Rethinking Jewish and Israeli Charities

Posted on September 5, 2024 by First.One.Through

The antisemitic and anti-Israel dynamics have become so intolerable over the past months, that many people are rethinking their voting priorities to put Jewish issues before every other matter. Alan Dershowitz speaks for many when he says that he is forgoing every non-Jewish charity now and only giving to Jewish causes.

But there is a need to rethink the Jewish charities also. Some have become toxic to Israel and the Jewish people.

Let’s start with B’Tselem, the organization that claims to work on behalf of human rights.

On September 4, 2024, B’Tselem Executive Director Yuli Novak’s addressed the United Nations Security Council, the most senior committee in the global body that has the power to pass international laws. In her prepared remarks, she lambasted Israel repeatedly calling it a vicious state of racism, apartheid, ethnic cleansing and violence.

Some select comments include:

“Since Israel was founded, the guiding logic of its regime has been to promote Jewish supremacy“
“the Israeli government does not want to return the hostages in a deal, but to continue the war indefinitely.”
“The current government’s guidelines state that: “The Jewish people have an exclusive and unquestionable right to all parts of the Land of Israel.””
“it [the Israeli government] is waging war on the entire Palestinian people – committing war crimes almost daily.”
“Settlers are attacking Palestinians and carrying out pogroms in broad daylight, with support from the government.”
“Palestinian citizens of Israel [aka Israeli Arabs] are suffering an almost total suppression for their freedom of expression and freedom of protest”
“[Israeli] violence is possible because Israel has enjoyed impunity for decades”
“It is time for the Council to address the opinion of the International Court of Justice on the illegality of Israel’s entire occupation and settlement project.”
“Every day the Council does not act on the court’s call to end the occupation and apartheid, is another day you are abandoning us – the people suffering and dying needlessly under this cruel and unjust regime.”

*B’Tselem Executive Director Yuli Novak’s addressed the United Nations Security Council*

This was not a protest speech on an Israeli street corner but a damning indictment of Israel by an Israeli directed to the center of power which can impose tremendous damage on the Jewish State with a specific request to harm Israel. The smears of “Jewish Supremacy,” “apartheid,” “pogroms” and “war crimes” will be echoed on college campuses with a finger pointed to this very speech as defense.

B’Tselem is backed by a number of charities, some of which are nominally Jewish. They include the Moriah Fund, The New Israel Fund (NIF) and George Soros’s Open Society.

The Moriah Fund helps fund the anti-Israel Ford Foundation and antisemitic Tides Foundation. According to Influence Watch, “between 1999 and 2018, Moriah Fund has granted $45,718,829 to New Israel Fund,” and supports the BDS (Boycott, Divest and Sanction) campaigns against Israel.

According to Influence Watch, NIF gives money to several anti-Israel groups including Adalah and Human Rights Defenders Fund, whose leaders have called Israel “racist,” “murderous,” and an “apartheid state.”

NGO Monitor lists various charities funded by Open Society which include IfNotNow and Jewish Voice for Peace, rabidly anti-Israel organizations whose members are harassing college students everywhere, as well as other rabidly anti-Zionist groups.

It is not enough to prioritize Jewish and Israeli causes right now: it is important to stop the funding of Jewish groups which are doing their utmost to vilify and destroy the Jewish State and Jewish communities everywhere.

ACTION ITEM

Contact Jewish foundations like UJA and donor advised funds to block donations to B’Tselem, New Israel Fund, IfNotNow and JVP, as well as other toxic antisemitic and anti-Zionist charities.

The Anti-Israel And Anti-American Woke Grows (July 2024)

“I Think We Need To Have A Real Conversation About Woke Antisemitism” (July 2024)

IfNotNow Is Racist, Blind And Lost (July 2024)

J Street Pushes US To Stop Protecting Israel At The United Nations (December 2023)

J Street Signals “Open Warfare” On Jewish And Pro-Israel Communities, Urging The United States To Take Action AGAINST Israel (December 2022)

J Street’s Ben Ami Smears Moderate Jews As Racists (July 2022)

Students For Justice in Palestine Says J Street Is The Gateway For Jewish Anti-Zionists (March 2022)

Jewish Voice for Peace Ignores Dead Jews (December 2020)

JVP and J Street Attack Foreign Affairs Committee (November 2020)

Iran’s New Favorite Jewish Scholars (December 2017)

Unity – not Unanimity – in the Pro-Israel Tent (November 2017)

Students for Justice in Palestine’s Dick Pics (May 2017)

The Evil Architects at J Street Take a Bow (January 2017)

The Future Of The Evil Hamas Regime Under Trump And Harris

Posted on September 4, 2024 by First.One.Through

The Palestinian political-terrorist group continued its vile and evil actions in shooting and killing six hostages it had held for the last eleven months. The civilians lives were worthless, as were the thousands that the group has killed over the decades.

Vice President Kamala Harris issued a press release, as one of the hostages was an American citizen, and his parents had just spoken at the Democratic National Convention. Harris called Hamas “an evil terrorist organization… whose “depravity is evident and horrifying.”

*VP Harris press release about the murder of six Israeli hostages by Hamas, on August 31, 2024*

Harris noted that Hamas is a threat to Israelis, Americans and even Palestinians, but she did not offer a plan of action, other than that the “threat” of Hamas “must be eliminated.”

By way of comparison, Senator Tom Cotton was more clear, that not just the “threat” of Hamas must be eliminated, but the “terrorist group must be destroyed.”

*Sen. Tom Cotton post after the murder of six Israeli hostages by Hamas*

Former President Obama ran his administration’s fight against terror in a particularly segmented manner, placing the “evil ideology” of jihadi groups into four buckets: evil to destroy (like ISIS); evil to condemn (like Boko Haram); evil to tolerate (like Syria); and evil to ignore (like Hamas). He would only activate American arms when American lives were at stake in the first category, while providing support in fighting evil globally in the second category. Regarding Syria and evil to tolerate, he offered little more than empty words. For evil like Hamas, he ignored it as something Israel turned into a phony boogeyman.

Obama’s successor, President Trump, collapsed those four categories into “radical Islamic terrorism,” which was a problem for everyone to be fought globally. He prioritized fighting ISIS and al Qaeda but viewed all of the sister jihadi groups through a similar lens.

President Biden condemned the Hamas October 7 massacre as “an act of sheer evil” and later added that the group should be eliminated. His Attorney General Merrick Garland announced terrorism charges against the leaders of Hamas on September 3, 2024, something that had been filed in February. It is unclear what is particularly special about unsealing the complaint at this time – Israel already killed a number of the senior Hamas leaders on the list. Is the US going to take direct action against Hamas? Will it use its pull with Qatar to extradite Khaled Mashal? Or will the world see the U.S. as a paper tiger, a distracted and divided once-upon-a-time military power?

Harris, now in the position of Democratic nominee for president, is crafting her own language about evil, that it should be deprived of the capability of being a “threat” but not necessarily “destroyed” as Biden and other politicians have advocated.

Harris’s softer position is being provided cover by J Street, the left-wing pro-Palestinian marketed as pro-Israel group. In response to the assassination of the six Israeli hostages, J Street called for Biden to assert “maximum pressure on [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu,” rather than providing Israel full capabilities of finishing the evil group.

*J Street press release after Hamas’s killing of six hostages calling for US to withhold arms and funding to Israel if Netanyahu doesn’t accept a ceasefire deal*

Many Democratic members of Congress will likely push a President Harris to not only let Hamas survive but to withhold critical arms to Israel, even as it fights Hezbollah, Iran and the Houthis. A Harris administration with someone like Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) as Secretary of State, would likely condition military aid to Israel.

Harris and Trump agree that Hamas is an evil terrorist organization but it would appear that only a Trump Administration would push to destroy the group, while Harris might work to simply remove the terrorist group from power.

Hamas’ War Is A Radical Religious Jihadi War Of Annihilation (August 2024)

NY Times Lies That Gazans Hate Hamas (June 2024)

The Hamas – Gazans Partnership (May 2024)

Stop Genocide. Destroy Hamas (May 2024)

UNRWA Is Hamas’s Iron Dome (February 2024)

Hamas Joins The Pantheon Of Antisemitic Evil Alongside Nazis, ISIS And Amalek (January 2024)

Hamas Is The Very Definition Of A Genocidal Group (November 2023)

Congressional Socialists Won’t Support Israel After Hamas Massacre (October 2023)

The Scale And Barbarity Of The Hamas Massacre (October 2023)

Excerpt of Hamas Charter to Share with Your Elected Officials (May 2021)

A Milestone For US Recognition Of Foreign Terrorist Groups

Posted on September 1, 2024 by First.One.Through

The world is a deeply unhinged place.

Extremist groups on the right and left are winning elections. Wars are raging around the world including Russia-Ukraine and Iranian proxies of Hamas, Hezbollah and Houthis against Israel. And new terrorist groups continue to emerge like the Palestinian’s Tulkarm Brigades and Lion’s Den.

Yet one would not know this from tracking how the United States designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs).

Since the U.S. State Department began listing FTOs on October 8, 1997, every Democratic and Republican administration was on top of the global terrorist threats, adding new FTOs with regularity. The longest gap between designating a new FTO was 992 days, from June 17, 2005 to March 5, 2008.

Until now.

The Biden administration last added a terrorist group on December 1, 2021, 1,005 days ago when it added two Colombia-based terrorist groups. Since that time it delisted five groups.

*U.S. State Department Foreign Terrorist Organizations*

Why hasn’t the U.S. listed any of the groups which have been murdering civilians for over 1,000 days? Has ignoring the “evil ideology” (to quote Obama) or “tragic deformity” (to quote James Zogby) of Palestinian culture pacified them?

The U.S. has spent the last three years with its head in the sand pretending that terrorist groups only exist INSIDE America as it left open its borders and ignored the toxic mushrooming of jihadi terrorist groups.

Note To Kamala: Vast Majority Of West Bank Arabs Are Terrorist Supporters (July 2024)

The Scale And Barbarity Of The Hamas Massacre (October 2023)

The UN Continues To Grossly Minimize Palestinian Terror (September 2023)

UNRWA’s West Bank Terrorists (July 2023)

Majority of Palestinians Believe Israel Will Soon Cease to Exist (June 2023)

Letter to Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) On Conditioning Aid To Israel (March 2023)

The Successful Murder Of Jews and Marker For New Massacres (January 2023)

The UN Continues To Absolve Palestinian Attacks Against Israelis In The “West Bank” (November 2022)

Wilayat Sinai: The Other Terrorist Group Abutting Israel (February 2022)

Gaza, The Terrorist Enclave (December 2021)

Palestinian Terrorist Groups (July 2021)

‘Right Of Return’ Must Be Integral To Negotiations

Posted on September 1, 2024 by First.One.Through

The current Palestinian war on Israel is much less about borders and land swaps, security matters and the status of Jerusalem, and much more about the so-called “right of return” of descendants of Palestinian Arab refugees to move into Israel rather than a new Palestinian State. Any discussions between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, as well as at the United Nations, must bring the matter to the forefront and make clear that settling that point will be done at the national level.

If that sounds obvious, you do not understand the U.N.’s adoption of the Palestinian negotiating point, that the ‘right of return’ is for every individual to decide on his/her own about moving to Israel, outside of governmental negotiations.

US and Israel On ‘Right Of Return’

When President Bill Clinton formulated a peace agreement between the Israelis and Palestinians in 2000, mediator Dennis Ross summarized the working proposal as follows: “On the issue of refugees, there would be a right of return for the refugees to their own state, not to Israel, but there would also be a fund of $30 billion internationally that would be put together for either compensation or to cover repatriation, resettlement, rehabilitation costs. And when it came to security, there would be a international presence, in place of the Israelis, in the Jordan Valley.”

This was the stated policy of both Democratic and Republican parties for years. Republican President George W. Bush sent a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in April 2004 that stated a “just, fair, and realistic framework for a solution to the Palestinian refugee issue as part of any final status agreement will need to be found through the establishment of a Palestinian state, and the settling of Palestinian refugees there, rather than in Israel.” The 2008 Democratic platform echoed the sentiment that “The creation of a Palestinian state through final status negotiations, together with an international compensation mechanism, should resolve the issue of Palestinian refugees by allowing them to settle there, rather than in Israel.“

Palestinians and UN On ‘Right of Return’

But when John Kerry tried to negotiate an agreement between the parties in 2014, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas pulled back from any discussion about refugees and said “Let me put it simply: the right of return is a personal decision. What does this mean? That neither the PA, nor the state, nor the PLO, nor Abu-Mazen [Abbas], nor any Palestinian or Arab leader has the right to deprive someone from his right to return…. The choice is yours. You want to return? You will return. You don’t? You’re free to remain; there is compensation and other details … I just wanted to remark on this point, that the right of return is a personal right. Even a father cannot forgo his children’s right.”

This ended any possibility of concluding the conflict via negotiations as Abbas handed the matter of refugees to millions of individuals.

The United Nations agrees with the Palestinian position.

In June 2023, the UN Office of Human Rights issued a report on World Refugee Day called “Right of return of Palestinian refugees must be prioritised over political considerations: UN experts.” It stated that “We urgently call upon the international community to adopt a rights-based approach that addresses the root causes of violence and prioritises the individual and collective right of return for refugees and internally displaced persons, over political considerations.”

The current formulation that Israel has no say on who it allows into its country and that 5.7 million Palestinian Arabs can unilaterally decide they can move to towns where ancestors lived will never be accepted by any Israeli government – right, left or centrist – EVER. It is a recipe for perpetual bloodshed and animosity.

To enable any chance for there to ever be a negotiated solution, the United Nations must be clear that the matter of the descendants of Palestinian Arabs who once lived in modern Israel is a matter to be handled by the PA, and not for individuals. Alternatively, the UN can state clearly that the ‘right of return’ is only limited to individuals who actually left Israel and not for their descendants.

The ‘two-state solution’ became unviable when the UN and Palestinian leadership decided that a ‘right of return’ for millions of Palestinians into Israel is an inalienable individual right. For there to be a chance of ending the bloodshed and conflict, it must be made clear that Palestinian leadership will negotiate the parameters of a “right of return” with Israel.