“Israel will lose American Jews not because of the ‘occupation’ but because of the Wall.”

Saturday, August 20 2016

UPDATES  9 am Israel time:

…Palestinian terror yesterday unreported in the mainstream media…

*A Palestinian terrorist from the Jebal Mukaber neighborhood in Jerusalem, who was released from prison after 14 years three days ago, was rearrested last night for involvement in terror activities.

The terrorist, Sufian Abdu, had been imprisoned for his participation in an effort to poison Israelis at a cafe in Jerusalem. Yesterday, he was captured after it was discovered that he had immediately become involved in a Hamas cell upon his release.

*Fridays are always “riot” days in Judea and Samaria. As “worshipers” leave mosques where they are incited by imams to attack Israelis, they go out and attack Israelis. Numerous riots took place yesterday. In addition, Molotov firebombs and “rocks” were thrown in Silwan, Hevron, and other locations.

…The Palestinian election campaign heats up…

Even though Palestinian elections are not supposed to happen until October (and who knows if they really will), the fight between the PLO and Hamas has already become violent.

Yesterday, PLO policemen operating in the casbah in Shechem (Nablus) shot and killed two Hamas men in the casbah.

This was officially described as a police operation against criminals; however, everyone knows that it was in retaliation for the killing of two PLO “police” several days ago in Shechem.

TODAY’S BLOG:

It has been reported that during the last two weeks, the Israeli Consul General in New York, Dani Dayan, has been meeting with various American Jewish leaders including Malcolm Hoenlein of the Conference of Presidents, “Rabbi” Rich Jacobs–former choreographer and leader of the Reform movement, and New York City Councilman David Greenfield.

The message of these leaders was delivered to Dayan in no uncertain terms.

These Reform and Conservative Jews castigated the Israeli government because of what has happened at the Kotel (Western Wall). Specifically, they harshly criticized our government for canceling the “Sharansky Compromise Agreement” that was signed six months ago.

There are many different facets to this story, but allow your humble servant to focus on three today:

1.  The presumption of Reform and Conservative Jewish leaders to try to dictate religious policy to Israel is brazen. The number of Reform and Conservative Jews is in meteoric decline across the U.S. because of the astronomical 80%+ rate of intermarriage between Jews and non-Jews (by the way, the intermarriage rate would be higher were it not for orthodox Jews who marry within their faith). 30 years from now, there may well be no American Jews left to try to dictate anything.

2. The presumption of Reform and Conservative Jewish leaders to try to dictate political policy to Israel is brazen. In case they have forgotten, Israel has a democratically elected government which is governed by a democratically elected coalition, a substantial part of which is peopled by orthodox Jews. What right does any non-Israeli have to try and dictate political policy here?

By the way, lest anyone think that there was not a political element to the New York meetings, one participant told Dayan: “Israel will lose the American Jews not because of the occupation, but because of the Wall.”

The occupation? What occupation? Areas A and B of Judea and Samaria have been under Palestinian rule since the mid-1990s–at which time the Palestinians agreed that Area C would be under Israeli administrative and military control. As was stated above today, new Palestinian elections are scheduled for October. But none of this is recognized by J Street American Jews (aka primarily Reform Jews) who have turned Israel-bashing into a cottage industry.

3. It is worthwhile remembering how we got to the point that the “Sharansky Compromise” was canceled. The self-proclaimed “Women of the Wall”, a group of Reform Jewish women, abrogated the compromise by continuing to insist that they be allowed to pray in tallits and kipas at the section of the Wall designated as “separated by gender.” It was when they insisted on continuing their form of worship, despite their signing the compromise, that the Orthodox insisted on canceling the agreement.

In case anyone has forgotten, the Women of the Wall as well as anyone else, is still free to practice mixed-gender worship in the area of the Wall beside Robinson’s Arch.

To make a long story short, your humble servant (obviously) finds the attempt of American Reform and Conservative Jews to threaten Israelis hollow, self-serving, and demeaning.