This song sung by Baruch Levine is part of the prayer that Mrs. Carl and many other Jewish women say on Friday evening after they light the Sabbath candles. In this prayer, women ask to raise Jewish children and grandchildren who are God-loving and worshiping Torah scholars. I hope all of my Jewish readers will have this privilege and that you will have lots of nachas (and only nachas) from your offspring.
Let's go to the videotape. It's beautiful.
Have a wonderful Shabbos everyone. It's great to be back home. And God willing by Motzei Shabbos (when the Sabbath ends), I won't be jet lagged anymore....
Here's one way Republicans can attract Jewish voters: Nominate strongly pro-Israel candidates like former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani (pdf link) (Hat Tip: Rosner's Domain).
But, what if Giuliani makes a bid for the U.S. Senate? Giuliani leads U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, the Democrat appointed by Governor David Paterson to fill the vacant seat left by Hillary Clinton. 54% of registered voters statewide would vote for Giuliani compared with 40% who would support Gillibrand. Even one-third of Democrats report they would back the Republican challenger, and Giuliani runs competitively against Gillibrand in overwhelmingly Democratic New York City.
Giuliani wins among Catholics, Protestants and Jews. Here's the breakdown by religion:
5. A September 2006 World Bank survey of education in Judea, Samaria and Gaza documented a 32% distortion of Arab births by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. According to the bank, the Arab demographic decline resulted from a drop in fertility and a rise in emigration.
6. The decline in Arab population growth follows a twenty year surge, which was a result of the post-1967 access to Israel's health infrastructure. The decline has been caused by urbanization (from a 70% rural to a 70% urban population in Judea and Samaria), unprecedented expansion of the education system, especially among women, and family planning.
7. Net-emigration has accelerated the fall of the Arab population growth rate in Judea and Samaria. From 1950 to 2009, there have been only six years of net-immigration. Net-emigration skyrocketed during the 1950-1967 Jordanian occupation, slowed down drastically following 1967, in response to the enhancement of health, education and employment, surged as a result of the 2000 Intifadah and shifted to a higher gear in 2006, due to the rise of Hamas and the Hamas-PLO war.
8. The Arab fertility rate in Judea and Samaria declined to four births per woman and is trending downward. According to the UN Population Division, the decline typifies all Muslim countries other than Afghanistan and Yemen. For example, Jordan (a "twin-sister" of Judea and Samaria) has three births per woman, Iran – 1.7, Egypt – 2.5, Syria – 3.5 and Algeria – 1.8 births per woman.
9. The Judea and Samaria Arab population of 1.55 million – and not 2.5 million as claimed by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics – was documented in December 2008: a 66% distortion!
'Palestinian' demographics are not a reason for Israel to give up its security. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
Haaretz reports that Fatah is preparing a third 'intifada.' But this one is meant to be different from the previous two.
One of the movement's top officials interviewed by Hadith Anas said the third intifada will have a widespread popular base, adding, however, that unlike the previous popular struggle against Israel, which was sparked in September 2000, the movement will not endorse an armed struggle or the use of firearms.
"We want thousands of Palestinians to demonstrate daily near the settlements of the occupation, carrying out a human siege, and calling for the end of the occupation," one senior official said.
According to the report, Fatah chief and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas agreed to the resolution in principle, stipulating only that the struggle mustn't become a violent one.
Sources estimate that Abbas could prepare the conditions which would allow for such a move by stepping down as PA President as well as by declaring the dissolution of the PA by the end of the year.
Fatah holds out its first 'intifada' as being a non-violent one, and as being a model for the upcoming 'struggle.'
"The first intifada gained significant diplomatic ground as far as the Palestinians are concerned since its symbol, a boy throwing rocks at a tank, made it impossible for Israel to claim it was defending itself against terror as it did in the second intifada, followings the city-center bombings," the official said.
Funny. I doubt that Dov Kalmanovich (pictured above) would consider the first 'intifada' non-violent or its symbol to be a boy throwing rocks at a tank.
Fox News is reporting that - once again - a deal is near to release kidnapped IDF corporal Gilad Shalit. As usual, the price is 1,000 'Palestinian' terrorists, of whom 450 are bloody murderers. Fox is reporting that Israel has refused 70 names on the list and has said that it prefers seeing Shalit remaining a hostage to releasing these 70 terrorists. So Hamas, which is supposedly determined to do a deal by next Friday, has proposed 70 more names.
A source tells Fox News that Israel has rejected 70 out of the 450 specific names. Israeli negotiators told German mediators those prisoners would remain in behind bars, even if it means Shalit remains a hostage.
The source says Hamas responded with 70 new names, which are on their way to be reviewed by Israeli negotiators.
Hamas has already indicated an intention to finish the prisoner exchange by November 27, in time for the Muslim holiday Eid Al Adha.
Once an agreement has been reached on the details of the prisoner exchange, Hamas will first hand Shalit over to Egypt. President Hosni Mubarak will be personally tasked with securing Shalit’s safety. Israel will release the prisoners. Only then will Shalit be returned to Israel to re-unite with his family after more than 3 years captivity in the Gaza strip.
This means that Israel has agreed to release 380 murderers already. Why? For that matter, why are we releasing any terrorists at all? Why are we 'negotiating'? What could go wrong?
By the way, the comments over at Fox are astounding.
Former Director General of the Prime Minister's Office Yossi Ben Aharon, who was in charge of Prime Minister Shamir's office in the early '90's, says that the United States is squeezing Israel on Gilo because Prime Minister Netanyahu - like the toilet paper in the Charmin commercial - is squeezable.
Former prime ministers knew how to be tough with the U.S., Ben Aharon told Arutz Sheva. “When [President Jimmy] Carter tried to pull a stunt on [Prime Minister Menachem] Begin and put Jerusalem on the negotiation table, Begin answered him in an unmistakable manner: 'If I forget thee Jerusalem, may my right arm wither.'
"When Bush the father tried to pressure Shamir to freeze settlements, Shamir used a very efficient tactic. Without getting into confrontations, he simply created a tough image. He knew how to safeguard Israel's interests. Then-Secretary of State James Baker knew there were certain subjects one could not raise with Shamir. When he mentioned the settlements, Shamir would look at him without answering. There was a red line here that Shamir would not let anyone cross. Netanyahu, too, can do the same thing.
"Netanyahu has created the impression of a squeezable man and this operates to his detriment,” Ben Aharon elaborated. “Obama's aides tell him 'Netanyahu is squeezable, so let's squeeze him'... Now they have reached the Gilo neighborhood because they see that the pressure on Netanyahu yields results.”
Why is Netanyahu so easy to squeeze? Perhaps because unlike Shamir and Begin, Netanyahu is not committed to retaining Judea and Samaria, but only to his own electoral prospects.
And for those who don't remember please don't squeeze the Charmin, let's go to the videotape.
If anyone still needs to ask whose side they're on, you haven't been watching the news. J Street, the pro-Israel pro-'peace' organization, issued the following response to Sarah Palin's comments about Israel in her interview with Barbara Walters.
J Street rejects Sarah Palin’s comments attacking President Obama’s sensible policy on Israeli settlements in the West Bank yesterday during an ABC News interview with Barbara Walters.
Palin’s pandering to her right-wing base comes at the expense of the security of the State of Israel, the lives of those actually living the conflict, and the fundamental American interest in achieving a two-state solution in the near term. Her words reveal a glaring ignorance of damaging facts and a callous disregard of past and present U.S. policy.
For decades, American presidents have held that Israeli settlements in the West Bank are an impediment to peace. They are joined by the majority of Israelis and pro-Israel Americans who view the growing settlement enterprise as a threat to Israel’s very future as a Jewish democracy.
President Obama’s administration continued along that path yesterday, rightly and sensibly expressing concern with unilateral actions on both sides that would preempt the negotiation of final status issues that are necessary to achieve a two-state solution to the conflict.
J Street supports President Obama and Middle East Peace Envoy George Mitchell as they press the parties to begin the hard work of achieving a two-state solution, the only way to secure Israel’s future as a Jewish, democratic homeland.
Whose side are they on? Not Israel's side. The vast majority of Jewish Israelis do not believe that 'settlements' are an 'impediment to peace.' The 'impediment to peace' is the 'Palestinian' refusal to accept a State of Israel of any size in this region. The vast majority of Israelis do not believe that the 'settlement enterprise' is a threat to Israel's future as a Jewish democracy.
But J Street continues to blindly support President Obumbler. When he is thrown out of office in 2012, will J Street fall into the dustbin of history? I sure hope so.
This was the big story in the US the last couple of days that I was there (especially in New York). I don't know how much play it's gotten in Israel, but it's important for Israelis to understand it.
Khaleed Sheikh Muhammad, the alleged mastermind of 9/11, is to be brought to a civilian trial in New York on charges of murdering more than 3,000 people at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and Flight 93 in Pennsylvania. Muhammad, who is currently being held as a prisoner of war in the Guantanamo military base in Cuba, and therefore has no rights under American law, has asked to be put to death. That's not good enough for the Obama administration. They insist on trying him in a civilian court and not in a military court, and they will bring him to New York to do this.
To give you an idea of how poorly this has been thought out, Attorney General Eric Holder was asked in a Senate hearing earlier this week what would happen if KSM was acquitted in a jury trial. Would he be released in New York? Holder's response: "Failure is not an option." Huh?
I can't wait to see what happens when the prosecution uses all their peremptory challenges (the right to challenge jurors' impartiality without explaining why) to exclude all Muslims (they'd be fools not to use them that way). Will the prosecution be accused of discrimination? Will we have a hearing in front of the Supreme Court to determine whether the prosecution discriminated illegally against Muslims? It's already been held that you can't use peremptory challenges to exclude jurors based on race.
On top of that, as you might imagine, New Yorkers are living in fear of having this terrorist in their midst - fear that someone will try to spring him from prison and murder more New Yorkers in the process. What could go wrong?
Finally, there's the moral logic. It's not as if Holder opposes military commissions on principle. On the same day he sent KSM to a civilian trial in New York, Holder announced he was sending Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, (accused) mastermind of the attack on the USS Cole, to a military tribunal.
By what logic? In his congressional testimony Wednesday, Holder was utterly incoherent in trying to explain. In his Nov. 13 news conference, he seemed to be saying that if you attack a civilian target, as in 9/11, you get a civilian trial; a military target like the Cole, and you get a military tribunal.
What a perverse moral calculus. Which is the war crime -- an attack on defenseless civilians or an attack on a military target such as a warship, an accepted act of war that the United States itself has engaged in countless times?
By what possible moral reasoning, then, does KSM, who perpetrates the obvious and egregious war crime, receive the special protections and constitutional niceties of a civilian courtroom, while he who attacked a warship is relegated to a military tribunal?
Moreover, the incentive offered any jihadist is as irresistible as it is perverse: Kill as many civilians as possible on American soil and Holder will give you Miranda rights, a lawyer, a propaganda platform -- everything but your own blog.
Alternatively, Holder tried to make the case that he chose a civilian New York trial as a more likely venue for securing a conviction. An absurdity: By the time Barack Obama came to office, KSM was ready to go before a military commission, plead guilty and be executed. It's Obama who blocked a process that would have yielded the swiftest and most certain justice.
The lesson here for Israelis is that we should not expect any help or understanding from the Obama administration if we have to go on a spree of targeted killings of terrorist leaders. We won't get it regardless of how many Israelis are God forbid killed. We have to liquidate the terrorists regardless of Obama's reaction. Even if the American leadership is willing to abdicate the defense of its citizens, Israelis cannot follow.
I'm back in Israel, still jet lagged but hopefully the Sabbath will take care of that. On top of everything else, my replacement flight from London arrived nearly two hours late, which was why I did not post last night.
The IDF has embarked on a witch hunt against combat soldiers who express support for settlersrevenants. The witch hunt follows an incident last month in which IDF soldiers from the Shimshon Brigade raised signs supporting the expelled Jews of Homesh at the Brigade's swearing in ceremony.
An act of insubordination was thwarted at the last minute in the Kfir Brigade's training base on Thursday when commanders discovered a sign reading "Kfir does not expel Jews" drying in the sun, moments before soldiers planned to hang it from a nearby building.
The sign was the third prepared by soldiers from the Kfir Brigade. Earlier this week, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu warned that insubordination in the IDF was a threat to all of Israeli society.
On Monday, four soldiers hung a banner reading "Nahshon also does not expel" from the roof of a building at their base to protest the razing of two illegal structures near the Negohot settlement. Two of the soldiers were sentenced to 20 and 14 days in the brig, respectively, while two others were sentenced to four-week confinement.
Insubordination means refusing to follow orders and ought not to affect freedom of speech.
The IDF is concerned that these signs represent a 'new trend.' Apparently, it is concerned that the next time the IDF is ordered to expel revenants, many soldiers will refuse to play along. The real question is why these signs are being displayed in the IDF and not in Israeli society in general. Are we all asleep?
The picture at the top is of IDF soldier Avi Bieber (who made aliya from the same town in the US as I did) who was sentenced to the maximum prison sentence for refusing to follow an order to expel Jews from Gaza. For those who say "he ought to have been sentenced because you have to follow orders in the army," please consider that the IDF has a rule that one is forbidden to follow patently illegal orders. Was the order to expel Jews 'illegal'? The courts have concluded that they were not, but a lot of people here feel that there's room for debate on that issue.
Sarah Palin told ABC's Barbara Walters on Wednesday night that the Obumbler has gotten it all wrong on Israel and the 'Palestinians.'
Palin, whose book, "Going Rogue: An American Life," hit bookshelves today, took aim at the Obama administration's stance on Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territories.
"I disagree with the Obama administration on that," Palin told Walters. "I believe that the Jewish settlements should be allowed to be expanded upon, because that population of Israel is, is going to grow. More and more Jewish people will be flocking to Israel in the days and weeks and months ahead. And I don't think that the Obama administration has any right to tell Israel that the Jewish settlements cannot expand."
I saw the book all over the place on Tuesday and Wednesday. But there's no index so I couldn't find what she has written about Israel, if anything.
But I'm not surprised. Although she's been brutalized by the leftist media in the US, Sarah Palin seems to have her head on pretty straight (and for those of you who want to criticize her about her daughter, you've probably never raised a teenager - they do what they want once they get to a certain age).
But God had other plans. For those of you in the New York area who heard about "60 minute delays on the inbound George Washington Bridge" before Wednesday night's rush hour, I was stuck in them. I missed my flight from New York to London, and I am now sitting in London waiting for another connection. I'll try to post a bit from here, but it will probably be Friday before things go back to normal.
Sorry.
No, the picture at the top is not from last night, and no, I did not take it. It's now illegal to take pictures or videos on the George Washington Bridge (yes, really).
As you watch this video, I will hopefully be somewhere out over the Atlantic Ocean on my way back to Israel (I leave New York just before 7:00 Wednesday night - about an hour before this video is expected to go up God willing). By sometime on Thursday, blogging should be back to normal unless I'm too tired.
I don't know who made this video, but the song is a beautiful and well-known one. It calls on us to pour out our hearts like water in prayer before God.
Israel Aerospace moves some production to Starkville, Mississippi
Israel Aerospace is moving some of its production to its Stark Aerospace subsidiary in Starkville, Mississippi, a move that is designed to increase sales in the United States market. But on one in Israel is going to lose their job over this. IAI is selling more drones.
Yesterday IAI cut the ribbon, as it were, on its new Stark plant to manufacture and assemble drones (small pilotless planes). Stark will also be making the electronic and electro-optic systems used by the drones. IAI commented, however, that none of the workers engaged in building drones in Israel will be fired. They will simply build drones for other countries. Brazil placed a roughly $300 million order just last week.
One reason for the move is that many Western countries, and this includes the U.S. prefer to buy armaments and other defense gear from local companies. Therefore, to increase sales outside Israel, Israel's defense companies have to set up subsidiaries in target markets, rather than expand local manufacturing.
IAI set up Stark in 2006 to drum up business in America. The following year inaugurated its first production outfit, which makes Hunter unmanned vehicles that it sells through Northrop Grumman. In fact, the U.S. armed forces have been using Hunter drones since the early 1990s.
Altogether IAI is investing about $25 million in the Stark production facilities, where it has built laboratories, manufacturing and systems integration units and production lines.
Stark has another plant in Columbus, Ohio that provides manufacturing, assembly and maintenance services for electro-optic plug-in optronic payload (POP) made by IAI for Shadow drones.
Tonight's overnight music video is overnight US time and not Israeli time. Sorry. When I did the seven or so posts that preceded this one, I was in a conference room waiting for a friend to get off a call and couldn't start running music videos for obvious reasons.
This is Mordechai Ben David's Im Yismameah Chakeh Lo By Shauli Waldner and EvanAl Orchestra, Eli Lax-guitar, Shabsi Brodie-drums, Shloimy Cohen-Sax, Tony Gorruso-Trumpet, Motti Weiss-Keyboard. Chaim Rosenblatt. Video By Motty Engel.
No crisis? US openly criticizes construction in Gilo
Israel is claiming that there is 'no crisis' in its relations with the United States after blunt American criticism of housing construction in Gilo, a neighborhood of southern Jerusalem that is within the city limits.
Netanyahu's associates attempted to minimize the implications of the American and British criticism following the plan to expand the neighborhood, which is located beyond the Green Line, hinting that the Americans must clarify in public why they oppose the construction.
"The Americans know very well that the Israeli agreement to freeze the construction does not include Jerusalem," one of the sources said.
The aides chose to address the American response only, ignoring the even harsher criticism voiced by Britain. "The Americans are well aware of the prime minister's stand on the matter, and therefore it would be a mistake to refer to the Americans' statements as a crisis. There are things that are not seen by everyone," one of the sources said, expressing his confidence that the tension would be over within a week.
The Prime Minister's Office said in a statement that the approval issued by the regional construction and planning committee was a routine procedure. "Building permits in Jerusalem's municipal borders, as in Israel's other cities like Tel Aviv and Jaffa, do not reach the prime minister's table."
The statement added that "the Gilo neighborhood is an integral part of Jerusalem, just like Ramot Eshkol, Rehavia, the French Hill, and Pisgat Ze'ev. [While these are closer to city center neighborhoods, the latter two are also over the green line, Rehavia is within the former city limits and Ramat Eshkol is in what was no man's land. CiJ] There is a broad national agreement on this matter. The construction in Gilo has been going on for decades, and there is nothing new in the current planning and construction procedures."
The state officials hinted that the remarks made by Washington were simply a show. "The Americans want the entire issue of the territories to be clarified in the permanent agreement, and don't want the sides – mainly Israel – to create facts on the ground. However, Israel's stand on the matter is unequivocal – Jerusalem will not be part of any discussion on reducing construction," one of the sources said.
Obama's not going to let up on this, but given the broad consensus within Israel, I doubt Israelis are going to yield to Obama on it either. A year from now, if election results favor the Republicans, maybe Obama will be forced to let up, but for now, we Israelis are going to have to live with this criticism without getting all hysterical about it. While Obama may want to make a radical change in US relations with Israel, it's doubtful that he has the support in Congress or in American public opinion to make it.
Incredibly, the IAEA's feckless outgoing chief, Mohamed ElBaradei, is proposing lifting sanctions against Iran, in a bid to secure consensus and his own legacy.
According to a draft document seen by The Times, the 13-point agreement was drawn up in September by Mohamed ElBaradei, the directorgeneral of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), in an effort to break the stalemate over Iran’s nuclear programme before he stands down at the end of this month.
The IAEA denied the existence of the document, which was leaked to The Times by one of the parties alarmed at the contents. Its disclosure was made as the agency warned that Iran could be hiding multiple secret nuclear sites.
Despite the assessment, diplomats believed that Mr ElBaradei was hoping to agree the outline of a deal with Tehran that he could present to the US, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany as a solution to the impasse.
It was thought that Mr ElBaradei was anxious to secure his legacy after infighting over his perceived weakness in dealing with Iran.
The plan would require the UN Security Council to revoke the three existing sanctions and five resolutions ordering Iran to halt its uranium enrichment — an unthinkable development at a time when the West is focused on how to impose more, not fewer, sanctions on Iran.
Russia and China, who have commercial ties with Iran and have been pressing for a compromise, may see merit in the plan, however.
Shocka: IAEA says Iran has more nuclear facilities
The New York Times reports that the IAEA is 'highly skeptical' that the Qom facility is the only Iranian nuclear facility that had not been reported to the IAEA as of September.
In unusually tough language, the International Atomic Energy Agency appeared highly skeptical that Iran would have built the enrichment plant without also constructing a variety of other facilities that would give it an alternative way to produce nuclear fuel if its main centers were bombed. So far, Iran has denied that it built other hidden sites in addition to the one deep underground on a military base about 12 miles north of the holy city of Qum. The inspectors were given access to the plant late last month and reported that they had found it in “an advanced state” of construction, but that no centrifuges — the fast-spinning machines needed to make nuclear fuel — had yet been installed.
The inspectors said Iran had “provided access to all areas of the facility” and planned to complete it by 2011. They also said they had been unable to interview its director and designers.
The inspectors confirmed American and European intelligence reports that the site had been built to house about 3,000 centrifuges, enough to produce enough material for one or two nuclear weapons a year. But that is too small to be useful in the production of fuel for civilian nuclear power, which is what Iran insists is the intended purpose of the site.
Actually, there is something shocking about this report: It's shocking that the IAEA has actually admitted it. I wonder if that would have happened if Mohamed ElBaradei were not leaving his post next month.
US to veto 'Palestinian statehood' move in Security Council
The Times of London seems to take for granted that the US would use its veto to prevent a 'Palestinian statehood' move from passing the UN Security Council.
Yet it is virtually certain that the Obama Administration, possibly using procedural devices with European help, will block the Palestinians’ latest request for the Security Council to recognise the state of Palestine.
By going to the UN, the Palestinians hope to put the Obama Administration on the spot, after its perceived recent tilt towards Israel on West Bank settlements. The US, however, will almost certainly continue to insist that recognition of a Palestinian state must follow, not precede, final status negotiations. Although the Palestinians need Security Council recognition to qualify as a UN member state, they do not need to be a UN member state to be able to accede to various international treaties. Some European diplomats are urging them to do so. The Palestinian Authority, for instance, has already asked the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to pursue alleged Israeli war crimes in this year’s Gaza war.
I find it hard to believe that the US under Obama will use its veto in the Security Council to stop anything. They are ideologically opposed to using the veto because it conflicts with their internationalist philosophy in which all countries are created equal.
The IAEA has rejected Syria's explanation for the presence of uranium traces near the site of its destroyed al-Kibar nuclear plant and near a smaller facility in Damascus. The IAEA says Syria is lying.
IAEA inspectors have found and analysed traces of man-made uranium, both at that site - known as al-Kibar or Dair Alzour - and at a small research reactor in Damascus.
"The results do not support Syria's earlier explanation for the origin and presence of the particles," IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei said in his report.
Following the IAEA's tests, Syrian officials have now dropped their explanation that the traces of uranium found in Damascus was contamination brought in with other equipment.
According to a senior official close to the Vienna-based agency, Syria now says that the material could be connected to experiments that were so far not known to the Vienna-based inspectors. The official said that this new version of events still had to be verified, but could be plausible.
The nature of the reported experiments was not made clear.
...
The IAEA has made it clear that it does not believe that the uranium particles found at al-Kibar came from Israeli munitions, as Damascus alleges.
Liar, liar, pants on fire! Don't bet on that 'experiements' story proving to be true either. Heh.
The Washington Post takes the Goldstone Commission to task for missing out on the opportunity to provide guidance to governments fighting asymmetrical wars.
Israel refused to cooperate -- and the Goldstone commission proceeded to make a mockery of impartiality with its judgment of facts. It concluded, on scant evidence, that "disproportionate destruction and violence against civilians were part of a deliberate policy" by Israel. At the same time it pronounced itself unable to confirm that Hamas hid its fighters among civilians, used human shields, fired mortars and rockets from outside schools, stored weapons in mosques, and used a hospital for its headquarters, despite abundant available evidence.
By pretending it did not know whether Hamas employed such tactics and by claiming that Israel's actions were driven by a motivation to kill civilians on purpose, rather than to defeat Hamas, the panel dodged the hard issues it should have tackled. It did not seriously attempt to balance civilian deaths against the threats Israel was targeting or to understand the real motivations for the destruction in areas from which rockets were launched at Israeli cities.
As it happens, Israel is ahead of most other nations in managing these issues. In Gaza its forces used thousands of e-mails, phone calls and even non-lethal explosives to warn civilians away from airstrike targets. Its army's criminal division is investigating 45 complaints of abuses.
A broader, government-sanctioned independent investigation is called for: a number of specific allegations in the Goldstone report, one-sided though they are, deserve a full answer. Not just Israel but the United States and many other nations ought to face more pressure to justify the means they use to fight insurgents and terrorists. Sadly, the only thing proved by the Goldstone commission is that the United Nations is incapable of performing that service.
The last sentence of this editorial gets it right, although they also got a couple of things wrong. They said that Goldstone's mandate was changed to an 'unbiased' one - it was never legally changed. And they're wrong about Israel needing more pressure to justify how it fights terrorists.
Goldstone clearly could have provided more guidance for what's legal. When he was asked what a 'proportionate' response would have been two weeks ago during the Brandeis debate, he had no answer.
But that wasn't why Goldstone was appointed. Goldstone and his commission were appointed to provide an international condemnation of Israel (Christine Chinkin's spot on the commission should prove that if anyone needs more proof). And they provided that international condemnation. If that wasn't Goldstone's intention, he's a fool and a tool.
This is the kind of court ruling that makes you wonder whether Israel's legal system really understands what freedom of speech means. Israel's High Court of Justice has barred the use of advertisements on the quasi-private Second Television Channel and the private radio channel Radio Kol Chai, which refer to the 'disengagement' from Gaza as an expulsion of Gaza's Jews (no, the High Court has yet to seek control of my blog, where I refer to it as an expulsion all the time).
The court said the words violated the rules and regulations regarding paid ads of both broadcasting authorities.
"We are talking about a loaded expression on a controversial subject," wrote presiding Justice Elyakim Rubinstein. "The petitioners themselves do not deny this. Therefore the subject falls within the prohibition included in the rules governing both broadcasting authorities."
Israel Radio and the Second Authority rejected an ad submitted by the right-wing petitioner that began, "As we mark three years since the destruction and expulsion from Gush Katif..."
According to another ad, "On the fast of Tisha Be'av and the days around it, we light a memorial candle to mark the expulsion from Gush Katif."
If the forced transfer of 10,000 Jews out of Gaza by 60,000 soldiers and police wasn't an expulsion, what was it?
Freelance journalist Joseph Puder describes what it's like to be a Christian in the 'Palestinian Authority.' It's not pretty.
Rev. Harter was told in whispers, in the privacy of Christian Palestinian families’ homes, about the fears they have of remaining in their towns and living there under the control of a Palestinian state. During his earlier trips, members of the Arab Christian community had expressed great fear for their safety as Israel withdrew from the Bethlehem area and handed it over to Arafat and the Palestinian Authority (PA). According to Harter, Christians under PA control are intimidated into speaking out against Israel and are abused if they seem to accuse the PA of any wrongdoing.
Palestinian Christians, according to researcher Justus Reid Weiner of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, have faced uninterrupted persecution since the Oslo Accords were implemented and Israel handed over the territories to the PA. Weiner asserts that the “very existence of the 2000 year-old Christian community” is in doubt. As a minority in a society governed by strict adherence to Islamic religious law, their leadership has also been intimidated and has abandoned them — choosing to curry favor with the PA leadership rather than acknowledge and speak out against the ever-increasing suffering of Christians under the Palestinian Authority and the more militant Muslim-led Hamas in Gaza.
Christian Palestinians have also been abandoned by the international community — by NGOs and human rights organizations. On their own, this educated Christian community has had to endure anarchy and lawlessness, widespread corruption in the PA security and police forces, and a xenophobic and intolerant Muslim majority.
Lacking protection and subjected to continued abuse including murder, robbery, rape, and physical assault, Christians have begun to emigrate from the Palestinian territories on a massive scale. Back in the 1990s, when this writer asked the late mayor of Bethlehem, Elias Freij, where the Christians of his city are, he pointed west and said, “You can see them in Santiago de Chile.” Former U.S. Congressman J.C. Watts attributed the departure of the Palestinian Christians to having been “driven out by the steady persecution of the PA and the realization that they will face worse treatment under a possible future Palestinian state.”
Article 5 of the draft constitution of the Palestinian Authority unequivocally declares: “In the State of Palestine Islam will be the official religion. … Sharia Islamic law will be the primary source of legislation.” Although that same article also “guarantees that monotheistic religions (Christianity and Judaism) will be respected and that the state will provide for freedom of worship,” the best that Christians (Jews do not live under PA control) can expect from the PA is dhimmitude — the discriminatory social and legal status “provided” to the Peoples of the Book.
...
Attempts by both the George W. Bush and Obama administrations to prop up the Palestinian Authority in general and Mahmud Abbas in particular have resulted in greater human rights abuses which have been grossly overlooked purely for political reasons. The U.S. State Department’s annual report on International Religious Freedom regularly ignores the abuses by the PA for political expediency as well. All of this has contributed to the further endangerment of the future of the Christian community in the Palestinian territories.
Read it all. How many Christians are pushing for a 'Palestinian state' anyway?
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for twenty-eight years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 5 to 25 years and one grandson. Our eldest daughter and eldest son are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
