The Flyer is More Than "Fishy". It Stinks

Here's the flyer left at the scene of the domestic terror attack at Prof. Sternhell's house:

My observations after reviewing it:

1.  There is no á"ä or áñ"ã, usual heading of religious persons writing.  Those abbreviations mean "with God's help".  And the word îñôé÷ - "enough" is odd.  Youngsters would use ãé!

2.  The signature "the Army of the Statist Liberators" is ridiculous.  The whole concept of îîìëúé, i.e., supporting the state, is anathema to the radical nationalist right.

3.  Why announce an award of 1.1 million NIS?  1.1???  Why an odd number?  What was that, a typo?

4.  The state of Israel is described as the "dream" (çìåí) of the past 2000 years.  Religious/nationalists would use the word "vision" (çæåï).

5.  In the list of weapons that Israel has handed over to the PA is included îëåðåú éøé (and why not éøéä?) which is a fairly archaic term for machine guns which may indicate someone over 65.  A youngster who has actually served in the army would use úú-î÷ìòéí or straight out ÷ìö'ðé÷åáéí - Klatchnikovs.

6.  The use of the Hebrew term for "Palestinians" is ôìùúéðàéí which is not usual.  Either ôìñèéðéí or òøáéí - Arabs would have been used.

7.  The inclusion of amongst the "sins" of the state of Israel of abortion encouragement would indicate perhaps Hareidi groups, not nationalists.

8.  The same for the inclusion of encouragement of "gay pride parades".

9.  The use of îìëåú éäåãä - Kingdon of Judea, instead of the Kahanist demand for îãéðú éäåãä - State of Judea, also indicates to me Hareidi or GSS composition.

10.  Sternhell isn't mentioned in the flyer and the addition of the 1.1 NIS reward for the murder of Peace Now leaders is in a different typeface, as if tacked on later to the original flyer.

Something is fishy.

This needs more study.

Isabel Kershner Takes On Israel's Radical Right

Isabel Kershner is the New York Times' correspondent in Israel, formerly of The Jerusalem Report and the wife of Hirsch Goodman.  Isabel takes on the Yesha scene in an article today entitled, "The Radical Right Takes On Israel".

Takes on all of Israel?

It is, surely, the "radical right" that she describes, and to be safe, she uses these terms such as: "elements of Israel’s settler movement", "Hard-core right-wing settlers", "extremist bastion", "the religious, ideological wing of the settlement movement", "so-called hilltop youth" and "the more militant activist part".

Nevertheless, she does not provide any standard of judgment for the uninitiated reader. Is she talking about 10,000 persons, 1 million or 250 teenagers? Of course, one terrorist or fanatic is more than enough, as Yigal Amir proved. Still, my point is that she was not describing a known quality but was drawing a general picture, providing background. And while using terminology that shielded her from being accused of making sweeping generalizations, I think that in not informing the reader as to what is the true picture, she was tranferring impressions and not facts. In other words, her reporting was a bit biased I would suggest.

For example, in writing that there have

been bouts of settler violence for years, notably during the transfer of Gaza to the Palestinians in 2005

she is misleading because both in absolute numbers of incidents and in relative to the monstronsity of the acts done to the Gush Katif and Northern Samaria revenants, what actually happened was minor, although regrettable, and cannot be compared in violence to any similar event on that scale in other countries.

She also failed to let her readers know that the person responsible for the terror attack at Yitzhar, which she describes fairly, was the same person the army killed a week or so later as he tried to throw a molotov cocktail at soldiers. In other words, the residents of Yitzhar were facing a quite determined killer.

In another instance, she writes,

In Samaria, the biblical name for the northern West Bank, and in Binyamin, the central district around the Palestinian city of Ramallah, settlers recently ousted their more mainstream representatives in local council elections, voting in what they called “activist” mayors instead. These new mayors, like the Samaria council’s Gershon Mesika, reject what they see as the more compromising policies of the Yesha council...

First, Samaria was not only the Biblical name but it is the geographical name used until today. Secondly, the mayor, or head of the Binyamin Reginla Council, Avi Roeh, is not more activist than the former head, Pinchas Wallerstein, for sure. Thirdly, as for Gershon's activism, well, have you heard a Jew say 'eh'? And fourthly, as she does mention the friction with the Yesha Council, she couldn't speak with Dani Dayan, the Council's Chairman? (Note: I called her up, spoke with her and made that very suggestion.)

And one more example of troublesome writing. She relates to Rechalim

Rahelim, a Samarian community of 45 families founded in 1991, has been labeled an illegal outpost

but could have added "...founded in November 1991 in protest following an Arab terror attack on civilian buses which killed a mother of 7 children and the bus driver, a father of two".

I guess not all the facts fit.

I Think There's Something Important Missing

Ir David, the project to rejuvenate the City of David, is doing tremendous work.  Repopulation, construction, archeology, conferences and tourism.

Here's their latest advertisement, promoting a Selichot walk:

Something caught my attention in the above ad. The map.  Let me enlarge it:

You can see marked off the Kotel Ma'aravi.  And Mount of Olives.  And the City of David.

And the Temple Mount?

The Selichot event takes places in the national park adjacent to Ir David, according to the advert.  So one can't say that you visit all three places.  And even I am mistaken, and if the tour does go to all three locations, even if they believe Jews shouldn't ascend the Mount, therefore it isn't represented on the map, neverhteless, it could be labeled.

The map, after all, is entitled "Ancient Jerusalem".  The Temple Mount surely belongs in that category.  Even if to identify it so that people shouldn't mistake the area for a soccer pitch - and the Muslims do play football up there - they could, and should, have notated it.

The Temple Mount is important.  Very much so.  Within that triangle is a crucial piece of real estate, and it the reason we are here in Zion, in Eretz-Yisrael.  It is our past and our future.

It shouldn't be missing.