The downplayed and the played-up - The two sides of the same coin of hypocrisy.

Sarah Honig..
Another Tack..
05 July '13..

To contextualize the provocations of the so-called hilltop youth, and the possibly linked price-tag inanities, we need to visit unloved and forsaken southern Tel Aviv – From Neveh Sha’anan all the way to the Hatikva and Shapira Quarters. Their sordid streets offer an improbable but pertinent perspective for the barren rocky landscapes of Judea and Samaria.

It’s not instantly obvious but there’s much that ties the denizens of these seemingly disparate settings. In a word it’s disaffection.

Our mainstream doesn’t care about the Israeli remainder in areas of Tel Aviv that had ceased to matter to trendsetters. The same goes for those broadly denigrated as “settlers.” Tenaciously clinging to values long ago discounted by conceited talking heads, they’re physically and psychologically removed from Tel Aviv’s clubs and cafes, besides being anathema to the in-crowd’s fashion police.

The stories of those whom stuck-up snobs disown – whether they live only several run-down blocks away or beyond the sacrosanct Green Line – get no hearing, to say nothing of sympathy.

It’s enlightening to note how little fuss our tendentious media makes over some news items. Imagine the hysteria it would have pumped up had a Jew brandished a knife with a 40-centimeter-long blade, chased Arab passersby down a busy urban thoroughfare, stabbed six (one seriously) and then topped it all off with insolent V-sign gestures during his arraignment in court.

Incensed howls berating our innate racism would have reverberated around the globe. The breasts of generic Israelis would have been beaten with exultant relish and the din of righteous recriminations would have been earsplitting. Entire sectors of our society would have been lustily stereotyped. Blaming them would have been hoarsely held up as the progressive cause célèbre.

An Arab assailant would have excited less frenzy because our news-purveyors regard Arab attacks as expected, part of the course, dog bites man. Moreover, the copywriters of our conventional wisdom either subliminally anticipate no better from our enemies or, non-too-subliminally, they somewhat identify with the point of view of those who viscerally hate us. Hence, the hubbub would have been of exceedingly limited duration. Seen that. Been there. We deserve no better. It’s probably all our fault anyway. End of story.

Midreshet Aviv, also Tel Aviv

Debra Kamin..
Times of Israel..
14 June '13..

Right in the heart of the Tel Aviv suburb of Nahalat Yitzhak, walking distance from the towers of Azrieli and the Israel Defense Forces barracks of the Kirya, there is a religious school for girls that feels like it was plucked from another world.

In Jerusalem or Bnei Brak, Midreshet Aviv’s small, green campus, filled with long-skirted young women giggling between classes, would blend right in. But here on Emek Bracha street, just a stone’s throw from nonkosher restaurants and the buzzing Ayalon highway, stumbling upon this quiet place of Torah learning is a surprise.

The school was founded in 1996 by Rabbi Yaakov Ariel, modeled on the teachings of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook. Today, it is run by Rabbi Yair Ben Shetrit, who lives in the small settlement of Kochav Hashahar and makes the hour-plus journey to Tel Aviv each day.

Yifat Diamant has been working at the school for 10 years, serving as a teacher, counselor, chief administrator and headmistress of sorts. Despite her many hats, she says she has no official title.

“What I do is listen to the girls here, who are 20-23 years old, which is a wonderful age with all its difficulties,” she says, her English flawless and her face animated. “I have found that teaching and learning Torah, in the deepest sense, is a way of meeting yourself. It’s where the voice of God, which is endless, meets your own little soul. And there, things connect.”

Despite Tel Aviv’s reputation as an oasis for secular Israelis, a bastion of bent rules that is primarily focused on start-ups and sunbathing, Diamant insists that the city’s small religious community feels comfortable. It’s too simplistic, she says, to say that Tel Aviv is hedonistic while Jerusalem is holy.

When dogged determination can change the course of history - The lesson of 26 April '48

Sarah Honig..
Another Tack..
26 Aril '13..

It didn’t seem that way, but this day – April 26 – exactly 65 years ago was pivotal in yet-to-be-born Israel’s history. Its little-celebrated and hardly remembered events remain central for debunking the lies about the circumstances of the Jewish state’s inception. Its trials and tribulations tell a unique story of individual courage and defiant daring quite literally against all odds.

Yet shamefully too few – even among us – are at all aware of it. As time goes by, the numbers only dwindle.

April 26, 1948 was shaping up to be quite a dismal day. The single exception was the fact that on that day the IZL (Irgun Zvai Leumi) and the large Labor-led Hagana signed a cooperation agreement whereby the Irgun undertook to carry out only missions beforehand authorized by the Hagana, as well as to assume whatever operational roles the Hagana would assign it.

The evening of April 26 was particularly wretched for Menachem Begin. In his role as IZL commander he had decided to halt the Irgun’s attack on Jaffa’s Manshiyeh quarter, then already in its second ill-fated day.

Mounting casualties and bleak assessments had outweighed the Hagana’s green light to continue the offensive. A grim Begin explained to his men:

“Were it not for the British tanks and armored vehicles, we could have achieved our objectives. But the tanks are there, and we cannot ignore their presence… We will hold on to the line we had reached and leave a strong advance guard there for days to come. The other units will be withdrawn… This is no failure. The combined power of the enemy is many times greater than ours… I don’t think we should continue bashing our heads against strongholds reinforced by British tanks.”

It was less than three weeks before David Ben-Gurion would proclaim Israel independent but the Arabs were already plotting their invasion of the yet-to-be-born state. On that April 26 Transjordan’s King Abdullah announced belligerently that “The only way left for us is war. I will have the pleasure and honor to save Palestine.”

“Saving Palestine” was the euphemistic code phrase for annihilating the Jews of embryonic Israel. Others were more explicit. Five days after Abdullah’s crowing, Arab League Secretary-General Abdul-Rahman Azzam Pasha declared: “If the Zionists dare establish a state, the massacres we would unleash would dwarf anything which Genghis Khan and Hitler perpetrated.”

Lest any doubt linger, Azzam reiterated his message two weeks later, just as seven Arab armies began assaulting day-old Israel: “This will be a war of extermination and a momentous massacre which will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacres and the Crusades.”

Azzam’s bluster was intended to instill fear but, by any objective criteria, there indeed was plenty to fear.

The Arabs had vehemently rejected the November 29, 1947 UN Partition Resolution that would have created Jewish Israel and Arab Palestine side-by-side in this country. They weren’t interested in a Palestinian state. They wanted to destroy the projected Jewish state, although it was granted only disjointed and quite untenable territorial mini-shreds.

Even stunted and inherently unsustainable Jewish statehood couldn’t be tolerated by those who now portray themselves as Israel’s hapless victims. From pre-dawn on November 30, they instigated a relentless bloodletting throughout the land. They also began urging local Arabs to flee temporarily to make way for the invading Arab armies.

On the war and Israel - Personal reflections

Renaya Anbar..
Op-Ed Contributor/JPost..
21 November '12..

Walking down the street, I see news reporters interviewing civilians on their experiences and reactions to the sound of sirens and the rockets flying above their heads. I think about my own emotions, about what I might say if one them asked me for an interview.

“Here we have Renaya Anbar, a new immigrant from Chicago – Renaya, how do you feel about the current situation in Israel?” “Well, that’s a pretty broad question, but in short I feel that it’s unfortunate and frightening. And yet, my entire perspective on moving here has changed overnight.”

“How so? Do you regret your decision to move here?” “On the contrary. Whatever fragments of Zionist values I have acquired throughout my life have suddenly become my central purpose for staying here. I never truly understood my reasons were for moving here. I constantly fought with myself and reminisced about the comforts of ‘home,’ and the temptation to move back and away from this country of constant struggle was always in a corner of my mind, penetrating my thoughts.

Overnight, the thought of being anywhere but here has become completely inconceivable. Whatever doubts I had about creating my life here, with all its challenges and frustrations, seem meaningless now.”

“Well said, thank you, Renaya. Another siren beginning just now over Tel Aviv!”

I AM a Jewish person and I am choosing to live in Israel. I do not believe that the imminent danger we face in this current struggle against Hamas will suddenly disappear from my life if I were to live in a far-away land. The danger we face here is insignificant compared to the danger of a world without the existence of Israel and the Jewish people that inhabit it.

We cannot escape the fact that Jews have more than a right to exist on this earth, we have an obligation to do so – and to the highest of human standards. Up until four days ago, I was completely ignorant of the existence of a world where one’s safety is threatened. No matter how many stories you hear about past wars, full of victories and losses, nothing can prepare you for the moment you are suddenly in the midst of incoming rocket fire.

It is in those moments that you look around and the see the world through a completely different lens.

Tel Aviv - The buses are exploding once again

Hamas has already demanded 'credit' for today's attempted mass murder
of bus passengers in central Tel Aviv

Frimet/Arnold Roth..
This Ongoing War..
21 November '12..

A public bus plying one of the central Tel Aviv routes became the scene for the latest escalation of the jihadist war of terror being waged against Israel's civilians. Around noon Wednesday, the bus was blown up, causing 21 people on board to suffer injuries, three of them "seriously" which can cover a broad spectrum of outcomes. We're awaiting further details.

Times of Israel is reporting that a man was seen placing a bag on the bus and then fleeing. He was chased by police through the streets of Tel Aviv, and apprehended. We have heard that a second suspect was also caught, though we still await confirmation.

The people, making the necessary connection between this form of direct terrorism and the larger, ongoing terrorism executed by the rocketeers of Gaza, reiterated what Israelis know but of which they need to be reminded again and again: everyone on Israel's streets needs to be alert, and anything suspicious should be reported to the police without hesitation.

(Continue)

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(Video) Yarden Frankl Searching For Israel's Capital

Yarden Frankl..
Honest Reporting..
30 July '12..




Tel Aviv is NOT Israel's capital. Please help us counter the campaign against Jerusalem by sending this video to your friends and posting on Facebook and Twitter.

In April, the Guardian Newspaper -- one of the UK's most influential newspapers -- declared that Tel Aviv is Israel's Capital.

Tel Aviv is an Amazing city. Anyone who visits will find cutting edge high-tech, beautiful beaches, vibrant nightlife, rich culture, and a diverse mix of people.

But is Tel Aviv Israel's capital?

We tried to find out.


Published on Jul 30, 2012 by HonestReportingVideo

Tel Aviv has a lot to be proud of. But is not the seat of Israel's government.

It is not the location for:

The Prime Minister's office
The Israeli Legislature (Knesset)
The Israeli Supreme Court
The National Bank of Israel

These institutions can be found in Jerusalem, Israel's real capital.

Don't let the Guardian and other media try to tell you that it isn't.

Tired of seeing Israel getting slammed in the media?

Check out www.HonestReporting.com

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vegihZ7Kkgw&feature=share

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook.
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(+Video) Bizarre scene during White House briefing. Jerusalem or Tel Aviv?

Alana Goodman..
Commentary/Contentions..
26 July '12..

There was a bizarre scene during today’s White House briefing, when White House Press Secretary Jay Carney flat-out refused to say whether the capital of Israel was Jerusalem or Tel Aviv, despite repeated questioning from multiple reporters. The Washington Examiner’s Joel Gehrke reports:

Carney was caught flat-footed when asked which city is Israel’s capital. “I haven’t had that question in awhile,” he said after some hesitation. “Our position has not changed. You know our position.” The reporter said she didn’t know, but Carney moved on to another question.

That answer touched off a somewhat unruly scene, as WND’s Lester Kinsolving interjected that “she doesn’t know, that’s why she asked.” Carney moved on.

(+Video) Mayor of Tel Aviv Tells the Media His City is Cool — but not Israel’s Capital

Yarden Frankl..
Honest Reporting/Backspin..
24 July '12..

Yesterday we met with Ron Huldai, the Mayor of Tel Aviv. We asked him about the various efforts by the media to label his city as Israel’s capital. He is very proud of his city, but was absolutely clear about the issue of Israel’s capital.

He mentioned that although Tel Aviv is one of the “coolest” cities in the world, it is NOT Israel’s capital.

Since we had spent the whole day on the streets of the city, asking residents if THEY thought their city was the capital, we disagreed strongly with his characterization that the city is “cool.” It’s actually really, really hot! (You can watch our hunt for Israel’s capital next week.)

But, we do concur wholeheartedly that Tel Aviv is NOT Israel’s capital.

The mission that stopped Egypt from advancing on Tel Aviv. 'It was all destiny'

Yaakov Katz..
JPost..
16 July '12..

His story has inspired thousands and is retold in the corridors of the Israel Air Force’s training school with deep admiration.

But despite the 64 years that have passed, Lou Lenart has no doubt that everything comes down to destiny. Touted as the “man who saved Tel Aviv,” the 91-year-old Lenart recalls the fateful events of May 29, 1948 with great emotion and down to the smallest of details.

A few weeks ago, the IAF held a ceremony to honor Lenart, one of the last living pilots from the original group that founded it.

Few people actually remember the IAF’s first battle – yet it was so decisive for Israel that it is believed to have saved Tel Aviv from capture by Egyptian forces. On Thursday, Lenart will speak at a conference at Tel Aviv University about the mission.

Lenart, who today divides his time between Los Angeles and Tel Aviv, was born in 1921 in Hungary and immigrated to the United States with his family nine years later. A regular target for anti-Semitic beatings and taunts in a small town in Pennsylvania, Lenart said he learned early in life that he needed to be strong to survive. Accordingly, just weeks after graduating from high school, he enlisted in the US Marine Corps.

By the end of his seven-year service in the Marines, Lenart fought in the Pacific and became a fighter pilot, flying missions in the Battle for Okinawa as well as attacks on the Japanese mainland. After the war, he learned that his relatives who had remained in Hungary had been killed in Auschwitz. Lenart returned to Los Angeles and began thinking about Israel, or as it was then known – Palestine.

“I knew that my people were being killed and my family had been killed in Auschwitz, and I felt that the remnants of the Holocaust had a right to life and some happiness – and no one wanted them except their own people in Israel,” he said.

Medad - Why not call it "price tag policy"?

Yisrael Medad..
Green-Lined/JPost..
25 June '12..




This paper, as all the others, is reporting on violence perpetrated by social/ideological activists. Like this of what occured now in Jerusalem:

Two demonstrators were arrested in Jerusalem on Sunday night as the social justice protests took a violent turn a day after 85 were arrested in Tel Aviv. Around 200 protesters gathered outside the Prime Minister's residence at 8:00 as a response to the Saturday night protest in Tel Aviv, and then marched through downtown Jerusalem to Zion Square.

The protesters did not have a permit to gather outside the PM's residence or to hold a march. Demonstrator Khen Tsubery said the protest was intentionally done without a permit because permits have been difficult to obtain since the light rail began operated on Jaffa Road.

Muqata - Solving the Housing Crisis

JoeSettler
The Muqata
23 July '11

http://muqata.blogspot.com/2011/07/solving-housing-crisis.html

Call me cynical, but with the tent cities popping up protesting the “housing crisis”, I’d like to propose a number of ideas that can solve this problem.

1) Massive construction in Judea and Samaria.
It costs a lot less to build in Judea and Samaria and it can be done much faster than in the built up areas of Gush Dan and Jerusalem. In fact, there are plans ready for 100,000 apartments that can be built within a year, if only permission were given. And best of all. The Shomron is a 15 minute drive to Gush Dan, and Judea is a 15 minute drive to Jerusalem. Wide spaces, empty areas, great air.
What more could you ask for?

2) What about those illegal refugees?
Did you know that they are estimating that some 40,000 illegal refugees/immigrants live in southern Tel Aviv. Something like 10% of Tel Aviv is made up of illegal residents. Even at 4 to an apartment, we’re talking about freeing up 10,000 apartments right there. And from what I hear, southern Tel Aviv was supposed to be developed for student/young housing. If only those illegal immigrants hadn’t moved in. If you want to point fingers…

3) More construction in Gilo, Har Homa, and Eastern Jerusalem.
Thousands more apartments could be built, if only the government had the support of the people stop the virtual freeze of Jewish housing.

4) Support Netanyahu.
While I have some problems with it, Netanyahu’s land reform bill would have freed up lots of state land for housing. Show your support for Netanyahu.

5) Stop destroying outposts and Migron.
You would expect to see a little solidarity here. All these people want is a place to call their own, just like you. Meanwhile the government/IDF comes along and instead of providing that final signature that would make everything legal, it destroys people’s homes leaving them homeless. What kind of sympathy are you looking for, when you don't care about their going homeless?

6) Stop blaming the Settlements
For some reason the settlements have been dragged into this, claiming that they siphon the money away from building in Gush Dan!

Well, the way I see it, with somewhere between 350,000 to 750,000 settlers (depending on who you count), that’s a lot of housing to be built, not to mention schools, kindergartens, shuls, mikvahs…. Where exactly would these people live otherwise? You say yourselves complain there’s no housing anywhere.

You want to send them to the Negev? But you yourselves don’t want to go there!

And how much more does it cost to build a home in Gush Dan compared to a Settlement? 3 times the price? 4? 5? Do the math. Settlements are saving the country space and money. You should be kissing the Settlers feet, because if 700,000 of us (who work for a living) were forced to move, we’d certainly buy up prime housing in Gush Dan and definitely force you out to the periphery. Davka.

7) Stop your violence.
A number of politicians made their way to the tent city to listen and speak to the protesters. Only they found themselves physically attacked. Well only those not associated with Meretz and the Arab parties. If you want to have the people in charge hear you, it doesn't really make sense to pelt them with eggs and beer bottles, now does it?

The conclusion?

Since it’s allegedly the New Israel Fund and the “National Left” that have apparently been buying the tents and helping organize the protests, you’ll never hear these points raised as a solutions to the problem, because the agenda isn't housing (as real as the problem is), the agenda is apparently just another attempt to topple the government.

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The Frog and the Scorpion: Israelis in the North Anticipate Another War with Hezbollah, but Expect to Win

Seth Mandel
www.newsrealblog.com
21 March '11

http://www.newsrealblog.com/2011/03/21/the-frog-and-the-scorpion-israelis-in-the-north-anticipate-another-war-with-hezbollah-but-expect-to-win

Is it more terrifying to know your enemies are there but not be able to see them, or to stare daily into the wild eyes of the men who plan your execution? This is the question I pondered as I stood near Israel’s northern border with Lebanon last week.

The view from Israel’s north looks quite different than it did before the Second Lebanon War in 2006. As bad as the press was for Israel after that war, Hezbollah was so decimated by Israel’s counteroffensive that Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah admitted that had he known Israel would strike back as it did, he would probably not have launched the war.

And now, where once Hezbollah commandos strutted around the border in combat fatigues with guns slung over their shoulders, they only go outside in street clothes. And while pre-2006 the Hezbollah military installations stood as concrete expressions of defiance, they are now all under or inside of civilian residential buildings.

But while that may represent a moral victory, does it bring any sense of reassurance to Israelis living in the north?

“Everybody deserves the right to live; the problem is that they don’t want us to live,” a young man named Yair told me. “Hezbollah is an example. They want to destroy us. We don’t want to fight; we just want to be in peace. But we don’t have a choice.”

Knowing that I was American–I was there on a weeklong media fellowship with Act for Israel–Yair was clearly speaking simple Hebrew for my benefit. But it was telling that perhaps his phrasing was appropriate. Was there really anything missing from his formulation?

There are now, according to the IDF, 40,000 rockets in Hezbollah’s possession south of Lebanon’s Litani River, which at its closest point comes to within four kilometers of the Israeli border. In the last war, rockets rained on Israel’s port city and economic and population center of Haifa. The city is home to over 265,000 Israelis, but another 300,000 live in adjacent towns.

Another important number is 1 million–that’s how many Israelis live north of Haifa and who, presumably, the rockets stockpiled in the Lebanese village of Al Khiam are intended for. Al Khiam sits four kilometers from the Israeli border as well, and the center of the village is home to at least eleven weapons depots. One is right next to a mosque, another is right next to a school. Both medical centers are within a few hundred feet of weapons depots. A second school is exactly 132 meters from another weapons depot. One bunker is situated about 100 meters from a school on one side and a mosque on the other.

This is Hezbollah. The world’s most feared and resilient terrorist organization, funded by Iran and running a state within a state in Lebanon (and on the verge of controlling the state of Lebanon as well) is also a machine churning out cowardice on a daily basis, as it puts both Lebanon’s and Israel’s civilians at risk. It’s entire strategy for war with Israel consists of using human shields. And why not? The media plays along.

Another Tack: Careful what you wish for

Sarah Honig
Another Tack
14 January '11

Some time back in the misty shadows of my Junior High days, I read W.W. Jacobs’ classic horror story “The Monkey’s Paw” – a pretty predictable spine-chiller of 1902 vintage. It opens when the White family’s cozy evening around the hearth is disrupted by a visitor who brings into the idyllic setting a mummified monkey’s paw from India, supernaturally empowered to grant its owner three wishes. The Whites are cautioned not to give in to temptation – but irresistibly they do, with ghastly consequences.

The narrative is preceded by an anonymous quotation: “Be careful what you wish for, you may receive it.”

Thus forewarned, I should have known better a number of years thereafter than to wish the area that at the time surrounded Tel-Aviv’s hectic Central Bus Station excised from the cityscape.

It was too Levantine for my youthful snobbery of yore. I used to joke that the only sliver of Eretz Yisrael which I’d cede – assuming Israel absolutely must make territorial concessions to attain peace – is the teeming Neveh Sha’anan neighborhood (whose name ironically means “placid oasis”).

SHOCKINGLY, MY wish came true. Tel-Aviv’s erstwhile hub has essentially been ripped out and commandeered (though, as was consistently proven true of all our territorial forfeitures, this one too bore no connection whatever to any semblance of peace). The entire quarter, once dominated by the old bus station, has become an expanding ex-territorial lawless sphere where few Israelis dare to tread.

Anyone who indeed inadvertently wanders there would be hard put to recognize it as even remotely Israeli. Squalid and foul, it’s packed with an exotic collection of denizens who infiltrated the country and most of whom originally hail from the southern hemisphere. The once-so-familiar streets are nothing short of an alien scene. This is Tel-Aviv’s seamy dark underside and to venture there is truly dangerous.

(Read full "Careful what you wish for")

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The liberation of Tel al-Rabia

Sarah Honig
Another Tack
07 October '10

Israelis have come to take the delegitimization of their national rights and hard-won sovereignty in stride. Partly it’s the overwhelming global tide of vilification. There is just so much one can rebut. After a while, apathy takes over.

We grow inured to smears – be they from glory-craving statesmen, populist politicians, British or Norwegian trade unions, supermarket shelf-stackers, sanctimonious church groups, human rights promoters, campus organizers, professors foisting intolerant agendas on impressionable students or artsy self-appointed thought-molders worldwide.

But it’s one thing not to pay heed anymore or care about what they say about us out there. It’s quite another to imbibe the slander and take it for granted as a given fact. It’s one thing to ignore the lie, but once we begin believing it, we accept that our very existence is sinful.

Once our villainy is established, we invariably become the side that’s always required to build the confidence of sworn foes, make concessions, give rather than receive, weaken itself and expose its anyway ultra-vulnerable soft underbelly to genocidal predations. The onus is forever on us.

(Read full story)

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The mythical Arab village of "Tel ar-Rabi"

Elder of Ziyon
15 September '10

Ma'an News has an article about the violent fantasy video of Palestinian Arabs ethnically cleansing Tel Aviv of Jews. It includes this curious part:

Gaza native Muhammad Al-Amrity says he and his friend Ayman Hijazi made the film. It was inspired by a dream he had of his family that originates in Tel Ar-Rabi, which became Tel Aviv. "I tried to go back to my city in the dream."

Was there ever an Arab village named "Tel ar-Rabi" that the Jews Judaized with the imperialist name of Tel Aviv?

(Read full post)

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For the Jews in Israel, Money Trumps All?

Victor Davis Hanson
National Review Online
06 September '10

I know it’s commonplace to read in the latest issue of Time or Newsweek that Obama is a god, that Islamophobic Americans are collectively prejudiced against Muslims, that the response after 9/11 was overblown and unnecessary (over 30 subsequent terrorist plots have been foiled, and, for some reason, renditions, tribunals, Guantanamo, Predators, intercepts, etc., have all been embraced by the Obama administration), but the recent Time piece on Israel by a Karl Vick is probably the most anti-Semitic essay I have ever read in a mainstream publication.

Among Vick’s interviewees is Heli Itach, a modern-day Shylock who brags about the money to be made selling condos in Jerusalem (“‘Even when the Qassams fell, we continued to sell!’ says Heli Itach, slapping a palm on the office desk”). The accompanying photo shows carefree Israelis on the beach.

In fact, Vick argues, the Jews are so obsessed with making money that they don’t much care what happens in the future: “The truth is, Israelis are no longer preoccupied with the matter. They’re otherwise engaged; they’re making money; they’re enjoying the rays of late summer. A watching world may still define their country by the blood feud with the Arabs whose families used to live on this land and whether that conflict can be negotiated away, but Israelis say they have moved on.”

You see, Vick has discovered that the rather worldly Israelis, after stealing their land from Arabs, don’t much care for the hard negotiations that the Obama administration is now engaged in (“big elemental thoughts”), not when it is a matter of — yes, making money: “With souls a trifle weary of having to handle big elemental thoughts, the Israeli public prefers to explore such satisfactions as might be available from the private sphere, in a land first imagined as a utopia.”

(Read full article)

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WSJ Relocates Israel's Capital

Tamar Sternthal
CAMERA/Snapshots
11 May '10

In honor of Yom Yerushalayim, a very special video - Jerusalem Day: Reflections by Rabbi Yisrael Ariel

Gerald Seib, Washington bureau chief for the Wall Street Journal, has relocated Israel's capital to Tel Aviv. In a May 4 column, he writes:

None of this means there aren't real strains between Washington and Tel Aviv over settlements in the West Bank, or over the value of a robust Arab-Israeli peace process to the broad American effort to knit Arab states into a coalition opposing Iran.

In fact, the strain between Israel and the United States over settlements in the West Bank has taken place between Washington and Jerusalem, where the Prime Minister's office is located, not to mention the Knesset, the Supreme Court, and the Foreign Ministry.

The Boston Globe has in the past corrected this very same error (see below), and so should the Wall Street Journal.

Error (Boston Globe, 7/14/03): The refugees and many other Palestinians publicly say there can be no peace with Israel until Tel Aviv recognizes the refugees’ right to return.

Correction (7/17/03): Because of an editing error, a story on a Palestinian protest in Monday’s World pages incorrectly suggested that Tel Aviv is the capital of Israel. The capital is Jerusalem.

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Journalists From The West Always Collaborate With Me

Tuvia Tenenbom
Hudson New York
29 March '10

Mahmoud Darwish, heard of him? His books are sold here at the “Yafa: Book Store & Coffee Shop,” where you sip your sweet and bitter coffee at about quadruple the cost other cafés in the area charge, but you get the chance to entertain your mind with the loftiest of issues.

Haven’t heard of him? Don’t feel bad. Mahmoud Darwish, who passed away in August of 2008, is the most celebrated Palestinian writer of our time. Many of the books sold here are in Arabic, and nine out of ten Israeli intellectuals who come by don’t read Arabic to start with.

Relax. Sip your hot coffee a while longer, drink a cold soda in between. You certainly won’t be bored here. There are a few books in Hebrew as well, for those Jews who insist on reading, but no pressure to buy.

Drinks are more expensive than paper in this establishment and the owner will be thankful to you no matter how you spend your time. Some folks, those who don’t like to read or to drink, come here to listen. This is a place for peace, anti-war; everyone in sight is peaceful and accommodating.

Most who enter -- surely you won’t be surprised by this -- are left-wing Israelis for whom the Coffee Shops is a Mecca. Some Jews come here to give a speech and sell their wares. Like Prof. Shlomo Sand. Heard of him? If you didn’t, maybe you should. Michel, the Coffee Shop’s owner, for example, is an admirer. “Usually,” Michel tells me as he pours his expensive coffee for me, “I give people one hour to talk. But to Prof. Sand I gave three hours.” Michel is an Arab, Prof. Sand is a Jew, and the love between them crosses borders of national identities. “He has an exceptionally good mind,” Michel says to me. “Did you read his recent book?”

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Tel Aviv and AFP's Lousy Synedoche

Honest Reporting/Backspin
24 March '10

Synedoche is a figure of speech where a part is substituted for its whole. Common examples include:

"All hands on deck" ("all people on deck")
"Boots on the ground" ("soldiers on the ground")
"100 head of cattle" ("100 cows")
"The White House said . . ." ("The Executive Branch of the United States said . . .")

One common synedoche journalists and bloggers use is to refer to the capital city as the government of that country. You'd think the usage would be straightforward enough. Except when the city's not the capital.

Which brings us to AFP, which provides today's example of deliberately lousy usage:

(Read full post)
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The Biggest Jewish Settlement

Jonathan Tobin
Contentions/Commentary
18 September 09

At the center of the recent controversy about the participation of Israeli artists at the Toronto Film Festival was the fact that the event highlighted the city of Tel Aviv’s centennial. To the signatories of a letter of protest, a group that included Danny Glover, Wallace Shawn, and Jane Fonda, it was the notion of celebrating Tel Aviv that was the real problem. It was, they said, founded on violence and the “suffering of thousands of former residents and descendants.”

The anti-Israel protesters have their facts wrong. Tel Aviv was founded not on the site of former homes of Palestinian Arabs who were dispossessed by the Jews but on empty sand dunes outside the city Jaffa. The village that was founded there a century ago grew large as a result of Jews fleeing anti-Jewish riots in Jaffa in 1921. The city has grown to be the nation’s largest city and is as cosmopolitan … and liberal as any in the world today.

So it is no small irony that those seeking to boycott Israel and brand it as illegitimate are willing to claim that Tel Aviv, of all places, is just another illegal Jewish settlement. As pressure grows on Israel to “freeze” building in the Jewish suburbs of Jerusalem, as well as in parts of that city itself, it is interesting to reflect on the fact that to those who wish to destroy the Jewish state, every house in every town in the country is an illegal settlement.

Many in Israel (especially in Tel Aviv), as well as many friends of Israel in the United States, like to think of the West Bank settlements as being bizarre places where crazy, violent people live and that have nothing to do with the “real” Israel inside the 1967 borders. What these anti–Tel Aviv protesters tell us is that for much of the rest of the world, this is a false distinction. And, in a sense, they are right—just as once Tel Aviv was another empty place where intrepid Jews bravely attempted to put down roots and build homes. Today it may be a booming, bustling city, but to Hamas and Fatah—as well as Glover, Shawn, and Fonda—it is just a part of hated Israel and no more legitimate than any hilltop settlement deep in the West Bank.

Those Americans who think there is nothing wrong with the Obama administration’s decision to press for more Israeli concessions and building freezes in Jerusalem and elsewhere should think about the significance of the Tel Aviv bashers. Some may argue that the settlements, even those in and around Jerusalem, must go to save Israel. But to those whom Obama wishes to appease by this pressure policy, there is no difference between them and the biggest Jewish settlement of them all in Tel Aviv.

Related: Fond Jane and Mr.Braun
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