Due to Muslim Arab terrorism now going on in Israel during the month of Ramadan, the United States embassy has placed the Old City of Jerusalem on its restricted list.
The security alert from the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem was published on March 30, 2022 and stated:
Due to recent terrorist attacks in the area and potential security issues associated with the upcoming April 2022 holidays, U.S. government employees and their family members are restricted until further notice from entering the Old City of Jerusalem after dark (dusk to dawn) and on Fridays. Damascus, Herod’s, and Lions’ Gates are off limits as well.
U.S. citizens should take this into consideration when planning their own activities.
The question is whether the imposition of a no-go zone in the holy city of Jerusalem during Passover, Easter and Ramadan was because the United States does not trust Israeli security or in deference to Muslim sensitivities. Will the US embassy impose this restriction on American Muslims at the embassy as well, or just non-Muslims?
Terrorist attacks are happening all over Israel, including in Bnei Brak, Beersheva and Tel Aviv. Will the US put those cities on the no-go list as well? That’s highly doubtful as the U.S. focuses on religious tension – not terrorism – in the city considered holy to three faiths.
The United States embassy to Israel has bowed to Islamic demands to restrict its non-Muslim personnel from visiting the holy city of Jerusalem. One can imagine the administration demanding Israeli Jews to do the same in the future.
Israeli flag at the western wall of the Jewish Temple Mount
Israelis are facing a wave of terrorism from Muslim Arabs, in which 14 people were killed in just the last few weeks. The political-terrorist group Hamas celebrated the murders in what it called a “heroic operation.” Gazans handed out sweets on the streets to celebrate the killings.
Such sentiments brought out the United Nations to call the leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh.
Tor Wennesland, the UN Secretary General’s special envoy to the Middle East, reached out to Haniyeh in early April. Haniyeh broadcast the action on Hamas media with “Hamas Chief Receives Call From UN Mideast Envoy.” Haniyeh got to tell Palestinian Arabs that he commands respect on the world stage and is considered a leader, fighting for his people. The article stated that Haniyeh “discussed the latest political and field developments related to the Palestinian cause,” and described at length how Haniyeh told the UN leader that the global body had to do more to clamp down on Israel.
The article concluded with “The UN envoy hailed the relationship with Hamas as ‘constructive and strategic.‘“
Just a few days later, another Palestinian killed three Israelis as they enjoyed an evening out in Tel Aviv. A senior Hamas official, Mushir al-Masri, said that “resistance operations are a natural response to Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian people,” defending the killings of innocent civilians.
Wennesland was not pleased and decided to pen his own narrative.
Appalled by another heinous attack this evening in TelAviv. My deepest condolences to the families of the victims & wishing a speedy recovery to the injured. Deplore the welcoming of this attack by Hamas; there is no glory in terror. These acts must stop now & be condemned by all
The United Nations is partially responsible for the attacks on Israelis, as it coddles terrorist groups and refuses to hold Palestinians responsible for their actions.
The pictures and stories coming out of Ukraine are horrible. The suffering of the people of Ukraine and the hands of Russian forces is hard to fathom – or is it?
Neighboring countries go to war all of the time. Before the invention of the airplane, it was basically the only way to wage war. Iran-Iraq was the typical format, not U.S.-Afghanistan. When Russia and the United States engaged in the “Cold War,” they mostly used adjacent proxy states.
Today, vulnerable countries at the edge of war are watching the Russian invasion in horror for the suffering of Ukrainian civilians, as well as for important lessons to be gleaned about their own situations.
Ethno-nationalism surpasses borders. Vladimir Putin of Russia claimed that Ukraine is not a valid country, as its people are actually Russian by identity, language and culture. Palestinian Arabs believe the same, as outlined in the opening of the Palestinian National Charter, “Palestine is the homeland of the Arab Palestinian people; it is an indivisible part of the Arab homeland, and the Palestinian people are an integral part of the Arab nation.” Russia does not believe it is invading a distinct foreign entity but bringing its own people back into the fold, much as the Arab countries surrounding Israel thought (and think) nothing of invading the sovereign State of Israel. Everyone should only use the term ‘Israeli Arabs’ and not ‘Palestinian Citizens of Israel’, as the latter serves the aim of invasion.
The pretext of preventing ‘genocide’ convinces hordes of morons to back warfare. Putin claimed that Russian-speakers in Ukraine were being slaughtered in a “genocide” and was therefore coming to their aid. Arabs – and increasingly “human rights organizations”, the liberal media and the United Nations – are falsely alleging that Israel is committing a “genocide” of Palestinian Arabs and engaging in “ethnic cleansing,” despite the plain facts that the number of Arabs in Israel has grown at a faster pace than Israeli Jews and Arabs in surrounding countries. The Russian propaganda to rally its people against Ukraine is much the same as the insidious jihad of anti-Zionists who are preparing to wage economic, psychological and military warfare against the Jewish State. The vile libel must be fought aggressively.
Concession of a small amount of land is an invitation for more. When Russia invaded Crimea and took over part of Ukraine, the world barely uttered a protest, pleased that the bloodshed was minimal. The larger problem was that a dangerous lesson had been taught that even Ukraine did not believe in the sanctity of its borders and Russia could claim more on the same grounds. While Israel handed over lands in the West Bank to the Palestinian Authority during the late 1990’s and then Gaza in 2005, as opposed to losing them in battle, the Palestinian Authority believes much like Russia that it should have more – whether the entirety of the West Bank or all of Israel.
A country cannot overly rely on security agreements and guarantees. In 1994, Ukraine signed the Budapest Moratorium – also executed by Russia, Britain, and the U.S. – in which Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons in exchange for assurances of its territorial integrity. Not only did Russia not abide by the agreement in its invasion of Crimea, the U.S. and Britain did not come to the aid of Ukraine. Today, Israel may appreciate the statements from the United States that its commitments to the Jewish State’s security is “enduring and ironclad“, but Israel must fully plan and operate under the assumption it must be able to defend itself by itself.
Don’t have a capital city on the border. The Russian forces quickly penetrated deep into Ukrainian land early in the war. As the capital city of Kyiv is far from the border with Russia, the country has managed to survive the initial onslaught and continues to defend itself. Israel, a very small country surrounded by Arab Muslim countries, cannot allow its capital city of Jerusalem to sit on a border as well. Not only should the city never be divided again as it was for eighteen years 1949 to 1967, but Israel must secure many miles around the city as well.
Beware the Alter of Large Players. Russia’s size and clout are enabling it to get away with murder. As an enormous military and economic force, many countries are refusing to hold Russia to account. Israel is similarly surrounded by the vast Muslim Arab world, with much of it refusing to recognize its existence and some openly demanding Israel’s destruction. In that backdrop, Israel’s primary sponsor, the United States, is working with the Islamic Republic of Iran to maintain a semblance of a nuclear weapons program, even as Iran has threatened to destroy Israel. The situation threatens Israel existentially on one side and economically and psychologically on the other.
Russia is significantly larger than UkraineIsrael sits as a small dot in the vast Muslim world
Democracies are vulnerable to war when abutting dictatorships. For many years, the western world convinced itself that wars were only for authoritarian regimes. Wars in Africa and the Middle East were considered alien matters between tribal warlords. Intellectuals convinced themselves that a free people with a functioning democracy would simply vote out corrupt or ineffectual leaders and would embrace peace as has existed in Europe since World War II. Lost in that arithmetic is when a democracy abuts a dictatorship, as is the case with Ukraine and Russia. As it is for Israel and all of its neighbors.
There are unfortunately many similarities between the Ukrainians suffering at the hands of its Russian neighbor since 1994 on the one hand, and Israel’s treatment by its Muslim and Arabs neighbors since the reestablishment of the Jewish State, on the other.
In the rampant misinformation campaign that is propagated in the liberal media and anti-Israel universities, conflating Palestinian Arabs with the foreign terrorist organization Hamas is considered a sign of Islamophobia. In the same breath, those deluded souls will tell you that Israel is a racist European settler colonial regime.
The facts are clear that both statements are lies.
The last time the Palestinian Arabs held elections for their parliament was in 2006. The political-terrorist group Hamas won 76 of 132 seats, or 57.6%, trouncing Fatah which won 43 seats. According to a March 2022 poll, if presidential elections were held today, Hamas’s Ismail Haniyeh would win 54% to Fatah’s Mahmoud Abbas getting 38%. If Abbas would not run, the winner would be convicted murderer Marwan Barghouti. Further, a majority (52%) of Palestinian Arabs support terrorism, which the poll termed “armed confrontation and intifada.” Two-thirds of Palestinians want Hamas and another terrorist group, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, to be incorporated into the Palestinian Liberation Organization to “make it more representative of the Palestinian people.” This is apart from the 93% of Palestinian Arabs who are antisemitic.
In regards to Israel, it is the most diverse country in the Middle East. 73.9% of the country is Jewish, 21.1% are Arab (Muslim and Christian) and 5% are other groups including Ba’hai (a religion banned in several neighboring countries), Samaritans and others.
Among Jews, nearly half of the population is Brown and Black.
As of 2018, only 31.8% of Jews were Ashkenazi, of European heritage, and 12.4% were from the former USSR. That compares to 44.9% who are Mizrahi and 3.0% from Ethiopia. The balance (7.9%) are of mixed heritage.
Those figures mean that 32.7% of Israeli Jews are European, when combining all Ashkenazi and Jews from the former USSR.
Ethiopian Jewish woman praying at the Western Wall of the Jewish Temple Mount in Jerusalem, Israel (photo: First One Through)
College campuses and the media are lying when they state that Hamas is not representative of the Palestinian people and that Israel is a colonial project of European Jews. The simple current facts are that over 50% of Palestinians support the terrorist groups of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad, and less than one-third of Israelis are European Jews.
Israelis faced a murderous wave of terrorist attacks in March 2022. Attacks in Beersheva, Hadera and Bnei Brak killed eleven people, causing The Jerusalem Post to write that “what is happening on Israel’s streets are not isolated incidents. This is a terror wave across Israel.“
Members of Israeli ZAKA emergency and response team clean the blood stains at the scene of an attack in Beersheba, southern Israel, Tuesday, March 22, 2022. A knife-wielding Arab man killed several people and seriously wounded others in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba, a rampage officials called a terror attack with nationalist motives. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)
While the world took notice and loudly condemned the Arab assaults, the United Nations only issued a muffled statement in its ongoing role as protector of Palestinian Arabs. A prepared statement on March 29, 2022 from the head office read:
“The Secretary-General condemns the recent terrorist attacks in Israel, which claimed the lives of at least 11 Israeli citizens. Such acts of violence can never be justified and must be condemned by all.
“The Secretary-General extends his heartfelt condolences to families of the victims and wishes a prompt recovery to those injured.
“In the spirit of the upcoming religious holy days, the Secretary-General calls for an immediate end to violence, which only serves to undermine the prospects for peace.”
This statement stands in sharp contrast to other recent statements from the UNSG in which he demanded that the perpetrators of the violence be brought to justice and that he stands with the people of the attacked nation.
UNSG on attack in Uganda November 16, 2021: “The United Nations expresses its hope that all persons involved in the commission of these attacks will be swiftly brought to justice.”
UNSG on attack in Afghanistan on November 3, 2020: “The Secretary-General reiterates that those responsible must be held accountable. The United Nations stands by the people and Government of Afghanistan in support of their long-held aspirations for peace.”
UNSG on attack in Nigeria on June 15, 2020: “He reiterates the need to protect civilians and humanitarian personnel, assets and facilities at all times, in accordance with international humanitarian law. The Secretary-General further reaffirms the United Nations continued solidarity with the Government and people of Nigeria in their efforts to fight terrorism and violent extremism.“
The UN Security Council similarly demanded actions against all facets of terrorism: “The members of the Security Council underlined the need to hold perpetrators, organizers, financiers and sponsors of these reprehensible acts of terrorism accountable and bring them to justice.“
Israelis are seemingly the only people who can be victims of terrorism without the existence of terrorists.
The United Nations is not an honest forum or broker for peace for the Jewish State, as it proves over and again. Israel should disregard the statements and edicts from the body until major reforms are established at the anti-Zionist body.
The dichotomy of the people in the Middle East came into sharp focus this week.
Israel advanced its peace process with a number of Arab and Muslim countries when it hosted Bahrain, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Morocco in its Negev region. The foreign ministers met to discuss how to deal with the regional threat and nuclear aspirations of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the war between Russia and Ukraine, as well as ways of building economic and military ties with each other.
Bahrain’s Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid al-Zayani, Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, Israel’s Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Morocco’s Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita, and United Arab Emirates’ Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan, pose for a group photo following their Negev meeting in the Israeli kibbutz of Sde Boker on March 28, 2022.
The parties to the Abraham Accords were excited to come to the Jewish State to foster trust and trade, peace and prosperity.
On the other extreme, the promoters of violence and mayhem were busy killing people and celebrating the slaughter of innocents.
On March 22, an Israeli Bedouin killed four people in Negev city of Be’er Sheva. The murders were celebrated by fellow murderers:
The spokesperson for the political-terrorist group Hamas that leads the Palestinian parliament said “the crimes of the occupation are met only with heroic stabbing, ramming and shooting operations.“
Another Palestinian terrorist group, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ)said “the operation comes in the natural context of responding to the crimes of Zionist terrorism in the occupied Negev.“
On March 27, two Arab gunmen shot and killed two Israeli police officers in Hadera. The killings brought out the anti-Semites:
ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack and declared “This is for the apostate Jews to know that our promises will always reach them, Allah willing,” and added “We are coming to you with slaughter.“
PIJ said the killings were “an eloquent message from our people against attempts to break our will.“
On March 29, five Israelis were shot by a Palestinian terrorist in Bnei Brak, a community that has virtually no on serving in the military. The Palestinian blood lust continued to be extolled:
Hamas “blesses the heroic operation against the Zionist occupation soldiers in the so-called ‘Tel Aviv’ area, which led to the killing and wounding of a number of Zionist occupiers, and stresses that all the heroic operations carried out by our Palestinian people, in every inch of our occupied land, comes in the context of the natural and legitimate response to the terrorism of the occupation and its escalating crimes against our land, our people and our sanctities.“
Hamas openly called for the killing of Israeli Jews, even those who never serve in the army, and denies the existence of any part of Israel. Palestinian Arabs support this approach, with 54% saying they would vote Hamas’s Ismail Haniyeh to the presidency over Mahmoud Abbas (38%), according to a poll done over the past two weeks. The same poll shows that 58% of Palestinians oppose a two state solution, and that 52% support armed attacks against Israel.
Palestinian cartoon promoting violence in the face of Arab countries bonding with Israel
While Israel convenes conferences to promote peace, Palestinians are engaged in and encouraging the slaughter of innocents. Each party in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has a clear mission, with only one party deserving any support.
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Palestinian Arabs have seemingly been successful at getting the Biden Administration to demand “equality” between the Israelis and Palestinians. It is unclear what that means.
In May 2021, U.S. President Joe Biden said “I believe the Palestinians and Israelis equally deserve to live safely and securely and to enjoy equal measures of freedom, prosperity and democracy.” A few days later, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken tweeted something similar “I underscored America’s ironclad commitment to Israel’s security, and we discussed the importance of promoting peace, security, and dignity for all.” For those who make a living parsing words of politicians who rehearse their sound bites, there was a bit to review.
Biden’s comments were focused on the people (Palestinians and Israelis) while Blinken focused on security for a country (Israel) and then rights for everyone (Palestinians and Israelis). Biden sought “equal measures” regarding “freedom, prosperity and democracy” while Blinken highlighted “peace, security and dignity for all” after giving preference to Israeli security. Biden’s “safely and securely” and “freedom and democracy” were likely meant to be used interchangeably with Blinken’s “peace, security”, but it is doubtful that Biden’s focus on “prosperity” was meant to equate to Blinken’s “dignity.”
Months later, Blinken leaned into “dignity” when he met with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in February 2022 when he said “Israelis and Palestinians alike deserve to live with equal measures of security, freedom, prosperity and crucially, dignity.” He introduced Biden’s focus on prosperity but sought to underscore his belief that dignity is crucial for both people.
In March 2022, when Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Israel and Palestinian Affairs Hady Amr came to the region, he “reiterated the Biden Administration’s philosophy that Israelis and Palestinians alike deserve to live safely and securely and enjoy equal measures of freedom, security, and prosperity.” Amr continued the administration’s emphasis on prosperity as a key goal but declined to mention “dignity.”
The various statements beg the question of what equal measures regarding freedom, security, prosperity and dignity, and whether each are just as important.
Freedom. One interpretation might mean the Palestinians should have freedom of movement for people and goods in and out of the terrorist enclave of Gaza. Is the U.S. pushing to end the blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt immediately, or only in context of a resolution to the conflict? Would such stand exist if the terrorist group of Hamas continues to rule the area?
Freedom could mean the right of self-determination. While one might belief based on the media that Palestinian Arabs have none, in reality, all Gazans have self-determination and the vast majority of Arabs in the West Bank (those living in Areas A and B) similarly have self-determination.
Security. Does the Biden Administration want the Palestinians to have an army like Israel? Since the Oslo Accords in the mid-1990s began a pathway towards Palestinian self-determination, Israelis held firm that any future Palestinian state could not have a standing army in the narrow strip of land abutting Israel. Is the Biden campaign pressuring Israel to change that position?
Prosperity. The United States gives Israel billions of dollars each year and has had a difficult time sending monies to the Palestinian Authority directly (it funnels monies to them indirectly via the United Nations) because the PA refuses to stop rewarding terrorism with “martyr payments” to terrorist families. Is Biden signaling that he will push congress to get rid of the laws which prohibit the promotion of Palestinian Arab terrorism and start sending the PA the same amount of money as the government invests in Israel?
Dignity. Israeli Jews lack the basic human rights to pray at their holiest location of the Jewish Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Will the Biden Administration push to overturn the current status quo in exchange for Palestinians having a military?
The action plans may be underway.
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides tweeted on March 16, 2022 about his excitement that more monies were flowing to Palestinians: “Pleased to see lots for Palestinians in the budget just signed by @POTUS Biden: $144 million increase (now $219 million) for Economic Support Funds, $40 million for security forces training in the WBank, and $50 million for 2nd year of the Nita Lowey MEPPA Fund,” a strange comment for the ambassador TO ISRAEL to comment on aid elsewhere.
Blinken is in Israel now and will talk about the Russia-Ukraine war, the refugees crisis and its impact on the region, Iran’s nuclear program and its threat towards the world, the emerging peace between Israel and various Arab countries stemming from the Abraham Accords, and the Palestinian Arab- Israel conflict. The administration’s pivot towards the Palestinians can be seen at 11:50 in the video, when Blinken said that he will meet with “Palestinians in East Jerusalem who are a critical part of the city’s vibrant and diverse civil society and underscore our work with Palestinian non-governmental government organizations.” Is Blinken saying that East Jerusalem is Palestinian and that “equality” further extends to splitting Israel’s capital?
The United States is pushing the notion of equality between Israel and the Palestinian Authority as an end-goal of negotiations. Will advocating for Jewish rights on the Temple Mount and a Palestinian army kill the peace process before it begins?
Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) has long been viewed as a hate group on college campuses which “isn’t to promote education about Palestinians, but make the campus environment hostile for Israel supporters,” as summed up by Aviva Slomich, international campus director for CAMERA.
On March 14, 2022, Tufts University’s SJP chapter posted an opinion piece in the student run paper, Tufts Observer, called “Justice Through BDS.” The article promoted the familiar anti-Zionist propaganda, mislabeling Israel as a creature of “European settler colonialism” that runs an “apartheid regime.” It referred to Israel with a lowercase “i” to insult the Jewish State, and advocated for violence in its statement “SJP supports the full range of Palestinian resistance against settler-colonialism.“
The call for violence should get the group kicked off campus, but that is unlikely to happen unless and until Tufts’ alumni and student body demand action from the university (president Anthony P. Monaco’s office number is 617-627-3300).
In the same article promoting violence against Israel, SJP noted the good work that J Street has been doing in the Jewish community:
"While SJP recognizes that many Jewish people begin their anti-zionist political journey through J Street U, and appreciates that J Street U’s Tufts chapter agrees that antisemitism and anti-Zionism are not synonymous, it is crucial for students to refuse half-measures that condemn occupation while normalizing colonization."
SJP specifically called out its appreciation for the lobbying and anti-Israel propaganda disseminated by J Street, but the hate group still could not embrace its colleagues, as the left-wing Jewish group still has a stated platform that Israel should exist in some form. SJP has therefore called for J Street to be included in its broad boycott.
T-shirts praising Palestinian terrorism seen for sale at the National Students for Justice in Palestine conference in November 2016. Photo: NSJP/Facebook.
SJP and J Street U have stood as allies on different college campuses, such as in February 2019, when both groups blasted the University of Vermont’s Jewish Hillel for accepting money from the pro-Israel group Maccabee Task Force. The SJP-J Street allyship has built bridges – to encourage more Jews to despise Israel, but not for Israel haters to embrace coexistence with the Jewish State.
When a virulently anti-Israel hate group like SJP praises J Street, a group that claims to be pro-Israel, it may finally dawn on the pro-Zionist community that the Jewish left-wing group is a dangerous gateway organization to destroy the Jewish State from within.
J Street markets itself as “the political home of pro-Israel, pro-peace Americans” in an effort to make someone believe that its primary goal is supporting Israel. The group dismissed criticisms when it advocated against the desires of the Israeli government in supporting the Iran nuclear deal and condemning Jews living in the “West Bank” as simply opposing particular Israeli policies. It really didn’t have a response when it effectively lobbied the Obama administration to allow the anti-Israel United Nations Security Resolution 2334 to pass.
As the “pro-Israel” veneer washed away long ago, it has freed the group to become unabashedly pro-Progressive, pouring money AGAINST pro-Israel candidates in favor of extreme leftists.
Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX28) has proven many times that he understands Israel and supports the democratic Jewish State. On February 1, 2022, he tweeted in response to the false libels of the Amnesty report on Israel “Israel is not an apartheid state. Full stop. These inaccuracies incite antisemitic behavior against the Jewish people. Lies that incite violence, but do nothing to help the Palestinian people. Let’s work together, not tear each other down.“
In December 2021, he co-authored a letter to Secretary of State Blinken to take a tough stand against Iran as it continued to pursue nuclear weapons. In sharing the letter, Cuellar said “We cannot let an aggressive actor threaten Israel—our strongest ally in the Middle East.“
It is therefore not a surprise that Cuellar has received endorsements from many pro-Israel organizations like Pro-Israel America.
For progressive groups who do not care about Israel or are actively hostile to Israel, the primary lens is simply that he is too moderate.
Justice Democrats, the far-left group behind Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) poured money into the campaign of his primary challenger, Jessica Cisneros. She’s received endorsements from far left politicians including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) and AOC. The Sunshine Group – which gained infamy for its DC Chapter boycotting the presence of Zionist groups advocating for voting rights – also backs her.
Rep. AOC stumping for far left wing candidate Jessica Cisneros in Texas to unseat moderate Democrat Henry Cuellar
Other far left-wing groups actively hostile to Israel also back Cisneros. The list includes Move On and The Working Families Party, which pushed politicians to boycott the pro-Israel AIPAC conference. Daily Kos, a left wing media outlet which equated the Palestinian political-terrorist group HAMAS which calls for killing Israelis and the destruction of Israel, and Israel’s Likud as “Two despicable organizations,” also supports Cisneros.
Joining the list of alt-left wing groups – many anti-Israel – in endorsing Cisneros is J Street PAC. J Street is spending $100,000 in digital ads to help Cisneros defeat Cuellar in the Democratic primary on March 1, 2022. To put that sum in context, J Street spent $272,000 nationally in getting Joe Biden elected president in 2020.
Consider that Cisneros hasn’t said a single word about Israel. Her “Issues” list doesn’t mention Israel or the Middle East.
Yet J Street, which markets itself as primarily concerned with Israel is putting a huge amount of money behind someone who has no opinions on Israel, and against a moderate Democratic politician who staunchly supports the Jewish State.
J Street is a progressive PAC first and foremost, which thinks nothing of standing alongside left wing groups that despise Israel. In backing Cisneros in Texas, it is proving again that the organization has nothing to do with being pro-Israel.
The war against the Jewish State began militarily at Israel’s inception, as the armies of five Arab nations invaded Israel in 1948 in a war to annihilate it. In June 1967, the Arab world attempted the same but failed spectacularly.
Since that time, the armed conflict by Muslim countries has continued with more modest ambitions, as the goal of destroying Israel is considered too remote a possibility, unless and until Iran obtains nuclear weapons. The violent attacks against Israel have mostly been about pestering and killing Jews to obtain concessions. The 1973 Yom Kippur war ushered in a willingness for Israel to hand the Sinai Peninsula back to Egypt, and Palestinian Arabs believe that the Second Intifada War made Israel abandon the Gaza Strip. The various Hamas wars from Gaza since 2008 and the political-terrorist group’s kidnapping of Israelis, secured the release of thousands of fellow terrorists and other modest gains.
The failure to destroy Israel did not make the Muslim countries accept its existence. In fact, it has done its utmost to deny its existence.
Immediately after the 1967 Six Day War, the Arab League passed the Khartoum Resolution declaring a policy of ‘Three No’s’: “no peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, no negotiations with it.” For the Arabs, the Jewish State had a name but was to be ignored until the Arabs could prevail at destroying the foreign presence.
In the 1970’s, the Arab League enlisted allies to their cause. Leveraging their control of the oil markets, and with a former Nazi sitting as head of the United Nations, the Muslim and Arab countries got the world to pass UNGA Resolution 3379 in November 1975 that declared that “Zionism is a form of racism.” This was an attempt to deny Israel’s legitimacy broadly.
Meanwhile, faced with the impossibility of destroying Israel, the Arabs and Muslims went after Jewish “soft targets,” like plane and boat hijackings (Dawson’s Field in 1970, Rome and Vienna airport shootings in 1985, and Achille Lauro in 1985), as well as blowing up Jewish community centers (Argentina 1994) and synagogues (Turkey 1986). If people inside Israel were too difficult to kill, the Muslim world came for the Jews around the world.
While the ‘Zionism is racism’ resolution was ultimately thrown out in 1991 due to the efforts of the United States, it simmered as the Oslo Accords of 1993 and 1995 anticipated a peace deal in September 2000. Instead of finally accepting peace, the Palestinians launched the Second Intifada War which only subsided with the erection of Israel’s security barrier in 2004-5. That led to two new movements which are unfortunately thriving today: the demonization of the Jewish State and the BDS Movement (Boycott, Divest and Sanction), both economic wars.
Demonization of Jews and Zionists
The 2001 Durban Conference against racism served as the global launch party to amplify and expand upon the prior “Zionism is racism” propaganda.
As the world no longer relied on oil as it had in the 1970’s, the Muslim Arab world hoped to convince the western world to join their war against the Jewish State based on democratic values, a sly and peculiar approach for autocratic regimes. The global conference advanced a new lexicon to vilify Israel with terms like “apartheid,” “settler-colonialism,” “ethnic cleansing,” “genocide,” and “crimes against humanity” to name a few. It similarly painted Palestinians as noble victims, misusing words like “desperate,” “resistance,” and “dignity.”
This approach is more insidious than used during the 1970’s and 1980’s which relied on far-flung violence. The violent attacks against Jews around the world by Arab Muslims made it difficult to portray the Palestinian Arabs as “desperate.” Instead, since 2001, the demonization tactic has penetrated the west through the education systems, the media and the democratic system itself.
The Arab world funneled billions of dollars and tens of thousands of students to universities including New York University, MIT, Columbia and Tufts. The donations funded Middle East Studies departments and Divinity schools with anti-Israel narratives. Due to this activity, college campuses have become hotbeds of anti-Semitism, often denying Jews the right to participate in public spaces as perceived Zionists and racists.
These young voices have been indoctrinated with a new anti-Zionist vocabulary and worldview over the past twenty years. They are now running the western liberal media, working at “human rights” organizations and voting for far-left anti-Zionist politicians endorsed by the Democrat Socialists of America.
The 2001 Durban campaign, now 20-plus years running, has been very successful in not only demonizing Israel, but demonizing Zionists. Under this current version of “Zionism is racism,” Jews in Israel and around the world are no longer only being attacked by Arab Muslims but by their fellow citizens. While the legitimacy of Israel is still being denied, the focus has expanded to Israel’s supporters.
The movement seeks to boycott not only Israeli products but those companies that do business in Israel. It wants universities to bar Israeli professors and athletes to refuse to compete with Israelis.
It has even gone after its own, turning on Arab Muslim states which normalized ties to Israel such as the United Arab Emirates.
After failing to destroy the Jewish State militarily, the Arab Muslim world has gone through three stages to destroy it economically, with the current effort enlisting global support against all Zionists
The current Muslim and Arab war against the Jewish State is being fought everywhere, as Zionists of any religion or ethnicity are falsely branded “racists” who should be canceled. The intent is to pressure people and governments everywhere to sever ties with the Jewish State, making it vulnerable and weak by every measure.
The war against Israel has mutated since the country was founded but the goal remains the same: the end of the Jewish State. What has alarmingly changed now is that YOU are being asked to participate in that anti-Semitic endeavor by your neighbors, schools, media and elected officials.
First One Through 