Clueless choirs

Discordant and cacophonous choruses of hate are emanating once again from around the globe.

Fuelled by a tsunami of disinformation and boosted by political opportunism, we face a swelling volume of anti-Israel incitement.  In addition, a lurking antipathy towards Jews in general is casting its poisonous web of lies over an ever-increasing swathe of humanity.

Its negative and destructive effects pose challenges for communal leadership and raise the age-old dilemma of how to respond.

In every country except Israel, Jews are in a minority. As demographic and electoral realities become more evident, the Sisyphean struggle to safeguard Jewish life grows increasingly harder.

This past week highlights the challenges now emerging and the perilous political roadblocks being erected.

The verbal warfare and diplomatic disconnect between Australia and Israel have been the star attraction and media focus.

Australia’s intention of recognising a Palestinian fantasy state regardless of any conditional requirements while Hamas still holds sway is at the core of the drama. Albanese and Wong, driven by an extreme left wing ideological agenda, are rushing headlong into appeasing terror.

Their constant drip feed of negative and condemnatory rhetoric has unleashed unprecedented vitriol with mass marches and demonstrations across the continent. Every biased media and UN report and statement has been elevated to holy writ which in turn is morphing into unsubstantiated slanders.

No self-respecting Israeli leader should be expected to remain mute in the face of this avalanche of mistruths and outright lies.

When it is accompanied by craven appeasement to jihadist terror, the response must be firm, loud and couched in a way that leaves no room for misinterpretation.

Wimpy responses disguised as diplomatic double speak will achieve very little.

The reaction of political and communal leaders was a sight to behold when Netanyahu’s verbal bombardment was revealed. Politicians recoiled in righteous wrath aided and abetted by a mainstream media waiting for such an event to occur. SKY Australia’s commentators, to their credit, tore shreds from the hypocritical pontifications of the ABC, among others.

The responses of communal groups and their assorted spokespersons were astounding.

A collective communal meltdown ensued.

How dare the Prime Minister of a democratic country fighting against jihadist terror actually accuse other political leaders of weakness and appeasement?  A frenzied attempt to distance the Jewish community from such plain speaking was demanded. How could Israel stoop to such undiplomatic language? One spokesperson even went so far as to describe Albanese as a “statesman.”

A letter of reprimand was quickly composed, urging both Netanyahu and Albanese to cease “insulting each other” and instead engage in civilised discourse. No doubt those demonising Israel and Zionists could hardly believe their good fortune. The spectacle of Jewish/Zionist groups “running for cover” must be too good to be true.

It exposes an old galut disease known as “trembling knees syndrome.”

It was first identified in 1982 by Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin. In June of that year, Joe Biden was a senator from Delaware and he confronted Begin during a Senate Foreign Relations committee testimony, threatening to cut off aid to Israel. Begin forcefully responded:

“Don’t threaten us with cutting off your aid. It will not work. I am not a Jew with trembling knees. I am a proud Jew with 3,700 years of civilized history. Nobody came to our aid when we dying in the gas chambers and ovens. Nobody came to our aid when we were striving to create our country. We paid for it. We fought for it. We died for it. We will stand by our principles. We will defend them. When necessary we will die for them again, with or without your aid.” 

Senator Biden banged on the table with his fist and Begin continued:

“This desk is designed for writing not for fists. Don’t threaten us with slashing aid. Do you think that because the US lends us money it is entitled to impose on us what we must do? We are grateful for the assistance we have received but we are not to be threatened. I am a proud Jew. Three thousand years of culture are behind me and you will not frighten me with threats.”  

Can you imagine what Begin would have done with any letter he may have received from Diaspora communal leaders asking him to tone down his language and be more diplomatic?

Ze’ev Jabotinsky, the leader of the Revisionist Movement, which both Begin and Netanyahu emanate from, noted in 1940:

“We hold that Zionism is moral and just. Since it is moral and just, justice must be done, no matter whether Joseph or Simon or Ivan or Achmed agree with it or not.”

In today’s context, we can add “no matter whether Albanese, Wong, Luxon, Starmer, Macron, Carey and the UN Secretary General agree with it or not.”   

Israel is about to become the first country in the world to pioneer spinal surgery enabling patients to walk again.

Perhaps this revolutionary medical advance could be extended to enable politicians who have already surrendered to jihadist threats to grow a spine and finally confront this growing menace.

Meanwhile, New Zealand’s Prime Minister, Chris Luxon, loses no opportunity to demonstrate his total lack of knowledge, both historically and currently.

Condemning the building of homes for Jews in Judea and Samaria, as well as Jerusalem, he warbles the same old discredited themes of “illegality under international law” and “two state solutions.” According to Luxon, New Zealand and all countries signed up for a Palestine state in 1947.

This claim is total fiction. The UN voted for a Jewish and an Arab country. The fictitious “indigenous” Palestinians had not been invented. All Muslim and Arab countries voted against this partition resolution and declared their intention to erase the Jewish State of Israel from the map. From 1948 until 1967, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan illegally occupied Judea and Samaria and renamed it the “West Bank.” They also occupied the Old City of Jerusalem, ethnically expelled all Jewish inhabitants and destroyed Synagogues and the Mount of Olives Cemetery. Jews were forbidden to visit and pray at the Kotel.

Not one country currently spouting nonsense about illegal Israeli occupation voiced any such condemnation during the years 1948 to 1967. Can Luxon, Albanese and the rest of the UN explain why? Could it by some coincidence have something to do with the fact that Jews have returned to the territories legally part of the Jewish homeland and guaranteed for settlement from the river to the sea?

Perhaps all those intending to recognise a fictional Palestine could explain why, when Jordan controlled the territory, no effort was made to create such a country. Of course, they will never provide a logical answer because the plain facts are that having failed to destroy Israel by military means and terror, the jihadists have now found a far better alternative.

Creating a fictional history and revisionist fables are the perfect ways to seduce spineless democracies. Spreading age-old lies and libels is far more lethal. Utilising the ancient virus of Jew hate is much easier than mounting military campaigns.

The success of this strategy can be seen in how political leaders and the media have been successfully subverted.

Those who still believe that peace and tolerance will magically break out once the fake Palestinians have been granted their State in the heartland of Israel are so out of touch with reality that it is painful to behold.

Proof that recognition of Palestine will bring in its wake more terror, incitement and intolerance has been provided by yet another outburst from those touted as harbingers of the messianic age.

During the month of Elul, which precedes Rosh Hashanah, the shofar is sounded during morning prayers. In an official statement, the PA claimed that “shofar blowing is not merely a religious ritual. It is rather a dangerous tool through which Israel seeks to impose its sovereignty and alter the historical and legal status of the Al Aqsa Mosque. It is a blatant violation of international law.”

This is a perfect example of what can be expected after Palestinian recognition is approved at the UN.

All those still advocating such a course of action need to wake up from their self-induced stupidity.

The vast majority of Israelis have no intention of committing national suicide in order to please a gutless and clueless international community.

Letter of Infamy: When Rabbis Parrot the Settler Violence Lie (Judean Rose)

Last week I addressed the accusation of “famine” in Gaza in a letter (HERE) signed by more than 80 Open Orthodox rabbis. This week, I want to look at the second charge in that same letter: so-called “settler violence.”
To hear the rabbis tell it, extremist settlers are raining down bloody hell on “Palestinians.”
But that is exactly false. Which suggests that the signatories have not at all done their due diligence before affixing their names to what stands as a very public condemnation of Israel at a time of extreme peril for the Jewish people.
If they had done the bare minimum research before signing their John Hancocks to that statement accusing Israel of not doing enough to combat “settler violence,” they would have discovered that only four months earlier, in April 2025, Israeli NGO Regavim had released a detailed report on this very subject, “False Flags and Real Agendas, The Making of a Modern Blood Libel: The ‘Settler Violence’ Narrative as a Weapon in the Battle to Delegitimize the Jewish Presence in Judea and Samaria and the State of Israel”.

 

Regavim, which monitors land use and policy in Judea and Samaria, examined the UN database that is perpetually cited as proof of “settler violence.” What they found was that the numbers collapse under scrutiny, reduced to dust.

“The UN incident list we obtained distinguishes between 2,047 incidents of violence against Israelis and 6,285 incidents defined as violence against Palestinians… once one delves into the list of incidents, the clear conclusion is that the vast majority do not describe violence related to settlers, and certainly do not describe violence initiated by settlers against Palestinians. Among the 6,285 incidents… 1,361 were simply Jewish ascents to the Temple Mount, every one counted as ‘settler violence.’ Another 1,613 were general complaints, such as ‘entry onto land’ during tours or hikes, which do not involve assault or harm. Ninety-six involved legal infrastructure projects carried out by the State of Israel.”

This is the extent of the UN’s “evidence” of settler violence. Temple Mount visits. Land surveys. Legal infrastructure. In other words: ordinary life contorted into charges of violence. And when those distortions are stripped away, we are left with a big pile of nothing.

“After subtracting these cases, only 833 incidents remain, which the UN classified as settler violence against Palestinians in the Judea and Samaria, allegedly resulting in bodily harm and in some cases also property damage. This constitutes only ten percent of the original list, which sought to reflect alarming levels of severe violence by settlers against Palestinians in the Judea and Samaria. Not only did this review cut 90% of the events, undermining the foundation of the UN’s arguments and their consequences, but the remaining cases suffer not only from lack of credibility but also from a disgusting level of false accusation against the real victims.”

Ten percent. That’s all that survived the first cut. Yet these reports, too, are riddled with distortions. Almost half of the reported cases were clashes with both sides involved. Of the rest, some cases of “settler violence” were attributed to Israeli security forces, while others were Arab terror attacks against Jews—recast as ‘settler violence.’ Blood libels dressed up as data.

As Regavim concludes:

“…examination of these cases revealed that in many of them, it is not settler violence of one kind or another, but rather the opposite: these are terror attacks by Arabs against settlers that ended with the injury or elimination of the attacker.”

Had the rabbis taken five minutes to investigate, they would have found this information—current, comprehensive, and devastating to their claim. Instead, they affixed their names to a letter built on entries in a database programmed to tell lies. Even the name of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik is invoked, as if to give the letter’s distortions a veneer of authority.

But the Rav, as he is known to those who revere him, would never have put his name on something so harmful to the Jewish people.

Which brings us to the names of the rabbis, themselves.

As my friend Julie P. on seeing the list of names helpfully pointed out, “Not one is Sephardi or Mizrachi.”

 

Look down the list of 80 signatories. It’s tragic really. You’ll see Schudrich, Greenberg, Yanklowitz, Dolinger, Chernick, Feigelson, Schlesinger—names that could have come straight from an early, 20th century Lower East Side synagogue membership roster.

With one half-exception—a single hyphenated surname suggesting a mixed background—the entire coalition is Ashkenazi.

And this is telling. Sephardim, even those who are not religious in practice, are deeply respectful of rabbinic authority and tradition. Watching how they comport themselves in the presence of a sage is instructive. I have seen secular Sephardi women cover their arms and heads with a shawl when a rabbi entered the room. Nobody asked them to. They simply revere the rabbis who have guided their people according to the same traditions for generations. Perhaps it is that steadfastness that inoculates Sephardim against the hubris of lecturing Israel on “moral clarity” while parroting Hamas propaganda without looking deeper at the actual facts.

List of signatories

Rabbi Yosef Blau

Rabbi David Bigman

Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich

Chief Rabbi Michael Melchior

Chief Rabbi Jair Melchior

Rabbi Joav Melchior

Chief Rabbi David Rosen (former CR)

Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz

Rabbi Dr. Yitz Greenberg

Rabbi Hyim Shafner

Rabbi Daniel Landes

Rabbi Herzl Hefter

Rabbi Shua Mermelstein

Rabbi Yoni Zolty

Rabbanit Mindy Schwartz Zolty

Rabbi Frederick L Klein

Rabbi Yosef Kanefsky

Rabbi Michael Whitman

Rabbi Dr. Jeremiah Unterman

Rabbi Barry Dolinger

Rabbi David Silber

Rabbi Yonatan Neril

Rabbi Ysoscher Katz

Rabbi Isaac Landes

Rabbi David Polsky

Rabbi Baruch Plotkin

Rabbi Mikey Stein

Rabbi Elliot Kaplowitz

Rabbi Ariel Goldberg

Rabbi Ben Birkeland

Rabbi Ralph Genende

Rabbi David Glicksman

Rabbi Dr. Donniel Hartman

Rabbi Dr. Martin Lockshin

Rabbi Dr. Pinchas Giller

Rabbi Avidan Freedman

Rabbi Daniel Raphael Silverstein

Rabbi Dr. Shalom Schlagman

Rabbi Dr. Daniel Ross Goodman

Rabbi Aaron Levy

Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller

Rabbi Dr. Mel Gottlieb

Rabbi Dr. Joshua Feigelson

Rabbi Jonah Winer

Rabbi Dr. Michael Chernick

Rabbi Dr. Eugene Korn

Rabbi Hanan Schlesinger

Rabbi Elhanan Miller

Rabbi Joel Hecker

Rabbi Michael Gordan

R. Sofia Freudenstein

Rabbi David Levin-Kruss

Rabbanit Myriam Ackermann-Sommer

Rabba Ramie Smith

R. Shayna Abramson

Rabbi Zachary Truboff

Rabbi David A. Schwartz

Rabbi David Jaffe

Rabbi Steve Greenberg

Rabbi Gabriel Kretzmer Seed

Rabbanit Rachel Keren

Rabbi Benyamin Vineburg

Rabba Dr. Lindsey Taylor-Guthartz

Rabbanit Leah Sarna

Rabbi Dr. Wendy Zierler

Rabbanit Sarah Segal-Katz

Rabbi Shimon Brand

Rabba Melissa Scholten-Gutierrez

R. Emily Goldberg Winer

R. Dr. Erin Leib Smokler

Rabba Adina Roth

R. Dr. Meesh Hammer-Kossoy

Rabbi Drew Kaplan

Rabbi Dina Najman

Rabbi Emile Ackermann

Rabbi Daniel Geretz

Rabbanit Sarah Segal-Katz

Rabbanit Tali Schaum Broder

Rabbi Max Davis

Rabbi Tyson Herberger

Rabba Aliza Libman Baronofsky

At first, I wondered whether one surname on the list—Neril—might break the pattern. I had never heard that one before and thought perhaps it was Sephardi. But no. Rabbi Yonatan Neril is Ashkenazi, and best known for founding the Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development, an organization that promotes environmental action across faith communities. His presence on the list highlights the broader orientation of many of the signatories toward progressive and ecumenical causes, rather than toward Israel’s defense in its hour of need.

The rabbis who signed this letter of betrayal may have meant no harm to their own, but intentions matter little here; the effect is the same. That letter was like piling logs onto a raging fire—then dousing it with gasoline.

History will not remember the rabbis’ statement kindly. At best, the signatories will be judged naïve or misguided. Sad, but with tragic consequences for the Jewish people and in particular for Israel’s hostages and soldiers. The rabbis’ missive jeopardizes Israel’s ability to free the hostages, by emboldening the enemy, who now see that even Jewish clergy can be turned into weapons against the Jewish state.

Former hostage exposes Hamas aid theft as guards stockpiled stolen food

Video: Hamas terrorists enjoying food underground / Credit: IDF

Former hostage Tal Shoham provided disturbing testimony on Wednesday on Israeli Army Radio about the systematic theft of humanitarian aid by Hamas terrorists while Israeli hostages endured deliberate starvation. Shoham revealed that guards possessed stockpiles of stolen aid supplies while following explicit orders to deny food to prisoners.

“In the room next to us, the guards had food for months ahead that they stole from humanitarian aid. They said they received orders from above to starve us,” Shoham told the radio station during his interview.

The captivity survivor described the horrific conditions he and other hostages endured during their imprisonment. “It was a continuous nightmare. There was no oxygen to breathe, and we felt extreme and ongoing hunger. I saw the pictures of Rom and Evyatar, they look like walking skeletons, it reminded me of the Holocaust pictures,” he explained.

Shoham’s weight dropped from 174 pounds to 110 pounds by the time of his release in February during the first phase of the hostage deal. According to the former hostage’s interview with Fox News, hostages were allowed merely 300 calories a day and just 300 milliliters of water – slightly more than 10 ounces – which they had to choose to use for drinking or washing.

Video: Hamas terrorists enjoying food underground / Credit: IDF

Shoham emphasized the psychological impact of knowing that support continued from the outside world. Regarding demonstrations for hostage release, he stated, “Every time I heard in captivity that they were still fighting for us and we weren’t forgotten, I received hope. The feeling that there was still someone fighting for us was a source of faith that someday it would end.”

The IDF Arabic spokesperson unveiled dramatic video evidence in July, documenting Hamas terrorists’ comfortable underground life, showing operatives enjoying fresh bananas, dates, and meat in tunnel complexes while their organization publicly accuses Israel of creating starvation conditions for Gaza residents.

Self –infliction of suffering – Current Palestinian strategy: Part one

Hamas, the jihadi organization gained control of the Palestinian Parliament in 2006, has ruled Gaza since 2007 and  become the focus on global attention after massacring around 1,400 Israelis on Oct. 7.  For fifteen years, Hamas  has implemented an opposite and historically unique purpose in tormenting its subject population. Rather than sacrifice soldiers for battlefield gains, it sacrifices civilians for public relations purposes.

In words  of an  expert on Islam, historian  Dr. Daniel Pipes. “The more misery endured by Gazans, the more convincingly Hamas can accuse Israel of aggression and the wider and more vehement the support it wins from antisemites of all persuasions – Islamists, Palestinian nationalists, far-leftists, and far-rightists. Hamas actively wants Gazans to be bombed, hungry, suffering, homeless, injured and dead. It bases troops and missiles in mosques, churches, schools, hospitals, and private homes. An Emirati political figure, Dirar Belhoul al-Falasi, explains that “Hamas fired a rocket from the hospital’s roof, so that Israel would bomb this hospital.” It calls on Gazans to serve as human shields. It parks vehicles in the roads to block civilians to move southwards and out of harm’s way. It even shoots would-be refugees’

An aerial picture of Shifa Hospital in Gaza, with Israeli markings in red of military installations.

In 2014, US diplomat Dennis Ross commented that Gazans paid a “staggering” price for Hamas’ aggression but its leaders “have never been concerned about that. For them, Palestinians’ pain and suffering are tools to exploit, not conditions to end.” Douglas Feith, a former high-ranking Pentagon official,  finds it “unprecedented for a party to adopt a war strategy to maximize civilian deaths on its own side.” He dubs this “not a human shield strategy [but] a human sacrifice strategy.”

Dr. Pipes also notes that ” Hamas digs into its Islamist ideology to justify this practice. One official blithely explains how Palestinians “sacrifice ourselves. We consider our dead to be martyrs. The thing any Palestinian desires the most is to be martyred for the sake of Allah, defending his land.” Mosab Hassan Yousef, son of a founding Hamas leader, puts it another way: “I was born at the heart of Hamas leadership… and I know them very well. They don’t care for the Palestinian people. They do not regard the human life. I saw their brutality firsthand. Hamas’ brutal logic brings multiple benefits; First, it benefits Hamas tactically, because Israel, which tries to avoid harming civilians, avoids attacking those mosques and schools. Second, if Israel does hit such vulnerable targets, Hamas crows about the victims. Third, should Hamas misfire, as in the Ahli Hospital incident, and kill Gazans, it can anyway blame Israel, convincing many. Fourth, campuses and streets worldwide erupt with anti-Israel demonstrations”

Essential Questions not Being Asked of Nations that will Recognize a Planned Palestinian State

Currently, there are a number of essential questions not being asked of nations that will recognize a planned Palestinian State.

Journalists should pose these questions to the foreign ministers of the UK, France, Norway, Canada, Australia and New Zealand:

  • Will the planned Palestinian state abolish the Palestinian Charter, which mandates the destruction of Israel?
  • Will the planned Palestinian state revoke the law that guarantees salaries to anyone who murders a Jew?
  • Will the planned Palestinian state remove texts that glorify those who murder kill Jews?
  • Will the planned Palestinian state eliminate educational materials that glorify the murder of Jews?
  • In the maps of the planned Palestinian state, will the State of Israel appear alongside it?
  • Will the planned Palestinian state cancel the slogan of the “Right of Return through armed struggle”?
  • Will the planned Palestinian state indeed abide by the Palestine State Constitution based on Koranic Sharia Law?

CONTEXT

In 2003, the Vatican Ambassador to the Holy Land, Archbishop Msgr. Pietro Sambi, known as the Papal Nuncio, warned a US Congressional delegation that the new Palestinian State constitution, funded by USAID, provided no juridical status whatsoever for any religion other than Islam in the emerging Palestinian Arab entity.

I covered that briefing at the time for the Israeli newspaper Makor Rishon and for FrontPage Magazine.

At that briefing, the Papal Nuncio expressed his concern to visiting US lawmakers that the PA had adopted Sharia Islamic law, based on the model of the Sharia from Koranic edicts as practiced in Iran or in Saudi Arabia.

Article (5) of the official Palestinian State Constitution reads as follows: Arabic and Islam are the official Palestinian language and religion. Christianity and all other monotheistic religions shall be equally revered and respected.

In other words, as Archbishop Sambi noted, other religions such as Christianity, not to mention Judaism, were denied any juridical status under the Palestinian State Constitution.

The status of Islam as the official religion of any future Palestinian Arab entity is also expressed in Article (7) of the official Palestinian State Constitution, which states that:

The principles of Islamic Sharia are a major source for legislation. Civil and religious matters of the followers of monotheistic religions shall be organized in accordance with their religious teachings and denominations within the framework of law, while preserving the unity and independence of the Palestinian people.

The Palestine constitution translation and analysis can be accessed at; https://israelbehindthenews.com/?s=Palestinian%20State%20Constitution.

Islamic nations which have adopted the Sharia law have mandated the absolute supremacy of Muslims over non-Muslims as matter of law.

What worried the Archbishop was that all Christian churches and all Christian schools would be placed under the arbitrary authority of Islamic Fundamental Law, which allows nothing more than tolerance of other religions, at best.

USAID financed the creation of the PA State Constitution, which meant the imposition of the Islamic Law throughout the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority.

A research study released by the Jerusalem Center For Public Affairs entitled, The Beleagured Christians, notes that in Egypt, Muslim – but not Christian – schools receive state funding. “It is nearly impossible to restore or build new churches. … Christians are frequently ostracized or insulted in public, and laws prohibit Muslim conversions to Christianity.”

In other words, USAID fostered an Islamic totalitarian state of Palestine, devoid of religious freedom and human rights.

I tried to hold back in commenting about the protests in Israel…

I tried to hold back in commenting about the protests in Israel because I know a lot of you won’t like what I have to say, but I no longer can. What’s happening in the streets of Israel is emboldening our enemies and hurting all of us.

Israel Strikes Back at Houthis, Hamas: ‘Whoever Attacks Us, We Attack Them’

Israel is vowing to repay every Houthi attack after it struck the Yemeni capital of Sanaa on Sunday. At the same time, Israel is gearing up for its major offensive in Gaza City, hoping to free the hostages and finish Hamas.

The Israel Defense Forces struck Houthi military targets following a ballistic missile launch on Friday that set off sirens in many parts of Israel. Israeli airstrikes targeted a military base in which Yemen’s presidential palace is located, along with two power plants and a fuel depot. Yemeni sources say six people were killed.

“Whoever attacks us, we attack them,” Netanyahu declared. “Whoever plans to attack us, we attack them. I think the entire region is learning Israel’s might and determination.”

The strike came in response to a Houthi-launched ballistic missile on Friday that had a cluster bomb warhead, which carries multiple smaller bomblets that scatter over a wider area, making it harder to defend against and more dangerous to civilians.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz stated, “We continue to impose an air and naval blockade and are striking infrastructure targets that are used to promote Houthi terrorism. For every missile they launch at Israel, the Houthis will pay with interest.”

Katz went even further, likening Israel’s response to the plagues in Egypt, as described in the Book of Exodus.

“Today we brought a plague of darkness on the Houthis,” Katz warned, “And later there will also be a plague of the death of the firstborns.”

Earlier, Katz had cautioned that the “Gates of hell will soon open over Hamas murderers and rapists in Gaza, until they agree to Israel’s conditions for ending the war, primarily the release of all hostages and their disarmament.”

Hostage families and others are pushing the Netanyahu government to make a deal and get their loved ones back.

However, over the weekend, the IDF began bombing the eastern and northern outskirts of Gaza City, as the military increased its presence in northern Gaza.

Tens of thousands of reservists are called up to report for duty on September 2nd.

Hamas is still pushing the Israeli starvation of Gaza narrative, even though tons of food are entering Gaza and being distributed by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and other international organizations.

In one of the latest photos of a “starving child,” Britain’s Daily Mirror ran a frontpage headline demanding Israel “Stop Starving Gaza’s Kids,” with a photo of three-year-old Karim Muammer, saying he was hospitalized with severe malnutrition.

The IDF produced medical records showing he suffers from Fanconi Bickel Syndrome, with symptoms of “gross developmental delay and no weight gain.”

David Bedein of the Center for Near East Policy Research claims there is malnutrition and suffering in Gaza but it’s not caused by Israel and it’s been around for decades.

Bedein told CBN News, This is an Arab tactic and a tactic used by UNRWA (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency), Hamas, and the Palestinian Authority.

He added, “We’ve seen one tactic used very successfully, that is self-infliction of wounds, showing themselves to be suffering. But they are suffering trying to create situations of malnutrition, of poor medical attention.”

Germany’s development and foreign aid minister makes visit to the Middle East: Policy Questions Raised

Germany’s development and foreign aid minister, Reem Alabali Radovan, departed on Monday , August 25th, for a three-day visit to Israel, the Palestinian territories, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia, .

The israel Resource News Agency, operating out of the Nahum Bedein Center for Near East Policy Research, posed policy questions to the German embassy in Israel on the eve of Radovan’s visit to Israel:

*Will the planned Palestinian state abolish the Palestinian Charter, which mandates the destruction of Israel?

*Will the planned Palestinian state revoke the law that guarantees salaries to anyone who murders a Jew?

*Will the planned Palestinian state remove texts that glorify those who murder kill Jews?

*Will the planned Palestinian state eliminate educational materials that glorify the murder of Jews?

*In the maps of the planned Palestinian state, will the State of Israel appear alongside it?

*Will the planned Palestinian state cancel its motto of the “Right of Return through armed struggle”?

* Will the planned Palestinian state abide by the Palestine State Constitution based on Koranic Sharia Law

  •  Konstantin Klammert, press spokesman for Germany in Israel, responded to these questions with the following answer : “Germany continues to support a negotiated two-state solution as the only guarantee for lasting security, peace and dignity for both sides. Germany’s history entails a special responsibility towards Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, and for Israel’s security. At the same time, Germany recognises the right of the Palestinians to self-determination and their endeavours to gain their own state.

Since Germany’s embassy in Israel did not relate to the above seven policy questions, it remains to be seen whether visiting  German government minister Reem Alabali Radovan will relate to these questions.