Terrorist Attack In Jerusalem

Sorry for the long time between posts. I’ll be honest, its because nothing really noteworthy has happened, until now. As I’m sure you’ve all been aware now, there has been another terrorist attack in Israel, specifically Jerusalem. As you can see from this awesome clip below, the terrorist gets absolutely destroyed, enjoy.

Unfortunately, the terrorist managed to kill three people and wounded 45 people.

The driver rammed at least two buses, overturning one, and crushed several cars in a five-minute spree just after midday (7pm AEST) in west Jerusalem.

However this brings up some important issues; how was this guy allled to get into Israel? Quite easily actually.

He was identified as an Arab resident of East Jerusalem, whoheld an Israeli identification card, with full access to all parts of the country.

As well as this the guy was known to the police for raping a former girlfriend, he served two years. Hopefully, next time Israel will do a better job in not letting these people get citizenship. I really think that a citizenship test should be given to every Israeli citizen. Of course this begs another questions, why are we issueing Israeli ID cards to a possible fith element anyway?

The attack came at a highly sensitive time in intra-Palestinian politics, with Hamas struggling to hold together the truce with Israel, which has seen limited supplies allowed into the Gaza Strip in return for a stop to rocket fire on Israeli settlements.

Egypt immediately locked the Rafah crossing into the Strip, which had been due to open around the time of the attack. Hundreds of Palestinians on either side rioted in response.

Israeli security forces were last night interrogating the terrorist’s family, amid calls by enraged members of parliament for them to be deported en masse to Gaza.

More on this event here.

Daily Kos Hits Earth’s Core, Digs

Sorry guys for the large break. I’ve had a lot of work to get through, but know the worst is over, yay! Israel has made it to her 60th birthday which is something to celebrate, even if there those who can’t appreciate it, here and here, hat tip to LGF.

My favourite of these links is the Daily Kos one, just read this and laugh.

It thus emerged as a major power and a formidable challenger of existing Arabic powers that will decide the fate of the world, coordinated assassination of President Kennedy which unnaturally led to the hasty re-evaluation of American foreign policy for adjustion that align with the interests of Israeli state for total compatibility in irreversibly entangled alliance.

A Time To Mourn And A Time To Remember

I’m sure you’ve all heard by now of the cyclone in Burma which devastated the country. What I find so appalling is that the ruling military Junta is not allowing any foreign aid into the country! The obvious reason of course is they don’t want the UN to come in with aid and then see the human rights violations that have been committed. I’ve just recently found out that approximately 80,000 people have been killed by this cyclone.

“The storm came into our village, and a giant wave washed in, dragging everything into the sea,” said one man in his 20s, who had trekked in from Kanyinkone village. “Houses collapsed, buildings collapsed, and people were swept away. I only survived by hanging on to a big tree. “Only about 20 per cent of the people survived in our village. I am the only one who survived in my family. My wife and my two children died in the storm.”

The Labutta district was hard hit when Nargis and its huge storm surge slammed ashore on Saturday, devastating the low-lying Irrawaddy delta. “The waves were so strong, they ripped off all my clothes. I was left naked hanging in a tree,” said one teenage survivor. Based on stories from people emerging from the countryside, only about 20 per cent of people in the area survived, Labutta residents said.

Absolutely disgusting. As for remembering, its Israel’s birthday in a few days, yay! Israel has been celebrating its dependence in a very IDF way, with Paratroopers from around the world jumping in Israel. Also, here is a very interesting and special story from a man who served in the 2nd Lebanon War. Some of the things he and his men had to cope with are just incredible. Its interesting because the person being interviewed, Dr. Yehuda David, believes that Israel could have won the war if given 3 more days.

On Various Things…

I’m going to be talking and linking about a few things here, but first how’s this for an eye-catching title? “Lesbians Pick Fight With Gay Women”. This is not joke, its an article about a court case in which the residents from the island of Lesbos are suing gay women!

Next, I’m sure everyone has heard about what happened to those poor children in Austria (locked in a cellar for their whole life). The most interesting thing (and very disturbing) to emerge from this is the fact that the kids thought they were in heaven when they emerged into the sunlight. As well as this, these kids speak in their own private ‘language’ to each other. Words can’t really describe just how, excuse my french, f**ked up that is. Their development is going to be damaged for life, besides being born from incest, I doubt these kids will ever have a normal life. I feel so sorry for them.

Now here is another strange situation that just happened on our metaphorical doorstep (for Australia that is). ‘Timor troops party with rebels’, yep you read right, these people, who many would consider terrorists are being treated like a ‘commander in chief.’

Opposition Fretilin MPs said the party was “bizarre” and sent the wrong message to the people of East Timor.

You think?

“It’s quite immature and also looks bizarre that some, who you call as a rebel who has also been accused of conducting an attack against state, is welcomed like a big head or commander in chief - it is not the right message,” said Arsenio Bano, a Fretilin MP and member of the parliamentary defence and security committee. “Anyone in this country will think now that if you need to get attention from the President or important men, you just need to make trouble - a lot of trouble will allow them to talk to you and negotiate with you.”

Today Israel and Jews all across the world have celebrated Holocaust Day. I have a couple of friends in Poland at the moment who are marking this day while being in Auschwitz on a program called March of the Living. I myself attended this program 2 years ago and I definitely recommend it. The Palestinians however are remembering this day in a different manner (link above).

Meanwhile, Hamas television marked the 63rd anniversary of the Holocaust by suggesting it was orchestrated by Jews to wipe out the disabled among them in preparation for the creation of the state of Israel.

According to the Jerusalem-based Palestinian Media Watch, the head of the Palestinian Centre for Strategic Research, Amin Dabur, said: “The Israeli Holocaust - the whole thing was a joke, and part of the perfect show that (Zionist leader and future Israeli prime minister) Ben Gurion put on”.

The “young energetic and able” were sent to Israel, while the handicapped were sent “so there would be a Holocaust”.

How disgusting is that?

A two-minute siren sounded across Israel at 10am yesterday in memory of the estimated six million Jews who died in the Nazi death camps. People stopped were they were and cars came to a standstill.

Happy Pesach and Chag Sameach!

Just wishing everybody a happy Pesach and Chag Sameach! I am definitely looking forward to this Pesach as my mother will be making her trademark (and best) chocolate Matza’s as well as this, the Seder which I will be going to will have around 40 people! Before I leave, here’s the link for Michael Totten’s new post about the tribes in Iraq and how the Marines are trying to use them to contain a sustainable democracy.

Captain Quintin Jones and Mayor Abu Abdullah

Also I leave you with another link to an article written by Margot Dudkevitch from Infolive.tv about the amount of weapons that are being smuggled into the Gaza Strip through the most interesting ways.

In recent months,  Iran has increased its efforts to smuggle weapons into the Gaza Strip via the sea and also tunnels between Egypt and Gaza, sending the Hamas and Islamic Jihad terror groups there not only weapons and rifles but advanced Iranian made rockets and mortar shells.

…

A report in the Jerusalem Post says that many of the weapons are too big to smuggle through the tunnels built underneath the Philadelphi Corridor linking Egypt and the Gaza Strip, and therefore resort to dropping them off the waters in Gaza in waterproof sealed tubes.

A Lecture With Ambassador Izzat Abdulhadi

Today I attended a lecture at Sydney University by Ambassador Izzat Abdulhadi who is the head of the general delegation of Palestinians to Australia. All that basically means is that he is the representative of Abu Mazen to Australia (specifically Australasia).

He presented a brief summary of the conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians and talked about ways in which peace could come about. Before I go into detail about what he discussed and proposed, I want to say that that he presented the Palestinian cause quite well even though he made a few key mistakes in his facts which I will go through.

1. He believes that the Palestinians are the indigenous people to that area.

The sources that I will be using will be primary (probably all) from The Jewish Virtual Library (JVL). This source references all of its own sources which you can check yourself if you doubt what has been written. Interestingly, I can answer this myself. During a discussion in one of my lecture (Jewish Thought, Civilisation and Culture) we discussed the Palestinian claim to the land now known as Israel. We found that they mostly originated from the Philistines, a group of pagans that almost exclusively lived in an area now known as the Gaza Strip. There is no record of them living in now what is known as Modern Israel. JVL also has information on this subject.

Palestinian claims to be related to the Canaanites are a recent phenomenon and contrary to historical evidence. The Canaanites disappeared from the face of the earth three millennia ago, and no one knows if any of their descendants survived or, if they did, who they would be.

Sherif Hussein, the guardian of the Islamic Holy Places in Arabia, said the Palestinians’ ancestors had only been in the area for 1,000 years.⁹ Even the Palestinians themselves have acknowledged their association with the region came long after the Jews. In testimony before the Anglo-American Committee in 1946, for example, they claimed a connection to Palestine of more than 1,000 years, dating back no further than the conquest of Muhammad’s followers in the 7th century.¹⁰ And that claim is also dubious. Over the last 2,000 years, there have been massive invasions that killed off most of the local people (e.g., the Crusades), migrations, the plague, and other manmade or natural disasters. The entire local population was replaced many times over. During the British mandate alone, more than 100,000 Arabs emigrated from neighboring countries and are today considered Palestinians.

By contrast, no serious historian questions the more than 3,000-year-old Jewish connection to the Land of Israel, or the modern Jewish people’s relation to the ancient Hebrews.

Source: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/myths/mf1.html#b1

2. He believes that Israel was a colonial project created in order to serve the super powers at the time, namely the UK and US.

Once again this is false as many of the resources that should have been available to help Jews resettle in Palestine/Israel were actually closed to them. Indeed, many Jews hated the imperialistic presence of the British and actually fought and died trying to drive them out of Palestine.

Moreover, as British historian Paul Johnson noted, Zionists were hardly tools of imperialists given the powers’ general opposition to their cause. “Everywhere in the West, the foreign offices, defense ministries and big business were against the Zionists.”²⁹

Emir Faisal also saw the Zionist movement as a companion to the Arab nationalist movement, fighting against imperialism, as he explained in a letter to Harvard law professor and future Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter on March 3, 1919, one day after Chaim Weizmann presented the Zionist case to the Paris conference. Faisal wrote:

The Arabs, especially the educated among us, look with deepest sympathy on the Zionist movement….We will wish the Jews a hearty welcome home….We are working together for a reformed and revised Near East and our two movements complete one another. The Jewish movement is nationalist and not imperialist. And there is room in Syria for us both. Indeed, I think that neither can be a real success without the other (emphasis added).³⁰

“Our settlers do not come here as do the colonists from the Occident to have natives do their work for them; they themselves set their shoulders to the plow and they spend their strength and their blood to make the land fruitful. But it is not only for ourselves that we desire its fertility. The Jewish farmers have begun to teach their brothers, the Arab farmers, to cultivate the land more intensively; we desire to teach them further: together with them we want to cultivate the land — to ’serve’ it, as the Hebrew has it. The more fertile this soil becomes, the more space there will be for us and for them. We have no desire to dispossess them: we want to live with them. We do not want to dominate them: we want to serve with them…..” — Martin Buber31

In the 1940s, the Jewish underground movements waged an anti-colonial war against the British. The Arabs, meanwhile, were concerned primarily with fighting the Jews rather than expelling the British imperialists.

Source: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/myths/mf1.html#j

3. He believes that the 2nd Intifada was caused by Ariel Sharon’s visit to the Temple Mount.

This, frankly, is just crap. Regardless of whether it caused it or not (and it didn’t), an Israeli, Jewish Prime Minister should be able to visit the most holy site in Judaism without fear of being attacked. In fact it was Arafat’s intention all along for the violence to break out. The JVL explains the incident quite thoroughly; once again all these sources are listed at the bottom of the website for you to browse.

Imad Faluji, the Palestinian Authority Communications Minister, admitted months after Sharon’s visit that the violence had been planned in July, far in advance of Sharon’s “provocation.” “It [the uprising] had been planned since Chairman Arafat’s return from Camp David, when he turned the tables on the former U.S. president and rejected the American conditions.”¹⁸

“The Sharon visit did not cause the ‘Al-Aksa Intifada.’” — Conclusion of the Mitchell Report, (May 4, 2001)19

The violence started before Sharon’s September 28, 2000, visit to the Temple Mount. The day before, for example, an Israeli soldier was killed at the Netzarim Junction. The next day in the West Bank city of Kalkilya, a Palestinian police officer working with Israeli police on a joint patrol opened fire and killed his Israeli counterpart.

Official Palestinian Authority media exhorted the Palestinians to violence. On September 29, the Voice of Palestine, the PA’s official radio station sent out calls “to all Palestinians to come and defend the al-Aksa mosque.” The PA closed its schools and bused Palestinian students to the Temple Mount to participate in the organised riots.

Just prior to Rosh Hashanah (September 30), the Jewish New Year, when hundreds of Israelis were worshipping at the Western Wall, thousands of Arabs began throwing bricks and rocks at Israeli police and Jewish worshippers. Rioting then spread to towns and villages throughout Israel, the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Internal Security Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami permitted Sharon to go to the Temple Mount – Judaism’s holiest place – only after calling Palestinian security chief Jabril Rajoub and receiving his assurance that if Sharon did not enter the mosques, no problems would arise. The need to protect Sharon arose when Rajoub later said that the Palestinian police would do nothing to prevent violence during the visit.

Sharon did not attempt to enter any mosques and his 34 minute visit to the Temple Mount was conducted during normal hours when the area is open to tourists. Palestinian youths — eventually numbering around 1,500 — shouted slogans in an attempt to inflame the situation. Some 1,500 Israeli police were present at the scene to forestall violence.

Source: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/myths/mf19.html#a1

4. He believes that the settlements in the West Bank and in East Jerusalem are a barrier to the peace process.

This line has been used by many an opponent to Israel, and once again is just not true. Just off the cuff I can rebuff that argument. Why, if the settlements were a barrier to peace, was there no peace before there were settlements? The settlement of the West Bank only happened AFTER the 6 day war. Why did the Arabs launch a war against Israel (Egypt blockading the straits of Tiran was an act of war) before there were settlements? The answer of course was that the settlements were never a barrier to the peace process.

Settlements have never been an obstacle to peace.

• From 1949-67, when Jews were forbidden to live on the West Bank, the Arabs refused to make peace with Israel.
• From 1967-77, the Labor Party established only a few strategic settlements in the territories, yet the Arabs were unwilling to negotiate peace with Israel.
• In 1977, months after a Likud government committed to greater settlement activity took power, Egyptian President Sadat went to Jerusalem and later signed a peace treaty with Israel. Incidentally, Israeli settlements existed in the Sinai and those were removed as part of the agreement with Egypt.
• One year later, Israel froze settlement building for three months, hoping the gesture would entice other Arabs to join the Camp David peace process. But none would.
• In 1994, Jordan signed a peace agreement with Israel and settlements were not an issue. If anything, the number of Jews living in the territories was growing.
• Between June 1992 and June 1996, under Labor-led governments, the Jewish population in the territories grew by approximately 50 percent. This rapid growth did not prevent the Palestinians from signing the Oslo accords in September 1993 or the Oslo 2 agreement in September 1995.
• In 2000, Prime Minister Ehud Barak offered to dismantle dozens of settlement, but the Palestinians still would not agree to end the conflict.

Settlement activity may be a stimulus to peace because it forced the Palestinians and other Arabs to reconsider the view that time is on their side. References are frequently made in Arabic writings to how long it took to expel the Crusaders and how it might take a similar length of time to do the same to the Zionists. The growth in the Jewish population in the territories forced the Arabs to question this tenet. “The Palestinians now realize,” said Bethlehem Mayor Elias Freij, “that time is now on the side of Israel, which can build settlements and create facts, and that the only way out of this dilemma is face-to-face negotiations.”³

…

The disposition of settlements is a matter for the final status negotiations. The question of where the final border will be between Israel and a Palestinian entity will likely be influenced by the distribution of these Jewish towns. Israel wants to incorporate as many settlers as possible within its borders while the Palestinians want to expel all Jews from the territory they control.

If Israel withdraws toward the 1967 border unilaterally, or as part of a political settlement, many settlers will face one or more options: remain in the territories, expulsion from their homes, or voluntary resettlement in Israel. The impediment to peace is not the existence of those settlements, it is the Palestinians’ unwillingness to accept a state next to Israel instead of one replacing Israel.

Source: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/myths/mf22a.html#b

Those were the main points that were discussed. Ambassador Abdulhadi did go into detail about the refugee issue saying that at the very least there needed to be some compensation (which I agreed with) and at most a a symbolic resettlement of maybe 100K Palestinians into Israel which I reject. At the end the Ambassador took questions from the audience, many of them were quite good, my question (which I didn’t get around to asking was this:

“You talked about Israel taking down the Wall and checkpoints in the West Bank yet these security measures have stopped at least 80% of terrorist attack into Israel. Why should Israel take down these measures if it is going to be attacked by the terrorists?”

Interestingly enough I actually managed to talk to him for about 15 minutes by myself and raised that point and his response was that if Israel did take down these measure and withdrew to the ‘67 borders then negotiations for a viable Palestinian state and peace would be able to proceed. I rejected that saying that we had already offered a similar deal in 2000 at Camp David and we were turned down without a counter offer by Arafat. His response was that Arafat was weak and couldn’t take this offer because he was facing too much opposition from within.

Why I Won’t Be Celebrating 60 Years Of Israel: Rebuttal

For those who have not heard of Antony Loewenstein I suggest you Google his name now. To put it bluntly every single anti-Zionist will love this guy while everyone who stands for truth will despise him. He’s just written a most ridiculous article for the ABC, read it here. Now enjoy me showing just how false Loewenstein is.

Like Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s recent apology to the
Stolen Generations, the local Jewish community celebrated the gesture
of reconciliation to the indigenous population, but as I wrote in
Haaretz remained unwilling to extend this sentiment to the
Palestinians.

Gee, I wonder why? Maybe because it is rightfully our land even though we were quite prepared to submit to the UN Resolution to divide it with the Palestinians.

The fact that Israel’s continued colonisation of the occupied territories has made a two-state solution almost impossible is unmentionable. The motion received bipartisan support.

Loewenstein talks of the settlements being a barrier to peace in the region. Let me demonstrate how that is false.

• From 1949-67, when Jews were forbidden to live on the West Bank, the Arabs refused to make peace with Israel.

• From 1967-77, the Labor Party established only a few strategic settlements in the territories, yet the Arabs were unwilling to negotiate peace with Israel.
• In 1977, months after a Likud government committed to greater settlement activity took power, Egyptian President Sadat went to Jerusalem and later signed a peace treaty with Israel. Incidentally, Israeli settlements existed in the Sinai and those were removed as part of the agreement with Egypt.
• One year later, Israel froze settlement building for three months, hoping the gesture would entice other Arabs to join the Camp David peace process. But none would.
• In 1994, Jordan signed a peace agreement with Israel and settlements were not an issue. If anything, the number of Jews living in the territories was growing.
• Between June 1992 and June 1996, under Labor-led governments, the Jewish population in the territories grew by approximately 50 percent. This rapid growth did not prevent the Palestinians from signing the Oslo accords in September 1993 or the Oslo 2 agreement in September 1995.
• In 2000, Prime Minister Ehud Barak offered to dismantle dozens of settlement, but the Palestinians still would not agree to end the conflict.

Source: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/myths/mf22a.html#b

However, Labor backbenchers were unhappy about the motion, with Julia
Irwin telling ABC radio that she found “it hard to congratulate a
country which carries out human rights abuses each day, and shows
blatant disregard for the United Nations.”

That is just blatantly false.

Arabs in Israel have equal voting rights; in fact, it is one of the few places in the Middle East where Arab women may vote. Arabs currently hold 8 seats in the 120-seat Knesset. Israeli Arabs have also held various government posts, including one who served as Israel’s ambassador to Finland and the current deputy mayor of Tel Aviv. Oscar Abu Razaq was appointed Director General of the Ministry of Interior, the first Arab citizen to become chief executive of a key government ministry. Ariel Sharon’s original cabinet included the first Arab minister, Salah Tarif, a Druze who served as a minister without portfolio. An Arab is also a Supreme Court justice. Arabic, like Hebrew, is an official language in Israel. More than 300,000 Arab children attend Israeli schools. At the time of Israel’s founding, there was one Arab high school in the country. Today, there are hundreds of Arab schools. In 2002, the Israeli Supreme Court also ruled that the government cannot allocate land based on religion or ethnicity, and may not prevent Arab citizens from living wherever they choose.

Source: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/myths/mf18.html#a

Though IDF actions have caused hardship for the Palestinian population, the IDF has continued to ensure that humanitarian assistance is provided to Palestinians in need. For example, during just one 48-hour period (January 5-6, 2003), the IDF:

• Coordinated the movement of Palestinians seeking medical care, assisting 40 to go to hospitals, including four patients from Gaza who were transferred to Israel for medical treatment.
• Coordinated the movement of 284 Palestinians in the West Bank who were transferred by ambulance.
• Coordinated the passage of building materials for the construction of a hospital in Kalkilya.
• Coordinated the passage of humanitarian goods to Bethlehem.
• Coordinated entry of ration cards sent by an international aid organization to the residents of Azoun.
• Enabled the distribution of ration cards by the Red Cross in Salfit.
• Coordinated the passage of agricultural produce and food between Muassi and Khan Yunis.
• Coordinated the passage of an UNRWA team in Gaza to aid in the disposal of rubbish.
• Arranged entry into Kalkilya for an Israeli Arab family from East Jerusalem to attend their son’s wedding.

Even at the height of military action, such as the operation to clean out the terrorist nest in the Jenin refugee camp, Israeli forces have gone out of their way to assist Palestinian non-combatants. In the case of the Jenin operation, for example, the hospital there was kept running with a generator delivered under fire by an Israeli officer. The best way to improve the situation for the Palestinians in the territories is for the Palestinian Authority to take the steps laid out by the Bush Administration — end the violence, reform its institutions, and elect new leaders — so that peace talks may resume and a settlement can be negotiated.

Source: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/myths/mf18.html#l

Now are you starting to see why I abhor these people?

I joined the petition protesting the motion because it negates the
Palestinian narrative and celebrates, even white-washes, the ethnic
cleansing that took place in 1948. …

Huh? What is he on about?

The Palestinians knew, despite their rhetoric to the contrary, the Jews were not trying to annihilate them; otherwise, they would not have been allowed to evacuate Tiberias, Haifa or any of the other towns captured by the Jews. Moreover, the Palestinians could find sanctuary in nearby states. The Jews, however, had no place to run had they wanted to. They were willing to fight to the death for their country. It came to that for many, because the Arabs were interested in annihilating the Jews, as Secretary-General of the Arab League Azzam Pasha made clear in an interview with the BBC on the eve of the war (May 15, 1948): “The Arabs intend to conduct a war of extermination and momentous massacre which will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacres and the Crusades.”

I am sure that he is thinking of Deir Yassin well read this source and decide for yourself.

Source: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/myths/mf14.html#f

A new book by Jonathan Cook, a former Guardian journalist now based in
Nazareth, reveals the real agenda of the Jewish state and its
Washington masters. Israel and the Clash of Civilizations methodically
argues that regional chaos actually helps, not hinders, their imperial
plans. “The actual goal of the Israeli strategy,” Cook writes, is to
convince Western policy makers that “a series of civil wars and the
partition of Arab states” is beneficial to their interests. He goes
on:

Imperial plans? Why would Israel give back the Sinai, a whole heap of Lebanon, the Gaza Strip and be prepared to evacuate settlements in the West Bank if they were imperialist. Correct me if I am wrong but doesn’t ‘imperialist’ imply the invasion of other countries in order to control them… Hasn’t Israel been doing the opposite of that in the above examples?

By tying the fates of Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian
territories to the US occupation of Iraq, by miring the American
forces in the same, constant human rights abuses that Israeli forces
committed daily in the West Bank and Gaza, the two projects stood or
fell together. The futures of the Israeli and US occupations became
inextricably entwined. … Zionists in Australia refuse to acknowledge a recent poll in Israel
that found a majority of citizens want to engage with Hamas. They
ignore the on-the-ground reality that leaves a two-state solution dead
in its tracks. The alternative is a truly democratic state, neither
Jewish nor Muslim.

Ignoring the first part because that was addressed above. Is Loewenstein supporting a 1 state solution? Hasn’t that already been discredited because it would involve Israel committing demographic suicide? A majority of Arabs in this ‘1 state’ would turn it into an Islamic Arab state that may as well be renamed Palestine. Tell me, was that the goal of Zionism to live in an Arab Islamic state as a minority? Hell no!

Jordanian MP’s Call To End Peace Treaty With Israel; Moses High On Sinai?

I’ve decided on a double post for today. Jordan, at the moment has the best Arab alliance with Israel. However, that could start to come into doubt in regards to this news. Hat tip: Eye On The World.

At least 38 members of the Jordanian Parliament signed a petition on Thursday calling on Jordan to end its peace treaty with Israel, according to Ansamed. The parliament refused to vote on the petition, and several Islamic MPs left the hall in protest.

Islamic Action Front (IAF) head MP Hamzeh Mansour explained that the petition was a response to Israel’s “war crimes in Gaza,” as he termed recent IDF counterterrorism operations. The IAF would need a unanimous parliamentary vote in order to begin the process of ending Jordan’s peace treaty with Israel.

Personally, I don’t think Jordan will stop its peace treaty with Israel. For one thing, both countries have worked exceptionally hard to get their relations with each other where they are now. As well as this, I doubt America would be to happy with Jordan as well. Now something slightly more interesting. For those that are atheists, I doubt you will greet this with any major surprise, for those that aren’t, well, this guy may be onto something. Hat tip to Rantings of a Sandmonkey.

High on Mount Sinai, Moses was on psychedelic drugs when he heard God deliver the Ten Commandments, an Israeli researcher claimed in a study published this week.

Such mind-altering substances formed an integral part of the religious rites of Israelites in biblical times, Benny Shanon, a professor of cognitive psychology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem wrote in the Time and Mind journal of philosophy.

“As far Moses on Mount Sinai is concerned, it was either a supernatural cosmic event, which I don’t believe, or a legend, which I don’t believe either, or finally, and this is very probable, an event that joined Moses and the people of Israel under the effect of narcotics,” Shanon told Israeli public radio on Tuesday.

Moses was probably also on drugs when he saw the “burning bush,” suggested Shanon, who said he himself has dabbled with such substances.

“The Bible says people see sounds, and that is a clasic phenomenon,” he said citing the example of religious ceremonies in the Amazon in which drugs are used that induce people to “see music.”

He mentioned his own experience when he used ayahuasca, a powerful psychotropic plant, during a religious ceremony in Brazil’s Amazon forest in 1991. “I experienced visions that had spiritual-religious connotations,” Shanon said.

He said the psychedelic effects of ayahuasca were comparable to those produced by concoctions based on bark of the acacia tree, that is frequently mentioned in the Bible.

3 PARA Review And The Issue Of Dividing Jerusalem

Sorry for the lack of recent posts. I have been very busy with work and with uni. The situation is going to get even more busier so don’t expect many posts in the future. Don’t worry, I will do my best to keep posting as much as physically possible in this situation. First I want to talk about the book that I am reading at the moment, 3 Para. Its a very good book about the British in Afghanistan during the summer of 2006. Its a great read which talks about the war from the soldier’s point of view as well as talking a little bit about the current (then) situation in Afghanistan during the beginning. It successfully combines history, politics and the personal soldiers to make a really memorable read. Get this book from Amazon here. You can also check out what other people have thought of this book. I also want to add something from one of the reviewers which will have significance once you read the book.

“As a postscript (and not part of the book itself), readers will be interested to know that the Commanding Officer of 3 Para Battle Group - Lt. Colonel Stuart Tootal DSO OBE (the DSO being awarded for his outstanding service in Afghanistan) resigned in November 2007 after attacking the Ministry of Defence over “poor pay for soldiers, lack of equipment, the standard of army housing and poor medical treatment afforded to his injured soldiers.”

I was recently emailed this article about the issue of Jerusalem in regards to negotiations between Israel and the PA. The article’s belief is that it is not a matter of if and whether, it is a matter of when and how Jerusalem will be divided. I don’t have a link that I can show you for this article, however, I can tell you that this was written by Douglas Bloomfield in 2008, it is called ‘Dividing Jerusalem – when, not whether’.

Jerusalem will be divided. The question isn’t whether, but when and how. The city’s borders have been shifting for 3,000 years.

Today’s borders will not be tomorrow’s. Already the security barrier cuts off some parts of the city, and the Palestinian Authority, with American funding, is building a road linking East Jerusalem to Ramallah.

The Jewish majority is shrinking as many secular Jews move away, complaining “the city is too poor, too Orthodox and too Arab,” reports the JTA. If a few years, if the present borders remain unchanged, David’s City could be come Daud’s City and have a Palestinian mayor.

This actually is a very real problem. I remember last year when I was in Israel, my tour guide was talking about the issue of there being a lot of Arabs in Jerusalem and what would happen to the city when they were a majority. The problem is, these people can vote. I’ve heard arguments that range from imposing Apartheid on these people to stop them from voting, but I believe that is fundamentally wrong in principle.

Ariel Sharon understood the inevitability of dividing the city; his initial plans for the security barrier included putting some Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem on the far side. American Jews who are increasingly demanding a voice in deciding the fate of Jerusalem understand the same reality; many oppose any change in the city’s borders, including jettisoning Arab neighborhoods that were added only after 1967, because they oppose any and all land for peace deals with the Palestinians.

Without Jerusalem, no deal is possible. There will be no end to the Arab-Israeli conflict nor will there be international recognition of the city as Israel’s capital, even by the United States.

I kind of agree with the above plan, however I don’t think it will work. The PA will just demand more and more of Jerusalem until they control all of it. It may work, however I have my doubts. As well as this, Bibi brings up another good point as to why this may not work.

All too often talk of an “undivided” Jerusalem is less about preserving Jewish patrimony than blocking a peace settlement with the Palestinians. There is a two-state consensus among Israelis today, but there is also a vocal rejectionist camp. One of its leaders is Likud chairman Benjamin Netanyahu, has said that if he becomes prime minister again he will shut down the US-initiated peace talks begun at Annapolis last November.

This Jeremiah of his generation warns that if Israel leaves any part of Jerusalem “Hamas comes in” and will “start rocketing” and shooting into the Jewish neighborhoods. Withdrawal, he told American Jewish leaders recently, “will just put us one step closer to being forced out of the whole country.”

It is true that allowing Palestinians to build up this close to Jerusalem will allow them to build rockets and use that area as a staging base into Israel. There are two ways to counter this however, one is that the IDF will have to keep a continuous eye on that area and two is that the PA might just be able to control their own militia (terrorists). You can imagine my skepticism I’m sure. You can read the whole article by pressing the ‘more’ link.

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