Dear Family & Friends,

Bring out your orange clothes & hats from your closets. August 15, 2015 marks 10 years since the Gush Katif Destruction. How could our wonderful, Jewish country have a government act so stupidly? I have photos & memories of Gush Katif before, & of people whose homes & lives were trashed – literally. Some still have not made it back to a normal life. Read Moshe Saperstein’s stories. Moshe & his wonderful wife, Rachel, are true heroes of the Gush Katif destruction. They’re in our Website – still under the Jerusalem Book category. Hope to give him a category of his own soon.

More news leading up to the ‘oft-promised’ gift to Iran of world agreement. Hope against hope it fails. [IT DIDN’T. 6 WORLD NATIONS VOTED FOR IT YESTERDAY.]

Hope Congress can stop it if it comes. Hope & pray the Moshiach comes!

Have a wonderful night, a great day. Tomorrow is Rosh Hodesh Av & the start of the 9 days before Tisha B’Av. All the very best, Gail/Geula/Savta/Savta Raba x 2/Mom

[Links from the Table of Contents to the articles only works half the time. I’m trying to fix it.]

1.10 Years Later, Gush Katif Expulsion Marks Israel’s Left-Right Divide

2. 10 Buses for 10 Years: Remembering Gush Katif

3. Netanyahu Effectively Freezes Judea & Samaria Construction

4.Arlene Kushner “The Horrific Made Real”

5.Iranian Courts Fine US $50 billion

6. Amnesty’s Blood Libel Against the IDF By Elder of Ziyon

7. Israel Changes Policy, Will Talk to Hague Prosecutor

8. United Jerusalem under Israeli sovereignty.

9. Why the Stop Iran Rally is so important!

10.Temple Institute Raising a Genuine Red Heifer

11. Court Orders Police to Permit Jews to Protest Being Barred from Temple Mount

12. TIME Includes Jerusalem in Top 10 World’s Best Cities

13. Every Picture Tells a Story: The Invisible Murdered Israelis By: Paul Gherkin

14. Pres. Rivlin Highlights Contradiction of Israel’s Silence when Fighting Anti-Semitism

1.10 Years Later, Gush Katif Expulsion Continues to Mark Israel’s Left-Right Divide By JNi.Media JewishPress.com July 12, 2015

(JNi.media) A year ago, in January 2014, Peace Now Secretary-General Yariv Oppenheimer appealed on behalf of his movement to then Minister of Education Shai Piron, demanding to cancel the “Gush Katif Day” commemorations in Israeli schools. Oppenheimer, an enthusiastic supporter of Israel’s retreat from all the post-1967 territories, complained that in many schools, especially in the state’s religious education system, the Gush Katif Memorial Day has become a day of “propaganda” in favor of the political right.

Gush Katif (Heb: Harvest Bloc) was comprised of 21 Israeli settlements in the Gaza strip. On August 15, 2005, the 9th of Av 5765, the IDF began carrying out the Israeli Cabinet’s decision to forcibly remove some 8,600 Jewish residents from their homes in Gush Katif. These 21 communities were demolished as part of Israel’s unilateral disengagement from the Gaza Strip, which was not part of a peace agreement with the Palestinians.

“In recent days I’ve received several, emotional inquiries from school teachers who work for the state religious education,” Oppenheimer argued, saying “those teachers have described to me how their school was painted orange in preparation for the Gush Katif Day events.”

Back in 2005, the color orange was to anti-disengagement protest what green is to Muslim demonstrations. One source described it at the time: “It has spread like a fierce contagion. People wear it. Billboards shout it. Kids distribute in on the streets. See it dangling from cars, buses, baby carriages, backpacks. It’s the color orange and it is everywhere. As Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s plan to evacuate the Jewish communities of Gaza and parts of the West Bank on Aug. 15 draws closer, grassroots anti-withdrawal campaigns have geared up exponentially. With the color theme of orange, signifying the citrus groves that thrive in Jewish Gaza, the plan is to have as many Israelis as possible drape the country in orange to protest the evacuation and show solidarity with the Jews who must vacate their homes.”

“The teachers also told me how all the contents prepared for this day have been showing the disengagement only from the perspective of the evacuees and does not allow for the expression of other positions contrary to the right-wing narrative,” Oppenheimer complained, adding, “The disengagement is presented as a criminal and aggressive act against the settlers which should never again be repeated in the future.”

Also, he complained, “there is no references in the study material to the harsh security and demographic situation on eve of the disengagement, and the price that Israel paid for the years in which it kept the settlements in the Gaza Strip.”

Bayit Yehudi Minister Uri Ariel retorted, back in January, 2014, that Oppenheimer “reveals a unique combination of an extreme leftist conspiring against the State of Israel and gross insensitivity to the plight of entire community that had been thrown out of its homes without any corresponding benefit in the form of a reduction in the number of Kassam rockets that cover most of Israel’s territory.”

Ariel claimed that “the extreme left does not stop turning these and other memorial days into days of blatant propaganda pushing their agenda and no one says a word.”

Ariel advised Oppenheimer to cover his mouth with a bandage so he won’t sound like an idiot.

That exchange, in a nutshell, represents the still unhealed gash in the Israeli body politic, which continues to be as raw and pulsating today as it was ten years ago — with two key differences:

a. It has been proven beyond most reasonable observers’ doubts that the retreat from Gaza did not result in any peace benefit at all — not only has the number of Hamas rocket and mortar attacks become hundreds of times more severe, but Israel has received no credit at all for leaving Gaza, as the world continues to view it as the occupying force there.

b. Israel’s voters have moved further to the right, abandoning in droves the left-wing agenda regarding settlements.

Both of Israel’s major left-wing parties, Labor and Meretz, concentrated their campaigns leading up to last March’s election on social and economic inequities, while merely paying lip service to their historic 2-state solution message.

The Gush Katif Museum was established on the 10th of Av, 5768 (August 11, 2008), on the third-year anniversary of the uprooting of Gush Katif and northern Samaria under the “Disengagement Plan.” It is the most prominent of several commemoration efforts, The museum is still housed in temporary dwellings, at 5 Shaare Tzedek Street, Jerusalem, a 20-minute leisurely walk from the Knesset. Seven years later, the museum is still anticipating the allotment of a plot of land by the Israeli government, to build a proper center to commemorate Gush Katif and northern Samaria.

If you’re starting to detect Holocaust memorial tones here, it’s because they’re evident in many of the attempts to preserve the memory of Gush Katif, and because, to a sizable portion of Israelis, most notably the Religious Zionists, the experience came pretty close to that of the Jewish collective memories of the rounding up the Jews of Europe in the 1940s, and the Jews of Spain and Portugal in 1492.

“The museum’s purpose is to create memory awareness, preservation of and homage to the Jewish settlement enterprise in the Gaza Strip,” states the museum’s literature, “and to preserve the national consciousness’ memory of the uprooted settlements of Gush Katif and northern Samaria, under the so-called ‘Disengagement Plan.’”

Plug in the Jewish communities of Eastern Europe in place of the 21 settlements, and exchange the Wannsee Conference for the Disengagement Plan, and you’ll understand the reverberating cry of “Never again” that’s bursting almost equally for an entire community from both these traumas.

In Israel, public debates of the Gush Katif event are often decided before they start, by the term being picked to describe it. There’s the “Disengagement,” used heavily by government sources and the left before and after the august 2005 event, suggesting a mild act of separation involving some minor geographic alterations; “Evacuation,” suggesting the speaker is mindful of the discomfort of the people without actually taking up a position favoring their politics; and there’s “Uprooting” and “Expulsion,” in use by Israelis who empathize with the trauma and then the lingering suffering of the Jews who were pushed into the buses.

The Gush Katif Committee (a.k.a. Friends of Gush Katif) offers a rich archive of documentation of the Gush Katif trauma. The topics are presented with an unabashed nod to post-Holocaust literature:

· Gush Katif Expulsion – How Did the Youth Cope?

· 10 Years Later, Reliving the Gaza Expulsion

· Yulis Family Enters New House Yet Wants to Return Home

No review of the place of the Gush Katif narrative inside the Israeli psyche would be complete without the near-mystical view, which is supported at least in part by facts on the ground, of the ill fate of the architects of the Gush Katif operation, as well as the people who carried it out.

The list is considerable, and if one is prone to delving into the occult:

· Six months after the expulsion, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who initiated the operation, suffered a debilitating stroke that put him into a coma from which he did not recover until his death in 2014.

· His son, Omri Sharon, a Likud and then a Kadima MK before the deportation, one of his father’s closest advisers on the Gush Katif plan, was convicted close to the time of the operation of falsifying corporate documents and perjury, and sentenced to seven months in prison, never returning to politics afterwards.

· Israel’s President Moshe Katsav, who chose the eve of the deportation to preach sanctimoniously to the settlers about respecting the decisions of state authorities and accepting their plight, was forced to accept the decision of the authorities himself, having been sentenced to seven years in prison for sex crimes against his female employees.

· Ehud Olmert, a minister in Sharon’s government and a major supporter of the evacuation plan, who replaced the ill Sharon as prime minister in time to orchestrate the evacuation of Amona in northern Samaria, was later tried in connection with several scandals, for two of which he has been sentenced to a combined term of six years and eight months in prison.

· Sharon’s Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz who carried out the disengagement plan and was one of its biggest supporters, watched his political career diminishing rapidly, until he failed to make it into the Knesset last March and was forced to announce his retirement from politics.

· IDF Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz, who led the displacement operation, which he named Operation Determination and Sensitivity, proved to be an abysmal failure when he wasn’t facing civilians in the 2006 Israel–Hezbollah Second Lebanon War, was humiliated by the Winograd Committee that investigated the IDF failures, and resigned even before the committee report was made public.

· Police Commissioner Moshe Karadi was slammed by the Zeiler Commission report on a variety of issues and resigned in disgrace.

· Police Southern District commander Uri Bar-Lev, who ran the police forces at the evacuation, came under investigation for sexual harassment and resigned. Also, in proper occult fashion, three years after Gush Katif, Bar Lev’s own home was demolished by bulldozers, having dipped into a sink hole.

The list continues and includes several additional police and government official. One notable survivor of the Gush Katif “curse” was MK Tzipi LIvni, who was a minister in Sharon’s government and a supporter of the uprooting — although it is possible that she’s had to use several lives to overcome it.

And if you’ve been wondering how Benjamin Netanyahu has managed to remain in power for so many years, despite his arguably less than stellar performance — one could easily go to the reverse side of the Gush Katif curse for an explanation:

While serving as Minister of Finance in Sharon’s government, Netanyahu threatened to resign unless the Gaza pullout plan was put to a referendum. He later modified his ultimatum and voted in favor, indicating immediately thereafter that he would resign unless a referendum was held within 14 days. And, true to his word, he submitted his resignation on August 7, 2005, before the cabinet’s 17 to 5 vote to approve the Gush Katif evacuation.

Or, as Kenny Rogers would have put it: “You’ve got to know when to hold ’em / Know when to fold ’em / Know when to walk away/ Know when to run!”

Nothing about the tone and the feel of the Gush Katif memories suggests that they are becoming more dim in many Israelis’ consciousness. For many, the name Gush Katif will continue to represent a moment in Jewish history of inexplicable cruelty inflicted by brother against brother. Especially considering that the date falls—not accidentally—on Tisha B’Av, the worst day of the Jewish year, bar none.

2. 10 Buses for 10 Years: Remembering Gush Katif By: Jewish Press News Briefs Published: July 9th, 2015

JERUSALEM July 2, 2015 – The International Young Israel Movement – Israel Branch (IYIM), the Gush Katif Commemoration Center and Friends of Gush Katif are organizing a unique and powerful summer program entitled “10 Buses for 10 Years: Remembering Gush Katif.”

This interactive trip, marking the ten year anniversary of the withdrawal from Gush Katif, stands strong with a mission to take ten busloads of visitors, both Israelis and tourists alike, to several of the new Gush Katif communities. The hope is to show solidarity to the former residents and that we are still here with them and for them.

Visitors will also have the opportunity to meet with former Gush Katif residents, hear their stories, and see what has been accomplished in the new communities. Visitors will additionally tour the powerful Gush Katif Commemoration Center – one of three National Heritage Centers recognized by the Israeli Government. The Center introduces the story of settling rural Gush Katif in all aspects: establishment, coping with terror, the struggle, displacement and renewal.

“Ten years is a long time in the collective memory,” commented Daniel Meyer, IYIM’s Executive Director. “These people who we hugged and cried with in the summer of 2005 have largely receded from public eye and public memory. IYIM is proud that we have continued to stand with them and assist them on their journey for the past decade. We are launching this program to expand our support from personal back to national and International. This very special group of people is a living example of King Solomon’s timeless words: ‘A time to destroy, a time to rebuild;’ we have so much to learn from them.”

The former residents are excited about the upcoming program and look forward to welcoming the visitors and speaking about their experiences and new lives.

“We’re delighted by the International Young Israel Movement’s initiative of bringing ten buses of visitors to tour the Katif Heritage Center in Nitzan and visit renewed Gush Katif communities. We’re convinced that this tour will strengthen their feelings of partnership with the people of Gush Katif and make clear that this… must never happen again,” remarked Dror Vanunu, International Coordinator of The Gush Katif Committee.

“It’s wonderful to see so many people coming to learn about Gush Katif,” stated Shifra Shomron, of the Friends of Gush Katif Public Relations Department. “Ten years later, we still have a long path ahead of us, but we’re rebuilding our homes and our lives and thank everyone helping us in keeping the heritage of Gush Katif alive.”

Registration is now open. Please contact 10buses@iyim.org.il or refer to the International Young Israel Movement website athttp://www.iyim.org.il/10buses for details and sign-up information.

Bus Dates:

o Thursday, July 16
o Monday, July 20
o Wednesday, July 22
o Friday, July 24
o Monday, July 27
o Wednesday, July 29

o Monday, Aug 3
o Wednesday, Aug 5
o Monday, Aug 10
o Wednesday, Aug 12

3.Netanyahu Effectively Freezes Judea & Samaria Construction

By: JNi.Media JewishPress.com Published: July 14th, 2015

(JNi.media) Council heads in Judea and Samaria who met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Monday told Israeli media that he said to them “it is impossible to further develop the settlements, we need instead to maintain what there is.”

The Likud Knesset faction denied the report, stating “the prime minister did not say he would not build in Judea and Samaria.”

According to the council heads, the meeting touched on a group of residential buildings in the town of Beit El, in Binyamin Region, that have been slated for demolition by a Supreme Court order that found them to be standing on private Palestinian land. At that juncture, Netanyahu and Shai Alon, head of the Beit El council, began a debate that culminated in Netanyahu’s above statement.

Alon demanded that the prime minister live up to his promise to replace the demolished buildings with 300 new housing units. Netanyahu flatly refused.

According to the report, Netanyahu told Alon: “You’re worried about your community’s interests, I’m worried about the interests of the entire country.”

Mount Hebron council head Yochai Damari told Yediot: “Today I attended a meeting where the Prime Minister announced his intention to halt the settlement enterprise. This decision to freeze the process of designing and building in Samaria will severely damage many communities that are already faced with complicated challenges. Not watering a plant is the same as uprooting it.”

Damari attacked Netanyahu, saying that “the Prime Minister stands like a rock before world pressures on the Iran issue, and does not announce compromise or retreats from our principles. Terrorism is terrorism. The statement he made fuels the continued war against us in the international arena, and challenges our right to Judea and Samaria.”

“Construction is the only effective way to fight terrorism,” Damari concluded. “Not the death penalty and not detention. I urge the government ministers to change this dangerous decision and fulfill the mandate of the voters who expressed their will clearly only recently.”

Damari was referring to hundreds of thousands of voters from Judea and Samaria who gave the Likud an estimated four or five Knesset seats, lifting it from the low 20s to a 30-seat victory last March.

The Likud responded that “the prime minister did not say he won’t build in Judea and Samaria.

The prime minister said that would promote creating additional housing units in Beit El by evacuating the local Border Police compound. Contrary to the allegations, the prime minister did not rule out any construction in Judea and Samaria, and said he is “promoting the settlement enterprise with wisdom and responsibility, in the face of a complex international reality.”

A week ago, in response to a string of bloody attacks by Palestinians on Jewish civilians in Judea and Samaria, Bayit Yehudi Chairman Party Chairman and Minister of Education Naftali Bennett met with Prime Minister Netanyahu to demand “political approval for construction in Judea and Samaria, and the strengthening of the settlement enterprise,” noting that “the Bayit Yehudi faction will not ignore the murder of Jews.”

Which means that the Netanyahu statement Monday may have the potential to start a coalition earthquake.

4.Arlene Kushner “The Horrific Made Real” July 14, 2015

Until the end there was doubt that this would actually happen. But it happened. Heaven help us now. The fools who were negotiating in Vienna have reached an agreement. And look how happy they appear, after the crushing damage they have fomented. (Of course Zarif of Iran, who is laughing the hardest, would be ecstatically happy.)

I share here some basics of the agreement, as described by Omri Ceren of The Israel Project (with my bolded emphasis added):

(1) The Iranian nuclear program will be placed under international sponsorship for R&D – A few weeks ago the AP leaked parts of an annex confirming that a major power would be working with the Iranians to develop next-generation centrifuge technology at the Fordow underground military enrichment bunker. Technically the work won’t be on nuclear material, but the AP noted that “isotope production uses the same technology as enrichment and can be quickly re-engineered to enriching uranium.” The administration had once promised Congress that Iran would be forced to dismantle its centrifuge program. The Iranians refused, so the administration conceded that the Iranians would be allowed to keep their existing centrifuges. Now the international community will be actively sponsoring the development of Iranian nuclear technology. And since the work will be overseen by a great power, it will be off-limits to the kind of sabotage that has kept the Iranian nuclear program in check until now.

(2) The sanctions regime will be shredded – the AP revealed at the beginning of June that the vast majority of the domestic U.S. sanctions regime will be dismantled. The Lausanne factsheet – which played a key role in dampening Congressional criticism to American concessions – had explicitly stated “U.S. sanctions on Iran for terrorism, human rights abuses, and ballistic missiles will remain in place under the deal.” That turns out to have been false. Instead the administration will redefine non-nuclear sanctions as nuclear, so that it can lift them…

(3) The U.S. collapsed on the arms embargo – Just a week ago Dempsey told the Senate Armed Services Committee that “under no circumstances should we relieve pressure on Iran relative to ballistic missile capabilities and arms trafficking.” Now multiple outlets have confirmed that the embargo on conventional weapons will be lifted no later than 5 years from now, and that the embargo on ballistic missiles will expire in 8 years. No one in the region is going to wait for those embargoes to expire: they’ll rush to build up their stockpiles in anticipation of the sunset.

(4) The U.S. collapsed on anytime-anywhere inspections – The IAEA will get to request access to sensitive sites, the Iranians will get to say no, and then there will be an arbitration board that includes Iran as a member. This concession is particularly damaging politically and substantively because the administration long ago went all-in on verification. The original goal of the talks was to make the Iranians take physical actions that would prevent them from going nuclear if they wanted to: dismantling centrifuges, shuttering facilities, etc. The Iranians said no to those demands, and the Americans backed off. The fallback position relied 100% on verification: yes the Iranians would be physically able to cheat, the argument went, but the cheating would be detected because of an anytime-anywhere inspection regime.

That is not what the Americans are bringing home.

Last night, Ceren, who was in Vienna, was interviewed on Voice of Israel. He referred to the deal as a “staggering, staggering failure of US diplomacy, and a staggering failure of US leadership.”

You can see more on the deal as a Western catastrophe in the op-ed by Times of Israel editor David Horovitz:

http://www.timesofisrael.com/16-reasons-nuke-deal-is-an-iranian-victory-and-a-western-catastrophe/

President Obama’s speech today, celebrating the end of the deal, is so filled with lies and misrepresentations it is difficult to know where to begin:

“…the United States, together with our international partners, has achieved something that decades of animosity has not: a comprehensive long-term deal with Iran that will prevent it from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

“This deal demonstrates that American diplomacy can bring about real and meaningful change, change that makes our country and the world safer and more secure…

“Today, because America negotiated from a position of strength and principle, we have stopped the spread of nuclear weapons in this region. Because of this deal, the international community will be able to verify that the Islamic Republic of Iran will not develop a nuclear weapon.

“This deal meets every single one of the bottom lines that we established when we achieved a framework this spring. Every pathway to a nuclear weapon is cut off…”

http://www.timesofisrael.com/full-text-of-obamas-speech-on-iran-deal-every-pathway-to-a-nuclear-weapon-is-cut-off/

If you have been tracking the breathtaking concessions made by the US, either via my posts or elsewhere, you can identify the whoppers for yourself. But let me take one very obvious example here: He says, “we have stopped the spread of nuclear weapons in this region [the Middle East]. Quite the contrary is the case.

As the Jewish Policy Center explains:

“We have not. Far from providing for better arms control, the deal will encourage Sunni powers in the region, including Saudi Arabia and Egypt,– to reconsider their own nuclear programs, shredding the international non-proliferation protocol. The region will become increasingly unstable.”

http://www.jewishpolicycenter.org/5627/statement-on-nuclear-agreement

Prime Minister Netanyahu calls the deal a “stunning historical mistake.”

In his statement today, he said (emphasis added):

“The world is a much more dangerous place today than it was yesterday.

“The leading international powers have bet our collective future on a deal with the foremost sponsor of international terrorism. They’ve gambled that in ten years’ time, Iran’s terrorist regime will change while removing any incentive for it to do so. In fact, the deal gives Iran every incentive not to change.

“In the coming decade, the deal will reward Iran, the terrorist regime in Tehran, with hundreds of billions of dollars. This cash bonanza will fuel Iran’s terrorism worldwide, its aggression in the region and its efforts to destroy Israel, which are ongoing.

“Amazingly, this bad deal does not require Iran to cease its aggressive behavior in any way…

“In addition to filling Iran’s terror war chest, this deal repeats the mistakes made with North Korea.

“There too we were assured that inspections and verifications would prevent a rogue regime from developing nuclear weapons.

“And we all know how that ended.

“The bottom line of this very bad deal is exactly what Iran’s President Rouhani said today: ‘The international community is removing the sanctions and Iran is keeping its nuclear program.’

“By not dismantling Iran’s nuclear program, in a decade this deal will give an unreformed, unrepentant and far richer terrorist regime the capacity to produce many nuclear bombs, in fact an entire nuclear arsenal with the means to deliver it.”

http://www.timesofisrael.com/full-text-of-netanyahus-response-to-nuke-deal-it-will-fuel-irans-efforts-to-destroy-israel/

Netanyahu added:

“Israel is not bound by this deal with Iran and Israel is not bound by this deal with Iran because Iran continues to seek our destruction.

“We will always defend ourselves.”

The Security Cabinet has met and unanimously voted to reject the terms of the agreement, and stands by Israel’s right to defend herself.

And here we come to one essential aspect of what will now follow. There is a great deal of discussion regarding whether Israel can hit Iran, and whether Israel will opt to do so.

There are those who say declarations by Israel’s leaders are just bluff. I’m not sure that is true (see below), but those who call these words “bluff” are missing a very essential point: If Iran knows Israel is watching, and Iran is not sure if Israel is bluffing, the situation has a certain inhibiting effect on Iran’s behavior. This has already been demonstrated.

But in any event, as I said, we do not know that Israel is bluffing.

Military analyst Yaakov Lappin says that Israel will continue to develop means for attacking Iran, as long as Iran remains a threat: the military option is not off the table. However, it is only an attempt by Iran to break through to nuclear capability that would trigger an attack.

http://www.jpost.com/page.aspx?pageid=7&articleid=408827

An attempt by Iran to break through remains a possibility because, historically, Iran cheats, and now the monitoring is sorely insufficient.

See this video of an interview of Naftali Bennett by BBC. He makes the point exceedingly well of how insufficient monitoring will be under the agreement:

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/198134#.VaV2fZsVjIU

A statement by MK Tzahi Hanegbi (Likud), Chair of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, reinforces the view presented by Lappin: Israel’s ability to attack is independent, he says. [I.e., no one controls us.] We won’t attack if they don’t cheat. “And we know that this entire program is based on fraud and deceit that the world is now accepting.”

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/198135#.VaV1W5sVjIU

Netanyahu has been saying that he never promised he could stop this agreement, as the Western leaders were determined to go forward with it.

What he has promised, he says, and that promise stands, is not to let Iran go nuclear. Lappin’s analysis gives teeth to this commitment. The capability of hitting Iran’s nuclear facilities is one Israel has no intention of forfeiting, Lappin says.

What I find more than a bit astounding is that in spite of widespread understanding in many quarters that the Iranian deal is badly flawed and dangerous, in all the world, Prime Minister Netanyahu is the only head of state who is speaking out forcefully.

In this, I believe he merits our whole-hearted support.

There are others, such as heads of the Sunni Arab states, who are truly horrified. But they are opting for a deafening silence.

The next focus of attention is Washington DC and Congress – which has 60 days now to review the deal. The president has already said he will veto a negative vote. We knew this going in.

Israel has plans to speak with Congressional leaders and to bring the case for rejection of the deal to the American people. The hope is that the deal can be stopped.

According to some sources, Obama, for his part, now plans a charm offensive: he will invite Netanyahu to the White House, offer arms, etc., in an attempt to sway Netanyahu to accept the deal without campaigning against. Make it worth Israel’s while, that is.

I do not expect this will work.

I’ve even read commentary that suggests that Netanyahu might secure guarantees from the US that if Iran attacked Israel, the U.S. would provide defense. Trust the U.S. to defend us? Get real.

I will return to this diplomatic situation, as it plays out, several times over, I am certain.

© 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

5.Iranian Courts Fine US $50 billion: The United States must pay compensation for “killing Iranian nationals by assisting their enemies.”

By: Tzvi Ben-Gedalyahu JewishPress.com Published: July 14, 2015

Iran’s Judiciary Spokesman Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejei announced that the country’s courts have issued rulings that fine the U.S. government $50 billion “for the losses it has incurred on real and legal entities.”

The Islamic Republic regime’s Fars News Agency reported few details on the ruling, whose timing must be considered more than just a plain coincidence. The announcement was made at virtually the same time that reported emerged that Iran and the P5+1 powers finally have reached an agreement on Iran’s nuclear program.

Ejel said the court ruled after hearings on complaints, but he left them undefined.

Fars reported, “Since the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979, the US has inflicted heavy loss and damage on the country, including killing the Iranian nationals by assisting their enemies, including Saddam and different terrorist groups against Tehran.”

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

6. Amnesty’s Blood Libel Against the IDF By: Elder of Ziyon

JewishPress.com Published: July 9th, 2015

Amnesty International created a publicity film for its newly released “Gaza Platform” which I have proven uses inaccurate data meant to bash Israel – under the pretense of being noble.

The film includes this section that is a complete, provable lie.

Watching that video you would think that there was only one minute and nine seconds for the family to flee the house. Amnesty put up a timer and everything! It must be true! There’s no way that a family can escape in such a short amount of time; we must have witnessed their deaths.

But if you look at the original video itself things aren’t quite so clear. Look at the smoke on the side of the house and listen to the background noises – there is a clear edit at 1:16. (It is more obvious at fullscreen.)

The edit proves that there was more time than 1:09 shown in the Amnesty timer. Making this video a lie.

How much was edited out?

From The Independent, July 13, 2014: A video has emerged showing the extraordinary “knock on the roof” technique used by the Israeli military to warn Palestinian civilians of an impending missile strike.

The footage was uploaded to YouTube yesterday by the Gaza-based Watania news agency, and shows from extremely close quarters a small missile striking the roof of a house across the street.

According to the caption, around 15 minutes later – though most of this time has been edited out of the final clip itself – two fully-armed missiles from an F16 jet strike one after the other, blasting the front of the house away and sending a cloud of debris and rubble into the air.

When the dust settles, the full extent of the damage is slowly revealed, with only the exposed back half of the home still standing.

The Watania agency reported that the home in this case belonged to Samir Nofal, who was able to get out in time along with his family and neighbours.

The 15-minute gap in the video was also reported by the New York Daily News, The Daily Mail and CNN.

(Watania’s description, however, says that Israel called the homeowner first, waited 15 minutes for the “roof knock,” and the larger bomb was 5 minutes later after the family was safely out of the house. Only The Telegraph got it right, showing how lazy reporters are in copying others’ stories.)

Perhaps, you might say, this is an innocent mistake. Somehow Amnesty saw this video without the explanation that was easily available in major news outlets and in the YouTube video that they edited to create their propaganda film.

Perhaps it is possible, but every one of those stories quoted Philip Luther, Middle East and North Africa Director at Amnesty International, saying how Amnesty is against the “roof knock” procedure. Amnesty, like any large organization, follows its news coverage closely. They read each of these news stories that emphasized that the video edited out several minutes of inactivity.

The only conclusion is that this little propaganda film was knowingly deceptive. Amnesty knows the truth and chose to create a film that strongly implies that Israel cruelly bombed houses that they knew still had civilians inside scrambling to grab their belongings.

This is a blood libel.

Amnesty’s on-screen timer is the exact same kind of deception that the entire Gaza Platform propaganda is. They are overlaying their own spin and lies on top of flawed information and presenting it as if it is more accurate than what had been seen before.

But all that Amnesty has proven is that it has no credibility. To Amnesty, bashing Israel is far more important than little details like truth and accuracy.

The Gaza Platform data also includes in many cases the an insulting term for the IDF – it calls the army the “IOF,” or “Israel Occupation forces,” a term used up until now exclusively by Arab media and Arab NGOs. Now Amnesty has adopted that derogatory term as its official terminology, further proving that Amnesty is not an unbiased source.

Amnesty has a halo around it as a reliable, major human rights NGO. Any fair observer, looking at only the evidence I have compiled over the past three days, must conclude that it Amnesty is a travesty.

Every day that they refuse to apologize for and correct this consistent pattern of lies, deception and bias is more proof of that very bias. Newspapers issue corrections, but that is beneath Amnesty.

Amnesty is well aware of my posts which have been tweeted to them hundreds of times, and others including myself have emailed them asking for comment, which they have ignored.

To Amnesty, truth is sometimes just an inconvenience that gets in the way of a good story.

Their donors might be interested in knowing this.

If I am wrong in a single one of my accusations, I invite Amnesty to respond,. I promise to print their response in full.

7. Israel Changes Policy, Will Talk to Hague Prosecutor By JNi.Media

JewishPress.com Published: July 9th, 2015

(JNi.media) The Netanyahu government has decided to change policy and begin talks with Fatou Bensouda, the Prosecutor for the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

A senior Israeli official has told Ha’aretz that “the purpose of the talks is just to clarify Israel’s position that the Tribunal has no jurisdiction to hear Hague Palestinian complaints” against the Jewish State.

According to Ha’aretz, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has decided recently to open a dialogue with the prosecutor’s office in the Hague, after consulting with representatives from the Foreign Ministry (which he heads), the Justice Ministry, the IDF and the National Security Council.

The talks will be conducted by a professional team of representatives from various government ministries, who’ll be meeting with representatives of the Prosecutor while maintaining a low profile.

Israeli sources have insisted that the initiative does not constitute cooperation with the preliminary inquiry that the Hague Court is conducting over the Palestinian Authority’s request for a war-crimes trial against Israel.

The sole purpose of this move is to persuade the court that it does not have jurisdiction to hear the Palestinians because Palestine is not a state, and because Israel’s judicial system is democratic and independent and has proven itself as willing and able to prosecute complaints of alleged war crimes.

The senior Israeli official speaking to Ha’aretz said the government believes the Prosecutor erred when she decided to open a preliminary inquiry.

“Israel has no obligation to cooperate with the preliminary inquiry conducted by the Prosecutor’s office,” he reiterated. But the decision has been made simply so that the Palestinian side won’t be the only one being heard.

Israel might also be open to discuss a visit by representatives of the Prosecutor’s office in Israel and Judea and Samaria. Such a visit is routine procedure for preliminary examinations conducted by the Prosecutor, but the Palestinians have been known to create provocation on similar occasions.

Israel has no patience for street theater when its reputation is at stake, and so the official stressed that “Israel expects the Prosecutor’s office will perform a careful, professional, independent and impartial investigation, and will not encourage the Palestinians to attempt to turn the court into a political tool or a publicity stunt.”

8. “United Jerusalem Under Israeli sovereignty.”

By: Hillel Fendel and Chaim Silberstein / KeepJerusalem.org

JewishPress.com Published: July 10th, 2015 Latest update: July 8th, 2015

“United Jerusalem under Israeli sovereignty.”

Who, if anyone, is working to ensure that this ideal becomes a permanent and accepted international fact? What is being done to ensure that, just like the phrase “united Washington under American sovereignty” is a no-brainer, the same will be true about Jerusalem?

Do the city fathers, or Israel’s national leaders, have a master plan to lead us towards permanent “United Jerusalem under Israeli sovereignty”? Has a comprehensive policy ever been formulated to direct trends in housing, demographics, public relations, tourism, and much more, toward the objective? Or are we passively allowing a quick-fix, band-aid approach to reign?

Most surprisingly and unfortunately, KeepJerusalem’s research has shown that neither the government nor any other official or unofficial body has prepared a 10- or 20-year policy plan geared toward maintaining, strengthening, and perpetuating the current united status of Jerusalem. Various experts we have consulted sadly concur with this conclusion. (The official Jerusalem website (www.jerusalem.muni.il) doesn’t even have a mission statement about the centrality, history, and long-term objectives of the city!)

Stepping in to fill the vacuum are many left-wing, pro-Palestinian organizations that have made the efforts to prepare such plans, or portions thereof. Their papers receive much attention among world governments, and even among that of Israel.

Consider for example the pro-two-state organization Terrestrial Jerusalem (TJ). TJ claims to “assemble under one organizational roof and for the first time, the experts and fields of expertise relevant to the Jerusalem issue in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict” – experts such as founder Dan Seidemann and Hagit Ofran, Peace Now’s settlement watch expert.

Two features of its homepage (http://www.t-j.org.il) give a clear indication to where all its research, efforts, and Norwegian, Swiss and British funding (as it itself boasts) are directed: One is its “Photo of the Month,” which shows various residents of Jerusalem reading, writing, or praying in Arabic; not one of them appears to be Jewish, and no Hebrew appears in the photo. Adjacent to that is a quote by Israeli author Yehuda Amichai bemoaning the practice of Jerusalem tour guides to show off Jerusalem’s grand history.

Or consider the Ir Amim (City of Nations) organization, which strives not for a “united Jerusalem under Israeli sovereignty” but for “an equitable and stable Jerusalem with an agreed political future.” This latter is achievable, Ir Amim says, “only through a negotiated process between Israel and the Palestinians.”

Ir Amim is behind large-scale public campaigns to oppose Jewish construction in Silwan, [Shiloah is the original Hebrew name]. Jewish Temple Mount groups, Israeli-government education in eastern Jerusalem, and more.

Organizations of this ilk are often buttressed by the New Israel Fund, which supports many causes that strive to delegitimize Israel and the concept of a united Jerusalem under Jewish sovereignty.

These groups work hard to achieve their goals – and they are showing success. Their work certainly receives a supportive back wind by findings such as this 2006 declaration by the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies: “According to population forecasts, if the existing demographic trends continue Jerusalem may, in about 25 years’ time, lose the Jewish majority which has characterized it since the second half of the 19th century. A change of this nature may have far-reaching geopolitical implications for Israel. [In addition, the] negative immigration balance that has characterized Jerusalem since the early 1980s harms the city’s image and does not positively contribute to its social status.”

The population of Israel’s capital was of course overwhelmingly Jewish before the Six-Day War. Immediately afterward, with the liberation of the Old City and other neighborhoods, it became only 74 percent Jewish and then began gradually dropping, to 69 percent by 2000, 66 percent in 2004, and nearly 60 percent by 2013. At current rates, within 20 years Jerusalem will lose its Jewish majority for the first time since the 1860s.

We who believe in “United Jerusalem under Israeli sovereignty” appear to be dropping the ball, and we must scramble to pick it up.

KeepJerusalem is working to compile a policy paper that is essentially a practical “tool chest” to serve the city in keeping United Jerusalem as Judaism’s historic and religious capital under Israeli sovereignty. This “tool chest” includes detailed reports and recommendations by experts in the following fields, among others:

*A Mission Statement for the City of Jerusalem: Formulation and presentation the Jewish Nation’s historic and legal rights to Jerusalem.

* Security: the dangers of re-dividing the city, how to maintain security under the status quo, and how to manage security such that it will not lead to pressures to divide the city.

* Demographics: how to ensure that demographic trends favor the maintenance of a Jewish majority without harming the civil rights of Arabs.

* Holy sites: Maintaining free access, and ensuring their management such that they will not be a reason for pressures to divide the city.

*Public relations

In addition, we are seeking to list and formulate practical steps for improved management of a Jewish city with a sizeable Arab minority, in the areas of housing, municipal administration of different neighborhoods, historic sites such as archaeological digs and finds in Arab-populated neighborhoods, and strengthening awareness of Jerusalem’s historic Jewish past.

Dov Kalmanovitch, known as the first victim of the first Arab intifada – he was very seriously wounded by an Arab-hurled firebomb in early 1988 – is now deputy mayor of Jerusalem. In a brief talk with KeepJerusalem, he admitted, “Yes, there is a worsening demographic problem in Jerusalem, and there is no official municipal policy that has been formulated to deal with it.”

Another deputy mayor, Ofer Berkovitch, has an idea for an immediate band-aid solution: He has called upon the finance minister and the government to initiate laws that will free up the thousands of apartments that stand empty. Many of them are owned by Jews who live abroad but wish to have a foothold in Jerusalem. Unfortunately, these homes that stand empty 48-50 weeks a year, awaiting the annual visits by their owners, or their owners’ relatives, are an unhealthy phenomenon for the Jerusalem population. Berkovitch wants to see increased taxes on these apartments, so that it will be worth their owners’ while to rent them out, thus driving down rental prices and increasing Jewish housing.

For now, KeepJerusalem calls on the Jerusalem Municipality to enforce housing regulations against illegal Arab housing, and to take all measures to ensure affordable housing for young Jews – and on the Jewish world to remember that aliyah and Jewish education are the most direct routes to securing the future of the Jewish people, Israel, and Jerusalem.

To become a strong advocate for keeping Jerusalem united under Israeli sovereignty, please visit both the holy city itself as well as the Keep Jerusalem-Im Eshkachech website at www.keepjerusalem.org. Send an e-mail totours@keepjerusalem.org for information on our bus tours in news-making areas of the capital.

About the Author: Chaim Silberstein is president of Keep Jerusalem-Im Eshkachech and the Jerusalem Capital Development Fund. He was formerly a senior adviser to Israel’s minister of tourism. Hillel Fendel, past senior editor at Israel National News/Arutz-7, is a veteran writer on Jerusalem affairs. Both have lived in Jerusalem and now reside in Beit El.

SUPPORT ISRAPUNDIT

Ted Belman, Jerusalem, Israel, 972 (0)73 740 8844

9.Why the Stop Iran Rally is so important!

Learn why a nuclear Iran must be stopped

Rally for Peace through Strength

Go to Stop Iran Rally to read all about it.

[Gail Sez: I know personally 6 of the 12 speakers listed here. They are ALL the BEST! Get to NY City. Join the Rally. Qvell. Next day take up good actions.]

10.Temple Institute Raising a Genuine Red Heifer

Temple Institute partnering with expert Israeli rancher to raise herd of red heifers, for future use in Third Temple.

By Arutz Sheva Staff

First Publish: 7/12/2015, 11:07 AM

In partnership with an experienced Israeli cattle rancher, The Temple Institute has decided to raise a Red Heifer, in accordance with the Biblical commandment.

The Red Heifer was a cow brought to Temple priests as sacrifice, and its ashes were used for ritual purification of those who had come into contact with a corpse.

A prerequisite of the Third Temple, in order for a Red Heifer to be considered kosher for use, it must be raised from birth in Israel under specific conditions and in a controlled environment.

To raise awareness and funds for the first ever project of its kind, The Temple Institute has launched a crowd funding campaign entitled “Raise a Red Heifer in Israel” on Indiegogo.

During antiquity, Israelites waited for the birth of a potential Red Heifer, but with a combination of Torah knowledge and advanced science, The Temple Institute believes a Red Heifer can be bred in our modern times.

Under the guidance of Temple Institute rabbis, frozen embryos of Red Angus cattle will be implanted into domestic cattle in Israel, leading to the introduction of this breed into the Jewish state.

This method, authorized by Israel’s Agriculture Ministry, has already proved successful with the birth of a number of male Red Angus.

“Three decades of research and preparation have led us to this special day,” the Institute said in a statement. “During this period known as the ‘Three Weeks,’ as world Jewry mourns the destruction of the Second Holy Temple, The Temple Institute has taken a bold move towards the third.”

“Having already prepared over 70 sacred vessels including the golden menorah and High Priest’s gemstone-encrusted breastplate, now is the time to fulfill the commandment of the Red Heifer. Make no mistake, this project is no less than the first stage of the reintroduction of Biblical purity into the world, a prerequisite for the building of the Third Temple.”

11.Court Orders Police to Permit Jews to Protest Being Barred from Temple Mount By: JNi.Media JewishPress.com Published: July 13th, 2015

Update: Honenu and the Temple organization have scored a legal victory Monday afternoon, as Supreme Court Justices ordered police to allow a demonstration of the Temple Mount activists who are protesting the closure of the compound to Jews during the Muslim month of Ramadan.

According to the court order, the activists may rally at Dung Gate, but the court accepted the police position regarding the timing of the event, limiting it so as not to interrupt the traffic of Muslims onto Temple Mount.

The demonstration will thus take place from 5:30 to 6: 45 PM, and if the police agrees, protesters may remain there longer.

On Sunday, attorney Yitzhak Baum, who works for Israeli Zionist legal aid organization Honenu, petitioned Israel’s Supreme Court regarding the refusal of Jerusalem police to allow Temple Mount organizations to rally this coming Tuesday, July 14, at one of the gates of the Temple Mount.

The rally organizers wished to protest the police barring Jews from the Temple Mount compound from the 17th of Tammuz (July 4), the date which starts the three weeks leading up to the 9th of Av, a period when Jews mourn the destruction of the Temple.

Jews have been barred from the holy site because the Muslim month of Ramadan fell on some of the Jewish period of mourning. When Ramadan ends, this Friday, presumably, the gates will once again open to Jews, unless Police still feel that Jewish presence there could provoke Arab violence.

Unfortunately, Arab violence is all too frequently provoked by the mere presence of Jews on Temple mount, regardless of the date. In fact, the date for the rally, July 14, was picked to mark one year since Muslim rioters torched the police station on the Temple Mount.

The organizers tried to coordinate the protest with police, according to Honenu, but the police refused to allow the protest to take place opposite one of the gates of the Temple Mount, suggesting it be held someplace safe, and distant, such as the Jewish Quarter, or Mt. Zion.

At some point during the negotiations between rally organizers and the police, the latter suggested Dung Gate, situated near the southeast corner of the old city, southwest of the Temple Mount; and a police officer toured the site with an organizer, but then the officer retracted the authorization, citing an order from the Jerusalem District Police Commander, Major General Yossi Friyanty.

Baum petitioned the Supreme Court, demanding that it order police to allow the protest to take place near the Temple Mount. He mentioned in his petition that the Supreme Court had at one time authorized left-wing Meretz activists to march on Shabbat on Bar Ilan Street, which is located in a Hareidi neighborhood—which is way up there on the list of acts that provoke violence—and so there is no cause to discriminate against Temple Mount activists.

“It is sad to see that, out of fear of Muslim rage, the police violate Jews’ freedom of expression and freedom of worship of Jews, time after time,” Baum told the press after filing his petition. “The police have chosen the easy way and instead of coping with rioting Muslims they prefer to prevent Jews from ascending the Temple Mount or protesting.”

“The attempts to prevent the protest are part of the policy of silencing and concealing from the media, the Knesset and the courts, the violations of the law and disturbances of the peace which occur on the Temple Mount against Jews,” the protest organizers stated.

“As if it were not enough that the government and the police have banned Jews from the Temple Mount during two of the most significant weeks related to the Holy Temple, it cannot be that they would also ban us from the gates [of the Temple Mount],” they said.

Curiously, the US State Dept. 2012 Report on International Religious Freedom, decried the fact that “a government policy since 1967, repeatedly upheld by the Supreme Court and routinely enforced by the police, who cite security concerns, denies non-Muslim worship and prayer at the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif.”

The report says “only Muslims are allowed to pray at the site, although their access is occasionally restricted due to security concerns. The Israel National Police regulates traffic in and out of the compound and removes non-Muslim visitors if they appear to be praying.”

Also, according to the US government report, “The Waqf (Jordanian agency controlling the compound) does not allow non-Muslim religious symbols to be worn on the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif.”

12.TIME Includes Jerusalem in Top 10 World’s Best Cities By: Hana Levi Julian

JewishPress.com Published: July 13th, 2015

Jerusalem has made the grade in TIME Magazine’s “10 Best Cities to Visit Around the World.”

The list, published on July 10, places Kyoto, Japan in the Number 1 spot for a second year.

Also listed are “Italy’s classic crowd-pleasers,” Florence and Rome, both appearing “for ten consecutive years,” the magazine noted.

Surprisingly, the only U.S. city to make the cut was Charleston, South Carolina, which was said to have “suffered greatly since the polls closed.”

Jerusalem, which squeaked in at Number 10, in the same paragraph, was described as “the controversial capital of Israel” at the “crux of an ancient and ongoing conflict.”

Also in that paragraph was Bangkok, “likely bumped from the list in 2012 due to governmental unrest.”

All three were described as cities that appeared “despite political and social turmoil.” The magazine noted that cities are a ‘great convergence of people and ideas” where sometimes it is inevitable that conflict may arise.

“So we keep these cities, and their people, in our thoughts while we celebrate their resilience and their virtues,” commented TIME.

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

13.Every Picture Tells a Story: The Invisible Murdered Israelis By: Paul Gherkin

JewishPress.com Published: July 13th, 2015

{Originally posted to the author’s website, FirstOne Through}

In an Instagram and Twitter world, people expect their news in small tidbits. The major media sources have understood this and not only have taken to social media, but have their news stories include more pictures than they had previously. A review of their selection of pictures and captions provides an interesting snapshot of their views of the news.

Over a two week period in June/July 2015, seven major unprovoked attacks on Israeli Jews were committed by Palestinian Arabs. The Washington Post captured the anguish of the attacks with a picture of a grieving family which included a caption “Relatives of Malachi Moshe Rosenfeld, an Israeli settler who died in a car shooting attack on Tuesday near a Jewish settlement in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, cry during his funeral.”

The New York Times had no such pictures or description of Israelis suffering. Even while reporting on the region from many different journalists on June 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30 & July 1 & 4

On June 27, the NYTimes made a small post without a picture in the World Briefing section in a blurb called “Man is Shot in West Bank After Opening Fire on Soldiers”. (journalist: Diaa Hadid)

On July 1, the NYTimes posted in the World Briefing section a blurb called “Man Died After West Bank Attack”. (Isabel Kershner)

These two attacks on Israeli Jews were completely invisible to a casual reader.

Another World Briefing report on June 24 without picture had a headline “Gazans Denied Access to Mosque.” (Diaa Hadid)

On June 30 Diaa Hadid had another World Briefing “Ship Halted in Blockade Protest”

On June 30, the NYTimes ran a larger article, also without a picture entitled “Worried that a Fasting Palestinian Prisoner Could Die, Israel Releases Him.” While there was no picture, the bold headline might have caught someone’s attention. The details in the article that the Palestinian prisoner was the spokesman for the terrorist group Islamic Jihad certainly would not have been recorded. (by Diaa Hadid)

Here are stories that the Times emphasized with pictures with their own terse storyline captions.

On June 29 the paper had an article which included a small map. The heading was “Israel plans Fence for part of Jordan Border.” (Diaa Hadid and Rick Gladstone)

On June 26, the Times included a small color photograph under an article called “Palestinians Deliver Accusations of Israeli War Crimes to International Criminal Court.” The picture of a group of people had a caption “Riad al-Malki, the Palestinian foreign minister, center, and delegation members on Thursday after submitting what they called evidence of Israeli war crimes to the court in The Hague.” (by Marlise Simmons)

On June 25, the Times posted two large black and white photographs as part of an article “Years after Massacre, a West Bank ‘Ghost Town’ Stirs.” The large picture was of Israeli soldiers walking past a store, while the smaller picture was of a man opening his store before four children. The single caption read “Israeli soldiers patrolling al-Sahla Street passed a reopened granary. Below, children watched as Mohammed Abu Halaweh briefly unlocked his butcher shop.” (by Jodi Roduren)

On July 4, The Times again posted two large black and white pictures alongside an article called “Palestinian, 17, is Killed by Forces from Israel.” The large photograph was of Palestinian women mourning with a caption “Relatives mourned the death on Friday of Muhammad Hani al-Kasba, a 17-year-old Palestinian. He was killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank.” The smaller picture was of an Israeli soldier behind a barricade with two people walking before him. The caption read “Hours after Mr. Kasba was fatally shot, an Israeli soldier stood guard on Friday as Palestinians waited to cross to Jerusalem via the Qalandia checkpoint in the West Bank.” (Isabel Kershner)

There was one news story which had two color pictures, albeit smaller than the two stories above. On June 28, the paper ran an article “Youth Chorus Unites Israelis and Palestinians, at Least for a Few Hours.” The two pictures were of a group of young men and women clapping and laughing. The caption read “Members of the Jerusalem Youth Chorus, above, took a break from rehearsing this month for their first United States tour. Micah Hendler, right, a Maryland native, founded the group.” (by Isabel Kershner)

Contrast in Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs

The balance in the stories overall and in individual news reports was completely lacking in the New York Times.

First, consider the pictures and the stories they told: the Palestinians were dignitaries and everyday people going about life or mourning a death. They had names and professions. However, every Israeli that was pictured was a soldier and nameless. Even more, they were accused of war crimes.

Second, think of the seven attacks on Israelis Jews. They were treated as non-events and received no pictures or mention in the captions. The casual reader would not even know that such attacks occurred.

Third, review a specific story: The July 4 headline, pictures and caption would lead a reader to think that Israeli soldiers simply opened fire on a youth and that soldiers continue to patrol the intimidate the Arab population. The complete news report was that the Arab that was killed initiated an attack by hurling stones at Israeli vehicles, smashed the windows. It was in response to the Arab attack that soldiers got out of their vehicles and shot him. There were many pictures of the smashed car available that the Times could have posted as the second picture to show the complete story of the incident. Instead, it opted to convey a one-sided narrative of Palestinian Arabs as passive victims and Israelis as military oppressors.

The pictures and captions in the New York Times tell a specific narrative time after time after time: the Palestinian Arabs are passive victims under the oppression of the Israeli military. It is only these poor Arabs that suffer – unprovoked. Ordinary Israelis are not stoned, stabbed and murdered and are not subject to attacks by Palestinian Arabs. More, if there is any chance for peace in the region, it will come from Americans who will bring peace to the region.

Related First. One. Through articles

Every Picture Tells a Story, Don’t It?

Every Picture Tells a Story, the Bibi Monster

Every Picture Tells a Story- Whitewashing the World (except Israel)

The New York Times’ Buried Pictures

About the Author: Paul Gherkin is founder of the website FirstOneThrough, which is dedicated to educating people on Israel, the United States, Judaism and science in an entertaining manner so they speak up and take action. In a connected digital world, each person can be a spokesperson by disseminating news to thousands of people by forwarding articles or videos to people, or using the information to fight on behalf of a cause because In a connected digital world. YOU are FirstOneThrough.

14.Pres. Rivlin Highlights Contradiction of Israel’s Silence when Fighting Anti-Semitism

By: Tazpit News Agency JewishPress.com Published: July 13th, 2015

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin inspected the Afghan section of the cemetery on the Mount of Olives Monday, a site which has seen repeated vandalism and destruction by some of East Jerusalem’s Arab residents.

Rivlin was accompanied by four relatives of people buried in the Afghani section, which is located in a more remote area of the expansive site. Representatives from the Rabbinate, Police and Afghani Jewish community were also present.

At the time of the inspection, 62 graves had recently suffered severe damage from vandalism. While some were strewn with litter, including human excrement, others had been set on fire.

In addition to the horrifying disrespect to the dead, visitors to the graves often come under stone throwing attacks, and other serious assaults.

The president noted that the attacks barely receive coverage in the Israeli press. “In any other place across the world, there would have been a tremendous outcry if such things would occur,” he argued. Rivlin has spent much of his time in office pressing for an end to racism across all sections of Israeli society.

Rivlin, whose family moved to Jerusalem in 1809, said “We have returned to our homeland, yet even during ups and downs, we never abandoned it.” The president was in the area having paid his respects at his parents’ graves nearby.

“It cannot be so that in our state, we are unable to stop such terrible vandalism,” the president remarked solemnly. “We must not despair nor give up, we will never be moved from here,” he vowed.

15.ISIS Detonation 101: Booby-Trapping and Detonating Infant: In order to teach its recruits about detonation devices, ISIS wired and detonated an infant before dozens of its members. By: Lori Lowenthal Marcus JewishPress.com Published: July 14th, 2015

As part of its training course on detonation devices, an infant was wired with explosives and detonated in Iraq by the brutal terrorist organization ISIS.

The story, reported in Iraqi News, is just one more example of the depravity exhibited by ISIS and its adherents. And yet, jihadi-wannabes continue to ooze into the territories controlled by ISIS.

The infant who was murdered as part of the ISIS teaching session, was apparently the child of a man executed earlier in the month by the terrorist organization.

“The available information indicates that ISIS brought a baby, the son of a civilian [who] was executed a few weeks ago under the charges of killing ISIS militants, in one of the training camps near Sharqat northern Salahuddin,” an Iraqi local official said.

The child was blown up using a remote detonator. The explosion took place in front of dozens of ISIS members.

According to Western Journalism, thousands of children have been recruited by ISIS since the organization became public. The children are brainwashed and taught it is their holy duty to undertake suicide missions or participate in mass executions.

In addition to voluntary recruits, ISIS kidnapped up to 500 children this month alone.

About the Author: Lori Lowenthal Marcus is the US correspondent for The Jewish Press. She is a recovered lawyer who previously practiced First Amendment law and taught in Philadelphia-area graduate and law schools. You can reach her by email: Lori@JewishPressOnline.com