The Middle East Problem

The Middle East conflict is framed as one of the most complex problems in the world. But, in reality, it's very simple. Israelis want to live in peace and are willing to accept a neighboring Palestinian state. And most Palestinians do not want Israel to exist. As Dennis Prager explains, this is really all you need to know. In 5 minutes, understand how Israel was founded, and how, since that auspicious day in 1948, its neighbors have tried to destroy it, again and again.

Hijacking The Holy Land - Palestine, Propaganda & Peace

Hijacking the Holy Land takes you behind the headlines and past the media bias against Israel. The Palestinians have been trying to sell "land for peace" for decades: You won't believe what you see - the lies, the incitement and the hatred, all caught on tape. Witness how Palestinian propaganda seeks to rob the Jewish people of their rich history in the Land of Israel. Children are taught and encouraged to aspire to kill Jews and become suicide bombers. You'll be shocked at what is being taught in Palestinian schools.

Anti-Jewish Arabs Harass Jews In Jerusalem & Block Path

The thing is that these may be kids standing here in the frame, but this is a complete setup when you look at the background. These kids have some form of weapon to hit these guys with, plus the adult Arabs are waiting for one of them to do something so that they can step in and claim they were helping the "innocent" kids. One of the kids is shouting anti-Semitic abuse. The kids will start the fight and then the adults will also step in....believe me I have been in a situation like this, you don't want to be in it even if you think the kids are harmless. They are also doing this to humiliate these guys on camera as they know they wont do a thing about it because their lives will be in danger.

The Factory: A SodaStream Documentary

Meet Abdallah, a Palestinian who dreams of his two-year-old son becoming a neurologist, and Valery, the Russian-Jewish transplant who works with Abdallah on an assembly line at the SodaStream factory in the West Bank settlement of Ma'ale Adumim. We sent an Israeli and Arab filmmaker to explore the plant, made famous by Scarlett Johansson and SodaStream's controversial Super Bowl ad. The conflict was not what we expected. It was not political but internal, and it was hidden, complex, sad -- poignant. This movie is not about causes or abstract forces. It is about the human element.

(h/t: Elder of Ziyon)

FW De Klerk: "It is unfair to call Israel an Apartheid state"

Haifa University conferred its highest distinction on a number of dignitaries this year, including former South African President Frederik Willem de Klerk.

The honorary degree was awarded in recognition of Mr FW de Klerk's leadership which has brought about the end of the policy of racial segregation in South Africa; for his actions to promote constitutionalism and a shared life; and for his promotion of pluralism and equality without prejudice.

The ceremony took place today, Tuesday 27th May, in Haifa.

He was then interviewed on Israel's Channel 2 News by Udi Segal. I have translated the Hebrew in the video for you to understand and have also provided a transcript of the video below:



Newscaster:
John Kerry, threw the word Apartheid into the Middle East debate a few weeks ago, which is what the radical Left in Israel also claims, but the person who knows the word Apartheid very well, the person who ended this racist regime as the President of South Africa, FW De Klerk, he is now the one who said today in a special interview with Udi Segal that this comparison is unnecessary and not fair.

On the other hand he says to learn from his experience to initiate this and to walk in the enemies shoes in order to try solve the conflict. Tonight he is receiving his honorary doctorate from the Haifa University. Here are his words:

Udi Segal:
This man who made history when he brought down the Apartheid regime with Nelson Mandela, former South African president FW De Klerk, rejects the international comparisons and he states, as someone with experience, that Israel is not an Apartheid state, and as opposed to Kerry's comment, Israel is not on the way there.

FW de Klerk:
You have closed borders but America has closed borders, they dont allow every Mexican who wants to come in come in. You have Palestinians living in Israel with full political rights represented in the Knesset. You dont have discriminatory laws against them that they may not swim on certain beaches or anything like that. I think its unfair to call Israel an Apartheid state. If Kerry did so I think he made a mistake.

Udi Segal:
To be fair, Kerry said that Israel can be an Apartheid state if it will not go to the 2-state solution. Do you think it can be an Apartheid state?

FW de Klerk:
The test will be, does everybody living then in such a unitary state, will everybody have full political rights? Will everybody enjoy their full human rights? If they will, it's not an Apartheid state.

Udi Segal:
In other words this is not the situation and Israel might only get to this state in the case where 1 state has 2 Nationalities.
De Klerk claims that the situation is different between the 2 states (IL & SA), that the idea of separation couldn't have worked in South Africa but could be the most moral solution in Israel, however it may disappear.

FW de Klerk:
In the case of South Africa, we became economically totally integrated and it no longer made sense. We became an economic omelette and once you make an omelette out of eggs you can never separate the yellow and the white again. So no, in our case, the concept of separateness failed. Im not saying its the right solution for Israel but there will come in Israel a turning point where if the main obstacles at the moment which exist through a successful 2 state solution are not remove, the 2 state will become impossible. So, as an outsider I would say, believing that a 2 state solution might be the best one, you will have to move fast, see the window of opportunity, jump through it, it might close.

Udi Segal:
This evening De Klerk received the honorary doctorate from the Haifa University.
It's his 6th visit to Israel. He knows and loves Israel and he is careful not to give advice but give hints as to what the way is to get out of this deadlocks of the negotiations. In short, Netanyahu and Abu Mazzen are doing the opposite of this.

Its called trust.

FW de Klerk:
When we had deadlocks, our biggest success was when Mandela put himself in my position and went out of his way to understand my position and I at the same time put myself in Mandela's position and went out of my way to accommodate his core concerns and to break a deadlock you need initiatives. We sat down and said lets draw a list, what do we agree upon? ,and the list was longer than we expected and then slowly but surely we worked first on the easier things, where it was more easy through a give or take process to find each other and we reserved the most difficult ones for later and in the end we forced ourselves, we weren't forced by outside forces, we forced ourselves to say we have made such big progress, we must now resolve these difficult points.

Here is a short version with only his English comments

FW De Klerk: "It is unfair to call Israel an Apartheid state" http://t.co/KugrLhI9ec

— Israel Muse (@israelmuse) May 27, 2014

The Monster in the Middle East

The way that the media often depict Israel, it is no surprise that people start thinking of the country as a monster. But if they had the facts, they would see things differently.

Israeli Arabs speak out against the "Israeli Apartheid" libel

Israeli Arabs speak out against the "Israeli Apartheid" libel.

Post by Tobias Petersson.

Full Speech of Netanyahu to UN General Assembly 2013

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the 68th session of the UN General Assembly in New York on its last day.

Richard Landes: Lethal journalism (and the Arab Israeli conflict)

The Addiction of the Western News Media to Lethal Narratives about Israel and its disastrous consequences for everyone, including Palestinians. Speech given on 3/2/13 in Boston, MA by Prof. Richard Landes.

Faith and Fate

This documentary introduces the uniqueness of Jewish history in the 20th century within the context of world history.

Heritage: Civilization and the Jews

Winner of the coveted Peabody Award, Heritage: Civilization and the Jews (1984) is the monumental nine-part series spanning three millennia of Jewish history and culture. The series is hosted by former Israeli Ambassador to the United States, Abba Eban, who describes it as "a celebration of our common humanistic and moral heritage, explored through the mysteries of preservation, renewal, and resonance of the Jewish people." From the stony heights of Sinai to the shores of the Dead Sea, from a Greek amphitheater in Delphi to the Forum of ancient Rome, out of the ashes of concentration camps to the rebuilt cities and villages of Israel, "Heritage" brings to life the long and complex history of the Jews and their centuries-old interaction with the rest of Western civilization.

Part 1: A PEOPLE IS BORN (3100 — 586 B.C.E.)
In the experience of exile the vision of the early Israelites was transformed, and the Jewish people was born. In Jewish tradition, the emergence from Egypt has been celebrated by generation after generation in the springtime holiday of Passover, a festival of liberation as passionately observed as any nation's independence day. Through liberation the exiles saw the hand of a universal God. All the world's nations were linked in a common destiny, but bound together by a moral law with inescapable consequences.




Part 2: THE POWER OF THE WORD (586 B.C. — 72 C.E.)
"The Power of the Word" begins in the abundant land of Babylon, where the exiled Jews of Judah had settled after the conquest of Jerusalem by the Babylonian forces. They had their own vision. They came to believe more profoundly than ever before that there was a universal dimension to their faith — that their God extended to all lands, to all times. "It was here in Babylon that Jewish scribes compiled writings they had brought from Judah — the history, the laws, the legends of the Jewish people and combined them with what had been passed down by word of mouth to form the first five books of the Bible — the Torah," explains Mr. Eban in the program.




Part 3: SHAPING OF TRADITIONS (30 — 732 C.E.)
Ambassador Eban continues the story of the Jewish people, when Rome was the ruler of the world and the Jews lived scattered throughout the Mediterranean. Wherever they lived, communities of Jews continued to obey the laws of their own faith. By the year 135, the Roman armies of the emperor Hadrian had crushed the land of Judea. For several years, the teaching of Judaism became a capital crime. "The Shaping of Traditions" chronicles the decline of the Roman Empire, a process extending over four centuries, and shows how the Jewish faith continued to survive throughout these turbulent years.




Part 4: THE CRUCIBLE OF EUROPE (732 — 1492)
In Islamic Spain, despite periodic persecution, the Jews found a "golden age" in the tenth and eleventh centuries. "In Spain, for more than two centuries, Arabs and Jews lived together, side by side, bound to each other despite differences, by a common love of beauty and knowledge, poetry and music, art and philosophy," explains Mr. Eban. "The Crucible of Europe" then travels to Northern Europe, where the Latin Church was gradually consolidating its authority. The program looks at the Spanish Inquisition and the disastrous course of events that followed as the Jewish people found themselves trapped in a politically and economically untenable position.




Part 5: THE SEARCH FOR DELIVERANCE (1492 — 1789)
This program picks up the thread of Jewish history as the intellectual awakening of the Renaissance began to alter the attitudes and habits of all people. Such scholars as Copernicus, Tycho Brahe, Johanes Kepler, and Galileo began to examine the world around them with new eyes. Abba Eban takes viewers through the narrow alleys of the Venetian ghetto, as he explains the reality of ghetto life. Jewish composers, artists, and poets achieved fame the transcended the ghetto walls. Spanish and Portuguese Jews who had escaped the persecution of the Spanish Inquisition flocked to Amsterdam, known as the "New Jerusalem" where refugees from religious intolerance were welcomed.




Part 6: ROADS FROM THE GHETTO (1789 — 1925)
"Roads from the Ghetto" covers the struggles for the enfranchisement of the Jews and other minorities. In country after country for a brief time following the conquest of Napoléon — in Italy, Germany, Austria, Hungary — medieval restrictions were swept aside and political rights were granted to all. For about a decade, until the collapse of Napoléon's empire, Jews were offered political equality and citizenship in the nations of Europe. The program also documents the infamous Dreyfus case in France, which served as springboard for "anti-Semitism"; the birth of Zionism and other modern expressions of Judaism; and the waves of Jewish emigration from Europe toward the end of the nineteenth century.




Part 7: THE GOLDEN LAND (1654 — 1930's)
"The Golden Land" describes one of the most important and exciting chapters in Jewish history — the relationship between the United States and the Jewish people. Never before had a country accepted Jewish people with so little resistance. And never before in their 3,000-year history had Jews made such a significant contribution to the shaping and growth of a country. With the wave of pogroms of Russia and the rise of anti-Semitism in Eastern Europe in the late 1800's, a new chapter in the American Jewish story was written. Some two million Jews from all over Eastern Europe converged on the United States from 1880 to 1920.




Part 8: OUT OF THE ASHES (1919 — 1947)
"Out of the ashes comes the understanding that no one's life can be guaranteed without constant struggle. Belief in the ultimate ability of humankind to overcome the darkest, most brutal of forces is the light which must carry us forward," declares Ambassador Eban in this haunting hour which attempts to illuminate the universal meaning of the Holocaust. Through dramatizations of the anguished words of victims of Nazi terrorism and through rare archival photographs and moving film footage, "Out of the Ashes" paints a picture of life in the European "shtetl" and later in the concentration camps. "Out of the Ashes" attempts to treat the Holocaust not only as a devastating memory of yesterday, but as a profound challenge for today.




Part 9: INTO THE FUTURE (1880 — 1990's)
"Into the Future" picks up the thread of Jewish history after World War II and the devastating effects of the Nazi Holocaust. Although many of the survivors found a haven in the United States, there were still many borders closed to Jewish refugees. Their only hope rested in the Middle East, in Palestine, part of the disintegrating British Empire. This "Heritage" episode includes interviews with various Israelis, some of whom emigrated to Palestine in the early years of the twentieth century, as well as some who settled in Israel following World War II. The program examines Israel's relationship to American Jews and modern Jewish communities elsewhere in the world. It reviews the distribution and the state of Jews and addresses the long-rage issues which confront them.

UN Rights Council ignores Syria poison gas attack, slams Israel

"Let us state the truth: if the UN allocated just one-hundredth of the moral outrage it uses against the only democracy in the Middle East, murderous dictators like Assad might have been shamed, isolated and weakened, instead of elevated, celebrated and strengthened as champions of human rights." - UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer, addressing UN Human Rights Council, Sept. 10, 2013.

Dr. Mordechai Kedar: “Arab states can’t make peace with Israel because they lack internal peace”

Dr. Mordechai Kedar, an expert on Islam, the Arab countries and the Middle East, directly and clearly answers the question: "Why is there no peace between Israel and the Arabs?" He explains this through a proverb in Arabic which means "You can not give someone something you do not have." Until the Arabs stop killing each other and learn to live in peace among themselves, there will never be peace between Israel and the Arabs.

Students experience life under Hamas rocket attacks

On the 19th of November 2012, 3 international students and an Israeli, traveled to the southern Israeli city of Ashdod to experience what life is like under rocket fire from Hamas.

Bibi Netanyahu responds to Arabi-Israeli MK: “You were not here before us”

Essence of the conflict in less than a minute. Benjamin Netanyahu responds to MK Zahalka.

Moshe Dayan - A Warriors Journey

The video is in 4 parts. Press the play button or simply click on the desired part of the video to start playing. The videos will auto-play one after another.

The videos tell the story of how Israel emerged from the Palestine partition plan, then survived against a much larger Arab military, and the critical role of Moshe Dayan in these events.

Dayan is a person who embodied the spirit of Israel. Born a sabra in Israel’s first kibbutz, Dayan’s early years included playing with his Arab neighbors and developing a life-long deep appreciation for the Old Testament and its tales of ancient Jewish warriors.

When fourteen Dayan joined the Haganah, a militant underground Jewish group. In 1937 he enlisted in the British-created Jewish settlement police force, while also leading settler raids for the outlawed Haganah. He learned a lot about guerrilla warfare from a non-conventional British officer, Orde Wingate, before being arrested and given a ten-year prison sentence for his Haganah activities.

World War II got him out of prison and into the Australian 7th Division, where he received the Distinguished Service Order and also lost an eye and gained his distinctive black eye patch.

Dayan was a warrior. He was also a poet, a politician, an amateur archeologist, and, in his final years, a peacemaker. It was ironic that, as foreigner minister for his long-time adversary, Prime Minister Menachem Begin, he played an important role in achieving the historic Camp David Accords, under which much of the territory that Dayan had captured from Egypt was returned.

Dayan was an extraordinary individual. Even his friends might call him a ‘loose cannon.’ As Ariel Sharon noted about Dayan: “He would wake up with a hundred ideas. Of them ninety-five were dangerous; three more were bad; the remaining two, however, were brilliant.” Drawing inspiration from the story of David and Goliath, he continually devised special ways and tactics to win a war against a much larger Arab force. The same person who stated that he “didn’t know anything more exciting than war” in his later life pursued a new mission: to find lasting peace with the Arabs.

Israeli Declaration of Independence

Israeli Declaration of Independence as read by the first Prime Minister of Israel, David Ben Gurion, in Tel Aviv.

Who else is being injured by the vilification of Israel?

It is generally thought that the systematic diplomatic attacks against Israel in international institutions, many times through outright lies, are unfortunate, but they are really Israel's problem. However, ultimately over time they erode the credibility of bodies like the UN, which often embrace these false charges, only to find later that they are baseless. In the meantime, other, more pressing, international conflicts are completely ignored. This video graphically presents the problem.

Dr. Jaques Gautier: Who owns Jerusalem?

One of the world's leading experts on Jerusalem, Dr. Jaques Gautier, discusses his twenty-five years of study on the subject, "Who owns Jerusalem?"

Dr. Gauthier, is a non-Jewish Canadian Lawyer who received his PhD after twenty years of research on the legal status of Jerusalem. His dissertation comprises some 1300 pages with 3000 footnotes.

Anti-Jewish Muslims force Jews off the Temple Mount

This video shows you how anti-Semitic/racist the Muslims in Israel are while claiming we are the haters. This is one of many places in Israel where Jews are not allowed to enter because of Muslims not wanting Jews there. Muslims can enter any place in Israel though!

Hundreds of Jews came to the Temple Mount Monday in honor of Tisha B’Av, the anniversary of the destruction of the two Jewish Temples by the Babylonian and Roman empires respectively.

Their visit was disrupted when Muslim worshipers blocked them. (h/t: IsraelUnseen)