What was teenager doing on rooftop in Jenin?

 The death of 16-year-old Jana Zakarneh is Ramallah’s latest excuse to enlist the international community in its effort to demonize Israel by accusing it of targeting children.

For the powers-that-be in the Palestinian Authority, the death on Sunday night of 16-year-old Jana Zakarneh couldn’t have come at a better time, mere hours before the arrival in the region of UN Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict Virginia Gamba.

Gamba kicked off her visit, a fact-finding mission to garner fodder for her annual report on harm to kids in the Israeli-Palestinian “conflict,” in Ramallah.

According to the Wafa news agency, her first meeting was with PA Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Minister, who presented her with detailed documentation of “Israel’s systematic and deliberate crimes against Palestinian children,” including “killing and maiming, targeting of schools and hospitals, sexual assaults, kidnapping and denying access to humanitarian and medical aid.”

It must have been music to Gamba’s ears. In the guise of neutrality, however, she will convene with and hear Jerusalem’s version of events (in other words, the truth): that Israel is in a defensive war against terrorists and goes out of its way to avoid civilian casualties, often to the point of imperiling its own troops.

Zakarneh’s presence next to an armed terrorist during a firefight with the Israeli military raises serious questions about her degree of involvement. Initial investigations indicate, for instance, that she regularly served as a photographer for gunmen in her neighborhood. And cellphone footage from her camera isn’t the only evidence.

Her grieving uncle’s contradictory accounts of the night in question were just as big a giveaway, albeit unintentional. He told one outlet that his niece had been at home minding her own business when the sound of gunshots overhead spurred her to race to the roof. He was quoted on Twitter as claiming that she had gone to the roof to find her missing cat.

Both stories are revealing; most young girls would have responded to the noise of gunfire, all-too-familiar in Jenin, by cowering under their beds, not rushing to get in on the action. 

Had the young woman not been next to the targeted terrorist, filming the exchange to post on social media for propaganda purposes, she would still be alive and well.

But, then, mobs of hate-filled Palestinians would have been robbed of the ritual of carrying her flag-draped body through the streets of the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) city that has become a key base for arms-hoarding and terrorist activity against the “Zionists.” It’s par for the making of a martyr, whose family will be rewarded with a generous monthly stipend from the PA.

 

Israel the fifth safest country in the world for tourists

 Israel has been identified as the fifth safest country in the world for tourists, according to “The Swiftest,” an American insurance comparison website.

 The website based its travel safety index by comparing the number of deaths resulting from situations such as homicide, road accidents, natural disasters, poor hygiene and other factors in the 50 most-visited countries.

Singapore was ranked the world’s safest country for tourists, followed by Denmark, the Netherlands, Switzerland and then Israel.

 That was higher than the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain and Australia, which also made the top 20.

 The Swiftest’s list of deadliest countries for tourists was topped by South Africa. Other countries making this list included Mexico, Brazil, China, Iran, and the United States which came in 20th place.

The study called on tourists to never travel without doing some research about the potential dangers of their destinations, to take safety precautions while abroad, and not to travel alone.

According to Tourism Ministry figures, more than 2 million tourists visited Israel in 2022 in January-October.

Israel is the fifth-most educated country in the world

 About half of people in Israel have completed tertiary education, according to the report.

Israel is the fifth most educated country in the world, with half (50.12%) of people having completed tertiary education, according to an Erudera report. 

The rest of the top 10 are Canada, Japan, Luxembourg, South Korea, the US, Ireland, UK, Australia and Finland.

Erudera, an education search platform, also found some joint characteristics of those countries, saying that they all have relatively high per capita GDP, high spending on education and low unemployment rates. 

Among highly educated young Israelis (25-34), women are a clear majority with 62.6%, according to the OECD report "Education at a Glance 2022".

Why is tertiary education important?

Tertiary education, according the World Bank, "refers to all formal post-secondary education, including public and private universities, colleges, technical training institutes, and vocational schools."

According to the report, during the COVID-19 pandemic, "unemployment increased much more for those with below upper secondary attainment than for those with tertiary attainment."

The report also suggests that better-educated adults find it easier to adopt new technologies. 71% of 55–74-year-olds with tertiary attainment managed to use online or video calls during the pandemic, while only 34% of similarly aged adults with below upper secondary attainment did.

There is an almost constant rise in the number of tertiary students, and therefore they are becoming more diverse with time. As more people gain access to tertiary education, the tertiary education systems have to adapt to students coming from less privileged backgrounds.

Tags education university oecd israel israel education

One Day’s Headlines Reveal The Entire Israeli-Arab Conflict

 With thanks to Stephen M. Flatow 

Sometimes, you just have to glance at a single day’s news headlines to learn everything you need to know about the Israeli-Arab conflict. Take last Friday, for example.

In the Palestinian Authority-ruled town of Hawara, Israeli security personnel attempted to arrest a fugitive terrorist. Other Palestinian Arabs jumped in, “trying to pull him free,” as the Israeli media reported. Funny thing—critics of Israel are always claiming that the masses of Palestinian Arabs are moderate and want peace. If that’s the case, they should be delighted when terrorists are arrested. Yet in Hawara on Friday, and in many other instances, they have violently interfered with attempts to capture terrorists.

The Hawara suspect stabbed and wounded two of the Israelis before being subdued. You won’t hear any protests from J Street over the stabbing or see any angry columns in The New York Times by Thomas Friedman. It seems trying to stab Israeli police officers to death is an acceptable mode of behavior if you’re a Palestinian Arab.

 Meanwhile, there were Palestinian Arab shooting attacks on Israelis in Yabed and Jenin. Once again, Israeli soldiers were carrying out routine, peaceful arrests of terrorists—something the P.A. is obligated to do, but never does—and once again, the Arabs responded with gunfire. Fortunately, the terrorists were killed and the Israelis weren’t. Of course, the headlines in the international news media will read “Palestinians Killed by Israel” rather than “Palestinians Killed While Trying to Murder Israelis.”

In Shechem (Nablus) the same day, Israeli security forces tried to arrest a fugitive terrorist. According to Israeli news reports, Arabs in the city responded by shooting at them, “hurling explosives” and trying to stone the Israelis to death. All in one morning! As usual, the P.A. security forces were nowhere to be found.

That’s not all. Near the Jewish community of Ofra, north of Jerusalem, Palestinian Arab terrorists opened fire with automatic weapons on a group of Jews committing a terrible crime—driving. It was an ordinary civilian bus, traveling its regular route, providing a service that is open to Arabs and Jews alike—yet the Arabs decided that the Jews deserved to be slaughtered for doing so.

Another shooting at a civilian vehicle was in the news on Friday. A Palestinian Arab terrorist was convicted of participating in a shooting attack on an Israeli automobile in 2015, murdering a young man named Malachi Rosenfeld and wounding three other passengers.

According to Israeli media reports, the terrorist, Maad Hamed, was actually detained by the P.A., but then somehow “escaped.” That is, escaped through the P.A.’s notorious revolving-door justice system.

The media described Hamed’s home town, Silwad, as “a Hamas stronghold.” That’s another blatant violation of the Oslo Accords—there aren’t supposed to be any Hamas strongholds anywhere in P.A. territory. The reason the United States helped build the P.A.’s security force into one of the largest per-capita security forces in the world is to prevent terrorist groups from developing strongholds in the territory the P.A. governs.

Yet the P.A. has never outlawed Hamas, disarmed its cells or arrested its members. The P.A. treats Hamas like brothers, not enemies.

Now let’s see what Friday’s headlines tell us about how the Biden administration is responding to this ongoing Palestinian war against Israel. This week, the U.S. established a new “Office of Palestinian Affairs” within the American embassy in Jerusalem, appointed Palestinian-American Hady Amr as its “Special Representative for Palestinian Affairs” and reaffirmed its intention to open a U.S. consulate in Jerusalem, which Israel opposes because it would function as a de-facto embassy to the P.A. So, the Palestinians wage war—and the U.S. leans in, on their side.

Meanwhile, U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), who is known to be close to President Joe Biden, announced that “the Biden administration is in the process of doing everything they can to try to limit the potential for damage of the inclusion of these extremist elements within [Benjamin Netanyahu’s] governing coalition.” Strange—I don’t recall the administration pressing the last Israeli government to exclude the extremist, Islamist Arab party Ra’am. I wonder why there should be such a double standard.

One last item from Friday’s news: When the Israeli election results ensured that Itamar Ben-Gvir would be part of the new government, the United Arab Emirates—one of the Gulf kingdoms that signed the Abraham Accords—angrily warned Netanyahu against including Ben-Gvir. But this week, the UAE held a reception in Tel Aviv and, lo and behold, Ben-Gvir was one of the guests in attendance.

The incident illustrates how little the Biden administration and others in the West understand about the Arab-Israeli conflict. Arab governments often holler and bluster, but then they adjust to reality. The UAE’s threat about Ben-Gvir was ignored, and the UAE has accepted the new reality. That’s how life works in the Middle East.

US Funds Arabs Who Want to Destroy Israel

By Bassam Tawil  •  December 5, 2022 at 5:00 am

Full article at https://tinyurl.com/ytkf6zft  

• What is disturbing is that a large portion of this incitement is coming from Arabs whose governments signed peace treaties or other agreements with Israel: Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinians.
• What is even more disturbing is that the hate against Israel is coming from Arabs who continue to benefit from unconditional US financial aid.
• The Palestinian Authority, headed by Mahmoud Abbas, continues to spearhead the Arab campaign of incitement and delegitimization against Israel. In addition to the incendiary rhetoric, the Palestinian Authority does not hide its vehement opposition to any kind of peace with Israel.
• In its latest tirade against Israel, Abbas's ruling Fatah faction claimed that the Israeli counter-terrorism measures, designed to save the lives of Jews and Arabs alike, are acts of "terrorism and war crimes." According to the logic of the Palestinian Authority, a terror attack against Israel is legitimate and the perpetrator is a hero and martyr, but an Israeli action to stop terrorism is illegitimate.
• This is the same Palestinian Authority that maintains good relations with the Biden administration, which recently decided to upgrade US relations with Abbas and his associates....
• It is worth noting that since April 2021, the US has provided more than half a billion dollars in assistance for the Palestinians.
• If the US thinks that showering money and concessions on the Palestinian leaders will lessen the tension, you heard it here first: this approach definitely will not work. All that will happen is that the hostilities will increase so that the bribes will increase. Giving hard, concrete gifts in exchange for soft promises is inevitably doomed from the start.
• Egypt has enjoyed the benefit of more than $51 billion in US taxpayer-funded military aid since the signing of the Egypt-Israel peace treaty in 1979.
• Again, it is worth noting that this incitement against Israel is being spread despite the ongoing massive US financial aid to Jordan.
• One way to counter this campaign of hate and to encourage peace is for the US to make its aid conditional on ending (or at least reducing) the rhetoric of hate. So far, however, it is clear that the US has no intention of demanding anything in return for its money.
• For the time being, then, many Arabs will continue to receive hundreds of millions of dollars from the US while continuing actively to seek the destruction of Israel and being financially rewarded for it.

Commemorating The Jewish Nakba

A pro-“palestinian” resolution at the UN recently declared Israel’s founding unjust passed 90-30 at the UN.

 The resolution was made to commemorate Nakba day, which means calamity – referring to the founding of the State of Israel.

 The UN resolution calls for a “commemoration of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Nakba, including by organizing a high-level event at the General Assembly Hall” in May 2023. It also urges the “dissemination of relevant archives and testimonies.”

So why is there no voting commemorating the Jewish Nakba when almost 1 million Jews were kicked out of Arab lands?

See chart below just how many Jews were kicked out of Arab lands. Is this not the real ethnic cleabsing?

 

 

Hezbollah activity in Lebanon continues

 ( With thanks to Alma Israe https://israel-alma.org)

The search for #Hezbollah activity in #Lebanon continues through eyes on the ground. Here's what was found in the village of Hadath in the #Iranian proxy-controlled Beqaa Valley.

Multi Culturalism or Multi Ethnicity, Which is Positive?

Here in Israel we see ongoing changes in the demographics of the European countries and also those in the Middle East.

The findings of the recent 2021 census for England and Wales reveal a country that is changing dramatically.

The results of the 2021 census compared those of 2011 show stark changes which ought to ring alarm bells with the UK policy of  almost unlimited immigration.

Britain’s two largest cities, London and Birmingham, are now minority white British. Since the last census, the white British population of Birmingham has fallen from 52 per cent to 43 per cent. In London, the number has fallen from 45 per cent to 37 per cent. 

While more than 80 per cent in England and Wales still identify their ethnic group as white, the numbers have fallen from 86 per cent to 81.7 per cent.  The second most common ethnic group after “white” was “Asian, Asian British or Asian Welsh” at 9.3 per cent, up from 7.5 per cent in 2011. The number of people identifying their ethnic group as “Other” rose to 1.6 per cent from 0.6 per cent. And those identifying as “Black, Black British, Black Welsh, Caribbean or African” also increased to 2.5 per cent from 1.8 per cent.

There is a continuing decline of Christianity within the UKi. For the first time, fewer than half the population of England and Wales identifies as Christian, while self-described Christians have declined by 17 per cent, there has been a 43 per cent rise in the number of people who say they follow Islam.

The significance of these changes does not lie in skin colour but in the fact that minority cultures are increasing while the majority culture is waning. Statisticians have welcomed this as the development of a “multicultural society”. While a multi-ethnic society is possible, there is no such thing as a “multicultural society”. 

A society only exists where its inhabitants regard themselves as bound together by a culture composed of language, religion, law, literature, traditions, customs and so on expressed through civic and political ideals embedded in the historic development of that culture. Different ethnicities can sign up to the norms established by that culture, even if they are newcomers who didn’t share in its development.  But there has to be an identifiable overarching culture to which they can sign up.

Multiculturalism, by contrast, means that no one culture defines a nation which is composed instead of a range of cultures. Moreover, multiculturalism holds that the indigenous culture cannot declare its values superior to any other. So it cannot lay down cultural norms which everyone is expected to share. Multiculturalism therefore destroys society as a body of people with a shared collective national vision. 

Children chant massacre-Jews song financed by UK taxpayers

 BY DAVID ROSE  INVESTIGATIONS EDITOR NOVEMBER 24, 2022 11:57

An Iranian propaganda video in which dozens of children sing a song that references an apocalyptic myth about massacring Jews was filmed at a school just 15 minutes’ walk from the New London synagogue in St John’s Wood, a Jewish Chronicle investigation has revealed.

Some scenes were also shot at the nearby Islamic Centre of England (ICE), which is controlled by the Iranian regime and linked to the school. ICE is currently the subject of a statutory inquiry by the Charity Commission, as the JC disclosed last week.

The song, entitled Hello Commander, has been praised by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who claims its popularity proves his people’s “loyalty to the system”, Iranian pro-regime media has reported. Its recording in St John’s Wood, in easy reach of several synagogues and Jewish centres, has raised serious concerns among community security officials.

 In the London video, rows of boys in white shirts and pressed black trousers and girls in blue flares, white blouses and matching hijabs can be seen saluting and singing their allegiance to their “commander”, Ayatollah Khamenei.

 The children, aged between eight and 15, sing: “Without you, this life has no meaning. This life comes alive when you are here for me.”

 They then sing about fighting in history’s final battle for the mythical leader known as the Mahdi, last seen supposedly almost 1,200 years ago.

 Shia theology says the Mahdi will return to Earth to lead Muslim forces in the war of the apocalypse, accompanied by an elite band of 313 fighters — including, the song suggests, the children in the video.

They sing: “We wait for under the flag of our leaders. Tell me beloved, will you arrive soon? May Allah hasten your reappearance…

“We may be young but do not see us as too young. For you I will rise up and you will not see me fall. From the 313, you will see I will answer the call… Take my oath of loyalty as a warrior and servant.”

 Kasra Aarabi, the head of the Iran Programme at the Tony Blair Institute, told the JC that the “cult” of Mahdi doctrine is now driving Iranian regime policy and its attempts to radicalise Shia Muslims. “It is antisemitic to its core”, he said, “because it holds that before the Mahdi can return, Israel must be destroyed and all the world’s Jews put to death”.

The ICE’s constitution stipulates that one of its trustees will always be the UK’s personal representative of Ayatollah Khamenei.

 Versions of the song recorded in Iran and elsewhere dominate the country’s official airways.

A report by the pro-regime Iran Press News Agency states: “Hello Commander educates the new generation on the ambitions of the Islamic Revolution and encourages them to be guardians to protect those ideals, which is seen as a step towards promoting the revolution among the generation to come.”

 The Charity Commission has warned ICE that praising Soleimani may break English law.

The school is owned by the Iranian government and ICE’s previous director Mohammad Shomali, the previous ICE director and reportedly its Khamenei representative, has spoken there.

The ICE has received £139,000 from taxpayers under the Covid furlough scheme. Meanwhile, the school’s pastoral and educational standards have been scathingly criticised by Ofsted.

 Its latest inspection, in March, rated the school “inadequate”, saying it was “repeatedly failing” in areas such as safeguarding. The school’s leaders had failed to show they had the necessary “knowledge and skills” to ensure proper standards were met.

 The current Charity Commission inquiry into the ICE was triggered by a speech at the centre in October by Seyed Moosavi, its present director and Khamenei representative, when he said Iranian protesters were “soldiers of Satan”.

That probe concluded with an “official warning” and “action plan” for ICE, on the grounds it had hosted extremist speakers and that Mr Moosavi’s statements may have amounted to an offence under the Terrorism Act. A Commission statement this week says that “the trustees have failed to fully comply with the Action Plan and Official Warning and a number of further regulatory concerns also remain”.

 Senior MPs from both main parties said the probe into the ICE must be conducted with utmost rigour. The former Tory Defence Secretary Liam Fox said: “We are much too tolerant of extreme Iranian sympathisers spreading the bile of their theocratic regime and we should be closing down their propaganda outfits in the UK and Europe.”

 ICE told the JC: “In Shiite text, the followers of the 12th Imam [the Mahdi] are referred to as his disciples and companions and preparing them to reach that spiritual status is a process that is highly encouraged.

 

 

Terrorists kidnap body of the Druze Israeli - returned to family

 The mainstream media and government is reporting “The body of Tiran Fero, a young Israeli Druze, was returned after being kidnapped by terrorists from his hospital bed who disconnected his life support resulting in his death.  Israel's outgoing Defense Minister Benny Gantz thanked the Palestinian Authority for facilitating the body's return.  "I would like to express my appreciation to the Palestinian Authority for its action to return the late Tiran Fero to his family. This is a basic humanitarian step after a vile and inhuman act.”

NOW HERE’S WHAT THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA FAILED TO REPORT…

— The uncle of the young man told the IDF that he DID NOT want any Israeli soldiers placed at risk to retrieve the body, he can wait a day or two. 

— The Druze community rallied in the thousands, marched on Jenin, blocked the checkpoint, with many armed and firing in the air .

— Several groups of Druze gunman kidnapped several Palestinian workers and threatened to kill them if the body is not immediately returned. (In the Galil, in Hebron, and in the Shomron.)  

— Druze militants threatened to march on Jenin and kill their way through the city searching for the body.

— Their spiritual leader Mufak Tarak requested the community to calm down and give negotiations a chance.

…a short time later the body was returned (around 2am).

Ukraine - What Chutzpah

 

Israel condemned Ukraine’s decision to vote in favor of an anti-Israel resolution at the United Nations last Friday, as Kyiv continues to pressure the Jewish state to provide it with advanced weaponry.

On Friday, Israeli ambassador to Ukraine, Michael Brodsky, took Kyiv to task after the Ukrainian delegation to the United Nations voted in favor of a draft resolution in the General Assembly’s Special Political and Decolonization Committee backed by the Palestinian Authority’s delegation.

Brodsky took to Twitter shortly after the vote, calling Ukraine out over its U.N. vote.

“Ukraine’s support of the UN resolution ‘Israeli Practices’, denying Jewish ties to Temple Mount and calling for ICJ advisory opinion is extremely disappointing. Supporting anti Israeli initiatives in the UN doesn’t help to build trust between Israel and Ukraine,” Brodsky tweeted.

The resolution, accused Israel of denying Palestinian Arabs the right to self-determination, negated Israel’s historical connection to the Temple Mount, and urged the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to render an opinion against Israel’s presence in Judea and Samaria.

The draft resolution, entitled “Israeli practices and settlement activities affecting the rights of the Palestinian people and other Arabs of the occupied territories,” claims Israel has violated ‘Palestinian rights’ to self-determination “from its prolonged occupation, settlement and annexation of the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including measures aimed at altering the demographic composition, character and status of the holy city of Jerusalem, and from its adoption of related discriminatory legislation and measures.”

It would ask the court for an opinion on how these Israeli policies and practices “affect the legal status of the occupation, and what are the legal consequences that arise for all states and the United Nations from this status.”

The call for a new opinion was one of six Palestinian-related resolutions approved by the committee on Friday.

The court’s opinions are non-binding.

Ukraine’s support for the resolution comes as Kyiv continues to press Jerusalem to transfer the Iron Dome missile defense system and other weapons to Ukraine.

The Ukrainian government has thus far refused Israeli offers for a civilian missile alert warning system.

REWRITING HISTORY

(Cross posted from "Grandma's Army" )

Rewriting the history of the Land of Israel in order to deny Israel's right to exist is central to Palestinian Authority (PA) policy. Long before it started the PA terror campaign (such as the Intifada’s), the PA was fighting a history war - erasing Jewish history and replacing it with a fabricated Palestinian history.

This rewriting has two central goals:

1-   Erase the Jewish nation's 4,000 year history in the Land of Israel.
2-   Invent ancient Palestinian, Muslim and Arab histories in the land.

This international campaign of delegitimization began a long time before  the establishment of the modern Jewish state.

The ancient Romans tried to strip the area of its Jewish identity, to make it more Roman, by renaming Judea "Syria Palaestina."

Later, the fifth caliph of the dynasty of Syria - who ruled during the late 7th century - employed the tactic of delegitimising both Judaism and Christianity, by constructing the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. This was the biblical spot where Abraham was prepared to sacrifice his son, Isaac. Also the site of the twice-destroyed Jewish Temples. The famous Western Wall is all that remains of their existence.

The goal of this historical revision as a political strategy was first expressed publicly at a conference of Palestinian historians in 1998, when rewriting history was linked to the political goal of denying Israel's right to exist:

Dr. Yussuf Alzamili, chairman History Department at the Khan Yunis Educational College, called on all universities and colleges to write the history of Palestine and to guard it. “Not to enable the foreign implants and enemies to distort it or to legitimize the existence of Jews on this land...” History lecturer Abu Amar clarified that there is no connection between the ancient generation of Jews and the modern generation.

In contemporary times, a version of this tactic of revisionist history was attempted by the late PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat. During the US-brokered Palestinian-Israeli peace talks at Camp David in 2000, he stated that the first and second Jewish temples were not erected in Jerusalem, but rather miles away in Nablus.

According to the Palestinian Ministry of Information, no archaeological excavations in Jerusalem had ever unearthed Jewish artifacts.

A Visit to Ghajar (Raajar)

The village of Ghajar (pronounced Raajar from the Arabic) until last week was forbidden for the Israeli public to visit. Entry used to be restricted to residents only or to those with special permits. But that changed last week, when Israel decided to lift all limits on movement into the village.

I was on a trip to the North with a number of residents from our village and was really surprised when we were told that we were to visit there

Sometimes it's been claimed by Lebanon, Syria, and Israel. Other times, it's been cut off from them all. It landed in its strange position following the 1967 Six Day War, in which Israel captured the Golan Heights.

In 1981, when Israel passed a law formally annexing the Golan Heights, it offered residents the right to citizenship. An offer declined by most of the Golan’s Syrian Druze community, but taken up by the residents of Ghajar. 

The villagers hale from the Alawite community best known as being the ruling elite of the regime of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad, most Alawites live along the Syrian coastal strip. And so, despite originally being Syrian, most of Ghajar's 2,500 inhabitants hold dual Israeli and Lebanese citizenship.

Although when asked, most opposed dividing the town and opted to remain under Israeli rule.

"Look, we are Syrians, living in a Syrian village and we remain Syrian. Nothing has changed. We have Israeli citizenship and we belong to the State of Israel. We adhere to its laws and we protect our home. That's all," explained local tour guide Jamal Khateeb.

But with no effective border on its northern end, Ghajar became infamous in recent years as a hub of arms and drug smuggling from Lebanon. But that changed in late July. The local council erected a fence, completely blocking access from Lebanon into the village.

Previously, no fence ever existed that blocked access to Ghajar from Lebanese territory.

"Now, we are like any other village or town in Israel and people can enter it freely," noted Bilal Khateeb. And Israelis appear to have taken that invitation, already flocking to the village.

One’s first impression travelling through the village is of the beauty of the village, flower beds care for, no rubbish littering the streets, ornamental roundabouts.

The photo taken below is self explanatory. Looking out from the Western side of the village one see a Lebanese village not more than a few hundred metres away. Between out vantage point and the Lebanese village is the international border just beyond the river Hisbani. On the Israeli side is the UN check post “monitoring”, both sdies to ensure adherence to the terms of the International agreement. Seems they must have been sleeping when the Lebanese villages ran a 2” pipe to pump water from the river to their village in defiance of the international law. What did the UN personnel do about it? As usual NOTHING!!!

Palestinians: Why Are Attacks on Christians Being Ignored?

 -         "Did you see ever a Christian attacked a Mosque  in Christian majority towns in Middle East? Off course No. This shows difference of culture, faith, respect & recognition we hold" — Shadi Khalloul, prominent Christian rights advocate, Twitter, October 29, 2022.

-         As in previous instances, the Palestinian Authority has failed to take real measures to punish those who attack Christians or Christian holy sites in the Bethlehem area.

-         The attacks by Muslims on Christians are often ignored by the international  community and media, who seem to speak out only when they can find a way to blame Israel. 

-         Another disturbing situation is that the leaders of the Christian community in the West Bank are reluctant to hold the Palestinian Authority and their Muslim neighbors responsible for the attacks. They are afraid of retribution and prefer to toe the official line of holding Israel solely responsible for the misery of the Christian minority. 

-         Sadly, it is safe to assume that the plight of the Palestinian Christians will only intensify in light of the silence of the international community and the all-too-justified fear of retaliation burdening their own leaders.

Read more on this story at https://tinyurl.com/2f7snuwx

End the Election Cycle

In this election season, many are bemoaning the unsatisfactory rules governing the way we elect members of the Knesset. One of my mailing readers posted the following point of view, with which I totally agree?

     Ho-hum, another election coming up.  Will the cycle never end?  Will a stable government finally be formed?  And finally, does it matter?  

     After all, the economic, military and international situations are all pretty good to excellent, and as an Israeli friend once told me, when I complained about the lousy governmental structure, "Don't worry--we don't pay the slightest attention to what the government does!"

     Well, maybe so, but then again, maybe they should.  Especially with the possibility of a government dependent upon the support of extremists who threaten not the structure, but the essence of democratic governance.

     At least two changes in the structure of the government are absolutely essential if the electoral circus is to come to an end:

     1.  Term limits.  At least the position of prime minister must be limited to a maximum of two terms, not necessarily consecutive.  In a true democracy no-one is indispensable, or if he or she is, it is not a democracy.  Henry Kissinger once said "Power is an aphrodisiac" (he should know).  Even Winston Churchill, one of the truly greats of modern history, didn't know when to quit and was unceremoniously turned out of office by a nonentity after leading Britain to victory in world War II (Churchill characterized Clement Attlee, the Labour Party leader who succeeded him thus:  "An empty taxi pulled up at No 10 Downing Street and Clement Attlee stepped out.")

     2.  The members of the Knesset currently represent no-one but their party leader.  This must be changed to a system whereby all or most of the members of the Knesset are elected in constituencies, and thus represent and are responsible to real people.  If a Briton or an American has a serious problem, they know they can always go to their Congressperson or member of Parliament for redress.  Not here.

     There are other changes in both the executive and legislative branches of government that would be helpful, but these two are essential.  Can a true leader be found to push them through?  We shall see.

Israeli forces destroy bomb lab in Nablus, 5 terrorists killed

 At least five members of Lion's Den terrorist group were killed during clashes with Israeli troops

Israeli security forces conducted an overnight raid in the West Bank city of Nablus, destroying an explosives manufacturing site belonging to the Lion’s Den terrorist group.

The military’s spokesperson said that Israel Defense Forces (IDF), the Israel Security Agency (ISA) and the Special Police Unit took part in the joint operation. They raided a hideout apartment that served as a headquarters and bomb lab for the Nablus-based terrorist organization. 

“The site was used by the main operatives of the “Lion’s Den” terrorist group. The forces detonated the explosive manufacturing site,” the army’s statement said.

Clashes broke out between the troops and armed Palestinians, leaving five members of the terrorist group dead and at least twenty wounded, according to Palestinian reports. Videos show heavy gunfire exchange between Israeli forces and armed Palestinians, who also threw stones at the military and burned tires. More on this at https://tinyurl.com/4fxhm23k  

Maritime Border Dispute

 

Negotiations have been taking place for years to resolve the maritime borders of Israel and Lebanon. The question took on a great significance with the discovery of gas in the area under dispute.

In the map below, there are four lines emanating from the land border crossing at Rosh Hanikrah. There are two gas fields involved in the disputed area Karish and further north Quana. Israel placed the border as the most northern line which kept the Karish field in Israel and also 40% of the Quana field. Lebanon countered this proposal with the most southern line maintaining Quana totally in Lebanon waters and also 50% of the Karish field.

As far as the negotiations have progressed so far, it appears there seems to be a compromise solution on the table giving Israel control od the Karish field and 17% of the Quana field. (line23)

At this moment in time, thr Karish field is almost ready to start pumping gas whilst exploration of the Quana field has not yet started. Thus, it is unclear whether there is gas there nor how much. The company Total Energy has the rights to drill in this field but it expected to take up to 10 years before gas can be extracted in commercial quantities.

Since Lebanon still refuses to accept Israel’s existence, the proposed financial agreement is planned to be between Total Energy and Israel, not Lebanon.

The Lebanese have stressed that this is not a first stage to normalization since Hezbollah are dictating this to the Lebanese government.

Is it a good agreement for Israel, this is not certain? Can the present caretaker government legally conclude such an agreement, also not certain?

So the question remain, do we have an agreement or not? Time will tell.

Three Israeli Women in Forbes list of Most Powerful Women

 

Three Israeli women—Eynat Guez, Adi Tatarko and Daphne Koller—are included on Fortune magazine’s “The 15 Most Powerful Women in Startups” list for 2022.

All three head so-called unicorn companies, valued at $1 billion or more.

Tatarko, ranked eighth on the list, founded the highly successful home remodeling and design platform and community Houzz in 2009 with her husband, Alon Cohen, in Palo Alto.

Guez, ranked ninth, is cofounder and CEO of Herzliya-headquartered multinational firm Papaya Global, whose payroll automation platform is used by more than 700 companies in 160 countries.

Koller, ranked thirteenth, is a machine-learning pioneer who previously cofounded online education powerhouse Coursera. She’s currently founder and CEO of San Francisco-based Insitro, a data-driven drug discovery and development company. Koller also was named to Forbes’  “50 over 50”  list of notable entrepreneurs.

Palestinian's habit always backing ‘wrong side’

 When it comes to major international conflicts throughout history, the Palestinian leadership has often, if not always, chosen to support “the wrong side.” From Adolf Hitler to Saddam Hussein, and now Russian President Vladimir Putin, with whom Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has opted to side.

During World War II, the Palestinians faced the decision to either support the Axis alliance or the great Allied powers. They chose the German Nazi Reich. Their then-leader Mufti Hajj Amim al-Husseini spent the duration of the war in Berlin, and allegedly advised Hitler to destroy all Jews in the Arab world. Local Arab communities were ecstatic when Nazi general Erwin Rommel invaded Egypt, and headed for Palestine.

When will they learn?

On Twitter an anti-Semitic tweet every 20 seconds in 2020.

Between 2019 and 2020, more than two million Twitter posts regarding Jews or Israel were anti-Semitic, according to a study from the Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism (ISCA) at Indiana University.

In 2019, 849,253 tweets—6.9 percent of all conversations about Jews on Twitter—were anti-Semitic. That proportion rose in 2020 to 10.7 percent, meaning 1,531,912 anti-Semitic tweets were posted, 4,197 per day or one every 20 seconds, in conversations that include the word “Jews.”

ISCA said the content was mostly related to conspiracy theories about Jewish world domination, the Middle East conflict and the Holocaust

“We need to do more research to identify the sources of anti-Semitic propaganda. Some of it comes from neo-Nazi groups, anti-Zionist organizations and Iranian-sponsored activities,” the institute said.

Denying the Jewish people a right to self-determination was also a common theme found by ISCA in anti-Semitic Twitter conversations about Jews and Israel. The words “Palestinian” and “apartheid” were often in the Twitter conversations.

ISCA said instances of such content increased from 2019 to 2020 “despite claims from Twitter that they were cracking down on anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial.”

“Social media has become the largest medium for anti-Semitic narratives, which can radicalize individuals and lead to violence, and push Jews out of these spaces,” the researchers explained in the report. “We plan to continue increasing the size of the dataset and the variety of content within it so that it can serve as a gold standard for automated detection of anti-Semitic tweets … The results contribute to our understanding of online hate speech against Jews.”

 

International Christian Embassy Jerusalem holds annual Sukkot event

The event was attended by more than 1,700 Christians from over 70 countries.

The International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ) held its annual Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot) celebration on Sunday at the Capernaum National Park on the shore of the Sea of Galilee.

The event, which will run until Sunday, October 16, was attended by more than 1,700 Christians from over 70 countries.

The attendees include former Chief Justice of South Africa Mogoeng Mogoeng, who will receive the ICEJ's annual Nehemiah Award for his pro-Israel actions, Andrew Brunson, an American pastor who was imprisoned in Turkey on false "terrorism" charges, and two Iranian singers.

he celebration featured performances by artists from Israel, the Philippines, Brazil, Norway and South Africa, including Trevor Sampson, known as the "Golden Voice of Africa.”

 After a second night at Capernaum, the event will move to Jerusalem for five days, where activities will include the Roll Call of the Nations at the Jerusalem Pais Arena on Tuesday and the Jerusalem March on Thursday afternoon.

 To close out the event, attendees will travel to the Negev to join Keren Kayemeth Le’Israel-Jewish National Fund (KKL-JNF) and leaders of the Gaza border communities for a solidarity rally and tree-planting ceremony.