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Category: Israel

Could Trump have been… you know… er, not wholly wrong?

Melanie

An 18 year-old Jewish teenager, born in the US and living in the Israeli town of Ashkelon, has been arrested on suspicion of issuing dozens of fake bomb and other threats to Jewish communities in the US, Europe, Australia and New Zealand over a period of six months. The suspect reportedly used very complex methods to prevent himself from being caught so that law enforcement agencies had to use their own complex methods to find him. This is a most bizarre and disturbing development. Details of this young man, and…

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Global conflict Israel USA 

A parable for our times

Melanie

Today and yesterday (depending on where you are in the world) observant Jews have been celebrating the festival of Purim by reading the megillah of Esther. This is the story of the Persian king Ahasuerus, commonly identified as Xerxes I, who went along with the plan hatched by his vizier Haman to exterminate the Jews. Ahasuerus was then persuaded out of this by his Jewish queen Esther, who was urged on by her brother Mordecai, and hanged Haman instead. Witty folk have been comparing Ahasuerus to Donald Trump. This is…

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Israel 

Activists are out to destroy Israel

Melanie

Israel is bound to get it in the neck for banning entry to foreigners who support boycotting the country. Of course, Israel should be prepared to accept criticism just like any other country. But Israel is not treated like any other country, and the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement hardly fits any reasonable definition of criticism. It is instead a campaign of demonisation and delegitimisation based entirely on lies, libels and gross distortions designed to bring about Israel’s destruction. No country should be expected to provide hospitality to those who…

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Israel USA 

Hope for a real solution? No wonder Europe’s dismayed

Melanie

President Trump’s comments to Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu about the solution to the Israel-Arab impasse produced consternation and contempt in equal measure. At the press conference after their meeting at the White House, Trump said: “So I’m looking at two state and one state, and I like the one that both parties like. I can live with either one. I thought for a while the two-state looked like it may be the easier of the two. But honestly, if Bibi and if the Palestinians, if Israel and the Palestinians are…

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woke Britain Israel USA 

Britain gets it right. Twice. What gives?

Melanie

Extraordinary! The British government has started making bold and good moves. No fewer than two such sets of developments have been spotted in as many days. On Sunday, at the Paris conference called to get the Middle East peace process back on track stick the knife into Israel good and proper before Obama leaves the White House, Theresa May’s government refused to sign its closing statement. “There are risks,” said the UK Foreign Office,“that this conference hardens positions at a time when we need to be encouraging the conditions for…

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Israel USA 

Change the nameplate now!

Melanie

How should anyone respond to threats, intimidation and blackmail? By giving in? Surely not. The appropriate response would be to bring the matter before an appropriate authority equipped to deal with this through condign action against the perpetrator. And what if the target of such threats, intimidation and blackmail is that appropriate authority itself? US President-Elect Donald Trump has said he intends to move the US Israel embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. In response, the Fatah Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has said such a move would “destroy the two-state…

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Israel USA 

The capital of nowhereland

Melanie

One of the more bizarre ways in which the west subjects the Jewish people to double standards is to tell them that they alone cannot decide for themselves the identity of the capital city of their own country. Thus we find General James Mattis, President-Elect Trump’s pick for Defence Secretary, telling the Senate Armed Services Committee at his confirmation hearing that as far as he is concerned the capital of Israel is Tel Aviv. “The capital of Israel that I go to, sir, is Tel Aviv, sir, because that’s where…

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Britain Israel 

Perfidious Boris?

Melanie

In the House of Commons this afternoon the British Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, who had just returned from meeting the Trump team in Washington DC, made the following statement: “I think it is a widespread view in Washington, and across the UN Security Council, that settlements are illegal… John Kerry was completely right to draw attention to the illegal settlements and to the substance of [UN Security Council] resolution 2334. I remind the House that the UK was closely involved in its drafting…” Last week, the US House of Representatives…

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Israel 

Real liberals must shun Palestinian colonialism

Melanie

With Israel still looking down the barrel of a diplomatic gun as the Obama presidency approaches its final days, it’s high time to change the narrative. Western progressives define themselves through various fixed positions. They are against racism. They are against colonialism. They are against ethnic cleansing. They are against police states. And they are against antisemitism. So there is a political agenda that is surely tailor-made for Western liberals and left-wingers to shun and condemn as an utter negation of all they hold dear. The goal of the Palestinians…

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