Who Is She?

I had seen her before in other pictures but now I thought why not try to identify her.

It's from this clip at 8:05 -

She was accompanying Ariel Sharon on his ascent to tour the Temple Mount in September 2000.

Was she a reporter?

A guard?

An aide or assistant?

Anyone know?

_________________________

Maybe Iris Goldman-Kahanovitz who passed away from cancer in 2012.

I have made inquiries.

(thanks to MikeC)

=============

UPDATE

Yes, I have confirmation.

Iris Goldman at that time was Sharon's Media Advisor-Spokeperson and she accompanied him on the Temple Mount visit.

Her husband left me this note that she did not leave a written account but:

היא בעיקר סיפרה שחטפה מרפקים משוטרי היס״מ שהקיפו את שרון, הם היו די

 לחוצים ואלימים כלפי כל מי שהסתובב סביבו. רוב הזמן היא רדפה אחריו בהר
 הבית

"she mostly related that she was roughly pushed about by the special Yassam Forces being elbowed as they closely guarded Sharon as they were quite pressured and violent towrad anyone in Sharon's vicinity.  Most of the time she spent chasing after him there on the Temple Mount."

^

In Memory of Ariel Sharon

The Fourteen Points of Reservation of the Roadmap from May 25, 2003 that weren't accepted --- and unraveled his peace plans:

SHARON’S 14 POINTS          

1. Both at the commencement of, and during the process, and as a condition to its continuance, calm will be maintained. The Palestinians will dismantle the existing security organizations and implement security reforms during the course of which new organizations will be formed and act to combat terror, violence and incitement (incitement must cease immediately and the Palestinian Authority must educate for peace).

These organizations will engage in genuine prevention of terror and violence through arrests, interrogations, prevention and the enforcement of the legal groundwork for investigations, prosecution and punishment. In the first phase of the plan and as a condition for progress to the second phase, the Palestinians will complete the dismantling of terrorist organizations (Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front, the Democratic Front, Al-Aqsa Brigades and other apparatuses) and their infrastructure; collection of all illegal weapons and their transfer to a third party for the sake of being removed from the area and destroyed; cessation of weapons smuggling and weapons production inside the Palestinian Authority; activation of the full prevention apparatus and cessation of incitement.

There will be no progress to the second phase without the fulfillment of all above-mentioned conditions relating to the war against terror. The security plans to be implemented are the Tenet and Zinni plans. [As in the other mutual frameworks, the road map will not state that Israel must cease violence and incitement against the Palestinians].

2. Full performance will be a condition for progress between phases and for progress within phases. The first condition for progress will be the complete cessation of terror, violence and incitement. Progress between phases will come only following the full implementation of the preceding phase. Attention will be paid not to time lines, but to performance benchmarks (time lines will serve only as reference points).

3. The emergence of a new and different leadership in the Palestinian Authority within the framework of governmental reform. The formation of a new leadership constitutes a condition for progress to the second phase of the plan. In this framework, elections will be conducted for the Palestinian Legislative Council following coordination with Israel.

4. The Monitoring mechanism will be under American management. The chief verification activity will concentrate upon the creation of another Palestinian entity and progress in the civil reform process within the Palestinian Authority. Verification will be performed exclusively on a professional basis and per issue (economic, legal, financial) without the existence of a combined or unified mechanism. Substantive decisions will remain in the hands of both parties.

5. The character of the provisional Palestinian state will be determined through negotiations between the Palestinian Authority and Israel. The provisional state will have provisional borders and certain aspects of sovereignty, be fully demilitarized with no military forces, but only with police and internal security forces of limited scope and armaments, be without the authority to undertake defense alliances or military cooperation, and Israeli control over the entry and exit of all persons and cargo, as well as of its air space and electromagnetic spectrum.

6. In connection to both the introductory statements and the final settlement, declared references must be made to Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state and to the waiver of any right of return for Palestinian refugees to the State of Israel.

7. End of the process will lead to the end of all claims and not only the end of the conflict.

8. The future settlement will be reached through agreement and direct negotiations between the two parties, in accordance with the vision outlined by President Bush in his 24 June address.

9. There will be no involvement with issues pertaining to the final settlement. Among issues not to be discussed: settlement in Judea, Samaria and Gaza (excluding a settlement freeze and illegal outposts); the status of the Palestinian Authority and its institutions in Jerusalem; and all other matters whose substance relates to the final settlement.

10. The removal of references other than 242 and 338 (1397, the Saudi Initiative and the Arab Initiative adopted in Beirut). A settlement based upon the road map will be an autonomous settlement that derives its validity therefrom. The only possible reference should be to Resolutions 242 and 338, and then only as an outline for the conduct of future negotiations on a permanent settlement.

11. Promotion of the reform process in the Palestinian Authority: a transitional Palestinian constitution will be composed, a Palestinian legal infrastructure will be constructed and cooperation with Israel in this field will be renewed. In the economic sphere: international efforts to rehabilitate the Palestinian economy will continue. In the financial sphere: the American-Israeli-Palestinian agreement will be implemented in full as a condition for the continued transfer of tax revenues.

12. The deployment of IDF forces along the September 2000 lines will be subject to the stipulation of Article 4 (absolute quiet) and will be carried out in keeping with changes to be required by the nature of the new circumstances and needs created thereby. Emphasis will be placed on the division of responsibilities and civilian authority as in September 2000, and not on the position of forces on the ground at that time.

13. Subject to security conditions, Israel will work to restore Palestinian life to normal: promote the economic situation, cultivation of commercial connections, encouragement and assistance for the activities of recognized humanitarian agencies. No reference will be made to the Bertini Report as a binding source document within the framework of the humanitarian issue.

14. Arab states will assist the process through the condemnation of terrorist activity. No link will be established between the Palestinian track and other tracks (Syrian-Lebanese).

All rejected.

And this of Sharon, from June 2005:

... more important than anything else is the understanding we reached with the Americans that, in negotiations for the final agreement, they will support our stand on two essential issues for ensuring our future - keeping the settlement blocs in Israeli territory and preventing the entry of Palestinian refugees into the State of Israel. And this, of course, in addition to a series of other topics which appear in the agreement between President Bush and me. No previous government was successful in obtaining such commitments from the American administration in the past.These understandings, written commitments signed by the President of the United States, and later overwhelmingly endorsed by both Houses of Congress, are the best guarantee of ensuring the character of the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic nation.

indicates that with an administration like Obama's, all such dependence is for naught.

^

The London Times' Inflammatory Writing

The world's press has been reformulating their accusation against Ariel Sharon being the catalyst for the outbreak of the Second Intifada after many media watch groups have prioritized their vigilance (see here).

Here is from the leader in today's London Times:

When, as Likud’s new leader, he visited the Temple Mount, among Islam’s holiest shrines, in 2000, he was accused of inflammatory behaviour. 

Of course, it is easy just to write that he was "accused of inflammatory behaviour" and make a quick exit.  But the paper erred, nevertheless.

To refer to the Temple Mount as being "among Islam’s holiest shrines" is but half the story.

First of all, let's be specific. It is the third most sacred site for that religion, after Mecca and Medina, even if its qibla value for prayer rates quite high [Book 20, Hadith 3: “A prayer in the Sacred Mosque [in Makkah] is worth 100,000 prayers, a prayer in my mosque [in Madinah] is worth 1,000, and a prayer in Jerusalem [al-Aqsa Mosque] is worth 500 prayers more than in any other mosque.” (Reported by Bukhari).

Secondly, Muhammed's outreach to Jews was rejected:

the unwillingness of the People of the Book (Jews and Christians) to follow the Qibla of Islam [after it was changed to face Mecca just over 16 months after Hijra rather than Jerusalem]: "Even if thou wert to bring to the people of the Book all the Signs (together), they would not follow Thy Qibla; nor art thou going to follow their Qibla; nor indeed will they follow each other's Qibla. If thou after the knowledge hath reached thee, Wert to follow their (vain) desires,-then wert thou Indeed (clearly) in the wrong." (Quran 2:145)

Thirdly, the fate of those Jews that preferred not to join Muhammed was horrific: beheading and enslavement.

Fourth, it is unfortunate that the paper did not state that the Temple Mount is Judaism's most and, indeed, only holy site, taken over by the Muslim conquest of the Holy Land in 638 CE. 

Fifth, the purpose was to make clear, as Sharon himself stated after the visit, that

"It is the right of every Jew to visit the Temple Mount".  

If more toleration were displayed instead of Arab violent rock-throwing, many lives, on both sides, could have been saved and peace would have been furthered.

And if the paper were more concerned with all the facts, I would not think that it was being inflammatory itself.

^

Would You Believe Human Rights Watch?

One of the albatrosses around Ariel Sharon's image neck was the Sabra and Shatilla massacre.

You might have read this today:

Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued a statement on Saturday, stressing that Sharon “died without facing justice for his role in the massacres of hundreds and perhaps thousands of civilians by Lebanese militias in the Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps in Lebanon in 1982.”... The militias killed between 700 and 800 people, according to Israeli military intelligence estimates; other estimates were much higher. The dead included infants, children, pregnant women, and the elderly, some of whose bodies were found to have been mutilated.

Uri Dan, in his "Blood Libel", quotes on page 15 from the report by Assad Germanos who found that 460 had been killed in the camps but only 15 were women and 30 children.  The majority of those killed were of the age of terrorists.

Thomas Friedman vehemently disagreed not only with those findings but with the man and his mission.

In a letter-to-the-editor to his own newspaper (!), he wrote, in part, 

...the only organization that kept even partial records of the dead was the International Committee of the Red Cross, which helped to bury many of them in a mass grave. The committee, according to its report, which is available in its Beirut office, listed 356 people as having been buried - 146 by friends and relatives and 210 by the Red Cross. Of the 210 the Red Cross buried, 38 were women, 32 were children and 140 were men of all ages. The same one-to-three proportion of women and children to men is assumed to apply to the other 146 known buried and the other several hundred buried by family and never recorded - a far cry from Mr. Roche's figures.

He also surmised a supposition after making an assumption there above:-

...No doubt many young Palestinians of fighting age were killed. I saw bodies of all ages. But I have news for Mr. Roche: if there had been as many ''terrorists'' in the camp as he claims, they would have been strong enough to defend themselves and there never would have been a massacre. 

Who, or what do you believe?

And read EOZ.



^ 

For the Record: The Hilltop Elder

From a Press briefing by Foreign Minister Sharon at the National Press Club, Washington, 7 December 1998.

Foreign Minister Sharon was queried about a statement he made on 15 November in which he urged Jewish settlers in the West Bank to expand settlements. He replied that Israel was not creating new settlements, but expanding existing ones, which was permissible under the Oslo agreements...Text:

...Question: The Wye agreement in Article 5, bans unilateral actions by either side, pending a final-status agreement. How do you define "expansion of settlements" as being "not unilateral"?


Foreign Minister Sharon: The Israeli government made it very, very clear that as long as we have not reached a permanent agreement, Israel will not build new settlements or communities in Samaria and Judea. We made this very clear. And that is what we are doing. We are not establishing any new settlements. At the same time, there was a very clear government resolution demanding the strengthening, building, developing of existing settlements - that is the line of the government, and that is exactly what we are doing. It was a very clear Cabinet decision. That's what we have done, and that's what we are doing.

As a matter of fact, not in the Oslo agreement and not in Wye agreement was even one word written about adding population to existing settlements. At the same time, because you ask what I will regard to be unilateral, I would say declaration of a Palestinian state - that is something which is all-out against the agreement. Therefore, we of course advise and recommend the Palestinians all the time not to take any unilateral steps.


Question: Could I just follow it up? Your recent statement about urging the settlers to take advantage of time to build and expand on the hilltops - does that still represent the Israeli government policies?

Foreign Minister Sharon: Look, I admit that maybe it's not exactly a diplomatic expression of a Minister of Foreign Affairs. But I want to give you an answer. I said that once I heard the Palestinian Authority Chairman calling to use guns, and I saw that in order to avoid the danger of using guns, the best thing might be just to hold in our hands those hills that control those Jewish communities. All that - and that has been said very clearly - is within the master plan of those towns and settlements; not beyond that, and without any expropriation of private land to state-owned land, and that is exactly what has been done.

^

The Humor of Hindsight

Remember this exchange:

QUESTION: Minister Lieberman...about some interesting proposals on settlements. Could you elaborate on what they might be?...And then for Secretary Clinton, does that mean there is some wiggle room to your statement that there should be no such settlement activity?

FOREIGN MINISTER LIEBERMAN: ...we cannot accept – we cannot accept this vision about absolutely completely freezing call for our settlements. I think that we must keep the natural growth. Prime minister spoke about this in his speech. I think that this position, it’s – this view, this approach, it’s very clear.

SECRETARY CLINTON: ...we want to see a stop to the settlements...And in looking at the history of the Bush Administration, there were no informal or oral enforceable agreements. That has been verified by the official record of the Administration and by the personnel in the positions of responsibility...

Well, we dug into whatever we dig into and we found this picture in the Jerusalem Post:



My captions:

1. "So, do you think that in four years time they'll claim we didn't reach understandings with them?"

2. "Why isn't anyone writing these minutes down?"

3. "Do you think we should leak the full contents of our talks with some senior Democrats? Columnists like Charles Krauthammer? Tom Friedman? David Ignatius? By the way, who is Roger Cohen?"

4. "When do I leak these conversations to Akiva Eldar?"
"No, that won't help. Maybe Yoel Marcus."


Do you have any suggestions?

Good News. Bad News

Good news and bad news for Ariel Sharon:-

Doctors called it a miracle. A Southern Colorado woman was in a vegetative state for more than six years, talked for the first time, speaking exclusively to 11 News.

Christa Lilly has since relapsed.

Uri Dan Had Opinions

Uri Dromi reviewed Uri Dan's last book on Ariel Sharon and wrote:-

On September 13, 1993, I stood beside Uri Dan on the White House lawn. As the director of Israel's Government Press Office under prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, I was in charge of the Israeli journalists who had traveled there to witness the historic ceremony of reconciliation between the Israeli and Palestinian peoples. A question hovered in the air: Would the two old enemies, Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat, shake hands?

The officials came out of the White House and walked toward the small, tense audience assembled on the lawn. And then Bill Clinton, with his trademark charm, turned the two men toward each other: an enthusiastic Arafat and a dour-faced Rabin who, gripped by a visceral sense of foreboding, wanted nothing more than to be somewhere else at that moment. Then, the inconceivable happened: They shook hands, and a roar of joy went up from the audience. Even cynical longtime journalists could not disguise their enthusiasm. Everyone joined the celebrations.

Everyone, that is, except Uri Dan. The veteran reporter, who died in December at age 71, stood beside me frowning and said to his colleagues in disgust: "What are you so happy about? Many funerals will come out of this wedding." We all looked at him with pity: Here was the professional spoilsport, unable to give credit for success to anyone except his master, Ariel Sharon.

Years passed and indeed, that wedding was followed by many funerals, many eulogies in both Hebrew and Arabic.