally problematic, the Trump administration has flipped two delectably brazen middle fingers at one of the most deeply held shibboleths of the leftist, <a href="https://theresurgent.com/2016/12/27/destroy-the-united-nations/">Jew-hating</a> &#8220;international community.&#8221; In left-leaning legal and political science academe circles, there is perhaps no more agreed-upon &#8220;truth&#8221; than the notion that Israel is an illegal &#8220;occupier&#8221; that flagrantly tramples all over Palestinian-Arabs&#8217; rights to sovereignty and self-determination. The Trump administration has just taken a jackhammer to that golden calf of ivory tower idolatry — and it has done so less than a week after the European Union&#8217;s <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/kalev-european-political-opposition-to-the-jewish-state-should-not-be-taken-lightly">anti-Semitic decision</a> to specifically label certain Israeli products made by Jews living in the biblical heartland of Judea and Samaria. Bravo — truly.
Finally, though it would not — and, indeed, does not — admit it, the Trump administration has also just staked out a morally righteous starting point in the final political resolution of the dispute between Israel and the Palestinian Authority over Judea and Samaria. Secretary Pompeo today was careful today to emphasize that the Trump administration&#8217;s legal proclamation bears no relationship to the ultimate political adjudication of Judea and Samaria&#8217;s status, and we ought to take him at his word that the administration did not intend to put its political or moral thumb on the scale. Indeed, given that the administration&#8217;s unveiling of its <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/fleisher-clash-american-liberal-jewry-and-israeli-yishai-fleisher">&#8220;Deal of the Century&#8221;</a> peace plan is still awaiting Israel durably securing a new parliamentary coalition, perhaps it would even be politically imprudent for the administration to do so.
But, at least indirectly, it seems to have done so nonetheless. By refusing to pay lip service to demonstrably erroneous legal fictions pertaining to Israel&#8217;s allegedly illegal &#8220;occupation&#8221; in Judea and Samaria, the Trump administration has — at least inadvertently — emboldened Israel&#8217;s political negotiating position. How could Israel not feel empowered to more adamantly push its political position vis-à-vis Judea and Samaria if it knows that the world&#8217;s greatest superpower and its <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-the-pro-israel-case-against-u-s-military-aid-to-israel">chief foreign aid</a> provider does not, in fact, view its purportedly most infamous illegality as not actually being illegal? Israel should feel more secure in its pushing for increased sovereignty over the ground zero battleground between liberalized Western civilization and barbaric jihad that is Judea and Samaria.
The Trump administration has, once again, shown its unmistakable and remarkable commitment to the irreplaceable American ally that is Israel. Thank you, President Trump.

Ariel, Israel

HAMMER: The Trump Administration Is Absolutely Correct To Call Israeli ‘Settlements’ Legal

Lawfare

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced during a press briefing on Monday that the Trump administration was reversing an Obama-era policy and now does not view Israel&#8217;s settlements in the West Bank as a violation of international law.
“Turning now to Israel,” Pompeo said after his opening remarks. “The Trump administration is reversing the Obama administration’s approach towards Israeli settlements. U.S. public statements on settlement activities in the West Bank have been inconsistent over decades.”
“In 1978, the Carter administration categorically concluded that Israel’s establishment of civilian settlements was inconsistent with international law,” Pompeo continued. “However, in 1981, President Reagan disagreed with that conclusion and stated that he didn’t believe that the settlements were inherently illegal.”
“Subsequent administrations recognized that unrestrained settlement activity could be an obstacle to peace, but they wisely and prudently recognized that dwelling on legal positions didn’t advance peace,” Pompeo continued. “However, in December 2016, at the very end of the previous administration, Secretary Kerry changed decades of this careful bipartisan approach by publicly reaffirming the supposed illegality of settlements.”
“After carefully studying all sides of the legal debate, this administration agrees with President Reagan,” Pompeo said. “The establishment of Israeli civilian settlements in the West Bank is not, per se, inconsistent with international law.”
“I want to emphasize several important considerations: First, we recognize that as Israeli courts have the legal conclusions relating to individual settlements, must depend on assessments of specific facts and circumstances on the ground,” Pompeo continued. “Therefore, the United States government is expressing no view on the legal status of any individual settlement.”
“The Israeli legal system affords an opportunity to challenge settlement activity and assess humanitarian conditions connected to it,” Pompeo continued. “Israeli courts have confirmed the legality of certain settlement activities and has concluded that others cannot be legally sustained.”
“Second, we’re not addressing or pre-judging the status of the West Bank, this is for the Israelis and the Palestinians to negotiate,” Pompeo added. “International law does not compel a particular outcome or create any legal obstacle to a negotiated resolution.” 
“Third, the conclusion that we will no longer recognize Israeli settlements as per se inconsistent with international law is based on the unique facts, history, and circumstances presented by the established civilian settlements in the West Bank,” Pompeo continued. “Our decision today does not prejudice or decide legal conclusions regarding situations in any other parts of the world.” 
“And finally, calling the establishment of civilian settlements inconsistent with international law hasn’t worked,” Pompeo concluded. “It hasn’t advanced the cause of peace. The hard truth is, there will never be a judicial resolution to the conflict and arguments about who is right or wrong as a matter of international law will not bring peace. This is a complex political problem that can only be solved by negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians. The United State remains deeply committed to helping facilitate peace and I will do everything I can to help this cause. The United States encourages the Israelis and Palestinians to resolve the status of settlements in the West Bank in any final status negotiations and further, we encourage both sides to find a solution that promotes and protects the security and welfare of Palestinians and Israelis alike.”
This is a breaking news story, refresh the page for updates.

Pompeo Netanyahu

BREAKING: Trump Administration Announces Major Policy Shift Toward Israel, No Longer Views Israel’s West Bank Settlements As Inconsistent With International Law

On November 15th, Twitter unveiled a new <a href="https://business.twitter.com/en/help/ads-policies/prohibited-content-policies/political-content.html">policy</a> that bans all political advertising on its platform. This comes during a time of intense scrutiny over the role social media platforms play in influencing political elections, notably the upcoming 2020 U.S. presidential election.
The decision brought forth a flurry of responses from both sides of the political aisle, with some praising the decision for reining in the power of wealthy elites, and others condemning it for its implications on freedom of expression — especially since Twitter, in particular, has become a hotbed for political discussion. In addition to banning ads concerning political candidates themselves, Twitter stated that it will ban ads that reference, among other things, political parties, elected officials, elections, legislation, judicial decisions, and advocacy ads for or against any of the aforementioned content.
Sound vague? That’s because it is. Sound subjective? Again, that’s because it is, at least according to Twitter legal advisor Vijaya Gadde, who <a href="https://twitter.com/vijaya/status/1195408746102411264">stated</a> that “inevitably there are some subjective areas” about the policy.
Despite all the hubbub surrounding the controversial decision, few have discussed its possible impact on the online pro-Israel community.
For decades, broad swaths of the mainstream Western media have treated Israel with anything from cold indifference to downright antipathy — so much so, in fact, that entire organizations have been established to combat the biases, inaccuracies, and misinformation peddled by many of these powerful news outlets.
However, the advent of social media caused a tectonic shift in the status quo by giving every individual the power to report and comment on the news as he or she saw it. The role of the mainstream media as information gatekeeper had waned, and the pro-Israel movement, as well as Israel itself, seized the opportunity to begin rectifying its tarnished image on the international stage. Social media became one of the focal points of Israel&#8217;s advocacy and public diplomacy efforts.
For example, on the governmental level, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has directly addressed the Iranian people in a <a href="https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/israel/180550-180730-watch-netanyahu-urges-help-for-iranian-people-in-new-english-language-video">powerful video</a> posted to social media, in which he urged them to show courage and oppose the oppressive Islamist regime. In a separate video, Netanyahu <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahu-offers-israeli-water-tech-to-solve-irans-growing-environmental-crisis/">offered</a> Israel’s revolutionary water purification technology to the drought-ridden Iran. On the civil society front, grassroots organizations have invented apps that utilize the near-universal availability of social media to generate traction for pro-Israel content and combat anti-Israel or anti-Semitic content. Yes, most online Israel advocacy is done without using ads, but it is far better to have the tool in our arsenal than to not have it at all.
So how does Twitter’s new policy affect the online pro-Israel movement? It is unclear exactly as of yet, since by Gadde’s own <a href="https://twitter.com/vijaya/status/1195408748560277504">admission</a>, the policy will evolve as the company receives more feedback. Yet there is still good reason to be apprehensive.
Indeed, it is possible that banning ads about political candidates and elected officials would hinder pro-Israel activists from highlighting the anti-Semitism of Congresswomen Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), as well as British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn. This could ease their paths to re-election, since they would face less in the way of online opposition.
Moreover, Israel advocates may not be able to promote ads criticizing anti-Israel judicial rulings, like the recent <a href="https://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Top-European-Court-to-rule-on-West-Bank-settler-product-labeling-today-607587">decision</a> by the European Court of Justice that dictated that Israeli goods produced in the disputed territories over the <a href="https://mfa.gov.il/mfa/aboutisrael/maps/pages/1949-1967%20armistice%20lines.aspx">1949 Armistice Lines</a> must be labeled as “settlement” products (despite no similar labeling being mandatory for goods produced in over 200 other <a href="https://mfa.gov.il/MFA/PressRoom/2019/Pages/Israel-strongly-rejects-recent-ECJ-ruling-12-November-2019.aspx">disputed territories</a> worldwide).
The Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement against Israel would certainly be considered a legislative issue according to Twitter’s parameters, especially since it has been brought up before for <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/us-house-overwhelmingly-passes-anti-bds-resolution/">debate</a> in both Congress and the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-germany-bds-israel/germany-designates-bds-israel-boycott-movement-as-anti-semitic-idUSKCN1SN204">parliaments</a> of other countries. Banning ads on legislative issues could potentially prevent activists from advocating against this evil movement that demonizes the Jewish state and aims for its ultimate destruction.
Some may argue that the new policy would harm the anti-Israel movement just as much as the pro-Israel community. But this argument is flawed.
While it may be true that both the pro-Israel and anti-Israel online communities are harmed by the policy, large news outlets will be exempt from it should they meet <a href="https://business.twitter.com/en/help/ads-policies/restricted-content-policies/political-content/issue-ads-news-exemption.html">specific criteria</a>. In the past, Twitter has defended exempting news outlets from certain transparency policies by <a href="https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/company/2018/Announcing-new-US-issue-ads-policy.html">arguing</a> that they “report on these issues, rather than advocate for or against them.” In other words, Twitter has relied on the objectivity of these organizations. Yet, as so many in the pro-Israel movement know, news outlets are far from objective.
To make a long story short, pro-Israel activists simply do not trust the mainstream media anymore to be the gatekeepers of truth. Instead, they rely on their own hard work and ingenuity to reach the truth on their own, and then to spread it as widely as possible.
Love the decision or hate it, we in the pro-Israel community must be wary of this new development and how it may influence other social media platforms that follow suit. Time will tell how exactly the new policy will impact the pro-Israel movement. If it becomes apparent that Israeli advocacy is disproportionately harmed by it, we must mount a forceful verbal opposition.

Twitter logo smartphone

FISCHBERGER: How Twitter&#8217;s New Ad Policy Impacts The Pro-Israel Movement

Twitter

Zionism

Since December 2017, a sort of “rolling rebellion” has been occurring across Iran. It is bigger, deeper and stronger than the Green Revolution of 2009 and taking place in great measure outside Tehran, <a href="https://www.jewishpolicycenter.org/2017/01/04/non-persian-iran/">where the population is more diverse</a>. There have been strikes of truckers, bazaar shopkeepers, teachers, farmers, and students. See #WhiteWednesday on Twitter to watch brave Iranian women go into the streets and take off their head coverings. Sometimes they dance. Sometimes their husbands, fathers, and brothers go with them. Sometimes they are arrested and sometimes they go to jail. Unfortunately, it took the <a href="https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2019-10-04/death-of-irans-blue-girl-casts-spotlight-on-iranian-women-and-a-growing-movement-for-equality">suicide of a young woman</a> facing seven years in prison for attending a soccer match to get the attention of the Western press.
In May of this year, <a href="https://www.jewishpolicycenter.org/2019/05/03/the-iranian-mullahs-are-nervous/">widespread upheaval</a> convulsed the country and thousands were arrested. This weekend, news of increasing protest in Iran comes from the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) — an organization with a mixed record of acceptance by the U.S. government, but with indisputable reach inside the country. According to NCRI’s Washington office, at least 65 cities have seen violent demonstrations, with people killed and injured by authorities. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/Mojahedineng/videos">Videos, presumably from cell phones</a>, show that pictures of the Ayatollah Khameini have been set on fire and demonstrators are chanting “Death to the Dictator” and “Death to Rouhani.” You can follow <a href="https://twitter.com/AlirezaNader">@AlirezaNader</a> for more.
As Iran spreads its tentacles abroad and builds its illegal nuclear capability, it is clear that the regime cannot fund domestic priorities and international revolution on the same budget — especially as that budget contracts.
Imperial overreach was the ruin of the Roman Empire, the Byzantines, Egyptians, Ottomans, Nazis, and Soviets. Could it be catching up with Iran? Wait, you say, Iran isn’t an empire. Not in the traditional sense. But it was always the belief of the hegemonic mullahs that instability across large regions, managed with a relatively small group of well-trained Iranian professionals and a lot of proxy fighters, would create a world in which Shiite supremacism held sway.
And it was working.
The Shiite Crescent — from Iran through Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon to the Mediterranean — was a “lid” over Iran’s Sunni enemies Saudi Arabia and Jordan, plus Israel. It was also a wedge between Sunni Turkey and the Sunni countries below — Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and the Gulf states. Most of the proxy soldiers were Iraqi militias, Lebanese Hezbollah, and Pakistanis and Afghans brought to Syria under the command of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The result was millions of Sunni Syrian refugees in the Middle East and Europe.
Sunni Hamas and Shiite Palestinian Islamic Jihad were both recipients of Iranian funds, weapons, and training to harass Israel.
There is also an underside Crescent, which is less well understood. It encircles the Gulf states and Saudi Arabia in the Gulf of Aden with a base in Yemen and a Houthi proxy at the bottom of the Red Sea, threatening the Bab el Mandeb Straits and the exit of Israel, Jordan, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia to the Gulf and the Indian Ocean. And the American base in Djibouti.
And Africa. Iran incubated Sunni jihadists in the poor, corrupt, and vulnerable states of the second tier — Sudan, Chad, Niger, and Mali. The result was waves of migrants headed north. The North African countries — Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria — were all in the NATO Mediterranean Dialogue group that helped control safety and security in the sea until the Obama administration toppled the Libyan government in 2011. Libya, no longer a member of the Dialogue, has become a hole in the dam through which hundreds of thousands of African migrants reached Europe.
But has the empire reached too far?
American-led sanctions have been an enormous financial blow to the mullahs, but sanctions are misunderstood. Not a mechanism for toppling a government, they are a means of forcing a government to make choices — between, revolution and agriculture, between weapons and water and sewer systems, between Palestinian jihadists and schools, and so forth. That is what Iran faced in 2011 and that is what led to the Iran/P5+1 negotiations. The fact that President Obama collapsed and paid off the mullahs allowed them to avoid those very choices and set back the operation by years and millions of deaths in the Middle East and Africa.
The restoration of sanctions means Iran has less to pay off its proxies — as well as less for its own people. European businesses, and even China, are leaving Iran and taking their money. Iran tried to compensate by stealing Iraqi oil.
And that’s where empire begins to break down.
There are explicitly anti-Iranian <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/bryen-missing-the-point-of-the-latest-middle-east-protests">riots in Lebanon and Iraq</a>. Hezbollah fighters have announced they will <a href="https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2019/1112/Inside-Hezbollah-How-Lebanon-protests-are-breaking-fear-barrier">refuse to return to Syria</a> for Iran. Iraqis have <a href="https://www.jewishpolicycenter.org/2019/10/29/missing-the-point-of-the-latest-middle-east-protests/">attacked Iranian bases and depots</a>. Follow <a href="https://twitter.com/HeshmatAlavi">@HeshmatAlavi</a> for the latest Iraqi moves and Iranian counter-moves. But most of the mainstream press isn’t there.
But the biggest changes may be coming in Iran itself.
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Shoshana Bryen is senior director of <a href="https://www.jewishpolicycenter.org/">The Jewish Policy Center</a>. Portions of this article appeared in the Jewish Policy Center magazine, inFOCUS Quarterly.

Iranian flag on conference table

BRYEN: Has The Iranian Empire Overreached?

Iran

Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps

Iraq

Lebanon

Nuclear Weapons

Radical Islam

Saudi Arabia

According to a <a href="https://www.jewishasu.com">Chabad of Arizona State University</a> (ASU) email forwarded along to The Daily Wire earlier today, the on-campus ASU Jewish community experienced a horrific act of anti-Semitism earlier this week. Worse still, this latest flare-up seems to be part of an ongoing troubling trend.
&#8220;The current semester has brought some alarming events with it,&#8221; the email from Rabbi Shmuel Tiechtel begins. &#8220;In the past months the State Press has printed multiple articles supporting the Antisemitic BDS movement. Horrible Antisemitism flyers were distributed on campus. And then there was the incident [on Wednesday night].&#8221;
The email from Rabbi Tiechtel went on to explain the details of a terrible interruption of an event from earlier this week at ASU that honored wounded veterans of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). The protesters — who, to once again emphasize, deemed it fit to protest an event honoring wounded IDF veterans — apparently spewed anti-Semitic, Jew-hating vitriol in an attempt to harass students  and possibly shut down the event in its entirety.
&#8220;Last night (Wednesday), here at Arizona State University, students wearing emblems of anti-Israel organizations, and waving signs encouraging violence against Jews, tried to shut down an event right here on campus in the Memorial Union,&#8221; the email explained. &#8220;We were hosting a special event together with Hillel, JAC, Students Supporting Israel and Stand with Us which featured Dor Moguiliansky and Aviv Yasmin Bar, two wounded IDF veterans who were going to share their stories. Before the event began, approximately 80 anti-Israel protesters sat in and blockaded the room where our event was supposed to be held and were screaming against Israel,&#8221; the email continued.
&#8220;Campus police asked us to move to another room in the [Memorial Union]. We went to the other room but those who espoused hate and anti-Israel slogans followed and tried to disrupt the event once again. ASU police had to stand guard at the door the entire event to make the Jewish students feel safe. Understandably, the protests caused many Jewish students to feel uncomfortable, many Jewish students felt intimidated and if not for the ASU police presence there, they would not have felt safe,&#8221; Rabbi Tiechtel wrote.
The incident brings to mind a similarly vile IfNotNow protest of an Austin, Texas, on-campus Chabad house-hosted Shabbat service from this past February, which The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hellenized-jews-ifnotnow-protesters-disrupt-josh-hammer">covered</a> at the time. The Chabad Jewish Center at the Univeristy of Texas-Austin described the affair in a <a href="https://www.jewishlonghorns.com/templates/blog/default_cdo/aid/1939391/jewish/Jewish-Longhorns-Blog.htm">blog post</a>:
<blockquote>A small group of students and young adults affiliated with [IfNotNow] decided it was a good time to protest a guest speaker, who was going to speak at our center later in the day: A sweet and soft-spoken IDF soldier.
Shockingly, these protesters spoke to my young children and gave them flyers. They also videotaped and photographed us on Chabad property, something which is traditionally prohibited on Shabbat for religious reasons. All of this didn’t happen during any speech, but during Shabbat morning prayers.
I’m not against protests, even if I disagree with the cause. But on Shabbat — during prayer services — really? There’s a time and place for protests. It would have been nice to see them show some respect while claiming to advocate dialogue, because there is none without the other.
It reminded me of a fringe religious group, who were very active a few years ago, and would find the most inappropriate times to demonstrate. They didn’t make any friends, but cruelly garnered a lot of media attention.</blockquote>

Arizona State football helmet

Anti-Semitism At Arizona State University Highlights Tense On-Campus Atmosphere For Jewish Students

Anti-Semitism

Arizona

A symbolic coincidence occurred earlier this week. In the same morning that Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists pounded Israeli towns with rockets, the <a href="https://fortune.com/2019/11/12/israel-european-ruling-wine-labels-diplomacy/">European Court of Justice affirmed a European Commission special labeling requirement</a> for Jewish-owned businesses in the West Bank.
Those two events are unrelated. Iranian-sponsored Islamic Jihad fired over 200 rockets in reaction to Israel intercepting its leader Bahaa Abu Al-Ata, who was responsible for numerous attacks on Israeli civilians. The European Court ruling was in reaction to an appeal filed by Psagot, an Israeli winery located in the West Bank, which was prohibited by the European Union (EU) from labeling its wines “made in Israel.”
The juxtaposition of those two assaults on Jewish sovereignty is indicative of the current state of Judaism, and the threats it faces: The jihadi one is a tactical threat that puts the lives of individual Jews in great danger, but it poses a strategic threat to neither Judaism nor the Jewish State. The European action, on the other hand, does not put any Jewish lives in direct danger, but it represents a strategic threat that is part of a string of European anti-Israel measures.
The history of Europe and Jewry has often been fraught. The feuds date back to the ancient Greek and Roman invasions of Judea, which were followed by European Jews’ centuries-long general refusal to assimilate out of existence. Tensions have since evolved. When Europe was more religious, it often deployed religion as the currency of its opposition to Jews. When Europe turned more secular, many came to oppose Jews through a more national and ethnic opposition to Judaism. Toward the end of the 19th century, this new form of Jew-hatred got a name: Anti-Semitism.
While many European countries are today strong allies of Israel, the re-establishment of the Jewish state and its astonishing success seem to have provided a new outlet for European anti-Semitism. Indeed, it is hard to explain the European product-labeling directive on its merits, as it inflicts more damage to Palestinians than it does to Jewish-owned businesses in the West Bank. Those businesses employ Palestinians and some of them mentor Palestinians. European efforts to sabotage Palestinian employment in Jewish-owned businesses do not end with the product-labeling decree, and stand in sharp contrast to the U.S. policy of encouraging coexistence and business cooperation. For example, Europeans spent ample funds and political resources to pressure SodaStream to close its West Bank factory. Europe was successful, and hundreds of Palestinians lost their jobs as a result.
Europeans claim that such actions are meant to help Palestinians. The notion that a European would know what is better for an individual Palestinian is regrettably a recurring theme in Europe’s disruptive intervention in Israeli-Palestinian affairs. Many European countries support NGOs and U.N. agencies, such as UNWRA, that promote Palestinian victimhood and rob Palestinians of opportunities to reap the benefits of the start-up nation next door. Perhaps even worse, many European countries supported or abstained on ludicrous UNESCO resolutions implying that Jews and Christians have no historical connections to Jerusalem.
The repeated rounds of attacks from Palestinian terrorists, such as the current one, will be contained. The repeated rounds of political hostility from Europe, on the other hand, requires more attention than is currently given.
Indeed, it is time for Europe to end its intervention in Israeli-Palestinian affairs and focus its energy and capital on its own problems. There are no shortage of those: Europe’s conflict with radical Islam, the debate about the essence of Europeanism, the potential secession of EU member-states, Europe’s battle with home-grown terrorism, as well as the long list of unresolved intra-European conflicts that were temporarily shoved under the rug.
Projecting or blaming Israel will not make European problems go away. In fact, it might awaken them: If the EU insists that Psagot winery needs to remove from its labels “made in Israel,” then some might argue that the EU should also prohibit wine produced in Italian-controlled South Tyrol from being labeled “made in Italy.” Similarly, the EU might preclude wine made in Corsica from being labeled “made in France,” and in Catalonia from being labeled “made in Spain.”
No matter what the EU says, the reality remains that Psagot, as well as the dozens of other West Bank wineries, continue to produce superb Israeli wine that reap award after award in international tasting competitions. Perhaps instead of escalating the feud with the Jewish state, EU politicians and bureaucrats should change course and benefit from the great blessings that are coming out of Israel.
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Gol Kalev analyzes trends in Zionism, Europe and global affairs. For more of his articles: <a href="http://europeandjerusalem.com">europeandjerusalem.com</a><a href="http://europeandjerusalem.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://europeandjerusalem.com&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1573746251659000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGN3aLV_J5u3l1Byp8enDBgEXoRnw">.</a>

Close-up on the EU flag.

KALEV: European Political Opposition To The Jewish State Should Not Be Taken Lightly

Europe

European Union

Approximately 360 rockets have been fired into Israel from the Gaza Strip since Israel’s targeted airstrike on Palestinian terrorist leader Baha Abu al-Ata, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Thanks to Israel’s Iron Dome System, however, more than 90% of those rockets have been intercepted.
An IDF spokesperson told The Daily Wire that Chief of the General Staff, Lt. Gen. Aviv Kohavi, “visited the area of the Gaza Division with the Commanding Officer of the Southern Command, Maj. Gen. Herzi Halevi, the Commanding Officer of the Ground Forces, Maj. Gen. Yoel Strick, the Commanding Officer of the Gaza Division, Brig. Gen. Eliezer Toledano and additional division officers.”
Kohavi has conducted a situation assessment in the field with those officers and was briefed on the current situation. Kohavi was also briefed on Israel’s preparations to counter future Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) threats, including the use of anti-tank and sniper fire.
In a series of <a href="https://app.activetrail.com/S/eiwixajfjff.htm">press releases</a>, the IDF announced its aircraft had “targeted a number of Islamic Jihad terror targets in the Gaza Strip.”
“Among the sites struck were several rocket launchers, located above and below ground, as well as an underground terror infrastructure and operations rooms of the Islamic Jihad terror organization,” one press release said. “In addition, earlier today, three terror operatives launched rockets at Israeli territory from the northern Gaza Strip. In response, a short while ago, an IDF aircraft targeted the operatives. A hit was identified.”
In another <a href="https://app.activetrail.com/S/eiwixajwx33.htm">press release</a>, the IDF said it had completed “an additional strike on Islamic Jihad terror targets throughout the Gaza Strip.”
“A primary rocket warhead manufacturing facility where rockets and unique raw materials used for long-ranged rockets are produced in the southern Gaza Strip was among the targets struck. In this strike, the IDF increased the rate of its attacks and the type of targets,” the IDF reported.
The IDF said that it also targeted the PIJ’s Khan Yunis headquarters &#8212; a weapons storage site. The site was in the home of Adam Abu-Hadayid, a PIJ operative in its rocket-launching unit.
The IDF Navy also targeted a PIJ naval commando unit vessel, which was used to train terrorists for future maritime attacks.
On Tuesday, The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/palestinian-terrorist-killed-in-israeli-airstrike-afp-calls-him-simply-palestinian">reported</a> that the IDF killed al-Ata in a targeted airstrike at his home. The PIJ responded by launching more than 200 rockets to Israel.
The Left-leaning Amnesty International announced on Twitter that it was condemning Israel’s “attack on the Palestinian Independent Commission for Human Rights whose office in Gaza was struck by an Israeli missile earlier this morning.” The organization said strikes “targeting civilian buildings is a violation of international law.”
Amnesty had to follow up that tweet by explaining there was “conflicting information” regarding the hit on the ICHR’s office after people said that it was not an Israeli airstrike but a misfired rocket from Gaza. Rather than apologize for immediately blaming Israel, Amnesty called for an impartial investigation into the situation.
This reporting blunder comes after the Agence Free-Presse declined to call al-Ata a terrorist in its tweets regarding his death. The AFP merely reported that a “Palestinian” was killed by Israel, giving the impression that it was an innocent civilian.
Update: Article updated to include newly released statistics from the IDF.

Palestine Israel Conflict

IDF: 360 Rockets Have Been Fired From Gaza Into Israel Since We Killed Palestinian Terrorist

A Palestinian terrorist leader was killed in an Israeli airstrike Tuesday morning, yet the Agence France-Presse referred to him simply as a “Palestinian.”
In a tweet thread announcing  the death of Baha Abu al-Ata, a senior leader of the militant group Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), the AFP first reported, simply, “Breaking: Palestinian killed in new Israel strike in Gaza: Hamas ministry.”
A follow-up tweet contained the European Union’s demand for a “rapid and complete de-escalation” after Israel struck Gaza. The next tweet in the thread is the only one that mentions that the Palestinian killed was a terrorist. “VIDEO: Israel&#8217;s military has killed a commander for the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad in a strike in the Gaza Strip, prompting retaliatory rocket fire,” the tweet said.
The final tweet in the thread just repeated: “Breaking Palestinian killed in new Israeli strike: Gaza ministry.”
The thread ignores important context surrounding al-Ata’s death. Other media outlets provided that context. The Times of Israel <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-girds-for-several-days-of-fighting-after-some-150-rockets-fired-at-israel/">reported</a> that the country launched the targeted attack on al-Ata, whom Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanya called the “chief terrorist in Gaza.”
&#8220;He initiated, planned and carried out many terrorist attacks. He fired hundreds of rockets at communities in the area adjacent to the Gaza Strip, whose suffering we have seen,&#8221; Netanyahu said at a press conference in Tel Aviv. &#8220;He was in the midst of planning additional attacks in the immediate short term. He was a ticking bomb.&#8221;
In response, more than 150 rockets have been fired at Israel since al-Ata’s death. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reportedly shot down 50 of the rockets, and did not retaliate for six hours. The BBC <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-50386164">reported</a> that 17 Israelis were “lightly wounded” in attacks, including an eight-year-old girl who is now in stable condition.
In addition to al-Ata, Israel also struck the home of a second PIJ leader in the Syrian capital of Damascus, according to Syria’s state news agency.
The AFP’s tweets ignoring why the “Palestinian” was killed is reminiscent of the obituary The Washington Post wrote for ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s death. Al-Baghdadi was the world’s top terrorist and killed himself by blowing up himself and several members of his family to avoid U.S. capture. The Post originally headlined its obituary: “Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Islamic State’s ‘terrorist-in-chief,’ dies at 48.” The headline was then changed to refer to al-Baghdadi as an “austere religious scholar at helm of Islamic State.” The headline was changed again to call al-Baghdadi the “extremist leader of Islamic State.”
The Post’s article wrote of al-Baghdadi in far more favorable terms than other terrorists.
“Acquaintances would remember him as a shy, nearsighted youth who liked soccer but preferred to spend his free time at the local mosque,” the Post wrote of the terrorist leader.
This was a different tone than the Post struck when Osama bin Laden was killed during the Obama administration. Bin Laden was called the “leader of terrorist group al-Qaeda” when he died, with no headline changes. Further, the Post waited until the 34th paragraph in its article to acknowledge that al-Baghdadi was a serial rapist of women he held as sex slaves.

Baha abu al-Ata

Palestinian Terrorist Killed In Israeli Airstrike. AFP Calls Him Simply &#8216;Palestinian.&#8217;

Terrorism

With fires raging constantly in California, no one would reasonably argue to cut the firefighters’ budget. Yet several leading Democratic presidential candidates recently called for cutting American military aid to Israel despite it increasingly acting as the primary bulwark against rising Iranian aggression and instability across the Middle East. Now is not the time to reduce Israeli military capabilities, but to enhance them.
Just three years after President Obama signed the current 10-year military aid package to Israel, saying it would “make sure that Israel has the full capabilities it needs in order to keep the Israeli people safe … and defend itself, by itself, against any threat,” several Democratic presidential candidates are threatening to void that commitment.
Speaking at the J Street National Conference recently, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), an influential leader of the Democratic base and party, blamed Israel for the dire conditions in Gaza. He argued, “If you [Israel] want military aid, you are going to have to fundamentally change your relationship to the people of Gaza,” adding that “it is fair to say that some of that should go right now into humanitarian aid in Gaza.” Gaza is controlled by the virulently anti-Semitic, anti-Israel <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-israel-must-destroy-hamas-once-and-all-josh-hammer">Islamic extremist organization Hamas</a> — which is armed by Iran, is a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, and regularly launches missile attacks against Israeli civilians. Sanders’ position effectively means a permanent reduction in U.S. military aid to Israel while rewarding Hamas for immiserating Gaza.
South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg suggested a U.S. military aid cut if Israel annexed the West Bank. And Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), the seeming Democratic frontrunner, said a couple weeks ago: “It is the official policy of the United States of America to support a two-state solution, and if Israel is moving in the opposite direction, then everything is on the table.”
Yet former Vice President Joe Biden rejected conditioning Israel aid as “absolutely outrageous” and a “gigantic mistake.” His view is obviously important and welcome, but his policy views don’t seem to resonate with the Democratic base; his political position, furthermore, is slipping.
The focus on conditioning Israeli aid is a very recent phenomenon. Elizabeth Warren co-sponsored a security assistance bill declaring it the policy of the United States “to ensure that Israel maintains its ability to counter and defeat any credible conventional military, or emerging, threat from any individual state or possible coalition of states or from non-state actors.” This passed the Senate in August 2018 with no objection from Bernie Sanders.
The new position for conditioning or cutting military aid to Israel based on the Palestinian-Arab situation misunderstands the purpose of the aid.
U.S. aid doesn’t go to the Israeli government for discretionary spending, but to defense contractors that are overwhelmingly U.S. companies — thereby providing jobs for American workers, who then provide the weapons to Israel.
More important, cutting military support for Israel would undermine U.S. interests. America needs a strong Israel to lighten our own military footprint and financial commitment in the Middle East, as the Democratic presidential candidates all claim they seek. We also need a strong Israel to help reduce threats to U.S. interests in the region.
Israel is an asset of growing importance in confronting the Middle East’s twin threatening forces: Sunni radicalism and Iran’s regional and nuclear expansionism.
With its relentless attacks in Syria, as well as increasingly in Lebanon and Iraq, the democratic Jewish state is the only actor effectively rolling back Iran and its proxies in the region. These proxies pose an existential threat not only to the Jewish state, but also to American allies Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Jordan. Israel is working with Egypt to fight ISIS in Sinai and the Muslim Brotherhood (Hamas) in Gaza. It is working with the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan to protect it from external and internal enemies. The more active the Israeli military is, the less active U.S. soldiers need to be in the region.
America strategically needs a strong Israel now more than ever. Instead of threatening to cut military aid, the U.S. should now be focused on bolstering Israel’s military and deterrent capabilities. For example, accelerating delivery of weapons to Israel, replenishing and updating U.S. weapons prepositioned in Israel, undertaking more joint research and development, elevating Israel’s status for sharing military technology and intelligence with the United States, and concluding a narrowly defined mutual defense pact.
Recently, House Republicans overwhelmingly voted with Democrats to reject President Trump’s policy on Syria. Now congressional Democrats should work with Republicans to reject leading Democratic presidential candidates’ demands to cut aid to Israel, and work with President Trump to bolster Israel’s military and deterrent capabilities.
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Michael Makovsky, a former Pentagon official in the George W. Bush administration, is president and CEO of the <a href="https://jinsa.org">Jewish Institute for National Security of America</a> (JINSA).

U.S. and Israel flags

MAKOVSKY: Calls To Cut Aid To Israel Detrimental To U.S. Interests

Military

<a href="https://jstreet.org">J Street</a> has long been one of the most pernicious anti-Israel groups operating in the open. Untold amounts of ink have been <a href="https://www.chicagomaroon.com/article/2013/12/3/letter-j-street-liberals-fundamentally-misunderstand-pro-israel/">spilled</a> revealing the self-described &#8220;political home of pro-Israel, pro-peace Americans&#8221; for the <a href="https://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/politics/222366-j-street-pro-progressive-not-pro-israel">highly biased</a>, anti-Israel, <a href="http://www.thetower.org/article/anti-zionism-of-j-street/">Palestinian-Arab apologist</a> organization that it is.
For years following its 2007 founding by leftist activist Jeremy Ben-Ami, J Street operated on the outermost fringes of the institutional pro-Israel and Jewish communities. But the years-long success of the <a href="http://www.thetower.org/article/open-hillel-is-a-much-bigger-problem-than-you-think/">insidious</a> &#8220;Open Hillel&#8221; movement helped to ingratiate J Street, which routinely assails Israeli governmental policy and never seems to find any fault with Islamist terror acts committed against the Jewish state, within some more mainstream elements of the American Jewish community. And as Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief Ben Shapiro recently wrote, the modern Democratic Party feels more at home within the J Street fold than it does within the ambit of the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-what-exactly-current-role-aipac-josh-hammer">moderate</a> pro-Israel group AIPAC:
<blockquote>[T]he heart of the Democratic Party has moved against Israel. &#8230; So the Democrats built up and gave credence to J Street, a Trojan horse group dedicated to undermining American support for Israel and justifying left-wing hatred of the Jewish state. J Street was founded by Clinton operative Jeremy Ben-Ami and Israeli far-left political figure Daniel Levy in late 2007. One of its chief sources of funding — a source obscured in the early years by its founders — was anti-Israel radical George Soros.</blockquote>
Accordingly, four candidates for the 2020 Democratic Party presidential nomination — South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Rep. Julian Castro (D-TX), and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) — spoke last month at the <a href="https://jstreet.org/conference/">J Street National Conference</a>. By contrast, not a single 2020 Democratic Party presidential candidate spoke at the <a href="http://www.policyconference.org">AIPAC Policy Conference</a> last spring.
Now, the indispensable Legal Insurrection website has <a href="https://legalinsurrection.com/2019/11/j-street-radicalization-conference-speaker-compares-netanyahu-to-louis-farrakhan-and-stands-by-tamika-mallory/">highlighted</a> a particularly vile and irksome exchange that emanated from the bowels of the conference. It appears that April Baskin, who has the titles of &#8220;Racial Justice Director, Jewish Social Justice Roundtable&#8221; and &#8220;Founder/Principal, Joyous Justice Consulting,&#8221; defended noted <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-womens-march-president-suggests-jews-are-ryan-saavedra">anti-Semite Tamika Mallory</a> and expressly compared infamous <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1984/07/17/us/farrakhan-again-describes-hitler-as-a-very-great-man.html">anti-Semite</a> Louis Farrakhan to longtime Israeli Prime Minister <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-after-much-electoral-fanfare-israelis-once-josh-hammer">Benjamin Netanyahu</a>. Per <a href="https://legalinsurrection.com/2019/11/j-street-radicalization-conference-speaker-compares-netanyahu-to-louis-farrakhan-and-stands-by-tamika-mallory/">Legal Insurrection</a>:
<blockquote>[P]anelist April Baskin said that white supremacy is &#8220;woven into Jewish life in America.&#8221; She also said there are things she &#8220;hates&#8221; about the Jewish community — including her belief that Jews have a &#8220;propensity&#8221; to &#8220;complain.&#8221; &#8230;
Later in the session, Baskin declared her support for the disgraced Tamika Mallory. Mallory’s downfall culminated in early 2019 when when it emerged that she maintained a close relationship with the anti-Semitic conspiracy theorist and Nation of Islam leader, Louis Farrakhan. Mallory, the ex-Women’s March leader, refused to condemn Farrakhan and even posted a picture calling the anti-Semite &#8220;the GOAT (greatest of all time).&#8221;</blockquote>
Perhaps most egregiously of all, Baskin compared infamous Jew-hater Farrakhan to Netanyahu: &#8220;Tamika Mallory being pictured with with Louis Farrakhan, honestly, isn’t that different to me than my former boss, Rabbi Rick Jacobs, being seated with prime minister Netanyahu. In both cases, they both largely don’t agree with their politics, but in both cases, those are leaders who are connected to a large body of people.&#8221;
As of publication time, it seems that none of the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates who spoke at last month&#8217;s J Street National Conference have condemned Baskin&#8217;s vicious smear. Surprise, surprise.

Netanyahu election night

J Street Conference Speaker Compares Benjamin Netanyahu To Louis Farrakhan

American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC)

J Street

Leftism

Louis Farrakhan

Progressivism

Last week, a pro-Israel group called <a href="https://theisraelgroup.org">The Israel Group</a> launched an important campaign in the broader fight back against the anti-Israel hostility that pervades high-profile media and educational institutions.
The Israel Group, which <a href="https://theisraelgroup.org/about-the-israel-group/">describes</a> itself as &#8220;a nonprofit that protects Israel in the diaspora by developing and launching initiatives to cripple the [Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions] (BDS) movement against at Israel&#8221; and features many powerful Jewish/pro-Israel individuals on the organization&#8217;s board of advisors, began rolling out its &#8220;<a href="https://theisraelgroup.org/wikipedias-war-against-israel/">Battle Against Wikipedia</a>.&#8221; According to The Israel Group, Wikipedia is the fifth most trafficked website but is ranked number one in terms of both global online educational resources, more generally, and dissemination of anti-Israel propaganda, in particular. The Israel Group&#8217;s website <a href="https://theisraelgroup.org/wikipedias-war-against-israel/">describes</a> the importance of the project:
<blockquote>For more than a decade, Wikipedia — the number one online educational resource globally — has allowed anonymous anti-Israel editors to falsely and negatively alter Israel’s factual history in Wikipedia articles pertaining to the Arab-Israeli and Israeli-Palestinian conflicts.
A cabal of virulently anti-Israel anonymous editors is responsible for decimating virtually the entire pro-Israel editing community. Volunteer &#8220;administrators&#8221; (with lifetime positions), responsible for overseeing the editing process of Wikipedia, have not only allowed anti-Israel editors freedom to take over Wikipedia, they have participated by blocking and banning predominantly Jewish and pro-Israel editors. &#8230;
The Israel Group has been working for many years, under the radar, on a confidential initiative, Wiki-Israel, that combats Wikipedia’s antisemitic bias against Israel. The initiative includes a dedicated website that, among many other things, shows how anti-Israel editors smear Israel — both subtly and overtly — across hundreds of articles, and how the pro-Israel community can stop it.</blockquote>
While the formal launch of the project is not set to commence until January 2020, The Israel Group has teased the endeavor&#8217;s formal launch by already divulging the identities of what it has deemed to be the two most notorious anti-Israel editors on all of Wikipedia: Brendan McKay, a math scientist at the Australian National University (described by The Israel Group as &#8220;the unofficial leader of the entire cabal of anti-Israel Wikipedia editors&#8221;), and Peter Nicholas Dale, an Australian author born in 1950 (described by The Israel Group as &#8220;the most prolific and proficient&#8221; of the Wikipedia&#8217;s anti-Israel editors).
Reached for exclusive comment by The Daily Wire, Jack Saltzberg, The Israel Group&#8217;s founder and president, provided the following:
<blockquote>For more than a decade, there have been many articles and blog posts calling attention to Wikipedia’s clear bias against Israel. Generally these complaints vanish into the ether. Even worse, too many people insist, &#8220;Wikipedia is meaningless, nobody takes it seriously,&#8221; or &#8220;I never go to Wikipedia.&#8221; Both statements couldn’t be faultier. As Wikipedia <a href="https://wikiedu.org/partnerships/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://wikiedu.org/partnerships/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1573373339611000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFRKHTkg5jg34hftU0s2K06-uc_Fw">itself states</a>, &#8220;As the top online educational resource on the planet, with more links from search engines than any other site, Wikipedia is one of the most powerful platforms for the dissemination of knowledge.&#8221; Additionally, a <a href="https://firstmonday.org/article/view/2830/2476" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://firstmonday.org/article/view/2830/2476&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1573373339611000&amp;usg=AFQjCNG-aPn3v82LEpOmKz4xxY5iLcT9OQ">majority of university students now</a> use Wikipedia for background information.
The [BDS] campaigns waged against Israel have succeeded through the promulgation of lies, smears, and libels against Israel; and Wikipedia is the number one vehicle substantiating, reinforcing, and disseminating that false propaganda.
As an organization established for one reason — to help cripple the BDS movement — The Israel Group decided five years ago that stopping Wikipedia’s anti-Israel bias is the most important endeavor in the war against BDS. Subsequently, The Israel Group has, under the radar and confidentially, been researching and battling the anti-Semitism and anti-Israel radicalism inside Wikipedia’s pages related to the Arab-Israeli and Israeli-Palestinian conflicts.
The Israel Group has identified the primary anti-Israel offenders who go to extremes and use an array of techniques to illegitimately silence and block pro-Israel editors.
They’ve spent more than a decade — both subtly and overtly — embedding anti-Israel rhetoric within nearly 1,000 Wikipedia articles. The Israel Group is the first to publicly expose the true identities of the two leading anti-Israel anonymous Wikipedia editors. &#8230;
When the Wiki-Israel initiative launches in January 2020, we will not only reveal the depth of the problem and its many challenging aspects, but we&#8217;ll also guide people who care about Israel on how they can become experienced editors capable of fighting back.
The Israel Group has also investigated other related subjects and groups that receive similar smears and libels — namely, Christians and conservatives. For many years, those on the Right, especially those who support Israel, have been well aware of Wikipedia&#8217;s bias against them. In 2020, the Wiki-Israel initiative will reveal innovative, original research quantifying and proving this bias beyond a reasonable doubt, exposing the methods and madness of the political activists who have hijacked the world&#8217;s most popular and largest encyclopedia.</blockquote>
Godspeed to a valiant and indispensable organization. Sunlight, as Justice Louis Brandeis once said, is oftentimes the best disinfectant.

Wikipedia

Pro-Israel Group Launches Initiative Fighting Back Against Anti-Israel Wikipedia Editors

Media Bias

Today, news broke that former New York City mayor and prominent billionaire philanthropist Michael Bloomberg is considering tossing his hat into the dystopian ring that is the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primary. The Wall Street Journal <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/michael-bloomberg-preparing-to-enter-2020-democratic-race-11573167459?mod=hp_lead_pos3">quotes</a> a Bloomberg adviser named Howard Wolfson, who suggests that the main reason Bloomberg might jump in is his fear that none of the current 2020 Democrats can defeat President Donald Trump at the ballot box.
<blockquote>
&#8220;Mike believes that Donald Trump represents an unprecedented threat to our nation,&#8221; Mr. Wolfson said.
&#8220;Mike is increasingly concerned that the current field of candidates is not well positioned to [defeat Trump],&#8221; Mr. Wolfson said. &#8220;If Mike runs he would offer a new choice to Democrats built on a unique record running America’s biggest city, building a business from scratch and taking on some of America’s toughest challenges as a high-impact philanthropist.&#8221;
</blockquote>
By all means, Bloomberg should enter the fray if he feels called to do so. But we should not mince words here: There is no chance whatsoever that Bloomberg would successfully win the Democratic presidential nomination if he were to enter the field. And the chief reason for that is very simple. Bloomberg would have no shot because he is a somewhat sane person who would be seeking the presidential nomination of a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-democratic-party-has-become-parody-itself-josh-hammer">fully insane</a> political party.
Bloomberg, who has made a veritable fortune over the course of a lifetime working in the financial services industry, is an ex-Republican who openly identifies as a <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2019/01/30/bloomberg_we_shouldnt_be_embarrassed_about_capitalism_non-capitalistic_venezuela_is_collapsing.html">capitalist</a>. But he would be seeking the presidential nomination of a political party whose grassroots <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/240725/democrats-positive-socialism-capitalism.aspx">increasingly identify</a> as more socialistic than capitalistic. He would be seeking the presidential nomination of a political party in which the leading sources of disagreement over the course of the past few televised primary debates have been whether the harebrained &#8220;Medicare for All&#8221; nostrums has a bankrupting price tag best estimated at $40 trillion or $50 trillion, and whether it is appropriate to literally eliminate private health insurance for over a hundred million American citizens while implementing that quixotic socialized medicine scheme.
Bloomberg, furthermore, is nothing if not a lifelong friend of the Jewish state of Israel. In 2014, when anti-Israel President Barack Obama oversaw a temporary <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/transportation/213288-obama-defends-israel-flight-ban">U.S. flight ban</a> to Israel amidst the jihadist rocket fire that rained down on the Jewish state that summer from the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-israel-must-destroy-hamas-once-and-all-josh-hammer">Hamas</a>-controlled Gaza Strip, Bloomberg personally <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2014-07-23/why-i-flew-to-israel">flew to Israel</a> solely to demonstrate to his fellow Americans that it was safe to do so. Bloomberg may not be a hardcore <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-the-pro-israel-case-against-u-s-military-aid-to-israel">Caroline Glick-style Zionist</a>, but he is, at minimum, an AIPAC-style pro-Israel advocate. But the modern Democratic Party is no longer an AIPAC-style pro-Israel political party. On the contrary, the 2020 Democrats now shirk AIPAC en masse in favor of obeisance at the sycophantically pro-Palestinian altar of the vehemently anti-Israel group <a href="https://www.creators.com/read/ben-shapiro/10/19/the-j-street-democrats">J Street</a>.
Additionally, it must be noted that Bloomberg, while hardly Orthodox in identification, is nonetheless proudly and publicly Jewish. This too is a problem for the modern Democratic Party, which extols the virtues of Holocaust deniers like Palestinian Authority chieftain Mahmoud Abbas, glorifies Jew-haters like Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), and is being rapidly Corbynized into an <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-stark-choice-facing-jewish-democrats-josh-hammer">overtly anti-Semitic</a> political vehicle. It is difficult to see how Bloomberg&#8217;s proud Jewishness counts, in the eyes of today&#8217;s Democratic Party, as anything other than a net negative.
Bloomberg would have no chance for the Democratic presidential nomination were he to formally enter the fray. He is a sane Jew who would be seeking the presidential nomination in a fully insane, socialist, increasingly Jew-hating political party.

Michael Bloomberg.

HAMMER: Michael Bloomberg Would Have No Chance At The Democratic Presidential Nomination

2020 Election

Capitalism

Michael Bloomberg

One of the few points of unbounded bipartisan agreement in Washington has for decades been that U.S.-Israel security cooperation is right, good, mutually beneficial, and worth every nickel spent on it. It is well–grounded in facts and has acknowledged benefits to both sides.
However, at the J Street Conference last week, left-of-center political candidates and hostile-to-Israel speakers questioned the utility of American aid to Israel except, perhaps, as “leverage” to force Israel to meet their left-of-center and hostile-to-Israel demands. Candidates were willing to “explore” the issue. But it was left to J Street president, Jeremy Ben-Ami, to get to the heart of the conversation – Ben Ami isn’t interested in “leverage,” but in de-legitimizing the aid. “American aid is not intended to be a blank check. As Israel receives that $3.8 billion in aid, what is it being used for?”
Actually, it’s not, a secret. The United States is Israel’s ally of first choice. And Israel remains the one country the United States can rely upon to defend itself by itself and in coordination with American interests. And most of the money is then spent by Israel in the U.S.
The origins of U.S.-Israel security cooperation are in the Cold War understanding that the United States could not engage all the adversaries of all its allies and friends around the world. It was embraced warily at first — the Americans were unconvinced they would receive anything of value and the Israelis were concerned about continued freedom of action. But it worked. Israel went from being considered a net security consumer to a net security producer, meaning the United States did not have to expend resources to defend Israel. And Israel participated in making the Middle East and eastern Mediterranean regions more secure due to its presence.
The following list of Israeli assets was developed in 1979 as a “quick reference guide” to security cooperation:
<ul>
<li>A secure location in a crucial part of the world</li>
<li>A well-developed military infrastructure</li>
<li>The ability to maintain, service, and repair U.S.-origin equipment</li>
<li>An excellent deep-water port in Haifa</li>
<li>Modern air facilities</li>
<li>A position close to sea lanes and ability to project power over long distances</li>
<li>A domestic air force larger than many in Western Europe and possessing more up-to-date hardware</li>
<li>Multilingual capabilities, including facility in English, Arabic, French, Farsi, and the languages of the (former) Soviet Union</li>
<li>Combat familiarity with Soviet/Russian-style tactics and equipment</li>
<li>The ability to assist U.S. naval fleets, including common equipment</li>
<li>The ability to support American operations and to provide emergency air cover</li>
<li>A democratic political system with a strong orientation to support the United States and the NATO system</li>
</ul>
Added in 1996: Israel’s military research and development capabilities complement those of the U.S. Its intelligence services cooperate closely with ours — to our benefit. And large numbers of American troops train in Israel.
Added in 2006: The establishment of police-to-police counterterrorism training in Israel.
Nothing has ever been removed.
Not a single American serviceperson needs to be stationed in Israel. Aside from training missions, there have been American soldiers stationed in Israel since 2009, only working with the American/Israeli co-designed X-band radar system — a deployment that helps the U.S. and Israel monitor threats from the east.
Israel’s missile defense capabilities — developed and produced in conjunction with American industry — not only protect Israel from Hamas and Hezbollah missiles, but protect the United States from emerging threats from North Korea and Iran. Various branches of the U.S. military have purchased a variety of Israeli-developed systems and participated in joint development of anti-tunnel defenses, the Arrow Missile Program, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Plane, THEL Laser Program, the Advanced Urban Combat Training Facility, as well as Iron Dome.
Israel has been a partner in U.S. and multi-lateral military exercises for years; interestingly, Israel and the United Arab Emirates flew together in one. Combined exercises have taken place on NATO territory, in the U.S., in Israel (where the Luftwaffe flew above Israeli territory, making a few people blink), and the Pacific Ocean. Not a single country has opted out due to Israel having opted in.
The two countries are drawn together by common values and common threats. The bipartisan support of our ally Israel has been a testament to those values, as well as to the practical recognition that the threats require cooperation in intelligence, technology, and security policy.
The volatility of the Middle East is unlikely to be constrained. The United States, desirous of removing its soldiers from the region even as it understands the risk attendant to a resurgent Russia and increasingly desperate Iran, is as much in need of capable allies now as it ever was.  It would be a shame if rampant J Street politicization of the relationship were allowed to do damage.
&nbsp;
Shoshana Bryen is senior director of <a href="https://www.jewishpolicycenter.org/">The Jewish Policy Center</a>. Portions of this article appeared in the Jewish Policy Center magazine, inFOCUS Quarterly.

BRYEN: U.S.-Israel Security Cooperation Is A Win-Win

National Security

United Arab Emirates (UAE)

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/who-will-win-democratic-primary-latest-2020-josh-hammer">Leading</a> 2020 Democratic Party presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has come under fire, of late, for her <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-elizabeth-warren-says-shes-open-to-cutting-off-aid-to-israel">suggestion</a> that U.S. foreign aid to our ally Israel could become jeopardized by an oh-so-very obstinate Israeli governmental refusal to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-yes-palestinian-state-far-more-dangerous-josh-hammer">commit national suicide</a> at the jihadist altar of the &#8220;two-state solution&#8221; cartel. &#8220;It is the official policy of the United States of America to support a two-state solution,&#8221; Warren <a href="https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1186052533405528067?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1186052533405528067&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailywire.com%2Fnews%2Fwatch-elizabeth-warren-says-shes-open-to-cutting-off-aid-to-israel">intoned</a>, &#8220;and if Israel is moving in the opposite direction, then everything is on the table.&#8221; Similarly, today comes news that fellow 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg <a href="https://twitter.com/merica/status/1191415957731848192">believes</a> that the U.S. must &#8220;take steps to make sure th[at] US taxpayers [are] not contributing&#8221; to policies counter to the much-ballyhooed &#8220;two-state solution.&#8221;
Sounds a lot like a <a href="https://twitter.com/josh_hammer/status/1191416211537616897">quid pro quo</a>, no?
Alas, none of this anti-Israel braggadocio is particularly new for the Left. Many today forget that Likud Prime Minister Menachem Begin&#8217;s thunderous 1982 Zionist vow that he was &#8220;not a Jew with trembling knees&#8221; was issued in <a href="https://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/opinions/menachem-begin-to-joe-biden-i-am-not-a-jew-with-trembling-knees/2015/04/03/">direct response</a> to &#8230; wait for it &#8230; then-Sen. Joe Biden&#8217;s (D-DE) threat to cut off U.S. aid to Israel. Yes, that would be the same purported &#8220;moderate&#8221; now once again seeking his party&#8217;s presidential nomination. Similarly, when ham-handed former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/john-kerry-israel-apartheid-palestine-peace-process-2014-4">dropped the &#8220;apartheid&#8221; word</a> in 2014 to describe the oh-so-very dire possible outcome of failed Israeli-Palestinian <del>capitulation to jihad</del> &#8220;peace talks,&#8221; it seemed obvious that the bumbling Bostonian had in mind a withholding of U.S. aid to Israel as one plausible penalty.
The status quo of <a href="https://fas.org/sgp/crs/mideast/RL33222.pdf">mass U.S. aid to Israel</a>, therefore, amounts to a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damocles#Sword_of_Damocles">sword of Damocles</a> that empowers hardened anti-Israel U.S. policymakers to wield U.S. aid as a cudgel toward achieving their leftist, capitulatory, Islamism-empowering policy goals. There is no reason to ever expect this to change: Contra the bemused lecturing of the likes of Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), such quid pro quos and strings attached on foreign aid beneficence are intrinsic to the entire foreign aid edifice itself. The result is to denigrate Israel as little more than an American satrap that must act according to the capricious whims of a foreign superpower. Israeli sovereignty is a casualty — as is Zionism itself.
It therefore ought to make sense that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu <a href="https://www.everycrsreport.com/files/20070425_RL33222_ee97f8a100b2abd96b43a0f4d0cc6848e74efb26.pdf">suggested</a> a reduction and eventual phasing out of U.S. aid (technically just economic aid, but Netanyahu&#8217;s logic also applies to military aid) to Israel during his initial prime minister stint during the 1990s. Caroline Glick — arguably the single most consistently <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Israeli-Solution-One-State-Peace-Middle/dp/0385348061">arch-Zionist</a> commentator of the past two decades — has long <a href="https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Column-one-Time-to-walk-away-from-US-aid-462677">believed</a> in phasing out U.S. aid to Israel, going so far as to call military aid a &#8220;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/carolineglick/posts/i-believe-that-us-military-aid-to-israel-is-a-poison-pill-israel-subsidizes-us-m/859228864147869/">poison pill</a>&#8221; for Israel. Venerable Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby, a longtime stalwart of the pro-Israel community, <a href="https://townhall.com/columnists/jeffjacoby/2016/09/05/israel-doesnt-need-american-foreign-aid-n2213875">agrees</a>. Not only are Israeli self-determination and Zionism itself undermined, but the median American&#8217;s opinion of the morally and strategically indispensable U.S.-Israel alliance is sullied by crass fiscal considerations. To state the obvious, phasing out the largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid from receiving any foreign aid would redound to the interests of U.S. taxpayers.
True, this phasing out cannot happen overnight. True also, there have historically been <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/israel-how-bernie-sanders-could-actually-hurt-the-palestinians">real American gains</a> from U.S. aid to Israel. But the reality is that in the long run, contra the more organizationally myopic views of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-what-exactly-current-role-aipac-josh-hammer">powerful organs</a> of the Jewish and pro-Israel establishment, both the United States and Israel alike would benefit from a phasing out and gradual winding down of all U.S. aid to Israel. This conclusion surely strikes many in the pro-Israel community as counter-intuitive, but it is ultimately correct. The integrity of the Zionist project would only be fortified by the Jewish state&#8217;s slowly weaning itself off Uncle Sam&#8217;s fiscal teat.

U.S. Israel flags

HAMMER: The Pro-Israel Case Against U.S. Military Aid To Israel

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