How do Jordanians view the efforts to bring the Sbarro bomber to justice? - by Arnold Roth

Our comment: From the outset let it be clear. While the focus here is a woman who confesses publicly and repeatedly to bombing a restaurant filled with children, and who faces the likelihood of a lifetime sentence if she is ever put on trial in Washington DC, the author of this op ed is concerned with what this says about the view the United States has of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. The fugitive killer and what she did raises not a single word of criticism in what follows. There is a victim in this narrative according to the pundit who write this. That victim is Jordan. 

Arnold/Frimet Roth.. 

This Ongoing War.. 

28 July '20.. 

It doesn't matter which Arab publication carried the article below. Or the identity or credentials of the person who wrote it. Or that person's religious, ideological or political alignment. 

Those are among the lesser aspects that ought to be on people's minds as they consider its contents. 

We have read tens of such articles emanating mostly from Jordan but also from other parts of the Arab world since May 2020. (Some of them are here: "14-May-20: In Jordan, they stand with confessed bomber Tamimi. And they're worried...") 

That's when the Arab world awoke to the reality that the US government has Jordan-centric sanctions on its mind and is serious about them. (See "05-May-20: From Congress, concern about how Jordanians deal with the fugitive terrorist in their midst") 

Some years ago, we started scanning online Arabic-language news media daily with the help of online translation tools like Bing and Google Translate. In all that time, we have not uncovered even a single published article dealing with the cold-blooded 2001 bombing of a Jerusalem pizzeria because of the children inside that criticizes the bomber. And if we're wrong and such articles exist, please send us a link or a copy. Trust us, we will be glad to give it all the prominence it deserves. 

Ahlam Tamimi is the central figure in the pizzeria bombing horror. A Jordanian student who was 21 when she selected the crowded fast food shop as her target for her Hamas superiors, she personally planted the bomb - a human being with an explosives-laden guitar case on his back that included a large quantity of nails for their flesh-ripping feature - at the central Jerusalem site, a pizzeria of the US-based Sbarro chain. 

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Is Israel really a European colonial transplant? or... - by Bernard Lev

...or is it the Middle East’s most diverse nation

Bernard Lev..
Facts and Logic About the Middle East (FLAME..
28 July '20..
Link: https://www.factsandlogic.org/is-israel-a-european-colonial-transplant_or-is-it-the-middle-easts-most-diverse-nation/

We hear all too frequently the accusation that Israel is a white, European colonial transplant to the Middle East, pushing local indigenous Arabs from their territory.

In fact, Israel is itself a triumph of indigenous self-determination and national liberation, which today embraces the widest diversity of peoples in the Middle East—welcoming multiple ethnic origins, skin colors, religions and sexual identities.

Those who attempt to tar Israel with accusations of race- or even religious-based colonialism do so out of ignorance or malicious intent.

The Land of Israel has been for two thousand years the ancestral homeland of the Jewish people. Since the destruction of Jewish sovereignty in 70 CE until 1948, the Jewish people were forced into a long, difficult Diaspora—rife with expulsion, persecution and even enslavement. Many Jews remained in the Holy Land, however, forming an unbroken chain of Jewish presence in their national homeland.

Throughout the centuries, when the Land of Israel was occupied and colonized by foreign powers, large groups of Jews continued to return from all over the world when they had the opportunity, forming distinct, diverse and thriving communities throughout the country.

Surprising to some, today the majority of Jews in Israel do not have roots in Europe, but rather hail from the Middle East, Asia and North Africa. These are the descendants of Jews who never left the region and never stepped foot in Europe. There were Jews in Arabia before the advent of Islam, and Jews in Babylon before the Arab conquest and colonization beginning in the 7th century.

After the Arabs occupied the Middle East and North Africa around 639 BCE, Jews were forced into dhimmi status, forced to pay special taxes and had severe restrictions placed on them by their Muslim rulers.

Finally, during the 20th century, particularly upon the founding of Israel, these millennia-old Jewish communities were ethnically cleansed by Arab rulers.

Over 850,000 Jews from Arab countries were forced to flee their homes and communities rapidly, frequently with nothing but the clothes on their backs.

These exiles—mostly people of color—were welcomed home by the Jewish State, which was under increased military and economic pressure from the same Arab League nations that had emptied their nations of its Jews.

These Jews joined others who hailed from a diverse number of cultures and nations like India, Ethiopia, Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, China, and another 100 others.

(Excellent) Note to the EU and UN: The Palestinian leopard does not change its spots - by Charles Abelsohn

The time has come for the UN and the EU to recognize that the only parameter and framework relevant to Israel are that the Palestinian leopard has not, and apparently cannot and will not, change its spots. Both pre-1967 and post 1967, the Palestinian policy is for violence and terrorism against Israel`s very existence. The policies of the EU and UN strongly promote the Palestinians needing to be rewarded for their anti-Israel terrorism and violence since 1949.

Charles Abelsohn..
TOI Blog..
27 July '20

In 1948 the independent state of Israel was declared. The armies of several Arab armies invaded what was mandatory Palestine, intended to be the Jewish homeland under the San Remo Agreement. Much of Samaria and Judea was captured by the British officered, trained and supplied Trans-Jordanian forces. In 1949 cease fires were declared and armistice agreements entered into between Israel and several Arab states.

Trans-Jordan itself changed its name to Jordan and then renamed the captured area of Samaria and Judea as the West Bank. For the first time in its history, Jerusalem was divided. The Jordanians expelled the ancient Jewish community from the Jewish quarter of the Old City. The Holy Places, being the Western Wall, Rachel`s Tomb and the Temple Mount, were all held by Jordan and Jews and Israelis were not permitted access to their Holy Places despite provisions explicitly permitting access in the armistice agreement. In the Old City, now held by Jordan, 58 synagogues were destroyed and the ancient Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives desecrated. Egypt controlled and administered Gaza. The lines (not borders) between Jordan, Egypt and Syria and Israel were set out with a green pen in Armistice Agreements – hence the term “green lines” – without prejudice to the rights, claims and positions of either Israel or Jordan.

In 1967, the above areas were retaken by Israeli forces and Jews were again able to live in areas populated by Jews before their expulsion by Jordan in 1948 and Jews again had access to their Holy Places.

It is the return of Jews to the 6.4 km2 of the Old City of Jerusalem, the re-establishment of Jewish populations in Area C of the West Bank and the unification of Jerusalem (some may add Areas A & B as well; this aspect is not the subject of this article) which is generally referred to, as the “Israeli occupation”.

Since 1967, there has been considerable violence between the Palestinians and Israel. Most critics of Israel take the view “The cycle of violence between Israel and the Palestinians is triggered by the dynamics of the Israeli occupation”.

As shown above, there was no “Israeli occupation” between 1948 and 1967. Thus, according to this theme and outlook, since there was no “Israeli occupation”, these were the years of tranquility and Paradise Regained. The EU and the UN demand of Israel to return to the 1949 armistice lines so that peace and calm in the Middle East would be restored and the Israel – Arab conflict be deemed resolved. After all, the atmosphere in the Middle East before 5 June 1967 was idyllic. For the EU and UN, there was actually no good reason in 1967 for the UN to withdraw troops, for the Egyptians to impose a blockade on Eilat and for Egypt and Syria, subsequently joined by Jordan, to threaten Israel. Let`s just restore 4 June 1967 lines and all the “problems” will be resolved. It is really so simple.

Except that it is not.

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The time has come to call Nasrallah's bluff - by Prof. Eyal Zisser

Israel should reinstitute the same ironclad rule it applies to the Syrian arena, whereby any violation of Israeli sovereignty or attack on its soldiers is a red line that will be reinforced.

Prof. Eyal Zisser..
Israel Hayom..
27 July '20..
Link: https://www.israelhayom.com/opinions/514493/

From a position of unprecedented weakness and distress, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah is back to his old gambling habits. Similar to the summer of 2006, he is now threatening to perpetrate a terrorist attack against Israel in response to the death of one of his operatives in Syria. At the time, Nasrallah's failed gambit triggered an all-out war, which exacted a terrible price from Lebanon and mainly the Shiite ethnic group he purports to represent. Nasrallah himself was forced to pay a heavy price: personal freedom. The man has been shuttered in his bunker ever since and doesn't see the light of day, and ever since Iranian general Qassem Soleimani was assassinated in January, Nasrallah, too, doesn't know if today will be his last day.

Nasrallah, however, is shackled to his equations, and because he feels he has no other option and fears Israel will interpret his moves as weakness, he feels obligated to retaliate and is willing risk a head-on clash with it. He hopes, of course, that he'll be able to control the flames and hopes the attack "ends without a hitch," with minimum casualties on the Israeli side – which will allow Israel to absorb the event and temper its own counter-response, as it has done in the past.

For this reason alone Israel should not play into Nasrallah's hands. Rather, it should nullify the equations he is seeking to dictate and present him with a clear red line he cannot cross.

During the Second Lebanon War, Israel was strung along by poor leadership that failed to bring the IDF's massive military advantage to bear. Instead of bringing Hezbollah to its knees, Israel was needlessly drawn into a 33-day war of attrition.

And yet, the results of that war sent a clear and decisive message to Hezbollah that Israel will no longer allow the terrorist group to violate its sovereignty and continue attacking it from Lebanese soil. The quiet that prevailed along the border with Lebanon was therefore an important achievement, and it's a fact that Hezbollah, battered and deterred, recognized that preserving this quiet was just as much in its own interest.

Another Day. Today’s Peter Beinart lie: “Palestinians have been excluded from mainstream US media” - by Elder of Ziyon

The truth is the exact opposite of his claim. But when someone is seeking attention for his immoral ideas, making things up is not unexpected.

Elder of Ziyon..
26 July '20..

Peter Beinart continues with his push to destroy Israel with another whopper of a lie.

“For decades, Palestinians have been largely excluded from the mainstream US media conversation about Israel-Palestine. That exclusion continues today, and represents one more form of Palestinian dispossession,” he tweeted.

Really?

Judging from the New York Times op-ed page since Arafat rejected Oslo, I see articles by

Marwan Barghouti
Saeb Erekat
Diana Buttu
Ahmed Abu Artema
Mahmoud Abbas
Hanan Ashrawi
Ali Abunimah
Ayman Odeh
Raja Shehadeh
Zena Agha
Daoud Kuttab
Yasir Arafat
Ali Jarbawi
Yousef Munayyer
Rashid Khalidi
Khalil Shikaki
Linda Sarsour
Zahi Khoury

I’m probably missing some. Most of these were in the past decade. Many of these have written articles more than once. (If you include the years before 2000, there are even more, like Edward Said and Mamdouh Aker. )

Not to mention that Rashida Tlaib has been all over the media since her election. Hanan Ashrawi and Saeb Erekat have been staples on TV news shows for decades.

Now, how many countries can claim to have had more citizens writing in US media?

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What Might We Expect From ‘Palestine’ - by Mitchell Bard

Since the UN Human Rights Council, along with other advocates of the two-state “solution,” say nothing about the current abuses, no one should expect them to care when they continue in Palestine. Instead of suddenly being scrutinized, Palestine will be treated with the same kid gloves as other serial human rights abusers such as Cuba, Saudi Arabia, and China.

Mitchell Bard..
Algemeiner..
23 July '20..

The love affair that so many politicians, peace processors, and pundits have with the creation of a Palestinian state never ceases to astonish. Advocates constantly justify support with solemn intonations about human rights, and yet they show no interest in how Palestinians are treated by Palestinians, independent of the “occupation.” It is folly to expect anything will improve in “Palestine,” which is more likely to follow the model of neighboring authoritarian regimes than Israeli democracy; nevertheless, two-staters envision a Shangri-La that must be created at all costs.

For a preview of life in Palestine, let’s look at what the State Department Human Rights report says about the Palestinian Authority (PA).

Start with the Palestinian idea of democracy. There have been no national elections in the West Bank and Gaza since 2006. President Mahmoud Abbas has remained in office despite the expiration of his four-year term in 2009, and has refused to hold an election, knowing he would lose (by some polls, more than 60% of Palestinians want him to resign). The Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) has not functioned since 2007, and the PA Constitutional Court dissolved it in 2018. Gaza is controlled by Hamas, following a coup in 2007.

Here are some of the other low-lights from the report, with respect to the actions of PA authorities:

- Unlawful or arbitrary killings, torture, and arbitrary detention.
- Holding political prisoners and detainees, including as reprisal for participation in foreign investment conferences.
- Significant problems with the independence of the judiciary.
- Arbitrary or unlawful interference with privacy.
- Restrictions on free expression, the press, and the Internet, including violence, threats of violence, unjustified arrests and prosecutions
against journalists, censorship, and site blocking.
- Substantial interference with the rights of peaceful assembly and freedom of association, including harassment of non-governmental
organizations.
- Restrictions on political participation.
- Acts of corruption, violence, and threats of violence motivated by antisemitism.
- Violence and threats of violence targeting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) persons.
- Forced child labor and child abuse.
- There are no laws against sexual harassment; and honor killings, though unlawful, continue.
- There is no law against human trafficking.

Sound good so far? Here’s what the report says about the situation in Gaza under Hamas:

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Mitchell Bard is a foreign policy analyst and authority on US-Israel relations.

Surprise? PA falsely blames Israel for Coronavirus spike while inventing an alternate reality - by Maurice Hirsch, Adv

One thing is clear: For the PA, the Coronavirus crisis is just another excuse to promote hatred of Israel, even to the detriment of the international fight against the virus.

Maurice Hirsch, Adv..
Palestinian Media Watch..
21 July '20..

Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, the PA has inverted reality. The PA has repeatedly blamed Israel for the spread of the Coronavirus, never telling its people that Israel has given hundreds of tons of equipment as well as ongoing medical training to the PA to prevent the spread of the virus, as reported by Palestinian Media Watch.

As the PA is experiencing a second wave of the virus, the PA has initiated a second wave of libels coming from different PA leaders.

One example is the libel of Chairman of the PA-funded Prisoners’ Club Qadura Fares, who accused Israel of deliberately trying to spread the virus within the PA:

“[Israel] is striving to spread the Coronavirus via the invasion of soldiers who are likely to be sick into Palestinian homes and mixing with the civilians and prisoners.” 

 [Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, July 17, 2020]

Another example was delivered by Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh, who gave two different explanations for the rise in the number of infected with the virus. On the one hand, Shtayyeh resorted to the PA’s standard excuse – blame Israel. On the other, he attributed the blame to Palestinian weddings and mourners’ tents.

Israel is to blame, according to Shtayyeh, due to the movement of people and goods from Israel and Jordan across the 1949 armistice lines:

“The [PA] government will send a request to the UNTSO (UN Truce Supervision Organization) UN forces to supervise the movement at the crossings located on the June 4, 1967 borders (i.e., 1949 armistice lines) in order to control the entry and exit to and from the State of Palestine… The main reason for the severe trend of increase of the Coronavirus… is the fact that the Palestinian [PA] Security Forces are being prevented [by Israel] from fulfilling their role and supervising the movement at these crossings… The fact that we do not control the crossings and borders – in addition to the occupation’s measures – is the main reason for the increase in the number of those infected with the Coronavirus.” 

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, July 7, 2020]

These statements are a product of the PA’s desire to promote hatred of Israel and inventing an alternative reality, in which the 1949 armistice lines are “borders” of the “State of Palestine,” that the PA must control.

Firstly, the 1949 armistice line between Israel and Jordan was never a “border”, as the website of the UNTSO clearly states:

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