Wednesday, August 31, 2016

There are other voices in Europe


Israel Hayom 31-8-2016  by Ariel Bolstein http://tinyurl.com/jrknxd5

The doctors of late singer Meir Ariel recommended, as his song Terminal Lominelt tells, a monthly visit to the airport. By the same token, I would recommend that those complaining about Israel's international isolation visit an English pub from time to time, preferably outside of London. While every pub has a television or two, the patrons' opinions about Israel will, for the most part, be very different from what we've become accustomed to hearing on international media networks.

"Way to go, Jews! Respect! You are succeeding in dealing with all the troubles that Europe is bowing to," said Dale, who sat at the bar at a Manchester pub, immediately after he realized that I am Israeli. His enthusiasm was so great that he gathered the rest of the patrons around us and asked them how to solve the Arab-Israeli conflict. And let's just say that the responses were taken from the extreme Right of our political spectrum. After another round of beers, it became clear that there were people of different backgrounds at the bar -- academics, like Dale, manual laborers, Conservatives, Labour Party voters, those who were happy about Britain's exit from the European Union and those who were against it. But everyone supported Israel, without exception. And I asked about the future of Jerusalem -- everyone wanted it to remain in Jewish hands.

Surprisingly, the same consensus repeated itself at dozens of other pubs that I visited during my two weeks in England and Scotland. Many of my conversation partners even apologized for the British media's completely different attitude. "Here, you hear what people really think," one man told me at a small country pub in northern Scotland. "And there," he pointed at the television screen," There, they will only tell you things that someone determined to be political norms."

This distinction between "here" and "there" is not only in Britain, but in all of Europe. The difference between what people on the street think and what is presented by the media elite as the "right opinion" has never been greater. This is the Europe that nobody talks about, and it is growing bigger and stronger each day. On days when there is an Islamist terrorist attack, it grows twice as much. This new Europe has no negative sentiment toward Israel. The opposite is true -- as the preaching in the pages of The Guardian newspaper about the supposed evils of the Israeli military continues, love for Israel grows in Britain's pubs. The pub-goers are beginning to understand: Israel is fighting the same enemy that sets off bombs in Brussels, slits throats in London and rams into crowds in Nice.

A few years ago, Israel was for many Europeans the "bad seed" in the Middle East. Arab propaganda achieved a lot and managed to create a terrible image for Israel in certain European countries. But images are fluid, especially when they clash with reality. The reality of the culture war with extremist Islam is causing many Europeans to look at Israel as a preferred ally.

This trend has not yet found expression in politics, because the political echelon in Europe follows behind the opinion of its voting public. Officials in Brussels were late to identify European voter disappointment in the European Union project, and now they are again late in identifying the public trend from resentment of Israel to admiration of it. Europe is on the verge of a major turning point. The reasons for the rising tides of change are not related to Israel, but Israel must be prepared to ride the waves.

Ariel Bolstein is the founder of the Israel advocacy organization Faces of Israel.

Video of the week: Golda Meir silenced the world - http://tinyurl.com/hwnf28a

  
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Wednesday, August 24, 2016

"STOP PRESS"


The Israel Project “Daily Tip” – http://tinyurl.com/j6ancqb

A rocket was fired Sunday afternoon from Gaza into the Israeli border city Sderot, prompting an exceptionally muscular reaction from Israel in what some analysts have called a strategic turning point. Running counter to Israel’s usual tit-for-tat retaliation, the IDF seized the opportunity to attack dozens of Hamas infrastructure targets in the northern Gaza Strip over the course of two hours. The IDF launched about 50 strikes in total, using both tanks and aircraft.
“You can’t expect the State of Israel to allow [Hamas] to rearm itself, to steal money from the residents of Gaza. They are levying taxes and not constructing buildings, but tunnels,” Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman commented Tuesday morning at an army base in the Galilee. Indeed, as Hamas continues to build underground tunnels and invest its resources militarily – at the expense of its own people – Israel seems to have discarded its previous approach of deterrence in favor of a more proactive posture.

Even Hamas decided to comment on the apparent shift in tactic. "The escalation is the Israeli occupation's desire to create new equations in the Gaza Strip," Hamas's spokesman in the Gaza Strip, Sami Abu Zuhri, said on Sunday. A senior Israeli military source credited the new policy design to IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-General Gadi Eisnekot, which was then approved by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Moshe Ya’alon.

UNRWA Aids Hamas Military Wing


By David Bedein, (Behind the news in Israel) 9-8-2016
For full article go to: http://tinyurl.com/z4yqpbm

Over the past week, the World Vision, a well-known humanitarian organization, was formally accused and indicted for secretly aiding military activities of Hamas, designated as an FTO by the US – a “Foreign Terror Organization”.

Yet a much larger humanitarian organization looms on the horizon, which openly aids Hamas military operations.

That organization is UNRWA, the agency that hosts descendants of Arab refugees from the 1948 war in refugee facilities for perpetuity.

UNRWA operates with a budget of more than one billion dollars, provided by more than forty western nations. The US is the leading donor to UNRWA, donating  $400 million each year to UNRWA.

Working with an Israeli-Palestinian team of journalists over the past few years, I have documented and filmed how UNRWA allocates cash from donor nations to conduct military training for children in the UNRWA classroom along with weapons training camps which Hamas organizes for UNRWA children.

Al-Kutla al-Islamiya, a division of Hamas, runs military activities, which attract UNRWA’s younger students, paving the way for recruitment in al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas.

UNRWA “education” teaches children how to fight, shoot lethal weapons, use hand grenades, and climb through various spaces all in preparation for war.

After exposure to al-Kutla, elementary and middle schoolers join a week long war games program, held in a military campment, where they study “jihad, determination, to trust Allah and other Islamic values” in addition to military tactics.

Here is a case where a UN agency actually violates the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child, which states “children… should not be forced or recruited to take part in a war or join the armed forces”.

Yet all this is occurs in the public domain, without a peep from 38 nations that donate more than a billion dollars each year to UNRWA, with the notable exception of Canada.

Ottawa suspended aid to the UNRWA general fund in 2008, in response to a report commissioned by the European Parliament, which documented how Hamas was elected to run the UNRWA teachers association and the UNRWA workers association. Now there is a move in the new Canadian government to restore Canadian tax dollars to the general fund of UNRWA.

Yet binding legislation passed by the US Congress requires UNRWA to vet personnel to see determine if there are terrorists on their payroll is ignored.

UNRWA simply refuses to vet personnel in the UNRWA facilities, which operate in the areas under the control of the Palestinian Authority, and no one is asking them to do so, including the US.

After the March 2009 election, when Hamas was again elected to run the UNRWA workers union and UNRWA teachers association in Gaza, Congress asked the newly appointed Sec’y of State Hilary Clinton for comment on whether she would demand the removal of terrorists from the payroll Of UNRWA.

Amazingly, Clinton told Congress that there was no evidence of Taliban activity in UNRWA – even though Taliban have never played a role in that part of the Middle East.

In her four years as secretary of state, Clinton did nothing to impede Hamas domination of US funded UNRWA facilities.

The US Congressional Research Service reports that the US has never asked if UNRWA humanitarian funds wind up in the hands of HAMAS or if HAMAS is present in UNRWA.

Yet UNRWA remains in violation of  US penal code § 2339B  – providing material support or resources to a designated FTO.

On the record, the Hamas Minister of Religion told us on camera “Hamas’ relationship with UNRWA is good, very good! We assist UNRWA and Hamas cooperates with UNRWA on many levels. Now a direct connection exists between UNRWA and Hamas.”

Video of the week: The UNRWA Road to Terror http://tinyurl.com/h84kyk5



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Wednesday, August 17, 2016

Turning Suicidal Teens into Killers



By EVELYN GORDON, The Commentry; AUG. 11, 2016 http://tinyurl.com/j752u39


The Los Angeles Times published an eye-popping report this week: According to Kadoura Fares, head of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, roughly one-fifth of all Palestinian attacks on Israelis in recent months have been attempts to commit “suicide by cop.” Even if that estimate were exaggerated, Israeli security officials concur that there have been many such cases, which begs an obvious question: Given that suicides are usually interested mainly in killing themselves, why do so many suicidal Palestinians try to kill others in the process? And Fares is quite upfront about the answer: “In our culture, suicide for no reason isn’t honorable,” he said. “If they try to confront a soldier, however, it’s looked on with more respect.’’

Or to put it more bluntly, Palestinians have created a culture where mass murder is the quickest, easiest and surest path to glory. What distressed Palestinians are told by their society is roughly the following: “Do you feel like a failure? No problem. All you have to do is murder a Jew, and you’ll be an instant hero. You’ll be lionized on radio and television programs; schools and soccer tournaments will be named after you; politicians will sing your praises. And as a bonus, you’ll also earn the respect that goes with being a breadwinner: If you live, the government will pay you an above-market salary while you’re in prison, and if you die, it will pay your family.” For a distraught youngster, such a prospect of instant redemption is enormously tempting.

This, clearly, is a form of society-wide child abuse: Instead of being encouraged to seek help, distressed young people are encouraged to commit murder, thereby ensuring they will either be killed by security personnel or sentenced to years in jail. That this practice is ignored by all the myriad “human rights” groups active in the West Bank is ample proof that they care as little about Palestinians’ human rights as they do about those of Israelis.

But contrary to the LA Times’ headline writer, who titled the article “Politics isn’t the only motive driving Palestinian knife attacks on Israeli soldiers,” the fact that so many would-be suicides try to attack Israelis is all about politics–not the assailants’ politics, but those of their society. For in Palestinian society, murdering Jews is the height of political achievement. And you needn’t take my word for it; just look at the Fatah party’s election campaign for October’s planned municipal vote.

Last week, Fatah’s official Facebook page proudly sported a list of the party’s achievements. The very first on the list was “Fatah has killed 11,000 Israelis.” And what about numbers two, three, and four? In order, Fatah “has sacrificed 170,000 martyrs” (the Palestinian term for people killed attacking Israelis); it “was the first to carry out operations [i.e., terror attacks] during the first Intifada”; and “it was the first to fight in the second Intifada,” the brutal terrorist onslaught that killed more Israelis in four years than all the Palestinian terror attacks of the previous 53 years combined. In fact, there’s only one nonviolent “achievement” on the list, and even that relates to anti-Israel activity: “Fatah led the Palestinian attack on Israel in the UN.”

Elsewhere in the world, governing parties seeking reelection usually highlight their efforts to improve people’s lives–for instance, job creation, new infrastructure or anti-poverty measures. But no such measure appeared on Fatah’s list of achievements, even though it has run the Palestinian Authority for the last 22 years. Granted, it might be hard-pressed to find any such achievements to boast of even if it wanted to, but that’s precisely because it has consistently prioritized hurting Israel over helping its own people.

And lest anyone has forgotten, Fatah is the “moderate” Palestinian party–the one led by PA President Mahmoud Abbas, Israel’s ostensible peace partner. Hamas, as I’ve pointed out before, is at least equally bloodthirsty.

This, of course, is the main reason why more than two decades of “peace processing” have yet to produce peace. It’s hard to make peace when one side exalts killing the other as the highest possible good. Yet the West has consistently turned a blind eye to this problem rather than confronting it, preferring instead to pretend that peace would break out tomorrow if Israel would just make more concessions. And many Westerners even actively enable this abusive death cult by blaming not the Palestinian leaders who incite troubled youth to kill both themselves and others, but Israel, on the dubious theory that it must somehow be guilty if so many Palestinians want to attack it (if that doesn’t sound dubious to you, just try saying that women must be guilty because so many men want to rape them).

Neither Israeli-Palestinian peace nor a better life for Palestinians will ever be achievable as long as this culture of death continues to dominate mainstream Palestinian politics. This is a change Palestinians will ultimately have to make for themselves, but the West could help it along if it finally stopped playing enabler.

The latest report by the Middle East Quartet (the U.S., EU, UN, and Russia) took a positive first step; it did at least acknowledge that Palestinian incitement to terror is a problem. But until Western countries start condemning this behavior clearly and consistently, and actively penalizing it, rather than aiming most of their fire at Israel, Palestinians will have every reason to conclude that their death cult is working beautifully. For in a political system that deems harming Israel to be the highest good, any policy that encourages the West to turn against the Jewish state is a success, no matter how many young Palestinians have to die in the process.

video of the week: PM Netanyahu has had enough with world's anti-Israel bias -  http://tinyurl.com/joo5z4d

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Tuesday, August 9, 2016

The Silent Struggle of Bethlehem's Christians


by Lela Gilbert; The Algemeiner 1-8-2016

It’s a surprisingly short drive from West Jerusalem to Bethlehem – 10 or 15 minutes, at the most. But on a hot summer night a couple of weeks ago, it felt like I had traveled light-years, setting out from a bustling city-center Jerusalem neighborhood and arriving at a modest home in a quiet Bethlehem village.
Today in Bethlehem, it’s the Islamists that are the threats.

After the guards glanced at our United States passports, my American friends and I were waved through the checkpoint that separates Israel from King David’s ancient hometown.

Upon our arrival, the wariness of our hosts also felt eerily familiar to me. I could almost read their minds: “Who saw them come into our house? Who might be listening? Can we trust these friends-of-friends?”

My friends and I spent time with, among others, a Christian woman and her small family. I wish I could tell you her name. And I would like very much to describe her circumstances – her needs, her struggle to keep financially afloat and her family’s specific fears.

Why can’t I name names or cite locations? Because the slightest hint that Bethlehem’s Christians are “informing outsiders” about the troubles they face might very well endanger them, not to mention their friends and family members.
Today, much of the tension in Bethlehem and elsewhere in the West Bank is blamed on the “Israeli occupation” and the security fence.

In some places, including Bethlehem, there is indeed a formidable military wall – also reminiscent of Berlin – officially called the “West Bank Barrier.” It divides Arab communities from the Israeli population.

The checkpoints into Israel can be a nuisance. This is particularly so since Arabs and Israelis alike were able to come and go without restrictions until the ill-starred Oslo Peace Accords robbed them of their freedom of movement.

But the security wall has also saved Israeli lives. It was erected during the Second Intifada, during which a seemingly endless barrage of exploding buses, pizza shops, cafes and other public venues devastated Israel for well over three years, costing more than 1,000 lives.

It is widely reported that after the West Bank Barrier was constructed, the number of suicide bombings decreased by more than 90 percent.

Today, terrorism continues in Israel, but it wears a different face. Palestinians primarily target soldiers and religious Jews who live in settlements. These attacks are sporadic and unpredictable, involving stabbing with knives or machetes, vehicles ramming groups at bus stops or the stoning and firebombing of cars and buses. One recent attack on a chic Tel Aviv café involved firearms.

Since September 2015, 40 people have been killed in these terrorist attacks and 517 people have been injured.

In the meantime, it is quite clear that the West Bank’s Christian population is diminishing. In 2013, Rosanna Rafel reported that “in British-mandated Palestine, before the establishment of Israel in 1948, the percentage of the Christian population stood at 18 percent. This figure has now dwindled to under 1.5 percent.”

This plummeting Christian population is invariably blamed on the “Israeli occupation.” But if this is so, why isn’t the Muslim population diminishing too?
Christians are escaping the West Bank because of anti-Christian persecution.
In Bethlehem, Christians are not just a minority population in an overwhelmingly Muslim community. They aren’t simply marginalized; they don’t just suffer discrimination. Too often, they are threatened and intimidated; injured or even killed. They are cautious. They are uneasy. Many of them live in fear.

Christians living under the PA are “accorded sanctity and respect,” but, as is the case under all sharia-based systems, Christians are relegated to the status of second-class citizens. Of course, it is illegal to convert from Islam to Christianity. Let’s not even mention the fact that sale of land to Jews is a crime punishable by death.

Discrimination against Christians under the Palestinian Authority isn’t just legal – it’s also social. Living as a Christian, one is constantly reminded that he or she is not a member of the majority culture.

Bethlehem’s Christians are at risk of being detained by authorities based on vague accusations. An “interview” with local officials may lead to stern threats or, even more frightening, to an arrest on trumped-up charges.

Justus Weiner, a scholar at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, has written extensively about the condition of Christians under the Palestinian Authority. “Under that regime,” Weiner explained to me, “Christian Arabs have been victims of frequent human rights abuses by Muslims. There are many examples of intimidation, beatings, land theft, firebombing of churches and other Christian institutions, denial of employment, economic boycotts, torture, kidnapping, forced marriage, sexual harassment, and extortion. PA officials are directly responsible for many of the human rights violations.”

Weiner told me that Muslims who have converted to Christianity are in the greatest danger. They are defenseless against abuse by Muslim fundamentalists. Some have been murdered. Many Christians are subject to various fees and fines, which amount to bureaucratic extortion or protection money – a thinly disguised “jizya” tax.

Meanwhile, story after story confirm that Christian women are sexually harassed, threatened and even raped for not following Islamic dress codes.
In my book “Saturday People, Sunday People,” I wrote about a young Christian woman from a village near Bethlehem who was walking home from school. She was not “covered,” meaning she did not wear an Arab-style headscarf or a long skirt.

When a gang of local Muslim males cruised past her, made obscene remarks and tried to force her into their car, she escaped and ran home, where she tearfully poured out her terrifying experience to her brother “Habib. It didn’t take Habib long to figure out who the Arabs were.

He knocked on the door where the ringleader and his friends hung out. When Habib demanded that they leave his sister alone, they laughed at him.
They were, however, not amused. In the days that followed, they began to track Habib.

One afternoon, Habib and his cousin went to a nearby forest to walk and talk and relax. Suddenly 13 young men, who had arrived in cars and on motorbikes, surrounded them. At first, they seemed only to be armed with sticks and a billy club. Then the knives appeared.

While his cousin was beaten and held back from interfering, Habib was stabbed 28 times. He was knifed on the head, neck, hands and the inner thighs (the attackers were trying to sever a main artery) and left for dead. Once the assailants fled and the cousin was released, he frantically drove Habib to the hospital before he bled out. Habib received massive blood transfusions; his wounds were repaired, and his life was spared. But he still requires further surgery.

During our visit in Bethlehem, my friends and I also spoke to a workman – we’ll call him George – who does outdoor maintenance near a Bethlehem school. This year, despite an intense heat wave, and notwithstanding the fact that he is not Muslim, he was angrily threatened with physical harm for publicly drinking a bottle of water during Ramadan.

In recent years, several church properties in Bethlehem have been vandalized, set ablaze or invaded by violent intruders during celebrations or worship services. PA law enforcement usually arrives long after the emergency call is made – if at all.

In a recent tragedy, a young man suffering from mental retardation and who lives in a Christian village (one of his friends refers to him as “a blessed boy”) heard offensive anti-Christian statements emanating from a local mosque. Infuriated, he shouted an insult to Muslims.

Later, he posted something equally anti-Islamic on Facebook.
A few days later, the “blessed boy” vanished. At the time of this writing, he has been missing for more than three months. His family is utterly traumatized, afraid to approach the local authorities. They fear both devastating news and deadly retaliation.

We ourselves were blessed, listening and learning from the Christians we visited. Meeting us was an act of great courage on their part. For us, it was an extraordinary opportunity.

As Nicholson wrote,
I’ve spoken to numerous Palestinian Christians who describe how Muslim terrorists would commandeer Christian homes and use them to direct sniper fire on Israeli soldiers. Others speak of systematic discrimination in hiring, housing and education. Of course, all of these conversations take place in private meetings and hushed tones.

They don’t have a choice. They are hostages inside their own city.

Video of the week: http://tinyurl.com/jxg8pwf - Christians,The World's Most Persecuted Minority


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Wednesday, August 3, 2016

A Guide to the Palestinian Lexicon


by Khaled Abu Toameh of the Gatestone Institute: August 1, 2016
Many Palestinians refer to cities inside Israel proper as "occupied." Jaffa, Haifa, Acre, Tiberias, Ramle and Lod, for example, are often described in the Palestinian media as "Palestinian Cities" or "Occupied Cities." Jews living in these cities, as well as other parts of Israel, are sometimes referred to as "Settlers."

§  Many Palestinians have still not come to terms with Israel's right to exist. For them, this not only about the "occupation" of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. The real "occupation", for them, began with the creation of Israel in 1948.

§  Non-Arabic speakers may find this assertion baseless, because what they hear and read from Palestinian representatives in English does not reflect the messages being relayed to Palestinians in Arabic.

§  It is no secret that Palestinian leaders have failed to prepare their people for peace with Israel, and deny its right to exist.

"But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought." — George Orwell, 1984.

What do you do if you do not like Israel, but have only one outlet for that dislike: expressing it in rhetoric and print?

Well, if you are a Palestinian, you can always come up with your own terminology -- one that sheds negative light on Israel and anything that is associated with it. This is precisely the tack Palestinians have taken over the past few decades, inventing their own terms and phrases when talking about Israel.

George Orwell, of course, saw through this behavior. For him, "language can also corrupt thought." The anti-Israel sentiments, delivered for decades by Palestinians, not only corrupt thought, but also incite people against Israel, by creating incendiary situations that are designed to burst into flames.

To be clear: this is not the familiar incitement in the Palestinian media that is discussed in international forums.

This is a different color. This incitement demonizes Israel and Jews. In this narrative, Israel is evil, as well as alien to the Middle East.

Orwell, in his wise remarks on language, did not mention the deceit of multiple tongues. But that deceit is deeply embedded in the Palestinian discourse on Israel.

Political affiliations somewhat determine which terminology is employed by Palestinians with reference to Israel. Yet across affiliations, Palestinians employ extremely negative terms to discuss Israel.
Until the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993, the "moderate" Fatah faction, currently headed by President Mahmoud Abbas, referred to Israel, as its Palestinian brothers do today, as the "Zionist entity." That was before the PLO officially recognized Israel under the terms of the Oslo Accords. Back then, it was considered disgraceful and unacceptable to call Israel by its name, lest that be interpreted, God forbid, as recognition of Israel.

More than two decades later, Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction and the Palestinian Authority (PA) still find it difficult to mention the name Israel.
Since its creation in 1994, the Palestinian Authority's official policy (in Arabic) has been to refer to Israel as "the Other Side." These were the instructions handed down to PA civil servants and security personnel, and they remain in effect today.

In those days, when the PA security forces were still conducting "joint patrols" with Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers in many parts of the West Bank, Palestinian policemen were banned from using the name Israel or IDF, especially when they were communicating with their colleagues and commanders through walkie-talkies. The names Israel and IDF were replaced with "the Other Side."

A senior Palestinian security official who was asked about this back then admitted that the orders came directly from the office of Yasser Arafat. "Yes, we signed an agreement that recognizes Israel, but most of our officers and policemen still have a real problem mentioning the name Israel," the officer said.

The instructions remain in effect even as the Palestinian Authority continues to conduct "security coordination" with Israel. Palestinian security and civilian officials who maintain daily contact with their Israeli counterparts regularly refrain from uttering the names Israel or IDF. In a sliver of good news, they no longer refer to Israel as the "Zionist Entity."
Yet the Palestinian media and representatives of the PA, in their statements (in Arabic), continue to use terminology that is degrading and even abusive when it comes to dealing with Israel.

Israel, for example, is often referred to as the "State of Occupation" and the Israeli Government is described as the "Government of Occupation."
Many Palestinians remain opposed to the use of the name Israel because they simply do not recognize its right to exist.

Palestinian writer Muhsen Saleh criticized some Arabs and Palestinians for sometimes using the name Israel in their speeches and writings:
"For many years, the Arabs and regimes and their media outlets refused to use the name 'Israel' when referring to the usurper entity that was established on large parts of the land of 1948 Palestine. They used to refer to it as the enemy, the Zionist entity or the Occupation, or at least they used to put the name Israel in quotes as a sign that they do not recognize it. Today, however, the name 'Israel' is being used without quotes and without embarrassment."

The prime minister of Israel, regardless of his identity or political affiliation, is often called the "Prime Minister of Occupation." Some prefer to use the term "Prime Minister of Tel Aviv."

The Israeli Defense Minister, again regardless of his identity or political affiliation, is often referred to as the "Minister of War." The implication: Israel is at constant war with the Palestinians and Arabs. Needless to say, the IDF is always referred to as the "Occupation Forces," whose only mission is to kill Palestinians, destroy their homes and turn their lives into misery.

Another sign of the difficulty many Palestinians find in using the name Israel can be found in their talk about the Arab citizens of Israel.
Palestinian officials and media outlets regularly refer to these citizens as "the Arabs of the Inside" -- implying that the "inside" is actually an internal part of "Palestine." Others refer to these citizens as "the Arabs of 1948" or the "Palestinians Inside the Green Line" or "the Arabs living inside the 1948 Occupied Territories."

And we still have not talked about the fact that many Palestinians refer to cities inside Israel proper as "occupied" cities and towns. Jaffa, Haifa, Acre, Tiberias, Ramle and Lod, for example, are often described in the Palestinian media as "Palestinian Cities" or "Occupied Cities." Jews living in these cities, as well as other parts of Israel, are sometimes referred to as "Settlers."

Jews visiting the Temple Mount, or Haram Al-Sharif, in Jerusalem are regularly described by Palestinian media outlets and officials as "Herds of Settlers" and "Settler Terrorist Gangs."

These are only a handful of examples of the language of the Palestinian narrative. Such language exposes the truth: that many Palestinians have still not come to terms with Israel's right to exist. For them, this not only about the "occupation" of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. The real "occupation," for them, began with the creation of Israel in 1948.

It is no secret that Palestinian leaders have failed to prepare their people for peace with Israel. Even worse, the terminology adopted by these leaders and a growing number of Palestinians is a clear sign that these leaders, through their rhetoric and media outlets, continue to promote a policy that not only delegitimizes Israel and depicts it as an evil state, but also denies its right to exist. Non-Arabic speakers may find this assertion baseless, because what they hear and read from Palestinian representatives in English does not reflect the messages being relayed to Palestinians in Arabic.

The international English-speaking audience would do well to get some accurate translations of what is being said about Israel in Arabic. It is the only way out of Palestinian Newspeak, although it might make Orwell roll over in his grave.

Video of the week: Palestinian father tries to get his child killed  http://tinyurl.com/zw734g3



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