Clashes north of Jerusalem, man killed in Gaza
Palestinian youths hurl stones at Israeli troops (photo credit: Uri Lenz/Flash90)
Violence and unrest in Israel on “Land Day”:
Comments (5) »One Palestinian protester was killed Friday morning near the Erez crossing in the Gaza Strip as thousands demonstrated in Israel and neighboring states on Land Day, an annual event marked by Israeli Arabs and Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza who protest what they term discriminatory Israeli land policies.
Gaza health official Adham Abu Salmia said Israeli forces shot and killed Mahmoud Zaqout, 21, and critically wounded another man as they were approaching the Israel-Gaza border during a demonstration of a few thousand people organized by the territory’s Hamas rulers.
The Israeli military said troops fired warning shots before shooting directly at Zaqout, in accordance with the army’s rules of engagement.
The military said it responded to protesters with tear gas in addition to gunfire. Abu Salmia said an additional 37 protesters throughout Gaza were lightly injured, while the Israeli military put the number at about 29.
Friday, March 30th, 2012 at 12:58 PM | Stand for Israel
Placing the blame correctly — for once
Recently there was a serious power shortage in Gaza. Many were quick to blame Israel for the problem — you know, blaming the Jewish state is just standard operating procedure for some. But Khaled Abu Toameh points out an interesting turn of events:
The Palestinian Center for Human Rights announced this week that Palestinians — not Israel — were to blame for the electricity crisis.
The human rights group pointed out that Hamas announced that the operation of the Gaza Energy Plant was stopped because it ran out of fuel.
Until recently, the fuel used to be smuggled from Egypt through underground tunnels. Before that, the fuel was bought from Israel, and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank used to cover the costs. But because of the dispute between Hamas and Fatah, the Palestinian Authority stopped its contribution.
Palestinian Authority officials have accused Hamas of stealing the fuel for its own institutions and vehicles.
So if anyone is to blame for the fact that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been left without electricity it’s both Hamas and Fatah.
Have the Palestinian people EVER been well-served by their rulers?
Comments (22) »
Tuesday, February 21st, 2012 at 11:46 AM | Stand for Israel
What civilization looks like
I have a friend — a dear, longtime friend — with whom I often disagree on matters related to politics and world affairs. The disagreements occasionally turn into arguments, but the friendship has endured, and will endure – we’ve known each other too long, and been through too much together.
One of the things we disagree on is Israel. After Newt Gingrich’s comments of a couple weeks back that the Palestinians are an “invented” people, my friend bristled. This, he insisted, was not the point. It was simply that both sides in this conflict — the Israelis and the Palestinians — needed to behave in a “civilized” manner.
Implicit in this statement is the notion that both sides are not behaving in a civilized manner. It’s an idea all too common in modern thought. Weary of the ongoing, seemingly intractable Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and under the influence of media coverage that is quick to point out every misstep Israel makes (and loath to point out examples of Palestinian terrorism and rejectionism), people who adopt this way of thinking reason that both sides must be equally to blame. There are no heroes, no villains in this fight — just two parties that stubbornly refuse to treat each other with dignity and respect.
The problem with this narrative, of course, is that it has no basis in history or experience. It’s especially hard to stomach when you read stories like this, which involves Israeli doctors at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem saving unborn Palestinian conjoined twins through an innovative medical procedure.
This is what civilization looks like. It’s scientific achievement, harnessed for human good; it’s simple human compassion, extended not just to your own people, but to all people. Palestinians are treated every day in Israeli hospitals and receive the same high level of care that everyone else does, irrespective of their ethnicity or religion.
A note to my friend: Israel is well-versed in “behaving in a civilized manner.” If Palestinian leadership made similar efforts, we wouldn’t be at odds about the Middle East. There would be peace — or at least an absence of the day-to-day conflict…
Read More » Comments (2) »Wednesday, December 21st, 2011 at 10:04 AM | David Kuner
Gingrich’s comments anger Palestinian leaders
Republican presidential candidate and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich caused a stir last week when, in an interview with the Jewish Channel, he referred to “an invented Palestinian people”:
The usual suspects reacted quickly. Palestinian Authority (P.A.) spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh said, ”It is also obvious that he needs history courses to know that the Palestinian nation existed before even the American nation itself.” P.A. Negotiator Saeb Erekat called Gingrich’s remarks “racist” and said, “The Palestinian people inhabited the land since the dawn of history, and intend to remain in it until the end times.” P.A. Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said that Gingrich’s remarks were, “a denial of history.” Multiple news outlets and Palestinian apologists pointed out that Israel also had not existed until 1948.
What to make of all the noise?
First of all, Speaker Gingrich is just 100% factually correct. There was absolutely no consciousness either in the international community or among the local population of any kind of Arab nationalism specific to the Middle East until probably the 1920s. Since the establishment of Israel, that local brand of nationalism has blossomed into Palestinian nationalism – mostly in violent, convulsive reaction to the existence of the Jewish state and, since 1967, in reaction to the disputed status of the West Bank and Gaza. Prior to the 1920s, I would challenge anyone to produce a single document, book, article, or diary entry that speaks about or hints at the Palestinians as having any consciousness of an identity distinguishable from other Muslims and/or Arabs.
Jews have a slightly different history – in spite of repeated, egregious attempts by Palestinians to read Jews out of the history of the region. There was, of course, a Jewish state in present-day Israel. That state existed from the time of King Saul around 1000 BCE (or 1570 years before Muhammad) through the final destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans following the Bar Kokhba revolt in 136 CE (or 434 years before Muhammad). The Jewish people existed as a self-aware, obvious-to-anyone-with-a-brain people from the time (if we want to be stingy) of the Exodus from Egypt…
Read More » Comments (16) »Monday, December 12th, 2011 at 12:37 PM | Stand for Israel
Mugrabi Bridge closure infuriates Palestinians
The Mugrabi Bridge, the only entrance for non-Muslims to the Temple Mount
If you’ve visited the Western Wall in Jerusalem, you’ve seen the Mugrabi Bridge, the only entrance for non-Muslims to the Temple Mount. Yesterday, Israeli officials closed the bridge after deeming it structurally unsound. Sounds reasonable, no? It’s the government’s job to protect the public by repairing unsafe structures. Well, apparently it’s not that simple:
Hamas warned Monday that the Israeli closure of the Mugrabi Bridge is tantamount to a “declaration of war” on Muslim holy sites. “This is a serious step that shows the Zionist scheme of aggression against the al-Aqsa mosque,” said Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum in an interview with AFP. “This is a violent act that amounts to a declaration of religious war on the Muslim holy places in Jerusalem.”
Israeli officials closed the Mugrabi Bridge on Sunday for safety reasons, three days before the municipality deadline to close the ramp leading from the Western Wall plaza to the Temple Mount.
Elsewhere in the article, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat says that the repair of the bridge is yet another example of Israel’s ”determination to judaize Jerusalem.” Ah, no, Mr. Erakat. Israel is not trying to “judaize” Jerusalem. She doesn’t need to. That’s already been done by thousands of years of history. Crack open a legitimate history book (not one of the textbooks you let your children “learn” from, but a real history book) or a Bible sometime … it’s all in there.
Comments (15) »Monday, December 12th, 2011 at 9:12 AM | Stand for Israel
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