‘Abbas has no answer to Israel applying sovereignty’  

Arab affairs commentator Yoni Ben Menachem explains that the PA threats against Israel are not serious.

By Nitsan Keidar, INN

PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas speaks at United Nations in New York
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas speaks at United Nations in New York

The Palestinian Authority continues to threaten Israel and is also trying to mobilize Jordan to prevent Israel from applying sovereignty in Judea and Samaria and the Jordan Valley.

Yoni Ben Menachem, a commentator on Arab affairs and a senior researcher at the Jerusalem Center For Public Affairs, spoke to Arutz Sheva on Sunday about the cooperation between Jordan and the PA.

“The Jordanian plan is made up of two parts and is coordinated with the Palestinian Authority. The first phase is before annexation and the second comes after it. The first phase is international – they applied to the EU, Latin America, and the UN to intervene – and also took a practical step when the PA announced that it was renouncing all agreements with Israel and the US, while [PA chairman Mahmoud] Abbas took a small step in announcing the end of the security coordination,” he said.
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June 1, 2020 | 5:50 am | Comments »

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NYT: Annexing the West Bank Is a Brazen Violation of International Law  

T. Belman. The headline is very misleading because the Editorial doesn’t say that.  It says “the West Bank is regarded by international organizations and most of the world as occupied territory, and the Jewish settlements as illegal under the Geneva Convention.” Aside from saying “Mr. Biden, a strong supporter of Israel,”, I take no quarrel with their facts.  But I do disagree with their calculus.

“Annexation” will take place before the election and will be approved by Pres Trump. And Israel will proceed accordingly.  The international community or even a Democratic President will not be able to reverse history.

It would also render the territory into a patchwork of simmering, unstable Palestinian areas, forever threatening a new intifada.

By The Editorial Board May 30, 2020

Israeli soldiers standing guard in March at a protest against Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
Majdi Mohammed/Associated Press

For his next act, after surviving a yearlong political struggle that he needed three national elections and a health crisis to overcome, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has announced that on July 1 he will start the process to annex Jewish settlements and the Jordan Valley in the West Bank, as he pledged to do in his campaign.

Though the settlements have been steadily expanded over many decades, and the Jordan Valley is under effective Israeli military control, there are many reasons actual annexation is a bad idea.

The main reason is that the West Bank is regarded by international organizations and most of the world as occupied territory, and the Jewish settlements as illegal under the Geneva Convention. To Israeli nationalists, however, the West Bank is Judea and Samaria, the biblical homeland of the Jews. Israel holds that the Geneva Convention does not apply because there had been no Palestinian state in the West Bank, and because none of the settlers were “deported or transferred” to the territory, in the language of the convention.

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June 1, 2020 | 5:38 am | 3 Comments »

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Very Good News Israel  

By Michael Ordman

Many of Israel’s latest innovations will support the new reality that will exist when the current pandemic is over. Patients will be monitored remotely both inside hospitals and outside. Radar sensors will protect the public and workers at airports, factories and care homes. Shoppers will use Israeli technology to bypass manual checkouts and global companies will follow Israel’s lead in flexible working.

Elsewhere, Israel is pioneering a new reality in cancer treatment, heart surgery, clinical trials and personalized medicine. It is transforming internal relationships with minorities and the perceptions of former adversaries. Israel’s scientific advances include replacement limbs, unmanned search and rescue and smarter business operations.

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com
In the 31st May 20 edition of Israel’s good news, the highlights include:

  • Israeli tests found that two Gaucher’s medications also treat Covid-19.
  • Israeli engineers made an artificial arm for a girl to play the violin.
  • Israel is using radar sensors to detect Covid-19 infections.
  • An Israeli has won the Mathematics equivalent of the “Nobel Prize”.
  • An Israeli company trained all its cleaning staff to become IT operators.
  • Israeli restaurants, bars and cafes are open again.

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May 31, 2020 | 3:02 pm | Comments »

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Is the EU rethinking its hostility towards Israel?  

The widespread fury over the proposed extension of Israeli sovereignty constitutes merely shadow-boxing.

by Melanie Phillips

Has the European Union reached a tipping point over Israel? Or to be more precise, is the Europeans’ bluff finally to be called over Israel’s proposal to extend its sovereignty over parts of Judea and Samaria?

The EU has been mulling over punitive measures against Israel if it goes ahead with what its Western critics call “annexation of the occupied territories of the West Bank.”

A number of member states, headed by France along with Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Ireland, Sweden, Denmark, Poland, Belgium and Luxembourg, are calling for a hard line.

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May 31, 2020 | 2:38 pm | 4 Comments »

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West Bank annexation could be delayed for days or weeks, Likud minister says  

Despite Netanyahu saying he doesn’t intend to change July 1 date, Ze’ev Elkin says move depends on completion of Israeli-US committee’s mapping process

TOI STAFF Today, 11:47 am<

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) sits with Minister Zeev Elkin during a special cabinet meeting for Jerusalem day at the Ein Lavan spring in Jerusalem, June 2, 2016. (Marc Israel Sellem/POOL)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) sits with Minister Zeev Elkin during a special cabinet meeting for Jerusalem day at the Ein Lavan spring in Jerusalem, June 2, 2016. (Marc Israel Sellem/POOL)

Just days after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told ministers that he had set a July date for the annexation of parts of the West Bank and had no intention of changing it, a minister in his Likud party said Sunday that the timing could be delayed by days or weeks.

Ze’ev Elkin, a member of the top-level security cabinet, told Army Radio that the July 1 date cited in the coalition deal signed with Benny Gantz’s Blue and White party wasn’t set in stone.

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May 31, 2020 | 2:31 pm | 1 Comment »

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They Still do Witch Hunts in Massachusetts  

By Victor Rosenthal

Louis Shenker is, or was, a Jewish student at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst (UMass). He is no longer a student there, because after allowing a campaign of defamation, harassment, and threats of physical harm orchestrated by members of the faculty and administrators to force him to flee, the university has expelled him.

Louis Shenker is admittedly guilty of several thought-crimes. He is a conservative. He is a Zionist. And (has vehalila) he is a Trump supporter. Who knows, he may even enjoy trolling his progressive political opponents. Still, I don’t believe any of this is illegal in the US.

What is illegal (or at least grounds for civil penalties), and what the university may pay dearly for – $27 million if Shenker’s lawyers get what they are demanding – is trying to wreck someone’s life by spreading false information about him, and inciting violence against him.

His troubles began in December 2018, when he tried to protest an anti-Trump march, wearing a “MAGA” hat and carrying a sign. He was roughed up by the marchers, and a graduate student, Barucha “Beth” Peller, snatched his hat and refused to return it.
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May 31, 2020 | 2:25 pm | 1 Comment »

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JNS: ZOA Exposes False Claims by Radical J Street Students Who Support HIAS Resettling Antisemitic  

by Morton A. Klein

A recent JNS article needs to more clearly expose the true identity of the signers and originators of a falsehood-filled letter to the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations . The letter maligned me and the Zionist Organization of America for appropriately opposing the election of HIAS chair Dianne Lob to become chair of the Conference of Presidents, and for explaining how HIAS’s activities conflict with the Conference’s missions of helping Jews and Israel.

The letter misleadingly identified its signers as caring “young Jews.”

In fact, these “young Jews” were predominantly really George Soros-funded extremist J Street University officials (J Street U national vice presidents, J Street U national conference speakers, chapter chairs, organizers, etc.) or members of other radical anti-Israel groups. Top J Street U signers also tweeted in honor of “Nakba Day” (or “Catastrophe,” referring to the establishment of modern-day Israel) last week; supported teaching a notorious, virulently anti-Israel “Colonizing Palestine” course at Tufts; and boasted about helping to organize J Street’s campaign to insert anti-Israel planks into the Democratic Party platform.

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May 31, 2020 | 10:30 am | Comments »

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“The True Story of the Bilderberg Group” and What They May Be Planning Now  

Daniel Estulin has investigated and researched the Bilderberg Group’s far-reaching influence on business and finance, global politics, war and peace, and control of the world’s resources and its money.

By Stephen Lendman, Global Research, May 28, 2019

The Bilderberg Group will be meeting behind closed doors at the Hotel Montreux Palace, Montreux from the 30th of May to the 2nd of June, 2019.

Henry Kissinger, Jared Kushner, Jens Stoltenberg, Mark Carney (Governor of the Bank of England) among others will be attending. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will also be present.

The list of guests and personalities can be consulted on the Bildberg website. The names of many of the prominent personalities including Pompeo are not on the list.

The yearly Bilderberg talk-fest, which dates back to 1954, features a guest list of around 130 people from Europe and North America including everyone from royals to business tycoons and academics. … According to the official Bilderberg website, discussions are held under the Chatham House Rule, which means participants can use any information they receive during the meeting but cannot reveal its source. (Thelocal.ch)

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May 31, 2020 | 10:21 am | 6 Comments »

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ISRAEL: The Land of Milk and Honey – Trashed by the Palestinians.  

By Victor Sharpe—

Milk and honey” refers to the nectar of the fruit, and a land “flowing with milk and honey” is an expression used for a particularly fertile land that could produce abundant produce and fruit. The saying is used several times in the Bible, each time conveying the richness of the Promised Land – The Land of Israel.

A land flowing with milk and honey is now a blessed reality in the reborn modern State of Israel, miraculously restored and reconstituted by its own indigenous Jewish folk after 2,000 years of exile. It is now once again a sovereign Jewish nation in its ancestral and Biblical homeland. The precious land, neglected and wasted for so long, and which had endured successive alien occupations down the centuries, has been lovingly redeemed by the pioneering Jewish pioneers whose Zionist endeavor and undertaking banished the malarial swamps, turned the desert green and restored the hills and valleys of Israel into their verdant beauty.

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May 31, 2020 | 10:00 am | 2 Comments »

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“Victimhood Culture” UK – Except for Victims of Terrorism  

by Judith Bergman, GATESTONE INSTITUTE

  • “There is currently no specially allocated government funding for victims of terror. While they can claim money…. survivors of the Manchester terror attack say that they are forced to wait years for funds to come through…” — Gabriella Swerling, The Telegraph, March 18, 2020.
  • It is paradoxical, to say the least, that in the era of “victimhood culture” — in which a multitude of identity groups compete for the prize of most victimized — where even subjectively perceived slights are registered by UK police as “non-criminal incidents” — victims of terror, who have suffered severe physical and psychological life-disrupting injury as the result of actual manifested hatred, have to fight for their rights.

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May 30, 2020 | 3:34 pm | 3 Comments »

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US Ambassador Friedman: Jewish illiteracy is greatest threat to diaspora  

Being “fluent in Judaism” is “an imperative for the future of the Jewish people, especially outside the State of Israel,” said Friedman, who is an Orthodox Jew.

By Marcy Oster, JTA MAY 29, 2020 05:36

US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman looks on as he speaks during a briefing at The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs in Jerusalem February 9, 2020. (photo credit: AMIR COHEN/REUTERS)

US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman looks on as he speaks during a briefing at The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs in Jerusalem February 9, 2020.
(photo credit: AMIR COHEN/REUTERS)

US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman told a virtual conference that Jewish illiteracy is the greatest threat to Diaspora Jewry.

“The Jewish state, while not without issues, is growing: both religious and secular institutions are thriving, basic Jewish education is available to all and there is little risk of assimilation. The same cannot be said for the Diaspora,” Friedman told Haaretz’s “Judaism, Israel and Diaspora conference,” which took place on Wednesday.

Being “fluent in Judaism” is “an imperative for the future of the Jewish people, especially outside the State of Israel,” said Friedman, who is an Orthodox Jew.

“Regardless of how we believe or worship or observe our Judaism, what makes that practice uniquely Jewish and likely to continue and grow is our ability to place ourselves on an unbroken chain beginning in ancient times, that remains not just relevant – but even more critical today than ever before, as we struggle to find meaning in a complicated world,” the ambassador added.

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May 30, 2020 | 1:48 pm | 1 Comment »

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Libya is Now the Middle East’s Most Important Proxy War  

by Seth Frantzman, The Spectator,  


A Government of National Accord (GNA) military spokesman shows off a newly seized airbase southwest of Tripoli on May 18, 2020. (AFP)

Libya has been in the midst of civil war for almost a decade. However, in the last year, the conflict has escalated and become a regional proxy war. This matters because Libya is a gateway for migrants coming to Europe and because whoever wins in Libya will emerge a powerful figure in the Middle East. Eastern Libya is run by Khalifa Haftar and his Libyan National Army (LNA). He is principally backed by the UAE, Egypt and Russia; and he appears to receive support from France, Saudi Arabia and Greece. The government in Tripoli is backed by Turkey and Qatar. Haftar seemed poised to take Tripoli in recent months but his allies in Abu Dhabi, Cairo and Moscow have suffered setbacks. They have not been able to get Haftar over the line.

Libya is the Middle East’s most important proxy conflict today. Just read the differing pro-government media accounts from voices across the region, like those in the UAE and in Turkey that illustrate just how important Libya has become. Turkey calls Haftar a ‘warlord’ while The National in the UAE accuses Tripoli of arming ‘militias’ while playing up accounts of the Muslim Brotherhood controlling the Libyian capital.

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May 30, 2020 | 1:42 pm | 1 Comment »

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US angers Israel by suggesting an eastern border for the Zionist state  

T. Belman. There is no way that Israel would agree to abandon any part of J&S.

MIDDLE EAST MONITOR  May 27, 2020 at 3:04 pm

Palestinians stage a protest against the 'Deal of the Century', planned by US President Donald Trump to solve the conflict between Palestine and Israel, in Ramallah, West Bank on 2 July 2018 [Issam Rimawi/Anadolu Agency]

Palestinians stage a protest against the ‘Deal of the Century’, planned by US President Donald Trump to solve the conflict between Palestine and Israel, in Ramallah, West Bank on 2 July 2018 [Issam Rimawi/Anadolu Agency]

The Trump administration has been rebuked for making “excessive demand” on Israel over the final boundary in its eastern border. The White House has outraged Israeli officials by pushing for a joint US-Israeli mapping team to delineate the boundaries of the areas to be placed under Israeli sovereignty and designated as the final borders of the State of Israel

The proposal angered hardcore Zionists who are staunchly opposed to the idea of a Palestinian state just as equally as they are opposed to placing any restrictions on Israel’s complete takeover of Palestine.

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May 30, 2020 | 9:10 am | 4 Comments »

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Despite trial, Netanyahu’s popularity soaring  

Despite the opening of his trail, and despite failures in prior elections, the popularity of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu keeps soaring.

By Ben Caspit, AL MONITOR

[…]

These projections have all come crashing down in recent months. In the third March elections, Netanyahu netted four additional seats for his Likud, even after indictment on serious criminal charges and although most Israelis still blamed him for the ongoing political stalemate. There has been more bad news for Netanyahu since the elections. May 24 marked the first day of his trial, and the first of an incumbent Israeli premier, bringing to life the bizarre scenario of a prime minister conducting the affairs of state in the morning and going to court in the afternoon to conduct his defense.

Here, too, expectations and logic regarding his popularity fell by the wayside. A poll conducted shortly after his trial opened, boosted the Likud from its current 36 seats to 41. Blue and White, which had split in two after Lapid and Ya’alon refused to join Gantz in a Netanyahu-led government, plunged to 12 seats in the poll — from the 33 it received in the March 2 elections — and was overtaken in the poll results by the Lapid-Ya’alon party with 14 seats. In the poll’s most amazing finding, 42% of respondents said they believed law enforcement authorities, part of a “deep state” system, were hounding an innocent, gifted, brilliant leader. Had the poll been confined to Jewish respondents, the results would have been even more astounding, likely indicating that a majority — albeit slim — of Jewish Israelis believes the State of Israel is framing a prime minister suspected of severe crimes.

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May 30, 2020 | 1:36 am | 2 Comments »

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The Jewish people are not “settlers” in their own ancestral heartland  

By Victor Sharpe, INN

Sometimes it becomes necessary to look back at the not so recent history of a nation’s leader when evaluating successes and failures. The very fact that one of the first decisions that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu made during his initial term as Israel’s prime minister. which began on June 18th, 1996, was to surrender the first capital of the Jewish faith to the fraudulent Arabs who call themselves Palestinians.

The wonderful Ruth King once justifiably lamented in her blog, Ruthfullyours, about Netanyahu’s capitulation at the Wye Plantation to then Secretary of State, Madeline Albright, (aka Madeline Halfbright) who pressured him into betraying the ancestral and Biblical Jewish holy city of Hebron.

It was Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin who had earlier given away Jericho after the fateful signing of the Oslo Accords, which of course became the Oslo War. Jericho was the first city in the Promised Land that Joshua liberated some 3,500 years earlier after the ancient Jewish tribes had crossed the River Jordan.

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May 29, 2020 | 10:20 pm | 1 Comment »

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Trump issued an executive order pushing back against social media censorship  

By Andrea Widburg, AMERICAN THINKER

Conservatives know that the tech giants, whether social media platforms or search engines, have consistently sought to silence conservative viewpoints. Trump’s more extreme tweets of late were probably intended to goad Twitter into censoring him, and Twitter took the bait on his tweets about mail-in ballots and voter fraud. Once Twitter engaged in overt political censorship, it gave Trump the opening he needed to expose the tech titans to expensive lawsuits and FCC oversight.

It’s no secret that Big Tech, which is located almost exclusively in the uber-leftist Bay Area, leans left. From top management down to the recently hired college graduate, these institutions seek to push a leftist agenda using their power over the flow of almost all information in America. Twitter bans and shadow-bans conservatives, YouTube restricts and demonetizes conservative sites, and Google uses algorithms that force viewpoint discrimination on its searches. Vox has openly admitted that the tech titans plan to use their vast power over information traffic to elect Joe Biden
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May 29, 2020 | 1:07 pm | 5 Comments »

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