RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.israelhayom.com/2019/08/15/as-pa-jordan-foment-riots-israeli-arab-imams-preach-peace/

At first glance, Sunday’s riots on the Temple Mount fit nicely into the media storyline that Israel’s “extremist right-wing nationalist” government is undermining relations between the Jewish majority and the Arab minority. Yet the most notable element of those riots was how many Israeli Arab religious leaders rejected the Jerusalem Waqf’s all-out effort to foment them. In mosque after mosque throughout Israel, imams preferred to send a message of peace, thereby underscoring the true story of the past few years – not a breakdown of Jewish-Arab relations, but growing Arab integration.

The Jerusalem Waqf, which runs the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, isn’t Israeli at all. It’s jointly controlled by Jordan and the Palestinian Authority, and diligently disseminates both countries’ anti-Israel incitement. Hence it is no surprise that anti-Israel riots periodically erupt there.

On Sunday, it sought to exploit a calendrical anomaly: The Jewish fast of Tisha B’Av coincided with the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha (Feast of the Sacrifice). Since both holidays commemorate events that occurred on the Mount (the destruction of the First and Second Temples, in Jewish tradition; Abraham’s sacrifice of Ishmael, in Muslim tradition), some members of both faiths like visiting the mount on that day. The Waqf, therefore, called a mass prayer rally at Al-Aqsa to prevent Jews from “defiling” it with their “filthy feet,” as Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas once famously said.

https://www.israelhayom.com/opinions/tlaibs-palestinian-village-is-thriving-but-she-is-in-denial/

Even the World Bank said in 2014 that Tlaib’s village is one of the richest in the Palestinian Authority. But she insists things are terrible there.

What is it really like to live in the Palestinian village Beit-Ur al-Fauqa, where Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s grandmother and other family members live? Are conditions there as bad as she has claimed?

If you look at the Facebook profiles of people who actually live there, you will discover that things are actually not bad at all.

Achiam Tlaib, for example, drives a brand new BMW. On his Facebook account, you can see that his family lives in a very comfortable three-story building.

Raja Tlaib shared on his Facebook account pictures of himself posing next to his new Mercedes, wearing an expensive suit. He also has pictures showing him working out in a gym that has the latest equipment.

Mawaid Tlaib uploaded pictures of his vacations in Italy and other places, and Anas Tlaib has a very expensive Mercedes.

Samach Tlaib drives a BMW and Niaf Tlaib drives a Corvette convertible and uploaded pictures posing next to his new home under construction, also with three stories.

Many of them also have pictures showing them visiting places inside the Green Line (pre-1967 Israel): Jaffa, Acre, Tel Aviv and so on. So perhaps all those checkpoints that supposedly make Palestinian life so miserable are just a myth?

In fact, even the World Bank said in 2014 that the village is one of the richest in the region. The poverty rate in the village stood at 7.4 % in 2014, compared to the overall rate of 21% in the Palestinian Authority.

Only a handful of villages have a lower poverty rate in the PA and employment in the village is also among the lowest in the PA. But perhaps the most important statistic is this: The rate of social mobility in Beit-Ur al-Fauqa is among the highest in the PA.

According to a 2017 PA report on the quality of life of Palestinians, the village has 230 households.

The report says that 215 structures are considered private residences and four of them are actually single-family homes, attesting to their wealth.

More than 115 of the households are in apartments that have 5 bedrooms or more, and 65 of the households have four bedrooms.

And of course, all the structures are privately owned. According to the report, almost every home has satellite TV, and most have LCD screens in their living rooms. Almost everyone in the village has access to the internet and a mobile phone. Half of the families own a car.

Is everything perfect? No, and the security situation in Judea and Samaria obviously has its drawbacks. The checkpoints placed by the Israel Defense Forces to prevent terrorist attacks mean that the population’s potential is not fully tapped.

But if this is what occupation looks like, perhaps Tlaib and her radical friends got it all wrong?

https://thefederalist.com/2019/08/21/europe-considers-nazi-idea-requiring-jewish-businesses-identify-labels/

The EU may begin targeting businesses in Israel in the name of neutrality, but the ramifications will be anything but neutral.

Europeans are considering stigmatizing Jewish businesses — an idea last popularized by the Nazis — all in the name of neutrality. This time, the focus is on Jewish-owned businesses located in the world’s only Jewish nation state and the European Union’s not-so-subtle suggestion that Israel exists only within its pre-1967 borders.

In June, Gerard Hogan, an advocate general at the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg, issued a nonbinding opinion, which many expect the court’s judges will adopt, suggesting that EU member states marginalize foodstuffs from Israel through detailed labeling. So products produced by Jewish citizens of Israel on land Israel won in the Six Day War is supposed to be labeled as hailing from “Israeli settlements” rather than being labeled “made in Israel.”

The advocate general writes that it’s not acceptable to simply mark a product as being from the West Bank or the Golan: “Although these terms do refer to the wider area or territory from which the product originates, the omission of the additional geographical information that the product originates from Israeli settlements is likely to mislead the consumer as to the true origin of the product. In such cases, it is necessary to add, in brackets, the term ‘Israeli settlement’ or equivalent terms.”

https://www.jns.org/opinion/netanyahus-carrot-and-stick-policy-on-gaza/

Of all the criticism lobbed at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu these days, the claim that he has been exercising restraint towards the terrorists in Gaza to distract from his legal battles and guarantee victory in the fast-approaching Sept. 17 Knesset elections is the most ridiculous. As any member of the Israeli public and political echelon is keenly aware, the one thing that should worry Netanyahu’s opponents is a war.

This is particularly true today, when Israeli residents of the Gaza-border communities—the “envelope” around the Hamas-ruled enclave—are suffering from an understandable mixture of fatigue and fury. Traumatized by living under daily threat of death and destruction with only minimal respite between rockets, riots and incendiary balloons will do that. Especially considering the fact that while Palestinian children in Gaza attend summer camps where they learn how to kill Jews, the Israeli kids on the other side of the fence spend their vacation listening for Red Alert sirens telling them to take cover in the nearest bomb shelter.

That the politicians to the right of Netanyahu’s ruling Likud Party have been shouting about a lack of Israeli deterrence makes perfect sense. Though only a handful of such candidates believes in reoccupying Gaza—and the rest don’t really have a viable plan other than applying even more Israeli firepower in the ongoing battle of attrition—all of those running on right-wing tickets are telling the electorate that Netanyahu, whose re-election is the only shot they have at being players in the next government, needs a fierce hawkish push.

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/palestinian-authority-bans-lgbtq-organizing-in-west-bank/

The Palestinian Authority has banned all LGBTQ political organizing in the West Bank in response to the news that a pro-LGBTQ advocacy group was planning to hold a gathering for its members at the end of the month.

The ban, which was first reported Sunday by the Jerusalem Post, was issued in response to the organizing efforts of Al-Qaws for Sexual & Gender Diversity in Palestinian Society, a pro-LGBTQ political group that held an event last month and was planning to hold another in the coming weeks.

Palestinian Authority police spokesperson Luay Zreikat said that LGBTQ events were “harmful to the higher values and ideals of Palestinian society” in justifying the ban. Zreikat also accused unspecified “dubious parties” of attempting to “create discord and harm civic peace in Palestinian society” through the group’s events.

In response, Al-Qaws, which means “the bow” in Arabic, argued that it is an organization that is firmly embedded in Palestinian society and does not seek to disrupt it.

“The Palestinian police announcement about our activities is very unfortunate,” the group said in a statement. “It’s very strange that they are accusing us of being a suspicious entity working to take apart Palestinian society. Al-Qaws is a Palestinian organization that has been operating since 2001, and is carrying out educational and professional programs on sexual and gender diversity. We totally reject the attempt to create an atmosphere of prosecution and intimidation, as well as threats of arrest.”

https://amgreatness.com/2019/08/16/bds-is-an-anti-semitic-movement-and-tlaib-and-omar-are-its-face/

“Because of who we are as a people, because Israel is our closest and most trusted ally in the Middle East, because of basic human decency, we must do what we can to combat this anti-Semitic movement. If we truly believe in “never again,” we must do all that we can to eradicate the BDS movement. ”

By barring Representatives Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) from entering the country, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did what he needed to do when confronted with his nation’s enemies. Israel quite rightly refuses entry to people who advocate its destruction. As any sane country would. (Ahem.) 

When Tlaib was extended a humanitarian visa on Friday to visit her family—specifically her grandmother—on the condition she not agitate politically, Tlaib refused the privilege. Apparently, “seeing gamgam” was just a ploy. What she and Omar apparently wanted was to discuss, promote, and agitate for the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanction (BDS) movement that targets Israel and seeks to strangle it to death economically.

The movement was founded by Omar Barghouti, a Palestinian activist born in Qatar who now lives in Israel. Barghouti’s goal is not a two-state solution, but a one-state solution in which Israel ceases to exist and the land is returned to the Palestinians. The leaders of the BDS movement are quite clear about that: they seek to eliminate Israel, eradicate it, and replace it with “Palestine.” It was no accident that Omar and Tlaib’s agenda for their trip to Israel was titled “U.S. Delegation visit to Palestine.” 

https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/274675/palestinian-authority-threatens-prison-gay-group-daniel-greenfield

There have been thousands of stories on Israel’s travel ban for two anti-Semitic Democrat House members, Rep. Omar and Rep. Tlaib, who wanted to express their support for anti-Israel terrorists, including, no doubt, the Palestinian Authority.

And there will be approximately zero mainstream media stories about the “Palestinian Authority”, a fancy way of saying the PLO, threatening to lock up members of a gay organization.

The Palestinian Authority banned members of the Palestinian Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) community from carrying out any activities in the West Bank.

The ban came after the grassroots group Al-Qaws for Sexual & Gender Diversity in Palestinian Society (Arabic for “the bow”), which engages and supports Palestinians who identify as LGBTQ, was planning to hold a gathering for its members in Nablus at the end of the month. The group operates both in the West Bank and among Arab-Israelis.

Explaining the decision to ban the LGBTQ group from operating in PA-controlled areas, Luay Zreikat, spokesperson for the PA Police, said that such activities are “harmful to the higher values and ideals of Palestinian society.”

Zreikat said that the group’s activities were completely “unrelated to religions and Palestinian traditions and customs, especially in the city of Nablus.”