Category Archives: Israel

J Street Shows its Disdain for Israel in Criticism of Pompeo

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US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo broke with traditional norms by addressing the Republican National Convention this week. Various media outlets covered the controversy of a sitting Secretary of State speaking at a political convention when historic practice is that such position is beyond party politics. Consider the headlines:

  • NYTimes: “Radical Break From Tradition: Trump Stages Part of His Convention From the White House”
  • ABCNews: “Pompeo defies his own policy by praising Trump in unprecedented convention speech”
  • Vox: “Mike Pompeo’s RNC speech will place him as the most partisan secretary of state in decades”
  • NBCNews: “Diplomats aghast as Pompeo set to address GOP convention from Jerusalem”
  • Washington Post: “Pompeo stirs up outrage among some diplomats over speech to RNC”

The press was appalled that Pompeo would take a public stance in favor of one political party while he was still actively serving as Secretary of State.

But J Street, a left-wing Pro-Palestinian organization which uses the fig leaf of a missing foreskin to claim it is “Pro-Israel,” was angry at Pompeo for showcasing the various actions the Trump administration took which benefited Israel.

On August 24, J Street posted an attack called “POMPEO’S JERUSALEM RNC SPEECH SHAMELESSLY USES ISRAEL AS A PARTISAN PROP.” Rather than simply focusing on the atypical speech at a convention, J Street said

“The Trump administration continues to break new ground in their shameless efforts to use the state of Israel as a political prop and a partisan football.“

Even the left-wing media didn’t attack Pompeo for speaking from Jerusalem; they simply noted that he should not have been speaking at the convention at all, whether from Washington or Paris. The media was angry at the usage of the OFFICE of the Secretary, not the location from which he spoke.

But J Street knows that there is no better contrast in foreign policy between the Democrats and Republicans than on the subject of the Middle East.

During the Obama administration, J Street aggressively pushed to give Iran a legal pathway to nuclear weapons and to pass a resolution at the United Nations marking Jews living east of the Green Line as illegal. During Trump’s tenure, it lobbied against recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s undivided capital, moving the US embassy to the city and from withholding financial assistance to the Palestinian Authority while it continues to pay for terrorism.

In lambasting the location of Pompeo’s speech and highlighting Israel, J Street tacitly admits that the policies for which it advocates are ANTI-Israel and the promotion of its agenda into the Democratic Party is the essence of turning Israel into a “partisan football.”

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaking at the Republican National Convention from Jerusalem, Israel

Related First One Through articles:

J Street: Home for Pro-Palestinian, Pro-Peace Americans

J Street is Only Considered “Pro-Israel” in Progressive Circles

The Evil Architects at J Street Take a Bow

J Street is a Partisan Left-Wing Group, NOT an Alternative to AIPAC

J Street’s Select Appreciation of Transparency

WHY The Progressive Assault on Israel

The Tikkun Olam Brigade and the Taped Banana

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NY Times Hails the Heroes of Hamas

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On August 8, 2020, The New York Times wrote an article praising Hamas for its actions regarding the pandemic while also warning about the destructive actions of Israel.

New York Times article praising Hamas

The article “Covid-19 Spares Gaza, but Travel Restrictions Prove Less Forgiving” noted that

“the blockaded Gaza Strip might be one of the only places in the world where no cases of community transmission of the coronavirus have been recorded – an achievement attributed to the coastal enclave’s isolation as well as the swift measures taken by its militant Hamas rulers…. In March, fearing the potentially disastrous consequences of an outbreak in Gaza, Hamas authorities ordered all travelers returning to the territory from by way of Israel and Egypt to enter quarantine facilities for three weeks. They could not leave quarantine until they had passed two virus tests. The system seemed to have succeeded… Hamas initially instituted other restrictions in Gaza. But it later lifted many of them, enabling residents to follow significant parts of their daily routines. They have been flocking to the beaches, working out in gyms, eating at restaurants, praying at mosques and shopping in markets, among other activities.“

Hamas is highlighted as one of the greatest governing bodies in the world, sparing the Gaza community any deaths while allowing people to enjoy activities that are forbidden in much of the world including going to gyms  and churches. There is no mention that the group is a designated terrorist organization with a founding charter which is the most antisemitic in the world both calling Jews disgusting names and for a jihad to kill them and destroy the Jewish State. The Times never calls Hamas a terrorist group and has now taken the incremental step of praising its leadership.

The Times wasn’t quite through sharing its twisted narrative as it needed to condemn Israel.

The media outlet posted a blow-out clause about the evil occupying forces:

“A fear that Israel is ‘tightening its closure’ on the territory.“

The article also included three pictures, of which the largest two were of women and children. The caption described how the woman was unable to visit her ailing father – because of Israel. The third picture was of a man who wanted to move to Europe because “poverty is rampant,” presumably, also because of Israel, not Hamas’s funneling of resources towards killing Jews.

This is the prevailing theme surrounding the Times’ coverage of the pandemic in Israel, Israeli territories and the Palestinian territories.

On April 9 the Times wrote how “[Palestinian Prime Minister] Shtayyeh’s administration earned broad approval for its aggressive response to an early outbreak,” even “as extremist Jewish settlers take advantage of the West Bank emergency by assaulting farmers, damaging property and trespassing or squatting on Palestinian land.” For the Times, Palestinians are noted for good governance while Israelis are terrible right-wing violent racists.

The Times does not tell its readers that the death rate in Jordan from the pandemic stands at only 1 person per million, even better than their cousins in the Palestinian territories which are at 19 per million, roughly the same as Israeli Arabs. The Times will not posit that the reason could be from their common culture or DNA rather than actions of the leadership and circumstances.

For the New York Times, autocrats fail the tests of handling the coronavirus while noble governments led by Socialists and women – and the Palestinians – fair well. For the liberal rag, Hamas and the Palestinian Authority are “resistance movements”, not authoritarian racist regimes, welcomed into the community of the woke.

Related First One Through articles:

Where the Virus is Killing the Most: Countries with Socialist Leaders

Toronto Star Sanitizes Hamas During Pandemic

Liberal Senators Look to Funnel Money into Gaza

The Proud Fathers of Palestinian Terrorists

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The Cultural Appropriation of the Jewish ‘Promised Land’

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Various segments of western society have become critical about “cultural appropriation” in which the majority group adopts customs of another group without explicitly acknowledging its origins, as to do so would be both stealing and effectively wiping out the essence of the minority culture. The issue is even more concerning when the majority group’s acts of appropriation specifically target religious and holy items of minority groups.

There is no greater example of this trend than the broad theft of the Jewish “Promised Land.”

In Genesis 12, God tells Abraham to leave his home “to the land that I will show you.” When he passed through Shechem (Nablus) God said “I will assign this land to your offspring.” It is a speech which God would repeat throughout the Bible to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob (Israel) and the Children of Israel, that this specific land was promised “as an everlasting possession.” (Genesis 17:8) It is a core belief of Judaism.

Over time, non-Jewish musicians and poets would use the phrase “Promised Land” as a generic destination without noting its specific identity to the land of Israel for Jews. Chuck Berry sang about it (later covered by Elvis) in reference to California as a destination for his music to reach the masses. Bruce Springsteen sang about the “promised land” as a place of yearning, a mental and spiritual destination beyond current problems.

When Arab invaders brought Islam into Israel in the seventh and eighth centuries, they seized Jewish holy sites like the Tomb of the Jewish Matriarchs and Patriarchs in Hebron and turned it into a mosque. They built the Dome of the Rock atop the Jewish Temple Mount. The Muslims even adopted the notion of a “waqf” as a religious holy space. As opposed to Jews who viewed the land of Israel as holy because it was promised to them by God, Muslims believe that anywhere Muslims conquered and established the supremacy of Islam became a Muslim holy land. As such, Muslims attempted to erase the physical Jewish Promised Land as a land of their own.

Politicians mostly avoid using the term “Promised Land.” They might note that Israel is a “Holy Land” which is “sacred to Jews and Christians and Muslims” as President Obama noted in a national prayer breakfast in 2014, stripping the uniqueness of the Promised Land for Jews. When Obama did use the term “Promised Land” it was as a metaphor for when Black children will have full equality to live in an America devoid of bigotry and racism.

The worst and most feared element of cultural appropriation happens constantly in regards to the “Promised Land,” in which it is either used generically as a metaphor without any connection to Jews, or when applied to the physical land of Israel, it is noted as holy to the three monotheistic faiths and not uniquely promised to the Children of Israel.

We should aspire to follow the example of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. whose final speech in 1968 pulled together the story of the Jewish Promised Land in connection with his desire for a more perfect society:

“Something is happening in Memphis; something is happening in our world. And you know, if I were standing at the beginning of time, with the possibility of taking a kind of general and panoramic view of the whole of human history up to now, and the Almighty said to me, “Martin Luther King, which age would you like to live in?” I would take my mental flight by Egypt and I would watch God’s children in their magnificent trek from the dark dungeons of Egypt through, or rather across the Red Sea, through the wilderness on toward the promised land. And in spite of its magnificence, I wouldn’t stop there…

Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!“

The “promised land” is commonly used as a metaphor for a perfect society. Let’s strive for that perfection by acknowledging that its foundation is the Jewish State of Israel.

Related First One Through articles:

Martin Luther King and Zionism

The Cave of the Jewish Matriarch and Arab Cultural Appropriation

Linda Sarsour as Pontius Pilate

The Remarkable Tel Jerusalem

The Jewish Holy Land

Jews, Judaism and Israel

The Nation of Israel Prevails

“Flowing with Milk and Honey”

Today’s Inverted Chanukah: The Holiday of Rights in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria

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NY Times Ignores Centrality of the Jewish Temple Mount

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On July 31, 2020, the New York Times wrote a moving piece about the annual pilgrimage of Muslims to Mecca in Saudi Arabia for the hajj. It described how the coronavirus limited the number of people who could attend the hajj this year and the various steps which the kingdom undertook to try to protect the health of the smaller gathering to Islam’s holiest location.

I looked to see if the Times covered the solemn day of the Ninth of Av (July 30, 2020), when Jews traveled to Jerusalem, the Western Wall and the Jewish Temple Mount to mourn the destruction of the first and second temples. While Jewish media outlets like the Jerusalem Post and Times of Israel wrote about it, the Times ignored the story.

The Times did write a 1,300-word article about the Temple Mount on May 15, 2020 when it described how Muslims could not visit the site for Ramadan because of the pandemic. It seemed that Islam’s third holiest site which has no specific connection to Ramadan was an important focus for the liberal paper even as it ignored writing about the pandemic’s impact on Jews visiting their holiest site on Jewish holidays.

I looked back further to see if the Times covered any of the three Jewish holidays which call upon Jews to visit Jerusalem and the Temple Mount: Shavuot (celebrated May 28-30, 2020), Passover (celebrated April 8-19 this year) and Sukkot (which will be celebrated October 2-9, 2020). It did.

On March 30 it published an article “For Shut-In Pilgrims, the World’s Holiest Sites Are a Click Away,” which covered Jerusalem, Mecca and Rome. While Mecca was devoted to Muslims and Rome to Christians, the Times described Jerusalem from the vantage point of “Passover, Easter and Ramadan — touchstone holidays of three major religions.” Not only was Judaism not worthy of a unique article as was Islam (twice, in May and July), but when an article was written, the other monotheistic faiths were also covered, AND when Judaism’s holiest city was mentioned, it was noted as holy to other faiths as well.

Christianity and Islam pushed their religions globally for over one thousand years, converting and killing non-believers. Their numbers now count in the billions and their faithful are spread around the globe, while the Jewish population was decimated with only about 15 million people today, of which 84% live in Israel and the United States. Arguably the paltry sum of Jews makes them barely worth mentioning to global papers.

But it’s the deliberate denial of Jewish Jerusalem that irks me.

The July 31 NY Times article explained to its readers that “the hajj, one of the five pillars of Islam, is required for all Muslims who are physically and financially able to go at least once in their lifetimes.” ONCE IN THEIR LIFETIMES. Why only once? Because there are 1.8 billion Muslims living all over the world. After pushing the religion around the globe it is impossible for so many people to come to Islam’s holiest city every year.

In contrast, Judaism calls on all Jews to visit Jerusalem and the Temple Mount THREE TIMES EVERY YEAR. It calls on Jews to do this because the religion was not orchestrated to spread to the corners of the world with forced conversions on the masses, inflating the numbers of adherents. Judaism was designed as a local religion for a small nation, in the Jewish holy land with its holy city in the center.

I appreciate the beautiful article The New York Times wrote about Mecca and Islam. I wonder if it will ever write with such sensitivity about the Jews, Jerusalem and the Jewish Temple Mount.

Related First One Through articles:

It is Time to Insert “Jewish” into the Names of the Holy Sites

There is No Jewish Temple Mount for The New York Times

The New York Times All Out Assault on Jewish Jerusalem

It’s the Temple Mount, Not the Western Wall

Names and Narrative: CNN’s Temple Mount/ Al Aqsa Complex Inversion

Tolerance at the Temple Mount

The Green Line Through Jerusalem

Antisemitism Includes the Denial of Jewish History

The Nerve of ‘Judaizing’ Neighborhoods

Palestineism is Toxic Racism

I Understand Why the Caged Jew Sighs

The Remarkable Tel Jerusalem

The Cave of the Jewish Matriarch and Arab Cultural Appropriation

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Replacing the Jordanian Waqf on The Temple Mount

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After Israel defeated the attacking Jordanian army in June 1967, it allowed the Jordanian Islamic Waqf to have administrative control of the Jewish Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem while Israel controlled the security of the area. In 1980, Israel officially applied sovereignty and reunited the city of Jerusalem as its eternal capital but still allowed the Jordanian Waqf to administer Judaism’s holiest site. And in Israel’s 1994 peace treaty with Jordan, the country continued to be sensitive to Jordan, stating “Israel respects the present special role of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in Muslim Holy shrines in Jerusalem. When negotiations on the permanent status will take place, Israel will give high priority to the Jordanian historic role in these shrines.”

However, in recent months, Jordan has come out very aggressively against Israel’s contemplated application of sovereignty over more of the west bank of the Jordan River.

In May 2020, Jordanian Prime Minister Omar al-Razzaz said “We will not accept unilateral Israeli moves to annex Palestinian lands and we would be forced to review all aspects of our relations with Israel.” King Abdullah also said that if Israel “really annexes the West Bank in July, it would lead to a massive conflict with the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.”

In light of the statements and contemplated reaction by Jordan, it makes sense for Israel to approach both Egypt and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to see if they would be interested in taking over the role of the Jordanian Waqf in Jerusalem.

Egypt has maintained a peace treaty with Israel since 1979 and there is a good working relationship with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. Israel’s relationship with KSA has improved in recent years, especially because of the countries mutual distrust of Iran. As the guardian of Mecca and Medina, KSA would logically welcome the role to extend its guardianship of Islamic holy sites, and the move could be part of an important peace treaty with Saudi Arabia.

The Old City of Jerusalem including the Jewish Temple Mount/ Al Aqsa Compound during the Jewish holiday of Passover

Jordan’s threat to abandon its peace agreement with Israel is an opening for Israel to offer Saudi Arabia a place in Jerusalem and to forge a new peace agreement with the powerful kingdom. In light of the Trump Administration’s deep ties with KSA, it makes sense to advance those initiatives now.

Related First.One.Through articles:

Jordan’s King Abdullah II Fights to Retain His Throne

Oh Abdullah, Jordan is Not So Special

Time for King Abdullah of Jordan to Denounce the Mourabitoun

The Waqf and the Temple Mount

Hamas Charter, Articles 11 and 12

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Socialists Employ Arabs’ Four Step Battle Plan

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There is a major battle underway between Socialists and Capitalists in America which is using a template that the Arab countries used to attack Israel in 1967. It is a four step battle plan, many of which have recently been effectuated by the far left.

  1. Deny the Enemy Rights and Legitimacy
  2. Gather the Masses to the Cause
  3. Remove the Enemy’s Defenses
  4. Assemble the Armies for the Battle

This is not a course for a considered debate about priorities and policies but a war of annihilation.

1. Deny the Enemy Rights and Legitimacy

An intellectual debate about approaches to a range of issues is a sign of a healthy democracy. It typically involves the push-and-pull and inevitable compromises that incorporate the spectrum of ideas.

However, a society with parties which only court the base and vilify opponents is deeply broken. It is actually not a single community but two warring parties.

Common arguments used as red meat for loyalists include that:

  • The enemy has no moral standing
  • The enemy has no rights to its ill-gotten gains
  • The narrative and history of the enemy is full of lies and denies the rights of the righteous
  • The enemy’s supporters are part-and-parcel of the problem

2. Gather the Masses to the Cause

A path to victory should not just lock in the core base but expand the circle to include additional warriors. Overwhelming the enemy with sheer numbers may look democratic in securing a majority, but in tandem with the demonization established earlier in (1), the intense firepower is ripe to engage in widespread destruction.

  • Declare a commitment to fight together
  • Shared vision of wiping out the foe and its supporters

3. Remove the Enemy’s Defenses

There is no clearer demonstration that the battle is near than when there is a direct call to remove the enemy’s defenses. It also makes abundantly clear that the intent of the battle is not simply to secure a victory but to annihilate the foe.

4. Assemble the Armies for the Battle

Lastly, when the groundwork has been laid, it is time to bring the fight to enemy’s doorstep. Readying all of the combined forces against the corrupt (and now defenseless) power, the victory and decimation of the opponent is a virtual certainty. All that is needed is the battle cry to engage.

Consider how the Arabs used this approach and how the American Socialists are following the format today.

Arab-Israeli Conflict in 1967

The Arab-Israeli Conflict emerged shortly after the San Remo Agreement in 1920 which codified the Balfour Declaration of 1917. The local and regional Arabs tried to destroy the emerging Jewish State but failed to do so from the 1920’s through 1950’s.
Deny enemy rights and legitimacy: Arabs claim Israel has no rights to the land. They call the Jews “colonialists” and “invaders.” Arabs recast history that Jews have no connection to Israel despite 3,300 years of history. They attempt to convince themselves and the world that Jews have no connection to the Hebrews of the bible and that the Palestinian Arabs are Canaanites as opposed to Arabs from Arabia who invaded the Jewish holy land.

Not only are the Jews invaders, but vile ones as well. In 1975, the Arab countries managed to get the United Nations to pass a resolution that Zionism is a form of racism, which only got overturned by the push of the United States in 1991. Even today, the acting-President of the Palestinian Authority says that Jews around the world are hated because of their “function.” The Hamas Charter claims that Jews like “shooting at women, children and old people… [particularly] “where their breadwinning is concerned.”
Gather the Masses to the Cause: Egypt and Syria combined themselves into a United Arab Republic in 1958 to fortify a pan-Arab bloc. They enlisted Jordan into a mutual defense pact in May 1967, as they readied for battle against Israel, encircling it on all sides.

Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser said in May 1967 shortly before the Six Day War, “we are not only confronting Israel but also those who created Israel and who are behind Israel. We are confronting Israel and the West as well…. If the United States and Britain are partial to Israel, we must say that our enemy is not only Israel but also the United States and Britain.” On the one year anniversary of the Arab defeat in June 1967, a Palestinian Arab assassinated US Senator Bobby Kennedy. The Arab world then created an oil shortage, crippling the western world’s economy because of their support of Israel.
Remove the Enemy’s Defenses: In May 1967, Egypt ordered the United Nations to remove all of its troops from the Sinai and Gaza Strip which had been stationed there to prevent hostilities between Israel and Egypt. The UN complied, leaving Israel to defend itself by itself from the surrounding forces of several nations.
Assemble the Armies for Battle: Shortly after the UN pulled its troops from the region, the UAR mobilized its troops closer to the Israeli frontier. As Nasser said on May 29, 1967, “Preparations have already been made. We are now ready to confront Israel.”

“Pave the Arab roads with the skulls of Jews. Show them no mercy.” – Hafez al-Assad, Defense Minister of Syria, June 9, 1967

This is the battle plan being used by the alt-left today.

Socialist-Capitalist Conflict Today

The alt-left has been laying the ground work for taking private property from the wealthy to redistribute to those considered less fortunate.
Deny enemy rights and legitimacy: The alt-left has been declaring a civil war against various member of society:

  • Senator Bernie Sanders who has come close to being the Democratic nominee for president twice has vilified Wall Street as being inherently corrupt saying “the business model of Wall Street is fraud.“
  • Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said that “a system that allows billionaires to exist” is immoral.
  • New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said that money in the United States is “in the wrong hands,” setting himself as arbiter of who should have what.
  • President Barak Obama set these sentiments in motion when he said “If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.“

The basic premise of the far left arguments is that the wealthy should NOT have their money and property. The rich either made the money via fraud (Sanders), took advantage of an immoral system (AOC) or that society has a part in facilitating that wealth, so it is entitled to take a good portion of it (Obama).

The enemy is the 1% according to Obama and it is the White patriarchy in general according to tenet of the movement. History is being recast with the sculptures of America’s founding fathers being pulled from their pedestals including Thomas Jefferson being marked as a slave-owning racist. The BlackLivesMatter is further demanding reparations for slavery of generations ago. Anyone who disagrees with the BLM platform is demonized as a racist, or as Hillary Clinton prefers, “deplorables.”

Gather the Masses to the Cause: Intersectionality is not a new concept but was given credibility only recently. Progressives are using the notion that all disenfranchised people must come together in common cause with each other, as Blacks, LGBT, poor working class, immigrants and others are all suffering because of the racist and corrupt system established by the White patriarchy.

The far left is not only coming for the Patriarchy; they are coming against anyone who does not adhere to the extreme orthodoxy of their cause. Moderate Democrats are being run out of primaries by alt-left radicals. People who make a misstep or allow room for compromise with centrists or right-leaning people are run out of their jobs, whether at universities or the media.

Remove the Enemy’s Defenses: One of the demands of the BLM protests is to “defund the police.” Leaders of the movement in Seattle have demanded that the police departments be completely disbanded. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D-MN) went further and said “We are not merely fighting to tear down the systems of oppression in the criminal justice system. We are fighting to tear down systems of oppression that exist in housing, in education, in health care, in employment, [and] in the air we breathe.”

The call to pull money from police departments had an immediate effect on the public. Shootings skyrocketed all over the country, with cities like Chicago and New York City each having over 60 people shot over weekends.

Assemble the Armies for Battle: Members of the far left have set up “autonomous zones” in which they declare that US laws have no authority. In Seattle, they called the area the Capital Hill Autonomous Zone or CHAZ. In St. Louis, a couple was scared of protesters coming into their private enclave and pulled guns calling for them to leave. The media has portrayed the couple as fanatics attacking a “racial injustice protest” even after a policeman was killed by protesters the week before.

The battle plan is set: declare that your coming for the rich to take their ill-gotten wealth; pull the police from the streets; assemble hundreds of people to take over sections of cities and march through neighborhoods; and vilify anyone who objects or stands to defend themselves and their property.

Police car set on fire in Chicago (photo: Ashlee Rezin Garcia, Chicago Sun Times via AP)

The Arab countries effectively followed the four step battle plan to annihilate Israel but the Jewish State preemptively attacked in 1967 and thereby avoided being destroyed. The alt-left is following the same blueprint today to tear down America’s economy and perceived hierarchy. It remains to be seen if capitalists will proactively defend themselves before being ridden into oblivion.

Related First One Through articles:

The Democratic Socialists Tell Lies and Half Truths About Lobbyists

From “You Didn’t Build That” to “You Don’t Own That”

Bernie Sanders is Less Sophisticated Than Forrest Gump

Fake Definitions: Pluralism and Progressive / Liberalism

A Country Divided

The Democratic Party is Tacking to the Far Left-Wing Anti-Semitic Fringe

American Hate: The Right Targets Foreigners, The Left Targets Americans

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The Jordan Valley in 1930 and 2020

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Israel is considering annexing the Jordan Valley in the near-future to establish a secure and natural border with Jordan to the east. The pro-Palestinian press has not surprisingly taken a harsh view of the contemplated action. It is comical to read how the media describes the physical land itself.

Consider Al Jazeera, a Qatar-owned media conglomerate which pushes its pro-Arab narrative around the world. It wrote that “fertile farmlands would become part of Israel.” The article claimed that Palestinians “have worked on the land for generations.” The land is described as rich which “bring a lot of income to the Israeli economy and so it works well to exploit the resources and land.”

The BBC wrote that “the Jordan Valley is a fertile strip of land running along the Jordan border that comprises nearly 30% of the West Bank. It is sparsely populated – home to around 65,000 Palestinians and 11,000 Jewish settlers. As such, it is the largest land reserve the Palestinians would have for the future development of an independent state.”

CNN opined that the Jordan Valley is home to many “agricultural towns, taking advantage of the fertile land near the Jordan River.”

NBC News called it the “strategic and fertile Jordan Valley, the region’s breadbasket, on the border with Jordan.”

Almost seems like a paradise… today, under Israeli control.

But in 1930, before Jews came back to the holy land en masse, the Jordan Valley was far from a “fertile farmland” and the “region’s breadbasket.”

The British commissioned a report after Arabs slaughtered Jews around the land in 1929 to consider the tension and violence that was becoming too commonplace. The Shaw Commission provided a detailed background of the land and history in the late 1920’s to provide context to their analysis and recommendations. Regarding the Jordan Valley, it wrote:

“much of the Jordan Valley is at times oppressively hot, the rainfall is slight, and it seems doubtful whether the fertile tracts within it can support a large agricultural population.”

It described sections of “the Jordan Valley north of Jericho and south of Nablus where there is practically no rainfall and no cultivation.”

This was no breadbasket but a harsh desert with occasional oases.

Palm trees in the Jordan Valley (photo: First One Through)

Even in this British report critical of Zionism which advocated curtailing Jewish immigration, the authors noted that “Jewish immigration and enterprise have been of great advantage to Palestine,” as the land began to flourish as early as 1930. But in the end, “when trade depression and unemployment followed the period of heavy immigration the indirect benefits which Jewish activities had brought to many parts of Palestine were forgotten and everywhere among the Arab people the Zionist movement was regarded as the cause of the economic problems of the country.”

The media pens stories that Palestinians’ fertile farmland which has been worked on for generations is being ripped from their hands by Jewish “exploiters” (a typical antisemitic canard), when in fact it was Israel which transformed and continues to enhance the Jordan Valley into the “region’s breadbasket” which the press describes today.

Related First One Through articles:

Maybe Truman Should Not Have Recognized Israel

The Hebron Narratives: Is it the Presence of Jews or the Israeli Military

New York Times Lies about the Gentleness of Zionism

The 1967 War Created Both the “West Bank” and the Notion of a Palestinian State

Considering Carter’s 1978 Letter Claiming Settlements Are Illegal

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The Shrinking Modern Jewish Homeland

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The Jewish homeland as described in the bible is well known to the entire world. Originally the land promised to the first Hebrew, Abraham, was the land west of the Jordan River. When the twelve tribes of Israel returned to the land of their forefathers after being slaves in Egypt, they took land east of the Jordan River as well.

Map of Terra Sancta, Homann, 1730

Later generations would see the Jewish homeland carved up into different footprints under various kings and rulers over 1,400 years but the configuration above remains the orientation of anyone familiar with the Hebrew bible. It also became the basis of the modern initiative to facilitate Jewish immigration back to their homeland.

The San Remo Resolution of April 1920 became enshrined in the League of Nation Mandate of Palestine of July 1922. It sought to facilitate the “establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people” based on the “historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine.” The mandate of Palestine roughly incorporated the land of Israel as described in the Old Testament plus additional lands.

Modern Jewish homeland per Mandate of Palestine, 1920 and 1922

Article 25 was added into the Mandate in March 1921 which gave the British who were to administer the lands, the option to separate the area east of the Jordan River to a distinct Arab state. The League of Nations approved the British request if such new state would NOT prohibit Jews from living there (“no action shall be taken which is inconsistent with the provisions of Articles 15, 16 and 18″). In spite of the clear language, the British did exactly that and created Transjordan in August 1922 and barred any Jews from living in the land. Not only was 77 per cent of the Jewish homeland removed by the British but they enforced an antisemitic edit on even allowing Jews to live in the land.

The British would continue to ban Jews from living in parts of their homeland.

In August 1929, Arabs engaged in a series of deadly pogroms in the holy land. The Jewish community of Hebron was massacred and the British response was to evacuate Jews from the city and forbid them from returning. The British commissioned the Shaw Report in 1930 which advocated for limiting the number of Jews in Palestine and their role in government:

  • “it is our view that, among a large section of the Arab people of Palestine,
    there is a feeling of opposition to Jewish immigration, that this feeling is well founded in that it has its origin in the known results of excessive immigration in the past and that, given other and more immediate causes for disturbance, that feeling would undoubtedly be a factor which would contribute to an outbreak [of violence]…. It is clear that His Majesty’s Government should at an early date issue a clear and definite declaration of the policy which they intend to be pursued in regard to the regulation and control of Jewish immigration to Palestine.“
  • “we would suggest that His Majesty’s Government should re-affirm the statement made in 1922 that the special position assigned to the Zionist Organization by the
    Mandate does not entitle it to share in any degree in the government of Palestine.”

The Jewish homeland was continuing to be chipped away by the British in regards to how many Jews could live in Palestine, where they could live and their role in government.

After more Arab riots in 1936, the British established the Peel Commission which concluded the Mandate was unworkable and suggested dividing the land into a section where the Jews would be allowed to live. As the proposal worked its way through the British system with Arab input, the end result was the 1939 White Papers which capped Jewish immigration to 75,000 people over five years just as the Holocaust began in Europe, condemning tens of thousands of Jews to death.

After Israel declared itself an independent country in 1948, five Arab armies invaded Israel to destroy it. At war’s end, the Arab army of Jordan seized the eastern part of the holy land and expelled all Jews, while the Egyptian army seized the Gaza Strip. In 1950, Jordan illegally annexed the land it took and in 1954, extended its ban on Jewish citizens beyond Transjordan into the “West Bank.”

Israel recaptured parts of the Jewish homeland in 1967 after surrounding Arab countries again sought the annihilation of the Jewish State. Many countries refused to recognize the rights of Jews to live in those lands which had become Judenfrei. Israel uprooted all Jews from the Gaza Strip in 2005 and in 2016, the United Nations Security Council declared that any Jew living east of the 1949 Armistice Lines between Israel and Jordan did so illegally, even in eastern Jerusalem.

First the British worked with the Arabs to shrink the Jewish homeland in regards to land where Jews could live, the number of Jews who could live there, and the role of Jews in government, making the notion of Jewish sovereignty questionable. Later the Arabs asserted for themselves that there was no Jewish history or rights in the land as they fought to completely dismantle the Zionist project in theory and practice. Then the United Nations supported the Arab cause to officially shrink the Jewish homeland.

The attack on the Jewish homeland is ongoing and without Jewish resistance, the Jewish homeland would disappear completely. #100YearsofZionistResistance.

Related First One Through articles:

The Original Nakba: The Division of “TransJordan”

Recognition of Acquiring Disputed Land in a Defensive War

When You Understand Israel’s May 1948 Borders, You Understand There is No “Occupation”

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Israel and the US Collaborate on Emergency Response

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When the United States was attacked by radical Islamic jihadists on 9/11/2001, the country was faced with the reality that it was unprepared for how the handle massive attacks on its shores. It turned to an ally who had developed systems to keep its citizens safe from harm.

Israel has long suffered from jihadist terrorists killing civilians.

Airplane Hijackings

In July 1968, Palestinian Arabs hijacked an El Al flight from Rome to Tel Aviv. It was the last time an Israeli airline was hijacked as the government began to institute several security measures to protect the flights.

Palestinian terrorists would continue to target airplanes including a massive operation in September 1970 in an attacked called the “Dawson’s Field Hijackings” in which members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) hijacked four planes heading to New York and one to London.

Other hijackings by Palestinian Arab terrorists included:

Airplane hijackings continued around the world with as many as dozens every year until Muslim terrorists hijacked four planes on September 11, 2001 in a coordinated attack which killed nearly 3,000 people. It was already the eighth airplane hijacking in the new decade, not two years old. The scale of the attack, casualties and damage made countries and airlines take many new precautions, adopting policies that Israel had been using for decades such as pre-flight interviews and screening luggage and passengers. The 2010’s decade had nine airplane hijackings, down from sixty in the 1970’s.

Response to Mass Casualty Attacks

The sheer scale of the attacks on civilians in the streets and office buildings of U.S. were beyond standard emergency protocols. America had waged wars abroad, but the scale of the terrorism against ordinary people going to work overwhelmed the local emergency response teams.

America turned to Israel for assistance, which had long been forced to respond to Palestinian Arab terrorists killing civilians in the streets.

In early September 2003, two years after the attacks on the United States, New York City hosted a major symposium on the medical response to mass casualty attacks. One of the speakers was Rabbi Dr. David Applebaum who flew to New York City from Jerusalem, Israel to address the audience. Dr. Applebaum was the head of Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center’s Department of Emergency Medicine and was often the first responder at the scene of terrorist attacks. He was well recognized for developing innovative methods for handling emergency situations and tracking patients, introducing time- and life-saving techniques.

Dr. Applebaum flew back to Jerusalem a few days before the end of the symposium for his daughter, Nava’s wedding. The night before the wedding, on September 9, he took his 20-year old daughter out for a late dinner and a father-daughter talk. A Palestinian Arab walked into Cafe Hillel where they sat and blew up the restaurant, killing Dr. Applebaum, his daughter and five other diners ranging in age from 22 to 52. The Palestinian political party and terrorist group Hamas claimed responsibility.

Rabbi Dr. David Applebaum and daughter Nava

Israel and the United States have been the victims of terrorism for decades and continue to come under attack. They will continue to fight the scourge of hatred together.

Related First One Through articles:

Israel Lends a Hand, Again

Jared Kushner’s Parents Donate $20 million to the First Hospital Likely to Win the Nobel Peace Prize

Hamas Charter, Chapter and Verse. #16

Related First One Through video:

US and Israel Are There for Each Other (music by Michael Jackson)

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WHY The Progressive Assault on Israel

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On February 10, 2019, New York Times opinion writer Bret Stephens posted an article about the dangers of the Democratic Party moving sharply to the left and adopting anti-Israel positions. He used considerable ink to refute the claims of progressives that Israel is an apartheid state and generally debunked the various arguments made against Israel.

But he never touched upon WHY progressives are suddenly so ready to condemn Israel when they weren’t a decade ago. Stephens mentioned the relatively new “intersectionality” concept in which the suffering of one group is the suffering and common cause of all groups, but he offered no reasons why Israel alone was the celebrated cause of the alt-left (for example, no group attacks Iran for hanging gays in the street, Turkey for occupying northern Cyprus, Switzerland for banning minarets at mosques or Belgium banning kosher and halal meat) and why these progressives feel so comfortable cozying up to anti-Semites like Louis Farrakhan.

WHY only Israel versus other countries in the world and WHY now as opposed to ten years ago?

Underdogma

Underdogma is the notion that the downtrodden are always the victims. Not only is the cause of the powerless always right, but their actions must always be excused. Black progressives can easily defend Louis Farrakhan because he is considered powerless; he is punching up in society on behalf of poorly performing Black people. Similarly, Palestinian Arabs who rape and kill 19-year old Jewish girls in Israel are not cast as terrorists, as the Palestinian Arabs are stateless.

This is a point made by Bret Stephens and Matti Friedman. Israel is viewed as the bigger and more powerful party if one views the situation very narrowly, namely the State of Israel with a strong military, against the Palestinian Arabs without either a state or army. The Arab-Israel Conflict has become a narrower Palestinian-Israeli Conflict for progressives. However, if one viewed the situation more broadly, it is easy to see a single Jewish State dwarfed by dozens of Muslim countries, an Israeli Jewish population outnumbered 100-to-1 by Muslims, and Israel standing alone at the United Nations where 30 countries still refuse to acknowledge the existence of the Jewish State.

The Jewish State is very small, but it looms large and powerful for progressives.

Proportionality

Part of the Israeli – and Jewish – problem for progressives is specifically about proportionality. It is not only that the Jewish State appears too big in their narrow focus, it is too powerful based on the raw number of Jews globally.

Progressives want positions of power to reflect the demographics of society. With a Jewish population of less than 15 million in a global population of 7.8 billion, why should a people with 0.2% of the population have any country at all? Perhaps if there were 500 countries instead of the less than 200, progressives might be more sympathetic. Instead, this slice of the global population presents like elites, with a thriving economy and powerful military. Worse, it has these attributes abutting people who are poor and without self determination.

The Jewish State doesn’t look like an oppressed minority success story for progressives. Israel looks like “the 0.1 percent” with a disproportionate share of land and resources.  Progressives attacking these (coincidentally) Jewish one-percenters is as natural as attacking the (also coincidentally) Jewish bankers and real estate owners.

Narrative of Emotions versus Facts

Adding fuel to the fire for progressives to attack the Jewish State is the evolving philosophy which has caught hold in the far left. Progressives have advanced the notion that emotions are not only real, they are perhaps more relevant than facts. Such approach allows them to shut down debate and discussion if they feel under attack from “microaggressions,” a term coined in the 1970’s which has infected college campuses and left-wing groups today.

The counter-factual Palestinian narrative now has a natural audience in the far left. Jewish history in the holy land can comfortably be erased such as the fact the Jerusalem has been majority Jewish since the 1860’s, with the charge that Jews are changing the Muslim “character” of the city using the ominous language of gentrification. Thousands of years of Jewish history evaporate as Jews are transformed into “colonialists” seeking to expel and subjugate the indigenous Arab population and continue to steal “Palestinian land.”

Falsehoods do not matter. Fighting emotional perceptions with facts as Bret Stephens did is a debate using different bases. When progressives embrace non-factual emotions of feeling wronged, is the best method of countering it using facts, fact-based emotions or non-fact based emotions? Are Israelis forced to only talk about the pain of antisemitism and the Holocaust (fact-based emotions) or conjure up something new (what can really be worse than the Holocaust to dream up? That Palestinians harvest Jewish organs like the Arabs claim Jews do?)

Progressives demand no rebuttal, just a focus on the raw emotions of those in a disadvantaged state. The tacit conclusion is that to forge a peaceful coexistence, the outrageous lies should be ignored and/or considered as though they contain morsels of truth. Pretend that Arabs did not begin to arrive in the Jewish holy land in the Muslim invasion of the seventh and eighth centuries but are descendants of biblical Canaanites. Consider that the Palestinian Arabs did not try to destroy Israel in 1948 and 1967 but were arbitrarily expelled. Honor their counter-factual emotions. Do more than shut up as the stronger party, take steps to address their pain. To do less is cruelty.

The Masses Make History

One upon a time, history was written by the victor. In modern times it is re-written by the 99.8% with smartphones and social media accounts.

Jews have succumbed to raw power for thousands of years. Judaism was crushed by the power of the Catholic church which replaced the chosen people spiritually, and by the Moslems who replaced the Jews physically by taking over the Jewish holy land and building the Dome of the Rock atop their Jewish Temples. Both religions used the sword for execution and conversion, leaving Jews a paltry sum.

Today, Jews are falling to a new power: the stories, emotional narratives written by the masses. When feelings trump facts, billions of people will be drawn to compelling narratives such as a modern day David-versus-Goliath story and will love the irony of the Jew now being slayed as the Giant. Israelis are called Nazis without consideration of the deep antisemitism of the charge. Why pause to ponder, when it completes the chapter with a curious twist, and absolves the world from its role in the Jewish genocide as it shows that all people are just as evil when they obtain too much power.

Rip power from the elites, flatten society and distribute power equally is the logical conclusion say today’s socialists / Democratic Socialists. The stories secure alt-left converts with absolution, reward and righteous smugness. Empathy can be contagious: post it online and share it with friends. Take it to the streets. It doesn’t matter that the original whisperers came from Iran or Russia, when the emotions feel so real.

Why Progressives Attack Israel Today

In short, why now and why Israel:

  • It is laudable to attack the powerful. In the past, progressives wanted to empower the weak with programs like affirmative action. Now they want to pull down the powerful. It is no longer about making sure people do not live in poverty but to focus on the “gaps” in society including wealth and income. It is much easier to strip the elites than to build a long-term sustainable economy.
  • The alt-left believes Jews and the Jewish State are disproportionately powerful. Israel’s recent battles of 2008, 2012 and 2014 were with Gaza, a small impoverished strip of land, and not with the broader Arab world as in the early days of the state. Israel’s economy sailed through the global financial meltdown of 2008-9 and continues to have multi-billion dollar IPOs and sales of its flourishing technology and biotech industries. Progressives see elitists, not a minority success story.
  • Israel abandoned early socialism in favor of capitalism. Israel’s early days were scrappy and agrarian, working the land in collective kibbutzes. The left-wing Labor party dominated the political landscape for decades from its founding days. But the country pivoted to the right and the champion of privatizing the Israeli economy, Benjamin Netanyahu, has become the longest serving prime minister in Israeli history. For the alt-left, the right cannot be right: Israel’s success must have come from theft, corruption and abuse. The fact that Netanyahu is being charged with the same is too rich for the left to ignore.
  • Perception of White European Colonial Patriarchy. Israel has long had white Ashkenazi male leaders with the exception of Golda Meir in the 1970’s, so Netanyahu is not a new phenomenon. But the objection to his background in the middle of a Middle East with Arab leaders is suddenly more offensive to Americans who had a Black president for eight years. The fact that the majority of Israeli Jews are Brown and Black from Arab and African countries is ignored or not known. The face of Israel is portrayed as one of colonialism, white privilege and the patriarchy, all unforgivable sins to the newly woke.
  • Jewish liberals give them cover. Democrats once had champions for the Jewish State like Scoop Jackson, Patrick Moynihan and Joe Lieberman and a strong Israel advocacy group like AIPAC. Today, new alt-left wing Jewish groups like J Street and Jewish Voice for Peace loudly lobby for policies against the Jewish State and donate and back politicians with anti-Israel views. They supported the Iran deal, the declaration of Jewish homes east of the Green Line as illegal, boycotting Jewish Israeli businesses, and were upset with the US moving its embassy to Jerusalem. When Jewish groups which claim to be “pro-Israel” and “pro-peace” aggressively push the US and UN to take actions against the Jewish State, it becomes easy for all progressives to endorse anti-Zionist views without appearing antisemitic.

Among Progressives, the past dozen years has seen the Arab-Israel Conflict shrink into the Besieged and Impoverished Gaza Strip-Israeli Army Conflict. There is no longer an antisemitic Hamas or Palestinian terrorists, just poor Arabs seeking self-determination in the face of a powerful and rich alt-right foreign entity. It is a story recast to elicit empathy.

Israel’s supporters on the right may get excellent scores on Middle Eastern history but fail to connect with the masses who are craving a story of empathy. Tyrion Lannister summed it up in the finale of Game of Thrones: “What unites people? Armies? Gold? Flags? Stories. There’s nothing in the world more powerful than a good story. Nothing can stop it. No enemy can defeat it.” The alt-left gets it and has spun a tale which is being mainstreamed and going viral.

Israel is in a new war with progressives and it is clueless about how to confront it.