Europeans Finance Agricultural Annexation by PA

The Palestinian Authority held a ceremony on Sunday, planting some 2,000 olive trees on Israeli state land, in IDF Training Ground 203.

The event was filmed, photographed and publicized by Fatah – affiliated Radio Zeituna and on social media. Armed Palestinian Police officers were among those in attendance, and were filmed as they entered the IDF firing zone – despite the fact that are prohibited from entering Area C, the section of Judea and Samaria under Israeli jurisdiction pursuant to the Oslo Accords.

This event is one element of a large-scale project that has taken shape over the past several years, in which the Palestinian Authority has planted millions of trees as a means of illegally seizing control of thousands of dunams in Area C.

The PA’s “agricultural annexation” focuses on land adjacent to roadways, surrounding Jewish communities, as well as state land – particularly in locations that are of high strategic and political importance.

These projects are supported by massive European funding, and the targeted locations are chosen with care to serve a clear and publicly-declared purpose: changing the map, by creating facts on the ground – and all within spitting distance of Rosh HaAyin and Gush Dan.

This is never reported in the international media

New Secretary Of State Promises Jerusalem as Capital Of Israel

 Leah Rosenberg January 26, 2021 

We have to be thankful and grateful whenever the situation presents itself. In his Senate confirmation hearing, President Joe Biden’s pick for Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated that the Biden administration recognizes Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and will keep the US Embassy in Jerusalem is nothing to take for granted. This is definitely a positive start, but the question is will he continue on this path?

While previous US administrations would publicly state that Jerusalem was Israel’s capital, not moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem was the key act that showed the world that the US did not really stand by that as policy. President Trump changed that, finally allowing for US foreign policy to truly accept Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

Blinken was an active participant in the Obama/Biden administration. Following the eight years of the Obama/Biden administration that did not move the US Embassy to Jerusalem and did not recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, it is nothing to take for granted that he now publicly accepts this new reality.

For those who love the state of Israel and the Jews, this seems to be a good start. After such a strong relationship between Trump and Israel, it is a little worrisome to have a new administration coming in who does not have a history of supporting Israel the same way Trump did for four years of his presidency.

President Biden has picked many Obama administration people to fill his administration as well. Not only are they not pro-Israel, but they are also pro-rapprochement with Iran, to renew the Iran deal that empowered and enriched Iran to terrorize the region.

What will the relationship between the US and Israel be? Will the US put pressure on Israel? Will they stop believing the Jewish state has every right to exist with secure borders?

Blinken made a strong and commendable promise. Now we wait and see what his foreign policy will be, whether good for the US, Israel relationship, or damaging, as it was under Obama. Only time will tell.

We must be thankful when necessary, yet be cautious as we move forward. The eight years of the Obama/Biden administration, with the same players returning to the arena of influence is very troubling.

 

The Vaccination Nation

 Israel’s national #vaccine campaign can provide critical

experience and lessons to countries around the

world combatting #covid.

From cargo planes, to the arms of Israelis, here’s an inside

look at our nationwide vaccination process

Foreign Governments Fund Left-wing Educational Agenda in Israeli Schools

By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News Jan 25th

Foreign governments are funding millions of dollars’ worth of educational programming and teacher training in Israel each year, revealed a report from Israel’s Channel 20 on Sunday.

The report alleges that over the last decade, European states and the American government donated substantial sums of money to developing and promoting educational content which reaches Israeli schools, via NGOs operating in the Jewish state and seminars for educators.

The curriculum and courses funded by foreign sources often promote liberal, left-wing causes that are likely at odds with the values publicly stated by Israel’s Education Ministry.

According to the Channel 20 report, the American government has contributed some 14 million shekels (about $4 million) to NGOs the Haviva Fund and Abraham Initiative.

One course funded by the U.S. is an interactive site called Switch, which features an Arab and Jewish Israeli trading identities.

The Jewish Israeli learns about Israel’s War of Independence from the perspective of an Arab, and at the end of the experiment, decides to forgo serving in a combat unit in the army.

Between 2014 and 2019, the European Union donated some 10 million shekels ($3 million) to the Midreshet Adam and Association for Civil Rights.

These organizations, the report says, promote educational programs that describe the Holocaust as a universal genocide, rather than a uniquely Jewish tragedy, and suggest that the suffering of Gazans and Israeli residents of Sderot are comparable.

Germany, Canada, and the Netherlands also donated millions of shekels to NGOs dedicated to promoting left-wing causes in Israel’s educational system, according to the report.

A May 2020 report by Israel’s Ministry of Strategic Affairs warned that funds donated to Palestinian aid organizations, from both state sources and private donors, are used to support terrorism.

The report came on the heels of an announcement by the European Union that it will continue funding Palestinian nonprofits, even if said nonprofits have links to terrorist organizations.

 

Lebanon Refuses to Vaccinate Palestinians; Where’s the Outrage?

 Cross posting from Elder of Ziyon via The Algemeiner

UAE newspaper Al Bayan reports that Lebanon doesn’t have plans to vaccinate Palestinians who have lived there for over seven decades.

Lebanon has been signing agreements with various pharmaceutical companies to obtain vaccines for its population. But they have not announced any plans on how these vaccines will be distributed in Lebanon’s overcrowded Palestinian “refugee” camps, which have become even more crowded since the Syrian civil war forced many more people of Palestinian ancestry to move in.

Palestinians in Lebanon only have limited access to Lebanese health services and rely on UNRWA for their health needs. But UNRWA is not stepping up.

Lebanese officials told Al Bayan that they expected international organizations to vaccinate the Palestinians. UNRWA issued a vague statement that they expect the World Health Organization and the Lebanese Health Ministry to work on the issue. The Lebanese Health Ministry hasn’t announced any plans, seeming to think it will be UNRWA’s problem.

No one is making any concrete plans on the distribution of vaccines in the 12 UNRWA camps in Lebanon.

UNRWA closed its 28 health facilities in Lebanon on Thursday, as the nation went on lockdown, causing great anger among Palestinians. They plan to reopen Monday.

According to published figures, nearly 4,000 Palestinians have tested positive for COVID-19 in Lebanon, and 145 Palestinians have died so far.

There have been no articles in any of the mainstream media organizations about this situation. No “human rights” NGOs are up in arms about this. No one is castigating Lebanon for not taking care of the people who live in Lebanon.

What ‘Apartheid?’ Arab-Israeli Slams Libel in Media

Reprinted from, United With Israel

Yoseph Haddad is a proud Christian Arab citizen of Israel who is normally a happy guy and full of life, but last week his mood changed to anger when he woke up to find out that he had suddenly become a second-class citizen.

B’Tselem, a so-called “rights” organization that admits most of its funding comes from European governments, issued a proclamation that everything between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea was now an “apartheid state.”

“When B’Tselem director Hagai El-Ad, who is Jewish, decides that I, my Arab family, and my Arab friends are all living under an apartheid regime, he and his organizations are basically telling us they see us as second-class citizens,” Haddad wrote Sunday in an op-ed in the Israel Hayom newspaper.

“Last week, I woke up one morning in my Nazareth home and was astonished to discover I was living under a racist apartheid regime whose only purpose is ‘the promotion and perpetuation of the superiority of one group of people – the Jews.’ I rubbed my eyes, read the story in greater depth, and calmed down as soon as I realized the reports were based on yet another report by the left-wing NGO B’Tselem,” Haddad said.

“The problem is that this report has spread like wildfire around the world, and the propaganda is working. B’Tselem, which presents itself as a human-rights organization, is in fact known as an organization with a clear political stance that is in contrast to Israel’s position,” Haddad said.

“How dare they say that I, an Arab Israeli who served along with Jewish soldiers in the Israel Defense Forces and managed hundreds of Jewish employees, live under an apartheid regime?” he asked. “How can anyone say our society is living under an apartheid regime when among us you will find doctors, judges, and even lawmakers,” adding that the head of the largest bank in Israel is an Arab, Samer Haj-Yehia.

Haddad, 35, turned into a social activist after being severely wounded while serving as an IDF combat officer in the 2006 Lebanon war. He founded a non-profit organization called “Together Vouch For Each Other” for Israeli-Arabs, which works to bring the Arab sector closer to Israeli society and encourages the involvement of young Israeli Arabs in their country.

“B’Tselem has already broken the record for hypocrisy, but to compare Israel to an apartheid regime … is not only a distorted lie but an insult to all those South Africans who actually lived through apartheid. It is contempt for and cynical exploitation of the concept,” Haddad said.

“I am not here to claim that everything in Israel is perfect. Some things need to be fixed, and how. But show me a country where everything is perfect. I look around at our neighbors in the region and thank god I was born in the State of Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East,” he said.

“True, the Arab minority in Israel faces challenges, just as other national minorities do in other countries. Yet while minorities of all kinds across the Middle East – Shia Muslims, Sunni Muslims, Yazidi, Kurds, and of course the Christians – are persecuted, the State of Israel is the only country that grants minorities equal rights and the ability to influence their future,” he noted.

“B’Tselem, don’t push your agendas at our expense,” he said.

“To my delight, Israel will likely be the first country to exit the corona crisis, and in a few months, people from around the world may be able to come here and see what apartheid looks like in Israel for themselves. Then they will be able to hear Hebrew and Arabic spoken in the Nazareth marketplace, they will see mosques, churches, and synagogues alongside one another in Jaffa, and see the coexistence of the Israeli mosaic across the country.

“And maybe, just maybe, their visit here will make them want to live under an apartheid regime,” he quipped.

Israel has no obligation to give the Palestinians vaccines

 By ALAN BAKER   JANUARY 16, 2021 

 There is a concerted wave of international criticism and hostility against Israel among states, organizations and the international media regarding vaccines for Palestinians.

This criticism emanates from a number of flawed and misplaced assumptions, or deliberately misleading claims, that Israel is an occupying power, in full occupation of the West Bank areas of Judea and Samaria, and the Gaza Strip.

Following on from that is the mistaken and false assumption that international humanitarian law requires Israel, as an occupying power, to provide medical support and distribute vaccines to the occupied Palestinian population, to provide the funding to enable distribution of vaccines, as well as to ensure and maintain medical and hospital establishments and services.

These assumptions, claims, allegations and accusations are misplaced, misguided and in many respects, emanate from a mixture of ill-will, envy and above all, a deep hostility to Israel and to everything it achieves.

Israel is under no obligation to provide vaccinations to the population of the territories. Israel’s status is not that of an occupying power, and the Fourth Geneva Convention is not applicable to the territories.

Since Israel and the PLO signed the still valid Oslo 2 Accord in 1995, an independent legal regime was established whereby the Palestinian Authority has the full responsibility to govern those parts of the territories that are under its control, including the full civilian responsibility for health and dealing with epidemics, and for importing vaccines and other medical equipment.

The Third (Civilian) annex to the agreement requires the PA and Israel to cooperate and exchange information between them in order to combat epidemics. Nothing more, nothing less.

Israel does not prevent entry of humanitarian and medical equipment, or food and other items required for everyday civilian life to the Gaza Strip. Thousands of trucks deliver goods daily to the Gaza Strip through the passage points.

Israel’s maritime blockade was sanctioned by the United Nations as a legitimate means of preventing the importation of offensive military equipment.

Clearly, in light of the geographic proximity between Israel and the West Bank, areas of Judea and Samaria and the Gaza Strip, epidemiological and moral considerations require both Israel and the PA, as well as Hamas, to act with a view to reducing the risk of spreading COVID-19.

To this end, Israel and the Palestinians are cooperating and exchanging information pursuant to their respective obligations under the Oslo Accords.

 

700,000 more coronavirus vaccine doses land in Israel

Some 700,000 Pfizer coronavirus vaccines landed in Israel on Sunday and were met at Ben-Gurion Airport by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Health Minister Yuli Edelstein. 

"This is a great day for Israel with a huge shipment that has arrived in the framework of Operation Back to Life, a plane full of injections of encouragement," Netanyahu said, informing the public that next Sunday an additional shipment would arrive “and we will start vaccinating the next group, people aged 50-60.” 

According to the agreement between Israel and Pfizer, the company will deliver tens of thousands of vaccines to Israel each week until every Israeli who wants to be inoculated has been jabbed. 

To get this done, the prime minister said that the country would increase the number of people vaccinated per day to 170,000 beginning immediately. Later Coronavirus Commissioner Prof. Nachman Ash said that the goal was to vaccinate as many as 200,000 people per day - some with their first doses and some with their second. 

"Tonight, we will sit down with the health funds and prepare for the next stage of the vaccination campaign," Edelstein said.

"I am certain that our amazing medical teams … they will get this done,” Netanyahu added. 

The announcement came on the same day as the Health Ministry announced that more than 72% of Israelis over the age of 60 had been vaccinated against the virus and that Edelstein said he had met with his staff and instructed them to evaluate the possibility of offering vaccinations throughout the night. 

At the airport, Edelstein, like Netanyahu, committed that by mid-March Israel will reach five million vaccinated citizens.

The Health Ministry already is opening up vaccination to educational staff and said that next in line are people over the age of 55. By next week, those over 50 should be able to get the jab. 

The Education Ministry informed teachers on Sunday of the process for getting inoculated and said that the campaign would also include other school staff, such as secretaries, aides and counselors. 

Priority is first being given to those people who are expected to teach during the lockdown, like special education teachers and staff, and those that work with youth-at-risk or in boarding schools. 

It is expected that the first teachers will begin getting inoculated as early as Wednesday. 

So far, more than 1.8 million Israelis have received their first dose of the vaccine, Edelstein reported early Sunday. More than 40,000 Israelis were inoculated on Saturday alone. 

As mentioned, almost three-fourths (72%) of people over the age of 60 have been inoculated, with 59% of all those who have been vaccinated being over 60.

Vaccinating All over 16's by End of March

As of this week, Israel had successfully vaccinated over 1.65 million of its 9.3 million citizens, with 70% of those aged 60 and over getting their first shot of the two-dose vaccine made by the Pfizer pharmaceutical company.

But most of those vaccinated live in or near Israel’s three large urban areas – Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa – where the health care infrastructure is set up to receive and administer the temperature sensitive vaccines.

That leaves those living in Israel’s periphery having to travel farther to get inoculated, so Leumit Health Services, one of the country’s four healthcare organizations, sent out the first two coronavirus vaccination units to provide service in remote communities, with two more to join them in the near future.

The first unit was in the small city in the Negev, Tuesday and has already vaccinated hundreds of Leumit members, while the second unit began traveling to towns and villages in Israel’s Arab sector visiting the town of Baqa al-Gharbiyye, in the center of the country.

Two more mobile clinics are to be in operation by the weekend, complementing the dozens of vaccination centers centers the HMO is operating around the country at its existing clinics.

“From now on, Leumit is offering its members a range of possibilities vis-à-vis anti-coronavirus vaccinations including the vaccination points and the mobile units,” said Leumit CEO Haim Fernandes.

Israel has been vaccinating some 150,000 people daily, most of them at clinics operated by the four HMOs. Hospitals are also administering the vaccine to staff and patients, the Israel Defense Forces is inoculating thousands of its medical teams and members of the Magen David Adom national ambulance service were out vaccinating in other communities where clinics were scarce.

“The cooperation with the Ministry of Health, the HMOs, the IDF and the authorities allows Magen David Adom to continue to lead the vaccination campaigns in the most comprehensive manner,” said MDA director Eli Bin.

Over the coming months Israel is expecting the delivery of six million doses of vaccine from the American company Moderna, several million doses from the British company AstraZaneca, and more doses of the Pfizer vaccine with the goal of getting the country immunized and end the pandemic before the summer.

In fact a statement this week says that the immediate aim is to immunise everyone over 16 years by the end of March. (just in time for voting in the elections!)

Arabs: An Extremely Important Voice for Peace

 

• When someone with George Kurdahi's, an influential TV presenter, weight and stature openly states that it is up to the Arab countries to decide whether they want to make peace with Israel, this sends a message to millions of Arabs that the idea of establishing relations with Israel may not be a bad one after all.
• This, needless to say, is a refreshing change, especially because it is coming from a country such as Lebanon, which is effectively ruled by Hezbollah and the mullahs in Iran.
• "If the weapons [of Hezbollah] undermine the State of Lebanon and are an obstacle to the return of many Arabs to Lebanon, then there needs to be re-examination of the situation. Hezbollah must reconsider its positions so that we can ensure a prosperous future for Lebanon." — George Kurdahi, one of the Arab world's most influential TV presenters, YouTube, December 26, 2020, Lebanon.
• Kurdahi may have "shocked" his audience by speaking out in favor of peace with Israel and by criticizing the Palestinians and Hezbollah. His words, however, hardly surprised those who read and listen to what many Arabs in the Gulf have been saying about the Palestinians and Hezbollah, as well as peace with Israel.
• These Arabs also have a clear and powerful opinion of Hezbollah: a manipulative and murderous terrorist group that serves as proxy for the mullahs in Iran and poses a real threat not only to Israel, but to Lebanon and other Arab countries as well.

Full article by Kaled Abu Tomeh here