Peres en Livni roepen op tot kalmte in Acco / Knessetleden wijzen met de vinger

 

Terwijl Peres, Livni en Olmert oproepen tot kalmte en verzoening, beschuldigen Knessetleden van de Arabische en rechtse partijen de andere kant van pogroms.

MK Barakeh maakt het wel heel bont:

"We see a great danger in these attacks. They are similar to the pogroms that Jews were exposed to at the hands of the Nazi gangs in Germany," Barakeh told reporters.

Onnodig te zeggen, dat dergelijk taalgebruik niet bepaald bijdraagt aan een sfeer van rust en tolerantie.

RP
----------

Livni tells Acre residents: Don't take law into your own hands

 

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1027728.html
By Yoav Stern and Yuval Azoulay, Haaretz Correspondents

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on Friday paid a visit to Acre, the site of recent clashes between Jewish and Arab residents, that she said was aimed at sending the message that no one should take the law into their own hands.

Livni, who is also chairman of the ruling Kadima party, said even if people are angry, they should let the authorities enforce the law. "It's obvious that it's the role of the police to do this."

She said that in light of the violence, there needs to be a "message of reconciliation and cooperation to calm tempers within the population, so that [residents] will continue to live together." Livni also affirmed that Yom Kippur is a part of Israel's heritage and that, "Every citizen has to respect this day."

President Shimon Peres on Friday called on Acre's residents and leaders to think of their city's image in light of the violence.

"There is no one in Israel who doesn't regret what is happening in Acre. Acre doesn't necessarily have to appear so, that grave events such as these would happen in Acre - events that embarrass all of the city's residents. No one will gain from these riots, everyone will lose from these riots," Peres said.

On Thursday, Israeli Arab MK Ahmed Tibi (Ra'am-Ta'al) responded to the clashes in the northern city, calling the violence a "pogrom perpetrated by Jews against Arab residents."

"The police displayed helpless discrimination in its treatment of the assault on Arab residents," Tibi said.

The riots erupted before dawn Wednesday when an Arab resident of the mixed town drove his car into a Jewish neighborhood during the holy day of Yom Kippur, during which even secular Jews refrain from driving out of respect. Jewish rioters alleged that the man defiantly played loud music, and proceeded to assault him, sparking large scale clashes between Jews and Arabs in the area.

Israeli Arab MK Mohammed Barakeh (Hadash) said the incident had less to do with Yom Kippur than a deliberate "escalation of racist speech" ahead of Israeli municipal elections next month.

"We see a great danger in these attacks. They are similar to the pogroms that Jews were exposed to at the hands of the Nazi gangs in Germany," Barakeh told reporters.

When Acre police intervened, Barakeh said, "they fired rubber bullets and tear gas" to prevent Arabs defending their homes, to which police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld responded that police used tear gas and stun grenades to disperse rioters, not rubber bullets.

MK Yossi Beilin (Meretz) also responded to the incident, saying "exactly eight years after the October riots [that sparked the second intifada], it appears that nothing has been done to implement the recommendations of the Or Commission in regard to Israel's Arabs," referring to the probe panel that investigated the 2000 riots, during which Israeli police shot and killed 12 Israeli Arabs and one Palestinian.

"We are sitting on a barrel of explosives, and every time we are surprised anew when the tension explodes, rather than making a genuine effort to stop it," Beilin added.

MK Yuval Steinitz (Likud) said that Public Security Minister Avi Dichter and the police commissioner must both resign over the incident. "The state of Israel has become the only country in the Western world where pogroms are carried out against Jews, with physical harm to them and their property and chants of 'death to Jews,'" he said.

"A police force that is unable to protect Jewish neighborhoods needs to take a hard look at itself," he added.

MK Eliyahu Gabbay (National Unity-NRP) said that "time after time Jews in mixed cities and in towns adjacent to Arab villages find themselves persecuted, victims of violent rampages by Israeli Arabs fueled by Arab nationalism and Islamic fanaticism and with the encouragement and incitement of Israeli Arab leaders."

"Israel's leadership needs to wake up, regain its composure and start protecting its Jewish citizens with actions, not just words," Gabbay went on to say. "Many Jews living in mixed cities feel that they live in the Diaspora. The government has to employ every measure to restore security to Jewish citizens.

 

 

54 Arrestaties in 4 dagen rellen te Acco

 

Ondanks oproepen van onder andere Olmert, Livni, en mensen uit zowel de Arabische als Joodse gemeenschappen, om het geweld te staken en de rust te doen weerkeren, gaan de rellen in Acco door. Hoewel maar een kleine groep direct bij de rellen betrokken is, zijn zij het gevolg van breder gevoelde spanningen en frustratie aan beide kanten. Er zijn echter ook mensen die met daadwerkelijke actie proberen aan coëxistentie en wederzijds begrip te werken, zoals de Hashomer Hatzair jeugd beweging.

 

RP

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Akko: 54 arrested in 4 days of riots

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3607842,00.html

 

Police remain on high alert in northern city for fear riots will be resumed. At least 54 Jews and Arabs arrested since clashes began on Yom Kippur. Members of Hashomer Hatzair youth movement to build 'sukkah of peace' in city

 

Hagai Einav

Published:

10.12.08, 10:03

 

At least 54 people were arrested in the past four days of riots in the northern city of Akko, which broke out on Yom Kippur Eve, half of them Jewish and half Arab. Among the detainees are two teenagers, who were placed under house arrest.

 

Forty-four of the detainees were already brought before a court, and the 10 others will attend a hearing at the Krayot Magistrate's Court on Sunday.

 

The police plan to recommend that some of the suspects be indicted over their involvement in riots, arson, violent incidents and disturbances.

 

There is one person, however, who was not arrested – an Arab resident who on the Eve of Yom Kippur notified the Muslim residents of Akko as to what was happening to an Arab Driver in a Jewish neighborhood. The police, who are aware of the man's identity, believe that his arrest will help calm the situation in Akko, but he is still at large.

 

The police said Sunday that the suspect was not a muezzin (the person who announces prayers at the mosque) but an Arab youth, who had received a call from the brother of the Arab driver who entered a Jewish neighborhood, and told him of the attack and that he required help.

 

The police believe that the suspect then entered one of the city's mosques whose loudspeaker system was wired into the other mosques in the city, and alerted the Arab population to what was going on in the Jewish neighborhood, starting the riots.

 

"The suspect knows that we are aware of his identity, and he has fled," said Chief Superintendent Avi Edri. Many of Akko's residents believe that once the agitator is arrested, the city will finally calm down.

 

The Akko riots were also at the focus of Sunday's weekly cabinet meeting. Police Commissioner Dudi Cohen briefed the ministers on the recent developments in the northern city.

 

Internal Security Minister Avi Dichter was expected to visit the city following the cabinet meeting and meet with Mayor Shimon Lankry, local police officers and residents. Before the meeting Dichter urged the residents to calm things down.

 

The Nahariya hospital treated 14 people between the ages of 14 and 43, all of them Jews, since the onset of the riots. Some were injured by stones in their head and limbs, and two were hurt by horses used by the police. The hospital's emergency room has declared a state of emergency.

Fourth evening of riots (Photo: Dudu Azulay)

 

Hundreds of police officers are still deployed in Akko for fear that the riots will resume. Police Commissioner Cohen said Saturday evening that the main goal was to safeguard human life, and that "so far, we have succeeded in this mission."

 

At the end of an evaluation of the situation with the Northern Command and Galilee District, the police chief said that "every disturbance will be dealt with firmly and determinedly, in order to maintain law and order."

 

According to Cohen, the police will continue their dialogue with the city's leaders in order to bring about a state of calm and a return to routine, while in the meantime special and skilled police forces will continue deploying in the city.

 

Counter-response

Following the riots, some 30 guides of the Hashomer Hatzair youth movement plan to arrive at Akko's Rabin Square on Sunday in order to build a "sukkah of peace" together with Jewish and Arab residents.

 

Aviv Leshem, a spokesman for the Kibbutz Movement, said that "the youngsters wandered around the city yesterday, met Arab residents and decided to build the sukkah (traditional bower) in a counter-response to the incidents taking place in the city."

 

The youths plan to celebrate the holiday of Sukkot in the sukkah and host Arab residents and public figures from the city's different sectors.

 

Itai Yehudai of the Hashomer Hatzair Movement said, "We live in Akko and are here. Our commune said that someone must show that there are people in Akko who are not only looking for violence, but that there is another way to deal with the problem. This is an educational statement directed at the Israeli public."

 

He said the initiative to build the sukkah was born after viewing the grave images from the riots. "We were very angered by these pictures. We know there are racist people in this country who act violently, but we wanted to show that problems can also be solved without hatred and harsh segregation.

 

"Fortunately, the Akko Municipality opened its doors and the police helped us. We invite people who think that things could be different to visit the sukkah all week. They are invited to sit down and talk about what happened and think how we should live together in this city. We are also planning activities for children and preparation of sukkah ornaments."

 

Three people were lightly injured by stones hurled at them during Saturday evening's riots. Jewish rioters torched the home of an Arab family in the city. An initial police investigation revealed that a Molotov cocktail was hurled at the house.

 

Ten people were arrested during Saturday's clashes, six of them Jews. Four Arabs were detained on suspicion of throwing stones at passerby from their house.

 

Yael Levy and Roni Sofer contributed to this report

Israël en de mislukking van de vrije markt

 

Wie zei dat de Arbeidspartij op sterven na dood was? De financieel-economische crisis die ook Israël raakt, komt voor het grootste deel door het roekeloos privatiseren en dereguleren en alles aan de vrije markt overlaten, zoals dat na de val van de muur wereldwijd de norm werd. Net als de PvdA hier, moet de Arbeidspartij in Israël terug naar de sociaaldemocratische principes. Helaas mist men daar de hete adem van de SP in de nek, maar de slechte peilingen zouden toch ook een signaal moeten zijn.

 

"Until next Yom Kippur, Israel will have to do soul-searching that is not economic alone. The state will have to redefine itself as a social-democratic society that balances market forces with the basic values of partnership, fairness and responsibility."

 

Wouter

______________

The October failure

 

By Ari Shavit
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1027430.html

Yom Kippur 2008 is a Day of Atonement for the economy. And yet, the image that came up in the meeting of economic experts with Tzipi Livni and Ehud Barak this week harked back to Yom Kippur 1973. That is the situation, more or less, one of the experts said. The Egyptian army has come as far as Be'er Sheva, the Syrian army is on the shores of the Kinneret, and the government has not yet decided whether to open the emergency storage facilities and call up the reserves. The government is paralyzed in the face of this unprecedented challenge. The result of the new economic-social failure, for which Ehud Olmert, Roni Bar-On and Stanley Fischer are responsible, might be no less dramatic than the results of the political-security failure that brought about the Yom Kippur War 35 years ago.

We should listen to the expert-prophet of doom. Three years ago he precisely predicted the crisis on Wall Street. Two years ago he predicted correctly that an economic tsunami was on its way to Israel. He is not the only one. In quite a few Tel Aviv high-rise office buildings sit fairly conservative professionals who are seeing the worst. Senior economists who do not tend to have extreme opinions are anxiously watching what is happening and not happening. Without discussing things among themselves, experts are analyzing the global financial crisis and the Israeli economic breakdown in similar terminology and sometimes using the exact same words. Everyone agrees there is not a day to waste. It is one minute to midnight.

The virus is one of a lack of responsibility, of zealous and foolish faith in the market's mysterious hand. This faith, which became religious dogma after the Berlin Wall fell, led to the process of the market's destruction, a process that strengthened over about 20 years. The cheap money of recent years turned the market's destruction into a cancer. Wall Street's conservative values eroded. Stable, cautious and traditional banking was replaced by an adventurer system of hedonistic and greedy financial institutions. The greed became a component in a game for the sake of the game.
 
Capital of mythic proportions, which was disconnected from real industrial capital and real economic values, was busy cloning and upgrading itself without restraint. Without the threat of socialism to rein them in and lacking the moderating presence of the state and regulation, global capitalism went into a tailspin. It lost its ability to right itself and became a bizarre and corrupt bubble that had to burst.

The experts in Tel Aviv are not Shelly Yachimovich and Dov Khenin. They are central, veteran market players who have seen for years how the market has been losing its balance; how the market that believes only in itself is swallowing up the country, dismantling society and eroding the middle class; how the time to sober up has arrived, the time for penance, they say. What has been will no longer be. The major recession descending on America, Europe and Russia will continue for years and spawn a new world order that will no longer heed the market's powers as if they were a god and idols.

The problem is Israel. The virus of irresponsibility has struck it three times. Once in the 1990s, when it adopted blind faith in the market, which led to widespread privatization, the concentration of huge amounts of capital in the hands of a few tycoons and the creation of dangerous social gaps.

The second time was when Israel recklessly reformed its capital market. That led to the unfettered issuing of corporate bonds, most of which were financed by speculative activities abroad. They are casting a cold shadow on the local financial system to the tune of about NIS 100 million.

Israel's third mistake came during the past year, when it kept interest rates high, the shekel strong, and pursued a dogmatic policy of non-government interference. This led to the quiet withering of industry and production.

These three strategic mistakes stemmed from worshipping the market, ignoring society and disgust with the state. All three stemmed from the illusion that the private sector and business can replace the political and public realm in everything and everywhere. All three show that Israeli capitalism in recent decades has suffered from a lack of good judgment and responsibility.

There will be no choice. Just as the Bank of Israel intervened yesterday, so the government will intervene. With criminal tardiness, the state's powers will be called up and thrown into the fray. Israel will bleed economically, but will overcome. And when we return from battling the immediate crisis there will be no choice but to do battle with the crisis in values. After we overcome the market failure we will have to heal the cultural failure of worshipping the market.

Until next Yom Kippur, Israel will have to do soul-searching that is not economic alone. The state will have to redefine itself as a social-democratic society that balances market forces with the basic values of partnership, fairness and responsibility.

 

 

Palestijnse politie Hebron ontdekt Hamas bommenwerkplaats

Het laboratorium.

 

Dit is het zoveelste voorbeeld van hoe Hamas mensenlevens - ook Palestijnse - ondergeschikt maakt aan haar politieke en religieuze doelen.

 

RP

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Hebron police: Hamas bomb lab discovered in residential area
www. maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=32459
Date: 10 / 10 / 2008  Time:  21:38   

 

Hebron – Ma'an – Palestinian Authority (PA) police said they discovered an explosives laboratory in a residential neighborhood of Hebron on Friday.

Hebron Police Chief Ramadan Awad told Ma'an that "we confiscated explosives and prevented a would-be disaster," warning of "grave consequences" had the police not acted.

"The police are watching suspicious movements of a group of people," he said. "Based on the information we received, we think this group is affiliated with Hamas," he alleged.

"This group - which is a Hamas-affiliated cell - was manufacturing and storing large quantities of explosives in a deserted house in the middle of a residential neighborhood," he said. The neighborhood is known as Duwar Al-Manara, or Manara Circle.

After breaking into the house, Awad said the police unit "found a long tunnel that led to a laboratory for manufacturing explosives."

Awad did not explain why Hebron police believe the house's occupants are linked to Hamas or what evidence, if any, led him to claim that they are affiliates of the Islamic movement.

A security source who asked not to be named told Ma'an that during the investigation, "an explosion took place in the lab" that could have sparked a "disaster to all of the residents of the city" had it ignited other explosive material in the house.

Later, Awad told Ma'an that Hebron police had detained 11 suspects linked to the lab, and that they are currently being interrogated.

Previously, the PA's public intelligence forces took over two warehouses that they said contained "large amounts of explosive and ammunition" at a house meters away from the lab uncovered Friday. Intelligence officials declined to comment on the more recent discovery.

Financiële crisis Goddelijke straf voor misdaden tegen moslims

 

Eerder al had Hamas de Joden de schuld gegeven van de financiele crisis. 9/11 Was uiteraard ook een goddelijke straf, en de holocaust was ook een straf van God - oh nee, een verzinsel van de zionisten. Omgekeerd noemden sommige ultra-orthodoxe Joden de beroerte van Sharon een straf voor de terugtrekking uit Gaza.

 

RP

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Last update - 17:06 11/10/2008      
Mideast Muslims: U.S. Financial crisis is divine punishment

 

By The Associated Press

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1028019.html

We are witnessing the collapse of the American Empire," Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas prime minister in the Gaza Strip, told worshippers during Friday prayers. "What's going on in America is a result of the violation of the rights of people in Palestine, Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan and Muslims around the world."

Haniyeh's comments followed those made by other regional leaders who have long had an antagonistic relationship with the U.S. and appear to be enjoying the country's troubles.

However, the financial meltdown has not left the region unscathed, with stock markets across the Middle East dropping more than 10 percent in the past week.

In an interview on Tuesday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad described America's problems as a matter of chickens coming home to roost after years of exporting inflation and deficits to the rest of the world.

"Now the world capacity is full and these problems have returned to the U.S.," he said, adding "and finally they are oppressors, and systems based on oppression and unrighteous positions will not endure."

Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, a high level Iranian cleric, was blunter when he addressed worshippers on Oct. 3, describing the situation as God's punishment.

"We are happy that the U.S. economy is in anarchy and the anarchy is reaching Europe," said Jannati. "They are seeing the result of their own ugly doings and God is punishing them."

The Iranian government has said the financial crisis is not hurting Iran's economy. But the turmoil has helped drive the price of oil down more than 40 percent since record highs in July. The Iranian government relies on oil revenue for 80 percent of its budget.

Al-Qaida, America's arch-nemesis in the region, was one of the first to express satisfaction over the financial crisis in a half hour video message earlier in the month.

 

Israels antwoord aan Iran

Israels antwoord op de Iraanse scheldcannonades op Israel, Iraanse steun aan Hezbollah en Hamas en het in ontwikkeling zijnde Iraanse atoomwapen.

 

------------------

Last update - 23:20 10/10/2008
Israel grants rare entry to cancer-stricken Iranian boy

 

By The Associated Press
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1027968.html

 

A 12-year-old cancer-stricken Iranian boy arrived at an Israeli hospital on Friday for emergency treatment on his brain tumor.

The boy - who was identified only as Roy, to protect his privacy - was wheeled on a stretcher into the Sheba Medical Center near Tel Aviv, after treatments in Iran and Turkey failed. His face was puffy, apparently due to the drugs administered to ease his pain.

Israel granted the child a special permit to enter the country and he arrived at Ben Gurion Airport on Friday. The rare arrangement was mediated by an Israeli businessman of Iranian origin. The boy was accompanied to the hospital by his father and veiled mother, who were also granted special entry permits into Israel.
 
Iran and Israel are bitter enemies and have no formal relations. Iran's president has denied the Holocaust and repeatedly called for Israel to be wiped off the map.

Sheba CEO Zeev Rotstein said it wasn't the first time Israeli doctors have treated children from adversarial states.

"We hope that with the love and affection we give these kids we are paving the way for at least some understanding between people," he said. "We can't change the politics. We are not politicians. We do this because we feel it is our job."

Israel is home to world-class hospitals and state-of-the-art medical technology.

Dr. Amos Toren, head of Sheba's Pediatric Hemato-Oncology Department, said his initial diagnosis was that the boy's year- old growth was the most aggressive tumor that exists among brain tumors.

"He is conscious and he can smile but it is hard," he said. "We will give him the most modern treatment possible and maybe we will be able to help him."

Rotstein said the child had been operated on before and may need another procedure in Israel.

"There are very limited things you can do," he said. "But if this kid has any chance, it is here."

He said the hospital kept the identities of patients from countries hostile to Israel secret, so that they would not face danger upon their return home. Iran and several other Middle East countries oppose any type of normalization with Israel.

Rotstein said he hoped treatments, like those of Roy, would help break down some of those barriers.

"As far as we are concerned, we are not involved in politics," he said. "He is from a country that doesn't really like our existence here, but I think part of our job is to prove to countries like Iran that we are here to help the regular people."

Het einde van de Arbeidspartij in Israel?

 

Aluf Benn is wel erg somber over de toekomst van de Arbeidspartij van Barak. Als Labor zo op Kadima lijkt, waarom verloopt het vormen van een coalitie dan zo moeizaam?

 

De crisis van Labor lijkt op die van andere sociaaldemocratische partijen in het Westen, maar in het versnipperde en instabiele landschap van de Israelische politiek kunnen de ontwikkelingen nog meer verrassen en sneller lopen dan hier. Het bestaansrecht van de sociaaldemocratie is doorgaans hun sociale agenda met een sterke overheid, zorg voor de zwakkeren en nivellering van inkomens. Daarmee kwam Baraks voorganger Peretz aan de leiding, maar hij bracht er weinig van terecht, mede vanwege zijn idiote en desastreuze keus om toch de ministerspost van defensie op te eisen voor zichzelf. De sociale kwestie wordt in de Israelische politiek helaas vaak naar de achtergrond verdrongen door het Israelisch-Arabische conflict, en een oplossing daarvan zou zeer heilzaam zijn voor het land. Het zou dan warempel op een normaal land kunnen gaan lijken met de doorsnee politieke strijdpunten...

Wouter
___________

Requiem for the Labor Party

By Aluf Benn
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1027760.html

The Labor Party is fast advancing toward the end of its historic role and its descent from Israel's political stage. The coalition negotiations being conducted by Tzipi Livni and Ehud Barak position Labor with the unpleasant choice of deciding between suicide and execution. If Labor joins the Livni government, it will atrophy and be swallowed up as a faction inside Kadima. If it remains outside and leads to elections, its supporters will punish it for bringing Benjamin Netanyahu back to power.

Labor no longer has any message that makes it unique in the public's eyes; it has no flag to fly for voters to see. Kadima has robbed it of the rubric of security activism accompanied by diplomatic moderation, and has positioned itself as the party that favors negotiations, as opposed to Likud, which opposes the peace process. Ehud Olmert's declarations in an interview with Yedioth Ahronoth, in which he called for a withdrawal from all the territories, were more far-reaching than most statements made by Labor's leaders. Labor cannot present a more left-leaning agenda.

Even the most sophisticated microscope at the Weizmann Institute will not be able to distinguish between the ideological nuances of the two parties' politicians. In which way are Olmert, Livni, Haim Ramon and Meir Sheetrit different from Barak, Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, Isaac Herzog and Ami Ayalon? How can we differentiate between Amir Peretz and Avi Dichter, or Roni Bar-On and Matan Vilnai? In these circumstances, it is not surprising that Barak had difficulty raising coalition demands until he found the "increase-the-budget-by-2.5 percent" formula. Sorry, what's that? How many people can grasp what that means? And who will agree to be enlisted in a struggle for nonsense like that?

The "big bang" that Ariel Sharon brought about by setting up Kadima at first seemed like a death blow to Likud, which lost a considerable number of its leaders and shrank to 12 seats in the Knesset. The result, however, was the opposite of what had been expected. Likud, which stuck with its messages, was rehabilitated in the opposition while Labor continued to fade away. Like a lethal virus, Kadima simply took over its coalition partner's assets - its political and security platform, its system of primaries, the advancement of women, and most important, the core of its voters and donors. The Ashkenazis and the rich who fled Labor because of Amir Peretz into the open arms of Kadima and the Pensioners Party have meanwhile fallen in love with Livni and do not want to return. Labor has nothing to offer them.

How is it possible, people shriek, that a fashionable party of deserters like Kadima will be the heir to Labor with all its credit for building the country? When the moment of truth comes, those who still believe in the world of bygone days will try to calm us, and the public will wake up and return to its roots. Labor, they remind us, managed to survive the revolution of the Democratic Party for Change in the 1970s, and will survive Kadima as well. But the surveys say something else, positioning Labor on the same shelf as former popular brands like Atta textiles, the Hamegaper shoe and rubber factory, and Channel 1 television, which once upon a time were hits with Israeli consumers.

Political parties are not forever. Who remembers the General Zionists that led the "civilian camp" during the pre-state Yishuv period and who presented an alternative to David Ben-Gurion's Mapai after the establishment of the state? Or the Progressive Party, which controlled the Justice Ministry for many years? Or Mapam with the settlement movement, socialism and the brotherhood of nations? All of them vanished and were swallowed up by other parties, and that apparently is what will happen to Labor.

This phenomenon is not unique to Israel's stormy multiparty system and is familiar in countries where the regime is more stable. The Liberal Party was Britain's leftist party for around 100 years and gave the public leaders such as Gladstone and Lloyd George. Even the legendary Churchill defected to it from the Conservative Party for several years. And then suddenly, shortly after World War I, the Liberals faded away and their place was taken by the Labor Party.

There were numerous organizational, personal and social reasons that led to the sinking of the Liberals in Britain, but their moment of truth is reminiscent of the dilemma in which Barak finds himself now. The elections of 1923 positioned the Liberal leader, Herbert Henry Asquith, as kingmaker. It is said that he preferred to place the regime in the hands of the Labor Party's inexperienced leaders in the hope that they would soon fail and the left's voters would return to the Liberal Party. In that way, the path was paved for the first Labor government of Ramsay MacDonald, which indeed did fall a short while later. But it managed to hold on to its voters in the opposition and defeated the Liberals in the 1924 elections.

In the Israel after Olmert's resignation, Barak is the one who can anoint kings, and he has to choose between Livni and Netanyahu, between the inexperienced star and the ideological rival. Whichever way he chooses, he will be able to remain defense minister, but he will sacrifice his party. Labor has only one chance left to be saved from political burial. Only if Livni turns out to be a weak leader who has difficulty making decisions, and if she disappoints her supporters, will people perhaps go back to voting Labor.

 

Voorbereidingen VN conferentie tegen racisme, sessie 8-9 oktober 2008

 

De door Iran geleide voorbereidingscommissie voor het vervolg op de antiracisme conferentie van Durban in 2001, kwam bijeen op 8 en 9 oktober, op de meest heilige Joodse feestdag van het jaar. Daar diende het islamitische blok (de OIC) een resolutie tegen Israel in, zonder enig tegenwicht van Joodse vertegenwoordigers te hoeven verwachten. (Op het einde van de Ramadan was daarentegen de hele VN gesloten.)

 

Ondertussen heeft ook de VN mensenrechtenraad Israel weer eens veroordeeld, en Soedan geprezen. Verschil moet er wezen.

 

RP

---------

 

http://blog.unwatch.org/

 

UN Rights Council Ends Scrutiny of Liberia, Slams Israel, Praises Sudan

The UN Human Rights Council concluded its September 2008 session by eliminating the investigative mandate on human rights abuses in Liberia, praising Sudan, and censuring Israel. The council weakened its mandate on Cambodia, and refused to renew the mandate on Sudan for more than six months, a move that opened the door to its eventual elimination. The council's censure of Israel was its twentieth since being founded in 2006. The 47-nation body has previously criticized North Korea once, and Myanmar four times, but has ignored the UN's other 189 countries, including the world's worst abusers.

 

UN chief Ban Ki-moon and rights commissioner Pillay urged to denounce "vitriolic" Asian text accusing Israel of apartheid and genocide

Published by

UN Watch

- at October 10, 2008 in Durban 2009.

 

Geneva, October 10, 2008 - To prevent the derailing of a world conference on racism, independent human rights group UN Watch today called on UN chief Ban Ki-moon and rights commissioner Navi Pillay to immediately denounce a submission by Asian states that accuses Israel of "racial practices" against Palestinians, "a new kind of apartheid, a crime against humanity, a form of genocide," as well as "aggression, acts of racism, and intimidation."  (See full text below.)

"The Asian submission for the Durban 2 declaration reproduces almost verbatim the vitriolic incitement and hateful rhetoric of demonization that was produced at the Tehran planning meeting at the 2001 lead-up to the original Durban debacle," said Hillel Neuer, executive director of the Geneva-based UN Watch.

"The poison was mostly removed from the final Durban declaration only after European states threatened to walk out, but was adopted by the non-governmental forum, in a text that High Commissioner Mary Robinson summarily refused to forward to the UN, and which was denounced again last week by High Commissioner Pillay as a betrayal of the anti-racism cause."

"The key lesson learned from 2001 was that the UN's highest officials cannot stay silent until the very end, but must act immediately to denounce the language of incitement and demonization as soon as it rears its ugly head," said Neuer.

"The fingerprints of Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who openly calls for the destruction of a UN member state, are all over this text, and all who want to safeguard the principles of human rights and the anti-racism cause must speak out forcefully, and fast," said Neuer. 

"French President Sarkozy, the U.K. and the Netherlands expressly warned that a repeat of the 2001 hateful rhetoric would force them to walk out of the conference, and so the Asian states will bear full responsibility for the consequences of their provocation."

See full text and selections below.

_____________

Full Asian text:  http://blog.unwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/asian-text-for-durban-ii.pdf
(CONTRIBUTION OF THE ASIAN REGION TO THE DURBAN REVIEW CONFERENCE, 8 OCT 2008 CONTRIBUTION OF THE ASIAN REGION TO THE DURBAN REVIEW CONFERENCE, 8 OCT 2008 )

 

Aantal Israëlische Arabieren in IDF in 2008 sterk gestegen

 

Hoewel het nog steeds om kleine aantallen gaat, is dit goed nieuws. Het leger is een van de beste manieren in Israel om te integreren. De motivatie is vaak economisch, maar in sommige gevallen speelt patriotisme een belangrijke rol. In de woorden van een Bedoeien:

"I feel like an Israeli citizen and it's my duty to serve and contribute to the state. This is also the Bedouin's state," he said a few weeks ago.
Asked about how he feels fighting with his people on the other side of the border, he said: "a terrorist is a terrorist. Islam doesn't say you have to kill. He comes to kill here and can kill a Jew or an Arab. It's my duty to prevent that."

 

RP

-----------

Number of Israeli Arab IDF recruits dramatically increases in 2008

 

By Yoav Stern - Haaretz

Last update - 02:02 10/10/2008
http://haaretz.com:80/hasen/spages/1027745.html

 

The number of Israeli Arab recruits to the IDF has increased dramatically in the first nine months of 2008, official figures obtained by Haaretz indicate.

The rise in the Bedouin recruitment rate is attributed to Bedouin's difficulty in finding well-paid jobs outside the military and problems with the local authorities. The IDF has also improved its treatment of Bedouin army veterans and is helping them find employment.

The army refused to provide accurate figures, but the number of recruits is estimated to have increased by 50 to 100 from the beginning of the year, bringing the total number of recruits in 2008 to some 300.

The rate of non-Bedouin Arabs' recruitment has also increased in recent years, and an officer in the IDF's Human Resources Branch said he hoped that by next year their recruitment figure will reach 350, equaling the 2003 rate. Another significant increase in recruitment is expected next month.

Colonel Ramiz Ahmed, head of the population directorate in the IDF's Human Resources Branch, told Haaretz in an interview that the drop in recruitment in recent years cannot be attributed to events or the political atmosphere. While recruitment rates dropped after the October 2000 events - several days of protests in northern Israel during which 12 Israeli Arabs and one Palestinian from Gaza were shot dead - it rose again afterward. Toward the end of the Al-Aqsa intifada in 2004, the rate plummeted again and continued doing so until the end of 2007, Ahmed added.

The law exempts non-Druze Arab citizens from compulsory military service. However, many of them have been recruited over the years to the professional army, especially as trackers.

From the mid-80s, Bedouin were drafted into a six-month compulsory service, after which they joined professional army. Since 1991 they have been volunteering for a three-year compulsory service before joining the professional army. This was encouraged in the 1980s and 1990s by former defense minister Moshe Arens, who believed it would strengthen Arab youngsters' affiliation to Israel.

In the past year the IDF has prepared a plan to encourage Bedouin to join the army, and assist them after their discharge. This includes lectures in schools and help in directing discharged soldiers to studies and employment. "The intention is to improve the initial impression they get. They must leave the army with a direction in life," said Ahmed.

Most of the Arab recruits are placed with the desert reconnaissance brigade posted in the Gaza Strip. Most of the combatants are Bedouin, but some of the officers are Jews and Druze. Other recruits are trained as trackers.

The IDF has decided to open additional units to Bedouin soldiers, and today a Bedouin major is serving in the Air Force. The army is also acting to increase discharged soldiers' options to buy land. The government recently decided to reduce the development costs of plots in Druze and Arab villages by 25 percent.

Public Arab activists, political leaders and the Islamic Movement object to recruiting Arabs. However, in many cases the decision whether to serve is made by the person involved and his father. "I've had cases in which youngsters joined despite their father's objection. I had a soldier who used to change out of his uniform in the Be'er Sheva mall before returning home, and put them on again on his way to the base," a tracker officer told Haaretz.

However, the soldiers' reasons for joining the army are economic or rooted in the local authorities' restrictions on Arab citizens, rather than political. "We're not even allowed to put two rods together and attach a piece of cloth to them," said Master Sergeant Hamad Talalka, a tracker with the Sagi regiment on the Egyptian border.

Like the rest of the trackers, Talalka spends a week with his family then a week in the army, during which he hopes that his house in the northern Negev's Goral hills - for which a demolition order has been issued - remains intact. The authorities did not issue a demolition order for his brother's house, although the latter did not serve in the army.

The Bedouin tribes' ongoing struggle with the state over their lands does not deter the youngsters from joining the IDF. They believe that military service will give them a better standing vis-a-vis the authorities. Many of them see military service as a way of improving their social and economic situation.

Master Sergeant Camal Atrash served three years, left the army and has now returned for professional service. "After your release you find that your friends who did not serve have worked, bought new cars and live well, while you have to find a way to make a living," he said.

Atrash was refused a weapons license so could not work as a security guard, while his friend, who did not serve in the army, was issued a license to carry arms.

Bedouin officers, however, emphasize their commitment to the state. Second Lieutenant Amir Juamis, 27, of Beit Zarzir, joined the army at the age of 26 after his brother was discharged. His father was wounded in the first war in Lebanon, and another was wounded in Gaza in 2002. He joined as a combatant, trained as an officer and now commands a military team.

"I feel like an Israeli citizen and it's my duty to serve and contribute to the state. This is also the Bedouin's state," he said a few weeks ago.

Asked about how he feels fighting with his people on the other side of the border, he said: "a terrorist is a terrorist. Islam doesn't say you have to kill. He comes to kill here and can kill a Jew or an Arab. It's my duty to prevent that."

Rellen in Acco vlammen op vrijdagmiddag weer op

Het valt zeer te hopen dat deze rellen niet overslaan naar andere gemengde steden. Over het algemeen leven Joden en Arabieren redelijk vreedzaam naast elkaar, maar er is aan beide kanten onvrede, frustratie en soms regelrechte haat. Arabieren voelen zich terecht vaak tweederangsburgers, terwijl Joden het gevoel hebben dat Arabieren zelfs in hun eigen Israel geen respect voor ze op kunnen brengen en vinden dat de Joden op moeten rotten. Met name het disrespect voor heilige plaatsen en heilige feestdagen kan gemakkelijk de vlam in de pan doen slaan.

RP

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The Jerusalem Post
Oct 10, 2008 8:10 | Updated Oct 10, 2008 16:57
Acre clashes briefly renewed as Jews enter eastern quarter

 

By YAAKOV LAPPIN AND JPOST.COM STAFF
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1222017501207&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

 

 

Clashes between Jewish and Arab residents of Acre over Yom Kippur were renewed on Friday afternoon after dozens of Jewish residents hurled rocks at Arabs living in the northern city's eastern neighborhood. Police forces arriving at the scene managed to disperse the crowds and several arrests were made.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister and Kadima leader Tzipi Livni said that Israel would not allow citizens to take the law into their own hands.

"It doesn't matter how angry they were, every citizen must respect Yom Kippur, the holy day, outside of the home," she said on a visit to the city.

The new Kadima chairman added that the incident was a watershed line which would determine "if we remain with yesterday's anger, or whether we can move on from this and improve Jewish-Arab relations."

Livni met with Acre Mayor Shimon Lancry to discuss Wednesday night and Thursday's riots.

Earlier Friday, Public Security Minister Avi Dichter vowed to put the "perpetrators and inciters" of the Acre violence "behind lock and key."

Following a meeting with Lancry, Dichter said police had no prior intelligence of the violence and that the riots did not appear to have been planned.

He stressed that restoring calm to the city was not only the job of police, but also of community leaders.

"We are planning ahead for the scenario of, God forbid, violence spreading to other places. I call on leaders, both in the Jewish community and Arab community, to act sensibly," he said.

Prior to the meeting, Dichter was greeted with shouts of "No one is protecting us," from an angry crowd.

Meanwhile, some 700 police officers were deployed in Acre Friday morning to help restore calm to the city following the clashes.

Israel Police Commissioner Ch.-Insp. Dudi Cohen held a special situation assessment with other senior police officials and it was decided that police reinforcements would remain in the city until full calm was restored.

Nevertheless, Dichter ordered police to refrain from using live ammunition and stun grenades should clashes resume.

In addition, the local municipality provided Acre's schools with increased security.

Police were also on high alert in other cities with mixed Jewish and Arab populations including Jerusalem, Haifa, Jaffa, Ramle and Lod, as well as the Wadi Ara region.

Jerusalem Police chief Cmdr. Aharon Franco decided to increase police presence in the Old City and east Jerusalem.

During the violence, which broke out on Wednesday night, hundreds of the city's Arab residents vandalized Jewish-owned shops and vehicles and clashed with police.

On Thursday evening, tensions boiled over again during a demonstration held by Jews against the previous evening's occurrences. Both Jews and Arabs clashed with police in various parts of the racially divided city, leading to 10 arrests. In total, at least eight people were lightly wounded in the successive nights of violence.

For part of Thursday evening, the city was in lockdown, its entrances temporarily closed off, as hundreds of riot and border police armed with water cannons and tear gas worked to restore calm to Acre's streets.

At the end of a meeting Thursday night with senior representatives from both sides, Cohen called on Jews and Arabs to ensure that tensions subside and to prevent the violence from spreading to other nearby neighborhoods.

"What happened on Yom Kippur was very severe, and both the city's Jewish and Arab leaders, as well as the police, will learn lessons from it," he said, stressing, "This was a local incident only."

"I call on both sides, Jews and Arabs, to continue coexisting as they have done for years and to respect one another," added Cohen, calling on public figures and local leaders not to fan the flames of violence.

Lancry told Army Radio that only in two or three days time would it be possible to determine whether tensions had subsided. Lancry blamed Acre's Arab residents for the outbreak of violence.

"The incidents over Yom Kippur were very severe, all red lines were crossed," he added. "The Israel Police must use the investigation to bring the perpetrators to justice."

MK Uri Ariel (NU-NRP) accused MK Abbas Zakour (United Arab List) of inciting the Arab rioters during the clashes.

Ariel claimed that the Arab-Israel MK didn't turn to police, but "conducted events" from a nearby house.

Meanwhile, Zakour urged Public Security Minister Avi Dichter to prevent Ariel and Yisrael Beiteinu chairman Avigdor Lieberman from touring Acre's Old City, saying such a visit would hinder efforts to restore calm, Army Radio reported.

Speaking to Israel Radio, Lieberman termed the incidents a pogrom carried out by Arabs and compared it to Kristallnacht.

MK Arieh Eldad (NRP-NU) also called the Acre riots a pogrom and said police "shouldn't be surprised when Jews take up arms to protect themselves."

 

AP contributed to this report

NGO's misbruiken internationaal recht om Israël zwart te maken

 

In Nederland heeft een advocaat namens de Palestijnse mensenrechtenorganisatie PCHR onlangs een aanklacht ingediend tegen Ami Ayalon, omdat hij als hoofd van de Shin Beth destijds medeverantwoordelijk zou zijn voor de marteling van de Gazaan Khalid al-Shami in 1999 en 2000. Die zegt twintig dagen te zijn verhoord in sessies van twintig tot veertig uur, met twee tot drie uur rust tussendoor; ook is hij met handen en voeten vastgebonden aan een stoel en blootgesteld aan lage temperaturen. Deze aanklacht past in een strategie waarbij de PCHR Israelische ministers en mensen uit de legertop probeert te laten vervolgen in het buitenland (met name in Europa). Dit is misbruik maken van de internationale wetten op dit gebied, die bedoeld zijn voor oorlogsmisdadigers die in eigen land vanwege corruptie en rechteloosheid vrijuit gaan. Israel is een rechtsstaat met een onafhankelijke rechtsspraak waar Arabieren vaker in het gelijk worden gesteld tegenover de staat dan in de omliggende landen. Op deze manier zou de top van bijna ieder land aangeklaagd kunnen worden, aangezien in ieder land dat met een conflictsituatie of oorlog te maken heeft weleens misstanden voorkomen. Om bovenbeschreven marteling - die overigens niet bewezen is - gelijk te stellen met oorlogsmisdaden is absurd. Het is echter een slimme manier om Israel letterlijk in de beklaagdenbank te zetten, iets waar de Palestijnen verdomd goed in zijn.

 

RP

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The Jerusalem Post
Oct 7, 2008 22:19 | Updated Oct 8, 2008 13:29
'NGOs exploit international law to bash Israel'

 

By SHELLY PAZ
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1222017492871&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

 

Non-governmental organizations exploit the international justice system to further their campaign against Israel and officials who operate on the state's behalf, a new study claims.

NGO Monitor, an Israeli organization established to promote accountability and to advance discussion on NGOs' human rights reports and activities in the framework of the Arab-Israeli conflict, held a press conference in Jerusalem on Tuesday to present their third study, "Lawfare."

The Lawfare research examines at least 10 cases of lawsuits against Israeli officials filed at international courts between 2001 and 2008 - nine of which, the research reveals, were dismissed by the international court judges.

The 10th case, filed at the International Court of Law in Spain by the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) against National Infrastructures Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, is still pending.

The lawsuit against Ben-Eliezer deals with Israel's "selective assassination" of Salah Shehade, the leader of Hamas's military wing, Izzadin Kassam, in 2002. In the operation, the IAF bombed Shehade's apartment, killing Shehade, his assistant and 11 children. From 2004 until 2008, PCHR filed different lawsuits against six different Israeli officials who were allegedly involved in the assassination, in different international courts. The cases against Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz, former IDF chiefs of General Staff Lt.-Gen. (res.) Moshe Ya'alon and Lt.-Gen. (res.) Dan Halutz , Public Security Minister Avi Dichter, and former OC Southern Command Maj.-Gen. (Res) Doron Almog were dismissed.

In 2005, Almog - against whom three lawsuits have been filed to the UK and the Spanish international courts - learned upon arriving in London for a fundraising trip that a warrant had been issued for his arrest. He was accused of violating the Geneva Conventions in connection with the destruction of homes in Gaza. Almog did not leave the plane and flew back to Israel. The arrest warrant was canceled a few days later.

"In the years 2002 to 2003, as the OC Southern Command, I was responsible for thwarting more than 12,000 terror attacks that tried to get out of the Gaza Strip. This period was busy and stormy, and every day we had intelligence on 30 plans for different terror attacks. During this time, not a single attack managed to make it into Israel's territory, while at the same time, about 100 terror attacks made their way from Judea and Samaria to Israel and hundreds of innocent civilians were killed," Almog said at a press conference on Tuesday.

"This fight - which has not been defined as a war, but was one - was very violent. We had two tools to handle the situation. [The first was] defensive operations such as the electronic fence and exposing a strip between Israel and the Gaza Strip that included tearing down what was claimed to be 59 houses but really was 59 roofless warehouses that were not inhabited by anyone. The second tool was 'selective assassination,' a term representing the moral perspective of the Israeli government as having no intentions to kill innocent people. All operations were legal and were conducted following a scrutinized consultation with the attorney-general and the unit's legal adviser," Almog recalled.

Almog added that in some cases mistakes were made and innocent people paid with their lives.

"We apologized in these cases, and the IDF in many cases compensated the innocent victims' families, but all we did was protect human beings' lives while considering the principle of proportionality. It was all defense, defense, defense," Almog said.

Gerald Steinberg, a professor of political studies at Bar Ilan University and the executive director of NGO Monitor, said that these NGOs' strategy was an exploitation of the international law system, which was founded to bring real war criminals to trial.

"This publication exposes the NGOs bombardment of the world's courts with bogus claims against Israel. Given that not one court has upheld their complaints, it is clear that NGOs continue to manipulate judicial systems, not out of concern for human rights, but as part of the campaign to demonize Israel," Steinberg said.

Advocate Irit Kohn - the former director of the International Affairs Department at the Justice Ministry as well as one of the three litigators who represented former prime minister Ariel Sharon in the Belgium International Court of law for the Sabra and Shatila incidents - said that democratic states have agreed that war criminals be put on trial.

"The international law determines that a human being will be put on trial [in an international court] if the country where he or she committed the crime cannot or does not want to try him or her. Bringing a man to trial in an international court demands the question of whether the system was being exploited," she said.

Kohn added that after the Sabra and Shatila affair, Israel had formed the Kahan committee to investigate the massacre of civilian Palestinian refugees by Lebanese Christian Phalangist militiamen, who received IDF permission to enter the two refugee camps. The committee, headed by Supreme Court Judge Yitzhak Kahan, argued that the Israelis should have known that a massacre could occur considering the assassination of Phalangist leader and prospective president Bachir Gemayel the day before, and given the long history of bad blood between the Palestinians and the Phalangists.

"Clearly Israel is not a country that cannot or does not want to bring its officials to trial, and therefore the trial in Belgium International Court was not necessary - not to mention the fact that the petitioning NGOs waited for Sharon to become prime minister before they filed their lawsuit," Kohn said.

Kohn added that the problems of universal jurisdiction become more pronounced when unsubstantiated evidence is submitted by various parties, including NGOs, with the goal of influencing public opinion for the sake of their own agenda.

Mossad agente Yehudit Nessyahu - een vrouw met vele gezichten

 

Een lang maar mooi verhaal over een vrouw van Nederlands-Joodse afkomst die verschillende belangrijke posities in de Mossad had en betrokken was bij de ontvoering van Eichmann.

 

Voor het complete artikel zie: Mossad agent Yehudit Nessyahu - Woman of many faces (Uri Blau)

Een aangepaste, iets kortere versie hiervan staat op Israel News.

 

Wouter

____________

 

Woman of many faces

 

By Uri Blau

Haaretz, October 3, 2008

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1025999.html

 

 

"When I left Israel, I didn't know what I was headed into. I was told that Isser Harel, the Mossad chief at the time, had asked that I be sent to South America for an operation that he himself was responsible for there. You didn't ask questions, and when I was told that Isser wanted me to come, I just asked when I had to leave."

Yehudit Nessyahu, the former Mossad agent who wrote those words, died five years ago at age 78. The plane she boarded in 1960 took her not just to Argentina, but into the history books, as the only woman to take part in one of the Mossad's most famous and most important operations: finding and kidnapping Adolf Eichmann to bring him to Israel to stand trial.

Nessyahu, whose final years were shrouded by personal tragedy, maintained a silence about her intelligence work until her dying day. She turned down numerous requests for interviews, never spoke publicly about the operations in which she participated and would not allow her picture to be published as long as she was alive. This is the first publication of the account she wrote 14 years ago. It is the only direct testimony left by the Mossad agent who cooked kosher food for Eichmann and, in another operation, blended into the Satmar community in Antwerp to help locate the kidnapped child Yossele Schumacher.

 

She was a woman of many faces who lived in a shadowy male world. Religious and Zionist, she believed in the concept of Greater Israel and was a founder of the Tehiya Party. But she married a thoroughly secular man who was one of the authors of the Labor-Mapam platform. She was also the mother of an only son who died young.

A rich Dutchwoman in Casablanca

Last month, three of Nessyahu's nieces and her one nephew gathered at Kibbutz Givat Haim Meuhad. At the home of their father, 92-year-old Ephraim Ben-Haim, Yehudit Nessyahu's brother, her last remaining kin sat down to talk. Now, years after her death, they are ready to do what she would not allow in her lifetime. To tell what they know about her activities.

Nessyahu (nee Friedman) was born in Holland in 1925, to a religious Zionist family; she was the daughter of Haim and Chana and the younger sister of Ephraim and Rachel. When she was 3 years old, the family moved to Belgium, where her father was in charge of the distribution of "certificates" (immigration permits for Palestine), fund-raising and the purchase of arms for the Haganah, says Ruthie Ben-Haim, 55: "They arrived in Palestine in 1940, with the very last certificates."

Yehudit attended the Balfour School in Tel Aviv, joined the Bnei Akiva youth movement and went on to study philosophy and history at the Hebrew University. During her time there, she was active in Yavneh, a religious student group . During the War of Independence, she enlisted in the IDF, and when the war was over she returned to her studies. In 1956, at the urging of Baruch Duvdevani, the Jewish Agency's director of aliyah, she joined Misgeret, a clandestine organization that handled the immigration of Jews from Morocco.

"It all started because of my father, who was the first Jewish Agency emissary in North Africa for illegal aliyah in 1942," says Tirza Ben-Haim, 50. "He disguised himself as a French officer and began organizing the aliyah. When he came to the Atlas Mountains in Morocco for the first time, the people were living in cave-like dwellings. He asked to see the representatives of the village, went into a house with them and told them, 'I came here from Palestine to organize you. It won't happen now, but just know that I'm here to organize you.' They said, 'Fine,' and kept on with the conversation and when he walked out of there, the whole village was already waiting with their possessions on their backs, ready to go to Palestine. Of course, it took some more years until the people from that village came to Israel," she smiles.

"Yehudit basically traveled there to help him on behalf of the Jewish Aency." What was her motivation? Was she attracted to clandestine activity? "No," says Ruthie Ben-Haim emphatically. "Her drive was Zionism, pure and simple. The Land of Israel, the Jewish People and the need to bring here as many Jews as possible."

In Morocco, Nessyahu worked for about two and a half years to bring Jews to Israel. In conversations with her nephew, Ben Davis, when he was preparing a "roots" project for school, she said that she had been in contact with members of the Moroccan police, from whom she sometimes received documents that she had to copy and then return. She would place the documents in a large shopping basket, hidden under various grocery items.

In Casablanca, she adopted the guise of a wealthy Dutchwoman from Indonesia, who left there after the colony won independence and came to Morocco because she didn't want to go back to the cold Dutch climate. She created the appearance of wealth when she joined a travel agency as a silent partner. "She was a redhead and when she traveled she dyed her hair brown,' says Tirza Ben-Haim. "Often, she would appear as this very rich woman, with the air of someone a bit flighty and irresponsible, a little crazy or extreme, who was curious about everything. She always used to say, 'The best spy is someone who's seen all the time.' She said there were times when her cover wasn't good enough or secure enough, and then she would act even more extroverted, so people would think that someone this nervy and crazy couldn't possibly be a spy.

"In Morocco, she had a difficult problem because she wasn't supposed to be a Jew," continues Haim. "Her whole circle was non-Jews who ate pork and all kinds of treif. She was always religious and she said that sometimes, for days, since she couldn't eat anything else, she existed just on oranges, and that whenever one of the non-Jews took her out for a meal, she would say she was on a diet and could only eat salad. She was very strict about that."

But it wasn't always possible. "Sometimes you have to do things," says Ben-Haim. "When she needed to maintain her cover she would break a commandment. She didn't say exactly what she did, but when she had to, she ate pork. Everything was for the sake of the cause, for the Land of Israel and the Jewish People."

Eliezer Palmor of the Foreign Ministry, who met Nessyahu years later, remembered that she told him that "on one of her missions to Morocco she almost gave herself away. In Europe they peel an orange the way you peel an apple, and she started peeling an orange in the special Israeli way: She cut off the top of the peel and sliced down the sides. As she was doing it, she caught herself and said, 'Oops, that's not right.'"

"That's a famous story," laugh the Ben-Haim sisters, recalling another anecdote that their aunt told them. "Sometime in the late 1950s she was at the airport in Alexandria. Someone suddenly appeared who knew her, from the university apparently, and shouted, 'Yehudit! What are you doing here? How are you?' and she, a little in shock, said, 'Um - you must be mistaken.' She said it was one of the most dangerous moments she ever had."

For the rest of this story see: Mossad agent Yehudit Nessyahu - Woman of many faces (Uri Blau)

 

Voor de journalist, op Jom Kippoer

Het was gisteren Yom Kippoer, ofwel Grote Verzoendag, en dan vragen religieuze Joden vergiffenis voor hun zonden. Voor een journalist is dat een flinke lijst, zoals Bradley Burston laat zien.

 

RP

----------

 

For the journalist, on Yom Kippur

 

By Bradley Burston

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/767447.html

 

 

For the journalist, on Yom Kippur 2008:

For the sin we journalists have sinned before thee,
Under duress and willingly

For the truth we have warped before thee
Through hardness of the heart
Through venality of the spirit

For the sin we have sinned before thee in passing judgment
And for the sin we have sinned before thee in the exercise of power

For the prejudices we have nurtured
For the hatreds we have milked
For the reputations we have sullied
For the names we have desecrated
For the guilt we have presumed
For the sides we have taken,
For the sides we have shunned

For the truth we have warped before thee
Hyped before thee, tailored before thee
Pimped before thee
Doctored before thee
For the sake of nothing more than a deadline or a headline
Or simply for our name's sake

For all these
Forgive us, pardon us, atone for us

For the sin we have sinned before thee
In throwing off the yoke of ethics
For the sin we have sinned before thee
Knowingly and through carelessness
For the sin we have sinned before thee
through cunning speech
through scorning with cleverness
through the bias of the narrowed eye, the haughty eye,
through entrapment, through gossip mongering

For the sin of currying favor, by keeping secrets that protect the powerful,
And for the sin of causing death, by revealing secrets that can identify targets

For the sin we have sinned before thee
In choosing the single picture over the 1,000 words
And for the sin we have sinned before thee
In feasting on the failings of those we choose to vilify
And in denial of the evils of those with whom we identify

For the sin we have sinned before thee
In the mining and selling of grief

For the sin we have sinned before this
In bearing false witness for ratings sake
And for the sin we have sinned before thee
In the manufacture and sale of fear
For the sin we have sinned before thee
In trading on the threats of our enemies
And, in doing do, creating new dangers

For the sin we have sinned against thee
In turning people against one another in baseless hatred
And for the sin we have sinned against thee
In using the Holocaust for bait.

For the sin we have sinned against thee
In losing the ability to feel
And for the sin we have sinned against thee
In celebrating this as professionalism.

For the privacy we trample
For the mourners we exploit
For the good names we ruin
And the good works we ignore

For all these,
Forgive us, pardon us, atone for us

 

 

Rellen in Acco op Yom Kippoer

Het is diep triest dat dit soort dingen gebeuren, en men niet een minimum aan respect voor elkaars feestdagen op kan brengen. Joden, zeker in Israel, zouden niet bang moeten zijn om hun huizen uit te gaan en op de meest heilige dag van het jaar naar de synagoge te gaan. Anderzijds houdt de tolerantie van sommige ultraorthodoxe Joden ook niet over, en dan zeg ik het heel netjes. Mensen die op sabbath door hun straten lopen en niet helemaal volgens de orthodoxe regels gekleed zijn, moeten het soms ontgelden, net als winkels die op sabbath open zijn.

 

RP

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The Jerusalem Post
Oct 9, 2008 19:10 | Updated Oct 9, 2008 19:52

Acre's Arabs wreak destruction on Jewish cars on Yom Kippur

 

By JPOST.COM STAFF
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1222017498195&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

 

Serious clashes between the Jews and Arabs of Acre left dozens of wrecked cars, smashed windows, flat tires and uprooted trees on the eve of Yom Kippur, Wednesday.

At the end of the riots, three people were lightly wounded, eight people were arrested, the windows of 40 stores had been smashed, and 120 vehicles were damaged.

The clashes reportedly erupted after an Arab resident of Acre's Old City entered the Ben Gurion neighborhood on Yom Kippur - when traffic comes to a halt across the nation - arousing the fury of Jewish residents there who pelted his car with stones.

Police said the clashes broke after three young Arabs drove into the neighborhood and infuriated Jewish residents there by deliberately smoking cigarettes in the open and playing music from their car radio in a high volume. Yom Kippur is one of a few Jewish holidays whose prohibitions are observed in public by virtually all Jews and even secular Israelis refrain from desecrating the holiness of the day in public.

But United Arab List MK Abbas Zakhur, who lives in the city, said it was not three youths but a father and his family who drove through the neighborhood.

"He didn't drive to a place where he had nothing to do, he was on his way home. One must respect the holiday and the fast but it is illegal to prevent a man from using the road during the holiday. When he reached near his home he was attacked by hundreds of Jews and when I arrived there I was also attacked, as well as my vehicle."

Meanwhile, word spread in the Old City that the driver had been killed. Hundreds of Arab youth stormed the streets heading for the Jewish neighborhoods.

Violent clashes ensued and police managed to calm the situation only after they asked Arab dignitaries to pull their weight and influence the youngsters to stop.

But en route home, the Arab residents destroyed property, reportedly shouting "Death to the Jews," "Allah hu Akbar [God is Great in Arabic]" and threatening to kill Jews "if you dare leave your houses."

A bystander said the driver who sparked the clashes was driving threateningly near several girls sitting in a park. After the girls started screaming, he reportedly incited the Jewish youths who came to see what had happened when he said, "you don't know what's coming for you".

Some time later his car was attacked and shortly after the Arab youths of the Old City enacted their vengeance.

The bystander said that Jewish residents were afraid to leave their houses even to go to synagogue. He told of "400-meter rows of cars, each and every one with smashed windows." He said the devastation seen in the streets was worse than after a Katyusha rocket fell in the city in the Second Lebanon War.

Police were not quick to respond, according to eyewitnesses. The team manning the Acre station on Yom Kippur is Arab and residents claimed that this was why they were afraid to intervene. Only after Acre's Jews called the Kiryat Shmona and Motzkin stations did police arrive.

Overeenkomsten militaire problemen Israel in 1973 en 2006

 

Israel maakte sommige van dezelfde fouten in 2006 tegen Hezbollah als in 1973, zo blijkt uit nieuw vrijgegeven materiaal van de Agranat commissie die de Yom Kippoer oorlog onderzocht.

 

RP

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Agranat files hint at consistent military problems

Senior officials' testimony to commission investigating Yom Kippur War highlights issues much like those seen in Israel's most recent war

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3606399,00.html

Amnon Meranda

Latest Update: 10.07.08, 12:26

 

 

Previously secret files from Agranat Commission were opened to the public Tuesday, almost 35 years after the commission was established to investigate the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War and examine the conduct of the military and political echelons.

 

The Israel Defense Force archives released 20 witness testimonies, among them that of former prime minister Ariel Sharon and former defense minister Moshe Dayan, both highlighting issues that came up in Israel's most recent war.

 

When asked about his division's movements on October 7 and 8, 1973, Sharon - who was then the commander of Reserves Armored Division 143 - criticized the IDF's general staff, with whom he had been fighting at the time.

 

"I wanted to emphasize that… something that was evident throughout the war and that caused grave damage in managing the war was the absence of senior officers from the field," Sharon said in his testimony.

 

"For example, look at the 8th, when there were two divisions in the field… The regional commander should have been there or, if not, then his deputy… someone to coordinate between the forces… Many mistakes were made because this didn't happen," he said.

 

Furthermore, Sharon claimed that senior officials were not interested in hearing feedback from their subordinates in the field. Tactically, he said, this lack of communication impacted the war effort.

 

"There were several occasions when not only were other people giving orders to your subordinates, but they were often doing so without your knowledge," Sharon elaborated.

 

Describing the widespread confusion, Sharon said he'd gotten the impression that "there was no clear picture of what was going on in the field."

 

Dayan relies on deterrence power

Then defense minister Moshe Dayan's testimony is similarly evocative of the criticism of Israel's latest conflict with Hizbullah: In his testimony, Dayan explained that his decision not to call up reserves soldiers on the eve of the war was based on an intelligence report from 5 months prior to its outbreak.

 

"We were fairly certain of our capabilities to hold off a first strike… We understood that the only difference would be a slight discrepancy in artillery power on the (southern) front. We felt that our capabilities, along with the airforce, would be enough to hold them off," he said.

 

On the eve of the war, Dayan explained in his testimony, the IDF Chief of General Staff sent up airplanes in order to try and deter the Syrians and the Egyptians. "We could not be sure that full scale war would erupt based on what we saw," he said, explaining his reluctance to call up reserve ground forces.

 

Elazar highlights Dayan's hesitation

Meanwhile, David Elazar, who was the IDF Chief of Staff at the time, recalled with censure how Dayan had refused his requests for a massive reserves call-up, agreeing only to draft airforce reservists and two armored divisions (one to the north and one to the south). Specifically, he said that Dayan refused to call up reservists to the Jordanian front.

 

Elazar also said that Dayan immediately took the idea of a preemptive strike off the table: "He said we couldn't allow such a thing this time," Elazar recounted in his testimony.

 

But he noted that the problems went beyond Dayan's hesitation. For example, referencing Dayan's idea of heading off an enemy strike, he stated that the two standing divisions in the north and south had been instructed to deploy in order to prevent enemy infiltration to Israel but, operatively, did not deploy as planned.

 

Yaron Druckman and Roei Mandel contributed to this report 

 

 

IDF draagt taken over aan Palestijnse troepen in Hebron

 

Het is een goede zaak dat Israel de PA toestemming geeft om zelf actief tegen Hamas op te treden, maar ik kan me ook wel iets bij de bezwaren voorstellen - een deel van de leden van de veiligheidsdiensten hebben zelf in het verleden bij de Al Aqsa Martelaren Brigades en dergelijke groepen gezeten en aanslagen tegen Israel beraamd. De PA had een amnesty regeling voor deze leden van gewapende groepen. Sowieso staan veel Palestijnen achter het 'verzet', en zijn zij niet erg gemotiveerd om aanvallen tegen kolonisten of ook binnen Israel te verijdelen. Bovendien heeft in 2000 juist de PA en de Palestijnse politie zich ook tegen Israel gekeerd.

 

Wouter

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IDF finalizes new PA troop deployment in Hebron

 

The Jerusalem Post
Oct 7, 2008 23:47 | Updated Oct 8, 2008 13:34
By YAAKOV KATZ
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1222017494172&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

 

Brig.-Gen. Yoav Mordechai, the head of the Civil Administration in Judea and Samaria, will meet next week with his Palestinian counterpart to discuss a request to move up the planned deployment of a company of PA soldiers in Hebron.

The move, first reported in The Jerusalem Post three weeks ago, has drawn the ire of settlers from Gush Etzion and the South Hebron Hills, who held an emergency meeting Tuesday morning to discuss the "irresponsible and dangerous" move.

South Hebron Hills Regional Council head Tzvika Bar-Hai told the Post that Palestinians from Hebron had long been involved in terrorist attacks throughout Israel and that this new plan would only further endanger Israeli lives. "The writing is on the wall," he said.

On Tuesday morning, Bar-Hai hastily called a meeting of local leaders, activists and rabbis in his office so that they could organize to combat the plan. In the next few days they plan to lobby politicians against the initiative and they have asked for a meeting with Defense Minister Barak.

The settlers also issued a press statement signed by a wide range of settler leaders from Efrat Chief Rabbi Shlomo Riskin to far-right activist Baruch Marzel of Hebron.

The decision to permit the deployment - there are already more than 2,000 Palestinian Authority soldiers and policemen in Hebron - was made last month by OC Central Command Maj.-Gen. Gadi Shamni as part of an Israeli effort to bolster PA President Mahmoud Abbas.

Abbas is scheduled to finish his term as president on January 9, and in the absence of new elections - due to the Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip - Abbas, according to the PA constitution, will be replaced by the speaker of the PA parliament, Abdel Aziz Dweik, a senior Hamas official currently in an Israeli prison.

Abbas, however, is looking for ways to extend his term. The IDF and the PA are concerned that Abbas's refusal to hand over the reins could set off clashes in the West Bank between Fatah and Hamas.

As a result, the IDF has agreed to allow a platoon of close to 200 Palestinian soldiers to deploy in Hebron, to be used by the PA to crack down on Hamas operatives and infrastructure in the city.

In a letter sent to Barak on Tuesday, the settler leadership in Hebron slammed the initiative, warning of a rise in terrorism if more PA soldiers are allowed into the city.

"Transferring security over Hebron to the Fatah terrorists will endanger the lives of the thousands who live here and the hundreds of thousands of Jews who regularly come to the city's holy sites," the leaders wrote to Barak.

Initially, the soldiers were planned to deploy in Hebron after completing their US-backed training in Jordan in late December.

A defense official said on Tuesday, however, that the Palestinians had now asked to transfer troops from other parts of the West Bank to Hebron as soon as possible, i.e. later this month. A final decision is expected following the meeting next week between Mordechai and PA Civil Affairs Minister Hussein a-Sheikh.

Defense Ministry officials initially opposed the deployment in Hebron, out of fear that the presence of armed PA soldiers would escalate tensions with the Jewish community in the city. Palestinian assurances that the soldiers would not patrol near the Jewish neighborhoods paved the way for Shamni's approval.

The request to deploy soldiers in Hebron was made by PA Prime Minister Salaam Fayad and is based on the "Jenin model," under which Palestinian troops deployed in large numbers there earlier this year and the IDF scaled back its operations in the vicinity.

In addition, Israel eased travel restrictions in northern Samaria and has started allowing Israeli Arabs to visit Jenin in an effort to rehabilitate its weakened economy.

Nevertheless, IDF troops operated in Jenin early Wednesday morning and discovered six pipe bombs and a 13-cm. knife. Shots were fired at the troops during the raid but no one was wounded.

 

Tovah Lazaroff contributed to this report.

 

Nederzettingen zuid-Hebron afgesloten met Yom Kippoer

 

Er is nog een lange weg te gaan naar vrede in het Midden-Oosten, maar niet op Jom Kippoer...

De neiging is groot om cynisch op te merken dat kolonisten nou ook eens meemaken wat de Palestijnen zo vaak gebeurt. Die neiging is eigenlijk onweerstaanbaar.

 

Het is opvallend dat nota bene een Knessetlid van Meretz het voor de kolonisten opneemt. Om de spreken van discriminatie t.o.v. de inwoners van Tel Aviv is nogal potsierlijk. Deze kolonisten kozen er bewust voor om buiten het grondgebied van hun staat te gaan wonen, met alle lasten en problemen van dien.

 

Wouter

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Settlements in South Hebron Hills to be blocked during Yom Kippur

 

By Akiva Eldar - Haaretz

Last update - 03:53 08/10/2008
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1027420.html

 

The authorities are implementing a closure on settlements in the South Hebron Hills east of the separation fence for Yom Kippur, citing a lack of manpower to keep the road open. At the beginning of the week, the residents of the settlements of Teneh Omarim and Shama'a found out that road 60, the main artery connecting Hebron-area settlements with central Israel, will be completely blocked except for emergency vehicles.

So far, limitations on traffic have been in effect during Jewish holidays only for the Palestinian population.

The Meitar crossing in the South Hebron Hills will be minimally staffed and will therefore be closed except for emergencies, meaning that the settlers there will be cut off from the rest of the West Bank and Israel during the holiday.

According to Shlomo Dror, a spokesman for the Defense Ministry and the crossings administration: "The crossings administration views Yom Kippur as a special date in the State of Israel. Due to the security problems in the South Hebron Hills, this decision is very important. The significance of the request is that dozens of people will have to violate Yom Kippur and work on the holiday. The crossing will be open for humanitarian and security needs of the residents, and any exceptional case will be dealt with as required."

Dror added that in previous years, when the crossings were run by the Israel Defense Forces, they were also closed on Yom Kippur to "respect the people's rest."

A group of settlers asked MK Avshalom Vilan (Meretz) to intervene in the matter, and Vilan asked Defense Minister Ehud Barak to explain why the freedom of movement of the Israelis affected was different from that of other Israelis.

Vilan, a founder of "One Home," an organization promoting voluntary evacuation of settlers living east of the separation fence, said he sees the order to lock the settlers in their settlements as a serious infraction of their basic civil rights and outright discrimination between them and residents of Tel Aviv, for example.

Itai Noah, a non-Orthodox settler who has lived in Teneh Omarim for 18 years, said that if the Israeli government is unable to assure equal rights to its citizens living over the Green Line, it should immediately offer them appropriate compensation to allow them to move to within that line.

He added that this was the first year a closure was imposed on his settlement and that it was linked to the changeover of responsibility for the roadblocks from the IDF to the border crossings administration, which is run by private companies.