07/28 Links Pt1: Kerry, come quick! The Jews are winning!; Israel offered aid to Gazans, PA refused

From Ian:

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JPost Editorial: Kerry’s mediation

On Saturday, he flew from Cairo to Paris to meet with his Qatari and Turkish counterparts. Also present were the foreign ministers of Germany, France, Britain and Italy.
Conspicuously absent were representatives from Egypt, the Palestinian Authority and Israel.
Why would Kerry agree to engage in talks with Turkey and Qatar – two countries openly hostile to Israel and supportive of Hamas’s terrorist agenda that calls for the destruction of the Jewish state and its replacement with a caliphate run in accordance with a reactionary version of Islamic law? Isn’t the US supposed to be on the side of nations, such as Israel, that support freedom, democracy and equality and are enemies of terrorist organizations such as Hamas and its patrons?
What does this incident say about Kerry’s ability to confront other challenges to world security such as Iran’s nuclear weapon program? Since Kerry took over as secretary of state a year-and-ahalf ago, there have been a number of disputes between the US and Israel. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu openly criticized Kerry’s support for the interim deal with Iran. During Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon derided Kerry’s security proposals along the Jordan border, calling the secretary “messianic” and “obsessive” about the prospects for peace.

Kerry’s mistakes strengthen Hamas’s resolve

Kerry and his staff made an outrageous decision to turn their backs on the Egyptian framework for a ceasefire in a manner that encouraged Hamas to continue shooting rockets.
This first mistake was exposed by none other than the political leader of the organization, Khaled Mashaal, who said in a press conference in Doha, the Qatari capital, that Kerry had turned to al-Attiyah and Davutoglu two days after the Israeli operation in Gaza began and asked them to push for a ceasefire. At the time, Kerry knew full well that a major Egyptian effort was underway to persuade Hamas to stop firing immediately. By turning to Doha and Ankara behind the backs of Cairo and Jerusalem, Washington — no doubt unintentionally — strengthened Hamas’s resolve against Egypt and Israel.
But the mistakes didn’t stop there. The farce continued with the amateurish draft that was immediately rejected by Israel’s security cabinet; it then reached new heights on Saturday in Paris, when Kerry decided to participate in an international summit on Gaza, attended by his new friends al-Attiyah and Davutoglu as well as the foreign ministers of the European Union, but not by a few players that Kerry apparently perceives as marginal – representatives of Egypt, the Palestinian Authority and, of course, Israel.

When numbers in Gaza masquerade as fact

The Meir Amit Intelligence and Information Center found, on July 23, that 775 people had been killed in Gaza, of whom 229 were militants or terrorists (135 Hamas, 60 Islamic Jihad, 34 from other terror organizations); 267 were civilians; and 279 could not yet be classified.
Many of the Palestinian figures subsequently quoted, by the UN and other international organizations, “are not worth the paper they’re written on,” Reuven Erlich, the director of the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, told The Times of Israel. “They’re based mostly on Palestinian sources in Gaza, who have a vested interest in showing that we’re killing many civilians.”
His center, he said, thoroughly researches the casualties. In order to ascertain an accurate identity of the dead, the center’s staff researches the person’s background on Palestinian websites and searches for information about their funerals and for other hints that could shed light on the person’s true occupation.
The authorities in Gaza generally count every young man who did not wear a uniform as a civilian — even if he was involved in terrorist activity and was therefore considered by the IDF a legitimate target, military sources said.

Latest Al Jazeera Data Shows Gaza Casualties Still Mostly Combat-Aged Males

On Sunday, blogger Elder of Ziyon posted new charts, updating the data released by Al Jazeera last week and the week before, and confirming the same trend.
The first chart shows the male-female split and then graphed by age group, with most of the men being 20 to 24 or 25 to 29. The second chart compares the results to Gaza’s actual age distribution, casting further doubt on Hamas’s claims, as the majority of the dead fit the profiles of fighters, men in their 20s, rather than the broader population.
The blogger also published a link to a Google Document created by Guy Bechor based on the official list of Gazan dead from the International Middle East Media Center, for others to examine the raw data.

IDF Soldier in Al Jazeera Interview on Hamas Human Shields: They Throw Civilians at Us ‘Like Cannon Fire’ (VIDEO)

An Israel Defense Forces reservist addressed Hamas’ use of human shields in a recent interview on Al Jazeera America, saying the terror group uses Gaza’s civilians like cannon fodder as weapons against IDF troops.
When confronted by the Al Jazeera correspondent about child casualties in Gaza during Israel’s current Operation Protective Edge, Ezagui said the world “isn’t getting a clear picture of what’s going on.”
“Yes there’s a death toll, but it’s not something that’s on Israel’s hands. It’s not on the young soldiers. The brave men who are going in there to protect their people. It’s Hamas that are throwing Palestinians at us like cannon fire and it’s devastating,” said Ezagui, who lost his left arm while on duty in 2008.
The lone soldier asserted that the terrorist organization should be held responsible for putting Gaza civilians “in such a terrible situation.” Gazan children “don’t deserve to be used as human shields, to be indoctrinated at such a young age,” he said

IDF Soldier Izzy Ezagui on Al Jazeera

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Palestine Papers: PLO distinguishes between "Wailing Wall" and the Kotel

One of the more interesting papers released in the "Palestine Papers" is something called The End Game, which is a presumably US (or perhaps Israel)-written outline of what a final agreement would look like, along with PLO comments. Meaning that it was meant to encapsulate "what everyone knows" the final agreement would be like. It was written in April 2008.

Here's one section of the main document:

The Capital of the State of Palestine will comprise essentially of the Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem including the Holy Site of Al-Haram over which the State of Palestine will have sovereignty 9. Israel will have sovereignty 10 over the Western Wall 11, the Jewish Quarter and parts of the Armenian Quarter 12. The City of Jerusalem will be an open city, Capital for both Israel (Yerushalayim) and Palestine (AlQods)13.

The PLO's notes:

9 The sentence, as drafted, is both overly vague and problematic. The proposition that Arab areas will be Palestinian while Israeli settlements in “East Jerusalem” will be Israeli suggests that the Israeli definition of municipal Jerusalem is the starting point. This runs counter to the Palestinian position (and numerous UN resolutions) that Israel’s annexation of East Jerusalem and other parts of the West Bank is illegal and that the base line of 1967 must also apply in East Jerusalem.

The PLO position on Jerusalem is that East Jerusalem, along the 1967 borders and within its pre-occupation municipal lines shall be the capital of Palestine, and West Jerusalem shall be the capital of Israel. This articulation of the position is intended to define the Palestinian Capital in the agreement with Israel to include the Old City and its surroundings. Any possible future expansion of the city post-statehood will be subject solely to the discretion of Palestinians.

Meaning that the PLO, for all its supposed flexibility, was not giving up any part of the Old City, but perhaps just granting access to some Jews to their homes and holy place under Arab rule.

10 The Wailing Wall is part of the western wall of the Haram Al-Sharif, which must be under Palestinian sovereignty. Therefore, granting Israel sovereignty over the western wall or sections thereof would run counter to that. Israel’s primary interests are to preserve the religious significance of and Jewish prayer rights at the Wailing Wall, which can be met by other means short of granting sovereignty over the Wall to Israel (e.g., prayer/access rights, administration rights over the surface of the Wailing Wall, etc.)

Pretty self-explanatory and it again shows that the supposed flexibility of the PLO did not extend to the sovereignty of the Kotel.

Now, they try to cut down the size of the Kotel (short for Kotel HaMaaravi, "Western Wall," the Hebrew name of the Wall for at least a thousand years:)

11 Should be the “Wailing Wall” rather than “Western Wall”. The entire Western Wall is 470 meters long, whereas the Wailing Wall portion, on which Jews practice their religion, is just 60 meters long. It should be noted that prior to the occupation of East Jerusalem in 1967 the length of the Wailing Wall section of the western wall was 28 meters. Following its occupation of East Jerusalem, Israel demolished all the houses of the Maghriba uarter adjacent to the wall in order to expand the area of the Wailing Wall to its current length of 60 meters length and to create a plaza in front of it. It should also be noted that currently there are many Palestinian houses attached to western wall from the northern edge of the Wailing Wall to the northern edge of the western wall.

The Arabs are pretending that the open plaza of the Kotel is the only place that is holy to Jews, when in fact the entire Temple Mount and supporting walls (as well as all of Jerusalem!) are holy. In the PLO's formuation, the Kotel ha-Katan (which is actually holier than the section of the wall visible on the plaza) as well as other places that Jews worship would become Jew-free - just the way the Mufti wanted it.

12 The Jewish Quarter nowadays is comprised of the historical Jewish quarter, along with the Palestinian Maghriba quarter and other Palestinian houses that were demolished by Israel. “Parts of the Armenian Quarter” is overly vague and, as such, opens the door to the further expansion of the Jewish Quarter. Furthermore, most houses currently occupied by Jews in the Armenian Quarter were seized illegally by settlers.

What is the "Palestinian Maghriba" quarter? It appears to refer to the supposed Mughrabi quarter, which was defined after 1967 as the section in front of what is now the Kotel plaza. Before 1967 I cannot find any mention of this supposed "quarter," let alone any mention of it being "Palestinian."

For the past several hundred years Jerusalem had four quarters (hence, the name "quarter"). As Encyclopedia Britannica wrote in 1888:

There are now four quarters: —that of the Moslems (including the Haram) on the north-east, the Jewish quarter on the south east, the Armenian quarter on the south-west, the Christian on the north-west. The quarters are bounded by David (or Temple) Street, running east from the Jaffa gate, and by the street running north and south immediately east of the Holy Sepulchre (called Marat el Yehud on the south and Tarik Bab el 'Amud on the north).

Britannica goes on to show that the PLO's attempt to limit Jews to the Jewish Quarter is against history as well:

The quarters are not, however, exclusively occupied by any nationality, many rich Jews having houses in the Armenian and even in the Moslem quarter. In the 12th century the present Moslem quarter was occupied by the Jews, and called the Juiverie.

Even the enlightened, intelligent and moderate PLO negotiators prove here their bigotry and tendency to lie.

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New prayer area adjacent to HaKotel HaKatan?

From Ha'aretz, an article by Akiva Eldar where I try to remove all vestiges of bias. Read the original to see how bad it really is.

The Jerusalem Development Authority recently removed scaffolding in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City. The authority, controlled by the Jerusalem municipality and by several ministries, removed scaffolding from under an arch supporting Palestinian homes in the Little Western Wall plaza (also known as the Little Kotel plaza ).

The move was carried out to make more room in the plaza for Jewish prayer and other events.

The courtyard faces a small of section of the western support wall of the Temple Mount. The largest open section of that same wall is known as the Western Wall.

The Little Kotel plaza is considered the second closest spot (after the Western Wall Tunnel) to the "Holy of Holies," which was the most sacred place for Jews in the temple.

Ateret Cohanim, headed by Rabbi Shlomo Aviner, has been demanding for years that the scaffolding be removed to make room for prayer and other events. The Waqf (the Muslim religious trust ) has specifically warned against the removal of the scaffolds and opening the site to prayer gatherings, threatening a strong response.

According to the Ateret Cohanim website, students of the Ateret Yerushalayim yeshiva pray in the courtyard every Friday, and no disturbances at the site have been recorded in recent years. The website also states that the Little Kotel is visited by Jews throughout the year, including both private individuals and tours organized by various groups.

The scaffolds do not actually support the arch.

I found a photo of the scaffolding in a picture of a women's prayer gathering at the Kotel ha-Katan in 2005 taken by Batya Medad::

Her husband, Yisrael, took this photo only yesterday - there was no sign previously:

Notice that when Jews want to use a space that is not being used at all, by Muslims of anyone else, this is considered highly provocative. No one is being kicked out of their homes, no change to the status quo (despite what Ha'aretz is claiming in the original article,) - just when Jews who are already praying at the site want to be shielded from the elements, they'll have a place to go.

This is fantastic news. There is no downside except for Muslim threats - and Muslims will threaten Jewish rights in Jerusalem regardless of what Jews actually do. Far better for Jews to assert these rights than to ceded them in fear of a "strong response."

Here is a post about my visit to the Kotel ha-Katan four years ago, and here's some background about efforts to give the site the prominence it deserves.

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Update on the Kotel ha-Katan

In January I blogged about the Kotel ha-Katan, a little-known part of the Western Wall that is even closer to the holiest part of the Temple.

Earlier, I had blogged an extremely disturbing story about someone who was arrested for blowing the shofar at the Kotel ha-Katan last Rosh Hashanah - by Israeli police.

It looks like it is finally starting to receive the attention it deserves.
From Arutz-7:

Unknown to most visitors to the Western Wall, the remnant of the Holy Temple compound extends to the north far beyond what they can see - and a campaign is underway to publicize this.

The Western Wall is a supporting wall of the Temple Mount complex, on which the two Holy Temples were built approximately 2,850 and 2,350 years ago, respectively. Though it is technically outside the Temple area, it has special sanctity; the rabbinic Sages taught that the Divine Presence would never leave the Western Wall.

Of the nearly 500 meters of length of the Western Wall, roughly 200 meters of the southern end [to the right of the worshipers] are easily accessible today - but the remainder is just as sacred. Another 100 meters or so are included in a tour of the Western Wall Tunnels. Above these tunnels, near the Iron Gate entrance to the Temple Mount and on Temple Mount floor level, is an open area facing a short segment of the Wall. This is the area known as the Kotel HaKatan.

One Would Not Know It
Though it is off the beaten track, the Kotel HaKatan is actually slightly more holy than the familiar Western Wall plaza, because of its closer proximity to the Holy of Holies of the ancient Temples. However, one would not know this upon visiting it - for it is hard to get to, has no trappings of a holy site, and is not even protected 24 hours a day.

An ad-hoc committee named Kotleinu, "Our Wall," is working to promote and improve conditions at the Kotel HaKatan. The committee comprises mostly residents of the Old City of Jerusalem who are concerned that the area is not treated with the respect it deserves.

The group says that of late, for the first time ever, the Tourism Ministry department in charge of Holy Sites has committed to upkeep the Kotel HaKatan. Deputy Director-General Rafi Ben-Hur acknowledged that the Ministry is responsible for the area, but said that special budgeting must be obtained before this responsibility can be actualized.

Despite this, some recent improvements at the site include a police presence during daylight hours, a security camera monitoring the area and the access road, municipality-provided street-sweeping - and even a sign that says "Do not litter."

"A no-littering sign is an improvement," an active Kotleinu member told Arutz-7, "but what we really want is a sign saying that this is a holy site and that it should be treated appropriately."

Prayer Services and Arab Bicycles
Yeshivat HaKotel maintains a daily afternoon prayer service there, and other groups and yeshivot also pray there on Shabbatot. This, despite the fact that there are no chairs or prayer stands at the site; even prayer-books cannot be stored there, as there is no security at night. Sometimes, Arab children pass through there with their bicycles, or Arab women with their shopping bags - reminiscent of the scene of the "regular" Western Wall up until several decades ago.

"If the Ministry sees that tourists from both in and out of Israel frequent the place and are interested in it," Kotleinu feels, "this will provide an incentive to upgrade it. This is why we have started a letter-writing campaign to this effect."

Kotleinu asks concerned citizens and tourists to join the campaign for improving Kotel HaKatan conditions by visiting the Small Wall and by writing to or faxing (02-6496157) Tourism Minister Yitzchak Aharonovitch. A recommended sample letter can be seen here.

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Ha-Kotel Ha-Katan (updated)

Today I had the opportunity to visit the Kotel Katan, a small part of the Western Wall that can be reached only by walking through the labyrith of streets in the Muslim Quarter. At no point did I feel unsafe walking there with my family.

There were two bored Israeli guards watching the area, and absolutely no one else was there. Since it appears that the Kotel Katan is even closer to the Kodesh K'dashim (Holy of Holies) than the main Kotel, this was surprising and puzzling to me.

Here are two shots of the Kotel Ha-Katan:



Right nearby is a small gate that leads to the Temple Mount itself, also guarded by the same guards to not allow Jews to enter. I did manage to snap a shot through the open door:

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