A Year Later - and No Wiser

Here's NGO Monitor's Press Release

One Year Later, NGOs Recycling the Gaza Myths
December 27, 2009

Marking the first anniversary of the Gaza war, many NGOs are publishing reports that repeat allegations based on unverifiable evidence and often false claims.

• Before the war, many NGOs ignored the 8000 rocket attacks from Gaza, the kidnapping of Gilad Shalit, and internal Palestinian violence...

• NGO superpowers like HRW and Amnesty...den[ied] the evidence that Hamas had used the population of Gaza as human shields.

• HRW’s report, entitled ‘Precisely Wrong’ (June 2009), accuses Israel of using highly accurate drones...NGO Monitor shows that HRW provides no substantive evidence for these claims.

• Many NGO reports classified members of Hamas forces as “civilians”...

• On December 31, 2008, B'Tselem accused the IDF of committing “war crimes” by "targeting" police personnel who were not “directly participating in the hostilities”...

• The NGO network, largely funded by European governments, has been centrally responsible for advancing “war crimes” cases against Israeli officials...

• NGOs were central to the Goldstone Report (the content of which was “cut-and-paste” from these publications) which calls for United Nations and International Criminal Court action against Israel.

B'tselem is keeping up their 'good' work (see here).

Remember go here to get the view of last year.

Here Come Up the (Fashion) Bloggers

On a story about how bloggers have, literally, moved up to the walkway first row seats, the NYTimes published this picture by Dennis Valle:



Three bloggers up front. And here is some of the article:

As a relatively new phenomenon in the crowded arena of journalists whose specialty it is to report the news of the catwalks, fashion bloggers have ascended from the nosebleed seats to the front row with such alacrity that a long-held social code among editors, one that prizes position and experience above outward displays of ambition or enjoyment, has practically been obliterated...

“There has been a complete change this year,” said Kelly Cutrone, who has been organizing fashion shows since 1987. “Do I think, as a publicist, that I now have to have my eye on some kid who’s writing a blog in Oklahoma as much as I do on an editor from Vogue? Absolutely. Because once they write something on the Internet, it’s never coming down. And it’s the first thing a designer is going to see.”

Perhaps it was to be expected that the communications revolution would affect the makeup of the fashion news media in much the same way it has changed the broader news media landscape...blogs have made remarkable strides in gaining both readership and higher profiles. At the shows this year, there were more seats reserved for editors from Fashionista, Fashionologie, Fashiontoast, Fashionair and others, and fewer for reporters from regional newspapers that can no longer afford the expense of covering the runways independently.

But it is somewhat surprising that designers are adjusting to the new breed of online reporter more readily than magazines, which have been slow to adapt to the demand for instant content about all things fashion. Blogs are posting images and reviews of collections before the last model exits the runway, while magazine editors are still jockeying to feature those clothes in issues that will be published months later.

So it is not without reason that some editors feel threatened, or that seasoned critics worry...

At the Second Jewish Bloggers Convnetion, Prime Minister Advisor Ron Dermer promised to provide accreditation for bloggers as recognized journalists here in Israel so we can attend press conferences and such. You know, cover the news?

Okay, he didn't say everybody and he didn't say immediately.

But, Ron, any progress?

Maybe select a few of us and see how it goes?

I know that the IDF is more open to a new arrangement with bloggers.

Can we hear from you?

Remember, it's the way it's going all over.

On Rosenthal at Silverstein

I left a comment at Silverstein:

Is it really in her purview to make the comment she did about Oren? I mean if you think Oren was being antisemitic, saying what he did about J Street (it is a “Jewish” group, no? – although it does have a strong non-Jewish and even Arab backing), then maybe she had an official mandate to criticize him but perhaps she was doing so as a former J Streeter?

Uri Tzvi Greenberg in a NYTimes Blog

Another entry at Schott's Blog at the NYTimes.

This time a bit of Uri Tzvi Greenberg:

נאהב יהודים

…We will love ourselves: Jews who are swordless, hated!
Together we’ll pray the prayer of great fraternity,
for it is holy as the living blood running at the feet of the murderer;
for it is pure as the tear in the orphaned infant’s eye.
The non-Jews open before us the fire and the sea
and we have chosen: life and the reestablishment of our kingdom.
Shoulder to shoulder! So that there should be no space between a Jew’s body and his comrade, crowded together!!
A congregation of Jews awaiting the Messiah.

The original can be found in his Collected Works, Vol. III, p. 60.

HH #249

A new Haveil Havalim is up.

Here.

I Didn't Know That

This sign had me stumped:



I admit it. I didn't know what a snow globe is.

Okay, I know that I am Jewish but I know a lot about Christianity and Islam and all sorts of things. But the term didn't click in.

This is a snow globe:


Those glass things containing a Christmas scene (and other themes as well) that when you shake it, 'snow' appears to fall. Try this for fun.

Now, that could really blow up a plane.

Will It All Fall In?

Will the border between Egypt and Gaza collapse and all fall in?

Why?

Well -

Report: 1,200 smuggling tunnels into Gaza

Egyptian state newspaper al-Ahram reported on Saturday of the Hamas smuggling tunnel industry in Gaza. According to the report, some 1,200 tunnels operate on the border between Egypt and the Strip, with the costs of digging out each tunnel reaching some $50,000.

If each tunnel is 1.5 meters wide, more or less, that equals an empty quotient of 1.8 kilometers of empty soil. At this rate, a little more digging should do the trick.

So, Bibi Will Release More?

You'll notice something horrifying:

Names of Terrorists Killed During Tonight's IDF Operation

Nader/Raed A-Gabar Machmad Surkajy, a 40 year old resident of Nablus, is a Nablus Fatah Tanzim activist and has been imprisoned in Israel in the past. Prior to his arrest in 2002, Surkajy was a senior member of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and was involved in multiple terror attacks. Surkajy was also involved with the manufacturing of explosives and the establishment of an explosives-manufacturing laboratory in Nablus. Surkajy was arrested in April 2002 and was released earlier this year in January 2009.

Assan Fatachi Naif Abu Sharach, a 40 year old Nablus resident, has also been previosly imprisoned in Israel. He is the brother of Naif Abu Sharach, the former head of the Fatah Tanzim in Nablus, who was responsible for planning multiple terror attacks until he was killed by IDF soldiers in 2004.

Annan Saliman Mustafa Tzubach, a 36 year old Nablus resident, a Shahad Al-Aqsa activist and was involved in widespread militant activity within the framework of the Nablus Fatah Tanzim. The group was led by Naif Abu Sharach until his death. Annan served as an arms dealer and supplier. During an attempt to arrest him tonight, Annan was killed after an exchange of fire with the IDF while he was found in a hiding place along with weapons and ammunition. Annan was included in an agreement in which wanted terror suspects were granted amnesty in exchange for a cease and desist in all terror involvement.

Flying Naked Will We?

Leah G. Goodman made this (improved) observation on the new Islamic terror attempt:

You do realize that at this rate,
except for flying El-Al,
we're all going to be in the skies naked?

CK informs me that's not enough.

There are inner perils.

And I'm fairly sure I've blogged about that inside-the-body-bomb.

What's Wrong Here?

Here, in Ha-Ha-Haaretz:

B'Tselem: IDF may have executed unarmed Palestinian militants

An investigation into an overnight Israel Defense Forces operation in the West Bank city of Nablus early Saturday suggests that Israeli soldiers may have executed two of the three Palestinian militants who were killed, the left wing rights group B'Tselem said Saturday.

Let's see,

a. May have?

b. Unarmed?

c. Militants?

d. Investigation?

e. Only two out of three?

f. Rights group?

g. All of the above?


Nope.

For some strange reason, Ha-Ha-Haaretz terms B'Tselem "left-wing".

There Is A Lesson To Be Learned

Even in the NYTimes:

the continuing determination of Muslim militants to kill Americans

In this story:

Passengers Took Plane’s Survival Into Own Hands

Shivers Up My Spine

There's a competition over at Schott's blog at the New York Times:

co-vocabularists are invited to share the words, phrases, prose and poetry which send goose bumps up their arms or shivers down their spines.

Here's mine. Not quite Christmasly:


The Hebrew poet, Uri Tzvi Greenberg, penned these lines that were published in 1937:

(my translation)

"...We will love ourselves: Jews who are swordless, hated!
Together we'll pray the prayer of great fraternity,
for it is holy as the living blood running at the feet of the murderer;
for it is pure as the tear in the orphaned infant's eye.
The non-Jews open before us the fire and the sea
and we have chosen: life and the reestablishment of our kingdom.
Shoulder to shoulder! So that there should be no space between a Jew's body and his comrade, crowded together!!
A congregation of Jews awaiting the Messiah."

The original can be found in his Collected Works, Vol. III, p. 60.

It should be recalled that the poem was composed in the fall of 1929 and is not a Holocaust-themed piece of literature, in response to Arab riots that summer which killed 133 in Mandate Palestine.

It surely has sent shivers up my spine since I first read it over 40 years ago, thinking about the history of the Jews in the 20th century in the lands of Exile and in the renewed Homeland.

Ever Seen a Birthright Schedule?

I have.

Here:

This Program is Subject to Change

Taglit-Birthright Israel

Arrival to Ben Gurion International Airport
Welcome to Israel - Opening, Ice Breakers; Tree Planting
Drive to Tel Aviv
Visit Independence Hall
Visit Rabin Square
Pizur Lunch
Check into Hotel
Late Afternoon Group Program – Hopes and Expectations
Dinner at the Hotel

Friday
Breakfast
Tour the old City of Jaffa
Visit the Artist Market in Nachalat Binyamin
Drive North
Visit the Ancient Roman City of Caesarea
Lunch on the Way North
Check in to Guest House
Prepare for Shabbat
Group Kabbalat Shabbat
Shabbat Dinner at the Guest House
Oneg Shabbat

Saturday
Breakfast
Rest and Relaxation
Lunch at Hotel
Afternoon Group Program
Sedua Shilsheet
Havdallah
Dinner on own

Sunday
Mifgash/Encounter with IDF Soldiers Day 1
Breakfast
Meet Soldiers and Icebreakers
Volunteer with Livnot U’Le’hibanot Program
Visit the Mystical City of Tsfat
Lunch on Own
Overview of the Lebanon Border at Misgav Am
Dinner at Guest House
Evening Group Program
Overnight Guest House

Monday
Mifgash/Encounter with IDF Soldiers Day 2
Breakfast
Visit Mount Bental for an Overview of Syria
Hike the Jilabun in Katzerin
Overview of the Golan Heights
Visit the Olive Oil Mill
Lunch on Own
Tour the Golan Winery
Rest and Relaxation at Chamat Gader Hot Springs
Dinner at Guest House
Evening Group Program
Overnight Guest House

Tuesday

Mifgash/Encounter with IDF Soldiers Day 3
Breakfast
Green Project at Agamon Hahula
Drive South
Lunch on Own on Route
Cave Crawling at Tel Goded
Camel Trek in the Desert
Bedouin Hospitality, Hafla and Dinner
Bonfire
Evening Group Program with Soldiers
Overnight: Under the Stars

Wednesday
Mifgash/Encounter with IDF Soldiers Day 4
Early Breakfast at the Bedouin Tent
Camel Ride in the Desert
Ascent the Ancient Roman Fortress of Massada
Lunch on own
Rest and Relaxation at Ein Bokek International Beach
Drive to Jerusalem
Overview of Jerusalem from the Hass Promenade
Hora Yerushalaim – Israeli Dancing
Check in to the Hotel
Dinner at the Hotel

Thursday
Mifgash/Encounter with IDF Soldiers Day 5
Breakfast
Seminar at Yad Vashem
Lunch on own
Visit Mount Herzl Cemetery
Group Program and Mifgash Summary
Dinner at the Hotel
Group Evening Program

Friday
Breakfast
Overview from the City of David
Tour the Old City of Jerusalem
Lunch on Own at the Shuk Machane Yehuda
Continue Touring Old City of Jerusalem
Prepare for Shabbat
Group Kabbalat Shabbat at the Kotel
Shabbat Dinner at the Hotel
Oneg Shabbat

Saturday
Breakfast
Morning Group Program
Rest and Relaxation
Lunch at Hotel
Group Summary
Seuda Shlisheet
Havdalla
Final Banquet Dinner
Depart for Airport

With all those "mifgashim", is that Birthright or some form of birth control contest?

Some Good News

The Israeli military killed six Palestinians on Saturday, three in the West Bank whom it accused of killing a Jewish settler and three in Gaza who it said were crawling along the border wall planning an attack. It was the deadliest day in the conflict in nearly a year.

...Maj. Peter Lerner, spokesman for Israel’s Central Command, which controls the West Bank, said that its forces had spent the past two days looking for the killers of the settler, Rabbi Meir Hai, a 45-year-old teacher and father of seven, who was shot dead on Thursday as he drove near his home in the settlement of Shavei Shomron.

The information gathered, he said, led them to three men in the city of Nablus early Saturday. Troops in jeeps descended on their homes and in each case, he said, the suspect was asked to give himself up. None did so, and all were shot dead.

All three, he added, had been involved in anti-Israel violence in the past through activities in the Aksa Martyrs Brigade, a militia associated with the Fatah movement led by Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president. One of them, Annan Sleiman Moustafa Tsubakh, 36, was hiding with two assault rifles, two handguns and ammunition in a crawl space in his house when the Israeli troops found him.

Major Lerner said that the three were the killers of Rabbi Hai and that they acted as an isolated cell rather than as part of some larger organization. Asked if the Israelis had coordinated with the Palestinian security forces that had been patrolling West Bank cities for a year and a half, he said no, that the army’s job was first and foremost to protect Israeli civilians.

Ghassan Katib, spokesman for the Palestinian Authority, said Palestinian security had been investigating the killing when the Israelis interfered. “This is what they do,” he said. “They kill people and then claim they were responsible. Our security forces had begun an investigation into the killing but the Israelis did not coordinate with us.”

and this, too:

Over 500 people from 20 countries, in 250 vehicles loaded with Humanitarian Aid, are left stranded in Aqaba, Jordan, having been refused permission to enter Egypt. The Egyptian Government have placed 3 conditions on the convoy if it wants to enter Egypt.

1. We hand all our vehicles and aid over to UNRA.
2. We drive 500 miles back to Syria, and take a 24 hour ferry through the Suez Canal.
3. We have to ask Israel for permission to cross from Egypt to Gaza.

All 3 conditions have been flatly rejected by everyone on the convoy, as we want to cross into Gaza and hand our aid over to the Palestinians ourselves. For the 1st time, Egypt has now openly admitted that they are under control of Israel/US.

More here.

How Many of You Think Tony Is Racist?

Tony?

Tony who?

The Tony who wrote this:

Racist Zionist Colonist Killed In West Bank Shooting

Tony doesn't know anything about the victim. All he can do and seeks to do is stereotype him, present him as an object, not as a human being, as someone to be hated, despised.

Tony is a liberal, a progressive, a radical, a leftist.

Tony is a racist.

Tony is a violent person. He has this poll question at his blog:

Do you think that it is time for the Palestinians to launch a third Intifada, to stop reacting to a dead "peace process" and to take the initiative?

The results so far are 130 votes total:

Yes 66% 86
No 34% 44

"Tony" seems to be one Dr. Antone Sayegh.

Anyone know anything about him?

I'd Go For A Probe, Too

Does that look like a wanted poster picture to you?



The key word here is probe. Sure I'd go for a probe:

Odd Couple Demands Probe of Rahm Emanuel

Of course, my idea of a 'probe' is probably a bit different than the intention of the story.

And what is the story?

Two strange bedfellows have asked Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate President Obama's right-hand man, chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, for his potential role in the near collapse of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, just as Treasury lifts the cap on their bailout money.

The letter by Jane Hamsher, founder of the liberal Firedoglake Web site, and Grover Norquist, Americans for Tax Reform Chief, was sent Wednesday, one day before the Treasury Department announced that it will lift the $400 billion financial cap on loans to the government-sponsored enterprises to make sure they stay afloat.

...Hamsher and Norquist want to know now whether the bailout was in part the result of corrupt practices by Emanuel while he was a board member at Freddie in 2000-2001.

They cited a Chicago Tribune story that described a plan by the executives and the board to use accounting tricks to show shareholders they were reaping massive profits even as they continued down a path of risky investments. The profits were then used to justify the executives' big bonuses. When Emanuel left the board to enter Congress in 2002, he was qualified for $380,000 in stock and options and $20,000 cash.

The two wrote they would like the Justice Department to "begin an investigation into the cause of Fannie and Freddie's conservatorship, into Rahm Emanuel's activities on the board of Freddie Mac (including any violations of his fiduciary duties to shareholders)...

In their letter to Holder, Hamsher and Norquist wrote that the White House has stonewalled any inquiries into Emanuel's role on the board, noting that the acting inspector general was "stripped of his authority earlier this year by the Justice Department, relying on a loophole in a bill Mr. Emanuel cosponsored and pushed through Congress shortly before he left for the White House."

..."Under the influence of Rahm Emanuel, the White House is moving a trillion-dollar slush fund into corruption-riddled companies with no oversight in place. This will allow Fannie and Freddie to continue to purchase more toxic assets from banks, acting as a back-door increase of the TARP without congressional approval," Hamsher and Norquist wrote.

Asked about the letter on Thursday, White House spokesman Bill Burton did not address the allegations, saying, "I have the feeling that Rahm's job is very safe."

That sounds like a great reason for a probe.


(Kippah tip: BT)

He Wants To Be A Santa - But He's Jewish!?

Found here:

...My own children will be away this Christmas visiting relatives. I want to be Santa because I know how much I'll be missing them. I want to be Santa so I can give love and gifts to other children. If I can't personally give these things to my own children, I can at least try to give them to other people's children. The truth is, I'm the loneliest man in town and I want to be Santa Claus so I can distract myself, so I won't feel so much pain.

I haven't practiced my "ho-ho-hos," but plan to wing it. "Ho ho ho" from the diaphragm, "Ho ho ho" from the heart. I wanna be Santa.

My qualifications? I'm Jewish. I'm a teacher, Fulbright scholar, Guggenheim fellow and the author of 14 books. I have a beard. But mostly, for 53 years I have wanted to participate not as an envious Christmas outsider but as a wholehearted insider. What better way than to become the plump, white-bearded, old man himself?

My shortcomings? I'm tall and skinny. I am a neurotic ectomorph. I have a lean, hungry look about me, sad hazel eyes and a slightly hooked nose.

But I do have a white beard of my own—though tinged with wiry black hairs. I like children. That is, most children. Not all. The little boy down the street who applied red enamel paint to my friend's Boston terrier puppy will be lucky to get a lump of coal this Christmas...read it all)

Next They'll Be Burning Books

Palestinian officials are confiscating merchandise produced in West Bank settlements as part of Prime Minister Salam Fayyad's plan to remove all goods made in the settlements from Palestinian markets by the end of next year. ...Sources in the National Economy Ministry said that NIS 651,982 worth of goods were confiscated and disposed of in the second week of December alone. The goods included Ahava cosmetics and toiletries, plastic products, long-life milk made in the Golan, Mei Eden mineral water and pastries from the Atarot industrial park.

Oops.

They already have.

March 10, 2009: Muslims desecrate Jewish holy books in Hebron

September 07, 2008: Muslims desecrate, urinate in Judaism's 2nd holiest site

Etc., etc., etc.

No Responsibility

IDF officer: Israel recently removed road block from site of fatal attack

Last week, Israel removed a West Bank road block on the very road where 40-year-old Meir Hai was killed in a shooting attack Thursday afternoon, so said an Israel Defense Forces officer who preferred to remain nameless.

The roadblock, known as the barrels road block, the officer said, monitored the traffic around Nablus in the direction of Tul Karm. The perpetrators of Thursday's attack, apparently fled through the point where this roadblock used to be, the officer explained.

I wrote about responsibility before (here in June) and (here).

We warned the IDF that terror would return if facilitated and that the US pressure to lessen our security for the sake of Arabs is wrong.

Oh, and as AP reported in the NYTimes:

An Israeli man was shot to death in the West Bank on Thursday. A little-known militant group identifying itself as a faction of the Fatah movement of the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, claimed responsibility for the attack, in an e-mail message to journalists. Israel Radio identified the victim as a 45-year-old resident of a nearby Israeli settlement. Christmas celebrations proceeded without incident in Bethlehem.

The full report it seems:

Gunmen kill Israeli in West Bank shooting attack
By TIA GOLDENBERG
The Associated Press
Thursday, December 24, 2009; 5:15 PM

JERUSALEM -- Gunmen killed an Israeli man in a shooting attack in the West Bank on Thursday as local attention was focused on Christmas celebrations in nearby Bethlehem.

A Palestinian group took responsibility for the killing.

The man, a resident of a Jewish settlement nearby, was in his 40s and was a father of seven, said Col. Avi Gil, the Israeli military commander in the area. Gil said the military had lifted restrictions on Palestinian movement in the area and that the perpetrators of the attack took advantage of that.

Shooting attacks were once commonplace on routes around the West Bank but have now become rare. Thursday's incident was one of only a handful to take place this year.

The Israeli military has kept many West Bank roads off-limits to Palestinian drivers in restrictions imposed after similar attacks against Israelis, but those restrictions have been gradually loosened and some checkpoints removed as violence in the West Bank has subsided.

A little-known Palestinian militant group identifying itself as a faction of President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement claimed responsibility for the attack in an e-mail sent to journalists.

The quiet in the West Bank in recent years has been due both to action by Israel's military against armed Palestinian groups and to the increasing control of security forces loyal to Abbas' Western-backed government.

The relative quiet allowed holiday celebrations to go ahead without incident Thursday in Bethlehem, where thousands of locals and visitors thronged the square outside Jesus' traditional birthplace.

Least Understood Headline

Ex-Playboy Model of the Year guilty of toilet attack

Yep. It's over at the BBC.

Gee, I've never seen a toilet attacked before.