Why Leftists Love to Hate Israel

 

With the General Assembly of the United Nations holding its annual opening ceremonies, we are once more likely to have Israel condemned in any number of resolutions between now and the start of 2020. These condemnations will be voted on in the General Assembly during their opening ceremonies, as they have done almost every year, then again on November 29th as the day that the United Nations proposed in the General Assembly to divide the lands left west of the Jordan River between Arabs and Jews evenly with the United Nations retaining the regions around Jerusalem. This day has become a festive period celebrating the Palestinian Arabs in their efforts to destroy Israel. This should strike anybody who knows history as quite absurd as the Zionist Jews accepted this division and it was the Arabs who refused. Their reason was simple, they intended to invade Israel at her birth and destroy the country and kill as many Jews as they were able. There was one flaw in the Arab plans by which more than six Arab nation’s forces made that attack on the morning of May 15, 1948, but failed to destroy the Jewish State. Instead they took control of Gaza and the Shomron, what Jordan renamed the West Bank. These two areas have been used by Arab forces ever since to launch terror attacks and wars against Israel. During this period leading up to the next year, the United Nations will also denounce some of the Arab and Islamic nations but in total, less than the number of articles leveled against Israel. This includes nations such as Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the many others who have abhorrent civil liberties and human rights.

 

But there are reasons that Israel, and also the United States, are also chosen for the locations for large and extensive protests and so many other places are left as untouchable. For example, there are often gay pride parades in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, the capital and largest cities in Israel but one has never heard of gay pride parades in Damascus or Aleppo in Syria, Bagdad or Mosul in Iraq, Tehran or Qom in Iran, Riyadh or Mecca or Medina in Saudi Arabia, Cairo or Alexandria in Egypt or any capital or largest city in any of the Arab and Islamic states in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Going one step further, in Israel there are the beaches of Tel Aviv, the coffee bistros, fine dining, great night life, five-star hotels, personal freedoms, security from crime and all the amenities which make the liberal and modern life more enjoyable. In Israel there are no dress codes as long as you actually are dressed and all the modern civilities first world protesters have become so comfortable enjoying. These things are not so easily, if even attainable at all, found throughout the MENA world. There is one thing these leftist protesters demand for the privilege of being made to appear evil, restrictive and closeminded regardless of how open and accommodating the society is in reality; that they have all their creature social comforts. Further, for the European leftists, Israel is relatively close by and can be reached on a Mediterranean cruise.

 

When it comes to protesting of and often in Israel, it often appears that all the stops are taken out. According to United Nations Watch through their Executive Director Hillel Neuer in his reported Tweet, Israel will be condemned twenty times against the remainder of the world amassing a mere six (see tweet pictured below). For a deeper look into the biases against Israel in the United Nations, the European Union and the world, there is this article by the JCPA*. Many pro-Israel and Zionists have met the all too common accusation that the facts do not bear out their complaints about the specifying Israel for scorn and condemnation above and beyond all others by these agencies while they never produce any actual data. The claim remains resting on the old canard that the Jews are whiny liars who play on other people’s emotions to excuse their criminal behavior. This was a principle argument against Jews who were relegated to being money changers, the ones who made trade and economic growth throughout much of Europe, Jewish merchants accused of placing a thumb on the scale and overcharging the non-Jews while treating their fellow Jews honestly and numerous other items and libels. Take all the mistreatment the Jews have suffered over the millennia and one can now see how Israel has become the Jew amongst the nations and must practice all the horrid things which the Jews were accused.

 

United Nations Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer Tweet

 

There is another reason why such misrepresentations continue and is also contingent to Israel for not going forward with a strong counter propaganda campaign based on the truths about the Jewish state. This is a common complaint coming from many sources including numerous confounded and confused Jews over this lack of national gumption. The problem is easily explained, though many refuse to accept such reasoning. The anti-Israel conglomerate of various agencies, NGO’s, international agencies, United Nations and their agencies and far too many nations and individuals spend hundreds of millions if not billions annually financing their propaganda and directed efforts against Israel. Israel does not have the financing to counter such an insurmountable effort backed by such financing. Israel had made efforts against these defamations attempting to get more of the truth out before the world, but much of the world does not wish to even hear the reality that is Israel. Then there are the efforts of numerous personal efforts, such as many of our articles tracing the basis for international law, another bit of reality being ignored by all the anti-Israel condemnations and demands of Israel to surrender lands west of the Jordan River as they do not belong to Israel. We advise those believing this read the San Remo Conference reports and the League of Nations Mandate System and all the rest of the supporting treaties and agreements through the Anglo-American Treaty and Article 80 of the United Nations Charter (we wrote about much of this here). These efforts against Israel will eventually fail and potentially damage the nations taking positions within the anti-Israel condemnations and other efforts with them. There is one thing about Israel which will eventually erode and quell the condemnations against her through her efforts to better the planet and her work in Africa and often Israeli help being amongst the first to arrive and the last to leave after disasters almost anywhere around the world, from Haiti to the Philippines and elsewhere in-between. Also, much of the world has benefitted and seek out Israeli innovations, inventions, medical cures, agricultural developments and expertise in almost every field imaginable. The good that Israel performs often without receiving even the slightest amount of thanks while other times rave reviews come from the oddest places such as the below from a report by CNN. The Israeli efforts in Haiti was not the exception, it is the rule when it comes to assisting in the recovery and rebuilding anywhere in the world where they are permitted to do their best for any nation absorbing the costs herself.

 

 

The reality of Israel is one of charity and humanitarian efforts leading such work in so many efforts and locations where a need exists. We have written about some of these efforts, and nowhere near even a majority of such efforts, numerous times such as here, here and here. Another achievement for which Israel received more criticism than accolades was a private effort to place a lander on the moon named Beresheet. Israel was the fourth nation to place their spacecraft on the lunar surface even if the final engine firing failed and she crashed, it still hit the moon and this was on the first try by an Israeli company. There are efforts underway for a second attempt and we fully expect that Israel will not need a third try to be the charm, we believe the next launch will succeed. What many people miss about Israel are the number of inventions for which much of the technology and research was and is attributable to Israeli efforts, both public and private. Cell phones, instant messengers, security software, drip irrigation, desalination and other water purification systems, special arid climate crops and so many other advances, techniques, procedures, programs, medical miracles etcetera, etcetera, etcetera (if we may quote Yul Brenner from the movie The King and I). The problem is it is chic to be critical of Israel and numerous college campuses are churning out more and more anti-Israel graduates as they kowtow to Arab petro-dollars receiving endowments and entire departments build with oil monies all with the intent of turning the next generation of American and European leaders against Israel, as if things were not an up-hill battle already. We have seen these efforts pay dividends with the likes of AOC in the House of Representatives along with Omar and Tlaib, though only Tlaib and AOC received her education at western universities. This trend will very probably escalate unless things take an unexpected turn, but for the time being, Israel is here and plans on remaining as one of the most viable democracies in the world representing its people, though currently we find our public very evenly split. The political problems Israel faces are a direct result of her being a democracy with equal rights for Jews and non-Jews alike as well as for Arabs, Druze, Christians, Muslims and Bedouins, and we will together determine the future of Israel, not some dictator or religious fanatic as with too many in our neighborhood. Israel is the country you have heard so much about and still likely know next to nothing of the reality. Come and visit and take in a gay pride parade and see exactly how tolerant Israel actually can be and is. To our Jewish readers, Shana Tova, have a happy new year and may your year be as sweet as the honey we dip our apple slices into.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

*JCPA = Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs

 

Time to Impeach President Trump and Other Tall Tales

 

Apparently, the Democrat leadership has decided that the time has come to start impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump. This intent was announced on Tuesday by Nancy Pelosi with the below announcement at a press conference.

“Today, I’m announcing the House of Representatives is moving forward with an official impeachment inquiry. I’m directing our six committees to proceed with their investigations under that umbrella.”
“For the past several months we have been investigating in our committees and litigating in the courts so the House can gather all the relevant facts and consider whether to exercise its full Article 1 power, including a constitutional power of the utmost gravity, approval of articles of impeachment.”
“Our republic endures because of the wisdom of our constitution enshrined in three coequal branches that act as checks and balances. The president must be held accountable. No one is above the law.”

 

We noted that the wording of Ms. Pelosi’s announcement had a glaring omission, namely what the actual charges are for which an impeachment is necessary and the exact charges which will be passed on to the Senate for trial. Instead, we have the urging of their efforts to continue with investigating President Trump stating, “I’m directing our six committees to proceed with their investigations under that umbrella.” Her pronouncement continues stating, “For the past several months we have been investigating in our committees and litigating in the courts so the House can gather all the relevant facts and consider whether to exercise its full Article 1 power…” Then came the big finally to close her statement with an unarguable fact that, “The president must be held accountable. No one is above the law.” Well, actually nobody is above the law, including the President, that is most definitely true. In her full statement, the video above, she states that the offense was the President instructing one of his appointees to keep a whistleblower’s complaint. This is the latest smoking gun, what a whistleblower claims without having even heard the claims, as they must mean that he colluded with a foreign power to act in a manner which would “make the President look better.”

 

This sounds so ominous except that any time a foreign leader meets with a United States President, any actions resulting from such a meeting which follow what the President desires are actions which will make them look good. Problematically, President Trump is overly concerned with appearing to act strongly and thus looking good in the eyes of his supporters and beyond if possible. Should the American people be concerned that the President used a phrase that doing what was in the service of the United States and its goals would “make him look good” is applying pressure on the foreign leader to attain a goal. This is, of course, presuming that one would desire having the President look good or if you would prefer for him to fail and fail so miserably that he would lose any and all support and especially the 2020 elections. We will allow our readers to decide which is preferable, a President seeking to appear powerful and competent or a President preferring to meekness and appeasing others even when such would not be to the advantage of the United States and the American people.

 

President Trump and Speaker Pelosi and Impeachment

 

But the impeachment announcement was not the worst twisting of available facts as that award has to go to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. He used the known fact that Israel treats a host of people without asking their specifics and only judges their wounds and the best means for treatment. Israel has provided care and hospital stays, numerous ones also requiring surgical procedures, and after they are recovered, they are returned to Syria and no weapons are provided. From these Israeli actions he concludes that Israel is aiding the Islamic State through intentional actions. President Hassan Rouhani uses another claim that the Islamic State fighters/terrorists use some Israeli weapons. From the pictures and reports we have read; they use numerous countries weapons as they are able to gain these weapons. Probably their most frequently arming is with an AK-47. I guess this means that President Hassan Rouhani should also claim that Russia, China, Czechoslovakia or any of the plethora of other nations producing this widely utilized weapon are also actively arming Islamic State. Then there are the stores of equipment left in Iraq by the United States which fell into Islamic State forces means that the Americans are arming them. No, we all know that this finely crafted series of exaggerations were intended to harm Israel and, as this was during an interview with Fox News, to place doubts and suspicions within the American public about Israel and, by extension, Jews. His statements were just another of the long list of Iranian political attacks on Israel.

 

The problem is that Israel performs and provides aid to countries across the globe on a basis of need and receiving the permission of the receiving nation. Israel does such without any regard to politics. This becomes evident when one researches such activities and then looks at the United Nations General Assembly votes by these nations and the majority condemn Israel at every turn. The fact that Israel was one of the first to arrive and likely the last to leave after some natural or other disaster does not influence their voting at the world body. Did Israel assisting the Philippines after a major typhoon mean that they are assisting the rebel forces on Mindanao or possibly the Philippine forces engaging these rebels or are we allowed to choose whichever would be most damning to the audience which would mostly hear such claims? Israel came and treated the wounded in the Philippines after one of the most violent typhoons to hit land and they did not ask about the patient’s politics or other possible affiliations which might put Israel in a poor light. When people are injured by war, weather or other catastrophic accident and Israel can assist to save lives, then Israel will act to save lives, all lives. Israel has, as we have pointed out before, treated a Hamas leaders’ mother-in-law and daughter, yet Israel most definitely does not support Hamas. They were ill, Israel could treat them and was requested to do so and thus provided them with treatment as required. President Rouhani’s claim is tantamount to claiming an American hospital supports criminals because they treated a person injured while under arrest; in other worlds, simply ludicrous.

 

Of course, Israel has gotten too used to such claims and seldom gives them any more consideration than they are worth. Unfortunately, these claims from over the years have become so frequent and damning that some have begun to fall for this kind of propaganda. What is more worrying is with the rising anti-Semitism worldwide, more and more people will fall for this form of reason and some happily will spread such claims without any explanation. They would take the statements by President Rouhani and spread simply that Israel assists and arms the Islamic State. This is a blatant misuse of Israeli activities of treating those, largely civilians, injured from the ongoing civil war in Syria. Israel does not check identities before treating these victims and only is concerned with making them whole again or as close as is medically possible. But President Rouhani also claimed that Israel has conducted terrorist attacks on Syria, Lebanon and Iraq. If one defines striking weapons supply routes intended to provide Hezballah and IRGC forces which regularly target Israel as terrorism, then Israel would be guilty. But international law regards intercepting such arms shipments as a form of proactive defense and regards them as completely legal. But one should wonder how Iran is so familiar with these strikes and what they took out. That is an easy one to answer. These shipments originate in Iran and are Iranian weapons intended for their proxies to attack Israel. But in this topsy-turvy world in which we live, Israel intercepting heavy-weapons on their way to terrorist operatives such as Hezbollah is called Israeli aggression or terrorism by her Arab and Islamic detractors for a simple reason, they desire her destruction and will stop at nothing to accomplish same.

 

We wish we could say that things appear as if they will improve with time, but we fear that Israel may face the impossible within the next decade and a half. The reality is that with Jeremy Corbyn as Prime Minister of Britain and potentially an anti-Israel President unhindered by Congress, and possibly supported by Congress, in the White House, Israel could be facing a United Nations Security Council without any veto protecting her from the worst intentions which may result. Perhaps Israel could work with Russia or China to find a new means for her protection, but just what Netanyahu would need is a Russian collusion investigation of his own. Fortunately, in the long run Israel will be vindicated and shall become a light unto the nations and the world will realize at long last that Israel is an asset for mankind, not an adversary.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

European Union and United Nations Rear their Ugliest Side

 

It was as predictable as the cycles of the moon. An Israeli politician comments of their intent to expand the regions under Israeli sovereignty and the European Union and United Nations spent the next few days denouncing Israel complaining that such a move would end any hope of establishing the two-state solution. When Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas extend their perverse sovereignty over areas of land and claim their rights to further lands, it never appears to be any form of a problem for the European Union and United Nations or posing any threat to the two-state solution. Only Israeli applying sovereignty is troublesome. One might wonder why the completely opposite reactions to Israeli and Arab application of sovereignty by the European Union and United Nations. The reality is very easy to discern their reasoning and problems only with any act of applying sovereignty even when it is to lands placed under strict and total Israeli control by the Oslo Accords. The European Union and United Nations only have problems when Israel acts is due to their continuing desire to bring down the Jewish State by any means necessary. These actions were initially performed by the individual European powers. They never desire being so obvious as to place their disdain for the Jewish State in actual treaty, but they will decry their every former actions which allowed for the formation of Israel.

 

The British opened up after the San Remo Conference and Mandate System were put in place tasking Britain to use their Mandate for the formation of a Jewish homeland. Despite this basic and simple task became impossible for the British to establish. Nope. First, they had to keep their promise to the Arab King Faisal to provide each of his sons a nation to rule. They gave one Iraq and now faced how to provide the second son a nation. Their solution was to gift him 78% of their Mandate lands presumably reserved for the Jewish homelands. But this did not bother anyone in the world and the Jews, with little actual power, had little choice but to agree to permit the theft. The Jordan River was the chosen divide with the Arabs taking the vast majority of the lands east of the river while the Jews were relegated to the 22% of the lands which lie west of the Jordan River. When Israel was founded they were invaded by six Arab armies along with compliments of militias and other forces. The invading countries were Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Egypt and Iraq with the end of the fighting finding Egypt illegally occupying the Gaza Strip and Jordan illegally occupying the regions of Judea and Samaria which was too Jewish sounding so they referred to the region as the West Bank. Jordan annexed this region and provided citizenship to the Arabs residing within. This annexation was even refused recognition by the rest of the Arab world with merely two nations recognizing their move, Pakistan and, unsurprisingly, Britain. The remaining truth by which reality will eventually be decided, despite the machinations of the European Union and United Nations along with all too many of their member states, is that the Jordan River is the eastern border of Israel and there was never any reality by which an Arab nation could be forced into the same area. For this truth, even the PLO can be used to prove the lack of reality to the Palestinian claims.

 

Mandate of San Remo for French and British including actual treaty demarcations for each nation

 

The original PLO charter from 1964, from their founding, laid claim to all of Israel and made no claims for either Judea and Samaria or Gaza as they were controlled by Arab countries at that time. After the Six Day War in 1967, the PLO changed their charter now claiming Gaza along with Judea and Samaria while never iterating any refutation of their claim to all of Israel. When one listens carefully to Mahmoud Abbas, his claims is most often demanding that the Arabs be granted their rightful control to 22% of the British Mandate. This is their means of camouflaging their claiming all of Israel as this is most often believed by Western powers to mean Judea, Samaria and Gaza when the reality is, they are claiming everything, the 22% west of the Jordan River. Nobody ever corrects this claim stating that it would be harmful to the two-state solution as it fulfills their desire to be rid of Israel. Only when Israel rightfully extends her sovereignty to lands which even by the illegal claims of the Arabs are presumably not permitted claim to the lands, the Jordan Valley being one such example, does the usual suspects, the European Union and United Nations and numerous related nations, decry such a move. Always taking the side of those who would destroy the Jewish State of Israel is an international version of anti-Semitism. This is proven when one realizes that there was far less protest when Russia extended their claims in the Georgia region and again when they stole the Crimea from the Ukraine. These same forces are silent over much of the civil wars in Syria and Yemen nor are their complaints about the lawlessness in Somalia, only Israel is denounced for the slightest legal move or any action which can be sullied by recriminations which often hold little if any water. Israel would be completely within their right to annex all of what is Judea and Samaria and provide the Arabs residing their the right to self determination in their areas and be denied political rights such as voting in national elections. Israel, under the Mandate System, was obliged to do nothing which harmed social, religious, economic and other rights but could reserve political rights on the national level to only Jews if such were decided. The Arabs residing under the Palestinian Authority are not Israeli citizens and the best they can hope for is to be granted resident alien status under which they could be granted Jordanian citizenship or any other nation willing to grant them such privilege. This is the reality under International Law as asserted by an Egyptian Judge, Justice El Araby, from the ICJ and who sat in judgement as part of the panel which heard the case from the United Nations General Assembly in 2003 on the legality of the security barrier erected by Israel. The Honorable Justice El Araby warned the UNGA and others that filing further challenges of the legal claims to these lands ran some risks, as he stated,

 

“The international legal status of the Palestinian Territory (paras. 70-71 of the Advisory Opinion), in my view, merits more comprehensive treatment. A historical survey is relevant to the question posed by the General Assembly, for it serves as the background to understanding the legal status of the Palestinian Territory on the one hand and underlines the special and continuing responsibility of the General Assembly on the other. This may appear as academic, without relevance to the present events. The present is however determined by the accumulation of past events and no reasonable and fair concern for the future can possibly disregard a firm grasp of past events. In particular, when on more than one occasion, the rule of law was consistently side-stepped. The point of departure, or one can say in legal jargon, the critical date, is the League of Nations Mandate which was entrusted to Great Britain.”

 

The world, on the other hand, has no problem ignoring the laws, treaties and agreements they are sworn to uphold when it comes to Israel. The only place that the opponents of Israel know they have no footing is in the International Court Systems where the rule of law, and not the rule of public and political opinion, rises to rule supreme over all other considerations. This is the reason that one will never see any of the enemies of Israel running to these courts in order to bring their machinations for the destruction of Israel to fruition. What escapes us is why Israel does not avail herself of settling this warfare against her to these very same courts and claim what is rightfully hers. Yes, that might be taking a risk, but one mitigated by the actual agreements and laws including Article 60 of the United Nations Charter which makes them responsible for enforcement of the League of Nations Mandate System and the bringing it into reality as presented. This would mean that the eastern border of Israel is the Jordan River and the Arabs could continue to live where they are as long as they followed Israeli law. They could be granted the right of self-determination in their communities but would not need be granted voting rights in national Israeli elections. This solution, which is completely backed by the legal requirements for Israel according to all international agreements, conventions, treaties and the Mandate itself, would satisfy the legal requirements and also address the presumed population problem of incorporating these Arabs into Israel and meeting the requirements addressing their rights. But please do not just take my word, you can also find these facts here. The reality is completely in the favor of Israel and the Arab claims resemble a bottomless bucket when the rule of law is applied. That is the entire reality and it really is that simple which will be proven someday, may it not be far in the future. In the meantime, just sit back and enjoy the fully expected caterwauling from the European Union, United Nations and the accompanying chorus of the usual suspects.

 

Beyond the Cusp