‘The Day After’ Is Moving From a Military Solution To A Religious One, Not a Political One

Posted on March 14, 2024 by First.One.Through

Tor Wennesland is the Norwegian-born United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process. His obvious inability to coordinate peace among the warring parties or even to separate them has certainly frustrated him since he took the position in 2021.

Wennesland has seemingly resorted to converting simultaneously to both Judaism and Islam, declaring himself both a rabbi and imam, and issued religious rulings and fatwas against both the Palestinian Muslims and Israeli Jews.

On March 12, 2024, Wennesland produced a curious declaration that flies in the face of facts, reality and dignity.

His opening salvo was against Jews around the world saying “I call for the status quo at the holy sites in Jerusalem to be upheld and respected.” That ‘status quo’ is the current ban on Jews praying at their holiest site of the Temple Mount, a complete trampling on the basic rights of Jews around the world. His language of “I call” was an interesting phrase, seemingly not offering his personal preference but taking the role of a rabbi to inform Jews that praying on the Temple Mount is forbidden.

He then turned to the Palestinian Islamists and said “Any attempt by extremists to turn the conflict into a religious one must be staunchly rejected.”

But that is the very core of the conflict and current Hamas war. Hamas’ foundational charter is a religious war against the Jews and the Jewish State with phrases such as:

“Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it.” (Opening)
“Our struggle against the Jews is very great and very serious.” (Preamble)
“Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews)… there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him” (Article 7)
“Nothing in nationalism is more significant or deeper than in the case when an enemy should tread Moslem land” (Article 12)
“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.” (Article 15)
“Israel, Judaism and Jews challenge Islam and the Moslem people.” (Article 28)
“fight with the warmongering Jews.” (Article 32)
“everywhere in the Islamic world will come forward in response to the call of duty while loudly proclaiming: Hail to Jihad.” (Article 33)
“Moslems were able to retrieve the land only when they stood under the wing of their religious banner… This is the only way to liberate Palestine… confront the Zionist invasion and defeat it… rid themselves of the effects of ideological invasion.” (Article 34)

Wennesland is obviously familiar with Hamas, its charter and philosophy. He knows that Palestinian Arabs support the group and the savage attack on Israelis on October 7. He therefore opted to don an Islamic tunic, promote himself and declare a fatwa that “The sanctity of Ramadan cannot and should not be used for political gains and calculations.” A curious declaration from a Christian to tell Muslims what to do with their holy month of Ramadan.

Beyond my obvious mocking and teasing of the absurdity of Wennesland’s dual conversions to both Judaism and Islam, perhaps there is a kernel of an idea in what he said.

For all these years, the global community specifically tried to frame the conflict as one solely about land and pretended that religion played no part. The foundation for that approach was that religion operates in absolutes and offers no compromises, and therefore no solutions to two people fighting over the same holy sites.

Unless, as Wennesland attempted to do, a single person – or perhaps a committee – represents both Muslims and Jews. A new council which would meet and find a way to respect the other’s faiths and traditions and map a pathway towards coexistence.

People have argued that there is no military solution to the middle east but history has shown that there is no political solution either. Now may be the time to find a religious path to peace in the holy land.

The United States Is “Morally, Historically, and Politically Wrong” About Jewish Prayer on Temple Mount (October 2023)

Dividing The Temple Mount Into Jewish And Muslim Sections (June 2023)

On Defenses: Provocative and Legal / Unprovocative and Illegal (January 2023)

Judaism’s Particularism Protects Al Aqsa (August 2022)

Time for Jordan To Live Up To Its Peace Treaty With Israel And Support Jewish Prayer On The Temple Mount (April 2022)

Pros And Cons Of Muslims Considering Jewish Holy Sites As Sacred Also (April 2022)

Humble Faith (October 2021)

Heritage, Property and Sovereignty in the Holy Land (February 2017)

It is Time to Insert “Jewish” into the Names of the Holy Sites (October 2016)

The UN’s Disinterest in Jewish Rights at Jewish Holy Places (September 2015)

The United Nations and Holy Sites in the Holy Land (November 2014)

The Farce Of Unities: Palestinian Government And Palestinian Territory As A Pathway Towards Peace With Israel

Posted on March 7, 2024 by First.One.Through

On January 29, 2021, the United Nations General Assembly published document A/75/729 which provided an update about Al Qaeda and ISIS, seemingly the only groups which the world agrees are terrorist groups. It contained a section called “Increasing support for the victims of terrorism,” which noted the importance of “healing” for victims and the need to be sensitive to events which might be “triggering or adding to their trauma.“

It was an interesting document for the UN, as two weeks earlier on January 16, 2021, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres welcomed the news that the Palestinians would be holding elections, which he said would give “renewed legitimacy to national institutions, including a democratically elected Parliament and Government in Palestine.” It is baffling and alarming that the head of the United Nations would want to give “legitimacy” to an election which included the deeply anti-Semitic terrorist group, Hamas.

Guterres added that the election would “contribute to restarting a process towards a negotiated two-State solution based on the pre-1967 lines, and in accordance with relevant UN resolutions, bilateral agreements and international law.” Perhaps he never read Hamas’ foundational charter which is vociferously opposed to the basic existence of Israel and a peace process, “There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time.” (Article 13)

Now, three years after the leader of the United Nations called for Hamas to be part of the Palestinian political process while also calling for support for terrorist victims’ trauma, we are witnessing countries calls for Palestinian unity in the aftermath of the Palestinian armies of Hamas and PIJ butchering 1,200 innocent Israelis.

Last week, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh resigned from office in light of the current war saying “I see that the next stage and its challenges require new governmental and political arrangements that take into account the new reality in Gaza and the need for a Palestinian-Palestinian consensus based on Palestinian unity and the extension of unity of authority over the land of Palestine.“

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov welcomed the move towards Palestinian unity offering “Jesus Christ was born in Palestine. One of his sayings is: ‘A house divided against itself will not stand.’ Christ is honoured by both Muslims and Christians. I think that quote reflects the challenge of restoring Palestinian unity.” Leave aside that Jesus was a Jew and born in the land of Israel, the gist of Lavrov’s desires are understood.

United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken echoed a call for Palestinian rule over both the West Bank and Gaza while being unclear whether he supported a unified Palestinian government as he has denounced Hamas’s rule in Gaza. He shared in November 2023, “we need to see and get to, in effect, unity of governance when it comes to Gaza and the West Bank, and ultimately to a Palestinian state.”

Senior Hamas official Ghazi Hamad speaks in an interview with Lebanese channel LBC on October 24, 2023 calling for more butchering of Israelis. (Screenshot: X; used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

A Palestinian government that is peaceful and demilitarized which governs all Palestinian territory can theoretically make peace with Israel, however, the majority of Palestinian Arabs approve of Hamas and its aims of destroying Israel and ethnically cleansing the land of Jews. Therefore, one can either have a “legitimate” Palestinian government which speaks for local Arabs which is at war with Israel, or an illegitimate Palestinian government which does not truly represent Palestinian Arabs making a peace agreement with Israel.

The United States seems to be pushing for the latter – a peace agreement over enduring peace – hoping that Israelis will ignore the leadership farce and that the Palestinian street will grow to accept the Jewish State over time.

Coupled with such approach, the United States will be demanding that the Israeli victims of terror and the entire country, ignore their profound trauma.

The IDF In Jews’ Trauma of Past and Future and Palestinians’ Trauma of Present

A National Mall Between Shiva And Hope (November 2023)

The Scale And Barbarity Of The Hamas Massacre (October 2023)

“Deformity in Palestinian Culture” Is A Permanent Feature (August 2023)

UN Lies About Palestinians Favoring Two States (December 2022)

Palestinian Terrorist Groups (July 2021)

The Shrapnel of Intent (January 2019)

The Left-Wing’s Two State Solution: 1.5 States for Arabs, 0.5 for Jews (January 2016)

The IDF In Jews’ Trauma of Past and Future and Palestinians’ Trauma of Present

Posted on March 5, 2024 by First.One.Through

The sadistic massacre committed by Palestinian Arabs from Gaza on October 7 will impact the emotional and mental health of Israelis for a generation. That thousands of Palestinians could enter Israel and rape, mutilate and burn alive 1,200 people, brought back closeted inherited memories of the atrocities of the Holocaust and pogroms for Israelis and global Jewry. That Palestinians cheered the event and a majority support the heinous attacks, has scorched the sensibilities of Israelis, a trauma of the past that they will carry every day.

Palestinian leaders remain in control of Gaza and broadcast that they are committed to repeating the massacre, that “there will be a second, a third, a fourth because we have the determination, the resolve and the capabilities to fight…. We are not ashamed to say this, with full force. We must teach Israel a lesson and we will do this again and again.” The deep-seated evil ideology makes Israelis fear for their future.

Outside of Israel, hearing college professors say that they were “exhilarated” by the mass rape and butchering of Jews and felt “jubilation and awe” at the attacks has infused terror into the hearts of diaspora Jews, the 55% of global Jewry who live outside of their homeland in the land of Israel. Jews see that the attackers are not just Gazans but their global supporters.

For Jews, October 7 was a continuum of thousands of years of antisemitism brought forward to today and tomorrow. After centuries of instilled knowledge that nothing has ever appeased anti-Jewish zealots, Jews around the world look at the Israeli Defense Forces – a new army which was absent for 2,000 years – to reshape their future.

*Israeli Defense Forces sing Israeli national anthem of “Hatikvah”, “The Hope”*

For Palestinian Arabs, the IDF is their sworn enemy. Raised to believe that Israeli Jews are an illegal occupying force who stole Arab land, the IDF represents the boot on their necks enabling that crime to continue. As they watch tens of thousands of Gazans die and their infrastructure get obliterated by that army, they seethe in the present.

So despite the clear military trouncing of the Palestinian army of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the local Arabs are optimistic for their future. They are playing the long game and believe that Israel will soon cease to exist. In a June 2023 poll, “two-thirds say Israel will not celebrate the centenary of its establishment, and the majority believes that the Palestinian people will be able in the future to recover Palestine and return its refugees to their homes.”

The Islamic jihadists in the region believe that the IDF and Israeli Jews are evil but temporary. They see the tidal wave of global support crushing the “occupation army” and sweeping Jews from the region. The United States is Israel’s last column of support, and Islamic extremists see it buckling in the polls. With the help of Iran, Qatar and Turkey, they see a “liberation” of their land before Israel celebrates its 100th birthday.

*Palestinians take dead Israeli bodies as trophies as part of October 7 atrocities*

The IDF is the perceived game-changer for global Jewry, a chance to fight the toxic and violent antisemitism that has been killing Jews for thousands of years. It is the instrument to terminate their collective trauma and protect the ability to coexist in peace.

That same IDF is viewed by Palestinian Arabs and their supporters as deeply evil, causing a “genocide” of Gazans who, in their view, just want to live in peace in their land: everything from the River to the Sea, devoid of Jews.

*Cornell University professor Russell Rickford celebrating the October 7 raping and slaughter of Israeli Jews*

October 7th is fading in the world’s memory and is losing influence on opinions and policies. There is declining empathy for the ongoing Jewish trauma, as people focus on the latest body count of Palestinians. As part of that transition, the IDF is becoming the story as intended by the jihadists. The anti-Zionist extremists believe that neutering the Israeli army is the pathway to alleviating Palestinian trauma and perpetuating Jewish suffering.

Hamas might soon fade from public discourse. The political-terrorist force will blend into a new organization, having met its primary goals: the end of American support of the IDF as the pathway for the destruction of Israel. The political-terrorist group always knew that it could never defeat Israel militarily; its war mission was to weaken American support for the Jewish State, for its jihadi allies in Iran, Syria and Lebanon to strike the fatal blow.

ACTION ITEM

Write your politicians to maintain military aid to Israel to not only confront the Palestinian army but Hezbollah, Syria and the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The Gaza Red Herring Covering Iran’s Nuclear Breakout (January 2024)

Gaza Swag (January 2024)

Believe Terrorists (October 2023)

UN Coordinator For Middle East Does Not Condemn Use Of Children As Terrorists (July 2023)

Imagining Israel’s Neighbors For The United States (March 2023)

Wilayat Sinai: The Other Terrorist Group Abutting Israel (February 2022)

Socialists Employ Arabs’ Four Step Battle Plan (July 2020)

Conditional U.S. Support in The Middle East (April 2020)

The United States Should NOT be a Neutral Mediator in the Arab-Israel Conflict (July 2019)

The Impossible Liberal Standard (November 2016)

The UN Can’t Support Israel’s Fight on Terrorism since it Considers Israel the Terrorists (November 2015)

Cause and Effect: Making Gaza (May 2015)

Israel: Security in a Small Country (March 2015)

For Obama, Israeli security is not so time-sensitive (July 2014)

Gay Rights in the Middle East

Posted on September 21, 2014 by First.One.Through

Jerusalem held its gay pride parade last week, after the event was delayed due to the Palestinian War from Gaza in July and August. The event is an anomaly in the MENA region (Middle East and North Africa) where most countries consider homosexuality a crime. In several countries such as Iran, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Mauritania, gays are sentenced to death.

There are still over 76 countries in the world that consider being gay a crime. Outside of Europe, there are only five countries that achieve a “perfect” score for gay and lesbian rights according to the ILGA, a leading gay rights group: Israel was the first to be awarded such score in 2008, followed by Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and New Zealand.

music video:

Source:

http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Jerusalem-holds-annual-Gay-Pride-Parade-after-multiple-delays-375777

Every Picture Tells a Story, the Bibi Monster

Posted on July 8, 2014 by First.One.Through

The “Every Picture” series highlights the power of photographs in the media and reviews the impact of size, color and placement of pictures along with their captions. The first installment reviewed how the New York Times painted a picture of Arab grief and suffering while portraying Israelis in a more aggressive and less sympathetic manner in a series of articles from June 30 to July 3 about the murder of three Israeli teens and a Palestinian teenager. If that article had a subtitle, it could have been “Palestinians trump Israelis”. You might think this second article in the series could be entitled: “Palestinians trump the World”, but the reality is much more subtle.

On July 7, 2014 the New York Times posted, on the top of its front page, a large color photograph of a Palestinian youth who was injured during riots against Israeli police. The bruised teenager was deemed to be a bigger story than victims of mass murders in other countries on a particularly violent day in Africa and the Middle East:

On page A4, the paper posted a large black and white photograph and article about 20 people who had their throats slashed in Kenya;

On page A7, the NYT posted a black and white photograph of soldiers and militiamen in Uganda where 50 people were killed in a battle between security forces and a tribal militia;

On the bottom of that same page, a short article (with no associated picture) described how 35 to 40 people were killed in Yemen in a fight between “Shiite rebels and tribesmen associated with the government.”

Pictures of mass murders buried in the NYT pages

While over 100 people were slaughtered in the region, the Times thought that a bruised youth was more significant than any and all of those atrocities. Could that have been because the teenager was a Palestinian Arab? That wouldn’t be logical as the Yemenis are Arab too. Could it be because the injured boy was a Muslim? That also would not make sense since al-Shabab is the Islamist terror group in Kenya that has been killing dozens of people every week, and both parties in the slaughter in Yemen are Muslim.

The difference in the dynamic of these stories lies in the counter-party – Israel – as evidenced by the other pictures in the news story. In a small picture on the (extreme right) side of the cover page, and then again in a color photograph on page A5, are close up pictures of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu. Netanyahu is possibly the only world leader who is more despised by the NYT editorial board than former US President George W. Bush. The Times often uses pictures of Netanyahu alongside stories of Israeli aggression. It does this uniquely and consistently for Bibi.

By means of comparison, imagine an article about US drones killing civilians in Afghanistan, and then a picture alongside of it of US President Barack Obama. It doesn’t happen in the NYT or liberal media outlets. You probably wouldn’t even see a picture of injured people or mourning mothers in US papers. That is because they do not want to sketch a killer in Obama’s image.

As examples, here are two NYT articles that are critical of US policy of drone attacks – but include no pictures (let alone two!) of Obama. These are attacks that Obama ordered, (compared to a general situation in Israel which Netanyahu was not directly involved). Needless to say, the articles that simply report on the use of drones have no pictures of the US Commander-in-Chief.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/22/world/asia/civilian-deaths-in-drone-strikes-cited-in-report.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/26/world/use-of-drones-for-killings-risks-a-war-without-end-panel-concludes-in-report.html

In another article that is completely about Obama’s war on terrorism, the picture puts Obama so far in the background you would think he was accidentally caught in the photo.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/29/world/obamas-leadership-in-war-on-al-qaeda.html?pagewanted=all

However, the New York Times and various liberal publications like to paint Bibi and Israel as attackers. They use his image alongside articles which describe attacks and counter-attacks. He has been made into a caricature of war; a cartoon of a blood libel.

Every picture tells a story. It is time to ask what the artist had in mind.

“East Jerusalem” – the 0.5% Molehill

Posted on July 7, 2014 by First.One.Through

The Middle East is not short on drama. Things in the region are magnified by perfect faith and distorted by perceived foresight. The people in the land are The People of The Land. Their collective perspective has long ago been blurred by reading texts about ethereal matters too closely.

To wit, Arabs have stated a quest for a new country with a capital city they call “East Jerusalem”. The small matter that seems to escape them is that it doesn’t exist.

Jerusalem was founded 4000 years ago. In the city’s turbulent history, it reached religious heights and was vanquished many times. Still, in all but 19 of those 4000 years, it remained a single united city.

In 1947, the United Nations considered expanding the borders of the city and put forth a plan to create a “Holy Basin” which was to include Greater Jerusalem and Greater Bethlehem. The proposed entity would have housed the significant religious sites of the three monotheistic religions and been under international control. The Arabs rejected the proposal and five Arab armies attacked the new State of Israel in 1948 with the stated objective of destroying the country completely.

At the end of that war, the Jordanians seized and unilaterally annexed the eastern part of the Jerusalem and renamed it “East Jerusalem”. The joyful Jordanians gave the Palestinian Arabs Jordanian citizenship, but evicted all Jews from their “East Jerusalem”.

So the spiritual center of Judaism was stolen by the Jordanians. From 1949 to 1967, (0.5% of the city’s existence), the Jordanians banned Jews from the eastern part of Jerusalem.

In 1967, the Jordanians (which included Arabs from Palestine who were granted Jordanian citizenship) attacked Israel again, and lost the eastern half of the city. Israel dismantled the barbed wire that split the city and reunited Jerusalem. “East Jerusalem” existed no more.

In 1995, in an effort to establish peace in the region, Israel handed control of Bethlehem to the Palestinian Authority, thereby giving half of the “Holy Basin” to the Arabs. The “Holy Basin” sat divided, but not Jerusalem.

Remarkably, despite the short dark blip in history 46 years ago, and current control of Bethlehem, the Arabs contend that East Jerusalem still exists and always existed. Should it surprise anyone that when it comes to Jerusalem, people would try to turn a 0.5% molehill into owning the Temple Mount?