Mideast Dispatch Archive: May 2021 Archives

LETTER

IRON DOME ALSO SAVES MANY PALESTINIAN LIVES

Iron Dome Also Saves Many Palestinian Lives
Wall Street Journal
Letters
May 24, 2021

Ultimately the Iron Dome, by precluding a stronger Israeli response, saves many more Palestinian lives than Israeli ones, by orders of magnitude.

The fact that Israel has a technological way to withstand such rocket assaults promotes a public-opinion view that a more vigorous Israeli reply isn't warranted and would be an unnecessary escalation because the number of Israeli civilian casualties is relatively low. It is especially harmful and myopic that the media focuses on comparisons with the number of Palestinian casualties (mostly Hamas operatives). According to his line of thinking, Israel should stand still, sticking to the defensive measures of deflecting (and tolerating) the blows of Palestinian rocket attacks. No nation on earth would measure up to such an expectation. Israel should not be held to this unreasonable benchmark.

Zeeiv Amitay
Stamford, Conn.

ARTICLES

THE PALESTINIANS NEED TO STOP LIVING IN THE PAST

The Palestinians need to stop living in the past
Fanatical irredentism and recurrent intifadas haven't served them well, as the rubble of Gaza shows
By Andrew Roberts
Daily Telegraph (London)
May 21, 2021

(Andrew Roberts is a distinguished British historian, and a longtime subscriber to this email list.)

Sometimes it is difficult for a people to face the stark truth about themselves, but the latest Gaza conflict makes it unavoidable: the Palestinians need to get over their historical complaints, which largely date back to the foundation of the State of Israel in 1948.

To listen to some in the anti-Israel movement today ? which extends far further into Britain's media than it should ? one might imagine that the Palestinian exodus of 73 years ago was somehow an occurrence unique in modern history. The truth is very different. For all sorts of geopolitical reasons, many groups were forcibly or voluntarily moved during the troubled decade of the 1940s. There were no fewer than 20 different groups ? including the Sikhs, Muslims and Hindus of the Punjab, the Crimean Tartars, the Japanese and Korean Kuril and Sakhalin Islanders, the Soviet Chechen, Ingush and Balkars ? who were displaced in that period, many in their tens or hundreds of thousands.

None of the specific circumstances are directly comparable. But all of these peoples chose to try to make the best of their new environs except one, and most have succeeded. Some, such as those who emigrated to the United States, have done so triumphantly. The sole exception has been the Palestinians, whose leaders again and again chose to embrace fanatical irredentism and recurrent intifadas regardless of the interests of their people. The rubble seen in Gaza today is all they have to show for it.

The Palestinian militant cadres chose the terrorist path while every other one of the displaced people of the late-1940s chose the peaceful one of moving on with their national stories, looking forward, rather than back to a past that has grown rosier through the distorting prism of hindsight.

After the Second World War, more than 3 million Germans were forced to leave their homes in the Sudetenland, Silesia and lands east of the Oder and Neisse rivers, where their forefathers had lived for centuries. They embarked on the 300-mile journey westwards under conditions of extreme deprivation, carrying only what they could pack on to carts and into suitcases. Having reached the new borders of East and West Germany, they settled and made no irredentist claims to the new Poland and Czechoslovakia. Today, they and their children comprise some of the most successful people in Germany.

The same period saw massive population transfers in the Punjab and North-West Frontier territories of India, where some 16 million people crossed between the new states of Pakistan and India, and modern historians are finally coming to agreement that somewhere between one-half and three-quarters of a million people died in the appalling communal massacres that ensued. While there are severe border disputes still between the two successor countries over Kashmir, no one from the Muslim, Hindu and Sikh communities is agitating for restitution of the lands their forefathers farmed or shops they once owned in the Punjab.

Before his death in 1953, Joseph Stalin moved entire ethnic groups from one side of Eastern Europe and the USSR to the other, sometimes numbering millions. They were "relocated" to Siberia, the Crimea or Central Asia, often hundreds of miles from their homelands and under the harshest conditions. In all, forced internal migrations of the Tatars, Volga Germans, Ingush, Balkars, Karachays, Meskheta Turks and other ethnic groupings numbering some six million led to the genocidal deaths of up to 1.5 million, including 46 per cent of the Crimean Tatars. Yet there are no appreciable irredentist movements among these former Soviet citizens; they have made the best of their new situations rather than carrying on an ultimately hopeless struggle to return.

Tragically, it has been the Arab states' cynical policy for over seven decades to keep the Palestinians boiling with indignation. For those Palestinians who have continued to live in refugee camps even into the fourth generation, 1948 was indeed a catastrophe, but many other peoples have learned to deal with the same or worse by moving onward and upward. The State of Israel is here to stay, and until the Palestinians are able to accommodate themselves to that fact, they will never find happiness

ISRAEL'S SECRET WEAPON: WE HAVE NOWHERE ELSE TO GO

Israel's secret weapon: We have nowhere else to go
Golda Meir's words are as relevant as ever today, and the past weeks of another mini-war with Hamas and the accompanying spike of antisemitism have only further proven her point.
By Lahav Harkov
Comment article
Jerusalem Post
May 24, 2021

There's a story that US President Joe Biden has told many times over the years about his first trip to Israel.

As a freshman senator in 1973, Biden was granted a meeting with prime minister Golda Meir, who together with Yitzhak Rabin briefed Biden on the many threats Israel faced, showing him a series of maps.

"I guess she could see the sense of apprehension on my face," Biden said in a 2010 retelling of the story. "She said, 'Senator, don't look so worried? We Israelis have a secret weapon.' And I thought she only had said this to me, no one else in the whole world? And I thought she was going to tell me about a new secret weapon."

So what is Israel's secret weapon, Biden asked eagerly.

"We have nowhere else to go," replied Golda.

In 2021, when Israelis travel the world and find success in a broad range of fields, when technology and globalization make a large ? but privileged ? segment of the global population feel like they hold the world in their hands, some may think that statement is an anachronism.

And yet Golda's words are as relevant today as ever, with the past two weeks of another mini-war with Hamas and the accompanying spike of antisemitism only further proving her point.

We, the Jewish people, have nowhere else to go.

Israelis and the vast majority of Jews in the world who feel a strong connection to Israel already knew this, of course.

Just walk down the street in Israel and ask any random passerby if they think they would be alive today if there was no Israel. Chances are the person would say "no."

The majority of Israeli Jews, descended from the 850,000 refugees of the ethnic cleansing of Jews from North Africa and the Middle East ? minus our tiny corner of the region ? have good reason to say "no."

I would also say no.

It was the pre-state Yishuv that kept all four of my maternal great-grandparents from meeting the deadly fate of their relatives at the hands of pogromists and then Nazis, and there are countless Israelis with similar stories.

But Hamas and their acolytes, the useful idiots in the West echoing the terrorist group's charter by chanting the genocidal rallying cry: "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free," seem to have missed this point.

When Palestinians compare Israel to crusaders, they're saying we're a blip in history, destined to be driven out by a heroic Muslim-led army as was done to the crusaders after 88 years.

But when Palestinians who have picked up on leftist lingo, along with their fellow travelers, present Israel as an illegitimate "settler colony" ? as one meme that was shared by influential accounts in recent weeks claimed ? they forget a key difference between Israel and actual settler colonies.

When the European Crusades conquered Jerusalem, when the French settled in much of North Africa, when the British took over India, to name some settler colonies, they were still the satellites of a home country, even as they remained for generations. When mid-20th-century rebellions in the colonies were too violent or costly, the European governments packed up and left, evacuating their citizens along with them.

We are in Israel so that we never have to pack our bags and leave again, so that we don't have to keep the proverbial suitcase by the door. It is because Israel itself is our historic and present home country, and there is no satellite for us.

Palestinians and their advocates like to tell Israelis to go "back" to Poland or Russia or wherever else ? it's always Eastern Europe and not the part of the world from where the majority of Israelis actually come. But, of course, those places are not our homes, and the circumstances under which much of our ancestors left show that those places never were our homes.

In the last two weeks, there has been a 500% spike in recorded antisemitic incidents in the UK, according to the Community Security Trust, and a wave of antisemitic assaults, vandalism and harassment of Jews has hit cities across North America, from Montreal to New York to Tucson to Los Angeles. In Western Europe, antisemitism is there all the time, and it has been for years.

It seems unlikely that this uptick in violence will kick off a wave of Jewish immigration to Israel. While the percentage of American Jews ? the largest Diaspora community ? who have experienced antisemitism is on the rise, most are able to live safely and comfortably, as Jews should be able to do anywhere in the world.

But we don't live in a world where Jews can live safely wherever they want. We never have.

The rise in antisemitic attacks comes from those who claim to be standing up for the Palestinians in the latest round of fighting between Israel and Gaza. Mobs of young, keffiyeh-wearing men maraud the streets of LA asking diners in a sushi restaurant if they're Jewish ? not Israeli ? so they can pick someone to assault.

In Manhattan, one man took part in a pro-Palestinian march and then went on to bludgeon a Jewish man; the NYPD is using the victim's bloody kippah as evidence of a hate crime. The assailant, by the way, was featured in an Instagram post by supermodel Bella Hadid, whose father is Palestinian and who participated in the same march. She has nearly 45 million followers. And those are just a couple of examples.

There is something deeply ironic about people trying to "free Palestine" by attacking Diaspora Jews. By turning their violence on Jews outside of Israel, by driving around Jewish neighborhoods to intimidate and assault the residents, by asking people on the street if they are Jewish while brandishing knives, they are expressing their desire to ethnically cleanse their Western countries of Jews.

Don't they know where Jews go when they're ethnically cleansed? To Israel, that very place from where they want Jews removed.

But we're not like the crusaders. We're still here, 73 years later, and no number of Hamas rockets will get us out of here, not even 4,000 in 11 days, nor will antisemitic attacks on our brothers and sisters in the Diaspora.

And the reason is that we still have our secret weapon: We still have nowhere else to go.

"IN THE HAMAS COUNT THEY MYSTERIOUSLY BECOME INNOCENT CIVILIANS"

The phoney war between Israel and Hamas
The Western media exaggerates the reality of asymmetric conflict
By Edward Luttwak
UnHerd
May 22, 2021

https://unherd.com/2021/05/the-phoney-war-between-israel-and-hamas/

Earlier this week, an Israeli soldier was wounded by a Hamas mortar bomb while guarding a convoy of heavy trucks loaded with medical supplies, food and fuel at the Erez crossing between Israel and Gaza. Yes, it was in Israel's interest to reduce the suffering of Gaza's inhabitants while it pursued its campaign to protect its own population by finding and destroying Hamas and Islamic Jihad rockets stored in basements and underground tunnels: the less suffering and death, the less diplomatic pressure on Israel (particularly from the US) to call off its campaign unilaterally.

For the same reason, it was in Israel's interest to accept extraordinary limitations on its bombing. Before attacking any occupied building, whether to destroy command posts or stored rockets or mortar bombs, the residents are warned with phone calls and often also by a "knock on the roof" ? a guided weapon with no explosive that delivers a shock at impact but hardly ever hurts anyone. If civilians are spotted in or near the targeted building, attacks are delayed or called off.

All this sacrifices military gains for Israel; Hamas, naturally, takes full advantage of the bombing warnings to move out its personnel and portable equipment. But lost military gains are better than added political costs, and by now even Israeli corporals know that in warfare only political victories count.

And so it's worth noting that in spite of all the imagery of death and destruction, in spite of the incessant media talk of genocide, the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry reported a total of 232 killed just after the ceasefire. Yesterday, by comparison, Israel's estimate was that it had killed at least roughly 215 combatants, including 25 "senior commanders' ? but in the Hamas count they mysteriously become innocent civilians, with some becoming children. (Note Hamas does have some teenage recruits).

There were, of course, actual civilians among the dead and wounded. For one thing, according to a senior military source, of the 4,200 or so rockets launched from the Gaza Strip, approximately 650 fell inside the Gaza Strip. And unlike Israel's guided weapons, they fell at random, and they definitely caused civilian casualties, including a family of six in one case. (Of the remaining rockets, roughly 1,950 were not intercepted because they were projected to fall in empty ground ? and did. Another 1,440 were successfully engaged by Israel's Iron Dome batteries, while 160 fell inside Israeli residential areas, causing minimal casualties thanks to Israel's system of bomb shelters).

But putting figures to one side, the most obvious asymmetry in this endless conflict is how Hamas, unlike Israel, is not subject to the imperative of minimising civilian casualties. On the contrary, it gains a propaganda advantage in the Arab world ? as well as Iran's approval ? for any civilian or military casualties it inflicts on the Jews, while also garnering support in the West from any casualties suffered by Gaza's population ? so much so that after Israeli attacks, doctored images purporting to show dead Gazan children are often circulated.

Hamas certainly has no political obligation to the people of Gaza; it declaredly serves the much grander cause of global Islam. Its positioning as neither Gazan nor Palestinian, but only Muslim, gains support from agitated Muslims everywhere and endows it with an enviable freedom of action: each day it can decide whether to keep the ceasefire or resume its rocket bombardment, without having to bother about the safety of Gaza's population, let alone its welfare.

In this round, as in the last in 2014, there was disquiet among the Israeli Arabs, but this time they were confined to certain neighbourhoods in Lod and Acre. The media's exaggeration of their magnitude and significance was especially extreme: the existence of a large Arab professional class, especially prominent in Israel's hospitals, was ignored ? as was the fact that Israelis continued to eat in Arab restaurants right through the fighting.

Nor was there any mention of the Arab members of Israel's parliament: the seven Palestinian nationalists and seven Islamists who are the only freely elected parliamentarians among some 420 million Arabs. Even if the rest of the world forgets that, they do not: they vigorously assert their Israeli citizenship, especially now that both Netanyahu and his rivals need at least one of the two Arab parties as coalition partners.

As for the rest of the Arab world, Israel's few friends did not have to speak up: Fly Dubai and Emirates were just about the only foreign airlines that continued to serve Israel's Ben Gurion airport, while Egypt worked valiantly to secure the ceasefire.

All these facts may be dismissed as rose-tinted optimism from a safe distance, but the collective judgement of the Israeli stock exchange is unequivocal: on Thursday, as rumours of the imminent ceasefire started to circulate, the country's TA-35 index increased from 1669 to 1678. The reason it did not leap ahead was that even at the peak of the rocket barrage its lowest dip was 1609, still

Similarly, the response overseas has been remarkably encouraging. While much is made of Israel's loss of unequivocal support on the far-Left of the Democratic Party, the Biden Administration was firm in its support, as were Israel's new allies in Latin America and Europe.

All this, paradoxically, is the cause of Israel's political paralysis, which has manifested itself in one inconclusive election after another. After all, with prosperity and security, voters have no urgent need to focus on the essentials and feel free to vote according to their political whims. Long may this continue.

'I'M AN ENGLISH STUDENT ? IT'S NOT MY JOB AS A JEW TO ANSWER FOR ISRAEL OVER GAZA'

Tom Gross writes:

This piece below from yesterday's London Sunday Times recounts some very disturbing anti-Israel based anti-Semitism in the UK, as elsewhere.

What is also disturbing, though, is that Britain's most important Sunday newspaper adds fuel to the fire by making it sound like Israel is somehow entirely to blame for last week's mini-war and if only Israel would change its policies, peace with Hamas would miraculously break out.

Reminder: no Israeli has lived in the Gaza Strip since 2005 ? apart from three Israeli civilians still being held hostage there.

Please see: http://www.tomgrossmedia.com/ExodusFromGaza.html

***

'I'm an English student ? it's not my job as a Jew to answer for Israel over Gaza'
Conflict in the Middle East has led, as it always does, to antisemitic abuse on British campuses
By Josh Glancy
The Sunday Times
Sunday May 23 2021

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/im-an-english-student-its-not-my-job-as-a-jew-to-answer-for-israel-over-gaza-fxh023vnm

Until recently, Rachel Coussins generally steered clear of arguments about the Middle East. A second-year English student at Nottingham University, her concerns revolved more around Shakespeare, socialising and salvaging a meaningful undergraduate experience from the wreck of the pandemic.

But like many other Jewish students on campus, the fighting between Israel and the Palestinians has thrust Coussins into the middle of a battle she did not expect to have.

Coussins, 20, describes facing a tsunami of vitriol online, directed not only towards Israel and its military choices, but often making broader conspiratorial allegations and targeting British Jews as well. Memes and infographics have spread on social media accusing Israel of genocide, a second Holocaust and being a state established to extract oil. Young Jewish students find themselves being held accountable for Israel's actions.

"There have been moments when I've been genuinely terrified," said Coussins. "I'm left-leaning politically but a lot of people on the left aren't good at recognising antisemitism. It's not my job as a Jew to answer for Israel. I live in England, I'm an English student."

In the face of an information onslaught, Coussins posted her own infographic on Instagram, arguing that it is perfectly reasonable to be upset about facing antisemitic discrimination alongside distress at the plight of the Palestinians.

The post went viral. Then came the abuse. One user messaged to call her a "deluded Zionist rat" and "Nazi c**f***". She estimates that abusive messages came from more than 40 accounts. One user asked how she could support a new Holocaust given what her people had gone through. Another called her a "slut for Zionism".

Coussins no longer feels comfortable showing her Star of David necklace on campus, nor her Reform Synagogue Youth movement hoodie. "That's how a lot of Jews are feeling," she says.

The wave of campus discrimination is part of a 600 per cent rise in antisemitic incidents since the war in Gaza broke out, according to the Community Security Trust (CST), which oversees security for the Jewish community. Tell Mama, the CST's parallel group in the Muslim community, has reported a rise of more than 400 per cent in anti-Muslim incidents, including responses from the far right to a rise in Muslim protesters on the streets.

At University College London (UCL), Jewish students have received threats that their yarmulkes would be removed and have been warned that they would be greeted on campus "Arab-style". One post wished the Jewish recipient death and told them they would "burn in this life and the life after".

A Jewish student at Oxford University reported overhearing a group of fellow students talking about Israel and Palestine. One asked: "Why don't they just wipe out those rich Jews?" She said the group also discussed Hitler and how wiping out Israel could be the "solution" to "Jews".

"You do feel slightly unwelcome and a bit despondent," said Leah Mitchell, 20, a Classics student at Oxford. "As soon as we heard the news from the Middle East, you have that feeling of dread, you know what's coming. But you can't really prepare for seeing some of this stuff coming from your peers, people in your own community. The greedy Jews wanting the oil, that did catch me by surprise."

In messages seen by The Sunday Times, a Jewish student at another London university was told in a student subject Whatsapp group that history would view her the same way it sees the Nazis.

A Jewish student at a university in the Midlands was told in a group chat that a fellow student would not work with them unless they were willing to debate the situation in the Middle East and allow themselves to be "informed".The message also suggested that just as the Jewish student would not want to discuss the legitimacy of Hitler and the Nazis, so this student would fight any discussion regarding the legitimacy of "so-called Israelis".

"It is of course acceptable to oppose, even strongly, the policies of the Israeli government, as many Jews do, but it is completely unacceptable to pour out hatred towards Jews simply because they are Jewish," said Rabbi Dr Harvey Belovski, rabbinic head of University Jewish Chaplaincy. "Students go to university to learn a bit, have fun, spread their wings. What's happening to them is quite terrifying. Some feel uncomfortable in their accommodation. Some have left campus. They find themselves effectively pariahs."

Belovski said some universities, including UCL ? where new security measures have been put in place ? and Nottingham, have taken a strong stance against antisemitism. Others have been slower. He is writing a letter to all vice-chancellors imploring them to protect their Jewish students.

Beyond campus, antisemitic incidents in recent days have included the smashing of windows in Manchester, rape threats being made from a car in north London and the vicious beating of a rabbi in Chigwell, Essex. On Friday morning, a suspect was arrested in Golders Green following an attempted attack on Jewish shoppers. Similar attacks have taken place in Los Angeles, New York and Berlin.

"It's mostly verbal abuse, with a bit of violence," says Dave Rich, head of policy at the CST. "If at some point there aren't any terrorist attacks on Jews anywhere around the world as a response to what's going on now, I'd be amazed. All the jihadi terrorist groups are putting out calls for it, and that filters down."

* You can also find other items that are not in these dispatches if you "like" this page on Facebook www.facebook.com/TomGrossMedia

Bob Dylan's 'Neighborhood Bully' still stands true (& Turkish op-ed: Golda Meir was right)

May 21, 2021

An Israeli mother clings on to her children at the side of the road as a siren gives them a few seconds' notice of an incoming Hamas rocket.

It was one of over 4,000 rockets that the Iranian-backed group used to terrorize, kill and injure Israeli Jewish and Arab civilians, during recent days. Other victims of Hamas in Israel this week came from India, Thailand and elsewhere.

At least 600 Hamas rockets fell short and landed in Gaza, killing and injuring Palestinians ? although some media wrongly gave the impression that these Palestinians were killed by Israel.

Israel also says that some of those the western media added to their list of dead Palestinian children were armed combatants aged 16 and 17 who were in the process of attacking Israel at the time they were killed.

Above: Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi on Thursday showed visiting EU foreign ministers from the Czech Republic, Germany and Slovakia a building that was hit by a Hamas rocket in the town of Petah Tikva, near Tel Aviv.

"I am speechless after I witnessed the destruction and terror that Israel has experienced," said Czech Foreign Minister Jakub Kulhanek after touring rocket-devastated apartments.

Even though many Arab and European governments have been very supportive of Israel this week, Israel was pressured by the Biden administration into agreeing to a ceasefire which many Israelis fear is essentially on Hamas's terms and will leave Hamas in a stronger position for the next round of attacks on Israelis.

TIMES OF LONDON: THE CANT AND HYPOCRISY OF ISRAEL'S CRITICS NEVER DIMS

[Note by Tom Gross]

I attach three articles below. All are worth reading. The first two were written shortly before a ceasefire was declared at 2 am this morning. The other, from Turkey, was published in 2014 in Hurriyet Daily News but still has some relevance for today.

In the first piece Gerard Baker writes in Friday's Times (of London):

"The neighborhood bully just lives to survive
He's criticised and condemned for being alive
He's not supposed to fight back, he's supposed to have thick skin
He's supposed to lay down and die when his door is kicked in
He's the neighborhood bully"

"The words of Bob Dylan are remarkably relevant as Israel finds itself again the object of much of the world's venomous and, you might say, ancient loathing. Or, perhaps, like the endurance of injustice in America, the lyrics' contemporary resonance shows that the cant and hypocrisy of Israel?s critics never dims.

"Hamas, armed and backed by its sponsor, Iran, is once again attempting to kick down Israel's door and, once again, in the eyes of much of the world's media and opinion-shapers, it is Israel's fault. "

In the last piece (for the Gatestone Institute), leading Palestinian journalist Khaled Abu Toameh points to all the Arab journalist who have been criticizing Hamas all week for firing rockets at Israel:

"Inexplicably, these Arab voices are generally ignored by the international community and the mainstream media in the West. Those who are demonstrating against Israel and Jews in the US, Canada and some European countries might want to tune in to what Arabs themselves are saying about Hamas, Iran, Hezbollah and other terrorist groups. If they bothered to listen, they would understand that as far as many Arabs are concerned, the real threat to the future of Arab and Muslim children is coming from Iran and Islamic terrorist groups, and not from Israel."

-- Tom Gross

ARTICLES

THE TIMES THEY ARE A CHANGIN'?

America is no longer united behind Israel
Left-wing Democrats who equate the Palestinian cause with Black Lives Matter are now piling the pressure on Biden
By Gerard Baker
The Times (of London)
May 20 2021, 5.00pm

Bob Dylan turns 80 on Monday and the airwaves have been rasping all week with retrospectives on the long life and complex works of America?s greatest modern lyricist.

It's a mark of the enduring power of the Nobel laureate that songs he wrote decades ago can be heard again and understood afresh. Or perhaps it's a testimony to the enduring flaws in American society that the sentiments he expressed remain as relevant today as they were when they were written.

In the last year especially, Dylan's protest songs from the early 1960s, with their indictments of social and racial inequality, have been taken up by a newly motivated and empowered progressive left.

One song that probably won't get any attention from the Dylanologists is an especially apt and timely one from a later era, the 1982 album Infidels. Neighborhood Bully was written during an earlier Arab-Israeli conflict, after Israeli forces had invaded Lebanon and the Jewish state had predictably earned the opprobrium of much of the world?s media, public intellectuals and many of its governments.

The song is a sarcastic denunciation of the critics of Israel, the "neighborhood bully" of the title:

The words are remarkably relevant as Israel finds itself again the object of much of the world's venomous and, you might say, ancient loathing. Or, perhaps, like the endurance of injustice in America, the lyrics' contemporary resonance shows that the cant and hypocrisy of Israel?s critics never dims.

Hamas, armed and backed by its sponsor, Iran, is once again attempting to kick down Israel's door and, once again, in the eyes of much of the world's media and opinion-shapers, it is Israel's fault.

There is, apparently, some gross disproportionality in the fact that Israel's powerful military has killed more people than Hamas's wildly indiscriminate acts of terrorism. The real disproportionality is, of course, that Hamas aims to kill civilians: Israelis, by firing directly at them, and Palestinans, by using them as human shields for its offensive. While Israel's armed forces target terrorists, innocents get killed because Hamas has placed them in the line of fire.

Or take the supposed unfairness of the advantage Israel gains from its "Iron Dome" missile defence system while Palestinians have no such protection. There is such a protective shield for the Palestinians, in fact, freely available to Hamas: the option not to fire rockets at Israeli cities. If no Iranian-supplied rockets were falling on homes in Haifa and Tel Aviv, no Israeli Defence Forces? missiles would be fired at Hamas targets in Gaza.

Dylan?s satirical disdain captured and skewered this same kind of one-sided analysis decades ago. But one thing that has changed since then are the political forces within the US. For its entire existence, Israel has enjoyed bipartisan American support. There have been critics, obviously, and periods of tension when Israel's actions have at times merited sanction. However the essential understanding on both sides of American politics has been that the Jewish state?s continuous existential peril demanded robust support.

Now the new progressive wing that is ascendant in the Democratic Party's economic, social and cultural programme is overtly hostile, not just to certain Israeli actions but, it seems, to Israel itself. A vocal group of members of Congress have condemned Israel in the past week in unusual terms in American political discourse. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the young standard-bearer of the left, denounced Israel as an "apartheid state" in a tweet, a statement as bizarre as it was offensive in alluding to a country in which Arabs have the same rights as Jews and substantially more than in most Arab states.

A number of her colleagues have made similarly caustic criticisms. Rashida Tlaib, another left-wing congresswoman, implored President Biden to take a stand against Israel, urging an end to the long-standing military support that has helped protect Israel. She met the president on the tarmac at an airport in the Midwest this week and, according to media reports, told him: "The US cannot continue to give the right-wing Netanyahu government billions each year to commit crimes against Palestinians. Atrocities like bombing schools cannot be tolerated, much less conducted with US-supplied weapons."

What has led to the new intensity of this anti-Israeli sentiment is the equation of the Palestinian cause with the condition of African-Americans that has become such a powerful mission for the left. "Israel is having its own Black Lives Matter moment" was the headline on an opinion column this week by a professor at the University of California.

So far the Biden administration has been admirably staunch in its backing of Israel's right to defend itself, but it's under pressure. On Wednesday the president told Netanyahu in a phone call that he "expected a significant de-escalation today on the path to a ceasefire".

For now, the US remains Israel's dependable ally. However there are profound shifts under way in American politics that will continue to reverberate widely. As we've seen in all kinds of ways in the past year, the times they are a changin'.

TURKISH OP-ED: SORRY TO REMIND YOU (BUT GOLDA MEIR WAS RIGHT!)

A friend writes:

Watching the latest celebrations from the Gaza strip and the rest of the Palestinian territories about their latest 'victory' reminded me of this article from the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet back in 2014 after one of the previous rounds of fighting between Israel and the Hamas. Little wonder that we are as far away from peace as we have ever been - when the deaths of civilians and especially children are celebrated (because apparently their 'sacrifice' served some sort of purpose in some imaginary international point scoring competition) it doesn't take a genius to understand that fast-forward 5-7 years we will probably be seeing the same pictures and little other change.

***

Sorry to remind you (but Golda Meir was right!)
Hurriyet Daily News (Turkey)

https://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/opinion/burak-bekdil/sorry-to-remind-you-but-golda-meir-was-right-35263

The video of a motorcade features about a dozen Palestinian gunmen joyfully riding nine motorcycles, shooting in the air in victory and dragging behind the body of a man they had just killed on suspicion that he was collaborating with Israel. The victim was one of the six Palestinians the Palestinians had killed.

The same video also shows dozens of younger Palestinians, some aged, perhaps, 8 or 9, proudly filming the scene or taking pictures of the historic moment with their cell phones. About a day later, the mood in the Gaza Strip turned more joyful. Another "hudna" ? temporary peace ? had been "won, " and the enemy had been "defeated again."

Later during the day, the international press reported celebratory bursts of gunfire, cheering and chanting, minutes after the cease-fire between Israel and Hamas came into effect. Gunmen from all corners of the Gaza City emerged on the streets to celebrate "victory." Some of the "victors" let off fireworks from rooftops. Along Gaza City?s waterfront, a loudspeaker on a mosque repeated over and over: Allahu Akbar. God is great.

A local told the Guardian: "They bombed us, they killed our women and children, but they could not stop the resistance. So, they had to surrender and agree to stop the assassinations. They learned we cannot be defeated by their bombs."

When Adel Mansour spoke these proud words, about 150 Palestinians and five Israelis had lost their lives. In the eight-day war, the Israeli military had targeted more than 1,500 sites in Gaza with air strikes and shelling, more than 1,000 rockets had been fired at Israel and a blast had ripped through a bus in Tel Aviv, injuring 17 people.

Yet another hudna is another victory. So think the Palestinians. And they celebrate. They celebrate their dead women and children. They celebrate the "victory" with bursts of gunfire, cheering, chanting and fireworks. Fireworks for 150 or so coffins. Fireworks to celebrate the 150 martyrs and five enemies.

Fireworks to celebrate because the enemy had failed to kill more than 150. Fireworks to celebrate because five "Jooos and six traitors" had been killed. Victory, that is. Or so think the willing martyrs.

Like the previous ones, the latest hudna is a pause, not peace. It reminds one of Ambrose Bierce's "The Unabridged Devil?s Dictionary," which describes peace as "a period of cheating between two periods of fighting." Peace, that is, victory.

Meanwhile, the victors keep on celebrating their victory. All the same, there is something bizarre in the whole picture. The victors celebrate their dead while the entire world, including this columnist, keeps on mourning the loss of innocent lives.

Is there something wrong with us, the silly mourners? Should we celebrate instead of mourning, like the kin of the dead do so proudly? Should Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu have cheered and chanted in Gaza instead of so humanely weeping along with the relatives of the dead and the injured?

No, I personally would prefer a human Mr. Davutoglu instead of a foreign minister who shoots in the air in celebration of "victory." And I would prefer a human Mr. Davutoglu questioning the wisdom behind celebrating 150 martyrs, knowing, all the same, that my wish is sillier than the victory day celebrations in Gaza.

When I wrote in this column "Why Golda Meir was right," (Aug. 23, 2011), I knew exactly why Israel's fourth prime minister, or the "Mother of Israel," was right. I still know why she was right when she said that peace in the Middle East would be possible only "when Arabs love their children more than they hate us.

HAMAS DOES NOT CARE ABOUT PALESTINIAN SUFFERING

Arabs: Hamas Does Not Care About Palestinian Suffering
By Khaled Abu Toameh
Gatestone Institute
May 20, 2021 at 11:30 am

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17390/hamas-palestinians-suffering

Prominent Arab writers and political analysts hold the Iranian-backed Hamas responsible for the violence and bloodshed in the Gaza Strip over the past week. These Arabs can also see that if one cares about the Palestinians, why would one want them ruled by terrorists who place weapons caches near hospitals and schools, and use children as human shields?

***

While many in the West denounced Israel for its military strikes in the Gaza Strip over the past week, prominent Arab writers and political analysts held the Iranian-backed Hamas responsible for the violence and bloodshed.

These Arabs evidently understand what the anti-Israel activists around the world fail to see -- that Hamas has brought nothing but disaster and despair to the two million Palestinians living under its rule in the Gaza Strip.

These Arabs also seem to understand that Israel is not waging war on the Palestinians, but against an Islamist terrorist group whose charter openly calls for jihad (holy war) and the elimination of Israel.

These Arabs can also see that if one cares about the Palestinians, why would one want them ruled by terrorists who place weapons caches near hospitals and schools, and use children as human shields?

Those who are condemning Israel for defending itself against the rocket and missile attacks need to see what article 15 of the Hamas charter says:

"The day the enemies usurp part of Muslim land, Jihad becomes the individual duty of every Muslim. In the face of the Jews' usurpation, it is compulsory that the banner of Jihad be raised."

The message that the Arab writers and political analysts are trying to send to those Westerners who consider themselves "pro-Palestinian" is: Hamas serves as a pawn in the hands of Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood in the fight against Israel and the West.

There is another message that the Arabs are seeking to send to those in the West who are demonstrating against Israel: Criticism of Hamas does not make you anti-Palestinian; on the contrary, holding Hamas responsible for the violence and bloodletting actually serves the interests of the Palestinians.

How ironic that Arab Muslims are lashing out at Hamas while Israel-haters around the world see no evil in its actions, including the indiscriminate firing of thousands of rockets and missiles into Israel.

"Real sympathy with the Palestinian people means searching for solutions for an actual and practical peace that guarantees their safety, security, and development," commented Saudi writer and researcher Abdulah Bin Binjad Al Otaibi. "The solutions should also stop those [Hamas] who are ready to burn Palestine and its people."

The Hamas terrorist group, he said, "was well prepared for this war by building trenches in which its members can take shelter, while innocent Palestinians were being killed. Hamas likes to play the role of victim and kill Palestinians to win Arab, Islamic and international sympathy."

Denouncing Hamas for persecuting the Palestinians, Al Otaibi noted that the terrorist group carried out a bloody coup in 2007 against the Palestinian Authority in the Gaza Strip.

"Some ask, is this the right time to present the crimes of Hamas," he added.

"This is precisely the best time to do so. The reader can conduct a quick search on the Internet to learn about the crimes that Hamas has committed against the Palestinians. Hamas has the right to destroy its homes with its own hands, but it has no right to destroy the homes of Palestinians and underestimate their blood and the blood of their children."

Saudi writer Abdullah Nasser Al Otaibi called on Arab countries to help the Palestinians get new leaders.

"Hamas and its Muslim Brotherhood patrons do not care about the suffering or interests of the Palestinians," Al Otaibi wrote. "They only care about demonizing those who stand against them. Hamas is saying: Let the Palestinians die for the sake of a Muslim Brotherhood victory."

Another Saudi writer, Mishary Dhayidi, warned that Hamas was aligned with Iran and the enemies of the Arabs.

Dhayidi pointed out that Hamas has been associated with the Houthi militia in Yemen, Hezbollah, Egyptian terrorists and Qasem Soleimani, the commander of Iran's Quds Force who was killed last year in a US targeted drone attack near Baghdad International Airport in Iraq.

Emirati writer Al-Sheikh Wuldalsalek accused both Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas of "trafficking" in the Palestinian issue.

"Abbas wants to cover up for this decision to postpone the Palestinian elections so that he can continue to sit on the presidential chair at the expense of Palestinian blood," Wuldalsalek remarked. "Hamas aspires to increase its popularity and drain the pockets of those who see it as a resistance movement by launching futile missiles that harm it more than doing any good."

He accused Iran and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of "exploiting Palestinian blood without any shame or conscience."

"A few months ago, we were very happy with the signing of the Abraham Peace Accords [with Israel], which the people rely on to create peace that benefits everyone politically, economically and socially," Wuldalsalek wrote. "But the extremists are working to kill this dream. It is sad that some are working hard for peace, while others are working hard for the sake of war and the continuation of the conflict."

Egyptian writer Khaled al-Berry advised that "criticism of Hamas is in the interest of the Palestinians, now and tomorrow."

Criticism of Hamas, he said, "Is a message of awareness, caution, and a warning about the consequences of its organizational and regional ties."

Former Jordanian Minister of Information Saleh Al-Gholab said that Hamas should choose between being a Palestinian group or "a Muslim Brotherhood movement belonging to Iran." Al-Gholab pointed out that in 2007 Hamas launched a bloody coup against the Palestinian Authority and threw members of its rivals in Fatah from rooftops.

Ahdeya Ahmed Al Sayed, President of the Bahrain Journalists Association, wrote on Twitter:

"Those who support the terrorist militias [Hamas, Muslim Brotherhood, Hezbollah, Houthis, and the Iranian regime] are considered terrorists. The Palestinian issue does not need terrorists and traffickers. The Palestinian issue does not need traitors."

In another tweet, Al Sayed commented:

"Hamas did not use the children of Ismail Haniyeh, Khaled Mashaal or Ali Khamenei as human shields. Hamas used the Palestinian people [as human shields]. Shame on you to defend Hamas. This is a major betrayal!"

Such critiques of Hamas and other Iranian-backed terrorist groups are relatively new in the Arab world. The criticism shows that a growing number of Arabs are fed up with the continuous efforts of Iran to destabilize the Arab countries with the help of the mullahs' proxies in the Middle East, including Hamas.

Inexplicably, these Arab voices are generally ignored by the international community and the mainstream media in the West. Those who are demonstrating against Israel and Jews in the US, Canada and some European countries might want to tune in to what Arabs themselves are saying about Hamas, Iran, Hezbollah and other terrorist groups. If they bothered to listen, they would understand that as far as many Arabs are concerned, the real threat to the future of Arab and Muslim children is coming from Iran and Islamic terrorist groups, and not from Israel.

* You can also find other items that are not in these dispatches if you ?like? this page on Facebook www.facebook.com/TomGrossMedia

In news yesterday, UK bombs Iraq again & no one cares; CNN fires contributor who praised Hitler

May 18, 2021

Here are a few more recent items from my public Facebook page:

NO FURIOUS COVERAGE OR STREET PROTESTS

Tom Gross writes:Yesterday, the UK admitted its warplanes bombed Iraq last week (item above from the Daily Mail). Indeed western warplanes regularly bomb places in Africa and Asia. And so do warplanes from other countries, including Russia and Turkey.

And yet there was no hysterical round-the-clock news coverage of British actions yesterday on the BBC, or CNN, or The Guardian or The New York Times. (And British towns and cities are not being bombarded with thousands of rockets launched from Iraq.)

But then western media also don't report much when Hamas kills Palestinians. That is because they don't care about Palestinians. They only care about whipping up fury against Israel and Jews.

ARAB VOICES AGAINST HAMAS, OCCASIONALLY BEING ALLOWED AIR TIME ON WESTERN TV

Israeli-Arab Yoseph Haddad's interview on Sky TV is well worth listening to:

https://www.facebook.com/TomGrossMedia/posts/3950070045030485

CNN FIRES ITS CONTRIBUTOR FOR CALLING FOR GENOCIDE OF JEWS

CNN has fired its contributor Adeel Raja, after he tweeted on Sunday: "The world today needs a Hitler. "

There have been calls to remove him for years because of his antisemitic tweets. For example, in 2014, he tweeted that the only reason he was supporting Germany in the FIFA world cup was because of Hitler who "did good with those Jews". The next day, he tweeted "Hail Hitler".

Raja has worked as a freelance contributor for CNN since 2013, and has written at least 54 articles for the CNN website.

Questions are still being asked of Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey as to why Raja and other antisemitic twitter users are still being provided a platform. (Twitter made a big show of refusing a platform to Donald Trump.)

Tom Gross adds: In my view, as disturbing as this blatant display of antisemitism is, equally dangerous are some well known journalists at CNN and elsewhere who are too careful to be overtly antisemitic and instead deliberately distort their reports to whip up hatred against the Jewish state.

SPOT THE DIFFERENCE: SKY NEWS AUSTRALIA AND SKY NEWS BRITAIN

A host on Sky News Australia (video below) criticizes the leading anchor on its sister station Sky News Britain for his misleading pro-Hamas coverage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgIGNTiCo9c

WASHINGTON POST EDITORIAL: HAMAS ROCKETS ARE WAR CRIMES

The Washington Post is often critical of Israel. But in a surprisingly robust lead editorial, the paper wrote that:

Israel did not start the war between it and Hamas. The Islamist movement began launching missiles indiscriminately at Israeli cities a week ago, using as a pretext several days of unrest in Jerusalem. Israel's subsequent bombing of targets in the Gaza Strip, which has been aimed at killing commanders of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad, eliminating rocket launchers and destroying the tunnel network used by the militant groups, is not morally or legally comparable to the rocket launches, which are war crimes.

FOOTAGE CATCHES ARAB MAN FIREBOMBING ARAB BOY IN JAFFA

Israel Police on Sunday arrested an Arab man in his 20s and charged him with hurling a firebomb that severely burned a 12-year-old Arab boy and wounded his sister in Jaffa last Friday.

The attack was captured by surveillance cameras. Jews as well as Arabs had apartments in that building and the perpetrators were trying to kill Jews. Various media outlets and activists immediately blamed Jewish extremists for the attack which was in fact carried out by Arab extremists.

In separate news, Yigal Yehoshua, the 56-year-old Israeli Jewish man who was struck in the head by a brick thrown by Arab rioters in the Israeli city of Lod last week, died from his wounds yesterday.

Two more civilians died in southern Israel today in a Hamas rocket attack, and several were injured. All but one of the Israeli fatalities have been civilians whereas a majority of the Palestinian fatalities have been armed combatants.

MASKED MOB BREAK INTO MUSLIM YOUTUBE STAR?S HOME AND THROW BRICKS, ACCUSING HIM OF ?DISRESPECTING PALESTINE?

A masked mob broke into Muslim YouTube star Abu Layth?s home in Birmingham, England, early yesterday morning as his family slept inside, accusing him of "disrespecting Palestine".

Screams can be heard in the video below as thugs waving a Palestinian flag threw bricks at his home shattering the glass, and then kicked in the front door and ran upstairs, swearing at him and demanding he "come outside". His daughter was left traumatized.

In the film, as they throw the bricks, one man says: "Yo, this is for that dirty dog, Abu Layth, who disrespects our brothers and sisters of Palestine? come outside, you m***********".

Video here:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9586971/Masked-mob-break-Muslim-YouTube-stars-home-Birmingham-disrespecting-Palestine.html

HARD TO FIND A COMPROMISE

Frank Fleming writes:

I think you're always going to have tension in the Middle East when there's people who want to kill the Jews and Jews who don?t want to be killed and neither side is willing to compromise.

* You can also find other items that are not in these dispatches if you like this page on Facebook www.facebook.com/TomGrossMedia

"F*** the Jews, rape their daughters" tour of Jewish areas of London today

May 16, 2021

Palestinians confirm: many of Gaza dead killed by Hamas rockets (& Why won't Israelis let themselves be killed?)

May 14, 2021

Not only secular but also haredi Jews were randomly beaten by Arab assailants in Israel yesterday. (Video link here: https://www.facebook.com/TomGrossMedia/posts/3941649869205836 )

Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurz ordered the Israeli flag raised on the Austrian federal chancellery yesterday in solidarity with Israel. Several European Union governments, including the Czech Republic, Germany, Austria and others have shown strong support for a besieged Israel, unlike the post-EU British government which so far has not.

Germany's largest newspaper stands with Israel. This is rare among international (and German) papers.

[Notes above and below by Tom Gross]

This is a follow-up to my two dispatches on Wednesday:
http://www.tomgrossmedia.com/mideastdispatches/archives/001990.html

There is so much happening at present, it is impossible to cover everything. Here are a small snapshot of items and articles that you may have missed. (I posted several of these items yesterday on my Facebook page. Please follow that page for quicker updates than these dispatches.)

https://www.facebook.com/TomGrossMedia

PALESTINIANS CONFIRM: MANY OF GAZA DEAD KILLED BY HAMAS ROCKETS

Palestinian NGOs have been honest enough (unlike the New York Times) to confirm what Israel has said all week: that about one third of the now almost 2,000 Hamas rockets aimed at Israeli civilians in recent days have fallen short and landed in Gaza, some killing Palestinians.

For example, in this statement, the Gaza NGO "Defense for children international - Palestine" (which is normally very anti-Israel) says that eight Palestinians including two children, died in this Hamas rocket attack:

"a homemade rocket fired by a Palestinian armed group fell short and killed eight Palestinians, including two children. The rocket landed in Saleh Dardouna Street near Al-Omari Mosque in Jabalia, North Gaza, according to evidence collected by DCIP. Mustafa Mohammad Mahmoud Obaid, 16, was killed in the blast, and five-year-old Baraa Wisam Ahmad al-Gharabli succumbed to his injuries around 11 p.m. on May 10. "

https://twitter.com/DCIPalestine/status/1392190460093927424

On Tuesday alone, Hamas rockets killed 16 Gazans, including 8 children, according to Palestinian NGOs. And yet anti-Israel media continue to mislead their readers into thinking that Israeli air strikes caused these deaths.

In other cases Palestinians have been killed while being used as human shields by Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

***

Persons connected to intelligence circles tell me that the highly successful Israeli air strikes on Iranian and Qatari-funded Hamas rocket and weapon factories of recent days mean that Hamas may run out of long-range missiles within the next hours, thereby making it harder for Hamas to continue to hit Tel Aviv and major Israeli cities. However, Hamas still has thousands of short range-missiles which Israel is determined to destroy before any ceasefire.

***

A friend tells me, that when Israeli politician Gideon Saar told a CNN anchor two months ago that Hamas could use some of the money it was using to build expensive weapons and rockets to instead purchase coronavirus vaccines, the CNN anchor laughed at him.

16 HORRIFYING SECONDS IN LOD, ISRAEL

Israeli Arabs shoot live ammunition using machine guns from their apartment, targeting Jews in the parking lot of a residential neighborhood where Jews and Arabs had co-existed peacefully for decades.

Video here: https://www.facebook.com/dov.lipman/posts/5542183589186525

MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD INFLUENCE

Tom Gross adds: My friends in intelligence circles have been warning for months that the Israeli government was being far too weak in allowing Hamas to pour money into promoting Muslim brotherhood extremist views and preachers among Israeli Arabs (in much the same way as past British governments allowed extremist foreign funding to infiltrate mosques in London which later led to several terror attacks in the UK.)

(Hamas is the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood.)

JEWISH TEEN ATTACKED IN JAFFA UNDERGOES COMPLEX BRAIN SURGERY

There were several more gun and knife attacks on Jews in Israeli towns and cities yesterday evening.

The 19-year-old who was attacked in Jaffa underwent complicated surgery overnight Thursday after suffering from a severe injury to the head when he was attacked at random on the street by assailants shouting Allah Akbar.

Jews were also shot and stabbed in the mixed Jewish-Arab towns of Lod and Ramle.

Not only secular but also haredi Jews were beaten, for example, here:
https://www.facebook.com/TomGrossMedia/posts/3941649869205836

Synagogues in Lod and Jaffa, both cities with mixed populations, have been burned down.

JEWS ATTACKED IN MIDTOWN MANHATTAN

Jews have been attacked in New York while left-wing Democratic congress members stir things up with their lies about Israel, much as Muslim Brotherhood-Hamas preachers have stirred things up with their lies in the Middle East.

Video here from midtown Manhattan:

https://www.facebook.com/TomGrossMedia/posts/3936214026416087

PLAYING AMERICAN RACE POLITICS IN THE MIDDLE EAST

Liel Leibovitz writes in Tablet magazine:

Congressman Jamaal Bowman's district includes parts of the Bronx and Westchester County. He was elected with support from Jewish voters, four of whose synagogues were recently attacked and defaced by maniacs in his district.

Yesterday, responding to the onslaught of Palestinian violence against Israel, Congressman Bowman had this to say to his constituents when attacking Israel? "enough of Black and brown bodies being brutalized and murdered."

Now, this might be confusing to you, especially if you?ve been following the news over the past day. If so, you would have heard about Soumya Santosh, a 32-year-old Indian woman who, in order to provide for her 9-year-old boy, found work in the Israeli city of Ashkelon, caring for an 80-year-old woman. The pair were ducking for cover when their home was directly hit by one of Hamas's rockets. Santosh's brown body was torn apart by a projectile hurled by a terrorist organization and aimed at innocent civilians, none of whom, by the way, have any use for silly and preening identity politics.

Or maybe you know about 19-year-old Yehuda Guetta?his family hails from Libya, a country located, of all places, in Africa. Yehuda was shot and killed earlier this week by a Palestinian-American named Muntasir Shalabi, who was motivated, according to his neighbors, by equal parts Jew hatred and heavy gambling debts.

In general, I am loathe to deny Americans the right to play their national sports, which these days apparently include mau-mauing ?white people??though I will say that it seems creepy to use skin color as the primary way to identify human beings, like 19th century ?race scientists? did. But since Congressman Bowman is being joined by a host of other elected officials including Rashida Tlaib in trying to chauvinistically transpose their own American psychodrama onto a foreign region, this is now starting to get terrifyingly dangerous?and I don't mean for Israel, but for Jews living here in the United States, including those in Congressman Bowman?s own district.

So let's be clear as day: Israel isn't America, Jews aren't white, and Palestinians aren?t "Black and brown people. " Judaism is an identity that predates "race, " just as it predates America, and the sin of slavery, and the idea of nations and the Christian and Muslim faiths?

(The full article further down this dispatch.)

REP. RITCHIE TORRES: ?TRUTH,? AS WELL AS ISRAEL, IS ?UNDER SIEGE?

Not all progressive Democratic congressmen are joining in the campaign propagated by the so-called ?Jihad Squad? of AOC, Tlaib and Omar.

Democratic Rep. Ritchie Torres, a 33-year-old East Bronx native whose 15th district includes the South Bronx and borders that of fellow Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC), said on Wednesday in a swipe at his fellow progressives "what is under siege is not only Israel, what is under siege is the truth itself. Circulating on social media is a vicious lie ? a lie that deceptively reframes the terrorism of Hamas as self-defense and deceptively reframes the self-defense of Israel as terrorism. Increasingly, we seem to live in an Orwellian universe where the truth no longer matters."

Torres, who is the son of African-American and Puerto Rican parents, added: "We cannot allow ourselves to be silenced by an overbearing Twitter mob, dominated by the extremes of American politics. If we, in elected office, are not willing to say and do what is right, then we are unworthy of the office we hold."

FAR RIGHT JOIN FAR LEFT, UNITED BY THEIR ANTISEMITISM

Not only are the extreme left stirring up antisemitism while pretending to care about Palestinians, but the far right are too. Photo above from Florida yesterday.

For more, see here:

https://jewishjournal.com/news/336589/florida-van-with-palestinian-flag-and-hitler-was-right-sign-circles-around-pro-israel-rally

https://www.adl.org/blog/extremists-leverage-crises-in-israel

MEDIA ALLOWING SOME DIVERSITY OF OPINION

In spite of much very skewered reporting, perhaps finally aware that their incessant misinformation and invective about Israel have increased antisemitism in their own countries, some media are being a little less one-sided against Israel than in the past, and have included fairer interviews.

Here, for example, is Jason Greenblatt, who was Donald Trump's Middle East envoy (and before that Trump?s real estate lawyer) on BBC World News yesterday evening:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Vn7ktZWwvZw

***

There is also an important interview on Sky News with my friend Tim Marshall (who is a subscriber to this list) explaining that you can't understand what is happening in Gaza without understanding the key role of Iran in rocket supply for Hamas, and (as I?ve pointed out before) how Abbas cancelling the Palestinian elections forced Hamas?s hand.

The interview is posted here: https://www.facebook.com/TomGrossMedia/posts/3941818122522344

(I would add that the Biden administration's new soft approach towards the Iranian regime has encouraged it to be more belligerent in its support of both its Houti allies in Yemen and Hamas in Gaza.)

VIDEO: 'WE ARE FAMILY': JEWISH AND ARAB MEDICAL STAFF RESPOND TO ETHNIC TENSIONS

In an uplifting series of multi-lingual tweets, Jewish and Arab Israeli doctors and nurses have posted messages including a photo collage in which they are seen standing side-by-side, holding up pieces of paper saying: "We overcame the coronavirus together. We will all come together again now."

You can see a video here on the Jerusalem Post website from medical staff at the Galilee Medical Faculty Safed branch of Bar-Ilan University:

https://www.jpost.com/arab-israeli-conflict/we-are-family-jewish-and-arab-medical-staff-respond-to-ethnic-tensions-668120

Contrary to claims about "apartheid" propagated by propaganda organizations such as Human Rights Watch (whose co-founder quit in disgust at what he said the organization had become), Muslims, Christians and Jews work side by side at hospitals throughout Israel (as they do at other institutions, including universities, the judiciary and the police).

Prof. Jonathan Halevy, co-director of Shaare Zedek Medical Center, said ?Between 20% and 25% of our 5,000 employees are Arab, which is about the same rate of Arab patients we have. We are all united by the mission to work for the patients. I know it sounds very banal but it is true. Politics remains outside the hospital.?

Halevy pointed out that the head of Shaare Zedek?s corona department was an Arab doctor from East Jerusalem, while his head nurse was a ultra-Orthodox Jewish mother of seven. "They worked hand in hand," he said.

The Bnei Zion Medical Center in Haifa yesterday organized an end of Ramadan meal for its Jewish and Arab staff to celebrate coexistence.

The Rambam Medical Center in Haifa, promoted a social media campaign featuring Arab and Jewish personnel holding "shalom-salam" signs. Linda Hashem, an Arab nurse who has been working at Rambam for 26 years, said "I have never felt anything unpleasant here, I have never experienced racism."

I attach three articles below -- Tom Gross

ARTICLES

WHY WON'T ISRAELIS LET THEMSELVES BE KILLED?

Why won't Israelis let themselves be killed?
The global woke loathing for Israel is taking an even darker turn.
By Brendan O?Neill
Spiked Online (UK)
May 13, 2021

Two weeks ago Turkish forces launched a military assault in the Duhok region of Iraqi Kurdistan. Villagers were forced to ?flee in terror? from raining bombs. It was only the latest bombardment of the beleaguered Kurds by Turkey, NATO member and Western ally. It did not trend online. There were no noisy protests in London or New York. The Turks weren't talked about in woke circles as crazed, bloodthirsty killers. Tweeters didn't dream out loud about Turks burning in hell. The Onion didn't do any close-to-the-bone satire about how Turkish soldiers just love killing children. No, the Duhok attack passed pretty much without comment.

But when Israel engages in military action, that?s a different story. Always. Every time. Anti-Israel fury in the West has intensified to an extraordinary degree following an escalation of violence in the Middle East in recent days. Protests were instant and inflammatory. Israeli flags were burned on the streets of London. Social media was awash with condemnation. ?IDF Soldier Recounts Harrowing, Heroic War Story Of Killing 8-Month-Old Child?, tweeted The Onion, to tens of thousands of likes. Israel must be boycotted, isolated, cast out of the international community, leftists cried. Western politicians, including Keir Starmer, rushed to pass judgement. ?What?s the difference??, said a placard at a march in Washington, DC showing the Israeli flag next to the Nazi flag. The Jews are the Nazis now, you see. Ironic, isn?t it?

This is the question anti-Israel campaigners have never been able to answer: why do they treat Israel so differently to every other nation on Earth? Why is it child-killing bloodlust when Israel takes military action but not when Turkey or India do? Why must we rush to the streets to set light to the Israel flag but never the Saudi flag, despite Saudi Arabia?s unconscionable war on Yemen? Why is it only ?wrong? or at worst ?horrific? when Britain or America drop bombs in the Middle East but Nazism when Israel fires missiles into Gaza? Why do you merely oppose the military action of some states but you hate Israel, viscerally, publicly, loudly?

The judgement and treatment of Israel by a double standard is one of the most disturbing facets of global politics in the 21st century. That double standard has been glaringly evident over the past few days. Israel is now the only country on Earth that is expected to allow itself to be attacked. To sit back and do nothing as its citizens are pelted with rocks or rockets. How else do we explain so many people?s unwillingness to place the current events in any kind of context, including the context of an avowedly anti-Semitic Islamist movement ? Hamas ? firing hundreds of missiles into civilian areas in Israel? In this context, to rage solely against Israel, to curse its people and burn its flag because it has sent missiles to destroy Hamas?s firing positions in Gaza, is essentially to say: ?Why won?t Israelis let themselves be killed??

No other nation would be expected not to respond either to internal disarray ? Hamas supporters have rioted in parts of Jerusalem and around Al-Aqsa Mosque ? or to foreign attack. Imagine if the Isle of Wight was home to a movement whose founding constitution expressed loathing for all ethnic Britons and which regularly fired hundreds of missiles into Sussex, Kent, Hampshire. Wouldn?t the British military respond? Of course it would. But the woke demonisation of Israel is now so acute that Israel is expected to take the military assaults of the radical Islamists to its south. To Western activists who find the very existence of Israel abhorrent, any effort Israel makes to protect its borders or its citizens is an affront to global peace and decency. They cannot understand why Israel doesn?t hate itself as much as they hate it, and therefore will not allow itself to be punished by its righteous enemies. How dare you live?

In relation to Israel-Palestine, local context is always crushed by the narrative and prejudice of Western observers. So the current violence is seen as stemming from Israel?s ?ethnic cleansing? of the Arab neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem. ?The latest Israel-Palestine crisis [is about] ethnic cleansing?, said MSNBC. First, the events in Sheikh Jarrah, while undoubtedly distressing and unpleasant, are more complex than many observers will allow. Secondly, and more importantly, the depiction of the current tensions as a battle between an expansive Israel and a beleaguered Palestinian community overlooks the intra-Palestinian conflict that is playing out right now.

Much of the current instability actually stems from Mahmoud Abbas?s announcement two weeks ago that he was cancelling elections in the West Bank. Abbas is the leader of Fatah and the Palestinian president. He has been president since 2005. It was meant to be a four-year term, but it has lasted 16 years. Democracy has disappeared in the Palestinian Territories. As one report points out, no Palestinian under the age of 34 has ever taken part in national elections. Abbas said his most recent cancellation of elections was down to the disagreements over East Jerusalem, but many suspect his real concern is that Hamas would beat Fatah and would come to dominate both Gaza and the West Bank. Hamas?s recent actions have primarily been a response to Abbas and an attempt to position Hamas as the true representative of Palestinians against Israel.

And in this, Hamas has been fully and foolishly assisted by the anti-Israel obsessives of the West. Westerners? hyper-moralisation of the current tensions, their depiction of the conflict as a black-and-white story of Evil Israel vs the plucky defenders of the Arabs of East Jerusalem, has enormously benefitted Hamas in its intra-Palestinian conflict of legitimacy with Fatah. The naive anti-Israel lobby is witlessly helping to elevate a radical Islamist organisation as the leader of all Palestinians. Indeed, some anti-Israel activists are even rallying behind the repugnant Hamas slogan ?From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free?, which is essentially a call to wipe Israel off the map. This represents a vile consummation of the unholy marriage between the Western left and radical Islam.

Here?s the irony of anti-Israel commentary and activism in the 21st century: it has the form of anti-imperialism but the substance of imperialism. Witness how campaigners brand Israel a ?rogue state?, borrowing from the language of modern Western imperialism. Observe how they call on the Western powers to isolate and chastise Israel and to enforce sanctions against it. Or see how, in its more extreme form, anti-Israel activism promotes a racial caricature of Israelis as bloodthirsty, as uniquely dangerous, as a very particular threat to world peace. Anti-Israel sentiment adopts the postures of 20th-century national liberation while in fact pushing an agenda of Western chauvinism that views Israel as a distinctly problematic state in need of our virtuous punishment.

There is nothing positive in contemporary Israel-bashing. In its naivety, it assists the rise of Hamas. In its arrogance it empowers the West to determine the fate of the Middle East. All of this stores up more conflict and hatred for the future.

PLAYING AMERICAN RACE POLITICS IN THE MIDDLE EAST

Playing American Race Politics in the Middle East
New York Congressman Jamaal Bowman and others are grafting a domestic psychodrama onto a foreign region?and endangering American Jews in the process
By Liel Leibovitz
Tablet magazine
May 12, 2021

https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/jamaal-bowman-liel-leibovitz

Congressman Jamaal Bowman?s district includes parts of the Bronx and Westchester County. He was elected with support from Jewish voters, four of whose synagogues were recently attacked and defaced by maniacs in his district.

Yesterday, responding to the onslaught of Palestinian violence against Israel, Congressman Bowman had this to say to his constituents: ?Whether it?s the infringement of human and civil rights of Palestinians living in Sheikh Jarrah, the violence against those praying in the Al-Aqsa mosque during the holy month of Ramadan in East Jerusalem? my heart is breaking for people around the world experiencing oppression and hurt.? And in case the virtue signal wasn?t heard loudly or clearly enough, Bowman added in a tweet, ?enough of Black and brown bodies being brutalized and murdered.?

Now, this might be confusing to you, especially if you?ve been following the news over the past day. If so, you would have heard about Soumya Santosh, a 32-year-old Indian woman who, in order to provide for her 9-year-old boy, found work in the Israeli city of Ashkelon, caring for an 80-year-old woman. The pair were ducking for cover when their home was directly hit by one of Hamas?s rockets. Santosh?s brown body was torn apart by a projectile hurled by a terrorist organization and aimed at innocent civilians, none of whom, by the way, have any use for silly and preening identity politics.

So let?s be clear as day: Israel isn?t America, Jews aren?t white, and Palestinians aren?t ?Black and brown people.? Judaism is an identity that predates ?race,? just as it predates America, and the sin of slavery, and the idea of nations and the Christian and Muslim faiths.

Reckless, ignorant racializing, precisely of the kind that Bowman is practicing these days, has a trickle-down effect. In a statement last month, the Congressman and his fellow progressives released a statement declaring themselves shocked, shocked! by the anti-Jewish violence in their own districts. Sir, the call is coming from inside your house.

Moreover, if people like Congressman Bowman can?t see how being openly denigrated by powerful people?like, say, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives?makes members of a minority group feel vulnerable and targeted, then I really have no idea what progressive politics are even pretending to be about anymore.

Of course, Bowman is free to ignore Jewish history and all the suffering of real people in the present, and to fantasize about skin-based affinities while fundamentalist terrorists lob thousands of rockets at people who are family members, both figuratively and literally speaking, of his own constituents. But how about the other side of what?s happening in Israel? In the last 48 hours, thousands of Israeli Arab citizens, whose skin color is exactly the same as that of their neighbors, and who enjoy the highest standard of living in the region as well as every right to practice their religion freely and attend great universities, launched a wave of pogroms against their Jewish neighbors. They attacked and defaced synagogues in Lod?just like in Bowman?s district in Riverdale. They also beat up children in the street, bombed buses, dragged drivers from their cars, and smashed shop windows, targeting the Jewish regional minority.

A rabbi traveling with his students told the Israeli press about feeling helpless when their bus was blocked by throngs of Arab rioters armed with burning tires and large rocks. Four police cars, the rabbi reported, stood idly by and did nothing as the pogromists pelted the bus with boulders. ?I didn?t open fire,? the rabbi, who was armed, said. ?I didn?t want to be the subject of a police investigation myself.? Instead, he told his underage charges to lie on the ground, keep their heads down, and pray, as they were pelted with stones and shattered glass. Is this a righteous or ?understandable? punishment for the teacher and his students for ?occupying Palestine??

The world?s sole Jewish state was not formed to give Jews yet another ghetto in which to cower in fear. The country?s restraint in the face of these deadly provocations is not some kind of acknowledgement of guilt or slick PR move, the way woke corporations write checks to Black Lives Matter. In a dangerous part of the world, real bad boys move in silence, with violence?and believe me, no one will care how loudly progressives in America may howl. We know that America can bring peace, or it can bring war by encouraging our enemies and rewarding them when they try to kill us. In which case, the bloodshed that follows is on your head.

The Jewish state has known deadly attacks before, but this week?s onslaught marks a turning point. It marks the end of false pretenses, the end of politely engaging with those who tacitly or otherwise engage in violence against Jews. In Ramla and in Riverdale, the message should ring loud and clear: The choice is between our own safety, and the other side?s twisted political games. Choose wisely.

"ON THE SYMPATHY SCALE, IT IS GOOD TO BE A PALESTINIAN, BUT NOT SO GOOD TO BE A KURD, UIGHUR, TIBETAN, COPT, YEZIDI, MUSLIM ROHINGYA IN MYANMAR, OR WEST-SAHARAN"

A Not-So-Little War Brings Palestinian Arabs Back To the Middle East Stage
By Josef Joffe
New York Sun
May 13, 2021

On the sympathy scale, it is good to be a Palestinian, but not so good to be a Kurd, Uighur, Tibetan, Copt, Yezidi, Muslim Rohingya in Myanmar, or West-Saharan, whose land has been occupied by Morocco since the Seventies. This is the short list of those who are oppressed or slaughtered, but are hardly worthy of attention.

Today, as the missiles are reaching Tel Aviv and the Israeli Army readies itself for a ground assault, demonstrations in favor Uighurs, Saharans et al are on the low side or non-existent. The war between Israel and Hamas has triggered the classic reflexes in the Western press. If rockets are flying, it must be the fault of Israel, the usual suspect.

It?s a standard script: Evil settlers who want to expel Palestinians from their ancestral abodes in Jerusalem; a power-crazed Israeli prime minister who hopes to keep his office by unleashing war; an ?apartheid state? that that will use any excuse to terrorize the victims of Israeli colonialism. The aggressor must be punished, and so a New York Times columnist has appealed to the American government to reconsider its copious aid to the Jewish state. Case closed.

Old Middle East hands know that the case is not open and shut ? and that nothing is ever as it seems in a region where peace has for ages been a pause between two wars. Let?s start from the bottom up and go to the Jerusalem quarter the Arabs call Sheikh Jarrah, and the Israelis Shimon ha-Tsaddik.

Jews had bought places there in 1874 and were expelled by British and Jordanian forces in 1948. Arab squatters moved in. Though the IDF unified the City in 1967, the status quo persisted until the descendants of the expellees, titles in hand, sued to regain their properties. The case is now before Israel?s Supreme Court.

So, in this benighted region, a plea for restitution under the law is yet another provocation, another heinous attempt to ?Judaize Jerusalem.? One might question the wisdom of raising the matter after six decades, but ?colonialism? this is not ? unless due process is. Given the rockets and a looming IDF incursion into Gaza, the Supreme Court has postponed a decision.

Next level up is the labyrinth of Mideast politics that is too complex for journalists and politicos to navigate. Better to apply the simple good-vs-evil template. Hounded by the courts, Prime Minister Netanyahu is using war to shore up his crumbling position at home. Not quite: Well aware of the annual clashes on Jerusalem Day, the government deployed army and police to separate Jews from Arabs as marchers on both sides claimed true title to the ?City Upon a Hill.?

Keeping them apart might have worked if two deadly enemies on the Palestinian side had not decided to make their own points. It started with Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, who had postponed, sine die, yet another election scheduled for 22 May, using the brewing conflict over Jerusalem as subterfuge.

Seeing itself as the predestined winner, what could Hamas do to counter the Fatah gambit? How about starting a little war against the Yahud, which promised several benefits?

First, Hamas could posture as only defender of the faith and of Palestinian dignity, which would make it shine as true leader of the flock in both Gaza and the Westbank. This struggle has tortured the Palestinians ever since Hamas grabbed power in 2006.

Second, a little ? or not so little ? war would bring Palestine back to center-stage whence it was being banished while the Great Realignment of the Middle East unfolded, as one regional potentate after another tucked tail and decided that a common Arab-Israeli front against Iran was more important than the will-o?-the-wisp of Palestinian statehood. Fatah and Hamas were successively being pushed offstage. In an attention economy, the limelight is precious.

Third, start a conflagration, and the international fire brigade will rush in to chastise the Israelis and appease the Palestinians. President Biden promptly dispatched an emissary, and the Russians and Europeans won?t be far behind. The expectation? Israel will be upbraided, and money will be showered on Gaza and Ramallah, two failed states. Back to square one.

And then what?

The problem of the Palestinian leadership is ? and has always been ?two-fold. For one, this Israeli ?apartheid state? ? an obscene term, when the Arab List, known as Ra?am, almost played kingmaker in Israel?s coalition wars ? will not go away as Anglos and Afrikaaners did after losing power in South Africa. Nor did Pretoria protect black lives as, metaphorically, Israel is doing in going after Jewish extremists.

Second, Israel towers over the chessboard; soldier for soldier, the IDF is unmatched in the world, and Israel?s per-capita income is slightly above France?s or Japan?s. No number of anti-Israel op-eds can change these realities, not to speak of the soft power accruing from the Arab-Israeli realignment.

Will yet another American-sponsored peace parley end the Hundred Years War? Not as long as Palestinians say ?Hebron? and mean ?Haifa.? Not as long as domestic machinations on either side dwarf the logic of coexistence in this narrow strip between the Jordan and the Mediterranean. Abba Eban?s fabled line about the Palestinians never missing an opportunity to miss an opportunity by now goes for Israel, as well.

Will Hamas, Fatah and Israel sit down in earnest? It seemed so when Ehud Barak and Yasser Arafat sat down with Bill Clinton in Camp David 21 years ago. The ?Rais? went home and launched the Second Intifada, which claimed 1,000 Israeli and 3,000 Palestinian lives. And they blamed it on Ariel Sharon.

* You can also find other items that are not in these dispatches if you ?like? this page on Facebook www.facebook.com/TomGrossMedia

Jews and Arabs sheltering together from the terrorists

May 12, 2021

Above:What most international media won't show you: Israeli Arabs sheltering through the night with Israeli Jews in Israeli bomb shelters from the murderous Hamas organization which holds Gaza hostage -- Tom Gross

CHILDREN AMONG LATEST CASUALTIES IN ISRAEL

The sole purpose of the rockets raining down on Israel this past evening (pictured above is one particularly intense barrage) is to kill and maim civilians. At least 480 rockets have been fired into Israel in the last two days. (Update: Now more than 1,000.)

Among the Israeli dead from Hamas rocket attacks on the Israeli city of Lod in the night was reportedly a 7-year-old girl. A five-year-old girl who was hit by a Hamas rocket fired at a bus stop in the Tel Aviv suburb of Holon is in critical condition.

While there has been highly regrettable loss of innocent life in Gaza too, most of the Palestinian casualties have been Palestinian militants as Israel continues to attempt to strike Hamas militants as they are launching rockets at Israel, in a series of carefully coordinated airstrikes. A number of senior Hamas and Iranian-orchestrated Islamic Jihad commanders are also among the dead in Gaza.

Above: Among the dead from the recent Hamas rocket attacks in Israel:

* Left: 16-year-old Arab-Israeli Nadine Awad, killed with her father, Khalil.

* Right: Leah Yom-Tov, a 63-year-old Jewish-Israeli mother of two and grandmother of five.

HAMAS ALSO CAUSED SOME OF GAZA DEATHS

* USA Today corrects itself, admits explosion that tragically caused death of three Gaza children, may well have been caused by a misfired Hamas rocket; NY Times refuses to admit error.

* The volleys of over 600 missiles fired into Israeli territory by Palestinian terrorist groups since fighting began Monday has included at least 150 errant rockets ? falling short within the Gaza Strip and causing casualties that Hamas officials wrongly blamed on Israel, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

CORBYN STEPS INTO THE FRAY

Above: Pro-Palestinian demonstrators in central London yesterday were addressed by the recent leader of the British Labour Party (and friend of Holocaust deniers) Jeremy Corbyn, shortly before the protestors violently attacked the police. The police were protecting a small group of British Jews across the street.

Above: Germany's largest newspaper stands with Israel today. This is rare among international (and German) papers.

"THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH SHEIKH JARRAH" AND EVERYTHING TO DO WITH THE POWER STRUGGLE BETWEEN HAMAS AND FATAH (THE PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY)

Tom Gross adds: I'm still not fully well and am limited in the amount of time and energy I have for dispatches.

I attach an article below, just published by the leading Palestinian human rights activist Bassem Eid. (Bassem Eid, founder of the Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group in 1996, spent years campaigning against human rights violations committed by Israel. But after many years research he concluded that the main perpetrators of human rights violations against the Palestinians were the western-backed Palestinian Authority run by the 85-year-old President-for-life Mahmoud Abbas and the Iranian regime-backed Islamic group Hamas.)

***

ARTICLE

This has nothing to do with Sheikh Jarrah
It's about Hamas seeing a chance to seize the narrative and increase its own influence and control over Palestinians in Jerusalem, after Abbas canceled the long-awaited Palestinian elections last week
By Bassem Eid
May 12, 2021 (6 am)
The Times of Israel

As I write this, rockets are raining down on Israel from Gaza, and protests are being instigated in cities throughout the country. People have already died as a result of this senseless violence and more will surely follow in the next few days. As a Palestinian living in Jerusalem, I am frustrated and angry - and I can only blame Hamas. The fanatics who rule over Gaza with an iron first cannot resist the opportunity to stir up anti-Jewish violence for their own political gain. If innocent Jews and Muslims die in the process, all the better for them.

The pretext for the latest missile barrage and social media incitement is Sheikh Jarrah, where a long-running legal dispute was scheduled for a court hearing. This had been a private matter between Jews who have an old property deed from the 1800s and the residents of four homes who have lived there for decades and do not want to pay rent. It is the kind of situation that should be handled by a local municipal court. This could happen in any other country and there would be no public interest. But this is Jerusalem, so you have to view everything in the context of the political situation. You also have to ask yourself: who stands to gain from political violence right now?

After Palestinian PM Mahmoud Abbas canceled highly anticipated elections, Hamas simply saw an opportunity it could not pass up, exploiting the Sheikh Jarrah situation and an already tense environment during the holy day of Leylat Al Qadr and Jerusalem Day. Hamas is currently running a social media campaign calling for Palestinians to incite violence during demonstrations in Jerusalem and elsewhere. They are encouraging Palestinian youth to throw their lives away by hurling rocks and makeshift bombs at police.

Hamas-led riots outside of the Al Aqsa Mosque prove that Israeli police are not at fault for the dangers preventing Muslims from praying. Hamas has incited mobs and provoked violence with the intention of framing Israel for ethnic cleansing. Just today, provocateurs filled several busses to travel to Jerusalem to participate in the 'historic' riots and answer the Hamas call to incite violence.

Most significantly, Hamas leaders ordered hundreds of rockets to be launched in the general direction of major Israeli cities. Many of them did this from the comfort of their luxury villas in Doha, Damascus, or elsewhere, knowing full well they themselves are safe from any blowback. It is important to remember that Hamas's penchant for murder is almost matched by their blundering incompetence, which is partly the reason 1 out of every 3 of their rockets crashes into Gaza where the only possible victims are Palestinian. They also apparently shelled Abu Ghosh, an ancient Arab village.

This dispute is not actually about four houses in East Jerusalem. This is about Hamas seeing a chance to seize the narrative and increase its own influence and control over Palestinians in Jerusalem. Don't buy their fake news and let them dilute their own blame. In the coming days, Jews and Muslims are both likely to die because Hamas saw political upside in violence. Don't forget it.

* You can also find other items that are not in these dispatches if you ?like? this page on Facebook www.facebook.com/TomGrossMedia

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