Israel, Coronavirus and 7 Reasons Why There’s No ‘Gaza Siege’ - by Honest Reporting

Ultimately, while restrictions on movement of people and materials exist in order to prevent terrorism, the Israeli/Egyptian blockade of Gaza should not be referred to as a “siege.” Hamas’ own survival depends on blaming the suffering of Gazans on Israel in order to divert from its own failures. Sadly, there are too many, including some media, who willingly buy into this narrative. Israel has no desire to see the people of Gaza suffering and does all it can to balance its own security needs with the humanitarian requirements of the Palestinians. Gaza is not under “siege.”

Honest Reporting..
30 March '20..

Particularly at a time when the coronavirus poses a significant risk of spreading to the Palestinian population of Gaza, the Hamas-controlled enclave is once again in the news. And with that, a new focus on the difficulties faced by Gaza’s under-resourced health system. Some media put the blame squarely on Israeli restrictions on Gaza that exist to mitigate Hamas terrorism against Israel. These restrictions are often referred to as a “blockade.” Some, however, go further by referring to a “Gaza siege.”

The word “siege” is deliberately emotive and consistently used by Israel’s detractors and sometimes by mainstream media. For example, The Economist:

The Media’s Gaza Siege Mentality

Language matters. Misleading Terminology is one of our 8 Categories of Media Bias. We note that language is too often used to promote an agenda. The media must exercise caution when consciously choosing to adopt (or avoid) certain terms, proper nouns, or foreign words.


The dictionary definition of a siege is:

the act or process of surrounding and attacking a fortified place in such a way as to isolate it from help and supplies, for the purpose of lessening the resistance of the defenders and thereby making capture possible.

Here are seven reasons why Gaza’s situation is far removed from the definition above.

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Problem Solved: If the PA Lacks Funds to Combat the Coronavirus, It Should Stop Paying Salaries to Terrorists - by Brig.-Gen. (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser

Palestinian Authority ignores pressures to end “pay for slay”

Brig.-Gen. (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser..
Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs..
27 March '20..
Link: https://jcpa.org/palestinian-authority-still-insists-on-paying-salaries-to-terrorists/

According to official Palestinian reports, the actual expenditure by the Palestinian Authority on salaries to incarcerated terrorists during 2019 was 517.4 million shekels ($148 million). This is in comparison to 502 million shekels in 2018. The overall actual expenditures of the PA ministry for prisoners and released prisoners amounted to 619 million shekels in 2019 compared with 736.7 million shekels in 2018. In January 2020, the PA paid 77.1 million shekels as compared with 42.4 million shekels in January 2019, and 76 million shekels in December 2019.

The budget expenditure information is not clear about the salaries paid to the families of the martyrs, since they are included without specifications in the social welfare transfers, together with real welfare payments.

The Palestinians keep paying salaries to all terrorists arrested in Israel and to the families of dead terrorists in spite of the growing international attention to the “Pay for Slay” phenomenon that is evident from the following:

1. The recently announced American peace plan, Vision for Peace and Prosperity, calls upon the Palestinians to stop paying salaries to terrorists and regards the ending of “Pay for Slay” as a precondition for establishing a Palestinian state. In the plan’s language:

The PLO and the Palestinian Authority should take all necessary actions to immediately terminate the paying of salaries to terrorists serving sentences in Israeli prisons, as well as to the families of deceased terrorists (collectively, the “Prisoner and Martyr Payments”) and to develop humanitarian and welfare programs to provide essential services and support to Palestinians in need that are not based upon the commission of terrorist acts. The goal is to change the applicable laws, in a manner that is consistent with the laws of the United States, and completely cease making Prisoner and Martyr Payments by the time of signing of the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Agreement.

2. The U.S. budget for FY 2020 – for the first time in many years – does not include any allocations for the PA, probably in line with the Taylor Force Act that prohibits the U.S. from extending aid to the PA as long as it keeps paying salaries to arrested terrorists and to the families of dead terrorists.

3. The new version of the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act for FY 2020 (HR 1865) was meant to mitigate the implications of the Anti-Terrorism Clarification Act of 2019, to enable the PA security forces to receive U.S. financial assistance without making the PA subject to legal procedures in U.S. courts for its support for terror. However, the legislation states clearly that the PA will have to pay compensation to victims of Palestinian terror as decided by U.S. courts as long as it keeps paying salaries to terrorists. At this point, the PA faces court decisions demanding that it pay more than $1 billion to terror victims.

4. The Dutch government decided on November 2019 to cut aid to the PA after negotiations failed to convince the Palestinians to stop payment of salaries to terrorists. In 2018, Australia suspended its aid to the PA for similar reasons.

5. In the British Parliament, the issue of British aid to the PA while it continues to pay salaries to terrorists has been raised, and the new government took upon itself to review the matter.

Israel keeps implementing the steps taken against the PA in the context of the Stern-Dichter law that was adopted in 2018. The law ordered Israel to deduct every month from the taxes it collects for the PA and transfers to it, one-twelfth of the amount the PA paid as salaries to arrested terrorists and to families of dead terrorists in the previous year. After the law came into force, Israel’s Security Cabinet decided in February 2019 to deduct 41.8 million shekels each month in 2019 (one-twelfth of the 502 million shekels paid by the PA as salaries to incarcerated terrorists in 2018), as these were the only figures the Ministry of Defense was able to provide. The cabinet ordered the MOD to provide further information about the payments to the families of dead terrorists, and towards the end of 2019 the MOD reported that these payments amounted to 148 million shekels, and one-twelfth of this sum has to be deducted as well.

Zionist commitment, a front-line combat unit and corona - by David M. Weinberg

Sending-off your son this week to serve in the IDF is a raw test of Zionist commitment, especially during a contagion.

David M. Weinberg..
A Citadel Defending Zion..
27 March '20..
Link: http://davidmweinberg.com/2020/03/27/commitment-combat-and-corona/

One of the greatest points of pride in raising children in this country is the privilege of seeing them inducted into the Israel Defense Forces.

At the very same time, an utmost source of angst in raising children here is the need to send them off to serve in the Israel Defense Forces.

Pride and anxiety intermingle relentlessly.

None of this is news to readers of this paper, many of whom have seen their children devote years of their life to military service, even to the toughest combat.

Nor is it new to me. My eldest son fought in Gaza; a second son is a career officer in a sensitive post; and two sons-in-law are officers as well.

And yet I had a new experience this past week, when my youngest son was drafted into a front-line combat unit while this country finds itself under the coronavirus gun.

And sure enough, within 24 hours of reaching his new base deep in the desert, he and 20 other soldiers in his battalion were quarantined because it emerged that they were exposed to a confirmed corona carrier before induction.

They were given a few hours to build themselves a tent in an isolated location with a fence around it. Eventually a medic joined them to check temperatures and monitor the situation.

We sort of knew that something like this could happen, and it could yet happen again. When you have hundreds of young men from all parts of Israeli society who are training, exercising, sweating, showering, sleeping and eating together in close quarters, it is hard to contain contagion.

In fact, 23 IDF soldiers are known to be sick with coronavirus, and 5,600 soldiers and civilian employees of the IDF are in quarantine, including 240 lone soldiers. Managing this is an enormous challenge, while keeping the military’s critical units operationally ready.

CORONAVIRUS ASIDE, most of the pre-draft conversations my son and I had focused on issues of character, leadership and faith while serving in the army.

Since my military career is gloriously close to non-existent (I served in the IDF for a grand total of one week!), there wasn’t a lot of tactical advice I could give him, except to take care of himself physically, protect his platoon buddies and the country to the best of his abilities, and try to call home often.

I also told him that when in a situation of direct personal danger from enemy combatants, shoot first if the open-fire guidelines allow this and ask questions later. He should worry more about his own safety and that of his team than Human Rights Watch or Amnesty investigations. If necessary, I’ll get him a good lawyer.

We also talked about how to guard himself spiritually and religiously; not to lose the natural innocence of youth; not to become too cynical, negative or self-centered, as seems to be pattern these days. Don’t let such malaise get a hold of you, I said.

Patriotism isn’t a dirty word. Be proud of your military service, I added. (My father-in-law, Rabbi Yitzhak Pechman, whose yarhtzeit is today, certainly would have beamed with pride to see yet another grandson in uniform).

Introducing El Pais: A Spanish Media Outlet That Shows Clear Anti-Israel Bias - by Masha Gabriel

As a result of its switching to a digital-subscription model, El País has launched a campaign to increase, if possible, its prestige. As part of the campaign, an enlarged cartoon by the newspaper’s cartoonist, El Roto, was painted in the newspaper’s headquarters: a Batman-style superhero with two pens as ears, and a phrase: “Always with the readers.” With its readers — maybe. With the truth — it doesn’t seem so.

Masha Gabriel..
Algemeiner..
26 March '20..

In a recent statement, Senator Bernie Sanders claimed to be a reader of the Spanish newspaper El País. This is evidence of the global influence of the Spanish media outlet.

The newspaper was founded in Spain in the second half of the 1970s, at the beginning of the country’s transition to democracy. It represented a new way of doing journalism in a nation that was starting to awaken after 36 years of dictatorship.

Here’s how the newspaper defines itself: “Four decades later, it remains the Spanish media outlet of reference inside and outside Spain.”

However, the clumsiness with which the newspaper reports about Israel is striking: its news stories are often sprinkled with evident signs of ignorance.

Consider some examples.

To begin with, El País has a “geographical-obsessive” problem. By that I mean, it tends to see Israeli or Jewish settlements everywhere. Even a spring can easily become a settlement if the headline requires it.

Thus, Ein Bubin, a spring where a young Israeli woman was murdered, became — for the purposes of a headline: “An Israeli teenager dies in a bomb attack in a settlement in the West Bank” (August 23, 2019).

From spring to settlement, as if by magic.

That’s not the only problem.

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Any question that this Joint List MK should be disqualified? by Sheri Oz

..."This unholy alliance is a slap in the faces of the victims of terror, and all those who took part in it should be ashamed of themselves." I would add that this unholy alliance is a slap in the faces of all Israelis.

Sheri Oz..
Israel Diaries..
26 March '20..

This should be enough to get this man thrown out of the Knesset and prevented from ever running again. Sami Abu Shehada of the Joint List, you know, the party bloc that Gantz’s party bloc, Blue&White, wants to rely on for forming a minority government, uploaded a blessing to the mothers of terrorists in honour of Mother’s Day that was celebrated in the Palestinian Authority last Saturday. According to Im Tirzu, the video was first exposed by Makor Rishon reporter Assaf Gibor.

My translation into English is below the tweet.

בשבת האחרונה ציינו בחברה הערבית, את יום האם. חבר הכנסת סאמי אבו שחאדה, הרשימה המשותפת, בל״ד.
שיגר ברכה לאמהות המחבלים pic.twitter.com/PJ4NzB4NqL

— אסף גבור assaf gibor (@assafgibor) March 25, 2020

I want to send a special message to the mothers of Palestinian prisoners and to the mothers of the male and female political prisoners in all the prisons. You are those who are being remembered these days for your suffering. You are going through difficult times. I want to tell you that we admire you very much for the heroic task and effort that you are performing. Thank-you and Happy Holiday.

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In a NY Times Op-Ed the Pandemic is a Pretext to Attack Israel and Deny Terrorism - by Gilead Ini

It’s one thing for the author to use the coronavirus in the service of anti-Israel activism. That’s his prerogative — though editors might be expected to balk at such cynical treatment of the crisis. But to inform readers that the curfew was arbitrary, that only Palestinians were under threat, and that normal life continued elsewhere is to show an egregious disregard for the truth.

Gilead Ini..
Camera..
24 March '20..

Is it “normal” for elderly Holocaust survivors to be murdered while celebrating Passover? That’s what today’s Op-Ed in the New York Times appears to suggest.

The piece, by anti-Israel activist Raja Shehadeh, uses the coronavirus scare as a pretext to attack the Jewish state. The hook is that American cities are ordering people to stay at home to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The pitch is that cruel Israelis ordered Palestinians to remain indoors for no reason at all. Shehadeh strains to squeeze anti-Israel talking points into his ostensible lesson about the coronavirus. Or is it the other way around? “Unlike the Israeli guns that posed an equal threat to anyone moving outside of their homes without permission, the virus discriminates by age.” He writes of Israel’s “strangulating roadblocks.”

And for what? Apparently nothing. In what is the piece’s most disingenuous and offensive passage, Shehadeh writes,

In 2002, when my neighbors and I had our movement severely restricted by an Israeli military siege, I tried my best to continue living as normally as I could. It was springtime then, as it is now. I would look out the window and lament my inability to venture out to the lush hills all around covered with wildflowers. But the danger lurking outside my house back then was readily recognizable: armed soldiers enforcing the stay-at-home orders. Only Palestinians were under threat. While we suffered, normal life continued elsewhere, indifferent to what we were enduring.

It is a flagrant distortion of history — a stark example of terrorism denial — to claim that, in 2002, “only Palestinians were under threat” while “normal life” continued in Israel. That year was the single deadliest in history for Israelis in terms of terrorism deaths, as a campaign of Palestinian suicide bombings targeted Jewish civilians. Life was turned upside-down for Israelis, many of whom wouldn’t dare enter a restaurant or city bus. The curfews imposed on parts of the West Bank, which the Op-Ed focuses on, was the direct result of a Palestinian terror campaign, which the Op-Ed dishonesty ignores, and which claimed over 400 Israeli lives that year alone.

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Dangerous coronavirus advice as part of the larger pattern of intellectual poverty within Gaza - by Adam Levick

The Palestinian sermon we highlighted is important because history has surely shown that bad ideas almost always result in bad choices and, often, horrible individual and societal consequences – and that we ignore them at our peril.

Adam Levick..
UK Media Watch..
23 March '20..

We’ve posted frequently on the media’s insistence on blaming Israel for the economic and social crisis in Gaza, and their failure to assign responsibility for such woes to Gaza leaders – a pattern on display in a recent Guardian’s article on the first coronavirus patients in the coastal strip.

However, there’s another societal crisis that’s rarely reported on, one which Gaza political and religious leaders are solely responsible for:

This report by MEMRI is a case in point:

Imam in Hamas TV Friday Sermon a Day before Coronavirus Cases Confirmed in Gaza: This Virus Is a Soldier of Allah; Muslims Are the Least Affected pic.twitter.com/Ww5PII9Dv0

— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) March 23, 2020

This is extremely dangerous coronavirus advice for sure – suggesting that Muslims are somehow less prone to catching COVID-19. But, it’s also part of a larger pattern of intellectual poverty within Gaza, where such counter-factual ideas are often the norm.

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A short refresher concerning the de facto Palestinian vision - by Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger

When it comes to the de facto Palestinian vision, will Western democracies learn from past, self-destructive mistakes by avoiding – or repeating – them?!

Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger..
The Ettinger Report..
22 March '20..
Link: http://theettingerreport.com/what-makes-the-palestinian-authority-run-a-reminder/

Is the vision of the Palestinian Authority limited to the establishment of a state in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank)? Is the vision of the Palestinian Authority amenable to alteration through financial inducements? Shouldn’t the pursuit of peace be based on a realization of the de facto – rather than hopeful – vision of the Palestinian Authority?

The Middle East context

In the Arab/Muslim Middle East – contrary to Western democracies – regimes are authoritarian, suppressing the majority. They are not scrutinized by legislators and constituents, unconstrained by checks and balances, unchallenged by election cycles, and highly motivated by long-term visions. These visions quash constituents’ preference, and supersede tempting Western financial packages.

Therefore, unlike the relatively short-term, election-driven strategy pursued by Western policy-makers, Arab policy-makers are driven by long-term strategy and vision, supported by short term tactics, which frequently aim to mislead, while camouflaging the actual vision.

The de facto, pre-1967 Palestinian vision

According to the de facto Palestinian vision – as documented by the current K-12 Palestinian hate curriculum – Palestine extends from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean, erasing the “infidel” Jewish State (The term Palaistine was coined by the Greeks in the 5th century BCE, referring to the Land of Israel).

The de facto Palestinian vision was determined before the 1967 Six Day War; before the Jewish State reunited Jerusalem and regained control of the mountain ridges of Judea and Samaria (which was renamed the West Bank during the 1950 Jordanian occupation).

The Palestinian de facto vision was articulated by the 1964 charter of the PLO, which is the source of power of the Palestinian Authority, hence Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas, leaders of the PLO, and therefore of the Palestinian Authority. The 33 articles of the PLO charter envision a multi-generational struggle for “the liberation” of the whole of British Mandate Palestine and the destruction of “Zionist occupation,” focusing on Tel Aviv, Haifa and the entire pre-1967 Israel.

The 1964 PLO charter did not refer to Judea and Samaria (West Bank) and Gaza – which were occupied by Jordan and Egypt – only to pre-1967 Israel.

Actually they want a No Jewish State Solution - by Mitchell Bard

It is time the people playing Risk with Israeli lives recognize that the Palestinian objective is the No Jewish State Solution.

Mitchell Bard..
Algemeiner..
20 March '20..

Pundits and policymakers act as though solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is like playing Risk. They manufacture formulas with the single-minded purpose of arriving at a predetermined outcome — a two-state solution — and ignore everything the Palestinians have said or done over the last century that is inconsistent with their desired result.

The Palestinians, however, have no interest in the Risk players’ conceptions of peace; they want a No Jewish State Solution.

Consider the history of negotiations. In 1937, British diplomats first arrived at the seemingly rational conclusion that the secret to resolving a conflict between two peoples over one land was to divide it into two states. Ignoring the messier reasons for the conflict, such as history, religion, politics, and psychology, the Peel Commission offered the Arabs a state in roughly 40% of Palestine and the Jews 17%. The Palestinians rejected the offer and objected “to the very idea of a Jewish state” according to historian Elie Podeh

In 1939, the British offered the Palestinians a state and no state for the Jews, reneging on their promise in the Balfour Declaration. This is the one state solution the Arabs said they wanted; however, it would have allowed continued Jewish immigration. The Palestinians’ representatives from the Arab Higher Committee objected to the idea that “Jews should have a fixed numerical proportion of one third or any other proportion, as such a position would be a real danger on Arab national existence.”

The Committee insisted on a “complete and final prohibition of any transfer of lands from Arabs to Jews.” Furthermore, the Arabs rejected the British requirement that they recognize a Jewish National Home, “No Arab in Palestine will ever be prepared to recognize … the existence of a Jewish Home as a national entity.”

Partition offered the Palestinians a worse deal (though better than Peel) — a state consisting of 45% of Mandatory Palestine next to a Jewish state. Before the UN vote on partition, the Arabs made their position clear and, in doing so, should have permanently shattered the illusions of two-state advocates. Arab League Secretary Azzam Pasha told Jewish Agency representative David Horowitz on September 16, 1947:

It’s likely, Mr. Horowitz, that your plan is rational and logical, but the fate of nations is not decided by rational logic. Nations never concede; they fight. You won’t get anything by peaceful means or compromise. You can, perhaps, get something, but only by the force of your arms. We shall try to defeat you. I am not sure we’ll succeed, but we’ll try. We were able to drive out the Crusaders, but on the other hand we lost Spain and Persia. It may be that we shall lose Palestine. But it’s too late to talk of peaceful solutions.

He was prescient about losing Palestine. Still, after the 1948 War of Independence, the Palestinians could have demanded a state from Jordan, which controlled the West Bank, and Egypt, which ruled Gaza. It would have met their goal of a Judenrein state. They had no interest in independence, however, and were content to live under occupation by their fellow Arabs.

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Gaza, Coronavirus and Dishonesty: Reuters Stunning Display of Misleading Journalism - by Daniel Pomerantz

There are many international stories relevant to COVID-19: Italy’s desperate measures, South Korea’s massive testing, the UK and its backtracking from a unique “herd immunity” approach, even Israel with its aggressive containment strategy and furious work toward a vaccine. However, this Reuters article is not relevant to COVID-19 nor is it newsworthy in that context . Instead, this article reads like like a transparent excuse to say something negative about Israel at any cost: even at the cost of basic journalistic ethics.

Daniel Pomerantz..
Honest Reporting..
18 March '20..

In a stunning display of misleading journalism and demonstrating its anti-Israel agenda, Reuters promotes the myth that restrictions on Gaza are somehow comparable to global quarantines defending against the COVID-19 coronavirus.

'Dear world, how is the lockdown?': A sly dig at the international community, this is just one among a torrent of social media posts that has emerged from the blockaded Gaza Strip in the wake of the #coronavirus pandemic https://t.co/lEpcFVYLMu via @NidalAl

— Reuters (@Reuters) March 18, 2020

In the article, Reuters shares a number of tweets from Gaza residents such as this one:

We in Gaza have been living this for 14 years.

Reuters did not commit an ethical breach by sharing tweets from Gaza residents: Gaza is a part of our world and is deemed newsworthy. However, as a body of professional journalists, Reuters has a duty to also share context and balance. For example, ...

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Thank you J Street for misleading Congress members into signing racist letter on Israel - by Stephen M. Flatow

The signatories, except for a few diehard Israel-haters such as Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib, are unaware of the reality on the ground in Judea and Samaria. They are unaware because J Street misled them.

Stephen M. Flatow..
JNS.org..
17 March '20..

Did you hear the shocking news? Sixty Congress members just signed a letter demanding that the federal government stop dismantling illegally built homes belonging to whites, though they didn’t object to the dismantling of illegal homes built by African-Americans.

Oops, wait! Sorry, I got that mixed up.

The 60 Congress members demanded that the Israeli government stop dismantling any illegally built homes that have been built by Arabs. But they did not object to Israel’s continuing policy of dismantling of illegally built Jewish homes.

Who would have thought that in this day and age, members of Congress would stoop so low as to make policy recommendations based on the idea that one specific ethnic group should be targeted?

We were supposed to have given up the old practice of making policies based on the color of people’s skin, rather than the content of their character. Images of George Wallace standing in that schoolhouse door were supposed to be just a bad memory. Yet here we are, in 2020, with 60 Democrats signing a letter that echoes the attitudes of those dark times.

J Street played a major role in organizing the congressional letter.

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Stephen M. Flatow, an attorney in New Jersey, is the father of Alisa Flatow, who was murdered in an Iranian-sponsored Palestinian terrorist attack in 1995. He is the author of “A Father’s Story: My Fight for Justice Against Iranian Terrorism,” now available on Kindle.

Surprise? NGOs Exploiting the Coronavirus for Anti-Israel Campaigns

COVID-19 has been appended onto the standard anti-occupation rhetoric and existing campaigns that, for some NGOs and activists, are presented as the most pressing and real global concerns.

NGO Monitor
18 March '20..

This is a rolling blog post and will be updated as NGOs issue more statements on COVID-19.

The news cycle has been dominated by COVID-19, and a number of advocacy NGOs have made statements linking their agendas to this issue. In the Israeli context, this is consistent with previous attempts by NGOs to capitalize on prevailing public discourse, for instance manipulating narratives of climate change and LGBTQ rights as part of their anti-Israel campaigns.

The most notorious example today is a tweet from Sarah Leah Whitson, currently at the Quincy Institute and previously head of the MENA division at Human Rights Watch. Whitson used the classic antisemitic blood libel in responding to a cynical tweet about “6 million jewish israelis” understanding life under “occupation” due to the virus, stating “such a tiny taste. Missing a tablespoon on blood.” (March 14, 2020).

NGO statements relating to Israel and COVID-19 deal with a few common themes:

1. “Occupation”: COVID-19 has been appended onto the standard anti-occupation rhetoric and existing campaigns that, for some NGOs and activists, are presented as the most pressing and real global concerns. Tellingly, complaints about Israeli policy in the West Bank do not seriously grapple with whether they will effectively curb the spread of disease, but rather presume that Israel must be acting in bad faith because “occupation.”

2. Responsibility for Gaza: 15 years after the withdrawal, NGOs continue to blame Israel for a “humanitarian crisis” based on a unique standard of international law applied to Israel alone that denies Hamas and other actors agency for diverting resources to weapons, tunnels, and terror, instead of public infrastructure. In the current context, NGOs have been using COVID-19 as an excuse to criticize legitimate anti-terror policies and to preemptively blame Israel for an outbreak in Gaza.

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Jewish Lawmakers/ Arab Lawmakers? New York Times Shows How Framing Slants Coverage - by Gilead Ini

Readers aren't told that the lawmakers reject the legitimacy of Jewish votes. Instead, the story is again framed in terms of what readers will see as bad behavior by Israeli Jews.

Gilead Ini..
Camera Snapshots..
16 March '20..

A couple of days ago, we highlighted how David Halbfinger, the New York Times bureau chief in Jerusalem, cast Israel's prime minister as a scold for, well, trying to protect vulnerable populations from a pandemic.

If that's how Halbfinger responds to helpful messages from the Israeli government, we noted, it should come as no surprise that, on the same day, the journalist also suggested Israel denies its Arab population democracy, simply because many Jewish lawmakers are skeptical of partnering with the Joint List. The Joint List is a mostly Arab political alliance that includes a communist party, an Islamist party, and lawmakers who reject the continued existence of the Jewish state and have praised terrorists.

Today, Halbfinger followed up with a piece noting that the Joint List itself refuses to join the Israel government. The contrast between his framing of Jewish lawmakers who don't want Joint List to be part of the government and Arab lawmakers who don't want to be part of the government is telling.

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Surprised? Israel Helps Palestinians Prevent Coronavirus; Arabs Betray Them - by Khaled Abu Toameh

Egypt, for its part, long ago abandoned the Palestinians by essentially sealing its border with the Gaza Strip. The Lebanese, Egyptians and most Arabs perceive the Palestinians as Israel's problem. When the current virus crisis has passed, it is to be hoped that the Palestinians will remember that one country alone came to their rescue: Israel. They might also remember that their Arab brothers betrayed them -- not for the first time, and no doubt not for the last.

Khaled Abu Toameh..
Gatestone Institute..
16 March '20..

While Israel is working overtime with Palestinians to curb and prevent the spread of the coronavirus, the Arab states appear to be doing what they do best when it comes to helping their Palestinian brothers: nothing at all.

In the past few days, Israeli authorities delivered 200 coronavirus testing kits to the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. In addition, Israeli and Palestinian professional teams have been working together to prevent the spread of the virus.

The Israeli authorities have also delivered another 200 coronavirus testing kits to the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, despite the thousands of rockets and incendiary and bomb-carrying balloons that the ruling government, Hamas, has launched from there towards Israel.

In addition, Israeli authorities have coordinated the transfer of 20 tons of disinfectant material from Israeli factories to the Palestinian health sector. The material included chlorine and hydrogen peroxide, used for disinfection, preservation of hygiene and sanitation. These disinfectant materials are used for cleaning surfaces in open areas and help in cleaning closed areas, including mosques and churches.

It is worth noting that Egypt, which has a shared border with the Gaza Strip, did not send any test kits or disinfectant materials to the Palestinians living there.

Palestinians in Lebanon, meanwhile, are worried that the Lebanese authorities may use the coronavirus as an excuse to intensify restrictions even further on their refugee camps.

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Khaled Abu Toameh, an award-winning journalist based in Jerusalem, is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at Gatestone Institute.

Like to Guess How the NY Times Views Jewish Israelis? by Gilead Ini

It is legitimate for a newspaper to explore political challenges and racism in any particular country. But to select, omit, and frame to push readers to the conclusion that Israelis are particularly racist, while at the same time consistently downplaying or ignoring Palestinian extremism is not objective news reporting, but advocacy. When the same reporter can’t even hear the Israeli leader’s concern for seniors without casting it as a “scolding,” then the problem is all the more apparent.

Gilead Ini..
Camera..
13 March '20..

As Israel shut down schools yesterday to slow the spread of the coronavirus, the country’s prime minister reminded the public that the elderly are especially susceptible to the outbreak, which has killed thousands across the world.

Grandparents shouldn’t babysit the children who are home from school, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged. Instead, “the big children will take care of the smaller children.”

In response to this straightforward guidance, the New York Times bureau chief in Jerusalem called Netanyahu a scold. “Israel closes schools and universities,” David Halbfinger, the bureau chief, wrote on Twitter. “But, like a scolding neighbor, Netanyahu warns not to ask older relatives to provide child care so parents can work.”

Israel closes schools and universities. But, like a scolding neighbor, Netanyahu warns not to ask older relatives to provide child care so parents can work: “Don’t use Grandma and Grandpa as babysitters. Big children can look after little children. ‘I am my brother’s keeper.’”

— David Halbfinger (@halbfinger) March 12, 2020

Halbfinger’s reflexively negative reaction to tells you much of what you need to know about the newspaper’s jaundiced view of Israel. For years, the Times has editorialized in news stories to disparage Jewish Israeli politicians as “shrill,” “stubborn,” “cynical,” “strident,” and “abrasive.” Halbfinger’s predecessor in Jerusalem has even insisted that Netanyahu is “best known for, and perhaps best at” speaking out in strident tones.

If that were how the paper handled politicians in general, it would be one thing. But Palestinians are nearly always spared such treatment.

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Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

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Breaking the Silence! Why do you Lie About This Now? (Because they can?) - by Sheri Oz

...the Arabs of Hebron do not vote in Israeli elections because they are citizens of the Palestinian Authority and not Israel? That the Arabs of Hebron vote in elections that take place in the Palestinian Authority? Do you need to hear that again?

Sheri Oz..
Israel Diaries..
11 March '20..

Breaking the Silence wants you to think that Israel is an apartheid state. How do I know that? Because they sent out an email to subscribers about the last elections, bemoaning the fact that 30,000 Arab residents of Hebron’s H2 sector could not vote in Israel’s last election while their Jewish neighbours did. First what they wrote; then my comments pointing out their lies:

In total, 215 votes were cast [in Hebron in the Israeli national election]; every one of them by Jewish Israelis. The 220,000 Palestinians in Hebron – 30,000 of whom live in H2, the area under direct Israeli municipal and military control – were not asked their opinion.

They went on to say that nobody knows what the next government will look like. But they do know that:

… when a group of people has no power to vote you out, you can do whatever you want with them without any fear of the electoral consequences. That’s the essence of occupation: military rule over a civilian population who have no choice in the matter.

We know, because we were the ones sent to enforce it. And we know that things must change.

What Breaking the Silence apparently does not know — and why should they, because they do not care about details or facts — is that the Arab residents of H2 are not Israeli citizens but citizens of the Palestinian Authority along with all the other Arab citizens of Hebron in H1. In other words, all Arabs who live in Hebron vote in the Palestinian Authority elections and not in Israeli elections.

Therefore, when Breaking the Silence cries at the injustice that Arabs did not vote in this last election but do not tell you that the Arabs are not Israeli citizens according to the Oslo Agreement signed by their late leader, Yassir Arafat, they are lying and making you think Israel is an apartheid state. Do I need to write that again?

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Abbas is Surely Proud of Them - by Sheri Oz

...let it be known that those weaponless women and children who run to slap and kick Israeli soldiers are given absolution from the sin of not touching a man they are not related to by that paragon of virtue, Mahmoud Abbas.

Sheri Oz..
Israel Diaries..
09 March '20..

Is it legitimate for a Muslim female to touch a male she is not related to? You would think not. But there is an exception, it appears, offered by none other than the illustrious leader of the Palestinian Authority, himself.

Next time you hear anyone accuse Israeli soldiers of sexually assaulting ‘Palestinian’ women and girls, just show them this video or the screenshop I added at the end. Remember that Muslim girls are not supposed to be touched by any man. That is an insult to family honour and punishable by death. You know, honour killings of girls and women. But an absolution is offered to them if these women and girls purposefully touch Israeli soldiers in order to shame THEM, the soldiers.

The relevant piece begins at 2:41. Abbas says:

When they see unarmed people, people who have no weapons… Women and children chase (the Israelis) who run away from them… It makes me happy to see this. Really. [clapping heard] This is our way to accomplish what we want. By means of peaceful resistance, and with these efforts… The sisters should be in front at the protests. This is the most important thing. Seeing the girls beating up a policeman or a soldier really fills my heart with joy. This is how we want our peaceful popular resistance to be. This is our way to vanquish our enemies, and to achieve our independent state with Jerusalem as its capital.

Sure, putting women at the front of demonstrations and sending them to assault our soldiers because the IDF is morally repulsed by sexual assaults against women and girls or anything that could be construed as being such.This is the power of Ahed Tamimi and the like.

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As Israel Saves Their Lives, Palestinians Revive Blood Libels - by Khaled Abu Toameh

Israel is training Palestinian medical professionals to combat the spread of a dangerous disease at the very moment that Palestinian leaders are continuing to poison the hearts and minds of their people against the very people working to help them. While this sort of perverse Palestinian payback is nothing new, it nonetheless ought to interest anyone in the international community who is considering contributing to the Palestinian cause.

Khaled Abu Toameh..
Gatestone Institute..
09 March '20..

Israel is making a massive effort to help the Palestinians contain a coronavirus outbreak after several Palestinians in Bethlehem tested positive for the disease. In return, the Palestinians are continuing to spread blood libels against Israel and the Jews.

On March 5, the Israeli Defense Ministry announced that it has been working in the past two weeks to assist the Palestinian Authority in "curbing and preventing a coronavirus outbreak" in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Israeli authorities have transferred 250 coronavirus test kits from Israel to the Palestinians. Furthermore, joint training sessions for Israeli and Palestinian medical personnel were organized for the professional study of the virus, the protection of medical personnel, and the testing of patients suspected of being virus carriers.

"We will continue working to help the Palestinian authorities curb the spread of the virus, both as an Israeli interest and for humanitarian reasons," said Israeli Civil Administration Health Coordinator Dalia Basa. "We will expand medical training to Palestinian personnel as much as possible, as well as the transfer of medical equipment to the Palestinian healthcare system."

Earlier, the Israeli authorities announced that they had facilitated 105,495 humanitarian crossings for Palestinians to receive medical treatment in Israel during the last week of February.

Yet, rather than showing gratitude toward the Israeli authorities for their assistance, the Palestinian Authority and its media outlets and officials are continuing their campaign of incitement against Israel. They are also continuing to incite Palestinians against Israel by spreading lies about Israeli soldiers and Jewish settlers. The incitement and lies promote anti-Semitism and even endanger the lives of Jews around the world.

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Khaled Abu Toameh, an award-winning journalist based in Jerusalem, is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at Gatestone Institute.

Question. Is UN Resolution 194 proof that Arab refugees have a Right of Return?

The human tragedy of being uprooted notwithstanding, Arab refugees were neither hapless targets nor innocent bystanders. The first stage of the 1948 war was a fierce interethnic or anti-Zionist civil war in which Palestinian Arabs were the aggressors and the initiators; the second half was an all-out war involving regular Arab armies, whose participation the Palestinian Arabs engineered. The violent path that Palestinian Arabs chose – and the ensuing fear, disorientation, and economic deprivation of war – led to their own collective undoing.

Eli E. Hertz..
Mythsandfacts.org..
07 March '20..

Arab leaders falsely point to UN Resolution 194 as proof that Arab refugees have a Right of Return, but what about the forgotten Jewish refugees?

Resolution 194, adopted by the UN General Assembly on December 11, 1948, addressed a host of issues, but only one paragraph out of 15 dealt with refugees created by the conflict. Resolution 194 attempted to create the tools required to reach a truce in the region. It established a conciliation commission with representatives from the United States, France and Turkey to replace the UN mediator. The commission was charged with achieving “a final settlement of all questions between … governments and authorities concerned.” The Resolution’s “refugee clause” is not a standalone item, as the Arabs would have us think, nor does it pertain specifically to Palestinian Arab refugees.

Of the 15 paragraphs, the first six sections addressed ways to achieve a truce; the next four paragraphs addressed the ways that Jerusalem and surrounding villages and towns should be demilitarized, and how an international zone or jurisdiction would be created in and around Jerusalem. The resolution also called on all parties to protect and allow free access to holy places, including religious buildings.

One paragraph has drawn the most attention: Paragraph 11, which alone addressed the issue of refugees and compensation for those whose property was lost or damaged. Contrary to Arab claims, it did not guarantee a Right of Return and certainly did not guarantee an unconditional Right of Return – that is the right of Palestinian Arab refugees to return to Israel. Nor did it specifically mention Arab refugees, thereby indicating that the resolution was aimed at all refugees, both Jewish and Arab. Instead, Resolution 194 recommended that refugees be allowed to return to their homeland if they met two important conditions:

1. That they be willing to live in peace with their neighbors.
2. That the return takes place “at the earliest practicable date.”

The resolution also recommended that for those who did not wish to return, “Compensation should be paid for the property … and for loss of or damage to property” by the “governments or authorities responsible.”

Although Arab leaders point to Resolution 194 as proof that Arab refugees have a right of return or be compensated, it is important to note that the Arab States: Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Yemen voted against Resolution 194. Israel is not even mentioned in the resolution. The fact that plural wording also is used – “governments or authorities” – suggests that, contrary to Arab claims, the burden of compensation does not fall solely upon one side of the conflict. Because seven Arab armies invaded Israel, Israel was not responsible for creating the refugee problem. When hundreds of thousands of Arab Jews, under threat of death, attack and other forms of persecution, were forced to flee Arab communities, the State of Israel absorbed the overwhelming majority of them into the then-fledgling nation.

Reminder: Palestinian 'Right of Return' is really about ending Israel's existence - by Sean Durns

For decades, Palestinian leaders have rejected offers for statehood and peace while citing a “right” that doesn’t exist. Both the press and policymakers should speak honestly and openly about what it would truly mean and perhaps reflect on why Palestinian leaders continue to demand it.

Sean Durns..
CAMERA..
04 March '20..

On Jan. 28, President Trump revealed his administration’s long-awaited Israeli-Palestinian peace plan. As several commentators noted, the proposal explicitly states that there shall be no “right of return” — a key phrase with a very particular meaning that few analysts have carefully parsed out.

The Palestinian Authority, the entity that governs the West Bank, has continually demanded a “right of return” in nearly every negotiation that has occurred since the PA was created a quarter century ago. To understand the origin of this so-called “right,” one must first understand the history.

In 1947, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a partition plan for British-ruled Mandatory Palestine: Resolution 181, which called for the establishment of both a Jewish state and an Arab state. Arab states and Palestinian Arab leaders rejected it out of hand, choosing war over statehood. They violated Resolution 181 by attacking the fledgling Jewish nation. In the combat that followed, hundreds of thousands of Arabs and Jews fled. In some cases, they were forced from their homes in Mandatory Palestine and beyond.

Estimates of the original number of Arab refugees vary. The British Foreign Office suggested the number was between 600,000 and 760,000. A 1950 report by the U.N. Conciliation Commission for Palestine endorsed an estimate of 711,000 refugees by an “expert of the Statistical Office of the United Nations.”

Many of these initial Arab refugees were set up in camps in Arab nations that typically refused to grant them citizenship or give them equal rights. Rather, they were treated as political pawns and overseen by the U.N. Relief and Works Agency.

In retaliation, some Arab nations punished their native Jewish populations by seizing their property and expelling them or forcing them to flee under threat of death or torture. Of the more than 800,000 Jewish refugees, nearly 600,000 settled in Israel.

In the years since, Palestinian leadership has promoted the idea of a “right to return.” Not, of course, for the Jewish refugees — for whom no recognition or compensation has been offered.

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Surprised? Terrorists, antisemites and their supporters are calling Israelis "racist" - by Elder of Ziyon

It is interesting how much these terrorists, Jew-haters and inciters of terror sound exactly like the "progressive" groups when talking about Israel. Their talking points are pretty much identical.

Elder of Ziyon..
04 March '20..

PLO Executive Committee member Hanan Ashrawi, head of the Miftah NGO that even today has pro-terror and antisemitic articles like "Jews poison Palestinian wells" and "Jews steal organs of children", is calling Israelis racist.

"The results of the Israeli elections were a clear expression of the spread of a culture of hatred, racism and extremism in Israel," she was paraphrased as saying by Palestinian media.

But she's not the only hypocrite who suddenly pretends to care about racism. A leader of the Islamic Jihad terror group likewise called Israelis racist. Dr. Muhammad al-Hindi, a member of the Political Bureau of Islamic Jihad, said that "racism is rampant in the state of the Zionist entity, where everyone is racing to annex the West Bank and brag about the numbers of martyrs they kill."

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Who Would've Thought Odeh Misleads Tel Aviv Leftists Before Election? - by Sheri Oz

True to form, Odeh distorts the facts to try to proclaim that there has always been a Palestinian people, this time claiming that the flag that represented the Arab Ummah was a Palestinian flag. Nice try, Odeh.

Sheri Oz..
Israel Diaries..
02 March '20..

Ayman Odeh, head of the Arab party, the Joint List, held a campaign meeting at a coffee shop in Tel Aviv, seeking to persuade Jewish leftists to vote for them today. I have a lot of problems with this man and other members of the Joint List, but I ask that they at least do not lie. At least refrain from distorting the facts to make yourself seem more palatable to those who are ignorant of what you are trying to sell. And Odeh lied about the Palestinian flag. Here is what he said:

While the Palestinian flag may be a “problematic symbol” due to its use by the Palestine Liberation Organization and the complicated and often violent history between Israel and the Palestinians, Odeh said, it actually predates Israel’s 1948 establishment.

It actually does not.

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