Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Egypt claims to catch Israeli "spy." Um...not quite. (UPDATED)

From CNN:

A former Israeli military officer was questioned by Egyptian authorities Sunday and detained for 15 days on suspicion of spying for Israel, according to a spokesman for Egypt's general prosecutor.

Elan Chaim participated in the Lebanon war of 2006, and was relieved of field combat duties after being injured, spokesman Adel Saeed said Sunday. He was apprehended in a five-star hotel in downtown Cairo, Saeed said. Investigators had kept a close eye on his activities for months, and suspect he is involved in espionage, the spokesman said.

Chaim allegedly was sent to Egypt by the Israeli government, tasked with taking advantage of the security vacuum in the country following the January 25 revolution and instructed to recruit others to acquire military and political information, Saeed said. The revolution forced former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak from power; he stepped down February 11.

Chaim was present at most of the protests, Saeed alleged, and encouraged demonstrators to engage in violence against the military. His aim, according to Egyptian authorities, was allegedly to help cause chaos between the Egyptian people and the military, Saeed said.

Chaim was questioned by the supreme state security prosecutor and will be temporarily detained, Saeed said. The general prosecutor will announce the results of the investigation when it is complete.

The Jerusalem Post quoted an unnamed Israeli Foreign Ministry official as saying the ministry was "totally and completely unfamiliar with the story" and that it would be investigated.

Al Masry al Youm has a video showing this "spy" doing what looks like normal tourism in Egypt and trying to be a part of history in Tahrir Square. The video also shows images of him in Israeli army uniform with forboding music that is meant to make him look like a scheming, slimy enemy spy.

JPost has his name as Ilan Chaim Grabel. His real name is Ilan Grapel, and here is his Facebook page. Most of the photos in the video come straight from there.

A little digging there shows that Grapel is no spy. While he does seem to be an Arabophile, he makes no attempt to hide his ties to Israel nor his time in the IDF. He clearly has made Arab friends, and even flirts in Arabic with Arab girls (who have no problem with him being Israeli.) He went to Johns Hopkins University.

This is a ridiculous accusation. Grapel makes no secret of all the activities he was doing in Cairo. It is a sad comment on the state of the news nowadays that the media cannot even figure out how to find his Facebook page to check out the facts.

UPDATE: He is also an American citizen.

The humanitarian crisis of Gaza's Palm Village Resort. The horror!

You may think you've seen deprivation in Gaza. You might think you have seen the depths of the humanitarian crisis there. But I must warn you....it gets even worse than you could ever imagine.

Warning: the following pictures may shock and sicken you.

I bring you Gaza's Palm Village Resort.

Most of the photos from this thread.

I hope that the planned flotilla members manage to find their way to this incredible example of how Gazans are suffering under blockade.

I honestly thought I was seeing photos taken in the Congo.

(h/t Vandoren)

The Flotilla meets Gilligan

OK, I admit I LOL'ed.

(h/t Jawa Report via Huffwatcher)

PalArab protesters narrowly avoid getting Jew-cooties

From the IDF Spokesperson website:

The following video is of a protest which took place yesterday in Umm Salamuna, southeast of Bethlehem in the West Bank. Every Friday afternoon, protesters gather in the town to demonstrate against the security fence, which has dramatically decreased suicide bombings and other terror attacks inside Israel for over 6 years. Protests in Umm Salamuna often turn violent, with rocks being hurled at IDF and other security forces by rioters who also damage the security fence.

In the video, the deputy battalion commander of the Kfir Brigade offers water to the protesters due to the extremely high temperature mid-afternoon that day. The Palestinian protest leader tells his supporters, “Don’t drink the water!” following which a woman dumps out a cup of water offered to her by the commander.

Whew, that was close! Who knows what the IDF spiked the water with - poison, sex hormones, anti-sex hormones, tiny bacteria that eat out your spleen - the mind reels at how much damage could have resulted if Arab protesters would accept a simple gift of water from a soldier.

They might have even started to regard Israelis as human beings, and that would be the worst possible outcome.

Far more anti-semitism in Norway schools than "Islamophobia"

And Muslims downplay the anti-semitism.

From The Foreigner (Norway):

Oslo Jewish Community leaders allege an Islamic organisation is glossing over anti-Semitism in Norwegian schools by focusing more on Muslim harassment.

The current row started on Tuesday, after Oslo municipality presented a report charting racist and anti-Semitic attitudes amongst 7,212 pupils in 48 secondary schools.

Results show 33.3 percent of Jews experience harassment between two and three times per month, compared with 5.3 percent of Muslims.

According to Vårt Land, Ervin Kohn of Oslo’s Jewish Community (DMT) was discouraged by the report. Despite the high figures, however, Secretary General of umbrella organisation Islamsk Råd Norway (IRN), Mehtab Afsar, claims, “it’s really the Muslims that are given a hard time, and charting Muslim harassment is well overdue.”

The day after the report came out, pro-integration network LIM (Likestilling, Integrering, Mangfold) said it encourages all actors to fight against what it views as increasing anti-Semitism in Norway. At the same time, it was openly critical to Mr Afsar’s statements.

“Unfortunately, it seems as though IRN neither intends to recognize or take the problem of anti-Semitism seriously. Secretary General Afsar would rather focus more upon intimidation of Muslims.”

In a further development in what was becoming a growing rift between two ethnic minorities IRN issued a press statement yesterday, also censuring its own Secretary General, saying, “We wish to state once and for all that we clearly distance ourselves from all types of bullying and harassment, including anti-Semitism.

IRN apologises that some individuals have tried to turn a general societal problem into a particularly Muslim one,” it continues.

“I cannot see that IRN takes anti-Semitism seriously when reading this press release,” says Mr Ervin Kohn.

(h/t Callie)

Free Gaza is nervous about latest flotilla, so they rev up their lies

I just got this email from Free Gaza:

As we get ready to sail in two weeks, Israel has stepped up the threats, threatening to sue the Canadians who are going, threatening to sue the satellite phone company if they provide us with service, threatening to kill and maim us if we don't stop, then saying, "I told you so...we said we would kill you."

This behavior has got to stop. Israel is behaving like the schoolyard bully who parents and teachers fear, because his parents are rich and have contributed to the school. It's time for us to put our foot down.

Start calling your member of parliament/congress now. Start writing letters to the editor. Start a civil movement on social networks of outrage against Israel's attacks on civilians. Distribute this statement below and post on your websites.

We CAN stop Israeli attacks against us if we work together. Greta [Berlin]

Here is the statement they want everyone to distribute:

ANNOUNCEMENT
June 12, 2011

Regarding statements of government officials in Israel (echoed by officials in other countries) about diplomatic initiatives to impede the “Freedom Flotilla II- Stay Human” mission to Gaza, Palestine, we say:

Proper diplomacy does not exclude humanitarian action; Instead of seeking to prevent an international community of concerned citizens from taking nonviolent action in defense of liberty and human rights, diplomacy must pursue such actions and encourage them.

It is, therefore, a provocation to label the humanitarian action taken by movements supporting human rights to sail to Gaza a “provocation.”

It is a provocation that powerful states and international organizations, such as the US, Israel, the EU and the UN, are asking people to be silent and not react to violations of law and the disdain for universal values.

It is a provocation that international diplomacy is demanding that solidarity action from "people to people" be stopped.

Isn't it precious that the Free Gaza people are asking their drones to send in letters that claim that they are bringing "humanitarian aid" to Gaza and that their actions are "people-to-people?"

Especially since Free Gaza admits, explicitly, on their website, that these flotillas are political, not humanitarian, and that they are not an aid group. Beyond that, they are against humanitarian aid to Gaza going through legal channels, via Israel and Egypt!

Invariably, when it is convenient to them, they claim to the media that they are a humanitarian organization. But in reality their actions are purely political - and, therefore, by definition, a provocation!

As usual, Free Gaza will happily lie to hide their agenda.

(I'd also love to know where Israel threatened to "maim or kill" the flotilla fools assuming that they don't start attacking IDF soldiers with knives and clubs.)

Call Amnesty! Israel humiliates Palestinian Arabs in public!

Israel's women's basketball team defeated the Palestinian Arab team late last month at an International Friendship Games match.

The final score was 70-4.

But Israel's women's team was not happy only humiliating the Palestinian Arabs, but they went on to defeat Jordan 47-7.

This clearly was another case of Israelis purposefully humiliating Arabs, in public, and as such these can be considered war crimes under the Arab interpretation of international law.

Incidentally, the Palestinian Arab team requested not to be interviewed by the Israeli media - even before their match.

(h/t Joel)

Maybe the flotillas should bring cars into Gaza

Hamas recently added a 25% tariff on cars and spare parts brought into Gaza through Israel.

Some 4000 cars have gone into the supposedly besieged sector from Israel since last year. This is not counting the recent flood of cars being smuggled in from Libya.

As a result of Hamas' new car tax, Gaza car dealers refused the latest shipments of automobiles that were supposed to come in through Kerem Shalom. None of the cars scheduled to come in since last Thirsday have been delivered.

Sounds like the "humanitarians" have their work cut out for them. Gazans need more cars without the unconscionable tax being placed on them by their, uh, occupiers!

New medicine shortage in Gaza. Sorry, can't blame the Jews. (UPDATED)

From Ma'an:

Hospitals in the Gaza Strip are suffering a critical shortage of medicine and medical supplies, Hamas Health Minister Bassem Naem said Saturday.

The crisis was unprecedented even during Israel's massive offensive on Gaza in December 2008, Naem said, adding that the situation was worsening by the day.

Speaking at a conference in Ash-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Naem said 180 types of medicine and 200 medical items had run out in Gaza, including alcohol and needles.

Sources in the Gaza Health Ministry said Palestinian Authority official Nabil Shaath had promised to send medicine to Gaza from Ramallah, but that the supplies never arrived.

There are no Israeli restrictions on medicines entering Gaza. The only party at fault is...the Palestinian Authority!

Will the UN convene a session to condemn them?

UPDATE: Silly me. Of course you can still blame the Jews. (h/t T34)

Reporter sneaks into Syria; deserters tell of rapes

From CBS:

Martin Fletcher, of The Times of London, posed a tourist to sneak into Syria, where foreign journalists are banned. He traveled for 6 days before being caught before being caught in the city of Homs, a focal point of the uprising.

Meanwhile, some Syrian army deserters are speaking out about the horrors they participated in:

Syrian army deserters who fled to Turkey have told of atrocities committed by soldiers in suppressing anti-government protests, under threat of execution if they disobeyed orders.

Four conscripts interviewed by AFP recounted instances of rape and wanton murder as President Bashar al-Assad's forces combat demonstrations against his regime across the country.

With a blank stare in his eyes, Tahal al-Lush said the "cleansing" in Ar-Rastan, a town of 50 000 residents in the Syrian province of Homs, prompted him to desert.

"We were told that people were armed there. But when we arrived, we saw that they were ordinary civilians. We were ordered to shoot them," said Lush, who showed his military passbook and other papers as proof of his identity.

"When we entered the houses, we opened fire on everyone, the young, the old... Women were raped in front of their husbands and children," he said, giving the number of deaths as some 700, difficult to verify as journalists are not allowed to circulate freely in Syria.

(h/t Israel Muse)

OT: Parasha question

A bit off topic...

This has been bugging me today so I was wondering if anyone had a good answer.

In next week's parasha (Bamidbar/Numbers 13:1), the list of the meraglim includes:

ד וְאֵלֶּה, שְׁמוֹתָם: לְמַטֵּה רְאוּבֵן, שַׁמּוּעַ בֶּן-זַכּוּר.	4 And these were their names: of the tribe of Reuben, Shammua the son of Zaccur.

ח לְמַטֵּה אֶפְרָיִם, הוֹשֵׁעַ בִּן-נוּן.	8 Of the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea the son of Nun.
יא לְמַטֵּה יוֹסֵף, לְמַטֵּה מְנַשֶּׁה--גַּדִּי, בֶּן-סוּסִי.	11 Of the tribe of Joseph, namely, of the tribe of Manasseh, Gaddi the son of Susi.

Why wasn't mateh (tribe of) Ephraim placed under mateh Yosef (Joseph)? And why was there a separation of 2 verses between them?

I didn't see any answers in the meforshim I had available. It seems fairly glaring so I figured someone must have commented on it, perhaps in the context of the entire order listed.

Any ideas?

Egyptian Salafists: "Grow a Beard for Ramadan"

From The Egyptian Gazette:

As the revolutionaries have been organising million-strong protests in Al Tahrir Square to press for their unfulfilled demands via social networking websites, the Salafists are now doing the same to persuade other Muslims to grow beards and be more pious.

These Salafists are calling for a million men to be bearded before the holy fasting month of Ramadan which starts in August.

Their campaign is a very controversial one, showed how wide the gap is between Islamists and secularists in the post-Hosni Mubarak Egypt.

Such a campaign indicates a radical change in Egypt after the toppling of an authoritarian regime, obviously indicating an unbalance in favour of religion in the Egyptian street, according to analysts.

"This freedom is a fruit of the January 25 revolution. In the presence of the [now disbanded] State Security Police under Mubarak, asking Egyptians to grow beards was like dreaming of touching the moon," says Sheikh Safwat Hegzai, a Salafist cleric.

He argues that this campaign is something normal, resulting from the freedom gained after toppling an authoritarian regime.

"I would like to see a similar campaign for a million women to wear the niqab [full-face veil]," Hegazi adds.

(h/t jzaik)

Will Israel take over the energy market?

A nice article about Israel's energy potential in the Financial Post:

In the first 25 years after Israel’s founding in 1948, it was repeatedly attacked by the large armies of its Arab neighbours. Each time, Israel prevailed on the battlefield, only to have its victories rolled back by Western powers who feared losing access to Arab oilfields.

The fear was and is legitimate – Arab nations have often threatened to use their “oil weapon” against countries that support Israel and twice made good their threat through crippling OPEC oil embargoes.

But that fear, which shackles Israel to this day, may soon end. The old energy order in the Middle East is crumbling with Iran and Syria having left the Western fold and others, including Saudi Arabia, the largest of them all, in danger of doing so. Simultaneously, a new energy order is emerging to give the West some spine. In this new order, Israel is a major player.

The new energy order is founded on rock – the shale that traps vast stores of energy in deposits around the world. One of the largest deposits – 250 billion barrels of oil in Israel’s Shfela basin, comparable to Saudi Arabia’s entire reserves of 260 billion barrels of oil – has until now been unexploited, partly because the technology required has been expensive, mostly because the multinational oil companies that have the technology fear offending Muslims. “None of the major oil companies are willing to do business in Israel because they don’t want to be cut off from the Mideast supply of oil,” explains Howard Jonas, CEO of IDT, the U.S. company that owns the Shfela concession through its subsidiary, Israeli Energy Initiatives. Jonas, an ardent Zionist, considers the Shfela deposit merely a beginning: “We believe that under Israel is more oil than under Saudi Arabia. There may be as much as half a trillion barrels.”

Because the oil multinationals have feared to develop Shfela, one of the world’s largest oil developments is being undertaken by an unlikely troop. Jonas’s IDT is a consumer-oriented telecom and media company that is a relative newcomer to the heavy industry world of energy development. Joining IDT in this latter-day Zionist Project is Lord Jacob Rothschild, a septuagenarian banker and philanthropist whose forefathers helped finance Zionist settlements in Palestine from the mid-1800s; Michael Steinhardt, a septuagenarian hedge fund investor and Zionist philanthropist; and Rupert Murdoch, the octogenarian chairman of News Corporation who uncompromisingly opposes, in his words, the “ongoing war against the Jews” by Muslim terrorists, by the Western left in general, and by Europe’s “most elite politicians” in particular.

Where others would have long ago retired, these businessmen-philanthropists have joined the battle on Israel’s side. While they’re in it for the money, they are also determined to free the world of Arab oil dependence by providing Israel with an oil weapon of its own. The company’s oil shale technology “could transform the future prospects of Israel, the Middle East and our allies around the world,” states Lord Rothschild.

To win this war, Israeli Energy Initiatives has enlisted some of the energy industry’s savviest old soldiers – here a former president of Mobil Oil (Eugene Renna), there a former president of Occidental Oil Shale (Allan Sass), over there a former president of Halliburton (Dick Cheney). But the Field Commander for the operation, and the person who in their mind will lead them to ultimate victory, is Harold Vinegar, a veteran pulled out of retirement and sent into the fray. Vinegar, a legend in the field, had been Shell Oil’s chief scientist and, with some 240 patents to his name over his 32 years at Shell, revolutionized the shale oil industry.

Before oil met Vinegar, this was dirty business, a sprawling open mine operation that crushed and heated rock to yield a heavy tar amid mountains of spent shale. The low-value tar then needed to be processed and refined. The bottom line: low economic return, high environmental cost.

Vinegar boosted the bottom line by dropping the environmental damage. No open pit mining, no spent shale, no heavy tar to manage. In his pioneering approach, heated rods are inserted underground into the shale, releasing from it natural gas and light liquids. The natural gas provides the project’s need for heat; the light liquids are easily refined into high-value jet fuel, diesel and naphtha. The new bottom line: oil at a highly profitable cost of about $35-$40 a barrel and an exceedingly low environmental footprint. Vinegar’s process produces greenhouse gas emissions less than half that from conventional oil wells and, unlike open pit mining, does not consume water. The land area from which he will extract a volume of oil equivalent to that in Saudi Arabia? Approximately 25 square kilometers.

Although the Israeli shale project is still at an early stage, its massive potential and Vinegar’s reputation have already begun to change attitudes toward Israel. “We have been approached by all the majors,” Vinegar recently told the press, and for good reason. “Israel is very well positioned for oil exporting” to both European and Asian markets. The majors have other reasons, too, for casting their eyes afresh at Israel. Through its natural gas finds in the Mediterranean’s Levant Basin, and with no help from the oil majors, Israel is becoming a major natural gas exporter to Europe. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the Levant Basin has vast natural gas supplies, most of it within Israel’s jurisdiction.

Attitudes to Israel in some European capitals – those in line to receive Israeli gas — have already warmed and the shift to Israel may in time become tectonic, in Europe and elsewhere, when oil is at stake – 38 countries have an estimated 4.8-trillion barrels of shale oil, many of which would benefit from the shale oil technology now being pioneered in Israel. Speeding that shift could be the Arab Spring, which many fear will flip pro-Western Arab states into hostile camps. Long time U.S. ally Saudi Arabia is reportedly so distrustful of the U.S. following its abandonment of long-time Egyptian ally, President Hosni Mubarak, that it has pulled back its relationship with the West in favour of China.

Before 1973, when the Arab world first punished the West for its relationship with Israel, Israel was a favourite of the left and of most of the free world. Under Arab punishment, much of the world started seeing the world through Arab eyes and turned on Israel.

But freed of the threat of Arab punishment, and in a new world energy order, Western countries may turn again, to their benefit. Rupert Murdoch well expresses the highest hopes of his partners: “If [our] effort to develop shale oil is successful, as I believe it will be, then the news we’ll report in the coming decades will reflect a more prosperous, more democratic and more secure world.”

Isn't it amazing how European attitudes towards Israel might change just because of oil and natural gas?

Evil Zionists pretending Psalms were written by Jews!

From Palestinian Media Watch:

As part of the continuing Palestinian denial of Jewish history in Jerusalem, a Palestinian researcher and specialist on Jerusalem has claimed that the well-known verse of the Hebrew psalm, "If I forget thee, oh Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its skill," is not a Jewish source at all. He said that the words were uttered by a Christian Crusader, and have only recently been "borrowed" by Jews and "falsified in the name of Zionism."

The verse is in fact from Psalm 137 of the Hebrew Bible, which opens with the words: "By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion." The psalm mourns the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonian army in 586 BCE, is part of Jewish tradition and liturgy and has appeared in Jewish sources for thousands of years.

Palestinian Media Watch has documented the Palestinian Authority policy of denying Israel's history as the basis for its denial of Israel's right to exist. The PA often denies the existence of the Temple in Jerusalem, calling it "the alleged Temple."

The following are the words of Palestinian researcher Dr. Hayel Sanduqa on PA TV, claiming that the Hebrew Bible's psalm was actually first said by a Crusader:

"[The Israelis] have acted to change Jerusalem's character. Even the expression (Psalm 137:5) 'If I forget thee, oh Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its skill. May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth, if I do not remember thee.'

This statement, said by the Frankish [Crusader] ruler of Acre shortly before he left, was borrowed by the Zionist movement, which falsified it in the name of Zionism."
[PA TV (Fatah), June 2, 2011]

Political tourists getting brainwashed in Israel

I received a couple of important documents from an email correspondent who authored them. Here is an excerpt:

A large number of non-Jewish tourist groups consisting on the average of 10 – 40 people, from North America, Great Britain and Ireland, Western Europe (France and Belgium) and Australia arrive in Israel each week.

They enter Israel on regular tourist visas, but these are not regular tourists. Their agenda is political. They profess to have come to "Israel and Palestine to learn about both sides of the conflict." In reality, they have mainly come to show support and solidarity to the Palestinians and gather incriminating facts about the state of Israel, her government, the IDF and the "settlers" that many will disseminate in various forums upon their return home.

Unlike other internationals that come to the area to protest, these groups generally arrive and depart quietly, virtually unnoticed by any Israel government official or ministry. They manage to "fly under the radar."

These tourists are as young as high school students and as old as senior adults, though the majority is between 30 – 60 years old.

They represent all professions and walks of life.

They are both Christian and secular (many "post-Christian"). Some groups include a small number of Muslims and Jews.

They stay, on average, from 5 – 14 days, though some come for an extended educational or volunteer program.

They come to the area under the auspices of various churches or human rights organizations. Locally, they may be handled by, among others,
· Holy Land Trust http://www.holylandtrust.org/

· Alternative Tourism Group http://www.atg.ps/

· Sabeel http://www.sabeel.org/

· Christian Peacemaker Teams (Palestine) http://www.cpt.org/work/palestine

· East Jerusalem YMCA http://www.ej-ymca.org/

· MEJDI http://mejdi.net/

Their itinerary is based on a combined program of site visits, seminars, lectures and almost always includes Arab home hospitality in the Palestinian Authority, including sharing meals with and sleeping in the homes of Palestinian families. It is here that tourists are exposed to the most intensive and effective anti-Israel propaganda.

They also meet representative of extreme left-wing Israeli organizations such as

· The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions http://www.icahd.org

/· Women in Black http://coalitionofwomen.org/home/english/organizations/women_in_black

· Breaking the Silence http://www.shovrimshtika.org/index_e.asp

· Peace Now http://www.peacenow.org.il/site/en/homepage.asp

Most of these groups do not meet with any spokesperson from the Israel government nor the opposition.

Their visit to the "Efrat settlement" usually last 1 -1.5 hours and consists of a frontal lecture only that cannot compete emotionally with the Palestinian experience.

The author is token "settler" that they meet for an hour to pretend that their week-long trip immersed in Palestinian Arab propaganda is "balanced."

His observations are worth noting:

It appears that some 70-80% of these visitors, although they consider themselves politically to the left, are not anti-Semitic or particularly anti-Israel upon their arrival.

A minority, perhaps some 10%, arrive with an existing hostility towards Israel. Another approximately 10% seem mostly ignorant of the history of the conflict.

The majority of participants are not interested in the Israeli narrative. They are not made more sympathetic to Israel’s case through stories of Palestinian terrorism.

By the time their visit is over the majority's opinion of Israel is quite negative. We have lost their hearts and minds.

In recent years these groups more frequently raise the question concerning the very need for a Jewish state. For a growing number of these tourists, the notion of a sovereign and independent Jewish state seems wrong.

These visitors readily, even eagerly, adopt the Palestinian narrative of the conflict with its short and simple message:

(1) Israel has stolen and illegally occupies the Land of Palestine
(2) Israel oppresses Palestinians, up to and including being guilty of committing crimes against humanity

Many participants in these groups, albeit an unknown number, upon returning to their respective countries become active in various ways in their communities or on their campuses on behalf of the Palestinian cause and denounce the state of Israel for its alleged treatment of the Palestinians.

In spite of the hostility they convey towards the government of Israel and the IDF, each group, without exception, asks about a "vision of peace." While most visitors blame Israel for the ongoing conflict, they are not seeking a "winner and loser." What they want is for Israelis and Palestinians to live side-by-side in peace.

The reason he wrote to me is that he wanted to use my posters to most effectively use his limited time with the visitors and show them, as effectively as possible, that there are two sides to the story.

I am gratified that he was very happy with the posters I sent him (mostly the "This Is Zionism" series). Here's what he responded:

I have got to tell you, I am smiling from ear to ear. :)

I am going to print these posters out and laminate them and show them to every pro-Palestinian group that I speak to, beginning next week.

There is no doubt that a picture is worth a thousand words. For years I have been speaking to groups who have first been taken to "see evidence of Israeli oppression," i.e. a checkpoint, a "wall," the mere presence of an Israel soldier. My hour to hour-and-a-half presentation, by then, usually falls on deaf ears. Most leave with the phrase "Thank you for your time," when what they really mean is "Don't bother us with facts, our minds are made up."

Although my holding these posters up in front of their faces is naturally not as powerful an experience as having a poor, Palestinian woman tell these visitors that cruel Israeli soldiers shot my son for sport, at least it is a start in the right direction.

He sent me more information, including a detailed proposal he wrote up for encouraging non-Jewish groups to visit Israel to see things that the Palestinian Arab tour sponsors stay away from: Jewish-Arab cooperation in Israel as well as in the territories (such as Arab students in Ariel University,) the Peres Center for Peace, MASHAV, meetings with successful Palestinian Arab businessmen, shopping expeditions to the trendy districts in Ramallah, and other activities that are not "right wing" but an accurate representation of Israeli society and tolerance.

It is a very important idea, and one that needs support. There are literally thousands of people who are visiting Israel with groups whose entire purpose is to poison their minds against Israel - and the poor dupes who go on these trips believe that they are being given both sides of the story.

(Sorry, I don't know if I have permission to publish this person's name; if he wants I'll add it.)

UPDATE: I had forgotten about this article I had linked to a couple of months ago where an Israeli journalist tagged along a tour for foreign journalists. Very worthwhile reading. (h/t Amanda)