Now They've Named Feminine Trousers After Shiloh

Here:

Only 269 NIS at Adika.

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Two-State Solution Doesn't Exist

Reported

Hamas renews rejection of two-state solution

CAIRO, (PIC, January 28, 2013) – Hamas movement renewed on Sunday its rejection of the two-state solution, affirming its refusal to recognize the “Zionist entity”.

Hamas said in a press release that its acceptance of establishing a Palestinian state on 1967 land did not mean forsaking historical Palestine or recognizing legitimacy of the occupation on the remaining land of Palestine.

The movement expressed dismay at statements of PA chief Mahmoud Abbas...

Hamas said that it backed all kinds of resistance against occupation including popular and armed resistance...

Note:

rejection of the two-state solution

refusal to recognize the “Zionist entity”

no forsaking of historical Palestine

no recognizing legitimacy of Israel on the remaining 

(pre-67) land of Palestine.

dismay expressed at Mahmoud Abbas claiming acceptance

of the two-state solution

backing all kinds of resistance including popular and armed resistance

establishing the independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital. 

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This is What They Call Low-Intensity

First, this

Two Palestinians who were detained on Saturday in the Hawara area near Nablus were carrying three makeshift grenades and three Molotov cocktails. The terrorists managed to hurl two additional firebombs at an IDF post before being apprehended by soldiers from the Lavi Battalion...While searching the terrorists, the IDF soldiers found a letter saying, "The al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades claim full responsibility for the bombing at the Elon Moreh settlement.

And then this:
 

Arab terrorists threw rocks on a bus traveling in the Binyamin region Sunday evening. There were no injuries reported. The incident was mistakenly reported as a shooting attack at first.  The number 172 bus, traveling from Jerusalem to the town of Anatot, was hit by rocks at as it passed near the Arab town of Hizme, north of Jerusalem. The bus was damaged, with several of the rocks piercing the bullet-proof windows.

 No comment necessary.

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Yair Lapid Three Years Ago In Binyamin

Yair Lapid in center (black t-shirt), Naftali Bennett (left), Tamar Asraf (right), 

Tzofia Dorot (second from right)

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Want to Play Coalition Formation?

Source

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On "Settlers"

Paula Stern replying to a BBC reporter:

Am I a settler? I was asked near the milk section of Rami Levy. I am, I answered – all Israelis are settlers, all Americans are settlers too. All Brits, all of us – it is what humans do – we settle in a place and make it home. Not the answer that they wanted, but the one that is in my heart.
 

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Mali and ... Jews? Why Not?

Mali is in the news.

France is attacking and the US, with all the international law questions, is supporting.

So, Jews?

Why not?

Timbuktu is in Mali.

Here:

Rabbi Mordechai Abi Serour, with his brother Yitzhaq, came from Morocco in 1859 to be a trader in Timbuktu. At the time of Rabbi Serour's bold enterprise, direct trade relations with the interior of west Africa (then known to them as Sudan) were monopolized by Muslim merchants. Non-Muslims were precluded from this trade because Arab merchants were determined to forestall encroachments upon their lucrative business...He was clever, shrewd, articulate, audacious, and most important he knew Koranic law as well as most learned Muslims.

...As a Jew, he couldn't set up his trading business, so he appealed to the regional ruler, who at that time was a Fulani Emir, and negotiated dhimmi, or protected people status. Between 1860 to 1862 Rabbi Serour and his brother Yitzhaq were able to become successful and they became well known in the area. After earning a small fortune, Rabbi Serour returned to Morocco in 1863...In 1864, the Jewish colony in Timbuktu had reason to rejoice since by the end of the year they had eleven adult male Jews in residence. This was significant since it meant that they could form a minyan and establish a synagogue.

...Records of the Jewish history of Mali can still be found in the Kati Andalusi library. Ismael Diadie Haidara, a historian from Timbuktu, possesses old Arabic and Hebrew texts among the city's historical records...[and] a young Malian historian, Ismaël Diadié Haïdara, a member of the Kati clan, [is the]... author of several books, including...Les Juifs de Tombouctou (1999). The library is currently in the possession of two branches of the Kati clan in the village of Kirshamba about 100 miles to the west of Timbuktu. Up to 1,700 out of an estimated 2,000 manuscripts in the library have been examined and evaluated by Abdul Kader Haïdara, the Timbuktu-based expert in Arabic manuscripts and guardian of the Mamma Haidara Memorial Library currently being rehabilitated through a grant from the Mellon Foundation...The trading documents referred to three families in particular: the Kehath family (Ka'ti) that came from southern Morocco and converted with the rest of the population in 1492; the Cohen family descended from the Moroccan Jewish trader al-Hajj Abd al-Salam al Kuhin, who arrived in the Timbuktu area in the 18th century; and the Abana family, which came in the first half of the 19th century....

From here, there and on to Timbuktu.

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Hadith Study

.

Are you interested in a course in Hadith study?

The course will take place at the Temple Mount and will deal with the book "The Gardens of the Righteous Ones" (Riadh Al-Salahin) by Al-Nawawi.  The entire book will be read.  Candidates must have finished two years of Sharia study and pass entrance exams.  A certificate of hadith competency will be awarded which will permit others to be so recognized.  Study and accommodations is free.

Note:

Gardens of the Righteous is one of the most important classical manuals on the Prophetic example (Sunnah) and the way of righteousness...It is perhaps the most important Hadith work after the six Sunan, containing 1869 individual hadiths...Imam Abu Zakariya Yahya bin Sharaf al-Nawawi (1234-1278 CE), was one of the greatest scholars of this Ummah, and one of the two Imams of verification in the Shafi`i school of law (the other being Imam al-Rafi`i).

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So Attacking Terror Bases is Legal?

I learn that

The Obama administration has resolved its legal questions about supporting French military operations in Mali, but an internal debate is ongoing over whether more assistance is in U.S. policy interests.
The United States quickly responded to French requests for troop transport airlift and additional intelligence. But a two-week-old French call for U.S. refueling planes for French aircraft striking targets in Mali remains pending, U.S. and French officials said.

Wait, attacking Mali is legal?

Is that like Israel responding to terror from Gaza?

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Tu B'shvat at Qusra

Reported:

A group of Israeli and foreign activists joined Palestinians form the village of Kusra near the West Bank city of Nablus on Friday where they panted some 200 olive trees...Zakaria Isideh, a coordinator for Rabbis for Human Rights said that this event is in solidarity with the residents of Kusra, adding that the village has been a target of many Jewish settler attacks which have damaged hundreds of trees.
“We came here today in solidarity with this stricken village that faces dozens of attacks [from the Jewish settlers] without it being stopped by the Israeli army. And we put the responsibility on the Israeli army, police and government for the criminal acts that are committed by the settlers,” Isideh said.

I tried to leave this comment:

Did the Rabbis ask to see the documentation of land ownership?  After all, they would have done so if the Jews had asked them to plant at Esh-Kodesh.

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American Created Event - Not Funny

I caught this:

What event was created?

Wait, exactly what is that event?

I always enjoy a laugh.

Do you think the Consulate would organize/sponsor a comedy event for the Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria?

And why not?  "Separate but equal" I'd take right now.

The answer to that is definitely not funny.

____________

P.S.


Please pass on to all our friends and supporters in Congress with the note:

-   why is there no oversight on Consulate activities?

-   why are Jews excluded even though they live in the area the Consulate supervises?

-   why are American citizens who happen to be Jewish discriminated against?
is all this legal?

-  why this neglect?


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Celebrating Muhammed's Birthday

Thursday was the birthday of the Prophet Muhammed:

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Low-Intensity Conflict Data

Shin Bet says it foiled 100 terror attacks in 2012
 

Ten Israelis killed in terrorist attacks in 2012, compared to 22 the previous year 

Number of Jewish attacks against Palestinians decreases, but involvement of teens in these attacks increases 

Israel's domestic spy agency, the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet), says it thwarted 100 "serious" terror attacks in 2012, of which a third were planned kidnappings, the agency revealed in a report published Thursday. The Shin Bet said it arrested 2,300 terror suspects, which led to 2,170 indictments. Half of the planned kidnapping attacks were planned roadside bombs followed by small-arms fire.

Four planned suicide bombings were thwarted, as well as five infiltrations from the Sinai. Twenty kilograms of high-grade explosives and triggering mechanisms were caught — all smuggled through the border with Lebanon by Hezbollah. Command and control centers operated by Hamas in Ramallah and Hebron were uncovered. Hamas used the centers to rehabilitate its military infrastructure in the West Bank to carry out attacks, with an emphasis on kidnappings...For the first time in four decades, no Israelis were killed in terrorist attacks in Judea and Samaria in 2012.

Yes, no one was killed but the Arabs sure tried hard enough.

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Coalition Thoughts: He Demanded What Ministry?

.

PM offers Lapid FM post or Treasury portfolio

Netanyahu offers Yesh Atid chairman one of two top cabinet posts, sources say. Analysts believe Lapid in fact keener on housing, internal affairs portfolios

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Will Israel Be Ready

Apropos this:

The Palestinians* declared Wednesday that they will be left with ‘no choice’ but to take Israel to the International Criminal Court (ICC) if the Jewish state proceeds with plans to build settlements in occupied areas of East Jerusalem.
After a meeting Wednesday of the United Nations Security Council on the Middle East, Riad Malki, the Palestinian foreign minister, said his government’s decision will largely depend on whether the Israelis build on the E1 area outside the Arab suburbs of East Jerusalem. 

“If Israel would like to go further by implementing the E1 plan and the other related plans around Jerusalem then yes, we will be going to the ICC. We have no other choice. It depends on the Israeli decision,” he said.

Does anybody think the powers-that-be in Israel are preparing for this eventuality? That they have a plan?  That they have the best legal minds working on this?


And what's, by the way, with the Levy Report?

 

*
P.S.

The Pals. via RT had that read:

 Palestine declared Wednesday that they will be left with ‘no choice’

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How Were the Elections, You Ask?

.

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Coalition Thoughts: Does Yair Lapid Like Gefilte Fish?

If so, the Hareidim may have a chance.

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Lady Gaga Goes Front-line

Ever since this news:

Outgoing Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta announced Thursday a lifting of the ban on female service members in combat roles, a watershed policy change that was informed by women’s valor in Iraq and Afghanistan and that removes the remaining barrier to a fully inclusive military, defense officials said.

The enlistment for front-line duty has dramatically increased.

Even Lady Gaga seems to be (somehow) involved:

;->)

 
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Going for A Walk?

Try this beautiful area.

Touristy, historical, even spiritually uplifting:

Note: if you are strict about Halachic stringicies, just avoid the yellow-shaded areas to be sure.

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Academic Boycott of Ariel in Action

First, a Call for Papers was issued to academics on a university-sponsored forum in Israel for a conference at Ariel University on May 6 on "The Nation-State Dealing with Inter-Cultural Conflicts".  One professor immediately wrote back asking that if persons from "an institute for the Israeli conquest called by a general's edict a university" are permitted to make announcements, this would be a step towards "dark apartheid".

Another responded that it is the second's democratic right not to attend and that his own feeling, after reading what he wrote, is to attend.

An American professor then reacted by writing in agreement with the second:

I am concerned.  I do not want and cannot allow my presence on this list to imply any acceptance or endorsement of an Israeli university illegally established in occupied lands.  If there is a decision to allow these invitations to be issued on this list I will ask to be removed from the list.

but was then informed by the third

I am only speaking for myself, but though it will be hard for me to lose such a great friend of the Jewish state, I truly feel that if I had to chose between the freedom of this forum and your presence in it, I would regretfully have to choose the former.

A fourth then noted

Professor ________, I don't understand how your presence on this list can imply acceptance or endorsement of Ariel when you have clearly stated otherwise. If failing to leave a collective (and especially a loose collective like this list) implicitly means taking personal moral responsibility for whatever is happening in this collective, you will get some pretty strange implications: 1) If the NY times publishes an article by a settler (as it sometimes does) you will have to cancel your subscription. 2)  If the US congress moves to support Jerusalem as the Capital of Israel you have to give up your US citizenship.  3)  If Turkey, Egypt, Russia and China continue to talk with Iran, all those nations who decided to impose sanctions on Iran should, by your logic, stop talking with them.

Your threat to leave the list is in fact a statement that not only do you want to excommunicate Ariel, but you also want to excommunicate people who don't necessarily agree with you that Ariel should be excommunicated. What is the next step? Excommunicating those who don't excommunicate those who don't excommunicate Ariel?  Please enlighten me,

The answer was

Dear ______, There is no question that any line one draws is arbitrary.  When does involvement in an institution that shares in the occupation implicate one in the occupation?  If the Israeli Council on Higher Education treats the school in Ariel as a University like any other in Israel, then if one does promotional reviews for one member of the CHE does that implicate one in a set of standard operating procedures that  includes treating Ariel and TAU as parallel institutions?  If the US government funds activities in central America I find repulsive, does that mean I don't pay my taxes at all, or simply refuse to work with any US government branches that are involved in Central America?  The point is not to find the line that is not arbitrary, but to make sure one finds a line and stands on it.  Otherwise, all slopes can be made so slippery that the conscience never has a chance to speak clearly.  Perhaps this is not the line I should stand on, but for those who find the idea of establishing an Israeli university on occupied land ethically repulsive, where do you think the line should be drawn?  My fear is that unless we can draw clear lines to isolate this phenomenon then dozens, then scores, then hundreds, then thousands of scholars all over the world will draw the line around Israel itself.

I couldn't restrain myself and asked:

"Illegally"?  Didn't the High Court of Justice permit its establishment?  Is the court only to be respected in certain cases?

This is the level of "higher education" (and yes, there still is another appeal,, I think, pending but the okay was given).

I checked backed, and the conversation had continued:

A fifth reaction:

I am not sure how I feel about ______'s position, but we should face the bigger issue: since the declaration of Ariel as a university we all find ourselves having to make a decision whether to draw a line and where that line should be. Should we accept Ariel as any other Israeli academic institution; should we treat individual members of Ariel University different than academics in other institutions; should we make a stand only about Ariel as an institution thus maintaining the same level of contact with faculty members there as we would with others elsewhere. Of course there are other options. This way or the other we must also acknowledge that the pressure around the world for boycotting the Israeli academia will only increase because of Ariel. The questions raised by ____ and ______ are just a precursor for an issue we will have to eventually address. 

Yet another professor:

The legal system strives to impose equal injunctions on all of us. This is why the modern iconography of Justitia portrays the goddess with a blindfold. Moral imperatives, on the other hand, are in the eyes of the beholder. Some of us do not discern anything blameworthy in the settlement movement in general and in the establishment of a university in Ariel in particular, nor do they find any fault in the rather unusual procedure of that institute's accreditation.  For such persons there seems to be no reason to stay away from, let alone, boycott,  Ariel's academic events. Another subset of this list's participants either take issue with anything having to do with the settlement movement, or insist on accreditation procedures which were, in their opinion, brushed aside in the case of Ariel. For individual members of this subset, the undersigned included, there seems to be a strong moral reason to keep away from all activities associated with the "university" of Ariel. My point is that since the issue is a moral, rather than a legal one, there seems to be no objectively "correct" response to this issue. It is a case of facing one's conscience and in matters such as these we are all lone riders.

A word about the role of the Supreme Court in this matter. In making a decision in this case, the Court will not be called upon to opine on the morality of the issue. This is not a part of its business. The petition to set aside the accreditation of Ariel, is based on much narrower grounds, to wit whether the administrative agency in charge of accreditation violated some key rules of our public law, e.g. the imperative of equality under the law, of not being led by corrupt motives etc. Even if eventually it will not detect some forms of illegality which must trigger its intervention, the question of morality will still remain the individual problem of each one of us, not the problem of the Court.

That drew this response

I think you’re missing the point.  This isn’t about the moral imperative “to keep away from all activities associated with the "university" of Ariel.”  No one is denying you or _______ the right to do that. I’m reading this string as a proposal to ban the rest of us from SEEING an invitation about activities at the University of Ariel (or ‘“university” of Ariel’ if you prefer). Seeing!!  As if an invitation is the worst type of political porn. I can’t help but wonder what comes next? When do we start refusing to eat in the same restaurant, go to the same wedding, beach, school as someone who is on an open listserv where, once in a while, they might see these invitations?  Or when do we refuse to sponsor a student or hire a colleague who doesn’t sign some promise never to look at invitations from the dreaded University? Or publish in a newspaper or journal that has deigned to publish something by someone in Ariel. It’s time to stop this nonsense. If you don’t like the invitation, hit delete or decline it. But don’t stop the rest of us from SEEING it. Not on the main Israeli social science listserv!!

P.S.  The names were removed to protect, er, whatever.

___________________________

The discussion goes on:

...    On the grounds that every server list belongs to its members, it seems to me reasonable that the members can decide who they will invite to join them in becoming members and using the list. On those grounds, I would support a move to ban from our lists people associated with the school that now flatters itself with the title of "university" in Ariel. Where I come from, such titles are earned very differently from the way this one was awarded.

    Unfortunately, I don't know how such a ban could enacted. Could we somehow electronically vote on it, for or against? And I don't know how, if enacted, such a ban could be enforced since, if I understand computers correctly, anyone with a computer keyboard can send messages to any list. Maybe, though, if a ban were announced, the people banned would be embarrassed to violate it. I wouldn't count on that though. Embarrassment doesn't seem to be a very powerful force in modern society.  

    At any rate,  I would not view such a ban as violating any principle of free speech or anyone's "right to know." Ariel employees can send their messages out via newspaper announcements, Arutz Sheva, or web sites associated with their school. No one stops them from doing that, and if they would do only that, I would be pleased not to have to delete their mail from my computer. By the way, for me it is not a simple matter of deletion, because I have to look at each message I receive to see where it comes from and why it deserves deletion.

     By the way, I am sure that, as time passes, the school in Ariel will attract some moderate teachers who are desperate for academic employment in these hard times, just as some settlements have absorbed similar people who are desperate for relatively cheap housing. That is the long-term strategy of right-wing ministers, and if it works out as they hope, we inside the Green Line will more and more confront the difficulty of deciding how to relate, professionally and personally, to those teachers in Ariel.

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