| Palestinians are a little more peaceful this month, according to the latest pollnoreply@blogger.com (Unknown), 28 Oct 04:45 AM Over the past month, | |  |
Over the past month, Palestinians have edged more towards supporting a peace agreement with Israel than they did previously.
According to the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, when asked "the most preferred way out of the current status quo" 36% said "reaching a peace agreement with Israel" while 34% prefer waging "an armed struggle against the Israeli occupation."
In September, 28% said a peace agreement while a plurarilty of 39% said they felt terror was the best way.
When asked a somewhat different question, as to the most effective way to end the "occupation," a smaller plurality than September prefers terror. 44% chose "armed struggle" and 36% negotiations, compared to September's 48% preferring terror and 28% preferring negotiations.
I think the reason is that after the May conflict, Palestinians identified more with Hamas, which they respected for shooting rockets at Jerusalem to "defend Silwan" or "al-Aqsa." A month after the fighting, the "end the occupation" question resulted in 49% chose armed struggle, 27% negotiations, roughly the same as September. Before the war, in April, 36% said that they prefer reaching a peace agreement with Israel and 26% said they prefer violence.
So the tilt towards supporting terror seems to have been a bump in support of Hamas' philosophy as a result of the war, and now disillusionment on how little that helped is starting to set...Read More |
Weekly column by Vic Rosenthal Last week, Elder of Ziyon described an interesting conjecture on the origin of the word "Palestine": that it is derived from the Greek word for "wrestler," which is part of the name taken by Jacob when he wrestled – "isra" – with an angel of God, "El." So "Palestine" means "Israel." Is it true? Who knows? But it is ironic in the light of the assertions of the Palestinian Arabs that they are "natives," an indigenous people that were "colonized" by the European Jews who, according to them, are not even a people but just a religious sect. This is the heart of the Palestinian narrative that is presented as a justification for their violent struggle to expel the Jews from Eretz Yisrael. The post-colonial ideology that is current today, especially on the part of European former colonialists, demands that colonists turn control of the lands they exploited over to the indigenous residents. If the colonists refuse to do the right thing, then the natives are – if not entirely justified in turning to violence – at least understood and sympathized with. The Palestinians even make the absurd claim that the UN Charter, which permits victims of aggression to defend themselves, approves. The oldest indigenous people on the land, and the most legitimate claimants for aboriginal rights, are the Jewish people. The...Read More |
From Ian: Bari Weiss: When Your Body Is Someone Else's Haunted House Tomorrow marks three years since the massacre at Tree of Life, the most lethal attack on Jews in American history and a watershed event in the lives of so many I love. I find myself pulled back to that time. To the shock I felt. To the sense I had immediately that the country I thought I lived in was changing in radical ways, even if I didn't yet fully understand them. One of the people who helped me make sense of it all — who helped me see that the fate of Jews and the fate of liberty are intertwined; who helped me grasp that an assault on Jews was an assault on the very notion of difference — was Dara Horn. Dara is a novelist and an essayist whose writings on Jewish history, culture politics has shaped my own thinking. Her new book is called "People Love Dead Jews." Here's my review: My wife read it in a single sitting, pausing only to read lines out loud to me. But don't take my word for it. Read The Washington Post's review. Or UnHerd's. Or The Wall Street Journal. This is a book deeply relevant to everyone who cares about the future of America, not just the future of American Jews. Until then, here is an excerpt from "People Love Dead Jews":
Sometimes your body is someone else's haunted house. Other people look at you and can only see the dead. I first discovered this at the age of seventeen in the most trivial...Read More |
Once upon a time, everyone knew that Palestine was Jewish land. It didn't matter who was sovereign, who lived there, or how many Jews were there. The fact is, Palestine had always been Jewish land, and everyone knew it. Palestine was also occupied land, only nobody called it that back then. Not even the Jews. Meekly, we prayed for return as the foreign ones came, one after the other. So nu. We had the Brits. Before that the Turks. And before that EVERYONE else. Babylonians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Persians, Mamluks, you name it: they came, and it was ugly and brutal for our people. Everyone wanted a piece of the action. Everyone wanted our land. They still do. Now all of this was foreign domination of Jewish land. And everybody knew it. Everybody knows it, still. The Arabs know it. The world knows it. Even The Squad knows it. Because it's hard to deny history, which is this: Down through the ages, everyone and his dog has wanted our land—Jewish land—and they still do. Right now, thank God, we've got a sliver. But bad people want to drive us into the sea and give it to others, this one tiny sliver of our land. This time, the world wants to give it to Arabs. Who will they give it to next, one hundred years from now? China? Korea? Mars? It matters not. Take our land from us again and again. Expel us. Install another people, another government. Call it something else. Call it Palestine or Israel, Eretz Yisrael, or the Holy Land, it's all the same. It will never matter...Read More |
From Ian: Ruthie Blum: The bigger picture behind the narrow Gantz-NGO controversy It's hard to believe that Israel's defense minister would lie about such an event, the veracity of which would be easy to check. Nor would it make sense for him to have targeted specific groups without evidence. Moreover, the watchdog group NGO Monitor said that Gantz's announcement confirms what its research has shown for years. Whether the defense minister is right or wrong about the NGOs he singled out, however, the brouhaha brings to light two larger points that the Israeli government keeps trying to deny or sweep under the carpet. One is that false assertion that the "diversity" of political parties that make up the coalition is an advantage, not a hindrance. The second is the ridiculous claim that the government – now led by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett but squeezed hard by parties to his left – has the Biden administration in the bag. Oh, and that this "change government" will "bridge" the partisan Democrat-Republican divide on Israel that former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu supposedly created and cultivated. Well, the PFLP-NGO scandal is only the latest among many internecine spats that have been rocking the shaky coalition. This doesn't mean that it's going to fall, mind you, as every one of its members still has more to lose than gain by quitting and toppling it. But...Read More |
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As the COVID-19 crisis started, the Palestinian Authority started the Waqfet Ezz fund to help out people who lost their jobs or otherwise couldn't afford to pay their bills.
They raised money from the private sector - mostly businesses. Citizens were urged to donate as well, and the current mufti of Jerusalem announced that funds given would be considered zaqat (Islamic charity.)
The board of directors of the Waqfet Ezz fund were rich businessmen who were expected to donate huge amounts.
Already last year, criticisms of the fund started. Citizens felt that the government was responsible for helping the people and shouldn't push the issue of funding to the private sector. Only $13 million was raised in the first month. 10 of the 29 board members didn't give a dime. People felt that the board should include citizens from Gaza, from academia and from NGOs, instead of only rich businessmen who raised their own prices for goods to take advantage of the coronavirus.
Now, an audit shows that the Waqfet Ezz fund misused its limited funds, and gave aid to many people who didn...Read More |
Palestinian terrorists are upset at a governmental decision to ban fuel stations from filling containers with gasoline. The Palestinian Authority issued the instruction recently, saying it is prohibited to sell gasoline in plastic or glass containers to citizens, making it more difficult to get the crucial ingredient for Molotov cocktails.
"Resistance activists" said that this was meant to "protect the occupation." There are daily attacks against Israeli motorists and police using the crude firebombs. However, there have been many protests against the Palestinian Authority recently as well, and this decision might have been aimed at those.
Political activist Fakhri Jaradat told Felesteen that the PA aims to control the security situation in the West Bank and bury all kinds of resistance. According to the Shin Bet, there were 187 Molotov cocktail attacks against Israel in September, more than double the incidents in August. * * * * * *
...Read More |
In August 2020, in protest of the UAE normalizing relations with Israel, the Palestinian government announced quite publicly that it will boycott the Dubai Expo this year. They can't even keep the promises they make to their own people, let alone to Israel.
There is a Palestine pavilion at the Dubai Expo. It must have taken months to build - after this announcement. This week, the head of the Palestinian intelligence service, Majed Faraj, made an official visit to the expo. He was accompanied by the ruler of Dubai, Mohammed bin Rashid.
The Emirates News Agency described Faraj as "the special envoy of President Mahmoud Abbas."
That's as official as it gets.
Palestinian media that is not part of the PA is noting the hypocrisy.
There is nothing wrong with changing one's position. Sometimes one has to bend to realpolitik,. But there is a mature way to do it, and a puerile way...Read More |
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