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ISRAEL

Daniel Gordis:Meet Captain ‘B’—the first Israeli Arab woman in an IAF airborne unit She speaks about the danger of people in her Israeli Arab village finding out what she does, about growing up in an Arab “Zionist” home, and what she’d do if she fell into Hamas captivity.

Here are some select portions of the rather lengthy article, translated:

Captain ‘B’s clothing closet at the Palmachim Air Base is where she hides the greatest secret of her life. Captain ‘B’, in her twenties, is the first female Arab flight mechanic in the history of the IDF, and in fact, the first female airborne service person from the Arab community. Except for a few close family members and the members of her squad, no one knows.

Captain ‘B’ lives in an Arab village, which includes a militant population, who, to put matters mildly, are not among the “lovers of Zion.” Thus, for the five years that she has served in a variety of positions in the Air Force, she’s never gone home wearing a uniform. “In my clothes closet at the base,” she says, “there are more civilian clothes than uniforms. And when I get to the base in civvies, I go straight to the room, change clothes, and then head out to the squadron. And vice-versa: before I go home, I change into civilian clothing. You wouldn’t believe how careful we have to be at home. In the winter and in the summer, we launder the uniforms and they go straight into the dryer—we would never hang them outside to dry.”

And that’s because why? What would happen if people in the village knew what you do?

Someone would get attacked. That’s for sure.

From your family?

Yes.

And they’d have to be taken out of the village [for their safety]?

I don’t think there’d be anyone to take out after that.

Really? To that extent?

I think so.

And then, when we leave the office and head to the landing strip of the Black Hawks of Squadron 123, where she is now serves, she’s transformed. Captain ‘B’ stands tall, doesn’t stop smiling. Wearing her flight jumpsuit and her helmet and visor that cover her face, she hops quickly onto one of the helicopters to be photographed. It’s evident that here, among the flying machines that come in and out of Gaza, she’s more comfortable in her own skin than she is in the streets of the village where she was born and raised.

How long are you really going to be able to keep this secret from the people in your village?

There’s been an escalation in my village of late. Violent incidents, grenades, shootings. My own motto is “it’s good to die for our land” [DG – a famous quote commonly attributed to the early Zionist icon Yosef Trumpeldor], and I don’t care if they kill me, but the thought that they might do something to my family, and even worse, because of me? I couldn’t live with that. My priorities in life are first God, then my family, then the army.

Moshe Dann :The war against Hamas and its supporters – and the upcoming-war against Hezbollah – is all about Israel’s right to self-defense, its survival, and, therefore, about Jewish sovereignty.

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/384819

Israeli sovereignty, the basis for its national existence as a Jewish state, the homeland of the Jewish People, is defined in Israel’s Declaration of Independence in 1948. It incorporated much of UN Resolution 181, passed in1947, including the rights of its non-Jewish residents, and, following the war in 1948-9, Israel was accepted as a member state of the United Nations.

The result of the war, however, was inconclusive. Israel and the Arab countries that had attacked Israel agreed to a cease-fire and an Armistice was signed based on temporary – de facto, not de jure ‘borders.’ The areas that were conquered by Egypt, Jordan and Syria became known as “the West Bank.” Local Arab terrorists, and those from neighboring countries, however, continued to attack Jews.

Since the beginning of its existence as a state, therefore, Israel was faced with a problem: what to do with Arabs who lived under its jurisdiction and did not accept Israeli sovereignty; many, if not most still do not. For them, Israel’s survival and victory in the war of 1948-49 was a “Nakba” (catastrophe) – the essence of the Palestinian narrative, and its ideology, Palestinianism.

As a result of the war, many Arabs fled to other countries, especially to Jordan, nearly a million became “refugees,” most of whom were cared for by UNRWA, and about 156, 000 who remained in Israel and became Israeli citizens. In addition, as a result of the war, Israel acquired abandoned Arab villages and property, and areas which had not been assigned to Israel in 1948, especially in the Galilee, the Negev, and western Jerusalem – which Israel declared as its capital — with their Arab populations. Arabs still consider these areas as “disputed,” and they oppose any form of Israeli sovereignty.

Rabbi Steven Pruzansky,esq The Empty Toolbox America’s policy: Heads, we lose; tails, they win. With those odds, further attacks are not only inevitable; they are logical.

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/384783

On October 7, Palestinian Arab terrorists from Hamas and Islamic Jihad, aided by Gazan “civilians” of all ages, invaded Israel, pillaged, plundered, raped, and marauded, murdered approximately 1200 Jews, wounded thousands, and kidnapped hundreds. Tens of thousands of Israelis remain displaced, exiles in their own country.

The Palestinian Authority has yet to condemn the brutal assault and subsidized it in the form of its pay-for-slay program which continues, with a steadily increasing number of terrorist recipients. The attack was greeted with widespread celebrations among Palestinian Arabs and their supporters across the world.

And Joe Biden wants to reward these people with an independent state, recognized by the United States and the Western world.

This is not only morally repugnant; it is also diplomatic folly, which, if it ever succeeds, would pose a mortal danger to Israel’s existence. Biden has said some nice things and done some important things for Israel since the invasion, for which we should be thankful; he has also said some nasty things and done some incredibly harmful things to Israel, for which we should be wary of his continued support.

An independent Palestinian state Arab is a moral obscenity for several reasons. It literally rewards terror – past, present, and future. Biden and his minions, much like they are doing with Ukraine, are hoping that Israel can defend itself but not prevail in this conflict.

The obsession with Gazan refugees (while concurrently indifferent to the condition of Jewish refugees) has, with irrational Israeli acquiescence, resulted in the unremitting resupply of Hamas’ fuel, food, and other provisions, instead of the evacuation of Gazans from the war zone which is a right afforded all other refugees enmeshed in a conflict. It is designed to make Israel’s military effort much more difficult, essentially an endorsement of the Gazans’ employment as human shields and hampers any possibility of rescuing the hostages. Israel has foolishly consented to this.

While Israel Fights Hamas Leader, His Niece is in an Israeli Hospital In a tribal society, you can’t win by playing by Western rules. by Daniel Greenfield

https://www.frontpagemag.com/while-israel-fights-hamas-leader-his-niece-is-in-an-israeli-hospital/

Social media is saturated with pro-Hamas propaganda accusing Israel of every possible atrocity including killing Arab Muslims just for fun. In reality, much like us, Israel bends over backward to do just the opposite.

While the head of the political bureau of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, is still examining the proposal for a hostage deal formulated at the Paris summit, Israel’s News 13 reported that members of his family are receiving life-saving medical treatment at Soroka Hospital in Be’er Sheba.

Several of Haniyeh’s sisters are Israeli citizens through marriage to Bedouins and live in Tel Sheva in the Negev. In recent days, one of Haniyeh’s nieces gave birth to a baby in Soroka hospital. The baby was born prematurely and has since been hospitalized in the neonatal intensive care unit. The medical staff at the hospital have been working to save his life.

As the story goes on to document, multiple Haniyeh family members have been treated in Israeli hospitals.

While some Haniyeh family members were transferred out of Gaza for treatment in the past, this specific niece is apparently from the side of the family that married into a Bedouin clan and has members, including one of Haniyeh’s nephews, who served in the Israeli Army.

Like most things in the Arab world, this comes down to tribalism. Historically certain Arab clans chose to make their peace with Israel while others waged war against it.

360 degrees of hostility: The Biden administration and Israel Caroline Glick

https://centerforsecuritypolicy.org/360-degrees-of-hostility-the-biden-administration-and-israel/

The Mothers of IDF Soldiers group led a demonstration last week of army mothers, reservists in the Israel Defense Forces, bereaved families and other concerned citizens outside the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem. They demanded that President Joe Biden stop leveraging power to force Israel to resupply Hamas.

The following day, hundreds of Israelis, including parents of soldiers, families of hostages and terror victims gathered outside Ashdod Port. For hours, they blocked trucks laden with supplies for Gaza from exiting the port. Activists have been blocking trucks from entering Gaza via the Kerem Shalom and Nitzana border crossings for more than two weeks.

Speaking to the crowd in the southern Israeli city of Ashdod, Shifra Shahar, who runs a nonprofit organization that cares for the needs of soldiers, addressed her remarks to Israel’s leaders:

“Government of Israel, defense minister, IDF chief of staff, get ahold of yourselves!

“No other nation feeds and sustains its enemy! It’s truly an Israeli start-up.

“We had elections last year. I don’t recall voting for [U.S. Secretary of State Antony] Blinken! Blinken is sitting in the war cabinet and protecting the interests of my enemy. … We have sons in Gaza. We have sons fighting. The entry of the trucks endangers them, prolongs the war, increases the number of casualties and delays the return of the hostages!

“They tell me, ‘There are constraints.’ He who is constrained doesn’t win the war.

“They tell me, ‘The Americans are threatening not to provide us with ammunition.’

“To this, I say, if we were besieging them, we wouldn’t need ammunition! The war would end. They’d be screaming for help, returning the hostages and the war would end!”

The rising expressions of rage at the Biden administration from ordinary citizens are a testament to the shock and anger Israelis feel at what they perceive as a betrayal of Israel’s most basic interests by Biden and his top advisers.

Democrats keep pushing two-state delusion in Middle East 75% of Palestinians approve of Oct. 7 massacre: Don Feder

https://www.washingtontimes.com/staff/don-feder/

Democrats are driven by delusion: Guns cause crime. Republicans are to blame for the border fiasco. Electric vehicles are the wave of the future. The polar ice caps are melting.

The ultimate fantasy is that a two-state solution will bring peace to the Middle East.

On Jan. 29, 49 Senate Democrats — all except Joe Manchin III and John Fetterman, who abstained on technicalities — co-sponsored an amendment to the Israel aid bill affirming U.S. support for the two-state delusion. All six Democratic senators who are Jewish joined their colleagues. They should return their bar-mitzvah presents forthwith.

Coincidentally, this was the day after Israel buried 24 of its soldiers who died fighting the future leaders of a Palestinian state.

The amendment affirms that the U.S. supports negotiations “resulting in two states with Israelis and Palestinians living side by side in peace, security, dignity and mutual recognition.” They have no idea how dumb they sound.

For a cold dash of reality, consider a Nov. 14 Arab World for Research and Development poll that showed 75% of Palestinians approved of the Oct. 7 massacre. They approved of the gang rape and genital mutilation of Israeli women, the beheading of babies and the burning of captives alive.

The same percentage said they supported a Palestinian state “from the river to the sea.” Kiss Israel goodbye.

Indigenous embassy in Jerusalem opens in unconventional ceremony By David Isaac

https://www.jns.org/indigenous-embassy-in-jerusalem-opens-in-unconventional-ceremony/

(February 5, 2024) Wearing colorful traditional costumes, native peoples from around the globe made speeches, sang, danced, beat drums and, in one case, sounded a giant ram’s horn on Thursday to celebrate the inauguration of the Indigenous Embassy Jerusalem.

The embassy will serve as a much-needed antidote to the false claims by the Palestinians that there is no evidence of any Jewish life in Israel prior to 1948, when Jews ostensibly arrived as colonialist invaders.

The embassy is in part due to the efforts of the Indigenous Coalition for Israel (ICFI), a New Zealand-based group founded by native Maori to counter the false narrative about the Israel-Palestinian conflict that has “taken hold amongst indigenous peoples” and “has often bled into antisemitism,” its website says.

“We recognize that Jews are the indigenous people of this land, and we stand with you and your struggle,” ICFI co-founder Sheree Trotter told the 200-plus audience, noting that the Land of Israel is the place where the Jewish “nation was forged, its language and sacred literature developed, the beliefs, customs and traditions began. It is the most sacred place in the world to Jews. … This deep connection to a particular land and its ancestors are defining features of indigeneity.”

Trotter expressed her hope that the embassy would become an information hub and welcoming space for indigenous peoples visiting Israel, and act as a center to “galvanize” global indigenous support. The embassy will develop a digital production department to counter misinformation about Israel prevalent on social media and “to tell the story of our indigenous friendship.”

The embassy will also host academic symposia and become a tourist attraction. “We plan in time to have an NGO presence at the United Nations,” she added.

While not an embassy in the ordinary sense—it will not represent governments of the indigenous peoples’ host nations or the indigenous peoples themselves—it has been recognized as an embassy by the State of Israel. The audience cheered when they learned from Gil Haskell, Chief of State Protocol for Israel’s Foreign Ministry, that the Indigenous Embassy was the 100th embassy to be opened in the Jewish state.

Biden’s ‘Two-State Solution’ To Reward Palestinian Terrorism, Destroy Israel by Bassam Tawil

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20366/biden-two-state-solution

The declared policy… of the US and Britain since the 1993-95 Oslo Accords has been that a two-state solution should come as part of a negotiated settlement between Israel and the Palestinians.

If the Oslo Accords are so cavalierly abrogated, what do any international agreements mean, and why would any country sign one in the future?

The assumption that normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia in return for the establishment of another failed and corrupt Arab state would bring peace, security and stability to the Middle East is a deadly fantasy.

The Americans and British are evidently no longer demanding that the Palestinians halt their homicidal incitement against Israel and Jews or stop paying financial rewards to Palestinian terrorists who murder Jews.

The Americans and the British are also ignoring the fact that most Palestinians are opposed to the idea of a two-state solution because they want a Palestinian state to replace Israel, not have a state next to it.

Those who are promoting the idea of creating a Palestinian terror state next to Israel — again capitulating to terrorists and rewarding terrorism — are paving the way for more October 7-like massacres. They are essentially asking Israel to commit suicide at a time when its soldiers are fighting to eradicate Hamas and ensure that the Gaza Strip will no longer serve Hamas, or its terror master Iran, as a base for murdering Jews, Americans or anyone else in the West.

In the span of two days, both the US administration and the British government came out with similar statements that they are considering recognizing a Palestinian state. The statements send a message to the Iran-backed Hamas terrorist group and other Palestinians that the Americans and British want to give them a prize for the October 7 attack on Israel in which 1,200 Israelis were murdered, decapitated, raped, tortured and burned alive.

Israel’s War on Hamas is the Least Deadly War in the Region Daniel Greenfield

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20365/least-deadly-war
The moral calculus between the Allies and the Nazis in WWII did not change based on how many German civilians were killed in the bombings and artillery shelling on the road to Berlin. The morality of the American Civil War was not measured in civilian deaths, and neither is any other.

A nation is actively evil when it sets out to exterminate a civilian population. Whether it is WWII or the Hamas war: only one of the two sides was engaged in a total war of extermination.

On October 7 and in the months since, Hamas has engaged in the deliberate killings of civilians. Israel has not. The number games are meant to be a distraction from that simple fact.

Morality is defined by intent, not statistics.

The Associated Press recently made headlines by falsely claiming that the Israeli campaign against Hamas “sits among the deadliest and most destructive in recent history” and was even worse than “the Allied bombing of Germany in World War II”.

The Washington Post argued that “Israel has waged one of this century’s most destructive wars in Gaza” while The Wall Street Journal contended that it was “generating destruction comparable in scale to the most devastating urban warfare in the modern record.”

US’ Middle East policy defied by Middle East reality Yoram Ettinger

http://bit.ly/3SoVuLR

*For the last 45 years, the US has attempted to pacify the anti-US Iran’s Ayatollahs, via dramatic financial and diplomatic gestures, to advance the cause of human rights and democracy in Iran, and to promote peaceful coexistence between Iran and its Sunni Arab neighbors. In fact, the 45-year-old US diplomatic option toward the Ayatollahs, has downplayed the centrality of the Ayatollahs’ ideology and their track record, assuming that “money talks.”  The US expected that dramatic financial and diplomatic gestures would induce the Ayatollahs to abandon their 1,400-year-old fanatical vision and become a constructive member of the global community.

However, as expected, Iran’s Ayatollahs would not allow financial and diplomatic temptations to transcend their imperialistic violent ideology. Moreover, they have leveraged the lavish US gestures, intensifying domestic oppression and persecution, and boosting their determination to humiliate and defeat “the Great American Satan,” expanding anti-US global terrorism, drug trafficking, money laundering and the proliferation of advanced weaponry, increasingly in Latin America from Chile’ to the US-Mexico border.

Furthermore, the US’ eagerness to conclude another agreement with the anti-US Iran, the courting of the anti-US Moslem Brotherhood (the largest Sunni terror organization), and delisting the anti-US Houthis from the terror list, while pressuring the pro-US Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt, has pushed these countries closer to China and Russia, militarily and commercially.

*In 2024, the US State Department promotes the establishment of a Palestinian state west of the Jordan River, contending that it would peacefully coexist with Israel.
However, all pro-US Arab regimes have systematically limited their support of the proposed Palestinian state to an embracing talk, while displaying a lukewarm-to-negative walk.    

Furthermore, the State Department has downplayed the Palestinian track record and ideology, basing its policy on subjective and speculative future scenarios and diplomatic Palestinian statements.  But, the pro-US Arab regimes have focused on the subversive and terroristic intra-Arab Palestinian track record in Egypt (1950s), Syria (1960s), Jordan (1968-70), Lebanon (1970-1982) and Kuwait (1990).  These pro-US Arab regimes recognize the despotic, corrupt and terroristic nature of the Palestinian leadership, its rogue education system, and its global track record (e.g., collaboration with Nazi Germany, the Soviet Bloc, Iran’s Ayatollahs, No. Korea and Venezuela and training international terrorists from Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America).