The Last Exile

Overall it wasn’t a bad week for Israel unless you were one of the ‘left-wing elitist with pretensions of being cliquey opinion-makers, self-serving trend-setters and bon-ton groupies glory in posturing as anti-establishment nonconformists’ as Sarah Honig refers to them. If you are the last week in Israel was verging on a disaster of biblical proportions.

Let us start with the good news. Settlement growth in Samaria and Judea continued to grow, abet more slowly than last year but still at a respectable 4.9%.

Friends of the IDF held a fund raising dinner in New York and managed to raise $20 million at a period of time when virtually everyone with an equity portfolio saw the value of their portfolio cut in half or more. Face it, New York City and suburbs are an expensive place to live.

Tourism in Israel saw a 46% increase over last February.

The Israeli GNP rose higher than predicted, the job market continued to be strong and consumer confidence is at a 10 year high.

The international clothing retailer H&M opened their first store in Israel despite the firestorm of international progressive rage which attempted to sideline the company’s executive business development plan. I doubt H&M will see much of a backlash considering the progressive element are hardly H&M regular clientele. The store opened with much fanfare and 15,000 visitors in its first day of operation. Although, on a personal note, there is an H&M near me and I cannot for the life of me understand why anyone shops there but the Last Amazon loves it.

The historical reconstruction of the 18th century Churva Synagogue in Jerusalem was finally complete and official ceremonies commence on March the 15th. The Jordanian deliberately destroyed it in the Independence war of 1948 not because the shul was used as an ammo dump or staging ground for Israeli forces but to show their utter contempt for anything Jewish.

Ehud Barak, Minister of Defense saw his budget request for increase funding of the IDF’s civil administration branch which is charged with settlement freeze enforcement operations denied, denied, denied.

A record number of Hesder students enlisted in the IDF.

The so-called settlement population grew by 4.9% over last year. Jerusalem Post:

The West Bank settler population grew almost three times faster than that of the country as a whole in the first nine months of 2009. However, the 4.9-percent increase, when compared with the same time last year, shows that for the second year in a row, population growth has slowed down slightly, according to data posted recently on the Central Bureau of Statistics Web site.

Joe Biden and the Obama administration’s faux outrage. Oh, I suspect his ‘outrage’ is real enough but I take a rather contrary view of the whole scenario. Oh, I realize pissing off the Obama Administration and allegedly embarrassing Joe Biden can be considered a ‘bad thing’ in some circles – especially if you are the Obama Administration or part of the Arab world, but in my world its all good.

There never was a building freeze in Jerusalem so crying ‘foul’ now is a little bit too crying about the barn door after all them animals have fled the building. The time for outrage was when the Obama Administration was busy bullying Netanyahu to agree to a ’settlement freeze’ in the first place – although Netanyahu drew the line at Jerusalem and the Obama Administration knew it then and called it all good. So boohoo, and go cry someone else a river.

Secondly, the incidence proves something to the Americans – there are definite limits to their ability to influence in Israeli politics and it illustrates to the Arab world that American influence does have its limits in terms of the Israeli body politic.

Thirdly, building of 1,600 housing units shows the Israelis are resolute about keeping Jerusalem their undivided capital. So all in all, a good week, unless you are the Obama Administration, Joe Biden or a Gush Katif refugee.

Ha’aretz’s Gideon Levy penned this screed to the ’settler’. I really don’t know what to make of Gideon Levy. There is this kind of alternative reality to his writing which always leaves me going – ‘What? What, no…he didn’t just write that did he?!!?’ Usually I have to rub my eyes and then check back to see if anything changed between the time it took to rub my eyes and refocusing on the page…

What constitutes the life of a settler? A house on the cheap; a standard of living above the national average; a job usually subsidized by the government; a fierce religious, nationalist, uncompromising conviction on the justness of his cause; a supportive, heavy-handed social environment; a highway system; transportation arrangements; socially enriching activities; and, at times, a life that comes with the risk of danger.

The settler goes to and from his home without seeing anything. He does not see his neighbors, he does not see the danger he exposes his children to, he does not see the moral baggage he carries on his back. He does not want to see all this, and an entire system surrounds him that makes life easy for him despite his blindness.

Some of the highways on which he drives are cleansed of Palestinians; he has never visited the neighboring villages, not one of whose names he would know were it not for traffic signs pointing in their direction. His teachers, functionaries and rabbis sketch out the scenery that is his world, leaving him no shred of doubt: the Arabs are terrorists, all of them are suspicious packages, and the Jews are allowed to do as they wish, for they are the lords of the land, and there is no other but they.

You can read the rest or not (as you choose) but he goes on and on like this. The rather strange thing is how little this ‘prototype settler’ resembles the ’settlers’ I have known or met. While my experience is merely anecdotal; its strikes me as bizarre, with my wide circle of acquaintances, that I haven’t run across Levy’s Settler except in the writings of various of the hard left-types…

In fact, this characterization is so atypical that I have been mulling over how best to respond to this article before responding via the blog. Then I read this post at The Muqata, and I knew, that nothing I could write would greater illustrate the ‘alternative reality’ quality of Levy’s Settler than Jamal writing at The Muqata about attending a funeral where a 16 year old son, a ’settler’, gave the eulogy for his murdered father.

“AAAAABBBBBBA!!!” [father]

The word was yelled out by Eliyahu — the 16 year old teenage son of Rabbi Meir Chai, murdered in a Palestinian terrorist attack on the roads of the Shomron this past Thursday afternoon.

The first word of the eulogy was yelled out in pain, in sorrow, in mourning.

That first word of the eulogy, the hesped, “Abba”

The painful yell continued, lasting a lifetime, as it reverberated throughout the neighborhoods of Jerusalem, echoing in the hills around us.

I brought my oldest son to the funeral — as he went to school with Eliyahu Chai, is friends with him, and used to frequent our home as well. Before the funeral was about to start, my son asked me what to do. “Go over to your friend…give him a hug.”

And Eliyahu hugged my son, sobbing on his shoulder.

I was shocked by the power of the hesped which Eliyahu delivered.

“Hakol LeTova, HaKol MiShamayim”, Eliyahu sobbed into the microphone, repeating this over and over again. “It’s all for the best, it’s all from Heaven.”

Hearing a son eulogize his tragically murdered father — with such faith that he could repeat “HaKol LeTova” was shocking.

“To all the youth here – you are the best youth there is; I salute you, and I say the same to all our soldiers and to the entire army, to each and every one of you.”

“Continue Abba’s path: Abba wanted faith! Abba wanted Torah study! Abba wanted prayers! Abba couldn’t bear to see youth without tefillin… If we want to immortalize Abba, then we have to do things like that – not external things.

Eliyahu looks like the classic settler “hilltop” youth, lambasted by the media. Long paeyot, a large white knitted kippa. I don’t think the media was prepared for what he said next.

Do not look for revenge, not to beat up Arabs. This is not our solution. The difference between us and them is, that we are human beings! We won’t go to them and kill them just like that; if they come to us [to attack us], we will kill them and put a bullet in their heads, but we won’t go to them!

We are Jews.

May HaShem comfort the mourners of Zion and give them beauty for ashes.

The foreign funded wingnut group Peace Now established a hotline in Israel where you can anonymonously rat out your neighbours for building or construction during the so-called settlement freeze within the disputed territories and promoted it heavily. Well, it appears they got a lot more calls than they bargained for as Israeli nationalists have been burning up the lines. Arutz Sheva:

But instead, many of the calls are from Israeli nationalists – reporting on illegal Arab construction. The calls reporting the Arab violations – as well as “nonsense calls” – are taking up much of the tape on Peace Now’s answering machines, leaving little room for the messages the hotline was intended for. Responding to the onslaught of “incorrect” messages, Peace Now Director Yariv Oppenheimer said that the varied responses, consisting of reports on Arabs, curses, and even jokes, were “entertaining.”

So glad to provide the ‘entertainment’ and let us hope the patriots don’t let up.

Since this is my morning of hate I thought showcase the toxic diversity of modern anti-Semitism. The first comes via You Tube (h/tip Elder of Ziyon) and for context I will quote the introductory blurb from the site as an introduction:

On 1st December 2009, there was a pro-Israel rally outside the Palestine Solidarity Campaign ‘Christmas concert’ at Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church on Tuesday December 1st, starting at 6pm.

British Anti-Semitism

And a Merry Christmas to you John Sullivan.

The second comes from the Ukraine courtesy of Ha’aretz:

Stories appearing on several Ukrainian Web sites claim Israel has brought around some 25,000 Ukrainian children into the country over the past two years in order to harvest their organs.

The claim, which was made by a Ukrainian philosophy professor and author at a pseudo-academic conference in Kiev five days ago, is the latest expression of a wave of anti-Semitism in the country. It comes a few months after a Swedish tabloid ran an article alleging that Israel Defense Forces soldiers have killed Palestinian civilians for their organs.

Jews, Israel and anti-Semitism have become a major motif of the presidential election campaign in Ukraine, with some figures making anti-Semitic statements and others condemning them. Some candidates, including a Jew and someone whose rivals claim is Jewish, blame a third rival – Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko – for bringing anti-Semitism into the race.

“Ukraine’s political system is a parody of democracy,” Russia’s Chief Rabbi, Berel Lazar, said.

Vyacheslav Gudin told the estimated 300 attendees of the Kiev conference a detailed story about a Ukrainian man’s fruitless search for 15 children who had been adopted in Israel. The children, Gudin said, had clearly been taken by Israeli medical centers, where they were used for “spare parts.” Gudin said it was essential that all Ukrainians be made aware of the genocide Israel was perpetrating.

The conference, some of whose participants belong to a Slavic-rights movement, also featured two professors who presented a book blaming “the Zionists” for the Ukrainian famine of the 1930s as well as the country’s current condition.

Ah, yes, the old blood libel dressed up courtesy of Ukrainian academics. What in the world would we do without Ukrainian academics? And then, finally Jewish Israel points me to the more modern version of anti-Semitism which plays on the theme – we love you even as we hate you and pervert your symbols. For those not in the know – this tune uses the Israeli national anthem – the Hatikvah or The Hope to rewrite and deliver its toxic message. Here is a short English translation of the Hatikvah.

As long as in the heart, within,
A Jewish soul still yearns,
And onward, towards the ends of the east,
An eye still gazes toward Zion;

Our hope is not yet lost,
The hope of two thousand years,
To be a free people in our land,
The land of Zion and Jerusalem.

Keep those words in mind as we roll to the video produced by the Westboro Baptist Church.

I think my hate is done for the morning.

Apparently, Bibi can’t find a way to block Moshe Feiglin from obtaining a respectable place on the Likud list for a seat in the Knesset – providing Likud wins the next election. The Jerusalem Post:

Likud chairman Binyamin Netanyahu wishes he could prevent far-right activist Moshe Feiglin from winning a realistic seat on the party’s Knesset candidates list, but he has not found a way to do so, sources close to Netanyahu said Tuesday. In the past two national elections, legal reasons were found to block Feiglin from running. But a former Likud official who was involved in successful efforts to stymie Feiglin in the past said Netanyahu would have to get used to seeing Feiglin in the Knesset. “We realize that Feiglin would only damage us, but there doesn’t seem to be anything to do,” a source close to Netanyahu said.

Kadima strategists have already started using the examples of Feiglin and former science minister Bennie Begin to paint the Likud as an extreme right-wing party. Strategist Lior Chorev made a point of repeatedly referring to the Likud as the “Begin-Feiglin party” last week.

Feiglin was convicted of sedition for blocking streets during heated demonstrations against the Oslo Accords in the mid-1990s, when he headed the Zo Artzenu protest movement. He later formed the Manhigut Yehudit (Jewish Leadership) movement inside Likud and has been gradually rising in power as he signed up more and more members to the party. After losing to Netanyahu by a landslide in the last Likud leadership race, Feiglin began to refer to himself as “the No. 2 man in Likud.”

The party’s law committee will meet on Wednesday to decide on procedures and a mid-December date for selecting the party’s Knesset list. The decisions will then need the approval on Sunday of the Likud central committee in which Feiglin is powerful. Feiglin said Netanyahu’s decision to take away the 3,000-member central committee’s power to select the Likud’s Knesset list and give it to the party’s 100,000 members increased his chances of getting elected. He said that his movement had registered some 10 percent of the members. “The change was a big help because now we don’t have to make as many political deals,” Feiglin said. “We will be judged by our inner truth. The Likud is the most democratic and real party in the Knesset, so the real Likudniks will win, and that’s us.”

Feiglin’s supporters helped pass extended membership requirements for the party, which prevented Netanyahu or others from signing up thousands of people in a fast membership drive as was done in Labor and Kadima. He expressed confidence that thanks to such political moves, he would finish among the Likud’s top 20 Knesset candidates.

While the Jerusalem Post’s claims Netanyahu won a ‘landslide’ victory in Likud party elections only 40% of eligble Likud voters cast ballots so I wouldn’t be too cocky about any ‘win’. Feiglin does not yet enjoy the same support in Likud as Bibi but his fraction is not to be sneezed at. Overall, I see this as a positive step for Likud, and if there is one person who could keep Netanyahu honest and stop him from giving away everything but the kitchen sink – it would be Feiglin.

I freely admit any slight curiosity or tepid desire I might have felt for visiting Britain one day was demonstratively cooled when the 200th anniversary of Nelson’s stunning victory at Trafalgar was reenacted using solid red or blue flags so as not to hurt the sensibilities of the French. How so very lame.

I might have warmed up to the idea, given enough time, if the Brits hadn’t put Moshe Feiglin on a ban list while allowing every other anti-Semite and their grandmothers safe harbour but this just kills any hope for rekindling the desire. The Jerusalem Post:

British Foreign Office minister Kim Howells has vowed to ensure that settlers will not be invited to future events hosted by the British embassy in Israel following a complaint by a Member of Parliament that Israeli settlers took part in a party to celebrate the Queen’s birthday at the residence of the British ambassador to Israel in June.

Conservative MP Crispin Blunt wrote to Howells on July 25, after raising the issue in Parliament the previous day, stating that the invitation to “settler leaders” gave the impression of a “weakening in the government’s long-held position that settlements were illegal and an obstacle to peace.”

“Entertaining the pioneers of this colonization movement has certain given the strong impression that Britain tacitly endorses it or no longer objects to it,” Blunt said.

Three representatives of the Yesha Council – chairman Dani Dayan, Shaul Goldstein and Yisrael Medad – attended the celebration at the residence of British Ambassador Tom Phillips in Ramat Gan in June.

Singling out Dayan in his letter – who he said is “strongly in favor of expanding these settlements and even return settlements dismantled in the 2005 disengagement plan” – he asked the minister to ensure that British tax payers’ money is not used on those who “violate the Geneva Convention.”

He said: “We would like to know what steps are being taken to ensure that this never happens again and that British tax payers’ money is spent entertaining those who violate the Fourth Geneva Conventions and whose very presence has been an obstacle to a vital and much needed peace deal in the Middle East.”

In response, Howells has said that the presence of the settlers at the celebration “was not helpful” and that the British Embassy will ensure it does not happen in the future. In a letter sent to Blunt on July 31, Howells said: “I should like first of all to reiterate our firm position that all Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian territory are illegal under international law. You will indeed have seen that the Prime Minister spelled this out very clearly during his recent visit to the region and made clear including in a speech to the Knesset on 21 July that we want to see an immediate freeze of settlement activity and indeed withdrawal from them.”

Howells added that the British Embassy in Israel has cultivated links with the settler community to make clear the government’s view on the issue and convince them that settlements are “a significant obstacle to peace.” “Our Embassy in Tel Aviv’s contacts with the settler community have been with the goal of setting out the British Government’s view on this issue, and to seek to convince them that settlements are a significant obstacle to peace. But you are right that their presence at this event was not helpful and the Embassy is reviewing its procedures to ensure that it does not happen in the future.”

Who in their right mind bans Settlers?? I love settlers, okay – maybe not all settlers, but as a concept, settlers are the phat of the land. Who else makes the milk or honey for the Arabs to steal?

Elyakim Haetzni’s was invited to speak before a mixed group of Jewish and Arab Israelis. And then he wrote an opinion piece for Ynet News based on his experience:

The discrimination, said the Arab student, is not the problem. Even if you grant us full equality, the conflict will go on as long as Israel is a Jewish state. This country was our home, and you turned it into a foreign place for us. In a Jewish state we will always feel like foreigners: The Star of David is not our flag, and HaTikva is not our national anthem. It is impossible to replace our Palestinian dream by a Zionist dream.

These words, which were uttered calmly, put an end to the internal Jewish debate at once. Burning issues such as “territories” and “settlements” suddenly became irrelevant. I realized that the Hamas spokesman, who refers to the southern town of Sderot as a “settlement,” gives expression to a deep sense felt by all – Hamas, Fatah, Israeli Arabs, and Palestinian Authority residents. I recalled the refusal of our “partner,” Mahmoud Abbas, to recognize the Jewishness of the state – a position that was openly backed by Egypt. This shows us that it is possible to sign a “peace treaty” with the State of Israel while at the same time fight against the fact it belongs to the Jewish people.

With the help of the Arab girl, the layers of dishonesty disappeared and I responded to her that we do not need her to “recognize our existence” – if we exist, her recognition won’t add a thing, and if we do not exist, her recognition won’t help. As recognition is not some kind of merchandise, there is no need to pay for it.

The Left asks the Arab girl to give up Jaffa, and in exchange is willing to give up Hebron. Yet even if she signs such deal a thousand times, it is clear that she would take Jaffa back as well once she is able to do so. And still, even such meaningless signature is incredibly difficult for her and she may even pay with her life for doing that – because a de facto reality is tolerated by the Arabs, in the absence of any other option, while a formal de jure concession is considered treason.

And if an agreement is impossible, there can be no meeting of the minds between side A that does not reconcile itself to the existence of side B, so there is no point in negotiations and a process of give and take – particularly the “give” part of the equation.

The student expressed an authentic Arab position, which the Jewish Left has been ignoring: A complete rejection of the “1967 in exchange for 1948″ formula: You will concede what we already occupied and expelled and settled in the 1948 War of Independence and we will concede what we took in the 1967 Six-Day War. An Arab “partner” who pays some lip service to such “deal” is simply deceiving us.

This explains the Arab emphasis on two of the “core issues” – Jerusalem’s Old City, because the Jewishness or Arabness of the entire country is determined based on this, and the demand to allow millions of refugees into a Green Line state, which would erase Israel’s blue-and-white character.

And that, in a nutshell, is why there will be no peaceful resolution to this conflict until only one people live in this land. I invite anyone to attempt to dispute by showing me your proof that it can be otherwise but I have 60 years of history on my side.

I was perusing Israpundit and discovered one of Israel’s more interesting political leaders, Moshe Feiglin, will be speaking at the Shaarei Tefillah Synagogue at 3600 Bathurst Street, in Toronto on Tuesday October 23, 2007 at 7:30pm. Feiglin will be speaking on Saving Jerusalem.

I have heard Feiglin speak in English and I would not suggest he is a natural orator, (but then again – neither was his namesake) though the power of his ideas has captured close to 25% of the Likud membership. Besides, he is the one man who is guaranteed to give Wye Wye Wye River Bibi nightmares.

It’s not every day Moshe Feiglin comes to the New World…I might even be persuaded to break my rule and travel north of Bloor & Yonge.

Israpundit has more details.

The Israeli Likud leadership primaries are over and as expected Netanyahu was voted party leader. Surprisingly enough, Moshe Feiglin did quite well by capturing 23% of the vote. Taken from the Jerusalem Post:

Opposition leader Binyamin Netanyahu was reelected Likud chairman in Tuesday’s party primary, defeating the two Likud activists who challenged him – Moshe Feiglin and Danny Danon – by a hefty margin. As polls were closing, Netanyahu won 73 percent of the votes, while Feiglin had 23% and Danon 4%. The numbers were based on a count of 80% of the votes.

Bibi’s Consiglieres and Capo Bastones suggest dissent will be eliminated from within the Likud. The house cleaning starts with Feiglin apparently:

Netanyahu’s associates expressed satisfaction with the turnout and said he would now turn his attention to defeating Olmert and Labor chairman Ehud Barak in the next general election. The Likud chief’s associates also said he would continue fighting Feiglin, possibly petitioning the High Court of Justice to expel him and his supporters from the party.

Feiglin has a right to feel pleased as he managed to double his share of the vote since the 2005 primaries. One of Netanyahu’s premises in his victory speech, (heavy sarcasm use on the word “victory” due to fact that 60% of Likud members couldn’t motivated to get out and vote for Bibi in the first place) is that he promises to go out and court a more moderate fraction to the Likud rather than seek reconciliation for the growing divide within the Likud from the national religious fraction. I wonder what Ze’ev Jabotinsky would say of Bibi now?

For a man who has been around the electoral block as many times as Binyamin Netanyahu has I would have thought he would know better than to come out with statement like this (taken from the Jerusalem Post:

Incumbent Likud chairman Binyamin Netanyahu attacked his competition in Tuesday’s Likud primary for the first time on Wednesday night, telling supporters in Kiryat Motzkin that the heads of Kadima and Labor want Moshe Feiglin to win the race.

Netanyahu had refrained until now from criticizing Feiglin and acknowledging third candidate Danny Danon. He has focused most of his public statements on criticizing his expected competition in the next general election, Labor chairman Ehud Barak and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. “If Olmert or Barak were asked who you should vote for, they would say ‘vote Feiglin or stay home,’” Netanyahu said.

Netanyahu’s campaign has become more worried recently that with an extremely low turnout, Zo Artzeinu co-founder Feiglin could end up winning more than 40 percent of the vote. A significant achievement for Feiglin could allow Barak and Kadima to portray the Likud as extremist.

But Feiglin’s associates said that if Netanyahu was so afraid of Feiglin staining the Likud, he should leave the attacks on him to other parties and not add to them. They said that if Feiglin was the Likud’s biggest burden, it would not make sense that Netanyahu brought the party only 12 mandates when Feiglin wasn’t on its list for the Knesset.

I am not too sure being known as an extremist party in Israeli politics is a political kiss of death. If it is – how come Meretz isn’t dead and buried? In fact, in the last election Meretz garnished 5 mandates. Then there is everyone’s fun extremist, Avigdor Lieberman. He received 11 mandates for his Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel, Our Home) party which is just one less than Bibi did with the “non-extremist” Likud party.

Even more astonishing are the polls which suggest Feiglin’s support has grown from 24% to around 40% in the space of one week. But I bet things like this don’t help Bibi’s campaign any:

An internal Likud court was expected to decide on Friday whether to block Feiglin from running in the race. The petition to the court, which was the fifth in two weeks, was filed by supporters of Netanyahu, but his campaign denied any connection to them.

Yeah right. Anyway… if Feiglin does manage to pull off a miracle and win the leadership of the Likud party I know just the campaign slogan Likud can use against Barak and Olmert – Do Something Different – Vote to put a Jew in Charge.