The New York Times has formulated a new approach for reducing the importance of the Temple Mount to Jews and Judaism by reframing the language of its journalists.
Refer to the site by the preferred name of Muslims, “al Aqsa Mosque compound”
State that it’s the holiest location IN JERUSALEM for both Muslims and Jews
May 6, 2022 NYTimesMay 6, 2022 NYTimes
There was a time – before the Democratic Slide on Israel – that the paper would refer to the site as the Temple Mount, or sometimes the Temple Mount/ al Aqsa compound. No longer. Now the paper’s official designation is Al Aqsa Mosque compound, and if appropriate for context, will add that Jews call it the Temple Mount. Such is the approach of the anti-Israel United Nations, and now seemingly, of the global paper.
As the paper reduces the Jewish connection to the site, it is simultaneously elevating its status among Muslims.
The paper does not inform readers that Al Aqsa is the THIRD holiest site for Muslims, and that Muslims face Mecca when they pray, even while standing at the mosque. Instead, the paper states that within the narrow confines of Jerusalem, it is Islam’s holist spot.
With such qualifier, the paper equated Judaism’s holiest site, where all Jewish prayers have been directed for 3,000 years, in the city that only Jews made into their capital every time they had self-determination, and where they are directed to visit three times every year, to having a status on par with Islam. That the very word “Zionism” is specifically about Jews returning to Jerusalem is lost on the paper despite the legions hired to cover the region. No religion nor people have as close a connection to the Temple Mount and Jerusalem as Judaism and the Jews. None. But the Times misleads, misinforms and misdirects.
That the editors of The Times let this fly is absolutely horrible journalism. That the paper’s editors likely directed this action based on it showing up repeatedly under different bylines, is outrageous.
The New York Times is involved in a disinformation campaign to reduce the significance of the Jewish Temple Mount and of Jerusalem to its liberal readership. You should ask yourselves and them why it is doing so.
As news broke on Israeli and Jewish news services of yet another act of terror committed by Palestinian Arabs against their Jewish neighbors, The New York Times had two of its journalists upload stories to the Times’ website. Its versions of the account called out “Arab” and “Palestinian” assailants but NEVER stated that the victims were Jews.
The story according to Isabel Kershner:
“Two assailants armed with a gun and an ax attacked passers-by in an Israeli town on Thursday night, killing at least three, according to initial reports from the police and emergency services.
The police described the assault as a suspected terrorist attack.
Several more people were reported to be wounded in Thursday’s attack in Elad, an ultra-Orthodox town in central Israel.
The assailants appeared to have escaped; the police said they had set up checkpoints along several roads and officers in a police helicopter were searching for a vehicle seen fleeing the scene.
The attack took place just after nightfall, at the end of Israel’s Independence Day, marking the foundation of the state in 1948. Palestinians mark the establishment of Israel as the Nakba, or catastrophe.
Emergency responders said they found the first fatality by a traffic circle in Elad and two more in a nearby park.
“When we arrived we realized that this was a complex scene,” said Alon Rizkan, a paramedic with the Magen David Adom ambulance service. He described the three people who were pronounced dead at the scene as men, all aged around 40.
Several more wounded men were transferred to hospitals, he said.”
The Jewish victims – targeted because they were Jews – were referred to as “passers-by” or “people,” making them appear as random targets of Palestinian Arabs.
The story told by Patrick Kingsley had a similar angle:
“The surge in terrorist attacks in Israel, the deadliest wave of violence since 2016, has been framed by Palestinian parties and militant groups as a logical consequence of the entrenchment of Israel’s 55-year occupation of the West Bank, of Israel’s control over sensitive religious sites in Jerusalem, and of the dwindling commitment from some key Arab leaders to the creation of a Palestinian state.
The attackers’ diverse backgrounds, however, have left both Palestinian and Israeli analysts and officials uncertain about the relationship between the attacks, the motivations of the attackers and the timing of their attacks.
Prior to the attack in Elad on Thursday, there had been several attacks across cities in Israel, involving Arab assailants who have killed 14 people, including two Arab police officers and two Ukrainians. But beyond their lethal outcomes, the episodes have not fit easily within a simple narrative.
Two of the most recent attacks — in Tel Aviv and Bnei Brak — were carried out by Palestinians from the occupied West Bank. While praised by several Palestinian movements, no group has formally claimed responsibility for them.
Two earlier attacks were carried out by three members of Israel’s Arab minority who had known sympathies for the Islamic State, the extremist group that has no ties to the Palestinian national movement and that claimed responsibility, perhaps opportunistically, for one incident but not the other.
While the lethal outcome of the first attack, on March 22, may have inspired the others to follow suit, a senior Israeli military officer said there was no evidence that any of them were masterminded by a major Palestinian group, let alone by the same network. Analysts also noted that the attackers in the first two incidents had no ideological connection to the latest two.“
Kingsley referred to the “attacks” generally, and the only time he described the victims, he wrote there were “14 people, including two Arab police officers and two Ukrainians.” No Jews.
The New York Times tells its readers that the deliberate slaughter of Jews does “not fit easily into a simple narrative,” attempting to obfuscate the easily identifiable Jew hatred and refusal of Arab Muslims to coexist with so many Jews and the Jewish State.
Its absolution via omission, and is anti-Semitism itself.
The Jewish calendar runs at a different pace than the Gregorian or other calendars. Based on the cycles of the moon, it starts with the creation of the world which correlates to the year 3761 BCE. That means that the year 2022 CE is the year 5782 in the Jewish calendar.
In the Hebrew Bible, the first monotheist and forefather of the Jewish people is Abraham. Born as Abram in the year 1948 in the Jewish calendar, he lived his early years in present day southern Iraq in Ur-Kasdim and then Haran. At 75 years old, in the year 2023, he heard the voice of God tell him to move to Canaan, present day Israel. It was there that God told him that the land was an ever-lasting inheritance to his descendants Isaac, Jacob (later Israel) and all of the Children of Israel.
Judaism is not like other religions or even the other monotheistic faiths of Christianity and Islam. Judaism is a particular religion for a particular group of people. It does not have designs to spread to the corners of the Earth in an effort to make others convert. It was designed to be local – to the land of Israel – for the Jewish people. That is why the Bible commands the Jews to visit Jerusalem THREE TIMES EVERY YEAR – Pesach, Shavuot and Sukkot – while Islam asks of its adherents to visit Mecca only once in a lifetime. Jews were supposed to stay in the land (certainly before planes and automobiles) while Islam knew that Muslims would live thousands of miles away from its holy city.
From 722BCE onward, many invaders and colonists forced Jews out of their land of inheritance. Assyrians, Babylonians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs and others came into the Jewish holy land, killing or hauling Jews to foreign lands, and planting their own flag in Jewish soil.
Yet some Jews remained in the land, and a greater influx of world Jewry commenced during the 19th century. By the late 1860’s CE, Jerusalem was majority Jewish.
In 1948 CE (a curious coincident to the birth of Abraham in 1948 in the Jewish calendar) the modern State of Israel was established on the 5th day of the Hebrew month of Iyar. People often refer to the anniversary of the founding as “Israel Independence Day” but that is a misnomer, as Israel did not become independent from anyone. Jews waited for the British to leave the land and end their mandate before declaring itself a new state, the REESTABLISHED Jewish State in the Jewish homeland.
Next year, May 2023, will mark the 75th year of Israel’s Reestablishment Day, correlating to when the land of Israel was promised by God to the Children of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob/ Israel when Abraham was 75 years old in the year 2023 of the Jewish calendar. Let’s celebrate this entire year with particular revelry, as a plurality of Jews now live in the thriving Jewish State with a united Jerusalem once again as its capital.
Israeli flag at the Western Wall of the Jewish Temple Mount (photo: First One Through)
The New York Times never lets an opportunity pass to slam Israel, even when there’s no news.
As the country celebrated its three days of Holocaust Remembrance, Memorial Day for those killed protecting the country and victims of Arab terrorism, and Independence Day, the anti-Zionist paper opted to skip writing about those events and dusted off an article written three years prior.
The May 3, 2022 article called “Holy City or Theme Park? Israel Plans Zip Line for Ancient Jerusalem,” by Isabel Kershner was essentially the same article written by the paper’s architectural critic Michael Kimmelman on September 14, 2019 called “A Challenge to the Essence of Old Jerusalem, Coming by Cable Car.” Kimmelman’s article contended that Israel was trying to pretend that the city was only important to Jews and wanted tourists to imagine that the city had no Christians or Muslims in creating a cable car to facilitate the movement of visitors. He wrote that the plan “has provoked howls of protest from horrified Israeli preservationists, environmentalists, planners, architects and others who picture a global heritage site turned into a Jewish-themed Epcot.“
NY Times May 2022NY Times September 2019
I wonder if Kimmelman will sue Kershner for plagiarism.
Kershner opted to lead her piece that Israel is building a ride for Jews in the same location as Judas betrayed Jesus, seemingly in an attempt to roil the Christian world that the Jews are thumbing their noses at Christians. She essentially said that not only do Jews not truly believe in the sanctity of the Temple Mount and holy city (much like Jesus had said two thousand years ago), but they’re smug in their attempted takeover of the holy basin. The meaning is clear: Christians should not let the Jews assert any more claims on the city under the guise that it’s Judaism’s holist location.
NY Times article stating that Israel is planning tourist rides in the same spot as Judas betrayed Jesus
On the bright side, at least that insidious comment was new in Kershner’s article.
Kershner’s article was replete with comments and pictures of a so-called “Palestinian East Jerusalem,” as part of a concerted disinformation campaign by the liberal rag.
“East Jerusalem” exists no more than “East Berlin.” It existed for a blip in time from 1949 to 1967 because of the Arab invasion to destroy the Jewish State at its founding right after the Holocaust.
The United States does not recognize any country called “Palestine” so how can there be a city in such fantasy land?
The Palestinian Authority signed the Oslo Accord in 1995 that specifically recognized Israel as the authority in all of Jerusalem.
The full page article quoted a number of “anti-settlement” groups including Emek Shaveh, Ir Amim an Peace Now. According to NGO Monitor, these groups are mostly funded by foreign governments including the European Union, Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands, as well as Ireland and Oxfam. In a twist of logic only progressive radicals may understand, Keshner referred to Ir Amim as “an anti-settlement advocacy group that works for an equitable solution for Israelis and Palestinians in Jerusalem.” How can a group be simultaneously opposed to Jews living in parts of Jerusalem and also for equity?
Full page article slamming Israel’s activities in Jerusalem, published on Israel’s Memorial Day for Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terrorism
This non-news article quoting biased foreign-backed NGOs was somehow viewed as appropriate on Israel’s Memorial Day.
The Times didn’t discuss Neta Sorek, a peace activist slaughtered while she went for a stroll in the garden of a monastery. It avoided writing about Rina Shnerb, a 17-year old girl killed while on a nature hike, a killing celebrated by over 80% of Gaza’s Arabs. It opted to not spill ink on the Fogel family, butchered in their sleep.
The former newspaper could not find a Holocaust survivor who watched five Arab armies invade the nascent Jewish State in an attempt at a second Holocaust, in an independence war that claimed almost 1% of the population. The Times could not spend the effort to interview Israelis who feared for their lives in 1967 as the surrounding Arab armies positioned themselves to wipe out the Jews again, or during the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
Instead, Kershner dusted off a colleague’s work and wrote an article that Jews don’t really believe in the holiness of Jerusalem; are actively insulting Christians and Muslims; and are taking over Palestinian land.
As Israelis spent a day remembering and mourning those killed solely for being Jews in the Jewish homeland, the New York Times informed its readers that the living Israelis are worthy of global scorn and condemnation.
While there may be problems of disinformation on social media, the mainstream media invites it, as they deliberately post biased editorials instead of news.
The toxic environment of America’s educational system was brought into sharp focus in April 2022, as Hamas and Harvard made pronouncements they wanted the entire world to hear.
The leader of the Palestinian Arab political-terrorist group Hamas, Yahya Sinwar declared “Whoever takes the decision to repeat this scene (of a deployment inside the mosque) will be taking the decision to destroy thousands of synagogues across the world.” In the proclamation, Hamas refreshed its mantra that its battle against Israel is a religious one, specifically against Jews around the world, as made clear in its noxious foundational charter statements such as “Our struggle against the Jews is very great and very serious,” and “Israel, Judaism and Jews challenge Islam and the Moslem people.”
Remarkably, not every country in the world has acknowledged that Hamas is a terrorist group. In November 2021, the United Kingdom and Australia finally designated all branches of the group as such and in May 2021, the Organization of American States (OAS), stated unequivocally that Hamas is a terrorist group that targets civilians which “makes the invocation of the principle oflegitimate defense by Israel essential.” Hopefully, more countries will finally join civil society and do likewise, after the latest direct threats against its Jewish citizens.
Regrettably, while the world may finally be waking up to the anti-Semitic genocidal worldview leading Palestinian Arabs, America’s liberal educational institutions are going in the opposite direction.
As anti-Semitic terrorist groups abutting Israel like Hamas and Hezbollah celebrated the murder of Israeli civilians, and liberal papers wrote about the slaughter from the terrorists point of view, Harvard University endorsed a prevailing anti-Zionist progressive stance of absolving Palestinian terrorism and supporting a boycott of Israel.
On April 29, 2022, The Harvard Crimson Editorial board wrote “In Support of Boycott, Divest, Sanction and a Free Palestine,” and opened with words of comfort for Palestinian Arabs, portraying them as non-violent victims of a brutal Israeli regime.
“We first and foremost wish to extend our sincere support to those who have been and continue to be subject to violence in occupied Palestine”
“unlawful killings that victimize Palestinians day in and day out”
“Israeli soldiers have killed nearly 50 Palestinians, including eight children, this year alone”
Not a word about Israelis slaughtered by Arab Muslims over the past few weeks.
Harvard proudly endorses a boycott of Israel, April 29, 2022
The Harvard piece never discussed Israel’s efforts to hand land to Palestinians.
In 1967, Israel decided not to annex the Gaza Strip or the “West Bank” in an effort to make peace but the Arab world responded with the infamous “Three No’s” of “no peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, no negotiations with it” which has become the Three Denials: to deny the history of the Jews; deny the rights of the Jews; and deny the acceptance of the Jews in their holy land.
Israel would go on to hand the Palestinian Authority several cities between 1995 and 2000 and was scheduled to do much more, but the Palestinians launched the 2000 Two Percent War which killed over 1,000 Israeli civilians because Israel was only meeting 98 percent of the PA’s stated demands.
Israel gave the Palestinians Gaza in 2005, with the express direct support from the United States that “it is unrealistic to expect that the outcome of final status negotiations will be a full and complete return to the armistice lines of 1949” and that “through the establishment of a Palestinian state, and the settling of Palestinian refugees there, rather than in Israel.” Instead of using their new self-determination for peaceful co-existence, the region has become a terrorist enclave run by Hamas, which has repeatedly launched wars against Israel.
These points were completely ignored. Instead, this institution of higher learning stated its “categorical imperative to side with and empower the vulnerable and oppressed” in a situation where the “overwhelming power imbalance” rests with Israel. Israel is accused of “ethnonationalist legislation” and responsible for “human rights and international law violations and of Palestine’s cry for freedom.”
The sole Jewish state with about 7 million Jews, which is surrounded by dozens of Muslim countries and 1.8 BILLION Muslims is somehow cast as the real power player. The mental gymnastics to accuse Israel of “ethnonationalist legislation,” while simultaneously supporting the creation of a Palestinian State which demands to be free of Jews (because the presence of Jews “difficults the prospect of a two-state solution“), is so outrageous that one must be part of the Harvard elite to comprehend.
Has Harvard simply become the latest progressive institution to view every situation in a narrow construct of the party viewed as powerful and the one cast as victim? Do the millions of dollars the institution receives from Muslim countries have any bearing on its twisted perception?
Harvard acknowledged it accepted $30 million from Saudi Arabia between 2013 and 2019, and another $6 million from Qatar, which openly supports Hamas. But the Department of Education noted that the school failed to report millions of additional donations beyond that and launched an investigation.
Hamas and Harvard probably sat next to each other in grade school and passed notes about “The Zionist invasion is a vicious invasion… using all evil and contemptible ways… infiltration and espionage operations on the secret organizations… aim at undermining societies, destroying values, corrupting consciences, deteriorating character and annihilating Islam. It is behind the drug trade and alcoholism in all its kinds so as to facilitate its control and expansion” (Article 28 of the Hamas Charter) and “They obtained the Balfour Declaration, formed the League of Nations through which they could rule the world. They were behind World War II, through which they made huge financial gains by trading in armaments, and paved the way for the establishment of their state. It was they who instigated the replacement of the League of Nations with the United Nations and the Security Council to enable them to rule the world through them. There is no war going on anywhere, without having their finger in it.” (Article 22)
Hamas and Harvard are attempting to educate the world that Jews and the Jewish State are powerful forces, seeking to undermine societies as they seek greater control and expansion of land and resources. If that sounds familiar, you took Holocaust Remembrance Day seriously.
Hamas and Harvard are attempting to educate the world that Jews and the Jewish State are powerful forces, seeking to undermine societies as they seek greater control and expansion of land and resources. If that sounds familiar, you took Holocaust Remembrance Day seriously.
Due to Muslim Arab terrorism now going on in Israel during the month of Ramadan, the United States embassy has placed the Old City of Jerusalem on its restricted list.
The security alert from the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem was published on March 30, 2022 and stated:
Due to recent terrorist attacks in the area and potential security issues associated with the upcoming April 2022 holidays, U.S. government employees and their family members are restricted until further notice from entering the Old City of Jerusalem after dark (dusk to dawn) and on Fridays. Damascus, Herod’s, and Lions’ Gates are off limits as well.
U.S. citizens should take this into consideration when planning their own activities.
The question is whether the imposition of a no-go zone in the holy city of Jerusalem during Passover, Easter and Ramadan was because the United States does not trust Israeli security or in deference to Muslim sensitivities. Will the US embassy impose this restriction on American Muslims at the embassy as well, or just non-Muslims?
Terrorist attacks are happening all over Israel, including in Bnei Brak, Beersheva and Tel Aviv. Will the US put those cities on the no-go list as well? That’s highly doubtful as the U.S. focuses on religious tension – not terrorism – in the city considered holy to three faiths.
The United States embassy to Israel has bowed to Islamic demands to restrict its non-Muslim personnel from visiting the holy city of Jerusalem. One can imagine the administration demanding Israeli Jews to do the same in the future.
Israeli flag at the western wall of the Jewish Temple Mount
The pictures and stories coming out of Ukraine are horrible. The suffering of the people of Ukraine and the hands of Russian forces is hard to fathom – or is it?
Neighboring countries go to war all of the time. Before the invention of the airplane, it was basically the only way to wage war. Iran-Iraq was the typical format, not U.S.-Afghanistan. When Russia and the United States engaged in the “Cold War,” they mostly used adjacent proxy states.
Today, vulnerable countries at the edge of war are watching the Russian invasion in horror for the suffering of Ukrainian civilians, as well as for important lessons to be gleaned about their own situations.
Ethno-nationalism surpasses borders. Vladimir Putin of Russia claimed that Ukraine is not a valid country, as its people are actually Russian by identity, language and culture. Palestinian Arabs believe the same, as outlined in the opening of the Palestinian National Charter, “Palestine is the homeland of the Arab Palestinian people; it is an indivisible part of the Arab homeland, and the Palestinian people are an integral part of the Arab nation.” Russia does not believe it is invading a distinct foreign entity but bringing its own people back into the fold, much as the Arab countries surrounding Israel thought (and think) nothing of invading the sovereign State of Israel. Everyone should only use the term ‘Israeli Arabs’ and not ‘Palestinian Citizens of Israel’, as the latter serves the aim of invasion.
The pretext of preventing ‘genocide’ convinces hordes of morons to back warfare. Putin claimed that Russian-speakers in Ukraine were being slaughtered in a “genocide” and was therefore coming to their aid. Arabs – and increasingly “human rights organizations”, the liberal media and the United Nations – are falsely alleging that Israel is committing a “genocide” of Palestinian Arabs and engaging in “ethnic cleansing,” despite the plain facts that the number of Arabs in Israel has grown at a faster pace than Israeli Jews and Arabs in surrounding countries. The Russian propaganda to rally its people against Ukraine is much the same as the insidious jihad of anti-Zionists who are preparing to wage economic, psychological and military warfare against the Jewish State. The vile libel must be fought aggressively.
Concession of a small amount of land is an invitation for more. When Russia invaded Crimea and took over part of Ukraine, the world barely uttered a protest, pleased that the bloodshed was minimal. The larger problem was that a dangerous lesson had been taught that even Ukraine did not believe in the sanctity of its borders and Russia could claim more on the same grounds. While Israel handed over lands in the West Bank to the Palestinian Authority during the late 1990’s and then Gaza in 2005, as opposed to losing them in battle, the Palestinian Authority believes much like Russia that it should have more – whether the entirety of the West Bank or all of Israel.
A country cannot overly rely on security agreements and guarantees. In 1994, Ukraine signed the Budapest Moratorium – also executed by Russia, Britain, and the U.S. – in which Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons in exchange for assurances of its territorial integrity. Not only did Russia not abide by the agreement in its invasion of Crimea, the U.S. and Britain did not come to the aid of Ukraine. Today, Israel may appreciate the statements from the United States that its commitments to the Jewish State’s security is “enduring and ironclad“, but Israel must fully plan and operate under the assumption it must be able to defend itself by itself.
Don’t have a capital city on the border. The Russian forces quickly penetrated deep into Ukrainian land early in the war. As the capital city of Kyiv is far from the border with Russia, the country has managed to survive the initial onslaught and continues to defend itself. Israel, a very small country surrounded by Arab Muslim countries, cannot allow its capital city of Jerusalem to sit on a border as well. Not only should the city never be divided again as it was for eighteen years 1949 to 1967, but Israel must secure many miles around the city as well.
Beware the Alter of Large Players. Russia’s size and clout are enabling it to get away with murder. As an enormous military and economic force, many countries are refusing to hold Russia to account. Israel is similarly surrounded by the vast Muslim Arab world, with much of it refusing to recognize its existence and some openly demanding Israel’s destruction. In that backdrop, Israel’s primary sponsor, the United States, is working with the Islamic Republic of Iran to maintain a semblance of a nuclear weapons program, even as Iran has threatened to destroy Israel. The situation threatens Israel existentially on one side and economically and psychologically on the other.
Russia is significantly larger than UkraineIsrael sits as a small dot in the vast Muslim world
Democracies are vulnerable to war when abutting dictatorships. For many years, the western world convinced itself that wars were only for authoritarian regimes. Wars in Africa and the Middle East were considered alien matters between tribal warlords. Intellectuals convinced themselves that a free people with a functioning democracy would simply vote out corrupt or ineffectual leaders and would embrace peace as has existed in Europe since World War II. Lost in that arithmetic is when a democracy abuts a dictatorship, as is the case with Ukraine and Russia. As it is for Israel and all of its neighbors.
There are unfortunately many similarities between the Ukrainians suffering at the hands of its Russian neighbor since 1994 on the one hand, and Israel’s treatment by its Muslim and Arabs neighbors since the reestablishment of the Jewish State, on the other.
In the rampant misinformation campaign that is propagated in the liberal media and anti-Israel universities, conflating Palestinian Arabs with the foreign terrorist organization Hamas is considered a sign of Islamophobia. In the same breath, those deluded souls will tell you that Israel is a racist European settler colonial regime.
The facts are clear that both statements are lies.
The last time the Palestinian Arabs held elections for their parliament was in 2006. The political-terrorist group Hamas won 76 of 132 seats, or 57.6%, trouncing Fatah which won 43 seats. According to a March 2022 poll, if presidential elections were held today, Hamas’s Ismail Haniyeh would win 54% to Fatah’s Mahmoud Abbas getting 38%. If Abbas would not run, the winner would be convicted murderer Marwan Barghouti. Further, a majority (52%) of Palestinian Arabs support terrorism, which the poll termed “armed confrontation and intifada.” Two-thirds of Palestinians want Hamas and another terrorist group, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, to be incorporated into the Palestinian Liberation Organization to “make it more representative of the Palestinian people.” This is apart from the 93% of Palestinian Arabs who are antisemitic.
In regards to Israel, it is the most diverse country in the Middle East. 73.9% of the country is Jewish, 21.1% are Arab (Muslim and Christian) and 5% are other groups including Ba’hai (a religion banned in several neighboring countries), Samaritans and others.
Among Jews, nearly half of the population is Brown and Black.
As of 2018, only 31.8% of Jews were Ashkenazi, of European heritage, and 12.4% were from the former USSR. That compares to 44.9% who are Mizrahi and 3.0% from Ethiopia. The balance (7.9%) are of mixed heritage.
Those figures mean that 32.7% of Israeli Jews are European, when combining all Ashkenazi and Jews from the former USSR.
Ethiopian Jewish woman praying at the Western Wall of the Jewish Temple Mount in Jerusalem, Israel (photo: First One Through)
College campuses and the media are lying when they state that Hamas is not representative of the Palestinian people and that Israel is a colonial project of European Jews. The simple current facts are that over 50% of Palestinians support the terrorist groups of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad, and less than one-third of Israelis are European Jews.
The dichotomy of the people in the Middle East came into sharp focus this week.
Israel advanced its peace process with a number of Arab and Muslim countries when it hosted Bahrain, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Morocco in its Negev region. The foreign ministers met to discuss how to deal with the regional threat and nuclear aspirations of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the war between Russia and Ukraine, as well as ways of building economic and military ties with each other.
Bahrain’s Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid al-Zayani, Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, Israel’s Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Morocco’s Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita, and United Arab Emirates’ Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan, pose for a group photo following their Negev meeting in the Israeli kibbutz of Sde Boker on March 28, 2022.
The parties to the Abraham Accords were excited to come to the Jewish State to foster trust and trade, peace and prosperity.
On the other extreme, the promoters of violence and mayhem were busy killing people and celebrating the slaughter of innocents.
On March 22, an Israeli Bedouin killed four people in Negev city of Be’er Sheva. The murders were celebrated by fellow murderers:
The spokesperson for the political-terrorist group Hamas that leads the Palestinian parliament said “the crimes of the occupation are met only with heroic stabbing, ramming and shooting operations.“
Another Palestinian terrorist group, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ)said “the operation comes in the natural context of responding to the crimes of Zionist terrorism in the occupied Negev.“
On March 27, two Arab gunmen shot and killed two Israeli police officers in Hadera. The killings brought out the anti-Semites:
ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack and declared “This is for the apostate Jews to know that our promises will always reach them, Allah willing,” and added “We are coming to you with slaughter.“
PIJ said the killings were “an eloquent message from our people against attempts to break our will.“
On March 29, five Israelis were shot by a Palestinian terrorist in Bnei Brak, a community that has virtually no on serving in the military. The Palestinian blood lust continued to be extolled:
Hamas “blesses the heroic operation against the Zionist occupation soldiers in the so-called ‘Tel Aviv’ area, which led to the killing and wounding of a number of Zionist occupiers, and stresses that all the heroic operations carried out by our Palestinian people, in every inch of our occupied land, comes in the context of the natural and legitimate response to the terrorism of the occupation and its escalating crimes against our land, our people and our sanctities.“
Hamas openly called for the killing of Israeli Jews, even those who never serve in the army, and denies the existence of any part of Israel. Palestinian Arabs support this approach, with 54% saying they would vote Hamas’s Ismail Haniyeh to the presidency over Mahmoud Abbas (38%), according to a poll done over the past two weeks. The same poll shows that 58% of Palestinians oppose a two state solution, and that 52% support armed attacks against Israel.
Palestinian cartoon promoting violence in the face of Arab countries bonding with Israel
While Israel convenes conferences to promote peace, Palestinians are engaged in and encouraging the slaughter of innocents. Each party in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has a clear mission, with only one party deserving any support.
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Palestinian Arabs have seemingly been successful at getting the Biden Administration to demand “equality” between the Israelis and Palestinians. It is unclear what that means.
In May 2021, U.S. President Joe Biden said “I believe the Palestinians and Israelis equally deserve to live safely and securely and to enjoy equal measures of freedom, prosperity and democracy.” A few days later, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken tweeted something similar “I underscored America’s ironclad commitment to Israel’s security, and we discussed the importance of promoting peace, security, and dignity for all.” For those who make a living parsing words of politicians who rehearse their sound bites, there was a bit to review.
Biden’s comments were focused on the people (Palestinians and Israelis) while Blinken focused on security for a country (Israel) and then rights for everyone (Palestinians and Israelis). Biden sought “equal measures” regarding “freedom, prosperity and democracy” while Blinken highlighted “peace, security and dignity for all” after giving preference to Israeli security. Biden’s “safely and securely” and “freedom and democracy” were likely meant to be used interchangeably with Blinken’s “peace, security”, but it is doubtful that Biden’s focus on “prosperity” was meant to equate to Blinken’s “dignity.”
Months later, Blinken leaned into “dignity” when he met with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in February 2022 when he said “Israelis and Palestinians alike deserve to live with equal measures of security, freedom, prosperity and crucially, dignity.” He introduced Biden’s focus on prosperity but sought to underscore his belief that dignity is crucial for both people.
In March 2022, when Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Israel and Palestinian Affairs Hady Amr came to the region, he “reiterated the Biden Administration’s philosophy that Israelis and Palestinians alike deserve to live safely and securely and enjoy equal measures of freedom, security, and prosperity.” Amr continued the administration’s emphasis on prosperity as a key goal but declined to mention “dignity.”
The various statements beg the question of what equal measures regarding freedom, security, prosperity and dignity, and whether each are just as important.
Freedom. One interpretation might mean the Palestinians should have freedom of movement for people and goods in and out of the terrorist enclave of Gaza. Is the U.S. pushing to end the blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt immediately, or only in context of a resolution to the conflict? Would such stand exist if the terrorist group of Hamas continues to rule the area?
Freedom could mean the right of self-determination. While one might belief based on the media that Palestinian Arabs have none, in reality, all Gazans have self-determination and the vast majority of Arabs in the West Bank (those living in Areas A and B) similarly have self-determination.
Security. Does the Biden Administration want the Palestinians to have an army like Israel? Since the Oslo Accords in the mid-1990s began a pathway towards Palestinian self-determination, Israelis held firm that any future Palestinian state could not have a standing army in the narrow strip of land abutting Israel. Is the Biden campaign pressuring Israel to change that position?
Prosperity. The United States gives Israel billions of dollars each year and has had a difficult time sending monies to the Palestinian Authority directly (it funnels monies to them indirectly via the United Nations) because the PA refuses to stop rewarding terrorism with “martyr payments” to terrorist families. Is Biden signaling that he will push congress to get rid of the laws which prohibit the promotion of Palestinian Arab terrorism and start sending the PA the same amount of money as the government invests in Israel?
Dignity. Israeli Jews lack the basic human rights to pray at their holiest location of the Jewish Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Will the Biden Administration push to overturn the current status quo in exchange for Palestinians having a military?
The action plans may be underway.
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides tweeted on March 16, 2022 about his excitement that more monies were flowing to Palestinians: “Pleased to see lots for Palestinians in the budget just signed by @POTUS Biden: $144 million increase (now $219 million) for Economic Support Funds, $40 million for security forces training in the WBank, and $50 million for 2nd year of the Nita Lowey MEPPA Fund,” a strange comment for the ambassador TO ISRAEL to comment on aid elsewhere.
Blinken is in Israel now and will talk about the Russia-Ukraine war, the refugees crisis and its impact on the region, Iran’s nuclear program and its threat towards the world, the emerging peace between Israel and various Arab countries stemming from the Abraham Accords, and the Palestinian Arab- Israel conflict. The administration’s pivot towards the Palestinians can be seen at 11:50 in the video, when Blinken said that he will meet with “Palestinians in East Jerusalem who are a critical part of the city’s vibrant and diverse civil society and underscore our work with Palestinian non-governmental government organizations.” Is Blinken saying that East Jerusalem is Palestinian and that “equality” further extends to splitting Israel’s capital?
The United States is pushing the notion of equality between Israel and the Palestinian Authority as an end-goal of negotiations. Will advocating for Jewish rights on the Temple Mount and a Palestinian army kill the peace process before it begins?
First One Through 