[Gail Sez: This photo album of very luxurious, fancy Muslim Arab homes & businesses runs 40 pages printed out but is a real eye-opening, mind-boggling study of vast wealth & excess in the Gaza Strip. The Website is: http://jcpa.org/article/luxury-alongside-poverty-in-the-palestinian-authority/]

Dry Bones blog updates for winston@winstonglobal.org

In the “old days” people would argue about the meaning of the word Jihad. Not so much these days – Dry Bones- Israel’s Political Comic Strip Since 1973

DryBones by Ya’acov Kirschen “Brainiac Explains” 11/11/15

FREEMAN CENTER BROADCAST – November 12, 2015

For Zion’s sake I will not hold my peace & for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest.” Isaiah 62.

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7.Labeling Jewish goods: then and now By Ari Soffer

The EU’s decision to label Jewish goods from Judea and Samaria coincides almost to the day with the anniversary of Kristallnacht. What an unhappy, yet utterly appropriate coincidence. By Ari Soffer Published: Arutz Sheva – Wed. Nov. 11, 2015 5:42 PM

Ari Soffer is Managing Editor of Arutz Sheva English/IsraelNationalNews.com

Anti-Semitism is a curious thing. Unlike other forms of bigotry, which maintain the same tropes and characteristics throughout the ages, Jew-hatred has an uncanny ability to evolve over time to capitalize upon the prevailing popular discourse, both in its pretexts (from “Christ killers” and “racial impurity,” to “Jewish bourgeois” and “Israeli occupation”) and in its manifestations (Christian fanaticism, Nazism, Communism, radical Islam or anti-Zionism).

And yet, at the same time, anti-Semitism always follows the same basic patterns; beginning with systematic dehumanization of the Jews, intended to bring about their eventual isolation, and – if left unchallenged – ending in ethnic-cleansing or genocide.

Kristallnacht, the anniversary of which was marked just yesterday, is a graphic case in point. After years of escalating anti-Semitism – until then mostly non-violent in fact – Jewish businesses in Germany were marked out with Stars of David or the word “Jew,” to “inform” others of the undesirable nature of those unwanted Jewish businesses and allow them to take action accordingly – be it via boycotts or through violence.

The orgy of extreme violence which ensued marked the beginning of the genocide of the world’s largest Jewish community – European Jewry -and saw previously respectable people, by then thoroughly infected by the contagion of anti-Semitism, commit ugly, unspeakable acts.

Interestingly, in the initial stages it was only specifically German Jews who were allowed to be targeted, while Nazi regulations forbade harming those with foreign citizenship for political reasons until later on in the holocaust.

In those days “anti-Semitism” was worn as a badge of honor by the Nazis and their supporters. It was not a dirty word. The evening after the pogrom, Joseph Goebbels wrote an article in which he lauded the “healthy instincts” of his compatriots: “The German people is anti-Semitic. It has no desire to have its rights restricted or to be provoked in the future by parasites of the Jewish race,” he wrote proudly. Language which today can be found only in the furthest, most insane political fringes was then a part of the mainstream. Some disagreed, others vehemently agreed, while the decisive majority were somewhere in between.

Compounding the utter degradation of German Jews, authorities then fined the Jewish community for the damages wrought by the anti-Semitic mobs – essentially placing blame for the violence on the victims!

The “anti-Zionism” paradigm

Today, in Europe, another labeling campaign is being launched. It may look different – and in many of its details it is – but it is part of a chillingly familiar pattern of behavior.

Once again, its premise is to simply “alert” the consumer to goods produced by certain Jewish “undesirables,” to enable them to take action accordingly – though its main instigators see it as just the beginning of a far broader boycott campaign (and are already insisting that it doesn’t go far enough.) Once again, it is a policy endorsed at the highest levels. And once again, it is only part of a wider campaign to isolate and force to its knees the largest Jewish community in the world: the State of Israel.

Its immediate objective, at least for now, is to ethnically-cleanse Judea, Samaria, the Golan Heights & much of Jerusalem of their Jewish population. Some may find placing things in such terms somewhat jarring, yet if we are honest with ourselves that is precisely what is being called for. The proponents of this campaign are so utterly taken by their own narrative that they do not see the slightest irony in admitting as much in public. Why should they? The popular discourse has been so effectively desensitized to the notion of ethnically-cleansing Jews, as long as it is dressed up in terms such as “ending the occupation” or “dismantling the settlements”, that even when the mask slips & the true meaning of such platitudes becomes apparent nobody notices or cares.

The timing of the European Union’s decision to label Jewish “settlement” goods could not be more appropriate. Apart from coinciding almost exactly with the anniversary of Kristallnacht, it also takes place at the height of a campaign of terrorism waged by Arab anti-Semites against Jewish Israelis. It is a terrorism of knives, guns and mob violence targeting Jewish men, women and children alike, egged on by blood libels about Jews “executing innocent children,” harvesting organs, and plotting to “destroy Al Aqsa Mosque,” with the end goal being to solve the Jewish Problem in all of “historic Palestine.”

By issuing this edict now, the European Union makes sure that, once again, we Jews are being forced to “pay” for the violence visited upon us – which we of course are responsible for by virtue of us not agreeing to ethnically-cleanse ourselves.

Twenty-first century Europe has effectively outsourced the sharp end of its Jew-hatred to those on the front lines of the struggle against Jewish self-determination. The modern-day Arab storm troopers act with impunity, while European tut-tut-tutting is focused entirely on their Jewish victims.

Today, the Jews’ antagonists have replaced the banner of racial anti-Semitism with that of political anti-Zionism – that is, a fundamental objection to Jewish dignity, strength and freedom in our ancestral homeland, rather than to our perceived racial identity.

But while the details may be different, the endgame is more or less the same: Jews out.

The key difference this time, however, is that we are no longer at their mercy.

Unlike 1930s German Jewry, the Israeli Jewish economy being “marked” by European powers does not rely on them for its survival. Although many in Europe seem blissfully unaware, the world is far, far bigger than they; if self-righteous western Europeans prefer not to buy certain Jewish goods – or yes, even to boycott Israel entirely – our economy won’t wither and die as they might wish. There are many other lucrative markets, including countries untainted by the apparently incurable virus of anti-Semitism. And even if the damage were to be significant, it will never be enough to force us to commit national suicide.

And unlike the defenseless Jews living in Europe and the Arab states during the early twentieth century, we are not doomed to face death at the hands of a stronger foe. Today, in Israel, our Jewish soldiers and Jewish Border Police strike fear into the hearts of our enemies and frustrate their plans again and again and again. Even our hardy Jewish civilians give them a serious run for their money. The Jews just don’t die quite so easily any more – they fight back and win.

Which is, ironically, precisely why the State of Israel has become the new obsession of the contemporary anti-Semites. The one and only fundamental obstacle in the way of those who wish to replicate the sins of the past is the fact that the Jewish people are no longer a stateless, vulnerable people at the mercy of their whims.

The State of Israel, and the Zionist revolutionary movement which spawned it, are the expression of the Jewish people’s legitimate, historic right to self-determination – but they are also the cure to the scourge of anti-Semitism. Not for the anti-Semites themselves of course – after 2,000 years it should be apparent just how right the Sages of the Talmud were when they proclaimed that the adage “Esau hates Jacob” is “a cardinal law of reality” – but for the Jews, the primary victims of anti-Semitism.

Europe may well return to its bad old ways – or maybe it will somehow be salvaged, who knows? But the miracle of Zionism means that finally, after two millennia, we are no longer its defenseless victims. We are free.

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Labeling Jewish goods: then and now

8.Israel: EU decision to label settlement products may harm ties with Brussels By LAHAV HARKOV, TOVAH LAZAROFF Jpost.com 11/11/15 US: Israel shouldn’t be surprised that Europe wants to boycott settlement products EU Commission approves Israeli ‘settlement’ product guidelines Foreign Ministry summons the European Union’s Ambassador to Israel, Lars Faaborg-Andersen, to explain the decision. Israel condemned as discriminatory a European Union decision to publish guidelines to allow for consumer labels on imports produced over the Green Line, to signify that they were not made in Israel.
It warned that the move could harm Israeli European relations.
“We regret the EU took this politically motivated, unusual & discriminatory step, that it learned from the world of boycotts,” the Foreign Ministry said in a harshly worded statement.
The Foreign Ministry also summoned the European Union’s Ambassador to Israel Lars Faaborg-Andersen to explain the decision by the European Commission, which is the political body in Brussels.
An EU official told Reuters that the Commission had “adopted this morning the Interpretative Notice on indication of origin of goods from the territories occupied by Israel since June 1967.”
Since the issue was first raised in 2012, the EU has downplayed it as a technical matter. It has explained that it is not a boycott of Israel, but rather a measure design to inform the consumer that the products were not made in Israel.
The EU holds that all territory over the pre-1967 lines, including east Jerusalem, the Golan Heights and the West Bank are not part of Israel and therefore its products can not be labeled as “made in Israel.”
But it was only on Wednesday that it provided member states with legal information explaining how to properly make those products under the guidelines of existing legislation.
The Foreign Ministry dismissed as “baseless” and “cynical” any EU claim that the matter was technical.
There are 200 territorial conflicts in the world & the EU has not weighed in favor of one side over the other by marking products as “not made” in one of those countries, it said.
Marking products as made in the settlements won’t help resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Foreign Ministry said and added that if anything it would make it worse, because it would encourage the Palestinians not to resume negotiations with Israel.
Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked called the decision “anti-Israel and anti-Jewish,” and said she plans to look into possible legal action against the EU.
“The European hypocrisy and their hatred of Israel has crossed every line,” she stated. “It’s interesting that they do not label products from the Western Sahara or [northern] Cyprus.”
Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid took to Twitter to write: “Jews are being stabbed in the streets & the EU has given in to BDS. This decision discriminates against Israel & encourages terrorism.”
MK Tzipi Livni (Zionist Union) pointed out that Israel does have some room to make sure the decision does not have disastrous results, because each EU country can decide whether to adopt it or not. “Israel must go from country to country and convince them not to adopt the decision,” she stated. “In order for that to happen, we need the right policy. We must say the prime minister’s policy is really two states, and prove it, so they will understand there is no reason to push us into a corner.”
MK Itzik Shmuly (Zionist Union) said the EU’s decision was “stupid, harmful and unhelpful, which leaves a stain on Europe’s forehead.” According to Shmuly, “residents of Hamburg or Copenhagen do not really understand where the Green Line starts and ends, and the decision will end up leading to a boycott of all of Israel. Unfortunately, Europe decided to shamefully strengthen those who lead the campaign of boycotting Israel, whose goal is to erase Israel from the map and not to promote peace,” Shmuly added.
MK Michael Oren (Kulanu), a former ambassador to the US, told The Jerusalem Post that he thinks labeling settlement products is anti-Semitic. “There are 200 land disputes around the world, and they single us out, and say it’s not anti-Semitic?” he asked, incredulously.
Oren explained why, last week, he went to a Jerusalem supermarket and put “Made in Europe” stickers on European products. “I’m not saying we should boycott Europe,” he said. “We just need to diversify. Thirty percent of our products are from Europe. We need to wean ourselves off of it.”
Knesset Law, Constitution and Justice Committee chairman Nissan Slomiansky (Bayit Yehudi) said that perhaps Israelis who live in the West Bank or Golan Heights should label themselves when visiting Europe. “Unfortunately, we are not far from returning to the dark days of Europe in which Jews were labeled with a gold star,” Slomiansky stated.
Conversely, MK Esawi Frej (Meretz) said that the EU decision was the right thing to do, in that it will “allow the Israeli market to rid itself of the painful hunchback of the settlements.” The decision “allows European consumers who do not want to boycott Israel, but do not want to fund the occupation, to buy Israeli products without being concerned that they are funding settlements and the occupation,” he explained.
MK Youssef Jabareen (Joint List) said the EU made the right decision, because “settlements are illegal according to international law.” He expressed hope that the EU will make it illegal to import settlement products, which he called “the fruits of a poisoned tree.”
Avi Ro’eh, who heads the Council of Jewish Communities of Judea & Samaria, wrote an angry letter to the European Union’s foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, in which he said the decision would only further fan the flames of the already violent conflict. “At a time when Palestinian terrorism is running high across Israel, the EU has decided to boycott the industrial areas in Judea and Samaria which are islands of peace between Israelis and Palestinians. Businesses like these, in which Arabs and Jews work together, should be used as the gold standard for peace, not boycotted. If the EU wants to see real coexistence, they should come and visit Judea and Samaria, then it would be clear they are labeling the wrong people,” Ro’eh said.
Since 2003, the EU has placed a numerical code on Israeli imports to allow customs to distinguish between products made within the Green Line and those that are produced beyond it.
Products produced in east Jerusalem, the Golan Heights and the West Bank are excluded from the Israel Free Trade agreement with the EU. The guidelines extend that process one step further, providing member states legal instructions as to the placement of consumer labels on relevant products to inform European consumers that they are not made in Israel.
The EU had delayed the publication of the guidelines in 2013 at the request of the US, which at the time was brokering a nine-month negotiation process between Israel and the Palestinians. That process failed in April 2014 and no new initiatives have replaced it. In the absence of any prospect of renewed negotiations, the EU is pressing forward with the consumer labels.

Israel: EU decision to label settlement products may harm ties with Brussels

9.The secret weapon in the fight for the labeling of Israeli settlement goods By RO YEGER JPost.com 11/12/15 The secret weapon in the fight for the labeling of Israeli settlement goods EU Commission approves Israeli ‘settlement’ product guidelines

Israel briefly suspends diplomatic dialogue with the EU to protest labeling

Meet the non-governmental organizations behind the European labeling lobby.

EU Commission approves Israeli ‘settlement’ product guidelines (Illustrative picture)?.

(photo credit:REUTERS,JPOST STAFF)

“The European Union cannot be expected to make exceptions in the law for the occupied territories,” Joakim Wohlfeil, the head policy officer for Diakonia, a Sweden-based non-governmental organization, said to The Jerusalem Post following the release of the EU labeling requirements of all products produced in Israeli settlements.
Diakonia is just one organization out of a 22 member coalition of NGO’s behind a report rallying for the European Union to label settlement goods, a decision that was agreed to several years ago in 2012.
Non-governmental organizations stood as a driving force behind the implementation of the labeling of settlement goods by encouraging national governments and the EU as a whole to ensure their policies do not support what the European Union views as illegal Israeli settlements through advocacy and lobbying activities.
While the EU agreed to begin labeling settlement goods in 2012, the NGO’s continued to rally for the cause for three years as the publishing of the specific guidelines regarding what must be labeled faced delays at the request of the US, which at the time was brokering a nine-month negotiation process between Israel and the Palestinians. That process failed in April 2014 and no new initiatives have replaced it.
Diakonia, a religious organization looking to influence unfair political, economic, social and cultural structures responsible for generating poverty and violence, played its part by pushing for the implementation of a pre-existing, but seemingly ignored law already in effect in the EU.
“Products coming from the Israeli settlements contribute to illegality and conflict,” Wohlfeil explained, expressing the importance pushing forward the labeling initiative and removing the “double standard” in place in Europe in regards to the import products from Israeli settlements.
“EU customers should have the right to know the correct origin of all products,” said Wohlfeil. “A continued exception for settlement products would undermine general work in other areas to prevent trade from supporting illegalities,” he added.
After successfully completing the settlement campaign, Diakonia is now working toward encouraging the labeling of mineral products because many minerals are obtained illegally in Africa stirring up violence and conflict in the region. “It is the natural progression of the European laws already in place,” Wohlfeil explained.
“I think a labeling is positive as it will help to differentiate between Israeli products and products from illegal settlements, but from my side I think a ban on settlement products would be more appropriate to avoid any support to illegalities,” he said.
The report published in 2012 by the NGOs, entitled “Trading Away Peace: How Europe helps sustain illegal Israeli settlements,” outlined import and export data from both Israeli settlements and Palestinian territories and highlighted the hypocrisy and inconsistency coming from the side of the European Union due to the failure to implement an existing law requiring the labeling of products coming from occupied territories.
European Union policy has consistently condemned the illegality of settlements under international law calling them an impediment to the peace process and the failure to take condemnation into action on part of the EU.
“Through the establishment of settlements, successive Israeli governments have created a discriminatory two-tier system in the West Bank with settlers enjoying all the rights and benefits of Israeli citizenship, and Palestinians subject to Israeli military laws that deprive them of their fundamental rights,” read the report.
“Many products are sold in European stores under the misleading label ‘Made in Israel’, denying consumers their right, under existing EU consumer protection legislation, to make informed decisions when they shop,” it emphasized.
Trading with settlements contributes to their permanence and undermines years of political and financial support given to the Palestinian cause, claimed the report. “There is a growing awareness among European governments of the need to close the gap between their rhetoric on settlements and their practice.”
The report went on to lay out a 12-point action plan on ensuring the European Union law and policy would be properly implemented regarding settlement goods.
For the coalition of NGO’s, encouraging and educating politicians while making the case for labeling wasn’t very difficult, Chris Doyle, the director of the Council for Arab- British Understanding (Caabu) told the Post.
“The labeling idea has been working since 2009 in supermarkets in Britain, far ahead of other countries. We showed the government that there needs to be a clear differentiation between products coming from internationally acknowledged Israel, and the unacknowledged side from over the Green Line,” he said.
Caabu, established in 1967, is an NGO working to impact British Middle East policy with an emphasis on conflict resolution and human rights through media, advocacy and education.
“Israel has brought this on themselves by continuously building illegal settlements which the European Union views as an active attempt to reduce the possibility of a two-state solution.”
The Palestinians are pleased by the labeling movement even though thousands stand to lose their jobs should the campaign be successful, according to Doyle.
“We have spoken to the Palestinians. They are happy to see the labeling go forward because even if it has a slightly negative impact on them now, it will help build a strong economic structure in the future when they will have access to shorelines,” said Doyle.
In their current state, it is more costly for Palestinians to export a crate of beer to an Israeli port than it is for Israel to export to Japan, Doyle said.
“Palestinians are more than capable of creating a sustainable economy but unreasonable restrictions to freedom of movement have compelled them to instead work in Israeli settlements which are actually an impediment to the creation of their own state and their ability to grow,” he explained.
The labeling may not resolve the conflict, explained Doyle, but it will encourage and ensure the discussion of a two state solution stays on the table.
“The status quo is a recipe for farther conflict both in Gaza and in the West Bank. The current government in Israel is very clearly not going to work towards a two-state solution and the labeling campaign sends the message that this is not acceptable,” said Doyle.
“It’s not a boycott and we have no connection to BDS,” said Doyle. “To cut off links with Israel entirely would be wrong- we are simply pushing for engagement and dialog between parties involved in a conflict that has gone on for too long.”
Israel has condemned the decision by the European Union to label Israeli settlement goods, warning that this move could potentially harm European- Israeli relations.
“We regret that the EU took this politically motivated and unusual and discriminatory step, that it learned from the world of boycotts,” the Foreign Ministry said in a harshly worded statement.
There are 200 territorial conflicts in the world and the EU has not weighed in favor of one side over the other by marking products as “not made” in one of those countries, it said.
Marking products as made in the settlements won’t help resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Foreign Ministry said and added that if anything it would make it worse, because it would encourage the Palestinians not to resume negotiations with Israel.
Since 2003, the EU has placed a numerical code on Israeli imports to allow customs to distinguish between products made within the Green Line and those that are produced beyond it.
Products produced in east Jerusalem, the Golan Heights and the West Bank are excluded from the Israel Free Trade agreement with the EU.
The guidelines extend that process one step further, providing member states legal instructions as to the placement of consumer labels on relevant products to inform European consumers that they are not made in Israel.
The EU had delayed the publication of the guidelines in 2013 at the request of the US, which at the time was brokering a nine-month negotiation process between Israel and the Palestinians. That process failed in April 2014 and no new initiatives have replaced it. In the absence of any prospect of renewed negotiations, the EU is pressing forward with the consumer labels.
Lahav Harkov and Tovah Lazaroff contributed to this report.

The secret weapon in the fight for the labeling of Israeli settlement goods

By JPOST.COM STAFF 11/11/2015 16:31

EU Commission approves Israeli ‘settlement’ product guidelines Israel: EU decision to label settlement products may harm ties with Brussels

Prime minister says he’s not worried about effects of new EU settlement labeling guidelines on the Israeli economy.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the European Union should be ashamed of itself for approving new guidelines on Wednesday for labeling products made in territories that Israel captured during the 1967 Six Day War.
The areas that will be subject to the new labeling guidelines are the West Bank, east Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights.
The Prime Minister joined both coalition and opposition members of Knesset in criticizing the decision.

“The EU decision is hypocritical and creates a double standard that only addresses Israel and not the 200 other conflicts that exist around the world,” a prepared statement released by Netanyahu read.
“The EU has decided to only mark Israel and we are not prepared to accept that Europe is singling out the side that is being attacked by terror,” he added.
But the prime minister did not express worry over the new guidelines’ effects on the Israeli economy. “The Israeli economy is strong and will withstand them [the guidelines], it is the Palestinians on the other hand, who work in Israeli factories, who will be harmed,” Netanyahu said.

11.A synagogue slated for destruction?By MICHAEL FREUND, FUNDAMENTALLY FREUND JPost.com 11/11/2015 20:01 Center Field: Zionism as racism – The Palestinians’ foundational lie No, there are still two pro-Israel parties

At a time when Palestinian terrorists are on a stabbing spree, we have a right to demand that our government focus its efforts on protecting us.

Congregants gather in Ayelet Hashachar synagogue in Givat Ze’ev?. (photo credit:MEDABRIM TIKSHORET)

In the next few days, barring a last-minute reversal, the Israeli government will dispatch soldiers and bulldozers with a terrible task on their hands: to demolish a synagogue in Givat Ze’ev, north of Jerusalem.
Known as Ayelet HaShachar, the Sephardi synagogue has served the local community for more than 15 years and accommodates over 300 worshipers, many of whom are veterans of IDF combat units who risked their lives in defense of the state.
But now, that very same state is poised to carry out a disgraceful ruling issued last week by Israel’s Supreme Court, which declared: “[W]e rule that the destruction shall take place no later than November 17, 2015.”
The razing of the Givat Ze’ev synagogue cannot be allowed to come to pass. We must all raise our voices and protest, and use every legal means possible, to bring about the negation of this unjust and immoral decision.
Consider the following: The land upon which the synagogue is built was purchased legally for $70,000 from its Palestinian Arab owner. Several years later, another Palestinian Arab came forward, with the encouragement of a left-wing Israeli organization, asserting that he is the real owner and demanding that the synagogue be torn down.
A petition was filed with the Supreme Court to this end. And despite the fact that the Israeli Civil Administration was unable, after three years of checking, to determine who the rightful owner was or is, the court nonetheless ordered the synagogue’s destruction.
For various reasons the implementation of the decision was delayed, but in light of the court’s ruling last week, it now appears that time may be running out.
Adding to the absurdity is the fact that the members of the synagogue have expressed their willingness to pay the second alleged owner of the land just to remove any shadow of a doubt regarding the title to the property. But even this gesture has been rejected.
To be sure, the synagogue itself was originally built without a permit. Nonetheless, there are plenty of precedents in which such structures were retroactively approved, so there is a way to solve this without turning a synagogue into a heap of rubble.
The court’s handling of this case is just the latest example of its decidedly left-wing bias, which was on full display in recent weeks when it delayed the demolition of homes belonging to terrorists who carried out lethal attacks against Israelis over the past year.
Does it make sense to any clear-thinking person that the Supreme Court in the Jewish state would delay the destruction of terrorists’ homes while pressing forward with knocking down a synagogue? Five months ago, the Regavim organization published an eye-opening study about the court’s handling of petitions regarding unauthorized construction in Judea and Samaria. It lays bare for all to see just how one-sided and unjust the Supreme Court can be.
Regavim reviewed 54 cases heard by the court between 2005 and 2013, 29 of which were filed by the Left against Jewish construction and 25 by the Right against Arab building, and examined how each one was handled.
The cold hard facts, and the partiality they reveal, are difficult to dispute. It turns out that on average, it took the court more than twice as long to issue an initial response to petitions filed by the Right than to those by the Left, 52 days versus 23 days. The first court hearing on left-wing petitions took place, on average, within eight months of the petition being filed, while those emanating from the right took over a year.
Left-wing suits were not only addressed more rapidly, but also garnered more of the court’s attention, with more than twice the number of court discussions, a far longer lifetime for the petitions and a lop-sided number of interim and conditional injunctions issued. And while the chief justice took part in 62% of the Left’s petitions, just 32% of right-wing appeals merited such treatment.
Clearly, something needs to be done to restore some balance, and equity, to the court and its procedures. It is too important an institution to be allowed to devolve into an arm of one side of the political spectrum.
Should it come to pass, the flattening of the synagogue in Givat Ze’ev would deal a grave and demoralizing blow to the morale not only of its members, but to all those who expect the Jewish state to respect and safeguard the sanctity of a synagogue.
At a time when Palestinian terrorists are on a stabbing spree, we have a right to demand that our government focus its efforts on protecting us, rather than tearing down a symbol of our return to this land. A synagogue slated for destruction? By MICHAEL FREUND

By YONAH JEREMY BOB, RO YEGER 11/12/2015 20:00

· ICC mulls war crimes charges against Israel, Palestinians amid ongoing violence ICC top court keeps ‘Mavi Marmara’ war crimes allegations against Israel alive

· The report comes after the preliminary investigation was launched in January 2015.

The entrance of the International Criminal Court (ICC) is seen in The Hague. (photo credit:REUTERS)

The International Criminal Court released its first preliminary report on Thursday regarding alleged war crimes committed by Israelis and Palestinians since June 2014 with its greatest focus on Operation Protective Edge in July-August 2014.
After the preliminary investigation was launched in January of 2015, the ICC received and analyzed 66 communiques from Israel, the Palestinians and various organizations around the world detailing the incidents of Operation Protective Edge, alleged settlements-related war crimes and other issues.
The preliminary report noted 4881 rockets and 1750 mortars were fired by Hamas operatives, indicating these incidents could be claimed as potential war crimes. Additionally, the report echoed Israeli military intelligence, stating that out of the 2100 Palestinians killed, at least 1000 were civilians, as opposed to the as high as 1600 civilians claimed by the United Nations and other human rights groups, a difference of 30%.
Regarding the trigger of the summer conflict, the report backed parts of the Israeli narrative, emphasizing Operation Brothers Keeper was initiated by the kidnapping and murder of Gil-Ad Shaer, 16, Naftali Fraenkel, 16, and Eyal Yifrah, 19, three Israeli teens, a narrative which past reports have under-emphasized.
The report listed three specific incidents considered to be the worst potential war crimes incidents committed by the IDF during the Gaza war including the Hannibal Protocol or “BlackFriday” incident which took place on August 1 when a Givati Brigade unit working to unearth tunnels was attacked despite a humanitarian cease-fire being in effect, and the late Lt. Hadar Goldin was kidnapped.
After the IDF sent in a small unit to attempt to prevent the kidnappers from escaping, an initial IDF probe found that IAF fighter jets hit 19 military targets, and ground forces and attack helicopters fired hundreds of artillery rounds and missiles into the area at an additional 14 military targets. The report indicated the number of civilian casualties broke 100 in this incident alone.
Settlements and forcible population transfer of Palestinians was also under the microscope as forcibly removing people from their land can be a war crime in some circumstances. In 2014 the IDF demolished 590 Palestinian homes, displacing 1177 people. In 2015, the IDF has so far demolished 245 homes.
The report mentioned allegations that the IDF West Bank Court system was systematically violating the rights of Palestinian minors.
This preliminary report comes after months of investigation and the ICC is expected to continue its’ evaluation, a process which could take between several month to several years to complete when it will determine based on the analysis whether to move to the next stage and bring the case to a full criminal investigation.

ICC issues first report on war crimes in Palestinian-Israeli conflict