RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.jns.org/opinion/measles-was-eradicated-now-its-back-thanks-to-anti-vaxxers/

More than 110,000 cases of the measles have been reported worldwide since the beginning of the year. Countries once free of the measles are now in danger of reverting to the days before such a blessing existed.

Israel’s national carrier, El Al, has set up a special inoculation station at Ben-Gurion Airport to vaccinate its employees against the measles. So far, some 250 ground and flight crews have been vaccinated, with likely more to come.

The makeshift clinic was created after the Israeli Health Ministry ordered all local airlines to inoculate their staff and called on the Israeli public to get fully vaccinated before taking any trips out of the country.

The directive came after a 43-year-old El Al flight attendant contracted the measles during a flight that set out from John F. Kennedy Airport on March 26 and landed in Tel Aviv the following day. Although the woman was otherwise healthy and had been vaccinated as a child, she nevertheless caught the contagious disease, as she had received only one shot of the vaccine, rather than the recommended two doses these days. After being rushed to the hospital upon landing in Israel, she fell into a coma, and is thought to have suffered brain damage.The same fate befell a 10-year-old boy on a flight to Israel.

https://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2019/04/israel-emerges

In recent years a historic reversal of support and hostility for Jews and the State of Israel has occurred, in which most of the political Right, and especially what might be termed the ethno-nationalist Right throughout the world, are now strong supporters of the Jewish state, while the political Left is increasingly and centrally hostile to it. While much has been written on left-wing anti-Semitism, little has been said about the growing and quite extraordinary links by the political Right with Israel.

To show the magnitude of the change, one ought first to set out the nature of European anti-Semitism as it existed between about 1870 and 1945, especially the doctrines held by the Nazis, and then contrast these attitudes with right-wing leaders today. Anti-Semitism as it existed in Europe (and elsewhere) before 1945 had a number of points as its main planks. First, the Jews were not simply a religious denomination but a “race”, or ethno-nationality group. According to Hitler in Mein Kampf, “the Jews’ entire existence is built on one single great lie, namely that here one had to deal with a religious brotherhood, while in fact, one had to deal with a race”. Second, and following from this, Jews were not and could not be a genuine component of the countries in which they lived, but were a separate entity which, however long they dwelled there, retained an independent existence. As Hitler expressed this in Mein Kampf:

https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Right-from-Wrong-A-Passover-tribute-to-President-Trump-587312

Some of the cynics among us, tend to throw in a few digs at the dinner table about how we wouldn’t need so much saving at the last minute if divine intervention had kept us from needing it.

According to an old joke that never wears out its welcome, the theme of all Jewish holidays is: “They tried to kill us, we won, let’s eat.”

On Passover, this humorous description is fine-tuned to include a quip about how the Israelites have been freed from Egyptian bondage only to become enslaved in the kitchen, after spending weeks obsessively scrubbing the house to rid it of any vestige of a breadcrumb or other leavened item.

Comedy aside, it is completely understandable for Jews to feel war-weary, particularly as a people who prefers the pen to the sword. But, being as stupid as we are smart, our response to this form of malaise is to turn our pens on one another and fear the world’s wrath whenever forced to use our swords. No wonder God gets so exasperated.

Luckily, such frustration has not been exhibited by the administration in Washington. Indeed, since assuming office in January 2017 – after being rejected and ridiculed by a majority of Jewish voters – US President Donald Trump proceeded to implement one stunningly pro-Israel policy after another.

New York, April 17th, 2019 – UN ambassadors and senior diplomats from around the world came together at the UN headquarters in New York for a traditional mock Passover Seder to learn and reflect on the message of the “Exodus” as Jews around the world were preparing for Passover which begins on Friday. A mock Seder is an abbreviated version of the Seder which can be celebrated ahead of Passover.
At the event, which was co-hosted by the Israeli Mission to the UN and the Forum for Cultural Diplomacy, the diplomats were reminded of how the Jewish nation was born some 3500 years ago through what may be described as one of the most dramatic and fascinating stories of national liberation of all times ─ the “Exodus out of Egypt”. Despite two thousand years of dispersion, the Jewish people reconstituted the State of Israel in 1948 and became a member of the UN already the next year, 1949.
Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon explained: “The Passover story, told and retold each year, reminds us of where we came from and how far we have come. Before, we were building pyramids in Egypt. Now, we are building rockets to send into space. Then, we were thirsty for water. Now, we are creating water out of thin air. In the past, we were slaves. Today, we are free.”
In his brief remarks ECI Founding Director Tomas Sandell quoted from the Book of Exodus which records that “there arose a new king in Egypt who did not know Joseph”. “Today there are many people around the world, especially young people, who do not know their history or that of European Jewry during the Holocaust”, he said. “As Europe faces a rise of anti-Semitism and some even fear a future “Exodus out of Europe”, we have chosen to remember, appreciate and cherish our own Josephs, the Jewish people, who have helped make our nations what they are today”, he added.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14081/hamas-honesty-peace-deal

Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar’s threats serve as a reminder that Hamas and other Palestinian terror group consider Israel one big settlement that needs to be annihilated. Above all, Hamas has never accepted the “two-state solution” or changed its charter, which explicitly states: “When our enemies usurp some Islamic lands, Jihad [holy war] becomes a duty binding on all Muslims…. We must spread the spirit of Jihad among the [Islamic] Umma, clash with the enemies and join the ranks of the Jihad fighters.”

Hamas cannot reach any political deal with Israel because it does not agree to Israel’s right to exist. This is the message that Sinwar and leaders of all Palestinian terror groups want the world to hear. For the terrorist leaders, the only peace they will accept is one that results in the elimination of Israel and the evacuation of all Jews from their homes.

The Hamas Charter is a straightforward, unambiguous message that says: “[Peace] initiatives, the so-called peaceful solutions, and the international conferences to resolve the Palestinian problem are all contrary to the beliefs of the Islamic Resistance Movement [Hamas]….There is no solution to the Palestinian problem expect by Jihad.”

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has undoubtedly read the Hamas charter. He knows that if he accepts any peace plan that does not include the expulsion of all Jews from their homes, he will be denounced by his rivals in Hamas as a traitor. Abbas is also aware of Hamas’s threats to shower Israel with rockets. He knows that at the same time as Hamas attacks Israel, it will seek to flatten him for “betraying” Arabs and Muslims in “allowing” Jews to continue living in “their” state. This is the Palestinian reality that the “Deal of the Century” is about to be dealt.

April 15 marked the 18th anniversary of the firing of the first Hamas rocket toward Israel. On this day, 18 years ago, Hamas’s military wing, Izaddin al-Qassam, launched its first rocket attack at Israeli population centers near their border with the Gaza Strip.On the eve of this occasion, Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader of the Gaza Strip, threatened that his movement will continue to fire rockets at Israel. The rockets, he said, will be fired at Israeli “settlements” not only near the border with the Gaza Strip, but also at supposed “settlements” in the Israeli cities of Ashkelon, Ashdod and Tel Aviv.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/273479/25-years-after-oslo-elephant-room-robert-l-meyer

Author’s note: I have been a student of Islam for five+ years because I wanted to know what motivates so called “Islamist” or “Radical” Muslims against Jews, Israel and the West. I now understand. The short article below sets out the argument why “Land For Peace” is simply impossible under Islam, owing to Koran Sura 2, Verse 191 — and it is for this reason (and Western and Israeli diplomats and negotiators’ ignorance of it) that it has been, is, and will be impossible for Muslim Palestinians to make peace with Israel. This Palestinian position has been confirmed by the top Palestinian religious figures, who have corroborated that ALL of Palestine is a holy, Islamic waqf (Arabic: an inalienable religious endowment under Islamic Shariah law), and therefore it is prohibited to give up “even a millimeter” of it. The article has been vetted and approved for accuracy by a number of Islamic experts.

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It is now more than 25 years since the Oslo Accords were signed in October 1993. Yet in the many published opinion pieces and reporting on this anniversary and the failure of the parties to agree on a final two-state solution to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, nowhere is found any Israeli politician or journalist who has the slightest inkling of the massive effect of Islam in influencing and motivating the Palestinian supposed peacemakers.

Islam is indeed “The Elephant in the Room.”

The Koran, chapter 2, verse 191 states: “Drive them out from where they drove you out.”

Islamic scholars universally have interpreted this verse to mean that once land becomes Islamic, by conquest or otherwise, it stays Islamic forever and that Muslims must drive out any non-Muslim government that takes power in a land once ruled under Islamic law.

https://www.jns.org/opinion/netanyahu-and-jewish-worry-about-what-the-neighbors-might-think/

America is already divided, as is Israel, between those who favor appeasing enemies while reprimanding friends, and those who espouse the opposite view.

A few days ahead of the Knesset elections, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to extend Israeli sovereignty to parts of Judea and Samaria. This campaign promise, which was reported by many unfriendly news outlets as a ploy to garner votes from the far-right, had nothing to do with his ultimate victory, however. The real reason for his win was simple. The Likud Party that he heads is most closely aligned with the position of mainstream Israeli society, which holds centrist views laced with the realism born of experience.

This is not to say that Netanyahu’s annexation announcement was insignificant. On the contrary, it was so straightforward and insistent that it led many right-wingers say that they’d believe it when they saw it.

Politicians tend to talk a big talk, after all, particularly during a campaign. And Netanyahu, as Israelis across the political spectrum agree, is nothing if not a brilliant politician. A “magician” is what he was called on election night by left-wing pundits shifting from elated to despondent as exit polls gradually were replaced by actual country-wide vote counts.

https://thefederalist.com/2019/04/16/moral-case-israel-annexing-west-bank-beyond/

Jason D. Hill is honors distinguished professor of philosophy at DePaul University in Chicago. His areas of specialization include ethics, social and political philosophy, American foreign policy, cosmopolitanism and race theory.

The April 2019 election victory for Benjamin Netanyahu will see him serve a record fifth term as Israeli prime minister and form a new right-wing coalition government. It also brings the promise of a commitment Netanyahu made to the nation during his campaign: That he would annex Jewish settlements in occupied Palestinian territories.

Vowing to extend sovereignty without distinguishing between settlement blocks and the isolated settlements, Netanyahu promised not to transfer any sovereignty to the Palestinians. His victory in the elections will, hopefully, see the enactment of Netanyahu’s promise.

Israel has the moral right to annex all of the West Bank (even Area C) for a plethora of reasons.
Israel’s Mistake Was Allowing the Palestinian Pretense

Israel made an altruistic mistake toward the Palestinian people after the 1967 defensive war with Jordan. Rather than regard them as “war settlers” or refugees or, after legally occupying conquered territory, as “illegal occupants,” they made the Palestinian people their political and moral problem.

After victory, the “war settlers” could have been seen as enemies of the state: supporters of the Fatah (Palestine Liberation Organization) Charter, which basically calls for the end of Jewry in the region. Under a malevolent and illiberal regime, they would have been regarded and treated as such, not as Israel did treat them: as human beings with specific, inalienable rights.

Under a different set of political sensibilities, the Palestinian people would have been militarily removed from the area because, morally speaking, after the 1967 war, they never belonged there. The proper response from Israel should have been to immediately annex the land and make the people there the responsibility of their original political homeland: Jordan.