Hagel Is Good for...Goldberg

Wrote J. Goldberg in The Atlantic as part of his justification for supporting Hagel for Defense:

...I can't let anti-Semites dictate the terms of this debate. I think Israel is heading down a dangerous path, toward its own, eventual dissolution, because it refuses to contemplate even unilateral half-measures that could lay the groundwork for a Palestinian state. I've been arguing for years that the settlers are the vanguard of binationalism, and now they're closer to the center of power than ever before...Hagel...is not a hater of Israel. On the other hand, he, like Bob Gates, the former secretary of defense, might be able to look Netanyahu in the eye and demand an explanation for the Israeli government's actions on the West Bank.

Goldberg excuses Hagel's lure for anti-Semites, I presume.

^ 

Bennett Has Me Mixed Up

I am mixed up.

First I saw this:

Bayit Yehudi leader Naftali Bennett went back on a comment he made a week ago in Nissim Mishal's Channel 2 show, saying he would ask to be exempted from orders to remove settlers from their homes were he in such a position, and flirted with the possibility of order refusal.
"It is an integral part of being a soldier to refuse orders on matters of conscience," Bennett said in an interview on Channel 2's "Mishal Cham" program.

"I would not call publicly to refuse orders," he added, but continued on to say, "When a black flag flies over an order, you don't carry it out. To expel people from this land is a horrendous thing. I will work with all my soul and with all my strength not to allow that to happen." In the IDF, soldiers are taught they they should refuse an order if it is patently illegal and immoral, such as targeting civilians.

On Sunday, however, at a "Meet the Candidates" event at IDC Herzliya, Bennett addressed the comment and expressed concern that his comments would give legitimization for soldiers to refuse orders.

"I am a major in reserve duty and I was bothered by the damaging impact of my words to young people who view me as a role model. I reached the conclusion that I don't have the right to say even that private comment about myself, because of its repercussions," Bennett said.
"Every combat soldier that gets an order, and it is not a lawful order, has to obey it, and this includes Naftali Bennett," he added.

Then I read this

Sources close to Bayit Yehudi chairman Naftali Bennett told Arutz Sheva that he was misquoted Sunday by IDF Radio.  The radio station's website quoted him as saying that “any IDF soldier who is given orders that are not clearly illegal and were handed down by the government… must follow those orders, and that includes Naftali Bennett.”

Sources near Bennett said that the quote in IDF Radio, which included a reference to the possible eviction of Jewish communities, was false.  Speaking at a political event in Herzliya Sunday, Bennett explained that some orders are obviously illegal and every soldier must decide if he will carry them out. He added that he explained his views on the matter when he was asked how he would handle such orders in the Channel 2 television interview ten days ago.

Can anyone explain why Bennett needed to bring the subject up?

And if asked, why he couldn't say simply 'I clarified my remarks and my intention and there is no need to to go over the same ground'? 

I wouldn't be surprised if the Bayit Yehudi begins to lose votes now, similar to what happened to the Likud/Yisrael Beiteinu.

^

Let's Call It 'The Obama Sloppy Principle of Government'

there was just some sloppiness, not intentional, in terms of how we secure embassies in areas where you essentially don't have governments that have a lot of capacity to protect those embassies," said Obama this morning on NBC. "So we're doing a thorough renew. not only will we implement all the recommendations that were made, but we'll try to do more than that. 

On the Benghazi disaster.

^

Quotation of the Day

MK Yariv Levin (Likud) echoed Akunis, hinting that the judges were out of touch. "The Supreme Court justices will only realize that Zoabi needs to be removed from the Knesset after she blows herself up inside the building," Levin warned.

^

What A 'Palestinian' Passport Would Look Like

Like the old one?

But probably without the Hebrew.

Unlike Israel's passport and ID card which carries 3 languages.


(thanks to ArikB)

^

Who Is Killing 'Palestinians' Now?

Who else but other Arabs:-

Twelve Palestinian refugees were killed in Syria on Friday during attacks by the regular army, raising the death toll among Palestinians, who have been killed since the start of fighting in Syria, to 843.

The workgroup for Palestinians in Syria said that the killing was the result of the explosion of a car bomb in Sbeineh refugee camp, in addition to the targeting of the camp by the regular army’s aircraft and snipers’ bullets.
 

Source.

And the outcry?

The condemnation?

The action?

Gornisht mit gornisht.

^

Ever Hear a Muslim Joke?

Here:

Essam al-Erian, deputy head of the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party, called on Egyptian Jews to leave Israel to the Palestinians and return to their own homeland.
"Their presence in Palestine contributes to the Zionist occupation of Arab lands, and every Egyptian has the right to live in his country — nobody can deny that," Erian said during an interview on the privately operated Dream TV on Thursday.
"Egyptian Jews should refuse to live under a brutal, bloody and racist occupation stained with war crimes against humanity," Erian said.

Not very funny, actually.

^

Simcha Jacobovici Pulls Another Fast One

If you read Simcha Jacobovici's blog regarding the Amos Kloner lecture (and here) last Thursday at the Rennert Center for Jerusalem Studies Annual Conference "New Studies on Jerusalem", No. 18, there are two surprises waiting for you.

The first is that the main knockdown of Simcha's theory ('Divine Jehovah, raise up, raise up') by Kloner, the "fish", which was that the illustration is actually an amphora ("he says that he believes that the fish image is really an “amphora”), which Simcha - in the Haaretz story and in the Daily Mail - presented as if it was horizontal:

 when it was actually vertical on the ossuary, 

is not mentioned.  


Simcha simply writes:

He started the presentation in front of a packed audience of some 300 people by reviewing a front page article in the Israeli daily “Ha’aretz” which featured our finding of the “Sign of Jonah” on an ossuary in the Patio tomb. Thereafter, his entire talk was aimed at stating that only Prof. Tabor and I think that the fish is a fish and that the inscription is noteworthy.

As Simcha was there, as he claims, why does he leave his readers in the dark about the wrong direction in which the image was presented to the world?  Why doesn't he refute that he purposely mislead or that the newspapers erred or something to cover up what would seem to be a glaring example of misrepresentation?

Here is Kloner's original drawing impression from 1981:

Can Simcha blame the camera angle?

The second surprise is that no comments are permitted.

So how can one argue and discuss the matter with Simcha?

For example, on the meaning of the inscription 

that Kloner favors Rollston's interpretation (see D.) and here which has no connection with raising up.

Odd those surprises.

______

P.S.

Tabor.

From Times of Israel.
 

  ^

Two Banks Has The Jordan River

No, not the Jabotinsky song.

But this:

Jordan's Prince Hassan bin Talal...in the speech, recorded and posted on the Jordandays.tv website,... stressed that the West Bank is part of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, which includes "both banks of the [Jordan] River." He added that he "did not personally oppose the two-state solution," but that this solution is irrelevant at the current stage.

Well, that confirms the geo-political truth:

to solve the Israel-Arab conflict, territorial compromise cannot be considered unless Jordan is brought into the equation or the Medad Fraction Principle.

Of course, the Prince has opened up Israel's legitimate right to assert its claims to the East Bank.

The 'West Bank', illegally occupied by Jordan in 1948 and then annexed to the Kingdom in April 1950, was part of the original Palestine Mandate territory but Jewish settlement there was banned in 1922 after the British decided in March 1921 to award the territory to Emir Abdallah:

ART. 25.

In the territories lying between the Jordan and the eastern boundary of Palestine as ultimately determined, the Mandatory shall be entitled, with the consent of the Council of the League of Nations, to postpone or withhold application of such provisions of this mandate as he may consider inapplicable to the existing local conditions, and to make such provision for the administration of the territories as he may consider suitable to those conditions, provided that no action shall be taken which is inconsistent with the provisions of Articles 15, 16 and 18.

If Jordan wants to open up the land that was withheld from the Zionist enterprise, a land the current ruling family came to only in November 1920, whereas it was part of the Jewish National home, from Biblical times to the current era,

 I have no problem with that approach.


^

Gaza Comes to America

Reported:-

Mexican authorities have discovered a sophisticated smuggling tunnel equipped with electricity and ventilation not far from the Nogales port of entry into Arizona, U.S. and Mexican officials said Friday...U.S. law enforcement officials confirmed that the Mexican military had discovered the football field-long tunnel with elaborate electricity and ventilation systems. U.S. Border Patrol spokesman Victor Brabble said the tunnel did not cross into the U.S.

But

...Sophisticated secret tunnels stretching across the international border have become increasingly common as drug cartels invent new ways to smuggle enormous loads of heroin, marijuana and other drugs into U.S. More than 70 such tunnels have been found since October 2008, most of them concentrated along the border in California and Arizona. In Nogales, Arizona, smugglers tap into vast underground drainage canals.

Can we expect a bit more empathy now?

^

Israel's Extreme Left is Not Always Wrong

In 2012, the game became reality: The settlers are the new ruling elite of Israel.

According to all the polls, Israelis will elect an unprecedented number of Members of Knesset (MKs) from far-right parties, even as Likud’s relative moderates have been ousted and replaced by settlers and ex-settlers with radical political agendas.

A settler was appointed to the Supreme Court in 2012, while a former justice declared that the West Bank was not actually occupied territory.

Israel’s fourth estate, too, is partly “occupied” by the settlers. This year, Shlomo Ben-Zvi, a far-right publisher and settler who owns the frankly nationalist daily Makor Rishon, bought Maariv – one of Israel’s three veteran daily newspapers...

The settlers have influenced the national narrative to the point that politicians who talk about peace, the two-state solution and negotiations risk becoming irrelevant.

For all these reasons, +972 Magazine has chosen The Settler as its Person of the Year for 2012.
 
...This was the year the settler narrative regarding Israel’s control over the West Bank became institutionalized: the Education Ministry mandated school trips to Hebron for high school students. The next generations of soldiers and leaders is being taught that the territory once regarded by the majority as temporarily occupied pending a negotiated solution, is actually part of the Israeli birthright.

...The political power of the settlers has extended to the judiciary, the powerful security establishment, the media and the business elite. They will decide Israel’s future – or perhaps its fate.

Thanks guys.

^

A New Incitement Campaign

Some 18 years after the infamous incitement campaign launched by Israel's left-wing extremists which permeated through to the media elite and the public prosecutor's office before and most especially, after the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, there's a new one brewing.

No, not in Israel.

Next door:-

Egypt opposition leaders face 'incitement' probe

Egypt's public prosecutor has ordered an inquiry into three prominent opposition leaders.  The men will be investigated over charges they "incited the overthrow" of President Mohammed Morsi.

^

Naftali Bennet Becoming Iconic

A new graphic spin on the Bayit Yehudi leader:

Source

^

EU vs. E1 - A Comment

From the thinking of Clifford D. May who is president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a policy institute focusing on national security:-

Jews in the Judean Desert? The European Union is outraged!

More than 40,000 people have been slaughtered during the rebellion in Syria, and the death toll rises daily. The European Union does not appear to be particularly concerned. North Korea’s rulers have launched a three-stage rocket, moving closer to their goal of developing a nuclear-tipped ICBM, and they’re sharing nuclear-weapons technology with the world’s leading sponsors of terrorism in Iran. The EU does not seem to be worrying about that either. Israel is considering building homes on barren hills adjacent to Jerusalem. The EU’s 27 foreign ministers said they were “deeply dismayed” and warned Israel of unspecified consequences if the plan is carried out.

The European Union — recent winner, I should note, of the Nobel Peace Prize — has its priorities. So let’s talk about what the Israelis are doing to so distress them.

The area in which Israel may build covers 4.6 square miles. For the sake of comparison, Denver International Airport is 53 square miles. Known as E1, this area lies within a territory that has a much older name: the Judean Desert. Might Jews think they have a legitimate historical claim to the Judean Desert? This question is rarely asked.

For Israeli military planners, E1’s strategic value is more germane than its history. Developing it would help in the defense of Jerusalem, and would connect Jerusalem to Maaleh Adumim, an Israeli town with a population of 40,000...

People forget, or perhaps choose not to remember, that Israelis always have been willing to give up land for peace, including land acquired in defensive wars. Historically, that has not been a common practice, for a very sound reason: Aggression can be deterred only if it carries substantial risk. Nevertheless, Israelis gave up Gaza and the Sinai, and have offered to give up more land — at least 97 percent of the West Bank, retaining only those areas absolutely necessary for national security.

...Mahmoud Abbas, regarded as a moderate Palestinian leader, could not bring himself to call Mashaal’s latest threats wrong — or even unhelpful. Instead, Azzam Alahmed, a senior official in Abbas’s Fatah organization, described Mashaal’s speech as “very positive,” because it stressed the need for reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah...

^

Inside News

Inside Israel's political system, that is:-

there is at least one Arab party, the National Democratic Alliance (BALAD), which openly calls for the abolition of Israel’s Zionist identity. Elements within the two other Arab parties share this sentiment, though this is not their official position.

Source

A Bit of Religious Discrimination

A three-judge panel of the Supreme Court rejected, Thursday, a petition by the Temple Mount Faithful to release the entire report by the state comptroller regarding the supervision of excavations on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem's Old City...Justice Yoram Danziger sided with the petitioners...but rejected the petition, siding with Knesset Legal Advisor Eyal Ynon that publication of confidential portions discussed by the Knesset House Committee could have an adverse effect on Israel's international relations...

And while this happened, the destruction through excavations continues.

How far can the Hugh Court of Justice distance itself from...justice?

^

The NYTimes Does Naftali Bennet

Great story on Naftali Bennet in the New York Times.

 Dynamic Former Netanyahu Aide Shifts Israeli Campaign Rightward

But they got the quote wrong.

They have this:

“We’re from the same camp,” he said Monday at a forum with recent high school graduates. “We fought in the same army. Don’t fire into the armored vehicle.” 

The Hebrew was actually

"don't shoot inside the armored vehicle"

^

What Became of Ann Turton? (FULLY UPDATED A SECOND TIME)

According to this Hebrew item I came across from the Davar daily on December 28, 1945, reporting on three attacks the previous evening conducted by the Irgun and Lechi - two joint operations on the Jerusalem and Tel Aviv Police HQs and another attack in north Tel Aviv against an army arms and munition site - a nine-year old girl was left, for the second time, an orphan from her father.

The newspaper story informs us that 9-year old Ann Turton, daughter of Evelyn Thomas Turton, of the Palestine Police Force, who was killed on January 21, 1942 as a result of a bomb blast set off in Tel Aviv by the Lechi (Stern Group) underground, was adopted (?) by George F. Smith, Assistant Superindendent of Palestine Police Force, when her mother married him.  

Her mother passed away in March 1945 and her step-father was killed in a blast at the Jaffa Police HQ on December 27, 1945 which was attacked in a joint Irgun-Lechi attack.

If anyone has any information as to the fate of the daughter, please contact me:

yisrael.medad at gmail.com

_____________

UPDATE:

I have now received this missive:

Yisrael
I have just been directed to your 2012 article about Ann Turton.I am her son, she also has a daughter; Ann is not only a grandmother; but a great grandmother; and is now 84 years old. I am currently researching her (tragic) life in Palestine, and her return to the UK.
If I can be of any help, let me know.
We all live in the south of England.
Hope to hear from you soon
Richard Filipczak 

More to come. 

___________

And finally, the details, received March 9, 2021:

Hi Yisrael

I have attached a document that I quickly compiled this afternoon.

Whilst it has plenty of details, it also has lots of unanswered questions; even today.

Mothers memory is not too good, so there's an ever decreasing chance of her remembering details from some 70+ years ago.

I tried many online search websites, but the two biggest mysteries is when did Ann return to England and onboard which ship; I failed miserably on both counts.

I'm happy to help you as best as I can.

Many thanks for your interest in Ann

Yours

Richard

Time line of Ann TURTON

Born- Nov 1935 in Haifa, Palestine

Ann's father joined the British Palestine Police Force (BPPF) in Jan 130 as a constable, and rose to rank of Inspector, he was killed by terrorists (The Stern Gang) in Yael Street, Tel Aviv on 21st Jan 1942.; aged 38

He was awarded the King's Police medal in 1937 for his gallantry on the 14th October 1937 when the Haifa-Lydda train was derailed by a party of Arabs. That sentence is from The Gazette newspaper here in the UK which lists royal and other ceremonial duties and awards. 

Her Mother remarries (to another member of the BPPF) in 19??

Ann's Mother dies of breast cancer in 19??

Her step father killed by terrorists during an attack on the King David Hotel. Aged 38, 

Both of Ann's parents and her stepfather are buried in Bishop Gobat Cemetery, Mount Zion where there is a section for the PPF and their families. 

Ann is then adopted by other members families of PPF for ? years

Ann returns to England, in 19?? accompanied by PPF staff and their families via ship (civilian or military?) when the occupation ended.

Ann is then cared for by unknown families for an unknown period of years, until she is taken into the care of her Aunty Ivy ( Ann's mothers sister) and her aunts husband-Stuart.

Across the road from her Aunts lived a Polish couple who had come to England during or just after WW2, and had taken in a Polish lodger-Henryk Filipczak, who was in the Polish Air Force that had transferred to the UK due to WW2

Henryk and Ann began courting and married in 1956 and purchasing their own home together.

I was born in 1957, and in 1963, Jenny, my sister was born.

My Father worked in several jobs until he gained employment as an engineer repairing knitting machines.

Ann was a housewife and mother until maybe early 1970, when she took work as a clerk and salesperson in a large department store; her lack of any recognised schooling due to a really tragic family life precluded her following any profession as such.

Jenny qualified as a nurse in the late 80s-early 90s, and met her husband; who had just qualified as a general practitioner. They moved to the south of England and have lived there ever since

In July 1971, (50 years ago this year) when I was 13 years of age, and Jenny was 8; Henryk died of Motor Neurone Disease.

In the early 1980s, Ann remarried, and a few years later moved down to be near Jenny and Jenny's ever expanding family; she has 3 girls and 3 boys. The youngest is now 19 and just started university, the others have jobs as diverse as tree surgeons, physiotherapists; mother/housewife

In approx. 2018, due to an abusive marriage, Ann divorced her second husband; and still lives in the warden aided flats she moved to in the 1980s

Ann is now suffering with Alzheimer’s and has very poor mobility. She sees her grand and great grand children (3 at the time of writing); as regularly as the current Covid restrictions allow.

I’d like to thank amongst others, the BPPF association for their help in finding out some of the above details.

---------

Received November 19, 2022:

My mother in law who passed away this week often asked if we would ever think of going to Jerusalem to see my wife’s grand parents graves. This led us to search the internet and come apon your article from 2012.

She was brought back to England  and cared for by various distant relatices before settling in Nottingham and when 21 marrying Henryck FILIPCAK  a native Pole who had fled the country during the war and served in the airforce. She was widowed age 37 having had two children Richard in 1957 and Jenny in 1963 who from 1985 has been my wife. Her death on 15th November concludes the tale and God willing she will be buried with Henryck in Nottingham

Tony Martin

Photographs from the family:

1947

with her daughter

^

Photos From Temple Mount Protest Vigil

Protesting destruction/desecration of Temple Mount antiquities:

Outside Gate of the Tribes

That's MK Prof. Dr. Arieh Eldad.

________________________

UPDATE

The police came, took pictures, MK Uri Ariel later showed up demanding to enter through the Chain Gate and in the end, it seems the work was halted (temporarily?).

^

New Finds from First Temple Period at Motza

The find from above

Details:


Temple and rare cache of sacred vessels from Biblical times discovered at Tel Motza

Rare evidence of the religious practices and rituals in the early days of the Kingdom of Judah has recently been discovered at Tel Motza, to the west of Jerusalem. In excavations the Israel Antiquities Authority is currently conducting at the Tel Motza archaeological site, prior to work being carried out on the new Highway 1 from Sha'ar HaGai to Jerusalem...According to Anna Eirikh, Dr. Hamoudi Khalaily and Shua Kisilevitz, directors of the excavation on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, "The ritual building at Tel Motza is an unusual and striking find, in light of the fact that there are hardly any remains of ritual buildings of the period in Judaea at the time of the First Temple. The uniqueness of the structure is even more remarkable because of the vicinity of the site's proximity to the capital city of Jerusalem, which acted as the Kingdom's main sacred center at the time." According to the archaeologists, "Among other finds, the site has yielded pottery figurines of men, one of them bearded, whose significance is still unknown."

..."The current excavation has revealed part of a large structure, from the early days of the monarchic period (Iron Age IIA). The walls of the structure are massive, and it includes a wide, east-facing entrance, conforming to the tradition of temple construction in the ancient Near East: the rays of the sun rising in the east would have illuminated the object placed inside the temple first, symbolizing the divine presence within. A square structure which was probably an altar was exposed in the temple courtyard, and the cache of sacred vessels was found near the structure. The assemblage includes ritual pottery vessels, with fragments of chalices (bowls on a high base which were used in sacred rituals), decorated ritual pedestals, and a number of pottery figurines of two kinds: the first, small heads in human form (anthropomorphic) with a flat headdress and curling hair; the second, figurines of animals (zoomorphic) – mainly of harnessed animals...

... "The finds recently discovered at Tel Motza provide rare archaeological evidence for the existence of temples and ritual enclosures in the Kingdom of Judah in general, and in the Jerusalem region in particular, prior to the religious reforms throughout the kingdom at the end of the monarchic period (at the time of Hezekiah and Isaiah), which abolished all ritual sites, concentrating ritual practices solely at the Temple in Jerusalem."

So, is the Biblical narrative reliable?

^