This week’s column is dedicated to the memory of Irving Moskowitz, a warrior who dedicated his life to Israel and the Jewish nation. His legacy shines on through his beautiful family and the critical work he did for the integrity of the Jewish state.
Israeli Left Takes Advantage Of Brexit
The Israeli left is seeking to hijack the “Brexit” victory in the United Kingdom by pushing for an Israeli exit from the strategic West Bank and eastern sections of Jerusalem in order to create a Palestinian state.
Seemingly ignoring the fact that successive Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have expressed willingness to offer the Palestinians a state while the Palestinian leadership has rejected these offers and even negotiations on the subject, Israeli opposition leader Isaac Herzog on Sunday implied the Israeli public should hold a referendum on a Palestinian state.
In a similar vein, Amir Oren, senior correspondent and columnist for the left-leaning Haaretz and a member of the newspaper’s editorial board, wrote an op-ed on Sunday titled, “Time for ‘Israexit’ From the Occupied Territories.”
Oren claims that Israel’s presence in the so-called occupied territories is endangering the Jewish state’s diplomatic support in the West. He fails to recall that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon sold Israel’s Gaza evacuation to the Israeli public by claiming that the international community would strongly support future Israeli defensive measures should the Gaza Strip be used to attack Israel.
Instead, Israel is routinely condemned for its anti-terrorism operations in the Gaza Strip, and the international community led ceasefire efforts to stop Israel’s defensive wars in Gaza.
United Nations Security Council Resolution 242, the only binding resolution pertaining to the West Bank, calls on Israel to withdraw under a future final-status solution “from territories occupied” as a result of the 1967 Six-Day War. The resolution does not call for a withdrawal from “all territories,” a designation deliberately left out to ensure Israel’s allowance under a future deal to retain some territory for security purposes.
PA Accuses Israel Of ‘Executing’ 15-Year-Old Teen
The Palestinian Authority, which incites its citizens to carry out murderous attacks on Israelis, is cynically accusing the Israel Defense Forces of committing an “execution” when soldiers last Tuesday mistakenly shot and killed a Palestinian teen while searching for Palestinians carrying out potentially deadly attacks on Israeli vehicles – attacks encouraged by the PA itself.
Many in the international news media are claiming the teen, Mahmoud Rafat Badran, 15, was suspected of “stone throwing,” as if he were accused of tossing pebbles at Israelis.
“Palestinian, 15, Killed as Israeli Forces Sought to Halt Stone Throwing,” read a New York Times headline.
“Palestinian teen killed by Israeli military after stone-throwing incident,” declared a Washington Post header.
These are just a few samples of similar such reporting across the English-language mainstream news media.
In actuality, just before Badran was mistakenly killed, two tourists and one Israeli were lightly wounded when a group of Palestinians attacked moving vehicles on an Israeli highway that straddles the West Bank. The Palestinians lobbed stones and firebombs at speeding vehicles, and poured oil on the road with the goal of causing accidents.
Such attacks can be potentially fatal for obvious reasons. One stone can shatter a windshield and cause a driver to lose control. A firebomb can potentially create a vehicular explosion. Indeed, on Tuesday, an Israeli bus passenger and two tourists were injured in an accident caused by the Palestinian troublemakers.
Because Israel is a democracy with the rule of law, as opposed to the terror-stained PA tyranny, the IDF has already opened an investigation into the incident. Haaretz points out that the investigation will focus on whether the soldiers “opened fire according to protocol and if the forces felt a clear and immediate threat from the family car.”