Our New Media Column at the JPost

Here.

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Blocks and Stones and Rocks

If you read this story from yesterday, about a stoning incident, here's the full first-person testimony:-

What Happened to Me on Tuesday Last

This past Tuesday, 28 Shvat - February 21, I was returning home to Karmei Tzur from Efrat where I work.

At the Gush Etzion Junction I collected a female hitchhiker who got into a back seat since the front passenger seat was where our infant seat was affixed.  What luck.  While traveling between El-Aroub and Bet-Omar on the ascent I noticed a car approaching from the opposite direction with a damaged front window from a rock that must have previously landed.  I naively presumed that that was the result of an old incident that hadn't yet been fixed.

When I came close to the gas station at Bet-Omar (a location that usually requires a driver's attention due to wrongly parked taxis, bypassing and pulling out into the highway in a careless manner), I observed a man running across the road from right to left.  I first thought that this was a soldier with a rifle and I slowed down to grasp what was happening.  I then noticed dozens of people, old, young and teenagers, congregating on my right.  It then became apparent that the "soldier with a rifle" was actually a photographer with a camera.  He was seeking a better picture angle to snap away at what was about to happen.  On my left were at least two other photographers, waiting for the action.  I should emphasize that I was not the first victim and other cars had already been stoned and so these press photographers were well aware what was happening and was about to happen to me.  None of them, it seems, thought to call for assistance from the police or IDF none of whom were present.

Knowing I had no choice but to continue and surely not stop for otherwise, if I had slowed down, I would have been trapped and blocked off, the only thing in my mind was to proceed home and not get caught at that crossing.  It was difficult to pass through as the rocks came from a distance of just a few feet from the car, 'zero-range' as we say.  The rioters clearly could see that the car contained two young females, defenceless.  We were struck by many rocks, my view was blocked by the cracked glass and I simply concentrated on getting out of there as quickly as I could.  At the time, as well as at this moment of writing, I did not fully grasp the danger of our situation.

It was only when I arrived home that I realized the entire front of the car was covered with shattered glass particles including me, the infant seat, the back seat, everything.  There was also damage caused to the sides of the car.  At least eight large rocks and blocks had hit my car.  I learned the rock-throwing continued for a good few minutes afterwards with the resulting damage to other vehicles as well as psychological damage to the drivers and passengers.

Then I had to tell my children what happened in a normal, non-hysterical fashion so as to prepare them for further conversations that they would hear from grownups talking about the incident.

This is the first time I experienced such a serious and difficult incident as this and pray it is the last.  And we have been living in Karmei Tzur for the past eight years.  But now I know from first-hand experience with surety that rockthrowings occur all the time, especially on Highway 60 between the Gush Etzion junction and Halhoul.  My first-grade son's transportation has also been stoned.

Another point: these terrorists had no qualms about not covering their faces during their attempt at murder.

We try to overcome the fear and to live our everyday life.  We are believing people, with faith.  After an incident like this we will pronounce the benediction "Blessed is He who Who bestows good things on those unworthy, and has bestowed on me every goodness".  We believe in goodness, and that it will overcome evil.  We only pray and hope that people in Israel and around the world will finally recognize the truth, that our enemies, the Arabs who fight us wish for evil, they want destruction, while we wish for good and want peace, even with our neighbors.  We wish for life.

Zehava Weiss, Karmei Tzur


Posted at JewishPress, ,too.

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NYTimes Facilitates Misleading Historical Narrative

Yesterday, the New York Times carried an op-ed by an Arab activist seeking to dislodge Jews from their homes and weaken the security of the state of Israel.

I had sent in a letter but it wasn't published. As usual.

Here it is:-

In his op-ed ("Peaceful protest can free Palestine", Feb. 22), Mustafa Barghouthi opens with a statement that "over the past 64 years, Palestinians have tried armed struggle". That is incorrect.


Following several months of protests in late 1919 and early 1920, including one on February 27 which involved lifting the United States Consul-General Otis Allan Glazebrook up on to the shoulders of the demonstrators, and incited by a religious preacher, Haj Amin El-Husseini, the soon-to-be "Grand Mufti of Palestine", Arabs fell upon their Jewish neighbors between April 4 -7, 1920, killing 5 and injuring 200 - all civilians casualties. Indeed, the entire history of the past 92 years has been marked by Arab terror, pogroms, riots and murder directed almost exclusively at Jewish civilians by Arabs, in Hebron, Safed, Jaffa and many other locations where Jews resided. Ethnic cleansing from some cities resulted, all prior to the 1948 war.


If there is a "struggle", it is one for the truth and the genuine historical narrative.

And here are the ones that did get published:-

Hurdles That Block an Israeli-Palestinian Peace

To the Editor:

Re “Peaceful Protest Can Free Palestine” (Op-Ed, Feb. 22):

Mustafa Barghouthi, a member of the Palestinian Parliament, writes that “over the past 64 years, Palestinians have tried armed struggle; we have tried negotiations; and we have tried peace conferences.”

Mr. Barghouthi conveniently doesn’t mention one option: accepting Israeli offers to evacuate the West Bank and make peace.

In 2000, Ehud Barak, the Israeli prime minister, offered to return 96 percent of the territories and to divide Jerusalem. In 2008, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert offered to leave lands equivalent to 100 percent of the West Bank and again to divide Jerusalem.

On both occasions, Palestinian leaders not only refused to accept those offers, but also refused to make counterproposals and initiated violence (the second intifada, increased Hamas rocket fire from Gaza) that poisoned the atmosphere for continued negotiations.

A narrative of relentless Palestinian victimization may be emotionally satisfying, but ignores certain well-known events.

VICTOR LIEBERMAN
Ann Arbor, Mich.

*

To the Editor:

Over the last 64 years, Mustafa Barghouthi writes, Palestinians have been engaged in struggle with nothing to show for it. Do the math. Sixty-four years ago was not 1967, when Israel won control of the West Bank and Gaza from Jordan and Egypt; 64 years ago was 1948, when Israel became an independent state.

So while Mr. Barghouthi rails against post-1967 occupation and settlements, he cannot free himself from the view that Israel itself, from the day of its foundation, should never have been. This is the mind-set that makes an Israeli-Palestinian peace so elusive.

BERNARD JOSHUA KABAK, New York,

*

To the Editor:

Thank you for publishing Mustafa Barghouthi’s eloquent article addressing the hunger strike of Khader Adnan and summarizing clearly the plight of Palestinians. Mr. Adnan, as well as countless other Palestinians, is indeed a hero, and the hope for justice and peace in Palestine-Israel.

JUDY NEUNUEBEL, Santa Fe, N.M.,

Mrs. Neunuebel, an involved Christian, seems to be active in pro-Pal causes via Creativity for Peace and even wrote glowingly of Chas Freeman, that notorious anti-Semite.  Mindless, is what comes to my mind.

_______________

UPDATE

And the following day, this letter appeared:

To the Editor:

In “Peaceful Protest Can Free Palestine” (Op-Ed, Feb. 22), Mustafa Barghouthi does not mention that Israel has been trying for a long time to bring the Palestinians back to the negotiating table.

It is quite disappointing to see that the Palestinians continue to seek ways to confront Israel through boycotts and protests, rather than choose a path of collaboration to find a true and lasting peace between neighbors.

Only if we use the language of peace and dialogue will we be able to create an atmosphere of trust. While the Palestinians have tried terrorism, and subsequently attended peace conferences, they have not uttered the single most important word: yes.

The Palestinian Authority has yet to say yes to Israel, yes to peace and yes to living side by side with the Jewish state. Israel’s outstretched arms extend until the day the Palestinians say, Yes, we are ready to join our neighbor Israel in taking the difficult step toward peace.

Organizing people to protest is much easier than organizing people to make compromises for peace, a compromise that both sides must make.

SHAHAR AZANI
Spokesman Consulate General of Israel, New York

P.S. Typical that independent activists responded quicker than the Foreign Ministry folk.

^

Today Marie Colvin Died in Syria

And last month she published this in The Sunday Times on January 16, 2012 and in syndicated outlets

Inside Mossad's war on Tehran

BY:
MARIE COLVIN AND UZI MAHNAIMI 


EARLY in Tehran's grey wintry morning last Wednesday, Mustafa Ahmadi Roshan, a young scientist in Iran's controversial nuclear program, got dressed at his home in the northern suburbs. The events of this last hour of his life could have come out of a spy film. Small groups of Israeli agents were watching key points in the Iranian capital. Their target was Roshan. They would be dead themselves if they were caught.

For Israel it was a classic assassination mission. "What is seen in espionage films as a simple operation is a result of hard work, many months of intelligence gathering and a well trained team," said a source who released details, impossible to verify, to The Sunday Times.

...Since its foundation in 1948, Israel has used assassination as a national weapon, striking targets abroad ranging from Palestinians who killed Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, to enemies on the streets of Amman and a Hamas leader in a Dubai hotel room in 2010...The murder of civilians divides Iran's critics -- and Israel's. Some find it repugnant, others see them as casualties in an undeclared war that is greatly preferable to the alternative

And DaledAmos point this out:

Israel planning 'ethnic' bomb as Saddam caves in

by Uzi Mahnaimi and Marie Colvin

ISRAEL is working on a biological weapon that would harm Arabs but not Jews, according to Israeli military and western intelligence sources. The weapon, targeting victims by ethnic origin, is seen as Israel's response to Iraq's threat of chemical and biological attacks.

That's a journalist?

Or an anti-Israel ideologist?

^

Sorry, Serry

Where is the UN when you need it - in Syria, in Sri Lanka, in a dozen locations around the world?

It's busy condemning Jewish residency rights in the territory ofj the Jewish National Home as decided by its forerunner, the League of Nations, a decision Article 80 of the UN Charter upholds as still valid today*.

Read on:

UN slams plan to authorize outpost, Shiloh homes

The United Nations on Wednesday condemned Israeli plans to authorize both the Shvuet Rachel outpost and 180 already existing homes in the Shiloh settlement, located in the Binyamin region of the West Bank.

These actions are “deplorable and move us further away from the goal of a two-state solution,” said UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Robert Serry.

“The Secretary-General reiterated the UN’s well known position that settlement activity is illegal, contrary to Israel’s obligations under the Road Map and will not be recognized by the international community.”

...Final approval of a zoning plan for both for the settlement and the outpost, would retroactively legalize all existing homes in Shiloh and Shvuet Rachel.

...The Defense Ministry’s settlement adviser Eitan Broshi said that the Higher Planning Council’s actions on Wednesday were a piece of that process.  He clarified that the Council’s actions on Wednesday moved the plans to the next level in the bureaucratic process, but that it could still take a number of months before the plans were finally approved.

He took issues with Peace Now’s designation of the construction as “illegal” and with the description of Shvuet Rachel as an outpost, even though it was classified as such in the 2005 report which attorney Talia Sasson presented to the government.

“Shvuet Rachel is a neighborhood of the Shiloh settlement,” he said.

The new zoning plan, he said, adjusts a technical problem for homes in Shiloh, including in the neighborhood of Shvuet Rachel, that lack all the proper paperwork.

All the homes in question, Broshi said, were constructed on state land and should be authorized.

...If these homes are authorized, it would more than double the size of both communities, Ofran said.  "The government is giving a prize to building offenders and continuing the system by which every time the settlers build without permits, the government approves the construction and allows them even more construction,” Peace Now said.

Mr. Serry, please read the material following the asterisk.

You won't be sorry.

*
As here:

The view often expressed in the UN that Jewish settlements in the West Bank are illegal in international law ignores the fact that close settlement by Jews on West Bank land, including State lands and waste lands not required for public purposes was to be encouraged and is legally sanctioned by the Treaty of Sevres, article 6 of the Mandate for Palestine and article 80 of the UN Charter. Denying this vested legal right by unilaterally passing a resolution that seeks to negate the exercise of that right breaches article 80 of the UN Charter and is a denial of natural justice.

Article 80:

1.Except as may be agreed upon in individual trusteeship agreements, made under Articles 77, 79, and 81, placing each territory under the trusteeship system, and until such agreements have been concluded, nothing in this Chapter shall be construed in or of itself to alter in any manner the rights whatsoever of any states or any peoples or the terms of existing international instruments to which Members of the United Nations may respectively be parties.
2.Paragraph 1 of this Article shall not be interpreted as giving grounds for delay or postponement of the negotiation and conclusion of agreements for placing mandated and other territories under the trusteeship system as provided for in Article 77.

And as elucidated by Eli Hertz:

The “Mandate for Palestine” is Valid to This Day

The Mandate survived the demise of the League of Nations. Article 80 of the UN Charter implicitly recognizes the “Mandate for Palestine” of the League of Nations.

This Mandate granted Jews the irrevocable right to settle anywhere in Palestine, the area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, a right unaltered in international law and valid to this day. Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria (i.e. the West Bank), Gaza and the whole of Jerusalem are legal.

The International Court of Justice reaffirmed the meaning and validity of Article 80 in three separate cases:

ICJ Advisory Opinion of July 11, 1950: in the “question concerning the International States of South West Africa.”33

ICJ Advisory Opinion of June 21, 1971: “When the League of Nations was dissolved, the raison d’etre [French: “reason for being”] and original object of these obligations remained. Since their fulfillment did not depend on the existence of the League, they could not be brought to an end merely because the supervisory organ had ceased to exist. ... The International Court of Justice has consistently recognized that the Mandate survived the demise of the League [of Nations].”

ICJ Advisory Opinion of July 9, 2004: regarding the “legal consequences of the construction of a wall in the occupied Palestinian territory.”35

In other words, neither the ICJ nor the UN General Assembly can arbitrarily change the status of Jewish settlement as set forth in the “Mandate for Palestine,” an international accord that has never been amended.

All of western Palestine, from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, including the West Bank and Gaza, remains open to Jewish settlement under international law.

Professor Eugene Rostow concurred with the ICJ’s opinion as to the “sacredness” of trusts such as the “Mandate for Palestine”:

“‘A trust’ – as in Article 80 of the UN Charter – does not end because the trustee dies ... the Jewish right of settlement in the whole of western Palestine – the area west of the Jordan – survived the British withdrawal in 1948. ... They are parts of the mandate territory, now legally occupied by Israel with the consent of the Security Council.”36

The British Mandate left intact the Jewish right to settle in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip. Explains Professor Rostow:

“This right is protected by Article 80 of the United Nations Charter, which provides that unless a trusteeship agreement is agreed upon (which was not done for the Palestine Mandate), nothing in the chapter shall be construed in and of itself to alter in any manner the rights whatsoever of any states or any peoples or the terms of existing international instruments to which members of the United Nations may respectively be parties.

“The Mandates of the League of Nations have a special status in international law. They are considered to be trusts, indeed ‘sacred trusts.’

“Under international law, neither Jordan nor the Palestinian Arab ‘people’ of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip have a substantial claim to the sovereign possession of the occupied territories.”

When will the UN and its employees free themselves from anti-Israel and anti-Zionist prejudices as well as, it would assume, simple ignorance?

UPDATE

AP reports about Israel's preliminary approval to build new homes in the West Bank: the timing of the move may further hinder already troubled Mideast peace efforts. It casts a shadow over a trip by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Washington in March...Speaking to reporters, State Department spokesman Mark Toner declined to comment about the announcement, but said the U.S. policy on settlement activity is clear. "We don't believe it's in any way constructive to getting both sides back to the negotiating table. And we want to see clearly a comprehensive settlement that delineates borders and resolves many of these issues."

And they had a pictureby Abir Sultan:

^

Proof of "Palestine" as an Apartheid State

The new community of Rawabi is going up, north of Ramallah.

On the official site it is described thus:

Live in Rawabi

Rawabi will provide opportunities for home ownership, employment, education and leisure. Best of all, Rawabi will offer a high quality-of-life well within the financial reach of many young Palestinian families.

The city will encompass more than 5,000 housing units and a central commercial area with banks, retail shops, restaurants, cafes, medical facilities, offices, a hotel, a movie theater and 3 cinemas. The city will also offer 8 schools, green spaces, playgrounds, civic services, church and mosques.

What, no synagogues?

Sure.

Look:

If there will be no Jews, why would they need to build any synagogues?

Think about that.

It's apartheid. Ethnic cleansing.

P.S.  Arafat has done it before:

"The Palestinian state is within our grasp. Soon the Palestinian flag will fly on the walls, the minarets and the cathedrals of Jerusalem."


Yasser Arafat (The New York Times, 3 September 1993)

^

In 1967, The Mosque Loudspeakers Cried....

At 11:15 a.m. on June 5, 1967, Jordanian artillery launched a 6,000-shell barrage against Jewish Jerusalem, hitting the Knesset and the prime minister’s house as well as the Hadassah Hospital and the Church of Dormition on Mount Zion. Following Defense Minister Moshe Dayan’s orders, the Israelis responded only with small arms. At 11:30, Dayan ordered a strike against the Jordanian air force. Watching from the roof of his palace with his eldest son, the future King Abdullah II, Hussein saw his planes destroyed.

In Jerusalem, Israel offered a ceasefire but the Jordanians were not interested. The muezzin loudspeakers on the Dome of the Rock cried, “Take up your weapons and take back your country stolen by the Jews.”

Excerpted from Simon Sebag Montefiore's new book, the chapter: ‘The Temple Mount is in our hands’

^

Employment Practices at CNN: You Jewish?

Remember the story of CNN firing its Jewish employees?

HonestReporting came out defending CNN:-

CNN was victim of an internet smear after downsizing its Jerusalem bureau. HonestReporting clears the air.  Faced with the evidence that we have seen and our own conversations with media professionals based in Jerusalem, we have concluded that the charges laid at CNN’s door are speculative at best.

I wasn't fully convinced and thought that without knowing exactly what positions were being filled by the remaining Israelis, I wouldn't give CNN a pass.

Well, now we have this version:

CNN’s decision to fire four Jewish Israeli journalists from the cable network’s Jerusalem bureau earlier this month was due in part to their religion and nationality, and to their perceived inability to operate freely throughout the Middle East, the Algemeiner has learned.  “The fact is, just Jewish Israelis were fired from CNN,” said a source who was directly involved in the layoffs and who requested anonymity. While reports said CNN had fired all its Jewish workers from the bureau, the source told the Algemeiner that “they left 2 Jewish Israeli journalists but here’s the catch, they’re each working one shift a week for 8 hours.”

Bureau head Kevin Flower was quoted

....as telling staffers that “we need journalists but we will need journalists that are able to go to the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and to all the Middle East.”

Oh, do you want to work for CNN?  There's an opening:

On February 15th, Turner Broadcasting, the parent company of CNN, posted a job listing, with the following description:  The Jerusalem photojournalist is responsible for recording images and sound to illustrate CNN news events and stories as well as editing and feeding video.

The location for the position is posted as “United Arab Emirates – Abu Dhabi.”.

_____________

UPDATE

There is a new comment on the post "CNN Falls Victim to Internet Smear".

Author: J brown
February 27, 2012
8:05 pm

The issue was made By the French journalist grumberg

Which was what the journalist staffing numbers remaining in the Israel bureau may mean to reporting. THAT
1) CNN evaded the question and did Not answer questions that would illuminate
2) that it appears despite the 7 staff there are not journalists among the remaining Jewish Israelis working there.

If grumbergs report is an accurate representation of his conversation with CNN

Then 4)” honest reporting “- no offence to their hopefull sincere moniker of intent; has only further obfuscated and confused what Grumberg’s account makes obvious CNN feels it is a proxy for the news that should be obeyed, without questioning.  There are no Jewish reporters likely representing the CNN Israel Bureau Yes it is apparent a literal employee number error was made. It. Was/ is not the point. 
Excerpted below
To the question: “How many Jewish journalists and how many arab journalists are left in the bureau now? Are you going to replace the four israelis that were fired by four arabs, or by no one? An Arab and an Israeli used to work with each other on subjects, is this still going to be the case? How will you achieve that without Jewish journalists?”

CNN’s response was: “There are 4 Jewish employees out of 7. One bureau chief. This information should be reflected in your piece. And we repeat that there is no basis for your question below about “no Jewish journalists”. Please amend your piece accordingly.”

I restated my question -again-: “Again, out of the 4 Jewish employes now, how many are journalists?”

That was three days ago, and guess what: she never got back to me. And if I did not get an answer, it is because the answer would have unmasked CNN manipulative narrative, and confirm my first article.

Now here is the new scoop. I found the answers that CNN hid, and I give them to you as an exclusive.

True, there still are four Jewish employees at CNN after they expelled four prominent Jewish journalists.

There is one Field producer, full-time.

The second person is an engineer, he deals with computers, satellites, and live broadcasts transmission.

The other two are eight hours per week desk employes, ie answering the phone, and typing cables.

The outcome of this story is that CNN PR, and CNN Spokesperson lied to me, playing with words to make me believe that Jerusalem bureau has four Jewish journalists, and they tried to apply pressure with this deception so that I would censor my article.

CNN: In which closet are you hiding Israeli journalists to ensure honest reporting on the Arab-Palestinian conflict? Who is delivering the propaganda packaged now?

Reproduction is authorized,

^

Breaking News: Arrests of Jews

As received:

Nadia Matar and Yehudit Katzover have just been arrested in Netzer (outside of Efrat).

They are in the police van, on their way to the police station being accused of trespassing, while they were attending a shiur (Torah class) in honor of Rosh Chodesh Adar, in Netzer.

Arabs who saw the Jews in Netzeralerted the police, who arrived within minutes.

Sadly, the pressure of Left, the UN and the article by Amira Hess in HaArertz work, and the authorities cave into their pressure just as they did with the hunger strike of the jihadist.

I'd Love to Ask Mrs. Strauss-Kahan A Question

Okay, her husband sleeps around.

Orgies:

One of Strauss-Kahn’s lawyers has said that the former French presidential hopeful never knew that the women at orgies he attended were prostitutes nor did he have any way of knowing they were. “He could easily not have known, because as you can imagine, at these kinds of parties you’re not always dressed, and I challenge you to distinguish a naked prostitute from any other naked woman,” Henri Leclerc told French radio Europe 1 in December.

Strauss-Kahn, 62, has been married for two decades to journalist Anne Sinclair, recently named editor of the upcoming French version of the Huffington Post.

But what does she, the former Anne-Élise Schwartz, do?

She was quoted as saying last month:

“I do not mix private and professional life,” she said.

and

“’I am neither a saint nor a victim,” adding, “I am a free woman.”

Well, what does she mix?

Does she participate? Just watch?

Heck, what does he mix?

^

Come Protest Arab 'Price Tag' Violence

On February 25 there'll be an EMERGENCY PUBLIC FORUM to protest what they call the "Arab Version of 'Price Tag' Violence on Mt. of Olives"

Details;

The International Committee for the Preservation of Har Hazeitim is calling to turn back the newest round of violence on the Mt. of Olives Cemetery. 

The oldest and largest Jewish cemetery in the world, this site is subjected to non-stop violence against visitors, grave desecrations, an unlawful mosque expansion, illegal building – all part of a concerted Arab effort to assert control over the burial site used by Jews for 3,000 years.

Keynote speakers Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Daniel Ayalon and Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations Exec. Vice Chair Malcolm Hoenlein, with Knesset Members Tzipi Hotovely (Likud), Yoel Hasson (Kadima) & Isaac Herzog (Labor), will explore today's urgent concerns & review progress made in recent months.

When: The English-language program will begin at 8:30 pm sharp, Saturday, February 25, 2012
Where: Jerusalem Great Synagogue (56 King George St / Jerusalem)

^

Peace Now Gets Dirty

Being very upset with Gidon Saar, Education Minister, for the Gush Katif Learning Kit ("Education Ministry school program presents Gush Katif as the epitome of Zionism | 'Gush Katif Day' took place in schools across Israel in an attempt to strengthen what Education Minister Gideon Sa'ar believes is the 'legacy' of the settlements"), Peace Now has upped a poster:

Translation:

They Are Brainwashing Your Children

(crossed out column)        (replacement column)

Democracy                       Gush Katif
Evolution                         Im Tirzu
Human Rights                   Hevron
Peace                              Ronen Shoval

Gideon Saar is turning the education system into an arm of the Yesha Council's information unit

That's widely disengenuous, untrue and downright nasty.

But, who cares?  We know what Zionism is.  We know we aren't the devil as we are portrayed.  We take pity on these 'liberals', these 'humanists', these 'nice Jews'.

And we continue.

^

And the News of Shiloh Comes From...Lebanon

Of all the places from where to get updated, The Daily Star of Lebanon:

Israel to approve 500 new West Bank homes: spokesman

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM: An Israeli committee was on Wednesday to approve construction of 500 new homes in the West Bank settlement of Shiloh and retroactively legalise more than 200 built without permits, a spokesman said.

The committee "will meet today to approve construction of 500 units," civil administration spokesman Guy Inbar told AFP, confirming that more than 200 homes, some in a nearby settler outpost, would be legalised "for humanitarian reasons."

Another version:

JERUSALEM: An Israeli committee was on Wednesday to approve construction of 500 new homes in the West Bank settlement of Shilo and retroactively legalise more than 200 built without permits, a spokesman said.

The committee "will meet today to approve construction of 500 units," civil administration spokesman Guy Inbar told AFP.  Asked about reports that more than 200 homes built without a permit, some in the nearby settler outpost of Shvut Rachel, would be legalised, he said: "Yes it's true -- they will be legalised for humanitarian reasons.

...Shiloh is a settlement community village with more than 2,000 residents which lies some 30 kilometres (18 miles) south of the northern city of Nablus Shchem.  And Shvut Rahel is a nearby unauthorised [nope. legal]settler outpost which is home to 400 people, and which the government has pledged to retroactively legalise [?].  Press reports said some of the homes which would be granted legal status were in Shiloh while others were in Shvut Rachel.

Yariv Oppenheimer, head of the settlement watchdog Peace Now, described the move as "one of the biggest projects in the territories."  It proved that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was "doing everything he could to prevent the creation of two states for two peoples, and is heading towards a bi-national state," he said.

Well, good news is good news from wherever it is reported.

^

The Dulling of Israel's Sense of Justness

The former director of the Yesha Council, Naftali Bennet, was invited to a panel discussion at the Presidents' Conference Convention here in Israel.

He sent me a clip of his presentation remarks (I don't have the discussion portion) and here it is:

The poem that Naftali quoted from is written by Natan Alterman and here is one translation:

Satan then said:
How do I overcome
This besieged one?
He has courage
And talent,
And implements of war
And resourcefulness.
…only this shall I do,
I’ll dull his mind
And cause him to forget
The justness of his cause.

Another version:

“Then said Satan: This besieged one, how shall I overcome him? / He has courage and ability, he has weapons and imagination. / So he said: I shall not take his strength, nor muzzle nor bridle him. / Nor soften nor weaken his hands, only one thing I shall do; / I shall dull his brain and he will forget that he is in the right.”

And here is another.

By the way, there is an earlier, unedited version in Hebrew that was found by his daughter among his papers following his death:

כה אמר השטן

" …אז אמר השטן: הנצור הזה

איך אוכל לו.

איתו האומץ וכשרון המעשה

וכלי מלחמה ותושיה עצה לו.

ואמר: לא אטול את כוחו

ולא רסן אשים ומתג

ולא מורך אביא בתוכו

ולא ידיו ארפה כמקדם,

רק זאת אעשה: אכהה מוחו

ושכח שאיתו הצדק.

כה דיבר השטן וכמו

חוורו שמים מאימה

בראותם את השטן בקומו

לבצע המזימה" .

In any case, if you want more information on those NGOs and on the New Israel Fund, start here.

^

A Hike Through Shiloh Valley

This Friday, February 24 sponsored by Midreshet Harei Gofna and led by Elimelech Ron-Tal.

Starts at Adei-Ad to Kultzon with remains from Second Temple and Bar Kochba periods. From there to Hirbet Istoona, across the valley to Rafid and then through Nahal Shiloh (Wadi Mussa) to Eli.

About 12 kilometers. Meeting place at 7:30 at Eli junction or Adei-Ad at 7:45 (there'll be lifts to Adei-Ad). Finishing at Eli at 13:30. 60 NIS and pre-registration untill Thursday noon at 02-6568894 or with Elimelch at 052-3388943 or midreshet.gofna@gmail.com

^

Who Will Set A Boundary to Yesh Gvul?

This ad of Yesh Gvul, calling on soldiers and reserve active-duty soldiers to refuse to serve "in Hebron and the Occupied Territories" ('and'?  Hebron is somehow not "occupied" a la Yesh Gvul???), was published in your favorite Israeli daily - Ha-Ha-Haaretz his past Friday (page 2, bottom left):-

Some of the text:

The government of Israel, by means of the army, the GSS and violent settlers administers a reign of violent apartheid in Hebron. Under the cover of empty slogans about holy places, the GOI downtrods 100,000 people...

...the Hebron apartheid is what sprouted Goldstein, the Jewish Underground and more...

It then artfully notes that those who decided to refuse to serve this "terror regime" did so on their own but merited to receive support from Yesh Gvul.

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Postscript to the Feiglin/Temple Mount Episode

Here:

Fearing riots, police closed the compound to Jewish visitors. "The visit by Feiglin sympathizers to the Temple Mount is nothing new and takes place once a month," a senior police official explained. "What is different this time is the distribution of ads in the media calling for the site to be 'cleansed of Israel's enemies.'"

How the other side pumps it:

Israeli Right Provokes Confrontation in Jerusalem

but

Despite warnings, quiet at the Temple Mount

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What Israel Has to "Eat" from Khader Adnan

Here or Here (seems Pal. pressure got it removed):




And here.

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Water Balloons 1965; Water Balloons 2012

During Chanukkah week, December 1965, in New York, members of Betar (with support from one member of Dror as lookout) attacked Arab students and some pro-Arab Jews, notably the infamous Benjamin Freedman, who were demonstrating outside Madison Square Garden where the annual Israel Bonds festival was taking place over a 3-day period. Their signs read "Don't buy Israel War Bonds".

Everyone but me had eggs. I had water balloons. Do you have any idea how hard it is to carry filled water balloons in your pockets on the NY subway from Yeshiva University uptown to Manhattan-midtown and then throw them?

But I did, with great success.

Why this reminisce?

In London yesterday, water balloons were thrown at Arabs and their supporters at LSE in London.

Details:

A violent clash has erupted at LSE after a protest by the LSESU Palestine Society on Houghton Street was attacked by “a small group of organised individuals” who threw water bombs and knocked over property.  The confrontation took place as the Palestine Society were re-enacting an Israeli check-point as part of their activities for ‘Israeli Apartheid Week’.

An official statement by the LSE Students’ Union said: “Whilst peacefully re-enacting an Israeli checkpoint and talking to students about the issue, a small group of organised individuals ran towards members of the LSESU Palestine Society and threw water bombs which hit several students and knocked over property of the Palestine Society.”

In the melee that  ensued, eye-witnesses have said that one individual [a Jewish student]was punched in the face...

The short video clip.

EoZ has great commentary.

Oh, various suggestions and comments I collected:

a. build a bombed out pizzeria behind the checkpoint

b. water balloons are nothing compared to the bombs of suicide bombers

c. applaud the resistance of Jews at LSE

d. A much better response would have been to act out a suicide bombing with fake body pieces strewn all over and being picked up by students dressed in zaka uniforms. Same message - no physical altercation

e. of course the great and the good of the Jewish community are tutt-tutting that 'violence' (ie water balloons) was used...

f. for the British Jewish community: no pro-Israel action too modest to condemn, to anti-Israel provocation too severe to ignore

g. "but there are less provocative ways to do this, one student suggesting t-shirts reading 'If I were a suicide bomber, you’d be dead by now' instead." Yeah right, it's so easy to print up 20 T-shirts at such short notice

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Two States for Two Populations

From this academic paper, entitled "The Unexplored Option: Jewish Settlements in a Palestinian State" by David M. Phillips, Professor at Northeastern University School of Law: -

...Israeli settlements, first and foremost, need not be an obstacle to peace for the reason that their location may influence the eventual borders between Israel and a Palestinian state, but need not determine such borders. Just as Palestinians can and do live within the predominantly Jewish state of Israel, Israeli Jews can live within a predominantly Palestinian nation...

...The approximately 20 percent of Israel’s present population that is Arab does not so threaten Israel’s Jewish character. Similarly, if the raison d’etre of a future Palestinian state is to provide a political sovereignty for Arabs who identify themselves as Palestinians, whether or not they reside in that state, Palestine’s Arab identity should not be threatened by a Jewish minority that would become a majority. Two conclusions flow from this construct. The first of these is that, indeed, some Jewish settlements like Maale Adumim that are contiguous or substantially contiguous to the 1967 borders of Israel will surely remain part of Israel in any final settlement, with land swaps...even some of the most pro-Palestinian Israeli politicians, like former Foreign Minister Yossi Beilen...acknowledge the need for border adjustments that would integrate into Israel settlements that border on the old armistice lines of Israel...

The second conclusion is that the remainder of the settlements and the Jewish settlers there, including those in the Hebron area, need not be the obstacle to a peace settlement that is commonly portrayed. Even if close to 100,000 settlers remain (a rather high estimate, if major settlement blocs contiguous to the Green Line are incorporated into Israel in exchange for other Israeli land), that number would probably constitute no more than 2 percent of the population of such a Palestinian state and probably less. The land area of those settlements would constitute considerably less than 2 percent of the land under Palestinian sovereignty.

Let us return to the African-American analogy tendered at the beginning of this article. Most Americans, especially liberal Americans, would never think that the solution to conflict within a predominantly white ethnic neighborhood, whether Irish, Italian or other, if an African-American family moved into it would be to remove the African-American family. Rather, substantial resources would be devoted to insuring that the neighbors respect the new inhabitants. Instead of reiterations of the assumption that the settlements are an obstacle to peace, thought and resources should be devoted to a serious discussion of the context and conditions under which Jews might continue to live on the West Bank. While both reason and justice support the creation and co-existence of two states west of the Jordan River, neither justice nor other reason is served by requiring that one of these states be free of Jews.

Isn't that a reasonable review of the situation?

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