-
-
- US official — we went to Israel first 0
- Israel lobby’s favorite senator tries to erase Palestinian refugee status … 22
- Israel takes 30 dunams of land near Salfit ‘for security … 4
- Aaron David Miller: After a short ‘peace process,’ look … 38
- Rafah march for deteriorating hunger strikers as family appeals for … 0
- Rafah’s nicest tunnel: Siege meets surf in Gaza 7
- Iranian talks fail after neocon ‘blitz’ — as Obama dispatches … 28
- Saving Illinois from Senator Kirk 9
-
- BDS victory: South Africa strips Ahava’s ‘made in Israel’ label 713
- Video: Israeli mob demands all African refugees be deported from … 475
- Day after pogroms, Likud MK calls for internment camp for … 427
- Neverending Nakba: Israel breaks lull, attacks Gazan farmers 413
- ‘This is not fair play’: Mahmoud Sarsak’s family demands his … 389
- March of the Flags 345
- Neocons in Washington Post: Military strike on Iran would ‘calm … 323
- Nabi Saleh’s Bassem Tamimi convicted by Israeli courts based on … 293
-
- The Messiah’s Donkey: Settlers fire on Palestinian villagers as the … 235
- Aharon Appelfeld’s rage at the German language (and Arendt’s need … 156
- US to differentiate between ‘personally displaced’ Palestinian refugees and their … 129
- March of the Flags 127
- Affirming a Judaism and Jewish identity without Zionism 110
- Feeling the hate in Long Island 97
- Israeli judge to issue verdict in Rachel Corrie case 94
- WaPo’s Walter Pincus says US is ‘going above and beyond … 87
-
Recent Comments
click link to see last 100 comments- Israel lobby’s favorite senator tries to erase Palestinian refugee status for millions (22)
- traintosiberia: Spain has been allowing ( under pressure) any descendants of the victims of inquisition to settle in...
- Blake: Boy, history won’t be kind on you reprobates. I doubt anybody can be as despicable to you though as you...
- Talkback: Fredblogs: “Frankly if an odd sentence in a cherry picked report, and some obfuscating change of...
- Affirming a Judaism and Jewish identity without Zionism (110)
- Shmuel: You’re right, Hostage. The point I was trying to make was that even the illegal and immoral excuse that...
- Talkback: “The Arab and Muslim armies have marched on Israel on multiple occasions, …” When? Israel...
- Hostage: P.S. a bit of clarification, that should read: “both practices are violations of the same prohibition...
- US to differentiate between ‘personally displaced’ Palestinian refugees and their descendants (129)
- talknic: Fredblogs May 25, 2012 at 7:24 pm “For thousands of years, and even since then for anyone who isn’t...
- Aaron David Miller: After a short ‘peace process,’ look for war with Iran in 2013 (38)
- Rafah’s nicest tunnel: Siege meets surf in Gaza (7)
- Blake: Good comment Avi but I should have entered his whole quote in my comment to put it into perspective:...
- Israel lobby’s favorite senator tries to erase Palestinian refugee status for millions (22)
Our Writers
- Philip Weiss
- Adam Horowitz
- Kate
- Today in Palestine
- Annie Robbins
- Alex Kane
- Philip Weiss and Adam Horowitz
- Hamde Abu Rahme
Blogroll
The War of Ideas in the Middle East
Choas, here's the point: While I might object to such a Canadian invasion, I would not depict every parking ticket handed by a Canadian cop thereafter as a crime against humanity.
This is an exercise in disproportionate outrage. Reading this, it doesn't seem to amount to very much (and some to nothing: A national park at Samuel's grave ? The horror).
Seems to me there are three start points with which to view what happens in Jerusalem.
- Jews/Israelis: This is Jerusalem. We own this place.
- Arabs/Palestinians: No Jews here.
- Phil Weiss: Jews should know their place.
Guess what? The first makes most sense to me.
Let me get this straight: Time says that people who do good business don't care if there's peace or war? Realtors who sell condos don't care if tomorrow the town is attacked by rockets?
Anti-semitic? Maybe Time is simply feeble-minded.
This is not deny that the artistic boycott has some impact, but it is being swamped by countervailing, mostly non-political, forces that makes Israel more attractive to international artists. It's hard to make a point with Israelis when they see more rather than less shows.
Sorry to rain on your parade, but the fledgling artistic boycott of Israel has already fizzled.
Israel was flooded with top rated foreign artists throughout the summer and the autumn outlook is strong (Chick Corea, Jeff Beck, Ozzy Osborne, the Scorpions, to name a few). Rather than heralding a boycott, 2010 will be a record year.
Hey! Where did Rachel the Skeptic disappear? The one whose Jewishness is defined by asking questions? Suddenly, when meeting Mossawa, she becomes Rachel the Dupe. Actually, dupe does not seem to be the right word: It does not look like Mossawa tried to deceive her. She just grabbed their material and made the most of it. Examples:
'military rule': This was a legal regime under which the rural Arab population lived during the early days of the state.
But it ended in 1966.
'While almost half of the Haifa civilians killed by missiles during the 2006 Second Lebanon War were Arab, Farah summed up the prevailing attitude: if you opposed the Israeli military action, you deserved to be killed... or you were a "traitor." '
Without proper substantiation anyone with possession of a skeptical backbone would discount this as meaningless gossip or anti-Israeli hype. But not our Rachel. Not to mention that this story is mainly about Israeli-Arabs being killed by random Hizballa rocket fire against civilians. How warped to spin this into the "Israelis are bad" angle.
So Israel's accession to OECD in May is behind this move.
"I can’t help wondering if he ever hurt anyone or killed anyone when he finally went over there"
You are not wondering whether he got hurt, or was killed?
False. The Israeli-Lebanon border is not temporary, and is unchanged since 1920. The borders with Egypt and with Jordan are also the British Mandate border.
The argument is highly contrived. Israel and Lebanon share a border (the Blue Line) which is recognized, precisely demarcated and undisputed by either side. (The Shebaa Farms claim is contrived, but anyway is part of the Lebanon-Syria border) . The border is the same British Mandate Palestine had with Lebanon. Neither Israel nor Lebanon dispute the Blue Line. Neither make any claims beyond it. In 2000 the UN demarcated the border with painstaking precision, so everybody knows precisely where the border runs, and all contrary assertions are feeble attempts to rationalize Tuesday's events.
That an electronic security fence cannot run on the exact border should be obvious. A tree that touches the fence, from either side, obviously interferes with its electronic warning system, creating false alarms.
Neither. She "promotes a service program for Arab-Israelis", which makes me guess that she is part of it herself or a veteran.
The IDF is authorized to post recruits according to its needs and to release anyone it does not deem fit. But it may not do so on an ethnic basis, and this is subject to court review.
Having opinions is fine. Resisting revising them when confronted with reality is dogmatism.
My understanding is that she is already back and this is her post-mortem.
It's not in quotes.
I'm so far pretty disappointed by Rachel's account. She appears to have spent her entire trip telling herself that she must not be brainwashed, and not to believe anything. Then when she goes home, she writes it all up strictly according to the party line. She seems determined not to learn anything new. I can almost see her get to the end of the trip exhaling "Phew, managed to pass that with all my views unchanged".
potsherd you are right and Rachel is wrong:
All citizens of Israel may serve in the IDF. Service is mandatory for Jewish boys and girls, and for Druze boys. The rest are exempted but may volunteer. Some do. The Bedouin (who are Muslim) have a long tradition of serving in the IDF and volunteer in large numbers.
There is also 'national service' that for some groups is a legal alternative to IDF service. This means community service, working in hospitals, schools etc. There have been suggestions to make national service mandatory for Arab youths, but this is fiercely opposed by the Israeli-Arab leaders, who discourage even volunteering for community service. Despite that. quite a few Arab youths volunteer, and participation is growing. The girl Rachel met must have been one of those. Must be tough for an Arab girl to risk her society's censure.
Mooser: The bigotry was in the rest of your post. "Boychik" is patronizing. Got it, Gramps?
bigbill you are misinformed. Israeli Jews have the highest fertility rate in the developed world, and it's still climbing. Look it up.
RoHa: This is confusing nations with states, and moreover begging the question of why most states came into being in the first place. The Irish live in Eire and Northern Ireland (UK). Some Irish in NI want to secede to Eire, and some don't, but both kinds are called Irish. The Czech live now live in the Czech Republic because they did not believe that they are "Czechoslovaks" when Czechoslovakia existed. etc. etc.
The question is not important. I denied Jews were a race and said they were a nation instead, and then I was questioned about what that means, but it really does not matter here.
Roha:
Identification with the Jewish nation is not forced on Jews. Each makes up his own mind. That applies to Australian parliamentarians too.
But to take your case elsewhere: How do you view Arab-Israeli members of Knesset who say they are Palestinian nationals?
"What is a nation, such that the Jews are one?"
It's what the Germans, Palestinians, Irish, Tamil, Japanese, Czech, Russians, Chinese, Tibetans etc. call themselves.
Lots of variations there, but that's the point: Like another term "family", definitions can be attempted but would miss the point: It means whatever members want it to mean.
"Isn’t that lovely, boychik?"
Mooser, bigotry is seldom lovely, but whatever turns you on.
Where is "here"?
Wow, I'm glad you agree, because it's really as simple as that.
Whoever said Jews are a race? They are a nation, because they say so. It's called self-determination.
Regarding the topic, I would like to know: Is there any country in the world where a migrant worker can come, stay as long as he/she likes, and the state has no say about it?
No Mooser, it's because Avi has no case. Switching to name-calling confirms that you have nothing real to say.
Avi: Sorry. My "lying eyes" tell me nothing. Which source of water in the Golan (or in Israel) ends up in Syria?
Avi: I saw your map, but it is makes no point: Water going south and east flows into the Rokad and ends up in the Jordan. The entire Golan Heights is part of the draining basin of the Jordan, so there's no motive to divert it.
There's no stream or river that flows eastwards from the Golan (south of the Hermon mountain) towards Syria. There's nothing to dam or divert.
Elsewhere you got Banias confused with Hama. They are on opposite edges of the Golan. The Hermon water indeed flows thru Banias, but it is not a hot-water spring, and is many kilometres away from the tri-state border. As already said, putting a dam there would be pointless.
Regarding Lebanon, the entire Israel-Lebanon border is on a ridge. Impossible to build any dams there, and indeed there are none.
This is also well established: Ad hominems are not very effective at convincing anyone.
The Golan is upstream from Israel, but not from Syria. Furthermore it is separated from the rest of Syria by the deep ravines of the Yarmuk and the Rokad.
The Syrians (and Jordanians) are in fact heavily exploiting the Yarmuk, a major tributary of the Jordan, and so at expense to downstream Israel and PA (not suggesting they don't have a right to).
There's nothing Israel can do from the Golan, or anywhere else, to influence Syria's water supply, which is the main point.
Antidote, no! They were not talking.
If memory serves, at the time of Iraq War 2003 there were 2 (two) Jews remaining in Baghdad.
My comment lampooned the ridiculous comments at the beginning of this thread about Israelis "stealing" "Palestinian" food.
Do explain how "monopolizing the general area" is relevant to Syria's being "dry and yellow". Was Syria green before 1967? Or maybe Israel was yellow?
You don't shock me in the least. This is just a statement of fact, and you are welcome to do your own research (and educate us on your findings). You will find that Mizrahi Jews tend to be more right wing than average, and at least one of the causes is mistrust of Arabs. The liberal or left wing in Israel is predominantly Ashkenazi.
Moreover, the Mizrahi-Ashkenazi divide is becoming a red herring, due to high intermarriage.
As a rule, Jews who hail from Arab countries tend to be suspicious and even hostile to their former Arab neighbors. In the 1940's Baghdad was one-third Jewish, yet all (and I mean all) were kicked out and their property expropriated when Israel was founded. You can imagine how they feel about that.
""The nice green is Israel," our guide tells us, "and the dry yellow area is Syria" -- failing to mention that Israel monopolizes water supplies in the region. "
Rachel needs to be reminded that it's impossible to monopolize the water of someone who is upstream from you, and Syria is definitely upstream from Israel. Israel has no control over Syria's water.
More stealing from the Palestinians, this time in Iran. Won't Palestinian suffering ever end?
Wow. The Turks also stole from the Palestinians? I didn't realize the Turks, too, committed such atrocities.
What expertise on archaelinguistics is needed here? The Bible (book of Genesis) is written in Hebrew, and Rachel is a Hebrew word meaning "ewe".
Reminds me of a story I read by an American author about someone named David who supposedly changed his name to "Dov" when he immigrated to Israel. WTF? "David" is as Hebrew as you can get.