Palestinian Car Dealership, not Covid-19 Testing Center, demolished in Hebron.

Lately,  it seems that any Palestinian structure that has been demolished has been retroactively claimed to be  a "Covid-19 treatment center" or a  "Coronavirus Testing Center".

Even when its a car dealership.

Last week,  an unlicensed structure built in Area C(under exclusive Israeli control) was demolished and immediately after, sources on social media claimed it was a Coronavirus testing center.

No, the computer generated picture of a building with English lettering didn't seem to be a red flag to the "Israel is always wrong" cru.

Here's what the building actually looked like

And again, the lie went half-way across the world before the truth was done with its coffee.

.

From an article written by Palestinian journalist Khaled Abu Toameh in the Jerusalem Post:
Israel demolished Hebron car dealership, not 'COVID-19 center'

Civil Administration inspectors, who first noticed the structure on July 12, issued an order banning the continuation of the work. The car dealer, however, ignored the warning.

Palestinians working at the site told the inspectors that they were building a car exhibition for a Palestinian businessman from Hebron. The inspectors also spotted a sign with the name of the new car dealership business.

On July 21, Civil Administration bulldozers arrived at the site and demolished the illegally built structure.

Do some Palestinians and their Western enablers attempt to exploit a global pandemic for personal gain?

Yes they do.

“Contrary to the false claims, this was not a center for coronavirus testing,” a Civil Administration spokesman told The Jerusalem Post. “Also, it was not a health clinic. That’s a total lie.”

The unlicensed structure was being built for personal use, the spokesman said, adding that the Israeli authorities had not received any request from the PA or any international organization to build a coronavirus center.

“We condemn the cynical use of a global crisis at the expense of the Palestinians in Hebron,” he added.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health was also unaware of any pending plans to build a coronavirus testing center in Hebron.

Anti-Israel activists groups were quick to spread the lies-  but not so quick to update them.  Most accounts on social media have not been updated to reflect this new information. 

For more information on this latest blood libel, check out Palestinian Media Watch
The birth and spread of a new anti-Israel libel: The claim that Israel destroyed a COVID-19 testing center in Hebron is false!

Gravity: It still works. Even for the Palestinians.

No, gravity is not one of the laws that can be ignored as "Palestine exception."

The Palestinian National Council for Promoting Values is now promoting the concept that "what goes up must come down", and is encouraging people to refrain from "celebratory gunfire".

Who would ever have guessed that shooting in the air is harmful behavior that could possibly hurt someone? Yet in the Palestinian territories it takes a public service campaign to get the message across that gravity still works.

A fatwa had been issued earlier, but it had been largely ignored.

Fatwa: The reign of shooting in the air

Shooting shots on occasions, such as joys, success, and funerals, is legally forbidden, a Muslim is not permitted to do so; for the following five reasons:

1. These actions include harm to Muslims without right; they may cause infallible death, or injury, and one of the reasons for the deserving of painful punishment, the Almighty said: {And those who harm the believers and the believer without gaining, have lost Endure slander and manifest sinthmạ [Parties: 58].

2. The intimidation of the Muslim is forbidden and of the great, and the shooting in the air is not without intimidation of women, children and passers by; Abdul Rahman bin Abi Layla said: The owners of Muhammad peace be upon him told us that they were with the Prophet (peace be upon him) Peace be upon him, a man of them fell asleep, so some of them went to a rope with him, and he took him, so he panicked, and said, ′′ Peace be upon him, ′′ It is not possible for a Muslim to terrorize a Muslim ′′ (Abu Dawood: 5004), and about my father Huraira (May Allah be pleased with him) said: (Whoever refers to his brother with iron, the angels curse him until he calls him, even if his brother to his father and mother) (Muslim: 2616).

3. Islam has forbidden to carry arms exposed; lest it harm Muslims accidentally; for the hadith of Abi Musa, may Allah be pleased with him, that the Prophet (peace be upon him) said: (If anyone passes in our mosque or in our market with nobility, let's catch On her blade, or he said: Let his palm be arrested if one of the Muslims afflicts something) (Bukhari: 452, and Muslim: 2615).

As the law forbids pointing arms at a Muslim; lest it remove his hand; Abu Huraira, may Allah be pleased with him, said: (No one points to his brother with weapons, he does not know anyone may Satan takes off in his hand, and falls into a pit of fire) (Bukhari: 7072, and Muslim: 2617; how can he who uses weapons, and fires in the air, and between alleys, and in the roads?!

4. Shooting in the air is a waste of money in his legitimate face, and this is a forbidden waste, Allah forbade him by saying: {Indeed, the wasteful were brothers of demons and Satan was for his Lord is honorable} [Isra: 27].

5. The possession of weapons is a law to defend religion, to lie about souls and symptoms, and to provide it to the jihad for the sake of Allah from the power we have been commanded to prepare, it cannot be used in vain and oppression, otherwise it will become a use of weapons There is no intention, and in this is disbelievers, and God forbid.

According to the above: The shooter in the air is legitimately sinful, and guarantor of all that reckless acts of people's lives and property, and if shooting in the air kills a soul - God's destiny - it is semi-intentional killing, In which the penalty is severe; he deliberately fires without legitimate need, knowing that he is a thought of destroying souls.

The judicial and police authorities are also legally required to prevent these mischievous acts; the consequent corruption that harm people in their souls, their eternal and their money, and it is known that the duty of the Sultan is to preserve the interests of Muslims; to bring benefits to them, and pay Corrupting them, allowing fools to shoot shots on different occasions is a great corruption.

God Almighty knows.

✍️ Muhammad Suleiman Nasrallah Alfra
Friday 22 Shawwal 1439 AH
6 July 2018 AD

As of this week, the campaign appears to be a failure. A paramedic was wounded near Nablus, and given the nature of the wound, it likely from "celebratory gunfire".

Killing their own or wounding their own may not actually matter to the Palestinians because they can always blame Israeli "snipers" and the world will believe them.

Palestinian Grand Mufti complicit in the deaths of European Jews

Congressperson Rashida Tlaib is now claiming her ancestors provided a safe haven for Jews fleeing the Holocaust. Its simply not true. The Arab leadership in pre-state Israel did all they could to prevent Jewish migration. The Grand Mufti personally prevented 10,000  children from entering the land, dooming them to certain death in Europe

From the Des Moines Tribune, April 26 1961, writing about the Eichmann trial and quoting notes from Dieter Wisliceny, one of Eichmann's former aides.

In 1937 there already was an intelligence connection between the SS and the mufti of Jerusalem, Wisliceny was quoted as having written.

The excerpts told of a visit by Eichmann to Palestine in 1937 and by the mufti to Germany in 1941 or 1942.

According to Wisliceny, the mufti received consent from Nazi authorities to have a Nazi adviser sent to him after the Axis' expected final victory.

When there was a plan in 1942 to free 10,000 Jewish children to let them go to Palestine the mufti objected according to Wisliceny.

The notes quoted Eichmann as reporting that objections from the mufti prompted SS chief Himmler to suspend the project and to rule that no Jew should be permitted to go to Palestine from German-occupied Europe

Records from the Eichmann trial show that the Grand Mufti was paid a salary of 50,000 marks a month to foment hate in the region.   Rather than provide the Jews of Europe with a safe haven, the Palestinian Grand Mufti was complicit in their deaths.

Life as a dhimmi in pre-state Israel

One of the many enduring lies spread by the  "Israel is always wrong" team, is that Jews and Arabs got along swimmingly in the Arab world, and in particular, in the Holy Land, until those darn Zionists came and ruined everything.

Its blatantly false.

Maimonides writing in 1172 noted the suffering of his people under Arab hands, as quoted in Bostom's The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism: From Sacred Texts to Solemn History:

God has hurled us in the midst of this people, the Arabs, who have persecuted us severely, and passed baneful and discriminatory legislation against us, as Scripture has forewarned us, "Our enemies themselves shall judge us" (Deut. 32:3 1). Never did a nation molest, degrade, debase, and hate us as much as they...

Albert M Hyamson, in his  1917 book Palestine, the rebirth of an ancient people  (online and fully digitized) describes life as a dhimmi, in pre-state Israel

P.63

The Jews here are still sorely oppressed by the Turks: they are robbed, injured and insulted, and have no appeal.  Every man doeth that which is right in his own eyes.   A Turk will enter a shop and demand so much money; if the poor man threatens to go to a judge, he is told, 'My sword is the judge- give or take the consequences!'  This has really happened since our return to a poor Jew and was told us by another Jew  

Quoting Benjamin II, 1847
Deep misery and continual oppression are the right words to describe the condition of the Children of Israel in the land of their fathers

They are entirely destitute of every legal protection and every means of safety.

Tax upon tax is levied upon them

P.64
In the strict sense of the word, the Jews are not even masters of their own property. They do not even venture to complain when they are robbed and plundered; for the vengeance of the Arabs would be sure to follow each complaint....

Their lives are taken into as little consideration as their property: they are exposed to the caprice of any one...Violence of every kind is a daily occurrence

Systematic violence against the Jewish people was rampant throughout the Arab world. This map 

from The Point of No Return, put to rest once and for all,  the myth of the Arab Jewish golden era of co-existence:

Massacres of Jews by Muslims before 1948

American sentenced to life in prison for selling ‘West Bank’ land to Jews

This is what an apartheid state looks like:

A Palestinian-American has been arrested and sentenced to life in prison with "hard labor" for  selling land to Jews.  Issam Akel, a resident of east Jerusalem, was arrested by Palestinian Authority security forces in October 2018.  A Palestinian court convicted Akel of “attempting to sever parts of Palestinian land and annex it to a foreign state.”   Under Palestinian law, potential sellers must get the Palestinian Authority to sign off on land sales.

Issam Akel is particularly lucky.  Selling land to a Jew is considered a capital offense, subject to the death penalty.

The US Ambassador has called for Akel's release.

From the Times of Israel:

US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman has tweeted

“The Pal Authority has been holding US citizen Isaam Akel in prison for ~2 months,” Friedman tweeted on November 28. “His suspected ‘crime’? Selling land to a Jew. Akel’s incarceration is antithetical to the values of the US & to all who advocate the cause of peaceful coexistence. We demand his immediate release.”

Palestine. Land of Promise

In 1938, the United States Department of Agriculture sent Walter Clay Lowdermilk to the “Near East” to make a survey of land use. These photos are from his book,  Palestine, land of Promise, published in 1944, which examines  the “geological setting of these these areas, the state of their population, and the present achievements of Jewish  agriculture and industry”

Tel Aviv

Beth Hakerem

Before and after reforestation:

He writes (p.85)

...the newcomers in Palestine became pioneers, building their own economy in a backward and neglected land...These pioneers in Palestine found the country denuded of trees and depleted of its natural fertility.

With an innovative spirit that persists even today, the Jewish community began transforming the land using scientific agrarian methods

(p.91) The Arab cow gives about 800 quarts of milk a year, but the cows in Jewish settlements average 3500 quarts,  while some prize specimens among them give more than 5000 quarts yearly.

(p.92 )The native Arab hen is a scrawny fowl which lays an average of 60 small eggs a year. Jewish settlers have introduced the leghorn hen and crossed it with native breeds,The resultant new strain is heavier and lays an average of 150 large eggs per year.

(p.94) The most outstanding achievement of Palestinian agriculture is the scientific production of citrus crops... The Arabs quickly adopted the modern methods of the Jews and together the two communities have built up a citrus industry which before this war made Palestine the second largest citrus exporting country in the world.

It was not just the land that prospered- it was the people as well.

(p.151) In the course of 18,000 miles of automobile travel through the Arab lands, I was impressed by the relative progress made by Palestinian Arabs as compared with the Arabs in neighboring countries

(p.152) The higher wages paid in Palestine have attracted considerable numbers of Arab immigrants and seasonal laborers from other countries. According to a government estimate the non-Jewish immigration to Palestine, both legal and illegal was between 25,000 and 30,000 in the period between 1922 and 1925.

(p.157) Arab infant mortality is rapidly declining in all of Palestine but it is lowest in the localities closest to the Jewish settlements.The reduction in the death rate is due in part to the health work of the Palestine government but must be attributed mainly to the activities of the Jewish health agencies,among which Hadassah, the American Jewish Zionist Organization has played the outstanding part.

Lowdermilk concludes:

(p.228) ...a people with faith and devotion born of a long tradition has changed desolation into fertile fields, fruitful orchards and reforested slopes. Ancient cities have been rebuilt and the commerce on their streets quickened, long-unknown resources have been brought into the light of day and sent to the distant marts of the world. After centuries of darkness which crushed the hopes of Palestine's miserable inhabitants, a new force has come into the land and made it live again. The possibility of a new day for the entire Near East is hidden in the fertile fields, the flourishing villages and cities, the co-operatives and the factories of Jewish Palestine

Terror is Terror. Omar Mateen

While the nation grieved for its fallen in Orlando, Israeli haters rushed to the web to blame the murders on...you guessed it....Israel.

They, of course, ignore Orlando terrorist Omar Mateens' own words in support of the terror group ISIS They also ignore Mateen's support of that other bastion of terror, "Palestine" .

Check him out, wearing his festive "I Love Palestine " keffiyeh. Photo originally appeared in the NY Daily News.

Omar Mateen

From the attack on civilians in Tel Aviv's Max Brenner sweet shop, to the attack on the LGBT community in Orlando, terror is terror. Mourn for the dead. Fight for the living. And do your best, collectively and individually to prevent it from ever happening again.

A Complete Guide to "Normalizing"

For the Palestinian activists and their hard left enablers: A guide to "normalizing", from the extremist PACBI.

Don't you dare humanize anyone who disagrees with you.  Don't even think it.

Its about "institutions", not  "individuals'. This will give you a convenient out if you are accused of "McCarthyite" tactics and blacklisting.  (But shhhh. You know as well as I do that its about individuals that disagree with you.)

There can be no solution to the conflict that leaves Israel intact.  Treat anyone who disagrees as an enemy.

 Justice = Just us. Just us. Just us. Just us.  Got it?  Good.

More advice for Palestinian activists and enablers:

Avoid genuine peace-seekers. Treat sincere attempts at dialog as an existential threat to your dignity. Speaking outside of your usual echo-chamber  may subject you to inconvenient truths, and therefore should be avoided.  Complain loudly about being silenced while refusing to talk to anyone who disagrees with you.  That's the battle-cry of an authentic Palestinian activist.

American Muslims For Palestine: Inventing a heritage

American Muslims for Palestine is looking for "Palestinian" artifacts  to display at their November convention.

Their call for "coins and currency' is illustrated by the coins of the colonial power, the  British Mandate. 

B'nai Brith International highlights the history of the coins here

In September, 1923, the formal start of the British Mandate for Palestine went into effect. At that time, there was no stable economic system. There were a great number of coins and currencies used from different countries: Turkish, American, numerous European, Russian and Indian. Stamps were sometimes used. Barter was common. Something had to be done. On July 24, 1922, in London, the League of Nations formalized the Palestine Mandate, by issuing a covenant that had 28 articles. Article 22 was concerned with the economy. It read: "English, Arabic and Hebrew shall be the official languages of Palestine. Any statement in Arabic on stamps or money in Palestine shall be repeated in Hebrew and any statement or inscription in Hebrew shall be repeated in Arabic." 

The design was controversial from the very beginning

"To conform to the Balfour Declaration, two additional Hebrew letters were added in parentheses next to the Hebrew script on the coins. These letters, the aleph and yod, were an abbreviation for Eretz Yisra'el, "The Land of Israel." This infuriated the Arab citizens who rioted in protest. Orthodox Jews were also displeased with the text as they believed only the Messiah from the house of David could reestablish the historical Kingdom of Israel. These conflicts still rage on today."

No one doubts that the the British mandate for Palestine existed, and its unclear how  exhibiting coinage that  proclaims the "Land of Israel" supports the AMP claim of the historic existence of a Palestinian people.

A quick search of the New York Times Historical index shows that common use of the term "Palestinian" did not begin until 1970.

Before 1970? Guess who the term "Palestinian" referred to?

Fail, AMP. Fail.

American Muslims for Palestine  knows the true history of the coinage- in their promotional material advertising their conference  they deliberately cut out the Hebrew writing.

After all, you cannot  'reclaim a narrative' with eliminating an existing one.

Abbas's new Presidential Guest Palace

Writing at Gatestone, Khaled Abu Toameh asks the question, "What  are Palestinians Doing with U.S. Money?", concluding  "One does not have to be an expert on Palestinian affairs to see that the billions of dollars have neither created democracy for the Palestinians nor boosted the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. "

During the past 20 years, the U.S. has invested $4.5 billion in promoting democracy among the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and boosting the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

This is what Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah revealed during a meeting in Ramallah this week with Congressman Kevin McCarthy, Majority Leader of the U.S. House of Representatives. Hamdallah said that the money was also invested in projects in various Palestinian sectors.

The $4.5 billion that Hamdallah talked about does not include the billions of dollars poured on the Palestinian Authority (PA) since its creation in 1994. Palestinian economic analysts estimate that the PA has received a total of $25 billion in financial aid from the U.S. and other countries during the past two decades.

One of the "projects" financed by US donations may very well be Abbas's new  Presidential Guest Place. Now serving the 11th year of his 4 year term, Abbas is building himself a facility fit for a king.

The Presidential Guest Palace in Surda, Ramallah

$13 million dollars is budgeted for the project, which includes 2 helipads

Flag of Palestine

A fascinating bit of trivia is going viral across the Internet.

A blogger, looking in an old French dictionary had their eyes drawn to the flag of Palestine.

Early Palestinian Flag

The dictionary was from 1939- you can note the German flag on the upper left hand page.

The flag of Palestine is on the right side of the page.  Even in 1939, Palestine was to be the nation State of the Jewish people.

Palestine flag

Read it all here

Nelson Mandela: Co-opted, Re-mixed and Re-delivered

Kudos to StandWithUs for exposing the lengths anti-Israel activists will go through to manipulate the truth.




Anti-Israel activists deliberately manipulated footage of Nelson Mandela, speaking at a 1990 Town Hall meeting anchored by Ted Koppel on ABC Nightline in New York, in an effort to eliminate his  declaration  "The support for Yassir Arafat in his struggle does not mean that the ANC has ever doubted the right of Israel to exist as a state. We have stood quite openly and firmly for the right of that state to exist within secured borders"

Lies. Manipulation. Selective editing. Could these ethically bankrupt anti-Israeli propagandists stoop any lower?

Sadly, the answer is probably yes.

"The Dream of centuries is about to be realized" To be a free people in our own land.

From the  Sunday June 17 1917 New York Tribune: The Birth of New Nations: Palestine.

 From the article:

The problem of the Jew is nearly 2000 years old. It first came into existence when Rome destroyed in 70 AD the Jewish state in Palestine exiling its inhabitants. Robbed of its home, the Jewish nation was dispersed to all corners of the Roman empire. There seemed little chance it would survive as an individual entity...

Wandering from land to land, spreading all over the surface of the globe, the people without a country continued to stick to their national institutions and to passionately yearn for their lost fatherland...

Since the Jewish religion is intensely a national one, fundamentally bound up with the Holy land, it is a big mistake to regard the Jews as professors of a certain faith only. The Jews are a nation. Their religion is almost entirely devoted to the perpetuation of that idea

The return to Palestine became a subject for daily prayer in the synagogue immediately after the disruption of the Jewish state. The fact that it is almost 2,000 years since the event occurred should not in the least affect the Jewish claim to Palestine. If anything, it should add to the strength of the claim.

Our eyes have always looked to the east.

Many Jewish leaders turned their eyes toward the holy land, seeking a way towards the return of the scattered Jews to the land of their fathers...Barren Palestine became the center of pilgrimage to many patriotic Jews.  With enormous energy the immigrants tackled the difficulties of cultivating the long neglected soil of the Holy Land.

The article concludes:

"The dream of centuries is about to be realized" , and indeed it has. Again, we are a free people in our own land.

Food Fight. Palestinians steal olives, cucumbers and tomatoes

 From our friends at CIF Watch:

In a commentary focusing on food as a unifying element in the Middle East, (Could palates, rather than politics be the key to peace in the Middle East?, Aug. 13) ‘Comment is Free’ contributor Rachel Shabi couldn’t help but lament that ‘some countries’ in the region, for obtuse nationalist reasons, claim ownership of legumes that aren’t their own.

More often, we hear about the politics of Middle Eastern food in the context of nationalistic battles over ownership. Israel sparks fury with its ubiquitous postcards of falafel skewered with an Israeli flag and a strapline declaring the pitta-nestled chickpea balls to be their “national snack”. President Obama unwittingly picked that barely-covered scab when it was revealed that he’d be served falafel by the Israeli president on a recent regional trip.

While questions remain as to where precisely in the Middle East the deep-fried round patties (made from ground chickpeas, fava beans or both) originated, as Shabi surely knows, nearly half of Israeli Jews are Mizrachi – descendants from Jewish communities in the Middle East.  So, to suggest that Israelis are ‘colonizing’ the ubiquitous street food is not only petty, but ahistorical.

 ***********

The anti-Israel cru's relentless rants regarding "Zionism’s cultural appropriation of indigenous Palestinian folklore and cuisine"   (thats a direct quote from the Electronic Intifada) reflect not only lack of understanding regarding basic cultural interactions, but also their characteristic inability to see anything beyond the prism of their eternal victimhood.

Petty and ahistorical?  We can play that game, too. Check out this photo from the facebook page "Palestine Food"

How can you not love this photo of absolutely luscious "Palestine" food, labneh , zaatar, flatbread, stuffed eggplant, olives, cucumber and tomato.... wait a second...
Yep. Apparently olives, cucumber and tomato have been appropriated and are now exclusively "Palestine Food".

Its a war crime.

*************

In reality, the food of the Middle East is reflective of its location at the crossroads of civilizations, as well as the waves of immigrants that settled the land.

For a much more nuanced view of food in the Middle East, check out "Beyond Falafel: Food Culture in Israel" , a short film made by Bay Area high school students.   Funny how high school students get these basic concepts of intercultural communication and sharing  that appear beyond the intellectual grasp of the  Electronic Intifada.




And check out  the wonderful cookbook "Jerusalem", written Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi.  From Tablet magazine:  Can the ‘Jerusalem’ Cookbook Bring About Peace?   From the looks of it, yes. The authors write about how the food culture of Jerusalem helps break down boundaries:

"You can see people shop together in food markets, or eat in one another’s restaurants. On rare occasions, they work together in partnership in food establishments. It takes a giant leap of faith, but we are happy to take it--what have we got to lose?--to imagine that hummus will eventually bring Jerusalemites together, if nothing else will."

By Dennis Ross: : For Mideast Peace, Suspend Disbelief

 Dennis Ross is a counselor to the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, who was the United States’ chief negotiator for the Arab-Israeli conflict from 1993 to 2001 and a special assistant to the president for the Middle East and South Asia from 2009 to 2011. In  today's Sunday New York Times, he presents a 14 point agenda for building trust and confidence on both sides of the Palestinian/ Israeli conflict

Read it all here: For Mideast Peace, Suspend Disbelief

What Israelis Can Do

Show That We Have No Intention of Expanding Into a Future Palestinian State

1. Declare that Israel will build new housing only in settlement blocks and in areas to the west of the security barrier. This means that Israel would build only in about 8 percent of the West Bank and no longer in the remaining 92 percent.

2. Be prepared to offer compensation to any Israeli settler ready to relocate to Israel or to designated blocks.

3. Commit to beginning the construction of housing within Israel or the blocks for all those settlers ready to relocate. 

Show That We’re Serious About Ending Control Over Palestinians

4. In “Area C,” which represents 60.1 percent of the West Bank’s territory and in which Israel retains civil and security responsibility, Palestinians would be permitted economic access, activity and ownership.

5. In “Area B,” which covers 21.7 percent of the West Bank and in which Palestinians have responsibility for civil affairs and for law and order — but not for dealing with terrorism — the presence of Palestinian police and security forces, and their duties, would be allowed to increase.

6. In “Area A,” which accounts for 18.2 percent of the West Bank’s territory and in which the Palestinians have civil and security responsibility, the Israel Defense Forces still carry out incursions for security reasons. Because these operations are a reminder of Israeli control and grate on the Palestinians, the I.D.F. could specify clear security criteria, which, if met by the Palestinian Authority, would end the incursions. 

What Palestinians Can Do

Show That We’re Serious About Accepting Two States

1. Be willing to speak of two states for two peoples and to acknowledge there are two national movements and two national identities.

2. Pledge to put Israel on Palestinian maps. Today, most Palestinian maps don’t show Israel at all. They do often show Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

3. Make clear the commitment to building the state of Palestine, without encroaching on Israel, with a particular focus on the rule of law.

Show That We’re Going to Be Good Neighbors to Israel

4. Commit to ending incitement; stop glorifying as martyrs those who kill Israelis; stop blaming Israel for every evil; stop denying the Jewish connection to Jerusalem.

5. Prepare the Palestinian public for peace; Yasir Arafat used to speak about the “peace of the brave.” Declare that the peace of the brave means that both sides, not only Israel, have hard decisions to make for peace.

6. Address the question that Mahmoud Abbas once posed: where does it say that Palestinians should live in squalid conditions? In the West Bank, this would mean building permanent housing in refugee camps and that those families who wished to move out of the camps would be permitted to do so.

What They Can Do Together

Two Crucial, Mutual Steps

7. Commit to an exchange of classrooms or regular youth exchanges starting as early as third grade. The complete absence of contact now means that children on each side are being socialized to demonize and dehumanize the other.

8. Publicly acknowledge when the other side does something positive. For example, the Israeli government should acknowledge that the Palestinian security forces do their job professionally and fulfill their obligations. And the Palestinian Authority should acknowledge when Israel has helped it meet its obligations by advancing tax revenues early, or that Jerusalem’s Hadassah hospital treats Palestinians in need at no cost.

Starting a Virtuous Cycle

These 14 points represent an agenda for discussion that could lead to coordinated actions and change the dynamic between Israelis and Palestinians — and maybe, by restoring hope, show that the government of Mr. Abbas still offers a pathway for Palestinian national aspirations.

These points could, for once, create a virtuous cycle. Such progress is vital if there is to be any hope that the two sides will actually address the core issues of the conflict.

We don’t need more dead ends. It is time to show Israelis and Palestinians that something is possible other than stalemate. Otherwise disbelief and failure will become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The Palestinians uses water as a political weapon

Be prepared to discard much of what you've heard about water in Israel and the Palestinian Territories.Lauro Burkart a Swiss graduate of the Institute of International and Development studies in Geneva has published  a thesis titled ‘The politicization of the Oslo water agreement’ that  gives a more accurate and impartial picture of the topic of the scarcity of water in the Palestinian Authority.   Interviewing Palestinians and Israelis  and examing  original source documents such as the minutes of the meetings of the joint Israeli Palestinian Water Committee (JWC), Buckart has reached several important conclusions;

From  A Missing Peace:

The goals of the Oslo 2 water agreement have been reached regarding the quantities of water provided to the Palestinian population (178 mcm/year in 2006). The Oslo water agreement estimated that the needs would eventually be 200 mcm a year.  The Joint Water Committee functioned well in the first years following signature of the agreement, but since 2008 cooperation has come to a halt

The facts disseminated by the Palestinians, international organizations and donors about the root causes of the water scarcity in the West Bank are incorrect.

Burkart writes: ‘It is not the Israeli occupation policy but the Palestinian political resistance against joint management and cooperation that is responsible for the relatively slow development of the Palestinian water sector and the deteriorating human rights situation in the Palestinian Territories’ and ‘There is convincing evidence of mismanagement within the Palestinian Water Authority (PWA).’

He cites the pro-Palestinian NGO AMAN who concluded that there is ‘no clear legal separation between the political and executive levels within the Palestinian water institutions. To date there is no real functioning water law. Furthermore the National Water Council is not meeting and not functioning well’.

Although the PWA embarked on an institutional reform process in reaction to international critics such as the World Bank this did not solve the issue of mismanagement within the institution. The head of the Palestinian Hydrology Group called the reform a ‘fundraising mechanism’. The PWA also did not manage to gain control over many municipalities (where Israel has no control) due to the autocratic and undemocratic manner in which they are managed.  These power holders did not want to lose control of the water systems since it was one of the main services provided by the municipalities.  As a result the water supply is not centralized and illegal drilling is rampant.

The fact that the PA pays for most of the water bills of the Palestinian population gives no incentive for saving and leads to an unreasonable use of water in the domestic sphere as well as in the agricultural sector.

Read the entire article at A Missing Piece. Lauro Bukart's full thesis is available for download as well.

Palestinians Refuse Evil Zionist Sewage hook-up

All but one Palestinian village has refused to hook up to an Israeli Sewage system, preferring to wallow in self pity and effluence, instead.

From an article in J Post

"Swirling in the strikingly green valley below the southern Samaria community of Nofim is a rambling stream amid grass and trees – filled with dangerous quantities of sewage.

A subterranean sewage pipe connects to the underbellies of four of the five surrounding settlements – Nofim, Yakir, Etz Ephraim and Sha’arei Tikva – and will within a few months also connect to that of Ma’aleh Shomron, bringing all of the effluent to a treatment facility in Eliyahu.

Despite Israeli offers to connect the 22 surrounding Palestinian villages to the same pipe, all but one of them refused the proposal, Environmental Protection Ministry and Shomron Regional Council officials explained during an exclusive tour of the area on Thursday.

Instead, their sewage flows into the aquifer below and ends up directly in the stream, according to the officials.

“That’s a testament to the fact that we are doing everything we can to prevent pollution in Judea and Samaria, but nevertheless, the Palestinians refuse to cooperate,” Environmental Protection Minister Gilad Erdan told The Jerusalem Post during the tour.

Although planned about 15 years ago, the pipeline was only constructed about eight years ago, and a decade ago sewage from the settlements as well flowed directly into the stream, according to Shomron Environmental Association director Itzik Meir.

Erdan expressed hope that donor countries would agree to only continue giving the villages financial support if they agree to connect to the sewage pipeline. Meanwhile, he also said he hoped that the relationship between the local Palestinian and Israeli communities would improve, though he certainly has doubts about this matter.

“Hopefully I will be surprised,” he said.

“It’s important for me to reveal whether they’re making political use of water,” Erdan said. “Or maybe it’s a problem of misunderstanding – but that is hard for me to believe.”

Another Environment Ministry official was slightly more optimistic, explaining that one of the 22 villages had, in fact, recently agreed to hook up to the sewage pipe, a deal that would be finalized in a few weeks time. The official said he could not reveal the name of the village at this point.

Yet a third official told the Post he suspected that the local Palestinian governments were unwilling to connect their villages due to “political reasons” – simply “because they don’t want to recognize Israel as a presence in the area.”"

Bell Pottinger to manage Congressional relations, social and mass media for the Palestinians

What does $30,000 dollars plus expenses buy you?

Maen Rashid Areikat of the General Delegation of the PLO has contracted with the Washington DC Public Relations firm of Bell Pottinger USA to make the Palestinians more palatable to the American Public. Bell Pottinger has since registered as a foreign agent with the Department of Justice

From their website:

"Bell Pottinger USA is a full-service, multi-disciplinary public relations, government affairs and marketing services agency. We specialize in the protection and management of reputations for blue chip companies, trade bodies, governments and influential people across the globe, giving them the influence and solutions they need to achieve their political objectives, and help them engage with stakeholders and the media, particularly in times of crisis"

For a monthly fee of $30,000 and reimbursement of pre-approved expenses, Bell Pottinger will manage all aspects of social and mass Media, and Congressional and political relations for the Palestinians.

Bell Pottingers responsibilities, from their contract:


• Strategic Communications Advice: constructing a clear and well-defined communications strategy, advising how and when to best communicate with key stakeholders, and ensuring that all PR activities we undertake, work towards achieving your communications objectives.
• Message Development: drafting and continually refining messages that tell the story of Palestine, your challenges and your objectives in a way that is concise, compelling, and effective.
• Congressional Affairs: helping you to communicate with key political stakeholders.
• Media Relations: helping you to communicate with influential journalists.
• Social Media: conveying Palestine's image through the Internet and actively managing your online presence to ensure that key stakeholders receive your messages and information.
• Grassroots Mobilization: leveraging the influence of Palestinian families and organizations that have been affected by conflict and desire a resolution.

The Palestinians are seeking to re-brand themselves, to market and sell themselves to the American public. After all they're not just suicide bombers anymore. There is a rich and varied Palestinian culture that involves, hmmm, um, well, I'm sure Bell Pottinger will tell us, eventually.

Its an interesting use of billions of dollars in humanitarian aid funding sent to the Palestinian territories.



What can we expect for $30,000 a month? More youtubes portraying the victimhood of the Palestinian people? Paid tweeters attempting to get Palestine on the all important trending list? Tour Palestine commercials during the Super Bowl?

We'll find out soon enough