This year’s Chanukah donut / sufganiyot (filled donuts) crawl took us around Israel’s capital city of Jerusalem and surrounding suburbs. The selections were plentiful and the quality varied significantly.
There are a number of observations to share before reviewing each location. First, many places emphasize toppings and appearances which often do not correlate to taste. Second, out of the way and unpopular places were amazing. Lastly, some places that had great reviews had long lines and sometimes ran out of any donuts (and thus were not reviewed).
Roladin (Mamilla Mall)
Roladin is a big chain with locations all over Israel. They have a large selection of fancy sufganiyot on Chanukah. However, the quality and taste varied depending on the selection, and generally, the taste did not live up to the hype or presentation.
The sufganiyot looked really great and the chocolate truffle seen above had great flavor. Unfortunately, most of the others like pistachio had little taste other than sugar. The cookies and cream, while tasty, relied too heavily on the Oreo cookie on top.
Kadosh (Ben Yehuda Street Area)
The food at Kadosh is amazing so don’t just stop in for the donuts and stay for breakfast or lunch. The problem is that there is a long line to get in – even just for donut pickup – as they have a great reputation. The donuts basically met the high expectations: excellent dough, nice flavor while not being too sweet. They were differentiated in presentation from many places, as it placed a dollop of filling on one side and had a sugar coating.
Gourmandises by Yoel (Ben Yehuda Street Area)
Go through the Friends of Zion Museum to locate a nice cafe in the back run by a French couple with amazing desserts. Gourmandises makes wonderful light sufganiyot which were tops in regards to flavor and texture of the dough. The icing and filings were light and tasty and avoided the heavy sugar found in many others. Try the pistachio and roses. Or the lemon. Or just about any of them – I had six! Remarkably, there were no lines at all.
Boutique Central (Ben Yehuda Street Area)
The small cafe was recommended to us but the sufganiyot were more of a pastry with no filling. The dough was tasty but disappointed overall.
Boutique Central donut had no filling
Uri’s Pizza (Me’a She’arim)
One can easily miss this place on a side street, and, as it’s not a classic bakery, one would imagine an easy skip for a donut crawl. Not so. While the donut was simple and not beautiful, the dough was light and the filling was just right.
Brooklyn Bake Shop (Me’a She’arim)
Brooklyn sells out fast and we did not get to sample their donuts but heard they were amazing.
Brooklyn Bake Shop with sign in green that they were sold out of donuts
Brizal (Me’a Shearim)
Brizal is near Brooklyn and there’s a reason they had donuts while Brooklyn did not. They looked nice but are inedible. Sweet and artificial. We threw the two we purchased out after the first bite.
English Cake (Mahane Yehuda)
English Cake supplies the sufganiyot found in many of the small stores located around the city. Like Roladin, they look pretty but rely too heavily on sugar as a substitute for taste.
Sweet Nation (Mahane Yehuda)
Like English Cake, Sweet Nation has a beautiful presentation as a cover for a sugar fix. Most of the flavor comes from the fancy toppings. Very festive, but not for a foodie.
Beautiful sufganiyot at Sweet Nation relied heavily on the toppings
Delicases de Paris (Emek Refa’im)
After the great experiences of the French bakeries of Gourmandises and Kadosh, hopes ran high for the two French bakeries on Emek Refaim. Both were disappointments. Delicases sufganiyot had heavy dough that resembled a challah roll – dense and completely off.
Moulin Dore (Emek Refaim)
Moulin Dore was probably the biggest disappointment. The heavy dough was coupled with a spoiled filling. Simply horrible and tossed in the garbage.
Ne’eman (Emek Refaim)
The third stop on Emek Refaim was not a French bakery but a tried and true location. Unfortunately, Ne’eman’s donut simply had little flavor, even while the top and icing were quite good.
Pat BeMelach (Efrat)
Outside of Jerusalem is a great cafe with tasty food and great sufganiyot. The icing, filling flavor and dough texture were all great in every flavor we sampled – and there were many!
Summary
Here’s a table summarizing our review of the sufganiyot of Jerusalem for Chanukah 2021.
Bakery
Dough texture
Dough flavor
filling amount
filling flavor
topping flavor
presentation
overall
Gourmandises by Yoel
10
10
10
7
7
8.5
9
Pat BeMelach
8
7
9
8.5
7
7
8.5
Kadosh
8
8
8.5
8
7.5
8
8
Uri’s Pizza
9
9
6
7
NA
5
7.5
Roladin
4
4
7
5.5
7.5
8.5
6.5
English Cake
6
5
7
5
7.5
8.5
6.5
Sweet Nation
5
5
8
4
7
8
6.5
Ne’eman
5
4
2
6
8
7.5
5
Boutique Central
9
7
0
NA
6
6.5
7
Delicases de Paris
1
2
8
4
5
6
4
Moulin Dore
1
2
8
0
4
6
2
Brazil
2
0
0
0
0
3
1
Results of the Jerusalem 2021 Donut Crawl
Israeli sufganiyot are quite different than those found in Brooklyn, NY and varied widely in terms of quality. Top scores go to Gourmandises, Pat BeMelach (in Efrat) and Kadosh. We understand that Brooklyn is very worthwhile as well, although it was sold out of donuts when we arrived. Roladin donuts are fine and are easily found throughout the country. We hope you enjoyed the holiday!
Freshman Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) is having a very difficult time balancing a line between his moderate district and the alt-left Democratic Socialist of America (DSA) which supported him in infiltrating the Democratic Party. His gut instinct seems to be to duck and deceive.
While fellow Democrat President Biden was able to assemble a bipartisan Infrastructure Bill and pass it with ease, Bowman opted to vote against the president and much of his party and bonded instead with with the Socialist pack of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Cori Bush, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib. His constituents in lower Westchester were furious. Even local politicians who would normally avoid chastising a fellow party member in public, did so including:
Legislator Catherine Parker (D-Rye) who said she felt the “protest vote spoke more of his unwillingness to accept compromise than actually accomplishing anything.”
Greenburgh Supervisor Paul Feiner who said “if he got his way, we would’ve gotten nothing.“
County Legislator Tyrae Woodson-Samuels (D- Mount Vernon) said “I’m just worried what type of message this sends to regular, hardworking families, to our businesses and to our communities.“
Westchester activist Amy Siskind said she was “deeply disappointed” in Bowman’s vote.
To manage the public anger, Bowman decided to lie about his vote and sent out an email blast to his district that misrepresented his vote on the bill.
email from Rep. Bowman updating his work over September/October 2021 in which he lied about his vote in the Infrastructure Bill.
As seen in the section marked in red above, Bowman said he supported the “framework” of the infrastructure bill. Someone not aware of the nuances of political chicanery would naturally assume the Bowman voted in favor of the bill when he did not. Bowman did not write anywhere that he voted against the bill, and instead added language about his support for infrastructure to deliberately deceive the people he serves.
It will be interesting to see how Bowman opts to communicate his trip to Israel in November. He snubbed a bipartisan bicameral trip with Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) and opted to go to Israel with J Street, a left-wing group, in an insult to both Coons and Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett who took two distinct meetings on the same day with American politicians. He then insulted Israelis by tweeting an inversion of truth in Hebron even while the DSA seeks to expel him as a member since he visited Israel in the first place.
Bowman is being attacked by both his far left comrades and the significant center for his actions. His lying to everyone will not cover up his extremism but lay bare his being an inappropriate choice to serve his constituents.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) laid out 30 principles which all people are afforded around the world. The United Nations often quotes it, except when it relates to Jews.
UDHR Article 2 states that all people all entitled to rights and freedoms, regardless of “race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.” That clearly covers Jews – even those from Israel or from disputed territories.
UDHR Article 18 covers faith, including its practices: “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.” Many Muslim countries trample on the ability to change religion, banning apostasy in their constitutions, a flagrant violation of the UDHR which is never discussed at the United Nations due to Muslim Privilege.
The ability for Jews to pray as is their historic custom and right is not ignored at the UN, but countered in a ban outrageously embraced and enshrined.
The Jewish Temple Mount
The holiest location for Jews is the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem. It has been the center of Jewish focus and prayer for over 3,000 years, after King David moved the Jewish people’s capital there from Hebron, and his son, King Solomon, built the First Temple. For most of the first thousand years, Jews had a temple at different times on the site, offering animal sacrifices in accordance with the direction of the Hebrew bible. After the Second Temple was destroyed in 70CE, Jews still climbed the mount to offer silent prayer, and did so for 1,500 years.
The Ottomans came to the Jewish holy land in 1517, and Suleiman I (1494-1566) rebuilt much of Jerusalem including the iconic city walls. As part of his vast Jerusalem projects, he kicked the Jews off of the Temple Mount and afforded them a small sliver of the western retaining wall of the Temple Mount – the Western Wall or Kotel – for prayer. Jews have effectively been banned from praying on their holiest site since that time.
The Ottoman Empire ended in 1916 but the world did not consider addressing the catastrophic dangers of deeply-rooted anti-Semitism, racism and xenophobia until after World War II and the Holocaust of European Jewry.
The Enabling Hands Blocking Jewish Prayer Rights
In December 1948, the world sought to put an end to wars and hatreds and drew up the UDHR in the hope that people could be respectful to others who are different. The mention of religion in the articles was a direct result of the atrocities which befell Jews at the hands of non-Jews, as described in the preamble, regarding the “disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind.“
Yet as the global body drafted these rights, the Jewish State was fighting for its very survival against several invading Arab armies. The invading Jordanian army ethnically-cleansed all Jews from the eastern part of the holy land, including the Old City of Jerusalem, just a few years after the Holocaust. The Jordanians went on to ban Jews from even visiting or praying in the city, including at the Kotel and Temple Mount.
The vile Muslim anti-Semitism was addressed when Jordan attacked Israel again in June 1967 and lost its illegally seized lands, enabling Jews to move into their holy city once again. However, to facilitate a ceasefire with the various Muslim countries which had tried to destroy the Jewish State, Israel allowed the Jordanian Waqf to continue to administer the Temple Mount and maintain its ban on Jewish prayer.
To this day, the United Nations demands a change in the status quo of Israel controlling the eastern part of Jerusalem including the Old City, while simultaneously demanding maintaining the anti-Semitic policy of banning Jews from praying at their holiest site. It’s practical madness, in trying to appease the dozens of Muslim UN member nations while trampling on the basic human rights of Jews.
This Chanukah, at a time when Jews around the world place their menorahs in their windows to show the world that they celebrate Jewish prayer rights on the Temple Mount, let’s demand that the government of the State of Israel assert with clarity that the dignity of Jews matters. Jews have an inalienable right to pray at their holiest location, the Jewish Temple Mount.
Menorah at the Kotel, beneath the holiest site for Jews where the original seven-branched menorah stood on the Temple Mount.
In just a single week, two governments took long overdue steps to label all branches of terrorist groups as part of the same poisonous tree. It was not without reason.
On November 19, 2021, the United Kingdom announced that it would add the political wing of Hamas onto the list of terrorist groups, joining the military branch which already had the designation. On November 24th, the government of Australia announced that it was adding all branches of Hezbollah to its terrorist list. They joined many countries in recognizing that the entirety of these organizations mobilized forces of hatred and terror, and facilitated the actual attacks of its military wings.
The propaganda arms of the two groups – al Aqsa and al Manar – are no longer fringe sources of extremism. They have been growing in popularity and are now at parity with more mainstream Muslim Arab media.
Al Manar is the media arm of Hezbollah in Lebanon. It routinely puts out the statements of Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah demonizing the United States and Israel. The group defines itself as the official Islamic resistance of Lebanon to combat the atrocities and invasions of western powers.
Al Aqsa is the media arm of Hamas. It also defines itself as the official Islamic resistance of the Palestinian people against western and Jewish forces, advocating violence in its various programming.
Date
al Arabia & Al Jazeera
al Manar & Al Aqsa
Sept 2005
72.5%
4.8%
Sept 2010
60.7%
16.8%
Sept 2015
36.2%
25.4%
Sept 2021
27.3%
25.5%
Media viewership in Gaza over time.Gazans preferences for terrorist sources has grown according to Palestinian polls
As the table above shows, the preference for the programming of mainstream media like al Arabia from Dubai and al Jazeera from Qatar has dropped dramatically, even though those media outlets also demonize the west. The Gazans have become drawn to more radical calls for terrorism.
The spike in West Bankers watching Hamas media has a lot to do with Palestinians dislike of PA President Mahmoud Abbas from the rival Fatah party, his cancelling elections earlier this year and Hamas’s missile attacks against Israel in May, a war crime celebrated by West Bankers as a defense for Jerusalem. But the overall trends are much the same as in Gaza: Palestinians are now watching terrorist television at the same rates as mainstream Arabic media.
The United Nations long ago realized that terrorist propaganda fuels violence, but it primarily focused attention on ISIS and al Qaeda and their usage of social media. Hopefully the recent actions of Australia and the UK in labelling the political and media arms of Hezbollah and Hamas as terrorist organizations will help reduce the vile calls to violence.
A picture taken on November 12, 2018, shows a ball of fire above the building housing the Hamas-run television station al-Aqsa TV in the Gaza Strip during an Israeli air strike after a barrage of rocket fire from the enclave. Israeli security group Shin Bet accused al Aqsa journalists of using codes and being agents in attacks on Israel (Photo by MAHMUD HAMS / AFP)
On the first night of the Jewish holiday of Chanukah, Israeli President Isaac Herzog lit a menorah at the Tomb of the Jewish Patriarchs and Matriarchs in Hebron. At the ceremony he said “The historic connection of Jews to Hebron, to the tomb of the patriarch, to the heritage of the patriarchs and matriarchs is unquestionable. Recognition of this connection must be beyond all controversy.“
Israeli President Isaac Herzog lights a menorah for the first night of Chanukah at the Tomb of the Jewish Patriarchs and Matriarchs in Hebron on November 28, 2021 (photo: David Avitan)
Herzog took the opportunity to preach for peace and unity with Arabs, who are also descendants of Abraham through his son Ishmael, stating “we all have shared roots from this cave. Alongside that, we have to remember that our roots are not the only ones that go back to this cave. Especially today, and especially here, in this holy space dedicated to all sons of Abraham, we have to continue dreaming of peace, between all faiths and creeds in this land, and to condemn any type of hatred or violence.“
The Arabs were not interested in the Israeli president’s talk of peace between brothers.
Just as they had banned Jews from visiting their second holiest location (on par with Medina for Muslims) for hundreds of years until Israel took control of the site in 1967, the Arab Muslims spoke about the candle lighting ceremony with disdain and threats of violence.
The Palestinian political-terrorist group Hamas said that lighting a candle was “a provocation” and “a flagrant violation” of the site’s sanctity, calling on Palestinians to confront Israelis at the scene.
The Arab League said it was angered by Herzog’s “storming” of the site and that it showed “the continuation of their official and organized terrorism against the Palestinian people, their rights, and sanctities, in the same approach they practice in Judaizing Jerusalem, and targeting Al-Aqsa Mosque and the rest of the occupied Palestinian territory.” It called upon the international – and the United Nations specifically – to “reject the targeting of Islamic and Christian sanctities, including this intrusion, and to assume responsibilities to take the necessary measures to confront this aggression.“
One expects vile anti-Semitic calls for violence from Hamas. Even though the United Nations won’t say it explicitly, it knows that the highly popular group is against a two-state solution and seeks to destroy Israel.
But the UN warmly embraces the Arab League.
In January 2021, United Nations Under-Secretary-General Rosemary DiCarlo said that cooperation between the UN and the Arab League has been critical in the search for a two-state solution. The head of UNRWA, Phillipe Lazzarini, addressed the Arab League in September 2021 in an appeal for monies.
The UN shamefully considers the Arab League an important partner in the Middle East, even as the group flagrantly ignores Jewish history and rights, and inflames the region with outrageous claims of “terrorism” for lighting a menorah during Chanukah. It is well past time for the UN to finally begin confronting and condemning these enemies of coexistence.
The temporary United Nations agency tasked with caring for refugees from the Arab-Israeli War of Independence has abused language and brutalized the Arabs.
How Long an Immigrant or Refugee
My father’s grandfather came to the U.S. as an adult fleeing pogroms in Russia, while my mother came as a toddler fleeing the Holocaust in Austria. Each arrived as both refugee and immigrant, and ultimately each became a citizen and raised a family in this amazing country.
I never considered myself to be either an immigrant or a refugee, although I descend from them. I imagine most people who consider themselves natives may have immigrant parents or grandparents who may or may not have also been refugees.
An immigrant is defined as “a person who comes to live permanently in a foreign country“, and a refugee is defined as “a person who has been forced to leave their country in order to escape war, persecution, or natural disaster.” Both relate to that specific person and not to offspring.
But the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) uses a distinct definition of refugees. By its own account, it has cared for “four generations of Palestine refugees, defined as “persons whose normal place of residence was Palestine during the period 1 June 1946 to 15 May 1948, and who lost both home and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 conflict.” The descendants of Palestine refugee males, including legally adopted children, are also eligible for registration.“
This transfer of refugee status is just one of UNRWA’s many abuses.
Palestine or Israel? Why Only Arabs?
The timeframe to qualify for UNRWA care was set from “1 June 1946 to 15 May 1948,” – specifically from the day after Israel declared independence on May 14, 1948 to two years prior. The qualifier of the “normal place of residence” in “Palestine” is either the entirety of the Palestine Mandate which included Israel, Gaza and the area commonly called the “West Bank,” or only the area which is now Israel, as one would imagine based on the date range chosen.
If it’s the entirety of the Palestine Mandate, then all Jews who lost their homes when Jordan ethically cleansed the region of Jews should be entitled to receive services from the agency as well. Banning Jews from UNRWA services is blatantly anti-Semitic. Alternatively, if the definition of “Palestine” is not all of historic Palestine but just Israel, than the agency should state that it is handling Israeli Arab refugees, not “Palestine refugees”. It also does not address why the UN did not set up a comparable agency for the Jews who fled eastern Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza.
This is a mistreatment of Jews and Israel. The abuse of the Palestinian Arabs is far worse.
UNRWA Entrapment
UNRWA does not only provide free education and health services to descendants of refugees and other poor people in its five fields of operations. It promises these wards that if they stay registered with the agency, they will either get to move out of the third world camps to the wealthy country of Israel or receive compensation from the Jewish State.
While there are 5.7 million people registered as Palestinian refugees with UNRWA as of December 2020, there are roughly the same number of Arabs who lost their homes in Palestine but went on to start new lives in Canada, Chile and other countries around the world. Those five million Arabs who moved around the world have the same definition of “refugee” as everyone else (like the story above) and do not pass on the inherited status that UNRWA uniquely affords.
That is insane.
For those people who point to UN Resolution 194 which stated that “the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or in equity, should be made good by the Governments or authorities responsible,” it is obvious that those “refugees” should not be bound to be registered with UNRWA. If an Arab American now living in Michigan lost the family home in Jaffa in 1948, she should be entitled to the same compensation as a man now living in Gaza who lost the home next door in 1948.
Permanent sign at the United Nations devoted to a non-member state
UNRWA Wards Trapped in the Fiction
The tension between the various Palestinian refugees – those registered with UNRWA and those that are not – is significant. Billions of dollars are at stake.
Consider the situation where a family is due $1 million for a home lost in Jaffa in 1948. If there are 20 surviving family members registered with UNRWA, each person would get $50,000. However, if 20 other family members not registered with UNRWA also become entitled to compensation, each person would only get $25,000. Effectively, monies would be “transferred” from UNRWA refugees to non-UNRWA refugees. That dynamic makes UNRWA refugees determined to keep those not officially registered with UNRWA out of the “refugee” definition and simultaneously keeps all registered people locked into the ridiculous system, lest they lose the windfall. All this keeps the temporary agency afloat well past its expiry date, as the UN maintains the fiction that it is helping these stateless people.
While the UN established UNRWA in 1949 to temporarily house and care for actual refugees, the agency morphed over the decades into Palestine-in-Waiting, which must be sustained at all costs. In doing so, UNRWA has imprisoned the stateless Arabs of Palestine in a permanent bribe to keep it wedded to the agency, artificially extending its mandate and the misery of Arabs in a gross choreography of munchausen syndrome.
The spokesperson for the global United Nations Refugee Agency, UNHCR, Shabia Mantoo made an appeal to wealthy nations to take in more refugees on September 21, 2021. She said that “90 per cent of the world’s refugees [are] hosted in some of the poorest countries in the world,” directly suggesting that wealthy countries needed to do more in regards to resettlement.
Worldometers listed 57 countries that had a Gross Domestic Capital per Capita (GDPC) of over $25,000 in 2017. Sixteen of those had populations under 2.5 million, suggesting that they are not well equipped to take in a large number of refugees. Two countries – Singapore and Hong Kong – are extremely dense leaving little room for further absorption. That meant that there are 39 countries which are theoretically well-situated to take in refugees.
Country
GDP per Capita (2017)
Population demsity (pop / Sq.km.)
immigration percentage
Qatar
$128,647
253
75.5%
Ireland
$76,745
71
15.9%
UAE
$74,035
120
88.4%
Kuwait
$72,096
243
73.6%
Switzerland
$66,307
211
29.4%
Norway
$62,183
17
14.2%
USA
$59,928
36
14.5%
Netherlands
$54,422
410
11.7%
Denmark
$54,356
135
10.1%
Saudi Arabia
$53,893
16
32.3%
Austria
$53,879
108
17.5%
Germany
$52,556
235
14.9%
Sweden
$51,405
23
16.8%
Australia
$49,378
3
28.2%
Belgium
$49,367
381
12.3%
Canada
$46,510
4
21.8%
Finland
$46,344
16
5.7%
United Kingdom
$44,920
281
13.2%
France
$44,033
119
12.1%
Japan
$42,067
334
1.6%
Oman
$41,331
17
41.1%
Italy
$40,924
200
9.7%
New Zealand
$40,748
18
23.0%
Spain
$39,037
92
12.7%
Israel
$38,868
423
24.9%
South Korea
$38,824
512
2.6%
Czech Republic
$38,020
136
3.8%
Lithuania
$33,253
41
4.7%
Portugal
$32,554
110
8.1%
Slovakia
$32,371
111
3.3%
Poland
$29,924
121
1.6%
Malaysia
$29,511
99
8.3%
Hungary
$28,799
104
4.6%
Greece
$28,582
79
11.3%
Turkey
$28,002
109
3.8%
Romania
$26,660
80
1.2%
Kazakhstan
$26,491
7
20.1%
Croatia
$26,296
72
13.6%
Russia
$25,763
9
8.1%
Countries with highest GDP per capita with populations over 2.5 million, showing population density from the World Bank
Reviewing the table above shows that there are four wealthy countries which are sparsely populated which have the ability to easily absorb large numbers of refugees: Australia; Canada; Kazakhstan and Russia. There are eight other countries which also have lots of room: Norway; USA; Saudi Arabia; Sweden; Finland; Oman; New Zealand and Lithuania. Six additional wealthy countries with ample room include: Ireland; Spain; Malaysia; Greece; Romania and Croatia.
Based on the combined factors of wealth and space to settle refugees, the ten bolded countries should assume the lead in absorbing refugees.
A deeper analysis of the wealthiest countries shows an interesting trend regarding welcoming immigrants to their countries. The European countries tend to have a modest level of immigrants, between 10 and 17%, while the oil rich Arab states have extremely high level of immigrant workers, ranging from 40 to 75% of the total population. The wealthy countries with the highest population densities clustered in three groups: Europeans; southeast Asians which have virtually no immigrants, and Israel.
Country
GDP per capita
Population Density (pop per sq. km.)
Immigration Percentage
Belgium
$49,367
381
12.3%
Japan
$42,067
334
1.6%
Israel
$38,868
423
24.9%
South Korea
$38,824
512
2.6%
Israel uniquely has a high immigration rate for dense wealthy countries, according to data from the World Bank
As the world looks to wealthy countries to absorb more refugees and immigrants, it can look at the success of Israel in welcoming newcomers, as it turns to sparsely populated countries like Australia and Canada, homogeneous countries like Ireland, Norway, Sweden and Finland, and Muslim countries including Saudi Arabia and Oman to do their fair share.
The eye-spy game began from the moment the taxi pulled up to the international terminal at the airport. Who else is going to Israel?
The car doors popped open quickly as the airport police pushed people to unload quickly. Eyes scanned the crowd. Who will see someone they know first? The four family members entered the terminal in a tie; zeros all around.
I sensed disappointment from my daughter. It’s Thanksgiving and Chanukah all in one. Where were her peeps?
Arriving the recommended three hours before scheduled departure has both advantages and disadvantages. On the positive side, there’s no time panic in going through the long security process but unfortunately, people-watching was light.
We were directed by airport personnel to join a line quite a distance from the counter. Within five minutes the first familiar faces appeared – a couple we knew from high school going to visit their son studying in Israel for the second year. It became the familiar line of questions among the many people we saw at the gate: Who are you visiting? Where are they studying? Were you able to get in at any time before this during the pandemic?
While Israel led the world in vaccinations, it also cycled through various lockdowns. Some people with immediate family members living in Israel (not just studying in school) were able to come during COVID but others had to wait until now.
It was interesting how many people were coming just to visit family members and how many were combining it with business. Over the past decades, the country emerged as a leading technology powerhouse. It did not suffer the financial meltdown of 2008-9 that caught most of the world, and today its currency stands out as one of the strongest.
We landed at Ben Gurion Airport and met more people we knew as we waited at passport control. The exchanges continued: Mivaseret second year. Netiv Aryeh first year. Harova first year. The line seemed to go quickly.
After picking up luggage we went through a very efficient COVID-19 testing area which was set up to process all inbound visitors and then exited the building to the taxi stand. Visitors congregated outside to welcome guests, including those surprising their parents who came in to visit.
Lines of people going through COVID testing at Ben Gurion Airport, Israel
We headed to Jerusalem to be reunited with our son. It was wonderful having all of the kids together again.
The kids slept while we grabbed morning coffee at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem. Arab and Jewish hotel workers were busy arranging for the morning tourists as we had the place for ourselves. We then went to morning prayers around the corner and got to hear the priestly blessings, a tradition that happens every day, only in the holy land.
Breakfast at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem
Israel is fortunate to be a thriving multi-ethnic democracy with remarkable economy amid a region in freefall. Jews are fortunate to be able to live, learn, visit and pray in the holy land even in the backdrop of a crazy world.
The United Nations called Jerusalem sacred to three religions and convened an interreligious dialogue in Cairo about protecting their holy places. But only Muslim and Christian representatives came. They pretended to discuss the religious interests of three faiths, while using it as an opportunity to blame all religious tension on the Jews not in the…
UNRWA, the controversial UN agency which is solely devoted to the descendants of Palestinian refugees and other local people, held a two day fundraising appeal which began on November 16, 2021. Led by the governments of Jordan and Sweden, they appealed to countries around the world to donate to a temporary agency which was established in 1949.
According to UNRWA, it serviced 5.7 million refugees and 685,000 other people (mainly poor people and those married to descendants of refugees) in the five fields of operation. That means that 10.7% of the UNRWA’s wards are not refugees, even under the exaggerated definition that UNRWA uses. In the West Bank, the numbers are even more stark, where 19.5% of the UNRWA base are “others.” Many of these extra clients are poor Arabs in Jerusalem, as noted in the fine print of the UNRWA report.
UNRWA added services to thousands of poor Arabs in the eastern portion of Jerusalem, resulting in an inflated 19.5% of UNRWA wards in the West Bank being “others” compared to just 10.2% in Gaza.
As evidence of distortion in the West Bank, there are very few students relative to the population, especially compared to Gaza. While the percent of the population below 14 years old is high in both locales at 35.3% and 42.5% in the West Bank and Gaza, respectively, (and 17.4% and 18.0% for 15-24 year olds) only 4.2% of UNRWA’s West Bank wards are in UNRWA schools, while the figure is 17.4% in Gaza – four times the rate! That’s because children in the West Bank have many more options and prefer to stay away from UNRWA’s schools.
UNRWA services 287,000 students in Gaza but only 46,000 in the West Bank. The youth in the West Bank prefer using non-UNRWA schools because they have a choice while there are few options in Gaza.
Despite UNRWA’s schools being unpopular in the West Bank, the agency continues to hire. The pupil-to-student ratio was 20, in sharp contrast to 30 students per teacher in Gaza.
The US Ambassador to the UN may be in on the joke as she tweeted during her visit to a UN school on November 17: “Today, I met with educators and students at Jalazone @UNRWA Girls School in Ramallah. I was inspired by their stories and dreams for the future, and I spoke to UNRWA officials about how to make their work stronger, more efficient, and more accountable.“
Moves of UNRWA to Jerusalem and Wards to Statelessness
For the period of January 1, 2012, UNRWA began to break out the “other” category for the first time. It was also the last year that it published the annual report from Gaza. Starting the following year – a year which saw the US Democratic Party yell at its national convention that it no longer considered Jerusalem as the capital of Israel – it began to publish its report in Jerusalem, as noted at the bottom of the reports.
Over the nine years since this breakout started, the refugees in the West Bank grew from 727,471 to 871,537, a growth of 20%, while the other wards grew from 147,156 to 211,116, a 43% jump – over twice the rate. The situation was even more dramatic in Jordan, where the UNRWA refugee population grew 17% while the other category grew by a whopping 130%. It’s not hard to speculate that people married in to get free services from UNRWA, and the fat agency could funnel cash and services to actual refugees from the Syrian civil war who flooded into Jordan.
The majority of UNRWA’s clientele actually had Jordanian citizenship from the time the agency was founded until 1988. Jordan illegally annexed what is now commonly called the “West Bank” in 1950 and gave all the Arabs there citizenship. Many Arabs moved back-and-forth between Jordan and the West Bank (both part of the original Palestine Mandate) until 1967 when it became harder to do so after Jordan (and West Bankers) attacked Israel and lost the region. Jordan continued to give those Arabs Jordanian citizenship until it withdrew it abruptly in July 1988, making these Arabs stateless.
A total of 55.5% of UNRWA wards would still be Jordanians had the king not removed their citizenship.
Staffing
In 2000, UNRWA had a staff of 22,447 to address a population of 3,806,055, or a staff member for every 170 registered persons. At the end of 2020, the staff was down from immediate prior years due to the Trump administration cutbacks, but up overall to 28,563 staffers for 6,388,887 people, or one staffer per 224 people. By way of comparison, in 2020 the UNHCR global refugee agency had to deal with 76.7 million people fleeing wars far from their homes requiring brand new housing and schools, was staffed by only 17,300 people, or a staffer for every 4,433 real refugees.
UNRWA has operated in the exact same geography with the same people speaking the same language for decades but still has a staff that is 20x the size proportionately of UHCR which has to handle real refugees fleeing across the world requiring everything new.
Summary
UNRWA is grossly over-staffed, especially relative to the global refugee agency that really does need the resources. It inflated its mandate by adding nearly 11% new people to its roster and moved its center to the contested city of Jerusalem and began servicing eastern Jerusalem’s poor Arabs, making the agency yet more politicized. Further, in terms of competence, UNRWA has shown that it is unable to attract students to its schools.
One needn’t look to news stories and editorials about UNRWA’s supporting anti-Semitism, harboring and employing terrorists, redefining “refugees,” extending its mandate and hearing how Arabs are deregistering from UNRWA to realize how disastrous it is. The agency’s own numbers make clear that it is inept and past time to be shut down.
The United Nations has many special agencies and offices devoted uniquely for the Stateless Arabs from Palestine (SAPs), a non-member entity. The most infamous is UNRWA, an agency which gives aid to the descendants of Palestinian refugees and other people who live in the area, which is distinct from the UNHCR which handles every actual refugee fleeing wars around the world. The global body also has an office devoted to Palestinians which is marketed as “Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process (UNSCO).”
At the UN, the “Middle East Peace Process” has nothing to do with giving Israel an iota of security, aid, defense or support. It is solely about giving SAPs money, programming, infrastructure and a new country.
Money, Money, Money
A wonderful example can be seen in the November 17, 2021 UNSCO report. The 15 page report reviewed the financial crisis of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and suggested remedies. Israel was mentioned in the report a few times, mostly in regards to either positive or negative actions it took in relation to the PA economy.
At paragraphs eight and nine, the tension between between Israel and the PA – including fighting in May 2021 and steps taken to reduce tensions – was broached. It was a delayed but welcome sign that the office tasked with “Middle East Peace” would actually discuss the topic and make constructive suggestions. Alas, by paragraph ten – and for the remainder of the document – UNSCO could only describe the financial situation of the PA.
The report laid out its grand view of the core problem (presumably to peace) and then an action plan to address those issues:
“Nevertheless, a piecemeal approach to addressing these challenges, along with a lack of progress on the broader political issues, risks perpetuating a continuous cycle of crisis management. Rather, to stabilize the economic and security situation in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and in and around Gaza, and to strengthen the fiscal situation of the PA and its institutions, a broader framework of engagement—including parallel steps by all parties—needs to be re-established between the Government of Israel, the Palestinian Authority and the international community. This will allow for moving beyond the current impasse and refocusing on building an independent, democratic, contiguous, viable, and sovereign Palestinian State living side-by-side with Israel in peace and security. The present report to the Ad-Hoc Liaison Committee charts out a framework for stabilizing the economic and security situation, undertaking reforms, and promoting development. We propose a three-track approach focusing on initiatives to 1) address the immediate economic and fiscal situation facing the PA and strengthen PA institutions and basic service delivery, 2) solidify the cessation of hostilities and support economic development in Gaza, and 3) generate longer-term economic growth and sustainable livelihoods across the OPT. Some of these initiatives are already underway, but other initiatives need urgent donor support or policy changes from the parties.”
The goal of the report, as highlighted above, is to build a Palestinian State. The three courses of action to achieve such mission are all about supporting the financial condition of 1) the PA, 2) Gaza and 3) the West Bank. The rest of the report provided recommendations for building the PA economy and then appealed for money for Palestinians.
Genocidal Jihadists
With such an approach – throwing additional billions of dollars at Palestinian Arabs – without addressing core issues blocking peace such as systemic antisemitism, denial of Jewish history and rights, incitement to violence and refusal to coexist with Jews, the report from the UN office tasked with Middle East Peace read like a donor appeal pamphlet rather than a roadmap for coexistence.
In regards to pursuing “peace” the report offered the following as hurdles:
“Meaningful progress, however, will be impossible without resolving the broader context: a grim reality of military occupation, violence, internal Palestinian divisions, illegal settlement expansion, demolitions, displacement, settler-related violence, and the ever-present threat of escalation, including rocket attacks by armed groups, in the Gaza Strip. The continued deterioration on the ground threatens not only Palestinian development and the enjoyment of human rights, but also makes building a Palestinian state and achieving a lasting peace more difficult.“
According to the UN office devoted to peace, the obstacles to peace are solely Israeli actions and the division between Fatah and Hamas/ the West Bank and Gaza. The “threat of escalation” towards violence is from unnamed “armed groups in the Gaza Strip.” This is outrageous on multiple levels and speaks to the heart of the failure of the UN to advance peace in the region.
The UN willfully ignores this reality and advocates for throwing money at the anti-Semitic jihadists in the belief that it will make them change their minds and pursue peaceful coexistence.
It’s worse than willful ignorance. It’s a coverup, a sanitization of the core problems.
The report called for aid to Gaza in regards to materials and money in a manner that will avoid “diversions.” The casual phrase the report used twice obfuscates the nefarious actions of Hamas which uses the materials and money to kill Jews.
So it’s actually worse than a coverup. The UN seeks to empower these genocidal jihadists, if not openly and directly, then at least indirectly.
That’s why the report did not name the political-terrorist group Hamas and just generic “armed groups” from Gaza. That’s why it bemoaned the “internal Palestinian divisions.”
It’s a disgrace that in a three step plan for promoting peace, UNSCO did not demand the end of Hamas and the handing over of all its weapons to the PA. Those should be priority items one and two.
Ignoring Israelis, Even Those Murdered by Terrorists
A document and office about peace should have a basic understanding that there are two parties to consider. When writing about children’s trauma from the cycles of violence, the report only discusses the kids in Gaza. What about the kids in Israel who live under the rain of missiles and arson kites overhead and terrorist tunnels underground? Is their safety and trauma not important?
Nothing encapsulates the complete disregard for Israeli lives as much as the discussion in the report around so called “prisoner payments.” These are funds that the PA pays to the families of Arab terrorists who attack Israelis, essentially paying for terror. The US, European Union and other countries have lambasted the PA for this activity which incentivizes violence.
Rather than explicitly call out the noxious incitement, the report notes that Israel’s deduction of tax receipts in the same amount of the terror payments hurts the Palestinian economy!
“From January through June 2021, based on 2018 legislation, Israel was deducting and holding NIS50 million per month from the transfer of clearance revenues delivered to the Palestinian Authority in response to the “prisoners payments.” Starting in July, the monthly deductions were increased to NIS100 million. These monthly deductions represent a significant strain on the Palestinian fiscal situation. The payments made to Palestinian prisoners, their families, or the families of those killed or injured in the context of attacks also greatly complicate Palestinian relations with Israel and key donors. International technical assistance could help the Palestinian Authority instead strengthen its existing cash transfer program that targets the most vulnerable Palestinian households.“
That this report can be published under the title of “peace” by the United Nations is an outrage. It effectively summarized all one needs to know about how the UN views Israeli lives and security. The maimed Israeli civilians are insignificant and not even an worthy of mention. Dead Jewish children are not even an afterthought in the quest to fund Palestinians. The UN is worried about the Arab terrorists “killed or injured in the context of attacks” on Jews, and the financial impact to their families, inverting the perpetrator to a victim, and the Jewish souls to the dustbin.
If the UN wants to promote two states living side-by-side in peace, it should lambast the “prisoner payments,” and pay to fix and strengthen the security fence between Israel and Gaza, as well as the bomb shelters in schools and playgrounds in Israel. It should fund counseling for Israeli children suffering from trauma due to the genocidal jihadists living next door, rather than continue to support those terrorists, thereby adding to the kids’ distress.
Tor Wennesland of UNSCO meeting with Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh. The UNSCO Twitter feed is solely devoted to Palestinians without any meetings or concerns for Israelis.
The Appeal
The report concludes as one would expect – an appeal for money for Palestinians:
“As always, we stand ready to assist the PA with its own ambitious reform and development agenda, as articulated at successive donor meetings and in the renewed National Development Plan. In support of these efforts, the UN will continue consulting with our international partners and with the Palestinian Authority to implement an integrated response strategy to the ongoing crises, such as the framework proposed above.“
UNSCO lost all semblance of being an office to promote peace between two parties and noted that it stands ready to assist only one party – the Palestinian Authority – raise money. That’s what the United Nations has essentially become – a redistribution arm which seeks to boycott Israel and transfer the monies to Palestinians. Is it a surprise that the report lifted from the American Democratic agenda a line “building back better” in its report?
The UN Special Coordinator for Middle East Peace should properly rebrand itself as the UN Coordinator for Palestinian Appeals. It may be more successful at raising more money from countries which have become more open about their own antisemitism and anti-Israel bias, and long ago stopped trying to get Palestinian Arabs to abandon their localized jihadist aspirations.
