Rockthrowing is Non-Violent?

Not in Iowa:-

A vandal's rock set off a chain of events that left more than $15,000 in damage to a semitrailer in Waterloo.  The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reports (http://bit.ly/x9lENd) the truck was on the Sixth Street bridge about 3 p.m. Sunday when a vandal threw a rock that shattered the truck's windshield.  The driver hit his brakes, which caused the cargo to slide forward and break through the front trailer wall and crash into the truck cab.

Police say the truck driver scrambled down out of the cab and chased the rock thrower for about two blocks but didn't catch him.

Damage to the cab was estimated at more than $10,000 and more than $5,000 to the trailer.

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What Goes Out, Comes Down

The COGAT and/or IDF Spokespersons were slow off the mark to adequately clarify the actions taken against the Watan broadcasting station (the Pals. weren't).

As we now know, the transmissions were interfering in a dangerous fashion with air traffic controllers:

Overnight, IDF soldiers accompanied an operation of the Israeli Ministry of Communications to close two pirate television stations in Ramallah, followed by countless requests to seize their broadcasting, which significantly interrupts other legal broadcasting stations. During the operation, in accordance with law, Communications Ministry representatives confiscated several transmitters. The station's illegal broadcasting interferes with aircraft communication.

But - as Challah points out - the real villain is Mahmoud Abbas, the hypocrite as he calls him.

And, of course, let's not forget what type of incitement and hatred airs on stations like these.

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Phillippe Karsenty is Serene in Anticipation

Communiqué from Philippe Karsenty
Reaction to the verdict of the Court of Cassation rendered February 28, 2012

Contrary to the recommendation of the advocate general, advising the court to reject the appeal filed by Charles Enderlin and France 2, the Court of Cassation [France’s highest court] nullified the acquittal pronounced by the Appellate Court of Paris on May 21, 2008. The nullification, which is disciplinary and based on a legal technicality, does not prejudge the outcome: the Court of Cassation deems that the Appellate Court of Paris could not order France 2 to show the raw footage containing images that were not broadcast by France 2. However, the legal criteria of my good faith– quality of the investigation, absence of personal animosity, legitimacy of aim and purpose, prudent and measured expression – were not challenged. Charles Enderlin, France 2, and I will find ourselves in court again at an undetermined date to plead our cases in the al Dura affair. The case will be heard again in the Appellate Court of Paris, by a different panel of judges convened to reexamine the facts.

I serenely anticipate the hearing that will allow me to present once more to the court and concerned media the demonstration that France 2 broadcast a staged scene as news on September 30, 2000.


In more than eleven years of controversy, we have brought dozens of pieces of evidence and scientific expertise showing that the scene was staged, whereas France 2, Charles Enderlin, and their cameraman have never been able to prove the veracity of their reportage. Further, it has been revealed through a succession of court cases that France 2, Charles Enderlin, his cameraman, and the father of young Mohamed have lied on several occasions to cover their media fraud.I have presented the al Dura affair in many journalism schools and festivals, in prestigious European and American universities, before the Senate and the House of Lords; no one has ever succeeded in refuting the evidence of a staged scene.

I call upon open-minded people to pursue the search for the truth. This is a combat for the honor of the journalistic profession, for justice, for democracy and against disinformation; a combat against the murderous anti-Semitism conveyed by this reportage. I ask those who in good faith believed the narration imposed by this reportage to simply examine the facts without prejudgment. It is the uncompromising establishment of the truth that will contribute to the sorely needed peace, tolerance, and friendship among people and nations.

Click here to view one of my presentations of the al Dura Affair
Click here to view a TV debate on al Dura on the Canadian TV
Click here for a compilation of documents filmed during trials
Click here for all the al Dura presentations

Philippe Karsenty

"Rabbinical Gangsters Who Resort to Nazi Methods"

Who wrote this?

If I were asked what I regard as the most disheartening aspect in Jewish life as refected in the tragi-comedy of the herem, I would say that… we have rabbinical gangsters who resort to nazi methods in order to regain their authority and on the other hand our Jewish journalists are cynical about the whole business and treat the very attempt to articulate religious values in terms of a modern outlook in life as silly and superfluous.17

Mordechai K. Kaplan,
founder of the Reconstructionist stream of American Judaism

17 - Kaplan Diary, 16 June 1945 (Volume 13, 1944–1946), found in the Ira and Judith Kaplan Eisenstein Archives at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, Philadelphia.

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She's All Wrapped Up - and Bamboozled

Paula White fooled by a "Rabbi" Messer:-

Find more videos like this on Jewish Israel

Someone needs to alert Christians to this charlatan.

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The Real Problem

Do you what the real problem in this story is?

Israeli soldiers raided a Palestinian television station in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday and seized broadcast equipment, computers and files, an employee said.

Ahmed Milhem said soldiers gave no reason for the raid on privately-owned Watan TV in Ramallah, which began at 0200 a.m. (1200 GMT) and lasted for three hours.

"They seized computers, broadcast equipment and administrative files," Milhem told Reuters by telephone. "The station is now off the air," he added.

An Israeli military spokeswoman said she had no initial information but was checking for details.

The television station is owned by local non-governmental organizations and broadcasts local news and cultural and political programs over the Internet.

No, not the raid itself.

But this

An Israeli military spokeswoman said she had no initial information but was checking for details.

Was Watan assisting incitement, criminal activity, terrorism?

If so, the army should have alerted the spokesperson sho she shouldn't be uninformed and worse, appear as a klutz.

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New Yesha Council Flyer - On Security Provided by Judea & Samaria

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Peace Now's Lara Was in Doha to Our Shame - and Her's

David Gerstman has sent out a post, "Lara in wonderland", on the participation of Americans for Peace Now's Lara Friedman which I repos in part:

On February 26 and 27, there was an International Conference on Jerusalem in Doha Qatar. It featured participants from all over the Middle East.  Among those speaking was Mahmoud Abbas, the President of the Palestinian Authority and Israel's supposed peace partner.

...Between 1948 and 1967, Jerusalem was a neglected backwater of the Arab world. There were essentially no Muslim pilgrims going there. And while thousands of Christians would indeed visit Jerusalem every Easter, that number increased dramatically after Israel regained possession of the holy city.

Abbas is pushing lies and incitement, and his speech is filled with hypocrisy about things like freedom of worship when he would ban (or, at best, severely restrict) Jews from ever visiting their holy sites in Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Hebron and elsewhere if given half a chance.

This speech reveals the ugly face of Mahmoud Abbas and how he is not interested in peace or co-existence at all, let alone the truth.

...The denial of a historical Jewish connection to the land of Israel, is a blatant violation of the terms of Oslo Accords. Unlike the building of apartments in Jerusalem, no creative interpretation is necessary to reach this conclusion. Yet there's been precious little comment about this obstacle to peace declared by the "moderate" leader of the Palestinians.

One American who was at the conference, was Lara Friedman of Americans for Peace Now. Though she denies that she went as a representative of her organization, she is identified as being with APN on the list of participants. Her presence at this anti-Israel hatefest discredits her and her organization.

It was however an eyeopening experience for Dr. Friedman, as she wrote after the first day of the conference...:

If representatives of the organization that sponsored the Arab Peace Initiative cannot bring themselves to acknowledge the legitimacy of Jewish equities in Jerusalem, they should know that they discredit their own professed interest in peace. Their framing of the future of Jerusalem as a zero-sum game only makes it more likely that Israel will continue asserting its current power over East Jerusalem to hinder the vision of two states living in peace with a Jerusalem as a shared capital.

All throughout the day, it was unfortunately the same story. Participants talked about Jerusalem as if Jewish history did not exist or was a fraud — as if all Jewish claims in the city were just a tactic to dispossess Palestinians...
It is my hope that the rest of the conference will deal more honestly and more constructively with the reality...I regret that the conference so far has not taken the issues related to Jerusalem more seriously, and I am proud that I am here representing a truly pro-peace — and thus be definition pro-Israel — perspective. Much of the discourse here thus far has been personally objectionable and even painful to me, but I believe my presence here is important for the cause of peace.

What Lara Friedman heard at the International Conference on Jerusalem is nothing new. The commitment of the Arab League and the Palestinian Authority to peace is dubious, as evidenced by statements they continue to make eighteen years after Oslo. If Friedman cared to know about them, she would. But her career as a "Zionist" is marked by holding Israel mostly (if not completely) to blame for the failure of peace despite the many concessions even the most "right-wing" governments of Israel have made.

Will this serve as a wake up call to Friedman? It hardly seems likely. Her response to the hatred and denial she heard was disappointment not outrage. No doubt she will return to the United States and continue finding fault first with Israel.

What will Americans for Peace Now do? Will it disassociate itself from Friedman? Or will it continue functioning without apologizing for the actions of its officer?

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Purim Humour: The Fanat in the Hat

Sent to me by RA and found here:

The Fanat in the Hat and Other Stories
Eli D. Clark (with apologies to Dr. Seuss)

I sat there with Sally. We sat on the bus. We sat there together. No one made a fuss.

Then who came aboard? The Fanat in the Hat! And he said to us, How can you sit like that? You know it is wrong To sit next to each other.

I said, She s my sister, And I am her brother. He pointed at Sally, Go back there to sit. If you stay in front, I think I will spit. I do not want to see you Go out or come in. Your elbows are showing And making men sin.

I paid for my seat Just like you, Sally cried. I can sit where I want! It s for me to decide! Where do you think you are? This is not Tel Aviv. The Fanat in the Hat said, Sit in back or you leave.

Now do as I say, You loose woman, you. Then out from behind Came Thug One and Thug Two.They had beards, they had hats, And they wore black and white. Their fingers were curled Into fists that were tight.

They were big, they were mean, And they blocked our way. They did not look like men Who learn Torah all day. They screamed at poor Sally. Prutzoh! they shouted. We will take care of you.

And we did not doubt it.

We looked up to heaven. We looked left and right. Should we try to run Or stand up and fight? We needed a plan, A way to escape, Before those two Thugs Squashed us both like a grape. Then Thug One and Thug Two Shouted,

Oy! Help us please! The Fanat in the Hat Just fell to his knees. What made them shake And what made them yelp? What made those bullies Cry out for help?

We looked and we saw A giant black cat, Walking erect In a red and white hat.The Cat in the Hat Looked the Thugs in the eye. These things need to stop. And I ll tell you why. Scaring young women Is not a good game. Worse, it is causing A Hillul Ha-Shem.

Here is a new game To play, said the cat. The game is called boxing. Are you good at that? The Thugs said, We box. When we finish with you, You will lie on your back For a week or for two. The cat pulled a box out And opened the top. We heard a big voom That made everything stop.

The Fanat in the Hat And the Thugs in their beards Were sucked into the box. They all disappeared.The cat closed the lid And sealed it with glue. Goodbye, said the cat, And good riddance to you. The cat said to us,

You can sit as before. Those three nuts will not Bother you any more. Oh, they will, Sally said, For good or for bad. Those men in your box Are my brothers and Dad.

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WashPost Blog Takes Too Many Liberties

Someone named Daniela Deane (I'm guessing she's the same DD that published at CNN recently and has been at the WashPost since 1999 and was a reporter at USA Today covering international news. She spent most of her career in Europe and Asia, working as a correspondent and editor for UPI and Reuters, and as a stringer for The Post and Newsweek) had an atrocious blog entry at the Washington Post today:

Faiths clash at Jerusalems sacred site

You don't have to read it but this is the comment I added there:

This is quite an extremist op-ed, biased, too.

a) " the Temple Mount, Jerusalem’s sacred site for Muslims". No. The Temple Mount is sacred for Jews, for Muslims it is Haram A-Sharif and they deny any Temple existed or that the site possesses any sanctity. Oh, the Westrern Wall is definitely not "Judaism's holiest shrine" which is the Temple Mount.

b) she doesn't mention the ugly elements in Abbas' speech in Doha: “The Israeli occupation authorities are using the ugliest and most dangerous means to implement plans to erase and remove the Arab-Islamic and the Christian character of east Jerusalem.” Note: no Jews allowed in his scheme of things.

c) she notes Jerusalem "captured" in 1967 as if Israel began shelling Jerusalem instead of what happened - Jordan's Hussein shelled Jewish civilians.

d) and in 1967, we found over 50% of some 70,000 graves on Mt of Olives desecrated, used as latrine covers and walkways.

e) she mentions one site that suggests destruction of mosques but ignores years of destruction of archaeological artifacts and the Islamic Movement/North's campaign to deny Jewish rights including the simple one of pilgrimage and prayer.

I could have gone on but even I get tired at times.

Okay, I added another:

and here's something from the Washington Post itself:

"In the Monday night meeting, for instance, Erekat took issue with Ben-Ami's contention that Solomon's Temple, the Jewish sacred site built 3,000 years ago, had really once stood on the Temple Mount. As the two negotiators debated, Clinton looked on amazed.

"I don't believe there was a temple on top of the Haram, I really don't," said Erekat.

Ben-Ami, stunned, pulled down a volume from a bookshelf and looked up Temple Mount, showing Erekat dozens of references to Solomon's temple and its successor that stood until it was destroyed by the Romans in 70 A.D."

That was from Lee Hockstader, Sunday , July 30, 2000

And another reference:

When Clinton returns to Camp David, Jerusalem is again put on the table. Immediately there is a problem. Arafat argues that the Jews have no claim at all to the area of the Temple Mount.

YASSER ARAFAT: They had excavated everywhere, and no one single stone from the temple had been found, only some stones of Herodotus's temple.

...SAEB EREKAT: The fact today that there is no such a thing as a Temple Mount in existence today. There is a mosque.

Read more:
 

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A Matter of Political Theory Retardation

I have found a progressive in the process of retardation.

No, not mental retardation. A cross between intellectual and anthropological retardation. First, a spin-off of neoteny:

...J.B.S. Haldane [states that] a "major evolutionary trend in human beings" is "greater prolongation of childhood and retardation of maturity."

Or, to use a metaphor closer to our subject - which is the ability of a progressive to completely and even purposely misinterpret an issue all the while providing seemingly logical reasons that are cognitivitely misconstruing the problem and therefore the solution - there are those who suffer from a second type of retardation factor, one similar to what's know as the Rf, or, the Retardation factor (a slower rate, basically) in chemistry whereby

for a particular chemical species [it] is the ratio of solution velocity and species velocity or in other words the ratio between the rate of groundwater movement and rate of contaminant movement.

The progressive is Dahlia Scheindlin. In Israel, she works for local and international organizations dealing with Israeli-Palestinian conflict issues, peacemaking, democracy, religious identity and internal social issues in Israeli society. She is writing her doctoral dissertation in comparative politics at Tel Aviv University. The focus of her research is unrecognized (de facto) states. She is an adjunct lecturer at the Department of Politics and Government at Ben Gurion University.

To her mind, for example. what was important about the flotilla effort two years ago was the need to deconstruct the myths Israel had propogated. And just recently she's discovered two observations:

...First, the understanding that Israel is committing terrible deeds that are destroying itself and its neighbors, has penetrated among you, my American Jewish friends, family and colleagues, who now speak of this more openly and bluntly than in the past...My second observation is that because of your fear – not of the goyim or the anti-Semites, but of yourselves! – you are keeping a low public profile.

Now she's into apologetica, on behalf of another mythmaker - Mahmoud Abbas.

Over at 972+ Mag, she has penned a Response to Abbas.

As we all know today, that speech of his at the Doha Jerusalem Conference (and here is an analysis) has all but sunk Abbas, especially among the liberal Jewish cult (Peace Now-J Street-Beinart-et al.).  It has also generated an intra-Islamic dispute with
Minister of Waqf (Islamic endowments) and Religious Affairs Mahmoud al-Habbash having to stress that visiting Jerusalem is a religious duty in Islam, while needing to describe a fatwa issued byt the head of the international union of Muslim scholars Sheikh Yousef al-Qaradawi Qaradawi's as "bizarre."

...al-Habbash stressed that the Prophet was speaking while the city was under the control of the Roman Empire...Al-Habbash added: "When Muslims and Christians visit Jerusalem, they are actually challenging the Israeli policies aimed at isolating the holy city. Such visits represent material and moral support to the Jerusalemites who insist on remaining in Jerusalem so that they will not feel they were left alone to defend the Arab and Islamic identity of Jerusalem and its Islamic and Christian holy places."

Note that Jews and Judaism have no place in the future "Palestine".

And to return to Scheindlin, first off she employs condescension:

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ speech at the International Conference on Jerusalem in Doha on Saturday set off the most proverbial alarm bells in Israel...

and then pooh-poohs it all:

Abbas’ general theme seemed to be raising awareness of the grave injustices perpetrated on the Palestinian population of East Jerusalem, such as Israel’s attempt to build walls to keep them in or out, Judaize the eastern part, and use archeological/historical research to justify the Jewish claim to the city.

then mocks:

On cue, Prime Minister Netanyahu called the speech “lies” and “severe incitement.”

And what really upsets here is a Yediot Ahronot piece

The headline read: “Abu Mazen: Israel wants to establish the Temple on the ruins of al-Aqsa.” This sounds like unnecessary religious incitement [there is "necessary incitement"].

And then asks for understanding for her positions:

I am not sympathetic to claims that there is no Jewish connection to Jerusalem, that the Temple is a fiction and by implication, that Jerusalem belongs only to Muslims and Christians. Leaving the Jewish heritage out of his UN speech was one thing [???]; actively denying the Jewish spiritual connection is another.

And then she twists Abbas upside-down:

...It’s time to stop this absurd belief that ancient historical facts are at issue. Peoplehood, the weight of history, emotional bonds to a cultural, spiritual and yes, religious axis mundi are at issue and I believe passionately in the need for Jews to accept those aspects of Palestinian life.

In other words, all this 'crap' of 'narrative' is good because it supports and props up "Palestinianism". It's another contribution to inventivity and even if she has to now swallow the Zionsit narrative, so be it:

Let’s cast off the notion of a conflict between Israelis and Palestinians already, which I sometimes feel is a brilliant decoy of the far right. The truth is, we have long been in a conflict between extremists and moderates, between hateful and compassionates, between exclusivists and inclusivists. A genuine liberal universalist approach must accept that even those who believe in universal rights have a national, religious, cultural and spiritual identity they cherish.

This is progressivism?

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Archaeology - And here Comes David & Solomon as Kings

Been informed:-

On Monday, March 5, 2012 at the California Museum of Ancient Art, Professor Thomas Levy from the University of California, San Diego will share his new discoveries and research in an illustrated lecture, "Quest for King Solomon's Mines: Cyber-Archaeology in Jordan's Desert." Recent excavations in Jordan's Faynan copper ore district document an industrial revolution dating to the 10th century BC - coinciding with the time of the early Hebrew kings and Egyptian pharaohs.

Were David and Solomon Rulers of an Ancient Kingdom or mere Tribal Chieftains?

The lecture will focus on discoveries at the largest copper production site in the eastern Mediterranean, Khirbat en-Nahas and provides data in support of the historicity of David and Solomon. Khirbat en-Nahas had a massive copper-smelting operation dating to the time of the early Hebrew kings, the Egyptian Pharaoh Shoshenq I, and the Edomite kingdom. High precision radiocarbon dating and new digital archaeology technologies were used to achieve as objective an approach as possible.

Faynan (perhaps Biblical Punon)

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Congresswomen Visit Shiloh and Think Apartheid

I had posted here the impressions of Ruchie Avital who, together with two other women, had met at Shiloh with a Women's delegation brought to Israel by J Street.

JTA has now included details from the other side, among them, the visit to Shiloh:

...The J Street trip also included visits with Jewish settlers in the West Bank.

From Ramallah, the group drove to Shiloh, a Jewish town in the heart of the West Bank halfway between Ramallah and Nablus that because of its location likely would not be incorporated into Israel in any two-state settlement.

A group of Jewish women from several area settlements met with the congresswomen and told them they have no intention of leaving their homes.

“I’m holding the Bible; Shiloh was our first capital before Jerusalem and it has layers and layers of history,” Tzofiah Dorot, the director of Ancient Shiloh, told the women. “This is the heart of Israel and I don’t see a future for the state if you take the heart out.”

All of the women said they were sure that their settlements would remain part of Israel.

“This is our homeland, the homeland of the Jewish nation -- period,” Tamar Aslaf told the delegation. “A Palestinian who lives here is welcome to stay. It’s his home but it’s our homeland.”

Several of the settlers described a scenario in which Palestinians could stay in their homes but not receive national or voting rights. That drew a sharp reply from the congresswomen, five of whom are African Americans. [This isn't true. Tamar presented Naftali Bennet’s plan, that C would be annexed with its 50,000 Arab population becoming full Israeli citizens if they so wished^.]

“Some people would call that apartheid,” * said Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.), the only white congresswomen on the trip.

“It’s easy to sit in your comfortable house and decide what is good for the Jews,” Dorot responded. “I’m begging you to see that we’re not pieces of Lego you can move around. This is life and death. We all need to think out of the box. I’m asking you to forget about the two-state solution.”

Several members of the delegation said the trip gave them a more sophisticated understanding of the complexities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict...

____________

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Naftali Bennett, the co-founder of the right-wing NGO My Israel, has circulated a plan to annex Judea and Samaria...Bennett said he would annex all of Area C. He would offer Israeli citizenship to the 48,000 Palestinians who live in Area C...Granting citizenship to these Palestinians would eliminate all talk of Israel as an apartheid state, he said. But he added that Palestinian refugees who live outside of Area C would not be able to move there.  Under his plan, he said, the Palestinian Authority would remain in control of Areas A and B, where there are no Jewish communities.

*

Apartheid?

Consider this:

Citizens of the nation's capital, Washington, D.C., are no longer permitted to vote for US Congressional elections, nor State Elections...DC citizens had voting rights removed in 1801 by Congres...In 1978, Congress proposed a constitutional amendment that would have restored the District a full seat for representation in the Congress as well. This amendment failed to receive ratification by sufficient number of states within the seven years required.

Since then, Congress has consistently refused to offer for ratification a constitutional amendment that would restore District of Columbia residents either representation in both the Senate and the House...

...Puerto Rico is an insular area — a United States territory that is neither a part of one of the fifty states nor a part of the District of Columbia, the nation's federal district. Insular areas, such as Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Guam, are not allowed to choose electors in U.S. presidential elections or elect voting members of the U.S. Congress...the U.S. national-electoral process is not fully democratic due to U.S. Government disenfranchisement of U.S. citizens residing in Puerto Rico...

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The Israeli Media Criticism Award Ceremony

The Abramowitz Israeli prize for Media Criticism is awarded by Israel’s Media Watch once a year.

The prize of $5,000 is awarded to two winners for an especially valiant, significant and qualitative contribution to media criticism. It is awarded for journalism criticizing the media, for providing and forming appropriate forums for media criticism, and for increasing pluralism and reducing monopolistic practices in the Israeli media. The aim of the prize is to encourage the Israeli media to open itself to criticism, whether from the journalists themselves or external sources such as intellectuals, academics and public figures.

Pictures from this year's ceremony at Bet Sokolow in Tel Aviv Sunday night:

Last year's ceremony.

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Abbas Lies

In case you missed it, the news is that

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday called on Arabs and Muslims to visit Jerusalem, saying this was not a form of “normalization” with Israel.  In a speech in Doha before the International Conference for Defending and Protecting Jerusalem, Abbas...accused Israel of working toward obliterating the Arab, Islamic and Christian character of east Jerusalem with the goal of “Judaizing” the city and consolidating it as its capital.  He also accused Israel of pursuing a policy of ethnic cleansing and destroying Jerusalem’s infrastructure and economic resources...East Jerusalem is the eternal capital of Palestine, the PA president told the conference, and Israel’s decision to annex east Jerusalem is null and void. Abbas also complained that since the early 1990s, Israel has been preventing Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza Strip from visiting Jerusalem and the holy sites...

And from Nadav Shragai to clarify his mendaciousness:

...Abbas is apparently relying on the world’s short memory – so here is a reminder: The kind of freedom of religion that thrives in Jerusalem today is unprecedented. Before 1967, things were different. The Arabs had vowed in writing (Article 8 of the 1949 Armistice Agreement with Jordan) to allow the Jews access to holy sites beyond the border, but in practice they prevented the Jews from visiting the Western Wall, Rachel’s Tomb and the Mount of Olives.

The ancient Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives was unrecognizable in 1967: About 50,000 of the 70,000 gravestones had been smashed. Many of them were used to build fences, roads and public toilets...They vandalized and damaged antiquities on the Temple Mount...Incidentally, Bethlehem, which, in contrast to Jerusalem, was handed over to the Palestinians, did in fact become “Muslim.” The Christian majority there was severely oppressed by the Palestinian Authority and eventually became a minority.

The myth that the “Al-Aqsa Mosque is in danger,” which Abbas and his followers repeat like a mantra, isn’t only a despicable lie, it is also the direct opposite of the truth. It is precisely with the Temple Mount that Israel made an unthinkable concession -- it essentially handed the Muslims the holiest Jewish site, even though it is only the third-holiest site in Islam. Archaeological excavations that supposedly attempt to “Judaize” Jerusalem have actually uncovered entire chapters of Muslim history alongside the Jewish and Christian findings. The archaeological park on the south side of the wall is just one example of this.

In response to Abbas’ remarks, PM Benjamin Netanyahu said

“This is a harshly inflammatory speech from someone who claims that he is bent on peace. The time has come for the Palestinian leadership to stop denying the past and distorting reality.”

“For thousands of years Jerusalem has been the eternal capital of the Jewish people,” Netanyahu said. “Jerusalem, under Israeli sovereignty, will continue to be open to believers of all faiths. There is freedom of worship for all and Israel will continue to carefully maintain the holy places of all religions.”

The prime minister concluded, “[Abbas] knows full well that there is no foundation to his contemptible remarks, including his baseless and irresponsible claims regarding the Al-Aqsa Mosque. The state of Israel expects that one who supposedly champions peace would prepare his people for peace and co-existence and not disseminate lies and incitement. This is not how one makes peace.”

Mr. Netanyahu, it would help if you were more forceful on preserving Jewish right to and im Jerusalem including foremost, the Temple Mount.

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To Whom the Political Rights

Eli Hertz reminds us:

The mandate implicitly denies Arab claims to national political rights in the area in favor of the Jews; the mandated territory was in effect reserved to the Jewish people for their self-determination and political development, in acknowledgment of the historic connection of the Jewish people to the land. Lord Curzon, who was then the British Foreign Minister, made this reading of the mandate explicit. There remains simply the theory that the Arab inhabitants of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip have an inherent 'natural law' claim to the area."

And as I have repeated here many times:

The Mandate for Palestine, a legally binding document under international law, clearly differentiates between political rights - referring to Jewish self-determination as an emerging polity - and civil and religious rights, referring to guarantees of equal personal freedoms to non-Jewish residents as individuals and within select communities. Not once are Arabs as a people mentioned in the Mandate for Palestine. At no point in the entire document is there any granting of political rights to non-Jewish entities (i.e., Arabs).

_________
See Eugene V. Rostow, The Future of Palestine, Institute for National Strategic Studies, November 1993. Professor Rostow was Sterling Professor of Law and Public Affairs Emeritus at Yale University and served as the Dean of Yale Law School (1955-66); Distinguished Research Professor of Law and Diplomacy, National Defense University; Adjunct Fellow, American Enterprise Institute. In 1967, as U.S. Under-Secretary of State for Political Affairs, he became a key draftee of UN Resolution 242. See also his article: "Are Israel's Settlements Legal?" The New Republic, October 21, 1991.

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At Menachem Begin's Graveside Memorial

Today, the 4th of Adar, is the yahrtzeit anniversary of the passing of Menachem Begin 20 years ago.

I was at the graveside memorial service with the family, the Prime Minister Benjamin Netahyahu, Speaker of the Knesset Reuven Rivlin, Ministers, MKs and other guests, distinguished and ordinary.

Pictures:

 a) (l-r) Minister Limor Livnat, Minister Michael Eitan, Former Minister Yehoshua Matza, Leah Begin, Minister Benny Begin, Yechiel Kadishai, Chassia Begin.

b) Leah, Benny, Yechiel, Chassia

c) the graves of Aliza and Menachem Begin

d) Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

e) Yechiel Kadishai reciting the Kel Malei Rachamim prayer

Afterwards, Minister Yaako Neeman amd Prime Minister Netanyahu asceded to another gravesite but I am not aware of the purpose:

In the evening, a two-hour live broadcast was transmitted from the Begin Center over Channel One TV on his life and legacy:

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Jerusalem Lions 54; Tel Aviv Pioneers 28

We (my son's team) won, 54-28, against the Tel Aviv Pioneers.

My son is #31, in white.

The clip:



And pictures:

and that's me in the stands:

the team:

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Does Israel Poison Arabs?

It has been claimed that Israel poisons water, or chewing-gum. It's false.

But actually, the Taliban now engages in poisoning:

The Taliban also claimed Monday to be behind the poisoning of food at a dining facility at Forward Operating Base Torkham, near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. It too was a retaliatory attack, the group said.

ISAF confirmed that food at the base appeared to have been contaminated over the weekend, though it was unclear if it was deliberate.

"Nobody got sick. An Afghan dining facility worker came to his leaders at the FOB and said that something had been poisoned," Maj. David Eastburn, an ISAF spokesman, said.

"The dining facility was shut down and we brought in environmental health, who found traces of chlorine bleach in the coffee and fruit. Soldiers are now eating pre-prepared rations and no one was affected. There is a full investigation that is narrowing down who was responsible."

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I'm Ranked

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