RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://besacenter.org/perspectives-papers/israel-ambassador-james-mcdonald/

Following Harry Truman’s recognition of the Provisional Government of Israel in early 1949, James McDonald was appointed the first US ambassador to the nascent Jewish state. In his memoirs, McDonald discusses Israel-Diaspora relations, which are as central today as they were in the early days of the State. This topic continues to be a source of division: witness the slanderous attacks made by Muslim Congresswomen Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar regarding American Jews’ “dual loyalties” and the State of Israel.

After the slanderous assaults on American Jews and on Israel by Congresswomen Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, there was a slew of condemnations from many sectors of the American political establishment and the Jewish community. Eliot Engel, Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, called on Omar to apologize and said: “I welcome debate in Congress based on the merits of policy, but it’s unacceptable and deeply offensive to call into question the loyalty of fellow American citizens because of their political views, including support for the US-Israel relationship. We all take the same oath. Worse, Representative Omar’s comments leveled that charge by invoking a vile anti-Semitic slur.”

James McDonald, who was appointed the first US ambassador to Israel in 1951, understood the vulnerability of American Jews to such slurs. He wrote in that year:

Israel, it must be remembered, is not only a nation among the nations but also a Jewish community among Jewish communities. Unique though it is in being a community not scattered but together, not a minority but a majority, not a factor in the State but its author and raison d’être, it is still one Jewish community among others. Because of its special position it has special problems in its relationships with the other communities…Against the extreme Zionist (or anti-Zionist) logician who holds that the Jew has a clear-cut choice – complete assimilation or return to Israel – stands the stubborn experience of history, which suggests that here again reality thrives on apparent inconsistency. Every available indication is that the Diaspora will continue to exist and will continue to face many problems in relation to Israel. One of these problems grows out of the old bogy of dual allegiance. Can one be a Jew and an American, a Jew and an Englishman? This problem is inherent, I think in the very nature of man as a complex being with diverse ends. All men have not single but multiple allegiances. If a Jew has an emotional sympathy for another State because in that State live other Jews, his attitude is no different from that of an American of Irish descent who has an affection for Ireland and interest in its welfare.

https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Rape-of-7-year-old-Jewish-child-shocks-the-nation-Palestinian-suspected-592809

A rape of a seven-year-old Israeli girl by a Palestinian man earlier this year has turned into a political football, with right-wing politicians calling it a hate-motivated “terrorist attack.”

The suspect, a resident of the West Bank town of Deir Qaddis near Modi’in Illit who was employed as a school cleaner in a settlement, was charged on Sunday for the alleged rape, assault and abduction of the child.

Police claim that the man met the child during his work as a school cleaner, offered her candy to inspire her trust in him, and eventually led her forcibly to a house near the school to assault her. The suspect claimed he didn’t commit the crime, and police have been unable to track down two other men who were allegedly present at the time of the attack.

The Military Advocate-General reported on Monday that there is no indication that the rape was motivated by nationalistic ideology, Maariv reported. However, the attorney for the family – which lives in the Binyamin area of the West Bank – from the Honenu National legal defense organization told Ynet that the suspect attacked the girl because she was Jewish.

“Shooting in the halftrack,” an Israeli phrase connoting friendly fire, was the term used to describe the behavior of Israeli right-wing politicians and pundits, who spent last week sniping at one other. Israeli history is rife with examples of right-wing divisions leading to left-wing victory, a lesson its politicians struggle to learn.

One needn’t delve deeply into Israel’s past. In April, a multitude of parties split the right-wing pie into smaller pieces—the electoral threshold is set at 3.25 percent. Each party needs at least that percentage of the general vote to win four seats in Israel’s Knesset. If a party doesn’t make it, all its votes are lost.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saw the danger, which is why he knocked heads together in February, convincing the Jewish Home and National Union parties, which had already made an alliance, to bring into the fold the more extreme Otzma Yehudit (“Jewish Strength”) Party. They went into the election under the ticket “United Right.”

It wasn’t enough. A quarter-million votes were still lost due to the failure of two parties, the New Right and Zehut, to cross the threshold. This is what gave Avigdor Liberman of the Israel Beiteinu Party the ability to torpedo Netanyahu’s coalition efforts. Liberman withheld his party’s support over a law concerning military recruitment of the ultra-Orthodox. Netanyahu couldn’t muster a majority to govern. Back-to-back elections were called, a first in Israel’s history.

Liberman hopes to become the go-to address for anyone unhappy with religious influence in society. Although the other parties on the right would love to punish him by pushing him below the electoral threshold, current polls have him gaining three to four more seats over the five he won last time. That means he might again be the deciding factor—Netanyahu’s nightmare. The right needs a cushion to cancel out Liberman, so that they won’t need him to form a coalition.

https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Right-from-Wrong-Pride-and-left-wing-prejudice-592505

In an interview on Wednesday evening with Channel 12’s Amit Segal, newly sworn-in Justice Minister Amir Ohana explained his controversial view of the Supreme Court by referring to the horrifying ambush and slaughter of a pregnant woman and her four young daughters at the hands of Palestinian jihadists 15 years ago.

In 2004, Gush Katif resident Tali Hatuel and her children – Hila, 11; Hadar, 9; Roni, 7; and 2-year-old Merav – were gunned down at the Kissufim junction by terrorists who, it emerged, had managed to hide behind buildings that were identified by the IDF as security threats. Nevertheless, said Ohana, the Supreme Court, “despite its lack of expertise” in the matter, “prevented the demolition of the structures.”

So when asked by Segal if he – a lawyer, a major in the reserves, a veteran of the Shin Bet (Israel security agency) and now interim justice minister – would go so far as to suggest that certain High Court decisions not be honored, Ohana answered “yes.” “The supreme consideration,” he said, employing a play on the adjective, “must be to safeguard the lives of [Israeli] citizens.”

Nor did Ohana skip a beat when Segal challenged him to contradict himself in relation to the Supreme Court’s liberalism where the LGBTQ community is concerned. Ohana – a gay father of two – smiled and shook his head, while telling Segal that the most important strides in LGBTQ rights were made in the Knesset – the legislative body – not the judiciary. Which is as it should be in a democracy.

Following the interview, Ohana clarified on social media that he had not meant to propose disregarding all regular court rulings, but rather those surrounding “extreme” cases – such as the murder of the Hatuel family.

“The first responsibility of every country is the safety and well-being of its citizens, before anything that sounds good or photographs well,” he wrote. In a “necessary restatement of the obvious,” he added, “court decisions must be honored. I have always [followed this credo], and it is what I believe. Israel is a democracy under the banner of the rule of law, and such it will remain.”

The question of the courts’ overreach is only a fraction of what causes apoplexy among Ohana’s detractors, however. His staunch defense of the Basic Law: Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People, for example – which he was instrumental in drafting – is another hot-button issue over which he is given the cold shoulder.

Yet another is his long-standing support for legislation that would grant immunity from prosecution for a sitting prime minister, which has elicited cynical claims of his being a “suck up to Bibi.”

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/274004/where-bds-and-terrorists-converge-caroline-glick

On May 31, the cry went out from Times Square, New York City, to annihilate Israel and extend the terror war against the Jewish state to America.

As they did in Beirut, Berlin, London, Tehran, and Dearborn, Michigan, Israel-haters gathered at Times Square to call for Israel’s dissolution on the day the Iranian regime has determined to be “Al Quds Day,” that is, Jerusalem Day.

The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) posted a video of the event. In it, a series of speakers called over and over again for Israel’s annihilation, voiced support for terrorists and terrorism and called for the war against Israel to come to New York.

Nate Chase from the World Workers’ Party led the crowd in chanting, “We don’t want not two state! We want ’48!”

That is, we don’t want to partition the land mass west of the Jordan River. We want to annihilate Israel, which was established in 1948.

Chase continued, “Because every inch – from the [Jordan] river to the [Mediterranean] sea – is Palestine!

“Israel does not exist! It has not existed, it doesn’t exist, and it will never exist! There is only Palestine!” he cried.

Rokeya Begun, from a New York-based Palestinian pro-terror group called Within our Lifetime, called out, “Globalize the intifada!”

“From New York to Gaza!”

And Joe Catron from Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner [i.e. terrorist] Solidarity Network, led the crowd chanting, “There is only one solution!”

The crowd responded, “Intifada! Revolution!”

https://worldisraelnews.com/gaza-rocket-hits-israeli-school-no-injuries/?utm_source=MadMimi&utm_medium=email&u

A rocket from Gaza struck a yeshiva in the southern Israeli city of Sderot, a frequent target of attacks. There were no injuries. 

Palestinian terrorists fired a rocket from Gaza into southern Israel late Thursday, striking a Chabad building housing a synagogue and school but causing no injuries, Israeli authorities said.

The rockets – fired from the town of Beit Hanoun, according to Channel 13 – set the stage for a likely Israeli reprisal and raised the possibility of a new round of fighting, weeks after a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

Israeli police said the rocket struck a building in the Israeli border town of Sderot, a frequent target of rocket fire.

The ceasefire, reached in early May, has begun to unravel in recent days. Overnight on Wednesday, Israeli fighter jets struck an underground terrorist infrastructure belonging to Hamas in the southern Gaza Strip. The attack was in response to rocket fire from Gaza earlier that night, the IDF reported.

https://worldisraelnews.com/nikki-haley-calms-fears-on-trump-plan-israel-should-not-be-worried/?utm_source=browser&utm_

Haley sent a message to Israel not to be concerned that Trump’s deal of the century would compromise its security.

Former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley said “Israel should not be worried” by the Trump administration’s peace plan. She made her comments in an interview with Israel Hayom Editor-in-Chief Boaz Bismuth on Thursday.

“Israel should not be worried. Because through the Middle East plan, one of the main goals that Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt focused on was to not hurt the national security interests of Israel,” Haley said in the interview with Israel’s largest daily newspaper.

Kushner, who is President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, is serving as Trump’s special adviser. Greenblatt is serving as Trump’s chief negotiator on Israel-Palestinian peace issues. His official title is U.S. Special Representative for International Negotiations.

“They understand the importance of security, they understand the importance of keeping Israel safe. I think everybody needs to go into it with an open mind, everybody should want a peace plan,” Haley said.

Asked if Mideast peace had a chance, Haley said: “I am an optimist. It’s not going to be easy. Both sides won’t love it. And both sides won’t hate it. But both sides have to want peace. And if they do, they will be deciding the details.”

Haley, however, directed criticism at the Palestinian and Arab side. “At this point, it is hard to see an opportunity in which Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is even going to come to the table, and I think that … it shows Abbas’ true colors.