Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Good news! Arabs who want to destroy Israel down from 90.7% to 83.1%!

AWRAD has just completed a new survey of Palestinian Arabs in the territories.

In answer to the question:

With regard to the final status of Palestine and Israel please indicate which of the following you consider to be Essential, Desirable, Acceptable, Tolerable, or Unacceptable as part of a peace agreement.

The number of people who said "Essential" or "Desirable" to the option "Historic Palestine – From the Jordan River to the sea" is now 83.1% (64.8% "Essential"). This is an improvement over their August survey, when the total percentage who wanted a single Arab state was at 90.7% (78.2% "Essential.")

See how moderate they are?

In another indication of how flexible the Palestinian Arabs are in desiring a realistic peace with Israel, the AWRAD asked a new question:

If Palestinian negotiators delivered a peace settlement that includes a Palestinian State but had to make compromises on key issues (right of return, Jerusalem, borders, settlements, etc.) to do so would you support the result?

85.2% of the respondents said a flat "NO."

So even if the US and Quartet could cajole Abbas to accept a compromise in an area that "everybody knows" requires one - namely, no "right of return" and territorial compromise with large Jewish settlement blocs as a part of Israel - the Palestinian Arabs themselves, raised up with intransigence and a massive sense of entitlement, would not accept it.

And Hamas and Islamic Jihad would be waiting for their new recruits with open arms.

But don't let facts get in the way of the holy "peace process." That problem, like many others, can wait until Day 1 of "Palestine."

And when that day comes, people will start to look back at today - when very few people are being killed on both sides and there is relative prosperity and autonomy in the West Bank - with nostalgia.

(h/t Daled Amos)

Why do PalArabs attack ambulances? (Khaled Abu Toameh)

From Khaled Abu Toameh, in Hudson-NY:

Arabs living in Israel have always enjoyed free and unlimited access to medical services. Israeli hospitals have always been full of Arab patients, who often heap praise on doctors and nurses for offering them the best treatment.

Even Arabs from neighboring countries have been seeking medical treatment in Israeli hospitals.

This is why it is hard to understand why any Arab would ever consider attacking Israeli medical staff. How do such attacks help the Palestinian cause or any Arab or Islamic cause?

Those who think that the attacks on ambulances and medical teams will help "liberate" Palestine are criminals who should be punished severely.

It is sad that leaders of the Arab community have not come out in full force to condemn the despicable phenomenon. Those who are refusing to come out in public against the attacks on ambulances are as bad as the rock-throwers, who are causing huge damage to Arabs and endangering their lives.

Lately, there have been a number of incidents where Arabs hurled stones at Israeli Magen David [Israeli equivalent of the Red Cross, the Shield of David] ambulances in Jerusalem and other parts of the country. What is particularly outrageous is the fact that the ambulances are pelted with stones when they arrive at an Arab neighborhood to help Arabs.

Last week, two Magen David ambulances that were rushed to an Arab village in Jerusalem to save the life of a young man who had fallen from the fifth floor of a building were attacked with big stones by local youths. Miraculously, no one was hurt in the attack, but a lot of damage was caused to the vehicles.

In a separate incident last month, dozens of Arabs hurled stones at paramedics who came to treat a man who had been seriously injured in a car accident near the Arab city in Israel of Umm al-Fahm.
...

Sadly, however, Israeli ambulances have been instructed not to enter Arab areas without a police escort because of the recurring attacks on the vehicles and medical staff. This has caused delays in the arrival of the ambulances to their destination.

Magen David paramedics should be commended for the great work they are doing to offer the best medical treatment to patients -- regardless of their nationality and religion. They should be commended for endangering their lives to enter Arab villages and neighborhoods to save lives.

(h/t Elder of Lobby)

75 years ago: The Jew who could have slit Hitler's throat

From the Palestine Post, November 10, 1935:

Time magazine mentions, in 1938:

Several years ago Adolf Hitler asked the world's greatest otolaryngologist, Professor Heinrich von Neumann of Vienna, to examine his larynx. Dr. von Neumann had as patients and friends England's George VI and Duke of Windsor, Spain's Alfonso, Rumania's Carol, Greece's George, Austria's late Emperor Charles. But he is an orthodox Jew and he turned Hitler down. Last spring, when Hitler entered Austria, Dr. von Neumann was imprisoned and released upon the plea of the Duke of Windsor.

Neumann also attended the Evian conference where he tried, unsuccessfully, to effect the rescue of Austiran Jews from the Nazis.

He died in 1939.

Hamas arrests people with keffiyehs!

Firas Press reports that Hamas arrested a number of male and female students at Al Quds University today.

They searched them and arrested those who were found with two types of contraband items:

Photos of Yasir Arafat, and keffiyehs.

Hamas is working to stop any commemorations of the sixth anniversary of Arafat's timely death this week. Arafat of course used the keffiyeh as his symbol of terrorist "resistance."

The Best Defense of Hamas Prisons in History

The Sydney Morning Herald has an interesting article about a five-star prison in Gaza where the prisoners are accused of the most heinous crimes (murderers, rapists, and people trying to save Jewish lives.) But they have relative freedom to watch TV, cook meals, and even go on weekend leave.

The best part of the story is when the director is asked about torture in the prison:

"We do not practice any torture here," he says. "That takes place at the interrogation centre, before people are convicted."

The article goes on to describe those interrogation centers:

One inmate with experience of Hamas's interrogation techniques is Atta Najar, a 40-year-old father of four.

''When they questioned me I had my toenails pulled out with pliers and [they] … hung me up overnight by my hands,'' Najar tells the Herald, with prison director's approval.

Charged with the almost unpardonable crime of spying for Israel, Najar spent six months in an interrogation centre before he was transferred to Suleiman's prison when it opened nearly four months ago.

Gaza: if you survive the arrest and trial, your prison stay will be wonderful!

That is, until you visit the gallows in the basement.

Feminist PA public service ad devalues women

From Palestinian Media Watch:

Transcript:

Wife (in pain): "Ahmad, Ahmad! Come, take me to the hospital, I'm about to have the baby. Ahmad!"
Husband watching TV: "Yes."
Wife: "Ahmad, I can't, I feel like I'm really about to give birth."
Husband (walks in to wife): "Hold on until the morning. How can I take you now, in the middle of the night?"
Wife (grimacing): "Take me now!"
Husband: "Allah will help you. Hold on a bit more. What are we hurrying for, for a fifth girl?"
The wife collapses and falls over on bed.
In the hospital:
Husband: "Doctor, what's happening?"
Doctor: "Allah willing, it'll be fine. Your delay in getting to the hospital affected the health of the mother and baby. Thanks to Allah, we were able to save the mother, but we weren't able to save the baby. May Allah compensate you with another child."
Husband: "Bless you, doctor. It's not so bad, she has four more sisters."
Doctor: "She has four sisters? But the baby was a boy!"
Husband (with shocked expression): "A boy?"
Doctor: "Yes, a boy."
Husband: "What are you saying, doctor? Are you really saying it was a boy?"
The husband collapses on the floor, holding his head in sorrow.

At the end the following text appears:
"The Prophet said: Whoever has three daughters and he remains patient with them, provides for them and clothes them they shall be a shield for him from the Hellfire." [Hadith 3669]

Palestinian TV is highlighting the problem of devaluing girls and women in Palestinian society by broadcasting a daily public service ad since the end of October that negatively portrays a man who is not concerned with the pain his wife is suffering in labor, or with the birth of his new daughter.

The ad is produced by a Palestinian NGO -- The Palestinian Association for Family Planning and Protection -- and funded by MDG Achievement Fund, a UN program funded by a grant from the Spanish government.

The stated aim of MDG Achievement Fund's "Gender Equality" program is to "promote Palestinian women's social, economic and political empowerment. It will aim to reduce all forms of gender-based violence by enhancing and increasing women's political voice; increasing their opportunities to obtain decent and productive work and improving their access to protection and justice."

Sadly, the video in the ad does not give a clear message regarding women's value. The lesson the man learns is that he should have taken his wife to the hospital when she went into labor - not because of her value and right to medical care and the daughter's right to life - but because the baby may turn out to be a boy.

The loneliness of an Israeli UN representative

The UN Fourth Committee met on November 8th to discuss, naturally, Israeli "crimes." Just as they did on November 1st, 2nd and 5th.

Here is a list of the countries whose representatives spoke: Egypt, Qatar, Tunisia, Malaysia, Morocco, Sudan, Bangladesh, Bahrain, Iran, Jordan, Libya, UAE, Algeria, Lebanon, Yemen, Nigeria, Tanzania, the PA - and Israel.

You have to admire any Israeli diplomat who can stand up to this uniform cast of hypocrites, day in and day out, whose own real human rights violations dwarf the worst lies that Israel has ever been accused of.

In this case, it was Amir Weissbrod, who is the Minister Counselor at the Permanent Mission of Israel to the UN, who had the task of defending Israel against the dictators and despots.

Here is the UN's synopsis of Amir Weissbrod's statement:

AMIR WEISSBROD (Israel), reaffirming the importance Israel placed on the preservation of human rights, said his country was a vibrant and open democracy that enjoyed an independent and highly professional judiciary, active civil society, and free press. Despite constant threats from terrorists, who sought to deny Israel’s citizens their most fundamental rights, Israel upheld and pursued human rights as a sacrosanct ideal that was at the core of the values on which his State was built. It was unfortunate that the report of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories did not seek to advance the values of human rights, but rather a cynical political agenda with the goal of vilifying Israel and the right of its citizens to live in peace and security and denying them the very right it purported to cherish for others.

He said that the report offered another one-sided narrative, submitting a wide-ranging and harsh criticism of Israel, while failing to mention the simple fact that more than 8,800 rockets had been launched from the Gaza Strip against Israeli towns and villages since 2001. The report also completely ignored the current military build-up by the Hamas terrorist organization, which cynically placed its military installations near and inside civilian buildings, including in close proximity to United Nations facilities, endangering both civilians and international organizations in the region. The report also did not mention that, for more than four years, Hamas had held the kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit, depriving him of his basic human rights, including any visit from the Red Cross.

Explanations that such discussion about Hamas or human rights violations committed by other Palestinian groups did not fall within the mandate of the report were convenient and excluded the Committee from its basic obligation to pursue impartial and objective fact-finding, he said. The Special Committee in its work predetermined its conclusion and findings. Israel refused — and would continue to refuse — to cooperate with a body that prejudged its culpability.

He went on to say that there had been many positive developments in the West Bank and in Gaza over the past year, as had been acknowledged by the diplomatic Quartet and other relevant bodies that sought to promote peace, instead of the predictable narrative of the Special Committee. Israel was engaged with several United Nations agencies, international organizations, and partner countries, to move forward and substantially improve the West Bank economy, including the removal of hundreds of roadblocks and checkpoints. Those significant steps should not be taken lightly.

It was absurd, he said, to hear condemnation and criticism of Israel’s judiciary system and human rights record from several countries in the region and beyond — countries where the majority of human rights activists were in prison, where there was no freedom of press, and where there was no independent judiciary. For those countries to lecture Israel about the way to conduct itself in regards to human rights was cynical and reflected the nature of the Special Committee’s work. He asked which of those countries had ever conducted, even once, a true investigation into its State’s human rights practices as Israel did. He called on Israel’s Arab neighbours to join in taking concrete steps to pursue peace instead of engaging in futile rhetoric. He hoped that the Palestinians would join Israel in direct negotiations without delay.

Paris art museum promoting Israel-bashing propaganda

The Philosemitism blog reports on an "art exhibition" at the Museum of Modern Art, Paris, showing an "award winning" collection of photos from the Gaza Strip.

It is bad enough that the winner photos are devoid of balance. But what makes this entire enterprise a sham is that the award itself was set up for the purpose of propaganda.

It is called the "Carmignac Gestion Photojournalism Prize." It was set up in 2009 by the head of the Carmignac fund, Edouard Carmignac. He chose the topic of the very first award given to be "The Gaza Strip."

Why? Because of the Israelis acting like Nazis, a theme that resonates so deeply with him! In his words,

Seen from Europe, it is not because the frightening reality of the Nazi concentration camps began on the soil of our continent, that we can now accept the reality of what has become in 60 years, with the radicalization of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a genuine Palestinian internment camp at the gates of Israel.

It is unacceptable for the victims of one of the most terrible tragedies of the century to remain virtually forgotten and abandoned by all.

Can you believe it? Gaza is "virtually forgotten and abandoned by all!"

So it must have been very hard for him to find applicants for this award. There must have been a paucity of photographers allowed in Gaza to document Israeli inhumanity and Nazi-like behavior, because, after all, it is a prison camp.

Luckily, they managed to scrape up 76 entries for this award. Must have been tough.

The winner of the award was Kai Wiedenhöfer, who is well known for the bias in his photos and photo descriptions from Gaza and the West Bank. For example, he photographed this scene in Qalqilya showing a fence over drainage pipes, as he laments how the town turned into a "ghetto":

But the reason for that fence is because Palestinian Arab terrorists crawled through that same pipe in order to infiltrate Israel and killed a 7-year old girl.

Wiedenhöfer's award-winning Gaza photographs concentrate on pictures of amputees staring into the camera. The poster of the exhibition features this photo:

Now, do Gazans use spent rockets as decorations in their homes? Or did the "photojournalist" decide that it would make a more aesthetically pleasing picture to ironically balance the flowers with a "Palestinians love life, Israelis love death" theme? How much reflects reality and how much hate?

It is truly insane that when any rich person can create an award to bash Israel, prominent judges (including a Time magazine reporter) will happily sign on, and a prestigious museum willingly uses its space as a vehicle for propaganda.

Read more at Philosemitism.

UPDATE: Elder of Lobby found this video of the "art": http://videos.arte.tv/en/videos/photographie_gaza_sous_l_oeil_de_kai_wiedenhoefer-3521142.html

Ma'an's bias, and my response

Ma'an writes:

Confrontations erupted in a town in East Jerusalem which has been under siege for three days and is facing a campaign of repeated Israeli police raids.

A 50-strong Israeli force raided the northern entrance of the village and another entered through the south, onlookers said.

Luba As-Samry, the spokeswoman of the Israeli police, said an Israeli police officer was lightly injured during confrontations on the northern entrance of the village. She added that four young men were detained for throwing stones at the police.

As-Samry said the police would continue the campaign to impose “security and order” in Al-Isawiya.

The villagers expressed their displeasure with the campaign and the siege imposed on the village saying that the actions of the Israeli police amount to collective retaliation and harassment that targets mass protests.

Three days of car safety checks in the neighborhood, which residents called "provocative," have increased tensions in the area as Israeli municipal officials stopped cars at road blocks, performing maintenance checks and writing tickets for vehicles deemed unfit for the road, creating long delays.

Residents questioned the use of the spot checks, citing mandatory maintenance tests every year for licenses to drive in Israel. Despite having passed the tests, locals said, most cars were said to have failed the spot check and were mandated to have service performed on them.

Commenters were outraged at the "petty" Israeli harassment of innocent Jerusalem Arabs.

I wrote:

Ma'an conveniently forgets to mention that residents of that neighborhood almost lynched four Israelis and an Australian student who accidentally entered the neighborhood last week, as they tried to trap them and shattered their car windshield with large rocks. And that an Israeli ambulance was likewise stoned nearby when trying to save a Palestinian Arab's life a day later.

But since when does Ma'an practice responsible journalism?

In a more general sense, it is important for people to notice these stories being written in English and to respond with the facts as quickly as possible, so casual readers of the site can know that there is another side to the story that the media is ignoring.

I don't know if Ma'an will publish my response but they haven't been too bad in that respect.

WWN: "The kindest cut"

From the Weekly World News, "The World's Only Reliable News," February 5, 2007, in an article that predicts the future (click to enlarge):

Red Cross founder was a Zionist (WSJ)

From Tomas Sandell in the Wall Street Journal:

Last week marked the 100th anniversary of the death of Henri Dunant—the Red Cross founder who brought humanitarian laws to the battlefield. It is doubtful, though, whether the world's first Nobel Peace prize recipient would today still feel at home in his organization, or in similar human-rights bodies for that matter.

It's not just Dunant's Christian faith, which played an instrumental part in his humanitarian work, that would be at odds with today's post-Christian Red Cross officials. In the same small reformed church that commemorated his death last week, Dunant first learned about social responsibility as well as spiritual discipline.

But what would make Dunant really suspect in the eyes of modern human-rights activists is the fact that he was a Zionist. Already in 1867, almost 30 years before Theodor Herzl published "Der Judenstaat," his vision of a Jewish state, Dunant backed Jewish immigration to their ancestral homeland in Palestine. Dunant was one of only a few gentiles to attend the first Zionist congress in Basel in 1897. As was the case with other past Christian social reformers, like William Wilberforce 100 years before him and Martin Luther King 100 years after him, Dunant's support for the revival of the Jewish state went hand in hand with his work for other social causes.

What a paradox that Dunant's Red Cross would later develop cozy relationships with Israel's enemies. The Red Cross has hosted Hamas activists at their base in Jerusalem instead of clearly distancing itself from their murderous policies. Not until 2006 did Israel's Magen David Adom (Red Star of David) enjoy full membership, and that was only after the U.S. threatened to pull out of the world organization. Even now, Israeli rescue teams abroad would still need the host country's permission to wear the Red Star of David.

I think the author goes a little too far as he goes on the compare the Red Cross with the anti-Israel activities of the UN and HRW - it has problems but is not in the same league.

(To read the entire article you need to Google something like "Tomas Sandell Obsessed Red Cross" and then click on the WSJ link; it cannot be read in full outside of Google links.)

Traffic at the blog has been very high, as I have been getting lots of links to the Gabriel Latner speech at Cambridge as well as to the story about "The Virginity Capsule."

The comment widget on the sidebar seems broken, and I cannot get it fixed the way that my Echo commenting system was set up giving them more money. I'll wait and see if it gets fixed. (UPDATE: Seems to be working again.)

I added some ads on the bottom of the sidebars and the page, where they should not bother any reader but where they seem to still pay a small amount. Not sure if they are affecting page load times, though.

Anyway...here's an open thread.

Rachel's Tomb was never a mosque (Nadav Shragai)

JCPA published a nice paper by Nadav Shragai in reaction to the UNESCO debacle where that august organization declared Rachel's Tomb to be a "historic mosque."

For hundreds of years, the shape of Rachel's Tomb resembled the grave of a vali (a Muslim saint). The building received its distinctive shape in 1622 when the Turkish governor of Jerusalem, Mohammad Pasha, permitted the Jews to wall off the four pillars that supported the dome and for the first time Rachel's Tomb became a closed building.9 This was allowed by the Turkish governor to prevent Arab shepherds from grazing their flocks at the site.10 Yet according to one report, an English traveler claims this was done "to make access to it more difficult for the Jews."11

For centuries, Rachel's Tomb was considered only a Jewish holy place. The sixteenth-century Arab historian Mujir al-Din regarded Rachel's Tomb as a Jewish holy place.12 Beginning in 1841, the keys to the place were deposited exclusively with Jewish caretakers who managed the site until it fell into Jordanian hands in 1948.13 In contravention of the armistice agreement, Jordan prevented Jews from accessing the site during all the years of its rule (1948-1967).14 Following the Six-Day War, Jews returned to Rachel's Tomb, with millions of Jews from around the world having visited the site. According to Jewish tradition, Rachel died on the 11th day of the Hebrew month of Heshvan (October 19); in 2010, some 100,000 Jews visited Rachel's Tomb on that day.15

For many centuries, Jews were compelled to pay protection money and ransom to the Arabs who lived in the area so they wouldn't harm Rachel's Tomb and the Jews who visited it. In 1796, Rabbi Moshe Yerushalmi, an Ashkenazi Jew from central Europe who immigrated to Israel, related that a non-Jew sits at Rachel's Tomb and collects money from Jews seeking to visit the site.16 Other sources attest to Jews who paid taxes, levies, and presented gifts to the Arab residents of the region.

Dr. Ludwig August Frankl of Vienna, a poet and author, related that the Sephardi community in Jerusalem was compelled to pay 5,000 piastres to an Arab from Bethlehem at the start of the nineteenth century for the right to visit Rachel's Tomb.17 Other testimonies relate that in order to prevent damage to Rachel's Tomb, payment was transferred to Bedouin members of the Taamra tribe who lived in the region, who had also begun to bury their dead near the tomb during that era.18 There is a Muslim cemetery on three sides of the compound that mainly belongs to the Taamra tribe and the entire attitude of the Muslims to Rachel's Tomb derives to a large extent from this tribe, which began burying its dead at the site during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries due to its proximity to Rachel's Tomb. The origins of the practice, as the Land of Israel researcher Eli Schiller writes, is the popular Muslim belief that "the closer that the deceased is buried to the tomb of a sainted personality, the greater will be his rewards in the world to come."19

Taxes were also collected from the Sephardi Jewish community in Jerusalem to pay the authorities for various "rights," such as passage to the Western Wall, passage of funerals to the Mount of Olives, and for the protection of gravestones there, as well as payment to the Arabs of Bethlehem for safeguarding Rachel's Tomb.20

One of the scribes who managed the accounts of the Sephardi Kolel during the eighteenth century reported on the protection money that the Jewish community at that time had to transfer to the "non-Jews and lords of the lands who are called toeffendis...(15,000) Turkish grush...and these are the people who patrol the ways of Jaffa Road, Kiryat Yearim, the people of the Rama, the site of Samuel the Prophet, the people of Nablus Road, the people of the Efrat Road, the tomb of our matriarch Rachel...so they would not come to grave-robbing, heaven forbid. And sometimes they complain to us that we have fallen behind on their routine payments and they come scrabbling on the gravestones in the dead of night, and they did their things in stealth because their home is there. Therefore, we are compelled against our will to propitiate them."21

Rabbi David d'Beth Hillel, a resident of Vilna who visited Syria and the Land of Israel in 1824, testified about a Muslim cemetery in the region of Rachel's Tomb. "No person is living there, but there was a cemetery. On the opposite hill there is a village whose residents are Arabs and they are most evil. A stranger who comes to visit Rachel's Tomb is robbed by them."22

In 1856, fifteen years after Montefiore had built another room to Rachel's Tomb, James Finn, the British consul who served in Palestine during the days of Turkish rule, spoke about the payments that the Jews were forced to pay to Muslim extortionists at some holy places including Rachel's Tomb: "300 lira per annum to the effendi whose house is adjacent to the site of crying" (the Western Wall) for the right to pray there and "100 lira a year to the Taamra Arabs for not wrecking Rachel's Tomb near Bethlehem."23

In 1841 Moses Montefiore obtained a license from the Turkish authorities to refurbish Rachel's Tomb and add another room to it, which changed its appearance and improved its formerly neglected status. A door to the domed room was installed and keys were given to two Jewish caretakers, one Sephardi and the other Ashkenazi. Fourteen years previously, an official of the Sephardi Kolelim (religious study centers) in Jerusalem, Avraham Behar Avraham, laid the groundwork for Montefiore's activity at Rachel's Tomb when he obtained recognition from the Turkish authorities for the status and rights of Jews at the site. This was, in practice, the original firman (royal decree)24 issued by the Ottoman authorities in Turkey recognizing Jewish rights at Rachel's Tomb.

The firman was necessary since the Muslims disputed ownership by the Jews of Rachel's Tomb and even tried by brute force to prevent Jewish visits to the site. From time to time Jews were robbed or beaten by Arab residents of the vicinity, and even the protection money that was paid did not always prevail. Avraham Behar Avraham approached the authorities in Istanbul on this matter and in 1830 the Turks issued the firman that gave legal force to Rachel's Tomb being recognized as a Jewish holy site.25 Additionally, the governor of Damascus sent a written order to the Mufti of Jerusalem to fulfill the Sultan's order.

This is our order to you: (the following matter) was submitted to us by the subject of our order, the sage representative of honored Jerusalem's Jewry and his translator that the tomb of esteemed Rachel, the mother of our Lord Joseph...they (the Jews) are accustomed to visit it from ancient days; and no one is permitted to prevent them or oppose them (from doing) this....It turned out that at this holy site, they have been visiting since ancient times, without any person preventing them or trespassing on their property and they (have it) as was their custom. In accordance with the respected judgment, I order that our commandment be issued to you so you will treat them accordingly without addition or without subtraction, without hindrance and without opposition to them by anyone in any way whatsoever - written August 10, 1830.26

An additional firman from April 1831, eight months later, determined inter alia:27

To inform and demonstrate to all interested parties and the appointed officials, the right of the Jews who are residents of holy Jerusalem to visit the grave of Rachel, the mother of the Prophet Joseph, peace be upon him, without hindrance....The deputy translator and other public functionaries, members of the Jewish community of Jerusalem, approached me with many requests regarding the tomb of Rachel, may peace be upon her, the mother of the Prophet Joseph, peace be upon him, and it is known that this grave is located outside the city of Jerusalem opposite the town of Bethlehem, on the highway...and that since ancient times the Jews have tended to visit this holy grave without anybody preventing them from doing so, as an inviolable law. And now people have emerged who have begun to hinder them, although as aforesaid and as proven the Jews have a right to visit the grave according to the Sultan's order. Hence I approach his honor the governor, may he be exalted, reminding him of the contents of the existing order. I also order him to attempt to remove the obstacles from the Jews, residents of Holy Jerusalem and others, so they can visit the aforementioned holy grave unhindered. Rendered in Istanbul at the end of the month of Shawwal in the year 1246 to the Hejira. Signed: The Sublime Porte.

Ironically, Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan, whose government has been described as "neo-Ottoman" in outlook, told the Saudi paper al-Watan (March 7, 2010) that the Cave of the Patriarchs and Rachel's Tomb "were not and never will be Jewish sites, but Islamic sites

There's lots more, read the whole thing.

From reading accounts written by Christian pilgrims visiting the site, I thought that there was a mosque there. For example, from 1796:

A league further on we entered the plain of Rama, where y»u meet with Rachel's tomb. It is a square edifice, surmounted with a small dome: it enjoys the privileges of a mosque, for the Turks, as well as the Arabs, honor the families of the patriarchs.

Also:

About half-way between Jerusalem and Bethlehem is Rachel's tomb, one of the few places regarding the identity of which all antiquarians seem disposed to agree. A small Turkish mosque covers the cave, and here the wife of Israel has slept for nearly four thousand years.

But from reading these and other accounts, I get the impression that the pilgrims assumed that a Turkish-style building on the tomb would be a mosque. Even so, Muslims did pray there.

Wikipedia adds:

In 1841 Montefiore purchased the site and obtained for the Jews the key of the tomb. To conciliate Muslem susceptibility, he added a square vestibule with a mihrab to be used as a place of prayer for Muslims

The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, 1915, says:

The present tomb, which, apparently, is not older than the 15th century, is built in the style of the small-domed buildings raised by Moslems in honor of their saints. It is a rough structure of four square walls, each about 23 ft. long and 20 ft. high; the dome rising 10 ft. higher is used by Mohammedans for prayer, while on Fridays the Jews make supplication before the empty tomb within.

So it appears that while Muslims prayed there on occasion, it was not a mosque. If it was it is doubtful that they would have allowed Jews to have the privileges they had on the site.

I emailed Nadav Shragai to clarify.

German FM Westerwelle - and the Crazy Water Park

From JPost:

Germany's foreign minister said during a rare visit to Hamas-ruled Gaza that the Israeli-Egyptian blockade of 1.5 million Palestinians living there is unacceptable and must end.

Guido Westerwelle also said after Monday's tour of a UN school and a German-funded sewage treatment plant that the border closure is strengthening extremists at the expense of moderates.

Let's hold that thought while we read this article from Der Speigel:

All is quiet on this autumn morning at the Crazy Water Park, a couple of kilometers south of Gaza City. There are no children splashing around in the shallow kiddie pools, no men cheering as they shoot off the slides into the deep end of the pool. Wives and mothers are also missing from their usual spots under the umbrellas, where they normally sit, fully dressed, chatting and watching their children and husbands play in the water.

The Gaza Strip's only water park opened last spring but -- thanks to around 30 members of Hamas -- it was shut down in late September. One night at 3 a.m., these men appeared out of nowhere, tied up the park's 10 security guards and got to work with gas canisters and lighters.
The ensuing fire consumed the café and the building housing pool-related equipment. The stand where pool-goers could rent water pipes was a particular target. After a few incidents of modern-minded women openly smoking water pipes on the park's grounds, Hamas had issued the Crazy Water Park two warnings. When it happened a third time, an angered official from Hamas, the radical Islamist organization which controls the Gaza Strip, ordered more drastic measures to be taken. Not long later, the flames engulfing the water park's buildings could be seen from as far away as Gaza City.

The Crazy Water Park was expensive, exclusive and only meant for the elite -- which makes it all the more surprising that Hamas has now decided to target it as part of its modesty campaign. Until now, the Islamists had tended to suffer the harmless escapades of the upper class in silence.

Now, Araj says, those days are over. "The riding club next door had to close for three days," he explains, "because men and women sat together." Gaza Sky, a seafood restaurant right on the beach, and the aptly named Beach Hotel were also forced to close their doors for three days, he adds, for allowing female patrons to smoke water pipes.

He says that targeting of his water park comes due to the increased influence hard-liners have been able to gain for themselves within the government. "Unfortunately, it's the same as in any revolution," Araj says. "The extremists are pushing their way into leadership positions."

"Incidents like the fire at the water park have a big effect," says one Palestinian observer who asked not to have his name published. "They keep people anxious and scared, and they silence any criticism of Hamas."

As he sees it, the fact that the hard-liners are now targeting the previously untouchable upper class only strengthens its message of intimidation.

Now, let's return to Westerwelle's theory: "the border closure is strengthening extremists at the expense of moderates."

Who, exactly, are the moderates of Gaza, and how could they possibly gain strength?

Right now, Hamas is so comfortable with its iron grip on Gaza that there is literally no competition. Any group that shows the slightest political threat to Hamas, from both the left and the right, gets violently put down. Even today, pro-Fatah politicians are still getting arrested and threatened in Gaza.

Westerwelle is a fool. He still subscribes to the idea that treating fanatic Islamists nicely will somehow make them overflow with the milk of human kindness and cause them to offer all sorts of concessions.

If you want to argue that ordinary Gazans are being hurt by the closure, fine. If you want to argue that Gaza businessmen should not be punished because of the actions of their leaders, that is defensible. But to say that opening up more trade between Gaza and the world will somehow strengthen moderates in Gaza is the height of stupidity.

Westerwelle, and those clueless Westerners who subscribe to the same ideas, need to answer a simple question: have Gaza moderates been strengthened since Israel loosened the closure and since Egypt opened the Rafah border over the summer?

If the answer is "no" - and it clearly is - then maybe it is time to revisit this little bit of conventional wisdom.

(h/t Silke)

How did two Gazans get injured this morning?

Ma'an (Arabic) says that several men were gathering debris near the Sufa crossing in southern Gaza, and they came across some old Israeli ordnance which exploded, causing two of them to be injured.

But Felesteen, a Hamas newspaper in Gaza, says

Eyewitnesses reported that members of the resistance fired a mortar towards a number of Israeli military vehicles at the Sufa crossing east of the town of Rafah, but it fell in near a group of workers collecting [concrete] aggregate resulting in their injury.

It then quotes a Hamas medical official - who obviously wasn't there - claiming that it was an Israeli tank shell, not "resistance" fire, that injured the men.

Democracy, Jordanian style

From AP:

Jordanians lined up to cast ballots for a new parliament Tuesday in a vote that was dominated by anger at Israel over stalled peace talks and widespread frustration over an economic crisis in the U.S.-allied kingdom.

A boycott by the largest opposition group, the fundamentalist Islamic Action Front, made it likely that pro-government politicians and tribesmen with strong ties to the king - who has the final say on all matters - would sweep the vote.

That means that any criticism from the new parliament over King Abdullah's pro-Western policies or pressure from lawmakers for a tougher stance with Israel would likely only be cosmetic.

There is already one death:

Jordan's police spokesman says a shootout between supporters of two rival candidates contesting the country's parliamentary election has killed a 25-year-old man.

The spokesman says six others were wounded before police arrived at the scene in Imrea, a small town on the edge of the southwestern city of Kerak.

Ammon News mentions a number of incidents during the elections. In the place that the person was killed, there were shots fired in the air, fights between supporters of rival candidates, and cars smashed. Shots were fired in Mazar, as well as Madaba. Some people tried to vote multiple times. There was another skirmish with gunshots in Kufranja as one group tried to prevent another from voting. In Amman, a group attacked a polling station at a school and a brawl erupted outside another school. Tear gas was shot to disperse rioters. More riots in Qadisiyah as voters were preented from casting ballots by their opponents; rioters stoned police. A candidate's motorcade was attacked with sticks and rocks, and he suffered head injuries. There are also complaints that people who are now on Hajj could not vote as there are no absentee ballots.

And, in general, Jordanian officials are calling the polling "peaceful."

Video describes Silwan incident in detail

I don't know who made this video, but it is the best treatment I've seen on the stoning incident in Silwan a month ago.

Canadian PM Stephen Harper gets it

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper speaks simple truths. It is a sad commentary that one cannot hear words like these more often.

YNet reports:

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Monday delivered a pro-Israel speech at a parliamentary conference which dealt with ways to fight anti-Semitism. Harper implied that his country did not secure a seat at the United Nations Security Council due to its failure to cooperate with an anti-Israel policy.

The Canadian prime minister stressed that while there is room for fair criticism against the Israeli government, Canada is obligated to come to the Jewish state's defense when it is attacked by others.

"And like any free country Israel subjects itself to such criticism, healthy, necessary, democratic debate," he said. "But when Israel, the only country in the world whose very existence is under attack, is consistently and conspicuously singled out for condemnation, I believe we are morally obligated to take a stand."

Harper said Canada must oppose demonization, double standards and de-legitimization.

"Not just because it is the right thing to do, but because history shows us, and the ideology of the anti-Israel mob tell us all too well, that those who threaten the existence of the Jewish people are in the longer term a threat to all of us," he said.

"Whether it is at the United Nations or any other international forum, the easiest thing to do is simply to just get along and go along with this anti-Israel rhetoric, to pretend it is just about being even-handed, and to excuse oneself with the label of honest broker," Harper added.

The Canadian prime minister suggested that this was the reason his country lost the recent vote for a temporary Security Council seat, saying "I have the bruises to show for it."

Harper stated in his speech that "as long as I am prime minister… Canada will take that stand, whatever the cost."

In his speech, the Canadian prime minister warned that anti-Semitism was on the rise worldwide, including in universities in his own country.

He said the "evolving phenomenon" of anti-Semitism targets Jews by portraying Israel as "the source of injustice and conflict in the world, and uses perversely the language of human rights to do so."

"We must be relentless in exposing this new anti-Semitism for what it is," Harper concluded.

A large excerpt from his speech can be read here.

And here are his pro-Israel comments:

(h/t Israel Matzav)

Amnesty blocks Zionist from anti-Israel kangaroo court meeting

From TheJC's Jonathan Hoffman:

Last night was the introductory meeting for the Hate Israel Kangaroo Court that is laughingly called the "Russell Tribunal". It took place at Amnesty International, London. Speakers included Dr Ghada Karmi; Ken Loach; Paul Troop; Ewa Jasiewicz; and Frank Barat.

The "Russell Tribunal" is composed of known Israel haters and has effectively found Israel guilty before it has even started. No witness has been summoned to defend Israel.

How very telling that on turning up, I was barred from entry. The welcoming party included Krystian Benedict (Amnesty's Campaigns Director) and a security guard. When I protested that I was being censored, Benedict summoned four policemen in from outside.

Rather than try to deal with my on-point objections to the speakers’ comments, I was censored. Bertrand Russell would surely be turning in his grave.

Fortunately Richard Millett was admitted and will blog the Israel lynchmob event.

Totalitarian societies begin with curbing free speech. It seems that Amnesty's espousal of 'human rights' does not extend to the right of Jews to protest at antisemitism during Amnesty meetings.

Some morning quickies

NYT's Lede blog talks about the controversy over Alfred Grosser, anti-Israel Holocaust survivor, speaking at a Kristallnacht commemoration - where he plans to condemn Israel. (CORRECTION: He is German born but not a Holocaust survivor.)

If you want to see the first episode of Israel's Dancing With the Stars, with Pamela Anderson, you can easily waste 72 minutes of your life here. I skipped around until I heard her review someone's dancing, and she only spoke about the contestants' great hair. (Ynet slammed the program.) (h/t Joel)

The al-Isawiyya neighborhood in Jerusalem is quickly turning into a cesspool, where any non-Arab who dares enter gets stoned. We mentioned the Israelis who were lured there and almost lynched, and later an ambulance trying to save an Arab's life was stoned nearby as well. Today some Israeli car inspectors were stoned by hundreds of Arab schoolchildren.

Ha'aretz says that low-level Shin Bet officials met with Hamas and Islamic Jihad political leaders in the West Bank over coffee, and the PA is not amused. (The Islamic Jihad member present denies the story, saying that they only threatened to arrest him but he stood firm and the Shin Bet left with their tails between their legs.)

Israel Matzav goes into detail on who exactly was behind the hecklers who disrupted PM Netanyahu's speech in New Orleans.

Soccer Dad does what he has been doing for many years now - showing yet again that Thomas Friedman is a blowhard.