'I am an American Jew. I love the United States. I love everything it stands for...'

This is an amazing essay, from Miriam Herschlag, at the Times of Israel, "Why I have not (yet?) made aliyah":

America is the beacon of freedom and democracy to all humanity. It is the earth’s great hope. It is no coincidence that America is Israel’s foremost friend and protector. America stands up for righteous and struggling democracies throughout the world. It is the noble guardian of truth and the gallant defender of human rights. It follows that America would see in Israel a kindred spirit, a righteous nation wrestling to be free and protecting the dignity of all.

My attachment to America runs deep. When I sing the Star-spangled banner I focus on the words as if it were a prayer. “Land of the free and the home of the brave.” I love every inch of this great land and have taken my children in an RV to see most of it.

But love of America alone would not explain why I do not live in Israel...

RTWT.

'The idea of the Palestinian Authority taking Israel to court over war crimes is among the most grotesque and absurd developments imaginable, a moral inversion of staggering dimensions...'

From Peter Wehner, at Commentary, "The PA, the ICC, and a Moral Inversion of Staggering Dimensions":

The fact that this issue is even being considered points to how corrupt many international organizations are. (Why on earth should we have to debate why a malevolent organization doesn’t have the standing to condemn a nation characterized by excellence and extraordinary moral achievements?) In addition, the U.S. should certainly cut funding to the Palestinian Authority, to whom it currently provides more than $400 million in annual aid.

But beyond all that, this latest move by the PA is an example of the persistent unwillingness to address the pathologies that grip Palestinian society. These pathologies are the core reason for the tensions and conflict with Israel–and rather than dealing with them, the leadership of the Palestinians is, if anything, falling even deeper into denial. The more they fail, the more they blame Israel for their failures. This is an assault on reality, a slander of Israel, and a massive disservice to Palestinians. It would be helpful if more nations, starting with the United States, said so.

'Sundown tonight marks the start of the Jewish New Year that begins with the celebration of Rosh Hashanah. The ten days from the beginning of this festival until the end of Yom Kippur next week are known in Judaism as the Days of Awe...'

From Jonathan Tobin, at Commentary, "A Pause to Account for Ourselves."

Just go read it.

'As the Left becomes more and more tied to Islamic fanatics, anti-Semitism is going to become more and more of a staple of leftist dogma...'

From Caroline Glick, "The dilemma of the Jewish leftist."

Gwyneth Paltrow Converting to Judaism

At the New York Post, "Gwyneth Paltrow is converting to Judaism":

Gwyneth Paltrow is converting to Judaism after her conscious uncoupling with husband Chris Martin, sources tell Page Six.

The actress is quietly converting after years of following Kabbalah, which originated in Judaism, and being friends with Michael Berg, co-director of the Kabbalah Centre.

While Paltrow’s rep didn’t respond to numerous requests for comment, her late father was film producer Bruce Paltrow, a Jew, while her mother, Blythe Danner, is a Christian. The “Iron Man” star has previously revealed that she was raised both Jewish and Christian, which “was such a nice way to grow up.”

'Holocaust Victims,' Relatives Challenge Elie Wiesel for Defending Israel

From Phyllis Chesler, at Big Peace.

A nice piece.

I'm Reading Caroline Glick: The Israeli Solution

When Glick's new book came out I put in an order at Amazon, but I had the shipping address wrong while updating my account. The Post Office sent the book back.

So, I think it was late July, during the Gaza War (after I watched her congressional briefing), but I went out and bought a copy at the bookstore. Glick is simply the best analyst of Israel's international politics.

Be sure to get your copy if you haven't already. And make sure you've got the correct shipping information for Amazon, heh: The Israeli Solution: A One-State Plan for Peace in the Middle East.

Family of Brooklyn Rabbi Killed in Miami Believes Shooting Was Anti-Semitic Hate Crime

Washington Free Beacon has the background, "Rabbi Shot Dead While Walking to Synagogue in Miami."

And at CBS News New York:



Also at the New York Post, "Family of rabbi shot in Miami say it’s a hate crime."

'Fury' of Hollywood for Israel-Bashers Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz

She's long been one of my favorite hotties, but then, I didn't know she was going to trash Israel.

At the Independent UK:

Cruz & Bardem continue 2 face 'fury' of Hollywood following 'genocide' lettr condemning Israel http://t.co/zCFpK0WRX9 pic.twitter.com/qEnJELDRae

— Adam Milstein (@AdamMilstein) August 11, 2014

Previously: "Growing Backlash Against Celebrity Attacks on Israel."

'How Israel’s hawks intimidated and silenced the last remnants of the anti-war left...'

That subtitle's written if intimidating the antiwar left was a bad thing, lol.

From Gregg Carlstrom, at Foreign Policy, "The Death of Sympathy":

A piece I did trying to capture the angry mood and the lack of space for public debate in Israel this month: http://t.co/lqTbsXbXla

— Gregg Carlstrom (@glcarlstrom) August 6, 2014

TEL AVIV — Pro-war demonstrators stand behind a police barricade in Tel Aviv, chanting, "Gaza is a graveyard." An elderly woman pushes a cart of groceries down the street in the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon and asks a reporter, "Jewish or Arab? Because I won't talk to Arabs." A man in Sderot, a town that lies less than a mile from Gaza, looks up as an Israeli plane, en route to the Hamas-ruled territory, drops a blizzard of leaflets over the town. "I hope that's not all we're dropping," he says.

Even before the war, Israel was shifting right, as an increasingly strident cadre of politicians took ownership of the public debate on security and foreign affairs. But the Gaza conflict has accelerated the lurch -- empowering nationalistic and militant voices, dramatically narrowing the space for debate, and eroding whatever public sympathy remained for the Palestinians.

The fighting seems to be winding down, but it leaves behind a hardened Israeli public opinion: There is a widespread feeling that Israelis are the true victims here, that this war with a guerrilla army in a besieged territory is existential.

Hawkish Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has found himself under pressure from politicians even further to his right. The premier has suspended negotiations with the Palestinian Authority, arrested more than 1,000 Palestinians, demolished the homes of several people convicted of no crimes, and launched an offensive in Gaza that has killed more than 1,800 people. That's not enough, even for some members of Netanyahu's own party, who see worrying signs of weakness.

"We've seen the influence of [Tzipi] Livni over the prime minister," Likud Knesset member Danny Danon told Foreign Policy, referring to the justice minister and her centrist party. "My position is to make sure we're not becoming a construct of the left.... As long as he stays loyal, he'll have the backing of the party."

Netanyahu fired Danon from his post as deputy defense minister last month, because he was too critical of the government's strategy in Gaza. But Danon cannot be dismissed as a marginal figure: He took control of the Likud central committee last year, and has used the post to steer the party further right -- an ironic turnabout, as Netanyahu used the same tactics to drive out former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon a decade ago. Even before his election, the 2012 Likud primary turned Netanyahu into perhaps the most liberal member of his own party.

Public opinion polls confirm the Israeli right's gains during the current conflict. A survey conducted by the Knesset Channel last week found that the right-wing parties would win 56 seats in the next election, up from 43 last year. The center-left bloc would shrink from 59 seats to 48. Other surveys suggest that the right could win a majority by itself, without needing religious parties or centrists to form a coalition.

But perhaps more striking is the public's near-unanimous support for the Gaza war, from Israelis across the political spectrum. Roughly 90 percent of Jewish Israelis support the war, according to recent polls. Less than 4 percent believe the army has used "excessive firepower," the Israel Democracy Institute found, though even Israeli officials admit that a majority of the 1,800 Palestinians killed so far are civilians.

Meanwhile, Labor Party leader Isaac Herzog, the ostensible head of the opposition, is doing public relations work for Netanyahu, defending the war at a gathering of foreign diplomats. Livni herself at times sounds more hawkish than the prime minister, arguing that Israel should topple Hamas and build a moat to separate itself from Gaza. "I have two words for you: Get lost," she told the U.N. Human Rights Council after it voted to investigate possible Israeli war crimes in Gaza.

And Finance Minister Yair Lapid, who once threatened to bolt the coalition if talks with the Palestinians collapsed, has been another vocal advocate. "This is a tough war, but a necessary one," he said last month.

Decades ago, a commentator coined the phrase "quiet, we're shooting" -- a reflection of the Israeli public's tendency to rally behind the army in wartime. But this time, public dissent hasn't just been silenced, it's been all but smothered. A popular comedian was dumped from her job as the spokeswoman for a cruise line after she criticized the war. Local radio refused to air an advertisement from B'Tselem, a rights group, which simply intended to name the victims in Gaza.

Scattered anti-war rallies have drawn small crowds, mostly in the low hundreds; the largest brought several thousand people to Tel Aviv on July 26. But most of the protests ended in violence at the hands of ultranationalists, who attacked them and set up roving checkpoints to hunt for "leftists" afterwards. Demonstrators have been beaten, pepper-sprayed, and bludgeoned with chairs...

Heh, "hunt for leftists." You gotta love it.

More.

Renewed Predictions of a Third Intifada

I wrote about this last week.

And now here's Khaled Elgindy, at Foreign Affairs, "Welcome to the Third Intifada: After Gaza, Palestine's Uprising Will Spread to the West Bank":

Given the intensity of the ongoing war between Hamas and Israel in Gaza, it is easy to forget that the current crisis began in a different part of Palestine. The kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank led to a severe Israeli crackdown on Hamas, which responded with a barrage of rocket fire at Israel from Gaza. Meanwhile, the murder of a Palestinian teenager by Jewish extremists sparked several days of violent protests by Palestinians in East Jerusalem and elsewhere. The shift in venue served Israel’s interests, diverting the conflict away from sensitive and strategically vulnerable areas. For Israeli policymakers, another concentrated war against Gaza was preferable to the possibility of another West Bank uprising against Israel, akin to the so-called intifadas that occurred in the late 1980s and the early 2000s. Contrary to what Israelis may have hoped, however, the present war has made a third intifada more, not less, likely...

More.

This Elgindy guy looks like he favors a third intifada, actually, given the nature of his pro-Palestinian advocacy.

Zionism's Astonishing Historical Success

From Ambassador Michael Oren, at the Wall Street Journal, "In Defense of Zionism":

They come from every corner of the country—investment bankers, farmers, computer geeks, jazz drummers, botany professors, car mechanics—leaving their jobs and their families. They put on uniforms that are invariably too tight or too baggy, sign out their gear and guns. Then, scrambling onto military vehicles, 70,000 reservists—women and men—join the young conscripts of what is proportionally the world's largest citizen army. They all know that some of them will return maimed or not at all. And yet, without hesitation or (for the most part) complaint, proudly responding to the call-up, Israelis stand ready to defend their nation. They risk their lives for an idea.

The idea is Zionism. It is the belief that the Jewish people should have their own sovereign state in the Land of Israel. Though founded less than 150 years ago, the Zionist movement sprung from a 4,000-year-long bond between the Jewish people and its historic homeland, an attachment sustained throughout 20 centuries of exile. This is why Zionism achieved its goals and remains relevant and rigorous today. It is why citizens of Israel—the state that Zionism created—willingly take up arms. They believe their idea is worth fighting for.

Yet Zionism, arguably more than any other contemporary ideology, is demonized. "All Zionists are legitimate targets everywhere in the world!" declared a banner recently paraded by anti-Israel protesters in Denmark. "Dogs are allowed in this establishment but Zionists are not under any circumstances," warned a sign in the window of a Belgian cafe. A Jewish demonstrator in Iceland was accosted and told, "You Zionist pig, I'm going to behead you."

In certain academic and media circles, Zionism is synonymous with colonialism and imperialism. Critics on the radical right and left have likened it to racism or, worse, Nazism. And that is in the West. In the Middle East, Zionism is the ultimate abomination—the product of a Holocaust that many in the region deny ever happened while maintaining nevertheless that the Zionists deserved it.

What is it about Zionism that elicits such loathing? After all, the longing of a dispersed people for a state of their own cannot possibly be so repugnant, especially after that people endured centuries of massacres and expulsions, culminating in history's largest mass murder. Perhaps revulsion toward Zionism stems from its unusual blend of national identity, religion and loyalty to a land. Japan offers the closest parallel, but despite its rapacious past, Japanese nationalism doesn't evoke the abhorrence aroused by Zionism.

Clearly anti-Semitism, of both the European and Muslim varieties, plays a role. Cabals, money grubbing, plots to take over the world and murder babies—all the libels historically leveled at Jews are regularly hurled at Zionists. And like the anti-Semitic capitalists who saw all Jews as communists and the communists who painted capitalism as inherently Jewish, the opponents of Zionism portray it as the abominable Other.

But not all of Zionism's critics are bigoted, and not a few of them are Jewish. For a growing number of progressive Jews, Zionism is too militantly nationalist, while for many ultra-Orthodox Jews, the movement is insufficiently pious—even heretical. How can an idea so universally reviled retain its legitimacy, much less lay claim to success?

The answer is simple: Zionism worked...

Continue reading.

Hamas Brags About Hadar Goldin Abduction ... Then Backtracks, Lies Four Times: 'Very Sorry ... Please Avoid' Previous Tweets

At the Grid, "Hamas Boasts About Its Capture of IDF Soldier ... Then Backtracks Four Times."

Al-Qassams' Twitter feed is here.

Kerry Calls on Qatar and Turkey to Gain Release of Israeli Soldier

Yeah, that oughta work.

From Michael Gordon, at the New York Times.

But see the Washington Post, "Hamas says missing Israeli soldier is likely dead."

Israelis in Ashkelon Express Support of Airstrikes on Gaza

Via Telegraph UK:

When asked whether she wants to see Gaza destroyed, one beachgoer hesitantly admits that she sees no difference between Gaza, the narrow coastal strip the which is inhabited by 1.8 million people and Hamas, the militant group which controls the area and fire rockets into Israel.

A Primer on Hamas Military Capabilities (VIDEO)

At Weasel Zippers, "From Tunnels to R-160s, A Primer on Hamas and Its Deadly Capabilities (VIDEO)."

'Had Navi Pillay and the 'human rights council' been around in 1945, she would have condemned the United States for not sharing the atomic bomb with Germany and Japan...'

"True story."

At Israel Matzav, "Lunatic Navi Pillay condemns Israel and US for not sharing Iron Dome with Hamas."

Spanish Journalist on Why Hamas Never Photographed in Action: 'If Ever We Dared Point Our Camera on Them They Would Simply Shoot at Us and Kill Us'

At Algemeiner.

And follow the links to Eler of Ziyon, "Spanish journalist - off the record - says Hamas would kill Gaza reporters if they filmed rocket fire."

Benjamin Netanyahu to Obama Administration: Don't 'Ever Second Guess Me Again' on Hamas

Via Ron Fournier:

Wow RT @nycjim: Netanyahu to US: Don’t "ever second guess me again” on #Hamas. http://t.co/9WTBOKouxQ pic.twitter.com/gS1dmChZs3

— Ron Fournier (@ron_fournier) August 2, 2014

Gaza Truce in Tatters, Obama Blames Hamas

At the Wall Street Journal, "Israeli Soldier Goes Missing, Possibly Taken Captive":

Israeli forces spread across southern Gaza in search of a missing infantry officer who was presumed captured by militants Friday, as President Barack Obama blamed Hamas for the quick breakdown of a U.S.-brokered cease-fire.

The officer's fate added a volatile element to Israel's conflict with Hamas, with the potential to draw the military deeper into a densely populated Palestinian enclave largely devastated by 25 days of combat. If confirmed, his capture could give Hamas, the Islamist group that governs Gaza, powerful new leverage in its effort to end the fighting on its terms.

The officer, 2nd Lt. Hadar Goldin, disappeared in a fierce battle for control of an underground tunnel shaft that left two Israeli soldiers dead near Rafah, the military said. Israel responded with air and artillery strikes that leveled homes and killed at least 35 people in and around the city of Rafah, mostly women and children, according to Gaza's Health Ministry.

The fighting shattered a cease-fire, brokered by the U.S. and United Nations, that was barely 90 minutes old. Speaking at the White House, Mr. Obama expressed pessimism that an agreement to end the violence could be reached soon, and called on Hamas to release the soldier unconditionally and as soon as possible, although neither Israel nor Hamas have confirmed his capture.

"I think it's going to be very hard to put a cease-fire back together again if Israelis and the international community can't feel confident that Hamas can follow through on a cease-fire commitment," he said at a news conference.

More.