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by Shoshana Bryen American Thinker JewishPolicyCenter.org |
In
the movie, the Allied commandos sneak through Nazi-occupied Yugoslavia to
the bridge they were assigned to blow up. After the requisite setbacks, our
heroes enter the internal machinery of a dam upstream of the bridge and
detonate their explosives. Then… nothing. Unperturbed, the explo-sives expert
says, "Wait. It is the accumulation of vibrations that does it." Indeed,
the smallish explosion causes cracks; the cracks cause more cracks; water begins
to seep through the dam. Then, more water, more pressure, more cracks, more
water. The bridge sways, and then collapses with a satisfying crash, sending
the Nazi tanks and their crews into the drink.
Friends of Israel have known for years that
regardless what the Palestinian Authority (PA) says in diplomatic circles, in
truth it rejects the legitimacy of Israel in the region and encourages violence
against Israelis. The evidence is easily accessible: the Middle East Research
Institute (MEMRI)
translates material from across the Arab world into English. NGO Monitor tracks
nongovernmental organizations and their support for Palestinian violence and intransigence.
Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) studies Palestinian society through its
media and textbooks.
Those are the vibrations, and in the
presence of a blunt American president, they appear to be accumulating.
President Trump's White House
statement to PA President Mahmoud Abbas laid down an unmistakable
American marker (the bomb?): "There cannot be lasting peace unless the
Palestinian leaders speak in a unified voice against incitement to violence and
hate. There's such hatred. But hopefully there won't be such hatred for
very long. All children of God must be taught to value and respect human
life, and condemn all of those who target the innocent."
Abbas responded that Palestinian children
are "raised in a culture of peace." That was demonstrably false and
was so demonstrated. By the time the President went to Bethlehem, it appears
that he had seen enough to lambaste Abbas for
lying to him. The President also, "raised concerns about
the payments to Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails who have committed acts
of terrorism, and to their families, and emphasized the need to resolve this
issue," according to the White House press secretary.
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Another crack in the dam and the water is
beginning to rise. PMW had already documented the Palestinian Authority's
veneration of Dalal Mughrabi -– a female terrorist involved in the Coastal Road
massacre in which 37 civilians, 12 of them children, were killed and more than
70 others wounded. PMW notes that in the West Bank, there are three schools and a computer
center named after her, and Abbas held a birthday celebration
for her. But when the "Martyr Dalal Mughrabi Center: A cul-tural and
social center and youth center in partnership with the Burqa village
council and the Women's [Technical] Affairs Committee," was found to
have Norwegian government and UN money behind it, the bridge began to sway.
The Norwegian government, often hostile to
Israel, demanded its money
back. Foreign Minister Borge Brende said, "The glorification of
terrorist attacks is completely unacceptable… Norway will not allow itself to
be associated with institutions that take the names of terrorists in this way.
We will not accept the use of Norwegian aid funding for such purposes."
And right behind him was the office of
the Secretary General
of the UN, proclaiming:
"The UN disassociated itself from the
Center once it learned the offensive name chosen for it and will take measures
to ensure that such incidents do not take place in the future. The glorification
of terrorism, or the perpetrators of heinous terrorist acts, is unacceptable
under any circumstances. The UN has repeatedly called for an end to incitement
to violence and hatred as they present one of the obstacles to peace."
It may be the first time Palestinian behavior
was specifically named as an "obstacle to peace," and, perhaps, the
first time the PA was denounced in the UN for terrorism. And then Denmark. Following a meeting with
Prime Minister Netanyahu, the Danish Foreign Ministry announced a
"comprehensive review" of Danish donations to the Palestinian Authority:
"We must be sure that Danish aid helps
to advance human rights in the Palestinian territories in a positive manner. It
is possible that in wake of the examination we will be forced to stop our
support of a number of Palestinian organizations. Until this examination is complete
we won't sign any new grants for Palestinian organizations."
Even UNRWA, often Israel's nemesis in the
territories, may have had enough. Last year, a panel of experts determined --
not for the first time -- that the textbooks used by the Palestinian
Authority venerate violence
and martyrdom. Such complaints are generally ignored, but UNRWA
spokesman Chris Gunness has announced:
"It is UNRWA
policy to review, and where appropriate enrich the official PA textbooks, curricula
and other learning materials used in UNRWA schools to ensure...strengthening respect
for human rights and fundamental freedoms and promoting understanding and tolerance..."
As
an Arab, I am Embarrassed by the Six-Day War of 1967
by Fred Maroun, a Canadian of Arab origin who lived in
Lebanon until 1984, including
during 10 years of civil war.
On the anniversary of the Six-Day War, I
commemorate with my Jewish friends. Before the war, Jews around the world
feared what would happen to the Jews of Israel as
they were surrounded by Arab armies and as the Arab leaders drummed up anti-Semitic
hatred. But Israel stunned the whole world and particularly Arab leaders when
it initiated a preventative attack, and when its young army vanquished much
bigger and more experienced Arab armies in the short space of six days.
I am
happy for my Jewish friends, but at the same time, as an Arab, I am
embarrassed. I am not embarrassed that we lost. We deserved to lose, and I
cannot even think of the massacres that may have ensued if we won. I am embarrassed
that we started the war in the first place. An unnecessary war that followed 19
years after another unnecessary war that we also lost.
I am
embarrassed that we let hatred drive our decision to go to war. I am
embarrassed that we did not take Israel's offer right after the war to make
peace in exchange for land. I am embarrassed that since then, Egypt's and
Jordan's realization of the foolishness of war was not matched by the rest of
the Arab world, esp. my own country of Lebanon.
I am
embarrassed that we never made a single credible comprehensive offer of peace
to Israel. I am embarrassed that still today, over 69 years after our first war
against Israel, we still use the Palestinians as pawns in our war of hatred.
I am
embarrassed that instead of denouncing the hatred, much of the world has joined
with us in attacking the Jews' right to self-determination. I am embarrassed
that I, and the few other Arabs who stand up to hatred, cannot do much more
than speak up, and that we have not moved to action even our fellow Arabs who
live comfortably in the West.
I am
embarrassed as a citizen of the West because we pay lip service to Israel but
we cannot provide substantial support to Israel, for example against the Arab
attempts to rewrite the past and erase the Jewish history of Jerusalem.
I am
embarrassed that we in the West are too beholden to Arab dictators to even take
the symbolic step of recognizing that Jerusalem is an indivisible part of
Israel. I am embarrassed to ethnically belong to a group that thrives on hatred
and to geographically belong to a group that appeases haters.
I am
embarrassed to belong to a human race that has learned nothing from the lessons
of the past and that continues to let anti-Semitism fester and grow. I am embarrassed
that I cannot write these words in an Arab publica-tion or even in a main-stream
Western publication because hatred and appeasement are too strong.
But
there is something that I can do, and it is to fly in the face of every Arab
tyrant and every Arab hate-monger, and to write the truth where I can, because
unlike the vast majority Arabs who see the truth and yet remain silent, I
refuse to be silenced, and that is something that I am proud of.
So,
to my Jewish friends, on the anniversary of the Six-Day War, I say, you have a
lot to be proud of, not only from those six days, but from everything that your
people did before and after. All the hatred in the world cannot take that pride
away.
The Republic of Vanuatu
Recognizes Jerusalem as the Capital of Israel
The
small Pacific island nation of Vanuatu has recognized Jerusalem as the capital
of Israel. The decision follows a UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific
and Cultural Organization) anti-Israel
resolution from October 2016 that denies Jewish ties to the Temple
Mount.
Vanuatu President Baldwin Lonsdale, an
evangelical Christian, expressed a strong connection to the Jewish people
and the State of Israel. During a meeting with Vanuatu’s honorary
consul to Israel, the issue of the UNESCO vote came up, and Lonsdale said he
was disappointed in the results as well as in his country’s acceptance,
which he apparently viewed as a mistake.
Lonsdale later signed a document stating
that Jerusalem should be recognized as Israel’s capital and condemning the
UNESCO resolution. He also expressed an interest in visiting Israel, which
would be the first by a president of that nation.
Vanuatu is an 83-island archipelago
situated between Australia and Fiji, with a population of about 300,000.
Israel’s ambassador to Vanuatu and to other Pacific island nations, Tibor
Shalev Schlosser, works out of the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem. Vanuatu has
an honorary consulate in Israel.
Hiram
Bingham - A True Hero
Here is an interesting piece of the curious behavior
of the Roosevelt administration toward the Jews during World War II.
Former Secretary of State Colin Powell gave
a posthumous award for "constructive dissent" to Hiram (or Harry)
Bingham, IV. For over fifty years, the State Department resisted any attempt to
honor Bingham. For them he was an insubordinate member of the US diplomatic
service, a dangerous maverick who was eventually demoted. Now, after his death,
he has been officially recognized as a hero.
Bingham came from an illustrious family.
His father (upon whom the fictional character Indiana Jones was based) was the
archeologist who unearthed the Inca City of Machu Picchu, Peru, in 1911. Harry
entered the US diplomatic service and, in 1939, was posted to Marseilles,
France, as American Vice-Consul.
The USA was then neutral and, not wishing
to annoy Marshal Petain's puppet Vichy regime[1]
and because of rampant anti-Semitism of certain State Department officials,
including Assistant Secretary of State Breckenridge Long, who illegally ordered its representatives and
consuls in Europe, including Marseilles, Lisbon, Zurich et al, not to
grant visas to any Jews. Bingham found this policy immoral and, risking his
career, did all in his power to undermine it.
In defiance of his bosses in Washington, he
granted over 2,500 USA visas to Jewish and other refugees, including the
artists Marc Chagall and Max Ernst and the family of the writer Thomas Mann. He
also sheltered Jews in his Marseilles home, and obtained forged identity papers
to help Jews in their dangerous journeys across Europe. He worked with the
French underground to smuggle Jews out of France into Franco's Spain or across
the Mediterranean and even contributed to their expenses out of his own pocket.
In 1941, Washington lost patience with him. He was sent to Argentina, where
later he continued to annoy his superiors by reporting on the movements of Nazi
war criminals.
Eventually,
he was forced out of the American diplomatic service completely.
Bingham died almost penniless in 1988. Little was known of his extraordinary activities
until his son found some letters in his belongings after his death. He has now
been honored by many groups and organizations, including the United Nations and
the State of Israel.
PA Paid Terrorists NIS 1.15 Billion in 2016, Intelligence Official Says
Speaking at a Knesset Foreign Affairs
and Defense Committee meeting on Palestinian incitement, Brig. Gen. (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser, formerly head of the
Military Intelligence Research Division, said that "in 2016, the
Palestinian Authority paid 1.15 billion shekels [$322 million] in salaries to
terrorists and their families. This amounted to 20% of the foreign aid it
received."
US Senate Presses Trump to Move Israel Embassy
The US Senate called on President Donald Trump to
move the US embassy to Jerusalem, a campaign pledge that he has failed to
fulfill so far. Trump signed a 6-month waiver on June 1 to keep the embassy in
Tel Aviv.
Senators
voted 90-0 on June 5 to approve a resolution that marked the 50th
anniversary of the 1967 Six-Day War and urged Trump to uphold the 1995
Jerusalem Embassy Act, which required then-President Bill Clinton to move the
US embassy from Tel Aviv. “Jerusalem should remain the undivided capital of
Israel in which the rights of every ethnic and religious group are protected,”
the measure stated, while advocating a two-state solution for the ongoing
Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Senate
majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the resolution’s chief sponsor said its
bipartisan passing showed “the United States’ commitment to standing by our
Israeli friends.” The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) hailed
the resolution.
There Were Once Jews Here
by Lucette Lagnado www.tabletmag.com
During
the Six-Day War, some of the Arab countries at war with Israel—Egypt, Tunisia,
Libya—treated their Jewish populations terribly, causing them to leave en
masse. We have been hearing a lot about the war waged by multiple Arab
countries against Israel 50 years. But there was another war waged some of
those same countries that same week that we have heard pretty much nothing
about: a war against the Jews.
Even in June 1967, after over two decades of
threats, expulsions, and pointed hostility by Arab leaders toward their own
Jewish populations, there were still some doughty Jews left in the Arab world.
Admittedly, not too many.
By the mid to late 1960s, the vast majority
of Arab Jews, who once numbered 800,000, were gone from their ancestral lands.
It had taken only two decades for the Arab world—a fairly congenial home
for Jews for hundreds of years or more —to rid themselves of most of their
Jewish populations. Some countries, such as Algeria, had seen Jews leave en
masse after the country became independent from France in 1962 and there were
few who remained.
But some Jewish stragglers had held on. Either
out of a sense of principle that the Middle East was their home, or because
they lacked the wherewithal to leave, or they thought they could tough it out,
or God knows why. There they were, clustered in small communities from Cairo to
Tunis. That week in June 1967—which sparked terrifying anti-Jewish riots, shop
burnings, mass incarcerations, and even murders—would change that, eliminating
any last lingering illusions these Jews may have held that they could stay put.
We know of course how multiple Arab armies
who had expected to stamp out Israel were themselves crushed. It was all so
humiliating, and it is understandable the region was seething.
What
wasn’t—what isn’t—forgivable, even looking back over 50 years later, was how
residents of those countries chose to vent their rage: By turning it against
the Jews in their midst, most of whom were studiously apolitical and had nothing
to do with the war, its outbreak or its outcome
Even in those countries that were ... “nice
to the Jews”—such in Tunisia, where fairly sizable Jewish communities were left
in 1967—there were terrifying demonstrations and expressions of hatred and
venom. Jews from Morocco left in exodus. In countries like Libya, murderous assaults
took place that prompted an emergency evacuation of hundreds of Jews.
Egypt, where I was born and spent my early
childhood, engaged in especially tawdry behavior. My family had left in 1963,
following tens of thousands of other Jews out of the country. We did so
reluctantly: My father didn’t want to go and it took pressure from my siblings
to convince him. He simply couldn’t bear the thought of life outside of Egypt.
That was the case with a lot of Egyptian
Jews. While they loved Israel too, they saw themselves as Egyptian. I can still
hear Dad’s cries on the boat out of Alexandria harbor: “Ragaouna Masr”—Take Us
Back to Cairo. But our little boat kept chugging along. It wouldn’t turn back.
It has taken me years to realize—sort of, as I still love Egypt: Lucky us.
In 1967, there were an estimated
2,500-3,000 Jews still left between Cairo and Alexandria, down from a high of
80,000 in 1948. On that week in ’67, the Egyptian government began rounding up
Jewish men, to send to jails and prison camps. By accounts of the time,
as many as 400 or 500 Jews were imprisoned.
While they gallantly left girls and women
alone, authorities picked up Jewish men young and old. Even the Chief Rabbi of
Alexandria was arrested. Enraged about their failure to defeat the Jewish
state, the Egyptians turned their wrath on Jews whose crime, as far as I can
tell, was that they were living in Egypt.
Nor did the aftermath of the war lead to
the prisoners’ swift release. It is true some were in jail a mere couple of
weeks until some foreign embassies helped get them out. But others lingered for
months, even years, as Egypt released Jewish prisoners in painful dribs and
drabs.
Albert Gabbai, rabbi of Congregation Mikveh
Israel in Philadelphia, was 18 and still in school in Cairo that June. He and
his three older brothers and two sisters lived with their widowed mother. Their
father, once a shirt-maker to King Farouk, had died years earlier and the
brothers managed his clothing business along with their mom. Four other
brothers had made it to America and the plan, he recalled, was to join them.
Rabbi Gabbai still remembers how the authorities
first dragged his two older brothers to prison that week in June. Then some
weeks later they came for him and another brother. They carried machine guns,
yet were exquisitely polite, he recalls, inviting him to come with them as if
they were going out for coffee. The four Gabbai brothers remained prisoners for
three years, till June 1970.
There were other Jewish victims across the
Middle East. While in Tunis researching a book on Jews of the Arab lands, I met
with elderly Jews who vividly remembered that week in ’67, when a country that
had treated them exceedingly well became simply unrecognizable.
They recalled how mobs took to the streets,
targeting Jewish shops for destruction. They attacked the magnificent Grande
Synagogue, whose enormous towering Jewish star was a testament to how tolerant
Tunisian culture once had been...
Hamas Terrorist Tunnel Discovered Under a School Run by
UNRWA in the Gaza Strip: A Hamas terrorist tunnel was discovered under a
school in Gaza run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine
(UNRWA), Israeli media reported on Friday 9 June 2017. The Coordinator of
Government Activities in the Territories, Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai, confirmed
the discovery of the tunnel.
“The
tunnel was discovered underneath a school for boys in Al-Maazi. It is clear that
the entire Arab world understands that it is the Hamas terror organization that
destroys Gaza and eliminates any chance of a good future for Gazans,” wrote
Mordechai. Digging a tunnel underneath a school is nothing new for Hamas, which
regularly uses civilians as human shields and hides rocket launchers in places
such as schools and soccer fields. During Israel’s 2014 counter-terrorism
Operation Protective Edge, Hamas rockets were discovered inside an UNRWA school
building. Likewise, a booby-trapped UNRWA clinic was detonated, killing three
IDF soldiers. Aside from the massive amounts of explosives hidden in the walls
of the clinic, it was revealed that it stood on top of dozens of terror
tunnels, showing how UNRWA is closely embedded with Hamas. (Arutz-7)
UNRWA: A Brief Review: The United Nations
Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), with
its $1.3 billion budget (30% of which comes from USA taxpayers), actually
perpetuates the refugee problem it was created to solve, while promoting
Palestinian rejectionism and Jew hatred. The original 700,000 Palestinians leaving
Israel have now been magically transformed into over 5.6 million
"refugees" registered with UNRWA, about half of all the Palestinians
living in the world today. The "temporary" UN agency has developed
into a bloated bureaucracy with a staff of 30,000, almost all of who are
Palestinians (many are activists of Hamas, the Islamist terrorist group). Less
than 5% of UNRWA's clients ever lived in Israel, but the agency's regulations
state that all descendants of the original displaced persons shall retain their
refugee rights in perpetuity. (JNN) JNN NEWS, P.O. Box 7411
Jerusalem 91073, ISRAEL
Warren Buffet is Attempting to Raise
$200 Million in Israel Bonds: Business magnate Warren
Buffett is encouraging the purchase of Israel Bonds at private events in New
York. Guests attending the events with Buffett on 15
June 2017 have pledged to buy $1 million to $5 million in Israel
Bonds in order to meet the American billionaire, whose net worth of $75.6
billion makes him the second richest person in the world. Israel Bonds said
that following Thursday’s events,
Buffett was expected to have helped bring in about $200 million in bonds
investments. “Israel Bonds is proud to call Warren Buffett a friend,” said
Israel Maimon, president of Israel Bonds. “By supporting the Israel Bonds
organization through these events and investing directly in Israel Bonds himself,
Mr. Buffett is helping to ensure that the State of Israel will continue to
prosper, and will continue to be a model of innovation and economic growth for
decades to come.” Buffett has spoken highly of the Jewish state. “If you are
looking for brains, energy and dynamism in the Middle East, Israel is the only
place you need to go,” the billionaire said. (JTA) “May the Lord bless you from Zion; may you see the
prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life,” Ps. 128:5
Saudi Newspaper Criticizes Hamas: The Saudi newspaper
Okaz reported last week that Hamas has invested "$120 million in the past
year in intensive tunnel construction. Hamas allocates millions of Saudi and
UAE dollars in order to support Iranian-orchestrated terror." Saying
"there is no difference" between ISIS and Hamas, the paper called for
immediate Arab intervention in order to prevent Hamas' exploitation of Gaza's
citizens. "Hamas uses all the aid the Palestinians receive to support
their interests, it digs tunnels under schools, houses and hospitals and
thereby poses a danger to the lives of Palestinian [and Israeli]
civilians." (J. Post)
The UK Balance of Power – Weighted Toward
Israel:
The June general election in Britain resulted in what is known as a “hung parliament.”
While PM Theresa May’s Conservatives won the most seats, they did not gain
enough to command a majority in the House of Commons. To win essential
parliamentary votes, such as on the legislative program or the budget, they
need additional support. The only grouping in the new parliament politically
close to the Conservatives is the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), a rightwing
Northern Ireland party that won 10 seats in the election – 10 vital seats for,
added to the Conservatives’ total, they provide that essential majority over
all other parties. The (DUP) party was founded in 1971 by the Reverend Ian
Paisley.
When Paisley launched the Northern Ireland Friends of Israel in
March 2009, he drew a parallel between Israel’s and Northern Ireland’s struggles
against terrorism. He also prayed for peace in Jerusalem, demonstrating another
strand in the genetic makeup of the DUP – a Bible-believing Protestant
background. Many supporters of the DUP sincerely accept the biblical basis of
the Jewish people’s connection to the land. It is comforting to consider that
this aspect of Conservative thinking will be sustained at the highest
decision-making level in the new UK administration by the dependable voice of
the DUP.
Israel Has Unexpected Ally in Saudi Arabia Israel Today News
It's no secret
that Saudi Arabia and Hamas have not always seen eye-to-eye. But to have the
oil-rich kingdom openly call for Hamas' demise, knowing that the terror group
exists first and foremost to destroy Israel, is a pretty big step forward. And
that's precisely what happened this week when Saudi Arabia insisted that if
Qatar wants to end its current dispute with Middle East powers, it must stop
supporting terrorists like Hamas. On Monday, Saudi Arabia joined Egypt, Bahrain
and the United Arab Emirates in cutting all diplomatic ties to Qatar, as well
as shutting down land, sea and air links to the Gulf state. By basing
reconciliation on Qatar ending its relationship with Hamas and its parent, the
Muslim Brotherhood, Saudi Arabia has drawn a new and surprising line in the
sands of this volatile region. Pray that the political relationship
between Israel and the moderate Arab nations will continue to develop.
Israel Hackers Supplied Intel on
Terror Plans to Blowup Passenger Planes Times of Israel News
The sensitive intelligence that US President Donald
Trump controversially revealed to the Russians was gathered by an Israeli cyber
warfare unit that penetrated an Islamic State group bomb-making cell, The New
York Times reported on Monday. The acutely sensitive information obtained by
the Israelis reportedly exposed how IS intended to use bombs in laptops to blow
up airliners. Previous reports on the leaked information had indicated that it
was an Israeli agent who had infiltrated the organization. A New York
Times reported that the information was specifically about an IS plot to
disguise bombs as laptop batteries in a way that would trick X-ray security
machines at airports. The report said this Israeli cyber breakthrough had been
one of the only successes in infiltrating IS. Top Israeli cyber operators penetrated
a small cell of extremist bombmakers in Syria months ago, the officials said.
That was how the United States learned that the terrorist group was working to
make explosives that fooled airport X-ray machines and other screening by
looking exactly like batteries for laptop computers, the report said. Let's
pray that all terror plots are uncovered and exposed, saving the lives of many.
Turkish Muslim Leader Affirms Israel is
the Land of the Jewish People
Israel Today
News
The following is a portion of a
press release from Turkish Muslim teacher Adnan Oktar, whose recent Ramadan
gathering in Istanbul was attended by several leading Israeli nationalist figures. Mr. Oktar said,
"People are more religious in Israel, that is a blessing for the entire
region and the Islamic world. They are not aware that Jews are people of love.
We all will be students of the King Moshiach, the King Messiah. The love for
Moshiach brings blessings to Israel, this is a vital matter. God protects
Israel from all troubles. If anyone attempts any harm against Israel, we will
bring heavens down on them."
He
then made a request from the Israeli youth asking thousands of Jewish youth to
come together and "pray out loud for Moshiach's coming." Regarding Israel's
presence in the Middle East, Mr. Oktar added, "God promised you to live on
that land. You are a blessing for Muslims, but they can not appreciate
this."
Source: www.out-of-zion.com
Defense Minister Comes Out Against 2005 Gaza Withdrawal; 'Grave Mistake'
By “Remove not the ancient landmark, which thy fathers have set.” Proverbs 22:28 (The Israel Bible™)
Israel’s Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Thursday he “absolutely agreed” with comments
made by Maj. Gen. (ret.) Yair Naveh in an interview with Israel Hayom in which he
declared that Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and four settlements in northern
Samaria in 2005 was a “grave mistake.”
The interview with Naveh, who was chief of
the Central Command at the time of the disengagement and later became IDF
deputy chief of staff, appears in full today. Naveh oversaw the evacuation of
settlements from Northern Samaria.
“The [2005] disengagement was a mistake. It
was an adventure and a mistake for which we’re still paying a high price,”
Lieberman said Thursday, in an interview on the ultra-Orthodox Kol Hai radio station.
“The idea behind the disengagement, that
the Arabs would all of a sudden want peace and would be our subcontractors on
security, collapsed,” Lieberman said.
“We wound up with an agreement signed by
the European Union, and [Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud] Abbas got the
Gaza Strip handed to him on a silver platter. Two years later, Hamas seized
control [of Gaza], and today we are seeing the results.”
In his original interview, Naveh said that
There is no doubt that neither in Gaza nor in Samaria have we forged any
security advantage…There was no benefit there, zero. Nothing has changed there
for the better.”
https://www.breakingisraelnews.com
Editor's
Note: Every piece of territory that Israel has
withdrawn from has been used as launching pads for further violence against
Israel.
World’s Democracies Absent at Annual UN Israel-Bashing Debate:
The world’s democracies collectively snubbed the UN Human
Rights Council’s annual condemnation of Israel in Geneva on 19 June 2017 when
none of their representatives attended the council’s presentation and debate on
“Item 7” - a permanent agenda item focused on the “Human rights situation in
Palestine and other occupied Arab territories.” The seats of all the democratic
nations represented on the council were empty for the duration of the
discussion, sparking protests from Arab countries.
In
an address to the council on 6 June 2017, USA Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley
charged that “Item 7 is a scandalous provision that must be removed.” Hillel
Neuer - executive director of the Geneva-based UN Watch NGO said, “The
democracies are absent to protest prejudice - because this is the only agenda
item that singles out one specific state, the Jewish state. Not Syria, Sudan or
North Korea is treated this way.” Nonetheless, the absence of these countries
did not prevent routine denunciations of Israel, with serial human rights
abusers like Syria, Lebanon and Venezuela attacking Israel’s human rights
record and depicting it as the “greatest threat to peace in the Middle East.”
(Algemeiner) Continue to pray that UN anti-Israel
bias will be confronted and overcome in all UN branches.
Source: Barry & Batya Segal, news@VisionForIsrael.com
They are sponsoring a Sukkot tour to Israel
in October 2017. Contact them for details!
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Reports: Trump Furious With Palestinians, Might Pull Out of Peace Process: The international mainstream media painted last week's meeting between Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and USA President Donald Trump's senior advisor and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, as "productive." The London-based Arabic-language daily al-Hayat instead called the meeting "tense," and said it ended with a serious rift between the Americans and the Palestinians. According to Palestinian officials who spoke to the newspaper, Trump is now considering pulling out of the Mideast peace process altogether.
Abbas is
said to have been outraged when Kushner entered the room and conveyed Israel's
demand that he stop using international financial aid to pay salaries to terrorists
sitting in Israeli jails. Kushner also insisted that Palestinian officials halt
all incitement against Israel, and expressed disappointment that Abbas had
failed to condemn a deadly terrorist stabbing which occurred days ago in Jerusalem
and took the life of a young female Border Police officer. Al-Hayat wrote that
Abbas fired back by accusing Kushner of "taking Israel's side," and
was adamant that paying salaries to convicted terrorists was part of his
"social responsibility." (Israel Today) The single hope for peace in the Middle East is for the
good news of Yeshua to penetrate through Muslim strongholds. Please pray to
that end.
UN Excuses Wife-Beating as Natural Reaction to ‘Israeli
Occupation’: First, they called
terrorism a "natural reaction" to the presence of Jews in the Holy
Land. Now, at a UN Human Rights Council debate this month, the director of UN
Watch, Hillel Neuer, challenged a new report blaming Israel for when
Palestinian husbands beat their wives. "Is it right to continue infantilizing
Palestinians, such that when a man in Ramallah beats his wife, we encourage him
to say ‘Israel made me do it’?" Neuer asked the report's author, Dubravka
Simonovic, the UN Rapporteur on Violence against Women.
Neuer
further noted that while Israeli counter-terrorism measures might put pressure
on the Palestinian population, that doesn't explain why violence against women
is equally prevalent in the neighboring countries of Lebanon, Syria, Jordan,
and Egypt. Nor was there any excuse for Simonovic's lack of actual evidence to
support her conclusion. But, most notably, Neuer wondered how the report could
draw a dubious link between Israeli security and Palestinian spousal abuse,
while ignoring entirely the regular weekly sermons by Palestinian Muslim
clerics encouraging such domestic violence. (Israel Today) Vision for Israel, PO Box 7265
Jerusalem 9107301, ISRAEL
As Londoners are left reeling with
shock at a succession of terrible tragedies, angry residents and pundits
inevitably start looking for someone to blame.
|
Charles Gardner www.israeltoday.co.il |
When
children fight in the playground and someone gets hurt, it’s always someone
else’s fault. But there is a sense in which we are all to blame – for we have,
as a nation, turned our backs on truth, honesty and integrity in favour of the
brave new world’s ‘anything goes’ mantra as long as it feels right. How do we
measure truth when it is so subjective? If it’s not found in the Bible, where
do we look for it? After discarding our Christian heritage and throwing out
God’s laws, it’s not surprising there are so many different versions of truth
portrayed by today’s media.
The
BBC, for example, has shown a propensity in recent times for turning terrorists
into victims – particularly when reporting on violence in Israel. Thus, on June
16, when a 23-year-old Israeli policewoman was stabbed to death and four others
injured in a Jerusalem attack which also involved shooting, the BBC tweeted:
“Three Palestinians killed after deadly stabbing in Jerusalem” – a shamefully
misleading headline focusing attention on the attackers, as if they were the victims.
The
prophet Isaiah wrote of how – when we have turned our backs on God – “truth has
stumbled in the streets; honesty cannot enter. Truth is nowhere to be found.”
(Isaiah 59.13-15)
At
the rally following London’s Al Quds march, the Iranian-inspired day
calling for the destruction of Israel, one speaker perversely blamed the tragic
West London fire on ‘Zionists.’ “Some of the biggest supporters of the Conservative
Party are Zionists,” he ranted. “They are responsible for the murder of the
people in Grenfell Tower.”
As
blogger Richard Millett asked: “How in 2017 is a terror organisation like
Hezbollah, with a rifle emblazoned on its flag, allowed to parade through
London? Is the British Jewish community so ill-considered, so small that we are
so easily sacrificed? Would the authorities allow Al Qaeda or ISIS parades?”
The
marchers have exploited a loophole in the law against flying the flags of
proscribed organisations like Hezbollah by claiming that they are supporting
its political (rather than military) wing even though they both use the same
flag and support the same cause, which is the total destruction of the Jewish
state, as their chants – “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” –
clearly indicate. Whatever happened to the law against ‘hate speech’?
Convened
by the Islamic Human Rights Commission, a British Muslim organisation with
close ties to the Iranian regime, the march took place despite a petition
calling for its ban signed by over 20,000 people which stated: “After the
terrible recent terrorist events in Manchester and London, this display of extremism
has no place on the streets of the UK.”
...But
I see hope on three specific fronts, starting with the example of Christians in
South Africa, to whom I have already referred on this site. Faced with corruption
and violence in their nation, they came together on a farmer’s field to pray on
April 22nd; not just the faithful few who turn up to such meetings,
but a massive gathering of 1.7 million – more than the population of
Birmingham, Britain’s second city. Many had traveled the length and breadth of
that big country to plead God’s mercy on their troubles. Isn’t it time British
Christians got together to do something similar? Is our situation not desperate
enough, with violence becoming endemic and truth turned on its head?
Secondly,
not far from Birmingham, I visited a friend in prison whose Christian faith
shines out so brightly that he is effectively working as a chaplain to many of
his fellow inmates. He knows from his experience in the outside world how it is
often difficult to get people to talk about or share their faith, even in
churches. But now he struggles to shut them up as they all want to share the
goodness of God, especially during Bible classes and chapel services packed
with men praising the Lord in full voice. And a friend tells of a jail in
Wiltshire where men, “feeling completely abandoned by society, are so ready to
hear the gospel”.
Many
years ago I was told of a prophecy that revival in Britain would start in
the prisons! Thirdly, I have been profoundly moved by the response of
churches in the Grenfell Tower area of London, scene of the tragic fire where
an estimated 79 people perished and hundreds more were made homeless.
One
such is the Tabernacle Christian Centre which had opened its doors to the
victims at 2am on the night of the fire, shortly after it started. And they
have been providing refuge and shelter ever since. Members had been praying at
the church just before the fire broke out when someone shared what he felt was
a ‘word from the Lord’ that He was going to bring many people into the church,
and that they must be prepared!
A
cross stands at the centre of the premises, with a Jewish menorah close by. “We
preach Christ crucified,” the pastor explained, adding that they also love
Israel and the Jewish people, and regularly pray for them...
Charles Gardner is author of Israel
the Chosen, available from Amazon, and Peace
in Jerusalem, available from olivepresspublisher.com
Key Lessons From the Israeli
Healthcare System for the USA
Karen Wolk-Feinstein, PhD
Jewish Healthcare Foundation, June 28, 2017
Source: www.jhf.org/publications
Israel's healthcare system has significant relevance
and important lessons to lend to healthcare reform efforts in the United
States. In 1995, as the US failed to enact healthcare reform, Israel achieved
significant redesign of its healthcare system.
Through
the adoption of a National Health Insurance law, Israel created an overall framework
for its healthcare system, provided universal coverage and delineated a basic
benefits package to which all citizens and permanent residents are entitled.
Fourteen years later, with government-financed insurance coverage provided
through 4 competing health-maintenance organizations, Israel's per capita costs
are half those of the United States and its outcomes in many areas are
superior.
Some of
the differences between the two systems emerge from a divergence in basic values:
in Israel, healthcare is a "universal good," which society is
responsible for making available to all its members, while in the US,
healthcare is an individual good that is "organized" largely through
market forces and includes many for-profit actors. These basically different
values set in motion a series of processes that yielded, in the US, a health
sector involving multiple, competitive providers and payers emphasizing high
yield, acute care, inpatient health information technology (HIT) and expensive
medical education, but also cutting edge R&D.
By
contrast, Israel's emphasis on social solidarity prompted the development (as
early as the 1920s) of organized systems of care focused on improving
population health efficiently via an emphasis on primary care, supported by
heavily subsidized medical education. In recent decades, the Israeli healthcare
system has benefited from major investments in outpatient HIT and the creation
of a process for prioritizing investments in new technology that is among the
most advanced and transparent in the world.
In
important respects, the US health reform debates have been about the best way
to move the US toward a more integrated model aligning payment with care
delivery and targeting safety, efficiency, access and quality.
Therefore,
as the US moves to revisit the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
– which aims not only to expand access to health insurance, but also to
strengthen primary care, contain costs and require multi-provider accountability
for coordinated high quality care – there is much to learn from Israel, where
these concepts are already at work.
UK
Threatens to Close Jewish School For Not Teaching LGBT Agenda
Chana Roberts, www.israelnationalnews.com
A
private haredi ("Ultra-Orthodox") school with 212 students in
northern London is in danger of being ordered to close after it failed its
third inspection since February 2016 last month. The school, which teaches
haredi girls ages three to eight, was reported as not giving students "a
full understanding of fundamental British values" because they do not
teach the LGBT agenda.
Jewish law prohibits the homosexual act and
only recognizes a marriage between a man and woman as a legitimate way to build
a family. According to the Office for Standards in Education, Children's
Services, and Schools (Ofsted), the girls "are not taught explicitly
about issues such as sexual orientation. This restricts the pupils' spiritual,
moral, social, and cultural development and does not promote the equality of
opportunity in ways that take account of differing lifestyles."
School leaders "recognize the
requirement to teach about the protected characteristics as set out in the
Equality Act 2010," the report continued. "However, they acknowledge
that they do not teach pupils about all the protected characteristics,
particularly those relating to gender re-assignment and sexual orientation.
This means that pupils have a limited understanding of the different lifestyles
and partnerships that individuals may choose in present-day society."
This approach, they said, means the children
are "shielded from learning about certain differences between people, such
as sexual orientation. The school's culture, however, clearly focused on
teaching pupils to respect everybody, regardless of beliefs and
lifestyles."
Though the school is not expected to
"promote" ideas about sexual orientation or gender reassignment, they
must still "encourage pupils' respect for other people, paying particular
regard to the protected characteristics set out in the 2010 Equalities
Act."
Elsewhere in the report, the school, which
belongs to the Vizhnitz hasidic sect, was praised for its high quality of education.
"It’s now been made crystal clear by Ofsted that the Equality Act is
actually hierarchical," Christians in Education member Gill Robins said.
"Sexual orientation and gender reassignment are at the apex of the
Act."
Freedom of religion is not. "All equalities
are equal, but some equalities are more equal than others. Ofsted has revealed
its true agenda. It doesn't matter how good your school is in all other respects
- simply refusing to teach very young children about gender reassignment will
lead to your closure." ...
Editor's
Note: When the
LGBTQ agenda was being promoted prior to legalization, the promise was that
religious rights would be protected. Lie.