Gail Winston Winston@winstonglobal.orgGaza War Diary 1 Thu. April 20, 2017 Day 1327 1 2:30pmDear Family & Friends,

Another glorious sunny day, the moon is peeking into my roof window at about 1/3^rd to full strength & the air smells like wine!

Interesting point in #3 by Sha’i ben-Tekoa about the Northern line on the original classical map of ‘Palestine’ i.e “the Land of Israel”: The Northern point was even with Damascus to Sidon & would have included the Litani River which ran down the mountains, took a sharp right & then emptied wastefully into the sea. An early concept IF Israel could control the Litani River was to re-direct the valuable water into Israel to greatly solve our frequent droughts & our promise to supply Jordan with water.

Try to see the Women-in-Green seminars on Friday mornings at Oz V’Gaon on the Gush Etzion junction. They are always interesting. Sorry this notice is so late tonight. Register to receive the weekly announcements with Women-in-Green.

As the probable creator of Jewish Media Monitoring back in the 1970s, I used to force myself to read the NYT ‘religiously’ with red pen in hand to learn all the nasty things I had to fight against in my driven goal to defend the Jewish People & the Survival of the Jewish State of Israel. When I made my final aliyah after 127 trips to Israel, I thought finally I was through with the witless, sometimes vicious NYT. But, no, it was waiting for me here, hidden in the so-called Opinion Pages of the Jerusalem Post. At least half or more of JPost’s second section is ALL NYT. How gross. Even the cartoons are no longer the witty Dry Bones who loves Israel but some weird cartoonist who probably looks like the shaggy characters he draws.

The cartoons & witless Opinion pieces are so uniformly anti-Donald Trump since before he won the election to now when he is America’s President & just might be really good at defending the Jewish State of Israel. And he seems to be learning while doing – like taking Syria’s inhumanity to task very promptly.

Reading the JPost with breakfast can be dangerously nauseating. Come on, get your act together & be a strong Jewish-Israeli paper or did the NYT buy you?

All the very best, Gail/Geula/Savta/Savta Raba x 2/Mom

1.Israel’s Enemies Fail to Label Israel the Aggressor By Eli E. Hertz

Israel’s Enemies Fail to Label Israel the Aggressor

Draft resolutions attempted to brand Israel as aggressor and an illegal occupier as a result of the 1967 Six-Day War, were all defeated by either the UN General Assembly or the Security Council:

By Eli E. Hertz | April 19, 2017

A/L.519, 19 June 1967, submitted by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. “Israel, in gross violation of the Charter of the United Nations and the universally accepted principles of international law, has committed a premeditated and previously prepared aggression against the United Arab Republic, Syria and Jordan …”

A/L. 521, 26 June 1967, submitted by Albania. “Resolutely condemns the Government of Israel for its armed aggression against the United Arab Republic, the Syrian Arab Republic and Jordan, and for the continuance of the aggression by keeping under its occupation parts of the territory of these countries;”

A/L. 522/REV.3*, 3 July 1967 , submitted by: Afghanistan, Burundi, Cambodia, Ceylon, Congo (Brazzaville),Cyprus, Guinea, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mali, Pakistan, Senegal, Somalia, United Republic of Tanzania, Yugoslavia and Zambia. “Calls upon Israel to withdraw immediately all its forces to the positions they held prior to 5 June 1967.”

A/L.523/Rev.1, 4 July 1967, submitted by Argentina, Barbados, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela.

“Israel to withdraw all its forces from all the territories occupied by it as a result of the recent conflict”; To read this article online, pleaseClick Here.

2.New Findings In Holocaust Researchby Rav Benny Kalmanson

Friday Talk with Rav Benny Kalmanson at Oz veGaon

This coming Friday, the 25th of Nisan, April 21st at 9:00 a.m., in preparation for Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day, G-d willing, Rav Benny Kalmanson, head of the Otniel Yeshiva, will give a talk at Oz veGaon on the topic:

New Findings In Holocaust Research by Rav Benny Kalmanson
Rav Kalmanson, in addition to his role as head of a yeshiva, also serves as a member of Yad Vashem’s Pedagogical Council of the School for Holocaust Education. He is a regular guide for youth trips to Poland, a lecturer at Herzog College in Hasidism and the history of Judaism in Eastern Europe.
He owns a small lump of chalk that was found near the city of Konin in northwest Poland, where the Germans established a station to experiment on efficient killing by the use of lime pits. Rav Kalmanson brought the lump of lime to be examined by a laboratory & it was found that it contains the DNA of a Jew.
Rav Kalmanson was one of the first students of Rav Shagar.
A lecture not to be missed. We will all be there!
Lecture in Hebrew with simultaneous translation to English.
For transportation, Renee Margolis 052-3294194
Yehudit Katsover 050-7161818 Nadia Matar 050-5500834
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Women For Israel’s Tomorrow (Women in Green) POB 7352, Jerusalem 91072, Israel
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Friday Talk with Rav Benny Kalmanson at Oz veGaon

3.Classical Maps by Sha’i ben-Tekoa Jpost.com ltrs to ed.4/19/17

Ya’acov Katz is wrong to call the Peel Report of 1937 the “first time…a partition of the land” was “recommended”. It was the third.

The year 1922 saw the first partition of the classical map of Palestine that had been universally envisioned in 1917 – which is not to be confused with the ridiculous distortion of the classical map drawn up by the League of Nations. The League of Nations dishonestly drafted lines of an expanded Palestine to suggest that 77% of it had been given to Abdullah of the Hejaz. ‘

This writer has written a book displaying the classical maps of Palestine, exposing the disfigurement of the country that the League of Nations, for the purposes of ‘real-politik’, came up with.

The second partition was agreed upon after five years of negotiation between the British & the French, who had a similar mandate for a part of classical Syria & used it to create the new states of Lebanon & Syria. Not until 1923 did the two superpowers settle on the boundary between Lebanon-Syria & Palestine. That agreement formalized the amputation of the northern tier of Palestine, or the Land of Israel, whose classical northern boundary went as far as the Sidon-Damascus line.

The Peel map was thus the third dismemberment, so that – even with the Golan Heights, Judea & Samaria – rules over less than half of the classical map – (47%) to be exact. The remaining 53% is in the hands of Lebanon, Syria & Jordan.

If Israel is in ‘occupation’ of Palestine, then these 3 Arab States are in occupation of ever more.

SHA’I BEN-TEKOA Efrat

Deputy minister for diplomacy Michael Oren stresses Israel sought peace before 1967 Six Day War.

Major Michael Oren ……………MK Michael Oren NOW: Deputy Minister for Diplomacy in the Prime Minister’s Office

IDF tanks are seen along the Golan Heights border with Syria. (photo credit:REUTERS) Michael Oren says it is time for the world to recognize the Golan Heights as part of Israel.
In contrast to negotiations with the Palestinians, there is no Syria to negotiate with, Deputy Minister for Diplomacy in the Prime Minister’s Office Oren said on Tuesday.IDF retaliates after Syrian mortar lands in Golan Heights

· Netanyahu to Trump: Recognize Golan Heights as part of Israel

“Without Israel there [in the Golan], the region would be jeopardized. ISIS would be on the Kinneret,” he said, adding that other states in the region are glad Israel is on the Golan. This is one of several important outcomes of the 1967 war still felt today.
Israel annexed the Golan in 1981 in a decision that was never recognized internationally.
Oren was speaking at a Jerusalem seminar hosted by The Israel Project and the Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research. The seminar – one of a series that runs through June – is focused on the impact of the war of 50 years ago, domestically and geopolitically, with special emphasis on Jerusalem.
“The capital city is a key element of the seminar, in the lens of Israel post-67, through its distinct populations, demographic developments and historical significances. Discourse will be forward-thinking, as participants will be exposed to the plethora of ideas for the future in relation to these various issues, with a focus on the role of the Arab countries and wider international community,” said Lior Weintraub, vice president of The Israel Project & its Israel office director.
“The purpose of this activity is to provide the foreign diplomatic & press communities based in Israel – who are faced with an abundance of information & have the difficult task of producing their own analyses of events on the ground – with a fresh look at current realities,” he added.
Oren, a former ambassador to the United States and current member of the Knesset for the Kulanu Party, is the author of the 2002 book Six Days of War. He reminded the audience that in many ways his life was shaped by the momentous events of 1967.
“Would we be sitting in this room today,” he asked, if Israel had lost? “Wars in history become wars of history. [It took place over] only six days, but we will be battling over the importance of the war, we will see it over the next months as we approach the anniversary.”

Netanyahu: ‘The Golan is Israel’s forever’

The 1967 war began June 5^th & that day. This year will mark the 50th anniversary of the conflict. As Oren noted, some see the war & its outcome as a catastrophe, as Israel became an occupying power over Palestinians. Others see it as a momentous victory. Oren urges those looking at the war through the prism of the present to see it through the situation Israel faced at the time.
The country lacked relations with China and India, those it had with the Soviet bloc were bitter, and the US did not see Israel as a strategic ally.
The Jewish state only had a weak promise from the 1950s that said if Egypt closed the Straits of Tiran – linking Israel to the Indian Ocean and providing it an oil lifeline – the Americans would stand with Israel. Oren said he was a great admirer of Levi Eshkol, the Israeli prime minister who kept the country on an even keel before the conflict began.
“Eshkolian diplomacy sought to prove to the world you went the extra mile. That is a lesson for Israel,” he said.
What he meant was, the three torturous weeks Israel waited before attacking Egypt, bought the time the country needed during the war to defeat its enemies.
Oren stressed the importance of remembering also that Israel sought peace before the war. It remonstrated with Jordan even during the conflict, at one point asking its King to consider peace before paratroopers entered the Old City.
He also said – in contrast to some of the triumphalism that resulted from the war – there were mixed messages.
“Shir LaShalom,” first performed in 1969, was a song of peace with lyrics composed of dead soldiers talking to the living.
“The dead are saying don’t glorify war and say only peace is important,” noted Oren.
The Israel Project seminar seeks to add nuance and context to some of the wisdom received and lessons drawn from the decades. Those in attendance, including diplomats and journalists, seemed to learn something new. At the very least they were struck by the fact that where they were sitting – in the quiet streets near Rehavia – they were so close to where shells once rained down on Jerusalem from Jordan, where snipers once fired from the Old City walls and where soldiers once battled in 1967 for control of the city.

5.How Iran enables Syria’s chemical warfare against civilians by Benjamin Weinthal4/18/17

Tehran built equipment to produce ‘hundreds of tons of precursors for VX, sarin & mustard gas.

The 59 Tomahawk missiles the US fired at the Shayrat Air Base served to punish Dictator Bashar Assad for his use of chemical weapons against civilians.

The strikes on April 6 also helped shine a spotlight on Iran’s role in Assad’s repeated use of nerve agents, because the mullahs’ Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps were at Shayrat.

What the rapid-fire news cycle didn’t say early this month was that Tehran and Damascus jump-started a program to develop a sophisticated Syrian chemicals arsenal as early as 2004.

The British publication Jane’s Defense Weekly reported in 2005 that the Islamic Republic would work with Syria to build an “innovative chemical warfare program.”

Iran’s role was to build equipment to produce “hundreds of tons of precursors for VX, sarin and mustard.”

Assad first used sarin nerve gas to attack the Damascus suburb of Ghouta in 2013, killing nearly 1,500 civilians, including 426 children.

Then-president Barack Obama then infamously retreated from his redline, that Assad’s use of chemical weapons would trigger some kind of military response.

Obama reached a deal with the Russians and Assad to remove all chemical weapons from Syria in exchange for no military action.

Then-secretary of state John Kerry said in 2014: “We got 100% of the chemical weapons [out of Syria].”

Yet, the former head of Syria’s weapons research program, Brig.-Gen. Zaher al Sakat, said last week that Assad hid sizable amounts of sarin gas – and other lethal nerve agents – after the deal was reached with Obama.

“They [the regime] admitted only to 1,300 tons, but we knew in reality that they had nearly double that.”

Sakat said Assad’s arsenal today may include several hundred tons of sarin.

The result of Obama’s tenure for Syria, to cite a Tweet this month by Bill Kristol of The Weekly Standard: “President Obama – drew a redline & backed down. He left office 500,000 deaths later, Assad in power & with chemical weapons.”

The international community now knows, at least since Assad’s April 4 sarin gas attack on civilians in Idlib province, that Kerry’s assurance was empty rhetoric.

The sarin dropped by Assad’s air force in the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun killed more than 80 people and injured more than 500 others.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif wrote on Twitter, in connection with the attack: “US aids Saddam’s use of [chemical weapons] against Iran in ’80s,” adding “then resorts to military force over bogus CW allegations, 1st in 2003 [in Iraq] and now in Syria.”

Rewind to 2007. According to a Jane’s report, Iran’s regime and its strategic partner the Assad regime accidentally caused an explosion while attempting to load a chemical warhead onto a Scud-C missile. It killed dozens of Syrian military personnel and Iranian engineers.

Once again, sarin gas, along with mustard gas and VX nerve gas, were at play in the 2007 explosion at the factory in Aleppo.

According to a WikiLeaks dispatch on Tehran’s role in chemical warfare, “New Zealand assesses that the cooperation is mainly driven by Iran’s desire for increased strategic importance in the region. New Zealand also assesses that Iran’s biotechnology sector is far more advanced than Syria’s, and Iran does not mind sharing its knowledge with Syria.”

The mounting evidence of the Islamic Republic’s role in developing Syria’s chemical warfare arsenal coincides with both countries’ efforts to modernize their biological and chemical weapons systems.

Germany’s domestic intelligence agencies (the rough equivalent of the Shin Bet) revealed in reports last year that “so-called danger states, for example, Iran and North Korea, make efforts to obtain technology for atomic, biological or chemical weapons.”

Iran also seeks “missile delivery systems as well as goods and know-how for proliferation.”

An intelligence report from Rhineland-Palatinate said Iran was one of the foreign countries that targeted “German companies” in the German state whose equipment could be “used for atomic, biological and chemical weapons in a war.

“Special attention was paid in the period covered by the report to proliferation relevant activities of Iran, Pakistan and North Korea,” the intelligence officials stated.

The report added that Iran’s use of chemical warfare could serve to advance its “political goals.”

Political goals, based on Iranian jingoism in the Middle East, means the spread of its revolutionary Islamic ideology and the expansion of militant Shi’ite rule across the region. Weapons of mass destruction are central to Iran’s political agenda.

An intelligence report from the German state of Baden-Württemberg said that with respect to “nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs,” Iran is not, according to current knowledge, in a position to produce certain production equipment, for example, gas ultracentrifuges. The country must procure essential parts and components from its allies or in the West.

In addition to vacuum technology, there is special interest in machine tools, high speed cameras, and climate test control chambers.”

The German intelligence reports from 2015-2016 demonstrate that the Islamic Republic is wedded to biological and chemical weapons development.

Contrary to Iran’s assertions that it abhors chemical weapons – and would never use nerve agents – growing evidence shows Tehran’s deep involvement in Assad’s nerve agent technology and role in this month’s attack in Khan Sheikhoun.

Sadly, missing from the heated debates over punishing Assad is Iran’s complicity.

Bill Kristol neatly captured the problem and solution on Twitter: “Punishing Assad for use of chemical weapons is good. Regime change in Iran is the prize.”

Benjamin Weinthal is a fellow for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

Assad carried out Khan Sheikhoun gas attack out of frustration-official stated.

US Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Porter (DDG 78) conducts strike operations while in the Mediterranean Sea which US Defense Department said was a part of cruise missile strike against Syria on 4/07/17 (photo:REUTERS)

The United States warned Israel two hours before US warships in the eastern Mediterranean Sea fired 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles against the Syrian regime’s Al Shayrat Airbase, a senior IDF official said on Wednesday.
Following the strikes, the IDF’s Spokesperson’s Unit released a statement saying that Israel’s military had been briefed in advance and expressed its support for the strikes. Speaking to military journalists at the IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv, the senior official confirmed that the IDF had been warned about the US strike against the base where warplanes that carried out the deadly Khan Sheikhoun chemical gas attack were based.

· Israel weighs treating children wounded in Syrian gas attack

· How Iran enables Syria’s chemical warfare against civilians

While the Syrian military continues to deny responsibility for the [gas] attack, blaming the rebels and stating that it would never use chemical weapons, “it is hard to imagine that Assad did not know about the attack in advance. And the price he’s paid for it is severe. He’s lost all legitimacy,” the senior official said.
The Assad regime agreed to dismantle the country’s chemical weapons stockpiles in a 2013 deal brokered by the United States and Russia following the regime’s deadly attack on East Ghouta near the capital of Damascus where over 1,400 people were killed, including 426 children.
While the regime did comply by removing much of its stockpiles of chemical weapons – over 1,290 metric tons of Sarin, VX and sulfur mustard, a precursor to mustard gas – as well as dismantling the infrastructure to produce them, according to the senior official, the Assad regime still has residual amounts – between one to three tons – of the deadly chemical agent.
According to him, the Assad regime had carried out the Sarin gas attack against the town of Khan Sheikhoun, killing close to 100 civilians, out of frustration that despite the significant help Syria is getting from Russia, Iran & Hezb’Allah, regime troops are unable to make serious advances on the ground.

Netanyahu: Israel welcomes US airstrikes in Syria (credit: GPO)
While two years ago Iran may have been closer to achieving hegemony in Syria, there is now Russian hegemony in West Syria, he said, but “even with support from the Russians and Hezb’Allah, Assad cannot control the entire country. His forces are gaining ground in western Syria but it is hard to see him controlling the entire country.”
The senior IDF official said that it is unlikely that there will be a political settlement to the Syrian conflict in the near future.
“The Syria we once knew is gone and will never be again,” he added.

On Friday, US Secretary of Defense James Mattis will visit Israel as part of a tour of the region that will bring him to Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar& Djibouti. The declared purpose of Mattis’s trip is to “reaffirm key US military alliances, engage with strategic partners in the Middle East & Africa & discuss cooperative efforts to counter destabilizing activities & defeat extremist terror organizations.”

Ahead of his visit, Mattis should spend some time considering the hunger strike being carried out by the Palestinian terrorists imprisoned by Israel. A serious consideration of the strike will tell him more about the nature of the Palestinian conflict with Israel than a hundred “expert” briefings.

There are several important things for Mattis to consider in relation to the strike.

The first thing he needs to note is that all of the terrorists on strike are members of the Fatah terror group.

This fact should signal to General Mattis that Fatah is not a normal political party. In fact, it is a terrorist organization that has a political party.

The second thing Mattis needs to consider about the strike is that it is supported by the international Left.

To understand why, Mattis needs to recognize the Fatah tautology.

But first, a bit of background.

The terrorists’ strike is the brainchild of convicted mass murderer, Fatah leader & darling of the international Left, Marwan Barghouti.

Barghouti is serving five life sentences in prison for murdering five Israelis. Israeli authorities believe that Barghouti was directly responsible for 37 murders, but they were only able to convict him on five counts.

Barghouti’s role in the killings goes far beyond the terror attacks he directly ordered.

From 2000 until his arrest in 2002, Barghouti was the commander and mastermind of the Palestinian terror war that began in September 2000 after Fatah leader Yassir Arafat rejected Palestinian statehood at Camp David.

In other words, hundreds of Israelis are dead today because of Barghouti.

But for the Left, none of this matters. For the Left, Barghouti is a hero.

The Left insists Barghouti is a moderate & a peacemaker & that Israel should release him & let him take over Fatah & the PLO from octogenarian Mahmoud Abbas.

They insist this because of the Fatah tautology. According to the tautology, Fatah is “moderate” and “pro-peace.” Barghouti is a leader of Fatah. Therefore Barghouti is moderate and pro-peace.

Since Fatah is “moderate” & “pro-peace,” it isn’t a terrorist organization. And since it isn’t a terrorist organization, its terrorists are moderate peace-activists.

So despite the protests of irritating Israeli terror victims & the verdict of the court, Barghouti isn’t a terrorist & none of the terrorists he commanded are terrorists.

None of them are terrorists because they are members of Fatah. And Fatah is a moderate, pro-peace party. So they are moderate peace activists.

Under this tautological reasoning, it makes sense for the US to give nearly a billion dollars a year in aid to the Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority. It makes sense for the Pentagon to train Palestinian “security forces” who double as Fatah terrorists. It makes sense for the US to turn a blind eye to the fact that the PA spends more than $300 million, or more than 7% of its donor-financed budget to pay salaries to terrorists in Israeli prisons & their families.

After all, the Palestinians can’t be incentivizing terrorism. They’re from Fatah & Fatah is a moderate peace party.

The Fatah tautology is what informed the New York Times’ decision to publish an op-ed by Barghouti in its Sunday edition in support of the prisoners’ strike.

Not surprisingly, Barghouti slandered Israel repeatedly in his essay.

Also not surprisingly, in its tagline the Times described Barghouti as a “Palestinian leader and parliamentarian.”

It would be bad enough if this circular reasoning was relegated to the fever swamps of the Left. But it isn’t.

Numbered among Fatah’s most fervent supporters are Mattis & his fellow generals at the US Military’s Central Command.

Mattis arrives in Israel with a public record replete with anti-Israel statements that indicate he swallowed the Fatah tautology hook, line & sinker.

In 2013, shortly after retiring from his post as CentCom commander, General Mattis resonated Barghouti & his Leftist supporters when he blamed Israel for the absence of peace.

Speaking at the Aspen Institute Mattis said that the US must make the establishment of a state run by Fatah terrorists — on land Israel controls, that it requires for its national security and that it has sovereign rights to — a key US goal.

In his words, “We’ve got to find a way to make the two-state solution that Democrat & Republican administrations have supported. We’ve got to get there & the chances for its starting are starting to ebb because of the settlements & where they’re at, they’re going to make it impossible to maintain the two-state option.”

Also echoing Barghouti’s libels, Mattis said that if Israel continues to allow Jews to live where they have rights to live & property rights to build then it will become an “apartheid” state.

Mattis is reputedly a very smart, well-read man. Yet, his claims show that despite his intelligence, he has a stunning lack of intellectual curiosity about Israel & the Palestinians & their positions in the wider Middle East.

Lest we give in to temptation to believe Mattis’s ignorant, tautological thinking was simply a function of his service in the Obama administration, during his Senate confirmation hearings as President Donald Trump’s nominee to serve as Defense Secretary, Mattis doubled down.

When asked point blank to name Israel’s capital, Mattis refused to acknowledge that Jerusalem the capital of Israel. Instead, he stunned lawmakers when he proclaimed that Tel Aviv is the capital of the Jewish state.

Mattis’s hostile view of Israel & the Palestinians isn’t surprising. The reason it isn’t surprising isn’t because Mattis is a member in good standing of the lunatic Left. He’s not.

Mattis’s ignorance is understandable because he hails from the US Military’s Central Command. The Pentagon’s area command responsible for the Middle East has one debilitating problem. It is a problem that guarantees that Centcom officers will fail to understand the Middle East & fail to win America’s wars in the region.

Centcom’s problem is that it deliberately does not include Israel.

As far as Centcom is concerned, Israel is not part of the Middle East. Israel is in Europe.
Centcom officers speak only to Arabs. Their Arab counterparts insist that Israel is the problem.

Rather than critically analyze this claim, Centcom officers internalize it.

Rather than notice and get irritated by the fact that due to their Arab colleagues’ anti-Semitism the US is forced to pretend that Israel is located on a completely different continent, Mattis & his underlings adopted their reason-bereft prejudice.

Rather than rebel against their inability to communicate directly with their Israeli counterparts & insist that they be permitted to bring the US’s closest ally in the Middle East into their regional plans & analyses, Centcom officers have embraced the irrational & strategically catastrophic view that the main source of instability in the Middle East are the Israeli communities located beyond the 1949 armistice lines.

Mattis’s visit will take him to Jerusalem, rather than Tel Aviv. No doubt Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will mention that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital & express his enthusiastic support for moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

But as far as Israel’s relations with the US generally & the Pentagon specifically are concerned, moving the US embassy to Jerusalem is of secondary importance.

The most important contribution Israel can make to the US war against “extremist terrorism” & to the Trump administration’s efforts to “reaffirm key military alliances,” is for Netanyahu to insist that the Trump administration stop accepting the bigoted dictates of the Arabs.

He must insist that Israel be integrated into Centcom.

Only when the American officers responsible for determining US policies in the Middle East recognize that Israel is part of the Middle East will they have the cognitive capacity to understand the realities of the region. The first reality that will become clear to them is that despite the Fatah tautology, Fatah is a terrorist organization an extremist one at that.

Originally published in The Jerusalem Post.

NYT publishes propaganda piece by mass-murderer Marwan Barghouti, offers tepid Editors’ Note following uproar. By David Rosenberg, Arutz Sheva 18/04/17 10:43 Share

Marwan Barghouti – Reuters

The New York Timesoffered a tepid response Monday evening to an uproar sparked by the publication of an opinion piece by an arch-terrorist responsible for multiple suicide bombings against Israelis, and the whitewashing of the terrorist’s criminal past.

On Sunday, in the midst of the Passover festival, The New York Times published a propaganda piece by Fatah terrorist Marwan Barghouti justifying a hunger strike by jailed terrorists.

In publishing the piece, the Timesgave the convicted murderer Barghouti a free hand to spread canards against the Jewish state, justify terrorist activity targeting Israeli Jews, and delegitimize the very existence of Israel.

Like many anti-Israel screeds, Barghouti’s NYT piece describes Israel as a “colonial” power, comparing the Jewish state to apartheid-ridden South Africa and accusing it of various human rights abuses.

Amazingly, however, the Times initially published the piece with no reference to Barghouti’s crimes or his membership in a terrorist organization – a stunning omission given that the focus of the article is his imprisonment.

Instead, the Times described Barghouti as “a Palestinian leader and parliamentarian”.

Nowhere did the Times acknowledge Barghouti’s role as a senior member of the Fatah Tanzim terror group, nor his involvement in multiple shooting and suicide bombing attacks which left 26 people dead during the Second Intifada.

While Barghouti portrays his imprisonment as an “arbitrary arrest”, calling himself a “victim of Israel’s illegal” justice system, he in fact is serving five life sentences following a 2004 conviction including five counts of murder for terror attacks he directed in 2001 and 2002.

The decision to publish Barghouti’s piece and the failure to reference his crimes drew heavy criticism from Israeli officials.

“This is not a matter of freedom of speech,”said Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely. “It is anarchy. When a major newspaper with a reputation for responsible journalism becomes a platform for murderers, it provides legitimacy for terrorism. This is a very disappointing decision by the editors which seriously undermines the credibility of The New York Times.”

In response, the Times, rather than retract the piece, merely added an Editors’ Note on Monday, acknowledging that no mention had been made of Barghouti’s conviction.

“This article explained the writer’s prison sentence but neglected to provide sufficient context by stating the offenses of which he was convicted. They were five counts of murder and membership in a terrorist organization. Mr. Barghouti declined to offer a defense at his trial and refused to recognize the Israeli court’s jurisdiction and legitimacy.”

NYT Public Editor says failure to identify hunger-striking prisoner Marwan Barghouti as a murderer harms newspaper’s credibility byJTA

Marwan Barghouti – Flash 90

The Public Editor of the New York Times took the newspaper to task for failing to identify Palestinian Authority leader Marwan Barghouti as a convicted murderer of Israeli Jews.

Public Editor Liz Spayd was responding to criticism of the newspaper for publishing on Sunday an Op-Ed by Barghouti titled “Why We Are on Hunger Strike in Israel’s Prisons” and identifying him only as “a Palestinian leader and parliamentarian.” Nearly a day later, an editor’s note appended to the end of the opinion piece clarified that Barghouti is serving a lengthy prison term after being convicted in an Israeli court of five counts of murder and membership in a terrorist organization.

The publication of the article marked the beginning of a hunger strike by hundreds of security prisoners jailed in Israel.

Failure to “more fully identify the biography and credentials of authors, especially details that help people make judgments about the opinions they’re reading,” Spayd wrote, “risks the credibility of the author and the Op-Ed pages.”

“In this case, I’m pleased to see the editors responding to the complaints, and moving to correct the issue rather than resist it. Hopefully, it’s a sign that fuller disclosure will become regular practice,” Spayd wrote.

The newspaper was slammed by Israeli leaders and U.S. Jewish groups for its failure to mention Barghouti’s terrorist activities and conviction for murder.

Binyamin Netanyahu – Marc Israel Sellem/POOL

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu participated Tuesday in Mimouna celebrations in Dimona and attacked the publication of an article by arch-terrorist Marwan Barghouti in the New York Times.

The newspaper omitted the mention of the fact that Barghouti is a terrorist and murderer, convicted in civil court for 5 murders, who led a terror organization responsible for the deaths of many Israelis. Instead it described him as a a “Palestinian leader and parliamentarian”. After an uproar broke out, the newspaper finally published a tepid clarification in which it stated that “This article explained the writer’s prison sentence but neglected to provide sufficient context by stating the offenses of which he was convicted. They were five counts of murder and membership in a terrorist organization. Mr. Barghouti declined to offer a defense at his trial and refused to recognize the Israeli court’s jurisdiction and legitimacy.”

Netanyahu stated that “I read the article in the New York Times Sunday which presented arch-terrorist Barghouti as a ‘leader and parliamentarian.’ The newspaper only retracted after we objected to this characterization,” said Netanyahu and added “calling Barghouti a political leader is like calling Assad a ‘pediatrician.’ Syrian dictator-tyrant Bashar Assad was trained as a physician.

“These are murderers, these are terrorists and we have not lost our conviction that we are on the right side, the moral side and they are on the wrong side, the immoral side.”

The prime minister added that “this moral clarity, the willingness to protect our land, to fight for it against those coming to wipe us out, this is one of our great strengths, together with love of Israel. Love of Israel expresses itself in this munificence, in this beauty and warmth. We will continue to develop our country and protect it.”

Barghouti is leading a hunger strike of 700 terrorists imprisoned in Israeli jails which broke out Sunday. Interior Security Minister Gilad Erdan said this morning to Army Radiothat “the isolation and transfer of Barghouti to a jail in the north is unconnected to the publication of the article, but rather due to his leading the hunger strike and causing a rebellion among prisoners.” “I do see the publication of the article as a serious act and I have directed the Prison Service to conduct an investigation and transfer the results to me,” said Erdan.

11.Liberman: I hope the Arab MKs join the hunger strikeBy Hezki Baruch, Arutz Sheva 4/18/17 Defense Minister Liberman: ‘I hope MKs from the Arab Joint List will join the terrorists, without breaking & eating chicken at night.’

Avigdor Liberman (C) – Yonatan Sindel/Flash90

Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman (Yisrael Beytenu) addressed this afternoon, Tuesday, the hunger strike being held by imprisoned terrorists.

“In everything pertaining to the hunger-striking terrorists in Israeli prisons, I suggest adopting the approach of Margaret Thatcher,” Liberman said.

A former Prime Minister of Britain, Thatcher had, during her tenure, taken a firm stance against hunger strikes and had not given in to the demands of hunger-striking prisoners, even after some of them had died.

In addition, Liberman said, “I hope to soon see MKs from the Arab Joint List and Sheikh Raed Salah joining the hunger strikers without breaking and without eating chicken at night.”

Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked (Jewish Home) also related to the terrorists’ hunger strike, telling Army Radio that “we have to stop this festival of hypocrisy. Barghouti is using Palestinian prisoners as an excuse for his own political struggles.”

“The State of Israel is a strong country, and we will deal with this, too,” she added. “Israel gives to security prisoners above and beyond what is minimally required by international law.”

11.Melania Trump to be compensated for slander

Wife of President Trump to receive compensation from British newspaper The Daily Mail after she sued for slander, paper also issues apology.

By Mordechai Sones, Arutz Sheva 12/04/17 16:05 Share

Trump with wife, Melania, daughter Ivanka, and son-in-law Jared Kushner –Brendan Hoffman/Getty Images

Melania Trump, wife of US President Donald Trump, received an apology and compensation for an undisclosed amount from British newspaper The Daily Mail after an article was published claiming Melania had not only worked as a model but had provided “services beyond that”.

The 46-year-old Melania sued The Daily Mail in a New York court asking for $150 million in compensation.

According to her, the article published last year damaged her reputation and caused future damage to her business, which she claims is worth millions of dollars. A source familiar with the affair said the total amount of compensation was less than $3 million & included court costs.

The text of the apology reads as follows:

“The Mail Online website & the Daily Mail newspaper published an article on 20th August 2016 about Melania Trump which questioned the nature of her work as a professional model & republished allegations that she provided services beyond simply modeling. The article included statements that Mrs. Trump denied the allegations & Paulo Zampolli, who ran the modeling agency, also denied the allegations & the article also stated there was no evidence to support the allegations. The article also claimed Mr & Mrs Trump may have met 3 years before they actually met & ‘staged’ their actual meeting as a ‘ruse.’

“We accept these allegations about Mrs Trump are not true & we retract & withdraw them. We apologise to Mrs Trump for any distress that our publication caused her. To settle Mrs Trump’s two lawsuits against us, we have agreed to pay her damages & costs.”