RUTHFULLY YOURS

If true, the reported concessions that Israel is being asked to make as part of the US administration’s “deal of the century” will not be perceived by the Palestinians as a sign that Israel seeks peace. As the past has proven, they will be viewed by the Palestinians as a form of retreat and capitulation.

As far as the PA is concerned, the more territory it is handed by Israel the better. Territory in Jerusalem is especially welcome as it would give the Palestinian Authority a foothold in the city. A foothold, that is, for much, much more.

Make no mistake: the Palestinians will see their presence in the four neighborhoods as the first step towards the redivision of Jerusalem.

The Palestinians will say that these Israeli concessions are not enough. They will demand that Israel hand them control over all 28 Arab neighborhoods.

Worse, the Palestinians are likely to use the four neighborhoods as launching pads to carry out terror attacks against Israel to “liberate the rest of Jerusalem.”

Why would anyone think that these neighborhoods will not fall into the hands of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the future?

Any Israeli concessions, particularly at this stage, will be interpreted by the Palestinians as a reward to Mahmoud Abbas and his crowd, who are not being required to give Israel anything in return.

Is it appropriate and helpful to reward Abbas and his associates at a time when he is refusing to stop payments to Palestinian terrorists and their families, and at a time when they are continuing to incite their people against the US administration, Ambassador Nikki Haley, and its Jewish advisors, Jason Greenblatt, Ambassador David Friedman and Jared Kushner?

By lending his prestige and support to the Zionist cause Joseph Herman Hertz, Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the British Commonwealth, strengthened the movement among both his coreligionists and government officials. The start of his tenure as the spiritual leader of British Jewry began shortly before WWI and ended just after WWII.
Role in Balfour Declaration

Whilst many in the Orthodox world stood aloof from Zionism, Hertz was a robust champion of the cause. In answer to leaders of the organized community who were opposed, Hertz brought the prestige of his office to bear on the side of Zionism.

On May 28, 1917 he wrote a letter to The Times in which he rejected the notion that the recent attack in the newspaper on Zionism by Claude Montefiore of the Anglo-Jewish Association and David Alexander of the Board of Deputies reflected “the views held by Anglo-Jewry as a whole or by the Jewries of the overseas dominions.”

On October 6, 1917 the War Cabinet led by Prime Minister David Lloyd George decided to send out the ‎draft of a planned government statement about a Jewish homeland in Palestine to eight Jews—four anti-Zionists and four Zionists—for ‎comment.

Chief Rabbi Hertz, along with Lord Walter Rothschild and Zionist statesmen Nahum Sokolow and Chaim Weizmann all submitted supporting letters. ‎

Hertz was associated with the Mizrachi Orthodox stream of Zionism which saw the return of the Jewish people to Palestine as part of a Divine plan. In worldly affairs he criticized the British Government’s Mandatory policies as a reversal of the spirit of the Balfour Declaration.

A frequent visitor to Palestine, Hertz took part in the 1925 opening of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem on Mount Scopus. He went on to serve on the university’s Board of Governors.

Many were the achievements justly celebrated on Israel’s 70th anniversary last month: the country’s prowess in matters military, its world-famous technological knowhow, its record of economic growth and stability, the rich variety of its cultural offerings, the vibrancy of its religious life, the indomitable spirit of its people.

Yet still another achievement, perhaps the most impressive but one that’s mostly unknown, needs to be added to the list: Israel’s stunning demographic success. In this essay, I hope to repair the deficiency.

To do so, it helps first to move briefly backward in time to 1998, the year of the country’s 50th anniversary. Then, too, Israel had many accomplishments to be proud of, but its future prospects seemed far less promising. Especially bleak was the population forecast.

All over the world in those years, Jewish birthrates, consistent with trends in relatively educated and affluent societies, were on a downward slope, and Israel was no exception. Moreover, in Israel there seemed no realistic prospect of a substantial influx of new immigrants. The recent great wave from post-Soviet Eastern Europe in the early and mid-90s had effectively exhausted itself, and Jews in affluent Western lands showed no intention of emigrating to Israel in significant numbers.

Meanwhile, birthrates of Arabs across the Middle East, including in Israel and the Israel-controlled territories of the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) and Gaza, were vastly higher than Jewish birthrates and showed no signs of diminishing.

These facts alone constituted grounds for serious worry that the Jewish majority in Israel would become so thin and attenuated as to pose a threat to the security and perhaps even the survival of the Jewish state. Thus, it was hardly a coincidence that these years also saw an intensification of ostensibly well-meaning calls on Israel to seek peace at almost any price with its Arab neighbors, evacuate the territories taken in the 1967 war, including if necessary eastern Jerusalem, and safeguard its majority within Israel’s pre-June 1967 borders before things got even worse.

And then things did get worse. In September 2000, interpreting repeated Israeli concessions to him as signs of weakness, Yasir Arafat launched the second intifada, ushering in one of the most sweeping and protracted terrorist campaigns ever directed against a civilian population. For the next four years, Israelis were subjected to almost daily murderous attacks. Economic activity declined sharply; diplomatic pressures mounted; and many professed to see only darker clouds on the horizon. Alarmed friends of Israel, prominently including former President Bill Clinton, urged American Jews to exert pressure on their Israeli cousins to reach a deal with the Palestinians before the already dire population statistics, exacerbated by rising numbers of Jews who would surely leave the sinking Israeli ship, turned demographic emergency into demographic catastrophe.

Last Monday, the world was exposed to an unhealthy dose of Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas. In a lengthy, rambling rant before the Palestinian National Council, in Arabic of course, the toxic, octogenarian dictator let loose with a torrent of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories so vile that it drew instant condemnation from the European Union and the United States. Even the traditionally hostile New York Times (which frequently shills for the Palestinian Authority) issued a stern rebuke and called for Abbas to step down.

Abbas’s screed can be broken down to four major points;

First, the Holocaust was not the result of inherent German anti-Semitism but was rather brought upon by the Jews themselves due to their “social behavior” and usurious conduct. This position is actually a step up for Abbas, whose 1982 dissertation (which can be readily purchased in any PA bookstore alongside the notorious Protocols of the Elders of Zion) asserts that gas chambers were never used to asphyxiate Jews and dismissed as a “fantastic lie” that six million Jews perished in the Holocaust.

Second, Hitler was a Zionist sympathizer. Sadly, there are high level members of today’s British Labor Party, a diseased political party rife with antisemitism, who believe this arrant rubbish.

Third, Ashkenazi Jews are fake and descendants Khazars, a central Asian people, who allegedly converted to Judaism in the 9th or 10th centuries. This is pretty standard stuff for conspiracy-prone anti-Semites, who relish in the opportunity to deny the existence of a 3,500 year-old people.

Fourth, Jews are not indigenous to the Land of Israel but were rather a colonialist project hatched by Britain, Germany and other colonialist nations in an effort to extend their influence. In other words, in Abbas’s world view, the recently invented Jews are a foreign, malignant implant in the heart of Arab, Muslim land, whose raison d’être in this world is to advance the interests of the colonialist powers.

Even more shocking than the comments themselves was the fact that of the hundreds PNC members present, not a single one walked out in protest or otherwise bothered to challenge Abbas’s hateful, conspiracy laden narrative. There was one near-comical moment when a member of the audience corrected Abbas after Abbas alleged that Joseph Stalin was Jewish. The audience member noted that it wasn’t Stalin but rather Karl Marx who was Jewish. Aside from that one “correction,” the hundreds of PNC members who were in attendance were in lockstep with Abbas.

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

Early cancer detection. Scientists at Israel’s Ben-Gurion University and Soroka Medical Center have developed a new non-invasive method to detect the breast cancer biomarker early and accurately. They analyzed breath using electronic nose gas sensors, and urine using gas-chromatography mass spectrometry.
http://nocamels.com/2018/04/israeli-scientists-breast-cancer-new-method/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0010482518300775

Zebrafish clue to infant crib deaths. Scientists at Israel’s Bar-Ilan University have found a link between body temperature and disturbed sleep from neuronal noise that may explain Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). Their research was advanced by analyzing the effect of rising water temperature on the activity of zebrafish.
https://www1.biu.ac.il/indexE.php?id=33&pt=20&pid=117&level=2&cPath=33&type=1&news=3136
https://www.youtube.com/embed/LxuNCePZi2k?rel=0
http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/4/4/eaar6277?rss=1

Innovative solutions for wounded veterans. 200 Israeli tech innovators participated in a 3-day “make-a-thon” in Tel Aviv to address a variety of challenges faced by 12 wounded war veterans (7 Israelis, 6 Americans and one French). “Makers for Heroes” organized by non-profit RESTART, is the first international event of its kind.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-innovators-muster-to-help-12-injured-soldiers-reclaim-their-dreams/

Protein shake helps children grow. I reported previously (May 2015) on the high-protein growth supplement developed by Professor Moshe Phillip at Israel’s Schneider Medical Center. Professor Phillip then co-founded Nutritional Growth Solutions (NG Solutions) and launched its “Healthy Height” shake in the US and Europe.
http://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/healthy-height-high-protein-shake-helps-children-grow-681465001.html https://www.healthy-height.com/https://www.healthy-height.com/pages/our-story
https://www.nutraingredients.com/Article/2016/11/17/Children-s-growth-supplement-wins-GSK-backing

The “secret” of Israeli longevity. (TY Nevet) National Geographic Travel suggests reasons for Israel’s consistent position near the top of the world’s longevity scale. It cites the combination of a Mediterranean-style diet, low alcohol consumption, strong family and cultural values, and an excellent healthcare system.
https://www.israel21c.org/the-secrets-of-israelis-long-satisfying-lives/

Israel should not be expected to bear the burden of providing the Palestinians with a national homeland.The problem with “the two-state solution”—creating a sovereign independent Palestinian state west of the Jordan River—is that a Palestinian state already exists east of the Jordan River; it’s called Jordan. Its population is predominantly “Palestinian,” and it is located in the eastern part of what was once called “Palestine.” Demographically and geographically, therefore, Jordan is a Palestinian state.

The Oslo Accords, however, removed the “Jordanian option” from the range of possible alternatives. Instead, Yasser Arafat, the PLO and the Palestinian Authority were installed as the rulers of what was intended to be another Palestinian state west of the Jordan River. The so-called “peace plan” failed not only because of Palestinian terrorism, but because of opposition to Israel’s existence. Moreover, the P.A., which includes Hamas and other Arab terrorist organizations, and the PLO never intended it to work. Their goal is to destroy Israel.

Although Arafat signed the Oslo Accords on behalf of the PLO and the PLO was obligated to remove the clauses in the Palestinian National Covenant that call for the destruction of Israel, it never did. Although an ad hoc form of the PLO’s Palestinian National Council met in April 1996 and approved amending the Covenant in principle, it did not change the Covenant; it merely gave a PNC committee the authority to do so or to draw up a completely new charter. Nor did they specify which articles would be changed or how that would be done. By leaving the Covenant intact, the PLO sends a clear message that it has not renounced violence nor accepted Israel’s right to exist.

Moreover, since the P.A. did not sign the accords, it is not bound by them; it is accountable, if at all, only to the PLO, which Mahmoud Abbas also heads.

President Trump’s soon-to-released proposal on resolving the Jewish-Arab conflict will be more readily achievable following the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) confirming it will not participate in implementing Trump’s peace plans.
Secretary General of the PLO Executive Committee Saeb Erekat led the charge:

“No one will deceive us and we will not fall into the illusion that the United States can have any balanced ideas that could lead to the achievement of a real and just peace. Washington has become part of the problem and not the solution”

PLO Chairman Mahmoud Abbas backed-up Erekat a few days later – censuring Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and stating Palestinians believe the US can no longer be the sole mediator in the decades-long conflict with Israel due to America’s pro-Tel Aviv bias.

Abbas declared Trump’s plan would be:

“an end to the peace process in the Middle East”

Erekat and Abbas’s acts of political hara-kiri coincided with Trump’s newly-appointed Secretary of State – Mike Pompeo – visiting Jordan

Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi welcomed Pompeo with the decades-old Arab mantra:

“[The Palestinian -Israeli conflict] is, we believe, the main cause of instability in the region, and its resolution is the key to achieving the lasting and comprehensive peace that we want. The two-state solution remains the only path to that peace, as we believe in Jordan, and it is the solution that would allow for the emergence of an independent, sovereign Palestine state with East Jerusalem as its capital in the lines of June 4, 1967.

Yes, that – the two-state solution is being challenged. Yes, there are many obstacles. But I think what is – what is the alternative? We cannot give up in our efforts to achieve peace, nor can we say that there is any viable alternative that we can sustain.”

Pompeo begged to disagree:

“ We’re certainly open to a two-party solution. That’s a likely outcome.”

Israel will not commit national suicide to endorse a false narrative of what happened 70 years back.

In November 1947 the United Nations voted to approve a partition plan that would have created a Jewish-majority state and an Arab-majority state in historic Palestine, and shared Jerusalem between the two parties. The Jews accepted the partition plan, and the results of the UN vote, though it provided insecure borders in a fragmented new state. Reaching a compromise is always a process in which neither side gets everything they want, but it is better than war, with all the destruction and upheaval which war brings.

The Arab nations voted against the partition resolution in the GeneralAssembly, and never accepted the results of the UN vote. The Arabs had never accepted the idea of a Jewish-majority state in any part of historic Palestine, and began a campaign of violence against the Zionists the very night the resolution was passed. During World War 2, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, holed up in Berlin, encouraged Adolf Hitler to turn his death machine against the Jews in Palestine while the Nazis were working to murder all the Jews in Europe. During the British mandate period, the Arabs had rejected earlier partition plans more favorable to them, such as the 1938 Peel Plan, because it allowed a tiny Jewish state to be created. In essence, the Arabs had fought Zionism for half a century, and were determined to deal t he Jewish state a knockout blow as soon the British left in May 1948.

Five Arab nations attacked Israel the day it became a new nation, assisting the Arabs in Palestine in their effort to destroy Israel. Despite enormous advantages in armed men, planes, tanks, and other weaponry, the Arabs were unsuccessful. Israel survived the onslaught, and defeated the Arab armies , creating new borders for the Jewish state, as well as for Jordan and Egypt. At the end of the war, Jordan held Judea and Samaria (also known as the West Bank) and the eastern part of Jerusalem, including the old city, and expelled Jews who had lived there for thousands of years. Egypt captured Gaza in the war. At no point did Egypt and Jordan attempt to create a new Arab state of Palestine with the territories they had picked up in the war. Instead Jordan annexed the West Bank, a seizure recognized by only two nations, and Egypt held Gaza as a territory.