Have You Heard of ACIS?

I hadn't.

It's the abbreviation for Access and Closure Information System and it's run by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affair of the United Nations.

The form to be used for reporting an incident is below. Notice the category "settler":-




If you'd like to express your opinion about this procedure or have any questions, you can contact the UN in Jerusalem at

United Nations Office for the Coordination
of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) [rhymes with 'gotcha']

POBox 38712
(7 St. George Street)
East Jerusalem

Tel. 02-5829962; 5825853
Fax. 02-5825841

e-mail ochaopt@un.org
URL: www.ochaopt.org


You might want to ask them if they have forms for revenant Jews who are suffering terrorism, rock-throwing, molotov cocktail tossing, roadblocks, Kassam missiles, AK-47 shootings, etc.

View News Item on New Findings at Tel Shiloh

Go here http://mabat.iba.org.il/ to see a clip from Israel's Channel One TV main night news program, Mabat.

At the left, in the second 'box' down, click on this Hebrew phrase (it'll be there only for a few days at most):

הכנסיה הקדומה ביותר

And then click on the 'play' button just under it.

And according to Dr. Yitzhak Magen in the clip, the translation of this floor plaque



reads:

"The Lord Jesus, the Savior, Have Mercy on Shiloh and Its Inhabitants. Amen"

Extremely Succinct

The Arabs obviously want their own state, but not a Jewish state alongside it.

Had they wanted a two-state solution, they would have adhered to the Oslo Agreements and not launched a war of terrorism; they would have accepted Ehud Barak's far-reaching concessions at Camp David and not responded by murdering hundreds of Jews in terrorist attacks.

Israel Harel

You can't get more succinct that that.

Gushingly Breathless

Well, "gushingly breathless" is how I describe the type of writing from abroad that (a) praises radical left-wingers in Israel, preferrably the intellectual or literary type; (b) has no idea what the conflict between we Zionists and the Arabs is really all about; and (c) urges upon Israel the dangerous policies of folly and recklessness that, in most instances, they would want practiced in their own backyards.

Writing like this, by one Rory McCarthy

Amos Oz, one of Israel's most prominent novelists, said it might be "the first flicker of light at the edge of the darkness". The ceasefire between the Israeli military and Palestinian fighters is only two days old, it only covers the Gaza Strip, not the still-occupied West Bank, and already it has been breached a number of times.

Yet some in Israel and among the Palestinians are hoping that the end to a particularly brutal round of violence, five months of clashes in Gaza that have claimed at least 380 lives, may be the beginning of a return to peace talks. If so, it would be the first time for major negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians in the six years since the start of the second intifada.

"Perhaps a change on both sides is occurring at present," said Oz, writing in yesterday's Yedioth Ahronoth, a popular Israeli newspaper. "The feeling of impasse and the fear of a vicious cycle apparently is shared by both sides." If the ceasefire was followed by other key steps it could be, he said, "the threshold of a new process".

Most Israelis and Palestinians understand, he said, what a future agreement would look like: two states on the 1967 borders with "reciprocal changes", two capitals in Jerusalem, no "right of return" but likewise the end of "most of the settlements" on the West Bank. But leaders on both sides have failed to move convincingly towards that future.

A Headline You'll Never See in Israel

3 Militants Condemned to Death...

But it appears in The Guardian, being reported from...Egypt.

A state security court on Thursday sentenced three Islamic militants to death for their involvement in suicide attacks that killed 34 people at Sinai resorts in 2004.

Younes Mohammed Mahmoud, Osama al-Nakhlawi and Mohammed Jaez Sabbah were found guilty of terrorism, murder, illegal possession of weapons and belonging to a terrorist group.

More than 100 people wounded in the bombings at the resorts of Taba and Ras Shitan on the Egyptian-Israeli border, an area popular with Israeli tourists. Eleven Israelis were killed.

You see, in Israel, we don't really have the death sentence and in the special cases that do exist (perpetrators of Nazi crimes against the Jewish people or by special military tribunal), it really isn't relevant to the war against terrorism.

True, we have targeted eliminations of terrorists but that is in a war situation.

Manji's Op-ed

Irshad Manji is the author of The Trouble with Islam Today: A Wake-Up Call for Honesty and Change (Mainstream UK).

In an op-ed, in response to some mail she received about her opinions, she had this to say:-

But there’s something else in their messages that explains why moderation is a concept with which Muslims struggle, even in the 21st century.

Imran says that there’s “no such thing” as reducing the Quran to selected passages. Translation: the Quran must be accepted as the alpha and the omega of God’s will. Likewise with Sonya. When she accuses me of not knowing “how to talk to people”, she’s saying that Muslims don’t want to hear about anything negative in our revelations.

The irony is, my defence of the Pope played up the Quran’s non-violence. I pointed out that Islam’s holy book encourages Muslims to reflect far more than to retaliate. Even if someone is mocking your religion, the Quran advises, walk away. Once tempers have cooled, engage in dialogue.

...All Muslims are taught that because the Quran comes after the Torah and the Bible, we must regard it as the final and perfect manifesto of the Divine. It is, we’re told, free of ambiguities, contradictions and human editing; in other words, free of the corruption that contaminates Jewish and Christian scriptures.

Thus the central conundrum for us Muslims. If it’s an article of our faith that the Quran is the unfiltered declaration of God, then what makes moderate Muslims “moderate”?

Perhaps it’s that they won’t murder to assert their convictions. But is this enough, given that moderates such as Sonya tolerate the murderers? And, as Imran demonstrates, those of us who dare to imply that the Quran can be questioned are not real Muslims. We are Jews.

Fortunately, more and more Muslims are proclaiming that it’s time for a liberal Islamic reformation. Two groups that powerfully attest to this movement are the Democratic Muslims of Denmark and their off-shoot, the Critical Muslims, both of which emerged from the Danish cartoon wars.

It’s revealing that neither group calls itself the “Moderate Muslims”. Their members considered doing so. But in the end, they couldn’t agree on what “moderate” means. Maybe that’s because it means too little. Suppose more of us aimed to be reform-minded instead?

Looney Left

The Left has it so easy.

Here's a logo for this site:



Why not STOP THE TERROR?

Would that be so immoral a slogan to adopt?

But we all know the answer.

Arab terror is justified and permitted.

Seen Burston's Latest Rant?

Here's some excerpts from it:

Occupation is a dirty word. That is why it makes extremists happy.

Like all obscenities, it distorts more than it describes. It inflames more than it informs. It obscures much more than it illuminates. And like all true obscenities, it poisons those who employ it, as much as those who are its intended targets.

The poison that is occupation is in all of us. It is everywhere around us, even for those of us who cannot see it. If you live here, even for those of us who don't feel it - or don't realize that they do - it's inside of you.

Can you learn to live with it? Not really. Because it poisons all of our lives. There is no antidote that has tested safe. No cure. Only the extremist can live with it. In fact, the extremists on both sides positively thrive on the concept and its fallout, its mind-set, its bloodshed. Occupation gives extremists on both sides their reason for being, their sense of empowerment, of superiority of intellect, of divine right, of knowing what the rabble do not, of feeling what the masses cannot.

[Well, at least he admits that the Arabs are somehow "occupiers" but I'd wish he'd be more specific - is it only in Shiloh or, more importantly, maybe Jaffo, etc.]

It is the poison of occupation that pumps extremists full of themselves. It is the poison that puts that gleaming, terrifying smile on the face. It is the poison of occupation that fuels their passion for the messianic, their belief in messianism as realism, their sense of being able to make perfect, symmetric, rational sense of a horrific world.

[actually, I think it's more his hatred of Jewish revenants that pumps him up]

It is the poison of occupation that kills any proposed solution to the conflict that threatens us all. Only the extremist is not threatened. The extremist will tell you that he loves this place like no other. Believe him. For the extremist, a Holy Land in perpetual strife in heaven on earth.

...Hamas is on its throne, and is not about to budge. No compromise, no recognition of Israel as a reality, not even if that meant alleviating suffering for the needy, not even if that meant an eventual solution we could all live with. No flexibility over the right of return, even if that meant never having a Palestinian state at all. Not even if that meant that Palestinians could have a modicum of well-being, their children a future.

The radical settlers are on their land, and they're not about to budge. No compromise, no recognition of the Palestinians as a reality. Not even if that meant that the settlement blocs endorsed by our American ally could be part of a solution, internationally recognized as sovereign parts of the permanent borders of an internationally recognized state of Israel. Not even if that meant that we could have a modicum of well-being, our children a future.

[a modicum? doesn't he realize how much more terrorism there would be if we were not in our homes in Shiloh, et al.?]

...They want it all. If we let them, they'll take it all.

At this point, in our poisoned state, the moderates on both sides can barely bring themselves to function.

Envy the extremist.

Envy him his freedom from ambiguity, his immunity from ambivalence. Only the extremist knows exactly why there is no moral equivalency between the sides, and that only his side is in the right.

Only he knows what the world does not, what the world refuses to see. Only the extremist knows what many on his own side refuse to see, either because they lack his vision, or they lack his loyalty. Only he knows who's at fault for all our ills. The other side. Only the extremist knows who started all this suffering, who's entirely to blame, who are the transgressors, why they're the real villains.

What is this drug that allows us to thrive while the rest of us stew in the misery their actions and beliefs cause us?

It is the drug that is compounded of old dreams. Dreams, rivers and mountains and bottomless reservoirs of dreams, are the cultural birthright of our peoples, the Jews and the Palestinians both.

[actually, I envy the columnist whose position grants him the automatic worship as one-who-is-smart-and-inteliigent, when they're not.]

Almost 92

Shmuel ("Moekie") Katz will be 92 years old next Shabbat, in 10 days time.

So, I went down to Tel Aviv to visit and talk and muse about the political situation.

Last November 23, Moekie had an op-ed in the Jerusalem Post and is finalizing the publication, in English, of his book, "the Net", on the Nili spy ring.

Happy Birthday Moekie!

My Interview at Israel National Radio

I was interviewed on Arutz 7 in English about the Peace Now report on land ownership and it can be found here and I'm 24 minutes and some 20 seconds or so into the program.

For Your Consideration

A while back, I blogged about a new Jewish-themed film.


Well, you can view the trailer here.

Carter's really Getting Atrocious

Notice how his language gets harsher and more virulent over the years?

In some of the harshest and one-sided language he has used to date, former Democratic President Jimmy Carter called Israeli "domination" over Palestinians "atrocious" in an interview today on ABC's "Good Morning America."
Carter said there was "no doubt now that a minority of Israelis are perpetuating apartheid on the people in Palestine, the Palestinian people."

Carter called Israel's occupation the "prime cause" of continuing violence in the Middle East.

"And contrary to the United Nations resolutions, contrary to the official policy of the United States government, contrary to the Quartet so-called road map, all of those things – and contrary to the majority of Israeli people's opinion – this occupation and confiscation and colonization of land in the West Bank is the prime cause of a continuation of violence in the Middle East," he said.

"And what is being done to the Palestinians under Israeli domination is really atrocious. It's a terrible affliction on these people."

I'll Be On ShalomTV

Together with Dror Etkes of Peace Now, I recorded a discussion of Peace Now's report tonight on the land question of the Jewish revenant communties.

It'll be on ShalomTV cable network (but when, I don't know).

And We're More Than Disappointed In Olmert

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Tuesday evening that "we are a little disappointed by the continuation of Kassam rocket fire at the South by the Palestinians."

Speaking at a meeting with European Union envoys at the Finnish Embassy, Olmert added, "I hope very much that the Palestinians will honor their obligations and stop the fire."

Mere hours after IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz sought to deflect responsibility for the cease-fire between Israel and the Gaza Strip, terrorists in northern Gaza violated the day-old agreement by firing two Kassam rockets at Sderot.

Both of the rockets landed in an open area, and no one was wounded in the attack.

Olmert's Back to Converging

Ehud Olmert, at Ben-Gurion's grave, said:

"We, the state of Israel, will agree to the evacuation of many territories and the settlements that we built there. This is extremely difficult for us, like the splitting of the Red Sea. We will do it for real peace"

and he said:

He promised a Palestinian state "with territorial contiguity in Judea and Samaria," and borders that will be defined "in accordance with President Bush's April 14th, 2004 letter to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon - borders that will be different from the territories currently under Israel's control."

and his site reports this text:-

In the framework of this dialogue, and in accordance with the Roadmap, you will be able to establish an independent and viable Palestinian State, with territorial contiguity in Judea and Samaria – a State with full sovereignty and defined borders.

In this framework, the borders of the State of Israel will be defined, in accordance with President Bush's April 14th, 2004 letter to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

These borders will be different from the territories currently under Israel's control.

We, the State of Israel, will agree to the evacuation of many territories and communities which were established therein. This is extremely difficult for us, akin to the Parting of the Red Sea, but we will bear it, in exchange for true peace.

Some people just never learn.

What A Speech

In another two weeks, we will mark the 40th anniversary of the awarding of the Nobel Prize for Literature to Shmuel Yosef (Shai) Agnon. Here is his speech at the Nobel Banquet at the City Hall in Stockholm, December 10, 1966. It is a remarkable piece of Jewish pride.

(Translation)

Our sages of blessed memory have said that we must not enjoy any pleasure in this world without reciting a blessing. If we eat any food, or drink any beverage, we must recite a blessing over them before and after. If we breathe the scent of goodly grass, the fragrance of spices, the aroma of good fruits, we pronounce a blessing over the pleasure. The same applies to the pleasures of sight: when we see the sun in the Great Cycle of the Zodiac in the month of Nissan, or the trees first bursting into blossom in the spring, or any fine, sturdy, and beautiful trees, we pronounce a blessing. And the same applies to the pleasures of the ear. Through you, dear sirs, one of the blessings concerned with hearing has come my way.

It happened when the Swedish Chargé d'Affaires came and brought me the news that the Swedish Academy had bestowed the Nobel Prize upon me. Then I recited in full the blessing that is enjoined upon one that hears good tidings for himself or others: «Blessed be He, that is good and doeth good. «Good», in that the good God put it into the hearts of the sages of the illustrious Academy to bestow that great and esteemed Prize upon an author who writes in the sacred tongue; «that doeth good », in that He favoured me by causing them to choose me. And now that I have come so far, I will recite one blessing more, as enjoined upon him who beholds a monarch: «Blessed art Thou, O Lord, our God, King of the Universe, Who hast given of Thy glory to a king of flesh and blood. Over you, too, distinguished sages of the Academy, I say the prescribed blessing: «Blessed be He, that has given of His wisdom to flesh and blood. »

It is said in the Talmud (Tractate Sanhedrin 23a): «In Jerusalem, the men of discrimination did not sit down to dine in company until they knew who their companions were to be»; so I will now tell you who am I, whom you have agreed to have at your table.

As a result of the historic catastrophe in which Titus of Rome destroyed Jerusalem and Israel was exiled from its land, I was born in one of the cities of the Exile. But always I regarded myself as one who was born in Jerusalem. In a dream, in a vision of the night, I saw myself standing with my brother-Levites in the Holy Temple, singing with them the songs of David, King of Israel, melodies such as no ear has heard since the day our city was destroyed and its people went into exile. I suspect that the angels in charge of the Shrine of Music, fearful lest I sing in wakefulness what I had sung in dream, made me forget by day what I had sung at night; for if my brethren, the sons of my people, were to hear, they would be unable to bear their grief over the happiness they have lost. To console me for having prevented me from singing with my mouth, they enable me to compose songs in writing.

(Out of respect for the time, the rest of my words will be read in translation only.)

I belong to the Tribe of Levi; my forebears and I are of the minstrels that were in the Temple, and there is a tradition in my father's family that we are of the lineage of the Prophet Samuel, whose name I bear.

I was five years old when I wrote my first song. It was out of longing for my father that I wrote it. It happened that my father, of blessed memory, went away on business. I was overcome with longing for him and I made a song. After that I made many songs, but nothing has remained of them all. My father's house, where I left a roomful of writings, was burned down in the First World War and all I had left there was burned with it. The young artisans, tailors, and shoemakers, who used to sing my songs at their work, were killed in the First World War and of those who were not killed in the war, some were buried alive with their sisters in the pits they dug for themselves by order of the enemy, and most were burned in the crematories of Auschwitz with their sisters, who had adorned our town with their beauty and sung my songs with their sweet voices.

The fate of the singers who, like my songs, went up in flame was also the fate of the books which I later wrote. All of them went up in flame to Heaven in a fire which broke out one night at my home in Bad Homburg as I lay ill in a hospital. Among the books that were burned was a large novel of some seven hundred pages, the first part of which the publisher had announced he was about to bring out. Together with this novel, called Eternal Life, was burned everything I had written since the day I had gone into exile from the Land of Israel, including a book I had written with Martin Buber as well as four thousand Hebrew books, most of which had come down to me from my forebears and some of which I had bought with money set aside for my daily bread.

I said, «since the day I had gone from the Land of Israel», but I have not yet related that I had dwelt in the Land of Israel. Of this I will now speak.

At the age of nineteen and a half, I went to the Land of Israel to till its soil and live by the labour of my hands. As I did not find work, I sought my livelihood elsewhere. I was appointed Secretary of the Hovevei Zion (Lovers of Zion) Society and Secretary of the Palestine Council - which was a kind of parliament-in-the-making and I was also the first Secretary of the voluntary Jewish Magistrate's Court. Through these offices it was my privilege to get to know almost every Jewish person, and those whom I did not come to know through these offices I came to know through love and a desire to know my brethren, the members of my people. It is almost certain that in those years there was not a man, woman, or infant in the Land of Israel whom I did not know.

After all my possessions had been burned, God gave me the wisdom to return to Jerusalem. I returned to Jerusalem, and it is by virtue of Jerusalem that I have written all that God has put into my heart and into my pen. I have also written a book about the Giving of the Torah, and a book on the Days of Awe, and a book on the books of Israel that have been written since the day the Torah was given to Israel.

Since my return to the Land of Israel, I have left it twice: once in connection with the printing of my books by the late Zalman Schocken, and once I travelled to Sweden and Norway. Their great poets had implanted love and admiration for their countries in my heart, and I decided to go and see them. Now I have come a third time, to receive your blessing, sages of the Academy.

During the time I have dwelt in Jerusalem, I have written long stories and short ones. Some have been printed; most I still have in manuscript.

I have already told how my first songs came out of longing for my father. The beginnings of my studies also came to me from my father, as well as from the Rabbinical Judge of our town. But they were preceded by three tutors under whom I studied, one after the other, from the time I was three and a half till I turned eight and a half.

Who were my mentors in poetry and literature? That is a matter of opinion. Some see in my books the influences of authors whose names, in my ignorance, I have not even heard, while others see the influences of poets whose names I have heard but whose writings I have not read. And what is my opinion ? From whom did I receive nurture? Not every man remembers the name of the cow which supplied him with each drop of milk he has drunk. But in order not to leave you totally in the dark, I will try to clarify from whom I received whatever I have received.

First and foremost, there are the Sacred Scriptures, from which I learned how to combine letters. Then there are the Mishna and the Talmud and the Midrashim and Rashi's commentary on the Torah. After these come the Poskim - the later explicators of Talmudic Law - and our sacred poets and the medieval sages, led by our Master Rabbi Moses, son of Maimon, known as Maimonides, of blessed memory.

When I first began to combine letters other than Hebrew, I read every book in German that came my way, and from these I certainly received according to the nature of my soul. As time is short, I shall rot compile a bibliography or mention any names. Why, then, did I list the Jewish books? Because it is they that gave me my foundations. And my heart tells me that they are responsible for my being honoured with the Nobel Prize.

There is another kind of influence, which I have received from every man, every woman, every child I have encountered along my way, both Jews and non-Jews. People's talk and the stories they tell have been engraved on my heart, and some of them have flown into my pen. It has been the same way with the spectacles of nature. The Dead Sea, which I used to see every morning at sunrise from the roof of my house, the Arnon Brook in which I used to bathe, the nights I used to spend with devout and pious men beside the Wailing Wall - nights which gave me eyes to see the land of the Holy One, Blessed be He-the Wall which He gave us, and the city in which He established His name.

Lest I slight any creature, I must also mention the domestic animals, the beasts and birds from whom I have learned. Job said long ago (135:11): «Who teacheth us more than the beasts of the earth, And maketh us wiser than the fowls of heaven?» Some of what I have learned from them I have written in my books, but I fear that I have not learned as much as I should have, for when I hear a dog bark, or a bird twitter, or a cock crow, I do not know whether they are thanking me for all I have told of them, or calling me to account.

Before I conclude my remarks, I will say one more thing. If I have praised myself too much, it is for your sake that I have done so, in order to reassure you for having cast your eyes on me. For myself, I am very small indeed in my own eyes. Never in all my life have I forgotten the Psalm (131:1) in which David said: «Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty; neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high for me.» If I am proud of anything, it is that I have been granted the privilege of living in the land which God promised our forefathers to give us, as it is written (Ezekiel 37: 25): «And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children's children forever.»

Before concluding, I would say a brief prayer: He who giveth wisdom unto the wise and salvation unto kings, may He increase your wisdom beyond measure and exalt your sovereign. In his days and in ours may Judah be redeemed and Israel dwell in safety. May a redeemer come to Zion, may the earth be filled with knowledge and eternal joy for all who dwell therein, and may they enjoy much peace. May all this be God's will. Amen.

A Nice Love Story

Okay, nothing political, just plain nice Jewish love story.

Excerpts from the NYTimes:-

EACH night, Carolyn Ginsburg and Mark Stern share pillow talk without the talk. They fall into their own silent language, revealing the day’s news and anxieties through lips, gestures and glances.

Their ability to converse visually has been honed through decades of practice. Ms. Ginsburg, now 39, was a young girl when she started her journey toward a hearing loss that is greater than 80 percent. Mr. Stern, 42, became deaf when he contracted meningitis as a 1-year-old.

By day, they interact easily with their co-workers: she as a director overseeing a group of credit cards at American Express and he as an executive of GoAmerica Communications in Hackensack, N.J.

...their get-together ended without so much as a hug. Nevertheless, Ms. Ginsburg said that she scribbled in her diary that night: “Met an interesting person from California. He really wowed me. I don’t think I’ll ever see him again.”

In February 2005, more than seven years later, Ms. Ginsburg was on her way to see an Israeli film when she stopped off in an Upper West Side coffee shop...As she was talking on her cellphone at the coffee shop, she looked up and saw a man wearing the distinctive-looking cochlear hearing aid implant — a device that transmits electronic impulses into his auditory nerve. Something clicked. She mouthed to him, “Are you, by chance, Mark Stern?” Yes, he replied.

...As they drew closer, Mr. Stern arranged to install videophones in their homes so they could “talk” at night. “I had to put on a dress when I was on the phone,” Ms. Ginsburg said, laughing about the anxiety it caused. She added, “My grandmother would say that you know you love someone when you can’t find words to explain it. You just do. That’s how I feel about Mark.”

...While vacationing in the Outer Banks in North Carolina last July, Mr. Stern, an avid pilot, pointed out a plane in the sky. Accustomed to his constant fascination with passing planes, Ms. Ginsburg initially didn’t react. He insisted she look. She did. The plane was towing a banner that read, “Carolyn, Will You Marry Me? Mark.” She immediately said yes.

Mr. Stern said, “When I asked her mother for Carolyn’s hand in marriage, she asked me, ‘Why do you love my daughter?’ I replied, ‘I just can’t explain it, but I can tell you that I just know that I do.’ She said, ‘That’s the right answer.’ And we smiled.”

Their wedding took place on a drizzly afternoon Nov. 12 at the Glen Head Country Club in Glen Head, N.Y. During the ceremony, which was performed by Rabbi Robert S. Widom, two interpreters who understand and can sign in both English and Hebrew, stood at the ready. One was for the dozen or so guests who were deaf or hard of hearing. The other was for the bride and bridegroom, who were especially keen to take in the cantor’s singing, which can be hard for them to make out because it often includes drawn-out syllables. “We wanted to make sure we didn’t miss anything,” Mr. Ginsburg said.

It Was Me

Note the last line from this fueilleton by Danny Rubinstein on the subject of street names in Jerusalem:-

During a historical discussion I once heard at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, the speakers argued about the extent to which the British helped or undermined the efforts to establish a Jewish state. Everyone agrees that in spite of all the problems, until the publication of the 1939 White Paper, British policy could be described as pro-Zionist. Afterward the British government began to sympathize with the Arabs and with the end of World War II, the Jewish undergrounds fought against the British Mandate. Some people point out that even David Ben-Gurion, during the height of the struggle, cursed the Mandatory government and called it a "a Nazi-British government."

That Some people is me, in a letter I had published in the Book Review Supplement of Haaretz in Hebrew.

The Scotsman, He Fibs

John Barrett, who was at my home and then traveled back to Jerusalem with me accompanying the groups of MPs on the bus, is not telling the truth here.

Do they know it's Christmas?

I have just returned from a visit to the Occupied Palestinian Territories and Israel, to investigate whether the aid, paid for by Edinburgh taxpayers, is being used effectively.

...I listened to evidence from the Palestinians, children in a refugee camp school and their parents. I also heard from Israeli settlers on the West Bank who believed they had a right to be there...From the Palestinians I also heard about how their land was originally given away from under them by the British and others.

The Israelis believe they must protect themselves and justified the construction of the partition wall, which has all the looks of the Berlin wall, on the grounds of security...

...Because of the humanitarian crisis, we are delivering aid to those suffering most, but some of the projects funded by taxpayers in the UK are being blown up by those we also support. I saw the remains of a bombed Palestinian police station which was full of computers, supplied by the UK to combat crime.

One reason given for the attack was to kill a known terrorist who was being held at the station. He fled when the building collapsed.

Settlements are now springing up throughout the West Bank, built on hilltops - like forts, using up the scarce resource of water five times more quickly than the locals and accessed by roads which bypass existing villages.

A form of apartheid exists on many roads with road blocks and checkpoints now so frequent that local produce is destroyed by the time it gets to market.

As you can read here, I specifically pointed out the un-apartheid nature of our roads, with Pal. cars driving by. Tsk, tsk.

And those poor UK computers, in a police station housing and training terrorists. Oh, my.

And those Israelis, imagine, "believing" they must protect themselves (but is it true someone may ask). With something that looks like a 'Berlin Wall'.

Rubbish.

Barrett seems to believe himself to be quite the humanitarian.

Will He Be Called A 'Fanatic Subversive Extremist'?

Hadash Chairman MK Mohammad Barakeh responded Sunday to the High Court’s ruling that the security fence route in Jerusalem was legal and said, “There is no legitimate law for occupations, so there cannot be legitimacy in the ruling either.”

Will Barakeh suffer the same fate as right-of-center activists who are pilloried in the media and the Knesset?

I doubt it.

Hanan Takes on Olmert, Peretz and Co.

I hope you'll watch the video interview of Hanan Yakobovitz, Yaakov's younger son. The father was killed last week by a Kassam.

A short summary of the interview (provided by Women in Green):

Hanan (who seems to be around 11 years old), says he did not imagine such a thing would happen. "Without Abba (my father) I have no life" , he says.

Then Hanan is asked whether he wants to continue to live in Sderot.
His answer is categorical:
"Yes! If I and my family would leave Sderot, this would be the end of the country. I love the State of Israel very much and if Sderot would be dismantled, this would be the end of the country. If the Hamas would see that they succeeded in Sderot, they will do it in the entire country...Ashkelon, Ashdod...everywhere. All the Jews will be dispersed; where will they go? Everywhere Jews are hated....

Then the interviewer asks Hanan what he would tell the Prime Minister if he would come to his house:
"I don't want to talk to him nor see him. I would kick him out of my house. I would throw stones at him."
"The same about Amir Peretz. If he really cared about Sderot, he would know what to do, but he doesn't."

The camera then turns to show how some roofs of some schools in Sderot are being covered by steel to try and protect the children, while the interviewer points out that this is obviously not what needs to be done to protect Sderot.

Then we see Hanan again who passionately turns to Olmert and Peretz and urges them to declare they cannot deal with the situation and therfore must resign. "Resign and let Bibi Netanyahu and Lieberman take your place. Resign, resign...
I Hanan, son of Yaakov, TURN to you and urge you: RESIGN!! FAST!

In one word- this videoclip is a must see.
A little boy, who says it better than any adult.

The Iranian Look

While in previous posts I have highlighted Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran with Satmar Jews and Vladimir Putin, here's a picture of an Iranian, Muhammed Khatami (the former President), with an Israeli 18 year-old student, Hila Yashar of St. Andrews University in Scotland.



Do I spy the start of a friendship?

NYRB, ADL and Friends

Mixed up with all those abbreviations?

Well, NYRB = New York Review of Books and ADL = Anti-Discrimation League.

And now for the tiff:-

To the Editors:

When we signed the letter of protest to the ADL in the matter of Tony Judt [NYR, November 16], it was because we believe in freedom of speech. It was not because we believe in a Jewish conspiracy to control the country or the world. Obviously you did not grasp this, since you chose to illustrate the text of the letter with a photograph of Abraham Foxman chatting with John Negroponte. The implication of your image is wild. What sinister instruction, exactly, do you think Foxman was carrying from the elders in New York to the head of intelligence in Washington? Were they speaking in English, do you think, or more prudently in a Jewish tongue? And this in the same issue in which you took such a courageous stand against Vichy anti-Semitism!

Franklin Foer
Leon Wieseltier
The New Republic
Washington, D.C.

The Editors reply:

As the background visible in the Reuters news agency photograph published in the November 16 issue indicated, John Negroponte spoke at a public occasion organized by the ADL. In fact, it was the 28th Annual National Leadership Conference of the ADL. The Washington Post report of Mr. Negroponte's speech on April 25, 2006, began as follows:

John Negroponte, the national intelligence director, who is in the thick of an unprecedented effort to crack down on leaks of classified information, figured he'd start off his speech at the Mayflower Hotel yesterday with a couple of jokes.
After an affectionate introduction by an official from the Anti-Defamation League, Negroponte quipped, "Beats the introduction I got at the National Press Club the other day."

Mr. Negroponte, according to the text released by his office, continued as follows:

Abe Foxman, my good friend and partner. It says here, partner in opposing one-sided anti-Israel resolutions when I was ambassador at the UN, but it goes much beyond that. We were very good friends. We consulted on a whole range of issues concerning the posture of the United States at the United Nations. And I just found Abe—he was always there when I needed him, and he was a source of invaluable counsel as we carried out those very challenging assignments up there in New York. And I'm sure that you continue to watch those issues with a great, great deal of interest, as do I...

A Possible Kassam Response

Phalanx Close-In Weapons System (CWIS) fires 4,500 rounds per minute, cuts down mortar rounds out of the sky.

The MK 15 Phalanx Close-In Weapons System (CIWS - pronounced "sea-whiz") is a fast-reaction, rapid-fire 20-millimeter gun system that provides US Navy ships with a terminal defense against anti-ship missiles that have penetrated other fleet defenses. Designed to engage anti-ship cruise missiles and fixed-wing aircraft at short range, Phalanx automatically engages functions usually performed by separate, independent systems such as search, detection, threat evaluation, acquisition, track, firing, target destruction, kill assessment and cease fire.

Phalanx underwent operational tests and evaluation onboard USS Bigelow in 1977, and exceeded maintenance and reliability specifications. Phalanx production started in 1978 with orders for 23 USN and 14 Foreign Military Sales (FMS) systems.

Phalanx is a point-defense, total-weapon system consisting of two 20mm gun mounts that provide a terminal defense against incoming air targets. CIWS, without assistance from other shipboard systems, will automatically engage incoming anti-ship missiles and high-speed, low-level aircraft that have penetrated the ship primary defense envelope. As a unitized system, CIWS automatically performs search, detecting, tracking, threat evaluation, firing, and kill assessments of targets while providing for manual override.

Each gun mount houses a fire control assembly and a gun subsystem. The fire control assembly is composed of a search radar for surveillance and detection of hostile targets and a track radar for aiming the gun while tracking a target. The unique closed-loop fire control system that tracks both the incoming target and the stream of outgoing projectiles gives CIWS the capability to correct its aim to hit fast-moving targets, including ASMs.

The gun subsystem employs a gatling gun consisting of a rotating cluster of six barrels. The gatling gun fires a 20mm subcaliber sabot projectile using a heavy-metal (either tungsten or depleted uranium) 15mm penetrator surrounded by a plastic sabot and a light-weight metal pusher. The gatling gun fires 20mm ammunition at either 3,000 or 4,500 rounds-per-minute with a burst length of continuous, 60, or 100 rounds.

And here's the clip.

And After the Jews - Putin

Oh, oh.

Russia has begun deliveries of the Tor-M1 air defence rocket system to Iran, Russian news agencies quoted military industry sources as saying, in the latest sign of a Russian-US rift over Iran.

"Deliveries of the Tor-M1 have begun. The first systems have already been delivered to Tehran," ITAR-TASS quoted an unnamed, high-ranking source as saying Friday.

Yuch! Yech! Yipes! Yikes!

Jews and the Holocaust Denier and future Holocaust Perpetrator

Me - All Wrapped Up

My wife posted this (the story is here):-

Almost Perfect

I saw this story about Helen Olstein, who was 21-year-old employee from the Macy’s customer-complaint department, a nice Jewish girl from the Bronx, and got selected to be the Macy's Parade Queen in 1926 and 1927.

Miss Olstein, now Helen Gross, turned 101 on May 13. Now living in a retirement community in Plantation, Fla., Mrs. Gross returned as a guest yesterday for the 80th Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, watching the affair from a front-row seat in front of the flagship store on Broadway. On either side were her daughters, Mimi Goldman, 76, and Barbara Cohn, 72.

Born in a small Polish town outside Warsaw, Mrs. Gross immigrated with her parents, sister and brother. They entered through Ellis Island and settled in the Bronx.

“The secret is to keep busy,” Mrs. Gross said of becoming a centenarian. “If you slow down, you’re finished. I still volunteer, I do a lot of reading, and I don’t like to gossip.”

Imagine that. Gossiping is a big no-no.

Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer among thy people
Leviticus 19:16

But then:-

All the attention hasn’t fazed Mrs. Gross. Today, she plans to have a family reunion at a Thai restaurant in Manhattan, joined by her daughters, grandchildren, nephews and nieces. She is to return home tomorrow.

Thai food?

Wall Artist

What's Glastonbury?

Here.

Dawn At Shiloh

Friday, November 23, 2006, Shiloh, 6:15 AM

Grandma Muhammed

Fatma A-Najar, 57, becomes first grandmother suicide bomber

Until 57-year-old Fatma Omar A-Najar blew herself up near Israel Defense Forces troops in the northern Gaza Strip on Thursday, most female suicide bombers had been single. There had also been a few married women - but the 57-year-old Najar was the first grandmother suicide bomber.

Najar, a resident of Jabalya, had nine children and over 40 grandchildren. On Thursday morning, she called her children and asked to see them. She visited those who did not come to see her, without explaining the urgency of the meeting. Her family did not know where she was going when she left her home at roughly 12:00 PM.

Her family tried to explain that there is nothing wrong with a woman, no matter how old she is, carrying out a suicide bombing. Following the suicide attack at the Erez crossing by Rim A-Riashi, who was married with two children, Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin issued a religious ruling permitting female suicide bombers.

Najar's son Jihad told Haaretz that "a martyr's death is permitted for all, women and men." He said his father, Yusuf, died roughly one year ago but that his mother had been very politically involved prior to his death.

That was Haaretz.

Here's Arutz 7 and notice that foremost is the health of our soldiers:-

Three Givati Brigade soldiers were wounded shortly after 5:00 p.m. in an attempted suicide attack by 57-year-old Fatma Omar An-Najar, who detonated the black explosives belt that was strapped to her body when her attempt to reach the soldiers failed.

The troops blocked the attack by throwing a stun grenade at the Hamas terrorist, a mother of nine and grandmother of more than 25. The soldiers were injured by the flying shrapnel from the explosion.

And think about this statement:-

Explaining the suicide bomber’s action, Fathiya al-Najar, her oldest daughter, said that her son had been killed by Israelis, that her mother’s house had been destroyed, and that another grandson was in a wheelchair with an amputated leg. “She and I went to the mosque,” she told reporters. “We were looking for martyrdom.”

Come to think of it, and only if you insist, martyrdom can solve a demographic problem.

France Teaches Israel A Lesson

You want to know how a real, sovereign country acts?

A country that doesn't give a durn about public opinion?

A country that cares dearly for the lives of its citizens?

A country who couldn't care what the other country thinks about it?

Here:-

French soldiers in Lebanon who feel threatened by aggressive Israeli overflights are permitted to shoot at IAF fighter jets, a high-ranking French military officer told The Jerusalem Post.

According to the French officer, Nehushtan apologized for an incident on October 31 when an IAF fighter carried out a mock bombing run over a French UNIFIL position in southern Lebanon, almost prompting troops to fire anti-aircraft missiles.

"There was a reality on the ground and it was important for us to reaffirm what we had seen and explain clearly what are the orders of the French soldiers to protect themselves," the French officer said.

"No assurances were made to us that they [the IAF] would stop [the flights]," the French officer said. "The orders that the [French] soldiers have is that their weapons are for self-defense and if a commander will feel threatened, as it was about to happen on the 31st of October, he would have the right to use force."

Everyone knows that Israel isn't going to strafe French troops, bomb them, missle-launch against them or whatever. Aggressive? These are intelligence fly-overs to ascertain that the friggin' French aren't doing their job in making sure that Hezbollah isn't rearming itself.

But do the French care? Hell no!

Screw the Israelis - we're going to shoot "if we feel threatened", they say.

So, when is Israel going to act like that?

Israel's New Paper Currency Denomination

The portrait is of Arkady Gaydamak.

Hebron's Clarification and Counter-Accusation

22 November 2006

The Honorable Robert Rydberg
Ambassador

Embassy of Sweden
Asia House
4, Rehov Weizmann
64 239 Tel Aviv
Israel

Fax: 03 718 00 05
ambassaden.tel-aviv@foreign.ministry.se

Dear Mr. Rydberg,

We have been informed that the Swedish foreign ministry has appealed to the government of Israel concerning an attack on Swedish citizen Tove Johansson, in Hebron, on Saturday afternoon, 18 November 2006. According to press reports, Ms. Johansson is a member of the extremist Palestinian organization International Solidarity Movement (ISM) and was in Hebron as part of a protest against the Israeli presence in the city.

We would like to clarify several points concerning this incident:

1. The Jewish community of Hebron rejects any and all unnecessary violence of all kinds, by anyone, be they Arab or Jewish. This is community policy, and is enforced to the best of our ability.

2. ISM has had a presence in Hebron for over a year, and other foreign organizations, including TIPH, CPT, and others have had a presence in Hebron for a number of years. Very rarely, if at all, have there been any violent incidents between Hebron's Jewish residents and members of ISM. Community residents do their best to ignore them. At most, there are verbal exchanges between the two sides. We are unfamiliar with complaints issued by ISM activists against Hebron's Jewish residents.

3. In accordance with the above paragraph, and keeping in mind the fact that over 30,000 Jews visited Hebron on 18 Nov 2006, celebrating the purchase of the Tomb of the Patriarchs for the Jewish people by Abraham some 3,700 years ago, it is clear that the perpetrator(s) of the attack were not residents of Hebron's Jewish community.

a. Hebron residents do not, and have not, physically attacked ISM members in Hebron.

b. Hebron's residents are known by security forces in the city, and anyone participating in such an attack would have been easily identified and apprehended. However, the police have yet to identify or arrest anyone who participated in the attack.

c. According to press accounts, one of the perpetrators was quoted as having said,
"I have a flight to France tonight."

d. The fact that an overwhelming majority of the people in Hebron on Saturday, 18 Nov 2006 were not Hebron residents, along with the above-mentioned facts, is clearly proof that no members of Hebron's Jewish community participated in the attack against Ms. Johansson.

4. According to press accounts, police and other security forces requested, prior to the attack, that Ms. Johansson and other protesters vacate the area, due to the sensitivity of their presence. It must be remembered that strict Sabbath observance forbids use of cameras and other such equipment. Photographing people who object to use of cameras on the Sabbath is extremely sensitive and many people object to being photographed on the Sabbath. Ms. Johansson and others were requested by Israeli security forces and others to refrain from photographing Sabbath observers, however, they refused this request. This, of course, does not justify physical attack, however, clearly, had the protestors acceded to this request, most likely the attack would have been avoided.

5. According to various internet accounts, the attackers yelled, "we killed Jesus and we will kill you too." According to eye-witnesses at the scene, this accusation is false. No such phrase was uttered.

6. In addition, according to some written accounts, Ms. Johansson did not receive proper first-aid care from medics that arrived at the scene. This is also a blatant lie. Medics from the Hebron community arrived in a community ambulance, determined the cause of the injury, and then treated Ms. Johansson just as any other injured person is cared for. The Hebron Jewish community ambulance, together with medic and driver, drove Ms. Johansson to Hadassah hospital in Jerusalem, according her full treatment.

7. Finally, the presence of ultra extremist anti-Israel – anti-Jewish organizations such as ISM and other such groups in Hebron is, as can be understood, extremely unpopular amongst Hebron residents and community supporters. Their presence is clearly provocative, with the goal of aiding Arab terrorists who attempt to murder Hebron Jewish residents and support the aim of expelling Jews entirely from the city. As stated above, Hebron's Jewish community does its utmost to ignore these people, despite the trouble they cause the community, action which, at times, borders on clear incitement against Hebron's Jewish residents as well as Israeli security forces in the area. The fact that during such a huge Sabbath celebration, ISM members saw fit to continue public protest, utilizing instruments as cameras on the Sabbath, and photographing people against their will on the Sabbath, is a tremendous provocation. Again, unnecessary violence cannot be justified, but neither can overt public provocation against such a large gathering. Had they refrained from demonstrating, the attack would not have occurred.

8. In conclusion, the Jewish community of Hebron would suggest to the Swedish Foreign Ministry that in order to avoid any other unpleasant incidents in Hebron, that all Swedish citizens, including members of TIPH and others, such as Ms. Johansson, be requested to stop their politically provocative anti-Jewish activities, leave Hebron immediately and stop interfering in internal Israeli affairs.

Sincerely,

David Wilder Noam Arnon
Hebron Community Council Members
Spokesmen
The Jewish Community of Hebron

The Grounding of Judea and Samaria - My Op-ed in the JPost

Some excerpts from my op-ed on the Peace Now report in today's Jerusalem Post:

The grounding of Judea and Samaria

A few months after my family and I moved to Shiloh in 1981, I witnessed a microcosm of the land problem between Jews and Arabs. A section of land was to be put aside for security purposes and, as the legal procedure dictated, the mukhtars of nearby villages were informed and asked to make sure that any resident claiming private ownership rights should show up on a certain day to stake his claim.

Sure enough, at the appointed hour, seven Arabs walked onto the area and then were asked to stand on what each claimed as his private plot. Within minutes a difficult situation developed when two villagers stood on the same fertile section, insisting that each owned it. A minute later and they were throwing stones at each other.

We, the residents of Shiloh, the IDF officers and legal officials all stood around amazed. In the end, with no documents, no tax receipts, no maps nor any other reliable proof of ownership, the land was confirmed as "state land" and assigned to its new use.

The new Peace Now report, "Breaking the Law in the West Bank," besides making the front page of The New York Times, has generated local headlines as well. Claiming access to leaked "precise" information regarding the legal status of the land upon which Jewish revenant communities have been established, the group asserts that a "direct violation of Israeli law" has been done by "the state itself."

As the League of Nations Mandate makes clear, in Article 6, "the Administration of Palestine... shall encourage, in cooperation with the Jewish Agency... close settlement by Jews on the land, including state lands and waste lands not acquired for public purposes."

State lands make up the vast majority of the area in Judea and Samaria. Land disputes began with the Turkish Ottoman administration and continued throughout the British Mandate period. At the base of the Peace Now approach is the rehashing of many Arab propaganda claims, now being given legitimization by sympathetic Jews.

Peace Now doesn't recognize, it would seem, Jewish land purchases. It would be interesting to learn whether the concern of Peace Now for private land extends to Jews who own property in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, either from pre-state days or afterward, and cannot realize the land's potential due to Israeli government policy or Arab terrorism, such as at Havat Gilad.

THERE IS, it need be admitted, a very fundamental chasm between Peace Now and the reality on the ground. Property disputes have always existed, especially since the first land registration -Tabu - law was promulgated from the days of the Turks only in 1858.

But we should not lose sight of the major issue and that is that this conflict is not about private property but one between two nations claiming the same land.

Even if 51% of the land in question was owned by Jews as private property, Peace Now would oppose a Jewish presence in the area. Shiloh, Hebron and Beit El are place names that simply do not resonate with these concessionists. Their goal is simple: to get the Jews out of the territory they want for a future Palestinian state. To this end, even a juggling of terms and data is permissible.

Full text also here.

A. Barak Follow-Up

You read about this previously here and now the (delayed) action:-

High Court of Justice President Dorit Beinisch on Wednesday removed the court's former president, Aharon Barak, from a panel of justices ruling on a petition for reforms in Israel's child adoption policy, due to conflicts of interest.

Barak officially heads a panel of seven justices reviewing a petition submitted by the Center for Pluralistic Judaism, the legal arm of the Movement for Progressive Judaism, against the Welfare Ministry. The petition calls for an end to the custom of placing non-Jewish children for adoption with Orthodox families only.

Barak was recently awarded an honorary doctorate from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, the movement's academic arm, and his decision to remain at the head of the panel has raised public ire.

Road Rage in a Rut

The New York Times published a story on the troubles on the road for Arabs in Yesha.

Here are three good responses from the Letters' Column:

Your reporter traces a long and frustrating road for Palestinians subjected to Israeli checkpoints and barriers. Perhaps he should have asked some Palestinians waiting in line some important questions:

What would their lives be like today if they had not rejected Bill Clinton’s peace proposal in 2000? Would they be waiting at checkpoints if they had not launched their reign of terror against Israeli civilians?

Where would Palestinians be if they had not elected Hamas? And what if after the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, they had concentrated on building a civil society rather than shooting rockets into Israel?

Palestinian suffering is real. But that is not the real story. The real story is how Palestinians themselves have caused this suffering and use it in the concerted drive to delegitimize Israel and eliminate it as a Jewish state.

Gregg M. Mashberg
New Rochelle, N.Y.


To the Editor:

You describe the difficulties facing the residents of the West Bank because of the numerous checkpoints and other security measures taken by the Israeli Army.

It is important to remember that death, contrary to inconvenience and hardship, is irreversible.

The security measures in the West Bank, including the security fence, have saved hundreds of Israeli lives. As soon as the Palestinian war of terror ceases, there will be no need for checkpoints and fences.

Jacob Amir
Jerusalem


To the Editor:

You describe quite well the situation for Palestinians and Israelis needing to travel West Bank highways. I might add that near my home there is a traffic circle with a spoke into a road leading directly into Bethlehem.

As a symbol of Israeli optimism for the “peace process,” the traffic circle was started before and finished shortly after the war began.

The road to Bethlehem is now mostly closed to traffic. I hope that it will be opened one day.

Barry Lynn
Efrat, West Bank

Muqata has OU'ed Olmert

Found this



here, at Muqata.

Olmert in the Middle of a Moment of Critical Thinking

Backwards

Here's a letter of mine, sent to The Forward, that didn't get published:

David Grossman called upon Israelis to "stop for a moment [and] take a look into the abyss" in his Rabin Memorial speech ("A Hollow Leadership, And a Miracle Squandered", Nov. 10). The phenomenom of intellectuals and men of letters and the spirit is deeply-ingrained in Israel. However, to excell in literature and science is no guarantee of wisdom.

Israel has already been through an abyss, having been forced there by the policies of those, goaded on by persons such as Grossman, who wish to concede, yield and compromise. Land was surrendered. Security was endangered. Troops were removed from strategic positions. Violations of agreements were ignored. Terrorists were armed. Supervision over the smuggling of arms and war materiel was removed from Israeli control. International funding for humanitarian projects went uncontrolled.

Jewish communities were razed and their population, in an unprecedented act of expulsion, reduced to pariahs. Jews abroad pressured their governments to pressure Israel. This was the period of the Oslo Accords, beginning in 1993, to be followed by the Lebanon retreat and the Camp David II Conference.

The result of all this was death, horrible death and maiming. Suicide bombings and Kassam missiles. And no willingness on the other side to coexist, to cooperate, to reciprocate. Over 13 years of pain, agony and mourning.

How is it possible for such Jews as Grossman to love peace so much that they will sacrifice so many of their fellow citizens and their country's future for such dubious arrangements?

Exemplary Example

As those who read my wife's blog know, she teaches at the Mateh Binyamin Yeshiva High School at Bet El.

In yesterday's Yedioth Ahronot, I learned that last year's graduating class has the following military statistics:

4 Elite Reconaisannce unit
6 Golani Brigade
4 Armored Corps
2 Paratrooper Brigade
2 Nahal
1 Kfir Brigade
1 Homefront Emergency Unit
1 Police
1 Medical deferrment
3 Higher learning

Not bad out of a class of 25.

Holey Moses!

And with apologies to Moses:-

Security fence breached near J'lem

Entire segments of the security fence near Jerusalem have been breached, allowing dozens of Palestinians to enter the country from the West Bank on a daily basis, Channel 10 reported on Monday evening.

According to the report, no fence remained at all for a stretch of some eight kilometers, and every meter or so, the upper part of the fence was bent.

Holes in the barrier were noted approximately every 100 meters, and the alarm system had been disconnected.

The discovery raises the question of the effectiveness of the barrier, which was built to keep terrorists from infiltrating the country.

Oops, there goes another strategic security concept.

No Little Irony (and a Great Deal of Chutzpah!)

Dani Wassner pointed this out to me, remarking "Unbelievable that he can't see the irony of his words". Here is Olmert referring to Gaydamak whisking 1600 Sdereot residents off to Eilat:-

(Communicated by the Prime Minister’s Media Adviser)

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert this afternoon (Sunday), 19.11.06, convened a discussion with Defense Minister Amir Peretz, Public Security Minister Avi Dichter, Education Minister Yuli Tamir, Interior Minister Ronnie Bar-On, Minister Yitzhak Cohen, Ashkelon Mayor Roni Mehatzri, Sderot Mayor Eli Moyal, the chairmen of the Eshkol, Sdot Hanegev and Ashkelon Coast regional councils, the directors-general of several Government ministries and other senior officials on the continuation of Government assistance to Sderot and other communities near the Gaza Strip.

Prime Minister Olmert made the following remarks at the start of the meeting: “Throughout our history in this Land, during far more difficult times, we have never run away from our homes. We will not lend a hand to hasty actions that may be good for two or three days but which are liable to have destructive long-term effects.

We do not want to take people out of their homes. Localized instances will be dealt with case-by-case but to load people on buses and whisk them off to five-star hotels? In no way is this Government policy.”

If you didn't get the irony, think DISENGAGEMENT, think Lebanon retreat in 2000.

No running away?

No busing people to hotels?

Nothing hasty and not thought out?

Olmert, you are such a p*tz.

A Great Idea

EG called my just now from London with a brilliant, or as the Brits say, a really clever idea.

Israel is facing a new problem:-

Israel halted an airstrike against the house of a suspected Palestinian militant in Gaza over the weekend, after the family ignored a warning from the Israeli military and neighbors flocked to the house in numbers to prevent the bombing.

On Sunday, hundreds of Palestinians, including the Palestinian prime minister, manned the house outside - on balconies and the roof - throughout the day. They declared a victory for "popular resistance" as Israel, under criticism for killing civilians in such strikes, called it another example of Palestinians using civilians to shield military activity...But Palestinians celebrated it as a possibly potent new defense against air raids that Israel may find difficult to counter.

The strike was aimed against the house of leaders of the militant group the Popular Resistance Committees...The military spokesman said the attack on the house was called off late Saturday after a routine telephone warning to evacuate the house was ignored. "We didn't want to harm civilians," he said.

Well, EG suggests, why not have the army simply begin calling up different potential locations to warn about an upcoming airstrike, starting at one a day and then working it up to two and three a day.

The result?

Hundreds of Arabs running around like, as we say, chickens without a head. Rushing about, getting tired, getting bothered.

Within a few days, we should have the problem solved.

====================

A comment I received from US:-

Winkie, I just got out of the car after hearing a BBC radio interview with the human shielders and thought of exactly the same idea. Also as it’s mainly women, if they’re out all night protecting these animals perhaps the birth rate will go down!

Regards,

Klein K'nocks

Mort Klein, National President of the Zionist Organization of America, has a letter in today's NYTimes:-

In “In New Middle East, Tests for an Old Friendship” (“Anatomy of an Alliance” series, front page, Nov. 13), you say Prof. John J. Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago urges more American pressure on Israel to solve the Palestinian question.

But Israel has already given up much of the disputed West Bank and all of Gaza, has released numerous Palestinian Arab prisoners and promised more to come, while getting in return a Hamas regime, terrorism, murder and promotion of hatred against Israel in their media, school books and sermons.

How much more should Israel give before the Palestinian Arabs show even a scintilla of interest in living in peace with Israel?

He could have added that Israel has been yielding territory ever since 1922 (when TransJordan was created for that Saudi Arabian refugee), 1937 when the Zionist Organization agreed in principle to the first Partition Plan, acceded in 1947 to the UN Partition Plan, gave back Sinai to Egypt in 1957, etc., etc.

New Blogger Up and Posting

A Liberal Defense of Israel.

Raison d'etre:-

A blog designed to correct the false impression that Israel is an illiberal, fascist, or apartheid state. Here, I shall present arguments to show that Israel actually embodies the best in democracy, anti-racist, religious freedom, and rights for women, gays, and minorities of different kinds.

Good luck.

Pappe the Pooper

Ilan Pappe has a new book out. The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine. Oneworld; 313 pages; £16.99.

Here's how the Economist sees it:-

For the 1948 crowd, however, this way of thinking about the conflict is a mistake. They argue that peace is impossible unless Israel admits to and atones for the crime they say it committed nearly 60 years ago, in its independence war of 1948. That crime, they say, was deliberately to expel most of the Arabs of Palestine, close to 800,000 people, in order to be sure of having a Jewish majority for the Jewish state. Unless Israel somehow makes amends for this earlier catastrophe, which the Arabs call the nakba, peace is an impossibility.

Ilan Pappe, a political scientist at the University of Haifa, is one of the purest Israeli exponents of the 1948 view. He knows how provocative it is to choose the phrase “ethnic cleansing” for the title of his latest book. But ethnic cleansing, he insists, is precisely what occurred in the first Arab-Israeli war. It was, he says, a long-premeditated crime, implemented ruthlessly and then systematically denied. In 1948 the Zionists did not happen to wage a war that tragically but inevitably led to the expulsion of parts of the indigenous population. The ethnic cleansing of all of Palestine, he maintains, was the main goal all along.

Inside Israel, the historiography of 1948 has been...[that] in the course of the war that followed, the Jews overcame vast odds, guaranteeing their survival and expanding the territory allotted to them under the original plan. In the course of the fighting, most of the Arab population fled.

Mr Pappe, however, goes a good deal further...He insists that there was indeed a master plan. On March 10th 1948, he asserts, 11 men met at the “red house”, the Tel Aviv headquarters of Israel's pre-state army, the Haganah, to put the final touches to Plan Dalet, “a plan for the ethnic cleansing of Palestine”. That evening, military orders were sent to units on the ground to prepare for the expulsion of the Palestinians. Mr Pappe calls this group of men the “consultancy”, an ad hoc cabal of political and military leaders dominated by Ben-Gurion. And population transfer did not just “hover” in the background of their thinking, he says. It was central from the start...

...It is not, alas, so simple. The consultancy rarely kept minutes. Ben-Gurion was a prodigious diarist, but selective in what he recorded. Mr Pappe admits that he does not in fact know what Ben-Gurion said at the supposedly fateful “red house” meeting on March 10th. As for Plan Dalet, this is no new discovery by Mr Pappe. The plan has been public for decades and does not read unambiguously like a master plan for wholesale ethnic cleansing. The aim was to crush the Palestinian militias before the Haganah had to face the invading Arab armies. It gave commanders discretion to occupy or destroy and expel hostile villages or potentially hostile villages; some destroyed swathes of villages and a few did not. And Mr Pappe's detractors will ask why he ignores the orders sent out by the chief of staff of the Haganah, Israel Galili, on March 24th, reminding commanders of the policy to protect the “full rights, needs, and freedom of the Arabs in the Hebrew state without discrimination”.

And what about the ethnic cleansing attempts at Tel Chai in 1920, Petah Tikva in 1921, Hebron in 1929, Gush Etzion in 1947-48 among others? That's not real ethnic cleanisng?

A Mention Here ("Columnist, Blogger, Pundit")

Another mention in an article here:-

Beginning at least a decade ago, the national religious camp, the hard core Zionist and Orthodox ideology prevalent among the settler movement, launched a concerted drive to increase their profile in the military.

"There is a major sociological revolution that has gone on in the past decade or so that has placed the religious national youth in the forefront of the army," maintains Yisrael Medad, a settler columnist, blogger and pundit.

In the early 1990s, settler leaders established a pair of year-long prep-schools that combined religious study with military training.

The program has been wildly successful. Today there are 15 such schools and settlers now say they are disproportionately represented inside the army's officer corps and its most elite front line ranks.

Medad claims that one-third of all field commanders from the rank of lieutenant to captain are from the national religious camp, mostly settlers, a claim ridiculed by a professional army in which national service is compulsory.

========================

UPDATE

I sent them this letter:-

I belatedly reviewed your story ("Settlers influence in Israeli army growing",) of the serving of Jewish revenants in the communities in areas not under Israeli sovereignty and read these words: "Perhaps the most trumped-up tale of Israeli heroism in Lebanon…As the story goes…". This is a bit of cruel writing.

"Trumped-up" possesses a negative connotation of unbelievability. Add to that the phrase "as the story goes" and you are clearly intimating that the facts are not facts. But the incident is indeed true. Why the pejorative semantics?

Yisrael Medad

(done at the instigation of RA)

Historical Footnote

Another bit of history.

I'm mentioned in this radical left-wing story of JDL & Kahane:-

As a teen-ager Kahane was a member of Betar, the youth wing of the Revisionist movement. Together with his young colleagues, Kahane packed arms at the Hoboken docks to be smuggled to the Irgun during Israel’s war of independence. At the time, Betar’s leader in the United States was Moshe Arens, who later became Israel’s Ambassador to the United States.

When Kahane founded the J.D.L., most of its core members were his childhood friends from Betar. Through the 1970s, the J.D.L. worked closely with Betar’s New York chapters, coordinating often violent protests against Arabs and the Russians. The Betar official who arranged events with the J.D.L. was Yisrael Medad, now Geula Cohen’s chief legislative aide.

A Very Unfair Consulate Survey

Please study the document below.

It is page three of a three-page survey and it it distributed to those who come to the American Consulate on Nablus Road in Jerusalem.



Okay, you've read it.

Now, imagine you are an Arab. Well, at question 8 you'll most probably check "yes". After all, how is anyone at the Consulate going to check if you've made a true or false statement?

Question 9, you'll take a chance and note the third choice, at least 3 checkpoints.

Question 10, you'll check that it was "very difficult" for you to travel to the Consulate. Why not?

And then, these surveys are collected and once a year, they make their way into the U.S. Human Rights report or they'll be used to confront Israeli officilas. Or Condi Rice can say with impunity that there is daily humiliation of "Palestinians". [“I believe that there could be no greater legacy for America than to help to bring into being a Palestinian state for a people who have suffered too long, who have been humiliated too long...]

See how easy it can be to fool everybody?

I don't think this is fair.

And if anyone in the consulate can correct me, I'd appreciate it. And I'll do it without revealing your identity.

=================================

UPDATE

IMRA
Independent Media Review and Analysis
סוכנות ידיעות אימרה
POB 53 Raanana Israel
Tel 972-9-7604719/Fax 972-9-7411645
e-mail: imra@netvision.net.il
http://www.imra.org.il

Attn: Spokesperson – US Consulate 02-5610325

Re: Question about survey form used in the Consulate, 19.11.06

Kindly clarify why the survey form (see attached) does not ask questions relating to factors that impact on the ability of Jewish Americans residing in the West Bank to partake in the services of the Consulate (questions relating to security on the roads between the Consulate and their communities).

Best regards,

Dr. Aaron Lerner

Don't Worry, We'll Get Him Yet

Reuters reports:

The Israeli army cancelled a planned air raid on the home of a Gaza militant on Sunday after several hundred Palestinians barricaded themselves inside the building, an Israeli military spokesman and witnesses said.

And here they are:

Palestinian sources called the protest the first of its kind to have in effect prevented an air strike by the Israeli military, which said it held off to avoid civilian casualties.

Israel had served a customary warning to the family of a militant of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) in Jabalya refugee camp to evacuate their home because it would soon be bombed, the spokesman and Palestinian witnesses said.

Hundreds of neighbors and protesters gathered at the site, many barricading themselves inside the house and on its roof in defiance of the warning, witnesses said.

No more phones calls, I guess.

When "Illegal" is Actually Quite "Legal"

Jeremy Ben-Ami is senior vice president of Fenton Communications and an adviser to MoveOn.org. He is a board member of the David S. Wyman Institute on Holocaust Studies and of Americans for Peace Now. Definitely to the "Left".

But his father, Yitzhaq, was way right, a member of the Irgun and the Bergson Group. I helped him research his book.

Here's an excerpt from Jeremy's tribute to his father:-

Soon after the Melk reached Palestine in safety, my father was sent to the United States to seek funds and political support for refugee-smuggling operations. At about the same time, David Ben-Gurion, leader of the Labor Zionists in Palestine, arrived in the United States to persuade Jewish leaders to support an “aliyah war” — bringing large numbers of Jews to Palestine in defiance of the British — “and confront England with the need to combat aliyah with force.”

Neither my father’s efforts nor Ben-Gurion’s found much support among Jewish leaders. One opponent was Rabbi Stephen Wise, longtime leader of the Zionist Organization of America and the American Jewish Congress. Wise, who was deeply loyal to President Franklin Roosevelt, believed American Jews should support FDR’s pro-British policy, and refrain from “anti-British agitation” on the Palestine issue, “even if the Zionist cause suffered.”

My father did not know at the time that he had support in some very high places for his view that resistance to the British was justified. Recent research by The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies has uncovered documents showing that Louis Brandeis, then recently retired from the Supreme Court, supported the refugee-smuggling campaign. At a meeting of Jewish leaders in the summer of 1939, Brandeis slapped down a suggestion that bringing Jews to Palestine in defiance of the British was “illegal.” “It may be considered illegal by Great Britain, but we Jews consider it to be legal,” Brandeis said.

It may seem odd that a venerated Supreme Court justice would endorse breaking the laws of an American ally. But the “Jewish Underground Railroad” that my father and others ran in Europe in the 1930s was based on the same moral principle that energized the original Underground Railroad, which helped black slaves illegally escape the South. Even a former Supreme Court Justice recognized that sometimes the stakes are so high that we must have the courage to act in accordance with our moral principles, even at the cost of violating the law.

On this anniversary of Kristallnacht, the courage of those who resisted is also a lesson worth remembering.

What? Universities Don't Create Intelligent People?

And here I thought that if you went to a university you were trained in logical analysis thinking, were introduced to the philosphy of ethics and morals and...oh, well, maybe not.

Universities to get guidance on tackling extremism

Britain faces a serious threat from Muslim extremists trying to recruit university students to terrorism, the higher education minister, Bill Rammell, will warn today.
Mr Rammell will release new guidance on what lecturers should do to tackle violent groups targeting vulnerable undergraduates and preaching hatred on campus.

The guidance contains advice on how to respond if staff suspect groups are circulating extremist literature to students or if they are concerned about radical speakers visiting a university.

Mr Rammell insisted Muslims were not being singled out - but he stressed that the threat from Islamic radicals must be faced head on.

He said: "The guidance provides a recognition - that I believe must be faced squarely - that violent extremism in the name of Islam is a real, credible and sustained threat to the UK.

"And that there is evidence of serious, but not widespread, Islamist extremist activity in higher education institutions.

"This guidance is not about targeting one particular community. It is about promoting safety within higher education institutions and the wider community and about higher education providers taking their responsibilities for the safety and welfare of all their staff and students very seriously."

He added: "It is also about protecting vulnerable students from bullying and harassment and other recruiting tactics of violent extremist groups."

And Now, the "Silly Quotient" in Politics

Our Israeli politicians, for the most part, are intelligent people. And they are extremely clever and devious, too, even though we have more that quite a few facing jail, facing embarassment (Katzav, Olmert, Ramon, Hanegbi, et al.). And they can be so off-putting when it comes to their commitment to the national purpose.

It seems that there is a new measuring device called the "silly quotient". Well, not really, but read this piece from the London Times and maybe you'll come to the realization that we in Israel could identify with its contents.

An excerpt from
Yes minister, but isn't that rather silly?
Jane Shilling

...I have always thought silliness a rather underrated virtue. You can’t grow up, as I did, on a diet of Andrew Lang’s Red, Blue and Yellow books of fairy stories without eventually noticing that, in the end, silliness trumps cleverness and sophistication every time.

One of the earliest meanings of “silly”, before the word came exclusively to mean foolish, was “innocent”. And although that meaning has fallen away from the dictionary definition, it is remarkable how a certain air of slightly mad simplicity still clings to big new ideas...

...What got me started on this train of thought was silliness in politics, and not necessarily in the benign, fairytale, pre-Chaucerian, innocent sense. There is a sort of political trope — you could call it an initiative — that takes the form of a Ministerial Bright Idea. Quite often (for ministers, though they may be silly, are rarely stupid) it is a notion that, if put into practice, would make a useful difference to the lives of the electorate. But almost invariably it is delivered in a style so objectionable, so patronising, so maddeningly . . . silly, as to make the electorate want to rise up and deliver to the minister concerned a sharp smack round the head, so as to bring her (or him) to his (or her) senses.

...Two decades is a long time in politics. Long enough, you’d think, for ministers to have learnt a thing or two about delivering initiatives. But nah. This week they’re at it again and nothing has changed.

Now, where is the Israeli satirist to put this into local parlance and form?

Has No One a Sense of Humor Anymore?

LOS ANGELES (AP) - The owner of an etiquette business who was handed a plastic bag supposedly containing feces in the hit movie "Borat" says she was told the filming would be used for a documentary in Belarus.

Cindy Streit said she filed a complaint Thursday with California Attorney General Bill Lockyer, requesting an investigation into possible violations of the California Unfair Trade Practices Act...

...Streit said she arranged in Alabama both a sit-down session with Borat, played by comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, and a dinner party with some of her friends. Clips of both appear in the movie "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit of Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan."

Though awkward at times, the dinner went well until Borat asked to use the bathroom, Streit said.

"I had taught him to excuse himself. He did that correctly and went upstairs," Streit told The Associated Press. "The next thing that happened is that he came down the stairs holding this plastic bag with whatever was in it."

"My horror was that he had brought a bag of feces to my dinner table," she said.

Springland put in writing that the second of two scheduled sessions "will be filmed as part of a documentary for Belarus Television and for those purposes only," said Gloria Allred, Streit's lawyer.

Streit, 59, said she requested an investigation by the attorney general instead of filing a lawsuit in hopes of setting a precedent that will make movie studios think twice before using other ordinary citizens for "reality movies." However, she said she wouldn't rule out a lawsuit.

Streit's demand follows complaints by others shown in the film, including a lawsuit filed by two fraternity members from a South Carolina university who appear in the film drunk.

Borat seems to have spawned a secondary industry of denials, lawsutis and general all-around anger at being duped.

But with all the money he's raking in (he's #1 this week at $28.3 million), I don't think he's worrying.

German Intellectuals Have Got It All Backwards

The Frankfurter Rundschau reports:-

"Kritik an Israel erlaubt"

Politologen fordern neue deutsche Nahost-Politik

Deutschland stehe wegen des Holocaust nicht nur bei Israel, sondern auch bei den Palästinensern in der Pflicht. Das sagen deutsche Wissenschaftler.

Frankfurt a. M. - 25 deutsche Politologen wollen die derzeit bestehenden "besonderen Beziehungen" zwischen Deutschland und Israel ändern. In einem Manifest, das sie erstmals in der Frankfurter Rundschau veröffentlichen, lehnen sie falsch verstandene Rücksichtnahme gegenüber israelischer Politik ab und plädieren für eine "belastungsfähige Freundschaft", in der auch "Kritik ihren Platz hat".

Tragende Kräfte in der deutschen Gesellschaft hätten Scham und Trauer über den Holocaust zu einem "Ritual" verflacht. Dadurch sei ein "problematischer Philosemitismus" entstanden. Die Auswirkungen der Shoa hätten auch viel Leid über die Palästinenser gebracht. Deutschland müsse nun helfen, den palästinensisch-israelischen Konflikt zu entschärfen.

So, what's this all about?

The JPost sent me to the story:-

In a lengthy petition published in the Frankfurter Rundschau regional newspaper Wednesday, the scholars said that, "The roots of this bloody 60-year confrontation in the Middle East are German and European. The Palestinian population doesn't have the responsibility to take on European problems in the Middle East," according to translations in English-language media.

The signers also questioned whether German backing for Israel was causing tension within German society, and objected to German sales of hi-tech weaponry to Israel despite its actions against the Palestinians.

In addition, the petition also requests a "friendship free from past burdens" between the two countries, in which Israel could be criticized, and, according to news accounts, states that "a large part of the German society has turned the shame and grief of the Holocaust into a ceremonial matter. That is how a problematic philo-Semitism has developed in Germany."

Recognizing Palestinian suffering as an outcome of the Holocaust has been a long-time probl;em and even Menachem Begin had to deal with it with Schmidt.

The head of the delegation, Frank Lautenburg, a patrician, soft-spoken gentleman who was shortly to be elected United States Senator for New Jersey, asked if the prime minister would care to elaborate on that. He had heard that the prime minister had had a serious quarrel with the German chancellor, and that, as a consequence, relations between the two countries were strained.

BEGIN STROKED the chin of his gaunt face, and to lend added sincerity to the words he was about to say, leaned across the table from the front edge of his chair and gazed into Lautenburg's eyes with great earnestness.

"It is true, Frank," he said. "I reprimanded Helmut Schmidt in public."

"What had he done? What had he said?"

"He had gone to Saudi Arabia, and he had said in a public statement that Germany had obligations to various peoples, among them the Palestinians, but he made no mention of the Jews.

"I was beside myself with astonishment. Could it be, I said to myself, that he, of all people, had failed to make mention of Germany's obligation to the Jews - and in Saudi Arabia, of all places? So, yes, I told him what I thought of him in public."

"And how did he respond?"

"He demanded an apology, but I refused. I publicly told him that he had shown arrogance and callous disregard of the Jews exterminated by his people in World War II. And I counseled him to take an example from his predecessor, Chancellor Willy Brandt. I told him to do what Brandt did: to go to Warsaw. I told him to go to the site where the Jewish ghetto once stood.

"Go down on your knees, Mr. Schmidt, I told him. Go down on you knees and beg forgiveness of the Jewish people for what your countrymen perpetrated under the Nazi regime against my people, at a time when you, Mr. Schmidt, remained steadfast to the personal oath you had given to Adolf Hitler, as a soldier in the Wehrmacht."

And here's the official version:-

I will not apologize to Mr. Schmidt, either publicly or privately, whatever the conditions he puts.

Mr. Schmidt traveled to Saudi Arabia some time ago. During and after his visit he made some incredible statements, astonishing from every point of view, and particularly so from the standpoint of the head of government of a nation which bears historic responsibility for the extermination of six million Jews, amongst them a million and a half little children. Mr. Schmidt mentioned Auschwitz and said that he acknowledges the obligation of Germany towards a number of peoples - but the Jewish people was not listed amongst them. Mr. Schmidt spoke of Germany's obligation towards the Palestinians and said not a word of Germany's obligation towards the Jewish people.

In reaction to all those statements I said in a speech that according to a report I got, Mr. Schmidt, as a lieutenant in Hitler's army, was among the viewers of a film showing the hanging by piano wire of German officers who had rebelled against the National Socialist regime.

My friend, Dr. Gideon Hausner, Chairman of the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Committee, pointed out to me that Lieutenant Schmidt had not participated in the screening of the above film, but he had been invited to and participated in a trial presided over by the infamous Nazi judge Freisler.

I chose to rely upon the information given me by Dr. Hausner, and, accordingly, I informed Bundestag member, Mr. Blumenfeld, that I will not hesitate to admit the error concerning the film. However, participation in the above mentioned Nazi trial is of itself a most grave event in the biography of one of the tens of thousands of German officers during the Holocaust.

I will not apologize to Mr. Schmidt. Rather, I counsel him, speaking as a free man who fought for the continued existence and the liberation of the Jewish people, that he take an example from his predecessor Mr. Brandt, visit Warsaw, go to the site where the Jewish ghetto once stood, go down on his knees and ask the forgiveness of the Jewish people and of all nations loving justice and liberty for what his countrymen perpetrated under the National Socialist regime against my people at the time when Mr. Schmidt remained faithful to the personal oath he had given to Adolf Hitler as a soldier and officer in his army.

The problem is, though, that applauded academics, like Baruch Kimmerling, hold these opinions:-

"...the introduction of the Holocaust into the discourse and the conflict between us and the Palestinians is insufferable because the Palestinians are not an "involved party" to the Holocaust, except in the way that all humanity is involved in it.

The connection between the Jewish Holocaust and the Arab catastrophe exists also in Palestinian historiography, but the context and its meaning is different. The Palestinian complaint on this is familiar and clear. Not Muslims or Arabs but the Christian West, Europeans and Americans, perpetrated a terrible crime against the Jewish people. Some carried out the extermination; others closed their eyes and did nothing to prevent it. After they committed their crimes against the Jews, they washed their hands of responsibility and made the Arab-Oriental people pay the price by helping to dispossess them of their land, thus compounding one crime with another. It is no wonder, therefore, that many Palestinians and other Arabs feel deep resentment towards the West -- a resentment perhaps especially strong among the most "Westernized" of the Arabs.

I have dealt with the inimical issue previously and my position is that if there is a "Holocaust connection", it is that of the links between the Arabs of Palestine and their leader, the Mufti Haj Amin El-Husseini, and German Nazism including active support for the killing of Jews in Europe and the Palestine Mandate as well as causing enough pressure on British diplomats to effectively keep the Jews in Europe where Hitler was better able to murder them.

Their violence prior to the Holocaust was an enabling factor in the post-Holocaust result of 6,000,000 murdered Jews. Had we only had a state previously, one we have full rights to in the area of the historic boundaries of the Jewish national homeland. More info is located here where you can read this:-

British National Archives unveil presence of Nazi S.S. agents in Mandatory Palestine, working closely with Palestinian leaders

Historical documents in Britain’s National Archives in London show that Nazi Germany attempted to ship arms to Palestinian forces in the 1930s.

A British Foreign Office report from 1939 reports of “news of a consignment of arms from Germany, sent via Turkey and addressed to Ibn Saud (king of Saudi Arabia), but really intended for the Palestine insurgents.” Britain’s chief military officer in Mandatory Palestine also noted reports “regarding import of German arms at intervals for some years now.”

British documents from the same period, and German records photographed by an American spy and sent to the British government, said that a number of Nazi agents were sent to Mandatory Palestine, in order to forge alliances with Palestinian leaders, and urge them to reject a partition of the land between the Jewish and Arab populations.

One Nazi agent, Adam Vollhardt, arrived in Palestine in July 1938, and was reported to have gained strong influence with Arab leaders, meeting with Palestinian leaders throughout 1938. Vollhardt held several meetings with leading Arab politicians and told them “that the Palestine question would be settled to the satisfaction of the Arabs within a few weeks,” adding that “it would be fatal to their (Palestinians’) cause if at this juncture they showed any signs of weakness or exhaustion.”

“Germany was interested in the settlement of the (Palestine) question on the basis of the Arabs obtaining their full demands,” Vollhardt was reported to say to Palestinian leaders, according to a report by the British War Office. Vollhardt also assured Arab leaders that “the Germans could continue to support the Palestinian Arab cause by means of propaganda.”

German documents photographed and sent to Whitehall by an American spy revealed that in 1937, German officials had calculated that “Palestine under Arab rule would… become one of the few countries where we could count on a strong sympathy for the new Germany.”

So, are these Germans really sure that their stance should be that to reject:-

"a 'falsely shown consideration' with regards to Israel"

and to plead

"for a 'more resilient friendship'."

These signatories of the manifesto who stress that it was the Nazi Holocaust which had led to the 'suffering of Palestinians over the past six decades' as well as political experts who hold Germany responsible for 'the transformation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict' are all wrong and have it all backwards.

Whereas this group has warned that unless Berlin treats Israeli and Palestinians equally and in an unbiased way, there would be 'no dialogue on an equal footing', they have not engaged the true relationship between 'Pals' and the antisemitism of Hitler, one that found friendship in the other.

Maybe they are antisemitic, too?

Yalkut Shimoni & the Temple Mount - Let's Not Be Forlorn

The Yalkut Shimoni is a commentary on the Tanakh first published in 1521 but compiled in the early 13th century.

As the Temple Mount Movement pointed out in their weekly political ad in Makor Rishon, there is an interesting link up between our troubles with Yishmael, symbolizing the Arabs, and the Temple Mount.

At the end of this week's Biblical portion, the YS writes:

וישכנו מחוילה עד שור וגו' הכא את אמר נפל ולהלן את אמר ישכון אלא כל ימים שהיה אברהם אבינו חי ישכון וכיון שמת אברהם אבינו נפל. עד שלא פשט ידו בבית המקדש ישכון כיון שפשט ידו בבית המקדש נפל. בעולם הזה ישכון אבל לעתיד לבוא נפל:

Translation:
[On the verse Genesis 25:18] "They lived from Chavilah to Shur, which borders on Egypt, going towards Asshur. He lived in the presence of all his brethren,", the Hebrew word used for 'live' is "fall" and the YS comments that not until he stretched out his hand, i.e., acted aggressively, towards the Temple did he fall, i/e/, descend in importance and material and spiritual value.

The Islamists insist on denying Jews their rights to the Temple Mount and the state authorities aid in this shame. Jewish antiquities are destroyed. Jordan now wants to build a fifth minaret. Plans are being prepared for a synagogue up there. Things could get out of control.

But an ancient Midrashic commentary seems to indicate that not all is to be viewed forlornly.

This Must Be Islam

I had this post earlier about Muslim men groping Muslim women in Cairo (imagine what they'd do to Jewish women). And I asked, "is this Islam"?

Well, here's a not nice story:-

Jerusalem District Court on Tuesday sentenced an East Jerusalem woman to 15 years in prison for assisting in the "honor killing" of two of her daughters, and in the attempted murder of a third.

Sara Shakirat's son, 29-year-old Maher Shakirat, committed the two killings and was also carried out the attempted murder.

Amani Shakirat, 20, and her pregnant 28-year-old sister Rudeina were found dead at their home in the village of Jabel Mukaber in May 2005. Police couldn't say whether the women had swallowed acid, or had been strangled. Their sister Leila, 24, was found in serious condition. Relatives said that she had swallowed acid in a suicide attempt.

The incident began when the parents suspected that Rudeina had damaged the family's honor by being unfaithful with her husband's uncle. Rudeina, who was in the ninth month of her pregnancy when she was killed, did not know who the father was. Maher Shakirat asked his parents' permission to kill all three sisters, on the grounds that the pther two were party to Rudeina's secret affair.

On May 2, the father sent most of the family members out of the house, and Maher asked Rudeina and Amani to drink the acid that he had bought, so that he would not have to kill them himself. The two women drank the acid, but did not die, after which Maher strangled them both with a cord.

At this time, Sara Shakirat was in the house, and backed up her son. She even called the third daughter, Leila, and invited her to the house so that Maher could kill her too.

When Leila arrived, Maher tried to strangle her and threw acid over her, but she survived and even acted as a witness for her mother during sentencing.

But there's a Jew in this story, a far left-wing, radical Jew who defends Arab terrorists who kill Jews and her name is Leah Tzemel. And what did she do?

Sara Shakirat's attorney, Leah Tzemel, asked the court to reduce her sentence as she had acted in accordance with Arab tradition, which states that she is responsible for her daughters' moral behavior.

Luckily, the judges weren't stupid, this time:-

But judges Moshe Ravid, Orit Efal-Gabay and Aharon Farkash, rejected this request, saying rather that punishment in such cases should be more severe, "in order to thwart and eradicate such shocking acts that harm defenseless women on the grounds of desecration of family honor."

Arab tradition to kill someone for being less than sexually proper? This Tzemel defends?

Woe the sacred platform of human rights!

Israel's Government Sessions

The Ramon sexual harassment case has provided a voyeur's view into...the government meeting room.

The newspaper clipping below (from Ma'ariv, Nov. 16, p. 8) contains a few lines I found fascinating. For those you can read Hebrew, look at the last paragraph in the right-hand column, three lines from the bottom.



For those who need a translation, Ramon is asked by the judge, how could it be that at a fateful government session dealing with the Lebanese War he took out time to enter the soldier's phone number in his cell phone.

Ramon replies, "Generally, the first hour of the government meeting is important. Afterwards, the ministers begin to speak and this is generally not interesting...".

By itself, this is hilarious. But then I noticed this Haaretz story:-

A recently published article severely criticizes Israel's diplomatic and security decision-making processes. Chuck Freilich, former deputy head of the National Security Council, wrote the article for Autumn 2006 issue of the Middle East Journal.

Israeli leaders are motivated largely by trying to remain in office and to satisfy their coalition partners, and Israeli policy is characterized by a lack of organized planning and reactions to passing events, Freilich writes.

Israel's decision-making system, Freilich says, acts under two major constraints: the security threat to the country, and the proportional representation electoral system, which, he says, causes extreme politicization of the process. Over the years, the number and complexity of the agencies dealing with national security in Israel has grown considerably, but this has not found expression in the decision-making process. He adds: The Israeli National Security Council, which was set up in 1999, has a marginal position, and prime ministers prefer to lean on personal advisers. The three previous prime ministers, he notes, all used the services of personal lawyers for sensitive diplomatic missions.

In his analysis of the "pathology" of Israel's decision-making process, Freilich points out that the prime minister has no staff of his own; that the government is a federation of ministers appointed because of their political sway rather than their executive talents; and that the government usually makes its decisions without discussing alternatives, essentially merely approving decisions prepared in advance. The problem is not just the lack of a suitable decision-making forum at the national level, he writes, but also a lack of actual policies. Prime ministers find this convenient, because they are not committed to a formal policy and can change their positions at will.

[Here's the abstract:

National Security Decision-Making in Israel: Processes, Pathologies, and Strengths
Charles D. Freilich

This article presents a first of its kind typology of Israeli national security decision-making processes, focusing on five primary pathologies and a number of strengths. It will demonstrate that these pathologies are the product of an extraordinarily compelling external environment and domestic structural factors: chiefly, the extreme politicization of the decision-making process stemming from the proportional representation electoral system, the consequent need to govern through coalition cabinets, and the absence of effective cabinet-level decision-making support capabilities.]


So, next time you think the government ministers know what they are doing, think again. One could be entering into his cell phone memory a girlfriend's number and a few others could be daydreaming.

BBC Back to Old Tricks?

I haven't been media-watching as ferociously as I had been in the past but this caught my eye for two reasons:-

Israelis kill W Bank 'militant'

Muhammad Ahmedan was buried hours after the shooting

Israeli troops in the West Bank say they killed a Palestinian militant.

An Israeli army spokeswoman said troops had spotted an armed gunman in al-Ein camp near Nablus and opened fire.

First of all, the continued use of the term "militant" to describe an armed gunman.

Secondly, I severely doubt that Israeli troops would use the word "militant". That's putting words in someone's mouth. And that's not ethical.

If any BBC person is reading this, if you have a direct source for that use of "militant", can you let me know?

And if you keep reading the BBC story you'll find this:-

As they often do in Gaza, Israeli forces phoned the five houses beforehand to warn of the coming attacks.

An Israeli military spokeswoman said the militants' homes were hit because they were being used to store weapons and to hold "terrorist meetings".

The word "terrorist" is placed by the BBC in quotation marks but the word 'militant' is not.

They really can mix up their language, especially as they include the reason for the homes of the 'militants' to be targetted: weapons storehouses.

And even the nice, respectful behavior of warning before shooting passes unnoticed.

But This is the Most Extremist Issue

Tony Blair is getting us here in Israel in trouble.

Blair pushes US on Palestine conflict

TONY BLAIR sought yesterday to increase the pressure on the US Government to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a way of preventing moderate Muslims from being exploited by extremists.

Appearing by video link before the Iraq Study Group, set up by President Bush to chart a new course for the country, the Prime Minister said repeatedly that the biggest factor in getting moderate Muslim countries to support the new Iraq would be progress on the Palestinian issue.

This is ridiculous. The "Pal." opposition to Israel, Zionism and Jews, ever since 1920, has been the most extremist position an Arab can take. To try to weaken Israel so as to resolve the issue and then to presume that this will lower the "extremist level" of the Arab/Islamic world is just plain silly and dangerous.

And how dangerous? Well, it could drag American policy that way:-

His demand coincided with growing signs that the bipartisan group was increasingly concerned over expectations that it could plot an end to the war. Privately members concede that no “magic solution” exists.

The expected report from the group, led by James Baker, Secretary of State to Mr Bush’s father, has assumed such importance for Republicans, Democrats and some foreign policymakers that aides are trying to dampen expectations. Mr Blair said that the Iraqi Government recognised that events outside the country were as important as developments inside.

Progress on a wider Middle East settlement would take away the issue that was most exploited by extreme elements, he said. Iran and Syria should be given the strategic choice of whether to be part of the solution or face isolation.

This is insane.

What, They Just Discovered Barbecue?

From NYMagazine:

It's somehow happened that, in the midst of the greatest barbecue boom New York has ever seen, nearly all of the cuisine's major restaurants are either owned or operated by Jews. Given the wide berth our people have historically given pork, this seems worth commenting on. Meyers's launching of Blue Smoke was just the beginning. Josh Cohen has just reopened Biscuit in Park Slope; Adam Perry Lang has become a major star in competition BBQ, in addition to launching his Daisy May's empire; Andrew Fischel's RUB was anointed by Adam Platt as the city's best barbecue; and the field will only become further Semiticized this spring, when Mark Glosserman and Robert Richter launch Hill Country BBQ in the Flatiron district. Don't get us wrong. There are some very fine Gentile barbecuers in New York: John Wheeler at Rack & Soul and John Stage at Dinosaur Bar-B-Que are both expert practitioners. Still, we're surprised someone didn't coined the phrase sooner: Bar-B-Jew.

This is Islam?

OrthoMom and others were very upset by the Modesty Patrols gone awry in Meah Shearim and Geulah. I too think that they were over-the-top (pun, well, yeah, intended).

Anyway, seems that there's a situation in Cairo that is way-out-of-hand.

Silence and Fury in Cairo After Sexual Attacks on Women

There is fear in the shops along Talat Harb Street, and shame. It is not because of what the people who work here say they witnessed, the crowds of men groping women and pulling at their clothing. They fear the police returning, and they are shamed by their own silence.

Recently, reports surfaced on Egyptian blogs, on television and in newspapers that groups of men had roamed the city streets during a holiday weekend and attacked young women — actually chased them down in packs. There were accounts from witnesses and victims.

“All of a sudden, these guys attacked us and came in between us and harassed us,” a reveler told Al Ahram, the semi-official newspaper. “They groped us in a way that is worse than anyone on the crowded street could imagine.”

Mr. Abbas is a young man who never goes anywhere without his digital cameras. He said he witnessed packs of young men hunting down young women, grabbing at their bodies. “I saw two girls wearing those khaliji abaya,” he said referring to the black flowing gowns favored by women in the Persian Gulf region. “Guys surrounded them and pulled their clothes and veils and groped them.”

...Last year, the police watched as thugs sexually assaulted women who protested a referendum to change the way the president is elected.

The "Settlement Movement"

Nope, not what you think.

The settlement movement started in London. Victorian England, increasingly concerned with urban poverty, gave rise to a movement whereby those connected to universities settled students in slum areas to live and work alongside local people. Through their efforts settlement houses were established for education, savings, sports, and arts.

The British Association of Settlements and Social Action Centres (BASSAC) is a network of such organisations in the United Kingdom. Birmingham University has produced a brief history of the settlement movement in the UK. Examples of the earliest settlements dating back to 1884 are Aston-Mansfield, Toynbee Hall, and Oxford House. There is also a global network, the International Federation of Settlements.

The movement gave rise to many social policy initiatives and innovative ways of working to improve the conditions of the most excluded members of society. The Poor Man's Lawyer service came about because a barrister volunteered his time and encouraged his friends to do the same.

In the United States, the two largest and most influential settlement houses were Chicago's Hull House (founded by Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr in 1889) and the Henry Street Settlement in New York (founded by Lillian Wald in 1893). United Neighborhood Houses of New York is the federation of 35 settlement houses in New York City. The concept was continued by Dorothy Day's Catholic Worker hospitality houses in the 1930s.

Today, settlements are still community-focused organizations, providing a range of services in generally underserved urban areas, though they are staffed by professional employees rather than students, and no longer require that employees live alongside those they serve.

See, that's why you should refer to us as civilian Jewish revenants residing in the Jewish communities in portions of the Jewish national homeland.

On The Minors Who Were Arresting Protesting

This is important so I'm quoting all of it at least two of the girls involved are from Shiloh):-

They're still minors - even if they are annoying girls
By Nadav Shragai

What is veteran Youth Court judge supposed to do when the defendant before him, a 15-year old, tells him outright that she does not recognize his authority as judge, scorns the robe he wears and rejects the authority and the laws of the State of Israel and of the court to try her?

Uri Ben Dor, the vice president of the Youth Court in Jerusalem, encountered this dilemma when K. appeared before him for a hearing on extending her detention. He tried to speak kindly to her, but K. told him that because he is not a rabbi and the court does not derive its authority from the laws of the Torah, but from the laws of the State of Israel, she chooses not to cooperate with him, even if that means continuation of her detention.

Ben Dor decided that the girl should remain behind bars.

However, Judge Noam Solberg decided to release from detention a girl who joined in anti-disengagement action, because he believed the maximum jail term for the crimes she was accused of - creating a public disturbance - would be no longer than the girl had already spent in jail for refusing to sign a conditional release.

S., also 15 years old, spent nearly two months in jail with serious criminals in Jerusalem's Russian Compound and in the Neveh Tirtza prison even though she could have been released conditionally shortly after her arrest. The judge before whom she appeared decided to deal with the problem in a different way and postponed the date of the next hearing for four months, on the assumption that the girl or her parents would break and choose the option of being released and so sign the conditional release. He was mistaken. The girl and her parents preferred the prison cell to recognizing the court. In the end, the Public Defender's Office appealed S.'s continuing detention and she was sent home.

In another case, in which a 14-year-old girl was charged with resisting arrest, she was released by the court under more lenient conditions, but did not agree to sign the guarantee. She, too, refused to recognize the court's authority, as it is not based on the Torah and Sanhedrin. For five weeks the girl was imprisoned in Neve Tirtza. She was released only at the conclusion of her trial, and the judge ordered her father to sign the guarantee in her name or else the father himself would be sent to jail for four months.

State of Israel vs. anonymous

All of these girls were arrested during the course of the protests against the evacuation of Gush Katif and northern Samaria in the West Bank or other right-wing protests. Sometimes they were involved in violent clashes with Arabs or the security forces. Their refusal to acknowledge the court's authority and cooperate with it very much embarrassed the judicial system, which often found itself helpless in the face of this phenomenon.

This problem led nearly all the professionals working in this field to accept the invitation of MK Shelly Yachimovich (Labor) to take part in a special Knesset discussion under the auspices of the Knesset's Child Welfare committee. Six months ago, Yachimovich asked the attorney general to release the minors from detention, "because this is a blatant violation of the rights of minors," and she also invited one of the girls who spent many weeks in jail and refused to be released conditionally, to the session of the committee she heads.

B., who spent seven weeks in jail, told the committee members that during the time of the disengagement she and her friends saw how "judges were mobilizing to suppress our demonstrations and enable the expulsion. I saw friends my age who were hit and then were accused of assaulting policemen. We saw how the Supreme Court was allowing the transfer of Jews, but prohibiting the transfer of terrorists and Palestinians.

"What I absorbed is that the entire judicial system is based on one big lie. Everything is predetermined. I realized there is no justice here, and that I would not be part of this show. The show can go on without me."

"I was in jail during the summer vacation," continues B. "For 10 days they didn't let me phone home, and I didn't see my parents except in court. I really wanted to be home, but it was much more important for me to keep my conscience clean."

Shai Nitzan, the deputy state prosecutor, said the state had never seen such a phenomenon. "People usually respect the law and are happy when keeping them in jail until the conclusion of proceedings is not requested," said Nitzan, "but this phenomenon kept changing. It started with a refusal to identify oneself. Minors said, 'We are not identifying ourselves.' Hundreds refused to identify themselves. They said 'nothing matters to us, even if we have to sit in jail.'

"The state had to decide whether to capitulate to this demand and release them without them identifying themselves and risk losing the opportunity to enforce the law in their case, or insisting on them identifying themselves. In the end, we insisted and we issued indictments, like the one issued against 'anonymous, fictitious ID number 100.'

"This was an organized phenomenon. There were organizations instructing them to act in this way in order to cause the rule of law to collapse, until they saw it wasn't working. It really was sad to see that as a result of this, there were girls who were minors who remained in detention for a number of weeks."

MK Yachimovich told Nitzan that there "is a blatant and glaring lack of policy in the judges' behavior toward the girls under arrest." "Undoubtedly the same girls really infuriate the judges when they openly announce that they don't recognize the Israeli judicial system," Yachimovich said. "Moreover, sometimes the parents are not willing to release them conditionally, because they are partners in what they see as an ideological protest. But all these things certainly are not sufficient cause to hold girls who are minors in detention for such a lengthy period."

Of particular interest were the remarks made by the head of the Internal Security Ministry's youth department, Commander Suzy Ben Baruch, who has some 30 years of experience dealing with children for the police. Ben Baruch also acknowledged "the embarrassment could not be overlooked. There was serious deliberation over what to do with them. But the moment the parents didn't bother to come and are not willing to accept a conditional release and even urge their child to remain in detention, a basis was created for declaring the minor as 'a minor in need.' That's when a welfare officer enters the picture, and then it is a serious situation." Ben Baruch says the system did "everything" to prevent a situation in which a child is removed from his parents' custody and placed with a foster family or in an institution: "Throughout the entire period of the disengagement, I ran from Ma'asiyahu Prison to Dekel Prison. Together with the juvenile parole service I walked among the girls in the jails. They all know me.

"A certain MK who heard about one of the arrested girls told me 'I'll persuade her to sign.' She went into the cell full of energy, but when she came out of there, she told me 'carry on with your work.' Very quickly she realized that she too couldn't persuade them."

A political mouthpiece

The Labor and Social Affairs Ministry district juvenile parole officer, Drora Tal, told of the difficulties in dealing with the girls detained for lengthy periods: "We were very helpless in facing them, even though we had solutions, including religious kibbutzim in the north willing to accept them. They objected to going and the idea of dragging them there by the hair didn't seem like an option to me. Some of these youths also took everything out on their parents, so even the parents were helpless when facing them. In some of these cases, the parents weren't the ones deciding, but these girls didn't come from a vacuum. They were only the political mouthpieces of others and that's not fair to them. They came from a community and people in the community can still influence the youth, for better or for worse."

In the end, no girl was removed from her parents' custody nor declared a minor in need. The welfare services did not show a readiness to take such a far-reaching step, but the threat hovered in the air constantly.

MK Yitzhak Levy (National Union-National Religious Party), who during the disengagement met often with the families of the detainees and visited them in jail, surprised the professionals at the forum when he said: "I'm not scared by the declaration of a minor as a minor in need. I think that is perfectly fine, and I'm in favor of threatening parents in this case. When the parents are threatened, maybe they will come to sign in order to release the child. I can understand parents who wage an ideological battle, but I can't understand parents who wage an ideological battle at the expense of their children and leave them in a place of risk, and in my eyes, a jail is a place of risk."

Nitzan, who received a religious-Zionist education, addressed the committee not only as the representative of the judicial system, but also as a parent. "In this story," Nitzan said, "the parents should be ashamed. I also have kids and if they were to tell me, 'leave us in jail, because it's very important for the sake of the Jewish people,' I wouldn't agree. I'm telling you that a parent who does such a thing ought to be ashamed."

Yachimovich asked to distance herself from the sweeping condemnation of the parents. "I really am not a party to this," Yachimovich clarified. "A parent who respects the ideological battle of his child and doesn't release him conditionally in order to enable him to take upon himself a punishment of ongoing detention, as in the case, for example, of conscientious objection to the occupation, is doing something legitimate. In the relationship between parents and children, the parents can decide to respect their children's struggle, including the heavy cost they must pay for it."

So, a question arises: who should now be in jail for risking the lives of minors in Sderot and other Western negev towns by not providing adequate protection?

Hint:-

In a response to the High Court of Justice, the state said yesterday there was no way to protect Sderot schoolchildren from the threat of Qassam missiles, because it would be impossible to reinforce all classrooms in the city before the start of school next fall. The state is asking the court to reject two petitions filed by Sderot residents demanding the reinforcement of all educational institutions in Sderot and environs against Qassams.

"There is no disputing that studying in the non-reinforced classrooms entails a certain security risk to students," the state argued in its response. "However, it seems that for the time being, there is no alternative. This risk is not significantly different from the risk to which students are exposed en route from home to school and back, by bus or private car, which of course are not reinforced against Qassam missiles, or from the risk to which they are exposed during the day when they are in many other places besides reinforced classrooms, such as other parts of the school, extracurricular activities, places of entertainment and various public institutions and even in their homes, many of which are within missile range and are not reinforced. The state does aspire to provide 100-percent protection to every inhabitant - and certainly to every child - but it is obvious that this goal could only be achieved in a utopian world. In reality, all the state can do is attempt to get as close as possible to that goal, within the bounds of the limitations and circumstances within which it operates. The most that the state can provide to the schoolchildren in the Gaza envelope communities is protection during most school hours, and the protection of the homerooms only."

Demographic Fluidity

Palestinians are leaving the territories due to the harsh security and economic situation there, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.

Israel Radio reported that thousands of Palestinians have received permits to emigrate to Arab and other foreign countries.

Ahmed Suboh, a Palestinian Foreign Ministry official, said at a Ramallah press conference that over the last four months, foreign and Arab diplomats in the territories have authorized 10,000 Palestinians to enter their countries.

Suboh said that some 45,000 additional emigration requests were currently being evaluated by various foreign representatives.

The Foreign Ministry official noted that Palestinian emigration was likely to continue with the deterioration of the security situation.

Today's Quiz

Who said this?

Speaking of concentration, Dr. Herzl has a clear insight into the value of that. Have you heard of his plan? He wishes to gather the Jews of the world together in Palestine, with a government of their own - under the suzerainty of the Sultan, I suppose. At the Convention of Berne, last year, there were delegates from everywhere, and the proposal was received with decided favor.

I am not the Sultan, and I am not objecting; but if that concentration of the cunningest brains in the world were going to be made in a free country (bar Scotland), I think it would be politic to stop it. It will not be well to let the race find out its strength. If the horses knew theirs, we should not ride any more.

Write me if you want the answer.

yisrael.medad@gmail.com

Well, We Know What Fox Can Now Do

Fox News reporters freed for $2 million
Terrorists used cash for arms to 'hit Zionists,'

JERUSALEM – Palestinian terror groups and security organizations in the Gaza Strip received $2 million from a United States source in exchange for the release of Fox News employees Steve Centanni and Olaf Wiig, who were kidnapped here last summer, a senior leader of one of the groups suspected of the abductions told WND.

The terror leader, from the Gaza-based Popular Resistance Committees, said his organization's share of the money was used to purchase weapons, which he said would be utilized "to hit the Zionists."

He said he expects the payments for Centanni and Wiig's freedom will encourage Palestinian groups to carry out further kidnappings.

Officials associated with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party and its security organization, the Preventative Security Services, confirmed to WND money was paid for the release of the Fox News reporters.

A senior leader of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terror group, the declared "military wing" of Fatah, said the group received a small percentage of the $2 million, which all parties interviewed said was transferred in cash...

...A spokeswoman for Fox News Channel told WND she could not provide an official statement about whether Fox was aware of money paid to free its two employees.

===========================

UPDATE

From Drudgereport:-

**EXCLUSIVE** INTERNAL MEMO DENIES PAY-FOR-HOSTAGE AT FOXNEWS...

Internal FOXNEWS memo to employees from Roger Ailes: 'I just saw an article on the internet from WorldNetDaily.com by Aaron Klein which claims we paid $2 million in hostage money during the Centanni & Wiig kidnapping crisis. The story is absolutely 100% false. Not a cent of hostage money was paid, and it was never considered'...

Anyone Seen a Flood?

Would this be helpful for confirming the Flood?

At the southern end of Madagascar lie four enormous wedge-shaped sediment deposits, called chevrons, that are composed of material from the ocean floor. Each covers twice the area of Manhattan with sediment as deep as the Chrysler Building is high.

On close inspection, the chevron deposits contain deep ocean microfossils that are fused with a medley of metals typically formed by cosmic impacts. And all of them point in the same direction — toward the middle of the Indian Ocean where a newly discovered crater, 18 miles in diameter, lies 12,500 feet below the surface.

The explanation is obvious to some scientists. A large asteroid or comet, the kind that could kill a quarter of the world’s population, smashed into the Indian Ocean 4,800 years ago, producing a tsunami at least 600 feet high, about 13 times as big as the one that inundated Indonesia nearly two years ago. The wave carried the huge deposits of sediment to land.

Most astronomers doubt that any large comets or asteroids have crashed into the Earth in the last 10,000 years. But the self-described “band of misfits” that make up the two-year-old Holocene Impact Working Group say that astronomers simply have not known how or where to look for evidence of such impacts along the world’s shorelines and in the deep ocean.

Scientists in the working group say the evidence for such impacts during the last 10,000 years, known as the Holocene epoch, is strong enough to overturn current estimates of how often the Earth suffers a violent impact on the order of a 10-megaton explosion. Instead of once in 500,000 to one million years, as astronomers now calculate, catastrophic impacts could happen every few thousand years...

...About 900 miles southeast from the Madagascar chevrons, in deep ocean, is Burckle crater, which Dr. Abbott discovered last year. Although its sediments have not been directly sampled, cores from the area contain high levels of nickel and magnetic components associated with impact ejecta.

Burckle crater has not been dated, but Dr. Abbott estimates that it is 4,500 to 5,000 years old.

It would be a great help to the cause if the National Science Foundation sent a ship equipped with modern acoustic equipment to take a closer look at Burckle, Dr. Ryan said. “If it had clear impact features, the nonbelievers would believe,” he said.

But they might have more trouble believing one of the scientists, Bruce Masse, an environmental archaeologist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. He thinks he can say precisely when the comet fell: on the morning of May 10, 2807 B.C.

Dr. Masse analyzed 175 flood myths from around the world, and tried to relate them to known and accurately dated natural events like solar eclipses and volcanic eruptions. Among other evidence, he said, 14 flood myths specifically mention a full solar eclipse, which could have been the one that occurred in May 2807 B.C.

Half the myths talk of a torrential downpour, Dr. Masse said. A third talk of a tsunami. Worldwide they describe hurricane force winds and darkness during the storm. All of these could come from a mega-tsunami.

Of course, extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof, Dr. Masse said, “and we’re not there yet.”

At the David Bar-Ilan Media Conference

I was at the College of Judea and Samaria today at Ariel for the annual David Bar-Ilan Memorial Conference on the Media and the Middle East (*). I understand that you can view it at their web site.

It was the best one yet. Interesting, informative, good speakers. My question directed to Dr. Raanan Gissin was picked as one of those to be responded to.

Anyway, I had an opportunity of talking with Ruthie Blum, an outstanding feuilletonist and interviewer at the Jerusalem Post and all-around "good guy", very politically correct as far as I am concerned with a bantering sense of humor (I hope she's mutual on this). Oh, her question was read out, too.

And I had this picture taken to prove it to you all:-



(Pic. credit: JH)


The conference was well-attended and was a fine contribution to the College's academic program.

----------------------------------------
(*)
The conference schedule:

Monday, November 13, 2006

Program Itinerary
09:00 - 09:30 Registration
09:30 - 09:45 Opening Remarks
Speaker: Prof. Zilla Sinuany-Stern, Vice President, Academic Affairs, CJS

Session 1
09:45 - 11:15 The Propaganda War: Israel vs. Hezbollah
Chair: Dr. Ron Schleifer, Department of Mass Communications, CJS
Speakers:
Amir Gissin, Director, Public Affairs Dept., Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Steve Linde, Managing Editor, The Jerusalem Post
Dr. Mordechai Kedar, Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, Bar-Ilan University, and Department of Israel & Middle Eastern Studies, CJS

Session 2
11:30 - 12:30 Keynote Address
Chair: Yigal Cohen-Orgad, Chairman, Executive Committee, CJS
Speaker:
Gilad Adin, Director-General, News Division, Channel 10
Topic: Israeli Media on the Front

Session 3
14:00-15:30 Foreign News Reporting & the 2006 Lebanon War
Chair: Steve Leibowitz, Editor-in-Chief, IBA TV News
Speakers:
Steven Erlanger, Jerusalem Bureau Chief, New York Times
Dr. Ra'anan Gissin, Strategic Consultant & Former Media & Hasbara Adviser to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
Prof. Stewart Purvis, Dept. of Television Journalism, City University London, Former Editor-in-Chief of ITN and Member of Independent Panel Review of BBC Middle East Coverage

Session 4
15:45-17:00 Political Satire & Its Impact on Israeli Society
Chair: Dr. Galit Ben-Israel, Department of Israel & Middle Eastern Studies, CJS
Speakers:
Uri Orbach, Correspondent, I.D.F. Radio & Yediot Ahranot
Ruvik Rosenthal, Columnist, Ma'ariv, Lecturer, Open University & Author
Dr. David Alexander, Department of Communications, Haifa University
Jackie Levy, Correspondent, I.D.F. Radio & Yediot Ahranot

17:00-17:15 Closing Remarks
Speaker: Jeff Barak, Israel Correspondent, The Jewish Chronicle (UK), & Former Editor-in-Chief, The Jerusalem Post

This is What Barak (A.) Said About Judaism

At a graduation ceremony of the Reform Movement in Israel, former President of Israel's Suprem Court, Aaron Barak, had this to say about Judaism:-

"Judaism is not made out of one skin (cloth). It has many different streams and different and counterposing outlooks. Thus, for example, if in the world of Judaism there exists of particularistic stream and a universal stream, it is but proper for an interpreter [he is referring to himself here as a judge who delivers a legal opinion on conversion, Temple Mount, etc. - YM], to adopt the universal stream, because this stream is more akin with the values of the state of Israel as a democratic state than the particularistic stream".

You don't believe it?

Well, here's the newspaper clipping from Haaretz, Friday, November 10, 2006, p. A10.



Now, what really gets me upset is not this outrageous opinion, demeaning the Orthodox branch of Judaism, as if it is not democratic, and preferring Reform.

No, it is his circular reasoning method.

In order for him to prefer Reform, he assumes that the state of Israel, whose character he has directed and channeled through his law decisions, is a certain type of state with democratic values that are only obtainable by rejecting particularism and preferring universalism = Reform. That's hogwash, you should all excuse that non-kosher reference.

He doesn't like 'particularism' as his own personal viewpoint and ideology that has nothing to do with facts and therefore considers it undemocratic. Moreover, he ignores what damage has been done to Judaism and the Jewish people and their peoplehood by universalism has done over the centuries.

And by the way, let's not forget how he ended up on this Reform platform:-

Former High Court of Justice president Aharon Barak has agreed to accept an honorary doctorate from the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, although he is to write the ruling on a petition by the college, which is the academic arm of the Movement for Progressive Judaism. The ceremony is to take place this morning at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.

In raising the issue, Mordechai Eisenberg, the chairman of the Movement for Fairness in Government, the ultra-Orthodox version of the Movement for Quality Government, yesterday leveled a serious accusation at Barak: receiving favors from a party in a legal proceeding.

The Courts Administration confirmed the facts of the case but said the ruling would apparently be written by another justice. Barak finished his term on September 14, and was succeeded by Dorit Beinisch. According to the law, the outgoing court president has three months in which to write the rulings in all the cases in which he or she was involved.

Barak headed an expanded panel of seven justices in a petition submitted by the Israel Religious Action Center, the legal arm of the Movement for Progressive Judaism, against the Welfare Ministry. The petition demanded an end to the custom of placing non-Jewish children for adoption with Orthodox families only.

Panel member Justice Mishael Cheshin was replaced after his retirement by Justice Edmond Levy. However, Barak still appears in the file as head of the panel.

Barak refused a request from Haaretz for a response. Legal experts who spoke with Barak yesterday said he will not be writing the ruling in the alloted three months. The Movement for Progressive Judaism said it had waited to grant the degree to Barak until after he retired.

Professor Barak, sir, were you being particularistic or universal in ignoring the apparent ethical error in your appearance?

Going Jewish

McDonalds in Ramat Aviv goes kosher

Branch employees prepare facilities to go kosher.

Company management clarifies: Decision private initiative not related to us
[G-d forbid they should be blamed for this cuisinary alteration]

According to branch employees, preparations were being made to make the facility kosher, and in a few days, there will be no more cheeseburger or dairy products available for sale, and the ice creams would be separated from the meat.

“We received orders from above that the branch was to go kosher within a few days,” a branch employee said.

The McDonalds branch in the Ramat Aviv mall has never been kosher since its establishment. Israel’s McDonalds CEO Omri Padan is not interested in the franchise's branches being kosher, and only makes them so when he has no choice.

McDonalds’ management said that it was McDonalds that initiated the decision to make the Ramat Aviv branch kosher, and it was it is located in a mall that closes on Saturday’s anyway. There are four other non-kosher McDonalds branched that operate in the area.

The owner of Ramat Aviv mall Lev Leviev explained, “It was a private initiative of the McDonalds chain itself. I have no connection to McDonalds’ decision.”

Meanwhile, McDonalds opened another kosher branch at the Rabin Medical Center in Petah Tikva. This new addition brought the total number of branches in Israel to 119, 14 of which are kosher.

I Also Edit

Found this here (and the home site is here) and it says a lot about what I do, among other things:-

Jabbing Judt

So, you judge.

Was there "pressure"?
Was it justified?
Does Judt deserve a platform when he has so many others?
What's wrong with what the ADL did?

Volume 53, Number 19 · November 30, 2006

The ADL and Tony Judt: An Exchange

By Abraham H. Foxman, Myrna Shinbaum, Reply by Mark Lilla, Richard Sennett

In response to THE CASE OF TONY JUDT: AN OPEN LETTER TO THE ADL (November 16, 2006)

To the Editors:

Re Tony Judt and the cancellation of his October 3 speech by the Polish Consulate in New York:

In an e-mail to Abraham Foxman, National Director of the Anti-Defamation League, Professors Mark Lilla and Richard Sennett said they were planning to publish their October 13 letter to Mr. Foxman in The New York Review of Books[November 16], and suggested we do the same. They have rejected Mr. Foxman's request for a meeting saying, "We would be very happy to discuss the matter in that venue."


Below is Mr. Foxman's response to their letter.

Myrna Shinbaum
Director, Media Relations & Public InformationAnti-Defamation League, New York City

October 17, 2006

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) calls the accusations that it is responsible for canceling of a program featuring Tony Judt at the Polish Consulate "baseless," and says the campaign by professors ignores "due diligence" of the facts.

Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director, issued the following statement:

On October 13, we received a letter from Mark Lilla of the University of Chicago and Richard Sennett of the London School of Economics accusing ADL and me of vio-lating democratic principles of debate by threatening and pressing the Polish consulate general to cancel a speech by Tony Judt. More than one hundred other academics, journalists, and others signed on to the letter from Professors Lilla and Sennett.

What is so shocking about this letter is that a group claiming to be defending fundamental values of free expression in a democratic society—values that ADL has worked to ensure for decades—employs techniques which completely debase those values.

Neither the principal authors of the letter nor any of the co-signatories ever sought me out to get the perspective of ADL as to what did and did not happen. Professors Lilla and Sennett simply credit as "fact" the comments and opinions of the president of the group that sponsored the event and leap to the unsupported conclusion that "These facts argue against the press release the ADL circulated...disclaiming any role in the cancellation of Professor Judt's lecture"; they have acted as judge and jury without engaging in the least bit of due diligence to ascertain whether there are facts they do not know; and they use inflammatory words like "threaten," "pressure," and "intimidate" that bear no resemblance to what actually transpired.

ADL did not threaten or intimidate or pressure anyone. The Polish consul general made his decision concerning Tony Judt's appearance strictly on his own.

ADL is justifiably proud of its ninety-three-year record of defending free speech as a bedrock principle of a healthy society. It is disheartening to see leading scholars ignore the very doctrine they invoke by rushing to judgment against our organization. Their behavior is a much subtler and more dangerous form of intimidation than the baseless accusations conjured up against ADL. Now, by raising the specter of "threat and intimidation," Professors Lilla and Sennett want ADL to fall into line and behave as though "the rules of the game in America..." do not also oblige them "to encourage rather than stifle public debate."

When teachers speak out on the rules governing "fundamental principles of debate in a democracy," particularly scholars of the stature of Professors Lilla and Sennett, they have a responsibility to the academy, their students, and society to do so with the highest degree of respect for those principles. Sadly, Professors Lilla and Sennett appear to have lost sight of this responsibility.

Abraham H. Foxman
National Director
Anti-Defamation League
New York City


Mark Lilla and Richard Sennett reply:

While we are grateful for Mr. Foxman's response, we are also puzzled by it since he does not address the main contentions of our letter.

The issue is not, as Mr. Foxman would have us believe, whether the Polish consul general, Krzysztof Kasprzyk, made his decision "strictly on his own." It is whether the ADL did indeed "threaten," "intimidate," and "pressure" him into making a decision by calling so shortly before Professor Judt's lecture was scheduled to take place. Since our letter was circulated, Mr. Kasprzyk has confirmed just that, telling The Washington Post that "the phone calls were very elegant but may be interpreted as exercising a delicate pressure. That's obvious—we are adults and our IQs are high enough to understand that."[1] He then told Larry Cohler-Esses of The Jewish Week, whose reporting on this matter has been invaluable, that "when you look at it from the outside, a call like this [from Jewish organizations], just asking about this on the very day of the event can be seen as exercising a very—I don't know if this is the word—a delicate pressure."[2]

Yes, Mr. Kasprzyk, it is the right word. The Post article is also important because it reveals that the ADL was not the only organization to call the consul general, though we did not know this when we drafted our letter. David A. Harris, executive director of the American Jewish Committee, told the Post that he also telephoned, though "as a friend of Poland." "The message of that evening," he is quoted as saying, "was going to be entirely contrary to the entire spirit of Polish foreign policy." He said something similar to The New York Observer shortly thereafter, remarking that "I wanted to alert him because we've worked with Poland for a long time, and Poland has worked since 1989 to build a strong relationship with Israel after decades of poor relations under the Communist regime—and because I knew that Tony Judt was not a universally popular figure in the Jewish community. We had a nice conversation."[3]

Even without knowing the substance of those "nice" calls from the ADL and AJC, any impartial observer will recognize them as not so subtle forms of pressure. We are further convinced in this judgment by the fact that both organizations celebrated the consul general's decision as soon as it was made. Mr. Harris told The New York Sun, "Bravo to them [the Poles] for doing the right thing," and Mr. Foxman told The Washington Post, in the article already cited, "I think they made the right decision."[4]

Why Mr. Foxman offered us a "face to face" meeting to "put the facts on the table" is more puzzling still. What would he have said then that he could not have said in his press releases, interviews, and, now, his letter to The New York Review? If there have been any errors regarding fact, we would be happy to correct them. We can only conclude that, at some very basic level, Mr. Foxman does not "get it." He does not seem to recognize that public debate and discussion is a healthy thing in a democracy, and that sound public policy in domestic and foreign affairs depends on it.

Mark Lilla
University of Chicago

Richard Sennett
London School of Economics
New York University

Notes
[1] Michael Powell, "In NY, Sparks Fly Over Israel Criticism," The Washington Post, October 9, 2006.

[2] Larry Cohler-Esses, "Judt Supporters Rally to His Side," The Jewish Week, October 13, 2006.

[3] Suzy Hansen, "Judt at War," The New York Observer, October 16, 2006. See also Larry Cohler-Esses, "L'Affaire Judt Rattles ADL; High-Brows Snub Foxman," The Jewish Week, October 20, 2006.

[4] Ira Stoll, "Poland Abruptly Cancels a Speech by Local Critic of the Jewish State," The New York Sun, October 4, 2006.

Olmert's Really Dangerous or Just Plain Nuts

I always suspected that Olmert's talk about "back-burning" convergence/realignment was BS.

Here's the JPost story:-

Before leaving for Washington on Saturday night, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert reaffirmed his commitment to territorial withdrawal from Judea and Samaria.

"You can read my lips: 'I'm ready for territorial compromises‚ and I haven't changed my mind," Olmert said in an interview with Newsweek-Washington Post.

In the interview, Olmert breathed new life into the realignment plan, which would see Israel retain highly populated settlement blocs within Judea and Samaria and relinquish isolated areas. Until now, analysts had assumed that Olmert had dropped the plan.

But on Saturday he said it could still be on the table, with some modifications.

"After the fighting in Lebanon, and also the failure of the Palestinians to cope with continued terrorist attacks, I have second thoughts about the ability to accomplish the two-state solution through realignment. It is definitely not dead but it has to be reexamined," said Olmert.

According to a government source, Olmert might be willing to give up 90 percent of the West Bank. The source added that this scenario would only be implemented if the Palestinians completely halt terrorism.

...Israel's war with Hizbullah caused politicians to re-think the wisdom of unilateral concessions and ended, until Saturday, any talk of realignment in the near future...

..."One thing I can promise: Under no circumstances am I going to withdraw from the need to engage in a serious dialogue with the Palestinians," he said in the interview. He reconfirmed his commitment both to Bush's road map and to a two-state solution. "We have to find the best partner to do it. A lot depends on the Palestinians," he said.

A partner for negotiations might be found if the negotiations between Fatah and Hamas lead to a unity government of technocrats that halts terror, recognizes Israel and agrees to abide by all past diplomatic agreements, Olmert said.

Once that happens, he said, "I'll be ready to sit down with such a government even if it includes Hamas representatives."

This reads like some racy, adult literature - "Take me, quick, take me, she panted".

Bungling Bugger

Melanie Phillips sent me here where Lord Norman Lamont, who was Chancellor of the Exchequer, 1990-93, had this to say about Israel:-

Sadly, the West is perceived as having a long history of imposing its will on the Middle East to protect its own interests...

Of course, Israel should be recognised. But, like it or not, the creation of the state of Israel is seen by many Arabs as an act of Western colonialism. Some, on the Right, such as the late Julian Amery, did support the creation of Israel as a noble colonial venture. While Tony Blair was absolutely right to condemn President Ahmadinejad's outrageous comments about wiping Israel off the map, why was he so puzzled? He knows better than anyone that resentment over the partition of Ireland has lasted for more than 80 years. It is hardly surprising that bitterness over the appearance of a brand new state, with a population of six million people, is still there after 58 years. It is sad to say, but, after the Israeli bombing of Lebanon, to many Arabs Mr Ahmadinejad's remarks now seem less outrageous, and his popularity has soared.

Ah, "brand new state" as if (a) Israel was actually not the "reconstituted Jewish national home", as phrased by the League of Nations and (b) let's ignore that half the Arab states are actually 'brand new', too.

"Noble colonial venture" or an act of justified historical recompense?

"Sad to say"? Have you told them it is outrageous and evil to plan to destroy another state?

Eeks.

=============

Bugger

n.

2. Slang A contemptible or disreputable person.
3. Slang A fellow; a chap: "He's a silly little bugger, then" John le Carré.

Barney Ross

I have blogged about this previously but it bears a repeat.

Here's the letter of Barney Ross' niece in The Forward:-

My Uncle Was a Fighter Inside the Ring and Out

Gerald Eskenazi recalls that at one time, “boxing had its Jewish heroes,” citing Benny Leonard, the world lightweight champion in the 1920s (“Boxing Writing That Pulls No Punches,” October 27). My uncle, Barney Ross, was often regarded as a hero by American Jews for his prowess in the boxing ring — where he was lightweight, welterweight and junior welterweight champion in the 1930s — but I like to think that he was as much a hero for what he did after retiring from boxing.

In response to the attack on Pearl Harbor, Barney, although well past draft age (he was 32), enlisted in the U.S. Army. In the famous battle of Guadalcanal, he was seriously wounded while rescuing injured comrades from a Japanese ambush. His heroism under fire earned him a Silver Star.

Thanks to research by the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, we know that upon Uncle Barney’s return to the United States in 1944, he became active in the Emergency Committee to Save the Jewish People of Europe, also known as the Bergson group. The Emergency Committee used full-page newspaper ads, public rallies and Capitol Hill lobbying to pressure the Roosevelt administration to rescue Jews from Hitler.

Uncle Barney was also active in another of the Bergson committees, the American League for a Free Palestine, which sought to rally American support for the creation of a Jewish state. He spoke at its rallies and chaired its George Washington Legion, which recruited American volunteers to aid the Irgun Zvai Leumi, the Jewish underground militia (headed by Menachem Begin) that was fighting the British in Mandatory Palestine. The legion was patterned on the famous Abraham Lincoln Brigade, which had recruited Americans to fight against Franco in the Spanish Civil War. One of the Bergson group’s newspaper ads featured a photo of Uncle Barney with this message from the boxing champ: “There is no such thing as a former fighter. We must all continue the fight.”

Barney Ross fought the good fight, inside and outside the ring. He fought for America in World War II, and he fought for the Jewish people in his efforts on behalf of Holocaust rescue and Jewish statehood. That is a powerful and inspiring example for today’s Jewish athletes to follow.

Audrey Cantor
Director
Holocaust Community Services
Skokie, Ill.

My Second Gay Comment

This ad by the Reform Movement in Israel was published on the back page of Haaretz on Wednesday, November 8:-



The add contains a quotation from Midrash Tanhuma, Pichas 10, Sanhedrin, Chapter 4 Mishneh 5, Kohelet 3:15 and Yehsayhu 2:3.

Now, I'm all in favor of quoting the Bible and the Talmud and the Midrashim, even if in this case, all those quotes were completely out of context and irrelevant to the subject matter and even the total opposite of the message the Reform wanted to convey. But, hey, that's the Reform.

But you must be even-handed. The Reform movement, in supporting some of the most concessionist policies of Israel's governments, have always supported what our American "friends" have termed 'even-handedness'. So, they must do so when bringing source material from Jewish literature.

So, since they haven't, I'll do it for them. Here is one, Leviticus 18:22-30:-

22 Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind; it is an abomination. 23 And thou shalt not lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith; neither shall any woman stand before a beast, to lie down thereto; it is perversion. 24 Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things; for in all these the nations are defiled, which I cast out from before you. 25 And the land was defiled, therefore I did visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land vomited out her inhabitants. 26 Ye therefore shall keep My statutes and Mine ordinances, and shall not do any of these abominations; neither the home-born, nor the stranger that sojourneth among you-- 27 for all these abominations have the men of the land done, that were before you, and the land is defiled-- 28 that the land vomit not you out also, when ye defile it, as it vomited out the nation that was before you. 29 For whosoever shall do any of these abominations, even the souls that do them shall be cut off from among their people. 30 Therefore shall ye keep My charge, that ye do not any of these abominable customs, which were done before you, and that ye defile not yourselves therein: I am the LORD your God.

and here is another Leviticus 20:13:

"If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them."

And for a good Orthodox viewpoint, try this.

But I don't want to deal specifically with the issue of homosexuality or lesbianism. What interests me is the inclination of people to seek sources that do not support their positions but nevertheless, thrust them out to people who have no idea othwerwise.

They do that on this theme and they do that on the matter of Israel's international legal basis, borders, demographics and security.

And I don't like it.

This Process Should Happen More Often - in Israel

On Virginia's Republican Senator, George Allen, and his defeat:-

Allen began the campaign with a 16-point lead in the polls. As a wildly popular governor and then senator, he was considered a shoo-in for reelection. As Allen visited Iowa and New Hampshire and prepared for a 2008 presidential bid, the conventional wisdom in August was that a stunning victory in the Senate race would position him as the darling of the party.

Then came the now-legendary "macaca moment." He called a Webb volunteer of Indian descent "macaca" and welcomed him to "America and the real world of Virginia." That was followed by his awkward handling of revelations about his Jewish heritage and accusations that he used racial epithets during and after college. He also got caught up in a tide of anti-GOP sentiment that cost Republicans control of the House and the Senate.

"The kind of meltdown that occurred here is a quintessential example about how 24 hours can be a lifetime in politics," said Robert D. Holsworth, director of the Center for Public Policy at Virginia Commonwealth University.

There are too many Israeli politicians who keep managing to forge ever upwards even thugh their records are not better than this fellow.

Melanie's Take on Beit Hanoun

From Melanie Phillips diary:-

The double standards at work here were even more starkly highlighted by the difference between the way the media treated Beit Hanoun on the one hand and Sri Lanka on the other. As this report indicates, a similar tragic mistake was made in Sri Lanka a few days ago when at least 45 civilians were killed after army shells hit a camp for people displaced by the fighting between Tamil Tigers and government forces.

Just as in Israel, the Sri Lankan army has accused the rebels of using civilians as human shields. Yet this incident has provoked merely universal indifference. While Beit Hanoun was given enormous and horrific coverage, Sri Lanka produced merely a few buried paragraphs. Clearly, dead Sri Lankans count for far less than dead Palestinians.

Why? Because the media don’t hate Sri Lanka and do hate Israel.

Hear, hear!

A Gay Thought

The Gay Parade in Israel was first cancelled during the summer due to the fighting and deaths in Lebanon.

The Gay Parade in Israel was cancelled a second time this week due to the deaths of Arabs in Beit Hanoun and an emergency security threat of suicide bombers against Israelis.

How many more people have to die or be threatened with death before the Gay community realizes that perhaps an outlandish, in-your-face, provocative declaration of their alternative lifestyle davka in Jerusalem, the Holy City, just isn't worth all this blood being spilled?

Gazan Hypocrisy

Congrats to Dan Fendel of Piedmont, California who had a letter published in today's NYTimes:-

Examine the contrast between Israel and Hamas.

For decades, Palestinians have cheered every Israeli death they inflicted. Even after Israel withdrew from Gaza, Palestinians continued their rocket fire, seeking to kill as many civilians as possible and celebrating their successes.

On the other hand, when Israel seeks to destroy rocket launchers, and a shell barrage goes astray, Israel expresses immediate regret for the resulting civilian deaths.

The hypocrisy of the Gazan anger is astounding.

OrthoMom Linked Me

The public-spirited and campaigning OrthoMom related here to my posting yesterday regarding the Satmar Yeshiva demanding the installation of frosted glass windows at a women's exercise hall/gym.

And here's her take:-

But what is this small, respectful accommodation depriving the irate exercisers of? The right to exercise in full view of passers-by? I can't take their claim of the diminished sunlight very seriously - anyone who has a frosted window knows that plenty of daylight gets through. The obvious objective here is the complaint that the Orthodox community is attempting to "allow a religious group to impose its ways on the majority". Which in this case, really means "why give anything to anyone else if I don't need it myself". And in my opinion, people who find accommodating the sensitivities of another segment of the community in such a negligible manner to be such an abhorrent notion have a lot to learn about living in a community.

The MPs and Me

Members and staff of the International Development Committee in the British House of Commons were at my home Thursday morning. They were on a week-long fact-finding mission and, as far as I know, my appearance was the sole opportunity they had of gaining impressions of the Jewish revenant side of the story.

Their concern is "Development Assistance and the Occupied Palestinian Territories". You can read here the oral presentations made in London at the end of last month to get an idea of the subject matter.

Among those out here in Shiloh were Malcolm Bruce, John Barrett, John Battle, Richard Burden (their Palestine expert), James Duddridge, Ann McKechin and Joan Ruddock. I don't think I saw Marsha Singh.

David Frankfurter had a nice piece about the issue of humanitarian aid in relation to the committee's activities as well as Gerald Steinberg who had this to say:-

To write a credible report that goes beyond the decades-old slogans of Palestinian victimization, the members need to talk to Israeli victims of terror and see the evidence of how Palestinians have violated or ignored every commitment to act to prevent terror, including in the November 15, 2005 arrangement brokered by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

They should see for themselves that one year after Israel's exit from Gaza, with all of the money invested in "development," the major industry is massive tunneling to smuggle in weapons, explosives and terrorists. After being shown how empty containers that carried aid into Gaza are taken back through the crossings with explosives and terrorists, they may understand the logic of Israel's security measures. And to recognize the necessity of keeping Palestinian fishermen from working, the committee should be shown how arms smuggling ships such as the Karine A and Santorini operate.

Although ostensibly dealing with economics and development, their focus is highly political. Israel is generally presented in simplistic terms as responsible for Palestinian suffering, via the "occupation," the "separation wall/barrier," closures and collective punishment. Their reports are patronizing, erasing or minimizing Palestinian terrorism and corruption, while portraying Israeli security policies as draconian and unjustified. The failure of the huge amounts of aid that have been poured into various Palestinian development schemes to show any successes is explained as being largely Israel's fault.

We spent about 45 minutes outside my house in the nice, warm morning sun and them went inside for a brief introduction to my wife. Little was addressed specifically about humanitarian aid and most of the conversation was about the Jewish communities and more to the point, suggestions of resolution of the conflict and hostilities.

When they mentioned the two-state solution, I pointed out that that was the three- state solution: out of one Mandated territory three states will arise: Israel, Palestine and Jordan. I insisted that one must realize that the Jewish national home area is larger than Israel, that the murderous behavior of the Arabs was dealt with by compromises for 80 years that got us nowhere and that in one form or another, Jordan need be involved in peace, if only to provide political representation for the Arabs who do not want to be Israeli citizens.

I don't know if I can say that a good time was had by all but I did get a left back in to Jerusalem.

NY Observer Observes Avigdor Lieberman

Israel’s Demographic Surgeon: The Lieberman Solution is Joshua Mitnick's story in the NY Observer.

Some excerpts:-

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s newest coalition partner—a West Bank settler—is arguably the most provocative Israeli politician since Rabbi Meir Kahane, and a headline in Britain’s Sunday Telegraph only burnished Mr. Lieberman’s fearsome credentials: “Jews and Arabs Can Never Live Together, Says Israel’s Vice PM.” Mr. Olmert swiftly distanced himself from Mr. Lieberman, saying that the opinions expressed in the article didn’t reflect the Israeli government’s position.

In an interview the next day in his Knesset chambers, the barrel-chested politician, a Moldovan immigrant whose party is called Israel Beiteinu (Israel Is Our Home), calmly laid out his diagnosis of the “demographic threat” of Israel’s growing Arab minority and its problematic loyalties to a future Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza.

“There will be a homogenic Palestinian country without any Jews, and we will become a bi-national country with more than 20 percent non-Jewish population,” he said in his heavily Russian-accented English.

Mr. Lieberman’s mind-set is grounded in the notion that many of the worst problems of the last century have stemmed from unstable ethnic minorities. In his view, the situation is particularly acute in Israel, which lies at ground zero in what he termed the “clash of civilizations” between East and West.

“The linkage there will be between the Palestinians within Israel and the Palestinian country will bring some explosion,” Mr. Lieberman said. “And we can’t continue living in this situation. The best solution is exchanging from one side, exchanging population and territory.”

That means strengthening Israel’s Jewish majority by swapping sovereignty over Israeli Arab towns near the West Bank to the Palestinians in return for areas occupied by Jewish settlers in the West Bank. It also requires a redivision of Jerusalem to cede about 125,000 Palestinian residents to a Palestinian state.

As a corollary to the population swap, Mr. Lieberman has proposed that Israeli citizens be required to swear allegiance to the country’s flag and national anthem—two symbols with no intrinsic value for Israeli Arabs—or lose their voting rights. Necessary measures, he says.

While whisking me through the corridors of the Knesset, Mr. Lieberman’s aide pitched me on the new minister’s political non-conformism: “He’s both far-right and far-left.”

It’s a fair characterization, to a point: Territorial compromise and separation—in recognition of the ramifications of Jewish-Arab demographic trends—were first raised by peaceniks. And at the Camp David peace talks of 2000—which now seem like a tragically short-lived high point in Israeli-Palestinian relations—negotiators were discussing the idea of a comprehensive land swap.

Gazza: A cry for help

Fooled ya.

This story - Gazza: A cry for help - is all about a British footballer (soccer player for the Yanks).

Here:-

Paul Gascoigne's latest indiscretion will surprise few people. But, during the harrowing decline of a talent that once shone so brightly, more should have been done to protect a damaged genius from himself, writes James Lawton

Paul Gascoigne already has a signature tune. It's "Fog on the Tyne" and at the peak of his celebrity, in 1990, it reached No 2 in the charts. But then when yesterday you heard that he had spent the night in the cells at a Chelsea police station, another song came to mind. It was the one which goes: "On the Sunday morning sidewalk I'm wishing Lord that I was stoned, there's something in a Sunday that makes a body feel alone."

Yesterday happened to be Wednesday but for Gazza you have to fear life has long seemed like a desolate Sunday morning, about which Kris Kristoffersen also wrote: "There ain't nothing short of dying, half as lonesome as the sound of the sleeping city sidewalks, and Sunday morning coming down."

There is nothing much we don't know about the Gazza story now. It is at least as well documented as that of George Best, but just as it was when the great Georgie meandered into fresh crisis, and futility, and for similar reasons - obsessive behaviour and an inability to see celebrity and many of the friends it brought for the dangerous mirage it was - the sadness remains just as acute.

Calling for the rescue of Gazza is no doubt a little like shining a small torch into that fog he celebrated at a happier time. So many people in and out of football have tried, and the truth, even as he became a household name not for the brilliance of his talent but for his teary breakdown in the semi-final of the 1990 World Cup, was never far from hand. Gascoigne, even at that early stage of the race, was programmed for self-destruction.

But if you knew deep down he was never going to conquer the weakness of his nature, and deliver more than fleeting evidence of a gift that at its best was the most thrilling seen in these isles since the decline of Best and the arrival of Wayne Rooney, it never made the process any less disheartening or painful.

More Gutmann Follow-up

Should she atone?

What's Wrong with a Little Accommodation?

Gym, Jews don't see eye to eye

Last spring, a local YMCA in Montreal installed four frosted windows in one of its exercise rooms to accommodate a neighbouring Hasidic synagogue and religious school. Its devout members complained that their teenaged boys were being distracted by the exposed flesh of women doing their Pilates, aerobics and other activities.

But now the windows have opened up a rift over whether the institution went too far to accommodate a minority. Some Y members have circulated a petition demanding the opaque windows be removed because they not only deprive the room of light, but allow a religious group to impose its ways on the majority.

“It's like getting us to wear a veil. Since we represent temptation, we're being asked to hide,” Renée Lavaillante, who started the petition, said yesterday. “We shouldn't have to hide in order to exercise in Quebec. We're a secular state, and shouldn't hide ourselves for religious reasons.”

Hey lady, if you want to show off, then exercise in the street.

The exercise room, located on the first storey of the Y on Park Avenue at the edge of Outremont, faces the back of the Yetev Lev [that's Satmar] synagogue and school, from which it is separated by an alley. The Jewish institutions also installed tinted windows on their buildings but members say they haven't been able to stop people from opening them or heading outside during breaks.

“We don't want our kids to be tempted by today's society,” community spokesman Mayer Feig said as he stood outside the synagogue, wearing the long black coat and sidelocks that are typical of his sect. As he spoke, a Hasidic woman pushing a baby stroller walked by in a below-the-knee skirt, thick stockings and wig.

“We have a belief in being dressed modestly, and we want our kids to see women dressed modestly,” Mr. Weig said. In summertime, Hasidic children head off to a camp in the Laurentians to avoid seeing scantily dressed females on the street, he said. And televisions are banned from Hasidic households. “There's too much violence and sexuality today, and our religious beliefs don't want us to see those things. We believe in protecting our culture and religion.”

The congregation Yetev Lev, or Good Heart, has been at its current location since 1985. The Park Avenue YMCA has been at its location for a century, but it was only during extensive renovations ending in 1994 that the exercise room was built.

It Was 37 Years Ago and We Were All Younger

(found here)

Paul Newman and Robert Redford together at a Sundance Institute celebration in New York, Monday, Nov. 6, 2006. Redford is the founder and honorary chair of the Sundance Institute which is celebrating it's 25th anniversary.

And thrity-seven years ago, they looked like this:-



And here's how the really looked back in circa 1904:-

Comments on the Shelling

This shelling.

1. "A Hamas spokesman called on the Palestinian factions to renew terrorist attacks inside Israel".

Renew?

What are Kassams falling in Sderot, Northern Negev kibbutzim and Ashkelon called?

Not to mention the suicide bombing attempts.

2. I guess artillery shells do more damage than Kassams. Do the Pals. realize that?

3.

IDF Spokesman: Initial reaction to Palestinian claims of civilian casualties in Beit Hanoun

The IDF expresses regret at any harm to uninvolved civilians, but stresses that the responsibility for this rests with the terror organizations, which use the Palestinian civilian population as a "human shield", carrying out terror attacks and firing Kassam rockets at Israeli population centers, under cover of the Palestinian population.

Again, the above information is preliminary, and the incident is being investigated.

Well, at least now they mention the preliminary nature of their response so that we don't get embroiled in our own Hasbara failings.

New, Fresh Anti-Israel (Jewish) Ad

Of the Ciuncil for the National Interest.

Here.

Here's a section:

The Israel Lobby Is Trying to Sell Another War

It is widely believed that one of the major reasons we chose to put a priority on toppling Saddam Hussein was due to the lobbying efforts for Israel in Washington. In a Zogby International poll commissioned by the CNI Foundation, 39 percent of American likely voters believe that “the work of the Israel Lobby on Congress and the Bush administration has been a key factor for going to war in Iraq and now confronting Iran.”
(More details on the poll can be found at our website, www.cnionline.org.)

The overcommitment of American forces to a senseless and lethal occupation of Iraq has led to unexpected consequences that will be with us for decades. One of them is a possible military confrontation with Iran, now being openly discussed in Washington. This ignores the limits of American power and the potential for disastrous effects for our friends in the Middle East, including Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Israel itself.

Many in Washington are proposing a “grand bargain”: the U.S. would no longer seek a regime change in Tehran, and Iran would give up its nuclear weapons ambitions. But a wiser and far more credible use of American power would be to renegotiate the NPT (Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty), as billionaire peace activist George Soros argues, in order to bring all nations under a global system of control of nuclear
weapons. Israel is not a signatory of the present NPT, and the Lobby can be expected to oppose any effort that acknowledges Israel’s own estimated 250 to 300 nuclear weapons.

David Bar-Illan Media Conference - Live Webcast

Live Webcast - David Bar-Illan Media Conference

The College of Judea & Samaria is pleased to announce that the Fifth Annual David Bar-Illan Conference on the Media & the Middle East will be broadcast in real-time via the Internet.

The on-line broadcast will enable people in Israel and around the world to view all sessions - with simultaneous English translation.

The forum is scheduled for Monday, November 13, 2006 (from 09:30-17:15 Israel time). To watch all or part of the conference, please visit: http://www.yosh.ac.il/dbi and follow the instructions for viewing. The entire webcast will also be digitally archived for viewing on demand (VOD).



For additional details, including full program itinerary, please contact: Tel: 972-52-451-4011 or E-mail: anglodtp@netvision.net.il.

It's Not About the Kids

...it's about the parents.

Looking for some additional examples of Jewish wedding announcements in the NYTimes, a pastime, I read this one and came to a quite belated realization:-

Jill Glassman, Joshua Cohen

Jill Cornick Glassman, a daughter of Sandra R. Glassman and Bill Glassman of St. Louis, was married last evening to Joshua Carl Cohen, a son of Jane Cohen of Florham Park, N.J., and the late Jeffrey S. Cohen. Rabbi James Bennett officiated at the Westwood Country Club in St. Louis.

The bride and bridegroom are directors of Camp Cobbossee, a summer camp for boys in Monmouth, Me.

Mrs. Cohen, 26, was until April a fashion merchandiser in the New York office of Bagatelle, a leather and suede manufacturer. She graduated from the University of Michigan. Her father is an owner of the EDCO Group, a provider of document scanning and storage services in Springfield, Mo. Until 1999 her parents owned the Huntleigh Corporation in St. Louis, a provider of airport services, sky caps and security screening; the bride’s father was the president of the corporation and the bride’s mother was president of the Huntleigh USA Corporation, a subsidiary.

Mr. Cohen, 31, graduated from Arizona State University. Until last year, his mother taught second grade at the Broadway Elementary School in Newark. His father owned Alice Travel, an agency in West Orange, N.J.

It's less about the kids getting married than all about the parents, how wealthy and successful and famous they are.

More Goodie Gutmann

My friend, Michael Freund, reports in the Jerusalem Post that

in "a letter to the University Community" that was posted yesterday on the college's website, Gutmann appeared to change tack, acknowledging that, "The photograph is embarrassing for the University and me alike."

While still insisting that she did not realize the "full extent of his costume" until after the photograph with Saadi had been taken, she did offer a more explicit expression of remorse.

"The student has since apologized, and I accept his apology," she said, adding, "I too apologize for the offense this photo has caused."

In addition, Gutmann said that some have "mistakenly interpreted the photograph as my support for terrorism."

"Nothing could be further from the truth. I abhor terrorism, suicide bombers and everything they do. My record is unabashedly clear on this point," she noted.

Meanwhile, back at the...er, campus:-

The Penn student who appeared at a University function dressed as a terrorist says he'd do it again - at least, most of it.

"Looking back on it, I don't think I would've been as public, and I definitely would not have published my photos," Engineering senior Saad Saadi said.

Saadi dressed as a suicide bomber and was photographed at Penn President Amy Gutmann's Halloween party last week.

Saadi, who is not Muslim, wore camouflage pants and a characteristically Arab scarf, strapped fake bullets and dynamite to his body and read passages from a pocket-sized New Testament, which he pretended was the Qu'ran.

"We were like, 'Yeah, let's dress up as terrorists. It'll be pretty funny,'" Saadi said of his costume, which his friend from another university also wore. "I didn't realize people would get offended or angry."

But let's have the editorial staff of the campus newssheet have the very last word:-

Standing by Gutmann

Student tested limits with costume, but criticism of president isn't warranted

Opinion Board

Almost a week ago, all Daily Pennsylvanian editors headed down Walnut Street to pay a visit to President Amy Gutmann's Halloween party.

It's an annual tradition, and one of the only where large numbers of students really get to interact with their president.

At the party, hundreds of students wander through a large, dark tent, sporting Halloween costumes from cheerleaders to mobsters. The students clamor around Gutmann, trying to get her attention long enough to get a picture snapped with her.

This year, one student, Engineering senior Saad Saadi, dressed as a suicide bomber and posed with Gutmann. The pictures of the two soon made rounds on the Internet and ignited a firestorm of criticism of both Gutmann and Saadi.

In Saadi's case, some criticism is certainly warranted. People have the right - as some were - to be offended by his costume and pictures of him conducting mock executions.

But Gutmann, from what we can tell, did nothing wrong.

She must have taken pictures with hundreds of Penn students that night. It's simply not feasible for her to examine every students' costume and measure where they were offensive enough to warrant turning down a picture request.

When Saadi really did cross the line, by asking Gutmann to pose in a photo as a hostage, she rightly refused to do so.

As Gutmann has said, Saadi undeniably had a right to wear the costume - just as others have the right to be offended by it.

But it's ridiculous to get angry at Gutmann because one of the hundreds of students she posed with wore a costume some find offensive. Moreover, most of the heavy criticism of Gutmann is coming from alumni and ordinary citizens outside Philadelhia - not from students who were actually at the event.

We hope, for everyone's sake, Gutmann will reveal more in the coming days about what actually transpired between herself and Saadi at the party.

But critics should temper their fiery comments. The true shame would be if this wonderful tradition came to an end simply because of a costume choice.

The country's future leaders.

Ugh.

Just How Non-Violent is the NIF

The NIF is, of course, the New Israel Fund.

In discussing disengagement, Disengagement & The New Israel Fund, NIF notes that it

is proud to have contributed its expertise to a difficult situation…we have sought to fulfill our mandate by promoting respect for the decisions of the Israeli Government, adherence to the rule of law, and the avoidance of escalation and potential civil conflict.

Our most recent activities include: STOPPING ESCALATION BEFORE IT STARTS...facilitating the work of two well-respected psychologists, who are training various IDF and police units in handling difficult confrontations in ways that de-escalate conflict and violence.

This was last updated on 6/8/2006. In other words, after the Amona affair.

Through the mystery of cyber space, I have been informed that in an e mail message sent on February 3 this year, one Jill Collier Indyk supposedly, but as yet unconfirmed fully, wrote to an veteran and high-profile peace activist:

"Good for Olmert on Amona. Whoever would have believed it! Those horsemen look like crusaders. Kol hakavod to you and yours. Why didn't we do this before. Just took guts."

Now, Jill used to be the U.S. liason for the Sheba Medical Center and is now the Coordinator of the Charles Bronfman Prize. Oh, and Janet Aviad, a former head of Peace Now, just happens to be the Director of the Karev Foundation (Karev is the Hebrew abbreviation of Charles R. Bronfman (CRB), one of Bronfman's pet projects.

Jill also happens to be the wife of Martin Indyk. Martin Indyk just so happens to be a member of the International Council of the NIF.

In the Fall issue of the NIF News, (you can print it here), its President, Peter Edelman wrote that the NIF would

"help see that the planned disengagement from the West Bank would occur nonviolently and with minimum humanitarian issues".

Am I missing something here, or are some NIF like-minded people and close "friends of" actually not really that non-violent or concerned about preventing regime terror?

Goodie-Goodie Gutmann

More material on the "Gutmann-Poses-with-Suicide-Bomber-Costumed-Arab".

A. An Exchange

The prez of U. Penn—Any Gutmann—Jewish I’m sure—stands smiling for the camera, hands folded in the archetypical pose of the pansy airhead female–next to a Syrian student dressed as a jihadi killer, during the annual Halloween party that she gives.

Other photos at the scene show the kid and his pal enacted killing rituals with willing victims.

No one grabs him …. and bashes him through the wall.
No one throws him out the second floor window.
It’s just a performance, a costume, a joke.
What would happen if he enacted rape, or wore the garb of a plantation owner and called everyone darkies?
Somehow, the display of jihadi murder has become no more an outrage than the sign for Kentucky Fried Chicken.
Just another cultural object to contemplate.
Nothing happening here. Move along.

I wrote to Prez Guttman….

By posing with the moron in the jihadi costume–while wearing a smile that revealed utter ignorance of what you were doing—you placed yourself at the very top of the list of living idiots.
Did you think the costume was ever so clever?
Was the mock execution cute?
Were you offended even a little bit?
I infer from your name that you are Jewish. If so, did he frighten you?
The next time, Amy, show some Hasmonean guts. Tell the fake jihadi that you are pretending to be a mother whose children were just blown up, and then throw him out a second floor window.
Lance de Boyle
Jew and Professor

She wrote back…

Dear Professor de Boyle:
Thank you for taking the time to share with me your concerns /[It’s just concern, you see In Amy’s world there is no outrage.]/ about the photographs taken at this week’s Halloween costume party.
Each year, the President/ [Not her. A president.] /hosts a Halloween party for Penn students. More than 700 students attend. They all crowd around to have their picture taken with me. This year, one student /[just a student. Not an Arab student] /who had a toy gun /[just a toy gun. Not an AK 47 toy gun.]/ in hand had his picture taken with me before it was obvious to me that he was dressed as a suicide bomber. /[To become obvious to her, Amy needs to be hit with a brick.] /He posted the photo on a website /[a website. NOT HIS website.] /and it was picked up on several other websites.
The costume is clearly offensive and I was offended by it. /[Well, she’s consistent!]/ As soon as I realized what his costume was, I refused to take any more pictures with him, as he requested./ The student had the right to wear the costume just as I, and others, have a right to criticize his wearing of it. /[Yes, use the first amendment when convenient]/
Sincerely,
Amy Gutmann….

I wrote again in reply…

Indeed he has a right to wear a costume and to perform actions that depict islamic killing rituals.
[Just as I have a right to punch him the mouth—for which I would be perfectly happy to go to jail.]
But your labeling these acts offensive, refusing to take any more pictures with him, and criticizing him (which we both know you have not done and will never do), are cowardly responses.
Do you consider all offensive actions equally offensive, and therefore meriting the same kind of (lame) response?
Do you really think that refusing to take more pictures with a man who depicts murder and calls it a joke, or a right, is the proper response?
If I were at your party, young Amy, wearing the costume of an IDF soldier, displayed a sign that read, “Allah is an ass,” ripped a koran to shreds and pointed a fake rifle at the head of the jihad-garbed student, and said, “Just kidding,” would you merely find that offensive and turn away, or would you call the cops?
No, Amy, you are not using the magnitude of the offense (and it’s possible effects) as a criterion for choosing the proper response. You are using the political fall out as the criterion. The fact that no other students realized what the jihadi-impersonator was doing (which speaks volumes), played along with him, and did NOT grab that rifle and throw him out the window—-THAT is why you did nothing. No trouble, no offense.
If you threw me out, you would be praised. If you threw out the jihadi, you would be condemned for violating his rights.
What are you going to do when your muslim students dress as terrorists and walk around the campus pretending to shoot Jews? Still free speech?
Amy. We aren’t in Kansas any more.
And start lifting weights. Your arms and pecs need work.
Lance de Boyle
Jew and Professor

La Gutmann is alleged to be a theorist of democracy. I read one of her books, It is soc 101. She has developed a new concept, she thinks—-identity groups.
Never heard of Merton or Shibutani, Mead or Cooley.
She also seems to think that democracy is no more than discourse among these identity groups.
She must have forgotten what it was to the Greeks.
Stupid ….. idiot.

B. and this:-

Reported by Rachel Feintzeig, the Daily Pennsylvanian

A student says it was just a joke, but his Halloween costume has resulted in serious criticism for University [of Pennsylvania] President Amy Gutmann.

Engineering senior Saad Saadi dressed as a suicide bomber for Gutmann’s annual Halloween party Tuesday night, and photos were taken of him with Gutmann and other school officials.

Now, the picturesare popping up on the Web and alumni and others around the country are contacting the University to voice their distaste.

Saadi told The Daily Pennsylvanian that Gutmann did not seem to take his costume too seriously. He said when he approached her for to the photo, she joked, “‘How did they let you through security?’”

Gutmann released a statement yesterday, saying that she did not realize what Saadi was dressed up as until after she had taken the photo. She said that after she realized he was dressed as a suicide bomber, she refused to take any more pictures with him.

“The costume is clearly offensive and I was offended by it,” she said.

However, she acknowledged that “the student had the right to wear the costume just as I, and others, have a right to criticize his wearing of it.”

Saadi, who is also a DP photographer, initially posted the photo with President Gutmann on his Facebook profile, but sites including democracy-project.com and ivygateblog.com have since posted that picture, along with others. They show Saadi holding a fake rifle and explosives, mock-executing students and imitating other jihadist activity.

Saadi added that while some party guests expressed disapproval at the costume, more people were complimentary.

In addition to Gutmann, Saadi posed with University Chaplain William Gipson.

(Kippah tip: Israpundit)

C. And here's a member of the League of Trembling Israelites:-

It is ironic to call Saadi an anti-Semite, as his costume inadvertently imitated an Israeli tradition. On Purim - which is sometimes considered the Jewish equivalent of Halloween - some Israelis dress up as terrorists and attend street parades. The tradition is based on the common-sense belief that the point of a costume is to mock someone.

Saadi's critics have forgotten that people who dress in Halloween costumes usually don't aspire to actually be whom they masquerade as. That's why they wear such outfits on Halloween, instead of every day.

Saadi's Halloween photo gallery features him posing with students, faculty and University Chaplain William Gibson. But it's the photo with President Gutmann that seems to be riling people the most.

"I really feel bad for her because she's getting the worst out of this whole situation," Saadi said. "I just stood next to her, and I asked if I could pose for a picture with [her]. As I took the picture, she asked 'how did they let you through security?' Like as a joke."

Clearly, most people at the President's Halloween party got the joke.

While shocking things can make people forget, free expression is important. Saadi's Halloween costume is just as valid of an expression as last year's Danish cartoons. And so is being able to laugh a bit.

I didn't laugh when I saw the photos of Saadi's satirical terrorist costume. But just because there are some at Penn - including our President - who can take the joke doesn't make them terrible people.

D. A bit of face-saving:-

Student groups, like Hillel and the Muslim Student Association, have responded with disapproval for Saadi's actions.

"Something like this not only affects the Muslim community ? but this is something that is distasteful to the community at Penn," said Wharton junior and MSA president Khalid Usmani.

The Penn Hillel Student Executive Committee released a statement on Friday similarly condemning Saadi's actions.

"While some may dismiss these actions as straightforward Halloween amusement, many perceive this student to have displayed a disturbing disregard for the sensitivities of others," it said.

Nothing Less than a "Massacre"

Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas has called the operation a "massacre" and urged the UN Security Council to convene to discuss the issue.

I thought I'd do a quick search on the use of the word "massacre".

1. Abbas Condemns Israeli Massacre

Beirut, Nov 1 (Prensa Latina) Palestine s President Mahmud Abbas reacted angrily to the killing of six people by the Israeli soldiers who attacked Gaza Strip late Tuesday and early Wednesday.

2. Israeli occupation forces remain in Beit Hanoon after massacre that killed seven Palestinians

PNN, (Gaza City) Wisam Afifeh Tuesday, 24 October 2006

The day after the massacre that claimed the lives of seven Beit Hanoon residents and injured scores more, Israeli forces continue to occupy the northern Gaza Strip town. Eyewitnesses report that Israeli occupation tanks surround the town on all sides and that troops have taken to bulldozing nearby agricultural land.

And this goes on and on.

Seems everything Israel does is nothing short of a "massacre".

And Now, 500 Years Later...

With Jewish Roots Now Prized, Spain Starts Digging

TOLEDO, Spain — Spain has sometimes been slow to recognize its own treasures. Miguel de Cervantes was slipping into obscurity after his death until he was rescued by foreign critics. El Greco’s paintings were pulled from oblivion by the French. The Muslim palace of Alhambra had fallen into neglect before the American author Washington Irving and others wrote about it in the 1800s.

Now, 500 years after expelling its Jews and moving to hide if not eradicate all traces of their existence, Spain has begun rediscovering the Jewish culture that thrived here for centuries and that scholars say functioned as a second Jerusalem during the Middle Ages.

“We’ve gone from a period of pillaging the Jews and then suppressing and ignoring their patrimony to a period of rising curiosity and fascination,” said Ana María López, the director of the Sephardic Museum in Toledo, a hub of Jewish life before the Jews were expelled or forced to convert to Christianity in 1492 during the Inquisition.

Cities and towns across Spain are searching for the remains of their medieval synagogues, excavating old Jewish neighborhoods and trying to identify Jewish cemeteries. Scholars say they are overwhelmed with requests from local governments to study archaeological findings and ancient documents that may validate a region’s Jewish heritage.

Other people are joining in, delving into family histories to hunt for signs of Jewish ancestry. “I don’t go a week without someone calling and asking me if their last name has Jewish roots,” said Javier Castaño, an expert in Spain’s Jewish history at the Higher Council for Scientific Research in Madrid.

“It’s the opposite of 300 years ago when people changed their last names to Spanish names and looked for ancestors of pure Spanish blood,” he said. “Now it’s trendy to say you have Jewish roots.”

But Mr. Castaño and other scholars say the revival has in some ways gone too far. They contend that some local governments, eager to attract well-heeled tourists from the United States and Israel, are making claims about their Jewish heritage that are not supported by historical evidence.

“This whole revival is a very important and positive contribution,” Mr. Castaño said. “The problem is that in some cases people are falsifying the past by creating a Jewish patrimony that never existed.”

He and other critics say cities are promoting old Jewish quarters with no original structures, cemeteries whose real location is still a mystery and medieval synagogues that are hardly medieval if they ever functioned as synagogues at all.

“History is being exploited,” Mr. Castaño said, citing Oviedo near the northern coast and Jaén in the south as particularly egregious examples. “People are trying to reproduce what has occurred in Toledo. Everyone wants their medieval synagogue.”

Toledo, with two intact medieval synagogues, including the Tránsito Synagogue from the 14th century, is something of an exception in Spain, where the expulsion of the Jews was followed by a campaign to destroy, disassemble or obscure obvious reminders of their presence.

The Network of Jewish Quarters in Spain, which works to revive and promote medieval Jewish neighborhoods, concedes that some cities have oversold their possessions. “But it’s not that they don’t have the history, it’s that the history is not so visible,” said Assumpció Hosta, the network’s secretary general. “We have to give these cities time to invest in the recovery of their patrimony.”

Spain had the most vibrant Jewish population in Europe before the expulsion of 1492, and it produced one of the most influential cultural legacies in Jewish history.

It was here that Hebrew was reborn as a language suitable not just for prayer and liturgy but for poetry and other secular pursuits, contributing to the advent in Spain of what has been called a golden age of Jewish literature, philosophy and science in the 10th and 11th centuries.

“In the minds of her sons and daughters, Sepharad was a second Jerusalem,” Jane S. Gerber wrote in her book “The Jews of Spain: A History of the Sephardic Experience.”

“Expulsion from Spain, therefore, was as keenly lamented as exile from the Holy Land,” she said.

Scholarly interest in this chapter of Jewish history has been intensifying in Spain for decades, but only recently has it extended to the public.

Besides the revival of Jewish neighborhoods, there has been an explosion of books on Jewish themes, with 200 to 250 published every year, and new museums, cultural centers, restaurants and musical groups devoted to Sephardic traditions.

Medieval festivals that have typically included only Muslims and Christians are now seeking to add Jewish participants.

Jewish leaders say the trend has received an added push from Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, who has made encouraging a more open and tolerant society a primary objective of his administration.

Still, despite the new enthusiasm for Spain’s Jewish heritage, intolerance toward Jews here is far from a thing of the past, the leaders say.

“A contradictory element in all this is that a new anti-Semitism is also developing in Spain,” said Jacobo Israel Garzón, the president of the Federation of Jewish Communities in Spain. “It uses the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as its source, but it passes very quickly from anti-Israelism to anti-Semitism.”

Mr. Israel said the number of Jews in Spain today was still small, 40,000 to 50,000. But he said the population was growing steadily thanks to immigration, particularly from North Africa, where so many Jews fled after the expulsion 500 years ago.

Many of these returnees still speak a form of the Judeo-Spanish language of their ancestors and have maintained their traditions. “There is tremendous nostalgia for Sephardic Spain in the Jewish world, particularly in the ancestors of the expelled Jews,” Mr. Israel said. “But even in the souls of the Jews who were not expelled there is the sense that with the end of Jewish Spain something very important was lost.”

“Spain is now opening the way for the study of that lost footprint,” he said.

The Interview of Avigdor Lieberman

Here it is in full:-

Jews and Arabs can never live together

When Avigdor Lieberman, a populist Israeli politician frequently compared to Austria's Jörg Haider and France's Jean-Marie le Pen, proposed to bus thousands of Palestinians to the Dead Sea and drown them there, he was just a fringe member of government.

That was three years ago. But last week the controversial nationalist joined the coalition government led by Ehud Olmert in a much more senior role, as vice prime minister with special responsibility for Israel's most pressing issue: the threat from Iran.

In his first interview since taking office – exclusively with The Sunday Telegraph – Mr Lieberman said that the best means of achieving peace in the Middle East would be for Jews and Arabs to live apart, including those Arabs who now live inside Israel.

Israel was on the "front line of a clash of civilisations between the free world and extremist Islam," he said.

On Iran, he said: "Every week, the president of Iran declares his intention to destroy us."

Mr Lieberman, 48, the leader of Yisrael Beitanu (Israel Our Home), who has previously urged Israel to bomb Teheran, said: "Iran is the base of an axis of evil which is a problem for all the world."

Mr Lieberman, whose addition to the coalition as "strategic threat" minister prompted the resignation of a cabinet colleague, also said that Israel's 1.25 million Arab minority was a "problem" which required "separation" from the Jewish state. "We established Israel as a Jewish country," he said. "I want to provide an Israel that is a Jewish, Zionist country. It's about what kind of country we want to see in the future. Either it will be an [ethnically mixed] country like any other, or it will continue as a Jewish country."

Ophir Pines-Paz, the former culture minister who resigned in protest, decried Mr Lieberman's politics as "racist", adding that the new vice prime-minister – a former bouncer who emigrated from the former Soviet republic of Moldova in 1978 – was himself "a strategic threat to Israel".

Beyond that, however, protest has been muted. There have been no mass demonstrations. Few voters or politicians seem scandalised as they were in 2003.

Analysts say the smooth appointment of a man recently considered an extremist -rabble-rouser is a sign of political radicalisation in Israel.

"After the summer war in Lebanon, many Israelis have moved to the Right," said Gideon Doron, professor of political science at Tel Aviv University. "They think security is bad and trust Palestinians and Arabs less. They don't believe in the possibility of peace through negotiations, so Lieberman has become the centre of a new consensus."

Mr Olmert has insisted that the addition of Israel Our Home to his coalition is tactical rather than political. It bolsters his majority in the Knesset to 78 out of 120 seats, allowing him a margin of security in a country known for its revolving-door governments.

But while Mr Olmert says Israel Our Home will not change government policy, it seems almost inconceivable that the prime minister's main election promise of withdrawing tens of thousands of Jewish settlers from the West Bank will be implemented with Mr Lieberman – himself a settler – in the cabinet.

Mr Lieberman, for one, has other ideas. He has no intention of withdrawing Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Instead, he wants to keep them while, "in return", redrawing Israel's border to eject thousands of Israeli Arabs from the country.

"Minorities are the biggest problem in the world," he said in his soft, Russian-accented English. Asked if Israeli citizens of Arab descent should be forced out through territorial redistribution, he said: "I think separation between two nations is the best solution. Cyprus is the best model. Before 1974, the Greeks and Turks lived together and there were frictions and bloodshed and terror.

"After 1974, they constituted all Turks on one part of the island, all Greeks on the other part of the island and there is stability and security."

When it was pointed out that in Cyprus thousands were forcibly driven from their homes, he replied: "Yes, but the final result was better."

Later, an aide to Mr Lieberman tried to flesh out his remarks. "Israeli Arabs don't have to go," he said. "But if they stay they have to take an oath of allegiance to Israel as a Jewish Zionist state."

Mr Lieberman does not explain how he plans to separate Jews and Arabs in Jerusalem, whose eastern half is home to several hundred thousand Palestinians but which Israel has annexed to form its "eternal and undivided capital". The aide said: "He will not compromise on Jerusalem."

Such hawkish, straightforward sentiments have made Mr Lieberman the most powerful new force in Israeli politics. Since he split with the Likud party and its leader, the former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to form his own party in 1999, he has in effect monopolised the votes of more than a million Russian immigrants. At elections earlier this year, Israel Our Home demolished Likud's traditional grip on the Right to win 11 seats.

Mr Lieberman insists that the world must unite against "an axis of evil led by Iran. Iran is the biggest threat. It's a problem for the whole world, but Israel really has a bad location. We are on the front line between the clash of civilisations between the free world and the extremist Islamic world."

His use of the phrase "clash of civilisations" is another example of what Mr Doron calls Mr Lieberman's "popular straight-talking". But there is one subject on which Mr Lieberman is uncharacteristically coy. When asked if he wants to lead the country one day, he smiled and said: "It's too early for that."

Savir is No Savior

Uri Savir's op-ed ("Re-engage Rabin's road map", J Post, Nov. 3) was one of the more self-serving and misleading pieces of writing to appear in years, one of deceivement.

Rabin was circumvented in the entire Oslo process which Savir, along with Shimon Peres, Yossi Beilin and others manipulated the Prime Minister. He initially opposed the process and never fully committed himself to it.

Despite Savir's claim that "only Rabin, together with his closest partner Peres, knew how to make peace", another, earlier Prime Minister, Menachem Begin, received the Nobel Prize for Peace. One can argue about the quality of that peace but in relationship to the Oslo Process, Begin's peace puts 'Oslo' into shame.

Moreover, the results of that process put the lie to Savir's insistence that the Rabin-Peres peace alliance possessed "foresight, pragmatism and courage". Actually, it was just the opposite.

Another imposturous point of Savir is that "Rabin was a true advocate for democracy…Rabin never attempted to gag the Right". From the use of "propellers" to "kuggelacher" to "I am responsible for the security for 97% of Israel's population", Rabin was a spiteful degrader of the opposition to his policies.

If there is an importance to the "legacy" of Rabin it is that leaders cannot disengage themselves and their polices from the people and what is the essence of national heritage.

Mamet's New Book on Jewish Self-Hate

This is David Mamet's new book:-

THE WICKED SON, Anti-Semitism, Self-Hatred, and the Jews

Here are some reviews:-

Maybe I Am Chopped Liver
By DAVID MARGOLICK

To anyone who takes Jewishness seriously, David Mamet’s 1991 film, “Homicide,” was confusing. On the one hand, it was refreshing, even exhilarating, to see how openly Mamet dealt with issues like Jewish identity and anti-Semitism. Far from hiding his background, like so many in his business, Mamet embraced it, then shoved it in everyone’s face. His Jewish characters were neither the celluloid conversos nor the neurotic nebbishes that Hollywood (and all those Jews who run the place) so adore, but uncloseted fighters. There wasn’t a George Costanza or Jenny Cavallari or Fielding Mellish in the bunch.

But there was a slight problem with Mamet’s Jews: They were unrecognizable. Their anxieties seemed from an earlier era. They belonged to no real place, just one of Mamet’s Hopperish lonely cities. They spoke Mamet-speak, which is to say, a language so hyperreal that it sometimes sounded quite unreal. They were, in fact, contrivances, created to highlight Mamet’s hobgoblins and hobbyhorses.

One encounters the same schism, and the same ambivalence, in “The Wicked Son,” Mamet’s examination of the modern Jewish psyche. Like everything he does, it is blunt and bracing, honest and provocative, original and gutsy. At the same time, it’s not exactly clear which Jews Mamet is talking about, what decade they live in, how fairly he treats them or even how many of them there are.

The book’s title refers to the character in the Passover Seder who distances himself from his people. “What does this ritual mean to you?” he asks tendentiously. For Mamet, he represents a disease among Jews, too many of whom are negative, weak, defeatist, ignorant and ungrateful. They hate their own history and traditions, loathe the state of Israel and are far too prone to trade their precious birthright for the closest cause or cult.

Even if they find Mamet’s other works bewildering or raw, many Jews, particularly politically progressive types who are also observant or strongly self-identified or devoted to Israel, will applaud him here. They’ve been to one too many Upper West Side dinner parties in which they’ve been forced single-handedly to take on a tableful of pro-Palestinian Jews or to admit to praying periodically. They’ll share his complaint about unremitting hostility of many Jewish leftists to Israel, a place a large number of them have never even visited, nor ever bothered learning very much about. They’ll agree that Philip Roth and Woody Allen trashed Ashkenazi immigrant culture. They’ll share his disgust at all those supposedly enlightened Jews who mock the tradition that helped make them what they are, only to embrace the nearest “analgesic” — materialism, Buddhism, yoga, self-help, agnosticism, sports, ethical culture — instead.

The joke is on them, Mamet says, for wherever these fallen Jews land, they run right into other, similarly disaffected Jews, and end up doing the very things they supposedly abhor. Those who consider circumcision mutilation have their breasts enlarged; those who’d never open up to rabbis go to shrinks or “life coaches”; those who will not recite the Shema (Judaism’s most important prayer) intone “I am Jewish, but I do not practice” just as ritualistically.

“I’ve seen it, and, perhaps, you have, too — the self-proclaimed ex-Jew, scoffing at the funeral, the wedding, the Seder, and leaving in dudgeon when his behavior was not tolerated,” Mamet declares. He’s right. There was that Passover I attended a few years back when one very well-educated Jewish woman was annoyed by every turn of the text. People had honored that text for centuries, and followed it even in Auschwitz, but for this spoiled sourpuss it was just too much to bear.

But here as in “Homicide,” something about Mamet’s world seems artificial and overdone. He has a peculiar knack for finding the most egregiously misbehaving Jews: Jews who serve jumbo shrimp and cavort naked at bar mitzvahs, or tell shockingly anti-Semitic jokes, or can’t distinguish Rosh Hashana from Yom Kippur or would see Israel wiped out without compunction.

Such self-loathing is, of course, nothing new. “Who hates the Jews more than the Jew?” Henry Miller once asked. But Mamet has a ready answer for Miller: everyone else. The world hates the Jews, he writes, always has, always will. Liberal Jews who read The New York Times or listen to National Public Radio may not think so, but they are naïve; when the pogrom comes, he predicts, even lapsed Jews will search frantically for doorways with mezuzas. In fact, apart from various Internet wackos, anti-Semitism, at least the American strain, has waned; how else to explain the very assimilation Mamet so detests? But he writes as if Father Coughlin is still on the radio, Henry Ford still hawks The Dearborn Independent and Fritz Kuhn’s German American Bundists still march through Yorkville.

With equal fervor, Mamet depicts lapsed Jews as figures from Dante, full of pain and guilt and “anomie,” languishing in an ethnic limbo, scorned by Jew and gentile alike. Pathetic, self-lacerating losers, he calls them (sort of like gay Republicans). Naturally, no one’s fooled: to both themselves and those who hate them, they’ll always be Jews. Mamet subscribes to what an old Jew from Chicago — one a generation older than he — once told me: “You can change your noses, but not your Moses.”

But as near as I can tell, few wayward Jews feel such angst. We are no longer in the age of “The Jazz Singer,” where children steeped in Jewish learning break their poor pious fathers’ hearts by trading pulpits for prosceniums. They may feel a pang or two around their Christmas trees, but as assimilated children of assimilated parents, their Jewish ties were pretty attenuated already. Here, too, Mamet seems a generation or two too late. Given his prodigious talent and insight, one wonders why. Maybe it’s a bizarre form of nostalgia, for a time when, thanks largely to their enemies, Jews felt more fraternal, and many were shtarkers — tough guys — rather than the deracinated wimps he thinks we’ve become, people whose favorite Jew, as he puts it, is Anne Frank.

On Israel, Mamet’s problem isn’t timing but oversimplification. That Israel represents so much of what he admires in contemporary Jewish life, that he has become the lineal descendant of another Hollywood figure — Ben Hecht — should not blind him to its faults, nor lead him to caricature its critics. Not all Jewish criticism of Israel is self-hatred, and not all gentile criticism is anti-Semitic. Jews who sympathize with the Palestinians are not necessarily neurotic. Few Jews consider Zionism “criminal,” and are there any who condone suicide bombing? And, by the way, not all Israeli crimes are “imaginary.”

As a cure for all this dissonance, Mamet offers, to use a notion out of “Glengarry Glen Ross,” a surprising “lead,” one beyond the ken of Shelley “The Machine” Levene and the other real estate hustlers in the play: faith. Jews should stop trying to answer the unanswerable and yield to Jewish ritual and wisdom. After all, he asks, how could all those sages have had it so wrong all these years? Jews should force themselves to go to shul, and sit there until the spirit penetrates and soothes them.

More than almost anyone else of his generation, David Mamet would subscribe to the old Yiddish aphorism “S’iz shver tsu zayn a yid”: It’s hard to be a Jew. But in this day and age, it’s also easy: one gets little if any flak for it, and there are many, many ways to honor Jewish tradition, every bit as lovingly as Mamet does. Open-mindedness and tolerance are two. Even that whiny Seder-going girl, after all, married a nice Jewish boy — maybe even under a huppah.

============================

From Publishers Weekly

The world hates the Jews. The world always has and will continue to do so." So says celebrated playwright and novelist Mamet in this new entry in the Jewish Encounters series, as he sets his sights on both anti-Semites and apostate Jews, whom he refers to as "the Wicked Sons." Mamet marshals his passion and mastery of language to argue that only religious observance is an authentic, non-self-hating expression of Judaism. Organizing that argument coherently, however, doesn't seem to be a priority, as he moves from discussions of the State of Israel to excoriations of assimilated Jews and contemporary culture and back with no apparent order. The tone is that of the condescending expert: alternately Talmudic scholar, academic, psychoanalyst and anthropologist. But nowhere is Mamet's expertise proven; he provides no source materials to back up his pronouncements on everything from Santa Claus to gun control to religious observance. The implication of this bombastic text seems to be that anyone who disagrees is a coward, an anti-Semite or a self-hating Jew.

================

From Booklist

Mamet, the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and filmmaker, has written a rather confusing but very provocative analysis of what is often called the "longest hatred" and its effects on Jews. Those unfamiliar with the often-oblique dialogue that characterizes Mamet's fiction will probably find wading through his language frustrating. His repeated allusions to the Bible and other literary sources are strained, and he paints with too broad a brush ("the world hates Jews"). If one can cut through the fog and tolerate his generalizations, it is evident that Mamet is on to something, particularly in his views on the apparent increase in Jewish disdain for and rejection of their own culture. He ties Jewish self-hatred to anti-Semitism, asserting that the victims eventually wonder if they somehow "deserve" the opprobrium heaped on them. So called "emancipated" Jews may try to cleanse themselves of racial taint by disparaging "Jewish" traits. Of course, Mamet finds the worst manifestations of this self-hatred in those Jews who seem to delight in attacking the very existence of Israel. In Mamet's view, they absurdly condemn Jewish passivity during the Holocaust and condemn Jewish aggressiveness in defending the State of Israel. This isn't an easy book to read, and it will likely outrage many Jews and non-Jews, but Mamet's blunt, passionate assertions have to be seriously considered.

Might Have Been?

NABLUS, West Bank Israeli troops killed three Palestinians in clashes in the northern West Bank on Friday, medics and relatives said.

In the refugee camp of Al Faraa, Saadi Subuh, 23, and Mustafa Abu Zalat, 17, were shot and killed, their relatives and medics said. The circumstances of shooting were not clear, but Abu Zalat's uncle said his nephew might have been throwing stones at army jeeps at the time.

Was there really any doubt?

Haggard Got Haggard, I Guess

Pastor Ted Haggard didn't want surprises:-

In Pastor Ted's book Dog Training, Fly Fishing, & Sharing Christ in the 21st Century, he describes the church he thinks good Christians want. “I want my finances in order, my kids trained, and my wife to love life. I want good friends who are a delight and who provide protection for my family and me should life become difficult someday . . . I don't want surprises, scandals, or secrets . . . I want stability and, at the same time, steady, forward movement. I want the church to help me live life well, not exhaust me with endless ‘worthwhile’ projects.”

But he did get one:-

After Pastor Ted Haggard went public Wednesday night denying allegations of a homosexual affair, senior church officials told KKTV 11News Thursday evening, Pastor Ted Haggard has admitted to some of the claims made by a former male escort. The church's Acting Senior Pastor, Ross Parsley, tells KKTV 11 News that Pastor Haggard has admitted to some of the indiscretions claimed by Mike Jones, but not all of them.

An email has also reportedly been sent to Church staff saying Haggard admitted to some of the accusations.

What those indiscretions were remains a mystery. Mike Jones took a polygraph examination, and was asked about his claim of a sexual relationship with Haggard. The polygraph examination showed "some deception." However, the person who administered the test said on Denver radio station KHOW that the results could be skewed by Jones's "mental and physical exhaustion."

Thursday morning, Jones went on a Denver radio talk show and said Pastor Haggard paid him for sex over the past 3 years. Jones also claims Haggard used drugs with him.

And that's too bad. He's been good on the Jewish People and Israel:-

I realize there is a history of anti-Semitism in connection with Passion Plays. That history is regrettable, and I am sympathetic to fears associated with it. Indeed, with the past in mind, I hope that evangelicals will lead the way in calming those fears and reaching out to the Jewish people. There should be little doubt about our support already--evangelicals have long been the most vocal supporters of Israel and Jews worldwide. For example, in Colorado Springs, where I pastor the 10,000-member New Life Church, Christians have publicly avowed to protect the Jewish people in our region from any anti-Semitic threats. We have tried to work with them to make life better for their communities, and I believe they understand that the Christians in Southern Colorado are for them, not against them.

Shiloh, USA

Well, this posting is for all the people who don't know that the biblical Shiloh, where I live, is also an important civil war battle site.

This is how it looks today:-



And here's some info on the battle.

Era, Me and Some Wine

My wife has posted this picture here.



Era Rappaport has a bit of 'history' and you can read about it in this book:

Rapaport, Era. Edited and Introduced by William B. Helmreich. Letters From Tel Mond Prison. An Israeli Settler Defends His Act of Terror, Free Press, New York, London, Toronto ..., 1996

But his wines are good and his redemption work, turning the Shiloh area into one of vineyards and olive groves, is quite impressive. We now have a new olive press which has already been attacked.

But, as the above picture illustrates, we were enjoying some "fruits of Jewish labor" despite it all.

She's One of the Tribe

Alexandra Rosenfeld is Jewish.

Who?

Her.



Miss Rosenseld is from Languedoc and was named Miss France last December and now has become Miss Europe.

Rosenfeld, who is studying tourism, was the subject of a number of anti-semitic slurs on the internet when she originally scooped the French title.

No kidding.

Jews at BBC Jerusalem Bureau

In Britain, it was reported that two Jewish journalists have joined the BBC's Jerusalem bureau staff.

"As the debate rages on over BBC bias in its Israel coverage, two Jewish journalists were this week appointed to join the corporation's reporting team in Jerusalem," Totally Jewish said.

"Tim Franks will take up the role of a Middle East correspondent while Katya Adler will leave her current posting in Madrid to become a Middle East reporter. A BBC spokesman told the Jewish News: 'Both are extremely experienced and talented correspondents who will continue the excellent work that is synonymous with the bureau.' He added: 'I also think it opportune to note that the recent Independent Panel set up by the BBC Board of Governors found no deliberate or systematic bias in the BBC's coverage of the Israel-Palestinian conflict.'"

(Kippah tip: Ynet)

Shielding Whom?

Israelis Fire on Marchers Aiding Gaza Gunmen, Killing 2

That's the headline in the story today in the New York Times, a story I dealt with yesterday.

A march?

Like in...

...Selma?

No.

You had to continue reading to understand ther essence of this "march".

Israeli troops killed two Palestinian women and wounded some 10 others who were seeking to serve as human shields for Hamas militants holed up in a Gaza mosque on Friday after an overnight standoff. The troops fired on a crowd of women and at least a few men as they marched to the mosque.

Hundreds of women, urged on by Palestinian radio, were flocking to the mosque to try to prevent an Israeli attack and to help an estimated 60 men escape. In the chaos that erupted when the shooting began, the gunmen inside the mosque escaped.

Let's ask a question: was it legal what these ladies were doing?

Human shields are noncombatants whose presence protects certain objects or areas from attack. The use of human shields is illegal under international
humanitarian law.

This includes voluntary human shields. See this and here's an elaboration:-

Both Protocol I and Article 28 of the Geneva Convention (IV) make clear that "the deliberate intermingling of civilians and combatants, designed to create a situation in which any attack against combatants would necessarily entail an excessive number of casualties is a flagrant breach of the Law of International Armed Conflict," according to international law scholar Yoram Dinstein (see his The Conduct of Hostilities under the Law of International Armed Conflict, Cambridge University Press, 2004, pp. 129 - 130).| In short, Hezbollah is in violation of the laws of war when it places missiles and rockets in villages and homes in order to shield them from Israeli attack.

Article 51(7) of Protocol I states: "The presence or movements of the civilian population or individual civilians shall not be used to render certain points or areas immune from military operations, in particular attempts to shield military objectives from attacks or to shield, favour or impede military operations." And the Geneva Convention (IV) holds that "The presence of a protected person may not be used to render certain points of areas immune from military operations." (Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, 1949, Laws of Armed Conflicts, 495, 511.) Moreover, the Rome Statute is clear that "utilizing the presence of civilians or other protected persons to render certain points, areas or military forces immune from military operations is recognized as a war crime by Article 8 (2) (b) (xxiii)".

And here's another source:-

Article 51(7) states that “the presence or movements of the civilian population or individual civilians shall not be used to render certain points or areas immune from military operations, in particular in attempts to shield military objectives from attacks or to shield, favour or impede military operations. The Parties to the conflict shall not direct the movement of the civilian population or individual civilians in order to attempt to shield military objectives from attacks or to shield military operations”. Therefore, the unlawfulness and illegality of any practice involving the presence of civilians nearby or on military objects as a means of warfare is evident. Any party at any time is authorised to use such tactics, no matter if the human shields are voluntary or involuntary, and whether the object of the attack is a legitimate target or not.

The funny thing is that Israel's supreme court has banned the use of Palestinian human shields in arrest raids, saying the practice violates international law. The court issued a temporary injunction against the practice in 2002 after a teenager was killed when troops made him negotiate with a wanted militant.

"You cannot exploit the civilian population for the army's military needs, and you cannot force them to collaborate with the army," Aharon Barak said.

No, not in Israel, but in Gaza it is okay and Hamas required community activity.

=========

UPDATE:

As the women rushed away from the scene, at least two men disguised in women's clothes were seen in the crowd. Jubilant bystanders embraced them, celebrating their escape.

"Our fighters made holes through the nearby houses to the mosque. The women entered the mosque as the fighters managed to guide the gunmen out," said Hamas militant commander Abu Ubaida.

Israel had allowed trucks loaded with medical and food supplies to reach hospitals, and for ambulances to evacuate the wounded, said Colonel Nir Press, head of Israel's Coordination and Liaison Administration for the Gaza Strip.

Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas "saluted the women of Palestine ... who led the protest to break the siege of Beit Hanun."

Islamic Feminism

Gaza women end mosque stand-off

Groups of women defied the Israeli forces to run to the mosque

A siege at a mosque in the Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun has ended after Israeli forces entered the compound and found no-one there, Israel's army says.
An Israeli military spokesman told the BBC they believe the dozen Palestinian gunmen escaped by mingling with a crowd of women who had formed a human shield.

The women went to the mosque after an appeal on Hamas radio. Two were reportedly killed by Israeli gunfire.

Israel entered Beit Hanoun on Wednesday to stop rocket attacks, it said.

A tense stand-off developed after Israeli forces surrounded the mosque, where Palestinian gunmen had taken refuge along with about 60 others.

Witnesses said bulldozers demolished a wall as the Israelis tried to force those inside to surrender and there were exchanges of fire between Israeli forces and the gunmen.

However, following an appeal on Hamas radio, over 100 women approached the compound in groups.

"We risked our lives to free our sons," Um Mohammed, a woman in her 40s, told the AFP news agency afterwards.

"Hundreds of us entered the mosque and surrounded the resistance fighters to protect them," 21-year-old Nidaa al-Radih said.

With the gunmen shielded within their midst the women ran to an area north-west of the town which is clear of Israeli troops.

There have been reports that the Israeli soldiers fired on the groups of women. Two women are reported to have been killed.

Hamas radio has since reported that all of the militants in the mosque had escaped and were uninjured.

And how to Muslims act toward each other?

Darfur militias 'kill children'

The Janjaweed are accused of ethnic cleansing

Militias backing Sudan's government have killed at least 63 people in attacks in Darfur in the past week, African peacekeepers say.
At least 27 of the victims are thought to be children under the age of 12.

The attacks were carried on camps for the displaced in the rebel stronghold of Jebel Moun, in West Darfur.

The government says it is disarming the Janjaweed militia but a BBC correspondent in Sudan says all the evidence points to the exact opposite.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has urged the Sudanese government to restrain the militia's following the attacks.

Militia wearing government uniforms, on camels and horseback, swept into the camps in Jebel Moun on 29 October.

The African Union (AU) investigation team has just returned from the area to make its report.

So, are Jews more moral than Muslim or is it a matter for post-modern destructivist narrative analysis?

Another Shiloh Mosaic Picture

This one is from one of three Basilicas we have at Shiloh, well, so far discovered.

This is from the "Danish" one.

Couldn't His Money Be Used Better to Halt Flowing Blood?

...and in the Middle East?

Gates Foundation giving $46 million to SF firm to fight diarrhea

SEATTLE (AP) - The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is giving a San Francisco nonprofit pharmaceutical company 46 (M) million dollars to expand its research on new treatments for diarrheal disease.

The grant goes to the Institute for OneWorld Health.

The traditional treatment for the disease is rehydration, but the company is working on drugs that inhibit fluid loss in the intestine.

Severe dehydration can kill, especially in the young and old, and OneWorld will focus on treatments for infants and young children.

How to Sell the Book: The Bible

From Amazon:-

Please read my book, but don't take it too literally - some of my co-authors were a little too zealous and I'm not sure it all came out right in translation. If you want the short version, here it is: Be nice to each other, would you? It was a hellish job creating the world and all that, and I'd be most pleased if you didn't all mess it up. As you were. Love, God.

I was recommended this book by a friend of mine (who told me it would help me find someone that she was also looking for?), and imagine my surprise when I found a copy that someone had left behind in my hotel room!

The book, lengthy and difficult to read, is set in a fantasy world where 'God' creates his own world and then procedes to bully all his creations, apart from his favourite ones. He has a huge temper and kills almost everyone quite a few times - especially gay people and those of different religions to his.

The first chapter makes absolutely no sense whatsoever (how did he make all that stuff before turning the lights on?), and quickly dissolves into an obscene tirade of homophobia, rape, racial stereo-typing, mass muder, anti-abortion, ethnic cleansing, sadomasochistic, genocidal filth.

Considering the fact that the central character, God, wrote this trash, it comes as a shock to find that he depicts himself as a bully, a murderer and an egotistical maniac, with a singular egocentric philosophy along the lines of 'Bow down before me, or die'.

The first third of the book concerns a lot of drug taking ("I give you all the seed-bearing plants on this earth"), intertwined with some lurid trips (burning pillars of salt?) and some heavy sex and rape scenes. The world almost ends a couple of times, and a few plagues threaten to wipe out the entire globe just because one person said the wrong thing to God.

About half way through the book God has a son around Christmas time (though this part wasn't explained very well) by having sex with a girl named Mary (who is actually married - but the husband doesn't seem to mind). This son is such a dickhead that he only has 12 friends, and by the end of his short life he gets tortured to death.

The penultimate chapter is all about the coming of the end of the world. You get the feeling that the author has just seen that ben Aflek movie about that meteor one or two many times. There's even a controversial take on the 9/11 conspiracy talking about "pillars of fire falling from the sky".

Surprisinlgy there isn't really an ending to speak of - leaving the reader somewhat confused and disappointed. (That is, if you ever get to the end). In fact, this book is so confusing there are global wars going on right now simply because people don't have a clue what it means.

Overall this book does for literature what straight-to-video releases did to cinema.

I read this book a few months ago and came away slightly disappointed. It seems to get a lot of praise amongst certain folk and institutions, however, I can not agree with their love for the book. It's divided into two main sections: the Old Testament and the New Testament, with both sections further sub-divided into many different chapters. The first section (Old Testament) follows the creation of existence, introduction of human, animals, plants etc, and the punishment of humans by the lead protagonist (God). The God character seems to have been oddly portrayed; especially considering the vast amount of praise people seem to give him. He comes across as a egotistical psychopath, who's obsessed with maintaining his own glory at the expense of the humans he 'created'. Whilst this theme is interesting to start with (the destruction of the 7 tribes part particularly fun), it soon becomes dull.

The second section follows a different theme, with its centre storyline follow a character named Jesus Christ. He seems to change much of the original message to something more moral, i.e. less genocide. However, just as he is getting interesting, the character is killed off, only to be 'resurrected' later. All in all the book is a difficult read, should not be taken too heavily, and not one for the kids. It got the two stars for its entertaining introduction and conclusion, and its unique style of writing. However, there are plenty of other books out there that answer similar questions, notably the Outsider by Albert Camus and The Blind Watchmaker by Richard Dawkins.

As a book 'The Bible' starts well, but you soon find yourself bogged down in the backstory and unable to grasp everything before you end up launched into the main plot almost half way through the novel.

As the main storyline goes there's not much to distinguish 'The Bible' from many other mainstream works of fiction or fantasy, there's betrayal, war, death, birth and lots of moral messages (some of which tend to contradict each other) but it's enjoyable to read. Unfortunately the ending is a little forced and almost seems like the whole 'End of the World' thing was tacked on to make the book sell. That said, however, it does show a good impression of Armageddon, though it does get a bit biblical in places.

I would recommend that younger readers be warned away from this book as, from the way it is written, they may have a tendancy to take it literally. Also there is a lot of sex (or 'Begatting') only a few chapters into the story. Overall the whole thing could use a sequel to tie up all the plot holes and contradictions, but it's still an enjoyable read.

And here is an instance of the wrong way to read this book:-

Dad Who Tried To Sacrifice Boy Gets Probation

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- A Tennessee man who tried to strangle his 2-year-old son in what he said was a sacrifice to God has been sentenced to probation requiring mental health treatment.

In a deal with prosecutors, Jason Thorbon, 34, of Knoxville pleaded guilty to attempted second-degree murder in the January 2005 incident in which his wife wrestled their son from his grasp.

Both prosecution and defense expert witnesses agreed Thorbon was legally insane at the time.

Jennifer Thorbon testified that her husband had battled mental illness for years. She said he would become psychotic and start "talking about God and Jesus and religion."

How To Get Politics into Food

Arabs manage to insinuate the Middle East Arab-Israel conflict into almost everything, including food.

There is something called Terra Madre.

As the NYTimes reports:

The event, first held two years ago, is produced by Slow Food, an international association that mixes food politics with culinary pleasure. The association, which now has 80,000 members in 100 countries, catalogs foods and techniques that are on the verge of extinction.

From last Thursday to Monday, more than 8,000 people turned the building that held the 2006 Olympic speed skating oval into a kind of culinary United Nations. Chefs and people who like to eat mixed with the people who actually farm, herd, fish or otherwise create the foods that represent what Slow Food is trying to promote.

Basque shepherds mulled over nomadic herding with Mongolian camel tenders. Indian rice growers mingled with Maine potato farmers. Fishermen traded tastes of wild Northwest smoked salmon and Sicilian Favignana bottarga. And everyone partied with the wild Louisiana shrimpers.

So, what's my point?

Read on:-

Thursday’s opening day ceremony featured a parade of flags from 150 nations. Iraq and Iran, two countries President Bush defined as part of the “axis of evil,” received some of the warmest applause, as did the delegation from Lebanon. The crowd also went crazy for the Peruvian flag bearer, but it might have been for the pink hat.

Later in the ceremony, Kamal Mouzawak, founder of the farmers’ market in Beirut — billed as Lebanon’s first — provided one of the most crystallizing moments. Beirut has lost almost all of its public gathering places, which makes the farmers’ market so vital, he said. Without a place to sell local products, farmers lose hope. And without local food traditions, people lose hope, he said.

“If you don’t dream, you don’t exist,” he told the crowd. “So let’s dream together.”

Amazing, eh?

The "Criminals" + Update

This is my wife's photo of the poster dealing with the issue of young Yesha men being given eviction/expulsion notices from their homes due to Arabs complaining they cannot properly harvest their olive crop.



==========================

UPDATE
(this just in from Mattot Arim: mattot.arim@gmail.com)

Arrested father warns: I won't eat or drink

The 18 families from Judea and Samaria remain separated.