Eldar's New Good News Poll

Can we trust Haaretz reporting on polls?

After Eldar and Levy on those "apartheid" stories?

Here's the latest, "For the right man, Israelis would make peace" which makes the claim that

"The consensus is moving to the right, but that doesn't mean Israeli Jews won't support a deal with the PA if the right leader comes along, a new study shows."

The May (five months ago!) data is from Tel Aviv University's Walter Lebach Institute for Jewish-Arab Coexistence, but it seems not even to be up at its site.

Some findings:

- 80 percent of Israelis don't believe it's possible to make peace with the Palestinians. Half of them don't believe it's ever possible to make peace, while half don't believe it's possible in the foreseeable future. About two-thirds support a diplomatic solution, but many more still eagerly buy the convenient argument that there's no partner.
- 87 percent of secular Jewish Israelis believe in the need for peace with the Palestinians, but only half the religiously observant and a smaller percentage of the ultra-Orthodox believe this. Traditional Jews have moved to the right and are now in the middle of the road.
- only about 20 percent of secular Jews see the demographic threat as an existential problem and only one-third believe the occupation and the settlements are creating a security threat to Israel.
- nearly half the respondents consider Palestinian terror a major security problem;
- Within the Green Line, the number who consider themselves rightists or right-leaning has increased from 41 percent to 48 percent. Two-thirds of this increase comes at the expense of those who say they hold centrist positions. But between 2002 and 2012 the left has strengthened; it has grown from 20 percent to 25 percent
- 60 percent of the public supports a democratic solution to the conflict, 22 percent of Jewish residents of the West Bank prefer the authority of the rabbis to the authority of the elected institutions.
-  six percent of the respondents (14 percent of the settlers ) see the use of violence to prevent withdrawal from the West Bank as legitimate, while 59 percent (70 percent of the settlers ) believe that the public only has the right to fight for its beliefs within the law (compared with 31 percent and 45 percent respectively at the beginning of the decade ).
- Around 37 percent of the secular respondents see the settlers as pioneers, compared with 32 percent in 2005, and 35 percent see them as "the bedrock of our existence," compared with 23 percent in 2005.

The really silly item Eldar emphasizes that

the hard core of settlers as represented by Gush Emunim, which has pushed the Israeli government and public to settle in the territories, hasn't spread its messianic ideology among the public, or even among the settlers. It turns out that the main motivations for living in the territories, including among many of the religious, are comfort and quality of life.

But that was the point, that it is natural for Jews to live in their homeland.  The vanguard always needs a more powerful ideological motivation but in pulling over the masses, the reasons for their remaining can assuredly be such mundane, for Eldar, ones.  Doesn't alter the reality.

He also claims the report indicates

...it's possible to evacuate half the settlers with their consent if they are offered compensation equivalent to up to 300 percent of the value of their property. 

but also the public is split

between people with a neo-Zionist outlook who emphasize a nationalist-religious agenda and a moderate Zionist majority that focuses on the land inside the Green Line and promotes a social agenda.  Therefore, the right is advancing its agenda unhindered, the researchers say...the occupation remains on the margins of the[centrists'] political concerns.

I think that's good news.

^

Judaism: 'Family and Food' and 'Chutzpah'

Who said:-

'I never had the chutzpah to just come to LA and make it. I didn’t have that confidence. I’m always surprised when I get a job. I never saw this in my horizon.'

Recent convert to Judaism, Isla Fisher, who also:

even touches on the subject of her marriage, revealing converting to Judaism was a natural step, saying: 'It takes a couple of years of studying. I’ve always been really into family and food, so culturally it was the right fit for me.'

^

Hiking Time Has Come

An upcoming hike, from Qiryat Netafim across from Revava north to Nofim nearYakir

and visiting some Second Temple grave caves:

Eretz-Yisrael.

Jewish Eretz-Yisrael.

^

Israel's Stake in the US Presidential Elections

• The threat and consequences of a nuclear Iran  
• Nuclear proliferation across the Arab Middle East 
• The ongoing threat of Al-Qaeda and radical Islam
• The Palestinian resistance to unconditional peace talks 
• Turmoil in Syria and possible radical Islamic takeover in Damascus
• The Hezbollah takeover of Lebanon and terror attacks around the world
• The Hamas missile threat to Israeli civilians
• The takeover of Egypt by the Muslim Brotherhood 
• The resistance to democratic reforms in the Persian Gulf
• The potential for radical threats emanating from new regimes in Tunisia and Libya
• The possibility of the ouster of the pro-Western king of Jordan
• The fracturing of Iraq and return to civil war 

From AICE.

^

Gideon? Gideon Levy Who?

[Gideon] Levy has relinquished his journalist credentials

Former Ha'aretz editor, Hanoch Mamari

^

From Yisrael Beiteinu's Video Clip

The clip shows what the party has acheived, what it has actually done, claimed to have done, to be fair.

And then they announce what they didn't do:

"We didn't apologize"

"We didn't fold under - the construction freeze"

^

Do Fascism and the Left Go Together?

Peter Beinart and friends including the New Israel Fund, Haaretz, etc. have been leading a charge of "Israel's democracy is under threat" and "Israel is going fascist".

Hey guys, there is nothing like this in Israel:

a)

SHOUTING "Russia for the Russians", "long live Breivik" and anti-immigrant slogans, thousands of ultra-nationalists have marched along the embankment of the Moskva River through the heart of the capital in an extraordinary attempt to establish their credentials as an opposition force.
It was a gathering of tribes - skinheads, soccer hooligans throwing smoke bombs, elderly men in Cossack costume, tattooed ex-soldiers, a dark collection of masked hoodies - that sent Moscow's immigrant population scuttling for cover...
The crowd, some with skulls emblazoned on their leather jackets, others with the neo-Nazi code number 88 and yet others holding aloft religious icons, lapped it up. "Putin is drinking the blood of our children" came one call. "Russia without a leader is like a Jew without the Talmud," came another.

b) 

Dressed in black shirts with faces hidden by helmets, ten men on motorbikes came to find him on a Saturday, after darkness fell. Finding the door bolted at his home in a pot-holed Athens side street, they smashed the windows, broke in and trashed the place. Then, their dirty work done, the neo-Nazi gang roared away into the hot evening. It had taken less than a minute for them to sound an ugly warning that foreigners were not welcome in Greece...so dangerous are the streets for foreigners that the U.S. State Department has sent out a warning to dark-skinned American visitors that they must be careful of their safety when they leave their hotels.
A shocking internet video shows leaders of the anti-immigrant Far-Right Golden Dawn party — which has 18 MPs — marching into an ethnic street market at Rafina, an hour’s drive from Athens, destroying the stalls with wooden clubs and scattering the merchandise to the ground.

And here on Italy, france, Hungary and more.

And you dare compare these developments to Israel?

To Lieberman, to Netanyahu?

^

Police Claim: Wooden Temple Mount Beams Moved

In a follow-up to my post on the burning of wooden beams, some almost 3000 years old, on the Temple Mount, the police now claim they were moved to a safe location (in Hebrew):

ממשטרת ירושלים ומרשות העתיקות נמסר כי במקום הובערה אש לשריפת פסולת באופן מבוקר, וכי במקביל - ללא כל קשר, הועברו היום קורות העץ העתיקות בשלמותן לאתר אחר, והן מוגנות ומאובטחות על-ידי השוטרים במקום

and under police supervision.

Can we believe them?
---------------------------------------

UPDATE

Questions for the police and the Israel Antiquities Authority:

1.  Were indeed the wooden beams removed and are they under the care/supervision of Israel?

2.  Were any official Israeli authorities present at the burning of the wood and can confirm or deny that some wooden beams were damaged?

3.  Were exactly are they now located?

4.  Will they be made available, since they are antiques and should be state property, for public viewing?

5.  If some were damaged, will the guilty be arrested and prosecuted?




^

.

Hankey, Hogarth and the 'Arab People of Palestine'

I didn't say this:

At the time of the Hogarth negotiations, the Arab people of Palestine were a backward, primitive sort of people without political consciousness.

Those words were spoken at the meeting of the League of Nations Mandates Commission, Friday, June 16th, 1939, at 10.30 a.m.

They are Lord Hankey's words.  

He was Secretary of the Imperial War Cabinet 1916-1918 and then Secretary to the Cabinet for the next nineteen years.

As for that Hogarth Message:

The following are the terms of the message which [British] Commander Hogarth was instructed to deliver to King Husain when he visited Jedda in January, 1918:

"(1) The Entente Powers are determined that the Arab race shall be given full opportunity of once again forming a nation in the world. This can only be achieved by the Arabs themselves uniting, and Great Britain and her Allies will pursue a policy with this ultimate unity in view.

"(2) So far as Palestine is concerned we are determined that no people shall be subject to another, but

        (a) In view of the fact that there are in Palestine shrines, Wakfs and Holy places, sacred in some cases to Moslems alone, to Jews alone, to Christians alone, and in others to two or all three, and inasmuch as these places are of interest to vast masses of people outside Palestine and Arabia, there must be a special regime to deal with these places approved of-by the world.

        (b) As regards the Mosque of Omar it shall be considered as a Moslem concern alone and shall not be subjected directly or indirectly to any non-Moslem authority.

"(3) Since the Jewish opinion of the world is in favour of a return of Jews to Palestine and inasmuch as this opinion must remain a constant factor, and further as His Majesty's Government view with favour the realisation of this aspiration, His Majesty's Government are determined that in so far as is compatible with the freedom of the existing population both economic and political, no obstacle should be put in the way of the realisation of this ideal.

In this connexion the friendship of world Jewry to the Arab cause is equivalent to support in all States where Jews have a political influence. The leaders of the movement are determined to bring about the success of Zionism by friendship and co-operation with the Arabs, and such an offer is not one to be lightly thrown aside.

And since we're in a historical 'mood', here is Lord Samuel suggesting an alternative solution back on May 23, 1939:

I see that four surviving members of the Peel Commission have written a letter in which they advocate again the federal solution, but they use the federal solution on this occasion in a wider sense as involving a possible union of Palestine with neighbouring Arab States. That is a different matter. I have myself advocated that in this House and elsewhere on various occasions. I think it is highly desirable that the venue should be changed, that the whole conception should be altered, and that could be done if Palestine were not considered merely as a small State by itself but as a member of a possible confederation of States which would include not only Trans-Jordan and Syria, but also some of the remoter Arab Principalities. If that were done then the whole question would wear a different aspect, because, if Arab federation came into being, there would not be the same fear and resentment felt at a great increase of the Jewish population in Palestine West of the Jordan. On the contrary, it might be welcomed as a most useful economic and financial element in the whole of the Federation and might possibly tend to bring about that co-operation between the Jews and Arabs which led to the glories of Islam in the days of their illustrious Empire.

But if this is to come about, if there it to be an interim period pending a development of that kind, or pending a change of atmosphere, it is absolutely indispensable that both sides, for the sake of peace, should consent to some modification of their full demands. Both sides must be pressed to make some sacrifice, and on the Jewish side the sacrifice could only be consent to a limitation of immigration, not only on economic grounds, but also definitely and avowedly on political grounds, in order to gain peace and in order to secure a time for passions to quieten down and for co-operation to grow.

Isn't that the Medad Fraction Principle?

The Medad Fraction Principle: That in order to divide something, sometimes you need to enlarge it first.

The one that asserts that to enable an equitable solution to the conflict over the Jewish National Home in the Land of Israel, the territory involved is too small and the area which includes currently the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan must be involved.

There is not enough room between the sea and the river for both the Jews and a fictitious "Palestinian people".

  ^

Mel Gibson Anti-Semitic? Madeline: No

Announced:

Mel Gibson['s] former co-star Madeleine Stowe...still considers Gibson a friend and praised the humanitarian work that he has done..."He has been a very good friend to me," Stowe says..."He's very tortured by what's going on. I do not believe that he's an anti-Semite in my heart of hearts. I think that he's a very complex, deep individual."

Okay, is Stowe Jewish?

Her mother, Mireya (née Mora Steinvorth), had come from a prominent family in Costa Rica. Her father, Robert Stowe, was a civil engineer from a "poor Oregon family".  One of Stowe's maternal great-great-grandfathers, politician José Joaquín Mora Porras, was a younger brother of President Juan Rafael Mora Porras, who governed Costa Rica between 1849-1859. Another one of Stowe's maternal great-great-grandfathers was Bruno Carranza, President of Costa Rica in 1870, albeit briefly, as he resigned three months after taking power. His wife, Stowe's great-great-grandmother, Gerónima Montealegre, was the sister of President José María Montealegre Fernández, who governed Costa Rica from 1859-1863. One of Stowe's maternal great-grandfathers was a German immigrant to Costa Rica

She's such a Benben.

That's her husband who is Jewish.

^{^}

Academic Archaeological Sabotage at Silwan/Ir David

Received:

We are writing following the decision of the Archaeology Institute of the Tel-Aviv University (TAU) to join the excavations of the Antiquities Authority and the settler organization Elad in the Palestinian village of Silwan in East Jerusalem.

As reported last week (October 25th) by Haaretz, "TAU to take part in East Jerusalem dig funded by pro-settlement group":

A right-wing organization active in settling Jews in controversial parts of East Jerusalem is providing the funds for excavations by Tel Aviv University archaeologists on a contentious site near the City of David…
This is the first time a university has decided to formally take part in such an excavation. The dig will be conducted by Tel Aviv University's Institute of Archaeology in coordination with the Israel Antiquities Authority, which will transfer funds from Elad to the university…
TAU archaeologist Prof. Rafael Greenberg … is more outspoken: "This is a clear politicization of research. Whoever is familiar with the area is aware that all the diggings are annexed to Elad, supervised by Elad, and separate from the site of the City of David. In practice, the project is to become part of Elad's settlement drive."

In the past, you have expressed support for our demand that excavations in ancient Jerusalem be removed from Elad's control. We now ask that you express your opposition to the university's plan by directly writing to the people who will make the decision. Acting swiftly may prevent the excavations from taking place:
Prof. Aron Shai, Rector - aashai@post.tau.ac.il
Prof. Eyal Zisser, Dean of Humanities - DeanH@tauex.tau.ac.il
Prof. Oded Lipschits, Director, Institute of Archaeology - lipschit@post.tau.a

In order to help us in coordinating efforts to prevent the excavation in Silwan, we would be grateful if you can send us a copy of your letter to Emek Shaveh at info@alt-arch.org.

Additional information on Silwan, archaeology and settlements can be found in Emek Shave's report, "Archaelogy in the Shadow of the Conflict" and Ir Amim's report, "Shady Dealings in Silwan".

Sincerely,
Yonathan Mizrahi,
Emek Shaveh Organization
info@alt-arch.org

Feel free to use the addresses to express support for the dig as planned.

^

Who Kicked the British Out of Mandate Palestine?

Nabil Sha'ath:

It was not the Palestinians who blew up the King David Hotel, who blew up the British Embassy in Rome, who tried to assassinate Ernest Bevin, Britain’s foreign secretary, and who succeeded in assassinating Lord Moyne, British minister of state in the Middle East. That was the Irgun, an ideological Right-wing group – and the predecessor to Israel’s ruling Likud Party...When Britain decided to relinquish Palestine to the UN in 1947, she was well aware that the Zionist movement was well established and equipped,

That settles it, yes?

_____________

UPDATE

After a night's sleep, I realized how naughty Al-Sha'ath was for he avoided the anti-British terror, not only against the Jewish civilian population from 1920 on, but the attacks on British administration officials, including assassinations, and on troops and police by simply writing

Britain repressed Palestinian nationalism, which was exemplified by its crushing of the Arab revolt of 1936-1939

A taste from a report to the Mandates Commission of the League of Nations:

M. RAPPARD commended the painstaking chronological account given in the report of the disturbed situation during 1938. But he was more interested still in what was not expounded in the report. He would be grateful to be informed on such more general topics as the strategy, technical equipment, state of mind, organisation and composition of the Arab rebel bands. Could the accredited representative not give the Commission a fuller explanation of the position in those respects?

Mr. KIRKBRIDE explained that, according to the information in the possession of the authorities, the country was divided up into areas under commanders who, in turn, had under
their orders sub-commanders with gangs of twelve to twenty-five men. The co-ordination of activities in an area was usually good, from the rebel point of view, but the co-ordination
between one area commander and another was much less perfect. There had been several commanders-in-chief who claimed to be in charge of rebel activities all over Palestine, but
each area commander had decided for himself which chief he would obey. Over and above the field organisation in Palestine itself thus outlined, there was a higher organisation, the Committee for the Defence of Palestine, which had its headquarters in Damascus and from which the various leaders derived their authority.

In 1937, the majority of the members of the armed bands were Arabs from neighbouring countries who had been recruited and despatched to Palestine. In 1938, however, 99% of the rebels were Palestine villagers recruited by the sub-commanders from villages in the area under their command. There might be a few individuals who, as Mlle. Dannevig had suggested, were reluctant recruits, but, as the resistance offered to Government troops showed, most of the members of the bands were believers in their cause.

The position as regards equipment and arms was that large quantities of these must have been accumulated secretly before the troubles began. Since that date, there had also been a traffic in contraband arms over the frontier against which all possible measures had and were being taken. At the Commission's last session 2/ he had said that most of the arms and ammunition used by the rebels were of war-time date and pattern. That statement was still true, though small quantities of more modern types of ammunition had been found recently.

As they enjoyed such widespread public support, the armed bands could dispense with large financial resources; funds were, however, received from Damascus and contributions were levied locally, mainly from the inhabitants of towns who took a less active part in the fighting.

^

Fayyad Didn't Forget His Right Hand; He Just Broke It

Reported:-

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad fractured his right hand on Saturday after a fall in Ramallah, the PA health minister said.  Hani Abden told Ma'an that Fayyad tripped over while carrying out work in Ramallah and was taken to hospital where doctors found he had broken a bone in his right hand.

After a medical examination, his hand was placed in a cast and he was released from hospital.

Better than losing his head:-

Fatah opposes Prime Minister Salam Fayyad's proposal to form a unity government now, but would consider it sometime after the UN bid, a party official said Friday.

As for Abbas, boy is he trouble.


^

The Burning of Historic Wooden Temple Mount Supports

Here are what appear to be the 2000-year old wooden beams stored in the Golden Gate courtyard inside the Temple Mount:

And, two years ago, he forsaw it:

The Temple Mount is a treasure trove of Jerusalem's history. But some of that history may be disappearing.

"It's a crime, a crime against science and maybe a crime against humanity, but I believe it's a crime to destroy something like this," archaeologist Peretz Reuven said.

Reuven is an archaeologist and an expert on the wooden beams of ancient Jerusalem. He's studied, photographed, and documented many of these ancient beams.

"It's so rare that beams in the Middle East survive so many years. In places like Jerusalem they are very, very rare," Reuven saud. "At least two of them gave fantastic dating. They gave dating of around the 10 Century B.C."

This means some of these wooden beams date back 3,000 years, to the time of King Solomon and others to the Roman or Byzantine periods.

Some are cedars from Lebanon, others are cypress or oak. Many have distinctive carvings. Some have questioned how these can survive so long.

"If they are not outside in the rain and the sun, they could survive for thousands of years, if it's in a building," Reuven said. "So we believe that those beams have been removed and reused from one building to another building."

But Reuven fears many of the beams he's documented, not those already in museums, have been discarded or even destroyed. He says he cannot find them any more on the Temple Mount.

CBN News saw evidence of workmen burning wood on the Temple Mount. We contacted the Islamic authorities on the Temple Mount about the burning. A spokesman denied any burning was taking place. Instead, he said any burning would be dangerous on the Temple Mount.

But Reuven fears the wooden beams he's documented, beams that span Jerusalem's history, may have literally gone up in smoke.

Here:

Analysis of the wooden beams and panels removed from the mosque during renovations in the 1930s shows they are made from Cedar of Lebanon and cypress. Radiocarbon dating indicates a large range of ages, some as old as 9th-century BCE, showing that some of the wood had previously been used in older buildings

From: N. Liphschitz, G. Biger, G. Bonani and W. Wolfli,

Comparative Dating Methods: Botanical Identification

and ¹⁴C Dating of Carved Panels and Beams

from the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem,

Journal of Archaeological Science,

(1997) 24, 1045–1050

An other dating.

____________________

UPDATE here.


  ^

A Red-faced Red Cross

There is an oped in Haaretz (where else?) by the head of the ICRC delegation in Israel arguing

...contrary to what is claimed in the Levy report, it is manifestly clear that the West Bank is occupied by Israel...Furthermore, concerning the settlements in the West Bank, it has to be emphasized that Article 49 (6 ) of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits a state from transferring parts of its own civilian population to territory it occupies, does not merely prohibit the occupying state from forcefully transferring parts of its population; it also prohibits any action by the occupier which facilitates such transfer.  The ICRC commentary on the Fourth Geneva Convention makes clear that Article 49 (6 ), like the convention as a whole, aims to protect the local population in the occupied territory and not the population of the occupying state. Furthermore, international humanitarian law prohibits any action by an occupying power aimed at altering the intrinsic characteristics of the occupied territory, including any measures that affect its demographic, cultural or social composition.

My comment left there:

This is a stupid article.  Of course a territory can be occupied, but legally or illegally is the question.  I am at the present occupying the chair I am seated in.  So what?  What Schaerer is trying to prove, that Israel is engaged in "illegality", is a flop.  Without referring to the history of the claims to sovereignty, one would never know that what happened in 1939, i.e., the illegal move by Gt. Britian to alter the terms of the Mandate by the League of Nations, followed by the Arab rejection of Partition, to the annexation of Judea & Samaria by Jordan, the ongoing terror since 1947 and the threat of war in 1967, which all lead to a legal justification for Israel to occupy Judea and Samaria, to facilitated "close Jewish settlement" therein, including the use of "stae and waste lands".  There is no crime of "settlement" involved and the defensive war Israel was required to wage gives Israel all rights to be in the area.  The throw-in of "transferring" is ridiculous as Jews lived in the areas of Judea, Samaria and Gaza for centuries prior to 1947-49 and it was only because of a policy of ethnic cleansing practiced by Arabs during the Mandate and the War of Independence - Schaerer knows of those illegal  acts, does he not? - that Jews were not there in 1967.

We Jews are returning, not transferring oursleves or being transferred.

 

I think the Red Cross should be red-faced after this travesty of law and history.

^

Can You Tell the Difference?

.

One from Carpathia, the other from London.




















 And I found this:

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Can One Bicycle Around Shiloh?

Twenty-two kilometers of bicycling around Shiloh and Eli, filmed by Ami Rosolio:

Enjoy the views.

^

Low-Intensity Conflict Report #53, November 2, 2012

Low-Intensity Conflict Report #53, November 2, 2012


These reports are translated and publicized by Yehudit Tayar for 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.

We, the volunteers of Hatzalah Yehudah and Shomron go out to rescue anyone who needs our emergency medical assistance; including civilians, military and Arabs also those within the PA territories. (with IDF presence) To us a life is precious and we go out at risk leaving home and family or stopping on the road to rescue anyone in need.


November 1, 2012

IDF reports: Israeli vehicles attacked by Arabs with rocks near Betar Illit by Husan.


October 31, 2012

Gaza:

During the night rocket fire from Gaza into communities in the Eshkol Region by miracle no injuries.

Arabs attacked Israeli truck with rocks near Abud. IDF investigating .

Israeli bus attacked by Arabs with rocks near El Fuar south-west of Hevron causing damage.

Turmus Aya north-east of Ramallah in the Benjamin Region Israeli cars attacked by Arabs with rocks causing damage.

Husan Bypass near Betar Illit, Israeli vehicles attacked by Arabs with rocks causing damage.

Benjamin Region: Molotov cocktail attacks reported between Nili and Na'aleh.  IDF investigating.

October 30, 2012

Israeli school bus with youth aboard was attacked between Kiryat Arba and Hevron by Arabs with rocks.

Jerusalem:

2 Young girl tourists aged 18 were injured from rocks thrown on the bus ( Bus #99) they traveled in near the Dung Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem. They were evacuated to Sha'are Zedek Hospital for treatment.


October 29, 2012

Gaza:

Since yesterday over 20 rocket attacks from Gaza towards Israel.  Areas under attack include the Ashkelon Region, Sderot Region, Be'er sheva Region, Eshkol Region.  Thousands of innocent Israeli citizens are under constant threat from the terrorist cells in Gaza.

In response to the continued rocket attacks from Gaza IAF carried out attacks against terrorist positions in the Strip.

Arabs attacked Israeli vehicles with rocks near El Fuar in the Southern Hevron Hills causing damage.

Arabs attacked Israeli vehicles with rocks near Ma'aleh Shomron in the region of Azun causing injuries to one of the Israelis.  An IDF ambulance treated him for his injuries.


October 28, 2012

Benjamin Region:

Highway 443 near Bir Nabalah Arabs attack Israeli vehicles with rocks.  Border policemen who responded to the attacks arrested 2 of the Arab attackers during the massive rock throwing.

IDF spokesman: Arabs attack Israeli bus near Ain Yibror north-east of Ramallah causing damage.

^

What's Wrong with this Belly Dancer?

Dina, from this clip:

She's a bit skimpy:

More than a bit revealing:

And apparently no underwear:

But as EoZ informed us, this

belly dancer stirred a wave of anger among Shiites in Egypt as she appeared in an Egyptian movie raving to a song praising Fatima, the daughter of Prophet Muhammad...[and she was] condemned...for her performance in the film “Abdo Mouta” [considered] to be offensive and highly disrespectful to the People of the House (Ahl al-Bayt), the family of Prophet Muhammad, particularly important to Shia Muslims.

And now, we learn

The Culture Ministry confirmed Thursday that it has censored a song in the popular new film “Abdu Mouta” after Islamist groups filed lawsuits against its producer, claiming the song insulted Islam.

The song?




________

On Dina.

And recently:

Egyptian belly dancer Dina was left with egg on her face this week after she was turned away from the star studded wedding of soccer player Yasser Hosni. The controversial star had been offered 20,000 Egyptian pounds [about $3300] to perform at the wedding, but when she arrived at the venue on the big day the father of the groom stepped in and turned her away. He is reported to have told a bewildered Dina: “My son’s wedding will not have any ridiculous dancing, for it is a sin and I and many of my guests are members of the Muslim Brotherhood.” Never one to back down from a fight, the feisty dancer demanded full payment.

Unsurprisingly, Yasser was unwilling to foot the whole bill for Dina's non-performance, but he did agree to give her half the amount - not bad for a day of no work!

and

She went on to say that the time has not yet come for her to wear the Islamic headdress or hijab, even though she strongly believes its part of her Islamic faith

^

Churchill and the Jews

On Winston Churchill and the Jews:

...“His attitude towards the Jews was very complicated,” says Eli Shaltiel, a senior fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute. “The Jewish state was a way of solving the Jewish problem… Once they had a state of their own, it would serve their very uniqueness. They would be normal like any other nation.”

The question of Auschwitz concentration camp, where thousands were killed daily, also remains a bone of contention. Critics say he put Allied lives before Jewish ones by failing to bomb it in 1944. Although historians concede Churchill did give the order for an attack, he did not make it a priority.

Edward Luttwak, a Washington-based scholar writing a book about Churchill, is even more uncomplimentary. Even as the full horrors of the extermination camp became more widely known, , he claims, Churchill willfully ignored the plight of Hungarian Jews.

He points to events in early 1944, when Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary all ceased to cooperate with Nazi Germany in deporting their Jewry, but Britain continued to enforce rigorously stiff immigration quotas to Palestine to appease the Arabs during a time of war. He claims they denied many European Jews safe passage by either declining or issuing out-of-date visa documents.

“The Romanians survived, the Bulgarians survived, the Hungarians did not. That’s on Churchill’s conscience,” says Mr Luttwak. “In 1944, Churchill, lifelong friend of the Jews, became Hitler’s remaining Holocaust ally.”

They left out is unwillingness to authorize, until 1944, a Jewish Brigade despite the service of the Jewish Legion in WW I.

...Weizmann sought to establish an identifiably Jewish fighting formation (under a Jewish flag) under the auspices of the British Army. His request for a separate formation was rejected,..After much hesitation, on July 3, 1944, the British government consented to the establishment of a Jewish Brigade...

^

God's Got Mail

Photo credit: Lazar Simeonov /Al Jazeera

^

Voting in the US Elections

I'm in Eetta Prince-Gibson's story on Americans voting in Israel in the US elections:

Yisrael Medad, a resident of the West Bank settlement of Shiloh and director of information resources at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center, cast his vote in October. Medad, 66 years old, came to Israel 42 years ago from New York. “I am an American citizen residing in YESHA,” he told me, using the Hebrew acronym for Judea and Samaria. “I was born and educated in America, and I believe that America is the flagship of democracy, liberalism, and human rights. So, Americans should be supporting my right, as a Jew, to live here in the land of my ancestors. I believe that Romney upholds these values.”

And so is my wife who holds a different opinion on voting:

Not everyone agrees. Even though Batya Medad thinks Obama is “terrible for the entire free world,” unlike her husband, Romney-voter Yisrael, Batya isn’t voting. “I didn’t leave America in anger, but growing up, it was always clear to me that America was not a home for Jews, and I am first and foremost a Jew,” she said. “Americans living in America should make their decisions for their own sake, not for ours.”

But since Americans, through voting for their elected representatives on the local, state and federal levels, indeed do influence Israel, its diplomatic standing, its economy, its security and, through American history and the sympathy and identity of Presidents, Senators and Congressmen for the idea of the Jewish national home, I think that voting, in principle and utlilitarian-wise, is correct.

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The Goats are Gone

A resident of Tapuach, whose daughter was married to Binyamin Kahane and they both were killed in a shooting attack on Highway 60, has had his herd of 400 (or 350) goats stolen:

A herd of about 400 goats was stolen, [this] Friday morning from the Michmash side of Giv'at Hayekev [the Psagot winery locagtion and the new Migron site]...Police and military personnel, including trackers were summoned to the scene to start looking for the thieves. Security sources said they had evidence the goats were loaded onto tractor trailers. While security forces are checking Bedouin camps near the Palestinian Authority town of Michmas, they believe that the rustlers were not from the area.

I understand the owner, some 70 years old, was nearby, asleep in his truck.

It's the Avraham Herzlich family.  The financial damage is around and half-million NIS.

Anyone who passed by the area at around 3:30 AM is asked to call 0577722722 if they saw anything that could be connected to the rustling.

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Some of My Good Friends are Christians...

And because so, I suggest you attend this event:-

The Liaison Committee – a joint forum of B’nai B’rith World Center – Jerusalem and the Ecumenical Theological Research Fraternity in Israel together with Menachem Begin Heritage Center – will convene on November 8 a symposium entitled “The Present and Future of Christians in the Middle East”. The symposium will take place at Menachem Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem at 20:30 (light refreshments at 20:00).

Thursday, November 8, 2012, 8:30 PM

Menachem Begin Heritage Center

8 Nahon Street

Jerusalem, Israel

The symposium takes place as ancient Christians Communities in Iraq, Egypt, Lebanon, Pakistan and elsewhere in the region face persecution and the prospect of disappearance in some of these countries and the implications of this for the State of Israel.

Speakers at the symposium:

> Raymond Ibrahim, Associate Fellow, Middle East Forum and Shillman Fellow, David Horowitz Freedom Center (USA);
> Juliana Taimoorazy, Founder and President, Iraqi Christian Relief Council (USA); and
> Dr. Mordechai Kedar, Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, Bar Ilan University.

Dr. Mordechai Nisan from the Hebrew University will chair the symposium.

Greetings will be delivered by: Herzl Makov, Director, Menachem Begin Heritage Center; Alan Schneider, Director, B’nai B’rith World Center and Rev. Dr. Petra Heldt, Director, The Ecumenical Theological Research Fraternity in Israel. 

Raymond Ibrahim  is a Middle East and Islam specialist, A widely published author best known for The Al Qaeda Reader (Doubleday, 2007), he guest lectures at universities, including the National Defense Intelligence College, briefs governmental agencies, such as U.S. Strategic Command and the Defense Intelligence Agency. Born and raised in the U.S. by Egyptian parents born and raised in the Middle East—has provided him with equal fluency in English and Arabic.

Juliana Taimoorazy - An Assyrian Christian born in Iran. Requested religious asylum at the American Embassy in Germany after fleeing Iran. In the United States she obtained her graduate degree in Instructional Design and worked as a reporter at a local station in Chicago for many years. In addition to owning her own businesses, creating employment opportunities for Iraqi Christian refugees, she has worked since she was 19 years old to elevate the Assyrian Christian cause in the United States.

Dr. Mordechai Kedar - BA in Arabic and Political Science (1982) and a PhD in Arabic (1998) both from Bar-Ilan University, Israel. His areas of research include: Islam, Islamic movements, gender issues in Islam, Arabic mass media, popular culture in the Arab world, and state and society in the Arab world.

Dr. Mordechai Nisan - born in Montreal, earned his Ph.D. in Political Science from McGill University. After moving to Israel, he taught Middle East Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, while lecturing as well at other academic institutions in the country. He has specialized and written books on Israel, Lebanon, Islam, minority peoples in the Middle East and the Arab-Israeli Conflict.

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Where the Consul-General Goes

RAMALLAH, November 1, 2012 (WAFA)- American Consul General in Jerusalem Michael A. Ratney visited the Mahmoud Darwish Museum in Ramallah to honor the lasting legacy of the famed poet and his impact on Palestinian culture, said a press release by the American Consulate in Jerusalem on Thursday.

This visit also highlights the Consulate General’s support of art, literature, and creative expression in Palestinian society, said the release.

Mahmoud Darwish, born in 1941 and died in 2008, was a Palestinian poet and author who won numerous awards for his literary output and was regarded as the Palestinian national poet.

You remember Darwish?

He of the "and take your graves with you".   His poem "Passing Between passing Words", that even the NYTimes took note of.

Odd place to visit.



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Ever Seen "Judaizers"?

The people in these pictures are, according to this Arab news site, making efforts to desecrate and Judaize the Temple Mount compound, or what's known as Al-Aqsa:

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Fifteen Times More

I haven't the faintest idea how correct and reliable this is:

According to a new report, the European Union has increased its export of goods from the illegal Israeli settlement areas fifteen times more than they are from Palestinian territories. The report, which was drafted by a coalition of 22 NGO’s including the International Federation of Human Rights, found that the EU nations import more than $300 million of goods from the illegal Israeli settlement areas.

But I am laughing in any case.

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When A Black Man Uses the "N" Word, It's Okay

Reported:

The reverend who gave the benediction during President Barack Obama’s inauguration said America is “going to hell,” and white people may go with it.
Rev. Joseph Lowery, 91, made the comments at St. James Baptist Church in Forsyth, Ga., as part of a Southern Christian Leadership Conference tour to encourage African-Americans to vote for Obama, according to the Monroe County Reporter.
The paper reports that Lowery apparently told parishioners in the crowd that he is back to believing that all white people will not get into heaven because of what’s been happening during the campaign.
“I’m frightened by the level of hatred and bitterness coming out in this election,” Lowery said, according to the County Reporter.
Lowery blasted blacks for costing Obama the state of Georgia in the 2008 election because 390,000 African-Americans decided to stay home and not vote.

“I don’t know what kind of a n***** wouldn’t vote with a black man running,” Lowery extolled, according to the paper. “All that he did with the stimulus was genius. Nobody intelligent would risk this country with Romney.”
Lowery added that “America is going to hell in a hand basket.”

And this

 going to hell in a hand basket

reminds us all of my friend Ruthie Blum's book.

My review is here.

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The Turkish Zero

It's a beer.

Used to be bottled like this

And now, like this

 and this

a logo I saw used on a Gulf State TV show"

Efes is Hebrew for...zero.

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Do You Support 'Palestinian" Lesbians?

These

The most valuable lesson we Palestinian feminists can learn from the Islamist movement is that women’s issues, and gender issues more broadly, cannot be postponed or marginalized. They are at the core of the Palestinian struggle for liberation and justice. It is heartening to see a new generation of activists rejecting this paradigm and insisting on the indivisibility of the struggle for liberation. The lesbian group Aswat and the queer groups Al-Qaws and “Palestinian Queers for BDS [Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions]” offer new models for political work that do not believe in postponing issues relating to sexuality and gender for later time.

Page 11.

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When Adallah I Supported Territorial Excahnge

From "Fauzi al-Qawuqji and the Arab Liberation Army in the 1948 War toward the Attainment of King ‘Abdallah’s Political Ambitions in Palestine" by Ronen Yitzhak:-

When Britain decided to appoint ‘Abdallah ibn al-Hussein to be the emir of Transjordan during a meeting with Winston Churchill in Jerusalem in late March 1921, ‘Abdallah proposed annexing Palestine to Transjordan and establishing one united kingdom that would comprise Palestine and Transjordan. Churchill, who preferred direct British control over Palestine, rejected this proposal. Nevertheless, ‘Abdallah continued to try to realize his ambition, making efforts during the 1920s and 1930s to convince Zionists in Palestine to agree to his proposal of allowing Jewish autonomy in his kingdom. Despite his attempts, the Zionists refused his proposal because they wanted an independent state. However, in November 1947, some days before the United Nations’ partition resolution, King ‘Abdallah made a first step in realizing his ambition. He met in Naharayim with the deputy secretary to the Political Department of the Jewish Agency, Golda Myerson (Meir). After he spoke about his wish to make peace with the Jews, she agreed that forces under his control could conquer the Arab territories of Palestine on the condition that the Arab Legion would not fight against the Jews. This was not the first time both sides agreed to divide Palestine. Earlier, in August 1946, the Jewish Agency advised ‘Abdallah to annex the Arab territories of Palestine to Transjordan. ‘Abdallah was enthusiastic about this suggestion and claimed, “Division and exchange of territories is the real solution to the Palestinian question.” After ‘Abdallah received the Jewish agreement for his control over the Arab territories of Palestine, he began the next step: ensuring that the Arabs of Palestine would cooperate with the Arab Legion’s soldiers and with the Transjordanian government.

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Why The Left is Unliked

And the Left in Israel wonder why some people not only do not appreciate them, but don't really like them.

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If It Gets Too Hot, Cool Off

Yaakov Ahimeir on journalists-cum-politicians:-

Is there something particularly wrong with journalists crossing over to politics? Not at all. The openness of the big parties allows anyone to try their luck. The salary is good, there is guaranteed parking, and the ATM at the Knesset building works. Labor party leader Shelly Yachimovich, for example, crossed over with record speed: One day she was interviewing then-Labor leader Amir Peretz in the studio, the next day she was publicly falling into his lap. Many critics said that Yachimovich's last interview as a journalist was not hard hitting, but convenient for the person she was interviewing. She met the same person a short time later at the Labor party headquarters.
...A cooling-off period is required. It is unfathomable that for days, if not weeks, a journalist is in contact with a political party behind the scenes while continuing to act as a decent, unbiased journalist, without any conflict of interest. Let us at least present some decency: We need a cooling-off period rather than an overly quick skip from the news desk to the podium.
The cooling-off period is important to the media consumers no less, perhaps even more, than it is to the journalist. The captains of the media outlets — editors, news department heads, boards of directors — need to declare unequivocally: Before journalists make their first moves into the political arena, they must notify their employers, and if they plan to run, they must resign at once. Is that how the journalists who recently became politicians behaved? Very doubtful.
...The cooling-off period would benefit, first and foremost, the readers, viewers and listeners who are always quick to criticize the media, even if they are right sometimes. The cooling-off period would serve to diminish, even if it is by a tiny margin, the suspicious attitude reserved for media representatives. We need a cooling-off period for our customers and for ourselves, and only then will we journalists be able to run for office with a clean conscience and without any conflict of interest.

That makes sense.

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Sweden and...Meir Kahane

Spotted:-

Under a scheme organised by the local authorities in the town of Soderhamn and by Sweden's national employment office, anyone aged between 18 and 28 can volunteer to take a "Job Journey" to Oslo and attempt track down gainful employment. Those who sign up get a ticket to the Norwegian capital and are put up in an Oslo youth hostel for a month, with Soderhamn council picking up the £20 a night bill. The package also includes on-the-spot guidance on how to get a job in Sweden's northern neighbour.

"We had an unemployment rate of over 25 per cent, so we had to find solutions," Magus Nilsen, the man in charge of the project at Soderhamn council, told the Daily Telegraph. "Going to Norway to find work has always been quite popular with young people, but sometimes they want to go but don't know how to find a job or accommodation so we thought we'd give them a bit of help with both."
So far around 100 people have decided to leave Soderhamn, a town of 12,000, 250 kilometres due north of Stockholm, to try their luck in the bright lights of Oslo, and some, at least, have struck gold.

But isn't that similar, in principle, to what MK M. Kahane suggested:

Kahane proposed a $40,000 compensation plan for Arabs who would leave voluntarily, forcible expulsion "for those who don’t want to leave,"

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Flowing to Jordan

Reported:

Farouk Kaddoumi, a veteran PLO official, dropped a political bombshell Wednesday with a call for “returning” the West Bank to Jordan. Kaddoumi, who is based in Tunisia, said he supported the idea of a federation or confederation between the West Bank and Jordan. His remarks, which came during an interview with the London-based Al- Quds Al-Arabi newspaper, are the first of their kind to be voiced by a senior PLO figure in decades...He added, nevertheless, that the Palestinians should not drop their demand for a right to return to Israel proper. “We launched our revolution for all of Palestine, and that’s why we need to be very cautious,” Kaddoumi said. “We must safeguard our people’s right to return,” he stressed. “We must insist on the right of return for all refugees, because this is the minimum that we could accept.”

Well, isn't that an interesting statement.

A confederation has been an Israeli suggestion for decades and now they are finally getting around to discussing it.

But, if the "minimum" is swamping Israel with "refugees", that seems to be a reverse "Two Banks Has The Jordan" concept - Israel and Jordan disappear.

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Pics from the "Broken Mirrors" Conference

My remarks here.

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