More PA Disinventivity

As you know, I use the term "inventivity" to note the Arab propensity to create an artificial nationalist conceptualization of themselves and the term "disinventivity" I employ to characterize the Arab habit of fictionalizing and denying any historical Jewish presence in the Land of Israel either by simple non-recognition or by 'adopting' sites, locations and events as "Palestinian", which I also call Palestinianism.

Pal Media Watch has material on disinventivity of Jewish Jerusalem:

Mahmoud Abbas: Jerusalem only has Islamic and Christian history, Israel's "Judaization" is stealing Jerusalem's "cultural, human, and Islamic-Christian religious history" and Mahmoud Abbas' advisor: Israel is creating "artificial heritage with a Jewish spirit at the expense of its [Jerusalem's] true and authentic [identity] as an Arab, Islamic and Christian city" and Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik document:

PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority continue to deny Israel's 3,000 years of history in Jerusalem, claiming it is solely an Arab, Muslim and Christian city. Earlier this month, Abbas referred to Israel's presence and activities in Jerusalem as "Judaization" and stated that Israel is stealing what he called the "cultural, human, and Islamic-Christian religious history." Last month, Abbas' advisor for Jerusalem said that Israel is trying: "to create an artificial heritage with a Jewish spirit at the expense of its true and authentic [identity] as an Arab, Islamic and Christian city." This is not the first time that Abbas has denied Jewish history in Jerusalem and claimed the city for Islam alone. Palestinian Media Watch has reported that Mahmoud Abbas said that taking Jerusalem from Israel is a religious Islamic obligation of the highest level, a "fard ayn" - a personal Islamic commandment incumbent on every Muslim: "I say to the leaders of our Arab nation and to its peoples: Jerusalem and its environs are a trust that Allah entrusted to us. Saving it [Jerusalem] from the settlement monster and the danger of Judaization and [land] confiscation is a personal [Islamic] commandment [Arabic: fard ayn] incumbent on all of us. Therefore, I call all of you to serious and urgent action to save [Jerusalem] and to make available all possibilities in order to strengthen our resolve and to maintain its historical, cultural and religious character." [Al-Jazeera TV, March 27, 2010]

In a different speech, Abbas said in 2010: "The oppressor will not last in Jerusalem; the oppression will not endure. Victory will come, Allah willing. This land is Allah's best land, for which He chooses the finest of His believers, as it is written in the words of the Prophet [Muhammad]." [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, July 11, 2010]

Abbas' Minister of Religion Mahmoud Al-Habbash claimed that Jerusalem has been: "throughout history, the capital of the Palestinian state and the capital of the Palestinian people." [PA TV (Fatah), Aug. 20, 2010]

Neither claim is correct. There has never been a Palestinian state and Jerusalem was never the capital of an Arab or Muslim state. Nonetheless, the minister warned there would be religious war over Jerusalem: "The term 'war' cannot be erased from the lexicon of this region as long as Jerusalem is occupied." [PA TV (Fatah), Aug. 20, 2010]

The Palestinian Authority Mufti Muhammad Hussein likewise recently denied Jewish history in Jerusalem: "They [Jews] want to say or suggest that this place (i.e., the Temple Mount) was once, according to their claim, a Temple. However, in truth, there never was a Temple in any period, nor was there, at any time, any place of worship for the Jews or others at the Al-Aqsa Mosque site (i.e., which was built on the Temple Mount, 705 CE)." [PA TV (Fatah), Jan. 5, 2012]

There is more there.

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Shimon HaTzadik Neighborhood - Early 1948

For those who think that Sheikh Jarrah and Shimon HaTzadik are one and the same, and also forget Nahlat Shimon neighborhood, here's a map of hostilities between Jewish and TransJordanian and local Arab forces in the area in early 1948:-

and a newspaper clipping from September 6, 1946 on a fight that broke out between Jewish and Arab youths in the area:

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So, Why Did Facebook Stock Drop?

The Jewish angle:

(k/t=YD)

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NYTimes Misses An Error

In this puff piece on J Street in the NYTimes (yes, yet again), "Divergent Path on Israel Helps Lobby Group Grow", they correct one error but miss another.

The first error - and correction - is here:

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: May 30, 2012

An earlier version of this article misstated the party affiliation of Representative Joe Walsh of Illinois; he is a Republican, not a Democrat.

Can you spot the second almost at the beginning?

WASHINGTON — There was a time not so long ago when political contributions from Americans supportive of Israel inevitably veered toward those Congressional candidates who were the most hawkish and outspoken in defending Israel and its security.   No longer. While aggressive defenders of Israel still dominate the debate, more moderate voices in the Jewish community — led by J Street, a Washington lobbying group — are expanding their ability to generate money and political capital for pro-Israel candidates who favor a less confrontational approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and other issues.  This week, J Street is expected to land one of its biggest names when it announces its endorsement of Senator Dianne Feinstein, the veteran Democrat from California who is chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, an important forum for Middle East intelligence.

Yes, it is the use of the term "moderate" to describe J Street.

To be fair, the item does include

...charges from some American Jewish leaders and Israeli officials that the group’s moderate positions — it supports increased diplomacy, a two-state Israeli solution and continued aid to the Palestinian Authority — made it “anti-Israel.”   “These are people who cannot be considered friendly to Israel,” said Morris J. Amitay, a former executive director of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee...Josh Block, another former Aipac official, called J Street “a gnat” in the Israel debate and “a fringe organization with no credibility.”...Representative Gary L. Ackerman, Democrat of New York, who broke with the group last year over its support for a United Nations resolution criticizing Israel’s West Bank settlements as illegal.   For J Street defenders, the vitriol is a sign that the group is beginning to have an impact.       
    

But through the liberal progressive prism of media bias at the NYTimes, "moderate" is midway between irrationalist and insensibility, I presume.

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Is Jodi Rudoren Twattering or What?

I was alerted to some Tweet activity involving, again, the new NYTimes' bureau chief here in Israel, Jodi Ruderon:

Rudoren's tweet last night:

Jodi Rudoren‏@rudoren
Very cool NYT piece on crossing into Gaza via Rafah tunnels by Ruqaya Izzidien, who I'm  looking fwd to mtg next trip http://nyti.ms/JTmJ5z

This is what was tweeted in response:

CiF Watch‏@CiFWatch
@rudoren Yes how cool! Have you given a thought to how many Israelis have been victims of terror attacks b/c of those tunnels?

She then backed off  a bit-

Jodi Rudoren‏@rudoren
@seffikogen Said story was cool, not the existence of the tunnels. Cool to have a story inside them, showing how it works.

And received this:

Jodi Rudoren‏@rudoren
@seffikogen Perhaps not best word choice on my part. fascinating maybe better, revealing, etc

And a good sum up:

Margie in Tel Aviv‏@MargieInTelAviv
@rudoren spoken like a star struck 16 yr old.

Will Jodi ever get the hang of it or instead of tweeting is she twattering?


By the way, it was pointed out that

There was a false claim in that tunnel story:

"The Israeli government views the tunnels as an illegal smuggling route and often targets them in airstrikes, which usually trap and kill workers."

My friend asked: 'When was the last airstrike on a tunnel? Months ago? What is the definition of "often"? And "usually" -- doesn't the IAF almost always bomb empty tunnels? '

And then ChallahHuAkbar pointed out that

It seems one tunnel was bombed in early May, no one died. http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=481535

At least two Pals have died in tunnels on their own in May http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=486658  and http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=487657

Guess one can't really depend on balanced, factual and objective news from the NYTimes or its employees.

UPDATE

I wonder, do NYTimes reporters, bureau head, editors, know that through the tunnels come the weapons & bullets Israel faces?

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Temple Mount Ranting from the Provocational Waqf

There is this report:

Wednesday, 30 May, 2012 | 14:19
Jerusalem (SILWANIC) -- Israeli soldiers forcefully entered the courtyard of Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem’s Old City on Monday afternoon, 28 May. The mosque, regarded as the third holiest site in Islam, was surrounded by close to 200 Israeli soldiers as they entered via Dung Gate (Bab al-Maq’rabeh) and raised a 3-meter high Israeli flag in the courtyard in celebration of the Shavuot ( Jewish harvest holiday). The soldiers, scaling the mosque, then amassed on its roof and screamed “the Temple Mount, the Temple Mount” as they danced.

When Mosque volunteers attempted to intervene in the display, a verbal fight broke out between them and the soldiers. Police then arrived to escort the soldiers out of the Al-Aqsa complex, as tensions ran high throughout the Palestinian and Jewish areas of the Old City. Sheikh Azam al-Khatib of Al-Aqsa denounced the raising of the Israeli flag inside Al-Aqsa as a “provocative and dangerous act” in a climate of already heightened tensions. He stated that he has been in touch with police about pressing charges against those responsible.

Do those Border Police and a police officer in that picture above seem to fit the story line to you?

There's this:

Soldiers on Monday violated the status quo on the esplanade of the mosques in east Jerusalem by raising Israel’s flag, the head of the Islamic Waqf organization that oversees the compound charged.  “More than 180 soldiers from a special Israeli army unit today raised a large Israeli flag opposite the mosque of the Rock, which is a grave provocation,” Sheikh Azzam al-Khatib told AFP...Sheikh Khatib said the soldiers entered the esplanade during a visit approved and organized by Israeli police.He said he had made a complaint both to the Israeli police and to the Jordanian authorities. Jordan, which has a 1994 peace treaty with Israel, is the custodian of Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem.

Police spokeswoman Luba Samri confirmed to AFP that there had been an incident but said it concerned “a small flag,” and said that a senior officer at the scene quickly intervened to expel the soldiers from the compound. She said they would later face disciplinary measures.
 

And this:

Sheikh Ikrima Sabri, Chairman of the Supreme Islamic Council in Jerusalem and preacher at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, described the Israeli flag-raising in Al-Aqsa’s courtyards by the Israeli soldiers is a serious and unprecedented act which aims to impose Israeli control over Al-Aqsa mosque.
Sheikh Sabri told Quds press that the flag-raising came in parallel with the repeated stormings of Al-Aqsa Mosque by the occupation soldiers wearing military uniforms which confirms that Al-Aqsa is in real danger.
We are not exaggerating but we foresee the future in light of the increasing acts of the occupation that target al-Aqsa Mosque, Sheikh Sabri said, expressing his disappointment over the Arab and Muslim countries’ silence towards the Judaization process.
He warned against the consequences of allowing armed Jewish settlers to repeatedly break into the Al-Aqsa mosque, saying that such measures set off alarm bells, and adding that the Israeli storming to Al-Aqsa aim to take control of the mosque noting that the Palestinian, Arab, and international general situations encourage occupation authorities to repeat attacks on Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Sheikh Sabri stressed that Al-Aqsa mosque is an Islamic Waqf and it is only for Muslims. However the occupation authorities do not want to recognize these rights, they only want to satisfy the Zionist right in its perpetual aggression. He also added that the occupation bears the responsibility of the consequence of these aggressions and violations.

Nothing has changed since 1929 -

Between Yom Kippur of 1928 and the 18th of Av 1929, the Arabs, aided by the bumbling British, launched a campaign to do away with centuries old customs of Jews at the Western Wall as well as their historical, legal and religious rights there.  The Grand Mufti Haj Amin El-Husseini,seeking to anchor any local inauthentic nationalist sentiment, cleverly exploited religious passions.  He would not be satisfied that the Western Wall was the object of fulmination and propaganda.  No. He accused the Jews of seeking to rebuild the Temple.  Right then and there.  His proof? The Zionist flag flying over the Haram A-Sharif which was the work of montage: 

(see here)

If you read page 238 of this book, you'll get additional information and here, too.

After almost a year of this incitement and after taking advantage of the murder of a young Jewish boy, Avraham Mizrachi, the 1929 Riots broke out resulting in 133 Jewish dead, most of them in Hebron which forced the expulsion of its Jewish community.

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Mutual Historical Heritage Recognition

It's reported that

The Palestinian Authority is expected to ask UNESCO on Wednesday to recognize the West Bank village of Batir as a World Heritage site

Already it has been recognized as a heritage site:

The Historical and Cultural Museum-Reservation of Garni (Armenia) and the Palestinian cultural landscape of Battir are the winners of this year’s Melina Mercouri International Prize for the Safeguarding and Management of Cultural Landscapes (UNESCO-Greece). The prize will be awarded at a ceremony to be held at UNESCO Headquarters on 24 May.

“In rewarding the management of Garni and Battir, UNESCO wishes to raise awareness of these sites’ beauty and importance, of their tangible and symbolic values, so as to help avert threats to their continued preservation,” said the Director-General of UNESCO Irina Bokova, endorsing the recommendation of an international jury. 

The laureates will receive $US 15,000 each. 

...The Battir Cultural Landscape (Battir Village and its surroundings, occupied Palestinian territory) testifies to 4,000 years of the terraced cultivation of vines and olives. Home to 1,150 people, of whom 350 live in the village of Husan, the landscape also features walled terraces, irrigation canals, watchtowers and other dry stone edifices. The site is recognized for its great aesthetic and symbolic value. The jury particularly emphasized action undertaken to stabilize the traditional agricultural use of the landscape in cooperation with local farmers and the adoption of protection legislation and a sound management plan.  Battir is part of a larger area (“Land of Olives and Vines”), which is included in the “Inventory of cultural and natural heritage sites of potential outstanding universal value in Palestine”, issued by the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities with a view to future nomination for World Heritage listing.

I guess I am a bit ambivalent.

After all, Battir is indeed a heritage site but of Jewish content.

The fortress of Bar-Kochba, Betar, is located in the village boundaries.

If the Pals. recognize the Jewish historical heritage of the village, I think that that would go a long way to establishing coexistence.


P.S.  Here I am (at right ) with friends Chaim Fischgrund, Nissan Teman and Eli Solomon hy"d in Battir in Late June 1967:

And here we are, at the ruins of the fortress of Betar with Dr. Israel Eldad in 1967:

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Bar Refaeli Displays Proper Bicycle Behavior - Not

In New York's Central Park.

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Here Come the Peasants

As alerted by INN:-

From the State Department daily press briefing yesterday:

QUESTION: Palestinian and Israelis?

MS. NULAND: Yeah.

QUESTION: Could you give us the status of what Mr. Hale is doing?

MS. NULAND: I think I had mentioned that I thought he was going to travel this week. It now looks like it will be probably another ten days. But he is continuing to work with the Quartet members. He’s continuing to work with the parties on the phone and remaining in touch and trying to build on, as I said, this exchange of letters that the President and prime minister have had.

QUESTION: Are you aware of increased assaults by the settlers on the Palestinian peasants, destroying their crops, and in fact, injuring them, shooting them – one is in a very serious condition. Are you aware of these activities?

MS. NULAND: I didn’t have any new information today, but I think you know where we’ve traditionally been on these issues.

I should say that the Secretary did have a chance to talk to Foreign Minister Judeh today. As you know, the Jordanians have played a regular role and the foreign minister has played a role in trying to facilitate dialogue between the parties. So they were able to touch base there.

QUESTION: Like I asked last week, Mr. Abbas seems to be waiting on some new American ideas, but he also made another statement saying that these new ideas are not forthcoming. The Palestinians would no choice but to pursue their activities at the United Nations. Do you have any comment on that?

MS. NULAND: Just the same comment that we’ve had all the way through, which is going back to the UN is not going to bring peace, security, or a state to the Palestinian people. Only through negotiations are we going to get there, and that’s why we want to get folks back to the table.

Peasants?


Is that neo-Marxist dogma talk?

(k/t = MP)


^

"With Fond Love From Palestine"

A postcard sent back to England in 1919 from a Jewish Legionaire.

^

Pal. Authority "Freedoms"

Remember my comparison of how journalist groups attack Israel but the PA seems to escape real criticism?

Well, from the new US report:
2011 Human Rights Reports: Israel and the occupied territories - the occupied territories

Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:Share

a. Freedom of Speech and Press

Status of Freedom of Speech and Press

The PA Basic Law provides every person the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and expression, orally, in writing, or through any other form. The PA does not have laws specifically providing for freedom of press; however, PA institutions applied aspects of an unratified 1995 press law as de facto law. In practice, PA security forces in the West Bank and members of the Hamas security apparatus in the Gaza Strip continued to restrict freedom of speech and press. HRW reported that since 2007 most abuses against journalists in both the West Bank and Gaza were related to tensions between the PA and Hamas. The PA military judiciary detained civilian journalists, according to human rights organizations.
Israeli authorities placed limits on certain forms of expression in the occupied territories.

Freedom of Speech: Although there is no PA law prohibiting criticism of the government, there were reports that the government was not fully tolerant of criticism. HRW reported in February that the PA repeatedly responded to peaceful demonstrations with violent attacks (see section 2.b., Freedom of Assembly).
In the Gaza Strip, individuals publicly criticizing authorities risked reprisal by Hamas, including arrest, interrogation, seizure of property, and harassment. Civil society and youth activists, social media advocates, and individuals associated with political factions accused of criticizing Hamas in public fora such as the Internet faced punitive measures including raids on their facilities and residences, arbitrary detentions, and denial of permission to travel outside of Gaza. The ICHR reported numerous detentions of protesters in the Gaza Strip. For example, the ICHR reported at least 16 arrests of protesters in March alone and numerous instances in which Hamas quelled rallies and protests with violence.
In East Jerusalem, under Israeli authority, displays of Palestinian political symbols were punishable by fines or imprisonment, as were public expressions of anti-Israeli sentiment and support for terrorist groups. Israeli security officials regularly shut down meetings or conferences held in East Jerusalem affiliated with the PA or with PA officials in attendance. For example, the ISA warned organizers of a Palestinian agricultural trade show in East Jerusalem in September that they would face closure if they invited PA officials or displayed a Palestinian flag. In September Israeli police ordered shut a meeting in East Jerusalem on Israeli changes to Palestinian school curricula, and Israeli security officers questioned the organizers about their involvement in the meeting.


Freedom of Press: Across the occupied territories, independent media operated with some restrictions.
In the West Bank, the PA placed some restrictions on independent media as well as official media. The PA maintained a distribution ban in the West Bank on the twice-weekly pro-Hamas al-Risala and the Filistin daily newspapers, both Gaza-based publications. Hamas’s al-Aqsa TV reportedly enjoyed some degree of access to work in the West Bank without harassment.
In the Gaza Strip, Hamas restricted independent media, especially for non-Hamas-affiliated press and media outlets. Israel restricted the mainstream pro-PA dailies, independent al-Quds (based in Jerusalem), independent pro-Fatah al-Ayyam, and PA official daily al-Hayat al-Jadida (the latter two based in the West Bank), from importation into the Gaza Strip. Hamas authorities tolerated reporting and interviews featuring officials from the PA to be locally broadcast. Hamas allowed, with some restrictions, the operation of non-Hamas-affiliated broadcast media in the Gaza Strip. The PA-supported Palestine TV reportedly enjoyed access to operate in the Gaza Strip.
In East Jerusalem independent media were able to operate. As a general rule, Israeli media were able to cover the occupied territories, except for combat zones where the IDF temporarily restricted access, but closures, curfews, and checkpoints limited the ability of Palestinian and foreign journalists to do their jobs (see section 2.d.). Israel revoked the press credentials of the majority of Palestinian journalists during the Second Intifada in 2000, with the exception of a few Palestinian journalists who worked as stringers for prominent international media outlets. As a result most Palestinian journalists were unable to cover stories outside the Palestinian-controlled areas of the West Bank.

Violence and Harassment: PA security forces reportedly harassed, detained occasionally with violence, and fined journalists several times during the year due to their reporting. HRW reported in April that the PA Preventative Security and General Intelligence services intimidated, detained, and assaulted journalists with impunity, including through detentions of civilian journalists by the military judiciary.
According to the Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA), PA police officers prevented Ibtihal Mansour, a reporter for al-Sharq al-Awsat Studies Center, from covering a sit-in against PA political arrests in Nablus on June 13. Mansour stated that, although she adhered to orders, two female officers in civilian clothes beat her up and tried to confiscate her camera and cell phone. She was released after the intervention of members of the public and other journalists.
PA security services summoned and questioned several journalists in the West Bank. For example, on September 10, the Palestinian intelligence services in Bethlehem summoned al-Aqsa TV cameraman Osayd Amarneh, whom they questioned about filming a protest and later released.
In the Gaza Strip, journalists faced arrest, harassment, and other pressure from Hamas due to their reporting. There were reports that Hamas also summoned journalists for questioning in an attempt to intimidate them. Hamas also constrained journalists’ freedom of movement during the year, attempting to ban access to some official buildings, as well as several prodemocracy protests.
During coverage of popular intra-Palestinian reconciliation protests on March 19 in Gaza City, Hamas internal security forces forcibly entered the Gaza City offices of CNN, NHK (Japan’s public broadcasting service), and Reuters, assaulted several journalists, seized equipment, and demanded that the journalists stop filming the protests.
According to MADA, on August 17, Hamas security personnel prevented Wisam Zu’bur, a photographer for al-Hurriya Media Center, from taking pictures near al-Rimal neighborhood in Gaza City.
There were reports during the year of Israeli authorities detaining or assaulting journalists due to their reporting or coverage. In various incidents Israeli forces subsequently raided those journalists’ homes.
For example, on August 19, Israeli forces reportedly assaulted Al Jazeera cameraman Nabeel Mizawi and correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh while the two were covering Friday prayers at al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem’s Old City. In a live report on Al Jazeera, Abu Akleh claimed that IDF personnel beat Mizawi and ordered them to stop filming. According to the report, IDF personnel also cut a voice cable to mute the broadcast.
Local media reported that on November 22, Israeli authorities arrested Israa Salhab, a reporter for al-Quds satellite station, after she anchored a program on Palestinian prisoners. She was released on November 28 and never faced official charges.


Censorship or Content Restrictions: The PA prohibits calls for violence, displays of arms, and racist slogans in PA-funded and controlled official media. Media throughout the occupied territories practiced self-censorship. There were no confirmed reports of any legal actions or prosecutions against any person publishing items counter to these PA guidelines.
Civil society organizations reported that Hamas censored television programs and written content, such as newspapers and books. On January 23, according to HRW, Hamas police officers entered three bookstores in Gaza and confiscated copies of two novels--Haidar Haidar’s A Banquet for Seaweed and Alaa’ al-Aswany’s Chicago--and searched for copies of a third book, Forbidden Pleasure, telling the store owners that the books were seized because the Hamas ministry of interior “deemed them “against sharia” (Islamic law).
There were no reports that the Israeli government monitored the media in the occupied territories. Israeli authorities retain the right to review and approve in advance of printing all Jerusalem-based Arabic publications for material perceived as a security threat. In practice anecdotal evidence suggested the Israeli authorities did not actively review the Jerusalem-based al-Quds newspaper or other Jerusalem-based Arabic publications. Jerusalem-based publications reported that, based on previous experiences with Israeli censorship, over time they came to know what is acceptable and self-censored publications accordingly.


Libel Laws/National Security: There were instances in which slander and libel laws were used to suppress criticism. For example, on August 16, the PA attorney general banned the annual Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation’s Palestine TV Ramadan comedy program series, Watan ala Watar, in its third season, after PA security forces, representatives of the PA Ministry of Health, and the union of PA employees filed complaints claiming the program slandered members of their respective professions. On August 18, the PA attorney general issued final orders sanctioning the forcible suspension of the program.
There were no known reports that Hamas used security justifications or slander or libel laws to censure public critique.

Internet Freedom

There were no PA restrictions on access to the Internet; however, there were reports that the PA, Hamas, and Israel monitored e‑mail and Internet chat rooms. Individuals and groups could generally engage in the peaceful expression of views via the Internet, including by e‑mail.
On August 11, the Palestinian Telecommunication Company (PTC) suspended the Web site of electronic newspaper Alshu’la for one week, according to MADA. Alshu’la filed a complaint against the PTC with the PA attorney general. Alshu’la was reportedly forced offline because of a dispute between the PA and former Fatah member Mohammed Dahlan, who financially sponsored the site.
On November 15, PA intelligence services arrested George Qanawati, station manager of Bethlehem 2000 Radio, after he published a comment on his Facebook page on September 8 about tensions within Fatah. He was released five days later without charges.
Hamas did not restrict Internet access; however, based on anecdotal reports from Palestinian civil society organizations and social media practitioners, Hamas authorities monitored Internet activities and postings of Gaza Strip residents. Individuals posting negative reports or commentary about Hamas, its policies, or affiliated organizations faced questioning, and authorities at times required them to remove or modify online postings. No information was available regarding punishment for not complying with such demands.
Israeli authorities did not restrict access to the Internet; however, they monitored some Internet activity.

And Beinart & comrades criticize Israeli democracy.

^

The Jews and Gandhi: Then and Now

Several academics have been discussing the suggestion made in 1938 by Gandhi [“The Jews”, Harijan 26 November 1938 (The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi vol. 74, p. 240] what Jews should do in response to Nazi Germany's anti-Semitic state policies.

If you do not know, well

In 1938 he recommended nonviolent resistance against Nazi persecution in Germany, and seemed convinced that if Jews willingly offered their lives, this would result in a moral reformation of the German people.

He was also opposed to Zionism, partially on the grounds that the Jews should prefer to be citizens of the countries where they lived (England, France, Germany) and should fight for their rights in those places. (Obviously at the time this would not have worked in Germany!) He also thought that Zionism was unjust to the Arabs of Palestine. One curious part of his position was that although he opposed the Jewish use of violence in Palestine against Arabs, he did not object to the Arab use of violence against Jews. He says: "I am not defending the Arab excesses. I wish they had chosen the way of non-violence in resisting what they rightly regarded as an unwarrantable encroachment upon their country. But according to the accepted canons of right and wrong, nothing can be said against the Arab resistance in the face of overwhelming odds." It is very curious, in my opinion, that he would so fiercely condemn Jewish use of violence without at the same condemning Arab use of violence. He does not recommend that the Arabs use satyagraha against the British or Jews in Palestine. (The context for this article was the 1936-39 Arab Revolt against British rule and Jewish settlement in Palestine).

One noted that he is in the process of editing the second volume of excerpts from Mordecai M. Kaplan's diary, 1934-1941.  It seems that Kaplan happened to be in Jerusalem when the Gandhi letter was published and was present at the drafting of the response to Gandhi. Here is the entry in his diary:

March 8, 1939

I came a little while ago from the meeting at Magnes. Buber and Magnes read the statements they have worked out...Buber's statement was worked out very carefully and effectively. Magnes' on the other hand was very weak and shamefully apologetic. Among those present were Benjamin, Bergman, Sholem, Baer, Koebner, Gutterman, Miss Szold, Schlesinger and quite a few others.

Thursday, March 9, 1939

The session at Magnes' home last night had a depressing effect on me. In the first place, that a man of Gandhi's reputation and influence should have permitted himself to advise Jews in their present tragic plight to immolate themselves, this is what his message amount to, and to charge them at the same time with being usurpers in that they try to recover their homeland, without as much as an attempt to hear the Jewish side of the case, helped to weaken my faith in human goodness...he allowed himself to be influenced by the politicians in his entourage who are interested - as are the British - in courting Mohammedan good will. Secondly, the allusions to Jewish suffering, past and present, in both Buber's and Magnes' statements, and the sad pass to which we have come to that we have to be continually fingering our wounds and exposing our miserable lot to no purpose whatever. The mischief Gandhi's article set on foot is potent, far reaching and enduring...And finally the self-degradation to which we submit for fear of hurting the feelings of one who so shamefully wrongs us as to condemn us without even giving us a hearing. I was especially disgusted by the tone and contents of Magnes' letter. It was most unmanfully apologetic and most childishly put together.



If any of Kaplan's bemoaning seems to you to reflect miserably on current Jewish opinions and actions, you are sharing my thoughts.


___________________
See here for some reference, here, too.  And here.  And here.

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Turkey: After Israel, Harvard

Here:

Among the dozens of objects that the government of Turkey is asking American museums to return are 40 Byzantine relics at Harvard University’s Dumbarton Oaks Museum.

The silver and gold liturgical objects known as the Sion Treasure consist of plates, candlesticks, crosses and plaques. Some 40 pieces of the treasure are at Dumbarton Oaks, while another 10 or so are at the Antalya Museum in Turkey, with a few more said to be in private collections.  There does not appear to be much doubt that the treasure was looted and smuggled out of Turkey in 1963 — decades after the nation’s patrimony law made such acts illegal. Dumbarton Oaks’ own publication of the Sion Treasure suggests as much repeatedly.

Oh, oh.

Isn't Harvard near a body of water?

Another flotilla forming?

^

Flaming Anti-Semitism

I am waiting for the anti-Semitic attack that will point out as regards this "Flame" virus that only the Jews with their advantaged genetic scientific capabilities could have come up with the computer program and it isn't fair.

^

Low-Intensity Conflict Report - #19

Yehudit Tayar's Security Report May 29, 2012

These reports are translated and publicized by Hatzalah Yehudah and Shomron with the clearance and confirmation of the IDF.  Hatzalah Yehudah and Shomron is a voluntary emergency medical organization with over 500 volunteer doctors, paramedics, medics who are on call 24/7 and work along with the IDF, 669 IAF Airborn Rescue, the security officers and personal throughout Yesha and the Jordan Valley, and with MDA.

In the last few days hundreds of violent attacks were directed against IDF patrols, Border Police and civilians by Arab terrorists with rocks, fire bombs, Molotov Cocktails, rocks put on the road to force the vehicles to stop.  Security forces have responded to these murderous attacks using restraint.


May 28, 2012
Arab broke into Kedumim's caravan neighborhood on Erev Shavuot
Arab broke into the community of Kochav Yaakov on Erev Shavuot residents were placed on high alert until it was verified that the intruder left
Arab broke into Tekoa Shabbat evening after anarchists and Arabs violently demonstrated outside of the community
Rock attacks on Israeli bus near Bet Umar on the Gush Etzion-Hebron Highway.
05:00 A.M. Israeli-Egyptian border near Carmit IDF position 10 illegal Chinese accompanied by 4 armed smugglers were caught.  3 of the illegals were injured during the arrest.
South-west of Shechem Molotov cocktail thrown on IDF post at Tel Aras

May 27, 2012 
Hebron near IDF check post next to the Cave of the Patriarchs Arab caught with knife, following questioning by security admitted that he planned to stab soldier.
Arab caught by security forces in Hebron near Police Square with knife in his possession
Arabs started fire in the fields near the community of Yitzhar in the Shomron. Fire fighters fought the blazes for over two hours during which the IDF and immediate response team of Yitzhar were attacked by Arab terrorists.  One of the terrorists who brandished knife was shot and injured seriously when he attacked security forces.
Shuafat rock attacks and 2 Molotov cocktails thrown on security forces
Near Modi'in next to A-Tira 5 Molotov cocktails were thrown on Border Police patrol
Tapuach check post Arab caught and remanded to custody after 3 Molotov cocktails and 3 explosive devices were found in his possession hidden in his bag.
Israeli bus attacked with rocks near Chawara south of Shechem.
Gush Etzion-Hebron Road near Bet Umar rock attack on Israeli bus.

May 25, 2012
Again Arab terrorists throw rocks from passing vehicle towards Israeli vehicle near Ophra in the Benjamin Region.  IDF patrol searched for the terrorists who threw the rocks

May 24, 2012
Bottle was thrown on IDF post at El Arub
Rocks thrown on Israeli vehicles near Chawara south of Shechem damage caused to Israeli bus
During the night a number of Arabs blocked the vehicle of a Jewish resident of the Jewish community of Hebron on the main road linking Kiryat Arba and Hebron.  Fortunately the driver was able to get herself out of the danger
Bottle thrown on Israeli bus in the Jewish community of Hebron
Rock attacks near El Fuar in the Southern Hebron Hills on Israeli bus
Rock attacks at El Arub on the Gush Etzion-Hebron Highway
Rock attacks on the Gush Etzion-Hebron Highway near Bet Umar
Rock attacks between Turmus Aya and Shiloh in the Benjamin Region
Rock attack on IDF post near Kiryat Arba at Jabel J'ohar

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Teitel's Confession Justifies My Supposition

Reported:

Jack Teitel, known by some as the "Jewish terrorist," confessed to the murders of two Palestinians and to a string of other serious crimes at the Jerusalem Municipal Court on Monday...Teitel, 31, a Florida-born Orthodox Jew who moved to Israel in 2000, has admitted comitting a series of crimes, including the murders of a Palestinian taxi driver and a Palestinian shepherd in 1997, a number of bombings and attempted bombings in 2006-7, placing an explosive device at the doorstep of Israel Prize winner Professor Zeev Sternhell in 2008...<

I had several comments at the time of that explosion (like here) and an analysis of the leaflet where I made these observations among others:

- The signature "the Army of the Statist Liberators" is ridiculous. The whole concept of ממלכתי, i.e., supporting the state is anathema to the radical natioanlist right.

- The state of Israel is described as the "dream" (חלום) of the past 2000 years. Religious/nationalists would use the word "vision" (חזון).

- A youngster who has actually served in the army would use תת-מקלעים or straight out קלצ'ניקובים - Klatchnikovs.

- The use of the Hebrew term for "Palestinians" is פלשתינאים which is not usual. Either פלסטינים or ערבים - Arabs would have been used.

- The inclusion of "sins" of the state of Israel of abortion encouragement would indicate Hareidi groups, not nationalists.

- The same for the inclusion of encouragement of "gay pride parades".

- The use of מלכות יהודה - Kingdon of Judea instead of the Kahanist demand for מדינת יהודה - State of Judea also indicates to me Hareidi or GSS composition.

I had surmised either an outright provocation or an Anglo, more Hareidi, older immigrant.

Something is fishy.

I was right.

Here is how Professor Avner DeShalit responded at the time:

we must not get carried away into making collective accusations. The attempt to harm Prof. Sternhell was not carried out by "the right" or "the settlers." But even if a "small handful" or "extremists" are responsible for it, it serves as a sad example of the state of Israeli society on the eve of Rosh Hashanah 5769 and testifies to the prevailing atmosphere.

But there was no "prevailing atmosphere" since except for Teitel, no one was prevailed upon to act illegally and in a violent manner as a result of education and ideology.


^

How The Media Gets You to Tell Their Story

From a Dror Eydar column, "The problem with Israel's media" :-

So, Mr. Arnon Giladi, deputy mayor of Tel Aviv, do you condemn the "Sagi throws an egg at a Sudanese guy" video, or don't you? This is what a reporter asked him after a video surfaced depicting a man laughing while throwing an egg at an African migrant on a bicycle. Giladi replied that the question served to divert attention from the main issue and that the interviewer was ignoring the bigger picture. "Do you condemn it or not?" the reported persisted. "Do you know what hell the residents are going through?" Giladi responded. Mr. Giladi, the question is simple: Do you, or don't you, condemn it?

...members of our society are acting like some kind of religious cult that crucifies its heretics on the media cross...let me answer the reporter on your behalf:

'I refuse to play along with your hypocritical game, because you cast doubt on the purity of my intentions and assume that it is basic racism that motivates me to protect residents and deport the economic migrants back to their native countries. What did you think? That I want to abuse foreigners? How dare you?

...In the Book of Daniel the phenomenon is known as "brought accusation against the Jews," which refers to the Chaldeans ratting out and incriminating Jews. But in modern day speak the phrase has come to refer to Jews incriminating their brothers to other nations. The act is accompanied by a wink, as if to say "we are different, better than them." In today's Hebrew it's known as scoring moral points on the hunched, burdened backs of the residents of south Tel Aviv.

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The Jerusalem Day Flag March Request

The above is the request that was published prior to the conducting of the Jerusalem Day Flag-Dance March into the Old City and to the Western Wall Plaza.

The second paragraph notes that "in recent years, we have unfortunately witnessed a minority from within the ranks of the marchers who ignore the essence of the festivities - raising the concsiousness of United and Sacred Jerusalem - and get involved with the insignificant - catcalls, disturbances of the peace and clashes with police prtecting the march and so on.  Although clearly a minority, it overshadows negatively the atmosphere of the event".

The request is then made that all educators explain to the pupils the importance of being involved in the positive aspects of the event.

A valiant attempt but not all listened.

^

Rebbe Nahman's Eretz-Yisrael Hasbara

Here is a quotation from Rebb Nahman of Bratzlav (who died in 1810) which posits a core principle of modern Hasbara, that one needs to assert rights, even if only verbally:

Despite our land and inheritance being stolen by non-Jews

and we have not the power to remove it from their hands,

due to a fault of ours,

we pray and we shout out that

the Land of Israel is ours and is our patrimony

and that is our response to the Other Side,

the possession of non-Jews is not a valid possession

the Land of Israel is ours and in the end,

we will extract it from their hands.

With God's help.

^

The Halacha Adapts to Media Needs

Captured on film, Arabs igniting fires near Yitzher:




The people encircled in orange are not Jews.

As suggested by Chanie Luz, the inderdict response security team of Yitzhar brought along, this time, a camera and caught the fires being set by Arabs.  It was sanctioned by Rabbi Dudi Dudkevitch and in Hebrew on him.

More info.

Chanie on Facebook.

----------------

Here is a translated section of Chanie's article:

The media aligns with the image

Again, B'tselem is the big story: The Walla site distributed only the Arab version story all day Saturday. On Sunday, major news sites like Channel 2 News distributed the edited film of B'tselem without any statement or question. Maariv chose to print on Monday, a day and a half after the event itself, a headline announcing that "the settlers fired on Palestinians - Israeli soldiers watched from the side."
  One of them saw fit to describe the fires around, or highlight what you see clearly in photographs: the pictures...Instead of asking why the soldiers did not stop the stone throwing directed at civilians of Yitzhar - the headlines were crying out that the IDF did not stop firing on "Palestinians".  All except channel 10, where the reporter Roy Sharon talks about fires, no one else was trying to describe the full story of what happened in Yitzhar.
Placing a clip on as serious an outlet as Channel 2, without any context, and playing the other side's story - puts into question the journalistic professionalism of news editors at the site.

Long-term monitoring of the media reveals apparently a special 'affinity' reserved for Yizhar: This community is one that is perfectly legitimate to hate. The Army Radio announcer was allowed to say, baldly, it was a better a soldier had shot the residents.
...Israeli newspapers need have to check their own approach to human rights of residents of Yizhar and especially their basic right to life.  
The camera is a weapon

But the additional conclusion that perhaps more cardinal directed inward, toward the Rabbis: Jewish law ruling regarding photography on Saturday must take into account that the strength of the weapon clips surpasses all other damages: using tendentious and edited videos - makes it easy to incite against Jews, against Israel and against Israeli soldiers. The result is anti-Semitism around the world, including boycotts and economic persecution and murder stemming from this the hatred of Israel.  With the visual incitement, the IDF has become a defensive army, where soldiers must absorb spitting, cursing, stones and violence without responding. Too many soldiers were killed due to unreasonable commands that take into account the damage to the image in the media.
With media propaganda, many Jews have legal scars, and abandoned Jewish settlers are bled. What is necessary is that Rabbis need give an the opinion that professional photography be permited on the Shabbat just as defensive weapons are allowed on the Shabbaty. Not only the camera of security officers, but by specially trained photographers, for example, the Tazpit organization.

If for the business of straw and hay the Sabbath may be desecrated, I think the blood libels post - modern - the more so.

I do not pretend to rule, for their are greater scholars than I, but in matters of communication I do presume to say that I understand much.

I call on rabbis to contemplate and discuss and make a sound brave decision, and prevent the damage the media and the image cause.

Channie and I:

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Receiving the Tablets - 21st Century Version

In  honor of Shavuot, the holiday commemorating the receiving of the Law at Sinai:

(sent to me by Bob L.)

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A Post for the Holocaust Deniers

From an obit in the UK:-

In April 1945 Williams was a staff captain at HQ 8 Corps, serving with the Royal Army Service Corps (RASC). He was one of a reconnaissance party — among them a number of senior Army officers, some sappers and a Jewish padre — whose task it was to ascertain the conditions in a camp that the Germans had told them was in the direct line of the Allied advance and they wished to hand over.

They travelled in jeeps with white flags hoisted along the Bergen road from Celle. Their final reference point was a small cutting in a dense plantation of fir trees leading to a side road. There were no signs or markings, but 30 yards along the road there was a sentry box manned by an armed Hungarian soldier who raised the barrier to let them pass. Behind it, there was a large fence of barbed wire. They went through the gates to find the SS guards on parade with their commandant, Josef Kramer, and Irma Grese, a warder on the women’s section. The task of Williams and his team was to check the supplies of food and water. He had to move carefully because, covering the ground throughout the camp, were inmates with emaciated faces, shaven heads and sunken eyes, some lying on the ground, some hanging on to the barbed wire for support, some trying to stand.  There were piles of dead bodies everywhere. Dazed, apathetic figures, dressed in rags, wandered aimlessly around. The stench of putrefaction hung over the camp, an acrid haze obscured the sun and the silence was oppressive. There was no food, water or fuel in the camp. All Williams could find in the five cookhouses were 50lb of rotten turnips. When two of the inmates tried to approach him, the SS guards knocked them out of their path.

Williams returned to Corps HQ and reported that food and fresh water had to be found for thousands and that thousands more lay dead and had to be buried. The next day, Williams was able to lead the first food convoy into the camp.

Solid food had to be turned into something like soup for shrunken stomachs; tea could be distributed only in small amounts. The British units had the dreadful task of trying to separate the living from the dead, for both were lying side by side.

An anti-tank regiment was put in charge of the SS, who had the task of collecting all the dead bodies, loading them on to trailers and taking them to the mass burial trenches. Some of the SS tried to escape through the barbed wire and were shot.

Their colleagues were ordered to retrieve their bodies and load them on to the trailer to be buried with the rest. It was a ghastly operation. “How our gunners managed to stay sane, I will never know,” Williams said afterwards.

On a search of the surrounding area, Williams found a deserted Army barracks a mile away with a storehouse of cereals and a bakery in full working order. He asked why it was that the SS had not made use of these to feed their prisoners and was told simply that they had not been prepared to do so.

William Richard Williams, the son of a clergyman, was born at Peterson Super Ely, Glamorgan, on August 23 1920 and educated at Wrekin College. He left school early to take up an apprenticeship with Austin Motor Company but was called up on the outbreak of war and joined the RASC. He landed in Normandy on D-Day and remained with 8 Corps as they pushed eastward...,

Now do you believe?

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The "North Bank" of England?

Reported:

Speaking at the launch of the ‘Yes Scotland’ campaign in Edinburgh, a series of left-wing politicians and celebrities outlined their hopes that a more “equal society” would emerge if they won the referendum planned for autumn 2014. They urged people to sign their ‘Yes Declaration’, which states independence would be “fundamentally better for us all” because only then would “Scotland’s future be in Scotland’s hands.”

There goes the United Kingdom?


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When Yesha Went to the EU

First, there was a visit to Germany and Belgium.  That was last year.
Then there was London.
And this year, there was another visit when a conference at the European Parliament in Brussels took place where "Sheikh Jabari of Hebron spoke of trust between himself and the Hebron settlers, and the Vice-Chair of the (European) Union related his positive impressions of coexistence in Barkan and at Ariel University. Not a word about occupation or apartheid".

And here are from the remarks made at the European Union committee by Professor Hillel Weiss

Do not worry. I am not going to leave you in despair. There is a solution written in the Bible several times: it is the vision of the messianic era:

From the Book of Micha Chapter Four:

1 But in the end of days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the LORD'S house shall be established as the top of the mountains, […] 2 And many nations shall go and say: 'Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths'; for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. 3 And He shall judge between many peoples, and shall decide concerning mighty nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. 4 But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig-tree; and none shall make them afraid; for the mouth of the LORD of hosts hath spoken. 5 For let all the peoples walk each one in the name of its god, but we will walk in the name of the LORD our God for ever and ever.

There is no need to wait until the end of days because if we wait until then, a catastrophe will overtake us. Let us undertake in advance what has been decreed. To establish the house of God in its proper place on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem “Because My house shall be a house of worship for all nations”. Accept the sentence pronounced on all those who left Noah’s ark after the great Flood- both Jews and non-Jews, black people and white people and yellow people, and those who have no color, those who claim to be total atheists. Everyone is obliged by the ethics that are known as the ethics of the Sons of Noah or the Noahide Commandments.

Prohibition of Idolatry ; Prohibition of Murder ; Prohibition of Suicide; Prohibition of Sexual immorality ; Prohibition of Theft; the obligation to establish courts of law ; Prohibition of craving meat excessively and shedding blood in vain, certainly not eating raw meat; Prohibition of eating flesh taken from an animal while it is still alive.

So then what is permitted?

We, all human beings, are permitted to love all fellowman because all were created in the image of God and hunger to hear the word of God in whatever name the one God is called. There are many non-Jews who are ready do this. There are many Righteous Gentiles who love the Jewish People such as Giulio Meotti, an Italian post-Catholic writer and journalist whom I have never met, who lives in Italy and sanctifies God’s name with the hundreds and thousands of articles he has written in praise of Israel and criticism of its persecutors, using facts taken from daily events. If you come across an article of his, read it because it is balm to the spirit and a recipe for peace. He is a righteous gentile who keeps faith. We expect that many will follow him. That all of the nations of Europe and the people of Islam will learn to love and fear the God of Israel and His people, and grab the sleeve of a Jew and go with him to the Land of Israel. Every living creature should find its home and its natural habitat.

Let the Arabs and Moslem nationalists return to their natural habitat, and let the Jews return to their natural habitat, according to the division made by our forefather Abraham in dividing the land between himself and Lot, between Ishmael and his brothers, And peace and truth shall you love, for the sake of God’s great name with love< br />

And Gershon Messika also spoke. ^

Which Is More Typical?

Which story is more normative and typical?

This one -

Press freedom watchdogs have called on the Israeli military to release the director of a Palestinian TV station who was detained last Thursday (17 May).  Israeli soldiers arrested Baha Khairi Moussa, who runs the Palestine Prisoner Channel, a satellite broadcaster based in the West Bank. They also confiscated the station's equipment.

But the reason for his arrest remains a mystery, as do his whereabouts. Both the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and the Vienna-based International Press Institute (IPI) have called for his release.

Or this one -

The Palestinian Media Forum (PMF) has strongly condemned the PA judicial and executive authorities’ decision to try the director of Radio Bethlehem 2000, George Canawati, because of comments on his facebook page.  The forum said, in a statement on Thursday, that Magistrate Court of Bethlehem City has adjourned on Wednesday George Canawati’s trial to September 5.

Canawati was arrested by the PA security service on September 2011 after he published a comment critical of Bethlehem’s Health Directorate on his Facebook page in addition to criticizing the presence of Israeli products on a table in a department meeting of managers. Then he was released on September 2011 with the provision that he appears before court again.

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How To Not Like The Media

Latin American media criticism:

I wonder what this was about. ^

Science Now Assisting New Testament Narrative

The story:

Geologists say Jesus, as described in the New Testament, was most likely crucified on Friday, April 3, in the year 33.  The latest investigation, reported in International Geology Review, focused on earthquake activity at the Dead Sea, located 13 miles from Jerusalem. The Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 27, mentions that an earthquake coincided with the crucifixion:

“And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split and the tombs broke open.”

To analyze earthquake activity in the region, geologist Jefferson Williams of Supersonic Geophysical and colleagues Markus Schwab and Achim Brauer of the German Research Center for Geosciences studied three cores from the beach of the Ein Gedi Spa adjacent to the Dead Sea.

Varves, which are annual layers of deposition in the sediments, reveal that at least two major earthquakes affected the core: a widespread earthquake in 31 B.C. and a seismic event that happened sometime between the years 26 and 36.

The latter period occurred during “the years when Pontius Pilate was procurator of Judea and when the earthquake of the Gospel of Matthew is historically constrained,” Williams said.

More:

When data about the Jewish calendar and astronomical calculations are factored in, a handful of possible dates result, with Friday, April 3, 33, being the best match, according to the researchers.

In terms of the earthquake data alone, Williams and his team acknowledge that the seismic activity associated with the crucifixion could refer to “an earthquake that occurred sometime before or after the crucifixion and was in effect ‘borrowed’ by the author of the Gospel of Matthew, and a local earthquake between 26 and 36 A.D. that was sufficiently energetic to deform the sediments of Ein Gedi but not energetic enough to produce a still extant and extra-biblical historical record.”


“If the last possibility is true, this would mean that the report of an earthquake in the Gospel of Matthew is a type of allegory,” they write.

Williams is studying yet another possible natural happening associated with the crucifixion — darkness.  Three of the four canonical gospels report darkness from noon to 3 p.m. after the crucifixion. Such darkness could have been caused by a duststorm, he believes.

Would it be inappropriate to say "Jesus rocks!"?

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Low-Intensity Conflict #18

Tayar Security Report May 24, 2012
Yehudit Tayar

These reports are translated and publicized by Hatzalah Yehudah and Shomron with the clearance and confirmation of the IDF.  Hatzalah Yehudah and Shomron is a voluntary emergency medical organization with over 500 volunteer doctors, paramedics, medics who are on call 24/7 and work along with the IDF, 669 IAF Airborn Rescue, the security officers and personal throughout Yesha and the Jordan Valley, and with MDA.  In the last few days hundreds of violent attacks were directed against IDF patrols, Border Police and civilians by Arab terrorists with rocks, fire bombs, Molotov Cocktails, rocks put on the road to force the vehicles to stop.  Security forces have responded to these murderous attacks using restraint. 

May 24, 2012
Arab Beduin Drug smuggler shot and injured by IDF patrol on Israeli Egyptian border in the Har Harif region and evacuated to hospital

May 23, 2012
IDF officer and soldier injured moderately to medium injuries and evacuated to Soroka Hospital following shooting attack from Gaza near Kissufim crossing.Israeli Secret Service releases the following information:

Arab Terror Cells that were working in the Hebron region caught and arrested. 1 cell was involved in laying explosive devices on the road near Zif Junction1 cell planned abduction of Israeli resident of Kiryat Arba.  The head of the cell is Ma'ataz Kawasma from the murderous terror cell who has been arrested and incarcerated several times in Israeli prisons, and his brother Ma'ayad who led the suicide terrorists who carried out the terror attack in Dimona and was thrown out of Israel in the Gilad Shalit transaction.These cells were responsible for activating explosive devices along the Kiryat Arba security fence in order to evaluate the IDf response, and then planned to abduct a kidnapping.  (Reminder April 19 explosive devices were strewn near Zif Junction and the IDF arrested 2 terrorists involved.  The terrorist Teer Ovdallah Daud and the terrorist Mahnd Issa Machmud Machamra were responsible for another terror attack with explosives in 2007 and the manufacturing of many explosive devices.1 cell was involved in rock attacks against Israeli vehicles on the highway. This cell was responsible for many rock attacks on the number 60 –Gush Etzion-Hebron Highway.
Arab terrorists threw rock from within passing vehicle at Israeli vehicle near Hawara south of Shechem (reminder of the murder of Asher and Yonatan Palmer HY"D who were murdered by a terror gang on the Gush Etzion-Jerusalem Highway by huge rock that was thrown from within passing Arab car at Asher's vehicle)  Rocks are lethal weapons and the intent of these Arab terrorists is to murder innocent Israelis.
Rock attacks near Ma'aleh Shomron
IDF detains suspicious Arab at Hawara south of Shechem.  Border police bomb squad uncovered a knife and 6 seemingly explosive devices

May 22, 2012
Arabs broke into synagogue in Tel-Zion in the Benjamin Region, stole religious items, and destroyed Torah Scroll.
Near Har Adar Molotov cocktail and rock attacks against Border Police patrol.  Border policeman injured in his leg.Two rock attacks on Israeli vehicles near Tekoa.
Arabs attack Israeli vehicles on the Gush Etzion-Hebron Highway near El Arub
IDF  post near Har Gilo attacked by Arabs with Molotov Cocktails
Near Ariel in the Shomron in the region of the Giti Avisher Junction Arab terrorists attacked and Israeli vehicles resulting in 1 moderately injured.
Near Negohot in the Southern Hebron Hills Molotov cocktail attacks on Israeli vehicles

May 21, 2012
Israeli vehicles attacked with rocks north of HebronIsraeli vehicles attacked with rocks near the Negohot Junction in the Southern Hebron Hills
IDF checkpost in Hebron attacked with rocks
Turmos Aya and Sin'jil rock attacks on Israeli vehicles
Arab terrorists from the village of Qaryut damaged security equipment belonging to the community of Eli in the Benjamin Region
2 Molotov cocktails thrown on vehicles near Dir Abu Mishal
Highway 446 near Shokba IDF detained Arab who put a rock blockade on the road and endangered travelers.

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False and True Hope

See at the NY Daily News op-ed my comment:

Giving hope to Israeli settlers By Joel Braunold
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Will the Waqf Wail and Hamas Harangue?

This is a letter from the Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi of Israel, Yonah Metzger. 

The letter itself asks people to reflect spiritually on the recent tragedies of traffic accident deaths, murders and rapes.

But what caught my eye was the opening salutation, which I have encircled and noted:

It reads, in English:-

To our brethren, those residing in the Land of Israel, God be upon you and you should live!  Peace and great salvation from the City of Holiness and of the Temple.

The "Temple"?

What will the temple-deniers say now?

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In Honor of the Upcoming Two Day Shabbat/Holiday

This Saturday is, of course, the Shabbat and immediately afterwards we begin to observe the holiday of Shavuot.  Two days of rest with no blogging.

In honor of the many hours to be spent in synagogue, here is something from 1852 regarding congregational behavior in Baltimore:

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Kabylia/Kabyle You've Heard Of?

Did you know that the Kabylia national leader Ferhat Mehenni is currently on a visit in Israel?

First of all, you should know that Kabylia is the most important Berber-speaking area in North Africa. It is a compact mountainous area, approximately the size of Israel (26,000 square kilometers). Its 7 million population is ethnically and linguistically homogeneous. There is an additional Kabylia population of 3 to 4 million in Algeria proper, and a diaspora of 2 million in Europe (France, Germany, Belgium, the UK) and North America (Canada, the United States). The global Kabylia population in the world is close to 12 million.

Like other Berbers, the Kabyles were gradually islamized over the centuries, but retained many pre-Islamic traditions or fusioned them with esoterical (Sufi) Islamic devotion. Some Kabyles claim Jewish or Christian roots.  In fact, several fully Jewish enclaves existed until the 19th century in their territory. From the 20th century on, the Kabyles have tended to be more secular than most other groups in North Africa.

A tough warrior nation, the Kabyles frequently rebelled against the French colonial rulers in the 19th century, and were the spearhead of the Algerian insurrection in the 1950's. In 1963-1965, shortly after Algeria achieved independence under the panarabist and islamist FLN government, Kabylia was brutally «pacified» by the the Soviet-backed National Popular Army (ANP).

Kabyle nationalism was revived some fifteen years later, in 1980, as a cultural movement known as «Berber Spring» (Printemps Berbère), that resisted the forced Arabization of the Berber-speaking regions. In the 1990’s, when the FLN regime desintegrated and Algeria descended into a bitter civil war between ANP and radical islamist guerillas, Kabylia became virtually independent from the central Algerian government. It is still the case today. Kabylia quitely ignores Algerian legislation in many respects, and boycotts most Algerian elections ; its day to day administration has been largely taken over by informal village councils. There are only two remaining links between the two countries : the Algerian army that still controls Kabylia from a strictly military point of view ; and the Kabyle diaspora in Algeria proper.

Ferhat Mehenni is the son of a Kabyle freedom fighter fallen in the Algerian war of independence. Ferhat graduated in political science at the University of Algiers in 1973. At about the same time, he became a national Kabyle figure as a poet and singer, along with Matoub Lounès and Idir, and engaged in militant Kabyle activities. He was arrested and jailed by the Algerian authorities on several occasions.

In the 1980’s he became one of the leaders of the Berber Spring movement and the ensuing Coalition for Culture and Democracy (RCD) that he cofounded with Saïd Saadi. Upon the assassination of Matoub Lounès in 1998, Ferhat took over as the national bard of Kabylia and created the Movement for Kabyle Autonomy (MAK). For about fifteen years, he has advocated «full autonomy» for Kabylia, something to be compared to the present statute of Catalonia or Quebec. In 2010, he finally established a Kabyle Provisional Government (KPG or Anavad) in exile, in order to achieve « overeignty», if not outright independence.

Ferhat Mehenni has constantly held the view that Kabylia and other Berber nations have no part in the Israeli-Arab dispute. He has constantly expressed his interest in Israel as a free and democratic country.

I hope his visit was educational and one of stirring him to succeed.

I have always subscribed to the thinking of AG Horon who held that the Arab Muslim Middle East is neither Arab or Muslim but actually made up of many minorities subjugated by Islam and the conquering tribes of Saudi Arabia, and that alliances could be created (although he formulated together with Yonatan Ratosh, a Canaanite/Semitic Middle East * with no Jews, but Hebrews.


_________
*

When Ratosh rejected the traditional Jewish view of history and its Zionist interpretation, he needed another view of history on which to ground the new national identity he proposed. He found such a view in the historiosophical ideas of A. G. Horon, whom Ratosh heard lecturing while he was studying in Paris in 1938-39. Horon claimed that the ancient Israelites before the Babylonian exile were Hebrews, who formed a part of a greater, unified Canaanite culture. The Israelites were the leading group among the many Hebrew tribes and were distinguished by their adherence to one God and their rejection of other "Hebrew" gods. Armed with an ideology and a quasi-historical justification for it, Ratosh returned to Palestine in 1939 to convince other people of his idea and to inspire a vast political-cultural movement. This effort was far more successful in its cultural than its political ambitions.

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