Dear Family & Friends,

One-Third of American Olim in Israel live in Judea & Samaria! I hope to be one someday soon.

I’ve wanted to do this since at least as early as 1979. The rocky, empty gorgeous hills of J&S inspired me. Wherever I saw the few caravans of Jewish families roughing it out in those early days, I wanted to join them. But, life happens. G-d decides. When given the possibility to choose finally, I decided in a moment. Now comes the fun part. How to do it. But, I will. I hope & pray I will.

Meantime, lots more strife & nonsense & good news to write about. So Shavua Tov! Remember:

Today is the first day of the rest of your life!

The moon, she is full & shining into my roof-top window over my computer.

1.One-Third of Americans in Israel Live in Judea and Samaria

An Oxford University professor’s new book uncovers what most Israelis know – that the Americans are not “Wild West” cowboys. By:

Tzvi Ben-Gedalyahu JewishPress.com Published: August 28th, 2015

Efrat Chief Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, formerly from New York. Photo Credit: Screen shot

Approximately 60,000 Americans, one-third of those who have moved to Israel, live in Judea and Samaria, according to a new book whose conclusions were reported by Haaretz.

The Americans also comprise approximately 15% of all Judea and Samaria Jews, otherwise known as “settlers” by most of the world and “illegitimate” and “illegal” by President Barack Obama.

The conclusions of the book, “City on a Hilltop: Jewish-American Settlers in the Occupied Territories Since 1967? by Oxford University Prof. Sara Yael Hirschhorn, are not surprising to anyone living in Israel but may come as a bit of a shock to the foreign policy “experts” at the U.S. State Dept.

They also might surprise some “expert” media stars, such as Thomas Friedman of The New York Times, who once wrote that settlers are Israel’s answer to Hezbollah.

As late as last December, in a rant during the Israel election campaign. Friedman wrote:

The Israel right….is dominated by West Bank settlers and scary religious-nationalist zealots.

Hirschhorn, in her book to be published later this year, wrote:

“Something like 10 percent of American settlers in the occupied territories hold PhDs; they’re upwardly mobile, they’re traditional but not necessarily Orthodox in their religious practice, and most importantly, they were politically active in the leftist socialist movements in the United States in the 1960s and 70s and voted for the Democratic Party prior to their immigration to Israel.”

So much for the “Wild West zealots” in the West Bank.

Much to the surprise of Friedman and the State Dept., Hirschhorn also wrote:

They’re not only compelled by some biblical imperative to live in the Holy Land of Israel and hasten the coming of the Messiah, but also deeply inspired by an American vision of pioneering and building new suburbanized utopian communities in the occupied territories. They draw on their American background and mobilize the language they were comfortable with, discourses about human rights and civil liberties that justify the kind of work that they’re doing.

Yes, Americans in Judea and Samaria – or the occupied territories, the West Bank, or over the Green Line – are inspired by the Bible, and, no, they are not wild-eyed cowboys waiting around every bend to kill Arabs.

Her study does not cover the other 85 percent of Israeli settlers, most of whom live in Judea and Samaria for the simple reason that housing is cheaper than in most other areas and that “settlements” have clean air and are a great place to raise a family.

And some Americans, like myself, also live in the West Bank for practical reasons. When we left a kibbutz 26 years ago with three toddlers, our community in the Southern Hebron Hills was the only place close to a hospital where my wife, a nurse, did not have to work every other Shabbat.

Cheap housing is less available today in Gush Etzion, where Americans compromise a huge proportion of the population and where housing prices have soared. It used to be said that Efrat is not totally American, but on one Shabbat, it was all-American because the Israeli family went away for Shabbat.

That is no longer true, but Americans still account for approximately 40 percent of the city’s residents.

The image of the American cowboy arises because a large percentage of the minuscule number of crazies who have attacked Arabs in the past are from the United States.

The article in Haaretz on the book did not mention if Hirschhorn’s book also refers to the extremely large number of Americans living in neighborhoods in Jerusalem that the United States government and the United Nations also consider “occupied.”

About the Author: Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu is a graduate in journalism and economics from The George Washington University. He has worked as a cub reporter in rural Virginia and as senior copy editor for major Canadian metropolitan dailies. Tzvi wrote for Arutz Sheva for several years before joining the Jewish Press.

2.Nearly 900 US Rabbis Urge Congress to Reject Iran Deal Opponents push back after 340 liberal American rabbis sign letter calling on congress to back controversial nuclear deal. By Ari Soffer Arutz Sheva IsraelNationalNews.com 8/25/2015, 9:04 PM Nearly 900 American rabbis have signed a petition urging the US Congress to reject the recently-signed nuclear deal with Iran. The online petition hopes to garner 1,000 signatures by September 7 – the date Congress is set to vote on the agreement. So far 887 “ordained rabbis” from various denominations have signed. A majority vote against is almost inevitable given the Republican majority in both houses, but so too is a presidential veto, which Barack Obama has clearly said he will use in the event the deal is voted down. The challenge then for opponents of the deal is to gain a two-thirds majority in both houses of congress to overturn the veto – an achievement that is looking increasingly unlikely as Democratic legislators have mostly rallied behind the president. Earlier in August 340 liberal American rabbis signed a controversial call to congress to back the deal. Their letter provoked anger within the wider American Jewish community, many of whom, like the State of Israel, view the accord as a “bad deal” which paves the way for Iran to become a nuclear-armed power and emboldens it to pursue an ever-more aggressive foreign policy. In response, 350 Orthodox Israeli rabbis signed an appeal of their own to Congress, urging them to reject the deal. But the online campaign is more significant in that its signatories are all US citizens. It argues that the deal “will harm the short-term and long-term interests of both the United States and our allies, particularly Israel.” “If this agreement is implemented, Iran will receive as much as $150 billion dollars, without any commitment to changing its nefarious behavior,” it states. “The Iranian regime denies basic human rights to its citizens, publicly calls for America’s downfall and Israel’s annihilation, and openly denies the Holocaust. This dangerous regime—the leading state sponsor of terrorism—could now be given the financial freedom to sow even more violence throughout the world.” In return, the letter notes, Iran is only subjected to very limited inspections of its nuclear sites, under conditions that are open to manipulation. “The deal would also lift key arms embargos, so that in eight years Iran will be given international legitimacy to arm terror groups with conventional weapons and ballistic missiles,” it adds. “The agreement also entitles Iran to develop advanced centrifuges after 10 years—all-but paving Iran’s path to a nuclear weapons capability with virtually zero “breakout time.”” “We fear the world we will leave our children if this deal is approved. And we fear having to someday bear the responsibility for Iran becoming wealthier, further empowered and better equipped to produce nuclear bombs when we had the chance to stop it,” the letter continues. “For these reasons, we agree with the assessments of leaders and experts in the United States, along with virtually all Israeli voices across the political spectrum, that we can, and must, do better. We call upon our Senators and Representatives to consider the dangers that this agreement poses to the United States and our allies, and to vote in opposition to this deal.” The petition ends by citing the Prophet Isaiah’s famous vision of world peace. “We hope and pray that God will assist us in ushering in for the entire world a time promised by Isaiah (2:4) when “nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they engage in war anymore,” when peace will prevail. Until then, we simply cannot afford to empower and enrich a regime that continues to lift its sword without mercy towards so many who stand for good, freedom and peace.” Nearly 900 US Rabbis Urge Congress to Reject Iran Deal 3.Edelstein: When Someone Says He Wants to Kill Us, We Believe Him Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein to SG Ban Ki-moon on Iran: ‘I believe someone when he says he wants to destroy me.’ By Orly Harari Arutz Sheva IsraelNationalNews.com Publish: 8/29/2015, 8:51 PM Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein (Likud) met with United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in the latter’s UN office yesterday (Friday). During their meeting, Edelstein told Ban about Israel’s concern over the recent Iran nuclear agreement. “As a member of the Jewish people that experienced the Holocaust, I believe someone when he says he wants to destroy me,” said Edelstein. “No one has to love Israel. It is fine and necessary to express criticism, but you cannot threaten to destroy us.” The Secretary-General countered by stressing that he believes the deal is beneficial, even if it is not ideal: “There are no perfect agreements. I believe that the long negotiations brought about a good deal. In any case, I advise you to rely on the statement by President Reagan, to ‘believe but verify’ that the conditions are held to.” Later, Edelstein expressed his dissatisfaction that a senior Iranian official recently emphasized that Iran wishes to destroy Israel. The remark came in response to UK Foreign Minister Philip Hammond, who had claimed that Iran has a “more nuanced approach” towards Israel today. The Secretary-General, in turn, said he is very worried that there are no talks currently going on with the Palestinians. “You must sit down and talk. I am very concerned about the crime, about the violence, and about the provocations in East Jerusalem and in the West Bank. The Middle East needs stability and both sides have an interest in improving the situation. This will only come about through dialog.” Edelstein responded by saying that he believes preliminary talks should be between people and between parliaments – without any connection to a peace deal or borders. “Both sides have a shared interest and are bound by their need to provide a good life for future generations,” he said. “We must work together on issues including water resources, the environment, and farming. Only thus can we build a base for peace with them.” The Knesset Speaker thanked the Secretary-General for the United Nation’s intention to recognize Yom Kippur as an official holiday of the State of Israel. In doing so, the UN will not carry out activities on that day. “This is a very holy day for Jews,” said Edelstein. “Aside from the justified and important gesture, I believe there is a message here that the organization which you head expresses its recognition for the rights of the Jewish people.” Edelstein: When Someone Says He Wants to Kill Us, We Believe Him 4.National Emergency for America by Stanley Zir If this deal goes forward, America relinquishes her crown as the leader of the free world. Clear talk of the threat facing America and the world. Arutz Sheva IsraelNationalNews.com Fri., Aug 28, 2015 11:22 AM Stanley Zir is founder of Never Again is Now and Victorious America.com “dedicated to the completion of America’s destiny… in fulfilling Liberty’s mandate: ‘Our Eternal War on Tyranny’.” “The Constitution is the guideline I will never abandon.” – George Washington The United states of America was born out of a resolve to protect the freedoms of the individual from the tyranny of the state. Its Constitution was written to safeguard those freedoms at all costs – ad infinitum. America’s Founding Fathers were excellent physicians who could fully detect the disease of tyranny in all its forms. They left the American people the Constitution as a preventive vaccine to eliminate this cancer. Therefore, upholding the Constitution and its firm stance against tyranny or any government or enterprise, foreign or domestic that seeks to destroy the United States, its values, democracy, or “western ways” is a non-debatable issue. There are no parties here, no sides, and no disparities to discuss.If you are an American, as I am, the Constitution is the law of your land and it is the premier reference guide that protects Americans from those who seek to tamper with our freedoms. Either we stand with the Constitution’s sacred covenant of freedom, the basis upon which this republic rests, or our very foundation faces collapse. Stopping the Iranian Nuclear Threat and removing the ultimate mass destructive weapon known to man from getting into the hands of a heinous, tyrannical nation, that openly threatens to DESTROY America, is then neither a Democratic nor a Republican issue; rather it’s a Constitutional mandate. Our government must rule and abide by our Constitution whose stance against tyranny is its rule law. Congress must commit to stopping President Obama, who is acting as if he is Iran’s nuclear terrorist-enabling acolyte. The Republican Debate Let’s face it; the Republican debate was a side-show extravaganza. A lot of entertainment was provided with a juggling of theories and elixirs for the most common social and economic ailments. The one obvious omittance was a serious discussion about Iranian’s nuclear threat. Not one candidate made stopping President Obama’s veto a top priority. With less that 20 days left to defeat Obama’s veto, it is obvious these candidates have already abandoned their pledge (if elected) to uphold the Constitution’s stance against tyranny. Instead they are treading lightly in shark-infested waters while Obama is waving the white flag of surrender to Iran. Even though the election is still 15 months away, at which point the Iranian deal and its veto will be a moot point, these candidates are not displaying the sense of urgency necessary. No one is breaking from the pack as the conscientious leader and saying, “Let’s put our collective heads together and get this business done first for the good of the country and the world.” The first candidate to do that has my vote. Congress wants to put out campfires as the whole forest is burning down around us. The Republican Party has never made stopping Iran their top priority, before or after the deal was made. Overriding President Obama’s veto might be their last chance to save our country. What will our future be if Iran gets access to the bomb a year before the elections in 2016? Mr. Trump, as the front runner who is proposing to make America great again, you must realize that honoring a deal that cedes victory to Iran and Islamic fascism over our Constitution means we have relinquished what makes us great and exceptional among nations. It is only through the commitment against tyranny and enforcement of our Constitution that our country thrives with capitalism and free markets; not the other way around. As one of the most successful businessmen in our country, you know the importance of a good business plan. The Constitution is the preeminent business plan for a free nation. The business of America is to establish, support, and defend the contents of its Constitution, at all costs. Obama’s deal with Iran is in direct conflict with our Constitution in that we are not only negotiating with a tyranny that consistently promotes its hatred of our freedoms, but we are aiding and abetting that tyranny in its quest to obtain a nuclear bomb. If this deal goes forward, America relinquishes her crown as the leader of the free world. Can she ever be trusted again to keep the flame of liberty lit from those who are bent on extinguishing it? Mr. Trump, if we have to wait 15 months to put your plan in action, how do you propose to make America great again if you don’t lead the charge to stop Obama’s veto? For a dozen years, I have been writing the same screed over and over. “It’s Iran, you blind imbeciles!” It’s not Obamacare! It’s not Isis! It’s not the Muslim Brotherhood,Russia, or China! It’s not the ceiling debt or Hillary. Even the illegal immigration issue must take a back seat to the Iranian threat. There will be time later to build Trump’s wall and seal the border, but if we don’t eliminate Iran’s ability to obtain nuclear weapons, we won’t have to worry about a wall, or immigrants, or anchor babies. The politicians are being diverted while Iran’s end game is to run out the clock. Congress wants to put out campfires as the whole forest is burning down around us. President Obama confirmed Iran is, at most, six months away from enriching enough nuclear fuel for an atomic bomb and that walking away from the deal would render any sanctions useless. Overlooked is the fact that there is no repeal process unlike Obamacare, once Iran holds nuclear weapons. Meanwhile Russia and China will have sufficiently armed Iran to protect their own oil interests and the European Union will have secured lucrative financial deals with Iran to guard its vital interests. So, as all the other self-satisfying nations are bartering their economic and political securities with tyrannical madmen, America must remain the only sensible “voice of reason” as the leader of the free world; the court of last resort Overriding Obama’s veto, however, is only half the story. Without coupling the veto with the destruction of Iran’s nuclear capabilities, it is only a piece of paper. Additionally crippling sanctions at that point would be useless. What other assurance is there that the world is not threatened by an indiscriminate nuclear attack? If Iran crosses the nuclear threshold there will be no safe haven left in the free world. We will find ourselves at the mercy of Iranian madmen armed with nuclear devices. For the sake of our Union, all Republican Party candidates must temporarily put their differences aside and unite to stop Obama’s veto, then call for the destruction of Iran’s nuclear capacity. The successful candidate for the next position of Commander and Chief must be able to awaken the American people to the fact that the greatest threat to our nation, our economy and the future of the world is the Iranian Nuclear terrorist threat. Stopping Obama’s veto now must be their top priority. National Emergency for America by Stanley Zir 5.Israel strikes Hamas site in Gaza after rocket attack

After rocket explodes in open area in southern Israel Thursday morning, Israeli Air Force targets Hamas weapons manufacturing site in Gaza • Border Police officer wounded in east Jerusalem firebombing • Palestinian ax attack thwarted at Damascus Gate.

The Israeli Air Force struck a Hamas weapons manufacturing facility in the Gaza Strip early Thursday morning in response to a rocket that had been fired from Gaza into southern Israel several hours earlier.

The rocket exploded in an open area in southern Israel. No injuries or damage were reported.

Israel holds Hamas responsible for all attacks emanating from Gaza, which Hamas controls.

The Israeli military says eight rockets have been fired from Gaza into southern Israel since January. Al-Qaida-linked Salafi jihadist groups have claimed most of the rocket strikes against Israel from Gaza since Operation Protective Edge ended last year.

Meanwhile, a Border Police officer was lightly wounded by a firebomb in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of A-Tur on Wednesday night.

During a violent disturbance, Arab rioters threw rocks at firefighters who had arrived at the scene to put out two vehicle blazes that had been sparked by firebombs. The firefighters were able to prevent the flames from spreading to nearby homes.

Earlier on Wednesday, two Border Police officers thwarted a terrorist attack near the Damascus Gate of Jerusalem’s Old City.

The incident began when a 56-year-old Palestinian man from Hebron approached the officers and swung an ax over the head of one of them, but failed to strike him.

The assailant then fled and was pursued by the officers. During the pursuit, the assailant drew a knife and stabbed one of the officers in the leg, causing a light wound. The officers ultimately subdued him and arrested him.

Under questioning, it was revealed that the attacker had been illegally residing in Israel. Two and a half decades ago, he stabbed a Hebrew University professor to death in Jerusalem and served time in an Israeli jail, before being freed in December 2013 in the third round of prisoner releases Israel conducted as a peace process-related gesture to the Palestinian Authority.

6.Toward a WMD-capable Islamic State? By CAN KASAPOGLU JPost.com 8/23/15

The military-strategic culture in the Middle East tends to see strategic weapons as means of compensating for conventional-military shortcomings, ensuring regime security through deterrence.

ISIS. (photo credit:ISLAMIC SOCIAL MEDIA)

Recently, The Wall Street Journal reported that Islamic State (IS) used chemical weapons (CW), most probably mustard gas, against Kurdish forces in Iraq. Mustard gas, a blister agent, is not as deadly as nerve agent CWs, and the alleged was not even on a tactical level. Yet if true, this incident would suggest a critical turning point for the IS threat in the Middle East.
More than WMD terrorism
The CW allegations about IS cannot be simply reduced to a case of WMD terrorism.
Clearly, IS is a political-military entity, which could be categorized as a “proto-state” with revolutionary jihadi-Salafist doctrinal references. It poses an existential threat to nearly all state actors and societies in the region, including the two democracies NATO -member Turkey and Israel, as well as Shi’ite theocracy Iran and the GCC monarchies.
Without a doubt, such a political-military terrorist entity needs ultimate security assurances – enter strategic weapons.
The military-strategic culture in the Middle East tends to see strategic weapons as means of compensating for conventional-military shortcomings, ensuring regime security through deterrence.
This paved the ground for Ba’athist Syria’s chemical and biological weapons (CBW) programs, Saddam Hussein’s pursuit of all kinds of WMDs and their delivery means, as well as Iran’s ballistic missile proliferation and nuclear program.
Islamic State’s dangerous WMD ambitions
The recent reports on IS’s CW use are not the first indication that the terrorist quasi-state is “interested” in WMDs.
In early 2015, US CENTCOM announced the death of one of Saddam Hussein’s chemical weapons experts, Abu Malik, in a coalition air-strike targeting IS positions. Furthermore, in 2014, a laptop captured from an IS-member Tunisian national revealed an instructive document on developing biological weapons, particularly on weaponizing the bubonic plague. Notably, the bubonic plague was used between 1937 and 1945 by the notorious Japanese Unit 731 in China during the biological and chemical warfare campaign under General Shiro Ishii’s command. General Ishii’ forces sprayed infected fleas and dropped specially designed bombs on the civilian population for ethnic cleansing purposes.
Recently some intelligence agencies also publicly voiced their concerns about IS’s interest in radiological material and suspected attempts to obtain “dirty bombs.”
Between stoppable and inevitable
If Islamic State survives, it will probably acquire some level of CBW capability.
Unfortunately, current technological and scientific trends could unwittingly ease such a scenario by making CBW components more accessible to non-state actors. Firstly, CBWs depend on dual-use technologies, many of which are commercially available. IS would not face many hardships in obtaining the bio-reactors and agricultural sprayers required to weaponize naturally occurring pathogens. When it comes to bioengineering and genetic modification more advanced scientific know-how is needed, but it is not unimaginable that IS will develop such capabilities.
The latter possibility would seriously stress the medical counter-measures of neighboring states, as modified pathogens would bear little semblance to natural diseases.
Secondly, commercially available chemicals and emerging micro-reactor technologies are expected to make chemical weapons more precise, lethal and complicated in future.
Thirdly, it is not a secret that some remnants of the Iraqi Ba’athist regime are aligned with IS now, and Hussein-era Iraq was infamous for CBW development.
Finally, as the dust settles following some optimists’ premature euphoria with regard to the Syrian CW disarmament, it has now surfaced that the US Central Intelligence Agency is not convinced the Assad regime acted transparently.
Some experts also believe Assad might have even hidden part of deadly VX agent arsenal. If confirmed, we can fairly say that now there exists risk in Syria that IS could obtain CW capability equivalent in destructive potential to a low-yield tactical nuclear weapon.
Future WMD-capable IS?
In sum, while political scientists keep discussing whether IS could be a “real state” in the Middle East in a Weberian sense, the sober wisdom of the War Studies discipline suggests that it will be very difficult for the apocalyptic terrorist entity to become a true and permanent state actor in the region without obtaining some kind of strategic weapons capabilities.
Unchecked, this scenario could well become reality.
In order to prevent such an doomsday scenario, the international community must re-examine Syrian CW declarations and verifications, closely monitor both persons with critical scientific knowledge and information flow into IS-controlled areas, and trace the sensitive dual-use technology transactions in the region.
The author is a research fellow at Istanbul-based independent thinktank EDAM, and an academic at the Girne American University.

7.Water, not heavy water, is Iran’s desperate need By Martin Sherman JPost.com 08/27/2015 22:44

Iran faces unprecedented water shortage, so severe that much of the country could become uninhabitable and millions forced to emigrate.

Mudcrack. (photo credit:Wikimedia commons)

Our main problem [the water crisis] that threatens us, that is more dangerous than Israel, America or political fighting, is the issue of living in Iran. It is that the Iranian plateau is becoming uninhabitable
– Isa Kalantari, Iran’s Agriculture Minister (1989-98) under Ayatollahs Rafsanjani’s and Khatami’s presidencies, cited in “Iran Becoming ‘Uninhabitable,” Al-Monitor, July 9, 2013
… if Iran doesn’t radically change its water usage, 50 million people – 70 percent of Iranians – will have no choice but to leave the country
– Thomas Friedman, “For the Mideast, It’s Still 1979,” The New York Times, July 29, 2015
Iran is headed for a water shortage of epic proportions, and little is being done to reverse a decades-long trend that has reduced the country’s water supply to crisis levels… scientists warn that the already arid country runs the risk of becoming a vast desert.
– Jason Rezaian, “Iran’s water crisis the product of decades of bad planning,” The Washington Post, July 2, 2014
A mere 10 days after publishing the Washington Post article, Jason Rezaian, the paper’s bureau chief in Tehran, was arrested at his home on unspecified charges. After almost 10 months of detention Iranian authorities indicted him on charges of “espionage” and “propaganda against the establishment.”
His trial, which began on May 26, is not open to the public (NYT, May 26), and is being presided over by a judge on a European Union blacklist for human rights abuses (The Atlantic, July 22), ended earlier this month (BBC, August 10). At the time of writing these lines Rezaian – who holds US citizenship – is awaiting the court’s verdict, which could impose up to 20 years in prison.
All this took place under the regime of the allegedly “pragmatic and progressive” rule of President Hassan Rouhani.
A stinging humiliation for the US – unless…
If I were a US taxpayer I would be seriously cheesed off at the Obama administration for making such hopelessly ineffective use of my hard-earned dollars.
After all, the US federal government has a staggering amount of resources at its disposal – $3 trillion-$3.5 trillion made available to it by the American working public each year. Yet with all this power in its hands, it conducted itself almost as a fawning supplicant in the negotiations with the Islamic Republic over its nuclear program, which culminated in a stinging humiliation for Washington.
How else could one designate a deal which:
• Makes a mockery of previously unequivocally declared US objectives, such as to coerce Iran to “give up its nuclear program” (Barack Obama, October 2012), or induce Iran to “dismantle its nuclear program” (John Kerry, December 2013);
• Not only confers on Iran equal standing with the US in the Joint Commission, the body designated to oversee the implementation of the deal, but gives it effective veto power over most of its decisions, which “are to be made by consensus [e]xcept as stated otherwise”;
• Precludes US inspectors from verifying Iranian compliance;
• Permits Iran to self-test suspicious sites with its own personnel;
• Makes concessions to Iran on nonnuclear issues (such as missile technology and conventional arms) but demands no reciprocal concessions from Iran on nonnuclear issues (such as terrorism and human rights);
• Specifies verification procedures so cumbersome they could easily have been purposely devised to allow Iranian violations to go undetected; and
• Allows Iran to achieve all its objectives it set itself (albeit at a possibly reduced rate), and prevents the US from achieving any of its own – unless the US public has been gravely misled as to what the nature of those objectives were.
Obama: Iran understands they cannot fight us…
The disproportionate achievements of Iran and the capitulation of the US on virtually every point of principle, reflected in the far from exhaustive list above, are even more incongruous when one compares the fundamental parameters of the two nations.
The US GDP outstrips Iran’s by a factor of more than 40, its per capita GDP is 10 times higher, it has over four times the population of Iran, and is six times its size.
But perhaps the most significant comparison concerns military prowess.
This massive disparity was reflected in Barack Obama’s interview with the New York Times columnist Tom Friedman on April 5 – when the kind of concessions concluded in July were still unthinkable… or at least unmentionable.
In elaborating on his approach to Iran, Obama declared: “Iran’s defense budget is $30 billion. Our defense budget is closer to $600 billion. Iran understands that they cannot fight us…”
It seems that the US commander-in-chief was greatly understating the military imbalance between the US and Iran – one hopes not because he was greatly uninformed.
For most published estimates put the Iranian defense budget at between $14b. and $18b. – or 2% to 3% of the US defense budget, which Obama got roughly right.
In response to Friedman’s question: “Do you believe they [the Iranians] are undeterrable,” Obama retorted, “That is simply not the case.”
Alternative for Iran: ‘Economic stone-age’
Accordingly, with more than 40 times in resources devoted to military capabilities than Iran, the claim that the only alternative to the deal for the US is war rings decidedly hollow – if not manipulatively mendacious.
In light of Obama’s own recent assessment that Iran is not “undeterrable” and “understands they cannot fight us…,” how could it ring any other way? After all, the side that is really faced with “no other alternative” is not the US and its prosperous, powerful allies, but economically emaciated and drought-ravaged Iran.
Reflecting the desperate situation his country had descended into, the New York Times (July 23) reported that in a nation-wide television broadcast, “President Hassan Rouhani suggested… that the alternative [to the deal] was an economic ‘stone age.’” Corroborating this dour assessment, Isa Kalantari, former agriculture minister and currently a highly placed adviser to the government, lamented the daunting challenges facing Rouhani. When asked about the state of Iran’s economy in an interview shortly after Rouhani’s election as president in June 2013, he replied, “May God help Rouhani.”
Kalantari enumerated the ravages international sanctions had wrought “Unfortunately, Rohani will inherit the country’s empty warehouses, an empty treasury, empty ports & an empty central bank.”
This is an unlikely portrait of a foe so formidable that it is able to impose virtually all its demands on the entire industrial world, led by the US as the only undisputed superpower on the planet, because, allegedly, the only alternative was war, which curiously, according to Obama, Iran knows it cannot wage.
Indeed, had the deal not be made, the only alternative was not war for the US and its allies, but rather as Rouhani well understood, an economic stone age for Iran.
And yet…
‘More dangerous than Israel and the US’
But Iran appears far more fragile than even the daunting economic statistics indicated.
According to Kalantari the gravest problem facing Iran is neither its ailing economy nor foreign pressure, but rather the chronic and critical shortage of water, a problem which he characterizes as “more dangerous than Israel, and the US, and political disputes….”
He sees the crisis as so severe that “If the situation is not corrected, in 30 years Iran, will be a ghost nation.”
Blaming negligence and carelessness, Kalantari warns in an English-language Iranian publication (the Financial Tribune, May 25) that “We are now dealing with the consequences of inaction,” and if current consumption trends continues, almost 70 percent of the population (50 million people), will have to “emigrate from Iran to survive… That is a disaster of epic proportions.”
Similar sentiments were expressed in the previously cited article by the currently incarcerated Washington Post correspondent, Jason Rezaian, who warned that “Iran is headed for a water shortage of epic proportions, and little is being done to reverse a decades-long trend that has reduced the country’s water supply to crisis levels…
“Throughout Iran, landscapes are being transformed as scientists warn that the already arid country runs the risk of becoming a vast desert.”
‘…we’re making life for the future impossible’
Rezaian described how Iran’s sources of surface water were rapidly vanishing: “Lake Urmia, a salt lake in Iran’s northwest that once was the largest in the Middle East, has been depleted to just 5 percent of its former volume over only two decades. The Zayandeh River, which flowed through Iran’s heartland, is mostly a dry bed after being diverted and dammed to provide irrigation for farms.”
Citing a Europe-based Iranian physical climatologist, Rezaian writes that unsustainable practices are “making life for the future impossible.”
For many in Iran, the lack of water has already made life impossible.
Thus, the Financial Times published a graphic account (August 21, 2014) of the devastation that the water crisis is wreaking on millions across the country. Dramatically titled “Iran: Dried out,” it described how the drying up of the Zayandeh River has caused around 2 million people (40% of the region’s population), who depend on agriculture, to lose their livelihood.” Quoting a water official who declined to be named, the paper informed its readers, “At least a dozen of the country’s 31 provinces will have to be evacuated over the next 20 years unless the problem is addressed.”
Meanwhile, thousands of villages around the country are forced to rely on water tankers for supplies, while businessmen complain shortages are a daily burden in factories around Tehran.
Could water have fueled the flames of revolt?
There have been repeated reports of growing public anger at the dearth of water.
For example Al-Monitor posted two accounts of such events: “Water Riot Breaks Out in Iran” (February 28, 2013) and “Drought triggers protests in Iran” (September 10, 2014).
The former reported that farmers in eastern Esfahan province clashed with police special forces sent to provide security for the repair of a water pipeline that was destroyed in a violent water dispute. Widespread violence, arson and even five deaths were reported after anger boiled over following months of complaints that had gone unheeded.
The latter described how thousands of residents of Isfahan and the smaller cities and villages nearby demonstrated, protesting the drying up of Zayanderood [Zayandeh River] and official inaction in dealing with the problem. The articles warns, “The water crisis of Zayanderood will have terrible consequences, including the destruction of the river’s ecosystem, loss of different life forms and destruction of wells and streams. It will also destroy agriculture around the river and will deeply affect the industrial sector as well.”
Interestingly, even strong supporters of the Iran nuclear deal seem to be keenly aware of how water shortages can undermine the stability of a regime.
Thus, in a 2014 interview for TV series Years of Living Dangerously with Obama’s national security adviser, Susan Rice, Tom Friedman, referring to the dire water situation in Iran’s neighbor Syria, asked: “Can there really be a connection between a drought and a civil war?” Rice replied: ... Drought, floods, food shortages, water scarcity, all of these drive increased human insecurity, poverty and can contribute to conflict.
To which Friedman responded, approvingly: In other words, if a drought is bad enough it can help push an already stressed society to the breaking point.
Surely like Syria, Iran?
Water, not heavy water
Iran’s water problems are largely of its own making and dealing with them is going to require comprehensive nation-wide reforms that cut across centuries-old traditions and practices.
But as the Financial Times pointed out in its previously cited report, written just under a year prior to the deal cut by the Obama administration and Tehran: “… the reforms require money, and Iran’s economy is struggling under the weight of international sanctions imposed over its nuclear program.” Clearly then, with sanctions in place the desperately needed reforms were unlikely.
So next time some sycophantic Obama-phile tries to sell the threadbare line that “the only alternative to the shameful deal was war,” please do reject it with the disdain it richly deserves.
After all, with enhanced sanctions and a credible threat of military action, there is ample reason to believe that the regime in Tehran would have been compelled to abandon its quest for heavy water and seek ways to provide the Iranian people with what they really need: Water.
Martin Sherman (www.martinsherman.org) is founder and executive director of the Israel Institute for Strategic Studies (www.strategic-israel.org).

9.Uncle Sam (Obama) Bails out Palestinian Authority By Alan Joseph Bauer JewishPress.com Published: August 26th, 2015

Photo Credit: White House photo by Lawrence Jackson

On Monday, Aug. 24, Federal District Judge George Daniels ordered the Palestinian Authority (PA) to put up just $10 million in cash or as a bond and pay $1 million a month as they appeal a $655.5 million judgment against it. This is an extraordinarily low amount for the bond, given the judgment rendered by the jury.

Judge Daniels stated that he took “serious consideration” of the letter from the State Department about the precarious financial conditions of the PA and thus set the very low bond as he lets the PA and PLO appeal the verdict to the Second Circuit court. The State Department came in on the side of the PA, which pays $65 million dollars per year to its terrorists sitting in Israeli jails. Maybe the State Dept. should try switching sides and come in for the plaintiffs.

In backing the PA through a Statement of Interest filed with the court, the State Department may have helped delay the day of reckoning for the PA. The U.S. government claimed that the economic demise of the PA was of critical concern to the U.S., and thus felt compelled to interfere in our case, on the side of people found guilty of providing material support for terror against American citizens.

In the eleven years since we first filed Sokolow vs. PLO, we never heard from the U.S. government.

The U.S. government made no effort to contact us or to help us in preparing for trial.

When we won a stunning victory on 23 February of this year, when the PA and PLO were found guilty on 24 counts and made to pay $655.5 million, not a word came out of Washington.

While Israeli politicians across the political spectrum praised holding the PA legally responsible for its terror activity, not a word came from the White House, the State Department or the Department of Justice. This was the first inkling that the US would not stay on the sidelines for long but was prepared to come into our case—on the side of the murderers.

While the US may claim that it has a stake in the well-being of the PA, it should also realize that it has a stake in the legal rights of its citizens and in the law that is designed to prevent terrorists from harming American citizens anywhere in the world.

Maybe John Kerry, now that he has saved the PA for the time-being from paying serious money for its terror activity, would like to come in our side? Maybe the time has come for Mr. Kerry to pick up the telephone and tell Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas that he wants his fellow Americans to be paid properly for the horrors they experienced.

When I picked up my unconscious son from the sidewalk of King George Street on 21 March 2002, I did not know that a piece of shrapnel had passed fully through his right brain. My arm was leaking blood from screws that had ripped up a pair of arteries. The bomber was a PA policeman, and the one who sent him was a PA intelligence officer. The latter receives a fat salary from the PA every month while in Israeli jail for murder and has gone up in rank four times during his 13 years of incarceration. A pregnant woman and her husband were killed in our attack.

Maybe Secretary Kerry would like to think of my co-plaintiffs who lost children in the Hebrew University bombing. They will never see them again or enjoy their company. The bombing at the Hebrew University took the lives of young Americans who had come to Israel to study.

And for those of us who were “just” wounded, the bombing never goes away. Today, my wife, son, and I spent 9 hours on one topic: trying to get our son an Israeli driver’s license. Five hours were spent at the Ministry of Health’s Driver’s Safety unit in Tel Aviv, where doctors checked out our boy to determine if the injuries he suffered as a child would prevent him from driving safely on the streets of Israel. The remainder of the time was spent in travel and at Assuta Hospital where Yehonathon had his first visual field test in a decade—to determine how much of his eye sight is still missing from the shrapnel that passed through his brain and if he can see well enough to drive safely. Now we will sit on pins and needles for three weeks as the Israeli government decides whether a boy seriously wounded when he was 7 years old can now apply for a driver’s license as a man of age 20.

During the summation phase of our trial, I saw the woman who brought the bomber to downtown Jerusalem explain how the PA had paid for her driving lessons so that she could be ready to bring murderers into town.

Maybe Mr. Kerry would benefit from hearing such stories. Maybe Mr. Kerry will do something that Colin Powell, Condi Rice, and Hillary Clinton refused to do: meet with American victims of Palestinian terror and hear our concerns. Maybe, just maybe, John Kerry will be as concerned about our side of the lawsuit as he is concerned with the Palestinian’s economic well-being. Maybe a just settlement can be made if the US chooses to be an honest broker.

There are two sides to this lawsuit and the U.S. government siding with terrorists against their U.S. citizens-victims is an invitation for more terror against Americans abroad.

About the Author: Dr. Alan Bauer is the co-founder and CTO at www.lishtot.com. He and his son were wounded in a suicide bombing in central Jerusalem on March 21, 2002.

10.Abbas Planning ‘Self-Financed’ $13 Million Palace with 2 Helipads

The project appears on the website of a PA council which begs foreign countries for money, By: Tzvi Ben-Gedalyahu JewishPress.com Published: August 26th, 2015  Design for $13 million “Presidential Palace and Guest House in Ramallah. Photo Credit: PECDAR

The Palestinian Authority is planning to build a $13 million “Presidential Guest Palace in Ramallah with “self-financing” although the project committee states that one of its missions is make sure money flows into its coffer from foreign countries.

The European Union and the United States are two of the biggest philanthropists for the Palestinian Authority, which has pocketed billions of dollars.

PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas uses the money to pay for a bloated civil service and police force, which numbers far beyond the limit set in the once-upon-a-time Oslo Accords. The PA budget also pays terrorists who land up in Israeli jails for killing or trying to kill Jews.

The Palestinian Authority uses EU funding to pay Arabs to move the remote outposts in Judea and Samaria where they build props of tents and buildings to claim they have been living there for centuries.

It is not clear exactly where the U.S. aid goes. For example, the U.S. State Dept. has refused to comment on whether its aid will be used to guarantee the $10 million bond, along with another million bucks a month, that the Palestinian Authority must post during its appeal against a mammoth lawsuit victory by victims of terror and by their relatives.

Now comes the new palace, which is to be built in two years. The website of PECDAR, the acronym for the Palestinian Council for Development and Reconstruction, states: The goal of this project is to establish the Presidential Guest Palace in Surda, Ramallah within an area of 4,700 square meters [1.16 acres] along with a building for the Presidential Administration and Guards with an area of 4,000 square meters.

The construction process includes also preparing the surrounding area and two helipads, the project will be constructed over a land area of 27,000 square meters [6.67 acres].

Then comes the kicker: Source of Funding: Self Financing- Ministry of Finance

The Palestinian Authority is begging every month or so for donors to help it pay salaries, but the $13 million for the Presidential Place and Guest House is self-financed?

PECDAR might have a new definition for the term “self-financing.” Its mission, according to its site, includes: Coordinating the flow of international assistance for the benefit of the Palestinian people & Identifying investment projects and other activities to be financed by the donor countries.

About the Author: Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu is a graduate in journalism and economics from The George Washington University. He has worked as a cub reporter in rural Virginia and as senior copy editor for major Canadian metropolitan dailies. Tzvi wrote for Arutz Sheva for several years before joining the Jewish Press.

Abbas Planning ‘Self-Financed’ $13 Million Palace with 2 Helipads

11.Arab Violence Skyrockets in Jerusalem

Arab violence skyrockets in Jerusalem; one city council member says politics ties police hands. By: Hana Levi Julian JewishPress.com Published: August 26th, 2015 Israel Border Guard Police officers subdue violent Islamic Waqf Authority officer at Temple Mount. Photo Credit: Screenshot / YouTube / QPress

Violence has skyrocketed in the Old City of Jerusalem since the start of the summer, and particularly since the first of July.

Data released Tuesday in a report by the Construction Ministry indicate there have been 580 attacks against civilians or security personnel.

That figure only reflects attacks that occurred within the walls of the Old City – Shiloah (Silwan), the City of David, and the Mount of Olives.

Not included in the data are any attacks that occurred in Jerusalem neighborhoods such as Shuafat, Beit Hanina, Issawiya, Jabel Mukabar and others.

Since numerous road terror attacks have taken place in those areas for most of the summer, it is clear the total number of violent incidents in the capital is rising.

There were 477 rock attacks on Israeli vehicles during the months of June and July this year. In addition, the data reflect 28 incidents of firebombing attacks on Jewish-owned vehicles and homes, with Molotov cocktails. There were also other attacks recorded with Arabs hurling glass bottles and igniting fireworks which they then hurled at people or vehicles or homes, and other types of vandalism as well, such as destruction of Jewish grave markers.

Six Jews were attacked in the Old City of Jerusalem, including five civilians and one Border Guard Police officer in June.

Out of a total of 359 incidents that month, 213 occurred in the City of David, 21 were in the Old City itself and 125 took place on the Mount of Olives. There were four reports of tombstone desecration in the cemetery there.

Last month there were 221 incidents, with 108 reported in the City of David, 92 on the Mount of Olives and once again, 21 in the Old City.

One grave was desecrated, and there were 16 reports of firebombing attacks. Several incidents of fireworks being ignited and launched at Israeli security forces like mini-rockets were also reported.

Four times there were reports of Arabs hurling glass bottles at Jews in the Old City and 170 rock attacks reported as well.

Jerusalem District Police responded with a statement Wednesday, saying:

“We are operating based on a plan that includes the deployment of increased forces, both covert and public activity, the incorporation of special units to conduct arrests and the incorporation of many technological measures against rioting in East Jerusalem, in order to protect the residents of the city and its visitors and increase their security.

“Police operates determinedly, and holds a dialogue with local leaders, which has led to an ongoing decline in stone and firebomb throwing incidents in recent months. Most of the violent incidents are done against security forces due to the friction with rioters in East Jerusalem neighborhoods. “It’s important to stress that despite the ongoing trend of decline, dealing with rioters cannot be done only by police enforcement. The violence is a general problem, and therefore should be handled by police, as well as the judicial system, the prosecution, the municipality, welfare, education and more – persistently and long-term.”

Jerusalem City Council member Aryeh King blamed the political leadership, saying politicians are “tying the hands of security forces.”

Police cannot deal with attacks properly, King said, while the judicial system releases the suspects or responds with leniency in the face of violence.

About the Author: Hana Levi Julian is a Middle East news analyst with a degree in Mass Communication and Journalism from Southern Connecticut State University. A past columnist with The Jewish Press and senior editor at Arutz 7, Ms. Julian has written for Babble.com, Chabad.org and other media outlets, in addition to her years working in broadcast journalism.

Arab Violence Skyrockets in Jerusalem

12.Europe’s NGO Jihad Against Israel by Susan Warner
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/6266/europe-ngo-israel August 27, 2015 at 5:00 am

There is a European “jihad” against Israel. A significant number of activist groups — presenting themselves as international humanitarian aid and charitable projects designed to benefit the Palestinian people — are actually “directly or indirectly active in Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions(BDS) campaigns, lawfare, delegitimization and lobbying against Israel,” according to a detailed report by NGO Monitor.

Every year, European governments send hundreds of millions of dollars for humanitarian aid projects in Palestinian territories. Ostensibly, the money is intended for projects such as improving medical care, alleviating poverty, improving schools, or enhancing infrastructure.

But beneath the surface lurk more venomous political advocacy agendas apparently designed to undermine Israel as a nation-state.

Some of these European governments give money directly to the Palestinian Authority (PA). Others funnel it through non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that are present themselves as charitable groups.

These governments and European-funded NGOs, however, often seem more dedicated to propaganda, political activism and undermining Israel, and less aimed at helping the Palestinians. Between 2012 -2014, for instance, more than $27 million in foreign funds have flowed into the bank accounts of radical left-wing NGOs in Israel, all in some way involved in anti-Israel advocacy activities.

A 2008 conference on “Impunity and Prosecution of Israeli War Criminals,” held in Egypt in 2008, was sponsored by the European Union. (Image source: NGO Monitor)

Israeli leaders are finally beginning to raise serious doubts about the real motives behind some of these politically-motivated efforts.

Recently, for example, a controversial exhibit by “Breaking the Silence” (BtS) opened in Zurich, Switzerland. The BtS exhibit accuses the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) of human rights violations. It incorporates anecdotal, unverifiable, anonymous testimonies of 60 soldiers who accuse the IDF of wrongdoing during Operation Protective Edge in Gaza last summer.

The exhibit, scheduled for a world tour, caused a stir in Switzerland when it became known that it was funded in part by the governments of Switzerland, the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark — as well as many private charitable foundations. Its main donors include: the European Union, Misereor (Germany), Broederlijk Delen (Belgium), Norway, AECID (Spain), Dan Church Aid (Denmark),ICCO (Netherlands), CCFD (France), Human Rights and International Law Secretariat (joint funding from Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark and the Netherlands), Sigrid Rausing Trust (UK), SIVMO (Netherlands), Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Open Society Institute, and the New Israel Fund among others.

The BtS exhibit spins a narrative that seems deliberately distorted and lopsided against the IDF. The exhibit’s critics suggest that these soldiers may have been selected precisely because they had some axe to grind against the IDF.

It even turns out that funders of the exhibit demanded “a minimum number of negative testimonies,” according research by NGO Monitor.

The exhibit never mentions any context surrounding the Gaza operation: nothing about the rockets raining down on Israel from the terrorist groups in Gaza; nothing about Hamas-built tunnels that opened near schools and private homes inside Israel; nothing about Hamas’s common practice of hiding terrorists and weapons among its own women and children for propaganda purposes.

Israel’s government, understandably, cried foul. Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely and Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked have been leading the charge to remedy this diplomatic jihad against the State of Israel at its source.

Hotovely alleged that the use of Swiss government money — to demonize, delegitimize, and basically to try to destroy Israel — is illegitimate. “We cannot,” Hotovely said, “accept a situation whereby an organization, whose entire purpose is to sully the names and reputations of IDF soldiers, is operating internationally in order to cause serious damage to the State of Israel’s image.”

Loyal IDF reservists, also outraged by the exhibit, have mounted their own campaign against what they claim is a false and unfair assault on the military and the nation.

According to a report in the Jerusalem Post, ten Swiss MPs from the Swiss-Israel Parliamentary Group issued a statement on June 2, opposing using taxpayer money to fund the exhibit:

“We condemn sharply the sponsorship of Breaking the Silence, with public monies through the EDA [Swiss Foreign Ministry] and the Zurich Finance Department, and expect in future a careful examination of projects and those organizations standing behind such projects before Swiss taxpayer money is misused.”

In the wake of the international stir over the legitimacy of the travelling exhibit, the mayor of Cologne, Germany, first cancelled, but then reinstated its scheduled appearance there.

Beyond this single inflammatory exhibit against the IDF, however, lies a much more complex and malignant problem — one that brings to the forefront some disturbing concerns and questions about the nature and purpose of foreign government funding of NGOs in Israel : What is their real agenda? How and where are they getting their money? Are they using their funds for purposes consistent with their stated goals?

According to a recent Reuters report, of the 30,000 NGOs operating in Israel, “the focus of frustration for [Justice Minister] Shaked and her supporters are around 70 whose work focuses on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and which receive funds either from the European Union as a whole, or individual governments, including Denmark, Sweden, Belgium and Norway.”

A chief concern in Israel’s Knesset is how to curb the influx of millions of foreign dollars used to fund anti-Israel hate-groups operating as NGOs. These organizations are accused of using their “human rights” designation to mask a deceptive advocacy agenda to undermine, and even to destroy, Israel.

Beneath a vexing tangle of funding operations — most hiding under a pretense of “good works,” “humanitarian aid,” and “public interest” — there is at work a sophisticated, multi-faceted, well-oiled propaganda machine against Israel.

Breaking the Silence is one of the smallest. Founded in 2004, BtS is registered as “a company for the benefit of the public” with a budget of roughly 3 million shekels ($770,000 USD), according to 2015 figures.

According to a recent report by the Israeli organization Im Tirtzu, partial funding for Breaking the Silence ($300,000), B’Tselem ($700,000) and other pro-Palestinian NGOs in Israel — totaling $11,000,000 in 2014 alone — comes from The Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law Secretariat (HRIHL), an Arab foundation based in Ramallah and Gaza. HRIHL, in turn, is funded predominantly by the governments of four European countries: Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland and The Netherlands.

Matan Peleg, the Chief Operating Officer of Im Tirtzu, has coined the word “Political Terrorism” to describe the murky mix of anti-Israel NGO activist groups, their destructive agendas and deceptive funding sources:

“When we use the concept ‘political terrorism’ we wish to indicate various actions which are not actually physically violent, but which are intended to spread terror and fear … for the achievement of political aims.

“The State of Israel and the IDF in particular are suffering from political terrorism because various political entities in Israel and abroad (such as states, organizations, foundations, etc.) are carrying out political actions with the aim of paralyzing Israel’s ability to defend itself.”

Two of the wealthiest international human rights NGOs at work in Israel are OXFAM and World Vision.

Oxfam, which operates an international confederation of networked organizations in 92 countries, had a total income in 2012-2013 of $955.9 million, of which $18.7 million was spent in “Occupied Palestinian Territory” in 2013.

OXFAM states clearly that it does not participate in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, yet affirmed its boycott of goods made in the “Israeli settlements in the West Bank”. We are clearly not hearing the truth.

Pressure from OXFAM and BDS groups contributed to a recent decision by SodaStream to close its factory in Mishor Adumim, where it had employed hundreds of Arabs and Israelis working peacefully side by side.

Arab wages and working conditions at SodaStream were reported to be significantly better than their equivalents in the neighboring Arab-controlled territories in Judea and Samaria. When the plant moved, hundreds of Arabs were thrown out of work — a result that apparently did not bother proponents of BDS such as OXFAM. When Israel works to build “bridges for peace,” such as SodaStream, where Arabs and Jews worked peacefully together, these organizations promptly knock them down.

World Vision International, a Christian charity that operates in approximately 100 countries, with a 2012 budget of $2.67 billion, defines the region it serves as Jerusalem/West Bank and Gaza.[1] World Vision makes no bones about its exclusive ministry in the area on behalf of poor Arab children. Conversely, it specifically does not serve the needs of poor Israeli-Jewish children. An estimated 14.1% of Jewish Israeli families live below the poverty line.

On the World Vision web site, there is a brief pro-Arab version of the “history, people and geography” of the region, which distorts or omits all history that might put the Arabs in a bad light. The web site mentions nothing of Hamas bombs, rockets or general Arab violence against Israel. The narrative singles out only the plight of “displaced Arab refugees.”

No one at World Vision asks the obvious question: Why are there even refugee camps in territories controlled by the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Hamas, such as Gaza, Jenin and Ramallah? Not only have those areas been under exclusive PA or Hamas civilian administration since 1994, but Israel totally evacuated the Gaza Strip in 2005.

Both OXFAM and World Vision receive large sums of money from the United Nations, various government and non-government sources, foundations and other institutions.

NGO Monitor issued a report calling attention to the public debate on massive foreign government funding of highly political NGOs. Various media, government and legislative concerns about the manipulation of Israeli democracy by foreign governments through NGO activity triggered the debate that resulted in Israel’s NGO Transparency Law (February 2011).

In 2013, there were several failed attempts to pass bills in the Knesset to reduce the influx of foreign government money. Now in the wake of the Breaking the Silence exhibit, Hotovely, Shaked and others are mounting a renewed effort to remedy at least this one source of diplomatic jihad against the State of Israel.

Susan Warner is a Distinguished Senior Fellow of Gatestone Institute and co-founder of a Christian group, Olive Tree Ministries in Wilmington, DE, USA. She has been writing and teaching about Israel and the Middle East for over 15 years. Contact her at israelolivetree@yahoo.com.

[1] Through various partners, World Vision operates 14 programs in Bethlehem, West Ramallah, East and South Hebron, Northeast, West, and South Jenin, Southeast Salfit, East, Central, North, and South Nablus, as well as North and South Gaza.

14.The Jewish Love Affair (Elul) By Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis

JewishPress.com Published: August 26th, 2015

Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis

Last week I wrote about the eternal love affair between the Jewish people and our Heavenly Father. I referred to the acronym of Elul, the month we currently find ourselves in: “Ani L’Dodi V’Dodi Li –I Am My Beloved and My Beloved is Mine” – meaning I love my G-d and my G-d loves me.

It is this month that brings us to Rosh Hashanah, which celebrates the homecoming of our people to Hashem. And that homecoming reflects the special love affair that has lasted for millennia all over the world. We crossed continents; we lived and continue to live in every nook and cranny on this planet. But wherever fate placed us, the love of our people for Hashem remained strong and vibrant.

I recall vividly the early days of our Hineni movement, created to bring Jews back to G-d. I knew I needed to reach masses of people, so I chose Madison Square Garden. I opened that occasion with words I knew would electrify the crowd:

“You are a Jew. You have traversed the four corners of the world. You have known oppression. You have experienced torture, inhuman suffering. You have been forced to wander from country to country. You have been cast into the flames – killed by the sword and stuffed in gas chambers. But you have forgotten your past. You have forgotten who you really are. You have forgotten your prayers.

“But the love affair has remained – engraved for all eternity in your heart. That love affair can be summed up through just one little prayer – a prayer that pierces the sound barrier and has the ability to fly up to the sky, even to the Heavenly Abode of Almighty G-d. That magic prayer has kept every Jew connected to his G-d.

“Who does not recognize this formula that is so powerful it can survive every flame, every oppression, and even the enticements of assimilation? Every Jew knows this prayer. It blazes in his heart. ‘Shema Yisrael, Hashem Elokeinu, Hashem ECHAD.’ ”

Shema Yisrael – the eternal prayer that can rekindle the Pintele Yid in the heart of every Jew.”

This week I would like us to focus on the manner in which we can bring joy to our Father and reestablish our relationship with Him. Our Father’s love has never diminished. His love accompanied us wherever we found ourselves throughout the centuries, even though we may not always have been aware of it.

If not for that love we would not have survived the centuries of persecution and genocide. There has never been a period in history when we have not been persecuted, hounded, tortured, and murdered. The nations of the world never tire of plotting our destruction – but in the end they do not succeed. Great empires rise and fall but we live on.

In the Passover Haggadah we proclaim this loud and clear: “In every generation they rise up to destroy us but the Holy One, Blessed be He, saves us from their hand.”

We can look back on the long centuries and see the veracity of these words. So how is it possible that too many of our people are still indifferent and even shamefully hostile to their heritage – and, yes, to their Heavenly Father, who never stops loving us? How can it be? How can it be?

This sad reality should bother every caring Jew and cause him to ask, “What can I do to bring some joy to my Heavenly Father who has lost so many of His children??

If you are a parent, surely you understand the unbearable pain of losing a child. If you are a son or a daughter, surely you understand the excruciating pain of losing a father or a mother. I am not referring to parents or children who have physically died. That, unfortunately, is a tragic reality of life. At the end of the day the cemetery is the ultimate destination of every human being.

What I am referring to here is a living parent who has lost a living child and a living child who has lost a living parent. A living death is sometimes more painful than physical death, when the body is buried and the soul ascends to its Maker.

Have you ever thought about how our Heavenly Father must feel when He sees His children adopting every other parent but Him? Or how the children feel when they see their parents opening their hearts to children who do not belong to them, embracing them with love while causing their own children to feel abject rejection?

Some years ago I spoke at Binyanei Hauma in Jerusalem. Looking out at the audience I noticed many religious Jews, including chassidim. I decided to tell a story based upon something I had just explained.

“There was once a father,” I began, “who had twelve beautiful, gifted children. Over the years, one by one the children left home and disappeared from sight into a deep forest.

“One son, however. remained home. He was determined to take care of his beloved father. Every morning, every afternoon, every night, he would come to his father’s chamber and serve him the most delectable meals, sing songs to him, and try to entertain him. He openly proclaimed his abiding love, but his father remained forlorn.

“ ‘Why,’ the loyal son wondered, ‘is my Father sad? Haven’t I demonstrated my commitment, my love?’ ”

I looked out at the audience and continued: “Had this loyal son taken a few moments and pondered these questions, he would have realized that a father cannot be happy if his children never come home, never call, never visit.

“There is only one thing that would make a father happy – if that loyal son were to say, ‘My beloved father, do not despair. I will bring my brothers and sisters home even if I have to go to the ends of the earth. I will bring them home and all your children will sit at your beautiful Shabbos table. Together we will sing zemiros – the songs you taught us – in your Honor.’

“Until such time that the loyal son gives this assurance to his father, the father’s pain will not abate.”

Surely you understand that the father in this story is our Heavenly Father and the loyal son is the observant Jew who comes to serve his Father with love and praise three times a day without fail – and yet the Father is not rejoicing.

The great celebration of the revelation of Mashiach is something we have yet to behold. How can we make that stupendous event come to pass? By bringing all our brothers and sisters home for Shabbos.

Let us join in a partnership and do this as one.

To make this happen I offer you the help of our Hineni organization. We stand ready to welcome every Jew. I promise my readers that I will make a point of personally greeting and reaching out to everyone you bring.

On Thursday, September 10, we will have a High Holiday Seminar Dinner following which we will hold classes on multiple subjects pertaining to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Classes will be held simultaneously and each participant will have an opportunity to choose the seminar of his or preference. This will be a time learning that will connect us to our Heavenly Father and bring joy to Him.

The event is sponsored in memory of an amazing lady, a beautiful eishes chayil – Chaya Golda Feigel bas Yitzchok. To reserve your place, call our Hineni office at 212-496-1660.

Kesivah v’Chasima Tovah to all my readers and Klal Yisrael all over the world.

The Jewish Love Affair (Elul) By Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis