Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, April 30, 2007

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.

Jordanian report on men kissing men

Autotranslation is a very inexact science, and I cannot claim to understand every detail of this report published in Jordan and reproduced by Ma'an, but it sounded so funny I couldn't resist posting it here.

The upshot seems to be that a Jordanian study showed that men kissing men can spread disease and also seems to have some social connotations depending on how the kissing is done, so the authors recommend replacing kissing with a handshake.

Amman-Jordanian Constitution newspaper published in its issue today a report on the views of professionals and religious scholars about the phenomenon of men kiss men, a phenomenon which has spread in Arab societies.

The report showed disparity in the positions of those surveyed thought their views about the phenomenon and the following is the full text of the report, as published by the Constitution.

Spread large communities usually "kiss men for men" when they meet at some events, or after an absence, or when visiting among themselves, and perhaps that of Jordanian society in which the values of love and tolerance, and its members Surayrah purity and clarity of hearts, most communities sprouting Fihahdh phenomenon, which did not hide their aversion many Jordanians of them, citing what can be caused by complications in the event of a disease can be transmitted, in addition to the revulsion of this custom among many people who find themselves Mensakin to live with them despite what caused them hardship.

In the book Professor of Sociology Dr. Suleiman Obeidat "customs and traditions of Jordanian society" saying (that men kiss men on the cheekbones of common habits when Jordanians, and this pattern of Kissing reflects the longing and desire in the meeting).

Adds Dr. Obeidat "The Kissing on the cheekbones, it might be some kind of sympathy, it dies of a person close to him comes to people's sympathy, condolences and most unable to know its own even if it did not knew personally, and although these usually to express sympathy to the people of the deceased and alleviate the grievances, but that have many disadvantages, the Jordanians Elmsonha and talk about them, and wish to stop causes usually Kissing, and apply negative practice this habit of meetings and rallies also women, and equally applicable to the meetings and rallies men.

While Samaha says Dr. Abdel Azizakhiat and former Minister of Religious Endowments : that usually men kiss men hated so taboo, and he hates to accept men bite men, or something from it, or embraces, and then hand-shake and then Ptqubel hands of the Sultan and the world just because they inherited year-old Muslim, born of first-Sadr to this day.

Dr. facilitate Abu Rajab Al-Tamimi is internal diseases specialist said : possible impact of the men kiss men negative results of the most significant transition germ "Estrepettokukas", as composed in the throat and go abroad through the mouth and saliva, and the transmission of venereal diseases such as syphilis caused by the type of bacteria, and the transmission of viral diseases especially if the wounds in the lips, As can move Acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) if the wounds in the face Natiaankin one of the parties, in addition to that Kissing given the opportunity to move respiratory viruses, such as cold viruses, influenza at the convergence of the nose above.

Dr. Atta-Khalidi, professor of psychology, said the Kiss between men and symbolic meanings : Kiss that the cheekbones between two mean equality, the man does not accept another cheekbones less centers or position or rank, Kiss between two estranged Trmazali tolerance and forgiveness, and Kiss between two occasions in the consolation mean humility and volunteer for service and assistance, and Kiss on the head mean reverence and appreciation , Kiss Stinger mean respect, and Kiss on the nose mean estimate.

He added that Dr. Khalidi usually men kiss men of old habits die when Jordanians, are an expression of love and a desire to help and participate in weddings and funerals, the time has come to abandon the practice of hand-shake and self instead.

As a professor of educational administration, Dr. Ahmed Yousef Hill : he emphasized that this habit hateful religious prohibition to a degree, and adverse health, and socially unacceptable, and that many of the sons of Jordanian society dislikes them, adding that this usually is not alone, which should stop exercising, but there are tens of negative habits and concepts which should be debated and developed , or to refrain from exercising, and his Dr. Hill said : Given the conviction and the conviction of most Jordanians need to stop this practice Elad e negative, it is proposed to initiate the Prime Minister announced the government's position on this practice, and appeal to Jordanians to stop practice in the public and private occasions, and initiate clan Jordanian announcement in Douaouinha of self in a hand-shake all events, and initiate everyone who reads this subject to discontinue the practice of this custom.

The terrible plight of PalArab prisoners

Angry Palestinian Arab family members have been demonstrating for the release of their relatives, languishing in prisons where there is a history mistreatment and torture.

Hamas asked them to be patient and rejected any use of violence on the relatives' parts.

Doesn't make sense? Of course it does - when the prisoners are in Egyptian prisons:

Palestinian security forces on Monday foiled an attempt to break into the Egyptian embassy by Palestinian family members, whose sons are being held in Egyptian jails.

Ma'an's correspondent reported that a number of people have been participating in a 'sit-in' strike for the last two days in front of the embassy, calling for the release of their sons. Today, they attempted to forcibly enter the embassy, but presidential forces intervened and dispersed them after shooting in the air.

The Hamas movement has expressed reservations over handling of the events, and rejected dealing with the issue of the arrested Palestinians in Egypt through violent means.

In a statement issued on Monday, the movement stated that "dealing with this issue can be only through dialogue. This can be achieved in the bilateral meetings with our brothers in Egypt, and also through Hamas leaders' meetings with the Egyptian ambassador in the [Gaza] Strip". The statement also highlighted that the Egyptian government "has promised that this subject will be dealt with within two months".

Hamas called on all citizens "to be patient, and give a chance for the efforts made in this regard." The movement also urged the Egyptian government and their embassy to understand the feelings of the family members, who are worried about their sons in Egyptian jails.

For some strange reason, I haven't been able to find any pictures of these distraught family members in any wire service photo, the way I see the people who demonstrate against prisoners in Israeli jails. (There are a couple of photos of PalArab police guarding the Egyptian embassy

but no pictures of the emotional protesters, as is the case for similar protests against Israel.

See here. )

In fact, it is hard to find out any information about Palestinian Arabs in Egyptian prisons - what crimes they were charged with, how long they've been detained, how many there are.

One can almost come to the conclusion that only prisoners in Israeli jails are of interest to PalArabs, even though Egypt routinely tortures prisoners with real torture, not the pseudo-torture ascribed to Western countries. It's almost like they use the prisoners for propaganda purposes, but don't really care about them on any other level. And that the wire services and "human rights" organizations play along with the fiction that only Israeli prisoners are important, while PalArabs who languish in Egyptian prisons have no value whatsoever.

Nah, that's crazy talk.

Results of years of rewarding terror

In the interview (with the Al-Ayyam paper), Mashaal also said Palestinians would renew violence if the international community continues its boycott of the Palestinian unity government, a coalition of Hamas and Fatah.
"We are doing the impossible to end the embargo on our people...if, God forbid, it continues...the results will be serious," Mashaal said.

"The explosion will be in the face of the Zionist enemy," Mashaal said.

OK, so the West stops giving some aid (while increasing other aid) to the PalArabs because the Hamas-led government won't renounce violence.

And Hamas answers that if the West doesn't stop the embargo, there will be more violence. (Against Israel, of course - he's not that stupid to threaten the West.)

It would be funny if it wasn't for the fact that the West has acceded to Arab and Muslim threats of violence for decades. Mashaal is just using a formula that has been proven successful time and time again.

So while it might seem like it makes no sense, the Pavlovian response of the West proves that terror, and threats of terror, have been mostly successful in getting the Arabs what they want. he very idea that violence is counterproductive is not even entertained by PalArab leaders.

A further proof of this happened today: Egypt scolded the PalArab terror groups for shooting rockets into Israel, calling it a "lost gamble." Their responses:

The spokesperson of the Hamas movement, Ismail Radwan, said "resistance is not gambling, but a legal right for the Palestinian people, secured by all international laws and conventions."

He told Ma'an "the Palestinian factions adhered to the ceasefire for a sufficient time, yet the Israelis broke it and so they are to blame for their aggressive actions."

Radwan affirms that as long as the Israelis violate the ceasefire, the homemade projectiles will continue to land on Israeli towns.

A leader of the Islamic Jihad movement, Khadir Habeeb, says he disagrees with the Egyptian delegation on the use of the term "gamble" to describe the hurling of homemade projectiles. However, he admits that the projectiles must be used "efficiently and not excessively". He also argued that the Palestinians unanimously agreed on the ceasefire, but it was the Israelis who violated it.

The military spokesperson of the An Nasser Salah Addin Brigades, the military wing of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), Abu Sharif, refuted the Egyptian declarations regarding Palestinian projectiles and described them as "accusations against the Palestinian people".

Egypt is hardly against PalArab aspirations, but instead of even considering that Egypt might have a point, the Paleos instinctively berate and continue threats of terror and blaming Israel - an almost subconscious predilection for violence and redirection that seems to be a result of many years of being rewarded for just such actions and threats.

And until Israel and the West makes a consistent stand that such thinking is wholly unacceptable and will be punished rather than rewarded, it will continue.

Palestan news you may have missed

The wire agencies often have their separate section for offbeat news items. One can construct the same style of news from recent events that occurred in the nascent terror state of Palestan, but they tend to be a little...different:

Haircut fatwa:

The Supreme Fatwa Council of Palestine has issued a fatwa permitting men's and women's hairdressers to operate on condition that they do not break Islamic law.

The fatwa stated that women can be employed as hairdressers as long as they only cut the hair of women that want to look attractive for their husbands and not other men or foreigners; this would be Haram (forbidden).

It also stated that if a foreign man is present in the hairdressers, women must be prohibited from entering it.

Entrepreneurial spirit:

The Palestinian Executive Force (EF), which is affiliated to the ministry of interior, announced on Sunday that they arrested a gang that planned to kidnap children and hold them hostage for ransom money.

The group was caught whilst attempting to kidnap a child in front of a school in Gaza City. The EF have been investigating and monitoring the suspects for 3 days.

The EF said in a statement "the group was caught whilst attempting to kidnap a boy near his school and they admitted during interrogation that they were planning to ask for $10,000 from his father."

Student debate gets violent:

More than 20 students were injured in clashes that erupted between Hamas and Fatah student blocs at Al-Quds university in Abu Dis, in the West Bank, on Sunday afternoon.

The clashes erupted during a debate between the students in preparation for the student senate elections to be held on Monday. Eight student blocs are meant to be competing in the elections.

Terror is declared legal:

Several Palestinian resistance factions on Sunday affirmed their right to retaliate to Israeli military operations, rejecting the statement of the head of the Egyptian security delegation, who depicted the launching of homemade projectiles at Israeli targets as "a lost gamble".

The spokesperson of the Hamas movement, Ismail Radwan, said "resistance is not gambling, but a legal right for the Palestinian people, secured by all international laws and conventions."

Joooos behind Hindenburg disaster?

In an otherwise generic article about the 70th anniversary of the Hindenburg disaster at a South African aviation website comes this jawdropper:

LZ 129 Hindenburg and sister-ship LZ 130 Graf Zeppelin II were German airships, called zeppelins. The two had an impressive safety record: the Graf Zeppelin had flown safely for more than 1 million miles, and made the first circumnavigation of the globe. The controversy relates to the cause of the fire in such a safe aircraft. The cause is still unknown and theories persist that the fire was sabotage.

One of several theories is that Adolf Hitler ordered the destruction of the Hindenburg in retaliation for the Zeppelin company's openly anti-Nazi stance. Another theory is that Zionist agents working against anti-semitic Germany were behind the fire.

Say what? I just quickly Googled through the seamy underbelly of the web and didn't find any such theory anywhere.

But I'm sure we will start seeing it now!

Today's Palspeak/Reuters word: "siege"

In standard English, the word "siege" means:

the act or process of surrounding and attacking a fortified place in such a way as to isolate it from help and supplies, for the purpose of lessening the resistance of the defenders and thereby making capture possible.

But in PalArabia, the word takes on a different meaning:

“There is a possibility of the lifting of the siege on the Palestinian people, it will come gradually,” Abbas said in Cairo on Saturday. “We didn’t feel that there are problems with the European countries, either in terms of the lifting of the financial siege or the political siege.”

That article, from the Daily Times in Pakistan, correctly puts "siege" in scare quotes and refers to the sanctions as an "embargo."

But look how Reuters captions this picture:

A Palestinian woman attends a rally against the siege in Gaza April 29, 2007. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa (GAZA)

As soon as Mahmoud Abbas open his mouth, the Reuters editors scramble to update their stylebook to stay in sync. And in this case, they are more biased than the newspapers in Pakistan!

For Olmert, forever is a long, long time

From YNet:

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said at the cabinet meeting Sunday that Israel "cannot continue to ignore the Qassam lunching [sic] and infiltration attempts of terrorist cells."
He stressed that "Israel has conveyed clear messages to the Palestinian Authority and international authorities that it did not want an escalation but would not avoid the necessary steps to protect the residents of the South."

Where have we heard that before?

Oh yes - over two months ago:

Olmert said that if the Kassam rocket attacks on Israel continue, Israel would have to retaliate. "We are not going to restrain ourselves forever," he said. "The continued attacks challenge Israel's patience. In the end, if the attacks continue, we will respond."

And in December, in a letter to the UN:

"Israel is demonstrating restraint and has avoided retaliating at this stage, but warns the Security Council that this restraint cannot continue for much longer."

Olmert's strong words ("we are a little disappointed") extend all the way back to the fourth day of the "cease fire," in late November.

And even earlier, when the "cease fire" was brand-spanking new and already breached:

Defense Minister Amir Peretz said Sunday morning that any attempt to fire into Israeli territories would be considered a breach of the cease-fire and treated with severity.

According to Peretz, Israel is interested in quiet, but would not accept attacks on its citizens.

It's so reassuring to know that Israel's leaders don't intend to wait forever to respond to Qassams. Perhaps for two or ten or a hundred years, but not forever.

Forty-one years after he retired from baseball, Hall of Fame pitcher Sandy Koufax was the final player chosen in the draft to stock the six teams for the inaugural season of the Israel Baseball League.

Koufax, 71, was picked by the Modi'in Miracle in the draft conducted Thursday night by former major league general manager Dan Duquette, who heads baseball operations for the league.

"His selection is a tribute to the esteem with which he is held by everyone associated with this league," said former big leaguer Art Shamsky, who will manage the Miracle. "It's been 41 years between starts for him. If he's rested and ready to take the mound again, we want him on our team."

In the 1965 World Series, Koufax refused to pitch Game 1 for Los Angeles because it fell on Yom Kippur.

In his career with the Dodgers, in Brooklyn and Los Angeles, the left-hander threw four no-hitters, including one perfect game. He retired due to arm problems after the 1966 season and was later voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Cease fire funnies

Israel killed three Hamas terrorists planting a bomb by the border in Gaza.

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said the Islamist militant group, which leads a Palestinian unity government, has the right to respond to the deaths by "all means available".
He called the incident a violation of the five-month-old Gaza ceasefire, which all but collapsed earlier this week when Hamas's armed wing started firing rockets into Israel.

Abu Ubaida, a spokesman for the Hamas armed wing, said the four militants were on a "jihadist mission when the Zionist enemy opened fire on them".

At least Hamas is consistent: the "cease fire" is only broken when Israel does something, but "jihadist missions" are A-OK!

No matter how anti-Israel you are, there's always someone who hates it more

The ultra left is in a tizzy over an article by far-left, "progressive" Uri Avnery where he argues that there should be a two-state solution - in large part because there are more Jews than Arabs between the Mediterranean and the Jordan, and it is simply not acceptable to have a state where Jews are a majority in the Middle East. (I'm surprised he doesn't call for an pan-Arab Islamic 'Ummah to take care of that little problem.)

The criticisms of Avnery are vituperative and borderline psychotic. One article berates him and puts him in company of other closet Zionists like Chomsky and Jimmy Carter. Ilan Pappe weighs in with his own special brand of Jew-hatred. One guy puts his criticism in terms of his Communist leanings, blabbering about a class struggle in Israel. Another tries to psychoanalyze Avnery for why he would possibly consider Israel legitimate in any way, shape or form. Even within Avnery's own "Gush Shalom" organization there are many who disagree with the idea of Israel existing.

In many ways, the Left mimics the Arab world in that if one advances an argument that is not on the extremist fringe extreme, he gets slammed as a traitor to the cause. You can almost see the pain as people who admire Avnery are so upset that he doesn't beat his head against the furthermost left wall along with the crowd. And, as in the Arab world, as long as the nutty fringe is accepted as mainstream, there is no hope for real progress from these "progressives."

Another example of Reuters pro-terrorist bias

Reuters dispatched a photographer to one of those ubiquitous "press conferences" in Gaza yesterday, but instead of the usual pictures of ski-masked terrorists, they took a number of pictures of fully masked female terrorist wannabes:

Female Palestinian militants (with white scarves) from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades arrive at a news conference in Gaza April 26, 2007.

But nowhere can one find an actual Reuters article about the topic of the press conference, and why women with guns were there.

You would need to search a bit harder to see what the press conference was about (via UPI):

GAZA, April 26 (UPI) -- Palestinian women activists are publicly joining the ranks of militant suicide bombers and have threatened Israel should its forces attack the Gaza Strip.

Four masked women said Thursday in a news conference in Gaza they were human bombs ready to blow themselves up inside Israel and at other unexpected Israeli targets. They identified themselves as activists from four military units affiliated with the nationalist Fatah movement, of which Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is a leading member.

The women, dressed in military fatigues, said they were ready to respond to the Israeli threats to invade the Gaza Strip, adding they have established an operations room to "confront the Israeli aggression." They urged all the other factions to join them in expanding the operations for "coordination, confrontation and to direct painful blows to the occupation."

Palestinian factions have recently appealed to young women to join their military ranks, and several have announced female brigades.

Reuters attended a press conference where women, recruited by the "moderate" Fatah, promised to blow themselves up. Yet, even though they took pictures showing them with guns, they refrained from pointing out that the women were wearing bomb belts as well (AP mentioned it), and that they promised to kill Jews to enter Paradise. They didn't bother mentioning that Fatah is led by Mahmoud Abbas, the darling of the wishful-thinking brigade.

In other words, because the fact that these women terrorists do not fit the liberal media playbook of "Fatah=good, Hamas=bad, Palestinian Arab women=innocent victims of Israeli aggression", Reuters deliberately chose not to report the story.

More proof of media bias in Gaza

Yesterday I wrote about how everyone admits that the media coverage in Gaza is overwhelmingly tilted to make Palestinian Arabs look as sympathetic as possible. Journalism, in Gaza, has a clear agenda and the reporters play their parts perfectly.

Further proof can be seen from this article about a Gaza-based photographer who just won a $15,000 award for a photograph of a dead child at a funeral in Gaza:

A PALESTINIAN photographer for AFP has won an Arab award for a picture of the funeral of a Palestinian child killed during an Israeli strike on the Gaza Strip.

Mahmud Hams, 27, a native of Rafah, bagged the prize for photography of the Arab Journalism Awards handed out by Dubai Press Club at the end of a two-day Arab media forum in Dubai on Wednesday.

The US$15,000 prize "is a boost which will prompt me to work with more enthusiasm", said Hams. "I am happy to be able to convey the Palestinian people's daily reality."

If one looks at the news photo archive at Yahoo (which cover the past month) we can see all of the photos that Mahmoud Hams took. Here is the breakdown (not counting older file photos or non-Gaza photos):

Palestinian Arab political figures making speeches: 2
PalArabs seeking shelter after sewage flood: 2
Grieving relatives after an Israeli airstrike in Gaza: 7

How does Hams cover stories that could possibly put Palestinian Arabs in a poor light? He manages to make them look heroic anyway!

There was a crippling garbage worker strike in Gaza this month, and there were piles of garbage everywhere rotting in the streets. But the only Hams photo that mentions the strike is this one:

A Palestinian boy stands in front of blaze from garbage piled up in a street in Gaza City during a general strike by municipality workers.(AFP/Mahmud Hams)

There were many murders in Gaza over the past month, and security is nonexistent. So how does Hams cover this story?

Palestinian Hamas militants hold up their weapons while attending a press conference in Gaza City, 2006. The Palestinian government on Saturday voted to implement a security plan aimed at restoring order in the Palestinian territories and unifying diverse security forces.(AFP/File/Mahmud Hams)

And the generic cute kid picture, flying that wonderful flag of theirs:

What pictures are missing?

Considering that during the past month, Gazans managed to be outkilled by PalArabs compared to by Israelis by a ratio of roughly 30-6, one would expect pictures of dead bodies from clan clashes, or wailing relatives, or perhaps people injured in infighting. A family carried a corpse into a PA government building and shot the place up - where was Hams? A 5-year old girl was shot in the head, two 12-year old boys were killed - where was Hams? Police attacked 5 PalArab journalists - where was Hams? A Christian bookstore was bombed in Gaza - where was Hams? Video stores and libraries were burned down - where was Hams?

Apparently, in the alternate Gaza universe that Hams and his journalist friends choose to show the world, we not include such unpleasant topics. And what editor can resist a picture of smiling Palestinian Arab kids waving flags - when they have no other pictures to show?

UPDATE: Dave at Israellycool had noted a similar award, for a similar picture, also given to Hams two weeks ago where Hams actually "dedicated the prize to Palestinian martyrs."

Given that, I believe that "bias" is not an accurate word when referring to Hams - it is "propaganda." (I also believe that "opportunistic" is another accurate adjective, but journalists and photographers always seem to do their work with one eye towards receiving awards, actively seeking out pathos at the expense of fairness.)

Sderock

Imagine a place where there is poverty, where you are in danger of being killed every time you step outside, where it seems like even your own people don't care about you outside of empty slogans.

If you are the Western media and this is Gaza, you would expect that the natural reaction to this numbing situation is violence - joining terror gangs, marching with AK-47s and rocket launchers.

But the people in the Israeli town of Sderot react somewhat differently:

The underground Israeli pop-rock music scene seems to start here, in a bomb shelter set in the center of town.
It does not matter how loudly the teenagers hammer at their drums or pluck at the guitars; the metal walls that are meant to protect residents from incoming rockets also work as a sound barrier for the funky music.

It is not unusual for Israeli towns to turn shelters into community centers of some sort. But Sderot, barely a mile from the Gaza Strip, is one of the few cities where such shelters are still used with frequency.

And in Sderock, as the shelter-turned-music-studio is called, the teenagers grapple with the dueling realities that have made the city famous: the music that comes out of it and the rockets that come into it.

"This is the safest fun place in the city," said Nir Oliel, a 21-year-old resident, who has played guitar for several years. "It is also where everyone great came from."

In the Israeli public consciousness, Sderot is a place of poverty and danger. It has been barraged by more than 4,000 rockets in the past six years, including nearly 200 since November's shaky cease-fire. Six people have died and dozens of homes have been damaged.

Yet Sderot is also the hometown of a pop-culture hero of the moment: Kobi Oz, lead singer of Teapacks, the Israeli pick for the popular Eurovision song contest. ...
Oz, with two platinum albums in Israel, is by far the most successful musician to come out of Sderot, but he is hardly alone. He got his start with Sfatayim (Hebrew for "lips"), a band composed of young artists from Sderot who played Moroccan music. On Israeli radio, it is possible to hear more than half a dozen bands from this city, quite a feat for a place with a population around 25,000.

The musicians who grew up in the 1980s are the children of immigrants from North Africa and other parts of the Middle East. They blended guitar and drum with oud (a stringed instrument) and darbukah (a goatskin-covered drum) to create what critics called ethnic pop. Those who perform it say it is simply Israeli.

But it is a particular kind of Israeli, reflecting the sort of chip-on-the-shoulder attitude that many children here grow up with, convinced that the wealthier European Jews in the bigger cities like Tel Aviv look down on them....
"Don't Break," a song one group recorded for Independence Day celebrations this week, focuses on their sense of defiance and fear: "We won't break, we won't be afraid," the chorus goes.

And then:

How does the state abandon?

This war, who is extending his hand?

They do nothing, when it comes to you.

The verse ends with "Shma Yisrael," which translated literally is a command: "Listen, Israel." It is also a reference to the Shema, the Jewish prayer said twice daily.

With the success of so many musicians in the past decade, the city has poured considerable resources into cultivating more talent. The city estimated it spends some $30,000, a considerable portion of its budget, on music. International groups have invested hundreds of thousands of dollars on projects like Sderock...
For their teachers, it is only a matter of time before the younger students become more political in their songs and outlook. A byproduct of parents' insistence that their children stay inside to avoid the crash of Qassam rockets, the music shelters have became more popular than the basketball courts.
Biton's anthem for Sderot has become a sort of mantra for the residents: "I don't leave the town for any Qassam."

And Oz, who has become a sort of ambassador of Israeli kitsch, said he was determined to sing about a place that lives in a constant tension between joy and sorrow, always navigating cultural divides.

"Our music is a bit schizophrenic, but that is how life is," said Oz, who now lives in Tel Aviv but visits Sderot frequently. "There is always a double kind of meaning. The point is to show everybody that's normal here."

I've recently blogged about how maturity can be defined as taking responsibility, something that most Arabs seem congenitally unable to do. Another good definition of maturity is the ability to work with the cards that you are dealt and make the best of them, as opposed to whining and waiting for other people to bail you out.

The comparisons between Sderot and Gaza are compelling, but the differences of how they handle adversity are even more so.

The hits just keep on coming

From Paltoday Arabic, a Force 17 member was killed by a family in Al-Bireh.

The "security forces" imposed a curfew on Al-Bireh and tried to arrest members of this family (translated as "rainfall") but they shot back.

Curfews? Surrounding buildings to arrested wanted people? Nah, the enlightened Palestinian Arabs wouldn't act that way!

The self-death count for the year is now up to 187.

UPDATE: Ma'an says that Israeli soldiers killed the Force-17 man, but admits that Paleos imposed the curfew. The PalToday article remains up and is very clear blaming the family. YNet also says that it was an intrafada death, so I'm still counting it as a self-death.

UPDATE 2: A member of the Palestan security forces, Abdul Rahman Shihda Abu Tair, was shot in the head and killed by a "family" at the Rafah crossing Friday morning. Two others were injured. 188.

UPDATE 3: Mohammad Khalil, 27, from the An Nasser Salah Addin Brigades (PRC) blew himself up in Beit Hanoun, Gaza. 189.

UPDATE 4: The PalArabs are claiming that a 19-year old was killed by an Israeli artillery shell in Gaza. Israel denies it. Since Israel has no problem admitting when they do fire into Arab areas, I'm counting this as a self-death until I see any evidence otherwise. 190.

UPDATE 5: 55 year old man killed in another Clan Clash in Gaza. 191.

UPDATE 6: Body of 20-something Nasser Abu Amuna found in Khan Younis, victim of those ubiquitous "unknown gunmen." 192.