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Reporting on the Middle East, Science, and Education for March 12, 2010 - כ"ו אדר תש"ע
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Richard on Hamas Occupies Palestinian Lands.
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Most of the PA declarations, therefore, about Israel’s “intransigence” in building this apartment building or that are a form of semaphore, mostly directed to the EU – we can’t be expected to offer our people a free press or end incitement to terrorism while we’re under Zionist occupation so please keep giving us aid
By Stephanie Gutmann , Telegraph UK, March 11th, 2010
Like many of my friends in Israel I am still scratching my head over the announcement by Israeli Interior Minister Eli Yishai that he will grant construction permits in contested East Jerusalem — just as Vice President Biden swanned into town to play Big White Peace Broker between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
The announcement seems to have temporarily sabotaged talks that Biden was eager to set up… now, chop-chop (Air Force Two is idling on the runway for goodness sake!) and he has reacted in his characteristic over-the-top way, by saying that the lack of an agreement over Palestine, is “endangering US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
Oh please. Like what’s really irking the Taliban and Al-Qaeda is the placement of borders over in Palestine. If there was a “final status agreement” everybody would settle down and take up crocheting. The VP’s comment reveals some profound confusion about how the region works.
Almost everyone — Israeli and Palestinian alike — admits in private that with Hamas busy stock-piling Iranian weapons and tightening its law enforcement and Sharia noose on the citizens of the Gaza Strip, there was little chance either side’s leader, Mahmoud Abbas or Bibi Netanyahu, would commit to terms that change the status quo significantly. Both, in their own way, are quite preoccupied with very large existential threats. Whether a border is moved a few miles to the east or west seems quite trivial. A permanent status agreement is merely a trophy the Obama-ites would like to hang on their wall. Both leaders, to a certain extent, will help their friends in the US keep the office walls looking perky, even though those ever-waffling American friends are increasingly less useful to either side. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Islam, Middle East Report, Opinion, Recent Posts on March 12, 2010 - כ"ו אדר תש"ע at 10:11 am
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We call upon our supporters to petition the government of Israel for change, and are inviting all who feel a connection to the place of the Holy Temple to join us as we ascend the Mount.
By Yitzchak Reuven, YNet News, March 12, 2010
Enshrined in Israeli law are two cardinal principles of democracy: freedom of access to places of worship, and the freedom of worship to practitioners of all religions. Successive Israeli governments have proudly and rightly cited Israel’s unflinching assurance of the freedom of worship for Muslims and Christians in the city of Jerusalem. This fact is presented in its case to maintain Jerusalem as a united city under Israeli sovereignty. Ironically, in the very heart of Jerusalem lies a parcel of real estate which has been granted de facto some sort of extra-legal, extraterritorial status, a veritable “wild West” where the rule of law does not exist and the most basic and inalienable democratic rights are not honored. This is the Temple Mount.
The facts on the ground are as such: The Muslim Waqf, controlled by the Palestinian Authority, has been granted absolute say over the administration of the Mount. Illegal destruction of archaeological remains of the first and second Holy Temples takes place on a daily basis, as does illegal construction. The Waqf’s unambiguous and oft-stated aim of this policy is the destruction of evidence of the Holy Temple and the transformation of the entire Temple Mount plateau into one massive Mosque, thus achieving exclusivity to the site for Muslims.
But no less pernicious is the manner in which non-Muslims are treated both atop the Mount and upon approaching it. And this discriminatory policy is enforced by the Israeli police. Non-Muslims are simply not allowed to carry with them a Bible or prayer book and are not allowed to pray. Jews who ascend the Mount, in accordance with Jewish law (first immersing in a ritual bath, and only treading on areas that are permissible according to halacha), are singled out and discriminated against in an abusive, humiliating and derogatory fashion. They are detained at the security booth, their identification cards are inspected (not the case for non-Jews), they are given oral instructions on what they cannot do, (stop in any one spot for more than a few minutes, pray, silently move their lips or sway their bodies. Jews are even warned not to cry, sing or close their eyes).
Furthermore, unlike any other group of human beings ascending the Mount (and thousands of tourists from around the world do so every day), Jews are not allowed to be on the Mount in gatherings of more than 10 or 20 at a time, and they are accompanied during the entire duration of their visit by police officers and a Waqf official to ensure that they do not violate the prohibitions. Needless to say, prayer books, the Tanach, tefillin or a tallit are strictly forbidden. Non-Jews (by and large, non-Israelis), who accompany Jewish visitors to the Mount (and many do so out of a desire to experience the Temple Mount from a Jewish perspective), are accorded the same shabby treatment. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Middle East Report, Monotheistic Religions, Opinion, Recent Posts on March 11, 2010 - כ"ה אדר תש"ע at 10:53 pm
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By Daniel Greenfield, Canada Free Press, March 10, 2010
“I condemn the decision by the government of Israel to advance planning for new housing units in East Jerusalem” —Vice President Joseph Robinette Biden, March 09, 2010
For nearly twenty years the great sham of the Middle East Peace Process has dragged on. And this despicable scam has consisted of only one policy, only one platform and only one plan. Pressuring Israel for more concessions.
Year in and year out, new peace conferences were declared and new plans for peace were hammered out. All of them had one thing in common, they carved up Israel for a non-existent peace. When Arafat and his gang of terrorists made a concession, it was to demand 5 percent less of Israel in the current phase of negotiations. When Israel made a concession, it was to turn over another 10 percent of land to its worst enemies in this phase of negotiations… in exchange for them putting off their demands for that 5 percent into the next phase of the negotiations. And this sick charade in which Israel gave and the terrorists took was the peace process.
While this great surrender process was going on, outside the bombs went on exploding, tearing apart buses, restaurants, malls and families—the politicians and diplomats in charge excused the terrorists and damned Israel if it so much as lifted a finger to defend itself, or erected a single checkpoint to catch at least one of the terrorists on the way to kill a dozen people in Jerusalem. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Islam, Judaism, Opinion, Recent Posts on March 11, 2010 - כ"ה אדר תש"ע at 10:51 am
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Everything is narrative. And the present “responsible” narrative, we are told, comes from President Obama. It’s too bad he knows very little about the intrinsic history of the dispute or about its present contours, which, after all, he–in his arrogance, vanity, and suave–has done much to make both sides more rigid rather than more amenable to compromise. (Actually it’s at least three sides if you count Hamas-controlled Gaza, which the president blithely ignores … and more if you count the so-called “Palestinians-in-exile” and the Arab interlopers, like the Saudis, worthy of an executive genuflection, who agitate but don’t really much care. OK, this may be harsh. They do care, maybe a fig or two.)
There is some confusion in the Obama administration about its attitude toward Israel. Joe Biden’s visit to Jerusalem over the last few days actually must have focused all participants and observers on the ambiguities of the relationship. Herb Keinon, the very astute observer of U.S.-Israel relations at the Jerusalem Post, published an article today titled “Veep shows Israel some love.” And in a subhead: “In Jerusalem, Biden reiterates Washington’s ‘absolute, total unvarnished commitment to Israel’s security.’” And this was not all. Biden has his own longtime and almost maternally breastfed affections for Israel. Before meeting with the gaga president of Israel, he observed that the Jewish state “captured my heart. I make no bones about it. That does not mean I do not understand and have a great empathy for the circumstances of the Palestinians, but Israel captured heart and my imagination.”
Then the prime minister gave the vice president a certificate attesting to the fact that a ring of trees had been planted by the Jewish National Fund–for those of you who remember the blue collection box (or, as it was called, the pushke)–in memory of Biden’s mother, Catherine Eugenia Jean Finnegan Biden, who passed on at 92 in January. Biden took the certificate and said, “My love for your country was watered by this Irish lady, who was proudest of me when I was with and for the security of Israel.” This Irish lady, believe me, did not attend the Reverend John Hagee’s church. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Middle East Report, Monotheistic Religions, Opinion, Recent Posts on March 11, 2010 - כ"ה אדר תש"ע at 10:18 am
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Make no mistake about it. The attempt to deny our history in this land is an attempt to deny our future in this land. That is why to defend our past is to defend our future.
Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel, March 8, 2010
Welcome to Jerusalem, the undivided, eternal capital of the Jewish state and the Jewish people.
Your presence here today represents a profound transformation in the relationship between Christians and Jews. This transformation has its roots in the 19th century when the early Christian Zionists came to the Land Israel and when they began exploring the land of the Bible, when they began to yearn for the Jewish restoration in this land, the restoration of our numbers, the restoration of our sovereignty.
In fact, Christian Zionism preceded modern Jewish Zionism, and I think enabled it. But it received a tremendous impetus several decades ago when leading American clergymen, among them most notably, Pastor John Hagee, a dynamic pastor and leader from Texas, began to say to their congregations and to anyone who listened, it’s time to take a stand with Israel. It was time to take a stand with the sole democracy in the Middle East. It was time to take a stand against the lies and the slander and the vilifications. It was time to defend the Jewish state’s right to defend itself.
Today, Christians by the thousands, by the tens of thousands, by the hundreds of thousands, by the millions, by the tens of millions – today they have heard this call, and they stand with Israel. I salute you, the people of Israel salute you, the Jewish people salute you.
Time after time, through thick and thin, you have stood shoulder to shoulder with our state, and I have come here tonight to thank you for your unwavering friendship. And today that friendship is more important than ever because Israel faces unprecedented challenges to its security and its legitimacy. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Judaism, Middle East Report, News Articles, Recent Posts on March 10, 2010 - כ"ד אדר תש"ע at 12:11 pm
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by Gil Zohar, Jewish Journal, March 9, 2010
After four years of construction, the Jewish Quarter’s landmark Hurva Synagogue – built by Polish Jews in 1701, destroyed by Arab creditors two decades later, rebuilt in 1864 by followers of the Vilna Gaon, and dynamited in 1948 by Jordan’s Arab Legion – is being re-dedicated this Sunday and Monday (March 15-16, 2010). All the rest is commentary.
During a media tour this week, a beaming Nissim Arazi, who since 2003 has served as the CEO of the Company for the Reconstruction and Development of the Jewish Quarter in the Old City of Jerusalem Ltd. (the JQDC), showed off the venerable if controversial NIS 43 million project which has been his dream for nearly a decade.
Arazi follows a distinguished list of public servants, starting in 1969 with then Prime Minister Levi Eshkol, who have served as either chairman or director of the government agency charged with rebuilding the Old City’s Jewish Quarter. That historic job had largely been completed when Arazi stepped onto the scene. But the new CEO resisted calls for the JQDC to be disbanded as redundant, instead pressing ahead with the Hurva project and protecting his fiefdom. (In Jerusalem, Nov. 2, 2007)
As the Hurva’s construction crane was being taken down, Arazi launched into the synagogue’s convoluted story, hailing the many figures responsible for the rebuilding. In 1999, he explained, a public committee was formed by then Minister of Housing, Rabbi Yitzhak Levi and headed by Rabbi Simha Hacohen Kook with the intention of recreating the building whose famous dome once dominated the skyline of the Jewish Quarter. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Islam, Judaism, Middle East, Monotheistic Religions, News Articles, Recent Posts on March 9, 2010 - כ"ג אדר תש"ע at 10:57 am
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Iraq’s second parliamentary election since the 2003 invasion has been hit by multiple attacks, with at least 35 people being killed.
Two buildings were destroyed in Baghdad and dozens of mortars were fired across the capital and elsewhere.
Despite the violence, there were long queues of voters at polling stations in a number of cities.
Polls closed at 1700 (1400 GMT) but people already in line were allowed to cast their votes.
An immense security operation was mounted, involving more than 500,000 Iraqi security personnel.
The border with Iran was closed, thousands of troops were deployed, and vehicles were banned from roads.
Prime Minister Nouri Maliki had called on voters to turn out in large numbers, saying that participation would boost democracy.
“ I am not scared and I am not going to stay put at home ”
Baghdad voter
In Washington US President Barack Obama issued a statement after polls had closed, saying Iraqis had chosen "to shape their future through the political process".
"We mourn the tragic loss of life today, and honour the courage and resilience of the Iraqi people who once again defied threats to advance their democracy," he said.
Multiple attacks
There were mortar, grenade and bomb attacks in Baghdad and in other cities, including Mosul, Falluja, Baquba and Samarra.
But the capital was hardest hit, with dozens of mortar shells falling in several neighbourhoods. Twenty-five people were killed in one explosion that destroyed a residential building in the north of the city.
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Islam, Middle East, News Articles, Recent Posts on March 7, 2010 - כ"א אדר תש"ע at 2:42 pm
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The nation must defend its historical ties to the land against those who deny them.
The increasingly global campaign to delegitimize Israel has been bolstered significantly by the reticence of past Israeli governments and other Jewish opinion leaders to assert the great Jewish legacy in this land.
By Aron U. Raskas
March 5, 2010
Jerusalem
JERUSALEM–The Israeli government adds two culturally rich, millennium-old historic sites to a list of national treasures, and riots break out, followed by international condemnation. Yet, it is precisely this cynical, albeit predictable, response that demonstrates why Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was right to add the Tomb of Rachel and the Cave of the Jewish Patriarchs and Matriarchs to Israel’s National Heritage Sites.
There is no nation with firmer roots in a land than the Jewish people in the greater land of Israel. Yet, that great heritage has been under assault by Arab protagonists and their pusillanimous patrons for the longest time, and this has intensified in recent years.
As the Arab people began to recognize their inability to defeat the Jewish people on the battlefield, they began to cleverly craft a strategy of burying Israel’s legacy in the arena of world opinion. This strategy seeks to eradicate the Jewish connection to the land and erode the support for Israel’s legitimacy and very existence. Indeed, the increasingly global campaign to delegitimize Israel has been bolstered significantly by the reticence of past Israeli governments and other Jewish opinion leaders to assert the great Jewish legacy in this land.
The arrogation to itself of the "Palestinian" mantle was the first formidable success for the Arab population that shared with the Jewish people the land that came to be known as Palestine. Likewise, 50 years ago, there was nary a reference to a "West Bank" until that term was introduced by Palestinian Arab propagandists to eliminate further references to the time-honored titles of Judea and Samaria, as the land had been routinely referred to in maps, travel guides, newspapers and even U.N. resolutions.
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Judaism, Middle East Report, Opinion, Recent Posts on March 5, 2010 - י"ט אדר תש"ע at 9:24 am
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Adar 18, 5770, 04 March 10
by Gil Ronen, Arutz Sheva
(Israelnationalnews.com) The Palestinian Authority (PA) is continuing to enforce a boycott of goods made in the Jewish communities of Judea and Samaria. The PA-based WAFA news agency reported that PA customs agents confiscated 20 tons of nylon sheeting intended for wrapping food, and destroyed it.
"We destroyed 20 tons of nylon that were seized in a warehouse in Nablus [Shechem], and are manufactured in the settlement of Naaran near Jericho,” the chief customs official in the Shechem area said. Naaran is a kibbutz, or cooperative community, in the Jordan Valley.
The government of the PA under Prime Minister Salam Fayyad recently launched a high-profile boycott of goods made in Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria. PA-government inspectors have reportedly begun combing PA marketplaces in search of goods made in the Jewish communities.
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Islam, Middle East Report, News Articles, Recent Posts on March 5, 2010 - י"ט אדר תש"ע at 8:54 am
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By Shaul Rosenfeld, YNet News, March 4, 2010
Part 1 of article
The events of “Israel Apartheid Week” in the world opened this year with “freedom fighter” Leila Khaled’s emotional plea to “continue the armed struggle against Israel.” Khaled, a certified airplane hijacker and a well-known favorite of the radical Left in Western European delivered her words of “reconciliation, peace, and brotherly love” in a videotape shown to participants of a Mideast studies convention held at University of London last weekend.
It is possible that on normal days, with mentally healthy academics and intellectuals who do not rush to worship Satan, such plea would have prompted a major outrage. Yet these are grim days; an era where all the horrors of the world have apparently passed, with the exception of Israel’s acts of injustice and crimes, the oppression of its Arabs, and its many conquests.
Hence, even polls indicating that more than one third of Britain’s Muslim students justify murder on behalf of their religion cannot overcome the “blood pact” being formed between the forces of progress from the East and West.
And so we don’t get confused, heaven forbid, neither Kedumim nor Ariel or Beit El are the main concern of participants. According to the “program” of the week’s events, the participants will devote most of their attention to the “intolerable combination” of a Jewish state, the equality Arab Israelis are being deprived of, the return of all refugees to their homes, and of course the Operation Cast Lead, which as we know befell Gaza residents who committed no crime. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Judaism, Middle East Report, Opinion, Recent Posts on March 4, 2010 - י"ח אדר תש"ע at 9:02 pm
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