Have you read this news item?

The one about the Arabs beating us to Jerusalem?  Being here before us because they claim (don't laugh!  okay, laugh) to be either Canaanites or Jebusites or whatever?

I dealt with this in another blog of mine.

But the quick point I want to make here, at "From the Hills of Efraim", is did you notice that now the Biblical account is, well, kosher?  They stamp their feet and yell and scream that we have no Divine right to Eretz-Yisrael, that our history of Tabernacle and Temples, kings, priests, prophets and scribes is worthless and they even hook up with antisemties and suggest we are Khazars.  Don't quote Scripture to us, they insist.  It has no relevance.

But when they need the Bible, well, move out of the way, for here come the Canaanites and Jebusites.

I spotted this headline:


Arms?  Arms?

I began to wonder, is that something similar to that Sweden thing, you know, that organ-farming story?

No?

Maybe the Scandinavians have a hang-up about Israel?

The Bilin weekly fence protests have just picked up some major support.  Here's the quite sympathetic New York Times report :

"The protesters chant and shout and, inevitably, a few throw stones. Then just as inevitably, the soldiers open fire with tear gas and water jets, lately including a putrid oil-based liquid that makes the entire area stink.  It is one of the longest-running and best organized protest operations in the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and it has turned this once anonymous farming village into a symbol of Palestinian civil disobedience, a model that many supporters of the Palestinian cause would like to see spread and prosper."

I would take issue with that characterization.  Only "a few" throw stones?  Need it be inevitable that stones be thrown?  Why initiate such violence?  For sure stone-throwing is not a peaceful protest, nor is it civil disobedience.  It is violence.

But, of course, if retired Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu compares it to Gandhi's nonviolent struggle in India, to Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King and declares, as he does in that story, that "people here in Bilin are leading a nonviolent struggle”, then maybe understandably the New York Times got a bit mixed up.

But does its news bureau here, as well as the foreign news desk editors in New York, consider that, perhaps, stone-throwing is but practice and preparation for tossing molotov cocktail firebombs and grenades and that that is the real inevitability?  

Or that stones kill, like in the case of my neighbor, 5-month old Yehuda Shoham, who died as a result of a rock being thrown threw the window of his parents' car in June 2001.

In fact just a few days later an Arab teenager was shot in a clash and died.  But was he throwing stones?

No.

"IDF soldiers shot a Palestinian man dead and lightly wounded a second after the pair threw firebombs at homes in Beit-El, north of Ramallah, on Friday evening."

Sorry, that was in April last.

Now, where is this week's story?  Ah, here:

"The Israeli military said the boy was one of three attackers who on Monday night hurled Molotov cocktails at a guard post near a Jewish settlement in the West Bank."

Just one more point.  It has been reported that:

"Arab educators expressed outrage Monday at Education Minister Gideon Sa'ar's intention to remove the phrase Nakba from textbooks in the Arab education system, and threatened civil disobedience if the ministry follows through on its decision...".

"Civili disobedience"?

Like in Bilin?

Will they be throwing stones?

Following the news that Madonna has visited the Western Wall tunnels to view the actual foundations of the First and Second Temples, Sheikh Whatever of the Pal. Waqf Trust has announced that Madonna really doesn't exist.

"She's just a fantasy," he declared.

In making this pronouncement, the Whatever Sheikh is continuing in the propaganda line the Muslim authorities have taken that the First Temple built by Solomon and the Second Temple, first constructed by Ezra and then enlarged by Herod, simply are historically in doubt (see here and here).

Of course, this seems to be their only defense versus the Jewish claim that "Palestinian Arabs" don't really exist as a separate and distinct ethnic-national grouping.

On the other hand, From the Hills of Efraim has learned that the Sheikh has offered ten camels, three sheep and five goats (all of them material virgins) for a front-row seat at Madonna's concert. He has revealed to his associates that "first, I'm already sticky, second, I haven't seen Tel Aviv since my last dishwashing job and third, she is my fantasy but what a fantasy".

His associates have reacted by being very cross with him.

Let's start at the end.

If you go to this web site, MEPI, you'll find there programs under "MEPI in the Palestinian Territories" which are all directed at the Arab populace in that area but not to any Jewish Community in Judea and Samaria.  Not for Jews.  There is an office for Israel but all the programs likewise are directed only at Arabs.

How did I arrive there?  Well, a good friend sent me this item:

"New road signs in Palestinian-controlled areas of the West Bank will be in Arabic and English, without Hebrew, a US official said Thursday. Mindy Masonis, spokeswoman for the US Consulate in Jerusalem, said the new signs will be part of a larger program aimed at improving conditions in the West Bank. The development is seen as part of the preparation for a future Palestinian state.  Masonis said no signs are being taken down, but the new ones in the Palestinian areas will be in Arabic and English. The sign project accounts for about $175,000 of a three-year, $20 million U.S. aid project to improve services in the West Bank."

I asked myself:

a. $175,000 for how many signs? How much per sign? Is this a rip-off?

b. Who is being contracted, only Arabs need apply?

and then,

c. Is this a reaction to this news item? -

"...the newly installed minister of transportation, Yisrael Katz, now threatens to fill the roads with signs that use only the Hebrew place names for locations which have had their English and Arabic equivalents for centuries if not millennia."

Now, if it is, I wonder if the Consulate read the rest of what far left-winger former MERETZ MK Naomi Chazan had to say there:

...BEFORE HE ventures forth on another foolhardy, costly and flauntingly nationalistic escapade, he would do well to apply some common sense to correct the near chaos which greets travelers today.

Some signs are designed to give critical driving instructions. Most of these consist of internationally recognized symbol...for safety's sake.  The Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway is full of such signs. A few are written in all three languages; others appear only in Hebrew...

Will they ask themselves at the State Department, 'do we really want to run afoul of Naomi Chazan and her friends for, after all, liberal progressives should wish too apply equal standards for Jews in Yesha as much as they want the same for Arabs in Israel', yes?

and lastly,

d. Is the US engaged in the promotion of rabid ethnocentric Arab nationalism or is it interested in helping a peace process - or does that peace process exclude Jews while making sure that Arabs benefit twice, once inside Israel and once in something they want to call the "State of Palestine"?

I have for some 20 years been suggesting that the Consulate (and all other interested outside players, EU, UK, etc.) engage the two populations beyond the Green Line in non-political activities so that coexistence can be built up. Like baseball between Shiloh and Deir Dibwan.  But what do I now find that that the Yanks have done?

This here, item #4:-

PeacePlayers International – Middle East (PPI-ME)
Ramallah & Tulkarm
BasketPal Leadership Development Program
This project uses the game of basketball to teach leadership and life skills to socio-economically disadvantaged girls ages 10 – 16 years and provides professional development training for young Palestinian coaches and educators. By engaging young girls in basketball activities, the project promotes equal participation of women in the public domain. Outstanding youth are then invited to BasketPal’s Leadership Development Program (LDP), giving them a chance to become intern basketball coaches. This grooms them as leaders in their communities and creates role models for young Palestinian girls.

So, not only do they Consulate staff seek to create a "State of Palestine", not only do they do all they can to do so, not only to they presume no Jews are to be there when it arises, but they are also avoiding any attempt previously suggested to assure relative peace between Jews and Arabs after the event.

How clumsy. This is discrimination and prejudicial. These are unilateral steps taken to avoid direct negotiations.

A lot of money is flowing into this pursuit pf "Palestine" effort like this info:

At a signing ceremony in Aida Camp today, U.S. Consul General Jake Walles announced an $81 million contribution to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) to support its emergency programs in the West Bank and Gaza.

U.S. Consul General Walles said that the $81 million will provide critical humanitarian assistance to one million Palestinian refugees in Gaza...The United States is UNRWA’s largest bilateral donor. This contribution will bring the United States total contribution to UNRWA in 2009 to $267 million, including over $116 million to its General Fund, $30 million to its Lebanon Emergency Appeals, and $119.5 million to its West Bank/Gaza Emergency Programs.

Hello, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, aides Ron Dermer, Dore Gold, anybody out there listening?