Author: AFSI Staff

Former Jerusalem Mayor MK Nir Barkat returned to Israel after his advocacy campaign in the United States. MK Barkat met with 11 members of the Senate and Congress as well as thought leaders and journalists – to build the alliance against Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons. During his visit, MK Barkat succeeded in marshaling support to prevent the U.S. administration from opening a consulate for the Palestinian Authority in Jerusalem. His campaign led to 36 senators introducing legislation on this issue and 200 members of Congress signing a letter to President Biden that outlines their opposition to the consulate in Jerusalem.

Following soon after Barkat’s trip, the Biden administration has rejected Israel’s request to expedite delivery of two KC-46 refueling jets out of four purchased, which would facilitate IAF flight to attack Iran. This is certainly not a sign of support.

MK Barkat’s trip follows AFSI’s successful simultaneous vigil with 20 organizations in Israel to protest the opening of a PA consulate in Jerusalem. With the diplomatic effort of MK Barkat driving home the point, we are pleased that our advocacy has been heard loud and clear in DC.

Source:
MK Barkat: US consulate for PA in Jerusalem was stopped, by Israel National News, December 13, 2021

 

 

 

Yesterday in the Knesset, a bill to expel terrorist’s families from Israel was voted down 57-45. Reportedly, the prime minister was amongst those who voted against. Is this the same man who in 2013 said, “If you catch terrorists you simply have to kill them”? Yediot Aharonot and the Jerusalem Post reported the story that way at the time. The Bennett of the Yamina party of yesteryear has evaporated.

In his place we find a prime Minister who bows to US pressure. His government’s state planning committee has delayed plans for building Jewish housing in Atarot that had been previously approved by the Jerusalem municipality. (Atarot is in Eastern Jerusalem which is, since 1967, included in the Jerusalem municipality.) This is a direct result of US Secretary of State Blinken’s urging Israel (and “Palestine”) to refrain from taking unilateral steps. Mr. Blinken is reported saying that “advancing settlement activity could undercut any efforts to negotiate a two-state solution.” Every sane Israeli knows that a two state solution is out of the question and wholly unworkable, Bennett used to know it, so why allow policy to be dictated based on that fiction?

Today, the Knesset passed a first reading of a bill that would allow internet censorship of private citizens. True, it is aimed at criminal activity and violence but also encompasses content that “endangers mental health.” What this endangerment consists of is open to interpretation and could infringe on free speech, the hallmark of a democratic society. The religious right is concerned about this. Again, Bennett and his government bow to pressure, this time from the Israeli left.

Is holding on to political power worth compromising your own principles and Israel’s best interest? We are alarmed by the about face Prime Minister Bennett continues to take by appeasing the PA, the US and the Israeli left. This is especially true after his election promises stated the opposite. Bennett clearly cannot be trusted and is a threat to Israel’s safety, survival and sovereignty.

Sources:
Bennett votes against bill to expel terrorists’ families, ‘sold his soul to terror supporters’, by World Israel News Staff, December 8, 2021

Israel Delays Eastern Jerusalem Atarot Housing Plan, by Reuters and Algemeiner Staff, December 6, 2021

 

 

Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked and Welfare Minister Meir Cohen toured the town of Rahav and the Negev on Tuesday. They wanted to see up close the implementation of the government decision in solving the problem of settlement in the Negev through the establishment of the three villages of Khashem Zana, Abda and Rahma.

Ayelet Shaked stated, “All Israeli government ministers are fully engaged in carrying out the regulation of settlements.” (She is referring to he Bedouin settlements, of course.)

Regavim is publishing a book with a fitting title called “Bedouistan.” “It reflects what we’d like to share with every citizen of Israel: Right under our noses, there’s a state within a state growing in the Negev,” says Avraham Binyamin, Head of Policy at Regavim. “We also point out the major problematic incidents that have plagued the Negev, which we find out about sporadically.”

We don’t know if regulating the Bedouin settlements will stop illegal activity. What we do know is that a concerted effort still has not been made to regulate Judea and Samaria. Jewish residents there continue to live with no electricity, water or basic infrastructure. It is disturbing to see the other side appeased once again. The direction of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s government must do an about-face, get serious, and give priority to Israel’s own. A sovereign nation must not neglect its people, and this is exactly what is happening.

Sources:
Shaked: Window of opportunity to regulate Bedouin settlement, by Arutz Sheva Staff, December 7, 2021

Bedouistan in the Negev: Who’s REALLY in charge?, by Regavim, June 3, 2021

Former Prime Minister and opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu responded to the failure of the Vienna nuclear talks, saying that Israel must present a real military threat against Iran.

Stating that Israel will remain strong against Iran obtaining nuclear weapons is critical. However, with no plan of action Israel cannot truly protect itself. With no policy and no line being draw, Israel is perceived as weak in the eyes of its enemies and the world.

Source:
Netanyahu: Iran, terrorists see weakness of Israel’s government, by Israel National News, December 6, 2021

On Friday, Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, sent a harsh and scathing letter to the UN Secretary General. The letter followed a glaring distinction in the statistics published by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). The UN agency allegedly reports on the victims of the Israeli-Palestinian “conflict” and publishes the number of Palestinian and Israeli casualties, both killed or wounded, from 2008.

In true fashion, as it always does, the UN has its facts wrong. The report distinguishes “settler” casualties from other Israeli losses, an unheard of distinction. This is but another attempt to demonize Israel at all costs.

Source:
Ambassador Erdan to UN chief: Is the murder of ‘settlers’ less serious in your eyes?, by Arutz Sheva Staff, December 6, 2021

 

 

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett called on the United States yesterday to immediately halt the ongoing negotiations in Vienna over Iran’s nuclear weapons program.

Bennett spoke with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in a conversation that largely focused on the Iranian talks, according to a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office.

Bennett told Blinken that Iran was utilizing “nuclear blackmail” as a tactic and therefore the United States should initiate “an immediate cessation of negotiations.”

According to the Prime Minister’s Office, Blinken provided Bennett with an update on the talks, which restarted earlier this week in Vienna months after they were suspended. The State Department did not immediately provide its own readout of the call.

In the phone conversation, Bennett referenced a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency revealing that Iran has recently begun enriching uranium to 20% purity with advanced centrifuges at its Fordo facility.

AFSI commends Prime Minister Bennett for his consistently strong stance working to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. We question whether his less vigorous stances on the US consulate in Jerusalem and building in Atarot (sovereignty) are due to what many perceive as the existential threat of Iran overshadowing these issues. With Israel’s report on Iran’s “nuclear blackmail,” we pray that the dangerous position that the United States persists in taking, may do a turn-around.

Source:
Bennett to Blinken: US must immediately halt Iran talks over ‘nuclear blackmail’, by Amy Spiro/Times of Israel, December 2, 2021

 

The United Nations General Assembly approved a resolution 129-11 on Wednesday, that disavowed Jewish ties to the Temple Mount and called it solely by its Muslim name of al-Haram al-Sharif.

The text, referred to as the “Jerusalem resolution,” is part of a push by the Palestinian Authority and the Arab states across the UN system to rebrand Judaism’s most holy site as an exclusively Islamic one.

The United States, which opposed the text, said that the omission of inclusive terminology for the site sacred to three faiths was of “real and serious concern.”

The second UN resolution failed to condemn the recent murder of Eli Kay. The third called on Israel to withdraw from the Golan Heights.

Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan addressed the General Assembly on Wednesday. He noted that “one of the most absurd demands in these resolutions is the call to maintain the status quo in Jerusalem, when in essence, the resolution does the exact opposite. By referring to the holiest site in Judaism, the Temple Mount, only by its Muslim name, the resolution itself is changing the status quo! A resolution about Jerusalem that does not refer to its ancient Jewish roots is not an ignorant mistake, but an attempt to distort and rewrite history! So let me be clear – whether it’s through terror attacks against Jews at our holy sites or biased UN resolutions that are completely detached from reality, the eternal bond between the Jewish people and Jerusalem – our capital – will never be erased,” he concluded.

AFSI thanks the United States and other nations who voted ‘no” to these anti-Semitic resolutions. See the the chart on how countries voted below.

Sources:
129 nations ignore Jewish ties to Temple Mount, call it solely Muslim, by Tovah Lazaroff/Jerusalem Post, December 2, 2021

Israeli envoy slams UN’s anti-Israeli resolution, by TPS/World Israel News, December 2, 2021

 

 

Today we must share three separate stories that we find quite disturbing. Frankly, we are ashamed. Never did we expect to see the Israeli government pitting Jew against Jew.

Last Wednesday, hundreds of police and Civil Administration inspectors raided the Givat Zion and Ramat Migron communities in the Benjamin region and began demolishing the homes of four families who had been attempting to rebuild after their homes were demolished for the first time last week.

The families claimed that they were forcibly evicted from their homes within minutes and without being given any notice or time to get organized. Residents who documented the destruction were also removed from the scene.

Elisha Yarad, a resident of Ramat Migron, told Arutz Sheva: “For the second time in a week, hundreds of policemen came to us on the hill with tools of destruction in order to destroy our house. They did not give us two minutes to get organized and took us out violently. In five minutes all our clothes, our daughter’s belongings were rolled outside and they destroyed our house. They came with venom and a desire to destroy the hilltop community to the end.”

In another report, a series of serious stone-throwing incidents have been recorded in recent days in the Samaria area near the village of Luban a-Sharqiya, at a road junction where many Jews travel to and from work. This is also one of the main focal points for attacks on Jewish owned vehicles. In one attack, last week, two cinderblocks were thrown at a pregnant passenger in her ninth month. Miraculously that attack ended with damage to the vehicle alone.

It was only logical, then, to find out on Sunday morning, on Reshet Bet radio, that the IDF will intensify its forces to eradicate hate crimes, as the defense establishment intends to establish special operations teams to carry out this effort. However, the target of this move appears to be primarily Jewish “settlers” who are accused of attacking PA Arabs. A senior military officer told Kan 11 News that “not enough has been done, the phenomenon needs to be put to an end. The whole system needs to act to eradicate nationalist crime.” Again, by nationalist, he means Jews.

Last is a report that came out on Kan News on Sunday that residents in Yitzhar have uncovered an undercover agent of the Shabak’s ‘Jewish department’. The agent had apparently been embedded in a yeshiva in central Israel before moving to Yitzhar. He first gathered information about the yeshiva’s students and rabbis as well as the mood of the yeshiva, before being moved to Yitzhar, where he collected information about minors who were allegedly part of the ‘hilltop youth’ and was a key figure in violent incidents over the last few years.

During his work with the Shabak, the agent received hundreds of thousands of shekels in aggregate, as well as rewards for providing information about the violent events in which he participated. In recent days, as part of his disclosure, the agent admitted his activities to his friends at the yeshiva and among the ‘hilltop youth’, apologized, disengaged from his Shabak handlers and is currently working together with rabbis and key figures to correct what he did in various ways.

As AFSI has previously reported, the Bennett coalition continues to appease the Arabs in too many ways while Jews in Judea and Samaria are ignored at best. What makes the actions of Bennett’s government deeply concerning is that Jews are not just being ignored, they are now demonized by their own people – the government and those with whom the government holds sway. That is unacceptable. If these instances are an indication of where the Bennett government is headed, we pray the Israeli people find the strength to demand that Bennett reverse course.

Photo above reads “Stop destroying homes in Israel.”

Sources:
IDF Creates Teams to Fight Settlers’ ‘Hate Crimes’ During Peak in Stone, Firebomb Attacks on Jews, by David Israel/Jewish Press, November 28, 2021

Residents uncover Shabak agent in Yitzhar, by Arutz Sheva Staff, November 28, 2021

Hilltop homes destroyed: ‘They gave us no warning or time’, by Hezki Baruch/Arutz Sheva, November 24, 2021

On the backdrop of the talks in Vienna that begin today, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has issued the following message:

Today, Iran will be arriving at negotiations in Vienna with a clear goal: To end sanctions in exchange for almost nothing. Iran won’t just keep its nuclear program; from today, they’ll be getting paid for it.
Iran doesn’t hide its intentions. Just a couple of days ago, the senior command of Iran’s Armed Forces declared, and I quote, “We will not back off from the annihilation of Israel, not even one millimeter.”

Just this week, the Iranian regime shot its own people on the streets of Isfahan for having dared to protest the lack of water in their country. Yes, they shot their own citizens just for being thirsty. Such a murderous regime should not be rewarded.

Despite Iran’s violations and undermining of the nuclear inspections, Iran will be arriving at the negotiation table in Vienna, and there are those who think they deserve to have their sanctions removed and hundreds of billions of dollars poured right into their rotten regime.

They’re wrong. Iran deserves no rewards, no bargain deals and no sanctions relief in return for their brutality. We call upon our allies around the world: Do not give in to Iran’s nuclear blackmail.

AFSI gives credit where it is due. Here Prime Minister Bennett deserves our approval for his consistently strong stance against allowing Iran to obtain nuclear weapons.

Source:
‘Iran deserves no rewards’ – Bennett’s message to the world: A murderous regime like Iran should not be rewarded, by Arutz Sheva Staff, November 29, 2021

On Sunday morning, one person was murdered and another 3 were wounded, one of them in moderate to serious condition and two lightly in a shooting attack near the Chain Gate close to the Kotel. The terrorist was neutralized by security forces.

Eliyahu David Kay, an employee at the Western Wall Heritage Foundation and a recent oleh from South Africa, was killed. AFSI mourns the senseless loss of this young man and prays for the recovery of all those injured in this terror attack.

Incitement and terror against Israelis is on the rise again. We believe we can attribute this directly to 1) Biden & Co.’s political pressure to open a PA consulate in Jerusalem, 2) talk of reviving efforts to establish a PA state, and 3) the Israeli government’s steps to strengthen the PA economically. With Biden’s damaging support of terrorism, it’s clear that Arabs see a new path to attain their goal of destroying and taking over all of Israel.

Last week Caroline Glick, in one of her always astute articles, quoted Prime Minister Naftali Bennett who said, “There are no negotiations taking place towards the establishment of a terror state in the heart of Israel.” This actually might be true. From what we see there are no negotiations. However, there are direct giveaways to the PA with no concern for the negative and harmful consequence it will have on the Israeli people.

Sources:
One dead, three wounded in attack at entrance to Western Wall, by Arutz Sheva Staff, November 21, 2021

Jerusalem terror victim: lone soldier from South Africa, by Lauren Marcus/World Israel News, November 21, 2021

Bennett Builds A Terror State, by Caroline Glick, November 19, 2021