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

---

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?

^

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.

^

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?

^

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:- 

^

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.

^

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"?

^

Will the State Dept. Now Join "Christ at the Checkpoint"

Some of you may have followed my blogging on Shaun Casey, as well as those of EOZ.

The State Department faith fellow who came to the Holy Land but somehow, missed the religious Jews residing there.   (See other activities here, for example, and a Jewish rabbi involved)

I have been updated (anonymous thanks) to this report:-

...Bethlehem Bible College was honored to receive a visit from Dr. Shaun Casey, the Special Advisor to the U.S. Secretary of State for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives.  Dr Casey was accompanied by his Policy Advisor, Ms Liora Danan, [formerly Director of Special Projects, Middle East Program at University of California at San Diego, and stints at Center for Strategic and International Studies, USCD, U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom]

and his Cultural Affairs Officer, Ms Rachel Lesley. [Lesley has been in previous assignments in Saudi Arabia (2006-2007), Syria (2004-2006), studying advanced Arabic at the State Department’s language school in Tunisia and prior to joining the Foreign Service, she was a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar to Egypt.  And she was also the Public Affairs Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Manama, Bahrain]  Here she is

The President of Bethlehem Bible College, Rev Dr. Jack Sara together with members of the college leadership team, Dr. Bishara Awad, President Emeritus, Dr. Munther Isaac, Mr. Jamal Ateeq and Ms Nisreen Nassar, met Dr. Casey and his officers and together they discussed issues of importance to Palestinian Christians, and in particular, the role of the Palestinian church in politics and in the peace process.  They also talked at length about the up-coming Christ at the Checkpoint Conference and the impact that such an international event can have in promoting peace.
...At the reception following the tour, Dr. Casey said how pleased he was to have been able to visit the College and promised Dr. Sara that he would keep in touch.

"Promoting peace"?

That "Christ at the Checkpoint Conference"  (next one is March 10-14, 2014) is pure anti-Israel, anti-Zionist and promotes misrepresentations of Judaism as well as Christianity.  As my interlocuter expressed it,

I’m waiting for a Christ at the Shuk conference

My GraphicZionism comment to this photo:

and this

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

UPDATE

Received this:

To whom it may concern,

I am saddened and frustrated to hear that Special Advisor to the U.S. Secretary of State for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, Dr. Shaun Casey, on his recent visit to Bethlehem, was discussing the "Christ at the Checkpoint" (CATC) activities. Those activities have in the past included anti-Israeli and borderline anti-Semitic 

misrepresentations of Judaism. What is most objectionable is that that Israel-bashing deflects from the addressing of real problems facing Palestinian Christians, a part of the wider harassment and persecution facing Christians throughout the MidEast. Dr. Casey is actually harming those he is meant to protect..

Dozens of bylines from news media such as the The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, B.B.C., Telegraph, Globe and Mail, Daily Mail, New York Post etc talk about actual, researched reasons for Christian flight from the Holy Land. (http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/what-did-cbss-60-minutes-actually-report/)

________________________

More:

One more Shaun Casey visit to Israel-haters pops up

Posted: 28 Feb 2014 07:10 AM PST

Earlier today I wrote that the State Department said that Shaun Casey, the head of the State Department's Office of Faith-Based Community Initiatives, had met with Jews, Christians and Muslims on his recent, unannounced visit to the West Bank. At the same time Yisrael Medadfound a third meeting that Casey had with a virulently anti-Israel Christian group during his trip.

Since them I found that Casey also visitedEpiscopal Bishop Suheil Dawani in Jerusalem. Dawani was once accused by Israel of illegally transferring Jewish-owned lands to Arabs but it does not appear that he was ever tried for this, so I don't know if the accusation was withdrawn or placed on a back-burner.

I have also discovered that Casey visited Muslim leaders - on the Temple Mount.

In a move considered precedent-setting, and the first of its kind since the occupation of Jerusalem, Assistant Secretary of State for Interfaith Affairs Sean Casey met in the dome inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque with Sheikh Abdel Azim Salhab, Chairman of the Islamic Waqf in Jerusalem, Sheikh Azzam al-Khatib al-Tamimi, Director General of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and Dr. Yousef Natsheh, Director of Tourism and Antiquities in the Islamic Waqf
.
According to Sheikh Tamimi [Casey] was informed of all Zionist violations related to Al-Aqsa Mosque from the incursions of settlers and abuses of Zionism and breaches.

He said: 'We have provided a detailed explanation of the conditions of Jerusalemites of uprooting and Judaization and blocking of buildings and the demolition of homes, confiscation of land and interfering with the freedom of worship and access to the holy places of all the Palestinian territories.'

The Waqf religious leaders told the assistant secretary to convey the message clearly to the American administration, especially about the violations of the occupation and carried out by extremists against the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which may lead to religious conflicts all over the world if the mosque is damaged or if the state of Jordan and the Islamic sovereignty is stripped from the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the holy sites in Jerusalem.

... In turn, Assistant U.S. Secretary of State said he wants the city of Jerusalem to have safety and security and stability, and "I will truthfully convey what I heard from all of you to the U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry."

I am not certain, but I do not believe that Ambassador Dan Shapiro ever crosses the Green Line from the Tel Aviv side. I see no evidence so far that Casey ever went to the Israeli side of the Green Line - every single meeting we've seen so far was in the "eastern" part of Jerusalem and the West Bank.

Maybe he arrived from Jordan.

Still trying to find any Jews he might have visited. But judging from what we've seen so far, the only Jews he might deign to visit are "Rabbis for Human Rights."

By the way, I also see that he made a visit to the West Bank in 2011 as part of a Methodist delegation.

So far, nothing I am seeing about Casey is instilling confidence in this new office that he heads.

^

Quiz: Who Is The Extremist?

Who said:

“I find life quite impossible as I cannot enjoy a thing without carrying it to all the extremes and then nearly dying of the reaction.” 

a)  A Haredi politician

b)  A price-tag activist

c)  A member of Fatah

d)  a Woman of the Wall lady

e)  an anti-Zionist Jew

f)  Nancy Cunard 


Yep, "f".

Extreme?

She seemed to be violent, too.  Do you know what to be braceletted means?

She smoked and drank dramatically and would brandish a long cigarette holder; after she became seriously interested in African art and culture in the late 20s and was living tempestuously with Henry Crowder, a black American jazz musician, she often wore old African ivory bracelets up her slender arms from wrist to elbow. These bracelets became her trademark, long before the "ethnic" look was invented. Sometimes they were also a weapon; the New Yorker writer Janet Flanner, half in love with Cunard herself, met Crowder on the street one day and asked him why he was bruised. "Just bracelet work, Miss Janet," he calmly replied.

^

One Picture's Worth

Yehudah Glick on the Temple Mount.

Yehudah and 'friends', that is.

Two Waqf guards.

Four policemen.

That photograph is even worth 1000 Arab-thrown stones.

^

A Thought On the Concept of Homeland

Thinking of the red soil, the seasons, the way things smelled down there, I feel as though my experience of coming of age there was more a matter of landscape and climate than people."

James Taylor 

^

How Clinton Divided the Holy Basin

From here:

^

Is Jordan Israel?

Jordanian MPs are angry.

The Foreign Minister is upset.

Let's add to their pain and injury.

A new book, entitled The Land between the Two Rivers: Early Israelite Identities in the Transjordan by Thomas Petter is out.

From the blurb:

...historians who are skeptical about any "real" history of early Israel have disparaged the idea that Israel had an early presence in Transjordan. This skeptical stance, however, is by no means shared by everyone. Frank Cross...demonstrated the reality of an early Israelite presence in Transjordan. Ongoing excavations--at Tall al-?Umayri, the type-site for the Late Bronze-Iron I transition in the region bounded by the Wadi Zarqa in the north and the Wadi Mujib in the south, and at Tall Madaba, which had an early Iron I settlement--now confirm a tribal presence in these Transjordanian areas during the early Iron I. [see here]
...In the early tribal settings of Transjordan, ethnic identities were subject to sudden shifts along the twin poles of "otherness" (reflected in open conflict over land ownership) and covenant "loyalty" (to Yahweh or Chemosh or other deities). Thus, while the presence of Reuben, Gad, and other tribal groups need not be questioned, application of a specific ethnic label to the existing material-cultural horizon creates unnecessary tensions. The phenomenon of covariance (a one-to-one relationship between material culture and ethnicity) may obtain in more-stable ecological settings. On the frontier, however, it is quite difficult to link specific people to particular pots.
By bringing together applicable anthropological research and relevant biblical, extrabiblical, and archaeological data, Petter outlines a context-driven interpretive framework within which to plot tribal ethnic expressions in the past. From the perspective of the longue durée, we can see that frontier regions tend to exhibit episodic changes of hand: competing sides claimed legitimate ownership, sometimes by way of making the gods owners of the land.

So, Jordan is ... ancient Israel.

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And There But For Marek Schwartz

From Daniel Pipes via Pierre Van Passen

the Turkish overlords of Jerusalem abandoned Jerusalem rather than fight for it in 1917, evacuating it just in advance of the British troops. One account indicates they were even prepared to destroy the holy city. Jamal Pasha, the Ottoman commander-in-chief, instructed his Austrian allies to "blow Jerusalem to hell" should the British enter the city. The Austrians therefore had their guns trained on the Dome of the Rock, with enough ammunition to keep up two full days of intensive bombardment. According to Pierre van Paasen, a journalist, that the dome still exists today is due to a Jewish artillery captain in the Austrian army, Marek Schwartz, who rather than respond to the approaching British troops with a barrage on the Islamic holy places, "quietly spiked his own guns and walked into the British lines."

Oh, dear, Marek. 

More, from this book:

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