Posts Tagged ‘Jerusalem’

Last Monday Toronto hosted an Israeli politician, member of the Knesset. His appearance wasn’t met by the usual crowd of screaming lefties, calling for his lynching for “war crimes”. On the contrary, he was applauded for the simple reason that the guest was Jamal Zahalka, an “Israeli Arab” and a leader of the Balad party.

 

Listening to him, it was easy to figure out that this wasn’t the ordinary type of parliamentarian elected to serve his country. He sounded like an angry PLO guy, who just came back from stoning an Israeli military post in the West Bank. From his lecture it was clear that he didn’t see himself as an Israeli, he considered himself Palestinian and the Knesset membership was a temporary stunt to be held before better fighting opportunities come up.

The lecture was held at Beit  Zetoun, a Palestinian club, which is located in an odd place – across the street from it is “Honest Ed’s” (a huge discount store), which could be considered one of Toronto’s large Zionist projects, because it was founded by “Honest Ed” Mirvish, a very successful businessman and philanthropist (who even supported the Jerusalem Museum). In fact, the whole area is called Mirvish Village in his honour and many of the houses host galleries, arts stores and artists (quite a few of them Jewish).

To preserve its identity among that overwhelming Zionist environment, Beit Zetoun has turned itself into a miniature Palestinian bunker. It is decorated with scary military signs from Israel.

 

On the walls we could see large photographs of people holding pictures. As the organizers explained, that was in Hebron during the celebration of the “political prisoners” day and the photographer just happened to be there to cover the event. Behind Mr. Zahalka’s back there was a board of stills from a documentary. Supposedly, it covered an Israeli army exercise in the Negev, where they used Palestinian prisoners and even killed one of them (nice to see that Pallywood is still churning out movies).

You could also buy books and Palestinian olive oil for 20 bucks a bottle (looks like the term “competitive price” is unknown here).

The audience consisted of a few people from the notorious Palestine House (they organized the event), a large number of old tired commies and a group of students. Many wore “Support the Intifada” pins. The International Socialists were peddling their communist paper for a buck (or any coins you have). Everybody in the audience received an invitation to a fundraiser for the “Gaza Ark”, a boat that is supposed to sail out of Gaza to export goods (most likely suicide vests).

It was good to see a few familiar faces. I spotted Haroon Siddiqui, the Toronto Star resident Islamist, to whom every Muslim terrorist act is rooted in the Western imperialism. I anxiously await his coverage of the event, where he will probably explain what a great and compassionate humanitarian Mr. Zahalka is.

 

I also saw Noa Shaindlinger, an emerging star of the Toronto Israeli Apartheid Week and the quintessential self-hating Jew. Recently she got extra notoriety by rejoicing about the death of Israeli soldiers in a helicopter crash. After the event I heard her explaining that she was shocked by the bad reactions and threats she received because of that.

 

With such an audience, Mr. Zahalka’s success was guaranteed.

He introduced himself – he is a scientist specializing in pharmaceutics. All of his degrees (including the PH.D.) were obtained from Israeli universities (in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem). That’s important to note, because in the whining that followed, he mentioned several times how Palestinians were discriminated in most fields. Not only was he able to graduate despite being arrested for anti-Israeli activities, but his degrees would be recognized internationally due to the high quality of education in Israel (unlike the Arab degrees).

 

Despite that, he made sure to point out that he would be bashing Israel throughout the lecture (note on the quotes from the transcript: despite Mr. Zahalka’s admirable command of English, that’s not his first language, so some grammar structures may sound odd to native speakers):

Tonight I am going to speak and expose the dirty secret of the Israeli democracy. I’ll try to debunk the myths of Israeli democracy. I think it’s an extremely important mission, because the Israeli oppression of the Palestinian people is based on the international legitimacy of the Israel state. People believe that Israel is a democratic state, for that belief Israel gets full legitimacy and this legitimacy is used against the Palestinian people. 

It gets worse from here, but his opinion is not unique. As a good friend of mine, with knowledge of Israeli politics, told me, Zahalka is one of the several Arab MKs who regularly bash Israel, not with constructive criticism (as it would be normal and even welcome) but with slanderous accusations bordering on sedition.  Among his colleagues at the Knesset, Azmi Bishara consorted with Hezbollah and finally left Israel; Ahmed Tibi was a personal advisor of Arafat at the height of the intifada; Hanan Zuabi was part of the crew in the Gaza Flotilla; and Ibrahim Sarsur was promoting radical Islam and criticizing Israel for Judaizing Jerusalem.

He sees Israelis and Palestinians as having two different narratives – of oppressor and oppressed – that cannot be reconciled.

The story of the victim and the story of the criminal is not the same thing, they are not equal… So at this time we have a Palestinian short story and Israeli very, very, very long story. If you ask a Palestinian [he says] they took me from my village and threw me away, and this is the end of the story.

If ask Israeli – it was 3000 years ago [laughter] and God was involved there in some way… as a real estate agent, he promised me that and gave me that, things like this. Even secular Israelis, who don’t believe in god, still believe in his promise to the people of Israel. A friend of mine wrote an article about the secular Zionism [where he stated its point] there is no god but he promised us the land [laughter]. That’s how you can summarize the secular Zionism’s story.

Of course, that simplistic explanation conveniently omits the long Jewish history in those lands and the numerous international agreements that have established their rights there.

But that doesn’t matter, everything Israelis say is a lie:

It doesn’t mean that the Palestinians don’t lie, many of them lie, but it’s not a personal quality, but a story of the victim. If somebody is a victim he wants to tell about himself as a victim, he wants the facts to be known. That’s why I am saying it’s not equal, it’s not a competition between narratives – there is a lie and there is a fact. We are trying to tell the truth and the Israelis are trying to lie as much as they can. When I analyze the Israeli story, it’s like the onion symbol – you try to find some truth, you uncover the first layer, then the second layer, seeking for something solid – nothing – lie over lie, over lie, over lie. This is the Israeli story. That’s why we have to be very suspicious over the Israeli story.

So what’s the “real” story?

At the very beginning, the project of the Jewish state…you should be aggressive to implement such thing. There was no other way, because the Palestinians were not going to give them the land in good will. So when you take that project of Jewish state and want to implement it in a country where you have an Arab Palestinian majority, now logically you can do it in one of two ways – either to make apartheid, a minority regime, and make a Jewish state, or create a majority regime by expelling the indigenous people from their homeland. This is the logical analysis and somebody may say that things were not clear in the 40s and the 30s, it wasn’t like this. Then in 1939 in a hotel in New York, Biltmore hotel, the Zionist movement decided to establish a Jewish state all over Palestine…

Now the tragedy of the Palestinians was that the logical analysis overlapped totally the historical events. And in ’48 85% of the Palestinian people that the Israeli forces occupied, 800,000 were transferred from their villages and towns. 500 villages were destroyed and the vast majority of the Palestinians in cities were also expelled, and only 100,000 people stayed, and later about 50,000 people joined them because of the Rhodes agreements. So I ask myself why transfer – there are two alternatives, to make apartheid or to make transfer. Why did the Zionist leadership choose transfer? They chose transfer, because they were democrats. They have a self-image of democrats, they cannot suffer a racist regime, so it was easier to take the Palestinians away from the scene and establish the Israeli democracy. And that’s the dirty secret of the Israeli democracy – it’s a democracy built on transfer, no transfer, no Israeli democracy.

There is no other way. If you insist on Jewish state, I’ll say ok, the Palestinians will stay in their country and a minority regime will be established and the Palestinians will suffer from discrimination and I would say that apartheid is the Palestinian dream. We demand apartheid, give us apartheid, it’s good for us, it’s much better than our situation of being refugees, of being uprooted from our villages and towns. So I sometimes, when people compare Palestinian situation with South Africa I feel pain – what’s wrong with apartheid? It’s much better than being expelled to Lebanon and suffering as refugees.

One undisputable truth that Mr. Zahalka mentioned earlier was that Palestinians also lie. This tirade confirms it. The Elders of Zion conspired in 1939 in the dark halls of Biltmore Hotel how to create their evil state. Then in 1948 they invaded the Holy Land and single-handedly kicked out several hundred thousand peace-loving Arabs, who until then were happily frolicking in the green pastures once graced by Old Mo’s flying horse.

As a pharmacist, Mr. Zahalka may need to prescribe to himself some memory loss drugs, because it seems he has forgotten plenty of facts. There has always been a strong Jewish presence in Palestine (as a geographical term, there has never been such a country). After the Balfour Declaration and the establishment of the Mandate, the Jewish immigration increased, improving the conditions in that mostly deserted land.

That caused increased immigration of Arabs to Palestine (often illegally, in the 1930s and 1940s) from neighbouring countries, although the land was allocated for a Jewish state. For example, the governor of Syria boasted in 1934 that in the space of a few months about 30,000 Arabs entered Palestine. That despite the fact that Transjordan was already carved out of the Mandate to be an Arab state, where no Jewish immigration was allowed.

The 1948 events didn’t come out of nowhere. Mr. Zahalka forgot that although the Jews accepted the unfair partition plan UN resolution, they were immediately attacked by all Arab neighbours with the explicit purpose to be pushed into the sea (an old Palestinian dream). The vast majority of Arabs left the country following the calls of the Arab leaders on the eve of their attack in May 1948.  There are plenty of US, UK and Arab press reports and witness accounts, which document that.

Now they want to go back, it’s like saying: “OK, we tried to kill you, but it didn’t work. Can we return now?”

Instead of telling the truth, Mr. Zahalka, an Israeli citizen, wails like a Ramallah drama queen: “Give us apartheid! It’s good for us!”

He dedicated part of his lecture to attacking the Israeli laws, which supposedly are inherently unjust and cannot be applied better, they need to be abolished. An example was the citizenship law:

So-called citizenship law – it gives priority to Jews, everyone can get automatically citizenship and rights. There are many rights that a Jewish man in Brooklyn has more than me. The law was changed in year 2000 to say that Palestinian couples from both sides of the green line, from west bank and Gaza cannot live together. 5000 families are suffering from that, it’s preventing family unification, if you are a Jew, you can get citizenship immediately. it was said it was for security reasons and then Sharon said they want to hide behind security, but it is because of demographic considerations.

They say Palestinians have fake or fabricated marriages to get citizenship, it’s conspiracy against the state. I told them there are no such marriages in our community, no family would allow it. 

Again, Mr. Zahalka fails to notice that Israel is the Jewish national state. Every national state has laws to protect itself and control who gets in. For example, Japan is the country of the Japanese – it is extremely difficult to immigrate there and if they accept you, you must act like a Japanese and obey all the laws. Nobody criticizes Japan about that. Only Israel is denied that right for a very simple reason – Arabs like Zahalka simply don’t want it to exist.

Flooding a country with illegal immigrants, who later change it, is one of the oldest tricks. But it looks like the Palestinians are heavenly angels incapable of committing immigration fraud.

Then he mentioned the so-called “cowboy law”, which lets you buy from the government land for a ranch, the law supposedly discriminates against the Bedouins. (Wasn’t the definition of Bedouin somebody, who moves from place to place and doesn’t own land?)

But the best material, which was unscripted, came during the Q&A session.

The first question addressed his complaints about the Israeli democracy: since he travels the world criticising Israel, is he harassed by the Israeli government?

Mr. Zahalka gave an evasive answer – he mentioned again the arrest and jail time when he was young. He also said that in 2002, 2006, 2009 and 2013 his party had problems with the election registration, because of doubts that it doesn’t recognize the Jewish state. However, he couldn’t give a single example of him being harassed by the government for his personal views.

Then a young revolutionary posed the following question:

“Given the scale of the occupation of the west bank since the Oslo accords, is the so-called two-state solution a dead letter now? And the only way to do it now is to fight for dismantling the Zionist state and establishing a secular and democratic state for all the people in the region.”

Zahalka:

I would agree with you about the two-state solution is dying. It’s a very bad situation. The Arab league presented a very generous and unprecedented offer to the Israelis to recognize Israel if Israel withdraws from the West Bank and a Palestinian state is established and some rights of the Palestinian refugees are recognized and Israel said no. I see that the Israeli government is a very extreme government – no chance, there is no Israeli partner for the two state solution. If I look for example at the ruling party Likud, most of them are crazy people. The leaders of that party are people very, very extreme; all of the people who were less extreme were not elected. In this situation there is no chance – not for one step, no for two steps.

…We speak for one state, two states, the number of the states is not important, I do believe that in the long term there is no chance for democracy peace and freedom without ending the Zionist regime. That’s the key point. If Israelis want to believe in Zionism I don’t care, it’s just beliefs. It’s the question of political thought, of sovereignty.  You cannot live in peace if one part is hegemonious over the other.

 

So he wants to get rid of the Zionist parties, which he said previously are the majority of the political parties, but didn’t say what will replace them.

We may get the answer when he replies to another question: since it is so difficult to operate in Knesset, why doesn’t he consider boycotting it.

Zahalka had a good reply, sprinkled with Marxism-Leninism:

It’s not black and white, but legitimate question. They try to prevent my party from running and if they do it frankly I won’t be disappointed. But if I don’t go I will give them another argument – we give him the opportunity and he doesn’t use it…

Lenin and Trotsky said something like this (I am not Leninist I used to be but they are right here) – if you don’t participate in the parliament, you must have a strong revolutionary process, which is very strong, very loud. When I come to the conclusion that I can go to a revolutionary phase, I will leave it. If there is something stronger outside of the parliament, I will leave it. 

Let’s see – revolution means overthrowing the existing social order by force. What kind of a revolution is going Mr. Zahalka to join? Is it against the Israeli government? Whatever it is, it is bizarre to hear that from a person whose job is to work for his country.

He gave us a better idea about the nature of that revolution when another question about the Palestinian future came up:

Now there is also of course the struggle against occupation, the struggle against the Judaization of Jerusalem, I can tell how I evaluate the Israeli government – there are two things – they are extreme and weak. Mr. Netanyahu is a very extreme person, but he is weak. He is not like Sharon. If there is pressure against him, he surrenders to pressure.

And the pressure could come from Palestinian struggle against occupation and from international solidarity movement. This is the coalition. Here we saw something the two-state solution is dying and the one state is not born yet, but we also have a closed door, no negotiations. How can we get out of it? Diplomatic intifada is not enough, Mr. Abu Mazen went to the UN for recognition of Palestine, ok, but if there is now a Palestinian uprising it will be weak, the Palestinians and their allies came to the conclusion that there are no negotiations; the only way is to create pressure over Israel like the case of South Africa. I don’t need to teach you what to do, you know.

[Voices: Boycott, boycott]

I think economic and diplomatic and scientific pressure over Israel is the way. If there are two pressures – from the Palestinian uprising you know there is a consensus in the Palestinian leadership now that we support a Palestinian intifada. It has not come into practice, but as you know people carry buttons with intifada. I can give you my instinct that a third intifada is on its way. The situation is very complicated it’s not only the Palestinians also the international community which gives money to PA to keep stability, financing the occupation.  That’s not helping the Palestinian people; it is preserving the stability and silence. And our duty as I said is to give voice to the silent suffering. 

Is Mr. Zahalka really a member of the Israeli parliament?

He calls for an armed uprising against his own government, supported by the international lefties. And on top of that he wants to starve his own people on the West Bank by cutting their funds, thus revolutionizing them.

He sounds like a character from “The Invasion of the Body Snatchers” whose body has been taken over by the vilest Hamas terrorist in Gaza. But most likely, that’s the real Jamal Zahalka speaking and we need to be concerned when a member of the Knesset thinks and talks like that.

The final nail in the coffin of the Jewish state came when he answered the last question, about the collaboration between Jews and Palestinians in political parties like Hadash:

I think that the morality of the progressive Jews is to support the Palestinian national movement, because it represents oppressed people and you can’t demand from people who are oppressed to support something like internationalism and chauvinism, like come to us not as a national person. There is a difference between the nationality of the oppressor and the nationality of the oppressed. And as we saw the Marxists and the communists in South Africa supported the ANC, they were part of ANC… We cooperate with Jewish progressive people but are not ready to give up our nationality to join Jewish supporters. It’s hard to explain because sometimes you use nationality to oppress people, other times to liberate them.

Did you hear it, “progressive Jews”? The Palestinians have their own revolutionary apartheid. If you want to waste your lives for them, you should play the second fiddle and do what they tell you. And it is not hard to imagine what will happen to you if they win.

There wasn’t a peep from the audience after that blatant rejection of “internationalism” and “multicultural brotherhood”. But again, the lefties are not the sharpest tool in the shed…

So that was it…

Imagine that a member of the Chinese parliament of Tibetan background says about China half of the things Zahalka said about Israel. He or she would never leave prison.

And the demonic Zionist kingdom of Israel lets Zahalka in and out of the country without any problems. Isn’t that the “dirty secret” of the Israeli democracy?

 

© 2013 Blogwrath.com

 

It was reported that Moshe Feiglin, the Likud politician, often described by the press as controversial and extreme, has been arrested by the police on Temple Mount for disorderly conduct. It’s hard to imagine that such type of a charge, usually reserved for drunken college students, could be applied to a Feiglin’s action. He is far from being a disorderly person and looks more like a school principal.

And that’s true – the charge is unimaginable, because he was arrested for praying. Not for throwing things or offending people… It is difficult to understand how a man could be arrested for praying in the capital of his own country, but that gets clear (but not much more comprehensible) when you delve deeper into the regulations enforced at the holiest of all Jewish places.

Jews are not allowed to pray in the area where once the Second Temple stood.

The article describes what happened at the time of his arrest:

According to police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby, Feiglin, who is No. 23 on the joint Likud Beytenu list, prostrated himself in the plaza and tried to pray out loud. Praying aloud, going through ritual motions or using any type of traditional prayer objects such as tefillin, tallitot or prayer books, are forbidden for Jews at Judaism’s holiest site due to tensions with Muslim worshipers at the Aksa Mosque.

Feiglin wrote on his Facebook page that he goes to the Temple Mount on the 19th of every Jewish month and that he bothered no one other than the undercover policeman who followed him and had him arrested.

The author is correct that this was not the first brush with the law that Feiglin had while visiting Temple Mount. When we met him in Tel Aviv last November, he said that when he was walking there the previous month he was followed by the police, who stared intently into his face, ready to arrest him if he started to move his lips (assuming he was praying).

This time he was arrested along with other people:

Police arrested a total of five people in the incident: Feiglin and another Jewish worshiper, as well as three Muslim worshipers, who surrounded Feiglin’s group and started yelling “Allahu Akbar” (God is great). One of the Arabs was carrying a concealed knife, which is illegal on the Temple Mount.

In the October incident, Feiglin refused to sign the police restraining order prohibiting him from visiting the Temple Mount and was brought for a hearing at the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court. The judge released him without any conditions.

Now the police may claim that they protected him, because the Arabs carrying knives are very much willing to use them, especially when you consider the fact that most people in Israel know very well who Feiglin is.

The whole incident looks bizarre and surreal and an outsider would have a hard time figuring out why the police would take such excessive measures against a praying man. That’s because the Israeli laws that rule the Second Temple area are bizarre and surreal.

After the Jewish uprising the Romans destroyed the Temple and expelled most of the Jews from their country. Although after that Jews always had a presence in Jerusalem, they usually were at the mercy of different empires and rulers (both Muslim and Christian).

The changing authorities had one thing in common – they equally disrespected the Jewish holy site. Building churches, which were consequently demolished or turned into mosques, was a process, which continued for nearly 2,000 years. At many points in history Jews were not allowed any access at all to the Temple Mount.

In 1948, after the Arab aggression, the Jews lost again that part of Jerusalem. The Jordanians were especially harsh in their treatment of the Jewish heritage – many synagogues were purposely desecrated or demolished; the Jewish graves in the area destroyed.

In 1967, after another Arab attack with the purpose to destroy the Jewish state, Israel finally managed to unite Jerusalem. The Jews regained full control over their Temple for the first time since Roman times.

And here comes the bizarre part. The initial joy of the return was dashed by a strange decision – very soon after the victory celebration Moshe Dayan handed the control over Temple Mount to the Muslim authorities of Jerusalem. And that’s after witnessing all the destruction that the Muslims caused! I am not sure how the socialist brains of Gen. Dayan and Prime Minister Eshkol worked to come up with that solution, but I can guess that the desire to show that we all are brothers and sisters, who have only “minor” cultural differences, played a major role.

To understand the absurdity of the situation, let’s imagine that Rome is conquered by the Muslims (the way things are working now in Europe, that’s not that far-fetched). Then the Italians unite and kick them out – however, they let the Muslims rule over the St. Peter’s Cathedral, which they have converted into a mosque. That’s beyond inconceivable. Yet that’s exactly what the Israeli government did for the tormentors of its own people.

The prohibition of prayer is not that different from what happened in Constantinople. After it was taken by the Turkish hordes in 1453 and most of its inhabitants slaughtered, the Turks desecrated the magnificent Orthodox Cathedral St. Sophia, turning it into a mosque. Now, if a Christian tries to pray there, he or she will be arrested (in earlier times even killed).

So we have a very similar situation, but in Constantinople the invaders took full control and exterminated the Christian population. In Jerusalem the Jews are the majority; it is the capital of Israel and it is ruled by the Israeli Government. Yet that government prevents its own citizens from praying at their holiest site, limiting their access only to the Kotel. It’s hard to imagine anything more bizarre…

Obviously, this is the situation, which Moshe Feiglin wants to change. What he does is not a whim or eccentricity – it’s a way to bring attention to an injustice.

After he was brought to the police, he explained very well what he wanted:

“When I was questioned, I said I would provide any information requested, but I would not cooperate in any way with the police’s unfortunate policy of harming the liberties of those questioned unnecessarily,” Feiglin wrote. “This was a big victory in the battle for human rights in Israel. It did not surprise me that our right to the Temple Mount led to the good news about the liberties of Israeli citizens.”

Indeed, Jerusalem has been a Jewish city for thousands of years.  It is ridiculous that its Jewish citizens can’t get the same rights over their holy site. The claim Muslims have over Temple Mount is based on the delirious ramblings of their “prophet”. He imagined that he travelled there in his dream. Normally, a delusion is not a sufficient reason to claim somebody else’s property, but in Islam’s case everything is conquered and stolen with brute force, as it happened with most of the churches in Constantinople.

Apparently, Islam has the same right to be present in Jerusalem as any other kooky cult, which had been attracted to the mystique of the old city. The “Jerusalem syndrome”, which makes many people think that they are prophets or saviours has already been recognized as a legitimate mental condition.

The delirium of Muhammad is not very different from that. He has as much credibility as Canada’s own contribution to the world of cults – Rael. Claude Vorilhon, the founder of the Raelian Movement was allegedly abducted by aliens, who appointed him to be their messenger; they even let him meet Muhammad. Rael, who also sees himself as a prophet sent to prepare the world for the advent of the “Elohim”, has pestered the Israeli government for years to build an “embassy” in Jerusalem to accept them.

The Raelians have exactly the same justification to be in Jerusalem as the Muslim do, i.e. none. But at least the followers of Rael don’t want to take over the Second Temple. Then why should Muslims keep it?

They are free to do whatever they want (as long as they don’t harass or kill anybody), but taking over the local temple is way over the top. Maybe it’s time to go. The mosques that now occupy the Temple Mount can be moved to a more suitable place, where they are not going to desecrate the Temple anymore. They could be rebuilt elsewhere after providing a proper compensation (although the Arabs never provided Jews with any compensation after destroying their graves and holy places).

Taking back the site in a decisive way is something that should be considered seriously. The problem of the Arabs is that they will always whine and grumble against anything that Israel does, whether it’s good or bad.

Isn’t it time for the Israeli government to take a full control of its own capital and provide the Jews with the right to worship like everyone else in it?

 

© 2013 Blogwrath.com

 

Although a Jewish state, Israel has been forced by the circumstances to be “multicultural”. The country has a sizable “Israeli Arab” minority and they have complete rights – they are full citizens of Israel and Arabic is even the second official language. That doesn’t make the situation any better, because with regard to their behaviour, the difference between the “Palestinians” in Gaza and Samaria and the “Israeli Arabs” is like between snakes that live in your back yard and snakes under the couch in your living room.

I want to start this instalment of my writings about Israel with the recent Gaza conflict. In addition to the hundreds of rockets shot out of that terrorist hub, a bus was blown up in Tel Aviv. That reminded everybody about the grim days of the early 2000’s. The terrorist act was actually done by an Israeli Arab – it looks like there are sleeping cells ready to strike. Despite all the rights and privileges those people have, they are more than willing to bite the hand that feeds them.

Solzhenitsyn’s novel One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich shows the horror of Stalin’s Gulag by describing a normal day in the life of an inmate, in which nothing substantial (from his point of view) happens. This article also covers an ordinary day among the Jerusalem Arabs – I wasn’t beaten, I didn’t witness terrorism, but the true nature of those people transpired in the way they acted that day. And I can confidently say that watching those Arabs in their everyday environment gives you much more information than a riot.

I visited the old Muslim Quarter in Jerusalem on a Saturday. That’s the Jewish Sabbath and in Israel’s capital, where people are more observant, almost every business operated by Jews is closed. The staff of our kosher hotel was replaced by Arabs overnight. The only taxis operating were the Arab ones with drivers, who were as cocky (because of their one day monopoly) as they were ignorant of the city’s streets.

The entrance to the Muslim Quarter is through the Damascus Gate. On the way you can see across the wall surrounding the city a Che Guevara store – first sign of the impossibly messed up Arab mind, which combines radical Islam with equally radical leftism (united in the name of Jew-hatred).

 

The gate entrance combines different realities – you can see Arab merchant women sitting on the pavement selling dried fruits and spices, and in the same area there are armed Israeli policemen. Due to bitter experiences in the past, more of them are sent to patrol the area on Saturday.

 

Many Jews, especially the orthodox ones, who don’t live that far, use the Damascus Gate to go to the Western Wall for their Sabbath prayer. They have to cross the Muslim Quarter, preferably in a group, because the Arab verbal abuse and fights are not uncommon. I didn’t witness a fight, but saw a few Orthodox Jews walking alone being taunted by Arabs.

Once you go inside, you see very old narrow lanes with little stores and cafes on both sides. It is obviously a place that has survived for many centuries. Yet the place is not very clean – there is garbage to be seen around.

The stores sell all kinds of religious and other junk, probably locally made, because the merchandise didn’t carry the proud “Made in China” stamp, except for the knock-off shoes and watches. There were also other provocative “artifacts” (more about them later).

 

A word about the Muslim merchants – if you are not a Muslim, you’re a fair mark to be deceived or cheated. There are no price tags, so when you ask about the price, you’re always quoted something outrageous and since in the West bargaining is a foreign concept, many tourists pay too much for a piece of junk.

That reminded me of my sad experiences in other Muslim countries, like my trip to Turkey in the 1990’s. In Istanbul I took a taxi and after we reached the place, I tried to pay. It was inflation time, so I handed the driver a 20,000,000 Turkish Lira bill. He said he didn’t have change but we could go to a store to break the bill. We made a few steps when the driver turned around, ran into the taxi, and quickly disappeared with my money. I was left to hold the bag (my bag that is) in disbelief. And don’t get me started on the street vendors of Johor Bahru in Malaysia where I went for a short trip when I visited Singapore.

Anyway, the interesting thing in Jerusalem is that you can see traditional Arabs – almost all women wear hijabs, although the full face covering is rare. Some older men wear the white or checkered cloth on their heads supported by big rings to achieve the charming Arafat look. Grease is popular with the younger Arabs, which gives them that nostalgic disco style. The mullet is stubbornly refusing to leave the heads of the Muslims in Jerusalem. It appeared that the head was the only part of the body they took care of, because the clothes they wore didn’t look or smell that clean.

The Orthodox Jews were not the only ones taunted by the Arabs. The tourists, especially the younger women were routinely scoffed at, booed and ridiculed by the Arab men and their bearded ladies.

As if that’s not enough, the tourists are constantly approached by Arabs, who offer scammy services, often with a mysterious whisper: “I can help you!” If it wasn’t for the hoarse Arab accent, that could’ve sounded like the desperate seductive call of a Thai hooker in Bangkok’s Soi Cowboy district.

One of those, a young man with permed hair and a dirty shirt collar, stopped us and offered to take us to a secret place from where we could oversee the Western Wall square. I carelessly silenced the voice of my negative experience with Muslims and followed him. He took us to a terrace, known to everybody , where we were about an hour before that. The whole walk took less than 2 minutes. I politely thanked him, but he asked: “Will you give me something for the job?”

I gave him a 20-shekel bill (about $6), then he made his best Palliwood victim face and said: “Give me something better!” Me: “What do you want for a 2-minute job?!” Then his expression slowly changed to rage and he made a step forward. I am sure under normal circumstances he would’ve helped himself to a larger bill from my wallet, but the fact that many people stood around us and that down the stairs there was a pair of armed to the teeth Israeli policemen, made him change his mind. He turned around and ran away like a little girl, cursing me in Arabic. Then I saw him with his buddies at a café near the end of the stairs (waiting for another victim), they all laughed and yelled at us in Arabic.

Another Arab leech from that “helping” crowd got us in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. In a whispering voice he said that he was a professional tour guide ready to show us everything for a small fee. I had absolutely no intention to pay that pest, but for the sake of fun told him that I would give him 20 shekels. He acted offended and said that was unreasonable. After some pressure, he revealed that a reasonable fee will be 500 shekels (about $135). Needless to say, we toured the church without him and we learned quite a lot from the countless Nigerian, Russian, and Armenian pilgrims visiting the church at the time, most of whom were very knowledgeable.

 

The third time we were taken, was later that day when we tried to get to the Tomb of Mother of God (that’s Mary’s Tomb for non-Orthodox Christians). Looking at our map for the best route, we heard the ominous “I can help you!” coming from the mouth of an old Arab storekeeper. He said that we couldn’t go there from within the old city, because the gate (the Lion Gate) was closed on Saturday. We had to go back, exit through the Damascus Gate and walk around the old city’s wall. We did that and it took us over an hour to reach the Tomb (where we were pestered again by greedy Arabs). Then it was a real surprise to see that the Lion Gate was open – we went to the old city again, and it took us less than 10 minutes to go to the Damascus Gate. So the old Muslim scumbag just lied to us.

That illustrates very well the nature of Islam, where lies and deception are the normal way non-Muslims are treated. The Jerusalem Muslims even have their own “Center for Jerusalem Studies”, part of “Al-Quds University”. You can imagine what kinds of studies are conducted there, considering the fact that the Muslims oppose all archaeological research in the city (they know very well what the results would be). Below you can see the entrance sign, which includes the whole Jerusalem next to Saudi places.

 

But the true hostility of those people toward Israel was revealed in the merchandise they were allowed to sell there.

Before I went to Israel, I was told that in the shops of the Muslim quarter they were selling photos and posters of Palestinian terrorists and suicide bombers. Naturally, that was the first thing I looked for, hoping to take pictures. In two stores I saw small pictures of scary looking Arab guys (the size of playing cards). Answering my question about them, the first owner said they were “Palestinian heroes” and nothing more.  The second one refused to answer. When I tried to take pictures the answer was “No pictures! No pictures!” yelled at me.

Although more “innocent” Pally propaganda junk was displayed outside of the most stores, the owners still didn’t like anybody photographing it. Of course, I managed to take pictures.

The unifying motif of all that junk was to ridicule Israel or show that it doesn’t exist. Boxes like those in the picture are common – notice how the whole country is called “Palestine” and the territory is covered completely with the PLO flag.

 

Just like in the West, the t-shirt appears to be a favourite tool to convey the Arab message. Of course the Jerusalem Arabs are still infatuated enough with the undying charm of their super terrorist Arafat and you can see his camel face everywhere.

 

Barry Hussein Obama was also present, but it didn’t look like the “Israeli Arabs” held him in high regard.

 

They didn’t miss Che Guevara either. The world’s best t-shirt salesman (as some call him) and inspiration to all Palestinian terrorists was prominently displayed. They even fantasized how he was endorsing “free Palestine”.

 

The goal, in most cases, is to ridicule or demonize Israel and at the same time show that “Palestine” is the only reality there. It looks like they are laughing at the possibility of peace:

 

The defense wall, which has saved many Israeli lives, but is still the favourite prop of the Israeli apartheid crowd, has been used in the t-shirt “art” as well. Here the three wise men on their way to Jesus are stopped by it (I had no idea it existed back then):

 

The same wall is featured on an invitation to visit “Palestine” (which of course includes everything in Israel), to make sure that we don’t miss the message, we see on the wall the silhouette of a little girl (presumably Arab) innocently playing with her balloons. Behind her an evil Jew, who for some reason looks like a Fiddler on the Roof character, is about to through at her either a bomb or a Molotov cocktail. (Then he’ll probably eat her.)

 

Then we see a Google search for “Israel” to which Google suggests: “Did you mean: Palestine?” Must be “Google Hamas”…

But of course, the call to free “Palestine” and eliminate Israel from the map was the most often used idea:

 

 

 

It was interesting to see that persistent call to demolish Israel repeated time after time in the capital of the country. A country, which supposedly doesn’t allow any freedoms to the Muslims, let them express in the open hostilities that few other countries would tolerate…

When we returned to the hotel after that tiring day, I watched TV. On the Russian channel I saw an interview with a Jerusalem resident. Victor Chernovsky’s cars had been torched by his Arab neighbours. He caught that on video and they showed it.

It wasn’t an isolated incident, the same happened to him last year. And that’s just a part of the problem he and the other Jewish neighbours have. It is common that the Arab kids pelt them with rocks from the surrounding hills. (According to the leftard logic of the Westerners, nothing should be done, since they are just kids.) The Arabs also deliberately use powerful loudspeakers on their mosque to harass the Jewish neighbours. (And I experienced that myself in Jaffa while shopping at a Jewish store – the wailing coming from the nearby mosque resembled the last call of a dying Chihuahua). Late at night they also like to set off fireworks.

It all started when a few Arab families bought houses in the predominantly Jewish neighbourhood, their presence attracted even more Arabs from the neighbouring villages. Chernovsky complained that even though the police are there, they do very little to protect the residents, because they are either afraid or unwilling to go to the Arab villages.

So this was my day among the Muslims of Jerusalem. As I said, nothing extraordinary happened – I wasn’t shot at, robbed or mugged, but the whole experience left me with an uneasy feeling.

I couldn’t imagine spending any time among those savages, who have all the opportunities a developed country offers, yet they have chosen hatred as their modus operandi and excel only in finding more and more ways to sabotage Israel. They are oblivious to the fact that if they succeed, the new country will turn into the same shithole that most Muslim countries are now.

It’s not easy to live with savages…

 

© 2012 Blogwrath.com

 

No visit to Jerusalem is complete without seeing the Western Wall. This relic from the Second Temple known as Kotel in Hebrew or the Wailing Wall (term Jews don’t like very much) is the most sacred Jewish place of worship. Actually, that should apply to the whole area around it, but most of it is still occupied by the Muslims. The place where the Temple stood (Temple Mount) has been taken by the Al-Aqsa mosque and the Jews are not allowed to pray there.

The struggle for Jewish access to the wall has been going on for centuries. While the Jews have a legitimate claim to the whole area, backed by archaeology, the Muslims’ assertion is based on the delirium of the “prophet” Mo who “visited” the area flying on his winged horse.

That line of strange reasoning has been used for centuries to deny the Jews access. As late as 2010 the old terrorist Mahmoud Abbas and his henchmen claimed again that the wall has no religious significance for the Jews. The scandalous situation, in which the Jews are not allowed on the site of their own Temple, is to some degree caused by the Israeli government. When in 1967 the army liberated Jerusalem, Moshe Dayan handed the control over to the Jerusalem Muslim authorities, who made sure Jews are kept away.

To understand the absurdity of the situation, imagine that the Muslims take over Rome, demolish the St. Peter Basilica and ban Christians from visiting the site. Then the city is liberated, but the Italians still leave the Muslims in charge of the Vatican. That was the situation after Jordan took over that part of Jerusalem in 1948 – the Jews were prohibited from visiting, toilets were attached to the wall, old Jewish graves were used as urinals. And yet, after the victory the Muslims remained in charge.

 

 

Using their advantage, the Arabs had tried for years to disrupt the Jewish worship at the Western wall. They had often hurled rocks from the mosque area.

The wall is accessible from several entrances in the Jewish quarter. As in the most important sites in Israel, every entrance is heavily guarded and the visitors must pass through metal detectors.

 

 

The access to the Temple Mount is under strict control and the Jews are prohibited from praying there. Sometimes they can’t even go there at all – over a week ago, we tried to go there on Shabbat, but the police stopped as (while allowing Arabs in and out).

 

It is said that the huge plaza in front of the wall can accommodate 400,000 people. All the surrounding buildings host synagogues and different Jewish organizations.

 

 

The flow of people coming to the wall never stops. On the Shabbat the security becomes even stricter and it is prohibited to take pictures.

 

 

The religious authorities that control the access to the Western Wall are even stricter. Even though everybody is allowed there, they have rules that should be obeyed. Otherwise you you’ll be scolded by the elderly orthodox Jewish women, who watch you like hawks and immediately tell you what you have done wrong.

 

On Saturday you can hear them yelling every other minute “No pictures! No pictures!” to the tourists who had somehow missed the signs. However, their main concern are the women who show too much skin (again, almost all of them are tourists). Shorts, mini-skirts or sleeveless shirts are not allowed. The guardian women have a huge supply of pieces of fabrics, which can be used as shawls or long skirts. As soon as they notice a modesty transgression, they run to cover up the “violator”.

 

Talking of women, there’s another issue that concerns the sexes at the Western Wall. Men and women, who go very close to the wall to pray, are segregated. About two thirds of the wall is reserved for men and behind a separation fence is the women’s part.

 

Ironically, weekdays you can see more women than men at the wall. There are some reformist sects in Judaism, which demand an abolishment of the separation. Some of them are arrested from time to time for disorderly behaviour. While we were in Jerusalem, one of the leaders of such a movement (a woman from the USA) was detained. A similar situation at a mosque would most likely be resolved in the typical humane Muslim may – with clubs, sticks, bullets and stones.

On Friday night, just after the Shabbat begins, thousands of Jews head to the Western Wall to pray. And that’s how far they can go; the holiest of the holy, Temple Mount is still closed to them, courtesy of their own government…

 

© 2012 Blogwrath.com

 

 

 

Last week in Jerusalem we attended an anti-Israeli protest, which was supposed to bring attention to the “occupation”. Before going into details, I should mention that I was anxious to cover a pro-“Palestinian” protest in Israel. My trusty Lonely Planet guide to Israel and the Territories warns me not to attend any protests, because they could quickly turn violent (which made them even more attractive).

Alas, the reality is much more boring than that. It looks like few people in Israel care about the issue. We finally caught a glimpse of a protest – I saw it from a taxi on our way to the Jerusalem market. Then we had to walk back for nearly 10 minutes to see it.

It was a rather depressing picture – we didn’t see any signs; there was no chanting and not a single Arab was to be seen (although there are plenty of them in the city). It was a dull event, with mostly older women dressed as badly as they were during their rebellious hippy youth.

 

 

The whole event had a striking resemblance with the mini-demonstrations in front of the Israeli Consulate in Toronto every Friday night – the same ancient hippies, who don’t want to admit even to themselves that their revolutionary days are long gone. At least in Toronto they are able to get a token Arab to stand with them and carry a sign.

They were confronted on the other side of the street by a group of students with Israeli flags.

 

However, despite the potential of a clash, the police were nowhere to be seen. Judging from the fact how cautious the Israeli police are to prevent terrorist acts or riots, it was obvious that those protesters didn’t have enough fire in them.

Our group was the only one to show any interest in their cause. We started to talk with them, but quickly found out that they expected us to speak their language of clichés, limited to “oppression”, “struggle”, and “liberation”. Every question requiring a rational answer was met with high-pitched cries of indignation, which resembled the screeches of a drunken squirrel.

In the top picture our friend Roberta (from JDL-UK) “suffers” the consequences of asking when the name “Palestinian” was used for the first time to describe the Arabs in the area. Not only didn’t the woman know, but she accepted it as a personal insult and was ready to get into a physical fight. That didn’t scare Roberta, who is a veteran of the fights with the Muslim fanatics and their lefty doormats. Later she told me that in England many colleges had prayer rooms, supposed to be “multi-faith”, but actually controlled by Muslims. Once she appeared at a college dressed like a Satanist and demanded access to the prayer room. After being refused, she threatened to sue them for equal access and only then she was allowed to perform her mock Satanic “ritual” under the hateful stares of the Muslims.

 

Zaza also tried to make his point, but his arguments were met with the same tired clichés, which should’ve died and been buried with the terrorist Arafat.

All in all, it was a boring event. It made me miss the Toronto protests, where those revolutionary leftovers have a little bit more adrenalin in them and with the police almost always near them, they feel as if they still matter…

 

© 2012 Blogwrath.com

 

On November 3 we attended the annual dinner in memory of Rabbi Meir Kahane. It took place at the Yeshiva of the Jewish Idea (Yeshivat Ha’Raayon Ha’Yehudi) in Jerusalem. This religious institution was founded by the Rabbi in 1987, three years before his murder by an Al-Qaida terrorist.

 

Here is the place to say a few words about Rabbi Kahane. Without any doubt, he was a controversial leader, equally hated by the anti-Semites and the Jewish establishment. Many didn’t agree with his tactics and found them unusual and controversial. But the problem is that almost everything related to the Jews is unusual and controversial – anti-Semitism is an irrational hatred, which simply cannot be confronted with reasoning. Explaining the logical fallacies of that “doctrine” to those who practice it has saved very few Jewish lives (nothing illustrates that fact better than the Holocaust).

Rabbi Kahane changed the image of the Western Jew from a meek weakling to a tough fighter, who is not afraid to confront his enemies. His Jewish Defense League successfully confronted the black anti-Semitism in the inner cities in the 1970’s (yes, even if it is not politically correct to say it, the Black Panthers were quite a nasty bunch of racists). Later, after moving to Israel, he confronted in the same way the Arab terrorism.

The central idea in his teachings and practical work was the survival of the Jews as a tightly knit community based on the principles of the Torah. Despite his death, the idea still lives on, and a testimony to that was the presence of so many people at the dinner.

All of the speakers at the event emphasized the need of protecting Israel as a Jewish state, which was the initial idea that the international community supported when it was decided to restore Israel. A few of the speakers were rabbis, but we also heard people, who confronted the problems daily in person. A fascinating woman shared her story about how the Israeli authorities persecuted Jews to accommodate the Arabs. Her family home in the territories had been demolished six times over the last few years (in addition to Arab attacks).

Another prominent guest was Michael Ben Arie, a Member of the Knesset from the National Union Party. His work in defense of the Jewish state didn’t bring him many perks either.

 

He has been arrested for confronting the Arab extremists.  A passionate and outspoken person, he discussed his work for stopping the illegal immigration to Israel. For the last few years, thousands of African immigrants (mostly Sudanese Muslims) had been smuggled illegally into Israel. In a way similar to the USA, many leftists and “progressive” people and organizations had fought against their deportation.

To show their hypocrisy, he did a public stunt, which caught the attention of the national television. Ben Arie went to an upscale swimming pool frequented by well-off leftists, and then he offered a few Sudanese immigrants free swimsuits and paid their entrance fee. It was very entertaining to watch how the lefties, who otherwise wanted all illegals to stay in Israel, go ballistic over seeing Africans swim in their pool.

After all the speeches ended, the yeshiva honoured the Director of JDL-Canada Meir Weinstein with a special award in recognition of his contributions in the struggle against anti-Semitism in North America.

 

The award was presented by Garth Kravath, who served as a head of the JDL security in the early 1970’s.

 

In his short speech Meir Weinstein shared his impressions from the meetings with Rabbi Kahane. He also mentioned an important fact – according to the statistics, the Jewish population of Israel would reach 6 million within the next few weeks. That is equal to the number of the Jews, who perished in the Holocaust. The number is symbolic, because due to the Iran threat and the threats from other countries, the Israeli Jews are in a similar danger, but this time they can rely on their own strength and achievements to confront their enemies.

The great food contributed to the good mood of everybody who attended.

 

The good mood also spilled over naturally into music and dances.

 

 

Notice the gun carried by one of the men in the picture. He was a rabbi from the yeshiva. It is a sign of the tense reality in the country – many ordinary Israelis are licensed to carry guns. Almost all security guards at hotels, malls, schools, etc. are armed. The vigilance and the realistic approach of the Israeli authorities to the Arab terrorism have paid off – there haven’t been terrorist acts for years in the most parts of Israel.

It was almost midnight when the event finished.

Next I will cover the Old City of Jerusalem. It is so rich in history that I’ll probably need several posts to cover everything…

 

© 2012 Blogwrath.com

5 If I forget you, Jerusalem,
may my right hand forget its skill.

6 May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth
if I do not remember you,
if I do not consider Jerusalem
my highest joy.

7 Remember, Lord, what the Edomites did
on the day Jerusalem fell.
“Tear it down,” they cried,
“tear it down to its foundations”!

Psalm 137

 

 

When these beautiful verses were recorded, thousands of years ago, the ancestors of the savage warmonger who created Islam were illiterate Bedouins who roamed the deserts. That’s why it was odd that Jews from Toronto and their friends had to confront Muslims claiming Jerusalem as their own…

The same Jerusalem, which is the eternal capital of the Jewish State… Jerusalem – the most Jewish of all Jewish cities…

Apparently, that’s the sign of our messed up times – earlier this year, following the initiative of the Arab terrorists from Hamas, a million people were called to march to Jerusalem to reclaim it for the Arabs. As it happens very often, history repeats – Hamas is willing to do to Jerusalem what the ancient Edomites did to it.

However, there is a slight difference. While in antiquity Israel wasn’t able to confront the mighty invaders and avoid the Babylonian capture, now the country is more than well prepared to deal with its enemies.

And I suppose that most of the Arabs and the lefties knew that and didn’t follow blindly the Hamas insanity. As of this writing, it appears that the march to Jerusalem has been an utter failure. Not many idiots approached the Israeli borders and even fewer tried to cross them.

The same happened in Toronto – instead of the hundreds of Arabs and their lefty buddies, who were supposed to show up at the Israeli Consulate, we only saw a few dozens of the usual assortment of the standard characters – hippy leftovers from the 1960’s, a few students desperately trying to join a group that likes them and very, very few Arabs.

 

 

 

The Jewish side was a little bit bigger, but when you consider the fact that the 14 million Jews in the world are up against over a billion Muslims, you may wonder why the Muslim cause’s supporters were underrepresented.

 

Other that the members of JDL-Canada, the rally included people from different backgrounds, who wanted to support the right cause.

 

You could see members of the Hindu Advocacy group:

 

Even the activists from Caledonia joined the rally. Just like the Jews, they have a first-hand experience in confronting extremists (in their case the extremists act with the provincial government’s blessing). I saw Merlyn Kinrade, the hero veteran from the 1956 Suez Canal peacekeeping mission, and Mark Vandermaas (from the Caledonia Victims Project) who recently started the highly successful Israel Truth Week, aimed at confronting the blackmail of Israel:

 

 

Later they were joined by Gary McHale from CANACE, one of the major moving forces of the fight for justice in Caledonia:

 

 

The participants were not shy about stating their opinions. Their signs clearly explained why the ridiculous Hamas claims were wrong:

 

 

 

 

 

In a short speech, JDL’s Director Meir Weinstein condemned the intended aggression and clearly explained that Israel is not going to sit and take the abuse. He also emphasized the constant efforts of the Muslim extremists in Canada to undermine the Jewish community. However, thanks to the vigilance of the Jews and the fair policies of the government, those extremists are not going to achieve their goals. Many of their organizations are a front of the Muslim Brotherhood, which tries to gain the same control in Canada as in the Islamic countries. They all will eventually fail, just like the anti-Jewish Palestine House, which was recently defunded by the Federal Government.

 

The confrontation was more or less civilized. The only odd thing was that when the Jewish side played the Canadian National Anthem, the “progressives” across the street and their Arab friends didn’t show much of respect – they kept hissing, booing and shouting. But that’s not a surprise – as Karl Marx used to say, “The proletariat has no homeland”, so hating Canada is just a part of their lives…

© 2012 Blogwrath.com