As Israel celebrates its 75th birthday, it is appalling to watch Palestinian Arabs and their supporters turn the remarkable and historic reestablishment of the Jewish state into some sort of offense against Arabs. The inversion of facts turning the Arabs into the victims is a modern day blood libel, attempting to whitewash the historic crimes committed by Palestinians.
Consider the leading anti-Israel voices in the U.S. Congress, Ms. Tlaib (D-MI), Ms. Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Ms. Omar (D-MN), Ms. McCollum (D-MN), Ms. Newman (D-IL), Mr. Bowman (D-NY), and Ms. Bush (D-MO) who put forward a resolution in congress to commemorate the “Nakba”, which called for 7 million descendants of refugees to be pushed into Israel, ending the two state solution. The anti-Zionist Congresspeople noted that “on November 29, 1947, [the United Nations voted] to partition Palestine into two states against the wishes of Palestine’s majority indigenous inhabitants,” but they simultaneously ignored that the majority of Israelis today are against allowing 7 million Arabs who never lived in Israel a so-called “right of return.” These same Congresspeople claim that the Nakba continues today, with the “ongoing process of Israel’s expropriation of Palestinian land.”
The Palestinian Arabs committed massacres against the Jews in Palestine in the 1930s, and effectively got the British to stop Jewish immigration just as the European Holocaust was starting. The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem met with leading Nazi Heinrich Himmler to encourage his genocide of the Jews. Himmler sent a telegram to the mufti on the anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, noting that both the Nazis and Palestinian Arabs were partners in a fight to eradicate the Jews.
After the slaughter of 6 million Jews, the Arabs in Palestine did not let up on the local Jews nor Holocaust survivors who had lost everything. The Arabs continued to reject a Jewish presence in the Jewish historic homeland. They voted against partitioning the land and giving a slice of the Jewish holy land for a new Jewish state. They opted to wage a war to annihilate the persecuted Jews. Thousands of Arabs left the field of battle as they encouraged five Arab armies to converge on the nascent Jewish state to annihilate the Jews completely.
This is the vile truth of the Arab war against Jews before, during, and in the shadow of the Holocaust. No amount of NakbaWashing will remove the indelible stain of Palestinian Jew hatred. The current pathetic attempts at Nakbawashing are a latest form of antisemitism, disgustingly turning the Jews into aggressors and Palestinian Arabs as peace-loving victims.
As the reestablished Jewish State celebrates its 75th birthday, it is worth pausing to consider its amazing accomplishments, in the middle of the illiberal Middle East.
Happiness. According to the World Happiness Report, Israel ranked as the 12th happiest country in the world, well ahead of its neighbors. According to Gallup Poll, Israel ranked as the 4th happiest country in 2023. It was the only country in the Middle East North Africa (MENA) region to score in the top 20.
Wealth. Israel’s GDP per Capita of $44,178 is over 4.75 times the average of the eight surrounding countries. Only two other countries – Cyprus and Saudi Arabia – have GDP per capita in excess of $20,000.
Leading companies. Israel has 24 private companies with over $1 billion in valuation, ranking 6th globally. Turkey was the only other country in the region with a company with such valuation according to Hurun.
Nobel prizes. Not surprisingly, based on educational achievement and GDP, Israel leads the region in Nobel Prizes. It has won more than the entire region COMBINED.
Life Expectancy. Israel only trails Cyprus in life expectancy among neighboring countries.
Maternal Mortality. Israel’s health system is very strong, as can be seen by the very low number of women who die during child birth. While Cyprus has a slightly higher life expectancy than Israel, Israel leads the region in prenatal care.
Population growth. Despite the better healthcare system and higher life expectancy, Israel’s population growth over the past decade was lower than most in the region. This is typical of countries with higher GDP and education rates for women. Only Turkey had a lower growth rate.
Gender inequality. In general, Israel looks much more like western countries than those in the Arab and Muslim Middle East. It can be seen most clearly by looking at overall gender inequality (maternal mortality, adolescent birth rate, percentage participation in parliament, percent with secondary degrees, percent labor participation).
In its short history, Israel has proven itself to be a remarkable liberal democracy, thriving by almost every measure. To do so while neighboring countries are in a state of war and refuse to recognize the Jewish State’s existence makes it a modern miracle. Wishing it many years of success and peace ahead!
For thousands of years, people have sought to improve themselves. As human beings, we often make mistakes and thereafter attempt to rectify the wrong. Beyond avoiding the error, organized religion offers a path to redemption which includes confession.
In Religion and Secular Society
In Judaism, the pathway from sin is called tshuva. Rambam/ Maimonides (1138-1204) lays out the pathway to Repentance in several steps he described in the Mishneh Torah, the first of which is confession. The sin – whether with man or God – is first confessed to God: “I implore You, God, I sinned, I transgressed, I committed iniquity before You by doing the following. Behold, I regret and am embarrassed for my deeds. I promise never to repeat this act again.” The confession is critical to obtaining absolution, as Rambam further writes that even “those obligated to be executed or lashed by the court do not attain atonement through their death or lashing unless they repent and confess. Similarly, someone who injures a colleague or damages his property, does not attain atonement, even though he pays him what he owes until he confesses and makes a commitment never to do such a thing again.”
Christianity uses members of the church as a pathway to confession, rather than directly to God. Many Catholic churches have confessional booths, in which a priests sits on one side of the booth and listens to people confess their sins through a darkened partition to enable the person to open up more freely through the shroud of anonymity.
Catholic confessional booth
Secular society has its own views on sin and demands of confession.
When famous people do something perceived as bad, their public relations people send out composed apologies. Sometimes the star also appears on talk shows to help clear their name. The absolution comes from society that allows them to keep their job and income. If the evil act was perceived as too great to clear with an apology road tour or the apology was insufficient, the person becomes “canceled”, either permanently (like Matt Lauer and Anthony Weiner) or temporarily (like Louis C.K. and Whoopi Goldberg).
The average person can also get “canceled” via exclusion from his desired community. The confession may be viewed as insufficient to be afforded absolution. Perhaps God will accept the plea but people have a lower tolerance for perceived wrongdoings.
Secular Society’s Religion and Inquisition
There are parts of society that are attempting to create new socially accepted norms, crafting their Bible in real time. They have launched an inquisition to out and oust the new sinners.
While transgenderism has existed, it has recently become “mainstreamed”, in which schools which never had any such students suddenly have twenty. Laws are being drafted for and against these students using locker rooms and competing in sports based on their gender rather than their biology. People (and states) who take positions opposed to the new doctrines become ostracized.
Another tenet with drying ink is the gaslighting campaign against the Jewish State of Israel. It started at the 2001 Durban Conference, pushing the “Zionism is racism” credo into the mainstream, after it was ousted from the United Nations in 1991. The effort gathered significant momentum in 2014-5 after the Gaza War and killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO, when intersectionality bound Muslim anti-Zionism with the Black Lives Matter movement. Israel was falsely labeled as a “police state” of “colonial imperialists” committing “ethnic cleansing” and “apartheid” against “indigenous Arabs.” American Jews were no longer correctly viewed as the most persecuted people but were tarnished as an even more sinister part of the problem of “White supremacy” which included “Jewish supremacy.”
Woke Jews were at risk of losing membership in their community of leftists. Rather than fight the tide of falsehoods and slander, they publicly confessed that they hated Israel and agreed with the ridiculous portrayal of an illegal and racist state. Some were granted absolution and welcomed to pray once again at secular altars, while others were deemed to not go far enough, by not embracing the boycott, divestment and sanction (BDS) movement or the calls to “globalize the intifada” to cancel, harass and attack Jewish Zionists everywhere.
Fratricide in Religion and Secular Society
While the first sin in the Bible was Eve and Adam eating from the Tree of Knowledge, the first sin committed with the knowledge of good and evil was Cain’s killing of his brother Abel. When God approached Cain to find out what happened, Cain failed to confess his crime to God and was marked forever as a sinner.
Today, Jewish anti-Zionists are loudly vilifying their brothers and sisters in Israel as the worst sort of people, to be punished and left unprotected from the wolves that seek to destroy the “Zionist entity”. Their confession is not to God but left-wing extremists. In sharp contrast to Cain, their cries are not ignoring the murder of their brother but that they are different from their brothers, as proven by working to have the sinners annihilated.
New York City, home to the greatest number of Jews outside of Israel, has a rapidly growing antisemitic and anti-Zionist group gaining political power. The Democratic Socialists of New York City now stands at over 85,000 people, which demands that politicians not visit Israel, and supports Palestinian “resistance” (violence) against Israel’s “ethnic cleansing, and apartheid.” Left-wing extremist Jews vocally support this group and its candidates.
Summary
Christianity believes that Jesus died for the sins of mankind and the church is the gateway for absolution. Catholics enter church to privately and anonymously confess their sins to be granted that forgiveness.
Meanwhile, secular Jews find the Bride of Absolution in far left extremist groups. The anti-Zionist Jews take to public platforms to denounce their brethren as heathens, crucifying them in the fervent wish that their deaths will afford the enlightened the grace to live amongst the woke.
While Judaism tasks people with confessing their own sins, today’s anti-Zionist Jews declare the sins of their brothers. It is fratricide, the original sin of knowledge gone astray.
There are millions of religious Christians who look at the founding of the State of Israel as a matter of divine will. One of the points of evidence they use is that the year of the founding of the state was 1948 in the Gregorian Calendar, commonly referred to as the Common Era. It was in that year in the Jewish Calendar – 1948 – that Abraham was born according to the Old Testament. Remarkably, after two thousand years of persecution and wandering, that the Jews would reestablish their homeland in that common year is considered too much of a coincidence. It is a sign from G-d.
It is therefore important to note this moment in time, 2023CE. As Israel celebrates its 75th anniversary milestone, it was in that year of the Jewish calendar, that Abraham entered the land of Canaan and G-d promised him and his descendants blessings and the land.
“יהוה said to Abram, “Go forth from your native land and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, And I will bless you; I will make your name great, And you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, And curse the one who curses you; And all the families of the earth; Shall bless themselves by you. Abram went forth as יהוה had commanded him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran.”
Seventy-five years since the rebirth of the Jewish State, the country thrives while it continues to have challenges. It has remained stable and economically sound despite the mayhem in the surrounding countries. It has defeated its foes in battles repeatedly, and has forged peace treaties with several former enemies. It has managed to ingather millions of Jewish exiles from around the world, as it rekindled Hebrew into a common spoken language. It granted citizenship to non-Jews living in the land, in a unique forum of coexistence in the Middle East.
Abram was 48 years old at the time of the Great Dispersion from the Tower of Babel. He witnessed firsthand the ill effects of unanimity, and was part of G-d’s global directive towards particularism – in both language and place. At 75 years old, he was told to relocate, to a place already inhabited by others, to become the source of blessing for the entire world.
In 2023 of the Jewish calendar, the father of monotheism was not directed to conquer or convert the slightly more “indigenous” people (by 27 years) in the holy land, even as the land was soon to be promised to him, his son Isaac and the generations after him. Abram was to be an inspiration and a talisman for everyone. In that generation which broke the embraced orthodoxy of universalism, he embodied G-d’s will of particularism.
Today, in 2023 of the Common Era we live in a very tense world. People are divided, in part, because of technology that has enabled microtargeting of people with customized news and advertisements, couple with social media algorithms which keep people hyper-engaged. While fifty years ago everyone was basically fed the same media and news, now billions of people can consume and transmit whatever they want. While more satisfied with being fed unique content whenever they want, the hyper-particularism has left many isolated, angry and distrustful.
In considering the year 2023 both in the Jewish calendar and the Gregorian one, it is time to reset our thoughts on universalism and tribalism.
We don’t all need to think, dress or worship the same way. We must break with the notion of unanimity of position, and embrace a society of tolerance. That mean stop canceling, firing and unfriending people if they don’t share your opinions on critical race theory and transgenderism, or dislike the people you follow on Instagram. Allow space for unique attitudes, as long as they are not harmful.
The Bible tells us that Abraham left his “native land” to a land where he would become a focus of not just the local inhabitants but “all the families of the earth.” In today’s world of billions of isolated people, Jews and the Jewish State continue to demand global attention. It is an opportunity for a universalistic approach towards the particular: for the world to bless the Jews and receive G-d’s blessing in return.
A pretty simple formula for a better and happier world.
Benjamin Ferencz, the last surviving prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials, died this week at 103 years old. He brought many individuals who committed crimes against humanity to justice, and had words of advice for future generations
You cannot kill an entrenched ideology with a gun. You have to teach compassion and tolerance at a young age.
Benjamin Ferencz
While Ferencz prosecuted individuals, he understood that an “entrenched ideology” feeds violence. Unfortunately, vanquishing criminals brings a temporary respite. To bring about an enduring peace requires teaching “compassion and tolerance at a young age.” Such actions can yield long term benefits for a community of coexistence.
Benjamin Ferencz
In the 1930s and 1940s, Nazis and their collaborators had an entrenched ideology that Jews were evil creatures who were harming the purity of Aryan land. They sought to ethnically cleanse the land of their supposed filth through twisted laws and via violence. Alas, they mostly succeeded in their vile aim. It was only upon their defeat, admission of wrong-doing, and re-education towards tolerance, that Germany was welcomed back into the community of nations, including having a good relationship with the Jewish State.
Today, the terrible entrenched ideology exists among Palestinian Arabs about their Jewish neighbors. The Arabs refuse to acknowledge the basic fact of the long history of Jews in the region. They deny Jews the basic human right to pray at their holiest location on the Jewish Temple Mount. They ethnically cleansed Jews from the eastern portion of Israel including eastern Jerusalem in the 1948-9 war, and now demand a return to such Jew-free situation. They are attempting to use laws and violence to purge the Jews of what they see as purely Arab land.
While several Palestinian terrorist groups wage war against the existence of Israel and presence of Jews, the future must be waged with Palestinian youth. The lesson plans for compassion and tolerance should include:
The 3,300 year history of Jews in the holy land
That Judaism is a unique religion, with ties to a specific land, that is Israel
Judaism’s particularity poses no threat to Islam: there is no desire to convert people nor to turn al Aqsa or any mosque into a synagogue.
Jews and Arabs are both descended from Abraham. Judaism teaches that Abraham loved Ishmael and promised that he would become great nations
Jews are the most persecuted people in the world. Since 1900, they were tortured, routed and slaughtered in Russia, Ukraine, Europe and a dozen Arab countries.
As the Holocaust began in Europe, Palestinian leadership convinced the British to implement the White Paper capping Jewish immigration to Palestine, which led to the death of over 100,000 Jews in Europe
When Jewish survivors made it to Palestine after the European genocide, Palestinians and neighboring Arab armies waged a war to annihilate the paltry and weak remaining Jews
The Jewish State gave all Arabs citizenship when it declared itself a country and offered the Arabs of Jerusalem citizenship when it reunited the city. Over 25% of Israel is not Jewish.
Israel made peace with many Muslim and Arab countries and is willing to do so with local Arabs as well. It made several peace offers to Palestinian leadership which were all rejected
If Arab youth are taught that Jews coexist with non-Jews in Israel who have full rights in a liberal country, and that the Jewish State would welcome peace agreements with all neighboring Arab states, hopefully the evil ideology will be vanquished.
Alas, Arab youth are taught the evil ideology of their parents and reject coexistence and “normalization” as they seek a jihad with false claims:
That Jews are not indigenous but “colonizers”
There were no Jewish temples in Jerusalem
Jews are ethnically cleansing Arabs and committing a genocide (despite all facts and figures showing otherwise)
Israel is not a liberal country but committing “apartheid” against Arabs
The al Aqsa compound is a purely Islamic site and Jews have no history or rights
It is the Palestinian Arabs who are the real victims of a “Nakba” both from 1949 and 1967, lying that did not start either war
Israel has never made any real effort towards peace
The Israeli army likes to shoot Palestinian babies while Palestinians are simply “resorting to violence“
That Zionism is racism
That the United Nations will force Israel to absorb 6 million additional Arabs into Israel
This evil ideology does not accurately reflect the past, present or future. It is a concocted anti-Semitic invective which will stymy the chance for peace.
Benjamin Ferencz led a life of fighting evil and gave us a roadmap for enduring peace by teaching compassion and tolerance to young people. Let’s use that roadmap with Palestinian youth to bring peace to the holy land.
The full statement issued by this deputy spokesperson was as follows:
“The United States strongly condemns today’s terrorist attacks in the West Bank and Tel Aviv. We extend our deepest condolences to the victims’ families and loved ones, and wish a full recovery to the injured. The three horrific attacks today, in which three were killed and at least eight others wounded, affected citizens of Israel, Italy, and the United Kingdom. The targeting of innocent civilians of any nationality is unconscionable. The United States stands with the government and people of Israel. We are in close contact with our Israeli partners and reaffirm our enduring commitment to their security.”
Compare the terse statement about the killing of Israeli civilians to the one that the United Nations Security Council issued about the terrorism in Afghanistan on March 28. That statement “condemned in the strongest terms the continued heinous terrorist attacks targeting civilians.” It importantly made clear that: “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. They urged all States, in accordance with their obligations under international law and relevant Security Council resolutions, to cooperate actively with all relevant authorities in this regard.The members of the Security Council reiterated that any acts of terrorism are criminal and unjustifiable, regardless of their motivation, wherever, whenever and by whomsoever committed. They reaffirmed the need for all States to combat by all means, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and other obligations under international law, including international human rights law, international refugee law and international humanitarian law, threats to international peace and security caused by terrorist acts.“
Neither the United States nor the United Nations make the same obvious comments for Israel, that it – together with “all States” – “need to hold perpetrators, organizers, financiers and sponsors” of terrorism accountable and brought to justice. Even when Israel effectively brings perpetrators to justice, the UN and US pressure Israel to let the backers “of these reprehensible acts of terrorism” off the hook.
The latest civilians murdered by Arabs in Israel include Italian and British nationals. Will Italy and the United Kingdom continue to allow the Palestinian Authority to pay the families of the terrorists in its popular “pay-to-slay” scheme?
It is a vile double standard which cheapens the lives of civilians in Israel, and simultaneously blesses and encourages Palestinian Arab terrorism.
Email Rep. Jamaal Bowman Mount Vernon Office (914) 371-9220, White Plains office (914) 323-5550, D.C. office (202) 225-2464
Rep. Bowman,
I understand that you are co-authoring a letter to President Biden “to investigate whether Israel is using U.S. weapons to commit human rights abuses against Palestinians.” In the current draft of the letter made available by Jewish Currents, you made reference to recent attacks in the West Bank as well as a claim that the “Israeli government’s anti-democratic mission to dismantle the rule of law… is attempting to destroy the independent Israeli judiciary.” You also claimed that there is an Israeli “military siege of Gaza.”
Allow me to give you information that you may have missed or decided to ignore.
The Palestinians poll themselves every quarter, something they have been doing since 2000. The latest poll came out on March 14, 20231 and details frightening sentiments of Palestinian Arabs about their Jewish neighbors:
68% support the formation of armed groups, such as the Lions’ Den, and 87% believe the Palestinian Authority (PA) does not have the right to arrest members of these groups
71% support the Palestinian point blank shooting of two Israeli brothers who drove into the town of of Huwara
61% of Palestinians support armed attacks against Israeli civilians inside of Israel
57% support the return to an “armed intifada”
Support for a two state solution stands at just 27%
If presidential elections were held, 52% would vote for the leader of the political-terrorist group Hamas
Those are the latest figures of the Palestinians polling themselves. It is because of that rejection of coexistence and preference for violent attacks that Israel launched a daytime raid into Nablus on February 22, to stop an upcoming terrorist attack. The Israeli defensive action killed nine terrorists and saved an untold number of lives – which your letter disgracefully omitted. Are you in favor of allowing terrorists to target and kill innocent Jewish civilians in Israel?
Even according to the biased United Nations reports, West Bank Arabs committed more attacks2 than Israeli Jews living in Israeli territory of Area C in every month of 2022.
As for terrorist enclave of Gaza,3 the situation is more horrific. The territory is controlled by a US-designated foreign terrorist organization, Hamas.4 The March 2023 poll figures show that 36% and 31% “strongly support” and “support” armed attacks against Jews in Israel, respectively. A frightening 71% of Gazans support armed groups like the Lions’ Den and Jenin Battalion which do not take orders from the PA (question 40). Your inversion of this terrorist enclave to being the victims of an “Israeli military siege” is outrageous.
As to the assertion that Israel is “pushing repressive, anti-democratic policies,” let me remind you that Israel held five in elections in the past four years. This in a region that doesn’t hold any, including the PA, where the president’s four-year term ran out in 2009, fourteen years ago. Further, after each Israeli election, there was a peaceful transition of power, more than can be said for these United States.
Currently hundreds of thousands of citizens are peacefully protesting in the streets of Israel for months, in sharp contrast to the bloodshed and civil wars in neighboring countries.5 And both side of the Israeli protests are in favor of putting checks-and-balances for the government and judiciary.
Your refusing to acknowledge the radical jihadi violence currently prevalent in Palestinian society – as well as the Islamic Republic of Iran march towards nuclear weapons – while simultaneously calling for the U.S. to consider pulling back military support for the only Jewish State, is alarming.
Rep. Bowman, anti-Semitism is brewing in your district, in your state and your country. At the same time, more Israeli Jews have already been killed by Palestinian terrorism since President Biden took office than in the full four years of the prior American administration.
Amidst such backdrop, you’ve decided that America should open an investigation of the Jewish State and show its enemies that the sole liberal democracy8 in the Middle East is losing its main supporter.
Not satisfied with penning such letter with Senator Bernie Sanders, you are seemingly agitating to get other members of congress to join your assault.
Congressman, you defeated Rep. Eliot Engel, one of the authors of the Taylor Force Act which restricted funds to the Palestinian Authority as long as it continued its “martyr payments.” Are you now using your power to strip Israel of funding for its defensive operations? Did congress not only lose a defender of human rights in the Middle East, but did it gain a member which tramples on them?
There are indeed “gross violations of human rights” happening now. And you are aiding and abetting the perpetrators.
I have read with alarm that you are considering making aid to Israel “conditional,” something no American president has ever done, including President Biden. The reasons for doing so are abundant, and have never been more obvious.
Sen. Chris Murphy (photo: REUTERS/Joshua Roberts.)
Security
Iran. The Islamic Republic of Iran has threatened to wipe Israel off the map. This leading state sponsor of terrorism is on the very cusp of nuclear weapons capability, a fact very well known to you and the United States government which has been alternatively attempting to stop the terrorist regime from gaining weapons of mass destruction, and paving the way to a legal complete manufacturing infrastructure.
Lebanon. One of Iran’s terrorist arms is Hezbollah, just north of Israel in Lebanon. The terrorist group is overseeing a country in the middle of a complete freefall, with its currency collapsing by over 90% since the beginning of they year. The Lebanese are becoming extremely anxious, with a populace now ranked as the second most unhappy country in the world, just ahead of Afghanistan. The terrorists of Hezbollah have an estimated 150,000 missiles and mortars targeting Israel, and there is no better way to distract the angry Lebanese than to start a war against the Jewish State.
Syria. Another leading state sponsor of terrorism is still led by a mass murderer who has killed hundreds of thousands of his own citizens. The country remains in an official state of war with Israel, as it has been since the reestablishment of the Jewish State. While Israel was effective at stopping Syria from building a nuclear weapons compound which the Islamic state was doing with the help of North Korea (yet another state sponsor of terrorism), Syria continues to get supplied with arms and intelligence from Iran and Russia.
West Bank Palestinian Arabs. The Arabs in the West Bank have never been more blood-thirsty than they are at present. According to a December 2022 Palestinian poll, 46% support killing Jewish civilians inside of Israel (Gazans’ support was yet higher at 57%). Several new terrorist groups have recently emerged in the West Bank including the Lion’s Den and Jenin Battalion which have a 70% approval rating according to a March 2023 Palestinian poll, with the groups shooting and planning attacks against Israelis. A similarly frightening high percentage of Palestinians support the point blank shooting of two Jewish brothers who drove into an Arab town a few weeks ago.
Gazans. The political-terrorist group Hamas, continues to rule Gaza. The group is committed to never making peace with Israel and was elected to a significant majority of the Palestinian parliament with the most anti-Semitic charter ever written. If new presidential elections were held, Hamas would win according to the March 2023 poll (52% for Hamas’ Ismail Haniyeh to 36% for Fatah’s Mahmoud Abbas), and assume control of the Palestinian Authority to rule both the West Bank and Gaza.
The idea of making aid to Israel conditional in such backdrop is not only dangerous in hurting Israel’s military readiness, but serves as an invitation to the Jewish State’s hostile neighbors that it is standing alone and vulnerable.
Palestinian Thoughts on the “Peace Process”
And for what? Why subject Israel to the evil forces that seek its destruction? Are the radical jihadist values listed above closer aligned to the United States?
You mentioned that Israel is not actively engaged in pursuing a two state solution. Have you looked at the facts and polls related to Palestinians?
According to the March 2023 PCPRS poll, “support for the concept of the two-state solution stands at 27% and opposition stands at 71%.” Three times as many Palestinian oppose a two-state solution as support it.
Their preference is violence. The same poll found that “58% supported return to armed confrontations and intifada,” and 77% want Abbas to resign. The Palestinians are not interested in peace or negotiations led by a corrupt and inept leader, but want to go to war with Israel.
Exactly how is Israel supposed to push forward two states with such Palestinian counterparty? Israel has shown its readiness to make peace with many Arab countries willing to engage, and has put forward numerous solutions through the decades to the Palestinian Arabs. The current situation offers no opportunity for fruitful negotiations.
Jewish Homes East of The 1949 Armistice Lines (E49AL)
Senator, you seem to believe that the presence of Jews obliterates the chance for a two state solution. On February 15, 2023 you said “The Israeli government’s move to advance nearly 10,000 new settlement homes and legalize nine outposts in the West Bank is deeply concerning. Unilateral decisions like these make a negotiated two-state future more and more difficult to achieve and undercut prospects for a just and lasting peace with the Palestinians.” A couple of weeks later you doubled down and said “I worry that we are at a moment in which we are watching a future Palestinian state be obliterated by the pace of settlements, by the legalization of outposts.”
If Israel is thriving with over 20% of its population coming from non-Jews including Arabs and Druze, and the United Nations continues to demand that Israel accept millions of additional Arabs into the country, why are 10,000 new homes for Jews an obstacle for a “lasting peace with the Palestinians”? Is it because the Palestinians want an ethnically-cleansed, pure Arab country devoid of Jews? If that is their goal, how can anyone believe that there will ever be peace with people who hold such noxious anti-Semitic views?
Senator, your comments would simply be viewed as irresponsible if they were uttered from the mouths of radical members of the House of Representatives. Coming from a senator who sits on the foreign affairs committee is a dangerous invitation for brutal violent dictators and terrorist groups to wage war on the Jewish State.
Conditioning aid to Israel to pressure the Jewish State to bend to the will of anti-Semitic Arabs is not the mark of a “pragmatic progressive.” It is a product of a delusional mindset chasing a fantasy that Palestinians do not want (in regards to two states) and Israelis cannot risk.
The streets of Israel are teeming with hundreds of thousands of people protesting the proposed changes to the country’s judicial system. It is a global lesson in democracy.
An Education About The Supreme Court
The current protests are not about the price of cottage cheese (there actually was such a protest in Israel!), raising the age of retirement (as in France), or about changes to police enforcement (as in the USA), but about how the country’s Supreme Court is elected and functions. Something seemingly so nuanced and esoteric as to be beyond the interest of the masses, yet they’ve come out to protest for weeks and months to argue for compromise.
The proposed five changes are seemingly small but the impact is potentially large. As people delve into the details, they are getting a civics lesson about the checks-and-balances that maintain a healthy democracy.
Elections
The bedrock of democracy is the rights of citizens to elect their leaders. Israel is so focused on the will of its citizens, it remarkably held five elections in four years! It sounds preposterous, especially in the middle of the illiberal Middle East which has leaders for life with either no or sham elections.
Israel obviously did not do this intentionally, as governments are intended to sit for several years. However, the country’s parliamentary system enables coalition members to withdraw and thereby dissolve its majority position. In slim majority coalitions, a single upset member of parliament can bring about a collapse of the majority and calls for a new election. The Prime Minister can do little about it, other than negotiate, beg and plead to keep his coalition together.
Israeli citizens watch this theater in real time, and get to choose the next chess pieces to place on the board. It is a thoroughly engaged, active – and yes, oftentimes dysfunctional – democracy. As Winston Churchill said “No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.”
Despite the flux and hysteria, the people of Israel voted in peace and the transition of power happened without violence.
Checks and Balances
The Kohelet Policy Forum which drafted the proposed changes to the country’s judicial process, is just as sensitive to the checks-and-balances of power as those protesting the changes. Those for and against the rules do not want any branch of the government to have unlimited control of society. An election won is not a certificate to overhaul every aspect of society and civil protection, and unelected judges chosen by unelected officials should not be able to trump laws and the government willy-nilly.
Both the protestors and those backing the judicial overhaul are debating a crucial principle of creating and maintaining a healthy society.
Majority Rule And Protection Of Minorities
The democratic process of choosing a government via elections is meant to empower the will of the majority of voters. However, it is a liberal democracy that enshrines protections of the minority through laws.
Israel has many groups who could be considered minority groups. Israeli Arab citizens number about 1.6 million and about 2 million including those with permanent residency status. There are about 160,000 Ethiopian Jews and 1.3 million ultra Orthodox Jews. They got to vote and make their concerns heard, and also count on the legal system to protect their basic rights.
Which is part of the interesting dynamic in Israel. The country does not have a constitution and relies on Basic Laws for fundamental rights and protections. People are appreciating the role of the parliament and judiciary in such a situation, and considering whether enacting a constitution would be beneficial.
Peaceful Protests
Israelis of all walks of life have made their feelings known. Professional lawyers, doctors and bankers rallied in squares. Laborers and workers blocked highways. Military personnel refused to serve. CEOs took their monies out of the country.
All peacefully.
Tens of thousands of Israelis protest against the government’s judicial overhaul moves, in Tel Aviv on March 4, 2023. (Gili Yaari/Flash90)
This is in sharp contrast to the so-called ‘Arab Spring’ protests in neighboring Arab countries.
In Egypt, 846 people were killed in protests, which saw the head of the country get thrown out and put in jail, followed by an election in which the people chose a radical Islamist, who was in short order thrown out of office by the military.
Reporters run for cover during clashes between Muslim Brotherhood supporters of Egypt’s ousted president Mohamed Morsi, and police.(photo: MOSAAB EL-SHAMY/AFP/GETTY IMAGES)
In Syria, the protests led to a brutal crackdown by its leader with over 2,500 people killed in the first months. It soon turned into a full civil war with over 500,000 killed and many millions displaced internally in Syria and as refugees abroad.
Syria men carrying babies in Aleppo, Syria in 2017 (photo: AFP)
In Yemen, 2,000 civilians were killed in the first few months of their protests, which became a proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia once the ruler fled the country. The estimate of the dead now stands at 150,000. It has become the world’s worst failed state.
The violence continued throughout the Arab world, including in Tunisia (estimated 338 dead), Sudan (over 200), Bahrain (120) and Saudi Arabia (24). In Libya, the United States helped the rebels kill its leader, and the resulting tumult has led to as many as 20,000 killed. The country is now a haven for terrorist groups including ISIS and al Qaeda.
In the middle of this Middle Eastern firestorm of anger and bloodshed, the Jewish State has sit ins, fighting for the rule of law while protecting and believing in it.
What can be more democratic than: open, fair and repeated elections; the smooth transition of power from one government to the next; ensuring checks-and-balances in the government; and the ability to protest peacefully to those in power?
Israel is giving a basic civics lesson to the entire world about the importance and mechanics of proper courts of justice, the seventh of the Noahide Laws. It should be proud.
I know that you have been following matters in the Middle East and likely have access to materials and insiders that many do not. You may have concluded that while the Arab-Israeli Conflict is complicated, the thorniest issue is Jerusalem, and in that tinderbox the most sensitive is the al Aqsa Mosque / Jewish Temple Mount.
I reach that assessment based on your support of a position that the ban of Jews praying on the holy site should continue, a position known as the “status quo.”
It is likely based on comments from the leader of the Palestinian Authority who said that Israel is “playing with fire” if it allows Jews to pray on the Temple Mount, something he called allowing “settlers to desecrate holy sites.”
The leader of Hamas made similar comments, that there would be a “bloodbath” if Israel makes changes to the rights of Jews. He warned that “the action of the occupation targeting the Islamic and the Christian Holy sites in Jerusalem and Palestine, and specifically the Al Aqsa Mosque, brings about the angry Palestinian reaction.”
To avoid such bloodshed, you possibly decided to overlook the basic human rights of Jews to pray at their holiest site.
You may have convinced yourself that the only Jewish visitors who want to pray at the site are right-wing extremist “illegal settlers”, to further rationalize your position.
So let me ask you, do only Christian fanatics visit and pray at the Vatican?
Do you understand that Judaism is a particular religion, with no desire to convert or dominate anyone? That while Christians and Muslims fought crusades for over one hundred years over the holy land, and expelled the others, and converted their mosques to churches and churches to mosques, Israel did no such thing when it took control of the Temple Mount in 1967? Instead, it handed administrative control of the site to the Jordanian Waqf.
Jerusalem’s Arabs who have been living under Israeli administration for decades have slowly internalized that Israel has no plans on the al Aqsa Mosque. In a December 2022 poll of Jerusalem’s Arabs, they showed that they have a greater fear of accessing the holy site if eastern Jerusalem was under Palestinian sovereignty (63%) than Israeli (41%).
This year is the 75th anniversary of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights. Article 18 states “Everyone has the right 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.” Article 2 underscores the point that this relates to religious rights in disputed land: “Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.”
This clearly includes the rights for Jews from around the world to pray at their holiest site of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
In 1776, Thomas Paine wrote in Common Sense “A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom. But the tumult soon subsides. Time makes more converts than reason.”
So it is with the status quo ban on Jews. It is morally wrong and a disgrace, and the world has blindly let it continue.
I ask that you stop facilitating the trampling of the fundamental human rights of Jews and vote to reverse the anti-Semitic “status quo” edict, and condemn the incendiary remarks and false accusations which block Jews from praying peacefully at their holiest site in their holiest city in the holy land.
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