Video Loads Below->Barry Shaw|The View from Israel|->Click Image to Enlarge.->Peloni: ->There are few phrases in international affairs repeated with greater confidence or subjected to less scrutiny than ‘illegal Israeli settlements’.->Natasha Hausdorff|Behind the News in Israel|->Click Image to Enlarge.->The trouble is not just that this is political rhetoric masquerading as law, but that it is in fact contrary to real international law, properly applied.->fter the Ottoman Empire collapsed in 1922, the international community established the Mandate for Palestine.->When Israel became an independent state in 1948, another universal rule became crucial:uti possidetis juris,->It means that when a new state emerges from a pre-existing administrative territory, it by default inherits that territory’s boundaries as its international borders.->Israel was the only state to emerge in 1948 from the remaining territory of the Mandate, west of the river Jordan. This was after the severance of Transjordan from the Mandate, in order to create the Arab state of Jordan. The UN’s 1947 partition plan, which proposed a further Arab state in the territory, was never implemented, having been rejected by the Arab side, which chose war in its stead.->The consequence is uncomfortable for those who begin the legal story of Israel in 1967, after the Six-Day War. Applying the ordinary rule ofuti possidetis, Israel took on the Mandate’s boundaries, the only lines on the map. Judea and Samaria – subsequently renamed the West Bank after their seizure by Jordan – did not become sovereign Jordanian territory merely because Jordan occupied them between 1948 and 1967. Nor did the 1949 armistice lines become international borders, as the armistice agreements made explicit. They were military ceasefire lines, and Egypt and Jordan were adamant they would never constitute more.->This matters because the entire settlements argument rests upon the prior assumption that Israel is the occupying power in foreign sovereign territory.->The sovereign title comes first.->But suppose, for argument’s sake, that one puts all this aside and treats Judea and Samaria as occupied territory. Even then, the slogan ‘illegal settlements’ subverts the law.->Its purpose was to prevent state population-transfer programmes, not to create territories from which civilians of a particular nationality or heritage are prohibited by virtue of their identity. Israeli Jews have never been deported to Judea. They move voluntarily.->In Professor Eugene Kontorovich’s global study of settlement activity in occupied territories, he found that there have been many substantial movements of civilian populations in prolonged occupations – real situations of state transfer under Article 49(6), in other words – that received no international commendation and no remark as to illegality->This does not mean that the real abuses elsewhere should be ignored. It means international law cannot be one thing for Israel and another for everybody else. A legal rule selectively (and incorrectly) cited whenever Jews build houses across an armistice line, which is not and never was a border, is not the application of law but political posturing.->There is an attempt to whitewash the real illegal building in these disputed territories by the Palestinian Authority, often done with international funding, in Area C. Ed Miliband, in a statement on Tuesday replete with falsehoods, told, or most likely simply repeated, a lie about the Bedouin communities in the village of Khan Al Ahmar. He claimed that these Bedouin had lived on that land for generations. There are aerial photos dating back to the Luftwaffe that disprove this claim. In fact, the Bedouin of Khan al Ahmar and the other illegal outposts in the area, planted there as political pawns, have never themselves made that claim. This is the real, politically motivated illegal building at scale. It violates international law, the Oslo Accords and any faith Israel might have that future agreements it enters into will be honoured by the international community.->The phrase ‘illegal settlements’ is increasingly being used to mean something much more disturbing: that Jews should not live in certain places because they are Jews.->No comparable demand would be tolerated elsewhere.->Once Jewish homes are described as inherently illegal, businesses serving Jews become ‘complicit’, charities supporting Jewish communities become suspect, Jews buying property supposedly become participants in an international crime, then vocabulary moves effortlessly from international diplomacy into campaigns of exclusion at home. That is how the weaponisation of international law contributes to Jew-hate.->International law was designed to provide rules by which disputes could be resolved. It was not created to furnish political campaigns with intimidating vocabulary. The starting point should therefore be the law itself, applied consistently: the Mandate,uti possidetis juris, the actual status of the 1949 armistice lines, the wording of the Geneva Convention, subsequent agreements, including the Oslo Accords, and state practice elsewhere.->If a bottle of wine from Judea is the greatest threat Britain can identify in the Middle East, the Jews might as well keep pouring.->Victor Satya |->Click to Enlarge Image. ->The British Foreign Office has also decided that one of its most urgent functions is to regulate what comes out of Judea and Samaria. And what comes out of Judea?->Apparently, something dangerous.->Wine.->Here we arrive at another rather extraordinary question. What exactly is the “two-state solution†supposed to solve?->The standard formulation is a Palestinian state alongside a safe and secure Israel. That is certainly how the British government describes it. Fine.->Israel removed its settlements and permanent military presence from Gaza in 2005.->What followed was not Switzerland on the Mediterranean.->Yet somehow the lesson repeatedly drawn from this is not: “Perhaps we should examine what happens after territory is handed over.†Instead, the discussion often returns to: “What is Israel building in Judea?â€->But then the international community often behaves as though Israeli concessions are the only variables that can possibly affect the equation. Israel builds. Danger. Israel announces a project. Danger. Israel strengthens its presence in Judea. Danger. Israel responds to terrorism. Concern.->But what if the real obstacle is not the existence of Israeli homes? What if the real obstacle is the refusal of Palestinians to accept a Jewish state at all? That question deserves rather more attention than another diplomatic seminar about vineyards.->But here is the uncomfortable truth: sanctions will not erase Jewish history. Trade restrictions will not erase Judea. Diplomatic resolutions will not erase Jerusalem. And calling Jews “settlers†loudly enough will not make them forget that they are Jews.->The Jewish people did not acquire their connection to the land through a modern government tender. They did not receive it from the British Foreign Office. They did not obtain it through a UN committee. Their connection predates all three.->The Jews are not going to stop living in Judea because Britain has decided their produce is too politically inconvenient to cross a border. And they certainly are not going to stop growing grapes, making wine, and selling it, because His Majesty’s Government has apparently concluded that a bottle of Judean wine is a greater threat to Middle Eastern peace than a missile.->Peloni: ->Video Loads Below->|->PELONI:->Steven Stalinsky|MEMRI|->Most Americans know little about Hezbollah. They consider the 1983 Marine barracks bombing old news. For Hezbollah, though, that attack is a template for future efforts. Hezbollah MP Nawaf Mousawi warned in a recent interview, "We are the same people we were in 1982. … Today, there are a dozen times more martyrdom seekers." Hezbollah has killed more U.S. service personnel than any other terrorist organization except for al Qaeda on 9/11. The State Department deemed it the most technically capable terrorist group in the world and a continued security threat to the U.S.->Another Hezbollah leader mourned in the U.S. was Nasrallah's deputy, Fuad Shukr, a founding member and U.S. Marine barracks bombing mastermind, killed in July 2024. The Democratic Socialists of America eulogized him together with slain Hamas leaders, writing: "We mourn and honor the martyrs of Lebanon and Palestine and express our unwavering solidarity with their popular resistance movements." The post was later deleted.->There have been multiple cases of Hezbollah supporters in Dearborn attempting to attack its Jewish community. Last year, locals marched, pogrom-style chanting, "Khaybar, Khaybar, oh Jews, the army of Muhammad will return" — evoking the slaughter of the Jews of the Arabian Peninsula by the army of Islam's Prophet Muhammad in the 7th century.->Furthermore, eight alleged pro-Palestinian conspirators were indicted on federal charges on June 10, 2026, for allegedly threatening University of Michigan officials and businesses, and also threatening the Jewish Federation. They had discussed using poison, bombs, and psychological torture.->Hezbollah is here in America. Its recruitment and influence campaigns among American students, activists, and organizations should be investigated, as well as firm enforcement of laws already on the books regarding support for designated terrorist organizations. Blinking lights are everywhere. It shouldn't take a mass terrorist attack for this threat to be addressed.->Peloni: ->|->Some of the 24 employees are reportedly alleged to be members of the terrorist organizations, while others are alleged to have assisted the groups during the war against Israel.->The Al Jazeera employees allegedly linked to the terror groups who were fired include Mohammed Shaheen, Mohammed al-Sharif, Ayman al-Hissi, Hassan al-Zaanin and Ashraf al-Sarraj from northern Gaza, as well as Jamal Adwan, Alaa Salama, Ola Abu Muammar, Moaz al-Amour, Abdullah Abu Kamil and Talal al-Arouqi from southern Gaza.->Israel Law Center->StandWithUs->accused Israel of targeting journalists->members of Hamas->identified several of the deceased->The Jerusalem Post reported the same month that the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) agreed to conduct an extensive probe of its database of journalists killed during the Gaza war. Following the probe, CPJ announced that it had removed at least 20 names from its database after receiving confirmations that the individuals were affiliated with PIJ or Hamas.->Jonathan Feldstein->-Part one in a two-part series-->YouTube->“Inspiration from Zionâ€->Harry Liberman->Macklemore has no known formal education or specialized academic background->The Sanitization of Colonial Conquest->Ben Haggerty->Macklemore->Judaea->Syria Palaestina->The Stone-Cold Evidence of European Colonization and Slavery of the Jews !->Arch of Titus->Colosseum->->The Looting of the Second Temple:->Seven-Branched Golden Menorah->->Funding the Colosseum with Jewish Wealth from Judea ! ->"from the spoils of war against the Jews "->->The Enslavement of the Jewish People:->50,000 Jewish slaves-> ,->invoking Jeremiah the Weeping Prophet:->Weeping Prophet Jeremiah->The Diaspora Cry of "Next Year in Jerusalem":->Next Year in Jerusalem->Israel must campaign the Vatican to return Temple vessels->
Ted Belman
Jerusalem, Israel
972 76 540 3133
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