Why Sovereignty in the Jordan Valley Must Come First - by Nadav Shragai

Historic decisions may require careful consideration, but they also require courage and determination.

Nadav Shragai..
Israel Hayom..
30 June '20..
Link: https://www.israelhayom.com/opinions/sovereignty-in-the-jordan-valley-must-come-first/

Is Israel really hesitating to grab the opportunity presented by the "deal of the century"? There are troubling signs that this might be the case.

First, the plan to apply sovereignty to large parts of Judea and Samaria and the Jordan Valley involved 30% of the territory. Then came the idea of extending sovereignty in phases – a bad idea that only invites round of violence and terrorism. Now, it appears we've sunk even lower, as Arab officials have said that the sovereignty bid will exclude the Jordan Valley, and any move made in Judea and Samaria will only be symbolic.

Historic decisions may require careful consideration, but they also require courage and determination.

The US Middle East peace plan is not without its faults but Israel should have seized the opportunity and immediately apply sovereignty to the 30% the Americans suggested. But if that is not in the cards, Israel should start by extending sovereignty to the Jordan Valley first and shelve the plan to do the same with respect to the large settlement blocs.

The reason or this is simple: The greater Jerusalem area, Maaleh Adumim, Gush Etzion and Ariel will all eventually come under Israeli sovereignty – there's a public consensus about that, one even the international community understands that, albeit it will never publicly admit it.

Israel Opens the Gates To Palestinian Arab Workers? - by Sheri Oz

He told me that Abbas and the leaders of the Palestinian Authority (PA) want the people to die of hunger.

Sheri Oz..
Israel Diaries..
28 June '20..

Seeing is believing — maybe. I was not sure I really believed what I was seeing so I wrote a message to the owners of the Facebook page that uploaded the video. The page is called “West Bank Workers in Israel”. I asked if we could speak on the phone and they agreed to answer my questions anonymously in private messages only.

The video shows Palestinian workers freely entering Israel this morning — 28 June 2020. Below the video I will post their responses to my questions and continue the discussion.



“Israel knows very well that the Palestinians are not a threat to Israelis,” my contact from the Facebook page wrote. “There are soldiers overlooking this scene.” He told me that Abbas and the leaders of the Palestinian Authority (PA) want the people to die of hunger.

I have to say that this is not the first time I have heard someone say that. People who do not know each other, as far as I know, have told me exactly the same thing, and there was even a television news report on the Israeli Kan Channel that suggested that. I must admit that I cannot understand why a leader would want to starve his people unless he thinks it makes them more pliable. But these are people and not robots and people do eventually rebel against those who keep them hungry.

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Surprise! Sky News Headline Skews Facts About Attempted Car Ramming - by Gidon Ben-Zvi

This isn’t just a bad headline, it’s a serious lapse of journalistic standards. Sky News readers deserve much better than this.

Gidon Ben-Zvi..
Honest Reporting..
25 June '20..

On Wednesday, a Palestinian Arab driver drove into soldiers at an Israeli checkpoint tower near Jerusalem. In response, Israeli Border Police on the scene opened fire and killed the driver.

Palestinian officials charged Israel with cold-blooded murder. According to them, the suspect, a nephew of senior Palestinian official Saeb Erekat, was simply rushing to pick up his sister and mother ahead of a family wedding later Tuesday evening.

However, security footage released by the Border Police, showing the vehicle turning sharply and speeding up abruptly when close to the soldiers, leaves little doubt as to the nature of the incident.

This is the headline from Sky News:

Horrendous headline on this article by @Stone_SkyNews.

Why is the emphasis on the response to this attack, rather than the attack itself? The man drove his car into soldiers, throwing one of them into the air. That's far more important, @SkyNews. pic.twitter.com/awe9UhAGcy

— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) June 25, 2020

From the headline, you wouldn’t have known that Israeli soldiers were the target of a terrorist attack. Instead, Sky News buries that lead. Readers are told only that the border guards opened fire on and killed a relative of a top PLO official, with no justification mentioned.

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Dear NY Times: Israel cannot “annex” its own land. But it can certainly extend sovereignty over it. - by Jerold Auerbach

In its reflexive critique of settlements — and, indeed, Israel — The New York Times has long been, and remains, either oblivious to history or exceedingly uncomfortable with it. By now it should at least know that a country cannot “annex” its own land. But it can extend sovereignty over it, which Israel is prepared to do.

Jerold Auerbach..
Algemeiner..
25 June '20

“Annexation Looms” headlined a mournful New York Times article (June 19) co-authored by Jerusalem Bureau Chief David M. Halbfinger and Adam Rasgon, Palestinian affairs reporter for The Times of Israel. They cited “respected former Israeli military, intelligence and diplomatic officials” who warn that if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has his way annexation would pose “a grave risk to Israel’s security.” And West Bank Palestinians, the Times reporters asserted, would suffer greatly.

For The New York Times, opposition to Jewish settlements has been an enduring obsession. A decade after the Six-Day War, as handfuls of Israelis returned to restore the ancient Jewish community of Hebron half a century after its destruction in the 1929 murderous Arab riots, a Times editorial warned against the “colonizing” of their Biblical homeland. Thomas Friedman, insisting that settlements were transforming Israel into “an undemocratic apartheid state,” bracketed “crazy” settlers with Palestinian suicide bombers and falsely accused them of assassinating Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. For columnist Roger Cohen, “messianic” settlers were to blame for Palestinian intransigence

But any Palestinian (or Times) fantasy that one day more than 400,000 Israelis now living in Judea and Samaria, the Biblical homeland of the Jewish people, will abandon their communities is inconceivable. Jewish settlement in the Land of Israel has always defined Zionism. The Netanyahu sovereignty plan confirms that historic reality.

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Jerold S. Auerbach is the author of Print to Fit: The New York Times, Zionism and Israel 1896-2016, selected for Mosaic by Ruth Wisse and Martin Kramer as a Best Book for 2019.

Sobering Reality: Shattering the Illusions of Oslo - by Sarah N. Stern

Many other variations set along the same basic themes have been offered: Oslo II, the Hebron Accords, the Wye River Memorandum, the “road map for peace.” The same set of conditions was continuously placed upon the Palestinians, all almost entirely ignored.

Sarah N. Stern..
JNS.org..
24 June '20..

Within the next week, the government of Israel will decide whether or not to implement a part of the Trump “Peace to Prosperity” plan by extending sovereignty over 30 percent of Judea and Samaria, and the Jordan Valley. This represents a significant paradigm shift away from the Oslo Accords.

Paradigms are difficult things to break from. For the last 27 years, an elaborate crystal palace chiseled from Oslo was erected and has taken firm root in the brains of many well-intentioned people. Since its signing on Sept. 13, 1993, the agreement has caused an enormous industry of professional “peace processors” to spring up. These folks stand a lot to gain—and everything to lose—both financially and in terms of their own personal reputations by looking squarely at the facts on the ground of what has transpired since that time.

“Two states for two people” and “land for peace” are lovely aphorisms, and make for nice bumper stickers. Responsible foreign policy, however, entails delving into the sobering reality and looking at the facts, as vexing as they might be.

The night after signing the Oslo Accords, PLO chief Yasser Arafat went on Jordanian television and said that this was “the peace of the brave”—words many in the West immediately embraced and interpreted to mean Arafat displayed the courage to finally make peace with the Israelis. However, he then added that this was “like the prophet Mohammad signed with the tribe of Koresh.”

That part of the sentence has been ignored, long forgotten from our collective memories. It references the fact that Mohammad had entered into a peace agreement with the tribe of Koresh—a stronger tribe—only to gain attack them later and totally vanquish them.

Such is the selective editing of many of us in the West, who tend to think with our cardiac organs and not our cranial ones. A “group think” mentality subsequently set in. We therefore sleep well at night, safe on this side of the Atlantic and far from having to deal with the bloody consequences of these monumental decisions.

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Sarah N. Stern is founder and president of the Endowment for Middle East Truth (EMET), a pro-Israel and pro-American think tank and policy institute in Washington, D.C.

The Risks of Maintaining the West Bank’s Status Quo is Far More Dangerous than Applying Sovereignty - by Maj. Gen. (res.) Gershon Hacohen

The Israeli government has been given an opportunity—one that may well never return—to promote the country’s vital national interests and bolster its future.

Maj. Gen. (res.) Gershon Hacohen..
BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 1,610..
19 June '20..
Link: https://besacenter.org/perspectives-papers/west-bank-status-quo-sovereignty/


Many of the most vociferous opponents of applying sovereignty over parts of the West Bank are former senior security officials who use their professional authority to convince the public that a wide range of grave risks would attend such a move. According to these individuals, the application of sovereignty would expose Israel to multiple deeply threatening dangers and is in any case unnecessary.

The implication of this line of thinking is that Israel’s current strategic position is riskless and hence preferable to the new position that would result from the application of sovereignty. That is a misrepresentation of reality.

If the Israeli government misses the opportunity presented by President Trump’s plan to apply sovereignty, the risks to Israel multiply; they do not decrease. That is because Israel will not be able to preserve its temporary security presence in the Jordan Valley forever.

The choice facing PM Benjamin Netanyahu is between the more or less recognized risks associated with applying sovereignty and the less knowable but undoubtedly serious risks inherent in the collapse of the status quo.

So you think you know the Israelis? - by David Collier

There is so much ignorance about Israel and Israelis. So many lies are told by anti-Israel haters, yet sometimes the truth is so simple and starting everyone in the face.

David Collier..
Beyond the Great Divide..
21 June '20..







Who are the Israelis? I like the personal touch so I thought I would take you on a bit of a tour to meet some:

Avraham Kiryati

Avraham Kiryati was 8 years old when in 1929, Arabs massacred the Jews of Hebron. His uncle stepped outside and was one of those murdered. He is a descendant of Jews who escaped the Spanish inquisition, settling first in Tzfat and then in Hebron.

Eden Alene

Eden Alene is singing Israel’s entry in next year’s Eurovision song contest. She was born in Jerusalem, but both of her parents had immigrated from Ethiopia – fleeing the persecution there. There are about 130,000 Israelis of Ethiopian descent.

Elinor Joseph

Elinor Joseph is a Christian Israeli Arab. She serves in a combat role in the Israeli military. Elinor was born in the village of Jish in northern Israel. She is one of approximately 177,000 Christians living in Israel – the only country in the region that protects them.

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It needs to be made unequivocally clear that the State of Israel knows the wolf is not alone - by Nitsana Darshan-Leitner

Lone-wolf terrorists are cogs in an orchestrated attack, and action must also be taken against the states and organizations that support them.

Nitsana Darshan-Leitner..
Israel Hayom..
18 June '20..
Link: https://www.israelhayom.com/opinions/no-such-thing-as-a-lone-wolf-terrorist/

In recent weeks, various defense officials have raised their concerns over an apocalyptic scenario whereby applying sovereignty in parts of Judea and Samaria and the Jordan Valley will trigger hundreds of stabbing and vehicular attacks by lone-wolf terrorists. The reference is to those terrorists who act independently, spontaneously, uncontrollably. Last week, the federal court of appeals in Washington D.C. issued an unprecedented ruling on the wave of stabbing attacks against Israelis in recent years, which sheds new light on the manner in which we can approach the term "lone-terrorist" and the way the phenomenon should be fought.

The American court unprecedentedly accepted the victims' families' claims and ruled there was no such thing as a "lone-wolf terrorist" – and that behind every act of terrorism brought before the court were guiding hands that recruited the terrorists, incited them to perpetrate their act, guided them and embraced them after their attacks. Those guiding hands belong to the terrorist organizations Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, along with Iran and Syria who support them. The court placed responsibility for the terrorist attacks on these elements. Among the cases heard by the court was the murder of American tourist Taylor Force at the Jaffa Port, the murder of human rights activist Richard Lakin in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Armon Hanatziv, and others.

The court's ruling, however, extends beyond the individual connection between the victims and their murderers. It also applies to the State of Israel's diplomatic and security spheres, particularly amid the backdrop of Israel's expected sovereignty bid in Judea and Samaria. Indeed, terrorist organizations use lone-wolf attacks to harm Israel without assuming direct responsibility: A type of having their cake and eating it too. Hamas and PIJ use social media as a tool to instruct followers to carry out low-intensity attacks on Israeli targets, after which they only assume tacit responsibility that is understood by their Palestinian target audience.

The application of Israeli sovereignty to the Jordan Valley and parts of the West Bank is a historic opportunity. - by Maj. Gen. (res.) Gershon Hacohen

Notwithstanding the undeniable risks, the application of Israeli sovereignty to the Jordan Valley and parts of the West Bank is a historic opportunity. It should be implemented in the light of a perennial vision, as part of the ceaseless process of redeeming the people and the land.

Maj. Gen. (res.) Gershon Hacohen..
BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 1,606..
15 June '20..
Link: https://besacenter.org/perspectives-papers/netanyahu-dilemma/

The matter of applying Israeli sovereignty to certain areas of the West Bank is being assailed from both left and right. The left-wing camp, backed by many former army officers and public servants, is portraying the idea as such a morass of risks as to invalidate the possibility that it contains any kind of opportunity at all. From the right, leaders of the settlement enterprise speak not only of grave security risks but of an irreversible step that awards the Palestinian Authority half of the territory that is still in Israel’s hands, which is known as Area C.

In the debate with the left, Netanyahu enjoys public support including from a growing group of former officers and security officials. The more difficult dilemma is the one posed by the right.

David Ben-Gurion faced a similar dilemma in 1937 when accepting the Peel Commission’s partition plan, which offered the prospective Jewish State a small fraction of the territory of mandatory Palestine. “The Jewish state now being offered us… is not the Zionist goal, but it could serve as a decisive stage on the way to realizing the larger Zionism,” he said, in an encapsulation of his perception of Zionism as a ceaseless pioneering struggle. (It is doubtful whether that sort of logic underpins Netanyahu’s approach.)

From a security standpoint, however, several things need to be clarified. First and foremost is the matter of control of the West Bank’s main traffic arteries. The prime minister promises that after the implementation of the Trump plan, the IDF will remain in charge of security on the ground, certainly when it comes to those key arteries. Yet security control in itself is not enough. If an artery is partially under Palestinian sovereignty, there will be no way to prevent dense construction on both sides of it. That means Israeli security control will dwindle until it becomes impossible.

When Palestinian Tragedy is No Tragedy at All - by Sheri Oz

Start paying attention to what the Palestinian Arab residents of the PA want. If you support their human rights, you need to know what they want and not what you think they should want. Otherwise, you are just being anti-Israeli and you know what that means, right?

Sheri Oz..
Israel Diaries..
13 June '20..

Those Europeans do go on and on and on about it. As do many other, such as Canadian former diplomats, British Jews, and even some Israelis. They are all horrified by the idea that Israel will extend her sovereignty over her own land in Judea & Samaria. They all warn of Arabs who will be so upset that their violence and hostility will know no bounds. Some, for example, historian-journalist Ian Black, predict tragedy.

However, they make the huge mistake of not distinguishing between the Palestinian Authority leadership and the Palestinian Arab population. Anyone who has been paying attention knows that the general population is fed up with those who claim to represent them. Reporter Zvi Yehezkeli got into his car and drove out to see what the general population thinks. I provide a translation into English below the video, which is a promo for his full television report.

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For me, the answer is clear. The goal is to secure the future of the Israeli municipalities in Judea and Samaria - by Oded Revivi

The time to apply Israeli law in Judea and Samaria has come.

Oded Revivi..
JPost/Opinion
11 June '20..
Link: https://www.jpost.com/opinion/we-need-to-take-donald-trumps-deal-for-annexation-opinion-631173

There has been much debate among the leaders of the settlement movement in Judea and Samaria whether to accept or reject US President Donald Trump’s “Vision for Peace.” As a proponent, I quote Fredrich Nietzsche, who said, “many are stubborn in pursuit of the path they have chosen, few in pursuit of the goal.” Now is the time to silence the background noise and ask ourselves: What is our long term goal? What is it that we as a movement want to achieve?

For me, the answer is clear. The goal is to secure the future of the Israeli municipalities in Judea and Samaria, “the settlements.” Trump’s plan, including the application of Israeli law in Judea and Samaria, is an insurance policy that will move us toward this goal.

Implementation of the “Vision for Peace” will denote a change in the way the world views both Israel and “the settlements.” In the past, the settlements were seen as an impediment to peace; but now, with our thriving joint Arab-Israeli industrial zones and other areas of coexistence, it is understood that we are a critical partner in the peace process. While it would be unthinkable to dismantle all that we have built in order to return to the 1949 ceasefire lines that served as unofficial boundaries until 1967, we understand that both Arabs and Jews live in Judea and Samaria, and we applaud this plan for not removing anyone from their home. It is, consequently, not surprising that there is a broad consensus among the Israeli public to accept the deal.

It is up to us, the settlers, along with the leadership of the State of Israel to accept the deal – but it is not entirely in our hands. Without the support of the international community we will find ourselves in the International Criminal Court in The Hague time after time, at every step of the way. The questions surrounding the definition of a Palestinian state is a matter of semantics and have been blown out of proportion – the very definition of background noise. The reality is that in the very small territory, there are both Arabs and Jews. We live adjacent to each other, but we do not overlap. Anyone who travels the roads of Judea and Samaria recognizes the large red signs that prohibit Israelis from entering the Arab regions. Call it a state, an entity, or an authority – these are just words. While the plan mentions a “Palestinian state,” it also explicitly assigns restrictions that will be placed upon it, clearly indicating that it will not function as a typical state.

Unfortunately, those opposed to the plan have spread a lot of misinformation about the significance of the map. It does not demarcate a future Palestinian state, but merely designates the territory where Israeli law is to be applied in the coming weeks. Despite the declarations from those opposed to the plan, the truth is that very little will change from the status quo. The security situation, jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority and traffic in the area will all stay the same. The IDF will remain right where it is today. And the Palestinians will not be any more threatening.

Once we apply Israeli law in Judea and Samaria, the “Vision for Peace” requires us to enter into negotiations with the Palestinians only if they meet the significant preconditions laid out in the plan. Until then, and in order to secure the future of the Israeli presence in Judea and Samaria, it is not only our responsibility to accept the plan but to embrace it wholeheartedly. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has explained multiple times the plan contains no directive to freeze construction in any Israeli municipalities in Judea and Samaria. It is clear that the Americans do not desire such an outcome either. In fact, the only freeze that has been discussed is in territories where there are currently no Israeli settlements or development. The fact is, every municipality that receives an upgraded status will be able to develop itself, within its borders and without soliciting permission from the military. These measures will strengthen the settlements, not weaken them.

Question. Who are the strongest least apologetic Zionist voices in Israel today? by Sheri Oz

Israel fought wars waged against us intending to achieve our extermination. We won. And then we apologize for not having let them get rid of us? Are we shy? Are we timid? We may have something to learn from Samer, Yoseph and Shadi about self-respect.

Sheri Oz..
Israel Diaries..
07 June '20..

It seems some of the strongest Zionist voices are those belonging to a Druze man from Daliat el-Carmel, an Arabic-speaking Christian from Haifa and an Aramaic Christian Maronite from Gush Halav. Let us look at what these three men posted on Facebook about the protest in Tel Aviv yesterday — the protest against extending Israeli law to our communities in Judea & Samaria. This will be followed by a quick note about what I found in the English-language Israeli media.

I will first post the English translation of each post and then the post itself.

Samer Berany wrote (my translation):

You won’t see this in the news media.

Good morning friends,

Yesterday there was a violent and dangerous anti-Israel demonstration in Rabin square under the auspices of 39 organizations and movements from the extreme left, among them many communist organizations, such as Maki, the Israeli Youth Communist Alliance and, of course, Hadash.

Yes, people… 39 organizations and movements without even a single Druze organization present.

Tens of thousands of participants, among them many Israelis who raised the PLO flag and sang the Palestinian anthem “Baladi Baladi”, but Druze and Circassians . . . zero . . . and no NGO or movement.

The media will not talk about that but as soon as they encounter a pitiful Druze individual who is prepared to moan about how bad it is among the Israeli people, they open the evening news with him or her featured in an in-depth story.

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Sorry AP, But George Floyd and Palestinian Eyad Hallaq Are Not the Same - by P. David Hornik

Clearly, the police officers involved in the Eyad Hallaq incident were doing ultra-dangerous work requiring split-second decisions. That does not mean they necessarily acted professionally and properly throughout the incident — as mentioned, that’s under investigation. AP, though — not satisfied with the storm of wild, false accusations against the U.S. police forces and society sparked by the George Floyd affair — wants to sic the furies on Israel, too. And that’s the only real connection between the two cases.

P. David Hornik..
PJ Media..
07 June '20..

“Killing of Palestinian Man With Autism Draws Floyd Parallel” is the headline — in different variants — of an Associated Press report that has been picked up by the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and scores of other outlets. The article is a crude hit-job on Israel that tries to paint it in the same hues in which the mainstream media views America — a country that is racist and cruel.

On Saturday, May 30, Eyad Hallaq, a 32-year-old Palestinian man with autism, was walking near an entrance to the Old City of Jerusalem known as the Lions’ Gate — which happens to be a terror flashpoint. Two Israeli police officers who saw him thought he was acting suspiciously, trying to hide from them, and holding a blunt object. In the Times of Israel’s account, they then

called on him to stop but he ran away. The officers reported over their radio network that they had encountered “a terrorist with a firearm” and gave chase. Two paramilitary Border Police officers joined the pursuit and the more senior of the two fired a shot at Hallaq that missed….

Hallaq then sought refuge in the direction of a garbage room located at the end of an alley…. The more junior of the [Border Police officers] fired at Hallaq again, hitting him in the leg, which caused him to fall over. At that point, said the senior police officer, he shouted “Cease fire!” but his companion, who thought he saw Hallaq reaching to pull something from his pants, fired two more shots, killing him.

Yes, it is a sad story. The “blunt object” was apparently a cell phone, Hallaq apparently did not understand what was happening, and he fled. Both Border Police officers are under investigation and the one who fired the fatal shots is under house arrest.

Objectively speaking, though, it is hard to see a “Floyd parallel” here: shooting someone in a situation of alarm and uncertainty near a terror flashpoint, whether or not it was excusable under the circumstances, is not the same as pressing your knee on a subdued suspect’s neck for over eight minutes. But AP loves the analogy and goes with it.

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P. David Hornik, a longtime American immigrant in Israel, is a freelance writer, translator, and copyeditor living in Beersheva. In addition to PJ Media his work has appeared in FrontPage Magazine, National Review, New English Review, American Spectator, American Thinker, The Times of Israel, the Jerusalem Post, and elsewhere. Among his books are Choosing Life in Israel and the novel Beside the Still Waters, which was published by Adelaide Books in 2019.

Surprise? Palestinians Ramp Up Incitement to Murder Jews - by Dr. Edy Cohen

The Palestinians, always quick to adapt to new circumstances, are taking full advantage of the coronavirus crisis to incite the murder of Jews.

Dr. Edy Cohen..
BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 1,599..
07 June '20..
Link: https://besacenter.org/perspectives-papers/palestinians-incitement-murder/

Ever since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, many influential Palestinians have maliciously spread the lie that Israel is using the virus as a biological weapon and is deliberately spreading it in the Palestinian areas.

These slanders start at the top. Palestinian PM Muhammad Shtayyeh launched a campaign pushing this incitement, and almost immediately thereafter, other senior Palestinian officials, including government spokesman Ibrahim Milhem, the health minister, and city mayors, all issued similar statements. They claimed Israel intentionally spread the virus through nearby infected Jewish residents and through infected Palestinian workers returning from work in Israel.

Palestinian political cartoonists quickly spread the smear with efforts like this:

A new trend in Palestinian political cartooning emerged with the stoning killing by a Palestinian of 21-year-old IDF soldier Amit Ben Yigal last month. A new campaign with the theme “If you don’t have a gun, kill an IDF soldier with a rock” was widely circulated on social networks. Many such cartoons appeared on Fatah’s official website and in the Palestinian press, including these:

A few questions for Mr. Friedman about Israel - by Stephen M. Flatow

Well, I have some questions which concern the credibility of the speaker who has been chosen by the UJA Federation as an authority on global events. Perhaps Mr. Silow-Carroll can ask them.

Stephen M. Flatow..
Blog TOI..
02 June '20..

Every so often a leading Jewish organization holds an event that is a cut above the others. Later this week, the UJA Federation of New York will feature Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman to be the featured speaker at its June 4th event. Friedman will be in “conversation” with the editor in chief of the New York Jewish Week, Andrew Silow-Carroll.

I have appeared in several of these “conversations” which can be quite informative and fun at the same time. As with the programs I have participated in, the program announcement informs attendees, “We’ll take your questions on the global ramifications of this age of uncertainty.”

Well, I have some questions which concern the credibility of the speaker who has been chosen by the UJA Federation as an authority on global events. Perhaps Mr. Silow-Carroll can ask them.

1. Mr. Friedman, in your column in the New York Times on April 4, 2012, you endorsed what you called “non-violent resistance by Palestinians” against Israel. The examples of such resistance that you gave were boycotts, hunger strikes, and throwing rocks. Last week, a young Israeli soldier, Amit Ben-Yigal, was murdered by an Arab who threw a heavy rock at his head. He was at least the 17th Israeli murdered by Arab rock-throwers since the 1980s. So, Mr. Friedman, do you still consider rock-throwing to be “non-violent”…?

2. In your column in the New York Times on February 4, 2020, you claimed that the real obstacle to peace is the impact of climate change in the Mideast. One of your main pieces of evidence that Mother Nature is the real issue is the fact that “in the summer of 2018, the Sea of Galilee [the Kinneret] was so low from droughts and water withdrawals for rising populations that it was threatening to become another saline lake, like the Dead Sea.”

Yet the Jerusalem Post reported on April 24, 2020, that the water level in the Kinneret is now at a 16 year-high. In fact, it is so high that it has almost reached what the Israelis call “the upper red line,” meaning it could lead to flooding of the nearby city of Tiberias if water is not drained. So, Mr. Friedman, will you now acknowledge that your fears were exaggerated?

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Reality: 'Annexation’ isn’t what will prevent peace - by James Sinkinson

The simple truth is that the Palestinians don’t have independence because for almost three generations they’ve rejected every single peace proposal of any kind, including the latest one.

James Sinkinson..
FLAME/JNS.org..
02 June '20..

You’ve no doubt seen the media reports of politicians and pundits “deeply concerned” about or outright condemning Israel’s intention to apply sovereignty to about 30 percent of Judea and Samaria (aka the West Bank).

In the wake of the Israeli government’s apparent intention to take this action around July 1, leftists in the United States and Europe have issued dire warnings that such “annexation” would:

• Nearly universally be viewed as a violation of international law.

• Render a two-state solution impossible.

• Choke off any hope of peace.

• Erode the strong support among the American people for Israel

As we’ll see, these predictions are either false, arguable or self-fulfilling. None is a sure thing.

Above all, these warnings ignore the chief enabler of Israel’s decision to apply its law to some half a million Jewish Israelis living in Judea and Samaria, the ancient Jewish heartland: Arab rejection of at least six generous offers to form a Palestinian state in this region over 72 long years.

First, the term “annexation” is a red herring. Annexation implies the seizure of land that belongs to another country, like Russia recently did in Crimea. But the land in question here was ceded to the Jewish nation in the San Remo Conference back in 1920, then ratified by the League of Nations and affirmed by the United Nations.

Since the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I, no nation has held legal claim to the land of Judea and Samaria except Israel. Although Jordan illegally occupied this territory between 1948-1967, it was driven out by Israel during the Six-Day War.

Jordan formally ceded control of Judea and Samaria to Israel in the peace treaty of 1994—once more settling legal rights to this land.

As for Palestinian Arabs, feel what you may about whether this group “deserves” independence or is “morally entitled” to their own state, in point of fact, there is no nation of Palestine, and the Palestinians have never held sovereignty over any land anywhere. What’s more, the Palestinians have no claims to Judea and Samaria through legally binding actions of any world body.

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James Sinkinson is President of Facts and Logic About the Middle East (FLAME), which publishes educational messages to correct lies and misperceptions about Israel and its relationship to the United States.

Abbas’ Strategy of Selective Compliance - by Dan Diker and Khaled Abu Toameh

For its part, Israel erred in remaining silent over Palestinian violations for many of the 27 years of the Oslo agreements for fear of losing Palestinian partnership and international support. Israel has paid a high international price in its own state legitimacy over the past two decades for failing to expose and protest the violations of Oslo.

Dan Diker/Khaled Abu Toameh..
Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs..
01 May '20..

On May 19, Mahmoud Abbas, head of the PLO and chairman of the Palestinian Authority, announced that “He, the PLO, and the State of Palestine” are absolved of all agreements and understandings with Israel and the United States, including on security matters.

Abbas’s purported withdrawal from signed agreements was accompanied by his long-time allegation that it was Israel and not the Palestinians that had effectively nullified the Oslo Accords through a series of policies and decisions, including Israel’s intention to “annex” West Bank Jewish communities and the Jordan Valley.

Abbas’s latest threat illustrated the effectiveness of the P.A. leader’s media and diplomatic campaign against Israel. Most major international news media outlets and the western diplomatic community did not see the move as a material breach of the Palestinian leadership’s legal obligations under the Oslo Interim Accords. Instead, the international media community took Abbas’s statement as a “green light” to condemn Israel’s declared intention to apply Israeli law/sovereignty to parts of the West Bank in conjunction with the U.S. administration’s peace plan that proposes a Palestinian state next to Israel.

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