WATCH: Askar - UNRWA: Cradle of Killers

Review of "Askar UNRWA: Cradle of Terror" by Rabbi Leo Dee:

Viewing "Askar UNRWA: Cradle of Terror", the latest short documentary produced by David Bedein and his staff of Jewish and Arab journalists, we see the results of "indiscriminate support" for the Palestinian Authority and UNRWA.

By providing unconditional funding for UNRWA and the Palestinian Authority, rather than support for peaceful Palestinian Arabs whom they abuse, the world funds terror.

This movie shows how UNRWA and the PA educate the next generation of Arab children to hate and murder Jews.

If Israelis and the international community do not wake up to this reality, there will never be peace.

By supporting peaceful Palestinian Arabs to assert control of PLO terrorist organizations, and hate filled UNRWA camps, both Palestinian Arabs and Israeli Jews will stand a chance at a better life together.

 

Source: Israel National News

WATCH: "Open-Air Prison"? Gaza Before the War

This was Gaza before Hamas declared war on Israel on October 7th. This is what pro-Hamas activists in the West describe as ״open air prison״ or "concentration camp". Gaza was neither of those. 

The "siege" that Israel and Egypt imposed on Gaza was designed to prevent the smuggling of weapons into Gaza. Everything else was given free pass, even hundreds tons of cement entered Gaza just to be exploited by Hamas to build its terror tunnels, instead of schools, hospitals or residential buildings. 

The claims that Gaza was a concentration camp is intended to justify the Islamic terrorism of Hamas against innocent Jews. 

Ask yourself: if the people of Gaza were really so poor, why did Hamas waste so many resources on its huge rocket arsenal and terror tunnels? How could they have an army of 40,000 terrorists (members of Hamas)? 

Israel left Gaza in 2005. There was no reason for the Palestinians in Gaza to attack Israel after 2005. Unfortunately, Israel was mistaken in thinking that the Palestinians in Gaza wanted peace. Hamas did not come to power in Gaza by accident. The Palestinians knew very well that that Hamas would not bring economic prosperity or free welfare. They knew that the Hamas wants war as its charter calls for the destruction of Israel and the genocide of Jews. This is why they voted for Hamas and still the majority of the Palestinian public supports Hamas.

I can’t believe they sacrificed all this for a one-day killing and raping spree. I can’t believe they spent so long building a military tunnel network under all this, waiting for the day they could invade, abduct Israelis, then try to hide under this. pic.twitter.com/2XgBxLLzd7

— Eylon Levy (@EylonALevy) February 18, 2024

WATCH: Palestinians Asked to Name an Important Palestinian in History

Corey Gil-Shuster's Ask Project asks Palestinians to name an important Palestinian in history. Since Palestinians claim that they have lived in Palestine from time immemorial, you would think this is an easy question to answer. 

But things don't quite go as you might think.

 

It’s not Persecution to Tax Church-Owned Businesses in Israel

While churches certainly have a right to contest the proposed Israeli legislation, they should be above over-the-top Holocaust allusions and hyperbolic allegations of discrimination and racism.

..by Amanda Achtman
Source: The Federalist

A sign affixed to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem reads: “Enough is Enough: Stop the Persecution of Churches.” The church at the site where Jesus is believed to have been crucified, buried, and resurrected is now temporarily closed. This protest is not against the displacement and extermination of Christians throughout the Middle East but a stunt by the Christian churches responsible for the site in protest against Israeli legislation and a new city tax policy.

The Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophilos III, Franciscan Custos of the Holy Land Father Francesco Patton, and the Armenian Patriarch of Jerusalem Nourhan Manougian have released a joint statement on the so-called “Municipal threats and the discriminatory ‘Church Lands Bill.’”

Just what are the “municipal threats” and what is the “discrimination”? Despite the firestorm of media attention over the weekend, the technicalities and nuances remain convoluted. Reportedly, the main issues include: requiring church businesses to pay taxes; placing liens on church accounts until debts are paid; and expropriating lands churches sell to private buyers.

In an inflammatory statement just under 400 words, the church leaders refer to the legislation and tax policies three times as a “systematic campaign” and once as a “systematic attack” against churches and Christians in the Holy Land. The trio states: “Recently, this systematic and offensive campaign has reached an unprecedented level as the Jerusalem municipality issued scandalous collection notices and orders of seizure of Church assets, properties and bank accounts for alleged debts of punitive municipal taxes.”

Religious Activity Is Exempt, Commercial Activity Is Not

Nir Barkat, the mayor of Jerusalem, explained, “The Church of the Holy Sepulcher and prayer houses of all churches are exempt from municipal taxes; there is no change in this and it will continue. But does it make sense to anyone that commercial areas like hotels, halls, and businesses should be exempt from municipal taxes only because they are owned by churches?” Sounds like a reasonable point.

What does not, however, seem reasonable is that the church leaders’ statement hyperbolizes, “The greatest victims in this are those impoverished families who will go without food and housing, as well as the children who will be unable to attend school.” How the proposed tax on church revenue will lead to famine and homelessness and deprive children of education remains unclear.

The Christian leaders deem the bill “discriminatory and racist,” targeting “solely the properties of the Christian community in the Holy Land.” This makes no sense. How is the bill “discriminatory and racist” against Christianity, which is universal and not racial? Is it “racist” against Arabs? Armenians? Greeks? Italians? Filipinos? North Americans?

The bill, moreover, “would make the expropriation of the lands of churches possible,” according to the Christian leaders. This is incorrect. As reported by Haaretz, the bill proposed by Knesset Member Rachel Azaria would not endanger church property, but aims at protecting Jerusalem residents whose homes are located on lands churches have previously owned, in the event that the churches would sell these lands to private real estate companies.

Just when it seems unlikely the exaggeration can go further, the church leaders allude to Nazism with this ominous reference: “This reminds us all of laws of a similar nature which were enacted against the Jews during dark periods in Europe.” While churches certainly have a right to contest the proposed Israeli legislation, we should be above inflammatory accusations, over-the-top Holocaust allusions, and hyperbolic allegations of discrimination and racism.

Business Taxes Are Not Discrimination

Property rights can be disputed and negotiated, even in the Middle East, where a plurality of factors including religion, history, and geography add to the drama. This tumultuous context in mind, we come to the crux of the matter: There is real persecution in the Middle East and municipal taxes are not it.

It would have been one thing for church authorities to close the Church of the Holy Sepulcher to raise awareness about the real persecuted church, particularly during this season of Lent. It would have been one thing to take this drastic gesture in a solemn act of solidarity with the Christians who are chased out of their ancestral homelands by Islamists in the conflict-ridden countries of Iraq and Syria, or with the endangered Christian community living precariously under the rule of Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

But no. It is easy to tack up posters or to light up the Colosseum in red. It is hard to take real action concerning the persecution of Christians in the Middle East. Fighting Israel over tax policies instead of jihadists over terrorism reminds me of campus feminists who are up in arms over sex-neutral language because that is so much easier than worrying about an Islamist regime in Iran arresting women for removing their hijabs.

Insisting that church businesses pay municipal taxes is hardly persecution. There are many serious cases of actual, contemporary persecution, and if we misapply the term, we may find we have no adequate words left for today’s truest Christian martyrs.

Deepening the Brotherhood between Christians and Israel

Ultimately, closing the Church of the Holy Sepulcher hurts Christian pilgrims more than it does Israelis. It’s the most important Christian holy site in the world, and the most visited site by Christian pilgrims in Israel. They are already experiencing disappointment because of its closure.

When Pope John Paul II made a pilgrimage to Israel in March 2000, he placed a prayer in the Western Wall. In it, he prayed that Christians would “commit ourselves to genuine brotherhood with the people of the Covenant.”

In their inflammatorily expressed zeal to preserve preferential financial arrangements, these church leaders may be harming a relationship that is good for them and Christians across the world. How can we aspire not only to resolve disputes and tensions, but to truly deepen this genuine brotherhood? Perhaps one way is for Christians to think creatively about how we can express gratitude for Israel’s legal protection for all faiths and preservation of access to religious sites important to people of many religions.

Perhaps Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land could first visit Yad Vashem and Mount Herzl before they venture to trace Jesus’ footsteps, to appreciate how the suffering and sacrifices of the Jewish people contributed to the heroic founding of the modern state of Israel that preserves Christian access to sacred sites. In contrast with its neighbors, Israel is the Middle East’s only liberal democracy, and the only place Christians enjoy freedom from religious persecution. That’s ultimately far more important than preferential tax breaks for church-owned businesses.

Amanda Achtman studied political science in her hometown of Calgary, Alberta in Canada. She recently completed an MA in John Paul II Philosophical Studies at the Catholic University of Lublin in Poland and has participated in programs hosted by: the Acton Institute, the Tertio Millennio Seminar on the Free Society, the Hildebrand Project, and the Philos Project.

Bethlehem Bible College Scores Propaganda Point Against Peace

By Dexter Van Zile

Originally posted at: blogs.timesofisrael.com

One of the most troubling aspects about the Arab-Israeli conflict is how self-described peacemaking institutions have engaged in the ugly propaganda war against the Jewish State. Christian non-profits are some of the worst offenders.

World Vision, a multibillion-dollar charity supported by Christians from countries throughout the globe, has a long history of condemning Israel and singling it out for criticism. But while it has repeatedly condemned Israel, it offers hardly a word of criticism at the Jewish state’s Muslim and Arab adversaries in the Middle East.

It’s a shocking actually. The organization, which bills itself as a child welfare organization, remains mostly (but not entirely), silent about Hamas’ use of human shields during its wars with Israel and says nothing about the use of child labor in smuggling tunnels between the Gaza Strip and Egypt. Nor does it say anything about how Palestinian leaders have taught a generation of children to hate Jews. Those are crimes against children that World Vision simply cannot confront. It can confront the use of child labor in mines in the Congo, but not in tunnels in the Gaza Strip.

Another example: World Vision’s Affiliate in the United States published an article about Armenia that highlights the suffering Armenians endured under Communist rule, but makes no mention of the genocide perpetrated by the Young Turks, the founders of the modern state of Turkey between 1915 and 1922.

Apparently, it’s safe to offend the Jews with constant and harassing criticism of their homeland, but Hamas and Turkey, well that’s another matter. You don’t want to mess with them. World Vision staffers in the Middle East might get killed if the organization starts talking about the misdeeds of Arab and Muslim rulers. So they stay quiet.

Great Britain offers another example with “Embrace the Middle East. “This organization, which came to prominence in the early 1900s by assisting the victims of the Armenian Genocide regularly assails Israel with criticism, but is not so forthcoming or vociferous when confronted with human rights abuses perpetrated against Christians by Muslim extremists in the Middle East. In particular the organization’s leader, Jeremy Moodey is quick to condemn Israel for knocking down trees in the West Bank, but good luck finding similarly harsh criticism of Hamas in his writings. With the story of Israeli villainy, he tells, Moodey obliquely condones violence against Israel.

These one-sided condemnations, from Christian charities no less, hinder the cause of peace and  human rights in the Middle East. If life is to improve in the region, Arab and Muslim leaders will need to change their ways of thinking and acting in a big way. But if Christian peacemakers remain silent about the changes that Arab and Muslim leaders need to make in the societies they govern while condemning Israel left right and center (which is what they do), they give people reason to think all the suffering in the region is the fault of the Jews and their state. It also gives Muslim and Arab leaders reason to think they can continue to point the finger of blame at Israel to distract their people and the rest of the world from their own misdeeds. The moral confusion sown by Christian charities and non-profits is simply a disgrace.

The phenomenon manifested itself in an article published on “Lapidomedia,” a news site operated by  the Centre for Religious Literacy in World Affairs. In an article published on Oct. 28, 2015, Lapidomedia declares that Israel is “shunning” a peace studies program run by Bethlehem Bible  College in the West Bank. Lapidomedia reports “The Arab world’s first Master’s degree in Peace Studies — developed by a Bethlehem college — is getting the brush-off from a government whose commitment to peace is already being questioned from within the Jewish world.”

According to the article, Israel is giving this so-called peace program the brush-off by not giving its students the visas they need to attend classes at the college. As a result, one student from Canada is violating Israeli law by entering the West Bank with a tourist visa and using this visa to attend classes at the school. Aside from giving an interview to Lapidomedia (under an assumed name) the student is keeping a low profile on the Internet.

“My fear is maybe they would become aware of what I’m doing and reject any subsequent tourist visas,” the student said.

A close read of the article indicates, however, that the student in question did not even apply for the visa in question because officials at the school told him “not even to try.” So the entire article’s premise — that Israel is “shunning” the peace program at Bethlehem Bible College is based on
pure conjecture that Israel would deny the student the visa he needs to study at the school. The failure of Israel to give an unnamed student a visa he never applied for is the only real bit of evidence that the Jewish state is “shunning” Bethlehem Bible College’s peace program.

The article also fails to mention that Bethlehem Bible College is Dhimmi Central in the West Bank. Dhimmi, as readers should know, is the term used to describe non-Muslims, Christians and Jews especially, who live as beleaguered minorities in Muslim-majority environments and as a result, must behave in a submissive manner toward the rulers of these areas in order to practice their non-Muslim faith.

If you listen to Palestinian Christians closely you’ll very rarely hear them condemn radical Muslims by name for the terrible things they say about Jews. In 2012, for example, Mufti Muhammad Hussein, a prominent imam affiliated with the Palestinian Authority, declared, “Muslims’ destiny is to kill Jews. Resurrection will come only after Jews are killed by Muslims.” Good luck finding evidence of the folks at Bethlehem Bible College issuing a statement condemning this type of hate speech. They will, however, get an article in “Lapedomedia” beating up on Israel

If the folks at Bethlehem Bible College were serious about being “peacemakers” they would publicly demonstrate against PA and Hamas-sponsored anti-Semitism in Palestinian society. Israelis condemn their leaders all the time. Groups like B’Tselem protest in favor of Palestinian rights. Gish, another organization in Israel, does the same thing. Israel is filled with NGOs that advocate for “the other” in Israeli society. The Christians at Bethlehem Bible College rely on Jewish self-criticism to make their case against Israel to Westerners, but in the main, do not engage in the same rhetoric against their own leaders.

The reason is simple. It’s safe for Palestinian Christians to condemn Israel to their co-religionists in the West, because to do so affirms their value to the Palestinian cause. And that’s what the Christians at Bethlehem Bible College do. They organize “Christ at the Checkpoint” conferences held every two years at their school.

The security barrier is condemned regularly at these conferences, but the anti-Israel incitement? No so much. It’s understandable. If it’s not safe for well-connected international charities like World Vision to speak about the misdeeds of Arab and Muslim leaders in the Middle East, just imagine how
difficult it would be for Palestinian Christians to condemn them.

During the 2014 Christ at the Checkpoint Conference, Yohanna Katanacho, Academic Dean for Bethlehem Bible College, displayed this cartoon of the Three Wise Men being prevented from visiting the Baby Jesus in Bethlehem by the security barrier Israel built to stop suicide bombers. (Dexter Van Zile)

Nevertheless, Christians who want peace need to condemn Mahmoud Abbas for inveighing against Jews and their “filthy feet” on the Temple Mount, because language like this only adds fuel to the fire. The problem is, the dhimmis who work at Bethlehem Bible College rely on the Abbas-led Palestinian Authority for their safety and well-being, just as Christians in Iraq relied on Saddam Hussein to protect them and Christians in Syria relied on the Assad family for protection.

Jonathan Kuttab, a Palestinian Christian Lawyer, speaks at a conference organized by the Bethlehem Bible College. (Photo: Dexter Van Zile)

Yes, at one point in the article, Jonathan Kuttab, a Palestinian Christian and a lawyer who serves on Bethlehem Bible College’s board of directors, does criticize the Palestinian Authority. He declares “There is a lot of acceptance of nonviolence in the Palestinian community, but the Palestinian Authority has been so weak in pursuing our rights that it has given peace a bad name.”

PA President Mahmoud Abbas has lionized Palestinians who have stabbed Israeli Jews in cold blood and he’s done this to garner support on the Palestinian “street.” And still Kuttab tries to tell us that, (a) there’s a lot of support for non-violence in Palestinian society and (b) Abbas hasn’t been aggressive enough with Israel.

Is this some sort of joke? With his quote, Kuttab sidesteps the issue of incitement in Palestinian society and gives Abbas leave to let the violence continue. This is not “peacemaking.”

It is however, what we should expect from the folks affiliated with Bethlehem Bible College. Because of their precarious position in the Muslim-majority Palestinian society, the Christians who run the school simply lack the ability to forcefully confront their countrymen about the obstacles to peace in
their society.

They can’t speak vociferously about the failings of the Palestinian Authority and as a result, can’t honestly be described as running a peace center. The school makes gestures of criticism for the benefit of its supporters in the West, but as far as being a force for real reform in Palestinian society, fat chance.

In sum, Bethlehem Bible College is a center for anti-Israel propaganda in the West Bank that serves the interests of the Palestinian Authority. And it masks its status as a front for the PA by calling itself a force for peace. And the folks at the ironically named Centre for Religious Literacy took the bait hook, line and sinker.

Dexter Van Zile is Christian Media Analyst for the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America

"Israeli Settlers Assassinate 13-Year Old Child"?

Last week, shocking news were being propagated on websites, blogs and social media with titles such as the following:

13-year-old Ahmad Elmahania brutally killed by Israeli settlers

Israeli Settlers, Police & IDF Assassinate 13-Year Child Ahmad Saleh Elmahania Today

The RIP Humanity – Israeli Police Shot A Palestinian Boy, 13 Years Old

PURE EVIL - The Sadistic Murder of 13 Year Old Ahmad Saleh Elmahania

The evidence presented is indeed very disturbing: a video shows a child lying in agony in a pool of his own blood on the light rail tracks in Jerusalem, surrounded by Israeli security forces and Israeli bystanders who shout insults at him and wish him to die.

WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT

The comments below the video mince no words at what seems to be appalling Israeli cruelty:

Terrorist Israeli Settlers chased Ahmed through the streets of the illegal Besgat Za'if colony in occupied Jerusalem, screaming for his blood. When they saw Israeli soldiers & police, they screamed the child had stabbed a settler. It was an evil lie. So the police and soldiers opened fire on Ahmed's tiny body. He didn't die at once. He struggled for life, crying for help, but nobody helped him. Instead, they screamed in Hebrew & Arabic, "die, die you mother f****r, die. Die you faggot, die. Die you son of a b***h, die." These were his final terrified moments before death took him. Who are these terrorists? What is this evil? What is the Israeli "state"?

Other commentators are equally harsh in their condemnation of this "brutal crime."

But is this what really happened? As it turns out, almost everything in the above caption is wrong.  First, the boy's name is not Ahmed Elmahania but Ahmad Manasra. Second, the boy was not killed, but was only wounded. Third, a new video surfaced, documenting what actually happened. The video shows that the 13-year-old was in fact out on a murderous rampage. Together with his 15-year-old cousin Hasan Manasra, he attacked and stabbed multiple times a 13 year-old Israeli boy and a 25 year-old Israeli man, seriously injuring both. As the Times of Israel reports:

When eyewitnesses began to run toward the scene of the attack, the two assailants fled. While escaping, one was hit by a car [Ahmad] and seriously injured. An Israel Police officer and Border Police officer eventually caught up with the second attacker [Hasan], who began running toward them with a blade in his hand. A police spokeswoman said the officers fatally shot the stabber after he ignored their calls to halt.

The video confirms the report, showing the attack on the Israeli boy who had just left a shop and was getting on his bike, and then one of the Palestinians (evidently Hasan) charging the Israeli security forces with his knife, prompting them to shoot him.

Following the attack, the 13-year old terrorist was sent to an Israeli hospital for treatment. The moral of the story: don't believe everything you see or hear in the news, especially when reported by pro-Palestinian journalists and activists.

Ahmad Manasra, one of two cousins who went on a stabbing frenzy in Jerusalem on October 12, 2015 is seen at the Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem on October 15, 2015. Manasra was hit by a car while fleeing from the scene of the attack.  (Source: Times of Israel)