In December 1940, a full year before the United States of America entered World War II in response to Japan’s bombing of Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, two young Jews created a superhero.
Joe Simon and Jack (Kurtzberg) Kirby were young artists who were looking to create a new superhero in the golden age of superheroes. The genre had many Jewish artists and writers, including Superman in 1938 (created by Jerry Siegel and Joe (Shusterowich) Shuster) and Batman in 1939 (by Bob Kane and Bill Finger). Those characters were created at the dawn of the European Holocaust of the Jews, and fought against fictitious bad guys generally.
Simon and Kirby opted for a more direct approach.
In an interview in 2011, a 97-year old Joe Simon relayed that they didn’t need to create a fictitious villain, “We both read the newspapers. We knew what was going on over in Europe. World events gave us the perfect comic-book villain, Adolf Hitler, with his ranting, goose-stepping and ridiculous moustache. So we decided to create the perfect hero who would be his foil.“
First issue of Captain America published in December 1940, featuring Captain America punching Adolph Hitler on its cover
At that time, there were many Americans who proudly considered themselves Nazis. Groups like the German-American Bund marched proudly through public streets and even held an enormous rally at Madison Square Garden in New York City in February 1939. They chanted “Stop Jewish Domination of Christian Americans” and demanded that “our government be returned to the American People who founded it.”
The American Nazis began to lose some popularity when Nazi Germany invaded Poland in September 1939 which launched World War II, with Great Britain and France declaring war on Germany. Still, Americans did not want to go to war in Europe, some being isolationists and others harboring Nazi sympathies.
American Nazis took aim at Simon and Kirby for “propaganda” advocating for America to get into the war to fight Nazi Germany. They accused Jews of wanting to sacrifice Christian blood to save Jews in Europe, a passive-aggressive blood libel. They saw the “Jewish media” controlling America’s foreign policy as puppet-masters.
Much of the same rhetoric is happening today.
The Islamic Republic of Iran is a brutal regime. It is the leading state sponsor of terrorism, backing groups like Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza. It hangs gays in public squares. It kills its own Iranian women who do not cover their hair.
In contrast, the radical jihadists in the Palestinian Authority territories get active global assistance. Even with an anti-Semitic foundational charter lifted from Hitler’s Mein Kampf and the forgery Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the political-terrorist group Hamas won the majority of parliament. The active incitement to kill Jews with a pay-to-slay program is ignored (or possibly appreciated) as countries pour money into the terrorist enclave. The United Nations even states that it wants Hamas to join a unity government, praising the recent Algiers Declaration.
The radical jihadists have supporters across the United States. On over 200 college campuses, Students for Justice in Palestine have targeted Jews and the Jewish State. Members of Congress like Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar spew anti-Semitic venom reminiscent of Nazi Germany. Entertainer Kanye West calls out Jews who control Black America and threatens them with violence.
The mainstream media echoes their sentiments, that congress is controlled by Jews. It bemoans the ‘powerful Jew‘ in sick arguments while simultaneously claiming only White supremacists make such anti-Semitic smears.
In this caldron of anti-Semitism and calls for violence against Jews and the only Jewish State, Marvel Comics announced that it will feature a superhero named Sabra, an ex-Israeli Mossad agent, to be featured in a new Captain America movie.
Marvel superhero, Sabra
The timing seems very appropriate as Israel faces genocidal fanatics in the Middle East, and anti-Semitism is spreading like wildfire in the United States and around the world.
As in Captain America’s release in 1940, many Americans are upset by a superhero with real world political roots.
Anti-Zionists fear that if an Israeli is a superhero, Palestinian Arabs will be portrayed as the genocidal villains. Isolationists and jihadists fear that the movie will advocate attacking the Islamic Republic of Iran, launching the United States into another war against a Muslim country. Run-of-the-mill anti-Semites don’t want to see a Jew infiltrate what they perceive as a cohort of Christian American superheroes.
Lost on all of them is that Captain America himself was created by Jews to attack a real genocidal anti-Semite before the magnitude of Hitler’s evil was manifest. Captain America’s relaunch in the 1960’s to a newer audience was also led by a Jew, Stan (Martin Lieber) Lee. The inclusion of an overtly Jewish superhero now, when the United Nations acts like Marvel’s evil Hydra organization seeking to destroy the Jewish State is both warranted and timely.
Alas, the Jew-bashers may yet win. Their loud shrill voices made Marvel issue a statement: “While our characters and stories are inspired by the comics. They are always freshly imagined for the screen and today’s audience, and the filmmakers are taking a new approach with the character Sabra who was first introduced in the comics over 40 years ago.”
Will Marvel give Sabra a new backstory in which she may be Jewish but not Israeli? Only fight against liberals’ perception of the “right kind of anti-Semites” who are Male White Supremacists but not those Brown, Female or Muslim? It remains to be seen.
Jews and the Jewish State are under attack from all sides, and while it would be nice to see a superhero come to their aid in the world of fantasy, we need people and governments in the real world to fight back against the genocidal intentions of today’s growing anti-Jewish war machine.
Last week, fourteen Palestinian Arab factions met in Algiers and signed a declaration to hold elections within a year. The “Algiers Declaration” would advance proportional representation in the Palestinian National Council (PNC) and confirms that the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) is the sole representative of Palestinian Arabs. It was symbolically signed in the same hall as Yasser Arafat announced the establishment of a Palestinian state.
The Declaration was signed by a number of U.S.-designated terrorist groups, including HAMAS and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), as well as Fatah, the party of Mahmoud Abbas, the current president of the Palestinian Authority. The goal was seemingly to allow every Palestinian Arab – 14 million from around the world – and every “political” entity, including terrorist groups that seek the killing of Jews and destruction of Israel, to participate.
Fourteen Palestinian factions sign Algiers Declaration during a ceremony in the presence of Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune.
The UN Secretary-General António Guterres issued a statement that he “welcomes the signing on 13 October of the Declaration of Algiers” and “underscores the importance of Palestinian reconciliation for a politically stable, economically viable, sovereign and independent State of Palestine.” It is unclear if the UNSG views a State of Palestine as already in existence or aspirational. What is evident, is that he believes including terrorist groups in “reconciliation” and elections is commendable.
It is uncertain if elections will take place as envisioned. In the past, the PA has insisted on including Arabs living in eastern Jerusalem in elections which Israel forbade as it annexed the area. If Palestinians from around the world get to participate – including those in refugee camps in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, as well as citizens in the U.S., Chile, Israel and elsewhere – perhaps Israel will permit Israeli Arabs to participate. Perhaps those countries which don’t recognize a Palestinian State or forbid dual citizenship would prohibit people from voting or force them to renounce their citizenship in their home countries.
However, it is likely that the various Palestinian groups will use this year for political advantage to prove they deserve support. This has historically been achieved through incitement and violent attacks against Israel. When Hamas launched missiles into Israel, its popularity soared according to Palestinian polls. When Abbas/Fatah praised “martyrs” and committed to continue the “pay-to-slay” program to fund terrorist actions against Israelis, it jumped in the polls.
President Abbas has already been reducing security coordination with Israel, as Palestinians see his rule as serving Israeli interests more than their own. His pullback has led to a spike in terrorist attacks against Israelis this year, and a need for more Israeli raids into PA territory to capture the terrorists, often uncoordinated with PA security teams. It has led to many more civilian deaths on both sides.
Almost all western countries and media have ignored this story, even while Qatar, a longtime supporter of the political-terrorist group Hamas, and Arab media have hailed the agreement. Perhaps the West is waiting for the Arab League Summit which is set to convene November 1 in Algiers. Can the larger Arab world or the more regional Palestinian factions unite in common cause? Perhaps, but historically, only with Jewish blood.
The attempt of some vocal members of the far left to suggest that being pro-Palestinian is a progressive value is an inversion of reality. The vast majority of Palestinian Arab society and leadership is systematically regressive, racist, homophobic, misogynistic and corrupt.
Gay Rights
Palestinian Arab society is extremely religious and abhors homosexuality. Many gay Palestinian Arabs flee lands under the control of the Palestinian Authority and seek asylum in Israel. One such man, Ahmad Abu Murkhiyeh, 25 years old, had been living in Israel for two years as he feared that his Palestinian Arab neighbors would kill him. This week, his decapitated body was found in Hebron, near his family home.
Ahmad Abu Murkhiyeh (Social media)
Misogyny
Dozens of Palestinian women are killed every year in so-called “honor killings“, when family members kill a woman who brings “dishonor” to the family by not living a chaste lifestyle. Isra’a Ghrayeb was killed by her brother after she posted a video on Instagram of her meeting a man, bringing dozens of women out in protests. According to Palestinian law, Article 340 of the penal code allows a man to kill his wife if she committed adultery. Article 341 permits murder to protect “his honor, or somebody else’s life or honor,” essentially a double-“O” license to kill women.
Racism and Anti-Semitism
When Palestinian and Jordanian Arabs controlled Jewish holy sites, they banned Jews from visiting their sacred locations. In Hebron, they banned Jews from climbing above the seventh step of the Cave of The Jewish Patriarchs and Matriarchs. In Jerusalem, they banned Jews from living or visiting the Old City of Jerusalem, and destroyed all of the synagogues in the Old City from 1949-1967. Today, Mahmoud Abbas, the President of the Palestinian Authority declared that in his vision of a future Palestinian State, there would not be a single Jew living anywhere.
The anti-Semitism is so blatant and systemic, that after the Jordanian and Palestinian Arabs ethnically cleansed Judea, Samaria and eastern Jerusalem of all Jews in the 1948-9 war, it passed a citizenship act in 1954 that specifically gave Jordanian citizenship to everyone “not being Jewish.” The Jew hatred continues today, with 93 percent of Arabs in the West Bank and Gaza holding anti-Semitic views according to the ADL, the most of any region in the world.
Climate Change
Palestinian Arabs have deliberately set fire to thousands of acres of Israeli land, burning forests and fields. A 2018 government report noted that “the entire eco-system of the western Negev has been affected. Trees that have stood for generations – preventing soil erosion, improving the carbon footprint and providing a habitat for birds and animals – have been destroyed. Wildlife – birds, turtles, snakes and lizards, jackals, foxes and wolves, wild boars, hedgehogs, bees and other insects – have been killed or lost their homes and their food sources. Experts estimate that it will take decades for the area to recover.” This is in addition to the thousands of tires that Palestinians burn which are extremely harmful to the environment.
The Carmia Nature Reserve burned by Palestinian arson attacks (Photo courtesy of Israel Nature and Parks Authority)
Reproductive Freedom
The Palestinian Authority bans abortion completely in any circumstance. It is one of only two dozen countries in the world with such severe restriction, together with countries including Haiti, Iraq and the Congo.
Religious Freedom
There is nothing so basic as freedom of religion, including changing one’s religion. Yet there are eight countries in the world – all Muslim – where the penalty for converting from Islam is death.
Palestinian Arabs are some of the most devoutly Islamic people in the world, with 89% supporting sharia law, only behind Afghanistan and Iraq. Among those Palestinians supporting sharia, 84% are in favor of stoning as the punishment for adultery and 66% believe Muslims who convert from Islam should be killed. Palestinian Arabs are only second to Pakistan in seeking a more sharia-based society.
Forever Wars
Nothing defines Palestinian society more than the active promotion of forever wars. To this day, the PA leadership refuses to recognize the legitimate historic and human rights of Jews to live in peace and sovereignty in their homeland. For over 100 years, Palestinian Arabs have been waging pogroms and wars slaughtering thousands of Jews with guns, bombs, rockets, knives, cars, stones and whatever implement they could use. The murderers become celebrated heroes in Palestinian society, with the PA paying the killers’ families thousands of dollars.
Supporters of the Palestinian Fatah movement march with a poster of female militant Dalal al-Mughrabi, who took part in the 1978 Coastal Road massacre in Israel, during a rally marking the 55th foundation anniversary of the political party in the West Bank town of Bethlehem on January 1, 2020. (Photo by Musa AL SHAER / AFP)
Rep. Rashida Tlaib said she is angry that people are “progressive except for Palestine,” but she has it upside down. It is Zionists and people who care about basic human rights who are shocked that anyone – let alone people who claim to care about human rights – can support the racist, homophobic, misogynistic, repressive Palestinian Arabs waging forever wars against the most persecuted people in the world.
There are some narratives that simply boggle the mind. Some are completely nonsensical and easily disproven. Others are seemingly spat out of desperation to belittle an enemy’s position. And a few are so twisted, they must have been hatched and sanctified by university professors.
Consider the phrase “European Settler Colonialism” to describe Jews moving to Israel.
Columbia University’s Rashid Khalidi was fond of the phrase. As recently as November 2017, on the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, he took the stage at the United Nations’ Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestine People. He used the expression in a number of ways:
“…Arab city dwellers, who observed with mounting concern the constant arrival of new European Jewish immigrants“
“the Declaration had been tailored to suit the desiderata of Zionism, a European colonizing project“
“The Palestinians were therefore in a triple bind, which may have been unique in the history of resistance of indigenous peoples to European colonialism. They faced the might of the British Empire in the era between the two world wars when not one single colonial possession, with the partial exception of Ireland, succeeded in freeing itself from the clutches of the European imperial powers.“
“Of the five European settler colonies established in Arab countries, only Algeria and Palestine remained colonised in the early 1960s“
“As the last two European settler-colonial powers in the Arab world, France and Israel formed a close alliance to coordinate the preservation of their settler colonies“
“Like France and Italy, the European Jewish Zionists claimed to be descendants of the ancient Palestinian Hebrews and to be merely “returning” to their ancient land.”
“the pan-Jewishism of European Zionism, which sought to recreate the “Judaic” glories of the Palestinian Hebrews, who were appropriated as the ancestors of European converts to Judaism, was depicted as progressive and socialist.”
“Unhappy with its isolation as the last European settler colony in the Arab world, the Israelis provided logistical support to the French colonists,...”
Students have caught on. At a vote to boycott Israel at the University of Wisconsin in March 2017, one of the students took the theme one step further:
“The Israeli state was founded using the same nationalistic and exclusive principles that exploited Jews in Eastern Europe. The foundation built Israel to be as oppressive as the countries that destroyed Jewish homes, lives and pushed them out of Eastern Europe. Israel in its inception is not a Jewish idea but a European one.”
Imagine the depravity of the anti-Zionist university mindset today, that Israel is not even considered a Jewish idea but simply a tool of European colonial imperialism.
The outrageous sentiments are given succor at the United Nations and anti-Zionist media. That they need to be addressed and disproved is shameful but it goes to the heart of the prevalent false anti-Israel narrative peddled by those who seek a Palestinian State and need an anchor for their anti-Semitic beliefs.
Colonialism – The Desire To Gain Versus The Desire To Rid
Many European countries set up colonies around the world, including France, United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Belgium and Italy. Each country set up outposts to gain particular advantages in far away lands. Some sought raw materials like grain and minerals to export home. Some sought trade routes and new markets. Others brought missionaries to spread Christianity. Each country sought to exploit the new territory for selfish gain.
All, except for one case falsely-framed as colonialism: Zionism as “European settler colonialism.”
The anti-Semitic narrative describing Zionism as “European colonialism” is founded on two principle beliefs: that European countries desired to shed the continent of its Jews; and the further wish to weaken Muslim Arabs in the Middle East.
On the first concocted rationale, anti-Semitic anti-Zionists try to argue that the great powers of Europe wanted to collectively purge the region of its Jews. It is anti-Semitism at its most base and ugly, suggesting that Jews were universally unwanted foreigners in their midst.
The Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas pushed this argument in April 2018 that “[Lord] Balfour hated the Jews, but nevertheless, he gave them a state. The Russian foreign minister was well known for his hatred of the Jews, yet he said to [the Jews]: “Come, I will give you a state in Palestine.”” Abbas claimed that all European leaders hated the Jews and wanted to get rid of them and used Palestine as their dumping ground. The phrase “European settler colonialism” is deeply anti-Semitic in that it conveys that Jews are vile and unwanted.
The second premise of European colonialism in the desire to insert a foreign entity to weaken the supposed unity of Muslim Arabs in the Middle East is foolish as various European powers were dealing with many tribes in the region and building them up into functioning governments and countries. The British Mandate of Palestine is put forward by Arabists as something unique, when there were mandates for all of the lands that were to become independent countries like Lebanon, Syria and Iraq, with the fall of the Ottoman Empire.
Jews Have Nothing To Do With Ancient Israelites And Never Lived In Israel
The anti-Semitism of “European settler colonialism” extends beyond the invective that Zionism was launched by European leaders to ethnically-cleanse Europe of its Jews. It mocks Jewish history.
The acting President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas wrote his doctoral thesis on a particular form of Holocaust denial, which claimed that Jews have no connection or history in Israel, so early Zionists conspired with the Nazis to make life unbearable so that the Jews would be forced to emigrate to a foreign land. Abbas falsely asserted that Jews are descendants of Khazars, much like Columbia University’s Massad absurdly claimed that Jews pretend to be descended from “Palestinian Hebrews” (whatever that ridiculous phrase means), but really are a bunch of European converts who “appropriated” someone else’s history.
This repulsive narrative is a critical component for anti-Zionists because the definition of a “colony” means an “area under full or partial control of another country.” While France may have set up a foreign colony in Algeria, it is nonsensical to say that the entire European continent set up a joint colony for everyone’s benefit. But what choice do the anti-Semites have? If they are forced to recognize that Jews are from Judea and the land of Israel, then by definition it is not a Jewish colony but a righteous return of Jews from their diaspora. The phrase “European settler colonialism” is anti-Semitic in denying Jews their basic history in the land of Israel.
Jews Came To Palestine Before The Palestine Mandate
Anti-Semitic anti-Zionists argue that the European colonial project launched with Lord Balfour’s 1917 declaration and then the Mandate of Palestine in 1922. Those slightly more knowledgeable about history might point to Theodore Herzl’s First Zionist Congress in 1897 in Basel, Switzerland.
The reality is that Jews have always lived and moved to the land of Israel. During the last century of Ottoman rule (1800 to 1914), the Jewish population jumped more than 13.4 times. The Christian population only grew by 3.2 times over that period while the Muslim population barely moved, increasing only 2.1 times, meaning that no Muslims migrated to the holy land during that time, as such growth is the natural trend of births minus deaths.
The reason the Jews moved to the land is that the land is holy to Jews. Jews from all over the world pray facing Jerusalem, the only religion to do so. Jews are commanded to visit Jerusalem three times every year. There are commandments that Jews can only keep in Israel.
Saying that Zionism is a “European colonial project” is anti-Semitic as it denies the centrality and holiness of the land to Jews.
Israeli Jews Are Not European
The smear that “Zionism is Racism” was hatched by Muslim nations in the 1970’s, after the Arab world failed to destroy Israel for the third time (1948-9, 1967 and 1973 wars). The outrageous UN resolution was overturned by the United States in 1991, but the charge has been re-launched in modern times under the banner of “white supremacy”, “imperialism” and “European colonialism.”
The simple fact is less than one-third of Israelis have ancestors from Europe. As of 2018, only 31.8% of Jews were Ashkenazi, of European heritage, and 12.4% were from the former USSR. That compares to 44.9% who are Mizrahi and 3.0% from Ethiopia. The balance of Jews (7.9%) are of mixed heritage. Then there are 21.1% who are Arab (Muslim and Christian) and 5% are other groups including Ba’hai (a religion banned in several neighboring countries), Samaritans and others.
Saying that Israel is a creature of “European colonialism” is non-sensical at its most fundamental, as most Israelis do not come from Europe.
Poor Attempt To Distract From Muslim Arab Anti-Semitic Edicts
The charge that Zionism is based on European colonialism is anti-Semitic on many levels. It is used in a pathetic attempt to advance the cause of a Palestinian state, when in fact, it does the opposite by showing that Arabs are terrible anti-Jewish neighbors.
Admitting that Jews predate Arabs by thousands of years does not mean that Arabs have no history in the land, so stop pretending otherwise.
Admitting that the Temple Mount is only the holiest place for Jews does not mean that it holds no significance for Christians or Muslims.
Admitting that Jordanian/Palestinian Muslim Arabs banned Jews from entering the Old City of Jerusalem and the Cave of the Jewish Patriarchs and Matriarchs in Hebron while they controlled it, does not mean that Jews will ban other religions from entering these sacred locations.
Admitting that Jordan issued an anti-Semitic citizenship law in 1954 that granted citizenship to people in Judea and Samaria, as long as they weren’t Jewish, doesn’t mean that the Jewish State of Israel will ban non-Jews from becoming citizens.
Admitting that most Israelis are not European Jews does not mean that Israel will constantly point out that the largest demographic in Israel are the Jews who came from Muslim Arab lands who were expelled and driven out of their homes.
The modern state of Israel is simply the reestablishment of Jewish sovereignty in their historic homeland. The attempts to vilify Israel as a product of European colonialism and imperialism is both false and deeply anti-Semitic, and actually hurts the Palestinian cause in showing their inability to live peacefully with the Jewish people.
President Biden is being pressured by pro-abortion groups to take action after the US Supreme Court ruled that the right to abortion is not federally guaranteed and that each state must decide for itself how to handle the procedure. Even in states like New York which allow abortion until the moment of birth, pro-choice people are demanding federal action.
Biden opted to hand monies to the hospital system directly because the Palestinian Authority flatly refuses to stop awarding money to terrorists that attack Jewish civilians. The Taylor Force Act, named for an American visiting Israel who was killed by a Palestinian Arab, prevents the United States from handing money to the PA while it actively funds the murder of civilians.
The US Congress must still approve Biden’s proposed $100 million award to the Palestinian hospital network. It will be interesting to see if members of congress like Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortes (D-NY) and Cori Bush (D-MO) who were arrested during their protest about abortion in front of the Supreme Court, will approve this funding for Palestinians whom they historically prioritize over any issue, including anti-Semitism and terrorism.
Rep. Ilhan Omar arrested in front of US Supreme Court on July 19, protesting abortion ruling. She must now decide if the US should hand $100 million to Palestinian hospitals which ban abortion. (picture: Tom Williams/Getty Images)
The White House announced that President Biden “will visit the Middle East region from July 13th to July 16th with stops in Israel, the West Bank, and Saudi Arabia.” The release added that Biden would meet Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas “reaffirming his lifelong commitment to a two-state solution.“
The stampede of elephants in the room is that the Abbas has no authority, no mandate, no control and no abilities, and that Palestinian Arabs have no interest in a two state solution, preferring war.
Then U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden (L) shakes hands with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah March 9, 2016. (photo: REUTERS/Debbie Hill/Pool)
Mahmoud Abbas – The Straw Man
No Authority. Abbas won presidential election in January 2005. That four-year term ended in January 2009, over 13 years ago. Abbas continues to suspend elections as he knows he would lose. According to a June 2022 Palestinian poll, if elections were held now, Abbas would lose to Ismail Haniyeh of the political-terrorist group HAMAS by 55% to 33%.
No Mandate. That same poll shows that Palestinian Arabs in both the “West Bank” and Gaza despise Abbas, noting that “demand for Abbas’ resignation stands at 72% in the West Bank and 84% in the Gaza Strip.” Further, “perception of corruption in PA institutions stands at 86%.“
No Control. The PA only controls Areas A and B in the West Bank. It has no control over Gaza after getting routed from the territory by HAMAS in 2007. Abbas has no control over a significant percent of his land and people, and cannot deliver anything to Palestinian Arabs or Israelis.
No Ability To Negotiate. Since 2007, Abbas has been unable to negotiate even a unity government between his Fatah party and the rival HAMAS. How could anyone imagine he has the skill or ability to negotiate with Israelis?
Why would anyone negotiate with such a person on the most fundamental principles that the person has no ability to deliver? Because it supplies multiple fig leaves: that the Palestinian Arabs have set up a government and are capable of ruling themselves to ultimately become an independent state to show the world on one hand; and on the other, to make the Palestinian Arabs feel like the world cares.
Mahmoud Abbas – Against Basic U.S. Principles and Human Rights
The United States – and the civilized world – have basic principles regarding human rights which Abbas tramples upon.
Funding terrorism. The US Congress passed the Taylor Force Act which “condition[ed] assistance to the West Bank and Gaza on steps by the Palestinian Authority to end violence and terrorism against Israeli citizens.” Abbas doesn’t care, and told the world at the United Nations that he celebrated martyrs and was commited to pay Palestinian terrorist families “even if it costs PA its last penny.”
Inciting terrorism. Abbas fans the flames of a violent jihad against Jews. He frequently lies that the Al Aqsa Mosque is in danger of being attacked by Jews to foment violence by any means.
Denying Jewish History. Abbas wrote his doctoral thesis on Holocaust denial, pretty abhorrent on its face. He further denies over 3,000 years of Jewish history in the Jewish holy land, calling Jews “colonial invaders.” He denies that the Jewish temples stood on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem and mocks Jews that they are trying to “Judaize” Jerusalem.
The world pretends that this anti-Semitic extremist is a moderate. The sad reality is that he is a moderate, solely by Palestinian Arab standards.
Palestinian Arabs Don’t Want Two States, They Want ’48
Jews Have No Rights Whatsoever In The Land. The average Palestinian Arab in the Palestinian territories believes that the land is 100% Arab and that Jews have no rights to be there. Their position is plain that they do not want to share the land. It is founded on a national narrative that Jews are “colonial invaders” who came to the land as a function of “European imperialism.” That is why pro-Palestinian supporters shout “we don’t want two states, we want ’48,” and “from the river to the sea,” that the entirety of the region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River will be Arab.
No Interest In A Two State Solution. Not surprisingly believing that Jews have no history or rights, Palestinian Arabs have no interest in a two state solution. They’ve rejected it from the 1947 Partition Plan until the latest June 2022 poll, when only 28% of respondents favored the idea, with 69% opposed.
Preference For War. Rejecting coexistence, Palestinian Arabs want either the global community to pressure Israel out of existence or to wage war for Israel’s destruction. In June 2022, 56% want the PA to join more international organizations (counter to the parameters of the Oslo Accords signed between the PA and Israel to advance peace), and 55% want to start another armed “initifada,” meaning jihadist terrorism. Currently, 56% of Palestinian Arabs favor attacking Jewish civilians inside of Israel, with 59% believing the terrorism “contributes to the national interest.“
Deeply Embedded Anti-Semitism. The Anti-Defamation League conducted a poll in 2014 about anti-Semitic attitudes around the world. Palestinian Arabs were by far the most anti-Semitic, with almost every single person – a sickening 93% – hating Jews.
It is no wonder that there are so many Palestinian terrorist groups and that the Palestinians intend on voting for one should elections ever be held again.
The US President Honors Anti-Semitism And Wastes Political Capital
Despite the plain facts that Abbas is a straw man who leads anti-Semites not interested in making peace with Israel, President Biden is going to travel to meet him. In doing so, Biden will be giving honor to this despised leader and upsetting 65% of Palestinian Arabs who don’t want the PA to engage with Biden. Even worse, decent Americans will be forced to watch their president listen to the rants and demands of an anti-Semite who supports terrorism, knowing that Biden will just smile and hand Abbas millions of dollars.
The United States invested billions of dollars in Israel and got a strong reliable ally in the Middle East with a vibrant democracy, economy and record of human rights. The US also invested billions of dollars into the Palestinian Arabs, which remains corrupt, inept and hostile to peace and decency. When will people pause to reflect on the return on investments from human and monetary capital?
The current smear against Israel being popularized by anti-Zionist organizations and people is that the country practices a form of apartheid. Specifically, they consider that Israel discriminates against and segregates its non-Jewish population.
Not only is the charge absurd, but it is a deliberate attempt to deflect the anti-Semitism and xenophobia of the Palestinian Arab population.
Ban on citizenship
At inception, Israel granted all of the people who lived in the land citizenship, and as the country annexed additional territory such as the eastern section of Jerusalem, it afforded all residents there to apply for citizenship as well, regardless of religion. Today, roughly 74% of the country is Jewish, with over one quarter belonging to other faiths. It stands as a uniquely diverse country in the entire Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.
This is in sharp contrast to the Palestinian Authority (PA). The president of the PA, Mahmoud Abbas, declared that “we will not see the presence of a single Israeli (read Jew) – civilian or soldier -on our land.” Indeed, in the lands administered by the PA – Gaza and Areas A and B – the demographics is 100% Arab. Not a single Jew can be found, per the PA’s anti-Semitic stated mission.
Ban minorities buying land
Israel allows everyone to purchase homes or apartments. In Jerusalem, the Israeli government greatly expanded the number of homes for non-Jews which resulted in a +188% growth in units for Arabs between 1990 and 2019, compared to only +64% for Jews.
This is in sharp contrast to the PA which has kept in place a Jordanian law which bans the sale of land to non-Jews. The penalty for doing so can be hard labor or even death. It has produced a terrible scheme where Arabs who want to sell land to Jews are forced to use middlemen and shell companies to avoid being killed by either the government of fellow Arabs’ vigilante anti-Semitic violence.
Ban minorities voting and being in parliament
All Israeli citizens can vote and run for the parliament. There are a few Israeli Arab parties in the country’s multi-party system. In 2022, an Arab party sits in the governing coalition and can collapse the government should it decide to do so.
As the Palestinian Authority has no Jews, it is not surprising that there are no Jews in parliament.
Ban minorities being prime minister
Israel has no religion litmus test as to who can become prime minister. That is compared to surrounding Arab countries like Syria where the PM must be a Muslim.
Ban minorities being judges
Israel allows all of its citizens to be part of the legal system including being lawyers, judges and using the courts. The Jewish State has an Arab sitting on its Supreme Court.
The PA has no place for Jews. Anywhere.
Ban minorities being in army
Israel has a draft system which calls on its citizens to serve in the army at age 18. However, the country does not enforce the law for Arabs and Ultra-Orthodox Jews, but it welcomes them joining.
The PA has no place for Jews.
Ban on religious houses of worship
Israel allows all of the various religions to practice their faiths openly. There is no ban on minarets on mosques (as exists in Switzerland), no ban on halal meat (as exists in Iceland), no ban on burkas or hijabs (as exists in Turkey). The Bahai faith has major houses of worship and the Israeli government actually helped Mormons build their church in Jerusalem.
The PA is only oriented around Arab Muslims and Christians. In Jordan – which is majority Palestinian – the Bahai faith is outlawed and Jews carrying religious articles are turned away at the border.
Ban minorities visiting holy places
Israel allows people of all religions to access their holy places. The Israeli government reversed the Muslim ban on Jews visiting the Old City of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount, as well as the Cave of the Jewish Matriarchs and Patriarchs in Hebron when it took the city back from Jordanian Arabs in 1967.
Palestinian Arabs (who were Jordanians from 1954 to 1967) had banned Jews from their holy sites. The PA and Jordan continue to try to limit Jews from visiting Judaism’s holiest site to this day. Palestinian Arabs have also ransacked Jewish holy sites under their control, such as the Tomb of Joseph in Nablus.
Ban minorities praying at holy places
When Israel reunified Jerusalem in 1967 after Jordan attacked it, it nevertheless allowed the Jordanian waqf to administer the Jewish Temple Mount. That decision has caused Jews to continue to be banned from praying at its site while hundreds of thousands of Muslims are able to do so multiple times a day.
When Jews visit their holy sites in or adjacent to PA-ruled territories, they must have security details or be lynched by Arabs.
Ban minorities from universities
Israel’s leading universities such as Hebrew University and Tel Aviv University have large populations of non-Jews. In sharp contrast, no Jews attend Palestinian universities, and some have a history of banning Jews – even anti-Zionist ones – from even stepping foot on campus.
Ban or limit free speech and assembly for minorities
All Israeli citizens have freedom of speech, assembly and press. Israeli Arabs often launch demonstrations against the government, as do other minorities. In Gaza, only one opinion is allowed to be expressed – that sanctioned by the Islamist regime of Hamas.
Denial of minority history and culture
The Israeli government acknowledges the backgrounds, cultures and history of its diverse citizens. It teaches various histories in its schools and posts official signs in Hebrew, Arabic and English. Meanwhile the PA only uses Arabic in all official communications and actively denies the history of Jews in their holy land, including that their holy temples were in Jerusalem.
Government inciting violence against minorities
Israel is a pluralistic society with Jews and non-Jews participating in each part of society. However, the PA is effectively at war with Jews and the Jewish State and calls on Arabs to attack Jews.
Government reward murderers of minorities
Israel prosecutes criminals that commit crimes – past presidents and prime ministers have gone to jail.
The PA actually rewards criminal activity, especially violence committed against Jews. It calls the terrorists “martyrs” and names schools and squares after them, while paying their families thousands of dollars.
Major political parties’ xenophobia
The Israeli declaration of independence welcomed all people and to this day. The major Israeli political parties including Likud, Yesh Atid, and Blue and White all have charters and position papers that advance a just society for all citizens.
The Palestinian constitution is written for Arabs, with Islam as the official religion. Hamas, a designated terrorist organization by many countries, has a charter full of anti-Semitic smears and conspiracy theories. It calls for a war between Jews and Muslims.
Xenophobia and racism of population
Palestinian Arabs voted the anti-Semitic Hamas political-terrorist party to 58% of the parliament the last time elections were held, and polls show that Hamas would win presidential elections, if held today. The Anti-Defamation League did a poll in 2014 that showed that Palestinian Arabs were the most anti-Semitic in the world, with 93% holding anti-Semitic beliefs.
Israel has created a liberal democracy in the heart of the xenophobic and anti-Semitic Middle East. Those calling the country an apartheid state are not merely engaging in anti-Semitic lies, but doing so in the hope of drawing attention away from the deeply anti-Semitic and xenophobic beliefs of Palestinian Arabs.
Palestinian-American Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) submitted a bill to congress to commemorate the ‘Nakba’, or ‘catastrophe’ of the reestablishment of the Jewish State shortly after the Holocaust, in which Palestinian Arabs who waited for the destruction of Israel were refused reentry into the country. Below is a review of H.Res.1123 Recognizing the Nakba and Palestinian refugees’ rights, submitted on May 16, 2022.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) talking at the Democratic Socialists of America event in 2021 where she said Jews control people and profit off of racism
“Ms. Tlaib (for herself, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, Ms. Omar, Ms. McCollum, Ms. Newman, Mr. Bowman, and Ms. Bush) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs“
It should be noted that two of the co-sponsors of the resolution, Rep. Ocasio-Cortez and Rep. Jamaal Bowman, represent the tri-state New York area, home to the largest concentration of Jews outside of Israel. That these two members of congress continue to have seats says much about the Jewish community prioritizing Israel or bothering to pressure their representatives about Israel.
“Whereas the United Nations General Assembly recommended on November 29, 1947, to partition Palestine into two states against the wishes of Palestine’s majority indigenous inhabitants;“
At the time of the UNGA resolution, Palestine was less than 60% Arab and it would have been closer to 50% had the British not instituted the 1939 White Paper at the behest of local Arabs, preventing 100,000 Jews from fleeing the Holocaust in Europe, resulting in their deaths.
“Whereas this partition plan nevertheless provided for the “Full protection for the rights and interests of minorities, including the protection of the linguistic, religious and ethnic rights of the peoples and respect for their cultures, and full equality of all citizens with regard to political, civil and religious matters”;”
After rejecting the partition plan, Tlaib nevertheless embraces some positions, even while misunderstanding them completely. Israel did protect the rights of all, granting citizenship to everyone. This is in sharp contrast to the Arab nations of Transjordan and Egypt who illegally seized the ‘West Bank’ and Gaza, respectively, and ethnically-cleansed all Jews from those lands. Transjordan renamed itself Jordan with its newest illegal land, and then granted citizenships ONLY to Arabs in 1954, specifically excluding Jews. [1954 Jordanian Citizenship Law, article 3]
“Whereas before the State of Israel declared its independence on May 14, 1948, there were already between 250,000 to 300,000 Palestinian refugees who were expelled or fled from their homes often after attacks by Zionist militias on major Palestinian cities and villages;”
The Civil War for the land of Palestine was not about “attacks by Zionist militias” against unarmed civilians as portrayed by Tlaib but between warring parties of which the Arabs were much better armed and had initiated the fighting. In terms of people fleeing, there were Jews who fled the battle scenes too. The figure of “250,000 to 300,000” is preposterous as well. That many people fled the land to places like London and Canada or Jordan and Syria? If they stayed inside of the British Mandate boundaries, they cannot be considered refugees going from one town to another.
Palestinian Arabs mark Nakba Day 2013 with calls for violence in Bethlehem, a city Israel handed to the Palestinian Authority in 1995 as part of the Oslo Accords (photo: Ryan Rodrick Beiler/Activestills.org)
“Whereas by the time the war ended with the signing of armistice agreements between Israel and neighboring Arab countries in 1949, establishing Israel’s sovereignty over 78 percent of Palestine, and, in the process, conquering an additional 23 percent of Palestine beyond those areas allocated to the Jewish state under the partition plan, there were at least 750,000 Palestinian refugees (roughly 75 percent of the indigenous population that had lived in areas that became Israel);”
Israel was established on 22 percent LESS of Palestine than afforded it under the international mandate. The Arabs rejected the partition plan and it was never implemented so why does Tlaib reference it here at all, other than to make it sound that Israelis got more when indeed they got less.
In terms of the total number of refugees, the figure thrown about includes people who moved a few miles away to Gaza and what later became known as the ‘West Bank.’ If those areas were part of ‘Palestine’, then those people are called ‘internally-displaced’, not refugees. To be clear, there were about 770,000 Arab Muslims in the Mandate in 1931, a figure which jumped to 1.056 million in 1945, a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 2.3%. Extrapolating that number would suggest a total Arab Muslim population of 1.182 million in 1950. However, the actual figure for Arab Muslims in 1950 in Israel, Gaza and the ‘West Bank’ was 1.015 million, or 167,000 fewer than anticipated. Using the same approach for Christians who grew at a 3.0% CAGR from 1931 to 1945 would have produced 164,000 Christians in 1950, instead of the 65,000 actually in the region in that year, or 99,000 fewer people. That means that the total number of actual refugees that left Mandate Palestine was 267,000 of which 37% were Christians, many fleeing a religious war between Muslims and Jews (not because of the creation of Israel).
“Whereas, by 1949, Israel had depopulated more than 400 Palestinian villages and cities, often demolishing all structures, planting forests over them, or repopulating them with Jewish Israelis;”
Tlaib’s anti-Semitism is made clear: she makes all Arabs appear as indigenous and true ‘Palestinians’ when hundreds of thousands of Jews lived in the land as Palestinian Jews. She ignored the fact that the government of Israel gave citizenship to all Arabs who remained with full rights. She ignored the fact that the Arabs started the war against the small and weak Jews in their midst. She ignored the Arab ransacking of the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. Instead, she calls out “Jewish Israelis” who took Palestinian villages.
“Whereas Palestinians refer to this experience of uprooting, dispossession, and refugeedom as the Nakba (meaning “catastrophe” in English);”
The Palestinians rejected coexistence proposed in the partition plan, then launched and lost a war because they wanted to live in a Jew-free land. It’s Arab attitude that is a Nakba.
Palestinian Arabs rip down and burn Israeli flags on Nakba Day (photo: Menahem Kahana / AFP / Getty Images)
“Whereas the Nakba refers not only to a historical event but to an ongoing process of Israel’s expropriation of Palestinian land and its dispossession of the Palestinian people that continues to this day through the establishment and expansion of approximately 300 illegal settlements and outposts in the occupied Palestinian West Bank in which approximately 674,000 Israelis reside as of 2020;”
The Nakba-attitude of rejecting coexistence is definitely an “ongoing process.” Jordan attacked Israel in 1967 and Israel re-took the land in a defensive battle. Arab armies launched a war in 1973 on Judaism’s holiest day of Yom Kippur. Palestinian terrorists hijacked airplanes and killed Jews all over the world. And not only Jews – consider Palestinian assassination of US Senator Robert Kennedy. Arabs launched multi-year pogroms killing thousands of Jewish civilians in the 1980’s, 1990’s and 2000’s.
And of course, Palestinians reject Jews moving back to their holiest city of Jerusalem, and pretend there is a “Palestinian West Bank”. In truth, there are lands that Israel gave to the Palestinian Authority – Gaza, and Areas A and B – where Palestinian Arabs have self-determination, of course, as is their desire, in land devoid of a single Jew.
“Whereas the United States knew of the scale and magnitude of the Palestine refugee crisis as it unfolded, as is documented in an October 1948 telegram to the President and Secretary of State from the Embassy of the United States to Israel, warning that the “Arab Refugee tragedy is rapidly reaching catastrophic proportions and should be treated as a disaster”;”
The United States State Department stated clearly that Arabs started the 1948-9 Arab-Israeli War: “Fighting began with attacks by irregular bands of Palestinian Arabs attached to local units of the Arab Liberation Army composed of volunteers from Palestine and neighboring Arab countries. These groups launched their attacks against Jewish cities, settlements, and armed forces… On the eve of May 14, the Arabs launched an air attack on Tel Aviv, which the Israelis resisted. This action was followed by the invasion of the former Palestinian mandate by Arab armies from Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Egypt. Saudi Arabia sent a formation that fought under the Egyptian command.” Israel was engaged in a defensive war for its survival against Arabs from Palestine and neighboring countries.
“Whereas the United States voted in favor of United Nations General Assembly Resolution 194 on December 11, 1948, which states that Palestinian “refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or in equity, should be made good by the governments or authorities responsible”;”
The Palestinians have never sought to “live at peace” with Israel. Not in 1948, in 1967, in 2001 nor today. The United States also voted for the UN partition plan in 1947. How do any of the votes of 75 years ago matter today? In 2004, President Bush made clear that as part of Israel leaving Gaza, that “a solution to the Palestinian refugee issue as part of any final status agreement will need to be found through the establishment of a Palestinian state, and the settling of Palestinian refugees there, rather than in Israel.”
Arabs climb fence between Syria and Israel in Nakba Day protest (photo: Jalaa Marey/Reuters)
“Whereas Palestinian refugees’ right of return is not only stipulated in a General Assembly resolution, but is also anchored in international law and in Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states: “Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country”;”
The UDHR principal is to return to a COUNTRY, not a town or house. As Palestine was not a country this article is irrelevant. Further, that same UN wanted to separate the land – not country – into new Arab and Jewish states in 1947. Moving the Arabs into the Jewish state undermines that basic principle.
“Whereas, on December 8, 1949, the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 302 establishing the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, which the United States has financially supported on an almost continuous basis since its establishment;”
UNRWA was established as a TEMPORARY agency. It’s existence over 70 years later has proven an embarrassment and obstacle to peace. That is why the US had suspended payments to the organization and European countries are cutting back significantly.
An Israeli policeman bleeds from an injury during clashes with Palestinians commemorating Nakba Day at Damascus Gate, Jerusalem, May 15, 2013.(Photo by: Ryan Rodrick Beiler/Activestills.org)
“Whereas of the more than 7,000,000 Palestinian refugees, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East provides much-needed social services to 5,700,000 Palestine refugees today;”
UNRWA is a general social services organization that treats many people who are NOT refugees. By its own account, UNRWA continues to service hundreds of thousands of “other” people who live in the area. And why not? The idea that descendants of internally-displaced people are somehow “refugees” is an absurdity anyway.
“Whereas international law also recognizes that descendants of refugees retain their rights as refugees, and that according to the United Nations, “Palestine refugees are not distinct from other protracted refugee situations such as those from Afghanistan or Somalia, where there are multiple generations of refugees, considered by UNHCR as refugees and supported as such. Protracted refugee situations are the result of the failure to find political solutions to their underlying political crises”; and”
This is completely untrue. If Tlaib likes UNHCR so much, why not just fold UNRWA into that global organization? It would get rid of rampant corruption, support of terrorism and the major obstacle to peace in the region. UNHCR seeks to find a solution for refugees fleeing war. UNRWA seeks to find only one political solution for one particular group of people – Stateless Arabs from Palestine (SAPs) to move into Israel. UNRWA insists that SAPs stay registered with UNRWA and live in its environs, essentially making them prisoners. Should they opt to move – say to London – they would lose this anointed status of “refugee” and free housing, education and medical care today, as well as the chance for free housing in Israel or lots of money. UNHCR has no such political agenda and welcomes actual refugees fleeing war to find citizenship and life anywhere.
“Whereas a just and lasting resolution requires respect for and the implementation of Palestine refugee rights as enshrined in United Nations General Assembly Resolution 194 and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Now, therefore, be it”
Concluding her introductory remarks, Tlaib called out legal principals for a “lasting resolution.” She continued the narrative that there can be no peace with Israel unless the manufactured issue of “refugees” is resolved.
Palestinian rioters mark Nakba Day, 2012 (photo: Majdi Mohammed/ AFP)
“Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Representatives that it is the policy of the United States to—
(1) commemorate the Nakba through official recognition and remembrance;
(2) reject efforts to enlist, engage, or otherwise associate the United States Government with denial of the Nakba;
(3) encourage education and public understanding of the facts of the Nakba, including the United States role in the humanitarian relief effort, and the relevance of the Nakba to modern-day refugee crises;”
The first three points highlighted by Tlaib refer to the ‘Nakba’. In Tlaib’s version of history, that would mean educating people that only Arabs are indigenous to Palestine; that Zionists attacked the native Palestinian Arabs and stole their lands; obfuscating that Arabs in 1948 – and today – desired a land free of any Jews; and that Palestinian Arabs want peace, even though they reject the very notion of a Jewish State in Palestine to this day. In other words, supporters of this resolution are looking to support continuing the 1948-9 Arab War against the Jewish State.
“(4) continue to support the provision of social service to Palestinian refugees through the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East; and
(5) support the implementation of Palestinian refugees’ rights as enshrined in United Nations General Assembly Resolution 194 and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”
UNRWA has shown itself to be a deeply flawed organization. In no situation should the US government be compelled to support a temporary UN agency, which is one of the leading obstacles to peace in the region.
Further, UN Resolution 194 was a document prepared in the midst of a war. It includes numerous provisions which have absolutely no relevance today. Bringing up the December 1948 resolution highlights the dated and irrelevant orientation about refugees from which Tlaib seeks to enshrine certain rights. Indeed, US presidents have made clear that the resolution of the “refugee” issue would have them settle in a new state of Palestine, not Israel.
Palestinians wave Hamas flags on the Jewish Temple Mount. Hamas warned Jews about visiting their holiest site on Nakba Day, 2022. (Photo by Ahmad GHARABLI / AFP)
The Nakba isn’t a historical fact but a biased narrative. It attempts to whitewash the Arab attempt to destroy Jews’ safe haven in their ancestral homeland immediately after the Holocaust. Its a flimsy veneer of refugee-washing to promote refugee rights as evidence of being the wronged victim, to distract the world from the violent anti-Semitic screed of the popular Hamas Charter which encapsulates Palestinian desire for a Jew-free land. It’s a disgusting attitude which inspired the war against the Jews in 1948 and continues to this day.
That six members of the US Congress would promote commemorating the ‘Nakba’, highlights how anti-Semitism and racism is being mainstreamed in America today.
The disinformation campaign from the left is torrential when it comes to Israel.
Peter Beinart, an apologist for anti-Semites, wrote in the New York Times on May 9, 2022 about a number of things that President Joe Biden should do to reverse the actions of former President Trump to make the world a safer place. The basic premise of his editorial is curious at the start, as the Obama/Biden presidencies watched the disintegration of a sovereign Ukraine, first in a seizure of Ukraine by Russia, and then an all-out war.
In regards to Israel, the Abraham Accords that Israel struck with several Arab countries under Trump, the lowest level of Israeli deaths form terrorism and the lack of an all-out war from Gaza for the first time since Hamas took control of the area were similarly ignored. Beinart measures “peace” by his perception of what Palestinian Arabs desire.
Section of Peter Beinart editorial in The New York Times May 9, 2022
Beinart took aim at the actions of Trump and Israel as it related to Jerusalem. He mentioned:
Biden’s desire to “reopen the U.S. Consulate in East Jerusalem” which Trump had closed;
That “Palestinians” live as noncitizens under Israeli control in Jerusalem;
That the U.S. needs to take “an interest in their plight”
As The New York Times does not fact-check its editorials when published by left-wing writers, here are some facts:
The U.S. Consulate in East Jerusalem was in western Jerusalem. Not only is the building west of the 1949 Armistice Line, the Obama Administration weaponized the consulate in 2015 when it decided to post armed Palestinian Arabs inside the building. When Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in accordance with Congress’s Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995, he folded the consulate offices into the new embassy building. Palestinian Arab concerns continued to be addressed, contrary to Beinart’s implication, it simply lacked the symbolism of a stand-alone building.
Further, Arabs in Jerusalem can apply for Israeli citizenship, and thousands have done so. Beinart wrote that Palestinians suffer from “Israeli control in Jerusalem” when Arabs have been afforded the opportunity to become citizens for decades.
What is the “plight” of Palestinians in Jerusalem that Beinart calls out? The Arab population has skyrocketed (+3.4 times compared to +1.9 times for Jews between 1990 and 2019) as well as the number of households (+188% versus +64% for Jews between 1990 and 2019). The Arabs in Jerusalem are much the same as the ultra-Orthodox Jewish population, with similar fertility rates, age demographics, employment and poverty rates. What does Beinart think of the “plight” of Charedi Jews in Jerusalem? How does he feel about the Jews who were ethnically-cleansed from the Old City of Jerusalem by Arabs in 1949 and banned from the city, even for prayer, until 1967?
Beinart’s overall contention in his tightly-worded and factually-incorrect paragraph seems to be that Trump sided with Israel in regards to Jerusalem and left the Palestinians to suffer under the racist Israeli regime, leaving the region much more unsafe. It is an inversion of the truth, as the region was much safer under the Trump years and it is the Arabs who made the Jews suffer under their control of the eastern portion of Jerusalem.
The New York Times is manufacturing a narrative that “East Jerusalem” still exists and that it’s Palestinian. Beinart added his voice to that fiction, that the Biden administration needs to show the Palestinians that he has “an interest in their plight,” by reversing Trump’s pro-Israel actions. And even more than gestures to Palestinian Arabs (on an unmentioned murdering spree), Beinart wants Biden to give the Islamic Republic of Iran, the leading state sponsor of terrorism which has threatened the destruction of Israel, a legal pathway to nuclear weapons. Again.
Have an interest in a topic? Email firstonethough@gmail.com
In the rampant misinformation campaign that is propagated in the liberal media and anti-Israel universities, conflating Palestinian Arabs with the foreign terrorist organization Hamas is considered a sign of Islamophobia. In the same breath, those deluded souls will tell you that Israel is a racist European settler colonial regime.
The facts are clear that both statements are lies.
The last time the Palestinian Arabs held elections for their parliament was in 2006. The political-terrorist group Hamas won 76 of 132 seats, or 57.6%, trouncing Fatah which won 43 seats. According to a March 2022 poll, if presidential elections were held today, Hamas’s Ismail Haniyeh would win 54% to Fatah’s Mahmoud Abbas getting 38%. If Abbas would not run, the winner would be convicted murderer Marwan Barghouti. Further, a majority (52%) of Palestinian Arabs support terrorism, which the poll termed “armed confrontation and intifada.” Two-thirds of Palestinians want Hamas and another terrorist group, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, to be incorporated into the Palestinian Liberation Organization to “make it more representative of the Palestinian people.” This is apart from the 93% of Palestinian Arabs who are antisemitic.
In regards to Israel, it is the most diverse country in the Middle East. 73.9% of the country is Jewish, 21.1% are Arab (Muslim and Christian) and 5% are other groups including Ba’hai (a religion banned in several neighboring countries), Samaritans and others.
Among Jews, nearly half of the population is Brown and Black.
As of 2018, only 31.8% of Jews were Ashkenazi, of European heritage, and 12.4% were from the former USSR. That compares to 44.9% who are Mizrahi and 3.0% from Ethiopia. The balance (7.9%) are of mixed heritage.
Those figures mean that 32.7% of Israeli Jews are European, when combining all Ashkenazi and Jews from the former USSR.
Ethiopian Jewish woman praying at the Western Wall of the Jewish Temple Mount in Jerusalem, Israel (photo: First One Through)
College campuses and the media are lying when they state that Hamas is not representative of the Palestinian people and that Israel is a colonial project of European Jews. The simple current facts are that over 50% of Palestinians support the terrorist groups of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad, and less than one-third of Israelis are European Jews.
First One Through 