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Democratic Majority for Israel Waves the White Flag in Presidential Contest Joshua Sharf

By on February 29th, 2020

https://amgreatness.com/2020/02/28/democratic-majority-for-israel-waves-the-white-flag-in-presidential-contest/

Jewish Democrats have let their distaste for Donald Trump warp American Jewish organizations’ responses to his overwhelmingly pro-Israel presidency. They have acted in the interests of partisanship over the people whose interests they are supposed to represent.

Word is that the Democratic Majority for Israel (DMFI) is waving the white flag in the presidential race, will spend no more money on it, and will not endorse a candidate. DMFI had been running ads against Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)

Democratic Majority for Israel does not intend to run any more televised ads against Sen. Bernie Sanders . . . beyond the Nevada caucuses on Saturday, DMFI CEO Mark Mellman confirmed to Jewish Insider. “We don’t have plans to be further involved in the presidential race—against Sanders or anyone else, for that matter,” Mellman told a gathering in New York City earlier this week.

Instead, the group will focus on down-ticket races, supporting pro-Israel Democrats in the primaries and general election.

It’s hard to overstate how bad this news is for those who want a strong U.S.-Israel relationship. And given that anti-Zionist is usually only a thin disguise for broader Jew-hatred, it’s hard to overstate how bad this news is for American Jewry.

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Jerusalem Post Opinion Elections, Super Tuesday and US-Israel relations Ruthie Blum

By on February 28th, 2020

https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Elections-Super-Tuesday-and-US-Israel-relations-619111

The Israeli public could be forced to undergo a fourth round of elections, which nobody wants and many have threatened to boycott.

The day after Israelis go the polls on Monday to elect the next Knesset, the greatest number of Democratic Party primaries will be held across the United States. The proximity of Super Tuesday to the Jewish state’s third attempt in 11 months to determine the makeup of the next government in Jerusalem is coincidental. Their outcomes, however, will have been mutually influenced.

This might seem peculiar, given the two countries’ completely different electoral and political systems, and the fact that the ballots counted in the US on March 3 merely will give a good idea about which Democratic candidate is likely to win the presidential nomination and run against the Republican incumbent, US President Donald Trump, in November.The Israeli election, on the other hand, is a national one, where voters will be opting this time around for one of 29 (!) parties vying for as many of the 120 Knesset seats as they can get.

The head of the largest party – or the one that has the best chance of forming a majority coalition – will be tasked with establishing the government.

For the past 11 years that figure has been Likud head Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Next week, he is likely to be in that position as well. Barring a surprise shift, again he will be unable to garner a 61-seat majority. If this happens, the Israeli public could be forced to undergo a fourth round of elections, which nobody wants and many have threatened to boycott.

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Israel’s Election: What Do the Iranians and Palestinians Want? by Bassam Tawil

By on February 27th, 2020

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15646/israel-election-iranians-palestinians

The Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank and Hamas in the Gaza Strip seem to have endorsed the banner of Netanyahu’s political rivals in Israel: “Anyone but Bibi (Netanyahu’s nickname).” The two Palestinian groups ‘ perceive Netanyahu as a major threat to their dream of destroying Israel and as someone who has further strengthened Israel’s standing in the international arena.

The Palestinians are apparently convinced that it would be easier to extort concessions from inexperienced politicians such as Benny Gantz, Moshe Ya’alon and Gabi Ashkenazi. For the Palestinians, Netanyahu is a hard nut to crack. His strong stance against their tactics of intimidation have been, for them, a source of concern.

Abbas and his officials, in short, are telling the Israelis: “Look, we have a problem here. This man, Netanyahu, will not surrender to us — and that is why you need to elect a new leader.”

Abbas, not surprisingly, would doubtless prefer Israelis to replace Netanyahu with a weak leader who would comply with all his demands and take Israel back to the indefensible pre-1967 armistice lines — a move that would most likely result in the militias of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Iran sitting on the West Bank hilltops overlooking Israel’s Ben Gurion International Airport.

The Palestinians are doing their absolute utmost to ensure that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Likud Party do not win in Israel’s general election on Monday, March 2.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank, and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, seem to have endorsed the banner of Netanyahu’s political rivals in Israel: “Anyone but Bibi (Netanyahu’s nickname).” The two Palestinian groups perceive Netanyahu as a major threat to their dream of destroying Israel and as someone who has further strengthened Israel’s standing in the international arena.

In a last-minute, apparently desperate attempt to undermine the current Israeli prime minister’s chances of winning another election, the PA has launched a public relations campaign to explain to the Israeli public why they should not vote for Netanyahu.

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One of the Biggest Dangers to the Free World The dire dangers of delusions. Dr. Shmuel Katz

By on February 27th, 2020

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/02/one-biggest-dangers-free-world-being-oblivious-dr-shmuel-katz/

In the age of misinformation, disinformation and outright lies, too many people are oblivious to the reality that surrounds them. In many cases, the fact that their personal well-being, may be negatively affected by the on-going trends, did not trigger their conscious perception of reality.

Wishful thinking was for a long time a serious motivation to make irrational decisions. The classical example was the “Peace for our times” Chamberlain’s interpretation of Hitler’s letter promising peace and tranquility in Europe before the Second World War.

Another delusional action was related to the infamous “Iran Deal” which looked promising on paper but very rapidly, it became evident that there were many problems with the deal which gave the radical Iranian leadership a clear pass to possess atomic weapons after several years. During this period of time, they could cheat the observers, continue producing nuclear material, improve on their delivery systems, expand their efforts to destabilize their target countries and establish a terror infrastructure that will support their long-term goals of international domination. Interestingly, in the near future, elections for national leadership are looming in Israel and in the USA. In both countries important decisions will have to be made, which will determine the future of both countries. For some reason people like to make the differences between the two major opposing parties as a quarrel between Left and Right. In reality the decision relates to choices which will have significant effects on national security and on economic stability. People must understand that there is no real “free” government awarded “free stuff”! There is always somebody who will have to pay for it. Margaret Thatcher used to say that “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money!”

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The United Nations Releases An Anti-Israel Blacklist By Melissa Langsam Braunstein

By on February 26th, 2020

https://thefederalist.com/2020/02/26/the-united-nations-releases-an-anti-israel-blacklist/

At bottom, this blacklist was created to harm Israel, not to help the Palestinians. Its publication benefits the Palestinians neither diplomatically nor economically.

If there’s one group you can count on, it’s the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC). Their members are not terribly concerned about human rights, particularly within their own borders, but they sure are consumed by hatred for Israel.

In March 2016, UNHRC decided the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights should release a blacklist of companies “conducting activities in or related to Israel’s settlements,” a move cheered on by supporters of the movement to boycott Israel. However, there were various delays, and that database did not materialize until this month.

In what certainly looks like a clap-back at the Trump administration’s Peace to Prosperity plan for Israelis and Palestinians timing-wise, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet released a list of 112 companies that operate beyond Israel’s Green Line. Not so coincidentally, 94 of the named companies are based in Israel. Six are American companies, including Airbnb and General Mills.

As with the Arab Boycott, this is about stigmatizing Israel and raising the cost of doing business with Israeli Jews. Eugene Kontorovich, director of the Center for International Law in the Middle East at George Mason University Scalia Law School, emailed, “Many of the American firms being targeted have no presence there, but simply do business with companies that do business there. They are simply being blacklisted for refusing to discriminate against Israeli Jews in the provision of their goods and services.”

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Speaking Clearly about the ‘Deal of the Century’ by Naomi Linder Kahn

By on February 26th, 2020

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15637/deal-of-the-century

Israel’s and America’s upcoming elections are fateful for both countries and will determine who will conduct the negotiations moving forward. If no clear message is conveyed by Israel — immediately — negotiations after the elections could take this silence as tacit agreement.

The political situation in the United States is no less crucial a factor. American presidents are elected to protect American interests — and these often shift. It is therefore important that Israel not do a deal based on oral understandings of how Israel will be at liberty to respond if and when the Palestinians violate the terms of the agreement (right now, oral understandings are all that exist), as we do not know how those oral understandings will be transmitted or accepted by the next US Congress and administration.

There is a world of difference between the approaches of the candidates from the two major US parties… Israel could easily find itself again having traded tangible facts on the ground for intangible, unenforceable promises.

If Trump is re-elected, the version of his plan eventually ratified by Israel will serve as the basis for negotiations. It is therefore crucial that the threats to Israel’s security are corrected before Israel embraces the “conceptual maps.” If, on the other hand, President Trump is not re-elected, the “Peace to Prosperity” vision may prove to be yet another Oslo Accord — a dangerous hole into which Israel will fall without a safety net. If Israel were to approve the plan now, essentially agreeing to the potential creation, at the end of four years, of a Palestinian state, the overwhelming temptation is for a future US president to begin the conversation from there, and not necessarily hold the Palestinian side to its obligations — which is precisely what happened under the Oslo framework.

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What the Mizrahim Lost, and What Fairness Demands Be Done About It

By on February 26th, 2020

https://mosaicmagazine.com/observation/jewish-world/2020/02/what-the-mizrahim-

Donald Trump’s “Deal of the Century”—the most recent American effort to advance a plan for peace between Israelis and Palestinians—was released last month. Among those potentially affected by the implementation of such a plan, one group in Israel had been watching with particular interest: Mizraḥi Jews whose families had lived continuously in Arab and Muslim lands from biblical times until the late 1940s when they became the targets of organized violence on the part of their own governments and in the ensuing years suffered wholesale expulsion from their homes.

These ancient communities, whose roots in the Middle East predated by a millennium the advent of Islam, numbered close to one million people. After 1948, they were cast out root and branch from Egypt, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, North Africa, and Iran. Most found refuge in the newly established Jewish state. There, the Knesset, initially slow to demand compensation for their losses, would eventually mandate that no settlement with the Palestinians would be acceptable if it failed to include recompense for individual and communal properties—estimated, in area, to amount to nearly 40,000 square miles, about five times the size of Israel, and valued at $150 billion—that had been confiscated by Muslim governments in the Middle East from their Jewish citizens.

The new American plan does indeed address the case of the Mizraḥi Jews. Noting that the Arab-Israel conflict “created both a Palestinian and Jewish refugee problem,” and that the numbers displaced were approximately equal on the two sides, the plan goes on to state unequivocally that, separate from any peace agreement, “a just, fair, and realistic solution” for the Jewish refugees, “including compensation for lost assets” as well as compensation to Israel for the cost of absorbing them, must be “implemented through an appropriate international mechanism.”

All of this,of course, remains to be seen. Meanwhile, and whether or not the Trump plan ever comes to fruition, the Mizraḥi story deserves telling and retelling. For an engaging treatment, the 2018 book Uprooted by Lyn Julius, a British-born descendant of Iraqi Jews, can serve as a useful introduction.

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Ruthie Blum Polls, Gaza, Netanyahu and Gantz

By on February 25th, 2020

https://www.jns.org/opinion/polls-gaza-netanyahu-and-gantz/

Even members of the public forced into bomb shelters on a regular basis realize that the prime minister is doing the best he can to keep Hamas at bay, while reserving the option to launch a ground incursion into Gaza as a last resort.

During live coverage of the bombardment of southern Israel by Islamic Jihad rocket fire on Monday, a Red Alert siren sent a TV reporter—along with a local shop owner whom he was interviewing and other people taking cover from the terrorist barrage from Gaza—into a nearby stairwell.

Tragically well-versed in the drill, the handful of passers-by entered the building and positioned themselves, single file, down a flight of steps, with the broadcast journalist and his cameraman in tow. As all waited for the wail of the siren to subside—listening for the familiar sound of explosions from projectile landings, Iron Dome interceptions and Israel Defense Forces’ bombings of terrorist targets over the border—the interview continued.

But it didn’t proceed as the reporter had hoped or anticipated.

After bemoaning the near-bankruptcy that his shoe store has been suffering as a result of the security situation in his city, the interviewee praised Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“There’s nobody like Bibi!” he exclaimed, smiling broadly.

“No, no, let’s not talk politics,” the reporter admonished.

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Fiamma Nirenstein Anti-Semitism can’t be fought with lip service The EU’s message with regard to the settlements grants tacit permission to blame and hate Israel and, by extension, the Jews. To combat this, words are not enough; action is required.

By on February 24th, 2020

https://www.israelhayom.com/opinions/anti-semitism-cant-be-fought-with-lip-service/

Anti-Semitism turns truly dangerous when it becomes the organizing principle of society. This occurred during the past century under Nazism and communism, and it is occurring again today.

Unrelenting bias against Israel, Zionism and thereby the Jewish people has become progressively interwoven with institutional power. It has penetrated the mindset of all those living under the “intersectionality” roof, i.e., those who feel oppressed and who harbor social frustration in various forms. Zionism and by extension the Jewish people are cast as oppressors, and this view has been granted political legitimacy by organizations such as the European Union and United Nations.

Ethnicity, gender, culture, etc. – are have become commingled. And all – feminists, university professors, members of the LGBT community, Hollywood directors, child-rights advocates – attack Israel, for reasons that can vary from “pinkwashing” to white supremacy to neo-colonialism. There are seemingly infinite themes available. This commingling not only animates but also strengthens bias. This stream of thought holds the State of Israel to be warmongering, colonial and racist in nature; Judaism, which generated Israel, is held responsible. The simple idea that Judaism includes the entire Jewish people then closes the circle of anti-Semitism.

The most important institutions in the world today push this line of thought, even if not explicitly. The parents of contemporary anti-Semitism are the same ones appearing in conferences, institutions, synagogues and even in Israel to proclaim their campaigns against anti-Semitism.

So what can be done? The generally accepted International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism is a positive step because it ties anti-Semitism and “Israelophobia” together. Yet it is not enough. Only policy action, not blame or promises to teach the history of the Shoah, can combat anti-Semitism. This is why US President Donald Trump’s Executive Order against anti-Semitism is so essential; it is composed of political steps that destroy the paradigm of political anti-Semitism.

There has been some progress in Europe as well. Hungary and the Czech Republic made great strides against anti-Semitism by abstaining from the UN General Assembly’s 2017 vote condemning Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Six EU member states (including, once again, the Visegrád Four) also took a stand against anti-Semitism earlier this month by opposing a resolution by EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell calling for a joint European condemnation of Trump’s “Peace to Prosperity” plan. By their action, they opened a real discussion about Israel’s security needs and the legality of the settlements.

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The Fortunate Arabs in the Middle East by Bassam Tawil

By on February 24th, 2020

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15602/fortunate-arabs

Meanwhile, there are other Arabs in the region who are more fortunate than the Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza Strip: the Arab citizens of Israel. These citizens are lucky that they do not live under the rule of the corrupt and incompetent leaders of the Palestinian Authority and Hamas. These Arab citizens are fortunate because they live in Israel.

Here is more unwelcome good news regarding the Arab citizens of Israel: The Israeli government announced in 2018 that in the last two years, it has invested 4.5 billion shekels ($1.3 billion) in the Arab regions. The government also announced that it would invest 20 million shekels ($5.6 million) in the Arab high-tech market. Overall, the government has decided to invest 15 billion shekels ($4.3 billion) in the Arab-Israeli sector by the end of 2020….

The $50 billion dollars the Trump plan offered the Palestinians will end up being withheld because Palestinian leaders have something else on their minds: to continue enriching their own bank accounts at the expense of their people. No wonder, then, that when Arabs — including Palestinians — dream of a better life, they often dream of moving to Israel. No wonder, as well, that most Arab Israelis do not want to become part of a Palestinian state, and have been demanding to stay in Israel.

Palestinians living under the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank and Hamas in the Gaza Strip can only dream about the quality of life their Arab brethren enjoy in Israel.

Thanks to the current leaders in the PA and Hamas, the Palestinian people are sunk in abysmal living conditions. Poverty, unemployment, and repression have been their lot for decade after decade. This is because the PA and Hamas have repeatedly rejected peace plans that offer prosperity to the Palestinians.

Recently, the PA and Hamas rejected US President Donald Trump’s plan for Mideast peace, which includes a $50 billion investment and infrastructure proposal to create at least a million new jobs for Palestinians. The plan calls for projects worth $27.5 billion in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and $9.1 billion for Palestinians in Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon. Projects “envisioned include those in the health care, education, power, water, high-tech, tourism, and agriculture sectors.”

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