Tag Archives: Israel

Alternatives for Punishing Dead Terrorists

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Some media pundits and politicians have questioned the logic of destroying homes of terrorists after those terrorists have been killed. The question as to whether it deters terrorists is impossible to answer as no one knows how many violent actions did not occur because of the home demolition policy that Israel enforced in 2014 against Arab murderers.

As Palestinian Arabs often talk about the importance of “dignity and pride”, perhaps there are some alternative punishments that Israel could administer to the dead murderers. As there is no dignity in intentionally murdering innocent civilians, these evil monsters’ memories should forever be cursed and their names erased. Perhaps attacking their memory broadly and publicly would dissuade others from taking such action.

Here are a few ideas from FirstOneThrough:

  • Place their image on scented pucks that sit at the bottom of urinals, making for excellent target practice (for men at least)
  • Make a small sticker with their name that could be put on the bottom of people’s shoes to trample (the bottoms of shoes are considered very degrading and insulting in Arab society)
  • Name the street where the murderer lives after the victims
  • The families of the murderers would forever forgo any type of compensation for homes lost/ abandoned in 1948
  • If a Palestinian official calls a murderer a “shahid” which means “martyr” in Arabic, all official Israeli publications should anoint such person the title of “Shatty” as in “we denounce the actions of Shatty Abdelrahman Shaludi”. Other variations like “Sharmoota baby” are acceptable (Sharmotta means whore).
  • Any photos used of the suicide killer should have a superimposed camel’s anus for his mouth
  • A bonfire should be made each year at the Dead Sea, the lowest place on earth, where people can write their curses on pieces of paper with the murderers likeness on it, and then toss the picture and curse into the fire

The expense for these items can be taken from a special surtax on the murderer’s families.  The amount of the charge will exactly equal the amount of money that terrorist sympathizers hand the families as “reward” for the disgraceful sick murder of innocents.

I’m sure the Facebook generation can come up with additional ideas.  Please share them. Here are some suggestions thus far:

  • Print the faces of the murderers on toilet paper
  • Do not return the bodies of the murderers to the families. Instead bury them near garbage dumps or at sea OR do not tell them what was done with the bodies at all
  • Every murder should be met with a huge fund-raiser for the Friends of the IDF
  • Every murder is met with a new construction project
  • All new buildings that are put up in Jerusalem or settlements will be named after victims.  Some suggest naming them after the attacker
  • Deport the murderer’s family to Gaza, Jordan or Syria
  • Revoke all working papers for the family
  • Demolish the homes- the family is complicit in the murder. Some suggest demolishing surrounding homes too
  • Celebrations on behalf of the murderer should be treated as incitement to terror and a jail-able offense for all participants
  • Every act of terror should be met with the distribution of guns to all Jews in the neighborhood where the crime took place
  • All Israeli ammunition should be coated in pigs blood to dissuade Arabs from seeking a path to Paradise
  • Take world funds destined to rebuild Gaza to support the victims’ families

camelarab

Sources:

Home demolition: http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/israel-demolishes-jerusalem-home-of-palestinian-car-killer.aspx?pageID=517&nID=74523&NewsCatID=352

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/11/israeli-forces-destroy-home-palestinian-2014111955011479517.html

Arabic curse words: http://www.youswear.com/index.asp?language=Arabic#.VG1VF_8tCUk

Article 17 of the Palestinian Charter: “The liberation of Palestine, from a human point of view, will restore to the Palestinian individual his dignity, pride, and freedom. Accordingly the Palestinian Arab people look forward to the support of all those who believe in the dignity of man and his freedom in the world.” http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/plocov.asp

Salaries for suicide bombers: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/salaries-for-suicide-bombers/

FirstOneThrough article on Collective Guilt/ Collective Punishment: https://firstonethrough.wordpress.com/2014/10/13/collective-guilt-collective-punishment/

The Palestinians aren’t “Resorting to Violence”; They are Murdering and Waging War

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The 78-year Civil War

While pro-Palestinians and Palestinian PR personnel describe Arabs killing Jews as a “natural” or “spontaneous” reaction to Israeli policies, the facts are clear that the Arabs are actively looking to murder Jews. Any person or media outlet that uses language that the Arabs are “resorting to violence” is simply lying.

“Resorting to violence” is something that someone does begrudgingly and spontaneously. The deliberate and celebrated killing of innocents has a different, specific name: “murder”.

  • Premeditated murder…The various attacks in the fall of 2014 by Palestinian Muslims against Israeli civilians were premeditated.
  • …as called for by Palestinian leadership… The Hamas and PLO charters and repeated incitement by the Palestinian leadership encouraged the murders.
  • …endorsed and celebrated by the Palestinian people: The murderous agenda received overwhelming support from the Palestinian people and the murders were celebrated events.

In short, the Palestinians were not “resorting” to violence; they were fighting a war that they started in earnest in 1936 when they fought to stop Jewish immigration to Palestine and to halt the Jewish state from becoming a reality.

“Resorting to violence”

The media must stop using “resorting” language on its own, and cease quoting Palestinians who use the deceitful language to both cover the intentional murder of Jews, and to reverse the fault for the murder onto the victims themselves.

Not only is the “resorting” phrase disgraceful in putting the blame onto the victim, it ignores the incessant calls from Palestinian leadership for war, the murder of Jews and destruction of Israel.

Palestinian Leadership Calls for the Murder of Jews

Yasser Arafat (fungus be upon him):

Mahmoud Abbas:

  • Described the shooter of Rabbi Yehuda Glick as a “martyr”
  • Abbas’s advisor on the murderer who ran over civilians “saturating the land of the homeland with their pure blood and igniting the flames of rage”
  • On the Temple Mount: “We have to prevent them, in any way whatsoever, from entering the Sanctuary. This is our Sanctuary, our Al-Aqsa and our Church [of the Holy Sepulchre]. They have no right to enter it. They have no right to defile it. We must prevent them. Let us stand before them with chests bared to protect our holy places.“

Sheik Ahmed Yassin (founder of Hamas):

Other Hamas & Fatah leadership:

  • Calls for “Day of Rage”
  • “move to save the Aksa Mosque and defend Jerusalem against the Israeli siege imposed on the city.”
  • Fatah Ahmed Assaf said that “the Jerusalem operation was a natural response to the Israeli violations.”
  • Fatah official Amal Hamad on TV:“It was only natural that the outcome of all that has happened would be the operation that we witnessed yesterday [murders of rabbis in the synagogue]…the natural outcome is the targeting of some settlers”
  • Mushir al-Masri, a Hamas spokesman, wrote in a Facebook post: “We have the full right to revenge for the blood of our martyrs in all possible means.”

PLO Charter:

  • “Palestine, with the boundaries it had during the British Mandate, is an indivisible territorial unit. ” (meaning all Gaza, Israel, West Bank and Jordan)
  • “It is a national duty to bring up individual Palestinians in an Arab revolutionary manner…He must be prepared for the armed struggle and ready to sacrifice his wealth and his life in order to win back his homeland and bring about its liberation”
  • “one national front working for the retrieval of Palestine and its liberation through armed struggle”
  • “Armed struggle is the only way to liberate Palestine. Thus it is the overall strategy, not merely a tactical phase. The Palestinian Arab people assert their absolute determination and firm resolution to continue their armed struggle and to work for an armed popular revolution for the liberation of their country and their return to it”
  • “Commando action constitutes the nucleus of the Palestinian popular liberation war….in the armed Palestinian revolution“
  • “aims at the elimination of Zionism in Palestine…the Arab nation must mobilize all its military, human, moral, and spiritual capabilities to participate actively with the Palestinian people in the liberation of Palestine. It must, particularly in the phase of the armed Palestinian revolution, offer and furnish the Palestinian people with all possible help, and material and human support, and make available to them the means and opportunities that will enable them to continue to carry out their leading role in the armed revolution, until they liberate their homeland.”
  • “The Arab Palestinian people, expressing themselves by the armed Palestinian revolution, reject all solutions which are substitutes for the total liberation of Palestine”
  • “the liberation of Palestine will destroy the Zionist and imperialist presence and will contribute to the establishment of peace in the Middle East”
  • “Fighters and carriers of arms in the war of liberation are the nucleus of the popular army which will be the protective force for the gains of the Palestinian Arab people.”

Hamas Charter:

  • “They [Jews] are smitten with vileness wheresoever they are found; unless they obtain security by entering into a treaty with Allah…
  • Our struggle against the Jews is very great and very serious….
  • until the enemy is vanquished and Allah’s victory is realized…
  • raise the banner of Jihad in the face of the oppressors, so that they would rid the land and the people of their uncleanliness, vileness and evils…
  • raise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine…
  • The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews)… O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him…
  • Jihad is its path and death for the sake of Allah is the loftiest of its wishes…
  • the land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf…
  • Nothing in nationalism is more significant or deeper than in the case when an enemy should tread Moslem land. Resisting and quelling the enemy become the individual duty of every Moslem…
  • so-called peaceful solutions and international conferences, are in contradiction to the principles of the Islamic Resistance Movement…
  • There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors…
  • The day that enemies usurp part of Moslem land, Jihad becomes the individual duty of every Moslem. In face of the Jews’ usurpation of Palestine, it is compulsory that the banner of Jihad be raised…
  • the Palestinian problem is a religious problem, and should be dealt with on this basis…
  • Moslem woman has a role no less important than that of the moslem man in the battle of liberation…
  • The Islamic nature of Palestine is part of our religion and whoever takes his religion lightly is a loser….
  • Arab countries surrounding Israel are asked to open their borders before the fighters from among the Arab and Islamic nations so that they could consolidate their efforts with those of their Moslem brethren in Palestine…
  • Israel, Judaism and Jews challenge Islam and the Moslem people…
  • Under the wing of Islam, it is possible for the followers of the three religions – Islam, Christianity and Judaism – to coexist in peace and quiet with each other…
  • It is the duty of the followers of other religions to stop disputing the sovereignty of Islam in this region…
  • Hail to Jihad…
  • as the Moslems faced those raids and planned fighting and defeating them, they should be able to confront the Zionist invasion and defeat it”

Various comments from Palestinian leadership calling for the murder of Jews: http://www.palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=427

How has the incitement been received by the Palestinian masses? Quite well.

Majority of Palestinians Advocating and Celebrating Violence

  • Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research on October 10, 2014:“the public still favors Hamas’ “way” over negotiations, and Hamas and Haniyeh are still more popular than Fatah and Mahmud Abbas”
  • September 25, 2014 poll: “[if] presidential elections if held today: Ismail Haniyeh [of Hamas] would win a majority of 55% and Abbas 38%”
  • Palestinians have demonstrated their majority support for the rabidly anti-Semitic Hamas party (elected to 58% of parliament in 2006).
  • Over 25% of Palestinian Arabs believe the goal of the Palestinian Authority is a complete destruction of Israel (every Palestinian poll in 2014).
  • Palestinians hand out sweets to celebrate the murder of four rabbis praying in synagogue.
  • Palestinian leadership calls murderers of Jews “martyrs” and names squares and tournaments after them.

The Palestinian people have willingly embraced a culture of war and terrorism and there is nothing begrudging in their violent actions or attitudes.  A global community that supports such actions and blames the victims is complicit in the terrorism itself.

jlem attack

Sources:

Ashrawi November 18, 2014: http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/18/world/meast/jerusalem-violence/

Palestinians celebrating murder of four rabbis praying: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/187615#.VGvObd4L8mg.facebook

New York Times Hamas “resorting” editorial: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/20/opinion/hamass-illegitimacy.html?_r=0

UN Ban Ki-Moon on “resorting”: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/23/john-kerry-flies-israel-flight-ban-gaza-ceasefire-talks

Palestinian poll September 2014: http://www.pcpsr.org/

PLO Charter: http://www.iris.org.il/plochart.htm

Hamas Charter: http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/hamas.asp

Arafat quotes: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/y/yasser_arafat.html

Abbas on shooter of Yehuda Glick: http://www.palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=12946

Day of Rage (November): http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Palestinians-again-call-for-Day-of-Rage-against-Israel-on-Friday-381091

Day of Rage (July): http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/israel-hamas-agree-12-hour-cease-fire-article-1.1879824

Amal Hamad “natural”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bn5a0o4Qbk

Other comments on murder of rabbis praying: http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/joseph-klein/palestinian-bloodlust-unleashed/

Related FirstOneThrough articles:

Mainstream and Abbas’ Jihad

Abbas’ Racism

The New Blood Libel

UN Comments on the Murder of Innocents: Itamar and Duma

Operation Moses 30 Year Anniversary

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The Jews of Ethiopia, known as Beta Israel, were cut off from the broader Jewish community for over 1000 years.

When Menahem Begin became the Israeli Prime Minister in 1977, the noted champion of the under-privileged and under-represented “minorities” in Israel from Arab countries (they are actually a majority of Jews in Israel), made a point of trying to get the Jewish population out of Ethiopia.

The situation facing Ethiopian Jews began to decline rapidly in the early 1980s, so the Israeli government took aggressive action to get them out of the country. From November 18, 1984 until January 5, 1985, 7,000 Jews were rescued in Operation Moses.

Beta Israel2

The success of the rescue led to an even more audacious plan – Operation Solomon – on May 24, 1991. Over 14,000 Jews were rescued in just 36 hours and resettled in Israel.

These missions were the first times in mankind’s history, in which non-blacks came to Africa to save blacks from oppression by bringing them out of Africa as free people, as opposed to shipping them to a foreign land as slaves, as was the case for hundreds of years by Europeans and Americans.

Enjoy the amazing music video on the incredible rescue of Beta Israel (music by Phillip Phillips).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5bllU44Yh0

 

Sources:

Beta Israel: http://www.blackpast.org/gah/beta-israel

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/ejhist.html

Daniel Gordis biography of Menahem Begin: http://danielgordis.org/books/biography-of-menachem-begin/

Beta Israel1

Joint Prayer: The Cave of the Patriarchs and the Temple Mount

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This weekend, thousands of Jews from around Israel and other parts of the world came to the Cave of the Patriarchs in the city of Hebron. The annual tradition of visiting the city on this weekend goes back many years, as it coincides with the reading in the Torah of Abraham buying land to bury his wife Sarah, the “first mother” of the Jewish people.

The Cave of the Patriarchs is considered the burial place of almost all of the “founding fathers and mothers” of Judaism 3700 years ago: Abraham; Isaac; Jacob; Sarah; Rebecca and Leah. As such, it is considered the second most holy site in Judaism (on par with Medina for Muslims).

Roughly 2,000 years ago, a monumental structure was built on top of the cave, attributed to the Jewish King Herod. Over the following centuries, many people conquered the city of Hebron. About 800 years ago, the Muslim Mamlukes took over the city and declared the Tomb of the Patriarchs to be a mosque and forbade Jews from coming beyond the seventh step of the structure.

caveofpatriarchs
The Cave of Jewish Patriarchs in Hebron

When the Ottomans ruled Hebron from 1517 to 1917, there was relative peace between the Arabs and Jews in the city (even though the Jews were forbidden from entering their holy site). However, in 1929, Arabs rioted against their Jewish neighbors after incitement from the Grand Mufti in Jerusalem. During those few days in August, 67 Jews were killed, hundreds were injured, and the British (who then controlled the mandate of Palestine) forced all of the Jews to leave their city.

In 1967, in response to the Jordanian (and Palestinian) attack on Israel, Israel captured Judea and Samaria, including the city of Hebron. When Israel took control of their holy site, it opened the shrine for prayer for both Jews and Muslims. Today, there are discreet times set aside for each religion to use the site for prayer.

In 2014, the discussion about opening the Temple Mount in Jerusalem – Judaism’s holiest site – to non-Muslim prayer has again been raised due to the shooting of Jewish activist Yehuda Glick who fought for that basic right. The acting-President of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas was outraged at the suggestion and described such approach as amounting to a “religious war“, as the al-Aqsa Mosque, which sits on the Temple Mount, is Islam’s third holiest site. While Glick and many other activists never suggested praying at or near the mosque, but on other parts of the 35 acre platform, the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nevertheless agreed to keep the status quo ban on Jewish prayer on the mount.

On the tenth anniversary of Yaser Arafat’s (fungus be upon him) death, Abbas stated: “The leaders of Israel are making a grave mistake by thinking that history can move backward and that they could impose facts on the ground by dividing the Aksa Mosque in time and space, as they did with the Ibrahimi Mosque [Cave of the Patriarchs] in Hebron.”

In Hebron, Israeli action at the Cave of the Patriarchs opened the way for both Muslims and Jews to share holy sites in the holy land. The Temple Mount could similarly become a place of tolerance and prayer.

 

Sources:

Pilgrimage to Hebron: http://unitedwithisrael.org/thousands-flocked-to-hebron/

Cave of Patriarchs: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/machpelah.html

1929 Hebron massacre: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/hebron29.html

Jordanian and Palestinian 1967 attack on Israel (from King of Jordan’s site): http://www.kinghussein.gov.jo/his_periods3.html

Abbas claim of religious war: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/11/abbas-israel-jerusalem-holy-site

Palestinian Authority TV on call to “purify” Jerusalem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1gIetnpxH0

Abbas against any change in allowing Jews on Temple Mount: http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Jailed-Barghouti-to-Palestinians-Continue-armed-resistance-against-Israel-381454

FirstOneThrough article on tolerance at the Temple: https://firstonethrough.wordpress.com/2014/11/04/tolerance-at-the-temple/

“Won’t you be my Neighbor?”

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The fall of 2014 saw an explosion of personal clashes between Arabs and Jews in Israel, Judea and Samaria. Jews were killed at train stations, at bus stops, on the streets and malls. Arabs were shot by security personnel at the scene of the attacks.

Attacks in the land date back to 1920. The first large scale riot of Arabs against Jews in multiple cities took place in 1929 and the first multi-year “intifada” went from 1936 to 1939. All of these took place before Israel was created or controlled any land.

The common theme of all attacks until the present day has been the Arab anger at Jews for living in Israel.

  • “Living” meant Jews moving to Israel, buying homes and living in the land.
  • “Living” meant Jews praying at the Western Wall or the Temple Mount.
  • “Living” meant Jews walking the streets, taking the bus or train in Israel.
  • “Living” meant being a Jewish baby in Israel.

When Israel was created in 1948, it offered all non-Jews citizenship and 112,000 became citizens. However, Abbas has called for a new Palestinian state to be free of any Jews. Abbas has repeatedly stated he will never recognize Israel as a Jewish State. Palestinian leadership constantly refers to Jews as foreign invaders who have no history in the land or right to live there.

Until Arab leadership finally recognizes the rights of Jews to live in the region, will there ever be a chance for peace?

Palestinian Xenophobia music video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQS1XVQR-Xc

untitled

Sources:

2014 attacks on Israeli Jews: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-29993066

http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Watch-Palestinian-terrorist-runs-over-Israeli-pedestrian-in-Jerusalem-light-rail-station-380857

Acting Palestinian President Abbas call to “defend al aqsa”: http://www.palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=12915

2014 Palestinian song to run over Jews: http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/11/09/run-overthe-baby-the-song-that-rallies-palestinians-to-kill-israeli-infants/

Fatah call to kill sellers of land to Jews: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfVsLzfuVu0

1920, 1921, 1929 attacks: http://www.ifcj.org/site/PageNavigator/sfi_about_war_settlement

1936-9 Arab riots: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/riots36.html

Israel demographics: http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&ved=0CDAQFjAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cbs.gov.il%2Fstatistical%2Fstatistical60_eng.pdf&ei=xe9hVJ77EumIsQS43oK4Bw&usg=AFQjCNHXYq05pquPovaVEnqaO7FQGRum9A&sig2=PYh_eXTl1bEpwiPP03Lw1A

Hamas Charter calling for death of Jews and destruction of Israel: http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/hamas.asp

Abbas call for Jew free Palestine: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/30/us-palestinians-israel-abbas-idUSBRE96T00920130730

Abbas never recognize “Jewish State”: http://www.palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=709&fld_id=709&doc_id=1143

Palestinian denial of Jewish history in Israel: http://www.palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=490

Extreme and Mainstream. Germany 1933; West Bank & Gaza Today

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Many books and studies have been written analyzing Nazi Germany during the 1930s and 1940s, including the famous “Hitler’s Willing Executioners” by Daniel Goldhagen. The premise of the book revolved around the question of how Hitler – a single madman – could possibly kill millions of people. The book advanced a theory that, putting it simplistically, a single extreme individual or idea could stop being viewed as extreme if many others harbored similar thoughts. Millions of people could be actively annihilated if an entire society believed in the extreme notion that Jews, gays, gypsies and other “undesirables” should be killed. Such a society was capable – and did – murder millions. It was not a lone extremist with a gun, but a country with an army.

The dynamics of the Palestinians in 2014 runs parallel to the Germans in the 1930s in many respects.

mufi Jlem Nazi
Mufti of Jerusalem visiting Nazi troops

Position

Popularity

  • Majority support: The Nazi party won 44% of the votes in 1933. Hamas won 58% of the seats in Parliament in 2006 with their radical platform.
  • Last election. The Nazis suspended elections after the 1933 vote. The Palestinians have held neither presidential elections nor parliamentary elections since their 2006 election.
  • Popularity of Nazis: There are no polls to show how the Nazis would have fared if additional elections were held. Perhaps the Nazis feared that they could have lost an election and therefore did not allow one.
    Popularity of Hamas: There are dozens of polls that show Hamas would win the presidential elections and the parliament with over 50% of the vote, no matter what year the poll was taken. The current acting PA President Mahmoud Abbas (of the Fatah party) and the world knows this, so has suspended any new elections which would clearly show the desires of the Palestinian Arabs for war.

Pal nazi
Palestinians in Nazi Salute

As seen above, the Hamas positions are more extreme than the Nazis at the time of the respective elections. The Palestinians voted much more overwhelmingly for Hamas than the Germans did for the Nazis. Palestinian anti-Semitism in 2014 is more extreme and mainstream than the Germans in the 1930s.

As further evidence, in May 2014, the Anti Defamation League conducted a global poll of anti-Semitism. By a substantial margin, the Palestinians held the most anti-Semitic views in the world, with almost every single Palestinian Arab (93%) in the West Bank and Gaza holding anti-Semitic views. In comparison, 26% of countries outside of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region held anti-Semitic views.

Germany rose to power in the 1930s and the world did not hold the Nazi aspirations in check. As such, Nazi Germany went on to execute its plans killing millions of civilians until the world reacted.  Perhaps the world only stepped in, because Germany crossed into their backyards.

Fatah nazi
Fatah leader in Nazi Salute

Today, the Palestinians do not have significant fire power and have therefore only been able to kill hundreds, not millions of Jews.

  • Will the world encourage and embrace such a nation and leadership on the world stage?
  • Will the world enable Iran or other allies of the Palestinians to obtain nuclear weapons?
  • Does the world believe that “Never Again” only means in Europe?

Related First.One.Through articles:

Abbas’ Jihad is a move to the mainstream Palestinian opinion: https://firstonethrough.wordpress.com/2014/11/12/mainstream-and-abbas-jihad/

Why the media ignores Jihad in Israel: https://firstonethrough.wordpress.com/2015/01/26/radical-jihadists-in-europe-and-dislocated-and-alienated-palestinians-in-Israel/

Abbas’ racism: https://firstonethrough.wordpress.com/2014/10/27/abbas-knows-racism/

Antisemitism, Holocaust denial and terrorism in Palestinian society and leadership: https://firstonethrough.wordpress.com/2015/01/29/what-do-you-recognize-in-the-palestinians/

 Pal nazi2

Sources:

Nazi 1933 election: http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/march_1933_election.htm

Nazi platform: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/naziprog.html

Hamas terrorist label: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamas

Hamas charter: http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/hamas.asp

Palestinian courts handing death sentence for land sale to Jews: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2009/04/2009429105147715724.html

Birzeit University banning Jews: http://www.timesofisrael.com/haaretz-writer-booted-from-palestinian-school-because-shes-israeli/

Abbas no Israelis in Palestine: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/30/us-palestinians-israel-abbas-idUSBRE96T00920130730

Palestinian poll: http://www.pcpsr.org/

Anti-Semitism poll 2014: http://www.algemeiner.com/2014/05/13/adl-global-survey-finds-anti-semitic-attitudes-are-persistent-pervasive-around-the-world-west-bank-gaza-highest-scores/

Real and Imagined Laws of Living in Silwan

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The New York Times deliberately misrepresented opinion as law to disparage Israel, and omitted actual Palestinian laws to hide Arab racism. As such, the paper fully embraced anti-Semitism and the principle of segregation if it prohibits Jews from living in predominantly Arab neighborhoods.

In an article on October 16, 2014 called “A House-by-House Struggle for Control of a Jerusalem Neighborhood”, the NYT’s Isabel Kershner had an opening paragraph that could have been taken from Mein Kampf in describing secretive, cheating and stealing Jews:

“In the dark of night, under the protection of Israeli security forces, Jewish settlers took possession of some 25 housing units in six locations around the Silwan neighborhood of East Jerusalem… Many of the properties had been rented out, but they were strangely empty when the settlers arrived… Through a multimillion-dollar series of complex and shadowy transactions spanning several years,
Elad engineered the largest private settlement initiative in decades.”

[By way of comparison, here is a quote from Hitler’s Mein Kampf: “they (Jews) try to cheat the whole world with their tricks; they are lazy, but with their pretended ‘silent’ work they create the appearance of an enormous and equally laborious activity; in short, they are cheats, characters of political profiteering, who hate the honest work of others. Just as such a folkish moth always appeals to the darkness of the silence, one can bet a thousand to one that under its cover he does not produce, but only steals steals from the fruits of the labor of others”] 

The article goes on to describe and suggest that it is illegal for Jews to buy homes in the eastern part of Jerusalem. That suggestion is both untrue and racist. Here are the facts:

  • Silwan was established by Yemenite Jews in 1881. It was one of the first developments outside the city walls of Jerusalem, while the area was part of the Ottoman Empire.
  • Jews have been an established majority in Jerusalem since the 1860s.
  • The Ottomans did not impose any limits on where Jews could live.
  • When Britain took over Palestine as part of the League of Nations Palestine Mandate in 1922, the mandate specifically stated (Article 15) that no one should be barred from living in the area because of their religion.
  • The Palestinians rioted in 1936-9, killing hundreds of Jews, and effectively lobbied the British to limit Jewish immigration to Palestine. But even under those new anti-Jewish rules, there was no prohibition of Jews living in the eastern part of Jerusalem.
  • Jerusalem and Bethlehem were designated to be an international “Holy Basin” according to the 1947 United Nations Partition Plan, and was to be neither part of Israel or Palestine. Both Arab and Jew were free to live anywhere in the Basin.
  • Silwan, and much of the eastern half of Jerusalem was forcibly cleansed of Jews when the Palestinians and Jordanians initiated a war against the Jewish State in 1948, and the Jordanians illegally annexed the eastern half of the city. The Jordanians and Palestinians barred any Jews from even visiting the eastern half of the city.
  • The Jordanians granted Palestinian Arabs citizenship and denied giving any citizenship to Jews in the lands they forcibly conquered (including eastern Jerusalem), making it illegal for Jews to own land there.
  • The Jordanians and Palestinians launched another attack on Israel in 1967, only to lose the eastern half of Jerusalem in that war.

These facts were completely ignored. The only information discussed about the settling of Silwan described: “territory that Israel conquered from Jordan in the 1967 war and then annexed, in a move that was never internationally recognized. Most of the world considers the area illegally occupied by Israel”

The suggestion that Israel’s annexation (as a result of a defensive war) is considered illegal by “most of the world” and therefore means that Jews are forbidden to live there is completely misleading and untrue.

  • The Israeli territory of Judea and Samaria (West Bank) is administered by Israel. Israel approves housing for both Arabs and Jews there, and in the eastern part of Jerusalem which they annexed.
  • International law against the forcible transfer of a population has nothing to do with individual rights of buying and living in a property of their own choosing.

The NYT article successfully: 1) described Jews the way Hitler did; 2) gave no background of the long and legal history of the Jews living in the eastern part of Jerusalem; 3) implied illegal activity of Jews buying and moving into their homes when such action is legal.

What the Times article deliberately failed to describe was the actual illegal activity – according to the Palestinian Authority – for any Arab to sell land to a Jew.

Palestinian law bans the selling of land to a Jew, punishable by death. Not only was that law not mentioned in this or any NYT article, Kershner deliberately hid this racist Palestinian law in the article with a false narrative: “At a stormy meeting of about 100 [Palestinian] residents and activists in a children’s playground soon afterward, participants denounced the [real estate] brokers and called for them to be publicly named and cast out of their clans. The Palestinian Authority has no jurisdiction in Jerusalem, but there is a history of vigilante justice: In the 1990s, some local land dealers accused of selling property to Jews were kidnapped and killed.”

First, note how the article called Jews “settlers” and Arabs are called “residents”. Both parties are residents and neighbors in the same block. Is the New York Times so against coexistence that each party needs a distinct label?

Second, the article correctly points out that the Palestinian Authority has no jurisdiction in the area, but it describes the actions of “residents and activists” of “vigilante justice” making the actions appear random, unauthorized and opposed by the “moderate” Palestinian Authority. The fact is that property sales are considered a capital offense and Palestinian courts have handed out death sentences for the sale of land to Jews.

The New York Times’ illusion of Jews taking property by force in the dark of the night is outrageous. The secretive nature of the purchase was to protect the Arabs that sold the property from being killed by fellow Arabs according to Palestinian law.

The purchase of apartments by individual Jews in their holiest and capital city in a neighborhood founded by Jews is completely legal. The fact that they had to act discretely in their purchases because of racist Palestinian laws is a travesty that should anger the world – about Palestinians, not the Israelis.

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Sources:

NY Times article: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/16/world/middleeast/a-house-by-house-struggle-for-control-of-a-jerusalem-neighborhood.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=0

Yeminite Jews in Silwan: http://www.meforum.org/3281/silwan

1922 League of Nations Mandate: http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/palmanda.asp

1939 White Paper: http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/brwh1939.asp

Jordan’s nationality law (article 3) excluding Jews: http://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6b4ea13.html

FirstOneThrough on the 800,000 Arabs moving to Palestine during the British Mandate: https://firstonethrough.wordpress.com/2014/07/03/whos-new-everybody/

Abbas on Jew-free Palestine: http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/07/30/abbas-arabs-in-israel-no-jews-in-palestine-peace-process/

Short history of Palestinians+Jordanians controlling Jerusalem: https://firstonethrough.wordpress.com/2014/07/07/east-jerusalem-the-0-5-molehill/

PA Land Law: http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/PA-affirms-death-penalty-for-land-sales-to-Israelis

Jordan attacking Israel 1967 according to King Hussein: http://www.kinghussein.gov.jo/his_periods3.html

Palestinian courts handing death sentence for land sale to Jews: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2009/04/2009429105147715724.html

Mein Kampf: https://archive.org/stream/meinkampf035176mbp/meinkampf035176mbp_djvu.txt

The anthem of Israel is Jerusalem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wulmUGVG3jA

Obama endorsing Jew-free state: https://firstonethrough.wordpress.com/2014/10/02/obama-supports-anti-semitic-palestinian-agenda-of-jew-free-state/

 

European Narrative over Facts

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Sweden and the United Kingdom took steps to recognize a Palestinian State in October 2014. The assumed reason stated by pundits was to pressure Israel to move forward with peace talks. The only issue is that facts and reason do not support pressuring Israel.

Palestinians were last polled at the end of September 2014 and Israelis in June.  Regarding a two state solution:

  • 53% of Palestinians support a two-state solution, 46% oppose it
  • 60% of Israelis support a two-state solution with only 32% opposed

That means that the Palestinians are much more against a two state solution than the Israelis (who favor it by almost a 2-to-1 margin).

What about using negotiations versus force?

  • For the Palestinians, 63% believe Hamas’ armed approach should be used in West Bank
  • 55% of Palestinians would vote for the anti-Semitic Hamas party which wants to destroy Israel, if presidential elections were held now
  • (The use force is not about attacking the Israeli army but all Israelis: the same percentage – 54% – were in favor of the kidnapping and murder of the three Israeli teenagers who were hitchhiking home from school)
  • Among Israelis, 60% would return to the negotiating table today

So the Palestinians clearly prefer the use of force while the Israelis prefer negotiations.

So who actually needs pressure to advance in peace talks, Israelis or Palestinians?

Sources:

Palestinian poll: http://www.pcpsr.org/en/node/496

Israeli poll: http://en.idi.org.il/tools-and-data/guttman-center-for-surveys/the-peace-index/

Israeli poll: http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/israel-peace-conference/1.601996

FirstOneThrough on UK’s blind spot: https://firstonethrough.wordpress.com/2014/08/29/no-disappearing-in-the-land-of-blind/

 

Collective Guilt / Collective Punishment

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The town of Sayreville, New Jersey is in mourning.

The superintendent of the town shut the high school’s football program for the rest of the year due to reports of sexual assaults made by upper classmen of the football team against the junior classmen. According to initial reports, the incidents have been commonplace for many years.

The town outcry has not been limited to the assaults on the teenagers. People in the town have been vocal and angry about the cancellation of the year’s games and the number of people they feel are unfairly impacted. One resident said: “I don’t think the whole team should be punished. I feel like only two or more students are involved, and they are the ones that should be kicked off.”

The investigation into the hazing is in early stages, but it is fair to conclude that many people that did not participate in the crime will be impacted by the cancellation of the team’s football season. Impacted parties will range from team players, coaches and cheerleaders to business people that rely on the games to generate traffic into their stores.

Debates over collective guilt and collective punishment are not new. In many instances, the guilty parties do not squarely overlap with those impacted by the punishment. Oftentimes –as made clear by the Sayreville superintendent- the punishment serves to protect the assaulted parties in an absolute fashion while penalizing the broader collective in a relatively minor fashion.

Should the investigation yield certain results, people would certainly reconsider the broader community culpability in the crime. Imagine if the following facts were uncovered:

  • The form of hazing was written as part of the team manual
  • The team acquired lots of equipment that was specifically used for hazing rituals
  • The team had a statue of one of the seniors who successfully led the most hazings
  • The name of the stadium where the team played was of an acknowledged child molester
  • The coach was seen in various YouTube videos extolling the virtues of hazing to get the desired results from his players
  • The town democratically elected the coach knowing of his support for hazing

This sounds too crazy to remotely resemble reality. If it were true, people would conclude that the entire team, coaching staff, school and town were all equally culpable for the terrible deeds done to the teenagers. The state and country would demand more than just cancelling the season, but a dismantling of the entire institution. The town would be blacklisted by every organization in the country and effectively shut down, as the collective guilt would be seen as wide and deep.

The insane list above does not relate to Sayreville, NJ; but they are the actions taken by Palestinians and their elected leadership.

  • The Hamas Charter calls on all Arabs to kill Jews everywhere
  • The Palestinian Authority routinely praises murderers of innocent Jewish civilians and names squares and tournaments after the killers
  • Hamas used the cement it requested as “aid”, not for building schools or homes, but for digging tunnels into Israel to attack, abduct and kill Israeli civilians and soldiers
  • The tunnel network from Gaza started in homes of many Palestinians
  • Hamas launched thousands of rockets targeting Israeli cities
  • The head of Hamas called for deliberate bombings of Israeli cities to the cries of support from thousands of Palestinians
  • Hamas was democratically elected by Palestinians in January 2006, winning 58% of the parliament
  • Polls in August 2014 have Hamas winning 61% of the vote

What was the “punishment” that Israel enforced against the rabid anti-Semites that sought to kill its citizens and wipe out the country? Israel enforced a blockade of Gaza in 2007 after Hamas took control of the area. Yet it continued to allow electricity, food and supplies into Gaza despite the repeated Hamas statements that it sought to destroy Israel. The goal of the blockade was not a punishment, but a means to stop the flow of arms into Gaza which would be used to attack Israel.

What was the world reaction to a relatively light blockade of Gaza compared to the deliberate killing of Jews and destruction of Israel? A rebuke at the nature of the collective punishment on all of the people in Gaza.

Consider the Sayreville, NJ case again. Imagine the football team, school and community participated in all of those theoretical actions. How broad and severe would the punishment be? Each of those actions are not theoretical, but the reality of Palestinians in their approach towards Jews and Israel.

Sometimes collective action against the heinous acts of the majority is not enough. The world should not only support the blockade of Gaza; it should enforce the dismantling of Hamas in its entirety.

Sources:

Sayreville football scandal: http://usatodayhss.com/2014/seven-sayreville-n-j-football-players-facing-charges-in-hazing-scandal

Sayreville town people comment: http://www.mycentraljersey.com/story/news/local/middlesex-county/2014/10/07/sayreville-rocked-football-bullying-allegations/16879455/

The Palestinian democracy for Hamas: https://firstonethrough.wordpress.com/2014/09/04/its-the-democracy-stupid/

Hamas election 2006: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/26/AR2006012600372.html

Hamas August 2014 poll: http://www.jpost.com/Breaking-News/Hamas-Haniyeh-would-trounce-Abbas-if-elections-held-today-Palestinian-poll-says-374296

Hamas Charter: “In order to face the usurpation of Palestine by the Jews, we have no escape from raising the banner of Jihad.” http://www.thejerusalemfund.org/www.thejerusalemfund.org/carryover/documents/charter.html?chocaid=397

Fatah dedicating square to Dalal Mughrabi, murderer of 37 people on a bus: http://www.palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=1802

Washington Post article on Hamas building terror tunnels: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/07/21/how-hamas-uses-its-tunnels-to-kill-and-capture-israeli-soldiers/

Palestinian leadership on Jews and Israel: http://www.adl.org/anti-semitism/muslim-arab-world/c/hamas-in-their-own-words.html

Palestinians rejoicing in the bombing of Israeli cities: http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/4455.htm

The outrageous inversion of reality by Rashid Khalidi in the New Yorker: http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/collective-punishment-gaza

Yasser Arafat quote: “We will not bend or fail until the blood of every last Jew from the youngest child to the oldest elder is spilt to redeem our land!”  http://www.siotw.org/modules/myalbum/photo.php?lid=406#.VDxtJ_8tCUk

Israel’s Freedom of the Press; New York Times “Nonsense”

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On May 1, 2014, Freedom House, a leading advocacy group on democracy and political freedom, released its annual report on freedom of the press around the world. “Global press freedom has fallen to its lowest level in over a decade” according to their report, led by declines in: Egypt; Libya; Jordan; Syria and Turkey. A notable exception was Israel, which became the only country in the entire MENA (Middle East and North Africa) to be ranked as having a free press.

Select 2013 country rankings (bold are MENA countries):

  • Israel (62)
  • Italy (64)
  • Chile (64)
  • South Korea (68)
  • South Africa (69)
  • India (78)
  • Philippines (87)
  • Brazil (90)
  • Argentina (106)
  • Lebanon (112)
  • Tunisia (112)
  • Kuwait (127)
  • Turkey (134)
  • Libya (134)
  • Morocco (147)
  • Qatar (152)
  • Jordan (155)
  • Egypt (155)
  • Iraq (157)
  • Oman (161)
  • Yemen (167)
  • UAE (167)
  • Ethiopia (176)
  • West Bank, Gaza (179)
  • Somalia (179)
  • Saudi Arabia (181)
  • Syria (189)
  • Iran (190)

The New York Times declined to cover the story in May. However, on September 26, 2014 it ran an op-ed called “How Israel Silences Dissent”. The editorial said that the Israeli government punishes journalists that show sympathy for the Palestinians. There was no mention of the Freedom House ranking at that time either.

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There was also no discussion of the Palestinians’ intimidation of the press.  While the NYT was printing its anti-Israel editorial, the Foreign Press Association was reporting on the intense discrimination they endured in covering Operation Protective Edge: “The FPA protests in the strongest terms the blatant, incessant, forceful and unorthodox methods employed by the Hamas authorities and their representatives against visiting international journalists in Gaza.” Even the extreme Israeli left-wing paper Haaretz reported that “some reporters received death threats. Sometimes, cameras were smashed. Reporters were prevented from filming anti-Hamas demonstrations where more than 20 Palestinians were shot dead by Hamas gunmen.”

gaza journalist

Hamas discussing changing journalist coverage, summer 2014

The New York Times did not report on any of this.  The only time the NYT opted to quote the FPA during the 2014 Palestinian war against Israel was early in the conflict on July 23 when the FPA complained about Israeli intimidation.

While ignoring the Hamas harassment, the Times was not completely silent.  Jodi Rudoren, the New York Times Middle East Bureau chief decided to make her position clear – on Twitter.  Roduren proclaimed: “Every reporter I’ve met who was in Gaza during war says this Israeli/now FPA narrative of Hamas harassment is nonsense.”

Is the FPA only worth quoting when they complain about Israel?  Is an opinion piece about possible Israeli intimidation the only op-ed that is worth printing while remaining silent about Hamas death threats?  Is the uniqueness of Israel’s record of freedom of the press too hard for the New York Times to believe and therefore to report?

“Nonsense” seems to be the New York Times sense of balanced and accurate coverage.

 

 

Sources:

Freedom House May 2014 press release: http://freedomhouse.org/article/freedom-press-2014-media-freedom-hits-decade-low#.VDnLh_8tCUl

Freedom House 2013 country ranking: http://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-press-2014/press-freedom-rankings#.VDnNCv8tCUl

Foreign Press on Hamas intimidation: http://www.timesofisrael.com/hamas-admits-intimidating-foreign-press-who-reported-wrong-message/

New York Times on FPA discussing Israeli intimidation July 23: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/24/world/middleeast/foreign-correspondents-in-israel-are-targets-of-intimidation.html?_r=0

Rudoren nonsense: http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=2&x_outlet=35&x_article=2814

FirstOneThrough music video for journalists in the Middle East: https://firstonethrough.wordpress.com/2014/09/04/journalists-in-the-middle-east/

FirstOneThrough on Rudoren reporting nothing of Palestinian violence and Jewish history: https://firstonethrough.wordpress.com/2014/09/21/reading-roduren-unrest-by-Palestinians/