They Met Everyone Except Someone Like Me & My Friends

The American Conservative magazine carries a story about a group of Church people seeking peace in the Middle East.

It is quite readable and you can find the full text here.

Of course, they met everybody but someone who livian Jewish community.

Here are some excerpts:-

Two months prior to our arrival, Hamas had won the Palestinian election, and no Palestinian who met with us — none of whom were Hamas voters — failed to express pride in the vigorous and fair electoral process. “A successful delivery, but a sick baby” remarked an aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Sick and near death, too, is the peace process that had infused the region with hope in the early 1990s.

In retrospect, it may be that these hopes, which glowed so brightly among the Israeli Left and center and among virtually all Palestinians, were based on a misunderstanding: the Palestinians believed that in return for their recognition of Israel and renunciation of their claim to historic Palestine, they would achieve a viable and fully sovereign state on the West Bank and Gaza, the territories seized by Israel in the 1967 War; the Israelis believed they could give up nothing they really wanted for themselves and be rid of their Palestinian problem once and for all.

- - - -

This anyway was the dire impression our group received during a week of meetings in Bethlehem and Jerusalem with Palestinian intellectuals and activists, Israeli human-rights organizations, the archbishops and officials of the main Christian churches, and international relief workers. Except for an Israeli brigadier general who was an eloquent advocate of his government’s point of view and the American consul general, who was a caricature of smugness and nonchalance about the looming humanitarian collapse of the West Bank, everyone we spoke with was somber.

- - - -

And so one can imagine that Palestine might yet become what it has never been, a recruiting ground for al-Qaeda, or, as B’Tselem’s executive director, Jessica Montell, puts it, “a swamp for breeding terrorists around the world.” The California-born Montell is young, dynamic, still seems American—and leads one to wonder how it happens that a liberal Jewish woman who made aliyah has a better sense of the strategic realities of the war on terror than 99 percent of those in the U.S. Congress. B’Tselem may be the foremost purveyor of research and documentation of the impact of Israeli policies on the Palestinian Arabs. Its point of view, of course, is not widely shared in Israel. Indeed, Montell explains, the dominant attitude is that the Palestinian problem is over as far as Israel is concerned. “They voted for Hamas” and Israel has “no partner” are the phrases one hears repeatedly.

So what are the options, beyond despair and waiting for the situation to deteriorate further? Mitri Raheb is a Palestinian Lutheran who has created the International Center of Bethlehem. He is a theologian, slight, balding, intense—an intellectual who can find new things to say about a situation that generates millions of words of commentary every week. His center, built with funds raised in Europe, is a testament to his vision: it is time for Palestinians to “stop whining” and begin to build their own institutions.

Raheb remains, just barely, an advocate of the two-state solution, but his mild demeanor softens what is an edgier analysis. “The state called Palestine has failed,” he says, but “whenever Jewish leaders come, we tell them the whole project of Israel has also failed. The ghettoizing of Palestinians cannot be the fulfillment of the Jewish dream. … If you read the Bible seriously, a project called Israel never succeeded. Its leaders sinned against God. A national state can never be the answer to people’s aspirations. … It is a time for repentance. Israel has been calling for churches to do repentance for years. Now it is time for Israel to do repentance. I know this is tough to say in the U.S., but most church people are cowardly and won’t speak the truth.”

But Is He a "Settler"?

Seth may be stupid, he may even be a criminal but is he a settler?

Haaretz is reporting:-

Settler charged over smuggling rifles from U.S.

A resident of the West Bank settlement of Tapuah was indicted Wednesday for allegedly smuggling sniper rifles from the United States.

Jeffrey Emanuel Seth, 39, was charged with illegally importing and possessing weapons, ammunition, and additional equipment from the U.S.

Seth, a new immigrant from the U.S., was arrested at the Haifa port June 11 after claiming a shipping container that contained a snipers' rifle, a bullet-making machine, gunpowder and cartridges that he had sent to himself from the U.S.

According to the charge sheet, the container imported from the U.S. contained two sniper rifles, 6,500 empty bullet cartridges and 49 boxes, each of which contained 100 bullet caps.

Seth arrived in Israel in March, and was known in Tapuah by the name Shmuel Zatam.

He arrived in March and was arrested in June. That's maybe three months by my count. I would think that if a generic term was justified it should have been "new immigrant" rather than "settler" (or revenant).

But this is Haaretz after all.

The Art of Letter-writing

As my blog readers know, I am a letter writer. The challenge of disproving a thesis, showing the facts are wrong, presenting a more thruthful perspective and trying to rank-out the other person is a challenge I seek and, to be modest, seem to do well.

Give me 150 words or less and it is a challenge.

Two years ago or so, I met with a CAMERA [female] person and suggested they reprint the letters that get published and send them out so that (a) others can see how a good letter reads (and should be therefore written); (b) others can learn about facts; and (c) the letter writer gets to schep nachas.

They took my advice, thankfully.

Anyway, that was an introduction to my publishing some letters that were published in today's NYTimes "Letters to the Editor" section (although the first one is an example of how people exploit a letter to pervert reality and truth - but that, too, is a lesson to learn from):-

Making Demands on Israel and Hamas (5 Letters)

To the Editor:

In "A Problem That Can't Be Ignored" (editorial, June 17), you make the proposal that as a precondition for peace in the Middle East, Hamas needs to renounce terrorism, acknowledge Israel's existence as a sovereign nation and abide by formal agreements previously signed by lawful Palestinian negotiators.

These are fair requests that regrettably are not followed by similar requests of the government of Israel.

To be truly balanced, your proposal should include that the Israeli government needs to stop the killing of Palestinian civilians, including women and children, recognize a viable Palestinian state, and stop the unlawful seizure of Palestinian land.

Cesar Chelala
New York, June 18, 2006
•

You write (editorial, June 17), "Already, rockets are raining down again on innocent Israeli and Palestinian civilians, inflaming passions on both sides."

It's one thing to take an evenhanded approach to the "problem"; it's another thing, however, to fail to distinguish between the rockets the Palestinian militants-terrorists routinely launch on innocent Israeli civilians — which are specifically intended to inflict as many civilian casualties as possible — and the rockets that Israel's military allegedly "rained down" on innocent Palestinian civilians (still a matter of dispute with respect to the Gaza beach incident), which are specifically designed to avoid civilian casualties.

There is a fundamental — and moral — difference between inflicting civilian casualties as an unfortunate byproduct of defending against terrorists as opposed to inflicting civilian casualties as a modus operandi.

While both may "inflame passions," they are hardly equivalent.

Ari M. Berman
New York, June 18, 2006
•

Your call for the Arab countries to get involved and the United States to stay involved in the continuing and deteriorating conflict in the Middle East is timely and important. It is surely, as you imply, one more piece of fodder for the cause of international terrorism.

But your editorial does ignore one extremely important truth, and that is that the Israeli-Palestinian issue is not a quid-pro-quo peace settlement awaiting an implementation.

The "battlefield/playing field" is uneven and tilted powerfully against the Palestinian people. The death and casualty numbers for each of the parties to this conflict tragically illustrate this imbalance.

The Palestinians are an oppressed people in dire need of social, economic, health and security assistance. What security forces they do have are ill equipped and often undisciplined and are pitted not only against internal warring factions but also against one of the largest militaries in the world, backed by the world's leading military power.

Before there can be any just and therefore lasting peace settlement in the Middle East, this gross imbalance must be acknowledged and addressed by the United States, Israel's chief international sponsor and the only nation on the planet Israel will, perhaps, obey.

Frederick W. Nairn
Minnetonka, Minn., June 17, 2006
•

Re "4 Months Into Aid Cutoff, Gazans Barely Scrape By" (news article, June 18):

Your article about the inability of Palestinians living in Gaza and the West Bank to obtain sufficient food because of a lack of funds was more poignant than usual.

But over the last several months the various Palestinian groups have continued to bombard Israel with rockets. How do they get enough money to support their continued bombing and terrorist activities?

It seems to me that a better use for this money would be to help local residents with food and other living expenses.

There is something incongruous about the Palestinians' complaining to the world that they need financial help while continuing to spend on military activities. Jerrold

P. Katz
Auburndale, Mass., June 18, 2006
•

As I read your article detailing the suffering of many Palestinians, one thought kept gnawing away at me.

The Palestinian people voted Hamas into power in the recent election. In doing so, the Palestinians officially committed their government to a policy calling for the destruction of Israel through the use of terror, which targets civilians to be maimed and murdered.

While human suffering is always sad, sometimes it can be educational and beneficial. How else will a people learn from its mistakes unless it sees its evil designs boomerang back into its own face?

I pray for the day when the Palestinian people will force their government to seek genuine peace rather than the destruction of another people.

Yaacov Lerner
Great Neck, N.Y., June 19, 2006

Oh, and if you read Hebrew, here's my letter published today in the Book Magazine Supplement of Haaretz responding to Professor Anita Shapira's claim that Menachem Begin referred to all his opponents as "nazis" (ridiculous).

There Goes a Bit of Democracy

Justice Minister Haim Ramon (with whom I attended the special Shaliach [Emmissary] Seminar of the Jewish Agency in 1974-75 at Kiryat Moriah) is sounding the death knell for freedom of expression in Israel.

In addition, he is (oh, no!) circumventing the judicial decisions that Aaron Barak, Chief Supreme Court Justice, has set out as a measure.

Haaretz reports:

The Knesset yesterday approved by a 7-2 majority, with two abstentions, the first reading of a bill on incitement seeking to increase the state's ability to file indictments on charges of incitement to violence.

The bill, which constitutes an amendment to a penal-code clause "forbidding calling and inciting to violence," eliminates the need for a likelihood test when there is "a real possibility" that the call to violence will cause actual violence. Justice Minister Haim Ramon says the amendment is necessary because the current law makes it nearly impossible to try anyone for incitement.

That "real possibility" test is what makes Israel a liberal democracy. Its elimination undoes all that character.

Will Israel's liberal and progressive forces rise to the occasion?

My Comment on Daniel Pipes Blog

Here's my comment on Daniel Pipes' blog in response to this article of his on Jerusalem that was published in the NYSun.

Isaiah 49:17

Gershom Gorenber I have sparred with on a number of occasions, primarily before visiting American Jewish groups.

His latest attack, a book on the Jewish civilian communities populated by revenants in the area intended to be part of the Jewish national home merited a laudatory (what else?) review in the New York Review of Books (where elese?)

An excerpt:

The settlement project remains a main, some say the main, impediment to a historic compromise to end a hundred-year war between two national movements over the same piece of real estate.

How this mini-empire first came into being after the brief 1967 war is brilliantly described by Gershom Gorenberg in The Accidental Empire, his masterly book based on original research. The empire was not founded in a fit of absentmindedness, as was once (wrongly) said of the British Empire, but as Gorenberg's documentation shows, it was the result of deliberate decisions by Israeli governments of the left and the right. In a book that could have served as a telling additional chapter in Barbara Tuchman's The March of Folly, he shows how only seven months after the 1967 war there were already eight hundred settlers living in the West Bank.

Isaiah 49:17

You Know, Tzippi, I Don't Think So

Our Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni's office just released this statement of hers:-

Regarding the conflict in the Middle East, I believe that Israel and the EU share the same values as well as a common understanding: that two nation-states, living side by side in peace and security, is the just and right solution to the conflict.

I don't think this statement is all that true.

One problem, if that is so, is that the EU truly seeks to undermine Israel's sovereignty and security. (It funds Halper's group: Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions which manipulates shameful propaganda practices, among many others and some others.

And secondly, maybe Livni is convinced herself that the statemnt is true and we have of Foreign Minister who is on the outside looking in?

Reconstructing History

Deir Yassin is a major issue in the Israel-Arab conflict.

What exactly happened there? Who did what? How many? Etc., etc., etc.

Well, remember the "Black Hole of Calcutta" affair?

Well, there's a new book out and see what happens to a "well-known" incident:-

Like the Charge of the Light Brigade and the Miracle of Dunkirk that came later, the Black Hole of Calcutta is one of those iconic episodes in British history in which an abject defeat is somehow transformed into a matter of national pride. The bare outline of the story is well known. On the evening of June 20, 1756, the hottest of the year, more than a hundred English, French, Dutch and Portuguese members of Calcutta's European community were herded into a small airless cell known as the 'Black Hole' by the troops of the dastardly Nawab Siraj-ud-daula of Bengal. When the door was opened in the morning, only a handful were still alive; the rest had died of thirst, suffocation, and from wounds received during the fierce battle for Calcutta.

Thanks to Curzon, the 'myths' of the Black Hole have endured to this day. Yet no two contemporary accounts seem to agree, and historians are still divided as to the number of fatalities: estimates range from 132 to three, with Linda Colley, in her recent book Captives, plumping for 40 captives and just eight dead. This lack of clear factual information made it easy to weave a myth. 'There was, after all, little solid evidence to get in the way,' writes Dalley, 'there were no pictures to establish a record, and because the old fort… was eventually demolished… there was not even a site to be visited.'

Curzon's view was heavily influenced by the American Mark Twain who, having visited India in the 1850s, wrote: 'It was the ghastly episode of the Black Hole that maddened the British and brought [Robert] Clive, that young military marvel, raging up from Madras; it was the seed from which sprung Plassey; and it was that extraordinary battle, whose like had not been seen in the earth since Agincourt, that laid deep and strong the foundations of England's colossal Indian sovereignty.'

Dalley is not wholly convinced. Yes, Clive sailed from Madras on hearing the news from Calcutta; and, yes, he re-took the city, won the battle of Plassey and established a sympathetic ruler, Mir Jaffir, on the throne of Bengal. But he achieved this 'by politicking and intrigue and deals done in advance rather than by a military feat to rival Agincourt'. Moreover the idea that the British government did this out of outrage is 'not accurate' for the simple reason that 'news took so long to travel that Britain didn't even know about the loss of Calcutta until well after it had been regained'. Yet Twain and Curzon were right to see the loss of Calcutta as a turning-point, 'not only a profound change in the avowed intentions of the East India Company but a springboard for the imperial expansion that swiftly followed'.

Few Britons emerge from Dalley's account with any credit: the military commander ignored warnings that the defences of Calcutta were weak; the governor's foolish letters to Siraj only made matters worse; and both left on ships before the final attack, leaving their subordinates to their fate. Even John Holwell, the 'hero' of the defence who left a highly fanciful account of the Black Hole, is criticised by Dalley for fighting on for too long and incurring unnecessary casualties.

As for the Hole itself, it was originally a British military prison and the sort of place where prisoners were 'usually put'. Siraj, we learn, had gone off for the night and was 'not interested in the details'. If anyone was to blame for the decision to pack so many people into so small a space - if indeed that ever happened - then it was probably an Indian merchant called Omichand who had fallen out with the British.

Insight

From a book review:-

That said, there is a degree of commonality about how international affairs are viewed across the Muslim world which is simply not shared by the West. He acknowledges this unconsciously when he writes of the widespread Muslim sense of humiliation at the hands of the West over the centuries.

What he does not say is that Muslims are bound, to varying degrees, by their membership of the ummah (the global community of Muslims) to a much greater extent than is the case among Christians. This fact goes a long way to explaining the commonality.

In Pakistan he wonders, for instance, why millions have demonstrated against the war in Iraq, but not one demonstration (up to that point) has been held in a Muslim country against terrorism.

Anyone who has travelled widely in the Muslim world will recognise the truth in his observation that rarely has he felt fear during his travels. They will also share Burke's frustration at the intellectual laziness of the blame-it-all-on-the-Jews take on world affairs.

Yet Burke is no romantic when it comes to his assessment of the Muslim world. He cringes at the 'ridiculous' statement that 'Islam is a religion of peace', preferring instead to observe that 'any faith is what its believers make of it'.

What he doesn't say is that every time there is a terrorist attack anywhere in the world, there is a good chance that the person or persons behind it is Muslim. An uncomfortable observation, but one that it is difficult to refute.

How (Good?) Ideas Can Go Wrong

One proposal to solve Israel's internal situation with its Arab citizens who now insist on referring to themselves as Palestinian Arabs holding Israeli citizenship is some form of ethnic-based autonomy (mentioned in passing here and here and here.

Well, without being that exact, see what can wrong with this idea in other places and it surely echoes some matters that we have to deal with in Israel:-

Power of Scottish MPs 'a threat to UK'

Growing anger in England over the power that Scottish MPs wield at Westminster could destroy the 1998 devolution settlement, a powerful Commons committee said yesterday.

The report by the Labour-dominated Scottish affairs committee makes grim reading for Gordon Brown by highlighting how a majority of people in the United Kingdom now oppose a Scot becoming prime minister.

The MPs say that the West Lothian Question - the anomaly giving Scottish MPs a say over English laws but English MPs no similar rights where power has been devolved - is a time bomb that urgently needs to be defused. "It is a matter of concern to us that English discontent is becoming apparent," they said.

The MPs said they hoped the matter would be "comprehensively debated and resolved before … it could undermine the whole devolution settlement".

Worries about the constitutional imbalance have been underlined by the likelihood that Mr Brown, the MP for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath, will succeed Tony Blair as prime minister within 18 months.

The MPs cited a recent ICM poll which found that 52 per cent of people in the UK believed it was wrong for a Scot to become prime minister, given that Scotland had its own parliament. The figure rose to 55 per cent among English people as a whole and 59 per cent in the South East.

A YouGov poll for The Daily Telegraph in 2004 found that 67 per cent of people believed Scottish MPs should not be able to vote on matters affecting only England and Wales.

Resentment at the powers the Scots exercise over English affairs is compounded, many MPs say, by claims that English taxpayers subsidise people in Scotland because the country is thinly populated, making services more expensive to run.

Soccer Video

DovBear is not the only one who can put up great soccer videos.

Poor Girl

I think this story should get more coverage than the Gaza beach explosion one.

Palestinian Anguishes Over MySpace Romance

JERICHO, West Bank

The Palestinian man who had an Internet romance with a 16-year-old Michigan girl is a music-loving computer buff who says he loves the teen and is heartbroken she was sent home.

Abdullah Jimzawi, a 20-year-old high school dropout who lives with his parents in Jericho, said he and Katherine Lester had planned to marry and she intended to convert to Islam.

The couple still speak to each other at least five hours a day via Internet phone calls, said Jimzawi, a shy soft-spoken young man with close-cropped hair and a two-day beard.

"We love the same things, the same songs and we have similar dreams. I fell in love with her because she is innocent and goodhearted. We found ourselves to be soul mates," he told The Associated Press in an interview in Jericho, a town of 17,000 that is largely immune from the violence plaguing the rest of the West Bank.

Jimzawi, who works in his father's business delivering goods to minimarkets, said his love for Lester is pure. Had she made it to Jericho, he said, she would have shared his sister's bedroom. The couple would have walked together through the tree-lined streets of Jericho, he said, and he and Lester would have celebrated her 17th birthday Wednesday.

"When I realized she wasn't coming, I felt my whole world collapse," he said in the interview Sunday at his family's home. "My tears didn't stop and I couldn't sleep for three days."

"I don't think she realizes how serious this is," Mary Lester said. "We've all tried talking to her, but talking to a 16-year-old is like trying to bend steel."

Chickens roamed the front yard outside his middle-class home, which has a small swimming pool, a large porch with a table and many nearby date palms.

In a sitting room with pink curtains, Jimzawi clicked his computer mouse to play a song from Staind, one of his favorite heavy metal bands. Six framed posters of Quranic verses and Islamic prayers adorned the walls, including one depicting the 99 names of God.

Jimzawi, the second of five children, said he explained to Lester that she should convert to Islam to marry him.

"She said, 'No problem because I love you and I love your religion,'" he said.

Jimzawi's mother, Sana, said Lester intended to sign a marriage contract in Jericho.
Jimzawi said his next step will be to apply for a visa to visit Lester.

His mother said she was sorry about the pain Lester's mother must have gone through when her daughter left. "She had the right to be worried," she said.

But she insisted she and Abdullah had the girl's best interests at heart.

"He met a lot of girls on the Internet, but he loves her and he made everyone in the family love her," she said.

Just how many streets does Jericho have?

Stick That in His Eye

Seems that if the Arabs insist on altering the words of HaTikvah, Israel's national anthem, someone was bound to suggest a change in the flag.

(Kippah tip: Irina
with explanation here)

Poor Taste

The Economist thinks that its caricature is representative of the situation we're in here.

I doubt that they have any understanding of the matter.

German Paper Rejects Pal. Version of Gaza Beach Events

You are not going to find this anywhere else since why would Israel promote a point of view that supports its position on the Gaza beach bombing, right (*)?

Pallywood Unveiled

Nahost
Der Krieg der BilderSieben Tote am Strand von Gaza: War es ein Granatenangriff Israels? Oder eine explodierende palästinensische Landmine? Ein Beispiel, wie Palästinenser manchmal die Wahrheit verbiegen.
Von Thorsten Schmitz

Am vergangenen Freitag stand die zehn Jahre alte Huda Ghalija schon früh auf, obwohl sie gar nicht in die Schule musste. Sie war aufgeregt. Die letzten Examen waren geschrieben, und die großen Sommerferien hatten gerade begonnen. Hudas Vater Ali hatte seinen Kindern versprochen, an jenem Freitag voriger Woche am Strand im Norden des Gaza-Streifens ein Picknick zu veranstalten.

Huda ist nach den Worten eines Cousins eine der Klassenbesten, sie liebe Mathe, Biologie und Lesen. Ihr Lieblingsgedicht stammt aus der Feder Mahmud Darwischs, „Identitätskarte“ heißt es, ein trauriges Poem über einen heimatlosen Palästinenser und dessen Hass auf den Besatzer.

Beladen mit Plastiktischen und -stühlen, mit gekochten Maiskolben und Pitabroten machte sich die große Familie aus der 35.000-Einwohner-Stadt Beit Lahija auf den kurzen Weg zum Strand. Beit Lahija ist für seine Erdbeeren bekannt, aber auch dafür, dass von hier aus Kurzstreckenraketen auf Israel abgefeuert werden.

Für den Vater, eine seiner zwei Ehefrauen und fünf seiner Söhne und Töchter sollte das Picknick tödlich enden. Gegen 17 Uhr explodierte eine Granate inmitten der Familie. Sieben Menschen verloren an diesem Freitagnachmittag noch im Sand oder im Krankenwagen ihr Leben.

Das blutige Picknick machte Huda Ghalija innerhalb weniger Stunden weltweit bekannt. Das hat sie dem Kameramann Zakarija Abu Harbed zu verdanken. Nur wenige Augenblicke nach der Explosion der Schrapnell, einer mit Metallkugeln gefüllten Granate, befand sich der 36 Jahre alte Kameramann aus Gaza-Stadt samt Kamera und vollen Akkus am Ort des Unglücks.

Ein lukrativer Job

Harbed arbeitet für die arabische TV-Produktionsfirma Ramattan News Agency. Die Agentur verfügt über Büros in Ramallah im Westjordanland und in Gaza-Stadt, der Hauptstadt des Gaza-Streifens.

Die großen TV-Sender aus aller Welt, CNN und ABC, Nachrichtenagenturen wie Reuters und Associated Press, auch deutsche TV-Anstalten arbeiten fast ausschließlich mit palästinensischen Kameramännern, wenn es um Berichte aus dem Gaza-Streifen geht.

Die Bilder von der hoffnungslosen Welt im Gaza-Streifen werden in erster Linie von Palästinensern gemacht. Als Kameramann für westliche Medien zu arbeiten gilt als einer der lukrativsten Jobs in den Palästinensergebieten. Manche verdienen bis zu 250 US-Dollar am Tag. Soviel verdienen manche palästinensische Großfamilien nicht einmal in einem halben Jahr.

Kameramann Harbed hatte am vergangenen Freitag Berufsglück: Er war als Erster am Ort des Unglücks. Seine Agentur Ramattan News Agency verkaufte die herzzerreißenden Bilder der hysterisch und in Tränen aufgelösten Huda Ghalija an Fernsehsender in der ganzen Welt. In Australien wie in Indien, in Europa wie in den USA wurden Harbeds Aufnahmen von Huda gezeigt: Wie sie sich die Haare rauft und auf die Brust schlägt, wie sie neben ihrem toten Vater in den Sand versinkt, wie sie ganz alleine Dutzende Meter durch den Sand rennt.

In der arabischen Welt und in den Palästinensergebieten stand die Ursache der Tötung der Ghalija-Familienmitglieder schon am Freitag fest: Granaten Israels. Zu dieser Behauptung beigetragen haben auch Archivbilder israelischer Soldaten, die Artilleriegeschosse abfeuern, die manche arabische Fernsehsender in den Film von Kameramann Harbed hineingeschnitten haben.

Nach Ansicht der von der Hamas geführten Autonomiebehörde, aber auch nach Auffassung von Fatah-Chef und Präsident Machmud Abbas sind die Ghalijas durch israelischen Beschuss getötet worden. Sie benutzten beide das Wort von einem „Massaker“. In seltener Einigkeit erklärten Hamas-Regierungschef Ismail Hanija und Abbas noch am Samstag, sie würden Huda symbolisch adoptieren und für den Rest ihres Lebens für ihren Lebensunterhalt aufkommen.

Ein palästinensisches Kind, das seinen Vater verloren hat, gilt als Waise. (Hudas leibliche Mutter Hamdia überlebte die Detonation verletzt.) Auch die Recherchen eines Teams der US-Menschenrechtsgruppe Human Rights Watch führten zu dem vorläufigen Ergebnis, dass Israel für die Granatenexplosion verantwortlich sei.

Die Gruppe formuliert allerdings vorsichtig und weniger apodiktisch: Nach Interviews mit Opfern, Augenzeugen, Polizisten und Ärzten und einem Besuch des Unglücksorts hege man „starke Vermutungen“, dass israelische Artillerie für das Unglück haftbar sei. Der Bericht der Menschenrechtsgruppe erwähnt allerdings nicht, dass deren Rechercheure erst einen Tag nach dem Unglück am Strand nach Beweisen gefahndet haben - genug Zeit also, um wichtige Beweisstücke zu entfernen.

Das israelische Verteidigungsministerium hat nach ersten Auswertungen von Radar- und Satellitenbildern erklärt, das Geschoss, das zum Tod der sieben Palästinenser geführt hat, stamme nicht von der Armee. Generalstabschef Dan Halutz sagt, Israel bedauere den Tod der sieben Palästinenser, dies bedeute aber nicht „dass wir dafür verantwortlich sind“.

Nach Ermittlungen der israelischen Armee, die sich nur auf Bilder und Arztbefunde, nicht aber auf Recherchen vor Ort beziehen, hat die israelische Armee an jenem Freitagnachmittag sechs Granaten in Richtung Gaza-Strand abgefeuert. Nach Angaben von Halutz schlugen fünf der sechs Granaten in der Zeit zwischen 16.31 und 16.48 Uhr ein - rund 250 Meter nördlich jener Stelle, an der das Familienpicknick stattgefunden hatte. Mit dem Artilleriebeschuss sollten palästinensische Raketenwerfer abgehalten werden.

Ein unbemanntes Flugzeug der israelischen Armee hat den Gaza-Streifen zum Zeitpunkt des Beschusses aus der Luft gefilmt. Auf den Filmen sieht man einerseits fünf Einschlaglöcher der Granaten im Strand, aber auch 250 Meter südlich davon Menschen. Nach Angaben der Armee muss die Explosion an dem Strandabschnitt, an dem die Ghalijas picknickten, zwischen 16.57 und 17.10 stattgefunden haben. Vor 16.57 ist auf dem Film der Armee normales Strandtreiben zu sehen.

Dass die Menschen auf die fünf Granateinschläge in 250 Metern Entfernung nicht mit überstürzter Flucht reagiert haben, ist seltsam. Die nächste Aufnahme auf dem Armeefilm zeigt Krankenwagen, wie sie am Strand ankommen. Das ist um 17.15 Uhr. Das Krankenhaus, wo die Krankenwagen herkamen, liegt fünf Minuten vom Explosionsort entfernt.

Möglicher Blindgänger

Über den Einschlagsort der sechsten Granate, die nach Aussagen der Menschenrechtsgruppe und der Palästinenserregierung als Blindgänger den Tod der sieben Familienmitglieder herbeigeführt habe, kann die israelische Armee keine Angaben machen. Sie hält es aber für „ausgeschlossen“, dass die Granate ganze 250 Meter von ihrem Ziel abgewichen sein soll.

Als weiteren Beweis führt Israel an, dass es vier Verletzte vom Strand in Krankenhäusern in Tel Aviv behandelt. Aus dem Körper eines der Verwundeten seien Splitter geborgen worden, die nicht von Waffen aus dem Arsenal der israelischen Armee stammen könnten.

Die israelische Armee schließt nicht aus, dass es sich bei der Detonation auch um eine Mine gehalten haben könnte, die von Palästinensern dort vergraben worden sei, um israelische Marinesoldaten daran zu hindern, im Gaza-Streifen an Land zu gehen.

Angesichts der sich widersprechenden Aussagen kommt Harbeds Fernsehbildern große Bedeutung zu. Diese allerdings werfen mehr Fragen auf, als dass sie zur Klärung beitragen. Die Originalaufnahmen sind inzwischen so fragwürdig, dass CNN sie auf seiner Website nur noch sehr verkürzt zeigt.

Der SZ erklärte Harbed, er sei von den Rettungssanitätern über die Explosion unterrichtet worden und im eigenen Wagen den Krankenwagen hinterhergefahren. Auf seinen Bildern allerdings filmt Harbed die Hysterie der zehnjährigen Huda, als sei er Zeuge der Detonation gewesen. Auch filmt er die Ankunft der Sanitäter, er muss also schon vorher am Strand gewesen sein. Zudem sind manche der Toten und Verletzten mit Tüchern abgedeckt - wer hat das getan?

Harbed erklärt, Huda sei kaum verletzt worden, da sie im Meer gebadet habe. Auf seinen Bildern allerdings läuft Huda in trockener Straßenkleidung herum. Minutenlang rennt Harbed der schreienden Huda hinterher und schwenkt mit seiner Kamera zu den Toten und Verletzten.

Plötzlich ist ein Mann neben Hudas totem Vater zu erkennen, der eben noch zugedeckt reglos dalag und nun aufsteht, in der Hand ein Maschinengewehr. Auf den Bildern des Kameramanns sind auch Sanitäter in grüner OP-Kleidung zu erkennen sowie Dutzende Männer, die meisten mit Hamas-typischen Vollbärten, die offenbar Beweisstücke sicherstellen.

Allerdings muss man fragen, weshalb die Sanitäter sich nicht um die Verletzten kümmern und keine Polizisten den Ort sichern. Haben die Hamas-Männer, wie israelische Medien palästinensische Augenzeugen zitieren, Beweisstücke entfernt?

Ausweichende Antworten des Kameramanns

Seltsam ist auch, weshalb auf den Bildern Harbeds kein Krater zu erkennen ist. Je mehr Kameramann Harbed von der SZ beim Telefoninterview gefragt wird, desto mehr weicht er aus. War er vor der Ambulanz am Unglücksort? Wer sind die Zivilisten, die den Strand säubern? Wer ist der bewaffnete Mann am Boden, der plötzlich aufsteht? Wenn es eine Granate der israelischen Armee war, die die Ghalija-Familienmitglieder getötet hat, weshalb präsentieren die Palästinenser dann nicht deren Splitter?

Und: Warum kam Harbed nicht auf die Idee, die hysterische Huda zu beruhigen, anstatt sie minutenlang mit seiner Kamera zu verfolgen? Harbed sagt: „Sie hat mich gebeten, sie zu filmen. Sie wollte mit ihrem Vater gesehen werden und der Welt zeigen, welche Verbrechen Israel begeht.“ Die in Trauer aufgelöste zehnjährige Huda, die eben sieben Familienmitglieder verloren hat, soll Harbed Regieanweisungen erteilt haben?

Pallywood

Dass Palästinenser im Nahost-Krieg um die Bilder fälschen oder falsche Bilder in Umlauf bringen, ist nicht neu. In den Medien spricht man seit einer aufsehenerregenden Dokumentation des US-Magazins „60 Minutes“ von „Pallywood“ - in Anlehnung an Hollywoods Filmindustrie. In der Dokumentation sind zum Beispiel Palästinenser aus der jüngsten Intifada zu erkennen, die einen Toten auf einer Trage tragen. Einer stolpert, der angebliche Tote fällt auf den Boden - und springt behend wieder zurück auf die Trage, legt sich hin und mimt einen Toten.

Jüngstes Beispiel für den Versuch von Palästinensern, die Weltöffentlichkeit an der Nase herumzuführen, ist der Angriff der israelischen Luftwaffe am vergangenen Dienstag auf drei Mitglieder des „Islamischen Heiligen Kriegs“, bei dem acht Zivilisten, unter ihnen zwei Kinder, getötet wurden. Kurz nach dem Angriff auf das Auto, in dem die Mitglieder der Terrorgruppe saßen, sieht man drei Männer, wie sie in Windeseile eine Kurzstreckenrakete aus dem Auto entfernen.

Seit zwei Tagen blinkt auf der Internetseite der TV-Produktionsfirma Ramattan News Agency der Satz „Dringend: Nachricht für unsere Kunden“. Als hätte die Firma Angst vor einer weiteren Verbreitung der Huda-Bilder, deren Authentizität von vielen Menschen angezweifelt wird, weist sie darauf hin, dass sie die alleinigen Rechte an den Bildern besitzt. Niemand habe das Recht, die Bilder ohne Einwilligung von Ramattan News Agency weiterzuverbreiten.

SZ vom 16.6.2006)

And to help you out:

German newspaper casts doubt on Palestinian claims that IDF shell killed seven family members on Gaza beach. How come Hadil Ghalia was seen wearing dry clothes after the Gaza beach attack when she was reported to have been swimming?
Ynet

While three major British newspapers published reports contradicting Israel's claims that its military was not responsible for the murder of seven members of the Ghalia family on a Gaza beach over a week ago, a German newspaper casts doubt on the authenticity of pictures taken soon after the bloody incident.

Contradictions

Gaza blast: Doubt over IDF's version

According to new findings, testimonies and hospital records, deadly blast at Gaza beach, which killed Ghalia family members, occurred at time of shelling, not after; British Guardian, Independent, Times newspapers publish findings casting doubt on Israel's claims

German daily Sued Deutsche, said pictures taken by Zakaria Abu Irbad, 36, a cameramen with the Palestinian independent news agency Ramattan, contradict Palestinian claims that an IDF shell killed the Ghalia family and point to the possibility that the event was staged to hold Israel responsible.

Irbad was the first journalist to arrive at the s cene after the attack and Ramattan sold footage of Hadil weeping on the beach by her dead father to all major news broadcasters.

The newspaper said in footage of the beach taken by an IDF drone at the time of the attack, five craters left by IDF artillery shells could be seen, but that 250 meters away people could also be seen.

The paper said it is strange that although shells exploded 250 meters away from a beach site where Palestinian families congregated, no one was seen running away or panicking.

Irbad told the newspaper he was told of the attack by paramedics who guided him to the scene.

But no paramedics are seen until later in the footage, raising suspicions that he was first to reach the scene.

Moreover, if Irbad was the first to get to the scene, why were most bodies covered by sheets? Who was there first to cover the bodies? The newspaper asked.

'Did girl give instructions to cameraman?'

The newspaper also doubts Irbad's claim that Hadil was not injured because she was in the water when the shell exploded. His footage show her dry and fully clothed.

Another question raised by the newspaper is a shot of a man carrying a rifle next to the dead body of Hadil's father. The newspaper said in earlier footage, the same man was seen lying on the beach among the injured.

The footage also shows paramedics in green clothes and a dozen of bearded men looking for evidence. The newspaper asks whether the men are Hamas affiliates and wonders why they were preoccupied with collecting evidence rather than helping the injured.

Did Hamas men hide evidence from the scene, as claimed by eyewitnesses interviewed by Israeli broadcasters?

The newspaper said Irbad evaded most of the questions addressed to him.

Asked why he didn't try to calm Hadil instead of filming her he said: "She asked me to film her. She wanted to be seen next to her father to show the world the crimes that Israel is committing."

The newspaper finally asks: "Did the shocked 10-year-old girl, who had lost her father minutes earlier, give the cameraman direction instructions?"


(*)

The Israeli government, clumsy as ever, seemed to semi-apologize by expressing regret about the deaths, implying that perhaps they had been caused by an errant Israeli shell targeting a Palestinian rocket base.

Cicero

In response to the posting on the Jews for Peace, I was sent this quotation:-

"A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and he carries his banners openly. But the traitor moves among those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the galleys, heard in the very hall of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor - he speaks in the accents familiar to his victims, and wears their face and their garment, and he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation - he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of a city - he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to be feared."

- Cicero, 42 B.C.E.

What Exactly Does It Say?

The full text of the National Conciliation Document of the Prisoners
May 11, 2006

LGF has a short but swiftly deadly analysis.

A Letter to the NYTimes

The NYTimes quotes an Israeli hungerstriker, in a story on the Qasams fired from Gaza, who says, "Disengagement blew up in our faces, in the faces of our children," ("How Clumsy, Inaccurate Gaza Rockets Could Start a War", June 16).

The Israel government decision to leave Gaza not only left vulnerable almost 50 agricultural communities and towns closeby, but, given Prime Minister Olmert's determindness to continue the policy, renamed realignment, will place hundreds of additional residential areas, many of them large cities, under a missile threat.

It would seem that rockets are not the only things that could be described as clumsy and inaccurate. Policy decisions, if lacking rationality and strategic input, can be just the same.

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

P.S. Re: "clumsy", I went back and found this from late 2003:

Earlier on Sunday, Hamas militants fired eight crude rockets from the northern Gaza Strip toward the Israeli town of Sederot, the Israeli Army reported. No one was injured, and no serious property damage was reported.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/20/international/middleeast/20MIDE.html

Spinoza

Harold Bloom, writing a review of a new book (*) on Spinoza:-

Though he evaded Christianity, Spinoza gladly absorbed many of its slanders against Judaism. I am justly angry when he employs "Pharisee" as a term of abuse, in the manner of the New Testament: what did he think of Hillel, a better human being even than himself? And though Spinoza argued against miracles, and did not accept the divinity of Jesus Christ, he praised Jesus as the greatest of the prophets, surpassing Moses.

Is there anything Jewish about Spinoza? Goldstein seems to me weakest when she rather desperately argues by inference that his detachment and loftiness were defenses against the sufferings of Jewish history. She has to extrapolate from one ambiguous letter, to a former student who had converted to Catholicism, in order to surmise a Spinozan anguish at the ordeals of his own people. I like her for it, but am not persuaded when I read back and forth in the philosopher's copious pages and encounter his icy sublimity. Strauss, subtly reading between the lines, uncovered a Spinoza hostile to the Hebrew Bible, and to the Oral Law of a tradition he had repudiated before his people, in response, excommunicated him.

Sort of reminds me of some liberal, progressive Zionists here in Israel and abroad in their attitude and posturing.


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

(*)
BETRAYING SPINOZA
The Renegade Jew Who Gave Us Modernity.
By Rebecca Goldstein.
Illustrated. 287 pp. Nextbook/Schocken. $19.95

Before Matisyahu There Was/Is Leonard Cohen

Stephen Hazan Arnoff is a contributing editor to Zeek (www.zeek.net), an adjunct lecturer in Midrash at JTS, and a Mandel Jerusalem Fellow developing international programs for Jewish art and artists.

Here's his review of a new book by Leonard Cohen.

What in the World Are We Longing For?By STEPHEN HAZAN ARNOFF

After composing much of his new poetry collection, Book of Longing, while living in a Zen monastery on Mount Baldy in California, Leonard Cohen winks at those curious or confused about his religious wanderings: “Anyone who says I’m not a Jew is not a Jew/I’m very sorry but this decision is final.” Never one to deny Jewish influences since early days as scion of an esteemed Montreal family, Cohen persistently challenges mainstream Jewish culture. His eclectic, searching visions balance odes of love and loss as sensual as any in popular music with impassioned religious seeking filtered through Jewish vocabulary, stories, and ideas. With the publication of his first original collection of poetry since 1984, Cohen emerges now more than ever as a sensitive, engaged transformer of the Jewish canon, enlivening Jewish myths and themes in the shadows where secular and spiritual experience meet.

Book of Longing contains obvious evidence of Cohen’s Jewishness—God is written as “G-d,” there’s a poem describing correspondence with a rabbi, signed “Your Jewish brother, Jikan Eliezer” (fusing Cohen’s Zen and Hebrew names), and the Shoah, the Sabbath, and kabbalistic and biblical terminology are referenced often. Cohen’s book, and his entire body of work, is a vital addition to the Jewish tradition, creating its own brand of influence through fresh engagement with Jewish sources.

Cohen’s understanding of the myth and mystique of exile offers the finest example of his Jewish voice. Book of Longing opens: “I followed the course/From chaos to art/Desire the horse/Depression the cart…/I know she is coming/I know she will look/And that is the longing/And this is the book.” Amidst the reoccurring original black, white, and gray prints and drawings illustrating the book, one image serves as a kind of royal stamp: Two interlocking hearts curve to the shape of a Magen David, the Jewish star, a plump, rounded hexagram bordered by a circle and bounded by the words “Order of the Unified Heart.” Like this floating image, the title and themes of Book of Longing place Leonard Cohen in the tradition of Jewish poets tracing national and personal journeys of exile between the harmony and heartbreak of theology, day-to-day life, and love.

Exile has been amongst the most compelling forces of Jewish artistic, literary, philosophical, religious, and political creativity for the better part of two millennia, and archetypal Jewish notions of seeking harmony in spite of exile—longing for Jerusalem or Zion, courting the Divine Presence traditionally known as the Shekhina, or pangs of and for the Messiah—all tie into longing that began with the national heartbreak of the broken Temple. The destruction of the Temple, first in 586 BCE by the Babylonians and again in 70 CE by the Romans, was a defining moment in the history of Jewish exile and longing. The Temple had been the literal and figurative heart of religious practice and imagination in the formative period of Judaism. As Cohen writes in “By the Rivers Dark,” paraphrasing the most famous scene of biblical of homesickness: “By the rivers dark/I wondered on/I lived my life/In Babylon.”

When Bob Dylan turned 50, Bono, the lead singer of U2, listed 50 reasons why he loved him. One of them was that Dylan tends to mix up women and God. As a believing Christian steeped in the world of religious allegory, Bono was referring to Dylan’s ability to drape (or uncover) layers of religious myth and meaning on the day-to-day lusts and longing of love. Cohen makes use of this art as well, knowing that love and longing reflect the sting of exile as well as temporary relief from it. Like the elusive bride of Sabbath evening prayers, Cohen’s mystical lovers are objects of both worldly and other-worldly desire. In “My Redeemer,” he says: “I want all the women/You created in your image…/You can hear my prayer/The one I have no words for…/My Redeemer is a woman/Her picture is lost/We surrendered it /A hundred years ago.”

Human love as worldly manifestation of seeking the divine exists in many religious traditions. The Song of Songs—an erotic biblical love poem traditionally interpreted as a metaphor for the nation of Israel and God seeking each other in the dark—offers a prime example. Cohen most strikingly recalls “Golden Age” medieval Jewish poets such as Yehuda Halevy, Solomon ibn Gabirol, and Samuel Hanagid, eclectic figures born and bred in traditions of epic medieval Spanish-Arabic love poetry. As collected and translated in Raymond Scheindlin’s Wine, Women and Death, “Golden Age” themes emphatically echo forward to Cohen's world. Nine-hundred years before his Canadian comrade, Spaniard Moses ibn Ezra writes: “Caress a lovely woman’s breast by night/And kiss some beauty's lips by morning light/Silence those who criticize you…/With beauty’s children only can we live/Kidnapped were they from Paradise to gall the living.”

While Cohen and his Golden Age ancestors find temporary reprieve from longing and exile in imagining earthly love, ultimate redemption rests in images of a transcendent, messianic age when the suffering of both love and exile cease. Book of Longing traces many themes of redemptive time with cogent biblical illusions: “The flood it is gathering/Soon it will move/Across every valley/Against every roof/The body will drown/And the soul will break loose/I write all this down/But I don’t have the proof.” In “Moving into a Period,” Freud, Einstein, and Hemingway watch time cease in eternal Jerusalem as Cohen tries on the prophetic voice of Elijah, heralding an end to pain: “Have no doubt, in the near future we will be seeing and hearing much more of this sort of thing from people like myself.”

As Cohen corresponds with traditional religion and secular love laced with spiritual meaning, his religious voice stays sane by mixing humor and humility with reverence and daring: “I do not have the authority or understanding to speak of these matters/I was just showing off/Please forgive me,” he writes in the poetic epistle mentioned earlier. Though he plays himself off as an imposter when confronting the religious establishment—“the old obsolete atrocity [that] made a puke of prayer”—his humor and self deference cannot defy ambitions for revolution, hope, beauty, and wisdom, often against the powers and trends of the mainstream.

In interviews for a recently released documentary film about Cohen entitled I’m Your Man, the Edge of U2 compares reading Cohen’s lyrics to reading the Bible. While rock stars living very large lives tend to inflate everything, including their own inspirations, if any contemporary popular artist merits credit for reinventing sacred text it is Leonard Cohen. While Bob Dylan—neck and neck with Cohen as the world’s favorite Jewish popular prophet of the past 50 years—drones homerically thick with association, alliteration, and allusion, Cohen is biblically laconic and precise, crafting word maps for the valleys of emotional journeys intimate and cutting, full of wide gaps of silence for pondering and questions.

In 1994 Cohen was asked by the Jewish Book Review about a vivid and telling line from his song “The Future.” In explaining the words “I’m the little Jew who wrote the Bible,” Cohen reveals a powerful and disciplined sense of Jewish mission:


As I get older I feel less modest about taking these positions because I realize we are the ones who wrote the Bible and at our best we inhabit a biblical landscape, and this is where we should situate ourselves without apology. The biblical landscape is our urgent invitation and we have to be there. Otherwise, it’s really not worth saving or manifesting, or redeeming, or anything.


Leonard Cohen writes sacred texts in a time when much of what has been inherited as sacred text serves fundamentalism and fear. In “Dear Diary” he praises his own journal—the murmurings of his own heart—as a transcendent sacred text in and of itself:


You are greater than the Bible
And the Conference of the Birds
And the Upanishads
All put together…

Dear Diary
I mean no disrespect
But you are more sublime
Than any Sacred Text

Sometimes just a list
Of my events
Is holier than the Bill of Rights
And more intense


Confusing and fusing woman with God and God with self and self with everything, Cohen gives both thanks and witness to the spiritual magic and divine presence still possible despite the failings of traditional religious systems, Judaism included. He seeks and sees the face of his longing in the paradoxes of the world—this being the fleeting face of the divine—by rejecting it’s divisions, be they Buddhist and Jewish, sacred and profane, exile and love:


Dressed as arab
Dressed as jew
O mask of iron
I was there for you…

I see it clear
I always knew
It was never me
I was there for you…

Don’t ask me how
I know it’s true
I get it now
I was there for you


For those attuned or just tuning in to the sounds of the Jewish call for harmony, wisdom, and redemption, Leonard Cohen’s words should sound very, very familiar.