During my recent trip to Israel, an Orthodox rabbi took me to see something that most outsiders do not usually see. It was Friday night (Shabbos, the Jewish Sabbath), and he wanted to go to pray at the Western Wall plaza in Jerusalem. Before that, he took me to see Kotel Katan — an older, smaller, less well known section of the Western Wall located within the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem&#8217;s Old City — and from there we went to one of the gates that serve as an entrance to the Temple Mount.
Walking through the Muslim Quarter, the air was thick with tension. Since I am a Christian, nobody bothered me. But there were people who went out of their way to bump into and shove my friend, who is easily identifiable as a Jewish rabbi. They were trying to start a fight. So I was surprised, upon arriving at the gate to the Temple Mount, to find a large gathering of Jewish students. There, deep within the Muslim Quarter, these Jewish students were protesting about how they are not allowed to pray at Judaism&#8217;s holiest site. Armed guards were there to keep Jews out. This is what he wanted me to see.
The Temple Mount, of course, was the site of the first and second Jewish Temples and where — according to the faithful — the third Temple will be built. I had some understanding about the rules governing the Temple Mount. According to the Times of Israel, &#8220;Under the current 52-year-old status quo at the site, Muslims can pray at the site while Jews are allowed to visit — under heavy restrictions, in a predetermined route and only for several hours on weekdays — but not pray there.&#8221;
I wanted to know more about these students, who are brave enough to fight for change. So I was told to contact Tom Nisani, the Israeli-born leader of &#8220;Students for the Temple Mount&#8221; and head of campus activity in the <a href="https://imti.org.il/en/about-us/movement/">Im Tirtzu</a> organization. I interviewed him briefly:
Mitsotakis (SM): What is happening on the Temple Mount and why?
Nisani (TN): The Temple Mount was liberated by the Israel Defense Forces in 1967. [There was] a total lack of interest among the Israeli public, and due to various historical realities that caused the national consciousness among the average Israeli, and even among the political leaders and military personnel of Israel, to be drawn simply to the Kotel (Western Wall) — despite it being only a retaining wall for the Temple Mount. The Mount itself was forgotten and the Jordanian Waqf that abandoned it during the battles was brought back to administer it by the State of Israel itself! Today, more than even 50 years later, basic freedoms such as prayer and freedom of movement are still ignored for all those ascending the Mount who are not Muslim. The Temple Mount is a place where these basic human rights and others are trampled on in the most outright and direct way. And this is happening in the holiest place for the Jewish people in the Jewish state! And just like in the other holy places for Jews in Israel, improvement is a process we are trying to hasten — but at this stage on the Temple Mount, there are clear human rights violations and infringements of the rights of all non-Muslims.
SM: What is your organization, why do you do what you do, and what do you hope to change?  
TN: Our organization was established about five years ago and includes students and young Israeli adults — secular, religious, and so forth. We are from all over the nation of Israel. We want to return the Temple Mount to its fitting place in Israeli society. This means, practically, that we work towards normalizing the Temple Mount under full Israeli sovereignty and once it is, all other challenges, problems, and difficulties will cease. It would be beneficial to all involved parties for the Temple Mount to be under complete Israeli sovereignty. Today, as the Jordanians, Qataris, Hamas, and so many more, all attempt to influence what happens on the Temple Mount, we all lose. Peaceful tourists are routinely assaulted, Jewish worshippers are restricted and oppressed, and even the Muslims suffer from the corruption of their leaders — including the Jordanians and the senior Waqf members. We will not rest until we change this situation, and we have already begun seeing change.
SM: I am told that your group is secular. Yet this is an issue of enormous religious significance. Is the religious community supporting you?
TN: In our movement, we have members who are from all the types and stripes of Israel. And this is the beauty in our movement, &#8220;Students for the Temple Mount.&#8221; We reflect the Israeli public and understand the import of our mission. The Temple Mount is a place for all of the nation of Israel and so too will it be in the future. Even the most secular among us, or those who would be considered less religious, are connected to our faith and Jewish nationality and see those as important aspects of our identities. In fact, it is the Temple Mount that connects us the most.

ISRAEL-PALESTINIAN-CONFLICT-US-JERUSALEM

MITSOTAKIS: Meeting The Jewish Students Fighting For Freedom On The Temple Mount

Islam

Israel

Israel Defense Forces (IDF)

Jerusalem

Judaism

Palestinians

Religion

Zionism

It turns out that multiple top people surrounding former Israel Defense Forces Chief of General Staff Benny Gantz, who has emerged over the past politically tumultuous year as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu&#8217;s top domestic rival, apparently believe <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/why-jerusalem-matters-ben-shapiro">historically pro-Israel</a> U.S. President Donald Trump is a Nazi.
&#8220;Blue and White leader Benny Gantz’s campaign strategist Joel Benenson, who also served as chief strategist for Hillary Clinton’s failed presidential campaign in 2016, has made a number of inflammatory comments against U.S. President Donald Trump on social media, claims that the president is using Israel to cover for his &#8216;blatant racism,&#8217; and drew comparisons between him and Adolf Hitler,&#8221; Jewish News Syndicate (JNS) <a href="https://www.jns.org/second-top-gantz-aide-compared-trump-to-hitler-says-president-using-israel/">reported</a> earlier today. The outlet also noted that Benenson also served as a campaign strategist for Barack Obama in both the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections.
JNS then highlighted a number of Benenson&#8217;s problematic tweets.
&#8220;Maybe someone should have told [Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT)] that the Anti-Defamation League CEO [Jonathan Greenblatt] condemned [President Trump&#8217;s] racist attacks as well as his use of Israel as a cover for his &#8216;blatant racism,'&#8221; the leftist tweeted last summer.
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Maybe someone should have told <a href="https://twitter.com/SteveDaines?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SteveDaines</a> that the Anti-defamation League CEO <a href="https://twitter.com/JGreenblattADL?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JGreenblattADL</a> condemned <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@realDonaldTrump</a>’s racist attacks as well as his use of Israel as a cover for his “blatant racism.” <a href="https://t.co/ZptcTZYQOw">https://t.co/ZptcTZYQOw</a>
&mdash; Joel Benenson (@benensonj) <a href="https://twitter.com/benensonj/status/1150943498373386242?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 16, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Going back further to October 2018, Benenson drew a direct parallel between Trump and Hitler. &#8220;It was Hitler’s speeches,&#8221; Benenson began. &#8220;Given to him by Marvin Davis. It’s also where he would have learned Hitler’s demonizing term for the press: &#8216;lugenpresse.&#8217; Trump’s translation is &#8216;Fake News.'&#8221;
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It was Hitler’s speeches. Given to him by Marvin Davis. It’s also where he would have learned Hitler’s demonizing term for the press: “lugenpresse.” Trump’s translation is “Fake News.” <a href="https://t.co/woKD471fri">https://t.co/woKD471fri</a>
&mdash; Joel Benenson (@benensonj) <a href="https://twitter.com/benensonj/status/1056341092004700160?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 28, 2018</a></blockquote>
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In September 2018, Benenson seemed to call Trump &#8220;deranged, narcissistic, lying, ignorant,&#8221; and a &#8220;bigot.&#8221; He tweeted a link to a Washington Post article with the following caption: &#8220;What’s the big deal here? Hasn’t there been a secret resistance inside the White House every time in history when we’ve had a deranged, narcissistic, lying, ignorant, bigot as President?&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
What’s the big deal here? Hasn’t there been a secret resistance inside the White House every time in history when we’ve had a deranged, narcissistic, lying, ignorant, bigot as President? <a href="https://t.co/hZdWiCH8FP">https://t.co/hZdWiCH8FP</a>
&mdash; Joel Benenson (@benensonj) <a href="https://twitter.com/benensonj/status/1037503359274700800?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 6, 2018</a></blockquote>
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The prior month, Benenson overtly called Trump a &#8220;bigot&#8221;: &#8220;The [president] is a bigot. And any Republican who continues to remain silent about what Trump is, is either a political coward or a co-conspirator promoting his bigotry. Show some character for a change [GOP].&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
The <a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@POTUS</a> is a bigot. And any Republican who continues to remain silent about what Trump is, is either a political coward or a co-conspirator promoting his bigotry. Show some character for a change <a href="https://twitter.com/GOP?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@GOP</a> <a href="https://t.co/03ejknEOEs">https://t.co/03ejknEOEs</a>
&mdash; Joel Benenson (@benensonj) <a href="https://twitter.com/benensonj/status/1025524193734078466?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 3, 2018</a></blockquote>
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As JNS also noted, Benenson is not the first prominent figure very close to Gantz to compare Trump to the Nazis.
&#8220;The discovery of Benenson’s tweets follows a <a href="https://www.jns.org/senior-gantz-adviser-called-u-s-president-donald-adolf-trump/">report</a> on Monday that Ronen Tzur, another senior Gantz adviser, who accompanied the Blue and White leader to Washington, D.C., for talks with Trump ahead of the reveal of the U.S. Mideast peace plan, had called the U.S. president &#8216;Donald Adolf Trump&#8217; and insinuated that he colluded with Russian President Vladimir Putin,&#8221; JNS wrote.
As The Daily Wire has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trumps-deal-of-the-century-for-israel-palestinians-a-realistic-plan-with-arab-states-backing-it">reported</a>, President Trump this week unveiled a peace plan to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that is, without any doubt, the <a href="https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/The-Trump-Plan-How-Israel-Should-Respond-615681">most pro-Israel peace plan ever offered</a> by an American president. On Monday, the day before formally unveiling the plan in the White House&#8217;s East Room with Netanyahu standing alongside him, Trump separately hosted both Netanyahu and Gantz at the White House.
&#8220;The president was fulsome in his praise of Israel, pleased that Israel had agreed — for the first time — to produce a map of what two states would look like,&#8221; wrote Shoshana Bryen, who was in the East Room for the unveiling, in a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/bryen-donald-trumps-vision-for-the-middle-east">Daily Wire op-ed</a> published yesterday.
Alas, Gantz&#8217;s senior staff members are hardly &#8220;fulsome&#8221; in their return &#8220;praise&#8221; of the president.

Benny Gantz Tours The Magilot Dead Sea Area For The Blue And White Campaign

Top Advisers For Netanyahu’s Election Rival Apparently Think Trump Is A Nazi

Adolf Hitler

Barack Obama

Benjamin Netanyahu

Donald Trump

Nazis

On Monday, President Donald Trump, who is hosting at the White House today both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his leading political foe at the moment, former Israel Defense Forces Chief of General Staff Benny Gantz, confirmed that he will unveil tomorrow his administration&#8217;s much-anticipated &#8220;Deal of the Century&#8221; peace plan proposal for Israel and the Palestinian-Arabs.
&#8220;It’s something they should want,&#8221; Trump said following a meeting with Netanyahu, Fox News <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-touts-upcoming-mideast-peace-plan-following-meeting-with-netanyahu-despite-palestinian-objections">reports</a>, while adding that Trump confirmed he will announce the plan on Tuesday. “They probably won&#8217;t want it initially. I think in the end they will. I think in the end they&#8217;re going to want it. It&#8217;s very good for them,” Trump continued.
“We&#8217;ll see what happens,” Trump speculated. “Without them, we don&#8217;t do the deal. That&#8217;s OK. &#8230; We think that there is a very good chance that they&#8217;re going to want this.”
“This is an opportunity for peace,” Trump also said while standing alongside Netanyahu, as <a href="https://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Trump-to-unveil-Israeli-borders-map-for-first-time-in-peace-plan-rollout-615541">noted</a> by The Jerusalem Post. “We’ll show a plan that has been worked on by everyone. We’ll see if it catches hold. If it does, that’d be great. If it doesn’t, it’s okay.”
Trump &#8220;said he invited Gantz to the White House so that the timing of the plan’s release wouldn’t be seen as political, in order to help Netanyahu win the upcoming election,&#8221; the Post reported. &#8220;He called Netanyahu and Gantz &#8216;two good competitions, fighting it out.'&#8221;
The Post, which is very well-sourced on this issue, also speculated on the contours of the soon-to-be-rolled-out plan: &#8220;The plan is expected to include the annexation of all Israeli settlements to Israel, along with most of the Jordan Valley, in a way that would allow for maximum territory with minimum non-Israel residents, such that the Palestinians would live in their own, demilitarized state.&#8221;
As <a href="https://www.jewishpress.com/news/eye-on-palestine/settlers-launching-deal-of-the-century-pushback/2020/01/26/">reported</a> by the Jewish Press over the weekend, some so-called &#8220;settlers&#8221; — otherwise known as Jews <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-the-trump-administration-is-absolutely-correct-to-call-israeli-settlements-legal">legally</a> living in the biblical Jewish heartland of Judea and Samaria — have already launched a preemptive pushback against the fact that the &#8220;Deal of the Century&#8221; is reputed to include an independent Palestinian-Arab state.
&#8220;Samaria Regional Council Chairman Yossi Dagan left for Washington, D.C. Saturday night to meet with members of Congress and GOP officials who are close to President Donald Trump, as well as with evangelical leaders he has befriended in recent years,&#8221; the Press wrote. &#8220;His goal is to present to these allies of the settlements enterprise the red lines of the Jewish settlements which must not be crossed in any future arrangement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.&#8221;
&#8220;[W]e should also pay attention to the asterisks and small print [in the plan],” Dagan said, as the Press noted. “We must be careful not to allow the words ‘applying sovereignty’ become a smokescreen that covers our eyes from seeing the true meaning of the Deal of the Century, according to the spirit of those parts of the plan which have already been published. The plan is also rife with danger.”
In a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-yes-palestinian-state-far-more-dangerous-josh-hammer">Daily Wire op-ed</a> last August, I wrote strongly against the creation of any new, independent Palestinian-Arab state:
<blockquote>The “two-state solution,” the misbegotten Oslo Accords-initiated process by which the liberal Jewish state of Israel is expected to carve an Iran/Muslim Brotherhood-funded stronghold out of its tiny New Jersey-sized nation-state, has always been nothing other than a left-wing Ivory Tower fairy tale. According to the (<a href="https://mosaicmagazine.com/response/israel-zionism/2019/07/the-many-incoherences-and-hypocrisies-of-international-law-on-jerusalem/">legally meaningless</a>, under settled international law) “1967 borders,” around which Oslo is effectively based, the Jewish state is to be nine miles wide at its narrowest point — a wildly indefensible result that has led many in Israel’s military and political establishment to deride it as “Auschwitz borders.” Moreover, Judea and Samaria — the biblical Jewish heartland which would be transferred to the terrorist PLO (and thereby made fully Judenrein), pursuant to Oslo — is geographically indispensable for the Jewish state’s security. The hilly terrain of Judea and Samaria provides a direct means to look down upon Jerusalem and Israel’s Tel Aviv-centric coastal plains alike.</blockquote>

President Trump Welcomes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu To White House

Trump Confirms Much-Anticipated Middle East Peace Plan Will Be Unveiled Tomorrow

Foreign Policy

Middle East

Trump Administration

The oh-so-very conscientious Middle East historians at Vox, who once landed themselves in hot water barely three months after website launch with the <a href="https://freebeacon.com/blog/in-praise-of-vox-media-max-fisher-and-zack-beauchamp/">dissemination of laughable fake news</a> about a purported <a href="https://thefederalist.com/2014/07/17/voxs-motto-should-be-explaining-the-news-incorrectly-repeatedly/">land bridge</a> connecting the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-israel-must-destroy-hamas-once-and-all-josh-hammer">Hamas</a>-controlled Gaza Strip with the biblical Jewish heartland of Judea and Samaria (i.e., the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-yes-palestinian-state-far-more-dangerous-josh-hammer">&#8220;West Bank&#8221;</a>), are apparently <a href="https://twitchy.com/sarahd-313035/2019/12/24/rashida-tlaib-would-no-doubt-be-very-pleased-with-voxs-inexcusably-dishonest-reporting-on-israel-and-israeli-jews/">up to it again</a>.
As highlighted by <a href="https://twitchy.com/sarahd-313035/2019/12/24/rashida-tlaib-would-no-doubt-be-very-pleased-with-voxs-inexcusably-dishonest-reporting-on-israel-and-israeli-jews/">Twitchy</a>, Vox has written a piece about the post-Oslo Accords modern history of the city of Bethlehem that is, in the words of one venerable pro-Israel Twitter user, &#8220;<a href="https://twitter.com/AG_Conservative/status/1209497608122703872">inexcusably dishonest</a>.&#8221; And it is.
Seven years following 1993&#8217;s <a href="https://honestreporting.com/the-second-intifada-israeli-society-terrorized/">fateful</a> signing of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oslo_I_Accord">Oslo I</a> between the late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and the late Palestinian-Arab unrepentant jihadist Yasser Arafat, Vox informs its readers, &#8220;tourism in Bethlehem &#8230; took a nosedive when the Israeli military invaded many of the West Bank’s major cities that were under Palestinian jurisdiction.&#8221; Vox continues: &#8220;As a political stalemate and expanding Israeli settlements led to the bloody Second Intifada, or uprising, the devastation and Israeli curfews kept tourists away; hotels closed and restaurants went out of business.&#8221;
This is not merely historical revisionism or tendentious distortion. It is an outright lie.
In reality, it was the terrorist Arafat who was singularly responsible for commencing the bloody Second Intifada — a four-plus-year sustained jihad during which over a thousand Israelis paid the ultimate price and thousands more were also wounded.
Although Arafat strategically waited to launch the Second Intifada until after then-Likud party prime minister candidate Ariel Sharon had the oh-so-shocking temerity to visit the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism, in September 2000, it is now commonly known that Arafat had been planning the civilizational jihad at least since he rejected then-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak&#8217;s <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/bill-clinton-palestinians-were-offered-temple-mount-in-2000/">exceedingly generous</a> &#8220;two-state solution&#8221; offer (96% of Judea and Samaria) at the U.S.-hosted Camp David Summit two months prior. The U.S. government&#8217;s own <a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-mitchell-report-may-2001">Mitchell Report</a> on the subject, overseen by former Sen. George Mitchell (D-ME), made this quite clear (emphasis added):
<blockquote>&#8230; [T]he immediate catalyst for the violence was the breakdown of the Camp David negotiations on July 25, 2000 and the &#8220;widespread appreciation in the international community of Palestinian responsibility for the impasse.&#8221; In this view, Palestinian violence was planned by the PA leadership, and was aimed at &#8220;provoking and incurring Palestinian casualties as a means of regaining the diplomatic initiative.&#8221; &#8230; The Sharon visit [to the Temple Mount] did not cause the &#8220;[Second] Intifada.&#8221;</blockquote>
Lest there be any doubt as to which party was to blame for the negotiation breakdown at Camp David in 2000, furthermore, let us defer to then-U.S. President <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/may/23/israel3">Bill Clinton</a>: &#8220;[Arafat] did not negotiate in good faith; indeed, he did not negotiate at all. He just kept saying no to every offer, never making any counterproposals of his own.&#8221;
In short, the unrepentant terrorist Arafat deliberately tanked the Camp David negotiations and used his own destruction of the possibility for a sustained peace as an excuse for launching a years-long bloody jihad to murder as many Israeli Jews as possible. Contra Vox&#8217;s despicable lying, all subsequent Israel Defense Forces (IDF) incursions into Palestinian-Arab strongholds in Judea and Samaria were in direct response to Arafat&#8217;s preplanned war. In short, it was Arafat&#8217;s deliberately beginning to kill Israeli civilians en masse that prompted the IDF&#8217;s military response.
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Vox apparently wants readers to think Israel invaded Bethlehem out of nowhere, and suggests the second intifada *followed* the invasion. 
Of course, that &quot;uprising&quot;—ie the murdering of Israeli civilians in cafes, buses, and markets—prompted the invasion of West Bank cities. <a href="https://t.co/lkMCaEvUho">pic.twitter.com/lkMCaEvUho</a>
&mdash; Gilead Ini (@GileadIni) <a href="https://twitter.com/GileadIni/status/1209496422778900480?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 24, 2019</a></blockquote>
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The Second Intifada was a uniquely harrowing time to live in Israel. Here is how Matti Friedman, who lived in Israel during part of the jihad, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/09/opinion/israel-election-netanyahu.html">described</a> it at The New York Times in September:
<blockquote>No single episode has shaped Israel’s population and politics like the wave of suicide bombings perpetrated by Palestinians in the first years of the 21st century. Much of what you see here in 2019 is the aftermath of that time, and every election since has been held in its shadow. The attacks, which killed hundreds of Israeli civilians, ended hopes for a negotiated peace and destroyed the left, which was in power when the wave began. Any sympathy that the Israeli majority had toward Palestinians evaporated. &#8230;
I remember standing at a bus stop when I heard a suicide bomber blow himself up and murder 11 people one street over, at Café Moment. My mother passed through the Nahariya train station right before a suicide bomber struck there, and my sister was in a cafeteria at the Hebrew University campus when Palestinians blew up a different cafeteria. I’ve got many more memories like that, all of them standard for the time.</blockquote>
There are a <a href="https://twitchy.com/sarahd-313035/2019/12/24/rashida-tlaib-would-no-doubt-be-very-pleased-with-voxs-inexcusably-dishonest-reporting-on-israel-and-israeli-jews/">myriad other problems</a> with Vox&#8217;s duplicitous holiday season smear job about Israel and Bethlehem. But outright lying about how the Second Intifada started — in contravention of the U.S. government&#8217;s own review of the facts, no less — stands atop the sordid list of Vox&#8217;s falsehoods.
Of course, what else might we expect from the folks who once claimed Israel restricted Palestinian-Arab &#8220;traffic&#8221; on a &#8220;land bridge&#8221; connecting Gaza to Judea and Samaria? &#8220;Fake news&#8221; is very, very real.

Israeli flag Old City Jerusalem

HAMMER: Vox Lies About Israel. AGAIN.

Bill Clinton

Fake News

Media

Media Bias

Murder

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

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

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

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

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

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.
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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.

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

J Street

National Security

United Arab Emirates (UAE)

Israel is such a special place that it can even turn Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) into a fiscal conservative. At the J Street conference this week, Sanders discussed cutting aid to Israel.
“We have the right to say to the Israeli government that … our people believe in human rights … in democracy, we will not accept authoritarianism or racism … we demand that the Israeli government sit down with the Palestinian people and negotiate an agreement that works for all parties … I would use the leverage — $3.8 billion is a lot of money, and we cannot give it carte blanche to the Israeli government.”
Though his blood pressure seems to rise when talking about aid to Israel, he is much more at ease providing <a href="https://feelthebern.org/bernie-sanders-on-latin-america/">aid</a> to Latin American nations “even when we may not agree with everything they do.” Nonetheless, Sanders is certainly right: The U.S. absolutely has the right to dole out money as it chooses. But it is worth taking a stroll down memory lane to recall why it is that the United States began giving aid — both monetary transfers and weapons sales — to Israel.
Origins of U.S. Aid to Israel
Historically, there are <a href="http://data.statesmanship.org.il/site/2014/US%20aid%20to%20Israel%20new.pdf?fbclid=IwAR3N_l0U4aV5-tVfCm4gvRoe_kvkKSfXD9YUot1KjN9kwE4kBxIiMTSmTAs">two</a> main reasons:
<ol>
<li>Strategic Asset: In the late 1950s, Israel was recognized as a potential strategic asset that could advance U.S. interests in the region. This recognition has only grown over the years. Suffice it to mention Israel’s destruction of Iraqi and Syrian nuclear programs over the decades, and Israel’s value becomes self-evident.</li>
<li>Nuclear Weapons: Once the United States understood that Israel had nuclear weapons (Israel’s policy is ambiguous on the subject), it wanted to ensure that Israel would never incorporate those weapons in its arsenal — and thus to provide it with the necessary means to fight and win with conventional weapons against Israel’s quantitively larger enemies surrounding them. In a 1987 interview to the Christian Science Monitor, Amos Rubin, economic adviser to Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, echoed this point: “If left to its own, Israel will have no choice but to fall back on a riskier defense which will endanger itself and the world at-large. … To enable Israel to abstain from dependence on nuclear arms calls for two to three billion dollars per year in U.S. aid.”</li>
</ol>
History of U.S. Aid to Israel
The first major weapons sales from the U.S. to Israel happened in the early 1960s, when it agreed to sell anti-aircraft missiles to Israel. In the mid-1960s, the U.S. agreed to sell tanks, and in the late 1960s, aircraft. Aid in the form of military grants, as opposed to loans, began in the early 1980s after the Camp David Agreements with Egypt. Since 1997, Israel has been steadily receiving $3 billion in aid annually; with the last agreement signed during the Obama administration, the dollar value was slightly raised, but with a few pernicious caveats added.
Israel is often touted as receiving the most foreign aid of any country, which is true but also misleading. U.S. army installments in the Yellow Sea, Korea, southeast Asia, Persian Gulf, and all throughout Europe are a few examples of the massive military investment expended to help keep global peace. These expenditures come from the military budget, as opposed to the foreign aid budget, involve boots on the ground, and cost far more than the aid to Israel. This point is made in a <a href="https://www.amazon.com/36-Billion-Dollar-Bargain-Assistance/dp/0231071965">book</a> called “The 36 Billion Dollar Bargain,” where a cost-benefit analysis is conducted concerning the U.S. aid to Israel vis-à-vis other areas in the world.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that it might not be a wise idea for the government of Israel to reassess its need for aid from the United States, and initiate ways to restructure or ultimately reduce the aid.
Unintended Consequences of Cutting U.S. Aid to Israel
For Bernie and friends, who get ulcers when thinking about aid to Israel, it might be prudent to think of potential ramifications that would result from cutting aid to Israel — for whatever reason they may conjure.
If they are unhappy with Israel’s policies now, they will only become unhappier. Israel’s reliance on U.S. aid and support can sometimes distort its military policy. Instead of crushing Hamas, for example, Israel fights with weaker, more symbolic policies and rely heavily on Iron Dome and other missile defense systems in lieu of more concrete deterrence.
In a scenario without U.S. aid, Israel would be unable to afford unending cycles of violence with the Palestinians and other enemies. Today, the Palestinians send a $10 kite bomb and Israel responds with a tank shell; Palestinians send a homemade rocket and Israel responds with an F-16. And those costs are peanuts compared to the three major Israeli military operations with Gaza over the last decade. Squeezed on aid, Israel would be forced to take decisive action in Gaza, Judea and Samaria, and other places. It would need to actually win wars and do so quickly. Israel’s policies would become that much harsher toward the Palestinians, as there would be no room for error.
Israel’s presence in Judea and Samaria, as well as its blockade on Gaza is <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytWmPqY8TE0">sound policy</a> and backed up by <a href="http://jcpa.org/article/status-of-settlements-in-international-law/">international law</a>. Yet the dangers of the Middle East may not be clear to someone sunbathing on Lake Champlain (Vermont), or for someone who put <a href="https://berniesanders.com/issues/">foreign policy</a> as the 17th out of 31 policy topics on his campaign website. Indeed, Israel does not have the luxury of putting <a href="https://corybooker.com/issues/">animal rights</a> as the top policy issue, as another 2020 Democrat did.
Aid to Israel Benefits the U.S.
In reality, military aid to Israel has generated many security and economic benefits for the United States. Too bad for Israel that Sanders probably hates all the American companies who have benefited. From weapons improvements, increased product sales, close cooperation between the militaries, and research and development cooperation, aid to Israel has not been a handout — it is has been a good <a href="https://breakingdefense.com/2018/09/aid-to-israel-isnt-foreign-aid-its-an-investment/">investment</a> for the U.S.
&nbsp;
Gideon Israel is the founder and president of the <a href="https://www.jw-center.org/">Jerusalem-Washington Center</a>, which works to strengthen the relationship between the U.S. and Israel.

Bernie Sanders J Street

ISRAEL: How Bernie Sanders Could Actually Hurt The Palestinians

Bernie Sanders

Last week, Daily Wire Editor-at-Large Josh Hammer, who frequently opines on issues pertaining to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/44424/hammer-stark-choice-facing-jewish-democrats-josh-hammer">Jewish politics</a>, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/43388/hammer-anti-semites-ilhan-omar-and-rashida-tlaib-josh-hammer">anti-Semitism</a>, and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/50850/hammer-yes-palestinian-state-far-more-dangerous-josh-hammer">Israel</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9hH2jloilc">joined</a> &#8220;Tipping Point With Liz Wheeler&#8221; on One America News Network to discuss the revelation that 2020 Democratic Party presidential <a href="https://www.predictit.org/markets/detail/3633/Who-will-win-the-2020-Democratic-presidential-nomination">statistical frontrunner</a> Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) is now <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/elizabeth-warren-could-pull-military-aid-israel-settlements-1466680">threatening</a> to withhold U.S. military aid to Israel if Israel does not make the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-yes-palestinian-state-far-more-dangerous-josh-hammer">&#8220;two-state solution&#8221;</a> land concessions that a President Warren might envision. As The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-elizabeth-warren-says-shes-open-to-cutting-off-aid-to-israel">reported</a> last week, Warren said that &#8220;everything&#8221; — meaning aid — would potentially be &#8220;on the table.&#8221;
Hammer began his segment with Wheeler by explaining how clearly Warren telegraphed her <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/schachtel-elizabeth-warren-completes-her-total-jordan-schachtel">hard turn</a> against Israel — including her hiring of ex-<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-israel-bashing-group-ifnotnows-recent-josh-hammer">IfNotNow</a> co-founder Max Berger as a high-ranking <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/ifnotnow-co-founder-max-berger-brings-progressive-fight-to-warren-camp/">campaign staffer</a>:
<blockquote>Elizabeth Warren is now running for the Democratic presidential nomination in a year in which the Democratic Party has just gone crazy. &#8230; [Warren] hired someone named Max Berger as one of her progressive campaign outreach chairs. Max Berger is a co-founder of a despicable, far-left, self-hating, Jew-hating group, IfNotNow. IfNotNow is so radically left that they <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hellenized-jews-ifnotnow-protesters-disrupt-josh-hammer">protest Shabbat services</a> — for Jews observing Sabbath. They&#8217;ve been known to say Kaddish, the traditional Jewish mourners prayer, for Hamas jihadists who have been fired at or had been killed by IDF rocket fire.
She surrounds herself, much like Bernie Sanders, with Israel-hating, I would say Jew-hating, anti-Semites. And this is honestly very sad, but it&#8217;s hardly unexpected. As soon as I saw that she hired Max Berger this summer, I thought, okay, we&#8217;re gonna get to exactly where we now see that she&#8217;s gotten. Well, the only positive thing — the only silver lining here — is that we at least are seeing her true colors before it&#8217;s too late</blockquote>
Wheeler continued by additionally pointing out that Warren&#8217;s narrative is factually misleading, to boot, because it is simply dishonest to objectively view the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and conclude that Israel is the barrier to peace. Hammer agreed:
<blockquote>My friend David Brog, who used to be the executive director of Christians United for Israel and now runs a group called Maccabee Task Force, he did a really wonderful <a href="https://www.prageru.com/video/why-isnt-there-a-palestinian-state/">video for PragerU</a> &#8230; where he really nicely goes back to the history to the beginning of the 20th century and he systemically shows, over and over again, that it is the Palestinian-Arabs who are the obstacles for peace. They have turned down Israeli offers for peace as far back as the United Nations&#8217; original two-state partition in November 1948, where the Jews accepted a tiny sliver of land — barely enough to sustain a civilization — and the Arabs said no and then tried to kill the Jews the very next day. The same thing happened in 2000 at Camp David, it happened in 2008 when Ehud Olmert [offered two states, much like Ehud Barak in 2000].
And then also, in 2010, Prime Minister Netanyahu, as a sign of goodwill to Barack Obama, did exactly what Liz Warren wants Israel&#8217;s to do: A <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/06/world/middleeast/06mideast.html">10-month freeze</a> on so-called &#8220;settlements.&#8221; The so-called &#8220;settlements&#8221; are actually <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYZBjoeeehg">legally fine</a> — the Left is wrong, but we can talk about that perhaps another day — but he actually froze so-called &#8220;settlements&#8221; for 10 months and you know what? Mahmoud Abbas, currently in the 15th year of his four-year term &#8230; he did not even come to the negotiating table after a 10-month full-on &#8220;settlement&#8221; freeze from Netanyahu. So the Palestinians, over and over again, Liz, show who they really are. &#8230; They have no interest in peace. All they want are dead Jews.</blockquote>
WATCH:
<iframe title="Elizabeth Warren Threatens To Withhold Aid To Israel" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qyMOT_2sZ4Q?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Hammer OANN 10.22.19

WATCH: Hammer On ‘Tipping Point With Liz Wheeler’: Elizabeth Warren Is An Israel-Hater

2020 Election

Democratic Party

Elizabeth Warren

Leftism

&#8220;Up, up, down, down, right, left, and all around.&#8221; That is what supporters of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement (BDS) think when they think about Israel.
Yet, Israeli-Arabs have served in the Israeli Supreme Court, Knesset (parliament), military, and national police force. Following the national elections in September 2019, the joint Arab party became the third-largest in the entire Knesset. But the area over the “Green Line” is disputed territory and, therefore, BDS (il)logically claims everything in Israel is tantamount to apartheid.
The latest example of this nonsensical idea is the BDS movement’s recent call to join it in opposing the “<a href="https://bdsmovement.net/news/join-global-climate-strike-oppose-israels-climate-apartheid">climate apartheid</a>” Israel inflicts upon the Palestinian-Arabs. Sound familiar? Indeed, it is eerily similar to the anti-Semitic conspiracy theory that somehow Jews <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2018/03/19/dc-councilman-blames-snow-jewish-family-controlling-climate-later-apologizes/437639002/">control the weather</a>, or that Israel is “<a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/iranian-general-blames-water-woes-on-israeli-cloud-theft/">stealing</a>” Iranian rain clouds. Yes, these theories actually exist.
But don’t worry, it gets even better. BDS claims that one of the main components of climate apartheid is the Palestinians’ lack of control over their land and resources. This is vintage BDS foolishness. Palestinians have complete control over both what the Oslo Accords deem “Area A” and the Gaza Strip — the two areas where the vast majority of Palestinian-Arabs reside. They claim Israel pollutes the Palestinians’ water, air, and soil. Maybe, just maybe, the air pollution stems from the thousands of acres of farmland burning in the Gaza border communities due to the onslaught of incendiary kites launched by Gaza-based terror groups? Maybe the water pollution arises from Hamas’ unwillingness to invest in proper sewage treatment systems and actually better the lives of the citizens it purports to govern? Maybe the soil is polluted by the constant digging of terror tunnels for the sake of murdering Jews? Could be.
Other classic examples of the allegedly omnipresent apartheid in Israel are the “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2000/jun/03/israel">apartheid beaches</a>,” “<a href="https://www.rt.com/news/449193-israel-hospital-bus-apartheid/">apartheid hospitals</a>,” and “apartheid roads.”
The claim of a beach apartheid is obviously ridiculous, as Haaretz so graciously documented in this <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/travel/MAGAZINE-in-photos-israeli-arabs-celebrate-eid-al-fitr-outdoors-1.5407877">photo gallery</a> of Arabs celebrating Eid al-Fitr (end of Ramadan) on the beaches of Tel Aviv.
Apartheid hospitals are another frivolous piece of propaganda. Anybody who has stepped one foot into an Israeli hospital knows that they are filled with Israeli-Arab patients, Palestinian-Arab patients, and even Syrian refugees. Israel has even <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/11174416/Hamas-leaders-daughter-treated-in-Israeli-hospital.html">treated the daughter</a> of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. There are also an abundance of Arabs playing pivotal roles in Israel’s medical field — be they doctors, pharmacists, or nurses.
The accusation of apartheid roads, a prevalent one over the years, has repeatedly been debunked. There is simply no such thing as “Jew-only” roads or “<a href="https://ukmediawatch.org/2018/10/14/ukmw-prompts-guardian-to-acknowledge-theres-no-settler-only-roads-in-the-west-bank/">settler-only</a>” roads. There are roads meant specifically for Israeli citizens and foreign nationals, just like there are roads meant specifically for Palestinian-Arabs and foreign nationals in both Area A and the Gaza Strip. This allegation resurfaced once again in 2019 with the opening of route 4370 near Jerusalem. As the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA) has <a href="https://www.camera.org/article/haaretz-ny-post-turn-anti-israel-slogan-into-journalistic-shorthand/">pointed out</a>, the road was essentially a set of parallel highways on both sides of the Green Line that were meant to ensure the safety of Israeli citizens who were targeted by Palestinian-Arab violence. Additionally, the roads help ease heavy traffic congestion that plagued both Israelis and Palestinians alike in the vicinity of the E1 project and provided a direct route between Jerusalem and Ramallah for Palestinians working in the area.
Gideon Levy, writing for Haaretz, falsely accused Israel of creating “<a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium.MAGAZINE-this-place-is-only-for-jews-the-west-bank-s-apartheid-springs-1.7767344">apartheid springs</a>,” where Jews can play leisurely in the pools while Arabs cannot. As evidence, he quotes an unnamed Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldier who declared that the spring in question was “only for Jews.” Levy provided neither a name for the soldier nor proof that his statement was actually true. It is doubtful that such evidence exists, since Israeli-Arabs enjoy freedom of movement in Israel just like any other citizen. This would also not be the first time Mr. Levy has lied in an article. It is not even the first time he has lied about water. In 2015, CAMERA <a href="https://www.camera.org/article/gideon-levy-s-swimming-pool-falsehood-resurfaces/">prompted a correction</a> to one of Levy’s articles in Haaretz wherein he claimed that there “are no swimming pools in the Gaza Strip.” Seems like old habits die hard.
Finally, this brings us to the most obvious examples: The “apartheid wall” and “apartheid settlements.” First of all, the “wall” is actually a security fence, and only about <a href="https://www.idf.il/en/articles/palestinian-terror/setting-the-facts-straight-on-the-security-fence/">5% of it </a>was made of concrete in 2015, according to IDF statistics. Secondly, not only did the fence help to almost immediately reduce terrorist attacks in Israel <a href="https://embassies.gov.il/MFA/FOREIGNPOLICY/Terrorism/Palestinian/Pages/Anti-terrorist%20fence%20cuts%20Samaria-based%20attacks%20by%2090%20percent.aspx">by over 90%,</a> but Israeli-Arabs are permitted to enter all territories on the Israeli side, including Oslo Accords-designated Areas B and C — where Jewish “settlements” are located. In fact, Israeli-Arabs are permitted to freely enter and exit these “settlements.”
“Apartheid,” as it turns out, is not in fact here, there, and everywhere. An actual apartheid can be seen in Area A, which the Palestinian Authority (PA) runs in a completely judenrein fashion. A standing <a href="https://news.walla.co.il/item/1831456">IDF warrant from the year 2000</a> forbids Israeli citizens from entering Area A, out of safety concerns (though Israeli-Arabs regularly enter uninhibited). BDS willfully ignores the fact that Israeli Jews could be killed simply by entering PA territory. For example, <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/police-to-investigate-israelis-evacuated-from-ramallah/">peace activists have been attacked in Ramallah</a>, Israeli cars have been <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/.premium-israelis-attacked-by-locals-at-joseph-s-tomb-1.5410287">set ablaze</a> in Nablus, and <a href="https://972mag.com/the-left-cannot-ignore-violence-against-jews/111458/">Jewish tourists</a> (not Israeli citizens) were nearly lynched in Hebron. Despite these incidents and more like them, few would dare use the “A-word” to describe PA territory. Therefore, it is our duty to continue to shine a light on the hypocrisy of BDS, so that activists can oppose the real apartheid — the one right in front of their faces, but that few of them tend to notice.

Hamas checkpoint Gaza

FISCHBERGER: Apartheid Here, Apartheid There, Apartheid Truly Everywhere

California imam Ahmed Billoo recently <a href="https://www.meforum.org/islamist-watch/58905/prominent-california-islamists-praise-imam-call">called</a> for the mass extermination of Jews. Apparently impatient at the border security protocols at Ben Gurion Airport in Israel, he posted a prayer to Twitter with the hashtag &#8220;Zionists&#8221;: &#8220;Oh God, reduce their numbers, exterminate them, and don&#8217;t leave a single one alive.&#8221;
Ahmed Billoo&#8217;s sister is Zahra Billoo, director of the San Francisco branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). She is also an important figure in the Women&#8217;s March movement, and has <a href="https://www.facebook.com/IslamicSocietyOfSantaBarbara/photos/a.395510290553801/1756659207772229/?type=3&amp;theater">appeared</a> alongside her brother at Women&#8217;s March events. Billoo’s own colleagues at CAIR <a href="https://www.meforum.org/islamist-watch/58905/prominent-california-islamists-praise-imam-call">&#8220;liked&#8221;</a> Ahmed’s post. When asked, CAIR and Zahra Billoo herself refused to comment on Ahmed Billoo’s genocidal call.
Publicly, Zahra Billoo prides herself on her commitment to progressive causes. When explaining her involvement in the Women’s March, she <a href="https://ca.cair.com/sfba/updates/cair-sfba-director-zahra-billoo-to-speak-at-womens-march-on-washington/">said</a> that &#8220;what we need right now is to send a clear message&#8221; and &#8220;that we will work together across communities to defend and protect each other.&#8221;
Despite these warm words, she was curiously unwilling to offer any criticism when it came to her brother advocating mass murder. On the contrary, Zahra Billoo made a heartfelt <a href="https://www.facebook.com/billoozahra/posts/10102964029972277">post</a> to her brother on Facebook a mere few hours after he prayed for the extermination of Jews, apparently in relation to another public stand he had taken: &#8220;My brother makes me proud often, but there’s a special kind of appreciation I have when he does this — puts his privilege to good use, asserting his rights, speaking out against border harassment, and thereby making it at least somewhat easier for those who are afraid or unable.&#8221;
While Zahra Billoo&#8217;s refusal to repudiate her brother’s endorsement of violence may appear to contradict her own camera-friendly activism, her silence is less surprising when one examines Billoo&#8217;s own social media history.
Billoo regularly <a href="https://twitter.com/search?l=&amp;q=hamas%20from%3AZahraBilloo&amp;src=typd&amp;lang=en">expresses</a> support for the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas, at times justifying Hamas&#8217;s attacks against Israeli civilians. In one <a href="https://twitter.com/ZahraBilloo/status/488606959785218049">tweet</a>, she writes, &#8220;Blaming Hamas for firing rockets at (Apartheid) Israel is like blaming a woman for punching her rapist.&#8221;
Over the past few years, Billoo has also consistently <a href="https://twitter.com/search?f=tweets&amp;vertical=default&amp;q=from%3AZahraBilloo%20Hamas&amp;src=typd">supported</a> Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) official Sami Al Arian, describing him as an &#8220;incredible and law abiding Muslim leader.&#8221; (PIJ was <a href="https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/palestinian-islamic-jihad">designated</a> a terrorist organization by the State Department in 1997.) In 2006, Al Arian <a href="https://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/case_docs/70.pdf">pleaded</a> guilty to conspiring &#8220;to make or receive contributions of funds, goods or services to or for the benefit of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), a Specially Designated Terrorist.&#8221; Al Arian was later deported to Turkey. In 2018, in a speech at a conference sponsored by Turkey&#8217;s Directorate of Religious Affairs, Al Arian <a href="https://www.investigativeproject.org/7335/al-arian-calls-us-our-enemy-at-turkish-conference">said</a> that &#8220;the United States, which gives Israel so much confidence, is our enemy.&#8221; Billoo twice confided that she draws <a href="https://twitter.com/search?f=tweets&amp;vertical=default&amp;q=from%3AZahraBilloo%20Al-Arian&amp;src=typd">inspiration</a> from Al Arian and has <a href="https://twitter.com/search?f=tweets&amp;vertical=default&amp;q=from%3AZahraBilloo%20Al-Arian&amp;src=typd">quoted</a> him on several occasions.
In 2018, Billoo stated, &#8220;The Israeli Defense Forces, or the IDF, are no better than ISIS. They are both genocidal terrorist organizations.&#8221; Billoo’s anti-Semitic obsession with Israel is pervasive enough that the interfaith organization PACT briefly <a href="https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/06/14/interfaith-group-pact-rescinds-award-for-bay-area-muslim-leader-after-pressure-from-jewish-members/">rescinded</a> an award to Billoo last year.
While Billoo indulges her true opinions on social media, she also works to present a very different picture of herself to the public. After the massacre of Jews at the Tree of Life Congregation in Pittsburgh, Billoo signed &#8220;An Open Letter to America About Anti-Semitism.” In the conclusion, the letter refers to the dangers of “white nationalist anti-Semitic hate.&#8221; But Billoo’s own hatred, while not inspired by white nationalist hatred, is not any less dangerous.
What is truly surprising is not that Zahra Billoo stayed silent as her brother called for the massacre of Jews, nor even that she subsequently claimed to be &#8220;proud of him,&#8221; but rather that she is still regarded by some as a leading progressivist figure. Zahra Billoo&#8217;s actual views have been in plain view for many years on social media and the subject of media reports many times. Yet Billoo continues to be praised for her activism and was even once <a href="https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/06/27/interfaith-group-pact-reinstates-award-to-muslim-leader-zahra-billoo-after-community-outrage/">honored</a> for &#8220;actually [speaking] out against anti-Semitism.&#8221;
Islamists such as Billoo enjoy protection from criticism using the thinnest of veils. Their duplicity is clear and without doubt. These self-proclaimed Islamic leaders must be judged on all their words and actions, and not merely on the progressive personas they project.
Martha Lee is a research fellow of <a href="http://islamist-watch.org/">Islamist Watch</a>, a project of the <a href="https://www.meforum.org">Middle East Forum</a>.

LEE: The Tale Of The Two Faces Of The Billoo Family

CAIR

Hamas

Islamic State (ISIS)

Radical Islam

Radical Islamic Terror

Israel has not faced a full-scale war against the Lebanon-based Shiite sharia supremacist jihadist group Hezbollah since 2006, but there have been rumblings of late about a possible conflict brewing. As The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/46165/idf-general-warns-hezbollah-plans-invasion-sea-josh-hammer">reported</a> last month, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) recently warned about a possible Hezbollah infiltration of Israel&#8217;s Sea of Galilee. The Times of Israel <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-general-says-hezbollah-still-planning-major-attack-despite-anti-tunnel-op/">reported</a> at the time:
<blockquote>
The new commander of the IDF&#8217;s Ground Forces said Thursday the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah was still planning to carry out a surprise invasion of northern Israel, despite the recent Israeli operation to uncover and destroy an extensive network of cross-border attack tunnels dug by the Iran-backed militia.
Maj. Gen. Yoel Strick was tapped to lead the military&#8217;s Ground Forces in February, amid increased criticism charging that Israeli troops were not prepared for war. His comments came less than four months after the IDF concluded its anti-tunnel operation along the Lebanese border.
&#8220;Hezbollah still has plans to invade the Galilee,&#8221; he told the Ynet news site in an interview, referring to entering Israeli territory through a cross-border tunnel network. &#8220;Of course we won&#8217;t allow that to happen, we will thwart these plans.&#8221;
</blockquote>
In March, roughly a month prior to the IDF&#8217;s warning, Israeli intelligence had <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/44738/israel-unveils-new-hezbollah-terror-activity-golan-josh-hammer">unveiled</a> recent Hezbollah activity in the Golan Heights region, which is adjacent to the Sea of Galilee. Suffice it to say that, even as Israel continues to struggle with the restive Sunni sharia supremacist jihadist group <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/46830/hammer-israels-election-over-time-now-operation-josh-hammer">Hamas on its southwestern border</a>, much of the IDF&#8217;s institutional eyes remain fixated upon the Hezbollah threat from the Lebanese north.
Now, The Times of Israel <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-reveals-longest-most-significant-hezbollah-tunnel-yet-on-northern-border/">reports</a> how the IDF has unveiled the &#8220;longest and most significant&#8221; Hezbollah cross-border terror tunnel it has ever discovered:
<blockquote>
The Israel Defense Forces on Wednesday revealed a cross-border Hezbollah attack tunnel that was discovered running into Israeli territory from Lebanon during this past winter&#8217;s Operation Northern Shield, saying it was &#8220;the longest and most significant&#8221; subterranean passage found in the effort.
The military released the additional details about this tunnel &#8212; one of six that the it said it found during the operation &#8212; ahead of its planned destruction.
The army said the tunnel was dug to a depth of 80 meters (260 feet), was a kilometer (3280 feet) long and penetrated 77 meters (250 feet) into Israeli territory. It began close to the Lebanese village of Ramiya, the IDF said, with an exit close to the Israeli villages of Shtula and Zar&#8217;it. &#8230;
The IDF said the tunnel was equipped with advanced infrastructure for electricity, ventilation and communications systems, and that the passage would have taken years to complete.
</blockquote>
Last year, during the aforementioned Operation Northern Shield, Israel <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/video-shows-military-blowing-up-hezbollah-cross-border-tunnel/">found and detonated</a> numerous Hezbollah-built terror tunnels. The tunnels are designed to allow jihadists to stealthily trespass into Israeli territory and capture or kill as many Israeli Jews as possible.
In addition to its harrowing terror tunnels, Iran-financed Hezbollah is exceedingly well-armed in terms of its missile and rocket arsenal. Consider this 2016 <a href="http://www.thetower.org/article/the-new-hezbollah-israels-next-war-will-be-a-godawful-mess/">piece</a> at The Tower bluntly entitled, &#8220;The New Hezbollah: Israel&#8217;s Next War Will Be A Godawful Mess&#8221;:
<blockquote>
Hezbollah&#8217;s own preparations for its next war with Israel betray its intentions to once again act as a guerrilla force. Hezbollah has expanded and upgraded its already formidable underground tunnel network in south Lebanon. Replicating its strategy of using civilian cover, it has built up over 200 Shiite villages into fortified fighting zones, with rockets, anti-aircraft missiles, and command centers. Israel will be forced once again to choose between the unsavory options of striking the villages and killing civilians, or withholding fire. Despite rhetoric from the IDF brass that these areas will be considered targetable military bases, the Gideon Doctrine still acknowledges this as a real dilemma.
</blockquote>

Cross-Border Jihad: IDF Reveals Record-Shattering Hezbollah Terror Tunnel

Lebanon

Terrorism

As The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/45829/its-final-bibi-blue-and-white-netanyahus-main-josh-hammer">noted</a> last month, Benjamin &#8220;Bibi&#8221; Netanyahu was seemingly re-elected to serve a fifth term as Israel&#8217;s prime minister &#8212; thus placing the Likud leader at the precipice of surpassing iconic national founder David Ben-Gurion as the longest-serving prime minister in the history of the Jewish state. At the time, here is how I <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/45868/hammer-after-much-electoral-fanfare-israelis-once-josh-hammer">explained</a> Israeli voters&#8217; collective decision to once again trust their nation&#8217;s fate in Netanyahu&#8217;s sturdy hands:
<blockquote>
[I]t is &#8230; Netanyahu who, admirable prudence and occasionally <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/44732/hammer-israel-must-destroy-hamas-once-and-all-josh-hammer">excessive</a> restraint aside, demonstrates an intuitive understanding of the threats that Israel &#8212; and, by extension, all of the West &#8212; ultimately faces. Netanyahu famously sparred with the pro-Palestinian Obama, but, as Quin Hillyer <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/article/414636/netanyahu-not-obama-speaks-us-quin-hillyer">put it</a> in 2015, Netanyahu &#8220;spent far more of his formative years on the American mainland than Obama did, &#8230; took enemy fire at the age when Obama was openly pushing Marxist theory, and &#8230; earned and practiced free enterprise at the same age when Obama was practicing and teaching Alinskyism.&#8221; He is a hardened man &#8212; his character forever shaped and his fortitude forever calcified by the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Letters-Jonathan-Netanyahu-Commander-Entebbe/dp/9652292672">tragedy</a> that befell his dear older brother Yoni in Entebbe. He intuitively grasps the nature of genocidal, irredentist sharia supremacism in a way that perhaps no other Western leader can &#8212; and he is hardly shy in <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/30045/iran-lied-netanyahu-reveals-israel-smuggled-100000-ben-shapiro">sounding the alarm</a>, when need be.
</blockquote>
In the election&#8217;s immediate aftermath last month, all seemed well for Bibi and his right-of-center Likud Party. It seemed all but inevitable that there would soon be yet another durable Likud-led conservative Israeli government.
Alas, it now seems that that purported inevitability may have been a mirage. Specifically, an ongoing and still-unresolved debate regarding a longtime hot-button Israeli political issue &#8212; whether Haredi (or &#8220;ultra-Orthodox&#8221;) Jews should be mandatorily conscripted, as are most other Jews, into the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) &#8212; may topple the new governing coalition before it has even started.
Reuters <a href="http://news.trust.org/item/20190526152348-u6x9g">reported</a> yesterday on the looming Wednesday deadline for Netanyahu to successfully thread the needle and solidify a governing coalition:
<blockquote>
In power for the past decade, Netanyahu has unexpectedly struggled to seal an agreement with a clutch of right-wing, far-right and ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties that would align with his Likud party and ensure him a fifth term following Israel&#8217;s April 9 election.
Divisions between former Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman&#8217;s ultranationalist Yisrael Beitenu party and United Torah Judaism over a military conscription bill governing exemptions for ultra-Orthodox Jewish seminary students have plunged the coalition talks into stalemate.
Lieberman has long said ultra-Orthodox men must share other Israeli Jews&#8217; burden of mandatory service. Ultra-Orthodox parties say seminary students should be largely exempt from conscription as they have been since Israel was founded in 1948.
</blockquote>
As Reuters notes, Avigdor Lieberman, who has long headed the secular right-wing Russian Jewish-centric Yisrael Beitenu party, is a longtime adamant opponent of a Haredi exemption for IDF conscription. And as The Times of Israel <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/liberman-reiterates-threat-to-go-to-new-elections-if-likud-rejects-demands/">noted</a> over the weekend, Lieberman seems positively obstinate on holding his ground this time around:
<blockquote>
&#8220;Both in the election campaign and after the elections, we said clearly and publicly that we would only support Netanyahu as a candidate for prime minister &#8230; Even today, we say unequivocally that we will not endorse any other candidate for prime minister,&#8221; Liberman wrote on Facebook.
However, he said, Yisrael Beytenu has also made it clear &#8220;before the elections, during the elections and after the elections&#8221; that the party &#8220;would not move an inch&#8221; on its demand for the passage, unamended, of a long-discussed bill formalizing exemptions to mandatory military service for seminary students, a condition rejected by ultra-Orthodox parties.
</blockquote>
Netanyahu, for his part, seems none too happy with Lieberman right now.
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
BB tells his ministers: Open fire on <a href="https://twitter.com/AvigdorLiberman?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@AvigdorLiberman</a>
&#8212; Gil Hoffman (@Gil_Hoffman) <a href="https://twitter.com/Gil_Hoffman/status/1133084901769715719?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 27, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
Regardless of the outcome, this will undoubtedly be a fascinating week for all observers of Israel&#8217;s rambunctious political system.

Over Already? New Bibi-Led Israeli Government On Verge Of Collapsing Before Even Starting.

In the lead-up to Israel&#8217;s <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/45829/its-final-bibi-blue-and-white-netanyahus-main-josh-hammer">national elections last month</a>, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, publicly floated the idea of annexation of the biblical Jewish heartland of Judea and Samaria &#8212; or what most of the &#8220;international community&#8221; refers to as the &#8220;West Bank.&#8221; At the time, some believed that Netanyahu, who had sometimes previously spoken of annexation but had never taken meaningful steps to act upon it, simply needed to court staunchly right-wing votes for his Likud Party and hemorrhage as few votes as possible to smaller parties aligned further to the right of Likud.
Jewish Telegraph Agency <a href="https://www.jta.org/2019/04/08/israel/netanyahus-promise-to-annex-the-west-bank-settlements-explained">analyzed</a> Netanyahu&#8217;s flirtation with annexing large swaths of Judea and Samaria, finding a logical comparison to the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/44608/excellent-trump-first-time-ever-us-recognizes-josh-hammer">United States&#8217; recent formal recognition</a> of Israeli control of the strategic Golan Heights border region:
<blockquote>
Netanyahu is in a close race for re-election and wants to shore up his base. During the last campaign, in 2015, he did that by saying he would not establish a Palestinian state. The annexation pledge takes him one step further to the right.
It&#8217;s a play to draw voters away from smaller parties that are running even further to Netanyahu&#8217;s right, like the New Right Party headed by Naftali Bennett and Ayelet Shaked, two of Netanyahu&#8217;s longtime frenemies.
The annexation promise also comes a few weeks after President Trump recognized Israel&#8217;s annexation of the Golan Heights, another controversial (although less so) territory that Israel captured in 1967. Israel annexed the Golan Heights in 1981, but no U.S. president officially recognized the move.
Netanyahu saw Trump&#8217;s Golan decision as a signal that annexation, in a broader sense, is kosher now.
</blockquote>
Ultimately, Netanyahu was successful, and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/45868/hammer-after-much-electoral-fanfare-israelis-once-josh-hammer">Israelis returned home yet again</a> to the leader who has proven, above all else, that he knows how to keep Israel safe in a deeply turbulent region of the world.
But the popular prediction that Netanyahu was engaging in political posturing may turn out, in fact, to be wrong. As The Times of Israel <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahu-doubles-down-on-west-bank-annexation-after-ex-generals-speak-out/">reports</a> today, Netanyahu has boldly doubled down in defense of annexation after some ex-Israel Defense Forces officers spoke out critically against the plan:
<blockquote>
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and top lawmakers from his Likud party on Tuesday spoke out forcefully in support of extending Israeli sovereignty over parts of the West Bank, after a group of former senior security officials warned the move would endanger the country.
In a letter to Netanyahu first reported on by Channel 12, Commanders for Israel&#8217;s Security, which describes itself as a nonpartisan body of nearly 300 retired senior officers, urged him to hold a public referendum before making any moves to effectively annex the territory.
They said such a step would bring about the collapse of security cooperation with the Palestinian Authority and strengthen terrorist organizations.
Netanyahu dismissed their concerns. Using the biblical Hebrew names for the West Bank, he wrote on Twitter that &#8220;swaths of land in Judea and Samaria are not just a guarantee of Israel&#8217;s security &#8212; they are also our patrimony.&#8221;
</blockquote>
Netanyahu also <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahu-doubles-down-on-west-bank-annexation-after-ex-generals-speak-out/">ridiculed</a> the anti-annexation &#8220;Commanders for Israel&#8217;s Security&#8221; group, jesting that the group comprises &#8220;the same &#8216;experts&#8217; [who] supported the Iran nuclear deal and warned that &#8216;Bibi [Netanyahu] is taking a wrong turn and ruining the alliance with America.'&#8221;
It is noteworthy that Netanyahu&#8217;s defense of partial annexation was framed not merely in strategic, but also moral, terminology. The <a href="https://twitter.com/josh_hammer/status/1077983885542207488">biblical heartland of Judea and Samaria</a>, Netanyahu claims, is the Jewish people&#8217;s rightful &#8220;patrimony.&#8221; Before he was recently <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/46672/pro-israel-professor-condemned-other-faculty-tells-hank-berrien">shamed and slurred in vile fashion by leftist Palestinian activists</a>, DePaul University Professor Jason Hill made a similar argument at <a href="https://thefederalist.com/2019/04/16/moral-case-israel-annexing-west-bank-beyond/">The Federalist</a>:
<blockquote>
Since the establishment of the Palestinian Authority in 1994, Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) have enjoyed joint rule by Israeli military government and the Palestinian Authority with around 98 percent of the Palestinians living in areas under jurisdiction of the PA. In such areas, the PA has destroyed the freedom Palestinians enjoyed under Israeli rule and their economy through kleptocracy, corruption, nepotism, and authoritarian forms of governance subject to none of the checks and balances that characterize Israel&#8217;s Knesset.
Jewish exceptionalism and the exceptionalist nature of Jewish civilization require an unconditional space for the continued evolution of their civilization. What&#8217;s good for Jewish civilization is good for humanity at large. Jewish civilization is an international treasure trove that must be protected. &#8230;
Given Fatah and Hamas&#8217;s genocidal aspirations toward Israel and universal Jewry and, in the case of Hamas, of a global caliphate, a moral goal would be to reverse the potential sovereignty of every Palestinian movement in the region. It ought to force Jordan to re-revoke its citizenship status of the Palestinian majority in Jordan.
</blockquote>

Bibi: Annexing ‘West Bank’ Would NOT Endanger Israel’s Security

In another display of the closeness and respect between the U.S military and the Israel Defense Force (IDF), last week Israeli combat photographers became the first foreign military members to compete with U.S. Army combat photographers in the annual Department of Defense Hilda I. Clayton Best COMCAM (combat camera) Competition. One of the important aspects of being a combat photographer is to counter false information purveyed by enemy forces.
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
For the first time ever, IDF and <a href="https://twitter.com/USArmy?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@USArmy</a> soldiers compete to find out who&#8217;s got the better shot.
Footage: &amp; Combat Camera Teams <a href="https://t.co/ncWyqBnBmx">pic.twitter.com/ncWyqBnBmx</a>
&#8212; Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) <a href="https://twitter.com/IDF/status/1128319184956534787?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 14, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
The five-day event, hosted by the U.S. Army&#8217;s 55th Signal Company, was created seven years ago to honor Clayton, who was killed in a training exercise when a mortar shell exploded, as <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-cameramen-square-off-against-us-shooters-in-combat-photography-contest/">The Times of Israel</a> reported.
According to a <a href="v">document</a> produced by the Air Land Sea Application (ALSA) Center in accordance with the memorandum of agreement between the Headquarters of the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, and Air Force:
<blockquote>
Effectively employed COMCAM assets at the tactical level can potentially achieve national, theater strategic, and operational level objectives in a manner that lessens the requirement for combat in many situations. Integrated COMCAM forces, with SOF or conventional units, can provide higher echelons a ground-level view and document mission accomplishment. Their products can counter adversary misinformation, disinformation, and propaganda and help commanders gain situational awareness on operations in a way written or verbal reports cannot.
The products can also provide historical documentation, public information, or an evidentiary foundation. For example, COMCAM products can support gathering site exploitation or imagery for forensic documentation of evidence and legal proceedings. They can provide intelligence documentation to include imagery for facial recognition and key leader engagements, and support special reconnaissance.
</blockquote>
Both Israel&#8217;s and America&#8217;s combat photographers have to undergo eight months of combat and professional training before they go into action; U.S. Staff Sgt. Enoch Fleites, a veteran of many tours in Afghanistan who along with Staff Sgt. Edward French IV took first place in the competition, noted that the cameramen, who are embedded with ground forces as infantrymen, must have the capacity to switch from camera to gun instantaneously. He said, &#8220;You just know when something&#8217;s wrong. And when something goes wrong, you drop your camera and pick up your gun.&#8221; French added, &#8220;It tested you mentally, physically and technically.&#8221;
The Times of Israel explained:
<blockquote>
The contest began last Monday with physical training, a written exam and a challenge to create an audiovisual package on a specific topic. The following day consisted of an obstacle course and &#8220;stress shoot,&#8221; in which the soldiers had their heart rates elevated before target practice to better replicate shooting in real-world scenarios. The third day included a simulated urban combat mission, which included the evacuation of an injured soldier. On the final day, the participants took part in a 12-mile march carrying a 35-pound rucksack.
</blockquote>
All the while, the soldiers were shooting videos and taking photographs; they selected some for presentation later. A team from the 55th Signal Company finished second; Staff Sgt. Yoav Pinus and Sgt. Nir Bitan from the IDF tied with another team from the 55th Signal Company for third place.
IDF combat photographers started receiving combat training in boot camp after Sgt. Lior Ziv was <a href="http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/42235">killed </a>in the Gaza Strip in 2003. The Israeli soldiers competing in the combat photography event held a memorial service to honor him.

Friendly Competition: U.S. Army And Israel Defense Forces See Who’s Got The Best Shot

U.S. Army

According to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/46830/hammer-israels-election-over-time-now-operation-josh-hammer">genocidal Sunni sharia supremacist</a> <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/46714/hammer-designating-muslim-brotherhood-terrorist-josh-hammer">Muslim Brotherhood branch</a> known as Hamas, which was democratically elected to lead the Gaza Strip after Israel&#8217;s unilateral withdrawal from there in 2005, is canceling classes in the Strip tomorrow to send children to violently riot and possibly &#8220;martyr&#8221; themselves against the Jewish state.
Such a lovely group Hamas is.
On Tuesday afternoon in the U.S., the IDF tweeted: &#8220;BREAKING: IDF intelligence can confirm that Hamas has cancelled schools in Gaza tomorrow in order to send the children to participate in violent riots against Israel.&#8221;
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
BREAKING: IDF intelligence can confirm that Hamas has cancelled schools in Gaza tomorrow in order to send the children to participate in violent riots against Israel.
&#8212; Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) <a href="https://twitter.com/IDF/status/1128398585807163399?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 14, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
In a follow-up tweet, the IDF expressly called on Hamas to resist this awful tactic: &#8220;During the hours of the riots tomorrow, weather in #Gaza is expected to be around 80 degrees Fahrenheit. This heat is a danger to children, who are susceptible to dehydration &amp; heat-stroke. We call on Hamas to keep their children in school &amp; not endanger them at the riots.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
During the hours of the riots tomorrow, weather in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Gaza?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Gaza</a> is expected to be around 80 degrees Fahrenheit. This heat is a danger to children, who are susceptible to dehydration &amp; heat-stroke. We call on Hamas to keep their children in school &amp; not endanger them at the riots.
&#8212; Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) <a href="https://twitter.com/IDF/status/1128398590756438016?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 14, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
Hamas has consistently staged protests at the Israel-Gaza border for much of the past calendar year. The extraordinarily cynical public relations strategy for the jihadist death cult is to incite civilians to launch incendiary devices into Israel and target Israeli military figures on the other side of the border so as to necessarily trigger a defensive Israeli response that might be picked up upon by a media outlet in a way that elicits sympathy for the Palestinian-Arab cause.
As former Israeli ambassador to the U.S. and present Knesset member Michael Oren <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/21/opinion/oren-hamas-media-strategy/index.html">wrote</a> at CNN.com in 2014: &#8220;Hamas knows that shocking images &#8212; some of them taken from the carnage in Syria and Iraq and even from Hollywood horror movies &#8212; inflame public opinion. Under mounting pressure, governments will endorse UN condemnations of Israel for war crimes. Hamas missiles [and personal riots] cannot destroy Israel, but international sanctions can tie its hands from deflecting them.&#8221;
And as Matti Friedman <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/11/how-the-media-makes-the-israel-story/383262/">explained</a> in a dazzling piece for The Atlantic later in 2014, Hamas&#8217;s utterly grotesque strategy necessarily also depends on a willfully complicit media: &#8220;Hamas&#8217;s strategy is to provoke a response from Israel by attacking from behind the cover of Palestinian civilians, thus drawing Israeli strikes that kill those civilians, and then to have the casualties filmed by one of the world&#8217;s largest press contingents, with the understanding that the resulting outrage abroad will blunt Israel&#8217;s response. This is a ruthless strategy, and an effective one. It is predicated on the cooperation of journalists.&#8221;
Why our hapless fourth estate is so complicit in furthering a jihadist group&#8217;s aims is anyone&#8217;s guess.
In a recent op-ed for The Daily Wire following the most recent barrage of indiscriminate Hamas rocket fire at Israeli civilian targets, I <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/46830/hammer-israels-election-over-time-now-operation-josh-hammer">argued</a> that Israel must soon commence a comprehensive land/air invasion to finally eviscerate Hamas once and for all:
<blockquote>
From the perspective of American politics, the time to launch such an investigation is &#8230; right now. Because while the Jew-hating ignoramuses of the &#8220;international community&#8221; &#8212; best embodied by that wretched hive of Western values-hating scum and anti-Semitic villainy known as the <a href="https://www.themaven.net/theresurgent/contributors/destroy-the-united-nations-MRHU9AcfJUW0v67EHdQI-Q/">United Nations</a> &#8212; would inevitably howl and shriek regardless of any extended extra-territorial Israeli military operation, there can be no serious doubt that this, the most <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/46364/menken-president-trump-defender-israel-ignores-rabbi-yaakov-menken">pro-Israel</a>, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/46504/watch-poway-synagogue-rabbi-reveals-what-trump-ryan-saavedra">pro-Jewish</a> presidential administration in a century or more, would enthusiastically have Israel&#8217;s physical and proverbial back.
Israel simply cannot risk waiting until the eve of the 2020 presidential election &#8212; not with a menagerie of anti-Israel dunderheads competing for the nomination of what is an increasingly <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/44424/hammer-stark-choice-facing-jewish-democrats-josh-hammer">openly anti-Semitic</a> Democratic Party. A comprehensive Gaza operation to root out and destroy Hamas simply must be commenced with Trump as president. There is no other choice.
</blockquote>

SICK: Hamas Cancels School To Send Children To Riot At Gaza Border Against Israel

On Monday&#8217;s episode of &#8220;The Michael Knowles Show,&#8221; the host responds to several Democrat lawmakers who reacted to Israel defending itself against rocket attacks from the terrorist organization Hamas by spouting &#8220;pure terrorist propaganda.&#8221;
How did members of Congress in the United States respond to this? Two Democrat members, far-leftwing freshman representatives Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar defended the terrorists, of course. First, Rashida Tlaib retweeted someone who was criticizing a New York Times story.
The tweet that she retweeted said, &#8220;This is a stunningly irresponsible and misleading headline, New York Times. Israel shot dozens of unarmed Palestinian protesters in Gaza on Friday and killed four Palestinians including two protesters in Gaza before any projectiles were launched.&#8221;
That tweet that Rashida Tlaib retweeted is itself misleading because what it&#8217;s suggesting is that Israel provoked the rocket attacks. Israel didn&#8217;t provoke the rocket attacks; Iran acting through Islamic Jihad provoked the response from Israel, which then led to rocket attacks because a terrorist sniper started firing on Israeli troops. So, what this person is suggesting is that when terrorists from Gaza start firing on Israeli troops, what Israel should do is nothing. They should just take it lying down &#8212; it would be wrong to fight back against terrorists shooting our troops. That&#8217;s what that lunatic says, but the more troubling thing is that a member of the United States Congress then retweeted that Islamist propaganda.
Tlaib keeps pushing the propaganda, and she then pushes her own tweet. She says, &#8220;When will the world stop dehumanizing our Palestinian people who just want to be free&#8221;. I&#8217;ll pause there &#8212; did you catch that? &#8220;Our Palestinian people.&#8221; Are we talking about some group of Palestinian Arabs living in New Jersey or some group of Palestinian Arabs living in Arizona&#8230; no. Who are our Palestinian people? Who does Tliab refer to as &#8220;our&#8221;? Who does she view as us? Who is she allying herself with?
The tweet goes on: &#8220;Headlines like this and framing it in this way just feed into the continued lack of responsibility on Israel who unjustly oppress and target Palestinian children and families. Hashtag Free Palestine.&#8221;
So, this is pure terrorist propaganda. It&#8217;s the only way to put it. A member of Congress Rashida Tlaib has become a mouthpiece for some of the worst terrorists in the world. There&#8217;s no more diplomatic way I could say it. The more interesting thing and I&#8217;ve suspected this for a long time with Rashida Tlaib, is it&#8217;s clear she doesn&#8217;t like Israel, it&#8217;s clear she doesn&#8217;t like Jews, and it&#8217;s clear that she sides with some of the worst terrorists in the world. But listen to the language &#8212; she&#8217;s siding with a group of Arabs in so-called Palestine, that elected Hamas to be their government and that elected a terrorist organization to be their government.
<div class="embed video fluid-video"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/DdI4OmiOcuw?start=361" width="560"></iframe></div>
She&#8217;s siding with them over an actual ally and a Western-style democracy in the Middle East. But the language &#8220;free Palestine&#8221; and &#8220;the people just want to be free.&#8221; We&#8217;ve talked about this theme for weeks now. This theme that goes throughout all of Western modernity, which is liberation, emancipation. We always want to emancipate. We always want to liberate. We always want to be free. Free is good, not free is bad.
Who could disagree with that? Well, what happens when freedom means the opposite of freedom? This is why you&#8217;ve always got to watch out for people who only speak in the terms of abstract rights with human rights, liberty, equality and fraternity. Whenever they&#8217;re just talking in those totally abstract terms that are not connected to anything on the ground, that are not connected to actual legal rights, not connected to actual people in actual places with actual institutions and when they&#8217;re just using those words&#8230; chances are they&#8217;re demagogues. Chances are they&#8217;re trying to trick you.
When she says &#8220;free&#8221; she means Arabs in this region get another state &#8212; &#8220;they just want to be free.&#8221; How many Muslim states are there in the region?
There&#8217;s one Jewish state in the world and there are dozens of Muslim states in that region. Now she&#8217;s saying we need to take away part of the Jewish state to have another Muslim state, otherwise, these Arabs can&#8217;t be free.
Let&#8217;s take Rashida Tlaib&#8217;s tweet on the surface as face value. They want to be free and to be free they need a state. What would that state look like? It would be a state run by Hamas.
You would be giving the terrorist organization Hamas, which targets civilians &#8212; it doesn&#8217;t just accidentally kill civilians, but targets civilians&#8217; women and children, uses them as bulletproof vests, not bulletproof for the women and children, and uses them as protection from bombs and guns &#8212; you would be giving them a country. Free Palestine would mean giving international recognition to a group of people that intentionally undermine the international order. You&#8217;d be giving a nation to people who undermine our system of nation states. It is a freedom that would undercut everybody else&#8217;s freedom.

KNOWLES: Democrat Lawmakers Defend Israel’s Attackers

Ilhan Omar

Michael Knowles

Rashida Tlaib

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