Don’t worry be happy says the IDF

Reports the Jerusalem Post:

Israel does not fear a major terror escalation in the West Bank with the transfer of the Hilles clan to Jericho, head of the Civil Administration Brig.-Gen. Yoav Mordechai said Monday. "The control of the IDF and security forces in Jericho is absolute, and anyone who deviates from normative behavior and engages in criminal activity or terror will be removed from there quickly," Mordechai said.

Eighty-seven members of the heavily-armed Gaza-based Hilles clan, allied with Fatah, were put on two buses in Beersheba on Monday afternoon and transported to Jericho. The Palestinian Authority had set up a temporary residence for them near the Palestinian National Security headquarters, PA officials said.

Yeah well, it turns out Palestinians aren’t so happy either with the relocation of the Hilles clan in Jericho.

Some residents of Jericho expressed fear that the presence of the Hilles clan members in their city would have a negative impact on tourism and increase the rate of crime. They pointed out that in recent months there had been an upsurge in the number of tourists visiting Jericho, especially Israeli Arab citizens who come to spend the weekend at the Jericho Resort Town and the Intercontinental Hotel.

"Why didn't Abu Mazen [Abbas] take them to Ramallah?" asked a shopkeeper in the center of the city. "Why do they always send these guys to our city?" A restaurant owner noted that in the past he and some of his colleagues had been exposed to threats and extortion by Fatah gangsters who were "exiled" to Jericho by Israel and the PA. "May God help us," he commented upon learning that the Hilles men were about to be transferred to Jericho. "Many Fatah gunmen who were sent to Jericho over the past few years gave us a very hard time. I believe that the presence of the Hilles people here wills scare away many tourists."

It is not like I had a burning desire to visit Jericho but I do sympathize with the shopkeepers.

Would you want the government of Canada giving asylum to the Gambino Crime Family?

Often human rights organizations in Israel exhibit a strange affinity to people who are actively trying to kill Israelis which in turn is why the Israeli public often exhibit a marked apathy towards human rights organizations.

A good case in point is the most recent petition to the Israeli high court by the forever looney Association for Civil Rights in Israel (aka Assocation for Civil Rights for Everyone but Jews) whose latest petition is on the behalf of approximately 188 Gazan Palestinians from Fatah and the Hilles clan who have been locked in a major firefight with Hamas over the weekend.

Ynet News:

The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) filed a petition with the High Court of Justice Sunday demanding that it prevent the State from sending dozens of Palestinians who fled Gaza following fierce clashes with Hamas back to the Strip.

On Saturday 188 Palestinians were allowed entry into Israel after Hamas took over a stronghold of the Fatah-affiliated Hilles clan in Gaza City's Sajaiyeh neighborhood. At least 11 people were killed and dozens more were injured during the infighting. Thirty-two of the Palestinians who had requested political asylum in Israel have already been sent back to Gaza, while the rest are expected to return within the next 24 hours.

In the petition, ACRI Attorney Oded Feller said the lives of those who are being sent back to Gaza is at risk, adding that sending back people who request political asylum to the place they had escaped from constitutes "one of the most severe human rights violations and is a breach of Israeli law and human morality".

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas refused to grant asylum to the Hilles clan members. According to Hamas, of the 32 Palestinians sent back to Gaza only five remain in custody. The Palestinian Authority said only three people, including clan head Ahmed Hilles, will be granted asylum in the West Bank. Hilles was injured in the clashes with Hamas and is currently being treated at an Israeli hospital.

The Palestinian Authority runs courts of justice and, in fact, has a high court. The so-called refugees are Palestinian armed men so it makes far more sense to pressure the Palestinian Authority for their asylum in the West Bank. So why won’t the NGO file a petition in Ramallah or lobby Palestinian Authority Chairman Abbas to change his mind?

But no, Israelis NGO’s operate under some strange suicide death wish whereby they attempt to hold a viper to the breast of the Israeli civil society. Ultimately, it is a sense of moral perversion whereby human rights organizations in Israel demand constant accommodation with their enemies and/or mafia type organizations all in the name of ‘human rights’but no care is given to the human rights of Jews. So why was the Palestinian Authority reluctant to take in these Palestinian allies or brethren from the Gaza Strip? The Jerusalem Post gives us first the official reason:

PA officials explained that the reason behind their refusal to absorb the new "refugees" was their desire not to encourage other residents of the Gaza Strip to leave. "Everyone knows that if we allow people to leave the Gaza Strip, almost all the residents living there would try to cross the border into Israel," said a senior PA official. "We don't want to leave the Gaza Strip to Hamas."

One is related to Abbas's fear that the presence of the Hilles "refugees" in Ramallah and other West Bank cities would damage his efforts to impose law and order there. The powerful Hilles clan had established their own "mini-state" in the Gaza Strip, where they had their own extraterritorial "security zone" and militia.

The clan, which has long been affiliated with Fatah, had a military training base and a number of small factories for manufacturing various types of weapons. Several members of the clan were also involved in various types of criminal activities, including murder, rape, kidnappings and extortion, according to sources in the Gaza Strip.

Bringing dozens of these clan members into the West Bank would have caused a big headache for Abbas, who is still facing difficulties in reining in numerous Fatah gangs that are continuing to roam the streets of West Bank cities and villages. The last thing Abbas needs is another 180 bitter Fatah thugs from the Gaza Strip patrolling the streets of Ramallah, Bethlehem and Nablus and imposing a reign of terror on the local population. Past experience has shown that the Palestinians in the West Bank have never been enthusiastic about the presence of their brethren from the Gaza Strip among them.

In another twist of the screw, Ehud Barak, Leader of the Israeli Labor Party and current Minister of Defense, has worked out an agreement with the Palestinian Authority to accept the mafiaoso refugees for resettlement in Jericho reports the Jerusalem Post:

The Defense Ministry and the Palestinian Authority decided late Monday morning to transfer to Jericho the Fatah refugees who were still in Israel after fleeing Saturday's fierce fighting with Hamas in Gaza. The announcement was a change to a decision made overnight Sunday to have them sent to Ramallah, which had marked a reversal of a previous decision to send them back to Gaza.

The decision to send the Fatah men to the West Bank followed discussions overnight Sunday between Defense Ministry officials and the office of PA President Mahmoud Abbas. Of the 188 Fatah members who entered Israel, 35 were sent back to Gaza on Sunday at the request of Abbas, who had initially asked Israel to treat the wounded and only facilitate the transfer to the West Bank of five members of the Hilles clan, including its leader Ahmed Hilles. Nevertheless, after the 35 returned Fatah members were immediately arrested by Hamas, the IDF filed an objection with the Defense Ministry that sending the remaining refugees back to Gaza would risk their lives.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak's office then contacted Abbas's office and after talks throughout the night, it was decided that the men would be sent to the West Bank after all. The Defense Ministry said in a statement that it received information that "they were being arrested by Hamas and that their lives were in immediate danger."

These men owe their lives to the direct intervention of the Jewish state although I doubt the debt will be repaid with anything but the blood of others.

Alexander Solzhenitzsyn has died

The Globe and Mail:

MOSCOW — Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the Nobel Prize-winning author whose books chronicled the horrors of the Soviet gulag system, has died of heart failure, his son said Monday. He was 89. Stepan Solzhenitsyn told The Associated Press his father died late Sunday, but declined further comment.

Mr. Solzhenitsyn's unflinching accounts of torment and survival in the Soviet Union's slave labour camps riveted his countrymen, whose secret history he exposed. They earned him 20 years of bitter exile, but international renown. And they inspired millions, perhaps, with the knowledge that one person's courage and integrity could, in the end, defeat the totalitarian machinery of an empire.

More on Solzhenitzsyin can be found here.

What Not to Wear - China Edition

Where is Clinton & Stacy when a few millions really need them? The Chi-coms have published a little red booklet to instruct Bei-jing's citizens how to dress and how to act ahead of next week's Olympics. Taken from the New Scotsman:

Don't mix more than three colours

Do shake hands for three seconds only

Don't wear your pyjamas in public

Citizens are ordered not to dress in more than three colours, wear white socks with black shoes or parade in pyjamas, in the dos and don'ts of Olympic etiquette.

Like a totalitarian version of Trinny and Susannah, Zheng Mojie, deputy director of the Office of Capital Spiritual Civilisation Construction Commission, has penned a booklet posted to four million Beijing households stating acceptable standards of dress and behaviour. On the black list is handshakes that last longer than three seconds, quizzing visitors about religion or politics and spitting, a popular habit which was banned in the city in 2006.

The etiquette booklet is part of a slew of admonitions on manners, said Ms Mojie: "The level of civility of the whole city has improved and a sound cultural and social environment has been assured for the success of the Beijing Olympic Games."

There should be no more than three colour groups in your clothing, the committee advises, and wearing pyjamas to visit neighbours, as some elderly Beijing residents like to do, is also out. It recommends dark socks, and says white socks should never be worn with black leather shoes. In the last few years the government prepared people for the Olympics with the slogan: "I participate, I contribute, I enjoy."

Measures such as the ban on spitting in the capital city and the introduction of a day to show more patience in lines – on the 11th of each month – have paid off, Ms Mojie said. Campaigns involving nearly a million volunteers have been launched to give etiquette tips at schools, universities and government offices. Ms Mojie said: "Such campaigns and educational activities are now improving the lives of Beijingers. Now you'll find more smiling faces and people are more elegantly dressed."She said people have formed a habit of queuing and at more than 1,000 bus stops people are forming orderly lines. "This has already become a habit for the Beijing citizens," she said.

The booklet also advises there should be no public displays of affection and feet should be slightly apart or in a V or Y shape when standing. It also says resident should not ask foreigners their age, marital status, income, past experience, address, personal life, religious belief or political belief.

There was also another book published late spring detailing how to be a 'how to be a good fan'….

I am not sure I understand about the whole pajamas thing, but then again, I am a blogger. Lucky for the Last Amazon - it says nothing about wearing yoga clothes out in public.

No place for a Jew to pray

I realized after I made a comment at Stage Left that few people actually realize two things outside of Israelis and Diaspora Jews. The holiest place in Judaism is not the Western Wall or HaKotel but the Temple Mount above the wall, and a Jew is forbidden by Israeli law to pray there in order to protect the religious sensitivities of the Arab Muslim minority. In fact, even moving one's Jewish lips and silently mouthing a prayer leaves one open to arrest by Israeli Police. Think I am joking? Read this January 2008 article from Ha'aretz:

A Jew is not allowed to pray in any overt manner whatsoever on the Temple Mount, even if he is just moving his lips in prayer, Public Security Minister Avi Dichter recently wrote MKs Uri Ariel and Aryeh Eldad (National Union-NRP).

In 1976, the Supreme Court ruled that it accepted the government's position that it was not opposed to individual Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount, providing that it was not of a demonstrative nature that could lead to public disorder. High Court rulings in recent years have also been seen to support individual, as opposed to group prayer on the Mount.

Ariel and Eldad recently decided to test the State's position on this issue. They informed the police that "they intended to manifest this right" [to non-demonstrative prayer] by first coordinating the best time and place to enter and exit the Temple Mount complex. The two MKs explained that all they intended to do was to pray, without informing the media of their plans, or wearing a talit or tefilin, or bringing a Torah scroll with them.

"It is not possible to arrest a person for 'conversing with his maker,'" Dichter replied, using the same terminology of the MKs' letter. "However it is possible to carry out an arrest for expressions of outward and demonstrative signs [of prayer]."

This interpretation, Dichter continued, "is in line with the rationale that bans Jews from praying at the site, in light of serious concerns that this will serve as a provocation, resulting in disorder, with a near certain likelihood of subsequent bloodshed."

It was further explained to the two MKs that from the police's point of view, there is no substantive difference between the prayer of an individual and group prayer, since the threat to public safety is the same. Such act would be considered "altering the status quo at the site."

Dichter stressed that the state's decision to ban Jewish prayer from the Temple Mount does not distinguish between an individual praying and that of a group, and that this has been the basis of the status quo since 1967.

As outrageous as it may seem, it is enough to qualify for sufficient cause to arrest a Jew for silently mouthing out a prayer under the current law. I suggest reading this Israeli Insider article detailing a visit to the Temple Mount (circa 2006) in the first person. Here is an excerpt:

So I arrive at the security gate leading to the Temple Mount early in the morning during hol hamoed sukkot. A long line of religious yeshiva boys are waiting, and Israeli policemen collect their ID cards to check their records, afraid some fanatic is going to blow up the Al Aqsa Mosque.

I meet up with a group of American Jews led by an expatriate American tour guide named Nahum. We are given an easier time than the yeshiva boys, but we have to wait at least an hour until the boys pass security.

Tensions are high and many of us are getting impatient, especially since people cut in line to go ahead of us. One antsy member of our group, a religious looking gentleman, complains loudly to a gruff Israeli policeman looking cool in sunglasses.

"Why are you making us wait so long?" he says to him.

The policeman answers with a scowl: "Did I do anything to you?"

They get into a verbal scuffle which ends with the policeman saying in Hebrew: "I don't give a $%#@ about you." What a spiritual way to begin entrance into one of the holiest sites in the world, I think. Nahum warns us to avoid confrontation with the Israeli police. He suspects they want to make it hard and undesirable for Israelis to enter.

"I remember after the Six Day War Jews would go to the Temple Mount and visit all the sites there freely and fearlessly," he explains with some nostalgia. Over the years, he continues, as Israel slowly gave up sovereignty over the Mount, the site became more restricted to Jews. The Muslim waqf which administers the Temple Mount cooperate with Israeli police to make sure the Jews "behave". Behavior includes modest dress, no trespassing to forbidden areas, and-- believe it or not-- no prayer.

Nahum relates a story of a religious woman who, upon touring the Mount, was tired and sat by a tree to rest. She closed her eyes and it looked like she was meditating. The police detained her for violating the ban on prayer.

Luckily for me, as a generally secular person, I don't pray the traditional Jewish way. My thoughts and dreams are my prayers. However, as Nahum warns me not to pray as we enter the site, I wonder what the police would do if silently mouth Madonna's "Like A Virgin" towards the Dome of the Rock, or if I silently recite a psalm and then tell them I'm an atheist. Would that be cause for arrest?

But as I crossed into the site via a bridge adjacent to the Western Wall, I was in no mood to make trouble. I was too awed by the vastness in front of me. The area where the former Hebrew Temple once stood looks like a peaceful park. Olive trees and stone pathways surround the Dome of the Rock and the Al Asqa Mosque. It occurs to me that this is the one spot in the world where at any moment I could face a different direction to pray towards "Jerusalem." But, alas, I'm not allowed to pray.

We circle the Dome and the Mosque, which are closed to non-Muslims, and Nahum shows us where the PA has converted the area known as Solomon's Stables into a mosque. As we tour around, the Waqf agents, who look like Arabs dressed in Western clothes, come up to us every so often to make sure Nahum isn't teaching anything blasphemous. Luckily, they don?t understand English. Nahum is disapproving of the recent Muslim constructions, which he says are designed to increase Muslim stakes in the site.

The Israeli police largely leave us alone. The religious members of the group have disguised themselves as secular by wearing hats over their kippahs. We manage to blend in with Christian and Asian groups, who actually visit the site more than Jews. As we walk at the edge of the eastern wall, a policeman tightly escorting a teenage boy passes us. The boy, whose long tendrils stick out from below his knitted kippah, must have made some trouble. His lips were moving in prayer as he was leaving the Mount.

Shame.

the unending civil war

Lebanon has fallen off the radar for most of the west even as unrest intensifies in a series of battle zones with fraction firing on fraction. The Jerusalem Post

A military commander of the Fatah movement was critically wounded Tuesday in a bomb explosion in Lebanon's largest Palestinian refugee camp, Lebanese and Palestinian security officials said. Talal Sleim was heading to his office in the Ein el-Hilweh camp, on the outskirts of the southern city of Sidon, when a roadside bomb exploded nearby, the officials said.

Sleim, a 43-year-old Palestinian, was seriously wounded and was rushed to a Sidon hospital outside the teeming camp, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to reporters. A bodyguard was also lightly wounded, they said.

After news of the explosion spread, Fatah guerrillas exchanged machine gun fire with Palestinian gunmen of the Jund al-Sham group, which follows the extremist ideology of al-Qaida. Tension ran high in the camp with scores of Palestinian families, fearing wide-scale fighting between the two factions, fleeing their homes to safer areas outside the shantytown, witnesses said. Tuesday's bombing came more than a week after three Palestinian militants, including a Jund al-Sham military commander, Shehadeh Jawhar, were killed in clashes with Fatah guerrillas in the camp. Jund al-Sham gunmen vowed to take revenge for Jawhar's killing.

What strikes me as most peculiar is why no one thinks its odd for Fatah to have a ‘military’ commander in a Lebanese refugee camp – to what purpose or end? But I digress, and the violence is not contained to purely Palestinian groups in Lebanese refugee camps. The Jerusalem Post:

Gunmen attacked a military post in the eastern Lebanese province of Hermel early Wednesday morning, killing a soldier and wounding another, a security official said. Soldiers fired back at the attackers who fled, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Then there were last weekend’s clashes in Tripoli. AFP

TRIPOLI, Lebanon (AFP) — Hundreds of people were still homeless on Sunday after the latest bout of deadly sectarian fighting in the northern Lebanese port city of Tripoli.

"The army has barred residents from returning to some areas because there are unexploded grenades from the fighting and the troops are defusing them one by one," a security official told AFP.

Army reinforcements were sent to Tripoli on Saturday after militants from the rival Sunni Muslim and Alawite (Shiite) communities agreed to halt clashes that erupted early Friday, killing nine people and wounding dozens more. Fighters battled with rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons causing massive damage to property and sending hundreds of people fleeing for cover from the neighbouring districts of Bab al-Tebbaneh and Jabal Mohsen.

On Sunday, the army shot and wounded a suspect during a shootout in Bab el-Tebbaneh, the security official said, adding that the gunman had been wanted for opening fire on troops on Saturday and was now in their custody. But he said the situation had been calm up throughout the day until then.

A source from the Future Movement of Sunni leader Saad Hariri said almost 2,200 families fled their homes in mainly Sunni district of Bab al-Tebbaneh and the mostly Alawite area of Jabal Mohsen. Tripoli municipality chief Mohammed Rashid Jamali told AFP that 1,500 people were holed up in eight schools across the city waiting to return home.

No doubt when the various fractions are fully re-armed and up to snuff - the civil war will again commence in earnest.

One man's land is not necessarily his castle

Only in Israel can a Jew own land and let Jews enter the property - only to face arrest by Israeli Authorities. Arutz Sheva:

(IsraelNN.com) A group of 160 Jewish activists entered a Jerusalem property belonging to a Jew on Wednesday, to reclaim ownership of the property from Arabs who began to build an illegal structure there. Despite attempts by Border Guard officers to evacuate the Jews, the activists succeeded in staying long enough for them to declare the property returned to Jewish hands before some 150 were arrested and taken for questioning by Jerusalem District police.

The property consists of a number of trailer homes on approximately 5 acres (20 dunams) of land in the Ras Hamis neighborhood of northern Jerusalem, between French Hill and Anata. The caravans on the property do not have electricity or running water.

According to real estate agent Aryeh King, the group obtained permission to enter and take control of the property from owner Eliyahu Cohanim, a resident of Ramat Gan. The land is part of the Eastern Gate compound that the Jerusalem Municipality has planned as a Jewish residential area and industrial park.

"We did this after the Arabs started this week to build an illegal structure on the spot, this is after the municipality has already demolished a structure on this property once before," King said. Although the property belongs to a Jew who gave them permission to come, and King’s group notified police in advance of their arrival, a group of Border Guard police officers arrived Wednesday morning and told the activists to leave the property. The activists refused to comply with the order and remained. Several days ago Border Guard officers succeeded in preventing the group from entering the property.

The Palestinian Authority has also submitted a program for construction in the area, including the plot of land belonging to Cohanim. There has been widespread illegal Arab construction throughout Judea and Samaria in recent years.

According to the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCPA), a senior PA official boasted that Arabs have built 6,000 homes without permits during the last four years in Jerusalem alone, of which fewer than 200 were demolished by the city. Many of the illegal Arab homes are being built on Jewish-owned land, according to Haaretz.

The JCPA reports that “in the Jewish neighborhoods, illegal construction typically takes the form of additions to existing legal structures - such as closing a balcony or hollowing out under a building to create an extra room. In the Arab sector, however, illegal construction often takes the form of entire multi-floor buildings with four to 25 living units, built with the financial assistance of the Palestinian Authority on land that is not owned by the builder.”

At the same time, the Israeli government has destroyed a much higher percentage of Jewish homes that do not meet the paperwork requirements.

Now remember what the Jimmy Carter’s of the world tell us - Israel is the apartheid state oppressing the Palestinians.

When the righteous reign the people are happy, but when the unrighteous are in power, the people suffer

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced, in one of the most graceless political exit speeches I have read, he will not be a candidate in his party’s upcoming primaries slated for September 17, 2008. Olmert’s personal approval rating has been hovering in the single digit figures for a considerable length of time and I have lost count of the various corruption investigations into his conduct after the first 5 files were opened. No doubt Israelis and Jews everywhere have breathed a deep sigh of relief but potentially there is no quick relief from the Olmert malaise which his presence brings at helm of the state. The Jerusalem Post reports this tidbit:

The winner in the Kadima primary will have until October 26 to submit his new government for approval by President Shimon Peres. In case the elected leader fails, the president customarily grants another 90 days to form a government; after the 90 days are through, in case no coalition is formed, a general election is scheduled, thus potentially allowing Olmert to remain in power until March 2009.

After the primary Olmert will remain in office as prime minister of a transitional government, until his successor in Kadima manages to forge a new coalition or until general elections are held.

Olmert characterized his nation as a country of ‘grumblers’ today. Just add me to the list.

will you still love me tomorrow

I found this Amy Winehouse video at You Tube. I only wish I could get a copy of this rendition for my ipod. Or maybe its a good thing I can't as my voice is far too low and would crack at all the wrong places. Anyways, its like I always said - any woman who wears that much eyeshadow can't be all bad.

Virtual Tour Sparks Condemnation

The holiest site in Judaism is the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Currently by order of the Israeli government Jews are forbidden to ascend the mount and pray there. Even moving one’s lips can get you into trouble. The right to pray at the Temple mound is reserved exclusively for Muslims. So basically Jews make do with the Kotel or Western wall below the mount. Although, I would be remiss if I did not point out that a great many religious Jews feel that to ascend to the Temple Mount and pray there before the arrival of the messiah is a profane act of great presumption.

Be that as it may, even discussing the significance of the Temple Mount can run you afoul from those from the religion of perpetual outrage. The Jerusalem Post:

A brief course offered by the Chabad Hassidim about the Temple endangers the Aksa Mosque, Islamic Movement spokesman Zahi Nujidat said Tuesday. The three-part seminar, which is being held this week and next week at some 200 Chabad Houses throughout the country, comes less than two weeks before Tisha Be'av, which marks the destruction of the Temple.

"We view this as a serious and drastic move toward the fruition of extremist organizations to establish a temple in place of al-Aksa Mosque," Zahi Nujidat said. "This represents a real danger to al-Aksa." A similar condemnation was issued in Arabic this week by the Aksa Foundation.

The Aksa Foundation was cynically pointing to the courses, which are held in three sessions, as proof that the Israeli establishment wants to damage the mosque, Chabad spokesman Rabbi Menachem Brod said. "This is a pure provocation by an organization that is exploiting any opportunity to incite the Arab public to violence against Israel," he said. "Every time they are looking for some other excuse to incite, and now they found it in the course."

The courses, which are being attended by "tens of thousands" of young students, include a "virtual tour" of the Temple Mount and explanations of daily Temple life, as well as the job of the kohanim (priests), Brod said.

What can I say? Politics, politics.

Beijing’s Olympic Trials

There is a certain kind of smugness I get when I read about Beijing’s Olympic trials. The Globe and Mail:

BEIJING — With heavy smog still shrouding the city and the Olympics only 10 days away, Beijing is considering a series of emergency measures to fight pollution, including the removal of up to 90 per cent of cars from the streets.

The emergency measures could also include the shutdown of more factories and the complete closing of all construction sites in the capital, the Chinese state media reported yesterday. Factories and residents in the nearby city of Tianjin and the neighbouring province of Hebei could also be affected by the emergency measures, the government said. The haze in Beijing was so bad yesterday that visibility was reduced to just a few hundred metres. Olympic stadiums were barely visible behind the smog.

The city's air quality has been dangerously unhealthy for the past four days, exceeding the national standards for the pollution index, the state-run China Daily reported yesterday. The emergency measures will be officially announced soon, and will be put into effect within 48 hours if the air quality deteriorates during the Olympics, the newspaper said. It cited the recommendation of one environmental expert who suggested that up to 90 per cent of private cars should be removed from the streets every day

Being able to enforce a 90% road ban for all private automobiles is what I call the ultimate in totalitarian government and makes me wonder how long before the chi-coms demand rickshaws replace taxis?

What if you held an Olympic games but no one wanted to risk their health by simply showing up in order to compete?

Many athletes are worried about the smog. Some top competitors, including marathon world record holder Haile Gebrselassie of Ethiopia, have decided to skip the Games to protect their health. The International Olympic Committee says it might delay some outdoor events if pollution levels are unhealthy. Some athletes have considered wearing masks during their training sessions in Beijing. Canada is sending its entire track-and-field team to Singapore for its pre-Olympic training camp. The athletes will remain in Singapore even during the opening days of the Olympics, to minimize their exposure to Beijing's pollution. The Australian Olympic Committee said yesterday it will allow its athletes to withdraw from any Olympic competition if they feel pollution is a threat to their health.

When I first heard the IOC had awarded the 2008 games to China my reaction was to question the sobriety of the committee members when the vote was cast. I couldn’t believe anyone in their right mind would award the games to one of the last of the big time totalitarian governments – I mean, wasn’t that all very anti-1991 of them?
I questioned whether any athlete, after investing umpteenth amount of time in maintaining their health at peak performance would really want to play Russian Roulette with their body by competing in China. Turns out, I had a little more common sense than your standard IOC committee member.

The Perpetual Crisis in Welfare Territory

Once again, the world’s oldest welfare recipients are crying poor reports the Jerusalem Post

The officials told The Jerusalem Post that the PA wouldn't be able to pay July salaries to more than 150,000 public servants and may be forced to close down several government institutions as a result of the deepening crisis. The officials disclosed that the deficit in the PA budget has risen in the past six months from $1.6 billion to $2b. "We are facing a real crisis," a top PA official told the Post, adding "we are on the brink of bankruptcy." Another PA official warned that the financial crisis would undermine the PA and limit its ability to reach a peace agreement with Israel.

In other words this is a shakedown; pay us or we will kill Jews.

"We will lose the support of the Palestinian public if we stop paying salaries to our civil servants and policemen," he said. "This is happening at a time when Hamas is receiving large sums from Iran and radical Islamic groups." PA Prime Minister Salaam Fayad expressed concern that the PA could face a financial crisis if the donor countries, particularly some Arab states, failed to transfer to the PA treasury the funds they had pledged to donate at the Paris conference. Fayad described the financial situation of the PA as "difficult," adding that his government was making enormous efforts to provide the necessary money to pay salaries to its employees.

The Palestinian Economic Council for Development and Reconstruction [PECDAR] said Monday that the PA had received only $900m. of the $7.7b. promised during the December 2007 Paris Donors' Conference for supporting the Palestinians. The money was promised to the PA over a period of three years by nearly 90 countries and international organizations during the Paris conference. According to PECDAR, the PA was supposed to receive up to $3b. of it during 2008. However, PA officials complained that that the donors had so far paid less than 35 percent of the promised sum. The officials said they were particularly disappointed with the majority of the Arab countries for failing to meet their financial commitments toward the Palestinians.

So Arab countries are failing to keep their promises. Well, isn’t that a kick in the pants. Of course, there is a new twist to this ongoing saga:

"Most of the Arab countries are now setting conditions for providing us with financial aid," the PA officials said. "Some are saying that they will give us the money only after we end our differences with Hamas, while others are suddenly talking about the need for reforms and transparency in the Palestinian Authority."

The officials pointed out that the Arab countries have given the PA this year about 15% of what they promised. Saudi Arabia, which had pledged at least $500m. over the three-year period, gave the PA less than 20% of the funds.

Kuwait, which pledged $80m. in aid to the PA this year, has yet to fulfill its promise, the officials said. Qatar, which used to provide the PA with more than $200m. annually, stopped channeling the funds after the collapse of the Fatah-Hamas unity government. Most of the Arab countries have told the PA that they prefer to support vital economic projects in the West Bank and Gaza Strip rather than day-to-day government operations, a move that has drawn sharp criticism from the PA leadership.

"The crisis in the Palestinian territories is likely to aggravate because most of the foreign donors are not living up to their commitments," said Samir Abdullah, the Minister of Planning in the PA government. "The government needs at least 200m. every month, half of which goes to paying salaries." Meanwhile, the number of households in the Gaza Strip below the poverty line has reached an unprecedented high of nearly 52%, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) said in a report published recently.

"The number of households in Gaza below the consumption poverty line continued to grow, reaching 51.8% in 2007, despite significant amounts of emergency and humanitarian assistance," the UNRWA statement said. Meanwhile, poverty rates in the West Bank fell to just over 19%.

Things which make one go hmmmm - the PA is broke but poverty rates in the West bank fell to 19%. Meanwhile Hamas is being bankrolled by Iran but poverty is growing.

The report, based on figures provided by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), said that "the real average unemployment rate in the occupied Palestinian territory (as a whole) remained amongst the highest in the world at 29.5%," with Gaza reaching "an unprecedented high of 45.3%" during the second half of last year.

Gee, I can think of a half a dozen countries in worse shape but no worries - as you know the Bush Administration will ensure the American taxpayer will pick up the slack. It begs the question how will these people ever establish anything other than a welfare state?

The Rise of Elder Porn

I really have never worried about growing old. Staying alive long enough to grow old seemed much more the challenge. I suppose I never really worried about it as I had the example of my great-grandmother. Decades before the term was coined she was a truly a giant among cougars. She died at 79, while getting ready for her ‘hot date’ – her words, not mine.

Mention her name to my mother and her blood pressures rises even though the woman has been dead for 33 years. She was a woman who ignited strong passions and evoked extreme reactions from anyone who passed through her view. In fact, I remember bringing up her name to my other great-grandmother which is how I learned the Yiddish word for whore. Of course, when I asked Bubby what Zoyneh meant she told me ‘party girl’ and not to use such language.

She wore men’s suits and fedora’s long before Marlene Dietrich took to film. Even though she spent decades in English Canada she never lost her heavy Parisian accent. My young cousins and I learned early in life never to leave our young male friends within mauling distance or unattended in her company. I realize now she kept her looks decades after most of her peers lost theirs. If anything, I have her genes to thank for others so rarely guessing my actual age. I always felt she was a woman who was born out of sync with her times and never more so then when I happened across this Time Magazine on the rise of Elder Porn in Japan.

Besides his glowing complexion, Shigeo Tokuda looks like any other 74-year-old man in Japan. Despite suffering a heart attack three years ago, the lifelong salaryman now feels healthier, and lives happily with his wife and a daughter in downtown Tokyo. He is, of course, more physically active than most retirees, but that's because he's kept his part-time job — as a porn star.

Shigeo Tokuda is, in fact, his screen name. He prefers not to disclose his real name because, he insists, his wife and daughter have no idea that he has appeared in about 350 films over the past 14 years. And in his double life, Tokuda arguably embodies the contemporary state of Japan's sexuality: in surveys conducted by organizations ranging from the World Health Organization (WHO) to the condom-maker Durex, Japan is repeatedly found to be one of the most sexless societies in the industrialized world. A WHO report released in March found that 1 in 4 married couples in Japan had not made love in the previous year, while 38% of couples in their 50s no longer have sex at all.

Those figures were attributed to the stresses of Japanese working life. Yet at the same time, the country has seen a surge in demand for pornography that has turned adult videos into a billion-dollar industry, with "elder porn" one of its fastest-growing genres.

Tokuda is rare among Japanese porn stars in that his name has become a brand. The Shigeo Tokuda series he has just completed portray him as a tactful elderly gentleman who instructs women of different ages in the erotic arts, and he boasts a body of work far more impressive than most actors in their prime.

Tokuda's exploits have proved to be a goldmine for Glory Quest, which first launched an "old man" series, Maniac Training of Lolitas, in December 2004. Its popularity led the company to follow up with Tokuda starring in Forbidden Elderly Care in August 2006. Other series followed, and soon elder porn had revealed itself as a sustainable new revenue stream for the industry. "The adult-video industry is very competitive," says Glory Quest p.r. representative Kayoko Iimura. "If we only make standard fare, we cannot beat other studios. There were already adult videos with Lolitas or themes of incest, so we wanted to make something new. A relationship between wife and an old father-in-law has enough twist to create an atmosphere of mystery and captivate viewers' hearts."

Director Gaichi Kono says the eroticism of elders is captivating to younger viewers. "I think that, as a subject, there is this something that only an older generation has and the young people do not possess. It is because they lived that much more. We should respect them and learn from them," says Kono passionately. But Tokuda stresses the appeal of his work to an audience of his peers: "Elderly people don't identify with school dramas," he says. "It's easier for them to relate to older-men-and-daughters-in-law series, so they tend to watch adult videos with older people in them."

My great-grandmother was not truly an immoral woman but rather an amoral one and that being so, I am not sure grandmere, whose life long motto seemed to be ‘no man safe, no marriage sacred’, would have gone in for daughter/father-in-law thingy – now a career as aging Diva in the porn industry would have probably suited her just fine.

Although films featuring women in their teens and 20s are the mainstay of the industry, a trend toward "mature women" has become evident over the past five years. Currently, about 300 of the 1,000 adult videos on offer at Tsutaya, and 400 out of the 2,000 at DMM, are "mature women" films.

Ryuichi Kadowaki, director of Ruby Inc., which specializes in mature-women titles, says that when the company started offering the genre a few years ago, the term referred to actresses in their late 20s, and that last year it was expanded to those in their 70s. The company believes the advantage of mature titles is their enduring appeal. "Adult videos with young actresses sell well only in the first three months after the release," Kadowaki explains. "On the other hand, mature-women films enjoy a steady, long-term popularity, which after 10 years or so might lead to a best seller." And then there are the cost savings. A popular young actress can earn up to $100,000 per film, while a mature actress is paid only $2,000.

The market for elder porn has doubled over the past decade, according to Kadowaki. "In view of [Japan's] aging society," he adds, "I think that in the future, we will see a steady increase in demand."

Ah - sigh, if only she was born 30 years later I might have received a legacy other than her genes…

the Big Stall

While I think its great that Ontario is at least considering allowing LSV on city roads I am rather disheartened by the idea of establishing an independent commission to study the feasibility of allowing these vehicles on city streets. It is not like the feasibility study has to start from ground zero – European, South American and Americans have these vehicles run on their streets. Just how many models of successful integration does the Ontario government really need? It seems to work just fine in New York City. The Toronto Star carries the details:

Ontario has commissioned an independent safety study of low-speed electric vehicles, but is not ready to follow Quebec and British Columbia in allowing the environmentally friendly cars and trucks on the province's roads, says Transportation Minister Jim Bradley.

The main concern is safety features, said Bradley: Low-speed electric vehicles meet only a handful of the 40 safety standards required by Transport Canada, and Ontario wants to determine exactly what safety features may be required on the nearly silent vehicles.

"I want to see low-speed electric vehicles on the roads," Bradley said in an interview. "We want to make sure it's done so safely." Two manufacturers – Toronto-based Zenn cars and Quebec-based Nemo – had their electric cars approved for use on roads in Quebec with speed limits under 50 kilometres per hour earlier this month.
The electric cars, which have top speeds of 40 km/h, will have to be equipped with an orange triangle in Quebec marking them as a slower vehicle.

British Columbia passed legislation last month to allow the low-speed vehicles on roads up to 40 km/h, but included provisions allowing municipalities to enact bylaws to permit the smaller electric cars on higher speed roads.

But Bradley said Ontario wants to wait for its own study and the results of recent extensive testing by Transport Canada before clearing the low-speed electric vehicles, which currently are approved only for use in provincial parks by government workers.

"We would like to get into a position where we see the low-speed vehicles on roads once we determine the precise conditions that would make sense in Ontario, both in terms of safety, and where it would be logical to have them used," he said. "The message there is: I certainly want to see them used in Ontario." Bradley said he hoped to have Ontario's evaluation of the vehicles completed within months. Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory said there's no reason the province can't get the cars on the road by September.

Yadda, yadda. I’m with John Tory on this one. It makes no sense to turn this into a long drawn out process when electric bikes are already on Toronto streets.

Leaving a sinking ship

Now this is interesting. Uzi Dayan is set to re-join the Likud party and defect from Olmert’s Kadima. The Jerusalem Post:

The Likud is set to receive a big boost on Tuesday when the former IDF deputy chief of General Staff, Maj.-Gen. (res.) Uzi Dayan, will join the party at a press conference with opposition leader Binyamin Netanyahu.

Dayan had been in secret negotiations with the Likud for months and the finalization of a deal for him to join the party was intended to be publicized only Monday, but a source in Netanyahu's office mistakenly revealed the news to the press on Sunday.
The addition of Dayan gives the Likud its highest-ranking soldier as a Knesset candidate since former IDF chief of General Staff Shaul Mofaz left the party. It also gives Netanyahu the stamp of approval of one of the top activists against corruption in Israeli politics.

Well, well. No doubt this heralds the first of many defections.

Update: As it was so rightly pointed out by SnoopytheGoon in the comments. Dayan was not a member of Kadima or Likud but ran the Tafnit (an anti-corruption) party.

Thank Heavens for the Noors of the World

I once was the administrative director of a school which offered highly specialized training in the film and television industry. In fact, it was just one of only a handful of school scattered throughout the world to offer this type of training, and as such, a goodly portion of students literally arrived from all over the world to train there.

One semester we had a female student arrive from Saudi Arabia. It was rather a unique situation as all the pre-registration was done without her direct participation. Her brother and uncle literally handled all the details including picking her courses. At one point, her uncle demanded I guarantee she would be placed only in classrooms where no males would be present. She almost didn’t come because we could not offer this kind of a guarantee. I pointed out to the Uncle that this way Canada, and that kind of discrimination was against our laws. When she did arrive; it was literally a case of throwing off the abaya.

It was fun watching her open up and become relaxed enough in Canadian society that she felt free enough to be comfortable in ‘mixed’ situations in the classroom, the lunchroom and on the street. This was Noor’s first time out of the kingdom and her first experience of living away from home. It was the beginning of many firsts including striking up a mostly unlikely friendship with a young Jewish Israeli girl. Did I mention Noor was not a Saudi but a Palestinian? There were a couple of tense times in the beginning but the girls worked it out and even were able to commiserate together on overprotective male relatives.

This article at the Jerusalem Post reminded me of my experiences with my Noor:

Every evening for the past four months, a tall young man with soulful blue eyes has been stealing hearts across the Middle East, from the refugee camps of the Gaza Strip to the gated mansions of Riyadh. But it's not just the striking good looks of Mohannad, hero of the hugely popular Turkish TV soap "Noor," that appeal to female viewers. He's romantic, attentive to his wife Noor, supportive of her independence and ambitions as a fashion designer - in short, a rare gem for women in conservative, male-dominated surroundings.

"Noor" delivers an idealized portrayal of modern married life as equal partnership - clashing with the norms of traditional Middle Eastern societies where elders often have the final word on whom a woman should marry and many are still confined to the role of wife and mother. Some Muslim preachers in the West Bank and Saudi Arabia have taken notice, saying the show is un-Islamic and urging the faithful to change channels. But all the same, the show may be planting seeds of change. "I told my husband, 'learn from him [Mohannad] how he treats her, how he loves her, how he cares about her,' " said Heba Hamdan, 24, a housewife visiting the West Bank from Amman, Jordan. Married straight out of college, she said the show inspired her to go out and look for a job.

"Noor" seems particularly effective in changing attitudes because it offers new content in a familiar setting: Turkey is a Muslim country, inviting stronger viewer identification than Western TV imports. The characters in "Noor" observe the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, and Mohannad and Noor were married in a match arranged by his grandfather. But it also upholds secular liberties; protagonists have a drink with dinner and sex outside marriage. Mohannad, while faithful to Noor, had a child with a former girlfriend, and a cousin underwent an abortion. The nightly soap opera "shows that there are Muslims who live differently," said Islah Jad, a professor of women's studies at the West Bank's Bir Zeit University.

The show's Turkish producer, Kemal Uzun, added: "We are a little more open, not as conservative as some of these countries, and I think this might have some appeal for the audience." Even though some of the racier scenes are sanitized for Arab consumption, clerics have been sermonizing against "Noor." "This series collides with our Islamic religion, values and traditions," warned Hamed Bitawi, a lawmaker of the Islamic militant Hamas and preacher in the West Bank city of Nablus. But the purists seem powerless to halt the "Noor" craze.

In Saudi Arabia, the only country with ratings, about three to four million people watch daily, out of a population of nearly 28 million, according to MBC, the Saudi-owned satellite channel that airs the show dubbed into Arabic for Middle East audiences. In the West Bank and Gaza, streets are deserted during show time and socializing is timed around it. In Riyadh, the Saudi capital, and in Hebron, the West Bank's most conservative city, maternity wards report a rise in babies named Noor and Mohannad. A West Bank poster vendor has ditched Yasser Arafat and Saddam Hussein for Noor and Mohannad.

Jaro's Clothing Store in Gaza City is doing brisk business in copies of blouses seen on the show, including a sleeveless metallic number adapted to Gaza standards by being worn over a long-sleeved leotard. Producer Uzun said the Istanbul villa on the Bosporus, fictional home of Mohannad's upper-class clan, has been rented by tour operators and turned into a temporary museum for Arab visitors. A recent cartoon in the Saudi paper Al-Riyadh showed a plain-looking man marching into a plastic surgeon's office with a picture of Mohannad with his designer stubble. (Kivanc Tatlitug, who plays Mohannad, is an ex-basketball player who won the 2002 "Best Model of the World" award.)

In the West Bank city of Nablus, civil servant Mohammed Daraghmeh said he had MBC blocked at home so his kids couldn't watch, but the family vowed to watch it at an uncle's house and he backed down. In Hamas-ruled Gaza, keeping up with "Noor" is a challenge. Power goes out frequently because of a yearlong blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt after the violent Hamas takeover. When a blackout disrupts viewing, many set their alarms to catch the pre-dawn repeat. In the Shati refugee camp, several teenage girls huddled around an old TV set recently, trying to follow the action despite overflights by pilotless Israeli aircraft that can scramble reception.

Contrary to what many believe I am not a raging Islamaphobic, and while I do believe Islam to be a false religion, I have also meet people whose faith and belief in Islam has served only to add dignity and meaning to their lives. There is more than one way to be a Muslim and not every Muslim aspires to relive the glory days of the 7th century. If Islam is ever to be compatible with the 21st century - it will because of the media reaching the widest possible Islamic audiences and showing there is an alterative to being a throw back to the 7th century. I only wish all the Noors of Islam will take heed and heart from shows like this one.

Conjugal visits are not a human right or talk to the hand

A Palestinian sentenced to life imprisonment now demands conjugal visits. Ynet News:

Walid Dakah, an Israeli Arab who was sentenced to life imprisonment for security offenses, filed a first-of-its kind petition Sunday morning with the Nazareth District Court, asking that it grant him conjugal visits in order to allow him and his wife to bring a child into the world.

Dakah was sentenced to life in prison in 1986, after he was convicted of membership in a Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terror cell that murdered IDF soldier Moshe Tamam in 1984.

Dakah was sent to prison at the age of 22, and the petition, which was filed on his behalf by Adalah - The Legal Center for Arab Minority Right in Israel, claimed that since then he had undergone significant changes, has left the PFLP, joined the Balad Movement and is scheduled to complete his Masters Degree studies in the coming days.
In 1999 Dakah married Sna'a Salama, a human rights activist who works primarily for the benefit of security prisoners serving time in Israeli jails. His previous requests for a conjugal visit were denied.

In the petition Adalah attorney Abir Bachar complained of discrimination against Arab prisoners. "The use of the term 'security prisoner' as an excuse to deprive (prisoners) of their legal right raises suspicions that it is being applied to Arab prisoners only," he said.

I realize this probably makes me a confirmed hater but I really think the only conjugal visit any prisoner should have is with his own hand.

I have never considered Osama bin Laden a hottie on a horse.

Confession time, in all the years I have been widowed, never once did I lie in my bed at night and contemplate sexual relations with Osama bin Laden, or Hitler, or Mussolini, or even Che Guevara. Nor have I yet to meet the woman who could not differentiate between “Prince Charming” and Osama but apparently Frank at Mesopotamia West has issues telling them apart. I could start by saying living at 999Cave Avenue should be your first clue.

Anyhoo, Frank’s poises the question: are women natural born fascists and suggests the answer is the affirmative:

In all these cases, individual liberties were given up and handed over to the state.

Who today wants this to happen again? Why the women's movement. Women are against guns (owned privately) and for them used by police, transit police, Brinks guards and other 'official' men. Women are for state child care, state health care and state old age care. Women want food labeled, swing sets with non-lead paint, no trans-fats, no drinking and driving, no smoking, no pesticides, no this, no that and they want the state to enforce these (and other) rules. They want the state to be Daddy, the state to be the new tough man, to be the new Führer.

My daughter is a designated expert marksman and as far as I know no one has rescinded my mother’s license to be armed and dangerous but Frank’s really too rich to stop quoting now.

OK, back to where I started; why are Western women so quiet about aggressive, misogynistic, authoritarian, and murderous followers of, say, the Taliban, Hezbollah or Hamas?

I think it's because they secretly admire the macho male image of the Islamic ideologues in the same way they idolized Mussolini and Hitler. I think they'd like to be swept up by a scimitar-wielding horseman and carried off into the desert. I think they'd like to quit their day job and shop in some Saudi mall for gold trinkets. I think they'd like to stay home and share domestic duties with other 'wives.'

Uh-huh. Well, then – what can one say to that? But wait, it gets better in a ‘cannot help staring at the road kill lying in the road’ kind of way.

That's my point; women appear to be natural-born fascists; they sure love being carried off and cared for by some gorilla, or guerrilla, take your pick. This predilection may be the single greatest weakness we have in the war against terrorism. Our own women are cheering for the wrong side.

"Our own women are cheering for the wrong side". Let that one sink in. Gee dude. You finally answered the age old question; what do women really want. Women, all over the western world, are lying naked in their beds every night, over wrought with desire and waiting with bated breathe - for the night Osama will finally come crashing through the door to carry us off to his cave in the desert. Where he will ravish us unmercifully until we beg for release or is it a beheading???

You got to read the whole thing. Thank G-d, I didn’t ever join the Blogging Tories. Stephen Taylor you must be so proud. There is a reason why the Conservative Party has failed to resonate with women in this country, and the blatant misogynistic tendencies of all the ‘Franks’ in the party are a huge part of the reason why.

Whatever happened to 'When in Rome do as the Romans'?

A Canadian with the International Solidarity Movement has been arrested in the West Bank in a restricted military zone for taking part in a protest against the security fence and is currently facing deportation reports the CBC.

A Canadian student who took part in a protest against the security wall Israel's building in the West Bank has been arrested and faces deportation from the Jewish state.

Victor McDiarmid, a volunteer for the International Solidarity Movement, had been living in the West Bank for nearly a month when he was arrested Wednesday at a demonstration by women from the village of Nilin, where Israel plans to build the next section of its security barrier.

McDiarmid, 23, was arrested after taking photographs of Israeli soldiers who were breaking up the protest by villagers, who say the barrier will separate them from their farmland.

"He was taken by Israeli soldiers whilst at the front of the demonstration and was taken off towards the jeep. And then he has reported to us that for 20 minutes they were punching, kicking and spitting in his face," said Adam Taylor, ISM's media co-ordinator.

The organization's lawyers say they were told McDiarmid, who is from Kingston, Ont., was to be released Thursday from the Israeli military prison where he was being held. Instead, he has been transferred to a detention centre for people facing deportation.

Apparently, McDiarmid’s father, who neglected to teach his son appropriate ‘guest manners’, is outraged at the ‘human right abuses’ in the disputed terrorities and wants his son to fight his deportation from Israel. I’m actually supportive of this young man’s father and am quite satisfied for the young man to sit in an Israeli detention centre indefinitely while he fights his deportation. May his fight be a long one.

Lee Kaplan wrote in depth concerning his ‘training experiences’ with ISM here.

And in other news, more demostrators were arrested Friday at the West Bank village of Naalin, the same village which coincidently McDiarmid was arrested in on Wednesday and saw violent demonstrations in on Thursday. Ynet News

Two Border Guard police officers sustained light wounds Friday afternoon during a leftist demonstration near the Palestinian village of Naalin, west of Ramallah. Dozens of protestors arrived in the area Friday in order to rally against the construction of the West Bank security fence. The demonstrators included left-wing activists, Palestinians, and foreigners.

The protesters at the site hurled stones at Border Guard forces, who responded with crowd-dispersal means. The wounded Border Guard police officers were treated at the scene. Earlier Friday, a senior IDF officer said that a total of 25 police officers and soldiers were hurt in the past month during riots in Naalin.

All of which should beg the question; what duty of care does the Canadian government owe to any Canadian citizen who travels to a foreign country for the explicited purpose of aggagitating and participating in violent demostrations against said foreign government?

The Zionist "S" word

Nothing gets the Israeli media feeling all warm, cosy and ready for a bloodletting than tales of “settler” violence. Earlier in the week the Ynet News ran this story on ‘settler violence’:

A series of violent incidents involving settlers swept through the West Bank Thursday, as dozens of settlers clashed with IDF and police forces, stoned cars and vandalized Palestinian property.

The gravest incident of the day occurred in the West Bank settlement of Yitzhar, when during the riot a settler was able to snatch a weapon away from an IDF soldier standing next to him and began firing in midair. A second settler began firing in midair as well. No injuries or damage were reported; both men were arrested.

Sounds bad, nu? Well, here is the Arutz Sheva report of the same incident:

In another confrontation at Adei Ad, two Jewish men were arrested by Israeli forces after one of them snatched a rifle from a soldier and fired it into the air. IDF spokesmen described the incident as another violent act committed by ‘settlers,’ and denied any wrongdoing in the incident. The civilian involved in the incident claimed that he took the weapon to save his life from Arab assailants, while the soldiers did nothing to protect him.

Homesh First said the man who took the gun was an air-conditioning technician from Jerusalem who was travelling with a passenger from the town of Kedumim to Itamar in Samaria. The two were attacked by dozens of Arabs who pelted his car with rocks and then attempted to extract him from the car to lynch him. Panic-stricken, he ran to a group of IDF soldiers standing nearby who refused to do anything. Desperate for the soldiers to do their job, he gave up trying to convince them, took the weapon of one of the soldiers, fired in the air and then gave it back. It remains unclear whether the civilian took the rifle forcibly or the soldier agreed to let the civilian use it.

After the initial statements from the IDF accusing the Jewish civilians, police determined that the lives of the two men had truly been in danger, and that their car had indeed been seriously damaged by rocks thrown by Arab rioters. The two were released immediately.

So far no apology for the false report has come from the IDF spokesman’s office. Nor has there been any investigation into why the soldiers, who saw two Jewish civilians in mortal danger at the hands of an Arab mob, failed to act to protect them, even when the Jews begged them to.

I doubt there is a more demonized group in Israeli society than members of the settler movement – even the Palestinians and Arab Israelis have their vociferous defenders...while it is always open season on the settlers - and I guess that can be taken literally as well.