Author Archives: First.One.Through

A Proper UN Security Council Resolution on Israel and HAMAS

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Adopted by the Security Council on XX May 2021

The Security Council,

Recalling the wars between Israel and HAMAS in 2008-9, 2012 and 2014,

Recalling the vast network of tunnels used by HAMAS to abduct Israelis run underneath civilians homes and neighborhoods,

Recalling the incendiary balloons sent into Israel destroying fields over the past two years,

Recalling the 1988 HAMAS Charter which calls for the destruction of Israel and the killing of Jews,

Recalling the 2007 rout in Gaza by HAMAS and the expulsion of the Palestinian Authority, and HAMAS’s usurpation of the administration of the region,

Reaffirming its strong commitment to the unity, sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity of Israel,

Reaffirming the legitimacy of the Palestinian Authority as the one government responsible for all Palestinian territories,

Recalling the Oslo Accord signed and agreed to by Israel and the Palestinian Authority regarding the administrative control of Areas A, B and C,

Strongly condemning the ongoing rocket barrage in early May 2021 against Israeli population centers including the Ben Gurion International Airport, and calling for an immediate cessation of such HAMAS attacks without preconditions,

Stressing the need for de-escalation across Israel and Gaza and calling for implementation of a ceasefire and the immediate cessation of hostilities against Israel,

Expressing concern at the ongoing political, security, economic and humanitarian challenges in Gaza, including the ongoing violence and threats arising from the illicit transfer, diversion, destabilising accumulation, and misuse of weapons,

Reiterating its call for all parties within the Palestinian Authority to adhere to resolving their differences through dialogue and consultation, reject acts of violence to achieve political goals, and refrain from provocation,

Expressing its alarm that areas of Gaza remain under the control of HAMAS and about the negative impact of their presence, violent extremist ideology and actions on stability in Gaza and other Palestinian territories, including the devastating humanitarian impact on the civilian populations,

Recalling the listing of HAMAS and associated individuals on various terrorist lists including by the United States, the European Union and Israel,

Noting the critical importance of effective implementation of the sanctions regime imposed by Egypt and Israel to stop the import of weapons by HAMAS into Gaza,

Condemning in the strongest terms the attack on Ben Gurion airport and the over 2,000 missiles fired into Israel by HAMAS,

Expressing grave concern at the threat to peace and security in Israel and Gaza arising from the illicit transfer, destabilising accumulation, and misuse of missiles,

Condemning in the strongest terms violations of International Humanitarian Law in firing missiles from dense civilian populations, turning innocent civilians into human shields,

Determining that the situation in Gaza continues to constitute a threat to international peace and security,

Acting under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations,

1. Declares the need for the full and timely implementation of the political transition of power from HAMAS to the Palestinian Authority in Gaza;

2. Decides that HAMAS and its leaders listed in the annex be placed on a global sanctions list;

3. Encourages the Palestinian Authority to bar HAMAS from participating in any future parliamentary or presidential elections;

4. Encourages Member States to place HAMAS on it terrorist list and impose necessary sanctions until it gives power over Gaza to the Palestinian Authority;

5. Affirms that the recruitment or use of children in armed conflict in violation of international law;

6. Decides to remain actively seized of the matter.

Rockets are launched towards Israel from Rafah, in the southern the Gaza Strip, controlled by the terrorist Palestinian Hamas political party, on May 12, 2021. (Photo by SAID KHATIB / AFP)

Related First One Through articles:

Excerpt of Hamas Charter to Share with Your Elected Officials

New Head of UNRWA is Another Hamas-Sympathizer Politician

The United Nations Once Again “Encourages” Hamas

UN Breakthrough? “Hamas continues to directly threaten the security of Israel”

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Excerpt of Hamas Charter to Share with Your Elected Officials

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There was a time when all elected officials recognized a designated terrorist organization and did not call it a force for “resistance.”

There was a time when the media would call all designated terrorist groups as “terrorist groups” and not selectively call Palestinian ones “Islamic” and “militant” groups.

But anti-Semites and anti-Zionists have penetrated the halls of Congress and the field of journalism, so its time to lay out the goals of HAMAS as written by HAMAS for everyone to understand:

The following are actual quotes from Hamas’s foundational charter in 1988. Palestinians voted Hamas to 58% of parliament with this charter:

  • “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it.” (Opening)
  • “Our struggle against the Jews is very great and very serious.” (Preamble)
  • “raise the banner of Jihad in the face of the oppressors, so that they would rid the land and the people of their uncleanliness, vileness and evils.” (Article 3)
  • “raise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine” (Article 6)
  • “Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews)… there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him” (Article 7)
  • “Nothing in nationalism is more significant or deeper than in the case when an enemy should tread Moslem land” (Article 12)
  • “There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time” (Article 13)
  • “In face of the Jews’ usurpation of Palestine, it is compulsory that the banner of Jihad be raised…. the Palestinian problem is a religious problem, and should be dealt with on this basis.” (Article 15)
  • Zionist “organizations, hostile to humanity and Islam, will be obliterated.” (Article 17)
  • “In their Nazi treatment, the Jews made no exception for women or children… [Jews] attack people where their breadwinning is concerned, extorting their money” (Article 20)
  • “With their money, they took control of the world media, news agencies, the press, publishing houses, broadcasting stations, and others. With their money they stirred revolutions in various parts of the world with the purpose of achieving their interests and reaping the fruit therein…. They obtained the Balfour Declaration, formed the League of Nations through which they could rule the world. They were behind World War II, through which they made huge financial gains by trading in armaments, and paved the way for the establishment of their state. It was they who instigated the replacement of the League of Nations with the United Nations and the Security Council to enable them to rule the world through them. There is no war going on anywhere, without having their finger in it.” (Article 22)
  • “The Zionist invasion is a vicious invasion… using all evil and contemptible ways… infiltration and espionage operations on the secret organizations… aim at undermining societies, destroying values, corrupting consciences, deteriorating character and annihilating Islam. It is behind the drug trade and alcoholism in all its kinds so as to facilitate its control and expansion…. Israel, Judaism and Jews challenge Islam and the Moslem people.” (Article 28)
  • “the ferocity of the Zionist offensive and the Zionist influence in many countries exercised through financial and media control.” (Article 30)
  • “Peace and quiet would not be possible except under the wing of Islam… It is the duty of the followers of other religions to stop disputing the sovereignty of Islam in this region… The Zionist Nazi activities against our people will not last for long.” (Article 31)
  • “The Zionist plan is limitless. After Palestine, the Zionists aspire to expand from the Nile to the Euphrates. When they will have digested the region they overtook, they will aspire to further expansion, and so on. Their plan is embodied in the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion”, and their present conduct is the best proof of what we are saying.… here is no way out except by concentrating all powers and energies to face this Nazi, vicious Tatar invasion. The alternative is loss of one’s country, the dispersion of citizens, the spread of vice on earth and the destruction of religious values… fight with the warmongering Jews.” (Article 32)
  • “everywhere in the Islamic world will come forward in response to the call of duty while loudly proclaiming: Hail to Jihad. Their cry will reach the heavens and will go on being resounded until liberation is achieved, the invaders vanquished” (Article 33)
  • “Moslems were able to retrieve the land only when they stood under the wing of their religious banner… This is the only way to liberate Palestine… Nothing can overcome iron except iron.… confront the Zionist invasion and defeat it… rid themselves of the effects of ideological invasion.” (Article 34)

Hamas is anti-Semitic. Hamas is evil. Hamas is genocidal. Hamas’s existence – and support of it – is a crime against humanity.

Hamas school

Send the Hamas Charter excerpts to members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, links below:

Democrats: Gregory Meeks (NY) (Chairman); Brad Sherman (CA); Albio Sires (NJ); Gerald Connolly (VA); Theodore Deutch (FL); Karen Bass (CA); William Keating (MA); David Cicilline (RI); Ami Bera (CA); Joaquin Castro (TX); Dina Titus (NV); Ted Lieu (CA); Susan Wild (PA); Dean Phillips (MN); Ilhan Omar (MN); Colin Allred (TX); Andy Levin (MI); Abigail Spanberger (VA); Chrissy Houlahan (PA); Tom Malinowski (NJ); Andy Kim (NJ); Sara Jacobs (CA); Kathy Manning (NC); Jim Costa (CA); Juan Vargas (CA); Vicente Gonzalez (TX); Brad Schneider (IL)

Republicans: Michael McCaul (TX); Christopher Smith (NJ); Steve Chabot (OH); Joe WIlson (SC); Scott Perry (PA); Adam Kinzinger (IL); Lee Zeldin (NY); Ann Wagner (MO); Brian Mast (FL); Brian Fitzpatrick (PA); Ken Buck (CO); Tim Burchett (TN); Mark Green (TN); Andy Barr (KY); Greg Steube (FL); Dan Meuser (PA); Claudia Tenney (NY); August Pfluger (TX); Peter Meijer (MI); Nicole Malliotakis (NY); Ronny Jackson (TX); Young Kim (CA); Maria Elvira Salazar (FL)

Related First One Through articles:

The New York Times wants the military to defeat terrorists (but not Hamas)

The United Nations Once Again “Encourages” Hamas

CNN’s Embrace of Hamas

Differentiating Hamas

Hamas Thanks Israel Bashers Who Post and Blog

Strange difference of opinion on Boko Haram and Hamas in New York Times

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Asking for an Anti-Semitic Friend…

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“Listen, I’ve got a friend who really hates Jews but doesn’t want to be called an anti-Semite. It seems that the current situation in Israel may be a good cover for beating up some Jews or torching synagogues. Any thoughts?”

“You have to be careful. Many synagogues in Germany are guarded by police and have bulletproof glass.”

“You know the police all work for those Jews now, right? It’s all part of them controlling our country. How about burning Israeli flags in front of synagogues or vandalizing a Holocaust memorial?”

“If you burn – excuse me – if your friend burns an Israeli flag, why do it in front of a synagogue instead of the Israeli embassy? Same thing with doing something at a Holocaust memorial – you’ll still be accused of anti-Semitism because that has nothing to do with Israel but with Jews.”

Muslims in Europe protesting Israel and Jews, showing solidarity with far-right anti-Semites and Nazis in a bizarre push of solidarity against a common perceived enemy

“What about vandalizing Jewish cemeteries? I… I mean, my friend… can always just be accused of some youthful pranks rather than Jew-hatred, right?”

“Possibly. Certainly by progressives.”

“Yeah, but the problem with cemeteries is that those Jews are already dead. How about smoke bombs at kosher restaurants and groceries. They probably don’t have bulletproof glass and likely have a good number of Jews who really care about being Jews.”

“You’ll get yourself back in that trap of being called an anti-Semite.”

“Not necessarily. You remember that President Obama said that the shooters in the Parisian kosher supermarket were just doing it ‘randomly.’ Maybe no one will care.”

“You may be right. The New York Times repeatedly talked about the European pogroms against Jews during the 2014 Gaza war as simply having an “anti-Semitic Tinge.” First in an article by Dan Bilefsky on July 21, then a July 24 article by Helene Cooper and Somini Sengupta, and yet again in a July 27 article by Jodi Roduren. Despite all of the violence against Jews over the week, the main newspaper in the United States totally downplayed the obvious Jew-hatred.”

“The liberal media is actively pushing the notion that a person can be anti-Israel without being an anti-Semite. It seems like good cover for attacking Jews. We know the United Nations won’t say differently.”

“It’s an excellent point. That must be why so many anti-Semites donate to Palestinian charities – it’s not that they care about a bunch of Arabs; they don’t give anything to any other Muslim group. It’s the fact that it not only irritates the Jews but inflames a war in Palestine so they can begin to attack their local Jews with free abandon.”

“I know. I admit that I go to the website NGO-Monitor which tracks all of the charities which give money to Palestinians and then I give money to all of them. I just sit back and wait for the missiles to fly so I… I mean this guy I know… can begin to beat up the Jews in the neighborhood carefree.”

“Yup. The Palestinian cause is the gift that keeps giving for anti-Semites.”

Related First One Through articles:

“An anti-Semitic Tinge”

“Tinge” Two. Idioms for Idiots

The War Against Israel and Jewish Civilians

Organized and Disorganized Antisemitism

For The NY Times, Antisemitism Exists Because the Alt-Right is Racist and Israel is Racist

Examining Ilhan Omar’s Point About Muslim Antisemitism

Between Right-Wing and Left-Wing Antisemitism

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Does the UN Only Grant Inalienable Rights to Palestinians?

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On November 10, 1975, the United Nations went on an anti-Zionism tear. There were two disgraceful resolutions passed on that day, UNGA 3376 and 3379. UNGA 3379 was known as the “Zionism is Racism” resolution which uniquely defined the national aspirations of Jews to reestablish their homeland as racist. It took until 1991 for the United States to successfully repeal that resolution.

Daniel Patrick Moynihan, then the American ambassador to the United Nations, addresses the U.N. General Assembly on Nov. 10, 1975, the day the General Assembly adopted the “Zionism is racism” resolution. Moynihan said that the U.S. “will never acquiesce in this infamous act.”

However, UNGA 3376 still lives and threatens. It established the “Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People.” The committee granted special “inalienable” rights only to Palestinian Arabs, that they alone had the right to “national independence and sovereignty.” Do the Kurds have that right? What about Yazidis? How about Nevadans? No one has the right to an independent state, only to self-determination.

The committee also enshrined “The exercise by Palestinians of their inalienable right to return to their homes and property from which they have been displaced and uprooted.”

If the United Nations maintains the position that Palestinians have the “inalienable right” to move into homes that ancestors lived in during the 1940’s (even if they were just renting or the homes no longer exist), that same logic demands that Jews must be able to move into the homes that they own and lived in the Sheik Jarrah section of Jerusalem before being expelled by the invading Jordanian army. Either the UN must support the eviction of the Arab squatters in Sheik Jarrah today or nullify the right of return for all Palestinians.

The US may have prevailed at eliminating a single “Zionism is Racism” resolution in 1991, but the Biden administration is seemingly fine with the UN still treating the Jewish State with utter contempt and complete hypocrisy as it manufactures special rules uniquely for Palestinian Arabs.

Related First One Through articles:

Time to Dissolve Key Principles of the “Inalienable Rights of Palestinians”

The United Nations’ Adoption of Palestinians, Enables It to Only Find Fault With Israel

The UN’s Disinterest in Jewish Rights at Jewish Holy Places

A Tale of Three Palestinian Refugees, With and Without UNRWA

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Voices of/to the House Foreign Affairs Committee

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People consider what actions they can take when they are upset by the situations around them. When looking at the violence in Israel, a place to direct attention is the House Foreign Affairs Committee. The committee is responsible for legislation regarding foreign affairs, national security and arms control. The committee has a direct impact on U.S. policy.

The committee members include Democrats and Republicans, both pro- and anti-Israel voices. They include:

Democrats: Gregory Meeks (NY) (Chairman); Brad Sherman (CA); Albio Sires (NJ); Gerald Connolly (VA); Theodore Deutch (FL); Karen Bass (CA); William Keating (MA); David Cicilline (RI); Ami Bera (CA); Joaquin Castro (TX); Dina Titus (NV); Ted Lieu (CA); Susan Wild (PA); Dean Phillips (MN); Ilhan Omar (MN); Colin Allred (TX); Andy Levin (MI); Abigail Spanberger (VA); Chrissy Houlahan (PA); Tom Malinowski (NJ); Andy Kim (NJ); Sara Jacobs (CA); Kathy Manning (NC); Jim Costa (CA); Juan Vargas (CA); Vicente Gonzalez (TX); Brad Schneider (IL)

Republicans: Michael McCaul (TX); Christopher Smith (NJ); Steve Chabot (OH); Joe WIlson (SC); Scott Perry (PA); Adam Kinzinger (IL); Lee Zeldin (NY); Ann Wagner (MO); Brian Mast (FL); Brian Fitzpatrick (PA); Ken Buck (CO); Tim Burchett (TN); Mark Green (TN); Andy Barr (KY); Greg Steube (FL); Dan Meuser (PA); Claudia Tenney (NY); August Pfluger (TX); Peter Meijer (MI); Nicole Malliotakis (NY); Ronny Jackson (TX); Young Kim (CA); Maria Elvira Salazar (FL)

Some of the committee members have spoken recently about Israel:

  • Chairman Gregory Meeks (general concern): “I am deeply concerned by recent violence in Jerusalem perpetrated by both Israeli and Palestinian mobs. To stoke the flames further, Hamas fired dozens of deadly rockets and mortars into Israel. All these acts of violence should be condemned by responsible leaders, Israeli and Palestinian. The Israeli National Police, who are responsible for ensuring safety and order in the city, must use precision and wisdom to focus on those engaging in violence and criminality, whomever they may be, and ensure the rights and freedoms of all residents of the city, particularly during holy periods. The situation in Sheikh Jarrah is deeply concerning. The United States believes Jerusalem must be a city in which coexistence, not violence, reigns, and it is up to the residents, leaders, and officials, to ensure that it is.”
  • Ilhan Omar (anti-Israel): “Israeli air strikes killing civilians in Gaza is an act of terrorism. Palestinians deserve protection. Unlike Israel, missile defense programs, such as Iron Dome, don’t exist to protect Palestinian civilians. It’s unconscionable to not condemn these attacks on the week of Eid”
  • Joaquin Castro (anti-Israel): “The forced displacement of Palestinian communities in East Jerusalem is illegal and unacceptable. The Biden administration must stand up for the rights of the Palestinian families in #SheikhJarrah and urge the Israeli government to stop these evictions.“
  • Lee Zeldin (pro-Israel): “An attack on Israel is an attack on the United States. Our nation should stand shoulder to shoulder with our greatest ally in the world as it is indiscriminately targeted by Hamas terrorists launching rockets at innocent civilians.“
  • Ted Deutch (pro-Israel): “Congress is committed to maintaining Israel’s qualitative military edge and its ability to defend itself, by itself, against persistent threats. Our aid to Israel is a vital and cost-effective expenditure which advances important U.S. national security interests in a highly challenging region. For decades, Presidents of both parties have understood the strategic importance of providing Israel with security assistance.“
David Duke, head of the notorious hate group the KKK, celebrating Ilhan Omar’s attack on the “ZOG” (Zionist Occupation Government)

Click on the links above which go directly to each committee member’s contact page and share your thoughts about what is going on in Israel today.

Related First One Through articles:

Ramat Shlomo, Jerusalem and Joe Biden

Ilhan Omar Isn’t Debating Israeli Policy, She is Attacking Americans

Biden Ignores Own Comments Hiring Vilifier of Netanyahu

The Wide Scope of Foreign Interference

Conditional U.S. Support in The Middle East

Bernie Sanders’ Antisemitic and Anti-Zionist Friends

The Middle East with American Leaders that Back Friends and Punish Enemies

The Many Lies of Jimmy Carter

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Jerusalem Population Facts

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Anti-Israel people and organizations throw around pernicious smears that Jews are “colonial invaders” that engage in “ethnic cleansing” of Arabs, and other attacks which have no basis in fact, in an attempt to win points, money, land and other goodies from Israel and pro-Palestinian supporters.

So let’s review actual numbers rather than a narrative of an upset Arab shopkeeper talking to CNN.

Population Breakdown

As of 2019, the population of Jerusalem was 936,400. It stands as the largest city in Israel, twice the population of Tel Aviv with 460,600 people.

The breakdown in Jerusalem was 355,300 in western Jerusalem, which was 98.6% Jewish, and the northern/eastern/southern section of the city with 581,100 people, of which 39.1% were Jewish. Overall, the city was 61.7% Jewish and 38.3% Arab. The 61.7% Jewish population was the lowest percentage in the city since 1946. Jerusalem has had a continuous Jewish majority since the late 1860’s.

When Israel officially annexed the eastern part of Jerusalem and declared the unified city as its capital in 1980, there were 407,100 people in the city, of which 74% were Jewish. From 1980 to 2019, the population of the city grew 2.3 times, with the Jewish population growing 1.9 times and the Arab population growing 3.4 times. To state that Israel is committing “ethnic cleansing” in Jerusalem while the growth of Arabs dwarves the growth of Jews is patently absurd.

The population growth in Jerusalem of Arabs is significantly higher than for Jews.

In every year since 1978 (with the sole exception of 1990), the growth rate of Arabs in Jerusalem exceeded the annual growth rate of Jews. That fact is also true of the growth rate of Arabs in the country generally. The sole year of exception, 1990, saw a huge influx of Jews from Russia which accounted for the anomaly.

The growth of Jews has principally come as a result of natural population growth. The fertility rate of Jewish women in Jerusalem now stands at 4.3 children, up from 3.7 in 2000. That compares to the fertility rate of Arab women in Jerusalem which has been in decline, down to 3.2 in 2019 from 4.3 in 2000. Jewish women crossed the Arab fertility rate in 2012 and have continued to outpace Arab fertility rates since then. The change has led to a slowdown in the Arab growth rate which grew at annual rates of 3.6%, 3.1% and 2.6% for the periods 1990-2000, 2000-2010 and 2010-2019, respectively.

Not surprisingly, the death rate for Jews exceeds that of Arabs as the Arabs have a higher percentage of youths.

Housing

The lack of affordable housing has been the main issue driving a net negative migration of Jews out of Jerusalem. In 2019, over 20,000 Jews left Jerusalem to places like Beit Shemesh, Tel Aviv and Beitar Illit. That compared to fewer than 12,000 Israeli Jews who moved to Jerusalem from Bnei Brak and the cities mentioned above. Jerusalem trailed all major cities in the construction of new apartments (37% between 2017-2019), including in the cities of Rishon LeZion, Tel Aviv, Haifa and Petah Tikva.

Both Jews and Arabs have freedom to move within Jerusalem. In 2019, of the 52,390 people who moved homes within the Jerusalem municipality, roughly 67% were Jews, close to the 62% of the city’s population. In 2018, the percentage of Jews moving within the city was lower at 60% and the Arabs at 40%.

Even while the population of Arabs in Jerusalem skyrocketed relative to Jews, the density of Arabs in their homes was cut significantly. In 1990, there was an average of 2.3 Arabs living in each room in Jerusalem; that number was cut to 1.8 Arabs per room by 2019, an improvement of 22%. Over the same period, the density of Jews in homes barely moved from 1.1 to 1.0 people per room. The overall improvement was driven by two factors: increased housing for Arabs and construction of larger apartments.

In 1990, there were 23,600 Arab households in Jerusalem, a figure that grew 188% to 68,000 in 2019. The total number of Jewish households increased a relatively modest 64% in comparison over the same timeframe. The second factor of bigger apartments in the city is a recent trend. Since 2017, over 30% of new dwellings have more than five rooms, reversing a historic trend which saw more smaller apartments. As recently as 2016, 64% of new apartments were built with four rooms; in 2020, 62.4% were built with five or more.

The growth of Arab households in Jerusalem dwarves the growth in the number of Jewish households.

Citizenship

After Israel took eastern Jerusalem from the Jordanians in a defensive war in 1967 and then annexed it, the Israeli government afforded all of the Arab residents to apply for citizenship. While few did so in the early years, over the past ten years, roughly 400 Jerusalem Arabs were granted Israeli citizenship annually. That number spiked to 1,200 people in 2019, as the Israeli government put more resources into expediting the citizenship review process.

The charges of Jewish “colonialists” committing “ethnic cleansing” against Arabs in Jerusalem are not simply outrageous lies but a disgraceful cover-up of the actual attempted mass Arab genocide of Israeli Jews right after the Holocaust, and the actual ethnic cleansing of the Jews from their holiest city of Jerusalem by Jordanian and Palestinian Arabs.

Related First One Through articles:

Will the UN Demand a Halt to Arabs Moving to Jerusalem?

The Green Line Through Jerusalem

The New York Times All Out Assault on Jewish Jerusalem

NY Times Select “Evictions” in Jerusalem

Al Jazeera (Qatar) Evicts Jews and Judaism from Jerusalem. Time to Return the Favor

Oh Abdullah, Jordan is Not So Special

Jerusalem’s Old City Is a Religious War for Muslim Arabs

Related First One Through videos:

10 Ignored Facts of Muslim and Jewish Populations in Israel (music by Seal)

1001 Years of Jewish Expulsions (music from Schindler’s List)

The anthem of Israel is JERUSALEM

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NY Times Select “Evictions” in Jerusalem

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The anti-Zionist New York Times is accelerating its attacks on the Jewish State with a narrative that Jewish Israelis are racists as it moves towards accusations of apartheid. It would seem that the Gray Lady is newly interested in evictions when it comes to illegal Arab squatters as opposed to Jewish families thrown out of their homes in their most holy city.

On May 8, 2021, the Gray Lady printed an article “As Court Decision Nears, Battle over Evictions in East Jerusalem.” The article noted that the Israeli Supreme Court will soon rule on whether to evict Arab residents of Jerusalem (the Times calls them “Palestinians of East Jerusalem”) who moved into homes “vacated” by Jews in the 1948 Israeli War of Independence. The article failed to state that Jordan (and four other Arab armies) invaded Israel in that war, evicted all of the Jews from Judea and Samaria including the eastern portion of Jerusalem in an act of ethnic cleansing, illegally annexed the region in 1950, and then granted Jordanian citizenship to all Arabs in 1954 while specifically excluding Jews in a further highly anti-Semitic action.

The New York Times on May 8, 2021 article about Israel

Instead, the Times said that “Jordan captured the area, including East Jerusalem in the Arab-Israeli War of 1948” making East Jerusalem sound like an actual city rather than the fact that Jordan invaded Jerusalem and seized the eastern half CREATING “EAST JERUSALEM,” an entity that existed until Jordanians attacked Israel again in a war that resulted in Israel reunifying the city.

The paper had the temerity of calling the Jews who moved back into their homes in the reunified capital as “settlers.” Recasting people moving back into their homes nineteen years after being evicted in a brutal act of ethnic cleansing as new foreign interlopers, is something that only an alt-left anti-Zionist can explain.

To support its jaundiced narrative, the Times quoted an Israeli who said that Jews have an ancient connection to the city so they have a right to keep the city Jewish, making the Jewish claim to the area seem ancient and fanatical. The Times statement was designed to be inflammatory and distracted readers from the legal property rights of the Jewish owners. If the paper wanted to add historical context to the story, it could have added the fact that Jerusalem has had a Jewish majority for over 150 years. Jews living in the eastern part of the Jerusalem is not recreating a 2,000-year old factoid, but a continuation of Jews living – and being a majority – in the city for centuries.

Jerusalem Day, a holiday marking the reunification of the city divided by war, is also a moment to celebrate the end of the anti-Semitic Arab ethnic cleansing in Judaism’s holiest city. This year, it should also be celebrated with writing to The New York Times at letters@nytimes.com and corrections@nytimes.com to demand the paper stop its misinformation campaign regarding Israel, ignoring Jerusalem’s Jewish majority since the 1860’s and the eviction of Jews from the eastern half of the city at the hands of invading Arabs. The false narrative promoted by anti-Zionists is the basis for outrageous declarations like UNSC Resolution 2334, which advocate for a Jew-free “East Jerusalem,” and a reinstitution of the ethnic cleansing program of 1949 to 1967.

Related First One Through articles:

Ending Apartheid in Jerusalem

The New York Times Inverts the History of Jerusalem

The Dark Side of Jerusalem Day: Magnifying the Kotel and Minimizing the Temple Mount

The Green Line Through Jerusalem

The New York Times All Out Assault on Jewish Jerusalem

The Remarkable Tel Jerusalem

750 Years of Continuous Jewish Jerusalem

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The Humiliation of Palestinian Terrorists Standing in Line to Receive Martyr Payments

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The outrageous and illegal actions of the Palestinian Authority paying the families of convicted terrorists has taken a new turn.

Both Israel and the United States have told the PA that paying terrorists is a form of illegal and dangerous incitement. Nonplussed, PA President Mahmoud Abbas stated before the UN General Assembly that “I salute our glorious martyrs and our courageous prisoners in Israeli jails,” and that he would continue to pay “salaries” to those martyrs, even if he had only “one penny left.”

The US Congress was outraged by Abbas’s statements and actions and passed the Taylor Force Act which demanded the PA “stop payments for acts of terrorism.” Former President Trump cut funding to the PA and to the United Nations Palestinian funding conduit, UNRWA, to stop the provocation payments but President Biden has been looking for a way to turn on the money spigot to the PA even as his hands are tied by the Taylor Force Act.

So Abbas has been looking for a work-around.

In April, the PA announced that it would make payments to 12,000 “martyrs” through the Palestinian Postal System, which is not technically a bank and can therefore circumvent the US and Israeli laws. Additionally, PA’s Chairman of the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs Qadri Abu Bakr stated that around 7,500 former prisoners would join various departments of the Authority and would thereby qualify for regular salaries like all government employees, whether they show up for work or not.

That work-around did not satisfy all martyrs.

According to Palestinian Media Watch which tracked Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, a UK Arab news website on April 6, 2021, one former prisoner, Arafat Barghouti, said “The prisoners, their relatives, and the released prisoners received the message that they are going to make them social cases, and this is as a result of the wait at the gates of the post office and the feeling of humiliation and degradation after years of struggling against and defying the occupation.

“Currently the prisoners are standing and pleading to receive salaries that will support them. The sentence I heard the most today from the released prisoners is that we are standing like beggars to receive these salaries. It is not fitting for the prisoners and their struggle that we stand like this in front of the post office.”

Pro-Palestinian politicians and the progressive press often stress the importance of Palestinian “dignity.” This is surely going to be their new cause: addressing the affront that Palestinian terrorists are now forced to stand in line at the post office to receive their killers’ compensation.

A post office in the city of al-Bireh, about 15 kilometres north of Jerusalem on February 7, 2021.
(Photo by ABBAS MOMANI / AFP)

Related First One Through articles:

The Parameters of Palestinian Dignity

Paying to Murder Jews: From Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Iran to the Palestinian Authority

The UN Does Not Want Palestinian Terrorists to be Held Accountable

The Proud Fathers of Palestinian Terrorists

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The False Palestinian Refugee, Self-Determination Narrative

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U.S. President Joe Biden decided that he would start to donate American taxpayer money to the specialized United Nations agency solely devoted to Palestinians, despite the troubled agency making few reforms. UNRWA has been constantly criticized for promoting anti-Semitism, has harbored weapons for terrorist groups and has long been a thorn in the Arab-Israeli peace process.

UNRWA actively perpetuates a false narrative that Palestinian Arabs are refugees from their homeland – even though Palestinians view all of pre-1948 Palestine as a single entity, meaning that they still live in their perceived homeland if they reside in Israel, Gaza or the West Bank.

Moreover, UNRWA encourages a storyline that all Palestinian Arabs are refugees. This is patently false. Many are stateless, but not refugees.

As seen in the charts above, according to UNRWA’s own numbers, 73% of Gazans are refugees (or more accurately, descendants of refugees) while another 8% are given services by UNRWA even though they are not refugees by any definition. Roughly one-in-five Gazans are simply residents, who have had family ties in the strip for generations who never had children with a descendant of a refugee (who would otherwise then get hereditary refugee status according to UNRWA).

The numbers east of the Green Line (EGL) / the “West Bank” are quite different, where over half of the Arabs are residents who have descendants from the region. Roughly 40% of Arab West Bankers registered with UNRWA as refugees to get free housing, education and healthcare, with another 9% “grantees” also getting services from the agency.

Another piece of commonly-stated fiction is that the Arabs have no self-determination and live under Israeli control. As Biden would say, that is “malarkey.”

Israel completely pulled out of Gaza in 2005 and gave the local Arabs there complete self-determination. With that freedom, Arabs voted the terrorist group Hamas to 58% of the Palestinian parliament in 2006 and watched Hamas take over the Gaza Strip in 2007. Hamas has thus far launched three wars from the area in 2008-9, 2012 and 2014.

Regarding EGL, Israel handed control of Areas A and B to the Palestinian Authority as part of the Oslo accords in the 1990’s. Only 14% of West Bank Arabs live in Area C under Israeli-control.

No matter. The world still berates Israel despite handing the PA land and being rewarded with wars, and condemns the Jewish State again for defending itself. No one pauses to contemplate why Israel would consider repeating the abuse at the hands of Palestinians, the UN and the media.

The Arab and Muslim-dominated United Nations manufactured a false narrative that Palestinian Arabs are refugees under Israeli-control which the anti-Israel media parrots in their quest to see the creation of a Palestinian State. In reality, it is those very lies that hinder the chance of reaching an enduring peace.

Related First One Through articles:

UNRWA Artificially Extends Its Mandate

New Head of UNRWA is Another Hamas-Sympathizer Politician

Palestinian Arabs De-Registering from UNRWA

UNRWA Anoints New Palestinian Wards

The Gross OVER-Staffing of UNRWA Schools

Enduring Peace versus Peace Now

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Featured Idiot: John Brennan, Obama’s CIA Chief

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On April 27, 2021, The New York Times offered its readers an opinion piece by former President Obama’s Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, John Brennan. His ridiculous piece was called “Why Biden Must Watch This Palestinian Movie.“

John Brennan, Former Director of the CIA (photo: Al Drago, The New York Times)

There are too many lies and omissions to do a line-by-line review but some major themes emerge which highlight Brennan’s willful blindness of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Major Lie #1:
Israel No Longer Has Security Concerns

Brennan noted that in his visit from Jordan to Israel in 1975, Palestinian Arabs had to go through aggressive security screening which he understood as “I knew that Israel had legitimate security concerns in the aftermath of the 1967 and 1973 wars, worries that had been heightened by attacks on Israeli and Jewish targets by Palestinian terrorist organizations.” Those “worries” included wars to annihilate the Jewish State in 1967 and 1973, and the Arab world’s “Three No’s” regarding making peace, recognizing and negotiating with Israel. The Palestinian attacks were not limited to Israel but countries which supported the Jewish State, and included the assassination of U.S. Presidential hopeful Robert Kennedy as well as tens of airplane hijackings.

Brennan commented that today’s world is a far cry from his 1975 experience, as Israel struck peace agreements with many Arab nations and made “significant progress in reducing violence carried out by Palestinians inside and outside the occupied territories,” with the exception of Hamas.

First, well over twenty Arab and Muslim countries still refuse to recognize Israel. Those Arab countries which have recently welcomed relations with the Jewish State were loudly condemned by Palestinians.

Second, the reason that there has been such a reduction in violence is because of the security barrier that Israel erected in reaction to the so-called “Second Intifada.” It is that very security barrier that Brennan criticized in the article, with a completely fabricated reason for that barrier’s existence:

“Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has spearheaded relentless expansion of settlements in the West Bank. That expansion has brought along more concrete walls, security barriers and control points, further reducing the spaces where Palestinians can live, graze their flocks, tend their olive groves and vegetable gardens without being challenged by their occupiers.”

As President Biden is fond of saying, that’s complete “malarkey.” Palestinian Arab terrorism brought the security barrier, not Jewish family homes.

The Second Intifada – not waged from Gaza but from the “West Bank” – was omitted from Brennan’s narrative. The “stabbing intifada” and the “car ramming intifada” from the West Bank in 2015 and 2016 were similarly ignored.

Further, the Muslim and Arab actors encircling and threatening Israel are irrelevant in Brennan’s opinion. The Islamic Republic of Iran has stated its desire to destroy Israel, yet Brennan’s boss gave the country over $100 billion and a legal pathway to nuclear weapons. Iran supports Hezbollah in Lebanon (which fought a war with Israel in 2006), Syria and Hamas in Gaza, each at Israel’s borders.

Brennan continued in his imaginative telling of history that former President Trump “senselessly severed funding to the Palestinian Authority.” Trump took those actions specifically because acting President of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas refused to stop inciting violence against Israelis by committing to send monies to Palestinian terrorists.

So much for Palestinian Arabs and the Muslim world being peaceful and welcoming Israelis.

Major Lie #2:
Palestinians Have Made No Progress Towards Autonomy

Brennan added that “Despite sharply reduced tensions between Israel and the Arab world, the Palestinian people themselves have seen no appreciable progress in their quest to live in their own sovereign state.” Really? Since 1975 there has been no progress?

  • Israel handed many cities and towns – including the holy city of Bethlehem which was designated to be an international city in the 1947 U.N. Partition Plan – to the Palestinians in the 1990’s. This was the first time that local Arabs every had sovereignty in the region.
  • Israel abandoned Gaza in 2005. It was rewarded with wars from the region in 2008, 2012 and 2014. Missiles and arson balloons continue to bombard Israeli civilian centers from the strip.
  • The Palestinian Authority was created in the 1990’s as part of several agreements with Israel. The PA last held presidential elections and legislative elections in 2005 and 2006, respectively. At that time, the Palestinians elected a Holocaust denier as the president and the terrorist group Hamas which is sworn to the destruction of Israel to 58% of the parliament. The front-runner in the proposed 2021 presidential elections is a terrorist in an Israeli jail convicted of killing five and injuring many.
  • Despite Palestinians having autonomy in Gaza, an outrageous 77% of Gazans support armed attacks against Israeli civilians in a December 2020 Palestinian poll.

Palestinians have made significant advances towards independence. It has not reduced their quest for Israeli blood.

Inverted Cause-and-Effect; Upside Down Conclusions

Brennan’s fictitious narrative of the security barrier is emblematic of his distorted vision of the steps towards an enduring peace. Ignoring the fact that the security barrier was needed and built to stop West Bank Palestinians from slaughtering Israelis, and retelling it as something Israel elected to erect to protect Israeli “settlements”, turned Israelis into the aggressors rather than the victims.

Brennan wrote that Palestinian children “grow up traumatized by injustice, discrimination and violence. They live with the feeling that their existence is controlled by people who don’t care about their welfare, their safety or their future.” This is upside down. Brennan argued that the “people who don’t care” and make their lives miserable are Israelis instead of the Palestinian leadership which uses its resources for weaponry to attack Israel and for “martyr payments” to terrorists.

So Brennan celebrated Biden restarting the money spigot even though the Palestinians have not changed their violent activities.

The Times featured Obama’s CIA chief’s distorted view of history and of the present in the Arab-Israeli conflict. Ignoring reality six years ago, the Obama administration enriched and empowered a state sponsor of terrorism. Brennan now hopes that the new Biden administration will similarly be oblivious to Palestinian lies and loathing, and enrich and create a new state sponsor of terrorism.

Related First One Through articles:

Israel: Security in a Small Country

Seeing Security through a Screen

Cause and Effect: Making Gaza

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