Jessica Montell Discovers My Vocabulary Contribution

B'tselem's Jessica Montell writes today in the Washington Post:

The word Goldstone has entered the modern Hebrew lexicon as shorthand for anti-Israel bias and the deterioration of Israel’s international position.

Absolutely and I coined it in October 2009.

Read it here:

goldstoned 

–adjective Slang.

1. attacked for acting in a presumed criminal manner, in particular of abusing human rights and of performing war crimes, - in a manner and fashion which is unfair, based on questionable testimony, framed in radical and progressive political ideology and predicated on a perverse interpretation of law, all the while...

A New Poll's Findings

As I do regularly, I try and select relevant data and findings from the The Peace Index published by Tel Aviv University, which always seems to surprise especially as the media manages to present an "Israeli popular opinion" that simply isn't.

Here's from March 2011 (Date Published: 31/03/2011; Survey dates: 23/03/2011 - 24/03/2011)

Should Israel take an initiative or remain passive? Only a minority of the Jewish public (28%) agrees with the position that the Middle Eastern upheavals will create new opportunities and, hence, that Israel should make a new effort to reach a regional peace. The overwhelming majority (70%) accepts the position that the situation at the moment is unclear, and therefore it is better for Israel to remain passive and not do anything. The distribution of views among Israeli Arabs is the opposite, although not a polar opposite: while 58% of Israeli Arabs think Israel should take a peace initiative, a large minority (40%) says Israel should watch the developments in the Arab countries from the sidelines and not do anything.


...And what are the chances of similar Western intervention in the West Bank? An overwhelming majority (75%) of the Jewish public sees the chances for Western intervention in the event of an uprising of Palestinians in the West Bank in which the IDF deploys troops and uses force against the local population as low. In the Arab public as well, a majority, though smaller (59%), sees the chances of this as low.

There was this issue, too:

And what about Western pressure for peace? As for the possibility that the desire to gain favor in the Arab world would lead to greater Western pressure on Israel to advance the peace process with the Palestinians, opinions are divided. Some 51.5% of Jewish Israelis see the chances for this at present as high, while 44% see it as low. Views in the Arab sector are split down the middle, with 47% assessing the chances for Western pressure on Israel as high and just about the same proportion regarding them as low.

And another item:

The Negotiations Index for March, 2011


The Peace Index project includes ongoing monitoring of the Israeli public's attitudes towards peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. The monthly Negotiation Index is comprised of two questions, one focusing on public support for peace negotiations and the other on the degree to which the public believes that such talks will actually lead to peace. The aggregated replies to these two questions are calculated, combined, and standardized on a scale of 0-100, in which 0 represents total lack of support for negotiations and lack of belief in their potential to bear fruit, and 100 represents total support for the process and belief in its potential. Each month, the Negotiations Index presents two distinct findings, one for the general Israeli population and the other for Jewish Israelis.

Negotiation Index: General sample 47.0; Jewish sample 45

______________

UPDATE

Just was sent this:

Foxman's public pressure on Israel:

ADL National Director Abraham Foxman publicly asserted, this week, that it would "help make the case for Israel" if the Netanyahu government decides to present a "diplomatic initiative". Mr. Foxman assured his interviewer that “ninety percent" of American Jews would want the prime minister to "take some kind of initiative”. Israel has to enter into a diplomatic initiative "for Israel’s sake”, Mr. Foxman insisted.

Dummie.

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They Would Have Us Quaking

It's been announced:

Quakers to boycott products from Israeli settlements

Details:-

Quakers in Britain have agreed to boycott products from the Israeli settlements in the West Bank. The settlements are illegal under international law. Quakers consider that this boycott is a nonviolent move for peace for Israelis and Palestinians. The decision makes clear that Quakers are not boycotting Israel...The decision was made on Saturday (2 April) by the representative decision-making body for Quakers in Britain, Meeting for Sufferings. The Meeting has not yet considered a Quaker view on divestment and sanctions. The Meeting heard that most Jewish Israeli peace groups support boycotts of settlement products.

Actually, I would suggest that the Jewish revenant communites in areas of the Jewish patrimony, Eretz-Yisrael, recognised by international law as being part of the process of the reconstitution of the Jewish national home are the ultimate non-violent act of peace and justice and of right.

The 'settlements' and infrastructure are not existing "on Palestinian land" but it is the Arabs who reside on Jewish land, conquered in 638 and subsequently occupied by them for some 1300 years except for the years of the Crusader Kingdom, Britiush Mandatory rule and the illegal Jordanian occupation and annexation.

Their Quaker slogan - “People matter more than territory” - excludes Jews from being people.  Arab claims are taken at face value but better Jewish claims seem to be rejected.

The portrayal of the reality as if it is a matter of an "armed oppression of poor people" is ridiculous. First of all, it were the Arabs who first used armed violence against Jews starting in 1920 and earlier. Secondly, it was the Arabs that consistently refused any coimpromise or other negotiated resolution of the conflict for the past 90 years. Third, it was the Arabs who established the terror "Palestinian Liberation Organization" in 1964 to attack only Israel and that, at a time when the "territories" in question were not under Israeli administration nor any so-called 'settlements' existed.  That was before the 1967 war, initiated by the Arabs.

Not only by purchasing Arab goods while boycotting our produce but the Quakers, by buying into the Arab propaganda is a most foolish, immoral and not-very-religious thing to do.

Their statement that

We are not at this time proposing to boycott goods from Israel itself, being unwilling to jeopardise continuing dialogue with Israelis and British Jews.

is a sop for their conscience.

I guess maybe you should address your comments to her:

For interviews contact Anne van Staveren on 020 7663 1048.

or to here:

General enquiries should go to the main switchboard at Friends House:

020 7663 1000, fax: 020 7663 1001, email: enquiries@quaker.org.uk.

Our central offices

Friends House

173 - 177 Euston Road

London

NW1 2BJ

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Does America Rule Over Jerusalem?

Here's Jill Biden, wife of US Vice President Joe Biden, in the Old City of Jerusalem last March.

That reminds me of a Herlian pose.

This one:

Anyway, it was used to illustrate a story about an:

...Israeli Peace Initiative [that] calls for the establishment of a Palestinian state on most of the West Bank and Gaza with East Jerusalem as its capital [and] The plan states that Jewish neighborhoods in Jerusalem would go to Israel and Arab ones to Palestine. The Temple Mount would be under no national sovereignty but the Western Wall and Jewish Quarter in the Old City would be under Israeli rule...

So, is that picture a subliminal hint that America rules in Jerusalem?

But let's not forget the Israeli initiative that tries to suck up to the Americans:

Yaakov Perry the former head of the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) said he sent a copy of the two page document to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu who promised to read it. "We are isolated internationally and seen to be against peace," Perry told the Times in a telephone interview. "I hope this will make a small contribution to pushing our prime minister forward. It is about time that Israel initiates something on peace," he said.

and from here:-

Amnon Lipkin-Shahak, a former military chief of staff, said he and the other signatories felt the Israeli government needed to be prodded into action. "We felt we have to wake everyone up. Time is passing, and it's not working in our favour," he said.

Subservients, I would say.


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Are You Female and A Good Swimmer?

And prefer to swim without males around for a good cause?

Well, read this.

It's about an All Women’s Swim in the Kinneret on Wednesday, June 16, to benefit Sadnat Shiluv in Rosh Tzurim .

Everyone reading this article can make this swim a success by sponsoring: a swimmer, transportation, or anything from sun-tan lotion, liquid high-energy food, or towels to long T-Shirts for the women swimmers. Together, we can make Vivienne’s dream for a better life for at least a dozen special-needs children come true. Contact Swim4sadna@gmail.com.

What's it for?

Sadnat Shiluv encourages maximum integration of special people into the community. It works with children from kindergarten and elementary school until young adulthood. Currently, its only hostel houses six young adults and offers them a place to live, work, study and lead an independent life while being an active part of the Rosh Tzurim community. Vivienne has made it her personal goal to try to build another two hostels.

Start practicing.

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Nasty Ken Roth Wroths

He has a letter in the NYTimes today, trying to damage-control the Goldstone recantation:

To the Editor:


The significance of Richard Goldstone’s Op-Ed article in The Washington Post is being overblown. As the judge who led an investigation into the Gaza conflict, he stands by most of his report.

Mr. Goldstone’s shift focuses on his allegation that Israel had an apparent policy to target civilians. He says that because of information now available, he no longer concludes that civilians were intentionally targeted as a matter of policy.

Human Rights Watch’s investigation in Gaza found some cases of apparently deliberate killing of civilians by Israeli soldiers, such as the killing of 11 civilians holding white flags, but no evidence that these resulted from a policy to target civilians.

However, Mr. Goldstone has not repudiated his panel’s findings that Israel committed numerous serious violations of the laws of war. Israeli forces, according to the Goldstone report, indiscriminately used heavy artillery and white phosphorous in densely populated areas and deliberately destroyed civilian buildings and infrastructure without a lawful military reason. That conduct was so widespread and systematic that it must have reflected policy.

As for investigations, Israel looks good only by comparison with Hamas, which has done nothing at all to investigate its war crimes. Israel has indicted four soldiers and convicted three. Only one has served jail time (7 1/2 months), for stealing a credit card.

Israel has yet to investigate the policies behind the indiscriminate attacks that caused so much civilian harm.

KENNETH ROTH
Executive Director
Human Rights Watch
New York, April 3, 2011

a) in writing "As the judge...", Roth seeks to imply this was an actual judicial inquiry rather than an investigative one.

b) in writing "apparently deliberate killing" he seeks to offset Goldstone who insists Israel had no intentional policy.  Israel never claimed there could have been such cases of local lack of discipline, and actually investigated claims of such.  He is comparing apples and pears.  He also adds "apparent" to cover his tuches.

c)  those 'findings' are disputed by Israel and the proof is not based in all cases on reliable sources.

Poor chap.

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Don't You Feel Like Condemning Obama?

When I read this, my frustration with a politican who has no deep understanding of the issue (read this piece by Asaf Romirowsky) rises:

White House Condemns New Israeli Settlements Announced on Eve of Israeli President’s Visit

"The United States is deeply concerned by continuing Israeli actions with respect to settlement construction," said White House National Security Staff spokesman Tommy Vietor...

...Mr. Vietor notes, the Obama administration is "concerned" about the recent announcement by the Jerusalem District Planning and Construction Committee of approval of 942 housing units on the Southern Slopes of Gilo, in addition to the Israeli government's approval over the weekend of hundreds of apartments in West Bank settlements Gush Etzion, Ma'ale Adumim, Ariel, and Kiryat Sefer, as reported by Ha'aretz.

"Not only are continued Israeli settlements illegitimate, Israel’s actions run counter to efforts to resume direct negotiations," Vietor said.

By the way, don't mix this "settlement" issue with the "Settlement Claims Act" which provides funding for settlements reached in four separate water rights suits brought by Native American tribes.

I know, we Jews consider ourselves to be the true native population of this land but seems Obama can't, or won't, grasp that.  "Not only illegitimate"?  Who is he to determine legitimacy?  What are his standards for legitimacy?  His condemnation?

Syria gets condemned.  Iran gets condemned.

Israel?

That position deserves a condemnation.

Moshe Dann has a concise pieceon the theme.

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Akiva Eldar Adopts Israel Harel's Idea

Here is from Eldar's column this past week:

How can Israel change Muslim extremists' attitude toward Israel?

...Pinchas Leiser, a veteran activist for the Oz Veshalom movement for Zionism, Judaism and peace...drew my attention to the commentary in the Sabbath leaflet he has been editing for the past 13 years, Shabbat Shalom, on the Vayikra Torah portion (Leviticus 1:1-5:26 ). It was read in synagogues earlier this month.

Leiser cites Rabbi Chaim Hirschensohn (1857-1935 ), who wrote that the Temple belongs to all nations because no statues or symbols there are particular to just one nation. Hirschensohn also sees the Temple as the seat of international law and the center of justice among nations.  Shabbat Shalom notes that God's Temple in Jerusalem is not in any way a national temple and its entire essence is to represent all mankind and man's humanity. Leiser emphasizes that his leaflet is funded with the help of private donations and foundations, not the government.  There is also an enlightened side in Islam's attitude toward Judaism. This is presented in a new book edited by Prof. Moshe Ma'oz, "Muslim Attitudes to Jews and Israel: Ambivalences of Rejection, Antagonism, Tolerance and Cooperation."

The book, which brings together studies by Muslim and Jewish researchers and clerics, calls into question the common perception that Islam is anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli. Ma'oz says most scholars of Islam point out that alongside periods of humiliations, persecutions and political discrimination, Jewish communities in Muslim countries enjoyed long periods of coexistence and tolerance.

...In Ma'oz's assessment, if Israel shows a willingness to resolve the Palestinian issue, and especially the controversy regarding the places scared to Islam in Jerusalem, this will have a conclusive effect on the attitude toward Israel in the Arab and Muslim world. It will block extremists' anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli tendencies.

However, the Hebrew original has as its title this:-          הר הבית המשותף

Here:

That translates as The Shared Temple Mount.

That does not appear in the English translation. Could that be because it might anger Eldar's radical extremist Islamic friends?

There has been some talk about sharing.

Israel Harel wrote about it.

Here's a story about it (and here's the web site).

Non-Orthodox Rabbis want to share (so long as Israeli doesn't have sovereignty).

Ehud Barak yielded on the issue, saying no shared sovereignty.


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When Did Jews Become The Majority Population in Jerusalem in Modern Times?

According to Karl Marx in his "The Eastern Question: A Reprint of Letters Written 1853-1856 Dealing with Events of the Crimean War", New York: B. Franklin, 1968, p. 322:

In 1845 – before the modern Zionist movement – the Prussian consul in Jerusalem estimated that the population of Jerusalem comprised about 7,120 Jews, 5,000 Muslims and 3,390 Christians. The New York Daily Tribune published an article in April 1854 by communist theorist Karl Marx stating that “the sedentary population of Jerusalem numbers about 15,500 souls, of whom 4,000 are Mussulmans [Muslims] and 8,000 Jews.”

Source


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A Reminder To Listen In

I'll be on Radio Nachlaot today.

Click in.

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Ascending and Entering the Temple Mount

It's Temple Mount Awareness Day.

Interested in entering the sacred precincts?  Unsure of the halacha?  Of where to go?

Well, here's some literature:

My article on the history and politics of the issue.

Ari Zivitovsky's OU's Jewish Action piece.

The Gedaliah Meyer and Henoch Messner article.

The Conservative Rabbis' permission.

Rabbi Shlomo Brody.

My Rabbi Bibi's Spittle blog post.

The Smithsonian Magazine piece.

And some background material:

Motti Inbari summary, and the article.

Yoel Cohen on the stand of Israel's Chief Rabbinate.

Modern Religious Zionist Rabbis.  Yisrael Harel's piece.

More background.  And more background.  And more.

One of my opeds.  Another oped.  Notes from my Limmud lecture.

See you up there.

And, if not, then make a sacrifice.

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Blair Blows It. Hamas Rules!

Matzav's Carl blogs:

Israel Radio reports (3:00 pm) that in a press conference with the Arab media on Monday, Middle East quartet envoy Tony Blair said that the quartet would work with a 'Palestinian' unity government if Hamas would renounce violence. Despite being asked twice by reporters, Blair did not say that the terror group must recognize Israel's right to exist. Israel Radio did not mention the third condition - the reporters may not have asked

Is that a new development?

Well, on January 31, 2009, The Sunday London Times reported:

Hamas must be brought into peace process, says Tony Blair

Hamas must somehow be brought into the Middle East peace process because the policy of isolating Gaza in the quest for a settlement will not work, Tony Blair has told The Times...In an interview with Ginny Dougary in the Saturday Magazine, Mr Blair says that the strategy of “pushing Gaza aside” and trying to create a Palestinian state on the West Bank “was never going to work and will never work”. He hints in references to how peace was eventually achieved in Northern Ireland that the time may be approaching to talk to Hamas ... “My basic predisposition is that in a situation like this you talk to everybody.”

...Asked whether he had changed his view about talking to Hamas since the Palestinian elections, Mr Blair replies that his “basic predisposition is that in a situation like this you talk to everybody”.  However, he repeated the Quartet position that there can be no talks, official or unofficial, with Hamas until they renounce violence and recognise Israel. Mr Blair then says that there is a distinction between the difficulty of negotiating with Hamas as part of a peace process if they would not accept one of the states in the two-state solution, and “talking to Hamas as the de facto power in Gaza”.

He declines to answer whether he has talked to Hamas unofficially, although his staff later insists that he has not

What was the US response?

US disinclined to see Blair-Hamas talks

The United States showed little inclination Friday to see British ex-Prime Minister Tony Blair hold talks with Hamas as part of his mission as a peace envoy. State Department spokesman Tom Casey confirmed that representatives of the "Quartet," which named Blair its special envoy to the Middle East last week, would meet in London.

Did it help?  Naw.

And much earlier, in 2006 (!), Blair was, well, targeted:-

Hamas is urging Britain to back its proposal for a ceasefire of up to 10 years as a way of breaking the impasse over its refusal to recognise the state of Israel.

The most senior delegation from the Hamas government to visit Britain is in London this week to promote its offer to allow a period of "co-existence" with Israel as a way to move to an eventual settlement of the Middle East conflict. The two-man delegation, representing the Palestinian government, is also urging the British government to lift its ban on contact with Hamas.

"We would welcome talks with Tony Blair," said Ahmad Yousef, senior adviser to the Palestinian prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, in an interview with the Guardian. "We would like to work with him and work with his government to help end the Israeli occupation. We're sending a message to the British government - we're offering a hudna [ceasefire] for 10 years in return for the end of occupation." Hamas wants European governments to accept its ceasefire plan in lieu of the Islamist group formally recognising Israel.

So, is this a long-term plan coming together?

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Show Your Fists

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Haveil Havalim #311

Here.

Jewish blogging selections.

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More Hareidi Commercial Advertising on the Walls

Spring is coming, Pesach is in two weeks. Time for improving or renewing your wardrobe (but the ads relate solely to males, you'll note):

a) Dress to kill as if you're in New York:

b) more hats

c) suits

d) "baked with not faults" matzah

e) and Belz has its own clothing outlet:

f) "and above all..." hats of quality:

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A Radio Interview With Me

Here is an interview with me on Josh Hasten's Arutz 7 radio program.

Listen in.

Blurb:

Yisrael "Winkie " Medad, long time Shiloh resident and pro-Israel advocate, says that the official leadership in Judea and Samaria needs to be pro-active in making our case to the foreign press.

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Pesach Clip

From the Ein Prat Pre-Military Academy:



Happy upcoming Pesach.

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More NYTimes Fiction

Isabel Kershner opens up her piece today thus

In the rolling hills of the northern West Bank, Palestinian villages and Israeli settlements exist in a geographical intimacy that belies decades of mutual hostility, suspicion and fear.

Here neighbors are also enemies, and the brutal killing of five members of the Fogel family in the settlement of Itamar three weeks ago has done nothing but harden that division.

What neighbors? What intimacy?  They don't permit us to live among them, even if we wanted.

This is the extent of that intimacy in her piece:

Although none of the residents of Awarta who were interviewed had ever set foot in Itamar, some settlers are familiar with Awarta. Some have visited at night, under the protection of the army, to pray at shrines traditionally believed to be the burial sites of the family of the biblical prophet Aaron.

She continues and quotes an Arwata resident:

Asad Abd al-Karim Lolah, 70, said it was “impossible for any Palestinian Muslim Arab to have committed that crime.”

And describes this:

The Palestinian Government Media Center took reporters to Awarta last week, primarily to highlight the damage wrought by the Israeli Army. Children cried and ran away in fright at the sight of strangers.

Here's her story on her visit to Itamar.

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Churchill on the Crosshairs of Lechi?

I think this Yedhioth Ahronot story doesn't sound right:

The Lehi group planned to assassinate British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in 1944, MI5 records exposed by The Telegraph indicate.  According to the files, Eliyahu Bet-Zuri, who was executed in 1945 for assassinating Lord Moyne, suggested sending agents to London to murder the British prime minister in order to force the British out of Palestine.

"Suggested"?  To who?

...Major James Robertson, from the agency's Middle East section, said threats made by Bet-Zuri in November 1944 were disclosed by another member of the Lehi, also known as the "Stern Gang."  The suspect revealed: "As soon as he (Bet-Zuri) returned to Stern Group headquarters he proposed to suggest a plan for the assassination of highly placed British political personalities, including Mr Churchill, for which purpose emissaries should be sent to London."

Robertson nevertheless noted: "The above information does not, as you will see, amount to very much."

"Returned"?  "Another member"?  See below.

This is true:

According to the files, attempts to target British officials continued after the World War II in order to put pressure on the UK to create a Jewish state.  In February 1946 the British defense security officer in Israel sent a secret coded telegram back to London revealing intelligence from "reliable sources" about a plot to kill British ministers, The Telegraph reported.

"Stern Group are training members to go to England to assassinate members of His Majesty's Government, especially Mr Bevin... Stern further reported to be receiving practical sympathy from important Jews (in) Palestine," the telegram stated.

Item:

Yaakov Heruti was a member of the technical department of the Lehi (The Stern Gang), a radical pre-state underground group, and specialized in preparing explosive devices.  In 1947, Natan Yellin Mor, a Lehi leader dispatched him to London to set up a branch there. Among the tasks he was assigned were the assassination of British foreign minister Ernest Bevin (the order was rescinded), attacking General Evelyn Barker (the bomb was sent, but neutralized) and the assassination of Roy Farran, a British police officer who was responsible for the death, following an intense interrogation, of Alexander Rubowitz, a Lehi pamphlet delivery boy. The bomb was delivered but accidentally killed Farran's younger brother.

See this interview, too.

The BBC did an interview with him:-

It wasn’t long before British security services got wind of what was happening and in early 1946 they issued this top secret internal warning:  “Members of the Stern group are now being organised and are under training. It is expected that they will be sent to the United Kingdom to assassinate important members of his majesty’s government, particularly, Mr Bevin.”

In the months that followed a number of bombs exploded in London and an attempt was made to drop on a bomb on the House of Commons from a hired plane. This last effort was only stopped after French Police discovered Stern Gang members preparing to cross the channel in a plane containing a large bomb.

Mike Thomson and the Document team track down the assassin sent to kill Earnest Bevin and the man who gave him the explosives to do it.

As for The Telegraph story, here, well, after November 6, when Bet-Zuri assassinated Lord Moyne, he never returned to HQ as he was arrested.  What is that source talking about?

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So, He's A Mass Murderer If Guilt Proven?

The indictment:

The indictment against Dirar Abu Sisi, a resident of the Gaza Strip and member of the Hamas organization's administration, was submiiited.

According to the indictment, beginning in 2002, Abu Sisi was engaged in the development of missiles to be launched by Hamas into the State of Israel, including increasing their range and ability to pierce steel so as to penetrate IDF armored vehicles and thus strike at soldiers. Similarly, Abu Sisi administered the Hamas military academy, which was established following Operation Cast Lead as part of Hamas's lessons from the war. Abu Sisi is accused of nine charges regarding activity in a terrorist organization, hundreds of counts of attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder and production of weaponry offenses.

According to the indictment, Abu Sisi received his doctorate at the Kharkov Military Engineering Academy in Kharkov, Ukraine, and studied under Prof. Konstantin Petrovich, an expert in SCUD missile control systems. During his studies, Abu Sisi acquired extensive knowledge in missile development, control systems, propulsion and stabilization. Parallel to his work as an engineer for the Gaza electric company, Abu Sisi secretly joined Hamas.

In the framework of his Hamas activity, between 2002-2008, Abu Sisi held a role in administration of the Hamas organization, with responsibility for electricity in the context of a committee headed by senior Hamas militant Muhammad Deif, and which was engaged in developing and improving missiles and mortars of various types. Abu Sisi's activity led to the development of deadly missiles that were launched beginning in 2002, and which are still being launched at the State of Israel and at IDF armored vehicles, thus harming the security of residents of the State and IDF soldiers on a daily basis.

According to the indictment, following Operation Cast Lead, Abu Sisi was appointed to direct the establishment of a military academy that would train Hamas officers and commanders for combat, and, in fact, established the academy.

The indictment attributes to Abu Sisi many counts of attempted murder in that he was party to hundreds of attempts to cause the death of residents of the State of Israel and IDF soldiers; offenses of membership in a terrorist organization in that he served in the Hamas organization administration; and offenses of criminal conspiracy in that he manufactured and developed missiles of various types; criminal conspiracy for firing missiles at the State of Israel; and manufacturing weapons.

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Israeli, Sorry, Jew, Sorry Muslim, Sorry, Arab Killed in Jenin

Reported:

Israeli-Arab actor gunned down in West Bank

JENIN, West Bank - Palestinian police say a well-known Arab Israeli actor, director and political activist has been shot dead by militants in the West Bank town where he ran a drama school and community theater.

Jenin police chief Mohammed Tayyim says Juliano Mer Khamis was shot five times Monday by Palestinian militants. A Palestinian ambulance took his body to a nearby checkpoint to be transferred into Israel.

Mer Khamis was the son of a Jewish mother and an Arab father. He starred in several critically acclaimed Israeli films and appeared in the 1984 U.S. film "The Little Drummer Girl."

In recent years he ran the Freedom Theater in Jenin, attracting protests and vandalism from some Palestinians who saw the theater as a challenge to their traditions.

Seems religious elements didn't appreciate his cultural contributions to local society.

P.S.

Just was reminded: he played the chief Lechi assassin in Avi Nesher's film, Rage and Glory.

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What "Illegal" Really Means

The Haaretz line on the supposed "illegality" of Jewish construction in the Jewish national home:

It should be noted, that any construction is deemed illegal in the absence of development plans such as these, a regulation which the state has been more stringent in upholding in recent years.

Did you read that carefully?

"Illegal" in my book is when I have done something completely wrong against a penal code.  But whay happens here, is that actually, I (that is, those who build those "illegal" homes") really haven't done anything wrong.

I filled out forms, registered engineer plans, infrastructure plans, architects' plans, checed ownership and title deeds, etc. etc., and then the clerk (ultimately, in this case, the Minister of Defense or someone who represents him) just doesn't do anything.  They won't append signatures, won't stamp their approval.  It's as if they've gone out for coffee.

In the meantime, knowing that there is no technical infraction, we go ahead and build.  In many cases, one signature, like in the case of the HaYovel neighborhood in Eli, is all that is needed.

"Illegal"?  We?  No, those who due to political considerations seek to thwart Jewish rights.

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Temple Mount Awareness Poster

This Tuesday, April 5, the first day of the Hebrew month of Nissan:

Visiting hours 7:30 - 11:00 and 12:30 - 13:30.

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Restoration Of A Heritage

I doubt if it would surprise you to know that I have visited Zamosc in Poland. It was in March 2004 with my son with his high school although he had by then finished his army service.

We were in the very impressive square with a bit of Italian architecture

and then we went to the synagogue which was then a public library.  More pictures:

Now, it's to change.  From the AP story

Restored Renaissance synagogue to reopen in Poland

ZAMOSC, Poland (AP) — Seventy-two years after the Nazis arrived, the Polish town of Zamosc is getting its synagogue back.  One of the most important surviving synagogues in Poland, a Renaissance gem looted by the Nazis and suffering from decades of neglect, is reopening this week after a meticulous restoration, part of an effort to reclaim the country's decimated Jewish heritage.

..."The people, they are gone," said Michael Schudrich, Poland's chief rabbi. "But at least in their memory we can do the best to preserve that which remains."

...The near-absence of Jews today "brings to light what war and genocide and the Holocaust really mean," said Monika Krawczyk, CEO of the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland, the Warsaw-based group that oversaw the preservation work. "Although the Jews in Poland today are small in number, the heritage is absolutely huge."

The renovation took about a year and cost euro1.7 million ($2.4 million), funded mostly by grants from Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein.

The restored synagogue will be presented to the public Tuesday in a ceremony attended by Jewish leaders, U.S. and Israeli diplomats and city officials...
...The synagogue was built in the early 1600s by Sephardic Jews — Jews whose families had fled Spain during the Inquisition and sought refuge elsewhere in Europe. Later, Eastern European, or Ashkenazi, Jews fleeing Cossack violence in Ukraine sought refuge there [during] World War II, Nazis looted the synagogue and used it as a carpentry workshop. After the war, it served as a library, but in 2005 it was given back to the Jewish community as part of a broader return of synagogues, yeshivas, cemeteries and other communal property...

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Remember Those Fanatic Extremists at Havat Gilad?

The fanatic extremists that caused gthe police to use near-lethal force and gave all the residentrs of Yesha a bad name?

You remember them, yes?

Well, the truth is out and the Knesset's Subcommittee for Judea and Samaria, a branch of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, managed to peel away some falsehoods and lies:

Subcommittee head MK Ze'ev Elkin expressed annoyance Sunday over police backtracking during the investigation. “It's strange that the very same deputy-commander of the Judea and Samaria region who, in the previous meeting, could not answer the committee's questions about the eviction at the farm, submitted the conclusions of a police investigation into the matter to the Police Chief just a few hours later,” he said.

Police have admitted that the number of plastic bullets fired during the incident was, in fact, 15 or so as residents had claimed, and not fewer, as officers had argued.

Commander Haggai Dotan defended the use of plastic bullets in one hearing. “It is better that police use plastic bullets than batons, which are likely to cause greater injury,” he argued.

Danny Dayan, head of the Yesha (Judea and Samaria) Council, disagreed. Plastic bullets can be so dangerous that some foreign police departments have stopped using them altogether, he said.

...Another police claim later proven false was that ski masks had been used during the operation simply due to the cold, and not as a matter of planning. In fact, the committee found, officers at the scene had been ordered in advance to wear the masks.

^

"Happy Endings" Begins

"Happy Endings" will begin with its season premiere on April 13th.

ABC.

At 9:30 PM.

^

A Book Review

For Hebrew readers, I have published a book review of David Rubin's new book, "The Islamic Tsunami: Israel And America In The Age Of Obama" in our local regional council bulletin and you can read it here.

^

I cooperate with B'tselem

I suggested that the groups of gays, lesbos, queers and Arabs appealing to the High Court of Justice be termed the

post-modern rainbow coalition

and she agrees:

^

New Wall Advertisements

Not political-religious messages but selling:

a)  Four different types of matzot -

b) Hareidi fashion -

c) Haberdashery -

d)  Spice electronics (the store that got hit) -

^

And What To You Think of Goldstone?

.

^

A West Bank Story

In Guyana:-

Shieldstown, a quiet village on the West Bank of Berbice was established after officials from the GuySuCo Estate at Blairmont made arrangements for residents of Rampoor Settlement to relocate there. Although most of the residents were sad to leave their homes and farms at Rampoor – located one-and-a-half miles away from the public road, they had no choice.

They would have preferred it if the government had put in services like electricity and water and a school, and let them remain where they were. A contract was ready for an all-weather access road to be built when residents were told they had to move.

Initially there was no proper infrastructure at Shieldstown, but residents told the Sunday Stabroek that they are thankful that they are now benefiting from water...

Almost sounds like a 'disengagement'.  And bad things can happen there. And worse.



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Slap Facebook

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Be Temple Mount Aware

^

Me and Munkacs

At my Jerusalem Post blog, Green-Lined.

^

Shloime Carlebach Had His Hallel Band; The Reform Have Jazz

Source

Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch Beans Beinart

Someone claimed that Peter Beinart was present at the Reform Rabbis CCAR Convention in New Orleans on March 30, 2011 when Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch of the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue, son of an acquaintance of mine, Rabbi Richard Hirsch of Jerusalem, had this to say to him but actually, I think, it is from June 2010:

...So – what is not-so-good in Peter’s analysis? I will highlight four points:

As I read it, the main assertion of his important article, entitled “The Failure of the American Jewish Establishment,” is that the Jewish Establishment bears central responsibility for pushing Jews – especially young Jews – away from Israel...Come on: You mean to tell me that if we only criticized Israel more our Jews would be less alienated from Israel; that the reason they are becoming alienated is because we are all marching in lockstep with some neo-conservative philosophy that has overtaken American Judaism?

There is alienation occurring; there is a distancing taking place, but it is not because of AIPAC or the American Jewish Committee or the Jewish Establishment. It is because of what we rabbis confront every day.

Anyone who has spent any time with liberal and progressive Jews knows that identification with Israel tends to be in direct proportion to identification with Judaism. Identification with Israel is the consequence of Jewish identity, not its cause – especially for younger Jews. American Jews identify with Israel if they identify with Judaism. If they do not identify with Judaism they tend not to have strong feelings for Israel...

...We ourselves, Reform rabbis and leaders of the URJ, are on the AIPAC board.  You can say a lot of things about us, but you cannot credibly claim that we have been snookered or intimidated by a cabal of neo-conservatives who have silenced our voice, and this is what is causing progressive Jews to become alienated from Israel.

...I believe in pluralism...But I have red lines. If Jews, in the name of Judaism and the Jewish community, advocate boycotting Israel; if they lobby for UN and international sanctions against Israel; if they propose divestments; if they pressure Congress to reduce foreign aid; Then – the organized Jewish community – what Peter calls the Jewish Establishment -must oppose these forces with everything we’ve got...these views are marginal in the Jewish community...[and] these views threaten the very existence of Israel. I draw the line at restricting Israel’s right or capacity to defend itself...[and]...these views are morally outrageous, especially if you express them in the name of the Jewish people. Not in my name.

...It is reflective of the mass confusion of our era when we allow a small democracy fighting for its life in the world’s worst neighborhood to be savaged as if it were an anti-democratic dictatorship; savaged by forces that are themselves anti-democratic dictatorships and who perversely appropriate the very language of human rights that we progressives developed over centuries of hard struggle.

It is not the language of liberal Zionism that has been drained of meaning, as you write, Peter; it is the language of human rights that has been drained of meaning.

...Israel is on the front lines of the free peoples of the world facing down what you, Peter, called Islamist totalitarianism. It threatens Israelis like no other people in the world. It is right across the border, coming ever closer to the heartland, casting a deepening shadow over the Middle East and slowly surrounding the Jewish State. And as long as that threat remains, defeating it must be Jewish liberalism’s north star.

Methods for defeating totalitarian Islam and other threats to Israel are a legitimate topic of internal liberal debate. But the centrality of the effort is not. The recognition that Jewish liberals face an external enemy more grave and more illiberal than Benjamin Netanyahu and Avigdor Lieberman should be the litmus test of a decent left.

Read it all.

Crossing J Street Can Be Fatal

If you are in Albany:

Albany Native Killed in Sacramento

Arlene Sasse, longtime Albany native, was struck and killed on her bicycle in Sacramento early Friday. Family and friends are today mourning the death of Arlene Sasse, a longtime Albany resident who would have graduated from CSU Sacramento next month.

Sasse died early Friday morning in Sacramento when she was struck on her bicycle in front of the university.

She had attended Albany schools from preschool through high school. “She was a wonderful girl,” said longtime family friend David Pirkle. “We’re all just devastated.”

Sasse, 22, was crossing J Street at the Carlson Drive intersection about 1:45 a.m., when she was struck by a vehicle traveling westbound on J Street. Police said the driver did not see Sasse, whose bicycle did not have a light or reflectors.

^

Goodness. I'm Being Followed

Source

^

You'll Be Listening In, Yes?

You can listen to me, and to many others, this coming Tuesday via Internet radio.  Details here.

Highlights:

2ND ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL TEMPLE MOUNT AWARENESS DAY:

APRIL 5TH

In addition to calling upon everyone who holds the Temple Mount dear to their heart to join us in ascending the Mount, (in accordance with halacha - see below), Rabbi Chaim Richman and Yitzchak Reuven, with special guests, will be conducting a live Temple Mount Awareness Day Happening! Between the hours of 2:00 PM to 8:00 PM Israel time, (7:00 AM - 1:00 PM Eastern time - see below for your time zone), we will be conducting a live video stream from the RADIO FREE NACHLAOT studios in Jerusalem:


Discussion, teaching, video clips and live music all about the Temple Mount and the Holy Temple.
Special telephone interviews.
Telephone call-ins.
Special guests in the studio:


1st Hour: Opens up with Rabbi Chaim Richman and Yitzchak Reuven of the Temple Institute International Department, and Lorelai Kude and Steve Levine of Radio Free Nachlaot. Special guest Attorney B. Ben Yosef, Temple Mount Legal Scholar.
2nd Hour: Special guest Yitzchak Zweig, Archeologist - Founder and Director, Temple Mount Sifting Project.
3rd Hour: Special guest Yisrael Medad - Veteran Temple Mount Scholar and Activist, Director of Educational Resources, Menachem Begin Heritage Center.
4th Hour: Special guest David Louis and Band - Musicologist, Composer and Artist.
5th Hour: Special guest Reuven Prager - Founder and CEO, Beged Ivri - Levitical Restoration Specialist.
6th Hour: Rabbi Richman, Yitzchak, Lorelai and Steve.


Eastern Daylight Time: 7:00 AM - 1:00 PM
Central Daylight Time: 6:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Mountain Daylight Time: 5:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Pacific Daylight Time: 4:00 AM - 10:00 AM
Alaskan Daylight Time: 3:00 AM - 9:00 AM
Hawaii-Aleutian Daylight Time: 2:00 AM - 1:00 PM

SIX HOURS OF LIVE STREAMING VIDEO

DIRECTLY FROM JERUSALEM

EXCLUSIVELY DEDICATED TO

THE TEMPLE MOUNT AND THE HOLY TEMPLE!

IF YOU CAN'T BE THERE...

Tune in (or whatever the term is in computerese).

What they mean by "veteran":

I've circled the siddur I was holding. I was in the middle of the mincha Silent Prayer when the police unceremoniously removed me. This was in 1971, I think.

^

I Am Starting A New Peace Movement

I have come to the conclusion that the Arabs of the former Mandate of Palestine territory who insist upon referring to themselves as "Palestinians" (to remind you: 'Filastin' isn't even an Arab word and at that time, 1920-1948, Jews also were "Palestinians") need help to achieve peace. No, not with Israel as I don't think that is their goal or in their thinking.

But at least they need to make peace among themselves.

Here, read this:

Many Palestinians think Fatah-Hamas unity efforts distract from the occupation

While young protesters in Ramallah are calling for an end to the split between Gaza and the West Bank, others argue that those words have lost their meaning.

The protest tent calling for an end to the political split between Gaza and the West Bank - erected more than two weeks ago by young people who fill it night and day - has become part of the landscape at Ramallah's al-Manara Square. But some feel the tent's presence has become a burden. Last Wednesday evening, a group of muscular young men, which happened to appear at the square at the same time as Fatah's Shabiba (youth activists ), assaulted the protesters. But there is more to it than the assault itself.

At 8 P.M...as the crowd began to disperse...suddenly a large, cheerful group appeared in the square: members of the Fatah party's youth movement bearing yellow Fatah flags. They were celebrating the party's victory in elections at Bir Zeit University, which were boycotted by its main rival, Hamas.

And in the blink of an eye, the square turned into a mass of clashing bodies, raised fists and shouts; the round tent collapsed on the people inside, books were thrown every which way, mattresses and blankets were scattered, a large banner saying "Yes to reconciliation, no to division" was ripped to shreds and placards were torn down.

An eyewitness said the upheaval began when a member of Fatah tried to set the tent on fire. Young people from the March 15 group tried to keep him at a distance and began filming what was happening. Other Fatah youth movement members beat them, tore down the tent and trod on everything and everyone underneath it. People who had been sitting inside the tent, wearing black and white kaffiyehs around their necks, were pulled to safety on a side street, shaking with rage and fear. "They accused me of belonging to Hamas," one said, pulling out his Fatah membership card.

A large crowd of thugs, most of them wearing black shirts and black and white kaffiyehs, gathered around the remaining protesters, shouting. Some passersby called out "shame," but were afraid to get involved and separate the two sides.

Police officers who arrived from the station - located just 150 meters away - were in no hurry to oust the attackers either...

If this is the way they behave toward each other, after 18 years of the Declaration of Principles framework, i.e., the Oslo Accords, they desperately require outside conciliation efforts before Israel canbe considered as a possible peace partner.

^

Just Watch Out For Tsunamis

Are you willing to go to Gaza?

The International Solidarity Movement is appealing for activists to join our team in the besieged Gaza Strip. In recent months numerous people have managed to cross into Gaza through Egypt, so at present, there is a small window of opportunity to enter.

...ISM Gaza volunteers accompany farmers and demonstrators in the ‘buffer zone’, as well as working to strengthen the link between Gazan students and the international Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. Visit http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/category/gaza/ to watch videos and read reports by ISM Gaza.

...Those interested in joining the ISM Gaza team are *required* to attend a preliminary training in their home country and have communicate with the volunteers in Gaza prior to arrival. Entering Gaza is an arduous process that requires some time to be spent in Egypt.  For more information about where to attend a preliminary training or other questions, please email gazaism@gmail.com.

Remember, though, no boozing, no immodest dress, no making out, no overt Church-going and watch out for those Fatah-Hamas punch-ups.

Oh, and watch out for tsunamis.

^

Is 12 NIS Too Much for a Sacrifice?

Whether you follow the guidance of Rabbis who promote ascent into the Temple Mount compound in accordance with Jewish law:

Or you follow those Rabbis opposed to any entrance into the Temple Mount compound

You surely can afford 12 NIS and place yourself on the list of those subscribed to the Paschal Offering that we hope will be sacrificed in accordance with the Torah imperative:

Three years ago, it was deemed legal by a judge.

So, call 02-9410100 and make your pledge of participation as numbered for the sacrifice.

For Hebrew readers and listerners:

הרב שמואל אליהו: אין מניעה לקרבן פסח בזמן הזה מלבד הפחד והחלטת הממשלה:


הרבנים החרדיים - הרב חיים קנייבסקי והרב שמואל אויערבך קוראים להירשם כמנויים לקרבן פסח :


מוקד הרשמה למנוי לקרבן פסח מידי יום 8 בבוקר - חצות הלילה
^

Is Goldstone Hanging Himself?

This is as far as Richard Goldstone goes in describing a stupid report he authored:

The allegations of intentionality by Israel were based on the deaths of and injuries to civilians in situations where our fact-finding mission had no evidence on which to draw any other reasonable conclusion. While the investigations published by the Israeli military and recognized in the U.N. committee’s report have established the validity of some incidents that we investigated in cases involving individual soldiers, they also indicate that civilians were not intentionally targeted as a matter of policy.

Isn't he lucky no one will sentenced him to hanging (unlike the Blacks he sentenced to the gallows when a South African judge)?

P.S.

Melanie Phillips writes:

By his own admission, the man stands revealed as at best an abject idiot and at worst a moral and judicial bankrupt...The UN should now declare the Goldstone report null and void. Any less will make it knowingly and demonstrably party to a travesty of justice.

But of course, like all previous blood libels against the Jews, the poison this one has injected into the global bloodstream has no antidote. The damage is done – and no amount of self-serving recantations by Richard Goldstone will undo the terrible harm he has done.

and much more.
^

I'm 'Upcoming'

Be sure to check out the Sh'ma magazine soon.

I'm "upcoming":

Yisrael Medad & Dan Heller on the founding myths of the Herut movement

^

Look for the Kippa

Consider:

The new head of the GSS, Yoram Cohen, is a graduate of the Midreshiat Noam Yeshiva high school and wears a kippa.

The new head of the National Security Council, Yaakov Amidror, also wears a kippa and is the son of Irgun fighter, and former British prisoner, Tzila Amidror.  He once said:

Jabotinsky placed broad significance upon the principle that mutual concessions would occur only when the Arabs would despair of their attempts to harm us. Today, the colonel added, this issue will be decided by those who will assume power. “Just as when the Iron Wall article was written, so Israel is yet struggling for her legitimacy. In our times as well, anyone who strays from the path forged by Jabotinsky, entering into agreement formats without a strong iron wall–is doomed to failure.”

The new IDF commander, Benny Gantz, comes from a religiously observant family and in his youth, studied in educational institutions of the "Ohr Etzion" network.  By the way, the person he appointed as his close aide to head his staff office is Colonel Hod Batzar of the Samarian community of Elkana who is a graduate of the Ohr Etzion Hesder Yeshiva

The new Police Commissioner, Yochanan Danino, also studied in his youth at "Ohr Etzion" Yeshiva,

Think about that.

^

Bukhari Under Threat

As CNN reported, as well as The Guardian, this lady is

...hoping to become the first Muslim to represent her country in the Miss Universe pageant has gotten "indirect" threats against her life, she told CNN on Thursday. Shanna Bukhari said she'd received "a lot of support from all communities," but that she got "some hate mail from all communities as well."

"Indirect threats have been made," she said, including video links being posted of men "suggesting things could possibly happen."

..."My intentions were not to bring my religion into this," she said.

She said she would participate in the swimsuit round of the contest, but would not be "exposing revealing parts of my body."

"I will not be wearing a bikini," she said. "I will be wearing a one-piece swimsuit and a sarong."

Her approach

She believes Muslims in the UK should be allowed to have a western lifestyle.

But Muslim groups have accused her of disrespecting Islam.

Good luck to her.

^

I Don't Think This Is A Clever Campaign

Found here (k/t = RT):-

What do you think?

The message is not clear enough.

^

Christian or...Jewish?

Don't forget to read the P.S.
===================


From a BBC report: (to be followed by my comments/observations):-

A group of 70 or so "books", each with between five and 15 lead leaves bound by lead rings, was apparently discovered in a remote arid valley in northern Jordan somewhere between 2005 and 2007. A flash flood had exposed two niches inside the cave, one of them marked with a menorah or candlestick, the ancient Jewish religious symbol.

A Jordanian Bedouin opened these plugs, and what he found inside might constitute extremely rare relics of early Christianity...The director of the Jordan's Department of Antiquities, Ziad al-Saad, says the books might have been made by followers of Jesus in the few decades immediately following his crucifixion.  "They will really match, and perhaps be more significant than, the Dead Sea Scrolls," says Mr Saad.

...The books, or "codices", were apparently cast in lead, before being bound by lead rings.  Their leaves - which are mostly about the size of a credit card - contain text in Ancient Hebrew, most of which is in code.

If the relics are of early Christian origin rather than Jewish, then they are of huge significance.

...David Elkington, a scholar of ancient religious archaeology...believes the most telling evidence for an early Christian origin lies in the images decorating the covers of the books and some of the pages of those which have so far been opened...."In the upper square [of one of the book covers] we have the seven-branch menorah, which Jews were utterly forbidden to represent because it resided in the holiest place in the Temple in the presence of God.

"So we have the coming of the messiah to approach the holy of holies, in other words to get legitimacy from God."

...[says Philip Daviesthere are] plates cast into a picture map of the holy city of Jerusalem...so obviously a Christian image..."There is a cross in the foreground, and behind it is what has to be the tomb [of Jesus], a small building with an opening, and behind that the walls of the city. There are walls depicted on other pages of these books too and they almost certainly refer to Jerusalem."..."[say Margaret Barker that another] one of the things that is most likely pointing towards a Christian provenance, is that these are not scrolls but books. The Christians were particularly associated with writing in a book form rather than scroll form, and sealed books in particular as part of the secret tradition of early Christianity."

...Another potential link with the Bible is contained in one of the few fragments of text from the collection to have been translated. It appears with the image of the menorah and reads "I shall walk uprightly", a sentence that also appears in the Book of Revelation.  While it could be simply a sentiment common in Judaism, it could here be designed to refer to the resurrection...

Well, seems there a lot more Jewish elements than Christian. Like the Menorah which surely was niot "utterly forbidden to represent". Like the langauge, Hebrew, rather than Aramaic.
As for that 'upright walk', it appears in another form but using the same Hebrew root זקף in Psalms 146:8:

The LORD openeth the eyes of the blind; the LORD raiseth up them that are bowed down; the LORD loveth the righteous;

As for the cross, well, I guess we'll keep our fingers crossed and wait for an analysis, if the books becmae available for study.


P.S.

A forgery.

^

What Do Pro-Pal. Arab "Peace Activists" Really Want?

Read it here.

You won't be surprised.

^

The Linda Gradstein News

In a piece on the new study that purports to illustrate the move of Israeli youth the the "right", Linda Gradstein illustrates herself a special type of news-reporting.

Entitled Study: Young Israelis Leaning More Conservative ,  her readers learn that

"The study, on behalf of Germany's Friedrich Ebert Foundation in cooperation with the Macro Center for Political Economics, interviewed 1,600 Jewish and Arab youth, half between the ages of 15 and 18 and half 21 to 24, after their compulsory army service.  The report's authors said the study shows that nationalist beliefs among Jewish youths are strengthening, and liberal democratic values are weakening."

But is it possible that those two parameters, 'nationalist belief' and liberal democratic values' are not necessarily linked?  Could someone be nationalist and a liberal democrat, like yours truly and many of his friends)?  Should that not be investigated?

Secondly, seeking an 'expert's opinion', she turns to Yehuda Ben-Meir who she neglects to inform was a former MK for the National religious Party, dropped out and went dovish.  Anyway, here's his bit:

...some in Israel cautioned that youth all over the world tend to have more extreme attitudes that moderate over time.  "Younger people tend to have extremist attitudes whether it is to the right or the left," Yehuda Ben Meir of the INSS, a Tel Aviv think tank, told AOL News. "Look at the demonstrations and even the violence by Jewish settlers against Palestinians. Most of them are kids, under 18. Then you grow up, get married and have kids and your attitude changes."

...Ben Meir acknowledges that the Israeli public has shifted to the right.  "What's happened here is that the left has become the center and the center has become the right," he said. "We believe that it's because of the disappointment after the withdrawal from Gaza."

First of all, why only one expert?  Second, while noting that both left and right youngsters can be extreme, no left-wing violence, such as the Anarchists Against the Wall group or others that help Arabs throw stones, are mentioned.  A true, balanced picture is not presented to the public.  All it need was 2-3 more sentences.  Third, while high-profile, the anti-Arab violence is not at all representative and therefore, percentage-wise, would not even support as a sample for a poll of its owm on the Jewish population in Judea and Samaria.  And fourth, since rel;igious youth is a minority among the population of youngsters, the poll actually relates much more to the secular youth.  Why wasn't a secular 'expert' involved?
Oh, and why was the report devoted to Jewish youth only while the report dealt with Arab youngsters as well?

She adds at the end that

Today's study found that just 18 percent of young Israelis believe there is a real chance for Israel to live in peace with its Arab neighbors. Twelve years ago, some 28 percent believed there was a real chance for peace.

Does she do an analysis of the 'why' of that lessening of a belief in a chance for peace?  Is it the kids' fault, is it because of Israeli leaders or is it a logical and rational conclusion from Arab behavior and actions?  Can she not point a finger at the other side?

And what do the Arabs believe?

^