What is lacking in the article that ran in the New York Times on July 27, 2018 – “Can Israel be Jewish and Liberal”, by Omri Boehm, in which the author analyzes the current national state law controversy in Israel, is the context of this legislation:

A few years ago, Ayala Chason, senior news reporter for Israel TV Channel 1, produced a news feature which documented that Saudi Arabia and other Arab Gulf States were buying up swaths of Jewish property in the Upper Galilee region of Northern Israel.

Chason’s source for the news story: One of Israel’s leading geographers, Dr. Yossi Katz

This news report filed by Ayala Chason, not identified with the national political camp in Israel, caused a stir in the Israeli government and the Israeli Knesset Parliament, because no Israeli lawmaker or policy maker had conceptualized the need for protective legislation to assure continued Jewish ownership of Jewish property in the Jewish state.

For that reason, top officials have facilitate legislation that would obviate against the possibility that Israel’s oil-rich Arab neighbors would purchase Jewish property in Israel.

Spokespeople of the Israeli government are not currently saying anything disparaging about Saudi Arabia. Israel has recently forged a strategic relationship with the Saudis to counter Iranian influence, even though the Saudis remain in a formal state of war with Israel , since 1948, having never agreed to any armistice or any peace treaty with the Jewish state. Saudi support for the Boycott of Israel, now known as BDS, remains consistent.

An aside: Last week, an Arab merchant purchased a Jewish home off of Ein Rogel Street near Abu Tor in West Jerusalem for eight million shekels in cash, way above the asking price. The cash source : Qatar.

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David Bedein
David Bedein
David Bedein is an MSW community organizer and an investigative journalist.   In 1987, Bedein established the Israel Resource News Agency at Beit Agron to accompany foreign journalists in their coverage of Israel, to balance the media lobbies established by the PLO and their allies.   Mr. Bedein has reported for news outlets such as CNN Radio, Makor Rishon, Philadelphia Inquirer, Los Angeles Times, BBC and The Jerusalem Post, For four years, Mr. Bedein acted as the Middle East correspondent for The Philadelphia Bulletin, writing 1,062 articles until the newspaper ceased operation in 2010. Bedein has covered breaking Middle East negotiations in Oslo, Ottawa, Shepherdstown, The Wye Plantation, Annapolis, Geneva, Nicosia, Washington, D.C., London, Bonn, and Vienna. Bedein has overseen investigative studies of the Palestinian Authority, the Expulsion Process from Gush Katif and Samaria, The Peres Center for Peace, Peace Now, The International Center for Economic Cooperation of Yossi Beilin, the ISM, Adalah, and the New Israel Fund.   Since 2005, Bedein has also served as Director of the Center for Near East Policy Research.   A focus of the center's investigations is The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). In that context, Bedein authored Roadblock to Peace: How the UN Perpetuates the Arab-Israeli Conflict - UNRWA Policies Reconsidered, which caps Bedein's 28 years of investigations of UNRWA. The Center for Near East Policy Research has been instrumental in reaching elected officials, decision makers and journalists, commissioning studies, reports, news stories and films. In 2009, the center began decided to produce short movies, in addition to monographs, to film every aspect of UNRWA education in a clear and cogent fashion.   The center has so far produced seven short documentary pieces n UNRWA which have received international acclaim and recognition, showing how which UNRWA promotes anti-Semitism and incitement to violence in their education'   In sum, Bedein has pioneered The UNRWA Reform Initiative, a strategy which calls for donor nations to insist on reasonable reforms of UNRWA. Bedein and his team of experts provide timely briefings to members to legislative bodies world wide, bringing the results of his investigations to donor nations, while demanding reforms based on transparency, refugee resettlement and the demand that terrorists be removed from the UNRWA schools and UNRWA payroll.   Bedein's work can be found at: www.IsraelBehindTheNews.com and www.cfnepr.com. A new site,unrwa-monitor.com, will be launched very soon.

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