‘Right Of Return’ Must Be Integral To Negotiations

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

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

US and Israel On ‘Right Of Return’

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

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

Palestinians and UN On ‘Right of Return’

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

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

The United Nations agrees with the Palestinian position.

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

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

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

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

Related articles:

The Distant Fantasy Of Two States Living Side By Side In Today’s Reality (August 2024)

There Is No Basis For A Palestinian “Right of Return” (July 2024)

The Three “Two-State Solution”s (December 2023)

The Only Way The Conflict Can End (November 2023)

Israel, Ceuta and Melilla: Third World Escape Hatches (November 2023)

“Two States For Two People” And An Arab “Right Of Return” Are Mutually Exclusive (September 2023)

There Is No Backing For A Palestinian “Right Of Return” (December 2022)

When the Democrats Opposed the Palestinian “Right of Return” (August 2018)

The “Great Myth of Return” (April 2018)

Lebanon-Israel War Narrative

The war between Israel and Iran’s proxies is taking place in the media as much as the battlefield. Just review how Israel and Hezbollah published reports of the battle on August 25, 2024.

Israel claims to have thwarted Hezbollah’s attack with preemptive strikes at missile launching sites in Southern Lebanon.

Jerusalem Post headline on August 25, 2024

The Jerusalem Post called Hezbollah’s attack a “failure” and that Israel foiled the attack.

Readers in Lebanon got a very different message from Al-Manar, the Hezbollah media outlet.

Al-Manar online, August 25, 2024

Hezbollah claimed that it’s “military operation has been completed successfully” and that Israel’s claims about a preemptive attack are false [Hezbollah doesn’t recognize Israel and calls it “Zionist”].

It added that Hezbollah’s “offensive drones… crossed the Lebanese-Palestinian border towards intended targets” was successful. [Note again that Hezbollah considers Israel to be occupied Palestine.]

Al-Manar website

The US-designated terrorist group listed various military targets in Israel, which were the focus of the operation.

Al-Manar website lists solely military targets in Israel, in the hope of minimizing Israeli attacks on civilian locations

People in the radical Islamic and anti-Zionist world were told of Hezbollah striking at the Zionist entity in revenge of the assassination of a jihadi leader, complete with a narrative that dismissed any legitimacy of the Jewish State. Zionists were told of the tremendous intelligence of its military, which foiled a potential deadly attack.

Both Hezbollah and Israel had experienced terrible failures of their defensive forces, and each is now fighting a war of propaganda as much as missiles to reclaim the trust of their respective populaces.

Talking About The Gaza War At Work

Many Jews have found it difficult to be at work since October 7. Some have been alarmed by the lack of empathy for the Jewish community after the Hamas massacre. Others are distraught over comments that Israel is committing a genocide in Gaza. Sometimes the comments come from peers and other times from people who are senior or clients.

The workplace is not like other forums. A person’s livelihood is at stake, and the office is where people work together for long stretches of time. It is a very different dynamic than passing a masked protestor on the street.

How does a person handle anti-Israel vitriol from a colleague on social media like LinkedIn? Is it different if they post something on X or Facebook?

Here are some suggested guidelines:

  • It is always safe to stick with facts
  • Opinions are best shared in reaction to something at work; in personal settings, proactive is fine
  • Emotions are fine to share, as appropriate for that work environment, with an emphasis on humility
  • Do not troll people on social media. Use your own platform to make your feelings known
  • Use professional work media like LinkedIn for work related matters unless you are so senior that you believe your Israel advocacy can influence people
  • You can share your pro-Israel positions in a permanent passive manner by posting your role on Zionist groups like StandWithUs or post pictures of you in Israel
  • If you feel close enough to a colleague at work and their views are within the framework of honest disagreement, ask if they are open to discussing the topic
  • Should someone in your office cross the line into intimidation, harassment or discrimination, bring it up with human resources immediately, whether the person is junior or senior to you
  • If a client crosses the line, bring the matter up internally, asking the firm to terminate the engagement or reassign the client to a different colleague

Crossing the line into intimidation, harassment or discrimination should always be called out regardless of a person’s seniority, and whether internal or external to an organization. It must never be allowed to be normalized.

Honest ignorance is still ignorance. Consider whether the person stating lies is open to learning facts and try to engage respectfully. If the person is irate and will not be swayed, there is no point in engaging directly; you could talk to others who may have witnessed the spectacle.

If you are unfamiliar with facts as you hear arguments, admit as much that you need to do more research.  It’s an opportunity to learn more from respected sources and not take someone’s emotional outburst as gospel.

People often react to difficult situations with a desire to either fight or flee. In a business environment, take a breath and be more tactical.

Pirkei Avot 2:16 says:

הוּא הָיָה אוֹמֵר, לֹא עָלֶיךָ הַמְּלָאכָה לִגְמֹר, וְלֹא אַתָּה בֶן חוֹרִין לִבָּטֵל מִמֶּנָּה. אִם לָמַדְתָּ תוֹרָה הַרְבֵּה, נוֹתְנִים לְךָ שָׂכָר הַרְבֵּה. וְנֶאֱמָן הוּא בַעַל מְלַאכְתְּךָ שֶׁיְּשַׁלֵּם לְךָ שְׂכַר פְּעֻלָּתֶךָ. וְדַע מַתַּן שְׂכָרָן שֶׁל צַדִּיקִים לֶעָתִיד לָבֹא:

He [Rabbi Tarfon] used to say: It is not your duty to finish the work, but neither are you at liberty to neglect it; If you have studied much Torah, you shall be given much reward. Faithful is your employer to pay you the reward of your labor; And know that the grant of reward unto the righteous is in the age to come.

We have obligations at work, and we have obligations as Jews at work. It includes providing for our families and workers, as well as infusing the environment with Jewish values, but neither should fully supplant the other. Should that happen, it is not really a place of business where a Jew should be present.

Related articles:

A Visit To A Nation Held Hostage (July 2024)

Ignoring Columbia’s – And The Education Industry’s – Systemic Antisemitism (July 2024)

Meme Stocks And Hamas (May 2024)

‘Tis The Season To Vote And Donate Jewish (April 2024)

The Problem With Antisemitism On College Campuses Stems From Where Jews And Arabs Focused Their Donations (October 2023)

Conspiracy Theories About Jewish Power and Control (November 2022)

We Listen To Idiots (November 2022)

Bigots In Power, Checked And Unchecked (October 2022)

Hunting For The Raucous Roar Of Anti-Zionists At The DNC

The parents of one of the hostages stolen to Gaza on October 7, 2023 spoke at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago last night. The parents, Jon Polin and Rachel Goldberg, hailed from Chicago and spoke in anguished voices in their hometown. They made clear that the return of their music-loving son was not an issue of politics but of humanity.

The parents of Hersh Goldberg-Polin mentioned the 22 nationalities of the hostages and their multiple religions. They made an appeal to bring all the hostages home and end the suffering of innocent people in Gaza. It was an apolitical speech.

Yet it made the anti-Israel socialist-jihadi alliance apoplectic. Why wasn’t a Palestinian invited to speak they asked?

Members of the socialist-jihadi “squad” said that the DNC was “erasing ” and “dehumanizing” Palestinians by not giving equal time to Palestinians impacted by the war [that Palestinians launched and support].

Arab and Muslim influencers like Mehdi Hasan and James Zogby pushed for much the same.

The vast majority of Palestinians support the October 7 slaughter of Jews and taking of hostages. The majority of Gazans have always supported the murder of Jews inside Israel, before and after Hamas took control of the area. The majority want Israel destroyed.

Perhaps the DNC may have been able to find a Palestinian-American somewhere who wants to live peacefully alongside the Jewish State. Perhaps the Democrats could have given a platform to a Palestinian who would show empathy for both Israelis who were hunted and tortured, as well as Palestinians who suffer because their leaders hide like cowards in tunnels and refuse to surrender.

To what end? The speech by the Israeli-Americans was not political so didn’t require a “balanced” counterpoint.

As it relates to politics, the DNC released its 2024 platform which reiterated “America’s ironclad commitment to the security of Israel and our unrivaled ability to leverage growing regional integration among U.S. partners to counter Iranian aggression.” The Polin-Goldberg parents speech went directly to that important point of providing the Jewish State with the means to defend itself so such atrocities would not be repeated by Iranian-backed sponsors of terror.

Israel has killed roughly 17,000 terrorists so far in the defensive war it never wanted. It has managed to do this with the support of the Democratic administration in power.

While it is deeply tragic that roughly a similar number of civilians have died according to Hamas sources, how does giving a voice to the innocent Arab victims advance the current DNC platform of peace and security? The Israeli-American parents spoke of the suffering of Palestinians, which is also part of the Democratic platform, which specifically calls out “the worth of every innocent life, whether Israeli or Palestinian.”

But the socialist-jihadi cabal wants to undermine Israel’s security. It seeks to strip the Democratic Party of its policy of supporting the Jewish State. The goal of showcasing the unfortunate suffering of Palestinians is not an attempt at balance but whitewashing the genocidal intent of Hamas.

The socialist-jihadi alliance wants to veil the wolf in sheep’s clothing. The true socialist-jihadi spokesperson is Yahya Sinwar himself, a man committed to destroying Israel and the United States regardless of cost.

Yahya Sinwar, Palestinian leader of Gaza, Hamas and orchestrator of the barbaric October 7 massacre takes the podium

Alternatively, if Palestinian voices will not be heard, the socialist-jihadi alliance demands that Zionists be silenced. They want relationships with Zionists to be “denormalized”, as showcased with greater frequency in liberal cities.

Protestors shut down Brooklyn event because liberal Jewish speaker is also a Zionist, August 2024

It is a deeply abnormal situation that parents must plead for the release of their innocent child held in captivity for nearly a year. It is also horribly tragic that Americans are attempting to normalize the deplatforming of Zionists.

Related articles:

Over Half A Million Gazans Support Killing Jewish Civilians. They Are Being Sponsored In Congress By Tlaib And Bowman (March 2024)

The Normalization Deformity: No To Zionism and Peace; Yes To Massacres and Terrorism In a Global Intifada (January 2024)

The Spark And The Fuel Of Anti-Semitism Of The Women’s March (September 2022)

Islamic and Alt-Left Extremists Declare that Normalization With Zionists Is Against Sharia Law (June 2022)

Socialist-Jihadi Alliance Attempts To Make Israel A Wedge Issue For Jews

Democrats have been trying to make a case that Republicans are attempting to make Israel a wedge issue in American politics. Pro-Israel Democrats say that it is harmful to the Jewish State to destroy the broad bipartisan support of the only liberal democracy in the Middle East enjoys. Republicans agree and lament that Democrats are addressing the wrong audience.

The charge by centrist Democrats’ about Republicans is designed to be a red herring to cover the infiltration of the anti-Zionist alt-left into the Democratic Party.

Justice Democrats has been growing its influence in Democratic circles, supporting anti-Zionist non-White people in Congress like Cori Bush and Jamaal Bowman. The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) does the same.

In an attempt to distinguish between their rabid anti-Zionism and antisemitism, the far-left argues that there are good Jews and bad Jews. They embrace the anti-Israel “good Jews” like those from Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow, as if doing so proves they don’t hate Jews. Only those “bad Jews” who support Jews living in the Jewish holy land are targeted for vitriol and harassment.

CAIR, the Council for American-Islamic Relations makes a similar argument. Zahra Billoo made a speech which specifically called out “polite Zionists… which are not your friends” because she argued that any Jew who supports Israel is inherently anti-Muslim. To be an ally in the Islamic world requires that Jews denounce Zionism.

These and similar organizations and countries have been attempting to brand Zionism a form of racism, as so declared in 1975 at the United Nations. They have pushed a narrative in schools and society that everyone actively needs to be anti-racist and consequently anti-Zionist.

Branding Israel as an “apartheid” and “genocidal” country started well before the October 7 massacre by Palestinians. The effort was to not only make Israel a pariah nation devoid of allies, but to convince Jews to abandon their brethren and heritage.

The jihadi-socialist alliance is not only looking to destroy the Jewish State, but to pit Jew against Jew regarding Israel. It is yet another vile form of antisemitism.

Related articles:

Hamas, CAIR, DSA, Within Our Lifetime, SJP Are All Gunning For Jews (May 2024)

AIPAC’s Open Tent Versus Justice Democrats Niche Extremism (April 2024)

An Open Letter To Progressive Diaspora Jews (October 2023)

Know Your Enemies. This Is 1948 Redux (October 2023)

The Center Of Intersectionality Sounds Like Adolf Hitler (July 2023)

Peter Beinart is an Apologist for Anti-Semites (December 2020)

Sinwar’s 2021 Message To Israel And The United Nations

May 2021 saw a relatively short war between Hamas in Gaza and Israel. As the battle was coming to a close, Yahya Sinwar, head of Hamas’s military, met with Tor Wennesland, the UN Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process.

It did not go well.

Yahya Sinwar, leader of the Hamas terrorist group in Gaza, gestures during a rally in Beit Lahiya on May 30, 2021. (Atia Mohammed/ Flash90)

“It was a bad meeting. It was not positive at all, and we clarified to the [United Nations] delegation that we would hold a meeting of Islamic and national factions in Gaza to decide our next steps,” Sinwar told reporters following the meeting. “It seems that the occupation [Israel] did not get our people’s message,” essentially threatening the Jewish State again.

Hamas demanded that Israel lift tightened restrictions on the Gaza Strip in exchange for continued calm, as well as permit Gaza to rebuild after the 11-day battle between Israel and the terror group. But Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz said that Israel would not permit a full reconstruction of Gaza — with the resulting influx of materials — without the return of two Israeli civilian captives and the bodies of two Israeli soldiers held by Hamas.

Sinwar rejected the proposal and said Israel is “trying to extort us, the Palestinian people, the Palestinian resistance, when it comes to lifting [the restrictions] on our people.”

A spokesperson for the UN Secretary General was interviewed in June 2021 after Wennesland’s meeting with Sinwar, especially on the topic of Hamas’s use of children in armed conflict. The UN offered generic messaging and would not specifically condemn Hamas.

Hamas leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar sits and smiles in his bombed Gaza office when it was above ground, May 27, 2021 (Courtesy)

Two years later, Sinwar launched a massive war against Israel, killing roughly 1,200 people and taking around 250 hostages. It seemed that Hamas wanted both the UN and Israel to get the “message” that they will be unbowed by any rules of war, and magnify his violence by a hundred times.

Israel learned Sinwar’s 2021 and 2023 messages and is replying to sender: the Jewish State will defend itself aggressively when attacked in such barbaric fashion, and it will always insist on reclaiming its citizens. Any reconstruction of Gaza will depend on Sinwar’s death or capture this time, in addition to the release of the Israeli hostages whether dead or alive.

For its part, the UN continues to pretend that it does not understand anyone’s messages, offering worthless bobbleheads with microphones attached. If it weren’t so horribly tragic, it would be comical.

Related articles:

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

When Founding Fathers Are Psychopaths And Cowards (January 2024)

Chumming For Antisemites (December 2023)

Hamas Should Face ‘Maximum Justice’ (October 2023)

Nexus of Terrorism Hypocrisy: UN, Qatar and Hamas (June 2021)

Fun With Cause-and-Effect: Gaza Border Protests (April 2018)

Hamas’ War Is A Radical Religious Jihadi War Of Annihilation

Many political experts have offered that there is no way to defeat Hamas’ ideology though military means. Israel’s war effort will only be successful in defeating the military capabilities of the political-terrorist group, much like allied forces defeated Nazi Germany in World War II, and US and other allies defeated al-Qaeda and ISIS in the 21st century. The ultimate driver of Hamas, to destroy the Jewish State, will continue to fuel another generation of Palestinian radicals.

What goes unmentioned is that this “ideology” is rooted in religious fanaticism, much like al Qaeda and ISIS, among others. This potentially makes the ideology eternal, so any notion of defeating the ideology would be nonsensical.

Consider that there are only 900 Christian Arabs in Gaza out of a population of roughly 2.2 million, a paltry 0.04% of the region, with the rest being Muslim. The strip is deeply religious under a strictly Islamic religious regime enforcing sharia law. Hamas is attempting to use its Gaza foothold as the launching pad for a caliphate with the help of other Islamic regimes including Iran and Qatar, to consume Israel next door.

The radical Islamic nature of Gazans has always driven a zeal to kill Jewish civilians inside of Israel. It is why Hamas termed the October 7 massacre the ‘Al Aqsa Flood,’ to tie the butchering of Jews with redeeming the Islamic mosque in Jerusalem. It is why defenders of Hamas react wildly when people discuss the multiple rapes and sexual abuse committed by the Islamic terrorists, as it defames them religiously.

The media attempts to portray the war as a territorial dispute and deliberately omits the religious nature of the jihadists’ demand to destroy the Jewish State. The United Nations Secretary General further inverts the nature of the war and claims that Israel is engaged in a war of “Islamophobia.”

Last week, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas came clean about his fanatical Islamic and antisemitic and anti-US beliefs in front of the Turkish parliament as he declared “we implement sharia law: victory or martyrdom!” and “America is the plague and the plague is America.”

The Israel-Arab war is a religious war for Palestinian Arabs and the Islamic Republic of Iran, not a territorial war. It is therefore not surprising that Jews in the diaspora are being attacked by antisemites who berate Jews as murderers, racists and robbers who are “colonizers,” not indigenous to the land of Israel. It is an unhinged rant of fanatics who celebrate the slaughter of unbelievers unmoored in reality, not a reasoned opinion capable of being addressed.

Related articles:

‘The Day After’ Is Moving From a Military Solution To A Religious One, Not a Political One (March 2024)

The Rape And Torture Of Jewish Women By Emasculated Palestinian Men (January 2024)

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

Palestinian Authority Tries To Fan Flame Of Global Intifada While War Rages In Gaza (October 2023)

The Terrorism Of Emasculated Palestinians (June 2023)

Anti-Semitism Spikes Because Israel-Palestine is a Religious Battle (June 2021)

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

The War Against Israel and Jewish Civilians (December 2019)

Jerusalem’s Old City Is a Religious War for Muslim Arabs (March 2019)

Why the Media Ignores Jihadists in Israel (January 2015)

The Deep Flaws In The UN’s “Peace” Coordinator

The United Nations’ role in the Middle East is a dangerous farce. It pretends to be an impartial party attempting to bring peace to the volatile region, when in fact it takes only sides with Palestinian Arabs.

The UN has a person appointed to be the “Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process,” Tor Wennesland. United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres appointed Wennesland to that role in December 2020 and simultaneously to act as Guterres’ “Personal Representative to the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority.” How could Israel possibly take the position of such a biased representative seriously? Guterres shot the messenger by cementing him with Palestinian cement shoes from the outset.

Not surprisingly, the “peace process” floundered under Guterres and Wennesland, with the Palestinian Arabs together with backers in Lebanon, Syria, Iran and Yemen all coming for the Jewish State in a regional assault.

The biased and tarnished Wennesland continues to address the UN Security Council and the world via social media. Various biases can be found throughout his comments.

On August 16, 2024, Wennesland tweeted that he condemned settler violence and wanted “to ensure full accountability for all involved,” and further called “on the Israeli government to stop settler violence.”

August 16, 2024 tweet calling out Israelis for violence and demanding full accountability

But Wennesland did the opposite regarding Hamas and other terrorist groups attacking Israel, where he did not call out “Hezbollah” and demanded that Israel use “maximum restraint” in responding to terror.

July 27, 2024 tweet not naming Hezbollah terrorists and urging Israel respond with “maximum restraint”

The hypocrisy is a designed feature of the UN. When Wennesland addressed the UN Security Council on May 29, 2024, he acknowledged the “breakdown of law and order” in Gaza as well as the “well-organized looting of the UNRWA Rafah log base,” but deliberately omitted saying that the looting was done by Hamas. In fact, he implied the opposite, that because Hamas was no longer in charge, there was a breakdown of order.

Comments to UNSC on May 29, 2024

Wennesland treats Hamas as a trusted partner and uses the political-terrorist group’s talking points. On August 10, 2024, Wennesland condemned on the “devastating strike on a school sheltering thousands of displaced Palestinian, with dozens of fatalities.” The UN itself admitted that those “dozens of fatalities” were terrorists, yet the UN’s “Coordinator for Peace” parroted jihadi terrorist propaganda.

Official statement condemning the killing of terrorists on August 10, 2024

Wennesland views his role as protecting and promoting Palestinian Arabs, not securing peace. It means advancing their narrative, excusing their terrorism, and preventing Israel from eliminating jihadi terrorists.

Wennesland knows that there are numerous allies of Palestinians all attacking Israel; he names Hizbullah, Iran and the Houthis, even while treading gingerly around Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. It’s because he sees his goal as supporting the creation of a Palestinian state first and foremost, and that means calling for international support for a Palestinian government, even knowing it to be deeply corrupt and antisemitic.

The UN’s idea of a “peace process” is deeply and fundamentally flawed. The UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and Coordinator for Middle East Peace Tor Wennesland should both be fired for abetting terrorism, and all UN agencies in the region should be shuttered.

Related articles:

UN Secretary General Says Hamas Speaks For “The Palestinian People” (October 2023)

The United Nations Fails Own Resolution To Combat Terrorism (October 2023)

Say Its Name: ‘Hamas’ (October 2023)

UN “Peace Coordinator” Before And During Hamas Massacre (October 2023)

Hamas Should Face ‘Maximum Justice’ (October 2023)

UN Secretary General To Interfere With Israel’s Hostage Rescue To Help Arab Civilians (October 2023)

UN Coordinator For Middle East Does Not Condemn Use Of Children As Terrorists (July 2023)

UN Ignores Horrific Spike In Palestinians Killing Israelis (April 2023)

A New Low: UN Saddened By Deaths of Terrorists (February 2023)

UN Lies About Palestinians Favoring Two States (December 2022)

UN Doesn’t Like ‘Proportionate’ Israeli Reaction To Arab Terror Either (November 2022)

Despite Palestinians Committing More Acts of Terror, UN Lambasts ‘Settlers’ (May 2022)

Amid The Terror, The United Nations Elevates Hamas (April 2022)

The UN Coordinator For Palestinian Appeals (November 2021)

The UN Has No Interest in Mid-East Peace, Just a Palestinian State (October 2021)

Shut UNRWA in Gaza Immediately (August 2018)

The UN Does Not Want Palestinian Terrorists to be Held Accountable (July 2017)

The United Nations’ Adoption of Palestinians, Enables It to Only Find Fault With Israel (March 2016)

The Israeli Peace Process versus the Palestinian Divorce Proceedings (June 2015)

Help Refugees: Shut the UNRWA, Fund the UNHCR (September 2014)

Palestinians Publicly Go Full Genocidal Jihadi

For decades, Palestinians put on a dance that they had two personas: one peaceful and secular, the other militant and Islamist. In August 2024, they shed the former and fully embraced the latter.

Palestinian Arabs had two principal parties in their government: the more secular Fatah and the Islamist Hamas. The Palestinian Authority has been ruled by President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah, who the west presents as a moderate voice of reason, despite being a Holocaust denier and being deeply unpopular amongst local Palestinians. Abbas has ruled E49, the area east of the 1949 Armistice Lines, commonly called the “West Bank” by Palestinians and “Judea and Samaria” by Israelis.

Hamas is the more popular political party amongst local Palestinian Arabs and has ruled Gaza since 2007. It is a designated terrorist organization according to the United States, European Union, Israel and many other countries. It nominally divided the organization between its political wing and its military wing, much like Nazi Germany had different divisions of the SS, Gestapo, Waffen, Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle and Wehrmacht.

On July 31, 2024, Israel killed Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas, while he was in Iran. In response to the vacated position, on August 6, Hamas announced that Yahya Sinwar who is the group’s military leader, will also assume the role of diplomatic leader. The move consolidated the diplomatic and terrorist faces of the organization.

Just over a week later on August 15, President Abbas spoke to the government of Turkey in a large address. In his remarks, he made clear that the Palestinian Authority is not a secular party but a religious one, intent on “implement[ing] Islamic sharia law: victory or martyrdom.”

PA President Mahmoud Abbas addressing government of Turkey on August 15, 2024

He called for Islamic prayers to mourn for the slain leader of Hamas with reciting prayers from the Quran to wide applause.

And then called the United States a “plague,” something nefarious and detrimental to humankind which must be destroyed.

Palestinian leadership has shed the polite diplomatic facade and embraced the genocidal jihadi mantra of the foundational Hamas Charter, in line with the desires of the Palestinian Arab public and radical jihadists around the world. It remains to be seen if this will expand the war against the Jewish State or initiates a global recognition that an antisemitic genocidal regime next to the only Jewish State is untenable in the extreme.

Related articles:

The Distant Fantasy Of Two States Living Side By Side In Today’s Reality (August 2024)

NYTimes Said Israel Killed Man Of Peace In Assassination Of Leader Of Hamas (July 2024)

NY Times Lies That Gazans Hate Hamas (June 2024)

The Failed Palestinian State (December 2023)

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

Considering a Failed Palestinian State (July 2015)

What do you Recognize in the Palestinians? (January 2015)

UCLA Demands Right To Block Jews

Jewish students were physically blocked from sections of UCLA’s campus by anti-Israel protestors, many covering their faces with kaffiyehs in the Spring 2024 semester. Three students consequently sued to have the university ensure that they have equal rights to use and enjoy the campus facilities.

U.S. District Judge Mark C. Scarsi agreed with the plaintiffs that UCLA knew students could not enter parts of campus because of their religious beliefs. His ruling ordered UCLA to stop “knowingly allowing or facilitating the exclusion of Jewish students from ordinarily available portions of UCLA’s programs, activities, and campus areas, whether as a result of a de-escalation strategy or otherwise.”

UCLA strongly disagreed.

Mary Osako, UCLA vice chancellor for strategic communications, said “the district court’s ruling would improperly hamstring our ability to respond to events on the ground and to meet the needs of the Bruin community. We’re closely reviewing the Judge’s ruling and considering all our options moving forward.”

Thomas Harvey, the lawyer representing Faculty for Justice in Palestine, came up with the absurd notion that the ruling “paves the way for total removal of pro-Palestinian activity on campus. If the sincerely held religious belief being protected here is the belief in the Jewish state of Israel, any class, campus event or speaker that criticizes that nation’s legal or political decisions might be prohibited.”

Jewish student at UCLA denied entry to campus while police looked on

UCLA and the lawyer’s arguments aren’t just ridiculous but make one wonder if they are deeply antisemitic. The ruling doesn’t say anything about criticizing “political decisions” of any country; it is about free and fair access for all students to use every corner of the university campus.

In a strange bit of coincidence, on October 6, 2023, one day before the barbaric Palestinian massacre of Israelis, UCLA announced the UCLA Research Hub on Antisemitism, funded by a $600,000 gift by the Pritzker family. The hub is a joint effort between the UCLA Initiative to Study Hate and the Center for Jewish Studies. In announcing the new effort, UCLA Chancellor Gene Block said “It is critical that we do more than condemn the recent surge in antisemitism — we must actively work against it.”

Chancellor Block was pushed to resign in May 2024 by anti-Israel protestors who also called for canceling the school’s Israel Studies Department and for boycotting all Israeli universities.

UCLA is tacking to the jihadi fringe to remove any tolerance of contrary points of view and freedom of access in an undemocratic purge of Zionists and Jews. It is displaying a frightful lack of basic civility and critical thinking.

UCLA is so infected with anti-Zionism, that it is fighting to ban pro-Zionist students from campus and an education. It says a great deal about California and the terrible state of education today.

Related articles:

Ignoring Columbia’s – And The Education Industry’s – Systemic Antisemitism (July 2024)

Drawing Muhammed On U.S. College Campuses (May 2024)

Considering Campus Antisemitism (November 2023)

The Antisemitic Campus: Decolonize Palestine (October 2023)

Biden Enables Anti-Semitism On College Campuses (July 2022)

The Campus Inquisition (April 2022)

Courageous Jews On Hostile Campuses (December 2021)

In San Francisco Schools, Anti-Zionism is Anti-Racism (February 2021)

Follow the Money: Democrats and the Education Industry (November 2020)