Ben Rhodes Blames Jewish Donors for Obama Not Being More Anti-Israel.
Dimitri Lascaris, who was condemned for "vile antisemtic smear" by Canadian PM Justin Trudeau, reveals that his friend & ally Michael Lynk—the UNHRC's Palestine monitor—is lobbying to change the Canada-Israel Free Trade Agreement. Lynk did same as anti-Israel activist in the 90s. pic.twitter.com/h3Tv4fRhEY— UN Watch (@UNWatch) March 29, 2019
Author of NYT Anti-Israel Piece Works for Group Funded by Qatar.Is The Left's Anti-Semitism A Problem For Leftist Jews?
The publication of the article, "How the Battle Over Israel and Anti-Semitism Is Fracturing American Politics," represents another salvo in the New York Times‘ continuing promotion of anti-Israel writers and views. 23 percent of ICG's total budget. Qatar is not mentioned in Thrall's 11,500-word piece.
The Economist apologizes for headline tagging Ben Shapiro as 'alt-right sage'
The Economist labeled Ben Shapiro an “alt-right sage” in a headline, then apologized after the right-wing pundit protested the characterization.The ‘Wag the Dog’ conspiracy that never happened - analysis [and anti-Semitic].” (h/t Elder of Lobby)
The 1997 movie Wag the Dog stars Robert De Niro and Dustin Hoffman as a political strategist and a film director enlisted to do damage control in light of a sex scandal involving a president running for reelection. They concoct a fake war in Albania, releasing footage of fictional battles, destruction and a photogenic orphan.
When Palestinian terrorists shot rockets into central Israel and completely destroyed a house in Moshav Mishmeret, injuring all three generations of one family, some thought that instead of condemning Hamas for targeting infants, toddlers and their grandparents, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is the real problem here.
A conspiracy theory in the style of Wag the Dog began to be floated in news outlets of varying levels of respectability – like the UK’s Independent – and on the social media accounts of anti-Israel organizations that Netanyahu wants a war, because it’ll somehow help him ahead of the April 9 election. They claimed that Netanyahu intentionally sparks wars right before elections to help him win.
“History shows a terrible pattern of Netanyahu heightening violence right before Israeli elections,” Jewish progressive group IfNotNow tweeted.
“We cannot give in to this pattern of fear – it keeps fascist leaders like Netanyahu in power.”
This claim is not only false, but is preposterous for many reasons.
First, the dry facts: the only wars – really operations – that have taken place while Netanyahu was in power were Pillar of Defense in 2012 and Protective Edge in 2014.
Protective Edge began eight months before the 2015 elections. It’s true that in Israel’s chaotic political system, an election could break out at any time, but July 2014 wasn’t a time when it seemed particularly likely. And the coalition was relatively united after the operation, reflecting a public rallying around the flag. It took a few more months for Netanyahu to summarily fire ministers in his coalition and trigger an election.
One thing I'll add to this excellent piece: the Steele dossier pushed a Jew-baiting conspiracy theory that cast Jews in America as disloyal. Everyone who just tossed this sh*t-schnitzel into the public consciousness ought to be making apologies and amends— Seth Mandel (@SethAMandel) March 29, 2019
Quit Harping on U.S. Aid to Israel
America’s military commitment to its Asian allies, like its commitment to its European allies, requires more risk and sacrifice than its arrangement with Israel. Because the post–World War II Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security Between the United States and Japan prohibits the latter from having offensive military capabilities, the U.S. is pledged to protect the nation from attack. The United States made a similar pledge to South Korea following a war in which 30,000 Americans died defending it from an invasion by the Communist North Korea. (No “American blood” was expended to save Israel when a coalition of Arab armies attacked it in 1948. Indeed, not a single American soldier has ever died defending Israel, something that cannot be said about many of our allies). The 1979 Taiwan Relations Act compels Washington to “maintain the capacity of the United States to resist any resort to force or other forms of coercion that would jeopardize the security, or the social or economic system, of the people on Taiwan.” That stops just short of an outright commitment to defend the island from an attack by mainland China, but ensures enough strategic ambiguity to keep Beijing at bay.Intelligence Squared: Anti-Zionism is Anti-Semitism
Finally, Israel is hardly the only American ally in the Middle East to receive military aid. Egypt is the second-largest non-NATO recipient after Israel, and Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates are beneficiaries as well.
Unlike U.S. aid to Israel, most of which is funneled back to the American defense sector, U.S. defense spending toward its forward-operating presence in Europe and Asia is composed of hundreds of thousands of “boots on the ground,” soldiers whose lives would be at stake in any scenario involving an attack on treaty allies. And these allies lie under our nuclear umbrella, meaning that conflicts on either continent could theoretically ensnare the United States in nuclear war.
Viewed in this light, U.S. military aid to Israel looks less like the special dispensation of a powerful ethnic lobby and more like the logical extension of America’s postwar power projection. It is not all that spectacular compared with U.S. defense arrangements with the dozens of countries it is obliged to defend, up to and including with weapons of mass destruction. Of course, U.S. support for Israel has an emotional dimension, as the passionate speeches at AIPAC invoking the Holocaust attest. But much the same can be said for the United States’ military arrangements with Estonia, South Korea, and Taiwan: All are small, vulnerable democracies facing authoritarian, rapacious adversaries, and this underdog quality animates American public support. Yet for some reason, none of these alliances engenders anywhere near the same sort of antipathy as does the one between the United States and the world’s only Jewish state.
Who’s right and who’s wrong? On June 17th, join the debate and hear leading experts including Mehdi Hasan, Ilan Pappe and Einat Wilf go head to head.Anti-Semitic Lefty Hero Valerie Plame to Run for Senate in New Mexico? Is what we are seeing here anti-Zionism – broadly understood as opposition to the existence of a Jewish state in the territory of Israel – or is it anti-Semitism?
Many people who have been accused of anti-Semitism argue that the accusation is deeply unjust: what enrages them is not the Jewish people per se, but the nature of Israel, the Jewish state. Israel, they say, is a country based on ethnic nationalism, designed to privilege the Jewish majority at the expense of the Palestinians. Israel’s critics claim that its creation in 1948 led to more than 700,000 Palestinians fleeing or being expelled from their land, and that today’s Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank are still denied their basic rights. Israel’s immigration policy allows any Jew in the world to gain automatic citizenship, yet Palestinian immigration to Israel is virtually impossible. The Israeli flag features the Star of David and its national anthem refers to the ‘Jewish soul’, but over 20 per cent of its citizens are Arabs. To be anti-Zionist isn’t to be anti-Semitic – it’s to take a legitimate moral stand against Israel’s discriminatory practices.
But others see anti-Zionism as a fig leaf for old-fashioned anti-Semitism. Yes, of course it’s possible to be a staunch critic of Zionism and not to be anti-Semitic, but mostly you find that the two go together. Despite being the only functioning liberal democracy in the region, Israel is fanatically singled out for criticism by its enemies. Anti-Zionists, it is said, often rehash ancient anti-Semitic tropes, using phrases like the ‘Israel lobby’ as a racist dog whistle to signify an all-powerful Jewish conspiracy. Attacks against Jews are on the rise across the world, with many of their perpetrators claiming they are responding to Israel’s policies, but in fact they are disguising their hatred of Jews in the garb of anti-Zionism – in France, anti-Semitic acts increased by 74% last year. And when anti-Zionists talk about Israel’s founding and its impact on the Palestinians, they conveniently omit the fact that in 1948 Israel was immediately attacked by its Arab neighbours who sought to wipe it off the map. It’s the only Jewish-majority country in the world, a homeland and haven for the Jews created in the aftermath of the Holocaust. Sure, you can criticise the policies of Israel’s government, but if you deny its right to exist you are inescapably an anti-Semite.
Perfect timing.Bernard-Henri Lévy on Anti-Semitism, the Diaspora and the ‘Miracle’ That Is Israel
Just as the Dems were recovering from their anti-Semitism controversy with Rep. Omar, they've got an anti-Semitic bigot with name recognition running for Senate in New Mexico.
It's yesterday's lefty heroine, Valerie Plame, covert secret agent and inspiration for James Bond who inspired one of the more unintentionally hilarious lefty Bush era movies (one that Aaron Sorkin would probably like to forget.)
Plame was force to apologize after sharing on Twitter an anti-Semitic article from the UNZ Review entitled "America's Jews Are Driving America's Wars." The article stated that Jews "own the media," that they should wear labels while on national television, and that their beliefs were as dangerous as "a bottle of rat poison."
Her initial response was: "First of all, calm down. Re-tweets don't imply endorsement. Yes, very provocative, but thoughtful. Many neocon hawks ARE Jewish."
Funny how these scandals just "vanish" when they involve lefties.
Post-Bush, Plame had been flailing. She had a brief moment in the sun defending the Iran nuke sellout for Ploughshares. But that ended when her anti-Semitism became a little too public.
Her anti-Trump lobbying has been shambolic and futile. The Twitter gimmick was particularly pathetic. So she's hoping to ride the #Resistance wave some more. And while any normal person would have been out after posting anti-Semitic content from a hate site, lefties have different rules. I wouldn't be at all surprised if the media kept right on touting her. And ignoring the whole anti-Semitism issue.
War correspondent, philosopher, activist, TV star: Bernard-Henri Lévy is among the world’s most prominent — and controversial — public intellectuals. He’s searched for Daniel Pearl’s killers, followed in the footsteps of diplomat and historian Alexis de Tocqueville, staunchly defended Israel. His latest, “The Empire and the Five Kings: America’s Abdication and the Fate of the World,” takes on the implications of 21st-century American Isolationism. David Suissa, the Journal’s publisher and editor-in-chief, spoke with Lévy for his “Suissa” podcast, from which this interview was condensed.MEMRI: Yemeni Academic Dr. Arwa Al-Khattabi: ISIS Represents Islam; We Must Discuss This Honestly And Take Responsibility For What Is Happening In The World
Jewish Journal: I’ve been fascinated by your journey. You studied philosophy and you end up going for the adventure. You’ve been in so many places in the world where they had conflicts and wars. At which point did you realize that you were not just going to be a person of the mind?
Bernard-Henri Lévy: Immediately. I decided since the very start that the best thought is the thought which can be proved by experience; and the best way, the most honest way to speak and to make philosophy is to go and check with your own eyes.
On March 16, 2019, BBC Arabic (U.K.) hosted a debate about extremism and Islam. Dr. Makram Khouri-Machool, the director of the Cambridge-based European Centre for the Study of Extremism, said that most Muslim societies are peaceful and that Islam should not be accused of extremism. He said that there had been no killing of Arab Christians in the Middle East until American and Western occupation. Dr. Arwa Al-Khattabi, a Yemeni expert in European and German history, said that the Islamic State (ISIS) represents Islam and that it has attempted to implement it by the book without distorting, changing, or adding anything. She said that Arabs and Muslims must discuss the matter honestly and take responsibility for what is happening in the world rather than act like victims and blame others.Germany's Ambassador to U.N. compares Israel to Hamas
"ISIS Has Come To Implement Islam As It Is, By The Book – It Has Not Come Up With Anything On Its Own"
Dr. Makram Khour-Machool: "This is an important point for everyone to understand – the matter is between extremist forces in the West and the Muslims.
"This is why we say that most Muslim societies in the world are peaceful societies, and Westerners cannot look at the religion of Islam and accuse it of extremism in the world. This must stop – from a scientific, legal, practical, and procedural perspective."
Host: "Okay let's hear from..."
Dr. Makram Khour-Machool: "Just one more thing... The problem is that the Arab regimes do not have the power to stand before the European regimes and tell them: 'What you want to apply to us – you must apply to yourselves.'
[...]
"We had not seen the killing of Arab Christians and easterners until the intervention and occupation by America and the West in the Arab east and in our Arab world. The Arab Christians lived with their Muslim brothers in security in their countries, and there were no problems until the invading Western powers came in and nurtured the hatred and supported it financially, as they still do. Thus, there is no connection or correlation between Western terrorism and Christianity in the East.".German police arrest 10 suspected of planning terror attack.
In 2008, German Chancellor Angela Merkel told Israel’s Knesset: “For me as German chancellor, Israel’s security is non-negotiable.”
The Bild journalist wrote ”At the UN Security Council meeting, German UN Ambassador Christoph Heusgen compared Hamas rocket terrorism with the demolition of houses without a building permit – a means that Israel uses against buildings illegally built by Palestinians (but also Israelis).”
The journalist further noted that Heusgen’s parallel between Hamas and Israel came after “In recent days, the radical Islamic Hamas has fired more than 130 missiles at Israel... injuring seven people, including two small children.”
The US government, the European Union and Israel classify the Sunni Jihadi organization Hamas as a terrorist entity.
Piatov concluded his editorial: “When Islamist terrorists fire rockets at Israeli children,” the German government should be “crystal clear about standing on Israel’s side.”
Germany voted 16 times in 2018 to condemn the Jewish State at the UN.
German police say they have arrested 10 people in the west of the country on suspicion of planning an Islamic extremist terror attack.Too many chiefs Israel’s faltering sovereignty and the ‘mukhtar protocol’ a connection to the Islamic State group, either as sympathizers or a splinter group, and of planning a “serious act of violent subversion,” although there was currently no indication of a specific target. Prosecutors were not yet certain if criminal cases would be brought against all those taken into custody.
Officials said one of the suspects was from Tajikistan but provided no information about the nationality of the others.
If we ever needed proof of the old adage, “He who hesitates is lost,” the mukhtar protocol is a perfect example.IDF tank strikes Hamas post in response to explosive devices thrown
In many areas in east Jerusalem, no survey or registration of ownership was conducted after the Six Day War. Instead, the operational guidelines that enabled the authorities to grant building permits gave local mukhtars (chieftains or village dignitaries) sole authority to decide who the legal owners of the land in question are – in effect reaffirming the Ottoman Empire’s traditional method and circumventing the procedures that normally regulate land registry under Israeli law.
In practice, the “mukhtar protocol” spawned a massive industry of wholesale land giveaways and illegal land deals, forgery of documents and deeds, under-the-table payments, false testimony, and more. And it has created devastating results for the rightful owners of property, Arabs and Jews alike.
What, you might wonder, allowed this bizarre, backward system to override normal procedures of land registration? The answer is as pathetic as it is predictable: The State of Israel preferred to self-impose restrictions on its own sovereignty in Jerusalem, in the hope that undercutting its sovereignty would appease its critics. But by failing to clearly assert and enforce Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem, the government handed those seeking to deny Israeli sovereignty the perfect opportunity to do so.
Beyond the devastating practical results of the mukhtar protocol for the rule of law, for property rights and for Jerusalem’s delicate demographic balance, the political implications are a self-fulfilling prophecy: When sovereignty is not exercised, it is lost. A government that does not enforce the law does not govern, and the vacuum is filled immediately – and often, irrevocably..
These are some of Israel's neighbors...#StopHamas pic.twitter.com/Q92s6MAupj— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) March 29, 2019
HAPPENING NOW: 40,000 violent rioters in Gaza, some armed with knives, explosives, and grenades, are attempting to breach Israel's border and reach Israeli families on the other side of the fence. If our soldiers weren't there, they could. pic.twitter.com/Zy61KkbiYb— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) March 30, 2019
EXCLUSIVE FOOTAGE: Violence today on Israel’s border with Gaza. IDF soldiers are stationed along the border to protect Israeli families under attack. #StopHamas pic.twitter.com/XFHm14YNOy— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) March 30, 2019
These are the people that we are protecting: pic.twitter.com/Nt4XsMZhEg— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) March 30, 2019
Over 40,000 protest at Gaza border; 2 Palestinians said killed in violence.”
This DIY video was posted on Palestinian social media showing Gazans preparing explosives for violent Hamas riots. #StopHamas pic.twitter.com/mr9XHdtpqM— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) March 29, 2019
Hamas Plans to Use Children as Human Shields in Mass Border Riots This Weekend, Israeli UN Envoy Warns
Hamas plans to use children as human shields during mass border demonstrations planned for Saturday, Israel’s UN envoy warned on Friday.IDF Spokesperson to mothers in Gaza: Protect your children.
Meanwhile, seven Palestinians were reportedly wounded on the Gaza border on Friday.
The IDF's Arabic spokesperson released a video in which mothers in the Hamas-controlled territory of Gaza were called to "protect the lives of their children."
As mass protests erupted along the Gaza Strip border on Saturday, the video warned against incitement, stressing that "a child who throws stones [on IDF troops] is not a hero."
Forty thousand protesters gathered along the Gaza border on Saturday afternoon as a part of the "March of Return" protests, inciting violence with stone-throwing and tire-burning.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh joined the riots along with members of the Egyptian intelligence, Palestinian media reported.
The children of Gaza deserve the right to a future without violence. #StopHamas pic.twitter.com/iryTmlgjx6— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) March 30, 2019
Gaza factions: Protests will continue despite 'ceasefire understandings'
Hamas and Islamic Jihad officials said on Saturday that the weekly protests near the Gaza-Israel border will continue despite Egypt’s ongoing efforts to reach ceasefire understandings between the Palestinian factions and Israel.Iran’s Ruling Mullahs Issue ‘Land Day’ Call for ‘Resistance’ Against ‘Illegal Zionist Regime’
Palestinian sources claimed that the Egyptian intelligence officials who have been mediating between the Palestinian factions and Israel in the past few days have made progress towards reaching new ceasefire understandings. The Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip are now waiting for Israel’s final response to their demands, the sources added.
The sources claimed that Israel has accepted most of the Palestinian factions’ demands, including the expansion of the fishing zone, the reopening of the border crossings, the delivery of additional Qatari funds to the Gaza Strip and creating job opportunities for thousands of unemployed Palestinians there.
The Egyptian team, headed by senior General Intelligence Service official Ahmed Abdel Khaleq, met on Thursday and Friday with leaders of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other Palestinian factions and discussed with them ways of achieving a new truce with Israel.
Khalil al-Haya, member of the Hamas “political bureau,” said that the Egyptian intelligence officials carried “positive responses” from Israel. The Egyptian officials, he said, will return to Israel on Sunday to receive timelines for the implementation of the reported understandings.
Haya said that the weekly protests along the border with Israel, which are called “Great March of Return and Breaking the Siege,” will continue until they achieve their goals. “In the past year, the weekly marches achieved some of their goals,” he added. “They will achieve more goals.”
Iran’s rulers issued yet another chilling call for Israel’s elimination on Friday, as the Tehran regime vented its anger at US President Donald Trump’s decision recognize the Jewish state’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights.U.S. Ambassador and sanctions cause drop in German-Iran trade
The call for what Iran’s Foreign Ministry described as a “complete end to the occupation of Palestine” was timed to coincide with “Land Day,” an annual day of protests and commemorations among Arab citizens of Israel for the six Arab protesters killed in violent clashes with Israeli soldiers and police on March 30, 1976.
“The US president’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital…and the occupied Golan Heights as part of the illegitimate Zionist regime…shows clearly that Palestinian resistance and perseverance as symbolized by ‘Land Day’ is the right path,” the Foreign Ministry said on its website.
The statement continued: “The Islamic Republic of Iran believes that the establishment of sustainable and fair peace in the region will only be possible through the continuation of resistance until the complete end of Palestine’s occupation.”
An assertive anti-Iranian regime policy by the US Ambassador to Germany and American sanctions targeting the Islamic Republic of Iran’s economy caused a 9% decrease in German exports to Iran in 2018.BBC News framing of Iranian activity in Syria continues.
That framing was again promoted by the BBC’s US State Department correspondent Barabara Plett Usher in several recent reports concerning US recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights.Omar Refuses To Condemn Gays Being Stoned To Death Under Sharia Law, Violence Against Israel From Hamas
In an article titled “Trump: Time to recognise Golan Heights as Israeli territory” that appeared on the BBC News website on March 21st, readers saw superfluous scare quotes attached to the phrase military entrenchment.
“Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – who has warned about the “military entrenchment” of his country’s arch-enemy Iran in Syria and has ordered air strikes in an attempt to thwart it…”
Subsequent analysis from Plett Usher suggested to readers that the subject of the Iranian build-up of force in Syria is not only open to debate but a tactic used by Israel to advance its interests. [emphasis in bold added]
“Israel has gained traction in the White House and parts of Congress by arguing that Iran is using Syria as a base from which to target Israel, with the Golan Heights as the front line.”
The same ‘analysis’ from Plett Usher appeared in a report published on March 22nd under the title “Golan Heights: Syria condemns Donald Trump’s remarks”.
“Israel has gained traction in the White House and parts of Congress by arguing that Iran is using Syria as a base from which to target Israel, with the Golan Heights as the front line.”
Following Omar's remarks, The Daily Wire reached out to her office via phone and email to get her thoughts on two recent news items.Pitzer College Students Look to Oust President Over Refusal to Cut Ties With Haifa University.
Later on Thursday, Omar tweeted from her official Congressional Twitter account a condemnation of "conversion therapy."
The president of Pitzer College is facing calls for resignation by student leaders over his decision to maintain the California school’s relationship with the University of Haifa, despite calls to end it by faculty and students opposed to Israeli policy.Part 3: UNC-Duke Conference on Gaza Whitewashes Hamas, Blasts Is.A JTA reporter encounters anti-Semitism on the streets of New York.
Evidently I’m a “f***ing Jew bastard.”‘Intolerable’: In Picturesque French Town, Local Jewish Politician Defies Antisemitic Daubings
Earlier this month I had just arrived in this city on a visit and was walking along the street in the downtown Chelsea neighborhood chatting with Eddy Portnoy, a Yiddish scholar and the author of the wonderful book “Bad Rabbi,” when a homeless man approached us and began screaming. At first I brushed it off. While I have lived in Israel for the past 14 years, I grew up in Manhattan and such behavior was just the background hum of life in the big city. As such, it took a second for his words to penetrate my brain.
“F***ing Jew bastards,” he ranted. “Heil Hitler.”
I was shocked but also, in a perverse way, comforted. As a journalist, I have written about anti-Semitism for years. I’ve had coffee with Hamas members, chatted with European ultranationalists and have written a soon-to-be-published book on the instrumentalization of anti-Semitism in modern hybrid war. But I’ve never experienced anti-Semitism aimed at me personally. It was as if, as a journalist, I was exempt.
As Eddy and I continued walking, my anger warred with my relief that my first experience of anti-Semitism was so innocuous. I felt as if I were overdue. It wasn’t a particularly memorable experience, we both decided, but it seemed significant in that the homeless man’s words seemed a bit like a mirror reflecting the current zeitgeist.
Local politicians in the Loire region of central France rallied on Friday in support of a Jewish deputy mayor who was personally targeted by violently antisemitic graffiti earlier this week.For First Time Since Holocaust, Kosher Restaurant Opens in German City of Leipzig.
For the first time since the Holocaust, a kosher restaurant opened on Tuesday in the German city of Leipzig, Deutsche Welle reported.Israeli Technology Helps Sierra Leone Schoolchildren Drink Clean Water From Air
Cafe Salomon serves fish, as well as dairy, vegetarian and vegan options. Dittrich and Gabriele Goldfuss, from the local Rahn high school, are responsible for international collaboration in Leipzig and had the idea for the restaurant. The school has a close partnership with a high school in the Israeli city of Herzliya, DW reported.
“I hope that guests from all over the world come here,” Goldfuss told the Leipziger Volkszeitung (LVZ) newspaper. “I am proud that the Jewish community has become a part of the living identity of this city.”
Gotthard Dittrich, head of the Rahn school, added, “We are trying to close a gap in Leipzig.”
The IRG, a Jewish community organization in Leipzig, said more than 15,000 Jews living in the city were persecuted after the passage of the antisemitic and discriminatory Nuremberg Laws in Nazi Germany in 1935. Leipzig now has the most active Jewish community in Saxony, with around 1,300 members.
The St. Joseph’s girls’ school in Sierra Leone’s capital of Freeport has received Israeli technology that produces fresh, safe-drinking water out of air.The World's Longest Salt Caves at Mount Sodom.
After initially discovering the salt caves of Mount Sodom decades ago, Hebrew University officially unveiled their findings on a tour for the press, inside Mount Sodom. Our Shelby Weiner has the story. Story: Deep inside Mt. Sodom on the coast of the Dead Sea lies a newly revealed secret. In the heart of the geological formation, water and the passage of time have slowly carved out what is now the world’s largest salt cave. The Dead Sea is famous for its high salt concentration and the hills surrounding it are formed of salt deposits layered with dust and cap rock rising from the ground. These hills are famously peppered with networks of caves -- most famous of which are the Qumram caves which for centuries housed the Dead Sea scrolls. But the Malham cave, just off of Highway 90 along the coast of the Dead Sea, is home to a different kind of secret. Dated at some 7,000 years old, a network of cave chambers and channels have slowly been carved out of the mountain by rain water dissolving the salty layers of the hill. A scarce 50 millimeters, just under 2 inches of rain falls in the area annually. But that small amount of water has hollowed out a spectacular space beneath the earth’s surface.
