RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2019/11/israel-world-leader-tech-diversity-human-frontpagemagcom/

Reprinted From World Net Daily.

With the aim of improving accuracy in reporting about Israel, the Israeli government press office hosted Christian Media Summit 2019 from Nov. 3-6. It kicked off at the Friends of Zion Museum, featuring speeches by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Reuven Rivlin.

As a Summit delegate, I represented the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem-Canada. Most striking to me amid the pomp-and-ceremony, impressive lectures and historic sites was Israel’s embrace of life, which was evident in the fabric of its culture.

Israel is like a world unto itself and the epitome of diversity, despite the tainting of the word “diversity” by progressives. Israel’s Aliyah process of the return of Jews from the four corners of the earth, including Africa, China and India, makes its diversity obvious. One can also observe in a single day the catering to both devout Christian evangelicals and gay party seekers, the latter of whom must hide for their own safety in surrounding Islamic lands.

From Old Testament stories to the Crusades to the Ottoman Empire, and ongoing efforts to obliterate it, Israel has seen it all and has bloomed in adversity. But beneath Israel’s overt intrigue is her soul, which shines from her love of life, her appreciation of human worth and nurturing of it, contrary to the grim public image foisted upon her during decades of wrangling with a “peace process” through which her enemies have sought her delegitimization and dissolution. From the day Israel was born on May 14, 1948, she has fought for her life. Her first breath was already frail as she emerged from a Holocaust. Yet nothing has impeded her pursuits of life and liberty.

Conference of Jewish Affairs

(212) 252-6861    conferenceofjewishaffairs@gmail.com

November 18, 2019 — Conference of Jewish Affairs spokesman Rabbi Aryeh Spero made the following statement today regarding the Administration’s announcement that the United States will no longer consider Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria, the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem as “inconsistent with international law”.

“Conference of Jewish Affairs endorses President Trump’s and Secretary Pompeo’s breakthrough thinking and willingness to seek out and abide by historic and legal truths.

“President Trump and Secretary Pompeo are to be commended and admired for recognizing Israel’s historic and legal right to build housing on the Jewish land of Judea and Samaria and for boldly recognizing the right of individual Jews and the Jewish nation of Israel to implant communities and Jewish social life on the ancestral and holy ground which constitutes Eretz Israel.

“President Trump and Secretary Pompeo are trailblazers and the world is fortunate for their courage, vision, and consummate abilities.”

Rabbi Spero concluded, “Israel and the Jewish People have never had a greater friend than President Donald J. Trump.”

https://worldisraelnews.com/us-set-to-revoke-illegal-status-of-judea-and-samaria-communities/?utm_source=browser&utm_medium=push_notification&utm_campaign=vwo_notification_1574098636&vwo_powered=1

Secretary of State Pompeo is expected to announce on Monday that the U.S. no longer deems Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria “illegal.”

By World Israel News and AP

United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo plans to revoke a 1978 State Department opinion called the Hansell Memorandum, which claimed that civilian settlements in Judea and Samaria are “inconsistent with international law.” The move will likely anger Palestinians and put the U.S. at odds with nations that favor their position.

According to a report by the Jerusalem Post, the State Department’s legal office embarked on a year-long review of the Hansell Memo and met with international law experts and officials from various governments.

The State Department issued the Hansell Memo in 1978 under the Carter administration, but President Ronald Reagan rejected its conclusion in 1981.

The State Department undertook review of the memo fter the Obama administration, in one of its final moves, facilitated the United Nations Security Council’s passage of Resolution 2334 in December 2016, which condemned Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria as “flagrant violation[s]” of international law and with “no legal validity,” the Post reported.

According to the statement Pompeo is set to release, the Trump administration concluded that the Hansell Memo represents a distraction, and that any legal decision about the issue is appropriate for resolution by Israeli courts, according to a draft of Pompeo’s remarks obtained by The Associated Press.

“Calling the establishment of civilian settlements inconsistent with international law has not advanced the cause of peace,” Pompeo says in the draft. “The hard truth is that there will never be a judicial resolution to the conflict, and arguments about who is right and who is wrong as a matter of international law will not bring peace.”

Previous U.S. policies under the Trump administration have included the decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, the movement of the U.S. Embassy to that city and the closure of the Palestinian diplomatic office in Washington.

Administrations that followed paid varying levels of lip service to the notion the Jews building towns in Judea and Samaria represented an “obstacle to peace.”

According to a 2019 report sponsored by Bet El Institutions, an organization with ties to U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, the population in Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria grew to 449,508 as of Jan. 1, 2019 up 3.3 percent from 435,159 people one year earlier.

Shifting tide?

Even though the Trump Administration’s decision is largely symbolic, it could also give a boost to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is fighting for his political survival after he was unable to form a coalition government following recent elections.

In addition, it could spell further trouble for the administration’s oft-promised peace plan.

Last week, the European Court of Justice ruled that products made in Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria must bear special labels identifying their origin.

Pompeo is expected to announce that the U.S. does not take a position on the legality of specific settlements and that the new policy would not extend beyond Judea and Samaria to other territorial disputes.

He also planned to announce that the decision did not mean the administration was prejudging the status of Judea and Samaria in any eventual Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement.

The shift is a victory for Netanyahu, a longtime booster of the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, and had been strongly supported by Ambassador Friedman and Trump donor Sheldon Adelson. Friedman was a major fundraiser for tJewish communities in Judea and Samaria before becoming ambassador.

It may be taken by Netanyahu and the settlement movement as a green light for additional construction, or even annexation, of lands claimed by the Palestinians for a future state.

Israel captured Judea and Samaria, including eastern portions of Jerusalem, in 1967’s Six-Day War, during which four Arab states attacked Israel.

After the war, Israel declared a “united Jerusalem,” home to Judaism’s holiest site, the Temple Mount, including the Western Wall structure.

Israel has yet to annex Judea and Samaria, despite the hundreds of thousands of Jews that call it home.

The Palestinian Authority, which has not held elections in since 2006, claims that territory in Judea and Samaria will be a part of a future independent state.

Many Israelis maintain that the Palestinian Authority’s open support for terrorism, in addition to the handful of Palestinian terror groups with which it competes for power, make the prospect of an autonomous Palestinian state on its borders a major security threat.