Wednesday, October 31, 2012

But Hugh Isn't Jewish

Adrianne Curry, a model, went to a Los Angeles Halloween party in a skimpy outfit, based on what the Milla Jovovich character wore in 1997 film The Fifth Element.

Next to her was this gentleman:


and she tweeted this:



I went and screensnapped another tweet of hers:





Some people of an odd sense of humor.

And Hefner isn't Jewish.  But I wonder whose idea it was to get dressed up a a Hassid?

With that caricature:-


I bet he was Jewish.

^

Legal Links

This is how Reuters reports on the legality of the Jewish communities in Yesha:-


The United Nations deems all Israeli settlements in the West Bank as illegal. Israel captured the territory in a 1967 war and Palestinians seek to make the West Bank part of a future state that includes the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. Palestinians say settlements would deny them a viable country. Israel cites historical and Biblical links to the West Bank and Jerusalem and says the future of settlements should be decided in peace talks.

Just historical and Biblical links?

What about the San Remo Conference decision, the one that

decided on April 24, 1920 to assign the Mandate [for Palestine] under the League of Nations to Britain

That was a legal link.  Actually, there were three

...which may be termed the founding documents of mandated Palestine and the modern Jewish state of Israel that arose from it. These were the [above-mentioned] San Remo Resolution of April 25, 1920, the Mandate for Palestine conferred on Britain by the Principal Allied Powers and confirmed by the League of Nations on July 24, 1922, and the Franco-British Boundary Convention of December 23, 1920. These founding documents were supplemented by the Anglo-American Convention of December 3, 1924 respecting the Mandate for Palestine.

Can you depend on Reuters?

^

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Low-Intensity Conflict Report #52, October 28, 2012


Low-Intensity Conflict Report #52, October 28, 2012

These reports are translated and publicized byYehudit Tayar for Hatzalah Yehudah and Shomron with the clearance and confirmation of the IDF.  Hatzalah Yehudah and Shomron is a voluntary emergency medical organization with over 500 volunteer doctors, paramedics, medics who are on call 24/7 and work along with the IDF, 669 IAF Airborn Rescue, the security officers and personal throughout Yesha and the Jordan Valley, and with MDA.

We, the volunteers of Hatzalah Yehudah and Shomron go out to rescue anyone who needs our emergency medical assistance; including civilians, military and Arabs also those within the PA territories. (with IDF presence) To us a life is precious and we go out at risk leaving home and family or stopping on the road to rescue anyone in need.

October 28, 2012
Gaza:
5 rockets fired towards Israel.  3 hit inside Arab occupied territory. 2 hit near Security Fence.  IAF attacked active terror cell near Chan Unis.  Exact hit reported resulting in possible elimination of at least 1 of the terrorists who were attacking Israel.
Mortar Fire into Israel several fell near the Security Fence in the Eshkol Region.
2 Grad rockets aimed towards Chazerim.
2 rockets landed near Be'er Sheva.  The schools are closed for a safety precaution.

October 27, 2012
Between Ophra and T Junction Israeli bus attacked by Arabs with rocks causing damage.
Gush Etzion-Hevron Highway near the curve in the road south of Karmei Zur Arabs attack Israeli cars with rocks causing damage.
Betar Illit: Molotov cocktail thrown towards the security road of the community.

October 26, 2012
2 Israeli vehicles damaged when cars attacked by Arabs with rocks near Kedumim by Git junction.
South of shchem by Chawara Israeli bus attacked by Arabs throwing  rocks.  The bus was damaged in the attack.

October 25, 2012
Israeli bus attacked by Arabs with rocks near Git junction in the Kedumim region.

October 24, 2012
Gaza:
In the last few days scores of rockets and mortars have been fired upon and hit inside the Eshkol, Ashkelon, Regional Councils.  Iron Cast has shot down some of the missiles but as of 19:00 at least 90 rockets have hit Israel causing several injuries; some fatal injuires, trauma, and damage.
IAF has targeted and hit several of the terror centers from which the rockets are being fired. The terrorists in Gaza have reported several injured and eliminated.
IAF  attacked terrorist positions in Rafiah region who were preparing to launch rocket attacks on the Eshkol Region.
Thousands of Israelis have been directed to remain close to protective shelters. The educational facilities were closed and thousands of children were kept home in order to try and protect them.  Of course this causes a problem for working parents what to do to care for their children in this emergency situation. Aside from the trauma of those who are under fire.
Near Kedumim Arabs attacked Israeli bus with rocks.
Gush Etzion-Hevron Highway near Bet Umar Arabs attack Israeli vehicles with rocks causing damage.

October 23, 2012
Gaza: IAF attack in the Northern part of the Gaza Strip following massive rocket and mortar attacks on Israel.  1 terrorist member of Hamas was eliminated: Ismael Sili, 25,  from the military branch of the Hamas. 3 additional terrorists were injured.
Qalandia passage Arab apprehended carrying in his possession 8 pipe bombs.  The bomb squad took care of the explosives and the Arab was arrested pending investigation by security forces.
Israeli bus carrying tourists was attacked by Arabs with rocks on the Gush Etzion-Hevron Highway near El Arub causing damage.
Israeli bus attacked with rocks by Arabs north of Ophra in the Benjamin Region causing damage to the windows.
Border Police attacked by mobs of Arabs with rocks and Molotov Cocktails south-west of Ramallah near the village of Anata.  Several security vehicles were damaged by the attack.
Between Kiryat Arba and Hevron Israeli vehicle attacked by Arabs with rocks.
Between Ariel and Marda on the Cross Samarian Highway Israeli vehicles attacked by Arabs with rocks causing damage.

^

Criminal Journalism

My comment

"On the night of October 12, just weeks after my interview, an Israeli drone killed al-Maqdisi and one of his followers, along with a passerby, on a motorbike in a refugee camp, threatening to precipitate another round of fighting."  Wait.  Al-Maqdisi was not planning on precipitating a new round of terror attacks on Israel's civilian population?  And Israel defended itself?  Posting this piece without any real reference to the sole successful export indestry of Gaza - its rocket attacks on Israel - is criminal journalism.

left at this NYRB article:


^

The Medad Family Olive Tree Harvest

With my neighbor across the pathway, Rav Dov Berkovits




^

The Upside-down Jug in the Wall

On a tour of Tel Shiloh's newest archaeological dig, we were shown this wall:


and we realized that something was stuck in the wall:


Just to the left of the stone upon which the pail is sitting, you can see a rim-collered jug, upside-down, stuck in the wall.

Amazing.

You can't discern it?

Here:


^

Kabbalah as Abuse

Reported:

A live-in nanny who watched over the daughter of a Park Avenue socialite and a celebrity surgeon claims she was scalded with boiling water, plied with drugs to increase her productivity, forced to wear sexy outfits, and pushed to attend Kabbalah classes and date her boss’ friends.

The nanny, by the way,

a practicing Buddhist, said no.

And to be clear, the employer was

 Susan O’Leary

Is that a Jewish name?

^

Daniella Weiss on The Honor of Israel

A letter:


That was the last paragraph in a 5-page handwritten letter that was sent to Ariel Sharon 2 Kislev 5740, or November 22, 1979 by Daniella Weiss on stationery of the Kedumim-Elon Moreh group who were then battling a government decision, in the wake of the High Court of Justice decision that ordered them moved.

A selection of documents were uploaded by Israel's State Archives.  Here is the excerpt relating to the letter above:

Gush Emunim saw the Elon Moreh petition as a test case in their struggle over the status of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip, and tied it to the Camp David Accords and the peace treaty with Egypt, to which they were opposed. On the night of 21-22 November the heads of the movement, including Rabbis Zvi Yehuda Kook, Haim Druckman and Zvi Tau met with the leaders of Elon Moreh. Following that meeting Daniella Weiss, one of the leaders of Gush Emunim and head of the secretariat of the 'Kedumim-Elon Moreh' settlement, sent a formal letter to Agriculture Minister Sharon, demanding that he resign. She attached a personal letter, in which she outlined her personal views and the political reasons why Elon Moreh should not be moved from Rujeib to Mt. Kabir. Among other things, she claimed that moving it would be a victory for the PLO, and that the legal status of the settlements in the territories should be changed before Israel transferred the oil fields in Sinai to Egypt, according to the peace agreement 

I have translated the last paragraph since not only is its content emotional and quite representative of the feelings of the group but its conclusion for the future is remarkably prescient.  Daniella


Daniella - a recent snapshot

and family were locate at the Kedumin site where a part of the original Elon Moreh group stayed after the Peres compromise:

...I hope with all my heart that the Government will yet come to its senses, and if not, I will ascend to Elon Moreh with my daughters in order to assist, together with many others, with our bodies, to prevent to uprooting of Jews from their community in Eretz-Yisrael. And I will instruct them that at a time when there is an attempt to rip a Jew from out of his home, that Jew must take a tight hold, even with his teeth and fingernails, in a most very physical fashion.  And if, God forbid, we come to this moment, I will make every effort to impress upon my children the power apparent in the stick-to-it-ness to this land.  And if we are forcibly removed, this tragedy will remain in the minds of my children in a very powerful way in order that they will dedicate their lives for the struggle to return to Elon Moreh, and to return the honor of Israel*.

The end?

From the site:

On 16 January the Elon Moreh residents decided by a majority vote to move to Mt. Kabir. The move was carried out on 29 January; a small group of four families and several single people remained on the previous site and were forcibly removed by the IDF on 3 February 1980.


_____

*
On the verse in Ezekiel 39:7: And My holy name will I make known in the midst of My people Israel; neither will I suffer My holy name to be profaned any more; and the nations shall know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel.  Rashi comments: "the low contemptibility of Israel is a desecration of God's name".

^

Monday, October 29, 2012

Construction

Spotted:



Cement was being poured, using the excavator's bucket to transport the cement from the mixer to the building site.

^

What Happened to Rachel's Tomb?

I read this:


"Thousands of Jewish settlers stormed Bilal bin Rabah 

Mosque, known by Jews as "Rachel's Tomb" on 

Sunday night, and performed Talmudic rituals on the 

anniversary of "Rachel's death". "



Do you think that's the truth?

Oops, I just realized sarcasm doesn't go over the Internet well.

Here:


About 13,000 people had arrived at the compound from Thursday evening to Friday afternoon. A total of about 70 thousand people are expected by Sunday.
This year the anniversary of the matriarch Rachel’s passing fell on the Sabbath, when observant Jews do not travel. Those marking the anniversary compensated by moving celebrations of her life to the days immediately before and after.
As part of the preparations for the celebrations, volunteers from the Ichud Hatzalah organization, including doctors and paramedics, were deployed starting on Thursday afternoon at Rachel's Tomb. As of Saturday night they treated 13 people, including three who were evacuated to hospital. Most of the casualties suffered bruises and injuries as a result of the crowding in the area.
The Egged bus company, which had been providing transportation to the compound, could not handle the large number of visitors, and, as can be seen in the following video, on Saturday night tens of thousands of people began marching on foot from Jerusalem's Gilo neighborhood to the compound.


^

Jeff Barak's Commentary


Alongside its nationalistic, territorial expansionist ethos, the Likud also has a strong vein of western democratic liberalism running through its body, as best represented by politicians such as Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin and ministers Bennie Begin, Dan Meridor and Michael Eitan, a group sarcastically derided as feinschmeckers (a Yiddish term for those with over-refined tastes) by Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman.
While Rivlin, Begin et al firmly believe in Israel’s rights to settle in Judea and Samaria, they also believe that Israel’s Arab population should be treated as full citizens, enjoying the same civil rights as the Jewish majority. In this, they faithfully follow the dictates of Ze’ev Jabotinsky, the founder of the Revisionist Zionist movement, the ideological precursor to the Likud.
In 1934, Jabotinsky wrote a draft constitution for the Jewish state which declared that the Arab minority would be on an equal footing with its Jewish counterpart “throughout all sectors of the country’s public life.” He also proposed that in every cabinet where the prime minister is a Jew, the vice-premiership should be offered to an Arab and vice versa.
Yisrael Beytenu’s leadership, on the other hand, prefers to view Israeli Arabs as a dangerous fifth column, to be treated with the utmost suspicion and, if possible, removed from the country in any future peace agreement with the Palestinians as part of a population exchange.
One wonders whether Jabotinsky, were he alive today, would make it on the joint Likud-Yisrael Beytenu slate the prime minister is so eager to create.

His message:
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will ask his party to jettison its proud liberal-democratic heritage

I am always amazed how commentators assume they know what their subjects are not only doing but what they are thinking.

First of all, I am pretty sure that Barak really doesn't believe that Likud is liberal-democratic.  I am pretty sure he doesn't even like the Likud.  But, liking Netanyahu even less, he'll pose the Likud as a pretty party.

Second, what ever happened to Menachem Begin?  Wasn't her somewhere between Jabotinsky and Netanyahu?  Wasn't he someone that made a major contribution to the democratic character of Israel's political life?

Third, it was Begin who reached out to the Liberals, a part of the General Zionists, already in 1955 and by 1965 had created the Gahal Bloc.  In doing so, he brought Herut closer to the political center and also had the Liberals adopt a more nationalist stand.  Could this be happening today?  That Yisrael Beiteinu could be influenced to adopt a more conciliatory attitude?  Why is the message that this is only a one-way issue?

Fourth, is Barak representing the Yisrael Beiteinu in a faithful fashion?  If you want, you can check their website on their allegiance plank.  And all the other issues.  As reported in...Haaretz.

Here is another item taken from an extreme left-wing site:

In 2004, Lieberman told the Knesset he is “definitely speaking of exchanging populations and territory simultaneously, because there is no other solution” [that's from Gershom Gorenberg] Lieberman’s plan rests on his conviction that two ethnic, linguistic or religious communities in conflict cannot co-exist peacefully within the same state.  The party’s website states: “the only possible solution is the exchange of territory and populations, with the goal of the separation of the Jewish and Arab nations, respectively. Only this solution can guarantee the Jewish character of the State, assure a clear Jewish majority in the short and long term, safeguard the security of our citizens, and encourage economic growth.”  
Does that sound like what the United States, UN and the EU wants to do to the Jews of Yesha?  So, is it a bad or good policy?

Political commentary.

Oh, as for whether Jabotinsky would be included in the new joint list, would he make it or wish to be?

Irrelevant, actually. While his principles remain strong and relevant, the Arabs have proven quite different from those Jabotinsly knew and expected he could work with.

It's not a Jewish problem.  It's an Arab one.

^

Not Where, But Who, Colin

Colin Shindler attempts to stem the tide of irrational hatred, ideologically-inspired Judeaophobia and outright anti-Semitism, all couched in a convenient label of anti-Zionism by Europe's Left in a NYTimes oped.

But a central part his explanation is problematic:


AMID this rising hostility toward Israel, the French philosopher and political activist Jean-Paul Sartre advocated a different way forward...He understood the legitimacy of Israel’s war for independence and later commented that the establishment of the state of Israel was one of the few events “that allows us to preserve hope.” Yet Sartre also strongly supported Algeria’s fight for independence from France.
...Sartre argued that the left shouldn’t choose between two moral causes and that it was up to the Jews and the Arabs to resolve their conflict through discussion and negotiation. Sartre tried to create a space for a dialogue,..But Sartre’s vision was stymied as Israeli settlements proliferated after 1977, strengthening the left’s caricature of Israel as an imperialist power and a settler-colonial enterprise. Some prominent voices on the European left have mouthed time-honored anti-Semitic tropes in their desire to appear supportive of the Palestinian cause. Ken Livingstone, a former newspaper editor and mayor of London, has a long history of insensitive remarks about Jews — from publishing a cartoon in 1982 of Menachem Begin, then Israel’s prime minister, in Gestapo uniform atop a pile of Palestinian skulls to likening a known Jewish reporter to “a concentration camp guard” 20 years later...

Of course, there was far-left and communist anti-Zionism before 1967, not only 1977.   Jewish residency - not in Judea, Gaza, Samaria and Jerusalem - but in Tel Aviv, Rehovot and Rosh Pinah was the target of Arab hostility and negation of Jewish national rights.  It wasn;t a matter of where but of who.  If the Jews, anywhere in the country, that was to be opposed.  Anyone reading and knowing the Mandate-period chronicles is aware of that.  The communists supported the 1929 Arab riots and those were Jewish communists, by the way.

As for Menachem Begin and England, well, he couldn't come to the country in the 1950s and 1960s.  The left-wing, and right-wing, animosity towards him was based on his role os the Irgun commander.  "Settlements" were not needed for those horrific caricatures and epithets.

Shindler is cognizant of the pre-1967 opposition to Israel, writing of the "the anticolonial struggle — in Vietnam, South Africa, Rhodesia and a host of other places" which led to


...Israel’s exclusion from the ranks of the nonaligned nations more than 50 years ago, when Arab states refused to attend a 1955 nonaligned conference in Indonesia if an Israeli delegate was present. 
I won't argue about the date and event, but the point is made: Zionism is not to be recognized as a legitimate nationalist movement.  That principled stand by those of the Left leave them left out of the frame to be involved in peace efforts.

Just like no peace effort can ever be successful with Hamas:


Saturday, October 27, 2012
Hamas Leader Haniyeh - Hamas rejects existence of Israel on any piece of land
Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh underlined his nation's irrevocable stance against Israel, stressing that Palestinians will never ignore even a single span of their land.
"We (Palestinians) will never overlook even one span of Palestine's soil because Palestine is an endowed land and no person, leader, organization or group is entitled to the right to ignore this land," Haniyeh said in a meeting on Saturday with the members of 'Miles of Smiles 17' aid convoy and an Indonesian delegation visiting Gaza. "Israel has no future in the Palestinian lands and our motto is that we will never recognize the Zionist regime," he said.

The Left may not be all terrorist, but the politics are the same - Israel cannot exist.

In that worldview, anti-Semitism is just an extention of the 'struggle' and Jews in Toulouse, Manchester and Malmo will pay.

His last statement

the swallowing up of both the Israeli and Palestinian peace camps by political polarization has accelerated the closing of the progressive mind. And static fatalism has allowed the assailant of synagogue congregants and the killer of young children to fill the vacuum.

Would only seem to me to nevertheless make sure the Jews/Israelis are blamed.

Israel, even under Binyamin Netanyahu, has attempted to negotiate.  But surely the national and human rights of Jews in their homeland cannot be ignored.

^


Sunday, October 28, 2012

My Vote is in the Mail

Here it comes, America:-



 
^

Kosher Plastics

Here is a picture I snapped at our local mini-supermarket, owned by Shlomo Livyatan and managed by Shmuel Ashkenazi:


The latest in plastic storage containers for the Kosher consumer.

Dairy (blue).  Meat (red).  Parve (green).


You remember

"Just one word - plastics. There's a great future in plastics".

^

El-Aqsa as a Billboard

Here:-



Such holy site respect.

What the sign reads is
 
 " غدا سنطهر الأقصى ونعلي لواء الحق يسطع كالشهاب ."
 
 
Google Translate will give me only this:
 
 
"Tomorrow Far سنطهر and bathrobe the right shines Kalshhab Brigade."
 
 
I am at a linguistic loss.
 

^

Saturday, October 27, 2012

No Room for Jews

The Temple Mount had a few visitors the other day:

More than 50,000 Muslim worshippers flooded Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem's Old City for prayers on Friday, the first day of Eid al-Adha or Feast of Sacrifice, Israeli police said. "Some 50,000 attended morning prayers on the Temple Mount, and another 7,000 were there for afternoon services," police spokeswoman Luba Samri told AFP, adding that "everything went peacefully."

But Jews, according to Muslims, can't visit as that would be 'storming'.

And the police have problems with Jewish worship.

^

At the Yesha Council Meeting

I posted on the Yesha Council's new Levy Report campaign.  Even pictures.

But being behind the camera usually means I'm not in the picture.

But the Yesha Council weekly caught me:





Here I am:




^

Carley Does the Carp - for Gefilte Fish?

Carley Gordon of WSMVwas not exactly preparing gefilte fish but she was fooling around with a carp fish, or rather, he was fooling around with here:



(k/t= NY Daily News)


^

Historical Heritage Mosques to be Bulldozed

No, not by Israel
 
The story:
 
Medina: Saudis take a bulldozer to Islam's history

Three of the world’s oldest mosques are about to be destroyed as Saudi Arabia embarks on a multi-billion-pound expansion of Islam’s second holiest site. Work on the Masjid an-Nabawi in Medina, where the Prophet Mohamed is buried, will start once the annual Hajj pilgrimage ends next month. When complete, the development will turn the mosque into the world’s largest building, with the capacity for 1.6 million worshippers.

But concerns have been raised that the development will see key historic sites bulldozed. Anger is already growing at the kingdom’s  apparent disdain for preserving the historical and archaeological heritage of the country’s holiest city, Mecca.  Most of the expansion of Masjid an-Nabawi will take place to the west of the existing mosque, which holds the tombs of Islam’s founder and two of his closest companions, Abu Bakr and Umar...

You just never really know.

^

Crime: Prostration

Here is a police charge of a crime of prostration signed by four Israeli policemen:.


Prostration?

Like this you ask?


Well, yes.  But those are Buddhists.

These are French Presbytarians:


These are Catholic:



These are Irish Catholics:


Some Muslim prostrations:

a) Milan



b) London, The Enbankment


c) Manhattan's Madison Avenue:


These are non-denominational footballers in a "victory" non-teligious prostration position:



This is a Jew on the Temple Mount:





Someone like him is being charged with criminal behavior, as noted in the above charge sheet.

On October 27 this year, at just prior to 10 AM, a prostration was done which could have led to a disturbance of the public order.  It was near the Golden Gate area (which is towards the north-east in the Temple Mount precincts, along the eastern wall.

The Penal Code paragraph noted is 216


Misconduct in a public place
216. (a) If a person did one of the following, then he is liable to six months imprisonment:
(1) he acted in a disorderly or indecent manner in a public place;
...(4) he conducted himself in a public place in a manner liable to cause a breach of peace;

Is this a human rights issue?

After all, as another law reads:

The Holy Places shall be protected from desecration and any other violation and from anything likely to violate the freedom of access of the members of the different religions to the places sacred to them or their feelings with regard to those places.

Anat Hoffman and supporters, where are you?

Will this make it into the US State Department report of religious freedom? (the report is here)


^




Friday, October 26, 2012

Upsetting Moore More

The guy behind Sarah Silverman's political sex antics and other far-left (anti-Sheldon Adelson ad) so-called-Jewish pro-Obama propaganda comes out:

He's Mik Moore who is president of the Jewish Council for Education and Research that launched “Obama On Israel,” a project aimed at presenting information about the president’s record on Israel.


Here's his thinking

...I took personally the disenfranchisement of voters in Palm Beach Country..In 2008, I co-founded an organization that set up what we called “The Great Schlep”...This year, the Romney/Ryan ticket and much of the Republican Party have been attempting to divide our generations, pitting one against the other...many of Romney’s proposals would hurt seniors.

Romney has vowed to repeal “Obamacare.”

...Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan seem to believe that you are ready to sell out your kids and grandkids as long as your needs are taken care of.  I think Romney and Ryan are wrong. They and their fellow Republicans are underestimating the bond that exists across the generations, inside our families. Jewish tradition speaks to this obligation, to teach and care for future generations: l’dor v dor. I experience it in my own family. And I saw it in the conversations between schleppers and bubbes four years ago.
In the final weeks of the campaign, let’s get on the phone and talk to our grandparents and grandchildren. And when we vote, let’s remember what’s at stake for everyone in our families.

I am almost enticed to think - my grandparents vs. Israel's existence.

But that might upset Moore more.


"We Are Walking To..."

No, not Pretoria.

The Temple Mount.

Walking down from where the parking lot now is a few years ago:



^

Binyamin Region's Wines

Clip is here:




I assisted with the English translation (but "settler" is not a term I use).

^

Mondo Goes Solo

Mondoweiss has discovered, after a lot of "soul-searching", that anti-Zionists and pro-Palestinians are, well, anti-Semitic and they really do hate Jews and that:-

inside the movement for Palestinian human rights...a significant part of the community wants to talk about Israeli policy in the context of Jewish history and Jewish identity, and do so in a highly critical manner.

And to be more specific, there is:-

a toxic, often racist, discourse, and scares off others who would otherwise be drawn to the issues this site concerns itself with. Obviously some of our own posts have broached issues of Jewish identity; and we will continue to publish critiques of Jewish identity construction and analyses of the Jewish political establishment—what Tony Judt called the most powerful Jewish community since the Roman Empire. But we’re going to sharply circumscribe commenters’ freedom to address these issues as a special or unique Jewish problem, or to post arguments that any form of collective Jewish community-building is negative

 ^

The Grass and The Stone - and the Temple Mount

Where'd all the grass go?






I hope the stone is still there.

This stone:-


^

I'm Voting

It finally arrived.

My absentee ballot:-





How long did it take to get here?

36 days.

36???

Count:





First class mail takes five whole weeks to cross the Atlantic?

^

It's Coming - The Yesha Circus

We residents received a flyer this past week:-





What is being offered?

Training in circus arts.

Acrobatics.

Juggling.

Balancing.

Tzipora Aloni is the instructor.

There's nothing we can't do in Yesha.

^

Cleaning Up The Rami Levy Mess

You'll all remember the invasion and disruption of the Rami Levy Supermarket at Sha'ar Binyamin (where my wife works).

I've just now been informed this by the "International Solidarity Movement, West Bank" 

Israeli authorities are threatening to deport two international acvists [sic], arrested yesterday at a non-violent action at a settlement supermarket,  despite a judge ruling that they should be released. They are currently being held in immigration detention.  Earlier today, defence lawyers were informed that a judge had ruled that they should be freed without charge, but this ruling was ignored by Israeli  police, who handed the two activists to the Ministry of Interior, to begin  the deportation process. They could be flown back to their home countries  within hours, despite never having been charged, let alone convicted of any  crime. They have also been repeatedly denied contact with their lawyer.

...Freedom for international activists can also be key in legal processes for  Palestinians who are arrested at the same time... 

In Solidarity, International Solidarity Movement
___________________

UPDATE

Their video clip.
^

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Apropos Contra Sigal Samuel

On the issue of sluttiness in the public square, and my response to her rebuttal, I now see this:

Cherub Press is proud to announce the publication of

Kabbalah, Volume 28 (2012)  320 pp. [English and Hebrew] ISBN 1-933379-31-6

(ORDER HERE)

Studies in English

...


Avraham Elqayam: Nudity in the Sanctus Sanctorum: Philo and Plotinus on Nudity, Esthetics and Sanctity


Dr Avraham Elqayam is Head of the Shlomo Moussaieff Center for Kabbalah Research and Senior lecturer in the Department of Philosophy, Division of Jewish Philosophy, Faculty of Humanities, in Bar-Ilan University, Israel...He is active in various inter-faith dialogue frameworks and maintains connections with Arab and Turkish Sufi mystic leaders. He is a founding member and member of the stirring committee of The Way of Abraham, a Jewish-Islamic Sufi order, and active member of the Homme de Parole organisation for interfaith dialogue.


^

In the Kaiser's Footsteps - But All the Way

There's a new exhibit in Jerusalem:





and it will includes an "in the footseps walk" -
Friday 07.12.12 - 11:00 "In the Footsteps of the Kaiser" Walking tour following in the footsteps of the Kaiser from Nevi'im Street to the Tower of David culminating in a visit to the exhibition.
Friday 25.01.13 - 11:00 "In the Footsteps of the Kaiser"
Walking tour following in the footsteps of the Kaiser from Nevi'im Street to the Tower of David culminating in a visit to the exhibition.
But what about his visit to the Temple Mount?

Here:


here:


Why can't we follow all the way in the Kaiser's footsteps?

^

What Has Kate Perry's Bra To Do with Moza from Qatar?

You have to read this post in order to understand why this picture is here:




That's Kate Perry above and my post refers to Qatar's Sheikha Moza bint Nasser and her visit to Gaza (who is UNESCO Special Envoy for Basic and Higher Education and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon’s MDG Global Advocate for Education)

^

Olive Trees, Borders and the American Consul-General

Found (k/t=OS) here:-

Representatives from the U.S. Government and Palestinian Ministry of Agriculture Launch West Bank Olive Season

Salfit, West Bank - On Wednesday, October 24, American Consul General Michael Ratney, USAID Mission Director Mike Harvey and Palestinian Deputy Minister of Agriculture Zakaria Salawdeh joined farmers in Salfit to launch this year’s olive harvest as part of the USAID-funded ‘Olive Oil Without Borders’ project, an initiative implemented by the Near East Foundation that aims to build mutual understanding and economic cooperation between the Palestinian and Israeli olive oil sectors.

...During the event, the American Consul General commented, “Through the ‘Olive Oil without Borders’ program with the Near East Foundation, the U.S. Government is pleased to be able to bring together Palestinian and Israeli farmers, olive press owners, and traders to build trust, mutual understanding, and collaboration through economic cooperation.”  The 2012 olive season is anticipated to produce approximately 22,000 tons of olive oil from more than 8 million trees. Olive farming is...an important focal point for USAID’s economic growth assistance, as well as part of its Conflict Management and Mitigation Program.
Pictures:




Well,

if this is part of a "Conflict Management and Mitigation Program",

and, if this is an American-sponsored program and America supports democracy, etc.,

and, if the program is called "Olive Oil without Borders",

will Consul-General Ratney come out to Shiloh with over 1000 dunam of olive tree groves?

After all,

The Olive Oil Without Borders’ project works to foster cross-border economic collaboration between the Israeli and Palestinian olive sectors at all levels of the value chain.  Over the course of the project, USAID through the Near East Foundation will work directly with 1,428 Palestinian and Israeli olive producers...

and we are Israeli.

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On Rachel's Tomb

I have met Yaffa, a fellow Lechi member and prisonmate of Geulah Cohen in Bethlehem's Mandatory-period Women's Detention Center.


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A Peaches of a Star of David

Worn by Peaches Geldof Cohen.

She can be very modestly dressed:


At other times, less so.

But then, one can see something:


Those pictures were taken on the same day, by the way.

And what is that hanging from her neck?

Her stylized Star of David?


Or the ordinary one?



Let's get that into sharper focus:



Yes, I know she is not Jewish and her personal geneology.  And that she and her Jewish husband were married in a church.

But that pendant symbolizes a lot.

Who knows, she may even be a Christian Zionist.

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