MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING.

An investigation following the terrorist shooting on July 14 on the Temple Mount Complex in the Old City of Jerusalem revealed that an accomplice brought weapons into the compound in the early hours of the morning in readiness for the attack.

In this attack two Druze police officers were shot dead by the attackers before the three terrorists were neutralized by security forces on the Temple Mount.

The sensitivity, indeed the volatility, of this location is significant. For too long emotional language has been used by Palestinian politicians and Islamic religious leaders to stoke the flames of violence in the name of this holy place.

While Israel safeguards the flow of Muslim worshipers to the third most holy shrine in Islam and reduces any Jewish presence on Judaism’s most holy site, too many people choose deliberately to make inflammatory statements. Mahmoud Abbas, reneged on his responsibility to induce an atmosphere conducive to peace talks when he spoke about “Jew’s filthy feet desecrating and defiling our Al-Aqsa Mosque.” When leaders like the President of the Palestinian Authority incite with words such as “We will bless every drop of blood that has been spilled for Allah” we can expect no less than deadly terror attacks emanating from the area of the Temple Mount.

What Jewish filthy feet was he referring to? Those of Jews who go up to the Temple Mount with deep respect for being closer to the presence of God? Or the police who constantly have to respond to young Arabs who store rocks and Molotov cocktail bombs in the mosques and then demonstrate in violence against the Jews praying below at the Western Wall.

Now we have evidence that handguns and Carl Gustav rifles are being stored on the Temple Mount by Muslim Arabs looking for trouble.

Israel did the right thing by introducing metal detectors at the entrance of the holy site. One would have thought that caring religious leaders, worshipers, and politicians would have applauded this move that ensures the safety of everyone who goes up to devote their soul to their god. But no. The uproar and incitement ratcheted up another notch. The Palestinian Authority called for a day of rage. Violent protests broke out in Kalandiya, Shuafat and Bethlehem by Palestinian Muslim rioters. Rocks and Molotov cocktails were thrown at security officers by the Lion’s Gate in Jerusalem. Absurdly, Muslim worshipers refused to enter the Temple Mount as a protest against the metal detectors placed there to protect their safety.

Compare that to what Israelis and visitors to Israel have to experience. Metal detectors are a common sight at entrances to official buildings, transport stations, shopping malls. As every traveler knows, metal detectors have become a compulsory component at all airports. They are placed there as a result of the terrorism such as those practiced daily by Palestinians whipped up by the indoctrination and incitement of their political and religious leaders.

We are all burdened by these necessary checks. They keep us safe. But, it seems, there are those, from within whose society the murdering terrorists come, who are prepared to commit further acts of violence in protection of their rights to carry murderous firearms into their mosques and holy places.

Barry Shaw is the Senior Associate for Public Diplomacy at the Israel Institute for Strategic Studies. He is the author of ‘Fighting Hamas, BDS, and Anti-Semitism.’

Linda Sarsour calls American Muslims not to assimilate and to jihad.

When you hear the words “jihad” and “our top priority is not to assimilate” and this call is made to “please Allah” at a public event by an award-winning Champion of Change in a Western country you know that country is in deep trouble.

That is precisely what happened last week in America, in Chicago, on July 6.

Linda Sarsour has been hiding her agenda behind the cloak of liberal progressivism but, occasionally, her real identity emerges.

At the annual meeting of the Islamic Society of North America she made a speech which should trouble people who truly believe in diversity and, well, liberal politics.

She said to her Islamic audience, “I hope that when we stand up to those who oppress our community struggling against tyrants and rulers that Allah will accept this as a form of jihad not only in the Middle East but here against the fascists, white supremacists and Islamophobes here and reigning in the White House.  Our top priority is to protect and defend our community and not to assimilate and please any other people or authority. Our top priority is to please Allah and only Allah.”

This incendiary speech which insulted the United States president and his Administration was a clear call for jihad and the introduction of Shariah in America. She called upon American Muslims not to assimilate in the name of Allah.

Yet she is perceived as a progressive leader. In fact, the Obama Administration awarded her the title of ‘Champion of Change’ at a ‘Winning the Future of America’ ceremony.’

Sarsour makes obvious her deep hatred of Israel where her family members are sitting in jails after being convicted on terrorism charges. She has rallied on behalf of Rasmeh Odeh, a convicted Palestinian terrorist who killed two Israeli students at a supermarket in 1969. ISNA is an unconvicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Hamas terror financing case as is Brooklyn imam, Siraj Wahaaj, who swerved charges for his involvement in the first World Trade Center bombing and who Sarsour thanked at the start of her speech. Previously she railed against two of her fiercest critics, Brigitte Gabriel and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, when she said, “I wish I could take their vaginas way. They don’t deserve to be women.” 

Amazingly, Linda Sarsour retains her place as a paragon of liberal progressive virtues. I simply don’t get it, but I do expect more of America.

Barry Shaw is the Senior Associate for Public Diplomacy at the Israel Institute for Strategic Studies.  He is also the author of ‘Fighting Hamas, BDS and Anti-Semitism’ and ‘BDS for IDIOTS’ both available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle.

THE DAMAGING FACE OF COALITION POLITICS IN THE JEWISH STATE.

Shock waves over the Israeli government decision to fold to ultra-Orthodox pressure by suspending its 2016 policy allowing egalitarian Jewish prayers at a separate section of the Western Wall in Jerusalem are reverberating globally. Israel is in danger of further losing the drifting support from American Reform and Conservative Jews. Disappointed Reform leaders protest that after standing with Israel morally, politically and financially against anti-Israel delegitimization campaigns they now feel delegitimized.

Government figures indicates that Diaspora Jewry contribute 6.5% of Israel’s GDP. Diaspora Jews may rightly ask why they should continue to fund a Jewish State that rejects them. Why should they donate money that goes into the budget of the ultra-Orthodox parties who use their influence to make decisions that negatively impact on them?

Jewish millionaires such as Ike Fisher have appeared on Israeli television saying with are withholding their donations to Israel. 

The issue of Jewish prayers at the Kotel has been poisoned by the rancor instigated by the government decision to prevent egalitarian prayers at Judaism’s most holy site. We need reminding that men and women prayed together at the Kotel less than a hundred years ago. In the spirit of pure prayer there wasn’t even a mechitza (a partition dividing men and women at Jewish prayers).

One of the reasons I initiated the creation of the Knesset Caucus for Anusim and Marranos issues was to force the Israeli Rabbinate to view the return of the hidden Jews, those Jews who, as a result of the Spanish and Portuguese Expulsions and Inquisitions, were forced to keep their Jewish faith a secret to avoid further persecution and now want to return fully to Judaism in Israel, as a blessing and to ease their official conversion process.

Unfortunately, the same rabbinical rigidity that targets a differing branch of Judaism applies to the Secret Jews who could become the next great Aliyah wave for the Jewish State unless they continue to be blocked and denied by the ruling religious cabal in Israel.

Both they and those seeking a way to express their Judaism in Israel are being prevented by the reactionary Israeli Rabbinate and their supportive politicians who hold sway over the Prime Minister.

It is abundantly clear that the Ultra-Orthodox firm grip on government decisions is an indicator of what happens in coalition politics. Non religious Jews have to go abroad if they prefer to have a secular marriage. Non religious Jews have little day how they can be buried. And the ultra-Orthodox conversion grip is preventing thousands of Jews from making Aliyah and a new Jewish life in Israel. 

I recently initiated the new Interfaith Forum IL. This is designed to bring to the fore Israeli-based faith leaders to declare Israel as the model for harmony and peace based on our long record of freedom of religion and the protection of minority rights.

How can I continue to do this following the recent wrong-headed government decision to support an intolerant religious cabal that has, in one stroke, destroyed the aim of what I am trying to create?

This is the shortsighted and damaging face of coalition politics in Israel.

Barry Shaw is the Senior Associate for Public Diplomacy at the Israel Institute for Strategic Studies.  He is the initiator of Interfaith Forum IL and the author of 2017 best-selling book ‘1917. From Palestine to the Land of Israel.’

Co2 EMISSION HYPOCRITES.

The hypocrisy of those who don’t believe or practice what they preach.

Richard Branson called out Trump for pulling America out of the Paris Accord. He said “fossil fuels are dangerous” yet he is flying Virgin planes all over the planet, and experimenting with space flights. He also owns a Dassault Falcon private jet that burns more fuel in a single trip from Hawaii to his American home than you will burn in a lifetime of driving to the beach!

Elon Musk was also critic of Trump as he flies his huge Gulfstream G650 private plane across the globe.

Bill Gates is “deeply troubled” by Trump’s decision as he flies his huge $52 million Global Express super plane. Think about his carbon footprint all over the skies.

Leonardo de Caprio said “Trump threatened the livability of our planet” but he flew by private jet 4000 miles from Cannes,  France, to New York to accept a Global Climate Award – and then flew back to Cannes again on this private plane, saying Trump’s decision was a “historic mistake.” Consider his historic hypocrisy as he luxuriates on his private flights, leaving a trail of carbon emission behind him that is greater than you will ever leave.  

How about Hillary Clinton? Last year, she hired a private plane to fly 20 miles to a fund raising event. She also refused Michelle Obama’s offer to share a private plane to Betty Ford’s funeral. Instead, Clinton decided to double up on carbon emissions by hiring a separate private jet to fly to the same event.

Finally, the king of CO2 emissions - Barack Obama.  

He said that Trump’s decision to renegotiate the Paris Accord “could crush future generations.” Yet Obama took a Marine helicopter to fly the short distance to a government-owned 747 super plane which flew him and his family across the country to Palm Springs, California, drove in a motorcade to an 11,000 sq. foot mansion for a weekend burning up electricity and air conditioning emissions, before flying in Richard Branson’s private plane across America to the Caribbean. 

From there he took a private boat to Branson’s private island for a few days of jet skiing and fun. Then he took a private jet to Tahiti for  more R&R before flying, again in a private jet, of course, across the world to Milan where a 14 vehicle motorcade was waiting to whisk him to, guess what - a Global Warming Conference!!

Obama is responsible for more global warming, along with his allies, than you are in a lifetime.

So, when they preach, you now know it’s simply hot air.

Barry Shaw is the Senior Associate for Public Diplomacy at the Israel Institute for Strategic Studies.

BETHLEHEM, THE CAPITAL OF PALESTINE.

With President Trump’s visit to Jerusalem and then Bethlehem, it set me thinking about these places and Palestinian demands for a capital of a non-existent state. 
Bethlehem is the place that Trump met Abbas, the capital-demanding Palestinian leader. 
This set me off on a rant…

The world is myopic if not deranged, in declaring Jerusalem’s Jewish Temple site Islamic and that the Kotel, the western retaining wall supporting the Temple Mount built by Jewish kings and recaptured from Jordan fifty years ago on June 7 in a defensive war forced onto Israel by aggressive Arab armies bent on our destruction, as not being part of Israeli territory.

So what is this nonsense that Mahmoud Abbas demands that Jerusalem should be his capital and that Israel cannot claim Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish State?  He seems to have much global support.

I have a solution to the impasse. Let them call Bethlehem their capital. After all, they invest political capital in telling the world how much they care for Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus who they call “a Palestinian messenger.”  

What a strong message this would send to the world. They claim to care so much for Christianity even as the Christian population of that town shrinks from an overwhelming majority in 1995 when Israel gifted Bethlehem to Yasser Arafat in a peace gesture. Today, the Christians are less than 12%.

To readers who know me, including my many Christian friends, and think I’ve suddenly lost the plot, I ask you to relax. This article is as fanciful as the notion that a two-state solution will herald peace between the Palestinians and Israel. So let’s face some painful truths together.

They say that the cause of this Christian flight from Bethlehem is the oppressive Israeli security barrier that ruins lives, but isn’t it strange that as the Christian population has rapidly reduced, 

exponentially, the Muslim population has rapidly grown.  Is this the anti-Christian security barrier they make it out to be? Actually not. According the Israeli statistics, the Bethlehem population has grown from 14,439 in 1967 to over 27,000 today. It’s only the demographics that have changed. Far less Christians, far more Muslims, and far more radical Hamas influence.

As veteran Ha’Aretz journalist, Danny Rubenstein, who has studied Palestinians  for over forty years, wrote;

“Arab nationality in general, and specifically Palestinian nationalism, has become more and more of a religious thing,” meaning traditionally Muslim. This is what we witness being playing out in Jerusalem where Palestinian demands  are targeted not for peace but to drive Jews away from their holy sites and heritage.

Journalists Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff  described in their book ‘The Seventh War; How We Won and Why We Lost the War’ how armed gangs of street thugs along with terrorists threatened Bethlehem Christians, took over their homes and businesses when they fled, as Palestinian officials turned a blind eye to the violence and theft and ignored Christian complaints.

They even don Father Christmas costumes to disguise themselves as they carry out their violence.

Today, Hamas is strong in Bethlehem. Municipal elections were suspended in September 2016, over concerns that Hamas would gain an overall majority. The international community should be concerned that a once-strongly Christian town has become a Hamas stronghold. Yet it also turns a blind eye to this abuse of a once Christian Bethlehem.

Bethlehem is a metaphor for Palestinian deceptions and violence.

Bethlehem - the capital of Palestine. Let’s make an issue of it. Let’s see if the Christian world will accept their most holy place turned into the capital of those who see themselves as the spearhead of the Islamic world. If they do, it would be a universal expression of the failed policy of turning the other cheek. Personally, I don’t think they care enough about it. They were as silent and as impotent over the loss of their Christian heritage in Jerusalem when UNESCO, at the behest of the Muslim world, converted the Jewish Temple into an exclusively Islamic holy shrine, as they have been over the massed slaughter of Christians in the Muslim Middle East.

I am sure they would go for Bethlehem as the capital of Palestine. The only political effort I have seen is the sight of replacement theologians gathering in Bethlehem annually for their “Christ at the Checkpoint” political pantomime, seemingly oblivious to the fact that this place is now in the hands of Islamic Hamas. These delusional pastors hate Israel so much they remain silent to the Christian exodus perverting it to a ‘Blame Israel” campaign. They would surely sanctify Bethlehem becoming the crowning glory of the Palestinian throne.

In my research for the Israel Institute for Strategic Studies it is crystal clear to me that, by the ballot or by the bullet, Hamas will usurp power in any Palestinian state with the same bullying tactics that have given them control of Bethlehem. This would make any gesture of allowing them to claim Jerusalem as their capital a gift from hell and a poisoned thorn in the weakened side of Israel.

Anyone in their right mind knows that a Palestinian state would destabilise into a Greater Hamastan that would not only threaten a shrunken Israel, it would make the Hashemite kingdom across the River Jordan even shakier than it is today.

With eighty percent of Jordan’s population claiming to be Palestinian, a vulnerable Israel would be in no position to prevent the overthrow of the king in a popular uprising in Jordan.   In such an event, the Palestinians could claim Amman as yet another trophy capital. Black September, anyone?

It is fair to ask how many capitals the Palestinians need? They have two already with Hamas, who consider themselves the true leaders of the Palestinian cause, firmly based in Gaza City, and the undemocratic Palestinian Authority tentatively holding power in Ramallah where their political administration is based and where their founding hero, Yasser Arafat, is buried.

So why do they need a third capital? Basically, it is to herald a powerful message of conquest, that Muslim metaphor, that ancient Islamic tradition. Conquest of the seat of another religion, another nation, such as the  Ummiyad conquest of early Spain, a conquest that lasted for eight hundred years, and the attempt by Suleiman to conquer Vienna in 1529.  

Following the conquest of Jerusalem in 1187 by Saladin, see where they perched their mosque, directly over the ruins of the Jewish Temple.

President Trump visited the Western Wall, the site of the Jewish Temple, and then talked with Mahmoud Abbas about tolerance and peace, it is worth recalling Abbas’s recent words about Jewish “filthy feet” defiling holy places in Jerusalem, places which Jews have  nurtured with love for all faiths while maintaining the freedom of worship banned by the Palestinian Authority and the Muslim wakf to Jews on the Temple Mount.

It’s also worth recalling that, in the aftermath of the destruction of the World Trade Center by Muslim terrorists on 9/11, it was proposed to build a mosque on the ruins of the Twin Towers.  Some said then it would be an act of “tolerance” to allow them to do it. 

Perhaps the same sense of “tolerance” should apply by allowing the Palestinians reinter the remains of their founder and arch-terrorist, Yasser Arafat, in Manger Square next to the Church of the Nativity.

So let’s continue to promote Bethlehem as the Palestinian capital. It makes as much sense as insisting that Jerusalem is theirs.

Barry Shaw is the Senior Associate for Public Diplomacy at the Israel Institute for Strategic Studies.

He is the author of the new best-selling book ‘1917. From Palestine to the Land of Israel.’

FIFA! KICK TERRORISM OUT OF FOOTBALL!

     Complaint to FIFA Disciplinary Committee about the exploitation of football for 

     the promotion and glorification of terrorism by FIFA Delegate, Jibril Rajoub, 

     the Palestinian Football Association and its officials.

                              KICK TERRORISM OUT OF FOOTBALL!

    The Israel Institute for Strategic Studies researches and exposes important regional and 

    global strategic and security developments. These include issues relating to terrorism.

    We are writing to the FIFA Disciplinary Committee to highlight a history of more than fifteen 

    years of the exploitation of football for the promotion of terrorism by Jibril Rajoub, the 

    Palestinian Football Association, its officials and teams.

    We are certain that, given the facts, the FIFA Disciplinary Committee must come to the 

    inevitable conclusion that the above parties have been in a prolonged and serious breach of 

    FIFA ethics and rules and that their behavior is in grave contravention of the traditions and 

    purity of football.

    If it was right for FIFA to launch a campaign to Kick Racism out of Football, how much
    more important is it for FIFA to launch a similar campaign to KICK TERRORISM OUT 
    OF FOOTBALL.

    With the racism campaign, FIFA acted to protect people being insulted or racially
    abused at football events. How much more serious is it when people are killed and maimed
    by terrorists glorified at Palestinian football events, by their clubs and leading officials?

    Here are a few examples of terror-promotion inside Palestinian football;

1.                In 2007, a football tournament was organized in the Palestinian-controlled town of Tulkarm.
           This tournament was held in the honor of Ziyad Da’as. Da’as was the leader of the Tanzim
           terror faction of Fatah. He planned and executed a terror attack on a Bat-Mitzvah (a Jewish
           13^th birthday) celebration in Hadera which left six dead and dozens wounded on January
           17, 2002. Da’as also participated in the kidnapping and murder of two Israeli citizens,
           Etgar Zeituni and Moti Dayan, in Tulkarm in January 2001.  Yet this terrorist is hailed as a
          hero and a martyr in Palestinian football.

2.            On August 5, 2008, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, the official Palestinian daily newspaper reported
           that the Islami Silwan Football Club won the Dalal Mughrabi Football
           Championship organized by the Palestinian football champions, the Hilal 
           Al-Quds football team. This event was held under the auspices of the Palestinian
           Authority to commemorate the anniversary of the birthday of Dalal Mughrabi.  Mughrabi
           was one of thirteen (13) Fatah terrorists that hijacked an Israeli bus between Haifa
           and Tel Aviv on March 9, 1978. As a result of this terror attack, 37 Israeli civilians were
           killed including 12 children and 70 were wounded. She is considered a hero and martyr
           and has been celebrated in football events.

3.               In March 2011, the Al-Amari Palestinian Youth Center announced a football tournament in 
           honor of Wafa Idris. Idris was the first Palestinian female suicide bomber.

4.           On April 28, 2014, according to the official Palestinian daily newspaper, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida,
           a two day football tournament was held in honor of the perpetrator of the Munich
           Olympic massacre in which eleven (11) Israeli sportsmen were killed. The Jalazone
           Refugee Camp Martyrs Internal Football Tournament was held under the patronage of
           the District Governor of Ramallah and El-Bireh.  Two of the teams that progressed to
           the second round were the Martyr Abu Iyad (the terrorist planner of the Olympic
           Games Massacre) and Martyr Abu Jihad (the terrorist mastermind responsible for the
           deaths of 125 Israelis).

5.             In October 2014, another football competition was held in the Palestinian territories at
            Tapuach in which teams were named after terrorists including Ahmed Yassin, the founder
            of the Hamas terror organization, and Fathi Shaqaqi, the founder of Palestinian Islamic
            Jihad. Shaqaqi’s terror organization killed and wounded hundreds of Israelis including a
            suicide bomb attack in the Maxim Restaurant in Haifa, a double suicide bombing attack at
            the Beit Lid bus station, others at the Megiddo junction, the Dizengoff shopping mall in Tel
            Aviv, two suicide bombings at Netanya’s HaSharon shopping mall, a bombing at the Tel
            Aviv central bus station, and an attack on an Eilat bakery.

6.                     On April 24, 2015, the Ansar Al-Quds Palestinian football club hosted the 21^st Youth  
              Football Tournament in honor of both Abu Jihad (see item 1)  and Abu Iyad.  Abu Iyad
              was the founder of the Fatah terror group and the head of the infamous Black 
              September terror group that was responsible, in March    1973, for the kidnapping and
              murder of US Ambassador to Sudan, Cleo  Noel, Jnr, the Deputy Chief of Mission,
              George Curtis Moore, and the Belgian Charge d’affaires, Guy Eid.  They were
              also responsible to the death of eleven Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympic Games                     in September 1972. These murderous terrorists are celebrated annually in 
              Palestinian football events.

7.                    During June and July 2015, a youth football tournament was organized in Abu Dis in
             which several teams were named after Palestinian terrorists including Abu Jihad (see
             item 1) Khaled Nazzal who was responsible for the terrorist murder of 22 schoolchildren
             and 5 in Maalot, and Mutaz Hijazi who shot and seriously wounded Rabbi Yehuda Glick
             on October 29, 2014.

8.              On October 3, 2015, a 19 year-old Palestinian terrorist, Muhannad Halabi, attacked Jews
             in an alleyway in the Old City of Jerusalem as they were walking from prayers at the
             Western Wall. As a result of his attack, Rabbi Nehamia Lavi and Aharon Bennett (Benita)
             were killed. Aharon’s wife, Adele, lay bleeding and badly injured. Their two year-old son
             was injured in his stroller. One month later, on November 2, 2015, the Palestinian Bal’a
             football club organized a football tournament in Jenin in honor of this terrorist murderer.
             This event, as with every football tournament glorifying Palestinian terrorists, was reported
             in the official Palestinian media.

9.              On October 12, 2015, two Palestinian teenagers, inspired by the Palestinian incitement
              to terrorism, went on a knifing rampage in Jerusalem. Two persons were injured in this
              stabbing attack. One of the victims was a 13 year-old boy, Naor Ben Ezra. The other was
              21 year-old Yosef Haim Twitto. The following month, on November 21, 2015, the
              Palestinian held a football tournament in honor of 13 year-old terrorist, Ahmad Manasrah.
              The Ahmad Manasrah Football Tournament was organized for football teams from
              Ramallah and El-Bireh schools to honor this knife-wielding teenager. This tournament
              was reported in the official Palestinian Authority media.

10.          On February 3, 2016, 19 year-old Hadar Cohen was knifed to death in Jerusalem. Her
              killer, Muhammed Kmeil, was the captain of the Qabatiya football club. He was described
              by his club as being a person of “high morals.” One of his accomplices in this deadly
              terror attack was Ahmad Zakameh who was described by the club administrators as
              being one of the team’s outstanding fans.

11.           On April 23, 2016, the official Palestinian Authority newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadida reported
              on the 22^nd ‘Prince of Martyrs’ Abu Jihad indoor football tournament organized by the                  Al-Ansar football club, under the supervision of the Palestinian Football 
              Association’s central branch. This event in which fourteen (14) Jerusalem football
              clubs competed to honor the 28^th anniversary of the death of a major terrorist, Abu Jihad,
              was sponsored by the Pontifical Mission of the Vatican!! This football competition is
              held annually.

12.           On April 29, 2016, fourteen (14) Palestinian football clubs participated in the ‘Khalil Al
              Wazir Abu Jihad’ football competition under the supervision of the Palestinian
              Football Association. This was the 22^nd time this competition had been held in the name
              of Abu Jihad, the leader of the Fatah terror group, who personally planned and executed
              the murder of 125 Israelis in various major terror attacks.

13            On June 17, 2016, the Palestinian football clubs, Al-Amid and Al-Ghazalan, held a
              football match for the Basel Sidr Cup in honor of Basel Sidr who was killed by Israeli
              security forces on October 14, 2015 as he attempted to stab Israeli policemen outside
              the Old City of Jerusalem.

14.            On October 9, 2016, Musbah Abu Sbeih murdered three (3) Israeli citizens and injured
               five (5) others in three drive-by shooting attacks. On the day of the attack Sbeih was
              due to hand himself in on charges of inciting terror and supporting the Hamas terrorist                    organization. Instead, he went on a rampage which killed Levana Malachi, a
              grandmother, and 29 year-old Yosef Kirma. Two days later, on October 11, the players
              and officials of the Hilal Al-Quds football team were photographed holding up a large
              banner carrying the picture of the terrorist Sbeih praising him and calling him the  
              “Lion of Jerusalem.”  The Hilal Al-Quds football club is the leading Palestinian champion
              soccer team. Days after this exhibition, the coach of this club, Maher Abu Sneineh,
              was arrested by Israel on charges of displaying a public support for terrorism.

15.            Our records on the promotion of terrorism through Palestinian football go back fifteen
              (15) years to 2002 when the Palestinian Authority sponsored a football competition in
              Tulkarm to celebrate their terrorists.  In this tournament, eight football teams were
              named in honor of a terrorist. One of the teams was named after Mahmud Marmash, a
              suicide bomber who murdered five Israeli citizens and maimed 74 others when he
              exploded his suicide belt outside the entrance of the HaSharon shopping mall in
              Netanya. My wife, Carol, narrowly avoided death. She was on her way to the mall
              when I called her and asked her to return to our office. Had she continued she would
              have arrived at the entrance at the same time as this suicide bomber honored as a hero
              and a martyr in his Tulkarm football tournament.  
              Another terrorist honored at this football competition was Abu al-Basset Oudeh. Oudeh
              was the suicide bomber that travelled from Tulkarm to my hometown of Netanya and blew
              up twenty nine (29) people and injured another 64 civilians in the Park Hotel as
              they gathered to celebrate the Jewish festival of Passover.  This event became known
              as the Passover Massacre. Among the killed were Holocaust survivors. It was as a
              result of this outrage that I became a co-founder of the Netanya Terror Victims
              Organization to help the bereaved families of the dead and the injured.
              Meanwhile, Palestinian football events and Jibril Rajoub celebrate their “heroes” and
              glorify their deeds!

        Article 3 of the FIFA Statutes states that;

       “FIFA is committed to respecting all internationally recognized human rights and shall 
        strive to promote the protection of these rights.”

        The basic principle is reflected in Article 24 of FIFA’s Code of Ethics which states;

       “Persons bound by this Code shall respect the integrity of others involved. They shall 
        ensure that the personal rights of every individual whom they contact and who is affected 
        by their actions is protected, respected and safeguarded.”

        Jibril Rajoub, as the highest responsible official in Palestinian football and a FIFA
        Delegate, has been deliberately delinquent in abusing FIFA’s Code of Ethics and conduct
        and, in his words and actions, has promoted violence, terrorism and insults that have
        harmed and killed hundreds of Israeli civilians, men, women and children.

        Jibril Rajoub has indoctrinated and educated Palestinian children and youth to praise
        and glorify violence and terror.

        Here are some of the statements made by Jibril Rajoub;

1.              On July 17, 2013, the Ma’an independent Palestinian news agency reported: “Chairman 
              of the Palestinian Football Association, Jibril Rajoub, eulogized released prisoner,  
             Ahmad Jabarah Abu Sukkar, saying, ‘Before his pure soul, we emphasize our 
             adherence to the principles and goals that he dedicated his long life to protect.’”
    

        The “principles and goals” that Abu Sukkar set were that, in 1975, he loaded a
        refrigerator full of explosives and detonated it in the center of Jerusalem killing fifteen
        (15) people and injuring over sixty (60) people. After this terrorist’s death in 2013, Jibril 
        Rajoub vowed “to continue his way of struggle.”  Two months later, Jibril Rajoub,
        in a speech that was aired on the official Palestinian Authority TV channel, said that
        Abu Sukkar was “a legend who walked on earth, the most noble among the 
       noble…I cannot but say that Abu Sukkar lived as a giant and died as a giant.”

2.              On November 20, 2013, Jibril Rajoub attended an event held at the Halhul Municipality
              in honor of three released terrorists. A published photograph (see PMW Complaint
              document, page 7) shows Jibril Rajoub with three terrorists. Two of the terrorists,
              Ziyad Mahmoud Ghneimat and Mustafa Ghneimat, had each been given life sentences
              by an Israeli court for the shooting and murder of two Israelis, Meir ben Yair and Michal
              Cohen in a forest on June 27, 1985. Michal Cohen was a 32 year-old nurse who left a
              husband and two small children. The third terrorist, Najeh Muqbil, was serving a
              sentence of 38 years for the murder of Yaakov Shalom on May 20, 1990.  They were
              released early by Israel as part of a deal to persuade the Palestinian to return to
              peace negotiations. Instead, Jibril Rajoub glorified these murderers and presented
              plaques in their honor.

3.              Leila Khaled is a Palestinian terrorist who was arrested and convicted of two plane
              hijackings. In one of her hijacking attempts she was overpowered by Israeli security
              guards as she was holding hand grenades in her hands while the plane was in the air. 
              On August 16, 2015, Jibril Rajoub said on official Palestinian Authority TV, “ I spoke 
              about Leila Khaled, the fighter, the hero, the symbol…There are three sacred things
              that should not be maligned – the fighter, the Martyr, and the prisoner, They are sacred. 
              We should always speak positively about them, whether they are from PFLP, 
              Fatah, Hamas, etc.”

4.               On October 17, 2015, during a wave of Palestinian terrorist attacks against Israeli
               civilians, Jibril Rajoub appeared on official Palestinian TV and referred directly to the
               terror attacks calling them “individual acts of bravery, and I am proud of them. I 
               congratulate everyone who carried them out and I say to you, we are 
               proud of you…Whoever confronts, fights, dies as a Martyr, is arrested or injured, his 
               identity is known. What I mean is that the fighter, the prisoner, or the Martyr, they are 
               assets to the entire Palestinian people.”   

5.                On January 6, 2016, Jibril Rajoub appeared on official Palestinian TV and on the
               Fatah-operated Awdah TV channel to “bless and encourage” terrorists, again
               referring to terrorist murderers as “heroes.” He said;

         “I say that whoever carried out individual acts of heroism (terror) we in the Fatah 
         movement bless and encourage them. We consider them heroes and a crown 
         on the head of every Palestinian…beginning with our brother Muhannad Halabi.”

         Muhannad Halabi killed Rabbi Nehamia Lavi and Aharon Bennett (Benita) as
         they were walking from their prayers in Jerusalem. He also seriously wounded Bennett’s
         wife, Adele, and injured their two-year old son. (See item 6 in the terror incident
         complaint above)

         This leaves us, and FIFA, to ask what is the difference between Jibril Rajoub’s promotion
         and incitement to terrorism and that of ISIS’s Omar Al-Baghdadi, or Osama Bin Laden’s
         past exhortations to Al-Qaida terrorism? 

         Based on the evidence, does Jibril Rajoub have any place as a FIFA Delegate?

         The time has come for FIFA to KICK TERRORISM OUT OF FOOTBALL. 

         As stipulated in Article 111 (2) of the FIFA Disciplinary Code, we hereby request
         that the Committee hold a hearing on these claims and complaints against Jibril Rajoub,
         the Palestinian Football Association and their officials and their gross misconduct
         in the administration of Palestinian football.

         Please inform us of the date set for a hearing on this matter so that we may appear
         before the committee to give evidence and to hear about the investigation and findings
         of your Disciplinary Committee into the disturbing conduct of the said persons
         and Association.

         Respectfully,
   

         Barry Shaw,

         Senior Associate for Public Diplomacy,

         Israel institute for Strategic Studies,

         Israel.

Shtetls and Ghettos to the Jewish State. Nothing has changed.

Nothing has changed in attitudes against the Jews in the last century.

From the programs of a hundred years ago to the strain inflicted on Israel today there is an eerie similarity.

Jews confined to their Russian shtetls suffered the murders and horrors of Jew haters. 

Polish Jews were herded into ghettoes, ghettoes where their presence was harshly tolerated as a temporary measure by their Nazi masters.

History shows us that these shtetls and ghettoes were gradually reduced in size and denuded of their Jewish population by the ethnic cleansing of their haters.  There, Jewish exclusivity did nothing to make them feel safe. On the contrary, a sense of vulnerability and foreboding hovered in the streets and in the homes of the enclosed and entrapped population.

In a real sense, we see this being played out in the Middle East today. Muslim countries expelled their Jews, and Israel was the beneficiary. The Jewish State did not feel like a ghetto then. It welcomed its brethren with open arms. It was a positive development.  But the Arab nations that banished their Jews did not see it that way. They detested the growing Jewish presence in their region and took violent steps to do away with it. In this, they were in kinship with the Russian and German anti-Semites.

On a promise of a reduced homeland, the Jews were deprived of the vast majority of the land for the benefit of the complaining Arabs. This territory became known as Transjordan.

Then, after Arab armies failed to destroy the nascent Jewish State, Israel was persuaded to relinquish further land for peace in the name of a non-existent harmonious and peace-loving Palestinian nationhood.

Having lost five wars to eliminate the Jewish presence in the Middle East, the Arabs encouraged and promoted a Palestinian anti-Israel narrative and action campaign. The aim was shudderingly familiar – to pressure the world to force Jews to relinquish territory and property.

Despite an incessant terror campaign that left thousands of Israelis dead and more injured, the Arabs, now called Palestinians, were projected as the victims.  

In the delusional spirit of goodwill, Israel signed accords with a determined enemy, withdrew from developed land in Gaza with beautiful homes, rich agricultural infrastructure, and the beginnings of a tourist industry, traumatically removing its population, only to discover they had been tricked and trapped by international forums determined to reduce the Jewish ghetto in the Middle East further into areas of indefensible lines.

Israeli objections are met with diplomatic threats, boycotts, and the threat of violence.

As with the shtetl and the ghetto, nobody can assure the Jews of Israel that any withdrawal into vulnerable and over-crowded areas will put an end to the persistent threat of a Final Solution to the Jewish Problem in the Middle East. To any Israeli Jew with grave concerns comes a glib dismissal that Jews now have a strong army, so cope with the repercussions.

The international collusion with the Arabs is little different to the collusion of British officials exactly one hundred years ago in Jerusalem, Cairo and Whitehall who, instead of carrying out both British policy and the terms of the League of Nations Mandate to establish the Jewish national homeland, deserted their responsibilities by turning their backs on the Jews they were instructed to assist and, instead, duplicitously encouraged the Arabs to protest the Jewish presence.   What is going on with the false charges of “illegal occupation” and “illegal settlements” if not this?

Today, the effort is to reduce and diminish the Land of Israel further in favor of advancing a Greater Palestine that has failed to contribute any scientific, agricultural or social advancement within its society. Instead, they continue to nurture the age-old anti-Jewish attitude and the perpetuation of anti-Jewish hatred and violence.  A Greater Palestine is divided within itself and united only in their determination to inflict further ethnic cleansing on the Jews of Israel.

From the shtetl to the ghetto to the Jewish State, little has changed in attitudes against the Jews in the last century.

Barry Shaw is the author of the best-selling book ‘1917. From Palestine to the Land of Israel.’   He is also the Senior Associate for Public Diplomacy at the Israel Institute for Strategic Studies.