US Jerusalem Consulate for Palestine

What's doing - and been doing - at the US Jerusalem Consulate whose goal includes "to strengthen the Palestinian economy and provide you with the infrastructure you need...We are driven by a single, overarching goal: to help build an independent Palestinian state living side-by-side in peace and security with Israel.":

And how is that accomplished?

Is true peace a goal?  Coexistence?  Understanding?  Shared values?  Joint projects and ccoperation?

Try again.

Yesha Jews are an excluded populace.  Even from the Independence Day party.


1.

The third season of Ghaneeha musical concert, performed by talented young Palestinian musicians, Sat. June 16 at 7 p.m. at Al-Hakawati National Theater- Jerusalem. Everyone is welcome.

Everyone?

And the US is partnerning with evil UNRWA:

and this, too:

American Consul General Daniel Rubinstein visited Camp Discovery at Qalandia Boys' School in Qalandia refugee camp on June 19. For the sixth consecutive year, with funding from the U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem and in partnership with United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), AMIDEAST has implemented “Camp Discovery” –a multi-faceted summer camp experience benefitting 630 Palestinian youth aged 8–14 from refugee camps and other communities in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Camp Discovery provides a summer camp experience that encourages youth to discover new knowledge, skills, and experiences. Ambassador Theodore Kattouf, the President of AMIDEAST, joined Consul General Rubinstein on the visit to Camp Discovery.

2.

Join us for a performance by Palestinian-American comedian, Amer Zahr. In partnership with the Jerusalem Hotel, Palestinian-American comedian Amer Zahr will take to the stage at the Jerusalem Hotel, Tuesday, June 19, 2012 at 8:00 PM! The performance is free, but reservations are required. Please call 02-628-3282 for more information and reservations

Join?

3.

American TV News Anchor Inspires Local Audiences Richard Lui, a daytime anchor at MSNBC, shared his experience as the first Asian American male to anchor a daily, national cable news show in the United States with Palestinian TV presenters and other journalists, journalism students from Al-Quds University, and others.  

Share?

4.

The U.S. Consulate General is pleased to invite you to attend the Palestinian Business Women Forum’s Bazaar for Palestinian Business Women and Entrepreneurs on Tuesday, March 27 in Ramallah.

Pleased?


5.

We are pleased to present American hip hop dance company, Rennie Harris Puremovement (RHPM), for public performances on March 20th in Ramallah and a joint performance with young Palestinian hip hop dancers on March 24th in Nablus. Tonight's performance is at 7:00 pm, at the Al Kasaba Theater in Ramallah. On Saturday, March 24 at 5:00 pm, RHPM will perform with participants of the Dar al Fanoon Dance Camp at An Najah National University’s Turki Bin Sultan Theater in Nablus. All events are free and open to the public.

Open?


6.

The Coca-Cola Company and the U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem are partnering to sponsor scholarships for ten Palestinian university students to participate in the Global Business Institute at the University of Indiana. This exciting new exchange opportunity is open to Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem. This project is part of the Coca-Cola’s support of Partners for ...a New Beginning (PNB), an alliance of public-private partnerships committed to deepening engagement between the United States and local communities on issues of education, exchange, economic opportunity, and science and technology, to advance the vision President Obama outlined in his 2009 “New Beginning” Cairo speech. The deadline for applications is March 23, 2012.

Partners?

7. 

Consul General Rubinstein held a discussion on U.S. foreign policy with the Palestinian Council for Young Political Leaders, January 14. For more information please see the PCYPL press release about the event:

More information?

8.

Kamandjati Honor Society, in cooperation with the Consulate General of the United States in Jerusalem, invite you to attend a presentation of the Ramallah Orchestra, June 23.

Cooperation?

As far as I am aware, none of these events are publicized for the benefit of a Jew residing in Judea and Samaria, territory under the diplomatic purview of the Consulate, a population ignored as regards cultural, artistic, musical, social, educational, sports or any other similar type of activity.

Nor does any high official visit (except for Political Officers and State Dept. desk officers from Washington) but here is the Consulate-General in Shchem:

and in Hebron:

And in January, even close to Shiloh, at Sinjil.

Think about that when you next celebrate American freedom, independence, liberty and democracy.

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Recreational Fridays Here

This is how it goes on Fridays:

Register for Transportation to July 6 - July 7 Weekly Demonstrations Against the Wall and the Settlements
 
Al Ma'asara Friday July 6
 
Contact Renen at renen.raz@gmail.com or 054-3241622
 
Ni'lin Friday July 6
 
Contact Shai at shiegorsky@yahoo.com or 052-3727602
 
An Nabi Saleh Friday July 6
 
Contact Naomi at naomim.lyth@gmail.com or 050-7354544 (preferably by SMS)
 
Bil'in Friday July 6
 
Contact Phone Against Wall 052-6306787 (no SMS). Only if you must send e-mail with mobile phone number to bilin1aa@gmail.com... but reply in time is not guaranteed
 
Please register as early as you can (not later than Thursday afternoon) to ensure a place in the organized transportation and ease the organizing process
 
Beit Ummar Saturday July 7
 
Contact Kobi at 054-2191547
 
!! IMPORTANT !!
 
New! For those wishing to come from Jerusalem please contact Amitai at 050-8589091
 
Please let us know as soon as possible if you can bring a car and take into consideration cultural differences in the choice of clothing
 
Passengers, you don't have to participate in the transportation expenses, but if you can afford it, please don't wait to be asked to pay - sugget it yourselves.
 
Drivers, you don't have to pay for the fuel. Please ask the passengers to participate if and as much as they can. You can get a refund through the transportation coordinator.
 
Newcomers and those requiring more information are invited to contact Renen at 054-3241622

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The Jewish Knights

From Nir Wolf's story in tomorrow's Israel Hayom about Israelis playing knight games:

Where were they when we needed them in Europe against the Crusaders?

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And While Ramallah Sparkled...

From a Reuters report:

...downtown Ramallah sparkles. The scars of an intractable conflict and occupation melt away: cafes bustle with smartly dressed patrons, water-pipe smoke perfumes the air and basslines from trendy clubs shake the night. New model BMWs ply leafy avenues beneath villas and tall apartment blocks sprout from the West Bank hills.

But it's more mirage than miracle.  "Thank God for loans," said Ibrahim el-Far, owner of the newly-opened branch of the upscale Italian cafe chain Segafredo Zanetti in Ramallah...

Government spending and living on credit at all levels of Palestinian society is rampant and, as the euro zone crisis has shown, may prove to be the economy's undoing.

Bank lending for personal consumption in the Palestinian territories has risen five-fold in the last two years to $417 million. Total credit for cars alone accounts for a further $119 million, according to the Palestinian Monetary Authority.

"If you're immersed in troubles, why not try to live well, have night life and good coffee? If we've been slapped once by occupation, the slap from the credit bill won't hurt as much," El-Far said.

...Salaries for a swollen public sector again cannot be paid in full this month. The productive base for the economy is shrivelling while unemployment climbs along with poverty...growth is down from a peak of 9 percent in 2010 after the lows of the Intifada to 5.4 percent in the first quarter of 2012 from the same 2011 period.

Oh, well.  At least there is the sparkle.

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On Godwin's Law

Do you know about Godwin's law? You may not know it's called that, but the gist of it is:  "As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches".

David Horspool's example of this is not  that Gaza is referred to as a "concentration camp" or that Arabs call their cities the "Warsaw ghetto" and such but

when the Prime Minister of Israel, Binyamin Netanyahu,  speaking on Iran, held up a historic correspondence from 1944 between the US War Department and the World Jewish Congress, in which the Under Secretary of War gave reasons for his government's refusal to bomb Auschwitz.

Such a cheap shot.

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Some Evacuations Can Be Violent

Terribly so.

A heavily armed man whose girlfriend was being evicted from her apartment today killed four people, including the new owner and a court bailiff who were shot execution style, before turning a shotgun on himself, German authorities said.

A commando team stormed the apartment in the southern German city of Karlsruhe, but the 53-year-old gunman and the victims were already dead.
Also killed were the girlfriend, a 55-year-old woman who was found on her bed with a gunshot wound to her chest, near the gunman's body.
The bailiff and new owner were found with their hands bound on a couch, dead from gunshot wounds to the head. A locksmith was found dead on the floor.
"It was a terrible crime," said Hildegard Gerecke, the Karlsruhe police chief.
"Nothing could be done to stop it and nothing could be done to save them."

Source.

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NZZ = Zzzzzzzzzzzz

Our new media comment column on Swiss media ethics.

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It All Started on A Park Bench in Egypt

Does Did it start?

CAIRO (AP) - An Egyptian university student was fatally stabbed as his girlfriend looked on after three suspected Islamic militants confronted the couple in a park and told them they should not be together if they are not married, security officials said Wednesday.

The murder is fueling fears that vigilante groups may be seeking to strictly enforce Islamic mores, emboldened by the election of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi. Moderate Muslims along with liberal and women's groups worry that Morsi's presidency will slowly eradicate Egypt's entrenched secular traditions and change the social fabric of the mainly Muslim nation of 82 million people.  The student, 20-year-old Ahmed Hussein Eid, was attacked on June 25 in the Red Sea city of Suez east of Cairo while he was with his girlfriend in a quiet park that is a favorite spot for romantic rendezvous, according to the officials. It was not immediately clear what the two were doing when challenged by the three men who arrived on a motorbike.

But the officials, citing initial testimony of the girlfriend, said the men told the couple they should not be together because they were not married and must immediately leave and go their separate ways. An argument followed and one of the three men stabbed Eid in the upper left thigh, near his genitals. He was hospitalized and died of his wounds a week later on Monday...

This is the knife slice that should be banned.


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Guess Who Gets A NYTimes Platform

I left this comment

Wow. Why is there never any op-ed or blog post at the NYT by a Jewish resident of a community in Judea and Samaria, explaining his life and why he/she thinks there are legal, historical, security rights for Jews to reside there? Or that treat the question why were Jews being terrorized before 1967 when there was no "occupation" or any "settlements" constructed? Or that ask why were Arabs engaged in ethnic cleansing of Jews from their homes of centuries in the country like Hebron, Nablus, Gaza, etc., even before a state was created in 1948? Maybe, just maybe, there's another side, one reasonable, cogent and yes, legal, that justifies my residency in Shiloh but the NYTimes never allows a fair platform? Why must there be 2 Arabs states in the former historical "Palestine", both with no Jews allowed, but Israel must permit its Arabs to stay? Why are Jews evacuated with no peaceful results (Disengagement) but that policy is still to be pursued?

Maybe something is wrong here that needs to be clarified, discussed and debated but only the Arab side is offered services of a platform such as this?

Here at the NYTimes, here, which published this: The Folly of Israel’s Settlement Policy By RAJA SHEHADEH.

___________________

UPDATE


And now, belatedly, it is up here.

___________________

SECOND UPDATE

My second comment.


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So, The Qur'an Relates Temple Tales

Excerpts from a paper, The Temple in the Qurʾān, presented by William J. Hamblin, Professor of History, Brigham Young University today

Taken together, all of the elements mentioned in this passage [Sūrah 34:12b-13a] --Solomon as builder of a place of worship, the massive use of bronze, the jinn as workers, the images, and water basins -- make it certain that this passage is describing the building of Solomon’s Temple, viewing its construction as having been ordered by God and facilitated by divine intervention.

In these Qurʾānic narratives about Mary, the temple appears in Qurʿān 3:35-37, describing the birth of Mary and her dedication as a youth to serve in the temple, where she is miraculously fed by God. 

The Qurʾān also includes a rather detailed description of the destructions of the Jerusalem temple       by the Babylonians and the Romans in 17:4-8. 

and

The Qurʾān views the temple of Jerusalem through three different lenses.  First, the Qurʾānic temple was an Israelite holy place intimately tied to the lives of the ancient prophets.  Solomon built it by divine decree and with miraculous assistance.  It was commemorated as a place of repentance and miracles.   Second, it was a Christian holy place, where God fed Mary miraculous food, and angels spoke to Zachariah.  Finally, it was a contemporary Muslim sacred place, directly linked to the spiritual life of the Muslims, where Muhammad ascended to heaven in vision.  But, despite its holiness, it was destroyed because of the apostasy of the Jews.  For the Qurʾān, the Jerusalem temple is thus a sign of God’s miraculous power, and a warning, that sacredness does not derive from a place alone, but from submission (ʾislām) to the will of God. 

Interesting but I think there is room for debate on sum of his interpretations.

Temple Denial anyone?

-------------------------

UPDATE

I forwarded the lecture to Dr. Mordechai Kedar and he sent Hamblin this letter:

Dear Prof. Hamblin,

I read your article "The Temple in the Qurʾān" and I was surprised to find no mention to the well-established evidence (based on Islamic sources) that the al-Aqsa Mosque was ORIGINALLY in the Arab peninsula, between Mecca and Taʾif, near the village of al-Ji‘irrana. In addition, it is not mentioned in the Qurʾān, in any of its four names: ʾIlya, Urshalim, Bayt al-Maqdis or al-Quds.

And the fact that Jerusalem, traditionally, is not sacred to Shi‘ites, (Najaf in Southern Iraq is the third place in holiness for Shi‘ites) hints to the possibility that the whole issue of holiness attributed to Jerusalem in Islam is connected to politics more than anything else.

Ibn Taymiyya in his Ziyarat Bayt al-Maqdis relates to the status of Jerusalem in Islam in a rather negative way.Al-Ghazali places the al-Aqsa Mosque in heaven, something like the concept of Civitate Deo....

Please read my piece on this matter: How did Jerusalem come to be so holy to Moslems? 

Please note that it was written 12 years ago, when Arafat was still alive..

.

I'd appreciate your comments,

Dr. Mordechai Kedar

Bar-Ilan University

Israel

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Far Left

A comment I just had to leave at an Open Zion blog post:

Sorry, but someone just performed a semantic circumcision I think, in writing "not only on the far Left, but also by Larry Derfner and Noam Sheizaf". These two are NOT on the Far Left?  Derfner who had to go into mainstream media exile for suggesting that terror is somehow okay?  And Sheizaf, his +972 far-far radical progressive fairly non-Zionist sidekick?  Who are we trying to fool here?  This is a big slice of the truth you've removed.

But maybe he meant these are so far left(out)?

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We're Unoccupied

Reported in Hebrew (English later in the day but here's the gist and now with their translation following):-

Superior Court Judge retired, Edmond Levy, who heads the Committee to examine the state of construction in Judea and Samaria, ruled yesterday the findings of the committee's report that "under international law, Israelis possess the legal right to settle in Judea and Samaria, and at the least in the areas under Israel's control by virtue of agreements with the PA and therefore the establishment of settlements in itself does not suffer from illegality".

'Israelis have a legal right to settle all Judea and Samaria'

Committee headed by retired Supreme Court justice, tasked with examining the legal status of outposts, concludes that international law does not preclude Israeli construction on land owned by the state • Committee declares that communities built with government assistance were implicitly authorized.

Edna Adato

Retired Supreme Court Justice Edmond Levy, who heads a committee tasked with examining the legality of Jewish construction in Judea and Samaria, declared on Tuesday that Israelis have a legal right to settle the region.

"According to international law, Israelis have a legal right to settle all of Judea and Samaria, at the very least the lands that Israel controls under agreements with the Palestinian Authority," Levy stated. "Therefore, the establishment of Jewish settlements [in Judea and Samaria] is, in itself, not illegal."

The committee was established by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in efforts to determine and cement the legal status of the outposts in Judea and Samaria, with an emphasis on communities that were not built on privately owned Palestinian land but their status was still in doubt due to legal bureaucracy.

The committee issued its report on Tuesday, which was subsequently handed over to Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein. In the report, Levy wrote that "upon completing the committee's tasks, and considering the testimonies heard, the basic conclusion is that from an international law perspective, the laws of 'occupation' do not apply to the unique historic and legal circumstances surrounding Israel's decades-long presence in Judea and Samaria."

"Likewise," the report said, "the Fourth Geneva Convention [relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War] on the transfer of populations does not apply, and wasn't intended to apply to communities such as those established by Israel in Judea and Samaria."

In the part of the report that criticizes Israel's actions, the retired justice wrote that "dozens of new neighborhoods have been erected, without government authorization and at times without a contiguous link to the mother community. Several were built outside the legal jurisdiction allotted to the community. This prevalent phenomenon has required large amounts of funding therefore the committee finds it hard to believe that it was done without the government's knowledge."

In conclusion, the report stated that "we have discovered a phenomenon within the Israeli settlement enterprise in Judea and Samaria that does not befit a country that upholds the rule of law. From now on, it must be made very clear to the proponents of the settlement enterprise and to the political echelon that they are to operate only within the confines of the law, and the various law enforcement institutions must decisively enforce the law in the future."

The committee's recommendations include the following: The government must clarify its position on the issue of Israeli settlement in Judea and Samaria to prevent varying interpretations of its policy; a new community will only be built after the government or an authorized ministerial committee has approved it; the expansion of a community outside the bounds of its authorized jurisdiction must first be approved by the defense minister or a ministerial committee on settlements, in coordination with the prime minister.

On the other hand, the committee declared that the encouragement provided by the government to the settlement enterprise constituted authorization. According to the committee, communities that were built on land owned by the state, or privately owned Israeli land, with the help of government bodies could not be classified as "unauthorized" due to the absence of an official government decision to authorize them. The very assistance provided by the government in their establishment constitutes implicit authorization.

Under these circumstances, the report concluded, the evacuation of such communities would be impractical and another solution, such as compensation or land swap, should be implemented. Therefore, the committee recommends in its report, the government should avoid issuing demolition orders for these communities because it is the government itself that created this situation in the first place.

Another recommendation was that the government should speed up the examination of the communities whose status isn't defined. The committee suggested that the government define these disputed communities' status in terms of evacuations or demolitions only after a thorough investigation and a full legal proceeding. In order to ease the lives of the residents, the committee suggested the establishment of special courts in Judea and Samaria specifically to settle land disputes.

To prevent uncertainty and to promote stability, the committee encouraged Israelis and Palestinians to record their land purchases within an agreed upon time frame of between four and five years, after which anyone who did not complete the process would lose rights to property. The committee further proposed that Israelis would only be allowed to purchase land in Judea and Samaria under the auspices of an authorized body.

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A Wig Tale

As reported here, the Irgun, in a successful attempt to forestall the hangings of their captured resistance fighters, had kidnapped a judge, Ralph Windham, out of his courtroom.  See pp. 227-229 in this book.  And this JTA item.

The judge was released but there's one little item left: his wig -

That's from the Palestine Post, January 29, 1947.

The follow-up is noted here.

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Proportionate Peace Now

From a recent Peace Now advert:

It claims only 4% of Israel's population is "settler" and that "Israel is returning to proper proportions".

Let's check that.

According to Yakov Faitelson, there are 360,000 Jewish residents in Judea and Samaria.  That represents 4.6% of Israel's general population or 6.1% of the Jewish population.  According to how the Arabs and the rest of the world see things, that is that Jerusalem's new neighborhoods are also "occupied territory", then the number of Jews is 560,000 (at least, since at the end of 2010 I counted at least 200,000).  That brings the number of Jewish residents beyond the Green Line to 7% of the Israel's general population and 9.4% of the Jewish population.  In the pastt 12 years, the median growth rate of J & S's Jewish population has been 5.5% annually versus 1/7% of the Israel's Jewish population.

Now, consider that the kibbutz population is 140,000 which represents 1.8% of Israel's general population or 2.4% of Israel's Jewish population.  If we include Peace Now's support from the non-kibbutz population, their Knesset representation is exactly their percentage in the country, 2.5% barely.

That is what Peace Now needs to absorb - that they are a fairly negligible minority which, according to their own logic, should be ignored and should have no influence on Israel's policies.

Last year in January, the Knesset's research unit published a demographic report which found that Arnon Sofer and Sergio Della Pergola claim that at the end of 2010 the Jewish population of Israel without Judea and Samaria was 75.4% and without J & S, Israel's Jewish population is 53%.  The Arab population of J & S is 3.8 million according to their work, without Jerusalem,whereas the AEI Zimmerman, Ettinger, at al. study places it as 2.85 million, one million Arabs less.


If PN wants to be really pessimistic, well, there's this:

In another 50 years, Israel’s total population will be 23%-40% ultra-Orthodox, according to a forecast by the Central Bureau of Statistics commissioned by the Finance Ministry's budget division.

And here's Yoram Ettinger's summary as for YESHA:

...the Jewish majority west of the Jordan River has been robust and long-term since the 1960s – 66% without Gaza and 57% including Gaza – compared with a 33% minority in 1947 and an 8% minority in 1900. Arab population growth rate has declined steadily in Judea & Samaria due to diminished fertility rate and (primarily) due to high net-emigration (well over 10,000 annually since 1950 and escalating recently).  The annual number of Jewish births has increased by 56% since 1995, while the annual number of Arab births has stabilized during the same period. Within the “Green Line,” the decline in Arab fertility rate is due to a most successful integration into Israel’s infrastructures of employment, education, medicine, finance, politics, sports, arts, etc.!  For the first time since 1948, there is a convergence between Jewish and Arab fertility rates in Jerusalem, while Arabs trend downward and Jews upward.

If you are worried, though, here's something demographic, from 2007, p. 51:

According to the data of the Israeli Ministry of Interior for the years 1993–2003, over this period 150,737 Arabs from Judea, Samaria, the Gaza Strip and Jordan obtained permanent resident status in the State of Israel as part of a process of “family unification” with citizens of Israel, and were added to the yearly growth of the Arab population86. This status provides them with full civil rights, aside from the right to vote in elections for the Knesset and the right to carry an Israeli passport.

and on p. 53

the Arab citizens of the State of Israel are likely to number 1,949,433 people by 2025. This result is not far from the forecast of the Israeli Bureau of Statistics in 2004, according to which Arab Israelis may number 2,122,100 people in 2025. According to these two alternative forecasts, the number of Arab Israeli citizens may reach 2,281,312 by 2050. 

Incidentally, read this.

_________________________

UPDATE

Now this appeared:

"Only .00004% of Israel's population is represented by Peace Now so why does the media present them as the largest party in the Knesset?  Israel returns to proper proportions!"

Great.


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NYTimes Op-eds: 3:1 Anti-Israel

New York Times Op-ed Index Summary January - June 2012

January 2012 - Anti-Israel - 3 / Pro-Israel - 0
February 2012 - Anti-Israel - 8 / Pro-Israel - 4
March 2012 - Anti-Israel - 8 / Pro-Israel - 3
April 2012 - Anti-Israel - 3 / Pro-Israel - 1
May 2012 - Anti-Israel - 4 / Pro-Israel - 0
June 2012 - Anti-Israel - 4/ Pro-Israel - 2


Total - Anti-Israel - 30 / Pro-Israel - 10


The ratio of anti-Israel to pro-Israel op-eds during previous six month summary was more than five to one, so we can look at this as an improvement.

From David Gertsman.

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This is Cognitive Warfare

Richard Landes on the conduct of cognitive warfare :

...we don’t recognize the nature of the foe, partly because we are so committed to the rules and values of civil society that we have difficulty even acknowledging that a state of war exists. Most of us are too secular to appreciate the beliefs involved. And as a result of this ignorance, we misidentify and badly analyze the phenomenon in question.

***

Western purveyors of news are, of course, a strategic target for jihadi cognitive warriors: Journalists are the main shapers of Western public opinion, and, it turns out, they are highly susceptible to intimidation and manipulation. As a result, the mainstream news media have, surely unwittingly but nonetheless consistently, played a crucial role in mainstreaming jihadi themes in the Western public sphere, even as they disguise the source and nature of these themes. A study of perhaps the single most powerful attack in the cognitive war of global jihad and its aftermath offers a detailed insight into the ways in which this has occurred. It illustrates the weaknesses of our media, as well as the critical but obscured relationship between jihad and the so-called Israel problem.

^

Being Succinct On Iran

On Iran, Israel can’t be wrong once

 

By Geoffrey St. John

Read more.

(k/t=BPO)

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Coexistence via Haaretz

Haaretz likes to think of itself as the "paper for thinking people", which I call the paper for people who think they think.

^

A Reporter An "Idiot"?

New Jersey Governor Christie asked at a press conference for questions on the topic he spoke.

One reporter tried another topic:

"Did I say on topic? Are you stupid?"

"On topic!"

"Thank you all very much," he concluded, "and I'm sorry for the idiot over there."

Gotta love the Gov.

^

Look Who Is Orthodox

German Bishop to Head Vatican Orthodoxy Office

ROME—Pope Benedict XVI tapped German bishop Gerhard Ludwig Mueller to head the Vatican's office in charge of doctrinal affairs, placing a respected theologian at the helm of one of Roman Catholicism's most powerful posts.

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'Eichler' is a Book Store, And Now More

Reported:

An Orthodox Jewish gay activist and blogger sued his cousin yesterday for allegedly preying on him for several years at a synagogue and at the relative’s home.

Chaim Levin, raised ultra-Orthodox, contends in a Brooklyn Supreme Court civil lawsuit that he was the victim of sexual abuse by Sholom Eichler, whose family owns two prominent Judaica stores.
Levin claims in court papers that Eichler assaulted him on a weekly basis from 1996 to 1999, starting when he was 6 years old. The suit, which seeks unspecified monetary damages, says most of the abuse occurred at the home of Eichler and his parents, as well as at a synagogue to which both families belonged.

This was not love amidst the stacks.

P.S.  It could get worse.

^

Quotable Words

I've always believed that who a reporter votes for, what religion they are, who they love, should not be something they have to discuss publicly. As long as a journalist shows fairness and honesty in his or her work, their private life shouldn't matter.

Anderson Cooper

But the subjects he and his colleagues cover shall have no private life.

^

Victory: Land Registration Begins

Remember what I wrote?

"Whereas the regime in TransJordan, known as the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, the territory of that was to be part of the Mandate for Palestine which the League of Nations decided was to be reconstituted as the the Jewish national home, illegally occupied the area of Judea and Samaria in 1948 and then, in April 1950, annexed said territory, an act never recognized nor considered as legal, except by Great Britain;

and Whereas the rulers of said Kingdom distributed as gifts and bribes lands that were state and waste lands to private persons without receiving any recompense in the form of direct payments or taxes;

and Whereas in the case whereby those lands were never planted, or developed, or built upon or any instance of tangible ownership expressed;

that this Committee instruct state officials to review all such instances and then declare such transactions of property as null and void and  thus cause them revert to the original status as state and waste lands to be used for close settlement of Jews as directed by the Mandate decision in Article 6."

 

And today, victory, well, partial, anyway:

After 45 years of running the West Bank, the State of Israel plans to start compiling land registry records of assets controlled by settlers. The registry would bypass regular tabu land-listing processes, and appears designed to prevent Palestinians from appealing the validity of the ownership listings.

I wanted "Arab-owned land" to be investigated as well.

Maybe that's a next step.


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Want to Laugh at the Arab Spring?

.

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Words for Michael

I eulogize Yitzhak Shamir.

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Waqf Incitement Cont'd

Dozens of Israeli soldiers and settlers stormed the Aqsa mosque on Monday in three groups and strolled inside its plazas. The Aqsa Foundation for Endowment and Heritage (AFEH) said that one of the Israeli officers walked beside workers, who were busy with repair works inside the Aqsa, and took photos of them.

Source

^

Guardian Gets Its Headline Wrong

Here:

Rightwing prime minister of Israel

who took a hardline stance on Palestine

No.

He took a hardline stand on Eretz-Yisrael.

Obit writer Lawrence Joffe is to be held accountable.
And this is ridiculous:

He was also implicated in the bombing of the King David hotel, the British headquarters in Jerusalem, in 1946

That was an Irgun operation, although Lechi originally was to attack the David/Daoud Brothers building nearby on the same day which served as HQ for the Royal Airforce Intelligence unit.


^

Islam in Timbuktu

You can't make these events up:

Islamists linked to al-Qaida have broken down the door to a 15th-century mosque in Timbuktu that locals believed had to stay shut until the end of the world, defying international calls to halt the destruction of holy sites in the Unesco-listed city.

In a third day of attacks on historic and religious landmarks that Unesco has called "wanton destruction", the Islamists targeted the ancient Sidi Yahya mosque as they tried to erase traces of what they regard as un-Islamic idolatry.

"In legend, it is said that the main gate of Sidi Yahya mosque will not be opened until the last day [of the world]," Alpha Abdoulahi, the town imam, told Reuters by telephone.

Eight Islamist fighters smashed down the door to the mosque early on Monday, saying they wanted to "destroy the mystery" of the ancient entrance, he said...Islamists of the Ansar Dine group claim the centuries-old shrines of the local Sufi version of Islam in Timbuktu are idolatrous. They have so far destroyed at least eight of 16 listed mausoleums in the city in northern Mali, together with a number of tombs.

           
And

The International Criminal Court has described the destruction of the city's patrimony as a possible war crime...

And what can we expect if the 'Holy Basin' idea is implemented?  Who will supervise the Western Wall?  Have we Jews not suffered enough from the Waqf on the Temple Mount?

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From So. Africa to Gaza

I caught this at Mondoweiss by one Talgha Bendie is an activist from South Africa working with The Centre For Political and Development Studies (CPDS)-Gaza.

In his zeal, he has praised on Facebook Syria's Assad and runs up against some Arab doubters:

Talgha Bendie 
Our dignity is above all. Our dignity is stronger than them and their armies." - President Bashar al-Assad.
January 10 at 12:27pm 
"It's not Islam's fault when a terrorist uses it as a cover. It's the same with Arabism, don't tie Arabism with Arabs." - President Bashar al-Assad.
Talgha Bendie ‎"We will NOT relinquishe our stance on the Palestinian cause"~Assad
January 10 at 12:31pm · 
Jasmin El-Kadi Did he ever do anything for it?
January 10 at 12:45pm · 
Talgha Bendie Are there not Hamas offices in Damasque? How many thousends of Palestinians moved to Syria after Golan was stolen from Syria. Did the Arab league help the Palestinians? Also who supported Labanon in the 06? Did Turkey help Lebanon? Did Saudi help Labaonon? No saudi supported Israel. It was Assad who helped Labanon.
January 10 at 12:51pm ·

But at Mondoweiss, in trying to convince that Arab Christians and Muslims coexist and that only Israel is responsible for the reduction of a Christian population, he exhibits political perversion:

A mosque by the name of Kitab Wiliya stands directly next to the church. The only thing that separates the two places of worship is mere thin wall. The church is administrated by the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem. Although politically Palestinians may be divided, religion ironically brings all Palestinians together. The Palestinian Christians have the same dream of returning back to their homelands that was stolen from them with the creation of the state of Israel. Palestinian Christians stand shoulder to shoulder with their fellow Muslim Palestinians. For this reason the Palestinian Christians have sacrificed a lot to keep the Birthplace of Christianity protected and preserved.

He could have mentioned the 2007 murder of a Christian and at least attempted to explain it.

He could have challenged these:

Palestinian Crimes against Christian Arabs and Their Manipulation against Israel - Justus Reid Weiner (Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs)
Human Rights of Christians in Palestinian Society - Justus Reid Weiner (Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs)
Palestinian Terrorists Desecrate Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem (Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs) 

He could have asked if Muslims can get along with Christains, supposedly, why not with Jews?

But no.  His place is at the anti-Semitic tolerant Mondoweiss.

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Low-Intensity Conflict Report #27

Tayar Security Report July 2, 2012

These reports are translated and publicized by Yehudit Tayar via Hatzalah Yehudah and Shomron with the clearance and confirmation of the IDF.  Hatzalah Yehudah and Shomron is a voluntary emergency medical organization with over 500 volunteer doctors, paramedics, medics who are on call 24/7 and work along with the IDF, 669 IAF Airborn Rescue, the security officers and personal throughout Yesha and the Jordan Valley, and with MDA.


July 1, 2012

Massive rock attacks on the Gush Etzion-Hebron Highway near Bet Umar causing damage to vehicles. Crowds of Arabs blocked the highway in both directions.  The IDF went in to restore order.  The Arabs circled and attacked the military force and 1 of the Arabs was arrested by the army.  A large number of IDF soldiers protected the road and restored order ensuring the travel on both sides of the road.

Near Neve Zuf at Nebi Zalach Arab crowds threw rocks and attacked Israeli vehicles.  IDF went in to disperse the Arab attackers.

Near El Arub on the Gush Etzion-Hebron Highway Arabs attacked Israeli vehicles including a bus with rocks.

Haramia Valley north of the British police Junction in the Benjamin Region, Arabs attacked Israeli vehicles with rocks.

443 Highway near the Dor Gas Station 3 Molotov cocktails were thrown on Israeli cars.  The Arab terrorists also lit a pipe bomb on the highway.

Arabs from the village Betin attacked Israeli vehicles with rocks between the T-Junction and Ophra in the Benjamin region.  Several vehicles were damaged.

June 30, 2012

During the night an Israeli driver reached the check post at Maccabim on Highway 443 with his head injured and reported that he had picked up 2 hitch hikers who then attacked him with a glass bottle and attempted to steal his car.  He was evacuated to Sha'are Zedek Hospital in Jerusalem with moderate injuries to his head.

June 29, 2012

3 Border policemen moderately injured in Kedum from rocks thrown by Arabs at them. 1 was evacuated to Belinson Hospital for medical treatment, 2 were injured in their legs and did not need medical treatment.

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Good Police Work

Found:

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From Inside the Dome of the Rock

New pictures from an Islamic source of the renovation work being done inside the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount, losing the Foundation Stone:

The photos were released by the Al-Aqsa Foundation to counter "a campaign of incitemnt launched by Israeli media and Jewish organizations in recent days against the Department of Awqaf because of the restoration work carried out by the Waqf at the Dome of the Rock, whihc Jewish authorities claimed was the desecration of sacred holy sites Jews and what are called call "the rock of the water in the holy of holies"...

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Samson in Mosaic Tiles

Archaeological news that confirms Jewish presence in the Land of Israel following the loss of independence:

A monumental synagogue building dating to the Late Roman period (ca. 4th-5th centuries C.E.) has been discovered in archaeological excavations at Huqoq in Israel's Galilee...located approximately two to three miles west of Capernaum and Migdal (Magdala)...excavations ha(ve) revealed portions of a stunning mosaic floor decorating the interior of the synagogue building...depicting Samson placing torches between the tails of foxes (as related in the book of Judges 15). In another part of the mosaic, two human (apparently female) faces flank a circular medallion with a Hebrew inscription that refers to rewards for those who perform good deeds.

"This discovery is significant because only a small number of ancient (Late Roman) synagogue buildings are decorated with mosaics showing biblical scenes...", said Magness, the Kenan Distinguished Professor in the department of religious studies in UNC's College of Arts and Sciences. "Our mosaics are also important because of their high artistic quality and the tiny size of the mosaic cubes. This, together with the monumental size of the stones used to construct the synagogue's walls, suggest a high level of prosperity in this village, as the building clearly was very costly."

A picture:

How A President Betrays Israel

No, not Obama.

FDR.

From this book on the Ibn Saud-FDR meeting in Februry 1945:

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On Yitzhak Shamir

I was with Yitzhak Shamir at the Madrid Conference in 1990 (with thanks to BPO).  Or rather, he and I were there at the same time, he as Prime Minister, I, along with friends from Yesha communities, were there to represent the heart of the matter: Jews residing in the Land of Israel.

Here:

I am at the far right, slightly obscured. To my right, counter-clockwise are: Elyakim Rubinstein (legal advisor), Yitzhak Shamir, Uri Elitzur (Ofra - Amana), Shifra Blass (Neveh Tzuf), Shalom Wach (Hebron) and Yossi Achimeir (PM aide).  More on the event here.

What did the two big US newspapers stress?

From Joel Brinkley's obituary of Yitzhak Shamir in the NYTimes, an interpretation of history:-

...[Shamir had been] promoting a muscular Zionism and expansive settlement in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip,

Many of his friends and colleagues ascribed his character to his years in the underground in the 1940s, when he sent Jewish fighters out to kill British officers whom he saw as occupiers. He was a wanted man then; to the British rulers of the Palestine mandate he was a terrorist, an assassin. He appeared in public only at night, disguised as a Hasidic rabbi. But Mr. Shamir said he considered those “the best years of my life.” His wife, Shulamit, once said that in the underground she and her husband had learned not to talk about their work for fear of being overheard. It was a habit he apparently never lost.

...To Mr. Shamir, victory came not from compromise, but from strength, patience and cunning.
“If he wants something, it may take a long time, but he’ll never let go,” Avi Pazner, his media adviser, once remarked...As prime minister, Mr. Shamir promoted continued Jewish settlement in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, which Israel conquered in 1967; the Jewish population in the occupied territories increased by nearly 30 percent while he was in office. He also encouraged the immigration of tens of thousands of Soviet Jews to Israel, an influx that changed the country’s demographic character...

...The fighting also deepened divisions between Israel’s two political camps: leftists who believed in making concessions to bring peace, and members of the right who believed, as Mr. Shamir once put it, that “Israel’s days without Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria and the Gaza Strip are gone and will not return.”

...He immigrated to the Palestine mandate when he was 20 and selected Shamir as his Hebrew surname. The word means thorn or sharp point...In the British-ruled Palestine mandate, Mr. Shamir first worked as a bookkeeper [he came straight to the Hebrew University as a student first] and a construction worker. But after Arabs attacked Jewish settlers and the British in 1936, he joined the Irgun Zvai Leumi, the underground Jewish defense league. In 1940, the Irgun’s most militant members formed the Lehi, or Stern Gang, named for its first leader, Abraham Stern.

After the British police killed Mr. Stern in 1942, Mr. Shamir became one of the group’s top commanders. Under his leadership it began a campaign of what it called personal terror, assassinating top British military and government officers, often gunning them down in the street. [let's not forget that Yair was gunned down in his underground apartment] To the Jewish public, and even to the other Jewish underground groups, Mr. Shamir’s gang was “lacking even a spark of humanity and Jewish conscience,” Israel Rokach, the mayor of Tel Aviv, said in 1944 after Stern Gang gunmen shot three British police officers on the streets of his city.

Years later, however, Mr. Shamir contended that it had been more humane to assassinate specific military or political figures than to attack military installations and possibly kill innocent people, as the other underground groups did. Besides, he once said, “a man who goes forth to take the life of another whom he does not know must believe only one thing: that by his act he will change the course of history.”

Several histories of the period have asserted that he masterminded a failed attempt to kill the British high commissioner, Sir Harold MacMichael, and the killing in Cairo of Britain’s minister of state for the Middle East, Lord Moyne. When Mr. Shamir was asked about these episodes in later years, his denials held a certain evasive tone...For a brief period after World War II, the three major Jewish underground groups cooperated — until the bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem on July 22, 1946. Scores of people were killed, and Mr. Shamir was among those arrested and exiled to an internment camp in Eritrea. But he escaped a few months later and took refuge in France. He arrived in the newly independent Israel in May 1948...

Shamir (l.), Geula Cohen, Anshel Shpielman (r.), at Yair's grave, 1949

But WashPost's Glenn Frankel and Robin Shulman get facts wrong and are outrightly nasty:

Former Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Shamir, a gunman in the smallest and most violent underground faction fighting for a Jewish state who rose to become leader of the nation[he was one the three-man Central Committee of Lechi]

and add

Mr. Shamir’s vision for Israel — a strong, unassailable nation capable of defeating any enemy and continuing down the path of colonizing the West Bank even while establishing itself as an economic success story — endures. “There is the sense that no one had the impact that he had,” said Avishai Margalit, an Israeli philosopher at Princeton University. “He was the ultimate true believer in the idea of Greater Israel.”

Margalit is one of Israel's far-left philosophers, active in Peace Now.  Why not have a balance opinion?

_____________

See my comment, 21, here.  And my comment here.  And here.

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Will Katie Holmes Suffer 'Religious' Discrimination?

Reported:

Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes' divorce 'won't be recognized by church of Scientology'

Read more.

Maybe she should seek advice from the Reform Movement's Religious Action Center in Jerusalem as they have a lot of experience.

And after all, her daughter is named Surie.

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Dear German Jewish Parents

Dear parents, Jews in Germany, who have just been blessed with the birth of your son, I have read of your dilemma:

The Berlin Jewish Hospital has announced it will cease to conduct circumcisions following a ruling by the district court in Cologne to outlaw them. According to the hospital's spokesman, "As a result of the lack of legal clarity, the institution has been forced to cease circumcision surgeries for religious purposes until further notice."

My advice?

Go to Chabad.

They circumcised in Soviet Russia, so Germany should be no problem.

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Confronting the Cognitive Conflict Clash (CCC)

I have mentioned previously the need for Cognitive Combat warriors for there is a requirement of this generation to confront the Cognitive Conflict Clash (CCC) in my conceptualization *.

In the meantime, I found this as a good graphic illustration of the problem:

The West blinds itself and refuses to see.

_______________

Another formulation of the crisis:

...primary spokespeople for the progressive causes of human freedom, equality, rights and dignity have lost battle after battle in a cognitive war launched by an astonishingly regressive foe. Global Islamism and Jihad openly champion intolerance of the “Other,” sacred violence, misogyny, homophobia, theocracy, scapegoating and hatred of other religions...Islamist Jihadi apocalyptic discourse has, in this last decade, played an astonishingly prominent role in defining 21^st century narratives, and has established major centers of discourse in both the Muslim and the Western public sphere. This has permitted a succession of stunningly stupid moves by the West which have not only weakened democratic culture, but strengthened radicalization is the Islamic world...The pattern emerged that when faced with angry Muslims demanding “respect,” Western moderates backed down and Western radicals sided with the Islamists...our passivity in the face of Islamist maximalist claims has hardened over time into a strategic consensus: the best way to deal with Muslim violence is to make friends with (appease) it; sooner attack the critic of Islam for provoking the violence.

At the same time as a broad range of our cognitive elite has adopted these paralyzing measures of appeasement, making it difficult to even perceive the existence of a cognitive war, a more militant branch has actively mobilized on the side of the Jihadi enemy. In particular, “left-wing” radicals have adopted the Palestinian narrative of suffering, in which the Israelis are the Nazis and the Palestinians are the Jews, in which the existence of Israel represents the single greatest obstacle to world peace and justice...And among the demands that the Islamists make on those who would befriend them, is the acceptance of this particular scapegoating, “lethal narrative,” aimed not only at justifying and inciting the extermination of the Jews, but also the subjection of the kuffar (infidels) the world over. This anti-Zionism has become almost a shibboleth of identity for the mobilized, progressive left in the 21^st century...

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Imagining Israeli Arabs as...Dhimmis

Is what's good for the Muslims, good for the...Muslims?

Reading an op-ed (in Hebrew) by Nessiah Shemer in Makor Rishon today sent me along the path of trying to imagine how the constructs and paradigms of Islamic law could - and should (?) - be applied by Israel to its Arab Muslim minority, as purely an intellectual exercise, of course.

The matter has come to the fore due to deliberations as to forms of National Service for the hareidim.  Even PM Netanyahu is wondering 'but what out our Arab citizens?'.  Here's a concise summary:

Israel’s plan to overhaul its military draft has veered into turbulent new territory with the government’s abrupt proposal to mobilize the country’s Arab minority for civilian national service. Israeli Arabs would be asked to perform community service and would not be required to join the army. But the concept of compulsory service — demanded by key members of the governing coalition — has stirred a hot debate within the Arab community over its place in the Jewish state, along with fierce resentment over being asked to serve a country that often treats its Arabs as second-class citizens.

“The state has never sat down with us to discuss the entire array of issues (we have), including our rights and historical rights,” said Ayman Odeh, point man on the issue for the influential Israeli Arab umbrella group, the High Follow-up Committee for Arab citizens. “If the government imposes this on us without sitting down with us, without consultation, without dialogue, we will not obey this law,” he said. No Israeli Arab sat on the parliamentary panel crafting recommendations for the new draft bill.

I found these quotations here (and see the fifth article of the Medina constitution here) and am wondering about their relevance to the debate:-

On page 20 of Qaradawi’s aforementioned book ["Non-Muslims in Muslim Society" (Arabic edition – Risala Foundation, 2^nd edition, 1983], we read:

“…and all that Islam asks from Non-Muslims is to be considerate to Muslims’ feelings, and the sanctity of their religion. So, they should not show (in public – my addition) their rituals, and their crosses, in Islamic territories, and they should not build a church in an Islamic city, where they did not have a church before. The reason is that such a showing presents a challenge to the Muslim feelings, which could cause animosity (fitna) and problems.”

...On page 20 of the book, Qaradawi states that non-Muslims have the right to work and make a living just like any Muslim. However, charging interest and making contracts that include interest is not allowed...

On pages 22 and 23 of the book, Qaradawi says:

“Dhimmis have the right to take government jobs just like Muslims, except for the jobs that have religious color to them like being an Imam, country president, army leadership, and judicial positions that are for Muslim interactions, and being in charge of charities.

And more:

Dhimmis have to pay a special protection tax to the Muslim State; Jizya. It is a tax paid by able adults. Dhimmis also have to pay an Estate tax called “Kharaj”. The also pay a commercial/business tax (half a percent for dhimmis compared to a quarter of a percent to Muslims!...(page 31) According to Qaradawi, the Islamic state is a “creed” state. It is ideological (Islamic). Those who fight for it are to be Muslims. Jihad duty is for Muslims. Non-Muslims do not need to be in the Islamic military because Jihad is a duty for Mulsims only. Non-Muslims can contribute through their Jizya money. So Jizya is an expression of submission to the Islamic state by non-Muslims. In addition, it is a financial alternative to “Military Service” that is a must for Muslims. (page 33)

...Dhimmis also have to be considerate of Muslims feelings in such a Muslim state. They should not talk negative about Muhammad or Islam. They should not eat or drink in public during Ramadan (page 41)...

...According to Qaradawi, Islam was a greatly forgiving and accommodating religion throughout its history. Islam did not ask from dhimmis except making them wear a special dress color to distinguish them during certain periods of history, and making them pay a “small” special tax, Jizya. They also were not allowed to serve in the army. Their testimonies were not accepted in Islamic courts. But they were able to self-govern and had their own courts. (page 52) What Qaradawi is saying here is clear discrimination against Non-Muslims.

Shall we engage Israel's Arab Muslims on the basis of this platfrom of civic duty and responsibility?

On Getting Arrested on the Temple Mount

An excerpt from my dear friend Tzvi Fishman's novel, The Discman and the Guru:

But before I could slip into a meditation, the door opened and the police officer who had arrested me on the Temple Mount appeared with a tall, aging police officer who looked like the actor, Mel Gibson.
“Nu?” he said, as if bored.
“Praying on the Temple Mount, resisting arrest, and endangering public safety,” the Temple Mount commander reported.
The police-station detective glanced over at me with an experienced gaze.
“I wasn’t praying and I didn’t resist anything,” I said. “I was minding my own business.”
Mel Gibson nodded with the same tired expression that the famous Jewish actor was known for. I couldn’t get over the resemblance.
“What were you doing?” he asked.
“I was singing,” I answered.
“Singing?”
“That’s right.”
“Shtuyot!” the Border Police commander retorted. “He was praying with his hands in the air.”
“I was singing,” I insisted.
“What were you singing?” Mel queried.
“When the Saints Go Marching In,” I answered. “You can ask the Baptist tourists from Florida. They were singing it too. With all due respect, the policeman here wasn’t anywhere near me.”
Mel looked over to the Temple Mount commander. “Did you hear the kid praying?”
“I didn’t,” the cop admitted, “But I got a call from the Wakf guards saying that someone was praying with his arms in the air.”
“To tell you the truth, I don’t know if singing is illegal,” the precinct detective responded. “I’ll have to check it out.”
“When we ordered him to halt,” the cop said, “he took off like a gazelle.”
“Is that correct?” Mel asked, turning back to me.
“I didn’t know what they were saying. Sure I ran. They were charging at me with guns.”
“That’s a natural reaction,” Mel admitted. “He’s a tourist. I think you over-reacted, Aharoni.”
“He refused to leave the Mount when I commanded him to,” the commander named Aharoni insisted. Once again, his moustache twitched nervously.
“Why should I have left?” I challenged. “I didn’t do anything wrong.”

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