Tag Archives: zionism

Virtue-Signaling Hypocrites

Posted on June 16, 2025 | 1 comment

      

(First published at Israelnationalnews.com)

Thursday, June 12 – The decision by five nations – United Kingdom, Canada, Norway, Australia, and New Zealand – to sanction Finance Minister Betzalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir is both outrageous and shameful. It would seem that they were sacrificial lambs, offered up by these nations to placate the Jew-haters in their midst because these countries are not yet ready to recognize a Palestinian state. Something had to be done to keep their ravenous, Jew-hating wolves at bay, and the sanctions regime was chosen. It should be met by a muscular Israeli response, notwithstanding the lack of practical effect but especially considering the baseless accusations against government ministers.

In short, the ministers were accused of “inciting violence” against Arabs but zero evidence was marshalled in order to sustain that indictment. Instead, the inciteful statements included their unequivocal opposition to the establishment of a Palestinian state and their energetic support for Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria. Notwithstanding that these are two policies now widely favored by the Israeli public (85% of whom are opposed to a Palestinian state), how does that translate into “inciting violence” against Arabs?

In the delusional world of the European and Oceanic diplomats, building Jewish homes in Judea (of all places) and opposing the formal creation of a terror state, somehow incites violence, presumably of Arabs against Israelis. This conclusion is in keeping with the soft bigotry of low expectations with which the Western world treats the Palestinians, who apparently cannot help but shoot and kill a Jewish woman in childbirth because they do not like where she lives. If these countries actually believe that Smotrich or Ben-Gvir incited Jews to attack Arabs, they should adduce that evidence forthwith.

Other statements that agitated these diplomats were Smotrich’s assertion that the Palestinians are not a nation, and that both have declaimed that Gazans should be relocated to another country. That latter suggestion was termed “monstrous” by British Foreign Secretary David Lammy, presumably implicating President Trump as well, as that “monstrous” idea was his. But it is hard to contend that Palestinians are a nation, as they lack any history before the 20th century and exist only as a counterforce against Israel.

This, indeed, was prophesied in the Bible. The Torah teaches that at the end of days, in our last futile rebellion against G-d, “they will provoke Me with a non-god…and I will provoke them with a non-people” (Devarim 32:21). Golda Meir famously said that “there is no Palestinian people.” To be sure, they are a contrived people, a 20TH century fabrication, which had no national life or even ambition until Jewish nationalism arose. That is why when Egypt and Jordan occupied, respectively, Gaza, Judea, and Samaria from 1948-1967, they did not create a “Palestine” country nor did any such “Palestinians” demand one. The issue only arose when Jews conquered that territory, ancient and integral to the Jewish homeland.

One can quibble as to whether they are a nation today; as recently as 1967, the UN Resolution 242 that sought a “just and lasting peace” made no mention of Palestinians or a Palestinian state. But is rejection of an Arab state carved from the land of Israel tantamount to “inciting violence”? Only in the fevered imaginations of these diplomats.

What is especially rich is their denunciations of Israel as a colonialist power. The French, who haven’t yet sanctioned Israelis but who are otherwise making mischief in the Middle East, still retain vestiges of the French Empire, with twelve territories stretching from Martinique and St. Martin in the Caribbean Sea to French Polynesia and New Caledonia in the Pacific Ocean. They came into possession of these territories the old-fashioned way – military conquest – apparently still indifferent to the very modern value of the “inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war.”

The British are even more egregious, retaining control over Gibraltar, the Cayman Islands, Turks and Caicos, and a dozen other territories where they should not be. They even went to war in 1982 when the Falkland Islands were conquered by Argentina, which still claims sovereignty over these lands that are right off their coast. Put another way, the UK dispatched a naval flotilla six thousand miles from their shores in order to retrieve a small piece of land they claim as theirs since the 18th century despite Argentina’s parallel claim. Yet, the British deign to preach to Israel about Jews settling in Judea or about the conduct of our war in Gaza which adjoins Israel and is relentlessly hostile and homicidal. Such assertions are obviously and unimaginably hypocritical. The British killed 649 Argentinians during that two-month conflict (or 64,900 as counted by the Gaza Ministry of Health).

Indeed, it would be quite appropriate now for Israel to recognize the Falkland Islands as sovereign Argentinian territory (if Argentina approves). This would be a worthy gesture to Argentinian President Javier Milei, whose unabashed support for Israel is a bright star in an otherwise dark world, and especially in light of Argentina’s decision to move its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. Let the British withdraw from land which they have no rational reason to possess and let them acknowledge Israel’s sovereign right to the land of Israel.

How should Israel respond? The government’s denunciation of the sanctioning of our ministers as “outrageous” is a good beginning but it should not end with words. The foreign ministers of these countries should be barred from visiting Israel and their ambassadors should be called to the Foreign Ministry for a stern lecture.

Additionally, Smotrich’s decision to disconnect the PA from the Israeli banking further exposes the PA as a house of cards ready to collapse, incapable of sustaining itself. This is a tough but crucial measure to create a new Middle East, including an Israel in which only people who want to live here and accept Israel’s sovereignty are allowed to live here. We will never have even a semblance of security until that happens.

It is also high time for the British Consulate in Jerusalem, the UK’s representation to the Palestinian Authority, to be summarily closed as an offense to Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem. These consulates – there are about a dozen others – should be denied a presence in Jerusalem, and if those countries wish to have representation to the PA, it should open offices in Ramallah, the PA’s seat of government. Israel has for too long acquiesced in this affront to our sovereignty. Furthermore, Israel’s Finance Ministry and National Security Ministry should cut off all contact and relations with their counterparts in those five countries.

These would be the responses of a proud nation. For that matter, these would be the responses of even an unproud nation whose ministers are penalized for defending their nations’ interests. We need not and should not accept these indignities. Smotrich and Ben-Gvir simply reflect the will of their constituents. If opposition to a Palestinian state and Jewish settlement in the heartland of Israel is worthy of sanctions then half of Israel could effectively be sanctioned. It means that any right-wing government is worthy of sanctions. It is thus best to challenge this decision now; even as a hollow symbol it is still repugnant.

If, indeed, these sanctions are essentially meaningless, except as an insult, why did these countries rush to implement them? Well, insulting us is part of the goal, but more importantly, these countries – all governed now by leftists and all being besieged by an influx of Muslims immigrants, legal or not – are pseudo friends of Israel at best and quiet enemies at worst. Each of these countries have been victims of Muslim terror and each struggle to protect its Jewish population from the predations of these new immigrants. It is not the country as much as it is the governments of those countries. Their ideology has no place for a religious-national entity; as such Israel, the national home of the Jewish people, is in their view doubly flawed.

The perfidious quintet sanctioned Smotrich and Ben-Gvir for no valid reason – but they mean all of us. These virtue signalers are not in the least sincere. We should not allow their stunning hypocrisy to resonate with us or doubt the justice of our cause. At the end of days, the nations will thrash about and challenge the people of Israel one last time. Let this be the last gasp of secularism and its discontents before the era of redemption unfolds before us and elevates all of mankind to a more moral and peaceful world.

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Why Mike Huckabee is the Right Man

Posted on May 8, 2025 | Comments Off on Why Mike Huckabee is the Right Man

(First published at Dailywire.com, on behalf of the Jerusalem Center for Applied Policy)

United States Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee presented his credentials two weeks ago to Israel’s President, Yitzchak Herzog, and immediately demonstrated why he is the right person for this vital position at this critical time. It is true that Ambassador Huckabee has visited Israel more than 100 times, in his capacity as a Baptist preacher leading his congregation and as a politician accompanying his constituents, but even more importantly, he understands Israel, its uniqueness, its role in history, its abiding friendship with the United States, and its challenges.

Huckabee declared at the reception that he returns to Israel with “absolute joy and an overwhelming sense of awe that I am in a land where G-d Himself said, ‘This is mine, and these are My people.’” Such sentiments are not often expressed in Israel and not articulated often enough by Jews but they provide the foundation for defining the rightful place of the State of Israel, its reason for existence, and even the relentless antagonism of its enemies. The land of Israel was not only the land of the Bible in ancient times; it remains the land of the Bible and awaits the fulfillment of the prophetic vision of the future. Perceived through that prism, Israel’s struggles against implacable foes take on a new light that is visible only to someone who shares Ambassador Huckabee’s perspective.

Indeed, it is hard to imagine another ambassador having visited the country to which he was posted one hundred times before he assumes the role. It means that Huckabee’s commitment to Israel’s security stems from his correct understanding of America’s place in the world and its capacity to foster good and promote peace and prosperity. What should be on Ambassador Huckabee’s agenda, especially mindful that he is the US Ambassador who should advance American interests in the region?

The Ambassador has been outspoken in recent years as to the non-viability of a Palestinian state in the land of Israel, now rendered especially incongruous and perilous in light of the Hamas massacre of October 7, the ongoing war, and the Palestinian Authority’s reluctance to condemn that war. As ambassador, he can thwart the subtle encroachment towards a Palestinian state favored by Europe and some elements in the United States by reiterating a number of steps taken during the first Trump administration. He can again shutter the US Office of Palestinian Affairs (OPA), located on Agron Street in the western part of Jerusalem, which was revived by the Biden administration in violation of US and Israeli law and functioned as a quasi-diplomatic mission to the Palestinians. During the first Trump term, this office was closed, and its services provided out of the American embassy in Jerusalem to which it reported directly.

The OPA as currently constituted is an affront to Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem. Ambassador Huckabee, together with Israel’s Foreign Ministry, can use his good offices to limit or halt the activities of the several European consulates that are located in Jerusalem and operate as missions to the Palestinian Authority in defiance of Israeli and international law. The ambassador can persuade – and certainly the US government can act to support Israel’s closure of these hostile outposts in the heart of Jerusalem.

The Ambassador can urge the State Department to finally designate “Jerusalem, Israel” as an official place of birth on American passports. State has long embraced the chimera that Jerusalem’s status as part of Israel – as Israel’s capital, no less – is somehow still subject to the outcome of negotiations. This policy should be repudiated and US citizens born in Jerusalem who so desire should have their place of birth recorded as “Jerusalem, Israel.”

Ambassador Huckabee should also encourage the Trump administration to follow through on its temporary suspension of funding to UNRWA and make that suspension permanent. UNRWA, although barred by Israeli law from operating in Jerusalem, still maneuvers behind the scenes, controlling schools and in some cases economic development while advancing the interests of Hamas, with which it was integrally linked during the Gaza War. Cutting aid and resigning from UNESCO, another UN organization that is antagonistic to Israel and the United States, is also an American interest.

Additionally, for many decades under Democratic administrations, any type of residential or commercial building in Jerusalem by Jews – not by Arabs – drew immediate condemnations from the State Department. This too much end, and the ambassador is well positioned, as is President Trump, a real estate maven, to take the lead in supporting Israel’s plans to construct new neighborhoods in Jerusalem and even to explore the expansion of Jerusalem’s municipal boundaries to encompass satellite towns on its periphery.

To his great credit, President Trump has appointed two distinguished emissaries to Israel – David Friedman in his first term and Mike Huckabee in his current term. A person of faith, such as Ambassador Huckabee, deeply understands the centrality of Israel in the narrative of world history. But this ambassador also deeply understands the Israel of the future, and the pivotal role played by the city of Jerusalem, and even more how a secure and prosperous Israel will strengthen the United States and bring the world closer to the vision of peace on earth.

Rabbi Pruzansky is Senior Research Associate at the Jerusalem Center for Applied Policy (JCAP.ngo).

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The Real World

Posted on October 15, 2024 | 3 comments

(First published in the Jerusalem Report, October 21)

Rabbi Dr. Ron Kronish makes a compelling case (Jerusalem Report, October 7) that the descendants of Isaac and Ishmael must learn to live together. He touts our shared ancestry and shared values and attributes continued strife to “deeply ingrained negative stereotypes” that need to be “overcome today through education and dialogue.” If only it were true. My heart is with the writer, though not my head.

All Jews want peace, prosperity, and freedom for all peoples. In the real world in which we reside, Islam is dominated by a relative minority of radicals for whom the existence of Israel is repugnant and unacceptable. Indeed, that fraction of Muslims might number 10% of all Muslims, which computes to one hundred million people of the roughly billion Muslims across the globe. That is not a small number and they wage war not only against Israel but also against the West. They have perpetrated terrorists acts in dozens of cities across the world, and of course delight in murdering Jews wherever we might be found.

We can wish this were not so – Dr. Kronish completely elides this very recent history – but we would be saps to base our diplomacy and statecraft upon wishful thinking. Such wishful thinking underwrote the Oslo Accords and their “sacrifices for peace,” the creation of the Palestinian Authority, the expulsion of Jews from Gaza, the tolerance of the Hamas terror infrastructure, and directly led to the atrocities of October 7 and the multifront wars Israel is now waging. We indulge the saccharine rhetoric about the “moderates” and “coexistence” at our peril; it was the exact same language that lulled Israel into the catastrophic diplomacy of the last three decades.

Certainly, there are moderates in the Arab world. The Abraham Accords spearheaded by President Trump demonstrates that. Israeli visitors to the United Arab Emirates are treated quite hospitably. And yet, all the peace treaties have not changed hearts and minds in the Muslim world. Few Israelis now venture into Egypt or Jordan, and Jordanians and Egyptians have wantonly murdered Jews. Even in Dubai, Jewish public prayer has ended. Worse, after Hamas terrorists invaded Israel, hundreds of the “innocent civilians” of Gaza rampaged, raped, marauded, and murdered even Jews who had befriended them, hired them, transported them to Israeli hospitals. Peace and co-existence are unnecessary with the moderates and impossible with the radicals.

Of all the Arab states that have made peace with Israel – a welcome development per se– it is hard to think of even one that would mourn Israel’s disappearance. Consequently, even these nations that are ostensible peace partners with Israel routinely vote against Israel in the United Nations. Yes, a cold peace is better than a hot war – but there is something much deeper that unfortunately precludes full co-existence.

That impediment is an Islamic doctrine that dictates that any land that was once Muslim remains Muslim in perpetuity, and if lost, must be recaptured, the Dar al-Islām. That Jews have returned as sovereigns in the land of Israel is especially galling. We can wish that away as well but wishing it away does not make it less true. And if 10% of Muslims subscribe to that doctrine, then “education and dialogue” is asking them to repudiate their religion, a fools’ errand indeed.

Many Israelis still delude themselves into thinking that this conflict is all about real estate and finding the right division of territory to satisfy both sides. This is an egregious error born of a secular mindset that cannot admit there are people who take religion seriously. It was baked into Israeli diplomacy, which is one reason Israel’s strategic position has so deteriorated since Oslo. We would be prudent – as befitting a “wise and discerning people” (Devarim 4:6) – not to repeat the same mistakes but to look to our traditions and Torah for our claims to the land of Israel.

It is disconcerting that, in the entire article, Dr. Kronish uses the word “violent” only in relation to what he terms “extremist settler Judaism,” apparently willing to deny the settlers of the Jewish heartland the right to defend themselves and our land. Note the irony that the way Israelis on the left regard the settlers is the same way the world regards Israelis – violent, extreme, genocidal, and other lies. But the settlers are the ones who counter the Muslim narrative with a proudly Jewish one – that this is the land that G-d granted us, from which we were exiled, and to which the Jewish prophets declared we would (and did) return. That is the grand drama of Jewish history.

Must this war end one day, as Dr. Kronish declares? We can hope for that as well, as long as hope does not transmute into naiveté. But Hamas has already infiltrated Jerusalem and dominates the Arab educational, commercial, cultural, and political institutions there. Hamas is more powerful today in Judea and Samaria than is the Palestinian Authority, itself rampant with Jew hatred. Iran shows no signs of abating its Jew hatred and prepares to develop nuclear weaponry, winked at (if not subsidized) by the current American government. And I am unaware of the pedagogical tools that will persuade those who delight in burning children alive and stealing corpses for ransom, and those who support them, of the error of their ways. Sadly, the current battles will end but the war will go on, as it has since the first Jewish casualty of Arab violence in the land of Israel 140 years ago.

When will it end? Jewish tradition in many places (see, e.g., Zohar, Parshat Vaera, end of chapter 7) states that the final war at the end of days will be between the descendants of Isaac and Ishmael. Our long and bloody history with our brother Esav is essentially behind us and the climactic battle with Ishmael will be waged over the land of Israel.

This war – all wars – will end when redemption comes and all mankind recognizes the sovereignty of the Creator of the universe. Until then, we should befriend all moral people who believe in the Bible and respect the Jewish narrative. And we can hasten that day of peace not by renouncing our heritage in the futile quest of winning over moderates without power or influence anywhere, but by deepening our connection to Torah, mitzvot, and the land of Israel.

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