I must be doing something right

I must be doing something right.

Yesterday, the politically depraved Daily Kos linked here and called this site a right-wing swampland.

Today, the politically depraved Israel-bashing site PhilipWeiss [dot] org, edited by Philip Weiss who himself is a Jew, commanded his readers to praise anti Israel writers, like the Israel-bashing journalist Scott Wilson, who was dissected in my post here. Weiss calls Wilson "noble".

Jews who loathe themselves are deficient. Deficient Jews actually enjoy embracing palestinian arabs and other unevolved cultural groups because it makes them feel better about themselves. Why any human being - a Jew especially - could proclaim his support for an Islamic movement whose goal is to annihilate all the world's Jews, is hard to answer. It's shocking to the normal observer, this behavior, that a Jew could take such an anti-Israeli anti-Jewish position. That a Jew like Weiss would, seems all the more astounding - and attention-grabbing.

Philip Weiss says this about himself:

"I know that some Jewish readers will say, [I] care about the opinions of a Palestinian graduate student and an Irish atheist more than [I] do the opinion of [my] coreligionists. They are right."

Why are we right, Weiss? Why does Philip Weiss frame himself as a "progressive"? Why doesn't he just wear Elect Palestinian Arabs for President buttons? He should just be honest.

The substance of what Philip Weiss has to say - the conduct of Jews who despise their own people - spans the full spectrum of political depravity.

Paul Bogdanor says that:

There are anti-Zionist Jews who peddle vicious libels about Israel. There are anti-Zionist Jews who compare the Jewish state with Nazi Germany. There are anti-Zionist Jews who support the PLO, Hamas or Hizbullah. There are anti-Zionist Jews who collaborate with anti-Semites and Holocaust deniers. There are anti-Zionist Jews who defend suicide bombings, anti-Zionist Jews who support the destruction of Israel, and – incredibly – there are even anti-Zionist Jews who advocate measures against other Jews that could plausibly be described as genocidal.

It must be noted, with all due caution, that some anti-Zionists appear to harbor genocidal intentions toward their fellow Jews.

Decades ago Arie Bober, leader of the Israeli communist Matzpen party, boasted of his support for an "Arab revolution" that would either split the Jewish workers from Zionism or slaughter three million Israelis in "another Holocaust."

Today we can detect similar ideas in the writings of Norman Finkelstein, who has invoked the destruction of Japanese cities in World War II as precedent for holding the Israeli people "accountable for the crimes of the Israeli state"; he also regards hundreds of thousands of Israeli settlers, including pregnant women and helpless invalids, as "legitimate targets for armed resistance."

Competing in his genocidal frenzy was the Israeli leftist Yigal Tumarkin, a founder of Peace Now, who disclosed: "When I see the black-coated haredim with the children they spawn, I can understand the Holocaust."

And if these outpourings seem to be the products of deranged minds, let us not forget that even the impeccably liberal Tony Judt displays a striking indifference to the practical consequences of his proposals for the people of Israel. For Professor Judt, and for other advocates of the "one-state solution," it is perfectly acceptable to leave millions of Jews helpless before the armies and suicide bombers of the Middle East ("Things change"), just so long as faculty dinners and cocktail parties are no longer spoiled by the latest controversy over Israeli military tactics.

Such are the ideas exposed to the light of day in The Jewish Divide Over Israel. Our book's contributors – who range from left-wing supporters of Peace Now to right-wing advocates of peace through strength – are united around one principle: whatever their views on the future of Israel, they maintain that the Jewish homeland no more deserves to become a provisional country whose "right to exist" is the subject of legitimate discussion than the Jewish people deserve to be a pariah nation whose survival is conditional on the approval of anti-Semites.

In repudiating the Israel-haters in our ranks, we affirm not only our solidarity with embattled Israeli Jews, but also our own basic self-respect.

Deficient Jews have no self-respect. They are merely self-elected policeman, telling the rest of the world that "Islamic fundamentalism" is a reaction to various factors. Yet before all those factors existed, jihad terror existed. But of course, Weiss and his minions have no idea of that.

Apparently, self-loathing Jews are too busy berating Israel and Jews for defending themselves against "palestinians" to take much notice on how Muslims are reciting from the Koran to justify their murder of "infidels" all around the world.

Currently there are 30 conflicts around the world and 25 of them involve Muslims. If anything, that fact alone deconstructs all other mythologies - for example, "occupation" - as the root cause of Muslim terrorism.

It is time that self-loathing deficient Jews learned that real Jews reject the politics of leftwingers. We reject their views on immigration, culture, religion, ideology, law enforcement, and military strategy.

Self-loathing Jews do not take their proper place in the family of nations. Instead, they will be like hyena, scurrying off into the brush with their tails between their legs, because their apathy and self-loathing placed their fellow Jews into a dangerous, self-imposed ghetto, surrounded by 23 nations of Islamic theocracies and brutal dictatorships, run by racist madmen.

Ron Kuby, Daniel Barenboim, Deborah Fink, Adam Shapiro, George Soros, Stanley Cohen, "Rabbi" David Weiss, are just a sampling of self-loathing Jews especially when it comes to their acknowledgement and pride in being Jewish. Just Google each of them and read what each says about Israel and Jews.

Manfred Gerstenfeld at The Jewish Center for Public Affairs writes:

Anti-Jewish attacks on Israel by Jews are frequently indistinguishable from those by non-Jews. Among the specific aspects in the anti-Israel writings of some Jews are the use of their family's Holocaust experiences, their references to being Jewish, or an association of some kind with Israel. Assaults on Israel and Jews by non-Jews often use statements from Israeli or diaspora Jewish defamers as a legitimization. In order to fight verbal attacks against Israel by Jews more effectively, a much better understanding of their background, motives, and methods is required.

Much of the Jewish world is ignorant of their precious heritage. The results are catastrophic: apathy, shame and self-loathing. If this is indeed a Jewish problem then the siege upon us will not be lifted until we as Jews acknowledge our rightful place in history and correct the mistakes we have made by denying them.

Video: Who is Yael Korin?

Yael Korin is the co-founder of the Los Angeles branch of Women in Black and is an ex-Israeli Jew working for the destruction of Israel. Yael Korin is a pathologist at the medical school of UCLA who believes the canard that Jews have no right to live in Israel. She is associated with Greta Berlin, another she-pig at Women in Black, and as Discover the Network writes,

"...Yael Korin... joins other fanatically anti-Israel ex-Israelis, including such people as Avi Shlaim in Britain; Gabriel Piterberg (also at UCLA); Zalman Amit in Canada; and Yigal Arens, a Los Angeles extremist and son of Israel's one-time Defense Minister Gilad Atzmon. "

These vermin seek to see their native homeland destroyed and replaced by an Arab majority.

Yael Korin may as well be a Muslim, because her hatred for Israel runs so deep and her lies are so vast.

Yael Korin is allegedly a child of Holocaust survivors, so she also brought shame to her parents as well as to the nation of Israel.

Watch her video here at a speech in California. Listen to Yael Korin's lies. If you weren't able to catch them all, I identify the mendacity below:



Yael Korin neglects to mention that Jews were also residents of the region of Palestine and were thrown out of their homes by Arabs.

Yael Korin neglects to mention that Palestinian Arabs do not have an absolute, natural right to self-determination without the reciprocal absolute natural right of the Palestinian Jews.

Yael Korin neglects to mention that Palestinian Jews had a prior right to create a national existence in the land of the Mandate of Palestine as was promised to them in several documents including the Balfour Declaration and the San Remo resolution.

Yael Korin neglects to mention that Palestinian Jews have the right to preserve themselves by defending themselves against a culture who wants to commit genocide against them.

Yael Korin was silent when Arabs forced hundreds of thousands of Jews out of their homes in 1948.

Yael Korin neglects to mention that when the West Bank and Gaza were "occupied" by Egypt and Jordan, from 1947 thru 1967, the palestinian leadership had no complaint about any "alien occupation " and expressed no desire for self-determination. There was no movement toward a palestinian state when Gaza was under the control of Egypt and the West Bank under Jordan. Jordan didn't give up its territorial claims until 1988.

Yael Korin neglects to mention that Fatah was founded in 1964 by Arafat; unless causality has no meaning, the resistance to Israel was born with no reference to 1967 or "ocupation", but, rather, with Israel's birth in 1948 and with the return of Jews to their homeland in the 19th century. Jews were living in Israel for 3000 years and the legitimate and sovereign nation of Israel is a resturn to their homeland, not an invasion, as Yael Korin and her minions claim. It only makes sense considering the archaeology, our Patriarch's tombs, our Matriarch's tombs, and most of all our Holy Temple, which Muslim supremacists usurped out from under the Jewish people just like they did to Christian chruches throught out the region. Talk about land grabs.

For Muslims and their apologists like Yael Korin, history starts anew each day.

For more on Yael Korin, see this.

What is Machsom Watch?

The she-pigs at Machsom Watch love to tour Hebron and other parts of the legitimate and sovereign nation of Israel with groups of Israelis and non-Israelis, against the Jews of Hebron by giving false, warped presentations. Furthermore, the she-pigs at Machsom Watch act with the cooperation of Palestinian interlopers and marauders in order to undermine the operations of the Israel Defence Forces, whose purpose is to defend the citizens of Israel against palestinian murderers. In fact, the actions perpetrated by the she-pigs at Machsom Watch are racist actions that aim to bring about the ethnic cleansing of Hebron of all of its Jewish citizens.

Ehud Olmert, acting prime minister of Israel who was never elected, who is responsible for the carnage at Amona, who is responsible for uprooting Jewish families from their homes, well, his wife, Aliza, is a charter member of 'Women In Black', an organization of Arabs and Jews who support Arab takeover of Israel. His son Shaul belongs to the extreme left group, 'Yesh G'vul'. He was arrested as a deserter from the Israeli Army. He now lives in New York. His son Ariel never even served in the Israeli Army. He lives in Paris, and his daughter Donna, a self-professed Lesbian, is one of the she-pigs at Machsom Watch.

The she-pigs at Machsom Watch monitor and disseminate reports on Israeli soldiers at checkpoints, with the ultimate aim of “ending the occupation.” Machsom Watch publications regularly omit the context of terror and employ human rights terminology, “apartheid” rhetoric and emotive and politically charged language that contribute to the demonization of Israel. In many cases, their allegations are either inaccurate or unverifiable. Machsom Watch is funded by private donors, the New Israel Fund and the EU.

Background from NGO Monitor:

Machsom Watch (also known as “Checkpoint Watch” / “Women’s Fund for Human Rights” / “Women for Human Rights” / “Women Against the Occupation” / “Women of the Checkpoints”) was established in January 2001 “in response to repeated reports in the press about human rights abuses of Palestinians crossing army and border police checkpoints”. Its stated goals are “to monitor the behavior of soldiers and police at checkpoints; to ensure that the human and civil rights of Palestinians attempting to enter Israel are protected; to record and report the results of our observations to the widest possible audience, from the decision-making level to that of the general public.” On the New Israel Fund website, Machsom Watch claims another main goal of "end[ing] the Occupation."

This project has the potential to promote good practice at checkpoints, and increase awareness of the complexities of balancing Palestinian rights to dignity and freedom of movement, with Israeli rights to life and security. However, Machsom Watch's strong political agenda and its distorted approach to and portrayal of events at the checkpoints, undermine its credibility, and reveal its core anti-Israel ideology.

Machsom Watch was founded by three Israeli women: Ronnee Jaeger, a Canadian social worker formerly active in Friends of Pioneering Israel and New Jewish Agenda; lesbian Adi Kuntsman a 1990 immigrant from the former Soviet Union, who is currently pursuing a Ph.D in sociology and gender studies at Lancaster University; and UK-born Yehudit Keshet, who has been involved in a variety of groups, from the Communist Party to Bat Shalom.

Membership in Machsom Watch is open exclusively to Israeli women. The organization acknowledges its “definite bias towards mature, professional women”. Although it claims to be “politically pluralistic”, “opposition to the occupation” is a prerequisite for membership. According to its website, Machsom Watch has 400 members throughout Israel.

Description of Activities:

Machsom Watch members spend 3-4 hour shifts in small groups, at checkpoints throughout the West Bank, observing the interaction between Israeli soldiers or border police and Palestinians. They often document their observations as photographs or videos, and occasionally intervene with an Israeli officer on behalf of Palestinians. After each shift, they compose reports in Hebrew and English that are distributed to Knesset members, military commanders, High Court judges, the State Comptroller, other human rights organizations and the public. Machsom Watch’s website also features an exhibition of photographs taken at the checkpoints (see below for an analysis of the manipulation of these images to misrepresent events).

Funding:

Machsom Watch does not publicize its sources of funding nor its total budget, but accepts donations through the New Israel Fund, which acts as a fiscal agent, administering contributions from external sources and individual donors. The New Israel Fund also donates to Machsom Watch directly, though it refuses to reveal the sum[1]. This organization, whose stated mission is to fight for civil and human rights, promote religious tolerance and pluralism, as well as close the social and economic gaps in Israeli society, often funds politicized NGOs which fuel the conflict or which seek to end the status of Israel as a Jewish state. In 2005, Machsom Watch received €60,000 from the EU, as part of the “Partnership for Peace” program.

Highly Politicized Agenda:

Machsom Watch reports often deviate away from describing events at the checkpoints. Through omission of context, use of pseudo-legal terminology and emotive language, many reports become a platform for the author's radical political views.

Writing of the targeted killing of terrorists, on August 31 – September 6, 2003, Machsom Watch celebrates the “fortunately failed” attempts that week to assassinate Hamas leaders Sheikh Ahmad Yassin and Isma’il Haniyeh (both senior terrorists responsible for a number of suicide bombings, according to the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs). The report lists the number and ages of the Palestinian casualties of these operations, but omits Hamas’ ongoing terror war against Israelis, and describes IDF actions as "revenge." In another report, “Invisible Prisoners” from April 2007, Machsom Watch describes the Palestinians as
“victims of collective punishment meted out in a complex scheme of oppression which is typical of tyrannical regimes elsewhere in the world. How did it happen that the Jewish nation, itself the eternal victim of persecution for generation upon generation, dreamt up and created such a dismal reality in the back yard of its own state?”

Such statements implicitly draw a parallel between Israel and Nazi Germany or Apartheid South Africa, demonizing Israel with no factual basis.

Omission of Context:

Machsom Watch reports regularly omit the context of terror and claim that the presence of checkpoints is arbitrary, unrelated to the security situation and created solely to disrupt the Palestinians’ daily lives, hinder their business and humiliate them. In her report “Systematic Abuse by Administrative Means: A Matter of Policy?”, Tsilli Goldenberg claims that “this entire arrangement [of checkpoints] bears no connection whatsoever to the security of Israeli citizens.”[2] Such statements are misleading, based entirely on the Palestinian perspective and not supported by fact. Don Morris of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East explains in his January 23, 2005 article, “Understanding Israeli Checkpoints,” that checkpoints constitute a necessary and effective measure for preventing terrorists from attacking civilians inside Israel. Prior to the outbreak of violence, there were no checkpoints and Palestinians could move around Israel and the West Bank freely. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in the first 6 months of 2005, "389 Palestinians, among these potential suicide bombers… wanted terrorists and those suspected of terror activities," were apprehended at checkpoints. This crucial security aspect is ignored by Machsom Watch.

In its December 2006 report, Machsom Watch accuses Israel of implementing “draconian regulations,” including the law prohibiting the transportation of West Bank Palestinians in Israeli cars. The report omits the fact that this rule was issued following several instances of Palestinian terrorists using Israeli drivers to cross checkpoints, enter Israel and carry out terror attacks, according to the Shin Bet Security Services and the IDF. Although this explanation appears as the rationale in the text of the law which Machsom Watch cited in its report, the NGO's analysis completely ignores the terror threat and criticizes Israel for this new measure.[3]

Pseudo-Legal Terminology:

Machsom Watch members routinely employ the rhetoric of human rights law in order to condemn Israel. In her article “Checkpoint witnesses” that appeared in The Christian Science Monitor, Amelia Thomas quotes Adi Dagan, Machsom Watch’s spokesperson, who claims that the system of checkpoints “violates international law.”[4] Furthermore, in her article “On Founding Machsom Watch,” Yehudit Kirstein-Keshet refers to “abuse” and “human rights violations at checkpoints”, and accuses Israel of “collective punishment, pure racism, violation of freedom of worship, and cruelty”.[5] These terms are not defined, nor applied universally to the situation. They are merely employed to provide a veneer of legality to Machsom Watch's political position against Israel.

Similarly, Machsom Watch’s December 2006 report begins with the subtitle “Apartheid?” but no evidence is provided for the existence of such a state in Israel. Phrases such “the apartheid roads and checkpoints” merely serve as slogans, to draw a parallel between Israel and Apartheid South Africa and to promote the “Durban Strategy”.

Emotive Language:

Machsom Watch reports frequently employ emotionally charged language in order to demonize all Israeli actions at checkpoints. In her February 24, 2006 article, “Where Do you Draw the Line?” Esti Tsal’s states: “Now I see sharp and clear. The sight is anything but simple. It's cruel. … you're in another world. Neglected, tense, unstable. Lawless. With a different body language of dominator and dominated." In a 2003 report, “Systematic Abuse by Administrative Means: A Matter of Policy?" one mention is made of the "suicide bomb attack" which prompted additional security at the checkpoint, but such factors are overwhelmingly ignored in the nearly 4000 word piece, which includes the description that, "all of the stories speak of humiliation and simple harassment, of the indescribable suffering of an entire population that wants to live its life with dignity and is unable to do so."[6] Furthermore in the summary of their observations for July 2007, Machsom Watch members cynically describe the Bethlehem checkpoint as a site enfolded by “Orwellian language,” with its negative evocation of an invisible controller. This interpretation ignores the fact that decreased interaction with the Israeli soldiers has been identified as an improvement toward a more dignified and efficient way of running checkpoints.

Affiliation with Other NGOs:

Machsom Watch is a member of the “Coalition of Women for Peace”, which conducts highly politicized campaigns to further its stated goal of "support[ing] … human rights and a just peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors.” The first of its nine principles is “an end to the occupation,” but an end to terror does not appear as one of its goals. Machsom Watch members regularly participate in events sponsored by the “Coalition of Women for Peace”, including a 2006 “Call for International actions against the siege on Gaza,” which demanded that “Israel and the international community … respect the political choice of the Palestinian people” and declared that “the siege is sowing anarchy and death in Gaza.” This campaign urged dialogue with Hamas and ignored Palestinian infighting, blaming the internal situation in Gaza entirely on Israel.

Machsom Watch has signed several petitions with the aim of changing Israeli policy. For instance, along with the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, the Public Committee against Torture in Israel, HaMoked: Center for the Defense of the Individual, Gisha, Physicians for Human Rights and Bimkom Planners for Planning Rights, Machsom Watch signed the petition initiated by Yesh Din on January 7, 2007 against the ban on transporting Palestinians in Israeli vehicles in the West Bank, which was submitted to the Israeli Supreme Court. These NGOs claimed that “the Directive implements an ideology of 'segregation'" and "creates an apartheid regime, as well as a regime of persecution of a national group, both of which constitute international crimes.” However, the context of terror that necessitated this law was overlooked and even denied, as demonstrated by the statement that “the chief purpose of the Directive is to create segregation and discrimination, and not to preserve security.” The negative connotations associated with the term “apartheid” due to its South African origins distort the reality of the situation in Israel, while the use of pseudo-legal terminology to support its case and demonize Israel demonstrates Machsom Watch’s pursuit of the “Durban Strategy.”
In its reports, Machsom Watch takes advantage of the “Halo Effect” (the high regard in which NGOs are held in public opinion), often citing statements made by other politicized NGOs, such as the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR). In turn, other NGOs rely on Machsom Watch’s reports and use its photographs taken at the checkpoints as evidence of Israeli aggression.

Machsom Watch lists several organizations on its “Links” page, including B’Tselem, Adalah, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Gisha. It has also collaborated with lawyers from the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) on its latest project dealing with blacklisted Palestinians. NGO Monitor has issued reports on these organizations, detailing their unbalanced, politicized approach to the conflict.
Videos and Photographic Exhibition:

Machsom Watch has a record of deliberately propagating inaccurate information based on visual materials gathered at the checkpoints

On November 9, 2004, a Palestinian man was filmed playing his violin at a checkpoint. Machsom Watch publicized the video in the media, accusing the Israeli soldiers of forcing him to perform in order to humiliate him. It later emerged that he had only been asked to open his violin case (to ensure that it did not contain explosives) and that the Watchers were not close enough to hear the conversation between the soldier and the man.[7] This unscientific interpretation of visual information based on speculations and false assumptions raises questions about the credibility of Machsom Watch’s reports.

Machsom Watch's website features an exhibition (from 2006) of over a hundred and thirty photographs entitled Endless Checkpoints: Photographs Taken by Machsom Watch Women. The photo descriptions encapsulate Machsom Watch’s ideology, using the same techniques apparent throughout its reports and website. These include omission of context ("the regime practiced at the checkpoints is arbitrary and random"), legal human rights terminology ("collective punishment") and emotive language (“the scars will remain with us for the generations to come”).

The exhibition has been presented in public galleries in many Israeli cities. Be’er Sheva mayor Ya’akov Turner banned Machsom Watch from exhibiting the photographs in the local Teachers’ Center, claiming that the contents of the exhibition were “harmful to the sensitivities of the public.” This decision was upheld by the Be’er Sheva District Court, after the city’s attorney, Elisha Peleg, stated that the exhibit constitutes “political propaganda whose aim is ‘to undermine the moral right of the State of Israel to exist as a Jewish state in the land of Israel’.” The Israeli High Court refused to interfere with the mayor’s decision, despite an appeal submitted by Machsom Watch in April 2006, complaining that the ban infringed upon the organization’s freedom of expression.

Below are two representative examples of the distortions deliberately created by the exhibition. The final chapter of the exhibition is entitled “body language” and aims to show that the Israeli soldiers present themselves as masters over the Palestinians. However, this impression of Israeli supremacy is not apparent in the picture, but created through the manipulation of the photograph, or through techniques such as perspective, layout and composition.

Figure 1

Figure 2

The photograph Beit Iba Checkpoint: God and Men’s [sic] Hands: Checking an I.D. (December 2004)by Esti Tsal (figure 1) evokes Michelangelo’s painting of The Creation of Adam (1512). The viewer is directed to identify the Israeli soldier with God, and the Palestinian man with Adam. In the original photograph taken by Tsal (figure 2), the Israeli soldier and the Palestinian civilian are aligned horizontally, just as in Michelangelo’s mural. Yet, for the purposes of this exhibition, the picture was rotated by 90 degrees to the right, dissolving the balance and equality among the protagonists, and creating an artificial hierarchal relationship, with the Israeli at the top. The cropping of the picture also contributes to a false impression of Israeli domination. We see neither of the men’s faces, human beings’ most expressive feature. Both men may be smiling, but we are denied this view and left to deduce the nature of their interaction from the position of their hands. In sum, the representation of Israeli control over the Palestinian civilians is not objective, but artificially constructed through the rotation of the photograph and arbitrary cropping. This modified picture appears three times, first as part of the title page of chapter twelve, then as a background for the synopsis and finally on its own as an object in the exhibition.

Figure 3

The misrepresentation of photographs in order to portray the Israeli soldiers as aggressors and the Palestinian civilians as victims is again apparent in Huwwara Checkpoint: A Taxi Driver Attacked by a Soldier and Pushed to the Ground (2004), also by Esti Tsal (figure 3), featured in chapter seven, “Violence at the Checkpoints”. Once again, the title is misleading and is not supported by the poses of the figures. The soldier stands upright with both hands on his gun barrel (pointing to the ground), while a Palestinian man lies on his back and stretches out his arm for the soldier to help him up. If the soldier had just pushed the man to the ground, he would be leaning forward and at least one of his hands would be outstretched. In addition, the Palestinian man would appeal to his Palestinian comrades for help and not to the Israeli soldier. Moreover, the other Palestinian men are standing around in all kinds of relaxed poses, leaning on the railing or on each other’s shoulders, not in the least alarmed or fearful, and do not rush to help their companion up. One of the men, standing on the left in the white shirt, even appears to be laughing, but covers his mouth with his hand. In fact, it seems that the man on his back is just lying down to rest in the shade, until the Israeli soldier announces that his turn has come to cross the checkpoint, and so the Palestinian man asks him for help in getting up. Yet the caption condemns the Israeli soldier and accuses him of aggression toward the Palestinian.

Conclusion:

Machsom Watch’s stated goal of protecting the human rights of Palestinians passing through Israeli checkpoints is admirable. However, in reality, Machsom Watch pursues a political campaign against the Israeli government and military, with the aim of “ending the occupation”. Its omission of the context of terror, as well as its use of legal human rights vocabulary, “apartheid” rhetoric and emotive language contribute to the demonization and delegitimization of Israel. The work of Machsom Watch would be much more effective if it reported accurately, and promoted human rights universally, recognizing the difficulties in balancing Israeli rights to life and security, and Palestinian human rights.

Endnotes:

1. In our telephone conversation of October 25, 2007, NIF representative Liora Halivni would not say how much NIF gives to Machsom Watch from its own budget.

2. Tsilli Goldenberg, “Systematic Abuse by Administrative Means: A Matter of Policy? A Report on the Operational Practices of the Civil Administration in Occupied Palestinian Territories”, Machsom Watch, 2003. Available: http://www.machsomwatch.org/docs/civilAdministration.asp?link=summaries&lang=eng

3. “MachsomWatch Observations During December 2006”, Machsom Watch. Available: http://www.machsomwatch.org/docs/monthlyReports/December2006Eng.asp?link=summaries&lang=eng

4. Amelia Thomas, “Checkpoint Witnesses,” The Christian Science Monitor, June 7, 2006. Available: http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0607/p13s02-wome.html

5. Yehudit Kirstein-Keshet, “On Founding Machsom Watch,” originally published in Hedva Isachar’s Sisters in Peace, Feminist Voices of the Left, Resling, 2003. Available: http://www.gilasvirsky.com/yehuditkeshet.html

6. Tsilli Goldenberg, “Systematic Abuse by Administrative Means: A Matter of Policy? A Report on the Operational Practices of the Civil Administration in Occupied Palestinian Territories”, Machsom Watch, 2003. Available: http://www.machsomwatch.org/docs/civilAdministration.asp?link=summaries&lang=eng

7. NGO Monitor, “Machsom Watch Reports Distorted by Political Bias”, December 15, 2004. Available: http://www.ngo-monitor.org/article/_machsom_watch_reports_distorted_by_political_bias

Jew submits Bill Calling For Jew-Free Hebron

If you uprooted a group of people from their homes anywhere else it would be a war crime according to the Geneva Protocols. From Israel National News:

The far-left Meretz party submitted a bill Wednesday calling for removing all Jews from Hevron, the city of the Biblical Jewish patriarchs and matriarchs. The National Union threatened to respond with a bill calling for removing the Arab residents.

The first bill was submitted by Meretz Chairman MK Yossi Beilin.

"It is ironic that during the very weeks we are reading about Abraham, Hevron, and purchase of the Machpelah Cave, the Knesset should be dealing with a bill promoting expulsion of Jews from Hebron, following in the footsteps of Nazi Mufti Haj Amin el-Hussainei and the British in 1929," community spokesman David Wilder told Arutz-7.

Wilder also took issue with the government's response to the bill: "The response should have been: 'Hebron, the first Jewish city in the land of Israel, home of our Patriarchs and Matriarchs, site of the second holiest place to Jews in the world, is part of the eternal essence of the Jewish people, the Jewish state and Jewish heritage. Such a subject should even be broached. Hebron will remain an integral part of the State of Israel forever.'

The fact that this was not the response strengthens the fact that this government must be toppled as soon as possible and a new government, recognizing Hebron's significance, should take power."

Leftists Photographed Staging "Settler Harassment of Arabs"

Via Israel National News:

Residents of the Shomron town of Elon Moreh have accused extreme-left activists of deliberately damaging Arab property in order to create conflict. They also say Yediot Acharonot and its associated website Ynet have refused to correct their libel.

Benny Katzover, a senior founder of Elon Moreh, spoke with Arutz-7 and recounted the events leading up to what he says were attempts by left-wing activists to sully Jewish residents' good names and create conflict with the neighboring Arab village.

The village in question, Dir el-Hattab, was hooked up to the Israeli water utility thanks to Katzover's own initiative as mayor of Elon Moreh. Recently, Jewish youth who refurbished a park area within Elon Moreh's municipal boundaries set up a small pool, connected to the water line leading to the village. The pool did not disrupt the flow of water to the village until somebody began cutting the pipe flowing toward the village.

A resident of the town recently photographed leftists as they damaged a water pipe leading to a nearby Arab village. Elon Moreh residents argue that the leftists were hoping to lead the Arabs to think that their Jewish neighbors were destroying their water supply.

After destroying the pipe, residents said, the leftists reported the incident to the Yediot Acharonot newspaper, which published an article accusing the Jews of Elon Moreh of harassing local Arabs and stealing their water.

"They were more than happy to publish a half-page story on how we abuse our neighbors, without an ounce of research," Katzover said. He added that the leftists were led by Kibbutz Movement Chairman Yoel Marshak, infamous for his involvement in claims that Arab olive trees were destroyed by Jews, when in fact they had been pruned by their owners and left-wing activists.

Stop calling them "settlers"

I really wish some Jews would stop calling other Jews "settlers". It is disconcerting to read here comments by some Jews about other Jews who deny that these "settler" Jews are indigenous to Judea, and that Jews have no right to live in Hebron, the oldest Jewish city in history. Instead, those Jews who call other Jews "settlers" help to enable the redefinition of Israeli Jews as colonizers and foreign settlers with no legitimate right to the land.

Whether or not one calls them settlers, the Israelis living in the West Bank and Hebron do not pose either a moral or a pragmatic problem. Their communities are natural outcomes of Israel’s control for almost forty years of areas that are integral to its current defensibility and/or historical heritage.

And since the word "settler" is loaded with negative connotations of "intruder," it would be best to cease applying it to Israelis who live legitimately in parts of the Land of Israel that are part of the state of Israel, and whose ultimate disposition remains open.

Does it really make sense to call an Israeli who moves from a hillside in Galilee to an apartment block in Ariel a "settler"? Please drop the immoral paradigm insinuating their that they must be forced from their homes.

Would that you would pay more attention to the illegal houses built by Arab squatters in Hebron who proudly display in a sign that they live on land stolen from Jews.

My response in a comment thread following this article on Ynet, with partial credit to P. David Hornik.

Ruth Matar: Freedom of religion for whom?

Folks, I don't like to publish long posts because I know that people, myself included, enjoy reading short sound bytes which get to the point so that they could move on quickly to their other favorite blogs, video games, and families. But this time I am going to publish something and, yes, it is lengthy but it is important to read.

What is the following all about? Jews who backstab Jews, and in this particular case, it's about the Jews of Machsom Watch, a radical organization of leftist Israeli women.

Here's a must-read letter from Ruth Matar (Women in Green), Jerusalem:

Dear Friends,

My blood is literally boiling!

On the front page of today’s Jerusalem Post there is a huge ad by MACHSOM WATCH, a radical organization of some leftist Israeli women (including Dana Olmert, the Israeli Prime Minister’s daughter), but with a large contingent of imported radicals from abroad. The Hebrew word ‘machsom’ refers to ‘checkpoint’. These women have made it their life’s mission to “watch” all checkpoints in Israel, so as to interfere with the work of the Israeli soldiers, whose duty it is to guard against Arab terrorists entering from the territories. They continually incite the Arabs against our soldiers, and even try to bodily prevent them from doing their duty. Tragically, some soldiers have lost their lives as a result of the activities of the Machsom Watch organization.

The ad of Machsom Watch is chock full of falsehoods. Is it possible that these people honestly believe their own fabrications in this ad? What is their motive in presenting the Israeli people as violently intolerant of other peoples’ religion?

I want you to be able to judge for yourself. I am, therefore, including the entire ad.
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FREEDOM OF RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCE FOR ALL

“The State of Israel will guarantee freedom of religion…will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions…will be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.”

Declaration of Independence

Muslims are observing the month of Ramadan. Upon the conclusion of the fast, next week, they will celebrate their holy festival, Id el-Fitr.

The State of Israel PREVENTS tens of thousands of Palestinians from reaching their holy sites to pray.

The State of Israel FORBIDS Muslim men under the age of 45 from praying at the el-Aksa Mosque, one of the three holiest sites in Islam.

The army prevents the passage of crowds of observant Muslims, pushing them back behind checkpoints and fences - by threats, shouts, shoving and tear gas.

Let the Palestinians pray at the holy sites in Jerusalem.

RESPECT THE FREEDOM OF OBSERVANCE FOR ALL

MACHSOMWATCH
Women Against the Occupation and for Human Rights
www.machsomwatch.org 054-5300385
machsomwatch@hotmail.com
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Dear friends, I know that you are too sophisticated to be taken in by this leftist-inspired propaganda. Unfortunately, it is the Muslims who prevent others, such as Jews and Christians, from reaching their holy sites to pray.

Here are only a few of the true facts:

*The Tomb of our forefather Joseph was assaulted by a turbulent mob of Arabs on October 7, 2000. They completely demolished the millennial-old holy site in a matter of hours. They hacked, chopped, smashed and destroyed one of the most hallowed sites belonging to the Jewish People. The Arabs set alight holy books and other sacred religious objects. Two Israeli soldiers were murdered in this pogrom.

*On many occasions hundreds of Arabs, after prayers at the el-Aksa Mosque on the Temple Mount, hurled stones and blocks onto Jewish worshippers praying at the Western Wall below.

*The ancient synagogue in Jericho, Shalom al Israel, was vandalized and almost completely destroyed. Israelis now have to obtain a permit from the Arabs to visit what’s left of it. This ancient synagogue was built during the time of the Second Temple.

*Worshippers have to go in bulletproof buses to the tomb of Mother Rachel near Bethlehem to avoid being stoned. The tomb itself is now protected by a security wall.

*Immediately after the Jews were expelled from Gush Katif, the Arabs desecrated all the synagogues and victoriously danced on the rooftops of the religious institutions before burning them down.

*The Arabs attempted to build a mosque in front of an existing Christian church in Nazereth, this was meant to obstruct the entrance to this historical church.

Finally, the composers of the Machsom Watch advertisement asks us to “respect the freedom of religious observance for all”. The advertisement ends with an impassioned plea to let the Palestinians pray at the holy sites in Jerusalem.

What hypocrisy! It is the Jews and the Christians who are prevented by the Arabs from praying at their holiest sites!

In this regard, I want you to carefully read a shocking article about a well-known Christian leader who was arrested and expelled from the Temple Mount for praying.
* * *
Christian leader expelled from Mount for praying
Islamic intolerance and incitement permitted on Israel’s holiest site
jnewswire.com, October 14 , 2003

Israeli police escorted one of the top leaders of the Jerusalem-headquartered international Christian Zionist movement off the Temple Mount Tuesday, [October 14, 2003] on the grounds that he had been silently praying in the area.

While Christians and Jews are forbidden from praying on the hill the Bible designates as a site holy to the God of Israel, Muslims are free to worship and preach incitement against Israel from the four mosques straddling the Mount.

Accosted while silently praying

Jan Willem van der Hoeven, founder of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem and currently director of the International Christian Zionist Center, said he had been walking alone and “speaking to the Lord in his heart,” when a policeman demanded to know whether he was praying.

“I could have lied and said no,” Van der Hoeven told Jerusalem Newswire, “but of course I did not want to and so said yes.”

According to several eyewitnesses, three policemen had then handcuffed and escorted Van der Hoeven to the police station at the nearby Western Wall Plaza.

Police log prayer

Van der Hoeven said when he arrived at the police station the officer in charge asked what he had been praying. He replied that he had been praying for the Messiah to come and bring peace to Israel and to the world.

“The police noted my prayer down in their official report,” Van der Hoeven said.

He had been allowed to leave a short while later.

Putting their feet down

The incident took place after Van Der Hoeven led a group of about 40 visiting Christian Zionists onto the Temple Mount, a highlight of their weeklong celebration of the biblical Feast of Tabernacles.

Before ascending the hill, which the Bible describes as the place of Messiah’s future throne, Van der Hoeven had advised the pilgrims to separate into small groups and walk quietly around inside the walled compound, praying silently.

Reminding them of past instances of intolerance shown by the Muslim authorities on the Mount towards Jews and Christians, he urged the group to be “as wise as serpents and harmless as doves,” quoting the words of Jesus as recorded in the New Testament.

“Every place where your feet tread, pray that it will be given back to Israel,” he added.

On the Mount

Before climbing the ramp to the compound, the pilgrims were instructed to leave all Bibles, Israeli flags and any other apparently provocative items at the security checkpoint.

The group entered at the so-called Mughrabi Gate, before spreading out and walking in twos and threes around the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the Dome of the Rock and the Golden Gate.

Apart from Van der Hoeven’s expulsion, the group reported no other incidents and departed the area after about an hour.

Unbridled Islamic incitement

While Christian and Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount is not tolerated by the Islamic Authorities, Muslim clerics are free to foment hatred of the Jewish people and the State of Israel in weekly sermons in the mosques on the hill.

The Palestinian Authority-appointed Mufti of Jerusalem, Sheikh Ikrema Sabri, whose offices are situated inside the compound, has issued rulings upholding the longstanding practice banning the worship of any god other than Allah, the ancient Arabian moon god.

“It is forbidden for Muslims to permit non-Muslims to supervise, conduct services or pray in any part of the mosques or underneath them," he has said.

Sabri regularly stokes up rage against Israel and the United States while conducting Muslim Friday prayers for the thousands of Arabs freely permitted by Israel to attend the services.

Speaking in the Al Aqsa Mosque, Sabri has been recorded saying: “Oh Allah, destroy America! For she is ruled by Zionist Jews!! Allah shall take revenge on behalf of his prophet against the colonialist settlers who are sons of monkeys and pigs!! Forgive us, Mohammad, for the acts of these sons of monkeys and pigs, who sought to harm your sanctity!!”

Earlier this year, the official PA Radio broadcast live sermons from the Al Aqsa Mosque in which Sabri denounced the "criminal United States" and "rancorous Britain."

Sabri has appealed to Muslims everywhere “to stand as one rank, stop the aggression, and cleanse their territories of US military occupation…

“O Allah, make the plots of the aggressors backfire on them. O Allah, annihilate them to the last man. O Allah, protect Al-Aqsa Mosque from every evil. O Allah, protect Iraq and its people.”

While Sabri’s instatement as Mufti was in violation of the Oslo Accords, Israel has chosen not to make an issue of it.

* * *

Dear friends, I think it is very important that you distribute this particular Letter from Jerusalem as widely as possible to everyone you can think of, specifically including your government representatives.

All of us are responsible to disseminate the true facts, so that truth prevails over these printed deception of the Radical Left.

With Blessings and Love for Israel,

Ruth Matar
Women For Israel's Tomorrow (Women in Green)
POB 7352, Jerusalem 91072, Israel
Tel: 972-2-624-9887 Fax: 972-2-624-5380
mailto:michael@womeningreen.org
http://www.womeningreen.org

The ant farm

Folks, the whole world's focus will be on the Jews in Gaza, Israel, in approximately two weeks. It will be a morbid curiousity that will picque everyone's interest, because when almost 10,000 Jews get deported from their homes on August 17, everyone will watch because it will be Jew versus Jew.

Will blood be shed? Will children get killed? Will the IDF turn on the deported Jews, like the Polish and the French turned on their Jewish neighbors during Europe's Holocaust against the Jews? Those are the things that everyone will be looking and hoping for. That's human nature. It's like watching the Indianapolis 500 and wondering if there will be a fiery burning multi-car wreck.

So of course the world is interested.

If you uprooted a group of people from their homes anywhere else it would be a war crime. Research it for yourselves starting with the Geneva Protocols. Uprooting people from their homes is a war crime.

But when it's Jew versus Jew, it's just considered fascinating. It will be like an ant farm. All the Jews will be the ants and everyone else looking at them thru the looking glass will be the American left, the Arabs, the Hollywood Jewish left, the Muslims, the fabricated "palestinians", Condi Rice, and Osama bin Laden and his depraved sycophants.

It's a shame the world doesn't focus this much attention on other important issues. If they reported on Darfur and how Muslims are killing off the Sudanese Christians by the thousands, or how Muslims perform female genital mutilations to deprive women of pleasure during lovemaking, or how Muslims perform honor killings because a Muslim's 7th-century perception of honor is more important to them than the lives of everyone else, perhaps these problems within Islam would be resolved.

And wouldn't the world be so much better off? You better believe it.