| She has lived for 73 years in Lebanon, but she will never become a citizen therenoreply@blogger.com (Unknown), 14 Oct 04:45 AM The New Arab has a pr | |  |
The New Arab has a profile of an 88 year old woman, Amna Hasan Mawd, who fled Palestine during the 1948 war and ended up in Lebanon.
At the end of the interview, Mawd says, "[My husband] had written on his picture, before he died: "I want to die in Palestine." But he died as a refugee and did not return to Palestine, and it seems that I will die as a refugee too."
The point, of course, is to say how awful it is that she is still a refugee after 73 years. But the real question is - why is she not a citizen of Lebanon after 73 years?
That could be changed, of course. Lebanon could offer citizenship for Palestinians who have lived there for, say, over thirty or fifty years, let alone seventy.
What country keeps its refugees without any options of becoming naturalized for over seven decades?
It is fairly rare where you will see an article criticizing Lebanon for how it treats its Palestinian refugees. For any other kind of refugee, this would be major news. But there is an unwritten contract between the Lebanese, Arabs, human rights organizations and the media that only Israel can be blamed for 73 years of Lebanese mistreatment of Palestinians. That Palestinians, alone among all refugee groups, should never be naturalized.
Because these groups, who all claim to care so...Read More |
Weekly column by Vic Rosenthal All of my writing is informed by two principles. The first, both logically and rhetorically, is that there is no moral principle more important than the value of preserving the Jewish people. This is axiomatic for me: if we don't agree on this, then there is no point to continue the discussion.
This means that preserving the Jewish people is more important to me than anything else, including democracy or even considerations of human rights. Not that I think that there is a conflict between the continued existence of this people and the legitimate rights of others; I do not. But if, in any particular case, I have to choose between Jewish survival and the good of others, I will choose Jewish survival. Some say that this disqualifies me as an "objective" observer of events. Actually, it makes me like everyone else. We all have loyalties that override universal obligations to humanity. Who would sacrifice their immediate family in order to protect the rights of others? The second principle is the necessity of a Jewish state. If the Jewish state were to disappear, so – in short order – would the Jewish people. Unlike the first principle, this is an empirical one. The early Zionists who called for a Jewish state did so to a great degree because the history of the treatment of the Jews in the Christian and Muslim worlds impelled them to the conclusion that a sovereign state was necessary to ensure the continuance of their people despite persecution...Read More |
From Ian: Jonathan S. Tobin: BDS again proves it's all about antisemitism It's no accident that Israel is the country that is always singled out by so-called human-rights advocates for its alleged crimes even though other nations, which are actually tyrannies, get ignored. Israel is the only nation in the world that has spawned a worldwide movement that aims at its destruction. Only Jews and Jewish rights are treated in this manner, which is to say that BDS, in whatever form it takes, is, like anti-Zionism itself – inherently anti-Semitic. And the fact that some Jews, like Cohen and Greenfield, or groups with Jewish names like Jewish Voices for Peace, which promotes anti-Semitic blood libels, support it doesn't give them a pass for a movement that targets their own people for hate and discrimination. That's why laws being pushed in states all around the country to punish those companies that engage in discriminatory commercial conduct against Israel and Jews are not only not a violation of free speech but desperately needed. In much of the mainstream media and polite liberal society, BDS is still treated like a legitimate protest rather than antisemitism. The growing acceptance of critical race theory and intersectionality is part of the reason for this since those toxic ideas provide a permission slip to antisemitism so long as it is cloaked in the rhetoric of the left. But the...Read More |
Ben & Jerry's is closing off the ice cream pipeline to the Jews—but not the Arabs—who happen to live in Jerusalem or in Judea and Samaria. Of course, if you have a hankering for Chunky Monkey, you could always put on a hijab or keffiyah, buy some in an Arab neighborhood, and risk getting lynched. But that would be stupid and Jews are supposed to be smart. We Jews can forgo the ice cream, of course. We've been through worse. What we cannot stomach, aside from the ice cream, is the hypocrisy. And even that is not new. Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield are progressives. People of their political ilk profess to shun every form of hatred based on race, creed, color, or gender. They tout themselves as the champion of minorities and indigenous peoples. Therein lies the rub: the Jews, aside from their ancient and distinctive creed, are both a minority andan indigenous people. Refusing to sell them ice cream in their ancestral lands should place Cohen and Greenfield squarely outside of normative progressive society. Ha ha [mirthless laugh]. If only. We all know it is not like that at all. Antisemites are celebrated in the progressive wing. Taking a crap on Israel is an especial delight. And when it comes to Jews building homes for themselves or for daring to live in Jerusalem or Judea, oh my GAWD the uproar. It is so loud you cannot think (for yourself). The noise is so loud it crowds out every sane and truthful thought about Jews, Jewish land rights, and the meaning of the word...Read More |
By Forest Rain
My friend was about to be inaugurated as Prime Minister of Israel. For the past year I had done everything in my power to help make that happen. Of course, I had to be there. On the other hand, this inauguration would establish a government with progressive, extreme left, post and anti-Zionists whose ideology, from my perspective, spells disaster for the only Jewish State. Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's longest reigning and probably best Prime Minister, would step away from the helm of the country and an unspeakable Frankenstein of a government would take over. A milestone in Israeli history. A little like a car accident that you don't want to see but can't not look at… Disclaimer: I like Naftali Bennett. He has a special magic that (unfortunately) doesn't translate through the tv screen. He has an intense focus that soaks up everything about whatever it is that he is interested in. When that focus is turned on you, it is as if there is no one else in the universe, as if the sun rose for you and you alone. When Naftali looks at you and tells you something, you believe him. He has a unique charm that makes you forgive him swiftly, even after doing something that made you furious. Naftali has a quicksilver mind, a backbone of steel and an ability to approach things in ways that no one else would or could. If most people think "inside the box" and many Israelis in the Start Up Nation think "outside the box", Naftali walks through walls. For a year I had been...Read More |
From Ian: Remembering the Barbaric Ramallah Lynch The media love a powerful, symbolic image, but exactly twenty years to the day after the brutal, barbaric lynching of two Israeli reserve soldiers, this one isn't being republished. This is the important story the media failed to retell today. On 12 October 2000, two Israeli reserve soldiers dressed in civilian clothes, Yossi Avrahami and Vadim Nurzhitz were headed towards their unit's assembly point in a town near Jerusalem. The pair were unfamiliar with the local road system, took a wrong turn and ended up in Ramallah. Although previously Palestinian Authority policemen had sent wayward Israelis back, this time the two reservists were detained by Palestinian Authority policemen and taken to a local police station. The incident coincided with a nearby funeral service for a Palestinian youth who had been killed in clashes with Israeli forces two days earlier. The funeral was attended by thousands, and soon afterwards, as rumors spread that Israeli undercover agents were in the building, an angry crowd of over 1,000 Palestinians gathered outside the station calling for the death of the Israelis. While there are indications that at first police attempted to protect the soldiers, before long the enraged rioters managed to overcome the police and storm the building. It later emerged that Palestinian Authority policemen actually took part in the...Read More |
Kweansmom has posted some questions that IfNotNow sent to its mailing list which are a strong indication that it cannot figure out a reason why it should exist. First it bragged about its accomplishments - which, when you look at them, didn't actually accomplish anything. Mostly it was making noise and getting some media attention. But they have no idea what to do now. When Trump was president, they had a target, but now what? So they ask their members - and the questions are amusing. They want to know, how much can we push you guys towards supporting terror groups before you are uncomfortable with it? As Kweansmom shows, they have already partnered with the pro-terror Palestinian Youth Movement and American Muslims for Palestine. Is that too much, too little, or just right? The questions themselves show that INN's philosophy is pure antisemitism, but they don't want to push Jews out of their comfort zone - perhaps because most Jews aren't ready to support another intifada terror spree to blow up other Jews. But if the leaders of INN don't know their own message, that is a major step towards oblivion. Its members will sense IfNotNow's leaders have no clue how to lead, and instead they want to not alienate their likely supporters, meaning that they have no message...Read More |
The Guardian published a letter from several hundred anonymous Google and Amazon employees against those companies starting a $1.4 billion contract, Project Nimbus, to build cloud services in Israel.
The letter itself reveals the antisemitism of the writers. It admits that there are lots of customers of Google and Amazon that the employees find distasteful - We have watched Google and Amazon aggressively pursue contracts with institutions like the US Department of Defense, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), and state and local police departments. But when it comes to Israel - only then are they angry enough to send a Letter. Only then do they tearfully say that they "cannot look the other way." Even more telling are the contracts that they don't list - deals with China and Saudi Arabia and with armies throughout the world escape their ire. Only to slam Israel do they exert the huge amount of effort to click on a button on a keyboard. 300 workers at Amazon and 90 workers are Google anonymously signed this letter. That...Read More |
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