The Jerusalem Planning and Building Committee this week approved a plan to build 150 housing units in the Beit Hanina neighborhood of northern Jerusalem. Previously, no urban plan of this size has ever been approved for Jews in Beit Hanina, which includes details to the level of completing construction, public areas and more.
More HERE.
The Trump Administration has officially cut off all funding of UNRWA. The decision was made last month in a meeting between Jared Kushner, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and R. David Harden. While Pompeo and Harden were opposed to such a drastic cut, in the end it was Kushner who pushed the hardest for the full cut.
Read what PM Netanyahu had to say about the decision.
“UNRWA is a foreign and unnecessary organization that has failed miserably. I intend to expel it from Jerusalem.” said Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat.
David Bedein’s organization, The Center for Near East Policy Research (CNEPR), has been in touch with the Trump administration at the highest levels giving them everything CNEPR has collected and researched regarding the UNRWA schoolbooks.
When the most recent CNEPR report reached President Trump directly, according to Bedein, Trump “blew his stack.” The report showed that “the right of return through the armed struggle became the most important and dominant theme of Palestinian Authority and UNRWA education.” Story HERE.
The IDF is very concerned about UNRWA funding cuts. A senior officer in the Shomron region said: “We are concerned that if the schools aren’t funded the youth will go out and carry out attacks.”
We like today’s JNS Story:
Haley: US To Work With UNRWA Again When Refugee Numbers Are Corrected
US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley called for a thorough review of the Palestinian claim to “right of return.” Haley says, until UNRWA reforms itself, the “right of return” should be taken “off the table.”
The Jerusalem District Court on Tuesday accepted the claim of Mitzpe Kramim residents in Samaria to apply the ‘Market ouvert’ clause to their town, stating that they own the rights to the lands on which Mitzpe Kramim is built.
More HERE.
“Dozens at Facebook Unite to Challenge Its ‘Intolerant’ Liberal Culture” – now being exposed in today’s The New York Times.
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Reports are surfacing that the Trump administration is prepared to announce a new policy that effectively cancels the so-called “right of return” for Palestinians. The policy will have consequences for both the “refugees” and the disastrous UNRWA – an enormous issue AFSI that has been following closely.
The administration is expected to announce its plan in September – – one that will have several stages.
AFSI eagerly looks forward to forthcoming information and what we hope is the start of the long overdue resolution to the UNRWA matter.
Just last week the US cut $200 million in aid to the Palestinian Authority after a State Department review found that the funding was not being spent in line with US national interests.
Rabbi Uri Pilichowski reports on his first day as Director of Americans for a Safe Israel/AFSI’s IF NOT US program – whose goal is to teach the truth about Israel.
College campuses have become the new battleground for anti-Israel sentiment. Anti-Israel activists demonize Israel with slanderous charges that Israel mistreats Palestinians. They challenge Israel advocates by claiming that they don’t know what’s really happening on the ground in the “West Bank.” Their campaigns argue that American Jews were never told about how Israel really treats the Palestinians. If only they knew about the oppressive way Israel treated the Palestinians, they would abandon their support for Israel. These are lies that must be addressed.
Israel’s best advocates have studied the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and have strong emotional ties to Israel, but they haven’t seen the truth. They haven’t driven through Judea and Samaria and seen fair and secure checkpoints. They can’t say that they’ve seen firsthand that there is no oppression of Palestinians. They become easy targets of those who fabricate stories of Israeli apartheid.
With its program, IF NOT US, AFSI addresses facts on the ground in Judea and Samaria. By taking the most engaged Gap Year students in Israel and showing them the truth, IF NOT US will ensure that when these students arrive on the college campus they can speak with confidence that they have been there and seen the truth. They can answer Israel’s opponents with the truth that Palestinian Arabs are treated fairly and that Israel is a moral country.
IF NOT US takes students on a one day tour of Judea and Samaria. On this trip IF NOT US shows the truth about Judea and Samaria IF NOT US is committed to giving our best advocates not only the facts, the passion, but also the firsthand knowledge to defend themselves against those who knowingly lie about what occurs in Judea and Samaria.
In his second meeting with PM Netanyahu this week, UN National Security Advisor John Bolton stated his highest priority is to see that Iran will “…never get nuclear weapon capabilities.”
Bolton has been a very strong supporter of Israel and an outspoken critic of the Iran ‘deal.’ He also reaffirmed that the alliance between the US and Israel has never been stronger.
Full story HERE.
The Times of Israel sat down with recent high school graduates for a wide-ranging discussion on growing up in Judea and Samaria.
They recognized the impact the security situation had on their youth, but still spoke in unison about how they would not have had it any other way. Repeatedly, the teens interviewed stated that it was the “good quality of life” they enjoyed in their communities.
