Is this representative of certain diplomatic research experts on Middle East peace?
^
Sunday, September 30, 2012
A Cush on Eltahawy
Earlier this week, Egyptian-American journalist and activist Mona Eltahawy was arrested for spraypainting one of the American Freedom Defense Initiative’s new “anti-jihad” subway ads, which been widely criticized and denounced as fueling “anti-Muslim sentiment” by the Interfaith Center of New York. Upon Eltahawy’s release from overnight detainment yesterday, her lawyer made a questionable comment. “If the person who did this was named Schwartz and it was a Holocaust-denier poster, they’d get no worse than a summons and a violation,” he said.
The real issue is that if the person was named Schwartz and it was a Holocaust-denier poster, the ads probably wouldn’t have gone up in the first place. But if those Holocaust-denier ads did go up, and Schwartz was caught in the act of spraypainting them, Schwartz would have been detained, just like every other graffiti writer or steet artist that’s been in that situation.
Source
Muslims basically proving they're better, er, worse, than us all.
It's a cultural thing.
^
This Is Good Media
When Mitt Romney says he sees no hope for an Israeli-Palestinian resolution, he is really endorsing the Dayan view. And the right’s triumphalism is matched by the left’s defeatism.
Don Macintyre
Upon finishing eight years of a tour on behalf of the UK Independent
^
Irina Has Something To Say To You
Irina seems presentable enough.
But she's smart, too, in the new anti-Obama video:
Stay with her the full 18 minutes.
^
Hamas Threatens
First, they make up ridiculous claims about what we Jews are supposedly doing to the Temple Mount.
Chemical deterioration.
Falling trees.
Second, they use pejorative terms.
Storming. Breaking in. Talmudic rituals.
Third, they incite.
And fourth:
Amazing, eh?
^
Chemical deterioration.
Falling trees.
Second, they use pejorative terms.
Storming. Breaking in. Talmudic rituals.
Third, they incite.
And fourth:
Hamas movement said that the occupation plans to Judaize Jerusalem and its attempts to build the alleged Temple will never be achieved, stressing that “Jerusalem will remain an Arabic and Islamic city and a capital of Palestine.” Hamas said, in a statement on Friday on the 12th anniversary of al-Aqsa Intifada, “we emphasize on our insistence on resistance as the way to protect al-Aqsa and the holy sites and to regain the national rights.
Amazing, eh?
^
Jews Encourge Underaged Girl to Use the F Word
Well, not all Jews.
Just the Jewish Council for Education and Research.
In this video.
The sponsorship indication:
Okay, there's an Israeli involved as it's directed by Boaz Yakin.
The group is the same one of the Sarah (the "Great Schlep") Silverman fame. The Jewish not nice girl who does-you-know-what with a pussy cat to entice Sheldon Adelson:
The group thinks
Now, that's a joke.
^
Just the Jewish Council for Education and Research.
In this video.
The sponsorship indication:
Okay, there's an Israeli involved as it's directed by Boaz Yakin.
The group is the same one of the Sarah (the "Great Schlep") Silverman fame. The Jewish not nice girl who does-you-know-what with a pussy cat to entice Sheldon Adelson:
In a YouTube video that was posted on Monday, Silverman proposes that if Las Vegas casino tycoon Sheldon Adelson gives the 100 million dollars that he has pledged to Mitt Romney to Barack Obama's campaign instead she'll engage in some racy behaviour with him.
The group thinks
dirty humor equal votesMaybe a laugh. But votes?
Now, that's a joke.
^
Inevitable?
Spotted here:
Ask yourself:
why was it 'inevitable'?
was her statement truly inevitable? could it have been avoided?
was Wight's reaction inevitable?
is Obama's stance inevitable?
^
Rep. Carolyn Maloney, the long-serving Democrat whose district encompasses the United Nations complex, got slammed during the UN general assembly this week by her GOP rival, Christopher Wight, as soft on Israel. "Carolyn Maloney once again demonstrated her glaring negligence in protecting Israel. Rather than insisting that a nuclear Iran is unacceptable, Carolyn Maloney conceded Iranian nuclear weapons," he said. "In her own words the question is no longer ‘if’ but ‘when.’"
He added that she was "emboldening Iran and sending conflicting messages to the international community. She is not providing badly needed leadership or advocating for solutions with clear next steps" in terms of the "red line" issue.
Wight was seizing on a statement from Maloney made this week, viewable here...Wight's statement indicated the line about "if but when" conceded a different reality.
The issue of Israel has been applied broadly in the presidential race this cycle, and more surgically in downballot races. But with the election cycle drawing to a close, and given the physical parameters of Maloney's district, it was inevitable this would be an issue this week.
Ask yourself:
why was it 'inevitable'?
was her statement truly inevitable? could it have been avoided?
was Wight's reaction inevitable?
is Obama's stance inevitable?
^
All The News?
The New York Times can't even inform its readers of what cause/disease did its publisher die:-
Hmmm.
^
His death, after a long illness, was announced by his family.
Hmmm.
^
Is 24 Too Many?
Can you imagine, 24 NGOs engaged in media freedom?
In the Palestinian Authority-controlled [occupied?] territories?
Wow. 24?
So many?
^
In the Palestinian Authority-controlled [occupied?] territories?
The Palestinian civil society coalition condemned the PA arrest campaign against journalists in West Bank...The coalition, which includes twenty-four Foundations and NGOs concerned with media freedom and the rights of journalists and freedom of expression, said...Palestinian journalist Day is an opportunity to emphasize the need to defend journalists and freedom, and to protect them from abuses and violations.
The Coalition stressed on the need to “pursue those who attack journalists, especially those who were behind the killing of journalists, calling for the urgent need to develop the Palestinian legislation according to the international conventions and laws that protect freedom of expression...
Wow. 24?
So many?
^
Saturday, September 29, 2012
Is There An Arab Intellectual?
As found at EOZ, from a Jordanian newspaper Ad Dostour:
After you've stopped laughing, think about this:
is there truly an Arab intellectual?
Remember my inventivity theory?
No, not theory of inventive problem solving developed by the Soviet inventor and science fiction author Genrich Altshuller and known as TRIZ, the Russian abbreviation. He set out three primary findings of his research.
No, mine is different.
I state:
So, there you have it.
^
Dr. Fadel al-Rubaie denied any relationship of any kind between the Torah and Palestine, stressing that the names, places and events that came in the Torah are Yemeni names and locations, and some still exist even today.
He denies strongly that Joshua Ben-Nun had crossed the Jordan River to Jericho, and inscriptions and figures available indicate that Joshua Ben-Nun actually traveled to the land of Yemen. This was all said in a lecture given by Dr. Rubaie on Tuesday evening in the Jordanian Writers Association Forum moderated by Dr.. Hisham Ghassib...He stressed that Jerusalem is not Jerusalem, and Jews have no trace in the Palestinian territories, and if there is a housing in Palestine from the Jews it is from the sons of the Arab tribes that migrated from Arabian Peninsula...Israel went to revive the Hebrew language, originally a Yemeni dialect.
The lecture included a heavy presence of intellectuals and other interested members.
After you've stopped laughing, think about this:
is there truly an Arab intellectual?
Remember my inventivity theory?
No, not theory of inventive problem solving developed by the Soviet inventor and science fiction author Genrich Altshuller and known as TRIZ, the Russian abbreviation. He set out three primary findings of his research.
The first is that problems and solutions are repeated across industries and sciences, the second that patterns of technical evolution are also repeated across industries and sciences, and the third and final primary finding is that the innovations used scientific effects outside the field in which they were developed. In the application of TRIZ all these findings are applied to create and to improve products, services, and systems.
No, mine is different.
I state:
I use the term "inventivity" to note the Arab propensity to create an artificial nationalist conceptualization of themselves and the term "disinventivity" I employ to characterize the Arab habit of fictionalizing and denying any historical Jewish presence in the Land of Israel either by simple non-recognition or by 'adopting' sites, locations and events as "Palestinian", which I also call Palestinianism.
So, there you have it.
^
Reuters Undependable
So, where was he when shot?
GAZA (Reuters) - A Palestinian man died on Saturday after he was shot by Israeli troops while fishing on the beach in the Gaza Strip, said Hamas officials, while an Israeli military spokeswoman said the man was shot when he approached the border fence.Israeli army patrols deem the Gaza border area off limits because militants try to attack them by planting explosive devices or shooting at them...An Israeli military spokeswoman said two men came right up to the border fence and ignored calls from troops to back away before they were shot at.
Where was he?
(a) while fishing on
the beach?
(b) he approached the border
fence?
Was he a fisherman or a suspected terrorist?
^
Dershowitz Threatens ACLU
the decision [the new MTA advertising rules permitting it to ban ads that it “reasonably foresees would imminently incite or provoke violence or other immediate breach of the peace.”] will face legal challenges. “It will be challenged, there is no question about that,” he confirmed, “if the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) doesn’t get into this case immediately, they are going to have to write to me several times for my contribution this year. This is a perfect case for the ACLU, the ACLU should be in there, opposed to the MTA.”
Harvard Law Professor Allan Dershowitz
^
Friday, September 28, 2012
Why Haaretz is An Evil Newspaper
Here's an excerpt from the Haaretz interview with Israel's Refrom Judaism Executive Director Gilad Kariv. Notice how the interviewer slips in the nasty question:
...there’s no point in using the prettified language of reconciliation here. There is a direct connection between the book “Torah Hamelech” and the recent lynch in Jerusalem. To get a group of youths to carry out such an attack on an Arab youth, it takes a good few years of dehumanization of the Arab. We started the month of Elul with a Molotov cocktail that burned an Arab family in the territories, and with an Arab young man lying in intensive care as a result of a pogrom.
The threshold is going up. All the time.And here there is a planned, orchestrated, ideological effort that relies entirely on the distorted structuring of relations between religion and state in Israel, which gives these rabbis immunity, and budgets, and public positions and status. There is a grand project of dehumanization of whoever is not a Jew.And of the other in general.The Arab is number one, although now he has competition for that ranking − from the migrant worker. While we’re sitting here in this air-conditioned office, refugees and their little children are in tents in Ketziot.Like the concentration camps Leibowitz prophesied.Yes. There is also a detention facility where dozens of African youths have been sitting for many months because no framework was found for them. We’ve negated their humanity, we’ve removed them from the circle of human beings whom we must treat with dignity. And then this fellow − You know, I don’t want to use such words in talking about Eli Yishai ...
For sure, there is no "direct connection" between the book, Torat HaMelech, and the youth who carried out the vicious attack on an Arab in Zion Square although since the trial hasn't begun, we really do not know much, neither I nor the Reform Rabbi. A Rabbi, by the way, would steer clear of such an accusation, especially during the Ten Days of Penitence.
But "concentration camps"?
Yes, Kariv considers Lebowitz his teacher even though Leibowitz though this of the sect of Reform:
And the editor let it through.
^
But "concentration camps"?
Yes, Kariv considers Lebowitz his teacher even though Leibowitz though this of the sect of Reform:
Yeshayahu Leibowitz had a harsh saying about you Reform Jews. He said: “It’s very nice and all, but it’s not religion.”To ask him about Leibowitz would seem proper. But not to repeat a calumny. Goading and promoting Nazi comparisons is an evil discourse agenda. Done so easily, so flippantly. So carelously.
And the editor let it through.
^
Why Your Child Has Trouble in Gemara Studies
From
Who Thinks in the Talmud? pages 1-34
Author: Sergey Dolgopolski of University at Buffalo SUNY
Abstract
Abstract
This article traces a historical shift, and in particular its erasure from memory on the intellectual map of the West, in concepts of subjectivity across practices of rabbinic thinking in late antiquity, medieval interpretations of the Talmud, and modern talmudic scholarship. I first introduce a comparative perspective that relies on a mutual hermeneutics of philosophical and talmudic traditions. I consequently engage with Alain de Libera’s archaeological analysis of the birth of the thinking subject in medieval philosophy and theology. In this light, I analyze the role of the notion of the thinking subject in construing the Talmud from Maimonides to contemporary Talmud criticism. Finally, I explore the implications of de Libera’s program of a philosophical archaeology of the thinking subject for mapping the complex relationship of mutual presupposition and exclusion between philosophical, rhetorical, and talmudic traditions of thinking in antiquity, as manifested in the larger scope of these traditions.^
National Identity as a Powerful Force
A new dissertation:
^
Security or Identity? Narratives of State & Nation in International Territorial Conflict Protraction
My dissertation explores how popular domestic beliefs regarding the meaning and value of disputed lands contribute to the protraction and resolution of international territorial conflict. Using comparative historical analysis and artefactual field experiments, I find in Israel and Serbia that persistent popular unwillingness to relinquish claims to a “United Jerusalem” and “Kosovo and Metohija” have resulted from the extraordinary position of these territories in their respective national homeland narratives. These outcomes stand in stark contrast to Israel’s largely popular withdrawals from the Sinai Peninsula, Southern Lebanon, and Gaza Strip, dominantly valued as strategic rather than cultural assets. They also contrast with Serbia’s acquiescence to the political independence of both Bosnia and Montenegro, spaces of high concern for Serb political self-determination but relatively low territorial-cultural priority. The Golan Heights and the West Bank are also analyzed as disputed spaces wherein strategic and cultural narratives continue to contribute to conflict protraction. In doing so, I demonstrate how particular strategic and cultural narratives come to dominate public discourse over disputed spaces and, in turn, how these narratives constrain the policies states can legitimately pursue in these spaces. Ultimately, I find that popular perceptions of national identity can be as powerful a force in determining government policy as state security prerogatives.
^
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Photos of Bibi as Hitler? or Just a Nazi?
I had this photo stored for a while since I really didn't know how to deal with it:
It was found at a extreme left-wing site and of course, plays on a similarity to a Sieg Heil salute.
And then DG set me these:
from AP:
From Reuters:
^
It was found at a extreme left-wing site and of course, plays on a similarity to a Sieg Heil salute.
And then DG set me these:
from AP:
From Reuters:
^
No Secret Temple Mount Rules
Arutz 7 reports:
Are those "rules" actually secret?
Here they are:
Rule #3 reads "prohibited is any external or demonstrative form of religious worship". If one is in doubt, a policeman must be asked prior to the action.
Rule # 5 reads that any "provocative action is prohibited".
Those rules are those Yehuda Glick had to sign off on in order to ascend to the Mount back in January 2010.
^
Police detained a Jew, Thursday, for breaking its "secret" rules on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, according to students of the Har Bracha yeshiva who visited the holy site. He was the fourth person so detained in the last 11 day. Two people were arrested on the eve of Rosh Hashannah on claims by police that they were praying. Two days ago, on the eve of Yom Kippur, police claimed a 21-year-old prostrated himself. Thursday's violation was not specified.
Are those "rules" actually secret?
Here they are:
Rule #3 reads "prohibited is any external or demonstrative form of religious worship". If one is in doubt, a policeman must be asked prior to the action.
Rule # 5 reads that any "provocative action is prohibited".
Those rules are those Yehuda Glick had to sign off on in order to ascend to the Mount back in January 2010.
^
Do You Believe Him?
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said...that he would not necessarily object to one of his children dating a Jew and insisted that he sees love between people from different backgrounds “as completely acceptable...There are many Jews living in Iran with whom we are very close,” he told Piers Morgan Monday during an appearance on the TV host’s CNN talk show. “There are some Muslims that marry into Jewish families or marry Christians. We have no such problems.”It was the most surprising response he gave in an otherwise predictable interview that came the same day Ahmadinejad prompted an Israeli envoy to walk out of a meeting at the U.N. General Assembly, by referring to Israel as a nuclear-armed "fake regime" shielded by the United States...
Source
^
Even Baby Carriages
Visiting the Temple Mount:-
and the girl on the right is a bride, on the day of her Chuppah:
UPDATE
A clip from an Arab newspaper:
^
and the girl on the right is a bride, on the day of her Chuppah:
UPDATE
A clip from an Arab newspaper:
Retro: My 2003 NYTimes Letter and Others
I stumbled upon this looking for something else.
But I think some would appreciate reading it:
Israel and the Settlers
Published: May 13, 2003
As a bona-fide member of what Thomas L. Friedman terms ''the lunatic Israeli settler movement,'' I find his strident tone illogical (''Fathers and Sons,'' column, May 11).Unless Israel completely disengages itself from the Arab population living in the country's pre-1967 borders, in the future, Israel may still yet be faced with binationalism.With Israel existing in more restricted borders, that would invite Arab aggression, as in 1967, when Israel had not one Jewish community in the disputed areas of Judea and Samaria. If ''settlements'' did not exist then, why should dismantling the communities solve anything today? Will Arab enmity be less?YISRAEL MEDADShiloh, West Bank, May 11, 2003
"West Bank" wasn't written by me, of course.
Another one:
Arafat and What Might Have Been
Published: November 10, 2004
To the Editor:
Thomas L. Friedman writes that if Yasir Arafat had ''ever adopted the nonviolence of Gandhi,'' he would have had his Palestinian state -- ''Israel's reckless settlements notwithstanding'' (''Footprints in the Sand,'' column, Nov. 7). Mr. Friedman places the cart before the horse.
Yasir Arafat adopted the path of terror and violence years before any Jewish community had been built in the disputed territories, indeed, years before those territories came under Israeli administration in 1967.
Yisrael Medad
Shiloh, West Bank, Nov. 8, 2004
And one more, all before I began blogging:
For Mideast, Blueprint or Illusion?
Published: December 3, 2003
To the Editor:
Yossi Beilin and Yasir Abed Rabbo, in seeking to justify their virtual diplomatic negotiating exercise, point to ''hard-liners in Israel'' who ''have criticized the details of the agreement'' (''An Accord to Remember,'' Op-Ed, Dec. 1).
The portrayal of hard-liners is self-serving. The scathing criticism of the method and the results of their efforts is across the board, from left to right in Israel.
Its impracticability, its yielding to terror, its dissolving of Israel's raison d'être, its vacating of crucial security needs and the forced abandonment of portions of the Jewish people's historic homeland without reciprocal demands on the Arab population all combine to nullify the relevance of the festival in Geneva.
YISRAEL MEDAD
Shiloh, West Bank, Dec. 1, 2003
^
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
The Imbalance of Obama
From Barack Obama's UN speech:
If you think this is extracted out-of-context, here's the whole paragraph:
And yes, he also said this:
And this:
But getting back to that first statement.
Am I to understand (and do you, too) that Obama is setting up to opposite baddies - Jews/Israelis who "thrive on conflict" and Arabs who "reject Israel's right to exist"? Is that his thinking?
Could there not be Jews who realized that long ago the conflict, i.e., Arab terror seeking to deny Jews national rights anywhere in the Land of Israel, began when Jews were not "occupiers", had not constructed "settlements" and in fact, were residing in those locations Obama and his Arab friends consider not to belong to the Jews like Hebron, Gaza, Shchem and Jerusalem's Old City?
Is Obama a rational human being? Cannot he not know this history?
So, is Obama imbalanced or unbalanced?
^
Let us leave behind those who thrive on conflict, and those who reject the right of Israel to exist.
If you think this is extracted out-of-context, here's the whole paragraph:
Among Israelis and Palestinians, the future must not belong to those who turn their backs on the prospect of peace. Let us leave behind those who thrive on conflict, and those who reject the right of Israel to exist. The road is hard but the destination is clear – a secure, Jewish state of Israel; and an independent, prosperous Palestine. Understanding that such a peace must come through a just agreement between the parties, America will walk alongside all who are prepared to make that journey.
And yes, he also said this:
...It is time to marginalize those who – even when not resorting to violence – use hatred of America, or the West, or Israel as a central principle of politics. For that only gives cover, and sometimes makes excuses, for those who resort to violence.
And this:
...Make no mistake: a nuclear-armed Iran is not a challenge that can be contained. It would threaten the elimination of Israel, the security of Gulf nations, and the stability of the global economy.
But getting back to that first statement.
Am I to understand (and do you, too) that Obama is setting up to opposite baddies - Jews/Israelis who "thrive on conflict" and Arabs who "reject Israel's right to exist"? Is that his thinking?
Could there not be Jews who realized that long ago the conflict, i.e., Arab terror seeking to deny Jews national rights anywhere in the Land of Israel, began when Jews were not "occupiers", had not constructed "settlements" and in fact, were residing in those locations Obama and his Arab friends consider not to belong to the Jews like Hebron, Gaza, Shchem and Jerusalem's Old City?
Is Obama a rational human being? Cannot he not know this history?
So, is Obama imbalanced or unbalanced?
^
Claim of Synagogue Construction at Temple Mount
This Arab-language report claims that Israel is using as cover its work on the new Mughrabi Gate to construct a synagogue:-
The basic story is
The "Al-Aqsa Foundation" spotted in recent days that the Israeli occupation is implementing an around-the-clock operation on the pathway bridge to the Mughrabi Gate adjacent to the Al-Aqsa Mosque from the west with the aim of turning these spaces into a synagogue "chapels" for Israeli women, where something they term the Mosque Salah Adin Ayubi will be turned into a Jewish synagogue.
Pictures:
Moreover
Another from here
Pictures of the "break-in" of Yeshivat Hesder Hevron, from Chashmonaim, individuals like Shmuel Ben-Hammo and Baruch Ben-Yosef, Rachel Sela among others:-
^
"مؤسسة الاقصى": الاحتلال الاسرائيلي شارف على بناء كنيس يهودي
The basic story is
The "Al-Aqsa Foundation" spotted in recent days that the Israeli occupation is implementing an around-the-clock operation on the pathway bridge to the Mughrabi Gate adjacent to the Al-Aqsa Mosque from the west with the aim of turning these spaces into a synagogue "chapels" for Israeli women, where something they term the Mosque Salah Adin Ayubi will be turned into a Jewish synagogue.
Pictures:
Moreover
Jewish settlers broke into al-Aqsa mosque, on Tuesday, through Bab El-Magharbeh bridge, trying to perform Talmudic rituals and prayers. The raid came after tens of thousands of settlers desecrated, Monday evening, the Buraq Wall area west of the al-Aqsa mosque, where they performed biblical and Talmudic rituals, accompanied by loud songs lasting to the middle of the night. [that was the Selichot assembly. Pic here]
Another from here
Pictures of the "break-in" of Yeshivat Hesder Hevron, from Chashmonaim, individuals like Shmuel Ben-Hammo and Baruch Ben-Yosef, Rachel Sela among others:-
^
Police Fire Rubber Bullets
Israel is routinely raked over the coals for it policing procedures in facing what the Arabs and their Internationalist allies refer to as "non-violent protests" although usually stones are tossed.
In Madrid, I read this is what happens:-
A BBC correspondent opined
^
In Madrid, I read this is what happens:-
SPANISH riot police have fired rubber bullets and baton-charged protesters as thousands rallied near parliament in Madrid in anger at the economic crisis, in clashes that left more than 60 people injured. Riot police in helmets on Tuesday charged to clear thousands of protesters who swamped the Plaza de Neptuno square yelling "Shame!" and "Resign!", addressing the government...Some protesters earlier tried to break down metal barriers protecting the lower house of parliament, the Congress of Deputies, prompting police to chase and beat them and haul several into vans.
A BBC correspondent opined
The heavy-handed tactics of the Spanish police, with little provocation, perhaps show that the authorities were worried that this could have escalated.
^
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Which is the True Version?
Whom to believe?
Or
UPDATE
Seems only one far-out left lib/prog peace now support group met him, "on the sidelines":-
^
President met with a delegation of leaders of the American Jewish community
New York 25/09/2012 (WAFA) - President Mahmoud Abbas met in New York last night with a delegation of leaders of the American Jewish community. During the meeting, they discussed the latest developments in the Middle East, in addition to the Palestinian approach to the United Nations.
The meeting was attended by Secretary of the Executive Committee of the PLO, Yasser Abed Rabbo, a member of the Executive Committee Saeb Erekat, Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki, presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina, presidential adviser Akram Haniyeh, Diplomatic Adviser to the sovereignty Majdi al-Khalidi, and the Permanent Observer of Palestine to the United Nations in New York Ambassador Riyad Mansour.
Or
Subject: Report: American Jewish leaders cancel meeting with Abbas
A group of Jewish leaders in the US cancelled a meeting with President Mahmoud Abbas under pressure from Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu.
TEL AVIV, Israel (Ma'an) -- A group of Jewish leaders in the US cancelled a meeting with President Mahmoud Abbas under pressure from Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli media reported Monday. The meeting, organized by billionaire businessman Mort Zuckerman, was due to take place Monday in New York, the Hebrew-language daily Maariv reported...
The meeting was canceled after Netanyahu's office contacted Zuckerman, saying it was "unacceptable" for the Jewish community to meet with the Palestinian president while he refused to meet with Israeli leaders, Maariv said. Abbas is in New York to address the UN General Assembly.
UPDATE
Seems only one far-out left lib/prog peace now support group met him, "on the sidelines":-
The S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace said Tuesday that Abbas spoke to them late Monday on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.
^
I Comment at the US Consulate Facebook
From the US Consulate "open letter' in Jerusalem's Arabic-language Al-Quds:
The comment I left at the Facebook entry of the Consulate:
^
...In the United States believe in freedom of expression does not prevent any of our citizens to express their opinions, and must realize that with this freedom comes the responsibility, just as we must admit that the violence can not be accepted in response to this expression.
The United States is a nation found on the basis of religious tolerance and respect for religious beliefs. We consider these basic values can not be separated from freedom. The United States is the most powerful because we are home to followers of all faiths, including millions of Muslims. We must not allow a small minority to provoke conflict between religions, nations or cultures. Thanks to our Palestinian friends who showed us that our friendship with them at this sad time are as strong as ever. We will always remember the good words and attitudes which we have our friends here and we will remember how supported us through our grief...
The comment I left at the Facebook entry of the Consulate:
^
Did That Provocation Justify This Violence?
On the backdrop of whether the Obama Administration is encouraging Arabs to presume that since the provocation they perceived was a wrong thing that their violence was justified in reaction, consider this that I stumbled over from the Palestine Post, August 22, 1938 in this story:
This was in the aftermath of the 1937 Partition Plan and the Shlomo Ben-Yosef hanging..
What did I find?
This:-
So, was the Irgun's counter-terror campaign "understood"?
^
This was in the aftermath of the 1937 Partition Plan and the Shlomo Ben-Yosef hanging..
What did I find?
This:-
So, was the Irgun's counter-terror campaign "understood"?
^
One Day's Report in August 1938
The Palestine Post, Sunday, August 21, 1938.
How many terrorist incidents can you count?
I counted and, well, let's look at the page:
And on the front page:
Pics:
That's the burnt-out post-office and a police vehicle severely damaged.
Arab terrorism in Mandate Palestine.
UPDATE
From the editorial on Aug. 22. So relevant (which is why I like history):-
Yes, we are still attempting to fathom Arab terror.
^
How many terrorist incidents can you count?
I counted and, well, let's look at the page:
And on the front page:
Pics:
That's the burnt-out post-office and a police vehicle severely damaged.
Arab terrorism in Mandate Palestine.
UPDATE
From the editorial on Aug. 22. So relevant (which is why I like history):-
Yes, we are still attempting to fathom Arab terror.
^
That 1979 Column and Obama's Pro-Arab Views
My approach and relationship with my readers is to be fairly short and concise and to assume that I need not overly churn up information and opinion.
So, for those who are quite suspicious about from where Obama came and how did he get to where he is and how did he develop his outlook, especially as regards the Middle East, I suggest reading this which provides an insight into what could be termed, the
via tunneling Arab oil money to black students.
Intrigued?
^
So, for those who are quite suspicious about from where Obama came and how did he get to where he is and how did he develop his outlook, especially as regards the Middle East, I suggest reading this which provides an insight into what could be termed, the
“new black advocacy for a homeland for the Palestinians”
via tunneling Arab oil money to black students.
Intrigued?
^
Quotable Words of Wisdom
.
A Muslim world that can take to the streets, as far away as Jakarta, in protest against a vulgar film depiction of the Prophet Muhammad—yet barely call up a crowd on behalf of a Syrian population that has endured unspeakable hell at the hands of the dictator Bashar al-Assad—is in need of self-criticism and repair. We do these societies no favor if we leave them to the illusion that they can pass through the gates of the modern world carrying those ruinous ideas.
Yet the word in Washington is that we must pull back from those troubled Arab and Muslim lands. The grand expectations that Mr. Obama had for Afghanistan have largely been forgotten. The Taliban are content to wait us out, secure in the knowledge that, come 2014, we and our allies will have quit the place. And neighboring Pakistan, a nuclear-armed country with 170 million people, is written off as a hotbed of extremism...Our foreign policy has been altered, as never before, to fit one man's electoral needs. We hear from the presidential handlers only what they want us to believe about the temper of distant lands. It was only yesterday that our leader, we are told, had solved the riddle of our position in the world.Give him your warrant, the palace guard intone, at least until the next election...
Those were of Fouad Ajami.
...accepting enemy propaganda makes us look weak and shortsighted. Any appreciation of the pretexts for such atrocities makes their perpetrators bolder and more aggressive. Unfortunately, these lessons have not been learned. America's ambassador to Libya is dead, U.S. embassies in Egypt and other Muslim countries are under siege, the American flag is being burned, and the Obama administration and media have blamed a video clip instead of denouncing the perpetrators.
The lack of realism is stunning. "We reject all efforts to denigrate the religious beliefs of others," said President Barack Obama—not about the murder of Americans or the persecution of Christians and Jews in Muslim countries, but about an amateur film on YouTube.
^
How Did Clorinda Minor Die?
One newspaper summary that mentions Clorinda earlier and informs:-
By the way, the author John Steinbeck is a grandson of a Mount of Hope family. Literary experts say the family tragedies, and especially the rapes, are hinted at in "East of Eden." Steinbeck visited the hill in what was then central Tel Aviv in 1966.
This source claims
This source has it as does this one that
This article indicates the raping of two women did not involve Clorinda. This book, too, does not indicate a rape and murder.
Here is a short summary:
Additional background:
^
What happened on that night in January 1858 was documented at great length in various diplomatic documents, which show above all just how involved the powers were in the Palestine of those days. A few days after the tragedy, Mary Steinbeck, who lost her husband that night, testified:
"At around ten o'clock the dogs began barking. When my husband went out and opened the gate ... three men told him they were looking for a cow they had lost. ... They again told him to open the gate, and said they would break it down if he did not. ... He came in and said they were going to break down the gate; he began to load the revolver. Presently we heard a crash; ... Frederick and father both went out. Frederick took the gun, for the revolver was not loaded. We soon heard the report of a gun, and Frederick soon after opened the door, and fell. The thieves came to the door of the room where we were at this time; they pried the door open from below; the door opened and five men entered; the foremost had a large, long stick, and he struck father. Father fell backwards."The attackers began ransacking the little village, causing heavy damage. Several of the men raped Mary Steinbeck and her mother, Sarah Dickson.
By the way, the author John Steinbeck is a grandson of a Mount of Hope family. Literary experts say the family tragedies, and especially the rapes, are hinted at in "East of Eden." Steinbeck visited the hill in what was then central Tel Aviv in 1966.
This source claims
The short-lived Mount Hope farm waned after Clorinda Minor's death from dysentery in 1855, closing its doors in 1858 following a Bedouin attack.
This source has it as does this one that
Clorinda Minor died of cancer in 1855,
This article indicates the raping of two women did not involve Clorinda. This book, too, does not indicate a rape and murder.
Here is a short summary:
Clorinda Minor, disappointed by the failure of a millennial prophecy in 1844, decided that the messiah would not return until the Jews were restored to the Holy Land, and so, in May 1849, embarked for Palestine to teach Jews how to farm. She teamed up with John Meshullam, a Jew converted to Christianity, already operating a farm at Artas. Disputes led to her expulsion in 1854, which created diplomatic as well as personal turmoil. She found refuge in Jaffa, where she was the first foreigner to buy (as opposed to leasing) land; she established a thriving farm where Muslims, Jews, and Christians worked together. Mrs. Minor (as she was referred to at the time and is throughout this book) died in 1855; her farm came to a tragic end in 1858 with the rape and murder of some of her American cohort and the abandonment of Palestine by the rest.
Additional background:
In the mid-nineteenth century, Johann Adolf Grosssteinbeck (1832-1913), the grandfather of John Ernst Steinbeck (1902-1968), arrived in the Holy Land. He wished to establish an agricultural settlement in which he would train the Jews of Palestine to engage in farming and thereby hasten the advent of the Christian Messiah. A few years later the settlement was totally wiped out in a single night of terror during which the brother of John Steinbeck's grandfather was killed, his grandmother's sister and mother were raped, and all the belongings of the settlers were pillaged.
This vile act reverberated throughout the country and caused those of foreign nationality a sense of insecurity and fateful apprehension...
^
Monday, September 24, 2012
Low-Intensity Conflict Report #47
Low-Intensity Conflict Report #47, September 20, 2012
These reports are translated and publicized by Yehudit Tayar for Hatzalah Yehudah and Shomron with the clearance and confirmation of the IDF. Hatzalah Yehudah and Shomron is a voluntary emergency medical organization with over 500 volunteer doctors, paramedics, medics who are on call 24/7 and work along with the IDF, 669 IAF Airborn Rescue, the security officers and personal throughout Yesha and the Jordan Valley, and with MDA.
We, the volunteers of Hatzalah Yehudah and Shomron go out to rescue anyone who needs our emergency medical assistance; including civilians, military and Arabs also those within the PA territories. (with IDF presence) To us a life is precious and we go out at risk leaving home and family or stopping on the road to rescue anyone in need.
May this be a year of blessings, of unity of our people, and true leadership.
September 20, 2012
Attacks from Gaza:
2 mortars fall near the Security Fence in northern section. IDF troops stationed there reported hearing the explosions from the mortars.
Arab attacks on Israeli vehicles:
Between Chawara and Yitzhar Junction Arabs attack Israeli vehicles with rocks.
Gush Etzion-Hevron Highway near Bet Umar Israeli bus attacked with rocks.
Israeli bus in Sin'jal north-east of Ramallah attacked by Arabs with rocks.
Also in Luben A-Shrakia
Israeli cab driver reported to the police that on Highway 443 near Hirbat El'Mitsvach he was thrown out of his vehicle after he was beaten by 3 Arabs who stole the car. Police are investigating the incident.
Jerusalem: Israeli vehicles attacked near Silwan causing damage to windshield. Border police apprehended and arrested 1 suspect in the attacks.
Israeli bus attacked by Arabs with rocks near Tekoa causing damage.
Israeli bus near
September 19, 2012
IDF confirms: IAF and Intelligence jointly attacked a terror cell in Rafiach that planned terror attacks within Israel. 3 of the terrorists were eliminated : Hayid Anis Machmud Abu Elanin was involved in additional attempted terror attacks, smuggeling explosive devices from Gaza via Egypt into Israel. An additional terrorist, Schabul Ashraf Machmud Zalach from the "Va'adat Haitnagdut " was involved in smuggleing 2 suicide terrorists into Egypt, and dealing in sale of weapons.
Arabs attacked Israeli vehicles between Tapuach and Migdalim in the Shomron Region.
Near Tekoa several Israeli vehicles were attacked by Arabs with rocks.
Military Court in Judea sentenced Abed El Ma'gad Machmud Shafik Mutsafa to 67 months in prison for 3 planned and attempted terror attacks by shooting on the roads. He went out with other terrorists but the terror attacks were not successfully carried out in the end.
September 18, 2012
Around 200 Arabs from the Shoafat Camp attacked Police and Border Police injuring 3 of the policemen. The agitators were dispersed by the forces.
September 15, 2012
Arabs attack Shoafat checkpost with about 20 Molotov cocktails and rocks causing the injuries of 2 policemen who were evacuated to the hospital for medical care.
September 14, 2012
Israeli vehicles attacked by Arabs with rocks on the Gush Etzion-Hevron Highway at the Halhul bypass causing damage.
Arabs attack IDF post at Shoafat with rocks. 4 of the Arab attackers were arrested.
South of Shechem tens of Arabs demonstrated and blocked the highway. IDF dispersed the demonstrators and opened the road.
Israeli police attacked on the Temple Mt. in Jerusalem by Arabs with rocks.
IDF and Border Police attacked by Arabs in the villages Na'alin and Ba'alin.
Arabs attack Israeli vehicles in Abud.
Hundreds of Arabs left the Temple Mt. in Jerusalem marched towards the American Council. IDF soldiers and Border Police prevented them from reaching the Council. As a result of the rocks thrown by the demonstrators a number of policemen were injured. Arrests were made.
September 13, 2012
Between Nachliel and Neve Zuf in the Benjamin Region Israeli bus belonging to the Benjamin Development Fund attacked by Arabs with rocks.
^
These reports are translated and publicized by Yehudit Tayar for Hatzalah Yehudah and Shomron with the clearance and confirmation of the IDF. Hatzalah Yehudah and Shomron is a voluntary emergency medical organization with over 500 volunteer doctors, paramedics, medics who are on call 24/7 and work along with the IDF, 669 IAF Airborn Rescue, the security officers and personal throughout Yesha and the Jordan Valley, and with MDA.
We, the volunteers of Hatzalah Yehudah and Shomron go out to rescue anyone who needs our emergency medical assistance; including civilians, military and Arabs also those within the PA territories. (with IDF presence) To us a life is precious and we go out at risk leaving home and family or stopping on the road to rescue anyone in need.
May this be a year of blessings, of unity of our people, and true leadership.
September 20, 2012
Attacks from Gaza:
2 mortars fall near the Security Fence in northern section. IDF troops stationed there reported hearing the explosions from the mortars.
Arab attacks on Israeli vehicles:
Between Chawara and Yitzhar Junction Arabs attack Israeli vehicles with rocks.
Gush Etzion-Hevron Highway near Bet Umar Israeli bus attacked with rocks.
Israeli bus in Sin'jal north-east of Ramallah attacked by Arabs with rocks.
Also in Luben A-Shrakia
Israeli cab driver reported to the police that on Highway 443 near Hirbat El'Mitsvach he was thrown out of his vehicle after he was beaten by 3 Arabs who stole the car. Police are investigating the incident.
Jerusalem: Israeli vehicles attacked near Silwan causing damage to windshield. Border police apprehended and arrested 1 suspect in the attacks.
Israeli bus attacked by Arabs with rocks near Tekoa causing damage.
Israeli bus near
September 19, 2012
IDF confirms: IAF and Intelligence jointly attacked a terror cell in Rafiach that planned terror attacks within Israel. 3 of the terrorists were eliminated : Hayid Anis Machmud Abu Elanin was involved in additional attempted terror attacks, smuggeling explosive devices from Gaza via Egypt into Israel. An additional terrorist, Schabul Ashraf Machmud Zalach from the "Va'adat Haitnagdut " was involved in smuggleing 2 suicide terrorists into Egypt, and dealing in sale of weapons.
Arabs attacked Israeli vehicles between Tapuach and Migdalim in the Shomron Region.
Near Tekoa several Israeli vehicles were attacked by Arabs with rocks.
Military Court in Judea sentenced Abed El Ma'gad Machmud Shafik Mutsafa to 67 months in prison for 3 planned and attempted terror attacks by shooting on the roads. He went out with other terrorists but the terror attacks were not successfully carried out in the end.
September 18, 2012
Around 200 Arabs from the Shoafat Camp attacked Police and Border Police injuring 3 of the policemen. The agitators were dispersed by the forces.
September 15, 2012
Arabs attack Shoafat checkpost with about 20 Molotov cocktails and rocks causing the injuries of 2 policemen who were evacuated to the hospital for medical care.
September 14, 2012
Israeli vehicles attacked by Arabs with rocks on the Gush Etzion-Hevron Highway at the Halhul bypass causing damage.
Arabs attack IDF post at Shoafat with rocks. 4 of the Arab attackers were arrested.
South of Shechem tens of Arabs demonstrated and blocked the highway. IDF dispersed the demonstrators and opened the road.
Israeli police attacked on the Temple Mt. in Jerusalem by Arabs with rocks.
IDF and Border Police attacked by Arabs in the villages Na'alin and Ba'alin.
Arabs attack Israeli vehicles in Abud.
Hundreds of Arabs left the Temple Mt. in Jerusalem marched towards the American Council. IDF soldiers and Border Police prevented them from reaching the Council. As a result of the rocks thrown by the demonstrators a number of policemen were injured. Arrests were made.
September 13, 2012
Between Nachliel and Neve Zuf in the Benjamin Region Israeli bus belonging to the Benjamin Development Fund attacked by Arabs with rocks.
^
Jews and a Demon
One true story.
One movie.
One Matisyahu.
One dybbuk box (?), with a history.
A few taleisim.
Some hassidim.
...a dybbuk box appearing for sale on eBay sparked a mainstream interest into the mythology and history of possession in Jewish lore. Several years ago, Sam Raimi’s team of researchers heard about the events, we have mapped out, and began the long, winding journey to make a film about them.
Recommendations?
If you’re truly craving a horror movie this weekend, The Possession will be your best bet and is worth a viewing. Be warned, though…you’ll probably laugh more than you’ll shriek.__________________
Screen snaps from here.
^
My Interview at Chabad
If you go here, you can here me being interviewed, along with Dr. Michael Widlanski and Shifra Hoffman, in a three part series on the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Begin, and the Camp David Accords
^
^
Justice Overcomes the Media
The BBC has been ordered by an American court to surrender unused footage filmed for a documentary about former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to American victims of suicide bombings in Israel. In a ruling which raises questions about the ability of the American justice system to seize material held by media organisations outside the United States, a judge in New York said the Corporation was obliged to hand over outtakes from interviews with two Palestinian fighters.
...The material is being sought by lawyers representing victims and relatives of those killed by suicide bombs in attacks around Jerusalem. The group is attempting to bring a civil damages claim against the Palestinian Authority and others for allegedly funding terrorist groups behind the bombings. The victims believe that the BBC interviews with a leader of Fatah, the political movement founded by Arafat, and an alleged terrorist in the Al Aqsa Brigades in the West Bank city of Jenin, contain statements which will help prove a link between the bombings and the PA and the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO).
And
the recordings were not confidential and not covered by “journalistic privilege” designed to protect reporters’ investigations. Judge Ronald Ellis said: “The outtakes are not confidential material because the BBC is free to disseminate any portions of the interviews... Although the court is sceptical of a ‘smoking gun’ presenting itself in these outtakes, the standard for relevance to overcome the journalistic privilege is low and the outtakes meet this lower standard.”
The judgment will have the effect of forcing a non-American broadcaster to surrender unbroadcast footage from a documentary - Arafat Investigated - made almost a decade ago for a British audience.
Source
It's All Noise to Them
To Obama and Ahmadinejad.
From David Halper's blog:-
From David Halper's blog:-
In an interview to air tonight on CBS's 60 Minutes, President Barack Obama will refer to Israel's concern over Iran's march toward a nuclear program as "noise."
"When it comes to our national security decisions -- any pressure that I feel is simply to do what's right for the American people. And I am going to block out -- any noise that's out there," Obama says, according to AFP.
***
UPDATE: Here's the video and transcript:
STEVE KROFT: "How much pressure have you been getting from Prime Minister Netanyahu to make up your mind to use military force in Iran?"PRESIDENT OBAMA: "Well—look, I have conversations with Prime Minister Netanyahu all the time. And I understand and share Prime Minister Netanyahu's insistence that Iran should not obtain a nuclear weapon, because it would threaten us, it would threaten Israel, and it would threaten the world and kick off a nuclear arms race."STEVE KROFT: "You’re saying, you don't feel any pressure from Prime Minister Netanyahu in the middle of a campaign to try and get you to change your policy and draw a line in the sand? You don’t feel any pressure?"***
...UPDATE III: Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad used the same word to describe Israel in an interview with the Washington Post, as Andrea Saul notes:
IGNATIUS: “I want to ask as my first question the one every citizen of the world would like to ask today: What is the chance of a war in Iran that would result from an Israeli attack on your nuclear facilities?”AHMADINEJAD: “I have spoken about this topic at length, previously. We generally speaking do not take very seriously the issue of the Zionists and the possible dangers emanating from them. Of course they would love to find a way for their own salvation by making a lot of noise and to raise stakes in order to save themselves. But I do not believe they will succeed. Iran is also a very well recognized country and her defensive powers are very clear.”
It's Okay to Refer to the PA in Nazi-like Terms
After all, Hamas does it:
On the other hand, four days ago
^
PA goes Gestapo-Style: Teacher dismissed on grounds of political affiliation goes on hunger strike in Nablus
September 24, 2012
NABLUS, (PIC)– Ahmed Mustafa Wahdan, a teacher from Nablus in northern West Bank, launched on Sunday an open-ended hunger strike protesting his dismissal from his work and demanding to return to his job. Wahdan, a school teacher, had been dismissed from his job on December 1, 2011 because of political affiliation, together with hundreds of other employees who have been also dismissed from their jobs by Fayyad government, under the pretext of their affiliation with the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas.
On the other hand, four days ago
Israeli authorities freed Friday a Hamas activist from Nablus in the northern West Bank after 10 months in custody, a human rights group said.
^
Samarian Vineyards and Tourism
Excerpts from this story:-
Living without solutions in Samaria
^
Living without solutions in Samaria
SAMARIA - I am in Samaria, the northern half of the West Bank, inside a cement shed in a drab industrial park loaded with high-tech equipment, hearing a harangue by a fiftyish fellow wearing a knit skullcap , a torn t-shirt, shorts and sandals. His name is Amichai Lourie...His specialty is Merlot.
"It's an unforgiving grape. With Cabernet, you can make a mistake or two and still get a decent wine, but Merlot requires perfection from harvest to fermenting to aging." Anything easier wouldn't interest the Pennsylvania-born vintner, who won't be deprived of the chance to be part of a miracle.
Wine might seem a distraction as the Oslo accords disintegrate...Wine has geopolitical significance on the West Bank. Samaria's wine boutiques help explain why the Jewish presence in ancient Judea and Samaria has become a permanent fact of life in the region. Like Mr Lourie, the winemakers of Samaria are on a mission from God. The region is in ferment, but not the way you might think.
When the first settlers reclaimed the wasteland in what now is known as the West Bank late in the 19th century, they wondered whether grapes had ever grown in the region...
Lourie's Shiloh winery took the top prizes at Israel's main wine competition, but he's one of several settler-vintners who set out to turn what the international media call the Occupied West Bank into Israel's Napa Valley. Next door to his winery, ancient Israel kept the Ark of the Covenant for the 400 years preceding King David's conquest of Jerusalem in BCE 1000...Ten minutes from Shiloh is the Psagot Winery...
There are lots of ways to expel armies, but no-one has yet discovered a way to keep away tourists. Samaria attracted a trickle of 40,000 tourists last year, and except for the Psagot facility, there were few places for them to spend money. The mix of biblical history and high-end winemaking, though, might prove irresistible. Shiloh, ancient Israel's capital during the four centuries before David's conquest of Jerusalem, will have its first multimedia visitor's center next year. In a year or two, some of the wineries will have Napa-style restaurants. One can almost hear the distant thunder of tour buses roaring up Route 60...
...The national-religious contingent has a love affair with the land and a deep sense of its sanctity. They put the same passion into cultivation, with striking results. The best Samaria wines have more in common with great European wines than with the consistent, pleasant products of California: they have a unique terroir, or earthiness, the idiosyncratic complexity that comes from a special combination of soil and climate. The vintners want the biblical earth to bear witness to its special blessing. That's what keeps Shiloh's Lourie up all night in the vineyards during harvest.
From the back yard of her hilltop home in Eli, Sara Klein points to green vineyards below the hill of Shiloh. "That's where the girls danced in the vineyards at harvest time," she says, citing Judges 21. The Bible reports winemaking two and a half millennia ago...
...Few Israelis still think that conceding territory to the Palestinians will bring peace. Even those who favor land for peace are inclined to argue that less peace merits less land...
..."We have to focus on economics," Ms Klein states, and the greatest potential is in tourism. This is the biblical heartland, just half an hour by bus from Jerusalem. It is arresting hill country, with historic associations at every turn in the road. The Christian pilgrims who pack Jerusalem to walk the Via Dolorosa well might take an afternoon on the Road of the Patriarchs, with a wine-tasting from biblical vineyards. For someone who takes Hebrew Scripture in earnest, like this writer, the mixture of taste, sight and memory is heady stuff.
...What about all the people who are looking to the settlements for a solution to the world's problems?, I asked Ms Klein. "Sometimes you have to live without a solution," she replies. In a way, the settlers are a last redoubt of realism. The local situation is hopeless, but not serious, and the region's future belongs to those who dig in and get on with life.
^
So Who Is Pre-Empting Who?
And the New York Times has published an op-ed that asserts, nefariously -
"Blatant"? "Manipulation"?
Why not "overt attempt to persuade..."? After all, the guy is an English studies major.
But now there's this that sort of makes his dig worthless:
Who, then, should be pre-empting who?
But of course, making statements of destruction and eradication while proceeding to development weapons of mass destruction while Israel has never made any threat against Iran is ignored by this Buddhist returnee, Pankaj Mishra, who had coined the term modern spiritual tourists to describe Americans and Europeans who jet off to India. He was interviewed and said
His sympathy is quite limited to those conscripted with a harsh liefe-experience like protecting their fellow citizens from Islamic terror, et al.
few people in the Muslim world have missed the Israeli prime minister’s blatant manipulation of American politics for the sake of a pre-emptive assault on Iran.
"Blatant"? "Manipulation"?
Why not "overt attempt to persuade..."? After all, the guy is an English studies major.
But now there's this that sort of makes his dig worthless:
Iran could launch a pre-emptive strike on Israel if it was sure the Jewish state was preparing to attack it, a senior commander of its elite Revolutionary Guards was quoted as saying yesterday.
Brig Gen Amir Ali Hajizadeh made the comments to state-run al-Alam television. “Iran will not start any war but it could launch a pre-emptive attack if it was sure that the enemies are putting the final touches to attack it,” al-Alam said, paraphrasing the commander.
Brig Gen Hajizadeh said any attack on Iranian soil could trigger “World War Three”.
“We can not imagine the Zionist regime starting a war without America’s support. Therefore, in case of a war, we will get into a war with both of them and we will certainly get into a conflict with American bases,” he said.
Who, then, should be pre-empting who?
But of course, making statements of destruction and eradication while proceeding to development weapons of mass destruction while Israel has never made any threat against Iran is ignored by this Buddhist returnee, Pankaj Mishra, who had coined the term modern spiritual tourists to describe Americans and Europeans who jet off to India. He was interviewed and said
...I think I was most hard on them before I visited the West. Coming to America and Western Europe, I began to see what they were trying to escape: the hyperorganized, hypermodern society where the pressure to have a professional career and dress in a certain way is intense. The ’60s was the last time when large groups of people in the West searched for alternative modes of being. In a society like India’s, which is still not fully modern or totally organized, and has a great deal of tolerance for otherness in general, they find the cultural license to try other things, to be whatever they want to be. I see this most recently with the large number of Israelis flocking to India, which is an extraordinary phenomenon. In India, Buddhism, Hinduism, drugs, sex is for them a way of escaping what is essentially an extremely harsh life as a conscripted young man or woman in Israel. I find it’s hard not to be sympathetic to them, however outlandish their behavior might be—they can be very aggressive with the locals.
His sympathy is quite limited to those conscripted with a harsh liefe-experience like protecting their fellow citizens from Islamic terror, et al.
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