Liberal Senators Look to Funnel Money into Gaza

Posted on May 5, 2020 by First.One.Through

On March 26, 2020, a group of six liberal United States senators sent a letter to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Authored by Elizabeth Warren with co-signatories including Bernie Sanders, Chris van Hollen, Jeff Merkley and Sherrod Brown (all even more liberal than Warren), the senators asked for $75 million to be sent to Palestinian territories to fight the coronavirus pandemic. A few days later on March 31st, Warren joined Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley and Barbara Lee in asking ask Pompeo to provide financial relief to the Islamic Republic of Iran. Yes, that same Iran which is the leading state sponsor of terrorism. Those were the only foreign entities which concerned Warren during the pandemic.

On April 2, she got around to caring about a US territory, Puerto Rico.

But Palestinians first.

The letter stated:

“Gaza, with a population of approximately 1.8 million people and one of the most densely populated areas of the world, has a weak public health system, and has been subject to a blockade and border restrictions since 2007…. Given the spread of the coronavirus in the West Bank and Gaza, the extreme vulnerability of the health system in Gaza, and the continued withholding of U.S. aid to the Palestinian people, we are concerned that the Administration is failing to take every reasonable step to help combat this public health emergency in the Palestinian Territories.”

As Joe Biden, would say, this is malarkey.

The public health system in Gaza is run by UNRWA, the United Nations agency specially devoted to Palestinian Arab refugees (now descendants of refugees). It is over-staffed and over-funded relative to the other UN agency, UNHCR, which cares for every other actual refugee in the world fleeing immediate wars and disasters. Under UNRWA, the Palestinian Arabs have longer life expectancy than the Arab and Muslim countries that surround them (they also have the highest literacy and lowest infant mortality rate.)

In regards to the “blockade and border restrictions,” the progressive senators failed to write that it was put in place by America’s ally, Israel, after the terrorist group Hamas took over Gaza. Sworn to Israel’s destruction, that terrorist group has waged three wars against Israel since it took over Gaza. It uses international relief money to stockpile weapons and brainwash children to kill Jews.

It is because a terrorist group controls Gaza, the Palestinian Authority which controls Areas A and B in the West Bank incites and funds violence against Israeli civilians and refuses to come to the peace negotiating table, and that UNRWA abuses its humanitarian mission that the United States has withheld money to the PA and UNRWA – not to the Palestinian people as crafted in Warren’s letter.

In regards to the coronavirus pandemic, Gazans are not so vulnerable. The people are among the youngest in the world, with a median age of 18 (it is 30 in Europe where the pandemic has hit hardest). They also rarely travel due to the blockade.

The statistics prove this out. Forty days after the left-wing senators wrote their appeal to funnel money to Palestinians, only two people in the area have died, in one of the lowest death rates from pandemic, at a rate of 0.4 per 1 million people. Israel has had 237 deaths, a rate of 27 per million or 67 times higher than Palestinians.

Puerto Rico has a death rate from the pandemic of 29 per million people (95 people), almost 75 times the rate of Palestinians.

Elizabeth Warren prioritized sending money to Palestinian Arabs who were never particularly at risk of dying from the coronavirus, before, above and beyond people from Puerto Rico and Israel who have been dying at much higher rates. She also singled out sending money to Iran, a country which calls for the destruction of Israel.

It is a sad state of the priorities of “progressives” in America.

Elizabeth Warren in Las Vegas, Nevada, November 17, 2019.
(photo: Carlo Allegri | Reuters)

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The Joy of Lecturing Jews

Posted on May 4, 2020 by First.One.Through

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio got into hot water with some parts of the Jewish world for chastising the broad community because hundreds of Ultra-Orthodox Jews came out to pay their respects for a rabbi who passed away amid the coronavirus pandemic.

One can agree or disagree with the multitudes coming out to pay respects for the deceased which risked furthering the contagion. The matter at hand is that the far-left progressive mayor had never called out and lectured any religious or minority group, and only “the Jewish community” got scolded with “the time for warnings has passed.”

This is not new. The left has a history of berating Jews as insolent children.

In November 2015, Vice President Joe Biden addressed the Union of Reform Judaism which is headed by far left-wing rabbis. During his remarks, Biden stabbed his finger and lambasted a private Israeli citizen who was being considered for a government position who had made some comments about President Obama years prior, saying “There is no excuse, there should be no tolerance for any member or employee of the Israeli administration referring to the president of United States in derogatory terms. Period, period, period, period!” This attack on old comments of a private citizen came from the same Administration that had just called Israeli Prime Minister a “chicksh*t.”

It’s not broad hypocrisy; it’s quite select and targeted at Jews. The liberal politicians don’t give a second thought to calling out Jews even while they excuse other groups.

When the “progressive” New York Times reported on the de Blasio incident, it wrote “The local police department did not stand in their way, a testament to the Hasidic community’s influence in the Williamsburg neighborhood.” That’s polite liberal speak for Jew’s have power over the police. They’re puppet-masters. An old noxious libel.

New York Times cover story on April 30, 2020 wrote about Jewish “influence” over the police department.

When the far-left news program CNN had Christiane Amanpour interviewing Congresswoman Ilan Omar in January 2019, she asked Omar the following:

“Can I move on to something that is generally sort of a right of passage for politicians in the United States and that is sort of to profess sort of fealty, or at least pay homage, to AIPAC, the pro-Israel PAC that is very, very prominent.”

That’s the largest news program in the world saying that the entirety of Congress serves as vassals for the Israeli lobby.

And it did so without a thought or concern or any backlash.

The liberal press and politicians would never treat the Black, Hispanic or Asian community in such fashion. But the Jews are different. Just ask the United Nations.

The UN has sanctified the absurd Muslim Arab position that Jews living in the Old City of Jerusalem are illegal settlers, even those living in the Jewish Quarter. Every year, the UN passes resolutions calling for the eviction of those Jews who have altered “the character” of Jerusalem, Judaism’s holiest city.

And it’s not just about the land the Jews live on – it’s the Jewish people themselves. The UN targets “Islamophobia” and has demanded that terrorism never be linked to any religion – unless it’s the religion of the Jews. The UN avoids saying “Islamic radicals” but is fine calling out “Jewish extremists.”

While one can understand the 50+ Muslim and Arab nations pushing such drivel, it defies logic that liberal countries do not come out forcefully against the invective.

Reasons for Open Progressive Disdain of Jews

Some people argue that the Democrats can abuse the Jews because the Jews are forever loyal, with between 64% and 80% voting for the Democratic nominee every presidential election. That argument falls flat. The black community is much more loyal to the Democratic party but will never be ridiculed and slandered in public like Jews.

There are three primary reasons behind progressives only attacking Jews:

Jews lack cohesion found in other minorities
Jews are viewed as a privileged class
Jews will forever be a small niche group

Jews Lack Cohesion

If someone takes a shot at a Black person, the entire Black community rallies in collective support. Even Blacks who thought OJ Simpson was guilty of murder were thrilled that he was found not guilty. When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke before a joint session of Congress about the Iran deal, Blacks around the country didn’t pause about the existential threat facing Israel but considered the snub of a Black president.

The Black community is cohesive and sees the world through a particular Black lens. But not so for the Jews.

Liberal Jews – particularly non-Orthodox ones – see themselves primarily as progressives and Jews secondarily. For them, Judaism is a value system based on “Tikkun Olam,” so any action that feels “progressive” is inherently Jewish to them, even if it abuses fellow Jews. They will rally to support hateful comments made by “progressives” like Ilan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, even while the rest of the Jewish community feels hurt and abused.

There is no cohesive Jewish community as exists for other minorities. Without cohesion, it’s easy to borrow the fig leaf of liberal Jews who will absolve any charge of antisemitism. So when Obama trashed the Jewish State, J Street came out with the liberal shield; when he ignored antisemitism as the motivation of Muslim terrorists shooting up a kosher supermarket, liberals swarmed to the defense of their true savior.

Consider that Biden attacked a private Jewish Israeli – to a Jewish audience! And the alt-left Jews stood and cheered! Would any politician ever consider going into a minority forum and loudly criticize a member of that minority group? Never. Unless they knew that the comments would be warmly embraced, which could only happen among progressive Jews.

Jews are Privileged

Progressives rally to minorities and groups considered under-privileged and even more so in today’s world of “intersectionality”. Liberals are animated and engaged in situations where they feel empathy, which directs their attention to those doing poorly.

The Black, Hispanic and LGBT communities are viewed by liberals as suffering from discrimination embedded in the fabric of society (the fact the Jews suffer hate crimes much more than these groups is neither acknowledged nor internalized). These marginalized groups WANT to be part of society but have been shut out.

But liberals – including Jewish liberals – see Jews in three camps: the rich bankers and CEO’s who must be pulled down to flatten society, the Ultra-Orthodox Jews who hate gays, decided to have too many kids and who DON’T WANT to be part of society, and open-minded progressives whose Judaism is solely cultural. They hate the first two categories and embrace the third as comrades.

Biden had no qualms chiding a private Israeli citizen or the government of Israel for building in their holiest city because he thinks that the Jewish State is a unique kind of ally – one already fat from America. The price for American support is to shut up, stop complaining and do what the liberals demand, like a parent directing an out of control child. There’s no liberal empathy for this rich and powerful country, a position completely at odds with Conservatives who see Israel as a powerful trust-worthy ally in an important and volatile region.

For its part, the United Nations thinks it created Israel and failed to deliver a Palestinian state so has adopted the Palestinian Arabs as eternal wards. This combination enables the liberal European nations in the global organization to think Israel has too much relative to Palestinian Arabs and warps their orientation.

The Future of Small Numbers

Politics has always been a game of numbers. At the UN, would you rather gain the votes of dozens of Muslim and Arab countries or a single Jewish State? In bilateral negotiations, would you rather market your products to 1.8 billion Muslims or 14 million Jews?

For liberal politicians, the dynamic is magnified by the desire to “equitize” society by flattening the distribution of everything. A niche group which accounts for 0.2% of the global population but 20% of the Nobel prizes is not viewed as CONTRIBUTING disproportionately to the world but TAKING disproportionately. Liberals want to see other groups gaining ground at the expense of these niche “takers.”

When de Blasio rethinks education in New York, he thinks about how to get more Black and Hispanic kids into good high schools and college, not Jews. When Jews ask for police protection for their schools, the liberal crowd goes nuts and does everything they can to shut it down with demands that Jews pay for their own protection and not take from minority public school kids.

Hispanics and Blacks make up 18.3% and 13.4% of the US population, respectively, and those percentages are growing. The Muslim population will surpass the Jews in the United States by 2040 according to Pew Research, doubling in size from today, while the Jewish population will barely budge, to fall below 2% of the population.

Progressives falsely market themselves as looking out for minorities. They are actually seeking an equality of outcome in a broad redistribution revolution. People of color and Muslims are their focus and their pathway to power because of the VOLUME of people and votes. Tapping into Muslim anti-Zionism with Israel bashing and ignoring Black antisemitism are fruitful ways to advance their alt-left agenda. Losing a handful of Jewish votes is easy arithmetic.

The left-wing politicians and media chastise Jews without fear as progressive diaphanous-Jews deflect any criticism. The liberal members of the United Nations abstain or vote for voluminous and venomous resolutions against the Jewish State in an appeal to the vast Muslim market. And who doesn’t enjoy taking the chosen people down a peg or two?

The Jews are forever privileged, small and lacking in unity. Easy targets for progressive politicians to berate and liberal media to vilify in their appeal to the growing audience seeking an intersectional revolution.

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Hamas Charter, Articles 19 and 20

Posted on May 2, 2020 by First.One.Through

The Hamas Charter pivoted into new terrain in the middle of its charter in Articles nineteen and twenty.

The Role of Islamic Art in the Battle of Liberation:

Article Nineteen:

Art has regulations and measures by which it can be determined whether it is Islamic or pre-Islamic (Jahili) art. The issues of Islamic liberation are in need of Islamic art that would take the spirit high, without raising one side of human nature above the other, but rather raise all of them harmoniously an in equilibrium.

Man is a unique and wonderful creature, made out of a handful of clay and a breath from Allah. Islamic art addresses man on this basis, while pre-Islamic art addresses the body giving preference to the clay component in it.

The book, the article, the bulletin, the sermon, the thesis, the popular poem, the poetic ode, the song, the play and others, contain the characteristics of Islamic art, then these are among the requirements of ideological mobilization, renewed food for the journey and recreation for the soul. The road is long and suffering is plenty. The soul will be bored, but Islamic art renews the energies, resurrects the movement, arousing in them lofty meanings and proper conduct. “Nothing can improve the self if it is in retreat except shifting from one mood to another.”

All this is utterly serious and no jest, for those who are fighters do not jest.

Social Mutual Responsibility:

Article Twenty:

Moslem society is a mutually responsible society. The Prophet, prayers and greetings be unto him, said: “Blessed are the generous, whether they were in town or on a journey, who have collected all that they had and shared it equally among themselves.”

The Islamic spirit is what should prevail in every Moslem society. The society that confronts a vicious enemy which acts in a way similar to Nazism, making no differentiation between man and woman, between children and old people – such a society is entitled to this Islamic spirit. Our enemy relies on the methods of collective punishment. He has deprived people of their homeland and properties, pursued them in their places of exile and gathering, breaking bones, shooting at women, children and old people, with or without a reason. The enemy has opened detention camps where thousands and thousands of people are thrown and kept under sub-human conditions. Added to this, are the demolition of houses, rendering children orphans, meting cruel sentences against thousands of young people, and causing them to spend the best years of their lives in the dungeons of prisons.

In their Nazi treatment, the Jews made no exception for women or children. Their policy of striking fear in the heart is meant for all. They attack people where their breadwinning is concerned, extorting their money and threatening their honour. They deal with people as if they were the worst war criminals. Deportation from the homeland is a kind of murder.

To counter these deeds, it is necessary that social mutual responsibility should prevail among the people. The enemy should be faced by the people as a single body which if one member of it should complain, the rest of the body would respond by feeling the same pains.

While Article Nineteen of the charter was poetic in calling for the use of Islamic art in Islamic liberation, Article Twenty veered into the belly of a satanic beast calling Israel by the name of a government that executed Jews without pause or mercy.

Over and again Hamas called Jews “a vicious enemy which acts in a way similar to Nazism.” The vile antisemitc charter said Jews place Arabs in “detention camps” and have policies of “shooting at women, children and old people, with or without a reason,” particularly “where their breadwinning is concerned.”

And the Palestinian Arabs elected Hamas to 58% of the parliament with this charter, the United Nations pushes for Hamas to be part of a unity government, and the media talks of “Islamic resistance” as a peaceful and natural endeavor.

Haj Amin al-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, visiting Nazi Germany in 1943

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HSBC Blocks Payments to US-Designated Terrorist Organization Fundraiser, Interpal

Posted on May 1, 2020 by First.One.Through

Multilateral and bilateral relations are being pushed and pulled like never before and influencing not only countries but companies and charities as well.

HSBC, the giant United Kingdom-headquartered bank recently announced that it would stop making payments to Interpal, a group which describes itself as a “non-political charity working to support the most vulnerable and support Palestinian communities.” The charity is considered legal according to UK law.

But not for the United States.

The Palestinian Arab group HAMAS is designated by the United States State Department as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) and in an effort to cripple it financially, the US Treasury Department assembled its own list of groups which direct money to HAMAS and other terrorist organizations. The infamous Holy Land Foundation (US-based) was on the list for funding HAMAS and consequently shut down. A few internationally based charities are also on the list, including Interpal, also based in the UK.

In response to HSBC halting payments to Interpal, the organization released a statement on April 26, 2020 slamming the bank for “appeas[ing] those who act on behalf of an alien state,” seemingly calling the United States “an alien state.” The charge suggests that the US may have pressured HSBC to stop facilitating payments to Interpal or risk its operation in the US where it has over 200 branches. However, in other Interpal materials, Interpal claims that the Israeli government pushed the US Treasury to label it an FTO in 2003, meaning that Interpal’s use of “alien state” may be directed towards Israel.

Interpal logo, which includes the entirety of Israel, Gaza and the West Bank

At play are two dynamics: countries arriving at different conclusions about whether a group is an FTO, and using pressure to exact the results one wants.

Terrorist Groups and Their Supporters

The UK has taken a “nuanced” approach to Hamas in that it labels the military wing, the Izz al-Din al-Qassem Brigades, as a terrorist group but not the branch which handles community services. As such, it allows funds to flow to the charitable arm of Hamas.

For its part, the United States makes no distinction between the branches of Hamas. The US Treasury states:

“HAMAS raises tens of millions of dollars per year throughout the world using charitable fundraising as cover. While HAMAS may provide money for legitimate charitable work, this work is a primary recruiting tool for the organization’s militant causes. HAMAS relies on donations from Palestinian expatriates around the world and private benefactors located in moderate Arab states, Western Europe and North America. HAMAS uses a web of charities to facilitate funding and to funnel money. Charitable donations to non-governmental organizations are commingled, moved between charities in way that hide the money trail, and are then often diverted or siphoned to support terrorism.”

Interpal objects to being characterized as supporting Hamas directly, and states it simply aids the people whom Hamas also supports, similar to UNRWA. But it is generally clear how the UK would consider funding part of Hamas as legal while the US would not, let alone the murky work of providing similar services to the same people, often at the same time and place.

Political Pressure

The United States has been waging a global war on terror since the attacks on America on September 11, 2001. To be effective, it enlisted the world to help root out terrorist groups, including the United Kingdom.

The United Nations has also recognized the role that money plays in terrorism. The UN Security Council Resolution 2462 (2019) specifically called for all states to “prevent and suppress the financing of terrorist acts and to refrain from providing support to those involved in them.” While the UNSC called out ISIS and al-Qeda, it did not list other groups like Hamas. As such, there was room for countries to arrive at different conclusions about whether groups are terrorists and charities which support them should be targeted.

While every country must be able to define for itself the contours of acceptability, when allies disagree on something as fundamental and critical as terrorism, there will certainly be cause for aggressive actions and angry responses.

Interpal

While Interpal may claim to be a non-political humanitarian organization, casting itself as handing out aid to the indigent, it has a very active anti-Israel agenda.

It has a division committed to “advocacy,” taking up 10 per cent of its budget, which bashes Israel in international fora. It repeatedly refers to Israel in the most ugly terms while casting Palestinian Arabs as innocent victims.

As an example of its distorted view, it wrote in its 2019 brochure about a hospital in Gaza during the 2014 war:

“During the 2014 Israeli assault on Gaza, staff and patients at El Wafa hospital in Shujaiya were forced to evacuate after the Israeli army shelled the hospital on 17th July…. Interpal is proud to support El Wafa’s staff.”

Left out from this tidbit is that Hamas terrorists were firing into Israeli civilian areas from the hospital and Israel responded first with a “tap” to get people to evacuate before hitting the missile launching pad.

Interpal’s horrible anti-Israel bias is its own business and the group is entitled to its own opinion. The vile anti-Zionist perspective infects many and does automatically mean that they all actively support terrorists.

But to state that Interpal is an apolitical humanitarian group is a bit laughable, especially with a logo which covers the entirety of Israel.

To be a co-sponsor of events in Gaza under the watch of Hamas and then be shocked when antisemitic plays occur is to play naive. Hamas has ruled Gaza since 2007 and its antisemitic charter calling for a death to Jews and destruction of Israel is available to all.

Interpal has been investigated and cleared of supporting terrorism, which goes to the heart of the matter here: should one country be able to pressure another to follow its lead in the designation of a terrorist group? What about the actions of companies domiciled in those countries?

The global war on terror demands it while the urgency for political independence abhors it.

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UNRWA Artificially Extends Its Mandate

Posted on April 29, 2020 by First.One.Through

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) was created in December 1948 as a temporary agency to handle shelter, medical assistance and education for the roughly 700,000 Arabs who left what became Israel. Over seventy years later it continues to artificially extend its mandate.

UNRWA’s term was to end “at the earliest practicable date,” as outlined in UN General Assembly Resolution 194 which stated in article 11:

“RESOLVES 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;

INSTRUCTS the Conciliation Commission to facilitate the repatriation, resettlement and economic and social rehabilitation of the refugees and the payment of compensation, and to maintain close relations with the Director of the United Nations Relief for Palestine Refugees and, through him, with the appropriate organs and agencies of the United Nations;”

In December 1949 the UN General Assembly issued Resolution 302 which built upon the nature of UNRWA while also making clear the desire to end its existence quickly as stated in article 5:

“Recognizes that, without prejudice to the provisions of paragraph 11 of General Assembly resolution 194 (III) of 11 December 1948, continued assistance for the relief of the Palestine refugees is necessary to prevent conditions of starvation and distress among them and to further conditions of peace and stability, and that constructive measures should be undertaken at an early date with a view to the termination of international assistance for relief;”

One would imagine a primary focus of UNRWA would have been to help the Arabs learn to live in peace to facilitate their “repatriation.” Not so much.

The war waged by five Arab countries to destroy Israel in 1948-9 continued with cross-border skirmishes and wars leading to the 1967 war which all made clear that the refugees had no interest in living “at peace with their [Israeli] neighbours.” Consequently, no Arab refugees came to Israel, UNRWA continued to roll along and millions of dollars of international assistance continued to flow.

Only with the Oslo Accords in 1993 and 1995 did the Palestinian leadership express a willingness to recognize Israel. As such, Israel gave the newly-created Palestinian Authority the Gaza Strip and several towns in Judea and Samaria called “Area A.” However, the new reality that Gaza was under the rule of the Palestinian Authority made no impact on UNRWA which maintained that its mission continued until the refugees (at this point descendants of refugees who were born in Gaza) move into their ancestors’ towns in Israel. Seemingly, being under Palestinian rule was irrelevant to UNRWA’s term.

But in a pivot of mental gymnastics, UNRWA now claims that its mandate will continue until a Palestinian state is established.

Consider the virtual get-together on April 22, 2020 of the Second Ministerial Strategic Dialogue on UNRWA. The participants underlined that:

“UNRWA must continue to operate in fulfillment of its UN mandate until a durable and just solution to the Palestine refugee issue is found in accordance with international law and relevant UN resolutions, including UN General Assembly resolution 194, and within the context of a comprehensive solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict on the basis of the two-state solution.“

UNRWA’s original mission was to help displaced people until they returned to their homes or were compensated. No longer. It first extended its mission to assist refugees in the physical return to homes, a partisan action which was never part of its mandate. It has now conditioned its term on the creation of a Palestinian state, further inserting itself as a highly biased political entity.

Entrance to UNRWA’s Aida refugee camp near Bethlehem portrayed as a keyhole with a key on top, demonstrating that the pathway to ancestors’ homes is via UNRWA.

There are many reasons to terminate UNRWA and fold it into the general United Nations agency which handles refugees around the world. There are ever-increasing reasons to starve UNRWA of all funding and donations as well.

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For Ramadan and Israel’s Independence Day, Palestinians and Israelis Call For Jewish Prayer on The Temple Mount

Posted on April 28, 2020 by First.One.Through

Unfortunately, just a dream.

On April 28, 2020, as Israelis marked the solemn day of mourning for 23,816 soldiers killed in wars against Arab nations which refused to accept the country’s existence, and another 4,166 victims of terrorist attacks at the hands of Arabs who could not coexist with Jews, The New York Times wrote about a group of Palestinians and Israelis who chose to mark that day with a call for peace.

The Times piece “Palestinians and Israelis Use Mourning to Mull Peace,” described how several tens of thousands of Israelis and Palestinian Arabs came together online in a grassroots call for peace. It was written as a note for optimism in the face of mourning. The Times said that the United Nations Middle East envoy “praised the participants in the alternative ceremony.” An interesting choice of words, suggesting that mourning for the murdered is inconsistent with desiring peace. Is Israel’s Memorial Day uniquely offensive to the world and the “alternative” is praise-worthy?

I would be more optimistic if tens of thousands of Arabs used the Palestinian Authority’s “Independence Day” holiday on November 15 in such a vocal support of peace with Israel.

I would be encouraged if tens of thousands of Muslims would use Eid al-Adha, the holiday marking the day that Abraham – the father of Jews, Arabs and monotheism – went to offer his son at the place that became the cornerstone of the Jewish Temple, as a call to welcome Jewish brothers onto the Temple Mount so they could once again pray at the holiest place for Judaism.

I would be excited if hundreds of thousands of Palestinian Arabs would use this time of Ramadan and the 72nd anniversary of Israel’s independence, to acknowledge the Jewish people’s history and rights to live throughout the holy land and call for the Palestinian Authority to abolish the law for capital punishment for any Arab that sells land to a Jew.

Until then, using this day of pain for the Jewish State as a cheap marketing ploy to wash the blood from the hands of Arab murderers to absolve their culpability is yet one more layer of callousness by the participants, the United Nations and The New York Times.

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Hamas Charter, Articles 17 and 18

Posted on April 23, 2020 by First.One.Through

Articles Seventeen and Eighteen of the Hamas Charter speak to the role women should play in Palestinian society. More specifically, how Muslim women should fight for the liberation of Palestine.

The Role of the Moslem Woman:

Article Seventeen:

The Moslem woman has a role no less important than that of the moslem man in the battle of liberation. She is the maker of men. Her role in guiding and educating the new generations is great. The enemies have realised the importance of her role. They consider that if they are able to direct and bring her up they way they wish, far from Islam, they would have won the battle. That is why you find them giving these attempts constant attention through information campaigns, films, and the school curriculum, using for that purpose their lackeys who are infiltrated through Zionist organizations under various names and shapes, such as Freemasons, Rotary Clubs, espionage groups and others, which are all nothing more than cells of subversion and saboteurs. These organizations have ample resources that enable them to play their role in societies for the purpose of achieving the Zionist targets and to deepen the concepts that would serve the enemy. These organizations operate in the absence of Islam and its estrangement among its people. The Islamic peoples should perform their role in confronting the conspiracies of these saboteurs. The day Islam is in control of guiding the affairs of life, these organizations, hostile to humanity and Islam, will be obliterated.

Article Eighteen:

Woman in the home of the fighting family, whether she is a mother or a sister, plays the most important role in looking after the family, rearing the children and embuing them with moral values and thoughts derived from Islam. She has to teach them to perform the religious duties in preparation for the role of fighting awaiting them. That is why it is necessary to pay great attention to schools and the curriculum followed in educating Moslem girls, so that they would grow up to be good mothers, aware of their role in the battle of liberation.

She has to be of sufficient knowledge and understanding where the performance of housekeeping matters are concerned, because economy and avoidance of waste of the family budget, is one of the requirements for the ability to continue moving forward in the difficult conditions surrounding us. She should put before her eyes the fact that the money available to her is just like blood which should never flow except through the veins so that both children and grown-ups could continue to live.

“Verily, the Moslems of either sex, and the true believers of either sex, and the devout men, and the devout women, and the men of veracity, and the women of veracity, and the patient men, and the patient women, and the humble men, and the humble women, and the alms-givers of either sex who remember Allah frequently; for them hath Allah prepared forgiveness and a great reward.” (The Confederates – verse 25).

Hamas states that women should stay at home doing “housekeeping matters”, and to raise children teaching them jihad against the “Zionist” enemy in “the battle of liberation.” Muslim women must be careful to not spend too much of her family’s money which she should treat “just like blood” and to not be swayed by “conspiracies of the [Zionist] saboteurs” who try to pull them and their families “far from Islam.”

With such a progressive and peaceful agenda, it is no surprise that leading progressive Muslim women in America support Hamas. (sarcasm)

Proud mother of Palestinian “Shahid,” living the values of Hamas

Related First One Through articles:

Empowering Women… To Murder

The Proud Fathers of Palestinian Terrorists

The Shrapnel of Intent

On Killing Terrorists

The War Against Israel and Jewish Civilians

The Hamas Charter, Chapter and Verse. #10

The Palestinians aren’t “Resorting to Violence”; They are Murdering and Waging War

Extreme and Mainstream. Germany 1933; West Bank & Gaza Today

Pick Your Jihad; Choose Your Infidel

Videos from Palestinian Media Watch and MEMRI:

Mother of Palestinian “Martyr”: All Palestinian Mothers Should Urge Their Children to Wage Jihad

Palestinian mothers celebrate their children’s death as “Martyrs”

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The Building’s Auschwitz Tattoo

Posted on April 21, 2020 by First.One.Through

I came with my parents to Vienna on a heritage trip to see where my grandparents lived and my mother was born before they fled the city in December 1938, just after Kristallnacht.

My grandmother passed away twenty years before the trip when I was a young adult. I remember her telling me about her beautiful apartment just off of Ringstrasse, the famous street that looped through the center of town. She spoke of her governess, her walks in the mountains with her classmates at the edge of the city and the wonderful life the family had.

She had also spoken fondly of Kaiser Franz Josef, of whom I knew nothing. Only years after she died in preparing for the trip did I look him up to see that he was the emperor in Austria when she moved to Vienna as a young child. I audibly gasped when I saw that my grandmother had the same name as one of the emperor’s daughters, and was further shocked to see that my Grandma named my mother after the Archduchess’s daughter.

I was both excited and curious to see her city.

My parents, sisters and I stayed at a hotel on Taborstrasse where my grandmother’s eldest sister had a shoe store before the war. That side of the canal had wide buildings but narrow streets which made it feel more residential than the more regal side of the canal which had the Ringstrasse, the opera house and famous hotels. This neighborhood continues to house most of the city’s Jews – about 8,000 today – and kosher restaurants. It was also around the corner from my grandmother’s first apartment where she lived until her marriage.

We walked to the building, entered the open front door and climbed the stairs of the very wide and somewhat worn large building. In the 1910’s and 1920’s, this building housed many of my grandmother’s relatives, as she was the youngest of thirteen and many siblings married and got apartments right next to the family.

We knocked on the apartment door and explained to the older couple living there why we had come to visit. They were very welcoming and showed us around the small apartment and balcony which had views of the surrounding buildings.

We then continued across the canal to the more affluent side of central Vienna where my grandparents moved after they were married. The stories I heard in my youth led me to believe that my grandparents lived along the Danube River, but the address made clear that their home was actually along a canal which weaved through the city center. At first we walked on the grand Ringstrasse to get to the apartment but it was clear from a map that walking along the canal would be more direct and switched course.

We were all very excited to find the apartment. It was a large corner building with floors which must have been at least twenty feet tall. The first floor of the building on the canal front had a restaurant and retail stores, while the side street was completely residential.

We located the buzzer to her apartment and saw that it was now a law firm. The receptionist seemed nonplussed by our request to come up and buzzed us in.

It was at that moment when we saw the etching in the large wooden double-doors: Jew.

Our excitement melted. The fabricated images of my grandmother’s happy years living in Vienna were washed away by the reason she left.

I rubbed my fingers along each letter to consider whether the vandalism was recent or historic. The engraving was deeper than the surface but not deep through the wood. There was no sawdust or sharp edge to the ‘J’ which was carved the deepest.

Did my grandparents see this? Did my grandmother come home one day after pushing my mother in a stroller along the canal in mid-1938, just after the Nazis were welcomed into Austria in the Anschluss to see that someone was watching her? This fancy apartment was only a quarter of a mile away as the crow flies from her first apartment in the Jewish section of town: was it the local Viennese people who didn’t want her in the neighborhood?

We pushed the thoughts away, entered the building and rode the ornate elevator to the third floor.

The receptionist let us into the apartment and allowed us to roam. The apartment took up most of the floor including the whole front of the building overlooking the canal. We checked out each room, now reconfigured from a very large apartment for four people to a law firm to handle twenty, almost none of whom were present. While many of the walls were original, I could not imagine where or how my grandparents, mother and uncle lived in the space. Only the dining room which served as a large board room provided a seamless setting for the ghosts of my grandparents.

We thanked the receptionist and left.

I stopped at the front door of the building again and took a picture. And then a few more.

Was antisemitism still breathing in Vienna? Was it embedded into the fabric of the city, to emerge as pogroms now and again? In the 1420’s the city’s residents confiscated the Jews’ possessions, burned 200 Jewish adults at the stake and converted the children to Christianity. Under the guide of the cross or orders of the Fuhrer, the city seemed ripe for a match to incinerate its Jews.

My grandparents survived the Holocaust by fleeing Europe a few weeks after the Nazis burned their city’s synagogues and Jewish stores in November 1938. While some of my grandmother’s siblings did not leave and died in the Holocaust, I had never considered my mother or grandparents “Survivors” as they did not go into the concentration camps or have numbers tattooed on their arms like some of my friend’s parents. My grandmother spoke with such love of Vienna, not of pain and torture.

But indeed there was a tattoo. Not on her body, but on the place that she loved.

While the Nazis stole the humanity from Jews tattooing their bodies with numbers, they also marked her home and city. She was not Viennese at all. She was a Jew.

That is the heritage of the Jews of Europe.

More than the government-placed plaque marking the place where the city burned its Jews 600 years ago and the commissioned sculpture of a Jew on his knees scrubbing the streets 80 years ago, the markings on the walls by the people of Vienna reveal the hatred that enabled the slaughters to take place.

I came to Vienna excited to see my grandmother’s city, only to discover it was never hers at all.

Related First One Through articles:

Austria’s View of Kristallnacht

Wearing Our Beliefs

Watching Jewish Ghosts

The Termination Shock of Survivors

The Holocaust Will Not Be Colorized. The Holocaust Will Be Live.

The Long History of Dictating Where Jews Can Live Continues

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Conditional U.S. Support in The Middle East

Posted on April 20, 2020 by First.One.Through

In late 2019, some Democratic candidates for president stated that they would condition American support for Israel with Israel’s behavior regarding Palestinian Arabs. Former Vice President Joe Biden considered the suggestion made by Senator Bernie Sanders (as well as Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttigieg) to be “bizarre.”

Biden seemed to further cement his position of not compromising on military aid to Israel in a recorded message to an AIPAC conference on March 1, 2020 when he reiterated that “I will never boycott [Israel]…. Israel must be able to defend itself. It’s not just critical for Israel’s security, I believe it is critical for America’s security.”

As Biden tries to court the Sanders supporters who are highly critical of Israel, it remains to be seen how far Biden will tilt towards the anti-Israel stance of Team Sanders who demand a boycott of Jewish homes and businesses east of the Green Line and funneling Israeli military aid towards rebuilding Gaza.

To appreciate the “bizarre” Sanders conditional approach to Israel, consider America’s approach to the Middle East overall.

American Blood

The United States has thousands of troops deployed throughout the Persian Gulf.

Country	U.S. Troops	Operations
Bahrain	5,000	Headquarters of the U.S. Fifth Fleet and U.S. Naval Forces Central Command (USNAVCENT)
Qatar	10,000	Home to the Al Udeid Air Base, which includes the forward headquarters of U.S. Air Forces Central Command (AFCENT)
Saudi Arabia	2,500	Prince Sultan Air Base
Kuwait	14,500	U.S. uses Camp Arifjan, Camp Buehring, Ali Al Salem Air Field and the naval base Camp Patriot
Iraq	6,000	Remaining troops after Operation Inherent Resolve to fight ISIS
Oman	600	Relatively small footprint
UAE	5,500	Al Dhafra Air Base hosts several U.S. fighter, attack and reconnaissance aircraft of the U.S. 380th Air Expeditionary Wing.

There are over 225,000 U.S. troops stationed abroad but the United States has no permanent base in Israel and no troops are stationed there. Based on the shared principles of democracy and trust, the United States relies on Israel as a partner in the region and supplies it military aid to defend itself.

The figures of American dead and wounded reflect these facts. The data below is from October 2001 to April 18, 2020 from the U.S. Department of Defense:

Military Operation	Killed	Wounded
Iraqi Freedom	4,431	31,994
New Dawn (Afghanistan)	74	298
Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan)	2,353	20,149
Inherent Resolve (ISIS)	96	224
Freedom’s Sentinel (Afghanistan)	92	570
	7,046	53,235

No Americans have died protecting Israel.

In June 1996, a truck bombing killed 19 Americans at the Khobar Towers barracks near Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.Credit…U.S. Navy, via Associated Press

Treasure

The United States spent roughly $2 trillion to fight wars in Iraq and has spent over $2.5 trillion fighting in Afghanistan. It has spent tens of billions of dollars maintaining its various bases throughout the Persian Gulf and supporting and protecting the Arab and Muslim Persian Gulf countries.

In Egypt, the United States has provided over $40 billion in military aid and $30 billion in economic assistance since 1980. The United States also provides over $1 billion of aid to Jordan every year, in addition to billions of dollars of loan guarantees.

In total, the United States has spent roughly $5 trillion since 2001 on countries in the Middle East, excluding Israel. Almost all of that money has been expenses to stabilize failing regimes and protect U.S. interests. There has been almost no investment in technology development to advance the U.S. military.

However, when it comes to Israel, the United States has benefited from an INVESTMENT in a close ally. As described by the U.S. State Department,

“Israel has long been, and remains, America’s most reliable partner in the Middle East. Israel and the United States are bound closely by historic and cultural ties as well as by mutual interests.”

The U.S. gives Israel over $3 billion per year in military assistance, much of which is spent procuring American products. Israel shares the technological advancements that it develops to enhance America’s military capabilities. In total, the U.S. has given Israel roughly 1/80th of the funds it has spent on the rest of the Middle East, while receiving over 80 times the benefits in technological advancement.

Conditionality

The United States has spent $5 trillion this century on Middle Eastern countries that do not share American values, yet the progressive wing of the Democratic Party has been mum.

Saudi Arabia, a major trading partner, executes minors – in public. It kills people for basic human rights like converting religion. It executes men for engaging in homosexual sex (it only beats woman who are lesbians). Women are forbidden to drive and cannot leave the house without a male escort or approval.

No one seems to care.

Qatar and the United Arab Emirates also have a death penalty for apostasy, converting from Islam. Kuwait, Oman and the UAE have capital punishment for people dealing in drugs. The Palestinian Authority has capital punishment for Arabs who sell land to Jews.

Yet there have been no calls from Sanders or other Democratic Socialists to condition aid to these countries which KILL people for basic human rights. There are over 70 countries – mostly Arab and Muslim – which consider homosexuality a crime, and there is not a peep about placing any conditions on trade and assistance.

The singling out of Israel for allowing a basic human right of a family living in a home and protecting itself from missiles is both hypocritical and antisemitic. Threatening to withhold or divert military aid to Israel which directly benefits American security interests while saying nothing to spending 80 times as much on Arab and Muslim countries is insane. And putting thousands of American lives in danger for backwards regimes while denying Israel the ability to protect Israeli and American interests with ITS OWN SOLDIERS is outright un-American.

Team Sanders and the Democratic Socialists of America including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib should not be allowed on any foreign policy committee or have any hand in crafting the Democratic Platform. They are dangers to America on multiple levels.

Related First One Through articles:

Bernie Sanders’ Antisemitic and Anti-Zionist Friends

Bernie Sanders is Less Sophisticated Than Forrest Gump

Bernie Sanders is the Worst U.S. Presidential Candidate for Israel Ever

Ramat Shlomo, Jerusalem and Joe Biden

Posted on April 18, 2020 by First.One.Through

In March 2010, Vice President Joe Biden visited Israel with the hope of pushing the Palestinians and Israelis towards a peace agreement. A 10-month settlement freeze which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced in November 2009 was just drawing to an end with no engagement by the Palestinian Authority over the duration, but Biden was trying to move the parties forward.

Not long after he arrived, Israel announced the advancement of 1,600 homes in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo which is located north of the 1949 Armistice Lines. In response, Biden scolded Israel, saying “I condemn the decision by the government of Israel to advance planning for new housing units in East Jerusalem.” The statement using “condemn” was shocking, as it is normally only used regarding terrorism. Netanyahu’s 10-month freeze also never included any construction in any part of Jerusalem, so the Israeli activity was not surprising.

Further, it is important to understand Ramat Shlomo.

Ramat Shlomo, Jerusalem

Ramat Shlomo is not a vacant plot of land, it is not privately owned by Arabs and it is not located in the middle of Judea and Samara / the West Bank. It is an established Jewish neighborhood in Jerusalem.

This “East Jerusalem” neighborhood is located northWEST of Hebrew University which was built in 1925.
It is located southWEST of Pisgat Ze’ev, the second largest neighborhood in Jerusalem and just next to Ramat Alon, the largest neighborhood
it is located northWEST of the Jewish Temple Mount, Judaism’s holiest location
It is located just on the other side of Highway 1 from Mobileye, a company which Intel bought for over $15 billion

The population in Ramat Shlomo is mostly ultra-Orthodox, and include Chabad and Litvish communities. The neighborhood has a median age among the youngest in Jerusalem and highest birth rates. Yet from 2006 to 2017, the population of Ramat Shlomo was flat at around 14,700 people. The lack of new homes and flat population growth despite the high birth rates meant that families actually had to leave their neighborhood. The Jerusalem Institute noted “The highest negative migration balance in relation to the size of the neighborhood’s population was recorded in Ramat Shlomo.”

Things finally turned around in 2018 with 500 new apartments commencing construction, the most in Jerusalem according to the Jerusalem Institute. The neighborhood also had the largest voter turnout for municipal elections in 2018, with 83% of eligible voters, indicating a highly engaged populace.

As the U.S. presidential election season moves into high gear, people will consider Biden’s relationship with Israel and the 2010 Ramat Shlomo incident will surely be discussed. It is therefore worth reviewing how Biden’s highly critical comments slowed the natural growth of that residential Jewish neighborhood in Jerusalem for many years until just recently.

Related First One Through articles:

Time to Define Banning Jews From Living Somewhere as Antisemitic

Joe Biden Stabs a Finger at Israel

“Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem”

The New York Times All Out Assault on Jewish Jerusalem

The Jews of Jerusalem In Situ

Ending Apartheid in Jerusalem

Arabs in Jerusalem

The Arguments over Jerusalem

The Subtle Discoloration of History: Shuafat