All the News that’s fit to print
The “investigation” of American charitable groups that support Jewish communities and neighborhoods in Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem is a blatant attempt by a major newspaper to hide the real issues prolonging the Palestinian conflict with Israel. One of real issues is the refusal of Arabs to allow Jews to purchase or claim ownership of land in Judea and Samaria. Islamic judicial panels have over the years threatened death to Palestinians who sell property in the Judea and Samaria to Jews.” The Palestinian Authority’s has gone even further and initiated a blatant and public policy of killing all Arabs who sell land to Jews. The second law promulgated by the Palestinian Authority – just weeks after it was established in 1994 – criminalized all Arab land sales to Jews as a capital crime.
Since 1994 scores of Arabs have been killed in both judicial and extrajudicial executions for selling land to Jews. Hiding the fact that since 1994 the PA has dispatched death squads to murder both Arab Palestinians and Israeli Arabs suspected of selling land to Jews is a shocking miscarriage of journalistic standards. They might be printing all the news that’s fit to print, but they are not printing the truth.
Israel has only one capital’, David Ben Gurion
The views of David Ben Gurion on Jerusalem are particularly pertinent at a time when President Barack Obama entices illegal Arab construction in Jerusalem while pressuring Israel to refrain from legal Jewish construction in the capital city of the Jewish people.
Ben-Gurion’s position on the unique role of Jerusalem is very relevant at a time when the Oslo Process and its derivatives until today – have demoted Jerusalem, the heart of the Jewish People and its eternal capital, to a “negotiable item.” It is doubly relevant against the backdrop of a construction freeze in eastern Jerusalem, which was initiated by President Obama and has been reluctantly enforced by the Israeli government.
Against awesome odds – including a US military embargo and a UN resolution to internationalize Jerusalem – Ben-Gurion was determined to preserve Jewish sovereignty over Jerusalem. He reacted constructively to US and global pressure: Constructing new Jewish neighborhoods on Jerusalem’s 1949 cease-fire lines, settling tens of thousands of Jewish Olim (immigrants) in Jerusalem, upgrading transportation infrastructure to Jerusalem and relocating government agencies from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Currently, the Jewish state is under pressure – by the Obama administration – to repartition Jerusalem, thus rewarding terrorism and fueling further violence.
Back in 1929, Ben-Gurion wrote: “Jerusalem is equal to the whole of the Land of Israel. Jerusalem is not just a central Jewish settlement. Jerusalem is an invaluable global historical symbol. The Jewish People and the entire world shall judge us in accordance with our steadfastness on Jerusalem.”
J-Walker” identifies with the latest effort to weaken the State of Israel
American Jews are confronted with actions of the Jewish state that they believe to be wrong or immoral; do they have the right to publicly criticize Israel? Moreover, assuming for a moment that they have the right, should they exercise it? In other words, is their criticism actually helping Israel or is it only providing ammunition for our enemies to further harm Israel? Israel now more than ever expects to receive strong support from Diaspora Jewry, especially from the large and powerful American Jewish community.
What then is the proper path to follow? Since the Jewish nation is comprised of every Jew and the land of Israel, Eretz Yisrael, belongs to the whole Jewish Nation wherever they may be, then certainly American Jews can speak their mind about events in Israel. No one is suggesting that these two cornerstones of our tradition, namely that all Jews have an intrinsic connection with each other as well as with a common land, be tinkered with.
A common assumption in Israel is that those American Jews who feel uncomfortable about Israeli actions or policies are probably struggling with their own Jewish identity. With assimilation ravaging American Jewry, it's only natural that one's Jewish identity frequently takes backstage to other identities that are a part of one's psychological makeup. For this reason, it should come as no surprise that the most steadfast supporters of Israel usually come from Jews who are more traditional since for them the Jewish component is a dominant factor of their identity.
Finally, on a psychological level some claim that Israeli activities that appear harsh or unjust would make an American Jew with a relatively weak Jewish identity feel uncomfortable in his non-Jewish environment. Thus, by criticizing Israel perhaps he or she is subconsciously trying to be accepted by the non-Jewish world in which they live and work
We have been there before, no thank you, my parents born in Europe prior to 1933 are witnesses to that.