26 june 2014
Naftali Bennett speaking at the Knesset
Economy minister attacks PA for transferring funds to Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
Economy Minister Naftali Bennett on Thursday called Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas a "mega-terrorist" for transferring Palestinian Authority funds to Palestinian inmates in Israeli prisons.
"A person who lines the pockets of murderers with tens of millions of shekels each month is a mega-terrorist, who has not changed his ways," Bennett, who is also the chairman of the right-wing Habayit Hayehudi party, told Israel Radio.
Bennett also condemned on the program a statement by President-elect Reuven Rivlin to build trusting relations with Abbas in the wake of the Palestinian president's call to release the three Israeli teens kidnapped earlier this month. Bennett said Abbas should be measured by his deeds, not his declarations.
Israel's security cabinet decided Wednesday night to examine options for preventing the fund transfers.
The PA's Ministry for Prisoners' Affairs gives stipends totaling 20 million shekels a month to Palestinian prisoners. The stipends vary between 1,400 shekels for a prisoner sentenced to three years to 12,000 shekels for a 30-year sentence. Released prisoners are eligible for stipends varying between 5,000 shekels for less than three-years in prison and 87,000 shekels for serving over 30 years.
In recent years, Israel has been claiming that the funds given by foreign governments to the PA, earmarked for building up the Authority's institutions, are eventually allocated for these stipends. Several countries, including Britain and Norway, have changed the relevant procedures to make sure their donations are not transferred to prisoners.
Economy minister attacks PA for transferring funds to Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
Economy Minister Naftali Bennett on Thursday called Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas a "mega-terrorist" for transferring Palestinian Authority funds to Palestinian inmates in Israeli prisons.
"A person who lines the pockets of murderers with tens of millions of shekels each month is a mega-terrorist, who has not changed his ways," Bennett, who is also the chairman of the right-wing Habayit Hayehudi party, told Israel Radio.
Bennett also condemned on the program a statement by President-elect Reuven Rivlin to build trusting relations with Abbas in the wake of the Palestinian president's call to release the three Israeli teens kidnapped earlier this month. Bennett said Abbas should be measured by his deeds, not his declarations.
Israel's security cabinet decided Wednesday night to examine options for preventing the fund transfers.
The PA's Ministry for Prisoners' Affairs gives stipends totaling 20 million shekels a month to Palestinian prisoners. The stipends vary between 1,400 shekels for a prisoner sentenced to three years to 12,000 shekels for a 30-year sentence. Released prisoners are eligible for stipends varying between 5,000 shekels for less than three-years in prison and 87,000 shekels for serving over 30 years.
In recent years, Israel has been claiming that the funds given by foreign governments to the PA, earmarked for building up the Authority's institutions, are eventually allocated for these stipends. Several countries, including Britain and Norway, have changed the relevant procedures to make sure their donations are not transferred to prisoners.
Israel's hawkish president-elect Reuven Rivlin, who opposes the creation of a Palestinian state, has said he is willing to meet counterpart Mahmoud Abbas, a newspaper reported Thursday.
"I met with Abu Mazen (Abbas) in the past on a number of occasions and I will also meet with him in the future," the Yediot Aharonot newspaper quoted Rivlin as saying.
"We both realize that direct dialogue is the condition for our Middle East to be a safe place," he said on Wednesday at a three-day conference in Jerusalem for Israeli media.
Rivlin said he received a letter from Abbas after he was elected on June 10 to succeed elder statesman Shimon Peres, whose term ends in late July.
Yediot published what it said was an image of the letter, in Arabic, which congratulated Rivlin and called for a peace agreement and an independent Palestine.
The incoming president is a staunch backer of illegal Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank and has never hidden his opposition to the creation of a Palestinian state.
Settlements were a key issue that derailed the latest round of US-backed peace talks in April after nine months of fruitless negotiations.
Rivlin, a former military intelligence officer and lawyer by profession, was quoted in 2010 as saying he would "rather accept Palestinians as Israeli citizens than divide Israel and the West Bank in a future two-state peace solution."
"I met with Abu Mazen (Abbas) in the past on a number of occasions and I will also meet with him in the future," the Yediot Aharonot newspaper quoted Rivlin as saying.
"We both realize that direct dialogue is the condition for our Middle East to be a safe place," he said on Wednesday at a three-day conference in Jerusalem for Israeli media.
Rivlin said he received a letter from Abbas after he was elected on June 10 to succeed elder statesman Shimon Peres, whose term ends in late July.
Yediot published what it said was an image of the letter, in Arabic, which congratulated Rivlin and called for a peace agreement and an independent Palestine.
The incoming president is a staunch backer of illegal Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank and has never hidden his opposition to the creation of a Palestinian state.
Settlements were a key issue that derailed the latest round of US-backed peace talks in April after nine months of fruitless negotiations.
Rivlin, a former military intelligence officer and lawyer by profession, was quoted in 2010 as saying he would "rather accept Palestinians as Israeli citizens than divide Israel and the West Bank in a future two-state peace solution."
An Israeli archeologist was killed on Thursday when a cave collapsed in Nablus during excavation work, local sources said.
Residents said that excavation work on the archeological site in Sebastia, northwest of Nablus, started several days ago.
Palestinian ambulances arrived at the scene before Israeli medics tried to resuscitate the archeologist.
A Palestinian worker was also trapped under the debris but survived.
Sebastia is home to 4,500 Palestinians and hosts major archeological sites, including ancient Roman ruins.
Most of the village and archeological sites are in Area C and under full Israeli control.
Residents said that excavation work on the archeological site in Sebastia, northwest of Nablus, started several days ago.
Palestinian ambulances arrived at the scene before Israeli medics tried to resuscitate the archeologist.
A Palestinian worker was also trapped under the debris but survived.
Sebastia is home to 4,500 Palestinians and hosts major archeological sites, including ancient Roman ruins.
Most of the village and archeological sites are in Area C and under full Israeli control.
23 june 2014
The U.N. envoy to the Middle East peace process has denied allegations in the Israeli media that he offered to aid the Palestinian Hamas group. Robert Serry said in a statement Sunday that he was asked by Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah to help transfer Qatari funds to pay the salaries of former Hamas employees who lost their jobs after the new Palestinian unity government was formed.
He said he was considering the request and had notified Israeli authorities. He insisted the U.N. would not provide such assistance without Israeli approval.
An Israeli official confirmed the allegations, reported by Channel 2, and said Israel was considering expelling the envoy. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.
He said he was considering the request and had notified Israeli authorities. He insisted the U.N. would not provide such assistance without Israeli approval.
An Israeli official confirmed the allegations, reported by Channel 2, and said Israel was considering expelling the envoy. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.
22 june 2014
Israeli Minister of Transportation Yisrael Kats issued a decision, on Sunday, to stop the train that runs near the Gaza Strip. Israel is afraid the train would be a target to hit by Palestinians in the Gaza strip. A footage published on the internet by Gazans shows the train closely runs near the borders.
Ynet website quoted Katz as saying that "the decision came due to the fragile security situation in the southern area.
Ynet website quoted Katz as saying that "the decision came due to the fragile security situation in the southern area.
A 15-year-old was killed and at least five others seriously injured when a blast hit a vehicle traveling in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Sunday morning.
The blast, which marks the first time an Israeli has been killed in the Golan Heights since the outbreak of the Syrian revolution and civil war more than three years ago, occurred near the Israeli settlement of Tel Hazeka near the ceasefire line with Syria.
The blast hit a vehicle belonging to a Defense Ministry contractor employed by the Israeli army to reinforce the border fence, according to Israeli news site Ynet.
The victim was a Palestinian citizen of Israel from the village of Arraba in the Galilee region, and Israeli news site Ynet reported that he was joining his father to work when the blast struck their vehicle.
Initial reports suggested that it was a mortal shell, but at the time of publishing it was still not clear how the blast had occurred.
Israeli forces responded by shelling the Syrian side of the ceasefire line.
Mortars have occasionally struck the Golan Heights from Syria as a result of fighting between government forces and rebels across the border.
Israel has responded to these hits with return fire, and has at times closed areas near the border as a result of fighting near the ceasefire line between pro- and anti-government forces.
In March, a roadside bomb injured four Israeli troops near the ceasefire line, and Israel responded by bombing Syrian military posts.
Israel occupied the Golan Heights after invading Syria in the 1967 war in which it also captured the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
The blast, which marks the first time an Israeli has been killed in the Golan Heights since the outbreak of the Syrian revolution and civil war more than three years ago, occurred near the Israeli settlement of Tel Hazeka near the ceasefire line with Syria.
The blast hit a vehicle belonging to a Defense Ministry contractor employed by the Israeli army to reinforce the border fence, according to Israeli news site Ynet.
The victim was a Palestinian citizen of Israel from the village of Arraba in the Galilee region, and Israeli news site Ynet reported that he was joining his father to work when the blast struck their vehicle.
Initial reports suggested that it was a mortal shell, but at the time of publishing it was still not clear how the blast had occurred.
Israeli forces responded by shelling the Syrian side of the ceasefire line.
Mortars have occasionally struck the Golan Heights from Syria as a result of fighting between government forces and rebels across the border.
Israel has responded to these hits with return fire, and has at times closed areas near the border as a result of fighting near the ceasefire line between pro- and anti-government forces.
In March, a roadside bomb injured four Israeli troops near the ceasefire line, and Israel responded by bombing Syrian military posts.
Israel occupied the Golan Heights after invading Syria in the 1967 war in which it also captured the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
Israel's foreign minister has threatened to expel the UN's special envoy for offering to help transfer Qatari funds to the Gaza Strip, Channel Two television reported. Avigdor Lieberman said Robert Serry, the world body's special envoy on the Middle East peace process, had first tried to convince the Palestinian Authority (PA) to transfer $20 million (14.7 million euros) from Qatar to resolve a pay crisis for Hamas employees in Gaza, the broadcaster reported Saturday.
But after Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas refused to do so, the rightwing ultra-nationalist Lieberman charged, Serry proposed UN help in making the transfer.
Serry rejected the allegations, saying in a statement that the Palestinian authority had approached him "informally" on the matter.
"In considering any UN role on the issue of payments of salaries in Gaza that has potentially destabilising effects on security in Gaza, I made it clear that we would only be able to be of assistance if acceptable to all stakeholders, including Israel," he added.
Israel had been kept informed of all the discussions, he insisted.
Lieberman told AFP he was seeking an "urgent meeting" on Sunday about the row in which Israeli television reported the foreign minister would propose that Serry be declared persona non grata in Israel.
"We look upon Robert Serry's behaviour with the utmost seriousness, and strong measures will be imposed," Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor told AFP.
"The foreign ministry issues diplomatic visas and can also withdraw them," he added.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said in a statement the premier told UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon he opposed the transfer of Qatari funds to Hamas, which he accuses of kidnapping three young Israelis in the West Bank on June 12.
On June 13, the gas-rich Gulf state of Qatar said it would help the new Palestinian unity government pay former employees of Islamist movement Hamas's disbanded Gaza government.
Doha said it would contribute a total of $60 million while the PA grapples with a pay row, the first challenge for a government formed to try to end years of Palestinian rivalry.
The dispute erupted when the PA's Gaza-based staff received their salaries but their Hamas counterparts did not. This prompted Hamas to demand that employees from its disbanded Gaza government be taken onto the PA payroll.
The PA, which previously refused to adjust the salaries of Hamas officials because they were named after Fatah forces were ousted from the Gaza Strip in 2007, announced the creation of a special fund to pay wages while the government discussed how to resolve the issue.
But after Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas refused to do so, the rightwing ultra-nationalist Lieberman charged, Serry proposed UN help in making the transfer.
Serry rejected the allegations, saying in a statement that the Palestinian authority had approached him "informally" on the matter.
"In considering any UN role on the issue of payments of salaries in Gaza that has potentially destabilising effects on security in Gaza, I made it clear that we would only be able to be of assistance if acceptable to all stakeholders, including Israel," he added.
Israel had been kept informed of all the discussions, he insisted.
Lieberman told AFP he was seeking an "urgent meeting" on Sunday about the row in which Israeli television reported the foreign minister would propose that Serry be declared persona non grata in Israel.
"We look upon Robert Serry's behaviour with the utmost seriousness, and strong measures will be imposed," Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor told AFP.
"The foreign ministry issues diplomatic visas and can also withdraw them," he added.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said in a statement the premier told UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon he opposed the transfer of Qatari funds to Hamas, which he accuses of kidnapping three young Israelis in the West Bank on June 12.
On June 13, the gas-rich Gulf state of Qatar said it would help the new Palestinian unity government pay former employees of Islamist movement Hamas's disbanded Gaza government.
Doha said it would contribute a total of $60 million while the PA grapples with a pay row, the first challenge for a government formed to try to end years of Palestinian rivalry.
The dispute erupted when the PA's Gaza-based staff received their salaries but their Hamas counterparts did not. This prompted Hamas to demand that employees from its disbanded Gaza government be taken onto the PA payroll.
The PA, which previously refused to adjust the salaries of Hamas officials because they were named after Fatah forces were ousted from the Gaza Strip in 2007, announced the creation of a special fund to pay wages while the government discussed how to resolve the issue.
20 june 2014
The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed deep condemnation, dissatisfaction and rejection on Thursday after an Israeli was nominated and elected as vice-chair of the Fourth Committee of the General Assembly of the United Nations, to the Special Political and Decolonization. Mordehai Amihai nominated by the Group of Western European and Other States, was elected Vice-Chair with 74 votes, exceeding the required majority of 39. Guy Rayée (Belgium) and Iselin Hebbert Larsen (Norway) each received one vote.
The General Assembly’s six Main Committees elected their Bureaux for the sixty-ninth session today, with the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) holding a secret ballot requested by the Group of Arab States over Israel’s nomination as Vice-Chair.
Qatar’s representative, speaking on behalf of the Arab Group, cited two letters sent to the Committee Chair, on 11 and 17 June, and outlining its rejection of Israel’s candidacy. The Group had requested an election by secret ballot, in line with article 103 of the Assembly’s Rules of Procedure.
The General Assembly’s six Main Committees elected their Bureaux for the sixty-ninth session today, with the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) holding a secret ballot requested by the Group of Arab States over Israel’s nomination as Vice-Chair.
Qatar’s representative, speaking on behalf of the Arab Group, cited two letters sent to the Committee Chair, on 11 and 17 June, and outlining its rejection of Israel’s candidacy. The Group had requested an election by secret ballot, in line with article 103 of the Assembly’s Rules of Procedure.
Elected by acclamation to the Fourth Committee’s Bureau were Durga Prasad Bhattarai (Nepal) as Chair, Inese Freimane-Deksne (Latvia) as Vice-Chair, and Gabriel Orellana Zabalza (Guatemala) as Rapporteur. The Committee postponed the election of the Vice-Chair from the Group of African States.
The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed its strong dissatisfaction and surprise of the United Nations that allowed the state of israel, which do not implement the United Nations resolutions to be part of the presidency of the Main Committee competent which address the issues of decolonization, and the important other sensitive issues including those relating to the Palestinian refugees, peace-keeping mission and human rights, in particular the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian people.
The PA foreign ministry said that Israel continues to deprive millions of Palestinian refugees the right to return to their homes, which they were forcibly displaced. Israel also continues to detain, kill and violate the human rights of Palestinians, contrary to international law, the statement added.
The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed its strong dissatisfaction and surprise of the United Nations that allowed the state of israel, which do not implement the United Nations resolutions to be part of the presidency of the Main Committee competent which address the issues of decolonization, and the important other sensitive issues including those relating to the Palestinian refugees, peace-keeping mission and human rights, in particular the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian people.
The PA foreign ministry said that Israel continues to deprive millions of Palestinian refugees the right to return to their homes, which they were forcibly displaced. Israel also continues to detain, kill and violate the human rights of Palestinians, contrary to international law, the statement added.
19 june 2014
The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed "deep disappointment" on Thursday after an Israeli was elected as vice-head of the UN's fourth committee, also known as the Special Political and Decolonization Committee.
Mordehai Amihai, who was nominated by the Group of Western European and Other States, was elected Vice-Chair with 74 votes.
The UN General Assembly held a secret ballot after a request was made by Arab States in protest over Israel's nomination as vice-chair.
The PA foreign ministry said that the election of Israel to such a post would only encourage it to continue committing excessive violations of Palestinian rights and to maintain the occupation.
Instead of electing Israel as vice-chair of a decolonization committee, the international community "should have called Israel to account over the crimes it practices against the Palestinian people."
The statement added that it is "disappointing" that Israel will play a leading role in a committee whose mission is related to decolonization, peace-keeping and human rights while Israel itself continues to deny millions of Palestinian refugees the right to return to their homeland from which they were forcibly displaced.
Israel also continues to detain, kill and violate the human rights of Palestinians, contrary to international law, the statement added.
Mordehai Amihai, who was nominated by the Group of Western European and Other States, was elected Vice-Chair with 74 votes.
The UN General Assembly held a secret ballot after a request was made by Arab States in protest over Israel's nomination as vice-chair.
The PA foreign ministry said that the election of Israel to such a post would only encourage it to continue committing excessive violations of Palestinian rights and to maintain the occupation.
Instead of electing Israel as vice-chair of a decolonization committee, the international community "should have called Israel to account over the crimes it practices against the Palestinian people."
The statement added that it is "disappointing" that Israel will play a leading role in a committee whose mission is related to decolonization, peace-keeping and human rights while Israel itself continues to deny millions of Palestinian refugees the right to return to their homeland from which they were forcibly displaced.
Israel also continues to detain, kill and violate the human rights of Palestinians, contrary to international law, the statement added.
15 june 2014
By Gilbert Mercier.
Groups of people, either nations or cultures, just like individuals have a consciousness. And like individuals, a civilization collective consciousness records and reacts to historical traumas. History leaves scars on people’s collective consciousness. If some individuals tend to bury personal traumatic experiences under the false assumption that ignoring the pain will heal it, some cultures tend to do the same.
Bringing up the collective crimes of Germans and Japanese during World War II is a taboo subject in both Germany and Japan, as if both cultures are suffering from a collective amnesia. If you bring up in a conversation the atrocities committed by Japanese troops in Manchuria, Korea, the Philippines or Vietnam between 1936 and 1945, the standard answer from amnesic contemporary Japanese will likely be either “We didn’t know” or “It was a long time ago”. This applies to Germany as well, even though it is a crime in this country to deny the existence of the holocaust. Regardless, both cultures, as a defense mechanism, suffer from historic amnesia.
From persecuted Jews to Zionists: Why do abused become abusers?
If Sigmund Freud was alive today, and could put Israel or more practically either PM Netanyahu or his sidekick Lieberman on his couch for a few psychoanalytical sessions, one wonders what he would find out. Most psychological studies of abusive personalities point in the same direction. It seems to be a paradox, but as individuals, most people who display abusive behaviors in relationships were abused as children.
On first thought, one would think that people who had been abused would be more sensitive, not less, to the pain inflicted on others. That they would, as individuals or a collective, show a greater sense of empathy. But more often than not, in the case of children who were abused, they grow up to be abusers. It is as if the psychological damage and trauma from early childhood turns our natural and normal sense of compassion and empathy towards each other into a vicious cycle of borderline sociopathic behaviors, where inflicting pain become a source of pleasure. For individuals, this cycle of pain get passed on endlessly from one generation to the next. What applies to individuals is a good analysis model to a culture collective’s psyche.
For thousands of years, between the Middle East and Europe, the Jewish people have been persecuted, abused and forced to move constantly around. In Europe, Jews were not allowed to own land and could not have roots as they were fleeing bigotry — such as the Inquisition in Spain — slavery, pogroms and the despotic powers of the kingdoms of Europe and the Tzars in Russia. When tolerated, they had to live in ghettos such as the one in Warsaw. This precarious existence for Jewish communities in Europe, with the constant thread of having to leave, brought crafts, knowledge and money at an essential premium for Jewish survival. Books and money are portable, and the constant persecutions against them very likely made Jews develop special skills in both areas of knowledge and finance. Jews became “the people of the book,” and to them knowledge, not material things, was the most precious possession.
Israel: “He who struggles with God”
“He who struggles with God” is the Hebrew meaning of the word Israel. But the Jewish state, as defined by Zionist principles, is not only fighting with recognition of Palestine as a nation, but also with Judaism’s humanist traditions. Judaism is viewed by many Jewish scholars as a civilization, not just a religion. Part of this rich Judaic cultural heritage was passed on into more recent monotheist religions such as Christianity and Islam.
This view of defining Judaism more as a civilization than just a religion is one of the main points made by Amos Oz and his daughter Fania Oz-Salzberger in their new book “Jews and Words.” For Oz, a professor of literature at Ben-Gurion University and Oz-Salzberger, a writer and historian at the University of Haifa, “Judaism is not a bloodline but a text line.”
“For thousands of years, we Jews had nothing but books. We had no land, we had no holy sites, we had no magnificent architecture, we had no heroes: we had books. We had texts, and those texts were always discussed around the family table. I would add that you can never get two Jews to agree with each other on anything. It’s difficult to find one Jew who agrees with himself or herself on something, because everyone has a divided mind and soul, everyone is ambivalent. So our civilization is a civilization of dispute, of disagreement and of argument,” said Amos Oz in an interview with NPR’s Scott Simon.
Gaza: A modern-day version of the Jewish ghetto in Warsaw
After the horrendous crimes committed against them during World War II by Nazi Germany, Jews rightly decided that it would never happen to them again. They will not be the sacrificial lamb of human history, and no longer be victimized. But 64 years after its creation in 1948, the Jewish state is now the one doing the victimizing: evolving from oppressed to oppressor. If Jews were treated like second-class citizens and were denied land ownership for centuries, they have now turned the table of history, and Palestinians are on the receiving end of the wrath of the abused turned abuser. Palestinians are denied land while Israeli settlers keep expanding in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. Just like their ancestors in Eastern Europe, Palestinians are treated by settlers and the Jewish state as second-class citizens living in an open-sky jail surrounded by thick concrete walls. Palestinians, just like Jews during World War II in the Warsaw ghetto have become the victims, the collateral damage of history.
(News Junkie Post)
Groups of people, either nations or cultures, just like individuals have a consciousness. And like individuals, a civilization collective consciousness records and reacts to historical traumas. History leaves scars on people’s collective consciousness. If some individuals tend to bury personal traumatic experiences under the false assumption that ignoring the pain will heal it, some cultures tend to do the same.
Bringing up the collective crimes of Germans and Japanese during World War II is a taboo subject in both Germany and Japan, as if both cultures are suffering from a collective amnesia. If you bring up in a conversation the atrocities committed by Japanese troops in Manchuria, Korea, the Philippines or Vietnam between 1936 and 1945, the standard answer from amnesic contemporary Japanese will likely be either “We didn’t know” or “It was a long time ago”. This applies to Germany as well, even though it is a crime in this country to deny the existence of the holocaust. Regardless, both cultures, as a defense mechanism, suffer from historic amnesia.
From persecuted Jews to Zionists: Why do abused become abusers?
If Sigmund Freud was alive today, and could put Israel or more practically either PM Netanyahu or his sidekick Lieberman on his couch for a few psychoanalytical sessions, one wonders what he would find out. Most psychological studies of abusive personalities point in the same direction. It seems to be a paradox, but as individuals, most people who display abusive behaviors in relationships were abused as children.
On first thought, one would think that people who had been abused would be more sensitive, not less, to the pain inflicted on others. That they would, as individuals or a collective, show a greater sense of empathy. But more often than not, in the case of children who were abused, they grow up to be abusers. It is as if the psychological damage and trauma from early childhood turns our natural and normal sense of compassion and empathy towards each other into a vicious cycle of borderline sociopathic behaviors, where inflicting pain become a source of pleasure. For individuals, this cycle of pain get passed on endlessly from one generation to the next. What applies to individuals is a good analysis model to a culture collective’s psyche.
For thousands of years, between the Middle East and Europe, the Jewish people have been persecuted, abused and forced to move constantly around. In Europe, Jews were not allowed to own land and could not have roots as they were fleeing bigotry — such as the Inquisition in Spain — slavery, pogroms and the despotic powers of the kingdoms of Europe and the Tzars in Russia. When tolerated, they had to live in ghettos such as the one in Warsaw. This precarious existence for Jewish communities in Europe, with the constant thread of having to leave, brought crafts, knowledge and money at an essential premium for Jewish survival. Books and money are portable, and the constant persecutions against them very likely made Jews develop special skills in both areas of knowledge and finance. Jews became “the people of the book,” and to them knowledge, not material things, was the most precious possession.
Israel: “He who struggles with God”
“He who struggles with God” is the Hebrew meaning of the word Israel. But the Jewish state, as defined by Zionist principles, is not only fighting with recognition of Palestine as a nation, but also with Judaism’s humanist traditions. Judaism is viewed by many Jewish scholars as a civilization, not just a religion. Part of this rich Judaic cultural heritage was passed on into more recent monotheist religions such as Christianity and Islam.
This view of defining Judaism more as a civilization than just a religion is one of the main points made by Amos Oz and his daughter Fania Oz-Salzberger in their new book “Jews and Words.” For Oz, a professor of literature at Ben-Gurion University and Oz-Salzberger, a writer and historian at the University of Haifa, “Judaism is not a bloodline but a text line.”
“For thousands of years, we Jews had nothing but books. We had no land, we had no holy sites, we had no magnificent architecture, we had no heroes: we had books. We had texts, and those texts were always discussed around the family table. I would add that you can never get two Jews to agree with each other on anything. It’s difficult to find one Jew who agrees with himself or herself on something, because everyone has a divided mind and soul, everyone is ambivalent. So our civilization is a civilization of dispute, of disagreement and of argument,” said Amos Oz in an interview with NPR’s Scott Simon.
Gaza: A modern-day version of the Jewish ghetto in Warsaw
After the horrendous crimes committed against them during World War II by Nazi Germany, Jews rightly decided that it would never happen to them again. They will not be the sacrificial lamb of human history, and no longer be victimized. But 64 years after its creation in 1948, the Jewish state is now the one doing the victimizing: evolving from oppressed to oppressor. If Jews were treated like second-class citizens and were denied land ownership for centuries, they have now turned the table of history, and Palestinians are on the receiving end of the wrath of the abused turned abuser. Palestinians are denied land while Israeli settlers keep expanding in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. Just like their ancestors in Eastern Europe, Palestinians are treated by settlers and the Jewish state as second-class citizens living in an open-sky jail surrounded by thick concrete walls. Palestinians, just like Jews during World War II in the Warsaw ghetto have become the victims, the collateral damage of history.
(News Junkie Post)
The Israeli army on Sunday said that unidentified assailants opened fire at a military site near Bethlehem.
An Israeli army spokesman told Ma'an that shots were fired at an Israeli army post "near Har Gilo north of Bethlehem."
Initial reports suggest that shots were fired from a passing vehicle, the spokesman said.
No injuries or damages were reported.
Israeli soldiers are searching the area, the spokesman told Ma'an.
The Israeli news site Walla reported that shots had been fired at a military checkpoint west of Bethlehem.
An Israeli army spokesman told Ma'an that shots were fired at an Israeli army post "near Har Gilo north of Bethlehem."
Initial reports suggest that shots were fired from a passing vehicle, the spokesman said.
No injuries or damages were reported.
Israeli soldiers are searching the area, the spokesman told Ma'an.
The Israeli news site Walla reported that shots had been fired at a military checkpoint west of Bethlehem.
13 june 2014
Rabbi Shai Piron, the Israeli minister of education, said that Israel is incomplete without al-Khalil and Nablus. "Israel’s land is incomplete without al-Khalil and Nablus, for they are vital parts of our cultural and spiritual Jewish legacy," Piron was quoted as saying by a local Hebrew radio on Thursday.
Prion, a member of the Zionist party Yesh Atid, made his remarks during a lecture he delivered at Ariel settlement university in the West Bank.
According to the radio, Prion said it would not be acceptable to visualize Israel's land within a limited scope.
However, head of Yesh Atid party and Israeli finance minister Yair Lapid called earlier this week for a withdrawal from some settlements in the West Bank and threatened that his party would leave the governmental coalition if any settlement was annexed.
The right-wing Israeli government has announced recently bids for the building of more than 1500 settlement units in the West Bank and east Jerusalem in response to the formation of the Palestinian unity government.
Prion, a member of the Zionist party Yesh Atid, made his remarks during a lecture he delivered at Ariel settlement university in the West Bank.
According to the radio, Prion said it would not be acceptable to visualize Israel's land within a limited scope.
However, head of Yesh Atid party and Israeli finance minister Yair Lapid called earlier this week for a withdrawal from some settlements in the West Bank and threatened that his party would leave the governmental coalition if any settlement was annexed.
The right-wing Israeli government has announced recently bids for the building of more than 1500 settlement units in the West Bank and east Jerusalem in response to the formation of the Palestinian unity government.
11 june 2014
BY: Adam Kredo
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton accuses Israel of being an occupying force in her new memoir Hard Choices and claims that the Jewish state denies “dignity and self determination” to Palestinians in the West Bank.
Clinton recalls being surprised by what she termed “life under occupation for the Palestinians,” according to the book.
Pro-Israel officials and insiders on Capitol Hill have called Clinton’s comments tone deaf and said that her claim that Israel is an occupying force reveals a bias against the Jewish state.
“When we left the city and visited Jericho, in the West Bank, I got my first glimpse of life under occupation for Palestinians, who were denied the dignity and self-determination that Americans take for granted,” Clinton writes.
Clinton’s comments demonstrate that she supports the Obama administration’s efforts to pressure and marginalize Israel, which current Secretary of State John Kerry recently accused of becoming an “apartheid state,” said one senior GOP Senate aide, who worked with Clinton when she was at the State Department.
“What we see here is the true Hillary Clinton, no longer muzzling herself for fear of reelection in New York or Senate confirmation fights—the woman who embraced Suha Arafat after smiling through anti-Semitic tirades,” said the former senior GOP Senate aide who for years battled Clinton’s State Department.
The source referred to a 1999 incident in which Clinton sat by smiling as the wife of former terrorist leader Yasser Arafat went on an anti-Israel tirade.
“This should put every American on notice that Hillary Clinton plans to continue Barack Obama’s failed Middle East policy that coddles terrorists and castigates democratic allies,” said the former official. “Clinton knows she lost to Obama in 2008 because she was outflanked by the left—she won’t make that mistake twice and she knows how much the left hates Israel.”
Clinton goes on to take aim at the Netanyahu government for not returning land to the Palestinians that she claims has been “occupied by Israel since 1967.”
Clinton is referring to territory seized by Israel in the 1967 Six Day War, in which Egypt, Jordan, and Syria attacked Israel from every side in a bid to destroy the Jewish state.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Clinton claims, is not serious about the peace process.
This claim has been echoed by senior State Department officials, several of whom have sought to blame Israel for the recent failure of peace talks.
“Netanyahu has been deeply skeptical of the Oslo framework of trading land for peace and a two-state solution that would give the Palestinians a country of their won in territory occupied by Israel since 1967,” Clinton writes.
One senior pro-Israel official who reviewed Clinton’s comments dubbed them as “troubling.”
“The quotes, which gives insight into Clinton’s thinking, are troubling,” the official told the Washington Free Beacon. “Most Americans, when they first experience the tiny distance separating average Israelis from enemies pledged to their destruction, immediately think of the difficult security situation that our allies have to negotiate. Not Clinton though.”
Clinton has come under fire from a pro-Israel group for not publicly condemning Kerry’s apartheid remarks about Israel, which were criticized by many Democrats.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton accuses Israel of being an occupying force in her new memoir Hard Choices and claims that the Jewish state denies “dignity and self determination” to Palestinians in the West Bank.
Clinton recalls being surprised by what she termed “life under occupation for the Palestinians,” according to the book.
Pro-Israel officials and insiders on Capitol Hill have called Clinton’s comments tone deaf and said that her claim that Israel is an occupying force reveals a bias against the Jewish state.
“When we left the city and visited Jericho, in the West Bank, I got my first glimpse of life under occupation for Palestinians, who were denied the dignity and self-determination that Americans take for granted,” Clinton writes.
Clinton’s comments demonstrate that she supports the Obama administration’s efforts to pressure and marginalize Israel, which current Secretary of State John Kerry recently accused of becoming an “apartheid state,” said one senior GOP Senate aide, who worked with Clinton when she was at the State Department.
“What we see here is the true Hillary Clinton, no longer muzzling herself for fear of reelection in New York or Senate confirmation fights—the woman who embraced Suha Arafat after smiling through anti-Semitic tirades,” said the former senior GOP Senate aide who for years battled Clinton’s State Department.
The source referred to a 1999 incident in which Clinton sat by smiling as the wife of former terrorist leader Yasser Arafat went on an anti-Israel tirade.
“This should put every American on notice that Hillary Clinton plans to continue Barack Obama’s failed Middle East policy that coddles terrorists and castigates democratic allies,” said the former official. “Clinton knows she lost to Obama in 2008 because she was outflanked by the left—she won’t make that mistake twice and she knows how much the left hates Israel.”
Clinton goes on to take aim at the Netanyahu government for not returning land to the Palestinians that she claims has been “occupied by Israel since 1967.”
Clinton is referring to territory seized by Israel in the 1967 Six Day War, in which Egypt, Jordan, and Syria attacked Israel from every side in a bid to destroy the Jewish state.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Clinton claims, is not serious about the peace process.
This claim has been echoed by senior State Department officials, several of whom have sought to blame Israel for the recent failure of peace talks.
“Netanyahu has been deeply skeptical of the Oslo framework of trading land for peace and a two-state solution that would give the Palestinians a country of their won in territory occupied by Israel since 1967,” Clinton writes.
One senior pro-Israel official who reviewed Clinton’s comments dubbed them as “troubling.”
“The quotes, which gives insight into Clinton’s thinking, are troubling,” the official told the Washington Free Beacon. “Most Americans, when they first experience the tiny distance separating average Israelis from enemies pledged to their destruction, immediately think of the difficult security situation that our allies have to negotiate. Not Clinton though.”
Clinton has come under fire from a pro-Israel group for not publicly condemning Kerry’s apartheid remarks about Israel, which were criticized by many Democrats.