Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, May 18, 2015

Israel catches Hamas attempting to smuggle diving suits

Hebrew media is reporting that the Shin Bet has managed to catch a shipment of 40 diving suits to Gaza, hidden among a larger shipment of sportswear, earlier this month.

The shipment was discovered at the Nitzana border crossing between Egypt and Israel, which is used only for commercial goods.

Hamas terrorists used diving suits during Operation Protective Edge in attempts to attack Israel from sea.

Since Egypt has cracked down on smuggling tunnels, Hamas has tried harder to smuggle in goods through the normal daily imports of hundreds of truckloads of goods to Gaza from Israel.

Kikar Hashabbat lists a number of these attempts that were caught over the past four months, most of which have never been reported in English-language media as far as I know:

1200 tubes of polyurethane, used for the production of rocket propellants
Rocket fuel hardener, also for propellants, hidden in paint cans
200 kg of crude sulfur rods used in weapons manufacture, hidden in a food shipment
18 tons of metallurgical coke used in furnaces to forge metal

Somehow, I missed this in the Twitter feeds of all those people who are saying that Israel should "end the blockade" to Gaza. Because smuggling in materials to kill Jews fit right in with their "human rights" agendas.

CNN becomes a mouthpiece for Palestinian propaganda

From CNN:

The official Palestianian news agency is reporting that Israeli settlers have chopped down and seized about 800 Palestinian-owned olive trees near the town of Shuyukh, east of Hebron.

The report, by WAFA, the Palestine News & Information Agency, cited "a local source," whom it did not identify. Israel has yet to comment on the report.

The source, described by WAFA as "a local activist," told the agency that residents of the Israeli settlements of Bani Kadim and Asfar broke into an olive orchard near the town and chopped down the trees, which belonged to people who lived in the area.

Really? CNN has sunk so low as to parrot Wafa's lies without doing a modicum of fact checking?

OK, how can we tell that this is garbage? By looking at the wording in Wafa. It says "Israeli settlers Sunday chopped down and seized about 800 olive trees belonging to Palestinians near the town of Shuyukh, east of Hebron, according to a local source."

What does "chopped down and seized" mean? 400 chopped down and 400 seized? Or did they chop down 800 olive trees and then put them onto a convoy of trucks to cart them away?

It takes a long time to chop down a mature olive tree. New saplings, which are often planted by Palestinians in order to steal public land, are relatively easy to uproot, but this says "chopped down and seized."

No photos. No videos. No named sources. No corroboration. WAFA reports a story that matches none of the normal standards of journalism- and CNN parrots it under the guise of only reporting what anti-Israel Arab media is saying.

But it doesn't stop there.

Also Sunday, more than 175 right-wing Jewish extremists entered the Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem, escorted by Israel police and security personnel, according to sources inside the mosque. The sources cannot be named for security reasons.

175 is a much larger crowd than the usual 30 or so, and one would think that other media would have photos or video of such an event.

But there is no such video on the Waqf website, or at Hona Al Quds, or QPress YouTube page, which jealously show any video they can find of Jews walking peacefully on their holiest site, usually to aggressive screams by the Muslims.

The best video I could find from Sunday was a couple of dozen Jews who may or may not have exited from the Temple Mount, singing.

But there is one video that was taken from the Temple Mount today. It shows hundreds of Arabs screaming anti-Israel slogans!

Wow, I found more evidence for Arab hate against Jews in two minutes of searching than CNNs' scores of reporters found of Jewish hate for Arabs.

Traveling, reading open thread

I'm going on a business trip to Florida, so blogging may be a little sporadic this week.

I will say that I am reading Tuvia Tenenbom's Catch the Jew, and so far it is fantastic. While no one of any religion or origin in Israel is spared from his acerbic wit, he does an amazing job hilariously documenting how EU governments and NGOs are paying millions of euros to Palestinian Arab projects whose only purpose is to instill hate of Jews. (Tenenbom is the one who documented that a B'tselem researcher denied the Holocaust to him.)

Tenenbom, who grew up haredi and since rejected religion, is skilled at gaining the trust of his subjects, by pretending to be a German or Arab or Austrian. Once Arabs and European do-gooders and self-hating Jews in "Palestine" trust him, they reveal the ugliness within them, all with smiles.

A photo of the real Jerusalem

Matti Friedman has an excellent essay at Tablet about Jerusalem, with eye-catching photos.

This photo detail, of a Jewish saleswoman helping a Muslim woman apply eye makeup, says more about the real city of Jerusalem than thousands of Pulitzer-chasing wire-service photos.

Full photo here, click to enlarge:

05/17 Links: Breaking the Silence about EU-NGO War on Israel; Jerusalem: Media Myth of Two Cities

From Ian:

Breaking the Silence about EU-backed NGO War on Israel

The truth about Europe is that while anti-Semitism went underground there for a period of time, it never really disappeared, and it is now resurfacing. The 2012 vote at the UN was just one sign. It is most noticeably visible in the rise in violence against Jews on the streets of European cities, but street violence is not the only manifestation of the resurgence of Europe’s anti-Semitism. Anti-Semitism is re-asserting itself in the governments of the EU’s individual member states, as well as in the European Parliament itself.
NGO War Goal – Tie the IDF’s Hands
One of the less visible ways that European anti-Semitism is manifesting is in the EU giving direct financial support to Non-Governmental Organizations (“NGO’s”) operating inside of Israel whose sole actual role, despite their protestations to the contrary, seems to be defaming Israel in the international media.
Breaking the Silence (BTS), for example, has been featured prominently in the news this month, for releasing a collection of anonymous, unsworn, uncorroborated “testimonies” in an attempt to malign Israel to the international press over its conduct during Operation Protective Edge.
In 2013-14, according to the group NGO Monitor, BTS received funding directly from the EU itself, as well as directly from the government of Norway, and indirectly, through a group called Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law Secretariat, from the governments of Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, and the Netherlands.
BTS’s unstated but apparent actual goal is not to uncover IDF misconduct; if that were the goal, BTS would provide the details of events so that the IDF could investigate and, if warranted, prosecute misconduct. Instead, BTS aims to shackle the IDF so that its ability to defend Israel is markedly decreased.

Jpost Editorial: Dutch shame

Presumably there is no law in any Western democracy that prohibits any national from living in a given locale on the grounds of citizenship, ethnicity or religion. Presumably, for example, Dutch citizens are allowed by Dutch law to reside in Fairbanks, Famagusta or the Falklands (even though the latter two are occupied territories).
Dutch expats are not forbidden to move nor do they expect to be penalized (especially not by their own government) because of where they choose to put down stakes. The very notion that Dutch citizens would be told that they cannot dwell somewhere because of who they are – i.e., to which parents they happened to have been born – would be seen as inherently and intolerably discriminatory.
But there appear to be exceptions to the liberal rule.
These apply exclusively to Israel and to Jews – even to Holocaust survivors from the Netherlands.

Compassionate treatment of Immigrants by Israel in contrast to the Muslim world

Most Muslim countries jail immigrants who come illegally and then deport them back to their country of origin without thinking for a second about the persecution they may face back at home. Most Muslim countries have a similar track record. Jordan did take Syrian refugees in but strictly keeps them confined to camps and they are treated very harshly even when they share the same language, culture and religion.
Now lets compare the same situation to Israel which is often painted as war criminal and what not. Israel has airlifted Jews from all over the world , transported them via air lift , ships every means possible, without any charge to the immigrants. Israel has taken in refugees and Immigrant Jews from Yemen,Sudan, Eritrea, Somalia, Morocco and multiple other locations. Israel took in refugees from different cultural back grounds and race without any discrimination. Israel laws stipulates that any Jew from anywhere in the world can claim citizenship of Israel. And keep in mind that Israel is not a very large country. It is a fairly small country with not much natural resources and is forced to spend a large amount of its budget on defense due to security threats. But even then Israel has a huge heart and welcomes every one in. Israel has even taken in non Jews many times. As per Israeli law if a person who faces persecution in their country arrives in Israel (even illegally) he/she cannot be deported back to save their life. Many Muslim and christian refugees also live in Israel and many even have citizenship now.
I have a simple question now.
Who is humane among them ? Israel or the Muslim countries
Muslim countries must stop accusing Israel of Crimes against humanity when they themselves are committing it right now by forcing rohingya migrants back into the sea to die.
Long Live Israel

So, there we were in the middle-of-nowhere Tennessee, right on the border of Alabama, just about a week ago. It was nothing but trees and lakes and dilapidated barns and bar-b-que joints. I was there because my wife has a Deep South wing of the family that we were visiting on vacation. My only thought was to get some of that good southern cooking and hopefully a few bass. This was the very last place on the planet that I would expect to run into a Palestinian-Arab, but I did.

My wife's cousin and her husband were holding a graduation party for two of their kids, one of whom was taking an associates degree and the other, a bachelors. I was sitting at the kitchen table, drinking a beer, and chatting amiably with my wife's cousin's husband (an intellectually inclined Brit and all-around nice fellah) and a number of their friends, when an elderly gentleman sat down with his wife. He was a soft-spoken man, clearly of Middle Eastern descent, and a former professor of economics by the name of Anise. After awhile, once my curiosity got the better of me, I said something along the lines of, "So, Anise, I get the feeling that you're not a local. Where are you from?" His response to my ear sounded like "Pakistan" so I said something like, "Oh, Pakistan." And then he said, "No. No. Palestine."

I blinked and then looked around the room at all these kids in their twenties and all the other people laughing and chatting in what was a very genial scene. The people around the table continued talking about this and that, but also politics. Anise's wife, an anglo-American, started talking about how the United States government was controlled by outside forces. I looked at her. This topic went around the table a bit and then, finally, I just had to ask the deadly question. "So, what countries are we talking about? I mean, just who is controlling the US government?"

"Israel."

I took a swallow of beer,

My wife, having noted the line of our conversation from a short distance in a different conversation, sat down next to me and put her hand on my leg. Now, I know what my job is when visiting with the wife's family. I have one job and one job only. Be pleasant. That's it. That's all. And usually I am very good at this job and I decided, on the spot, that I would remain good at it. The very last thing in this world that I was going to do was get into a battle to the death with some 83 year old Palestinian-Arab economist and his wife at a graduation party for young relatives of my wife in the middle-of-nowhere Tennessee!

I, therefore, put my fist on the table, my chin on my fist, and looked up and smiled. I listened as Anise spoke, in his quiet manner, about how the US Congress was in the pocket of Israel, primarily, but not only, via AIPAC. After describing al-Nakba, which he had lived through as a sixteen year old boy in Acre - and, needless to say, blaming anything and everything on the Jews there at the time - I earned the clear distrust of his wife merely by uttering the following words: "Well, you do understand that this is contested history, yes?"

She glared at me.

Finally I asked him - innocently, of course - who he would recommend that I read on this topic. He had two responses. The first was for Ilan Pappé's discredited The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine. I am guessing that you may have heard of this gentleman. You may even have read him. I know that I have. Pappé once famously told an interviewer, “Indeed the struggle is about ideology, not about facts. Who knows what facts are? We try to convince as many people as we can that our interpretation of the facts is the correct one, and we do it because of ideological reasons, not because we are truth-seekers.”

I looked at Anise and smiled some more.

However, his next recommendation was for a journal that has flown beneath my radar, but that I am certain any number of you would be familiar with; something called the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. It is important to know the sources of theory and information of those whose political views are in conflict from one's own. One of the main reasons that I am writing this piece is to simply alert the pro-Israel community to the presence of this journal on the other side of the political divide around the Arab-Israel conflict.

Writing in Jewish World Review in September of 2000, Commentary analyst, Jonathan Tobin, tells us that the Washington Report is "the guidebook to the Arabist lobby in the United States" which "specializes in defaming Israel" and is "a must-read for friends of Israel who want a reliable indicator of the thinking of the anti-Israel crowd."

According to Wikipedia, for whatever it may be worth:

In 1992, then AIPAC Deputy Director of Research and Information Michael Lewis charged that "Arabists" have become a major problem for Israel in the United States, distributing copies of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs to an audience as evidence. He also wrote up his critique in AIPAC's Near East Report. The Washington Report printed a rebuttal of Lewis' accusations.[35] In 1997, Michael Lewis accused the Washington Report of promoting conspiracy theories (especially regarding the USS Liberty incident) and publishing reports that accuse Israel and Zionists of being collectively responsible for many issues in the United States and the Middle East.[36]

If you go to the Washington Report website today you will find many heart-warming articles and videos with titles such as, Israel Lobby: Is it Good for the US? Is it Good for Israel? or Killing in Gaza, Saving in Nepal or Charge of “Anti-Semitism” Used to Provoke Immigration of French Jews to Israel. To gain access to most of this material one must register with the organization.

The current cover looks like this. The text beneath this cover on the website reads:

"Malak al-Khatib, 14, who was arrested Dec. 31, 2014 on charges of throwing stones and carrying a knife and sentenced to two months in prison, flashes a victory sign during a Feb. 17 rally in Ramallah calling for the release of Palestinian children held in Israeli jails, four days after she herself was released."

The clear sympathies are for the young Arabs who are encouraged to throw stones at Jews with the clear implication that these kids are heroes who should be admired for their strength of conviction in opposing Jewish sovereignty.

By the time the evening was wrapping up I had extricated myself from Anise and his wife and spent the rest of the night discussing college life and movies with the twenty-somethings. As Anise was readying to walk out the door I went up to him and shook his and the hand of his wife. I thanked them both for the fine conversation and promised Anise that I would look into this professor Pappé fellow and check out the Washington Report.

As they walked out of the house my wife came up to me and gave me a big hug.

"Thank you," she said.

Michael Lumish is a blogger at the Israel Thrives blog as well as a regular contributor/blogger at Times of Israel and Jews Down Under.

A Palestinian woman looks from a window of her house in the Al-Shati refugee camp in Gaza City on Thursday ahead of the commemorations for the 67th anniversary of the “Nakba”
(Mohammed Abed/AFP)

I'm sure that the photographer had nothing to do with staging this photo. He has ethics!

Why does her home look so bad? After all, it doesn't look like it was bombed. The Shati camp is fully under Palestinian Arab rule. There is no shortage of Western or Arab funds that could build fix this this poor woman's house. The amount of time it took to stage this photo could have been used to repair the shutter. So why is the window in such bad shape?

These are the questions that are not asked when Nakba Day rolls around. No, at that time, photographers need to illustrate the Nakba, and an old woman, looking forlornly towards her real home somewhere in Israel, living in a dilapidated house that could be easily fixed in a week, fills the bill.

It will be recalled that as far back as 1979, Israel tried to build real houses for people like this - and the UN condemned them for wanting to get rid of these dilapidated "refugee" camps which are so useful for photo ops of how bad Palestinian Arabs have it.

UPDATE: Another angle. Her fingers are in the exact same position, but our photographer asked her to move her head a little bit further in the house but to her left so it wouldn't be in the shadow:(h/t Bob Knot)

How to manipulate photos to tell an anti-Israel story (update)

From Ma'an:

Amateur photographer Ahmad Nazzal captured Israeli forces spraying 'skunk water' at a Palestinian child during the Kafr Qaddum weekly march in the occupied West Bank on Friday.

Five-year-old Muhammad Riyad appears standing in front of Israeli forces wearing a Palestinian Keffiyeh before the forces begin chasing him with skunk water, the boy eventually falling to the ground.

The foul-smelling liquid has been used by the Israeli military as a form of non-lethal crowd control since at least 2008 and can leave individuals and homes smelling like feces and garbage for weeks.

The poor kid is just standing there, minding his own business!

Too bad the photographer didn't show what else the little boy and his friends were doing for quite a bit of time while the soldiers did nothing. The boy in blue in this first clip looks like he isn't out of diapers yet.

And also that the skunk water was not aimed at the kid, but at the older stone throwers (The kid can be seen running on the left side while the water is clearly aimed at adult stone throwers on the right, Another video shows where he tripped):

Where are the parents? Obviously letting their little boys go out and throw stones at soldiers.

Don't expect Ma'an to issue a correction, but it might be fun to tell them just to see them remove the comments.

(h/t Bob Knot)

UPDATE: I posted a comment:

The full video of the event shows not only that the child was throwing rocks from close range, but the police did nothing. The video also shows that the skunk water was shot at adult rioters on the right, unseen here. Video at Palmedia YT page.
Ma'an owes its readers a correction and apology.

We'll see if it gets published along with the hate.

Palestinian girl shot in the head. Call the NGOs! Oh, wait...

From Ma'an:

A Palestinian girl was killed Saturday evening after she was accidentally hit by gunfire during wedding celebrations in Balata refugee camp east of Nablus.

Local sources said that Ilaa al-Araj, 16, was hit in her head by a bullet fired during wedding celebrations, which she had been watching from the roof of her home.

Sources said that the girl was taken to Rafidiya Governmental Hospital in Nablus but she was later pronounced dead.

Sources added that the shooter had turned himself into the Palestinian police, who have opened an investigation to determine the circumstances of the incident.

It is illegal in the occupied Palestinian territories to fire gunshots during celebrations, although it remains a common practice.

In 2006, after three young girls were accidentally killed by gunfire at a wedding in Jenin, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights issued a statement that said they were "extremely concerned over the continued falling of victims, mostly children, by gunshots fired during celebrations and weddings."

In 2010, a Bedouin groom was killed at a bachelor party in the Negev.

In 2011, a girl celebrating her college prep test results in Gaza City was killed by celebratory gunfire shot by her brother.

Six children and three women were injured from celebratory gunfire at Israel releasing terrorists in 2011.

In 2013, at a wedding in Yemen, a happy gunman killed three guests dancing to "Gangham Style" on video.

I have yet to see any European NGOs spend money on educating Arabs that firing weapons at celebrations is dangerous. Shouldn't they throw a few euros into saving Arab lives?

But if you find a way to blame Jews for the killings, then the EU money would flood in.

05/16 Links: Pope calls Abbas ‘angel of peace’; Jerusalem then and now: A journey in photos

From Ian:

Ben-Dror Yemini: The folly of the international community on the Palestinians

Pushing both sides into a forced settlement will lead to disaster, and a Hamas takeover in the West Bank; meanhile, the outrage over Shaked is entirely misplaced.
The formula is a familiar one: The more right-wing the government of Israel appears to the world, the easier it is for the anti-Israel campaigners to do their work. An increase in Israel in statements and incidents of an anti-Arab nature leads to a fall-off in support for Israel among Jewish students on US campuses, and the more organizations like Breaking the Silence and B'Tselem create the distorted impression that Israel is committing crimes on an ongoing basis, the easier it is for the BDS activists to tout their case.
The starting positions are problematic – not only due to the composition of the new Israeli government, but primarily in light of the geopolitical situation. The absurd thing is that under current circumstances, Israel's control over the territories is the lesser evil.
A hasty political settlement – to which the US administration and EU are leading, with the encouragement of a bunch of Israelis who support the Palestinian demand for unilateral recognition of statehood – would be a disaster for the Palestinians. A Hamas takeover would only be a matter of time.
This has nothing at all to do with the composition of the government. Isaac Herzog would encounter the same geopolitical situation; and Tzipi Livni, too, would encounter Palestinian opposition to any peace deal. After all, the Ehud Barak and Ehud Olmert governments made very generous offers to Yasser Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas respectively – to no avail.

‘Nakba Day’ Footage Shows Riots in Jerusalem, Arabs Chanting ‘We Don’t Want Jews’

Arab residents of Jerusalem marched through the Israeli capital’s streets on Friday to mark “Nakba Day” — the Arabic name for the perceived catastrophe (nakba) of the creation of the Jewish state. Video footage of one demonstration showed the rioters chanting “We don’t want the Jews.”
In the video clip, a large group of Palestinian demonstrators is seen congregated across from the Ateret Cohanim Yeshiva in Jerusalem. The rioters begin throwing glass bottles at yeshiva students, simultaneously calling out, “We don’t want Jews,” “by our souls and by our blood, we will redeem Al-Aqsa,” and “Allahu Akbar.”
Many yeshiva students hid inside the school fearing the protesters outside, according to Israeli news portal 0404. One student told the website that Jerusalem’s Arab residents “do whatever they want here.”
“They do not fear anyone,” he said, expressing hope that “one day someone will wake up in our country and make it clear to them who is boss in this country, and to whom Jerusalem and the Temple Mount belong.”

Pope calls Abbas ‘angel of peace’ during Vatican visit

Pope Francis praised Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas as an “angel of peace” during a meeting at the Vatican.
Francis made the compliment Saturday during the traditional exchange of gifts at the end of an official audience in the Apostolic Palace. He presented Abbas with a medallion and explained that it represented the angel of peace “destroying the bad spirit of war.”
Francis said he thought the gift was appropriate since “you are an angel of peace.”
Abbas is in town for the canonization Sunday of two new saints from what was then Ottoman-ruled Palestine. It also comes days after the Vatican finalized a bilateral treaty with the “state of Palestine,” making explicit its recognition of Palestinian statehood.
Abbas, for his part, offered Francis relics of the two new saints. (h/t Bob Knot)

05/15 Links Pt2: Honig: A Delegitimization Called Nakba; Five Reasons to Celebrate Jerusalem Day

From Ian:

Sarah Honig: A Delegitimization Called Nakba

Whereas we celebrate our state’s Independence Day according to the Hebrew calendar, the Gregorian anniversary, May 15, is annually commemorated by Arabs as a day of lamentation for the Nakba. It’s the catastrophe according to their loaded terminology, which renascent Jewish sovereignty supposedly inflicted on the supposedly indigenous people of this land – the Palestinians.
The notion that Israel was born in sin is delegitimization in the most extreme sense.
Israel is painted as a wrong and righting the wrong means eradicating Israel. There’s no getting away from the conclusion to which this representation unavoidably leads. Israel is illegitimate both in its inception and subsequent survival. Peace can be restored only when the illegitimacy is removed.
It’s essential to remember this as we see our Arab neighbors – fellow holders of Israeli citizenship who enjoy all the perks and privileges thereof – bewail the fact that an Israel at all exists. Nakba Day is in fact Delegitimization Day. It lays the ideological groundwork for marking us as “worthy targets of violence.”
The delegitimization rests on two interconnected cornerstones – portraying Israel as the occupier-aggressor and portraying local Arabs as the hapless aboriginals overrun and oppressed by the occupier-aggressor.

Michael Lumish: Happy Nakba Day!

I love Nakba Day.
I understand that that many Arabs are not happy about the fact that the Jewish people escaped from the Islamic system that we call dhimmitude after thirteen centuries of second and third-class non-citizenship under Arab-Muslim imperial rule... but I could hardly be more pleased.
The Muslim Brotherhood is unhappy with Jewish liberation from Arab-Muslim imperial rule.
Hamas is unhappy with Jewish liberation from Arab-Muslim imperial rule.
The Islamic State is unhappy with Jewish liberation from Arab-Muslim imperial rule.
Islamic Jihad is unhappy with Jewish liberation from Arab-Muslim imperial rule.
Boko Haram is unhappy with Jewish liberation from Arab-Muslim imperial rule.
Speaking for myself, I could not be happier or more satisfied in the rightness and justice of the failure of Islamic rule over the Jews.
Nakba Day is one of my favorite holidays, but my favorite holidays are generally concerned with issues of liberation. I love Thanksgiving, for example, because it represents the roots of the United States and, thus, the liberation of millions of people from European authoritarianism and monarchy. I love Passover for much the same reason. It represents the freedom of the Jewish people from persecution by non-Jews, which is why we drink our wine in a lounging position.

Five Reasons to Celebrate Jerusalem Day

This Sunday is Yom Yerushalayim (Jerusalem Day).
The newest addition to the Jewish calendar, it’s held on the 28th day of the Hebrew month of Iyar—six weeks after the Passover seder and one week before the eve of the holiday of Shavuot.
In June 1967, 28 Iyar was the third day of the Six Day War.
Yom Yerushalayim celebrates the reunification of Israel’s capital city, when Jewish forces brought Jerusalem “back to Jewish sovereignty”.
In Israel the holiday is marked with pilgrimages to Jerusalem with thousands of Israelis heading to the city for the annual Flag Parade.
But in many Jewish communities Yom Yerushalayim typically passes without a lot of fanfare.
Many Jews haven’t even heard of it.
REASON #1: Jewish holy places are liberated from an illegal Jordanian occupation.
REASON #2: The whole city of Jerusalem is reclaimed and reunited under Israeli sovereignty.
REASON #3: Jewish Jerusalem is reconstituted.
REASON #4: Jewish faithful have the legal right to pray on the Temple Mount.
REASON #5: Reaffirming a Jewish attachment to the holy city and to the land.

Boycott the Boycotters movement gains momentum

The movement to boycott those who support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement is gaining steam, particularly at the legislative level.
We previously highlighted federal legislation aimed at the European boycott movement, and the apoplectic reaction, Breaking! Anti-Israel boycotters don’t like being boycotted!:
The reaction is furious from the anti-Israel boycotters, as refleected in this Op-Ed in The Chicago Sun Times with this ironic title, Illinois has no business boycotting those who boycott Israel, which starts off with a fake Gandhi quote:
It’s almost laughable that the same people who support boycotting Israel, as well as the University of Illinois – Urbana Champaign (over the non-hiring of controversial professor Steven Salaita) scream bloody murder when the boycott is directed at the boycotters.
Expect the “Boycott the Boycotters” movement to grow.

Zippy Porath's letters to her American family from besieged Jerusalem, May 15-16, 1948

Zipporah Porath arrived in Mandatory Palestine in Oct. 1947, as an American student, for what was intended to be a year of study at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. But, caught up inIsrael's War of Independence, she served first as a medic in the underground Haganah defense forces, and then in the nascent IDF and the fledgling Israel Air Force. These volunteers from abroad were later recognized as part of the MACHAL volunteer corps.

The letters Zippy wrote to her parents and sister capture the historic events as they occurred. They are compiled in the book, Letters from Jerusalem 1947-1948.

The stamp that she used was issued before Israel had a name. It says "The Jewish State" and shows a picture of the 1947 Partition Plan - including, it appears, Jerusalem as a separate political entity. I had never heard of that stamp before.

Jerusalem,

May 15, 1948

Dearest Family,
It's the most incongruous and inexplicable feeling. I'm sitting with our soldiers, listening all hearts and ears to the proceedings at the UN Security Council over a broken down battery radio -- trying to find out who will recognize our new State. The room is lit only by a small kerosene lamp which throws eerie shadows on the wall and plays havoc with the imagination.

The voices fade in and out, the static is maddening and it is hard to hear who is speaking. At the moment, the "Representative from Canada" is saying something stupid -- it's difficult to catch more than a word here or there -- so I'll use his time to write a few words ....which may never reach you.
Awareness of the full impact of the significance of this day has been somewhat lost to me in the immensity of rapidly developing events that have gripped Jerusalem. The British are actually leaving. We are fighting desperately to take over their strongholds before the Arabs do. For the last three days we have been on full alert and this is ZERO HOUR.

We are waiting impatiently for the return of the contingents of boys dispatched for today's engagements. Many dear friends are among them. Somehow, that seems more important to me than what the "Gentleman from Canada" is jabbering about -- or is it the Egyptian now?

Egypt. Oh, yes. They are invading rapidly to assure "peace and order."

The faces around me relaxed a bit after hearing that America had recognized OUR STATE. I feel a bit redeemed. Everyone in the room pivoted around to look at me as if I had had something to do with the decision.

What am I doing here? I'm in charge of the first-aid post which has been whitened and brightened for the gruesome business it anticipates. The stretcher bearers are squatting nearby. One of them, a boy with dark curly hair, is resting his head against my knees and looking past the ceiling to the future. Everything we have is ready -- blankets, bandages, a bit of cognac, ready for... we don't know what. This afternoon, it was heavy mortar fire, 25 pounders or more. Tonight, it may be air bombardment.
When I first donned these overalls and learned to sleep with my boots on and one ear open, I felt like a character out of a Hemingway novel; a partisan -- one girl for every hundred men. Now, I'm into the role completely.

We are completely cut off. No mail service out of Jerusalem, but writing eases the anxiety of waiting and worrying. How many of our boys will make it back tonight?

I wish we could know what is going on. So close and so far from the overall picture....

Jerusalem

May 16, 1948

Hello Again,

Day two in the THE STATE OF ISRAEL. Had to abandon writing temporarily for more pressing business. It's a beautiful day, plenty of sunshine, flies and shooting.

My only American compatriot here, Herbert, dug up a pair of shorts for me to wear. He says the boys need it for their morale and never mind if Florence Nightingale never wore shorts. What an outfit for duty.

Everyone gets such a kick out of the fact that there are " Americans" in their midst. I'm actually the first American GIRL most of these men have ever seen. In fact, I'm becoming a legend here. They call me "Tzippy HaAmericait" (Zippy, the American).

There are about three hundred men at this base from all over the world but only two of us from the U.S. Anyhow, what we lack in numbers, we both make up for in other ways. For one thing, we are doing a fine job of public relations, having constantly to improvise with practically nothing at hand. Herbert set up a first class cafeteria in the mess and is demonstrating what American efficiency is all about. And I'm doing my best in the two fields at my disposal, woman and nurse. The sweetheart of the camp and all that. I also set up a very cozy infirmary, thanks to super resourcefulness.

Later...

Pardon the inconsistencies, but I'm constantly being interrupted by minor emergencies -- a scorpion bite, an attack of appendicitis, infections, a misdirected bullet, all in a day's work. In between, I serve sulfa and good cheer -- the best part of the job. Our soldiers are like no others I'VE ever seen. They don't have much to fight with besides guts and determination. No swagger, spit or polish. No drinking, no shirking. Doing the dirtiest jobs, they sing and joke -- even in the fiercest moments, and never with a "here today and gone tomorrow" attitude. TOMORROW is what it's all about.

I am grateful to be here with them. I have become one of them more than ever now. All my love -- thank God for the present -- and pray for the future...

Israel partition stamp - 1948 - Jewish State

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PS

Don't part with this envelope if you ever receive it. The stamps were issued for 5 days only prior to the declaration of the State and were available only in Jerusalem. They'll probably be valuable to stamp collectors in a couple of years.