This Is Why Ukraine and “Palestine” Are Not the Same

Watch video version here.

Middle East affairs (particularly that of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict), terrorist organizations, human rights abuses, and information warfare are topics that I have been studying and blogging about for 9 years now. To see uneducated, ill-informed, selfish people compare the goals of terrorist organizations to that of the Ukrainian people is absolutely unacceptable and dangerous. We cannot downplay the murderous acts of terrorists and extremists who attack Israeli civilians (by the way these terrorists are of the same breed as those who terrorized Americans on 9/11 and attempted to in 1993- if you know then you know or look it up), by claiming those terrorists are in any way in the same position as the Ukrainians are in now. Here are some reasons why. 

 
Earlier this week Gigi Hadid compared the Ukrainian cause to that of the Palestinians’. She and her counterparts have clearly been struggling with some sort of amnesia because comparing the situation in Ukraine to the situation in the Middle East- specifically that of Israel and the Palestinian Territories- is an absolute disrespect to all of the people not only suffering from Russia’s actions (which at this point may as well be every human being), but also to Jews all over the world who are directly affected by the false claims of Israel’s existence being comparable to Russia breaking international laws and committing war crimes while attacking its neighboring sovereign country Ukraine.
 
Let’s get some things straight here. 
 

It is both Ukraine and Israel, not Russia and the Palestinian Territories- that are examples of freedom including that of speech, sexuality, religion, press, and self-expression. Palestinians are living in territories under the leadership of terrorist organizations such as Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (both of which are Iranian proxies and offshoots of the Muslim Brotherhood which are both leading sponsors of terrorism). They are absolutely not free to express themselves in these ways. LGBTQ individuals are murdered mercilessly, civilians are used as human shields, children are taught to murder and women and young individuals are encouraged to act as self-sacrifices for the sake of murdering their unwelcome neighbors… who by the way are there legally (will get to that later). 
 
Israel is the only Democracy in the Middle East, and gives Palestinians and Arabs more freedom than their own countries do. Over the past several days, Israel has brought Arabs and Muslims home to their countries in the rest of the Middle East, when their countries left them stranded. There are many Israeli former soldiers who are fighting in Ukraine right now. It was Russia, by the way, who oppressed Jews- not allowing them to hold certain jobs or to practice Judaism. Today, the Ukrainian President is himself a proud Jew and has even said, “We know what it’s like not to have an own state. We know what it means to defend one’s own state and land with weapons in hand, at the cost of our lives. Both Ukrainians and Jews value freedom, and they work equally for the future of our states to become to our liking, and not the future which others want for us. Israel is often an example for Ukraine.”
 
There are Ukrainians guarding synagogues and Torah scrolls during this war. Israel is sending a ton of aid to Ukraine and accepting Ukrainians into Israel. The Palestinian “leadership” is nowhere in sight. Except when trying to compare their “cause” to that of the Ukrainians’.
 

Putin said that he wants to de-Nazify Ukraine (as if he is one to talk) and has many Russians believing that what he is doing is not just acceptable, but right! He has enforced a law that will have people thrown in to jail for up to 15 years for using certain words in regards to the WAR or speaking out against it. He has officially criminalized independent war reporting and anti-war protests. He has censored and blocked non-government media. 
 
Same with Palestinian territories. Palestinians are brainwashed, made to believe that Israel is their worst enemy, so much so that it is worth committing suicide if could even kill even just one Israeli (as we have seen this week Palestinians committing stabbing attacks in Jerusalem risking their own lives for the sake of their country when all along, they have had many opportunities for normal negotiations aka communicating and setting standards as opposed to murdering people right and left). It is dangerous to support Israel as a Palestinian. Lies upon lies are fed into the minds of Russians and Palestinians alike. As a child of former refugees from Russia, I have heard first-hand about the lack of freedom and equal opportunity experienced by those who were living in the former Soviet Union. Putin is now returning Russia to Soviet-era operations and way of life. 
 
We haven’t yet even mentioned the holding of power in office. The last elections for the Palestinian Legislative Council were held in 2006. Mahmoud Abbas is in the 17th year of his Palestinian presidency. Putin first became president in 2000 and was reelected in 2004. At the time, Russian presidents were limited to two terms in power, so Putin returned to being PM before becoming president again in 2012 – an election embroiled by allegations of fraud. He has been president ever since, after being re-elected in 2018. In 2021 he signed constitutional amendments into law, allowing him to run for president two more times, potentially extending his presidency to 2036.
 
Also let’s talk about where these two individuals come from, and their ties to terrorism. This isn’t even a comprehensive list. 
 

Putin is a former KGB spy. The KGB was the main security agency for the Soviet Union. “The Soviet Union, through KGB personnel and its allies, provided training, weapons, and funding to guerilla and terrorist groups throughout the world to undermine the interests of the United States and its allies in strategic countries” (US Department of Justice). 
 
“In the battle for empire between East and West, the Soviet security services had long been deploying what they called their own “active measures” to disrupt and destabilize their opponent. Locked in the Cold War but realizing it was too far behind technologically to win any military war, ever since the sixties the Soviet Union had found its strength in disinformation, in planting fake rumors in the media to discredit Western leaders, in assassinating political opponents, and in supporting front organizations that would instigate wars in developing countries such as the Middle East and Africa and undermine and sow discord in the West” (Politico). 
 
“Among these measures was support for terrorist organizations. Across the Middle East, the KGB had forged ties with numerous terror groups, most notably with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a splinter group of the Palestine Liberation Organization that carried out a string of plane hijackings and bomb attacks in the late sixties and seventies. Top-secret documents illustrate the depth of some of these connections. They show the then-KGB chief signing off three requests for Soviet weapons from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine leader Wadi Haddad, and describing him as a ‘trusted agent’ of the KGB” (Politico). 
 
The Palestinians today, by the way, as well as other Middle East countries, are the ones who are siding with Putin. 
 
Historic ties bind many Palestinians with Moscow- those who studied in the former Soviet Union, which provided aid and comfort for years to the Palestine Liberation Organization. In the early 1970s, several groups affiliated with the Palestine Liberation Organization carried out numerous international terrorist attacks. US policy accepts that elements of the Palestine Liberation Organization have advocated, carried out, or accepted responsibility for acts of terrorism. The Palestine Liberation Organization was responsible for the murder of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games. Today, the Palestine Liberation Organization continues to exist; however, most of its leaders have now become top Fatah officials in the Palestinian Authority. Fatah-related militia groups, such as the Tanzim, Force 17 and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade played a leading role in Palestinian violence during the Second Intifada, including suicide terrorist attacks, ambushes, and shootings of Israeli vehicles and facilities. Current Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas was a long-time secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization and is now also its Chairman (Anti-Defamation League). 
 

Ukrainians have bravely joined together to fight for their home, culture, history, safety, freedom and rights to self-determination. So too with Jews living in Israel. 

 
The British Mandate incorporated the “Balfour Declaration” of 1917. It called for the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people on land to which they have always had historical ties. Jewish people have maintained ties to their historic homeland for more than 3,700 years. A national language and a distinct civilization have been maintained. 
 
Many Jews, mainly from Eastern Europe were immigrating (more like returning after their ancestors had been expelled) there in increasing numbers especially due to WWII. Arabs demanded resistance to immigration and that led to rebellion in 1937, followed by continuing terrorism and violence from both sides. The UK considered various options to bring independence to a land devastated by violence, but handed the issue over to the UN.
 
The Jewish people were given land under the UN Partition Plan of 1947. The land, mainly what is now Israel, was split between Palestinians and Jews. The Jews accepted the offer from the UN, while the Palestinians rejected it. That led to 5 major Arab countries attacking Israel, with Israel ultimately winning its War of Independence- a true miracle. The “refugee crisis” was created by the Arab countries who told Palestinians to leave so that they could destroy the newly created state of Israel and then have the Palestinians return to the lands they claimed to own although that land was controlled by the British before they handed it to the UN. 
 
When the Arab countries lost, instead of taking in the Palestinian refugees they created, they left them on the doorsteps of a country they failed to destroy. And blamed that on Israel not allowing itself to be annihilated. The Palestinians have rejected opportunities to live in peace with Israel, time and time again. 
 
Why are Gigi and Bella Hadid, multimillionaires living in California, considered Palestinian refugees? Because Palestinians refugee status gets passed down through offspring. Well, I am a child of refugees and so are majority of my Jewish friends. Even many non-Jews. However, we do not have refugee status. I don’t want it. I have no desire to be classified as a refugee. But this tells you something about the Palestinians. Instead of choosing peace, they choose war. This is not about land for them, it is about from the river to the sea… there will be no Jewish state whatsoever. This issue of refugees could have been solved, just like other refugee crises. Instead, they resort to terrorism and harassment of those they failed to murder because they were unhappy with the partitioning of a land that did not even belong to them. This says a lot. 
 
It was Zelensky who even asked Israeli PM Naftali Bennet to mediate conversations between Ukraine and Russia. Bennet met with both parties on Saturday and refrained from personally condemning Russian offensive in Ukraine in order to maintain Israel’s ability to operate against Iranian proxies in Syria, where Russia controls the skies (Ukraine and Israel essentially share the SAME ENEMIES). 
 

If anyone is looking to destroy foreign entities, it is Russia and the Arab countries that are aligned with Palestinians. Ukraine and Israel have been and continue to defend themselves in order to survive. 
 
It is the Palestinian leaders and Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad who refuse to negotiate with Israel. Just like Russia- using force over innocent civilians instead of sitting down at the table to talk. It was Putin who signed an agreement recognizing Ukrainian sovereignty. Palestinians won’t recognize Israel’s right to exist in any shape or form. Clearly this is the case of Putin with Ukraine. Only difference is that Ukraine gave up its nukes, while Israel continues to be one of the strongest countries which is why it still continues to exist (thank G-d). Now for some reason America is making it easier for Iran to get nuclear weapons. Haven’t we seen what happens when bad guys get such power?
 
And Russia has the audacity to state that Western sanctions imposed over the conflict in Ukraine have become a stumbling block for the Iran nuclear deal. Russia wants a written guarantee from the United States that Russia's trade, investment and military-technical cooperation with Iran will not be hindered in any way by the sanctions (Reuters). 
 
Why are we giving so much power to terrorists?
 
The Russian mission in the United Nations (why is Russia still in the UN?) even had the audacity to state their concern over Israel’s legal and peaceful control over the Golan Heights (which by the way was annexed by Israel after preemptively striking Egypt in 1967 and winning that war). Soviet Union military alliances in the 1950s and 60s- mainly supplying Arab countries with military aid- as well as their supplying false intelligence to Egypt stating that Israel was massing troops to attack Syria- were some factors that led up to that war in the first place (Jewish Virtual Library).
The hypocrisy never ends. The more the media and others entertain this game of lies and murder played by terrorists, the more dangerous the world becomes. 
 

We may not have missiles flying over our heads right now, but we know that we are not untouchable. 9/11 was not an attack that happened because some people were bored and had nothing better to do. It was a thought-out master plan that succeeded in its goal: attack the West. 
 
There is a reason Israel is America’s strongest ally in the Middle East. There is a reason why the Arab world sees Israel as the Little Satan and America as the Great Satan. Fighting Israel, especially now, would be shooting ourselves in the foot. We need to stand together as free nations, as those who enjoy the benefits of freedom, to prevent terrorist entities from acquiring even more power. 
 
Israel is not perfect, but it has always stood for freedom and Western values- which both the Arab world and Russia are vehemently against. We are seeing this from Russia in the worst way right now. These are extremely important points to understand. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking Israel is the same as Russia. It is Israel that has been fighting Russia indirectly all along. It is Israel that is on the side of truth when it comes to this play of powers. 
 
Better yet, focus on Ukraine right now. The reason I write this is to respond to people who want to create hatred towards Israel, by using current events in Ukraine to support their own rhetoric. This is shameful and disgusting. Gigi and Bella Hadid should be held accountable for ignoring the true pain and suffering of the Ukrainian people by instead trying to create nonexistent ties with Palestinians who are nowhere to be found in support of Ukrainians as they fight for everything they have. Also, for siding with groups that have called for the destruction of freedom- both in Ukraine and here in the US. This is extremely concerning. 
 
Take a stand. Share the truth. Your personal safety ultimately relies on it. 

Yet Another Reason to Love Israel

Another reason I'm obsessed with this country🤣🤣👇🏻👇🏻

🎉Also excited to share that I will be one of the Influencer Interns on this year’s ISRAEL21c Digital Ambassador Program. You’ll be seeing more of their amazing work, and hopefully the growth of this online community. 

ISRAEL21c was founded in 2001, in the wake of the Second Intifada, to broaden public understanding of Israel beyond typical portrayals in the mainstream media. It is recognized as the single most diverse and reliable source of news and information about 21st century Israel. Check out their website for more content relating to technology, health, environment, social action, and culture. 

View the article here. 

Israel Tops Environmental Performance, world leader in the environmental movement. Israel is singled out for its wall

An amazing article written by a former professor of mine:

🔺Israel ranks No. 19 in the most recent Environmental Performance Index, just behind New Zealand and the Netherlands, just ahead of Japan and Australia, and in fact several places above Canada and the U.S.

🔺By contrast, Gaza, which has been a totally self-governing territory, administered by Hamas since 2007, is an environmental disaster with unsafe drinking water, poor sanitation and contaminated beaches. To be sure, the locals blame the Israelis for these conditions, but the truth is, Hamas does almost nothing to protect the environment.

🔺Israel is a world leader in the environmental movement, with technological developments in drip irrigation, solar energy, desalination, aeroponic farming and more — much of which it exports to developing nations, especially in Africa.

🔺Not only Israel, but also Egypt has constructed a wall on its border with Gaza. To repeat the above question: is there some reason why only Israel is criticized for this action? If such criticism is merited, should Egypt be similarly criticized?

🔺Why single out Israel for such a wall? Such walls also exist (or are presently under construction) between the following countries: Botswana and Zimbabwe, South Africa and Mozambique, Argentina and Paraguay, India and Myanmar, India and Bangladesh, Iran and Pakistan, Pakistan and Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia and Yemen, Thailand and Malaysia, Hungary and Serbia, Hungary and Slovenia, Macedonia and Greece, Norway and Russia, Slovenia and Croatia, among others.

🔺To single out Israel for unwarranted criticism, especially in light of its stellar environmental record, tells us more about SJP than it does about climate change issues both in the Middle East and throughout the world. 

Students for Justice in Palestine, where is your criticism of China, which has detained approximately a million Uyghurs in re-education camps, in an effort to denude its culture of Islam?

Where is your criticism of Syria, where a despotic leader and his regime have killed hundreds of thousands of their own citizens? 

Where is your criticism of all the parties engaged in war in Yemen — the Houthis, the Saudis, their allies and more — which have brought death, famine, cholera and destruction to the beautiful country? Does your silence imply that you approve of the Houthi army populating its ranks with child soldiers?

Where is your criticism of the various parties in South Sudan, where the civil war has killed 400,000 innocent people and has led to 1.75 million people being displaced from their homes?

Where is your criticism of Iran with its well-known human rights violations against the LGBTQ+ community?

Where is your criticism of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, with its nationalist tendencies, which recently has taken various steps to suppress the Muslim minority in the country? 

By contrast, in Israel and Palestine, there have been no mass killings, no mass deportations, no wars that have brought famine and cholera, no mass re-education camps, no removal of citizenship, no detentions of academics and journalists: none of this.

Finally, returning to climate change issues, where is your criticism of Indonesia, which indiscriminately cuts down the rain forest to make room for palm tree groves, actions which have caused – indeed, as you were gathering on Friday – the worst air pollution on the planet?

Do you not watch the news? Are you not concerned citizens of the world? Or is your attention so focused on Israel and Palestine, about which you invent calumnies, that you wear blinders to the truly crucial trouble spots in the world?

Full article can be found here: Israel unfairly singled out during climate change protests

Israel is much nicer to its Arab citizens than the Arab countries ever were to their Jewish citizens

10 Reasons Israel is Not An Apartheid State: click here!

Israel is much nicer to its Arab citizens than the Arab countries ever were to their Jewish citizens (more info on this statement below- check it out). The next time you hear somebody complaining, you will know what to say. 

Two of my personal favorites: 

     #2: An Arab judge, George Karra, sentenced an ex-Israeli president Moshe Katsav to prison for seven years.

     #7: Israeli Arabs have their own political parties in the Knesset -- some of whom are Israel's harshest critics.

The great mass of Jews left under duress. They were expelled. They were subjected to such enormous pressure that they had no choice but to leave.

The number of Jews living in Arab countries and Iran totaled more than 850,000 at the time of Israel’s independence. Some scholars even think the number is closer to one million. In the North African region, 259,000 Jews fled from Morocco, 140,000 from Algeria, 100,000 from Tunisia, 75,000 from Egypt, and another 38,000 from Libya. In the Middle East, 135,000 Jews were exiled from Iraq, 55,000 from Yemen, 34,000 from Turkey, 20,000 from Lebanon and 18,000 from Syria. Iran forced out 25,000 Jews. 

For more info regarding Jews living in Arab countries, visit: http://mfa.gov.il/MFA/ForeignPolicy/Issues/Pages/Jewish-refugees-expelled-from-Arab-lands-and-from-Iran-29-November-2016.aspx

So, Basically . . . Israel Is Cool

From: standwithus.com        

Why You Can't Boycott Israel

Boycott Israel? Good Grief

By: Michael Ordman 

There has been much written recently about BDS (Boycott, Disinvestment and Sanctions) against Israel following Professor Stephen Hawkings’ decision to cancel his appearance at the Israeli Presidential Conference in June. 

Dear BDS member.  By boycotting Israeli treatments and research you will cause the deaths of millions of children from Hepatitis B because they couldn’t have SciGen’s Sci-B-Vac only third-generation Hep B virus vaccine.  You would have to destroy the research by Hadassah Medical Organization that located the gene that causes recurrent life-threatening infections and bone marrow failure in children.  The babies born deformed and blind from ectodermal dysplasia cannot touch the gene therapy that Israel’s Technion has developed.  Children paralysed by the genetic brain disease Peripheral Neuropathy will just have to whistle for the medication developed by doctors at Hadassah Medical Center – except of course that they can’t whistle. 

BDS members obviously have no wish to cure cancer. 

•             You would boycott Hebrew University Professor Alexander Levitzki’s award-winning cancer therapies.
•             You would dispatch Technion’s diagnosis breath test for lung cancer and stomach cancer to the garbage, despite the fact an Israeli Arab invented it.
•             Gamida Cell’s Nicord and StemEx treatments for blood cancers, leukemia and lymphoma are “No No”s. So is Biocancell Therapeutics’s new treatment for bladder cancer.
•             Melanoma (skin cancer) sufferers can forget the successful T-cell treatment at Sheba Medical Center. 
•             You must not treat patients with aggressive cancers if it requires the multi-antibody combination discovered by Israel’s Weizmann Institute.
•             Ban any work on the Hebrew University’s discovery of a mutated protein breast cancer signal. Then when you developed breast cancer your surgeons would just have to cut away healthy flesh with the tumor, as they would not be allowed to use the MarginProbe breast cancer test from Israel’s Dune Medical. 
•             Children will contract kidney cancer because you prohibited Sheba Medical Center’s treatment of the cancer stem cells that fuel the growth of Wilms’ tumors. 
•             Finally your worst nightmare is to be injected with Weizmann Institute’s microscopic device that searches the body for genetic malfunctions in the cells. 

 BDS members have no heart, no brain and no spine, otherwise why would they want to boycott Israeli cardiology, neurology and spinal treatments? 

Heartless BDS members would need to avoid

• Lev-El Diagnostics’ heart monitor algorithm that identifies heart disease in one hour instead of two days.
• Enopace Biomedical’s endovascular micro-stimulator, which acts as a pacemaker for the arteries. 
• Or Dr. Shai Efrati, of Tel Aviv University, whose Oxygen enrichment therapy improves stroke patients even 3 years after their last attack. 
• And they would never use one of InspireMD’s new self-expanding stroke-preventing stents.

Brainless BDS activists can ignore Israel’s latest neurological discoveries and innovations such as:

• How regulating the protein Calphotin can prevent Alzheimer’s disease
• Why the sugar substitute mannitol protects the brain against Parkinson’s
• Deep Brain Stimulation which treats Parkinson’s disease and helps smokers to quit
• The pre-natal diagnostic tool for prevention of genetic mental retardation
• BioControl Medical’s system that reduces epileptic episodes by half.
• Alcobra’s ADHD medication, which is safer than Ritalin and has few side effects.
• And certainly Weizmann’s research into how the brain repairs itself.

Spineless BDS bigots will have to forgo

• Argo Medical’s ReWalk exoskeleton for paraplegics, for which Version 2 was shown to US President Obama; IDF paraplegic Radi Kaiuf used it to complete the Tel Aviv 10km race in less than 4 hours.
• Mazor Robotics’s robotic spinal surgery which has just been approved for sale in Australia.
• Premia Spine’s artificial titanium joint that restores mobility to sufferers of spinal degeneration
• Bonus Biogroup, which is generating new bones from a patients’ own fat cells.
• Cartilage regeneration from a CartiHeal Agili-C implant

Did You Know?

Only 62 years old, 7 million people strong (less than Virginia), and smaller in size than New Jersey, surrounded by enemies, under constant threat and possessing almost no natural resources, and yet…

·      Relative to its population, Israel is the largest immigrant-absorbing nation on earth. It has absorbed 350% of its population in 60 years.

·      Israel is the only country in history to have revived an unspoken language.

·      Since the founding of the state, Israel has won more Nobel Prices per capita than any other country other than Switzerland. It has more laureates in real numbers than China, Mexico and Spain.

·      Israel has the 8^th longest life expectancy (80.7 years), longer than the UK, US, and Germany

·      Israeli films were nominated three years in a row for the Academy Award's Best Foreign Film

Environment

•                Israel is the only country that entered the 21st century with a net gain in its number of trees, even more remarkable -- in an area that's mainly desert.

•                Over 90% of Israeli homes use solar energy for hot water, the highest percentage in the world.

•                Israel will be the first country to host a national electric car network.

•                Israel is ranked in the top five Cleantech countries of the world, and operates the world’s largest desalinization plant.

•                Israeli companies are producing the largest solar energy production facility in the world.

Science & Technology

•                Israel leads the world in the number of scientists and technicians in the workforce, 63% more than the U.S. It also has the most physicians and engineers per capita.

•                Israel's scientific research institutions are ranked 3^rd in the world.

•                Israel is ranked 2^nd in space sciences.

•                Israel produces the 3rd most scientific papers per capita, and the most in stem cell science.

•                More Israeli patents are registered in the United States than from Russia, India and China combined (combined population 2.5 billion). It leads the world in patents for medical equipment.

•                Israeli companies invented the drip irrigation system, discovered the world’s most used drug for multiple sclerosis, designed the Pentium NMX Chip technology and the Pentium 4 and Centrium microprocessors, created Instant Messenger (ICQ), and Israeli cows produce more milk per cow than any other in the world!

Business

•                Israel has the 3^rd highest rate of entrepreneurship among women in the world.

•                Israel has attracted the most venture capital investment per capita in the world, 30 times more than Europe

•                In proportion to its population, Israel has the largest number of startup companies in the world. In absolute numbers, Israel has more startups than any country other than the U.S.

Humanitarian Involvement

Credit all photos: StandwithUs

Investments and Innovations

Credit all photos: StandwithUs