Many people are familiar with the Jewish tradition of breaking a glass at the end of a wedding ceremony. It has become the marker for when people go from sitting quietly to screaming “mazel tov!” for the new couple.
The shattering of the glass traditionally is accompanied by a few lines from Psalm 137 (5-6) which are sung in a subdued manner:
let my tongue stick to my palate if I cease to think of you, if I do not keep Jerusalem in memory even at my happiest hour.
One would imagine that keeping “Jerusalem in memory even at my happiest hour” would imply making such memory very festive at a wedding ceremony. That is when the bride and groom are at their “happiest hour,” and as they burst for joy, they should sing about Jerusalem in that same boisterous spirit, not one of solemnity capped by broken glass.
The entirety of Psalm 137 must be internalized to appreciate how Jews incorporate these few lines of song at a wedding. Here are the opening lines (1-4) which precede the wedding song:
The nature of the Psalm is one of sorrow. Tormented in diaspora, the local nations taunted the Jewish people to sing, but the joy of song could not be completed while on foreign soil. The “right hand wither[ing]” and “tongue stuck on my palate” are expressions that no harp can be played nor song uttered about Zion and Jerusalem while stuck far away.
With such orientation, consider the following wedding celebrated during the COVID pandemic:
A young man made aliyah and joined the Israeli army as a lone soldier. He completed his study at a Hesder yeshiva and his army service, and then met a beautiful girl. She had also made aliyah, albeit more recently, as she waited to hear from graduate programs in the U.S. They fell in love and got engaged with plans to marry in Israel together with their new community of friends. Unfortunately, as they spent a semester in the United States to take courses, they got stuck due to COVID restrictions and could not have the wedding in Jerusalem. They hastily made arrangements to get married in the diaspora, despite their best efforts and plans.
With the unexpected backdrop, the bride and groom finally stood beneath the wedding canopy. The chazan – who himself had made aliyah but happened to be in the U.S. for another affair – sang Psalm 137 verses 5 and 6 and then paused, as is the custom in Israel, for the groom to repeat the two sentences.
As the groom recited those words, everyone in attendance was pulled by this couple’s longing to be in Israel, and internalized line 4 from the Psalm which was unsung but deeply felt: How can we sing a song of the LORD on alien soil?
Hopefully this new couple will be blessed to share many happy anniversaries in the land in their hearts, the Jewish holy city of Jerusalem.
While many people consider the Muslim Arab – Israeli Conflict to be a complicated matter, there are some simple facts beyond dispute: Hamas is a vile anti-Semitic terrorist group, that is very popular among the stateless Arabs from Palestine (SAPs). The political-terrorist group demonizes Jews, calls for Israel’s destruction and is flatly against any type of peace deal with the Jewish State.
So it is surprising that Hamas barely gets mentioned in the repeated United Nations Security Council meetings on the conflict, which are presumably about finding a peaceful solution in the region.
On December 21, 2021, the UNSC met – as it does regularly – to hear a report from Tor Wennesland, the highly-biased Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process. In response to his remarks, the fifteen member countries of the council responded in an echo of condemnation against Israel for building homes for Jews in Judea and Samaria. Somehow they have been brainwashed by the SAPs’ narrative that they cannot have a viable state if there is a Jewish kindergarten nearby.
Remarkably, there was only one country – Kenya – that called out the Palestinian terrorist group for condemnation.
Gideon Kinuthia Ndung’U of Kenya condemned the “recent terror attacks and shootings that Hamas and other groups continue to laud and claim, [and] stressed that no cause can justify the deliberate targeting of civilians. These acts of terror must cease.“
It’s a simple statement that should be repeated everywhere (and is, except when the terrorists are Palestinian Arabs), but alas, Kenya was the sole voice to condemn this vile terrorist group.
Richard Mills of the United States “urged [Israeli and Palestinian] authorities to condemn violence and respond in a proportionate and reasonable manner,” but did not do so himself.
T.S. Tirumurti of India noted that “violent attacks against Palestinian and Israeli civilians, acts of destruction, provocation and incitement have continued during the reporting period. Condemning all such acts, he called upon the parties to immediately make concrete efforts to reverse these negative trends.” It was a balanced approach, but failed to called out the persistent underlying cause for violence stemming from Gaza.
Nicolas de Riviere of France didn’t offer a word about Palestinian Arab attacks and opted to use his time to condemn Jewish homes, while calling for donations to the Terrorist Enclave in Gaza.
The most appalling speaker was ISIS Azalea Maria Gonsalves of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines who read a script that may have been produced by the media outlets Al Manar (Hezbollah) and Al Aqsa (Hamas), spewing vitriol against Israel and defending all Palestinians, including the terrorists in Gaza.
Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, and Kenyan President, Uhuru Kenyatta, hold flags of their countries at State House in Nairobi, Kenya, July 5, 2016
Thank Kenya for calling out the evil and violence of Hamas at 202.387.6101, 202.796.2079 or 212.421.4744. Their email is information@kenyaembassydc.org.
The United Nations Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, visited Lebanon on December 20, 2021 to show support for the country as it continued fail on multiple fronts. Already floundering due to an economic crisis, Lebanon’s falling fortunes are being exacerbated by the pandemic since March 2020, the explosion in the port that damaged much of the capital in August 2020 and infighting between various factions that make up the country’s political landscape and demographic mix.
Guterres spoke to the Lebanese cabinet in a lengthy speech that painted the people of Lebanon as particularly warm and welcoming in the face of adversity. However, various comments made – and parties unmentioned – reveal a dangerous UN bias for the future of the country and region.
Guterres called out Israel both directly and indirectly, and never favorably.
Palestinian refugees. The UNSG recalled Lebanon’s welcome of Syrian refugees and then appended “not to mention the old Palestinian community of a million.” That’s a complete lie. Lebanon welcomed several thousand Palestinian Arabs in 1948-9, and that total grew to 568,000 in 2021, half of Guterres’s figure. Further, Lebanon places severe restrictions on the professions for the stateless Arabs from Palestine (SAPs), forcing two-thirds of the population into poverty.
Coexistence. Guterres continued that Lebanon was an “extraordinary example of religious tolerance of the capacity to create a diverse society that was harmonious, that was prosperous and that was, I would say, the centre of the region.” Lebanon was engaged in a religious civil war from 1976 to 1990, a point completely omitted and whitewashed in the speech. It has been nearly fifty years since the country had a semblance of religious tolerance. Such tolerance at the “centre of the region” is found in Israel today, not Lebanon.
But Guterres wanted to castigate Israel in his remarks, not elevate it as an example of coexistence.
Israel’s belligerence. While noting for a just a second that Lebanon bore some responsibility for its current state of affairs, Guterres called out outside actors that hurt Lebanon, in particular “the Israeli invasion several years ago.” That invasion in 1982 was in the midst of Lebanon’s Civil War in which the country acted as a terrorist save haven for the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) that repeatedly attacked Israel, forcing a response from Israel.
The unmentioned evil actors. Not only did the PLO go unmentioned in the speech, so did Hezbollah, the terrorist group that controls southern Lebanon, as well as Iran, which backs that terrorist group.
Hezbollah was directly responsible for the Beirut port blast which exacerbated the current situation. It has threatened judges investigating the case, lest the terrorist group be cast in a negative light before elections scheduled for March 2022.
Hezbollah is estimated to have well over 120,000 missiles with a range that covers all of northern Israel. The missile launch sites are nestled among 230 Shiite villages in southern Lebanon. Those rockets were purchased with funds from Iran, including the $400 million in cash sent by President Obama to seal the Iranian nuclear deal. This terrorist army was armed and missiles deployed right under the nose of the United Nations, where UNIFIL (United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon) is charged with maintaining the peace with Israel and keeping Hezbollah from rearming as part of UN Security Council Resolution 1701 (2006).
Hezbollah is likely to become fully active over the next several months as the Lebanese economy collapses, elections happen or are canceled, and the terrorist group’s sponsors in Iran are forced to either accept de-nuclearlization or full economic sanctions. Hezbollah has already begun to test the situation, firing 19 missiles into the Jewish State in August 2021. The UN did nothing, other than voting to continue to fund UNIFIL while it berated Israel and refused to mention Hezbollah.
Which begs the question of what was being accomplished with the head of the United Nations visiting Lebanon at this time. Was it seeking an economic package from world governments? That was mentioned (as was promoting the involvement of women in government), but so was this troubling statement:
“I want to say that our mission is essentially a mission of solidarity. You can be sure that Lebanon is today in the centre of all our strategies and efforts, both at the level of the Secretariat and at the level of the different agencies that are cooperating with the Lebanese authorities, not to mention our two missions, and in particular now, UNIFIL that we want to be more and more actively cooperating with the Lebanese army as a fundamental factor of stability and security in the southern part of Lebanon.“
UNIFIL and the Lebanese army have no sway in southern Lebanon. Guterres’s refusal to call out the main troubling actor in the region that has been firing missiles at its neighbor to the south is outrageous, dangerous and ominous.
Israeli forces fire artillery from their position on the border with Lebanon after a barrage of rockets were fired from Lebanon, Friday, Aug. 6, 2021. The militant Hezbollah group said it fired rockets near Israeli positions close to the Lebanese border, calling it retaliation for Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanon a day earlier. (Ayal Margolin/JINIPIX via AP)
The UN Secretary General came to stand in solidarity with Lebanon and ignored the dangerous and dominant role that the terrorist group Hezbollah has in the failing state. In the likely upcoming war with the Israel, it appears that Guterres just placed his chips with the puppet state controlled by Iran.
The Jewish holiday of Chanukah celebrates Jews rededicating their holy Temple in Jerusalem over 2,000 years ago. The physical manifestations of today’s celebrations include additional prayers as well as the lighting a menorah in a slightly different form than the one that existed at the Temple, as that one had seven branches while the ones lit today have eight. The eight branches commemorate the eight days that the small jug of oil found at the Temple was able to keep the menorah lit until new batches of purified oil were made and brought to Jerusalem.
Lighting menorah on the seventh night of Chanukah at the Jaffa Gate of the Old City of Jerusalem, December 2021 (photo: FirstOneThrough)
Modern commemorations do not focus on the many battles fought by the Jewish fighters over the Greeks. That is a mistake. It is time to use the holiday to fight the current global slander about Jewish Jerusalem. Just as the historic Jewish Maccabees fought dozens of warriors riding elephants in the fields of the land of Israel, we must confront and defeat the elephants in the room: the lies of Muslim appeasement that have been allowed to fester in discussions about the Jewish State’s capital city.
Eight Attestations On Jerusalem
Jews have an Inalienable Right to pray on Temple Mount
Banning Jews from living and praying in their holiest city is blatant anti-Semitism, as is denying Jewish history
There is no “Judaizing” Jerusalem, as Jews have been the majority in Jerusalem since the 1860’s, and have devoted themselves to the city since 1000BCE
The security of Israel demands that its capital sit well within its borders
Divided capitals are a function of war, not peace. The place known as “East Jerusalem” only existed for a few years, 1949-1967
No part of Jerusalem was ever contemplated to be part of Palestine. Not only is “East Jerusalem” not an actual city, but there is no basis to call it “Occupied Palestinian Territory”
Jerusalem Arabs have been and are offered Israeli citizenship
There is no ethnic cleansing of Arabs. The Arab population in Jerusalem has grown faster than Jews since Israel reunited city
These plain facts are challenged repeatedly on the world stage to such an extent, that some of these statements appear extreme, further underscoring the importance of repeating them clearly. Everyone should write their local papers and elected officials about these facts, share the statements on social media and counter the lies loudly whenever seen.
Jews have an Inalienable Right to Pray on Temple Mount
There are a handful of basic rights that all human beings have, such as control of their persons and ability to follow a religion of their choice. It extends beyond borders and sovereignty and relates to individuals and communities as declared in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Whether one likes or recognizes a particular government, the right to practice and worship belongs to that person as an individual and member of a faith-based group.
So while some may think the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a terrible regime, no one would deny that Muslims should have a right to pray in their holy cities of Mecca and Medina in the KSA. A person need not be a Catholic or think that the Vatican is a legitimate government to affirm the right of Catholics to come to the St. Peter’s Cathedral in Vatican City.
So it is for Jews on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Regardless of one’s opinion of the State of Israel, Jews from around the world have an inalienable right to pray at their holiest location.
Banning Jews from living and praying in their holiest city is blatant anti-Semitism, as is denying Jewish history
The United Nations has sided with the dozens of Muslim countries at the United Nations in support of banning Jews from living and praying in their holiest city. They have declared that Jews praying at the Temple Mount is a “provocation,” inverting cause-and-effect in a logic that would declare Blacks moving into a neighborhood a provocation to White Supremacists.
To defend the illogic as not anti-Semitism, Muslim Arabs have challenged the basic history of Jews that the Temple did not exist, and if it did, it was not in Jerusalem. They even go so far as to declare that Jesus was not a Jew but a Palestinian Muslim. These are not just outrageous fabrications but additional forms of vile anti-Semitism.
There is no “Judaizing” Jerusalem, as Jews have been the majority in Jerusalem since the 1860’s, and have devoted themselves to the city since 1000BCE
Jews have focused their religion on Jerusalem since King David moved the capital city from Hebron to Jerusalem around 1000BCE. His son Solomon built the First Jewish Temple there, and it has been the center of Jewish prayer since that time. Regardless of where Jews lived or what foreign power controlled the Jewish holy land, Jews directed prayers and prayed about Jerusalem.
It is therefore no wonder that Jews have been the majority in Jerusalem since the 1860’s. Jews moved to, lived and prayed in the city before the introduction of modern Zionism. There are over 70,000 Jews buried in eastern Jerusalem, many from hundreds of years ago. Today’s State of Israel protects (or should protect) the rights of Jews in Jerusalem, but that political entity is separate from the deep Jewish roots and connection to the holy city.
The security of Israel demands that its capital sit well within its borders
Israel is a very small and skinny country with many neighbors. Several of those neighbors do not recognize the country’s right to exist and are at an official state of war with the Jewish State.
Israel’s capital city sits roughly in the center of the country, including the Israeli territory of Area C. Theoretically, not including Area C would place Jerusalem abutting another state. No country puts its capital city at risk in such fashion, even if it were at peace with its neighbors. There is no statement – however well intentioned – that can both support the security of Israel AND suggest the capital of Jerusalem be adjacent to another country.
Chanukah lights in the Old City of Jerusalem, November 2021 (photos: FirstOneThrough)
Divided capitals are functions of war, not peace. The place known as “East Jerusalem” only existed for a few years, 1949-1967
“East Jerusalem” similarly existed during a period of war between Muslim Arab states and Israel. Its existence was merely the result of the Armistice Lines established in 1949 between Israel and Jordan, which specifically stated that the lines were not to be construed as actual borders. The city was reunified in 1967 after Jordan attacked Israel again, just as it had in 1948. The brief, unhappy nineteen years of division came to an end decades ago.
No part of Jerusalem was ever contemplated to be part of Palestine. Not only is “East Jerusalem” not an actual city, but there is no basis to call it “Occupied Palestinian Territory”
Despite historic facts, the United Nations refers to “East Jerusalem” as an actual place and describes it as “Occupied Palestinian Territory.” This is fiction twice over. Not only does East Jerusalem not exist, it was never contemplated to be part of a Palestinian State, even by the United Nations.
Jerusalem Arabs have been and are offered Israeli citizenship
Israel has continued to offer all Arabs in the eastern portion of Jerusalem Israeli citizenship since it officially annexed the area. Thousands of Arabs have taken that citizenship and thousands more have applied. These Israeli Arabs have the same rights as other Israeli citizens.
Not that you would ever learn such facts from listening to Palestinian Arabs, the United Nations or their propaganda outlets in the media.
There is no ethnic cleansing of Arabs. The Arab population in Jerusalem has grown faster than Jews since Israel reunited city
The Arab population in Jerusalem has ballooned, especially relative to the Jewish population. From 1990 to 2019, the Arab population grew 3.4 times while the Jewish population grew only 1.9 times. Over that same period, housing for Arabs in the city grew by 188% while it only grew by 64% for Jews. When Israel reunified the city in 1967, Arabs made up 26% of the city’s population while they constitute 36% today.
Smears that Jews are “ethnically cleansing” Arabs are not only patently false, but attempt to whitewash the history of Muslim Arabs ethnically-cleansing Jews from Judea and Samaria in 1949, and from various countries like Morocco, Syria and Egypt in the decades after the founding of Israel.
Menorah at the Kotel, November 2021 (photo: FirstOneThrough)
The world is being barraged by outright lies about Jerusalem, including on the rights of Jews and the actions of Israel. We must all do our part to spread the light of truth in the face of anti-Semitism that grows increasingly darker and more bold.
Freshman Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) is having a very difficult time balancing a line between his moderate district and the alt-left Democratic Socialist of America (DSA) which supported him in infiltrating the Democratic Party. His gut instinct seems to be to duck and deceive.
While fellow Democrat President Biden was able to assemble a bipartisan Infrastructure Bill and pass it with ease, Bowman opted to vote against the president and much of his party and bonded instead with with the Socialist pack of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Cori Bush, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib. His constituents in lower Westchester were furious. Even local politicians who would normally avoid chastising a fellow party member in public, did so including:
Legislator Catherine Parker (D-Rye) who said she felt the “protest vote spoke more of his unwillingness to accept compromise than actually accomplishing anything.”
Greenburgh Supervisor Paul Feiner who said “if he got his way, we would’ve gotten nothing.“
County Legislator Tyrae Woodson-Samuels (D- Mount Vernon) said “I’m just worried what type of message this sends to regular, hardworking families, to our businesses and to our communities.“
Westchester activist Amy Siskind said she was “deeply disappointed” in Bowman’s vote.
To manage the public anger, Bowman decided to lie about his vote and sent out an email blast to his district that misrepresented his vote on the bill.
email from Rep. Bowman updating his work over September/October 2021 in which he lied about his vote in the Infrastructure Bill.
As seen in the section marked in red above, Bowman said he supported the “framework” of the infrastructure bill. Someone not aware of the nuances of political chicanery would naturally assume the Bowman voted in favor of the bill when he did not. Bowman did not write anywhere that he voted against the bill, and instead added language about his support for infrastructure to deliberately deceive the people he serves.
It will be interesting to see how Bowman opts to communicate his trip to Israel in November. He snubbed a bipartisan bicameral trip with Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) and opted to go to Israel with J Street, a left-wing group, in an insult to both Coons and Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett who took two distinct meetings on the same day with American politicians. He then insulted Israelis by tweeting an inversion of truth in Hebron even while the DSA seeks to expel him as a member since he visited Israel in the first place.
Bowman is being attacked by both his far left comrades and the significant center for his actions. His lying to everyone will not cover up his extremism but lay bare his being an inappropriate choice to serve his constituents.
Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE), is a good friend of President Joe Biden and a strong proponent of supporting Israel in a bi-partisan manner. Unfortunately, the extremist left-wing group, J Street, continues to make that difficult.
Coons led a bipartisan and bicameral group to Israel to visit senior members of the Israeli government and members of the US Embassy in Jerusalem. The group included Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO), Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA), Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-AK) and Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-NJ).
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett was excited to post this picture “Had an excellent meeting with a bipartisan US Congressional delegation in Jerusalem” on November 10, 2021
But the J Street extremist group did not want the left-wing politicians it supports to be part of this bipartisan meeting with the Israeli Prime Minister that limited its outreach to various Palestinian groups, so it arranged for its own competing delegation at the same time, showing complete disrespect for both Coons and Bennett. The Israeli Prime Minister had to smile while being treated as a mere tool in Democratic politics, taking yet another meeting and photo op with the J Street delegation on the same day.
Bennett tweeted: “great meeting Rep. Rosa Delauro (D-CT), Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA), Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), Mondair Jones (D-NY), Melanie Stansbury (D-NM), and Marc Pocan (D-WI) in my office in Jerusalem,” also on November 10.
J Street then took its delegation to Hebron where they supported Bowman’s tweet “Had the honor of meeting with children today in the occupied West Bank city Hebron. There are streets they cannot walk and places they cannot go, simply because they are Palestinian. When I asked about their dreams, their answer was simple: freedom. The occupation must end.” J Street educated the congressman that Israel is racist, rather than educate him that it is Israeli Jews who are forbidden to visit 75% of the city.
Pocan added his own tweet “Today @JamaalBowmanNY & I visited w/ Nasser of Susia in Palestine today to discuss Israeli settler violence to his village. We will be watching to make sure no violence occurs this weekend or anytime. Thanks @jstreetdotorg @BtSIsrael! @Israel @IDF” with a shout out to J Street as he broadcast about “settler violence” in a place that the United States does not recognize, “Palestine.”
Send your support to Senator Coons for his efforts to support America’s strongest ally in the region in a bipartisan manner, and do your utmost to get everyone you know to stop supporting the alt-left group J Street. Call Rep. Bowman at (914) 371-9220 and Rep Pocan at (202) 225-2906 and share your opinions directly with his office as well.
The Arab League called on Britain to apologize for the 1917 Balfour Declaration calling for the reestablishment of the Jewish national homeland. They were echoing the annual demand from acting-President of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas that Britain formerly apologize to Palestinian Arabs “for the catastrophes, misery and injustice this declaration created and to act to rectify these disasters and remedy its consequences, including by the recognition of the state of Palestine.“
Maybe Israel should come up with an apology list of its own.
From Jordan
Jordan was established with almost three-quarters of the land that was allocated by international law to the Palestine Mandate. Even though the mandate specifically stated that no one should be excluded from living anywhere in the mandate because of their religion (Article 15) even if the area east of the Jordan River was split off into a distinct territory (Article 25), that was precisely what Jordan did, banning Jews from living there.
In 1948, Jordan attacked Israel in a war that went on for over a year. At war’s end, Jordan seized additional territory and expelled all Jews from the land that it went on to annex in 1950. In 1954, Jordan granted “any person who, not being Jewish” (Article 3) in the illegally seized lands Jordanian citizenship, in a blatantly anti-Semitic edict.
Jordan attacked Israel again in 1967 in support of Egypt and Syria which had bound together to try to destroy the Jewish State once again. Fortunately, that time, their plans against Israel failed.
From the British
After Palestinian Arabs killed dozens of Jews in their homes and synagogues in the city of Hebron in 1929, the British “evacuated” (read expelled) all of the remaining Jews from the city, considering that their lives were in jeopardy from Arab mobs. Rather than defend the Jews and punish the Arabs, the British punished the Jewish victims, teaching the local Arabs the valuable lesson which they would employ over the next hundred years – terrorism pays, and will get the Jews to leave the places where they were living peacefully.
In November 1938, as Kristallnacht was effectively launching the Holocaust in Europe, the British leaders in Palestine met with local Arabs to decide to limit Jewish immigration to just 75,000 people over the next five years. Britain slammed the door on millions of Jews running for their lives facilitating the genocide of European Jewry.
Malcolm MacDonald, the British Colonial Secretary said after Kristallnacht: “When we promised to facilitate the establishment of a national home for Jews in Palestine, we never anticipated this fierce persecution in Europe. We have made no promise that that country should be the home for everyone who is seeking to escape from such an immense calamity, and even if there were no other population in Palestine, its rather meager soil could not in fact support more than a fraction of those Jews who may wish to escape from Europe. The problem of the refugees in Central Europe cannot be settled in Palestine.“
From the United Nations
The UN has evolved into a blatantly anti-Israel organization. It was headed by a former Nazi, Kurt Waldheim, from 1972 to 1981, when the General Assembly passed the infamous Resolution 3379 declaring Zionism is a form of racism. The UN has members which openly call for the destruction of Israel, another member, to a chorus of silence.
The UN Human Rights Council reserves item 7 on its agenda every session to lambast Israel. The Secretary General appointed a special coordinator for Mideast Peace who has a long history and particular loyalties only to Palestinians. The global body prioritizes the stateless Arabs from Palestine (SAPs) over actual refugees fleeing wars to faraway lands, donating billions of dollars into a specialized agency, UNRWA, which has a history of teaching anti-Semitism and being a harbor for Arab terrorists. It encourages the SAPs that the United Nations is the pathway to grandparents’ homes in Israel.
Entrance to UNRWA “refugee camp” in Bethlehem with key and keyhole, representing the agency as the pathway for Arabs to ultimately enter Israel.
From the United States
While the USA has long been Israel’s greatest supporter, the Obama Administration put Israel at greater risk on the world stage. It allowed UN Security Council Resolution 2334 to pass which made it illegal for Jews (the law says Israelis, but no one considers an Israeli Arab) to live in Judea and Samaria. This was despite assurances from President Bush that with Israel’s leaving Gaza, there would be US support for staying in such lands. Obama also negotiated the Iranian nuclear deal, the JCPOA, which gave Iran, the leading state sponsor of terrorism which had called for Israel’s destruction, a legal pathway to nuclear weapons in ten years.
Jews moved to Palestine at a rate of over 6 times the rate of Muslims BEFORE the Balfour Declaration (and at a similar rate afterwards), but the narrative of Abbas and the Arab League is that the British created the very desire and notion for Jews to move to Arab land, when in fact the British PREVENTED Jews from settling the land. Perhaps it is time for the Jewish State to demand its apologies.
Jewish population growth during the last 100+ years of Ottoman rule was 13.4 times, 6.4x the rate of Muslim growth which was only 2.1 times between 1800 and 1914 (Muslims did not move to Palestine – 2.1x growth in 114 years is the natural rate of births minus deaths). Jewish growth over the last 100+ years of British and Jewish rule has been 6.9x the rate of Muslims, roughly the same as the prior century. As Jews moved to the region in yet greater numbers, Muslims decided to come as well.
The New York Times wrote an article on October 25, 2021 which showed how the paper can feel empathy with victims of terrorism, at least when the victims are not Israeli Jews.
The New York Times article about the Taliban honoring terrorists who kill civilians, October 25, 2021
In an article called “Taliban Pay Homage to Suicide Bombers, Purveyors of Agony,” the Times described how the Taliban gives honor to people who slaughter civilians for their cause. The headline captured the universally understood pain from these “purveyors of agony,” and the article described how the pain suffered from the victims was compounded when they saw how the Taliban venerated the killers. It quoted several Afghans who suffered from the violence, and gave their pained voices a platform.
The Times takes the opposite approach regarding Israeli victims of terror.
Consider the July 3, 2018 Isabel Kershner article titled “Israel Penalizes Palestinians for Payments to Prisoners and ‘Martyrs’.” The title inverted victim and perpetrator by making Israel the party that “penalizes Palestinians” for rewarding terrorism. Not one victim of the Islamist terror was quoted in the article.
Another Kershner article from March 11, 2010 was called “Palestinians Honor a Figure Reviled in Israel as a Terrorist.” That header made it seem that only Israel believed that the murderer of 38 civilians – 13 of whom were children – was a terrorist. The Palestinian Authority named squares after the murderer, Dalal Mughrabi, and has since named several girl schools after this terrorist. No Israeli families devastated by the terrorism were featured in the article.
For the Times, people in Afghanistan suffered from actual terrorism and the media outlet gave their agony an outlet. But would not for Israeli Jews.
Consider further the November 20, 2020 article “Seeking Restart With Biden, Palestinians to Pare Prisoner Payments.” Rather than give a voice to Israeli victims of terror, the Times posted a picture of Palestinians walking around rubble after their home was demolished for supporting terror – portraying the Palestinians as victims rather than the murdered Israelis.
Islamic extremists – whether in Afghanistan, Gaza or the West Bank – are consistent in honoring their terrorists with naming schools and public squares after the killers, and with ‘martyr’ payments to their families. The New York Times is similarly reliable in expressing empathy for non-Jewish victims of Islamic terror, and for using the topic of murdered Jews as an opportunity to discuss the plight of Palestinians. #NYTimes(((JewsKvetchAboutPerceivedTerrorism)))
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has repeatedly made clear that Israel’s number one security threat is Iran and its regional arm, Hezbollah in Lebanon. Even more than a priority, he said that they pose a threat to the very existence of Israel, saying “I have no doubt that the nuclearization of Iran is the number one existential threat to the state of Israel.“
Bennett added that the number two threat to its security was Israel’s own policies, namely “disengagement” from territories. He referred to the horrible security situation in the country since it left Gaza with Hamas taking over the area and repeatedly launching wars against Israeli towns, and the arming of Hezbollah in Lebanon after the Israeli retreat from there, both of which have left the country vulnerable.
But J Street, the left-wing extremist group in the US doesn’t care. While it markets itself under the tagline “Pro Israel, Pro peace,” the organization is a Palestinian propaganda outlet and focuses its $10 million+ budget on promoting extremists policies which are opposed by the government of Israel.
Before the Israeli Prime Minister came to visit US President Joe Biden, the group published talking points it lobbied the administration to advance, seemingly provided by the Palestinian Authority press secretary:
“In particular, we hope that the Biden administration will make the following key points in meetings with their Israeli counterparts:
The US expects Israel to take the steps necessary to allow a US Consulate serving Palestinians to reopen at its previous location in Jerusalem by year’s end.
The US is deeply concerned by and firmly opposed to acts of de facto annexation taking place in occupied territory, including settlement construction, forced displacement and demolition of Palestinian communities and homes, and the growing frequency of incidents of deadly violence against Palestinian civilians. Consistent with US law and calls for increased accountability by Members of Congress, military equipment supplied by the United States or purchased with US aid may not be used in connection with such activities.
Should the Palestinian government substantially reform its prisoners payments program to meet criteria set out in relevant US law, the US expects that Israel will not move to obstruct the resumption of US direct assistance to the Palestinian Authority, the reopening of the PLO General Delegation to the United States, or efforts to sunset outdated statutory constraints on the US-Palestinian relationship.
The United States is fully committed to addressing threats posed by Iran and preventing Iran from ever developing a nuclear weapon, and believes that the best way to accomplish these goals is via negotiations and diplomacy.“
Iran poses an existential threat to Israel, yet this PINO (pro-Israel in name only) organization listed Iran last. It led with opening a consulate building in Jerusalem even though the same services are already offered at the US embassy and the Israeli government publicly stated its strong objection to such action. J Street opposes Jews living east of the Green Line even though the history of disengagement has proved terrible as noted by the Israeli Prime Minister above. And it intimated a threat to withhold US military support despite, the grave threats posed at its border from Hezbollah, a threat completely unmentioned.
Fortunately, Biden paid more attention to the desires of actual pro-Israel groups and the interests of the United States, and ignored J Street.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett meets with US President Joe Biden August 27, 2021 (photo: Evan Vucci, AP)
Biden’s opening comments went straight to Bennett’s concerns:
“We’re also going to discuss [the] unwavering, unwavering commitment that we have in the United States to Israel’s security. And I fully, fully, fully support replenishing Israel’s Iron Dome system. And we also are going to discuss the threat from Iran and our commitment to ensure Iran never develops a nuclear weapon. But we’re putting diplomacy first and seeing where that takes us. But if diplomacy fails, we’re ready to turn to other options.”
The actions and words of J Street make clear that it is a pro-Palestinian group which does not and has not supported the government of Israel since the group’s founding. Hopefully the Biden Administration will continue to appreciate that the left-wing extremist group does not represent American and Israeli priorities and preferences.
The United Nations, as an institution, was designed to be an impartial party which would bring peace and order to a chaotic world.
If only.
The opening lines of the UN Charter note the “equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small,” and Article 2 specifically called out the “principle of the sovereign equality of all its Members.” Equality seemed a cornerstone of the principles of the organization.
But the United Nations has continued to prefer a particular non-member OVER AND ABOVE an existing member. Specifically, the Palestinian Authority over the State of Israel.
The head of the United Nations, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, appointed a Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, by all accounts a good idea to keep the volatile region from spinning out of control and to serve as an impartial envoy to bring the PA and Israel together to forge an enduring peace.
But Guterres did not pick someone to act as a neutral party. He appointed Tor Wennesland, who has a history of working and supporting the Palestinians and other Muslim Arabs in the region. He served as:
Norway’s chairman of the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee for Palestine
Norway’s Representative to the Palestinian Authority from 2007 to 2011
Norwegian Ambassador to Egypt and Libya from 2012 to 2015
Even worse and more telling, Guterres also asked Wennesland to act as his Personal Representative to the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority. This person was not selected to bring the warring parties together but to act on behalf of only one party – the PA – a non-member of the United Nations.
The appointment should have been roundly rejected by Israel as an affront to the peace process and by the entire membership body of the United Nations, as the leader of the organization promoted the agenda of a non-member state over those of a member.
The systemic anti-Israel bias in the United Nations is found in every corner, from the dozens of member states that refuse to recognize the Jewish State, to the Secretary General himself, who by now has become deeply stained in that toxic sea of anti-Semitism.
First One Through 