Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

EoZ's Psychological History of Palestinian Arabs (2007)

In 2007, I embarked on writing a history of Palestinian Arabs for the blog. I never finished it, but what I did write I am pretty proud of (although some of the links don't work anymore.)

I just posted it as its own page. It is quite long for a blog post - 19,000 words, about a third of the size of many books.

Since I have many more readers today than I did in 2007, I hope that you enjoy it and learn something.

Check it out!

IDF taking DNA samples from 'Awarta in Fogel case

From Ma'an:

The deputy mayor of Awarta and two of his brothers were detained along with dozens of others Tuesday morning by Israeli forces. Officials say the detained men are being given DNA tests and questioned by soldiers.

The detentions come as the investigation into the murders of five Israeli settlers - including two children and an infant - enters its third week. More than 40 have been detained from the village in the course of the investigation, and foreign workers in the settlement were said to have been questioned.

Awarta, the closest Palestinian village to the illegal Israeli settlement of Itamar, where the murders occurred, has been the center of the investigation, and was placed under military curfew twice, the first time for five days.

As my interview with the mayor of Itamar showed:

The IDF saw muddy footprints leading from the massacre scene to 'Awarta.
The IDF found a bulletproof vest stolen from the first, empty home the terrorists entered - in 'Awarta.
It appears that the knife used to slaughter the family was found in the home.
Unlike Ma'an's insinuations that are now all over the Internet, there are no foreign workers in Itamar so there is no doubt that the murderers came from the direction of 'Awarta.

(Ma'an's editor tweeted me that he would run a story that there were no foreign workers in Itamar if I could get an official statement. I immediately got one from a settler leader, over a week ago, but he never published the article as far as I can tell.)

German police take two people displaying Israeli flag into custody

A German blog reports (translation paraphrased):

Once again it has happened. At a demonstration in front of the Berlin Hauptbahnhof on 27 March 2011, that called for a boycott against Israel, police took two men into custody because they refused to cease their peaceful expression of solidarity with Israel by displaying an Israeli flag.

On March 27 2011 there was a demonstration at the Berlin Hauptbahnhof exhibition. The State of Israel was accused of apartheid (an almost racist comparison) and a boycott of Israeli products was demanded. The brutal terrorist acts against Israel, however, have been omitted, downplayed or justified.

At some point two people at the exhibition held up an Israeli flag. That's all they did! They did not interfere, they didn't scream, nor did they riot. Neither did they chant anti-Palestinian slogans, nor did they display any signs with anti-Palestinian views. They only peacefully showed the Israeli flag, to ensure that Israel is not looked upon as the devil, as the Palestinian Hamas claimed, but a lovely country with good and bad sides.

They were thus not so pro-Israel, because to display a flag purely shows that the country has a right to exist, can not really proven to be sign as a special affection. There is no special sign of affection, To say that defense of Israel's right to exist is "pro-Israeli" is as absurd as to assert that one is pro-Jewish by being against Auschwitz and the extermination of Jews. The condemnation of the Holocaust is, of course, not pro-Jewish, but simply pro-human, like the condemnation of the desire for the destruction of Israel nor pro-Israeli but simply is pro-human.

This humanity, however, provoked the pro-Palestinian demonstrators. They went off to the two people. The mere existence of the Israeli flag was already a thorn in their eye,as with Hamas, the mere existence of the State of Israel and Jews is a problem to be solved at all.

When the demonstrators turned to the police, the police did not defend right of two people to hold the flag of a peaceful democratic country, but instead they took down the flag of Israel and took the two people in custody.

The entire post is worth reading, even in autotranslation, as the author is indignant with the direction that Germany is going.

(indirect h/t to Serious Black)

Obama: Call Abbas' bluff; cut off all aid (updated)

From JPost:

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is willing to give up hundreds of millions of dollars of US aid if that is what is necessary to forge a reconciliation deal with Hamas, the Associated Press quoted his adviser as saying on Monday.

Azzam Ahmed stated that "the Palestinians need American money, but if they use it as a way of pressuring us, we are ready to relinquish that aid."

What Ahmed is saying is that the Palestinian Authority would not be pretending to be moderate if it wasn't for American money - they would happily go publicly closer towards Hamas' extremism in the interests of "unity."

Abbas' condemnations of terror - as Arafat's before him - have never been sincere. They are part of the deal, the facade they must maintain in order to continue to get US and EU aid. If they were left to their own devices, the PA would cheer today's terrorist attacks in exactly the same way they cheer yesterday's attacks, naming institutions in honor of bloodthirsty murderers. Is there any moral difference between Samir Kuntar's bashing in the skull of a four year old girl and the vicious stabbing of the Fogel children? Yet Kuntar is a hero, a person that Abbas specifically went out of his way to meet in Lebanon.

If the PLO and PA need to be bribed to act like peaceful human beings, then what more do you need to realize that any peace agreement with them would be a sham? Perhaps one can argue that an artificial peace meant to pacify the West is better than none, but it is not a peace that Israel should be forced to give tangible concessions for.

In other words, a sham peace by the PLO must be reciprocated with a similar peace from Israel: a detente where there is no shooting but where Israel does not give anything permanent upin exchange for mere words.

So President Obama should call Abbas' bluff. Cut off the funds and see how peaceful he acts. If he immediately goes to Iran via Hamas to make up his budget shortfall, then the US will know exactly how pro-West the PA really is. And the true obstacle to peace will be revealed to the world.

(h/t David G)

UPDATE: See also Khaled Abu Toameh on a similar theme.

PA leadership considering formally abandoning Oslo in September

A member of the PLO Executive Committee, Hanna Amira, has told Al Quds Al Arabi Monday that the Palestinian leadership is considering throwing out their agreements with Israel, according to the Oslo accords, in September.

"There are proposals on the table for discussion, including the abandonment of the PLO of its obligations under the agreements signed and implemented", he said, stressing that the situation will not remain as it is now, and said, "things after September will be as they were before."

The PLO has been planning to declare itself a state in September.

He also said that the PLO is planning to hold meetings in Arab capitals to prepare for September.

The Palestinian Authority reports to the PLO, and the PLO is in charge of all non-domestic issues.

Of course, this means that Israel can start building settlements outside the boundaries of existing communities as it has been for years, and can ignore the Areas A, B and C that have been created during the Oslo process. The IDF should be prepared to re-enter Ramallah and Nablus in September. After all, if one party abrogates an agreement, then the other is not bound by it either - that's what an agreement means.

Israel should make that clear today, and the Quartet should tell the PLO that unilateral actions on their part that destroy the existing agreements with Israel will not be rewarded.

Not that the Quartet ever had strong words for the PLO and its already existing violations of Oslo.

Let's talk about Israeli - and Palestinian Arab - music

A disturbing story from TheJC:

Israel boycotters have declared a "victory" after organisers of an Israeli music conference assured them that the event would have no Israeli government funding.

Campaigners from British Committee for the Universities of Palestine (BRICUP), Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods (J-BIG) and the Boycott Israel Network (BIN) threatened to picket "Arts Music of Israel" which is being organised by the Jewish Music Institute at SOAS next week.

Organisers turned down a grant from the British Israeli Arts Training Scheme, after deciding they did not want political connections with the conference. JMI director Geraldine Auerbach said no money had been received from the Israeli government, and a £1,500 grant from BI-ARTS had been turned down.

This week, BRICUP published the correspondence it had with Ms Auerbach, which said: "I confirm that there is no funding directly or indirectly from the Israeli government or institutions." BRICUP also claim Ms Auerbach told them that the event would no longer be promoted via the Israeli embassy.

A trustee of the Jewish Music Institute has expressed his anger and frustration that the organisation turned down Israeli funding for a conference under pressure from boycotters.

David Mencer, a former director of the Labour Friends of Israel, attacked the "appalling lack of judgment and moral character in [the JMI's] distancing itself from Israel."

He said the trustees had not been consulted by JMI director Geraldine Auerbach over the decision. Mr Mencer said he believed the organization had "submitted to blackmail and given the Israel boycotters and Israel haters an unnecessary victory.

"JMI have refused to accept a donation from the representatives of the democratically elected government of the State of Israel for an event about the music of Israel.

"We have made it even more difficult for other organisations trying hard to promote UK - Israel ties by setting this precedent.

"I am sure that I am not alone in wanting to distance myself from this decision. Perhaps most importantly of all, this decision will also have mortally damaged any future attempt to fundraise from the Jewish community, thus jeopardising the future of the organisation."

In this case, it is a big victory for the BDSers. They forced weak-willed British Jews to distance themselves from Israel, as if taking money from Israel would impugn an Israeli music conference.

But did this pacify the Israel-haters? Of course not!

Campaigners say they still plan to hand out leaflets outside the conference, claiming it would be "impossible" to hold a conference on Palestinian music.

Because of that statement, I did a little research into "Palestinian" music and came up with an unconsciously illuminating article, a book review of "Palestinian Arab Music: A Maqam Tradition in Practice".

For a musicology researcher, the book is a treasure trove. The appendices alone (about one-quarter of the large book) contain transcripts and classifications of 28 songs, representing the repertoire of the region, including musical notation, Arabic text, transliteration and translation. For fans of the mathematical analysis of maqam tetrachords, this is a must-read. Discussed genres include shruqi, zajal, mijana, ‘ataba, mu’anna, haddadi, dabke and mhorabe. The authors have beautifully catalogued rhythmic and modal organizations. Famous documented performers include Hikmat Shaheen (father of Arab-American composer Simon Shaheen), Muhammad Abd al-Qader and Yousef Majadeli. When available, the authors even added an update of where the artists had settled decades after the initial research was conducted.

So there does exist at least one, comprehensive, scholarly book on Palestinian Arab music that could certainly be the basis of a conference.

The Arab book reviewer mentions an interesting fact, as an aside:

The book’s stated objective is to document the vocal music of a specific, defined group – the Palestinian Arabs in Israel. Although a worthy dissertation topic, the research was conducted at a time when the target group was still the first generation and had not developed as a defined group or even considered themselves as such. They had lived under the Ottoman Empire and a brief British Mandate during which they traveled, traded and exchanged culture with their fellow Arabs in Greater Syria and Egypt. It was not until a few decades later that there was a group defined by political isolation from its brethren.

Notice the bolded parts. The Arab book reviewer is stating what is obvious to even the Arab world: there was no Palestinian people until recently, and they were defined by the "political isolation" from their "brethren." In other words, they are essentially an artificial construct that was created by the Arab world, not an inherently cohesive and historic group.

And, by the way, who wrote this definitive book on Palestinian Arab music theory?

Dalia Cohen and Ruth Katz, two researchers at Hebrew University.

Wednesday is Buy Israeli Goods Day (updated)

Wednesday, March 30, is Buy Israeli Goods day, a day set aside to counter an annual BDS day of action for that same date.

There is a webpage set up to help you find where in your area you might be able to find Israeli items.

Make sure to let the store-owners know that you are looking for, and willing to pay for, Israeli products!

You can read more about the campaign at StandWithUs.

UPDATE: Here's an incredibly cheesy video to promote BIG:

More on Korean Talmud studies - not quite as it was reported

As a follow-up to this post, I just spent a bit of time puzzling out Korean auto-translations from Google, and I have discovered that in no way are Koreans "studying" the Talmud.

When they say they are studying it, they mean that they have taken a small number of proverbs and Rabbinic stories that have been translated and they are reading and discussing just those stories. .

The Korean Talmud webpages I have seen treat the Talmud the same way one treats Aesop's Fables, as a shorthand way to gain insights into morality and how to live as well as plain entertainment. The bulk of the Talmud - as a basis for an all-encompassing legal system - is not mentioned.

I cannot find any indication of any real Talmud study. I can't find any translations of Talmud into Korean, nor any indication of scholarly study of the Aramaic/Hebrew original by Korean students. And in no way are the Koreans taking advantage of the parts of the Talmud that have sharpened the minds of Jews for centuries - the intricate pilpul, the careful reading of texts for legal ramifications, the hours it takes to reconcile two seemingly opposing source-texts.

As far as I can tell, the Koreans think that the brief snippets of translation they have access to is the Talmud. They do not seem to understand what the Talmud really is, hence the confusion about so many Korean people think they own copies of the Talmud.

So while it is still a fascinating topic, YNet seems to have overblown it a bit.

Request for help

The main issue with making good posters is finding the best pictures.

One of the best sites for hasbara is Israel21c.org where they have a large archive of stories that tell the good news about Israel. I contacted them to see if they have higher resolution photographs of their stories, and they responded that they often do, and which stories am I interested in?

Here's where I need your help. There are hundreds of stories at that site. If you could go through it in some random order and comment here with the URL of the stories you think would make good posters, a brief description of the story, and whether there was a good photo in the story itself, I would appreciate it!

And you won't regret spending the time at that site, either. You will learn a lot.

Thanks!

Update: "Resistance is a legitimate right" is on official Fatah website

I reported yesterday that

Fatah spokesman Osama Qawasmi said "resistance is a legitimate right of the Palestinian people for liberation from Israeli occupation for and achieving their goal of independence and the establishment of a Palestinian state with its capital in Jerusalem."

I wasn't sure if this was a PA or Fatah statement, but now I found it on the official Fatah Media website.

The site says the same words pretty explicitly elsewhere, for example it has a history of Fatah that says:

Fatah is characterized by its flexibility and pragmatism, adopting armed struggle when needed, and political action when necessary.

That same document sure makes it sound like the goal is still to destroy Israel, although I'll need a native Arabic reader to confirm that to me. (For example, it seems to have a problem with Jews settling in - the Negev.)

Some links

Hamas is beating women reporters. Ho-hum.

Roger Simon points to an Iranian-produced movie about the Last Mahdi, and has some very good comments on it.

Just Journalism shows us a Turkish hypocrite.

Yaacov Lozowick on Jeffrey Goldberg on J-Street.

My Tenth Intifada Facebook page is still out there - join in the fun!

(h/t Folderol)