So much for Holy Basin fantasies

Palestinians oppose elevator in Jewish Quarter for handicapped access to Western Wall


IMRA
16 August '10

Dr. Aaron Lerner - IMRA:

Years ago Yossie Beilin proudly proclaimed that he solved all the issues with his Palestinian pal Mahmoud Abbas with a proposal to "solve" the conflict. His "solution" for Jerusalem was to appoint a committee to resolve the issues.

Yes. Sounds funny in retrospect, but given that 99.99% of Israelis and 99.9999999% of Israeli politicians don't look beyond the headlines, he got a lot of mileage with the claim that he had a "solution".

Nowadays there are all kinds of politicians with a "solution" for Jerusalem in which the issue of sovereignty over the heart of Jerusalem is solved by running it with - that's right - a committee.

Another joke.

So here is a simple example of how this would be a joke.

An elevator to provide handicapped access to the Western Wall from the Jewish Quarter of the Old City is opposed by the Palestinians because it somehow threatens the Al-Aqsa Mosque to build an elevator in the Jewish Quarter next to the Aish Hatorah Yeshiva. That's not adjacent to the Al-Aqsa Mosque - its way on the other side of the plaza.

So if the Arabs have a problem with building an elevator for handicapped access in the Jewish Quarter, just imagine what would happen running the Old City via committee.

Report: Israel to build elevator to Western Wall
Published yesterday (updated) 16/08/2010 21:54
www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=308471

JERUSALEM (Ma'an) -- Israel is planning to construct an elevator leading to the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City, Israeli media reported Monday.

The project will be proposed to planning committees that will make a final decision on the 56-meter structure, the Israeli daily Ma'ariv reported Tuesday.

The elevator is to be named after US businessman Baruch Klein, who will fund the $10 million project, Ma'ariv reported.

The Al-Aqsa Foundation says the plans are a threat to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which is adjacent to the Western Wall.

The area is considered the third holiest in Islam and holiest in Judaism.

In a statement, the foundation said the project intended to divide the mosque and prevent worshipers from reaching it, citing the plan as an attempt by Israeli forces to increase the presence of Jews in the area.

The statement warned that the square in front of the wall could be used as a base to attack the compound......

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Economist Demonizes Israel with Racist Traffic Light Accusation

Yishai Goldflam, Ricki Hollander,
and Gilead Ini
CAMERA
29 April '10

The Economist, with Al Jazeera hot on its heels, has dug up a new Israeli villain: traffic lights.

This joins aphrodisiac bubble gum, poisonous candy, super rats, and stripper assassins in Israel's purported arsenal of tools to oppress Arabs.

According to a March 6, 2010 article in the mainstream British news magazine, traffic lights in Jerusalem "flick green only briefly for cars from Palestinian districts while staying green for cars from Jewish settlements for minutes."

When pressed by CAMERA to provide evidence for this wild charge, the Economist provided a list of intersections at which drivers from Arab neighborhoods are allegedly forced to wait at long red lights to make way for those from Jewish neighborhoods. Shortly afterwards — coincidentally, or not — Al Jazeera English broadcast a short news segment purportedly demonstrating the discrimination at one of the intersections named by the Economist.



A CAMERA field investigation reveals that the Economist and Al Jazeera claims are absurdly false — the latest examples of how even the most benign irritations encountered in quotidian life are manipulated to demonize the Jewish state. In fact, the discrepancy between the timing of red and green lights is related, as in cities across the world, to street size and traffic flow, affecting cars from both Arab and Jewish neighborhoods equally.

(Read full story)

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Just for Show

Jennifer Rubin
Contentions/Commentary
07 April '10

Many savvy observers of the Obami assault on Israel have concluded that the fuss over the Jerusalem housing permit was concocted by the Obami to ingratiate themselves with the Palestinians, who were threatening to walk from the proximity talks. There is ample support for this theory, not the least of which is the prior positions of the three players in the Obama freak-out drama — Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, and the president. The colorfully named Sultan Knish has compiled a useful bit of history that includes Biden’s co-sponsorship of Senate Resolutions 1322, 113, and 106 (between the years 1990 and 1995):

Biden co-sponsored three Senate resolution, all three of which insisted that Jerusalem should remain Israel’s undivided capital. One of which insisted that it was vital for the peace process that Jerusalem should be affirmed by US policy as Israel’s undivided capital. So naturally, like any good politician, he was insulted by Israel taking him at his word. To argue that Biden was gravely insulted by Israel, is to argue that he was insulted by the policies he himself supported.

Not just passively supported, but co-sponsored in three Senate resolutions which repeatedly stated that these were meant to be the policy of the United States.

But of course the hypocrisy train doesn’t just stop at Joe Biden Station.

(Read full post)
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The Jerusalem Syndrome

Emmanuel Navon
For the Sake of Zion
14 March '10

Hillary Clinton has a selective way of getting insulted. When Assad received Ahmadinejad in Damascus after the US had sent a new ambassador there, Clinton asked for an explanation and was told to mind her own business. But when the Israeli Housing Ministry announced the construction of additional homes in an existing Jewish neighborhood of Jerusalem, Clinton could not take it.

The reaction of the international community to the “Ramat Shlomo” affair reveals double-standards, one-sidedness, and an ignorance of historical facts.

Double-standards, because in the attempts to rebuild confidence between Israel and the Palestinians, only Israel is expected not to “provoke” the other side. The Palestinians, for their part, get away with everything. True, Biden asked the PA to cancel the inauguration of a square named after Dalal Mughrabi. But the inauguration was only pushed off and the fact is that you did not hear Hillary Clinton or Catherine Ashton scold the Palestinians about this provocation. Mughrabi led one of the most horrendous terror attacks in Israel's history, perpetrated on 11 March 1978, when she and other terrorists hijacked a bus and killed 37 civilians. In December 2009, PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas decided to sponsor a ceremony celebrating the 50th anniversary of Mughrabi’s birth. A few months before, Abbas inaugurated a computer center named after Mughrabi. On 11 March 2009, PA television called Mughrabi and her accomplices “heroes.” This year, the PA has planned on marking the 11 March event by naming a new square after Mughrabi.

(Read full article)
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The 1,800 Year Old High-Level Aqueduct of Jerusalem was Exposed Next to Jaffa Gate in the Old City

Israel Antiquities Authority
18 February '10
Posted before Shabbat

A beautiful aqueduct, standing 1.50 meters high and built of large stones, has been situated for almost two millennia right under one of the most familiar and traveled places in Jerusalem – beneath the road that leads from Jaffa Gate toward the David Citadel Museum and the shops on David Street.

The High-Level Aqueduct of Jerusalem, which dates from the second-third century CE, was exposed in excavations the Israel Antiquities Authority is conducting, with funding provided by the Jerusalem Development Authority for the purpose of replacing the infrastructure in the region.

According to Dr. Ofer Sion, excavation director on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, “The side of the aqueduct was discovered during the course of the excavation. When we removed the stones in its side and peeked into it we saw a splendidly built aqueduct covered with stone slabs where one can walk crouched down for a distance of approximately 40 meters. It is very exciting to think that no one has set foot there for many hundreds of years”. According to Sion, “The noted Land of Israel scholar, Dr. Conrad Schick, described a specific section of the aqueduct in a survey he conducted at the end of the nineteenth century. In 1898 a building was erected in this area which afterward became what we know of today as the Imperial Hotel. Schick’s documentation provided us with the clue that led to exposing this section of the aqueduct”.

The aqueduct is c. 60 centimeters wide and 1.5 meters high. Shafts were exposed at fifteen meter intervals or so that allowed the ancients to check the state of the aqueduct from what was the surface level in those days.

Up until the end of the Second Temple period, in the first century BCE, Jerusalem’s water supply was derived from the Gihon Spring; however, as the number of residents steadily increased, the city’s water resources proved insufficient.

(Read full story)