The meaning of the Middle East: G-d, land, belief

If you are Western, then your first exposure (in the 21^st Century) to the Arab-Israel debate probably began with morality. This is how modern Man characterizes the Arab-Israel war: it’s a moral conflict.

For Western man, the Middle East is a test. It’s where you go to struggle over the politics of right and wrong. It’s where you are challenged to explain what is just—and what is unjust.

In a Western world where morality means, ‘do anything you want,’ this isn’t an easy task. But that’s precisely the attraction of the Middle East: it makes you think.

Western man loves a challenge. He loves to think. He especially loves a challenge where he is taught what to think.  

 Western academicians teach our children what to think. They teach that the Arab-Israel conflict is about ideals. They say it’s about the moral cause of an oppressed people.

Our children have been taught to understand ideals. They have been taught to appreciate morality. They are taught that politics can make things right.   

We pay a lot of money for our children to learn these distinctions.

For Western academicians, ideals mean, you must find an innocent victim.  Politics means, you must support the one who claims he has been wronged. Morality means, you must boycott someone.

We pay a lot of money for our children to learn what to think.

The problem is, the Middle East conflict is not about Western ideals. It’s not about victims or boycotts. It’s not about morality.

The Arab-Israel conflict is not about any of these things because this conflict is not, by definition, Western. The conflict has nothing to do with Western ‘rights’. It has nothing to do with Western justice.

This conflict is about Middle Eastern ideals. Those ideals are clearly etched onto everything Western man sees in the Middle East—but ignores: G-d, land, belief.

Western academicians don’t believe in G-d. They don’t believe in land. They don’t believe in belief.

Our children, of course, believe what their profesors tell them.

In the Middle East, meanwhile, it doesn’t matter if you are Jewish or Muslim. The recipe is the same: G-d, land, belief.

The Muslim understands this. He understands what this conflict is all about. He understands the recipe.

Listen to his rhetoric. This conflict is about allah. It’s about the land upon which there must be a Caliphate for allah. It’s about removing the Jew from Jerusalem.

The recipe does not change. His rhetoric never varies.

The Muslim knows that if he is to win his war against Israel, he must focus on god, land and belief. His focus on his god must be stronger than the Jews’ focus on their G-d.  

The Jew faces the same challenge. But many Jews—Western by training and outlook—reject such un-Western thoughts. They argue that this conflict has nothing to do with G-d. This conflict, they argue, is about security.

They are wrong.

This conflict was created by G-d Himself. It exists to teach us about G-d, land and belief.

The Arab-Israel war is a battlefield that was defined more than 3,700 years ago—when the G-d of Israel told Abraham to make Aliyah (to leave his land, his home, his friends and go to a place He will show him).

The battlefield was refined more than 1350 years ago when Muslims came to conquer the land for allah their god. The battlefield was then refined yet again 450 years later, when Christians came to conquer the land for their own god.

So it was that the battlefield over G-d was defined and shaped. That’s not coincidence. It’s part of the Design. In the end, this battlefield—this war--will teach Man about G-d.

Islam and Christianity came to Israel for their gods. They came for the land. They came because G-d brought them here.

Today, Christians return to the land. Islam fights for it. Too many Jews couldn’t care less.

Today, too many Jews think this conflict is about the struggle for ‘peace’. They ignore the G-d of Israel. They dismiss the importance of land. They demonize those who believe.

In the face of a Muslim population that knows full well what this war is about, Jews deny—and, by denying, cause their own suffering. Jews suffer because the nations know truth when they hear it; and what they hear from the Muslim is that this battle is about G-d, land and belief.

For such a commitment, G-d makes the Muslim strong.

Meanwhile, the nations see the Jews scoff. For this reason, G-d allows the nations to demonize Israel.

Jews are weak. Jews are uncertain. Western thought misleads them.

When Jews recognize what this war is about, the G-d of Israel will save them. Why?   Because that is the ultimate goal of the G-dly Design.  

 

Israel news: BDS, the Israel Law Center, the new NGO law.

Here are some headlines you might have missed in the last few days. Let’s take a fresh look at them.

Today’s selection—and comments--comes from December 15-18, 2013.

 

The war against Israel

- Livni: Israel's Legitimacy is Under Global Attack (12/16/13, Arutz Sheva

- Sirens wail in southern Israel as rocket fired from Gaza (12/15/13, Times of Israel)

-U.S. academic group votes to boycott Israel (Haaretz, 12/16/13)

- Schooling the ASA on boycotting Israel (Times of Israel, 12/15/13)

--

The war against Israel didn’t rest during this news cycle. The delegitimization of Israel moved forward (“ Livni: Israel's Legitimacy is Under Global Attack”). Sirens continued to wail in southern Israel.

Even the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) industry got its licks in against Israel: the American Studies Association (ASA), a 5,000 members American academic organization, voted overwhelmingly (by a 66+ per cent margin) to boycott all Israeli academic institutions (“U.S. academic group votes to boycott Israel”). The ASA said it did this to fight for Peace in the Middle East.

Right.

As a consequence of their vote, one of Israel’s great modern heroes (heroines), Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, wrote an essay for the Times of Israel (“Schooling the ASA on boycotting Israel”). You should remember this woman’s name. She an Israeli who has founded an NGO called, Shurat HaDin—the Israel Law Center.

During her tenure, she has done something no one before had ever done: she successfully sued terror states for hundreds of millions of dollars (the total now is over a billion dollars). She uses the court system to hold to account terrorist organizations and the regimes that support them. She has also begun to fight against discrimination and boycotts through her own ‘lawfare’ strategies.

She is no amateur. She is no fool. She is not a naïve innocent tilting at windmills. 

You should remember her name: Nitsana Darshan-Leitner.

She knows her law—and she knows how to drag anti-Israel haters into court. She knows how to put a price on attacking Israel.

She now writes (ibid) that the ASA will become a priority because, she explains, its boycott vote violates international, federal and state law in the United States. That vote, she says, leaves the ASA and its membership open to both civil and criminal liability (ibid).

To get a sense of her ability to use the law to fight, recall another recent BDS lawsuit of hers—in summer 2013, in Australia. There, she filed a class action complaint over an Australian professor's participation in and public support of boycotts of Israel (Rina Tzvi, “Shurat HaDin files class action complaint over Australian professor's participation and public support of boycotts of Israel”, Arutz Sheva, July 31, 2013). Her complaint was filed under the Racial Discrimination Act of 1975, the Australian Human Rights Commission.  Her complaint alleges that, under the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 with the Australian Human Rights Commission, the boycott activities undertaken by the named Australian University professor had been specifically outlawed.

In her essay on the ASA, she pointed out that the New York State Legislature has made illegal such boycotts as the ASA has passed. She then wondered aloud how many of the voting professors worked in New York State.

She reminded these professors that the Ribicoff Amendment to the Tax Reform Act of 1976 makes it a federal violation to “participate in or cooperate with an international boycott.”

She pointed out that their boycott is potentially subject to lawsuit under anti-boycott legislation through Export Administration Regulations—and she advises the ASA to prepare for their future by reading the International Convention On The Elimination Of All Forms Of Racial Discrimination, which the United States ratified on October 21, 1994.

Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, of Shurat HaDin—Israel Law Center—is a lawyer who knows how to defend Israel with a big stick. She has already used that stick to inflict more than a billion dollars’ worth of damage against Israel’s enemies.

May she continue to file against Israel’s enemies. May she continue to succeed.

Here’s hoping she files her lawsuit. Here’s hoping also that she sues as well individual professors from the ASA.

It’ll be good for them. It’ll give them an education. It will teach them that bigotry and hate can be expensive—and humiliating.

 

The Leftist war against Israel

- Haifa University Rejects Nobel-Winning Professor Over [his pro-Israel] Politics (12/15/13, Arutz Sheva)

-Ministers Endorse NGO Taxation - Livni to Appeal (12/15/13, Arutz Sheva

-AG Opposes NGO Law (12/15/13, Arutz Shev)

- NGO bill approved by ministers despite controversy (12/15/13, Ynet)

--

While the BDS battle unfolded above, Israel watched another Israeli Leftist attack against Israel. The provocation for the Left this time was legislation to tax all NGOs which bring money to Israel in order to delegitimize and demonize the Jewish state. The Left called this legislation narrow-minded and anti-democratic. Israel’s Leftist Attorney General said the bill was unconstitutional.

That was a funny thing for Israel’s Attorney General to say. Know why that’s funny?

Israel doesn’t have a constitution.

Here are key elements of the bill. You tell me if the bill hurts Israel’s democratic status—or if it helps to make Israel strong enough to continue to remain democratic.

The bill proposes a 45% tax to be charged on nonprofit foundations and organizations that receive foreign donations and then take part in the following activities:

•Advocating the boycott, divestment, or sanctioning of Israel or its citizens.

•Calling for the trial of IDF soldiers in international courts.

•Denying Israel’s existence as a Jewish and democratic state.

•Inciting to racism.

•Supporting armed struggle against the State of Israel by an enemy state or terror organization.

Today, dozens of anti-Israel NGOs come to Israel. They spend more than 35 million NIS a year to demonize and attack Israel. But for those who voted for it, this bill represents a way for Israel to protect itself.

Does Israel have the right to do this?

You decide.

 

The Arab Middle East

- Syrian Army Drops Explosive Barrels on Aleppo (12/16/13, Arutz Sheva

- NGO: Death toll in Syrian bombing raid on Aleppo rises to 76 (12/16/13, Ynet)

- Attacks across Iraq kill at least 29 people (12/16/13, Ynet)

---

While Israeli Leftists cried out against Israel’s desire to protect itself from its enemies, no Leftist anywhere had a single word to say about the horrid killings that occur daily in Syria or Iraq. No Israeli Leftist spoke out. No member of the ASA (story above) has been quoted as speaking out about anything other than boycotting Israel.

Now, the Syrian government drops explosive barrels into its population (“Syrian Army Drops Explosive Barrels on Aleppo”). The barrels killed at least 36 people—including 15 children. No one seemed to care. The only thing that mattered was the damn Jews.

What must the G-d of Israel think of these people?

 

Arab news: Jordanian water, Arab war, Iran

If you’re like most non-Arabs, you probably don’t read the Arab Press. That could be a mistake.

Arabs are at war with Israel. They can’t stop talking about it. They won’t stop talking about it.

Even when Israel’s Arab neighbours do not talk about the Arab war against Israel, that war seems very close.

Here are some headlines for—and personal comments about—stories from Israel’s Arab neighbours. The headlines come from December 5-11, 2013.

 

From Palestinian (PA) news

 -African immigrants protest Israel detention

 -Israel confiscates private Palestinian land near Nablus

 -Israeli forces detain 17 in West Bank arrest raids

-Hamas agrees to join unity government ahead of elections

 -Why Palestine should seek justice at the International Criminal Court

-Defending Geneva: Understanding Israel's opposition to peace with Iran

-Tel Aviv 'Nakba' film festival keeps alive memories of 1948 in Israel

-Thousands face uncertainty over Jerusalem demolition threat

-Rights group urges tougher EU measures on settler violence

-Bible scholars: Zionists have 'weaponized' scripture

 

What’s interesting about this PA news cycle is that some of its stories aren’t so new. The last six stories above come from weeks before—carried forward for reader pleasure, no doubt.

But these last stories are not pleasure features. They’re political; and by saying, for example, that ‘Zionists weaponize’ the Bible, they cross the line into anti-Semitism.

Such a story might even be racist. Have you heard any Human Rights organizations complain?

  

Jordan

-Melting snow raising dam levels

-Man shoots wife in the foot

-Queen Rania chairs Arab Open University board meeting

-Rights group raises alarm over migrants in Qatar

-Workshop focuses on compliance with water regulations

---

 Jordan national interests do not include an obsession with Israel. In at least part of this week’s news cycle, Syria had more mentions than Israel.

However, you may wish to make note of the headline above  about water. The title of this news item seems innocuous (“Workshop focuses on compliance with water regulations”). But it isn’t.

It reveals a hidden truth about the Arab war of hate against Israel.

This Jordanian story is not about Israel. It’s about Jordanians. It’s about a Jordanian need for its citizens to become more careful about water. Look closely at the headline. Can you see the hidden truth?

In the Middle East, water is scarce. While Israel has, to a great extent, solved most of its water supply problems, Arabs have not.

Therefore, water becomes a weapon in the Arab war against Israel.

Briefly, the Palestinian Authority (PA) accuses Israel of stealing, restricting or holding back water under its control.  Since water is so limited here—and since Israel does so well with water issues--the PA accuses Israel of helping itself at the Arab’s expense.

In a water-starved region, that’s oppression of a particularly cruel kind.  The United Nations has done water-use studies. The UN says that the amount of water Arabs receive from Israel is below the amount Israel is supposed to supply. Their conclusion is, the Arab water-accusation is true.

Nobody wonders if Arab water-piracy could reduce Arab water-use numbers. Nobody wonders if, between Israeli sources and Arab end-users, Arab water-piracy could account for the low amount of water Arabs say they receive from Israel. Instead, everyone simply concludes they have found another reason to demonize Israel.

But this headline in Jordan reveals a hidden truth. Unlike Israel headlines about water, this one is not about conservation. It’s about compliance.

There’s a very big difference between ‘conservation’ and ‘compliance’. Do you begin to see the hidden truth here?

Some pro-Israel advocates have suggested that part of the Arab water-problem is not Israel. Israel, they say, has actually been allocating more water to Arabs in Palestinian Authority areas than they had contracted to supply through the 1992-4 Oslo Accords. The problem, they suggest, is not water-sourcing from Israel. It’s water piracy by Arabs.

To put this argument another way, only Jews seem to believe that a large part of the Arab’s water problem is due to non-compliant uses of water by Arabs. But this headline—and another Jordanian headline like it from October, 2013 (("Priority is combating illegal wells, not raising water tariffs”) suggest a different story. They suggest that illegal Arab water use is a bonafide problem. They suggest that, once again, Israel-haters may have gotten it wrong: Arab water-problems aren’t exacerbated by Jew-control; it’s exacerbated by Arab theft.

The truth is often revealed when the world of lies becomes visible.

  

Saudi Arabia

-Rice firms fined for cheating

-Blood banks to be linked electronically

-Saudis, Emiratis join hands to mark week for disabled

-Saudi envoy: West’s policies on Syria and Iran dangerous gamble

 

As Saudi Arabia focused on its own national concerns, it nonetheless came out strongly this week against the West’s approach to Syria and Iran. As many have already noted, the Saudis are unhappy with the West’s do-nothing approach to Syria and Iran. Saudis feel that Western ‘diplomacy’ creates a danger the Saudis are no longer willing to be silent about. They cannot, they now say, stand idly by.

Sounds like a threat, doesn’t it? It certainly suggests a lack of trust in the USA.

Does such criticism suggest an American success with Syria and Iran—or incompetence?

Israel news: the Bedouin and the Rabbis

Here are some headlines you might have missed in the last few days. Let’s take a fresh look at them.

Today’s selection comes from December 12-15, 2013.

 

The war against Israel

-Israel Complains to Dutch Ambassador Over Water Boycott (12/12/13, Arutz Sheva

-Bill in Jordan: Violence Against Israel Isn't Terrorism (12/12/13, Arutz Sheva)

-PA Formally Refuses to Recognize Jewish State (12/13/13, Arutz Sheva

 

The Leftist war against Israel

- Haifa University Rejects Nobel-Winning Professor Over Politics (12/15/13, Arutz Sheva

-Ministers Endorse NGO Taxation - Livni to Appeal (12/15/13, Arutz Sheva)

- NGO bill approved by ministers despite controversy (12/15/13, Ynet)

-'Rabbis for Human Rights' Compares Israel to Czarist Russia(12/12/13, Arutz Sheva)

------

There are many story lines to talk about during this news cycle. You’ll read about only one today. For the others, you’ll have to do your own research.

It’s a story about Arabs and Rabbis.

A Leftist organization in Israel, called, Rabbis for Human Rights, has come out with a film. The film presents their position on a controversy in Israel’s Negev region.  

The controversy is about the Bedouin.

Many Bedouin live in the Negev. According to some, they are the fastest growing population in the world. They have a terrible housing problem.

These Negev Bedouin do not live in cities or towns. They live in the desert. They sprawl on land they do not own. They live in shanties that do not meet Israel’s building code.

Everyone agrees that Bedouin squat illegally on State land. Everyone agrees that their encampments lack—for the most part--proper access to water, electricity or other vital services.

What no one can agree on is, what to do about it all.

One major problem is, Israel itself. As everyone who lives in Israel knows, buying a house in Israel is not easy. If you want to own a house or apartment, you need paperwork. You must negotiate your way through the bureaucracy. Every Israeli goes through the same process. Everyone groans.

Except the Bedouin. They’re not like other Israelis. They’re nomads. They don’t ‘do’ paperwork.

So, unlike everybody else in Israel, they live where they want—with no paperwork, no permits and no building codes.

Bedouin are not, as some claim, ‘Palestinian’. They are a distinct group. They are Israeli citizens. Unlike many Leftists, they serve in Israel’s army.

They are also very stubborn.

To help solve the Bedouin housing/infrastructure/services problem, the government came up with a plan. The plan was designed to legalize some Bedouin communities, while relocating others. It would compensate anyone moved.

For a bureaucratic plan, it seemed perfect. It attempted to solve a big problem with a little thought. Unfortunately, it had all the makings of being the wrong plan for the wrong people at the wrong time for the wrong place. It may even have been the one plan that was doomed from the beginning because of anti-Israel politics—which, of course, the bureaucratic planners had failed to anticipate.

Briefly, the plan was to move app 30,000 Bedouin from their unauthorized and often isolated encampments to newly built ‘towns’ (or, perhaps, one ’town’).

On paper, the plan seemed to address all issues: housing, sewage, clean water, etc.

In reality, it lighted a fire.

For one thing, the new buildings to be built were to be typical of Israel. They would be high-rise apartment buildings.

For Israel, with limited space, such construction makes a lot of sense. It’s a good idea. Except for one thing: Bedouin don’t live in high-rise buildings.

OOpps.

Bedouin are desert people, remember? They live in one-story shanty-type structures. Why would they move into high-risers?

Nevertheless, the bureaucrats pushed forward. Supposedly, 15,000 Bedouin had said they wanted this move (the move is about 5-9 km from where they now live). Supposedly, someone got Bedouin leadership to approve the plan. Supposedly.

In the end, everyone got angry. The Bedouin denied agreeing to anything. The Palestinian Authority accused Israel of ethnic cleansing.  As soon as the Europeans heard, ‘ethnic cleansing’, they jumped on the ‘get-Israel’ bandwagon.   Europeans are like that. They have no clue how Israel works. They have no clue who’s a Muslim and who’s not, who’s Palestinian, who’s not. They have no clue what the land here looks like—its geography, ecology, topography, archaeology.

But for Europeans, when it comes to Jews, ignorance has never been a barrier. As soon as the Bedouin story hit the news, human rights groups began to cry, ‘ethnic cleansing, ethnic cleansing’ as if it was a war-cry to call out the anti-Jew protesters.

Actually, it is a war-cry. It did call out the anti-Jew protesters.  

Somewhere along the line, a report surfaced that the Bedouin had begun to wave Palestinian flags. They aren’t Palestinian. Why would they wave Palestinian flags?

Nobody asked that question. Nobody cared.

It made the news. That’s all that counted.

Was any of this true?

Nobody knew. This is Israel. Nobody cared.

It was onto this raucous stage that the Rabbis for Human Rights stepped. They wanted to join with the innocent Arab vs the evil Jew.  

They made a film. They called the film, ‘Fiddler with no roof.’

Get it? It’s a variation of the title, ‘Fiddler on the roof,’ an old Broadway musical about Jews in Czarist Russia.

The point of the film was that the Bedouin in the Negev are exactly like the Jews of Czarist Russia. In the film, these Leftist ‘Rabbis’ compared the cruel fate of truly oppressed Jews of Czarist Russia to the fate of these Bedouin. The film suggested that if the Jews of Czarist Russia did not obey expulsion orders, they faced forced cleansing and pogroms; and as one critic of the film said, by watching this film, “The average person is likely to conclude that the Bedouin” faced a similar fate.

It was pure anti-Israel propaganda—with a catchy title.

Well, guess who came to the rescue? The Europeans and the Leftist Rights Rabbis might not like this, but the rescuers turned out to be the Jews themselves. Worse still, it was the very bureaucrat (he shall remain nameless) who supposedly had started all this brouhaha who ended it: he announced that the plan was dead. The government (read, ‘bureaucrats’) would start all over again, he said. They would come up with a new idea because, he said, the Bedouin housing problem wasn’t going to go away.

Damn Jews. They’re so evil, they’re actually going to try again to solve the Bedouin housing problem.

What must the G-d of Israel think of all this?

 

 

Israel news summary: the last word on Nelson Mandela

Here’s a fresh look at Israel’s news—and some headlines you might have overlooked as last week ended.  

Today, we look at—and comment on—just a few headlines from December 10-12, 2013.

 

Nelson Mandela

-Masses gather in Johannesburg for Mandela memorial (12/10/13, Jerusalem Post)

-World leaders pay tribute to Mandela  (12/10/13, Ynet)

-Obama in South Africa: Mandela is 'the last great liberator of the 20th century' (12/10/13, Haaretz)

- Obama hails Mandela, chides other leaders who stifle dissent (12/10/13 Ynet)

-Labor Chief Slams PM over Mandela Memorial Absence (12/10/13, Arutz Sheva)

- Mandela vs. the Iron Lady (12/10/13, The Times of Israel)

-By avoiding Mandela’s memorial, Netanyahu digs Israel’s PR grave (12/10.13, blogger essay The Times of Israel)

 

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu harvested more bitterness from last week’s news cycle, this time over the Mandela funeral. The bitterness he collected didn’t come from foreigners. It came instead from Israelis who, apparently, are more smart than wise.   

The problem was, Mr Netanyahu begged off going to the funeral due, his office said, to cost constraints. Israel President Peres—who at first announced he would go--also begged off due, his own office said, to a case of the flu.

As one writer put it, Peres got a ‘doctor’s note’ to stay in Israel. He got an excused absence.  

But Netanyahu  got hammered. With his ‘I can’t go’ announcement, he seemed to have committed three unforgiveable political sins. As Leftist Labor leader Yitzchak Herzog said, Netanyahu was guilty of "insensitivity or plain stupidity" over his decision not to attend Nelson Mandela's funeral (“Labor Chief Slams PM over Mandela Memorial Absence”).

According to these accusations, Netanyahu’s first sin was that he gave Israel a black eye (“By avoiding Mandela’s memorial, Netanyahu digs Israel’s PR grave”). Netanyahu’s refusal to honour the world’s greatest moral leader would serve only to provoke the world to demonize Israel.

 Netanyahu’s second sin was that his failure to honour Mandela demonstrated a complete lack of appreciation for ethics and justice. As one commentator was quoted to say in “Mandela vs. the Iron Lady”, “Netanyahu’s decision to skip Madiba’s [Mandela’s] memorial draws jeers, especially in light of that fact that he attended Margaret Thatcher’s funeral…   ‘What values, as a country, do we place higher, values of justice and ethics, or the economic values of Margaret Thatcher, who after her death Brits went out drinking [sic] and waved signs condemning her?’

His third sin was the lameness of his excuse—the cost of travel. It seemed a transparently disingenuous excuse. How could he lie so stupidly?

Altogether, these accusations appeared to combine into a powerful and articulate slap in the face. It made Netanyahu look vile.  But the accusations were misplaced.

Netanyahu was correct not to go to Mandela’s funeral. He might even have been correct to use so lame an excuse.

These Israeli moral gurus who rake Netanyahu over the coals apparently believe that Nelson Mandela remains a moral giant.  But that’s not entirely true. It’s certainly not true for Jews.

Nelson Mandela had once been noble. During his life, he became a moral icon. He contributed to (led?) the defeat of the evil South African apartheid—and became his country’s President. Therefore, these writers proclaim, he is to be honoured for being the great moral leader of our time; and anyone who didn’t show up at a ceremony to honour the passing of such a giant only soiled his own reputation.

Take that, you swine Netanyahu.

But while Nelson Mandela had no doubt been a moral giant, he did not remain a moral giant. When it came to the Jews, he put his morality—and his nobility—aside.

Look at what he did. He kissed Yasser Arafat. He called Arafat one of our generation’s giants (or something like that). He praised Arafat. He sat together with Arafat. He visited Arafat. He continued to kiss Arafat.

He lent to Arafat his moral reputation. He allowed a killer and an advocate of ethnic cleansing to gain strength, fame and power from the afterglow of association and photo-ops.  

With every kiss, Mandela’s moral stature shrank. Arafat was a tyrant. Mandela kissed him. Arafat used apartheid rules to control his own people. Mandela kissed him. Arafat spoke of ‘freeing Palestinians’ even as he imprisoned them. Mandela still kissed him.

But instead of kissing, Mandela should have used his moral stature to pressure Arafat. He should have told Arafat, in public, ‘My friend, if you wish to proclaim solidarity with me, then you cannot be intolerant to your own people.’

Mandela didn’t do that—and if apologists say he did, then he didn’t do it enough. At the very least, he should have spoken these words with every kiss. He didn’t do that, either.

All we saw were the kisses. What we saw was, the love; and today, that love continues: the country that Mandela led and influenced now says that the “arrangement there in Palestine [sic] keeps us awake ... the last time I [South African International Relations Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane] looked at the map of Palestine, I could not go to sleep. The struggle of the people of Palestine is our struggle…”.

The truth about Netanyahu’s decision is this: the Prime Minister of Israel should not honour one who kisses unrepentant Jew-killers. The Prime Minister of Israel also does not—and should not-- honour a man whose own country appears to buy into the Arab war against Israel without reservation. Perhaps the virtues our Prime Minister prefers to uphold are the virtues of right and just morality, not hypocrisy.

Perhaps that is why the Jewish people are to be called, a Light unto the nations—because Jews understand better than most where moral double-standards can lead.

Perhaps that’s why Netanyahu didn’t go to honour Mandela; and so far as that lame excuse goes—the cost of the trip—perhaps the excuse should be lame, so that others can see that Netanyahu knows how to remain polite and courteous even to one who has betrayed his own nobility.

What do you think?  

Israel news summary: Abbas, and the PA vs NBC TV

Here’s a fresh look at some Israel news stories. Perhaps you can see how these headlines form patterns—and reveal truth.

Today’s summary comes from December 10-11, 2013.

 The war against Israel

 

- Dutch Report Blames Israel for PA Failures (12/11/13, Arutz Sheva)

- EU auditors say aid money to Gaza paid to non-workers (12/11/13, Jerusalem Post)

- PLO asks NBC to call off production of new TV show (12/10/13, The Times of Israel)

- Abbas Decorates Killer of 125 Israelis (12/11/13, Arutz Sheva)

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On the day the world gave Nelson Mandela his final honour as a model of leadership and courage (December 10, 2013), Palestinian Authority (PA) leader Mahmoud Abbas honoured his own true model for leadership and bravery. He gave a special award to the widow of a terrorist who was responsible for murdering 125 Israelis.

In a special ceremony, Abbas spoke of the slain killer Abu Jihad as “the model of a true fighter and devoted leader”. Abbas called this killer a man who played an “honourable national role” for his people.

It may have sounded like the eulogies for Mandela. But it wasn’t. It was a blood-curdling reminder of Abbas’ Jew-hate.

It makes one wonder. Why did Mandela support such people?

More to the point, why did Abbas give his ‘eulogy’ for a murderer on the same day the world heard speeches of praise for the moral hero Nelson Mandela? Abbas’ eulogy seemed to mock the Mandela eulogies.

Is this Mandela’s reward for praising the so-called ‘Palestinians’?

Mahmoud Abbas wasn’t the only one to mock morality during this news cycle. Two other stories of immorality cropped up.

The first of these stories (“Dutch Report Blames Israel for PA Failures”) came out as part of a report by a Dutch member of the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly. The report blames Israel for Palestinian democratic shortcomings. Among other absurdities, the Report appears to blame Israel for the failure of Fatah and Hamas to reconcile.

Actually, the Dutch may have a point. It is indeed Israel’s fault that these two Parties can’t reconcile.

Hamas wants to invade Israel immediately and kill every Jew it finds. Fatah wants to wait. It wants to see what it can squeeze from the West before it erases Israel from the map. The two just can’t agree who should go first.

It’s Israel’s fault, all right. So long as Israel exists, there’s a possibility that these two Parties will never agree.

Get it?

The second story didn’t exactly blame Israel for an Arab problem; it simply suggested that Israel should assume at least some responsibility to solve that problem.

It seems that the European Union (EU) has been sending money to the PA and Gaza, to help pay wages. The EU has been doing this since app 1994. The EU just now discovers that the Arabs have been paying people for work never done.  The EU now wonders what’s happened to some 1 billion Euro (“EU auditors say aid money to Gaza paid to non-workers”).

Apparently, the EU has believed so strongly in the innocence and morality of Hamas and the PA (they must have believed everything the Arabs told them), they didn’t bother reading persistent news headlines about rampant Arab corruption. They have been paying phantom wages for at least six years. In one instance, 90 workers of 125 at one place of employment were ‘phantom’: they had been paid; but they’d never shown up for work.

Now the EU wants a better-run program. They want to pressure Israel to help.

What does Israel have to do with Arab corruption? Why should the EU make Israel responsible for Arab behaviour?

There’s an expression, ‘all is fair in love and war’. That expression applies to the EU’s view of Israel; only, it’s not love the EU has in mind.

Finally, there is an irony in this news cycle. It’s too delicious to pass up.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) has asked NBC TV (USA) to cancel a proposed Jerusalem-based TV mini-series. The series is to be a mystery set in the archaeologically rich Jerusalem dig-site called, City of David.

Archaeology is a problem for the PA. It doesn’t have any. All the digs in Israel focus on Israel—or long-extinct primitives who supposedly lived in Israel before Jews or anyone else came to Israel. Virtually every archaeology site offers proof that Jews lived here before anyone the PA calls, ‘Palestinian’.

Archaeology, in other words, helps validate Israel existence and hinders the PA’s anti-Israel war. Therefore, the PA wants NBC to cancel the project. The first reason the PA cites for its request is that “Such a production will legitimize the annexation of Jerusalem.”

Think about that. The PA fears that archaeology proves that Jerusalem is Jewish.

A TV program set in the Jewish City of David is offensive. It serves no good cause. It legitimizes the Jewish claim to Jerusalem. Therefore, the program must be cancelled.

What they are saying is, they can’t stand the truth. They are dedicated to a lie. The lie must be supported. The program must be axed.

Here’s the best part: the Arabs actually made this request with a straight face. They have no clue what their request reveals about them—or about the truth about Jerusalem.

When the world of lies is revealed, the world of Truth becomes visible.

Can you see Truth peeking out here?

 

Arab news: Peace headlines from the Palestinian Authority

 

If you’re like most non-Arabs, you probably don’t read the Arab Press. That could be a mistake.

Israel is negotiating a peace agreement with the Palestinian Authority (PA). You know about those peace talks because you read about them in Israel’s press.

But what does the PA press say about these talks?

Here are headlines from—and personal comments about—some Arab news from Israel’s peace partner, the Palestinian Authority (PA). The stories come from December 5-11, 2013.

 

From Palestinian (PA) news

 

-Egypt releases 100 Palestinian Syria refugees

-Israeli forces 'detain 6 Palestinians in Hebron area'

-Snow storm expected to hit Palestine Tuesday

-Israel army recruits tour al-Aqsa compound [the Temple Mount]

-Israeli forces raid prisoner's home, interrogate relatives

-Israeli forces wreck house, several structures in Jordan Valley

-OIC urges global community to back Palestinians

-Racist graffiti sprayed in Palestinian village in northern Israel

-Why Palestine should seek justice at the International Criminal Court

-Defending Geneva: Understanding Israel's opposition to peace with Iran

-Tel Aviv 'Nakba' film festival keeps alive memories of 1948 in Israel

-Rights group urges tougher EU measures on settler violence

-Bible scholars: Zionists have 'weaponized' scripture

-Iran nuclear deal vindicates Rouhani's diplomatic push

-Settlers raid Palestinian park near Nablus

-Israeli forces raid Duheisha near Bethlehem, detain 4

-Group: New Israeli excavations under al-Aqsa [the Temple Mount]

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Understandably, PA news focusses on local news and on international news that affects the PA. With regard to this kind of self-interest, PA news is no different from anyone else’s news.

However, there is a difference. Unlike most other news sites, PA news presentation has a wartime feel to it.

The PA is at war with Israel. You can see it in the way Israel is presented in the PA’s news.  

Israel opposes peace. Israel wrecks Arab lives. Israel must be ‘brought to justice’.

During war, government-controlled news sites have a special purpose. That purpose is not to inform. It is to keep the wartime passions alight, to make sure that whatever emotion the readership needs to keep fighting is present on every front page. In this regard, PA news is no different from anyone else at war.

The problem is, the PA is supposed to be talking ‘peace’ with Israel. The PA is supposed to be preparing to live side-by-side in peace and security with Israel.

Talks have been unfolding between the PA and Israel since August, 2013. The two sides have been negotiating for more than four-and-a-half months.

Peace is supposed to be in the PA’s future. What does PA news have to say about peace with Israel?

Nothing.

On a day during this news cycle when the Jerusalem Post ran five stories related to the peace talks, the PA news site had zero such stories. It’s practically the same every day. It’s as if peace talks don’t exist for the PA.

That’s not a coincidence.

It’s not coincidence that an Israeli newspaper highlights peace talks and the PA doesn’t. It’s not coincidence because the PA has no interest in ‘peace’.

Did you forget? The PA is at war.

Almost everything the PA does focuses on some aspect of the Arab war against Israel. Therefore, why should the PA run ‘peace’ stories on its news site?

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It’s interesting to note that two feature stories have stayed on the PA front page for a week. There could a reason they remain so visible.

The first of these two stories is, “Tel Aviv 'Nakba' film festival keeps alive memories of 1948”. As you may know, the word, ‘Nakba’, means ‘catastrophe’—or something close to that. It is a political word. It is a war word.

It refers to the 1948 war Arabs started against the new-born Israel. It refers to the war Arabs initiated in order to destroy the new Jewish state. It refers to the war Arabs were supposed to win. It refers to the Arabs’ ‘catastrophic’ loss in that war.

On the day Israel celebrates its birthday—its Independence Day—Arabs mourn their Nakba—their catastrophe. Israel’s freedom is the Arab catastrophe.

Nakba exists so as to remind the Arab he must avenge his humiliation. In its own cruel way, Nakba is a war-cry.

A Nakba story excites and inspires. Such a feature means that the Arab ‘memory’ is being kept alive—to impassion Arabs to fight again.

It has to be especially sweet to see this particular story. Who would have thought that the Arab dream of total conquest would be kept alive by Jews?

The second of these stories is, “Bible scholars: Zionists have 'weaponized' scripture”. This story is also perfect. Its title reflects the war mentality the PA wants to foster. The title suggests that the Jew is so evil, he even ‘weaponizes’ the holy scriptures.

It is perfect because it demonizes the Zionist (Jew). It echoes the Arab Jew-myth: the ‘Zionist’ is so vile, he makes impure and unholy what should be considered by all as holy and pure—the bible.

These two features play their part in the PA war effort. They keep the war-fires burning. They help to enflame the passion to fight.

Peace, you say? What peace? Haven’t you heard?  Zionists weaponize the bible!

It’s how our peace partners present peace.