Likud Candidates at Ariel University

Via INN's FB:-

L-R:

Yuli Edelshtein, ?, Limor Livnat, Benjamin Netanyahu, Zev Chever, Gershon Mesika, Ze'ev Elkin, Danny Danon and Yossi Dagan.




and at the Tura Winery at Rechalim, with Erez Ben-Saadon:

^

The Rising Waters of Nahal Shiloh

Near Shiloh Junction at Highway #60 Via Ella Koblentz:-

A new one:

 

^

Jabotinsky, Marxism and Nationalism - and Feminism

"Iyunim" is a publication of BGU.
 

In its 22 volume of history of Israel and Zionism, I found:

The Polemics Regarding the ‘Crisis of Marxism’ and the Formation of Jabotinsky’s Early Ideological Perceptions: 1898-1903 by Svetlana Natkovich


The abstract:

One of the important events in the intellectual life of Europe during the later years of the nineteenth century was the polemics regarding the ‘Crisis of Marxism’. Marxist scholars and politicians had to contend with critics who held Neo-Kantian views. The Neo-Kantians aspired to revive the moral-transcendental conflicts of the free individual at the center of the political discourse, and to renounce the positivistic ethics that in their opinion was based on social utilitarianism. A third force entered the public arena at the time of the polemics. The non-conformists
George Sorel and Benedetto Croce accepted the Neo-Kantian criticism of the Marxist system and offered a revision of their own*. However, instead of the categories of reason, social contract, and natural rights applied by Neo-Kantian intellectuals, they turned to concepts such as impulse, instinct, and unconscious.

Jabotinsky’s formative years as a young man were spent in one of the centers of the ongoing polemics, as a student at the University of Rome from 1898 to 1901. 

As I claim in the article, Jabotinsky’s early views were influenced by Croce and Sorel, and their circles were responsible, to some extent, for Jabotinsky’s adherence to a nationalist view. In order to characterize the formation of Jabotinsky’s political and aesthetic thinking, I focus on an analysis of the political and ideological milieu, the source for his basic assumptions on social issues, during his formative years as a student, journalist, and novice writer.

______________

*  For example this:

Croce wrote the following:

"This current has been principally determined by the necessity in which Marx and Engels found themselves, before the various strains of socialist Utopians, of stating that the so-called social question is not a moral question (i. e., according to how it should be interpreted, this question will not be solved by preachings or by moral means), as well as by their severe criticism of class hypocrisy and ideology. It has also been nurtured, as far as I can see, by the Hegelian origin of the thoughts of Marx and Engels for it is known that in Hegelian philosophy ethics loses the rigidity which Kant gave it and which Herbart was later to lend support to. And, finally, the term "materialism" does not surrender in this connection a shred of efficacy, seeing that the mere term brings immediately to mind the full implications of what is meant by "interest" and "pleasure." But it is evident that the ideality and absoluteness of ethics, in the philosophical sense of such words, are necessary assumptions of socialism. Isn't the interest that drives us to create the concept of surplus value a moral or social interest, or whatever term might be used for defining it? In the sphere of pure economic science can one speak of the theory of surplus value? Doesn't the proletariat sell its productive capacity for what it's worth, given its situation in present day society? And, without this moral assumption, how can the tone of violent indignation and bitter sarcasm, along with Marx's political actions, contained in every page of Das Kapital, be accounted for?" (Materialismo Storico ed Economia Marxistica).

On Sorel.
__________________

And as for feminism, there is this article in the volume:

Fruitless Fighting: Women’s Struggle to Enlist the ‘Jewish Legion’ in 1918 by Meir Chazan

The article deals with the Jewish women’s struggle to volunteer for the British army at the end of World War I in 1918. The leader of the women volunteers’ attempt was Rachel Yanait, ‘Ha-Shomer’ committee member and central political activist in the ‘Poalei Zion’ party. Two main political figures within the Zionist
arena, Chaim Weizmann and Zeev Jabotinsky, tried in different ways to assist the fulfillment of the women’s goal to join Jewish men volunteers who were allowed to actively contribute to conquering the Ottoman Empire and liberating Palestine.

Beyond the gender aspects of the women’s struggle at the time, the women’s wish to actively join the British army was mixed with several other topics within the Zionist agenda in 1918: the necessity of using power in achieving the Zionist targets and using the period of regime change in order to elaborate the Jewish control over lands throughout the country. The British did not permit the women to fulfill their wish, and enabled only a few of them to participate in medical tasks within their armed forces. Even though the women failed in their struggle, it was a milestone in women’s attempts from the ‘Ha-Shomer’ days through the Mandatory period to join defense activities and assist the Zionist efforts to gain sovereignty over Palestine.

^

And On The Football Field

My son, Gani, blocks a punt attempted from the end zone, collected it and scored a touchdown in a game on December 21, 2012, his Jerusalem Lions vs. Northern Stars:

Photo credit: Neria Granevich

Lions won 48-14.

More of #31 in action:

Last week's came against the Rechovot Silverbacks in Ramleh was won by the Lions 84-0.

^

Haaretz Slammed By Former Editor

At Maariv's NRG site, although they appeared at the Perspectiva site originally:-

Editor of Ha'aretz former Haaretz lost his public standing

Hanoch Marmari, the legendary editor of Ha'aretz newspaper, accuses the paper of slipping off to the fringes and it thereby lost its position. 

..."One of my goals as editor, was to leave the newspaper on the playing field and not way out on the sidelines. Now Haaretz is not on the field, and not a player but rather than an observer from the balcony and when you're looking from afar you do not necessarily better see the moves in a complex game...The newspaper has always been on the left, but still maintained a regular dialogue with heads of state, even if at times was very critical dialogue. This no longer exists today. "..."One of the most important things required editor in chief, is to keep the paper in the proper directions, including to allow space for expression and diversity. This principle is not always preserved."...

_____________________

The CAMERA edition.

 
^

Yaron London on Netanyahu & the Security Services Directors

...when [Netanyahu] and his wife were interrogated in the Amedi-gifts affair, he would visit my home while his wife was being questioned and pour his heart out to me.

I got the impression that he was a vulnerable, decent, highly intelligent and educated man who was driven by a sense of mission, but also that while he was confident in his abilities, he did not have deep-rooted self-confidence and trained himself to play the role of a leader.
I am not in awe of him, nor do I discount him. My political views are vastly different from Netanyahu's, but self-righteousness and gossip anger me more than political views that are opposed to mine.
This is why I was so angry upon reading former Shin Bet director Yuval Diskin's description of a meeting at Mossad headquarters, during which crucial issues were discussed. The cigar smoking did not shock me, and a little sip, from my experience, can clarify things rather than blur them. A few examples came to mind: Winston Churchill led Great Britain in World War Two while smoking cigars and drinking cognac; Golda Meir smoked constantly, conducted crucial consultations in her humble kitchen, led a puritanical lifestyle and screwed us all during the Yom Kippur War. Moshe Dayan acted like a pirate and led the army to victory in two wars, but he failed in the Yom Kippur War, and not because he did not manage meetings well or drank and smoked cigars. He did not commit any of those sins. Political leaders without weaknesses do not exist, just as there are no senior civil servants who do not have any weaknesses.

And here is the proof of the latter group's weakness:

Yuval Diskin, Meir Dagan and to a lesser extent Uzi Arad are peeing out the window into the room they had exited a short while ago. For years they were privy to the most secret information and assisted the leaders in formulating the country's security policy. Now they claim they identified the distorted manner in which decisions were reached in that room, warn of the dangers of such conduct and criticize the leaders' moral corruption – but at the time they did not resign from their posts and did not warn us of the impending dangers.

Why? It is either because their careers were more important to them than warning the Israeli public, or they believed, in their arrogance, that they are irreplaceable.

Either that or they are not telling us the truth.

Source

^

Was The Ottoman Empire One of Decline?

I caught this from an academic article, "The Later Tanzimat and the Ottoman Legacy in the Near Eastern Successor States":-

The period of Ottoman decline (from approximately the late seventeenth- to the early nineteenth-century), the system of checks and balances was grossly undermined and arbitrary and despotic government prevailed both at the center and in the provinces. In the later Tanzimat period (1856–71), by contrast, the emphasis was placed on strong state organs and a powerful bureaucracy, armed with a new set of laws borrowed from western legal systems. The maintenance of law and order in the cities and towns was performed by an officer called a subashi, who was one of the kadi's prominent aides and who was “a legal police and a high security official with executive authority”. The kadi's deputies also came from the local 'ulama, whether in the principal court where he presided or in the neighborhood courts of big cities or in towns throughout the province.

But don't forget, the Ottoman Empire became an empire in 1453.

So, from 1453-1918 it existed while from "approximately the late seventeenth- to the early nineteenth-century it was in decline".  Which means out of 500 years existence, it was in decline some 300 years.

Not that good.

^

I was at the Arutz 7's Jerusalem Conference today.

The crowd listening to Naftali Bennett:-
 

Photo credits: YMedad

^

Low-Intensity Conflict Report # 64 - January 6, 2013

Just as I was about to post the new "Low-Intensity Conflict Report from Yehudit Taya (see below), this came in from the GSS (the Shabak):-

Terror Data and Trends > Reports > Monthly Summary – December 2012

Throughout December 2012 112 terror attacks were recorded, most (81) took place in the Judea and Samaria area, and some (30) in Jerusalem...The number of local terror attacks remains high: the Judea and Samaria area with 69 firebombs throwing and one stabbing attack; Jerusalem with 30 firebombs throwing and a run-over attack.

Amongst this month's casualties, three Israeli security officials were injured: two were stabbed in Samaria (December 3), one was run over by car in Jerusalem (December 23).

Data regarding terror attacks in December 2012
Following is a regional distribution of attacks:

one attack from the Gaza Strip (637 in November, 96 in October); 81 attacks in the Judea and Samaria (122 in November, 39 in October); 30 attacks in Jerusalem (44 in November, 31 in October).

Jerusalem and the Judea and Samaria area: Most attacks executed in December (98 out of 111) were in the form of firebombs (November: 156 out of 166, October: 68 out of 70).

Distribution of attacks according to regions and pattern profile:

Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem – 111 attacks: 6 IED; 3 grenade throwing; 2 small arms shooting; 1 stabbing;1 run over (in Jerusalem); 98 firebombs (29 in Jerusalem).

Compared to last month (November): 166 attacks: 2 stabbing (in Jerusalem); 2 IED; 3 small arms shooting; 1 grenade throwing; 2 object/ stone throwing; 156 firebombs (42 in Jerusalem).

And here is Yehudit Tayar' Low-Intensity Conflict Security Report #64, January 6, 2013

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.

January 5, 2013
A few dozen Arabs went in the afternoon hours to the vineyards of Aish Kodesh near Shilo in the Benjamin Region and caused damage to the vines.  Israeli youth injured in his head from the rocks thrown by the Arabs there, and he was evacuated to receive medical treatment.  The security advisor of the community was lightly injured as well from the attack.
Dozens of Israeli residents of Gush Etzion, Kiryat Arba and Hevron made security patrols on the highway in order support our soldiers to prevent further violent attacks and attempted murder of innocent Jews by the Arabs who continuously attack our vehicles causing damage, injuries and murders.

January 4, 2013
Benjamin Region:
Sinjal north-east of Ramallah Arabs attack Israeli vehicles causing damage to the windshield.
Highway 443 near Bet Horon Arabs attack Israeli vehicles causing damage and injury. I injured Israeli woman evacuated to Asaf harofeh Hospital.
Nabi Salah Border policeman  injured  in his jaw from rock attacks by Arabs near Neve Zuf. He was evacuated to Belllinson Hospital for medical treatment.
South of Ofra near Ain Yabrud Israeli bus attacked by Arabs with rocks causing damage.
Shomron:  2 Israeli injured from Arabs attacking with rocks near Chavat Gilad. The injured were given medical assistance on the spot and not evacuated.

January 3, 2013
Gush Etzion-Hevron Highway:
Near El Arub 7 Moltov cocktails thrown on IDF patrol causing injuries to one of the soldiers who was evacuated for medical treatment to Ain Karem Hospital in Jerusalem. IDF soldier suffered burns from the Molotov cocktail thrown on the force.
Near El Arub bus attacked with rocks b Arabs causing damage.
Tekoa near the Arab school Arabs attack Israeli vehicles with rocks.
Abud bypass north of Ramallah Israeli vehicles attacked by Arabs with rocks .
Massive violent attacks by Arabs against Israeli cars at Halhul near Hevron near to the place where Asher and Yonatan Palmer HY"D were murdered last year.  The attempts to murder Jews continue and escalate.

January 2, 2013
Atarot checkpoint Arab arrested with a 15 c.m. knife in his possession.  At first the Arab attempted to persuade the soldiers to let him pass and when the knife was revealed he admitted to planning a terror attack with the knife.  Investigation continues.
Near Har Gilo between the Tunnel Road security checkpost and Har Gilo Molotov cocktails thrown on highway.
Benjamin Region: Bus #148 attacked between Sin'jal (north-east of Ramallah) and Shilo Junction.
Near the British Police Junction Arabs attack Israeli vehicles with rocks.
Gush Etzion_Hevron Highway Arabs attack Israeli vehicles near El Arub.

January 1, 2013
Kever Rachel about 30 Arabs attacked the post with rocks and at least 5 Molotov cocktails.  They ignited a field from the flames inside of Arab occupied territory.
Arab terrorist arrested by joint IDF and Security Forces in Tamun.  Following the arrest violent demonstrations broke out by the local Arabs who were dispersed by IDF.
Gush Etzion-Hevron Highway:
Arabs attack Israeli vehicles near Bet Umar with rocks causing damage to windows.
Molotov cocktail thrown at Israeli vehicle between Karmei Zur and Bet Umar.
Benjamin Region: north of Ofra Arabs attacked Israeli bus with rocks near Silwaad.

December 31, 2012
Arabs attack IDF patrol near Al Fawwar, south-west of Hevron.
Benjamin Region:  Beetween Nili and Na'alin checkpost Arabs attacked Israeli vehicles with rocks.
Ma'aleh Shomron Arabs attack Israeli vehicles with rocks causing a road accident with no injuries.
Again Arab agitators climbed the Shkaidia Hill near Yitzhar and attacked with rocks.  IDF  forced the attackers to retreat towards the nearby village Urif.
Southern Hevron Hills, Kvasim Junction Israeli bus attacked with metal balls that were fired from a sling, the bus continued traveling until the entrance to Bet Haggai.  Following IDF investigation  in addition,10 metal fragments were found.  The bus had 10 hits from metal shrapnel, TG no injuries. Following IDF investigation into the grave incident 15 shells of a long range rifle were found at the scene of the attack on the bullet-proof bus.
IDF spokesman: 3 Molotov cocktails thrown on IDF post near Bet Umar on the Gush Etzion-Hevron Highway.
Gush Etzion-Hevron Highway near El Arub Ararbs attack Israeli bus with rocks causing damage.

You can't depend only on the Shabak report, nor the Israel Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center.

If You Want to Visit Me at Shiloh

My house has an arrow pointing at it:

Shiloh from the north.

^

Better A Bit Late Than Never

Arutz7/INN does Shiloh archaeology:--

A new archeological find at ancient Shilo fits in with the Biblical narrative regarding the war at Even Ha'ezer, and could confirm scholars' conjectures as to how Shilo was destroyed...The latest archeological find at the Shilo site – a broken vase and remains of ashes from a fire – indicate large scale destruction...Archeologists and scholars now have more evidence to back the assumption that after defeating the Israelites at Even Ha'ezer, the Philistines advanced upon Shilo and sacked it.

At this blog, on October 30, you already saw that photograph. 

As for the dating, check out this report, p. 266, paragraph beinning "Destruction 2: middle Iron I" and read

The richest Iron I pottery assemblage in the highlands of Cisjordan was unearthed in Stratum V at Shiloh (Bunimovitz and Finkelstein 1993). This settlement came to an end in an exceptionally heavy conflagration, which left destruction debris of over 1 m thick. This Shiloh V assemblage can be labelled middle Iron I (Finkelstein and Piasetzky 2006a), as it falls between the earliest post-Egyptian-domination Iron I pottery groups, and the terminal phase of the Iron I in the lowlands. Several samples of carbonized grain found in two silos which belong to this stratum provided a calibrated date of 1056–1008 BC (1081–1032 BC according to the Bayesian model). Albright (1929) affiliated this destruction layer with the aftermath of the Israelite defeat in the battle of Eben-ezer, related in 1 Samuel 4. Though the First Book of Samuel may preserve memories from the formative phase in the history of Ancient Israel (for instance, regarding the importance of Shiloh – a site which was not inhabited in the later days of the Iron Age when the biblical material was put in writing), there is no way to verify the historicity of the story of the battle of Eben-ezer...

That chronology fits Biblical chronology almost exactly.

As for a criticism of Finkelstein's dating, which doesn't fit the Biblical narrative, see Mazar, pgs, 21/23.

More, p. 46-47:

14C  Measurements
Shiloh V

The Iron I settlement at Shiloh – Stratum V – cameto an end in a violent conflagration that can beobserved throughout the site (Kjaer 1930;Finkelstein 1993). This destruction layer yieldedseveral organic samples. Large quantities of charredgrain were unearthed in two silos in Area D(Lederman and Finkelstein 1993, 48) and charredraisins and seeds were found in Area C (Kislev1993). In the early 1980s, these finds had beenstored in a laboratory at Bar Ilan University andwere not submitted to 14C measurement. With thegrowing interest in absolute dating of Iron I-IIAassemblages, several samples have recently beencleaned and sent for 14C dating.

All 14C dates for samples retrieved from StratumV at Shiloh are presented in Table 1. The first mea-surement of charred grain (Table 1: 1) was done ina conventional radiometric Liquid Scintillation Counting (LSC) method (Aitken 1990) at theWeizmann Institute of Science laboratory. Theother measurements (Table 1: 2–4) were analyzed inthe Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) system(Kutscera et al. 1999). They were prepared by theWeizmann laboratory and measured at the AMSfacility of the University of Arizona.  The dates inthe table are mean, averaged from a number of con-sistent measurements done on sub-samples. The uncertainties correspond to one standard deviation;the full probability distribution can be seen in Fig. 2.It is clear that the charred grain found in the twosilos in Area D (Table 1: 1–2) represents thedestruction date of the site in a margin of a fewyears. The charred raisins from Area C (Table 1: 3)were found in a group and therefore may also beevaluated in the same way. Yet, the fact that theywere found intact seems to indicate that they hadbeen stored as a dry commodity before beingcharred (Kislev 1993, 354–355); in other words,they do not necessarily represent the final days before the destruction. The seeds from Area C (Table 1: 4) come from flotation of debris above afloor in the pillared storage building; they could haveoriginated from bricks and therefore cannot be usedfor determining the destruction date (see Note 3).

The destruction date of Shiloh V can accordingly becalculated from the charred grain reported in Table1: 1–2. But since the dates yielded from the twograin samples and the raisins are consistent witheach other, we can also combine the items in Table1: 1–3.The uncalibrated date for the destruction, reported in conventional radiocarbon years, is 2873± 13BP. This date was obtained by a fit to aconstant (see Fig. 1), assuming (for the sake of cau-tion) that all these samples are contemporary, representing the destruction time. Using the 1998 calibration curve (Stuiver et al. 1998) by means of the 1999 OxCal v.3.3 computer program of Bronk Ramsey (1995) one gets a one standard deviation absolute date of 1050-1000 BCE (Table 1: 1–3, c=0.9), or 1050–975 (Table 1: 1–2, c2=0.2) for this destruction.

^

So, How Difficult Is It To Approve A Real Estate Plan?

Many often wonder why the communities in Judea and Samaria are always "in trouble" with zoning laws, property arrangements, surveyor reports, land usage alterations, etc.

Check out Kibbutz Neveh Yam:-

From a Haaretz story in its Weekend Supplement in its Magazine, p. 13 January 4, 2012.

Five years was "fast".

^

Round About the Temple Mount Gates

The monthly walkabout for the Hebrew calendar month of Shvat is this Thursday:

 

6:30 PM at the Western Wall Plaza congregation

7:00 PM beginning of walkabout

 

^

And Up in the Galilee

The effects of the rain today in the Arab villages up north:-

^

Temple Mount Trees Tumble

We didn't do it.  The wind did:-

Really we didn't knock them down.



P.S.  A Jewish protest at closure of Mount due to the falling trees.

P.P.S.   This

The Israeli occupation authorities’ diggings under and in the vicinity of the Aqsa Mosque are still ongoing, Abdulazeem Salhab, the chairman of the Islamic Waqf council in occupied Jerusalem, said....The Aqsa mosque is 14 centuries old and is in need of constant maintenance.  Salhab lashed out at the Israeli right-wing parties for inciting against the Aqsa mosque in their election campaigns.The Sheikh said that the Aqsa is daily desecrated in clear attempt to provoke Muslims in their creed.

See what I mean?


^

On International Law and Jewish Residence in Judea and Samaria

Responding to a post by Prof. Eugene Kotorovich in which he notes the irony of Mahmoud Abbas attempting to use Turkey as its partner in foing to the International Criminal Court on the issue of "settlements", writing

Turkey continues to occupy northern Cyprus, and is responsible for a massive settlement program there.

I’ve written before about “other countries’ settlements,” but one might think that an increasing discussion of Israel’s civilian communities in prosecutorial terms would increase the discusion of other (often more blatant) violations of the same international norm...If anyone should be loosing sleep over settlements suits in the ICC, it would be Turkey [which occupies part of Cyprus]...But a referral by Cyprus would not face the various thorny temporality and territoriality issues of a Palestinian complaint. Moreover, Cyprus is a particularly gross case of changing the demographics of occupied territory through settlement, with settlers now outnumbering protected persons n the territory.
Apart from the manifest hypocrisy, what should be disappointing for believers in international humanitarian law is the failure of anyone to call Abbas (or Erdogan) on it. I am not aware of any news, NGO, or governmental response pointing out the unseemliness of Abbas invoking the ICC from Ankara.

Dr. Kevin Jon Heller wrote, while disagreeing with Konorovitch's position, Heller nevertheless makes an important distinction:-

...The mere fact of settlement in occupied territory is not a war crime; the actus reus of the crime is “[t]he transfer, directly or indirectly, by the Occupying Power of parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.”  Article 8(2)(b)(viii) thus targets state officials whose actions facilitate the transfer of civilians into occupied territory; it does not target the settlers themselves...

I left this comment there in response to another commentator:

Pain over occupation should not be relative to this or that presumption of insensivity.  Many Jews consider the occupation of Judea and Samaria by the Hashemite regime in 1948 and its illegal annexation in 1950 - in addition to the results of the 1947-48 hostilities which came about because the Arabs states and the Arab community in the Palestine Mandate rejected the territorial compromise proposal (yet another partition of the Jewish National Home after the 1922 truncation of the area to facilitate a new home for a Saudi Arabian refugee who was intent upon fomenting violence to assist his brother dislodged from the throne in Damascus, the 1937 partition plan and the 1939 one) which were the final ethnic cleansing of Jews from all Arab-held areas to be very painful, historically unjust as well as illegal.
That the revival of Jewish communities in those areas, gained in a war of defense in 1967 following Arab aggressive moves, should be considered somehow illegal and we residents as part, passive as KJ Heller makes clear, of a "war crime" when all we are doing is not transfer (or being tranferred) but recreating the life that was in those areas for many centuries, even prior to the Arab illegal conquest and occupation in 638 CE, is not only an insenstive position to hold and advance but, I would suggest immoral and untenable.
The 19 years between 1948 and 1967 were the only time in some 3000 years when Jews were totally banned and excluded from that area although in early periods temporary prohibiition by foreign occupiers were in effect in various locations, off and on, to be hiostoricall accurate.   In fact, in was only under the Mandate regime of 1922-1948 that the local Arabs, some recent immigrants themselves, managed to destroy permanently (well, until 1967) Jewish life in Gaza, Shchem [Nablus], Jenin, Hebron among other locations.  How ironic for a situation whereby the League of Nations decided to "reconstitute the Jewish nation home" in those areas (after all, they were west of the Jordan River; what was excluded from the Mandate was east of the river) and the Mandate was to "facilitate close Jewish settlement on state and waste lands" (Article 6).  
KJH suggests that Israeli officials who have been doing that, facilitating the movement of Jews into Judea and Samaria, and previously, Gaza, are somehow war criminals.  Odd and illogical to me and not only insensitive.

_________________

Someone commented:

Art. 8 “does not target the settlers”?  Well, without addressing the alleged responsibility of a direct perpetrator, what about accomplice liability under Art. 25(3)(c) when they intentionally engaged in conduct and knew or were aware that that conduct can or will facilitate the conduct of a direct perpetrator?

^

Ah, The Briitsh Understatement

The understatement is at the end:

A British publisher was forced to apologize last week after it was revealed that it had published a textbook with a map of Israel that was labeled “Occupied Palestine.”

The map was included in a book titled “Skills in English Writing: Level 1″ that was first printed in 2003, but the Guardian reported that it was still used in some schools...The publisher, Garnet Education called the inclusion of the map a “serious editorial error.”

...“Unfortunately the map was mislabeled ‘Occupied Palestine.’ This was a serious editorial error and was subsequently corrected...Please accept our sincere apologies for any offense caused but rest assured that this was a genuine mistake and in no way reflects any Garnet Education policy,” the company said in its statement.

“This mistake predates the existing editorial team so it is difficult to understand exactly what happened.”

Oh, I could think of a good few reasons, most of them connected with England's attitude towards Zionism and Israel for the past eight-nine decades.

^

Ceremony That Took Place on the Temple Mount

A Muslim ceremony.

Last Thursday.

And this isn't the Sanhedrin in session:

A bit of what it was:

...third consecutive year of the "revival terraces science in the Al Aqsa Mosque," 

...President of the Foundation of the Far Building and Sanctuaries Jamal Rashid thanked all the students...also thanked them for their effort and time they put into application of science, and also thanked the teachers and centers who have spared no effort to revive This educational process, also thanked the Waqf that contribute always to the success of such events which have an active role in the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and then touched on the projects set up by the institution and he mentioned a project courses teaching the Koran, and the project bond Jerusalem schools, at the end of his speech, he stressed move the organization forward in the development of the project and raise the numbers of male and female students.

...In a speech the Islamic Waqf in Jerusalem delivered by Sheikh Yasser Abu Sneineh [he said] "We are not only Overall Fighters in the Land of Flowers, but the central focus of the bond is the Al Aqsa Mosque, which the Rabat appointed sweetness and musk mosque Aqsa crown..."

And there was the head of the Islamic Movement, too: 

Sheikh Saleh stressed in his speech: "O Youth maximize, be consistent as an electric current, you are the stability of the Aqsa Foundation", and concluded by saying, "...Winning is our formula and victorious."

As for that sign, it reads

The Al-Aqsa and Holy Shrines Institution

Project of Revitalizing the Slabs* of Learning

Concluding Event for the 2012 Students

_____________________
* Actually the Arabic term is that of a building in a rectangular form, similar to a large slab. In Egypt, there are many from before the period of the pyramids. The project is comparable to a seminar of Islamic studies with an emphasis on the Temple Mount or Haram A-Sharif. (thanks to AZ)

^

The First International Solidarity Member?

While working on a forthcoming project, the "Map of Underground Operations in Tel Aviv, 1907-1948", I came across this Hebrew-language news item from Davar, November 3, 1931:

It announces, via Reuters, the confirmed death by murder of a Danish journalist at the hands of a Bedouin in the territory of TransJordan.

Intrigued, I searched and discovered the details:

Knud Valdemar Gylding Holmboe (April 22, 1902 Horsens Denmark - October 13, 1931 Aqaba Jordan) was a Danish journalist and explorer who converted to Islam after travels in North Africa...Upon his conversion, Holmboe changed his name to Ali Ahmed...

Knud Holmboe was shocked to observe European violence against the indigenous populations of the North African colonies. Based on these travel experiences, he produced a book in 1931 entitled Desert Encounter ...in which he condemned the colonial overseers...After completing his book, Knud Holmboe started on his hajj to the city of Mecca. In circumstances that were never fully explained, Knud Holmboe was murdered just south of Aqaba (in modern Jordan) on October 13, 1931. While it has been speculated that Italian intelligence ordered the murder, this claim has never been verified.

More details:

The Italians fearing Knud´s activities in Mecca (they assumed he would call for jihad against Italy) tried to do their utmost to stop Knud from reaching Mecca. A German freelance agent, Hans Joachim von Bassewitz, was “put on” Knud to make sure he could report everything back to the Italian consul. During his stay in Amman, Jordan, several mysterious attempts on Knud´s life alarmed Knud that someone was out to kill him. Never the less, Knud bought a camel and went on to travel to Aqaba, waiting for an entry permit into Ibn Saud´s newly established territory. 
On October 11, 1931 Knud left on his camel towards the Saudiarab
border. It is known that he settled for a night in the vicinity of the Haql oasis where he was approached by a local Bedouin tribe. This tribe had been known to work for Italian officers in the area at the same time.
The tribe lured Knud to travel on alone, and he was attacked on the road between al-Haql and Humayda. During the night he was captured, Knud managed to escape and swim away from the sea shore. When he was too tired to carry on swimming, he had to approach the shore. The Bedouins found him, almost naked, and they shot him and buried his corpse on the shore. He was 29-years old. 
A Jordanian border officer, Aref Sleem, managed to catch the leader of that very tribe and kept him in a local arrest in Aqaba for questioning during a few hours. The sheikh was released from prison on the orders of the English commander John Glubb. A few months later the tribe members who killed Knud Holmboe, were killed themselves when tribal soldiers loyal to Ibn Saud destroyed their camp.

Could he have been one of the first predecessors of the modern International Solidarity activists?

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Jonathan Freedland Cheats

Jonathan Freedland doesn't like right-wing Israelis or their parties.

It's his right, although he himself is left.

But in his criticsm, he cheats.

Here's part of what he wrote about Naftali Bennet:

In a 2010 TV debate he dismissed a Palestinian member of the Knesset in these terms: "When you were still climbing trees, we had a Jewish state here… We were here long before you."
 

Any Jew knows those words.

They were first said in ... the Parliament of England.

Yes, I am a Jew, and when the ancestors of the right honorable gentleman were brutal savages in an unknown island, mine were priests in the temple of Solomon.”

The speaker was Benjamin Disraeli.

[Disraeli was responding to an opponent in Parliament. A similar statement is attributed to U.S. Senator Judah P. Benjamin, in reply to another senator: “The gentleman will please remember that when his half-civilized ancestors were hunting wild boar in the forests of Silesia, mine were the princes of the earth.”]

So, Mr. Freedland, what was good for a British MP and Prime Minister of your country is now somehow not so good?

I wonder if the words of Disraeli's opponent could be, somehow, applicable to you:

He possesses all the necessary requisites of perfidy, selfishness, depravity, want of principle, etc.,..there are, as in every other people, some of the lowest and most disgusting grade of moral turpitude...

And a word to Freedland's explanation of the phenomenon of a "lurch to the right" -

Why is this happening? The conventional explanation for recent rightwing electoral success has been a loss of faith by the Israeli public in the peace platform that once defined the left. The failure of the Camp David talks of 2000 and the response to the 2005 Israeli withdrawal from Gaza – a steady stream of Hamas rockets aimed at Israeli towns – discredited the very idea of land for peace. "We give them land, they give us war," was the bitter Israeli joke...[but] the blame can be shared evenly between the Israeli centre-left, Palestinian leaders and the international community...Israel's centre-left has failed to advance a vision of a modern, democratic country – ...The centre-left created a vacuum and the nationalist right filled it.
 

Mr. Freedland, you, too, are part of that morass.  The Pals. are never adequately criticised or held up to take responsibility.  You and your ilk pooh-pooh their infractions and violations of the peace negotiations but pound down on Israel, vilifying the country, its leaders and the situation - political, military and economic - which results from the Pals.

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Kiriakou vs. Kam

Remember the arguments over whether Anat Kam should be indicted?

She

stole IDF documents to expose West Bank war crimes

The recent news:

Court cuts Anat Kam's prison sentence

Supreme Court grants appeal of young woman convicted of leaking classified IDF documents to journalist, reduces her 4.5-year sentence by one year

The Supreme Court on Monday decided to reduce the sentence of a former IDF soldier who brought about the army's biggest leak scandal.

The court granted an appeal filed by Anat Kam over the severity of her punishment, cutting her four-and-a-half-year sentence by one year.

Kam was convicted of possessing and leaking confidential IDF documents during her army service and has been serving her sentence since November 2011. She is now expected to go free by February 2014...Justices Hanan Melcer and Edna Arbel voted in favor of reducing the penalty, while Noam Solberg voted against it.

I noted this last July and two years ago, this, and now,  meet John C. Kiriakou.

He's

a former CIA officer who expressed public doubts over the use of waterboarding as an interrogation technique, [and] was indicted Thursday on charges he leaked classified secrets to journalists.

...retired from the CIA in 2004, became one of the first government officials to publicly acknowledge the use of waterboarding during interrogations, describing how Zubaydah was subjected to the technique widely viewed as torture. 

The five-count indictment includes three charges under the Espionage Act on the basis Kiriakou revealed national defense information to individuals not authorized to receive it...If convicted, Kiriakou faces a maximum of 45 years in prison.

Ameica is a democracy that respects human rights.

Nevertheless, Israel's elitist liberals think they are better.

Which is worse for us. 

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Arab Violence and Destruction at Esh Kodesh

From the Tatzpit Agency:

Details here and here.

The problem at Esh-Kodesh (and other places) is that state lands are claimed by Arabs.  Claimed.  Usually only after Jews arrive. And usually without proper documentary proof.

However, in places where they never worked the land, the outposts do.  Then the Arabs claim their lands anew.

But since no one has ever done reliable maps, or zoning lines, etc., and ever since the lawyers in the Civil Administration have gone left, the situation is...er...complicated.



For example, at Esh-Kodesh, the Arab from Jaloud who actually has a case before the courts is claiming as his land the total land now worked by Esh-Kodesh, including areas only Esh-Kodesh developed larger than the original land area as displayed in oversite photos from 15 years ago.

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Revolting Jews

A new book is out.

 

Written by Anathea Portier-Young, it's entitled:  Apocalypse against Empire: Theologies of Resistance in Early Judaism.

 

From the blurb:

The year 167 b.c.e. marked the beginning of a period of intense persecution for the people of Judea, as Seleucid emperor Antiochus IV Epiphanes attempted -- forcibly and brutally -- to eradicate traditional Jewish religious practices. In Apocalypse against Empire Anathea Portier-Young reconstructs the historical events and key players in this traumatic episode in Jewish history and provides a sophisticated treatment of resistance in early Judaism.

Building on a solid contextual foundation, Portier-Young argues that the first Jewish apocalypses emerged as a literature of resistance to Hellenistic imperial rule. She makes a sturdy case for this argument by examining three extant apocalypses, giving careful attention to the interplay between social theory, history, textual studies, and theological analysis. In particular, Portier-Young contends, the book of Daniel, the Apocalypse of Weeks, and the Book of Dreams were written to supply an oppressed people with a potent antidote to the destructive propaganda of the empire -- renewing their faith in the God of the covenant and answering state terror with radical visions of hope.

 

I read this in John C. Reeves's review, "Rethinking the Imperial Context for Early Jewish Apocalypticism" -

...Portier-Young's presentation is divided into three sections. Part 1 ("Theorizing Resistance") introduces the conceptual scaffolding, largely postcolonialist, which distinguishes her study of Second Temple Israelite history and...furnishing the theoretical support for her reading of early Judean apocalyptic treatises as "resistance literature." Part 2 ("Seleucid Domination in Judea") explores the various state-sponsored mechanisms by which the Seleucid Empire suppressed and exploited the indigenous populations under its control...Part 3 ("Apocalyptic Theologies of Resistance") focuses attention upon the divergent programs of resistance against imperial hegemony that are offered in Daniel and the Enochic apocalypses, respectively...

...The precise shape of Judean "ancestral traditions" in an age predating the physical existence of a canonical "Bible" could also be a problem, but it is one which the author happily recognizes: she correctly argues that the phrase "ancestral traditions" should not be facilely equated with either the Mosaic Torah or with canonical scripture...The author makes a compelling case for a carefully plotted program of Seleucid state-sponsored terror against Judea, especially during the reign of Antiochus IV (175-164 BCE). Its intent was to demolish and then rebuild a "world and identity" for the Judeans...[altough] the massacre described in 2 Macc 6:11//1 Macc 2:29-38 should not be blithely accepted as historical, since it is blatantly modeled on the similar story found in Judg 9:46-49.
  

...According to the author, the materials in Daniel advocate a program of nonviolent resistance, whereas the Enochic texts call for armed revolt. She argues convincingly that the "strength" and "power" associated with characters like Daniel and the repeatedly invoked "smart ones" (Hebrew: _maśkilim_) is not martial or military in nature, but consists instead in the possession and wielding of true knowledge and wisdom.. .

 

...Despite the quibbles voiced above, this is a vitally important contribution to our understanding of the Second Temple Judean discursive responses to imperial rule.

  

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I Left A Comment

I left it here.  The Beinart-Riskin Debate.

The comment:

At the end, you insist: "Riskin is wrong to justify further aggressive expansion of settlements because instead of creating an incentive for negotiations, is poisoning the atmosphere for negotiations, as well as relations with the international community, including American progressives."

Besides the matter of who cares about American progressives who are in lalaland on most issues American Jews should be involved in, what you seem to have done is ignore the fact that (a) even if a Pal. state gets established, it will not end the conflict and the Arabs have made that clear; (b) that a Pal. state will not permit Jews to live in it (while Israel does) which means an apartheid state?  oh my!!; (c) why do the Arabs get to establish at least two Arab/Islamic states in former Palestine Mandated territory (Jordan & the New Palestine) but maybe even three states - Hamastan in Gaza, Fatahland in Judea & Samaria + Jordan) and why would progressives/liberals permit a uni-ethnic state? (d) since initiatives have always existed (Allon Plan, Begin Autonomy Plan, Oslo) as well as Bibi's Two-State announcement and the 10 month moratorium on construction period, how much more do you wish Israel to bend and bow? (e) and don't forget Jerusalem, refugees, too.

The only reason there's a "settlement" problem is because during the Mandated period and as a result of the 1948 War, Jews were systematically ethnically cleansed from those areas, from Hebron, Gaza, Shchem, Atarot, Neveh Yaakov, Gush Etzion, Bet HaAravah and Jerusalem's Old City and so those areas, where Jews had resided, in many cases, for centuries if not for over 1000 years, were emptied b y, to borrow your term, aggressive Arab behavior.  That you want to award???

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