Eretz Israel is our unforgettable historic homeland...The Jews who will it shall achieve their State...And whatever we attempt there for our own benefit will redound mightily and beneficially to the good of all mankind. (Theodor Herzl, DerJudenstaat, 1896)

We offer peace and amity to all the neighbouring states and their peoples, and invite them to cooperate with the independent Jewish nation for the common good of all. The State of Israel is ready to contribute its full share to the peaceful progress and development of the Middle East.
(From Proclamation of the State of Israel, 5 Iyar 5708; 14 May 1948)

With a liberal democratic political system operating under the rule of law, a flourishing market economy producing technological innovation to the benefit of the wider world, and a population as educated and cultured as anywhere in Europe or North America, Israel is a normal Western country with a right to be treated as such in the community of nations.... For the global jihad, Israel may be the first objective. But it will not be the last. (Friends of Israel Initiative)

Sunday 29 April 2018

British Labour Antisemitism: Stephen & Jonathan Tell (video)

Well look who's talking about antisemitism in Britain's Labour Party, or the, er, lack of it.

Yes, that Stephen.  Stephen the Martyr, persecuted, to hear him tell it, by those dastardly Zionists.  In other words, vicar-turned-Peacemakers Trust CEO Sizer, back in that not unfamiliar setting for him, the London studios of the Iranian regimes's propaganda satellite channel, Press TV. 

But not that Jonathan.  Not the bravely zealous Israel-defender Mr Hoffman but notorious anti-Israel activist Professor Jonathan Rosenhead.

Watch, but have a sick bag close at hand.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6I7MSaEvTqU

And don't please don't overlook my blog's other post of today, by David Singer, the post directly before this one, with another specially-commissioned cartoon by Dry Bones accompanying it.

Bonus: Lord Sugar on the same topic:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeaWfaXszms

David Singer: Trump Unscrambles UN-EU-PLO Misinformation Omelette

Here's the latest article by Sydney lawyer and international affairs analyst David Singer.

He writes:
 
Trump’s intention was revealed when the State Department released its annual “Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2017” (“Report”)  – renaming its segment previously entitled “Israel and The Occupied Territories” with a new descriptor – “Israel, Golan Heights, West Bank, and Gaza”.


Israel and the Golan Heights are dealt with together in one section of the Report – whilst the West Bank and Gaza are covered in another.


Commas count big time in Middle East diplomacy.


One comma strategically placed in the descriptor – “… West Bank, and Gaza” – identifies them as two separate territorial entities that could involve different solutions.


The Report’s new choice of language signals that resolving the Arab-Jewish conflict extends beyond the West Bank and Gaza to also include the Golan Heights and that any end to the conflict will only eventuate with the allocation of sovereignty in all three of these disputed areas.


This ground-breaking replacement of false statements with factual reality needs to be replicated by Trump in other areas of misinformation maliciously spread by the UN, EU and PLO – including:

* Recognition that the term “West Bank” was first used in 1950 and that for 3000 years prior thereto that territory had been called “Judea and Samaria”
* Acknowledgement that the “Palestinian Authority” created by the 1993 Oslo Accords was disbanded by written decree of PLO Chairman Mahmoud Abbas on 3 January 2013.
* Affirmation of the right of the Jewish People to close settlement on land in Judea and Samaria (West Bank) to reconstitute the Jewish National Home in Palestine under the rights vested in them by article 6 of the 1922 League of Nations Mandate for Palestine (the 1922 Mandate) – as preserved by article 80 of the United Nations Charter.
* Ending the fiction that the territory of former Palestine stopped at the Jordan River and agreeing that it included the Hashemite Kingdom of TransJordan – 78% of the territory comprised in the 1922 Mandate - which was granted independence by Great Britain in 1946 and subsequently renamed Jordan in 1950.
* Confirming that most of the Golan Heights was included within the 1922 Mandate until Britain ceded the area to France in the Franco-British Agreement of 7 March 1923
* Rebranding the UN and EU designated “Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT)” as “The Disputed Territories”
* Agreement that Security Council Resolution 242 does not require Israel’s total withdrawal from Judea and Samaria (West Bank).

Cracking heads by getting all interested parties to adopt an agreed narrative using terms with agreed meanings is crucial in any communications and negotiations between them – if Trump’s long-awaited “ultimate deal” is to not be still born.


Underestimating Trump’s ability to win the Presidential election race against Hillary Clinton in 2016 has seen those who confidently predicted his defeat subsequently engaged in a vitriolic war of attrition in the media trying to convince the electorate that they voted for the wrong candidate.


Yet Trump continues to confound his detractors with impressive gains in both the American economy and foreign affairs.


The State Department Report – in dumping the use of the nomenclature “The Occupied Territories” – has taken one giant step towards ending the decades-long dishonest semantic warfare waged by the PLO, UN and EU.


Trump has set himself a Herculean task confronting this sorry state of affairs.


Trump has once again dumbfounded his malevolent doomsday-pundits – whisking up an omelette that already promises to taste far better than any ever served up by the PLO, UN and EU.



(Author’s note: The cartoon - commissioned exclusively for this article – is by Yaakov Kirschen aka “Dry Bones” –  one of Israel’s foremost political and social commentators – whose cartoons have graced the columns of Israeli and international media publications for decades.)

Beatrix Shills for Israel (video)

Celebraing Israel's 70th birthday, Beatrix von Storch from the leader-team of the AfD (Alternative für Deutschland) speaks in the German Bundestag of the special relationship between Germany and Israel and blasts antisemitism.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHesZdmPgdY

Read more (from Rita L.) at source.

Friday 27 April 2018

In Australia, Jewish Pollsters Promote the NIF

There are about 120,000 Jews in Australia, roughly 85,000 of them adults.  The results of a poll, known as the "Gen17" Australian Jewish community survey, taken between February and May last year and attracting 8621  replies, have been released to much fanfare.

Note that I don't say "by 8621 respondents".  And for good reason: there were no safeguards in place to prevent those with a particular axe to grind filling out the questionnaire more than once. (At least one prominent, left-leaning, communal figure has made no secret of participating in the survey several times.)

Never mind that the poll's methodology has been called into question, with pollsters desperately touting for responses among various constituencies, online and in person, including approaching parents of Jewish day school children as they waited to pick up their kids, and offering them coffee while they filled the questionnaires out.

Here, retired professor Bill Rubinstein, who during the 1980s and 1990s was involved in conducting polls on behalf of Isi Leibler's Australian Institute of Jewish Affairs, declares the survey "deeply flawed" and pulls few punches:
'The only proper way to conduct such a survey is to obtain a comprehensive master list of all Jews in the communities being surveyed  ̶  in this case, Melbourne and Sydney  ̶  and then draw up a random sample of names on these lists, a genuinely random list obtained from a table of random numbers or generated by a computer. This is, of course, the method adopted in all surveys of voting intentions, and is the reason why a truly random sample of only 1500-2000 registered voters, drawn from the millions of registered voters, will produce a result normally within a few per cent of the actual outcome....
Using a random sample ... is not, however, what the “Gen17” survey has done. Apparently, it has simply requested that all local Jews answer its online questionnaire, and reported on the responses of those who did.... Simply reporting on the replies of voluntary respondents is exactly what was done in probably the most notoriously inaccurate poll in history, that conducted by the American weekly The Literary Digest during the 1936 presidential election. A popular magazine of the time, it succeeded in obtaining no fewer than 2.4 million responses as to voting intentions at that election, and confidently predicted that Republican candidate Alfred M. Landon would easily defeat President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was running for re-election.  Of course, the very opposite happened: FDR trounced Landon, and was re-elected with a record majority.  At the same election, the newly founded Gallup Poll employed the valid method of surveying voters, and predicted that Roosevelt would win decisively.  Largely because of The Literary Digest fiasco, that journal’s method of conducting surveys was abandoned.
Unfortunately, however, the Gen17 survey has used The Literary Digest technique.  While its 8600 respondents are superficially a very impressive number, its results are reliable only insofar as they represent a truly random sample of the Jewish community, without any biases. “Appropriately weighting” its results will not correct the absence of randomness, and almost nothing can be inferred about background or attitudes of those it has not polled.  Any adjustment by assuming that those it has polled will be similar to those it has not polled will be valid only if these two samples are similar, for which it has no evidence....'
He goes on:
'The major problem with the survey ... is that the background and attitudes of those who did not participate in the survey  ̶  90 per cent of the community  ̶  are unknown, and simply cannot be inferred  from the responses of those who actually did vote. Moreover, it is highly unlikely that those who did participate represent anything like a random sample of the whole community, but is a group hallmarked by clear biases.... 
Several of the findings in the survey strike me as being, frankly, unbelievable. Thirty-two per cent of respondents stated that the Israeli government should negotiate with Hamas, officially regarded as a terrorist body by all Western governments, with which no one in the Israeli mainstream would negotiate until it changes its charter that calls for the destruction of Israel. Similarly, 37 per cent of respondents  stated that non-Jewish people suffer from discrimination in Israel, a position here associated only with the extreme left. The sheer implausibility of both of these “findings” strongly suggest either that their respondents are a deeply unrepresentative sample of the Jewish community, or that the poll has been abused by multiple votes from a minority....'  [Emphasis added]
It's extremely concerning to see the poll's organisers snuggling up with the local supporters of that highly questionable, indeed dangerous, organisation, the New Israel Fund, who seem to be going all out to reap as much political capital out of the survey's ostensible results as they can.

A particularly brazen and egregious instance of this propagandistic drive occurred last Sunday evening in Melbourne, when, under the aegis of the survey's organisers, a panel convened to discuss the results of the survey and its implications.

Alarmingly, the panel included (why, if not solely for partisan purposes?) Professor Emerita Ilana Snyder, representing the NIF Australia and touting that organisation at length. She especially recommended it to Jewish young people keen to participate in communal affairs.

Learn more about this lamentable state of affairs from decidedly non-leftist communal broadcasters Alan Freedman, Michael Burd and their guest Professor Rubinstein on this J-Air "Nothing Left" podcast.  It's the first topic in that podcast, and fear not: although contact is lost during Freedman and Burd's interview with the professor, it's soon restored.

Thursday 26 April 2018

"Oh, Jeremy Corbyn ..."

What a rum lot!  It sounds like a dirge to me, a wail of derision against the execrable Labour leader. But alas, it's a tribute to him, on the part of old and not so old lefties, anti-Americans  and unilateral nuclear disarmament advocates at a "Don't Bomb Syria" demo in London recently:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkDxHlaVSDo

(Another MrAlexSeymour video.)

Tuesday 24 April 2018

"In a Very Dangerous Neighbourhood ... Israel Stands Out as an Oasis"

 Brevity of Life
"The days of our years are threescore and ten" - Psalms xc, 10

"Three score and ten," the youth replies,
"How far off seems the day."
"Three score and ten," the old man cries,
"How quickly passed away"....

Those are the opening lines of a poem penned in Victorian times by a British Jew, Philip Abraham (Jewish Chronicle, 2 December 1864).

He was, of course, thinking in terms of end of life, but as we all know, and he could not, 70 epitomises a beginning of life, the period in which the State of Israel has been in existence, and miraculously flourished in so many  ways.

On that note, here's Mark Regev, giving a terrific address at Bnei Akiva's Yom Ha'atzmaut 5778 service at London's Kinloss Synagogue.

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnC1ofe4k3s

In Jewish tradition "seventy is a symbol of perfection, of completion" explains Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis at the same event, after paying tribute to Regev, Bnei Akiva, and before giving a stirring encomium to Medinat Israel.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-Z_QfEXFks

More videos can be seen on Bnei Akiva's YouTube channel, including a Yom Ha'atzmaut tribute to Israel by Secretary of State for Defence Gavin Williamson MP.  (Read snippets here)

Seems there's always a party pooper, though:


Sheer brilliance

Sunday 22 April 2018

David Singer:Arab Summit Helps Trump Break Jordan-PLO-Israel Impasse

Here's the latest article by Sydney lawyer and international affairs analyst David Singer.

He writes:

The 29th Arab Summit – concluded in Dhahran on 15 April – has presented President Trump with a wonderful opportunity to circumvent the Palestine Liberation Organisation’s (PLO) refusal to consider Trump’s eagerly-awaited proposals to end the Arab-Jewish conflict.

Conflicts in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Libya, Bahrain and Sudan received scant attention – the Summit’s final communique declaring:
“We reaffirm that the Palestine Cause is the entire Arab nation's main priority, stressing the Arab identity of occupied East Al-Quds as the capital of the State of Palestine.”
Using the term “Palestine Cause” rather than “Palestinian cause” indicates the Arab world now intends focusing on recovering territory lost in the 1967 Six Day War without necessarily creating another Palestinian Arab state – in addition to Jordan – in former Palestine.

The communique further reinforced this interpretation when adding:
“The conflict could be ended through a two-state solution that guarantees the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on the borders of 4 July 1967 with East Al-Quds as its capital.”
Using the words “could be ended” rather than “can only be ended” is highly significant in the context of this long-running conflict where every word uttered is invariably scrutinised and analysed in great detail.

The Summit’s declared “two-state solution” – pressed for the last 25 years by the PLO and the Arab League and endorsed by the United Nations and the European Union as the only solution to end the Arab-Jewish conflict – is now being seen by the Arab world as just one possible solution.

The Dhahran Communique downgraded the PLO’s sole-spokesman status:
“We consider the Jordanian authorities as the only body in charge of the administration, maintenance and access to Al-Aqsa Mosque”
This unequivocal Arab endorsement of Jordan challenges the PLO having any future control or influence in the most sensitive area of crucial concern to the Islamic world in Jerusalem – the Moslem holy sites.

Jordan has maintained its presence in Jerusalem as Islamic Holy Shrines Custodian for the last 24 years as a result of the 1994 Peace Agreement between Jordan and Israel – article 9 declaring:
“1. Each Party will provide freedom of access to places of religious and historical significance.
2. In this regard, in accordance with the Washington Declaration, Israel respects the present special role of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in Muslim Holy shrines in Jerusalem. When negotiations on the permanent status will take place, Israel will give high priority to the Jordanian historic role in these shrines.
3. The Parties will act together to promote interfaith relations among the three monotheistic religions, with the aim of working towards religious understanding, moral commitment, freedom of religious worship, and tolerance and peace.”
The Washington Declaration – signed by His Majesty King Hussein and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin at the White House on July 25, 1994 in the presence of President Clinton – formally ended the 46-year state of war between Jordan and Israel.

The Washington Declaration is testament to America’s role as the only power possessing the prestige and clout to change Arab and Jewish perceptions on resolving their long-running conflict.
Jordan’s special role in Jerusalem recognised by the Summit closely follows PLO Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’s recent assertion that Jordanians and Palestinians are indeed one people.

Resolving the “Palestine Cause” remains more easily achievable in negotiations between Israel and Jordan within the framework of their existing peace treaty – rather than resuming fruitless negotiations pursued over the last 25 years between Israel and the PLO.

Ending the 100-years-old “Palestine Curse” which has so terribly afflicted both Jews and Arabs could well be within Trump’s grasp thanks to the Dhahran Summit.

(Author’s note: The cartoon  –  commissioned exclusively for this article  –  is by Yaakov Kirschen aka “Dry Bones” – one of Israel’s foremost political and social commentators – whose cartoons have graced the columns of Israeli and international media publications for decades.)

Natalie in Pictures

Click here for above report 
Click here for Genesis Prize 

 Click here for above report

Meanwhile:




And:

Thursday 19 April 2018

In London, Three Billboards & a Jonathan


 In London on 17 April, three billboards eloquently protested the ongoing shame of antisemitism within the British Labour Party.


 "Enough of words, we need action ... "

 Legendary pro-Israel activist Jonathan Hoffman was interviewed that same day regarding Corbyn and the Corbynistas' despicable stance.

  (videos.metro.co.uk)

Wednesday 18 April 2018

Menaced in Merkeland

The screengrab at left is from a video that the Vlad Tepes blog uploaded on Youtube some hours ago.

To quote Vlad himself:
"Youtube pulled this video and gave me a “community guidelines” strike on my channel .I guess we aren’t to know how things are in Germany today."


He then posted it to Bitchute, and you can see the brief but disturbing footage here

Meanwhile, a brave young woman, Freya from Cologne, talks frankly and fearlessly about the menace that the mass migration of unvetted Muslim males into Europe is having upon the continent's girls and women.


It's not the sort of talk we hear too often from Western "feminists".

Nor from Western liberals in general, all too prone, it seems, to sacrifice the rights of women, including Muslim women oppressed by their own culture, on the altar of political correctness.  (Instructive if depressing article here)
  
To quote the wonderful Professor Emerita Phyllis Chesler, a Jew and a Zionist and one of a mere handful of high-profile Western feminists who have not betrayed the cause in the face of creeping islamisation:
'.... My generation of feminists believed in universal human rights. We were not multi-cultural relativists. We called out misogyny when we saw it and did not exempt a rapist, a wife-beater, or a pedophile because he was poor (his victims were also poor); or a man of color (his victims were also people of color); or because he had an abused childhood (so did his victims)....An honor killing is the cold-blooded murder of girls and women simply because they are female. Being born female in a shame-and-honor culture is, potentially, a capital crime; every girl has to keep proving that she is not dishonoring her family; even so, an innocent girl can be falsely accused and killed on the spot....
In honor killings, murders are carefully planned conspiracies and may be perpetrated by multiple family-of-origin members. Brothers, uncles, fathers, and other male relatives usually commit the murder, although mothers have also been known to collaborate in the murders of their daughters; sometimes, they are hands-on perpetrators.
Batterers who murder in the West are usually acting in an unplanned and spontaneous way. They alone are the perpetrators. Their own families do not assist them nor does the victim’s family-of-origin. In the West, fathers rarely murder their teenage daughters. This is what happens in a classic honor killing.
Honor killings in the West are sometimes marked by excessive violence, such as repeated stabbing, raping, bludgeoning, or being set aflame. Such killings are similar to what serial killers do to unknown, often prostituted, women.
In the West, batterers and wife killers are not celebrated—they are shunned. If possible, they are also prosecuted. Hindus in India, and Muslims, worldwide, who commit honor killings, are viewed as heroes who have saved their family’s honor. Thus, they feel no shame or remorse....Only those who believe that it is shameful to expose anything negative about Muslims, especially if it is true, silence such exposure by “shaming” it as racist and “Islamophobic.”....'
Read more here


Monday 16 April 2018

David Singer: Trump Pressure Pushes Jordan to Choose Israel or PLO

Here's the latest article by Sydney lawyer and international affairs analyst David Singer.

He writes:

The Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) – refusing to bow to pressure by President Trump to cease payments to terrorists and their families currently exceeding US$400 million annually – is looming as a potential threat to end 96 years of unbroken Hashemite rule in Jordan.

PLO Chairman Mahmoud Abbas – addressing the ninth annual Islamic Beit al-Maqdes International Conference in Ramallah last week – has sent a veiled message of the PLO’s intention to challenge Jordan’s ruling Hashemite family if PLO demands for a State in the West Bank with Jerusalem as its capital are not met.

Jordan comprised almost 77% of Palestine between 1920 and 1946 until granted independence by Great Britain and being renamed The Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan – subsequently being renamed Jordan in 1950 following Transjordan’s illegal annexation of Judea and Samaria in 1948 ( redesignated the West Bank).

This semantic sleight of hand could never change the historic and demographic reality that Jordan formed part of the territory comprised in the 1922 Mandate for Palestine – Jordan’s Crown Prince Hassan declaring in the Foreign Affairs Review in 1982: 
“the Jordanians and Palestinians are now one people, and no political loyalty, however strong, will separate them permanently.”
Abbas told the Ramallah Conference: 
“In Palestine and Jordan, we are one people in two states and we will never accept an alternative homeland.”
Abbas's statement mirrored PLO founder Yasser Arafat’s in Der Spiegel in 1986: 
“Jordanians and Palestinians are indeed one people. No one can divide us. We have the same fate.”
Farouk Kadoumi – the Head of the Political Department of the PLO – told Newsweek on 14 March 1977: 
“Jordanians and Palestinians are considered by the PLO as one people.”
Alleging flagrant bias towards Israel by the Trump Administration – Abbas defiantly declared: 
“We are not expecting anything from them. We won’t accept anything from them.”
Abbas is being incredibly naïve if he believes he can now convince the international community into accepting that one people needs two states – and that pursuing that goal should be internationally supported at the expense of achieving an end to a conflict that originated with the 1917 Balfour Declaration.

Abbas’s categorical rejection of an American role in ending the conflict by calling on the international community to help create a second Arab state in former Palestine – in addition to Jordan – has little chance of success.

Jordan’s King Abdullah should by now be under no illusion that the PLO’s quest to create a PLO-ruled State is doomed to failure. Abdullah should view with apprehension that Abbas’s remarks at the Ramallah Conference could again be laying the groundwork for another PLO attempt to overthrow Hashemite rule in Jordan – as unsuccessfully occurred in September 1970 and is prescribed by article 2 of the PLO Charter.

The solution proposed by Israel’s late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in The Australian on 27 May 1985 now takes on added significance: 
“the Palestinians should have a sovereign State which includes most of the Palestinians. It should be Jordan with a considerable part of the West Bank and Gaza. East of the Jordan River there is enough room to settle the Palestinian refugees”
Such a solution – negotiated between Israel and Jordan under the framework of their 1994 Peace Treaty – would see continuing Hashemite rule in Jordan being backed by Israel and America – stability sadly lacking presently in many failed Arab States such as Syria and Libya.

Abbas’s Ramallah statement has presented Jordan with a stark choice – negotiate with Israel or continue supporting the PLO and face the prospect of another attempt to overthrow Jordan’s ruling Hashemite dynasty.

Jordan’s decision should be a no-brainer.

[Author’s note: The cartoon – commissioned exclusively for this article – is by Yaakov Kirschen aka "Dry Bones" – one of Israel's foremost political and social commentators – whose cartoons have graced the columns of Israeli and international media publications for decades]
 

Sunday 15 April 2018

Islam Exported: an Israeli journalist on the Muslim Brotherhood (video)

An interview by Yaron London with Zvi Yehezkeli on Saudi crown prince Mohammad bin Salman and the Muslim Brotherhood.

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSc1xOafwgU

Read more here

It will be noted that the eminent British scholar of Islam Professor Denis MacEoin has commented as follows beneath the video on Youtube: 
"I advise caution here. Many of the statements made by Muhammad ibn Salman in his Atlantic interview struck me as attempts to pull the wool over many people's eyes. For example, in the early section, he declared that 'Islam means peace' and that this was, in fact, a correct translation. As a fluent Arab speaker and reader, he knows perfectly well that 'Islam', which is the fourth form of the verb (aslama) means 'submission'. `'Peace' (from the same root) is 'salam'.
 He said a lot of other things (which I can't recall now) designed to present a positive image of Islam. But the interviewee is right to point out that 'din wa dawla' go together. Islam has always been a perfect combination of religion and state. You can't, for example, remove jihad from shari'a law without removing it from the Qur'an, the ahadith, and the lives of the prophet and his successors. Ditto for the Islamic views of all nonbelievers or specifically Jews and Christians. There are many eminent would-be reformers in Islam, yet none of them has succeeded in creating a true overhaul of the faith. The only true answer to Islamic radicalism would be for total secularism. But would-be secularisers such as Ataturk or Reza Shah failed in the end – look at Turkey under Erdogan or Iran under the post-1979 regime.  
In the mid-fifties, when the Baha'i leader Shoghi Effendi Rabbani was writing about the fate of Islam, he considered it a dead letter and wrote about its institutions, clergy, etc as being in total collapse. Today, it is stronger in many ways than it was in the 19th century. If ibn Salman tries to overhaul the Wahhabi state, he will be assassinated. I would like to think he will achieve great things, but I would exercise caution about him and other would-be reformers."  [Emphasis added]

The "Progressive" Destroyers of Enlightened Values (video)

A brave man speaks out on the evil wrought by the so-called Progressives in the West who are destroying all that the Enlightenment stood for, seek to silence and criminalise opinions with which they do not agree, slur their opponents as far-right fascists and racists,  and try to destroy careers.

Yes, it's Pat Condell, with a damning indictment of the anti-Israel islamophile "cultural Marxists" who have betrayed real liberal values including the right to free speech and women's rights ...

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trAyp5XXQgo

Meanwhile, an Aussie Jewish progressive writes ...

And another anti-Pipes Progressive, of the female islamophile variety, writes ...

Both on the ABC's (akin to the BBC) website, of course.

I wonder what those Progressives have to say about this

Thursday 12 April 2018

Corbyn Alights on an Alibi?

Very recently, in London, a protest against the odious British Labour Party leader:

 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tj_Tejf43_Y

On Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day):


Many people are outraged by this tweet, regarding it as cynical exploitation of the Holocaust on Corbyn's part.  To quote just one outraged observer, posting about it on Facebook from Tel Aviv: 
"Don't you dare Jeremy Corbyn, don't you dare insult the 6 million Jews murdered, when you cannot remove the stench of Antisemitism from your very core, when you embrace Holocaust deniers & when you count as 'friends' Hamas & Hezbollah, who seek genocide against the State of Israel! "
Meanwhile, British blogger Edgar Davidson has a rather pertinent post, here

Leading Australian foreign affairs journalist Greg Sheridan, who's been visiting London, writes about Corbyn and antisemitism here

"Isreal": a five-minute video

Once upon a time scripture lessons were widely taught in Britain and the rest of the English-speaking world, but alas no longer, ensuring nowadays widespread ignorance of the Hebrews and their land.

Here's "History of ancient Israel and Judah explained in 5 minutes", a new video from https://www.patreon.com/Epimetheus1776 Paypal Donate epimetheus1776@gmail.com

What's  the "Isreal" that's depicted from time to time, I wonder.

                                          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZybFYikBMLg

Tuesday 10 April 2018

On Gaza, So Very Corbyn, So Very Bartolotti

The tissue of lies associated with the flare-ups on the Gaza-Israel border in recent days has been well-investigated by Honest Reporting, here.

That the usual suspects are making the most of the opportunity to demonise Israel is, of course, to be expected, and in Australia as well as in London and elsewhere anti-Israel activists, typically a strange yet familiar concoction of far leftists and their Islamic allies, have been on the march to demonstrate support for the so-called "Great Return March".

Through the lens of anti-Israel campaigner Alex Seymour (aka Seymour Alexander), a glimpse of the bourgeois Corbynista types who made common cause with Muslim defenders of Hamas to protest in London's Whitehall on Saturday at Israel's treatment of (ahem) "peaceful demonstrators" at "a family picnic":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVmY--vGTgQ

How very Corbynesque of Corbyn to leave an Israel-demonising message on Facebook to be read to the demonstrators, a message that maintained, inter alia, the extremist sentiment that the so-called "refugees" (the only hereditary refugees in the world) have a "right to return to their homes" (with all that would mean for the continuation of the state of Israel!) 
"The majority of the people of the Gaza Strip are stateless refugees, subject to a decade long blockade and the denial of basic human and political rights. More than two thirds are reliant on humanitarian assistance, with limited access to the most basic amenities, such as water and electricity.
They have a right to protest against their appalling conditions and the continuing blockade and occupation of Palestinian land, and in support of their right to return to their homes and their right to self-determination."  [Emphasis added]
How does the bit about Hamas go in Lord Sugar's delicious poetic tweet on Corbyn, that I reproduced  a few days ago?  Ah. yes!


Easier for the inhabitants of Gaza to blame Israel for real and imagined troubles than the fanatical bloodthirsty hard men to whom they are in thraldom. 

No sympathy at all for the Israelis, facing the threat of violation of their borders ("invasion" in plain language):


On the same day that demo was held in London, half a world away in Melbourne the usual contingents of Muslims and lefties demonstrated, affirming their support for
"the bravery and resilience of protesting Gazan refugees....
Residents of Gaza are demanding their Right of Return to these erased and ethnically cleansed cities in commemoration of 70 years of Nakba, or Catastrophe, which marks the beginning of genocide and zionist occupation.
We demand the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador of [sic] Australia. We call on Australian politicians to break political and economic ties and condemn the massacre in Gaza"
And chanting that old pregnant-with-meaning catch cry "From the river to the sea Palestine will be free".  Below: a small section of the marching crowd, ahead of the inevitable gaggle of "Socialist Alliance" placard-wavers.


More on the Melbourne demo here (from which I reproduce this photo of a brave bystander):


On Sunday a similar event occurred in downtown Sydney:



Recognise anyone?  Yes, behind the flag in the lower photo that's Stephen Sizer's soulmate, Father Dave Smith, in clerical garb and keffiyeh.  In the left foreground is academic Nick Riemer, next to Palestinian activist Shamikh Badra, and (far right) the far left's Pip Hinman.

Meanwhile, today by the verbose deputy leader of the Welsh Greens, an anti-Israel stalwart of an often eyebrow-raising kind (as regular readers of my blog will be aware):


How very green of that Green.

Does she not know?  Has she not heard? 

There are no Israeli troops occupying Gaza.  Nor, of course, Jewish "settlers".  None since 2005.

As for the legal status of Israel and the West Bank, an interesting interview with Professor Eugene Kontorovich here

An Israeli's petition regarding Hamas here

Monday 9 April 2018

For the Record: Sizer 101

Eagle-eyed readers will note that I've added to my sidebar a link to an article from the Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) regarding Dr Stephen Sizer.  I've headed it "Try this for Sizer" and have subtitled it "Sizer 101".

Intended primarily for Australians, who before the anti-Zionist campaigner's recent controversial visit to these shores were not as au fait with the ex-vicar of Virginia Water and his views as they might have been, it provides anyone anywhere with a useful refresher course regarding Dr Sizer's anti-Israel activities.

Meanwhile, Sizer-watchers may find the following intriguing (the article referred to is this one):



Oops-a-daisy! Two screenshots taken in 2014:



As part of a refresher course, see also here

Here too.

Sunday 8 April 2018

David Singer: Jordan Considers Replacing PLO as Israel’s Negotiating Partner

Here's the latest article by Sydney lawyer and international affairs analyst David Singer.

He writes:

Two recent events confirm that Jordan is seriously considering replacing the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) as Israel’s negotiating partner to resolve the allocation of sovereignty in Judea and Samaria (West Bank) between Israel and Jordan:
1. The ending of a 9 months diplomatic impasse between Jordan and Israel following Jordan’s acceptance of Amir Weissbrod as Israel’s new ambassador to Jordan.
 Jordan’s approval came after the two countries agreed to end their standoff following the shooting deaths of two Jordanians in the Israeli Embassy compound by an Israeli security guard who Israel alleged opened fire in self-defence after one of the men tried to stab him.
 Weissbrod will replace former ambassador Einat Schlein, who had hurriedly left Amman last July following this incident.
 Restoration of full diplomatic ties will facilitate Israel and Jordan’s ability to amicably resolve the division of Judea and Samaria (West Bank) between their two respective states within the framework of their existing 1994 Peace Treaty – ending a long-running border dispute dating back to 1922.
2. The publication by the Jordan Times on 31 March of an article by Jordanian journalist Nermeen Murad headlined “Should Jordan claim the West Bank on our behalf? An old yet new question”
The Jordan Times is published by the Jordan Press Foundation – in which the government-owned Social Security Investment Fund has a majority stake.
The provocative headline suggests the Government could be flying a trial balloon to gauge public opinion should Jordan decide to negotiate with Israel.
Murad opines:
'Did the Arab world and the Palestinian leadership make a strategic mistake when they kick started a political process that drove Jordan to the 1988 decision to sever legal and administrative ties with the West Bank? That step has long been seen to have, perhaps irreversibly, removed Jordan from the table of any serious negotiations for a final resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict based in a “land for peace” formula.'
Murad argues: 
“I believe that it can be credibly argued that it was a strategic mistake to focus Arab and Palestinian effort solely on creating an alternate and less legally legitimate claimant to the West Bank, regardless of how nationalistic and symbolic it was to have a Palestinian body representing Palestinian rights, instead of focusing on claiming the land itself as the most pressing priority – even if only for purely tactical considerations."
Murad then concludes: 
“.. it appears that the decision to squeeze Jordan out and undermine the legal opportunity that Jordan had to reclaim the West Bank back in the 1970s, is a relevant and important starting point in our review of our past strategies and a critical ingredient in our discussions of a way forward towards a solution.”
Jordan’s long-abandoned West Bank claims could be resurrected following the PLO committing political suicide by refusing to have anything further to do with President Trump’s soon-to-be-released “ultimate deal”.

Trump’s deal will be still-born if no Arab negotiating partner is prepared to sit down with Israel.

In 1988 the PLO could justifiably claim to be the sole spokesman for the Gazan and West Bank Arab populations. Hamas – founded only in 1987 – never represented any challenge to the PLO then. However in 2018 the PLO sole-spokesman claim has been completely undermined by Hamas – which itself has governed Gaza with disastrous results since 2007.

Both organisations continue to fail to reconcile their differences, engage in on-going internecine conflict and refuse to give their long-suffering populations any say in their own future.

Jordan appears to be readying itself to jump on the Trump bandwagon – leaving the PLO and Hamas behind battering themselves into political irrelevance.
 
(Author’s note: The cartoon – commissioned exclusively for this article – is by Yaakov Kirschen aka "Dry Bones" – one of Israel's foremost political and social commentators – whose cartoons have graced the columns of Israeli and international media publications for decades.)

Saturday 7 April 2018

An Israeli's Message to Mark Zuckerberg

Raped. Tortured. Murdered.  For being a Jew.
Jean Vercors made aliya from France some years ago.  He will be familiar to regular readers of this blog, since he has had guest posts here before.  This latest post of his is entitled
"An Open Letter to Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook".

It's prompted me to add this link to a brand-new article by a non-Jewish Sorbonne scholar, the courageous and prescient Guy Millière, regarding the plight of French Jewry at the hands of hate-filled antisemites.

Writes Jean Vercors:

I have used Facebook for years as a platform to share my thoughts, comments and articles. I value that platform because of its global reach.  It connected me to some of my friends in France, the USA, UK, Canada, Australia and many other countries. It is a window to the world to differing opinions by allowing me to see what my friends think and share on their walls.It gives me an outlet to speak my mind and to share my thoughts on topics ranging from domestic politics to the Arab-Israeli conflict.

However, I have observed that your social media has reached a point of violent antisemitism, at least for me, and I guess many other people too. I am appalled by Facebook’s insistence to allow this on social media.  I cannot believe that a group that calls for the death of the Jews, your own people for that matter, does not violate Facebook’s “Community Standards.” Do you realize how dangerous your media has become allowing the antisemites of the world to vomit their hate on Israel with lies?

I am disgusted that Facebook not only calls this group socially acceptable, but it endangers the lives of our brothers, our families, our children, and more importantly, our people as a whole.

Free Speech should not be Hate Speech.

We all know too well that allowing such a negative behavior only encourages the killing of Jews as we have seen it lately when Facebook users that were anti-Zionists and posting anti-Jewish posts assassinated innocent people in France, Israel or elsewhere.

As a Jew, I was taught to stand up for Justice and truth against anyone not matter his faith or ethnicity.  We Jews have been standing in front line for thousands of years, defending, protecting and teaching human rights.

As we celebrate Pesach, we all retell the story of our journey from bondage to freedom when we were slaves in Egypt reading the Haggada. Not only to ourselves but to our children and the future generations. It has been this way for 3000 years.

You were quoted coming to the defence of Muslims after the November 2015 Paris attacks “As a Jew, my parents taught me that we must stand up against attacks on all communities. Even if an attack isn’t against you today, in time attacks on freedom for anyone will hurt everyone.  So I wonder Mr.Zuckerberg have you forgotten or ignored your statement that all of us should “stand up against attacks on all communities?” Maybe you do not even know about the double standards applied to Jews and Palestinians on Facebook?

The latest violence in Gaza sponsored by Hamas has launched a virulent anti-Israel campaign on Facebook against Israel and therefore the Jews in general.  I remember you said last year on your Facebook page: 
”For me, the most important tradition is to remember that we will not be truly free until every person is free”.
I am asking you a simple question, are you really free?  If you do not support your people. I believe you are still in Egypt and you have not yet escaped it morally.

You also said that you believe in free speech but at the same this free speech turns out to be a highway for free hate.

Why I am saying this is because my account has been suspended 3 times (30 days each time). Every comment I posted in favor of Israel, your automated response said i was violating Facebook community standards.

In fact, I believe my account was reported to Facebook by anti-Israel trolls and your moderators in Morocco or Pakistan did not hesitate a second to suspend my account.

In France, rumors abound that Facebook's moderators are located in French-speaking Muslim countries such as Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco which explains why most critics of hamas, Islam and political Islam are censored by Muslim moderators who support Hamas.

Notably, Muslim hate-speakers continue to proliferate on Facebook, while anti-Islamists face harassment and the loss of their accounts.

My comments were not offensive but true but based on facts. Some examples:

·        Hamas is using children as Human shields,

·        14 of the 16 killed in Gaza were Hamas terrorists,

·        Israel has the right to defend itself…and so on

And every time, I get the same answer” your behavior is not allowed on Facebook by violating Facebook Community Standards”

Facebook  is dealing with some serious contradictions of promoting free speech while running the world’s biggest social network, after being called out on the gap between his words and Facebook policy.

Since the violent Palestinian protest in Gaza last week, antisemitism has reached peaks that it was not touching since World War II.

I reported hundreds of times the violent and antisemitic hate speech posted on Facebook that should be considered against your Community Standards.

Every time I get the same answer: It does not violate our standards. 

It does violate a standard. My moral standard.

It is my duty to write a comment that expose facts about Israel.

For this reason, I am writing this letter to you in hope that you read it well and understand why I cannot accept the existence of Facebook pages that incites hatred against the Jews or any other religious/ethnic minority.

The antisemites who abound on Facebook post the same hatred that led the Jewish people to the gas chambers.

This group spews the same hateful propaganda that targeted a minority population to carry out a systematic genocide against the Jews in Europe. Are you conscious of that?

No Hate Speech on Facebook, unless it’s against the Jews, of course!

This is not the first time that Facebook chooses to take sides. I have reported several pages over the last five years only to get the same answer from Facebook staff.

This group produces the same vile hatred that has persecuted your people for millennia under the false premises that the Jewish people are the cause of all of the world’s problems.

I think Facebook has a moral obligation to stop giving antisemites a voice and an outlet to call for murdering Jews and comparing Israel to Nazi Germany. It is unacceptable for a social media as important as yours to allow such blatant Jew-hatred, or any hatred for that matter.

I reported pages inciting against Jews and received a message from Facebook staff saying that “ it was not in violation of Facebook rules.” Wait a minute! I thought that violence and hatred against anybody was to be reprimanded.

I speak for the millions of Jews who are scared to death to stand up for their people, to stand up for Israel, and to stand up for their right to self-determination on Facebook, in part because of antisemitic Facebook users like these that fester such undeniably antisemitic opinions and claim that the man responsible for killing six million Jews was “right” all along.

As a Jew, you can’t ignore the hateful rhetoric against Jews that has always been rampant on Facebook for decades.  Or perhaps it just doesn't matter to you?

The majority of what I see is dishonest criticism of Israel
•        Critics who habitually single out Israel for condemnation while ignoring far worse actions by other countries (especially other Middle Eastern countries) are antisemitic.•        Likening Israel to Nazi Germany or to traditional anti-Jewish stereotypical behavior is another sure sign of Jew-baiting.•        Attacks on the merits of Israel's existence rather than individual government policies are antisemitic.

Dr Martin Luther King Jr put it this way when he was approached by a student who attacked Zionism, When people criticize Zionists, King said, they mean Jews. You're talking antisemitism.

If you read this letter, I hope that you take my words to heart and do the courageous thing. Do the humane thing. Do the right thing.
·        Remove all Facebook pages that call for the death of Jews, Israelis(or Zionists).
·        Remove all articles from media like Al-Jazeera, TeleSUR, RT, MintPress News, Middle East Eye, Sydney Morning Herald, BBC, The Guardian, Le Monde, Le Figaro, Courrier international, Le Nouvelobs, Le Parisien and others that promotes hatred against Israel and the Jews.
·        Remove this comment posted (april 2016) on your page with 475 likes


We all know too well that Antizionism is Antisemitism.  

The time has come where our people need to be united as one. Our people need to come together and support one another.

I urge you, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook to respond the call and stand as a proud Jew against the blatant Jew-hatred that has plagued us for millennia and has only gotten stronger in the last few weeks.

You can file complaints on Facebook’s Help Center and you don’t have to be Jewish, Muslim, Christian or anything else for that matter. You just have to be a proponent of truth, justice, fairness and accountability for all mankind. If we don’t say anything, we have no right to complain when Israelis are getting stabbed to death on the streets of Israel or French Jews machine gunned in a Kosher supermarket or Mireille Knoll, the 85-year-old Jewish Holocaust survivor who was murdered in her apartment.

Mark Zuckerberg, Give yourself a chance to leave Egypt and be closer to your people, if you claim to be Jewish.

Shalom from Jerusalem

Friday 6 April 2018

Sugary Verse: a satire on Corbyn

I suppose, with all his dough, Britain's Lord Sugar doesn't fear possible defamation lawsuits!



More here

And on his Twitter page, of course!

Wednesday 4 April 2018

In Suburban London, Israel-Haters Act Out Their Fantasies (video)

Plenty of Corbynistas here, I'd guess.

In the leafy London suburb of Richmond (not to be confused with Richmond, Yorkshire, of which the "Sweet Lass" was a denizen), a nutty piece of Israel-demonising "street theatre" featuring old codgers in camouflage gear, elderly ladies swathed in what resemble the cast off medieval-style garments of that great English eccentric Dame Edith Sitwell, and bewildered-looking kids doing their best to follow the choreography.

Most busy shoppers give this bizarre Israel-demonising performance, the brainchild of the Kingston & Richmond Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) branch, a wide berth, cursorily glancing with puzzled looks, and then moving swiftly on, leaving the players and their keffiyeh-wearing cheerleaders to waste their sourness on the suburban air.

Vile as this sicko little drama is, I reckon the spectacular ham acting of the lady with the "heart attack" deserves a British Comedy Award!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xr_cOdAZUG4

(A MrAlexSeymour video; his spiel about the performance can be found beneath the video on YouTube)


Tuesday 3 April 2018

Stephen Sizer: Statement by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry

This statement has been issued today by Mr Peter Wertheim, CEO of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, regarding the ABC's interview with Stephen Sizer, aired on Friday, and mentioned in my Sunday post:

For centuries, Easter Holy Week was an occasion for incendiary sermons and outbreaks of mob violence against Jewish communities throughout Europe.   In recent years we have seen a more subtle version of that tradition take shape. Commentaries about Israel, especially in the lead-up to Easter, often go beyond mere criticisms that are similar to those levelled against any other country or government, and are couched in terms that evoke ancient calumnies against Jews as a group.  Some of Steven Sizer’s public statements have been in this category.

Although David Rutledge’s interview of Sizer on the ABC RN Breakfast program on Good Friday explored some of these statements, it was a soft interview that allowed Sizer’s self-serving answers to pass unchallenged.

Rutledge allowed Sizer to get away with claiming that none of the speakers at one of the conferences he addressed in Tehran in 2014 were criticised as antisemitic. In fact, as was reported at the time, the Iranian-run Press TV described the conference as intending to “unveil the secrets behind the dominance of the Zionist lobby over the US and EU politics”, with one session devoted to examining “Mossad’s role in the 9/11 Coup d’Etat”, and another discussing “9/11 and the Holocaust as pro-Zionist ‘Public myths’ ”.

Rutledge gave only partial information about, and under-played the full extent of, Sizer’s own statements legitimising outlandish conspiracy theories blaming Israel for the September 11 terror attacks in the US.  There was no mention of the fact that Sizer’s own Church in the UK was so embarrassed by his public statements that it extracted an undertaking from Sizer to stop commenting on the subject while he remained a vicar, an undertaking which Sizer subsequently broke.

Nor was there any mention of the fact that in November 2016, Inter-Varsity Press (IVP), one of Britain’s largest Christian publishers, withdrew Sizer’s books from sale and ceased to list them on its website.

Rutledge took it upon himself to tell Sizer “I accept you are not an antisemite”, instead of adhering to proper interviewing standards and allowing the audience to make up its own mind.   Under the working definition of antisemitism adopted by the 31 democratic countries of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, including the UK, the US and EU, certain kinds of criticisms of Israel are internationally recognised as antisemitic.  It is strongly arguable that some of Sizer’s statements about Israel fall within that definition, but Rutledge did not put this question to Sizer.

Finally, Rutledge should have taken to task Sizer’s egregious comments about Israel ceasing to be a democracy if it retains the settlements in the West Bank.  At official permanent-status negotiations between Israel and Palestinian leaders at Camp David in 2000, in Taba in 2001, in Jerusalem in 2008 and in Washington DC in 2010, both parties accepted the principle of “land swaps”.  This would involve incorporating into Israel’s territory a small part of the West Bank where the major settlement blocs are located in exchange for Israel ceding to the Palestinians an equivalent area of land from within Israel’s pre-1967 territory.

Overall, Rutledge’s interview was far beneath the standards of probing, well-researched, quality journalism that regular listeners expect from an ABC RN current affairs program.  For this he should apologise not only to the Jewish community but to the ABC’s entire audience.

Instead of pre-judging Christian Zionism by only featuring one of its critics, the ABC should for once set aside its customary hostility towards Israel and its Jewish and Christian supporters, and interview one of Christian Zionism’s more able exponents, such as Dr. Jürgen Bühler, the President of the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem.

Monday 2 April 2018

David Singer: Mattis-Bolton Accord Can Sway Trump to Dump PLO for Jordan

Here's the latest article by Sydney lawyer and international affairs analyst David Singer.

He writes:

President Trump’s possible call for Jordan to replace the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) as Israel’s negotiating partner under Trump’s soon-to-be-releasde "ultimate deal" will be considerably strengthened if Trump’s newly-appointed National Security Adviser – John Bolton – and Secretary of Defense – James “Mad Dog” Mattis – concurs on such a move.

Bolton has supported this strategy since 2009telling Eric Shawn on 21 January 2018: 
“I hope at some point the Administration recognizes and perhaps it is already quietly – that the two-state solution isn’t going anywhere. If anything I would say to King Abdullah of Jordan – “Be prepared to reassert Jordanian sovereignty over part of the West Bank – negotiate with Israel”. I think that’s a far better outcome than the continued pursuit of a mythical – I believe unattainable viable Palestinian state” 
Mattis has favoured the Obama-Kerry strategy – pointing out to the Aspen Security Forum in July 2013: 
“We have got to find a way to make the two-state solution that Democrat and Republican administrations have supported, we’ve got to get there. And the chances for it, as the king of Jordan has pointed out, are starting to ebb because of the settlements and where they’re at, are going to make it impossible to maintain the two-state option.”
Mattis further reasoned: 
“I paid a military security price every day as the commander of CentCom because the Americans were seen as biased in support of Israel and that moderates all the moderate Arabs who want to be with us, because they can’t come out publicly in support of people who don’t show respect for the Arab Palestinians. So he [Secretary of State John Kerry] is right on target with what he’s doing. And I just hope the protagonists want peace and a two-state solution as much as he does.”
Kerry however failed miserably – being unable to get the PLO back to the negotiating table after a PLO walk-out in April 2014 following nine months of unsuccessful negotiations on proposals specifically formulated by Kerry to resolve the long-running conflict.

Today: 
· Moderate Arabs – Saudi Arabia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Oman – have come out publicly – joining Jordan and Egypt in meeting with Israel in the White House – without PLO participation - to discuss Gaza’s deteriorating situation. 
· The PLO refuses to resume negotiations with Israel on the two-state solution: creating a second Arab State – in addition to Jordan – in the territory covered by the 1922 League of Nations Mandate for Palestine.
· The PLO will no longer accept America as sole mediator and is demanding an international conference be convened by mid-2018
The media have castigated Trump for appointing Bolton – typified by highly-credentialled columnist George Will – claiming:
“Bolton will soon be the second-most dangerous American.”
Yet Will himself had written in the Washington Post on 17 April 1987: 
“May 14 will be the 30th Anniversary of the founding of the State of Israel, June 6 will be the 20th anniversary of the Six Day War. The West Bank has been held by Israel longer than it had been held by Jordan, the 1967 aggressor, which ever since has presented itself as the aggrieved party. Today, as every day since 1948, the key to peace is direct negotiations between Jordan and Israel, not a committee” 
Mattis’s jocular remarks on meeting Bolton at the Pentagon – caught in an off-microphone exchange – signals Mattis could have already changed his thinking: 
"I heard you're actually the devil incarnate and I wanted to meet you"
A Mattis-Bolton accord on Jordan replacing the PLO in future negotiations with Israel will undoubtedly reinforce Trump’s preparedness to make this long-overdue call.

[Author’s note: The cartoon  commissioned exclusively for this article – is by Yaakov Kirschen aka "Dry Bones" – one of Israel's foremost political and social commentators – whose cartoons have graced the columns of Israeli and international media publications for decades]