Soars? Or Falls Flat?

An AP story is headlined so:

There is no balance in the story for three reasons.

One, almost all objective reporting on "West Bank violence", which would deal with both sides, is missing.

This is the only reference to the daily rock-throwing and the more than occasional violent damage done by Arabs to Jewish agricultural property, bot to mention the official Palestinian Authority incitement campaign:

More than 1,700 Palestinians were injured by settlers or by troops in clashes, while 324 settlers and 37 soldiers were hurt by Palestinians in confrontations.
Palestinians also initiate violence, including throwing stones at Israeli motorists. In 2011, Palestinians stabbed to death five members of a family, including three small children, in their settlement home as they slept.

The motorist - and his infant son - in one incident was killed, murdered. 

Jews are not even statistics or numbers in that section.

Second, Arabs are mentioned by name (Qusra resident Abdel Hakim Odeh. its Mayor Abdel Azim Wadi)

Not so the Jewish residents or their representatives:

The Yesha Council, an umbrella for more than 550,000 Israeli settlers, said it opposes violence and has distanced itself from price tag.Settler leaders portray the vandals as hotheads...

The IDF gets a name as does the police.  The Haaretz correspondent is named. A critical former IDF "West Bank" commander is named.  The Jewish residents are nameless.
  
Third, there is the UN's OCHA and Yesh Din is included in the story as references but no Israel/Jewish NGO.

I call that media bias.

Soaring bias.

^

Have They Set A Record?

According to The Telegraph:

...of the 1,600 inmates now refusing food...The International Committee of the Red Cross said this week that the six inmates who have declined sustenance the longest are "at imminent risk of dying".

None of the six, who have all been admitted to prison hospitals, has eaten for the past 50 days. But the greatest concern is directed at two men, Thaer Halahleh and Bilal Diab. By Thursday, both men had refused food for 74 days, one more than managed by Kieran Doherty, the longest surviving of the 10 Irish militants who died during the Maze Prison hunger strike of 1981. Bobby Sands, the best known of the prisoners and the first to die, succumbed after 66 days.

So, is that a new record?

But more to the point, is the Telegraph, whose headline reads:

Israel facing major West Bank uprising over Palestinian hunger strike

contradicting Haaretz or what?

Here:

The Palestinians are not battling with Israel, but with their apathy


Despite the diplomatic stalemate and the hunger strike of Palestinian prisoners in Israel, the residents of the West Bank do not seem interested in a violent protest.

Who do you trust?

Will violence break out?


^

Post-modern Interpretation of Violence

No wonder so many liberals/progressives support the Pals.:-

...Political violence in particular is, by design and by default, a set of signifying practices involving elaborate cultural codes, serving as illustrations of what David Apter (1996:14) refers to as ‘a discourse theory of political violence’. Apter (1996:17) writes that political violence ‘is an extreme form of interpretative action. The discourse establishes its own communicative fields within which political movements are defined and around which boundaries are established’. He makes a compelling case that it is essential that we at least begin to give greater emphasis to the relationship between violence and ommunication...Accepting the idea that states are perpetrators of political violence, and that particular kinds of violence are used to ‘send a message’, full-scale warfare can easilybe understood as a means of political communication.

Andrew Calabrese, University of Colorado, "Sending a Message: Violence as political communication"


So, the Arabs are - just talking to us?

^

They Couldn't Write "All Peaceful Means"?

Does this sound like a peaceful attempt to reach peace with Israel? Extraordinary Arab Summit Conference Casablanca, 23-26 June 1989 Decisions

The Extraordinary Arab Summit Conference in the town of Casablanca in the Kingdom of Morocco between 17 and 20 Shawwal AH, or between 23 and 26 June 1989 CE, Committing to the principles and foundations established by the Arab League’s conferences in relation to the Palestinian Situation and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, Wanting the Arab states to continue to use all means necessary to achieve a just and comprehensive peace for the Middle Eastern problem, at the heard of which is the Palestinian Situation, And having discussed the situation in the Middle Eastern region, and especially in light of the ongoing valiant Intifada against the Israeli occupation and its devotion to pursuing a policy of repression and persecution, to building settlements, displacing inhabitants and refusing to acknowledge the established national rights of the Palestinian people, Stating therefore its immense pride in the People’s Great Intifada in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and its reverence for the souls of its martyrs and of the martyrs in all the Occupied Arab Territories, paying tribute to the wounded heroes and the committed detainees in the prisons of the Occupation, Praising the spirit of sacrifice, courage and steadfastness with which the Palestinian and Arab people have reacted to the occupying forces and the Israeli oppression in all the occupied Palestinian territories, the Syrian Golan and Southern Lebanon, Reaffirming the importance of supporting the Intifada financially and politically, and in all areas so that it may achieve its aims of liberation and independence, Decides: I- To pursue efforts to achieve the aims endorsed at previous conferences Pursue efforts to achieve the aims endorsed by the previous Arab Summit Conferences, and in particular: (a) To carry out a full Israeli withdrawal from all of the Palestinian and Arab Territories under occupation since 1967, starting with Arab Jerusalem. (b) To restore the established national rights to the Palestinian Arab people, including their right to return, to self-determination and to establish their own independent state in Palestine. (c) To gather Arab forces in all areas producing a complete strategic balance for tackling Israeli aggressive schemes and maintaining Arab rights. II– To provide support and, financial and moral assistance to the Intifada (a) Provide support and, financial and moral assistance to the Palestinian Intifada and the steadfast heroic struggle, which the Palestinian Arab people are embarking upon in Occupied Palestine, as well as the Arab people’s struggle in the Syrian Golan Heights and in Southern Lebanon; (b) Give the agreed support for the valiant Intifada to the Palestinian people via the Palestinian Liberation Organisation, as the only legal representative of the Palestinian people...

^

This Is Called "Low Intensity"

I have been sent this and it's about time material like this is available:

These reports are courtesy of Hatzalah Yehudah and Shomron (phone # - 02-5363106 it seems)
and are approved by the IDF.  Hatzalah Yehudah and Shomron is a voluntary emergency rescue organization that works along with the IDF, 669 Airborn Rescue, the security forces in the various communities of Yesha, and the Jordan Valley and is on call 24/7 on a strictly voluntary basis.

March 22, 2012

3 Molotov cocktails thrown on Israeli vehicle next to the border check on the  Jerusalem- Gush Etzion Tunnel Road

March 23, 2012
Massive rock attacks against Israeli vehicles Gush Etzion-Hebron Highway near Halhul.  Damage to vehicles.
Arab terrorists tried to damage IDF checkpost near Kiryat Arba

March 24, 2012
IDF spokesman: an attempted stabbing was thwarted during Shabbat near Elon Moreh in the Shomron .  4 Arabs apprehended armed with knives admitted that they came to murder IDF soldier. 
IDF checkpost south of Shechem Arab arrested armed with gun.
IDF spokesman: Previous week 5 Arab terrorists were arrested by IDF special forces in the Ramallah region
Arab terrorist arrested in Ramallah region suspect for the shooting incident against IDF soldiers two years ago.
El Bira, Ramallah, 2 Arab terrorists members of Hamas arrested for shooting incidents, planning of terror, and hiding weapons.
Rock attacks against Israeli vehicles south west of Hebron near Zif causing damage.
Rock attacks against Israeli vehicles north west of Ramallah .
Rock attacks against IDF soldiers near Yitzhar Junction in the Shomron.

March 25, 2012
Unarmed soldier serving in the Home Front was attacked in Shmuel HaNavi neighborhood of Jerusalem by 2 Arab terrorists who beat him and injured him in the face, soldier taken in moderate condition to hospital for treatment.
Rock attack against Israeli vehicle between Beth Arieh and Peduel, female driver lightly injured .

March 26,2012
During the day rocks thrown in Hebron region including towards the IDF post in the Kasba (Arab market) of Hebron.
Rock attacks in the Shomron against Israeli vehicles.

March 27, 2012
Special Forces of IDF in operation west of Ramallah in village of Kfar Ramon IDF soldier attacked and stabbed by terrorist in moderate condition taken to Ein Karem Hospital in Jerusalem for medical treatment. IDF response to attack: 3 terrorists wounded taken to Sha'are Zeddek and Ein Karem Hospitals in Jerusalem for medical treatment.
IDF pillbox set on fire by Arab terrorists near Kiryat Arba Hebron.
Rock attacks against Israeli vehicles on Gush Etzion-Hebron highway.  Bus hit and  heavily; damaged one passenger injured.  Truck overturned following massive rock attacks, 2 injured passengers in the truck.
Israeli vehicle driven by resident of Kedumim attacked by rocks between Gilad Farm and Yitzhar . 
Molotov thrown at female resident of Kedumim at Azun Junction in the Shomron.
4 Molotovs thrown at IDF force El-Hader Junction.
Jit Junction near Karnei Shomron attempted theft of Israeli vehicle from Jewish woman who lost her husband in a terror attack.  She escaped unharmed.
Near north entrance of Efrat massive rock attacks on Israeli vehicles.

March 28, 2012
North of Kiryat Arba massive rock attacks near Bet Enun Junction.
Massive rock attacks between Ariel and Tapuach Junction, also near Ma'aleh Shomron Junction, and on the Shekef Road near Neguhot in the southern Hebron HIlls.
2 Border Policemen attacked by Arab terrorists near the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, the terrorists were arrested.

March 29, 2012
Massive rock attacks on Israeli vehicles near Har Gilo.
Rock attack on Israeli vehicle near Kiryat Arba driving towards the Jewish community of Hebron.
Near Migdalim community in the Jordan Valley Molotov thrown on vehicle with 2 IDF officers inside.
Jerusalem: Near Kalandia border check Arab terrorists attacked military with 2 Molotov Cocktails, and rocks.
Israeli bus attacked with rocks and damaged on Gush Etzion-Hebron Highway near Bet Umar.

March 30, 2012
4 Molotov Cocktails and rocks thrown at Border Patrol soldiers near Kever Rachel, (Rachel's Tomb) Bethlehem.
Rock attacks at Kalandia Checkpost.
Rock attacks on IDF soldiers near El Arub on the Gush Etzion-Hebron Highway.
Rock attacks in Kadum, Shomron.
Rock attacks at Arek Burin
Rock attacks in Issuwiya, Jerusalem Region Border Patrol Police captured one of the terrorists involved in the attack.
Rock attacks near Nebe Tzalach.
Rock attacks near Carmei Zur.
3 Molotov Cocktails thrown at Border Police check post near Shuafat Refugee Camp.
Molotov Cocktail thrown on Border Police patrol near Anata damage to jeep.
3 Molotov Cocktails and rocks attacking Border Police patrol near Abu Dis.
Rock attacks in Ras El Amud suspected terrorist arrested.
Molotov Cocktail and rock attacks Calandia check post.
Israeli vehicles attacked by rocks near Kiryat Arba next to Bet Enun village.
Rock attacks on community of Itamar.
Rock attacks on Israeli vehicles in East Jerusalem. Vehicle that was attacked was with IDF special-forces who arrested 2 terrorists.
Rock attacks at Rantis against Israeli taxi cab.
Molotov attacks against Border Police at Anata.
Near Kiryat Arba pipe bomb thrown at Bet Anun Junction.
Near Erez Lane Kiryat Arba, the path for Jews to go up to the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron to pray, an young Arab was caught carrying a knife by the IDF.

March 31, 2012
Molotov thrown at IDF post near Neguhot in the Sothern Hebron Hills.
Fake explosive device made up from a gas balloon was left next to the security fence in the Harsina neighborhood of Kiryat Arba.
Fireworks fired at Border Police post in Atarot.
Rocks thrown at IDF check post in Kalandia.
Riots in Issuwiya resulting in moderate injuries to 2 policemen, 19 of the Arab rioters were arrested.
Damage to security fence by Kalkiliya as a result of explosion of gas balloons left hidden in pipes.
Rock attacks against IDF in Hebron.

I removed a few items that dealt with Gaza Strip. Have a low intensity day. ^

Blocks and Stones and Rocks

If you read this story from yesterday, about a stoning incident, here's the full first-person testimony:-

What Happened to Me on Tuesday Last

This past Tuesday, 28 Shvat - February 21, I was returning home to Karmei Tzur from Efrat where I work.

At the Gush Etzion Junction I collected a female hitchhiker who got into a back seat since the front passenger seat was where our infant seat was affixed.  What luck.  While traveling between El-Aroub and Bet-Omar on the ascent I noticed a car approaching from the opposite direction with a damaged front window from a rock that must have previously landed.  I naively presumed that that was the result of an old incident that hadn't yet been fixed.

When I came close to the gas station at Bet-Omar (a location that usually requires a driver's attention due to wrongly parked taxis, bypassing and pulling out into the highway in a careless manner), I observed a man running across the road from right to left.  I first thought that this was a soldier with a rifle and I slowed down to grasp what was happening.  I then noticed dozens of people, old, young and teenagers, congregating on my right.  It then became apparent that the "soldier with a rifle" was actually a photographer with a camera.  He was seeking a better picture angle to snap away at what was about to happen.  On my left were at least two other photographers, waiting for the action.  I should emphasize that I was not the first victim and other cars had already been stoned and so these press photographers were well aware what was happening and was about to happen to me.  None of them, it seems, thought to call for assistance from the police or IDF none of whom were present.

Knowing I had no choice but to continue and surely not stop for otherwise, if I had slowed down, I would have been trapped and blocked off, the only thing in my mind was to proceed home and not get caught at that crossing.  It was difficult to pass through as the rocks came from a distance of just a few feet from the car, 'zero-range' as we say.  The rioters clearly could see that the car contained two young females, defenceless.  We were struck by many rocks, my view was blocked by the cracked glass and I simply concentrated on getting out of there as quickly as I could.  At the time, as well as at this moment of writing, I did not fully grasp the danger of our situation.

It was only when I arrived home that I realized the entire front of the car was covered with shattered glass particles including me, the infant seat, the back seat, everything.  There was also damage caused to the sides of the car.  At least eight large rocks and blocks had hit my car.  I learned the rock-throwing continued for a good few minutes afterwards with the resulting damage to other vehicles as well as psychological damage to the drivers and passengers.

Then I had to tell my children what happened in a normal, non-hysterical fashion so as to prepare them for further conversations that they would hear from grownups talking about the incident.

This is the first time I experienced such a serious and difficult incident as this and pray it is the last.  And we have been living in Karmei Tzur for the past eight years.  But now I know from first-hand experience with surety that rockthrowings occur all the time, especially on Highway 60 between the Gush Etzion junction and Halhoul.  My first-grade son's transportation has also been stoned.

Another point: these terrorists had no qualms about not covering their faces during their attempt at murder.

We try to overcome the fear and to live our everyday life.  We are believing people, with faith.  After an incident like this we will pronounce the benediction "Blessed is He who Who bestows good things on those unworthy, and has bestowed on me every goodness".  We believe in goodness, and that it will overcome evil.  We only pray and hope that people in Israel and around the world will finally recognize the truth, that our enemies, the Arabs who fight us wish for evil, they want destruction, while we wish for good and want peace, even with our neighbors.  We wish for life.

Zehava Weiss, Karmei Tzur


Posted at JewishPress, ,too.

^

"Robust"? Or "Violent"?

The UK Telegraph reports that in reaction to the clearing away of scaffodling, which even Haartz admits is unnecessary but just there,

The Waqf, the Muslim council, had threatened a robust response if any changes were made to the so-called little Western Wall, next to which 17 Palestinian families live. The families, who have objected in the past to the removal of the scaffolding, said they were not consulted ahead of the alterations.

I had just posted a picture of the new street sign at the courtyard and my wife has pictures from 2005 in which you can see, besides my wife, our daughter and good friend Yehudit Tayar, the "scaffolding", as EOZ notes. I also have posted pictures but can't at present locate them.

Here's one I found here which is directed to the entrance/exit the leads in/out of the courtyard:

and from another photographer:

In any case, if all Israel has done is to permit more people to visit a site adjacent to the last remnant of the Temple, a place which was a substitute at times when they couldn't reach the Wester Wall area, aplace that had been used as a urinal in the past, well, why should a violent, er, robust response be required?

And while we are on the subject of violence, I would think that the headline Haaretz gave the story of Akiva Eldar

Jerusalem opens Muslim Quarter Jewish site to prayer, upsetting status quo

was quite violent and violent-provoking.

^

A New Definition of Chutzpah

Arab rights group: Recognize Acre riots as acts of hostility

Mossawa, the Advocacy Center for Israeli Arabs, has called on the government to recognize Arab residents of Acre whose property was damaged during last week's riots as victims of hostilities...Mossawa demands the families receive financial, psychological and social support...

Nice that.

The violence was precipitated by an Arab acting with the utmost uncivility by driving into a Jewish neighborhood on Yom Kippur with his radio balsting and refusing to leave the scene and was followed up at 3AM by hundreds of Arabs who were bused in and proceeded to smash windows of scores (if not more) of cars and stores. And it escalated from there.

But we Jews are such nice folks:

Acre Mayor Shimon Lankri said he would support the demand to recognize the riots as acts of hostility. Shas MK David Azoulay, a resident of the city, said he would also back the initiative, but only if Jewish residents whose property was damaged were to be compensated as well.

Oh, oh

Abstract from

The British Journal of Politics and International Relations
Volume 9 Issue 2 Page 257-269, May 2007



Anxious Sexualities: Masculinity, Nationalism and Violence

Dibyesh Anand


Abstract

An ethnographic research among activists subscribing to majoritarian Hindu nationalism in India reveals that anxiety, masculinity and sexuality are crucial ingredients in their identity politics. The inimical figure used to mobilise the Hindu nationalist identity is a stereotyped Muslim masculinity which in turn is imagined as dangerous owing to a mix of negative images of Islam, history, physicality and culture. The specificities of anti-Muslim riots in Gujarat in 2002, and especially the pervasiveness of sexual violence there, can be understood as an assertion of the new Hindu identity which conflates nationalism with masculinity and violence. And yet it was the complicity of the institutions of the state that accounted for the lethality of violence in Gujarat. The article argues that masculinised nationalism and embedded statehood are crucial features of contemporary (inter)national politics.

Who Rioted? Who?

FARK says:

Youths of unspecified religious affiliation attack police and riot in France

That's right. If you go here, NBC terms the rioters "youths" although they include a big hint, writing: "The rampage in a tough neighborhood in Saint-Dizier, about 120 miles east of Paris, revived memories of a wave of car burnings, vandalism and clashes with police in 2005 fanned by feelings of alienation among French youths of Arab and African origin."

Intramural Pal. Activities

The news from Gaza is that the latest deaths raised to 27 the number of Palestinians killed in factional clashes in the last four days. More than 80 Palestinians have been killed in the fighting since December, when unity government talks between the ruling Hamas movement and Abbas's Fatah faction broke down and the moderate president called for new elections.

Which reminds me of an earlier period:

...political fragmentation became a very serious problem in the Arab World
...unfortunately, the Palestinian Arabs could not escape their traditional rivalries. The Palestinian national movement fell victim to internal divisions and political fragmenta-tions. At times, Arabs fought Arabs while their Zionist enemy confronted them with unusual stubbornness and determination to succeed in their ultimate goal of creating a Jewish state in Palestine.

It should be remembered that the divisions and rivalries which characterized
relations among big families of Palestine were in part a by-product of a rigid social
structure. According to J.C. Hurewitz, "the Muslim community was atomized by clannish separatism."(31) The clan was the social class' basic unit. Headed by a
shaykh, the clan in the small village aligned itself with a particular clan in the
larger village and also with a clan in the town or city where the powerful
landowning families always resided as absentee landlords.

As mentioned earlier, rivalries among the big families were old going back to the Qaysi and Yamani rivalries of pre-Islamic time.(32) The latter divisions had a
geographic dimension involving north Arabia, where Qaysi's power rested, and south Arabia where Yamani's influence extended. Yet Palestinian factionalism carried with it no ideological connotations, for the simple reason that big families competed for the control of existing resources and did not aim at changing the social structure.(33) In Jerusalem, as elsewhere in Palestine, ideology and politics rarely went together. In fact, the Palestinian national movement never manifested genuine ideolo-gical inclination. At any rate, prior to 1948, family feuds and factional politics were responsible for the failure of Palestinians to successfully challenge the Zionist movement in its attempt to create a Jewish state.(34)

It got worse between 1938-1939.

But let's not forget their main goal:-

Historian [Benny] Morris writes: "On the morning of April 4 [1920] a procession of six hundred pilgrims from Hebron, a town known for its Muslim orthodoxy, entered the city. There were cheers for 'King' Faisal and Arab independence; Jerusalem mayor Musa Kazim al-Husseini swore the gathered crowd to spill their blood for Palestine…The crowd chanted: "We will drink the blood of the Jews…As the demonstration drew to a close, the head of the Hebronite pilgrims shouted, 'Itbah al-Yahud' [Kill the Jew]—and violence erupted. The crowd went on a rampage, moving toward West Jerusalem: Jews on Jaffa Street were stoned and Jewish shops looted." (3)

Christian Arab Palestinian eye-witness Khalil al-Sakakini (1878-1953), who was head of the Jerusalem Teachers' College at the time of the Nebi Musa Riots, described the scene:
"[A] riot broke out, the people began to run about and stones were thrown at the Jews. The shops were closed and there were screams…I saw a Zionist soldier covered in dust and blood…Afterwards, I saw one Hebronite approach a Jewish shoeshine boy, who hid behind a sack in one of the wall's comers next to Jaffa Gate, and take his box and beat him over the head. He screamed and began to run, his head bleeding and the Hebronite left him and returned to the [Nebi Musa] procession…The riot reached its zenith. All shouted, "Muhammad's religion was born with the sword"…I immediately walked to the municipal garden...my soul is nauseated and depressed by the madness of humankind." (3)

The carnage included 5 Jews killed and 216 wounded, 4 Arabs killed and 23 wounded, and 7 British soldiers wounded. The Nebi Musa procession during Ottoman rule in Palestine had required deployment of thousands of soldiers to keep order in the narrow streets of Jerusalem. The military head of Jerusalem in April 1920, Ronald Storrs, had at his disposal only 180 Palestinian policemen and 8 British police officers! Many of the Arab policemen joined the Arab rioters, rendering the civil police force impotent. The situation—called a "pogrom" by Zionist Jews—had been predicted by Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann who tried to warn Storrs, to no avail. (4)

3. Benny Morris: "Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881-2001". Vintage, 2001, p. 95.

4. A.J. Sherman: "Mandate Days: British Lives in Palestine 1918-1948." Johns Hopkins Press, 1997, p. 54