02/19/15

The Stuff of Heartbreak

It is just short of two years ago that Adelle Biton, then two years of age, was driving in the Shomron with her mother and two older sisters, when Arabs threw rocks at their car, causing it to spin out of control and collide with an oncoming truck. Her mother and sisters were moderately injured. Adelle, however, incurred severe brain injury. She spent a long time in a hospital and then time in a rehab center, before she was brought home, still severely disabled, to continue therapies.

Adva, her mother, was remarkable for her constant devotion and her optimism.

Credit: Yoni Kempinsky

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Today, Adelle Biton succumbed to pneumonia.

On learning the news, I cried. Such a painful and unnecessary loss of tender young life. Such anguish for the family.

And so, Baruch Dayan HaEmet. The Almighty has taken Adelle. May He grant healing for the hearts of Adva and her husband, Rafi, and other members of the family.

As to those who throw such stones (or firebombs or firecrackers), may He allow them no peace.

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An occurrence such as this brings us upright, and sharpens our perspective. There are issues that truly, truly matter. And others that are imbued with nonsense and pettiness and self-interest. And I say honestly today that I have precious little patience for the constant flow of nonsense and pettiness and self-interest that passes for “news” these days.

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Sadly, there is yet one more death I must report: Minister Uri Ohrbach, 54, passed away yesterday after a battle with an unnamed blood disease. He had worked as a journalist and author for years, before joining a new Habayit Hayehudi and entering the Knesset.

He is being widely saluted as a man of exceptional sincerity, gentleness and wit. What is clear is that this was a man who was greatly loved.

Credit: Alex Kolomoisky

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So, let us look at some of the news that does matter (if only people would pay attention):
Just a week ago, the IDF and the Shin Bet launched raids in the area southwest of Jenin, uncovering large quantities of firearms, ammunition and knives – sufficient to “strengthen [Hamas’s] grip on the territory.” Hamas does not intend to stop trying, folks. Let us not forget this.

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The IDF has warned the government that the PA could collapse at any time.

“In one of the scenarios that the IDF presented, a small localized security incident, like an altercation between settlers and Palestinians, or the throwing of a Molotov cocktail could quickly escalate to rioting in the Galilee and the Triangle area. With the weakened Palestinian Authority a situation like this is liable to lead to terrorist organizations taking control of the West Bank.”

http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/IDF-security-assessment-The-Palestinian-Authority-can-collapse-at-any-moment-390934

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Repeatedly, it has been the case that rumors spread by Palestinian Authority “leaders” regarding alleged Israeli threats to the Al Aqsa Mosque have served as incitement – whipping up the populace to fury and violence.

Now we learn from the Palestinian Media Watch that the PA is renewing this incitement:

For example, on February 5, the PA Minister of Religious Affairs Sheikh Yusuf Ida’is warned that since January, Israel has made “over a hundred attacks and incidents of desecration of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Ibrahimi Mosque (i.e., Cave of the Patriarchs)” and that “the Al-Aqsa Mosque is in grave and direct danger and that with every sunrise. this danger grows.”

Similar statements are being made by others.

http://www.palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=14016

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Defense Minister Bogie Ya’alon, for his part, has leveled another sort of charge at the PA. In a taped address to the annual conference of the INSS – the Institute for National Security Studies, he said:

“We tried after [Operation] Protective Edge, with Egyptian agreement, to facilitate the entry of the PA into the Strip, but they didn’t want it,”

“…it was clear that the only way to allow the more open transfer of goods and people in and out of Gaza to Israel and Egypt would be through the stationing of PA troops at the border crossings.

“We created a three-way mechanism – the [Israeli] Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, the Palestinian prime minister, and the UN representative Robert Serry. What’s left of that today? The coordinator and Robert Serry. The Palestinians ran away! They are good at accusing us at the UN and the Security Council and the ICC. But when it comes time to take responsibility, they are nowhere, and this was not the first time.” (Emphasis added)

http://www.timesofisrael.com/yaalon-lambastes-pa-for-bailing-out-on-plan-to-ease-gaza-blockade/

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In sharing this accusation by Ya’alon, I am not endorsing the idea of PA officers at the Gaza crossing. My intent, rather, is to point a finger directly at the PA and to be certain that people understand precisely what we are dealing with. With the focus on Iran, I hadn’t mentioned Abbas or the PA for several days.

Martin Indyk, who consistently works against Israel’s best interests, has just made a statement regarding what’s going to happen after the elections. There will be increased pressure on Israel to go back to negotiations, he warned, including via a Security Council resolution.

And my inclination is to tell him, and all of his ilk, to stuff it. We are supposed to make “peace” with these guys? They are going to administer a secure and responsible and peaceful state? Of course neither Martin or others who think as he does believe a peaceful “two-state solution” is really around the corner. But hey, if Israel can be weakened…

The lesson. We have to be on our guard in all quarters.

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Of course, there is also the occasional politician on the far left here in Israel who says it’s time for us to withdraw unilaterally from Judea and Samaria since negotiations don’t work. Great idea! I believe they have oatmeal between their ears in place of brains.

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Yesterday, Lt.-Gen. Gadi Eisenkot was sworn in as IDF Chief of Staff, replacing Benny Gantz. Eisenkot is described as “cool and calculated, someone who will strike hard and fast – but only if he has to.” He served in the vaunted Golani Brigade.

We can only pray for General Eisenkot’s wisdom and bravery and cool head, as he faces incredible challenges in the weeks and months ahead.

Credit: Israel Defense

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The Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations is meeting here in Jerusalem this week. I close today by sharing a video of the remarks of Prime Minister Netanyahu to this group. His focus, of course, was his up-coming speech in the Congress on Iran. Worth a listen.

http://www.voiceofisrael.com/netanyahu-conference-presidents-sacred-duty-make-israels-case/?utm_source=ZohoCampaigns&utm_campaign=Feb+16%2C+2015_2015-02-16&utm_medium=email

02/9/15

Hypocrisy Writ Large

Arlene from Israel

Hypocrisy is all around us, but I will focus today on the very significant information that the Israeli NGO Regavim has uncovered regarding the EU:

The Europeans protest long and loud about “illegal Israeli building” in Judea and Samaria. But what it turns out is that they have been supporting illegal Arab building in Area C. The Oslo Accords assigned full control (civil and military) of Area C to Israel. This is apparently irrelevant to the EU, in spite of the fact that the EU was a witness to (and according to international lawyer Alan Baker) a guarantor of the Oslo Accords.

The building is being done in Ma’aleh Adumim and near E1 (a region that stretches between Ma’aleh Adumim and Jerusalem). Clearly, this is intended to establish facts on the ground, by way of supporting a Palestinian state.

As the JPost reported last week (emphasis added):

“According to Regavim, European Union support for the Palestinians has in recent years moved from ‘passive diplomatic and financial assistance to a situation of active cooperation in illegal building which the Palestinian Authority has been advancing unilaterally since 2000, as part of its strategic plan to create a Palestinian state de facto, while avoiding the need for negotiations with Israel.’

”This week, prior to the release of its latest report, Regavim took journalists to look at a number of Beduin encampments straddling E1 as well as the Jerusalem-Jericho road. They are not temporary tent encampments as they were in years past, but rather clusters that – in addition to tents and tin shacks – also include modular structures with cement floors bearing the EU logo.

”According to Ari Briggs, Regavim’s international relations director, the EU logo is placed on the structures in the belief that this will prevent Israel from demolishing them. Israel is not likely to take down a building with an EU logo, due to concerns over both public relations damage and the harm it could cause to relations with the EU, he said…

“The EU-funded structures, according to Meir Deutsch, the director of Regavim’s policy and government relations department, are being placed illegally on state land, and in some cases in restricted nature reserves.

“When Regavim appealed to the High Court in 2008 to compel the state to demolish illegal buildings in the area, it ruled that this could not be done until an alternative living arrangement was found for the Bedouin living there. Israel then began planning a city – called Ramat Nueima – north of Jericho for some 12,000 people, a plan now adamantly opposed by the Palestinians and the EU.

“In November, a meeting of EU foreign ministers issued a statement that, in addition to their usual condemnations of land expropriation and settlement construction, also slammed plans to ‘displace Bedouin in the West Bank and the continued demolitions, including of EU and member states funded projects.’”

http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Report-EU-building-hundreds-of-illegal-structures-for-Palestinians-in-Area-C-of-West-Bank-390184

Charges Briggs:

“This is great hypocrisy. Any time a building goes up for Jews, they raise an outcry, call it illegal and say it endangers peace. They are building illegal houses for Arabs.”

According to Deutsch, from 2012 to 2014, the EU spent millions of euros in putting up more than 499 structures.

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An excellent story on the Regavim report, complete with a large collection of Regavim photos and maps, has also been put out by the Daily Mail (emphasis added).

“Official EU documentation reveals that the building project is intended to ‘pave the way for development and more authority of the PA over Area C’… “Locally, the villages are known as the ‘EU Settlements’, and can be found in 17 locations around the West Bank.”

Because the Daily Mail is in the UK, it has an emphasis that is different from that of the JPost: Concern is expressed about European tax money being spent on this illegal venture.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2874883/EU-funding-illegal-building-West-Bank-says-report.html

Notable among the pictures is one of a man in an EU uniform threatening Israeli soldiers with a rock.

A structure in Area C bearing an EU flag:

Credit: Regavim

And the full Regavim Report here:

http://regavim.org.il/en/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Position-Paper-European-Building-in-Area-C-US.pdf

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The staff of Regavim has worked hard to produce this scrupulously researched material. Now, as always, it falls to us to spread this information as broadly as possibly. Truth must be exposed.

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Already we have seen one positive outcome to this report.

“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon to move forward with a plan to demolish some 400 Palestinian structures built in the West Bank with European funding, Israeli media reported Friday. “

http://www.timesofisrael.com/pm-orders-demolition-of-eu-funded-palestinian-settlements-in-west-bank/

12/14/14

Tight Position

Arlene from Israel

Things are never easy for Israel, but matters do seem to be getting tougher, day by day, with regard to the international community. To begin with, the parliament of one European nation after another has adopted a non-binding resolution of some sort regarding recognition of a “Palestinian state”:

On Friday, the Portuguese parliament passed a resolution recommending that the government recognize “Palestine.” Just days before, the Irish and French parliaments, in symbolic votes, did likewise and Denmark was gearing up towards a similar effort. Back in October, the parliaments of the UK and then Spain passed non-binding resolutions in support of recognition of “Palestine,” while at the end of October, the Swedish government actually did vote to recognize “Palestine.”

A vote by the EU parliament on the issue, which had originally been scheduled for late November, was postponed because of disagreement within the EU and strong lobbying by Israel. It is due to come around soon.

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I emphasize again that the key issue here is not legal. “Palestine” does not fulfill the criteria for a state, and the votes of various European parliaments and governments does not change this essential fact. Especially is this the case because the “Palestine” that the European nations seek to recognize is within borders that the PA does not control.

What these votes – even if symbolic – do is set a tone that is anti-Israel, encouraging the BDS movement and similar actions again Israel.

There is no way to avoid the perception that what is taking place here, with regard to all of these resolutions and votes, is more anti-Israel than truly pro-Palestinian Arab. The Palestinian Arabs simply do not merit the attention they receive, except for the fact that they impinge upon and challenge Israeli rights.

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But there is more: Switzerland has invited the High Contracting Parties of the Fourth Geneva Convention to attend a conference in Geneva on December 17. The Fourth Geneva Convention on the Rules of War was adopted in 1949 in an effort to ensure that the horrific behavior of the Nazis with regard to the occupation of Europe would never be repeated. This Convention is utilized as a weapon against Israel – as it is said that the Convention makes Israel’s presence in Judea and Samaria an illegal occupation.

See what international lawyer Alan Baker, writing for the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, had to say about this:

“…both the text of that convention, and the post-World War II circumstances under which it was drafted, clearly indicate that it was never intended to refer to situations like Israel’s settlements. According to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC], Article 49 relates to situations where populations are coerced into being transferred. There is nothing to link such circumstances to Israel’s settlement policy…(see more below)

“The continued reliance by the international community on the Geneva Convention as the basis for determining the illegality of Israel’s settlements fails to take into account the unique nature of the history, legal framework, and negotiating circumstances regarding the West Bank.”

For more: http://jcpa.org/article/the-settlements-issue-distorting-the-geneva-convention-and-the-oslo-accords/

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Switzerland – as the depository of the Accords – is supposed to behave in a neutral and apolitical manner. Yet, when the PA joined the Convention, and then requested that the conference be held, Switzerland acceded. Needless to say, Israel is furious and will boycott the conference. The US, Canada and Australia are expected to boycott as well.

What we can expect is condemnation of Israel for “illegal occupation” in Judea and Samaria.

Since 1949, the High Contracting Parties have met only twice: in 1999 and 2001, both times in order to discuss Israel.

http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Israel-blasts-Switzerland-for-acceding-to-Palestinians-convening-Fourth-Geneva-Convention-384429

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It is important to note here that the ICRC, the official arbiter of the Geneva Conventions, finds that the Fourth Geneva Convention applies to Israel, i.e., that Israel is an occupier. But I should note here as well, that officially the International Committee of the Red Cross is associated with the Red Cross and the Red Crescent [the equivalent of the Red Cross in Muslim countries.].

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My readers know that I have mentioned the Legal Grounds Campaign, which I co-chair with Jeff Daube, several times now. But you what you’ve heard to date is just the beginning: Jeff and I, seeing the threats leveled against Israel, understand the major importance of promoting Israeli leadership prepared to speak out strongly on our rights.

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With everything else, Mahmoud Abbas of the PA is threatening to go to the Security Council by the end of this year, submitting a draft resolution for Israel’s withdrawal from Judea, Samaria and eastern Jerusalem within two to three years.

The US could simply veto this. But Kerry is trying a different – more worrisome – approach. Said the Secretary of State:

“There are a lot of different folks pushing in different directions out there, and the question is can we all pull in the same direction…We’re trying to figure out a way to help defuse the tensions and reduce the potential for more conflict, and we’re exploring various possibilities to that end,”

To that end, Kerry is meeting Prime Minister Netanyahu in Rome on Monday.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/188597#.VI24zZv9nIV

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Credit: ibtimes

UH OH!

All pulling in the same direction?

This is what I envision Kerry saying to Netanyahu: “Bibi, old buddy, we’ve got to present a united front here. If we are going to keep Abbas from the UN we have to show the world that you are on board for negotiating a Palestinian state…then I can make the case that Abbas should hold off.”

The picture I provide above is simply one that I consider illustrative of how our prime minister may be feeling tomorrow – never mind that in Rome he’ll probably be all smiles for the cameras.

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At the beginning of the Cabinet meeting today, Netanyahu made this statement:

“Tomorrow I will leave for Rome to meet with Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and US Secretary of State John Kerry. I will tell them that Israel, to a large degree, stands as a solitary island against the waves of Islamic extremism that are washing over the entire Middle East.

“Until now we have successfully withstood and repelled these attacks and now we also stand against the possibility of a diplomatic assault, i.e., an attempt to compel us – by means of UN decisions – to withdraw to the 1967 lines within two years. This will lead to Islamic extremists [coming] to the suburbs of Tel Aviv and to the heart of Jerusalem.

“We will not allow this. We will strongly and responsibly rebuff this. Let there be no doubt, this will be rejected.”

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/188632#.VI3Ebpv9nIV

Well…there some nice words here, but they don’t satisfy me, for they sound like rhetoric. What does “We will strongly and responsibly rebuff this” mean?

Netanyahu speaks about the possible UN demands. But he says nothing about what he will or won’t agree to in consultation with Kerry.

Stay tuned.

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What perhaps grieves me the most – and is for me the most incomprehensible – is the attitude on the Israeli left, which is that we should go back to the negotiating table, and should try harder to please the world. (The anti-Semitic world, that is, but why quibble.)

Even centrists such as Michael Oren (about whom more below), who is a “two-state” man, says there is no one to negotiate with now. And yet, the delusion persists amongst such people as Livni and Herzog.

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This leads me to a very brief review of the ever-changing political circus:

Right wing activists have decided to form a party to the right of Habayit Hayehudi, which will be called Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Strength) and headed by Michael Ben-Ari – a former MK (with the National Union) – who will be working with Itamar Ben- Gvir and Baruch Marzel.

Credit: Uri Lenz/Flash 90

They will not run with Habayit Hayehudi, but if there is a breakoff from Habayit Heyehudi (with Uri Ariel – who is to the right) they might join with that.

They might also join with the Eli Yishai (pictured), who looks like he is going to break off from Shas because of tensions with Arieh Deri. I’ll have more on this.

Credit: Lior Mizrachi

Or the three might run together.

What’s important with these small parties is passing the electoral threshold for getting into the Knesset. That threshold is now 3.25 percent of the vote, which translates to a minimum of four seats.

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As to Habayit Hayehudi itself, former Yesha Council chair Dani Dayon (not to be confused with Danny Dannon of Likud!) has joined their ranks.

Credit: TOT

Here is a man very clear on the legality of Israel’s communities in Judea and Samaria.

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There are very strong rumors that Michael Oren, immediate past Israeli ambassador to the US, will be joining the Kulanu party of Kahlon.

Lieberman continues to be all over the place. The only thing that seems clear is that Lieberman’s first concern is Avigdor Lieberman.

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And the good news:

The Israeli Embassy in Senegal has established a farm utilizing Israeli-innovated slow drip irrigation, ideal for a region of drought. Water is saved and the produce is superior.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4603023,00.html

This is just one example of the outreach Israel does to help impoverished communities in Africa.