Category: Politics

Posted on

Is Israel Smashing Freedom of Speech?

The hypocrisy of the Left knows no bounds.  The current legislation written by MK Miri Regev  to make government funding for cultural endeavors conditional on loyalty to the state may seem a bit much to the casual observer, but the Left knows far well that it has grossly overreached in terms of tapping into government coffers to fund these artists in order to inculcate a post-Zionist outlook in the youth.  The Left coupled a cultural take over here in Israel by smashing artists with alternate political viewpoints as fringe or radical.

The Left cannot come to terms with the fact that Israel is a far more traditionally right leaning country than their European interlocutors would like them to believe.

“The beauty of Israeli artistic creation will always continue,” Isaac Herzog the head of the Zionist Union vowed on Facebook. “The Israeli McCarthyism and the zeros who are leading it will disappear just as they disappeared in the United States. The question is when and how much it will cost us?”

Once again the Left would like everyone to think the government is trying to shut down Israeli artists, but that is not the case. Regev and non-Profits like Im Tirtzu who are helping to promote the bill, just don’t want tax payer funds to prop up otherwise failing post-Zionist artists. All artists and performers in Israel have an unalienable right to freedom of speech and expression, but we the tax payer should not be required to fund the very people that seek to undermine our right to live here.

Posted on

Ambassador Danon Confronts UN On Hypocrisy Regarding Israel

On Tuesday, Ambassador Danny Danon confronted the UN Security Council on its hypocrisy and double standards regarding Israel. “The Security Council has passed 12 resolutions condemning terror in countries around the world, but not once has it condemned acts of terror against Israelis,” he proclaimed.

Ambassador Danon’s full statement at the UNSC Middle East debate

Danny Danon to the Media on the Middle East – Security Council Stakeout

“The challenge for this council is to chart a new course. No more business as usual when it comes to terror against Israelis. The fear is the same fear; the pain is the same pain. The response must be the same response.”

Read the full transcript of Danon’s address to the UNSC

Posted on

Jewish Hunger Striker in Danger

Administrative Detainee Meir Ettinger has reportedly lost consciousness due to his hunger strike.  Meir Ettinger was placed in administrative detention with no charges or evidence over 6 months ago in relation to the Duma fire, which killed a young Arab family. Ettinger was in Sefat at the time, but the Defense Minister used a controversial power to place him in prison indefinitely.

Meir Ettinger is the grandson of Rav Meir Kahane and is considered a young leader of the growing hilltop movement in Judea and Samaria.

Moriah Ettinger, Meir’s wife, told Hakol Hayehudi, “The only one with power is God. He put Meir in jail and he will release him, and we are certain He will release him.” She cited Psalms 32:10, “Many sorrows come to the wicked, but loving-kindness will surround the man who trusts in God.”

Two other detainees were arrested along with Ettinger without charge. One of them Mordechai Meir was released after five months after it was proven the evidence the Shabak (internal security services) presented was proven false. Administrative detention is often used to extra-judicially hold Palestinian prisoners during security sweeps if they are suspected of involvement in  broader terrorist activities in order to gain more information or protect Israel from attacks in real time.  The last time administrative detention was used against Jews was during the British Mandate period.

Posted on

UN & Canada Sympathize With Palestinian Terror

On January 24, 2016, Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Stéphane Dion, called for restraint in Israel and the West Bank by stating the following:

“Canada is concerned by the continued violence in Israel and the West Bank. ‎The violence has persisted for over 100 days. Canada believes strongly in a two-state solution and that negotiations provide the only viable path to peace. As a steadfast ally and friend to Israel, Canada calls for all efforts to be made to reduce violence and incitement and to help build the conditions for a return to the negotiating table. Unilateral actions, such as Palestinian initiatives toward statehood in international forums and continued Israeli settlements, are unhelpful and constitute serious obstacles to achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace.”

This statement shows the stance of Canada’s new liberal government and clearly shows they lack an understanding of the reality on the grounds in Israel. The claim that Israeli settlements are an obstacle to peace is absurd. Israel pulling out of Gaza proved the exact opposite. It only achieved more rockets flying into Israel.

The only good in Minister Dion’s statement is that he did not go as far as Ban Ki-Moon who expressed sympathy for Palestinian terrorism during a UN Security Council session. Though the UN Secretary General condemned Palestinian terror attacks, he nevertheless stated the following:

“Security measures alone will not stop the violence. They cannot address the profound sense of alienation and despair driving some Palestinians – especially young people. Progress towards peace requires a freeze of Israel’s settlement enterprise. Continued settlement activities are an affront to the Palestinian people and to the international community. They rightly raise fundamental questions about Israel’s commitment to a two-state solution. As oppressed peoples have demonstrated throughout the ages, it is human nature to react to occupation, which often serves as a potent incubator of hate and extremism.”

So Moon is condemning, yet justifying, the terror attacks on Jews. One can only wonder how Moon would explain the reasoning behind the terror attacks in Paris and California. Were the terrorists there also an oppressed people?

The Palestinian violence is not about settlements or land

The violence on the Arab side is the result of incitement against Jews in general. The incitement is found on PA television and the Hamas charter, as well as influence from Islamic extremist groups such as ISIS. The violence has nothing to do with land in Israel. It has everything to do with Jihad and the thirst for Jewish blood. Most of the recent knife and shooting attacks at Jews were the result of young Arabs being exposed to PA incitement to kill Jews. Israel is trying to expose the Arab incitement to the world, but it seems the new Canada government prefers to blame Israeli settlements on inciting violence. Are we to assume the recent terrorist attacks in Paris and California were also about land? Of course not. It all stems from the same Muslim extremism ideology and Jihad. The Palestinian Authority just uses the “settlement” and “land” card so it can continue receiving international funds and aid while not being labeled a terrorist organization like Hamas.

On the other hand, the IDF, security personnel and civilians that injure or kill an attacking terrorist are doing so out of self defense; not out of hatred or incitement to murder innocent civilians. Even the Israeli military’s name is all about defense: Israeli Defense Forces.

Palestinians are oppressed and under occupation; But not by Israel

If Ban Ki-Moon wants to discuss the occupation that Palestinians are suffering from, then he should point fingers at their leadership, not at Israel. Hamas in Gaza and the PLO in the West Bank, are responsible for the suffering of their people. Simply put, they could stop inciting violence against Israel, make peace and enjoy from the fruits of prosperity that Israel has to offer. But instead, Hamas erects training camps brainwashing children to become martyrs in the name of Jihad, uses international aid and equipment to build terror tunnels into Israel instead of buildings for civilians and both Hamas and the PLO preach the annihilation of the Jewish people. However, even Hamas officials admit that Gaza is not occupied by Israel ever since Israel pulled out of Gaza in 2005.

There is a clear double standard when it comes to the international community blaming Israel for the troubles in the Middle East. Anyone with some common sense can pinpoint the root cause of the Middle East crisis in general and the Palestinian hostilities in particular.

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu condemned Ban Ki-Moon’s remarks today:

“The UN Secretary-General’s words give encouragement to terror. There is no justification for terror. The Palestinian murderers don’t want to build a state – they want to destroy a state (Israel), and they say it out loud. They want to murder Jews wherever they are, and they say it out loud. They don’t murder for the sake of peace and they don’t murder for the sake of human rights. The UN long ago lost its neutrality and its moral authority, and these words of the Secretary General don’t make the situation any better.”

Posted on

Hebron and the Fall of Israel’s Government

See the update on the bottom of the article.

The acquisition of two Arab properties in Hebron by Jews and the new owners’ subsequent eviction by Defense Minister Yaalon has placed current Israeli government in peril. The government has a razor thin majority of 61 parliamentary members and needs only 2 to sink it.  Three MKs from the right have now stood up and pledged to vote against the coalition. Betzalel Smotritch, Ayoub Kara and Oren Hazan have now said they will not vote in favor of the coalition. Expect more to follow.

Responding to Ya’alon’s claim the residents were “intruders,” Smotrich blasted, “Intruders?! Residents who purchased homes at full price are intruding?! I listened to Bogie’s rhetoric against settlers in the interview and it’s just shameful.”

Why Hebron?

To understand how serious the situation is in relation to the government’s survival, it is important to grasp the role Hebron plays in the psyche of the Jewish nation.  The Patricarchs and Matriarchs of the Jewish people are buried there and  King David ruled there for the first 7 years of his Kingship.  Hebron also had a contiguous Jewish presence (save for the crusader) until 1929 when the Arabs rioted, massacring nearly 70 individuals and driving the remainder from the city.

It was not until 1967 that Jews returned to Hebron.  From the 1970’s onward the ancient Jewish community came back to life.

Since the beginning of the current security deterioration,  Hebron and the surrounding area has suffered the majority of shooting, knifing, and rock throwing attacks. Four residents of Kiryat Arba/Hebron and the wider area have been killed. For one moment on Thursday, there was a sense that some good had come from all of the violence. The purchase of the two houses provided a relief to the despair.

Yaalon in Control

Yaalon’s actions are in direct contravention to basic property rights.  In this case the Jewish buyers have all of the documentation necessary proving they bought the houses. In Israel, perfect documentation is needed because Arab sellers will often times change their mind under the fear of death.

Given the above fact, why would Yaalon spark a coalition crisis over two houses?  The answer is simple…control. Yaalon has spent the better part of his professional military career watching the army shift out of the hands of the children and grandchildren of the Kibbutz movement and into the hands of the Religious Zionist camp. Although there are many shades of gray within the Religious Zionist movement, Hebron represents something beyond just settlements.

By allowing private purchases to change the landscape of Hebron the way they have in Jerusalem (not under Yaalon’s department) the turning point for the State of Israel would be complete. Control is about direction. Religious Zionism in all of its myriad of colors strives for the leadership of the State of Israel by both connecting it to its past and using that past as a road map for its future. Hebron, even more so than Jerusalem holds the keys to nation’s roots.  Without Hebron the claim to any other part of Israel becomes shaky at best.

Hebron as the Symbol for National Liberation

The Zionist Revolution is more than a religious doctrine. In fact, it is one of the few national liberation struggles that has successfully born fruit in such a short amount of time. The return to Hebron has become a symbol for that return and stands on the frontlines of the Jewish Nation’s liberation struggle.

Surprisingly enough it was Ben Gurion himself who noted the importance of Hebron:

“we will make a great and awful mistake if we fail to settle Hebron, neighbor and predecessor of Jerusalem, with a large Jewish settlement, constantly growing and expanding, very soon. This will also be a blessing to the Arab neighbors. Hebron is worthy to be Jerusalem’s sister.”

Will the Government Fall?

Israeli politics has always been very unpredictable.  The government is very shaky and one false move by anyone can easily shatter it.  There is tremendous pressure due to the security situation for the government to act and act with an iron fist.  The fact that it hasn’t done that and rather chose to focus on chasing after a small group of young settlers, while paying lip service to defending the Jewish people has begun to take its toll on the citizenry. Evicting Jews from building they lawfully bought may actually be the trigger for the government’s collapse.

Those of us that have been through many of these situations also know that the Prime Minister and Defense Minister are fully capable of walking back their actions if they sense a mortal blow about to occur.  In the coming days as external threats pile up around Israel, the threat that the government may indeed collapse will grow.  At that point the Prime Minister may in fact be left with no choice than to force the Defense Minister to unlock the doors to houses himself, or find a new line of work.

UPDATE

Bibi just said that although he supports the settlements, purchasers must respect the law and wait for approval.  He hopes that happens soon. This is a vague statement and one wonders what will happen next or if he will really follow through. It would seem the ball is back in the corner of the young renegades.  My assumption is that they will give Bibi some room to maneuver, but hold him to his word. Hebron is now on the front line and symbol of the future direction of the State of Israel.

Posted on

Stone Throwing: When Justice is not Blind

[dropcap]Y[/dropcap]ouths from Yitzhar were sentenced to eight months in prison for stone throwing, while Arab youths go free under similar circumstances.

The District Court in Lod, sentenced six Jewish youths to eight months in prison for throwing stones in Yitzhar two years ago. The six were arrested in a police provocation near the town and have been under house arrest since the incident.

Residents from Judea and Samaria have compared the length of the sentence given to these Jewish youths to the more common cases of Arab youths who throw stones. In most cases, Arab youths are never even indicted for stone throwing and even when they are, they rarely end up serving prison terms in cases where no physical harm was caused.

The Facebook page of the “Shomron Residents Committee,” posted a story by ‘Gadi’ a member of the committee, about the army’s response to Arab stone throwers. The suspects were of similar ages to the Jewish youths who were recently sentenced.

He wrote as follows:

“It was around Purim 2011. We were stationed in a base near Karmei Tzur and we were responsible for the area that included Al-Arub, which is known to be a problematic village.

Every Friday, youths from the local school would hold protests after their school let out and they would throw stones at vehicles on Route 60. It was our job as soldiers to prevent them from doing so.

One time, after a short chase, we caught two youths around 15 years old, who had thrown stones. We brought them to the Etzion station where the commander thanked us for our efforts. I then saw with my own eyes how the commander called the father of one of the youths and spoke to him in Arabic. He explained to him that if his son was caught again, he would be arrested. He then released both youths without questioning them or recording any information about them at all.”

The Shomron Residents Committee also noted the case of Muhammad Yusuf Darwish, an adult Arab who was caught throwing explosive devices at soldiers and who admitted in his interrogation that he had also thrown stones many times. For all of his offenses, he received only five months of prison and a small fine. It is noteworthy that prison sentences below 6 months in Israel can be automatically converted to full-day community service, thus Darwish did not have to serve any prison time at all.

This article was originally published in HaKol HaYehudi.

Posted on

From Saudi Chaos to Iranian Stability

Sometimes Internet rumors do in fact exhibit a modicum of truth. The Internet has been filled with conspiracy theories on the sudden rise of ISIS.  Connecting this to Benghazi and the hidden hand of the USA behind it all.

A now declassified Department of Defense document seen here, proves that the government had an awareness that ISIS would directly develop from aiding Jihadist against Assad.  Given that even the Obama administration isn’t naive enough to think these rebels would remain on a tight leash, the question must be asked: why would the administration be dumb enough to repeat the same policy that gave birth to Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaida?

Block Iran

Most conventional thinking revolves around the idea that ISIS or at least its predecessor was funded or allowed to metastasize as a block towards Iran’s advancement across the Middle East to the Mediterranean. It would seem that America’s funding of the various groups that would form ISIS is proof enough. Besides that, America has taken a very lax approach to bombing the group. The fact that Saudi Arabia in concert with the West has supported Jihadists against Assad seems to complete the puzzle.

But what happens if we are actually wrong about this? What happens if the plot is far more thick than we think? What happens if funding ISIS is about a whole new Middle East and the Obama administration has crafted all of this for some much larger purpose?

Chaos Leads to Order…Always

The theory of spontaneous order is an idea whose roots date back over 2,000 years ago.  The theory is based on the idea that reality as we know it strives for order.  This is why in seemingly chaotic situations some sort of order always prevails.  

Obama and Kerry had to know that nothing good would come out of funding Jihadists.  Nothing that is, unless they wanted the chaos that has now been unleashed on the Middle East.  The forces are ripe for a new order and if one compares the speed of the rapprochement between Washington and Tehran it is no coincidence it has occurred over the backdrop of this growing chaos.

By creating the chaos or at least allowing it to mutate into a real enough threat, rapprochement with Iran can be peddled as a necessity. This is exactly why there has been a full court press on showing Iran as a truly amicable partner as we noted here. Strategically speaking the Obama administration has always seen Iran as the only country that could truly bring stability to the Middle East.  Obama himself was never really enamored by the aging Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and as a revolutionary he felt his Shiite friends could be counted on as new strategic asset.

We’ve Been Tricked

No two countries have felt more slighted than Obama’s rapprochement than Israel or Saudi Arabia. Not only have the Sunni states been put into a precarious position, but their resources have been used to fight a war that has led to the raison d’etre itself for the USA to basically switch sides.  

For Israel, there is perhaps nothing better than the solitary realization that we have nothing else to rely on than the Almighty himself.

Posted on

Dismantling the Right of Return

The Palestinian demand for the “Right of Return” has long been a core belief set to the broader peace narrative in relation to a permanent settlement with Israel.  On the face of it, the demand seems pretty solid, that is of course if one buys into the Palestinian narrative without questioning the very basis of its claims.

Palestinians claim the following:

  • Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country. -Article 13(2), Universal Declaration of Human Rights (10 December 1948).
  • The Geneva Conventions of 1949.
  • The General Assembly, Having considered further the situation in Palestine … Resolves that the 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.” -UN General Assembly Resolution 194 (11 December 1948)
  • United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3236 which “reaffirms also the inalienable right of the Palestinians to return to their homes and property from which they have been displaced and uprooted, and calls for their return”.
  • Resolution 242 from the UN affirms the necessity for “achieving a just settlement of the refugee problem.”
  • Supporters of the Palestinian right of return maintain that “the right of return for the 1948 Palestinian refugees still exists according to international law. It exists despite the language of the Oslo agreements, insufficient as they are in this regard, and despite the position of the current Israeli government. Palestinian refugees should be free to seek their right to repatriation, regardless of what the PLO acquiesces to, so long as UN Resolution 194 remains in force”.
  • No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of the right to enter his own country. -Article 12, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights(23 March 1976).

The main crux  behind using many of the above statements lies with attaching the Palestinian Right of Return to something national.

After all, Israel has the Law of Return, which designates any Jew or a person that has 1/4 Jewish ancestry as eligible to return to his/her ancestral homeland.  The Palestinians argue that if a Jew can return after a hiatus of of 1,700 to 2,00 years then they who were here in between should certainly be aloud back.

Essentially speaking the Palestinian claim and statements from international treaties that seem to support it do so because refugees and their return depend on origins within a recognized national entity.

Between the years 1917 and 1948, as the modern Nation States of the Middle East were being created by world powers, no one believed there to be unique nation called Palestine.  In fact all references to Palestine connected the word to Jews and their inalienable rights to form a Nation State their. Why?  Because simply speaking, the current Palestinians had no Nation in the Levant.  This is not to say they were not there, they were or at least a percentage of them were, but they had no previous national claim to the Land.  Some were considered Syrians and other Egyptians, but none of them used the word Palestinian or connected themselves to a distinct national heritage in defining themselves.

Ryan Bellerose, a native Metas from Canada wrote an excellent piece this week refuting Palestinian claims to being indigenous. National indigenous rights are a key component hen tackling issues connected to refugees and this is why Palestinians who formed their collective narrative as an anti-narrative to Israel and Jewish rights there are some forceful in trying to prove that themselves had some sort of national collective experience that was taken from them.  If not, then their claims to deserving a right of return falls through.

One cannot build a national narrative whose sole foundation is the negation of another people’s narrative. That is not a legitimate narrative nor is it something that deserves the right of return.

It is clear that a right of return should belong to the one cultural group that exerted itself time and time again as the national sovereign in the Land of Israel and that is he people of Israel.  It is true individual rights should be given to all persons that live in the Land of Israel.  That does not make them a historically indigenous people nor does it give them the right to claim a return generations later.

Posted on

Iran and USA: Cornering Israel

Shortly before President Obama’s final State of the Union Address, Iranian Revolutionary Guards gunboats seized and detained 2 ships belonging to the United States military and the ten marines on board. Less than 24 hours later the marines were released. The typical chorus and rhapsody of neoconservative pundits seriously believed that this would be the “straw that broke the camel’s back” and Obama would have the guts to stand up to the Persians.

The assumption that the Obama administration works according to the same rule book that past Presidents have is a perception that just doesn’t fit.  The Obama administration won’t risk war with Iran, not because it believes war is bad.  Afterall they toppled Gaddafi. They won’t risk war with Iran, because Obama and team and their shrills in the media believe wholeheartedly that Iran should be seen as a future strategic partner.  After all, Obama didn’t even mention the captive soldiers in his State of the Union Address. Of course for Obama, this is more to do with his world outlook than strategic positioning.

Barack Obama is a transformational President. In that regard, bridging the divide with Persia, a country he believes deserves respect because of their ancient roots, fits in with his restructuring of geopolitical partnerships.

Furthermore, it is quite probable the action Iran took was undertaken from the beginning as a means to show that they are actually reasonable. Given Obama’s rapprochement with Iran, he is more than willing to let Iran play the part of a reasonable actor.

Israel In a Corner

Bibi Netanyahu’s entire mantra is that one should not negotiate with irrational actors as was done with North Korea. Bibi has from the beginning tried to prove that Iran and North Korea are very similar.  This has fed into Obama’s strategy of showing the opposite.  By inculcating in the American people that Bibi and Israel are saber rattling and preventing what should otherwise we be a rapprochement, then the bad guys backed by the neocons is really Israel.

Once again the the chess match between Bibi and Obama has entered another back and forth phase.  The challenge for Israel is realizing they are playing  at a chessboard alone as their challenger plays with very different rules and a far more sinister goal.

 

Posted on

Obama and the Coming Global Security State

“Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power.”

-1984, George Orwell

What does one do when the person they have elected views the office they hold as merely a means to gain even more power.  They can either dismiss the chorus of complaints as racist, conspiratorial, or downright mad, but the facts won’t change and the fleeing of self responsibility won’t reverse the course.

When Americans elected Barack Hussein Obama in 2008 and again in 2012, they made a choice between the sovereignty of the many  and sovereignty of the State.  For Obama it has never been about the Change he promised as that was a sugar coated pill for the masses.  The revolution Obama has wrought in the USA is the revolution of the State against its citizens. This is the bureaucratic dictatorship the founding fathers warned against.  It is the unseen hand that controls all, but cannot be found out for it is the state itself and not a single person.

Obama though is not satisfied with his revolution in the United States, because Obama has always aspired to more.  For Obama he is the revolution in and of itself.  For if he can so fundamentally transform America, why not be the great unifier of the world itself. Afterall, for Obama the USA has a flaw.  The Amendments the 13 original states agreed to ratify (after some wrangling between them) are too strong a component to the cultural ethos of the USA to disregard and complete the revolution Obama would like to see.

Breaking Israel News reports that Al –Jarida, an Arabic language Kuwaiti magazine, published an article on Friday claiming that US President Barack Obama has set his sights on becoming the next Secretary General of the United Nations when he leaves the Oval Office in one year.

For Obama the revolution will be complete, the global security state, the one that rights the wrongs of the past, equalizes the rich with the impoverished, and heralds peace at the expense of personal freedom will be his creation. Once again he is both the revolution and its goal.

Between the Rule of the Individual and the Rule of the State

The Torah teaches us that each individual is a Divine spark, a map of the universe in miniature.  We are in this world for a specific purpose only we can fulfill. It is true, the Kingdom Israel that is waiting to burst through the darkness will have a King, but the King and the Kingdom are not meant to rule over us.  They are meant as a means to give full freedom to the individual and at the same time provide the inspiration and motivation for each of us to attain our Divine goals.

Statists believe the State is the all powerful and it is the individual’s purpose and goal to pledge loyalty to the State. That allegiance and handing over of personal freedoms is the catalyst for global and societal transformation.

The coming conflagration is not really about Islam versus the West.  Rather, it is about the role of the individual in relation to the State.  Slavery comes in many ways.  Sometimes it is a Pharaoh and his task masters who rule relentlessly over a powerless Israelite people.  Other times it is the quiet rule of law administered, not for the sake of justice, but rather to uphold the power of the few and the system that serves them over the masses who have traded away their freedom for the short term injection of false happiness.

These are the times our sages spoke about.  Those of us who are G-d fearing must not give in to the false promises of politicians or the machinations of soon to be ex-Presidents who believe they are the Change everyone wants and needs. We in Israel and those of our supporters around the world who believe in the individual rights and freedom of thought must yearn and be prepared to defend the freedom of man and his divine mission against the totalitarianism of the State.

This war has no specific location, but rather it is a war over the hearts and minds of humanity itself.