At A Mackey Blog Post

Here:

Yisrael Medad

 Shiloh, Israel 5 hours ago

One more thing: why not report on the Arab "three-finger salute" campaigh in which young children hold aloft three fingers as a sign of victory and identification with the terrorists who kidnapped the three Jewish youngsters? Pictures can be seen here:http://www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/three-fingered-salute-new-...

Yisrael Medad

 Shiloh, Israel 5 hours ago

This portrayal - "Route 60, a highway that runs through the West Bank. The road was rerouted in 1990 to add bypasses that allow Jewish settlers to travel the West Bank without having to go through Palestinian towns." - is a bit wrong. Highway 60 was rerouted only after the Oslo Accords in 1993 and the reason was two-fold: as Ramallah and Shchem/Nablus were to be surrendered to the Palestinian Authority, the road had to be rerouted. In addition, a second reason was to minimize the injuries and danger to Jewish vehicular travel due to rock-throwing and firebomb tossing, Unfortunately, by awarding Fatah terrorists rigles only ratched up the dangers and many Jews were shot and killed on that road including drive-by shootings from cars driven by Arabs which is odd given the claim that the road is an "apartheid road". Today, half the traffic carries Pal. Authority license plates

^

TransJordan's Israelite Presence

A new book out deals with the question of "can archaeology recover anything that speaks to identities during the Late Bronze and early Iron I periods of early Israel in the area of southern Levant"?

His answer:

there were indeed early Israelites present, on the basis of long term cyclical settlement patterns in central Transjordan...relatively little attention has been given to the region east of the river Jordan...[but]...the available documentary sources (both biblical and Moabite, such as the Mesha Stele) suggest that vigorous tribal interaction existed there. 

And his assertion:

The settlement data from Umayri and Madaba along with surveys conducted in the area reveals a material cultural landscape with strong affinities with its counterpart highland culture west of the Jordan. Nevertheless, local micro-variations, such as potter’s marks on the collared rim storejars, among others, could be interpreted as signals of “ethnic” variations.

...As coveted agricultural land, the Madaba plateau region (the region of North Moab, cf. Numbers 21:13) is described in both Israelite and Moabite sources as contested territory which changed hands several times among varying tribal groups. As interpreted in my study, data from Numbers 21, the Mesha Inscription, as well as the Jephthah story (Judges 11) acknowledge a long history of conflict and reflect remarkable candor in acknowledging that, in spite of their claims to the contrary, no one group could really hold the land permanently.

Interesting.

^ 

Are You A 'Palestinian'? Or, Who is A 'Palestinian'?

Found:

Are you a Palestinian family living in the Diaspora (US, UK, Chile, Canada, Australia, etc.)? Do you have a teenager who will be entering 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th,, 12th grade this fall? Well, then, please consider sending her or him to our Go Palestine Summer Camp this August 2014!

Go Palestine will be hosted by the Ramallah Friends School, an institution founded over a century ago by American Quakers in Palestine. Each of our Diaspora campers will be matched with a student from the Ramallah Friends School and the latter’s family will host the former at their homes.  

Go Palestine will include a multi-faceted program: community service rebuilding Palestinian homes and working in refugee camps and olive tree planting, arts/music/dance (focused on Palestinian culture such as debkeh), speaker series, film series, Arabic lessons,  field trips around the country, and much more!

Camp starts on July 31st and ends on August 20th. 

Please apply NOW as we have LIMITED spots and will be accepting campers on a ROLLING basis! For more information, please visit our website at or contact us at gopalestine@rfs.edu.ps.

I wonder, will the program include:

-  stone-throwing?

-  firebomb making?

-  how to construct a roadblock?

-  how to kidnap?

-  how to flash three fingers in support of terror?

A Typical Day
Your daily schedule will vary, giving you an opportunity to experience many different aspects of Palestinian culture. In addition to having an opportunity to explore in places such as Bethlehem, Hebron, Nablus, and Taybeh, participants will spend time doing service projects, shopping in local stores and markets, experiencing local food, joining a member of the host family at work, or participating in Ramallah nightlife. Arabic language learning, as needed, will be integrated through the day.

...Here are a few examples of what a 'typical' day may look like for you. You can also view a previous itinerary.

The Morning
Could be playing some sports or recreation games at the Friends School,
Taking fields trips to explore other towns and sites.
Doing service work in refugee camp
Arts, Dance, workshops, hiking or music programs.

Your typical day will have many different opportunities to experience Palestinian culture, including the local stores
The Afternoon
If we are dong activities around the Friends School campus, then might travel to a project near-by
If we are working at a refugee camp, for example, we would simply go back to our project.
Swimming
Usually by 4 PM we have finished.

I am wondering - can the grandchildren of those Jews who held Palestinian citizenship (and I know several) participate or is this for Arabs only?

^ 

Charoset Recipe - 800 Years Old

From this book, Sefer HaTadir, from the 14th century, a recipe for preparing the charoset for the Seder feast:

Trouble reading the script?

Here:

The ingredients?

Dates.
Dried Figs.
Raisins.
Greens.
Apples.
Nuts.
Chestnuts.
Vinegar.
Pleasant spices.

We Were Prevented, Claims Temple Mount Waqf

"the crew from the maintenance staff were prevented from working on the maintenance of the electricity inside the courtyards of the mosque by the Antiquities Authority and the Israeli police"

Arabic Source:

  كما منعت طواقم من سلطة الآثار وشرطة الاحتلال موظفي الصيانة من العمل في صيانة الكهرباء داخل باحات المسجد.


Previous digging:

^

What Obama Can Do for the Kidnapped Boys

I read Paula and created this:

^

Muslims & Christians Only

One of the more insidious phrases used by the 'Arabs-who-refer-to-themselves-as-Palestinians' is "the mosques and churches of Jerusalem". Arafat used it frequently and even Abbas does.  Jerusalem is not Jewish but only Muslim-Christian.

In other words, no Jews.

Apartheid.

It stems from here (and see this):

The Treaty of Umar
As they did with all other cities they conquered, the Muslims had to write up a treaty detailing the rights and privileges regarding the conquered people and the Muslims in Jerusalem. This treaty was signed by Umar and Patriarch Sophronius, along with some of the generals of the Muslim armies.
The text of the treaty read:

In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate. This is the assurance of safety which the servant of God, Umar, the Commander of the Faithful, has given to the people of Jerusalem. He has given them an assurance of safety for themselves  for their property, their churches, their crosses, the sick and healthy of the city and for all the rituals which belong to their religion. Their churches will not be inhabited by Muslims and will not be destroyed. Neither they, nor the land on which they stand, nor their cross, nor their property will be damaged. They will not be forcibly converted. No Jew will live with them in Jerusalem.

That source does, however, notes

One of Umar’s guides in Jerusalem was a Jew named Kaab al-Ahbar. Umar further allowed Jews to worship on the Temple Mount and the Wailing Wall,

^

Thompson Thumps It

I have had cause to mention Thomas Thompson previously (here; and also here).

A review of his new book provides us with some insight.  I pick some relevant insights to his approach:

1.  ...the patriarchal stories are literary fictions and that, for this reason, scholars should turn away from the quest to recover the realia of ancient Israel and toward studying the genre of the heroic 

tale...Thompson rejects the assumptions of the “biblical theology” movement, “that biblical traditions originated in events” (71). He postulates that the “Israel” portrayed in the Bible is a literary phenomenon, not a historical one, and concludes that the biblical narrative was formed either during the period of Assyrian domination of Palestine or, at the latest, during the pre-Hellenistic postexilic period (91–92). The early stories in the Bible are not rooted in history but are 

literary tropes...

2.   ...biblical narratives are not historiography

3.   ...Thompson compares Genesis–2 Kings with Ugaritic and Greek epic literature and identifies a number of criteria that he deems significant for identifying biblical literature with both epical genres and historiography (157–58). In the end, however, he concludes that “the biblical traditions present themselves as neither historiography nor as great narrative epic” but that the Bible talks about the past primarily “by way of illustration” for the purpose of providing instruction and discourse.  Its identification with the past is strictly, however, vicarious...

4.   ...the biblical archaeological agenda of creating a historical synthesis of the biblical narrative with archaeological results is no longer viable”...“without evidence, one does not write history”...the difficulty of explaining how such a poor village economy, as is reflected in the excavations on Ophel, could have been responsible for the prolific literary achievements that are suggested for the Persian period. Could such a small Jerusalem—however religiously oriented—support the level of literary production implied by the Hebrew Bible, as is now suggested by Charles Carter, Davies, and Rias Sawah, regarding Jerusalem’s role as a holy city and scribal center?...“we might consider other sites which can be expected to have played a significant role in composing the Bible and, consequently, in forming early Judaism,” including Gerizim, Elephantine and second-century Leontopolis, the community and temple at ‘Araq al-Amir...A more complex perspective on the origins of the Torah and the Hebrew Bible is required, opening a new perspective with rich possibilities for the understanding of Samaritan and Jewish origins...

^

Is Hamas a 'Militant' Group?

Well, according to this news item at Ma'an,

Four Hamas members were injured on Friday morning by an accidental explosion at one of the group's military training sites west of the city of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.

Spokesperson for the Gaza Ministry of Health Ashraf al-Qidra told Ma'an that the four individuals were taken to hospitals in the southern Gaza Strip for treatment.

You did catch that?

 military training sites

Next, they'll be calling them terrorists.

^

And Now the Letters-to-the-Editor on Dani Dayan's Op-ed

The letters-to-the-Editor responding to Dani Dayan's op-ed:


Abandon the Two-State Solution?
JUNE 12, 2014

To the Editor:

Dani Dayan’s plan for improving the lives of West Bank Palestinians (“Peaceful Nonreconciliation Now,” Op-Ed, June 9) is smoke and mirrors.

Mr. Dayan, a former leader of West Bank settlers, shares responsibility for messing up the lives of West Bank Palestinians by building dozens of settlements in what should be the future state of Palestine in the hope that what he calls “Judea and Samaria” would be annexed to Israel.

His plan is aimed at erasing the Green Line that separates the West Bank from Israel, and denying the Palestinians what they really want — an independent state, free from Israeli occupation. If Mr. Dayan really cares about Palestinians’ daily life — and about the future of Israel as a democracy and a Jewish state — he and his fellow settlers should return to Israel and leave the West Bank for Palestinians to have a state of their own.

ORI NIR
Spokesman, Americans for Peace Now
Washington, June 9, 2014

To the Editor:

By any metric, the United States-backed peace process in the Mideast has been an abject failure. It has accomplished nothing in the way of reducing violence, mitigating the occupation, improving living standards or promoting human rights. At least Dani Dayan is suggesting constructive ideas that can be implemented in the imminent future, even if it means that the United States need not be invited to the party.

At a certain point, the notion of recycling the same stale, unachievable formula for a final status agreement between Israelis and Palestinians via a United States-imposed peace process will become irrelevant. Perhaps Mr. Dayan would agree that we’ve long since reached that point.

YITZHAK BRONSTEIN
New York, June 10, 2014

To the Editor:

Dani Dayan says there are “practical issues that can and should be solved,” and calls his plan “a blueprint for peaceful nonreconciliation.” Unfortunately, everything he suggests is something that Israel must do.

For example, the security barrier “should ultimately be dismantled and Palestinians should enjoy complete freedom of movement.” “Barriers, checkpoints and military restrictions on movement must be lifted.” “Palestinians should be allowed full entry into Jewish towns.”

No requirements from the writer on the Palestinians.

And if Israel does as suggested and Palestinian terrorists kill and maim Israelis as a result of these steps, would Mr. Dayan blame Israel for that? After all, Hamas — now part of the Palestinian government — has sworn to continue its campaign of terror.

GERALD DEUTSCH
Glen Head, N.Y., June 9, 2014

To the Editor:

Dani Dayan is correct to call on Israel to improve the conditions of the Palestinians in the West Bank in ways that would be consistent with Israel’s security needs. However, Mr. Dayan wrongly dismisses the imperative of creating a Palestinian state to ensure Israel’s own future as a Jewish and democratic state. On-the-ground improvements are essential, but they ultimately cannot be a substitute for advancing a negotiated resolution to the conflict, based on two states for two peoples.

If Mr. Dayan, a former settler leader, were serious about promoting practical steps to create a better atmosphere in the region, he would join Israel’s justice minister, Tzipi Livni, finance minister, Yair Lapid, and opposition leader, Isaac Herzog, who have all recently proposed that Israel freeze West Bank settlement construction beyond the major Israeli population blocs.

Israel and the Palestinians each should take actions on the ground, but those actions must serve to constructively reinforce — not undermine — the opportunity to achieve a two-state solution.

PETER A. JOSEPH
New York, June 9, 2014

The writer is chairman of the Israel Policy Forum.


And some of that above passes for intelligent insight?

My JPost blog comment.

^

Getting Academically Settled

A conference will be conducted on the issue of Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, or, as our academics would have it:

The Settlements in the West Bank (1967-2014): 

New Perspectives

A research workshop

Jewish settlements are one of the most controversial issues in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Still, academic production and media attention on the topic focuses almost entirely on the radical, national-religious components of the settlers’ population; on the connection between the settlement enterprise and the religious-ethno-national territorial imperative of the “conquest of the land”; on the status of settlements within the framework of international law; on the role of the settlements as “obstacles to peace”; and as an issue of political campaigning (both inside and outside Israel).

The rationale for organizing this research workshop is to explore less conventional approaches and angles that go beyond the immediate politico-diplomatic dynamics and impact of Israel’s settlement policy. The underlying assumption is that the settlements’ enterprise is not an exceptional phenomenon contradictory to other trends in Israeli society, but is a historical process that was shaped by and related to other long-term processes.

We feel that a more comprehensive approach is needed in order to understand how the transformation of the landscape determined by the expansion of settlements created new – albeit not necessarily fair – patterns of relations amongst the resident population of Israel/Palestine. At the same time, a more holistic approach to the settlement issue can open up spaces for comparative analysis and theory building beyond the specific reality of Israel/Palestine.

and the workshop will be hosted by the Minerva Humanities Center and received the generous support of the Van Leer Institute and of the CRFJ – Fondation Bettencourt Schueller.

And some of the presentations:

Settlement as Suburbanization: The Banality of Colonization

The Shift from Messianic Outposts to Urban Settlements in the 1980s

The Welfare State of Settlers

Haredi Settlers: Religion and Neoliberalism on the West Bank Frontier

Personal Narratives of Female Settlers: Uncovering Alternative Routes and Networks

Beyond Separation: Affective Annexation between the Green Line and the Wall

Typological Theory and the Case for a Transnational Perspective on Israeli Expansionism

The Origins of the Redemption in Occupied Suburbia: Rabbi Shlomo Riskin and the Jewish-American Makings of Efrat, 1973-2013

The Effect of Organizational Membership and Collective Identity on Radical Collective Action


First, we made history.

Then, we became history.

Now, our history is studied.

^

The Waqf Will Permit a Temple To Remain ?

I saw this headline:

Wakf lets temple remain on encroached land

and thought to myself that the Days of the Messiah have arrived.

But, being a bit more basic, I continued to read the story and found out this is not from an Arab news site relating to the situation in Jerusalem and the Temple Mount.

No.

India.

...the AP State Wakf Board (APSWB) last month approved the tenancy of an encroacher who had built a Santoshi Mata temple on wakf land.

The land in question belongs to the Koh-e-Imam-Zamin Shiite institution in Trimulgherry and the temple was built in the 1980s, which makes it difficult to remove the structure now...Members said the Wakf Board has found itself in a catch-22 situation as there could be many Hindu religious structures built on various wakf land parcels and they have to use other means to tackle the situation in future . "The only way to evict such encroachers is to first make them tenants and then decline to extend the lease. While drafting the lease agreement and proceedings, we will make sure to include the clause that no temple should be constructed at the site," said an APSWB official requesting anonymity. 

A second item this past May deals with the Waqf reclaiming land.

The AP State Wakf Board (APSWB) is drawing up plans to reclaim large portions of encroached land endowed to Dargah Hazrat Mir Mahmood Auliya (DHMMA), which include areas such as Arsh Mahal in Kishanbagh.

Sources in the APSWB said that the encroachments on the endowed land are not new and have been the 'norm' for the last 30 years. Parts of Rajendranagar, Attapur, Hasan Nagar, Jalal Baba Nagar and Mahmood Nagar too are areas which have been endowed, the sources said.

I guess we need to wait a bit longer to solve our Waqf-Temple situation.

^ 

Archaeological Evidence on the Temple Mount

Snaps from today's presentations at the Yad Ben-Tzvi Institute Congerence on what have been found on the Temple Mount during excavation work done by the Waqf for either water or electric lines or pipes:

the outlines of a building that was constructed, unlike all other early period structure, in a slanted direction.

and

pottery remains from the 6th century BCE, that is, just before the destruction of the First Temple and there were animal remians as well.

and stones deep underground that were marked by the Hebrew letter ק which indicates korban that is, dedicated especially for the Temple:-

^

No Peace Negotiations Wanted

On a question asked by pollster on the subject of "Palestinian – Israeli Negotiations”

"In general, do you support or oppose the return to the peace negotiations between the Palestinians and the Israelis under the prevailing circumstances?”

the responses were so:

(56.3 %) said “I oppose”, (30.3 %) “I support” and (13.4 %) said “I don’t know”.

Methodology of the Survey Study

Mr. Elias Kukali, Head of the Quantitative Researches Department at the PCPO, said that all interviews of this survey were conducted inside the respondents' homes, i.e. face-to-face during different working hours, at least 5 hours a day, including the evening time, in order to ensure proper representation of those sub-groups of the population, which would otherwise be difficult to reach and selecting one individual in each household using Last Birthday Method. The choices were taken from a total of (168) election sites, from which (124) sites are located in West Bank and (44) sites in Gaza Strip according to the distribution of the Central Election Commission. 

The Palestinian Center for Public Opinion (PCPO) is a leading full service research institute in Palestine and in a position to organize, implement, handle and conduct national and regional field surveys, studies and researches of any size within the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). The PCPO is founded in February 1994 in Beit Sahour by Dr. Nabil Kukali, who became the president of this center since that time. After the arrival of the Palestinian Authority (PA), the PCPO was registered as a research center under license number (Am/2). The Palestinian Ministry of information issued the license that permits establishing satellite offices elsewhere in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Furthermore, PCPO is registered as a licensed business at the Ministry of Treasury under number 989326251. In addition, we are a member of WIN/Gallup International, ANPOP, WAPOR and ESOMAR. 

^

A Bat But No Baseball in Palestine

Source.

^

Commenting in the NYTimes

I left this comment at Dani Dayan's op-ed in the NYTimes:

Yisrael Medad Shiloh, Israel 22 hours ago
As a colleague, I express agreement with his plan's elements which, in the main, have always been there for those whose ideological background is the Jabotinsky Revisionist camp (see especially his 1940 article "The Arab Angle Undramatized"). My one comment is this sentence "...But we settlers were never driven — except for fringe elements — by bigotry, hate or racism." I think a statement of what we are driven by (unless edited out) should have been included. This is our land, the internationally-recognized homeland of the Jews which is ours through our long historical connection. Until the Mandate period Jews lived in what we know as Judea and Samaria (geographical terms even the UN included in its 1947 Partition Plan - but not the 'West Bank' which was created only in April 1950) but Arabs engaged in an ethnic cleansing campaign. If any has a 'right of return', it si a Jew seeking to return to Hebron, Shchem/Nablus, Gaza and to Shiloh, where I reside, where the Tabernacle was erected at the capital of the tribal federation that existed from 1200 BCE untill the monarchy was formed. We are driven by a national ethos that until the Arabs understand and accept. even the steps Dani suggests will be politically ineffective in the long run. As Jabotinsky wrote, "there, the son of Arabia, the son of Nazereth and my son will benefit from bountifulness and joy" and the "there" was all of the Land of Israel, at its heartland, Judea and Samaria. We are not in a foreign land.

There were two responders:

Leucippe Princeton NJ 19 hours ago
Alas, your attitude that it is all yours and always be so is one continuing basis for obstacles to peace, even co existence.

and

Duncan Lennox Canada 13 hours ago
Sorry but the global consensus of archaeologists (including the leading Israeli archaeologists) & experts in Near East history is that there was no Exodus, no Joshua invasion of Canaan & that the biblical Israelites were native Canaanites who lived in the highlands of Canaan. ie. No Moses, no covenant, no promised land.

As to Abraham, he is also a myth. That he met a Philistine king & used camels as beasts of burden 1000 yrs before that was possible is not a problem for the uninformed. As is the consensus of experts that the United Monarchy never was. ie. In the 10th century BC, Judea was a very sparsely populated outback of 23 villages while Samaria had 235 villages & towns with 8-10x the population & yet most people lived on the coastal plain or fertile Jezreel-Beth Shean valleys.

We need to separate the myths from facts. Justifying the ethnic cleansing of Palestine on the fairy tale of the Passover is equivalent to celebrating Easter based on the Easter bunny.

Historians recognize that the UN Resolution #181 that partioned Palestine in 1947 was a rigged vote. It received the bare minimum of 33 votes of which many were by coercion. eg. Haiti`s was purchased by a "loan". Liberia`s was obtained by threatening its only export product Nat Rubber. Pres.Truman wrote in his memoirs that never before of since was there so much pressure on the UN nations to submit to the Zionists.

To Leucippe:

Alas.

To Duncan:

As for archaeology, not only is he wrong but by its very nature, archaeology is based on what you find.  That you do not find it doesn't mean it isn't there.

As for Abraham, shhhh, don't tell the Muslims.

As for ethnic cleansing, it was we Jews 'cleansed' from Judea and Samaria.

As for rigging, what the Arabs have done outdoes whatever we could have done.

^

The Difference Between This and That Mosque

Jordan's Minister of Endowment and Islamic Sanctuaries and Affairs, Dr. Abdul Salam Al-Abbad, gave an interview.

Some excerpts:

* It is well known that there is a mandate of the Hashemite on the holy sites in Jerusalem, how to follow the Ministry of Awqaf work to care for Al-Aqsa Mosque?

- Our Directorate of the Ministry of Waqf in Jerusalem where 600 employees their mission to protect the Aqsa Mosque and sponsorship. We are continuing on with the Directorate to follow all the developments taking place in the Al-Aqsa Mosque. The directorate oversees the affairs of the Waqf of Jerusalem in general and Al-Aqsa Mosque in particular, in the sense that every mosque in the city of Jerusalem is our responsibility as a large number of schools in Jerusalem belonging to the Jordanian Ministry of Religious Endowments...the custody of Jordan is right for overseeing the legal, administrative and political Islamic and Christian sanctities in Jerusalem does not mean to compete with the state of Palestine, which has sovereignty over Jerusalem.

The Ministry of Awqaf has everything you need to meet in Jerusalem holy sites of care, maintenance and reconstruction projects in coordination with the Jordanian Royal Committee for the reconstruction of Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock supervisors, and with the Hashemite Fund for the reconstruction of Al-Aqsa Mosque. And allotted by the Ministry of Awqaf to Jerusalem annually reach seven million Jordanian dinars out of 54 million Jordanian dinars are full budget of the Ministry of Awqaf of Jordan,..the latest donation from the King for the Marwani Mosque is $ 300 thousand U.S. dollars.

* What about protecting the Al-Aqsa Mosque from the repeated incursions of his Jewish extremists?

- There are around 100 Al-Aqsa Mosque guards to protect the mosque and prevent Jewish extremists from entering the precincts and to face up to the occupation forces when they provide protection for extremists to enter the Al-Aqsa yards...

...we alone can not end all violations of the Al-Aqsa Mosque from the occupation because these larger than the capacity of the Ministry of Awqaf and greater energies, Jordan, Palestine, and therefore it is necessary to plan the Arab and Islamic integrated to protect the Al-Aqsa mosque because it belongs to all Muslims. particularly as we see that the recent Israeli violations began to take a picture of programmed and systematic provocations of extremists...His Majesty the King is constantly moving in order to defend and protect the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and the Jordanian government is moving in the direction of protecting holy sites. The Jordanian politics is always that the issue of Jerusalem and the holy sites is a priority, and can not be any compromise or peace without the departure of the occupation of Jerusalem and the occupation policy toward Jerusalem and the holy sites is a dangerous policy that could lead to the area of ​​the explosion.

And in Jordan itself, there is a problem with Islamist extremists in the mosques (forget about the Jews).

So?

* How would you describe the politicization of some mosques?
- The mosque should not be used for the benefit of a team or a political movement, because in this case does not become disunited complex and enters the mosque in the vortex of the political conflict between the different currents. This does not mean that we are to prevent the speakers from talking politics and we allow political talk, but balanced and moderate and without atonement and without bias for a class or a team with paying attention to the priorities needed to build human and Jordan. The message is the message of the mosque and agree not to engage in a message contentious issues.

Understand the difference?

^ 

It's Greek To Me

Consider this:-

Ζεὺς μὲν ἀφίκτωρ ἐπίδοι προφρόνως

στόλον ἡμέτερον νάιον ἀρθέντ᾽

ἀπὸ προστομίων λεπτοψαμάθων

Νείλου. Δίαν δὲ λιποῦσαι

χθόνα σύγχορτον Συρίᾳ φεύγομεν,

οὔτιν᾽ ἐφ᾽ αἵματι δημηλασίαν

ψήφῳ πόλεως γνωσθεῖσαν,

ἀλλ᾽ αὐτογενεῖ φυξανορίᾳ

γάμον Αἰγύπτου παίδων ἀσεβῆ

'ξονοταζόμεναι.

That is from The Suppliants by Aeschylus and translates so:-

I pray that Zeus who cares for suppliants

will look with kindness on our company,

whose ship has travelled here across the sea

from the fine-grained sandy estuary

of river Nile. We fled that sacred land,

whose pastures border Syria, and come

as fugitives, not exiled by decree

of public banishment for shedding blood, 

but acting on our own, because we wished

to flee a marriage we could not accept,

a hateful and sacrilegious match

with Aegyptus’ sons.

I do appreciate literature (one of my daughters earned a MA in Comparative Literature and her thesis was on leg injuries) but what caught my eye was the fact that between Syria and Egypt, well, there is no "Palestine".

The play dates from around 470 BCE.

At that time period, the Land of Israel was still seeking to reconstruct after the expulsion to Babylon.  Ezra had not yet arrived with a significant number of returnees.  It is quite logical that the "Land of Israel" would not be mentioned.

But, if as Arabs claim, the land was always "Palestine", why no mention?

^

Will Peres Daven In the S'fard Nusach?

 The public part of the meeting will then take place in the presence of the press: a musical opening, a brief introduction in English to explain the course of the event, and then three distinct moments of prayer in the three religions, first Jewish (in Hebrew), then Christian (in English, Italian and Arabic), and lastly Muslim (in Arabic). “We do not pray together, but we stay together to pray avoiding any form of syncretism” said Pizzaballa. “Some may observe that the two presidents are not religious, but they are believers:  it is not necessary to wear the religious habit in order to pray”, he said, noting that “Abbas knows the Quran very well and Peres the Jewish scriptures” and anyway,  the two presidents are present as “representatives of their people” and not religious leaders.  Bartholomew, on his part, will recite part of a Christian prayer. All three prayers will, however, have the same structure: a passage on creation, a request for forgiveness and a cry for peace interspersed with short musical passages. Lastly, the three interventions of the Pope, President Peres and President Mahmoud Abbas "who will recite the words they deem appropriate, and their cry for peace”.  The public portion of the meeting will end with “a gesture of peace, probably a common handshake” said Lombardi, and then the four protagonists will plant an olive tree, a symbol of peace.

Source

^

Look What's At Al-Aqsa Now

I hope these are not Temple Mount gallows but only sunshades for the upcoming Ramadan month:

^