Thursday, July 22, 2010
Elder of ZiyonReal world stuff is intruding on my blogging life. I might not be able to blog for a while.
Until I manage to get back on-line, here's an open thread.
Until I manage to get back on-line, here's an open thread.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Elder of Ziyon
For years, the Western media has been enamored with Gaza's tunnel industry. Reporters were keen to be lowered into the tunnels, lionizing the industry to sometimes outrageous degrees.
The articles barely mentioned the fact that Hamas smuggled weapons as well through the tunnels. Even when Egypt would confiscate large caches of weapons in Rafah meant to be shot at Israelis, or when Hamas themselves bragged about the amount of weaponry and explosives they managed to bring through the tunnels, the mainstream media steadfastly downplayed that aspect of the industry and instead romanticized it.
The media also loved to characterize the smugglers as heroes of Arab capitalism, and ignored the fact that Hamas had de facto control over the tunnels and taxed them for its revenue - revenue that went towards more weapons, as Gaza's infrastructure was being paid for by clueless Westerners.
It looks like the love affair between the media and the smugglers is not over yet.
Now that Gaza is awash in consumer goods from Israel (that the media tried to downplay as well,) the new stories are about how horrible this development is - to the smugglers.
One very telling example comes from The Atlantic:
This is just a further example of how much the mainstream media is at the mercy of memes. Once a narrative is established, reporters act like sheep in following and expanding it - but rarely challenging it. This is why the stories out of Gaza all the same - poor Palestinian Arabs, heroic smugglers of consumer goods, Israel blockading essential goods, a looming humanitarian crisis.
Almost invisible are the stories about the upper and middle class Gazans, going to spas and even building mansions, eating out and working out and playing. Even rarer are the stories of Hamas' intimidation of ordinary Gazans, increasing religious legislation in the sector, tortures and killings.
The journalists are happy to follow but loathe to challenge. Hamas may be threatening and intimidating them but it doesn't take much to make journalists toe the line.
If you don't believe me, just try to find an article by a journalist that tried to find any weapons smuggling tunnels in Gaza. You won't. Grad missiles and anti-aircraft and anti-tank weapons just magically appear in Gaza - but from reading the media you just couldn't figure out how.
The articles barely mentioned the fact that Hamas smuggled weapons as well through the tunnels. Even when Egypt would confiscate large caches of weapons in Rafah meant to be shot at Israelis, or when Hamas themselves bragged about the amount of weaponry and explosives they managed to bring through the tunnels, the mainstream media steadfastly downplayed that aspect of the industry and instead romanticized it.
The media also loved to characterize the smugglers as heroes of Arab capitalism, and ignored the fact that Hamas had de facto control over the tunnels and taxed them for its revenue - revenue that went towards more weapons, as Gaza's infrastructure was being paid for by clueless Westerners.
It looks like the love affair between the media and the smugglers is not over yet.
Now that Gaza is awash in consumer goods from Israel (that the media tried to downplay as well,) the new stories are about how horrible this development is - to the smugglers.
One very telling example comes from The Atlantic:
[A]t the Egyptian border, in the heart of Gaza's tunnel industry, there's little if any rejoicing at the blockade's dismantlement. As Israeli consumer goods saturate Gaza's markets, the tunnels have lost their clientele. Smugglers understand that their days are numbered, but there's nothing to replace the jobs the industry provided.How many ways can a single article make smugglers sound heroic? Gaza's economy has improved dramatically in a few short weeks, people who hate Israel are happily buying Israeli items - and the Atlantic spends 12 paragraphs talking about how the media's heroes are coping at the loss of their illicit businesses.
"Work has run dry. Every day is getting worse and worse. It's the end of the tunnel period," says Abu Mohammad, a tunnel owner who has made millions from the industry. "It's not just me suffering. It's everyone in this business. ... No one knows what will happen to us."
The resilient industry survived Israeli bombings, Egyptian gassing, and flooding. Days after the end of Israel's 22-day offensive in January 2009, activity in the tunnel zone was frenzied--generators hummed, pulleys screeched and loading trucks banged. Most recently, smugglers drilled through the steel subterranean wall Egypt began to construct last December.
Today, though, the tunnel district is eerily silent. Market traders have either bought Israeli or stalled orders in anticipation of new goods from the Jewish state. An estimated 10 percent of the tunnels are still operating, but even those work sporadically.
Most tunnels are concentrated about half a mile from the Egyptian border, in an area five miles long and less than two miles wide. They open up in neat rows, shaded by white and black plastic tents.
Abu Saber's tunnel is at the front line, closest to the Egyptian border. Rolls of smuggled iron sheet are stacked neatly at the passageway's entrance. The haul is Saber's first shipment in 10 days.
The sandy floor of his tunnel slopes downward, easing into the ground. Buttressed inside by iron walls, the tunnel is about five feet wide and high enough to walk only slightly hunched. Inside, it's muggy and dank, pungent with the smell of earth and human sweat.
Before the blockade was eased, Saber's tunnel, like many others, operated 24 hours a day, seven days a week and employed 10-12 people for each 12-hour shift, carting everything from chocolate to refrigerators. Now, Saber says, he's barely making enough hauling iron, steel, and ceramics--products that remain embargoed. And even profits on those have dropped dramatically.
"Before one ton of iron sold for $400 [U.S.], now it goes for between $150 and $200. These prices are not good enough for labor and expenses," Abu Saber laments.
This is just a further example of how much the mainstream media is at the mercy of memes. Once a narrative is established, reporters act like sheep in following and expanding it - but rarely challenging it. This is why the stories out of Gaza all the same - poor Palestinian Arabs, heroic smugglers of consumer goods, Israel blockading essential goods, a looming humanitarian crisis.
Almost invisible are the stories about the upper and middle class Gazans, going to spas and even building mansions, eating out and working out and playing. Even rarer are the stories of Hamas' intimidation of ordinary Gazans, increasing religious legislation in the sector, tortures and killings.
The journalists are happy to follow but loathe to challenge. Hamas may be threatening and intimidating them but it doesn't take much to make journalists toe the line.
If you don't believe me, just try to find an article by a journalist that tried to find any weapons smuggling tunnels in Gaza. You won't. Grad missiles and anti-aircraft and anti-tank weapons just magically appear in Gaza - but from reading the media you just couldn't figure out how.
- Wednesday, July 21, 2010
- Elder of Ziyon
We all know the Gaza that is supposedly suffering under the "humanitarian crisis." The media, the UN and other NGOs as well as anti-Israel organizations that masquerade as "aid" agencies all make sure of that.
We are slowly starting to learn about the parts of Gaza that are not doing nearly as bad as we have been taught, as stories about the Gaza luxury malls, luxury hotels, gourmet restaurants and swimming pools show.
But there is another Gaza story that is being hushed up in the media - the story of how Gazans are suffering under Hamas rule.
Lorenzo Cremonesi, writing in Corriere della Sera, discusses exactly that. Here is a translation:
He asks the foreign peace activists, who promise to return on the next flotillas, for a mixer for his band. But his request conflicts with the laws of the ruling regime in Gaza, the same regime the peace activists are helping to fight the Israeli embargo. "Our old mixer was confiscated by the Hamas police", he explains. "We are victims of a repressive religious government who, due to a distorted reading of the Quran, prohibits free music. We don't like their green Allah." The speaker is Basher Bseiso, the popular front man of rap group Fariq Salam ("The Band of Peace").
Jamal Abu Al Qumsan, 43, runs an art gallery in the "despair strip", as he calls it. "I thank all the democracy advocates around the world who are fighting the Israeli embargo on Gaza, but can you please equally denounce the repression of Hamas against intellectual freedom?"
These testimonies are but two of many such anecdotes one encounters in the area. The latest examples are attacks on youth organizations on the 23rd and 28th of June, when masked Hamas activists torched students' summer camps set up by the UN on the beach. At the end of May, on the exact same day Israeli commandos raided the Marmara's deck, the Hamas police stopped the activities of five local NGOs. "They want to force us to close down the mixed-sex camps", accuses Mohammad Aruki, a "Sharek" activist. "They are trying to exterminate secular culture".
This is another chapter in the cultural war that's been going on here for some time. Religious extremists are trying to prevent girls and women from going to the beach or smoking in public, they forbid unmarried couples from hanging out together in private and they view Western music and fashion as a danger to the "public's morals." Any request for explanations on these issues receives the same answer: "Our civil authority has nothing to do with it. Please contact the police". But the police's answer is "no comment". Yussef Ahmed, Deputy Foreign Minister and Chairman of the Committee Against the Siege concludes: "Israel has all the power. Hamas is just trying to govern the strip."
The problem is that the witnesses, the victims themselves, are afraid to talk. The Hamas has become the sole ruler, a kind of father/master to its people. Punishment doesn't only mean imprisonment or torture, but also ostracism, job loss and social isolation. Bseiso depicts Hamas' latest attack on him with anger: "I was riding my motorcycle when suddenly a group of armed men from the Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam Brigades clung to me, threw me to the ground and beat me with clubs. A few days earlier they broke into our studio and confiscated cameras and video cassettes. I'm working on an anti-Hamas song now." Ibrahim Ghonem, another of the band's members, remembers that under the PLO conditions were much better. "Back then there were at least five rap bands. Now we are told that we are agents of the American Satan, that we are corrupting the youth. The result is that whoever can, leaves. Members of other bands got offers to perform abroad and never returned."
Jamal Abu Al Qumsan wasn't so lucky. Until two weeks ago he couldn't even sit or lie on his back due to beatings he received off and on for a week, a strange and very common punishment in the strip.
They are summoned to police centers in prisons. There is not much choice. The infamous Saraya, in the heart of Gaza city, was razed by Israeli bombing during "Cast Lead" in January 2009. But still the there is the Mashtal, the five provincial prisons, and Ansar, where are the heads of security services. Here begins the interrogation. "From seven in the morning to late evening, sometimes past midnight. The most common punishment is to stay against a wall in the full sun all afternoon and forced to exercise for no reason.... Only an occasional glass of water is allowed. And you must be punctual in the morning in front of the door, "says Jamal. He still went wrong. "I've been accused of bribing the girls to let them smoke a water pipe in the premises of my gallery, even sexual abuse. So they used belts and sticks. "
Torture chambers - but it could be worse. In the seafront former villa of the President of the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah, Abu Mazen, prisoners would remain in isolation for months. You could say that the cellars are used as rooms for the torture for "enemies of Islam." Their techniques are refined. Some mechanisms are learned directly from Israeli jails. ... The psychological pressure is often more effective than physical.
In the prisons of Fatah in the West Bank, where the hunt for militants of Hamas remains open, the techniques are very similar. "The news from Gaza is the growing influence of the systems used by Iranian Basiji. The assault squads from a select group of the Ezzedin Al Qassam Brigades were directly trained by them. The aim is to impose a kind of complete and total political and cultural conformity. Anyone who does not follow the rules is at risk. And there are few heroes. Often enough some veiled threats get the desired effect, says a well-known local commentator, speaking under the promise of absolute anonymity. Asma Al Ghuol, a journalist committed to the defense of intellectual freedom, had his computer recently seized and personal threats for his public denunciation against the censorship of musicians and writers. A colleague who works with the al-Arabiya TV station was arrested a few days ago because agents saw he travelled by car in the company of a boy who was not a member of his family.
Abu Omar (a fictitious name), senior militant Liberation Front of Palestine, expressed his dissent in private: he produces wine hidden in Jabalia refugee camp and sells 100 liters per year. "It's my challenge against the ban imposed on alcohol by Muslims, against the interference in our private lives, as if we were under the Taliban," he said, showing a photo of Mohammad Hassan Hajazi, his friend and activist murdered by Hamas in January 2009 as they took advantage of the chaos generated from the Israeli attack.
The situation closely resembles that imposed against Saddam Hussein's Iraq in the nineties until the 2003 war. The economic blockade and isolation generated enormous difficulties on the international regime, but it strengthened the internal government and indirectly provided legitimacy for even more serious abuses against their people. Atef Abou Saief, brilliant professor of political science at the local university Al Azhar, says "Hamas controls Gaza much better than a couple of years ago, even though its popularity is declining. But we can not verify this. Free elections, as in 2006, are now impossible. At best, if you go back to the polls, we'll see a deal under the table for the division of votes with Fatah. The theocracy of Hamas marked the end of the democratic dream. "
A well-known journalist, employed by foreign news agencies who absolutely asked to remain anonymous, commented: "The difference between Gaza and Iraq is that in the Palestinian territories in January 2006 the elections were swept neatly by Hamas against Fatah. The West is right to point the finger at governments that are not democratic. You can not accept democracy with only results that you like and reject undesirable ones. But now you do not notice that the popularity of Hamas in Gaza is in freefall. It's a curious situation and reflects the ancient Palestinian willingness to stand against those who always wins. If you go to the polls today in the West Bank you could obtain a majority Hamas, but Fatah could win in Gaza."
"Hamas is like Hitler, or rather, as the Islamists in Algeria," said Saief. "That's why Yasser Arafat until his death in November 2004, always refused to hold elections with Hamas. He knew that a free vote with the Islamic government would never have been carried out for the very obvious fact that the doctrine of the Muslim Brotherhood does not give any value to democracy. " It says here lies the weakness of Abu Mazen: allowing Hamas to run for election in 2006. ...
Saief repeats the theory that is the most popular from Gaza in Cairo: Hamas has no interest in jeopardizing the status quo, it is not looking for a real agreement with Abu Mazen, it will not work with or even have contacts with Israel. "Hamas is linked to the Muslim Brotherhood and Iran. The project has a more pan-Islamic and less nationalist agenda. Do not look for compromise, because [Hamas] sees Gaza as the revival of global holy war. That is at the expense of independent intellectuals and any entity in areas under its control," he adds. It can not be denied that the persecuted are generally PLO militants, or otherwise bound to the old face of secular Palestinian Left.
...Aruki stresses: 'For Hamas the this is a great debacle. Young people no longer want to fight. The Israeli blockade is terrible, it prevents any movement, we are in a great open-air prison. But the spirit of the two intifadas is dead. Once there were students who refused the few scholarships to go abroad so they could fight the Zionist occupation collectively. Today everyone wants to emigrate and they are not only blocked by Israel. Egypt is severely limiting people going through the Rafah crossing. And Hamas grants permission to leave only to its activists. The others are just subjects to convert to their reading of Islam."
(h/t Islamo-nazism blog which also translated some parts via Hebrew)
We are slowly starting to learn about the parts of Gaza that are not doing nearly as bad as we have been taught, as stories about the Gaza luxury malls, luxury hotels, gourmet restaurants and swimming pools show.
But there is another Gaza story that is being hushed up in the media - the story of how Gazans are suffering under Hamas rule.
Lorenzo Cremonesi, writing in Corriere della Sera, discusses exactly that. Here is a translation:
He asks the foreign peace activists, who promise to return on the next flotillas, for a mixer for his band. But his request conflicts with the laws of the ruling regime in Gaza, the same regime the peace activists are helping to fight the Israeli embargo. "Our old mixer was confiscated by the Hamas police", he explains. "We are victims of a repressive religious government who, due to a distorted reading of the Quran, prohibits free music. We don't like their green Allah." The speaker is Basher Bseiso, the popular front man of rap group Fariq Salam ("The Band of Peace").
Jamal Abu Al Qumsan, 43, runs an art gallery in the "despair strip", as he calls it. "I thank all the democracy advocates around the world who are fighting the Israeli embargo on Gaza, but can you please equally denounce the repression of Hamas against intellectual freedom?"
These testimonies are but two of many such anecdotes one encounters in the area. The latest examples are attacks on youth organizations on the 23rd and 28th of June, when masked Hamas activists torched students' summer camps set up by the UN on the beach. At the end of May, on the exact same day Israeli commandos raided the Marmara's deck, the Hamas police stopped the activities of five local NGOs. "They want to force us to close down the mixed-sex camps", accuses Mohammad Aruki, a "Sharek" activist. "They are trying to exterminate secular culture".
This is another chapter in the cultural war that's been going on here for some time. Religious extremists are trying to prevent girls and women from going to the beach or smoking in public, they forbid unmarried couples from hanging out together in private and they view Western music and fashion as a danger to the "public's morals." Any request for explanations on these issues receives the same answer: "Our civil authority has nothing to do with it. Please contact the police". But the police's answer is "no comment". Yussef Ahmed, Deputy Foreign Minister and Chairman of the Committee Against the Siege concludes: "Israel has all the power. Hamas is just trying to govern the strip."
The problem is that the witnesses, the victims themselves, are afraid to talk. The Hamas has become the sole ruler, a kind of father/master to its people. Punishment doesn't only mean imprisonment or torture, but also ostracism, job loss and social isolation. Bseiso depicts Hamas' latest attack on him with anger: "I was riding my motorcycle when suddenly a group of armed men from the Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam Brigades clung to me, threw me to the ground and beat me with clubs. A few days earlier they broke into our studio and confiscated cameras and video cassettes. I'm working on an anti-Hamas song now." Ibrahim Ghonem, another of the band's members, remembers that under the PLO conditions were much better. "Back then there were at least five rap bands. Now we are told that we are agents of the American Satan, that we are corrupting the youth. The result is that whoever can, leaves. Members of other bands got offers to perform abroad and never returned."
Jamal Abu Al Qumsan wasn't so lucky. Until two weeks ago he couldn't even sit or lie on his back due to beatings he received off and on for a week, a strange and very common punishment in the strip.
They are summoned to police centers in prisons. There is not much choice. The infamous Saraya, in the heart of Gaza city, was razed by Israeli bombing during "Cast Lead" in January 2009. But still the there is the Mashtal, the five provincial prisons, and Ansar, where are the heads of security services. Here begins the interrogation. "From seven in the morning to late evening, sometimes past midnight. The most common punishment is to stay against a wall in the full sun all afternoon and forced to exercise for no reason.... Only an occasional glass of water is allowed. And you must be punctual in the morning in front of the door, "says Jamal. He still went wrong. "I've been accused of bribing the girls to let them smoke a water pipe in the premises of my gallery, even sexual abuse. So they used belts and sticks. "
Torture chambers - but it could be worse. In the seafront former villa of the President of the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah, Abu Mazen, prisoners would remain in isolation for months. You could say that the cellars are used as rooms for the torture for "enemies of Islam." Their techniques are refined. Some mechanisms are learned directly from Israeli jails. ... The psychological pressure is often more effective than physical.
In the prisons of Fatah in the West Bank, where the hunt for militants of Hamas remains open, the techniques are very similar. "The news from Gaza is the growing influence of the systems used by Iranian Basiji. The assault squads from a select group of the Ezzedin Al Qassam Brigades were directly trained by them. The aim is to impose a kind of complete and total political and cultural conformity. Anyone who does not follow the rules is at risk. And there are few heroes. Often enough some veiled threats get the desired effect, says a well-known local commentator, speaking under the promise of absolute anonymity. Asma Al Ghuol, a journalist committed to the defense of intellectual freedom, had his computer recently seized and personal threats for his public denunciation against the censorship of musicians and writers. A colleague who works with the al-Arabiya TV station was arrested a few days ago because agents saw he travelled by car in the company of a boy who was not a member of his family.
Abu Omar (a fictitious name), senior militant Liberation Front of Palestine, expressed his dissent in private: he produces wine hidden in Jabalia refugee camp and sells 100 liters per year. "It's my challenge against the ban imposed on alcohol by Muslims, against the interference in our private lives, as if we were under the Taliban," he said, showing a photo of Mohammad Hassan Hajazi, his friend and activist murdered by Hamas in January 2009 as they took advantage of the chaos generated from the Israeli attack.
The situation closely resembles that imposed against Saddam Hussein's Iraq in the nineties until the 2003 war. The economic blockade and isolation generated enormous difficulties on the international regime, but it strengthened the internal government and indirectly provided legitimacy for even more serious abuses against their people. Atef Abou Saief, brilliant professor of political science at the local university Al Azhar, says "Hamas controls Gaza much better than a couple of years ago, even though its popularity is declining. But we can not verify this. Free elections, as in 2006, are now impossible. At best, if you go back to the polls, we'll see a deal under the table for the division of votes with Fatah. The theocracy of Hamas marked the end of the democratic dream. "
A well-known journalist, employed by foreign news agencies who absolutely asked to remain anonymous, commented: "The difference between Gaza and Iraq is that in the Palestinian territories in January 2006 the elections were swept neatly by Hamas against Fatah. The West is right to point the finger at governments that are not democratic. You can not accept democracy with only results that you like and reject undesirable ones. But now you do not notice that the popularity of Hamas in Gaza is in freefall. It's a curious situation and reflects the ancient Palestinian willingness to stand against those who always wins. If you go to the polls today in the West Bank you could obtain a majority Hamas, but Fatah could win in Gaza."
"Hamas is like Hitler, or rather, as the Islamists in Algeria," said Saief. "That's why Yasser Arafat until his death in November 2004, always refused to hold elections with Hamas. He knew that a free vote with the Islamic government would never have been carried out for the very obvious fact that the doctrine of the Muslim Brotherhood does not give any value to democracy. " It says here lies the weakness of Abu Mazen: allowing Hamas to run for election in 2006. ...
Saief repeats the theory that is the most popular from Gaza in Cairo: Hamas has no interest in jeopardizing the status quo, it is not looking for a real agreement with Abu Mazen, it will not work with or even have contacts with Israel. "Hamas is linked to the Muslim Brotherhood and Iran. The project has a more pan-Islamic and less nationalist agenda. Do not look for compromise, because [Hamas] sees Gaza as the revival of global holy war. That is at the expense of independent intellectuals and any entity in areas under its control," he adds. It can not be denied that the persecuted are generally PLO militants, or otherwise bound to the old face of secular Palestinian Left.
...Aruki stresses: 'For Hamas the this is a great debacle. Young people no longer want to fight. The Israeli blockade is terrible, it prevents any movement, we are in a great open-air prison. But the spirit of the two intifadas is dead. Once there were students who refused the few scholarships to go abroad so they could fight the Zionist occupation collectively. Today everyone wants to emigrate and they are not only blocked by Israel. Egypt is severely limiting people going through the Rafah crossing. And Hamas grants permission to leave only to its activists. The others are just subjects to convert to their reading of Islam."
(h/t Islamo-nazism blog which also translated some parts via Hebrew)
- Wednesday, July 21, 2010
- Elder of Ziyon
flotilla
From JPost:
As I've mentioned in the past, Arab donors have consistently reneged on their pledges to help Gaza.
I could be cynical and say that they do this deliberately in order to make Israel look bad, but I think the reason is simpler: Arab nations are no fans of Hamas and they (the Gulf states especially) like to donate money where their investments have a chance of paying dividends - and in Gaza, their money is wasted because there is no way for it to help solve the problems permanently.
(h/t Vicious Babushka and Jameel)
Palestinians claim that most of the medicines sent into Gaza are past their expiration date, Al-Jazeera reported on Wednesday.The Al Jazeera article adds that some of the dialysis equipment sent by an aid convoy was useless, that despite calls for specific types of medicines the donors have not responded, and that the many tons of expired medicines must be buried in landfills - but they don't have the equipment to do so properly, and these landfills can therefore become an environmental problem.
"They're bringing more harm than good," the article explained, describing expired medicines and broken supplies sent by different countries and organizations.
Mounir el-Barash, director of the donations department in Gaza's Ministry of Health told al-Jazeera that only 30% of the aid sent into the Gaza Strip is used.
Gaza officials also expressed anger at receiving burial shrouds for children from Arab countries.
As I've mentioned in the past, Arab donors have consistently reneged on their pledges to help Gaza.
I could be cynical and say that they do this deliberately in order to make Israel look bad, but I think the reason is simpler: Arab nations are no fans of Hamas and they (the Gulf states especially) like to donate money where their investments have a chance of paying dividends - and in Gaza, their money is wasted because there is no way for it to help solve the problems permanently.
(h/t Vicious Babushka and Jameel)
- Wednesday, July 21, 2010
- Elder of Ziyon
From Reuters:
Do you think it is a coincidence that the girl looks like she is behind bars?
Well, here's a picture from last month by an AFP photographer that Honest Reporting noticed:
Here's one from 2002, no attribution:
I noticed a similar phenomenon two years ago, also from Reuters,where the fence that these children are behind had nothing to do with Israel:
(h/t Henry)
Palestinian girl Hedayah al-Zanean, whose father is jailed in Israel, attends a protest in Gaza City July 19, 2010, calling for the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails. According to Waed, the Palestinian Prisoners Association, about 7,500 Palestinian prisoners are held in Israeli jails. REUTERS/Suhaib Salem
Do you think it is a coincidence that the girl looks like she is behind bars?
Well, here's a picture from last month by an AFP photographer that Honest Reporting noticed:
Here's one from 2002, no attribution:
I noticed a similar phenomenon two years ago, also from Reuters,where the fence that these children are behind had nothing to do with Israel:
(h/t Henry)
- Wednesday, July 21, 2010
- Elder of Ziyon
Binyomin in the comments points us to a 2008 YouTube video, of what is said to be a 2-year old Muslim girl from New York named Fatima, answering rapid-fire questions about Islam in Arabic.
At 0:44, we see this exchange:
Here's the whole thing:
Note that this is not education. This is brainwashing a child to parrot back bigoted responses that she doesn't even understand, but her teachers will fill in the blanks after she already has been thoroughly brainwashed.
Also note that the commenters on the original video on YouTube are all, as far as I can tell, very proud of such a precocious little girl.
At 0:44, we see this exchange:
Note that this is not education. This is brainwashing a child to parrot back bigoted responses that she doesn't even understand, but her teachers will fill in the blanks after she already has been thoroughly brainwashed.
Also note that the commenters on the original video on YouTube are all, as far as I can tell, very proud of such a precocious little girl.
- Wednesday, July 21, 2010
- Elder of Ziyon
From Ha'aretz (h/t My Right Word):
Under armed police escort, Danny Danon, a deputy parliament speaker, toured the site of an ancient Jewish temple, a plaza home to the al-Aqsa mosque, one of Islam's holiest sites, and said he thought Jews should be permitted freer access there.But the Palestinian Arab press reported a much different story:
A group of Muslim protesters shouted "Allahu Akhbar", or God is Greatest, as Danon, trailed by armed police and dozens of Israeli and Western tourists, strolled around the area known to Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif, and to Jews as the Temple Mount.
But despite the tense atmosphere there was no violence or confrontations during the lawmaker's hour-long visit.
Danon said he wanted a firsthand look at security procedures and to press the case for permitting Jews to pray at the site.
"There is full religious freedom for Jews and Muslims on the Temple Mount," Danon said. "But it is more difficult for the Jew than the Muslim to go and pray on the Temple Mount. This is a distortion that must be corrected."
"If Jews want to go and pray on the Temple Mount then they should be allowed to do it," he added.
Al Aqsa fighters thwarted plans of Jewish extremistsI think that in this case Ha'aretz is a bit more reliable.
Citizens of the occupied city of Jerusalem and the territories of 1948, who were keen to show up early in the Al-Aqsa Mosque, frustrated extremist Jewish groups who stormed the holy mosque for the performance of Talmudic rituals and rites of and to place a foundation stone of a structure in the courtyards of Haram al Sharif, on the anniversary of what it calls the 'destruction of the Temple.'
- Wednesday, July 21, 2010
- Elder of Ziyon
- "pro-Palestinian", apartheid, Arab apartheid, arab refugees, census, Hypocrisy, Khaled Abu Toameh, Lebanon, media silence, NGO silence, No Israel No News, UN
Khaled Abu Toameh touches on one of the major themes of this blog:
One is that there is still a legally mandated balance between Shiites, Sunnis and Christians in Lebanon. A new influx of hundreds of thousands of mostly Sunni Palestinians would upset the demographics, and Lebanon is very sensitive to demographics. In fact, Lebanon has avoided doing a census for that very reason - the fear that it will be discovered that the number of Christians has been shrinking and that Sunnis and Shiites have been growing.
The other reason is that there is still a lot of resentment over the PLO's role in the civil war that killed hundreds of thousands of people in the 1970s and 1980s. For all the pro-Palestinian Arab rhetoric that Lebanon spews, in the end they really don't love their Palestinians at all - quite the opposite.
The Arab supposed support for their Palestinian brethren is pretty much limited to only how they can be used as pawns to hurt Israel. When it comes to concrete actions that would actually help the Palestinian Arab economy, or their quality of life, Arab nations are far less forthcoming.
And this answers Toameh's question of why Arab mistreatment of their Palestinians is muted - because it does not have anything to do with Israel, and that is the entire reason that the Palestinian Arabs exist as a people today. Practically their entire quasi-nationhood is a fiction that was foisted upon them by decades of abuse by their Arab neighbors, and if they would have been integrated into Arab societies the way that a similar number of Jews from Arab countries were integrated into Israel, there would be very few people identifying as "Palestinian" today - and the major weapon that the Arabs have against Israel would disappear.
Modern Palestinian Arab nationalism began as a purely anti-Israel movement (Fatah and the PLO were founded in the early 1960s, before any "occupation.") It is not an expression of hundreds of years of any sort of cohesive unity - there never was any, and there still isn't. Their peoplehood is from 62 years of being treated like garbage mostly by their Arab brothers, and those are the people who should take their fair share of the responsibility to eliminate the scourge of millions of fake "refugees" that they have hosted and persecuted for six decades.
When was the last time the United Nations Security Council met to condemn an Arab government for its mistreatment of Palestinians?I would add that there a a couple of other major reasons why the Lebanese are almost all against granting Palestinian Arabs equal rights.
How come groups and individuals on university campuses in the US and Canada that call themselves "pro-Palestinian" remain silent when Jordan revokes the citizenship of thousands of Palestinians?
The plight of Palestinians living in Arab countries in general, and Lebanon in particular, is one that is often ignored by the mainstream media in West.
How come they turn a blind eye to the fact that Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and many more Arab countries continue to impose severe travel restrictions on Palestinians?
And where do these groups and individuals stand regarding the current debate in Lebanon about whether to grant Palestinians long-denied basic rights, including employment, social security and medical care?
Or have they not heard about this debate at all? Probably not, since the case has failed to draw the attention of most Middle East correspondents and commentators.
A news story on the Palestinians that does not include an anti-Israel angle rarely makes it to the front pages of Western newspapers.
The demolition of an Arab-owned illegal building in Jerusalem is, for most of these correspondents, much more important than the fact that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Lebanon continue to suffer from a series of humiliating restrictions.
Not only are Palestinians living in Lebanon denied the right to own property, but they also do not qualify for health care, and are banned by law from working in a large number of jobs.
Can someone imagine what would be the reaction in the international community if Israel tomorrow passed a law that prohibits its Arab citizens from working as taxi drivers, journalists, physicians, cooks, waiters, engineers and lawyers? Or if the Israeli Ministry of Education issued a directive prohibiting Arab children from enrolling in universities and schools?
Ironically, it is much easier for a Palestinian to acquire American and Canadian citizenship than a passport of an Arab country. In the past, Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip were even entitled to Israeli citizenship if they married an Israeli citizen, or were reunited with their families inside the country.
Lebanese politicians are now debating new legislation that would grant "civil rights" to Palestinians for the first time in 62 years. The new bill includes the right to own property, social security payments and medical care.
Many Lebanese are said to be opposed to the legislation out of fear that it would pave the way for the integration of Palestinians into their society and would constitute a burden to the economy.
One is that there is still a legally mandated balance between Shiites, Sunnis and Christians in Lebanon. A new influx of hundreds of thousands of mostly Sunni Palestinians would upset the demographics, and Lebanon is very sensitive to demographics. In fact, Lebanon has avoided doing a census for that very reason - the fear that it will be discovered that the number of Christians has been shrinking and that Sunnis and Shiites have been growing.
The other reason is that there is still a lot of resentment over the PLO's role in the civil war that killed hundreds of thousands of people in the 1970s and 1980s. For all the pro-Palestinian Arab rhetoric that Lebanon spews, in the end they really don't love their Palestinians at all - quite the opposite.
The Arab supposed support for their Palestinian brethren is pretty much limited to only how they can be used as pawns to hurt Israel. When it comes to concrete actions that would actually help the Palestinian Arab economy, or their quality of life, Arab nations are far less forthcoming.
And this answers Toameh's question of why Arab mistreatment of their Palestinians is muted - because it does not have anything to do with Israel, and that is the entire reason that the Palestinian Arabs exist as a people today. Practically their entire quasi-nationhood is a fiction that was foisted upon them by decades of abuse by their Arab neighbors, and if they would have been integrated into Arab societies the way that a similar number of Jews from Arab countries were integrated into Israel, there would be very few people identifying as "Palestinian" today - and the major weapon that the Arabs have against Israel would disappear.
Modern Palestinian Arab nationalism began as a purely anti-Israel movement (Fatah and the PLO were founded in the early 1960s, before any "occupation.") It is not an expression of hundreds of years of any sort of cohesive unity - there never was any, and there still isn't. Their peoplehood is from 62 years of being treated like garbage mostly by their Arab brothers, and those are the people who should take their fair share of the responsibility to eliminate the scourge of millions of fake "refugees" that they have hosted and persecuted for six decades.
- Wednesday, July 21, 2010
- Elder of Ziyon
We have discussed the El Bader flour mill a number of times in context of the Goldstone Report and other NGOs.
The IDF report in January, 2010 concluded that there was no airstrike, as Goldstone had asserted (against his own evidence!) and that the mill was only hit by a tank shell during active fighting.
Since then, the UN asserted that it had evidence of a 500 lb. bomb, and HRW released a video (apparently the UN video) of the El Bader mill taken a few weeks after Cast Lead that seemed to show this bomb sitting on the floor of the mill:
According to The Guardian, this was the front part of an MK82 aircraft dropped bomb and was found on the first floor.
Because of this new evidence, the IDF reopened its investigation as to whether there was any aerial bombing of the mill.
After months of exhaustive investigation, a new IDF report concludes that it was right all along, and that there was no bomb dropped on the flour mill:
It is noteworthy that the HRW/UN video shows no holes in the roof of the mill; the only hole is a relatively small one shown here on the side:
How exactly a 500 lb bomb could make it through this relatively small hole and end up on the first floor, without any pictures of a large hole in the floor, did not seem to occur to the UN, HRW or the Guardian.
Although the IDF is loathe to directly say that the bomb was planted there, it sure looks like that is what happened. And if evidence was tampered with here, who knows what other evidence was planted in the weeks after the war for the credulous reporters and NGOs that descended on Gaza to look for proof of war crimes?
The IDF report in January, 2010 concluded that there was no airstrike, as Goldstone had asserted (against his own evidence!) and that the mill was only hit by a tank shell during active fighting.
Since then, the UN asserted that it had evidence of a 500 lb. bomb, and HRW released a video (apparently the UN video) of the El Bader mill taken a few weeks after Cast Lead that seemed to show this bomb sitting on the floor of the mill:
According to The Guardian, this was the front part of an MK82 aircraft dropped bomb and was found on the first floor.
Because of this new evidence, the IDF reopened its investigation as to whether there was any aerial bombing of the mill.
After months of exhaustive investigation, a new IDF report concludes that it was right all along, and that there was no bomb dropped on the flour mill:
141. The case of the el-Bader flour mill was discussed in the January 2010 Update. It concerns allegations that the mill had been targeted with precision weapons in the course of a pre-planned air strike, as part of a systemic destruction of industrial infrastructure and with the purpose of depriving the civilian population of Gaza of food supplies. The IDF investigation into the matter concluded instead that the mill was been struck by a tank shell in the course of active combat activities, in order to neutralize immediate threats to IDF forces.
142. Following the publication of the January 2010 Update, various news media stated in February 2010 that the U.N. was in possession of evidence that contradicted the findings of the IDF investigation. Specifically, it was reported that an unexploded IAF bomb was found in the mill, even though the command investigation had concluded there had been no aerial strike.65
143. Upon reviewing these reports, the MAG requested and received additional evidence from the U.N. and ordered the IAF to re-open its investigation of the incident. The MAG also initiated a meeting with U.N. representatives, who had visited the site of the mill, to discuss their findings. The follow-up investigation confirmed the earlier finding that the mill had not been targeted by the IAF in the course of a pre-planned attack. The new reports, photographs taken by U.N. officials, and video footage examined appeared inconsistent with an airborne strike, particularly given the absence of entry holes in the roof of the mill; the lack of trace marks on the floor where the shell was allegedly found (such trace marks would normally be expected when such a munition penetrates a building); and the fact that the fire which damaged the machinery in the mill broke out on the second floor while the ordnance was found on the first floor.
144. Furthermore, the IAF examined every aerial attack in the vicinity of the mill in the course of the Gaza Operation and found that none of them could have resulted in a hit on the flour mill. Of the seven strikes conducted within a one-kilometer radius of the mill using the particular munitions identified, five had hit their precise target (the closest one being approximately 300 meters away from the mill). The impact sites of the two additional strikes were visible in the IAF aerial footage of the operation, and the closer of the two landed a full 350 meters from the mill.
145. After reviewing the findings of this additional investigation, the MAG could not affirmatively determine how the ordnance had found its way into the mill, but reaffirmed that the flour mill had not been intentionally targeted by the IAF. He was also unable to rule out the possibility that the ordnance had been deliberately planted in the mill. Accordingly, the MAG determined that there was no basis for additional proceedings in this matter.
It is noteworthy that the HRW/UN video shows no holes in the roof of the mill; the only hole is a relatively small one shown here on the side:
How exactly a 500 lb bomb could make it through this relatively small hole and end up on the first floor, without any pictures of a large hole in the floor, did not seem to occur to the UN, HRW or the Guardian.
Although the IDF is loathe to directly say that the bomb was planted there, it sure looks like that is what happened. And if evidence was tampered with here, who knows what other evidence was planted in the weeks after the war for the credulous reporters and NGOs that descended on Gaza to look for proof of war crimes?
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
- Tuesday, July 20, 2010
- Elder of Ziyon
Islamic Jihad spokesman Abu Ahmed claimed that Israel's deployment of the anti-missile Iron Dome system will be defeated.
On Monday, Israel successfully tested the Iron Dome system, and the first two batteries are planned for November.
Ahmed said that the announcement was mere "psychological warfare" and that Islamic Jihad has "new tactics" to defeat the system.
He claimed that the system cannot handle two rockets at once (although the Monday test proved that it could.)
It sounds more like Islamic Jihad is engaging in psychological warfare than Israel.
The Christian Science Monitor warns that the system is no "silver bullet" as a single system cannot defend large cities, and it can still be "overwhelmed" by multiple launches. It also characterizes the 44 Israeli civilians who were killed by Katyushas in 2006 as a "handful of civilians."
On Monday, Israel successfully tested the Iron Dome system, and the first two batteries are planned for November.
Ahmed said that the announcement was mere "psychological warfare" and that Islamic Jihad has "new tactics" to defeat the system.
He claimed that the system cannot handle two rockets at once (although the Monday test proved that it could.)
It sounds more like Islamic Jihad is engaging in psychological warfare than Israel.
The Christian Science Monitor warns that the system is no "silver bullet" as a single system cannot defend large cities, and it can still be "overwhelmed" by multiple launches. It also characterizes the 44 Israeli civilians who were killed by Katyushas in 2006 as a "handful of civilians."
- Tuesday, July 20, 2010
- Elder of Ziyon
Arutz-7 and YNet finally caught up with the story of the Gaza Mall that I reported on Saturday night.
YNet notes that it is getting large crowds due to its air-conditioning. I wonder if the many Gaza homeless that we hear so much about will try to sleep in the mall, the way they do in American malls - and when they are kicked out, if the media will blame Israel?
Fox News blog also has a story about the mall - but, quoting UNRWA's Chris Gunness, it stresses that few Gazans can afford to buy anything there. I guess that the people who built it and the store owners are really stupid for not realizing that they would have no customers for their "Fila sneakers, knock-off Barbie dolls, and even Italian chocolates."
YNet notes that it is getting large crowds due to its air-conditioning. I wonder if the many Gaza homeless that we hear so much about will try to sleep in the mall, the way they do in American malls - and when they are kicked out, if the media will blame Israel?
Fox News blog also has a story about the mall - but, quoting UNRWA's Chris Gunness, it stresses that few Gazans can afford to buy anything there. I guess that the people who built it and the store owners are really stupid for not realizing that they would have no customers for their "Fila sneakers, knock-off Barbie dolls, and even Italian chocolates."
Monday, July 19, 2010
- Monday, July 19, 2010
- Elder of Ziyon
- history
Monday night and Tuesday is Tisha B'Av, the most mournful day of the year. This is the traditional anniversary of the destruction of both Temples in Jerusalem, among other tragedies.
It was not that long ago that Jews cried real tears for the Temple - and not only once a year. Countless Christian pilgrims visiting Jerusalem chronicled the heartbreaking sight of Jews gathering at the Kotel, then known then as the Wailing Place of the Jews, every Friday.
From Dwight's American Magazine, Volume 3, 1847:
From Home Life in the Bible, 1881:
A mere century ago, Jews keenly felt a personal bereavement of the loss of the Temple. They sobbed and wailed over the fact that the beautiful Temple, the symbol of their nationhood as well as their faith, was being desecrated daily, that the Holy of Holies was being treated like a playground, or worse. The Wall symbolized the loss of Jerusalem and the millennia of exile of the Jewish people.
We should be crying today as well - for the fact that we no longer cry.
The triumphant words of Colonel Motta Gur, exclaimed in 1967, that "הר הבית בידינו" -"The Temple Mount is in our hands!", seems like a cruel joke today. It was in our hands - for only a matter of hours. In what can only be regarded as a modern Jewish tragedy, Moshe Dayan decided to hand the keys of the Temple Mount to the Waqf of Jordan.
Now, as before, Muslims continue to do whatever they want in Judaism's holiest spot - but the tragedy is multiplied, because now it is Jews who are stopping other Jews from ascending and it is Jews who are allowing the defilement of our holiest space to continue.
The Kotel, formerly a bitter symbol of destruction, now is characterized as a plaza of victory. Yet it is merely a retaining wall for a platform upon which is found Judaism's holiest spot. The focal point of Jewish yearning has never been the Wall - the Wall has always been, and remains today, a stark reminder of the loss of the Temple. The focus is only a few meters beyond the Wall, to a place that continues to be desecrated every minute of every hour of every day. The Kotel is not a place to celebrate - it is a place to mourn that continuing desecration..
We used to gather three times a year at that location. All personal differences dissolved during each Chag. The festivals were national celebrations, a family reuniion, the happiest times of the year. That has been lost.
Why aren't we crying? Why have we lost sight of the tragedy that still exists, today, in the Har HaBayit? At the very moment of the culmination of Jewish national aspiration for 1900 years, during the giddy and emotional high of finally returning to the epicenter of our forefathers' yearnings, we faltered. We acted as if we really were not masters of our own land. We failed the generations before us. The millions of tears of those who cried at the Kotel for hundreds of years are wasted.
Giving up the Temple Mount was not an act of peace. Instead, it was a guarantee for perpetual war. Because we did not take control of this supremely important place, we now are in a position of bargaining for our own capital - as if it doesn't really belong to us. Even with political sovereignty, we are still acting as if we need to get permission from others in order to assert our rights.
It is of course a wonderful thing to see Zechariah's prophecy come true, with children playing on the streets of Jerusalem again, to see the Hurva resurrected, to see Jews return to the center of their universe - but today's Jerusalem has a cancer in its very heart. A cancer that is spreading.
The tragedy is even keener than it was before 1948, before 1967. The tragedy today is our own fault. The Psalmist asks, "?מי יעלה בהר ה' , ומי יקום במקום קדשו," "Who shall ascend into the mountain of the Lord? and who shall stand in His holy place?" How can we answer that question today without tears?
Yet we have forgotten how to cry. We have masked our bare, painful emotions with intellectualism and secularism. We have discarded our hearts and act as if we can survive with only our brains.
We cry at movies, at sports events - but we don't cry on Tisha B'Av. As much as we should be weeping for the loss of the Temples, we should also be weeping at the loss of our ability to internalize that loss.
We need to look at the tears of the Yerushalmi Jews of old and understand their source. Because the tears of loss are necessary to give us the strength to win.
I wish my Jewish readers an easy and meaningful fast. May this be the last Tisha B'av we observe as a day of mourning.
It was not that long ago that Jews cried real tears for the Temple - and not only once a year. Countless Christian pilgrims visiting Jerusalem chronicled the heartbreaking sight of Jews gathering at the Kotel, then known then as the Wailing Place of the Jews, every Friday.
From Dwight's American Magazine, Volume 3, 1847:
I have said how proud and prosperous looked the Mosque of Omar, with its marble buildings, its green lawns, and gaily dressed people, some at prayer under the cypresses, some conversing under the arcades ; female devotees in white sitting on the grass, and merry children running on the slopes; all these ready and eager to stone to death on the instant, any Christian or Jew who should dare to set his foot within the wails. This is what we saw within. Next we went around the outside till we came by a narrow, crooked passage, to a desolate spot, occupied by desolate people. Under a high, massive, and very ancient wall was a dusty, narrow space, enclosed on the other side by the backs of modern dwellings, if I remember right. The ancient wall, where the weeds are springing from the crevices of the stones, is the only part remaining of the old Temple wall; and here the Jews come every Friday, to their Place of Wailing, as it is called, to mourn over the fall of their Temple, and pray for its restoration. What a contrast did these humbled people present to the proud Mohammedans within! They were seated in the dust, some wailing aloud, some repeating prayers with moving lips, and others reading them from books on their knees. A few children were at play on the ground; and some aged men sat silent, their heads drooped on their breasts. Several young men were leaning against the wall, pressing their foreheads against the stones, and resting the books on their clasped hands in the crevices. With some, this wailing is no form; for I saw tears on their cheeks. I longed to know if any had hope in their hearts, that they or their children of any generation should pass that wall, and should help to swell the cry, "Lift up your heads, O ye gates, that the King of Glory may come in!" If they have any such hope, it may give some sweetness to this rite of humiliation. We had no such hope for them; and it was with unspeakable sadness that I, for one, turned away from the thought of the pride and tyranny within those walls, and the desolation without, carrying with me a deep felt lesson on the strength of human faith, and the weakness of the tide of brotherhood.
From Home Life in the Bible, 1881:
Among the impressive sights of Jerusalem for the traveller, none perhaps is sadder than the Wailing-place of the Jews, which affords probably the only example of national ceremonial mourning in the world. The resident Hebrews assemble every Friday at the base of the wall of their ancient Temple in the Valley of the Tyropean, and with prayers and tears bewail before God the fallen glory of his chosen people. The formal lamentation consists of chanting certain appropriate portions of Scripture, such as the words of Isaiah: "Be not wroth very sore, O Lord, neither remember iniquity forever: behold, see, we beseech thee, we are all thy people. Thy holy cities are a wilderness, Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation. Our holy and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised thee, is burned up with fire: and all our pleasant things are laid waste" (Isa. lxiv. 9—11); and those of the Psalmist: "O God, the heathen are come into thine inheritance ; thy holy temple have they defiled ; they have laid Jerusalem on heaps. Pour out thy wrath upon the heathen that have not known thee, and upon the kingdoms that have not called upon thy name. For they have devoured Jacob, and laid waste his dwelling place. O remember not against us former iniquities: let thy tender mercies speedily prevent us ; for we are brought very low" (Ps. lxxix. 1, 6-8). This touching custom is very old; and during periods of foreign oppression the Jews maintained it only by paying a heavy tax for the precious privilege of touching and kissing the stones of their once glorious sanctuary. In the reign of Constantine the expelled race were allowed to enter the city only once a year to wail over the ruined Temple.From The Church of England magazine, 1869:
A very striking sight is the wailing ot the Jews at the Temple wall, which any traveller may witness on a Friday afternoon about four or five o'clock. There is a narrow passage along the west side of the Temple area between what are known as Robinson's and Wilson's arches. The wall rises to a considerable height, and the lower part is formed of very large stones, which are supposed to bo remains of the Temple. They are much ruined, and the grass and herbage grow in the shattered crevices of the once neatly-joined masonry. In these crevices the Jews place little scrolls of parchment, on which are written prayers to the messiah to come and deliver them. Before this wall are gathered a throng of Jews: most of them are women, who wear long mourning veils of linen over their heads. Some are close to the wall, kissing the sacred stones and watering them with their tears. Others are seated on the ground, reading passages of scripture to one another from the Lamentations of Jeremiah and penitential psalms. All seem to be absorbed in deep and genuine grief. At one end may be seen a party of rabbis rocking themselves backwards and forwards in almost frantic grief, reciting in a wild chant psalms and passages of holy scripture, which are responded to by several boys in a sort of chorus.
A mere century ago, Jews keenly felt a personal bereavement of the loss of the Temple. They sobbed and wailed over the fact that the beautiful Temple, the symbol of their nationhood as well as their faith, was being desecrated daily, that the Holy of Holies was being treated like a playground, or worse. The Wall symbolized the loss of Jerusalem and the millennia of exile of the Jewish people.
We should be crying today as well - for the fact that we no longer cry.
The triumphant words of Colonel Motta Gur, exclaimed in 1967, that "הר הבית בידינו" -"The Temple Mount is in our hands!", seems like a cruel joke today. It was in our hands - for only a matter of hours. In what can only be regarded as a modern Jewish tragedy, Moshe Dayan decided to hand the keys of the Temple Mount to the Waqf of Jordan.
Now, as before, Muslims continue to do whatever they want in Judaism's holiest spot - but the tragedy is multiplied, because now it is Jews who are stopping other Jews from ascending and it is Jews who are allowing the defilement of our holiest space to continue.
The Kotel, formerly a bitter symbol of destruction, now is characterized as a plaza of victory. Yet it is merely a retaining wall for a platform upon which is found Judaism's holiest spot. The focal point of Jewish yearning has never been the Wall - the Wall has always been, and remains today, a stark reminder of the loss of the Temple. The focus is only a few meters beyond the Wall, to a place that continues to be desecrated every minute of every hour of every day. The Kotel is not a place to celebrate - it is a place to mourn that continuing desecration..
We used to gather three times a year at that location. All personal differences dissolved during each Chag. The festivals were national celebrations, a family reuniion, the happiest times of the year. That has been lost.
Why aren't we crying? Why have we lost sight of the tragedy that still exists, today, in the Har HaBayit? At the very moment of the culmination of Jewish national aspiration for 1900 years, during the giddy and emotional high of finally returning to the epicenter of our forefathers' yearnings, we faltered. We acted as if we really were not masters of our own land. We failed the generations before us. The millions of tears of those who cried at the Kotel for hundreds of years are wasted.
Giving up the Temple Mount was not an act of peace. Instead, it was a guarantee for perpetual war. Because we did not take control of this supremely important place, we now are in a position of bargaining for our own capital - as if it doesn't really belong to us. Even with political sovereignty, we are still acting as if we need to get permission from others in order to assert our rights.
It is of course a wonderful thing to see Zechariah's prophecy come true, with children playing on the streets of Jerusalem again, to see the Hurva resurrected, to see Jews return to the center of their universe - but today's Jerusalem has a cancer in its very heart. A cancer that is spreading.
The tragedy is even keener than it was before 1948, before 1967. The tragedy today is our own fault. The Psalmist asks, "?מי יעלה בהר ה' , ומי יקום במקום קדשו," "Who shall ascend into the mountain of the Lord? and who shall stand in His holy place?" How can we answer that question today without tears?
Yet we have forgotten how to cry. We have masked our bare, painful emotions with intellectualism and secularism. We have discarded our hearts and act as if we can survive with only our brains.
We cry at movies, at sports events - but we don't cry on Tisha B'Av. As much as we should be weeping for the loss of the Temples, we should also be weeping at the loss of our ability to internalize that loss.
We need to look at the tears of the Yerushalmi Jews of old and understand their source. Because the tears of loss are necessary to give us the strength to win.
I wish my Jewish readers an easy and meaningful fast. May this be the last Tisha B'av we observe as a day of mourning.
- Monday, July 19, 2010
- Elder of Ziyon
Welcome to the impoverished Gaza Strip Mall!
We also need help from the West in getting basic clothing into Gaza.
Our children suffer the most. Here they are playing videogames that are over three years old.
Amenities that are taken for granted in the West, like 65 inch flat screen TVs, are exceedingly rare and must be shared by many of our impoverished citizens.
We are forced to squirt Zionist ketchup onto our French fries, showing that we are still under colonial occupation.
Our children are forced to suffer while their parents eat measly portions in the "Starving Food Court."
And now we have the tragic video of the mall.
- Monday, July 19, 2010
- Elder of Ziyon
The ignoble Khaled Amayreh, whose love for conspiracy theories spans from Jews to UFOs, has a new article out all over the Arabic and loony left sites called "Muslims need to tackle Jewish Islamophobia."
You see, this pseudo journalist is concerned for anti-Muslim bigotry among Jews.
Just for fun, here are some examples of how he refers to Jews through this article - all while railing against supposed Jewish bigotry:
As they say in Arabic, "The camel cannot see the crookedness of its own neck."
More posts about this hateful joker here, here, here, here.
You see, this pseudo journalist is concerned for anti-Muslim bigotry among Jews.
Just for fun, here are some examples of how he refers to Jews through this article - all while railing against supposed Jewish bigotry:
From Sydney to California , Zionist Jews are spreading venomous hatred against Islam.
sick supremacists
Jewish supremacists
virulent Jewish Islamophobia
the Jewish-controlled media and show biz have been inciting against Islam for ages.
Zionist agents fabricated anti-Semitic incidents, like scrawling anti-Jewish epithets or even setting Jewish property on fire, and blamed it on Muslims
The ultimate message they are trying to communicate is "kill the Muslims"
Nazi-like Israeli policies in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and South Lebanon
duplicitous, dishonest and disobedient Jews who views the rest of mankind as cattle.
This satanic calf has effectively morphed Jews, or most Jews, into mass murderers, certified war criminals, child killers, land thieves and pathological professional liars.
a real alliance is being forged between Zionism and European neo-Nazism
Israeli Nazism has a fixation, namely controlling the world by controlling governments and regimes, as is already the case in the United States, Canada and several other western countries.
As they say in Arabic, "The camel cannot see the crookedness of its own neck."
More posts about this hateful joker here, here, here, here.
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