Don't Be Strongarmed, And Read the Book

I spotted this letter in the WashPost:-

In his review of the book “FDR and the Jews” [Outlook, May 26], James McAuley claimed that the 1940s activists known as the Bergson Group “made public appeals meant to strongarm the [U.S.] government into action” to rescue Jews from the Holocaust.

My great-grandfather, the late Rep. Andrew Lawrence Somers (D-N.Y.), was a prominent supporter of the Bergson Group. Throughout his long tenure in the House — 12 consecutive terms from 1925 to 1949 — he strove diligently to advocate for the Jewish people imperiled by Hitler and, later, to advocate for the recognition of the nascent state of Israel. He was not a zealot; rather, he stood by his moral obligations even when it meant going against the Democratic Party line.

Neither he nor the Bergsonites strong-armed anybody. They did exactly what a citizen should do when the government fails to do the right thing: They spoke out, wrote articles, sponsored newspaper ads, organized petitions and marched in protest. That’s not strong-arming; that’s democracy in action.

Philip Lawrence Somers Deely, New York

First of all, that is an admirable push-back.  I am not aware of McAuley's tendencies regarding Jews but the semantic nastiness is quite palpable, even if an unconscious expression.  And it surely doesn't reflect on his grasp of civic activism.


Of course, if the Bergson Boys had not been encumbered by the Jewish establishment's hostility, even their stridency would not have been necessary.

If you haven't read Rafael Medoff's new book on FDR, no, not this one, do so.


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The Captive Temple Mount, 1948-1967

Why we declare the city is liberated:

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Who is An Islamaphobe? Or, This Is "Green-Washing"?

Pay attention to this:

...the 85 people who gathered in the Pennsylvania woods over Memorial Day weekend had come from 19 states and three countries for a somewhat surprising event: a three-day LGBTQ [Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgender-Queer] Muslim and Partners Retreat.

Some wore T-shirts that read, “Muslim + Gay = Fabulous.” They prayed. They attended workshops about pioneering progressive Muslims...And they held discussions on struggling to reconcile their faith with their sexuality, and their sexuality with their faith. (Many folks said that they face Islamophobia from inside the mainstream LGBTQ community.)

...Under a blue sky, the final prayer took place on Monday. A woman was allowed to lead both the call to the prayer and the prayer itself...This was the third such retreat, and it was sponsored this year by the Muslim Alliance for Sexual and Gender Diversity, founded in January to address the needs of LGBTQ Muslims. Another sponsor was Muslims for Progressive Values, a Los Angeles-based group formed in 2007 that parallels, to some extent, Unitarian Universalism and Judaism’s reform movement, and which has nine chapters across the country and abroad.

Is that to be called "green-washing"?

(hint: on "pink-washing")



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Jerusalem's Parts

One of the arguments the territorial concessionist camp sounds out about Jerusalem, united or divided, is that Israel unnaturally extended the municipal boundaries after 1967, incorporating neighborhoods which never were part of Jerusalem.  That, they claim, is even illegal.

Ehud Olmert once stated in a June 13 speech to the British Parliament, to illustrate this approach, that since

We don’t pray facing Beit Naballah or Issawiya, or any of the other Palestinian neighborhoods that have been added to Jerusalem by someone who drew a map one day...

these areas can be yielded.

Here he is being more, er, explicit:

“It was never unified in the way that people talked about it. We have to sacrifice the slogan because we have to face the reality of life. If someone wants to say that Issawiya is Jerusalem, I can’t stop him. When was Issawiya part of historical Jerusalem? When was Abu Dis part of historical Jerusalem? When was Jabal Mukkabir part of historical Jerusalem? What memories do the people of Israel have, of the names I have mentioned? When did we ever pray for Abu Dis, that suddenly it is being sanctified as if there’s no life in Jerusalem without it and without all kinds of other neighborhoods populated by Arabs? We cannot unite them and connect them to the real [social] fabric of Jerusalem. These places have only caused us heartache, nothing else.

Of course, since Jerusalem was only the walled "Old City" for two thousand years of history and more until Mishkenot Shaananim was established, over 150 years ago,  perhaps maybe almost all of Jerusalem is problematic for these people.


To be fair to Olmert, at a June 14, 2006 press conference in France, declared

“I, as prime minister of Israel, will never, ever, ever agree to a compromise on the complete control over the Temple Mount. And not only the Temple Mount, but also the Old City, Mount of Olives, and every place that is an inseparable part of the Jewish history,”

But he also said in 2012:

“Regarding the Old City, we will have to reach a settlement — and that includes the Temple Mount — that will allow us to maintain a peace agreement between us and the Palestinians. That is a very difficult, complex task mandating extraordinary sensitivity, understanding and even a sense of restraint.”

And also we read then that he was reported saying

Israel will "never agree to pull out of all of the territories, because the borders of 1967 are indefensible,"

 
As it was, the Guardian noted at the time that

Mr Olmert's plan, which Israeli officials expect to begin late next year, would see Israel retaining three large settler blocs - Ariel, Maale Adumin and Gush Etzion. Under the plan, about 60,000-70,000 settlers in the West Bank would lose their homes but about 130,000 others would remain. Israel would also retain the Jordan Valley and settlements that effectively encircle Jerusalem, making it difficult for Palestinians to realise their dream of a capital in east Jerusalem.

In any case, consider this bit of information:

Nineteenth century records refer to a small village ''with a few houses, A-Tur is an undeveloped settlement''. The middle of the nineteenth century saw the start of church building. The village has no agricultural land which has limited its development. In 1953 the Jordanian authorities incorporated A-Tur into the municipal area of Jerusalem.

So, is A-Tur (it is on Mount of Olives, not the A-Tur near Hebron Road) part of East Jerusalem, "Arab East Jerusalem" or what?  

At least, from that source we know it's a "settlement".

But is it defensible?


________________

I blogged too soon:

Catherine Ashton, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy today stressed once again in a statement that Israeli settlements in and around East Jerusalem are illegal and called on the Israeli government to immediately end all settlement activities.

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Catholics for Settlements

"Palestinian settlements", that is.

I caught this:

On the hills of the West Bank, building the good life for Palestinians

Published: May 30, 2013

RAWABI, West Bank (CNS) -- About 20 minutes from the Palestinian economic hub of Ramallah, the new city of Rawabi is sprouting on a rocky hillside. Visitors sense pride as young professionals work on the first Palestinian city built with a master plan and the first new Palestinian city to rise up among the scattered Israeli settlements in the West Bank. "When people come here they are astonished," said Ghadeer Khoury, 28, a young Catholic civil engineer from Ramallah who has been working as part of the Rawabi team since its inception in 2008. "It is something (different). They are not used to seeing something like this ... for us. We know there is a good life, but we don't know that it can be for us also, with everything organized and in the right place. But we can still have something good like this, despite the (Israeli) occupation." Many of her young Christian contemporaries are coming to buy apartments here, said Khoury, who is in the process of choosing an apartment for herself. Co-worker Jack Nasser, 28, a Catholic who lives in Ramallah and works as office manager on the project, has already bought an apartment here and convinced his brother and one sister to buy here as well. What was envisioned as a neighborhood has transformed into an entire planned city.

Copyright (c) Catholic News Service /U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service .

Do you think they are trying to tell us something?

At least Jesus was Jewish.

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A Kippah on the Catwalk

Is that a kippah at London's Royal College of Art fashion show?

Perhaps.

But what is that in the model's mouth?

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Kerry on Peres - From the Graphic Zionism Series

.

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Among Today's Temple Mount Visitors

Members of Likud Petah Tikva, with guide Yehudah Glick and Natan Engelsman, visiting the Temple Mount today:

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Jewish Identity vs. Palestinian Disinventivity

You are aware that I have suggested that the Arabs who presume to call themselves "Palestinians" in a paradigm sense of "inventivity" promote an ideology I term "Palestinianism" which is predicated on the disinventivity model of nationalism.

In other words, these Arabs claim to be who they aren't and assert that Jews aren't who they actually are.  In short, they deny the ethos of Jewish nationalism.

In brief:
 

Inventivity is the foundation necessity of Palestinianism

They do that by basically fabricating history, ignoring history and denying history and all the facts thereof.

Identity theft.

Dore Gold wrote Jerusalem Denial.

I have been recording the outrageous statements about the Temple Mount.

And now this:

Al-Quds international institution initiated its global campaign “It is Al-Quds…It will never be Yerushalem”...Yasin Hamoud, director-general of the institution, told a news conference on Wednesday in Cairo that the campaign is aimed at shedding light on the status of Jerusalem (Al-Quds) following 46 years of its occupation.  Hamoud added that the campaign would work on actively involving the issue of Jerusalem in the political and media discourse and rallying the Arab and Muslim streets to provide moral and financial support for the holy city and its people...

...Hamid Al-Ahmer, chairman of Al-Quds institution, stated that the Aqsa Mosque is being exposed to Judaization attempts to build the so called Jewish temple in place of the Dome of the Rock, warning that the daily violations at the Mosque is aimed at dividing it between Muslims and Jews.  Al-Ahmer called on the Arab and Islamic governments and peoples to show firm stance against Israel’s violations in Jerusalem and to adopt a comprehensive strategy to consolidate the Arab and Islamic identity of the holy city.

See what I mean?

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A Comment at the NYTimes 'Caucus' Blog

Here:

Yisrael Medad

Shiloh, Israel

I read:

"The fact that so many of Mrs. Clinton’s top aides were named in the letter..."

But could it not be that one goes after those who seemingly have the best chance to be guilty?

The Dems want to Committee to go after ... the President this way, too?

• May 30, 2013 at 3:11 a.m.

 

 

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From Syria to Judea and Samaria

Consider this:

if Senator John McCain can slip into Syria, why can't the State Department permit Senators or Congressmen visit Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria?

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Clifford Martin, A Hanged Sergeant

The Martins: April 1943 shows Cliff in uniform at sixteen and a half with (from left) - Cliff's sister Ethel; their mum Nanda; dad Arnold and his other sister Daisy (my mum)." Clifford Martin's nephew, Jean-Pierre Roger.

In July 1947 Sgt Clifford Martin and his friend, Sgt Mervyn Paice were hanged by the Irgun.

The irony was that Martin was actually born Jewish although it seems he was unawares of his religion.

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Hot and Heavy Mandate Days

And then there's just sex

 

"One day I was told, 'Get your half track ready, you're going out with the Lieutenant'. Wasn't a lone vehicle against the rules? We drove quite a long way and eventually into the orange groves until we reached a clearing. In this clearing was a large old house. Our Lieutenant walked across and into the house. He came out with a dark haired maiden. They entered the orange groves. After a while they came out and he escorted her back to the house. He then rejoined us and said, with a smile on his face, 'Now I'll get you out of these orange groves'." Alan Booth, 13th Anti-Tank Regt, Gunners in Palestine, November 2002.

In spite of the possible risks casual affairs were not uncommon. Charlie Powell lived and worked in a fire station in Haifa but was working far longer hours than he should (literally having to sleep in the office on duty for days) because his sergeant was conducting an affair with a comely Jewish woman across the road. Duty evidently didn't always come first.

The only chance most of the men had to meet women was in the brothels of Haifa, Cairo, Alexandria or elsewhere and there was much talk and boasting of exploits which were unlikely to be more than fantasy. Brothels were accepted as a fact of life though there would be occasional forays by RMPs into red light districts looking for deserters. The majority of men and women were young and inexperienced and the army's horribly graphic films did much to put the fear of God into them about venereal disease. It was not a crime to get it but was a crime not to report it and the treatment could be most unpleasant. There were regular inspections in an effort to control it but how successful they were is debatable and young people delude themselves into thinking they are immortal and immune to the diseases that others get.

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On the New Jewish Feminism: Breaking Down Orthodoxy

Found on the Internet:

First off, I want to make it clear that I roundly denounce the physical and verbal violence employed by hooligans against the Women of the Wall on Friday.  Such uncivilized behavior is completely unacceptable, especially coming from those who fancy themselves benei Torah.

That being said, the despicable behavior of some critics of WoW does not make all criticism of the group's positions illegitimate, and I think that the discussion can, and should, continue.

The advocates of WoW often make the argument that their practices are considered a mainstream form of Jewish worship by a large percentage of Jews around the world, and since the Kotel belongs to all Jews, that form of worship should be allowed at the Kotel.  I think that many people are very uncomfortable with taking this argument to its logical conclusion.

There is also a large percentage of Jews around the world whose synagogue practices include photography of a bar/bat mitzvah and playing musical instruments on Shabbat.  There are thousands of Jews in the U.S. who may attend their synagogues regularly, and who would see a Shabbat service without guitar accompaniment as lacking an essential component.  Should this, then, be permitted at the Kotel?  I would venture to say that the vast majority of halachically observant Jews, even the most liberal, would find such practices disruptive to the Shabbat atmosphere that they are looking for when going to the Kotel on Shabbat.

Personally, I don't think that women wearing talitot and davening in a group is the equivalent of playing guitar on Shabbat.  The former is permitted by halacha (even if not customary, and even if it's not an approach that I identity with), and the latter is forbidden.  But this is exactly the point that WoW should be making.  I would find it much easier to be sympathetic to their cause if they would say that they are committed to halacha and accept, in principle, that public activities at the Kotel should conform to halacha, but they are advocating for a less narrow view of what that includes.

There are many observant Jews who do not celebrate Yom haAtzmaut and Yom Yerushalayim, and who maintain that a blessing recited on Hallel on those days is in vain, yet the festive prayer services attended by tens of thousands of worshipers at the Kotel on these days do not garner any significant protest.  This is because those opposed know that those who are reciting Hallel are not doing so in order to rebel against the halachic system or challenge the role of halacha in establishing the norms of behavior at the Kotel.  They believe that the celebrants are simply misguided and "hold incorrectly" on this particular issue.

I suspect that many of those most strongly opposed to WoW take for granted that a woman wearing a tallit could only be doing so because she is someone who does not accept the binding nature of halacha, and thus they see WoW as a precedent that can lead to all sorts of organized non-halachic activity at the Kotel.  If spokespeople associated with WoW would stop talking about "breaking Orthodox control" of the Kotel and taking down the mechitza each day, and make it clear that they are simply looking to do something a little "different" within the big tent of halachically acceptable behavior, then I think a lot of the heat would die down, and the critics -- even those who believe WoW to be misguided and "holding incorrectly" -- would be
more willing to "live and let live."

E1 - the Jewish Angle

A Shabbat at Mevaseret Adumim is planned for June 22.

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'Price Tag' As "Terror" - A Stupid Move

Reported

An initiative to change the legal standing of "price tag" attacks to that of an act of terror will be brought before the cabinet next week, according to a resolution devised by Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovich and representatives from the police and security forces.  The initiative is part of a larger shift intended to bolster police and Shin Bet action against "price tag" offenses in the West Bank and Israel.

...Minister Livni has recently met with several settlement representatives in order to gain support for the initiative.

She's following Peace Now's lead, this from October 2011:

The extremist settlers call it "Price Tag." We have always called it by its proper name: Terrorism. Now, Israel's Shin Bet, the IDF's top brass and Israeli Cabinet members agree with us.

and Amos Gilad from last September:-

So-called "price tag" attacks represent criminal acts of terror meant to drag Israel into a religious Armageddon, a senior Israeli security official said on Monday...Speaking at the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism's 12th world summit, Amos Gilad, the Defense Ministry's director for policy and political-military affairs, referred to recent acts of violence against Palestinians and Israeli Arabs, saying that the right-wing activists who perpetrate "price tag" attacks must be restrained

Of course they must be found, placed and trial and if guilty, sentenced.  But in any case, "terror" is not "criminal" but war.

The real question is why can't the police do their job.  But Livni's idea is stupid.

Why "stupid"?

First of all, there are freedom of expression issues here since more than 70% of the "price tag" acts are daubing and graffiti and not only torching of cars (which, as has been proven, Arabs have done to themselves) and the burning of fields (as has been proven never occurred). 

Read here, too.

Second, equalizing Jews to Arabs as terrorists is simply immoral in that there are enough laws to permit adequate supervision and punishment for the criminal activities that are "price tag" acts without suggesting that what Arabs do to Jews is what Jews do to Arabs.  As Carl wrote:

Declaring vandalism to be terrorism in Israel is a sure way to ensure that no one takes our claims about terrorism seriously.  

And thirdly, imagine what a field day some Arab groups would have.  Someone might even presume they can file a criminal suit against persons or groups supporting Jewish communities where "price tag" acts take place, as if they are funding terror. (see UPDATE) (see UPDATE 2)

Consider that the last time Livni called something "terrorist", she got in trouble in February 2009:-

Newly appointed Israeli Foreign Minister, Tzipi Livni ruffled US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in their first Washington meeting, Wednesday by publicly calling a Hamas-led Palestinian Authority a terrorist entity.  "When a state is run by terrorists, it becomes a terrorist entity," Livni said alongside Rice at a State Department news conference. Rice did not react to Livni's statement, but an Israeli diplomatic source said that the Secretary of State did not appear "thrilled" with it

_______________

UPDATE

...“Why the special scrutiny for pro-Israel groups?

...Let me provide another possible clue, found in the June 16, 2009 minutes of the Palestinian negotiating unit headed by Saeb Erekat–part of the Palestine Papers published by Al Jazeera in 2011.

At the June 16 meeting, Erekat said Benjamin Netanyahu’s June 14 Bar-Ilan speech had sought to put the Palestinians on the defensive...Dr. Mohammed Shtayyed made an additional suggestion to Erekat:

“We should also focus on the government incentives to settlers: loans without interest, land for free, agricultural subsidies in the Jordan valley. We can’t stop a pregnant lady from having a baby, but look at what we can do. We should look at the 501(c)(3) organizations in the States that make donations to settlers. Let the US administration investigate this.” [Emphasis added].

Shatayyed was wrong about Israeli government incentives, which had been terminated by Israel during the Bush administration...Given our evolving knowledge of how the IRS operated under Obama, however, it seems possible the Palestinians followed through on Shtayyed’s other suggestion, asking the administration to investigate pro-Israeli groups...Perhaps a Palestinian request to “investigate” 501(c)(3) entities found a welcome response at the highest levels of the U.S. government, even before the New York Times article appeared a year later.

_____________________

And guess what?

IRS Crosses Green Line

Pro-Israel groups felt wrath of Obama IRS, WFB investigation reveals
Alana Goodman, May 30, 2013

A Washington Free Beacon investigation has identified at least five pro-Israel organizations that have been audited by the IRS in the wake of a coordinated campaign by White House-allied activist groups in 2009 and 2010.

These organizations, some of which are too afraid of government reprisals to speak publicly, say in interviews with the Free Beacon that they now believe the IRS actions may have been coordinated by the Obama administration.

Many of the charities openly clashed with the Obama administration’s policy of opposing Israeli settlement construction over the so-called “Green Line,” which marks the pre-1967 boundary between Israel and the West Bank and West and East Jerusalem.

And I forgot this:

Relentless” attacks by “terrorist settler militias” on Palestinians have become commonplace in the West Bank, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas charged on Thursday in his address to the United Nations General Assembly.  “We contend with attacks on our people, our mosques, our churches and our schools,” Abbas said, in a reference to the burgeoning phenomenon of price-tag attacks and vandalism in response to Israeli evacuations of outposts in the West Bank.

_________________

Update 2:-

A West Bank village is suing two Quebec-based companies for $2 million, alleging they violated international law by building Israeli settlements on occupied territory.

The claim, filed Wednesday [but first reported in 2008] against sister companies Green Park International and Green Mount International, also asks the Quebec Superior Court for an injunction to stop further construction, and demolish apartment buildings already erected in Moddin Illit, a Jewish settlement northwest of Ramallah.

The Palestinian village of Bil'in alleges both companies committed war crimes by building housing in the settlement, Israel's largest in the West Bank. The lawsuit also names Annette Laroche, who is named as the director of both companies.

The apartment buildings are built on land that was part of a Palestinian village until Israel seized the West Bank from Jordanian control in the Six-Day War in 1967...

The lawsuit asks the court to rule whether the construction violates the Fourth Geneva Convention, which deals with the protection of civilians in times of war and occupation; Canada's Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act; the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms; and the Civil Code of Quebec.

The Fourth Geneva Convention forbids an occupying power from transferring its own civilians into occupied territory...the lawsuit is believed to be the first time a private company has been sued for investing in Israeli settlements...

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Child Abuse Archaeological Evidence

From here:
[Go there for embedded links]

A 2- to 3-year-old child from a Romano-Christian-period cemetery in Dakhleh Oasis, Egypt, shows evidence of physical child abuse, archaeologists have found. The child, who lived around 2,000 years ago, represents the earliest documented case of child abuse in the archaeological record, and the first case ever found in Egypt, researchers say.
...Dating methods using radioactive carbon from skeletons suggest the cemetery was used between A.D. 50 and A.D. 450.
When the researchers came across the abused toddler — labeled "Burial 519" — in Kellis 2, nothing seemed out of the ordinary at first. But when Wheeler's colleague Tosha Duprasbegan brushing the sand away, she noticed prominent fractures on the child's arms.  "She thought, 'Whoa, this was weird,' and then she found another fracture on the collarbone," Wheeler said. "We have some other kids that show evidence of skeletal trauma, but this is the only one that had these really extreme fracture patterns."

...One of the more interesting fractures was located on the child's upper arms, in the same spot on each arm, Wheeler said. The fractures were complete, broken all the way through the bone — given that children are more flexible than adults, a complete break like that would have taken a lot of force.
After comparing the injury with the clinical literature, the researchers deduced that someone grabbed the child's arms and used them as handles to shake the child violently. Other fractures were also likely caused by shaking, but some injuries, including those on the ribs and vertebrae, probably came from direct blows.
...though Romans loved their kids immensely, they believed children were born soft and weak, so it was the parents' duty to mold them into adults. They often engaged in such practices as corporal punishment, immobilizing newborn infants on wooden planks to ensure proper growth and routinely bathing the young in cold water as to not soften them with the feel of warm water.
...The research will be published in an upcoming issue of the International Journal of Paleopathology.

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Adelson Plain Speaking

Asked about Secretary of State John Kerry’s plan to infuse as much as $4 billion into the economy of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, much of it to build tourism, Mr. Adelson responded, “Why would I want to invest money with people who want to kill my people?”

“How can you move a ball forward when the Israelis legitimately want peace and the Palestinians want Israel piece by piece?” he said of Mr. Kerry’s broader effort to revive the stalemated peace process. “Have you ever heard any Palestinian say, ‘We have to give up our hope of destroying Israel in favor of living in peace.’ ?”

 As for the Palestinians, Mr. Adelson said, “They teach their children that Jews are descended from swine and apes, pigs and monkeys.” Then he questioned their existence as a distinct ethnic group, saying they were “southern Syrians” or Egyptians until Yasir Arafat, who was leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization, “came along with a pitcher of Kool-Aid and gave it to everybody to drink and sold them the idea of Palestinians.”

Source

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From J Street's Jeremy:

...Adelson is working just as hard to make sure they fail. His is a recipe for unending conflict and generations of suffering on all sides.
Nothing will ever change Sheldon Adelson’s mind. But that doesn’t mean we can just let his outrageous claims and statements go unchallenged. That’s why this year at the fourth national J Street conference, Our Time To Lead, we want to bring more Palestinian pro-peace voices than ever to Washington, DC in support of a two-state solution.
Can you pitch in $7 to help us show Sheldon Adelson he's wrong by bringing more Palestinian voices than ever before to our conference?
You didn’t let Adelson’s millions distort the election last year, and we won’t let them derail Secretary Kerry’s hard work for peace either. That’s why it’s so important that the thought leaders in Washington, the members of Congress and administration officials who will be at the conference, hear from young Palestinian business leaders, peace activists and government representatives - along with their Israeli counterparts - who are working to make the two-state solution a reality.
Adelson asked “have you ever heard any Palestinian say, ‘we have to give up our hope of destroying Israel in favor of living in peace?’” At Our Time To Lead, September 28-October 1 in Washington, DC, he certainly will.

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When The Term "Betrayal" Was Acceptable

When the betrayers were the British.

From the Palestine Post, May 23, 1939, 6 days after the announcement of the new White Paper policy of restrictions on immigration and land purchases and altering the purpose of the League of Nations Mandate:

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Waqf and Vatican Cooperate in Jerusalem

According to this:

"Under the terms of the proposed agreement the building that houses the Upper Room, also known as the Cenacle [on Mount Zion], would reportedly remain under Israeli state ownership. However the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land—which had previously owned the building, and sought its return—will have administrative control over the Cenacle itself."

Israel's government is creating another Temple Mount situation.  Technically, the land is Israel's sovereign territory but the day-to-day control lies with an institution which does not properly belong to the State.

And I used to refer to the Temple Mount administration by the Waqf as an Islamic Vatican.

Little did I know, or suspect, or imagine.

Incidentally,

Bernardino [of Siena, a 15th century Franciscan preacher] is particularly resented today as being a "major protagonist of Christian anti-semitism". He called for Jews to be isolated from the wider communities in which they lived; blaming the poverty of local Christians on Jewish usury. His audiences often used his words to reinforce actions against Jews, and his preaching left a legacy of resentment on the part of Jews.

and being generous

His attitude toward Jews, however, did not rise above the prejudice of his day.

Let's not forget that Cenacle building was originally a synagogue.


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Exclusive Video: Jews "Practicing Talmudic Rituals" on Temple Mount

The video is here (in this story)

A still:

Oh, if you go here, you can view a video of Muslim school children participating in a project that assists them to "communicate with Al-Aqsa".  And there are nice views of the Temple Mount as well.

_______________

UPDATE


This story informs us the Israeli police, without Waqf "permission", entered the Dome of the Rock to observe restoration work and check the scaffolding and incidentally detained someone who had been involved in instigating provocative behavior towards Jewish visitors to the Temple Mount:

And this Bnai Brith story.



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Political Financial Interference

If you are an American, there is nothing illegal about contributing money, as a donation to a charitable cause, to a project abroad.

But in the eyes of an American administration, funding educational, social welfare, recreational sports or other such projects in Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria is a pain, a political pain and not an illegal pain.

So what do they do?

Here:

Why the special scrutiny for pro-Israel groups? A New York Times article in July 2010 provided a clue: Tax-exempt groups were donating to West Bank settlers, and State Department officials wanted the settlers out. "As the American government seeks to end the four-decade Jewish settlement enterprise and foster a Palestinian state in the West Bank," the Times wrote, "the American Treasury helps sustain the settlements through tax breaks on donations to support them."

Did the T-men take their political cues from such stories, or did Administration officials give them orders? Either explanation would be a violation of public trust.

This would also suggest a pattern: Washington officials sent a message for tougher scrutiny of certain 501(c) groups, and the IRS coincidentally adjusted its enforcement regime...There's still much we don't know about the scandal of politicized tax enforcement.

Will someone sue the government?

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Even France Considered Palestine As Part of Syria

Further to my previous posts like this, too, there's this

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On British Pro-Zionism in 1916

As recounted,

Gerald Henry Fitzmaurice, served before World War I as a British dragoman, interpreting and translating Ottoman interests to his superiors at the consulate in what was then known as Constantinople. 

Fitzmaurice had an epiphany in the first year of the wat: Britain should promise Palestine to the Jews right now. In return, the Dönmes would withdraw their support from the Turkish government, which would inevitably collapse. 

Fitzmaurice, now attached to the intelligence division at the British Admiralty, lobbied Hugh James O'Bierne, an experienced and well-respected British diplomat. O'Beirne responded positively to the idea. On Feb. 28, 1916, he composed the first Foreign Office memo linking the fate of Palestine with both Jewish interests and British chances of victory in World War I. 

"It has been suggested to me," he wrote to his colleagues, "that if we could offer the Jews an arrangement as to Palestine which would strongly appeal to them, we might conceivably be able to strike a bargain with them as to withdrawing their support from the Young Turk government which would then automatically collapse."

From this book:

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British Humour

Lord Rosebery, a Liberal Leader and later, Leader in the House of Lords of that party, thought Robert Crewe-Milnes, his son-in-law, a reliable politician but a poor speaker. 

When it was announced to him that his daughter, the Marchioness of Crewe, was in labour, Rosebery quipped, "I hope that her delivery is not as slow as Crewe's".

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A Watchamacallit

Before you throw your cigarette butt away, put it out first.

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Will "Palestinian Settlement Construction" Be The New Key to Peace?

On Kerry's new economic plan:

Construction of new homes, tourism and agriculture would be key sectors, he said, adding: "We know it can be done."

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Yesterday's Temple Mount Visitors

More pictures from here, to follow-up on this "storming" story:

They really seem like your everyday 'desecrators', don't they?


These Arabs, though, came to the Temple Mount straight after being released from a prison term of a year.

_____________

UPDATE


The Bnai Brith Canada group:

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