Why Mass Shootings Don't Happen in Israel

With the mass shootings that have happened across America, most recently in a Florida school where 17 were gunned down, a CBS reporter traveled to Israel to find out why this type of tragedy is almost unheard of in Israeli schools.

What is Israel doing differently than America?

Watch now and learn all about Israel’s creative policies and intensive gun training to keep students safe.

Where Do your Taxes Go? The Palestinian Terrorists of Course

In a recent MEMRI report 22 August, and following the passage of legislation in the U.S. Senate suspending aid to the Palestinian Authority (PA) because of the PA's extensive support for Palestinian prisoners and the families of Palestinian "martyrs" and wounded, it is being claimed in the PA that the payments and aid given to the prisoners and the families of martyrs are the same as welfare benefits given to needy families. This argument is based on the reasoning that in both cases, the family wage earner cannot work and the family is reliant on aid.

However, a look at the payments to the Palestinian incarcerated and released prisoners and their families, and to families of martyrs and wounded clearly shows that these payments are in no way comparable to welfare allowances such as those provided to needy families.

The prisoners and released prisoners, who are considered a "fighting sector," and the families of the martyrs and wounded do not receive welfare; they are paid what is referred to as a "monthly salary" or a "monthly allowance." Needy families receive what is referred to as "monetary aid," which is paid out only every three months, or quarterly, as well as "non-monetary aid."

The payments to the prisoners and families of martyrs are much higher than those to needy families, which are paid out by the PA's Ministry of Social Development.  The maximum monthly payment to a needy family is NIS 600 shekels per family – less than US $170 – while the maximum monthly payment to a prisoner is at least 20 times higher: it exceeds NIS 12,000 – currently about US $3,340. Furthermore, the monthly payments to prisoners and their families, released prisoners, and the families of martyrs and wounded are paid out regardless of the recipient's socioeconomic situation.

Furthermore, the prisoners and released prisoners receive a monthly allowance for themselves alone, not for their families, and its level increases in direct proportion to the length of their sentence, which obviously reflects the severity of the crime for which they are serving time. Thus, the highest payments go to prisoners who are responsible for terror operations in which people were killed (above NIS 12,000 monthly). Likewise, released prisoners who were incarcerated for over a decade also receive monthly salaries.

For full report see here

Most Dangerous Professor in America

I have always believed that the purpose of this blog is to inform of events or activities here in the State of Israel.

I have not wanted to get involved in the politics of other countries. However, the video below is so blatant in its effect on student attitudes towards Israel that I think it important to bring it to the attention of as many people as possible, including Senators, Congressmen and the media.

How come the American taxpayer is funding this level of anti-Semitism? 

Will They Ever Learn?

http://www.youngcons.com/antifa-woman-goes-to-turkey-for-muslim-boyfriend-learns-what-a-real-patriarchy-is-like2/

Lacy Macauley is by her own definition a ‘radical activist’ based out of Washington, D.C.

She was one of the organizers behind #DisruptJ20, the action meant to disrupt President Donald Trump’s inauguration as well as disrupt the various balls and events attendant to the inauguration. She’s basically been involved in every leftist protest action for years, from G20 and Occupy actions to protests against pipelines.

Macauley went to Turkey last year because the G20 was there. Leftists traditionally protest and have riots at the location of the G20. She also was interested in learning more about a Muslim country and working with refugees. There, according to her blogpost, she met a Muslim man.

He offered a ready smile, engaging kindness, and intelligent conversation. He said all the right things to convince me that he cared about women’s rights and activism. In February, I decided to return to Turkey with the promise of love driving me forward. I couldn’t have known things would turn sour.

Then came our first fight. I had wanted to interview a local woman for an article on Syrian refugees. He did not approve. He knew the woman and did not like her, so he strictly forbade me from speaking with her. After I questioned his rationale, he yelled and stormed out of the room to go smoke a cigarette. I just stood in the middle of the room not knowing what to do. Of course, as a Western woman, no one had ever forbidden me from speaking with anyone else.

She found out strangely enough that not every man or society has the same openness and respect for women that she took for granted in the United States. She found out that he expected her to be dependent on him, to be constantly by his side and that he controlled her every move.

It got worse.

In the following weeks, I was violently pushed, blocked from leaving freely, and repeatedly told not to speak. If I spoke anyway, anger erupted. I endured threats that I would be burnt with cigarettes, flinching as he “faked” with his lit cigarette. I had to duck to avoid having sharp objects thrown at my face. I had water angrily poured over my head.

Unwanted sex? Rape? All the time. He did not stop to determine whether I consented to sex.

He then tried to cut off her connection with the outside world, shutting off her wifi and criticizing her use of social media. He also made her unfriend another Turkish man on Facebook and tried to have her cut off others.

Her experience in the society didn’t get better. She claimed she was arrested for just going to a speech because she was an activist.

Two days later, however, I was jailed by Turkish police for several hours when I tried to simply enter a large public speech in Antalya by the president of Turkey. (They make a habit of jailing reporters and activists, and I didn’t look like I fit their norms. I wrote about this experience with the Turkish police here.) I had an “out of the frying pan and into the fire” sensation.

So did that experience give her any enlightenment as to how wonderful America is? What a real patriarchy is actually like? Or the ways in which Islamic society allows and normalizes such oppression against women?

In a word, no.

She didn’t initially speak of her experiences, she said, because she “did not want to feed into the narrative of Muslim men being aggressive.”

So the truth was less important than anything that might call into question her political agenda points.

She still came back and organized #DisruptJ20. She came out with Antifa (anti Israel organization) just this past weekend in Kentucky.

Despite everything that had showed her thoughts to be misplaced and in error, she still can’t ditch the radicalism.

What a sad way to waste one’s life…

Israeli Leftist to J Street - STOP

Arguments  rage between those who are considered "right wing" and those who are considered “left wing”. There is never an agreement or understanding of the others point of view with such entrenched positions.

It comes as a welcome relief therefore, when a self confessed “leftist” meets other "leftists" overseas and realizes the damage they are potentially causing Israel with their “liberal” policies.

Below is the report of one such Israeli who is defined as “leftist” when there was a meeting with a representative of J Street

by Hen Mazzig, Sept. 20, 2016

http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/an-israeli-leftist-to-j-street-stop/

Last year I traveled to campuses across North America to share my experiences as an officer in the IDF – a role which entailed helping Palestinian civilians in the West Bank and Gaza with humanitarian aid. My experiences as a speaker were overwhelmingly positive as I was able to find common ground with many young people of diverse backgrounds and political viewpoints, but there were some unfortunate exceptions.

During one of my speaking events, a student raised her hand to ask a question. The young woman wanted to know what I thought about J-Street and other “left-wing” Jewish groups which criticize Israel, given that I myself am a leftist Israeli.

Assuming she was seeking an honest answer, I told her the truth; “I am very uneasy about their work…” I started, but she interrupted: “Well, I’m the head of the J Street club on my campus and what you don’t understand is that we see Israel as our younger sister. We want our younger sister to be better — we love her and care about her.”

Disappointed by her lack of interest in dialogue, and offended by her analogy, I replied: “So according to you, if I love my younger sister, I need to go around the United States and tell everyone how bad she is? How she doesn’t know what’s good for her? How we must collectively pressure her? And if I truly love my sister, I should tell my parents to cut her off financially? I should publicize her every mistake and defame her on every platform I can? Or if I really care, should I instead work together with her?”

Unfortunately, this verbal exchange is symptomatic of a greater illness among some who identify with the American Jewish left, and this illness has at its core the delusion that Israel is American Jewry’s younger sister. While the woman who asked me that question would like to believe that Israelis don’t know what’s best for their future, it is actually people like her who do not fully comprehend the problems that Israel faces.

As an Israeli who has aligned myself for years with Zionist-left parties like Meretz and supported every peace process, I am extremely upset with groups like J Street for perpetrating a faux-progressive approach to the Middle East that mimics the paternalism of 20th century imperialists. They feel that they are entitled to tell us, Israelis, what to do. When we think differently, they will arrogantly dismiss us as people who do not know what is best for our own welfare. Why is it that we, the people who have suffered through wars, served in the military, supported peace agreements, and protested on the streets to effect change – why on earth would we be seen as less capable than those living across the world in the relative safety and comfort of America?

This patronizing approach of some self-proclaimed “progressive” Jewish groups is truly astonishing. They claim that they are “pro-Israel,” yet they consistently echo the opinions of pro-BDS pundits, and regurgitate talking points based on anything but progressive values. Is that pro-Israel or progressive? Just read the statements on their website and social media platforms.

The most recent and prominent example of this twisted reality has surfaced in the debate surrounding the Iran Nuclear Deal. The vast majority of Israelis, from left to right, agree that this is a non-partisan issue: the world should not be giving $150 billion (10 times the size of Israel’s defense budget) to the world’s worst violator of human rights, the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism – a regime which leads chants at government rallies of “Death to America! Death to England! Death to Israel!”.

Yet J Street ferociously promotes the deal, in opposition to numerous Democratic members of Congress and Israel’s Zionist Camp (whom J Street regularly invites to speak at their conferences). When faced with this dissonance, J Street attempts to justify its position by pointing to a minority of Israeli security officials who have criticized Israel’s policy on the issue. But most of these officials also agree that the deal itself is deeply flawed. J Street is manipulative even in the way it portrays Israelis who supposedly support J Street’s views.

Like all Israelis, I am the product of a miracle. A miracle happened to my family in 1951 when they were in the middle of a life-changing crisis; they were expelled from Arab countries (North Africa and Iraq) because they were Jews. The miracle was that for the first time in 2000 years, there was a Jewish state to take them home. This is the same miracle that is happening today to French Jews escaping antisemitism – and it is the same miracle that will save many other Jews in the future. It should be clear that Israel is not only here to serve American Jews. I was in the army for five years defending Israel and working side by side with Palestinians. Today I speak up in the public arena because I want to see a better future for Israel and its neighbors. Every day I breathe this country. I feel this country in every bone of my body and with every fiber of my soul.

My message to J Street is this: if you are truly pro-Israel, stop patronizing us. Stop lecturing us, publicly defaming us, and using a foreign government to pressure our democratically elected government from thousands of miles away. If you love us and want to support us – then listen to our voices and speak to us as equals. And every once in a while, since you profess to be “pro-Israel,” perhaps you can say something nice about my country.

J Street, if you continue on this disingenuous, anti-democratic path, I assure you that you will fail. But don’t worry, we will be here to welcome you home when you do — After all, that’s what sisters are for.

Israel Looks Beyond America

How many allies does President Obama think the U.S. can afford to squander?

BRET STEPHENS Feb. 15, 2016

Talk to Israelis about the United States these days and you will provoke a physical reaction. Barack Obama is an eye roll. John Kerry is a grimace. The administration’s conduct of regional policy is a slow, sad shake of the head. The current state of the presidential race makes for a full-blown shudder.

As for Israel’s own troubles—a continuing Palestinian campaign of stabbings; evidence that Hamas is rebuilding its network of terror tunnels under the Gaza border and wants to restart the 2014 war; more than 100,000 rockets and guided missiles in the hands of Hezbollah—that’s just the Middle East being itself. It’s the U.S. not being itself that is the real novelty, and is forcing Israel to adjust.

Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon (right) shakes hands with 

former Saudi intelligence chief Prince Turki al-Faisal at the Munich 

Security  Conference, Feb. 14. PHOTO: ISRAEL MINISTRY OF DEFENSE

I’ve spent the better part of a week talking to senior officials, journalists, intellectuals and politicians from across Israel’s political spectrum. None of it was on the record, but the consistent theme is that, while the Jewish state still needs the U.S., especially in the form of military aid, it also needs to diversify its strategic partnerships. This may yet turn out to be the historic achievement of Benjamin Netanyahu’s long reign as prime minister.

On Sunday, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon publicly shook hands with former Saudi intelligence chief Prince Turki al-Faisal at the Munich Security Conference. In January, Israeli cabinet member Yuval Steinitz made a trip to Abu Dhabi, where Israel is opening an office at a renewable-energy association. Turkey is patching up ties with Israel. In June, Jerusalem and Riyadh went public with the strategic talks between them. In March, Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi told the Washington Post that he speaks to Mr. Netanyahu “a lot.”

This de facto Sunni-Jewish alliance amounts to what might be called the coalition of the disenchanted; states that have lost faith in America’s promises. Israel is also reinventing its ties to the aspiring Startup Nations, countries that want to develop their own innovation cultures.

In October, Israel hosted Indian President Pranab Mukherjee for a three-day state visit; New Delhi, once a paragon of the nonaligned movement that didn’t have diplomatic ties to Israel for four decades, is about to spend $3 billion on Israeli arms. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who is personally close to Mr. Netanyahu, sees Israel as a model for economic reinvention. Chinese investment in Israel hit $2.7 billion last year, up from $70 million in 2010. In 2014, Israel’s exports to the Far East for the first time exceeded those to the U.S.

Then there is Europe—at least the part of it that is starting to grasp that it can’t purchase its security in the coin of Israeli insecurity. Greece’s left-wing Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras used to lead anti-Israel protests. But Greece needs Israeli gas, so he urges cooperation on terrorism and calls Jerusalem Israel’s “historic capital.” In the U.K., Prime Minister David Cameron’s government is moving to prevent local councils from passing Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) measures against Israel.

All this amounts to another Obama administration prediction proved wrong. “You see for Israel there’s an increasing delegitimization campaign that has been building up,” Mr. Kerry warned grimly in 2014. “There are talks of boycotts and other kinds of things. Today’s status quo absolutely, to a certainty, I promise you 100%, cannot be maintained.”

Except when the likely alternatives to the lousy status quo are worse. Over the weekend, U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power came to Jerusalem to preach the virtues of a two-state solution. Her case would be unarguable if the Palestinian state to be created alongside Israel were modeled on Costa Rica—democratic, demilitarized, developing, friendly to outsiders.

But the likelier model is Gaza, or Syria. Why should Israelis be expected to live next to that? How would that help actual living Palestinians, as opposed to the perpetual martyrs of left-wing imagination? And why doesn’t the U.S. insist that Palestinian leaders prove they are capable of decently governing a state before being granted one?

Those are questions Mr. Obama has been incapable of asking himself, lest a recognition of facts intrude on the narrative of a redemptive presidency. But a great power that cannot recognize the dilemmas of its allies soon becomes useless as an ally, and it becomes intolerable if it then turns its strategic ignorance into a moral sermon.

More than one Israeli official I spoke with recalled that the country managed to survive the years before 1967 without America’s strategic backing, and if necessary it could do so again. Nations that must survive typically do. The more important question is how much credibility the U.S. can afford to squander before the loss becomes irrecoverable.

Gifts Countering the BDS Campaign

 GREER FAY CASHMAN   12/24/2015

WAS IT chutzpah or making a political point when Ambassador to the United States Ron Dermer sent blue-and-white-striped gift packages bearing the national crest of Israel to members of Congress with best wishes for a happy holiday? The packages contained products from settlements in Judea and Samaria and the Golan Heights. In the accompanying letter Dermer stated that he had decided that this year he would send a holiday gift that would also help combat the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

The gift packages contained wine, olive oil, halva and body cream.

Dermer characterized the key forces behind BDS as “fanatics who actively seek to eliminate Israel,” adding that “unfortunately they are occasionally joined by fools who naively believe that in promoting BDS they are advancing peace between Israelis and Palestinians.” Regardless of why they promote BDS, wrote Dermer, “they are simply promoting anti-Semitism. Once, Jews were singled out and held to a different standard than other peoples. Today, the Jewish state is singled out and held to a different standard than other countries.”

The gift made headline news with mixed reactions in the American media. 

How much more effective would it have been if accompanying the package, it was stated exactly how many Palestinian households rely on an income from factory plants in which boycotted products are produced.