Is It Time To Stop Using The Name “Palestinians”?

Before Israel declared itself an independent state in May 1948, “Palestinians” were a mix of Jews, Christians and Muslims. At the end of the 1948-9 Arab-Israeli War, the region was divided and renamed. There were Israeli Jews, Christians and Muslims, but no longer any “Palestinians,” as the non-Israeli territory fell under Egypt (Gaza) and The Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan (the west bank of the Jordan River). The term “Palestinians” for the United Nations came to only mean Arab refugees from Israel, who were then living either in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Gaza and Israel (the term Palestinian refugees inside of Israel was phased out by the global body in 1952).

Jordanians and subsequently, Former Jordanians

After Transjordan illegally seized control of the west bank of the Jordan River in 1949, it renamed itself as “Jordan”, now controlling both banks of the river. Jordan annexed that west bank land in 1950 and subsequently gave all the people who lived there – as long as they weren’t Jewish – Jordanian citizenship in 1954. These new Jordanians moved freely between both sides of the Jordan River and many opted to NOT take on the label of “refugee.” To wit, in June 1950, there were 506,200 refugees in Jordan, and that number shrank to 465,741 in June 1951, an 8% drop.

The new Jordanians were part of the force that attacked Israel in June 1967 and lost the eastern part of Jerusalem and all of the land Jordan illegally annexed in 1950. Jordan ultimately withdrew Jordanian citizenship from these West Bank Arabs in July 1988, when the Palestinians declared their independence, in a move not recognized by much of the world.

The former Jordanians are ruled by the Palestinian Authority, under the unpopular leadership of Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah. He has championed for more countries to recognize the Palestinian State and has secured the Muslim countries as well as several in Latin America. As the United States and western Europe have refused to recognize the country until it negotiates borders and other matters with Israel, they are viewed as stateless.

Meanwhile, Israel lifted the Jordanian ban on Jews living in the region. Israeli Jews now live throughout the area known as Area C, while they are still banned in Areas A and B under Palestinian Authority-control.

Gazans

Gaza is a terrorist enclave run by the terrorist group Hamas. A majority of Gazans support the killing of Israeli Jews inside of Israel. They support keeping the terrorist group in power and spending finite resources attacking Israel. The majority of Gazans have always opposed a two state resolution to the conflict. It is for those many reasons, that the Gaza Strip has been blockaded by both Israel and Egypt.

Hamas and Fatah have not been able to reconcile their differences over the past many years. Gaza remains an Islamic terrorist territory, and Areas A and B of the West Bank (handed by Israel to the Palestinian Authority) remain under control of the PA, for now. Should elections ever be held, it is likely that Hamas will win control of the PA and thereby take control of the former Jordanians in those areas.

One hundred years ago, “Palestinians” included a mix of Jews, Muslims and Christians living together. Today it means nothing. As Hamas controlled-Gaza and Fatah-controlled Areas A and B are completely distinct and there is no country of Palestine, the people should similarly be referred to differently, as Gazans and former Jordanians.

Related articles:

The 1967 War Created Both the “West Bank” and the Notion of a Palestinian State

When You Understand Israel’s May 1948 Borders, You Understand There is No “Occupation”

Quantifying the Values of Gazans

Palestinian “Refugees” or “SAPs”?

The United Nations Can Hear the Songs of Gazans, but Cannot See Their Rockets

UNRWA Politically Correctly Condemns When It Comes To Palestinian Terror

On November 29, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) condemned the sudden appearance of a “man-made cavity underneath the grounds of an UNRWA school in Gaza.” The agency “protested strongly to the relevant authorities in Gaza to express outrage and condemnation of the presence of such a structure underneath one of its installations.“

For the uninformed, the “man-made cavity” was a tunnel dug by the political-terrorist group HAMAS to store weapons and move their soldiers to attack and abduct Israelis. The “relevant authorities in Gaza” is the leadership of HAMAS.

But the words “Palestinian”, “Hamas”, “tunnels” or “terrorist” were completely absent in the otherwise strongly worded statement. It was as if UNRWA was only worried that a sinkhole might damage the structural integrity of their building.

UNRWA pretends that it is a neutral party to the conflict like the Red Cross, simply providing shelter, education and healthcare services inside the camps that it runs. The UNRWA statement made the point in closing with “UNRWA reiterates its demand that all parties respect the neutrality and inviolability of United Nations premises at all times. Such flagrant breaches of neutrality are serious violations of the Agency’s privileges and immunities, and they jeopardize the ability of UNRWA to provide support and protection to the 1.4 million Palestine refugees in need in Gaza.“

The reality is that UNRWA is not neutral. It frequently leaves its jurisdiction to investigate Israel. It specifically calls out Israel by name, while not doing so for Palestinians.

A recent example was UNRWA’s condemnation of Israel evicting Arab squatters in Israeli-owned homes in the Sheik Jarrah section of Jerusalem. That neighborhood lies outside UNRWA’s jurisdiction and purview.

A few weeks ago, UNRWA joined with several other UN agencies to go to Beit Iksa in Area B of the West Bank, near the Israeli town of Mevaseret Zion. It joined Palestinian farmers in an olive harvest – again, nothing to do with its mission and far outside of so-called “refugee camps.”

Meanwhile, when Palestinian children lost their lives in Syria from playing with dormant bombs lying on the ground from the civil war, UNRWA bemoaned the loss of life but only mentioned that the children were victims of the generic “conflict” without blaming the government of Syria.

Yet when a Palestinian man was hit by an Israeli army truck in a small town southeast of Hebron, no where near an UNRWA facility, UNRWA “condemned” Israel saying it showed “evident disregard for their responsibilities vis-à-vis internal law and standards.“

Supporters of Hamas in the Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza, gather to express their solidarity with the Jenin refugee camp, against the Israeli operation in Jenin to root out Palestinian terrorists who killed three civilians in Tel Aviv on April 10, 2022. A few weeks later, the head of UNRWA went to Jenin to show his support for Palestinian Arabs in Jenin. (Photo by MOHAMMED ABED / AFP)

When UNRWA lambasts Israel far from its field of operations but refuses to clearly condemn Hamas and its terrorist tunnels abutting its facilities, it further underscores that the agency is not neutral and therefore deserves neither privileges nor immunities.

Related articles:

“Politics Aside,” It’s All Politics for UNRWA

UNRWA Is A Prison

A Tale of Three Palestinian Refugees, With and Without UNRWA

Palestinian Arabs De-Registering from UNRWA

Help Refugees: Shut the UNRWA, Fund the UNHCR

Gaza, The Terrorist Enclave

Why Blockade Gaza

The United Nations’ Adoption of Palestinians, Enables It to Only Find Fault With Israel

Most Palestinians Are For Hamas. Most Israelis Are Not European Jews.

Gaza, The Terrorist Enclave

In November 2021, the United Kingdom took the long overdue step of recognizing the entirety of the Palestinian Arab group HAMAS to be a terrorist organization. In making the decision to mark the ‘political wing’ as no different than its ‘military wing,’ British Home Secretary Priti Patel said “Hamas is fundamentally and rabidly antisemitic” and that the group has “significant terrorist capability, including access to extensive and sophisticated weaponry, as well as terrorist training facilities.“

This has long been plain to see for anyone who read the group’s foundational charter which includes such noxious declarations as “Our struggle against the Jews is very great and very serious” and “In face of the Jews’ usurpation of Palestine, it is compulsory that the banner of Jihad be raised“, “Israel, Judaism and Jews challenge Islam and the Moslem people,” and “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it.”

The immediate ramification of the British action is to make it illegal to be a member of Hamas or to express support for the group, including by flying its flag or wearing a T-shirt to that end. The maximum penalty would be 14 years in prison.

But the impact should have much greater consequences.

By recognizing that the entirety of Hamas is a rabidly antisemitic terrorist group, it marks the Gaza Strip, which is administered by Hamas, as a terrorist enclave. It is a new term that needs to be properly institutionalized as an expansion of established governmental terms like Foreign Terrorist Organizations, State Sponsors of Terrorism and Terrorist Safe Havens.

Hamas winning parliamentary elections in 2006

Hamas meeting with Taliban to congratulate them for expelling western forces in 2021

Masked Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip, March 2008. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

Hamas drags a suspected ‘collaborator’ through the streets of Gaza in 2012

Hamas schools and camps train children to kill Jews

Hamas is a terrorist organization which runs the Gaza Strip from which it has launched repeated wars and terrorist attacks

The United States had long ago marked Hamas as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO), along with other Palestinian groups operating out of Gaza including the Palestine Liberation Front (PLF), Palestine Islamic Jihad (PIJ), Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the PFLP-General Command (PFLP-GC). The list of Palestinian Arab groups hell-bent on killing Jews is long and the designation enabled the government to block funding of such terrorists and to block their assets with EO 13224 of 2001. Subsequent amendments to that executive order limited the travel of members of these groups, and enabled monitoring agencies to track their activities with the support of numerous western countries including the United Kingdom, Australia and Switzerland.

The U.S. State Department similarly maintains a list of countries which are State Sponsors of Terrorism, including Cuba, North Korea, Iran and Syria. These countries are subject to a variety of sanctions.

State also recognized the threat of terrorist safe havens in its reports which defined them as “ungoverned, under-governed, or ill-governed areas of a country and non-physical areas where terrorists that constitute a threat to U.S. national security interests are able to organize, plan, raise funds, communicate, recruit, train, and operate in relative security because of inadequate governance capacity, political will, or both.” These locations enable terrorist to operate freely, threatening civilized society at any time they choose.

In summary, the U.S. government identifies terrorists, countries that support terrorists, and areas that enable terrorists to flourish. But Gaza, governed by Hamas (an FTO) and supported by a state sponsor of terrorism (Iran), doesn’t exactly mean the criteria of a “terrorist safe haven” because it HAS the political will and directive to commit terrorism. As such, it sets a new low water market in depravity and requires a new category designation: a terrorist enclave.

Actions Against Terrorist Locations

The U.S. State Department developed “Long-term Programs and Initiatives Designed to Counter Terrorist Safe Havens and Recruitment.” Its stated goals include “protecting the United States, our interests, and our allies by reducing the ability of terrorists to radicalize, recruit, mobilize, and inspire acts of terrorism.” But the department has been seemingly tepid in taking forceful actions.

In response, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) produced a plan in 2011 as it noted that the State Department had “multiple reporting requirements,” but failed to provide a “list of its efforts to address terrorist safe havens.” Therefore, the GAO took the important step to “identif[y] eliminating safe havens as a priority action against which all elements of national power – including military, diplomatic, financial, intelligence, and law enforcement – should be applied.”

One of the most important resources to extremists is safe haven. Safe havens provide the enemy with relative freedom to plan, organize, train, rest, and conduct operations.

U.S. Department of defense, national military strategic plan

The United States has long understood that Hamas is a terrorist group supported by state sponsors of terrorism. It is therefore past time to label the Hamas fiefdom of Gaza as a terrorist enclave, and to develop a comprehensive set of actions against this noxious hotbed of extremists.

Related articles:

Hamas’s Willing Executioners

The West Definitively Concludes Hamas is a Terrorist Group

Gazans Support Killing Jewish Civilians

The United Nations Can Hear the Songs of Gazans, but Cannot See Their Rockets

The Scary Growth of Terrorist Propaganda

Why Blockade Gaza

The Embarrassment of UNRWA, By Its Own Numbers

UNRWA, the controversial UN agency which is solely devoted to the descendants of Palestinian refugees and other local people, held a two day fundraising appeal which began on November 16, 2021. Led by the governments of Jordan and Sweden, they appealed to countries around the world to donate to a temporary agency which was established in 1949.

An examination of UNRWA’s statistics as of December 31, 2020 would make the donors run.

UNRWA Clientele

According to UNRWA, it serviced 5.7 million refugees and 685,000 other people (mainly poor people and those married to descendants of refugees) in the five fields of operation. That means that 10.7% of the UNRWA’s wards are not refugees, even under the exaggerated definition that UNRWA uses. In the West Bank, the numbers are even more stark, where 19.5% of the UNRWA base are “others.” Many of these extra clients are poor Arabs in Jerusalem, as noted in the fine print of the UNRWA report.

UNRWA added services to thousands of poor Arabs in the eastern portion of Jerusalem, resulting in an inflated 19.5% of UNRWA wards in the West Bank being “others” compared to just 10.2% in Gaza.

As evidence of distortion in the West Bank, there are very few students relative to the population, especially compared to Gaza. While the percent of the population below 14 years old is high in both locales at 35.3% and 42.5% in the West Bank and Gaza, respectively, (and 17.4% and 18.0% for 15-24 year olds) only 4.2% of UNRWA’s West Bank wards are in UNRWA schools, while the figure is 17.4% in Gaza – four times the rate! That’s because children in the West Bank have many more options and prefer to stay away from UNRWA’s schools.

UNRWA services 287,000 students in Gaza but only 46,000 in the West Bank. The youth in the West Bank prefer using non-UNRWA schools because they have a choice while there are few options in Gaza.

Despite UNRWA’s schools being unpopular in the West Bank, the agency continues to hire. The pupil-to-student ratio was 20, in sharp contrast to 30 students per teacher in Gaza.

The US Ambassador to the UN may be in on the joke as she tweeted during her visit to a UN school on November 17: “Today, I met with educators and students at Jalazone @UNRWA Girls School in Ramallah. I was inspired by their stories and dreams for the future, and I spoke to UNRWA officials about how to make their work stronger, more efficient, and more accountable.“

Moves of UNRWA to Jerusalem and Wards to Statelessness

For the period of January 1, 2012, UNRWA began to break out the “other” category for the first time. It was also the last year that it published the annual report from Gaza. Starting the following year – a year which saw the US Democratic Party yell at its national convention that it no longer considered Jerusalem as the capital of Israel – it began to publish its report in Jerusalem, as noted at the bottom of the reports.

Over the nine years since this breakout started, the refugees in the West Bank grew from 727,471 to 871,537, a growth of 20%, while the other wards grew from 147,156 to 211,116, a 43% jump – over twice the rate. The situation was even more dramatic in Jordan, where the UNRWA refugee population grew 17% while the other category grew by a whopping 130%. It’s not hard to speculate that people married in to get free services from UNRWA, and the fat agency could funnel cash and services to actual refugees from the Syrian civil war who flooded into Jordan.

The majority of UNRWA’s clientele actually had Jordanian citizenship from the time the agency was founded until 1988. Jordan illegally annexed what is now commonly called the “West Bank” in 1950 and gave all the Arabs there citizenship. Many Arabs moved back-and-forth between Jordan and the West Bank (both part of the original Palestine Mandate) until 1967 when it became harder to do so after Jordan (and West Bankers) attacked Israel and lost the region. Jordan continued to give those Arabs Jordanian citizenship until it withdrew it abruptly in July 1988, making these Arabs stateless.

A total of 55.5% of UNRWA wards would still be Jordanians had the king not removed their citizenship.

Staffing

In 2000, UNRWA had a staff of 22,447 to address a population of 3,806,055, or a staff member for every 170 registered persons. At the end of 2020, the staff was down from immediate prior years due to the Trump administration cutbacks, but up overall to 28,563 staffers for 6,388,887 people, or one staffer per 224 people. By way of comparison, in 2020 the UNHCR global refugee agency had to deal with 76.7 million people fleeing wars far from their homes requiring brand new housing and schools, was staffed by only 17,300 people, or a staffer for every 4,433 real refugees.

UNRWA has operated in the exact same geography with the same people speaking the same language for decades but still has a staff that is 20x the size proportionately of UHCR which has to handle real refugees fleeing across the world requiring everything new.

Summary

UNRWA is grossly over-staffed, especially relative to the global refugee agency that really does need the resources. It inflated its mandate by adding nearly 11% new people to its roster and moved its center to the contested city of Jerusalem and began servicing eastern Jerusalem’s poor Arabs, making the agency yet more politicized. Further, in terms of competence, UNRWA has shown that it is unable to attract students to its schools.

One needn’t look to news stories and editorials about UNRWA’s supporting anti-Semitism, harboring and employing terrorists, redefining “refugees,” extending its mandate and hearing how Arabs are deregistering from UNRWA to realize how disastrous it is. The agency’s own numbers make clear that it is inept and past time to be shut down.

Related articles:

A Tale of Three Palestinian Refugees, With and Without UNRWA

Shut UNRWA in Gaza Immediately

Why Blockade Gaza

The United Nations, liberal media and politicians are bemoaning the Israeli and Egyptian blockade of Gaza, arguing that it is a form of “collective punishment” and is creating an economic disaster in the small coastal enclave. Those articles and arguments all fail to describe why the blockade exists and why it is essential for it to continue.

The landside blockade of Gaza began in June 2007, shortly after the political-terrorist group Hamas ousted its rival Fatah from the area. A naval blockade went into effect in January 2009 to further clamp down on the region, after the December 2008-January 2009 war against Israel launched by Hamas.

Ruled by a Terrorist Organization

Hamas is an extremist Islamist terrorist organization sworn to Israel’s destruction and the murder of Jews. It is a designated foreign terrorist organization by the United States and many western countries. Its 1988 founding charter is the most anti-Semitic political document of the modern age, a combination of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf and the Russian forgery, Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

Palestinian Arabs elected Hamas to a majority of the Palestinian parliament in 2006. The organization calls for the destruction of Israel in any form and calls for a global jihad against the Jewish State.

Repeated Wars from Gaza

Hamas has launched wars from Gaza against Israel in 2008, 2012, 2014 and May 2021. When not sending missiles all over the Jewish State, it launches arson balloons to burn Israeli fields, digs tunnels into Israel to abduct Israelis, and attempts to destroy the separation fence and infiltrate Israel.

Gazans Want To Kill Israeli Civilians

The Anti-Defamation League did global polls in 2014 and 2015 and found the Palestinian Arabs were by far the most anti-Semitic in the world, with 93% of the population harboring anti-Jewish attitudes. However, while almost every Palestinian Arab is anti-Semitic, the Gazans and West Bankers have different views about physically attacking Israeli civilians.

The gap in attitude between Gazans and West Bankers about violently attacking Israeli civilians inside of Israel has continued to grow
(source: Palestinian PCPSR polls)

Palestinians poll themselves every quarter about their attitudes on a variety of topics. One of the questions asked each poll is “Concerning armed attacks against Israeli civilians inside Israel, I…” with choices ranging from “strong support”, “support” to “oppose”, “strongly oppose” and “I don’t know.” The fact that the poll asks such question says a lot about Palestinian society generally, but an analysis of the trend in the chart above is important.

Between 2001 and 2008, the attitudes among Gazans and West Bank Arabs were much the same, with Gazans preferring killing Israeli civilians inside of Israel by an average of 11.6% more than West Bankers. After the 2008-9 Gaza war and the implementation of the naval blockade, the gap in attitudes widened. Between 2009 and 2017, Gazans preferred attacking Israeli Jews inside of Israel by a gap of 22.1%, almost double the 2001-8 period. Between 2018 and today, the gap has become even more pronounced, with Gazans voting for violence by a difference of 43.9%, nearly doubling again. Further, after the 2014 and May 2021 wars, Hamas’s popularity soared as did the uptick in Gazans desire to see more Jewish blood.

The difference in attitude is stark and the sentiment is frightening. And it is not theoretical.

In March 2011, after a the horrendous slaughter of a family of five by Palestinian Arabs in the West Bank, Gazans celebrated the murder (51.0%) while West Bank Arabs did not (75.6%).

Palestinian poll taken shortly after slaughter of Fogel family in Itamar, including an
11 year old, 4 year old and 3 month old, all stabbed to death.

This attitude was not an outlier. In August 2019, Palestinian Arabs blew up a 17 year-old girl, Rina Shnerb, while she was on a family hike. Over 80% of Gazans supported the attack.

Palestinian poll taken shortly after bomb blew up and killed Rina Shnerb.

It is hard to imagine that there are any places in the world where there would be any support for stabbing to death a 3 month old lying in its crib, or for blowing up a 17 year old girl going on a nature hike. But in Gaza, the MAJORITY support the slaughter of innocent Jews.

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For people who want to counter and prevent violent extremism, and who care about peace, justice and the sanctity of human life, it is well past time to pull all support from the terrorist enclave of Gaza, including shutting UNRWA in the area. Human rights and decency demand it.

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Related First One Through articles:

UN’s Confusion on the Legality of Israel’s Blockade of Gaza

Quantifying the Values of Gazans

The United Nations Can Hear the Songs of Gazans, but Cannot See Their Rockets

What’s Wrong with UNRWA

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The West Definitively Concludes Hamas is a Terrorist Group

Islamists and leftists often refer to Hamas by the group’s preferred tagline as a “resistance force,” softening the organization’s anti-Semitic and genocidal core. Fortunately, Western countries are not following suit.

On May 17, 2021, the Organization of American States (OAS), stated unequivocally that Hamas is a terrorist group that targets civilians which “makes the invocation of the principle of legitimate defense by Israel essential.“

The OAS constitutes 35 nations in North and South America, every country in the region with the exception of Cuba. The United States had previously categorized Hamas as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO) in 1997, along with other Palestinian Arab terrorist groups. Antigua objected to the recent OAS designation.

Further east, the European Union confirmed that Hamas is a terrorist group in 2019. Hamas had tried to overturn the designation claiming it’s a democratically-elected political party, which is true but has nothing to do with it’s homicidal and destructive actions and statements; it just says more about Palestinian Arabs who elected the group to 58% of its parliament. Hamas is eager to be taken off the terrorist list to ease the flow of funds into its coffers.

Not one news agency – Reuters, Associated Press, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal – reported on the fact that entire western world has woken up to the evilness of Hamas. Instead, the mainstream media continues to report on the dire need of funding to rebuild Gaza from its self-inflicted situation, as they pivot to a jaundiced pro-Palestinian narrative from accurately reporting the news.

New York Times articles on June 18, 2021 depicting Israelis as “far-right” and the Israeli police as “violent” abusers, compared to Hamas being simply “militant” as Palestinians “wait for normalcy,” while homeless. No clarification that Israel and Egypt’s blockade only began after the terrorist group took over Gaza, nor that Palestinians support the terrorist group.

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Related First One Through articles:

Gazans Support Killing Jewish Civilians

Quantifying the Values of Gazans

Looking at Gaza Through Swedish Glasses

CNN Makes Clear the Attackers and Victims in Gaza-Israel Fight

The UN Must Pay to Repair the Gaza Fence

The United Nations Can Hear the Songs of Gazans, but Cannot See Their Rockets

Every Picture Tells A Story: Palestinian Terrorists are Victims

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Shooting the Mob in Gaza and D.C.

January 6, 2021 was anything but a regular day in the United States, but it did showcase the routine and pervasive anti-Israel attitudes in the media.

D.C. Mob

The day began with thousands of Americans who were upset about both the result of the presidential election and how the vote was carried out amidst the pandemic. While the protestors filed for a permit to conduct their protest in front of the US Capital, an unruly mob soon stormed the building and pushed their way inside. In the mayhem, police opened fire on the surging crowd, killing a woman. Investigators recommended that the police officer not be charged in the shooting, as the action was deemed to be appropriate.

The media would not identify the officer. However, the woman, Ashli Babbit, was described as being consumed with “radical conservative topics and conspiracy theories” and “a loyal Fox News watcher” who “engaged on social media with the conspiracy site InfoWars.” The media called her en extremist who came to D.C. with the intent to do harm.

The media was clear as to the good and bad actors in the episode and championed the actions of the capitol police. If anything, they bemoaned there not being enough police to stop the mob infiltrating the halls of Congress.

The media took the exact opposite approach in describing Israel’s defense of its border from thousands of attackers from Gaza in 2018 and 2019.

Gaza Mob

Gaza is the home to Arabs hell-bent on destroying Israel and killing Jews.

Israel left the Gaza Strip in 2005 to local Arab rule. In 2006, the Arabs in the Strip and West Bank voted Hamas, the terrorist group sworn to the destruction of Israel, to 58% of the Palestinian parliament. In 2007, Hamas took over ruling the area from the Palestinian Authority and subsequently launched wars against Israel in 2008, 2012 and 2014. The militants also built numerous tunnels underground into Israel used to kidnap Israelis, sent fire-kites into Israel in arson attacks and launched hundreds of missiles into Israel in between all-out battles.

So when Hamas sent thousands of people – including teenagers – out to the fence which separates the Strip from Israel, with the stated desire to invade the country, Israel sent its army to confront the mob.

A picture taken on March 30, 2018 from the southern Israeli kibbutz of Nahal Oz across the border from the Gaza strip shows Palestinians participating in a protests, with Israeli military vehicles seen below in the foreground. (AFP PHOTO / Jack GUEZ)

The intent of the vicious mob was quite clear, manifest in the 1988 Hamas Charter which calls for the killing of Jews and total destruction of Israel under the banner of Islam. Armed with wire cutters to cut the fence, blazing tires to set it on fire, mines and bombs to attack Israeli trucks and rocks to pelt the soldiers, the Israeli Defense Forces opened fire, as necessary to protect the country from invasion.

The press did not write about the story that way.

The Guardian called the violent mob “protestors” who had just “turn[ed] out to commemorate mass displacement of people in 1948.” Hamas was never described as a terrorist group and their political status was portrayed as just: “Palestinian political factions and civil society groups have demanded an end to a severe Israeli-Egyptian blockade on Gaza and for Palestinian refugees to be allowed back to their ancestral homes in Israel.” There was no description of the stated intent to destroy Israel.

TRTWorld showed pictures of Israelis with guns and wounded Palestinians in their reporting, rather than the thousands of Gazans amassed at the fence. It made light of Israeli security concerns stating “Israeli forces often fire on demonstrators, under the pretext of preventing the border from being infiltrated, but among those killed are medics and journalists.“

Al Jazeera wrote that the “protestors” were simply on a “march” as part of a “a coalition of civil organisations” when they were shot by Israeli forces. The Arabs take part in such marches because “People have lost hope. There is only despair and misery all around them.“

The United Nations once again took up the cause of their historic wards and stated that it “has found reasonable grounds to believe that Israeli security forces committed serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law.“

The press and U.N. wrote that it was shocked at Israelis shooting teenagers and never wrote nor condemned Hamas for putting minors at the front of a battlefield.

The Mobs at D.C. and Gaza

The situation and reaction to the mobs in D.C. and Gaza could not have been more different.

Citizens vs. Invaders. The mob at the U.S. Capitol began the day with peaceful protests of Americans at their representative body, before mob mentality set in. The mob in Gaza were foreigners who reject Israel’s right to exist who want to kill Israelis who were seeking an invasion.

Unarmed versus Armed. The mob at the Capitol had to use poles and barricades found on site to break into the building whereas the Gazans all came heavily armed.

One day versus years. The attack on the capitol happened on a single day. The attacks from Gaza have been raging since 2008.

Vilification versus Defense. Despite the differences, the press vilified the Americans and defended the Gazans. It pointed out the conspiracy theories and hateful ideologies of some American protestors but never called Hamas a terrorist group or referenced its Nazi-themed foundational charter. The press zeroed in on Americans wearing anti-Semitic t-shirts but never on the Arabs hoisting swastikas.

Palestinian flags and a swastika are seen amid the black smoke of Gaza demonstrations, April 6, 2018 (IDF Spokesperson Unit)

More defense versus stripping defense. American politicians supported the shooting of the American mob and were furious that there were not more police officers to defend the Capitol, however, the United Nations believes that Israel has no right to self-defense and must allow these Arabs to enter Israel – which is why the temporary agency UNRWA continues to exist 70 years after it was formed.

The hypocrisy of attitudes towards condemning the mob at the U.S. Capitol and defending the rioters from Gaza once again demonstrated the systemic anti-Israel orientation of much of the liberal press, politicians and United Nations.

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Related First One Through articles:

Liberal Senators Look to Funnel Money into Gaza

Quantifying the Values of Gazans

CNN Makes Clear the Attackers and Victims in Gaza-Israel Fight

Shut UNRWA in Gaza Immediately

The United Nations Can Hear the Songs of Gazans, but Cannot See Their Rockets

Cause and Effect: Making Gaza

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Exports from Gaza Through Israel Hit Record

Much of Gaza’s economy relies on exporting goods like textiles and agricultural products. After the terrorist group HAMAS took over the area in 2006, Israel and Egypt put a blockade in place to limit the importation of weapons. After three wars from the Gazans in 2008, 2012 and 2014, as well as intermittent rocket fire and arson balloons launched into Israel and attacks against the separation fence, Israel limited exports to the strip as well.

From June 2007 to October 2014, an average of 13.5 trucks left Gaza each month according to Gisha. As part of the “hudna,” or truce after the summer 2014 war, Israel began to allow more exports to the West Bank through the Kerem Shalom Crossing. The monthly average soon jumped to 113 truckloads of goods in 2015 and to 178 truckloads in 2016. The numbers continued to grow.

Kerem Shalom Crossing (photo: Reuters)

In December 2019, Gazan exports broke the 400 truckload milestone for the first time, and did so again in January 2020. In September 2020, Israel began to increase its purchase of Gaza’s exports. In December 2020, Israel purchased over 100 truckloads of Gazan goods.

Last month, in January 2021, Gazan exports broke the 500 monthly truckloads milestone for the first time. There were 143 truckloads destined for Israel and 361 and 4 bound for the West Bank and other locations, respectively.

Despite the attacks on Israel and Gazans support for killing Israeli civilians, Israel is actively engaged in supporting the Gaza economy. It’s a story that will not be told by the mainstream media.

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Related First One Through articles:

Quantifying the Values of Gazans

Looking at Gaza Through Swedish Glasses

CNN Makes Clear the Attackers and Victims in Gaza-Israel Fight

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In San Francisco Schools, Anti-Zionism is Anti-Racism

The San Francisco School Board met on May 22, 2018 with a goal of ridding the school system of any signs of racism. It took two actions which showcase how liberals view Zionism as a racist endeavor.

The board decided to establish a panel to rename schools in the district which are “named for historical figures who engaged in the subjugation and enslavement of human beings; or who oppressed women, inhibiting societal progress; or whose actions led to genocide; or who otherwise significantly diminished the opportunities of those amongst us to the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” In January 2021 the panel put forward its recommendation to rename 44 schools, including those named after George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and Abraham Lincoln, among others.

Abraham Lincoln school in San Francisco school district to be renamed

Upon announcing the selection of the schools to be renamed, School Board President Gabriela López said “we are working alongside the rest of the country to dismantle symbols of racism and white supremacy culture.” The fact that she endorsed renaming schools named after Lincoln who led the United States in a bitter civil war to end slavery did not seem to make her consider her actions or comment. Lopez added in an interview that “the criteria was created to show if there were ties to these specific themes, right? White supremacy, racism, colonization, ties to slavery, the killing of indigenous people, or any symbols that embodied that. And the committee shared that these are the names that have these ties.“

It is therefore curious – or telling – that at the same May 22 school board meeting, the school board voted to permit the actively anti-Zionist Arab Resource and Organizing Committee (AROC) to begin teaching Arabic and “cultural empowerment” to students in the schools. AROC’s anti-Zionist activities included blocking Israeli boats from docking and calls to destroy Israel with chants “from the river to the sea.” The group calls Israel an “apartheid” state that engages in “colonialism,” outright lies and smears which dovetail perfectly with the woke San Francisco School Board. These are the messages that San Francisco wants taught to its schoolchildren.

The reality is that schools in Gaza and the West Bank – seemingly strongly supported by AROC – promote its own form of “cultural empowerment” and are named after terrorists like Dalal Mughrabi, who led the murder of 37 civilians, including 12 children, in a bus hijacking. The murder of those civilians and young children are seemingly viewed as “anti-colonialism” “resistance” for the woke of San Francisco.

The Martyr Dalal Mughrabi Center with the logos of the Palestinian Authority, UN Women and The Norwegian Representative Office to the PA

When Belgium learned of its donor dollars going to fund Palestinian Arab schools after murderers, it froze funding which made the Palestinian Authority change the name. Alas, it took less than a month for the PA to then name two schools after the same terrorist.

San Francisco is stripping its schools of the names of American presidents who were instrumental in bringing democracy to America and the world, while simultaneously tacitly approving the naming of schools after the murderers of Jewish children, in hiring AROC to promote a twisted version of Arab “cultural empowerment.” Even the anti-Semites in Belgium do not stoop so low.

San Francisco is not only canceling America’s founding fathers but is simultaneously endorsing terrorism against America’s principal ally in the Middle East, the only Jewish State. It does this with the misguided woke self-righteousness of believing Israel shares the same “imperialist” and “racist” attitudes as the Unites States of America.

The generals of the Intersectional Army have begun a carpet gaslighting campaign and it is incumbent on all decent people to “rage, rage against the dying of the light.”

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Empowering Women… To Murder

The New Salman Abedi High School for Boys in England and the Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel Soccer Tournament in France

Stopping the Purveyors of Hateful Propaganda

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What do you Recognize in the Palestinians?

Collective Guilt / Collective Punishment

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Gazans Support Killing Jewish Civilians

The International Criminal Court decided last week that it has jurisdiction to try Israel for its actions in Gaza and the West Bank. Israel disputes the claim as it is not a member of the ICC and the Palestinian Authority is not a state so should not be able to submit claims in such forum.

The PA had asked the ICC to investigate Israel for war crimes, particularly for Israel’s actions during the 2014 Gaza War. The PA hopes to win on multiple fronts with its action, both against Israel and its political rival in Gaza, Hamas.

Hamas is a designated terrorist organization by the United States, Israel and several other countries. Its 1988 foundational charter remains the most anti-Semitic ruling document ever written, including that of Nazi Germany in the 1930’s. Unperturbed, Palestinians voted Hamas to a majority of parliament in 2006 with that charter in the hopes of destroying Israel as the Two Percent War/ Second Intifada which started in 2000 came to a close.

The people of Gaza lust for Jewish blood has not abated. In the latest Palestinian poll conducted on December 15, 2020, a remarkable 77% of Gazans responded that they very strongly support (30.8%) and strongly support (45.9%) armed attacks against Israeli civilians inside of Israel. The fact that such a question can even be posed should be viewed as incitement to violence and a crime against humanity. That more than three-quarters of Gazans support killing Jewish civilians inside Israel should settle any discussion about the nature of the Hamas ruling authority and the people who live in Gaza.

Results of PCPRS poll 78 of December 2020. The first column shows overall results, the second shows results from the West Bank and last column is Gaza

The United Nations and liberal media falsely state that Gazans are “resorting” to violence and that Gaza rocket fire into Israel is “indiscriminate” but the will of Palestinian Arabs is clear that their aim is to kill Jewish civilians. The appropriate response from Israel – and from the ICC should they pursue the matter – is also abundantly clear.

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Related First One Through articles:

Peter Beinart is an Apologist for Anti-Semites

The United Nations Once Again “Encourages” Hamas

The New York Times wants the military to defeat terrorists (but not Hamas)

CNN Makes Clear the Attackers and Victims in Gaza-Israel Fight

Quantifying the Values of Gazans

Looking at Gaza Through Swedish Glasses

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