T. Belman. The real question for me is not who’s funding it but why isn’t Israel stopping it.

I think that the sub-title is totally wrong. The distictions between A, B and C remain strong and in place. It is a mistake to refer to them as a “thin wisp”. COGAT is responsible for administering the area. It is totally within its power and authority to stop all illegal construction. So why isn’t it?

Seondly I think your numbers are way off. All reports that I have read suggest there are 450,000 Jews living in Area C and less that 100,000 Arabs. It is not clear to me what rights Israel has to stop Arabs from moving there but they can certainly stop illegal construction.

What makes the Palestinian settlements “illegal” is the thin wisp of Oslo that remains. The rest is dust.

By Edwin Black, INN

“Area C,” which comprises some 60 percent of the ‘West Bank’, also known as Judea and Samaria, has become highly volatile again. In the past, debate has centered on Jewish settlements. Now, “illegal Palestinian settlements” sprouting across the region, are under the spotlight.

According to Israeli activist watchdog groups such as Regavim, during the last five years, illegal Palestinian settlements and infrastructure have sprawled across more than 9,000 dunams in more than 250 Area C locations, supported by more than 600 kilometers of illegally constructed access roads and more than 112,000 meters of retaining walls and terracing. This massive works project is being conducted in broad daylight, often heralded by tall announcement placards and proud press releases.
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A culture of shutting down the debate through intimidation, bullying and personal attacks has overtaken most of general society and much of the Jewish media.

By Rabbi Avraham Gordimer, INN

With the exception of replying to a few Times of Israel blog articles, I have not written much lately about the issues of the day. The main reason for this is total lack of time, but even when there were occasional opportunities to pen something, including when I was asked to do so by various respected print and online journals, I declined. Why?

My last lengthy article on hot-button issues, and its follow-up response, got me into some really hot water. Although the thesis of my article was corroborated by the party under discussion (please see the end of this article), and the information I presented was all voluntarily made part of the public record by the relevant people and organizations, and links were provided for the article’s data, so that readers could see and judge for themselves, there was exceptionally fierce and fiery opposition to the article – not so much in terms of debating is content and attempting to demonstrate its incorrectness (or trying to defend the very questionable practices and ideas critiqued in the article), but rather in terms of efforts to censor and silence my views.

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Under alleged agreement, Jerusalem allowed to conduct attacks against Iranian threats in Middle East, but can’t publicly acknowledge them

By JUDAH ARI GROSS and TOI STAFF

Israel has conducted several strikes on Iranian-controlled bases in Syria and Iraq in recent weeks with permission from the United States and Russia, a Western diplomatic source told a Saudi-owned newspaper Wednesday.

Moscow and Washington agreed that the Jewish state could conduct these attacks on Iranian targets in order to “ensure Israel’s security,” the source told the London-based Arabic-language Asharq Al-Awsat.

In recent weeks, a number of explosions have been reported in Iraqi military installations connected to pro-Iranian Shiite militias, including on Tuesday night in an arms depot north of Baghdad.
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By Michael Derfler

People think that there is a “new antisemitism,” which attempts to disguise its hatred for Jews as hatred for the state of Israel. Actually this is not new; it is the original, or essential, antisemitism. People think it is new because they do not understand the root of antisemitism.

Some think antisemitism is crude bigotry. Others think anti-Semitism is an opposition to Judaism because Judaism contains expectations of moral behavior.^[1] These explanations are unsatisfactory. People who are sophisticated and moral are biased against Israel and some go so far as to oppose the existence of the state of Israel as a Jewish state. If ultimately it is not crudeness or a drive toward immorality, what really motivates antisemitism?

There is a simple explanation of the root of antisemitism, accounting for antisemitism from the political right and left and from Christianity and Islam. This explanation was given by Rav Kook and can be found in other rabbinic sources.

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The Most Important Video of the Day:

by Jim Hoft, GATEWAY PUNDIT

This was an incredible video by British broadcaster, journalist, writer and television personality, Piers Morgan.

Piers recently sat down for an interview with Ben Shapiro.  During their discussion the topic of the modern day left came up.  Piers absolutely nailed it.

Piers Morgan: Populism is rising because liberals have become unbearable, Okay? And I speak as a liberal… Liberals have become utterly, pathetically illiberal and it’s a massive problem. What’s the point of calling yourself a liberal if you don’t allow anyone else to have a different view? You know, this snowflake culture we operate in, this victimhood culture that everyone, has to think in a certain way, behave a certain way. Everyone has to have a bleeding heart… You say a joke 10 years ago that offended somebody you can never host the Oscars… So what’s happening around the world? Populism is rising because people are fed up with the PC culture. They’re fed up with the snowflake culture. They’re fed up with everyone being offended by everything… They just want to tell people, not just how to lead their life but if you don’t lead it the way I tell you to, It’s a kind of version of fascism.

Piers nailed it.
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He hardly mentions it, while his adversaries are obsessed with ‘whiteness’ and ‘white privilege.’

By Heather MacDonald, WSJ

Illustration: Phil Foster

Long before the El Paso massacre, President Trump’s political opponents accused him of sowing “division” with his “racist language.” Mr. Trump “exploits race,” “uses race for his gain,” is engaged in a “racially divisive reprise” of his 2016 campaign, stokes “racial resentments,” and puts “race at the fore,” the New York Times has reported over the past several months.

Some examples: “As race dominates the political conversation, 10 white Democratic candidates will take the stage” (the Washington Post); Mr. Trump’s rally audiences are “overwhelmingly white” (multiple sources); your son’s “whiteness is what protects him from not [sic] being shot” by the police ( Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand ); white candidates need to be conscious of “white privilege” (South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg ); “white supremacy manifests itself” in the criminal-justice, immigration and health-care systems ( Sen. Cory Booker ); “ Michael Brown was murdered by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri” ( Sen. Elizabeth Warren ); whiteness is “the very core” of Mr. Trump’s power, whereas his “predecessors made their way to high office through the passive power of whiteness” (Ta-Nehisi Coates in the Atlantic).
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That’s not necessarily a bad idea

By Barry Scott Zellen, GLOBE AND MAIL

In the context of his broader foreign policy, U.S. President Donald Trump’s reported musing about purchasing Greenland from Denmark may not seem all that unnerving. After all, the former real-estate magnate has already made bold diplomatic moves, such as developing a personal friendship with North Korea’s hitherto reclusive leader and negotiating with the Taliban for nearly a year to try to bring an end to the U.S.’s longest war.

Indeed, buying the island isn’t as wild an idea as it might first seem to some. It may in fact be an example of the U.S. President considering forward-looking, if complex, policy that might strengthen the continent and Greenland itself.

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Lies, lies and more lies: The Omar/Tlaib press conference

Refuting and debunking antisemitic, Israelophobic Congress members Ilhan Omar’s and Rashida Tlaib’s egregious lies in their August 19th press conference.

By Morton A. Klein, ZOA President

Tlaib/Omar repeatedly falsely claimed that Israel occupies “Palestinian land” and demanded an “end to occupation” – their Orwellian method of calling for Israel’s destruction: In fact, Israel is not an “occupier” because Israel, Judea/Samaria (a/k/a the West Bank) and Jerusalem are all lands designated for the Jewish homeland, both historically and under binding international law. There has never been a state of “Palestine,” ever. The only way one can be an “occupier” is to occupy another nation’s sovereign land. Israel is not, and cannot be an “occupier” of her own land. Additionally, the Palestinians rejected a state 4 times in the last 19 years on virtually all the disputed lands—because it required them accepting Israel as a Jewish State and agreeing to no further claims.
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By David L. Rosenthal, AMERICAN THINKER

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By Souptik Mukherjee, AMERICAN THINKER

Braving extremely inclement weather, with a flood-like situation, Singha Bahini, a grassroots organization in India, held a pro-Israel rally in Kolkata, India on August 16, 2019.  Over 10,000 people braved the heavy sudden downpour and flooding, which caused bumper-to-bumper traffic and clogged roads.  Many thousands more could not make it through the treacherous conditions to the rally site.  While the organization SinghaBahini is just a year old, the organizers have been on ground helping in the existential battle for the Hindus in the villages of Eastern India for over a decade.

Pro-Israel rallies are not new to the founder of the organization Devdutta Maji, who was instrumental in organizing two large pro-Israel rallies in India: 20,000 people in 2014 and 70,000 people in 2018.  At the rally, demonstrators held placards saying, “We Support the Jewish People in their 2,000-Year-Old Struggle,” “India and Israel Friends Forever,” and “We Support Israel in Her War against Terrorism.”
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