Jews Are Revenant Residents

.

Read my 2004 piece.

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Out of Focus

This Arabic-language news website is reporting:

Jordanian source revealed that Israel still refuses to allow Jordan to install surveillance cameras inside the Temple Mount...Jordan recently asked the United States mediation to force Israel to agree to be installed.
According to the understandings, which has between Jordan, Israel and...Secretary of State John Kerry, to stop the Jordanian escalation against violations of settlers against the Temple Mount, it was agreed that Jordan is installing surveillance cameras inside the Temple Mount Sharif is responsible for documenting violations...these cameras will be linked via the "online" direct and secure line with the Ministry's headquarters in Amman.
The source said that the ministry will mandate-holder in the control and surveillance (CONTROL) on these cameras and archive records...

and furthermore,

The understandings included only allow Muslims to pray al-Aqsa, while allowing the Jews to visit him.

To remind us:

The United States on Saturday [Oct 24, 2015] proposed steps, including 24-hour video surveillance, to end weeks of violence over a Jerusalem site holy to Muslims and Jews.

Speaking in Amman after meeting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Jordan's King Abdullah, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Israel had embraced "an excellent suggestion" by the king, who is the custodian of the site within Jerusalem's walled Old City, for round-the-clock monitoring.

Kerry said Israel had also given assurances it had no intention of changing the status quo at the al-Aqsa mosque compound that is the third holiest site in Islam. Muslims refer to the site as the Noble Sanctuary, or Haram al-Sharif, Jews call it Temple Mount.

In a detailed statement, Netanyahu said Israel recognized "the importance of the Temple Mount to peoples of all three monotheistic faiths... and reaffirms its commitment to upholding unchanged the status quo of the Temple Mount, in word and in practice."

He echoed Kerry's statement that Israel would enforce its long-standing policy under which Muslims may pray at the site but Jews, Christians and members of other faiths may only visit but not pray, and that Israel had no intention of dividing up the compound.

Kerry said that Israeli and Jordanian officials would meet soon to work out the details of the video monitoring.

It was a good idea, though.

^

Shimon Levy, January 7, 1948

Recently, photographs from the end of the British Mandate of Plaestine came to light.

Here are two from January 7, 1948.  An Irgun fighter, shot while fleeing through to Mamilla Cemetery, is being carried off to the side, dead:

This is just opposite where the new Waldorf-Astoria Hotel is located and the rounded facade of the building up the street is still there.  It's now Shlomtzion HaMalka St., corner of Agron St.

The Irgun fighter is Shimon Levy.  He joined the Irgun in 1943 and was a commander in the strike squad in the city and participated in the attacks on the Immigration Offices, the Government Broadcasting studio in Ramallah and on the C.I.D. Offices, among others.

Here are two headlines and stories of his last operation, an attack on Arab positions leading to Jaffa Gate from HaMashkif:

and HaTzofeh:

Rebuffed at the road blockade (where the municipal parking lots are down from David Citadel Hotel), the barrel bomb they attempted to release got entangled and blew up, throwing their vehicle into the cemetery wall where, despite an attempt to flee on foot, three squad members, Shimon, Efraim Levi and Nissim Ben-Haim, were shot dead by British security personnel.

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Palestine and the Gospels But No Truth

There's a book entitled "Faith in the Face of Empire: The Bible Through Palestinian Eyes", and here's a description:

"In this short work aimed at the lay reader, Raheb, a writer, preacher, and president of Dar al-Kalima University College in Bethlehem, covers an impressive range of ancient and modern Palestinian history to set geopolitical context for the writings of the Bible. Raheb...calls out misconceptions by outsiders about the culture and its texts while eloquently advocating for greater attention to that culture when interpreting the Bible, in particular to the long legacy of empire in Palestine and the people’s response to repeated occupations. This is a rarely heard perspective on the Bible...

The book is divided into nine chapters,

with an epilogue. Raheb states that the book’s aim is “to lay the groundwork for a genuine Palestinian Christian narrative that is politically relevant and theologically creative” (6). The volume introduces a new understanding of the biblical narrative and of the mission of Jesus, in which the Palestinian context today serves as a hermeneutical key to understanding the original context and content of the Bible. Palestinian Christians are themselves, after all, an important continuum from biblical times to the present, whose narrative sheds a unique light on the biblical story (6–7)...Raheb attacks the myth of a “Judeo-Christian tradition” and the “creative type of hardline evangelical Christian” (24) that, together with the Arab and Western powers, have shaped the dominant culture responsible for the Palestinian plight (26–27). Postcolonial theory and Edward Said’s Orientalism provide the platform for the Palestinian liberation theology’s rejection of Jewish nationalism (27–29). The rejection of the idea that “the modern state of Israel [stands] in some continuity to biblical Israel” is the basis for the Palestinian Christian resistance movement (35). 

Here's another description, however:

The truth is that in that book Raheb shows not only quite an ignorance about the Bible and its composition making statements that would disqualify the book from being discussed in any academic context; but also he has repeatedly expressed views about the Jewish people that are quite racist.

and added there is that 

Raheb promoted a ‘Palestinian Theology’ that purports that Jews are not the Chosen People and therefore have no right to the Holy Land. In a March 2010 address, he said: ‘Actually, the Palestinian Christians are the only ones in the world that, when they speak about their forefathers, they mean their actual forefathers, and also the forefathers in the faith … So, that is the reality of the peoples of the land. Again, they aren't Israel...

No wonder it's a short book.

"Palestine" does not appear in the New Testament books.

Judea does.  Samaria does.  Land of Israel does. 

But the author, we are informed, has won a prize, if shared:

The Olof Palme Memorial Fund in Stockholm, Sweden has announced that the 2015 Olof Palme Prize has been awarded jointly to Palestinian pastor Mitri Raheb of the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem, Palestine, and Israeli journalist Gideon Levy, author and columnist for Haaretz

Between Raheb and Levy, who is worse?

____________

UPDATE

On the Islamic persecution and slaughter of Christians - in November last.

^ 

Well, That Was Wrong

In nearly May 1998, Hillary Clinton attended a Seeds of Peace Youth Conference in Switzerland.

As reported:

In response to a question, the first lady said, “I think it will be in the long-term interests of the Middle East for Palestine to be a state.”
The comment, including at least seven other references to statehood for the Palestinians and the word “Palestine” set off a fury in Israel and among many American Jewish groups. The first lady’s staff immediately moved to downplay the statement.
Her words stand in direct contradiction to U.S. policy, which for decades opposed the creation of a Palestinian state. After Israel and the Palestinians signed the Oslo accords earlier this decade did the United States say that statehood is a matter for negotiations between the parties.
The day after the first lady’s comments, White House spokesman Mike McCurry continued to distance the Clinton administration from the statement. “That view expressed personally by the first lady is not the view of the president,” said McCurry.
“This was not part of any kind of calculated strategy, and I think it speaks for itself when an immediate clarification is issued by her staff that this is something that she did not say in the context of any formal administration policy-making role,” he said.  When pressed on the issue, McCurry said to laughter from the White House press corps, “I expect that she will always continue to express her views, but I doubt that she’ll be venturing into the Middle East peace process anytime soon.”

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We've Been Grammar Grumped

A reader of my and Eli Pollak's media comment columns in the Jerusalem Post from Kiryat Biaalik wrote:

While I found Yisrael Medad's and Eli Pollak's article interesting, ("2015 ends and 2016 begins," December 31) I was distracted and surprised by 2 errors in the usage of the words, " data and media." Both words are plural and must be used with plural articles and verbs, i.e. These data are, The media act, etc. 

Considering Medad and Pollak write exclusively about media matters, one would assume they are able to use Latin-based words, like media, correctly.

Actually, no.  The writer is incorrect.

The simple, short answer is that both forms are acceptable.

There are count nouns and mass nouns and they permit the interchange of seemingly original Latin forms.

Consider this:

The noun "data", the plural of "datum", can be used as singular or plural in meaning: this data; these data; there is no data. The noun "agenda", originally the plural of "agendum", is generally used as a singular noun: today's agenda; a lengthy agenda.

and this:

Data and media can take either a singular or plural verb in standard English, but be consistent within a piece of writing, always check the style policy of your organization, and make yourself familiar with the grammatical debate that exists around them. Following these simple tips will ensure that you won’t come to the attention of the grammar police!

and this:

There are also a few Latin plurals like data, which some insist should always be plural. But hardly anyone ever talks about one datum, and though people write things like There are few data, they never tell you how many data they have (We have collected 972 data). Some of these Latin plurals have lost their singulars, like trivia, agenda, and stamina, while others are slowly moving in that direction, like media.

Oh, and grump as a verb?  See here:

Grump:
Intransitive verb
1
:  sulk
2
:  grumble, complain
transitive verb
:  to utter in a grumpy manner

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Can We Hear It From The Left?

Note:

The Palestinian leader said during the meeting that Jewish West Bank “settlements are a cancer in our midst” 

That was from  Abbas: Settlements are a 'cancer' (here, too).  At Ma'an, they seemingly censored that term.

Anyone remember the leftist uproar when any Israeli would describe Arabs as a 'cancer', or terror as a 'cancer'?

A response:

“Calling Jewish communities a cancer is nothing short of incitement to terrorism,” Yigal Dilmoni, deputy head of the Council of Jewish Communities of Judea and Samaria, told TPS.

CAN YOU HEAR THE LEFTISTS COMPLAINING NOW?

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Really, Mr. President?

Found at the Facebook account of Israel's President:

"Every faith"?

Not really.

Jews at the Temple Mount are restricted, their rights sacrificed for the benefit of Israel's relations with Jordan:

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Israel has a strategic interest in, and long-standing commitment to, the safety, security, stability and prosperity of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. In current times, the relationship is buttressed by a broad-ranging series of cooperative ventures in the strategic, security, diplomatic, economic and energy fields.

An important common thread runs, if sometimes invisibly, through a number of apparently unrelated policy decisions and actions made by Israel in recent years. All have to do with Israel's strategic interest in, and long-standing commitment to, the safety, security, stability and prosperity of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

Among the decisions and actions that fall under this rubric are the understandings reached as to the maintenance of the status quo in the Temple Mount/ Haram al-Sharif compound;

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When Attacked, Defend

These names ring a bell, so to say?

Abner of Burgos. 

Pablo de Santa María. 

Gerónimo de Santa Fé.  

Nicholas Donin.

They are Jews who not only converted out but then turned on Judaism and Jews in a near rabid attack, misrepresenting Jewish texts to bring about the deaths of Jews and destruction of their culture.  More of them here.

Is it only Jews who have the peculiar habit of not only opting out but then turning on their families, their people, their religion, their culture and their national identity to destroy from the roots?

I've blogged about Judah Leib Magnes asking Secretary of State George Marshall and President Truman to halt monetary contributions to the fledgling state of Israel which would virtually assure an Arab military victory (he thought if Israel couldn't fight then the Arabs would stop, too, and make peace).  I've blogged about Peter Beinart.  And about J Street's Jeremy Ben-Ami, son of the Irgun's Mike.

I am not referring to legitimate criticism of errors and faults and even crimes of individual Jews and the state's apparatus which need be highlighted and corrected but to a certain strain an antipathy which rejects or leads to the fundamental undermining of Zionism in the activities of persons and groups.

The dangers that were launched against Jews centuries ago by turncoats are perhaps different but the theme is still the same: 'we're not just leaving but we are coming back to get you'.

In that scenario, Israel, Zionism and Judaism need defend themselves.

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A Ben-Gurion Academic on the Muribatat

On November 18, I attended a conference sponsored by Search for Common Ground's (SFCG) Jerusalem office at the Konrad Adenauer Conference Centre.  Entitled "Addressing Interreligious Tensions: Holy Sites in the Holy Land", funding was also provided by the Norwegian Foreign Ministry. 

The conference took place within the framework of a pilot being implemented "in the Holy Land" (sic) to gauge the practical effectiveness of a Universal Code of Conduct on Holy Sites. This code of theirs 

endeavors to safeguard holy places and promote interreligious reconciliation worldwide by demonstrating that dialogue between relevant religious and governmental bodies leading to common action is a significant tool for building relationships and reducing tensions around holy places.

Some of my snaps:

At the conference, Salwa Alenalt, a PhD candidate in the Middle East Department in Ben Gurion University, provided 

insights into the Islamic concept of ribat, which refers to pious behavior and the call to Muslims to protect Islamic holy sites.

and earlier, she was quoted in the media, saying

“The members of the Murabitat see coming to al-Aqsa, and studying there as a religious duty and experience, They are not willing to give up this experience.”

If only that was their purpose. 

The groups of men and women, murabitun and murabatat, are quite a recent phenomenon, perhaps four years old at the most (although I did find similar behavior in 1911!).  They at first sat around in study circles, then they moved to sit in the pathway of the Jews walking about the Temple Mount courtyard, forcing a detour.  After that, they started yelling and finally, the pushing, shoving, screaming, spitting and hitting.  They are paid to do that, from the coffers of the Islamic Movement-North.

They are provocateurs.  Instigators of violence.  Nothing is being done to the area than what other non-Jewish tourists are doing.  The police are very stringent and restrictive.

And as I pointed out to Ms. Alenalt, as I have already blogged, the Jews demand no less than what Muslims themselves request at such a site as the Cordoba Cathedral.

But at this public human rights program, that went unmentioned by the "scholar" from Ben-Gurion University, an objective and neutral academic.

^

Wedding Dances with Weapons

The criticism of the Jewish wedding with guns and knives held aloft, including, allegedly a picture of the baby murdered at Duma being pierced, drew deserved condemnations.

But off in America, in Chicago, where there is a sizeable landsmannschaft of Turmos Ayya families. dancing with swords is regular.

Here is one clip.

Another.

One with young children.

Must be a quaint cultural thing.

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An Ouch of Alleged Prevention

The Islamic Waqf in Jerusalem has announced that Israel, allegedly, is preventing the implementation of over 20 projects of renovations of various structures that have supposedly "collapsed" inside the Haram A-Sharif courtyards which the Waqf insists is the all-inclusive Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Authorities were accused of refusing to permit entry of restoration, reconstruction and maintenance materials for the implementation of projects.  There has been a hindrance. 

Among these stalled projects are 

amortization and lighting project, warning, ventilation, paving squares, and restoration of the door of mercy and other projects 

Moreover.

The Israeli occupation forces continue to allow the settlers to break into the Al-Aqsa courtyards under its protection in a move that desecrates the mosque and splits it in time and space.

One project that is very overdue and being prevented, this time by the Waqf is the reconstruction of the Temple.

____________

P.S.     A further search revealed a complaint that Jews are intending to build the "Temple of Solomon".

بما تقوم به سلطات الاحتلال من هدم لكافة معالمه الإسلامية، تمهيداً لبناء “هيكل سليمان” المزمع بناءه على أنقاض المسجد الأقصى، بحسب الأناضول.

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The Morphing of Rudoren a la Birchall

Remember the social media scandals of now-departing New York Times' Israel bureau chief Jodi Rudoren at the start of her posting?

Well, I just discovered a previous such faux pas, in 1934, and also involving Jews and the social media of the day from this book, p. 54:

Another historical quirk.

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A Geography Nomenclature Lesson

First read this (h/t EOZ):

"We understood the place names Judean Desert and Samaria were not currently legally recognised"

Is that a sensible declaration? Is the British government of a EU body competent to recognize such?

Then ask yourselves why then is it not legal when even the UN employed those terms in 1947:

The boundary of the hill country of Samaria and Judea starts on the Jordan River at the Wadi Malih south-east of Beisan and runs due west to meet the Beisan-Jericho road and then follows the western side of that road in a north-westerly direction to the junction of the boundaries of the Sub-Districts of Beisan, Nablus, and Jenin. From that point it follows the Nablus-Jenin sub-District boundary westwards for a distance of about three kilometres and then turns north-westwards, passing to the east of the built-up areas of the villages of Jalbun and Faqqu'a, to the boundary of the Sub-Districts of Jenin and Beisan at a point northeast of Nuris. Thence it proceeds first northwestwards to a point due north of the built-up area of Zie'in and then westwards to the Afula-Jenin railway, thence north-westwards along the District boundary line to the point of intersection on the Hejaz railway. From here the boundary runs southwestwards, including the built-up area and some of the land of the village of Kh. Lid in the Arab State to cross the Haifa-Jenin road at a point on the district boundary between Haifa and Samaria west of El- Mansi. It follows this boundary to the southernmost point of the village of El-Buteimat. From here it follows the northern and eastern boundaries of the village of Ar'ara rejoining the Haifa-Samaria district boundary at Wadi 'Ara, and thence proceeding south-south-westwards in an approximately straight line joining up with the western boundary of Qaqun to a point east of the railway line on the eastern boundary of Qaqun village. 

^

My Temple Mount Visit

Monday, Zot Hanukkah:

With Yehuda Etzion, Rachel Sela, Rav Shimon Ben-Tzion, Sarah Feld, and others.

^       כאן

Minister Caught Groping?

Is that hand, well, sort of, er... in a groping position?

That's Dr. Sabri Saidam, His Excellency Minister of Education and Higher Education in the Palestinian Authority (h/t).

The girl is the Shirley Temper of the Tamimi clan provocateurs.

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Jabotinsky Misquotation aka Fabrication

If you click here,  you can read this (and a few other quotations) supposedly from the writings and speeches of Ze'ev Jabotinsky.

Here's one:

"Internationally, we will announce that those Jews who do not remove the rust of the exile from themselves and refuse to shave their beard and sidelocks (payos) will be second class citizens. They will not be given the right to vote." 

That is noted as being found in "Outside the encampment" an article published in Ha'aretz newspaper on October 22, 1919.

But if you search here, you can find the original article:

And, as you probably have guessed or assumed, those words are not in the article.  Even Hebrew-language sites carry the lie (this site deals with the article but without the false words).

^

A Dumkopf Berkoff Send-Off

A Berkoff bloke asked in the Jewish Chronicle

What on earth has happened to the Jewish mind?...Something has gone wildly awry.

Berkoff is famous.  And lauded.  But there are who are a bit circumspect.  Drama critic Aleks Sierz describes Berkoff's dramatic style as "In-yer-face theatre":

“The language is usually filthy, characters talk about unmentionable subjects, take their clothes off, have sex, humiliate each another, experience unpleasant emotions, become suddenly violent. At its best, this kind of theatre is so powerful, so visceral, that it forces audiences to react: either they feel like fleeing the building or they are suddenly convinced that it is the best thing they have ever seen

Thus forewarned, his latest screed is on the subject of the Temple Mount which is

…something so utterly trivial, so shallow, just to fulfil our nostalgic needs. What is most sacred is our freedom and the intelligence and wisdom to respect the rights of others. Enough innocent people have died to perpetuate this sickening myth of the mount's sacredness…

One could ask, if it is trivial, why is it not trivial for the Muslims?  Are only Jews charged with minimalising their religious, national and cultural feelings?

Yet he ratchet ups his rhetoric further:

Who could ever dream that the Jews who have suffered so much, could be so completely insensitive to the spiritual needs of the Palestinians? To be partly responsible for the most pointless bloodshed caused by their utterly bone-headed desire to fulfil their need to shtup themselves into the Al Aqsa mosque area…the gross and selfish need for people to fulfil atavistic desires and push themselves into an area sacred to the Palestinians. Why? Why is there such an important need to step into the place where once the Jewish temple stood? It has gone, gone, over 2,000 years ago. Get over it!

And he wrote that during Channukah, the holiday celebrating the cleansing of the Temple from foreign influences, as a symbol of Jewish liberation against an occupation.  Well, no more latkes for him!

Really, now, how ugly a character can he possess to write that?

The Muslims in Mandate days knew quite well that Jews did not seek to assert themselves on the Temple Mount.  All they wanted was their rights at the Western Wall.  For the 19 years of Jordanian occupation, Israel did not aggressively claim its rights to that Wall.  In 1967, a status quo was adopted - no overt displays of Jewishness during visits (as 'tourists') such as praying, reading from Lamentations or the such and no archaeological excavations to discover the historical truth and to confirm what we Jews assume to know about the location - whereas for the Muslims, that status quo was consistently violated and included destruction of artifacts and other physical, not spiritual, items important for Jews and all mankind.

I presume that means nothing to Berkoff for he seems to prefer the non-Jew's position.  Their feelings are to be honored more as he thinks that will influence the Arab/Muslim (which it hasn't in over 100 years of conflict).

For Berkoff, Netanyahu is a a dumkopf (in 2009, he described Netanyahu and Sharon as “wretched”) and Netanyahu “has no smidgeon of seichel”.

What is his solution? To

leave the Palestinians alone in their own spiritual territory…the only thing they have left is their spiritual rights. That is as important if not more than almost anything else.

Does not his own seichel grasp that the Arabs-who-refer-to-themselves-as-'Palestinians' will never be satisfied with being alone in their own world?  In their current make-believe world, the Temple never existed. Abraham was a Muslim.  Jews have no national rights.  We can be stabbed because we are intending to destroy Al-Aqsa.  Little children, young women and men just get up and select their knife-of-choice and go out to stab a Jew, any Jew (or Arab they think a Jew) or run them over, even the Jew is an infant in a stroller (that's a pram, Mr.Berkoff).

Can logic and rationality work with people like this?

So, what is left for the Jews?  For Berkoff, Tel Aviv is the answer for it is

sanctuary for all Jews who have been abused, no matter where in the world. Should we jeopardise all this for the absurd need to shtup our busy carcasses on to the Temple Mount?

Tel Aviv, indeed, is an amazing accomplishment.  But as has been noted, it can present challenges and did

and still does. Is Berkoff really suggesting Jerusalem be dumped? The city of peace?  To where all the nations will come for "my house is a house of prayer for all peoples". Are we all, in his mind, dumkopfs?

From my understanding, Berkoff is embarrassed by too an overt assertion of Jewishness and he cares deeply for a people that cannot but resort to an evil terrorism as their form of diplomacy no matter how many times Jews yielded up their rights or even surrendered territory. Jews are the cause of the problem.  If he thinks that yielding any right, guaranteed by law, by the way, will placate Arab fanaticism, quiet their anger and convince them that they shouldn't yell at, spit at or kill Jews, he is the dumkopf.

^

______________

UPDATE

Jordan demands Israel to stop providing cover to Al-Aqsa incursions

Amman, Dec. 16 (Petra) -- The government demanded the Israeli occupation authorities to refrain from facilitating and providing security cover for Jewish incursions to the Al-Aqsa Mosque / the Al-Haram Al-Sharif...Minister of State for Media Affairs, the government's spokesman, Mohammad Al-Momani, expressed Jordan's rejection of the Israeli occupation police allowing extremists to perform Talmudic rituals after storming the Al-Haram al-Sharif; describing such practices as blatant aggression against holy sites and an outright provocation to all Muslims' feelings.

Al-Momani strongly condemned the Israeli police for allowing Jewish extremists to enter the Al-Aqsa Mosque, barefooted, according to Talmudic beliefs, noting that this is a serious indication of the continuous escalation against the holy shrine.

He voiced rejection of the blatant interference by the Israeli police in the work of the Hashemite Committee for Restoration of the Islamic Holy Places in Jerusalem and in the repairing of some damages in the Al-Aqsa Mosque; condemning Israeli police attempts this morning to prevent repairing an urgent malfunction in the water network in the mosque.

The minister said the ongoing Israeli violations against the Al-Aqsa Mosque constitute a gross breach of the peace agreement signed in 1994 between the two countries, the international law and relevant United Nations and the Security Council's resolutions.

He added that these violations are a clear evidence of the Israeli occupation's non-stop attempts to change the status quo at the Islamic holy sites and other locations in occupied East Jerusalem.

Berkorf is defending this inanity?  Worse, he is blaming Israel for their irrationality.

^

Another Jewish "settlement"?

An archeological discovery near the Sea of Galilee may prove the presence of a Jewish settlement at the site 1,500 years ago.

An ancient tablet featuring Hebrew letters has been excavated and is the best proof yet of a former Jewish town at the site.

Do Jews ever live in homes, towns, villages or communities?

^ 

Ibish: Obama is a Muslim

In the New York Times:

Who Is a Muslim?By HUSSEIN IBISH  DEC. 15, 2015

...Who and what is a “Muslim”?

...Would the definition of a Muslim be based on family heritage, personal beliefs or both? How would that be codified in practice?

...My own case is instructive. I am a citizen of the United States but born in a Muslim-majority country (Lebanon), and, on my father’s side, into a clearly Muslim family. Moreover, my first name, Hussein, is one of a few in Arabic that is practically exclusive to Muslims (Arab Christians and Jews are not given this name).

???

Barack Hussein Obama then is a Muslim, a la Ibish?

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