What does this mean?

Leaders of the Presbyterian Church in the US approved a divestment campaign against Israel in a series of annual resolutions that included a condemnation of Israel's security fence, a decision to continue funding churches aimed at converting Jews to Christianity and a disavowal of Christian Zionism as a legitimate theological stance.

In a vote of 431 to 62, the 216th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church USA compared Israel's policies to those of South Africa and approved gathering data to support a selective divestment of holdings in multinational corporations doing business in Israel/ Palestine, a July 2 church release noted. The church's liaison to the Middle East, Rev. Victor Makari, noted after the vote that if nothing else seems to have changed the policy of Israel toward Palestinians, we need to send a clear and strong message.

That doesn't sound very nice at all. Shouldn't a Christian church be suggesting, clearly and strongly, that Palestinians change their policy of blowing up innocent Israelis?
posted by Imshin 22:12

Swastikas and hoaxes again
Thank you Mary and Mrs. Treppenwitz, for both taking the time to tell me about the Tawana Brawley hoax. Very kind of you, but this is not what I was thinking of.

I do remember reading somewhere quite recently about a Jewish girl in France who had had swastikas carved onto her.

But anyway, this latest hoax in France is particularly intriguing in light of the Tawana Brawley story, isn’t it?

posted by Imshin 22:12

Relevant party
Yes, I had noticed that Kiwi Bob had not supplied an e-mail address for the International Court of Injustice, but didn’t have the energy to deal with such a difficulty in seventy percent humidity. Anyway, now Adrian has sent it to me and I am nicely rested from my weekend in a less humid atmosphere, so I haven’t got any excuses.

Maybe we should all send the letter again, to the relevant party this time. mail@icj-cij.org - International Court of (In)Justice.

Adrian has a very nice new blog design, by the way. I’m dead jealous, although if my blog ever looks any less silly, I’ll have to start taking myself seriously and we can’t have that now, can we?


posted by Imshin 21:58

Lots of news.
Political stuff in Israel. On a personal note, this could turn out bad for Bish’s bill. We’ll have to see. The government still hasn’t voted on it.

Violence and chaos in the Palestinian Authority. They’re talking about the end of Arafat. We’ve heard that one before!

But I don’t want to talk about the yucky stuff, when we have such good news. Welcome, Tamar, our very own blog baby, and a big, big Mazal Tov to Allison.

posted by Imshin 20:51

A few years ago, I was staying with friends in Kiryat Tivon near Haifa. In the late afternoon a group of us walked down a path in the woods. After some time descending the hill we came to a clearing. It was twilight, the sun had just set and it wasn't dark yet.

There before us, already lit up for the evening, were three archways, carved into the rock at the foot of the hill. It was the tomb of Rabbi Yehuda Hanassi, head of the Sanhedrin of old, and compiler and sealer of the Mishna, an important part of the Oral Torah.

I was overwhelmed. I hadn't been to the ancient Necropolis of Beit She’arim since childhood, and had completely forgotten that we used to drive through Kiryat Tivon on our way. My parents used to love Beit She’arim and would to take all our visitors there. I sometimes tagged along.

* * * *

We spent this last weekend in a lovely little place called Beit Lehem Haglilit, Galilean Bethlehem, in a quaint reverted barn, built by German Templars at the beginning of the Twentieth century (These people were all chucked out by the British at the beginning of World War Two, because of their open Nazi sympathies). Our rooms were on the second floor of what used to be the hen house. Our friends slept downstairs in the former stables. Dad made all sorts of cracks about the rooster and the chickens and watching out for the fox, when he rang to see how we were doing. I actually saw a fox, but not in the hen house. I saw him when I went for a little walk. He was at the end of the field, and when he saw me he scurried towards the safety of the trees.

And on Friday morning we went to nearby Beit She’arim . It must be cool in the burial caves, I told everyone, in my attempt to persuade them that it was preferable to the ancient ruins of Tzipori, which I have never seen. I wasn't sure about the coolness, I made a wild guess because I really wanted to see Beit She’arim properly again. But I was right - natural air-conditioning in the dark, damp caves.

And even the kids enjoyed themselves, and found it interesting, more than the usual ‘old stones site’. I think they appreciated the spookiness of being in caves full of graves and coffins, even if they no longer hold any skeletons (all stolen long ago by grave robbers). Us so-called grown-ups enjoyed the Hebrew inscriptions on the sarcophagi and on the walls, and the uncharacteristic use of ‘Goyishke’ symbolism in the carvings (we saw a couple of Roman goddesses, and even a mask of a face), seen as a sign tolerance and openness of the Judaism of the time.

We did something I never did with my parents, we took a guided tour, and our reward was to get in to see the tomb of Rabbi Yehuda Hanassi himself (and his wife and the rest of the clan, apparently). I'd only ever seen it from the outside, because it’s kept locked.

The other tombs were mainly the burial places of rich Jews of the era (Roman period – about 1800 years ago) who wished to be buried near to him and were transported from all over the Jewish Diaspora of the day.

I’m so glad I had the opportunity to revisit Beit She’arim as an adult. I can now better understand why my parents were so drawn to it when they were relatively new to this country, and preferred bringing foreign visitors there than to the more obvious choices in the vicinity of their Haifa home, such as the rather kitschy Bahai Temple.

posted by Imshin 18:45

Tallrite: Palestinians deserve regime change. A positive commentary.
posted by Imshin 09:50

It’s amazing to see how flexible Yediot Aharonot is about reporting the facts, even when they later turn out not to have been the facts. According to Yediot, the most popular and widely read newspaper in the country (Haaretz’s readership is tiny, the Jerusalem Post’s - microscopic), the fate we had thought had befallen that most imaginative of girls on the train in Paris was far more horrible than any of you read in your national papers – the swastikas weren’t just written on her body, they were carved there; her hair wasn’t just cut, it was shaved off; and her baby’s stroller wasn’t pushed over, the baby was kicked.

That was a whole two days ago. Yediot apparently assumes that the entire body of their readership possesses the collective IQ of an ant and the memory of a rabbit. In this morning’s paper they write about it all being a hoax. Forgotten are the blaring headlines screaming of swastikas scraped on female flesh. ‘I drew them on my stomach myself’ they now quote her as saying. Do they think we can’t remember the accusations they bandied around at the beginning of the week?

What worries me is that they obviously really don’t care, and this is only one example among many.

--

I have noticed that habitual liars appear to feel no embarrassment on being caught. Everyone around can be visibly cringing, as if it were they who had just been exposed, while the person in question is quite untouched, oblivious of the ridicule or disgust felt by all present.

* * * *

The story of swastikas carved on the bare flesh of a young lady sounds familiar. I distinctively remember reading a similar story somewhere a while back (was it on a blog?) and remember thinking that if this was true it should have been front-page news. Could this messed up young lady have been living out a popular French urban legend? Creepy.

posted by Imshin 08:55

You can do something: You can tell them how you feel.
Kiwi Bob has kindly supplied the relevant e-mails and even a letter to cut and paste. Send away!

==========================

ecu@un.org - United Nations

civis@europarl.eu.int - EU Parliament

info@curia.eu.int - EU Court of Justice

Subject: The building of the Israeli security fence

To Whom It May Concern:

When Israel builds a fence to keep out terrorists, the UN and EU are
up in arms because it makes it difficult for terrorists to kill more Jews.

When terrorists shoot (point blank!) an 8-month-pregnant Jewish woman and her 4 little girls, there is absolute silence from your organizations.

The security fence is a temporary and nonviolent way to reduce terrorism. The fence is a proportional response to the ongoing Palestinian Campaign of terror. When the terrorism stops, the fence can be taken down.

The route of the fence was designed to save the lives of innocent people. Israel has the right and the duty to protect its citizens from terrorist attacks.

Since the erection of the security fence there has been a 90% decrease in the number of attacks against Israelis-from an average of 26 attacks per year before the fence to three attacks after the fence was built.

The Israeli Supreme Court has ruled that areas of the fence must be
adjusted in order to relieve Palestinian hardship. Unlike any other country in the region, Israel has an independent judiciary. Israel, a democracy committed to the rule of law, will comply with the Israeli Supreme Court's decision.

The security fence is not a wall, as the court states. The majority of the fence is constructed of barb wire-8.5 kilometers of the fence consists of concrete slabs, in order to prevent sniper fire.

There are many disputed security fences around the world-India has
constructed a fence in the contested area of Kashmir, and Saudi Arabia has constructed a barrier in an undefined area along the Saudi Arabia-Yemen border-yet only Israel's security fence has prompted an International Court of Justice ruling. See this website:
(www.washingtoninstitute.org/
distribution/PCE465.doc)

Israel is willing to make painful sacrifices for peace. Israel has
made peace with Jordan and Egypt, and gave up the entire Sinai-land
larger than the current state of Israel.

If you think your indifference goes unnoticed, count the number of messages you will receive world-wide in the next 48 to 72 hours on this subject.

Respectfully,

posted by Imshin 19:32

Oh goody!
Guess who got contractions and went off to the maternity ward this morning?

How exciting.

Update: I didn't read the comments. IT'S A GIRL! (I have this urge to go lululululululu, but I don't know how to)
posted by Imshin 17:09

This is 19 year-old Ma'ayan Na'im. She was murdered today by Palestinian terrorists.

I should be making all sorts of informative and opinionated comments about the International Court of Injustice, about the security fence. Mind's a blank. Has been for a while, you'll have noticed, no doubt.

It’s such a joke, that decision of theirs, or opinion, or whatever they're calling it. A sick joke. And an especially sad joke for people like Avi Ohayoun, whose two small sons were shot in their beds in Kibbutz Metzer by a heartless savage desperate freedom fighter, while their mother was reading them a goodnight story.

They would still be alive if there had been a fence at the time their murderer decided to steal into their home. Their bedroom was so close to the fence's much-discussed and disputed route. How painful for their father that their deaths should be brushed nonchalantly aside as inconsequential, irrelevant, by those great and wise judges in The Hague.

A sad, sick, cruel joke, but a joke nevertheless. One of the wounded in today’s attack was a young Arab man from Yaffo (Jaffa). He called for the Arab Knesset members to resign, because of their vocal opposition to the security fence. It seems his experience has brought him to the realization that the fence protects him just as much as it does his Jewish neighbors.

posted by Imshin 23:01

I never run for a bus. Matter of pride.

Slightly nervous this morning, laden with the fresh news of a ‘pigua’ in Tel Aviv, I made a run for the bus. It was just that I could clearly see the security guy on board, through the window, with his neat khaki safari jacket. ‘This is the bus for me this morning,’ I thought and kicked up my heels. They don’t have security guys on all the buses.

Just before leaving home, I had whispered to Bish that maybe Eldest shouldn’t get the bus to her art class this morning. Maybe she should walk. We thought about it for about a tenth of a second and both agreed that there was no reason to mention anything to her.

You see we’re not particularly scared or worried. I’m more concerned about accidents or perverts, if anything, with regard to Eldest roaming around on her own.

But for a few minutes after you start to realize that there are more ambulances than usual racing past the busy street corner on which you live, you get a little tiny bit jittery. Only for a minute and then life goes on. Two minutes into my spinning lesson I had forgotten all about the Pigua, and only discovered about the lovely young woman that had been murdered and the numbers of the injured, when I got to my office later on.

posted by Imshin 20:44

We hear ambulances. We put on the radio. A bomb, a bus or a bus stop in South Tel Aviv. But I have to go to work. By bus :-p


posted by Imshin 07:15

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