New York Times and Washington Post bash Israel with false claims

 

The New York Times and the Washington Post have once again engaged in Israel bashing — spewing out fake maps and phony history about Israel, its origins and indeed its continued existence as the Jewish National Home — first articulated in the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine and confirmed in article 80 of the United Nations Charter.

The following maps:                                                                                                                                     

• captioned: “Illustration by The New York Times/Photographs via Getty”
• appeared in: an article in the New York Times headlined “The myth of co-existence in Israel”
• was written by: Diana Buttu — identified as “a lawyer, former adviser to the negotiating team of the Palestine Liberation Organization, and Palestinian citizen of Israel”

The Washington Post’s Glen Kessler — described as The Fact Checker — to his credit — was quick to point out the falsehoods in the maps:

“that showed a shrinking map of Palestine, from the borders of the British mandate for Palestine in 1947 to areas that would be under Palestinian control after adoption of a recent [Trump — ed] peace plan.”.

Kessler informed readers that:

“Patrick Healy, deputy opinion editor of the [New York] Times, issued a statement saying “it was not meant to be a literal, factual map ... this was an illustration conveying a sense of shrinking space for Palestinians. It is art.”

But obviously wanting to show up its arch competitor’s anti-Israel bias — Kessler then accurately pointed out:

“Still, a version of this map has been circulating for almost 20 years, supposedly showing how “Historic Palestine” had been taken over by Israel. As a technical matter, the map is a confusing mélange of images: it includes something that did not exist (Palestinian control over all the territory), something that did not happen (the proposed United Nations partition) and something odd (pre-1967 occupations by Jordan and Egypt are depicted as Palestinian-controlled).”

Fake maps such as these have been reproduced all over the media, internet and in textbooks published by respected publishers for decades.

McGraw Hill Publishing — in 2016—withdrew from sale and trashed unsold copies of one such textbook - Global Politics: Engaging a Complex World — containing these following maps:

McGraw’s Spokesperson — Catherine Mathis — then stated:

“As soon as we learned about the concerns with it, we placed sales of the book on hold and immediately initiated an academic review. The review determined that the map did not meet our academic standards. We have informed the authors and we are no longer selling the book. All existing inventory will be destroyed. We apologize and will refund payment to anyone who returns the book.”

The New York Times should be ashamed of itself for publishing their similarly false and misleading maps.

Brownie points earned by the Washington Post in exposing the New York Times anti-Israel bias were however forfeited when Kessler continued “to summarize the two versions of whether there was a historic Palestine for readers who want to hear both sides of the story.”

The Pro-Palestinian version — according to Kessler - maintains:

“In the 18th century, the area saw the emergence of a new Palestine-based autonomous rule, spurred in part by the region’s commercial dynamism, especially its trade in cotton and grain. In effect, between the 1720s and 1775 under the ruler Zahir al-Umar, there was an independent Palestinian state — longer than the British mandate."

Why publish such fabricated nonsense at all?

Palestine had then been part of the Ottoman Empire for 250 years and continued to remain so until the Allied and Central Powers made their decisions on its future at the 1920 San Remo Conference.

Ending the flow of false information published by “respectable publications” remains a continuing challenge for Israel to combat and finally defeat.


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.

Al Jazeera and AP cover up destruction of Hamas media mouthpiece

Al Jazeera and Associated Press (AP) reports on Israel’s demolition of the 14 storey building in which their respective offices were located - illustrates media anti-Israel bias that seeks to denigrate and delegitimise the Jewish State in much of the media reporting coming from the Gaza Strip.

Al Jazeera’s report claimed:

“A building that housed international media offices including Al Jazeera’s in the Gaza Strip has been hit by an Israeli air raid that demolished the structure… The building also housed The Associated Press news agency bureau.”

AP President and CEO Gary Pruitt released the following statement:

“We are shocked and horrified that the Israeli military would target and destroy the building housing AP’s bureau and other news organizations in Gaza. They have long known the location of our bureau and knew journalists were there. We received a warning that the building would be hit.

The Israeli government says the building contained Hamas military intelligence assets. We have called on the Israeli government to put forward the evidence. AP’s bureau has been in this building for 15 years. We have had no indication Hamas was in the building or active in the building. This is something we actively check to the best of our ability. We would never knowingly put our journalists at risk.”

Both these media outlets failed to report that one of the other media offices located in the building was Middle East Eye (MEE) – exposed as the alleged media mouthpiece for Hamas in this 2017 report:

“Middle East Eye (MEE) — an increasingly prominent web portal — often obscures its finances, but it increasingly fills the gap as Qatar’s chief agent of influence. Groups like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International incorporate MEE stories, as do newspapers like the New York Times and the Washington Post.

Delving into the details of MEE, however, show that it acts far less as a traditional journalistic outlet and far more as an English-language front for Qatari-supported groups like the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas. British corporate records, for example, show that Jamal Awn Jamal Bessasso, a former official for both Al Jazeera in Qatar and the Hamas-affiliated al-Quds TV in Lebanon, owns and operates MEE through M.E.E. Ltd.  A CV for Jamal Bessasso, since scrubbed from the internet, shows previous stints as director of planning and human resources for the Al Jazeera satellite network in Qatar and director of Human Resources for the Samalink Television Production Company in Lebanon. Samalink is the registered agent for Al Quds TV’s website. While David Hearst, MEE editor-in-chief, told the United Arab Emirates’ The National paper that Bessasso was “a colleague and the head of human resources and the legal director,” he denied that Bessasso was the MEE owner, despite his listings on corporate records. Neither Hearst, former news editor Rori Donaghy (in a tweet now deleted), nor other MEE employees, however, would identify who owned MEE if not Bessasso…

… The Hamas links run as deep. A former official of Interpal, a United Kingdom-based charity designated by the US Treasury Department as a financial supporter of Hamas, registered the Middle East Eye website. Prior to joining MEE, Donaghy worked for organizations founded by Hamas (such as the House of Wisdom in Gaza) and the Muslim Brotherhood (Emirates Center for Human Rights, which was set up with financing and assistance from the Cordoba Foundation, a Muslim Brotherhood entity).”

David Hearst – in an apparent brain explosion – has just published a virulent anti-Israel article in MEE conveniently omitting to include MEE’s location:

“Its [Israel’s] air force may bomb the building housing AP and Al Jazeera.”

Designed to whip up anti-Israel hatred? You be the judge.

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.

Strong Israeli Government can curb domestic Arab Jew-hatred

 

The display of unadulterated Jew-hatred shown by a large number of Israel’s Arab residents during the past week – provoking equally-condemnatory retaliatory responses by Jewish individuals - can only be dealt with and eradicated by a strong Israeli Government.

Israel’s current caretaker Government headed by Likud’s leader - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu - and Blue and White’s leader - Defence Minister Benny Gantz - has shown it is more than capable of dealing with its arch Jew-hating neighbour in Gaza - Hamas - which has fired more than 2000 rockets indiscriminately into Israel’s population centers in five days.

Yamina leader Naftali Bennett, Yisrael Beiteinu leader Avigdor Liberman and New Hope leader Gideon Sa’ar now need to put aside their personal aversion towards Netanyahu by joining forces with Netanyahu’s current coalition parties to secure an overwhelming majority of 72 of the 120 seats in the Knesset.

Gantz’s party could also be invited to join - giving Israel’s next Government 80 seats.

Either outcome would enable Israel to introduce urgent laws to regain control of the streets and begin ending the real threats posed to the lives and property of Jews - who comprise 80% of Israel’s population - and Arabs - who make up the remaining 20%.

Burning synagogues, attacking Jews and mass demonstrations of support for Hamas witnessed over the past week in the mixed Arab-Jewish population cities of Lod and Ramle and on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem cannot be allowed to continue.

Any inadequacies in Israel’s existing laws to end the current Arab riots needs to be rectified.

Any support for Hamas - as pictured below - must be made illegal. Such demonstrations are inflammatory and clearly designed to incite violence. Those identified at such gatherings need to be identified, tracked down and jailed.

Any Israeli political party supporting Hamas must be banned.

A pro-Hamas poster featuring heads of the terror organization, in front of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, on May 13, 2021. Credit: Israel Hayom.

Hamas’s Charter makes no bones in declaring its intention to wipe out the Jewish State:

“Palestine is an Islamic Waqf throughout all generations and to the Day or Resurrection…”

“…When our enemies usurp some Islamic lands, Jihad becomes a duty binding on all Muslims. In order to face the usurpation of Palestine by the Jews, we have no escape from raising the banner of Jihad. This would require the propagation of Islamic consciousness among the masses on all local, Arab and Islamic levels. We must spread the spirit of Jihad among the [Islamic] Umma, clash with the enemies and join the ranks of the Jihad fighters.”

Laws necessary to achieve a quick end to similar future gatherings and street violence must be introduced. Heavy jail sentences and ordering restitution for injury to lives and damage to property must be introduced to encourage compliance. Freedom of speech and rights to demonstrate and assemble must be unreservedly limited under any declared state of emergency.

Laws to enable random police and army searches for persons carrying knives, guns and other dangerous articles must be unconditionally enforceable.

Israel is a country ruled by law – not by riots.

Laws considered unfair or unjust can only be changed through the ballot box or by reasoned and persuasive argument.

A disgruntled Arab-minority population cannot be allowed to turn into a Jew-hating rioting majority.

The personal rivalries, political ambitions and aspirations of Bennett, Liberman and Sa’ar need to be put on hold in the interests of the security and personal safety of all Israel’s population – both Jews and Arabs.

Israel’s threatened conversion to a domestic battle-field must be ended.

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.

Arab riots challenge private Jewish ownership rights in Jerusalem

 

Tension between Arabs and Jews in Jerusalem has reached boiling point as Arab riots erupt threatening the postponement of Court-ordered evictions of Arab squatters from Jewish-owned houses in the area known as Sheikh Jarrah.

The facts – as is usual in the Arab-Jewish conflict – are lost in a welter of Arab and international condemnation comprising wildly unsubstantiated claims of unlawful dispossession of Arabs and denial of their property and legal rights.

NGO Monitor describes the current situation as dispassionately and factually as it can:

"On February 10, 2021, the Jerusalem District Court upheld an October 2020 Jerusalem Magistrate Court decision, requiring a number of Sheikh Jarrah residents to vacate properties they are living in by May 2, 2021. Following this decision, the residents appealed to the Supreme Court. The Court has given the two sides until May 6, to report if they have reached a compromise to settle out of court.

These developments have been the source of extensive NGO campaigning - particularly by the Palestinian group, Al-Haq - including submissions to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and to UN officials, alleging that the court order and the expected forcible removal represent war crimes.

Such claims and campaigns distort, obfuscate, and erase the facts of the case, as litigated over 50 years in multiple Israeli courts."

Israel’s Supreme Court in 2009 had determined:

• The land in question “was owned by Chief Rabbi (Hacham Bashi) Avraham Ashkenazi and Chief Rabbi Meir Orbach until the War of Independence [1948], after they purchased it in 1875 from its Arab owners.”
• Subsequently, two Jewish organizations, Va’ad Eidat HaSfaradim and Va’ad HaKlali L’Knesset Yisrael, worked to register the land with British Mandatory government in 1946.
• The properties were registered with Israeli authorities under these two organizations’ names in 1973 and were later sold to the Nahalat Shimon organization in 2003.

The land encompassed the site of the tomb of Shimon Hatzadik — a third century BCE High Priest -       also known as Simeon the Just.

This chain of Jewish ownership and the reverence shown by Jews for one of their religious luminaries buried there  —  by visiting and praying at his tomb — was interrupted by certain events that happened in 1956 – after Sheikh Jarrah had been invaded and conquered in 1948 by Transjordan which expelled all the Jews living there and did not let them return to their homes or pray at Simeon’s tomb.

Sheikh Jarrah was included in the conquered territory unified with Transjordan in 1950 and renamed Jordan.

In 1956 — Jordan in cooperation with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) housed 28 families of Palestinian refugees as tenants in a compound built on the lands of the two Jewish trusts— managed after 1948 by the Jordanian “Custodian of Enemy Property.”

Jordan lost control of Sheikh Jarrah to Israel in the 1967 Six Day War.

In 1972 the Israeli Custodian General ordered that the properties be released and registered under the ownership of the Jewish trusts and that their occupants pay rent.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry has issued a statement accusing the Palestinian Authority of “presenting a real estate dispute between private parties, as a nationalistic cause, in order to incite violence in Jerusalem,” adding that Ramallah would bear responsibility for any violence that ensued.

Jewish settlement in Sheikh Jarrah is indeed the work of private Jewish entities using legal procedures to reclaim their private property rights.

Refusing to accept the decisions of Israel’s Supreme Court is a sure recipe for disaster.

Arabs rioting and inciting to violence can never replace the rule of law or help end the 100 years-old unresolved Arab-Jewish conflict.


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.

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Israel reels from rockets, riots and arm-wrestles

 

Rockets from Gaza indiscriminately targeting Israel’s civilian population and Arab riots targeting Israel’s Jewish population in the streets of Jerusalem seem to have not moved Israel’s politicians to stop engaging in arm-wrestles in pursuit of their own personal political power.

It is hard to know who is to blame for this current sorry state of affairs: the electors who have brought about — what appears on the face of it — four indecisive elections in two years — or the seemingly-intelligent politicians they have elected who have been unable to reach a compromise on setting up a Government with 61 of the Knesset’s 120 currently-elected representatives.

A vendetta continues to be pursued to remove Israel’s longest serving Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu — despite the overwhelming vote of confidence he and his party received from Israeli voters on March 23, 2021 — 1,066,892 votes.

The following leaders and their respective parties are seeking to replace Netanyahu as Prime Minister or deny him the right to head a right of centre Government:

• Naftali Bennett — 273836 votes
• Avigdor Liberman — 248370 votes
• Gideon Sa’ar — 209161 votes

All three and their respective parties have similar policies and political ideologies as Netanyahu and his allies. Collectively — as Likud, Shas, Yemina, United Torah Judaism, Yisrael Beitenu, Religious Zionism and New Hope - they comprise 72 of the 120 Knesset members.

These three leaders need to fall in behind Netanyahu to end the political uncertainty steadily eroding Israel’s ability to deal with the challenges it is facing — not only from rockets and rioting — but from the continuing confrontation with Iran, Hezbollah, the International Criminal Court, a hostile United Nations and the Biden Administration.

That this appalling political stand-off could have also been avoided in the three previous elections is an indictment on the common obstructionist denominator in all four elections: Avigdor Liberman

Liberman and his Yisrael Beiteinu party have managed to garner the following votes on each occasion:

• April 9, 2019: 173004 votes
• September 17, 2019: 310154 votes
• March 2, 2020: 263365 votes
• March 23, 2021: 248370 votes

Given that valid votes cast have increased over the period of these four elections from 4,309,270 votes in April 2019 to 4,410,052 votes in March 2021 — the electors have clearly indicated their loss of support for — and confidence in — Liberman and his cronies. Yet he continues to dictate and dominate the political stage in a manner that can only be considered to be inimical to Israel’s domestic and international interests — overwhelmingly rejected by Israelis voting with their feet.

Bennett has hardly fared much better. His party — Yamina — in the April 9, 2019 elections secured 138598 votes — followed successively by 260655 votes, 240689 votes and 273836 votes. He can hardly claim to be Israel’s next Prime Minister with this kind of electoral support.

Netanyahu trounced Sa’ar in the race for Likud leadership last December — winning some 72.5% of the party vote in a landslide win. Sa’ar formed his own breakaway party — New Hope — with disastrous results in the recent election.

That Netanyahu should continue to be frustrated in leading Israel’s next Government by these three political spoilers beggars belief.

Netanyahu certainly has his problems — spending an increasing amount of his time in defending three indictments brought against him by Israel’s Attorney General. However the presumption of innocence should be afforded him — as it is with any other person in Israel facing charges.

It surely is time for these three amigos — Liberman, Bennett and Sa’ar — to put the voters ahead of their own personal ambitions, swallow their pride and end their political grandstanding.

Israel — and Israelis — deserve better.

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.

Two-state solution sinks as Biden tries to resurrect it

 

Postponement of the upcoming Palestinian elections on May 22nd for the 132 member Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) seems virtually assured with the report from an “unnamed US source” that Washington would not object to any such postponement.

The potential boost to Hamas’s power in winning this election at the expense of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) would spell the death knell for the creation of an independent Palestinian State located in all of Gaza, Judea and Samaria (West Bank) and East Jerusalem (“target area”).

Amazingly this failed solution still continues to be pushed by the international community 40 years after the Venice Declaration first embraced it.

President Trump’s plan to create another Arab State in about 70%—rather than 100% — of the target area — was effectively discarded by President Biden from the day he became President — rewarding the PLO for its unequivocal rejection of Trump’s proposal by resuming much of America’s financial largesse to the PLO and international organisations withdrawn by Trump.

Particularly noteworthy has been Biden’s failure to demand that the PLO end its “pay for slay policy” that rewards the killing and maiming of Jews with substantial payments to the perpetrators or their families — currently running in excess of $300 million per annum.

In agreeing to postpone the May 22 PLC elections — Biden is trying to keep alive the failed 40 years-old “two-state solution” that realistically has never had any chance of succeeding.

The PLC first met on March 7, 1996. Under the 1995 Oslo II Accord, the powers and responsibilities of the PLC are restricted to civil matters and internal security in Area A of the West Bank and Gaza, while in Area B they are restricted to civil affairs with security matters being shared with Israel. In Area C, Israel has full control.

The 2006 election for the second PLC was the last PLC election held. Hamas and Hamas-affiliated members won 74 of the 132 seats — whilst its main rival — Fatah — the dominant faction in the PLO— won 43 of the remaining 58 seats.

There seems little prospect of Hamas being overhauled if the May elections are held.

The PLO refusal to accept the 2006 election result saw the bitter internecine Hamas–Fatah split in 2007 with the PLC ceasing to function ever since.

The logos adopted by both Hamas and Fatah for the upcoming PLC elections indicate Hamas and the PLO — and many others — are still not prepared to abandon their claims to wipe Israel off the map –Palestine Media Watch pointing out:.

“The logos that are being used by the 36 parties in the PA parliamentary elections are a window to aspects of Palestinian ideology and goals. 11 of the lists include in their logos the PA map of “Palestine” that erases all of the State of Israel and includes it in “Palestine.” The two dominant Palestinian political movements, Fatah of Mahmoud Abbas that is the major party ruling the Palestinian Authority, and Hamas, that rules the Gaza Strip, include the map of “Palestine” that erases Israel. Fatah’s logo also includes two rifles and a grenade, indicating that the goal of liberation of “Palestine,” i.e., the destruction of Israel, will be through military means. The Future party of Muhammad Dahlan — a Fatah breakaway — likewise uses the map.

The following are the names of the 11 political parties and logos that include the PA map of “Palestine” that erases Israel and includes it in “Palestine.”

A picture is worth a 1000 words.

Biden’s foray into resolving the 100-years old Arab-Jewish conflict has got off to a disastrous start.


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.

Jordan reaches 100 as its ruling Hashemite dynasty implodes

 

Jordan continues to be the stumbling block to ending the 100 years old conflict between Jews and Arabs as it celebrates its founding 100 years ago on April 11, 1921 - whilst simultaneously 100 years of unbroken rule by the Hashemite dynasty has been publicly imploding.

Initially called the Emirate of Transjordan - the Hashemites - hailing from the Hejaz - now called Saudi Arabia – were anointed as Transjordan’s future rulers by Britain at the 1921 Cairo Conference as part of the machinations between Britain and France in the carve up of the territory of the defeated Ottoman Empire in World War I.

99.99% of Ottoman-liberated territory was designated for Arab self-determination under the French Mandate for Syria and Lebanon and the British Mandate for Mesopotamia - whilst the remaining 0.01% was to be set aside for the reconstitution of the Jewish National Home in the area today called Israel, Jordan, Gaza and Judea and Samaria (West Bank) pursuant to the British Mandate for Palestine.

Two and a half of the twelve tribes of Israel had settled in Transjordan: Gad, Reuben and half the tribe of Manasseh:

Transjordan – 78% of the territory comprised in the Mandate - was however completely excluded as the site for any part of the future Jewish National Home - when Article 25 was inserted in the Mandate document unanimously endorsed by the League of Nations on July 24, 1922.

Transjordan’s exclusion from future Jewish settlement came after the exchange of the following telegrams between Britain’s State Secretary for the Colonies Winston Churchill and British Colonial Administrator John Schuckburgh in March 1921:

The coup de grâce was duly delivered by the Council of the League of Nations on September 16, 1922:

With impeccable Anglo-French doublespeak – the Jews were thus denied any right to reconstitute their National Home in any part of the Mandate territory east of the Jordan River. However – Jewish settlement anywhere west of the Jordan River – including Gaza and Judea and Samaria (West Bank) – has been preserved until today under Article 6 of the Mandate for Palestine and Article 80 of the United Nations Charter.

Former American President Jimmy Carter summed up Jordan’s founding in Time Magazine on October 11, 1982:

“[Jordan’s King] Hussein is personally courageous but an extremely timid man in political matters. That timidity derives almost inevitably from the inherent weakness of Jordan. As a nation it is a contrivance, arbitrarily devised by a few strokes of the pen”

Transjordan remained part of the Mandate for Palestine until Britain granted it independence on 25 May 1946 when it was renamed “The Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan”. A further name change to Jordan only came in 1950 after Transjordan had conquered Judea and Samaria and East Jerusalem in 1948 – expelling all the Jews living there and uniting those areas with Transjordan to form a single territorial unit until their loss to Israel in the 1967 Six Day War.

Israel and Jordan signed a peace treaty in 1994 which remains in force today despite many events that could have derailed it.

The two-state solution first contemplated in 1922 for Palestine:

• one for the Jews within 22% of the Mandate territory
• one for the Arabs exclusively in the remaining 78%

still remains the only realistic and politically-achievable basis for any two-state solution in 2021.

Subdividing Judea and Samaria (West Bank) and Gaza – 5% of the Mandate territory where sovereignty still remains unallocated – between Israel and Jordan – the two successor States to the Mandate for Palestine exercising sovereignty in the other 95% – remains the key to ending the Arab-Jewish conflict.

After 100 years - Jordan’s ruling Hashemite dynasty finally needs to end its timidity.

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.