A shopping mall in Kfar Saba: 1 murdered, 30 wounded, including 2 babies .

Let me spell it out:
WE WILL NOT BE INTIMIDATED.

YOU WILL NEVER BE RID OF US.

THE MORE YOU KILL, THE MORE DETERMINED WE ARE.

YOUR ONLY ACHIEVEMENT IS THE CONTINUATION OF THE SUFFERING OF YOUR OWN PEOPLE.

Anyone who saw this movie and thinks it was wrong to attack Afghanistan for humanitarian reasons is either stupid, certifiable or plain wicked.

I saw this movie, last night.

Just before I saw it, I happened on a website where I read that “torture was not illegal in Israel until 1999, and their human rights record is one of the worst in the world” (scroll down it’s in “Obedience to Authority”). The horrific conditions depicted in the movie about Afghanistan, show how utterly ridiculous and cut off from reality this claim is. The young man who wrote this so glibly and assuredly is Robert Adam Molnar. Don’t be angry with him, he doesn’t seem to be of the plain wicked variety. Just plain ignorant. He doesn't bother to quote his sources.

Check your facts, before publishing, kid. Remember the mighty google.

Diane says I’m a Domestic Goddess. Bish‘ll like that. Biiish!

Bish: Mmmm.

Imshin: Diane says I’m a domestic goddess.

Bish: (ignores her, continues watching the Maccabi Tel Aviv – Hapoel Tel Aviv basketball derby).

Imshin: Biiish, listen to me, Diane wrote in her blog that I’m a domestic goddess.

Bish (without looking up from the TV screen): Oh, good. Does that mean you’ve unpacked the bag from the Mitzpe Ramon visit before last?

Imshin: Er, I think I’ll just do some ironing, seeing as I’m an undiscovered goddess. Do goddesses do the ironing? Don’t they have servants to do that for them. Like that loyal-to-the-death-while-kicked-in-the-face Paul Burrell fellow.

No lavender water though. Maybe I’ll pop into l’Occitane in Kikar Hamedina and see if I can buy some of the stuff without taking out a second mortgage. (Goes to get the ironing board. Discovers that the big bang last night was not the neighbors throwing things at each other but the ironing board toppling over, having been leant precariously against a low cupboard in the middle of the kitchen, deserted there during a previous fit of ironing motivation that did not reach fruition. Sets up ironing board only to discover that it is broken in the middle. She can iron but only if she holds the end up while she does.) Biiish!

Bish: Mmmm.

Imshin: The ironing board is broken.

Bish: Shshsh, not now.

Now my mother, there’s a domestic goddess. Unfortunately there were only enough domestic goddess genes to pass on to one daughter, and Our Sis got the lot.

Nu
Diane, I can't stand the suspense.

Please please please, tell us who it is, already. You torturer, you.

Kikar Rabin 11/2/02
A friend works at Yitzhak Rabin’s annual memorial rally, every year. It’s convenient for him because he’s religious and it begins in the evening, giving him time to get to Tel Aviv from his home in one of the West Bank settlements on the “wrong” side of the green line, without breaking the Shabbat. He said that this year there were a lot less people than in the past. He said that he felt religious people were not welcome at the rally. He said that he was horrified to see at least six tables for signing petitions in support of refusing to serve in the territories, with big signs saying refusing is Zionism. He said that he thought this would have disgusted Rabin.

I also saw those banners on the TV. They were the biggest ones. They actually said: “Refusing to the occupation is Zionism”. It is quite clear that this means refusing to serve in the territories. It may be a roundabout way of saying it, but this is what any Israeli who sees such banners will understand them to mean.

My friend may live in a West Bank settlement, but I know him well enough to be quite certain that if he had to evacuate an outpost of settlers, he wouldn’t dream of refusing. This could actually happen. He does quite a lot of reserve duty.

Daniel Ben Simon (Hebrew link) was also at the rally. He also said there were much less people, this year. He pointed out that the percentage of young people attending was much higher than usual.

The younger people probably mainly know the post-mortem image of Rabin, which has little to do with anything real. They know nothing of Rabin the Politician, for instance. All they know is Rabin the Myth. Rabin the Peace Myth.

I am reminded of a girl, I knew once, who developed a crush on John Lennon in the aftermath of his murder. She had never heard of him before he was murdered.

Maybe the youngsters, who went to Kikar Rabin, last night, are nostalgic for something that, older people know, never existed.

This is the full "better late than never" Human Rights Watch report. Erased In A Moment: Suicide Bombing Attacks Against Israeli Civilians (Human Rights Watch Report, November 2002).
I haven’t read it. I thought maybe you’d like to.

Here’s the translation of the book review by Daniel Ben Simon I promised you some time ago. You’ll remember I was angered by his ridiculing French Jews love of Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister, Arik Sharon, has offered the foreign ministry to Bibi Netanyahu. Go read Gil’s excellent analysis of this.

Update: According to channel two news, when Bibi cited a list of demands with reference to the economy, during their meeting, Sharon offered him the treasury ministry (on the condition that the present minister, Silvan Shalom, would agree to be foreign minister). You have to hand it to Sharon.

Inner Balance has a new upbeat layout. I miss that nice retro photo, but now there’s something even better: Ilana’s gorgeous granddaughter.

Are you a victim of hate mail?
David Melle of Facts of Israel teaches us how to fight hate e-mails with “Stop the hate, a technical tutorial to trace the origin of hate messages”.

Clever
Jerusalem Post reports that the PLO is contemplating demanding Israeli citizenship for all Palestinians, instead of a separate state. This, of course, is no more than a propaganda ploy, cooked up by American style legal advisors, Diana Buttu and Michael Tarazi. I doubt it will catch on.

So the peace was kept in Hebron, today, after 25,000 Jews descended on the city yesterday, for Shabbat “Chayei Sara”, by putting the rest of the town under curfew. I should say protective curfew, because woe betide the poor hapless Palestinian to cross the path of this lot, this Shabbat. If not for the curfew, they probably would have stayed at home voluntarily, for fear of being beaten up.

On the other hand, a murderous terrorist attack by Palestinians was averted when IDF captured a would-be suicide bomber and two other people transporting his explosive belt. There have been a lot of warnings of planned attacks lately. Two more were prevented on Friday.

The weekend continues with the annual Rabin memorial rally this evening in Rabin square, which is in walking distance from here. I’ve discussed my feelings about this event before.

Bish rang to say he was on the outskirts of the Tel Aviv area, quite near home but stuck in traffic. I suggested the 25,000 who spent the Shabbat in Hebron were now rushing to get to Kikar Rabin on time for the Rabin Rally ;-)

Anne Frank is an asteroid.

Remember Israel's history in a Nutshell?
Now there's Nutshell Too. It's really good.

Gil beat me to it.

This stinks to high heaven.
Let’s see if I’ve got this straight: Two years ago, Princess Diana’s butler, Paul Burrell, is accused of stealing her property with the intent of making a buck (or should I say a quid?). After two years of hell for him and his family and twelve days into his court case, Queen Elizabeth suddenly remembers that following Princess Diana’s death, she had a three-hour audience with the butler, during which he informed her that he was keeping some of Diana’s stuff for safekeeping. She agreed with him that this is a good idea. She sees fit to mention this in an off-hand manner to her son, Prince Charles, in the car on the way to a church service. “Charles realized it was significant and said the police should be informed”. Charles realized it was significant? Charles realized it was significant????

The Independent: Prosecutor William Boyce QC told the Old Bailey: “… I am informed that because the Queen's personal property was not involved and because of concerns to avoid any suggestion that Buckingham Palace was trying to interfere with the investigation of this case the Queen was not briefed on the way in which the case against Mr Burrell was being prepared.

Therefore Her Majesty had no means of knowing until after the trial had started of the relevance to the prosecution of the fact that Mr Burrell had mentioned to Her Majesty that he had taken items for safe keeping”.

We are expected to believe that the Queen neither watches nor reads any news, whatsoever. I have never had more than a passing interest in this case. I don’t remember reading anything about it. My knowledge seems to have come from hearing it on the news, without really paying attention. I still seem to have known more about the details of the case than the Queen, who is an interested party and should have been following it closely.

Tom Bradby, ITV News royal correspondent: “I have to say I find that explanation completely extraordinary.

This was one of the best publicised trials of the decade.

There were long lists in all the British newspapers about what Paul Burrell was alleged to have taken.

The Queen was in Canada immediately before the trial, but so was I, and there were long lists in the Canadian newspapers too.

The idea that a private secretary or an assistant private secretary didn't brief her extensively about the basis of the trial I find very difficult to accept.”

I can think of three options:
a. The Queen has difficulty making logical connections between pieces of information.
b. The Queen is getting on in age and is suffering the mental consequences of this.
c. The Royal family knew about the meeting all along, and that the butler was getting a raw deal, but there is much more to this story than meets the eye.

I tend to think that option c. is most plausible.

Maybe the butler should be king. He seems to be the honorable one. He remained loyal to the end, even though he could have gone to prison. He apparently told the press, on leaving the Old Bailey, that "The Queen has come through for me."

Sky News is saying that with all the muck coming out at the trial, the Royal family wanted to prevent the butler from taking the stand in court and spilling the beans. The British press is emphasizing the sloppy police investigation. I don’t think they really dare go all the way pointing the finger at the Royal family. It doesn’t look like the butler will be writing a book about it. He’s too goody-goody.

Update: I initially thought of a fourth option, which is that they invented the audience with the Queen to get Burrell off, but then I heard that he had mentioned the meeting himself, in his testimony he gave to the police when first arrested. The police failed to check if it was true.

Shabbat Shalom!

Language differences at the root of the conflict.
The main thing I remember from the Dalai Lama’s public speech in Tel Aviv a few years ago, is his saying “compromise, compromise”.

The Hebrew word for compromise is “P’shara”. It comes from the same root as the word “pesher”, which is meaning, interpretation. This is fitting, because for compromise to be possible, understanding is necessary.

Egyptian intellectual, Tarek Heggy, points out in a bravely critical article, originally published in Arabic in the Egyptian Al-Ahram on 29th September, 2002, that there is no word for compromise in Arabic. He explains that, unlike Westerners, in the Middle East, “many people, even educated ‎people, (associate) the word compromise with such negative terms as ‘submission’, ‘retreat’, ‘capitulation’, ‘weakness’ and ‘defeat’”.

This explains a lot. I think both sides have to learn to listen to what the other side is saying more carefully, but it would help if we could understand each other. If we are saying “compromise” and the Arabs are hearing “submit”, we have a slight problem.

Thank you, Mr. Hochstein, for pointing out this article and the MidEast Web for Coexistence site.

Three more Palestinian victims of violence, this time - their own. It looks like they blew themselves up in a “work accident” while preparing bombs. No doubt they’ll be added to the list of Palestinian victims of the conflict. Rantisi is already calling them martyrs.

CNN: Human Rights Watch: Suicide bombers guilty of war crimes
It’s taken them a while, but hey, better late than never.

Or as they say over on the “Lost in Translation” site (see yesterday’s post): To improve inside is slow like never.

Bish has gone to Mitzpe Ramon on his own this weekend. He really needs a rest. I hope they don't close the roads because of floods. A few nights ago they closed the road from Ovdat to Mitzpe Ramon for a few hours and the weather forecasters say more floods are likely. These are desert flash floods we're talking about.