Perry - "Settlements" Legal

On CNN via progressive website:

Republican Presidential hopeful Texas Gov. Rick Perry broke with more than 40 years of bipartisan U.S. policy and issued a statement of blanket support for Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories...

CNN’s Wolf Blitzer asked Perry:

Since ’67, every U.S. president, Democrat and Republican, have called Israeli settlement activity in the occupied territories, in the West Bank, illegal under international law. Would you continue that activity?

PERRY: …No I wouldn’t. I consider the Israeli settlements to be legal, from my perspective, and I support them.

BLITZER: Even if they’re in the West Bank?

PERRY: Where there is arrangements that have been made, where the Israeli’s are clearly on Israel’s land that they have hard fought to win and to keep, absolutely.

...Blitzer also asked if Perry would move the U.S. embassy in Israel, which is currently located in Tel Aviv, to Jerusalem. “Absolutely,” replied Perry. “As soon as I could. I would clearly say, if you want to work for the State Department of the United States, you need to be packing your bags and move to Jerusalem as soon as you can.”

As I pointed out, in 1997, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright already stated the Jewish communities are legal in an interview with Matt Lauer on NBC’s "The Today Show" on October 1, 1997, and asked in relation to building in Yesha and said: “I wasn't happy…I felt that going forward with those kinds of buildings was not helpful. Mr. Lauer pressed her and stated: “ It's legal. “, and Albright admitted: “It's legal.”

And following that, let's note this:

WHEN SETTLERS AREN'T SETTLERS

1. State Department, September 17, 1997

Spokesman:
The United States has been in contact with the Israeli government with regard to the Ras al-Amud housing project. The move of settlers into this project [formerly an entirely Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem] is not helpful...We don't think this is a question of law...Remember, this is about property rights, people purchasing property and then trying to build on that property, dealing with local governments, dealing with national governments. It's really an Israeli internal matter; that's precisely why I said we weren't in a position to micromanage it.

2. State Department, September 18, 1997

Spokesman:

. . . We have been working most closely with the Israeli Government to try to get an outcome [at Ras al-Amud] as close to our view as possible. We are pleased to the extent that the settlers are out, but we hope and expect that nothing will happen in the days and weeks ahead that will have the effect of reversing the status quo.

Question:
Are they settlers to the U.S. Government? You consider them settlers? You used the word settlers. I'm giving you a chance to say whether you meant what you said.

Spokesman:
Settlers in a housing project, yes.

Question:
You know what settlers means in Middle East vocabulary--were they settlers or are they just simply Jews moving into new homes?

Spokesman:
Do you think it would be a good idea for you to take more or less days off?

Question:
Look, Jamie, half the press calls them settlers, and the other half doesn't.

Spokesman:
All right. People can settle in housing projects.

Question:
Are these people settlers?

Spokesman:
The people who are in the--we do not regard this, as you know, the word that I'm not going to use.

Question:
I'm just asking you to define your terms, because it's a tricky but very significant distinction.

Spokesman:
I agree, and I did not use the word that would have made it a problem.

3. State Department, September 19, 1997

Question:
The Secretary, when she was in the area, talked a lot about the importance of not taking, as you said, unilateral actions that create facts on the ground. Do you consider that [the Israeli "compromise" on Ras al-Amud] putting these students now, instead of the families, creating new facts on the ground, that makes resuming the negotiations harder?

Spokesman:
I think I've said very clearly, and I'll repeat for you, that we have received assurances that there will not be a new status quo. The character of the neighborhood will not change. Therefore, we believe that the main element, the essential element that this situation could have created, has been alleviated, if the assurances are followed through on.

So, no, we don't think that the fact that there are teams of caretakers who are not going to live there, and construction is not going to be occurring there, and the neighborhood is not going to change is the kind of significant unilateral act that we were calling for both sides to avoid.

4. ON THE NATURAL GROWTH OF SETTLEMENTS

Djerejian:
There is some allowance for--I wouldn't use the word "expansion" but certainly continuing some activity--construction activities in existing settlements. . . . And that's basically in terms of natural growth and basic, immediate needs in those settlements. I want to get away from the word "expansion" per se.

5. Testimony by Assistant Secretary of State for Near
Eastern and South Asian Affairs Edward Djerejian on March 9, 1993 before the Subcommittee on Europe and the Middle East of the House Foreign Affairs Committee

State Department, October 1, 1997

Question:
...in her Today Show interview this morning, the Secretary was asked if the settlements are legal. And she said, quote "they are legal" unquote. Was she talking about legal within the context of Israeli law? Or was she talking about international law, specifically the Fourth Geneva Convention?

Spokesman:
No, she was not talking about international law. Our overall position on the question of the legality of settlements remains the same. We are, of course, not taking a legal position on that overall issue. . . . The fact of the matter is that there is nothing in the interim agreement, as such, and under Oslo, that prohibits settlement activity. We do not support the settlement activity. We think it is unhelpful and counterproductive. But as a technical answer, though, the statement was technically correct.

6. State Department, October 2, 1997

Question:
. . . If Oslo does not prohibit something, does it make it legal? Is this the basis for the legality of this?

Spokesman:
Our position has always been that we believe that settlement activity is a complicating factor in our efforts to promote a negotiated settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and dispute, and that view has not changed. We think settlements are counterproductive, they are unhelpful, and that has not changed.

7. State Department, October 3, 1997

Question:
So there has not been any change in U.S. policy towards settlements since the '70s, since the Carter days?

Spokesman:
Well, I don't want to get caught on that. I mean, all I can say is the Secretary of State in that interview was not intending to make any new statements about the grand legal judgment of the settlements in the Middle East. I think we have exhausted that completely.

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Peace Now's Money, Money, Money

From here (translated):-

A harsh report submitted to the Registrar of Associations notes that for years, Peace Now took money given to it for educational purposes and used it for political purposes and has revealed its funding sources: foreign governments who paid it hundreds of thousands - to keep track of settlements...In the coming weeks will be decided on the further handling of the matter.

Channel 2 news reporter Amit Segal reported that the Educational Enterprises Association [the official registered NGO that is "Peace Now"]...in fact spent millions of dollars on a clear political activity.

...During the review, Peace Now had to disclose the financial sources, and it was discovered that it receives considerable funding from several European governments, including the Government of Norway (800,000 shekels), the Finnish government, the European Union (NIS 451,598) and the British government that gave the organization 544,367 NIS for a specific purpose: the monitoring of settlements.

Following submission of the report, Peace Now managers were summoned to clarify with the Registrar of Associations...Peace Now said in response about the associations that "For 30 years we are working without any fault, it is a matter of interpretation." In relation to the funding it was said that "Peace Now works according to the law to disclose to residents of Israel the truth about the settlements."

A "matter of interpretation"?

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Vatican Cardinal Fearful of Fundamentalist Muslims

Seems that a Vatican Cardinal is worried about Muslim fundamentalists

Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, head of the Vatican's Council for Interreligious Dialogue, said..."The part of Jerusalem within the walls -- with the holy sites of the three religions -- is humanity's heritage, as each has its roots there," he said in reference to Judaism, Islam and Christianity.

"Let's suppose that tomorrow part of Jerusalem belongs to a Palestinian state: one morning a group of fundamentalist Muslims could decide to build a mosque where the Holy Sepulchre stands," he added.

The Vatican says the answer is to have the global community regulate the sites -- and it favours handing the task to a "large group" of states, rather than placing it in the hands of the United Nations Security Council or Europe.

"The sacred and unique character of the area must be safeguarded and it can only be done with a special, internationally-guaranteed statute," Tauran said.

Actually, Cardinal Tauran, only Israel's sovereignty can and will guarantee complete religious freedom.

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Three New Wall Posters

I've uploaded three new wall posters, 2 against vacationing in Eilat and one banning the Hareidi weekly, HaMishpacha, at my Facebook album.

And review the previous uploads.

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There Is Going the Demographic Threat

IMRA alerted me:

Demographic threat? Not according to the numbers

From the Central Bureau of Statics:

In the last decade the number of Jewish babies increased by almost 20% while the number of non-Jewish babies dropped by over 5%

Distribution of babies born in 2011 and 2011:

2001: Jews 69% Moslems 28% Christian 1.9%
2010: Jews 76% Moslems 22% Christian 1.3%

The scanned article (via IMRA)

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Learning About Our Neighbors

I attended this afternoon and evening a seminar organized by the Spokesperson's Office of the Benjamin Regional Council on our Arab neighbors from the historical, sociological and political aspects, both locally as well as the great regional picture from the Magrheb to Iran and even Pakistan.

Some 70 participants from most of the communities in the regional council were present:

The three speakers were Avi Issercharof (below) of Haaretz; Ze'ev Ehrlich and Shlomo Harari:

It was an excellent intellectual and informative evening.

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Quotable Words on the US As Israel's Ally - Or Not

Powerful.

...the Obama administration's response to the calamitous [Egyptian] election results has been shocking. Rather than sound the alarm bells, US President Barack Obama has celebrated the results as a victory for "democracy."

Rather than warn Egypt that it will face severe consequences if it completes its Islamist transformation, the Obama administration has turned its guns on the first country that will pay a price for Egypt's Islamic revolution: Israel.

Speaking at the annual policy conclave in Washington sponsored by the leftist Brookings Institute's Saban Center for Middle East Policy, US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hammered Israel, the only real ally the US has left in the Middle East after Mubarak's fall. Clinton felt it necessary - in the name of democracy - to embrace the positions of Israel's radical Left against the majority of Israelis.

Caroline Glick

And one more excerpt:

..when taken together with Clinton's and Panetta's speeches, Gutman's remarks expose a distressing intellectual and moral trend that clearly dominates the Obama administration's foreign policy discourse. All three speeches share a common rejection of objective reality in favor of a fantasy.

In the administration's fantasy universe, Israel is the only actor on the world stage. Its detractors, whether in the Islamic world or Europe, are mere objects. They are bereft of judgment or responsibility for their actions.

There are two possible explanations for this state of affairs - and they are not mutually exclusive. It is possible that the Obama administration is an ideological echo chamber in which only certain positions are permitted. This prospect is likely given the White House's repeated directives prohibiting government officials from using terms like "jihad," "Islamic terrorism," "Islamist," and "jihadist," to describe jihad, Islamic terrorism, Islamists and jihadists.

Restrained by ideological thought police that outlaw critical thought about the dominant forces in the Islamic world today, US officials have little choice but to place all the blame for everything that goes wrong on the one society they are free to criticize - Israel.

The second possible explanation for the administration's treatment of Israel is that it is permeated by anti-Semitism...

^

This Is Incitement, Use It Judiciously, Mrs. Beinisch

Ever since 1995, the term "incitement" has taken center stage in the left-right divide in Israel's politics and and judicial considerations.

Incitement is a key buzz word that is employed to halt any robust discussion and it indicts, especially, the nationalist camp, religious or secular.

Even the President of the Supreme Court employs the language:

"This is a campaign of delegitimization led by a number of politicians, Knesset members and even cabinet ministers, who exploit their [parliamentary] immunity and give the general public false and misleading information that has deteriorated into incitement against the court, the justices and the judiciary's work," she said.

President Shimon Peres used it a month ago:

During an official memorial ceremony Tuesday night at the President's Residence, Peres honored Rabin and reflected on their relationship.

"We will never forget your walking down the road of hate and incitement, along a landscape of violence and provocation. You did not panic. You did not retreat. You did not stop your march," Peres said.

Haaretz's Akiva Eldar used it in a call to American Jewish leaders to intervene in Israel's democracy:

For several long months, the (mostly self-appointed ) "leaders" in the U.S. community have ignored the unbridled incitement launched by Israel against human rights organizations, the Supreme Court and the media.

Charges have recently been brought:

A-G orders incitement probe into Safed rabbi

Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein decided on Tuesday to open a criminal investigation against Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, chief rabbi of Safed, on suspicion of incitement to racism.

The investigation will be based on a number of statements Eliyahu made in reference to the Israeli-Arab community which were publicized by the media.

So, should we not try to ascertain what "incitement" is in a democracy other than Israel?

This is what is incitement in America:

State v. Turner, 2011 WL 4424754 (Conn. Super. September 6, 2011)

A Connecticut state court held that prosecuting a blogger for posting content online encouraging others to use violence did not violate the blogger’s First Amendment right to free speech.

Defendant was charged under a Connecticut statute prohibiting individuals from “inciting injury to persons or property.” Angry about a bill in the state General Assembly that would have removed financial oversight of Catholic parishes from priests and bishops, defendant posted the following statements to his blog:

•[T]he Founding Fathers gave us the tools necessary to resolve [this] tyranny: The Second Amendment
•[My organization] advocates Catholics in Connecticut take up arms and put down this tyranny by force. To that end, THIS WEDNESDAY NIGHT ON [my radio show], we will be releasing the home addresses of the Senator and Assemblyman who introduced bill 1098 as well as the home address of [a state ethics officer].
•These beastly government officials should be made an example of as a warning to others in government: Obey the Constitution or die.
•If any state attorney, police department or court thinks they’re going to get uppity with us about this, I suspect we have enough bullets to put them down too

Defendant challenged the application of the state statute as unconstitutional. The court disagreed, finding there to be “little dispute that the defendant’s message explicitly advocate[ed] using violence.” Moreover, the court found the threatened violence to be “imminent and likely.” The blog content said that the home address of the legislators and government officials would be released the following day.

Though the court did not find that a substantial number of persons would actually take up arms, it did note, in a nod to 9/11, “the devastation that religious fanaticism can produce in this country.” As such, there was a sufficient basis to say that defendant’s vitriolic language had a substantial capacity to propel action to kill or injure a person.

Mrs. Beinisch, learn to use words judiciously.

For the law's sake, for Israel's democracy sake.


^

He Came, He Partially Saw, He Might Be Back

Despite it, I found some good items in this story of a Brit out close to us:

Israel trip is no Bank holiday

...Richard Chilvers resigned from his job...[and] went on a two-week trip to the West Bank and is now considering living there...The West Bank is disputed [!!!] land between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

...“Israelis have some valid security concerns and see themselves as surrounded by people who want to wipe them out [!!!]. But I guess I also understand the ongoing situation for the Palestinian people is a very serious one.”

...“We met some people who haven’t been able to get to Jerusalem for 11 years [???] and children who have to go through checkpoints on their way to school.

“There are plenty of soldiers. I didn’t see any conflict [!!!]but it was very moving.”

...Mr Chilvers, who worships at to St Aldate’s Church, said: “My faith is very important to me [!!!] and it certainly encourages it to help those who are suffering.”

Too bad we couldn't play host to him, if for even a day.

At least the land is "disputed", aka we have claims.

There are valid security issues that need to be addressed.

Faith is a reasonable component of action.

As for the 11 year wait, if I knew the name, I could clarify whether the person is, perhaps, a terrorist. Same for the schoolchildren situation - where did this take place? Hebron?

Not bad, though.

^

Muslim Brotherhood = Extinction of Democracy and Liberalism?

The Guardian is optimistic:

Political Islam poised to dominate the new world bequeathed by Arab spring

The Muslim Brotherhood's success in the first round of Egypt's elections has added to western fears of an Islamist future for the Middle East. But this does not necessarily mean that democracy and liberal policies face extinction

And how?

...as journalist Issandr El Amrani wrote in the wake of the election results in Egypt on his Arabist blog, "has profoundly depressed most educated, middle-class Cairenes … who had hoped that the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak would be followed by a relatively liberal democracy that would be inclusive of moderate Islamists.

"Among my Egyptian friends (most decidedly on the liberal side) there is now tremendous worry about a future in which politics is ruled on the one hand by identitarian Islamist politics and on the other by a populist, hyper-nationalistic army. I don't think it has to be so, and we could very well see a transition to a democratic (but not liberal) system which allows for rotation of power.

"Personally," Amrani concludes, "I think that there can be a positive outcome here: if the Muslim Brothers are serious about consolidating electoral democracy and work hard on addressing that issue, there will be other elections for those that disagree with their conservative views (or foreign policy, or economic liberalism) to make their case."

Now, is that optimism or self-deludement?

^

Stonethrowing: Attempted Murder

From Arnold Roth's blog:

From the British Sky News this afternoon:

Motorist's Terror As Rock Smashes Into Car

A motorist has told of her lucky escape after a large rock was thrown from a bridge, shattering her car windscreen. Lisa Horne, 26, said she was left "very shaken" and "scared to drive" following the incident last Thursday evening on the A12 in Essex. She and her 48-year-old mother escaped unharmed when their Vauxhall Astra was targeted as they travelled under the Fryerning Lane Bridge near Ingatestone. Around 40 minutes later, a 57-year-old woman and her husband were injured after a "bucket-sized" piece of concrete was dropped on to her car from a different bridge on the same stretch of road between Chelmsford and London. Police are treating both incidents as attempted murder.

And so they should.

People who hurl rocks at moving vehicles and at the people inside them either want to kill those people or are absolutely indifferent as to whether or not that is the result. Either way, it's murder or attempted murder. The deaths on an Israeli road two months ago of Asher Palmer and his baby son Yonatan ("25-Sep-11: "Only" rock throwers - but now a father and his infant son are dead") are proof enough. Palestinian Arab youths and men routinely engage in rock-throwing attacks on Israelis in their cars. We understand what their goals are. Some Brits might now, too.

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And As Long As We're Discussing Anti-semitism...

From an exchange of letters in the New York Review of Books:-

...I stand by my reading. Although I am of course willing to entertain Professor Strawson’s implication that generations of British authors have been the victims of a dire “prejudice” on the part of Jewish readers such as myself, I am emboldened to suggest that the burden of sensitivity lies on the other side. It is true that Hollinghurst’s work contains a “huge cast of characters”; indeed very few of them have recognizably Jewish surnames (even fewer than I’d thought, if Professor Strawson is right). For that very reason, I wished that the arriviste duchess in The Line of Beauty (who, when we first meet her, is the object of another character’s mimicry—a “thoughtless social dynamo” who is the heiress to a “vinegar fortune”) hadn’t been a Feingold; that the money behind the morally bankrupt Thatcherite politician at the center of that same book hadn’t been the Rothschild-like Kessler heiress (she seems “distantly foreign” to the protagonist); that the pushy intruder into the Valances’ marmoreally aristocratic existence hadn’t been Jerry Goldblatt. I cannot accept Professor Strawson’s startling claim that an author’s presentation of his characters—especially in a work of biting social and political satire such as The Line of Beauty—does not ask its readers to “conclude anything.”

To be sure, “principles of realism” must guide a novelist’s pen, but after rereading all of Hollinghurst’s work in preparation for my review, I was (as I wrote) dismayed to find what struck me as an unrealistic lopsidedness: the only recognizably Jewish Englishmen I encountered in it were either vulgar, filthy rich, or vaguely foreign—those age-old clichés of the Jew in British literature. (With one exception: one learns that Simon, the long-dead lover of the protagonist in The Spell, had a very nice bum.) My regret, in any event, was not a weary pose, it was genuine, and I framed my observation as an aside precisely because I didn’t want it to dominate my otherwise admiring and, I think, nuanced assessment of this worthy writer. You would think from Professor Strawson’s indignant references to insults and slurs and apologies that I had made an ad hominem attack on Alan Hollinghurst. I did not. I am a critic, and what I did was to offer a critical observation about a (small) aspect of the author’s oeuvre. My readers may judge the validity of this interpretation for themselves...

That exchange was about

“an old British literary habit”—that habit being the use of Jews as exotics and symbols of un-Britishness.

^

And In This Kingdom...

Where is this taking place?

Outside the courthouse where four youths recently awaited trial on charges of cursing the king, a crime punishable in this hitherto deferential kingdom by up to three years in jail, one hundred protesters continue cussing the king, until the order comes from on high to let the four go.

Such protests are growing in intensity and geographic reach, degrading the royal stature with every chant. Last season’s innuendo against his courtiers and queen has become this season’s naked repudiation of the King. In September, demonstrators chanted S-S-S, a deliberately ambiguous call for both the regime’s islah, Arabic for reform, and isqat, overthrow.

Yes, Jordan.

This:

the King and Queen prefer consulting their coterie of predominantly Palestinian business associates, who East Bankers fear are set on taking over the country plot by plot from its indigenous inhabitants. From their seat of power in West Amman, they allegedly want to turn Jordan into Palestine, thereby settling Israel’s refugee problem at Jordan’s expense. “We’re red Indians in our own country,” says Hamoud al-Faiz, a sheikh from Bani Sakhr, a desert tribe southeast of Amman that, perhaps because of its reputation for martial prowess, has played a prominent role in arousing the resentment of East Bankers. He says he feels like a foreigner in his own capital, estranged from the moneyed youth who cast the keys of their fancy convertibles to liveried valets at the gates of Amman’s bars.

Two banks hath the Jordan...

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^

Oiy. New "Draconian" Media Law

No, not in Israel where "democracy is under assault" as Israel's Leftist forces and even Hillary Clinton would have you believe.

In Brazil, maybe?

You decide:-

Brazilian Senate approves bill that would require journalists to have a degree in journalism

After arguments from the National Federation of Journalists (Fenaj in Portuguese) and similar journalist groups, senators approved a bill to amend the Constitution that requires practicing journalists to have an advanced degree on Nov. 30, reported G1. The degree requirement was defeated by the Supreme Federal Court in June 2009. Despite Minister Gilmar Mendes' statement that any attempt to oblige degree requirements to practice journalism would be declared unconstitutional, the bill returned to the Brazilian Congress and easily passed the Brazilian House of Deputies and, now, the Senate. Fenaj President Celso Schroder was pleased by the vote. "This represented the Senate's desire to correct an historic error by the Court against the professional characterization of journalists," he said in a public statement on the group's website. The amendment still needs to pass a second plenary session in the Senate and return to the Chamber of Deputies...

Groups like the Inter American Press Association and the Brazilian Association of Journalists see the return of degree requirements as an attack on freedom of expression and free speech guaranteed by the Federal Constitution.

Imagine that, legislating academic standards.

What were they thinking? That a journalist needs be trained, educated, sensitized? Have a broad, liberal arts background?Just because his reporting could, perhaps, defame an individual, libel him? Could bring down a government? Couild mislead you about economic issues?

Who do those legislators think they are?


Well, here's one, MK Tzipi Hotoveli of the Likud:-

...The fourth branch of government – the media – rushed to divide legislators into sons of light and sons of darkness, and to label each bill with a derogatory nickname reflecting its own views. Thus, the proposed amendment to the NGO law [which aims to limit funding to nongovernmental organizations] became the "law to dry up the left-wing NGOs," while the proposed amendment to the libel law became the "mouth-shutting law."

In this manner the media prevented any substantive discussion of these bills...Opposition leader Tzipi Livni went a step further and declared that Israel had swapped roles with Egypt – with Egypt moving toward democracy and Israel turning into a totalitarian regime.

More recently, the top echelon of the judiciary branch also joined this incitement campaign. First the state prosecutor said he would "hunt down" anyone who threatened the courts, then Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch gave an unprecedented speech criticizing both the executive and the legislative branches of government.

...This is not a case of the court overturning another law, this is a case of the court blocking public discourse. The judicial system has carried out a targeted assassination of any proposal it does not agree with...Criticizing and even defaming MKs, and particularly ministers...wild and dangerous incitement – no less dangerous than the legislation she is criticizing.

Seconds before fair and balanced discourse takes its leave of Israel forever, Israeli democracy must stand strong against the attack. In a democracy, one must always remember that it is not only the minority that has the right to voice its views, the majority is also allowed to weigh in on whether a bill is worthy or not.

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Football Victory Thanks to Crowd

Win or lose, the Jerusalem Lions thanks the crowd of supporters who come out to cheer:

This one was a win.

Number 31 is my son.

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Arrests

I reported on the arrests of several females (the number is fluctuating), Jewish, suspected of "price tag" crimes.

Just in case you think there's a rampant wave of anti-Arab violence, let's provid background and perspective:

WEST BANK, December 5, 2011 (WAFA) – Israeli army Monday arrested nine Palestinians from the city of Nablus in the northern West Bank and the cities of Bethlehem and Hebron in the southern West Bank, according to security and local sources.

and

NABLUS (Ma'an) -- Israeli soldiers detained three teenagers in the northern West Bank on Sunday evening, accusing them of trespassing in a nearby Jewish-only settlement.

Locals told Ma'an that the boys, all aged 15, were picking olives in lands by al-Luban al-Sharqiyya near the Eli settlement.

and

WEST BANK, December 1, 2011 (WAFA) – Israeli forces arrested 22 Palestinians on Thursday across the West Bank, according to security sources.

and

WEST BANK, November 29, 2011 (WAFA) – Israeli forces Tuesday arrested five Palestinians across the West Bank, according to local sources.

and

WEST BANK, November 28, 2011 (WAFA) - Israeli forces Monday arrested 9 Palestinians across the West Bank, according to security sources.

and

HEBRON, November 27, 2011 (WAFA) – Israeli soldiers Sunday arrested 12 Palestinians across the West Bank, according to security sources.

I could go on, but the point is made.

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Alan Dershowitz at the Begin Center

A joint/multiple program sponosored by NGO-Monitor and the Begin Center had Alan Dershowitz speaking on human rights and on defending Israel as well as receiving an Honorary Begin Prize which he was supposed to receive last year.

Pics:

For me, the most important thing he said was that Israel should stop being ashamed and cautious and fearful and send their representatives all over - Spain, UK, etc. and not to be suspect of lawfare.

He will provide free legal services with the best team assembled for support.

He ripped into the UN's Human Rights Council and others who distort the essence of single standard judgment.

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Silverstin Shocked, I Say. Shocked

He writes in reaction to a Roger Cohen piece:

One of the main themes of this blog over the past two years has been my attempt to point out that Israel, in its approach to Iran is the emperor with no clothes. There simply is no viable policy. Terror is not policy. It’s bad enough when you’re a terror organization and present no agenda other than nihilistic violence. But when you’re a state you simply have no excuse. So now what Cohen is saying is that the U.S. too is marching in lockstep with terror. It’s beyond heartbreaking.

There you have it, the "brilliance" and "wisdom" of an anti-Zionist.

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"Settlers"? Grotesque

In a post about her two recent visits to Hebron, Melanie Phillips notes of the Jewish residents there, in passem, that

It is also grotesque to call them 'settlers' as if they are colonising land with which they have no connection. Jews have lived in Hebron for thousands of years but have been repeatedly driven out, as in the 1929 pogrom when Arabs slaughtered 67 adults and children.

As I have insisted, the media-preferred term of "settlers" and "settlements" are selected with malice aforethought, to pejoratively influence the media consumer, the diplomat, the politician, the potential supporter. The terms corrupt. They alter reality. They misrepresent.

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It's Mackey vs. Medad

Back in January, Robert Mackey of the NYT The Lede and I had an 'exchange':-

42.

Yisrael Medad
Shiloh, Israel
January 8th, 2011
5:33 pm

To Robert: I am sorry that my mocking tone annoyed you. I was not aware that you would assume the map was made up or that Haaretz publishes editions in two languages. Or that you would doubt Haaretz's claim that the rocks came first.

To #33: actually, as a result of the Supreme Court's decision, the security barrier is being moved and is under contruction as we write (and as stones are thrown, which means that there is no necessity for stones to be thrown), see: "Israel has begun work to reroute a section of its West Bank security barrier at Bil'in - two and a half years after the Supreme Court ordered the state to return land to Palestinian farmers, Army Radio reported on Thursday. Once completed, the newly routed fence will skirt agricultural land to hand some 700,000 square meters of arable back to the village, long the site of often violent weekly protests." (source: Haaretz - http://www.haaretz.com... from almost a year ago)

Robert Mackey
Reporter
January 8th, 2011
5:33 pm

I'm afraid you have misunderstood what I wrote in my response to the other reader and to you. I simply did not, as you state, "assume the map was made up or that Haaretz publishes editions in two languages," or "doubt Haaretz's claim that the rocks came first." You seem to have assumed that my attempts to get the the reader who submitted the map with absolutely no explanation of where it was posted online was an indication that I was doubting that Haaretz publishes on paper in two languages (I have since learned that it does so) and assumed that by trying to establish for certain what the newspaper reported that I was actually arguing with the other reader and you. I was not. I am attempting to be accurate and to call a halt to mud-slinging and sarcasm as common features of discussions on this blog.

You are perhaps so used to reading, and writing, blog posts that are essentially arguments that you did not recognize that I was merely making an honest attempt to establish factual accuracy here. People have in the past on several occasions submitted material to this blog in comments threads that was not what they said it was. My reaction, to ask questions and request some sort of verification that this map was what the reader said it was is ordinary journalism in the pursuit of the truth, not sarcastic punditry.

Well, we're at it again following his pushing the "cruelty" story of a female photographer who was seemingly treated poorly at a crosspoint from Gaza.  After leaving some comment sthere, I then pointed out to him a much worse story:

ymedad
@RobertMackey remember "cruelty" of Addario's ordeal by Israel? try this - tinyurl.com/83br5tt

And it starts.

But start at the bottom and work your way back up - too many exchanges to rearrange (sorry):-

ymedad
@RobertMackey sorry, I am not a "collaborator" (bad choice there). & you have something against "nationalists"? with whom do u collaborate?

ymedad
@RobertMackey me harrass? i don't do that. I argue, debate. you feeling harrassed? relax, you've got the Grey Lady at your back.

Robert Mackey
@adamlevick that is not an accurate reflection of what I wrote: that all ethic nationalists are sure critical reports are evidence of bias

ymedad
@ZachofArabia @RobertMackey really? u think so? well, he is Guardian-trained.

noam sheizaf
@RobertMackey @ymedad true.

Zach of Arabia
@ymedad: Please cc me in what you come up with b/c I'm confident that you'll find a @RobertMackey bias as well.

Robert Mackey
@nsheizaf @ymedad that doesn't make any of them less worth reporting. And we have reported on abuses at US security checks in the past.

Robert Mackey
@nsheizaf @ymedad Having grown up partly near the border in N. Ireland, I'd say security checkpoints anywhere make some abuses likely, but

Robert Mackey
@ymedad did you read the report carefully enough to know the word 'cruelty,' was used by the victim, not me? why not harass her directly?

Robert Mackey
@ymedad it is a journalist's job to publicize official errors; you might as well complain that sports refs are too focused on calling fouls

noam sheizaf
@RobertMackey @ymedad US story was exception, Israeli story reflects on policy

Robert Mackey
@ymedad you use the same logic as people who called The Times anti-American for reporting abuses of the US government.

Robert Mackey
@ymedad possible explanation for reporting news that fails to serve their nationalist agendas.

Adam Levick
@RobertMackey @ymedad So Jewish nationalism is unique in that it distorts one's narrative 2 a degree greater than other national loyalties?

Robert Mackey
@ymedad you could collaborate with Bahraini, Sri Lankan, Pakistani, Indian, Serbian and Irish nationalists who charge me with bias as only

Robert Mackey
@ymedad you are free to waste your time, but I predict you will only report findings that support your own narrative, like all nationalists.

Robert Mackey
@ymedad there are literally thousands of posts on other subjects, but Israel is of interest to US readers for reasons other than bias.

Robert Mackey
@ymedad perhaps your perspective, as a West Bank settler, is biased. otherwise why respond this way to a mistreated woman's complaint?

ymedad
@RobertMackey ??? I reside in Samaria; why bias? -subjective perspective; I pointed out a "cruelty" and it happens worse than the reporter.

ymedad
@RobertMackey I know the "2 wrongs". I await your acknowledgement that you unduly highlight/spotlight Israel, that's all.

ymedad
@RobertMackey no, no debate. pointing out possible bias. similar events get disproportionate attention/highlight.TheLede will report this?

ymedad
@RobertMackey . ok, u don't mind a count to quantify the subject then. an academic study. will get back with findings.

And let's remember what Mackey's blog is all about:

The Lede is a blog that remixes national and international news stories — adding information gleaned from the Web or gathered through original reporting — to supplement articles in The New York Times and draw readers in to the global conversation about the news taking place online.

Readers are encouraged to take part in the blogging by using the comments threads to suggest links to relevant material elsewhere on the Web or by submitting eyewitness accounts, photographs or video of news events.

Was I being "encouraged"?

^

Where Is The Ariel University Center?

Yes, it's in Ariel.

Ariel is in Samaria.

Samaria, some assert, is actually the "West Bank".

In Ariel is the Ariel University Center.

And if in the "West Bank", it should be:

a) supported and funded;
b) ignored;
c) boycotted?

Don't answer that just yet. Wait for this item:

An American online university started by an Israeli entrepreneur has opened an operations center in the West Bank.

Shai Reshef, the founder of University of the People, a nonprofit institution that offers free online education to students in more than 120 countries, said in an interview last week that his agreement with ASAL Technologies, a Palestinian software and information technology services company based in Ramallah, was just the first stage of a plan to move the university’s entire back office to the West Bank.

Now what?

What are you going to do?


^

It Seems We Have Female Lumberjacks

JPost reports:

Police arrested six female residents of West Bank settlements on Sunday on suspicion of carrying out a string of nationalistic crimes against IDF forces and Palestinian property in recent weeks.

The suspects, five minors and a woman, are suspected of vandalizing IDF property, interfering with army forces, and cutting down hundreds of Palestinian-owned olive trees near the village of Kusra, in the Binyamin region of the West Bank, police said.

This ought to be interesting - and even surprising.

What is Jewish feminism coming to?


P.S.

According to Walla site, it is 7 in all. And they were all arrested and held for a day just after the original "crime" was committed but released. it seems there's a newly formed unit and they decided to rearrest the suspects.

Here's Ynet:

The National Serious and International Crimes Unit has been holding a secret investigation of the matter for the past two months.

Settlers are claiming that officers arrested the suspected immediately after the alleged events and released them the next day on the condition they stay away from east Binyamin for one month.

"These are false arrests," claims Attorney Adi Keidar, who represents the suspects. "This happened two months ago and the girls were released with the police's consent. Now the Serious Crime Unit suddenly remembers to arrest them? It's a scandal.

"Moreover, they are suspected of very minor offences. How does such a case end up with a police elite unit?"

Associates of the suspects also leveled criticism at the investigation.

^

Islamic Blooming

“from the Arab Spring to the ‘Islamic Blooming’”

Israel Ambassador Shalom Cohen

^

Judeophobia Alive and Kicking

Chronologically, this came first:

US ambassador in Belgium provides controversial explanation for Muslim anti-Semitism

Growing global anti-Semitism is linked to Israel’s policy towards the Palestinians, the American ambassador to Belgium told stunned Jewish conference attendants in Brussels earlier this week.

Speaking Wednesday at a Jewish conference on anti-Semitism organized by the European Jewish Union (EJU,) Howard Gutman told participants he was apologizing in advance if his words are not to their liking. He then proceeded to make controversial statements about his views on Muslim anti-Semitism, Yedioth Ahronoth reported Friday.

A distinction should be made between traditional anti-Semitism, which should be condemned and Muslim hatred for Jews, which stems from the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, Gutman said. He also argued that an Israeli-Palestinian peace treaty will significantly diminish Muslim anti-Semitism.

The American envoy, a lawyer by training, is Jewish and played a major role in fundraising for the Democratic Party. He was appointed to the post by President Barack Obama.

The conference was attended by Jewish lawyers from across Europe. The legal experts at the event were visibly stunned by Gutman’s words, and the next speaker offered a scathing rebuttal to the envoy’s remarks. “The modern Anti-Semite formally condemns Anti-Semitism and the Holocaust and expresses upmost sympathy with the Jewish people. He simply has created a new species, the “Anti-Zionist” or – even more sophisticated – the so-called ‘Israel critic,’” Germany attorney Nathan Gelbart said.

“The ‘Israel critic’ will never state ‘Jews go home’ but is questioning the legality of the incorporation of the State of Israel and therefore the right for the Jewish people to settle in their homeland. He will not say the Jews are the evil of the world but claim that the State of Israel is a major cause for instability and war in the region,” he said. “There is no other country, no other people on this planet the ‘Israel critic’ would dedicate so much time and devotion as to the case of Israel.”

“For no other country he would criticize or ask to boycott its goods or academics. And this for one simple reason: Because Israel is the state of the Jewish people, not more and not less,” Gelbart said.

and then we learned this:

Paul Flynn MP in 'anti-Semitic' remark row

Newport West MP Paul Flynn has been accused of making anti-Semitic remarks after questioning whether the British ambassador to Israel should be Jewish.

Mr Flynn called the claim "ludicrous" but he has been called in by Labour Party whips to explain his comments.

He had suggested that Matthew Gould, Britain's first Jewish ambassador to Israel, had "divided loyalties".

Harlow MP Robert Halfon, who is Jewish, said Mr Flynn was not anti-Semitic but he had made an "outrageous attack".

Mr Flynn has been criticised by MPs from his own side as well as by the Jewish Chronicle newspaper after saying the post of ambassador to Israel should go to "someone with roots in the UK".

He made his comments to Sir Gus O'Donnell, the UK's most senior civil servant during questioning about the relationship between former Defence Secretary Liam Fox and Mr Fox's friend and advisor Adam Werritty.

The Labour movement blog LabourList said the party's leadership was thought to be unhappy with the remarks, claiming a source said party leader Ed Miliband "thinks these comments are totally unacceptable".

Labour MP Ivan Lewis, the Shadow Secretary for International Development, described Mr Flynn's remark about Mr Gould as a "smear".

The year is almost 2012 and they still haven't learned anything.

And what about that "damn" table?

This one (*):

Panetta to Israel: ‘Get to the Damn Table’ for Peace Talks

The top U.S. defense official is warning Israel it cannot afford to further isolate itself from Arab neighbors in the Middle East. During a forum in Washington late Friday, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Israel needs to start by getting back “to the damn table” and negotiating peace with the Palestinians. He also called on Israel to mend its fraying relationships with traditional partners like Turkey, Egypt and Jordan.

And here's some thinking by Barry Rubin:

Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta Shows How the Obama Administration Is Selling Out Israel...And U.S. Interests

Let me state this in undiplomatic language: U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta is a clown. True, this will not be the kind of thing written about in the mainstream media but it is true nonetheless. Panetta has no knowledge of the Middle East, no experience in grand strategy, no concept of Islamist politics, no awareness of Israel’s defense needs, and doesn’t know much about military issues generally. All that would be forgivable if it weren’t for one more problem: He has no understanding of what has happened in the last year either.

Panetta has now bashed Israel based on a premise. Here it is:

"I understand the view that this is not the time to pursue peace, and that the Arab awakening further imperils the dream of a safe and secure, Jewish and democratic Israel. But I disagree with that view." Nevertheless, Israel needs to take risks and particularly, "The problem right now is we can't get them to the damn table, to at least sit down and begin to discuss their differences."

...Every Middle East historian—well, every Middle East historian who knows something about the Middle East—knows that The Arab Awakening was the famous book written by George Antonius (subsidized by a U.S foundation to do so, by the way) advocating Arab nationalism and opposition to Zionism in 1938...
But there are three major questions raised in Panetta’s silly statement.

First, does the current “Arab Awakening” imperil Israel? Yes, of course it does. By changing a reasonably friendly Egyptian government into a totally hostile Muslim Brotherhood and Salafi dominated political system closely allied with Hamas, the Gaza Strip’s ruler, and by helping establish Islamist regimes in Tunisia and Libya allied with this Muslim Brotherhood International; the changes create a four-member alliance intent on wiping Israel off the map...

...Panetta’s statement that Israel has a responsibility to build regional support for Israeli and United States' security objectives is nonsense...

...Panetta’s suggestion, like that of Chamberlain in 1938 is that Israel should mend relations with such “traditional security partners.”...That statement is false. Israel can’t reach out and mend fences with Turkey and Egypt because they do not share an interest in regional stability. They are no longer status quo powers; they are countries that want revolutionary change in the Middle East. And this claim takes on special irony since Israel must now not just mend the fence but build an entirely new fence to protect itself from cross-border attacks from Egypt.

...What does an Israeli audience think of when it reads this? Of the same old message from the West to Israel: make gestures, give concessions, take risks, and when they are rebuked “the world will see.” This is precisely the same advice given regarding the 1990s’ peace process, the freeze of construction on settlements, and the withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. And every time the world doesn’t see...Finally, Panetta also uses another weird phrase. He urges Israel to "lean forward" to obtain peace with the Palestinians...Actually, though, Israel has been leaning over backward for years to make peace without getting any credit for it.

Let me summarize. Panetta and the Obama Administration aren’t just wrong. They are dangerously and absurdly wrong...

___________________

(*)

and if you think that was out of context or directed at both sides, resad on:

MR. POLLACK:  And this will have to be your last question.  Mr. Secretary, you made a strong statement about Israel’s responsibility towards peace. What steps should it take now?  Withdraw the Israeli army from the
Palestinian territories?  It’s a suggestion and a question.  It’s a suggestion in the form of a question.
   SEC. PANETTA:  Just get to the damn table.  Just get to the table.
(Applause.)  The problem right now is we can’t get them to the damn table to at least sit down and begin to discuss their differences – you know, we all
know what the pieces are here for a potential agreement.  We’ve talked it
out, worked through, we understand the concerns, we understand the concerns of Israel, understand the concerns of the Palestinians.  If they sit at a table and work through those concerns, and the United States can be of
assistance in that process, then I think you have the beginning of what could be a process that would lead to a peace agreement. But if they aren’t there – if they aren’t at the table, this will never happen.  So first and foremost, get to the damn table.  (Applause.)

U.S. Department of Defense
Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs)
News Transcript
On the Web:
http://www.defense.gov/Transcripts/Transcript.aspx?TranscriptID=4937
Media contact: +1 (703) 697-5131/697-5132  Public contact:
http://www.defense.gov/landing/comment.aspx
or +1 (703) 571-3343

(k/t=IMRA)

And now this:

In response to the recent criticism of Israel by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and the U.S. ambassador to Belgium, Howard Gutman, today the chairman of the Emergency Committee for Israel, William Kristol, issued the following statement.

and received this:

The Simon Wiesenthal Center urged Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to " immediately and unequivocally disassociate herself from comments made by US Amb Howard Gutman who told a Jewish group that "a distinction should be made between traditional anti-semitism which should be condemned and Muslim hatred of Jews which stems from the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinians".

"The Simon Wieaenthal Center calls on Secy of State Clinton to immediately rebuke Gutman for excusing Muslim hatred of Jews"' said Rabbis Marvin Hier, Dean and Founder and Abraham Cooper, associate Dean in a statement on behalf of its 400,000 constituent families of the leading Jewish Human Rights NGO...

More:

CJHS Calls on White House To Renounce Belgium Ambassador Who Blamed Israel
For Muslim Antisemitism

December 3, 2011
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Doris Wise Montrose
Phone: 818-704-0523

Children of Jewish Holocaust Survivors (CJHS) condemns in the strongest terms the recent statements by US Ambassador to Belgium and Obama donor Howard Gutman, who said last Wednesday that global and Muslim Jew-hatred were the result of Israel's policy toward the Palestinians. CJHS calls on President Obama and the White House to renounce the Ambassador and his statements.

"As an organization devoted to making sure that the West upholds its promise of 'Never Again' by recognizing the genuine causes of genocidal Jew-hatred and the Holocaust" said CJHS founder and President Doris Wise Montrose, "we'll remind the Ambassador that Muslim antisemitism stretches back centuries before the creation of the modern state of Israel and is explicitly advocated by the Koran."

And presciently this.


^

The West Bank...Steppers?

Who would have known?

THE WESTBANK STEPPERS
22ND ANNUAL PARADE
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 4th 12-4pm

Start: 1700 Hero Blvd. Down L.B. Landry to Ptolemy. Left on Ptolemy.
Stop: 1335 Ptolemy. Down Leboeuf to Socrates. Down Socrates to Hendee. Right on Hendee to Ptolemy. Down Ptolemy to Sumner. Left on Sumner.
Stop: Tracy Tiny Treasures, 1023 Sumner. Proceed down Sumner to Newton. Left on Newton to Whitney Ave. Right turn on Whitney. Down Whitney to Opelousas. Left on Opelousas to Lebouef. Left on Leboeuf.
Stop: Barber Shop, 938 Leboeuf. Proceed down Leboeuf to Lamarque. Right on Lamarque. Down Lamarque to Nunez.
Stop: Ramsey's Place, 1300 Nunez. Down Nunez to Socrates. Right on Socrates to Teche. Right on Teche. Down Teche.
Stop: Dominique's Place, 1200 Teche. Proceed down Teche to Newton. Right on Newton.
Stop: 435 Newton (Saint Club). Down Newton.
Disband: Manicure Record Shop, 1510 Newton.

Play on!

^

"I Like The Name of East West Bank" - Wha?

Sorry, but, as a Betari, Rosh Betar Ze'ev Jabotinsky suggested we "learn how to laugh".

And so:-

As both chairman of an American bank and of a prominent Chinese American civic organization, Dominic Ng likes to say that his mission in life is to bridge the East and West.

"I like the name of East West Bank - the connection between East and West," Ng said of his bank in a recent interview with China Daily in his Pasadena, California office, where East West Bank is headquartered. The bank's name in Chinese, "Hua Mei", translates as "China and America".

Source

^

Do You Support Israel's MDA? Think Again

From Haaretz:-

Magen David Adom pledges to implement exit from West Bank, according to document

Magen David Adom says it will implement a 2005 agreement to stop funding and operating ambulances in the West Bank, according to a document on the undertaking obtained by Haaretz.  According to the pledge, the local authorities in the West Bank will run the ambulance service, whose staff will wear different uniforms to distinguish them from their MDA colleagues in Israel proper....MDA would also remove the Star of David from its ambulances in the West Bank, replacing it with a red diamond shape.

For its part, Magen David Adom said in a statement on Thursday that it is "not familiar with the document in question. We denounce the attempt to use fragmental information, most of it distorted, and present it as facts. Magen David Adom is operating as usual with no change in the entire West Bank, with the organization's emblem as it has been until now."

...At the beginning of June this year, senior Red Cross officials from the United States, France, Indonesia and Turkey came to Israel to pressure Magen David to change the emblem on the ambulances. At the meeting in Finland later that month, Magen David Adom Chairman Noam Yifrah, the head of the Palestinian Red Crescent and Stenbeck agreed to change the Star of David emblems on the ambulances and the MDA's uniforms in the West Bank. Yifrah submitted examples of the new emblem and promised that foreign donations for buying Magen David Adom ambulances would not be used for buying ambulances for the settlements. In August, MDA started calling in ambulances from the West Bank to Israel to change the emblem, angering the settlers and raising a political uproar...On November 13, Magen David Adom told the IFRC it had changed the markings on 62 of 68 ambulances posted in settlements, with a picture showing the new emblem...MDA reported that it had problems with foreign donators due to the decision to change the emblem and had received a letter from the state comptroller asking for a clarification on the issue. It also said a number of settlers had changed the emblem on the ambulances themselves and MDA intended to take legal steps against them.

Withdraw you financial support!
Dismantle your affiliation!
Surrender your commitments!

__________________

Marc Prowiser adds here:

...Magen David Adom has now shown us that they are no longer an organization whose priority it is to save lives; they have joined the political arena. They wish to be part of “them” rather than “us”.

The irony here, in the simple world of saving lives is… that the same people who have brought honor and dignity to the Red Star of David in the Arab world are now the ones being thrown “to the dogs”.

They wish to change the uniforms of the MDA volunteers in Judea and Samaria to “distinguish” us from others, I believe the new uniform they propose will have a “Yellow Star” on it, perhaps this will appease the International Red Cross and the Red Crescent…whose symbols do not offend the world, as the Star of David does…nasty Jews.

Yet more of the same rhetoric and poison streams through the leadership of the MDA, much like that of various Jewish Federations and Congregations who also abandon our people living in Judea and Samaria. MDA and ARMDI keep on claiming to deny this “letter” and allegations, yet I have not seen any action to back their words of defense, only concern that their donor base will decrease.

If it is not true, PROVE IT TO BE WRONG!

We are told that this whole story is based upon their wish of acceptance to a club whose symbol is a cross and a crescent, an organization whose ambulances have been proven guilty of transporting terrorists to kill innocents, and who offer more funding, funny, the word “whore” comes to mind.

If the MDA does continue down this road, they will be able to stand proudly next to other proud organizations like B’Tzelem, the New Israel Fund and others who have turned their back on Israel’s future. They will also have to bear the same responsibility.

Magen David Adom… If you leave us, we will leave you, and it will be your loss! But the symbol will remain, because it is not yours, it is OURS, the Jewish People!

^

Nazi Mufti - And Shame on Today's Pal. Supporters

Following my earlier post this week on the Grand Mufti of Mandate Palestine and his Nazi connections, here is from a review by Norman Goda (University of Florida) of Klaus Gensicke's The Mufti of Jerusalem and the Nazis: The Berlin Years, 1941-1945. Edgware: Vallentine Mitchell, 2010:-

...scholars and journalists have asked whether there exists a link between Nazi thinking on the Jewish question and current discourse in the Arab/Muslim world on Jews and on Western modernity. These questions are of great importance. Current “anti-Zionist” rhetoric is said to center on anticolonial narratives, which carry moral authority with many on the political left in Europe and in formerly colonized regions. But this moral authority would vanish should the roots of anti-Israel thinking be shown to have its roots in Nazism.

...a key piece to the puzzle is Haj Amin al-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem from 1921 to 1948. In 1941 the mufti, having triggered failed revolts against the British in both Palestine and Iraq, gravitated to Berlin, where for four years he tried to tighten bonds between Nazi Germany and the Arabs and Muslims of the Middle East. After Germany’s defeat he fled to Paris, then Cairo, then Beirut, while styling himself as a nationalist and anti-imperialist. Was the mufti’s policy in Berlin simply a question of anti-British pragmatism? Or was he the missing link between the Nazis’ war against the Jews and more extreme forms of Muslim antisemitism today? And whom did the mufti ultimately speak for in the Middle East?

...[the Mufti] endorsed Nazism’s war against the Jews on ideological grounds, and contributed where he could to the Jews’ destruction...Husseini adopted an uncompromising antisemitism that viewed Jews not just as Western interlopers in Palestine and not just as religious infidels, but as an existential threat as per the modern European antisemitic tradition...Husseini argued to German interlocutors that, “Current Jewish influence on economics and politics is injurious all over and has to be combated” (p. 29). Living in exile in Baghdad after his failure in Palestine, he further demanded the expropriation of the 135,000 Jews there--who were hardly part of the European Zionist movement--and he instigated the pogrom that eventually erupted in Baghdad after the failed anti-British revolt in 1941.

Most crucial is the mufti’s period in Berlin from 1941 to the end of the war...When he met personally with Hitler in November 1941, Nazi propaganda on the Jews had been clear for two decades, and the Germans, with local help, had been killing Jews in the Soviet Union for four months.

Here indeed was the crucial link between the mufti and the Nazis. Unable to agree on Middle Eastern geopolitics, they could agree that Jews controlled the governments in Moscow, London, and Washington, and that murder was a desirable policy by which to eradicate Jews from the Middle East. The mufti was pleased to broadcast this message to the Arab world through the use of German radio facilities, and the Germans were pleased to have him do so, particularly after June 1942 when it looked as though the Afrika Korps, with an attached SS murder squad, would break through British defenses. As late as December 1942, with the Allies having taken the offensive in North Africa, Husseini, on the opening of the new Islamic Central Institute in Berlin, proclaimed that “the Holy Koran ... is full of evidence of Jewish lack of character and their insidious lying and deceitful conduct” and that the Jews “will always remain a divisive element in the world ... committed to devising schemes, provoking wars, and playing people off against one another” (p. 108). As scholars have pointed out, the tone and content of Arab propaganda from Berlin, speaking as it did of Jewish global conspiracies, has much in common with extreme Arab narratives today.

...regardless of the mufti’s frustrations with Hitler, the Jews remained his existential enemy. In spring 1943 when gas chambers in Poland murdered Jews from all over Europe, the mufti engaged in quiet diplomacy with the Romanian, Bulgarian, and Hungarian governments, urging them not to allow a few thousand Jewish children to travel to Palestine as was then being discussed in London. The Jews would be better off, the mufti said, in Poland where the Germans could keep an eye on them. Husseini enjoyed a close relationship with Heinrich Himmler and knew what awaited deported Jews...he worked to ensure that as many Jews were killed as possible. In the meantime he tried to fuse Islam with Nazism, creating seven new “pillars” that included the thesis that, “In the struggle against Jewry, Islam and National Socialism come very close to one another” (p. 149).

...“The Mufti,” concludes Gensicke, “bore much of the blame for the naqba,” by which the attack on Israel in 1948 created throngs of Arab refugees (p. 189)...Yassir Arafat was among Husseini’s mourners when he died in exile in 1974, and he referred to Husseini as “our hero” as late as 2002 (p. 203). And as Gensicke shows in this important book, the mufti threw a long shadow as a precursor to the Arab and Muslim factions who reject all compromise with Jews in the Middle East and whose brand of antisemitism borrows much from the Western traditions that they otherwise despise.

And to all the progressives, the radicals, the anti-colonialists, the liberals, Jews and otherwise, shame on you for not realizing what was --- and what is in great part --- the local Arab principled opposition to Jewish nationalism, Zionism, in the territory of the historic Jewish homeland.

P.S.

It continues:

Sheik Nayef Najjaj Al-Ajami of Kuwait: Servants of Allah, let us be aware that our struggle with the Jews is one of faith, identity, and existence. Read the Koran, where Allah says: “Never will the Jews or the Christians be satisfied with you until you follow their creed,” so that you may know what the Jews conceal within their hearts.

Read what Allah says: “Strongest among men in enmity to the believers you will find the Jews and the polytheists,” so that you may know the magnitude of their enmity towards the Muslims, and their hatred towards the followers of the Prophet Muhammad. These people...

Brothers and sisters, you should read history books, so you my know the history of this people, and so you may know that the Jews of the past were evil, and the Jews of today are even worse.

They are ungrateful, they distort the word [of Allah], the worshippers of the golden calf, the slayers of the prophets, the enemies of the divine prophecies, the scum of mankind, who incurred the curse and wrath of Allah, and whom Allah transformed into apes and pigs and into taghut worshippers. ("Taghut" means anything people worship besides Allah)

^

Football Results

Last night, my son's IFL team, the Jerusalem Lions, won.

Jerusalem Lions 64
Judean Rebels 38

One Rebel badly injured.

General item here.

____________________

Update from Judean Rebels Facebook:

Rebels took a beating by the Lions. Well played, everyone. Our prayers are with David Arshavsky, #83, who broke his leg being tackled after a catch. If anyone cares to pray for David he is in surgery now and his Hebrew name is David ben Zlota.

^

So, What Went On Under the Big Tent?

The Jewish Chronicle report notes:-

Speaking just before the ambassador, MP Ivan Lewis praised the Big Tent's convenor, Rabbi Jonathan Guttentag, and noted that, "far too often, those who claim the mantle of leadership in our community would rather ignore some home truths. And the leaders who have the integrity to speak out in a very moderate and balanced way are sometimes vilified."

Mr Lewis said: "Let us respect our differences, free of some of the rancour and personal vitriol we have seen over the last few weeks."

...Douglas Murray of the Henry Jackson Society told 200 delegates that as an "outside observer" of the Jewish community, he noted that "pro-Israel groups spend more time attacking each other than they do their mutual enemies. "It's like the scene in the Life of Brian when no one remembers who their enemy is," Mr Murray said. The sentiment was echoed in more serious terms by many of the conference's 40 or more speakers.

...The Big Tent, living up to its name, included speakers from a wide range of political positions. [except me] Hannah Weisfeld, director of the left-wing Israel advocacy organisation Yachad, strenuously defended the right of pro-Israel groups to criticise the Israeli government. "I challenge the notion and strongly refute [the belief] that you cannot engage with critics of Israel by admitting Israel's flaws," she said.

But Douglas Murray, who admitted a cross-political effort for Israel was needed, countered: "If this argument for Israel is going to be won - and, let's face it, it is being lost - we need a tool-box approach to doing that. That tool-box will include people who are hammers, and there will be some spanners in it."

...Jewish PR guru Shimon Cohen...told Lorna Fitzsimons he did not agree with a word she had said on positive PR efforts by the Israeli government..."Israel's PR sucks," and urged the audience to try to focus the media on positive Israel stories rather than countering the negative. He also attacked Jewish communal leadership. "When we started Shechita UK, I was told we didn't need it; our leaders would have a quiet word at the top. That is utter rubbish. People matter, opinions matter, voices matter. Thanks to the great Jewish public, a voice got across and we won," he said, urging that the same PR effort should now be made for Israel.

Now, that is refreshing.

^

A Different Look at the Olive Tree Issue

Different and, well, quite wooden:-

'The Tree is the Enemy Soldier': A Sociolegal Making of War Landscapes in the Occupied West Bank

Irus Braverman, State University of New York at Buffalo, Law School, Law & Society Review, Vol. 42, No. 3, pp. 449-482, 2008, Buffalo Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2008-28

Abstract:

War landscapes have a particular sociology; they are also formed through distinct legal technologies. By examining the genealogy of trees as totemic displacements in the occupied West Bank I demonstrate how the Israeli/Palestinian war is deflected onto the landscape and how this deflection erodes the boundary between law and war. Dealing with issues of colonization, nationalization, and the way that these implicate landscape as a "natural alibi," the article examines the intricate making of politics into nature. Further, it explores the ironic nesting of colonial processes from Ottoman, to British, to Zionist, and finally to the new Jewish settler society that seeks to unsettle the old colonial landscapes of this place. Utilizing a detailed interpretation of a range of interviews and participatory observations, the article unpacks the mutually constitutive relationship between law, technologies of seeing, and landscape, illustrating how this relationship is played out by various actors in the occupied West Bank.

You understood that, yes?

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Abusing Democracy

From a column by Lior Alperovitch

...It would not be an exaggeration to say that a majority of Israelis hold right-leaning views. The extensive representation of the right in the current coalition, which by the rules of democracy should accurately represent the people's range of views, proves this claim.

But a strange thing happened in Israel: though the Right was voted into power, the media and many non-parliamentary bodies expect it to abide by the values of the Left. Why? Because they believe the Israeli public is not smart enough to make political decisions, or because, as opposed to the select few in the Left, they have not been blessed by the wonderful light of enlightenment. As far as they are concerned, the Right is qualified only to flounder around in the darkness of their popular religion or their chilling conservatism – certainly not to govern. The Left sees itself as a moral watchtower, whose aim it is to correct the public's views, by force if necessary, or by use of outside assistance in the form of European funding.

The roots of this distorted view – prevalent in some Israeli political and media circles - can be found in the judicial activism revolution, which upgraded the legal system's status from a separate, independent branch that protected minorities, to a kind of legislative branch that can prevent the Knesset from passing laws it considers too right-leaning or too nationalistic.

There are also those who would attribute this calamity to the words of left-wing politician and pioneer Yitzhak Ben-Aharon. His disappointment over what he saw as the invalid election of Menachem Begin in 1977 led him to declare that "if this is the people's will, then the people should be replaced."

...it is clear that not everyone is happy with the fact that democracy can also benefit your political opponents.   Democracy being defined as majority rule does not mean the majority has a right to abuse the minority. But it also does not mean that as a protected sector, the minority can use its immunity to rule over the majority. In Israel, the left-wing minority aims to rule over the right-wing majority...

I'll agree with that.

But that doesn't mean that all the laws floating around now are smart or applicable.

The US has Senate review and consent. There is registration for Foreign Agent status. The average Israeli politician in legislative matters is just that - average.

^

New Media Comment Column

Our new Media Comment column is up at the JPost.

Agenda's agenda

^

West Bank, East Bank, Bank of Palestine

Yes, there is a "bank" that goes with "Palestine".

But it isn't the West Bank or the East Bank.

It's the "Bank of Palestine"-

About Bank of Palestine

The Bank of Palestine is the first and largest national bank, was founded in 1960 and commenced its operations on February 21, 1961 to give small loans to projects, business and limited short-term personal loans, Bank of Palestine is the most prevalent in Palestine through the banking network consists of 45 branches and sub- branches, extended from Jenin in the north to Rafah in the south, Bank of Palestine offers many distinguished banking services that meet customer needs and expectations, including services for personnel and companies, Bank of Palestine, has outstanding management team and highly qualified professional working in the bank currently has over 1000 employees.

Bank of Palestine celebrated this year's golden jubilee on the occasion of the passage of fifty years of its foundation under the slogan "Fifty years of Building."

The Bank was listed in the Palestine Exchange in 2005 as a public shareholding, at the end of 2006, Bank of Palestine, founded the brokerage firm for securities investment “Al-Wasata”, which has three branches, in Gaza City, Ramallah and Khan Younis.

For example:

Source:
Najjar, Osama K., Financial Analysis for Bank of Palestine & Jordan Ahli Bank (Camel Analysis) 2004-2006 (May 1, 2008). Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1329588

Upper West Side Traffic Goes Muslim

 

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Arabs Reject Two-State Solution; Kill Jews

Sorry, but that two-state solution was in November 1947.

EoZ has the story.

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Maxie B. Noticed Me

Oh, how happy am I.

^

Are The Iranians Subscribed?

This came into my box:

Subscribe to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists to have access to all content!

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists goes mobile!

In 2011 we have been working on a project to optimize viewing of SAGE journals via handheld devices. We see this as a vital mechanism in the future accessibility of our journal content. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists now has its own SAGE Journals Online (SJO) mobile optimized site. The site was launched at the beginning of September 2011 and is accessible at: m.bos.sagepub.com. When you access the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists SJO Platform http://bos.sagepub.com via a handheld device it will automatically go to the mobile optimized version. The optimized site features all the regular content that you would expect to see on the usual SJO platform.

About the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

The Bulletin is an independent nonprofit organization that publishes analysis and conducts forums about nuclear security, climate stabilization, and safety in the biosciences. Founded by Manhattan Project scientists from the University of Chicago, it links the work of scholars and experts with policymaking entities and citizens around the world. An international network of authors assesses scientific advancements that involve both benefits and risks to humanity, with the goal of influencing public policy to protect the Earth and its inhabitants. The organization’s scientific advisory boards include 19 Nobel laureates, ambassadors, leading scholars, distinguished NGO officials, and public policy experts. The Bulletin is closely followed in Washington and other world capitals and uses its iconic Doomsday Clock to draw international attention to global risks and solutions.

To find out more please visit www.thebulletin.org

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A Tale of Frozen Starts

Tovah Lazaroff reports

Building in settlements stay at ‘freeze’ level - Housing starts dropped 65% in third quarter.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu would have no need to order a second freeze on new settler homes in the West Bank, because a de facto one already exists, according to Central Bureau of Statistics data published on Wednesday.  There were just as few settler housing starts in the third quarter of this year as there were during the same period in 2010, when the government imposed a moratorium on such activity.  Work began on 105 settler homes between July and September of this year, compared with the 113 starts in the same months in 2010, the CBS said.

...there was a 60% drop in the number of West Bank Jewish homes completed in the in the third quarter, to 179, down from 447 in the second quarter, according to the CBS.  That’s a 53% drop when compared with the 382 settler homes that were completed in the third quarter of last year.

Hagit Ofran of Peace Now said she could not explain the sharp drop in the CBS numbers.  “In the field, the numbers are dramatically higher,” Ofran said.

...Dani Dayan, who heads the Council of Jewish Communities of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip, said, however, that the data did not surprise him.
“Not enough new housing approvals have been granted,” he said. The pipeline of approvals from past governments is getting dryer and dryer.”

The council has long warned of a de facto freeze and has repeatedly called on Netanyahu to issue building permits.

...Shmuel Levy, who heads the Association of Building and Infrastructure Contractors of the Jerusalem area, echoed Dayan’s statements.  “It’s as if there was a freeze,” Levy said. The government has bowed to American pressure and is not issuing new permits, and as a result, there is little new construction, he said.

This is news to me but, then again, I live in Shiloh.

________________

UPDATE

And who is constructing?

Eager to make up for lost years, released Palestinian prisoners build houses, hunt for brides

RAMALLAH, West Bank — Palestinian prisoners released in a swap for an Israeli soldier last month are racing to make up for lost time: Many of the 477 former inmates are already getting married, building homes or enrolling in college, even as Israel keeps a close eye on them in fear they could return to violence.

...As part of their welcome home, they have received startup grants of up to $10,000 from the Western-backed Palestinian Authority of President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank and the Hamas government in Gaza, and there is talk of stipends and apartments.

...Israeli counterterrorism expert Yoni Fighel said a successful transition to civilian life would reduce the likelihood of a relapse. “If they have work, a salary, an incentive to start a family and get established, the attractiveness of terrorism will be reduced,” he said.

The zeal with which some of the prisoners are trying to catch up suggests they do not want to risk their newfound freedom.

Muayad Abdel Samed, 50, who spent half his life behind bars for killing an Israeli border police officer, said he believes in peaceful means for obtaining Palestinian independence.

“After these long years in prison, and at my age, and the political changes that occurred on our Palestinian case, our duties are less than before,” Abdel Samed said as he mixed cement for a house he is building with an $8,000 government grant.

Abdel Samed hopes to find a bride. He also applied for a monthly stipend from the Palestinian Authority, the self-rule government that was set up six years after he went to prison in 1987.

I just hope there is no dead body in that cement.


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Livni "Guns Them Down"

JPost reports:

Livni thwarts attempt at early Kadima primary

Kadima chairwoman Tzipi Livni scored a big political victory on Monday when she withstood a rebellion in the Kadima faction and succeeded in passing a proposal to delay discussions about holding a new leadership race until at least May.

MKs Shaul Mofaz, Avi Dichter, and Meir Sheetrit, who intend to run against Livni, demanded a faction meeting about advancing the primary, currently set for three months before the next general election, which could take place as late as October 2013. Livni surprised her rivals by calling their bluff and enabling the debate to take place.

And she's taking on Bibi:

Livni meets Abbas in Amman, urges renewed talks

Kadima head Tzipi Livni met with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Jordan on Wednesday, and asked him to renounce unilateral steps toward statehood and to fight Islamic extremism.

...“We must act now and work together against Islamic extremist forces,” she said. “It is clear to everyone that serious negotiations can reduces the damage.”  Livni was joined on her trip by Kadima MK Ronnie Bar-On and former Kadima ministers Tzachi Hanegbi and Haim Ramon. The four held a joint press conference in the Knesset upon their return from Amman.

...The opposition leader said that she did not meet with Abbas to “negotiate instead of the Israeli government,” and that if Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu took steps to restart talks, Kadima would support him....

...“Both sides are responsible,” Livni said.

(k/t for photoshop = LM)