Palestine? No, Syria

Auni Bey Abdul-Hadi, a local Arab leader, testified in 1937 before a British investigative body – the Peel Commission – saying: 

“There is no such country [as Palestine]! Palestine is a term the Zionists invented! There is no Palestine in the Bible. Our country was for centuries, part of Syria.”

^

June 27, 1921 - Arab Children in Jaffa

From the Commission of Inquiry Report of the 1921 Riots:

Apropos this:

^

"Comic" Relief

.

By the way, the creators of Superman were Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster and they weren't Muslims.

^

Can Jordan Be Trusted?

I have blogged recently about the volte face of Jordan regarding the issues of surveillance cameras on the Temple Mount as agreed in the presence of US Secretary of State John Kerry.

“To be clear with you, there will be no surveillance cameras inside the mosque, but the issue requires — according to experts — a period extending to six weeks. It is better to have the surveillance system operating in full to cover the entire area,” he elaborated. 

Well, can Jordan be trusted to fulfill agreements?

Let's recall some history, found here:

When the war ended [in 1949], and negotiations began, the Israeli representatives emphasized regaining access to Jewish Jerusalem. Article VIII of the Israel-Jordan Armistice Agreement, signed on 3 April 1949, called for the establishment of a Special Committee, "composed of two representatives of each Party for the purpose of formulating agreed plans " including "free access to the Holy Places and cultural institutions and use of the cemetery on the Mount of Olives". As a result, Israeli press reports noted that "There is a good chance that roads to the Holy Places will be opened so that Jews may be able to go to the Wailing Wall this Passover. The problem of access to the Holy Places has been left to the local military authorities to arrange, and there seems to be enough goodwill on both sides to make this possible."

This did not take place, and these clauses of the Armistice Agreement were never honored. Promises continued to be made, and Glubb Pasha (the British commander of the Arab Legion (check for exact title) pledged that "Jerusalem's Arab and Jewish populations would be two separate cities 'with free trade and exchange between each other.' The Arabs would be perfectly willing to allow the Jews to have access to their shrines, notably the Wailing Wall, now inside the Arab-held Old City." Although there were numerous discussions of this issue, and Israeli complaints, the Jordanians refused to honor the agreement, and the UN did not pass any resolutions against this treatment of Jewish religious institutions.

In 1954, the head of the British delegation to the World Congress asked General Vagn Bennike, U.N. Chief of Staff, to convey a request to permit a small group composed primarily of American and British citizens "to cross into the Old City to offer prayers at the Western (Wailing) Wall". Similar requests were addressed to American officials. In response to one such request, Assistant U.S. Secretary of State Henry A. Byroade cited the "unfortunate tension" between Israel and Jordan, a "practical arrangement can not be worked out"...The Vatican also ignored requests to intervene in order to allow Jews to visit their religious sites.

In presentations before UN bodies, Abba Eban pointed out that although the Christian and Moslem Holy Places were freely accessible to Moslem and Christian worshippers, "the Wailing Wall, the most hallowed sanctuary of Judaism and the most ancient shrine in the entire city, is barred to all access by worshippers despite solemn agreements and undertakings."...

Every year, on Tisha b'Av, the High Holidays, and during the three pilgrimage holidays, the Israeli press, as well as political and religious leaders, recalled the fact that Article 8 of the Armistice Agreement was systematically violated, and urged the Israeli government "to show more activity in this matter". Periodically, public groups renewed the appeal to the UN, the U.S., and the "great powers" to intervene and force Jordan to honor the commitments of Article 8, and end its refusal to allow religious Jews access to the Wailing Wall, "the most holy relic recognized by the Jewish religion."

And there is this, at the bottom of the page, how the Jordanians tried to manipulate the 1949 Armistice Agreements, which they violated as regards the Western Wall, into being a basis for the Temple Mount

Forget cameras and hold Jordan to its obligations as per the 1994 Jordan-Israel Peace treaty:

...freedom of access to places of religious and historical significance...working towards religious understanding, moral commitment, freedom of religious worship, and tolerance and peace.

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Two British Rabbis, One Temple Mount

The Jewish Chronicle deals with the Temple Mount asking this question:

Should we be mounting a campaign to recognise the right of Jews to pray on the Temple Mount, because the current policy of restraint seems like capitulating to intimidation?

The answers:

Rabbi Naftali Brawer
Naftali Brawer is the CEO of the Spiritual Capital Foundation.

In 1967, within hours of the Israeli conquest of Temple Mount, the Israeli Chief Rabbinate issued a ruling that Jews were halachically prohibited from ascending the mount. While halachah prohibits only Jews from entering areas where the actual Temple once stood, the Chief Rabbis took a conservative position owing to the fact that one could not be certain where precisely the Temple buildings were once located.

However, there is a wide consensus that the Temple did not stand on the northern and southern expanses of the mount [?]. On this basis IDF Chief Rabbi (and later Israeli Chief Rabbi) Shlomo Goren argued vigorously for Jews to be able to pray in these areas. Rabbi Goren even went so far as to announce plans for prayer services on Yom Kippur [Tisha B'Av]. Defence Minister Moshe Dayan and Chief of Staff Yitzchak Rabin intervened, and the service never took place. Instead a “status quo” arrangement was agreed, in which Jews would be restricted to the Kotel while the Muslim religious authority, the Waqf, would have autonomy over Temple Mount.

In practice, the “status quo” upholds the Kafkaesque situation in which Jews are permitted to enter Temple Mount, albeit only in small, closely monitored groups, but they are not allowed to pray, even as individuals. In recent years this was challenged by activist Rabbi Yehudah Glick who, drawing on Isaiah’s vision of God’s holy mount as a “house of prayer for all nations”, advocates that the Temple Mount should be open to members of all faiths, arguing that anything less is to discriminate on the basis of religion.

While I have no sympathy for radical Jewish groups that advocate the rebuilding of the Third Temple as a precursor to the arrival of Messiah and I condemn as abhorrent any talk about dismantling the mosques on Temple Mount, I do support the right of Jews to pray on the mount. We have deep spiritual and historical ties to this holy site that should not be denied. Prayer is not a zero sum game. My prayer does not cancel out a Muslim’s prayer.

God is big enough to listen to the prayers of all His children, especially on this holy ground. I am not Pollyanna-ish enough to believe that praying together will dissolve all the accumulated hatred between Muslims and Jews. For many it will only inflame the hatred. But for those who yearn for Isaiah’s vision, it can be a start.

Rabbi Jonathan Romain
Jonathan Romain is rabbi at Maidenhead (Reform) Synagogue.

There are two dimensions to this issue. One is the political aspect and the fact that the site is under the control of Muslim authorities. In an ideal world, there is no reason why people of different faiths cannot come to an accommodation over religious practices at the same sacred place.

However, we are not in that world — just think of the violence that regularly occurs at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, where different Christian groups physically fight over who has access when and who can sweep which bit of the floor.

Come closer to home and think of how many Orthodox synagogues in the UK would allow a Reform rabbi to officiate at a private ceremony when the shul was not in use. Tolerance is not our middle name.

Given the current conflict between Israelis and Palestinians — and, just as importantly, the seething hatred and mutual suspicion that underlies it and makes it a much deeper conflict than just a matter of redrawing borders — it is probably very unwise to do anything that would upset the fragile status quo and knowingly inflame the situation.

Let it be one of the many points to be discussed as part of an overall peace settlement, once there is sufficient confidence and goodwill on both sides, but now is not the time to abandon restraint.

There is also the religious aspect. We need to question the obsession by some over the supposed need to pray at one particular site. Yes, it was an extraordinarily important place, but the Jewish view has always been that God is universal and cannot be limited to any one spot.

That is why one of the synonyms for God is Hamakom, The Place, for God is everywhere. That is why Jonah was so foolish in thinking he could board a ship and escape God’s reach. Even Solomon, when dedicating the Temple, declared that praying towards it was just as acceptable as being there.
Moreover, there are many aspects to the Temple with which modern Jews feel uncomfortable. Would we want to reinstate animal sacrifices and sprinkle blood around the altar? How fortunate that the rabbis decided not to continue them after the Temple’s destruction and declared that good deeds can replace sacrifices. We can respect the Temple Mount’s history but acknowledge it belongs to a bygone age and be content to pray anywhere else.

^

Gazan 18-Year Old Fisherman Killed. By Israel?

Nope.

Palestinian residents of the besieged Gaza Strip gathered in the southern city of Rafah for the funeral of 18-year-old Faris Meqdad, a fisherman who succumbed to wounds caused by fire from an Egyptian warship late on Thursday evening.
Maha Hussaini, a spokesperson for the Gaza branch of the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor (EMHRM), which collects evidence of human rights abuses by both the Israeli and Egyptian militaries, says the fisherman's death was unwarranted. "Meqdad wasn't in Egyptian waters, he was in Palestinian waters and was shot by the Egyptians. He was completely unarmed and posed no threat to the Egyptian forces," she told Al Jazeera on Friday, the day of the funeral. 

^

What Do They Think About the Temple Mount?

From the Israel Democracy Institute's The Peace Index: October 2014

The findings of the survey show that, indeed, a certain majority of the Jewish public (56%) currently favors continuing the policy of prohibiting Jews from praying on the mount, but over one-third (38.5%) think the prohibition should be canceled even if this change leads to bloodshed. Similarly, while almost half (47%) support the ruling of most of the haredi and national-religious rabbis that Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount is forbidden until the coming of the Messiah and the rebuilding of the Temple, about one-fourth (26%) back the ruling of those rabbis who permit Jews to pray on the mount even now. A segmentation by the interviewees’ religiosity revealed that the traditional-religious, the religious, and the nonreligious traditional sectors showed the highest rates of support for changing the government policy that prohibits Jewish prayer on the mount (49%, 46.5%, and 44% respectively), while the secular and haredi sectors had the lowest rates in favor of a change (34% and 17% respectively).

In this context we also asked about the rabbinical ruling that forbids Jewish prayer on the mount. A huge majority of the haredim (96%) oppose changing this ruling, compared to 60% of the religious. It should be noted that among the secular a very high rate (more than one-third) did not answer this question. 

Less than one-third of Jewish Israelis (31%) believe there is currently a chance of reaching an agreement that would enable the members of both religions to pray at the site, while the majority thinks there is no chance of this whether because of the Muslim side (30%), the Jewish side (4%), or because of both sides together (29%). The assessment of the chances of reaching such an agreement is more optimistic when the matter is put in the framework of a comprehensive peace agreement. In such a situation, the rate of those who believe it would be possible to reach an agreement (45%) is only slightly lower than the rate who do not believe in such a possibility (49%), whether because of the Muslim side (26%), the Jewish side (2%), or because of both sides (21%). As these data show, the rate of those who ascribe the lack of a chance to reach an agreement to the Muslim side, both in the current situation and in one of a comprehensive agreement, is much higher among the Jewish interviewees than the rate who ascribe the low probability of an agreement to the Jewish side.

Among the Arab respondents there is also a majority (64%) that thinks there is currently no chance of reaching an agreement on prayer for the two sides on the mount. In the situation of a comprehensive peace agreement, a smaller majority (53%) thinks there is currently no chance of reaching an agreement. Interestingly, whereas under the current situation the rate of the Arab interviewees who pin the blame on the Jews for the inability to reach a settlement is higher than the rate of those who put the responsibility on the Muslims (because of the Jews—21%, because of the Muslims—9%), when it comes to the situation of a peace agreement, conversely, 24% place the responsibility on the Muslim side and only 10% on the Jewish side.

And from this October year:

Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount: Over half the Jewish respondents (58%) consider that in the current state of affairs, Jews should not be allowed to pray on the Temple Mount. At the same time, Netanyahu’s policy on this issue does not get much support.

To the question “In your opinion, is Netanyahu’s policy toward the conflict with the Arab world over the question of prayer on the Temple Mount good or poor from Israel’s standpoint?,” 49% responded that it is very poor or moderately poor while slightly over one-third (35.5%) saw it as very good or moderately good. The Arab public shows broad agreement (83.5%) that, in the current situation, Jews should not pray on the mount. About two-thirds (65.5%) defined Netanyahu’s policy on the issue as very poor or moderately poor. 

In September, last month, it was

Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount: A majority of the Jewish public (57%) favors allowing Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount, while 81% of the Arabs believe it should not be allowed.

Other previous results:

60% are not in favor of joint Israeli-Palestinian administration of the Temple Mount (April 2008)

a decisive majority of 64% are opposed to paying for a permanent peace settlement in terms of handing over sovereignty of East Jerusalem to the Palestinians, and this includes the Temple Mount and the Old City (May 2001)

With regard to handing the Temple Mount over to Palestinian sovereignty, albeit in recognition of the historic rights of the Jewish people -- while the Western Wall and the Jewish (and Armenian) Quarter would remain under Israeli sovereignty -- opposition ran even higher: 66% were opposed (27% agreed and 7% had no opinion.) (December 2000)

And How Densely Built-up Was Jerusalem?

Following the flurry in connection with my Rachel's Tomb post, as if I implied that there were no Arabs, no Arab homes, no Arab fields in this land - but I did write that their narrative is not as truthful as the historical record, and more in line with Mark Twain's descriptions (and also here) which is contested.  

Let's look at Jerusalem to see how densely populous and built-up it was almost 100 years ago.

Before and around 1931, the area around the American Colony:

And looking east out over Government House

And looking back from the south

Old City looks crowded, and especially the Jewish Quarter, partially emptied out in 1936 and then total ethnic cleansing in 1948 but the cemetery east (left) of the Temple Mount looks sparse

Some neighborhoods of "Arab East Jerusalem"

Mount Scopus, Hadassah and the Hebrew University

Ein Karem and looking west

Looking north to El-Jib

Perspective is always welcomed.

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Dream vs. Dream at the Temple Mount

.

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Netanyahu to Kerry: First Fire The Official Who Called Me Chickenshit

Remember this:

The other day I was talking to a senior Obama administration official about the foreign leader who seems to frustrate the White House and the State Department the most. “The thing about Bibi is, he’s a chickenshit,” this official said, referring to the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, by his nickname.This comment is representative of the gloves-off manner in which American and Israeli officials now talk about each other behind closed doors...

Well, Netanyahu may be telling Kerry, that guy gets identified and fired first.  And second, he wants to know who called him

Over the years, Obama administration officials have described Netanyahu to me as recalcitrant, myopic, reactionary, obtuse, blustering, pompous, and “Aspergery.” 

and only then he'll deal with Ran Baratz. 

As for this:

"I can't stand him. He's a liar," Sarkozy said of Netanyahu, according to the website.Obama replied, "You're tired of him; what about me? I have to deal with him every day," the site reported.Arret Sur Images ("Freeze Frame") said journalists had listened in on the conversation but had agreed not to report it. The Reuters and Associated Press news services confirmed that report Tuesday

Netanyahu already dealt with that.


_____________________

UPDATE (h/t=DG)


Why Baratz may think Kerry is an 'idiot'.

^

Jordan's Abdallah Implies Al-Aqsa Compound Not A Mosque

As we all know, the Muslims assert that the entire 144 dunam enclosed compound they call Hara A-Sharif is one big mosque.

For example

Sheikh Yusuf Salameh, a preacher at the Al-Aqsa Mosque...added that the Al-Aqsa Mosque is spread over 144 dunams of land and includes the entire area within the walls, buildings, roads, terraces, and domes of the mosque. He said the mosque is land belonging to the Waqf both above the ground and below it. Salameh called on UNESCO to bear the responsibility and preserve the historic Islamic sites in the holy city.

And here

Mahmoud Al-Habbash, the Supreme ‎Shari’ah Judge and Mahmoud Abbas’ ‎Advisor on Religious and Islamic Affairs: ‎‎“As far as we are concerned, the entire ‎Al-Aqsa Mosque, whose area is 144,100 ‎square meters, 144 dunams and 100 ‎‎[square] meters, includes the covered Al-‎Aqsa Mosque, that is, the Southern ‎Mosque, as well as the ancient ‎underground Al-Aqsa Mosque beneath ‎the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the Marwani Prayer ‎Hall [Solomon’s Stables], the Dome of the ‎Rock, the courtyards and porticoes, ‎schools and walls – including the Al-‎Buraq Wall (i.e., the Western Wall), ‎which is called, and will always be ‎called, the Al-Buraq Wall, whether they ‎like it or not [– all this is the Al-Aqsa ‎Mosque].

But then I read this

Two mosques at a sensitive Jerusalem holy site will be exempt from monitoring by security cameras, Jordan's king said Thursday, in an apparent attempt to allay Palestinian concerns about his plan to install the cameras inside the hilltop compound.

According to logic, the mosques are indeed separate entities then.

___________________

UPDATE


State Department:  U.S. still wants 24/7 broadcast via internet of Temple Mount cameras

John Kirby
Spokesperson
Daily Press Briefing
Washington, DC
November 5, 2015
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/2015/11/249221.htm#MIDDLEEASTPEACE

(Video starts at 2:03)


TRANSCRIPT:2:13 p.m. EST
...

QUESTION: Moving on, let’s go to – in the Middle East. One of the major planks of the Secretary’s platform that he announced to reduce tensions between Israelis and the Palestinians was the installation of cameras to monitor the Temple Mount/Noble Sanctuary 24/7. At the time that it was announced, he said that they would be hopefully up and running soon, and then in subsequent comments you talked about how this video would be available to everyone live, 24/7. Now there are reports out of Jordan, which is an integral part of – an integral player in this, that not only will there not be any cameras in the two mosques up there but that the video will not be seen anywhere except in Amman, and that it could take another six weeks for this to actually come to that. Is this okay with you guys? Is this – does this – is this in keeping with the agreement that you thought had been reached?

MR KIRBY: Well, what we understand is that Israel and Jordan still remain engaged on this. And as for the specifics of how it’s going to go, I’d refer you to them. But the Secretary continues to believe that this is an important component of increasing transparency and thereby helping to enhance security. But as to where the cameras are going to be mounted and how they’re going to be connected, I mean, I would point you to officials in Israel and Jordan to speak to that. It’s our understanding that technical teams from both countries will be working out the details. It is still our expectation that the video footage would be livestreamed and available 24/7 to the public.

QUESTION: Everywhere?

MR KIRBY: That’s still our expectation.

QUESTION: Okay. So it would be a problem for you guys should that change and should the video only be available to certain people.

MR KIRBY: We would very much like to see, as the Secretary said back in Amman a few weeks ago – we’d like to see it available to the public 24/7.

QUESTION: Right. So it would be a problem if it wasn’t for you, right?

MR KIRBY: That’s – our expectation is that it’s going to be available to the public by --

QUESTION: I understand that. But your expectation seems to have been contradicted a bit today.

MR KIRBY: Well, I haven’t seen these particular comments.

QUESTION: Okay.

MR KIRBY: So rather than rebut comments I haven’t seen, I’m just going to tell you what our expectation is.

QUESTION: Can we stay on the same topic a little bit?

MR KIRBY: Sure.

QUESTION: So we’re a bit confused. So the videos by themselves would not be okay with you? You would have – you want the Jordanians to come through on the deal that you concluded with them, which is installing cameras in the two mosques, correct?

MR KIRBY: It’s not a deal that we concluded with the Jordanians, Said. It is – it’s an arrangement that Israel and Jordan arrived at, obviously one supported by Secretary Kerry – very supportive of it. And we still would like to see these cameras installed and in use as soon as possible. Nothing’s changed about that. But this has to be done by – it has to be worked out through technical teams from both countries. They’ve got to work out the modalities of it, and it’s our expectation that they will.

QUESTION: Do you think that the Jordanian king basically knuckled under pressure by a larger Palestinian population in Jordan? Do you think that he basically --

MR KIRBY: In what way?

QUESTION: In – because they protested this. They thought that the cameras would only serve Israel’s security – intelligence gathering systems --

MR KIRBY: Your question presumes that there’s been some change in policy or decision by Jordan unilaterally with respect to this, and I’m not aware of any change in the plan to install and to use these cameras, as was discussed a few weeks ago. I’m not aware that there’s been any change. So your question about whether he knuckled under – I mean, you’re using it in the past tense.

QUESTION: Right.

MR KIRBY: Again, I don’t know that there’s been such a decision. And as I said to Matt, it’s still our expectation that these cameras will be installed, hopefully very, very soon, and be in use very, very soon and be available to the public 24/7.


^

Counter-Labeling Ideas Wanted

I think we could come up with ideas to counter the EU labeling campaign (although I think it might work in our favor: people will know where to find the better, healthier products).

How about labeling every street corner in Europe where a Jew was struck by an anti-Semite in the past 1000 years?

Anyone have other ideas?

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If Not By Air, By Sea?

Tens of thousands of Muslims have and are making their way to Europe from the Middle East.

They are doing so mainly by sea and lots of walking.

A lot of Europeans think them a bit, well, low-class.

Well, 20,000 Britons are stuck in Sharm E-Sheikh and no flights out.

At least 20,000 Britons are stranded in Egypt today and could be stuck for up to ten days as the airline terror crisis escalated.All British flights to and from Sharm El Sheikh have been cancelled and may not start again until Christmas after Downing Street said a bomb smuggled through the resort's airport probably downed a Russian airliner at the weekend.

Should they walk and go by sea?

^

Christian to the Defense of Muslim Exclusivism on Temple Mount

In 1981, this letter was published in the New York Times:

and a response/riposte was published shortly thereafter:

O'Rourke 

Credit

is still around, it seems, and is a pastor at Our Lady of Mercy in Richmond, CA.

Of course, the point Isaac makes, that O'Rourke turns 'toleration' on its head, is even more relevant today.  

For those following my blog, I have repeatedly made the point that Muslims are campaigning for the right to pray in and even set aside a portion of the Cordoba Cathedral yet that very same right of activism they deny Jews in Jerusalem, not to mention the sharing of the Temple Mount, is viewed by Muslims, as well as their supporters from other religions and also political liberals/progressives and human rights promoters, as horrific and untolerable.

Since his 1981 letter, things with Islamic "toleration" have gotten worse as the burnings of churches, beheadings of Christians and further barbaric acts increase.

I want to thank Father O'Rourke for reminding us, and actually proving to us, how wrong some people can be and that if only in 1981, the campaign for Jewish rights on and in the Temple Mount had been more powerful and more successful and more understood.

^

When Things Bounce Back At You

Found in an article by Lara Friedman is the Director of Policy & Government Relations for Americans for Peace Now. Hagit Ofran is the Director of Peace Now’s Settlement Watch (Israel):-

Statistics can help track specific aspects of Israel settlement policy, but like any statistics, when cherry-picked they obscure more than they reveal.

I think that is a classic, coming from those who manage to cherry-pick and even misrepresent, twist and obscure data so well themselves.

Here's some more

...a single statistic is being exploited to obscure [a] track record...The totality of the facts tells the real story...checked only intermittently and temporarily, for tactical political purposes.

__________

See now EOZ.


^

I'm Saying Kaddish for Uri Shamir

One of the last times I spent fun time with Uri Shamir 

was in 2007.

I saw him several more times on his visits and even tried to help him find a house in Rimmonim where he thought he'd like to settle in, finally reestablishing himself back in Israel.  But on 2007, we had a bit of a reunion.

The "we" are the 1964 graduates of Chofetz Chaim Yeshiva High School in Queens or, in English, the Yeshiva Preparatory High School.  Here we were in 2007:

Left to right:
Uri Shamir (Ziegel), Benny Ben-David, Sidney Shimshon Saltzman, Yours truly, Yisrael Medad (Winkelman), David Frankel.

Later joining us was Bennet Ostrov:

Uri was living in Rego Park, Queens. Benny is in Alon Shvut. Sid is in Yerushalyaim
I'm in Shiloh. David in Bet El. Bennet in Efrat.

I checked my Gmail account and the last time I heard from him was in May 2014.

He was a commercial real estate broker with Kaplon-Belo Associates in Long Island City, N.Y. and managed to get quoted in the Washington Post and in a local Queens news site in 2013 on the subject of a library as a "retired resident".  He had lectured at Queens College and was the educational coordinator for the Real Estate program in 2007.  He also taught at the Pratt Institute.  He edited a college textbook and others.

A year and a half ago he sent me this update:

I had spinal fusion surgery a few months ago and have been going to therapy twice a week since then. Other than that nothing special is going on. Stay in touch. - Shalom - Uri

In 2009 he was looking into purchasing property to make a home here and tried Shiloh which didn't work out.  I assisted him at Rimmonim but he disappeared all of a sudden with no goodbye and only later did I catch up with him.  He could be very mecurial at times.

He was diabetic and had emergencies previously but last week, he died, in his apartment. Alone.  He was buried last Friday in Staten Island.

I first met him when I was 13 at the Yeshiva Preparatory High School, aka Chofetz Chaim Yeshiva. Four years together.  After graduation, our paths separated but he had preceded me to the Machon progam in Israel by a year and stayed on, living at HaMaalot Street, sub-letting at the flat of Shmuel Kook, Rav Kook's youngest brother.  He was my guide in Jerusalem that first month of September 1966 and I lost a bet to him.  He managed to get into the Old City of Jerusalem before I did at the end of the Six Days War.  By two days as I was at Moshav Amatzia and only on the second day of Shavuot could I make it to the city. I met him at the Sakhna:

He stayed on and I next ran into him when my wife and I made Aliyah in September 1970. He attended Hebrew University but I do no know if he graduated.  He married and eventually left and returned to the States.  He later divorced.  He came back not infrequently for visits, bringing gifts for my kids and performing magic tricks for them.

Almost 40 years of this routine.  He stayed and visited the others who graduated YPHS in 1964 but I could never pin him down to anything even semi-permanent.  My wife and I did try but I felt as if he just couldn't make a decision.  He complained about his fortunes as a real estate agent.  He even tried to import observation balloons for Israel's security, the company was IsraelSkyship, preceding by at least a decade or more what we now see overhead.  Space enthralled him.  His humor was, well, a bit wacky, but tolerable.

And now he has died.  Alone.

Uri ben Baruch Yehudah Aryeh.

I am saying Kaddish for him.

^

Stories of a Fake 'Palestinian' Narrative

Rachel's Tomb, Bethlehem, a century ago:-

Notice the heavily populated and constructed Arab town of Bethlehem.

___________

UPDATE

Note the twitter battle.

Some tweets:

@DovBear ‏of [sic] you can't tell the truth put away your pen. Your lies damage and undermine jews and Zionism.
you think you're helping. In reality you're setting us back. You're doing damage.
people like you are BAD for the cause of zionism because your see through lies and hack journalism deligitmize us
just fix your lies and propaganda and stop giving jews and zinoism a black eye with your disreputable behavior
you posted propaganda in the style of a PA liar. Own it and fix it or you are just like them. 
if a Palestinian had tried that trick and explanation youd scream. Stop being a phoney.

^

And The Safest Mosque in the Middle East Is...?

.

(h/t)

^

The Semantics of Spokespersons

A terror attack occurred today.

How was it tweeted?

Here from IDF:-

And here, from the Israel Police, how they actually reported the event:-

Note the differences.

Anyone questioning why we have problems with public diplomacy and why we are not influencing the discourse?

^

Guardian: There Must Be A Settlement?

Here:

But the fundamental point is that without a settlement 

there cannot be a true peace.

Did the Guardian mean to say that Jews must be able to reside in Judea and Samaria?

And I left a comment.

UPDATE

As it was removed, I re-commented

This - 'On the Arab side, parents worry that a loved son or daughter will decide to trade their own life for that of an Israeli, or that a family member will be caught in crossfire. ' - while some do, unfortunately not all. See this collection http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=479 Until there is a serious reduction in the existing sympathy for terror in the Palestinian Authority, there cannot be a settlement/agreement.

My original went like this:

This - 'On the Arab side, parents worry that a loved son or daughter will decide to trade their own life for that of an Israeli, or that a family member will be caught in crossfire. ' - while some do, not all.  See this collection  http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=479    Until Arab-Islamic societal sympathy for terror stops, there cannot be a settlement/agreement.

Ooops, another was deleted but I screensaved it:

^