American Tourist Victim of Arab Terror?

[this is constantly being updated]

In the Davar newspaper of April 21, 1953, we read that two Jews were killed in Jerusalem the previous day:

Zvi Genoar or Geneur (phonetic spelling)  Genauer, 63 (see below), and his American niece, 24, Devorah, were found dead, shot in their home in Jerusalem.  Zvi's gemara was open on the table.  Both had been shot multiple times, he in a chair, she in her bed.

Although it is not specified, I am fairly sure this was an incident related to me by the late Rina Mor who vividly recalled it. As the article notes, the house had its doors open.  As I was told, this happened in Bayit Vegan, a religious neighborhood across from Mount Herzl, then an 'outlying' area.  As the man did not wish to be in the house with a woman alone, he left all the doors open and the Arab terrorists found easy prey. (see update below)

It's mentioned on page 80 in this book, Jerusalem Divided: The Armistice Regime, 1947-1967, by Raphael Israeli (with a wrong date by three days).

If anyone has more details, please leave them as comments.

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UPDATES

This clipping from Maariv, April 22, notes that the woman was to be married in the United States shortly and that she had attended the Journalists' Independence Day Ball the day before her murder.  Despite a request from the American Consulate, the Mixed Armistice Commission observers were not permitted by the Jordanian Legion to cross over into Jordanian-occupied territory with their tracking dogs.

and on the same subject from Herut:

and this clipping from the following day indicates the Consulate assured Washington that indeed, the Rabbi and his niece were American citizens:

Herut has the age of the man as 33 (which fits better with the ages of his children) and notes that the woman had been studying at an educational institute for children in Ktamon with severe learning psychiatric disabilities

and Herut also reports on Consulate interest:

This section on the April 23 report in Al HaMishmar indicates that the murder took place in the area of Yonah Street which is in Geula and that the man had immigrated only 9 months previously and originated from Seattle, Washington

HaTzofeh of April 21 indicates he studied at the Mir Yeshiva, had studied at the Lakewood Yeshiva of Rav Aharon Kotler and came from Washington

More on April 22 which indicates that a representative of the American Consulate attended the funeral and that the man came from a Mizrachi Zionist family

More on the Consulate interest:

The American consulate here today entered the investigation of the murder of two Americans in this city yesterday. The victims, Zvi Genauer and his niece Deborah Genauer, were buried today.The Israeli police, meanwhile, have called on the United Nations authorities here to follow up the track of the murderers which leads to the Arab village of Beth Iksa, just across the Jordan line. The spoor of the killers was followed by bloodhounds.Zvi, a rabbinical student at a Yeshiva here, and Deborah, a New York social worker who spent a year in Israel, were riddled with Sten gun bullets. Zvi was found at a table in the kitchen clutching an open religious book while Deborah was found shot in bed in another room. Three children of Zvi who were sleeping in another room were unharmed. His wife and two other children were in Tel Aviv at the time. Deborah was due to leave for the United State. Shortly. Zvi and his family had been in Israel for the past five years.

A notice of expression of sorrow in HaTzofeh of April 24 for Devorah from the Mizrachi movement:

According to a 2011 obituary, the widow of Rabbi Tzi Hirsh Halevi Genauer, the male victim in the terror attack, died on December 22 that year.  Her name was Feigel Cecille, daughter of Karlin Rabbi Nissan Filtshik (SP?).  Her daughter, Bluma Wolpe, wife of Shalom Duber Wolpe, resides in Betar Illit.

I am now informed by JB that "the Genauers are a very prominent Seattle family, with many members living here".

From the Seattle Daily Herald, 22 April 1953, Page 13

Rabbi, Woman Slain In Jerusalem JERUSALEM (UP)— Dogs followed footprints today from a ransacked suburban house where a Seattle rabbi and his New York niece were slain to the Jordan- Israel armistice line. Police said the route of the tracks had been reported to the United Nations Israel- Jordan Armistice Commission. Authorities disclosed that a nine- year-old playmate of one of Rabbi Harry Genauer's five children found his body and that of Deborah Genauer, his niece, yesterday about 12 hours after they had been shot to death. Genauer's body was slumped over a Talmud opened at a page which read "he who sits up with the dead is absolved from reciting the Shma Israel in morning prayer." He had been shot in the abdomen seven times. Miss Genauer, said by relatives to be a graduate of Brooklyn College, had been shot in the head eight times. Her body was on a bed. Genauer came to Jerusalem from Seattle five years ago to study at the Orthodox Talmudic Academy. Miss Genauer was planning to return to the United States in a few weeks to continue her graduate work in psychology, relatives said.

and from the Fresno Bee the next day:

JERUSALEM -- AP -- Israeli police today pressed a search for the slayers of Deborah Genauer, 21, of Seattle, Wash, and her uncle, Zvi Genauer, a former resident of Lakewood, NJ, who were found shot to death in the uncle's home here. Authorities said the house was ransacked and evidence indicated the killers were marauders. Miss Genauer was the daughter of Mr and Mrs. Isaac Genauer, Seattle. Zvi Genauer came to Israel a little more than a year ago with, his wife and five children. The police said they apparently were shot with a sten gun at close range. The girl's body was found in bed and her uncle slumped over a table on which was opened the Talmud, a Hebrew religious book.  Miss Genauer, a graduate of Brooklyn College who had been visiting her relatives, had planned to return home to be married but had stayed over a few extra days lor the celebration of the fifth anniversary of Israel's independence.

The Palestine Post reported

There was a general outcry when General Bennet L. de Ridder, the U.N. Chairman of the Israel-Jordan Mixed Armistice Commission refused to comply with the Israeli request to call an emergency meeting of the Commission to discuss the latest developments and, in particular, the murder of Zvi Genauer and his niece, Dvora, in Jerusalem. This incomprehensible U.N. decision was taken despite the fact that the tracks of the three marauders, responsible for this murder, were discovered by an U.N. observer and an Israeli officer who noted that they led to the Jordanian-occupied village of Beit Iksa. The General claimed that it was not the duty of his Commission to deal with incidents "of this type."

_____________________

I have been informed by a family member that in the early 1960s, the Israel Police notified the family that a man hospitalized at Ezrat Nashim Mental Hospital gave a death-bed confession to a Rabbi that it was he who had committed the murders while on a leave from another psychiatric facility (the same one as Devora had been working at?).  The police could not interview the man as he died before the police being informed by the Rabbi but they were convinced that the man had been telling the truth and that certain details fit.


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My Sokatch Comment

At his blog

let's go easy on appellations. not every right-of-center politician/activist is an extremist (by the way, who do you consider a non-extremist?).  usually, an extremist calls another an extremist because they are so far away from each other.
secondly, in my experience, while money does a lot, the best way to keep Israel democratic is to actually be here and vote.  and remember, a lot of nice people don't think highly of money being used to subvert democracy in Israel, i.e., turn around the elections through financial influence.
third, following on that, funding groups that are quite extreme, who, in too many instances, have been shown to be anti- or non-Zionist preferring a universal progressive and radical liberal agenda, is, well, extreme in itself and seen not to be friendly.
oh, and fourth, the more Jews here, the more a Jewish state we are.

Daniel Sokatch, he New Israel Fund Executive Director blogged:

The protestors seek to narrow the margins of debate about Israel. They can't seem to come to terms with the notion that, for many thousands of us, loving Israel means not sweeping Israel's problems under the rug, but rather helping Israelis overcome the most difficult challenges Israel faces: from ending the occupation, to preserving democratic freedoms, to upholding women's rights...Sadly, the shofar blowers are getting support from Israeli extremists, including those in positions of real influence...there is a visceral connection between those protesting the UJA and the ultra-nationalist settlers who hold so much influence in the current Israeli government. Both seek to narrow the scope of acceptable discourse. Both are emboldened by the collapse of the peace process. Both want to rip Israel away from its heritage as a liberal democracy...The time has also come for us to step up our investment to change the public discourse in Israel and to rebuild the pro-democracy, progressive camp. You will be hearing more from me soon about the bold steps we are initiating...The noisy extremists will not deter us...We will continue to provide the support that Israel's champions of democracy need to build a better Israel.

^

A Cut Short Vagina Monologue

This is a flower that looks similar to a vagina:

This is something else entirely (h/t PG):

Female genital mutilation parties being held in UK, MPs told

Health professionals tell committee that 'cutters' are flown into Britain for events at which up to a dozen girls may be mutilated, 6 May 2014

The Commons home affairs select committee has heard that "cutters" – often older women – are flown into Britain for the events, at which as many as a dozen girls may be operated on.

Janet Fyle, of the Royal College of Midwives, said that by the time the authorities could be alerted, the cutter would have left. "By the time the girls are cut, the woman 'cutter' is on her flight back to the country she came from. We can't go after the cutter. We don't know who she or he is. The parents have to be held responsible," she said.

Professor Janice Rymer, of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, shared Fyle's belief that FGM was happening in Britain. Asked about its scale, she said: "We have no idea. We have no data but I am sure it is happening in this country."

The MPs also heard evidence that 75 to 80 women were undergoing FGM reversal operations in Britain each year.

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Prof. Auron Has A Problem

How do you tell a professor that he's, well, slightly incorrect?

Here:-

Letter to a Palestinian reader: Holocaust, resurrection and Nakba

Unless Israelis recognize the crimes we committed in 1948 and Palestinians recognize the horrors of the Holocaust, there is no chance of reconciliation.

By Yair Auron | May 8, 2014 |

I wish to address you, the Arab reader in general and the Palestinian reader in particular, in advance of the upcoming publication in Arabic of my book “The Holocaust, the Resurrection and the Nakba” (by Madar Press in Ramallah; Resling, 2013; an English translation is due out in late 2014).

His problem is that he assumes (or is ignoring) that the arabs of Mandate Palestine had nothing to do with the Holocaust.

That is quite wrong.

Therefore, his approach is wrong.

^ 

How's Joseph Doing?

I read this reported by Laura Dean of AP:

Archaelogists Find Tomb Dating Back To 1100 B.C. In Egypt
Archeologists have found a tomb dating back to around 1100 B.C. south of Cairo, Egypt's Antiquities Ministry said Thursday.  Antiquities Minister Mohamed Ibrahim said that the tomb belongs to a guard of the army archives and royal messenger to foreign countries.  Ibrahim said the Cairo University Faculty of Archaeology's discovery at Saqqara adds "a chapter to our knowledge about the history of Saqqara."

Ola el-Egeizy of Cairo University said the tomb contains "very nice inscriptions" of the funerary procession and the afterlife of the deceased.

And this thought came to mind:

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Frivolous Suit --- Over and Out

Remember my post on an attempt to charge Shiloh with "terror" and therefore to hit charities that fund our projects?

Here:

Palestinians to sue US pro-settler groups    In a reversal of usual roles, a group of Palestinians is filing a civil lawsuit against American organizations that they claim support terrorist acts by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank.  Two U.S. citizens are among those suing under the Anti-Terrorism Act, a 1991 statute that allows American victims of international terrorism to sue for damages in the United States.
...“I think it’s important for the American justice system to show that they’re going to apply the statute in a neutral and even-handed way, ” said Eric Lewis, a Washington-based lawyer who has had clients accused by pro-Israel groups of aiding Palestinian terror.

Well, the news is now in: 

Residents of "Occupied Palestine" cannot advance claims that five U.S. organizations have funded terrorist attacks on Palestinians, a federal judge ruled...The lawsuit claimed that more than half a million Israeli citizens, or "settlers," live in communities in the West Bank that violate international law and are responsible for numerous attacks on Palestinians and others living in Occupied Palestine.

...U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman dismissed the claims Monday, finding that the allegations in the complaint were insufficient to tie the funds to terrorist activity. The Americans in the case alone brought allegations under the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA), regarding five "purported charities" based in the United States that allegedly provided the settlers with millions of dollars through direct wire transfers.

They said money from Christian Friends of Israeli Communities, the Hebron Fund Inc., the Central Fund of Israel, One Israel, and American Friends of Ateret Cohanim is used to "build and maintain the illegal settlements, illegally take land in Occupied Palestine, to support the attacks by the settlers on Palestinians living in Occupied Palestine, and to support the terrorist acts of the settlers against Palestinians and other persons in Occupied Palestine."
But Judge Furman deemed the allegation "entirely conclusory."...

and this

The plaintiffs failed to submit proof that the settlers admitted to the Price Tag attacks, nor did the plaintiffs prove that the American organizations were aware that their funds were used to support terrorist activity. “In the absence of such details, there are simply no facts alleged that could provide the court with a basis to infer that defendants knew, or were deliberately indifferent to, the fact that the wire transfers would be used to support terrorist activity,” Furman wrote.

And to remind you what I wrote then:

And if they are talking about terror, does the court know who placed an explosives-laden refrigerator in Jerusalem's Zion Square in 1975?  Palestinian militant group PLO claimed responsibility for the attack. Later on it was revealed that the attack was executed by the Arab-American Ahmed Jabara, aka Abu Sukar, whom originated from Turmus Aya. Jabara was assisted by Bassem Tabila of Nablus whom fled to Jordan before he could be arrested.  Israel freed Ahmed Jabara from prison in 2003 as a gesture to Yasser Arafat. Shortly after his release, Jabara called for the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers at a rally in Bethlehem that was widely covered by the Palestinian media.  Fifteen people were killed in this terror act and 77 were injured.  All civilians.

Among them:  Rivka (née Soifer) Ben-Yitzhak, 35, an American citizen, and her husband, Michael, who left behind two small children

Maybe someone should be suing the lawyers for assisting possible terrorist supporters?  Who knows if this Ahmad was not involved, or maybe a member of his family?

And furthermore, Shiloh was established in January 1978.  The terror attack in Zion Square was earlier by three years.  So how can the "settlement" be a cause of Turmos-Aya residents, if they wish to argue, being 'forced' into "resistance" against the "settlement enterprise"?

^

A Jordanian Comes To Visit

It's been reported that the Jordanian Minister of Religious Trusts Hayel Dawoud visited the Temple Mount compound:

RAMALLAH, May 7, 2014 (WAFA) – Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah praised, Wednesday in Ramallah, the role of Jordan for continuing to secure the holy sites in Jerusalem and supporting residents of the city.  Hamdallah’s remarks came as he met with the Jordanian Minister of Islamic Awkaf, Hayel Dawoud, in his Ramallah office.  The meeting...was also attended by Minister of Awkaf Mahmoud al-Habbash and Jordan’s ambassador to Palestine Khaled Shawabkah...

Pictures from a previous visit of Mohammad Raud, an Interior Minister, here.

We're lucky that at least Minister Uri Ariel visits, even if for a short while.  But more Ministers should be there.

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Where The Supposed Temple Mount Excavations Are

Source:

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One of Those Not-Nice Things: Arabs Mutilating Dead Jews

Sometimes, cultured people prefer not to mention things and surely not to discuss them when (a) death and injury is involved and (b) when Arabs are involved as the guilty party.

But reading an article in Haaretz (not yet translated) on the killing of Ami, son of Yitzhak Ben-Tzvi and Rachel Yana'it, near his kibbutz, Beit Keshet, in March 1948, caused me to return to the topic.

The words are in the dictionary: castrate, disembowel, dismember, eviscerate, mutilate.

Here is one very partial listing of incidents of what is termed "corpse mutilation", that is, dismembering bodies after death during the 1948 War:

Illustrating a special kind of hatred that is not satisfied with mere killing, Jewish corpse mutilation was a problem as well:
"I can say that our Palmach officers—men given to understatement rather than hysteria—instructed us, when in action, to always save a bullet or a grenade for ourselves, so as not to fall alive into the hands of Arab irregulars. Capture was not an option."24

"On 27 March, a seven-vehicle convoy, carrying eighty-nine men and women was attacked on the road to the besieged Kibbutz Yehiam by units of the ALA’s Second Yarmuk Battalion and local militiamen. ... The following morning, the British and Haganah found forty-seven bodies, many of them mutilated."26

"The occupants of one vehicle committed suicide with dynamite rather than fall into Arab hands. (Jews captured in convoy battles were normally put to death and mutilated.)"27

"Arabs began to push down the slope, giving chase. Arieli and a handful of other officers took up positions nearby to cover the retreat. Their bodies were later found there, either felled by Arab bullets or by their own hands, with grenades, to avoid capture."28

"Just before dawn, 9 April, two of Tabenkin’s companies stormed into al-Qastal – which they found completely deserted, save for dozens of corpses. The Palmahniks buried the dead. Some of the Jewish corpses had been badly mutilated."29

"In place they found the bodies of sixteen Alexandroni troopers left behind when the Legion took the position two days before. One Israeli report read, “On most of them were signs of severe mutilation: stab wounds, some had their genitals cut off, some were missing ears. One body was cut into many bits with its genitalia stuffed in its mouth."30

"At one point in the battle, the “French Commando,” many of them ex-Foreign Legionnaires and Moroccan Jews, retreated from one of the conquered positions under heavy Egyptian fire, leaving behind, under a railway bridge, a handful of wounded. When they retook the position a half-hour later, they found that all the wounded had been murdered, with their genitals mutilated and their penises stuck in their mouths. Some had been blinded with burning cigarettes."31

24  Gutmann, David. The Arab Lie Whose Time Has Come - Veteran of the 1948 War Dissects the Myth of Palestinian Innocence. April 21, 2004. 25  Morris, Benny. 1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War. New Haven [Conn.]: Yale University Press, 2008. 78  26  Morris, Benny. 1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War. New Haven [Conn.]: Yale University Press, 2008. 110-111  27  Morris, Benny. 1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War. New Haven [Conn.]: Yale University Press, 2008. 111  28  Morris, Benny. 1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War. New Haven [Conn.]: Yale University Press, 2008. 124  29  Morris, Benny. 1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War. New Haven [Conn.]: Yale University Press, 2008. 125  30  Morris, Benny. 1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War. New Haven [Conn.]: Yale University Press, 2008. 293  31  Morris, Benny. 1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War. New Haven [Conn.]: Yale University Press, 2008. 361-362

Here's another, of the Thirty-Five attempting to reach Gush Etzion:

When Time Magazine covered the battle in 1948, it characterized the event thusly: “The picture was reminiscent of the terrible black and white mass of photographs that had illustrated the war and the war-crimes trials. It also recalled the fierce word pictures of how Old Testament warriors dealt with their enemies. It showed the mutilated bodies of 35 young Haganah fighters who had been ambushed by Arabs at Kfar Etzion, in the lonely hills of Hebron.”

By the way, a picture purporting to be of Deir Yassin Arabs is actually of the 35.

A convoy returning from Gush Etzion on January 12, 1948 was attacked and several of its defenders were killed and their bodies mutilated.

From the JTA, January 19, 1948:

This morning a Jewish convoy heading for Tel Aviv from Jerusalem was attached at Motza, about five miles from Jerusalem. Two Jews were killed and seven wounded. In Jerusalem itself at least one Jew was murdered today by Arab guerrillas. The body of the Jew, Mordechai Admoni, was mutilated and his body was partially burned before It was found by police. An unidentified Jewish male was found near Haifa with the head severed from the body and removed from the scene.

On February 12, 1948, members of the Hagana were arrested by British troops at the end of Shivtei Yisrael Street (then, Saint Paul) and handed over to the Arabs.  The bodies of Naftali Schole, Eliyahu Kessler, Shalom Leon and and Shimon Nisani were mutilated.

Even in a quite critical book of Zionism, on p. 171, we read:

In Hebrew, I found a quotation from Yoram Kaniuk who found someone from his unit who was killed in battle and the Arabs had tied him up in a tree, had cut his body in to pieces with his penis in his mouth and the description is in his book תש"ח.

This is a picture of one of Khadar El-Husseini's gangs with mutiliated Jews:

But if we go back to 1920, we will discover that Shraga-Feivel Eisenberg of the moshava Yesud HaMaaleh was killed by Arabs in its fields while collecting the harvested wheat on June 7.  He was shot and after his death, his body was mutilated.

Another incident during the War of Independence occured on March 19, 1948, when a battle took place on Mount Gilboa.  The unit was defeated and five of those killed and left behind --- Aryeh Elkind, Avraham Oplatka, Akiva Barzilai, Haim Liben and Dan Tzvik ---  were taken to Jenin where their bodies were mutilated, tied to vehciles and driven through the main streets and then strung up for all to see with limbs cut off and their bodies dismembered.  Tzvik's parent could not succeed in identifying his remains.  From the Palestine Post, March 21:

I have no professional ability to analyze this heinous behavior of post-death mutilation.

But this is the enemy of Jews and Zionism for over 90 years.

______________

UPDATE

Continuing my research, I have discovered that four Palestine Policemen from Rosh Pinna, responding to an attack on a Jewish post office car, were ambushed at a road block and fired upon on by Arab rebels on the 9th of September 1936.  Their bodies were found mutilated.  Their names:  
F. J. M. FLETCHER, F. J. T KETTEL, H. B. MORRISON and W. F. BARR.

_______________

P.S.    A scholarly reference. ^

Peace Gets 9% Support

From the latest Peace Index:

The desired national order of priorities: Among the five issues presented to the interviewees, highest on the scale of priorities is reducing the socioeconomic gaps (47%); after it comes creating housing solutions at affordable prices (21%). In other words, the public prefers the two issues of a socioeconomic nature (69% combined) over the other three issues, all of which belong to the security-political area: increasing Israel’s military power (10%), improving its diplomatic status in the international arena, and achieving a peace agreement with the Palestinians (9% in both cases).

And more:

As for the developments on the Palestinian issue:
The risk posed by the Fatah-Hamas agreement: A considerable majority of the Jewish public (57.5%) sees the reconciliation agreement that was signed between Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas as very dangerous or moderately dangerous for Israel. Likewise, 57.5% reject the claim that the reconciliation makes Abbas’s representation of the Palestinians more inclusive and, therefore, if an agreement with Israel is signed it will be more valid.

The halt in the negotiations with the Palestinians: Given these views, it comes as no surprise that a large majority (68%) of the Jewish public backs the government’s decision to stop the negotiations with the Palestinians in response to the reconciliation agreement. ... At the same time, the public is divided on whether the freeze in the negotiations is beneficial or harmful to Israel in the short term and the long term, with slightly more seeing it as more harmful both in the short (41%-36%) and long (40%-34%) terms. 

^ 

America's Jerusalem Consulate is Bi, not Tri, Lingual

Here:

"Open to the Public".

Which 'public' is that?

Not the Hebrew-speaking public.

^

Kavon's Disrupted Concentration

My good friend Emily asked me to read some strange hyperbole published in the Jerusalem Post by an online course grad rabbi, of a Florida congregation. 

Here's the really offensive part of Dependence days: In the shadow of Kishinev which actually starts off as some xenophobic rant and concludes on a similar note, if I understand his intent--

When the current American administration attempts to stop Jews from living in any area of Jerusalem – and when the possibility of dividing Jerusalem is still on the negotiating table – this differs little from Czar Nicholas I confining Jews to the Pale of Settlement in Russia two centuries ago...As long as American administrations can tell Jews where to live and not to live, they diminish Israel’s integrity as a sovereign and independent nation.

and then zooms off the cloud-cuckooland [with my comments]--

The Green Line, once representing the Jewish power [what power? hundreds of dead due to the infiltrators, psychological terror, a constant threat that you couldn't go anywhere in full security] to live within borders that were the result of victory in war, has eroded into not just Abba Eban’s “Auschwitz borders” but into “Czarist borders.” [so, we are the new model of the Russian anti-Semite?] The current American administration and their supporters among Jews in America would never embrace imperialism [imperialism in our own land?] in their relationship with any country in the Middle East – except for Israel. [except for Syria in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza]...

Welcome to the new colonialism, the new imperialism and the vestige of Bialik’s Kishinev. As I wish a happy birthday to the only Jewish state in the world, I lament that there is still Galut in Geulah and exile on J Street.

Exploiting Bialik to compare the Jewish nation's existence in its homeland is really an irrational thought.

I really tried to concentrate on what Kavon wrote but I admit: his thought processes are beyond my grasp.

^

The Temple Mount 'Vulva'

I ran this through two three translation programs and the word came out the same:

Can anyone explain that?

Incidentally, while the kid is posing so as to show how "brave" he is, actually, the fact the soldiers are just ignoring him indicates they are there for the Islamic violence, not for religious oppression.

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Pal. Authority To Engage in Self-Recriminaton

But the Palestinian plan is fraught with complexities, not least because it opens the Palestinians themselves up to scrutiny and potential counteractions by Israelis. Experts say a Palestinian state could potentially be held responsible for every rocket fired into Israeli civilian areas by militants in Gaza, which is controlled by the militant group Hamas. [not to mention war crimes' charges, a term the NYTimes avoids employing and see below]

“By joining these treaties they are basically exposing themselves to criticism,” said an Israeli official who was speaking on the condition of anonymity because he said the government had decided not to discuss the issue publicly. “Official rebuke, special reports, fact-finding missions and condemnations — they are not ready for that.”

He added, “There is nothing easier than to show that human rights are being systematically violated, day in day out, in Gaza.”...By joining the International Criminal Court and coming under its jurisdiction, the Palestinians could open themselves to potential investigations requested by pro-Israeli nongovernmental organizations or the United Nations Security Council, under court rules, even if Israel is not itself a member.

... Shurat HaDin, an Israeli law center that supports victims in lawsuits against terrorist groups, says it is preparing proposed indictments of Palestinian officials for perpetrating attacks against Israelis. It plans to activate these complaints if the Palestinians join the international court.  “We can do what the government cannot do,” said Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, the director of the center.

If the Palestinians insist on going to The Hague, Naftali Bennett, an Israeli right-wing minister, recently wrote in the newspaper Israel Hayom, “call us and we’ll buy you a ticket.”

New York Times, Isabel Kershner

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When Ariel Sharon Had "Red Lines"

On May 25, 2003, Israel's government voted in favor of the Road Map however it made that vote:

...contingent upon 14 "comments" that Israel submitted to the Americans. The exact wording of the resolution:
"The Government of Israel… resolves that all of Israel’s comments, as addressed in the [Bush] Administration’s statement, will be implemented in full during the implementation phase of the Road Map."
Emphasizing the importance of these 14 reservations, the Prime Minister called them "red lines beyond which we cannot and will not withdraw."

The 14 POINTS:-

1. Both at the commencement of, and during the process, and as a condition to its continuance, calm will be maintained. The Palestinians will dismantle the existing security organizations and implement security reforms during the course of which new organizations will be formed and act to combat terror, violence and incitement (incitement must cease immediately and the Palestinian Authority must educate for peace).

These organizations will engage in genuine prevention of terror and violence through arrests, interrogations, prevention and the enforcement of the legal groundwork for investigations, prosecution and punishment. In the first phase of the plan and as a condition for progress to the second phase, the Palestinians will complete the dismantling of terrorist organizations (Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front, the Democratic Front, Al-Aqsa Brigades and other apparatuses) and their infrastructure; collection of all illegal weapons and their transfer to a third party for the sake of being removed from the area and destroyed; cessation of weapons smuggling and weapons production inside the Palestinian Authority; activation of the full prevention apparatus and cessation of incitement.

There will be no progress to the second phase without the fulfillment of all above-mentioned conditions relating to the war against terror. The security plans to be implemented are the Tenet and Zinni plans. [As in the other mutual frameworks, the road map will not state that Israel must cease violence and incitement against the Palestinians].

2. Full performance will be a condition for progress between phases and for progress within phases. The first condition for progress will be the complete cessation of terror, violence and incitement. Progress between phases will come only following the full implementation of the preceding phase. Attention will be paid not to time lines, but to performance benchmarks (time lines will serve only as reference points).

3. The emergence of a new and different leadership in the Palestinian Authority within the framework of governmental reform. The formation of a new leadership constitutes a condition for progress to the second phase of the plan. In this framework, elections will be conducted for the Palestinian Legislative Council following coordination with Israel.

4. The Monitoring mechanism will be under American management. The chief verification activity will concentrate upon the creation of another Palestinian entity and progress in the civil reform process within the Palestinian Authority. Verification will be performed exclusively on a professional basis and per issue (economic, legal, financial) without the existence of a combined or unified mechanism. Substantive decisions will remain in the hands of both parties.

5. The character of the provisional Palestinian state will be determined through negotiations between the Palestinian Authority and Israel. The provisional state will have provisional borders and certain aspects of sovereignty, be fully demilitarized with no military forces, but only with police and internal security forces of limited scope and armaments, be without the authority to undertake defense alliances or military cooperation, and Israeli control over the entry and exit of all persons and cargo, as well as of its air space and electromagnetic spectrum.

6. In connection to both the introductory statements and the final settlement, declared references must be made to Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state and to the waiver of any right of return for Palestinian refugees to the State of Israel.

7. End of the process will lead to the end of all claims and not only the end of the conflict.

8. The future settlement will be reached through agreement and direct negotiations between the two parties, in accordance with the vision outlined by President Bush in his 24 June address.

9. There will be no involvement with issues pertaining to the final settlement. Among issues not to be discussed: settlement in Judea, Samaria and Gaza (excluding a settlement freeze and illegal outposts); the status of the Palestinian Authority and its institutions in Jerusalem; and all other matters whose substance relates to the final settlement.

10. The removal of references other than 242 and 338 (1397, the Saudi Initiative and the Arab Initiative adopted in Beirut). A settlement based upon the road map will be an autonomous settlement that derives its validity therefrom. The only possible reference should be to Resolutions 242 and 338, and then only as an outline for the conduct of future negotiations on a permanent settlement.

11. Promotion of the reform process in the Palestinian Authority: a transitional Palestinian constitution will be composed, a Palestinian legal infrastructure will be constructed and cooperation with Israel in this field will be renewed. In the economic sphere: international efforts to rehabilitate the Palestinian economy will continue. In the financial sphere: the American-Israeli-Palestinian agreement will be implemented in full as a condition for the continued transfer of tax revenues.

12. The deployment of IDF forces along the September 2000 lines will be subject to the stipulation of Article 4 (absolute quiet) and will be carried out in keeping with changes to be required by the nature of the new circumstances and needs created thereby. Emphasis will be placed on the division of responsibilities and civilian authority as in September 2000, and not on the position of forces on the ground at that time.

13. Subject to security conditions, Israel will work to restore Palestinian life to normal: promote the economic situation, cultivation of commercial connections, encouragement and assistance for the activities of recognized humanitarian agencies. No reference will be made to the Bertini Report as a binding source document within the framework of the humanitarian issue.

14. Arab states will assist the process through the condemnation of terrorist activity. No link will be established between the Palestinian track and other tracks (Syrian-Lebanese).

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When British Jews Found Their Backbone

From a review of this book:

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Nothing New Under the Sun

Sir Allan Cunningham
October 1948

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National Socialists: Anti-Semitism from the Left

So, it was his socialism at the root of his anti-Semitism?

Against a ‘world of enemies’: the impact of the First World War on the development of Hitler’s ideologyBrendan Simms, March 2014

Adolf Hitler's experiences during the First World War have been much discussed, with historians tending to concentrate on his involvement in the fighting and the operational lessons he later claimed to draw. Much less has been written about the impact of the war on his world view, though recent work has tended to suggest that his paranoid anti-Semitism was not yet visible during the conflict.

Drawing on this latest research, but also on newly discovered sources and previously underused material, the author shows that Hitler’s main preoccupation during the war and its immediate aftermath was the overwhelming power of Great Britain and its American ally. He associated these two powers with the alleged international Jewish economic conspiracy that had crushed the German empire. Hitler’s anti-Semitism thus originated in an anti-capitalist, rather than anti-communist, discourse.

Anti-Semitism from the Left.

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Gerry Adams, Menachem Begin, Mordechai Berger

Mr. Gerry Adams is in his third day of detention, assisting police with their investigations regarding a killing back in 1972 during a period of IRA activity.

We learn this evening, that

Mr Adams was arrested on Wednesday over allegations that he ordered the 1972 murder of Jean McConville, who was snatched from her home in front of her children by a secret IRA unit. On Friday night, police were granted another 48 hours to question him.Mr McGuinness, Mr Adams’s colleague in Sinn Fein, said the arrest represented a “negative and destructive” agenda in relation to the peace process. He warned that Sinn Fein could withdraw support for the police in Northern Ireland if Mr Adams is charged.Mr McGuinness contrasted the treatment of Mr Adams with cases involving the security forces, such as the Bloody Sunday killings of 1972, in which he said no criminal action had been taken.“There is clear evidence of political policing and of a different approach taken with those who are members or former members of British state Forces and those who are republican and nationalist,” he claimed.

If I had to think about any similarity between the Irish struggle for independence from Great Britian's rule and that of the period of the Revolt against British Mandatory rule in the Land of Israel prior to 1948, one that comes to mind is that of Mordechai Berger.

Berger, a Jewish member of the Palestine Police Force (PPF) 

was attacked by a gang of Hagana members on March 29, 1947.  They beat him with metal pipes and killed him, and then spread rumors that it was the work of the Irgun.  As the March 30, 1947 Palestine Post reported:

Eventually, an internal disciplimary tribunal of the Hagana found the Tel Aviv Commander guilty of impropriety in ordering the attack without senior level confirmation.  He was removed from his position.

As for Berger, 

he is not even mentioned at the official Yizkor site.

I do not know if Beger's widow or children ever received compensation for the incident.

Luckily, it was Menachem Begin who earlier and later, prevented the development of an internal war within the Yishuv, the Saison period, as written, p. 118:

In the December 3, 1944 issue of the Irgun newspaper, Herut, Begin published his article “There will be no civil war!” explaining at the beginning his deepest reason for his restraint: 
Against the eyes of every son of the nation appear and reappear the carriages of death. The images come as if of their own volition – even during daytime diversions; and most of all, maybe, in the nights: The Black Nights when the sound of an infernal screeching of wheels and the sighs of the condemned press in from afar and interrupt one’s slumber; to remind one of what happened to mother, father, brothers, to a son, a daughter, a People. In these inescapable moments every Jew in the country feels unwell because he is well. He asks himself: Is there not something treasonous in his existence. He asks: Can he sit by and allow the terrible contradiction between the march of death there and the flow of life here… And there is no way to run from these questions…

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Only Israel Has 'Price-Tag' Attacks

Reported:

Nigel Farage was hit by an egg as he arrived in Nottingham as part of Ukip’s European election campaign.  He was struck as he got out of a car in the city centre after which he quickly climbed back in to the vehicle and drove off, leaving supporters behind. …A force spokeswoman said: "Police were called to a report of an assault in Wheeler Gate, Nottingham, at 1.30pm today. A 33-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of assault and is in police custody."  He told the BBC: "Egg-throwing is a well-established form of political protest in this country. …Mr Farage has joined a select group of politicians who have found themselves at the end of an egg pelting protests over the years.  Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, was hit by an egg splattering on his head and jacket during visit to a south London street market…David Cameron was hit by an egg on the campaign trail in Cornwall in 2010 by a 16-year-old student…Nick Clegg, the deputy Prime Minister, was splattered with blue paint after a protester threw an egg filled with the liquid at him Glasgow in 2011.John Prescott, the then deputy Prime Minister, was hit in the face with an egg when he arrived at a rally and was then involved in a scuffle with the protester.  He fell back over a wall before being led to safety by police.

How come  they refer to that as 'price-tag' activity?

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You've Seen the "Palestine" Tie?

Okay, from 1994, but still a cool graphic:

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Found: Apartheid

New Islamic fatwa: Foreign Muslims can visit Jerusalem's Temple Mount 

Visiting the Al-Aksa Mosque on Jerusalem's Temple Mount will not be considered symbol of normalization of ties with Israel, according to a Fatwa issued in Amman on Wednesday. The fatwa cancels a previous one that prohibited Muslims from around the world from visiting the site.

...The fatwa entitled "Visiting Al-Aqsa Mosque Under the Occupation" emphasized that normalization with the "occupation" should be avoided in order to prevent harm to the Palestinians. The scholars clarified that tourists visiting Al-Aqsa should only use the lodging, food, and transportation services of Palestinians and only in east Jerusalem.  

The fatwa also said tourists could visit the city as part of Palestinian or Jordanian tours without Israeli coordination.  

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Let's Whiten Things Up

First in a series of frontpage web news sites:

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Clinton Surprises: 16 Meters of Wall

As we all should know, the Clinton Parameters for peace in December 2000 included this:

Israel would gain sovereignty over the Western Wall. The Palestinians would gain sovereignty and Israel would gain "symbolic ownership" over the rest [that should be the 'underground' are] of the Temple Mount, with both parties sharing sovereignty over the issue of excavations under the Temple Mount.

However, all seem surprised today at reports of Clinton restating history:

Former United States President Bill Clinton claimed on Wednesday [in] comments...made during a speech at Georgetown University in Virginia [you can hear/see the clip in this Hebrew news item], during which he made some revelations regarding the Camp David Summit attended by himself, then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak, and then-PA Chairman Yasser Arafat.

"The Israelis offered to give it (the Temple Mount) to the Palestinians," Clinton was quoted by Channel 2 as having said.

“They disagreed about only 16 meters of the Western Wall, about which Israel was right,” he continued, saying that the 16 meters in question were land leading to the Western Wall tunnels and that “if you got in, you could do mayhem to the ruins of the temples.”

True, Robert Malley claimed in the New York Times of July 8, 2001 that during the 2000 Camp David II, it was discussed that

Israel would exercise overall sovereignty over this area, known to Jews as the Temple Mount. 

and Moshe Amirav, in his book "Jerusalem Syndrome" on page 153, claims that Barak insisted on "not conceding the Temple Mount".  Greg Myre of the NYTimes writes in his book that the whole purpose of Arik Sharon ascending to the Temple Mount in September 2000, at the urging of Uri Dan, was to protest Barak's concessions on Jerusalem and the Temple Mount.

Aaron Klein, though, already in 2007, reported on what Haaretz published:

REVEALED: ISRAEL AGREED TO FORFEIT TEMPLE MOUNTPublished: 12/13/2007
In spite of longstanding denials by top officials here, the Israeli government in 2000 agreed to relinquish the Temple Mount – Judaism’s holiest site – to the Palestinians during U.S.-backed negotiations, according to declassified documents made public today.

According to declassified Israeli government documents published today by Israel’s Haaretz newspaper, during U.S.-led negotiations in 2000 at Camp David, Ehud Barak, then prime minister, agreed sovereignty over the Temple Mount would be either “ambiguous” or control would be determined based on the bond of each party to the site. The Palestinians would therefore control the upper sections of the Mount, which houses the Al Aqsa Mosque and also is the site of the First and Second Jewish Temples.

...Barak at times denied he offered the Temple Mount to the Palestinians, but he also indicated during interviews he was willing to compromise over the site.

But what Clinton got wrong was this:

a. Arafat never believed the Temple was ever on the Temple Mount

b. the "mayhem" would not be done to the "ruins of the temples" (see 'a' above) but Arafat's fear was that Israel would undermine the Al-Aqsa Mosque or Dome of the Rock or cause the whole compound to collapse.

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