Category: Articles

The US Congress Coronavirus relief bill released Monday includes $250 million in investment aid for the Palestinians and for encouraging Israeli-Palestinian dialogue. This can be found in a provision titled the “Nita M. Lowey Middle East Partnership for Peace Act of 2020.”

Let’s remember that in 2018 Congress limited funding to the Palestinian Authority under the Taylor Force Act. The Act prevents US taxpayer dollars from going to the Palestinian government while it continues to pay stipends to terrorists and their families.

TAKE CAREFUL NOTE!! On pages 1425-1426, if the PA “… has demonstrated firm commitment to peaceful co-existence with Israel….”, there is a provision for “Palestinian Statehood.”

While President Donald Trump is vowing to veto the bill, due to the insulting $600 checks slated for the American people, AFSI would also like to see him cancel the $250 million slated for the Palestinians along with any promise of PA statehood.

Source:
Coronavirus Stimulus Bill Funds Hundreds of Millions in Aid to Palestinians, by Joel B. Pollak. Breitbart, December 21, 2020

Full Text of the COVID-19 Stimulus Bill, December 21, 2020

A proposal by Labor Chairman and Minister of Economy Amir Peretz to promote regulation of the illegal Bedouin enterprise and establish new settlements for Bedouin in the Negev was dropped on Tuesday from the government’s agenda. This was preceded by threats from a long list of ministers that they would vote to kill it as long as the government does not regulate Jewish communities in peril in Judea and Samaria.

On Tuesday, MK Bezalel Smotrich (Yamina) tweeted: “Netanyahu continues his fire sale of Zionism and right-wing values and is right now approving in the government the underhanded deal of establishing 3 new Bedouin settlements in the Negev.”

Judea and Samaria first. Period.

Source:
Right-wing Ministers Defeat Labor’s Plan to Regulate Illegal Bedouin Outposts, by David Israel. Jewish Press, December 23, 2020

Prominent figures on Israel’s Right are furious with Defense Minister and Blue and White leader Benny Gantz for making a comment to a Saudi news outlet last week. Gantz said that he did not envision full regional peace without the Palestinians and that Jerusalem had enough room to include the capital of a future Palestinian state.

Jerusalem Affairs and Heritage Minister Rafi Peretz (Habayit Hayehudi) said in a Twitter post that “United Jerusalem is the eternal capital of the Jewish people, not the capital of anyone else. This is where our forefathers walked and this is where we were created. Gantz, I know you enough to know you believe that, too.”

Gantz was also criticized by the movement Habitchonistim, comprised of former military officials, who issued a statement calling on him to resign and take back his remarks.

“Gantz’s statements absolutely contradict Israel’s principles of security and have the potential to cause great harm to its security … In his remarks, Gantz gives up the most basic principle on which Israel was founded – our ability to defend ourselves by ourselves, and instead calls for ‘security guarantees’, read a statement authored by three retired majors-general (Jerry Gershon, Gershon Hacohen, and Danny Biton) and signed by a number of retired brigadiers-general and some 1,500 members of the movement.

As a former IDF Chief of Staff dedicated to Israel’s security, we can’t imagine what Gantz was thinking when he made his comment and we agree that Gantz should retract it. Between his comment and the PA dreaming of negotiating a two-state solution with a Biden administration, we pray that this nightmare ends quickly.

Sources:
Right livid after Gantz says Jerusalem has ‘room’ for Palestinian capital, by Shahar Klaiman, Yori Yalon and Ariel Kahana. Israel Hayom, December 20, 2020

Palestinians urge Biden and Israel to return to the negotiating table, by Gabe Friedman. JTA, December 20, 2020

The body of an Israeli mother of six was found in a forest near her home in Tal Menashe early Monday in what is surely a terror attack. Esther Horgan left her home on Sunday afternoon for a jog in nearby Shaked Forest.

Her body was found with clear signs of a violent attack which police and the Shin Bet security agency believe was terrorism.

Security forces launched a manhunt Monday morning in an effort to find the perpetrator.
The Samaria Regional Council issued a statement also declaring that Horgan’s murder was an act of terror.

Source:
Mother of six found dead in suspected West Bank terror attack, by Elisha Ben Kimon. Israel Hayom, December 21, 2020

Newly elected congressman Ritchie Torres, a progressive Democrat representing the South Bronx, indicated Saturday in an interview with the New York Post that he has no intention of joining the “Squad”. The “Squad” is a group of democratic socialist members of the Democratic Party consisting of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley and Rashia Tlaib.

In the past, members of the “Squad” have made harsh criticisms of Israel, while supporting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. Omar and Tlaib in particular have also been accused of making anti-Semitic comments in past public statements.

During the interview, Torres noted that BDS as a movement unfairly targets and singles out Israel, making it a form of discrimination, while also touching on his personal connection to the country through trips to Israel in 2015 and 2017.

Torres has condemned the DSA for not explicitly affirming Israel’s right to exist, suggesting that this view is “insane,” in a tweet from August.AFSI applauds Torres for standing up for Israel among hostile pressure from the enemies of Israel. We hope that in time he will see what an illusion and impossibility the two-state solution is as the answer to peace in the Middle East.

Source:
Progressive Dem Ritchie Torres, supporter of Israel, won’t join ‘Squad’, by Cody Levine. Jerusalem Post, December 21, 2020

“There’s room for a Palestinian capital in Jerusalem”, Benny Gantz

The Sovereignty Movement responded as follows:

In response to the statement of the Alternate Prime Minister Benny Gantz regarding the possible partition of Jerusalem and its transformation into the Palestinian capital, the Sovereignty Movement calls upon the Prime Minister and the ministers of the right-wing camp to promote, as soon as possible, the application of Sovereignty over Maale Adumim, Gush Etzion, and the entire Greater Jerusalem area, in order to establish a political reality that will not be subject to the whims of left-wing factors.

“If it seemed to us that the Israeli leadership and the Israeli public had internalized the folly of the concept of partitioning the Land, partitioning Jerusalem, and establishment of an enemy state in the heartland, the statement of Minister Gantz came and proved that there is still much work facing us to clarify the obvious,” say the heads of the movement, Yehudit Katsover and Nadia Matar.

They add: “The application of Sovereignty over Greater Jerusalem will establish, by law, the prohibition to promote any political step to partition the Land. It is incumbent upon the Prime Minister, as the leader of the right-wing camp, to immediately bring a proposal along these lines for government approval.”

Sources:
Sovereignty Mvement: ‘Instead of partitioning J’lem, sovereignty over greater J’lem’, by Arutz Sheva Staff. Arutz Sheva, December 17, 2020

Benny Gantz: ‘There’s room for Palestinian capital in Jerusalem’, by Ido Ben Porat. Arutz Sheva, December 17, 2020

The Knesset plenum approved a bill yesterday which aims to normalize the communities and so-called ‘young Settlements’ in Judea and Samaria.

MK Bezalel Smotrich, who proposed the bill, stated that efforts should be made to promote the legislation at record speed, before the Knesset dissolves itself.

“This is the first victory for the young settlement. But this is only the beginning. We will have to pass this law in three readings as early as next week and at a government decision tomorrow. Mr. Prime Minister Netanyahu, you have the ball. Do not allow Gantz to bring anything to the government without it.” said Smotrich.

Source:
Law regulating outposts passes preliminary reading, by Aurtz Sheva Staff. Arutz Sheva, December 16, 2020

The proper interment of human remains of Jews from the Second Temple Era whose ancient graves near Jericho were desecrated by Arab looters was finally concluded Monday with the unveiling of a special commemorative gravestone.

The circle that was closed began last year when Regavim launched a unique rescue mission with volunteers for the Preserving the Eternal. Together they saved the remains of the Hasmonean royals after the Palestinian Authority issued permits for agricultural work resulting in the desecration of the ancient burial grounds at the Hasmonean Fortress of Jericho.

Regavim and Preserving the Eternal marked the final resting place of the Hasmonean royal family, and “reaffirmed the unbreakable bond between the Jewish People, the Land of Israel, and Jewish history and heritage – the very things for which the Maccabees, members of the Hasmonean royal family buried in the Jericho Fortress, fought over two millennia ago,” Regavim stated.

Source:
Fitting Burial for Hasmonean Royals Concluded on Hanukkah, by Tazpit Press Service. Tazpit Press Service, December 16, 2020

Israel celebrated another two significant diplomatic achievements over the weekend when the Kingdoms of Morocco and Bhutan became the fourth and fifth countries to announce the full normalization of relations with the Jewish state in just five months. More countries are expected to come.

Morocco announced on Thursday evening that it was reestablishing full relations with Israel.Under the agreement, Morocco will renew official relations with Israel, allow Israeli aircraft to pass through Moroccan airspace, and allow direct flights between Israel and Morocco. Morocco and Israel will open diplomatic offices in Tel Aviv and Rabat and later open official embassies. Under the agreement, Morocco and Israel will promote economic relations. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that he has “always believed that this historic day would come, I’ve always worked for it.”

Next came the Kingdom of Bhutan, a small Buddhist country in Southeast Asia, bordering India and China.Bhutan has full diplomatic relations with only 53 countries, and it was Bhutan that gave the world the ‘Happiness Index’.

The signing ceremony was held at the residence of Israel’s Ambassador to India Dr. Ron Malka on Saturday. Malka held an official exchange of notes ceremony with his colleague, the Ambassador of Bhutan to India, Major General Vetsop Namgyel.

Source:
Morocco and Bhutan: The 4th and 5th countries to announce full relations with Israel in five months, by by Aryeh Savir – TPS. J-Wire, December 13, 2020

Steve Postal’s Arutz Sheva OpEd is one we like as it puts the Chanukah story in correct context with Judea and Samaria at the forefront.

An inconvenient TRUTH for the foes of Israel is that the real story of Chanukah is the Jews’ re-gaining autonomy in their ancestral homeland of Judea and Samaria, this time from the Greek Seleucid Empire. The Hanukkah story represents nothing short of the religious and national emancipation of the Jewish people.

To put Hanukkah in context, the Jews had Sovereignty or partial Sovereignty/autonomy over Judea and Samaria during numerous periods throughout Jewish history.

Source:
This Hanukkah, the Jews return to Judea and Samaria, by Steve Postal. Arutz Sheva, December 13, 2020