Police looking into suspicions of forged bills of land sale at Migron

And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.

"A farmer operating a tractor near the western Negev Kibbutz Nahal Oz said a Palestinian sniper in the bordering Gaza Strip opened fire at him on Sunday afternoon. Several hours later, however, the military admitted there was no sniper attack, saying damage to the tractor might have been caused by a stone."

IDF: Negev farmer's tractor damaged by stones, not Gaza sniper

"Israeli soldiers extended a curfew for a fourth straight day on Monday in the Palestinian town of Ni'lin in the West Bank, a military official and a resident said.

...

Khawaja said townspeople were able to leave their houses for about two hours when the soldiers briefly left the village Sunday night."

Israel extends curfew in Palestinian town

Salah Khawaja is a spokesman for the Ni'lin Committee for Resisting the Wall.

.

Defense sources estimate that by the end of 2008 Iron Dome will be ready to undergo a major test that will evaluate the system's ability to intercept a rocket. The test will include the launch of a rocket, which Tamir will try to intercept.

A crucial aspect of that test will be the ability of a radar system under development by Elta, a subsidiary of Israel Aerospace Industries, to identify, locate and track the incoming rocket, and guide Tamir to its target.

The recent developments of the Tamir made the developers confident that it will be possible to significantly increase the interceptor's speed. This would allow the interception of the rockets a short while after their launch which would increase the likeliness that the Iron Dome will also be effective against mortar. However, one problem remains: if DEBKAfile's information is correct, the Iron Dome needs 15 seconds to locate the incoming rocket and determine the flight path. Even with increased interceptor speed, mortars will already have hit their target before the Tamir will be launched. We will have to wait for the end of the year if Elta will be able to deal with the problem.

Gaydamak is not exactly Russian: It came to Russian from Ukrainian, and it came to Ukrainian from Turkish.

The original Ukrainian word is more correctly spelled “Haydamak” in Latin letters, but in case of Mr. Arcadi Gaydamak the custom is to write it with a ‘G’.

For information about who were the original Ukrainian Haydamaks, see the Wikipedia article Haidamaka, which appears to be pretty good.

On Sunday, in order to prevent foreigners from joining protests against a network of razor-wire fences and concrete barricades, which cut into occupied Palestinian land, troops have encircled it.

"The protests have been getting more violent, and that is what we're trying to stop", an Israeli army spokeswoman said.

David Chater, Al Jazeera's correspondent in the West Bank, said: "This village of 5,000 people is essentially being locked down under curfew, under a seige, as tight as anything that the Gaza Strip has experienced since last Friday.”

"Palestinians have been protesting for weeks now that their land has been taken by the separation barrier."

The barrier was built to protect six Israeli settlements, explained David Chater.

"Since last Friday, 35 people had been injured from rubber bullets and 100 from tear gas fired at the villages directly into their houses and the local medical centre has been running out of supplies", he said.

‘Legitimate right’

Jamal Gomaa, director of Stop the Wall organisation, told Al Jazeera that the Palestinian people were merely trying to protect their land, but had been met with severe force.

"The soldiers have been coming for days, claiming that they want to let bulldozers do their work. What do they expect the Palestinian people to do? They have the legitimate right to defend themselves and their land.”

"Israel should stop hiding behind what they call 'security'. What they are doing is ghettoising the Palestinian people, separating the people and their land."

Hundreds of Palestinians attacked security forces, pelting them with rocks and rolled burning tyres at them, injuring a border policeman, said the Israeli spokeswoman. She also denied that that the closure was affecting the movement of sick Palestinians.

But Salah al-Khawaja, a spokesman for the Ni'lin Committee for Resisting the Wall, said that "casualties and other patients were prevented from leaving the village for treatment".

Israel's blockade involved declaring the construction site a "closed military zone", a sweeping measure that did not appear to provide access to the area for any peaceful demonstrators.

The aim of the barrier is to keep out Palestinian suicide bombers, though it also loops around Jewish settlement blocs, which cut off some West Bank villages from their farmland.

Protesters hurt during a march

Those construction sites are flashpoints for confrontations between Israeli security forces and Palestinians, often supported by left-wing protesters from Israel and abroad.

The closure was imposed on Friday, that also saw a march against the barrier during which at least 20 protesters were hurt by rubber bullets, fired by Israeli security forces, Ni’lin residents said.

Anyone who went onto the streets was threatened by Israeli soldiers, with live bullets, said Jamal Gomaa.

On Saturday, in defiance of the closure, a demonstration was held by Ni’lin youths, who blockaded roads used by bulldozers to access the construction site, residents said.

An organiser said that during the demonstration, four protesters from an Israeli solidarity group were arrested.

The closure would be reviewed by Tuesday, said Israel Radio.

"The case of Ni'lin is a unique case of resistance” said Jamal Gomaa.

"The people go to protect their land at every minute of the day, and it's something the Israelis don't want. They don't want this kind of resistance to spread to other villages."

Uppfattningen att islamisk lag skall diktera mänskliga relationer, att den västerländska synen på jämställdhet mellan könen är en förolämpning mot naturen, att den högsta makten enbart tillhör Allah, att det sekulära västerländska samhället är dekadent och att framtiden tillhör islam delas av ett brett spektrum inom den muslimska opinionen. Därför kommer vare sig 11-sep eller 7-juli att uppmärksammas av muslimer världen över annat än man tar det som rättfärdigat.

Muslimska brödraskapet, organisationen som skapades av islamismens fader Hassan al-Banna. Brödraskapets palestinska gren heter som bekant Hamas.
MAB låg bakom den invitation som gjorde det möjligt för shejk Yusuf al-Qaradawi att besöka Storbritannien 2004. Qaradawi är som framgått Muslimska brödraskapets högste andlige ledare med global berömmelse. Han har gjort sig känd för att förespråka hustrumisshandel, fysisk bestraffning för homosexualitet och "martyrskapsoperationer" mot civila israeler, dvs självmordsbombning.

MAB:s egen talesman Dr Azzam al-Tamimi uttryckte sitt stöd till Hamas i en intervju med BBC:s Tim Sebastian i News24:s HardTalk i november 2004. Dr Tamimi vägrade att fördöma självmordsbombningar som mord och föredrog i stället att kalla dem en del av "kampen". En kamp som vi kommer att förlora om vi inte fattar vad islam har för mål.

Even in his wildest dreams, Midhat Radwan Abu Karsh never imagined that one day he would be tied  up to a power pole and savagely beaten by bigoted Jewish settlers who believe that non-Jews are animals in a  human shape.

Yet, this is exactly what happened to him earlier this week when four Jewish terrorists ganged up on the 31-year-old Palestinian teacher  as he was hiking in his land,  awaiting Israeli peace activists whom he wanted to brief  on  the daily acts of vandalism, harassment and land theft at the hands of  fanatical Jewish settlers, protected by the army and backed by powerful political parties.

Abu Karsh accuses the settlers of being  hell-bent on driving Palestinians away in order to take over their land.

“As I was standing in my land, suddenly four settlers descended from the settlement of Asnael, and started cursing and beating me with clubs. As you know, I am physically handicapped and couldn’t escape because of my leg,” Abu Karsh told reporters on Sunday at his home in the small town of El-Sammou, 35 kilometers south west of Hebron.

“Then they dragged me along the thorny terrain, causing me indescribable pain, until we reached the power pole just out of the settlement. There they tied me up rather tightly to the pole and began beating me with the clubs all over my body, including my head. What kind of people would do this to a handicapped person who can’t defend himself?

“When they tightened the robe around my neck, I thought I was going to die.

The attempted lynching and beating continued unabated even after an Israeli army jeep, carrying three soldiers, arrived at the scene.

“Initially,  I   breathed a sigh  of relief when  I saw the soldiers coming. I though   they would rescue me instantly and arrest or at least stop the settlers. However, to my disappointment, the settlers kept up beating me, causing a lot of bleeding in my head and face while the soldiers kept looking on.”

Abu Karsh said the soldiers begged the settlers “to stop it,”  but to no avail.

“Would you believe it, soldiers begging the settlers to stop beating a handicapped Palestinian? Just imagine how Jews and non-Jews would react if criminals, say in France, attacked a Jew who is physically or mentally handicapped, say in Paris or Leon?”

At one point, the settlers warned the soldiers to keep away, or else they would attack the soldiers. Israeli soldiers serving in the occupied West Bank have strict orders barring them from responding to settler violence in any active manner.

When the soldiers, who had backed off a few meters, started calling their superiors to notify  them of what was going on, the settlers  carried out a last round of beating, kicking Abu Karsh  in his underbelly and  genitals.

He said he nearly fainted.

Forty minutes later, an Israeli police jeep showed up, with one policeman  reportedly telling the settlers to bring a bucket of water from the settlement and pour it right  on the victim’s head, ostensibly in order to wash away the blood before the arrival of journalists and photographers.

“Even at this point, I was still tied to the power pole and the police wouldn’t untie me. And, of course, they didn’t arrest any of the settlers,” Abu Karsh said.

Eventually,  an Israeli ambulance transferred Abu Karsh to a Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance which took him to the main hospital in Hebron.

Abu Karsh  accused the settlers of deliberately starting a fire in the area and blaming it on him.

The incident, the second of its kind in less than a month, was witnessed by Israeli peace activists from the Ta’ayosh (co-existence) group.

One of the activists was quoted by the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz as saying that he saw the settlers kick the victim  while he was bound up.

“When we arrived at the scene there were already lots of the army’s troops. I saw a settler approach him and kick him, as he was tied to the pole. His whole body was bound up, I saw they bandaged a head wound and he was half conscious.”

Last month, masked, stick-wielding  Jewish  settler terrorists attacked with clubs elderly Palestinian peasants near the West Bank town of Yatta.

The brutal attack was filmed on video by a Palestinian woman, which embarrassed the Israeli government which refuses to take any meaningful action against settlers who attack Palestinian villagers.

The wide dissemination of the video also prompted  Jewish settler leaders in the Hebron region to warn settler terrorists to make sure that their “anti-Palestinian activities”  are not being filmed or photographed.

B’Tselem provided about 100 cameras to Palestinians who bear the brunt of settler terror and violence. The project, dubbed “Shooting Back” is aimed at documenting settler brutality and attacks.

Palestinian, Israeli and international human rights organizations operating in the occupied Palestinian territories have already  documented numerous cases of settler attacks, harassment and vandalism against Palestinians.

However, the Israeli army and Shin Beth (Israel’s domestic intelligence agency), have consistently refused to rein in the settlers, thus effectively encouraging them to keep up their terror against the unprotected Palestinians.

Most of the terrorist settlers attend Talmudic schools, or Yeshivot, run by extremist rabbis who inculcate their students with virulent hatred of every thing non-Jewish.

Some rabbis, especially in the Hebron region, openly preach the view that modern-day Palestinians are the descendants of the Biblical  Amalek or Amaledites, who the Bible says must be wiped off from the face of earth.

Some rabbis, such as Rabbis for Human Rights,  strongly reject the brutal racism and terror of their right-wing colleagues, arguing that such practices  are immoral and constitute a serious distortion of Judaism.

However, such views are rejected and treated with utter contempt by the vast bulk  of the Orthodox establishment in Israel.
]]> http://antiisgood.wordpress.com/?p=1217 Mon, 07 Jul 2008 06:21:46 +0000 Antievil http://antiisgood.wordpress.com/?p=1217 The Zionist dream's realization and the Jewish people's national rebirth through the creation of Israel were achieved not because of the Jewish side's superior number of tanks, planes or other aggressive means. The State of Israel was born because the Zionist movement realized it must find a solution to the Jews' persecution and because the enlightened world recognized the need for that solution.
The enlightened world's recognition of the solution's moral justification was an important, principal factor in Israel's creation. In other words, Israel was established on a clear, recognized moral base. Without such a moral base, it is doubtful whether the Zionist idea would have become a reality.
The Six-Day War was forced upon us; however, the war's seventh day, which began on June 12, 1967 and has continued to this day, is the product of our choice. We enthusiastically chose to become a colonial society, ignoring international treaties, expropriating lands, transferring settlers from Israel to the occupied territories, engaging in theft and finding justification for all these activities. Passionately desiring to keep the occupied territories, we developed two judicial systems: one - progressive, liberal - in Israel; and the other - cruel, injurious - in the occupied territories. In effect, we established an apartheid regime in the occupied territories immediately following their capture.
That oppressive regime exists to this day.
The Six-Day War's seventh day has transformed us from a moral society, sure of the justice of Israel's creation, into a society that oppresses another people, preventing it from realizing its legitimate national aspirations. The Six-Day War's seventh day has transformed us from a just society into an unjust one, prepared to expand its control atop another nation's ruins. The discarding of our moral foundation has hurt us as a society, reinforcing the arguments of the world's hostile elements and sowers of evil and intensifying their influence.
The intifada is the Palestinian people's war of national liberation. Historical processes teach us that no nation is prepared to live under another's domination and that a suppressed people's war of national liberation will inevitably succeed. We understand this point but choose to ignore it. We are prepared to engage in confrontation to prevent an historical process, although we are well aware that this process is anchored in the moral justification behind every people's war of national liberation and behind its right to self-determination, and although we are well aware that this process will attain its inevitable goal.
This is the background of the difficult testimony we have received about actions of Israel Defense Forces personnel in the occupied territories. No need to repeat the details of the painful phenomena entailed in the occupation regime and in our battle to prolong it. Suffice it to recall the killing of little children fleeing for safety; the executions, without trial, of wanted persons who were not on their way to launch a terrorist act; and the encirclements, closures and roadblocks that have turned the lives of millions into a nightmare. Even if all these actions stem from our need to defend ourselves under an occupation's conditions, the occupation's non-existence would render them unnecessary. Thus, a black flag hovers over these actions.
This is a harsh reality that is causing us to lose the moral base of our existence as a free, just society and to jeopardize Israel's long-range survival. Israel's security cannot be based only on the sword; it must rather be based on our principles of moral justice and on peace with our neighbors - those living next door and those living a little further away. An occupation regime undermines those principles of moral justice and prevents the attainment of peace. Thus, that regime endangers Israel's existence.
It is against this background that one must view the refusal of IDF reservist officers and soldiers to serve in the territories. In their eyes, the occupation regime is evil and military service in the occupied territories is evil. In their eyes, military service in the occupied territories, which places soldiers in situations forcing them to commit immoral acts, is evil, and, according to their conscience, they cannot be party to such acts. Thus, their refusal to serve is an act of conscience that is justified and recognized in every democratic regime. History's verdict will be that their refusal was the act that restored our moral backbone.

The author was attorney general from 1993-96.

Ref: Courage to refuse

Good evening. It is a great honour for me to stand on this stage beside my friend and brother Bassam Aramin, a man of the Palestinian peace camp, one of the founders of the Combatants for Peace movement of which two of my sons, Alik and Guy, are members. Only last week, on Tuesday in Anata and on Thursday in Tul Karem, the Combatants for Peace movement succeeded in organizing two massive gatherings and recruited 10 thousand Palestinians to their goal – a joint non-violent struggle against the occupation through close cooperation between Israelis and Palestinians. If not for the racist laws of the State of Israel all those thousands of people could be with us here this evening to prove once and for all that we have a partner.

Bassam and I are both victims of the cruel occupation that has been corrupting this country for forty years now. The two of us came this evening to lament the fate of this place that has buried our two daughters – Smadar – the bud of the fruit* and Abir – the perfume of the flower*, who were murdered at an interval of ten years, ten years during which this country has filled with the blood of children and the underground kingdom of children on which we tread day by day and hour by hour has grown to overflowing.

But what unites Bassam and me is not just the death that the Occupation sentenced us to. What unites us is principally faith and a willingness to raise the children that have been left to us so that they will never again allow corrupt, greedy and power-hungry politicians and generals who thirst for blood and conquest to rule over their lives and set them against each other. No more will they allow the racism that has spread over this country to lead them off the path of peace and brotherhood that they have paved for themselves. Because only that brotherhood can bring down the wall of racism that is being built before our very eyes.

For forty years now, racism and megalomania have dictated our lives. Forty years during which more than four million people do not know the meaning of freedom of movement. Forty years in which Palestinian children are born and raised as prisoners in their homes that the Occupation converted into a prison, deprived at the outset of all the rights that human beings are entitled to because they are human. Forty years during which Israeli children are educated in racism of the type that has been unknown in the civilized world for decades. Forty years during which they have learned to hate the neighbours just because they are neighbours, to fear them without knowing them, to see a quarter of the citizens of the State as a demographic danger and an enemy within, and to relate to the residents of the ghettos created by the policy of occupation as a problem that must be solved. Only sixty years ago Jews were residents of ghettos and seen in the eyes of their oppressors as a problem that needed to be solved. Only sixty years ago the Jews were enclosed behind ugly concrete and electrified walls topped with watchtowers manned by erect armed figures, and deprived of the ability to make a living or to raise their children with dignity. Only sixty years ago racism exacted its price from the Jewish people. Today racism rules in the Jewish state, tramples people’s dignity underfoot and deprives them of liberty, condemns all of us to lives of hell. For forty years now the Jewish head has unceasingly been bowed in worship of racism while the Jewish mind is devising the most creative ways to devastate and demolish and destroy this country. That is what remains of the Jewish genius, which has become Israeli. Jewish compassion, Jewish mercy, Jewish cosmopolitan-ness, love of humanity and respect for the other have been long forgotten. Their place was claimed by racism. It was only racism that motivated a Border Guard soldier to pull the trigger from inside his armoured vehicle and to shoot at the head of little Abir as she huddled by the wall of her school in fear of the military vehicle that was plopped down in the schoolyard as if it owned the place. It is only racism that motivates the drivers of bulldozers to demolish houses on top of their occupants, to destroy vineyards and fields, to uproot centuries-old olive trees. Only racism can invent roads on which circulation is classified on the basis of race, and it is only racism that motivates our children to humiliate women who could be their mothers and to abuse old people at the evil checkpoints, to strike young people their own age who, like them, want to drive with their families to bathe in the sea, and to look on impassively as women give birth on the road. It is only pure racism that motivates our best pilots to drop one-ton bombs on residential buildings and it is only racism that permits those criminals to sleep well at night.

Because racism eliminates shame. This racism has erected for itself a monument in its own image – the monument of an ugly, rigid, menacing and invasive concrete wall. A monument that proclaims to the whole world the banishment of shame from this country. This wall is our wall of shame, it is testimony to the fact that we have turned from being a light unto the nations to “an object of disgrace to the nations and a mockery to all the countries.” **

And this evening we must ask where we take our shame? How will we remove the disgrace? But first and foremost, how is it that the shame does not keep us from sleeping at night? How do we consent to have half our salaries used for the execution of crimes against humanity?

How did it happen that we succeeded in restricting the shame to two columns in the newspaper, and to devote to it no more than the minutes that we devote to a cursory reading of the articles of Gideon Levy and Amira Hass, as one reads a report on a scenario that was known in advance?

How did it happen that we succeeded in packing endless daily suffering, hunger, malnutrition, children’s trauma, disablement, orphanhood and bereavement into one alienating word: “politics”?

How is it that our children continue to strut and swagger in the uniforms of brutality that they wear when they serve in the army of slaughter and destruction?

How is it that all the splendid institutions of the world stand aside and cannot do a thing to save one child from death or to remove one concrete block from the wall of shame? How is it that all the peace and human rights organizations are not able to stop the jeeps of the Border Guards that come to terrify schoolchildren and to kill them, are not able to stop one bulldozer on its way to demolish a house on top of its occupants, to rescue one olive tree from destruction or one schoolgirl who lost her way to school and found herself in the gunsights of the soldiers of the Occupation?

One of the answers to these questions is that the State of Israel is able to silence and paralyze the entire world because there was a Holocaust. The State of Israel has acquired a permit to abuse an entire nation because there is anti-Semitism. The State of Israel is bringing existential disaster – economic, social and human, on its citizens and on its subjects and no one dares to stop it because once there was Hitler. And all that while the survivors of the Holocaust are suffering the ignominy of hunger in this country.

This evening we must appeal to the world for help in ridding ourselves of the shame. This evening we must explain to the world that if it wants to rescue the people of Israel and the Palestinian people from the imminent holocaust that threatens all of us it is necessary to condemn the policy of occupation, the dominion of death must be stopped in its tracks. All war criminals who put away their uniforms and set out to travel in the world must be arrested, tried and imprisoned instead of being allowed to enjoy the pleasures of freedom while they are still dragging behind them a jingling cashbox full of war-crimes.

And the time has come for us to stop handing our children over to an educational establishment that plants in them false and racist values and teaches them that their contribution to society is summed up in the abuse and killing of other people’s children. The time has come for us to explain to them that the local population of this place is not divided into Jews and non-Jews as is written in their school-books, but into human beings who want to live in peace and quiet in spite of everything, such as Bassam Aramin and many others like him, who if not for the racial laws that restrict their movements would be standing with us today, and people who have lost their humanity and take pleasure in destruction and devastation. And the time has come for us to tell our children where they are living.

Today, while the entire civilized world enjoys slandering and smearing the Palestinian education system, there is no school-book in Israel that presents a picture of a Palestinian as a modern ordinary person. There is no school-book in Israel that presents a map that shows the true borders of the State. There is no school-book in Israel in which the word “occupation” appears. Our children are conscripted into the army of occupation without knowing the place in which they are living and without knowing its history and its people. They join the army imbued with hate and fear. Our children are educated to see everyone who is not Jewish as the Goy, the Other, who generation after generation seeks to destroy us. This education makes it easy for the military establishment to turn children into monsters.

Therefore the only way to prevent our children from becoming tools in the hands of the machine of destruction is to teach them the history of this place, to draw for them its borders, to help them to know the neighbours, their culture, their customs, their courtesy and their rights on the land where they live and lived for many generations before the Zionist Pioneers arrived in the Promised Land of Israel. And above all to teach them not to submit to the State, not to respect its authority, because the State is ruled by petty thieves and base opportunists who do not control their sexual and other impulses even in the most dire times and run this country according to the laws of the Mafia. You killed one of mine - I’ll kill a hundred of yours. You threw a home-made bomb at me - I’ll drop on you a hundred of the most elaborate and destructive bombs in the world that will leave no trace of you or your family or your neighbours. You burned one of my cars so I’ll burn one of your cities. That is the logic of the criminal world.

This evening we must think about those who are condemned to death in the next year, and of those who are condemned to fall into crime under the cover of the law and the uniform. We must rescue all of them. We must teach all of them not to obey orders that, even if they are legal according to the race laws of this State, are manifestly inhuman.

And above all, this evening we must stop for a moment, all of us, and look into the face of little Abir Aramin, her head shot from behind, whose murderer will never face judgement in this country and will never be punished in any way he deserves, and ask ourselves, Why does that streak of blood rip the petal of her cheek.***

by Nurit Peled-Elhanan, laureate of the Sakharov Prize of the European Parliament for Human Rights and Freedom of Thought.
June 9, 2007
Translated by Mark Marshall

Braverman's lamentations reflect a general malaise that pervades Israel's public mood. For the first time in Israel's history, skepticism about its viability, worries about its public norms and questions about whether it will still exist in 50 years creep through society and the media. This is puzzling: Israel was in much greater external danger in the past, and its economic and military resources are more developed today than ever before.

So why is Israel incapable of tackling its social problems? Why don't the corruption scandals, the terrible state of our education system or the deadlock of our geopolitical situation bring people out to the streets? After Sabra and Chatila, the Israeli public was galvanized; hundreds of thousands went to demonstrate on the square in which Yitzhak Rabin was to be murdered 13 years later. The Kahan commission, appointed under the pressure of public protest, ruled that Ariel Sharon was unfit to ever serve as defense minister.
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In the past, Israel was sure of its moral rightness. The current feeling that Israeli society is crumbling reflects something essentially new: Israel is no longer sure of its moral foundation.

The paralysis reflects a pervasive sense of guilt about Israel's ongoing behavior. On the one hand, Israel is making a great effort to be a decent, democratic and creative society. On the other hand, in the West Bank, Israel continues building double road systems, expropriating Palestinian lands, cutting Palestinian villages in two with the security wall, and preventing Palestinian women from getting to hospitals to give birth.

In this respect, Israel's collective psyche resembles that of a post-traumatic split personality. Men who have gone through trauma, often related to military service, are frequently able to maintain a facade of respectability throughout the day, but are prone to seemingly inexplicable bursts of domestic violence when they come home.

Israel's collective psyche functions similarly: From 1948, shortly after the Holocaust, to 1967, Israel's existence was truly threatened. The country depended on nothing but its military valor, and had few staunch allies. As if we have never woken up from this past, we continue to act as though Israel were still a small, isolated Yishuv threatened by immediate extinction, and as though every action were justified because we must defend our lives.

Israel, as a society and as a country, accepts and respects the moral principle of universal human rights. Deep down, we all know that causing suffering to millions of Palestinians in the West Bank because of the settlements that are deep inside the territories is morally indefensible. And yet we let it happen: We go about our business trying to numb our conscience by saying, "There is no partner" or "The roadblocks are needed to prevent terror attacks" or "Look what happened when we left Gaza! We left, and all we get is Qassam attacks!"

While the latter point has some validity, all polls show that most Israelis believe the settlements deep inside the West Bank jeopardize Israel's security rather than increasing it - and the military experts agree. And these settlements are the reason for the overwhelming majority of the roadblocks and land expropriations that make the Palestinians' lives impossible and have led most Palestinians to believe that Israel doesn't really want peace.

There is only one way to stop the general malaise and curb the fear that Israel is built on quicksand. It is to recover the moral backbone that has been damaged by splitting the Israeli psyche between a decent part that believes in democracy and human rights and another part that numbly, automatically, continues violating all the norms in which we all believe. We need to recover the ability to do some genuine soul-searching, to become accountable for our actions again.

I predict the paralysis will end once Israel gathers the political will to tell the settlers: "We understand your pain and rage, but we made a terrible mistake in sending you into the West Bank. Israel's moral and political survival depends on your coming back home."

Only when we wake up in the morning knowing that there are no more indefensible horrors to repress, no more young soldiers sent to do a job that will harm them for life, and no more Palestinian women losing babies because they cannot arrive at a hospital will we be able to tackle the huge problems inside our society.

The Israeli psyche needs to be liberated from unbearable guilt if we are to recover our resilience and our belief in our right to be here. Only then will the creativity and entrepreneurship that we see in Israel's businesses, R&D and flourishing art scene be liberated to create the society we all want.

Ref: Haaretz
Prof. Carlo Strenger, a philosopher and psychoanalyst, teaches at the psychology department of Tel Aviv University and is a member of the World Federation of Scientists' permanent monitoring panel on terrorism.

Comedian befools political analysts

Israeli and Palestinian participants joined their host, who sang a song about a conflict between Jews and Hindus in the Middle East

Omar Karmi - Foreign Correspondent

RAMALLAH, west bAnk Not many people would confuse humus and Hamas. Even fewer, presumably, believe that the Palestinian Israeli conflict is one between Jews and Hindus. Imagine then the confusion of two eminent political analysts, one Palestinian and one Israeli, during their session with an effete, leather-clad interviewer that was interrupted when, in his thick German accent, the man asked what humus had to do with the conflict other than being too high in cholesterol and why Palestinians and Jews did not simply take out a time-share on the land.

Had the analysts been of a younger generation, the names Ali G or Borat might have registered in their minds. As it was, clueless to what they had got themselves involved in, they ended up holding hands with their lank-haired and heavily madeup host as he sang a song about the conflict between Jews and Hindus tearing apart the Middle East.

Sacha Baron Cohen, the British comedian better known for his alter egos Ali G and Borat, has apparently struck again and like many of his former guests, the unsuspecting analysts were not impressed. "I can imagine how a very talented individual like him can make something entertaining and funny from our conflict," said Yossi Alpher, the Israeli analyst. "That's not necessarily a bad thing. But he does it in a very exploitative way because we don't know who he is." Mr Alpher and his Palestinian counterpart on the show both considered the experience "traumatic", the latter to the extent that he declined to be named or interviewed for this article. Mr Alpher too was reluctant, but wrote about it himself in a recent column in the Forward magazine, a Jewish-American publication. "It's unethical," said Mr Alpher about the way the interview was arranged and presented to him. "This was supposed to be journalism, but journalists can't do this."

The two analysts had, according to Mr Alpher, been contacted by a production company to explain the Palestinian-Israeli conflict on a show hosted by a German rock star and aimed at the youth market. The interview took place in an expensive hotel just outside the old city of Jerusalem where an evidently very professional production unit had been set up. The two were assured by a producer, after first meeting their interviewer and voicing reservations, that the host would ask relevant if simple questions. It was classic Ali G modus operandi. Baron Cohen first made a name for himself with his Da Ali G Show, in which the eponymous presenter interviewed British celebrities, often politicians, on current affairs issues to make them intelligible to a young audience. Freed from the customary formalities and confronted by what appeared to be a well-meaning if somewhat dim young man, interviewees often let down their guards to frequently hilarious results. The show became an instant success in England, where a movie was made, and later in the US, where Baron Cohen was even invited to give the commencement address at Harvard University in his Ali G persona. Superstardom beckoned, but it was another of his personas that would make Baron Cohen a global phenomenon. One of the more popular segments of Da Ali G Show was a regular report from Borat Sagdiyev, billed as a ‘Kazakhstani' correspondent in the United Kingdom. In Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, Baron Cohen took Borat on a ‘mockumentary' tour of the US that turned out to be an enormous box-office hit and secured him an Oscar nomination in 2007 for best adapted screenplay.

It also gave rise to several controversies. Baron Cohen was sued by villagers from a Romanian town, where a part of the movie was filmed, who claimed the movie made them look like savages. Even the Kazakh government briefly threatened to sue. Both lawsuits were dismissed. and that the film had been misrepresented to them. Another suit was brought by two students who claimed they had been misled while drunk into taking part in the movie.

The movie showcased a darker, more edgy side to Baron Cohen. Although Ali G was a likeable character, Borat's misogyny and antiSemitism provided a more sinister twist on the innocent abroad persona. But the undisguised, if innocently uttered, prejudices of Borat also seemed to loosen up his subjects, many of whom gave vent to prejudices of their own. In one memorable scene, Borat, wielding a guitar, manages to make punters at a bar sing along with a song whose lyrics include: "throw the Jew down the well".

Borat has reportedly retired. Baron Cohen is currently working on a movie featuring a third persona from Da Ali G Show, that of Bruno, a gay Austrian fashion show presenter whose vacuous antics often force his guests into highly embarrassing contradictions.

The movie is tentatively titled, Bruno: Delicious Journeys Through America for the Purpose of Making Heterosexual Males Visibly Uncomfortable in the Presence of a Gay Foreigner in a Mesh T-Shirt. Though this is not the United States, and Bruno is no German rock star and looks different to the description offered by Mr Alpher - who only suspected the involvement of Baron Cohen after a conversation with his children - the over-the-top homosexual stereotype and the German accent fits well enough. Perhaps Br no is branching out into "serious" journalism.

Perhaps Baron Cohen, himself from an Orthodox Jewish background, has decided the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is ripe for some mickey-taking.

Mr Alpher, who wrote that Baron Cohen was exploiting "our tragic and painful conflict in the most cynical and deceptive manner", said he would nevertheless see the movie - it is due for release in May - even if both he and his Palestinian counterpart had sought legal advice to see if they could prevent the interview from being screened.

They might take some comfort in the fact that they join a select list of prominent personalities from sport stars David Beckham and Shaquille O'Neill to politicians James Baker III and Boutros Boutros-Ghali to have been duped by Baron Cohen in his various guises.

Failing that they may seek solace in the suggestion of their host that the Palestinian- Israeli conflict could be solved if only the Jews gave back the Pyramids.

Marc Chagall eller Mojsje Zacharovitj Sjagalov (Moyshe Segal på jiddisch), föddes den 7 juli 1887 i Vitebsk, Vitryssland (i dåv. Ryssland), vilket gör att han hade Solen i Kräftans känsliga, mottagliga och ofta familjeälskande tecken. Marc Chagall var en vitrysk expressionistisk konstnär av judisk börd, som dog 28 mars 1985 i Saint-Paul-de-Vence, Provence, Frankrike, efter att ha levt bla i Sovjetunionen och USA.
Det enda originalverk som jag beskådat av Chagall, mig veterligt, är hans glasmålningar i Jerusalem. Det skedde i samband med att jag besökte brorsan Rick, som bor i Holon, en förstad till Tel Aviv i Israel.

Modellen från 1910

Läs även andra bloggares åsikter om Israel, Holon, Tel Aviv, Vitryssland, Marc Chagall, Konst, Kultur, Astrologi, Kräftan, Egoorienterat, Rick, Familj, Expressionism, Biografi, Wikipedia, Allmänbildning

"Hamas has built an "organizational system that, if necessary, could serve as the basis for a state," a senior IDF official told Haaretz."
Meaning a Palestinian state that Israel will not allow in defiance of International law and the international community.

"Hamas-affiliated institutions that were targeted so far include schools, health centers, charities, and even soup kitchens and orphanages. Dozens of associations were shut down and the food confiscated."
So basically anything that helps the Palestinian people survive and allows them to at least pretend that they are living a normal lifestyle will be shut down.

"A senior IDF officer said the IDF...is the primary obstacle to a Hamas takeover of the West Bank. "
Hamas, the same organization that won the Palestinian elections?

Complete report from Haaretz:

The Israel Defense Forces will soon be stepping up its campaign against Hamas' civilian infrastructure in the West Bank, shutting down a large number of Hamas-affiliated charities, confiscating their property, and searching computers and documents that detail their activity.

The IDF has been carrying out similar raids in the Hebron, Qalqilyah and Ramallah areas since the beginning of the year, but the campaign will now be expanded to additional parts of the West Bank, in the wake of approval from Israel's legal authorities.

After receiving permission to seize property that provides Hamas-affiliated associations with income, even if they are not directly linked to terrorism, the IDF has shut down a mall in Hebron, confiscated buses and prohibited the opening of a new school in Hebron due to ties with Hamas-linked Islamic associations. Offices and storehouses have also been shut down.
 
The IDF argues that closing Hamas-affiliated institutions cuts off a crucial source of funding earmarked for terror activities. The move is also aimed at making it difficult for Hamas to increase its influence in the West Bank, in a bid to stem Hamas' rising popularity and keep it from wresting control from the Palestinian Authority.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi and Shin Bet security service chief Yuval Diskin have approved the plan to target Hamas' civilian infrastructure.

Over the last few years, Hamas has built an "organizational system that, if necessary, could serve as the basis for a state," a senior IDF official told Haaretz. "It's simply a 'state of associations.' They accumulate a lot of popular support and rely on an enormous infusion of funds from abroad, to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars a year, from bodies in Saudi Arabia, the Gulf states and Muslim communities in Europe, the United States and South America."

A senior IDF officer said the IDF, which is curbing Hamas' military capability and preventing it from challenging the Palestinian Authority more directly, is the primary obstacle to a Hamas takeover of the West Bank.

"They have knowledge, funds and skilled people, much more so than Fatah," the officer said. "They won the elections in many towns and local authorities, and they are gradually gaining control of more education, health, welfare and religious institutions."

But the officer said the IDF was fighting what he called a "rearguard battle."

"We're talking about strengthening the moderate elements  that is, the Palestinian Authority  but actually the PA has little control over the area. Hamas has taken over all the associations  not just blatantly Islamic bodies, but also those that used to be under PA control. The Palestinian public prefers Hamas, because they are less corrupt and more efficient."

But although the IDF is targeting Hamas-affiliated institutions, the IDF officer notes that "we have not yet declared war on Hamas." He said such a move would need to be undertaken by the state as a whole, rather than "local work" carried out by the IDF and Shin Bet.

Hamas-affiliated institutions that were targeted so far include schools, health centers, charities, and even soup kitchens and orphanages. Dozens of associations were shut down and the food confiscated.

Several dozen indictments have been issued thus far, and some operatives have been convicted and sentenced to jail terms. Police have also begun investigating suspected money-laundering and the transfer of terror funds. Unlike in the past, when seized intelligence information was left in storage for years because there weren't enough experts to translate and analyze it, this time a team of translators was set up to deal with the seized material.

"This campaign is what most disturbs Hamas in the West Bank," said a senior official. "But this is only the beginning of the effort, and we need more activities and more resources. When it comes to these matters, you can't compare the efficiency of the security forces to the level of effectiveness developed by the army and the Shin Bet over the last few years, in everything related to stopping the terror of suicide bombers from the West Bank."

Der unbefangene Konsument solcher vollmundigen Ankuendigungen muss davon ausgehen, dass das Haus innerhalb der naechsten Tage ein Truemmerhaufen ist, nicht wahr?

Denkste:

Der Hintergrund ist eine gute Einfuehrung in die Tuecken der Buerokratie. Das Haus der Familie Dawyyat wurde wenigstens teilweise ohne die noetigen Genehmigungen gebaut. Deshalb hat die Stadt Jerusalem schon vor vier Jahren um eine Gerichtsverfuegung angesucht, um das Haus niederreissen zu duerfen. Der Hausbesitzer, der Vater des Terroristen, hat mehrere Einsprueche dagegen eingelegt, den letzten im April dieses Jahres. Das fuehrte dazu, dass das Gericht jedes Niederreissen bis April 2009 unmoeglich gemacht hat.

Wir lernen daraus, dass es sinnvoll sein kann, ohne Genehmigungen zu bauen. Waere der Bau ganz legal gewesen, stuende dem Abriss jetzt nichts im Weg.

Dieser Vorgang sollte auch denen zu denken geben, die Israel unterstellen, skrupellos palaestinensische Haeuser einreissen zu lassen.

Left-wing activists later videoed a settler kicking Madahat Abu-Kirash, the victim, as he remained tied up and was surrounded by Israeli security forces. The soldiers subsequently removed the settler from the scene.

Hebron police opened an investigation into the incident after Abu-Kirash submitted a complaint, claiming that he had been beaten all over his body.

Ref: Haaretz

Israel has successfully tested a new defence system designed to intercept rockets fired from southern Lebanon and the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, public radio reported on Sunday.

The "Iron Dome" system is expected to be fully operational within a year and will be able to intercept the military-grade Katyusha rockets used by Lebanon's Hezbollah militia and the cruder Qassam rockets favoured by Hamas.

Citing Israeli security officials, public radio said the system would also be effective against mortar fire which has a much smaller window of warning.

In January Prime Minister Ehud Olmert viewed a prototype of the 200-million-dollar (140-million-euro) system, which is being developed under contract by Rafael Advanced Defence Systems, an Israeli arms manufacturer.

Iron Dome is part of a multi-layered defence system aimed at protecting Israel from both short-range missiles fired by militants in Gaza or Lebanon and longer-range missiles in the arsenals of regional foes Iran and Syria.

Since the outbreak of the latest Palestinian uprising in 2000 Israeli communities near the border with the Gaza Strip have come under frequent rocket and mortar attack, leaving them in a constant state of fear.

The attacks have slowed since a truce between Israel and Hamas came into force on June 19, but the fragile Egyptian-brokered agreement has been tested by occasional rockets and mortar rounds fired by smaller armed groups.

Israel also came under sustained attack during its 2006 war with Hezbollah, when more than 4,000 Katyusha rockets were launched at northern Israel in 34 days, sending hundreds of thousands of residents fleeing south.

Will the Hamas scum and other assorted jihadist slime stop sending rockets because of this, don't think so folks. If the roles were reversed, do you think the wipe-Israel-off-the-map Pali crowd would let food, fuel etc into Israel. Would they treat Jewish people in their hospital. I think we all know the answer to that.

Words above and video below posted by AlJazeeraEnglish

Part 1

Part 2

Israel's curry queen, Reena Pushkarna's Tandoori restaurant was specially called upon to cater to the honoured guests that included some foreign dignitaries.

''It's a great honour. It's the first time that guests at American Independence Day celebrations here were treated to Indian food. It shows the growing acceptance of Indian cuisine across the globe and that it can also serve as a means of diplomacy'', Reena said.

Tandoori in Tel Aviv has indeed served in promoting diplomatic process in the region as the first location of choice for peace talks between the Israelis, Palestinians and Norwegians.

When BBC telecasted the first handshake between Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian leader Yaser Arafat on the lawns of White House it suddenly showed Tandoori saying that the peace talks did not commence in Jerusalem or in Oslo, but in the Indian restaurant based in Tel Aviv.

A household name in Israel, Reena has been dubbed by the local media as 'the most successful Indian in Israel', 'our beautiful lady of Indian food' and 'India's unofficial cultural envoy to Israel'.

Widely credited with introducing Indian culture in Israel, Reena and her husband, Vinod Pushkarna, have been awarded by the Israel-India Chamber of Commerce in recognition of the ''goodwill engendered'' by their efforts.

Reena, however, reminisces that the going was not so easy when she started the business some two decades ago.

''Unlike in America and England where it is easier to launch such a business due to the substantial presence of the Indian community, in Israel I had to start from the scratch.

There were some persons who would make strange faces at the mention of Indian food then,'' she said.

But now, Reena's business empire breaches Israeli territories extending out to other markets in the West. She today owns six Indian restaurants spread across the major cities in Israel.

Courtesy :- NDTV

Warning

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This video may contain images depicting the reality and horror of war/violence and should only be viewed by a mature audience.

AlJazeeraEnglish

Israeli troops are sealing off the Palestinian village of Ni'lin in the occupied West Bank.

Villagers in Ni'lin are trying to stop the latest stretch of Israel's separation wall from cutting them off from their farmland.

Israel says the barrier is being built to keep out Palestinian suicide bombers.

Construction sites are flashpoints for confrontations between Israeli security forces and Palestinians, who are often supported by left-wing protesters from Israel and abroad.

David Chater, Al Jazeera's correspondent in the West Bank, filed this exclusive report.