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Friday,
March 22, 2019

In-Depth Issues:

U.S. Golan Declaration a Message to Russia - Amos Harel (Ha'aretz)
The international reaction to U.S. recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights is expected to be fairly weak.
Europe still sees Syrian President Bashar Assad with disdain over his responsibility for the mass murder of his people over eight years of civil war.
A future negotiation over the Golan between Israel and Syria is nowhere near in sight, anyway.
This also looks like an American response to the Russian alliance with Iran in Syria and the Russians' failure to make good on previous promises to Israel and to the U.S. that it would help distance Iranian forces and Hizbullah troops from the border along the Golan.

Israeli Opposition Leader: U.S. Recognition of the Golan Heights Is "a Dream Come True" - Lahav Harkov (Jerusalem Post)
The main rivals of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised U.S. President Donald Trump's declaration that he intends to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights.
U.S. recognition of the Golan Heights is "a dream come true," former treasury minister Yair Lapid (Blue and White) said.
"The Golan is an inseparable part of Israel, and we call on the rest of the world to follow President Trump and recognize our sovereignty over the Golan Heights."
Former defense minister Moshe Ya'alon (Blue and White) said the announcement is "truly good news."
See also Golan Recognition Supported by Nearly Entire Political Spectrum in Israel - Editorial (Jerusalem Post)
After the international community spent over five decades being in denial, President Trump is changing the equation and recognizing what has long been clear to all: Israel is not giving up the Golan Heights, which is vital to our security.
This recognition, which really should have come 40 years ago, is supported by a consensus of nearly the entire political spectrum in Israel.
Israel officially annexed the Golan Heights on December 14, 1981, after almost a million Israelis signed a petition demanding it.

Recognizing Israeli Sovereignty on the Golan Heights (Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs)
Amb. Dore Gold testified in Washington before the House Subcommittee on National Security on July 17, 2018.
See also Defensible Borders on the Golan Heights - Maj.-Gen. (res.) Giora Eiland (Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs-2009)

Hamas Targets over 70 Journalists in Wake of Protests - Khaled Abu Toameh (Jerusalem Post)
More than 70 Palestinian journalists have been targeted by Hamas during the recent protests against economic hardship in Gaza, the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate said Thursday.
Mohammed Al-Lahham, a senior syndicate official, said, "We have collected testimonies from several journalists who were subjected to various forms of assaults, including arrests, beatings, confiscation of equipment, raids on their homes and threats."
"A number of journalists have been placed under house arrest and warned not to cover the protests."
"This ban has affected hundreds of media organizations in Gaza and is a sign of the magnitude of Hamas terror and intimidation against the media."
Hamas, he added, has also been threatening families of journalists who are currently working outside of Gaza.

The Portugal Connection to the Islamic State Terrorist Network in France - Nuno Tiago Pinto (Combating Terrorism Center at West Point)
In November 2016, French authorities arrested seven members of an Islamic State network in France who planned a terrorist attack in the Paris region.
According to European intelligence officials, the French intelligence agency DGSI received a warning of the imminent attack from Israeli intelligence.
The network financed itself through credit card fraud and used encrypted communication apps to receive instructions from Syria.
Behind it all were two men who entered Europe through Portugal posing as political refugees.

Syrian Scholar: The "Al-Aqsa" in the Quran Is Not in Jerusalem (MEMRI)
Syrian scholar Firas Al-Sawwah told Al-Hurra TV on March 3:
"The Al-Aqsa Mosque that is mentioned in the Quran is not the place we know today. The one who said that this place in Jerusalem is the Al-Aqsa Mosque was Abd Al-Malik Ibn Marwan. He wanted to build a holy place there and decided to call it the Al-Aqsa Mosque."

UN Hosts Exhibit on Israeli Aid to World - Herb Keinon (Jerusalem Post)
An exhibition on Israeli humanitarian aid around the world will be on display at the UN on March 24-31.
The UN ambassador to Mexico - where Israel rushed aid workers and humanitarian assistance after a devastating earthquake in 2017 - will be one of the featured speakers next week at the opening.
Israeli UN Ambassador Danny Danon said the photo exhibition "showcases how far Israel will go to help others in need, regardless of who they are or where they live."
"We are often the first to arrive after disaster strikes, when time is of the essence and aid is most crucial. Israel is the first to help countries in crisis. Our continued humanitarian activities have saved the lives of thousands of people throughout the world."

Israeli Agri-Tech Helps Address Global Food Security Challenge - Nick Kolyohin (Xinhua-China)
In the past decade, the Israeli agri-tech sector has produced a high number of innovative companies addressing global agricultural issues.
Israel is developing areas such as robotics, precision agriculture, eco-friendly pesticides and herbicides, and new animal breeding techniques.
Drones, software, and robots are used more and more in the fields of Israel.
Israeli scientists closely collaborate with farmers to invent cutting-edge products such as heat-tolerant tomatoes, drought-resistant cucumber seeds, and ultra-efficient drip irrigation.
"Israel already uses its innovative technology to sterilize the soil with solar energy instead of using robust harmful chemicals, before seed crops," said Haim Rabinowitch, a professor at the faculty of agriculture at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Israelis Win Six Medals at Special Olympics in Abu Dhabi - Yvette J. Deane (Jerusalem Post)
Israelis won six medals last weekend in swimming, bowling and judo at the 2019 Special Olympics World Summer Games in Abu Dhabi.
25 Israelis participated in the Special Olympics this year.

Two Israelis Win Gold Medals in Judo Grand Slam in Russia (Times of Israel)
Last Friday, Israeli judoka Gili Cohen, 27, won the top prize in the women's under-52 kg. category at the Grand Slam in Ekaterinburg, Russia.
On Saturday, Sagi Muki, 26, won the gold in the men's under-81 kg. weight class, defeating Japan's Takanori Nagase, a former world champion and Olympic medalist.
Israeli Baruch Shmailov won the bronze medal in the men's under-66 kg. weight class.

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News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:

Trump: Time for U.S. to Recognize Israel's Sovereignty over Golan Heights - Vivian Salama
President Trump said Thursday on Twitter: "After 52 years it is time for the United States to fully recognize Israel's Sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which is of critical strategic and security importance to the State of Israel and Regional Stability!" (Wall Street Journal)
See also Netanyahu: "Thank You America"
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told visiting U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday: "President Trump...recognized Israel's sovereignty over the Golan Heights, and he did so at a time when Iran is trying to use Syria as a platform to attack and destroy Israel. And the message that President Trump has given the world is that America stands by Israel."
"We're celebrating Purim, when 2,500 years ago, other Persians, led by Haman, tried to destroy the Jewish people. They failed then; and today, 2,500 years later, again Persians led by Khamenei are trying to destroy the Jewish people and the Jewish state....Thank you, America." (Prime Minister's Office)
See also Pompeo: Israel's Battle for the Golan "Was Israeli Heroism at Its Most Amazing"
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Thursday: "As a [West Point] cadet, I studied the battles of the Golan. There's a famous battle called the Battle of the Valley of Tears, and it was Israeli heroism at its most amazing, saving this great nation at a time of enormous challenge, a threat that came from east of the Golan, from Syria, a tank battle of epic and historic proportion, of amazing Israeli bravery."
"Tonight President Trump made the decision to recognize that that hard-fought real estate, that important place, is proper to be a sovereign part of the state of Israel....The people of Israel should know that the battles they fought, the lives that they lost on that very ground, were worthy and meaningful and important for all time." (U.S. State Department)
Iran's Supreme Leader Dismisses European Mechanism to Bypass U.S. Sanctions as "Bitter Joke"
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Thursday dismissed a trade mechanism launched by European countries to bypass renewed U.S. sanctions as a "bitter joke" and said Europe could not be trusted. Britain, France and Germany launched the special payment system in January.
"We should completely forego (any hope) of help or cooperation from Westerners in strengthening our economy, we shouldn't wait for them," he said. "Once again the Europeans have stabbed us in the back, they have betrayed us." (AFP-Daily Mail-UK)

News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:

Pompeo Arrives at Western Wall with Netanyahu, a First Visit of U.S. Diplomat with Israeli Official - Noa Landau
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited Jerusalem's Western Wall on Thursday, accompanied by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman. This is the first-ever visit of a top U.S. diplomat to the Western Wall accompanied by an Israeli official. Pompeo said, "I think it's important. I think it's symbolic that a senior American official go there with the prime minister of Israel." (Ha'aretz)
See also Thanks to U.S., Diplomatic Taboo around Western Wall Comes Tumbling Down - Raphael Ahren
On May 22, 2017, Donald Trump became the first sitting U.S. president to visit the Western Wall in Jerusalem in a "private" visit. Like all foreign leaders who went to the site before him, Trump was unaccompanied by high-ranking Israeli officials, lest anyone misinterpret their presence as a tacit recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the city's disputed eastern section.
But since the December 6, 2017, U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, and the May 14, 2018, move of the U.S. embassy there, more foreign dignitaries than ever before have visited the Jewish holy site, and many of them no longer mind being chaperoned there by Israeli diplomats.
"A lot of the inhibitions that might have existed in the past have been dropped. It's pretty clear to many in the international community that the area of the Wall, if not the whole city, will remain in Israel's hands in any future peace arrangement," said Dore Gold, a former Foreign Ministry director-general. "From private conversations you get the impression that there is a growing understanding that Jerusalem is not going to be divided....The whole question of Jerusalem in the international community is very much in flux, whereas previously it seemed to be locked in." (Times of Israel)
UN Human Rights Council Votes for Arms Embargo and War Crimes Suits Against Israel - Tovah Lazaroff
The UN Human Rights Council on Friday voted 23-9 for an arms embargo against Israel and the prosecution of Israelis for war crimes for IDF actions along the Gaza border last year. Australia, Austria, Brazil, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Fiji, Hungary, Togo and the Ukraine opposed the resolution. 14 countries abstained: Argentina, the Bahamas, Croatia, Congo, Denmark, Iceland, India, Italy, Japan, Nepal, Rwanda, Slovakia, UK, and Uruguay. (Jerusalem Post)

Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis:

U.S. Recognizes Israeli Sovereignty over Golan Heights

Trump Calls for Israeli Sovereignty over Golan Heights - Jonathan Schanzer and David Adesnik
Israel floated the possibility of withdrawal from the majority of the Golan Heights during peace talks with Syria in the 1990s and 2000s, but the outbreak of civil war in Syria in 2011 has changed Israel's calculus. If Syria had regained control of this territory prior to the outbreak of the current conflict, Sunni extremists or Iranian proxies might now occupy the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee. Even with full control of the Golan, Israel continues to face serious threats from just across the border.
The Golan is not contested by the Palestinians. The Arab population there consists of about 20,000 Druze. Jonathan Schanzer is the senior vice president for research at FDD, where David Adesnik is the director of research. (Foundation for Defense of Democracies)
Israel's Sovereignty on the Golan Heights: Why Now? - Shoshana Bryen
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made a public declaration of Israel's interest in having the U.S. recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights. Why now? There is no "peace process" - certainly none that involves Syria - and little push in international circles to force Israel to cede the territory to the war criminal Bashar Assad.
Some believe Israel is required to give up the Golan because countries cannot acquire territory by force. That is incorrect. UN Resolution 242 says, "Emphasizing the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war." War, not force. It was the Arab states that went to war in 1967; Israel acquired the territory in self-defense.
How long is Israel required to wait? It has been almost 52 years since Syria lost the Golan Heights as a result of its aggression. It is 45 years since Israel repulsed the aggression of the Yom Kippur War. The writer is senior director at the center. (Jewish Policy Center)
Trump's Golan Announcement Was No Impulse Tweet - Kathy Gilsinan
Donald Trump overturned decades of U.S. policy via Twitter when he declared on Thursday that the U.S. should recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, a disputed territory Israel seized in the 1967 war with Syria. The push for Trump to make such a move has been going on for more than a year and the issue was discussed at the highest levels of the State Department and the National Security Council, according to Mark Dubowitz, who co-wrote a February 2017 op-ed calling for the Golan recognition and was engaged in the discussions.
With the bulk of U.S. troops leaving Syria, the question of how Iranian proxies could be kept from Israel's borders suddenly looked more urgent. For the policy's backers, declaring Israeli sovereignty over the Golan is a recognition of reality in the same way that moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem was a recognition that the city is Israel's capital. (Atlantic)
The Golan Issue Does Not Echo in the Middle East - Seth J. Frantzman
After 52 years of Israeli rule on the Golan - more than twice as long as the Syrian government controlled the heights - Israeli rule is largely understood as a fact of life, even as regimes pay lip service to international legal concepts that would see the Golan returned to the Syrian regime. The Syrian regime is not well-liked. Bashar Assad is a close ally of Hizbullah and Iran.
Al-Manar, linked to Hizbullah, didn't have a tweet on it. Iran's media seemed disinterested. Al-Ghad in Jordan mentioned the Golan announcement alongside stories about sports. Kuwait's Al-Jarida didn't cover it on its homepage. Not exactly earth-shattering coverage. The region has changed greatly in the last decade, and Israel is not the center of every person's concerns - local conflicts are.
Given the many other issues affecting the Middle East - and coming after a long list of other major Trump decisions on Israel - the Golan decision is not being seen as a groundbreaking change. (Jerusalem Post)

Palestinians

Both Hamas and Fatah Repress Their Political Opponents - Khaled Abu Toameh
When it comes to repressing and violating the human rights of their people, Hamas and Fatah have proven that they are comrades-in-arms. Hamas has been accused of using excessive force to suppress Palestinians protesting economic hardship in Gaza. Photos of wounded Palestinians have surfaced on social media. Some had black eyes and bruises over different parts of their bodies, while others appeared to have had their legs and arms broken by Hamas security officers. Since its violent takeover of Gaza in 2007, Hamas has employed an iron-fisted policy against its political opponents and anyone who dares to challenge its rule.
In the West Bank, the Palestinian Authority and its ruling Fatah faction have also been engaging in systematic targeting of Palestinian journalists and political opponents. Since the beginning of this year, PA security forces have arrested at least nine journalists, and scenes of PA police beating men, women and children are not unfamiliar. Like Hamas, the PA has also resorted to torture to crush political opponents and dissent. Human rights groups have documented dozens of such cases in PA prisons in recent years. (Gatestone Institute)
Sunni Arabs Can't Accept U.S. Peace Plan without Palestinian OK - Maj.-Gen. (ret.) Amos Gilead interviewed by Herb Keinon
Maj.-Gen. (ret.) Amos Gilead, former director of the Israel Defense Ministry's Policy and Political-Military Affairs Bureau (2003-2017), advises Americans not to roll out their peace plan unless they are sure that the Arab world will not reject it. And the chances of the Arab states accepting a plan that will be turned down by the Palestinians - which they have already said they will do - are almost nil.
If the Palestinians and Arab states reject the plan, then that means "There is no hope, no political horizon, and that will only lead to frustration," Gilead said. It would be very destabilizing because it would show clearly that there is no peace option.
Gilead said that PA President Mahmoud Abbas' "strength is in his weakness. He can't compete against Israel, but he can say to the Arab states, 'Don't you dare recognize the Trump plan'." And they won't, he said, because to do so would be seen as a form of treason to the Arab cause.
Gilead dismissed as an "illusion" thinking that the Arab world would make peace or normalize ties with Israel without an agreement with the Palestinians. "The [Arab] public is not in favor of it, and the [leaders] are worried that if they do it, it will shake their stability." He added that the security and intelligence cooperation between Israel and the Sunni Arab states is both strong and welcome, but "it is not stable and could change." (Jerusalem Post)
The Bottom Line for the Most Moderate Palestinian Leader - Dov Lipman
During my first year as a member of Knesset, I was invited to meet with "moderate" Palestinian leaders. I learned a lot from these meetings and felt bad for the innocent Palestinians who suffer from inadequate basic services their leaders don't seek to change and lack hope for a better life. But the most important lesson I learned came when I asked the man often referred to as "the most moderate" Palestinian leader to please tell me the bottom line. What would it take for the Palestinians to come to a final-status agreement with Israel?
He answered: "We would require that Israel withdraw to the 1967 lines - completely. No major settlement blocs for Israel, and of course, dividing Jerusalem. We would require a right of return for at least 100,000 Palestinians. And we would require all Palestinian prisoners to be freed from Israeli jails." I asked if he meant to include the murderers of the Fogel family, the ones who entered the Itamar settlement on a Friday night, broke into the family's home, and butchered parents and their children while they slept in their beds. "Of course," he said.
I also pointed out that there have been a few Jews who have killed innocent Palestinians, and Israel has prosecuted and incarcerated them. It would never cross my mind to release them from Israeli jail in the construct of an agreement with the Palestinians. How could he suggest that these barbaric murderers of the Fogel family, and hundreds of other terrorists who killed innocent Israelis, be released from jail. "Because they are freedom fighters," he replied, "and at the end of a conflict all prisoners of war must be returned." The U.S.-born writer served as a member of the Knesset (Yesh Atid) between 2013 and 2015. (Jerusalem Post)

Other Issues

Netanyahu's Words on Arab Israeli Citizens Have Been Mischaracterized - Shoshanna Keats Jaskoll
No two languages are the same, and words have different connotations. In Hebrew, the word am means "nation." The words HaAm HaYehudi are commonly translated as the Jewish Nation or the Jewish People, but "people" in this regard means a nation - not many persons.
When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently said that the State of Israel belongs to HaAm HaYehudi, he means that Israel is the home of the Jewish Nation - the Jewish national home - not that it is a home only for Jews. Netanyahu's words were: "Israel is not a state of all its citizens....Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish Nation - and his alone." (There is no gender-neutral form in Hebrew.)
In many outlets his words were mischaracterized. The Independent wrote: "Netanyahu says Israel 'belongs to Jewish people alone' in attack on nation's Arab population." The Palestine Chronicle claimed he said: "Israel Is the Nation-State of Jews Alone." Netanyahu's next sentence spoke of Israel's Arab citizens: "They are equal in rights like all of us." He made clear the distinction between Arabs as individuals and Arabs as a nation, just as Israel's laws do.
Individuals have all the rights of any Israeli citizen to health care, education, self-fulfillment, and more. But the national aspirations of Arabs, as a nation, must be found among one of the 22 Arab nations. One must be careful to use the Israeli prime minister's actual words and their contextual meaning. (Jewish Chronicle-UK)
Turkey Is Changing the Middle East - Hussein Ibish
While the pro- and anti-Iranian camps do exist in the Middle East, there's also a distinctive third bloc emerging, with a Sunni Islamist orientation, led by Turkey. When rebel-held parts of Aleppo fell to pro-Assad forces in December 2016, the Syrian war effectively ended along with the united front against Iran. Turkey instead began to focus on containing Kurdish militias in northern Syria and forging a partnership with Russia, Iran, Assad and Qatar.
Turkey maintains a military base in Qatar and the two countries also back the regional Sunni Islamist Muslim Brotherhood movement and support Hamas. Now, just as Turkey and Qatar are growing closer to Iran, Hamas is renewing its Iranian ties.
Turkey has not hidden its growing ambition to revive the dominance that the Ottoman Empire enjoyed over much of the Islamic world. At a recent rally, Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu declared, "We are not only just Turkey, but also Damascus, Aleppo, Kirkuk, Jerusalem, Palestine, Mecca and Medina." Former U.S. officials have seen Turkish government maps showing their spheres of influence extending into Saudi Arabia and down to Basra, Iraq. The writer is a senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington. (Bloomberg)
There Was a Time When Irish Sympathies Were Pro-Zionist - Dr. Lawrence A. Franklin
Ireland today is the source of continual public displays of hostility toward Israel. Yet a historical romance between the Jews and the Irish dates back at least to Ireland's famine years (1845-1852) which killed about a million Irish citizens, with another million emigrating abroad. The greatest contributor to relieving the famine during the "Great Hunger" was the British Jewish financier Baron Lionel de Rothschild.
Ties between Jews and Ireland date back to even earlier times, when in 1712 Sephardic Jews fleeing Catholic Portugal were given refuge, ironically, in Catholic Ireland. Similar refuge was extended to Jews fleeing pogroms in the Russian Empire in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Eamon de Valera, one of the political leaders of the 1916 Irish rebellion and later Prime Minister and President of an independent Ireland, had a close relationship with the "Sinn Fein Rebbe," Rabbi Isaac HaLevi Herzog. Herzog became Chief Rabbi of Ireland, and his son Chaim served as the State of Israel's sixth President (1983-1993). Another revered Irish Jew is the former twice-elected Mayor of Dublin, Robert Briscoe. He was the Irish Republican Army's principal procurer of guns from America and Germany during Ireland's War of Independence from Britain.
For those who might doubt the shared values of Israel and Ireland, they might recall that the codename of former Jewish underground fighter in Mandatory Palestine, and later Israeli prime minister, Yitzhak Shamir was "Michael Collins" - after the great Irish military hero. The writer was the Iran Desk Officer for Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. (Gatestone Institute)

Weekend Features

In Twist of Fate, an Israeli Doctor and a Palestinian Family Help Save Each Other
Four years ago, Dr. Eitan was traveling with his son and made a wrong turn into a Palestinian village near Ramallah. An angry mob formed around the car, throwing stones and breaking the car windows. Two bystanders who lived in the village, Imad and his cousin Ayoub, rescued them. They ushered the Israelis into their home, called for a rescue team and protected them from the threatening crowd, saving their lives.
More recently, when Imad's sister-in-law was severely injured in a vehicle accident, Imad called Dr. Eitan, who oversaw her lifesaving treatment at Sheba Medical Center. (PRWeb-Sheba Medical Center-Tel HaShomer)
See also Newsweek Ranks Israel's Sheba Medical Center in World's Top Ten Hospitals (Globes )
A (Euro)vision for the Future - Eitan Fischberger
Netta Barzilai's victory in the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest brought with it enormous potential for image-building when Eurovision hits Tel Aviv in May 2019. Eurovision will bring with it an audience that has had limited exposure to Israeli life that is unrelated to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The 2018 contest in Portugal was viewed by over 180 million people, the world's largest live music event. Israel last hosted Eurovision in 1999. (Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs)
Israel's Unsung Ethiopian Heroines - Vered Goldman
This year's Ethiopian Women Trailblazers Forum was dedicated to 11 women who made a positive impact on Israeli society. Highlighting the event was the stories of two of these women who made the journey to Zion, risked their lives to help other Jews, and suffered difficult circumstances. (Ynet News)
New Graphic Novel Draws on Canada's 1933 Anti-Semitic Riot - Renee Ghert-Zand
On the night of August 16, 1933, a six-hour, violent street brawl took place in Toronto between swastika-brandishing Anglo Protestants and Jewish and Italian Catholic immigrants. The event became known as the Christie Pits riots. A new graphic novel, Christie Pits, written by Jamie Michaels and illustrated by Doug Fedrau, covers the four months leading up to the riot, as Depression-era resentment toward Jews and other minority immigrant groups grew among some of Toronto's then-majority Anglo Protestant population.
"Swastika clubs" formed to intimidate Jews and keep them from visiting the city's public beaches on the shore of Lake Ontario. Protestant gangs tried to keep Jews and others from entering certain neighborhoods or playing sports in particular parks.
At the same time, reports in the Toronto Star alerted Canadians to the discrimination and violence against Jews in Germany by the newly governing Nazi party. Yet, the Canadian government decided to implement a "none is too many" immigration policy, letting in no more than 5,000 Jewish refugees between 1933 and 1945 as many Canadian Jews were trying to bring their persecuted loved ones over from Europe.
Cyril Levitt, a professor of sociology at McMaster University and co-author of the book The Riot at Christie Pits, described the rioters: "These were not Hitlerites or members of Nazi cells. They weren't pro-German fascist ideologues. In fact, they were anti-Germany after Canada fought Germany in World War I. They did, however, know that the swastika would incite the Jews and let them know, 'You are not wanted here'." (Times of Israel)

Observations:

Israel's Golan Heights - Editorial (Wall Street Journal)

President Trump made new U.S. policy on Thursday, recognizing Israel's sovereignty over the Golan Heights on the border with Syria.
U.S. negotiators over the decades have seen the Golan as land Israel would return to Syria as part of a broader peace settlement. But that scenario has become even more unlikely amid the chaos of Syria's long civil war.
A country controlled by the Assad family has become a fractured cauldron of jihadist militias and Iranian proxies. If Israel didn't control the Golan, the heights might now be dominated by Hizbullah or perhaps Islamic State.
Annexation of the Golan isn't controversial in Israel. Arab countries will object, but that will fade as anger did when Mr. Trump moved the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem.
Recognizing the Golan also tells the Palestinians that a return to pre-1967 borders is no longer realistic. They will have to allow some Israeli security presence in what they call the "occupied territories" if they want a two-state solution in Palestine.
Recognizing the Golan is principled in its support for an ally and realistic in recognizing the Middle East as it is.

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