I was wrong, I really underestimated the tenacity of the Eda Haredit , an extremeanti-Zionist Haredi faction. Last week sure that the commotion over the bones discovered during the excavation work for theAshkelon hospital's newemergency room had run its natural course. I wrote: "Well the Byzantine bones that concerned us so much have finally been laid to rest." On Thursday afternoon hundreds of members of this Haredi group gathered in Jerusalem for the purpose of enacting a strange ceremony. They had come to participate in an open ended funeral procession. There was a coffin, a hearse but no burial, simply a parade. That wasn't the only unusual aspect of this near-to macabre reality show. The hearseused for the ceremony was supplied by the Israeli Ministry of Religious Services, i.e. a Zionist hearse!. The assembly of black-garbed Haredim begged forgiveness of the holy bones, read psalms and recited Kadish. The other anomaly is that the final resting place of the pagan bones is unknown. None of the burial societies affiliated with the country's major cemeteries agreed to accept them. Maybe a non-Jewish cemetery will open its gates for them.
Meanwhile, the Ashkelon district Antiquities Authority announced that during the exhumation of the bones a pagan altar dating to the Roman period had been discovered. The district archeologist Dr. Yigal Israel said “The new discovery further corroborates the assertion that we are dealing with a pagan cemetery."
It has been a week full of embarrassing incidents. I would ignore them, if I could, but as long as they are considered newsworthy I can't sweep them under the proverbial carpet.
Painter, journalist, and peace activist Thea Paneth related to one of them in the Boston Globe.
"What does Israel have to fear?" asked Paneth and taunting further," Why is Israel, with one of the most powerful militaries in the world, so afraid of 81-year-old professor Noam Chomsky visiting Gaza?"
Admittedly, a slight inaccuracy Gaza wasn't in Chomksy’s itinerary, nevertheless she is right.
"Declaring war on the intellect" complained an editorial in Ha'aretz last Thursday.
"By stopping the illustrious American scholar Professor Noam Chomsky at the AllenbyBridge and barring his entry into Israel and the Palestinian Authority, the government's outrageous treatment of those with the audacity to criticize its policies has reached new heights. Israel looks like a bully who has been insulted by a superior intellect and is now trying to fight it, arrest it and expel it. In barring a renowned academic from Israel and the West Bank, the government's outrageous treatment of its critics has reached new heights."
The editorial explained the screening mechanism which blocked Chomsky's entry. "Now that the affair has come to light, Interior Ministry sources are claiming it was the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT)that should have handled Chomsky, and that his detention was the result of a misunderstanding, whereas COGAT is claiming that it did not know of the scholar's arrival. This, at best, is blatant disingenuousness."
The futility of the exclusion was demonstrated the following day when Israel Channel 2 TV interviewer Dana Weiss went with a camera crew to Amman to interview Noam Chomsky. The aging intellectual is not a terrorist and presents absolutely no danger to Israel. Some of his arguments tend to annoy me. For example; his insistence that Israel is unnecessarily paranoid. . However trying to survive among neighbours who are poised and waiting for an opportunity to attack us, it's no wonder we tend to look over our shoulders a lot. Furthermore, a nation that rose out of the embers of the Holocaust is understandably a tad cautious. I wonder at Professor Chomsky's naiveté especially in the light of a personal incident he has mentioned. Recalling childhood memories in Philadelphia he says,
"We were the only Jewish family around. I grew up with a visceral fear of Catholics. They're the people who beat you up on your way to school. So I knew when they came out of that building down the street, which was the Jesuit school, they were raving anti-Semites. So childhood memories took a long time to overcome. “Unlike Professor Chomsky we are not likely to overcome them so soon.
Barring Chomsky was not the action of an over-zealous clerk at the AllenbyBridge border crossing. It seems we have a deep-rooted fear of anyone that criticises us. In 2008—under the left-of-centre Olmert government—Israel barred two other “virulent enemies”, Richard Falk and Chomsky’s disciple Norman Finkelstein, from entering the country.
Maybe we should invite them all to visit along with Alan Dershowitz for a nice friendly debate.
Early last week the Kuwait news agency reported that a cargo ship named the'Rachel Corrie' had left Dublin, Ireland, heading for Gaza, making it the first of a fleet of eight ships that have set sail to break the siege on the Gaza Strip.
The international flotilla aiming to break the Israeli siege on Gaza is carrying supporters from 40 countries. The flotilla's cargo includes 1200 tons of cement, paper, medical supplies, special devices for the disabled and other aid.
In the past, Israel has threatened, as it is doing now, to stop boats from reaching the Gaza port, then allowed them through the IDF-imposed sea blockade. Prime Minister Netanyahu has made no comment on the matter, remaining purposely vague to keep the organisers guessing as to Israel's true intentions. However, a breaking news report claims that the Israeli navy will indeed stop the flotilla. Preparations have been made at Ashdod sea port to receive, interrogate and if need be arrest the would be blockade breakers.
A government spokesman did however comment on the blockade breakers true purpose, "What interests the organisers is not human rights in Gaza, but rather bashing Israel."
The Foreign Ministry and office of the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories released a statement to the news media stressing that the supplies the ships are carrying are unnecessary and that Israel – together with various international organizations – already transfers these supplies to Gaza via land crossings.
"We know of no shortages in Gaza," the ministry spokesman stated," and we are permitting the import of goods and equipment into Gaza, as well as facilitating the export of produce from Gaza,"
Over the past year Israel has allowed 6,000 Palestinians to leave Gaza to receive medical treatment in Israel and Jordan. In addition, Israel does not limit the amount of medicines and food entering the Gaza Strip.
This week the Financial Times, referred to the relief flotilla and the blockade stating, "It comes at a time when 200 to 300 smuggling tunnels from Egypt into Gaza have become so efficient that shops all over Gaza are bursting with goods."
According to the FT report, "branded products such as Coca-Cola, Nescafé, Snickers and Heinz ketchup – long absent as a result of the Israeli blockade – are both cheap and widely available. However, the tunnel operators have also flooded Gaza with Korean refrigerators, German food mixers and Chinese air conditioning units. Tunnel operators and traders alike complain of a saturated market – and falling prices."
The flotilla was organised by the Turkish IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation as well as other left-wing European organisations.
At this juncture I want to add a personal comment. I'm not happy with the blockade on Gaza! It's ineffective and probably damages Israel more than it harms Hamas. Admittedly its purpose is to prevent arms and materials used for manufacturing explosives from reaching Hamas. The blockade is wrongly perceived as a total closure on the Gaza Strip, namely, collective punishment directed at the people living there.
So far it hasn't brought about the collapse of the Hamas regime and it hasn’t forced its leaders to release Gilad Shalit.. The sharp drop in the number of Qassam rockets and mortar shells fired at targets in the Gaza periphery zone is attributed mainly to the IDF's retaliation policy. Hamas has learnt that the IDF retaliates for every attack, even a single Qassam rocket landing in an open field without causing casualties and damage. The counter-attack is invariably directed at the smuggling tunnels. It's clear that that even a token rocket launching, which more often than not causes no damage to Israel triggers a damaging response Hamas can ill afford. Today the only attacks launched against Israeli targets are carried out by dissident groups. If this is the case why do we persist with a blockade that is only a perceived blockade?
Imposing closures when necessary would do less damage to our national image.
Protecting Israelis living in the Gaza periphery zone and along our border with Lebanonwill be based on an active deterrent factor and a passive counter-rocket defence system, the Iron Dome.
The first two Iron Dome counter-rocket batteries will be operational some time next month. Each battery provides a protective umbrella for an area of 150 km. These batteries and others to follow will provide the lower tier of a comprehensive defence system being developed to counter all types of missile, rocket and mortar attacks. The upper tiers won't be operational till 2013.
Last week the United States Congress voted to approve $205 million in aid to Israel for the Iron Dome missile defense system. Explaining the reasons for the extra funding House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Howard Berman said.
“With nearly every square inch of Israel at risk from rocket and missile attacks, we must ensure that our most important ally in the region has the tools to defend itself.”
While we blockade Gaza the Palestinian Authority has imposed its own embargo. It authorised a ban forbidding the sale of settlement goods in the West Bank. According to the decree, violators will be prosecuted and ordered to pay fines, go to jail or both. The new provision also targets those Palestinians willing to work in the settlements imposing sentences ranging from one to five years on offenders. The law does not encompass all Israeli goods, which Palestinians rely on heavily for their subsistence. The Palestinian Prime Minister, Salam Fayyad, promised that the PA government will continue to finance the National Dignity Fund , instituted to boost the availability of local products in the Palestinian market.The Palestinian Authority has also banned the sale of Israeli mobile SIMs and top-up cards, because the phone networks locate signal towers in Jewish settlements
It remains to be seen how effective these prohibitions will be.
What did we have this week? We celebrated Shavuot and we tried to bury some long forgotten bones.
Well the Byzantine bones that concerned us so much have finally been laid to rest. At one stage the fate of the ancient burial site uncovered during preliminary work on the foundations of a new bomb-proof emergency room for the Barzilai hospital in Ashkelon almost caused a government crisis.Initially the prime minister took the path of least resistance and sided with a proposal to relocate the new ER to a less convenient and more expensive site. Finally armed with the rabbinical rulings of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef and the current Sephardi Chief Rabbi, Netanyahu had the confidence to rule in favour of the original plan. ColumnistNahum Barnea backed Prime Minister Netanyahu's change of heart. "The majority of the Israeli public would not have been able to comprehend a government that favours dead pagans over live patients.” An enraged Haredi group was quick to respond but unable to muster more than a few score demonstrators to “storm" the ER construction site.A few protestors who managed to breach the fence around the site were arrested and the excavation work continued without interference.
At this juncture I think it's pertinent to clarify a few details. Archaeologists dated the artefacts and bones in the graves to the Byzantine period.
The deceased were probably pagans, maybe Christians but definitely not Jews. The demonstrators who tried to stop excavation work belong to an extreme ultra-Orthodox group, a marginal small but noisy faction that is certainly not representative of the greater religious sector of the population.
Demonstrators in Jerusalem caused damage to public property and according to one report a group of Haredim gathered by the gates of Prime Minister Netanyahu's official residence in order to curse him. The same source estimated that the curse was one rung down from the potent Pulsa Dinura ceremony.
A well known political correspondent claims, "you have not made it in Israeli politics until you've been cursed by the Pulsa DiNura."
Early in the 20th century, agitated Haredi Jews in Jerusalemwere accused by the media of having recited the curse against Hebraist Eliezer Ben Yehuda. There have been unsubstantiated media reports of the curse being recited against archaeologists and authors. Prior to the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, there were rumours that the curse had been recited against him by right-wing extremists.
In July 2005, an undisclosed news media source reported that opponents of the Gaza pullout plan recited the Pulsa diNura in the old cemetery of Rosh Pina, asking the "Angel of Death" to kill Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Six months later Sharon suffered two strokes and is currently in a coma.
What can I say – "Plenty powerful medicine!"
Unless you happen to live in Ashkelon and the area served by the Barzilai hospital the ER episode albeit annoying is a lesser existential threat.
Whatever happens in Lebanon, Syria and Iran concerns us mainly because this axis presents a potential existential threat to Israel.
In the past inroads made by Russia (then the USSR) in our region were often accompanied by generous armaments deals, ostensibly for defence purposes but in effect they presented a direct threat to Israel.
Zvi Magen believes Russia is trying to restore its influence in the Middle East. He expressed this opinion in a thought provoking analysis of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s visit to Syria. Magen’s article appeared in a recent issue of “Insight” published by the Institute for National Security Studies, an Israeli think-tank.
ZviMagen is well schooled in military intelligence and has served as ambassador for Israelto both the Ukraine and Russia.
I suppose I could have made do with the title to his piece in” Insight. ” After all any casual observer notingthe visits made in recent months by Syrian government ministers and officials to Moscow as well as the reciprocal visits made by their Russian counterparts to Damascus,could easily havecome to the same conclusion. However Zvi Magen presents a highly qualified analysis of these visits.
President Assad has visited Russia three times in the past five years, therefore this first reciprocal visit by President Medvedev is especially significant
Visits of this kind are always described as “fruitful and productive” and indeed they do produce memoranda, agreements and treaties. However, their implementation depends largely on the prevailing mood in the Kremlin.
Let’s gloss over the long list of trade and commerce agreements signed during the visit, the promises made to supply Syria with scientific information, to further infrastructure projects and advance technological cooperation and tourism.
Of particular interest was Medvedev’s meeting with Hamas leader Khaled Mashal (whom he met in Moscow three months earlier). Mashal is blacklisted by many countries as a terrorist so the only justification for meeting him again was because Medvedev raised the issue of releasing Gilad Shalit.
At one time, in the 1970s and 1980s Syria was the USSR’s main ally in the Middle East. Assad senior cooled Syria’s relations with Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union because of “its betrayal of the Arab cause.” Relations were restored a few years later in an effort to form an anti-Western front in the Middle East with Russia’s active participation, and subsequently the political, economic, and security ties between the countries have grown closer. Good reason for this is Syria’s current international isolation and threats both perceived and real from various rivals and enemies. Therefore Syria sees Russia as an important partner. For its part, Russia has expressed sweeping support for Syria and rejected any criticism regarding its nuclear programme, activities in Lebanon, arming of Hezbollah, support for terrorist organisations, including Hamas, and cooperation with Iran.
Regarding security, the two nations began a new era with Assad’s first visit to Moscow, when then-President Vladimir Putin cancelled 73 percent ($9.8 billion) of Syria's debt to Russia for armaments supplied before the breakup of the USSR, in return for new weapons deals. Russia supplies Syria with Mig-29 fighter planes and aerial defence systems of an older generation. Although understandings regarding the supply of more advanced models, such as the Mig-E-31 jet, the S-300 surface-to-air missile, and the Askandar-2 surface-to-surface missile were reached, these weapons have not been supplied yet because of regional military balance considerations. Russia’s policy regarding the delay in supplying the new weapons is not likely to change soon. In addition, the Russian navy uses the Tartous port facilities, and Russia is even financing the port’s renovation. On the nuclear question, Medvedev declared his support for a nuclear-free Middle East. Syria, however, is eager to receive a civilian nuclear reactor.
According to US news media sources the Obama administration is looking for ways to build up "moderate elements" within Hezbollah and to diminish the influence of hard-liners. To this end John Brennan, assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism, met with government leaders during a recent visit to Lebanon. Maybe this is an attempt to defuse the tension along the Lebanese and Syrian borders with Israel.
Columnist Alex Fishman weighed up the possible outcome of a future confrontation with Hezbollah. In two articles he wrote for Haaretz Fishman outlined how he thinks the IDF will prepare for a Hezbollah offensive.
“The IDF will go into next Lebanon war with more firepower and upgraded capabilities.” Claims Fishman.
“The Scud missiles which Hezbollah reportedly received from Syria are meant for a specific objective. Should it indeed turn out that the missiles smuggled in are of the Scud D type, this is apparently a threat on Israel's nuclear reactor in Dimona.
As far as is known, Hezbollah does not have plans to take over areas in Galilee. It may have the ability to raid a community, purely forthe symbolic and dramaticeffect of such an attack. Its strategy will focus on sustained rocket and missile attacks deep into Israel. For that reason, most of its fortifications aim to protect and feed its strategic arm.
This protection is based on approximately 160 military compounds established in southern Lebanon, in villages and in their vicinity, including the Christian enclaves. For that reason, when the IDF held drills it referred to the communities as military compounds in every way. When it happens the army will head into the next war in Lebanon with a tried and practiced operational plan “
Hezbollah has learnt the lessons drawn from the Second Lebanon War. It has studied“Operation Cast Lead” in Gaza and realises that the next round will be different. The operation in the south in 2008-9 demonstrated to an even greater extent than in 2006 the grave results of the IDF's so-called "Dahiya Doctrine" – Nasrallah realises that today the IDF is a better trained, better equipped and a far more formidable military machine.
For this reason, Hezbollah (as well as Hamas) is rapidly digging in, building fortifications underground – bunkers, headquarters, control centres, and connecting tunnels from one sector to another.
Relating to Hezbollah’s capabilities Fishman says, “In order to direct coordinated fire at the same target, one needs a much more advanced command and control system than the system Hezbollah has. Here, in fact, lies its vulnerability. On the one hand, it's hard to cope with a terror group that conducts itself like an army. On the other hand, Hezbollah is already suffering from all the problems that plague an institutionalised military organisation; problems which small and clandestine guerilla cells are not afflicted with.
In the Second Lebanon War, the Air Force destroyed Hezbollah's long-range missiles within 35 minutes. Meanwhile, 50% of the rockets fired from mass produced short and mid range rocket launchers were destroyed before they were used, while the rest were destroyed immediately after the first attack. We can assume that the Israeli Air Force's and ground forces' abilities in terms of accurate weaponry and hitting such targets have improved considerably since then.”.
“Hezbollah's goal,” says Fishman, “is to maintain a standing army of at least 40,000 men, Today it has less than half of that, and the increase it aspires for requires compromise on manpower quality. Moreover, advanced weapons systems require strict maintenance and high technological capabilities. A requirement Hezbollah doesn’t possess at the present time.
In the next war, UNIFIL will not be in south Lebanon. Its members will leave when the war breaks out, even if they're not saying this right now. UNIFIL does not have the mandate to interfere in the fighting, and it certainly has an interest in saving its own skin.
On another front, the 15,000 troops of the Lebanese Army deployed south of the LitaniRiver do not constitute a target for the IDF at this time. However, this army is expected to put up a fight once a war breaks out. Based on this logic, the IDF will be addressing this army as a hostile force. In other words, any clash that includes IDF ground movement in Lebanon will have to push aside and neutralize these 15,000 troops as quickly as possible.
Nasrallah is apparently unconvinced that his organisation has reached the optimal point to embark on war. He possesses endless amounts of rockets, but not many accurate and long-range missiles. We can assume that once he accumulates a sufficient arsenal, the countdown will begin. “
This opinion based on the inevitability of a confrontation with Hezbollah ignores the deterrence factor. It assumes that Hezbollah’s very raison d'être is to destroy Israel and because of its fanatical dedication to this goal it can’t be deterred. Nevertheless, observers who don’t subscribe to the“inevitability scenario” claim thatIsrael’s overwhelming military superiority and its preparedness to meet the contingency of a Hezbollah offensive is suffice to deter Nasrallah from taking a rash and ill-considered action.
On one front the Lebanese have already won the war. Disregarding the Lebanese Miss America crowned recently I’ll move on to the much publicised hummus war.
We reacted with a measure of resignation and humour to the news that Lebanon one-upped us for the world record for the largest plate of hummus.
In the latest round of the hummus war between Israel and Lebanon , a team of Lebanese chefs prepared a serving of hummus that weighed in at 23,130 kilograms (59,992 pounds), setting a Guinness World Record .
That broke the record set in January by a restaurant in the Israeli Arab town of Abu Gosh, outdoing an older Lebanese record..
As one observer commented aptly, "It's better to battle over hummus than over human lives.”
Ten years ago American glass sculptor Dale Chihuly exhibited an unforgettable display of glass installations at the Jerusalem Citadel.
Chihuly was profoundly affected by the momentous occasion “As we stand on the threshold of the new millennium here at the ancient Tower of David, this is my own personal tribute — Chihuly in the Light of Jerusalem 2000.” The element of light in Jerusalem was pivotal to the display of his works, “The sun is much brighter than any artificial sources so the colours seem much different. Certain colours look fantastic in the bright sun.”
Today his hopes and aspirations seem naïve, at the best a little premature,
”This is a tribute to a unique site in a unique city in a unique country and at a unique time.”
The city’s special aura stemming mainly from its many religious sites has given rise tothe strange “Jerusalem syndrome” describedas a group of mental phenomena involving the presence of either religiously themed obsessive ideas, delusions or other psychosis-like experiences that are triggered by, or lead toa visit to the city of Jerusalem. It is not endemic to one single religion or denomination but has affected Jews, Christians and Muslims of many different backgrounds.
The same year Chihuly exhibited at the Citadel a group of Israeli psychiatrists
wrote in the British Journal of Psychiatry about the phenomenon. They claimed to have identified and described a specific syndrome which emerges in tourists with no previous psychiatric history. This was quickly countered by another group of psychiatrists who pointed out that nearly all of the syndrome sufferers were mentally ill prior to their arrival in Jerusalem.
Syndrome or no syndrome I confess I get excited every time I visit Jerusalem, not enough to be committed to an appropriate institution, but sufficient to mention the visit in my letters.
On closer inspection it’s easy to dampen some of this enthusiasm. The impressive wall around the old city is a relatively late addition built in the sixteenth century by Suleiman the Magnificent The citadel and the Tower of David may have a few stones from a time preceding the SecondTemple but most of it was constructed much later.
Many of the pilgrims walking the route of the Via Dolorosa are unaware that the original road lies deep beneath the surface. Some people have questioned whether the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was erected in the right place.
After all, the Emperor Constantine’s mother Helena, the single authority instrumental in fixing the position of Christian holy sites, built her churches three hundred years after the Crucifixion.
The Western wall is only the retainer wall of Herod’s Temple, the expanded and reconstructed SecondTemple. Herod himself detested by his Jewish subjects was severely afflicted by psychotic syndromes. In historical perspective his many maladies have provided case history studies for a number of contemporary psychiatrists.
Islam's ties to Jerusalem are tenuous to say the least. Its fervent affinity to the "Noble Sanctuary" is linked by a legend.
Nevertheless, there is no denying Jerusalem's unique attributes. The stone, light and aura of sanctity imbue this city with a quality unlike any other.
In 1980 thirteen years after the Six Day War the Knesset passed the Jerusalem Law declaring Jerusalem "complete and united,” reiterating its status as the capital of Israel. The new law left the boundaries of Jerusalem unspecified, requiring further definition. In response, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 478 declaring the law to be "null and void" and a violation of international law. In 1988, Jordan, while rejecting Israeli sovereignty over east Jerusalem, withdrew all its claims to the West Bank (including east Jerusalem).
The Israeli-Palestinian Declaration of Principles, signed September 13, 1993, deferred the settlement of the permanent status of Jerusalem to the final stages of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. The Palestinian National Authority views the future permanent status of east Jerusalem as the capital of the Palestinian state. The possibility of a Palestinian capital in east Jerusalem was considered by Israel for the first time in the Taba Summit in 2001, though these negotiations ended without an agreement and this possibility has not been considered by Israel since.
In a 1991 United States Secretary of State James Baker stated that the United States is "opposed to the Israeli annexation of east Jerusalem and the extension of Israeli law on it and the extension of Jerusalem’s municipal boundaries." However, earlier in 1990 the U.S. Senate had adopted a resolution "acknowledging Jerusalem as Israel's capital" and stating that it "strongly believes that Jerusalem must remain an undivided city." Congress passed the Jerusalem Embassy Act on October 23, 1995, which declared that Jerusalem should remain undivided and that it should be recognised as Israel's capital.
Notwithstanding the Senate resolution and Congress’ Jerusalem Embassy Act the official US stand falls a lot short of accepting the united undivided Jerusalem caption we use. Convincing the world that Jerusalem in its entirety, east and west is undivided under Israeli sovereignty is a formidable, nay an impossible task.
Of course our territorial maximalists advocate building wherever possible no matter what the consequences will be.
At the special Knesset session dedicated to Jerusalem Day Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin said, "…regretfully, only the religious sector marks this occasion.
Jerusalem Day was created by law as a national holiday. And yet the nature of celebrations in Jerusalem and the identity of those dancing in the streets today teach us that the national holiday in its current form more resembles a sectorial holiday. To be honest, most of the main events in Jerusalem have long been held under the auspices of the religious public.”
Rivlin's sorry summary is borne out by figures published this week by the Central Bureau of Statistics:
Only 21% of Jerusalem's Jewish residents define themselves as "non-religious, seculars
According to the Bureau's records 19,800 residents left the capital in 2009 while only 12,800 moved there. However, despite this imbalance the city's population grew by 14,000. The growth is attributed to Jerusalem’s high birthrates.
At the present time, Jerusalem is Israel's most populous city, with a population of 774,000. Its population is comprised of 488,000 Jews (63%,) 261,000 Muslims (34%,) and about 15,000 Christians (roughly 2%.) Another 10,000 people are not classified under any religion in the Bureau's report.
According to the data published, 30% of Jerusalem's Jewish residents aged 20 and above define themselves as "Haredim."
Surprisingly, for the first time ever the figures indicate that Jewish and Arab birthrates in the capital are the same, standing at four children per woman. This is the first time since 1998 that Jewish birthrates in Jerusalem have risen while Arab birthrates have declined. Well that is surely reason to rejoice!
Just before we pop the champagne bottles let's consider a few remarks made recently by Sallai Meridor a scion of an illustrious Revisionist family. Hehas served as Israeli Ambassador to the United States,Chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel and the World Zionist Organisation, Treasurer of the Jewish Agency and WZO and as the Head of the Settlement Division of the WZO.
Meridor was born in Jerusalem and lives just outside the city in the settlement of Kfar Adumim . He never tires of singing Jerusalem’s praises. Just the same he is a keen observer and well aware of the city's many ailments.
"Jerusalem is the poorest city in Israel. The percentage of participation in the workforce is lower that in other cities in Israel and certainly much lower than in the West." Particularly worrying is the fact that the sector of the population that doesn't contribute to the city's economic growth is the most prolific. He questions the relevance of Jerusalem to the Jewish people, the extent to which Jerusalem reflects the aspirations of the Jewish people in Israel and in the Diaspora. "Look at the number of schoolchildren in the city; out of 226,000 children attending educational institutions from kindergarten through to 12th grade, some 80,000 are Arabs, 86,000 are Haredim and that leaves 60,000 split roughly half and half between Zionist religious and secular. That makes for a very worrying demographic forecast. "
In another report published by the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies it was noted that about 60% of Jerusalem's population resides in areas annexed to the city after the Six-Day War in 1967; this figure includes 42% Jews and 58% Arabs.
“ Is this the Jerusalem to which Diaspora Jews dreamed of returning? The united Jerusalem that stretches from Shoafat to Beit Sahur? A city where on one side they build a monster like the Holyland apartment complex, and on the other there is no master plan, there are almost no building opportunities, and thousands of people live in fear that their homes, which were built without permits, will be demolished?” asks Daphna Golan who sometimes calls herself Daphna Golan-Agnon. She is co-founder of B'Tselem, researcher at the Minerva Centre for Human Rights of the HebrewUniversity in Jerusalem, consultant to pseudo-academic studyorganised by Dugard and Al Haq, claiming Israel is an “apartheid” state. Well that says it all. She’s a left-wing agitator and obviously biased. Maybe she is, but it’s difficult to refute some of her conclusions.
Of course I don’t subscribe to the labelling she and her Israel blasting NGOs engage in. However I am inclined to agree with some of the things she says.
“The victory parades on Jerusalem Day celebrate a unification that never took place in a city whose unity was invented. In 1967, Jerusalem tripled in size, swallowing up east Jerusalem as well as 28 Palestinian villages.”
Let’s consider somebody more mainstream, namely journalist Nahum Barnea who answered complaints about Jerusalem’s burgeoning Arab population as follows:
“The number is so high because on the eve of east Jerusalem’s annexation to Israel, two major-generals, Rehavam Ze’evi and Shlomo Lahat, drew up municipal borders that brought Arab neighborhoods and villages that were never part of Jerusalem into the city.”
Particularly worrying is the Jewish encroachment in Arab suburbs
“Two hundred and fifty settler families live in the heart of Muslim neighbourhoods in Jerusalem. The non-profit group supporting them, Ateret Cohanim, sets the policy, while prime ministers and mayors obey – some of them willingly, others involuntarily.“ Wrote Barnea in Yediot Ahronot.
The there’s the case of Beit Yehonatan which Barnea describes as “a tall building illegally constructed in the Silwan neighborhood. The courts ordered the building be sealed. The organization went to court and proved that at least 250 Palestinian homes were built the same way. If Jewish homes are sealed, Arab home should be razed.
The building was constructed in violation of any logic; an ugly structure in an ugly neighborhood where all construction laws were violated. “….” The residents can only leave the building accompanied by security guards. The guards are funded by the State. The security vehicle, an old van, travels on side roads, back and forth, from the building to the neighbourhood’s exit. Everything in the name of normalcy.”
Viewing the patchwork of villages and neighbourhoods in east Jerusalem I fail to see any master plan, a blueprint based on a clear policy. It all appears to have been accomplished piecemeal without direction or purpose.
“The Jewish people's connection to Jerusalem has no need of parades with thousands of armed policemen and civilians. What Jerusalem needs is fresh thinking that learns from the past and offers hope to all the city's residents: Palestinians and Israelis, Muslims, Christians and Jews. Next year in a Jerusalem that is rebuilt with equality.”
The word Dugri, albeit widely used in everyday Hebrew conversation, has no deep roots in our ancient language. You wouldn't use it in official correspondence or formal conversation and many people don’t use it at all.
It crept into everyday usage from Palestinian Arabic which in turn "adopted" it from Turkish.It seems the original Turkish word doğru means direct and to the point. As we know the Turks were "evicted" in 1918, however they seem to have left doğru behind in Palestinian Arabic and colloquial Hebrew.
Historical roots aside, the doğru approach fits Israelis to a tee. This two-syllable word expresses our "straight and to the point," "tell it as it is" mentality. This brutal frankness devoid of the niceties and subtleties required by propriety, often typifies the way Israelis think and act.
I'm sure I'm exaggerating; nevertheless it serves the purpose of this week's narrative.
On Tuesday I participated in a tour of churches and monasteries belonging to the Carmelite order, the only Catholic order that originated in the Holy Land. The tour related to Carmelite institutions on Mount Carmel and Haifa. Our tour guide was Rada Boulos a Christian IsraeliArab. I mentioned her in a previous letter. She is fluent in Hebrew, possesses a unique sense of humour and in many respects is quite emancipated. Often she can't resist the temptation to add a quip or two directed at her own society, the Jewish majority, the government and anything else that comes in sight.
At the last station of our tour, the Convent of the Carmelite Sisters in Haifa, Rada told of the Carmelite Order's fluctuating fortunes in the Holy Land. In the same context she mentioned the transiency of the powers that ruled the Holy Land. Had her account ended with no corollary I wouldn't have written about Rada, the Carmelite tour and the doğru attitude. However, when Rada casually intimated that even the Jewish state might be a transient phenomenon her audience was quick to respond. "We’re here to stay!"I don’t think Rada’s faux pas was wishful thinking. She’s intelligent, perceptive and knows that she wouldn’t be better off living in a Moslem majority society. Israel can do a lot more to improve the lot of its minority communities. However nowhere in this region is there greater freedom of expression. Just the same a fine line divides between criticism and incitement. Shekh Raed Salah leader of the northern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel has crossed that line many times and paid the price the law exacts.
Iran’s efforts to become a nuclear power, Syria’s unbridled support of Hezbollah, Hezbollah itself and Hamas in Gaza are not the only threats we face.
We have to contend with a large-scale insidious threat that has far-reaching effects.
Tel Aviv’s mayor Ron Huldai referred to this threat bluntly and honestly, with blithe disregard for the rules of political correctness when he addressed the “Educational Core” conference at the SeminarHakibbutzimTeachers College, Tel Aviv on Sunday. “The State of Israel is funding and nurturing entire communities of separationists and ignoramuses,” complained Mayor Huldai in a typical doğru manner. “Private education is financed by the public, but there is no supervision over its content.”
Leaders of the Shas religious party were outraged by Huldai’s address and accused him of “unbridled incitement.”
Mayor Huldai was merely voicing the anguish of a sizable public that pays the bulk of our taxes, yet whose children, who study in state schools, have in recent years received less education and fewer classroom hours.
Currently, there are seven core subjects which the Ministry of Education requires to be taught: Hebrew, Mathematics, English, Bible, History, Literature and Geography. The majority of Israeli schools abide by the programme, except specific educational institutions exempted from complying with it. Schools that do not include all seven subjects in their curriculum receive less funding from the Ministry of Education.
A debate on whether to impose the core program on the ultra-Orthodox Haredi institutions has been going on for years. Various budget sanctions against "rebel" establishments have been considered.
Huldai complained about the lack of adherence to the core programme. "Everyone teaches whatever they want," he said.
"Radical Islamic sectors can educate against the State of Israel, and the state will fund them. The Haredim also teach whatever they want, and are unwilling to teach the core subjects, which should be included in their school curriculum. Without them they can’t instill democratic values, provide a broad based education and the means of obtaining gainful employment. Without them they will become a burden on the tax-payer." …. "Today the State of Israel is probably the only country in the world where private education is being funded by the public, without it having to adhere to a minimum of educational demands."
Ron Huldai also noted, "Due to political pressure, in the name of multiculturalism and other progressive slogans - the State of Israel is funding and cultivating entire segregated and ignorant sectors which are increasing at a frightening rate and are jeopardizing our political and financial strength."
Journalist Yair Lapid wrote something similar in his column in Yedeot Ahranot.
Addressing the Haredi public he said, “You want private education for your students? No problem whatsoever; pay for it. There is no other country in the world – not even one - where the government funds private education. There is no other country in the world where the Ministry of Education representatives are not allowed to enter a school whose bills they pay (and fully so – 100% of the bills.) There is no other country in the world where teachers refuse to present their curriculum to the body that pays their salary. “
In his concluding remarks Lapid writes “If more than 50% of the children who entered first grade this year are not part of the national school system, in 12 years more than 50% of our 18-year-olds won't join the army. In 15 years, more than 50% of them won't go to university or join the workforce. “
That worries me as much as Iranian nukes and almost as much Hezbollah’s rocket arsenal.
Hezbollah’s weaponry is linked to a series of articles in the May issue of bitterlemons, self-described as aMiddle East Roundtable. The forum posed the question - Syrian missiles to Hezbollah? A panel of four experts commented on the claim made by Israel, the United States and a Kuwaiti newspaper that Syria had supplied Hezbollah with advanced missiles capable of striking targets anywhere in Israel with great accuracy.
David Schenker the director of the Programme on Arab Politics at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, presented some interesting arguments regarding the Scud debate.
“More likely, Damascus and Tehran engineered the Scud crisis to divert US-led efforts to build an international coalition to sanction Iran for its nuclear endeavors. Indeed, the timing of the reports is eerily reminiscent of Hizballah's cross-border operation on July 12, 2006, which occurred the same day the P-5+1 meeting in Paris was slated to refer the Iranian nuclear issue to the UN Security Council. The kidnapping/killing of Israeli soldiers sparked a war that effectively purchased Tehran nearly another year of unfettered enrichment activity. (While it's impossible to know with any certainty, the new diversion initiative might have been what was discussed at the February 2010 meeting in Damascus between Assad, Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinezhad).
Today, though tensions remain high, both Israel and Hizballah do not appear interested in an escalation. And until the next war, it will likely not be known whether Hizballah in fact obtained the Scuds from Syria. Nevertheless, for Washington the crisis is a useful reminder that Damascus, whether innocent or guilty of this particular transfer, continues to provide the Shi'ite militia with increasingly advanced capabilities that will make the next war even costlier for Lebanon and Israel. But for Washington, the Scud issue should prompt more than just a temporary refocusing on the well-intentioned but poorly implemented United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, which calls for Syria to end weapons transfers to its Iranian-backed allies in Lebanon.
That the Assad regime is upping the ante with Israel via Hizballah at the very moment Washington is working to deepen its diplomatic engagement with Damascus should give the Obama administration pause. If this unhelpful Syrian behavior continues, the Obama administration will likely arrive at the same conclusion the Bush administration reached in 2004: that Damascus actually is--as it so vociferously claims to be--a regime dedicated to supporting "the resistance." One year into President Barack Obama's tenure, it may be too early to declare the Syria policy a failure. But the administration's decision earlier this month to renew sanctions against Damascus just might suggest a growing appreciation in the White House as to the nature of the Syrian regime and perhaps for the limits of diplomatic engagement with this self-defined resistance state.”
Military analyst Ron Ben-Yishai referring directly to the threat from the north asks- Why are they afraid? He proceeds to weigh up the things that concern the leaders in Teheran, Damascus and Beirut.
“Lebanon and Syria fear that Israel would not accept the presence of heavy ballistic missiles in Hezbollah’s hands and will take offensive military action in order to lift the additional threat these missiles present to Israel’s civilian and military home front”.
Ben Yishai clarifies the real nature of the threat and how Israel will react.
“We can say with much certainty that at this time Israel has no intention of attacking Lebanon or Syria. It is quite clear that the limited number of Scud missiles that were apparently handed over from Syria to Hezbollah do not fundamentally boost the threat faced by the Israeli home front as a result of the rocket and missile arsenal already possessed by Hezbollah.
In recent years, the Shiite group accumulated and prepared for action roughly 45,000 rockets and missiles of all types in fortified and camouflaged shelters. According to Hezbollah, this arsenal includes a few hundred heavy rockets and missiles with a range that enables them to hit every populated area in Israel – even south of Dimona – and a warhead weighing hundreds of kilograms that can cause as much damage as a Scud.”
Ben Yishai believes that in order to prevent the number of Scuds from growing into a major threat and the situation from getting out of hand, Israel enlisted the help of the US Administration. The specific purpose of the Israeli request is to warn Syria and Hezbollah against taking any belligerent action. “At the same time,” says Ben Yishai,” Israel is conveying reassuring messages to Syria and Lebanon in order to prevent a flare-up as result of a “miscalculation” – that is, a situation whereby Syria and Hezbollah spot movements in Israeli territory and interpret them as preparations for an imminent Israeli attack – thereby being tempted to strike first. “
