For once I am speechless.
Monday, April 13, 2009
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Face to Face, Still Hurts but Less
In a matter of speaking only, because I only mean this guy below, who is giving a concert in Jerusalem tonight. So here's Yehuda Poliker with two of the songs I like best. And don't forget this guy is 60, but boy, can he sing:
Face to face with a not so young woman, whose face betrays the passage of time, but still looks beautiful up close, so beautiful that he wants her to stay the night and wait for dawn. With him:
Hurts but less, less but still hurts:
Oh, mamma ...
Face to face with a not so young woman, whose face betrays the passage of time, but still looks beautiful up close, so beautiful that he wants her to stay the night and wait for dawn. With him:
Hurts but less, less but still hurts:
Oh, mamma ...
Monday, February 02, 2009
The Unbearable Lightness of Terror
Hello all,
In this time of conflict in Gaza, it would be good to remember the thousands of young people and children who have been living under the threat of Kassam bombs for more than 8 years. This past summer, my 21 year old daughter Dana made this video. I was in the United States with my two younger children Mayan and Gabi, at Camp Interlaken, where they were guests of the wonderful Milwaukee JCC. I was unaware that Dana had made this video and she showed it to me only this morning, on this the 7th day of the war in Gaza.
Since Saturday afternoon, the Tzeva Adom alarm has sounded 28 times in our kibbutz and many bombs have fallen; however, we are of high spirits and our thoughts and prayers are with our soldiers. Please feel free to distribute this link as you see fit.
Shalom,
Marcell Bar-On
Kibbutz Nir-Am - Gaza Border
h/t Elder of Ziyon
In this time of conflict in Gaza, it would be good to remember the thousands of young people and children who have been living under the threat of Kassam bombs for more than 8 years. This past summer, my 21 year old daughter Dana made this video. I was in the United States with my two younger children Mayan and Gabi, at Camp Interlaken, where they were guests of the wonderful Milwaukee JCC. I was unaware that Dana had made this video and she showed it to me only this morning, on this the 7th day of the war in Gaza.
Since Saturday afternoon, the Tzeva Adom alarm has sounded 28 times in our kibbutz and many bombs have fallen; however, we are of high spirits and our thoughts and prayers are with our soldiers. Please feel free to distribute this link as you see fit.
Shalom,
Marcell Bar-On
Kibbutz Nir-Am - Gaza Border
h/t Elder of Ziyon
Life in Sderot
This is what life looks like in Sderot: terrorized civilians, traumatized children, shattered lives. This is what is has looked like for the past eight years:
Things My Jewish Mother Taught Me
Opened my mailbox this morning and found this little jewel:
My Jewish mother taught me TO APPRECIATE A JOB WELL DONE:
"If you're going to kill each other, do it outside. I just finished cleaning."
My Jewish mother taught me RELIGION:
"You better pray that will come out of the carpet."
My Jewish mother taught me LOGIC:
"Because I said so, that's why."
My Jewish mother taught me MORE LOGIC:
"If you fall out of that swing and break your neck, you're not going to the store with me."
My Jewish mother taught me FORESIGHT:
"Make sure you wear clean underwear, in case you're in an accident."
(Nope, in fact it was my Jewish grandmother who taught me that - Ed.)
My Jewish mother taught me about the science of OSMOSIS:
"Shut your mouth and eat your supper."
My Jewish mother taught me about CONTORTIONISM:
"Will you look at that dirt on the back of your neck!"
My Jewish mother taught me about STAMINA:
"You'll sit there until all that spinach is gone."
(Still sitting there - Ed.)
My Jewish mother taught me about HYPOCRISY:
"If I told you once, I've told you a million times--don't exaggerate!"
My Jewish mother taught me about BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION:
"Stop acting like your father!"
(But Mommy, I love my Dad! - Ed.)
My Jewish mother taught me about ENVY:
"There are millions of less fortunate children in this world who don't have wonderful parents like you do."
(So true - Ed.)
My Jewish mother taught me about ANTICIPATION:
"Just wait until we get home."
My Jewish mother taught me MEDICAL SCIENCE:
"If you don't stop crossing your eyes, they are going to freeze that way."
My Jewish mother taught me ESP:"
Put your sweater on; don't you think I know when you are cold?"
My Jewish mother taught me DARK HUMOR:
"When that lawn mower cuts off your toes, don't come running to me."
My Jewish mother taught me HOW TO BECOME AN ADULT:
"If you don't eat your vegetables, you'll never grow up."
My Jewish mother taught me GENETICS:
"You're just like your father."
My Jewish mother taught me WISDOM:
"When you get to be my age, you'll understand."
(I'm past your age, Mommy, and still clueless - Ed.)
And the most enduring one: My Jewish mother taught me about JUSTICE:
"One day you'll have kids, and I hope they turn out just like you!"
Oh, God, how I miss my Jewish mother!
My Jewish mother taught me TO APPRECIATE A JOB WELL DONE:
"If you're going to kill each other, do it outside. I just finished cleaning."
My Jewish mother taught me RELIGION:
"You better pray that will come out of the carpet."
My Jewish mother taught me LOGIC:
"Because I said so, that's why."
My Jewish mother taught me MORE LOGIC:
"If you fall out of that swing and break your neck, you're not going to the store with me."
My Jewish mother taught me FORESIGHT:
"Make sure you wear clean underwear, in case you're in an accident."
(Nope, in fact it was my Jewish grandmother who taught me that - Ed.)
My Jewish mother taught me about the science of OSMOSIS:
"Shut your mouth and eat your supper."
My Jewish mother taught me about CONTORTIONISM:
"Will you look at that dirt on the back of your neck!"
My Jewish mother taught me about STAMINA:
"You'll sit there until all that spinach is gone."
(Still sitting there - Ed.)
My Jewish mother taught me about HYPOCRISY:
"If I told you once, I've told you a million times--don't exaggerate!"
My Jewish mother taught me about BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION:
"Stop acting like your father!"
(But Mommy, I love my Dad! - Ed.)
My Jewish mother taught me about ENVY:
"There are millions of less fortunate children in this world who don't have wonderful parents like you do."
(So true - Ed.)
My Jewish mother taught me about ANTICIPATION:
"Just wait until we get home."
My Jewish mother taught me MEDICAL SCIENCE:
"If you don't stop crossing your eyes, they are going to freeze that way."
My Jewish mother taught me ESP:"
Put your sweater on; don't you think I know when you are cold?"
My Jewish mother taught me DARK HUMOR:
"When that lawn mower cuts off your toes, don't come running to me."
My Jewish mother taught me HOW TO BECOME AN ADULT:
"If you don't eat your vegetables, you'll never grow up."
My Jewish mother taught me GENETICS:
"You're just like your father."
My Jewish mother taught me WISDOM:
"When you get to be my age, you'll understand."
(I'm past your age, Mommy, and still clueless - Ed.)
And the most enduring one: My Jewish mother taught me about JUSTICE:
"One day you'll have kids, and I hope they turn out just like you!"
Oh, God, how I miss my Jewish mother!
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Who Is Israel's Real Enemy?
Excellent piece on the professional integrity and standards of a respectable state-run media outlet, from my special friend captainfish over at Snappedshot.com.
By captainfish · Tuesday, January 20. 2009 17:08
Is it Hamas? Is it the PLO? Is it the United States of America? Is it Russia as some Christian Bible prophecy believers believe it to be?
Or, is it the world's media? The world's media that leans liberal? Could it really be that Israel's greatest enemy over the last few decades is the world's mainstream media?
Take a look at this link that avid SnappedShot fan, BusyWolf, tipped us off to. The link has text and a video that was shown on international outlets. Let's start off with a look at the name of the link? Does that give you any clues as to the direction the story is going to go? gaza-israel-assault-medics-violence Now let's take a look at the text introducing the video from France television 24:
France 24, it appears, is a state-run media outlet that is operated in partnership with France 2. As you may recall, it was France 2 that villified Israel in the made-up al-Dura affair. A Palestinian-media driven affair that tried to paint Israel as child killers, but was shown in court to be wholly faked by the Palestinian and their France 2 compatriots.
France 24, just over 2 years old now, provides Arabic, French and English programming, focusing on the French perspective, over the airwaves and on the internet across much of Europe and the mid-East. And we all know how much love France gives to Western-type democracies. Has France ever made statements in support of Israel or its actions? I know Sarkozy did during and following his campaign. I know there is also a strong pro-Israel contingent in France. But, as a whole, France's media and political machine despise Israel.
Let's analyze the France 24 text further (long post):
This is not a "geopolitical analysis" but they then proceed to present one side in this conflict. A side that supports a murdering terrorist organization whole-heartedly. Is this really a battle of ideologies? Is this really a battle of two conflicting and valid viewpoints? Or is this a struggle for survival and find peace on one side, and a life-long compulsion to eradicate the other side no matter the cost? Can you really get an unbiased report from a Palestinian stringer reporting against Israel? Think of this, would we have ever seen a report like this during WW2 from a German stringer on the life of Germans under the British air raids? A report from a Japanese stringer on Japan citizens during our bombardments of Japan? Why is this acceptable now? Could it be that being anti-semitic is fashionable? Or is there another driving force? A darker more sinister force pushing the world to fight against little old Israel?
Let's analyze the France 24 text further (long post):
Ok, now to the video.
The announcer starts off by highligting the point of the France 24 show: To showcase the best reports from their own correspondents from around the world. This episode focuses upon Gaza from the inside. The announcer states that this is a conflict between "Hamas, the Islamist Palestinian group, that runs the Gaza Strip and Israel, which has provoked worldwide reaction."
So, from the very start of the video, we hear that this will be one of their best reports from one of their best reporters across the globe. And, we hear that it will focus on the life of Gazans who are under Israel's gun. An action that has provoked worldwide reaction. But, Hamas is just an Islamic group. Bias anyone?
And, when the announcer states that the world has watched these events from a distance, aren't they saying that the world is just sitting by doing nothing against Israel while Israel continues its assult on innocent Gazans? One wonders if they would have made such similar statements against the actions in Darfur or Yugoslavia?
The France 24 report then shows a global map that zooms in on the mid-East area. The world is grey with the waterbodies blue. As we zoom in to Israel-Egypt-Jordan area, we see that the area is still a grey color, but only two areas are highlighted: West Bank and the Gaza STrip. What does the West Bank have to do with this? And, why isn't Israel highlighted in this map as they are the other side of this story?
The announcer states that this is a slice of life on the streets of Gaza City at the heart of the crisis showcasing how the horrific Israel onslaught is affecting innocent Gazans, especially the children. May I note right here that the world's alternative media has shown time and time again that the treatment of Gazan's civilians, especially its children, is a direct result and the responsibility of the Hamas murdering terrorist organization and its verified crimes against humanity.
The announcer then warns its viewers that many may find images in this report are graphic and some may find them.... (with an emphasis on) disturbing. Again, pointing to the treatment of Gazans citizens as being out of bounds, egregious or beyond the norms of war. Hey!! How about a report of the disturbing effect of Hamas' rockets and mortars and homicide bombs upon Israel's children? Eh?
The video then starts right off with a supposed Israel attack and then images of dead and bloody bodies. The reporter calls them "mutilated bodies". The reporter has a distinctive British accent for some reason. At least it sounds like it to me. The reporter follows an ambulance as it races through the streets. Then for some reason he stops following it. He then makes allusions that the ambulance came under Israeli gunfire.
We are then treated to another al-Dura moment. The reporter focuses in on several people laying behind a large concrete block. The reporter says that one is the doctor, dressed in a white shirt and black jeans, from the ambulance they were chasing. The reporter states that he chose to stay behind to ask about other possible wounded people. We hear gunfire. The reporter says that this is crossfire between Hamas and Israel. In the background we see a small tent set up on the sidewalk. Odd. We see another ambulance down the road on the other side of this scene with people dressed in orange standing around just outside the ambulance. The camera then pans to someone a few feet (meters?) closer to the camera crouching behind a fence out in the open. The doctor then makes crazy-8 moves to get to this person who is not injured. The person that the doctor just left then makes a bee-line to the side of the street away from the doctor. The doctor then stands up and makes a marathon-like run towards the vehicle that the reporter is riding in. A vehicle that turns out to be an ambulance. The reporter then gets his interview of the doctor.
The ambulance then takes off, stating that a report of an injured person was reported to be just a few blocks away. The ambulance the doctor is riding in then drives up the road that the reporter just ran down ostensibly trying to avoid the crossfire. If there was gunfire along that road, why then drive your ambulance down that road? We then see the ambulance that was on the far seen now coming toward and passing our ambulance approaching the reporter. We also see quite a number of people standing around the scene. One of which, is the supposed doctor who got out of the ambulance before it left. So much for a dangerous place.
The reporter then interviews some "civilians" who announce that there was a "sniper" around and a dead man nearby. Take note of the number of "children" standing around where the gunfire is happening. What other point is there for these "children" to be here than to take part in the action against Israel? This interview seems to be taking place at the location of where the second ambulance was originally parked down the road. The obvious implication is that it was an Israeli sniper taking people out. The reporter asks if this place is a cemetery. It is obvious that this is not a cemetery with all of the buildings around the street. One person states that there is a cemetery and a grove that grew citrus. On the other side of the grove is where the Jews used to live. The guy then states that if you go inside (???) you will get shot by snipers. Now, the implication is complete as we also hear gunshots coming from around the corner.
The reporter says that the residents take cover behind the walls as we hear even more gunshots. But yet, we see people walking around without fear or concerns for their safety. No one is hiding. In fact, across the street we see people standing in the street. And, someone near the reporter walked in front of the so called wall of hiding just as the reporter talked of taking cover.
The reporter says that it is impossible to approach the body as he seemingly hides from gunfire behind the corner of the wall. But, he captures someone running diagonally across the road across the street from him. So much for impossible. We have yet to see the body. As we peak around the corner of our Wall of Solitude, we see that there are a number of people standing in the street just down from our intrepid reporter. Again, we see more buildings lining the street. No cemetery in sight.
What we do see are a few little pathetic trees planted in the sidewalk and barricaded by 10-foot high protective fence. Its pretty sad when you have to protect your vegetation with massive structures from your own citizens.Back to the action, as the camera zooms down the street, we see some peope hiding behind another corner down the street while others are in the street. No body is evident anywhere. The reporter then cuts to the ambulance driver who states that he wants to go get the "martyr" (the interpreter's words) but says that the army shoots at him. He then points to the gunfire stating that he can't go till the shooting stops. Hmm, that didn't stop him earlier in the story. Again, the implication is that the Israeli army shoots indiscriminantly at anything that moves, including ambulances and their doctors. I guess we are to assume that all gunfire is Israeli gunfire? Are we to assume that Hamas would never harm their own in order to blame Israel?
The reporter, still riding in the ambulance, states that the ambulance driver has to give up and abandon the body because it is not safe. "We simply can not work. It is extremely dangerous." Well, I did hear that it is a warzone full of warguns, warplanes, warbombs and warbullets. If only they were peacebullets so that he could get his job done. He is just a simple ordinary person trying to just do his job. But Israel's evil machinations are preventing him from doing his job saving his people. The reporter then emphatically states that ambulance drivers have paid a huge price in this war. Again, an allusion to Israel taking direct shots at ambulances and their workers. This Palestinian reporter wouldn't be trying to make a case for war crimes against Israel, would he?
"No time to chat. There are injured people everywhere." is what we hear as a dozens of people stand around while a single man is loaded into an ambulance. He states that the man's hand was injured, though to me, there wasn't any injury at all with VERY LITTLE blood present on the palm. The man states that all he was doing was praying at his uncle's grave. Of course, it doesn't matter that he looks like a Hamas fighter. The reporter asks if anyone else was injured and the man says, "Look, just tell them what we are going through." Of course, no questions about why he was praying at a cemetery. No questions about why he was praying at a cemetery while Israeli snipers were about. No questions about why he was out in the open at a cemetery while the Israeli army moved in supposedly killing everything that moved.
The ambulance driver then tries to disperse the large crowd that has now gathered around the camera crew and reporter. He says it is very dangerous for them should Israel land a shell near them.
We are then treated to another scene. Now back inside the ambulance we are racing down a street with people standing in the midst of. No sense that he is worried about running over his own people. And again, we see people out in the open where there is supposedly a war going on.
The ambulance stops at a scene we are told is a car in the middle of the road with two BADLY injured people onboard. There is another ambulance already on the scene. As we pan to the car, we see one of these BADLY injured people walking toward the ambulance, past the camera crew and walk in to the ambulance. He has a minor head wound and is limping a bit. He has on a bomber jacket. The reporter says that the other man's leg "has been ripped off". Meanwhile, we see no blood on or around the man. We see no damage to the car. There is no damage to the area around the car.
Back in the ambulance for the supposed ride to the hospital with the man with the injured head. He prays, "May god help us." As I have stated before, I find it interesting that these people say "god" and not allah. The person in the back of the ambulance treating this man with the head wound, says that he sees this kind of thing all the time. He then exclaims that he has to treat these people while in the ambulance. As if this is something that is out of the ordinary and should be newsworthy. Damned Israel. Making these ambulance workers treat the injured in an ambulance while on the way to the hospital. How horrible!!
At the hospital, the driver then talks about how his ambulance has been shot at pointing to bullet holes. Bullet holes that look an awful lot like they were shot from inside the ambulance. Meanwhile, we see a gaggle of cameras and even more "citizens" standing around the entrance of this hospital. The driver and the reporter then complain that the hospital is in a very dangerous location being so near to the "closing in" Israeli army making allusions that the Israeli army directly targets hospitals. We are then presented with images of Israeli tanks rumbling over the landscape as the driver talks. The driver states that the hospital is a target for Israel.
The driver states that he and his ilk are unable to assist wounded unless he has clearance from the Jerusalem head office first. But, we are then treated to an anonymous explosion. The reporter and the driver are then rushing off again this time supposedly to the location of the explosion as alluded to by the reporter. But, I thought they had to get clearance first before they could go in for wounded? Guess it is up to the driver and if they have reporters on board?
HA. At the scene of the supposed explosion, we see literally hundreds of people standing around and a number of ambulances on the scene as well. The reporter describes the scene as chaotic while we see people standing around. He states that there are "twisted bodies lining the streets everywhere." But yet, we are not shown bodies. We see what might look like two bodies, but only because people are on the ground looking at something. He cuts to a tall building and states that they are near a school run by the UNROA. (eh??) And again, we see hundreds of people standing around in the streets and no damage to the road or buildings. We then cut to the camera guy rushing to a crowd of people. We then cut to a scene in an alley with a man yelling for a car. We then cut to a scene of a dead elderly man under a blanket covered by a brown blanket. No sign of blood, damage, or debris. CUT.
We are now at the hospital with people hanging out of a white passenger car with the reporter saying that "injured are arriving from all directions." If the incident at the school was so massive and with bodies everywhere, then why not show them? Why not follow those bodies to the hospital since the crew is riding in an ambulance, right? Why not talk to the martyred's family? If this is a story about the impact war has on the ordinary person, then why not talk to the man-on-the-street after this attack?
At the hospital, we are treated to people being DRAGGED out of the car with slight wounds on their legs. But the people appear unconscious, or dead. But, there appear to be no other wounds except for the minor wounds on their legs. And then another ambulance (nearly brand new) with a passenger sitting up front holding a child. The child is pulled out upside down. Not really healthy for a child. There appears to be 4 children and one adult pulled out of the ambulance.
Very little sign of blood or trauma. The only one I could make out is the lower left leg injury of the adult patient that is carried out of the ambulance.
We then see more people brought in with real injuries. One has his face nearly gone from his injury. It becomes rather chaotic there at the entrance to the hospital with ambulances trying to come in with injured, ambulances trying to leave, and hundreds of people and cameras standing around for the show.
And then to top this show off, we follow person carrying an injured person in to the hospital. As we enter the hospital's hallway, we have someone cut in front of us. It is that bomber jacket dude that was supposedly previously injured? If so, it is an amazing recovery. We then see people walking the other way carrying injured kids out of the hospital.
Inside the hospital, the reporter tells us that the staff are overwhelmed. I should say, there are hundreds of people just standing around for the show inside as well. We are now blessed with the dozens of images of injured people laying on the floor. We are told it is because there are no more beds. In the US, the injured are brought in to the Emergency Room (ER) where they are treated and then moved to another part of the hospital for further long-term treatment. If there is a large number of people coming in, like during bombings or such, there are things set up called "triages". These are areas where large number of injured are brought in, either laid out on tables or the floor, and are quickly diagnosed based on their injuries. They are then treated based on their injuries. Some have to wait long periods for care because their injury is deemed non-critical. It is the way things have been since WW1, or earlier.
Inside the hospital, the reporter tells us that the staff are overwhelmed. I should say, there are hundreds of people just standing around for the show inside as well. We are now blessed with the dozens of images of injured people laying on the floor. We are told it is because there are no more beds. In the US, the injured are brought in to the Emergency Room (ER) where they are treated and then moved to another part of the hospital for further long-term treatment. If there is a large number of people coming in, like during bombings or such, there are things set up called "triages". These are areas where large number of injured are brought in, either laid out on tables or the floor, and are quickly diagnosed based on their injuries. They are then treated based on their injuries. Some have to wait long periods for care because their injury is deemed non-critical. It is the way things have been since WW1, or earlier.
We are then treated to an open wound on the neck of one person. The attendant then quickly puts the gauze back on the wound now that the shot is over. For such a large neck wound, you think there would be more gauze and blood than what was used. I've used more gauze for a tooth-extraction.
People with head wounds are being carried by one or more people while walking all over the people laying on the floor. The people sitting with the injured on the floor are yelling at those walking on the injured. The people in the white jackets very quickly move from one person to another. Not even touching or seeming to diagnose the injured. They too seem to be part of this roaming mob of people just going around and around. We are then treated to a green-shirt person cutting in to an injured person on the floor.
Then, more and more injured are DRAGGED into the hospital. We even see bodies in various stages of undress. We even see a bright blue thong on what appears to be a dead guy. Ignoring the bright blue thong, isn't viewing dead bodies in humiliating situations against Islam? We then see normally dressed civilians appearing to direct traffic and giving orders inside the hospital triage area.
And then we have a fleeting moment of the ambulance driver shedding some tears while being forced to head out to the war zone to rescue more injured civilians. At least, that is what the reporter says.
We are then given a first-person view of this Palestinian reporter. The voice we are hearing is that of the interpreter of the video, not the journalist. So, who is this reporter making this video for? If it was for France, wouldn't he speak English or French? The reporter states with emptathy that the hospital being so full of injured is forced to close its doors. Who would think that a hospital on the front lines of the war would get so many injured?
We are then told that a few hours later the Israeli military gave ITS version of what happened at the school. Once again, the voice over interprets what is said, this time by the Israeli spokesperson. The voice over for the Israeli spokesperson is dry, mechanical with slight sarcastic undertones. When the interpretor speaks for Hamas, they are in compassionate normal voice tones.
We are told, that during Israel's 3-hour truce, we are taken back to the scene of the school attack. We are given a guided tour by a concerned citizen of the area. The man says that one of "two missiles" landed in the middle of an intersection. He then points to the supposed area where the missiles hit. All is seen in the video is an area of disturbed brick like someone pulled some bricks out of the road a few years ago. Note, the road is a red-brick road with sand underneath. If an Israeli shell, or missile struck that kind of road, there would be a MUCH bigger hole in the ground. Let alone two missiles!!
Our diligent tour guide then points to where the bodies were found around the blast area. Recall, this school was supposedly being used as a refuge for people seeking protection from the war. Would they be mealing about an open intersection about a hundred yards away from the school?
Meanwhile, where he points to where the bodies were, there is no sign of blood or debris. Would Hamas' social service arm be that fast to come in and clean the area up of blood and all form of debris?
They are then showed an area where the wounded were "gathered" after moving a very large tarp. The ever diligent tour guide then tells us of one young man who just happened to be looking out of one of the school windows at the time of the "attack" and was injured by shrapnel. "How could he have known?" we are questioned. He was the only one looking out of the dozens of windows on that side of the school? And it sure looks like many of the windows are still intact.
We are then treated to the scene we have seen so many times where a few of the people injured from the Israeli response were. The area looks like a side entrance with a few chairs, rubber garden hose, white plastic chair (dang, they sure are everywhere) and lots of debris. Except the voice over tells us that this was someone's home. Yet, the media wanted us to believe it was part of the school that was hit. Again, now we are seeing the proper signs of an area being hit by an aerial bombardment. We are seeing a lot of debris, a lot of broken items, and blood stains. We even see the ever-present loose sandal laying all by itself having lost its owner. Interesting enough, there is alot of damage to this house that looks old. We are told that 10 people died there. Wasn't that from an attack on a known Hamas leader's house?
The reporter is then taken to the house of an "alleged Hamas terrorist" leader. We are treated to cries of disproportionate response. We are told that Israel attacked the wrong people which caused the death of an innocent 13 year old boy. Amazingly enough, we are then shown a cell phone image of the dead boy!! I'm sorry, but isn't that a sacrilege in almost every religion especially Islam?
We are told by this "alleged" Hamas terrorist leader that the person Israel tried to kill does not exist in either Hamas or among the "martyrs" that were killed. We are then treated to listening to the account of how this brave fighter was made legless by an Apache helicopter in 2004. The camera then pans around him sitting on the very nice sofa to show how his legs are gone. The Palestinian reporter then asked this "alleged" terrorist if he was injured in that attack. He states that he lost his legs. OH!! That is what is different about him. Wouldn't have noticed. He then thanks god. And that is the end of the report. Cut back to France 24 studio.
We are then treated with a personal report from the Palestinian stringer about how harrrrd it is to be a Palestinian and a "journalist" with the war in his backyard. He laments about how he hasn't been able to hold his mother in such a long time because she lives near the southern border of Gaza. Ummmm. Seems to me that would be the first thing one would do, wouldn't it? Wouldn't you try to get your mom out and away from the war? No, this intrepid reporter felt it was his duty to provide unbiased reporting from the front line about the lives of ordinary citizens affected by this war. Just not how his mother was impacted. He left her to fend for herself saying that she had to pack up and leave due to the air raid sirens and bombardments. Oh, no. She is also a diabetic. How tragic. I must feel for her plight. Too bad that her son couldn't be there for her. CUT to images of Israel warbombings and warplanes making their attacking runs.
Isn't this like Obama leaving his mother-in-law to live illegally in state housing? Or his uncle to live in a hubble in Africa on only $12 a year? I thought Islam was all about family and love?
This intrepid dedicated reporter then laments how he just has to say no to injured people who ask for his help because he has to stay focused and get the story. How brave of him. The filming must go on. He must film the dying because if he didn't, they wouldn't die and he wouldn't have a story to tell. "If you lose the message - you lose your status as a witness if you try and save them."
I think that pretty much sums up the whole point of this story. This reporter would rather see his people die than to lose the chance for a story.
I think it is clear, it is this kind of media reporting that is put out by the mainstream media that is corrupting the minds of freedom-loving people of the world.
You know, I think knowing what we know about the world's media, I think it is high time to quit calling them the MSM, or the MAINSTREAM media. As they have such a huge liberal agenda, why should they even be given the nickname of "mainstream"? I think they need a new moniker. World's Main LIBERAL Media? World's Liberal-Stream Media?
By captainfish · Tuesday, January 20. 2009 17:08
Is it Hamas? Is it the PLO? Is it the United States of America? Is it Russia as some Christian Bible prophecy believers believe it to be?
Or, is it the world's media? The world's media that leans liberal? Could it really be that Israel's greatest enemy over the last few decades is the world's mainstream media?
Take a look at this link that avid SnappedShot fan, BusyWolf, tipped us off to. The link has text and a video that was shown on international outlets. Let's start off with a look at the name of the link? Does that give you any clues as to the direction the story is going to go? gaza-israel-assault-medics-violence Now let's take a look at the text introducing the video from France television 24:
Right there, from the very first sentence of the story, we can see the direction this story is going to go. France's 24 will start with the premise that Hamas, being basically just another Islamic group, is an official group that was duly and rightfully elected to be in charge of Gaza. And no one in the world should be challenging Hamas' authority to govern Gaza Strip. See anything wrong here?The conflict between Hamas, the Islamist Palestinian group that is in
charge of the Gaza Strip, and Israel has provoked reaction worldwide.
France 24, it appears, is a state-run media outlet that is operated in partnership with France 2. As you may recall, it was France 2 that villified Israel in the made-up al-Dura affair. A Palestinian-media driven affair that tried to paint Israel as child killers, but was shown in court to be wholly faked by the Palestinian and their France 2 compatriots.
France 24, just over 2 years old now, provides Arabic, French and English programming, focusing on the French perspective, over the airwaves and on the internet across much of Europe and the mid-East. And we all know how much love France gives to Western-type democracies. Has France ever made statements in support of Israel or its actions? I know Sarkozy did during and following his campaign. I know there is also a strong pro-Israel contingent in France. But, as a whole, France's media and political machine despise Israel.
Let's analyze the France 24 text further (long post):
"from a distance"? Really? Is France 24 living in a vacuum? This war has been plastered all over the media of the world. Not one hour goes by that we don't hear how someone comes out against Israel's "massive" "offensive" "assault". They state that Israel has not allowed foreign media inside of Gaza, but then admit to sneaking one of their streakers stringers in. And, they have to throw in those buzzwords, "crisis", "horrific" and... did I read that right, "ordinary people"? How can you claim that Gazans are ordinary citizens after they chose to have a murdering terrorist organization as their leaders and representatives? An organization recognized by the world's countries AS terrorists. But for some strange reason, they seem to be the only terrorist organization that receives aid money from those same countries.But the world has by and large watched the events unfold from a distance.
Israel has stopped foreign correspondents from entering the Gaza Strip,
as the conflict by air and on the ground has intensified.
Our report brings you a view from the heart of the crisis, from the streets
of Gaza, as our reporter witnesses the horrific effects of war on ordinary
people.
This is not a geopolitical analysis of the Hamas-Israel War. It is a look from
the inside at how, when movements, governments and ideologies do battle,
it is mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters and children who are affected.
The eyewitness video made by a Palestinian journalist, Radjaa Abou Dagga,
France 24's correspondent in Gaza, shows a slice of life in a war zone, how
people desperately scramble to stay alive amid artillery shells, air raids and
ground combat.
This is not a "geopolitical analysis" but they then proceed to present one side in this conflict. A side that supports a murdering terrorist organization whole-heartedly. Is this really a battle of ideologies? Is this really a battle of two conflicting and valid viewpoints? Or is this a struggle for survival and find peace on one side, and a life-long compulsion to eradicate the other side no matter the cost? Can you really get an unbiased report from a Palestinian stringer reporting against Israel? Think of this, would we have ever seen a report like this during WW2 from a German stringer on the life of Germans under the British air raids? A report from a Japanese stringer on Japan citizens during our bombardments of Japan? Why is this acceptable now? Could it be that being anti-semitic is fashionable? Or is there another driving force? A darker more sinister force pushing the world to fight against little old Israel?
Let's analyze the France 24 text further (long post):
Taking a look at the France 24's front page we see several telling things . Two video exclusives. One being this report titled "Embedded with Gaza medics." The other exclusive is "With the Palestinians of Rafah." Is that a double entendre? (which oddly enough is a French saying)But the world has by and large watched the events unfold from a distance. Israel
has stopped foreign correspondents from entering the Gaza Strip, as the conflict
by air and on the ground has intensified.
Our report brings you a view from the heart of the crisis, from the streets of Gaza, as our reporter witnesses the horrific effects of war on ordinary people.
Ok, now to the video.
The announcer starts off by highligting the point of the France 24 show: To showcase the best reports from their own correspondents from around the world. This episode focuses upon Gaza from the inside. The announcer states that this is a conflict between "Hamas, the Islamist Palestinian group, that runs the Gaza Strip and Israel, which has provoked worldwide reaction."
So, from the very start of the video, we hear that this will be one of their best reports from one of their best reporters across the globe. And, we hear that it will focus on the life of Gazans who are under Israel's gun. An action that has provoked worldwide reaction. But, Hamas is just an Islamic group. Bias anyone?
And, when the announcer states that the world has watched these events from a distance, aren't they saying that the world is just sitting by doing nothing against Israel while Israel continues its assult on innocent Gazans? One wonders if they would have made such similar statements against the actions in Darfur or Yugoslavia?
The France 24 report then shows a global map that zooms in on the mid-East area. The world is grey with the waterbodies blue. As we zoom in to Israel-Egypt-Jordan area, we see that the area is still a grey color, but only two areas are highlighted: West Bank and the Gaza STrip. What does the West Bank have to do with this? And, why isn't Israel highlighted in this map as they are the other side of this story?
The announcer states that this is a slice of life on the streets of Gaza City at the heart of the crisis showcasing how the horrific Israel onslaught is affecting innocent Gazans, especially the children. May I note right here that the world's alternative media has shown time and time again that the treatment of Gazan's civilians, especially its children, is a direct result and the responsibility of the Hamas murdering terrorist organization and its verified crimes against humanity.
The announcer then warns its viewers that many may find images in this report are graphic and some may find them.... (with an emphasis on) disturbing. Again, pointing to the treatment of Gazans citizens as being out of bounds, egregious or beyond the norms of war. Hey!! How about a report of the disturbing effect of Hamas' rockets and mortars and homicide bombs upon Israel's children? Eh?
The video then starts right off with a supposed Israel attack and then images of dead and bloody bodies. The reporter calls them "mutilated bodies". The reporter has a distinctive British accent for some reason. At least it sounds like it to me. The reporter follows an ambulance as it races through the streets. Then for some reason he stops following it. He then makes allusions that the ambulance came under Israeli gunfire.
We are then treated to another al-Dura moment. The reporter focuses in on several people laying behind a large concrete block. The reporter says that one is the doctor, dressed in a white shirt and black jeans, from the ambulance they were chasing. The reporter states that he chose to stay behind to ask about other possible wounded people. We hear gunfire. The reporter says that this is crossfire between Hamas and Israel. In the background we see a small tent set up on the sidewalk. Odd. We see another ambulance down the road on the other side of this scene with people dressed in orange standing around just outside the ambulance. The camera then pans to someone a few feet (meters?) closer to the camera crouching behind a fence out in the open. The doctor then makes crazy-8 moves to get to this person who is not injured. The person that the doctor just left then makes a bee-line to the side of the street away from the doctor. The doctor then stands up and makes a marathon-like run towards the vehicle that the reporter is riding in. A vehicle that turns out to be an ambulance. The reporter then gets his interview of the doctor.
The ambulance then takes off, stating that a report of an injured person was reported to be just a few blocks away. The ambulance the doctor is riding in then drives up the road that the reporter just ran down ostensibly trying to avoid the crossfire. If there was gunfire along that road, why then drive your ambulance down that road? We then see the ambulance that was on the far seen now coming toward and passing our ambulance approaching the reporter. We also see quite a number of people standing around the scene. One of which, is the supposed doctor who got out of the ambulance before it left. So much for a dangerous place.
The reporter then interviews some "civilians" who announce that there was a "sniper" around and a dead man nearby. Take note of the number of "children" standing around where the gunfire is happening. What other point is there for these "children" to be here than to take part in the action against Israel? This interview seems to be taking place at the location of where the second ambulance was originally parked down the road. The obvious implication is that it was an Israeli sniper taking people out. The reporter asks if this place is a cemetery. It is obvious that this is not a cemetery with all of the buildings around the street. One person states that there is a cemetery and a grove that grew citrus. On the other side of the grove is where the Jews used to live. The guy then states that if you go inside (???) you will get shot by snipers. Now, the implication is complete as we also hear gunshots coming from around the corner.
The reporter says that the residents take cover behind the walls as we hear even more gunshots. But yet, we see people walking around without fear or concerns for their safety. No one is hiding. In fact, across the street we see people standing in the street. And, someone near the reporter walked in front of the so called wall of hiding just as the reporter talked of taking cover.
The reporter says that it is impossible to approach the body as he seemingly hides from gunfire behind the corner of the wall. But, he captures someone running diagonally across the road across the street from him. So much for impossible. We have yet to see the body. As we peak around the corner of our Wall of Solitude, we see that there are a number of people standing in the street just down from our intrepid reporter. Again, we see more buildings lining the street. No cemetery in sight.
What we do see are a few little pathetic trees planted in the sidewalk and barricaded by 10-foot high protective fence. Its pretty sad when you have to protect your vegetation with massive structures from your own citizens.Back to the action, as the camera zooms down the street, we see some peope hiding behind another corner down the street while others are in the street. No body is evident anywhere. The reporter then cuts to the ambulance driver who states that he wants to go get the "martyr" (the interpreter's words) but says that the army shoots at him. He then points to the gunfire stating that he can't go till the shooting stops. Hmm, that didn't stop him earlier in the story. Again, the implication is that the Israeli army shoots indiscriminantly at anything that moves, including ambulances and their doctors. I guess we are to assume that all gunfire is Israeli gunfire? Are we to assume that Hamas would never harm their own in order to blame Israel?
The reporter, still riding in the ambulance, states that the ambulance driver has to give up and abandon the body because it is not safe. "We simply can not work. It is extremely dangerous." Well, I did hear that it is a warzone full of warguns, warplanes, warbombs and warbullets. If only they were peacebullets so that he could get his job done. He is just a simple ordinary person trying to just do his job. But Israel's evil machinations are preventing him from doing his job saving his people. The reporter then emphatically states that ambulance drivers have paid a huge price in this war. Again, an allusion to Israel taking direct shots at ambulances and their workers. This Palestinian reporter wouldn't be trying to make a case for war crimes against Israel, would he?
"No time to chat. There are injured people everywhere." is what we hear as a dozens of people stand around while a single man is loaded into an ambulance. He states that the man's hand was injured, though to me, there wasn't any injury at all with VERY LITTLE blood present on the palm. The man states that all he was doing was praying at his uncle's grave. Of course, it doesn't matter that he looks like a Hamas fighter. The reporter asks if anyone else was injured and the man says, "Look, just tell them what we are going through." Of course, no questions about why he was praying at a cemetery. No questions about why he was praying at a cemetery while Israeli snipers were about. No questions about why he was out in the open at a cemetery while the Israeli army moved in supposedly killing everything that moved.
The ambulance driver then tries to disperse the large crowd that has now gathered around the camera crew and reporter. He says it is very dangerous for them should Israel land a shell near them.
We are then treated to another scene. Now back inside the ambulance we are racing down a street with people standing in the midst of. No sense that he is worried about running over his own people. And again, we see people out in the open where there is supposedly a war going on.
The ambulance stops at a scene we are told is a car in the middle of the road with two BADLY injured people onboard. There is another ambulance already on the scene. As we pan to the car, we see one of these BADLY injured people walking toward the ambulance, past the camera crew and walk in to the ambulance. He has a minor head wound and is limping a bit. He has on a bomber jacket. The reporter says that the other man's leg "has been ripped off". Meanwhile, we see no blood on or around the man. We see no damage to the car. There is no damage to the area around the car.
Back in the ambulance for the supposed ride to the hospital with the man with the injured head. He prays, "May god help us." As I have stated before, I find it interesting that these people say "god" and not allah. The person in the back of the ambulance treating this man with the head wound, says that he sees this kind of thing all the time. He then exclaims that he has to treat these people while in the ambulance. As if this is something that is out of the ordinary and should be newsworthy. Damned Israel. Making these ambulance workers treat the injured in an ambulance while on the way to the hospital. How horrible!!
At the hospital, the driver then talks about how his ambulance has been shot at pointing to bullet holes. Bullet holes that look an awful lot like they were shot from inside the ambulance. Meanwhile, we see a gaggle of cameras and even more "citizens" standing around the entrance of this hospital. The driver and the reporter then complain that the hospital is in a very dangerous location being so near to the "closing in" Israeli army making allusions that the Israeli army directly targets hospitals. We are then presented with images of Israeli tanks rumbling over the landscape as the driver talks. The driver states that the hospital is a target for Israel.
The driver states that he and his ilk are unable to assist wounded unless he has clearance from the Jerusalem head office first. But, we are then treated to an anonymous explosion. The reporter and the driver are then rushing off again this time supposedly to the location of the explosion as alluded to by the reporter. But, I thought they had to get clearance first before they could go in for wounded? Guess it is up to the driver and if they have reporters on board?
HA. At the scene of the supposed explosion, we see literally hundreds of people standing around and a number of ambulances on the scene as well. The reporter describes the scene as chaotic while we see people standing around. He states that there are "twisted bodies lining the streets everywhere." But yet, we are not shown bodies. We see what might look like two bodies, but only because people are on the ground looking at something. He cuts to a tall building and states that they are near a school run by the UNROA. (eh??) And again, we see hundreds of people standing around in the streets and no damage to the road or buildings. We then cut to the camera guy rushing to a crowd of people. We then cut to a scene in an alley with a man yelling for a car. We then cut to a scene of a dead elderly man under a blanket covered by a brown blanket. No sign of blood, damage, or debris. CUT.
We are now at the hospital with people hanging out of a white passenger car with the reporter saying that "injured are arriving from all directions." If the incident at the school was so massive and with bodies everywhere, then why not show them? Why not follow those bodies to the hospital since the crew is riding in an ambulance, right? Why not talk to the martyred's family? If this is a story about the impact war has on the ordinary person, then why not talk to the man-on-the-street after this attack?
At the hospital, we are treated to people being DRAGGED out of the car with slight wounds on their legs. But the people appear unconscious, or dead. But, there appear to be no other wounds except for the minor wounds on their legs. And then another ambulance (nearly brand new) with a passenger sitting up front holding a child. The child is pulled out upside down. Not really healthy for a child. There appears to be 4 children and one adult pulled out of the ambulance.
Very little sign of blood or trauma. The only one I could make out is the lower left leg injury of the adult patient that is carried out of the ambulance.
We then see more people brought in with real injuries. One has his face nearly gone from his injury. It becomes rather chaotic there at the entrance to the hospital with ambulances trying to come in with injured, ambulances trying to leave, and hundreds of people and cameras standing around for the show.
And then to top this show off, we follow person carrying an injured person in to the hospital. As we enter the hospital's hallway, we have someone cut in front of us. It is that bomber jacket dude that was supposedly previously injured? If so, it is an amazing recovery. We then see people walking the other way carrying injured kids out of the hospital.
Inside the hospital, the reporter tells us that the staff are overwhelmed. I should say, there are hundreds of people just standing around for the show inside as well. We are now blessed with the dozens of images of injured people laying on the floor. We are told it is because there are no more beds. In the US, the injured are brought in to the Emergency Room (ER) where they are treated and then moved to another part of the hospital for further long-term treatment. If there is a large number of people coming in, like during bombings or such, there are things set up called "triages". These are areas where large number of injured are brought in, either laid out on tables or the floor, and are quickly diagnosed based on their injuries. They are then treated based on their injuries. Some have to wait long periods for care because their injury is deemed non-critical. It is the way things have been since WW1, or earlier.
Inside the hospital, the reporter tells us that the staff are overwhelmed. I should say, there are hundreds of people just standing around for the show inside as well. We are now blessed with the dozens of images of injured people laying on the floor. We are told it is because there are no more beds. In the US, the injured are brought in to the Emergency Room (ER) where they are treated and then moved to another part of the hospital for further long-term treatment. If there is a large number of people coming in, like during bombings or such, there are things set up called "triages". These are areas where large number of injured are brought in, either laid out on tables or the floor, and are quickly diagnosed based on their injuries. They are then treated based on their injuries. Some have to wait long periods for care because their injury is deemed non-critical. It is the way things have been since WW1, or earlier.
We are then treated to an open wound on the neck of one person. The attendant then quickly puts the gauze back on the wound now that the shot is over. For such a large neck wound, you think there would be more gauze and blood than what was used. I've used more gauze for a tooth-extraction.
People with head wounds are being carried by one or more people while walking all over the people laying on the floor. The people sitting with the injured on the floor are yelling at those walking on the injured. The people in the white jackets very quickly move from one person to another. Not even touching or seeming to diagnose the injured. They too seem to be part of this roaming mob of people just going around and around. We are then treated to a green-shirt person cutting in to an injured person on the floor.
Then, more and more injured are DRAGGED into the hospital. We even see bodies in various stages of undress. We even see a bright blue thong on what appears to be a dead guy. Ignoring the bright blue thong, isn't viewing dead bodies in humiliating situations against Islam? We then see normally dressed civilians appearing to direct traffic and giving orders inside the hospital triage area.
And then we have a fleeting moment of the ambulance driver shedding some tears while being forced to head out to the war zone to rescue more injured civilians. At least, that is what the reporter says.
We are then given a first-person view of this Palestinian reporter. The voice we are hearing is that of the interpreter of the video, not the journalist. So, who is this reporter making this video for? If it was for France, wouldn't he speak English or French? The reporter states with emptathy that the hospital being so full of injured is forced to close its doors. Who would think that a hospital on the front lines of the war would get so many injured?
We are then told that a few hours later the Israeli military gave ITS version of what happened at the school. Once again, the voice over interprets what is said, this time by the Israeli spokesperson. The voice over for the Israeli spokesperson is dry, mechanical with slight sarcastic undertones. When the interpretor speaks for Hamas, they are in compassionate normal voice tones.
We are told, that during Israel's 3-hour truce, we are taken back to the scene of the school attack. We are given a guided tour by a concerned citizen of the area. The man says that one of "two missiles" landed in the middle of an intersection. He then points to the supposed area where the missiles hit. All is seen in the video is an area of disturbed brick like someone pulled some bricks out of the road a few years ago. Note, the road is a red-brick road with sand underneath. If an Israeli shell, or missile struck that kind of road, there would be a MUCH bigger hole in the ground. Let alone two missiles!!
Our diligent tour guide then points to where the bodies were found around the blast area. Recall, this school was supposedly being used as a refuge for people seeking protection from the war. Would they be mealing about an open intersection about a hundred yards away from the school?
Meanwhile, where he points to where the bodies were, there is no sign of blood or debris. Would Hamas' social service arm be that fast to come in and clean the area up of blood and all form of debris?
They are then showed an area where the wounded were "gathered" after moving a very large tarp. The ever diligent tour guide then tells us of one young man who just happened to be looking out of one of the school windows at the time of the "attack" and was injured by shrapnel. "How could he have known?" we are questioned. He was the only one looking out of the dozens of windows on that side of the school? And it sure looks like many of the windows are still intact.
We are then treated to the scene we have seen so many times where a few of the people injured from the Israeli response were. The area looks like a side entrance with a few chairs, rubber garden hose, white plastic chair (dang, they sure are everywhere) and lots of debris. Except the voice over tells us that this was someone's home. Yet, the media wanted us to believe it was part of the school that was hit. Again, now we are seeing the proper signs of an area being hit by an aerial bombardment. We are seeing a lot of debris, a lot of broken items, and blood stains. We even see the ever-present loose sandal laying all by itself having lost its owner. Interesting enough, there is alot of damage to this house that looks old. We are told that 10 people died there. Wasn't that from an attack on a known Hamas leader's house?
The reporter is then taken to the house of an "alleged Hamas terrorist" leader. We are treated to cries of disproportionate response. We are told that Israel attacked the wrong people which caused the death of an innocent 13 year old boy. Amazingly enough, we are then shown a cell phone image of the dead boy!! I'm sorry, but isn't that a sacrilege in almost every religion especially Islam?
We are told by this "alleged" Hamas terrorist leader that the person Israel tried to kill does not exist in either Hamas or among the "martyrs" that were killed. We are then treated to listening to the account of how this brave fighter was made legless by an Apache helicopter in 2004. The camera then pans around him sitting on the very nice sofa to show how his legs are gone. The Palestinian reporter then asked this "alleged" terrorist if he was injured in that attack. He states that he lost his legs. OH!! That is what is different about him. Wouldn't have noticed. He then thanks god. And that is the end of the report. Cut back to France 24 studio.
We are then treated with a personal report from the Palestinian stringer about how harrrrd it is to be a Palestinian and a "journalist" with the war in his backyard. He laments about how he hasn't been able to hold his mother in such a long time because she lives near the southern border of Gaza. Ummmm. Seems to me that would be the first thing one would do, wouldn't it? Wouldn't you try to get your mom out and away from the war? No, this intrepid reporter felt it was his duty to provide unbiased reporting from the front line about the lives of ordinary citizens affected by this war. Just not how his mother was impacted. He left her to fend for herself saying that she had to pack up and leave due to the air raid sirens and bombardments. Oh, no. She is also a diabetic. How tragic. I must feel for her plight. Too bad that her son couldn't be there for her. CUT to images of Israel warbombings and warplanes making their attacking runs.
Isn't this like Obama leaving his mother-in-law to live illegally in state housing? Or his uncle to live in a hubble in Africa on only $12 a year? I thought Islam was all about family and love?
This intrepid dedicated reporter then laments how he just has to say no to injured people who ask for his help because he has to stay focused and get the story. How brave of him. The filming must go on. He must film the dying because if he didn't, they wouldn't die and he wouldn't have a story to tell. "If you lose the message - you lose your status as a witness if you try and save them."
I think that pretty much sums up the whole point of this story. This reporter would rather see his people die than to lose the chance for a story.
I think it is clear, it is this kind of media reporting that is put out by the mainstream media that is corrupting the minds of freedom-loving people of the world.
You know, I think knowing what we know about the world's media, I think it is high time to quit calling them the MSM, or the MAINSTREAM media. As they have such a huge liberal agenda, why should they even be given the nickname of "mainstream"? I think they need a new moniker. World's Main LIBERAL Media? World's Liberal-Stream Media?
Friday, December 26, 2008
Funhouse Mirror News
Brilliant piece of writing from Elder of Ziyon:
JERUSALEM, December 26 (FMN) - The UN today stepped up its pressure on the Arab world to send humanitarian aid to the besieged residents of Sderot, suffering under years of constant rocket bombardment from Iranian-backed Arabs.
"The brave people of the Negev are being forced out of their homes, in what can only be called ethnic cleansing," stated UN General Assembly President Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann. "This slow genocide is being ignored by the world at large, and the Arab world is responsible.
"The Arab world have been enforcing a siege on Israel for over sixty years. Basic humanitarian items are not allowed into Israel from most Arab countries, and Israel is likewise banned from selling its own goods to its neighboring states, hurting the economy of the tiny nation."
Legally, Israel is suffering under occupation, as the Arab states control all of Israel's land borders," stated Brockmann. "In addition, there are hundreds of Arab settlements in Israel itself, which have been the major obstacle to peace for decades."
"The Arab treatment of Jews and Israelis can only be described as a form of apartheid," said former US president Jimmy Carter as he visited Ashkelon in a solidarity visit. "Israel, one of the most crowded nations in the world, has been forced to give more and more land to the expansionist Arabs over the past decades, and it gets nothing in return. Peace requires full normalization, and I am disappointed that even Egypt and Jordan continue to incite against Jewish national self-determination."
"Israel has turned into an open-air concentration camp," asserted peace activist Lauren Booth last month. "The Israeli economy is being constrained by the Arab boycott of Israel, which is still largely in force. The occasional 'peace' treaties and tiny trickle of trade is just a facade by the Arab world meant to cover up their humanitarian crimes against the peaceful people of Israel and their aims to shrink Israel's land area into nothingness."
While all of Israel suffers from the Arab blockade, it is the residents of Sderot who are suffering the most lately from indiscriminate rocket attacks by the Iranian-funded Arabs of Gaza.
UN Human Rights investigator Richard Falk called the rocket attacks "a crime against humanity" and demanded that "the Arab states, flush with oil money, must provide Sderot residents with basic needs, like rocket shelters, psychologists and medical professionals."
"For sixty years, the Arab nations have conspired to block Jews from being able to return to their land. They have started overt and covert wars against the only Jewish state. The few Jews who remain in Arab countries suffer from official and unofficial discrimination.
"Hundreds of resolutions against the systematic Arab attempts to destroy Israel have been ignored by these expansionist states, and Israel remains besieged even after so many years. How long will the world remain silent?"
Academics such as John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt have also noted that world opinion tends to support the so-called "Arab Lobby" even as the genocidal intent of the Arab world is explicitly stated in their media and mosques. "The Arab influence on world governments is directly proportional to power of the Arab economy, which influences businesses and politicians in ways that can only be described as insidious. As a direct result, simple moral values become muddled as the Arab world works hard to influence the agendas of Western nations, to remarkable success," stated Walt in a lecture in Munich last Sunday.
JERUSALEM, December 26 (FMN) - The UN today stepped up its pressure on the Arab world to send humanitarian aid to the besieged residents of Sderot, suffering under years of constant rocket bombardment from Iranian-backed Arabs.
"The brave people of the Negev are being forced out of their homes, in what can only be called ethnic cleansing," stated UN General Assembly President Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann. "This slow genocide is being ignored by the world at large, and the Arab world is responsible.
"The Arab world have been enforcing a siege on Israel for over sixty years. Basic humanitarian items are not allowed into Israel from most Arab countries, and Israel is likewise banned from selling its own goods to its neighboring states, hurting the economy of the tiny nation."
Legally, Israel is suffering under occupation, as the Arab states control all of Israel's land borders," stated Brockmann. "In addition, there are hundreds of Arab settlements in Israel itself, which have been the major obstacle to peace for decades."
"The Arab treatment of Jews and Israelis can only be described as a form of apartheid," said former US president Jimmy Carter as he visited Ashkelon in a solidarity visit. "Israel, one of the most crowded nations in the world, has been forced to give more and more land to the expansionist Arabs over the past decades, and it gets nothing in return. Peace requires full normalization, and I am disappointed that even Egypt and Jordan continue to incite against Jewish national self-determination."
"Israel has turned into an open-air concentration camp," asserted peace activist Lauren Booth last month. "The Israeli economy is being constrained by the Arab boycott of Israel, which is still largely in force. The occasional 'peace' treaties and tiny trickle of trade is just a facade by the Arab world meant to cover up their humanitarian crimes against the peaceful people of Israel and their aims to shrink Israel's land area into nothingness."
While all of Israel suffers from the Arab blockade, it is the residents of Sderot who are suffering the most lately from indiscriminate rocket attacks by the Iranian-funded Arabs of Gaza.
UN Human Rights investigator Richard Falk called the rocket attacks "a crime against humanity" and demanded that "the Arab states, flush with oil money, must provide Sderot residents with basic needs, like rocket shelters, psychologists and medical professionals."
"For sixty years, the Arab nations have conspired to block Jews from being able to return to their land. They have started overt and covert wars against the only Jewish state. The few Jews who remain in Arab countries suffer from official and unofficial discrimination.
"Hundreds of resolutions against the systematic Arab attempts to destroy Israel have been ignored by these expansionist states, and Israel remains besieged even after so many years. How long will the world remain silent?"
Academics such as John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt have also noted that world opinion tends to support the so-called "Arab Lobby" even as the genocidal intent of the Arab world is explicitly stated in their media and mosques. "The Arab influence on world governments is directly proportional to power of the Arab economy, which influences businesses and politicians in ways that can only be described as insidious. As a direct result, simple moral values become muddled as the Arab world works hard to influence the agendas of Western nations, to remarkable success," stated Walt in a lecture in Munich last Sunday.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Separated at birth
At the request of one my rare visitors, I give you the Iguanarafart (begging forgiveness from all the iguanas, snakes and crocodiles, and all the rest of God's beautiful and innocent creatures).
Samir Kuntar - part II
Torture. To die, and quickly.
The first thing I saw was a guy grabbing me by the hair and bringing his foot down on my belly. I was dizzy and couldn't feel anything. I think they must have sprayed something through my nose or something like that. We were still on the beach. I felt my strength returning to me. Two of them picked me up, one on each side of me and started running. Then stood me up and asked: "How many of you are there? Who are you? How did you get here?" I told them we got there by boat. They asked who the commander was. I said: "He died." (What on earth happened to the hero in you, Samir? You were brave enough to kill unarmed civilians, including a little girl, but when they caught you red-handed you couldn't admit you were the God damn leader? You filthy cowardly piece of human refuse!) Some soldiers put me in a jeep and then they got in as well. Then someone else arrived. They started threatening to shoot me. They asked: "Where are they waiting for your return to Lebanon with the hostages?." I gave them the name of some other place, "Rosh ha-Ain" in Lebanon. My team mates also thought that's where we were supposed to be heading back to. In fact we were supposed to back to Jal-el-Baher, near Tyre, where Abu-Abbas and the other big bosses were expecting us. They probably sent a patrol to Rosh-ha-Ain, because they came back to me and told me I was lying. They pointed there guns at me at threatened to shoot me. I said I didn’t care. I told them to shoot me. I wanted to die. I was pissed off because of how I had been captured. I kept asking myself, how did I fall into their hands? (those filthy Jewish hands, right, Samir?). What kept me going was the thought that I wouldn't be able to hang in there. I was sure I was going to die, because of my injury. It was a pretty bad wound.
That's when the torture started. Someone poked their finger through my wound, where the bullet went in. I felt terrible pressure. Then they banged my head on the table. They punched me with their fists. All they wanted to know was where my buddies were in Lebanon.
About an hour later they blindfolded me. They took me to a helicopter. When we were up in the sky the pushed me close to the door, as if they were going to chuck me down. They did it several times. Each time they told me they were going to dump me. Then they'd pull me back inside. After the landing we drove away in a car for what must have been no more than two or three minutes.
I found myself inside a room, some sort of surgery. This is where my story begins. That was my prison, the Tzrifin interrogation unit.
First thing they did, they took away my blindfold. Then they sat me on the table and hit me a couple of times. There must have been two or three civilians and a few soldiers. The civilians were the ones hitting me. They took my clothes off and laid me down on the couch. They started cleaning and dressing my wound just like that, without anesthesia (Samir, baby, you are breaking my heart. Not that a prisoner does not deserve humane treatment. Because they do. I am only thinking what kind of treatment you arabs extend our Israeli prisoners. Where's me hanky?). There was a doctor there, perhaps two. One of them was okay. I remember he had a syringe in his hand, probably some kind of local anesthesia, but the other doctor snatched it from his hand and threw it down on the table. (How can you be sure that he wasn't going to inject you with some lethal drug and that the other one saved your miserable life?). Never in my life had I imagined that there could be a physician like that. (Who in their right mind could have imagined that hell had spat out such a monstrous creature as yourself?)
The cruel doctor started to tend to my wound. I had taken a bullet in my chest, hands and shoulder. It hurt so bad that I passed out while he was working on me. It was a nightmare. When I woke up they put something in my vein. When it was over, some guy whom I had never seen before came into the room. He had a long red beard and knitted skullcap. I thought he was going to cleaning man. He asked me: "Where is Talat Yakoub?" That was the secretary general of my organization. He spoke very good Arabic, the bearded man did. I said: "He might be in Yemen." My organization had very good relations with South Yemen in those days. He took me seriously. He said: "Are you sure?" I said yes. Then he said: "Right, when you are done here, I wish to speak to you again." There were soldiers around me all the time. He stepped out of the room, but came back in: "Where did you say they were waiting for you in Lebanon?" I got angry: "Why do you keep asking me all these questions? What is this world coming to when a cleaning man is interrogating me?" He snapped back at me: "Me a cleaning man? Me?"
They gave me military fatigues, the kind their paratroopers wore in the 60's I think. They slipped a bag over my head, took me for a short walk and then brought me back into the room. I was still hand-cuffed. (Didn't he just say that he had been shot in the hands? No discomfort from the cuffs? Just wondering…). They didn’t give me anything to drink until the next day. I started hallucinating. The religious guy started hitting me (for real or in your hallucinations?). That was "the toughest part of all", the real torture. (You were hallucinating, you just said so).
That was the second day of my interrogation. They started asking me about the little girl. How she got killed. They asked me who shot her. Only later did they start talking about how she died from having her head bashed in with a rifle butt. Abu-Zakan (Abu-Beard, pejorative term for the bearded-man) went away for two hours and then came back again. He said: "No, you killed her." I started arguing with him: "No way!" He said again: "You killed her, and now you are going to sign a confession." I insisted: "No, I didn't kill her." They beat me and tied me outside. You see, my skin is still bearing the signs of being suspended from the wrists. I was cuffed to an iron bar, just like that, with my hands up, for five days. I stood up, then my body went limp, and I fainted, but then all the pressure was on my wrists. Every now and then a soldier would bring a rubber pipe and hit me with it real hard. When he went away, another one would come by. They practiced karate blows on my body. I was blindfolded all the time, I couldn’t see anything. I figure however that it must have been some sort of inner yard. Abu-Zakan, you know, the religious guy, came to see me every now and then and he'd tell me: "You'll talk soon." They never let me sit down or lie down. They'd finish practicing karate blows, and then they'd take me to Abu-Zakan for questioning.
I was beaten for half a day. Then they took me back to the surgery. There they beat me again. They told me that my parents' home had been bombed, that the IAF had destroyed my home while everyone was inside (such a shame they didn't). I believed them. Abu-Zakan kept slapping and punching me. There was a table in the room, with a long wooden bench next to it. They made me sit on it. Then tied me up with ropes and hit me, sometimes with a rubber pipe. Then they forced me to lie down on the floor. Soldiers brought in loudspeakers, put one on each side of my head, next to my ears, and played loud sirens in my ears, over and over again until I fainted.
Abu-Zakan said: "You will write what I'm telling you." I asked him what he wanted. He was the main interrogator. He stuck to me as if he was my God. He said: "I want you to tell me what I told you this morning." I said okay. The torture I had been subjected to had broken me. I wanted to die, but I could see that I wasn't dead. I had reached the point where I was thinking that if they were so cruel to me, what do I care? I'll say that I killed the little girl. Who was she anyway? I thought to myself that they all deserved to die, what was I ashamed of? I signed the confession. He was happy. He gave me some water to drink.
They asked me where I had trained, for how long, all kinds of questions. It was the third day. I didn’t give them anything. Part of What I was telling them were made-up stories. I was still handcuffed to a pipe. They were still beating me. Those were the first five. All I wanted to do was die. Then they started pressuring me to appear on TV. They told me what to say, that my commanders were traitors, drug-dealers. That they ridiculed and used me, that they had taken advantage of my being under age, that I killed the little girl and broke her skull." They wrote it all down for me in Arabic. I refused; I wasn't going to cross my own red lines.
I hated Abu-Zakan. At one point I wanted to kill because of the way he was torturing me. He was cruel, a monster. A settler, I believe. I had seen people like him on TV. You know, he is the spitting image of Rabbi Levinger, except he is a little fatter.
I couldn't take it any more. The beatings, the humiliation, the cursing, the loudspeakers playing sirens in my ears. My hands were cuffed in the front, because of my wounds. I was seated across the table from him. He got up, hit me and went back to his seat again. I picked up the desk lamp and hit him with it. I wanted to kill him, but he pressed his distress button and help arrived instantly. They started slapping and punching me, they used wooden bats and rubber pipes. Then they charged me with attempted murder of a security officer after my arrest.
I was thrown in a cell the size of a wardrobe. I couldn't stretch my legs and I couldn’t sleep. I was cuffed all the time. The walls of the cell were painted red and there was no window, except a small opening in the ceiling, an air-hole. There was a small slot at the bottom of the door, where they'd shove my food in: two slices of bread and a carrot. Sometimes they'd give me a small piece of cheese for breakfast. And water. How did I tell night from day? By the cock crow, and by the sound of traffic, of cars passing by. There was also a donkey nearby. And birds.
There was a big barrel next to me, to relieve myself. They'd empty it every few weeks. Sometimes soldiers would come in for a bit of fun. They'd take me out of the cell with a bag over my face, and they'd make me run until I'd bang my head against the wall. I was still being taken away for interrogation, even after the first five days, but not as frequently.
The trial. Blood on their hands.
One morning, five months after my arrest, they gave me back my clothes, the ones I was wearing for the operation, my pants and my shirt. The shirt was torn, I couldn’t wear it. So they gave me a military shirt. The pants were stained with blood. I was wearing my own shoes. They took me to Jalame, Kishon, near Haifa. First thing they gave me lunch, something quite different, rice and meat. For the first time since April I was eating meat.
From Jalame they took me to Acco police station. There I met Abras, my partner. I was sure he had been killed. We hugged, Abras and I. I asked him why he didn't blow himself up after I had given specific orders to detonate the charge. To this day I can't understand why he didn't do it. I sometimes envy my buddies who were killed in the attack. They were spared so much suffering.
Then they transferred me to Nitzan prison and then to Ayalon Prison, where I shared a cell with Kozo Okomoto. Okomoto was one of the prisoners whose release we wanted to secure by the attack on Beit-Shean. He was finished, he had gone mad. They were giving him all kinds of treatments, you wouldn't want to know. He was very short and thin, and in very poor mental shape. He never spoke.
My trial opened in November, at the Haifa District Court. It lasted three months. For me it was a circus show. I asked that Lea Tsemel defend me, but it never happened. There were 52 witnesses. I testified for an hour and a half, in Arabic. The sentence was passed down on January 20, 1980. I was sentenced to five life terms plus 48 years. During the trial I heard for the first time the names of Eliahu Shahar, Einat and Danny Haran and also Smadar Haran, his surviving widow.
Smadar "adopted" me as her private prisoner, her pet project. She couldn't understand that it was a national matter, not a personal one. I didn't bring a note with the Harans' names on it form Lebanon. I came as part of a conflict that I strongly believed I should be a part of. I was acting on behalf of my people, of my nation. I didn't steal anything, I didn’t break into a car. Even if I spend sit a hundred years in jail I will not change my mind. This is what I think. You are heading straight for the wall. You are playing a lose-lose game. But you are the strong side. You should give up, otherwise it will never work. This is how I see it. I think of myself as a Palestinian. It's like asking an Israeli soldiers if he is sorry he fired. You don't ask a soldier. You say "a terrorist with blood on his hands". This is a very cynical thing to say. (I agree, we should say terrorists with blood on their heads). Your hands are also stained with blood. Every tax-paying Israeli citizen has blood on his hands. All of you have blood on your hands. (How could we let this thing walk free?)
People who decide to commit terrorist attacks, like me, we are not bloodthirsty. You can't say that we woke up one morning, without knowing what the Palestinian people is, having grown up within this conflict, and decided just like that to commit a terrorist attack (you're right, dear, this is where propaganda comes in, all those lies and myths about the Palestinian people and what we did to them. And they have no problems using minors, like you. All fucked up, but still minors). Not at all. And it wasn't sudden either. It was part of a growing process. (Like I said, dear, all that propaganda, every time they'd come up with something new and more inflated.) It blended in well with the political and ideological roots. Neither is it a matter of age. It does not matter how old I was. Young people are more motivated, so perhaps age had something to do with it, but it was not the main things. I was strongly attracted to the Palestinians. I always believed, even when I applied to be admitted into the ranks of the unit, that we shouldn't enjoy life and let the next generation be consumed by the flames of the conflict. I wanted to fight for the rights of the Palestinian people. For me it was the moral, humane thing to do, to sacrifice myself for the suffering of these people, with whom I felt so connected. I was no mercenary.
Prison. Zionism in Hebrew.
Life becomes complicated for one who spends years locked up in jail, like me. Life in prison is not easy. A human being cannot get used to being locked up. All through the years I've asked myself whether anyone else would have been able to go through what I have gone through, and my answer is no. This does not mean that I am expressing regret. No way. I just think of myself as someone able to bear these things. I am not so sure that others would have been able to hang in there.
I survived, however. After the trial I was kept in isolation for half a year. That was the rule for those involved in a "smart" attack. Later on I was allowed to mix with the regulars. In 1984 I was transferred to Nafha prison, where I spent 20 years. I was also kept in isolation in Be'er Sheva, for long periods of time. I learned Hebrew. I started with cigarette packs. I compared the letters in Hebrew and in Arabic. Then I learned a few words. Then I was allowed to take a Bachelor's degree in social sciences at the Open University, in Hebrew, via correspondence. There was a course on the Holocaust. Nobody wanted to take it, but me. I got a 90 in the course on security surprises during WWII. I learned there about Pearl Harbor, about the Barbarossa operation. Then I enrolled for my Master's Degree, but they wouldn't let me finish.
I read a lot. I could barely sleep at night. I don't like sleeping anyway. I live to live life to the full, to enjoy every minute of my life, even if I am in jail. I ordered books via the canteen. Everything they published about the army, security, the wars in the region, Zionism, I made every effort to read them. I am against Zionism, not Jews (A-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!). I am against Zionist politics. I think that the establishment of the State of Israel was a mistake, but I don’t hate Jews (A-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!). I read Uri Sagi's "Lights in the Mist", Gilad Sher's "Just Beyond Reach", The Zionist Lexicon", books about wars. I've already sent some of these books to Lebanon. I want them there when I go home. You need to learn about the enemy. You can't fight if you don't know everything about the one you are fighting against. I've also seen Israeli movies, "Officer Azoulay", he reminded me of Israeli policemen. I am also familiar with Israeli music and the Israeli experience: Shlomo Artzi "Beneath the Middle East Skies" (sic). (It is in fact " Beneath the Mediterranean Skies").
In the 80's my eldest sister, Sana, died. She was like a mother to me. Of all my siblings it is she that I felt closest to. The news came in a letter that I received from my family via the Red Cross. It is customary in jail that when someone's relative dies, everybody sits with him. I mourned by myself.
My father passed away in 1986, but I found out one year later. We had never spoken since my capture. In his first letter to me, delivered via the Red Cross, he spoke about how he suffered that I was away from him, and because of what he imagined I was going through. I could feel him crying. He reminded me how far away I was from home. He never mentioned Amsterdam. He just said: "Stay healthy, and whatever you need we will send you." His following letters were encouraging.
My father and my eldest sister had been with me all my life. I am certain that my father would have lived longer had things been different (you mean if you hadn’t come to Israel to commit a most heinous crime. I agree, you killed your own father, God have mercy on your miserable excuse for a soul!). It hurt. My father was not a "what if" kind of person. I know that others also paid a very heavy price in this conflict and that my family is not the only one. My father never wrote to me: "Why did you do it?" That was not his style. After 1982, when the Phalanges entered my village, he even sent my brother to join the fighting. He left his job in Saudi Arabia after I was captured. He stayed in Lebanon. His health began to deteriorate, and then he died.
to be continued
The first thing I saw was a guy grabbing me by the hair and bringing his foot down on my belly. I was dizzy and couldn't feel anything. I think they must have sprayed something through my nose or something like that. We were still on the beach. I felt my strength returning to me. Two of them picked me up, one on each side of me and started running. Then stood me up and asked: "How many of you are there? Who are you? How did you get here?" I told them we got there by boat. They asked who the commander was. I said: "He died." (What on earth happened to the hero in you, Samir? You were brave enough to kill unarmed civilians, including a little girl, but when they caught you red-handed you couldn't admit you were the God damn leader? You filthy cowardly piece of human refuse!) Some soldiers put me in a jeep and then they got in as well. Then someone else arrived. They started threatening to shoot me. They asked: "Where are they waiting for your return to Lebanon with the hostages?." I gave them the name of some other place, "Rosh ha-Ain" in Lebanon. My team mates also thought that's where we were supposed to be heading back to. In fact we were supposed to back to Jal-el-Baher, near Tyre, where Abu-Abbas and the other big bosses were expecting us. They probably sent a patrol to Rosh-ha-Ain, because they came back to me and told me I was lying. They pointed there guns at me at threatened to shoot me. I said I didn’t care. I told them to shoot me. I wanted to die. I was pissed off because of how I had been captured. I kept asking myself, how did I fall into their hands? (those filthy Jewish hands, right, Samir?). What kept me going was the thought that I wouldn't be able to hang in there. I was sure I was going to die, because of my injury. It was a pretty bad wound.
That's when the torture started. Someone poked their finger through my wound, where the bullet went in. I felt terrible pressure. Then they banged my head on the table. They punched me with their fists. All they wanted to know was where my buddies were in Lebanon.
About an hour later they blindfolded me. They took me to a helicopter. When we were up in the sky the pushed me close to the door, as if they were going to chuck me down. They did it several times. Each time they told me they were going to dump me. Then they'd pull me back inside. After the landing we drove away in a car for what must have been no more than two or three minutes.
I found myself inside a room, some sort of surgery. This is where my story begins. That was my prison, the Tzrifin interrogation unit.
First thing they did, they took away my blindfold. Then they sat me on the table and hit me a couple of times. There must have been two or three civilians and a few soldiers. The civilians were the ones hitting me. They took my clothes off and laid me down on the couch. They started cleaning and dressing my wound just like that, without anesthesia (Samir, baby, you are breaking my heart. Not that a prisoner does not deserve humane treatment. Because they do. I am only thinking what kind of treatment you arabs extend our Israeli prisoners. Where's me hanky?). There was a doctor there, perhaps two. One of them was okay. I remember he had a syringe in his hand, probably some kind of local anesthesia, but the other doctor snatched it from his hand and threw it down on the table. (How can you be sure that he wasn't going to inject you with some lethal drug and that the other one saved your miserable life?). Never in my life had I imagined that there could be a physician like that. (Who in their right mind could have imagined that hell had spat out such a monstrous creature as yourself?)
The cruel doctor started to tend to my wound. I had taken a bullet in my chest, hands and shoulder. It hurt so bad that I passed out while he was working on me. It was a nightmare. When I woke up they put something in my vein. When it was over, some guy whom I had never seen before came into the room. He had a long red beard and knitted skullcap. I thought he was going to cleaning man. He asked me: "Where is Talat Yakoub?" That was the secretary general of my organization. He spoke very good Arabic, the bearded man did. I said: "He might be in Yemen." My organization had very good relations with South Yemen in those days. He took me seriously. He said: "Are you sure?" I said yes. Then he said: "Right, when you are done here, I wish to speak to you again." There were soldiers around me all the time. He stepped out of the room, but came back in: "Where did you say they were waiting for you in Lebanon?" I got angry: "Why do you keep asking me all these questions? What is this world coming to when a cleaning man is interrogating me?" He snapped back at me: "Me a cleaning man? Me?"
They gave me military fatigues, the kind their paratroopers wore in the 60's I think. They slipped a bag over my head, took me for a short walk and then brought me back into the room. I was still hand-cuffed. (Didn't he just say that he had been shot in the hands? No discomfort from the cuffs? Just wondering…). They didn’t give me anything to drink until the next day. I started hallucinating. The religious guy started hitting me (for real or in your hallucinations?). That was "the toughest part of all", the real torture. (You were hallucinating, you just said so).
That was the second day of my interrogation. They started asking me about the little girl. How she got killed. They asked me who shot her. Only later did they start talking about how she died from having her head bashed in with a rifle butt. Abu-Zakan (Abu-Beard, pejorative term for the bearded-man) went away for two hours and then came back again. He said: "No, you killed her." I started arguing with him: "No way!" He said again: "You killed her, and now you are going to sign a confession." I insisted: "No, I didn't kill her." They beat me and tied me outside. You see, my skin is still bearing the signs of being suspended from the wrists. I was cuffed to an iron bar, just like that, with my hands up, for five days. I stood up, then my body went limp, and I fainted, but then all the pressure was on my wrists. Every now and then a soldier would bring a rubber pipe and hit me with it real hard. When he went away, another one would come by. They practiced karate blows on my body. I was blindfolded all the time, I couldn’t see anything. I figure however that it must have been some sort of inner yard. Abu-Zakan, you know, the religious guy, came to see me every now and then and he'd tell me: "You'll talk soon." They never let me sit down or lie down. They'd finish practicing karate blows, and then they'd take me to Abu-Zakan for questioning.
I was beaten for half a day. Then they took me back to the surgery. There they beat me again. They told me that my parents' home had been bombed, that the IAF had destroyed my home while everyone was inside (such a shame they didn't). I believed them. Abu-Zakan kept slapping and punching me. There was a table in the room, with a long wooden bench next to it. They made me sit on it. Then tied me up with ropes and hit me, sometimes with a rubber pipe. Then they forced me to lie down on the floor. Soldiers brought in loudspeakers, put one on each side of my head, next to my ears, and played loud sirens in my ears, over and over again until I fainted.
Abu-Zakan said: "You will write what I'm telling you." I asked him what he wanted. He was the main interrogator. He stuck to me as if he was my God. He said: "I want you to tell me what I told you this morning." I said okay. The torture I had been subjected to had broken me. I wanted to die, but I could see that I wasn't dead. I had reached the point where I was thinking that if they were so cruel to me, what do I care? I'll say that I killed the little girl. Who was she anyway? I thought to myself that they all deserved to die, what was I ashamed of? I signed the confession. He was happy. He gave me some water to drink.
They asked me where I had trained, for how long, all kinds of questions. It was the third day. I didn’t give them anything. Part of What I was telling them were made-up stories. I was still handcuffed to a pipe. They were still beating me. Those were the first five. All I wanted to do was die. Then they started pressuring me to appear on TV. They told me what to say, that my commanders were traitors, drug-dealers. That they ridiculed and used me, that they had taken advantage of my being under age, that I killed the little girl and broke her skull." They wrote it all down for me in Arabic. I refused; I wasn't going to cross my own red lines.
I hated Abu-Zakan. At one point I wanted to kill because of the way he was torturing me. He was cruel, a monster. A settler, I believe. I had seen people like him on TV. You know, he is the spitting image of Rabbi Levinger, except he is a little fatter.
I couldn't take it any more. The beatings, the humiliation, the cursing, the loudspeakers playing sirens in my ears. My hands were cuffed in the front, because of my wounds. I was seated across the table from him. He got up, hit me and went back to his seat again. I picked up the desk lamp and hit him with it. I wanted to kill him, but he pressed his distress button and help arrived instantly. They started slapping and punching me, they used wooden bats and rubber pipes. Then they charged me with attempted murder of a security officer after my arrest.
I was thrown in a cell the size of a wardrobe. I couldn't stretch my legs and I couldn’t sleep. I was cuffed all the time. The walls of the cell were painted red and there was no window, except a small opening in the ceiling, an air-hole. There was a small slot at the bottom of the door, where they'd shove my food in: two slices of bread and a carrot. Sometimes they'd give me a small piece of cheese for breakfast. And water. How did I tell night from day? By the cock crow, and by the sound of traffic, of cars passing by. There was also a donkey nearby. And birds.
There was a big barrel next to me, to relieve myself. They'd empty it every few weeks. Sometimes soldiers would come in for a bit of fun. They'd take me out of the cell with a bag over my face, and they'd make me run until I'd bang my head against the wall. I was still being taken away for interrogation, even after the first five days, but not as frequently.
The trial. Blood on their hands.
One morning, five months after my arrest, they gave me back my clothes, the ones I was wearing for the operation, my pants and my shirt. The shirt was torn, I couldn’t wear it. So they gave me a military shirt. The pants were stained with blood. I was wearing my own shoes. They took me to Jalame, Kishon, near Haifa. First thing they gave me lunch, something quite different, rice and meat. For the first time since April I was eating meat.
From Jalame they took me to Acco police station. There I met Abras, my partner. I was sure he had been killed. We hugged, Abras and I. I asked him why he didn't blow himself up after I had given specific orders to detonate the charge. To this day I can't understand why he didn't do it. I sometimes envy my buddies who were killed in the attack. They were spared so much suffering.
Then they transferred me to Nitzan prison and then to Ayalon Prison, where I shared a cell with Kozo Okomoto. Okomoto was one of the prisoners whose release we wanted to secure by the attack on Beit-Shean. He was finished, he had gone mad. They were giving him all kinds of treatments, you wouldn't want to know. He was very short and thin, and in very poor mental shape. He never spoke.
My trial opened in November, at the Haifa District Court. It lasted three months. For me it was a circus show. I asked that Lea Tsemel defend me, but it never happened. There were 52 witnesses. I testified for an hour and a half, in Arabic. The sentence was passed down on January 20, 1980. I was sentenced to five life terms plus 48 years. During the trial I heard for the first time the names of Eliahu Shahar, Einat and Danny Haran and also Smadar Haran, his surviving widow.
Smadar "adopted" me as her private prisoner, her pet project. She couldn't understand that it was a national matter, not a personal one. I didn't bring a note with the Harans' names on it form Lebanon. I came as part of a conflict that I strongly believed I should be a part of. I was acting on behalf of my people, of my nation. I didn't steal anything, I didn’t break into a car. Even if I spend sit a hundred years in jail I will not change my mind. This is what I think. You are heading straight for the wall. You are playing a lose-lose game. But you are the strong side. You should give up, otherwise it will never work. This is how I see it. I think of myself as a Palestinian. It's like asking an Israeli soldiers if he is sorry he fired. You don't ask a soldier. You say "a terrorist with blood on his hands". This is a very cynical thing to say. (I agree, we should say terrorists with blood on their heads). Your hands are also stained with blood. Every tax-paying Israeli citizen has blood on his hands. All of you have blood on your hands. (How could we let this thing walk free?)
People who decide to commit terrorist attacks, like me, we are not bloodthirsty. You can't say that we woke up one morning, without knowing what the Palestinian people is, having grown up within this conflict, and decided just like that to commit a terrorist attack (you're right, dear, this is where propaganda comes in, all those lies and myths about the Palestinian people and what we did to them. And they have no problems using minors, like you. All fucked up, but still minors). Not at all. And it wasn't sudden either. It was part of a growing process. (Like I said, dear, all that propaganda, every time they'd come up with something new and more inflated.) It blended in well with the political and ideological roots. Neither is it a matter of age. It does not matter how old I was. Young people are more motivated, so perhaps age had something to do with it, but it was not the main things. I was strongly attracted to the Palestinians. I always believed, even when I applied to be admitted into the ranks of the unit, that we shouldn't enjoy life and let the next generation be consumed by the flames of the conflict. I wanted to fight for the rights of the Palestinian people. For me it was the moral, humane thing to do, to sacrifice myself for the suffering of these people, with whom I felt so connected. I was no mercenary.
Prison. Zionism in Hebrew.
Life becomes complicated for one who spends years locked up in jail, like me. Life in prison is not easy. A human being cannot get used to being locked up. All through the years I've asked myself whether anyone else would have been able to go through what I have gone through, and my answer is no. This does not mean that I am expressing regret. No way. I just think of myself as someone able to bear these things. I am not so sure that others would have been able to hang in there.
I survived, however. After the trial I was kept in isolation for half a year. That was the rule for those involved in a "smart" attack. Later on I was allowed to mix with the regulars. In 1984 I was transferred to Nafha prison, where I spent 20 years. I was also kept in isolation in Be'er Sheva, for long periods of time. I learned Hebrew. I started with cigarette packs. I compared the letters in Hebrew and in Arabic. Then I learned a few words. Then I was allowed to take a Bachelor's degree in social sciences at the Open University, in Hebrew, via correspondence. There was a course on the Holocaust. Nobody wanted to take it, but me. I got a 90 in the course on security surprises during WWII. I learned there about Pearl Harbor, about the Barbarossa operation. Then I enrolled for my Master's Degree, but they wouldn't let me finish.
I read a lot. I could barely sleep at night. I don't like sleeping anyway. I live to live life to the full, to enjoy every minute of my life, even if I am in jail. I ordered books via the canteen. Everything they published about the army, security, the wars in the region, Zionism, I made every effort to read them. I am against Zionism, not Jews (A-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!). I am against Zionist politics. I think that the establishment of the State of Israel was a mistake, but I don’t hate Jews (A-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!). I read Uri Sagi's "Lights in the Mist", Gilad Sher's "Just Beyond Reach", The Zionist Lexicon", books about wars. I've already sent some of these books to Lebanon. I want them there when I go home. You need to learn about the enemy. You can't fight if you don't know everything about the one you are fighting against. I've also seen Israeli movies, "Officer Azoulay", he reminded me of Israeli policemen. I am also familiar with Israeli music and the Israeli experience: Shlomo Artzi "Beneath the Middle East Skies" (sic). (It is in fact " Beneath the Mediterranean Skies").
In the 80's my eldest sister, Sana, died. She was like a mother to me. Of all my siblings it is she that I felt closest to. The news came in a letter that I received from my family via the Red Cross. It is customary in jail that when someone's relative dies, everybody sits with him. I mourned by myself.
My father passed away in 1986, but I found out one year later. We had never spoken since my capture. In his first letter to me, delivered via the Red Cross, he spoke about how he suffered that I was away from him, and because of what he imagined I was going through. I could feel him crying. He reminded me how far away I was from home. He never mentioned Amsterdam. He just said: "Stay healthy, and whatever you need we will send you." His following letters were encouraging.
My father and my eldest sister had been with me all my life. I am certain that my father would have lived longer had things been different (you mean if you hadn’t come to Israel to commit a most heinous crime. I agree, you killed your own father, God have mercy on your miserable excuse for a soul!). It hurt. My father was not a "what if" kind of person. I know that others also paid a very heavy price in this conflict and that my family is not the only one. My father never wrote to me: "Why did you do it?" That was not his style. After 1982, when the Phalanges entered my village, he even sent my brother to join the fighting. He left his job in Saudi Arabia after I was captured. He stayed in Lebanon. His health began to deteriorate, and then he died.
to be continued
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Saturday, November 01, 2008
National Poet or Cannibal?
Mahmoud Darwish has been reunited with his forefathers. He left a legacy of hatred, bitterness and nightmarish visions of cannibalism. Take, e.g., his poem "Identity Card":
I do not hate people
Nor do I encroach
But if I become hungry
The occupier's flesh will be my food
Beware..
Beware..
Of my hunger,
Of my anger!
It seems that he became hungry (perhaps even hungry and angry), ate the occupier's flesh and choked on the occupier's bone. Oh dear, oh dear! Or maybe he succumbed to the bitterness and hatred gnawing away at his heart. He was 67-years-old. He fled Israel as a young man. Had he chosen to stay in Israel, he might have benefited from the ever improved longevity our beleaguered little country is blessed with. Other, no less (perhaps even a tad bit more) respectable, Arab intellectuals stayed put under the "occupier", and despite claims of genocide, ethnic cleansing, systematic, indiscriminate yada yada, managed to live to a ripe old age: e.g. Emile Habibi, who died in 1996 at the age of 76, or 86-years-old Tawfik Toubi, may he live to be 120.
However, let it be known, that the national poet of Palestine, Le poète de la résistance, the voice of the Palestinian whoryssey, opened his identity card poem with these controversial lines: "Record! I am an Arab!" Good grief! Isn't this proof from the oracle's mouth that Palestinians are Arabs and that all the brouhaha around their being the descendants of the ancient peoples of Canaan (some even go as far as to claim that they are in fact the descendants of the Israelites, perish the thought!) is just another lie aimed at denying us our right to live in the land of our forefathers? Not only that, but lo and behold, the honorable Independent in the UK quotes literary editor Iyad Rajoub that by 1996, Darwish "was no longer the poet of resistance, he was soft, he was living a luxurious life. I was shocked. I could not imagine that he was the one who had written 'Record! I am an Arab'." Much like Suha Arafat living la vida loca to the tune of hundreds of thousands of American dollars a month.
The other honorable mouthpiece in the UK, the Guardian (of anti-semitism and anti-Zionism, no doubt) also publishes a tearjerker for the intellectual who grew up in a house where "there were no books." But most of all, the Guardian and other mourners claim that Darwish was a "poet, author and politician who helped to forge a Palestinian consciousness after the six-day war in 1967".
Thus, while distinguished scholars cannot agree whether Jewish history in the Land of Israel can be traced back to the 7th century BCE or the 13th century BCE or in between, Palestinians, the "rightful owners of the land", are still arguing whether their national aspirations go back to 1919 (well, yes, barely 90 years ago), when the First Palestinian National Congress was held in Jerusalem, demanding an independent Palestinian government in federation with Syria and rejecting Zionist political claims, or 1948 (The Creation of the State of Israel) or 1967, the Six Day War. Their claims are legitimate, we are usurpers, occupiers. All within the grand span of 90 years. I mean, what is 2,500 – 3,500 years compared to 90? Or even better, compared to 40, as the mighty Guardian itself proclaims. Darwish helped forge a Palestinian consciousness after the Six-Day War. I suppose that has nothing to do with the fact that he studied in Moscow for some time (as did Abu Mazen, by the way) and were undoubtedly recruited and trained by the KGB and also here.
So I guess, yeah, one has to admit The Guardian got it right this time. The continuing humiliation of the Arab puppets and their Soviet handlers by a tiny (but top notch) Hebrew army helped forge (make that invent) the Palestinian consciousness, which has brought more than enough misery to the Palestinian themselves, seeing as they are right now engaging in savage tribal bloodshed.
As one Arab whose name escapes me, but who is basically in charge of the Moslem Holy sites in Israel, put it: the Temple Mount mosques became precious for all the 1.5 billion Moslems worldwide as soon as Israel occupied Jerusalem in June 1967. Why? you may well ask. Well, because they no longer had access to it, except those who do have access to it. Did it mean anything to them before 1967? Not much, since one has never heard of a compulsory pilgrimage to Jerusalem for Moslems, such as the Hajj to Mecca. Besides, they didn't care much for the mosques as weeds were growing all over the compound at the turn of the century. "As long as you are mine you can rot into oblivion, but you become the apple of my eye the minute you fall into the dirty hands of the invading Zionist gangs." Mind you, there was no road to write home about from Yaffo to Jerusalem until the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. The "road" was repaired to allow the Austrian Emperor his pilgrimage to Jerusalem en route to Suez for the official opening ceremony of the Canal. One might think that the Moslem rulers of the land (the Ottoman Empire), having the best interests of the "fidels" at heart, would have maintained some kind of thoroughfare to this the third holy place in Islam. One might, but then one would be wrong. The only way to travel from Yaffo to Jerusalem was on horse or camel back (or maybe donkey). The Austrian Emperor and his companions were expecting to travel by coach.
Anyways, in Palestinian parlance "occupier" has nothing whatsoever to do with the Six-Day War. The occupied territories are not Judea, Samaria and Gaza (which has become un-occupied in the mean time). Nope, what they mean is the Yahood, the Jewish State. According to sixth grade history textbooks published by the PA (PLO) - "The Modern History of Palestine" – the Green Line is an imaginary line which separates between lands occupied before 1967 and those occupied thereafter (could it be that this is what Yuli Tamir meant when she suggested teaching about the Green Line to Israeli students?
The Adoration of a Racist
Dan Margalit
August 11, 2008
Instead of mourning the loss of our national sovereignty on Tisha b'Av, the people of Zion were fussing over the coffin of Mahmoud Darwish, the Palestinian national poet, expressing their adoration for he who repeatedly called for the expulsion of the Jewish people from the Land of Israel and Judea: "Go away and taken the bones of your dead with you!". A Judenrein land with Judenrein graveyards. Ahmadinejad turned poet. A sort of "Nakba" to be visited on the Jews in Hebrew.
In order to remove all doubt: I could have agreed to the Israelis celebrating the poet of the enemy if he had raised the Palestinian flag and called the young men of his country to fight for their sovereignty, culture and even separatism. I could have even accepted his pan-Arabism. But Darwish supported the expulsion of an entire nation. Had he been a Jew and written the same words in Hebrew, he would have been branded a war criminal, a racist and a fascist.
Dr. Rafi Kishon reminded me the other day that the Ministry of Education tried to include some of Darwish's poetry in our textbooks, even before they even considered recommending a single line written by his own father, Ephraim Kishon. This evil spirit found a way to express itself as well.
It is part of our collapsing method of education for values. Ehud Olmert has national feelings, yet his government manages to remove 100 Jewish and Zionist definitions from the civic education curriculum. It readily allows any teacher to choose what to teach. Some teach about "Hear, oh Israel" and about the doctrines of David Ben-Gurion and Ze'ev Jabotinsky, while others teach about the "Nakba" and Darwish.
Democracy on liquidation sale. About a fortnight ago, at the end of Tamuz, Limor Livnat met with Ehud Olmert and Ze'ev Boim because the PM's office rejected the publication of a brochure on Jabotinski's death anniversary on the grounds that it quoted fragments from some of his articles, such as "The Iron Wall". She showed them what was deemed unsuitable for publication by the committee for preserving Jabotinsky's legacy which is subordinated to the PMO (which took Olmert by surprise), but nothing was done to remedy this idiotic blunder.
Still, the government would not allow Darwish to be buried in the Galilee. He will be laid to rest in Ramallah. But the sights and sounds [of the funeral] will not be forgotten too soon. Yesterday Israel went back 100 years in time, to the days of dancing "Oh, how beautiful you are, my beloved" before the landlord in Eastern Europe.
And last but not least, a few points made by Menachem Ben in his article Not Edible, published on August 15, 2008, in the culture supplement of Ma'ariv:
Darwish is lying when he accuses the Israelis of stealing his ancestral orchards and fields. There is no soul searching, no admission of guilt. No mention of the bloodthirsty gangs that started all the wars, beginning with 1948. Such a shame that no Israeli poet should stand up and speak out against this despicable propaganda.
Perhpas, Menachem, but thank heavens for journalists and bloggers.
I do not hate people
Nor do I encroach
But if I become hungry
The occupier's flesh will be my food
Beware..
Beware..
Of my hunger,
Of my anger!
It seems that he became hungry (perhaps even hungry and angry), ate the occupier's flesh and choked on the occupier's bone. Oh dear, oh dear! Or maybe he succumbed to the bitterness and hatred gnawing away at his heart. He was 67-years-old. He fled Israel as a young man. Had he chosen to stay in Israel, he might have benefited from the ever improved longevity our beleaguered little country is blessed with. Other, no less (perhaps even a tad bit more) respectable, Arab intellectuals stayed put under the "occupier", and despite claims of genocide, ethnic cleansing, systematic, indiscriminate yada yada, managed to live to a ripe old age: e.g. Emile Habibi, who died in 1996 at the age of 76, or 86-years-old Tawfik Toubi, may he live to be 120.
However, let it be known, that the national poet of Palestine, Le poète de la résistance, the voice of the Palestinian whoryssey, opened his identity card poem with these controversial lines: "Record! I am an Arab!" Good grief! Isn't this proof from the oracle's mouth that Palestinians are Arabs and that all the brouhaha around their being the descendants of the ancient peoples of Canaan (some even go as far as to claim that they are in fact the descendants of the Israelites, perish the thought!) is just another lie aimed at denying us our right to live in the land of our forefathers? Not only that, but lo and behold, the honorable Independent in the UK quotes literary editor Iyad Rajoub that by 1996, Darwish "was no longer the poet of resistance, he was soft, he was living a luxurious life. I was shocked. I could not imagine that he was the one who had written 'Record! I am an Arab'." Much like Suha Arafat living la vida loca to the tune of hundreds of thousands of American dollars a month.
The other honorable mouthpiece in the UK, the Guardian (of anti-semitism and anti-Zionism, no doubt) also publishes a tearjerker for the intellectual who grew up in a house where "there were no books." But most of all, the Guardian and other mourners claim that Darwish was a "poet, author and politician who helped to forge a Palestinian consciousness after the six-day war in 1967".
Thus, while distinguished scholars cannot agree whether Jewish history in the Land of Israel can be traced back to the 7th century BCE or the 13th century BCE or in between, Palestinians, the "rightful owners of the land", are still arguing whether their national aspirations go back to 1919 (well, yes, barely 90 years ago), when the First Palestinian National Congress was held in Jerusalem, demanding an independent Palestinian government in federation with Syria and rejecting Zionist political claims, or 1948 (The Creation of the State of Israel) or 1967, the Six Day War. Their claims are legitimate, we are usurpers, occupiers. All within the grand span of 90 years. I mean, what is 2,500 – 3,500 years compared to 90? Or even better, compared to 40, as the mighty Guardian itself proclaims. Darwish helped forge a Palestinian consciousness after the Six-Day War. I suppose that has nothing to do with the fact that he studied in Moscow for some time (as did Abu Mazen, by the way) and were undoubtedly recruited and trained by the KGB and also here.
So I guess, yeah, one has to admit The Guardian got it right this time. The continuing humiliation of the Arab puppets and their Soviet handlers by a tiny (but top notch) Hebrew army helped forge (make that invent) the Palestinian consciousness, which has brought more than enough misery to the Palestinian themselves, seeing as they are right now engaging in savage tribal bloodshed.
As one Arab whose name escapes me, but who is basically in charge of the Moslem Holy sites in Israel, put it: the Temple Mount mosques became precious for all the 1.5 billion Moslems worldwide as soon as Israel occupied Jerusalem in June 1967. Why? you may well ask. Well, because they no longer had access to it, except those who do have access to it. Did it mean anything to them before 1967? Not much, since one has never heard of a compulsory pilgrimage to Jerusalem for Moslems, such as the Hajj to Mecca. Besides, they didn't care much for the mosques as weeds were growing all over the compound at the turn of the century. "As long as you are mine you can rot into oblivion, but you become the apple of my eye the minute you fall into the dirty hands of the invading Zionist gangs." Mind you, there was no road to write home about from Yaffo to Jerusalem until the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. The "road" was repaired to allow the Austrian Emperor his pilgrimage to Jerusalem en route to Suez for the official opening ceremony of the Canal. One might think that the Moslem rulers of the land (the Ottoman Empire), having the best interests of the "fidels" at heart, would have maintained some kind of thoroughfare to this the third holy place in Islam. One might, but then one would be wrong. The only way to travel from Yaffo to Jerusalem was on horse or camel back (or maybe donkey). The Austrian Emperor and his companions were expecting to travel by coach.
Anyways, in Palestinian parlance "occupier" has nothing whatsoever to do with the Six-Day War. The occupied territories are not Judea, Samaria and Gaza (which has become un-occupied in the mean time). Nope, what they mean is the Yahood, the Jewish State. According to sixth grade history textbooks published by the PA (PLO) - "The Modern History of Palestine" – the Green Line is an imaginary line which separates between lands occupied before 1967 and those occupied thereafter (could it be that this is what Yuli Tamir meant when she suggested teaching about the Green Line to Israeli students?
The Adoration of a Racist
Dan Margalit
August 11, 2008
Instead of mourning the loss of our national sovereignty on Tisha b'Av, the people of Zion were fussing over the coffin of Mahmoud Darwish, the Palestinian national poet, expressing their adoration for he who repeatedly called for the expulsion of the Jewish people from the Land of Israel and Judea: "Go away and taken the bones of your dead with you!". A Judenrein land with Judenrein graveyards. Ahmadinejad turned poet. A sort of "Nakba" to be visited on the Jews in Hebrew.
In order to remove all doubt: I could have agreed to the Israelis celebrating the poet of the enemy if he had raised the Palestinian flag and called the young men of his country to fight for their sovereignty, culture and even separatism. I could have even accepted his pan-Arabism. But Darwish supported the expulsion of an entire nation. Had he been a Jew and written the same words in Hebrew, he would have been branded a war criminal, a racist and a fascist.
Dr. Rafi Kishon reminded me the other day that the Ministry of Education tried to include some of Darwish's poetry in our textbooks, even before they even considered recommending a single line written by his own father, Ephraim Kishon. This evil spirit found a way to express itself as well.
It is part of our collapsing method of education for values. Ehud Olmert has national feelings, yet his government manages to remove 100 Jewish and Zionist definitions from the civic education curriculum. It readily allows any teacher to choose what to teach. Some teach about "Hear, oh Israel" and about the doctrines of David Ben-Gurion and Ze'ev Jabotinsky, while others teach about the "Nakba" and Darwish.
Democracy on liquidation sale. About a fortnight ago, at the end of Tamuz, Limor Livnat met with Ehud Olmert and Ze'ev Boim because the PM's office rejected the publication of a brochure on Jabotinski's death anniversary on the grounds that it quoted fragments from some of his articles, such as "The Iron Wall". She showed them what was deemed unsuitable for publication by the committee for preserving Jabotinsky's legacy which is subordinated to the PMO (which took Olmert by surprise), but nothing was done to remedy this idiotic blunder.
Still, the government would not allow Darwish to be buried in the Galilee. He will be laid to rest in Ramallah. But the sights and sounds [of the funeral] will not be forgotten too soon. Yesterday Israel went back 100 years in time, to the days of dancing "Oh, how beautiful you are, my beloved" before the landlord in Eastern Europe.
And last but not least, a few points made by Menachem Ben in his article Not Edible, published on August 15, 2008, in the culture supplement of Ma'ariv:
Darwish is lying when he accuses the Israelis of stealing his ancestral orchards and fields. There is no soul searching, no admission of guilt. No mention of the bloodthirsty gangs that started all the wars, beginning with 1948. Such a shame that no Israeli poet should stand up and speak out against this despicable propaganda.
Perhpas, Menachem, but thank heavens for journalists and bloggers.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Happy Birthday to Me
Happy birthday to me, happy birthday, dear busywolf, happy birthday to me!
Therefore, fellow bloggers, whoever and wherever you are, although I nowadays frequent mostly Jewish and Israeli pages, dear talented and devoted people, although I am a frequent visitor and even leave an occasional comment on your blogs, please understand why I don't have a blogroll or "favorite links" list: I fear I might put a jinx on you. Even Barbara's blog was vandalized after she mentioned me and I understand that Soccer Dad had to help her put it up again. I was also linked by other blogs, although I can't locate those mentions any more, but I remember however that a talkbacker on none other than the Guardian's Comment is Free (or rather Cheap, but that's a different story) recommended a post I wrote about Azmi Bishara. (Unfortunately the anti-Semitic Guardian remains immune to my noxious influence). Oh, and last but by no means least, I got to be mentioned by someone whom even the Grand Master Lizard quotes ever so often: Brian at snappedshot.com.
I lack the discipline to post daily, and I still haven't made up my mind about the topics I want to cover. But I am working on it. However, my daily dives into the blogosphere (contributors whom I admire and look up to as sources of inspiration) reveal that my role models also dwell on a variety of subjects, which suits me just fine, because the way I see it, human beings resemble chemical elements: multiple valences yearning to form bonds that satisfy our intellectual curiosity and our need to communicate. So perhaps I won't work too hard on it and I'll blog about whatever takes my fancy or drives me mad. We'll see.
By the way, I got the NC-17 rating for content because of my wanton choice of vocabulary. Yeah, right! But be warned anyway!
Still, it only proves that I am Passion-ate about blogging for Israel (yes, I registered to attend the Nefesh b'Nefesh Jewish Bloggers Convention in person, yet I only managed to watch it online. So I apologize if I prevented anyone from taking part). Which means that I have to focus more on Ingenuity and Fusion as soon as I work out a coherent way to integrate them into my rants.
I also learned that it might be a good idea to post about personal issues, such as children (did anyone say pets?). So I will consult my children and my pets and write something about them when I've obtained their informed consent.
So that's it for now. Welcome and enjoy!
One last word: I would not have been able to put up this blog and many things on it without a special someone who would probably rather remain anonymous, and whom I love very much.
This blog has just turned two (years old). The stats are nothing to brag about: roughly 6,000 hits. I know, the counter says fewer, but for the first few weeks I didn't have one, due to my reduced (make that totally absent) technical prowess. Although I have gained some skills since, I am still not very good at it.
Most visitors just touch down and go, but every now and then someone takes the time to read a few pages and even leave a comment. Somewhere down the line I decided to moderate comments because of the spammers. Those are the "deleted by administrator" comments.
I made Haveil Havalim once, and I thank Barbara('s Tchatzkahs) for the mention. Also Elaine over at Aaron's rod linked me as a favorite, but she stopped blogging almost a year ago. I hope she's busy doing other (good) things. She even sent me a meme, but I wasn't exploring other people's domains at the time (i.e. I wasn't reading eight blogs), so I let it go. I mean I was, but how does one tag LGF, Mypetjawa or Eureferendum? The one blogger who really got me considering my own space and who was very kind to me and replied almost instantly whenever I wrote to him was Randy at Rightwinged.com, whose blog seems to be no longer online. I hope he is doing fine and I want him to know that I miss him and I am in his debt blogwise.Therefore, fellow bloggers, whoever and wherever you are, although I nowadays frequent mostly Jewish and Israeli pages, dear talented and devoted people, although I am a frequent visitor and even leave an occasional comment on your blogs, please understand why I don't have a blogroll or "favorite links" list: I fear I might put a jinx on you. Even Barbara's blog was vandalized after she mentioned me and I understand that Soccer Dad had to help her put it up again. I was also linked by other blogs, although I can't locate those mentions any more, but I remember however that a talkbacker on none other than the Guardian's Comment is Free (or rather Cheap, but that's a different story) recommended a post I wrote about Azmi Bishara. (Unfortunately the anti-Semitic Guardian remains immune to my noxious influence). Oh, and last but by no means least, I got to be mentioned by someone whom even the Grand Master Lizard quotes ever so often: Brian at snappedshot.com.
I lack the discipline to post daily, and I still haven't made up my mind about the topics I want to cover. But I am working on it. However, my daily dives into the blogosphere (contributors whom I admire and look up to as sources of inspiration) reveal that my role models also dwell on a variety of subjects, which suits me just fine, because the way I see it, human beings resemble chemical elements: multiple valences yearning to form bonds that satisfy our intellectual curiosity and our need to communicate. So perhaps I won't work too hard on it and I'll blog about whatever takes my fancy or drives me mad. We'll see.
By the way, I got the NC-17 rating for content because of my wanton choice of vocabulary. Yeah, right! But be warned anyway!
Still, it only proves that I am Passion-ate about blogging for Israel (yes, I registered to attend the Nefesh b'Nefesh Jewish Bloggers Convention in person, yet I only managed to watch it online. So I apologize if I prevented anyone from taking part). Which means that I have to focus more on Ingenuity and Fusion as soon as I work out a coherent way to integrate them into my rants.
I also learned that it might be a good idea to post about personal issues, such as children (did anyone say pets?). So I will consult my children and my pets and write something about them when I've obtained their informed consent.
So that's it for now. Welcome and enjoy!
One last word: I would not have been able to put up this blog and many things on it without a special someone who would probably rather remain anonymous, and whom I love very much.
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