The Front Page Cover
2016 The truth will set you free
Featuring:
Israel's demographic suicide?
by Caroline B. Glick
~~~
.
liar-Clinton's Illegal Campaign
Throughout Barack nObama's presidency, he has sought only the expansion of illegal immigration. That's evident again in this year's number of illegals crossing into the U.S. — it has already surpassed last year's total. What's fueling this increase has been attributed both to violence in Central America and the hope of amnesty from nObama's immigration policies. Last month, nObama announced several new programs aimed at allowing children and their extended relatives to apply for permission to pass into the U.S. from their home countries, in an attempt to stem the flow through Mexico and across the border. It appears that this policy has proved to be an invitation to yet more illegal immigrants.
In light of this ever growing problem, liar-Hillary Clinton has taken the side of illegals. She started a new strategy of getting the Hispanic vote called the "Mi Sueño, Tu Voto" ("My Dream, Your Vote"). This strategy seeks to "mobilize" illegal immigrants — specifically, so-called "Dreamers" who nObama targeted for amnesty — to pressure Hispanic citizens to vote for liar-Hillary. That's right, liar-Hillary is recruiting those who have no right to be in America to campaign for her election.
So why is she courting the Hispanic vote so hard? It may be that liar-Hillary has already written off winning the white working class voter. Predictably, it's the one demographic liar-Hillary is currently not winning. Trump is leading among white men, who make up the majority of the blue-collar working class. When liar-Hillary trumpets the desires of illegal immigrants over and against the concerns of millions of American citizens, is it any wonder that the majority of hard-working, tax-paying, blue-collar Americans don't support her? ~The Patriot Post
.
liar-Hillary's War on Women
It's not news that liar-Hillary Clinton's record of defending women who are actually victims of sexual assault does not match up with her public statements on the matter. In 2015 she tweeted, "To every survivor of sexual assault... You have the right to be heard. You have the right to be believed. We're with you." liar-Hillary loves to champion herself as standing boldly for women against the Republicans and their fictitious "war on women." But her campaign website has been scrubbed of the above reference to believing accusers. Wonder why...
What the record shows is a list of women who liar-Hillary has done anything but defend, hear or believe. We're all familiar with Bill and his penchant for womanizing. Remember Juanita Broaddrick, who has claimed for decades that Bill raped her? Kathleen Willey, Paula Jones and others claim Bill sexually assaulted them. When liar-Hillary was asked about these women and their claims, she said, "I would say that everybody should be believed at first until they are disbelieved based on evidence." Problem was, there has never been any evidence presented to discredit any of these women's claims.
But liar-Hillary's problem with defending women isn't limited to her husband's accusers. Back in 1975, when she was a court-appointed attorney, she defended a man who raped a 12-year-old girl. liar-Hillary questioned the emotional stability of the girl, who she claimed had a "tendency to seek out older men and engage in fantasizing." liar-Clinton was able to get certain forensic evidence disallowed and as a result her client spent less than one year in jail for the crime.
Kathy Shelton, the rape victim, now says, "I don't think liar-Clinton's for women or girls. I think she's lying, I think she said anything she can to get the campaign and win. If she was an advocate for women and children, she wouldn't have done that to me at 12 years old."
Many of us have known for a long time that liar-Hillary Clinton is no more an advocate for women than is her womanizing husband. liar-Hillary, like her husband, uses women. But in liar-Hillary's case, it's for her own political aims. ~The Patriot Post
.
Paul Manafort resigns from Trump campaign
by foxnews.com
{foxnews.com} ~ Donald Trump’s outspoken campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, resigned Friday -- days after he was pushed aside for conservative media executive Steven Bannon... and also amid growing speculation about his ties to Ukrainian politics. “This morning Paul Manafort offered, and I accepted, his resignation from the campaign,” Trump said in a written statement to FoxNews.com. “I am very appreciative for his great work in helping to get us where we are today, and in particular his work guiding us through the delegate and convention process. Paul is a true professional and I wish him the greatest success.” Manafort, who as a 26-year-old Republican operative, helped manage the 1976 convention floor for Gerald Ford in his successful showdown with Ronald Reagan, drew praise for steering the campaign through the final weeks of the primary process and the convention... http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/08/19/developing-paul-manafort-resigns-from-trump-campaign.html
.
nObama Administration Plotting
to Usurp Control Over Elections
by Alex Newman
{thenewamerican.com} ~ Under the guise of providing increased “security” for “critical infrastructure,” the nObama administration is plotting to insert itself and the federal government into the American elections process... While voting is constitutionally the responsibility of state and local officials, nObama's Homeland Security Secretary, Jeh Johnson, pointed to the alleged threat of cyberattacks to justify the latest proposed usurpation of power. The controversial scheme was floated amid growing national concerns, fueled in part by GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump's warnings of a “rigged” election, that America's electoral system might be vulnerable to major manipulation. Critics and experts, though, warned that the White House scheming may be a first step toward illegally nationalizing the electoral process — with all the dangers that would entail...http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/constitution/item/23887-obama-administration-plotting-to-usurp-control-over-elections
.
Judge orders liar-Clinton to answer written answers
to questions on private email use
by foxnews.com
{foxnews.com} ~ A federal judge Friday ordered liar-Hillary Clinton to answer questions from a conservative watchdog group about her use of a private email server when she served as secretary of state... U.S. District Court Judge Emmet G. Sullivan issued the order as part of a lawsuit filed by Judicial Watch. The group had sought to question liar-Clinton under oath and in person, but the judge ruled she would only have to answer questions in writing. FBI Director James Comey announced last month that the agency would not seek criminal charges against liar-Clinton after an investigation into her email use, although he concluded she been "extremely careless" in her handling of sensitive material... http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/08/19/judge-orders-clinton-to-answer-questions-on-email-use.html
.
liar-Hillary Lied About Her Emails Again,
This Time Riling Up Colin Powell
by S. Noble
{independentsentinel.com} ~ Democratic U.S. presidential nominee liar-Hillary Clinton told federal investigators that former Secretary of State Colin Powell suggested she use a personal email account, the New York Times reported late on Thursday... Colin Powell’s representatives responded, stating definitively that the former secretary of state has “no recollection” of a conversation in which he was said to have advised Democratic presidential candidate liar-Hillary Clinton to use a personal email for all but classified communications while in office. Former secretary Powell deserves to be the subject of liar-Hillary’s lies in this situation if anyone does because he’s been minimizing her guilt by claiming he and other secretaries used private email, obfuscating the fact that she used a personal unprotected server for classified emails. liar-Hillary has repeatedly said that her “predecessors did the same thing” but it’s not true... http://www.independentsentinel.com/hillarys-lying-about-her-emails-again-this-time-riling-up-colin-powell/
.
New ILS Towers Will Guide UN Airborne
Troops Into American Cities
by Dave Hodges
{thecommonsenseshow.com} ~ America has been invaded and is in the process of being occupied. ILS towers which can be used to guide in troop transport planes and heavy equipment in bad weather are being put into the countryside outside of Cheyenne, Wyoming, where they have a lot of bad weather... Intellistreets “Big Brother” surveillance is being installed in Cheyenne, Wyoming as well and is prevalent at the local Walmart. In places like Flint, Michigan, our cities are being turned into potential battlegrounds as highly obnoxious and very aggressive military drills are underway and are serving to frighten the local population. The intent of the Jade Helm forces is becoming more clear with each passing day. We have foreign troops entering the country in central Texas and in Portland, Oregon. I have previously reported that the Michigan National Guard and Army Reserve Units have trained with foreign troops in late April. America is being occupied by hostile forces as activities such as Jade Helm 15 and UWEX 16 are also being imposed upon American communities. As many already know, Jade Helm is preparing Special Operation Forces to extract political dissidents and impose martial law as part of the drill. The infrastructure related to military occupation is being put into place at places like local Walmarts and in obscure placed like Wheatland, Wyoming. Unmistakably, the post-collapse America infrastructure is already being put into place all across the country as per the America 2050 Agenda 21 plan... http://www.thecommonsenseshow.com/2016/08/19/new-ils-towers-will-guide-un-airborne-troops-into-american-cities/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=new-ils-towers-will-guide-un-airborne-troops-into-american-cities
.
Migrant Problems Still Threaten Europe
by George Igler
by George Igler
{gatestoneinstitute.org} ~ Chaotic scenes have erupted on the coastal Mediterranean frontier between Italy and France. On August 4, for instance, hundreds of migrants, chiefly from Eritrea, Ethiopia and the Sudan sought to storm the crossing in their attempts to make it to Northern Europe... "Both the Italian and French forces at the border were taken by surprise," remarked Giorgio Marenco, a police commander in Ventimiglia, where tear gas was used to disperse the migrants. Others merely braved the choppy waters of the sea to breach the crossing by swimming towards their goal. The Italian town contains the last train station in Italy near the border. The besieged terminus lies three miles from the French Riviera. It has been a gathering point for the predominantly Muslim migrants since June 2015. A fractious tent city for migrants has sprung up, mirroring others spread across Italy. The capital of the French holiday district is Nice, which experienced a jihadist massacre on July 14... https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/8668/migrant-problems-europe
.
DESTROYER-IN-CHIEF: nObama Finally Admits He "Accidentally" Shredded U.S. Healthcare
by Sen. John Barrasso, M.D.
{directorblue.blogspot.com} ~ liar- Hillary Clinton is telling voters she wants "to build on" nObamacare. But President nObama's signature healthcare law remains highly unpopular because many Americans believe it's not a good deal for them personally... The president essentially laid out a case for his own law's failures in an article he wrote for the Journal of the American Medical Association. He wrote: "too many Americans still strain to pay for their physician visits and prescriptions, cover their deductibles, or pay their monthly insurance bills; struggle to navigate a complex, sometimes bewildering system; and remain uninsured."... http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2016/08/destroyer-in-chief-obama-finally-admits.html
.
The Sneaky Way nObama Is
Hiking Death Taxes
by Curtis Dubay
by Curtis Dubay
{dailysignal.com} ~ President Barack nObama isn’t afraid to enact his agenda over the will of Congress. At this late stage in his presidency, he’s still overreaching his authority to push through an agenda... his most recent overstep being an effort to unilaterally raise the federal estate tax. Conservatives have successfully lessened the impact of the estate tax, colloquially known as the “death tax,” in recent years. In 2000, before George W. Bush became president, the death tax had a rate of 55 percent and struck families with assets valued at $675,000 or more. Today, because of the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts, the rate is down to 45 percent and only estates worth over $10 million face the tax. This is a victory conservatives should be proud of, but... http://dailysignal.com/2016/08/17/the-sneaky-way-obama-is-hiking-death-taxes/?utm_source=TDS_Email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Top5&mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiWWpGaVpEVm1PRFZoTnprNSIsInQiOiJcL2xJZlhzOStyYmxCSXZvV0lcL3pOWCtrdVwvQnl2Slphb0QxUlN3S1I4OHZlQmRnY00rYk9hWHpVeTl2TDZuV2twOTA0MzYrdXZPbzRjVlRtOWFSaTlKK0djaGdsNms3RGxrWmMxWDlQUWFxZz0ifQ%3D%3D
.
nObama's immigrant vetting doesn't ask
if they're ISIS, al Qaeda, Muslim Brotherhood
by Paul Bedard
{washingtonexaminer.com} ~ A new analysis of how the United States "vets" immigrants reveals that written visa and citizenship surveys ask if applicants are World War II Nazi veterans or sympathizers, but not members of ISIS, al Qaeda or other Islamic terror groups at war with America... While State Department and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service branch of the Department of Homeland Security do ask if immigrants have been involved in terrorism, the most well known of over a dozen terrorist groups aren't listed in applications, according to the analysis from homeland security expert Mark A. Sauter. He said that federal officials told him that the questions about terror group involvement are required by federal law, meaning that congressional action is needed to include modern-day threats in the written questions... http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/shock-report-feds-vetting-immigrants-for-terrorists-ask-if-communists-not-isis/article/2599734?utm_campaign=Washington%20Examiner:%20Washington%20Secrets%20PMI&utm_source=Washington%20Examiner:%20Washington%20Secrets%20PMI%20-%2008/19/16&utm_medium=email
.
nObama released 6,400 Terrorist Illegals
Into US, American Blood On His Hands
by Rick Wells
{rickwells.us} ~ Stuart Varney opens the conversation with Sheriff Paul Babeu by noting there has been a surge in the number of illegals entering the United States from terrorist nations, citing Syria, Pakistan and Afghanistan as examples... Babeu says Chinese are also coming, that the numbers coming through just his area of responsibility is 100,000, with 6,400 from terrorist nations. He asks, “Why are they ending up here, in Mexico to come across this unsecured border, saying that’s the reason, it is unsecured, it is not safe.” Sheriff Babeu says, “This is a far more dangerous issue, the threat from terrorism, ISIS and the like, far more important than illegals. Far more important than the drug cartels that we’re successfully fighting here. Varney clarifies with the Sheriff that these are the people that Donald Trump wants to subject to extreme vetting, saying that probably means, “keep out.” He asks, “Are you with that?”... http://rickwells.us/sheriff-babeu-terrorist-illegals-border/
.
Israel's demographic suicide?
by Caroline B. Glick
{jewishworldreview.com} ~ In a surprise move last month, Hamas announced it will be participating in the Palestinian municipal elections in October. The Palestinian Authority’s Fatah leadership greeted Hamas’s announcement with deep and understandable anxiety. Hamas is expected to win control over a significant number, perhaps even a majority of municipal and local governments in Judea and Samaria.
PA leader Mahmoud Abbas whose own fiveyear term in office ended six years ago and his Fatah comrades aren’t the only ones worried. Last week, Yediot Aharonot’s military commentator, Alex Fishman, reported that the IDF’s senior leadership is also deeply concerned.
According to Fishman, in recent weeks Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman has held a series of senior-level discussions, initially convened to discuss long-term Israeli strategic options in Judea and Samaria. Due to the IDF’s concerns over the elections, those discussions quickly devolved into a more limited discussion of how to prevent a Hamas electoral victory.
Fishman reported that the top generals have convinced Liberman, who until now supported octogenarian Abbas’s swift retirement, that “it is Israel’s interest not only for Abu Mazen [Abbas] to remain in power, but to empower him still further.”
To this end, according to Fishman, Liberman has agreed to adopt a plan prepared by the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), for Israel to transfer the Civil Administration’s planning and zoning authority in Area C to the PA. The plan also involves retroactively authorizing tens of thousands of Palestinian structures built illegally in Area C and authorizing the construction of a new Palestinian urban center in Area C.
Area C, it should be recalled, constitutes some 60 percent of Judea and Samaria. It has a negligible Palestinian population. All of the Israeli communities are located in Area C. The IDF holds sole security control over the area.
Area C is the only area where the Civil Administration retains governing functions. Areas A and B, where all the major Palestinian population centers are located, have been autonomously governed by the PA for 20 years.
The IDF’s plan is startling on several levels.
Since the earliest years of the Oslo peace process with the PLO, retaining Israeli control over planning and zoning powers in Area C has been a central goal of Israeli policy. Israel’s retention of these powers has enabled the IDF to retain security control over Area C and so defend not only the Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria, which are all located in Area C, but to defend Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and the rest of Israel’s major urban centers as well.
Why would the IDF recommend conceding these strategic interests just as Hamas is poised to gain significant power in Judea and Samaria? Even more to the point, what is the basis of the IDF’s assessment that by conceding these strategic assets Israel will enhance – let along guarantee – Fatah’s chances of winning in October? For the past 16 years, Israeli concessions have only served to make the Palestinians more contemptuous and hateful toward us.
Consider the case of the Gaza withdrawal. That operation, undertaken 11 years ago this week, was the largest single strategic concession Israel has made to the Palestinians in the past 23 years.
The Palestinians responded to Israel’s forcible expulsion of 10,000 of its citizens, the destruction of their communities and the withdrawal of all its security forces from Gaza by destroying the greenhouses Israel had given them free of charge and torching the synagogues it left behind.
Then five months later, they elected Hamas to lead them.
The actual harm that a Hamas electoral triumph will cause Israel is also completely unrelated to the IDF’s recommended course of action. If Hamas rises to power in various local governments in Judea and Samaria, the change will harm Israel in two ways.
First, in municipalities dominated by Hamas, we can expect for Fatah security forces to stop their anti-Hamas operations. This change will require the IDF to increase the tempo of its counterterror operations.
How will this be facilitated by giving up control over land policy in Area C? Second, with Hamas rising in power in the PA’s bureaucracy, we can expect for the PA to increase the amount of money it transfers monthly to the Hamas regime in Gaza.
To mitigate the damage, Israel will need to aggressively target foreign governmental and NGO funding to the PA in accordance with binding international and domestic terrorism financing statutes.
Here too, Israel’s task has nothing whatsoever to do with permitting the PA to conduct building projects on a massive scale in Area C.
Finally, even disregarding the fact that the IDF’s plan has no relationship whatsoever to the expected consequences of a Hamas electoral victory, it is hard to understand the intrinsic logic of the idea.
Is the IDF suggesting that Israel will give planning and zoning powers to a Hamas dominated PA in Area C? Or is it suggesting that the concession would be contingent on a Fatah victory? If the latter is the case, why do the generals believe that the Palestinians whose hatred for Israel is endemic, will be more likely to vote for Fatah because Israel is tipping the scales in Fatah’s favor? The practical irrelevance and strategic irrationality of the army’s recommended course of action make it hard to avoid the conclusion that the generals went into their meetings with Liberman with the goal of preventing him from developing a relevant strategy for contending with the elections specifically and the Palestinians in general.
Fishman implied that this was the case when he noted that COGAT has been lobbying for two years to give up planning and zoning powers and legalize tens of thousands of illegal Palestinian structures in Area C.
It is no secret that the IDF General Staff continues to support the strategic goal of Israeli withdrawal from Judea and Samaria either in the framework of a peace deal with the PLO, or if necessary with no deal. So it makes sense that they use every perceived crisis as a means to advance this goal, even though both the two-state policy and the unilateral withdrawal policy failed completely years ago.
The main objective motivation for the IDF’s arguably insubordinate behavior is the generals’ desire to avoid dealing with Israel’s demographic challenge. This is a challenge Israel has worked to avoid facing since it ended Jordanian occupation of Judea and Samaria in 1967.
Israel has a dilemma with regards to Judea and Samaria. It needs to control the areas for security reasons. It wishes to control the areas because they are the cradle of Jewish civilization. But it fears retaining control over them because it wishes to retain its massive Jewish majority.
Israelis worry that adding the Palestinians to the population registry will destroy that three quarters majority. If that happens, so the thinking goes, Israel will lose its international legitimacy on the one hand, and end the Zionist dream of Jewish sovereignty on the other.
Regarding the issue of international legitimacy, events over the past 16 years have shown that international sentiment towards Israel is not positively impacted either by Israeli concessions to the Palestinians or by the Palestinians’ open rejection of Israel’s right to exist. To the contrary, ever since the Palestinians rejected statehood in July 2000 and opted for perpetual war with Israel, the level of international support for them has continuously risen, while support for Israel, particularly in the West, has consistently eroded.
This state of affairs indicates that there is no direct correlation, and there may indeed be an indirect correlation between Israel’s international status and its willingness to make territorial concessions to the Palestinians. Consequently, Israel should not take the issue of international legitimacy into account in its strategic discussions of its long-term policy goals in Judea and Samaria.
As for our genuine domestic concerns, the truth is that if adding the Palestinians of Judea and Samaria to Israel’s population registry as permanent residents or citizens destroys Israel’s Jewish majority, then we will need to suffice with something less than complete sovereignty over Judea and Samaria.
The problem with determining how to proceed is that we simply don’t know what will happen.
We have no idea how many Palestinians live in Judea and Samaria. All we have are competing unofficial estimations of that number.
The Left ascribes to the demographic doomsday scenario. Based entirely on PA population data, the Left insists that Jews will cease to be the majority west of the Jordan River almost immediately if we aren’t already the minority.
Consequently, leftists charge that anyone who recognizes that the two-state formula and the unilateral withdrawal option have failed is the moral equivalent of an anti-Zionist.
The Right argues that the Palestinian population data are deliberately fabricated. In 2005, the independent American-Israeli Demographic Research Group published its first in-depth assessment of the Palestinian data. That study, and follow- on studies in subsequent years demonstrated that the Palestinians exaggerated their population size by 50 percent, adding some 1.5 million people to their population rolls that simply do not exist.
Based on the AIRDG’s data, and on the fact that Israel’s fertility rates are higher than Palestinian fertility rates in Judea and Samaria, and that Jewish immigration rates to Israel are rising steeply while Palestinian emigration rates remain high, the Right has concluded that far from being a threat, demographics are a strategic asset for Israel.
Unfortunately, none of this is the least helpful to Liberman, or anyone else, frankly. So long as we don’t have official, accepted Israeli data on the size of the Palestinian population, we cannot have a real debate about our strategic options going forward.
And as Liberman insists, we need such a debate.
We need to conduct a reassessment of our relations with the Palestinians in Judea and Samaria regardless of the results of the municipal elections.
To this end, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should appoint a team to find out just how many Palestinians there are, and, no, Israel won’t need to send census workers to knock on doors in Ramallah or Jenin to accomplish this goal. We won’t even need to rely on PA data.
All we need to determine the size of the Palestinian population in Judea and Samaria is a team of researchers capable of analyzing aerial photographs of Judea and Samaria, of interpreting Palestinian electricity and water usage data, and of collecting emigration data from the crossing points to Jordan and from Ben Gurion Airport.
To minimize the danger that the data will be politicized, Netanyahu should appoint representatives of the warring demographic factions to the study group where they will be joined by analysts from the National Security Council.
There are no magic solutions to our problems with the Palestinians. But there are options other than repeating let alone expanding on failed policies.
To develop these options, Israel needs to know the dimensions of the demographic threat.
PA leader Mahmoud Abbas whose own fiveyear term in office ended six years ago and his Fatah comrades aren’t the only ones worried. Last week, Yediot Aharonot’s military commentator, Alex Fishman, reported that the IDF’s senior leadership is also deeply concerned.
According to Fishman, in recent weeks Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman has held a series of senior-level discussions, initially convened to discuss long-term Israeli strategic options in Judea and Samaria. Due to the IDF’s concerns over the elections, those discussions quickly devolved into a more limited discussion of how to prevent a Hamas electoral victory.
Fishman reported that the top generals have convinced Liberman, who until now supported octogenarian Abbas’s swift retirement, that “it is Israel’s interest not only for Abu Mazen [Abbas] to remain in power, but to empower him still further.”
To this end, according to Fishman, Liberman has agreed to adopt a plan prepared by the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), for Israel to transfer the Civil Administration’s planning and zoning authority in Area C to the PA. The plan also involves retroactively authorizing tens of thousands of Palestinian structures built illegally in Area C and authorizing the construction of a new Palestinian urban center in Area C.
Area C, it should be recalled, constitutes some 60 percent of Judea and Samaria. It has a negligible Palestinian population. All of the Israeli communities are located in Area C. The IDF holds sole security control over the area.
Area C is the only area where the Civil Administration retains governing functions. Areas A and B, where all the major Palestinian population centers are located, have been autonomously governed by the PA for 20 years.
The IDF’s plan is startling on several levels.
Since the earliest years of the Oslo peace process with the PLO, retaining Israeli control over planning and zoning powers in Area C has been a central goal of Israeli policy. Israel’s retention of these powers has enabled the IDF to retain security control over Area C and so defend not only the Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria, which are all located in Area C, but to defend Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and the rest of Israel’s major urban centers as well.
Why would the IDF recommend conceding these strategic interests just as Hamas is poised to gain significant power in Judea and Samaria? Even more to the point, what is the basis of the IDF’s assessment that by conceding these strategic assets Israel will enhance – let along guarantee – Fatah’s chances of winning in October? For the past 16 years, Israeli concessions have only served to make the Palestinians more contemptuous and hateful toward us.
Consider the case of the Gaza withdrawal. That operation, undertaken 11 years ago this week, was the largest single strategic concession Israel has made to the Palestinians in the past 23 years.
The Palestinians responded to Israel’s forcible expulsion of 10,000 of its citizens, the destruction of their communities and the withdrawal of all its security forces from Gaza by destroying the greenhouses Israel had given them free of charge and torching the synagogues it left behind.
Then five months later, they elected Hamas to lead them.
The actual harm that a Hamas electoral triumph will cause Israel is also completely unrelated to the IDF’s recommended course of action. If Hamas rises to power in various local governments in Judea and Samaria, the change will harm Israel in two ways.
First, in municipalities dominated by Hamas, we can expect for Fatah security forces to stop their anti-Hamas operations. This change will require the IDF to increase the tempo of its counterterror operations.
How will this be facilitated by giving up control over land policy in Area C? Second, with Hamas rising in power in the PA’s bureaucracy, we can expect for the PA to increase the amount of money it transfers monthly to the Hamas regime in Gaza.
To mitigate the damage, Israel will need to aggressively target foreign governmental and NGO funding to the PA in accordance with binding international and domestic terrorism financing statutes.
Here too, Israel’s task has nothing whatsoever to do with permitting the PA to conduct building projects on a massive scale in Area C.
Finally, even disregarding the fact that the IDF’s plan has no relationship whatsoever to the expected consequences of a Hamas electoral victory, it is hard to understand the intrinsic logic of the idea.
Is the IDF suggesting that Israel will give planning and zoning powers to a Hamas dominated PA in Area C? Or is it suggesting that the concession would be contingent on a Fatah victory? If the latter is the case, why do the generals believe that the Palestinians whose hatred for Israel is endemic, will be more likely to vote for Fatah because Israel is tipping the scales in Fatah’s favor? The practical irrelevance and strategic irrationality of the army’s recommended course of action make it hard to avoid the conclusion that the generals went into their meetings with Liberman with the goal of preventing him from developing a relevant strategy for contending with the elections specifically and the Palestinians in general.
Fishman implied that this was the case when he noted that COGAT has been lobbying for two years to give up planning and zoning powers and legalize tens of thousands of illegal Palestinian structures in Area C.
It is no secret that the IDF General Staff continues to support the strategic goal of Israeli withdrawal from Judea and Samaria either in the framework of a peace deal with the PLO, or if necessary with no deal. So it makes sense that they use every perceived crisis as a means to advance this goal, even though both the two-state policy and the unilateral withdrawal policy failed completely years ago.
The main objective motivation for the IDF’s arguably insubordinate behavior is the generals’ desire to avoid dealing with Israel’s demographic challenge. This is a challenge Israel has worked to avoid facing since it ended Jordanian occupation of Judea and Samaria in 1967.
Israel has a dilemma with regards to Judea and Samaria. It needs to control the areas for security reasons. It wishes to control the areas because they are the cradle of Jewish civilization. But it fears retaining control over them because it wishes to retain its massive Jewish majority.
Israelis worry that adding the Palestinians to the population registry will destroy that three quarters majority. If that happens, so the thinking goes, Israel will lose its international legitimacy on the one hand, and end the Zionist dream of Jewish sovereignty on the other.
Regarding the issue of international legitimacy, events over the past 16 years have shown that international sentiment towards Israel is not positively impacted either by Israeli concessions to the Palestinians or by the Palestinians’ open rejection of Israel’s right to exist. To the contrary, ever since the Palestinians rejected statehood in July 2000 and opted for perpetual war with Israel, the level of international support for them has continuously risen, while support for Israel, particularly in the West, has consistently eroded.
This state of affairs indicates that there is no direct correlation, and there may indeed be an indirect correlation between Israel’s international status and its willingness to make territorial concessions to the Palestinians. Consequently, Israel should not take the issue of international legitimacy into account in its strategic discussions of its long-term policy goals in Judea and Samaria.
As for our genuine domestic concerns, the truth is that if adding the Palestinians of Judea and Samaria to Israel’s population registry as permanent residents or citizens destroys Israel’s Jewish majority, then we will need to suffice with something less than complete sovereignty over Judea and Samaria.
The problem with determining how to proceed is that we simply don’t know what will happen.
We have no idea how many Palestinians live in Judea and Samaria. All we have are competing unofficial estimations of that number.
The Left ascribes to the demographic doomsday scenario. Based entirely on PA population data, the Left insists that Jews will cease to be the majority west of the Jordan River almost immediately if we aren’t already the minority.
Consequently, leftists charge that anyone who recognizes that the two-state formula and the unilateral withdrawal option have failed is the moral equivalent of an anti-Zionist.
The Right argues that the Palestinian population data are deliberately fabricated. In 2005, the independent American-Israeli Demographic Research Group published its first in-depth assessment of the Palestinian data. That study, and follow- on studies in subsequent years demonstrated that the Palestinians exaggerated their population size by 50 percent, adding some 1.5 million people to their population rolls that simply do not exist.
Based on the AIRDG’s data, and on the fact that Israel’s fertility rates are higher than Palestinian fertility rates in Judea and Samaria, and that Jewish immigration rates to Israel are rising steeply while Palestinian emigration rates remain high, the Right has concluded that far from being a threat, demographics are a strategic asset for Israel.
Unfortunately, none of this is the least helpful to Liberman, or anyone else, frankly. So long as we don’t have official, accepted Israeli data on the size of the Palestinian population, we cannot have a real debate about our strategic options going forward.
And as Liberman insists, we need such a debate.
We need to conduct a reassessment of our relations with the Palestinians in Judea and Samaria regardless of the results of the municipal elections.
To this end, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should appoint a team to find out just how many Palestinians there are, and, no, Israel won’t need to send census workers to knock on doors in Ramallah or Jenin to accomplish this goal. We won’t even need to rely on PA data.
All we need to determine the size of the Palestinian population in Judea and Samaria is a team of researchers capable of analyzing aerial photographs of Judea and Samaria, of interpreting Palestinian electricity and water usage data, and of collecting emigration data from the crossing points to Jordan and from Ben Gurion Airport.
To minimize the danger that the data will be politicized, Netanyahu should appoint representatives of the warring demographic factions to the study group where they will be joined by analysts from the National Security Council.
There are no magic solutions to our problems with the Palestinians. But there are options other than repeating let alone expanding on failed policies.
To develop these options, Israel needs to know the dimensions of the demographic threat.
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