EU envoys boycott Western Wall tour

Ambassadors of four European Union (EU) countries on Friday boycotted a tour to the Western Wall of Al-Aqsa Mosque led by Israeli Envoy to the US Gilad Erdan, Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported.

According to the Western Wall Heritage Fund, the activity was organised for a number of countries: “As part of an informational tour. The ambassadors of several countries toured the new route through the tunnels of the Western Wall.”

It claimed that the tour aimed to explain the alleged: “Connection of the Jewish people to their country and get to know the history and the present.”

Itamar Eichner, the diplomatic correspondent for Yedioth Ahronoth, reported that the EU had ordered the ambassadors of its member states not to take part in the tour led by Erdan: “The EU ordered at the last minute the ambassadors of three European countries to the United Nations – Italy, Slovenia and Romania – to boycott the tour of the Western Wall. The ambassador of Moldova also joined the boycott.”

Commenting on this, Erdan responded: “The visit of the ambassadors that I lead to Israel is part of my war at the UN to expose the lies of the Palestinians and their attempt to erase the thousand-year-old connection between us and Jerusalem.”

He added: “Unfortunately, four European countries made a cowardly decision motivated by political considerations. This shameful decision only strengthens the struggle to reveal our truth.”

Haaretz reported that the ambassadors of Romania, Italy, Slovenia and Moldova did not join the tour due to European concerns regarding the status of Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem’s Old City.

Behind the scene with David Bedein || December 7, 2022

Behind the scene with David Bedein – December 7, 2022

Time to be resolute

A wide view of the General Assembly Hall at the start of the Assembly’s seventy-first annual general debate.

Viktor Frankl, the renowned Austrian psychiatrist who was a Shoah survivor, wrote: “to suffer unnecessarily is masochistic rather than heroic.”

Surveying the putrid and poisonous swamp called the United Nations and its associated groups, plus assorted Israel bashers, Jewish and non-Jewish, it is not hard to conclude that every day is “a bash a Zionist” occasion.

Just when you might think that the hypocrites gathered in New York at the UN cannot sink any lower, they manage to surprise and fool us all as they pontificate and pass resolutions that are so far removed from reality that they fall into the realm of fake fiction. The UN is only one of a myriad of groups that find it necessary to obsess about Israel. The inevitable fallout these days is the collateral radioactive cloud of Jew hate that radiates forth from every quarter.

The time has come and, in fact, is long overdue when we must pose the question as to what we do about it.

Do we, as in the past, put our heads in the ground and pray that the winds of incitement will harmlessly blow over? We have tried that tactic, and it failed miserably.

Do we, as one progressive rabbi in California suggested recently, embrace the haters with love and thereby hope that they will reciprocate and leave us alone? Unfortunately, this turning the other cheek has also been a spectacular failure and merely spurs the bullies to greater acts of violence.

Do we try to ban the inciters? This will merely drive them underground, where dealing with them is much more difficult.

Do we endeavour to debate the haters by showering them with facts rather than the conspiracy lies they usually tout? The trouble with this is that the spreaders of fables never want to be confused by the truth.

As the nations gathered at the UN and elsewhere continue to propagate the lies fabricated by those lauded as peace partners, it seems to me that something stronger than an impassioned speech by the Israeli Ambassador and his collection of props is needed.

The USA representative’s protestations that Israel is being unfairly targeted fall like a lead balloon as soon as the State Department or White House issues insulting expressions of opposition to the very idea that Jews have the right to live and develop territory, which is theirs by international legal and historical rights.

The US Ambassador’s recent assertion that he “will work for the interests of the Palestinians” makes one wonder where his priorities lie. Is he the US Ambassador to Israel, or in reality, does he support the PA kleptocracy, which pays pensions and stipends to murderers of Israelis? He should be told in no uncertain language to relocate himself to either Ramallah or Gaza if pandering to Palestinian interests is his top priority.

Does the question remain as to how long we must put up with insults, threats, fallacious narratives and resolutions?

Nobody is going to take any serious notice of our discomfort and pain until and unless we actually stop being masochists. I recently read the comments of an American Jewish man who grew up pre-war in the toughest neighbourhoods. He recounts how bullies from other ethnic groups would pick on Jewish high school kids knowing that they were easy targets. This man however, knew how to fight back, and he tells of the day when these tormenters finally decided to leave him alone because “they didn’t know that Jews fought back so effectively.”

In other words, there needs to be consequences that will drive home the futility of Jew bashing.

Imagine if the beleaguered Jews in 1948 had thrown themselves at the mercy of the UN instead of fighting back and thwarting the genocidal agenda of the Arab countries trying to strangle the new country at its very birth. Fancy that, Jews actually fighting back. It came as a great shock to the Arab aggressors and an even bigger shock to an international community conditioned to believe that Jews could be targeted and murdered at will.

This brings me to the latest UN farce which must take the prize for the most brazen piece of hypocrisy of the millennium.

The UN General Assembly, by a vote of 90 in favour and 30 against, has decided to commemorate next year the 75th anniversary of the Nakba, which according to the Arab rejectionists, is the “catastrophe and crime” of Israel’s re-establishment. In the Alice in Wonderland fantasy world inhabited by the immoral majority, the fact that the UN voted in 1947 to create a Jewish and Arab State and that the Jews accepted this while the Arabs rejected it is totally irrelevant.

Each and every disaster which subsequently afflicted the Arab rejectionists was self-inflicted and a direct result of their desire to not only wipe the Jewish State off the face of the map but also to murder every Jew. The fact that they failed was no thanks to the UN. Now, 75 years later, the latter-day Arabs reborn as Palestinians have managed to successfully peddle the lie that their original rejectionist agenda is the fault of Israel. Having failed to thwart Jewish sovereignty, they have finally succeeded in convincing the UN that it is our entire fault and that seven decades later, they deserve to be given territory they never wanted in the first place.

Shamefully but not surprisingly, the UNGA has gone along with this castration of the truth. Australia at least voted against this travesty of a resolution while New Zealand abstained, no doubt hoping that this would keep both sides happy.

This resolution was, of course, only one in a further series of assaults on Israel, which occurs every time the UN meets. Worthy of mention is the resolution passed 150 to 9 calling for an international conference in Moscow “to resolve the Israel-Palestine conflict.”  Apart from the fact that Moscow is hardly the perfect place to hold such a meeting, the purported reason is even more specious. This so-called conflict could have been resolved in 1947, but everyone except the brain-dead nations represented at the UN have yet to acknowledge that simple fact of history. Like lemmings hurtling towards their doom, the nations represented in New York prefer to pass endless resolutions, each one more detached from reality than the previous ones.

This particular unhinged call for a gathering in Moscow galvanised Australia to abstain instead of voting against. The Australian spokesperson tried to put a positive spin on this retreat from reality, but all it managed to achieve was a sense that Canberra may be edging gradually away from previous voting patterns.

Abbas, in another one of his memorable accusations, declared that “the colonial settlement (i.e. Israel) is spreading like cancer in our land”. This Sermon on the Mount uttered by the internationally anointed apostle of peace came after the Biden Administration appointed a well-known Palestinian Arab cheerleader as a special envoy to the terror-supporting PA in Ramallah. What better “hechsher” (certificate of perfection) do the terrorists need?

What should Israel do in the face of this non-stop assault?

The first step should be the cessation of payment of all UN budget dues. Why should Israel be paying an organisation that amounts to protection money so that it can continually target and condemn it?

The next step should be declaring all UN officials in Israel persona non grata. They can decamp to Ramallah or Gaza, where they will find conditions so much more conducive to Israel bashing.

Next, Israel must take control of all UN real estate, some of it on prime Jerusalem land and for which the UN refuses to pay rates to the Jerusalem City Council.

As a final resort, Israel needs to walk out of the UN and tell them to go and meddle in someone else’s affairs.

Of course, all the politically correct politicians and the entire media and left-wing breast beaters will react in horror at these suggestions.

However, as I mentioned earlier, it is only when Jews fight back that bullies take notice. After seventy-five years, surely it is time to act.

Michael Kuttner is a Jewish New Zealander who for many years was actively involved with various communal organisations connected to Judaism and Israel. He now lives in Israel and is J-Wire’s correspondent in the region.

Both UN & The PA: No Support For Any 2 State Solution

This week, The United Nations declared support for a two-state solution.

However, our news and research agency, which has reviewed more than 1,000 official textbooks of the PA, used by UNRWA, The United Nations Relief and Works Agency, finds that both UNRWA and the PA reject the two-state solution because UNRWA and PA education are based on three fundamentals:

1. De-legitimization of Israel’s existence and the Jews’ very presence in the country, which includes denial of their history and the existence of any Jewish holy places there.

2. Demonization of both Israel and Jews, also religiously – with implications regarding the Jews’ image in the eyes of children who hail from a traditional society.

3. The absence of a call for peace with Israel. Instead, there is a call for a violent struggle for the liberation of the whole country, including pre-1967 Israel. This struggle is given a religious color and terror is made an integral part thereof, encouraging the murder of Jews.

De-Legitimization

1. Israel’s Jewish citizens are considered foreign colonialists: “We will think and discuss: I will compare the tragedy of the Indians, America’s original inhabitants, to the tragedy of the Palestinian people.”

(Social Studies, Grade 8, Part 2 (2020) p. 34)

2. The country’s Jewish history is denied, including the existence of archaeological items proving that:  “…[The conqueror has built for himself an artificial entity that derives its identity and the legitimacy of its existence from tales, legends and phantasies and has tried in various ways and means to create live material evidence for these legends, or archaeological architectural proofs that would determine their truth and authenticity, but in vain.”]

(Arabic Language – Academic Path, Grade 10, Part 2 (2020) p. 68)

3. Existence of Jewish holy places in the country is denied, including the Western Wall in Jerusalem. A photograph has been cropped in a way that would “hide” the Jews who pray there:​

​“Al-Buraq Wall”​

“The Al-Buraq Wall has been named after Al-Buraq [the divine beast] that carried the Messenger [of God, i.e., Muhammad] during the Nocturnal Journey [from Mecca to Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, according to Islamic belief] and the Ascension [to Heaven]. The Al-Buraq Wall is part of the western wall of Al-Aqsa Mosque. Al-Aqsa Mosque, including the wall, is Palestinian land and an exclusive right of the Muslims.” ​

​(Islamic Education, Grade 5, Part 1 (2020) p. 63)

4. Having been considered foreign settlers, Jews in the country are not counted as legitimate inhabitants and the cities they built there, including Tel Aviv, are absent from maps in the texts used in PA schools. The PA school map here, titled “Map of Palestine”, does not show any Jewish city, except the southern city of Eilat that appears under its Arabic name, desolate place where it was later built – “Umm al-Rashrash”.

​(Social Studies, Grade 6, Part 1 (2020) p. 6)

A “Map of Palestine” that erases all Jewish presence. (Image: UNRWA)

5. The Jews’ historical and religious ties to Jerusalem are ignored. According to the PA textbooks, Jerusalem was built by the Palestinians’ Arab ancestors (i.e., the “Arabized” Canaanites and Jebusites) and is holy to Muslims and Christians alone. Jews are not mentioned in this context: “Jerusalem is an Arab city built by our Arab ancestors thousands of years ago. Jerusalem is holy only to Muslims and Christians.”​

​(National and Social Upbringing, Grade 3, Part 1 (2020) p. 29)

6. A short historical description of the city’s names features a huge gap of 1000 years between the Jebusites and the Romans, that is, the Jewish historical period. The name “Jerusalem” with its various forms that is used in hundreds of languages around the world is completely absent:

“The city of Jerusalem was known as ‘Jebus’ after the Arab Jebusites who built it 5000 years ago. When the Romans occupied it they named it ‘Aelia’. Later on it came to be known as ‘Al-Quds’ or ‘Bayt al-Maqdis’, after the Muslims had conquered it at the hands of Caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab in 637 CE…”​

(Geography and Modern and Contemporary History of Palestine, Grade 10, Part 1 (2020) p. 43)

MORE NEXT WEEK on the ‘fundamentals’ of anti-Israel education under the PA

Sunday, December 4, Zoom call: Justice for Amiram!

Dear Friends,
If you have not registered yet for our next Justice for Amiram! Zoom call – Sunday, December 4 – please do so today. Even if you have not taken part in the previous Zoom sessions, your participation is important for the effort to release Amiram Ben-Uliel.

Raising the torture issue with Congress remains vital, and somebody who succeeded in contacting a powerful member of the outgoing Congress, who did discuss Amiram with Israeli diplomats, will share his experience. However, after the mid-terms, there are other areas we should address. One is the media and an effective strategy for publicly raising the kind of questions that the Israeli government hopes will be ignored. Many other crucial issues will be discussed as well.

Please join us, and share the registration link with individuals and groups that are likely to be interested.
REGISTRATION LINK: https://www.honenu.org/webinar-registration
Yours,
Honenu’s English Department

Canadian Military Launched Investigation Into Summer Riots In Judea

In July, riots were perpetrated by masked men in the Hebron region, located in Area C of Judea, an area under Israeli sovereignty. Were these riots perpetrated by Jews? Was the violence orchestrated by anarchists to create a provocation?

Well, no one knows.

What is newsworthy is that Canadian military personnel, in uniform, appeared at the scene of the riots, and launched their own investigation, interviewing Arab villages in the area to hear what they had to say. These villagers had squatted on lands that the Israel Civil Administration, in charge of the area, has not authorized.

Brigadier General Steve Graham of the Canadian Armed Forces and other members of a Canadian military delegation were also spotted visiting a cluster of unauthorized Arab homes on Israeli state land within the municipal lines of the Jewish community of Maon in the South Hebron Hills area.

After journalists made queries about this with the Canadian Embassy in Israel, the Embassy responded:

“In 2005, the US established the Office of the United States Security Coordinator (USSC) for Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Through a military task force based in Jerusalem, Canada contributes to the USSC under Operation PROTEUS. The purpose of Operation PROTEUS is to help the Palestinian Authority Security Forces (PASF) build their capacity.”

Brigadier-General Graham recently ended his mission, and passed command to a younger officer. Graham’s replacement was also documented visiting illegal Palestinian outposts in Area C. On July 28, Meir Deutsch, Director of the Regavim organization, an Israel land advocacy group, filed a complaint with the Canadian government representative’s office, asking why uniformed Canadian army personnel would patrol an area under Israel sovereignty without an escort from the IDF, which Regavim described as a “violation of Israeli and international law by a foreign military force.”

Since July, unauthorized unformed Canadian army personnel have been spotted making timely visits in Arab villages located in the Hebron region, not coordinated with the Israel Civil Administration. Canadian diplomats located in Tel Aviv and Al Birah, near Ramallah, will no longer say anything to the media about this. Neither will the Israel Civil Administration respond to questions from the press about this development.

This remains an issue for policy makers in Ottawa to address.

Context: Canada was one of eight countries to participate in the U.S. security assistance for the PSF, the Palestinian Security Forces when the US embarked on a program of security assistance for the PA in 2010. Canadians comprised the largest nationality of the U.S. Security Coordinator’s mission, with 18 out of a total of 45 staffers.

Canadians did much of the field work for the Americans, who were  restricted by U.S. law from operating in Judea and Samaria and much of Jerusalem. While American liason officers to the A were based in Jerusalem, the Canadian contingent was located in Ramallah.

Today, things have gotten complicated.  Several of the US and Canadian trained PSF groups are now openly in armed confrontation with Jews- namely, The Al Aqsa Brigades, an integral part of the PSF, have been taking credit for random attacks launched against Jewish civilians and military personnel alike.

Hello Ottawa and Washington: Anybody Home? 

An update to the PAY TO SLAY law, enacted by the Palestinian Authority in August 2015.

That law, which you can see on the web site, IsraelBehindTheNews.com under the title “incentifying terror”, provides an automatic fee for life for anyone who murders a Jew and pays the family of the killer if he dies in the act of killing  Jews.

Unsubstantiated rumors have it that the PA will no longer act in accordance with PA law and no longer pay for killers.

However, in preparation for this article, The Nahum Bedein Center asked its correspondent in Ramallah to contact the press office of PA leader Machmud Abbas, to ask if the PA would continue to pay those who kill Jews and pay the families of the killers.

The answer from the Abbas press spokesman was not long in coming: “Of course that PA law remains in force. Do you think we would give any favors to Netanyahu at this time?”

Support Proactive News Investigations for Israel run by the Nahum Bedein Center For Near East Policy Research. Nahum z”l was the brother of the Center director, David Bedein. 

Canadian tax deductible donations for the Center can be sent through  CAEF, Canadian Antisemitism Education Foundation at https://tinyurl.com/4bdpf8nv 

Palestinian reactions to the double terrorist attack in Jerusalem

On the morning of November 23, 2022, Palestinians carried out a double terrorist attack in
Jerusalem. Two IEDs exploded within half an hour of one another, one at the entrance to
Jerusalem and the other at the Ramot Junction. Two Israelis were killed: a 15 year-old boy,
killed at the scene of the first attack, and a man in his 50s, who was mortally wounded and later died.

About 20 people were wounded, some of them critically. So far there has been on claim of responsibility for the attack. The Israeli security forces are searching for the terrorists responsible and are concerned they will carry out another attack.

 

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How Israel lets the Palestinians get free power while taking over land

The opening of a first completely Palestinian-owned and -managed electricity substation, outside of Jenin, West Bank. The station was built by Israel Electric Corporation, by Israeli and Palestinian workers, but owned by the Palestinian Electric Authority (PEA) and the PA. July 10, 2017. Photo by Miriam Alster/Flash90 *** Local Caption *** ???? ???? ??????
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I have driven down the long, winding road between Neve Tzuf and Ofarim in the western Binyamin region countless times. It is one of the most beautiful routes in the country. This time, however, was different. Instead of enjoying the incredible, breathtaking view of the Binyamin hills, I spent it looking at electricity poles. They carried signs that I had never noticed before: The walls of the Old City of Jerusalem with the Dome of the Rock and the universal symbol for high voltage, a lightning bolt. Underneath the image, in English and Arabic, were the words “Jerusalem District Electric Company” (JDECO).

Click here to read full article. 

Terror does not exist in a vacuum you need conditions that facilitate it and this is what we need to deal with.

Terror does not exist in a vacuum you need conditions that facilitate it and this is what we need to deal with.

Time for an Israeli Victory; End 100 Year Rejections against Israel

A famous verse in Ecclesiastes says, “There is a time for everything.”

Perhaps, this is a time for an Israeli victory to finally end the over 100 years of violent rejectionism against Jewish sovereignty. A war started with one singular purpose: to prevent and then destroy the legitimate national aspirations of the Jewish people to statehood in their ancestral and indigenous homeland.

Click here to read full article