A full day session criticizing UNRWA - at the UN!

from Elder of Zyon May 2, 2014
The The American Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists (AAJLJ) and the International Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists (IAJLJ) will be presenting a most interesting program at the UN on May 19th called "UNRWA - Providing Humanitarian Relief or Prolonging the Palestinian Refugee Problem?"

I know that the IAJLJ is an accredited UN NGO, which is probably how they were able to get space at the UN itself.

Here's the description (received via email):

According to its charter, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) is a humanitarian group helping Palestinian refugees. In reality, it has become an obstacle to Palestinian-Israeli peace by engaging in incitement and holding Palestinians back from rebuilding their lives.

While some have suggested that UNRWA be abolished, we believe it is not UNRWA's existence but rather how it executes its mandate that is the root of the problem. UNRWA has broken all the rules that are supposed to govern humanitarian enterprises. Consequently, UNRWA is the exact opposite of other refugee relief operations. While other relief operations seek to resettle refugees; UNRWA is dedicated to blocking resettlement. While other relief operations limit the definition of "refugee" to individuals who flee their homeland; UNRWA uniquely inflates the number of Palestinian refugees by defining all descendants of the original refugees of 1948-1949 as "refugees." While all other relief operations help refugees live normal lives so that they can move on with their existence; UNRWA ensures the refugees' lives remain abnormal so that the refugees will be filled with anger and a thirst for revenge that inspires violence and can only be quenched by a victorious return. While relief organizations try to create stable conditions for refugees; UNRWA enables radical political activity and indoctrination by armed groups which ensure a continual state of near chaos.

People often wonder why violence and instability persist and why the Arab-Israeli conflict is so seemingly impossible to resolve. An important part of the answer is that UNRWA perpetuates the problem. UNRWA has kept Palestinian refugees in suspended animation and at low living standards. Their suffering and anger is maintained as a weapon to encourage them toward violence and intransigence.

The United Nations General Assembly established UNRWA in 1949. It is highly unlikely, however, that the General Assembly would support any meaningful reform of the agency without a tremendous amount of persuasion and pressure. But there are important and common sense changes to UNRWA that can be effectuated outside the General Assembly.

During the past year, the International Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists (IAJLJ) met in Israel with the Ambassadors and staff of donor countries that support UNRWA. At these meetings, the IAJLJ provided the government officials with a letter describing the problems associated with UNRWA's activities. During these discussions, the IAJLJ questioned whether UNRWA, established over 60 years ago, is fulfilling its mission or failing in its mission. Facts on the ground demonstrate the need for substantial change in the way UNRWA is handling the Palestinian refugee crisis.

The IAJLJ and the American Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists (AAJLJ) have organized as a side event at the United Nations headquarters in New York, a symposium focusing on UNRWA. The event will be held on May 19, 2014, and will gather representatives from the United States and other donor countries to discuss and confront these difficult issues, and to develop ideas to address these challenges.

Speakers include Ambassador Ron Prosor, Prof. Alexander H. Joffe, Prof. Asaf Romirowsky, Dr. Einat Wilf and James M. Lindsay.

It will be livestreamed over the UN's WebTV channel.   LINK

Arab vs Israeli Peace Negotiations and Concessions

from Elder Of Ziyon 

Please CLICK HERE for the link

Not the Same Old, Same Old

NY Times Thomas Friedman April 15, 2014

At first, the article in The Jerusalem Post last week seemed like the same old, same old: A picture of a ransacked Israel Defense Forces post in the West Bank. Then a quote from Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon: “The State of Israel will not tolerate such criminal activity, which is terrorism in all respects.” Those Palestinians will never quit.

 Oh, wait a minute. Yaalon wasn’t talking about Palestinian terrorists. He was talking about Jewish terrorists, renegade settlers, who slashed the tires of an I.D.F. jeep parked in the settlement of Yitzhar, after Israeli soldiers came to demolish illegal buildings. “Settlers clashed with security forces during Monday night’s demolition and lightly injured six officers,” The Post reported. “A group of 50 to 60 settlers then raided an army post located to the west of the settlement, destroying generators, army equipment, heaters and diesel fuel tanks.” Israel’s justice minister, Tzipi Livni, warned that extremist settlers had crossed a line: “An ideology has flourished that does not recognize the rule of law, that does not recognize us or what we represent.”

These small stories tell a bigger one: We’re not dealing anymore with your grandfather’s Israel, and they’re not dealing anymore with your grandmother’s America either. Time matters, and the near half-century since the 1967 war has changed both of us in ways neither wants to acknowledge — but which the latest impasse in talks only underscores.   PLEASE KEEP READING

On the left of Indigenous Struggles

from Times of Israel Blogs March 24, 2104 by Ryan Bellerose

NOTE: Wow. This is an insightful and wonderful take on the Palestinians through the eyes of another truly displaced people. Amazing  little piece you HAVE to read. Here's a sample: 

"The Arabs calling themselves Palestinians have not only adopted the mantle of the coloniser/ occupiers, but have also embraced it. They were not forced to take the Arab language, nor were they forced to become converts to a religion that is not their own. There are no residential schools forcing them to keep that foreign language, that alien religion, or those unknown traditions. They do so by choice. They were offered a state of their own three times and refused each time. It’s patently offensive to compare that with the history of my people, especially the Metis, who fought two rebellions and were expelled from their homes a third time. The Arabs who call themselves Palestinians have been given money and weapons consistently by Iran and other supporters of terrorism. They have been encouraged to kill civilians indiscriminately – they talk about resistance, but the truth is that they are pawns fighting a war against Israel as proxies for the Arab world. They are not freedom fighters, because they fight against the only truly free country in the region. Don’t believe me? Try building a church or synagogue in the Palestinian authority."

Read more: On the theft of indigenous struggles | Ryan Bellerose | Ops & Blogs | The Times of Israel http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/on-the-the-theft-of-indigenous-struggles/#ixzz2ya5PzPa4
Follow us: @timesofisrael on Twitter | timesofisrael on Facebook  READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE

"There Has Never Been a Palestinian State - That's a Lie"

Follow Virtual Jerusalem on  and 

 Date Posted: 2014-04-10 09:24:06


Economics Minister and Jewish Home party leader Naftali Bennett has continued his calls to annex parts of Judea and Samaria, in response to the repeated failure of peace talks with the Palestinian Authority.

Following a letter yesterday to Prime Minister Netanyahu, in which he urged the PM implement his "Plan B" alternative to a "two-state solution" with the PA, Bennett took his message to the international media last night, in an interview with CNN.

Dismissing suggestions that Israel was responsible for the collapse of peace talks by building homes in Jerusalem, Bennett pointed out that the talks had already ground to a halt after PA leader Mahmoud Abbas refused to even recognize Israel's existence as the nation-state of the Jewish people, while simultaneously demanding Israeli recognition of a "Palestinian homeland."
 
"The reality... is that the era of these negotiations is over - it's time for plan B... a new approach," he said. "The approach that we've been applying for 20 years now clearly has reached its end."

Bennett rejected out of hand calls for Israel to freeze construction in Jewish neighborhoods in Jerusalem, as part of proposals to eventually partition the city between the Jewish state and a future "Palestinian state".

"Jerusalem has been the Jewish capital for just about 3,000 years, and just like I would never suggest to freeze building in London, where you're sitting" Israel should not be expected to "freeze our own building in our own state", he said.

Responding to his interviewer's claim that "there has been Palestinian life in Jerusalem for thousands of years," he retorted: "You're talking about a Palestinian presence? Has there ever been a Palestinian state? Show me what its flag was, show me what its anthem was, show me who its leader is - show me anything that mentions the word 'Palestinians' more than 65 or 80 years ago. CLICK HERE TO KEEP READING

Talkin’ ‘Bout My Occupation

from isreaellycool.com April 2, 2014 by Varda Epstein

NOTE: Fairly strong point of view from someone living in Israel for the past 34 years. Thoughts?

I have lived in Israel for 34 years and in Judea for the past 24 years. When I first moved out to a hilltop settlement in Judea, I was a political infant. I had no idea I was doing something controversial.

Living on that hilltop there was not much to do but raise my many children, keep my house clean, and read. I read a lot. I read the history of the place where I now lived.

The more I read, the more confused I felt. Why would anyone call me an “occupier?” I could not find any justification for the application of the term. There was no legal, moral, or historic reason for using this term. According to Judeo-Christian tenets, there was also no religiousjustification for the claim that I occupied land not my own. PLEASE KEEP READING

EXCLUSIVE: Contrary to Claims, Palestinian Water Supply Vastly Improved Due to Israeli Support

by David Hazony | 04.06.14 12:00 pm from thetower.org

One of the harshest attacks against Israel made in increasingly mainstream circles in recent months is that the Israeli presence in the West Bank has resulted in “Water Apartheid” — a systematic deprivation of the Palestinians’ water rights. Most famously, it was raised in February by Martin Schultz, president of the European parliament, in a speech to the Israeli Knesset in mid-February, triggering a walkout by a number of Members of Knesset. “One of the questions these young people asked me which I found most moving – although I could not check the exact figures,” Shultz asked, “was this: how can it be that an Israeli is allowed to use 70 litres of water per day, but a Palestinian only 17?”

A new report, however, suggests that claims of “water apartheid” look much more like a water libel. In an exclusive exposé in the April issue of The Tower Magazine, Akiva Bigmanexplores in depth the usage of water in the Palestinian Authority and the dramatic extent to which Palestinians have benefited from Israeli involvement. He concludes:

When one examines the relevant data, it becomes clear that, under Israeli rule, the Palestinian water supply has become larger, more technologically sophisticated, of higher quality, and much easier to access; almost entirely due to Israeli efforts.

According to Bigman, Palestinian per capita water consumption has increased dramatically in recent years, due almost exclusively to Israeli investment in Palestinian infrastructure, purification, and distribution. This, despite the fact that hundreds of millions of dollars donated to the PA for water investment have mostly been diverted to corruption. For example, Bigman notes, of $130 million contributed for improving sewage treatment, only $7.2 million have been spent for that purpose.

Claims of Israeli efforts to sabotage basic necessities of life have long been central to theconspiracy theories that run rampant in the Palestinian Authority and around the Arab world.

The new April 2014 issue of The Tower Magazine can be accessed by clicking here.

Palestinian students visit Auschwitz in first organized visit

from Haaretz 3.28.14

NOTE: This is the way forward. Not mockery, name calling, Obama bashing, Abbas bashing, BDS shouting matches, nutty "Apartheid Week" on college campuses, vitriolic Commentary pieces, or misplaced leftwing "apology" professors, etc. But simple face to face education, courses, seminars, infiltration of propaganda media with efforts to dispel the fears and the lies and replace it all with truth and understanding? Too naive? No. Harder to do? Yes. 

Visit is part of program that aims to teach Israeli and Palestinian students about the other side's suffering in effort to study how empathy could facilitate reconciliation.

By Matthew Kalman

Published 00:24 28.03.14

A group of 30 Palestinian students arrived at Auschwitz-Birkenau on Thursday, in what is believed to be the first organized visit by Palestinian students to a Nazi death camp.

The students are spending several days in Kraków and Oświęcim guided by two Jewish Holocaust survivors. CLICK THIS TO KEEP READING

UN rights council plans BDS assault on Israel, but Israeli diplomats are on strike

Published on March 21, 2014 in Human Rights Council (UNHRC) by unwatch. Closed

While Israeli diplomats remain on strike, the 47-nation UN Human Rights Council is planning to launch a massive attack on the Jewish state next week in a series of five resolutions that — expressly citing controversial UN official Richard Falk — include new accusations of racism, along with calls to impose “international criminal liability” on businesses with indirect links amounting to “corporate complicity in breaches of international law related to illegal settlements.”

The following draft resolutions, drafted by Syria and the Palestinian Authority, are scheduled to be adopted on March 27-28, at the end of 25th session of the Human Rights Council:

1. Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and in the occupied Syrian Golan

Analysis: replete with inflammatory and one-sided language including new BDS-themed provisions inspired by Richard Falk’s latest report.

READ MORE CLICK HERE

NOTE: Shall we start picketing the UN? This cannot stand. Enough with the global attack on Judaism. Who is there to speak out? 

Fatah celebrates anniversary of killing of 37 Israeli civilians

Fatah and the PA celebrate

anniversary of killing 

of 37 Israeli civilians

Fatah spokesman: Terrorist Dalal Mughrabi was an "example of bravery, heroism, sacrifice and courage"

Fatah Facebook: 

"[Abu Jihad] planned to make Zionism tremble;

she [Dalal] destroyed two large buses 

and killed more than 100;

and the flag of Palestine waved in the skies 

of the occupied land" 

Abbas’ advisor: “[We remember] that young woman who fought along with her comrades until her ammunition ran out. Yes, March is honored by this Palestinian blood" 

"They [Israelis] are deluding themselves if they think the negotiations are our only choice. Let the young people hear me: Allah, honor us with Martyrdom (Shahada). Allah, give us the honor of being part of the procession of Martyrs"

by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik

In keeping with their annual tradition, Fatah and the PA celebrated the anniversary of the most lethal terror attack against Israel.   

  

In 1978, terrorist Dalal Mughrabi led a group of terrorists from Lebanon into Israel, where they hijacked a bus and killed 37 Israeli civilians, 12 of them children.

At an event, Fatah's spokesman Ahmad Assaf praised terrorist Dalal Mughrabi as "an extraordinary example of struggle, whose headline is bravery, heroism, sacrifice and courage" and who "inspired her generation and the next generations." [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, March 12, 2014]

The official Palestinian Authority daily reported from the event that "Fatah promised to the masses of our heroic people that it would remain loyal to the promise of the Martyr Dalal and her companions, and to all the Martyrs, until freedom, independence and return." [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, March 17, 2014]

Keep Reading

A Language of Conflict, and Peace

NY TIMES 3/18/14

by Jodi Rudoren

JERUSALEM — As militants in the Gaza Strip and the Israeli Air Force traded a hail of rockets and bombs last week, a Twitter notification popped up on my screen: “We applaud @rudoren for not using the word ‘respond’ when describing Palestinian retaliation to Israeli violence.”

I welcome the rare applause on social media. But in this battle context, is there such a big difference between “respond” and “retaliate”?

Merriam-Webster’s online thesaurus lists them as related words. Its dictionary defines “respond” as “to do something as a reaction to something that has happened or been done.” Indeed: The Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad sent scores of rockets into southern Israel after Israeli troops killed three of its members (Israel said the three fired a mortar at its troops; the Palestinians said that was because they were on the Gaza side of the border fence). KEEP READING

Mahmoud Abbas and the 'Jewish State'

by Robert Satloff

Also available in العربية

Foreign Policy

March 14, 2014

From The Washington Institute for Near East Policy 

NOTE: Another excellent and thoughtful piece by the brilliant Robert Satloff

"To his credit, Obama has understood the centrality of the "Jewish state" issue. Despite the pressure he has exerted on Israel to stop building in Jerusalem, release jailed terrorists, or make painful concessions in peace talks, the president has never wavered from his characterization of "the Jewish state of Israel."

Read the Article Here

Aide says no concessions as Abbas set to meet Kerry, Obama

From the TIMES OF ISRAEL

Fatah organizes West Bank solidarity rallies for PA president; Arab world largely focused on Syria

BY ELHANAN MILLER March 16, 2014, 4:31 pm

NOTE: REALLY? 

“The Palestinians have delivered all the concessions they can,” Fatah Central Committee member Mohammed Al-Madani, Abbas’s liaison with Israel and the Jewish community, told The Times of Israel on Sunday. “Now it’s Israel’s turn to deliver,” Madani said.

Read more: Aide says no concessions as Abbas set to meet Kerry, Obama | The Times of Israel http://www.timesofisrael.com/aide-says-no-concessions-as-abbas-set-to-meet-kerry-obama/#ixzz2w8kiCxXF 
Follow us: @timesofisrael on Twitter | timesofisrael on Facebook

Eight Crucial Questions for Abbas (and One for President Obama)

by John Ryan
March 15, 2014 at 2:30 pm

from:

http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4216/obama-abbas-meeting

1. Does Israel have a right to exist?
2. Yasser Arafat, the first president of the Palestinian Authority [PA], accepted Israel as a Jewish state, and the homeland of the Jewish people. As the recent UNESCO exhibit documented, Jews have been on Israeli land, and in the disputed areas in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) for 3,500 years, 2,000 years prior to the advent of Islam. You, however, recently said that you do not accept Israel as a Jewish state. Why?
3. Will you stop using the humanitarian aid money given to you by the U.S. and the U.N. for prohibitedpurposes, such as paying salaries to and glorifying terrorists, and inciting mass hatred against Jews, even among Palestinian children?
4. Why did you not immediately fire Jibril Rajoub, the supposedly "moderate" senior PA official, after he said in May 2013 that if the PA had a nuclear bomb, it would drop it on Israel that very day?
5. Are you prepared to make any concessions to advance the peace process? For example, will you rescind your July 2013 statement that if you get your own state, not a single Jew will be allowed anywhere within it?
6. If you strike a deal for peace, how will you ensure that all Palestinian parties, both in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, uphold it; that the next president of the PA does not say, "Abbas signed that; I did not."?
7. If and when you get a Palestinian state, will you announce – in Arabic – that this agreement brings an end to the conflict?
8. And will you then formally order the PA to stop glorifying terrorists and calling for the destruction of Israel in the Palestinian media, school textbooks, summer camps, sports stadiums, crossword puzzles and other outlets?

Read the ENTIRE article here:

The Way Forward

The Arab population around Israel is not going to go away. The question is how will Israel and its neighbors learn to get along? Borders, walls, fences, skirmishes are not the answer. Diplomacy barely keeps some degree of peace, minimizing all out war but even in the face of aggressive diplomatic maneuvers attacks and counter attacks continue. And, when all is said and done, there remains severe hatred on both sides.

It seems to me that the hatred is greater on the Arab side. Propaganda, misinformation and venom are on display for all to see. On television, the streets, the web. But there is equal hatred on the Israeli side, particularly among the political right wingers and the more Orthodox among the religious. Both groups show little interest in modifying their hatred. In fact, they seem to get a life out of it all. And in my opinion here lies the problem.

If diplomacy is successful in settling some border issues and hands are shaken, nothing will have been done to stanch this river of hatred. As long as both sides vilify each other, tension will simmer. Where in history can we turn for a guide? Where have two diametrically opposed groups worked out their differences and learned to co-exist?

In America after the Civil War, slavery was abolished but over 100 years later much animosity between whites and blacks exist. China and Japan don't get along. Myriad tribes in Africa butcher each other over minor ethnic differences. Europe? The former Soviet Empire? Ireland and Britain? Is there anyone anywhere who gets along? Is the best we can hope for is a border to separate us?

Maybe. Before the last intifada Jews and Palestinians were starting to get along. Folks were crossing borders to work, to shop and to gamble. Children were going to Maine summer camps, Seeds of Peace, Jews and Palestinians, and realizing they could get along. It all ended with Arafat's refusal to sign. Is it irreparable?

We can build bigger walls. Make smarter Iron Domes. The Palestinians can create more propaganda, smuggle in more missiles, live in the misguided hope that Israel will disappear and all will be theirs. Common sense says this approach will fail. Where to change direction? Its not going to be some ceremonial handshake. Its going to take people coming out from behind their xenophobia, their hate and their fears and begin working towards the common goal of peace and good neighbors. How to start?

7 reasons why the Palestinian crisis & the Black struggle for freedom are absolutely nothing alike

From the TIMES OF ISRAEL MARCH 8, 2014

NOTE: Not sure how I missed this. This is extremely well written with points worth highlighting and using in your discussions with doubters (or haters). Please take a moment to read. Let me know what your thoughts are, too. 

The “parallels” between the Palestinian plight and that of African-Americans have been made for decades, and this has always been spurious. Sadly, the exercise continues and seems to be growing as anti-Israel sentiment including global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) inexplicably gain credibility

So, here are seven reasons why the Palestinian analogy to the Black historical struggle for freedom is hopelessly flawed (and down right offensive).
1. UNRWA

Beginning operations on May 1, 1950, the United Nations Relief Works Agency for the Palestinian people is the only UN relief agency that exists exclusively for one group — the Palestinians. At the time of its founding there were some 720,000 Palestinian refugees. Many of these people became refugees after refusing the offer to become Israeli citizens, and choosing to await the great victory over the Jews promised to them by the leaders of the Arab states.

Black Americans from slavery to Jim Crow to the civil rights era never had anything that vaguely resembled UNRWA or any type of international relief agency. We were also unsuccessful at being declared refugees — which surely would have led to reparations for 400 years of forced servitude.

2. INTERNATIONAL AID  CONTINUE READING HERE

Watch: Abbas says NO to JEWISH STATE (TRANSLATED BY MEMRI)

Watch VIDEO HERE

The Politics of Palestinian RIght of Return

by Alexander Joffe and Asaf Romirowsky
Forbes
February 24, 2014
 from the Middle East Forum Website 

NOTE: It is important to reiterate the fact that 60 years after the creation of Israel only Palestinian "refugees" exist and they do so by thier own choice. No arab country accepted them with the exception of Jordan. Most chose to REMAIN REFUGEES under the assumption they could someday push Israel into the sea and "go home". Understand this and you understand why the peace process is always doomed to failure. Home equals Palestine equals a nation without Jews, ergo no "2 state" solution. 

Anyway, you read this excellent article and see what you think. Feel free to comment. 

READ IT HERE

Give Peace a Chance?

February 21, 2014 by Daniel Gordis from danielgordis.org

NOTE: This is a great piece, I strongly urge you to read it and enjoy it! Here's a few clips:

Have you read or even heard of a single book by any citizen of those countries (who choose to stay there) who says that the 1947-1949 Arab attack on Israel was a mistake? Have you read or even heard of a single book by one of those people that says that the attempt to destroy the just-born Jewish state was morally wrong? Have you read a single book by a committed Palestinian who says that just as the Palestinians have a right to a state, so too do the Jews, and it’s time for Palestinians to recognize Israel as a Jewish state?

Neither have I.

Have you read or even heard of a single book by any citizen of those countries (who choose to stay there) who says that the 1947-1949 Arab attack on Israel was a mistake? Have you read or even heard of a single book by one of those people that says that the attempt to destroy the just-born Jewish state was morally wrong? Have you read a single book by a committed Palestinian who says that just as the Palestinians have a right to a state, so too do the Jews, and it’s time for Palestinians to recognize Israel as a Jewish state?

Neither have I.

Read the article here:

Gaza left out of Mideast peace talks

Washington Post

By William Booth and Anne Gearan, Updated: Friday, February 21, 7:00 AM

GAZA CITY — This crowded bit of Mediterranean shore is a long way from the closed-door rooms where Israeli and Palestinian negotiators are holding the first real peace talks in years.
But as Secretary of State John F. Kerry prepares to publicly present outlines of a proposed peace deal, the isolated and besieged Palestinian territory called the Gaza Strip is the rarely mentioned elephant in the bargaining room — a huge obstacle to a permanent settlement of the decades-old conflict.

Kerry has confined his peacemaking to Palestinians in the West Bank, a territory on the other side of Israel, and he envisions a deal signed by the moderate leadership there. Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are governed by the militant Islamist Hamas movement, which opposes talks with Israel and is considered a terrorist organization by the United States, and they are not part of the negotiations.

That means that if a deal could be done right now, the 1.6 million people who live in Gaza — about 40 percent of the population in the two Palestinian territories — would essentially be left out.

“Gaza and Hamas represent the real conundrum of the peace process. You can’t do a conflict-ending deal without them, and you can’t do one with them either,” said Aaron David Miller, a Mideast scholar at the Wilson Center and a U.S. adviser in failed peace negotiations in which Gaza played a central role. 

Read Entire Article Here:

Note: pretty depressing read. Makes me want to insert head into sand and pretend things are alright. But they're not alright. Learn from this. Let's put our heads together and begin to bend the paradigm.