BIDEN TEAM’S BLIND SPOT ON TERROR

President-elect Joe Biden’s first major foreign policy appointments are being hailed as centrists and experts. None of them are known as radicals, ideologues or Israel-bashers. News outlets have made much of the fact that the stepson of a Holocaust survivor is one of the key appointments.

But a closer look at their backgrounds and associations raises disturbing questions about their views on Israel and the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Secretary of State designate Antony Blinken, National Intelligence director designate Avril Haines, and UN Ambassador designate Linda Thomas-Greenfield have an interesting professional association in common: they are among the cadre of leaders of a little-known advocacy group in Washington, D.C. called Foreign Policy for America, which has a very disturbing perspective on Israel.

Foreign Policy for America (FPA), established in 2016, has two leadership bodies, both of which are quite small, indicating that their members are not just window dressing or names on a letterhead. The Board of Directors has just twelve members, one of whom is J Street president Jeremy Ben-Ami. It also has an Advisory Board, with just twenty members. Blinken, Haines, and Thomas-Greenfield are among them. Ben-Ami’s J Street is also based in D.C. and is a Jewish pressure group that, judging by its actions, seems to have been created specifically, and almost exclusively, to lobby for an independent Palestinian state. The FPA’s executive director, Andrew Albertson, also has a long record of supporting J Street and he can be seen on YouTube as far back as 2011 heaping praise on the group.

Blinken and Ben-Ami are both alumni of the Clinton Administration. A fact that Blinken pointed out when he addressed the J Street annual conference in March 2012. In his speech Blinken showered compliments on J Street for having “emerged as an influential and constructive voice.”

FPA says on its website that its purpose is to “oppose xenophobia and military-first foreign policy.” It lists the twenty issues that are the group’s top concerns. One is the “Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.” That section of the website consists of a seven-paragraph summary of the causes and history of the conflict, with two large pull-out quotes from J Street publications and link to the J Street website, followed by tips on how to press Congress to be more sympathetic to the Palestinian Arabs.

This is on FPA’s “Israeli-Palestinian Conflict” issue page. Besides J Street the only other organization FPA suggests its readers review material of, in order to “Learn More,” is an extremist Israeli organization called B’Tselem. In 2018, the Simon Wiesenthal Center labeled B’Tselem a “campaigner against its own country.”

In the FPA’s version of history, the conflict began “in 1947, in the aftermath of the Second World War.”  No mention of the Palestinian Arab pogroms of 1920, 1921, 1929, and 1936-1939. Of course not; mentioning that there was massive Palestinian Arab terrorism before Israel even existed would remind people that the Palestinian Arabs oppose Israel’s very existence.

FPA then briefly summarizes the various Arab-Israeli wars, without indicating that the Arabs were the aggressors. Wars just suddenly erupt for no apparent reason.

This “history” soon reaches the 1993 Oslo Accords. Guess why they haven’t produced peace? “The peace process has become complicated by growing settlements in the West Bank, continued Israeli military presence in the West Bank, and a blockade on Gaza,” according to FPA.

No suicide bombers. No machine-gunning of attendees at Passover seders. No lynchings by terrorists waving their bloody hands. No rockets fired into kindergartens. None of that affected the Oslo process. No, the word “terrorism” literally does not appear in the FPA’s entire history of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

This is the distorted view of the world to which the incoming secretary of state, National Intelligence director, and UN Ambassador have contributed their names.

That’s not all. Intelligence director-to-be-Haines and three other members of the FPA Advisory Board—Robert Malley, Ned Price, and Donald Steinberg—signed the public letter earlier this year urging the Democratic Party to adopt more pro-Palestinian language in its platform.

Among other things, they recommended that the party adopt a full-throated moral equivalency, by expressing “opposition to violence, terrorism, and incitement from all sides.” Just like FPA, the signers of the letter were incapable of uttering the term “Palestinian terrorism.”

Not surprisingly, that letter is featured on the J Street website.

More broadly, FPA seems to be deeply uncomfortable with the war on terror. The website’s “Use of Military Force” section—another one of its twenty areas of focus—consists of a long attack on previous presidents for aggressively pursuing terrorists around the world.

FPA complains that anti-terror actions in “Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan” have been “extraordinarily costly,” that is, too costly. They want to pass legislation to limit presidential authority in the war against terror, so they can reverse policies such as “detentions in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and training operations in (the) Philippines.”

That’s the worldview that the Biden foreign policy team is coming from: ignoring terrorism in Israel and trying to tie the hands of those who are fighting terrorism around the world.

There are, of course, additional reasons for concern about the team of the incoming administration. For example, the newly-announced Deputy Director of the Office of Legislative Affairs is Reema Dodin, a Palestinian-American activist, who has publicly justified Palestinian Arab suicide bombings as “the last resort of a desperate people.”

And according to NBC News, the top candidate for White House Press Secretary is Karine Jean-Pierre, who has accused Israel of “war crimes,” called AIPAC “severely racist,” and praised Democratic candidates who boycotted last year’s AIPAC conference.

J Street’s Jeremy Ben-Ami is delighted that so many of his FPA colleagues will have major positions in the Biden administration. They are “exactly the type of leadership this country deserves,” he tweeted. Many Israelis, and many friends of Israel around the world, are probably not yet convinced.

Body Count

As terror attack follows terror attack, the body count rises.

How many bodies are enough? 1? 20? 200? 6 million?

When will enough be enough?

But who counts the bodies of those left behind?The body count rises.

Parents murdered, orphans left behind… Who considers the children who have to grow up without parents?

The boys with no father to teach them how to be a man. The girls with no mother to guide them in to their womanhood.

Children with no parents to comfort them after a nightmare.

Children who saw their parents murdered in front of them… their nightmare is real.

Children murdered. Parents who have to bury their son or daughter.

The child they loved, held in their arms, watching every step they took as they grew.

Does the baby eat enough? Is he growing fast enough? Don’t let her fall, she’s learning to walk, she might get hurt.

Worrying over skinned knees, grades in school. Is he hanging out with the right kind of friends?

Worry cut short by the blade, bullet or bomb of a terrorist.

Their baby will never be cold, tired or hungry again. Never laugh. Never smile. Never grow up.

Who counts the tears of parents?

The sleepless nights?

The days full of effort to be normal, trying not to burden others with their sorrow. Trying to not fill guilty for being happy.

The thoughts flit through the mind a thousand times a thousand: “Oh how lovely! My daughter would have loved that!” or “That would have made my son laugh so hard his drink would spurt out of his nose like it did that time when…”

It only takes a split second for the thought to rise up, for realization to beat it down.

There will be no more shared moments with the beloved one, torn away.

Who notices the stabbing heartache in the eyes of the parent as it suddenly comes and then is shoved back down in the effort to be normal?

Who counts the brothers deprived of their sisters? The sisters deprived of their brothers?

Who counts the children who held their siblings in their arms as they died?

Who counts the children who protected their siblings while terrorists murdered their parents?

Who counts the children who became parents to their younger brothers and sisters? Or those who took in and raised the children of their murdered siblings?

The grandparents who raised their grandchildren because the parents, their children had been murdered?

Who counts the friends who lost their best friends?

Who can fill the hole left behind?

Who counts the pain of losing a friend, a neighbor, a classmate?

A stranger who was there, murdered instead of you?

Who counts the bodies of the grieving? The bodies of the traumatized?

Who counts their percentage in the population? What it means to a tiny nation to lose even one person?

If no one counts the bodies

No bodies count.

Not Jewish bodies. Certainly not Israeli bodies.

Those are excusable murders.

And the triumph of spirit of those who continued living despite the grief and the horror is taken for granted.

And the loss to the world does not matter.

Who counts the books that would have been written?

The music that would have been composed?

The scientific discoveries, the medical innovations, the lives that would have been bettered or even saved had that one person lived to fulfill their potential?

No body counts …

The problem is that if the world doesn’t learn from the experiences of the Jewish Nation,

They will have to learn for themselves.

Maybe when it is the bodies of their friends, their loved ones,

When the horror knocks on their door,

Maybe then they will begin to count.

Originally published on Inspiration from Zion.

[huge_it_share]

TERROR IN BERLIN? 9 Killed as Truck Plows into Marketplace

With tensions already high about muslim immigration into Germany, a truck a ppeared to intentionally plow into a crowded marketplace in Berlin earlier today.

Berlin police are reporting at least 9 were killed and 50 injured in the terror attack.

“I heard a big noise and then I moved on the Christmas market and saw much chaos…many injured people,” Jan Hollitzer, deputy editor in chief of Berliner Morgenpost, told CNN. “It was really traumatic.”

German police report that they arrested the suspect.

Watch below:

Copying “Palestinian” Terror Against Jews?

During the mini-Intifada last year, car rammings were used as a terror weapon against Jews. The Western world tried to pin the terror on a lack of movement in the “peace process,” but with more and more attacks occurring in a similar way in the rest of the world, it would be naive to think there is no connection.

Has Islam Conquered Germany?

With more and more Muslim immigrants moving to Germany, the country is hemoraging under Merkels liberal immigration policy.  Furthermore, the government in Berlin has refrained from forcing Muslims from intergrating into German culture.  It is only a matter of time before Islam conquers Germany.

[huge_it_share]

10 More Palestinians Arrested For Aiding in Murder of Rabbi Michael Mark

After last week’s killing of terrorist Mohammed Jabarah al-Faqih responsible for the murder of Rabbi Michael Mark in early June, the IDF arrested another ten Palestinians who are part of the same Hamas terror cell that aided al-Faqih.

Muhmad Amira, the driver of the terrorists’ car during the horrific murder of Rabbi Mark in front of his children, was arrested shortly after the attack and then revealed information to Israeli security forces during interrogations. His revelations led the IDF and security forces to the village of Dura where they located the terror cell, mostly made up of close family relatives.

The cell’s weapons supplier was also caught and three weapons factories were found in the town of Kalkilya.

Israel Protesting France’s Support For Terrorism

In response to a recent terror attack in a French church, Prime Minister Netanyahu sent his condolences to France during today’s Cabinet meeting. He then pointed out that evidence shows France is one of several European nations providing monetary support to organizations and NGO’s that incite terror and boycotts against Israel.

Meanwhile, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said last week that there is a need for a “thorough review to form a new relationship with French Islam” and that France will take up measures to stop foreign aid to mosques as a new step in the fight against Islamic terror. This is hypocrisy at its best when we find that France is interested in curbing Islamic terror locally but is not hesitant to support Islamic terror in Israel.

“Terror is terror in all places, and incitement is incitement all over the world,” Netanyahu said. “I heard about a discussion that took place last week in the French government about preventing foreign money from organizations that harm French citizens. That sounds familiar to us. We are also concerned about these types of contribution to organizations that reject Israel’s existence.”

This is even more absurd when we find that France need Israel’s help in stopping terror attacks.

Last week, the Israeli Ambassador to France condemned the French initiative to grant honorary citizenship to Marwan Barghouti, a known terrorist responsible for hundreds of deaths.

The questions stands: What does France stand for? Why are they openly supporting terrorism in their own country and abroad?

The West Can Stop Terror By Learning From Israel’s Security Experience

As the number of terror attacks by Muslim extremists in Western countries surges, countries such as France are looking to Israel for help in curbing terror attacks.

While the enemies of Israel and the West have different names, the underlying theme of the terror attacks is martyrdom or Jihad in the name of Allah and Islam. ISIS and Al-Qaeda want to rid the world of infidels, Jews and Christians, while Hamas, Hezbollah and the Palestinian Authority want to rid of Israel with the same goal as ISIS.

In a report by the Institute for National Security Studies, the point is made that France’s measures to combat terrorism, though numerous, have not been very effective in restoring calm in the country. Some of these measures include increased surveillance of Muslim radicals, telephone hotlines to report radicalized individuals, formation of intelligence units, deployment of police reserve units and even joining the US in the fight against ISIS in the Middle East.

“France considers Israel an important partner in the fight against Salafi jihadist terrorism, and sent a parliamentary delegation to Israel to learn from its experience,” says the report. “Israel’s professional, decades-long experience in fighting terrorism and the deep friendship between Israel and France obligate Israel to offer France assistance – to the extent requested – to fight their common enemy… The grave security situation in France may serve to shift public sentiments in France, and make the French more attentive to Israel’s concerns and security requirements in any future agreement with the Palestinians.”

How can Israel help?

Israel has been facing terror attacks ever since and even before it became the State of Israel. The recent terror wave in Israel which began in October 2015, has seen a steady decline thanks to increased security efforts and setting up an alert system to track down terrorists before they attack.

Arutz Sheva reported that this alert system was developed and based on an extensive analysis of terrorists since October. Police and the IDF saw a trend in the type of people committing these terror attacks. “The military’s analysis of attackers shows that most have been 24 or younger, and some 90 percent were male. Among the first 80 to 90 attackers from October to January, suicide was among the motives for around 40 percent.

Surveillance and monitoring is not enough to deter an attack. There is a cultural and social problem that needs to be addressed in many European countries. The analyses that Israel performs after an attack, along with technology to narrow down social media chatter, and campaigns to convince young people not to become radicalized and carry out attacks are all part of an effective counter-terrorism initiative. Intelligence units in Israel are known to be one of the best in the world and can probably help Western countries on deeper strategies to prevent future terror attacks.

IDF Kills Hamas Terrorist and Arrest 3 Who Murdered Rabbi Michael Mark

IDF soldiers raided a Hamas terror cell in the West Bank village of Surif, near Hebron, and killed Mohammed Jabarah al-Faqih and captured three others.

Al-Faqih was responsible for the drive-by murder of Rabbi Michael Mark in front of his children on July 1 in Otniel. With the help of intelligence from the Shin Bet security forces, the IDF raided his home overnight, exchanged gunfire with the terrorists and shot Mohammed dead. Weapons were also found and confiscated. The other terrorists were taken in for questioning.

Yisrael Levinson, the Director of Har Hebron’s International Desk, told us: “We are happy to hear that the killer of Michael Mark z’l was killed this morning by the IDF and the Shabak. This is a good message to anyone who wants to destroy and uproot the Jewish nation from Israel, that no matter who they are and where they are, we will always win!

12 Wounded in Germany Suicide Bomb by Syrian Refugee

A 27-year-old Syrian man blew himself up at a music festival in Ansbach, Germany wounding 12 people, 3 seriously. The man detonated a an explosive device after being refused entry into the Ansbach Open music festival at around 10PM Sunday evening.

According to the Bavarian interior minister, the explosive content in the bomber’s backpack had the capability to injure and kill many more people. He also reported that the attacker came to Germany two years ago seeking asylum but his asylum claim was rejected. They claim the attacker attempted suicide twice before and spent time in a psychiatric clinic. However, the common denominator in the recent attacks in Germany is Islamic terrorism.

This is the fourth Muslim attack in Germany in the past week, including the attack in Munich that killed 9 people and injured 27 and the machete attack killing a pregnant woman. Germany has been on high alert since the recent attacks. Many German citizens are irate about the influx of Syrian refugees which seems to include a number of Islamic extremists and terrorists.

According to a poll conducted by state broadcaster ZDF, 77% of Germans fear future attacks.

Hamas and Its Dark Culture: Death Sentences, Terror Summer Camps and Tunnel Tours

In Gaza, a Hamas-controlled court sentenced three Palestinians to death for collaborating with Israeli forces. Two men, aged 59 and 49, were sentenced to death by hanging, while a third man aged 38 was sentenced to death by firing squad.

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), a Palestinian NGO, condemns the excessive punishment and rejects the death penalty. It claims 13 death penalties have been carried out so far this year. In total, the number of death sentences handed out in Palestinian Authority controlled areas since 1994 has risen to 177.

This should come as no surprise considering the culture of death that Hamas and the Palestinian Authority present. Just this week, Hamas opened up one of its terror tunnels for touring as part of its exhibition to mark the two year anniversary since the last armed conflict between Israel and Hamas. The tunnel, located in the Shuja’iyya neighborhood of Gaza, is one of many Hamas has used to infiltrate Israeli territory to commit acts of terror.

Wait, there’s more of Hamas’ violent influence on its civilians. This summer, more than 30,000 Palestinian children will be attending camps run by Hamas. The camp is run by the Izzadin al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ military wing. Activities include military training with real weapons, religious indoctrination and incitement to kill Jews. Hamas is training and indoctrinating the future of the Palestinian people into a life of terror, violence and martyrdom.

Of course the world sides with Hamas and the Palestinians with claims that they are just resisting against an “occupying and aggressive” Israel. The truth is that Hamas’ charter details that Jihad and terror against Jews is a duty. It has nothing to do with land and occupation. It has to do with radical Islamic ideology, no different than that of groups such as ISIS, Al-Qaeda, Hezbollah and Boko Haram.

While terror attacks around the world are being condemned by the international community, attacks on Israel are being ignored. The UN and some countries even go as far as sympathizing with Palestinian terror. Prime Minister Netanyahu recently made a statement condemning this blatant hypocrisy: “Terrorism is terrorism, whether it is in France or Israel, and there must be a unified approach of condemnation and war on this terrorism – here and everywhere else.”

Europe is Not Israel

(Originally published on Israel Hayom)

“France must live with terrorism,” French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said after the massive terrorist ‎attack in Nice last week. Understandably, his statement infuriated the French, who took to social ‎media to express their opprobrium.‎

And French President Francois Hollande, sounding almost as if he was being forced to speak, said, “We cannot deny that it was a terrorist ‎attack.”‎

After the massive Islamic State attacks in Paris in November 2015, political leaders proclaimed ‎themselves “shocked.” Whether this shock was feigned or genuine, at least they made a point, pitiful ‎as it was, of pretending that these massive terrorist attacks were something extraordinary that did not ‎have a habitual place in Europe.

Valls’ resigned declaration of tired surrender after the Nice attack, on the other hand, ‎amounts to the waving of a white flag in submission to the jihadis and is an indication that France ‎has little will to fight.‎

Valls and Hollande sounded like bewildered children at the helm of a ship that they are too ‎clueless to navigate. Imagine Winston Churchill declaring, “Britain must live with ‎Nazism.” ‎

Under its current government, France has busied itself with meddling in Israeli affairs ‎and organizing Middle East peace conferences, instead of spending every waking moment ensuring ‎the proper protection of its own population. It is not ready to fight against the jihad that has been ‎launched against it.

One major factor in this is that its elites blame France.‎ French Ambassador to the U.S. Gerard Araud, for example, wrote on Twitter: “Why is France ‎targeted? History (former colonial power), geography (proximity), first Muslim community of Arab ‎origin sensitive to M.E. issues.”‎

In other words: Colonialism and Middle Eastern “issues” — a diplomatic euphemism for the Israeli-Arab conflict — ‎are to blame, not the Muslims who commit the atrocities and certainly not Islam. A ‎Twitter user from India responded to Araud: “We Indians have been colonized by all European powers ‎including your country. Ever heard of Indian terrorists? Shame on you.” Indeed.‎

One of the best indicators of how massive terrorist attacks have become the “new normal” is the financial markets, famously and hysterically sensitive as they are. One ‎observer concluded after the Nice attack, “Gold is down and the euro is up. Financial markets ‎don’t care because it’s no longer an extraordinary event. Even European travel stocks and French hotel ‎stocks are only down a couple of percent. Because continued terror attacks for years are already ‘priced ‎in.’ According to the stock market, France has now become Israel.”‎

The sentiment that France and Europe have “now become Israel” has become something of a trend on ‎social media in the wake of Nice. But it is very far from the truth.‎

Europe is a dying continent, one that is walking toward its own cultural suicide with eyes wide shut. ‎In Europe, self-loathing began to gain ground over most traditional Judeo-Christian ‎values as long as a century ago. We see the results of that long process today: Official Europe does not ‎believe in anything. The main European project in recent history has as its goal only a vague ‎multiculturalism and the working toward “an ever closer union,” a self-referential and self-serving ‎empty shell of a vision. Ostensibly, the EU was meant to prevent future wars in Europe, but while ‎Europe has lost its taste for war, war — now in jihad style — has not lost interest in ‎Europe. The problem is that Europe cannot fight jihadis — people who believe so strongly in their ‎cause that they will die for it — if it believes in nothing, least of all the legitimacy of its own fight against ‎them. This will not change, regardless how many reservist forces France now calls up to help ‎protect the country. The fight becomes especially tricky, tragicomically so, when it is fought while ‎intensely fearing the causing of any offence.‎

In contrast, Israel is a vibrant place of almost endless faith. Not just in the traditional and religious ‎sense but a general and secular faith in the worth and the future of the country pervades Israeli ‎society. Israel believes in itself and is more than willing to fight for itself, and this belief manifests itself in ‎myriad ways, not only in its military prowess and in the countless innovations for which it has become ‎so famous, but in its celebrations of its Jewish past, present and future at every given ‎opportunity. It is also evident in the high birth rate in the country, while Europeans are not having enough children to maintain their own populations.

Israel may be located in a neighborhood that is full of enemies and terrorists, but Israel is also ‎committed to dealing with those security issues, whatever it takes. Israel is here to stay, ‎and Israelis are determined to keep it that way, never even contemplating resigning themselves to whatever ‎malignant plans others may have in store for them.‎

No, Europe is not Israel. Not even close.