Disappointed by a Rabbi

I attended a lecture by Rabbi Sheldon Lewis.  He has authored a book, one whose theme is reconciliation.  He's here in Jerusalem and some of his activities are being facilitated by the US Embassy.  The lecture was entitled "Peace Making in the Jewish Tradition".

I cannot say I was overly impressed by his words.  First of all, there was Luba Eliav's book, "Shalom: Peace in Jewish Tradition" (1977) and others (here and also here).  From what I see, his follows the weekly portions which might be a new framework.

But when i did ask him a question,

I was astounded.

Following his comments on two previous questions, I framed my question relating to intra-Jewish matters.

I asked what could be done to encourage an understanding that just like the campaign of the Women of the Wall was mostly favorably appreciated and understood to be one of the right to freely worship within the Jewish tradition so, too, should be the campaign for a Jewish presence on the Temple Mount. The two should be viewed as parallel despite the political differences.

Lewis is a J Street supporter. He also supports Rabbis for Human Rights. He is to the far-left of Jewish politics.

How did he astound me?  By saying that there are certain things one cannot change and so better to leave it alone.

So simplistic.

So non-involved.  An abdicating attitude.

I doubt that is his orientation in matters about which he feels very strongly.

I felt disappointment as if he was copping-out.

Not inspiring as a Rabbi but par for the course of a leftist activist.

^

From An 'Objective' State Dept. Report

On violence against Jews in Judea and Samaria:

There were also firebombings and other attacks on civilians in Jerusalem. In April a Palestinian man stabbed to death an Israeli settler at Tapuach Junction, south of Nablus, the first time an Israeli had been killed in the West Bank in 18 months. In September a Palestinian killed an Israeli soldier in Qalqilyah; the attacker and the victim were acquaintances. Although the Palestinian had a well-established criminal record unrelated to terrorism, the incident was listed on Shin Bet’s website as a terrorist act. Also in September an Israeli soldier in Hebron died from a bullet wound; the identity and nationality of the perpetrator remained unknown at year’s end. Shin Bet’s website also classified the October stabbing attack on a nine-year-old girl in the Israeli settlement of Psagot and the November killing of a retired Israeli colonel in the Jordan Valley, both carried out by Palestinians, as terrorist acts, although media reports indicated that both actions were failed robbery attempts. 

From:

Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor

2013 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices Report

February 27, 2014

Why not raise a doubt, right?

After all, killing Jews is not normative, or is it?

^

UN Unit Snows Over Jewish YESHA Communiites

The UN even maps out "occupied" snowfall:

The snow was so heavy that it whitened out and covered every single Jewish community in Judea and Samaria.

And look what they do to Jerusalem, turning it into "settlements":-

And on second thought:-

^

Rockthrowing

An EOZ find:

In America, rock-throwers get shot

The Obama Administration’s new Homeland Security Secretary announced Friday that the department plans to “review the department’s use of force policies.” Media reports indicate that there are ongoing discussions “about when border agents can use their guns.” Apparently, this review has been sparked by a border agent shooting a 41-year old man who struck the agent in the head with a rock near San Diego. (Go figure, a 41-year old rock thrower got shot.)
Wrongly, civil rights groups have criticized border the border patrol (who are overseen by Homeland Security) for allowing border agents to use deadly force against people who throw rocks at them. According to a report, agents were attacked with rocks 339 times in the 2011 budget year. Rock-throwing incidents were the most common assault reported. Agents responded with gunfire 33 times and with less-than-lethal force, including the use of pepper spray and batons, 118 times.

^

If I Was Netanyahu's Speechwriter

Here is an excerpt from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's March 4 AIPAC speech:

...Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people  where the civil rights of all citizens, Jews and non-Jews alike, are guaranteed. The land of Israel is the place where the identity of the Jewish people was forged.  It was in Hebron that Abraham blocked [sic] the cave of the Patriarchs and the Matriarchs. It was in Bethel that Jacob dreamed his dreams. It was in Jerusalem that David ruled his kingdom. We never forget that, but it's time the Palestinians stopped denying history...

Here, if I were his speechwriter, is my version: 


It was in Hebron that Abraham bought the cave where our Patriarchs and Matriarchs are buried and which, until 1967, no Jew had been permitted for centuries by the Muslims, to enter or even ascend higher than the 7th step. It was in Bethel that Jacob dreamed his dreams and where he heard God's promise:

"I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

It was at Shiloh where the Children of Israel erected a Tabernacle and there Joshua distributed the Land into tribal portions and where he urged them

“How long will you wait before you begin to take possession of the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, has given you?" 

and he instructed them

“Go and make a survey of the land and write a description of it. Then return to me, and I will cast lots for you here at Shiloh in the presence of the Lord.”

At Shchem, a city the Romans named Nablus, as recorded in the Bible,

The bones of Joseph, which the Children of Israel brought up out of Egypt, were buried...in a parcel of land Jacob bought from the sons of Hamor, father of Shechem, for a hundred pieces of silver 

It was in Jerusalem that David ruled his kingdom, having purchased the plot where the Temple would be constructed, built by his son, Solomon.  And where the returning exiles from Babylon, under the leadership of Ezra and Nechemiah, would rebuild it a second time.

The holiday of Chanukah, for example, is when we celebrate the rededication of the Temple and I remind you that almost all the battles our warrior forefathers won took place along the mountain ridges of Judea and Samaria including Mitzpah, Beth Horon, Beth Zur, Ma'aleh Levona and Beit  Zachariya.  In these territories we were thyen "occupied" by being engaged in  a war of liberation against foreign rulers.  And it was Shimon the Maccabee who declared: 

"We have not occupied a foreign land; we have not ruled a foreign land; we have liberated the land of our forefathers from foreign occupation." 

Yes, my friends, we Jews have been constructing communities throughout the Land of Israel, by right, by promise of God, through purchase of property and by the right of our historical connection and of the decisions of the most supreme international institutions, for over 3000 years.  And not only the Bible and our cultural narrative is a proof but also scientific studies as well as the proof from out of the ground via archaeology.  Our history is inferior to none in this land. We have, indeed, reconstituted our state in our ancient homeland despite conquests and the occupations by foreigners.  We have asserted our rights.

Under the Mandate of Great Britain, our communities that had existed for centuries in Hebron, in Shchem and in Gaza underwent ethnic cleansing through violence and mob terror.  During the 1948 War of Independence, again Jews were forced out of their homes in Jerusalem's Old City and from newer communities such as the four kibbutzim of Gush Etzion, the Bet HaAravah kibbutz on the shores of the Dead Sea, and also the agricultural communities of Neveh Yaakov and Atarot north of Jerusalem.

Yehudah and Shomron, Judea and Samaria, are not foreign far-flung territories.  We have not acted as colonialists in building there.  Jews are not 'settling' but residing in those areas with their schools, their orchards, their factories and their children.

Ladies and Gentlemen of AIPAC, do not be fooled by Arab propaganda assertions, by anti-Zionist clap-trap or by misrepresentations of history and misreadings of international law.

I promise you, Jews will continue to reside and flourish in the land of our forefathers, the Land of Israel, our patrimony even as I seek a diplomatic resolution to Arab hostility to even the idea of a Jewish state.  I will act to retain the necessary security requirements for Israel's existence and the safety of all its citizens.

^

The Rabbi and John Kerry

Who is the Rabbi that accompanied Secretary John Kerry to the memorial of the martyrs in Kiev (which the State Dept. spells Kyiv):-

as he places a flower

as he crosses himself

I'm betting Chabad.

But which one?

-------------------------

Two responses claim Rabbi Bleich.

^

Hemmingway Clarifies

^

Reacting to George Bernard Shaw

^

Apartheid? Try Dhimmihood

From a book on my shelf (I my father bought it for me in 1968), starting on page 44:-

...it was the refusal of the Jews to accept the enlightenment of the faith [of Islam] that excluded them from the privileges and responsibilities conferred by the new religious community (Quran 2:137 --- "So if they believe in the same as you believe in, then they have been [rightly] guided; but if they turn away, they are only in dissension, and Allah will be sufficient for you against them.").  This split introduced...the fundamental principle of discrimination between the true believers and those that did npt accept the trachings of the Prophet...Muhammed allowed for a third group, Ahl el Kittab...the canon law of Islam elaborated the special laws for the 'dhimmis'...laid down the limitations and the conditions of inferiority to which the Jews was to be subjected...any breach of it entailed the forfeiture of his life...

How Jews (and Christians) paid the jizya tax:

“On the day of payment they [the dhimmis] shall be assembled in a public place like the suq. They should be standing there waiting in the lowest and dirtiest place. The acting officials representing the Law shall be placed above them and shall adopt a threatening attitude so that it seems to them, as well as to the others, that our object is to degrade them by pretending to take their possessions. They will realise that we are doing them a favour (again) in accepting from them the jizya and letting them (thus) go free. They then shall be dragged one by one (to the officer responsible) for the exacting of payment. When paying, the dhimmi will receive a blow and will be thrown aside so that he will think that he has escaped the sword through this (insult). This is the way that the friends of the Lord [sayyid: Muhammad], of the first and last generations will act toward their infidel enemies, for might belongs to Allah, to His Prophet, and to the believers.”

The laws:

...the belittling of dhimmis was achieved, not only through the jizya ritual, but also through the whole system of Sharia law as it applied to the dhimmi community...legal provisions were applied to dhimmis ensuring their humiliation and inferiority...The regulations characteristically included:
• Restrictions on marriage...
• Restrictions on worship and public displays of religious symbols...
• Legal disabilities, for example dhimmi testimony was not valid against a Muslim, and a dhimmi’s blood was worth less in law than a Muslim’s...
• No dhimmi could exercise authority over a Muslim
• Many restrictions on housing, public appearance, status and behaviour (such requiring distinctive clothing or coloured patches to mark dhimmi status — the yellow patch for Jews was a medieval Islamic invention)
• Purity regulations (especially in Shi’ite areas) which limited the movement and participation of dhimmis in society.

More

Our glorious faith only allows them the marks of lowliness and degradation...
...the Hebrew of Morocco is despised and scorned.

Articles.

And today.

And this, too:

In 1836 Edward Lane published his classic work, An Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians. He reports that cursing of dhimmis was taught as part of a Muslim’s educational formation:

“I am credibly informed that children in Egypt are often taught at school, a regular set of curses to denounce upon the persons and property of Christians, Jews, and all other unbelievers in the religion of Mohammad.”[32]

These curses are recorded by Lane in an appendix. In essence they describe looting, killing of men and enslavement of women and children, which is the lot of dhimmis when they have no protection and are subjected to jihad. These curses are in fact a prayer that the dhimma will be set aside and as such they served to impart the theological requirements of the dhimma to the minds of Muslim children.

This world view is far from dead. On March 6, 2009, Al-Rahma TV in Egypt presented a broadcast in which a child calls down curses upon Jews in similar fashion, expressing a wish that the men will be killed, women widowed, and children orphaned[33]

“Oh Allah, completely destroy and shatter the Jews. Oh Allah, torment them with a disease that has no cure or remedy. Send a thunderbolt down upon them from Heaven. Oh Allah, torment them with every kind of torment.... Oh Allah, turn their women into widows — just like Muslim women were widowed. Allah, turn their children into orphans — just like Muslim children were orphaned.”[34]

[[32]] E.W. Lane, An Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians (London: John Murray, 5th edition, 1860), note 1, p.276.
[[33]] “Egyptian cleric teaches a child to memorize antisemitic messages on Al-Rahma TV and explains: the understanding of what he said will come”, Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) TV clip #2093. Al-Rahma TV, March 6, 2009, viewed May 4, 2010: URL: www.memritv.org/clip/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/2093.htm
[[34]] Ibid: transcript.

In 1917, Jamal Pasha (4th from left)

threatened the Jews of Jaffa and Jerusalem with the same fate of the Armenians.


When do we start the Islam Apartheid Week?


^

A "Which Country Is That?" Quiz

Which country is that?

 “The country is in the grip of outright terror and violence driven by the West.”

Israel?

Well, you get a point for relevance.

But no.

 ǝuıɐɹʞn

^

Russia Priotizes Israel

Good to know:

JERUSALEM, February 26. /ITAR-TASS/. The development of relations with Israel is Russia’s priority, speaker of the State Duma, lower house of Russia’s parliament, Sergei Naryshkin told a news conference on Wednesday.
“We praise cooperation between Russia and Israel in all fields. We consider the development of contacts between our countries and between our peoples one of Russia’s priorities,” Naryshkin said after talks with Israeli counterpart Yuli Edelstein.
“Russia and Israel have common or close positions on international issues,” the Russian speaker said, adding “We share views on moral issues.”
The Israeli Knesset speaker called the meeting with the Russian colleague very substantial.
“We discussed the situation in the region and the talks with Palestinians,” the speaker said.

^

Temple Mount Perspective

Depth, not height:-

the real source of tension in Jerusalem’s Old City is not Israel’s presence there since the June 1967 war but, rather, the longer-standing rejection of Jewish national legitimacy. One sees this clearly in the most seemingly refractory conflict of all: the one over the Temple Mount.
Conventional wisdom has it that any attempt to change the status quo on the Mount—where, ever since 1967, Israel has allowed the Islamic Waqf to retain its authority over the Muslim buildings as well as access to the plaza itself—will enrage the entire Muslim world and ignite a conflagration. But why? The Holy of Holies in the ancient Temple—the spot on the Mount most sacred to Judaism—was located, according to most authorities, in the middle of today’s 37-acre plaza. That spot is now occupied by the Dome of the Rock, which dates from the 7th century and is one of the most ancient and beautiful of Muslim monuments.
Unlike Al-Aqsa, the famous mosque located on the southern edge of the terrace, which faces south to allow worshippers to pray toward Mecca, the Dome is not and never was a mosque. According to some sources, it was built to protect the rock known as the foundation stone, and thereby to mark the place of the ancient Jewish temple. Its creators had no intention of denying the site’s Jewish importance, or of Islamizing it; indeed, some claim that the site was used as a synagogue in the Middle Ages, and until this day the whole platform is also known as Bayt al-Muqaddas, an Arabic version of Beyt Hamikdash, the classical Hebrew term for the Temple and its immediate environs.
Sadly, despite this history of former coexistence, today’s political struggle over the fate of Jerusalem has corrupted religious understandings. Al-Aqsa, coopted by the Palestinian resistance movement, has stretched symbolically over the entire Temple Mount, so that Jewish attempts to pray anywhere in the vast open areas of the plaza are portrayed as a threat to the mosque. Yet the truth is that Israel for its part has never repudiated the significance of this holy place to Muslims, and no amount of Jewish prayer, not even the building of a synagogue on the Mount, would harm the mosque in any way.

^

Bibi Bops Barack

The 20 years that have passed since Israel entered the peace process have been marked by unprecedented steps that Israel has taken to advance peace. I mean, we vacated cities in Judea and Samaria.  We left entirely Gaza.  We’ve not only frozen settlements, we’ve uprooted entire settlements.  We’ve released hundreds of terrorist prisoners, including dozens in recent months.

And when you look at what we got in return, it’s been scores of suicide bombings, thousands of rockets on our cities fired from the areas we vacated, and just incessant Palestinian incitement against Israel.  So Israel has been doing its part, and I regret to say that the Palestinians haven’t.

Now, I know this flies in the face of conventional wisdom, but it’s the truth.  And the people of Israel know that it’s the truth because they’ve been living it.  What they want is peace.  What we all want fervently is peace.  Not a piece a paper –- although that, too -- but a real peace; a peace that is anchored in mutual recognition of two nation states that recognize and respect one another, and solid security arrangements on the ground.

Mr. President, you rightly said that Israel, the Jewish state, is the realization of the Jewish people’s self-determination in our ancestral homeland.  So the Palestinians expect us to recognize a Palestinian state for the Palestinian people, a nation state for the Palestinian people.  I think it’s about time they recognize a nation state for the Jewish people. We’ve only been there for 4,000 years.

And I hope President Abbas does this, as I hope that he’ll take seriously Israel’s genuine security needs. Because, as you know and I think ever body does, in the Middle East, which is definitely the most turbulent and violent part of the Earth, the only peace that will endure is a peace that we can defend.  And we’ve learned from our history -- Jewish history, but I think from general history -- that the best way to guarantee peace is to be strong.  And that’s what the people of Israel expect me to do –- to stand strong against criticism, against pressure, stand strong to secure the future of the one and only Jewish state.

(Communicated by the Prime Minister's Media Adviser)

UPDATE

Jonathan Tobin writes:-

President Obama may have thought he was being very clever ambushing Prime Minister Netanyahu...But the president’s move had to leave those who have actually been following the talks with the Palestinians scratching their heads.

Kerry’s current objective is to get both parties to agree to a framework for continued talks...the Israelis have already given Kerry what he wanted while the Palestinians have done the opposite. Yet Obama still treats Israel as the truant and lauds Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas as a trustworthy warrior for peace even though his government is a font of incitement for hatred against Jews and Israelis and he has repeatedly rejected every previous offer of statehood because he and his people remain unable or unwilling to recognize the legitimacy of a Jewish state no matter where its borders are drawn.

By speaking in this manner about Israel, Obama has pleased the Palestinians...He has killed any chance that Kerry’s peace talks could possibly succeed...the president made it clear that his administration doesn’t care what the Israelis or the Palestinians actually do in the talks. He will take sides against Netanyahu and for Abbas no matter what the Israelis say or how the Palestinians continue to obstruct the process...By attacking Netanyahu and lauding Abbas, the president has accomplished something that no Israeli right-winger could possibly accomplish: kill the peace process. 

JJ Goldberg observes:

As hard as leaders of AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobby, are trying to maintain a politely bipartisan tone among the 14,000 activists gathered for the lobby’s annual conference, unhappiness with the Obama administration keeps surfacing in small conference rooms and chats in the corridors.

Alex Joffe notes:

Several points emerge from the interview. First is the implied threat that if current peace negotiations with the Palestinians fail, the US will be unable – read unwilling – to defend Israel. Moreover, it is up to the Palestinians to judge...

...the mix of praise and condescension (Netanyahu is "smart," "tough", and a "great communicator" but "If not now, when? And if not you, Mr. Prime Minister, then who?") seems more likely to simply humiliate Netanyahu, to degrade him publicly. Either Obama is tone deaf or simply does not care. Both may be the case.

...Obama shows no awareness or even interest in Israeli politics, the need or the methods to build the consensus necessary for such a dramatic move...But if Obama's remarks are not aimed at Netanyahu himself or Israel, then who? The answer is specifically non-religious American Jews and the American Left. One clue is Obama's use of the phrase "how Israel survives as a democracy and a Jewish state" juxtaposed with "permanent occupation of the West Bank." This is the paramount concern to non-religious American Jews...Stoking resentments and calling out enemies are this administration's stock and trade...these are designed to separate American Jews from their traditional organizations, above all AIPAC...Demonizing anything besides the Obama line on Israel may be an effective way of keeping Jewish opposition in line.

The corollary goal is to break American Jewish power, real and perceived, 

Chemi Shalev:

between the time that Obama spoke to Goldberg and the time the interview was published, the president’s world turned upside down. It is far from clear that Obama would have chosen to publicly confront Netanyahu at this time had he been aware of the gathering storm over the Ukraine, because “life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans,” as John Lennon wrote. With Vladimir Putin thumbing his nose at him for the entire world to see, an Obama onslaught against Netanyahu might seem personal, petty and ill-conceived.

^

Comment Up At NYTimes "Exchange" of D. Gordis & L. Friedman

My comment at the Gordis-Friedman exchange at the NYTimes is up, here.

I don't think it was fair that Daniel was pitted against Lara.

Well, not fair to the Jewish residents of YESHA.

Using a 2012 poll is not only out-of-date but providing wrong information.
A Nov. 2013 poll indicated a large majority of Israelis don't even believe the Pal. Authority is serious about peace.
A July 2013 poll indicated that to this question, a fuller comprehensive and therefore fairer one - "Are you for or against signing a peace agreement with the Palestinians on the basis of the 1967 borders, including the evacuation of communities with the exception of settlement blocs, exchange of territory, Palestinians recognition of Israel as the state of the Jewish People, and release of Palestinians with "blood on their hands" - the responses were:   Total: For 26%; Against 61%; Other 13%.
And a parallel question - "In principle, are you for or against signing a full peace agreement with the Palestinians on the basis of the 1967 borders, including the exchange of territory and release of prisoners?' drew these stats:Total: For 29% Against 57% Other replies 14%Jews: For 22% Against 62% Other 16%.
Israelis want peace. They do not trust the Arabs to keep that peace especially since prior to the so-called "occupation" of Judea and Samaria in 1967, there were no "settlements", so why should the dismantlement of those Jewish communities be a part of the solution when they weren't part of the problem of Arab hostility and terror [in the first place]?

---------------------------------
UPDATE

Caught this by Yoav Sorek:

The hope that our neighbors will put aside their animosity and accept our presence here as right and natural—the hope, that is, for true peace—is something we have abandoned.

^

Obama Goes Aggressive

This is President Barack Obama speaking (to J. Goldberg):-

"Do you perpetuate, over the course of a decade or two decades, more and more restrictive policies in terms of Palestinian movement? Do you place restrictions on Arab-Israelis in ways that run counter to Israel’s traditions?”...
...“If you see no peace deal and continued aggressive settlement construction -- and we have seen more aggressive settlement construction over the last couple years than we’ve seen in a very long time,” Obama said. “If Palestinians come to believe that the possibility of a contiguous sovereign Palestinian state is no longer within reach, then our ability to manage the international fallout is going to be limited.”
...This is not a situation where you wait and the problem goes away. There are going to be more Palestinians, not fewer Palestinians, as time goes on. There are going to be more Arab-Israelis, not fewer Arab-Israelis, as time goes on...
...I have not yet heard, however, a persuasive vision of how Israel survives as a democracy and a Jewish state at peace with its neighbors in the absence of a peace deal with the Palestinians and a two-state solution. Nobody has presented me a credible scenario...
...I believe that Bibi is strong enough that if he decided this was the right thing to do for Israel, that he could do it. If he does not believe that a peace deal with the Palestinians is the right thing to do for Israel, then he needs to articulate an alternative approach. And as I said before, it’s hard to come up with one that’s plausible...

Persuasive and palusible and credible options and solutions exist but Obama, stuck in his radical outlook frame cannot accept them because of how he views the Arabs. The figures he has been given are wrong.  His assumptions are incorrect.

But, as Dani Dayan pointed out, his references to internal Israel is disturbing (Dani termed it "outrageous").

And his employment of the adjective "aggressive' is outright inimical.

As for managing international fallout, Ukraine will permit Obama to exhibit whether Israel can really trust him and his policies and his reactions.

P.S.  JPost version.

--------------

UPDATE

From Elliott Abrams:-

On Israel, Obama was harsh and unfriendly to Netanyahu...Under Mr. Obama corruption in the Palestinian Authority has exploded and they have gone five additional years without an election.

...The burden of making peace is put entirely on Israeli shoulders. PA president Abbas (whose term ended five years ago, and who is surrounded by growing corruption) is portrayed as a lovely man ready for peace—no mention that he refused it when it was offered by then-prime minister Olmert in 2008. Is Abbas really ready, now, to sign what he would not back then: an agreement that ends the conflict entirely and finally tells Palestinian “refugees” that they have no right to go to Israel? An agreement that acknowledges Israel as a Jewish state? These doubts are never acknowledged by Obama, who assumes that the only problems are on the Israeli side.

Then comes the kind of vague threat that Secretary Kerry has also made...As to that “aggressive settlement construction,” it is worth noting that at Obama’s request Netanyahu suspended construction in settlements for ten months in 2009...The political battle over the West Bank would be far greater [than the Gaza Disengagement], so Obama is telling Netanyahu he must risk his own and his party’s future—on faith in both Abbas’s reliability and Mr. Obama’s own. 

From EOZ:-

The reason that there is no peace is because the vast majority of the Western world defines the problem incorrectly.

...The idea that Israeli settlements are expanding inexorably is one of the biggest lies of the Middle East, and it is one that even the President of the United States believes. Sure, the Jewish population has been growing, inside Area C, which is allowed under existing agreements signed by both parties. But essentially all that population growth has been accompanied by no growth in area. 

Abbas knows this fact far better than Obama does, and apparently far better than Jeffrey Goldberg does. Because if the settlements really were inexorably growing, then Abbas would be panicking that time is not on his side, and he would compromise and accept far less than the unreasonable demands he is making. However, his thoughts on the matter were crystallized in 2009, when Abbas said that he is willing to wait for everyone else to come around to his way of thinking

...If there was any real indication of good faith on the part of Abbas - if his schools would teach real peace, if his media would stop incitement, if Israeli Jews could trust him enough to believe that when they want to visit holy sites under his control that his own people won't try to kill them - then peace would be at hand. The reason that Israelis don't accept his words is because they see the divergence between what he says in English and how he acts with his people. 

This is the message that Israeli leaders have been terrible at conveying, possibly because they don't want to insult Abbas when the West loves him so much. But at some point diplomatic niceties need to yield to cold facts, and the reason there is no peace is because everyone is ignoring the facts, and how they fit together.

And Bibi Bops Barack.

^

US Jerusalem Consulate Discrimination

Jews cannot participate in this program:

The 2014 espnW Global Sports Mentoring Program

Note:

"Participant Qualifications 

-  Candidates must be Palestinian residents of Jerusalem, the West Bank, or Gaza Strip." 

That language is meant to exclude Jews.

Here are more details:

The U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem Announces
The 2014 espnW Global Sports Mentoring Program

The U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem and the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) is pleased to announce the espnW Global Sports Mentoring Program for 2014. In its third year, up to 20 international female candidates will be matched with leading female executives from America's most prestigious sports organizations for a month-long mentorship from September 7, 2014 to October 9, 2014. The program will provide international participants, also known as emerging leaders, with unique opportunities across all aspects of sports to develop relevant management and business skills, gain exposure to the U.S. sports business, media, and non-profit environments, and establish lasting relationships and a global network of leaders in the sports sector. This program is the flagship component of the State Department’s Empowering Women and Girls through Sports Initiative. 

The 2014 program includes several days of orientation in Washington, D.C., a three-week mentorship in the U.S., and a series of closing days and activities in Washington, D.C. The D.C. orientation will introduce the emerging leaders to USG officials, high-level figures in the sports sector, and representatives of sports business associations...

Is the Consulate riding roughshod over Jews?

Another example :

AMIDEAST is now accepting applications for the Abraham Lincoln Incentive Grants Program, funded by the United States Department of State through the Middle East Partnership Initiative and the Consulate General in Jerusalem. The program will provide grants (financial assistance) to promising, academically qualified but economically challenged students who will be in grade eleven in the academic year 2013/2014 from both Gaza and the West Bank...
,..ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS In order to be considered for the Abraham Lincoln Incentive Grants Program, a student must meet all of the following requirements...Be a Palestinian resident of the West Bank, East Jerusalem or Gaza Strip...For dates and times of English Language placement testing in your location, please contact AMIDEAST in El-Bireh/Ramallah, Jerusalem, Nablus, Hebron or Gaza.

When Does "History" Begin?

Thanks to HonestReporting, we know that the Economist’s Middle East correspondent Nicholas Pelham said

...I think that one of the key concerns the Palestinians have and Muslims per se is  that this [Israel's demand for a Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish state - YM] would actually allow Israel to further erode what’s historically a Muslim country with many Muslim holy sites and I think that it of great concern not just to Palestinians but Muslims around the world.

Hmmm.

When does this "history' begin ?

A letter:

For almost two thousand years, it was a Jewish country. Roman conquests disintegrated Jewish political and military power but Jews continued to live in the country. There followed Byzantine, Persian, Muslim, Crusader, Mameluke, Ottoman and British rule until 1948. The League of Nations, in 1922, determined in a decision of international law, that "recognition has thereby been given to the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine and to the grounds for reconstituting their national home in that country". History is on the side of the Jewish national ethos.

^ 

I Hope Netanyahu Puts PA Talks On Hold

I hope Mr. Netanyahu is informing President Obama and Secreatry Kerry that he is slowing down the negotiations with the PA, if not on indefinte hold.

After all, Israel need sto witness how the United States reacts to the new crisis.

Here is the opening paragraph in Joh Kerry's statement on the "Situation in Ukraine":-

Press StatementJohn Kerry
Secretary of State
Washington, DC
March 1, 2014

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The United States condemns the Russian Federation's invasion and occupation of Ukrainian territory, and its violation of Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity in full contravention of Russia’s obligations under the UN Charter, the Helsinki Final Act, its 1997 military basing agreement with Ukraine, and the 1994 Budapest Memorandum. This action is a threat to the peace and security of Ukraine, and the wider region.

So what is the US going to do about it? 

Is a piece of peace paper with the Palestinian Authority worth anything?

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Auden on Arendt

William Auden:

Hannah Arendt, in Eichmann in Jerusalem (1963), was offensively wrong about the “banality of evil,” because evil is something monstrous, exotic, and inhuman. The acts and thoughts of a good citizen, in this view, can be banal, not those of a dictator or his agents.
Auden stated a view like Arendt’s as early as 1939, in his poem “Herman Melville”:

Evil is unspectacular and always human,

And shares our bed and eats at our own table.

He later quoted Simone Weil’s pensée on the same theme, written around the same time: “Imaginary evil is romantic and varied; real evil is gloomy, monotonous, barren, boring.”

Source.

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J Street Cannot Count

I received a letter from J Street with this information:

2 Campaign Town Halls are all about, and on Monday, March 10, we're bringing one to Shiloh... online!
Join us for a Town Hall live-streamed from New York City on March 10 featuring Israeli Admiral Ami Ayalon, J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami, and Ilan Goldenberg, a member of Secretary of State John Kerry's negotiating team.
Register now to get the details!

With this logo:

Now, be honest.  How many states to you count in there?

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Scarlett Moves From A Horse to Asses

Scarlett Johansson politely declined an invitation to speak to the 14,000 people gathering here Sunday for the annual meeting of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or Aipac...She has to be in Paris to collect an honorary César film award, her publicist said...But the Hollywood actress will be at Aipac in spirit...Ms. Johansson has become a hero to pro-Israel activists — a living, breathing, deeply glamorous repudiation of the movement to boycott Israel.

My comment:- 

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They Didn't Visit

So, according to this,

In Israel, we met personally or heard from pretty much every major person in the country.  The Prime Minister, President Peres, Defense Minister Yaalon, Chief of Staff Gantz,  Foreign Minister Leiberman, Finance Minister Lapid, Justice Minister Livni, Economics Minister Bennett. Intelligence Minister Steinitz, Opposition Leader Herzog, Jerusalem Mayor Barkat, Foreign Policy Advisor Gold and other Knesset members and journalists and analysts.  We further toured a military base and the new private Arab town of Rawabi.  We also heard from U.S. Ambassador to Israel Shapiro and met entrepreneurs from all sectors of Israel.

the Conference of Presidents of American Major Jewish Organizations did not visit a Jewish community in Judea and Samaria?

Well, they came close.

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Facts on the Ground

CNN speaks with Fareed [Zakaria]about the latest developments in Ukraine...

Before we get into the bigger picture questions, what is your reaction to the news about armed troops, maybe they are Russian, in two airports in the Crimea region? And also, as one correspondent was saying, even surrounding peacefully a TV station?It seems very unlikely that Russia has no hand in this “border patrol.” It's possible they are not Russian, actual Russian official troops. They may be some kind of paramilitary...But the Russian intelligence services have been active in Ukraine ever since the breakup between of the Soviet Union and the independence of Ukraine. You have to assume that what they are trying to do is create facts on the ground – take over the key areas, which are the airport and government buildings. And then you have some kind of autonomous local government that is trying to act in a way that creates facts on the ground that Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, cannot do very much about.

That was  February 28th, 2014 at 06:32 PM ET.

At March 1, 2014 -- Updated 1605 GMT we read:

Russia's upper house of parliament voted unanimously Saturday to approve sending Russian military forces into Ukraine, amid mounting tensions in the country's Crimea region.
The vote followed a request from Russian President Vladimir Putin for approval to send Russian troops into Crimea to normalize the political situation there.Due to the "extraordinary situation in Ukraine," Putin said, there are threats to the lives of Russian citizens and Russian military personnel based in the southern Crimean region.
Ukraine's new government condemned the move.

And news about someone very inimical to Israel:

U.N. special adviser Robert Serry, sent to Ukraine to assess the situation, said he had not been able to get to Crimea and would instead go to Switzerland to brief U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Sunday.

As for the United States:

U.S. President Barack Obama has warned Russia against any military intervention in Ukraine after the country's new leaders accused Moscow of deploying forces in the Crimea region..."We are now deeply concerned by reports of military movements taken by the Russian Federation inside of Ukraine," Obama told reporters in Washington.

Can Israel trust the United States under Obama toi "have Israel's back"?

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