Killing Jews Brings Light into The Hearts of Palestinians - Bassam Tawil

 

by Bassam Tawil

The EU, the US, and other international funders of the Palestinians continue to finance a government that refuses not only to condemn terror, but that actually grows it like a lucrative slave-farm for terrorists.

• Just last week, the head of [Fatah], Mahmoud Abbas, received a phone call from US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who reportedly promised to put pressure on Israel to halt its "unilateral measures." Needless to say, Blinken did not complain to Abbas about Fatah's incitement or the celebration of terror attacks by many Palestinians.

• What makes a human being say intentionally crushing an infant beneath the wheels of a car makes the perpetrator a "hero"? What makes them call the car-ramming murder of 8- and 6-year-old brothers a "heroic commando operation"?

• This is the result of decades of anti-Israel incitement and brainwashing by Palestinian leaders, which their funders have never told them to stop. As far as most Palestinians are concerned: 1) All Jews are "settlers," and 2) Israel is one big settlement that must be eliminated.

• Furthermore, finding humor in a cartoon of a terror attack victim's head on a platter about to be eaten as part of a traditional Palestinian feast is hard to comprehend. Why do we keep hearing Palestinians claim that terror and glorification of the murder of innocent civilians is a "natural response"?

• There is nothing "natural" about murdering Jewish children waiting at a bus stop. There is nothing "natural" about murdering unarmed civilians outside a synagogue. There is nothing "natural" about dancing and handing out candy to celebrate terrorism and the murder of Jews, or of anyone.

• The EU, the US, and other international funders of the Palestinians continue to finance a government that refuses not only to condemn terror, but that actually grows it like a lucrative slave-farm for terrorists. For some Palestinians, such as the leaders of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, that even includes sending women and children to blow themselves up and using babies as human shields. The leaders do not, of course, send out members of their own families for this "achievement."

• Sadly, these funders do not even ask the Palestinian leaders, as a condition of their funding, to stop calling for violence and to stop rewarding murder. One has to ask: Why not? If you go to a bank and request a mortgage, the bank will stipulate conditions. That is "natural."

• Considering the undisguised vitriol of Fatah and the Palestinian Authority in support of terrorism -- with both words and money -- how could Israel seriously be expected to engage in any fruitful peace talks with the Palestinians?

In what has come to be known as "Pay for Slay," Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has been adamant about continuing to pay large benefits to terrorists and their families. Pictured: Abbas speaks at a ceremony honoring Palestinian terrorists on July 23, 2018. He said: "We will neither reduce nor withhold the allowances of the families of martyrs, prisoners, and released prisoners... if we had one single penny left, we would spend it on the families of the martyrs and the prisoners." (Image source: MEMRI)

After the recent wave of terror attacks in Jerusalem and the West Bank, Palestinians again took to the streets to celebrate the murder of Jews. As part of the celebrations, the Palestinians danced, chanted slogans in support of the terrorists and handed out sweets to passersby.

Whether intentionally or not, the world media continues to bypass a lot of the celebrations, including the unrestrained Palestinian rejoicing after 9/11, when some media outlets revealed footage of Palestinians dancing, handing out sweets, and celebrating the murder of thousands of Americans.

Americans and others around the world who were reeling from the horror of 9/11 were outraged when the footage of the Palestinian celebrations came to light. For Israelis, this revelry in response to terror has been a nightmare that they have contended with for decades.

In one of the most recent attacks on Israeli civilians, a Palestinian terrorist murdered seven Jews just after Sabbath prayers at a synagogue. Palestinians rejoiced in the streets, celebrating with dancing, sweets, and fireworks.

In some instances, senior officials from the ruling Fatah faction, headed by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, have been documented participating in the celebrations over the murder of Jews.

On January 28, Ata Abu Rumaileh, the head of Fatah in the city of Jenin in the northern West Bank, attended a march celebrating two terror attacks in Jerusalem.

At the march, Abu Rumaileh, brandishing an M-16-style assault rifle, was surrounded by dozens of armed and masked terrorists. He praised the "righteous martyrs" who carried out the attacks and called for more terrorism against Israel.

Weapons and bullets, he said, should be the only language used with Israel. The intifada (uprising), he continued, has "turned into a war" that will not end until the blood of the "martyrs" is avenged. "May these attacks send their [the Jews'] corpses to Hell. Today, we are handing out sweets... in congratulation of our heroic martyrs."

It is worth noting that Abu Rumaileh represents the Fatah faction that is often described by Westerners as the "moderate" party.

Just last week, the head of this party, Mahmoud Abbas, received a phone call from US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who reportedly promised to put pressure on Israel to halt its "unilateral measures." Needless to say, Blinken did not complain to Abbas about Fatah's incitement or the celebration of terror attacks by many Palestinians.

Jamal Al-Huwail, another senior member of Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction, also praised the murder of Jews. A few months ago, Al-Huwail said that Diaa Al-Hamarsheh, the terrorist who murdered five Israelis in the city of Bnei Brak "brought light into the hearts of the Palestinians."

"The people in Jenin took to the streets to celebrate," he added. "Al-Hamarsheh and his family restored the glory of Fatah, Hamas, PFLP [Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine] and Islamic Jihad."

The terror attack in Bnei Brak indeed produced gleeful mobs of dancing Palestinians in Jenin and elsewhere, who chanted, "Millions of martyrs are marching to Jerusalem!" and hailed the terrorist as a "heroic martyr leader."

A little more than a month later and a few miles away in the city of Elad, two Palestinian terrorists attacked Jews with an axe and a knife, murdering four men, one of whom recently died of his wounds.

In a surreal twist, Abbas's Fatah official, Ata Abu Rumaileh, asserted the terrorists' boy-scout ethics: "They refused to kill women, children, and elderly. That is the morality of the fighters and resistance members."

Palestinian Media Watch pointedly added that the "morality" of the terrorists somehow falls somewhat short: they "butchered fathers with axes and knives in front of their children at a park."

Perhaps Abu Rumaileh would consider it a precedentially "ethical win" when the horrific Netanya Passover Massacre in 2002 saw Palestinians dancing for joy at the challenging "achievement" of murdering 30 Jews and injuring 140 others, mostly elderly people, at a holiday meal.

A similar celebration occurred in the aftermath of the 2008 Merkaz HaRav Yeshiva massacre, after a Palestinian terrorist shot dead eight Jewish students. Then, "thousands of Palestinians [took] to the streets, shooting guns in the air, offering prayers of gratitude and handing out candy to local children. They weren't celebrating a religious holiday or a sports championship. They were celebrating the vicious murder of eight boys."

There are some Palestinians who simply wish to live in peace and have actively helped Israeli Jews in dangerous situations, but their voices and stories are not often heard. One such Palestinian man was "forced to flee [the] West Bank after death threats for rescuing children of murdered Rabbi Miki Mark."

The motivation to remain silent is fear.

It is difficult to account, however, for crowds of thousands dancing and rejoicing over the killing of innocents. What makes a human being say intentionally crushing an infant beneath the wheels of a car makes the perpetrator a "hero"? What makes them call the car-ramming murder of 8- and 6-year-old brothers a "heroic commando operation"?

This is the result of decades of anti-Israel incitement and brainwashing by Palestinian leaders, which their funders have never told them to stop. As far as most Palestinians are concerned: 1) All Jews are "settlers," and 2) Israel is one big settlement that must be eliminated.

Furthermore, finding humor in a cartoon of a terror attack victim's head on a platter about to be eaten as part of a traditional Palestinian feast is hard to comprehend. Why do we keep hearing Palestinians claim that terror and glorification of the murder of innocent civilians is a "natural response"?

There is nothing "natural" about murdering Jewish children waiting at a bus stop. There is nothing "natural" about murdering unarmed civilians outside a synagogue. There is nothing "natural" about dancing and handing out candy to celebrate terrorism and the murder of Jews, or of anyone.

While Abbas occasionally condemns an attack that has attracted sufficient international outrage to hurt the PA's image, his actions speak louder than words.

In what has come to be known as "Pay for Slay," Abbas has been adamant about continuing to pay large benefits to the families of terrorists: "Even if I will have to leave my position, I will not compromise on the salary of a martyr (shahid) or a prisoner," Abbas promised.

At the age of 87, Abbas is still holding to this position. Despite legislation designed to counter the hundreds of millions of dollars in US, EU and international foreign aid funneled to terrorist family allowances, he is still finding creative ways to continue. As of 2017, these funds were found to be "equal in sum to about half of the foreign aid for budget support." In the years following, they have only increased.

The EU, the US, and other international funders of the Palestinians continue to finance a government that refuses not only to condemn terror, but that actually grows it like a lucrative slave-farm for terrorists. For some Palestinians, such as the leaders of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, that even includes sending women and children to blow themselves up and using babies as human shields. The leaders do not, of course, send out members of their own families for this "achievement."

Sadly, these funders do not even ask the Palestinian leaders, as a condition of their funding, to stop calling for violence and to stop rewarding murder. One has to ask: Why not? If you go to a bank and request a mortgage, the bank will stipulate conditions. That is "natural."

Considering the undisguised vitriol of Fatah and the Palestinian Authority in support of terrorism -- with both words and money -- how could Israel seriously be expected to engage in any fruitful peace talks with the Palestinians?

Bassam Tawil is a Muslim Arab based in the Middle East.

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19432/palestinians-killing-jews

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Boeing VP: New F-15IA will give Israel ‘unmatchable air dominance’ - Yonah Jeremy Bob

 

by Yonah Jeremy Bob

Boeing's Ted Colbert said on Monday that the new F-15IA which will eventually be sold to Israel will provide “payload and range capabilities which are unmatchable..."

 

BOEING’S NEW F-15EX takes off in a recent training flight. Will Israel soon buy some?

(photo credit: BOEING)

Ted Colbert, Boeing VP and CEO of Boeing Defense, Space & Security, told military reporters that his visit to Israel will help to make “sure that it is absolutely, positively clear that we remain committed to serving Israel. This is expressed through two big programs we have right now which we are working on – the F-15IA and the KC-46.”

The F-15IA is called the F-15EX in the US and is designated to replace Israel’s old F-15I which has been used for around 50 years.

Reason for the replace

“We believe those represent the capability of the long arm of Israel for its key missions today and into the future. We are expressing how Boeing can continue to move forward,” to best support Israel’s attack and defense capabilities.

Colbert said, “we are using the latest software and engineering techniques to take a brand that existed for 50 years [the old F-15I Israel currently uses], and take it to the next level using open architecture, payload and range.”

After Israel’s government stalled for years in moving forward the process for its order of 25 F-15IAs, with an option for another 25 at some later date, Jerusalem recently started to push forward again.

A US Air Force F-15EX (credit: US AIR FORCE)

Questioned about when the F-25s will arrive, Colbert said, “We are working very closely with the US government, working with the Israeli government to deliver the capabilities as fast as we can. But it’s not my decision how that works. Our team is working very hard in factories to meet all the commitments we,” have agreed to.

Colbert was asked how the F-15IA could cope with Iran’s S-300 anti aircraft missile system and the S-400 anti aircraft missile system, if the Islamic Republic ever acquires it, given claims that Lockheed Martin’s F-45 aircraft can outmaneuver those systems.

He answered, from an “air dominance perspective, it has the ability to carry out” any mission it would be required for, while not specifically addressing the S-300 or S-400 scenarios.

Boeing President for Business Development Heidi Grant added, “it is not a matter of either or, you have to have a mix of fighters to have the competitive edge Israel needs.”

Military strategists guessing how a potential Israeli strike against Iran’s nuclear program would look often suggest that the F-35 might go in first to remove the anti-aircraft missile system threat, but then that the F-15 aircraft (old or new) would do most of the actual striking targets since it can carry far more weaponry than a typical F-35.

Besides the F-15IA, the KC-46 refueling aircraft, important for a potential long-range attack, for example on Iran, was also a big focus of Colbert’s talk.

Previously, Boeing said that the delivery of four KC-46s to Israel was estimated to be in 2025.

Yonah Jeremy Bob

Source: https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-732141

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US warned Russia of Biden's visit to Ukraine 'hours' before departure - Anders Hagstrom

 

by Anders Hagstrom

Russia has targeted Kyiv with waves of missile strikes

 

U.S. officials warned Russia that President Biden was visiting the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv hours before he made the trip, the White House National Security Council revealed Monday.

National security officials provided more details about Biden's surprise trip to Ukraine on Monday, calling the trip unprecedented given the lack of U.S. military infrastructure in the war-torn region. Reporters pressed national security adviser Jake Sullivan on whether the U.S. had warned Moscow that Biden was headed to Kyiv, a city scarred with Russian missile strikes.

"We did notify the Russians that President Biden would be traveling to Kyiv," Sullivan told reporters Monday. "We did so some hours before his departure for de-confliction purposes."

Sullivan declined to elaborate on how the Russians were notified and whether they responded, however.

GAETZ INTRODUCES RESOLUTION TO END MILITARY AND FINANCIAL AID TO UKRAINE, URGE PEACE DEAL

President Biden meets Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv, Ukraine. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, Pool)

The U.S. warned Russia that President Biden was visiting Ukraine on Monday. (Sputnik/Mikhail Metzel/Kremlin via REUTERS)

Sullivan went on to characterize the trip as an "affirmation" of the Biden administration's commitment to supporting Ukraine.

"This was not a celebration," he clarified, adding that there will likely be dark days ahead.

UKRAINE WARNS OF MASSIVE RUSSIAN MISSILE ATTACK ON ANNIVERSARY OF PUTIN’S INVASION: ‘WE HAVE TO BE READY’

Biden himself acknowledged the challenges facing Ukraine in comments during his visit. Large areas of Ukraine remain under Russian control even after months of successful ground offensives from Kyiv's forces.

"Over the last year, the United States has built a coalition of nations from the Atlantic to the Pacific to help defend Ukraine with unprecedented military, economic, and humanitarian support – and that support will endure," Biden said in a Monday statement.

Sirens could be heard in war-torn Ukraine as Biden arrived in the country. The U.S. has already supported Ukraine with tens of billions of dollars in financial aid and military equipment.

President Biden visited the war-torn country of Ukraine on Monday. (ED JONES/AFP via Getty Images)

President Biden, center, poses with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, right, and Olena Zelenska, left, spouse of President Zelenskyy, at Mariinsky Palace during an unannounced visit in Kyiv, Ukraine. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, Pool)

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida also announced $5.5 billion in aid for Ukraine as Biden visited with Zelenskyy.

Biden's visit comes just before Russia is expected to ramp up its offensive once again in its own acknowledgment of the one-year anniversary of the conflict. Ukrainian officials warned of a massive barrage of missiles that Russia may launch on Friday, Feb. 24.

A number of U.S. lawmakers have said supporting Ukraine should be a top priority, but some have criticized decisions to continue giving financial aid without proper oversight. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has said Ukraine should not receive a "blank check," but the Biden administration has vowed to support Zelenskyy's regime for "as long as it takes."

 

Anders Hagstrom is a reporter with Fox News Digital covering national politics and major breaking news events. Send tips to Anders.Hagstrom@Fox.com, or on Twitter: @Hagstrom_Anders.

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/us-warned-russia-bidens-visit-ukraine-hours-departure

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Left-wing megadonor George Soros touts plan to 'repair the climate system' - Nick Givas

 

by Nick Givas

Technology proposed by former U.K. Chief Scientific Advisor Sir David King would create white clouds that reflect sunlight away from certain warming areas with the goal of preventing ice sheets in Greenland from melting.

 

Liberal megadonor George Soros spoke in support of using an experimental weather control technology to alleviate global warming during a speech last week in Germany.

Soros, who has given millions of dollars to climate change groups through his nonprofit Open Society Foundations, touted a theoretical project to "repair the climate system" by creating white clouds that reflect sunlight away from certain warming areas with the goal of preventing ice sheets in Greenland from melting, Fox News reported.

"Our civilization is in danger of collapsing because of the inexorable advance of climate change," Soros said during the speech in Munich. 

"The melting of the Greenland ice sheet would increase the level of the oceans by seven meters," he said. "That poses a threat to the survival of our civilization. I wasn't willing to accept that fate, so I tried to find out whether anything could be done to avoid it. I was directed to Sir David King, a climate scientist who had been chief scientific advisor to previous British governments."

King, who formerly served as special envoy on climate change and chief scientific adviser for the United Kingdom, founded the Centre for Climate Repair at Cambridge University in 2019, to pursue similar studies. 

"[King] has developed a theory which is widely shared by climate scientists," Soros said. "It holds that the global climate system used to be stable but human intervention disrupted it. The Arctic Circle used to be sealed off from the rest of the world by winds that blew in a predictable, circular, counter-clockwise direction, but man-made climate change broke this isolation."

King "has a plan to repair the climate system," said Soros. "He wants to recreate the albedo effect by creating white clouds high above the earth. With proper scientific safeguards and in consultation with local indigenous communities, this project could help restabilize the Arctic climate system which governs the entire global climate system."

King reportedly claims it would be cheap technology to create.

Some scientists have reportedly pushed back against King's plan, due to the uncertainty of its potential effects on the planet. 

"The risks of solar geoengineering are poorly understood and can never be fully known," dozens of scientists wrote in an open letter to governments back in 2022. "Impacts will vary across regions, and there are uncertainties about the effects on weather patterns, agriculture, and the provision of basic needs of food and water." 

You can follow Nick on Twitter @NGivasDC

Nick Givas

Source: https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/environment/far-left-billionaire-mega-donor-george-soros-seeks-weigh-how-best-solve

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What is in the Judicial reform bills being voted for on Monday? - Michael Starr

 

by Michael Starr

The new law would restrict the High Court from accepting petitions, reviewing, articles pertaining to the Basic Laws. They will not be able to address the validity of a Basic Law.

 

MK Benny Gantz is seen sitting at a chaotic session of the Knesset Law and Constitution Committee in Jerusalem during a debate on judicial reform, on February 13, 2023.

(photo credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90)

Two judicial reform bills will reach the Knesset plenum on Monday, on the judge selection committee and judicial review pertaining to Basic Laws.

Both items are committee bills, sent to the Knesset after 9-7 votes in the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee last Monday.

Intended changes

The bills are also both amendments to pre-existing laws. The first will amend the Basic Law: Judiciary, and a companion bill will alter the Courts Law, which sets the regulations for Israeli courts.

The main focus of the drafts will see the Knesset discuss changing the judge selection committee's composition.

The current judge selection committee has the justice minister as the panel's chairman, another cabinet minister, two members of the Israel Bar Association, the High Court of Justice President and two other High Court justices who are changed every three years. Two Knesset members are also on the panel, by tradition one from the ruling coalition and one member of the opposition.

Tens of thousands gather by the Knesset to protest against the judicial reform (credit: BLACK FLAGS MOVEMENT)

The proposed committee would remove the two Bar representatives, to be replaced with another cabinet minister and the chairman of the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee.

Other restrictions would be applied to the panel seats. The judges on the committee would have to be retired, and selected through agreement between the justice minister and High Court president. The tradition of an opposition member of Knesset being appointed to the panel would be codified. The opposition factions will select the MK, in a manner that will later be established in Knesset statutes. The bill also contains gender quotas, requiring at least one the judges, one of the Knesset members, and one of the ministers to be women.

In addition to the composition of the committee, the legal quorum for committee meetings will be changed from seven members to five. The panel, which votes for judges through majority opinion, will also no longer count abstentions against the majority.

The bills will also add restrictions on judicial review of Basic Laws.

Judicial review is when a court strikes down legislation that it determines is in contradiction with a constitution on law with legal supremacy.

Israel lacks a formal written constitution, but follows quasi-constitutional Basic Laws. The High Court normally does not interfere with the Basic Laws, but will hear petitions challenging an untoward process in which a Basic Laws amendment or bill was legislated, or other abuses of the Knesset's constitutive authority.

The new law would restrict the High Court from accepting petitions, let alone reviewing, articles pertaining to the Basic Laws. They will not be able to address the validity of a Basic Law, directly or indirectly.

Another bill, currently in discussion in the law committee, would further restrict the use of judicial review to a full bench of justices in unanimous agreement. 

Michael Starr

Source: https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-732146

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Whose democracy is this anyway? - Douglas Altabef

 

by Douglas Altabef

The total number of protesters against judicial reform barely equals a single Knesset mandate.

 

If one had just landed in Israel from a distant planet, one would likely conclude that this little country is being torn apart over the ownership, protection and stewardship of something called “democracy.”

This would be an astute insight. To see the ongoing protests against judicial reform is to conclude that the autocrats are at the gate, the theocrats are flexing their muscles and only the Supreme Court—as leaders of a fearless, objective, all-caring judiciary—can stop the invasion. But on the other side, the prospective reformers say they are also acting to restore and honor democracy.

Therefore, either we are misunderstanding what democracy is or one of the sides is cynically appropriating the concept to achieve its political aims.

Let’s start at the beginning. Black’s Law Dictionary, a rather authoritative source, defines democracy as follows: “That form of government in which the sovereign power resides in and is exercised by the whole body of free citizens directly or indirectly through a system of representation.”

This is a very straightforward and revealing definition. The key words are “sovereign power.” Sovereign power means control and ownership, and the justifiable exercise of the means to maintain both.

Such control is rooted and vested in the citizenry and, in the case of a representative as opposed to a direct democracy, the elected representatives of the citizenry. A bona fide, authentic representative democracy therefore reflects the desires and dictates of the majority of the citizenry, who will presumably choose the majority of representatives in accordance with their convictions.

Thus, a threat to democracy would seem to be a threat to the ability of the majority to project its sovereign power. By definition, it cannot be a situation in which a minority rejects the decision of the majority. Such a rejection might reflect a perceived outrage or oppression, but the free exercise of power by the majority cannot be a threat to democracy. It is, in fact, the essence of democracy.

This parsing of the meaning of the word “democracy” is not meant to be pedantic or petulant, but to pull back the veneer of oppositional protest to see it for what it really is. Having proven that the free exercise of sovereignty by the majority cannot be a threat to democracy, we must conclude that claims otherwise are simply a rhetorical and emotional rallying cry that has no basis in reality.

What the opponents of judicial reform are really saying is that the majority is doing something that is a threat to their power and privilege, along with the status quo that they have relied on for years to impose their preferred policies.

The cry that democracy is under threat is classic fear-mongering, the civic version of yelling “fire” in a crowded theater.

This cry has now become the centerpiece of a fear-based campaign in which dire predictions are made by allies of the opposition: Israel’s credit rating will suffer, businesses will decamp, we will lose our best and brightest to foreign countries and, of course, more ominously, those religious types are just waiting to restrict our rights and force us to abide by their strictures.

The irony is that, in presenting this dystopian vision of Israel’s future, the leftist opposition is reminding the citizenry why they tossed the left out of power by exercising their most basic democratic right—the vote. It is because the left offered no vision, no solutions and no path forward, only predictions of doom and distress.

The left is doubling down on its negative worldview with large rallies designed to both impress and intimidate. The implication is that the whole country, the true majority, as it were, is supportive of the opposition and to ignore them would be catastrophic.

After all, these are our enlightened types protesting. Like the Court they are protecting, they are wiser and more virtuous than the great unwashed, who happen to be the majority of our citizens.

So, what the opposition is really upset about is that a self-appointed meritocratic aristocracy is not running the show here.

That is the real fault line: Power and control is being exercised by those who are supposed to be passive and deferential.

Yes, the number of protesters is impressive. So were the numbers who showed up at Trump rallies in 2020 while Biden campaigned from his basement. How did that turn out?

Plus, it has been noted that the size of the crowds represent about one mandate in the Knesset. One mandate does not a majority make.

Rather than foretelling the end of democracy, the current controversy is indicative of a strong and vibrant Israeli democracy, in which citizens have no compunction about making their preferences and feelings known.

Happily, to the consternation of the protesters, judicial reform will not damage Israel’s robust democracy. To the contrary, reform will encourage the exercise of sovereign power in Israel—the very definition of democracy.

 

Douglas Altabef is the chairman of the board of Im Tirtzu, Israel’s largest grassroots Zionist organization, and a director of B’yadenu and the Israel Independence Fund. He can be reached at dougaltabef@gmail.com.

Source: https://www.jns.org/opinion/whose-democracy-is-this-anyway/

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Why is the Journalist Who Lionized a Palestinian Terrorist Still Working For Reuters? - Hugh Fitzgerald

 

by Hugh Fitzgerald

In the anti-Israel sweepstakes, a new contestant enters the lists.

 

In the anti-Israel sweepstakes, a new contestant has just entered the lists. She is Henriette Chacar, a young Israeli Arab from Jaffa, who prefers to be called a “Palestinian.” Somehow she managed to be hired by Reuters, and somehow, she’s managed to stay hired, despite her appallingly slanted coverage of Israel. More about her can be found here: “REVEALED: Reuters Journalist Rebuked by Editor After Sending ‘Outrageous’ Email About Israel,” by Rachel O’Donoghue, Honest Reporting, February 9, 2023:

Last year, we exposed Reuters correspondent Henriette Chacar’s alarming history of spreading misinformation about Israel, including accusing the country of “blatant and systemic racism” and claiming that “racist, fascist talking points are now mainstream.”

In one tweet, she called Israel “a [racist] light unto the nations,” a play on the Jewish adage to be a positive example and a force for good in the world.

Chacar, who was the deputy editor of the anti-Israel +972 Magazine, also suggested that Israel implemented “racist, segregationist policies” — even though, somewhat ironically, the self-defined “Palestinian journo from Jaffa” was educated at IDC Herzliya, a top Israeli academic institution.

What “racist, segregationist policies” did Ms. Chacar ever have to endure in Israel? Didn’t she attend IDC Herzliya, side by side with Israeli Jews? Was she ever mistreated for being an Israeli Arab? Of course not. She knows perfectly well that Israeli Arabs do not endure “apartheid.” They serve in the Knesset, sit on the Supreme Court, go abroad as ambassadors for Israel. The head of Israel’s largest bank, Bank Leumi, is an Arab. Israeli Jews and Arabs work in the same factories and offices, play on the same sports teams and in the same orchestras. They receive the same medical care in the same hospitals from both Jewish and Arab doctors and nurses. Their equal treatment is codified in Israel’s laws. The same civil, political, and religious rights are guaranteed for all. Only in one respect are Israeli Arabs treated differently, and it is to their advantage. Israeli Jews must serve in the military, but Arabs may do so only if they wish.

All of this Henriette Chacar knows perfectly well – she has lived in Israel her whole life — but despite that, she charges Israel with “blatant and systemic racism,” “racist and segregationist policies,” and she has now added the claim that “racist, fascist talking points” have entered the political mainstream In Israel.

Despite her clear animus toward the Jewish state, the global wire service Reuters, which produces material that is used by more than 2,000 news outlets in 128 counties, refused to sever ties with Chacar and instead entrusted her to continue reporting on Israeli-Palestinian issues.

This is in spite of evidence that Chacar has allowed her feelings about Israel to influence her reporting, including a bylined article this week in which she glorified the Palestinian teenage terrorist who opened fire on a group of Israelis in Jerusalem.

Her coverage of Mahmoud Aleiwat, the 13-year-old who shot and severely wounded an Israeli father and son, was scandalous for two reasons. First, Chacar described Alweilat as merely “accused,” when his shooting had been witnessed by many people; there was never any doubt about his guilt. Second, she tried in her report to win sympathy for him by going on about his dream, as a young boy, of someday becoming a chef, which is irrelevant to his crime, but intended to humanize him. Imagine a journalist reporting sympathetically on Adolf Hitler’s “boyhood dream of becoming a painter.”

It can now be revealed that Chacar was rebuked by bosses at Reuters over disturbing comments she sent to her editor in which she disputed whether there was a difference between Israeli civilians and combatants.

According to emails obtained by the Jewish Chronicle, she sent the now-retired Reuters Jerusalem Bureau Editor-in-Charge Jeffrey Heller a message that said: “Can we conclusively say that Palestinians have mostly targeted civilians?

“Many Israelis are either in active or reserve duty, and with the prime minister encouraging citizens to carry their guns, the line between civilians and combatants is quite blurred, so I do think it’s a tricky thing to highlight. It also seems redundant, since we already outline the number of Israeli civilians and security forces killed.”

Heller replied: “Hi, This line of thinking is outrageous and I will be raising it with our superiors.”

Chacar thinks that because all Israelis serve in the military, they therefore cannot really be considered “civilians”after they get out. The Palestinians who stab, shoot, and ram them with vehicles are not attacking “civilians,” but in Chacar’s bizarre calculus, people who “are either in active or reserve duty.” Israeli males serve in the army for two years and eight months, Israeli females serve for two years. Then they resume their civilian lives and status. It is also true that a sizable number, but not all, Israeli males serve in the Reserves until the age of 40. But that does not turn Israeli civilians — whose active duty ended in their early 20s — into the military. Chacar wants to efface the distinction, so that she can claim that the Palestinians who stab, shoot, and blow up mothers and young children, elderly Passover celebrants, families out for a pizza, or a hike in a nature preserve, or merely driving back from school, are targeting people — apparently including small children and pensioners — who are part of Israel’s military, and thus legitimate targets for killing. This — Chacar’s view – is both absurd and nauseating. And if more Israeli civilians now carry guns to protect themselves and their families against the latest upsurge in Palestinian terrorism that began in 2022, that doesn’t turn them into members of the military. They are no different from civilians anywhere who choose to arm themselves in the face of a crime or terror wave, or because they live in a dangerous neighborhood. And Israeli civilians definitely live in a dangerous neighborhood.

In the same email exchange, Chacar pushed to be allowed to “contextualize” Palestinian terror attacks, writing: “If we are going to explain Israel’s raids to readers by presenting them as a response to something, I think it’s crucial that we also contextualize Palestinian attacks. Perhaps something along the lines of: Israel says it conducts raids in Palestinian towns and villages to thwart ‘terror’ attacks. Palestinians say their armed struggle is a legitimate form of resistance to decades of Israeli occupation.”…

Yes, Chacar thinks Reuters should strive to be “fairer” in its coverage of the Palestinians and their — to her justified — attacks on Israelis. If Reuters won’t accept her view that there is no such thing as an Israeli civilian – all Israelis in her view are part of the Jewish state’s war machine – then perhaps the wire service will accept her argument to “contextualize” the attacks by the Palestinians on civilians. Take the recent Israeli raid on the camp in Jenin in late January. The Israelis had learned from the Shin Bet that terrorists in Jenin were planning an imminent attack on an Israeli target. The IDF went to arrest them in their hideout. The soldiers were met with gunfire. After a three-hour gun battle, seven terrorists – four were members of Hamas, two belonged to Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and one to Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade – were killed. One innocent bystander, a woman, was also killed. In Chacar’s view, the correct “context” consists of Israeli attacks, that then cause the Palestinians to engage in “defensive” attacks in response. Is this true? Are the Palestinians merely reacting to endless aggression by the Israelis or is it the other way round? How “defensive” was the Coastal Road Massacre? Or the murder of two dozen Israeli schoolgirls at Ma’alot? Or the mothers and children blown up by a suicide bomber at the Sbarro Pizzeria? What provocation did the elderly participants In a Passover Seder, blown up by another suicide bomber, constitute ? Does Israel blow up, or shoot, or stab, or ram with vehicles, Palestinian civilians? Israel does not launch, but responds to, terror attacks, whether by preventing those that are still in the planning stage, or by foiling terrorists as they are carrying out their attacks, or by punishing those who have completed their attacks by arresting or “neutralizing” them. The proper “context” for all this is the savage war conducted by the Palestinians who from early on, are taught to hate, and to want to kill, Israeli men, women, and children.

Henriette Chacar has had her chance as a Reuters journalist. She’s shown herself incapable of fairly covering Israel. Look at her attempts to humanize the terrorist Mahmoud Aleiwat, who “dreamed of becoming a chef.” Just look at her comments about the Jewish state on social media. She accuses the country of “blatant and systemic racism.” Israel, she insists, is a “[racist] light unto the nations.” She deplores its “racist, segregationist policies.” It’s now a place where “racist, fascist talking points are now mainstream.” Is it conceivable that such a creature could possibly cover Israel with a modicum of fairness? Of course not.

Reuters, think clearly. about this travesty of a journalist. Show Ms. Chacar the door. Don’t worry about her future. Al Jazeera will hire her in a heartbeat.

Hugh Fitzgerald

Source: https://www.frontpagemag.com/why-is-the-journalist-who-lionized-a-palestinian-terrorist-still-working-for-reuters/

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The Newswashing of ISIS Bride Shamima Begum - Uzay Bulut

 

by Uzay Bulut

The question is: Why are some big Western media corporations obviously siding with a genocidal terror group and not with its innocent victims?

• ISIS brides were complicit in ISIS's genocide and crimes against humanity. Never mind that hostages were hung upside down and then burned alive, or locked in cages then lowered into water to drown, or crucified for hours "like Jesus;" or that children were crucified or sold as sex slaves; or that countless others were tortured, raped or lined up to have their throats slit.

• The Free Yezidi Foundation recently wrote of ISIS and Begum: "Not only terror death cult, but mass-rape genocidal organization. The decision to join was hers. Her actions contributed to unspeakable acts of brutality, which she would have continued had ISIS, Daesh not been militarily defeated."

• "Ms. Begum, for example, claimed that she was only a housewife and did not participate in any heinous crimes or violation of human rights as an ISIS member. Some portrayed her as an innocent schoolgirl who was brainwashed, uninformed, and simply wanted to return home to Britain.... evidence now suggests that she was in fact a member of the ISIS 'morality police, a group of ISIS women which was an integral part of ISIS' terror and atrocity apparatus, and was armed with an automatic weapon on her patrols. The crimes allegedly committed by the morality police include major human rights offenses, including support to ISIS' slave trade of Yezidis." — Free Yezidi Foundation, September 19, 2019.

• "'Why are the BBC giving Shamima Begum more airtime?': 'Sickened' viewers slam broadcaster for airing 90-minute documentary that 'parades ISIS bride as a celebrity' just weeks after it launched 10-part podcast 'retracing her steps'. — The Daily Mail, February 18, 2023.

• "What we Yazidis expect from the international community is support and solidarity, not digging into our wounds. ISIS criminals must face justice for what they have done and practiced. We expect the West to hold ISIS accountable in court rather than putting them on the cover of their magazine. Such stories are particularly difficult for us as Yazidis because these ISIS women tortured and abused Yazidi women while they were in ISIS's captivity." — Activist for Yazidi rights who lives in Iraq, to Gatestone, February 2023.

• The question is: Why are some big Western media corporations obviously siding with a genocidal terror group and not with its innocent victims?

• "I think this is a slap in the face of all those who suffered in the hands of terrorism, not just ISIS but other death cults such as Boko Haram. This is a spit in the face of all those whose loved ones were murdered, and I do not mean only Yazidis, Assyrians or Nigerians, but all the innocent Westerners who perished to Islamic terrorism such as in France, the UK, the US and elsewhere. Media has utterly lost its moral values." — Juliana Taimoorazy, founding president, Iraqi Christian Relief Council, to Gatestone, February 2023.

Many in the Western media are portraying Shamima Begum, a former "ISIS bride," not only as a victim but as a celebrity. ISIS brides were complicit in ISIS's genocide and crimes against humanity. ISIS murdered thousands of people, and forcibly displaced hundreds of thousands, especially from non-Muslim communities, including Yazidis and Christians. Pictured: Yazidis in a camp for internally displaced persons (IDP) in the Sharya area of the autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan region, on January 17, 2023. (Photo by Safin Hamed/AFP via Getty Images)

While around 3,000 Yazidi children and women are still being held captive at the hands of the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist organization, many in the Western media are portraying a former "ISIS bride" not only as a victim but as a celebrity.

The ISIS bride in question Shamima Begum, a British citizen who left the UK to join ISIS in Syria in 2015, and was later stripped of her British citizenship. Begum was chosen by The Times Magazine in the UK to lionize on February 4, both on its cover and in an eight-page feature. She is now part of a glamorized "newswashing" campaign to help get her British citizenship back.

The UK's Special Immigration Appeals Tribunal is scheduled to rule this week on Begum's appeal against being stripped of her citizenship.

ISIS brides were complicit in ISIS's genocide and crimes against humanity. Never mind that hostages were hung upside down and then burned alive, or locked in cages then lowered into water to drown, or crucified for hours "like Jesus;" or that children were crucified or sold as sex slaves; or that countless others were tortured, raped or lined up to have their throats slit. Never mind the beheadings of journalists such as James Foley or Steven Sotloff, or the Syrian scholar Khaled al-Asaad, 82, who was tortured for a month, then beheaded because he refused to turn over Palmyra's priceless antiquities to ISIS. The list goes on....

The Free Yezidi Foundation recently wrote of ISIS and Begum:

"Not only terror death cult, but mass-rape genocidal organization. The decision to join was hers. Her actions contributed to unspeakable acts of brutality, which she would have continued had ISIS, Daesh not been militarily defeated."

At its height, ISIS held about a third of Syria's territory and 40% of Iraq's. On June 29, 2014, ISIS leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi announced the formation of a caliphate stretching from Aleppo in Syria to Diyala in Iraq. Wherever ISIS invaded, they brought unspeakable death and destruction, especially to non-Muslim communities, including Yazidis and Christians.

ISIS murdered thousands, and forcibly displaced hundreds of thousands. ISIS also systematically committed crimes such as forced conversions, hostage taking, rapes of children and women, sexual slavery, theft, destruction, smuggling, disappearances and recruitment of boys as child soldiers. Their methods of violence not only included beheadings and crucifixions, but also mutilations, dismemberment, stoning and forcing hostages to kneel on explosives. Countless people became refugees and remain displaced due to the ISIS genocide.

By December 2017, ISIS had lost 95% of its territory, including its two biggest centers: Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city, and the Syrian city of Raqqa, its nominal capital.

Since March 2019, when ISIS was ousted from the last of the territory it had seized and since the fall of their caliphate, many ISIS terrorists (some of whom are citizens of Western nations) have been trying to return to their home countries.

The European Network for Investigation and Prosecution of Genocide, Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes (the "Genocide Network") noted in a 2020 report:

"ISIS, which has been classified as a terrorist organization, perpetrated horrific acts of violence in armed conflicts in Northern Iraq and Syria. The issue of investigating and prosecuting its members and foreign terrorist fighters returning to their countries of origin led most EU Member States to focus on preventing and punishing terrorism-related offenses. However, ISIS should not only be considered as a terrorist organization. ISIS has fulfilled criteria according to International Humanitarian Law as a party to a non-international armed conflict in Iraq and Syria acting as an organized non-state armed group. Therefore, its members and foreign terrorist fighters could be responsible for committing war crimes and other core international crimes." [Emphasis added.]

The BBC is another media outlet that seems to have an obsessive fascination for Begum, producing both a film and podcast series regarding the former ISIS member's so-called journey to Syria. The broadcaster announced on July 11, 2022:

"The BBC has today announced a landmark documentary for BBC Two and BBC iPlayer and a 10-part audio series for Radio 5 Live and BBC Sounds, on the story of Shamima Begum. The podcast comes from the team behind the multi award-winning I'm Not A Monster, the BBC's most awarded podcast series."

Instead of focusing on the genocidal crimes ISIS committed against its victims and interviewing the victims directly, the BBC's series and documentary largely deal with a glossy portrait of why and how Begum joined ISIS and her subsequent life there.

BBC viewers forthrightly responded, according to The Daily Mail on February 8:

"'Why are the BBC giving Shamima Begum more airtime?': 'Sickened' viewers slam broadcaster for airing 90-minute documentary that 'parades ISIS bride as a celebrity' just weeks after it launched 10-part podcast 'retracing her steps'.

"Viewers have vowed to cancel their television licenses as they slammed last night's 'sickening' 90-minute Shamima Begum documentary on the BBC."

The Free Yezidi Foundation reported in 2019:

"Female members of the Islamic State (IS, ISIS, ISIL, Daesh) have actively engaged in terrorist activity and gross human rights violations, and in many cases seek to manipulate lack of evidence, lack of independent verification, or other means to plead for sympathy in the court of law and the court of public opinion to avoid accountability. Most importantly, individuals who joined the terrorist and genocidal organization must not be allowed to reshape the narrative in an effort to downplay or avoid their own agency and responsibility for the horrors they have inflicted or facilitated.

"Female members of ISIS are often perceived as being passive, naïve, or even as victims. This is a dangerous and wildly inaccurate characterization. The Netherlands Ministry of the Interior publication, 'Jihadist women, a threat not to be underestimated,' states:

"'The role that these jihadist women play within the jihadist movement should not be underestimated. In many cases, jihadist women are at least as dedicated to jihadism as men. They pose a threat to the Netherlands by recruiting others, producing and disseminating propaganda, and raising funds. Moreover, they indoctrinate their children with jihadist ideology. Women form an essential part of the jihadist movement, both in the Netherlands and in the conflict area in Syria and Iraq.'

"The behavior and actions of female ISIS members has been a subject of legitimate legal and policy debate as well as morbid fascination. This has been seen in the cases of the United Kingdom's Shamima Begum, the American Hoda Mothana, and other such cases. When citizens of foreign countries joined ISIS and have either surrendered or fled from ISIS, serious debate over international law has arisen. The fact that the alleged crimes occurred abroad do present genuine challenges for security and justice officials in terms of the collection of evidence and the construction of solid, prosecutable cases. For the Yezidi community, it is important that the crimes committed by ISIS, including those allegedly committed by ISIS women, must not be forgotten...

"Ms. Begum, for example, claimed that she was only a housewife and did not participate in any heinous crimes or violation of human rights as an ISIS member. Some portrayed her as an innocent schoolgirl who was brainwashed, uninformed, and simply wanted to return home to Britain. Some human rights proponents, politicians, and other commentators challenged the comparison of Ms. Begum to ISIS fighters. However, evidence now suggests that she was in fact a member of the ISIS 'morality police, a group of ISIS women which was an integral part of ISIS' terror and atrocity apparatus, and was armed with an automatic weapon on her patrols. The crimes allegedly committed by the morality police include major human rights offenses, including support to ISIS' slave trade of Yezidis.

"Two essential points: first, reports from Yezidi survivors suggest that female members of ISIS were accepting of ISIS enslavement and abuse towards Yezidis; and second, ISIS women were more complicit in the commission of mass rape, human trafficking, crimes against humanity and genocide than they claim, and with greater agency."

On February 5, one day after The Times Magazine released its issue featuring Begum, news came out that two Yazidi children, aged two and four, were reportedly killed after a fire swept through a camp for "internally displaced persons" (IDP) in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The reason Yazidis are still living in IDP camps is because Begum's organization, ISIS, largely destroyed the Yazidi homeland of Sinjar in Iraq.

When ISIS invaded Sinjar in 2014, they murdered or kidnapped around 10,000 Yazidis, according to the book The Last Yezidi Genocide by Amy L Beam. More than 83 Yazidi mass graves have since been discovered in Sinjar. Hundreds of thousands of Yazidis had to flee and become IDPs or refugees. Almost nine years later, much of Sinjar remains in rubble, making it difficult for Yazidis to return. As a result, approximately 180,000 Yazidis remain internally displaced, mostly spread across 15 IDP camps in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.

According to the Free Yezidi Foundation, ISIS abducted, raped and enslaved 6,417 Yazidi women and children. Today, more than 2,693 Yazidis remain missing. In 2021, a UN team investigating ISIS atrocities in Iraq established "clear and convincing evidence" of genocide against the Yazidi people. Germany's lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, on January 19, 2023 recognized the 2014 massacre of Yazidis by ISIS in Iraq as a "genocide," and called for measures to assist the persecuted minority.

An activist for Yazidi rights who lives in Iraq shared his opinions with Gatestone on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. He said he was in Sinjar during the ISIS invasion in 2014:

"What we Yazidis expect from the international community is support and solidarity, not digging into our wounds. ISIS criminals must face justice for what they have done and practiced. We expect the West to hold ISIS accountable in court rather than putting them on the cover of their magazine. Such stories are particularly difficult for us as Yazidis because these ISIS women tortured and abused Yazidi women while they were in ISIS's captivity."

ISIS also devastated Christian communities in Iraq and Syria. At a 2015 hearing before the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the US House of Representatives, Sister Diana Momeka, of the Dominican Sisters of Saint Catherine of Siena, in Mosul, Iraq, described ISIS's war on religious minorities:

"On June 10th, 2014, the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, invaded the Nineveh Plain which is where Qaraqosh is located. Starting with the city of Mosul, ISIS overran one city and town after another giving the Christians of the region three choices: Convert to Islam; pay a tribute, a jizya, to ISIS; leave their city, cities like Mosul, with nothing more than the clothes on their back. As this horror spread throughout the Nineveh Plain, by August 6, 2014, Nineveh was empty of Christians, and sadly, for the first time since the seventh century A.D., no church bells rang for mass in the Nineveh Plain.

"From June 2014 forward, more than 120,000 people found themselves displaced and homeless in the Kurdistan region of Iraq leaving behind their heritage and all they had worked for over the centuries. This uprooting, this theft of everything that the Christians owned, displaced them body and soul, stripping away their humanity and dignity."

The violence of ISIS was not limited to Iraq and Syria. ISIS expanded into a global network, which has carried out attacks beyond the borders of its now-destroyed caliphate. On November 13, 2015, for instance, 130 people were murdered and more than 300 injured in a series of coordinated attacks in Paris, France. And in June 2016, a terrorist who pledged allegiance to ISIS murdered 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida.

The question is: Why are some big Western media corporations obviously siding with a genocidal terror group and not with its innocent victims?

Other advocates for survivors of Islamist terrorism have also denounced the manner some Western media portray ISIS members. Juliana Taimoorazy, the founding president of the Iraqi Christian Relief Council, has been helping survivors of Islamist terrorism, including ISIS, since 2007. She told Gatestone:

"I think this is a slap in the face of all those who suffered in the hands of terrorism, not just ISIS but other death cults such as Boko Haram. This is a spit in the face of all those whose loved ones were murdered, and I do not mean only Yazidis, Assyrians or Nigerians, but all the innocent Westerners who perished to Islamic terrorism such as in France, the UK, the US and elsewhere. Media has utterly lost its moral values. What is sadder, to me is that we, as a society, have become desensitized to things that were once outrageous. We are beat to accept and not speak up or take serious action against what is unjust."

Uzay Bulut, a Turkish journalist, is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Gatestone Institute. She is also a research fellow for the Philos Project.

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19428/shamima-begum

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Israel: Don't Give Your Enemies More Ammo! - Richard Kemp and Rafael Bardaji

 

by Richard Kemp and Rafael Bardaji

[T]his country simply cannot afford the level of domestic political tensions that other democracies can go through.

 

Israel is subject to the most insidious political warfare — continuously under attack by international institutions such as the UN, EU, and International Criminal Court (above).

After a recent visit to Israel, we're deeply concerned by the unprecedented degree of tension and sheer animosity permeating the political arena.

As friends of Israel rather than Israeli citizens, we do not seek to intervene on any partisan basis, but to sound the alarm about the very real potential for Israel's enemies to exploit the current rhetoric and do harm to the country as a whole.

Political polarization and confrontation are nothing new to us since they are trends now rooted in our own countries and across the Western world, from the U.S. to Italy. But our experience fighting successive attempts to delegitimize the State of Israel shows us that this country simply cannot afford the level of domestic political tensions that other democracies can go through. Israel has proven itself time and again to be the most resilient country in the world when it comes to physical warfare. But it is also subject to the most insidious political warfare — continuously under attack by international institutions such as the UN, EU and International Criminal Court (ICC) as well as a range of foreign governments, human rights bodies, academia and much of the world's media.

For Israel to be strong, to prosper, to be a force for good in the region and the world, and to fend off incessant political warfare campaigns, it needs to be united in the basic questions.

It is in this realm that the current discourse and strife will be most damaging. For Israel to be strong, to prosper, to be a force for good in the region and the world, and to fend off incessant political warfare campaigns, it needs to be united in the basic questions, despite all the disagreements that may reasonably emerge around specific proposals and policies. That national unity is being eroded by the tone and conduct of the debate on reforms to the judiciary presented by the coalition government.

We have heard Israeli voices telling us that what is at stake is the survival of democracy in the country, if not dead already. We have been told that it is better not to make even a single concession than to try to reach an agreement. Such extremist attitudes are far from producing a better reform and come dangerously close to emboldening and even inciting Israel's many international enemies.

Declaring democracy dead has consequences that go well beyond domestic politics. Over the years, both of us have been fighting all attempts made by Palestinian groups to indict Israeli soldiers and political leaders at the ICC, every effort made by the institutionally anti-Israel UN Human Rights Council to condemn Israel's sovereign right to self-defense, and successive campaigns by the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement as well as international bodies to wreck Israel's economy.

One of the strongest arguments against the pernicious ambitions of each of these political enemies of Israel has been to present a solid case that the country has a judicial system that is internationally respected, democratically accountable and provides fair treatment and justice to all. Trying to harm the government with apocalyptic rhetoric may or may not succeed, but will for sure undermine any such defense and harm the security of Israel and its citizens. Amidst predictions of doom and disaster, it is worth bearing in mind that nations like the UK, Spain, Italy and Canada, among many other liberal democracies, have systems to appoint the highest judicial posts that are much more intrusive by the executive power than anything proposed by this Israeli government, and nobody will dare to say that they are not democratic.

What do you think Nasrallah and Khamanei are thinking? What do you imagine BDS activists will say? How will Israel's enemies in the UN Human Rights Council react?

The decision to go to the extreme, the willingness to demonize the political adversary, and the delegitimization of the results of the electoral process, can only be interpreted as a weakened Israel. And we know what happens when that becomes the prevalent perception abroad, true or not. Consider this: what do you think Nasrallah and Khamanei are thinking? What do you imagine BDS activists will say? How will Israel's enemies in the UN Human Rights Council react? They will be laughing, applauding and plotting how they can best exploit this new situation to Israel's detriment.

In politics, not everything goes in any country — least of all in Israel. Leave the apocalypse where it belongs, at the end of times. Restore rationality in the political debate, accept the differences, put forward modified solutions and be ready to negotiate an agreement. The alternative to reason is of course greater domestic tension; but even more seriously, renewed legal, political, economic and trade attacks from beyond your borders. As defenders of Israel in the international arena, we plead that you revert to moderation and compromise in the national interest.

 

Col. Richard Kemp and Rafael Bardaji

Col. Richard Kemp is a former commander in the British armed forces. Rafael Bardaji, a fellow at the Middle East Forum, is the executive director of the Friends of Israel Initiative and former national security adviser to the Spanish government.

Source: https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgzGrcjMkxHzVbNXTBlFcrnsHhZtB

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Rewriting Roald Dahl - Mark Tapson

 

by Mark Tapson

Making literature safe for a triggered generation.

 

Among its other noxious downsides, the scourge of wokeness has spawned in the younger generation a new morality centered on what The Coddling of the American Mind authors Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt call Safetyism: a belief system in which one’s emotional safety is considered a sacred value. Safetyism is at the core of such childish concepts as “microaggressions,” “safe spaces,” and “trigger warnings”; the irrational argument that “words are violence”; and the notion that free speech is fascist. While the ostensible motivation behind Safetyism is to protect the so-called “marginalized” elements of society from psychological and physical harm, in fact what it does is empower its adherents to marginalize those in the mainstream by demonizing them as oppressive, and controlling their behavior and language.

The latest example of wokeness’ insidious effects: a UK Telegraph report has identified hundreds of editorial changes to the stories of the late, beloved children’s author Roald Dahl, in the service of sanitizing his books for woke snowflakes who are perpetually on the lookout for something by which to be offended. Dahl, whose many books such as The Witches, James and the Giant Peach, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory are characterized by a pre-woke sensibility and a streak of dark humor, is, as the Telegraph says, “a prominent example of a growing trend in children’s publishing for content that nobody can find offensive.”

The publisher behind the new editions is Puffin Books, an imprint of Penguin Books and one of the largest publishers of children’s books in the UK and much of the English-speaking world. A disclaimer at the bottom of the copyright page of Puffin’s latest editions of Dahl’s books reads, “Words matter. The wonderful words of Roald Dahl can transport you to different worlds and introduce you to the most marvellous characters. This book was written many years ago, and so we regularly review the language to ensure that it can continue to be enjoyed by all today.”

What that means is that “[l]anguage related to weight, mental health, violence, gender and race has been cut and rewritten,” The Telegraph writes. “Remember the Cloud-Men in James and the Giant Peach? They are now the Cloud-People. The Small Foxes in Fantastic Mr Fox are now female. In Matilda, a mention of Rudyard Kipling has been cut and Jane Austen added” – because white males are out, and women – even white ones like Jane Austen – are in.

The word “queer,” as you would expect, has been changed to “strange,” because “queer” today signifies a “gender identity” to be celebrated unreservedly (or else) and can no longer be associated with its former reference to something odd or different. In The Witches, a line which originally read, “Even if she is working as a cashier in a supermarket or typing letters for a businessman” has been updated to read, “Even if she is working as a top scientist or running a business” – because to suggest that women could ever be less than leaders of science and industry is unacceptable.

Fat-shaming today is a no-no too, of course, so references to portliness have been, well, trimmed down. “Fat little brown mouse” becomes “little brown mouse.” “‘Here’s your little boy,’ she said. ‘He needs to go on a diet,’” is edited to simply, “Here’s your little boy.”

Skin color is naturally a major concern of the sensitivity police at Puffin. Instead of “turning white,” for example, a character turns “quite pale” – because whiteness, as we are all reminded constantly, is the gravest of original sins. Similarly, in James and the Giant Peach, Miss Spider’s head is no longer “black” and the Earthworm no longer has “lovely pink” skin but “lovely smooth skin.” In Fantastic Mr Fox a description of two tractors as being “black” has been cut. In The Twits, a “weird African language” is no longer weird.

“We want to ensure Roald Dahl’s wonderful stories and characters continue to be enjoyed by all children today,” said a spokesperson for the Roald Dahl Story Company. And thus Puffin and the Roald Dahl Story Company made the new changes in consultation with Inclusive Minds, described by a spokesperson as “a collective for people who are passionate about inclusion and accessibility in children’s literature, and are committed to changing the face of children’s books.”

Translation: Inclusive Minds is a platoon of social justice warriors whose mission is to enforce the corrosive trinity of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion as literary imperatives. Alexandra Strick, a co-founder of Inclusive Minds, says they “aim to ensure authentic representation, by working closely with the book world and with those who have lived experience of any facet of diversity.”

The UK Telegraph notes that the revisions of Dahl’s work are “part of a general trend for ‘sensitivity readings,’ where books are screened before publication for material that might be upsetting. The practice began in children’s books, where it remains most pronounced.” Naturally it’s most pronounced in children’s literature – because the woke Left understands that the key to long-term success proselytizing wokeness lies in targeting the impressionable minds of the next generations.

“It just feels wrong to be told what to write by an outside party, no matter how well-meaning,” bestselling author Anthony Horowitz wrote in The Spectator. Horowitz himself has fallen afoul of sensitivity censorship over a Native American character attacking someone with a scalpel. Addressing the Hay Festival of Literature & Arts in Wales last year, he stated that “children’s book publishers are more scared [of cancel culture] than anybody.”

Dahl biographer Matthew Dennison says Dahl was passionate and tireless about crafting the language of his novels: “His relationships with his editors included marked fractiousness on Dahl’s part.” When it came to children’s books, Dennison says Dahl didn’t care what adults thought as long as his target readers were happy. “‘I don’t give a b—-r what grown-ups think,’ was a characteristic statement,” Dennison says. “And I’m almost certain that he would have recognized that alterations to his novels prompted by the political climate were driven by adults rather than children, and this always inspired derision, if not contempt, in Dahl…

“Dahl wrote stories intended to kindle in children a lifelong love of reading and to remind them of the childhood wonderlands of magic and enchantment, aims in which he succeeded triumphantly,” Dennison adds. “Adult anxieties about political niceties didn’t register in this outlook.” That’s because Dahl properly prioritized the art of language and storytelling over political messaging, while today’s sensitivity police prioritize political messaging over everything.

The Telegraph concludes by wondering, “When does harmless tweaking become over-meddling?” But the hundreds of changes to Dahl’s books are not “harmless tweaking,” nor are they the work of, as Anthony Horowitz generously but naively put it, “well-meaning” people who are just trying to encourage “inclusivity.” They constitute politically-driven desecration and indoctrination, and it won’t end with Roald Dahl and other children’s authors. If publishers have no qualms about policing and rewriting children’s literature, why would they draw the line at literature for adults?

The proper approach to teaching “problematic” language in classic literature – whether it’s archaic or strikes us as insensitive or whatever the issue might be – is not to reshape it behind the scenes to accord with modern tastes and political acceptability, but to use it as an opportunity for class discussion about historical differences, about changing mores, and hopefully about rethinking our own cultural arrogance. The kind of behind-the-scenes scrubbing and revision being carried out by Puffin and Inclusive Minds is not an act of embracing and learning from our incredible cultural legacy in the West, but one of rejecting and forgetting.

Originally published at Culture Warrior.

Mark Tapson is the Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, focusing on popular culture. He is also the host of an original podcast on Frontpage, “The Right Take With Mark Tapson.”

Source: https://www.frontpagemag.com/rewriting-roald-dahl/

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