The Collective Punishment Of Terrorism

Posted on June 22, 2023 by First.One.Through

The United Nations is holding its 2023 Counter-Terrorism Week from June 19 to 23. It is an annual ritual held since 2001 which attempts to combat the violence plaguing many parts of the world.

Some countries like the United Kingdom spoke about terrorism being bred inside its borders, while others like those in Africa, noted that “the spill-over of terrorism from the Sahel to the northern regions of the West African coastal countries is no longer a risk; it is a reality.”

A few speakers spoke of “lone wolves” who become radicalized online in just days, as opposed to fifty years ago when it took months or years of planning by organized groups to commit an attack. Few commented that terrorism has become more institutionalized, capturing the attention and intoxicating academia.

The overall theme was that terrorism is not uniform but all of the countries fear its impact in the near and longer term.

So various nations came together to figure out how to prevent the scourge through the exchange of ideas, best practices and sharing of information. Topics ranged from stopping the flow of weapons and blocking financing for violent groups, to building forums for inclusivity and preventing poverty.

The UN said little about the appropriate penalties for terrorism. The global body relies on its “four pillars for combatting terrorism,” three of which are prophylactic and the fourth, a wrapper of respecting human rights.

It is a monstrous hole in its strategy, atop failed prescriptions, such as the notion that fighting poverty prevents terrorism which has been disproven in multiple studies.

At present, the UN relies on organizations like Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Da’esh/ISIL (UNITAD) which tracks crimes committed by ISIL to be prosecuted at some point. The UN operates with a courtroom framework, and does nothing to advocate physically turning back the scourge.

It leaves the agency as unsullied, with an easy perch to admonish those who live in terrorism’s trenches of park benches.

Israel has faced Palestinian Arab terrorism since modern Zionism took root in the Jewish holy land in the 1920s. Instigated and rewarded by its leaders to this day, Palestinian individuals shoot, stab and run over innocent Israeli Jews because they object to the basic presence of these non-Arabs.

Israel takes a number of preventative measures to stop the terrorism, some within the UN playbook and others outside. It tries to stop the flow of weapons and financing to terrorist groups, while it also facilitates the flow of people and goods to help the local Palestinian economy.

However, that is not enough to stem the daily barrage. Israel actively monitors terrorists and launches raids to arrest them before the attacks. It punishes the terrorist by destroying their home, an action the United Nations condemns as “collective punishment” for the terrorist’s family.

Lost in the rebuke is acknowledging that terrorism is inherently a collective attack on a community, not just the parties personally injured. A proportionate response to terrorism must, therefore, include accounting for those who aided and abetted the crime.

The United Nations Ignores Radical Muslim Violent Extremism and Terrorism

Collective Guilt / Collective Punishment

Will The UN Ever Support Israel Addressing Terrorism And Violent Extremism?

UN Doesn’t Like ‘Proportionate’ Israeli Reaction To Arab Terror Either

Pray for a Lack of “Proportionately” in Numbers. There will never be an Equivalence of Intent.

Nexus of Terrorism Hypocrisy: UN, Qatar and Hamas

CNN Sanitizes Palestinian Car Ramming Terrorism

Beheadings are Not Terrorism for Al Jazeera

Why Blockade Gaza

Palestinian Post-paid Terrorism

There’s Nothing Worse Than Terrorism in France

The UN Fails on its Own Measures to address the Conditions Conducive to the Spread of Terrorism

Palestinians Seek Mercy For Being a Menace

Alternatives for Punishing Dead Terrorists

Dividing The Temple Mount Into Jewish And Muslim Sections

Posted on June 20, 2023 by First.One.Through

For many years, Palestinian Arab leaders warned Israel against dividing the Jewish Temple Mount in Jerusalem in time and place. That reality may be coming closer.

*The Old City of Jerusalem including the Jewish Temple Mount/ Al Aqsa Compound*

For centuries, Muslims had prevented Jews from going to their holy places in the Jewish holy land. In both Hebron and Jerusalem, Muslims declared that Jewish holy sites were purely Islamic and denied Jews any rights. That changed after the neighboring Arab states conspired to destroy Israel in June 1967 but lost control of those two holy cities which Jordan had illegally annexed in 1950.

After the 1967 war, Jews were finally able to go into the Cave of the Jewish Matriarchs and Patriarchs, which Muslims call the Ibrahimi Mosque. Israel made the site available to both Jews and Muslims, and in June 2023, opened an elevator to facilitate visitation by handicapped persons in a broad effort of inclusivity.

While Israel took over the Old City of Jerusalem in the same June 1967 Six Day War, it handled the situation very differently, giving administrative control of the Jewish Temple Mount/ Al Aqsa Mosque Compound to the Jordanian Waqf, while Israel maintained security control. Even after eastern Jerusalem, including the site, was officially annexed as part of Israel, the Waqf continued to forbid Jews from praying at their holiest location, even as they allow a small number of Jewish visitors.

In October 2014, a Palestinian attempted to assassinate Rabbi Yehuda Glick because he advocated for peace and equal rights for both Jewish and Muslim prayer on the Temple Mount. In response, Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian Authority declared “Israel’s leaders are making a big mistake if they think they can turn back history, to impose a reality, and to divide the al-Aqsa Mosque [into separate prayers times and areas] as they divided the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron.”

Rabbi Glick survived the four bullets, and was nominated to the Israeli Knesset in 2016, continuing to advocate for Jewish rights on the Temple Mount. His efforts resulted in few practical changes, however, the number of Jewish visitors to the holy site has steadily increased since that time.

For his part, Mahmoud Abbas continues to warn Israeli leaders about Jewish prayer and dividing the Temple Mount. In April 2022, Jordanian politicians joined in condemning then-Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennet’s non-controversial comments that Jews, Christians and Muslims should all be free to celebrate their holidays (Passover, Easter and Ramadan), which Arab leaders viewed as a precursor to dividing the Temple Mount.

The back-and-forth continues.

In early June 2023, Amit Halevi, a member of Knesset from Likud, put forward an official proposal to divide the religious site between Jews and Muslims, calling for the southern 30% of the compound – which includes the al Aqsa Mosque – to be for Muslims, and the northern 70% – which includes the Dome of the Rock where the Jewish Temples stood – to be for Jews. The political-terrorist group Hamas declared that such proposal was part of an “Israeli religious war launched by the fascist Israeli government… [and] the Al-Aqsa mosque will remain an exclusively Muslim holy site and the Palestinian people will continue to defend the mosque against Israeli partition and Judaization schemes.” Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh voiced concerns about the “order to impose temporal and spatial division in the blessed al Aqsa Mosque. We warn the occupation authorities against taking such a step that would have unpredictable results.”

Most of the media ignored the story, presumably because Halevi is a low level MK without portfolio, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly said that he will uphold the Waqf’s antisemitic “status quo” banning Jewish prayer at the site.

The event may be unreported, but the situation will not remain ignored.

There are competing natural desires which have long brewed in the holy land: for Palestinian Arabs to return into the land of Israel to towns where grandparents had lived; for Jews to pray openly and frequently at their holiest site on the Temple Mount; and to live throughout the area. For years, the United States attempted to keep a lid on those aspirations until President Obama reversed precedent, nodding to Arab migration into Israel (2012), while making it illegal according to international law for Jews to move to the eastern parts of Jerusalem and the holy land (2016), and maintaining the ban on Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount.

The “status quo” is not a ban on Jews praying on the Temple Mount but of competing points of tension. The large holes in the holy land dam are readily apparent to everyone. One can ignore them and wait for the fissures to crack open unpredictably, or facilitate the spillway, with some Jews praying openly and discretely at their holiest site.

The Waqf and the Temple Mount

Open Letter To Politicians On Al Aqsa Mosque

The Inalienable Right of Jews to Pray on The Temple Mount

Time for King Abdullah of Jordan to Denounce the Mourabitoun

Visitor Rights on the Temple Mount

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

Tolerance at the Temple Mount

Will New York Democrats Come After A Pro-Jewish Pro-Israel Congressman?

Posted on June 18, 2023 by First.One.Through

Congressman Mike Lawler (R-NY17) has been very active supporting his constituents, particularly those interested in combatting antisemitism and promoting peace in the Middle East.

It may make him a target of powerful left-wing politicians in New York State.

Lawler: Pro Peace and Bi-Partisan

On June 12, 2023, Lawler took to the House floor to promote a bill he co-sponsored with Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY15). He spoke about H.R.3099 to create a “special envoy for the Abraham Accords in the U.S. Department of State… to coordinate efforts across the United States government to expand and strengthen the Abraham Accords with key allies and strategic partners… making clear that the United States government prioritizes our relationship with Israel and the advancement of peace and prosperity.”

Rep. Torres also took the floor and discussed the bill he co-sponsored and led with the importance of bipartisanship. “I want to thank the gentleman from New York, Mike Lawler, for his legislative partnership and leadership. If there is one cause that should transcend partisanship, it is the cause of peace in the Middle East. Building a bridge between Israel and the Arab world is neither a Democratic value nor a Republican value; it is an American value.”

Lawler concurs, and is proud of his willingness to work with Democrats saying “you need to be able to build relationships within your own conference and across the aisle, especially coming from a district like mine. My objective is to get things done.”

Not everyone agrees.

Rep. Jamaal Bowman, the anti-Israel and Jew-ambivalent congressman whose district sits between Lawler and Torres, voted against the measure. Bowman is among the most partisan members of Congress, almost never voting with Republicans, ranking #396 out of 435 by the Lugar bipartisanship index.

Bowman is the male version of Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (ranked #401 by the Lugar Index), part of the emerging extremist wing taking over the Democratic party. They are the anti-Lawlers, highly partisan and anti-Israel.

Lawler: Fighting Antisemitism

Lawler has been active fighting for peace elsewhere.

On June 1, 2023, he introduced legislation, H.R.3773, to rescind federal funding for colleges that promote antisemitism on their campuses. It was drafted in reaction to the horrible wave of antisemitic incidents taking place on City of New York (CUNY) and State of New York (SUNY) college campuses. Lawler said that “CUNY should be ashamed of itself for allowing insidious anti-semitism to permeate on its campuses, and my bill will ensure they face stiff penalties if they continue to let hate have a home.”

Unfortunately, Jew hatred has been given a home in New York by the growing horde of left-wing radicals.

Shahana Hanif and Sandra Nurse of the New York City Council voted against a toothless resolution condemning Jew hatred in April. Four other Democrats abstained. Meanwhile every Republican on the council voted in favor of it.

How sad and frightening that condemning Jew hatred has become a partisan issue.

Lawler: In the Democratic Crosshairs

In the 2022 elections, Lawler defeated Democrat Sean Patrick Maloney, chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. With his powerful position, Maloney poured $6.7 million into his losing campaign to Lawler who barely spent $1.5 million. The loss was a stinging embarrassment for New York Democrats, and helped the Republicans take a majority of the House.

The powerful Democratic machine is now intent on taking out this Republican, with millions of dollars in negative ads with fake news about him being deeply unpopular, as well as actions hidden from sight, through the most partisan of actions, the gerrymander.

New York’s new liberal court may soon take the pen and rework district lines to make Lawler vulnerable, as he only won with only a 2,000 vote margin in 2022. Slight alterations to his district lines could make his tenure in congress very short.

Democrats will soon decide whether they care more about power and politics in using gerrymandering to try to oust Rep. Lawler, or working for a future of peace and bipartisanship.

I am not optimistic.

ACTION ITEM

EMAIL GOVERNOR HOCHUL: “Do not gerrymander NY17, Mike Lawler’s district. The courts put forward a fair New York map in 2022 and we do not want to see a bipartisan, pro-peace, fighter against antisemitism be removed from Congress with political trickery.”

EMAIL NEW YORK STATE DEMOCRATIC PARTY

EMAIL SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER

EMAIL SEN. KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND

Rep. Ritchie Torres Doesn’t Want To Be the Only Progressive Pro-Israel Unicorn

Democrats Give Platforms to Their Extremists

Re-Districting Will Bring More Anti-Israel Members of Congress

The Right Number of Anti-Semites in Congress

White Voters And New York Congressional Races

Farrakhan in Westchester, and Jamaal Bowman

Anti-Israel and Jew-Ambivalent in Congress

Beating Bowman

Jamaal Bowman Does Not Recognize Discrimination Against Jews

Posted on June 16, 2023 by First.One.Through

On March 9, 2023, Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY16) spoke in Congress about his views on discrimination, specifically against what he thought were attempts to harm the transgender community with a proposed bill to prevent trans-women from competing in sports against biological women. He spoke about the history of discrimination in the United States saying “whether they are Black, Latino, Asian, LGBTQ, poor, people with disabilities, women, we have an ugly history of discrimination in this country.”

In calling out eight groups of people facing discrimination, he omitted the most targeted people of hate crimes: Jews.

Not only did Bowman ignore the most prevalent form of hate crimes in his denouncement of discrimination, he implied that most of the offenders are White. Meanwhile, according to FBI statistics, it is Black people who are disproportionately the attackers of the LGBT community, accounting for 27.2% of such hate crimes even though they are 13.6% of the overall population.

Bowman’s antisemitism and race baiting is so ingrained, that he cannot fathom facts, and instead promotes himself with political theater performed for a narrow slice of his constituents.

Farrakhan in Westchester, and Jamaal Bowman

The Hate Crime Offenders

Crazy Jump In Lesbian Hate Crimes By White Offenders In 2020 According To FBI

Leading Gay Activists Hate Religious Children

Black Lives Matter Is Driving Anti-Semitism

The New York Times Continues ‘Powerful Jew’ Myth

Majority of Palestinians Believe Israel Will Soon Cease to Exist

Posted on June 15, 2023 by First.One.Through

The latest Palestinian poll of June 14, 2023 showed a familiar preference for violence that has been a constant sentiment for years. Now a new headline has emerged: that Palestinians think Israel will disappear within the next 25 years.

Preference For Violent Jihad

When asked about the most positive things to happen to Palestinians over the past 75 years since the reestablishment of the Jewish State of Israel in the so-called “Nakba catastrophe”, the number one response was the establishment of the terrorist groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Second, were the two “Intifada pogroms” which killed over 1,000 Israeli Jews. Trailing those responses was the creation of the PLO and the Palestinian Authority (PA) and last, the formation of the more moderate political party, Fatah.

A large majority of 71% are in favor of the formation of the newest terrorist groups “Lion’s Den” and “Jenin Battalion” which sparked the dramatic rise in deaths among both Israelis and Palestinians over the past two years. An incredible 86% of Palestinian Arabs think the terrorist groups should operate outside of the PA. Not surprisingly, with such support, 58% expect “these armed groups to expand and spread to other areas in the West Bank.”

When asked about the most effective means of creating a Palestinian state, “the public split into three groups: 52% chose armed struggle [aka violent jihad] (55% in the Gaza Strip and 49% in the West Bank), 21% negotiations, and 22% popular resistance.”

These findings are not meaningfully different than results of past polls. The alarming question about the preference to kill Jewish civilians inside of Israel was not asked in this latest poll. In March 2023, 61% were in favor of such terrorist attacks (question 70).

The End of Israel

The quarterly Palestinian poll occasionally introduces new questions based on recent events. For example, this poll asked about opinions related to the Iranian-Saudi reproachment. Last poll asked whether people were in favor of killing two Israelis who drove into the town of Huwara (a vast majority were).

In the latest poll, people were asked a more general question about the future of Israel as the country celebrated its 75th anniversary. In response to the question of Israel making it to its 100th anniversary, “two-thirds say Israel will not celebrate the centenary of its establishment, and the majority believes that the Palestinian people will be able in the future to recover Palestine and return its refugees to their homes.”

While the world debates how to set the “peace process” on track and solely blames the Israeli government for the failure of progress, Palestinians have mentally moved on, and see the end of the Jewish State in their lifetimes and its replacement with an Arab country.

ACTION ITEM

While the world debates how to set the “peace process” on track and solely blames the Israeli government for the failure of progress, Palestinians have mentally moved on, and see the end of the Jewish State in their lifetimes.
Tweet

CONTACT Sen. Christopher Murphy (D-CT) “Palestinians polled themselves once again and not only show a strong preference for violence but see the end of Israel in the near future. Stop efforts to condition aid to Israel.”

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Thank you for your response. ✨

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No One Mentions Actual Palestinians’ Sentiments

Why Blockade Gaza

Israel: Security in a Small Country

Farrakhan in Westchester, and Jamaal Bowman

Posted on June 13, 2023 by First.One.Through

A mural in the town of Greenburgh in Westchester County, NY, which was meant to celebrate Black history has instead become a symbol of the Black community’s anti-Jewish sentiments: that the rise in Black power will come at the expense of Jews.

Farrakhan in Greenburgh

Louis Farrakhan is a notorious antisemite and Black supremacist. He is the current leader of the Nation of Islam (NOI), which the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) – a group devoted to defending Black people – labels as a hate group where “seeds of antisemitism are deeply rooted.” It listed just a few of his vile comments such as calling Hitler “a very great man” and Judaism a “dirty religion,” but the list is extensive. At a rally in 2020, he said “Those of you that say that you are Jews, I will not even give you the honor of calling you a Jew. You’re not a Jew. You’re so-called. You’re Satan. And it’s my job now to pull the cover off of Satan.”

A portrait of Farrakhan is now in public, on government property, paid for by local Westchester taxpayers.

In response to the Black Lives Matter movement, the town of Greenburgh hired a local artist to paint a mural on Manhattan Avenue on Black history. The town approved the initial sketches but town supervisors were later upset to see that the final version included Farrakhan, with hand raised, screaming over the U.S. Capital building. On August 25, 2022, the town said that it “voted to remove the unauthorized imagery. The Artist has agreed that Louis Farrakhan will be taken off of the mural and the image will be removed this week.” That never happened as the pictures above attest (taken June 9, 2023). Instead a barrier was placed at the platform’s stairs making it difficult for people to ascend to view the mural up close, while the platform’s rails obstruct the view for passers-by.

Black Westchester Magazine wrote an article about the mural and defended it with arguments that Farrakhan was an instrumental part of fighting for Black rights, and as there was no specific commentary against Jews in the mural, Jews should not get overly offended. The author added that he would be more sympathetic to Jews if they spoke out forcefully when Blacks were offended, curiously making sympathy an emotion with preconditions.

The artist and the Black community have continued to fight against removing the image of the antisemitic preacher and seem to be prevailing. The Westchester Black Women’s Political Caucus is trying to raise $100,000 to pay back to Greenburgh to keep the mural up on public property.

Nation of Islam in New Rochelle

A few months later, in December 2022, the New Rochelle Public Library hosted an event to discuss Black-on-Black gun violence after a local rapper was shot and killed in October. Two politicians attended, including Council Member Yadira Ramos-Herbert who is running to be the next Mayor of New Rochelle and former New Rochelle Board of Education President Lianne Merchant who is running to replace Ramos-Herbert as the representative for Council District 3. Several speakers took the stage including NAACP President Minister Mark McLean, New Rochelle Municipal Housing Authority Executive Director Angela Farrish and City of New Rochelle Director of Economic Development Jorge Ventura.

Then Brother Arthur Muhammad of the Nation of Islam and a “drill team” performed. They recommended that the “FOI” – Fruit of Islam, the armed wing of the Nation of Islam – manage New Rochelle’s streets. They chanted “War! War! Farrakhan! Salute Elijah! Raise Front Farrakhan! There’s a time for peace, there’s a time for war! Hear the guards! Hear the guards knocking at your door! You need the FOI to the day we die!”

*Members of the Nation of Islam at the New Rochelle Public Library, December 2022*

As described by the “Talk of the Sound”, The Fruit of Islam (FOI) is the security and disciplinary wing of the Nation of Islam (NOI). It has also been described as its paramilitary wing. The FOI was created at the founding of the Nation of Islam and existed until the death of Elijah Muhammad in 1975 when it was disbanded. The FOI was reestablished by Louis Farrakhan with him as Commander-in-Chief.

Congressman Jamaal Bowman (NY16)

Jamaal Bowman is the congressman who now serves the newly redrawn NY District 16 which covers lower Westchester County. He won principally on the strength of the turnout in the predominantly Black areas, including Greenburgh where the Farrkhan mural hangs in public. While that town is less than half the population of the city of Yonkers, it had more votes in the Democratic primary, with 8.1% of the residents coming out to vote, a remarkable 20% of all primary voters. Bowman’s tally in Greenburgh, Yonkers, Mount Vernon and New Rochelle (13,918) was more than enough to sail to victory in 2022.

On June 6, 2023, Bowman endorsed Working Families Party candidate for New Rochelle mayor Yadira Ramos-Herbert. She was one of the attendees at the New Rochelle Public Library as the Nation of Islam performed who has refused to comment about the event.

Bowman has a long history of upsetting his Jewish constituents, both within the former contours of District 16 and in the current borders of lower Westchester. He has failed to support resolutions condemning antisemitism and supported anti-Israel initiatives. In 2020, he replaced Jewish congressman Eliot Engel in the Bronx, and Bowman now serves the region which had been represented by Jewish congresswoman Nita Lowey for decades.

Lower Westchester County is home to some of the wealthiest towns in the country, including Scarsdale, Bronxville and Larchmont. It is also becoming the home of left-wing and radical Muslim extremism, as those communities put forward extremist candidates in local elections (like those backed by the Working Families Party), and organize to get out the vote, as much of the county ignores local primaries – next one on June 27 – to their own detriment.

Early voting starts June 17. Click for locations.

The Right Number of Anti-Semites in Congress

Letter To Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY16) About Palestinian Support For Attacks

The Toxicity of The Latest “Nakba” Resolution

Farrakhan’s Democrats

Bitter Burnt Ends: Talking to a Farrakhan Fan

Is Intersectionality Anti-Semitic?

UNCircumcized Trademark

Posted on June 9, 2023 by First.One.Through

Satire.

Many people waited for the United States Supreme Court to rule on a case of trademark infringement before leaping into the market with their own parody products. The case involved a dog toy named ‘Bad Spaniels’ that mimicked Jack Daniel’s Whiskey. The justices came back with a unanimous 9-0 ruling in favor of BS arguing that no one could possibly confuse a ‘poop-themed’ dog toy for the alcoholic beverage.

One of the first new products to hit store shelves was “U.N.Circumcized”, which sported the United Nations global body logo, with a tagline which offered “protection for the world’s bodies, except for Jews.”

Another person opted to open a store across the street from the United Nations called Hunter College Store for Jihad. It had highly flammable Israeli flags, a map of all Jewish institutions in America following the format of the Massachusetts Mapping Project, and several life-sized effigies in nooses with masks of various Jewish and Israeli personalities.

Lawyers doubted these would withstand scrutiny, as people associate the United Nations with rape and Hunter with Jew hatred.

“Protocols of the Elders of Zion – The Musical”

Ben & Jerry’s New Flavor: Milano Zio

Charlie Hebdo Will No Longer Sell Magazines to 20 Islamic Terrorist Groups

NY Times’ Sarah Jeong Guides Rep Ilhan Omar Tweets

Netanyahu’s Doctoral Thesis on the Nakba

Palestinian Job Fair for Peace

Some Truth About The Jerusalem Parades

Posted on June 4, 2023 by First.One.Through

The holy city of Jerusalem, the capital of Israel held two parades over the past couple of weeks. One was done by the right-wing and the other by the left-wing. Each side claimed the moral high ground and accused the other of acting in bad faith.

Let’s speak about both honestly.

The Flag Parade

On May 18, thousands of Israelis marched through the streets of Jerusalem carrying Israeli flags to mark the reunification of the city at the end of the 1967 Six Day War. The tremendous pride in country and messianic feel of Jews controlling Judaism’s holiest site for the first time in almost two thousand years was palpable at the time, and many tried to recreate that sense of awe 56 years later.

*Marchers near Damascus Gate of Old City during Jerusalem Day, 2023*

The parade route into the Old City to the Western Wall could have worked its way through the Jewish Quarter but the nationalist spirit of the marchers directed them through the Arab Quarter, essentially re-educating the Arabs about their defeat. While the march was basically peaceful, roughly 2,500 police officers came to maintain order as past years saw scuffles as the Arabs in the Old City resented the march.

The Gay Pride Parade

On June 1, thousands of Israelis marched through the streets in a gay Pride Parade. While such a parade would have happened without controversy in the liberal and secular city of Tel Aviv, the religious beliefs of devout Jews and Muslims in Jerusalem caused friction.

Thousands of police came to protect the marchers as there were attacks in past years. This year’s event proved peaceful and uneventful.

Some Truths

The Flag and Pride Parades were both legal and unnecessarily provocative. The right wing Jewish nationalists did not need to go through the Arab Quarter and the left wing secular Jews did not need to march through religious sections of the country. Each sought to drive home their own point that they are free and able to hold such events, and enjoyed rubbing the spectators’ noses in the fact.

The left-wing media only focused on the right-wing in both cases. CNN described a “contentious flag march” in which a” number of Palestinian shopkeepers told CNN before the event that they would close their shops in the Old City for fear of attacks by far-right Jewish nationalists.” The New York Times covered the “Conflict With the Far Right Shrouds Jerusalem’s Pride Parade,” with the backdrop of “the most hard-line and religiously conservative government in the country’s history took power.”

Both the right-wing and left-wing held their parades in Jerusalem being proud and provocative, yet the mainstream opinion shapers could only find fault with right-wing and religious Jews. It fed their macro narrative of right-wing White Supremacist Jews as the elite amongst the bigots, despite being the most persecuted group in the world.

Bitter Waters and The Jerusalem Flag Parade

On Defenses: Provocative and Legal / Unprovocative and Illegal

Gay Rights in the Middle East

Pride. Jewish and Gay

Obstruction Of Free Exercise Of Religious Beliefs

Posted on June 1, 2023 by First.One.Through

The court trial of the man who killed eleven people at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, PA began on May 30, 2023. The murderer, Robert Bowers, faces a total of 63 federal crimes which include:

11 counts of obstruction of free religious exercise resulting in death;
11 counts of hate crimes resulting in death;
Two counts of obstruction of free exercise of religious beliefs involving an attempt to kill and use of a dangerous weapon and resulting in bodily injury;
Two counts of hate crimes involving an attempt to kill;
Eight counts of obstruction of free exercise of religious beliefs involving an attempt to kill and use of a dangerous weapon, and resulting in bodily injury to public safety officers;
Four counts of obstruction of free exercise of religious beliefs involving use of a dangerous weapon and resulting in bodily injury to public safety officers;
25 counts of discharging a firearm during those crimes

The case is not being built solely on the fact that Bowers killed eleven innocent people and threatened to kill others, but with the added emphasis on the “obstruction of free religious exercise” and of “hate crimes.”

The United States has a law which lays out the protection afforded to people and property associated with religious worship. 18 U.S. Code 247 is called “Damage to religious property; obstruction of persons in the free exercise of religious beliefs,” and lays out the principle of religious protection. Section (a)(2) refers to circumstances in which a person “intentionally obstructs, by force or threat of force, including by threat of force against religious real property, any person in the enjoyment of that person’s free exercise of religious beliefs, or attempts to do so.”

This US law has commonalities in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948). Articles 2 and 18 of the UDHR entitle everyone “to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.”

Despite embracing the basic human rights to the free exercise of religious belief, the United States continues to support the “status quo” demanded by the Jordanian Islamic Waqf to prohibit Jews from praying at Judaism’s holiest site on the Jewish Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

While Israel enabled over one million Muslims onto the Jewish Temple Mount during Ramadan, not a single Jew is afforded this basic human right. To add insult to injury, rather than denounce the heinous antisemitic law, the United Nations and United States decry the Jewish protestors as “extremists” inverting the right and the wronged.

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The Inalienable Right of Jews to Pray on The Temple Mount

Ending Apartheid in Jerusalem

Apostasy

Tolerance at the Temple Mount

Palestinian Hate Speech

Posted on May 30, 2023 by First.One.Through

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres delivered a message on March 30, 2023 related to the genocide against the Tutsis in Rwanda in 1994. He offered words for the whole world.

How easily hate speech — a key indicator of the risk of genocide — turns to hate crime. How complacency in the face of atrocity is complicity. And how no place, and no time is immune to danger — including our own.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres

Unfortunately, the global body – as well as many countries and people – turn a blind eye to the rampant hate speech in Palestinian society.

On May 15, 2023, the United Nations gave a platform to the acting President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas. The man who wrote his doctoral thesis on Holocaust denial gave a master class in antisemitism.

Abbas claimed that Jews have no history in the Jewish historical homeland. He said that Jews never even had a single temple in Jerusalem.

Abbas said that Jews were implanted into the land of Israel by the British and Americans who wanted to export the Jews which they despised. He argued that doing so made the Jews indebted to their western benefactors to serve as a colonial outpost.

Abbas called the Jews a bunch of liars – on par with Nazi Germany’s propagandist Joseph Goebbels, who was instrumental in the genocide of European Jewry.

Abbas’s performance was a reminder of his past antisemitic tirades when he praised the Arab assassins of Jewish civilians, calling them “martyrs” for the Palestinian cause, who will always get pay-to-slay money, even “if we had only a penny left.“

Horrifically, the United Nations was not “complacent in the face of these atrocities” but an active participant.

The UN continues to give the Palestinian leader the floor to air his antisemitic vitriol. It continues to push money into the terrorist enclave of Gaza, headed by Hamas, with the most antisemitic governing charter ever written. The global forum echoes Palestinians’ demands for apartheid, denying Jews the basic right to pray at their holiest location on the Jewish Temple Mount, and to live in the center of their holy land.

Palestinian hate speech was once again given a platform at the United Nations, inflaming danger to Jews everywhere, and “the risk of genocide.”

Seemingly by design.