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1. Mountain View: New, 3-D Map of Yesha, Tel Aviv
by Hillel Fendel
The Yesha Council of Jewish Communities in Judea and Samaria has published a new, colorful, 3-D map of Israel, topographically depicting the dangers of a Palestinian state overlooking Tel Aviv.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, then the feeling at the Yesha Council is that a 3-D map is worth a million words – and can explain with a glance how Judea and Samaria tower above the Gush Dan (Tel Aviv) area of Israel, in which live millions of Israelis.
Similarly, the Golan Heights are clearly shown towering above the Galilee, just as the mountains of Jordan stand much higher than the Jordan Valley. The surrounding of Jerusalem on three sides by PA-controlled areas is also plainly depicted.
The map is being or will be disseminated by mail, in schools, and elsewhere, and a Powerpoint presentation is in the works as well.
Yesha Council Director-General Naftali Bennet says, “The map is designed to make clear to the citizens of greater Tel Aviv that Judea and Samaria is not far away, but rather overlooks their back yards. Most of the population is unaware of this, because maps are generally two-dimensional. Residents of Kfar Saba and Raanana might not be happy to find themselves literally under the thumb of a State of Palestine, and it’s time they knew of this danger.”
Work is underway on an English version of the map. The Hebrew edition is currently available; see for details.
The flip-side of the map contains the following 11 points that the Yesha Council feels must be emphasized: The area of Judea and Samaria comprises 23% of the State of Israel. The area is full of cities and sites from various periods in Jewish history, including Hevron, the Herodion, Beit El, Shilo, Shechem, etc. Some 330,000 Jews live in Judea and Samaria, divided approximately equally among hareidim, religious-Zionist, and secular. Only 3% of the area of Judea and Samaria is built up. Areas of Judea and Samaria surround Jerusalem on three sides. 43% of Judea and Samaria are under either full Palestinian Authority control or administrative PA control. Over 90% of the Arabs in Judea and Samaria live under PA control and vote for the PA parliament. The mountains of Judea and Samaria are the central mountain range of the Land of Israel, running 140 kilometers from the Jezreel Valley in the north to the Arad Valley in the Negev. The width of the Judea and Samaria mountains is 55 kilometers, and the width of Israel’s coastal plane near Tel Aviv is only 16 kilometers. Yesha’s main north-south route, Highway 60, is also the national watershed line, and runs mostly along the same route taken by the Patriarchs in the Bible. The mountain aquifer, which supplies half of Israel’s water, is in Judea and Samaria.
2. State Prosecutor: No Retrial for Har-Shefi
by Gil Ronen
State Prosecutor Moshe Lador rejected Sunday a request for a retrial of Margalit Har-Shefi, the woman who was convicted of failing to prevent the assassination of Yitzchak Rabin.
Lador said that an identical request had been made in 2008, and that Menachem Mazuz, who was the Attorney General at the time, saw no justification for initiating a retrial. The latest request offers “no new argument that would justify reexamining the State Prosecution's stand,” he determined.
The Legal Forum for the Land of Israel and the Organization for Human Rights in Yesha condemned Lador's announcement as a symptom of the legal system's policy of “selective enforcement” against “settlers.”
The decision is “a mark of shame upon the law enforcement establishment, which is incapable of self-criticism and will never let itself be confused by the facts."
MK Michael Ben-Ari (National Union) reacted to Lador's pronouncement by saying he would propose a bill that would establish a body to oversee the State Prosecution.
"We can no longer trust the Prosecution,” he said. “The Ministry of Justice is occupied by leftists who are not ashamed of injecting their political views into their legal decisions. If Har-Shefi had been an Arab, the 'knights of democracy and the rule of law' would have bent over backward to bring about the acquittal of a person who two Shin Bet chiefs said should not have been convicted.”
3. Blood Libel: NIF-Linked Group Blames Israel for Leukemia in Gaza
by Gil Ronen
An international organization closely linked to the New Israel Fund (NIF) has blamed Israel for causing an increased incidence of leukemia in Gaza, while claiming that Hamas suffers from unfair discrimination and has the right to “self defense." The organization also characterized Israel as “bleating” about anti-Semitism and accused its soldiers of "merrily" shooting innocents.
The organization is the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), a 95-year old pacifist group that has a United Nations office and national sections in 37 countries, including Israel and “Palestine.” The Israel section of WILPF is a member of the NIF-sponsored umbrella group Women's Coalition for Peace. It has condemned Israel's Cast Lead operation and the Gaza flotilla raid, while stopping short of openly praising Hamas. However, a perusal of statements by other WILPF committees and sections shows them lavishing compliments on the terror group and attacking Israel in venomously.
Hamas 'good at keeping the peace'
In its 2010 “Statement on Palestine,” WILPF's Middle East Committee blames Cast Lead and the IDF closure of Gaza for terrible health problems: “Because of the war and the siege, Gaza has suffered health epidemics, including greatly increased birth defects and leukemia,” it says. There is no reference to a study or any other source that backs up these claims.
In advocacy of Hamas, the report further states that “the U.S. unjustly calls Hamas 'terrorist' and thus requires the Palestinian Authority Police to arrest or otherwise persecute Hamas affiliates... Hamas is being badly discriminated against by the U.S. and Israel because of its religious beliefs.”
“The problem is that the United States quite unjustly has kept Hamas on the terrorist list even though Hamas is very good at keeping the peace,” the committee states. Elsewhere it says that “Hamas renounced terrorism in 2004, and is very good about renouncing violence in action not just in words through ceasefires, both unilateral and bilateral, as long as Israel does not violate them. However, it retains the right of self-defense.”
The statements issued by the “Palestine” section of WILPF evoke anti-Semitic associations. In a June 3 statement following the Gaza flotilla events, the organization stated: “For over fifty years successive Israeli governments have been slaughtering Palestinians, confiscating their land, denying their identity, turning Palestinian lives into a patchwork quilt of raw struggle, and merrily adopting a policy and practice of 'shoot to kill' on sight.”
A soldier 'scattering a child's brains'
Another statement by the “Palestine” section of WILPF is titled “Zion: Beyond the Pale.” It accuses Israel of “the extra-judicial killings of men, women and children and the trauma of witnessing such acts as an Israeli soldier in full battle gear crouched on one knee his target a child, whose brains are scattered on a local rubbish heap.”
There is no record of any incident of this type, but there is hard proof of dozens of Arab murders of Israeli children, among them ten month old Shalhevet Pas, a Jewish baby in Hevron, killed by an Arab sniper who trained his rifle on her head from a window overlooking the park in which she lay in her stroller, and Daniel Shefi, five years old, hiding under her bed, shot in the head at close range by an Arab terorist. who invaded her home in dead of night, the pregnant Tali Hatuel and her four daughters, killed from close range as their car was attacked on the way to Ashkelon by an Gazan Arab terrorist.
Providing no sources,names or dates for its accusations, and ignoring over 1000 proven Jewish civilian victims of terror in the 2000-2006 post Oslo Intifada including the examples cited above, it continues: “The shooting of infants, and young children, the abuse of them when used as human shield could happen on no other place on earth.”
“This is Gaza: a population of 1.5 million people kept in formaldehyde,” it states.
The group says that Israel is unlikely to investigate itself. Instead, it writes: “It will bleat anti-Semitism and transform all accusations into arrogant rhetoric as has already occurred in relation to the Goldstone report.”
The NIF got in trouble with the Israeli public and some of its Jewish donors worldwide in February when it became known that the groups it sponsors were responsible for 92% of the accusing quotes from Israeli sources in the infamous Goldstone report. NIF President Naomi Chazan was blasted by grassroots Zionist student movement Im Tirtzu for signing a petition against the Cast Lead counter-terror offensive that called the operation a “massacre.”
4. CAMERA Conference Focuses on Israel’s Global Challenges
by Elad Benari
Last week, CAMERA (Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America) held a two-day conference at Boston University that brought together international experts to articulate the enormous challenges which Israel is finding itself dealing with in the world arena and to formulate constructive action. More than 1,000 people from the United States, Australia, England, Canada, Argentina, Israel, and France took part in the conference. Attendees included over 200 college students from the U.S., Argentina and Canada.
The first day opened with keynote speaker Professor Alan Dershowitz, who spoke on the topic of ‘Israel and the Case for Moral Clarity.’ Focusing on the crisis on college campuses, Dershowitz said that J Street (a self-proclaimed Israel lobby which supports negotiations with Hamas terrorists and has ties to Arab-American organizations, and which has in fact lost support by American Jews) is a potent threat that “serves as a platform for anti-Israel zealots who claim allegiance to Israel.”
Dershowitz pointed out the irony that Israel, which has one of the best human rights records in the world, is criticized more than any other country and held to a standard of perfection. “Moral clarity emerges from unvarnished truth,” he said. “Pursue truth without fear or compromise. Challenge constantly those on the other side in every context and forum and we will prevail.”
Also speaking on the first day were Dr. Daniel Pipes (Director of the Middle East Forum) and Yigal Carmon (founder of MEMRI—Middle East Media Research Institute), who addressed perceptions of Israel in the Arab-Muslim World. Pipes said that Muslim anti-Semitism is mainly a Christian import, and that this augurs well for the future through alliances with like-minded moderate Muslim scholars and activists and hard work. Carmon presented a grim picture of simultaneous Holocaust denial and morbid glorification of the Nazi killing of Jews in mainstream Arab media, but also showed footage of reformers from within the Muslim and Arab communities who refute anti-Semitic slanders.
Among the many other speakers during the first day were founder of NGO-Monitor Professor Gerald Steinberg, who described the NGO challenge and how it strives to reverse the deleterious effects of its 'research.' Political commentator Mark Steyn also spoke, describing a current tendency in the Muslim world to believe versions of reality that contain internal contradictions and have no basis in rationality (such as the fact that only 17% of Arab Muslims believe there was any Arab involvement in 9/11, yet huge crowds and national celebrations laud the 'magnificent 19' Arabs who carried out the heinous acts). Steyn added that western liberal thinkers cannot react against this mindset, as 'there are no enemies, only potential friends with unrelieved grievances.'
The second day included a talk by Professor Irwin Cotler (Canadian Member of Parliament and former Justice Minister of Canada), who discussed the delegitimization of Israel under the disguise of law. Cotler said that as long as Israel's enemies denied its existence, they had no case; once they portrayed Israel not only as a state but as the cause of the conflict, they had a platform for falsifications and the mainstreaming of Israel as a human rights violator.
In light of this, Cotler urged taking back the narrative and putting radical Islam and Iranian President Ahmadinejad in the docket. The way to do this, he said, is to put the case of Jewish refugees from Arab lands on the agenda, and talk about the corruption of the UN and of the concept of human rights and the struggle against racism.
Additional speakers during the second day included Tammi Rossman-Benjamin (Lecturer in Jewish Studies, UC Santa Cruz), Dr. Alex Safian (Associate Director of CAMERA), psychiatrist and historian Kenneth Levin (author of The Oslo Syndrome: Delusions of a People Under Seige ), Alvin Rosenfeld (Professor of English and Jewish Studies at Indiana University) and Yaakov Kirschen (creator of the Dry Bones political cartoon).
In addition to the speeches, attendees took part in sessions for advocacy and activism, which focused on using blogs and social media (such as Facebook and Twitter) in defense of Israel, getting published in the mainstream media and making an impact on-line, effective activism within the Spanish-language media, and how to respond to anti-Israel bias in mainstream Protestant churches. The conference also included practical workshops and discussions geared especially for students dedicated to letter-writing, student leadership and activism.
CAMERA is a national research, educational and activist organization that monitors media coverage of Israel and the Middle East and works to promote accurate, balanced and complete reporting.
5. David Bedein: Loyalty Oath is Response to Anti-Israel Manifesto
by INN Staff
David Bedein, Director of the Israel Resource News Agency and Center for Near East Policy Research based in Jerusalem, explained to Israel National News what he feels is the real reason for the strong left-wing opposition to the new loyalty oath currently under government consideration.
"Just like the American Pledge of Allegiance," Bedein said, "a loyalty oath or the like is par for the course in other countries."
But, he added, "Mainstream media coverage of the 'loyalty legislation' proposed by the Israeli government has all but ignored the context of why this law is being discussed at this time: The growing power and influence of the 2007 Haifa Declaration, signed by more than 30 leading Israeli-Arab organizations that have coordinated a systematic effort to undermine the nature of the State of Israel as a Jewish state."
Goal: Overrun Israel with 'Right of Return'
"Haifa Declaration signatories such as Ittijah, I’lam, Mossawa and Adalah, have openly stated," Bedein continued, "that their goal is to replace Zionism as the basis of the State of Israel, with the implementation of the 'right of return' for Palestinian Arab refugees and their descendants who now wallow in the indignity of teeming UNRWA refugee camps... and who would be encouraged to reclaim lands lost in the 1948 war."
A quote from the Haifa Declaration: "Our vision for the future relations between Palestinian Arabs and Israeli Jews in this country is to create a democratic state founded on equality between the two national groups. This solution would guarantee the rights of the two groups in a just and equitable manner. This would require a change in the constitutional structure and a change in the definition of the State of Israel from a Jewish state to a democratic state established on national and civil equality between the two national groups..."
Bedein said that while many left-wing non-profit organizations currently receive Israeli funding, this could be threatened if the new loyalty oath goes through. He explained:
"Currently, Israel non-profit organization law states that ‘A non-profit organization shall not be registered if any of its objectives negates the existence of the democratic character of the state of Israel.’ If the new proposed amendment to Israel’s basic law goes through, the law would declare that ‘A non-profit organization shall not be registered if any of its objectives negates the existence of the democratic and Jewish character of the State of Israel.'"
"In other words, this proposed legislation could block funds from the New Israel Fund and the European Union to Israeli-Arab organizations that have signed on to the Haifa Declaration, which represents nothing less than an insurrection against the raison d’etre of the State of Israel."
6. Two Israelis Physicists Win White House Award
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
Two Israeli physicists are among the top 10 scientists to be awarded the U.S. National Medal of Science by U.S. President Barack Obama in mid-November.
Yakir Aharonov, a professor at the Chapman University in California, will be honored for his work in quantum physics. Prof. Amnon Yariv, of the California Institute of Technology (CalTech), will be noted for his work in photonics and quantum electronics that has helped developments in optics and light wave communications.
"The extraordinary accomplishments of these scientists, engineers and inventors are a testament to American industry and ingenuity," President Obama said. "Their achievements have redrawn the frontiers of human knowledge while enhancing American prosperity, and it is my tremendous pleasure to honor them for their important contributions."
Prof. Aharonov, born in Haifa, is a professor emeritus at Tel Aviv University and president of the Israeli Institute for Advanced Research. He is a graduate of Technion University and taught in several American Universities, including Yeshiva University.
"I feel very honored," Aharonov told the Orange County, California Register. "It's a real distinction, and I think it's nice that finally someone from a small university got it. So many people from major universities get it. It's quite a change."
Prof. Yariv, 80, grew up in Tel Aviv and served in the Israeli army from 1948 to 1950, when he began studying at Technion. He was invited by Tel Aviv University in the 1970s to join the Sackler Institute of Advanced Studies.
7. Israel-US Trade: Celebrating and Growing
by Hillel Fendel
Israel and the United States are commemorating the 25th anniversary of the US-Israel Free Trade Agreement at a conference hosted by the US Chamber of Commerce.
Minister of Industry and Trade Binyamin Ben-Eliezer is in Washington for the occasion.
On Tuesday, a special conference will be held at the United States Chamber of Commerce marking the U.S.-Israel Business Initiative, a new program in the Middle East department. It is dedicated to the advancement of relations between American and Israeli commercial players at all levels. The Chamber, the largest of its kind in the world with over three million members, says that the new Initiative will be a national forum for dialogue on innovation, entrepreneurship, and the key commercial and economic issues of interest to American and Israeli companies.
The conference will feature leading Israeli innovators and entrepreneurs, high-ranking American and Israeli government officials, and top American companies. The goal is to increase trade between Israeli and American companies, by introducing new financial bodies into the picture and by enhancing existing trade relationships.
Ben-Eliezer, IDF Brig.-Gen. in the reserves and a Knesset Member since 1984, headed the Labor Party for a short while and has served in several ministerial capacities in various Israeli governments. He said his visit to the United Statesis designed to “maintain and promote our relations with the US, our most important business partner.”
Trade between Israel and the U.S.grew in 2008 by 8%, to $26 billion, Ben-Eliezer said, “even though this was the height of the world financial crisis.”
Boaz Hirsch, Deputy Director for Foreign Trade in the Ministry of Industry and Trade, said, “We are very proud and happy about this new initiative by the American Chamber of Commerce to build a permanent framework for the advancement of bilateral trade relations. Israel is one of the few countries chosen by the Chamber for such activity, alongside countries such as India and Brazil.”
Intellectual Property Agreement
He noted that the 25-year-old agreement is one of Israel’s oldest, “and its contribution to US-Israel trade relations over the years has been very positive. In the past year, we reached an agreement with the Americans regarding the long-standing issue of intellectual property. The very fact that we can work on and solve problems like this is testimony to our strong relations and the importance that both sides attribute to them.”
Ben-Eliezer will hold a number of key meetings, including with the Director of the World Bank, the Chief of the New York Police Department, a group of media investors, and more. He will take part in a special dinner with leaders of the American-Jewish community, and will grant honorary awards to Ron Lauder and Harvey Krueger.
Ministry of Trade has statistics show that in the first eight months of this year, Israeli-US trade totaled $11.9 billion, up 9% compared to the same period the year before. Exports were up 9% to $8 billion, and imports were up 7% to $3.8 billion.
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