Image 01 Image 03
Sign In or RegisterLogout

Israel Tag

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 28, 2015 11 Comments
Continuing on my tour in northern Israel, on May 27, 2015, I visited the Bedouin village of Khawaled led by our guide Hassan Khawaled. Hassan Khawaled Most of the people in the village have the village name as a last name, or a variant, such as the first Israeli Bedouin diplomat Ishmael Khaldi, who is from the village. Khawaled is east of Haifa, in the Galilee region. Khawaled Village Northern Israel Map The Bedouin are Arab Muslims with a unique culture. Most Israeli Bedouins live in the south of the country in the Negev region, but there is a sizable presence in the Galilee. The Israeli Bedouin are not obligated to serve in the Israeli Defense Forces, but many volunteer to do so. Bedouin have achieved great success in the IDF, and are particularly known as trackers at the borders.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 26, 2015 10 Comments
On Tuesday, May 25, 2015, we continued our tour of northern Israel along the Lebanese border, stopping at Moshav Avivim. While our discovery of a memorial to the victims of the Haifa Bus 37 suicide bombing and our visit to Ziv Hospital in Safed, and its Syrian patients, were unexpected, our visit to the Moshav was even more emotional and full of surprises - Revenge and Reunion. We met with Shimon Biton, the Secretary of the Moshav.  (Our excellent guide, Udi Guberman, provided translation, as Shimon does not speak English.) [caption id="attachment_128643" align="alignnone" width="550"][Shimon Biton, Moshav Avivim, Israel] [Shimon Biton, Moshav Avivim, Israel][/caption]A Moshav is a type of collective farming community where homes are owned individually and owners are allotted separate plots of land, but the community shares in certain expenses and resources. (Unlike a classic kibbutz, where all the property is communal.) There currently are 120 families in the Moshav, 480 people. There are plans to expand to add at least another 50 families, and the demand outpaces available spots. Moshav Avivim sits along the Lebanese border, just south of Bint Jbeil and Maroun Al-Ras.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 25, 2015 6 Comments
Yesterday I reported on the Haifa Bus 37 suicide bombing in 2003, and how I stumbled on the Memorial during my first full day in Haifa. Today was a travel day that took us even further north, to the Lebanese border. I'll have a report in the next couple of days on the extraordinary story of a child survivor of another bus bombing, and the unexpected recent twist in his life some 45 years later. Now I report on a different aspect of terror, and the extraordinary Israeli humanitarian effort. I traveled to the Ziv Medical Center in Safed (Zefat), Israel. Ziv is the major trauma center serving the northestern part of the country from the Upper Gallile to the Golan Heights. Safed Rivka Ziv Medical Center Regional Map Because Ziv is only 11 kilometers from Lebanon, Ziv was targeted by Hezbollah rockets during the 2006 Lebanon War. It has undergone, and still is undergoing, a process of creating reinforced operating room theaters and patient facilities to protect against future rocket attacks.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 24, 2015 11 Comments
In Israel, you are never far away from terror or the memory of terror. I learned that by chance tonight. We arrived in Israel late afternoon yesterday, May 23, 2015.  Today was planned as a rest day to try to adjust to the 7-hour time difference. From the airport we headed directly for Haifa, the northernmost big city in Israel, with a population just under 300,000.  It is a very mixed city, both ethnically and religiously. Haifa Country Satellite Map We started the day with the classic Israeli Shakshuka breakfast at the Villa Carmel, where we are staying:

Posted by Amy Miller on May 24, 2015 14 Comments
An Israeli civil servant committed suicide on Saturday after a Facebook post accusing him of racism went viral. Ariel Ronis, 47, managed the Population, Immigration and Border Crossing Authority (PIBA) offices in Tel Aviv. Last week, a black Israeli woman posted a note on Facebook about her experiences in the office, accusing various staff---including Ronis---of treating her unfairly because of the color of her skin. She says that she was denied services by a clerk, and then told by Ronis to "get out of his face" when she complained about it. She claims the incident made her cry, and caused her a considerable amount of distress. Her post caught the attention of the online community and the media, and went viral. Ronis was officially smeared, and judging by a note he posted to his own Facebook page, the incident pushed him over the edge. Screen Shot 2015-05-24 at 4.26.58 PM The Times of Israel translated his post:

Posted by David Gerstman on May 22, 2015 8 Comments
When in 1993 Israel and the PLO agreed to make peace, PLO chief Yasser Arafat committed to forswear violence and engage in bilateral negotiations. The thousands of Israelis killed, especially during the so-called Aqsa intifada - really a terror campaign orchestrated by Arafat - show that the Palestinians didn't keep to the first commitment. The ongoing lawfare campaigns against Israel in the United Nations and other international organizations show that they haven't kept the second either. The latest manifestation of this lawfare against Israel to make the news is the effort by Jibril Rajoub, head of the Palestinian Football Association (PFA) to suspend Israel from FIFA, the governing body of international soccer. Sepp Blatter, the controversial president of FIFA is trying to defuse the situation. He is also running for reelection. At FIFA's Congress later this month Rajoub wants to bring his motion to a vote. To suspend Israel would require a three fourths vote against Israel. The problem is that Israel has not violated any of FIFA's bylaws. But that doesn't mean that Rajoub won't try.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 21, 2015 5 Comments
We recently reported on legislation in Illinois barring state pension funds from investing in companies that boycott Israel. The legislation passed both chambers unanimously, a stunning bi-partison rejection of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. Gov. Bruce Rauner has promised to sign the legislation. The BDS movement is screaming about the legislation because while boycotting Israelis is cool with them, bocotting the boycotters is the worst violation of human rights ever. That's not much of an exaggeration as to their response -- it is full blown hissy-fit which mischaracterizes the legislation as suppressing speech. The reaction from BDS not only has been a hissy fit, it has been bizarre and revealing. Jewish Voice for Peace, one of the most aggressive BDS organizations, is demanding the State Department change its long-standing definition of anti-Semitism. I've long argued that the anti-Israel boycotters, particularly in academia, were forfeiting their standing to complain when the boycotts boomeranged and were turned on them. I'd rather that BDS never started this fight, but it did and now BDS supporters are realizing they are swimming in the ocean of a pro-Israel American population. The campus and faculty lounge anti-Israel bubbles are exceptions, not the rule. And that strong and increasing public support of Israel is being expressed through elected representatives. The Illinois legislation came at a time of two pending federal bills targeting the international boycott of Israel. But states may be where the action will be, as NY legislators plan to introduced a bill similar to the one passed in Illinois:

Posted by Miriam Elman on May 20, 2015 5 Comments
Last Sunday tens of thousands of Israelis participated in the annual Jerusalem Day march and flag procession, which runs through the Old City’s Muslim Quarter en route to the Western Wall. Jerusalem Day—Yom Yerushalayim—celebrates the reunification of the city following the 1967 Six Day War. As a tribute to the holiday, in an earlier post I offered at least five reasons that Yom Yerushalayim is worth celebrating. Last week, Israel’s Supreme Court rejected a petition to change the “provocative route” of the march to avoid potential confrontations between the revelers and east Jerusalemite Palestinians. Two Israeli leftist NGOs argued that in previous years the flag-bearing procession had sparked violence and “unnecessary disruption for local residents”.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 19, 2015 14 Comments
I'm leaving Friday for a two week Apology Tour to Israel. I will deliver the speech referenced in the link, possibly. I hope I don't violate the Logan Act. I'll start in Haifa and northern Israel, where I'll be a guest at the University of Haifa Law School and will travel up the coast and then to towns and places of interest along the Lebanese border. After that it's down to Tel Aviv, then to the South along the coast to Sderot, and the areas bordering Gaza. After a visit with faculty at Ben Gurion University of the Negev, it's to Jerusalem, where I'll be staying in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City. Along the way, I'll focus on meeting people, not just visiting places. Among others, I'll visit with the families of Edward Joffe and Leon Kanner, killed in the terrorist bombing by Rasmea Odeh of the SuperSol Supermarket in Jerusalem in 1969. I'll also see many of the bloggers we link to, and many others with whom I've become acquainted online over the past couple of years. Building relationships and strengthening ties is what The Apology Tour is all about. It's not actually about the apology. As I did in 2013, I'll be posting at Legal Insurrection about some of the places and people I'll meet, but I'll also do shorter, less formal daily updates at Morning Insurrection, so be sure to subscribe. What can you expect from my reports?

Posted by Mirabelle Ward on May 17, 2015 20 Comments
In November of 2012, the UN voted 138 to 9, with 41 abstentions, to recognize a state of “Palestine” in the West Bank and Gaza.  There was no requirement that such "state" cease terrorism, its violence and hostilities towards its neighbor Israel, even recognize Israel for what it is and what it was always intended to be, a Jewish state. What shocked me at the time was not the outcome of the vote, but that fact that, except for the Czech Republic, every single member of the EU either voted in favor or abstained. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s speech preceding the vote, referring to Israeli “aggression” rather than defense in Gaza, and claiming to want peace despite having rejected a far-reaching peace proposal only four years prior, was mendacious from the first sentence to the very last applause line. How was it, I wondered, that the European nations were unable to see through his charade?

Posted by Miriam Elman on May 14, 2015 5 Comments
This Sunday is Yom Yerushalayim—Jerusalem Day—the newest holiday on the Jewish calendar, celebrating the reunification of Israel’s capital. This Sunday’s festivities are expected to attract tens of thousands of Israelis from across the country for the annual march from Jerusalem’s center of town to the Western Wall, and the popular Dance of Flags celebration (Rikudegalim). The parade traditionally enters the Old City via the Muslim Quarter en route to the Western Wall (the Kotel). What could be wrong with that? Apparently, plenty.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 13, 2015 6 Comments
Much of the war against Israel is fought in the media and through deceptive "Non-Governmental Organizations" which issue endless distorted reports against Israel. There hardly is any pretense of objectivity anymore -- there is an attempt to tie Israel's hands when dealing with groups like Hamas and Hezbollah which strategically use civilians as shields. In Gaza, the media was intimidated by Hamas, and maintained a near-silence about the use of the main hospital in Gaza as a Hamas headquarters, and the firing of rockets from near schools, apartments and hospitals. But a few reports leaked out and some reporters admitted to the distorted reporting after leaving Gaza: http://youtu.be/Nu-e5qWXx-k This media war is important because one side (Hamas, Hezbollah) uses media outrage as a strategic weapon to shape the physical battlefield.  And biased, agenda-driven NGOs and media organizations are part of the plan. The lastest distortion, which has received wide play on anti-Israel websites and on Facebook, was issued by "Breaking the Silence."

Posted by David Gerstman on May 13, 2015 3 Comments
A couple of remarkable news reports have been broadcast in recent days about the care given Syrians wounded in the civil war across the border. One - the more dramatic one - was at the Israeli news site Ynet (affiliated with the daily Yedioth Ahronot); the other at CNN. The Ynet article written and narrated by one of the paper's top journalists, Ron Ben-Yishai told of an injured man -likely a jihadist - who was severely injured by a bullet to the stomach and shrapnel wounds. Israel has "trusted intermediaries," on the other side  of the border who communicate when there is an injured person who needs treatment in Israel. Most of the injured are woman, children and the elderly. However there are also younger men, such as the subject of the article. In this case the Israeli were told that without a hospital the man would die. Despite having contacts in Syria, the Israelis know who's on the other side of the border on the Golan Heights, so they have to take care:
At around 8 pm on the day the wounded Syrian was transferred, parties on the Syrian side announced they were approaching the fence. The Israeli ambulance and paramedics readied themselves, while Givati troops received a briefing and then headed out to the fence area. Their role is to make sure that those who sent the wounded citizens to the area had not laden them with explosives, as well as to ensure that the wounded person was not bait in a scheme designed to lure IDF troops into an ambush. Considering the information Israel has on its new neighbors across the border on the Golan Heights – these extra precautions are necessary. Half an hour later, the commander of the forces stationed near the border gave approval to send out the armored vehicle carrying the paramedics to collect the wounded citizen, who was already waiting on the Israeli side.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 11, 2015 14 Comments
If there is one thing Israel-haters hate more than anything, it's being reminded of how well women are treated in Israel compared to the surrounding Arab countries. So when the Israel Airforce posted a Mother's Day greeting of a female IAF pilot breastfeeding her child, it was major league trolling (h/t Nadav Eyal Twitter): https://www.facebook.com/IsraeliAirForce.EN/photos/a.247957101913936.56748.234494436593536/930385137004459/?type=1 The reaction was precious. Ali Abunimah, who runs The Electronic Intifada tweeted:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 27, 2015 16 Comments
This is becoming a recurring theme. When there is a riot or other protest in the U.S., particularly if involving minority communities, "pro-Palestinian" activists try to hijack it and turn it into a criticism of Israel. We saw it in Ferguson where "pro-Palestinian" activists spread lies that Israel trained the Ferguson police, and actually embedded themselves in the protests to try to turn the protests into anti-Israel protests. The same thing has happened repeatedly with #BlackLivesMatters protests, most notably the dangerous blockade of the San Mateo - Hayward Bridge. This is part of the emerging theme of anti-Israeli activists trying to tie unrelated movements, such as fossil fuel divestment, to Palestinian issues. Now we are seeing it with the Baltimore riots. The usual suspects, like Max Blumenthal, were out in full force immediately, trying to establish a link between the Baltimore police and Israel because some police trained in an Israeli form of martial arts:

Posted by David Gerstman on April 27, 2015 9 Comments
Yesterday afternoon Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon warned Iran not to arm Hezbollah.
“Iran continues to try and arm Hezbollah and it is striving to arm the Lebanese terror group with advanced weapons in every way it can, and by using every avenue,” Ya’alon said in a speech at Israel’s military headquarters in Tel Aviv. “We will not allow the transfer of sophisticated weapons to terror groups, and in particular Hezbollah.” “We know how to reach [Hezbollah] and those who direct it, at any time and any place,” Ya’alon continued. “We will not allow Hezbollah to establish a terror infrastructure on our borders with Syria, and we know how to lay our hands on anyone who threatens Israeli citizens, along our borders or even far from them.”
It wasn't clear if Ya'alon was referring to airstrikes targeting weapons depots in Syria, attributed to Israel, that occurred Wednesday and Saturday last week, or if he was threatening future action. Subsequent to Ya'alon's talk it appeared that he may have intended both.

Posted by Daniel Mael on April 23, 2015 23 Comments
On Thursday, the State of Israel is celebrating her 67th birthday. Naturally, pro-Israel college students nationwide have organized celebratory gatherings - ranging from guest speakers to culturally (read: food) oriented events. On Massachusetts Institute of Technology's campus, the planned celebration was not without controversy and dissent. On April 20th, the student group Palestine@MIT issued an "open letter" decrying an Israel Independence Day celebration scheduled to take place during SpringFest. Palestine@MIT went as far as to claim that the event makes them feel "unsafe."
The Israeli Independence Day raises politically sensitive questions given that it just so happens to represent the 1948 Palestinian Exodus, also known as the "Nakba". This is a day of extreme tragedy and traumatic loss for millions of people, including many students here at MIT. As Palestinians and supporters of Palestine in the MIT community, we are alarmed by the fact that the UA are endorsing this event, given that the UA represents us as well. We feel unsafe in an environment that celebrates a catastrophic day for one nation at an official school-wide capacity by a body that represents all students equally, with no regards or sympathy towards our tragedy. We direct this message to the entirety of the student body with a request for change. We request the UA to detach the carnival from SpringFest, and to refrain from sponsoring and/or publicizing it at a school-wide capacity.
Palestine@MIT, promoting a narrative of victimhood, suggested that the celebration of Israel's independence threatened their community standing.
Accessibility by WAH