For Immediate Release:
Dateline: Bat Ayin,Gush Etzion,
The Hills of Judea
Monday, September 28, 2015
Dear Family & Friends, As always, Arlene Kushner sez it all. See # I’m dashing off to a Sukkah in the country. Have a wonderful Chag, lots of yummy food, lots of friends & family. Enjoy HaShem’s blessings & hug everyone you love. All the very best, Gail/Geula/Savta/Savta Raba x 2/Mom Our Website: WinstonIsraelInsight.com 1.The Rise of David’s Fallen Sukkah: City of David 2.Rare 3,000-year-old King David era seal discovered by Temple Mount Sifting Project By DANIEL K. EISENBUD 9/24/15 3.Arlene Kushner “Sukkot” Sep. 26, 2015 4.Hag Sameah, Happy Holiday from DRYBONES: Ya’acov Kirschen 7.Palestinian Arabs by Eli E. Hertz: Ongoing Terror in Jerusalem – the City of Peace 8.Palestinians: We Are the New Nazis by Bassam Tawil 9.Jerusalem Post Editorial: UN bias By JPOST EDITORIAL 9/26/15 10.Loopy, loopier… Lapid By Martin Sherman Published on City Of David (http://www.cityofdavid.org.il) 1.The Rise of David’s Fallen Sukkah  Througout Sukkot we welcome seven honored guests (Ushpizin) into our Sukkah (booth). Every night an esteemed visitor enters, beginning with Avraham (Avinu). Ushpizin guests embody the pillars of the Jewish People, including Yitzchak, Yaakov, Moshe, Aharon and Yosef. On the seventh night we welcome David Hamelech (the king). During Sukkot we also recite a strange blessing: “The Compassionate One, may He raise for us the Fallen Sukkah of David”. This blessing is derived from Amos, the prophet, who speaks about the restoration of the Fallen Sukkah of David (ibid 9:11). What is the Sukkah of David? According to most commentators, raising up the Fallen Sukkah of David refers to the reestablishment of the Davidic monarchy.But let’s break it down a bit more, because what goes up must come down. Or in our case, what falls down, must inevitably rise up again. What is this treasured sukkah that we pride ourselves in decorating with twinkling lights, tinsel and freshly made “art projects” from school with the seven species of fruit, the Ushpizin and other pictures made by tiny hands and appreciated by mother hearts? It is a temporary dwelling, with shaky walls and a roof that by definition should be anything but waterproof. So every time the seasonal autumn winds pick up and all the tinsel and pictures flitter and flop, everybody holds their breath that the sukkah won’t fly away tinsel and all. This, the Sages say, is the secret behind Jewish resilience! You see, even when the sukkah falls down, it maintains its components and its character. So too, the Jewish People’s legacy endured through a long dark history of exile and persecution and can be easily and naturally restored at any moment. The Secret Behind the Rise of the Fallen Sukkah It is no accident that it is called the Sukkah of David. In one of our previous articles (see article: The Making of a King) we discussed David’s success in life – he had the highest favor, because he was a man after God’s heart. Why? David succeeded to unify two seemingly opposite character traits: “hitnasut” (exaltedness) and “shiflut” (humility), together making up what is called “malchut” or kingship. Before God, he moved with complete humility, before his enemies, he carried himself with fearless assertiveness. The Method in the Madness – Living in Huts for a Whole Week! Sukkot is the time of the gathering of produce. Jewish tradition explains that at a time like this any normal farmer might look upon his produce and think how much he achieved, gazing upon his riches, becoming haughty and forgetting God. It is at this very point in time that we intentionally move into frail huts, stating that our true security only lies under the protective wings of the Shechina (the Divine’s Presence). Therefore the Sages call the Festival of Sukkot “the Shelter of Faith”. What is it that transforms a flimsy, exposed sukkah into a mighty stronghold? Humility and the acknowledgment that our security and success comes from God. The beginning of a dynasty which overcame the greatest of giants, came from a king with a heart of shepherd boy, unflinching in his faith. By embracing the legacy of this monarch, we know that the fallen Sukkah of David will inevitably rise again. The palace of the Davidic Dynasty has recently been discovered in the City of David, and is visited by thousands of tourists annually. The very place where the Davidic dynasty was established 3000 years ago is rising from the dust. So this year, like all others, we will build a big sukkah in the City of David, Ancient Jerusalem, at the location of the ancient palace. We will welcome everyone, the Ushpizin and all our precious guests coming from Israel and abroad. On the seventh day of Sukkot we will welcome and honor King David, and with strengthened resolve make the blessing: “The Compassionate One, may He raise for us the Fallen Sukkah of David”. Soon, in our days. Hope to see you there. Chag Sukkot Sameach! Source URL: http://www.cityofdavid.org.il/en/article/rise-davids-fallen-sukkah The Rise of David’s Fallen Sukkah 2.Rare 3,000-year-old King David era seal discovered by Temple Mount Sifting Project By DANIEL K. EISENBUD 9/24/15 10-year-old Russian volunteer unearths unprecedented find. THE RARE stone seal unearthed by the Temple Mount Sifting Project dating to the 10th century BCE. . (photo credit:ZE’EV RADOVAN & ZACHI DVIRA)
A rare 3,000-year-old seal, from the time of King David in the 10th century BCE, was recently discovered by a 10-year-old Russian volunteer at Jerusalem’s Temple Mount Sifting Project.
Dr. Gabriel Barkay, co-founder and director of the project – which sifts through thousands of tons of illegally removed earth from the contested holy site in 1999 by the Wakf religious trust to build a mosque – said that the finding is unprecedented.
“The seal is the first of its kind to be found in Jerusalem,” said Barkay, a world-renowned archaeologist and Israel Prize laureate, who has led the project for more than 10 years.
“The dating of the seal corresponds to the historical period of the Jebusites and the conquest of Jerusalem by King David, as well as the construction of the Temple and the royal official compound by his son, King Solomon.”
“What makes this discovery particularly significant,” Barkay continued, “is that it originated from upon the Temple Mount itself.”
The seal – discovered by Matvei Tcepliaev, a Russian 10-year-old boy who volunteered at the Temple Mount Sifting Project – was only recently deciphered by archaeologists, he said. According to Barkay, since the project’s inception in 2004, more than 170,000 volunteers from Israel and around the world have taken part in the sifting.
The historical credibility of the biblical text regarding Jerusalem during the 10th century BCE has been hotly debated by archaeologists since the 1990s.
 (MATVEI TCEPLIAEV, 10, holds the seal he discovered)
However, recent finds from other excavations – including the Ophel (south of the Temple Mount,) the City of David and the Temple Mount Sifting Project – indicate that the descriptions found within the biblical text relating to Jerusalem may indeed be authentic.
“The discovery of the seal testifies to the administrative activity which took place upon the Temple Mount during those times,” explained Barkay.
“All the parallel seals with similar stylistic designs have been found at sites in Israel – among them Tel Beit Shemesh, Tel Gezer and Tel Rehov – and were dated to the 11th-10th centuries BCE.”
Barkay said the images of two animals, one on top of the other, are inscribed in the base of the seal, possibly representing a predator and its prey. He also noted that the seal is perforated, thus enabling it to be hung from a string.
Apart from the seal, hundreds of pottery sherds dating to the 10th century BCE have been discovered within the Temple Mount’s historic soil, including a rare arrowhead made of bronze and ascribed to the same period, he added.
Roughly 50 percent of the tons of earth removed from the contested holy site have revealed previously unknown insights into the history of the celebrated plateau.
“Since the Temple Mount has never been excavated, the ancient artifacts retrieved in the Sifting Project provide valuable and previously inaccessible information,” said Barkay.
“The many categories of finds are among the largest and most varied ever found in Jerusalem.”
The Temple Mount Sifting Project – which operates under the auspices of Bar-Ilan University, with financial support from the City of David Foundation – was co-founded by archeologist Zachi Dvira, who also serves as director.
According to Dvira, even though the findings were extracted from their archeological context, most of the artifacts can be identified and dated by comparing them with those found at other sites.
“In recent years, using newly developed statistical methodologies and technologies, we have managed to overcome the challenge of having finds with no exact context, since they were not recovered in a proper archeological excavation,” Dvira said.
“The Temple Mount Sifting Project has focused its efforts on the enormous tasks of processing and studying the finds and preparing them for scientific publication.”
Dvira added that more than 500,000 finds are still waiting to be processed and analyzed in the project’s Jerusalem laboratory. Rare 3,000-year-old King David era seal discovered by Temple Mount Sifting Project 3.Arlene Kushner “Sukkot” Sep. 26, 2015 Motzei Shabbat (after Shabbat) Sunday night begins the week-long holiday of Sukkot, the Season of Rejoicing. My favorite holiday. We have rituals associated with the lulav and etrog, which are so rich in symbolism:  Credit: Levin JCC
We eat – and sleep – in the sukkah, which has been lovingly decorated. Credit: karmihesed The Sukkah is a frail hut. Living in it for a week reminds us that in the end we must trust in the Almighty. Now, especially, with the threats that arise daily and the instability of the world, this is a lesson we must internalize. And so, I am going to leave off posting for some days – perhaps until the middle of the holiday, perhaps until it is over – in order to enjoy it with my family and fully take in its message. There will be much to write about when I pick up again. To one and all I wish Chag Sukkot Sameach. Arlene Kushner “Sukkot” September 26, 2015 Motzei Shabbat (after Shabbat) 
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Dry Bones blog updates for winston@winstonglobal.org 4.Hag Sameah, Happy Holiday from Ya’acov Kirschen
Hag Sameah, Happy Holiday from Ya’acov Kirschen5.Israel’s democratic crisis  JPost.com Saturday, September 26th, 2015 by Carolyn Glick Wednesday night Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu touched on the most critical threat to Israeli democracy. Following Internal Security Minister Gilad Erdan’s announcement that he was cancelling Brig. Gen. (res.) Gal Hirsch’s appointment as Inspector General of the police due to Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein’s refusal to approve it in a timely manner, Netanyahu said, “Our appointments process is harsh, prolonged, harmful, and without a doubt worthy of review.” The power to appoint is the power to govern. Without the power to appoint public servants, governments cannot develop patronage networks. Although patronage has developed a bad reputation, all it really amounts to is the ability to ensure that officials appointed by a government are loyal to the government and as a result can be depended on to faithfully execute the policies of the government. When appointments are controlled by unelected forces, elected officials cannot trust that public servants will implement their policies. Indeed, it is almost a given that they won’t. In recent weeks various unelected forces have conspired to scuttle two senior governmental appointments. In the first case, retired far left Foreign Ministry officials sabotaged the government’s appointment of Dani Dayan to serve as Israel’s ambassador to Brazil. Alon Liel, a former director general of the Foreign Ministry and former ambassadors Ilan Baruch and Eli Bar Navi met with the Brazilian ambassadors to Israel and the Palestinian Authority and petitioned the Brazilian government to reject Dayan’s appointment. Like the government that appointed him, Dayan does not support these former officials’ goal of surrendering full control over eastern, southern and northern Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria. His position made him a target for Liel and his colleagues. In an interview with Army Radio Monday, Liel bragged that he’s been working for years to undermine the government’s ability to determine Israel’s foreign policy. Liel explained that as he and his friends see things, since the public doesn’t agree with them, Israeli democracy is illegitimate, and it is therefore legitimate for them to subvert it. In his words, “I don’t expect my camp to control the government. If I thought my camp could win an election I would work within the Israeli system. My ideology won’t be able to win an election for the foreseeable future.” So far their initiative has been a raving success. Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff informed Netanyahu that she opposes Dayan’s appointment. If Netanyahu and the government insist on sending him to Brazil they risk harming Israel’s bilateral relations with that key South American country. And if Dayan is sent to Brazil now, he will likely be treated as persona non grata from the moment he lands in Brasilia. For all their destructive power, Liel and his associates are small potatoes when compared to the legal fraternity. With Hirsch’s scalp hanging from his wall, Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein can take pride in the fact that he has blocked the government’s appointments to Israel’s two most powerful national security posts. In 2011 he forced the government to cancel Maj. General Yoav Galant’s appointment to serve as IDF Chief of General Staff. Back then, Weinstein forced the government to cancel Galant’s appointment by refusing to defend it before the High Court of Justice when it was challenged by an environmental group. At the time, Weinstein acknowledged that there was no legal basis for his position, but he held it all the same, due to his (legally irrelevant) “ethical” concerns. By forcing the government to abandon Galant – and now Hirsch – Weinstein has done more than simply undermine government authority. He has sent the clear message to Israel’s security brass that they needn’t be beholden to the lawful orders they receive from the government. His is the only opinion that matters. He is their lord and master. Not only is this a perversion of democratic norms. It is corrupt. Currently, the government is seeking a replacement for Weinstein who is due to retire at the end of the year. The process of searching for a new attorney general itself shows the pathological nature of the system. First there is the issue of the senior appointment’s committee. Eighteen years ago, under an avalanche of condemnation from the media for appointing an ally to serve as attorney general, Netanyahu, then in his first tenure as prime minister, agreed to empower a committee chaired by a retired Supreme Court Justice to approve senior civil service appointments. Ever since, the committee, now chaired by retired Justice Yakov Turkel, has arrogated more and more power to dictate appointments to the government. As a result today, the government won’t even bother submitting the names of jurists who publically oppose the legal fraternity’s seizure of government power. There’s no point. Turkel and his colleagues can be expected to find an excuse to reject any such candidate. And they have no compunctions about forcing their will down the throats of Israel’s elected leaders. In 2010, then speaker of the Knesset Ruby Rivlin said that he wasn’t interested in hiring any of the three candidates for the position of Knesset legal advisor that the Turkel Commission approved. Turkel shrugged his shoulders. Rivlin was forced to accept a legal advisor he didn’t want. As for Weinstein’s successor, it is an open secret that Netanyahu wishes to appoint cabinet secretary and former IDF military advocate general Maj. Gen. (ret.) Avi Mandelblit to the post. It is also an open secret that Weinstein opposes his appointment. As a result, the same attorney general that bent every rule in the book to scuttle the criminal investigation – and later blocked the indictment – of former IDF chief of general staff Gabi Ashkenazi over allegations regarding felonious abuses of power, bent every in the book to open a criminal investigation against Mandelblit for his handling, as the IDF’s chief lawyer, of Ashkenazi’s alleged misconduct. Mandelblit played a bit role in the Ashkenazi saga. One of Ashkenazi’s loyalists, Lt. Col. (ret.) Boaz Harpaz forged a document which he leaked to the media with the intent of destroying Galant’s reputation. After the document was leaked to Channel 2, Ashkenazi gave Mandelblit a copy of the forged document. Mandelblit waited a few days before handing a copy of the document to the police and to Weinstein. It can be argued that Mandelblit betrayed the principle of attorney-client privilege by sharing the document with investigative authorities. After all, he was Ashkenazi’s attorney. But that was not the basis of Weinstein’s investigation. Based on no clear statute, Weinstein argued that Mandelblit may have acted in a criminal manner by waiting a few days to give Weinstein the document which he may have been barred from sharing in the first place. In the end, after months of stringing Mandelblit (and Netanyahu) along, Weinstein finally closed his investigation. But by acting as he did, Weinstein paved the way for a foreign-financed NGO to petition the Supreme Court to reject Mandelblit’s appointment if and when the government appoints him. Moreover, he cleared a path for himself to refuse to defend the appointment on “ethical” grounds, just as he did in the case of Galant’s appointment. Weinstein’s serial torpedoing of the government’s appointments is part and parcel of a larger agenda that involves preventing the government from determining national policy. Just as he acts without legal foundation to prevent the government from appointing senior officials, so he acts to prevent the government from adopting policies that he doesn’t like. Take the government’s recent attempts to dictate minimum prison terms for rock throwers. Over the past few weeks, Weinstein has repeatedly blocked the government from implementing sentencing guidelines. Now it is possible to oppose with the government’s position on policy grounds. But there is nothing illegal about its proposed course of action. Many governments enact sentencing guidelines for a variety of crimes. And there is no binding international statute barring the government from dictating minimum sentences for rock throwers. But Weinstein opposes them. So the government is unable to deal with a security issue that endangers public security and imperils Israel’s sovereignty over its capital city. True, it can ignore Weinstein. But Weinstein’s opposition has paved the way for an EU-financed NGO to petition the Supreme Court. And since he opposes the policy, he will refuse to defend it. The legal fraternity’s tyrannical behavior has engendered a deeply destructive organizational culture at the Justice Ministry. Why work hard to defend the country when your career advancement is dictated solely by your willingness to toe the company line? Consider for example the ministry’s non-response to the EU’s rapidly escalating economic war against Israel. This week two esteemed international law experts published a position paper for the Kohelet Policy Forum setting out Israel’s options for handling the EU’s policy of sanctioning Israeli products and entities beyond the 1949 armistice lines. Profs. Avi Bell and Eugene Kontorovich explained that the EU’s policy constitutes a material breach of the World Trade Organization’s treaties. Israel has the right to open legal proceedings against the EU before the WTO tribunal to force it to abandon its unlawful trade boycott of Israeli products and entities. Bell and Kontorovich argue that unlike the World Court and other politicized international bodies that are inherently anti-Israel, the WTO’s judicial body is comprised of technical experts who tend to rule on the merits of cases. As a result, Israel has a good chance of prevailing before this body. Bell and Kontorovich’s position is not new. They first recommended turning to the WTO two years ago. Ever since, the EU has escalated its unlawful economic war against Israel and the Justice Ministry has taken no action to defend the county. And this makes sense. Justice Ministry lawyers have nothing to gain by doing so. This is true first of all because international trade is an area in which Justice Ministry lawyers have no expertise. To handle the issue they would need to hire an outside expert. Hiring an outside expert means admitting that the legal fraternity isn’t all knowing. And that just can’t be done. Moreover, no one wins points at the Justice Ministry by noticing that Israel has every legal right to operate economically, militarily and politically beyond the 1949 armistice lines. Who would be dumb enough to risk his career by sticking his neck out? Indeed, if Bell and Kontorovich hadn’t spoken up, we’d never know that we have a way of defeating the European boycott movement. And even now, we have no reason to believe the government will be able to act on their recommendation. Who will implement it? Weinstein? Israel faces a daunting threat environment. The good news is that we have the tools to handle the threats we face. The bad news is that so long as unelected officials in and out of government are able to subvert governing authority, these tools will never be used. Israel’s democratic crisis by Carolyn Glick 6.Arlene Kushner “Over the Top” September 25, 2015 To say that the situation is outrageous would be to minimize it. And so I will not say it. The game being played by the PA and its supporters, as well as by Jordan, is simple: Muslim violence has been fomented on the Temple Mount, and then when Israeli security acts appropriately to put down that violence, fingers are pointed at Israel as being the “cause” of the problem.” Beyond manipulation of the situation, and distortions, there are the accusations that have no basis in fact whatsoever. All of this is possible because Muslims have no religious injunction to adhere to truth in all situations. Built into Islam is a principle of lying, if it is to non-Muslims (infidels) and if it advances the honor or the cause of Islam. This propensity – lying for the sake of Allah – is known as “taqiyya”. Within Islam, it is considered acceptable under certain circumstances to bear false witness, and certainly to misrepresent to the media. What is more, a common tactic, when under scrutiny or when faced with accusations, is to reverse the situation and claim victimhood. http://www.islam-watch.org/Warner/Taqiyya-Islamic-Principle-Lying-for-Allah.htm The problem is that Westerners unfamiliar with the way in which Islam operates, are oblivious to what is going on. A sample of what is taking place: [] Official Fatah spokesman in Jerusalem Rafat Alayan said on PA TV that “Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli extreme right are acting to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque, not only to divide it by times and areas… They want to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque and build the alleged Temple on the ruins of the Al-Aqsa Mosque.” http://www.palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=772&fld_id=772&doc_id=15753 [] Mahmoud Abbas of the PA claimed that over Rosh Hashana the hours during which Jews were permitted to be on the Mount had been extended and this was the first step in taking over. I checked on this with Rabbi Yehuda Glick, head of the Temple Mount Heritage Foundation. His response was succinct: “No way!” It never happens that we get “extra hours,” he said.  Credit: United with Israel
The fact is that during the Muslim holiday of Eid el-Adha, which overlapped Yom Kippur, Jews were prevented from going up. [] On Tuesday, after a meeting with President Hollande in France, Abbas warned Netanyahu to “stop the chaos.” He described the situation as “a very dangerous one that is liable to lead to an eruption of an intifada, which we are not interested in.” http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Abbas-to-Netanyahu-Chaos-at-al-Aksa-could-lead-to-another-intifada-417912 So, if there is an intifada (some say it’s already in process, and I would not necessarily disagree), it will be Israel’s fault, not the fault of the Arab “victims.” Right? Hollande seemed to buy this. [] Yesterday, in Moscow for the dedication of a new mosque, Abbas spoke about “institutionalized aggression against Al-Aksa” and called on the international community to protect the holy Muslim and Christian sites in Jerusalem and to ensure freedom of worship as it had been until June 1967, especially with regard to prayer at the Al-Aksa Mosque. (Emphasis added) http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.677191 Please note this carefully. He is referring to the time period when the Temple Mount was in exclusively Jordanian hands (albeit illegally) and not a single Jew had access. This is what they are aiming for. Real “freedom of worship.” Prime Minister Netanyahu’s responded that bringing pipe bombs and explosives into the Al-Aksa Mosque is the true change in the status quo and one that will not be tolerated by Israel (emphasis added): ”We have no plans to change them, but we also have no intention of allowing anyone to cause the deterioration of the arrangements on the Temple Mount by resorting to explosive and widespread violence.
“We are not altering the status quo. Those who incite with baseless, wild provocations – as if Israel is trying to prevent Muslim prayer on the Temple Mount or wants to destroy the mosques, or other wild things that are being said – they are the ones who are inciting. This incitement comes from the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamic Movement in Israel, Hamas, and – to our chagrin – also with the active participation of the Palestinian Authority.”
Those worried about the situation in Jerusalem, he said, would “do best to direct their criticism, not towards Jerusalem, but rather towards Ramallah, Gaza and agitators in the Galilee, and unfortunately, towards Turkey, from where incitement issues forth on a daily, even hourly, basis, not only to throw firebombs, but also something new – bringing explosives and pipe bombs onto the Temple Mount.” http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Netanyahu-Bringing-explosive-material-into-al-Aksa-mosque-is-a-change-to-the-status-quo-416682 At the beginning of the week, five members of the Knesset’s Joint Arab List went to visit King Abdullah in Jordan. These are some of the Israeli parliamentarians who are better equipped in their inclinations to be PA parliamentarians. The delegation was headed by Ahmed Tibi, former advisor to Arafat. At any rate, Abdullah told them that the Mount is for Muslim prayer only. ”’King Abdullah’s words were sharp and determined, and they showed his anger about what is occurring at al-Aksa and in Jerusalem,’ Tibi said, adding that the king told the delegation he would take measures if the situation continued.
”According to the MKs, Abdullah wondered why Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would pursue actions that could cause an explosive situation. The king also indicated that he was following events on the Temple Mount closely and it would be an important subject in meetings with world leaders at the UN next week.” (Emphasis added here and above) http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Jordans-King-tells-visiting-Joint-List-Arab-MKs-al-Aksa-only-open-for-Muslim-prayer-416687 Abdullah is a piece of work, craven and manipulative. Note here, as above, how he puts responsibility for the violence on Netanyahu. Classic “taqiyya”. As to “taking measures,” he referred in several public contexts to the relationship between Jordan and Israel, implying that the peace treaty might be at risk. “Any more provocation in Jerusalem will affect the relationship between Jordan and Israel.” “Provocation.” The Israeli government was not intimidated by these veiled threats, however, and was instead quite forthright in response: ”According to a Channel 2 report on Monday, Israel communicated to Jordan that it should not be shirking its own responsibility at the Temple Mount and that it was in fact the Jordanian Wakf that has allowed the rioters who were armed with stones to sleep in al-Aksa Mosque.” (Emphasis added) http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Israel-to-Jordan-Wakf-breaching-Temple-Mount-status-quo-417814 A note of explanation here: The wakf is the Islamic trust, responsible for Muslim holy sites on the Mount. There are, in reality, two wakfs, one Jordanian and one Palestinian, which are in some competition. For a short period after Oslo, the Palestinian wakf had considerable authority, but has been overshadowed at present by the Jordanian wakf. Actually, the peace treaty between Israel and Jordan accords Jordan a special status on the Mount. What has always been disturbing to me (among the many things that are disturbing to me) is that the wakf behaves as if it is responsible for the entire Mount (over which Israel has sovereignty) and not just the specific Muslim holy sites – mosques and the Dome of the Rock. There is considerable confusion on this issue, with the wakf usurping more and more power. The Arabic for Temple Mount (Hebrew: Har Habayit) is Haram al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary), but frequently when Arabs refer to “Al Aksa,” they mean the entire compound on which it is located. There are multiple reports that Abdullah refuses to take calls from Netanyahu or to meet with him secretly to dissipate the on-going tension. These reports say that the king does not want to create a “business as usual” atmosphere under the current circumstances. http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Netanyahu-says-Israel-will-keep-Temple-Mount-order-amid-report-Abdullah-wont-talk-to-him-419064 At least publicly, our prime minister appears unruffled by this. Before I move away from the topic of the PA and Abbas, let me mention that rumors are flying fast and furious again with regard to what Abbas intends to do in the near future: resign from the presidency of the PA (which is not really his, as his term long ago expired), disband the PA, discontinue security cooperation with Israel, etc. etc. Much of this is nonsense. The PA, without IDF protection, for example, would be swallowed up by Hamas in no time. Since talk is cheap, we’ll wait to see what actually transpires. It made the news today that when (if?) there are PA elections, Marwan Barghouti – who is popular with the Palestinian Arab street – will probably run. This is according to MK Basel Ghattas of the Joint Arab List, who visited Barghouti in Israel prison yesterday. Barghouti is serving five life sentences plus 40 years for five murders and an attempted murder. And that’s just what they got him on. He was a prime instigator and organizer of the second intifada.  Credit: AP That someone who should never see the light of day again should be the most popular candidate in PA polls says a great deal about the Palestinian Arabs. They are not seeking a man of peace. That he should be able to run would be an outrage. My fear is that he might win and then, supported by a compliant international community, demand release from prison – something that absolutely should never happen.
Abbas has declared he will have a “bombshell” at the end of his talk at the UN, coming next week. OK. Abbas’s inclination to go the international route is no longer a new situation. When the UN opens its fall 2015 session in a matter of days, the PA – as an observer state – will have its flag flying along with the flags of member states at its headquarters in NY. This is because the General Assembly approved a petition on this. http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/WATCH-LIVE-General-Assembly-votes-on-Palestinian-resolution-to-fly-its-flag-at-the-UN-415866  Credit: John Isaac/UN The only “victory” here for Abbas is the PR value of having achieved this. There is no legal import, although the PA is claiming this is a step towards UN membership. The resolution applied to observer status entities. Thus, the Vatican, which also has observer status, was similarly accorded the right to fly its flag. In fact, the PA had listed the Vatican as co-sponsor of the effort. The Vatican, however, requested that its name be removed from the resolution. New, tougher rules, approved by the Security Cabinet, are being put into place with regard to violence in Jerusalem. This has not been a simple situation to report upon, because certain proposals were advanced, and then withdrawn. There is a desire to be tougher, coupled with an unease that there will be incidents that inflame the mob (or, perhaps that increase international hostility to Israel). There was also tension between law enforcement authorities/the government and the attorney-general regarding what should be permitted. Unfortunate. My own inclination is definitely towards the tougher stance. As I understand it, snipers can now shoot live rounds from Ruger rifles – a weapon less lethal, lower power, than some others – at anyone throwing firebombs or rocks in a manner that places lives at risk. The key is to fire only when life is threatened. http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/AG-approves-police-use-of-Ruger-rifle-against-rock-throwers-in-Jerusalem-416508 Additionally, there will be additional checkpoints put up in Arab areas of the city. There will be complaints from NGOs posing as human rights organizations, regarding the inconvenience to Arabs, Arab right to freedom of movement, etc. Too bad. Part of the problem we must contend with as we seek to control Arab violence in and around Jerusalem, is that many of the perpetrators are underage. “Children,” we are told. “How tough can you be on children?” These “children” are taught violence however, have violence modeled for them, and can also kill. Sometimes they are arrested. But another approach is also being put into place now as well – with regard to making parents responsible. The idea is to levy monetary penalties against the parents, something that might make them pay closer attention to what their kids are doing. All decisions on this are not yet in place. On Tuesday, a young Arab woman attempted to stab an IDF soldier at a checkpoint in Hevron. She was warned, and then shot in the leg. Later in the day she succumbed to her wounds. Naturally, there are charges that she was “unarmed” and simply shot in cold blood by the IDF. In another incident in the Hevron area, a young Arab man apparently accidentally blew himself when the explosive he was handling went off prematurely. We are accused of killing him for no reason as well. http://www.timesofisrael.com/palestinian-woman-shot-trying-to-stab-idf-soldier-dies/ Remember taqiyya. Russia – an ally of Syria’s president Assad – is moving into Syria. Of this there is no doubt. “Satellite photos taken in mid-September and obtained by IHS Jane’s show Russian forces developing two additional military facilities near Syria’s Mediterranean coast, Rob Munks, editor of IHS Jane’s Intelligence Review, said on Tuesday… “Russia has been dramatically increasing its forces at an air base south of Latakiya, a stronghold of Syrian President Bashar Assad, including positioning combat planes and helicopters as well as tanks and accommodation blocks.” http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4703382,00.html Unquestionably the result of US weakness in this region, the situation is greatly unsettling. Thus I think it was with considerable wisdom that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu took himself to Russia for quick consultations with President Vladimir Putin on the outskirts of Moscow on Monday. To underscore the seriousness of the meeting, Netanyahu was accompanied by IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Gadi Eisenkot and Military Intelligence chief Maj.-Gen.Herzl Halevi. General Eisenkot is shown in the photo below, on the left, in a meeting with his counterpart, Russian Army General Valery Vasilevich Gerasimov – apparently an historic first.  Credit: IDF
Following the meeting, which was reported to have been held in a cordial atmosphere, Netanyahu told diplomatic journalists that: “I made clear our policy to try to prevent through various means the transfer of lethal weapons from Syria to Hezbollah, which is actually done at the direction of Iran.” The goal of the meeting, he said, was to avoid “misunderstandings” between the IDF and Russian forces. “We established a mechanism to prevent those misunderstandings. This is something very important for Israel’s security.” http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Politics-And-Diplomacy/PM-Israel-Russia-establish-mechanism-to-prevent-misunderstandings-in-Syria-417801 Subsequently it was announced that: “The IDF and Russian military will set up a joint working group to coordinate their Syria-related activities in the aerial, naval, & electromagnetic arenas.” http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Politics-And-Diplomacy/Israel-Russia-to-coordinate-in-air-sea-and-electromagnetic-arena-417834 Russia is in Syria to bolster Assad and assist in the fighting against ISIS. Apparently there will be no problem for Russia as Israel continues to move against all attempts by Syria to arm Hezbollah. My time has run out… Shabbat Shalom.  © Arlene Kushner. This material is produced by Arlene Kushner, functioning as an independent journalist. Permission is granted for it to be reproduced only with proper attribution. If it is reproduced and emphasis is added, the fact that it has been added must be noted. See my website at www.arlenefromisrael.info Contact Arlene at akushner18@gmail.com Arlene Kushner “Over the Top” September 25, 2015 
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| 7.Palestinian Arabs by Eli E. Hertz: Ongoing Terror in Jerusalem – the City of Peace Palestinian Arabs have concentrated many of their terrorist attacks on Jews in Jerusalem, hoping to win the city by an onslaught of suicide bombers who seek to make life in the City of Peace unbearable. But this is not a new tactic. Arab strategy to turn Jerusalem into a battleground began in 1920. Unfortunately, Arab leaders often turn to violence to gain what they were unable to achieve at the negotiating table. When talks broke down at Camp David in 2000, Palestinian Arab leaders unleashed the al-Aqsa Intifada, which amounted to a full-blown guerrilla war against Israel. It began the day before Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, when Arab mobs hurled rocks from the Temple Mount onto Jewish worshipers praying at the Western Wall below. That rock attack turned into a steady campaign of terrorist attacks. As the priming powder for the Intifada, Palestinian leaders incited Palestinians and Muslims throughout the world with fables that falsely suggested that Jews began an assault on al-Aqsa when Ariel Sharon made a half-hour visit to the Temple Mount during tourist hours. The truth is that Palestinians’ plans for warfare had begun immediately after Arafat walked out of the Camp David talks. Why do Palestinians focus terrorist attacks on the City of Peace? Because Palestinians, despite their rhetoric, fully understand Jerusalem’s symbolic and spiritual significance to the Jews. Suicide attacks – on public buses and cafes, malls, and other crowded sites in the heart of the city – since the 1993 Oslo Accords, are designed to make life hell for Jewish Jerusalemites. Atrocities like the February and March 1996 bombings of two #18 buses that killed 26 people and the August 2001 bombing of a Sbarro pizzeria that killed 15 (including five members of one family), are part of an ongoing 120-year-old battle that Arabs have waged in opposition to Zionism. In April 1920, a three-day rampage by religiously incited anti-Zionist Arab mobs left six dead and 200 injured in the Jewish Quarter. The attackers gutted synagogues and yeshivot and ransacked homes. Arabs planted time bombs in public places as far back as February 1947, when they blasted Ben-Yehuda Street, Jerusalem’s main thoroughfare, leaving 50 dead. This was all done before the establishment of the State of Israel. In the 1950s, Jordanians periodically shot at Jewish neighborhoods from the walls of the Old City. And after the city was united in 1967, Arabs renewed their battle for the city by planting bombs in cinemas and supermarkets. The first terrorist attack in that renewed battle came with the 1968 bombing of Jerusalem’s “Machane Yehuda,” the open market that left 12 dead. The plain facts about Palestinian Arabs behavior clearly demonstrate that they have forfeited any claim to Jerusalem, the City of Peace. |
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Palestinian Arabs by Eli E. Hertz Ongoing Terror in Jerusalem – the City of Peace 8.Palestinians: We Are the New Nazis by Bassam Tawil
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/6574/palestinians-yehezkel-interview 9/26/15 | | |
September 25, 2015 | Eli E. Hertz | | |
These are people behaving in a way that does not deserve being rewarded with anything, let alone a state. They far more resemble all tyrannical thugs throughout history who spend their lives telling other people how to live, and using violence, or threats of violence, to coerce anyone who does not agree. Sadly, we already have too much of that kind of muscling in our Arab and Muslim world, as Egypt’s forward-looking President, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, as well as many others, regularly point out. § We have now reached the same stage as Germany’s Nazis — the same thing, ironically, we falsely accuse the Jews of being — where the appearance of a Jew on a Palestinian television show is considered as an act of “treason” and a “crime.” In reality, it is we who are the New Nazis. A Palestinian TV talk show host is facing strong condemnations and threats forhosting an Israeli Jewish singer who is extremely popular among Palestinian youths. The condemnations expose the ugly face of the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement (BDS), whose followers are vehemently opposed to any form of “normalization” between Palestinians and Israelis. The BDS activists are demanding that those who brought the singer, Zvi Yehezkel, to the TV show in Ramallah be punished. The activists do not even seem to care that the singer supports peace between Israel and the Palestinians. They are more bothered by the fact that a Palestinian TV station in Ramallah dared to invite a Jew to an interview. The BDS activists are also not ashamed to expose their anti-Semitism by expressing their outrage over the fact that Yehezkel is an observant Jew wearing a skullcap. Judging from the angry reactions to the Yehezkel interview, one can only deduce that members of the BDS movement are a deeply antisemitic racists who hate Jews just because of their faith and appearance. Dozens of Palestinians took to social media to hurl abuse at the Palestinian TV show and its presenters, calling them “traitors,” “spies,” “dogs” and “pigs.” Palestinian artist Faten Kabha wrote that she decided to cancel an interview with the TV show “after it hosted a Jewish Zionist in the heart of Ramallah.” The Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate, a body dominated by Fatah activists in the West Bank, and several political groups also joined the bandwagon of denunciations over the Jewish singer’s appearance on a Palestinian TV show; and the “anti-normalization” activists are also targeting the five-star Grand Park Hotel in Ramallah for hosting the Jewish singer. One of the leaders of the “anti-normalization” campaign, Fadi Arouri, demanded that the hotel distance itself from the TV show, which was recorded in one of its halls, or face being labeled advocates of “normalization” with Israel. It would seem he has more to worry about by being labeled a racist. Arouri, on his Facebook page, lashed out at the Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation and the hotel for bringing the Jewish singer to Ramallah. He threatened to add the hotel to the list of advocates of “normalization” with Israel, saying: “You will be fought against the same way we fight the occupation and its institutions.” Arouri and his friends are also angry with the TV show for using Hebrew names of Israeli cities during the interview with Yehezkel, who lives in Ashkelon, and argued that the presenter should have used the Arabic name of Majdal instead of Ashkelon. The Jewish singer is fortunate that Arouri and his friends did not know about his presence in Ramallah in real time, otherwise they would have attacked the TV studio and forced him to flee Ramallah, as these BDS activists have been doing for the past few years: violently breaking up meetings between Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, and intimidating the participants like jackbooted thugs. These are people behaving in a way that does not deserve being rewarded with anything, let alone a state. They far more resemble all tyrannical thugs throughout history who spend their lives telling other people how to live, and using violence, or threats of violence, to coerce anyone who does not agree. Sadly, there already seems to be too much of that kind of muscling in our Arab and Muslim world, as Egypt’s forward-looking President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, as well as many others, regularly point out. 
Palestinian “anti-normalization” activists disrupt an unofficial Israeli-Palestinian peace conference last year, in Jerusalem’s Ambassador Hotel. |
The public outcry over a Jewish singer’s appearance on a Palestinian TV talk show is yet another reminder of how we Palestinians have made ourselves intolerable to Israelis, even to those who are sympathetic to our cause and believe in peace and coexistence. The campaign on social media against the singer and the TV show also provides proof of increasingly racist sentiments among our people. We automatically dismiss anyone wearing a kippa because we assume he is a “settler” who hates Arabs and Muslims. It is embarrassing to read many of the comments posted by Palestinian activists concerning the singer’s religion and kippa. With such attitudes, how can we ever make peace with Israel? If hosting a Jewish singer on a Palestinian TV talk show has drawn such fierce opposition and denunciations, what will happen the day any Palestinian leader signs a peace treaty with our Jewish neighbors? How many times have Palestinians appeared in the Israeli media during the past few decades? Has anyone ever heard of such protests by Israeli Jews? Israeli media outlets have even been conducting interviews with some of Israel’s worst enemies, including Palestinians who mercilessly killed innocent Jews. Still, we never saw disgusting and racist reactions like the ones posted on social media after the interview with the Jewish singer. Over the years, we have taught our people to hate not only Israel, but Jews as well — as is already cemented in the Hamas charter. We have done this through incitement in mosques, media outlets and public rhetoric. We have now reached the same stage as Germany’s Nazis — the same thing, ironically, we falsely accuse the Jews of being — where our people consider the appearance of a Jew on a Palestinian TV show an act of “treason” and a “crime.” In reality, it is we who are the New Nazis. The case of the Jewish singer shows that the BDS and “anti-normalization” folks are nothing but a group of racist brown-shirts working to destroy any chance of peace and coexistence between Palestinians and Israel. Their hysterical reaction to the TV interview with Yehezkel proves that our people are continuing to march backward, toward more extremism, racism and Nazism. Bassam Tawil is a scholar based in the Middle East. 9.Jerusalem Post Editorial: UN bias By JPOST EDITORIAL 9/26/15 The UN never ceases to blow our minds although the organization’s barefaced bias shouldn’t surprise any reasonable Israeli.  Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif addresses the 2015 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons at the United Nations. (photo credit:TIMOTHY A. CLARY / AFP)
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas vowed to prevent Jews from “defiling Al-Aksa Mosque with their filthy feet.” Was there no-nonsense condemnation of such incitement from the UN? Not a hint thereof.
The UN never ceases to blow our minds although the organization’s barefaced bias shouldn’t surprise any reasonable Israeli. Yet somehow we compulsively continue to assume that abundant, incontrovertible evidence before all eyes would finally even the skewed international scales.
Invariably, however, we are shown that no absurdity is too absurd for the UN.
The UN Security Council for instance managed in one outlandish statement to ignore the in-your-face aggression by Muslims on the Temple Mount while inter alia also expunging all trace of Jewish links to Judaism’s holiest site.
It was a fantastic feat of obliterating the truth and propping up the lie.
To begin with, there was no mention of the term Temple Mount, thus in effect wiping out 3,000 years of Jewish history (to say nothing of the derivative Christian historiography).
All that was mentioned was the subsequent superimposed Arabic Haram al-Sharif (Noble Compound).
Repeatedly, that was the one and only appellation used for the site.
It was as if Jews were never there, have no connection to the Mount, had invented a bogus narrative about a nonexistent temple and now seek to usurp the rights of Muslims whose sanctuary this was exclusively from time immemorial.
All this subscribes to a tee to the outrageous, history- defying contentions blusterously reiterated by Arabs/ Muslims in general and by the Palestinians particularly.
They pose as downtrodden victims denied their minimal religious liberties while at the same time defining these liberties as the right to exclude all others and erase Jewish civilization and beliefs from human chronicles. This is the theology of utter refutation and of unabashed replacement.
This is what the Security Council saw fit to bolster at a time in which the entire Mideast is in tatters and its refugees inundate the West.
In these explosive and volatile circumstances, the council’s most urgent concern was to affirm that “the members of the Security Council underscore that Muslim worshipers at the Haram al-Sharif must be allowed to worship in peace, free from violence, threats and provocations.”
The subtext is clear – Muslim rights “to worship in peace” are being violated and the villain of the piece is Israel. Moreover, the evidence in plain sight of Muslims turning Al-Aksa Mosque into an arsenal of rocks and other projectiles, as well as hoarding pipe bombs and incendiary devices there, is studiously ignored.
Why would “peaceful worshipers” stockpile weaponry and in a holy site at that? The intent is surely nothing if not belligerent.
Predictably, this goes apparently unnoticed at the Security Council, where fanatical hostility is defined as Muslim “freedom of worship.”
The holy sites are annually exploited to ramp up tensions ahead of the High Holy Days when throngs of Jewish worshipers congregate at the Western Wall, directly below the Mount. Habitually attempts are made not only to attack non-Muslim visitors to the Mount (who are forbidden to be seen as even whispering a prayer) but to stone and harass Jewish worshipers at the Wall and disrupt their most sacred services.
Israel and Jewish organizations worldwide duly lambasted the Security Council’s shameless declamation of inflammatory Muslim falsifications without an iota of acknowledgment of Jewish attachment to the site, one that preceded all eventual ensuing claims. But all that was water off a duck’s back.
The gross misrepresentation of past and present has come to be expected from the UN whenever it addresses itself to Israel. More of the same is likely as the General Assembly’s autumn extravaganza is staged.
Preposterous and specious as assorted UN resolutions, documents and declarations unexceptionally tend to be, their detrimental cumulative effect is undeniable. In the very least they implant and inculcate tendentious vocabulary in the minds of the uninitiated. They accentuate and approve prejudices.
They affix and appear to quasi-legitimize an agenda of hate – in galling distortion to the original vision of the UN’s mission. UN bias By JPOST EDITORIAL 10.Loopy, loopier… Lapid By Martin Sherman Diplomacy: Back at the United Nations JPost.com 9/24/15 There is little that infuriates me more that the arrogance and ignorance of Yair Lapid, head of the Yesh Atid party, and the shameful myopia and shameless mendacity he exhibits.  Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid speaks at Bar-Ilan University. (photo credit:Courtesy)
The greatest tragedy of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is that everyone knows how it will end. We will divide up the region. Israel will return most of the West Bank, and the Palestinian flag will fly on public buildings in east Jerusalem…The only unanswered question is how many more people will have to die along the way. And so we will fight against the extremists on both sides, including our extremists, the settlers – Yair Lapid, Der Spiegel, May 8, 2008
Jerusalem is not a place, it is the constitutive concept of Israeli identity and our most fundamental ethos… We will not divide Jerusalem. No matter what happens. If that eventually means there will be no resolution [of the conflict] then there will be no resolution. Countries do not conduct negotiations over their own capital – Yair Lapid, Wallah, December 27, 2014
Incredibly, these diametrically contradictory, indeed, mutually exclusive, political credos – one envisioning the inevitability of the division of Jerusalem, the other, the imperative of its indivisibility – were stridently proclaimed by the very same person, within the space of a few years.
Yet, equally incredibly, he has never been called upon to explain the irreconcilable disparity between these two declarations on a matter of such crucial national import, much less to clarify what induced the dramatic metamorphosis in his attitude toward it.
Grave indictment of the Israeli voter
If this seems an angry article, that’s probably because it is. Very angry.
There is much that saddens, pains and angers me in the conduct of public life in Israel, and, particularly, the conduct of Israeli politics.
But there is little that infuriates me more that the arrogance and ignorance of Yair Lapid, head of the Yesh Atid party, and the shameful myopia and shameless mendacity he exhibits in many of his public appearances (or rather, performances).
His meteoric ascent into the senior echelons of national politics is, perhaps, the gravest indictment of the Israeli voter, reflecting a pernicious preference for gloss over gravitas, and for slick sound-bites over sober substance. In many ways, Lapid’s political success epitomizes the pervasive malaise afflicting the Israeli polity, precipitating the disastrous mismatch between the national leadership and the daunting challenges facing the nation.
Time after time, the electorate has fallen prey to the seductive illusion of some false prophet, with the gift of glib gab, who promises to whisk away the trials and tribulations of life by means of his personal charm or force of personality, only to have its naïve hopes dashed to pieces on the harsh rocks of recalcitrant reality. Demagogic drivel
So it was with Yair Lapid, who burst onto the political scene as the white knight of the ill-defined “middle class,” which he pledged to rescue from the economic ravages, allegedly inflicted on it by the nefarious settlers in remote settlements/outposts. It was here, he charged, “somewhere between [the settlements of] Yitzhar and Itamar” that vast sums of “money were buried…that could be used to reduce the number of school kids in classes, provide better health services, reduce socioeconomic inequality…for the Iron Dome, for Arrow-3 missiles and to enhance the capabilities of the IDF.” (Herzliya Conference, 2014).
This is demagogic drivel. After all, it is always possible to conjure up alternative uses for the resources allotted to any given purpose. Moreover, it is patently preposterous to suggest that if the residents of Yitzhar, Itamar or any other Jewish community across the pre-1967 Green Line were resettled inside it, say in the Negev or the Galilee, the cost to the taxpayer would be in anyway significantly reduced.
Given the paucity of Lapid’s knowledge, the narrowness of his perspective and the shortsightedness of his vision, it is little wonder his much heralded mission to enhance the lives of Middle Israel met with little success. Indeed, within a few months of his electoral coup in January 2013, he was already dubbed “the most disappointing politician of the year,” with several opinion polls indicating that up to 75 percent of Yesh Atid voters were disappointed with their party’s performance.
Thinly disguised document of surrender
With his Knesset representation cut to barely half in the 2015 election, and his credibility as the champion of the average man in tatters, Lapid seems to be seeking other causes to adopt.
Lapid is apparently attempting to don the mantle of a statesman and formulate a grand strategy for Israel’s foreign policy and national security, apparently drawing on his “vast” expertise in international relations and “extensive” military experience.
(Readers will, of course, recall that Lapid did not matriculate at secondary school and spent his military service as a reporter for the IDF weekly bulletin, Bamahane.) Unchastened by bitter experience, unhumbled by gross inexperience, Lapid has, with characteristic brashness, embraced as a blueprint for his foray into the field of international diplomacy and military affairs, the idea of a “regional solution,” as embodied in the principles laid out in the Saudi Peace Initiative which later, when adopted by the Arab League, became known as the Arab Peace Initiative (API).
As I have pointed out in previous columns, the Saudi initiative is a thinly disguised document of Israeli surrender to the Arab world, which, by means of carefully crafted – and crafty – euphemisms, lays the foundations for the demise of the Jewish state. In exchange for ephemeral (indeed, unfulfillable) promises, it prescribes compressing Israel back into indefensible borders and strips it of all the accomplishments won in the 1967 Six Day War – and some of those of the 1948 War of Independence.
Risible, ridiculous & reckless
It is so ridiculously risk-fraught, so risibly reckless, that it is staggering that any responsible public figure in Israel could suggest considering it – even to save his/ her sagging political future – particularly in light of the developments that have taken place since it was first proposed in 2002.
As a reminder to readers, the API calls for: “(a) Complete withdrawal from the occupied Arab territories, including the Syrian Golan Heights, to the 4 June 1967 line…; (b)… a just solution to the problem of Palestinian refugees to be agreed upon in accordance with the UN General Assembly Resolution No. 194 [generally interpreted as recognizing the Palestinians’ ‘right of return’]. (c) …the establishment of an independent and sovereign Palestinian state on the Palestinian territories occupied since 4 June 1967 in the West Bank and Gaza Strip with East Jerusalem as its capital.” In return the Arab states will: “(a) Consider the Arab–Israeli conflict over, sign a peace agreement with Israel, and achieve peace for all states in the region; (b) Establish normal relations with Israel within the framework of this comprehensive peace.”
So there you have it. The basis for Lapid’s master plan: Withdrawing to the 1967 borders, surrendering the Golan (to whom?); dividing Jerusalem; recognizing the Palestinian refugees’ right of return – all this in exchange for “normal relations” and “comprehensive peace” with the war-torn, blood-drenched Arab world, which today, cannot even conduct “normal relations” between (and within) its constituent states, never mind implement a pan-Arab “comprehensive peace” among them.
In a transparent attempt to portray himself as prime ministerial material, Lapid chose to reaffirm his perverse predilection for the API this Sunday at Bar-Ilan University, where Benjamin Netanyahu made his injudicious 2009 address, accepting the notion of Palestinian statehood – a grave error, which has hounded him ever since.
Harangue of errors, inaccuracies & non sequiturs
Lapid used the Bar-Ilan platform to excoriate Netanyahu on a wide range of issues, from his handling of the 2014 campaign in Gaza, through his failure to block the Iran nuclear deal, his relationship with the Obama administration, to his neglect of the Saudi initiative.
It would take an entire volume to exhaustively enumerate and analyze the full range of errors, inaccuracies and non sequiturs that peppered Lapid’s harangue. I will confine my attention to some of the most glaring and galling.
The center piece of his “vision” was, as mentioned, the notion of a regional solution, based on the tenets of the API. Listening to him expound on it, one might well be excused for believing that Lapid was locked in some time warp, in a parallel universe with an ISIS-devoid, pre-al-Nusra Middle East.
With rhetoric strongly reminiscent of the disproven delusion of a “New Middle East,” originally articulated by Shimon Peres in the heady days of the post-Oslo euphoria, Lapid sallied forth with a suggestion for convening “A regional summit as the opening salvo for a comprehensive regional agreement,” adding, “The summit needs to be based on a joint statement confirming that it will lead to a regional agreement.”
Gee! “A joint statement”! That is sure do the trick! What a stroke of genius! Wonder why no one thought of that before…
It would be intriguing to know whether Lapid envisages countries such as Syria, Iraq, Hezbollah-dominated Lebanon and war-torn Yemen participating in such a “joint statement.”
Endorsing the unacceptable? Endeavoring to appear soberly circumspect, Lapid acknowledges that the API has certain “problematic clauses,” which he “cannot accept.” Yet, he insists, “even if we do not agree with every word in it… it still can serve as an appropriate framework for negotiations.”
This is difficult to comprehend, because every one of the cardinal elements of the API categorically negates the stated positions of Lapid and the declared platform of his Yesh Atid party.
Thus, while the API calls for Israeli withdrawal from the Golan, the party’s platform states baldly that “Yesh Atid strongly opposes any negotiation over the Golan Heights, which are an integral part of the State of Israel.”
The API calls for Israeli withdraw to the pre-1967 lines, while Yesh Atid calls for significant changes to those lines, to include “large settlement blocs (Ariel, Gush Etzion, Ma’aleh Adumin) within the area of the State of Israel,” and presumably sufficient territory to ensure secure access to/from these areas.
The API calls for a division of Jerusalem and establishment of east Jerusalem as the capital of a sovereign Palestinian state, while Yesh Atid’s platform resolutely determines that “Jerusalem will remain united under Israeli sovereignty… Jerusalem is not merely a place but the center of Jewish-Israeli ethos and the holy site to which Jews lifted their eyes for generations.” No kidding.
Not a question of every word, but any word
Finally, the API calls for a “just solution to the problem of Palestinian refugees… in accordance with the UN General Assembly Resolution No. 194,” which states “the refugees wishing to return to their homes…should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date…” and, in effect is an acknowledgment of the Palestinians’ “right of return.”
On the other hand, Yesh Atid strongly rejects any such acknowledgment and unequivocally declares “the question of the refugees will… under no circumstances be settled in Israel.”
Clearly, then, when Lapid tries to gloss over the glaring inconsistencies between the positions he pledged to voters and the core elements of the API by saying “one does not have to agree to every word,” he is grossly understating the discrepancies between the two. Indeed, in reality, it appears, that it is far more likely that Lapid/ Yesh Atid would not – or at least should not – agree to any word.
And if Lapid/Yesh Atid are bound by their pledge to the voters to reject every core tenant of the API – Golan, 1967 borders, Jerusalem, refugees – how could the API possibly be “an appropriate framework for negotiations”? Yet for Lapid to hold totally opposing – or, at least, totally incompatible – positions, simultaneously, on any given subject does not seem to trouble him much.
Thankfully left unanswered.
Lapid laments, “Israel should not have left [API] unanswered for 13 years.”
He is of course totally wrong.
Indeed, it is just as well that it was left unanswered, or today Israel could well have found itself with al-Qaida affiliates deployed on the Golan, ISIS forces perched on the cliffs overlooking Tiberias, and an assorted array of Islamists extremists entrenched mortar-distance from Ben-Gurion Airport and tunnel-distance from the Trans-Israel Highway (Route 6).
Sadly, analysis – and robust repudiation – of Lapid’s positions on Gaza, Iran, and US-Israeli relations, all equally porous and erroneous, must await future column(s).
So, allow me to end with the same lines with which I ended an earlier article I wrote on Lapid (“What an idiot,” Jerusalem Post, October 10, 2013): “The challenges confronting the country are daunting. To contend successfully with them we need leaders of substance and depth. Lapid does not fit the bill – not by a long shot.”
They are just as valid today as they were then.
Martin Sherman (www.martinsherman.org) is founder and executive director of the Israel Institute for Strategic Studies (www.strategicisrael.org). Loopy, loopier… Lapid By Martin Sherman The one saving grace about anti-Semites is that, contrary to Barack Obama’s famous claim, they generally are irrational and, therefore, they often overreach. The anti-Israel boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement has been doing exactly that recently. In the past month alone, it has suffered three resounding and damaging failures. The first, of course, was its “success” in pressuring a Spanish reggae festival to disinvite American Jewish singer Matisyahu unless he issued a statement backing a Palestinian state. Matisyahu, to his credit, didn’t merely refuse; he also made sure the world knew why he wouldn’t be appearing as scheduled. The subsequent public outcry not only made the festival hurriedly backtrack and reinstate Matisyahu in his original slot, but also exposed the truth of the BDS movement’s anti-Semitism, which it has long tried to hide. After all, Matisyahu isn’t Israeli; he was asked to issue that statement, alone of all the artists at the festival, simply because he was Jewish.
Next came last week’s decision to boycott Israel by the mighty municipality of Reykjavik (population about 120,000). Having naively expected applause for this display of moral indignation, the municipality was stunned to be met instead by an outpouring of condemnation, including from Iceland’s own prime minister, and quickly reversed course. But the damage, as Haaretz journalist Asher Schechter lamented, was already done: Reykjavik had provided further proof that the BDS movement, contrary to the widespread belief that it merely targets “the occupation,” is simply anti-Israel. Then there’s my personal favorite, which occurred this week: the BDS protest against a Pharrell Williams concert in South Africa. When I first read about the planned protest, I couldn’t believe BDS was serious. A black American singer goes to South Africa to perform for black South Africans, and BDS wants to ruin the audience’s fun? Just because Williams’ corporate sponsor is a Jewish-owned retailer (Woolworths) that already boycotts produce from “the occupied territories”? But BDS evidently couldn’t see how bad this looked. It rashly promised some 40,000 demonstrators, “the largest protest event in South African history against any musician or artist.” And it wound up with a measly 500, as many South Africans suddenly discovered that BDS might not be their best guide to international morality. Finally, as icing on the cake, the lawfare crowd also suffered an embarrassing defeat this month: After it painstakingly gathered the 100,000 signatures needed to force a debate in the British parliament on a motion to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, parliament unceremoniously refused to debate it anyway on the grounds that the motion itself flagrantly violated both British and international law with regard to diplomatic immunity. But all of the above are merely the tip of the iceberg of what could be done against BDS. As Gerald Steinberg, president of NGO Monitor, has repeatedly stressed, one of the most important steps is pressuring Europe to stop funding anti-Israel hate groups by showing decision makers what their money is really being used for. This may seem like mission impossible, but as Steinberg wrote last week, the past year actually brought some significant progress: Under the “Partnership for Peace Program”, the European Union did not renew grants for NGOs that promote BDS and lawfare, including for violent activities, marking the most significant change in over 15 years. A number of European embassies in Israel also reduced or ended grants for anti-peace NGOs. While there are still tens of millions of Euros and Pounds and Krona going to BDS, the trend is down, for the first time. Legal action is another promising and underutilized tool. As I wrote last year, BDS has already suffered major setbacks in European courts. But the real legal game-changer, as professors Eugene Kontorovich and Avi Bell of the Kohelet Policy Forum argued recently, could be an Israeli challenge in the World Trade Organization against EU sanctions on settlement products. The EU plans to finalize a directive on labeling Israeli settlement produce next month, the latest in a series of directives targeting such produce. But as Kontorovich and Bell noted, the EU hasn’t imposed similar measures on other territories it deems occupied, such as Western Sahara or Kashmir, and WTO rules explicitly prohibit discriminatory trading policies. The movement to Besmirch, Demonize and Slander the Jewish state is so hydra-headed and so venomous that it can often seem overwhelming. But in reality, it is big and strong enough to win only if nobody else is in the ring: As the past month’s events amply demonstrate, pushback works. Now it’s time to accelerate the pushback and put BDS where it belongs – on the defensive. The BDS Movement’s Very Bad Month By Evelyn Gordon, COMMENTARY
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