The Spittle of Bibi, Rabbi Bibi, That Is

Up at the JPost.

Here.

But as the links aren't there embedded, here it is:


Despite the destruction of the Temple in the Great Revolt against Rome and the loss of political sovereignty as a result of the Bar Kochba Revolt, our sages insisted that Jerusalem and foremost, the Temple Mount, be treated with respect and awe as behooves a sacred location as well as, of course, the Land of Israel.

The Mishnah in the minor tractate Kelim, 1:6-9 gradates holiness in ten degrees. The Land of Israel is holier than any other land; then Jerusalem; The Temple Mount more; the Court of Israelites is still more holy and finally, the Holy of Holies. And that sanctity continued in various forms of observance or actionseven for those who considered the loss of effective political and religious control to signify a lessening of strictures that continue to this day as in the decision of Israel's Chief Rabbinate to prohibit entrance into the sacred precinct. The Conservative Movement's reasoned position in an official responsum, by the way, is pro-entrance. Many modern Orthodox do enter.

The Rambam, in his compendium of Jewish law, the Mishneh Torah, Laws of The Temple, 6:16 explains his logic :

"Why do I say that the original consecration sanctified the Temple and Jerusalem for eternity, while in regard to the consecration of the remainder of Eretz Yisrael, in the context of the Sabbatical year, tithes, and other similar [agricultural] laws, [the original consecration] did not sanctify it for eternity? Because the sanctity of the Temple and Jerusalem stems from the Shechinah, and the Shechinah can never be nullified. Therefore, [Leviticus 26:31] states: "I will lay waste to your Sanctuaries." The Sages declared: "Even though they have been devastated, their sanctity remains."

Nevertheless, he does permit entrance in certain circumstances:

7:15 - The Temple Mount is holier than [the city of Jerusalem]...[However,] a corpse may be brought into the Temple Mount and one has contracted ritual impurity from a corpse may definitely enter there.

7:21 - When builders [are required] to enter the Temple building to construct or repair it, or to remove an impure object, it is a mitzvah for the [craftsmen] who enter to be priests who do not possess any disqualifying physical deformities. If no [capable craftsmen meeting those criteria] can be found, priests with disqualifying deformities should enter. If none are found, Levites should enter. If none are found, Israelites should enter. It is a mitzvah for [those who enter] to be ritually pure. If no [capable craftsman] who are ritually pure can be found, impure [craftsmen] may enter.

The Talmud outlines in detail proper behavior customs when one is within the sacred portions of the Temple Mount and they are one should not enter with his staff in hand, shoes on his feet, his feet dusty and dirty, his wallet in his pocket as well as using the area for a short-cut nor can he spit there. The Rambam adds more details.

The question for today is - as we approach the Pilgrimage Festival of Succot when it was incumbent on all male Jews to be seen inside the Temple courtyards and women, too, especially at the time of Hakheil - are we exhibiting normative Jewish behavior? And not only in a personal sphere, as individuals, but collectively, as a nation.

* * *

Will the current round of peace talks touch on Jerusalem issues? Is Israel's government solid on a non-yielding stance? Do the ministers fully realize that any reference to a "Holy Basin" is an euphemism for ripping from Jewish control our most sacred religious, cultural and historical treasures, those sites that literally give life to Zionism and the idea of a Jewish state?

At the root of Israel's negotiating position must be proper understanding of what Jerusalem with the Temple Mount at its national and spiritual center, represents. Ever since 1967, our enemies, Arabs and their supporters, saw a lack of willingness to extend the rule of law to the Temple Mount. Jews can visit - but only as 'tourists'.

Any overt display of Jewishness such as reading from a prayerbook, Psalms or from the book of Kinnot on Tisha B'Av, for example, is prohibited. Waqf guards will get overly excited and call for the police to arrest or remove the offenders. Prayer is absolutely forbidden with lips moving being particularly suspect.

Ever since the International Commission appointed by the British Mandatory regime declared the Western Wall alleyway as part of the Haram in 1930, with no counter-protest except for the heroes who blew the shofar when it was 'illegal' between then and 1947, all assume, it appears, that Israel has no rights and worse, claims no primary rights that would override Muslim claims despite the fact that Islam regards the courtyard as its but third most import holy site.

In constructing two underground mosques since the Oslo Accords were adopted, the Muslims not only attempted to destroy archaeological artifacts from the First Temple period and later periods but almost succeeded on having sections of the Southern Wall crumble. And, as we all recently observed, when Muslims pray on the Temple Mount, their posteriors turn to the sacred stone. Which brings us back to the parameters of respect with which I began this blog post.

* * *

It is recorded in the tractate Berachot 62b:

"R. Bibi said in the name of R. Simeon b. Lakish: If one spits in these times [i.e., even when the Temple structures are no long extant] on the Temple mount, it is as if he spat into the pupil of His eye".

Our current Prime Minister, nicknamed Bibi, is not a Rabbi (however, a grandson of one, Rabbi Natan Milikowsly) but nevertheless is well-steeped in Jewish sources with considerable consciousness of Jewish values and rights. It would behoove him not to cast spittle, in a metaphoric sense, in the direction of the Land of Israel, Jerusalem and above all, the Temple Mount. A freeze extension, a yielding of territory and a lessening of our Jewish historical connection to our homeland which even the nations of the world recognized in decisions of international law validity that acknowledged and guaranteed or rights of residency therein is not only wrong but quite counter-productive.

Not only is it unbecoming and uncouth but it is damaging. We do not go to elections to enable prime ministers to betray the trust we as individuals and as a people confer to them. That trust is sacred, as sacred as the Temple Mount and Jerusalem in our national heritage, whether we are religiously observant or secular nationalists. It is the same and must be preserved and protected.

No spit should be spat as that would be simply soiling ourselves. That is not the Jewish way.

P.S.

And since the news is that

Senior Palestinian Authority negotiator Nabil Shaath has announced that the PA will never accept Israel as a Jewish state...Shaath said that recognizing Israel as Jewish state would undermine the PA's demand for the “right of
return,” which would grant Israeli citizenship to the millions of descendants of
Arab who fled Israel during its War of Independence...

Perhaps Prime Minister Netanyahu could decide to announce a new moratorium.

Not one that would extend a freeze on construction in Yesha communities but rather one which would be a moratorium on these theatrically staged and useless "peace" negotiations.

- - -

New APP

I am very not-technical, so other than looking at pictures, this new Peace Now application is a bit beyond my scientific appreciation.

Nevertheless, it seems Jerusalem neighborhoods such as Giloh, Talpiyot, and the Jewish Quarter of the Old City are referred to as "settlements". According to Peace Now, the Western Wall is an Israeli "settlement".

The real face screen of Peace Now.


- - -

Shall We Unfreeze?

Received this:

On Sunday, September 26th World Likud is sponsoring a tour in Samaria culminating in a demonstration in the city of Ariel to mark the end of the construction freeze. Accompanying MK Danny Danon will be a number of other Members of Knesset as well as other Israeli leadership. They will participate in a symbolic start of building in order to make a strong statement that Jewish life should return to normal in Judea and Samaria.

A bus for Anglos will leave Jerusalem's Inbal Hotel at 8:15am and expected to return will be bet. 7 - 7:30pm. There should be an English speaking guide for the tour part of the trip. The cost of the bus is NIS 30. Meals are not included but we are planning to have a succah available for lunch.

Please bring exact change.

Itinerary:

Meet guide at Barkan Industrial Park
Visit to Ariel Cultural Center, talk with guide from municipality
Pedu'el observation point, known as "the state's porch" because one sees from it from Ashkelon in the south to Hadera in the north
Der Sam'an, an ancient fortress with a breathtaking view and interesting scriptural story
Mitspeh Ha'achim in Bruchin -- looks out upon the grave of Joshua, the volcano, and an observation point in honor of those fallen
Lunch at the Barkan mall -- may purchase grocery items, falafel, etc.
Barkan Industrial Park and Hirbet el-Borek

Finale: massive demo marking the end of the freeze in Ariel/Revava.

For further information or to make a reservation, please contact:

David Greenberg

Gail Lev

Jeff Daube

Barry Rubin on "Peace" Journalism

From here:

...In my view, the quality of reporting in the mass media has become far more politicized, biased, and ideological in recent years. Yet, of course, there are many prior examples.

Another reason why it is important to study such cases is that common patterns tell you just where things went wrong. The case of Harrison Salisbury's reports from Moscow in the early 1950s provide a good example.

Covering dictator Joseph Stalin's funeral in 1953, Salsbury wrote:

"Mr. Georgi Malenkov [the new leader, soon to be supplanted by Nikita Krushchev] and his comrades at arms appeared to have the support and enthusiasm of Soviet citizens of all walks of life....The words of Mr. Malenkov seemed to have sent a surge of hope through the Soviet listeners."

This quotation shows some common characteristics of American or Western journalists and analysts to this day:

--The belief that in a dictatorship the masses really do believe what their rulers tell them and love the dictator, moreover that one can adduce what they believe from official sources. A good recent example of this is the Western journalists who went into Iraq when Saddam Hussein was dictator and reported on how popular and benevolent the government was.

--The systematic reinterpretation of radical statements into moderate ones, simply refusing to believe that anyone could really be an extremist and mean it.

--The failure to report at all on extremist statements and inciting rhetoric. Why? Because the reporter or analyst assumes that all ideology is just meaningless words since everyone is essentially pragmatic. (Wrong!)

In addition, the journalist (or politician, or academic) believes that if he reports extremist statements on the other side he will thus inspire or give backing to "hardliners" at home. Thus, to speak honestly is interpreted as contributing to conflict and the victory of "bad guys." And what "bad guys" is he most concerned about? Those who are conservative in his own country or who merely believe that there is a big threat to be combated.

This is what I call the concept of "lying for peace" and it always fails, as in the whitewashing of Palestinian behavior in the belief that doing so will make it easier to resolve the conflict. The truth, of course, is that the reality of underlying ideology, tactics, goals, and politics will come back to bite those who ignore them.

My P.S.

During the cold war years that he spent as a Times correspondent in the Soviet Union, his reportage came in for criticism. Gay Talese, a former Times reporter, wrote later in "The Kingdom and the Power," that in those years there were Times readers who considered that Mr. Salisbury's "dispatches reflected excessive sympathy for the Soviet Union."

For his part, Mr. Salisbury emphasized that his reports had been subjected to heavy censorship by the Soviet authorities, and he later criticized Times executives for not labeling them "Passed by Soviet Censor."

Yet censorship was not a problem for him in writing his Pulitzer Prize-winning series of 14 articles: he typed much of it in a room at the Hotel Algonquin after his return from Moscow.

The series included what he later described as "observations of reality as I had seen it in Russia from the Neva to the Amur, from the Lena to the Volga, a detailed reconstruction of Stalin's terror, an overview of Russia's real life -- the drunkenness, the bureaucracy and the famine of goods, services and ideas after nearly 40 years of Bolshevism -- a firsthand glimpse of the new leaders, the new policies, the extent to which they were, and were not, breaking from their Stalinist roots."

Though the articles won widespread praise, it was not unanimous. Robert Manning, a former editor in chief of the Atlantic, wrote later that "critics on the right damned the series for softness toward the Communists."

- - -

Nasty Kid

I snapped this late if only because he disappeared from my view.

At the entrance to the Egged Bus Station, this tall kid, maybe 18-19, attempts to bypass me. Not once but thrice. And each time I ask him not to do so and he ignores me and keeps pushing forward.

At the entrance, I shoved him aside, he pushes ahead nevertheless, as my two hands were full. I said to him "at least take off your kippahh if you're behaving so disrespectfully". I caused a disruption the only way I could: I kicked him in the butt. That brought over the main security fellow and the guard explained to him that the kid was unruly. He held him up and I went by but the kid came back and again passed me by at the x-ray machine..

As I made my up the escalator from the second to third floor, there he was at the top. He looked at me and then shut down the stairs (pressing the emergency stop button) and went all the way down and out. Since he was descending on the stairs, I couldn't snap him until he reached the main lobby.

He's tall, maybe 1'90+, blondish, with a black crocheted kippah.

Be on the lookout.

- - -

Yom Kippur Peaches

That's Peaches Geldof celebrating Yom Kippur with her boyfriend Eli Roth.
(Pic via Chrissie Curry's Twitter)

Better than Woody Allen.

_________________

P.S.

And what happens if we turn her around?





- - -

Why Not A New - But Different - Moratorium?

The bad good news is

Senior Palestinian Authority negotiator Nabil Shaath has announced that the PA will never accept Israel as a Jewish state...Shaath said that recognizing Israel as Jewish state would undermine the PA's demand for the “right of return,” which would grant Israeli citizenship to the millions of descendants of Arab who fled Israel during its War of Independence...

My advice to Prime Minister Netanyahu is to announce a new moratorium.

No, not on construction in Yesha communities.

And no, not on construction in Jerusalem's new neighborhoods.

Rather a moratorium of "peace" negotiations.

If this is the Arab position, we don't need this. In fact, it's an existential attack on Israel.

Let's have a 10-month suspension on talks.


- - -

So, Israel Makes This Following Announcement

The news, er, the bad news:

Netanyahu: We tried and failed to stop Russian missile sale to Syria

Russian plans to go ahead with the delivery of P-800 anti-ship missiles to Syria is "problematic" for Israel, PM tells cabinet.

So, Israel makes this following announcement:

due to the gravity of the threat to Israel's security and the lives of its citizens, Israel will take all necessary measures, including use of armed force, whether outside or inside Syrian borders, to prevent these weapons from being received or employed by Syria.

In any case, a bombing could be a good trial run for Iran.


.

The Insecurity of US-Provided Security

ABC's Christiane Amanpour, yes, not CNN, asked a question of Hilary Clinton at the David Citadel Hotel in Jerusalem on September 16, 2010:-

QUESTION: What has he said about the state of Palestinian security on the West Bank, for instance?

and the reply:-

SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, I think that all the Israeli leaders have been impressed [sic] with what the Palestinian security forces are doing. At the same time, they are very concerned about the increasing threats. I mean, we’re now living in an age where Iran is a state sponsor of terrorism and funds Hamas and Hezbollah on Israel’s borders.

We’re living in a time when technology is going so quickly that short-, medium-, and long-range missiles are more and more available, not just to states that are antagonistic toward Israel, but even to these networks of terrorist groups. So I think that there is a very important focus on security in the 21st century. If we were talking 20, 30 years ago, it would be a different set of concerns.

Coincidentally, the New York Review of Books has a story on this aspect of security and especially the US-funded, trained, guided force which I have dealt with in a variety of posts (try here and here for starts).

A few comments on the NYRB piece:

a) it's in there but not explicit: if Israel didn;t have freedom of movement to go in to these so-called "secure" areas nightly, there wouldn't be security during the day. almost every day, if you check the news sites of Haaretz, JPost and INN, you'll find reports of "last night X terror suspects were arrested".

b) there is no true oversight on the money not ending up where it shouldn't.

c) as Cavalucci pointed out,m the training, at first, was terrible. despite claims, do we really know it has improved?

d) these Pal. security personal will collapse in Judea and Samaria as they did in Gaza, plain and simple.

e) no one is dealing with the underlying problem: Arab rejection of Jewish nationhood.

For example:

Senior Palestinian Authority negotiator Nabil Shaath has announced that the PA will never accept Israel as a Jewish state. In addition, he threatened war if the PA fails to obtain its demands through negotiations, saying, “A Palestinian state will arise, either through negotiations or through armed resistance.”

The Arab League voted last week to support PA Chairman Abbas' refusal to recognize Israel as Jewish.

What a waste of money, time and effort. I would have added expertise but I ma not sure of that.


- - -

Today's Lesson in Extended Judaism

.

Connie Peirce, 87, a retired secretary and Catholic who lives in Peter Cooper Village in Manhattan, said she often wished she had inherited a mezuza like many of her non-Jewish neighbors did. The tradition recalled her youth, she said, when her local priest appeared each Easter to write “God bless this house” on her family’s front door.

To her delight, one of her Jewish neighbors recently hung a mezuza on her doorway. “Every time I come home and remember, I kiss it and touch it and then I bless myself, saying, ‘In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen.’ ”

- - -

Recalling Pollard

Some are hoping for a release of Jonathan Pollard within this latest framework of US-brokered negotiations as a quid pro quo.

I doubt Jay would agree but while we're on the topic, my previous thinking:


1.

Jonathan Pollard Is My Purim Hero
The Jerusalem Post - Purim, 1989 - (March 1989)

Earlier this month, a small get-together was held for the members of the Israeli intelligence operation in Egypt who were incarcerated there for 13 years. They obtained their release to Israel only following the Six Day War. The operation, actually quite unintelligible in hindsight, was dubbed the "Dirty Business" [and later, "the Lavon Affair"] when no one came forward to take responsibility at the time. Subsequently, the government fell. In the 1960s, when David Ben-Gurion reopened the investigation into the affair, it tore Mapai apart and led to recriminations that reverberate to this day.

At this month's gathering, Meir Amit, former Mossad head, stated that the release of the Egyptian Jewish victims of a botched operation could have been effected sooner if not for "neglect and idleness." His words are a woeful condemnation of the mindset and the insular thinking which marks the peculiar character of the average Israeli politician as well as our own special brand of civil servant.

Coincidentally, this month also marked a date linked with another Israeli security operation with unsympathetic parallels (not to mention a possible rerun of the political fall-out). On March 5,1986, Jonathan and Anne Pollard were sentenced to terms of life and five years imprisonment respectively, for their roles in providing Israel with highly sensitive American intelligence data relating to Arab military buildup. Many of the details have undergone purposeful misinterpretation, such as the impression that Ann Pollard was a spy - which she wasn't.

Be this as it may, Jonathan is in his fourth year of solitary confinement. Ann is the sole female resident of the Federal Medical Center in Rochester, Minnesota. She weights 89 pounds, down from 165, and an esteemed gastroentrologist of 30 years practice termed her condition behind bars as "lethal" and "malignant." Her prison doctor has taken away all medication to prevent addiction. Magistrate Janice Symchych refused her a medical furlough to obtain private care.

Having been involved with the Pollards for some time, I think that Purim is a particularly poignant time to reconsider some aspects of their tribulations. In fact, I consider Jonathan Pollard my Purim hero.

In the Meggilah, Mordechai does not mince words in making it clear to Esther that her position as queen is not for her own personal convenience. Her silence in the face of a threat to the Jewish people will not only be unhelpful in the extreme but it will not aid her either: "Do not imagine that you will escape...for if you are quiet...you and your father's house will perish." (4:13-14)

Jonathan Pollard was not silent. Reviewing the material that passed through Naval Anti-Terrorist Intelligence, and knowing the less-than-enthusiastic appreciation some of his fellow workers had for Israel and Jews, he decided to do something. Rereading his letters and memoranda contained in the book, "Pollard: The Spy's Story," as well as the letters he sent me, it is obvious that for all his amateurish espionage habits, Jonathan Pollard is acutely aware of the historical dimensions of what it means to be a Jew.

Indeed, Jonathan is a "Prisoner of Zion" in the keenest ideological sense of the expression. Zion had made him its prisoner. The Zion of Jewish survival, the Zion of the centrality of Israel to Jewish existence, had placed upon his shoulders the awesome responsibility of circumventing laws to assure that chemical weaponry data, among other items of security intelligence withheld from Israel despite a signed American-Israeli agreement, would get to Israel.

Without the information supplied by Pollard, Israel would have been offset in the battle against the PLO - the same group Secretary of State James Baker is nudging us to negotiate with. It was Jonathan's initiative, and he had no illusions as to the gravity of his actions.

However, now that he is a prisoner, Israel's official policies seem so inadequate, so unconcentrated, that the Zion of Jonathan's vision has become an active partner in keeping him a prisoner, rather than gaining his early release, and, at the very least, halt the terrible physical waste US prison and Justice Department officials are bringing down on his wife, Ann, which MK Rabbi Eliezer Waldman witnessed in his visit to her on March 9 in Rochester.

Indeed, Israel's silence, despite its private humanitarian appeals on their behalf, is unworthy of Jonathan's very public suffering. The rejection of his request for Israeli citizenship bordered on the callous.

An exegetic interpretation of another verse of the Meggilah may provide the direction for a reordering of priorities. Chapter Five opens with the words: "Esther donned royalty." A jaded eye might have expected to read that Esther would prefer a ecdysiast duplication of Vashti to attract the king's favor. My reading, though, is that the message is that it is useless to shed any outer layers or to bend the knee. To stand tall with all the Jewish finery one possesses - to don royalty - is the proper response.

Jonathan Pollard's prison clothes as well as the bars on his cell and walls surrounding him are all external. Jonathan is garbed with an internal suit of belief, commitment and faith. His actions were a donning of royalty.

Will we in Israel, the cause of his privations and object of his sacrifice, learn to dress in the correct fashion?

Purim is not only a happy holiday but a heroic one as well. Simply put, Jonathan Pollard is our hero.

Yisrael Medad is a parliamentary aide for the Tehiya party.

2.

Purim Plea for Pollard
The Jerusalem Post - March 4, 1993

Exactly six years ago, on March 4, 1987, Jonathan Pollard was sentenced to life imprisonment in the US District Court in Washington, D.C., by Judge Aubrey Robinson. Despite a plea agreement with the prosecution, the judge meted out the most severe sentence ever in a case where an American citizen admitted to acting on behalf of an American ally.

Pollard was found guilty on one count of delivering classified information to a foreign government. Nevertheless, US government officials colored his activities to such an extent that the impression was conveyed to the media, the public and the sentencing judge (via Caspar Weinberger's notorious memorandum on the day prior to sentencing) that a venal traitor was in the dock. In addition, Weinberger, who was recently pardoned by former president George Bush for his Iran-Contra involvement, recommended to Judge Robinson that Pollard never be paroled.

Arrested on November 21, 1985, Pollard had been an active intelligence agent for Israel for a period of 18 months. He is now in his eighth year behind bars; he has spent the last five and a half of them in solitary, 23-hour confinement. For almost a year, he was imprisoned in a ward for the criminally insane. The first month there he was kept stripped naked.

I visited with Jonathan for three hours last year in the Marion Penitentiary, a maximum security facility. He is on a non-meat diet, because the prison authorities cannot properly provide kosher meals fit to eat. His telephone privileges are curtailed and limited. His cell, three floors down and windowless, has overflowed with sewage on more than one occasion, posing the additional dangers of HIV contamination, to say nothing of the accompanying physical discomfort.

In comparison, Abdelkader Helmy, an Egyptian-born US naturalized citizen convicted of illegally exporting material used in the Stealth airplane for Iraqi aircraft missiles and rockets, received 46 months and was deported before the end of his jail term. Clayton Lonetree, convicted on 13 counts of espionage for the KGB, was sentenced to 30 years, but his sentence was set aside on appeal after five years. Sharon Scrange revealed the names of CIA operatives to a Ghanaian agent, and was jailed for two years.

Pollard only went to the courts to reverse his sentencing and to vacate his plea-bargain after his wife was released. Indeed, Anne was the only spouse of a convicted agent ever to be jailed on the minor charge of an after-the-fact accessory to the possession of security-related documents.

The Federal Appellate Court, in a majority decision, rejected Pollard's arguments that the government had acted unfairly and broken faith with him even while terming his sentence "harsh." The dissenting judge, the sole non-Jew, gave vent to his emotions and claimed there had been a "fundamental miscarriage of justice." Referring to the government's behavior, Judge Williams quoted Shakespeare's lines in Macbeth: "Be these juggling fiends no more believed ... that keep the word of promise to our ear, and break it to our hope."

UNDOUBTEDLY, a major factor in keeping Pollard behind bars and, indeed, originally facilitating the US government's vicious prosecution, was and is the response of the organized American Jewish community.

The refusal of high-profile groups such as the National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council (NJCRAC), the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Congress to act on Pollard's behalf, claiming the issue is not a Jewish one, is difficult to grasp. Morally speaking, it is probably the most callous decision of non-intervention made in the last 50 years.

In contradistinction, last December, almost 700 Orthodox, Conservative, Reform and Reconstructionist American and Canadian rabbis published a plea for the commutation of Pollard's sentence. Other major groups such as the B'nai B'rith, Hadassah and the WJC have joined the campaign for Pollard's release to time served.

The US Supreme Court's rejection of Pollard's appeal has stirred the hearts of formerly indifferent men and women. It is notable that outstanding Christians - clergy, nuns and laymen - have been in the forefront in the Pollard campaign for years.

One more front must be addressed. Just days prior to his leaving office, Yitzhak Shamir signed a letter to president Bush asking that Pollard be pardoned. This was a major turnabout in the Israel government's behavior.

Pollard filed for Israeli citizenship years ago, but official instructions were that the request be denied. Israeli consular officials were not to get involved. Support was limited to other behind-the-scenes efforts involving, to their anonymous credit, some of the highest officials in government.

The time has come, however, for Prime Minister Rabin, who is not unfamiliar with the case, to appeal directly and unequivocally to President Clinton, requesting that he commute Pollard's sentence. Such a humanitarian act by the new president - who during the election campaign promised to review the case - would be very fitting.

Even the villain of the piece, defense secretary Weinberger, has made it known that he feels Pollard, if released, would no longer present a security risk. A commutation could be achieved if the Israeli government openly made known its desire that Pollard be freed.

Jonathan Pollard sacrificed himself. He acted in the perceived spirit of the 1983 Executive Agreement signed by president Ronald Reagan, which was to assure Israel's survival. He revealed to Israel data on Syrian and Iraqi chemical, biological and nuclear buildup. He was privy to Weinberger's reports to the Saudis on US defense systems sold to Israel and other covert operations inimical to Israel. He disturbed an FBI operation called SCOPE, revealed in the Wall Street Journal on January 17, 1992, to maintain surveillance on Jews in government service.

Purim tells the story of Jewish pride and the intervention of leadership (Esther and Mordecai). How fitting it would be were the campaign to free Pollard to move into a different phase - one of responsible public protest, firm diplomatic demands and wide-ranging pressure. Jonathan Pollard deserves that support in so many ways.

No To Dismantling Communities

Way back in 2007, three years ago, we had this poll:

Poll: 37% of Israelis willing to cede sovereignty in Jerusalem's holy sites

which was cockamaney.

You see the results of this Yedioth Ahronoth and Dahaf Institute survey revealed odd numbers.

Whereas 52% of Israeli Jews were willing to change Jerusalem's status as part of a permanent peace agreement with Palestinians, 61% believe Israel should remain city's sovereign

That, of course, is a bit contradictory but that is what the pattern of Israeli public opinion. Pro-peace but anti-conditions that are harmful to Israel and its heritage and defense.

For example,

When asked whether or not Prime Minister Ehud Olmert could achieve a public mandate allowing him to change Jerusalem's status as part of a permanent peace agreement with the Palestinians, 52% of those taking part in the poll said they would lend their support to such a move if 80% of the ministers were behind it.

That's a "Yes, but...".

Moreover,

Sixty-three percent of those asked said they think Jerusalem should not be included in a peace agreement, 21% thought it should and 16% would agree to it only if the motion was carried out by referendum.

Again, "yes, but...".

And again,

As for the handing over of Palestinian neighborhoods in east Jerusalem to the Palestinian Authority, 68% of the poll's participants were against the idea, 20% agreed with it and 11% said they would agree should a referendum support the idea.

In other words, first of all, the headline was misleading.

Very:

But what of the holy places in Jerusalem? When asked who should remain sovereign of the Western Wall and Temple Mount, 61% believed Israel should be named sovereign...

But last week, Mina Tzemach told us that in 2005, prior to the disengagement taking place, 55% of the public supported dismantling communities across the Green Line.

In 2006, it went down to 47%.

And this month it's 45%.

You need to be careful with these polls.


- - -

How To Write A Better Headline

I just thought that this headline:

ISRAELI FORCES KILL WEST BANK HAMAS COMMANDER

could better have been written thus:

Hamas Terror Commander Gets Himself Killed

.

First-hand Testimony of Arab Terror in 1921

This is how a 1921 letter from Jaffa begins:

"With the help of God (may he be praised ), I give you the good news that I was saved from death, the danger that hung over my head has passed completely and I have almost healed from the injuries and blows I suffered last Sunday. I am sure you have read about the pogrom that happened in Jaffa. And you saw my name among the 'wounded.' Now I shall tell you exactly what happened, from beginning to end."

At midday,

"We heard a lot of turmoil in the market and Yitzhak ran to see what was going on. He didn't return and when I heard the noise [coming from there], I decided to close myself in the shop until things quieted down ... But unfortunately my hopes were dashed because for more than two hours, I was shut in the shop and no one came to my aid. All I heard was the shouting ... and the groans of the wounded and dying coming from every direction.

"You can imagine what a state I was in. I tried to think what to do because I could hear them breaking down the doors of the shops. I decided to go up to the storage loft, and to take the ladder up with me. And I did so right away. And I also took off my vest and coat, and covered my head and back with them as well as I could. And I lay down on the floor of the loft with my arms and legs flat, and my face down. But just 10 minutes later I suddenly heard them breaking down the doors of my shop ... They broke down the doors and about 200 murderous robbers broke into the shop and started grabbing whatever they could, and the rest they wrecked and broke and trampled.

"And suddenly one man said there was a lot more stuff up in the loft. And right away they climbed up and saw me lying on the ground. They all shouted: Here is a Jew! Kill him! Slaughter him! And about 10 robbers started beating me with the long rods they carried, on my head and back. And I screamed from the pain but after a minute or so I was stunned and a great weakness came over me and I heard one Arab say to another, 'Give me your knife so I can stab him because it looks like he's still alive.' When I heard this I shuddered and with all my strength I cried out 'Shema Yisrael,' but before I could finish I heard rifle fire and the robbers were shouting, 'Here come the English!' and fleeing for their lives.

"I lifted my head a little and saw that two policemen were standing in the doorway. I begged them to take me away because soon people would come to kill me, and they had pity on me and took me out and brought me to the Saraya [the Turkish government building in Jaffa's Clock Square] - all beaten. Wounded. My face completely bloodied."

"Thank God, I am getting better from day to day. But I was left with practically nothing because they stole from me more than 3,000 pounds sterling, and all my work and toil went down the drain. I was also left with a debt of more than 1,000 pounds sterling, but I have strong hopes for God's help to come to my salvation and quickly lift me back up. After he saved me from death, he surely will not let me and my household starve."

He signs the letter: "Your wounded brother, suffering in agony, Yaakov Elimelech Halevi Lederberg."

The article quotes Dr. Mordechai Naor, a writer and scholar of Jewish history, who said

what makes this source distinctive is that it does not concern either of the two best-known events associated with the 1921 disturbances in the area: the attack on the Beit Ha'olim immigrant hostel and the murder of writer Yosef Haim Brenner and his friends.

Here we suddenly have the personal testimony of a person, a man from the market, who describes in elaborate detail what happened to him on that terrible day.

In 1921, Israel had not "occupied" Arab territory in a war of "conquest" and there were no "settlements" - unless, of course, any Jewish presence anywhere is forbidden.



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Even Better Than Angelina

Her father, who spoke out against TIME:

Outspoken actor Jon Voight picked a fight with Time Warner on Sunday when he slammed their flagship magazine Time on Fox News Channel's "Huckabee" for being anti-Semitic. The video didn't hit the web until Tuesday. Watch below (it begins around the two-minute mark).

"This is anti-Semitism," Voight said of the Sep. 13 edition, which features a Star of David and the cover line, "Why Israel Doesn't Care About Peace."

Voight said, "Who are the anti-Semites who are running Time Magazine?"

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And They Call Themselves Conservative

“People are used to multitasking and hypertext and are able to absorb multiple flows of information,” he said.

Does that sound as if it relates to a computer program, a new gadget or an blog technical breakthrough?

Nope.

It's the new Conservative Mahzor:

This mahzor, as the prayer book for Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur is known, is the Conservative movement’s first updating in nearly 40 years. Called Lev Shalem...It also includes transliterations of every widely sung prayer for those who cannot read Hebrew...

He added, “The richness of the margins in this mahzor spoke to them.”

During Yom Kippur’s Yizkor memorial for dead relatives, which this year falls on Saturday, the new prayer book will for the first time include a prayer for a deceased “partner”— an effort to include gay Jews — and also one for “a parent who was hurtful.”

“His/her death left me with a legacy of unhealed wounds, of anger and dismay,” the passage says.

The revised mahzor includes works by modern poets like Yehuda Amichai and at least two by Gentiles— Denise Levertov and Elisabeth Kübler-Ross. Given that the movement has become more egalitarian, ordaining women as rabbis since 1985, the mahzor also includes more language that is gender-neutral and names female Biblical figures like Hannah and Miriam as models of righteous heroism.

...While the pages are more crowded with the added commentary, Rabbi Feld said he thought the new mahzor would feel congenial in an Internet age...

And they call themselves Conservative.


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Jerusalem Circa 1918

But I am not sure of the date. Not a single British soldier anywhere.




Filmed by a Dutch tourist it seems.

(Kippah tip: ElderofZiyon)
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New Steps in Jerusalem

Between Shlomtziyon Hamalkah Street and Koresh Street, below Jaffa Road near the Municipality, there used to be steps that were old, neglected and in places crumbling.

No more:-




And since we're in Jerusalem, another picture, from the new Mamilla promenade looking towards David's Tower:



Photo credit: Y. Medad
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Daniel Pipes in Intimate Conversation

Daniel Pipes was billed to be in "intimate conversation with journalist Ruthie Blum Leibowitz".



No, no that intimate.

This way:



He addressed the topic of Radical Islam and the Real Obstacles to Middle East Peace
last night, Wednesday, September 15 at 7:30 pm at The Konrad Adenauer Conference Center, Mishkenot Sha`ananim, Yemin Moshe, Jerusalem, sponsored by Hadar.


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Wall Posters

Gedolei Yisrael, Torah luminaries, star in various charitable requests at this time of year:



This poster warns against the mixing of the sexes in the public square in Geula this upcoming Sukkot holiday:


This one deals with a sort of copyright issue concerning a siddur, Birkat HaShem: