Wednesday, August 31, 2016

All of Israel is occupied Palestine!



In a September, 2015 speech to the United Nations, Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas revealed that he doesn't see the Israeli ‘occupation’ the same way the West sees it. Indeed, as he spoke in Arabic, he demonstrated what Jews who follow the PA have known for decades: what Abbas says in English is not what he says in Arabic.

So far as the West is concerned, Israel’s ‘occupation’ of ‘Palestinian’ land began in 1967 when, during the defensive Six-Day War, Israel took over Gaza, Judea, Samaria and East Jerusalem. But in that 2015 UN speech, Abbas spoke of Israel as occupying ‘Palestinian’ land since 1948. This means to say that, as soon as Israel was created, it automatically ‘occupied’ ‘Palestinian’ land. The land Abbas ‘wants back’ is all of Israel.

That’s what he said in Arabic at the UN. The English translation didn’t have those 1948 references. They’d been sanitized from the speech.

If you search for that September 30, 2015 UN speech, you might discover that, as the Times of Israel indicated at the time, an English translation of the speech was “submitted to the UN [emphasis mine]”. Then, that submitted translation was posted on the UN’s website (“Full text of Abbas’s 2015 address to the UN General Assembly”, timesofisrael, September 30, 2015).

Nobody said who had submitted that English version to the UN. But as the website Palestinian Media Watch (palwatch) discovered, that translation wasn’t the same speech Abbas gave. It had been edited (Ari Yashar, "Abbas lets slip: all of Israel is 'the occupation", arutzsheva, November 2, 2015).

Palwatch found three references deleted from the English text.

(1)    Abbas didn’t refer to land taken by Israel 48 years earlier (1967), as the West does. He spoke of Israel's "67-year occupation", which meant that Israel’s so-called ‘occupation’, began in 1948, the moment Israel was founded (Yashar, ibid). Abbas was objecting to Israel’s entire 67-year existence.
(2)    In case his audience didn’t get what he meant, he repeated that 67-year reference. He said, “Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen, haven't you wondered: For how long will this protracted Israeli occupation of our land last? After 67 years [i.e., since Israel's creation]--how long?” (ibid).
(3)    He continued his attack against Israel’s existence with an (untrue) accusation. In a long sentence about Israel’s brutality, he said, "[The] holy sites which have been desecrated every other second again and again for seven decades…”. Seven decades meant ‘since Israel’s founding’.

This ‘occupation since 1948’ theme carries forward to all levels of the PA. Fatah, Official Facebook pages, TV, print and speeches, always tell its public that all of modern Jewish Israel is ‘occupied’ territory, just as Abbas suggested in his UN speech before it was sanitized. Indeed, Palwatch has reported that the PA often sanitizes speeches and statements—to make them more palatable to Western ears (Yashar, ibid).

Palwatch tracks Palestinian media sites, speeches and news outlets. It regularly finds statements that include such phrases as:

-"Good morning, the beach of occupied Ashkelon" Facebook page of the PA National Security Forces, Oct. 27, 2015

-"Good evening, occupied city of Haifa" Facebook page of the PA National Security Forces, Oct. 25, 2015

-"Good morning, occupied Acre" Facebook page of the PA National Security Forces, Oct. 24, 2015 (Yashar, ibid).

As recently as last week, an Official PA outlet referred yet again to far-Western Israeli cities as ‘occupied’. This latest misrepresentation came in the form of a crossword puzzle:

-“PA crossword puzzle: Israeli city Haifa is port in occupied Palestine”, (Itamar Marcus, Palestinian Media Watch [called, palwatch], August 21, 2016, as found in the Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida Aug. 20, 2016).

As Marcus explained, PA media and political infrastructure always avoid granting legitimacy to Israel within any borders. It replaces ‘Israel’ with the term, ‘occupied Palestine’ (ibid). The PA, in Arabic, defines all Israeli cities as “occupied” (ibid).

The same PA daily (above) reminded us of another invention for Israeli cities. The paper described Arab students at the Jewish University of Haifa as ‘Palestinian students from the Interior [emphasis mine] that was occupied in 1948’ (ibid).

You can find such characterizations virtually every month, if not every week, in PA media, speeches, Facebook and TV programming.

If you’ve never been to Israel, the cities of Ashkelon, Haifa and Acre are nowhere near 1967 lines, east of which lies the land the world wants Israel to give to Abbas because it’s supposedly been ‘occupied’ since 1967. Ashkelon, Haifa and Acre are cities on the Mediterranean coast, as far West as one can get from the 1967 lines. Calling these Western-most cities ‘occupied’ reinforces the anti-Israel chant, ‘From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free’. The River is the Jordan, Israel’s eastern-most border. The Sea is the Mediterranean, Israel’s Western-most border. The meaning of this chant is clear: all the land between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan (the entire Jewish Israel) is ‘occupied’. That’s the land that must be liberated.

This is what BDS and Students for Justice for Palestine (SJP) mean when they talk of ‘occupied Palestine’. This is why the map of ‘Palestine’ published by the PA is the map of Israel relabelled as ‘Palestine’.

This new Arab ‘Palestine’ will remove Israel from the map of the world. As Israel is erased, ‘Palestine’ is liberated: ‘Palestine’ becomes ‘unoccupied’.

True to form, Abbas, BDS, SJP, and all PA media outlets are ‘on the same page’. They all promote the ‘Palestinian Cause’: all of Israel is ‘occupied’. All of this ‘occupied’ land must be liberated. For ‘Palestinian’ justice, Israel must disappear.

Keep this in mind the next time you read, Israel is ‘occupied Palestine’. What that phrase means is that Israel must cease to exist.

Is that what you want?


Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Innocent 'Palestinian' youth--and lies

Today, you'll get a chance to look at some pictures you'll rarely see in world news reports that cover the Arab-Israel conflict. These pictures tell the real story about 'innocent Palestinian' youth in Israel.  

Too often, when an Arab youth is killed by Israel Defense Force (IDF) soldiers during an attack by that youth against those soldiers, media cries, 'IDF kills youth'. The inference is, the IDF is cruel and brutal. The IDF kills boys.


Here's a headline from October, 2015 from England that illustrates this point: "Israel security forces kill boy, 16, after stabbing in Jerusalem as violence continues", independent, October 10, 2015).



The first paragraph of this news item read, "A 16-year-old boy has become the seventh Palestinian shot dead by Israeli security forces in just 24 hours as a wave of violence continues" (ibid). 

What actually happened was, a 16-year old 'Palestinian' had attacked two elderly religious Jews who were walking home from prayers on Shabbat morning. After stabbing the Jews, he attacked police officers with his knife. In that attempt, he was shot dead by the police (William Jacobson, "Israeli security forces kill boy, 16", legalinsurrection, October 10, 2015).

That 'boy' wasn't just shot by IDF soldiers who were guilty of  an 'extrajucidial' killing. He was shot in the act of attempting to kill.


Those who support the 'Palestinian Cause' neglect to tell you that 'Palestinian youth' were attempting to kill when they died. That truth is typically ignored because it doesn't promote the narrative of 'brutal Israelis killing innocent youth'. 

Take a look at something more truthful about 'innocent Palestinian youth'. These pictures come from the website, pallywood:





































































                    The caption on this picture is "A child practicing non-violent resistance"



This last picture came from a somewhat unique blog called, alah: Arab lesbians against hate.Needless to say, this blog doesn't appear on my top-1,000 favorite blogs list. But the writer, someone called only, 'Fatima', had something important to say about this last picture. Take a look. I've edited her essay to fit my format:

She writes, "I've been asked to talk about the differences in the casualty rates between Palestinians and Israelis in the Palestine/Israel conflict. I've been asked, doesn't this [difference in casualty figures] prove that the Israelis are the aggressors?]"

Here's some background to understand what Fatima will write: during the 2014 Gaza-Israel war, Hamas manipulated the press into reporting inflated casualty numbers to buttress its claim that Israel was using 'disproportionate' force. Hamas' goal was to 'prove' that Israel wasn't attacking Gaza to defend itself, but to kill Gazans indiscriminately (Britain Eakin, "Israel's war of disproportionate force on Gaza", aljazeera, July 20, 2014). 

The world jumped on that bandwagon. Even the UN accused Israel of killing so many civilians that it committed 'massive war crimes' (Abdus Sattar Ghazall, "Israel committed massive war crimes in Gaza in 2014: UN report", themilligazette, July 3, 2015). This 'disproportionate-indiscriminate' accusation (with its inference that Israel is a 'massive' killer of innocent people) has carried through to this year's Democratic Primaries race (Daniel Greenfield, "Bernie Sanders: Israel killed 10,000 'innocent people' in Gaza", frontpagemag, April 5, 2016) [In fact, less than 2,250 were killed in Gaza; of those, somewhere between 800-1,394 civilians were killed, depending upon whose numbers you believe; that's not 'massive killing'. Bernie Sanders' figure of 10,000 dead completely distorted facts to demonize Israel).

The point of these accusations is to 'prove' that Israel is brutal. After all, less that 76 Israelis (soldiers and civilians) were killed in the 2014 Gaza war. More than 2,000 Arabs were killed. 

For the world, that difference was 'disproportionate'. That difference supposedly proved Israel's brutality. It supposedly proves Gaza was the victim of 'indiscriminate' killing by Israel.

The writer, Fatima, addresses these false conclusions:

She says, Well, "look at World War II casualty figures. Japan lost over 2,000,000 soldiers. America lost 400,000 [these two numbers look accurate]. Does this difference indicate that Japan was the victim? Does this indicate that the US used disproportionate force?

Look at the German figures. Germany lost over 5 million soldiers [appears accurate]. Are the Nazis the victims of WWII?

Look at the civilian figures. Germany lost 3 million civilians [possibly correct]. Japan lost half-a-million civilians during that war [probably correct, or low]. The US lost a bit over 1,000 [perhaps as many as 1,800]. Surely, that proves the US was the aggressor, doesn't it?"

[Her conclusion is,]There's more to the question of who is good or bad in war than the raw numbers of those killed.

Other factors that affect casualty figures:

1. [referring to the picture just above]--I can't remember the last time I saw an 11 year old Israeli child throwing a molotov cocktail, can you? Palestinian boys, on the other hand, engage in many dangerous militant activities that result in injuries and death. They are used as soldiers and human shields [remember, this is an Arab writing. It takes courage for her to write these words. She could be arrested for writing this way about the Palestinian Authority and, as a writer on a lesbian site, could be accused of being a lesbian--and meet a terrible death].

2. Israel protects its civilians better than the Palestinians do. They build bomb shelters for civilians. Palestinians don't. 

3. Martyrdom is not promoted in Israel.

4. Palestinian children are frequently around live munitions, make-shift bomb factories and rocket firing sites. Israeli children aren't.

5. Israel has invested in state-of-the-art medical facilities. Though many Israelis are injured, many get better. Palestinians don't build hospitals.

6. Statistics lie. When news media report 'Israelis killed', they often do not include non-Jewish foreigners who are killed while visiting Israel, thereby keeping down Israel's casualty numbers [I can't vouch for this assertion]. By the same token, a Palestinian killed by a misfired Hamas weapon is counted as a Palestinian casualty killed by Israel [This has been verified].

Finally, the death of any child is a tragedy. But we need to remember to hold Palestinians complicit in the deaths of boys used as soldiers and as shields.

---

My comment: this is a brave public statement for an Arab to make.This Arab writer in particular risks her life to speak the truth because, writing on a lesbian site, she may herself be gay. Gays and Lesbians in the Palestinian Authority (PA) risk their lives to be gay in the PA ("Palestinians uninterested in support from gays", israeltoday, July 1, 2015). While being gay in the PA is not a crime, gays and lesbians must nevertheless live in secret if they wish to survive (ibid); the Arab culture is that hostile to gays.


With regard to the Arab-Israel conflict, proponents of the 'Palestinian Cause' will tell any lie they can in order to forward their false narrative about a brutal, Nazi-like Israel. They will distort any fact they find to demonize Israel. For me, that includes Bernie Sanders of the US (Greenfield, above).

We must fight those lies. When Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas accuses Israel of "extrajudicial killings of our ('Palestinian') youth and children" ("Abbas: Israel changing Temple Mount status quo, executing Palestinians", timesofisraelNovember 24, 2015), we must fight back (those 'youth and children' weren't innocent; they died while perpetrating terror attacks against Jews). We must never stop fighting.

While we fight those lies, we must always remember to ask a simple question: if the 'Palestinian Cause' is so just, why do Palestinians' need to lie so much? 

The answer is equally simple: they lie because they have to. Truth is not on their side.


Just ask 'Fatima'.

Sunday, August 28, 2016

Gideon Levy, Freedom House and the truth about Israel



At perhaps the exact moment that Tuvia Brodie published the essay, “People have good reason to lie about Israel” (Arutz Sheva, August 26, 2016), Professor Asher Moaz had an essay appear at Israel Hayom (“You’ll manage without us”, August 26, 2016). These two essays are connected. One highlights attacks against Israel by Gideon Levy, arguably Israel’s most venomous Leftist. The other suggests how to refute those attacks.

Gideon Levy writes for the Leftist Israeli newspaper, Haaretz. He’s been on Haaretz’ editorial board (Ricki Hollander, “Haaretz's Gideon Levy Spreads His Anti-Israel Poison Abroad”, camera.org, April 14, 2015). He’s written editorials, opinion pieces and weekly columns (ibid).

He’s been arrested for spitting at and cursing IDF soldiers (ibid). He’s been caught inventing facts to support his demonization of Israel (Ryan Bellerose, “The Gideon Levy Travelling Hate Show” isreallycool, March 28, 2015). He’s been caught lying about Israel (Varda Epstein, “There’s A Warm Cozy Place Awaiting Gideon Levy”, israellycool, January 25, 2016).

Some say he hates Israel (Daniel Greenfield, “Gideon Levy loses Oxford debate on destroying Israel, blames Jewish President”, frontpagemag, June 6, 2016). Some call him a dishonest propagandist (Hollander, Ibid). Others call him the ‘voice’ of the Leftist Haaretz (Moaz, ibid).

Levy is a man who finds no good Zionist and no bad ‘Palestinian’ (“Confronting anti-semitism and Israel hate: Catch a Jew…”, edgar1981.blogspot). He calls Israel Apartheid (“Gideon Levy: Americans Are Supporting the First Signs of Fascism in Israel", therealnewsnetwork, March 22, 2016). He denounces ‘the tyranny of the settlers, their brutality’ (ibid). His writing suggests he feels only loathing for Israel. 

Now, Levy speaks again, this time in a response to Leftist criticism of Haaretz. That response links the two August 26, 2016 essays mentioned above.

Here’s the story: it’s not news when non-Leftist Jews get angry at Haaretz. They’re not expected to tolerate the Israel-hate that spews from Haaretz. But it is news when Leftists rebel against Haaretz—especially those who actually write for Haaretz.  That’s what’s happened.

Writers Irit Linur and Uzi Baram have been regular essayists for Haaretz. American Jeffrey Goldberg has been a vocal critic of Israel whose views appear, at times, not dissimilar from that of Haaretz. Yet all three have criticized Haaretz—and two have cancelled their subscriptions.

Linur wrote, "After reading Haaretz daily for decades, I've reached the conclusion that you and I don't live in the same place. A growing number of the articles in your newspaper reek of foreign journalism that treats Israel like [something]…far off and repulsive. I feel that the State of Israel fundamentally revolts you…I don't want to subscribe to a newspaper that tries in every way to make me ashamed of my Zionism” (Moaz, ibid).

Haaretz essayist Uzi Baram came out strongly against Levy being ‘the voice’ of Haaretz (ibid)—and echoed Linur’s criticism. He wrote, Haaretz “isn't losing readers from the Right, but rather [from]…the Left. Gideon Levy and others believe that Israel is a country whose founding was a crime and continues that crime... Haaretz readers don't want a newspaper that is ashamed of its Zionism” (ibid).

It was the American Jeffery Goldberg who stirred Levy’s ire. When Goldberg cancelled his subscription, he pointed at an op-ed by Levy, "Stop Living in Denial, Israel Is an Evil State”, (Haaretz, July 31, 2016)(Moaz, ibid). Levy had called Israel “Evil. Pure evil. Sadistic evil. Evil for its own sake” (Haaretz, ibid). For Goldberg, that wasn’t criticism. That was hatred.

In response to that ‘evil’ op-ed, Goldberg cancelled his subscription (Moaz, ibid). When he was criticized (apparently, by Haaretz) for cancelling, Goldberg replied, "I see. Criticism of Israel is allowed. Criticism of Haaretz is not." Goldberg added that nothing gives Haaretz the right to promote hatred. Referring to Levy, Goldberg accused Haaretz of publishing a writer who opposes Israel's very existence (Moaz, ibid).

Levy responded to Goldberg with a column. He accused ‘the Goldbergs’ of the world of spreading “the lie of Israeli democracy and its liberal nonsense” (Moaz, ibid). Then, to erase any doubt about Israel, Levy explained that Israel is "one of the most brutal, tyrannical regimes that exist today" (ibid).

On that same day (August 26, 2016), Brodie published language that, ultimately, echoed Levy’s words: “…if Israel were truly as bloodthirsty as [those who complain about Israel] say, Israel would never get listed as a ‘Free’ country by an organization called, Freedom House, which evaluates the state of freedom each year in 195 countries and 15 territories (Freedom in the World 2016, Freedom House, page 2, 2016).

Israel isn’t just a free country (ibid). It’s the freest country in the Middle East (ibid). In fact, it grades out as the only free country in the Middle East (Kuwait and Lebanon are graded as ‘Partly Free’; every other Arab nation is ‘Not Free’).

Think about that.

No country anywhere in the world that kills innocents in the street, commits genocide, is Apartheid, etc, is going to be graded as ‘Free’. Israel is ‘Free’. No Arab nation is. But of course, that doesn’t stop people from complaining only about Israel.

Well, they don’t complain. They accuse. They condemn Israel as a murderous regime [as Levy does].” 

The Brodie essay helps to refute Levy’s accusation against Israel’s supposed brutality: “It’s a lie... The world [including Levy] lies about Israel. Israel is not, as some suggest, one of the world’s most brutal, oppressive countries [or, as Levy said, ‘one of the most brutal, tyrannical regimes’]. But Arab Syria is. It’s the most brutal country in the world (Freedom House, ibid). Arab Saudi Arabia [isn’t far behind. It’s] the 10th most brutal, unfree nation is the world (ibid)”.

The Freedom House Report undercuts Levy. It’s based upon an objective methodology (ibid, p. 2). That methodology is based upon the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (ibid). By calling Israel, Free, that Report essentially calls Israel a liberal democracy (see, Methodology, Introduction, paragraph two). That Report validates that Levy lies about Israel’s so-called ‘brutality’ and about Israel’s ‘democracy’.


Israel is free. It’s a democracy. It’s surrounded by a sea of Arab tyranny. Levy vilifies the free country and ignores the tyranny? How curious.

Friday, August 26, 2016

People have good reason to lie about Israel



In 2015, Israeli columnist Dror Eydar quoted a friend who had written about Israelis. The friend had said that Israelis complain about Israel the way they complain about flying (“Israel is nothing short of a miracle”, israelhayom, May 1, 2015).

When Israelis fly, the friend wrote, they soar through the clouds, impossibly. They partake in the miracle of human flight while sitting in a chair in the sky like a Greek god.

Nevertheless, Israelis ignore that miracle. After flying, all they can talk about is how their seat didn’t recline far enough (ibid).

That, the friend concluded, is exactly our attitude towards Israel. We live in a place of miracles. "Israel is nothing short of a miracle, like a plane that slices through the sky" (ibid). But all we do is complain.

Israelis aren’t the only people who complain about Israel. At least half the world—if not more—complains about Israel.

Haven’t you noticed? Israel hates peace. Israel steals land. Israel kills babies. Israel harvests Arab organs. Israel kills innocent ‘Palestinians’ on Israel’s streets. Israel commits genocide. Israel is Apartheid.

The list goes on. But if Israel were truly as bloodthirsty as these complainers say, Israel would never get listed as a ‘Free’ country by an organization called, Freedom House, which evaluates the state of freedom each year in 195 countries and 15 territories (Freedom in the World 2016, Freedom House, page 2, 2016).

Israel isn’t just a free country (ibid). It’s the freest country in the Middle East (ibid). In fact, it grades out as the only free country in the Middle East (Kuwait and Lebanon are graded as ‘Partly Free’; every other Arab nation is ‘Not Free’).

Think about that.

No country anywhere in the world that kills innocents in the street, commits genocide, is Apartheid, etc, is going to be graded as ‘Free’. Israel is ‘Free’. No Arab nation is. But of course, that doesn’t stop people from complaining only about Israel.

Well, they don’t complain. They accuse. They condemn Israel as a murderous regime.  

It’s a lie. Israel doesn’t murder people. It helps people.

Israel is a petri-dish for miracles: high-tech miracles, water miracles, agriculture miracles, medical miracles—innovations that improve our lives. Non-free Arab countries don’t create miracles.

Here’s how brutal Israel is towards ‘Palestinians’: whenever Palestinians’ needs medical help, they go to Israeli hospitals. Even ‘Palestinian’ leaders bring family members to Israel for medical care (Micah Halpern, “Even Palestinian Leaders Want Jewish Doctors,”, observer, May 6, 2016). If, as accused, Israel harvested ‘Palestinian’ organs, do you really believe top ‘Palestinian’ leaders would send their wives, daughters, brothers, etc to Israeli hospitals?

I don’t think so.

The world lies about Israel. Israel is not, as some suggest, one of the world’s most brutal, oppressive countries. But Arab Syria is. It’s the most brutal country in the world (Freedom House, ibid). Arab Saudi Arabia is the 10th most brutal, unfree nation is the world (ibid).

Arabs know Israel is a free country (Deborah Danan, “Palestinian Columnist: Arab Countries Must Learn From Israel, Adopt Free Election System”, breitbart, February 9, 2016). Arabs also know that the Arab Middle East is definitely not free (ibid).

Israel has become one of the world’s greatest entrepreneurial hothouses on the face of the planet. It has created dozens of high-tech miracles while facing sometimes daily terror attack from people who would die to destroy it (Mark Lerner, “5 reasons why Israeli startups are so successful”, techinasia, November 15, 2015).

Israel has the number one start-up ecosystem in the world (“Fact: Israel Has Top Per-Capita Ratio of Startups in the World!”, unitedwithisrael, September 10, 2015). That ecosystem works every day to create technical innovations and to fight killer diseases. No one else in the world has been able to accomplish so much with so small a population. No one.

Yet, the world continues to lie about Israel. It believes as Truth the lies that come from the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, the Palestinian Authority and the Students for Justice in Palestine.

The lies are vicious. The lies are unrelenting.

They’re also important. Israel has to be demonized because it’s the only nation that stands tall against terror. The US doesn’t. The EU doesn’t. The UN doesn’t. Only Israel does.

How can terror conquer the world when Israel bloodies its nose—and teaches others how to do it, too?

This is why the purveyors of terror demonize Israel. It’s why they crank out so many lies. They have to convince you to attack Israel for them.

How else will they defeat Israel? How else can they defang the only country that knows how to fight terror successfully (“'The Only Country ISIS Fears Is Israel'”, haaretz, December 28, 2015).

Will those who lie about Israel succeed against Israel? You better pray they don’t.


Wednesday, August 24, 2016

Israel soars to the heights

Israel is a place of magic. It's a  setting for miracle. It's a place where the impossible becomes the possible.

It's a place where dream becomes reality. It's not just a country. It's a mindset: to challenge the unchallengeable, to change the unchangeable.

It's where you go to discover how imagination can combine with innovation to create the unimaginable.

Israel is a place where fear is ignored. It's a place that takes you where you've never been before.

Israel takes you to new heights. But then, before you can ascend to those heights, you have to ask a question: can you handle those heights.

To find out if you can handle such heights, look at this:




















view through glass floor of CN Tower, Toronto, Canada....from: (Acrophobia, wikimedia.org) 


Supposedly, if this picture doesn't make you feel faint, you are probably not afraid of heights.

Now, ready to go to the real heights?

Take a look at this Israeli creation. It's not only 'the heights', it's transparent:









                                        from: haimdotan.com


It's a bridge. It's the world's highest and longest glass bridge. Chinese officials like to call this structure the 'Next Wonder of the World' (Yonatan Srendi, "The world's longest and highest glass bridge, designed by Israeli, set to open in China", nocamels, July 26, 2016). 

The bridge stretches more than 1,400 feet (426m) across two cliffs at the Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon in central China (ibid). It's 20 feet (6m) wide. It can hold 800 people at once (ibid). It's stunning.

To give you a sense of what Israeli architect Haim Dotan has accomplished here, consider the size of this bridge's nearest competitors:  the Grand Canyon Skywalk in the United States is 69 feet in length. Canada’s Glacier Skywalk in Alberta, which opened last year, extends 115 feet (35m) (ibid).

This bridge is 1,400 feet! It's already set 10 world records (ibid). 



                                    from: haimdotan.com



More by Haim Dotan:



                                  view of Financial City, U.A.E by Haim Dotan







                                           

                                                     Hadera Performing Arts Center








                                                         IMAX 3D movie theatre, Israel



I can't tell if the UAE and Hadera renderings have actually been built, or if these pics are just proposals (the glass bridge is already open). In a way, though, it doesn't matter if the Hadera and the UAE projects haven't been done. The designs are so audacious, the very idea someone would risk proposing them is breath-taking.

Haim Dotan is not the only Israeli architect with a remarkable vision. There's Ron Arad, Moshe Safdie and Avraham Yaski, to name just a few. 

Look them up online. Some of their work is also stunning.

This is Israel--where the unimaginable becomes reality--and miracles aren't just dreams.

Monday, August 22, 2016

Israel's clueless Left--and Lebanon


Israel's Jewish Left is clueless. It thinks 'Jewish' means 'failure'.  

It hates Israel's Jewishness. Its greatest wish is for Israel to be non-Jewish.   

For Israel's Left, the Jewish religion is a form of fascism (Kobi Niv, "Want to Make Sure Israel Doesn't Become a Jewish-fascist State? Take a Tip From Turkey", haaretz, June 23, 2015). To these anti-Jewish Jews, 'Jewish' and 'Judaism' are the same as 'oppression' and 'injustice' (Richard Silverstein, "Israel and the rise of Judeo-fascism", tikunolam, November 25, 2014).

The Left is definitely clueless. Jews didn't survive as a people through almost 2,000 of exile because they made a commitment to reject 'Jewish' and 'Judaism'. Jews survived as a Jewish people because they remained committed to their Jewish religion.

Yes, the Left is clueless. I can recall a video (which I can no longer locate) in which a prominent member of Israel's Left makes the assertion that we will know that Israel has become a true democracy when Israel elects an Arab Prime Minister who protects Jews' rights.

Why would the world's only Jewish state elect an Arab (Christian or Muslim--though probably a Muslim because of the overwhelming percentage of Arabs in Israel who are Muslim) to protect Jews? What would happen if such a Prime Minister chose not to protect Jewish rights? What then? Should Israel gamble it's future on the hope that a non-Jew would protect us?

Why must Israel, after nearly 2,000 years of having to rely on non-Jews for protection, return to that? Much of our past national suffering has happened because those we trusted to protect us betrayed us.

When Leftists in Israel speak this way, they reveal that they don't understand the neighborhood they live in. They don't understand Jewish history. They don't understand Middle East history.

They certainly don't understand the Muslim mindset. If they did, they wouldn't be so eager to propose Israel be led by a probably-Muslim leader. They wouldn't be so eager to surrender land to Muslims who surround Israel. 

If you want to understand why Israel is reluctant to trust its Muslim neighbors, think about the Middle East Muslim mindset. Forget what anti-Jewish Jews say about Muslims. Listen instead to a non-Jew. 

Here's a video. It's just over 8 minutes long. In it, a Lebanese-born American citizen explains what happens when Muslims take over a non-Islamic Middle East country. 

The speaker in this video isn't talking about Israel. She's talking about Lebanon.

Her name is Brigitte Gabriel. She's a journalist. You should listen to her story.

The title of this video appears to direct the viewer's attention to Muslim migrants entering Europe. But I think her comments pertain to Israel as well--and to a lesser extent, to the US. Certainly, she presents a view of Islam we don't usually see.

The title of the video seems a bit shrill. The title is,

"Shocking testimony of Brigitte Gabriel on the Islamization of Lebanon - Wake Up Europe!!!"












Is Ms Gabriel telling the truth? Is she correct to believe that what happened to her Lebanon would happen to any Westernized nation should Muslims feel confident enough to take over?

Think about Muslim behaviour in the Middle East. Think about Muslim behaviour in the European Union. Think about how Muslims behave towards Israel.

If you feel Ms. Gabriel is correct, think again about Israel. Israel is on the front line in a war against a jihadi Muslim mindset which abhors all things Jewish--and all things 'Western'. 

In that war, Israel must make many uncomfortable decisions to protect itself. Some of these decisions are not pretty. With every such uncomfortable decision, Israel's enemies distort fact to manipulate your humanitarian outrage against Israel--to demonize, criminalize and isolate Israel. They use your so-called Western humanitarianism as just another tool in their drive to destroy Israel. 

Muslims behave as Ms Gabriel explained: they use a nation's (or, a Western world's) own rules and beliefs to make sure they gain the upper hand in their battle against the 'infidel'. 

Certainly, Muslim leaders next door to Israel who want to destroy Israel have already declared they will not protect Jews' right should they take over Israel (Oren Dorell, "PLO ambassador says Palestinian state should be free of Jews", usatoday, September 18, 2011). Most Israelis have no illusion about what would happen to them should the Palestinian Authority grow strong enough to conquer Israel.

Many in Israel understand what jihad wants to accomplish. We have seen enough of Hamas, Fatah and Mahmoud Abbas to understand what Ms Gabriel means. We have seen too many youtube videos about what Arabs learn in UNRWA schools to believe they want peace. We have seen too many Arab headlines from the website, Palestinian Media Watch, to see a Muslim take-over as anything but toxic

Israel's Left ignores the poison of Islamic jihad. It ignores the Jew-hate that surrounds Israel. Some Israeli Leftists believe that all Israel has to do to survive and thrive is to surrender land to those who want to destroy us--and then elect a non-Jew to protect us. 

I think that's wrong. I think it's suicidal. 

Personally, I think Israel's Left is most definitely clueless.

What do you think?

Friday, August 19, 2016

Another 'Jewish' conspiracy. This one is true



When summertime strikes, I find it difficult to concentrate. Somehow, for reasons I cannot fathom,  August bedazzles me. 

For example, these days the light from the August sun seems so much more pleasant to me than the light from my computer screen. The laughter of out-of-school children playing outside my desk window seems so much more entertaining than the sounds of regional Middle East politicians bashing Israel. 

What can I say? There's no off-season for Jew-bashing. There's no hiatus for the genocidal, hate-Israel 'Israelis-want-genocide' crowd. The only thing that cries out for a break is my patience.

Now, as I struggle against my failing patience, I discover a new conspiracy theory. This one, like all others, aims to have you turn against both Israeli Jews and all Jews. 

There seems to be no end to these 'Jewish conspiracy' stories. Happily, most of these 'conspiracy' tales are false. But this particular conspiracy story is different. This one is true.

It's horrible. I'm stunned. But I feel obliged to share it with you.

Here is a video from Andrew Klavan. He is the one who is responsible for uncovering this horrid Jewish story. 

The video appears to have been posted on December 18, 2014. In internet years, that's old. But then, given the world we live in, the conspiracy Klavan has uncovered is even more true today than it was in 2014. 

The video is 3:40 long. Please prepare yourself for a shock:










Wednesday, August 17, 2016

American Academic Boycott Bigots




The American academy doesn’t hesitate to boycott Israel (Theodore Kupfer, “Where Are the Academic Boycotts of Turkey?”, nationalreview, July 20, 2016). It actively promotes the boycott of Israel.

For example, academic associations for African Literature, American Studies, Asian American Studies, Humanist Sociologists, Critical Ethnic Studies, Chicana and Chicano Studies, American and Indigenous Studies and Peace and Justice Studies have already voted to boycott Israel (US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, usacbi. org, no date). The supposed aim of these boycott votes is to stand up for academic freedom.

These boycotters are idealists. They are moral purists. They take a stand against oppression.

But do they? Last month, Turkey’s leader, Recep Tayyip Edrogan, acted aggressively and brutally to suppress rights and academic freedoms (Elizabeth Redden, “Unprecedented Purge in Turkey”, insidehighereducation, July 20, 2016). Did these moral purists stand up to boycott that injustice?

These organizations, so quick to criticize Israel for alleged repression of academic freedoms (and rights), have largely been silent about Erdogan’s actual repression (CAMERA Snapshots: Turkey Cracks Down on Academics, Anti-Israel Scholars Silent”, camera. org, July 25, 2016). Please note that the repression of academic freedom (and individual rights) in Turkey isn’t new. Turkey’s Edrogan has a history of curtailing rights and attacking academic autonomy (“A very Turkish Coup, nature477,131,  September 8, 2011). Yet, there have been no American academic votes to boycott Turkey. Why not?

American academics haven’t voted to boycott Turkey because the American academic boycott campaign is a campaign of bigotry, not justice. This campaign doesn’t aim to protection academic freedom or individual rights. Its aim is to destroy Israel.

That’s why it attacks only Israel, the freest country in the Middle East—and ignores everyone else. That’s why it refuses to act when Turkey behaves with totalitarian repression against academic freedoms (William Jacobson, “Still searching for boycott of Turkish academia, finding only hypocrisy”, legalinsurrection, August 16, 2016). 

Last month, Turkey’s Erdogan dodged an attempted coup against his rule. To regain power, he launched a massive purge of Turkish institutions. He fired or detained 1,577 university deans and professors. He did the same with tens of thousands of teachers (Kupfer, ibid). He even issued a blanket travel ban on all academics (Kupfer, ibid).

Israel has never done any of these things. Yet American academicians vilify only Israel. They want you to boycott Israel because, as one US boycott leader (the president of the American Studies Association, ASA) has said, boycotting Israel “is the best way to protect and expand academic freedom and access to education” (ibid).

As Kupfer suggests in his essay (above), when it comes to Israel’s imagined evils, anti-Israel academicians feel an overwhelming ‘ethical responsibility to act’. But when Edrogan completely shuts down academic freedom in Turkey, the best these bigots can do is express “concern” for Turkish individuals who might be harmed by their government’s harsh suppression.

Their passion to protect academic freedom drips with anti-Jewish resentment. It smells of bigotry.

Even before this current Turkish suppression, academic conditions in Israel had been far superior to those in Turkey (Kupfer). These American bigots don’t care. They attack only Israel.

The horrors of Turkey are worse than Israel’s supposed horrors. For example, Kupfer says, recall the plight of Israeli academician Neve Gordon, a Leftist professor at Ben-Gurion University. This man “nearly lost his job” [emphasis mine] after writing an op-ed arguing that Israel has become an apartheid state. Compare his ‘nearly’ losing a job to the thousands of Turkish scholars and teachers who did lose their jobs (ibid).

There’s no comparison. ‘Nearly lost his job’ is a subjective overlay used by boycott bigots to justify their taring Israel. ‘Did lose their jobs’ is a done deal: Turkish academicians were fired just because of ‘suspicions’ about them.

American academic boycott bigots claim that Israel is really, truly, hostile to dissenting academics. For this reason, they claim, boycotts are needed to help protect academic freedom in Israel (Kupfer).

Today, Turkey is not merely ‘hostile’ to ‘dissent’. It openly fires and detains academics suspected of dissent.

Turkey crushes dissent. It’s not ‘hostile’ to academic freedom. It’s snuffing out every flicker of academic freedom (ibid).

 Nevertheless, academic bigots are silent. They will boycott only Israel. 

Their bigotry is that rigorous. They work overtime to convert even the smallest Israeli criticism of Israel’s anti-Israel Left into a ‘nuclear’ threat against ‘freedom’. They are passionate about convincing you to boycott the Jewish state for such perceived ‘evils’.

Unfortunately for Turkey’s academicians, America’s  boycott bigots are so busy demonizing Israel they have little time for real suppression. That’s why, when a non-Jewish Middle East country burns its ‘academic freedom’ in the (metaphorical) public square, American boycott bigots don’t feel any ‘ethical responsibility to act’. 

They’re hypocrites. They have no interest in academic freedom. Their reaction to Turkey proves that.

Their passion is to hate Israel. That’s what they’re interested in.

They teach in universities. They have advanced degrees. They talk of morality.

They’re bigots.


Monday, August 15, 2016

Israel's wall and the 'Palestinian Cause'


In 2002, the state of Israel made a decision to build a barrier around Israel. This barrier was to stretch 450+ miles. One consequence of building this wall was that it separated Jews from 'Palestinians'.

Why did Israel decide to do that?

Those who would destroy Israel claim Israel built this barrier in order to seal off 'Palestinian' land from its rightful owners (Homepage, stopthewall). These accusers say this barrier is an act of aggression. It is, they say, a Zionist tactic to cut off 'Palestinians' from 'Palestine' (ibid, "About"). 

Others say the 'wall' is just another horror perpetrated by an Apartheid Israel. They said this Wall, as it's called, serves only one purpose: to separate, isolate and abuse the people of 'Palestine' ("Equal rights for Palestinians; Apartheid and Occupation", seamac, no date).

Today, some 14 years later, supporters of the 'Palestinian Cause' (to conquer Israel, destroy the 'Zionist entity' and replace the Jewish Israel with an Arab-Muslim 'Palestine') claim that the Wall is not now and never was about security; instead, it's about "controlling movements within the 'Occupied Territories' and making the creation of a viable 'Palestinian' state impossible" (ibid). 

Many say the Wall is a crime ("The Segregation and Annexation Wall: A Crime against Humanity", miftah.org, no date) . They say it's a manifestation of Israeli brutality (Alex Kane, "How Pope Francis exposed the brutality of Israel's Apartheid Wall, alternet, May 26, 2014). They say it's ugly.

Here's what they who would destroy want you to see of this wall:  



from: Roger LeMoyne





courtesy of: english.pnn.ps




courtesy of: middleeastmonitor





from: thisfabtrek




Even the Catholic Pope has lent his hand to illustrate the 'pain' Israel causes because of this 'Wall':







courtesy of councilforthenationalinterest. org



Israel is brutal, right?

Wrong: Israel didn't build this wall because it was a new way to steal 'Palestinian'  land. Israel didn't build this wall to oppress 'Palestinians'. Israel had an entirely different reason for building this wall--murder.

Those who would destroy Israel refuse to tell you how murder created the wall. They just want you to look at the wall and see only Israeli brutality.

Israel built this wall because 'innocent Palestinians' were murdering Jews. Between September 2000-early February 2005, 'Palestinians' murdered more than 920 Jews in more than 350 terror attacks. If you're counting, that's more than one terror attack a week for more than four years. 

This was the 'Second Intifada'. It was a time when Israel became a mini-killing field. More than 120 suicide bombers came into Israel from 'Palestinian' areas. They came to kill--and they did kill.

They blew up buses. They blew up restaurants. They blew up stores in shopping centers. They blew up cafes. 

In 2002, the year Israel began to build the wall, Israel experienced 47 suicide bombings--almost one per week. In 2002, 'Palestinians' attacked Jews more than 130 times (including the 47 bombings)--app 11 times a month.

To understand what the murder of 920 Jews in Israel means, think about the population of the US. If the same percent of Americans had been killed in America as Jews in Israel were killed (2002-2005), app 50,000 Americans would have been murdered. 

50,000.

What would the United States have done if, between 2000-2005, Mexican suicide bombers crossed into the US from Mexico and blew up or otherwise attacked and murdered app 50,000 Americans?

Would America have done nothing? I don't know how the US would have responded. But I can tell you how Israel responded: it built a damn barrier to keep out the killers. 

That barrier, partial as it was at that time, had an immediate impact. In 2002, the year the building of the barrier began, 457 Jews were murdered by 'innocent Palestinians'. By 2009, less than 10 were murdered. 

The barrier was a passive way to defend against murderers. It didn't end terrorist attacks. But it cut those attacks by more than 90 percent.

Today, the wall is only 62-66% complete. It is not finished. It contains gaps. 

Today, 'innocent Palestinians' have once again been attacking Jews--at times, almost weekly. Once again, Israel looks to a barrier for self-defense.  

2015-16 has seen a dramatic rise in the number of 'Palestinian' attacks against Jews (app 115 in 19 months--an average of more than 6 per month [Wm Robert Johnston, "Summary of Terrorist attacks in Israel", johnstonsarchive. net, January 8, 2016]). Many of the attackers came from specific 'Palestinian' areas. Therefore, Israel now considers extending its barrier to include those areas ("West Bank security fence: background and overview", jewishvirtuallibrary, February 2016).

The aim of the 'Palestinian Cause' is to demoralize, delegitimize and destroy Israel. Those who support that 'Cause' are outraged that Israel should extend this barrier. 

They cry, 'Apartheid'. They cry, 'oppression'.

Jews say, 'Thank G-d'. 'Maybe now we'll be safer'.

In the end, those who support the 'Palestinian Cause' want you to remember the wall like this:
from: linkedin

                                                                  and this:
    



from: english.ahram.org.eg







But then, those of us in Israel who believe Israel is the ancestral Jewish homeland, prefer to think of the wall--and the battle to tear it down--in different terms. We think of the wall this way: 



















mrz071216-color_1_orig
from: michaelpramirez. com







Only, for us, the word, 'POLICE'  is 'ISRAELI GOVERNMENT'--and the word, 'CRIME' is 'TERRORISM'.

The supporters of the 'Palestinian Cause' want us to 'tear down this wall'. They want that because they want terrorism to wash over Israel like a dam-burst tsunami.

They can't wait for the wall to come down.


Dear reader, this Wall is not Apartheid. It is not oppression. it is not brutality.

It's self-defense.