Showdown in Hebron?
The new Palestinian security forces deployed in the West Bank cities of Nablus (Shechem) and Jenin may have helped bring law and order to those cities – and given the Israelis greater confidence that Palestinian security is up to the task – but it's going to be a lot harder in Hebron, where the new security forced must contend with opposition from Hamas and challenges by extremist Jews, reports Time magazine.
When Palestinian security forces moved into the lawless West Bank towns of Jenin and Nablus, all they had to worry about were the armed criminal gangs who had been shaking down shopkeepers and stealing cars — it didn't take long to wrest control from the thugs. But Hebron, where 600 Palestinian forces rolled up over the weekend in shiny new white pick-up trucks, is far more dangerous, because it is a stronghold of Hamas and also the base of an extremist Jewish settler community. The Islamists see the new paramilitary unit as a U.S.- and Israeli-built proxy force to be used against them; while the settlers see the Palestinian security men as "terrorists in uniform," and are threatening an armed showdown.
If this Ha'aretz report is any indication, however, the P.A. forces are doing their job pressuring Hamas:
The tunnel near Hebron uncovered about two weeks ago by the Palestinian Authority was used by Hamas as a firing range and for other weapons training, according to PA security officials.The discovery of the tunnel is indicative of the kind of pressure the PA security forces are putting on the military wing of Hamas.
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Palestinian Marranos?
Palestinians and Jews in the Holy Land may be intertwined, but with the level of intermingling and overlapping suggested in this news item about Palestinian Marranos, it's getting ridiculous:
Four Palestinians from the Hebron Hills contacted a group of rabbis on Tuesday and claimed to be the descendents of Jews who were forced to convert to Islam.
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Conversion,
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Sending the Lebanese a message
As Israel floats the idea of a non-aggression pact with Lebanon, Commentary magazine's Michael Totten writes that even if the pact doesn't work, it would do well to send a message to the Lebanese people that Israel isn't interested in fighting them. That's a message surprising number of people in Lebanon – probably the least anti-Israel of all Arab countries – don't get to hear, Totten writes.
Israel is hardly well-liked in Lebanon, but neither is Hezbollah, and neither is Syria. Even though a non-aggression pact is likely to go nowhere right now, suggesting one to Lebanese may help clarify something: most Lebanese don't actually know that Israelis prefer peace to war. They should, but they don't. They've been soaked with so much disinformation and propaganda for so long, and there's still a great deal of anger left over from Israel's invasions in 1982 and 2006. Most of Hezbollah's less fanatical supporters are drawn from the ranks of those who sincerely believe Israel is a threat to them and that Hezbollah is their only defense. This is nonsense on stilts – Israel wouldn't have invaded Lebanon at all in 2006 if Hezbollah had not first attacked. But this perception persists nevertheless...This should be obvious to most Lebanese, but I know from conversations with people across the political spectrum that it isn't. Many don't know whether they should support the Hezbollah-led "March 8" bloc in next year's election, or whether they should support the "March 14" bloc led by those who kicked out the Syrians in 2005. The Syrian regime is currently pretending to be more benign that it really is by offering, for the first time ever, to establish diplomatic relations with Lebanon. Israelis are smart to signal, at the same time, that they sincerely do not mean Lebanese harm. No one in the Lebanese government or media will explain that to them. The "March 14" bloc is already sensitive to the near-constant accusation that it's a "Zionist hand." Israelis need to get that message out by themselves.
Public opinion on the idea of a peace treaty with Israel is mixed. Some want a peace treaty now. Some even want an alliance with Israel, although they tend to keep quiet about that and are far more likely to share that opinion off-the-record with me than they are with their fellow Lebanese. Others don't want a peace treaty until outstanding issues–the supposed occupation of the Shebaa Farms, and the hundreds of thousands of unwanted and dangerous Palestinian refugees–are resolved. Even some otherwise sensible Lebanese I know wallow in conspiracy theories and believe Israelis want to conquer South Lebanon and steal water from the Litani River. Hezbollah's hard-core supporters don't ever want a peace treaty with Israel. But a non-aggression pact? An agreement that we'll leave you alone if you leave us alone? Put that on a ballot in a popular referendum and it would pass overwhelmingly.
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Arab world,
Arab-Israeli Conflict,
Israel |
Kristallnacht unearthed
My mother-in-law is one of the thousands of German-born Jews who still can recall with horror Kristallnacht, the night of broken glass, the pogrom 70 years ago that marked the beginning of the end. The memory of watching her Jewish school burn as a 9-year-old child is seared into her brain. Her story and others' have been told time and time again. But there hasn't been much physical evidence of that fateful day – until an Israeli researcher stumbled on a garbage dump. The New York Times gives a full report.
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Easier aliyah?
Is Israel making it easier for North Americans who move to Israel? The Jerusalem Post has a story today that suggests Israel's Absorption Ministry has become more Anglo-friendly, streamlining some of the bureaucratic paperwork and generally making it easier for North Americans to move to Israel and land on their feet. Is this true? We invite our readers for have experienced this to respond.
Here's an excerpt for the JPost story:
"It is a huge benefit for new immigrants," says one expert. "The whole process today is hugely different to how it was in the past. Even the basket of aliya benefits was just a dream when I made aliya in 1975. It only existed for those who came from countries of distress."
Part of the changes, he claims, come from improved technology enabling those about to make aliya to be processed in their native country and have much of the fine details of their immigration worked out beforehand.
"Anyone who arrives today can go straight to the Immigrant Absorption Ministry's office in the airport and receive their ID card and immigration ID before they even pick up their luggage," he says. "All that's left for the immigrant to do is to go to the ministry's offices to give them their new bank account details and to receive a voucher for ulpan."
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Immigration,
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Covenant Foundation 18th Anniversary Celebration Live!
Tomorrow, the Convent Foundation, one of this country's preeminent supporters of Jewish education initiatives, will celebrate their 18th anniversary with a conference at the UJA-Federation of New York. The event's overarching themes are described as "Dissolving Boundaries" and "Seizing the Future: Promoting Jewish Learning, Community Building and Civic Engagement." I will be joining a panel on the latter subject.
Watch this space for a live broadcast from the conference beginning at 10:30AM on Tuesday, October 27. The speaker schedule follows.
10:30AM Welcome – Harlene Appelman Dissolving Boundaries: An Introduction – Martha Minow and Liz Lerman Small Dances about Big Ideas: Excerpts – Liz Lerman Dance Exchange
12:15-1:00PM Potential of New Media and Film – Carlton Evans, Barry Joseph, Rafi Santo, Daniel Sieradski Making The Case for Uncommon Connections – Liz Lerman and Martha Minow
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Iran’s underground
Western intelligence experts believe that Iran's nuclear facilities are so deep underground that it would be difficult for Israel to wipe them out, or even significantly damage them, with a quick airstrike, Newsweek reports.
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Iran,
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Reclaiming Joseph’s Tomb
At Joseph's Tomb, a site in a Palestinian city that is sacred to Jews, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is boiled down to its very essence, writes Isabel Kershner in The New York Times. Read the story here.
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Tough Jews
Edward Zwick's new feature film "Defiance," which opens in the U.S. in September, is also a family film about the Bielski clan, writes Adam Gopnick in The New Yorker:
The film is still a family film, though, since it tells the largely unknown and entirely true story of the Bielski brothers' brigade: of how Tuvia, Zus, and Asael Bielski fled from Poland into the Belarusian forest in 1941—after the Einsatzgruppen had begun the mass slaughter of Jews that marked the first phase of the Holocaust—and managed not only to hold off the German Army, in grudging compact with Russian partisans, but to recruit Jewish civilians and keep them concealed for three years in the forest. By the end, almost twelve hundred Jews were living in the Belarusian woods, in a series of encampments that included libraries, nurseries, and clinics. The story, very well played by Daniel Craig (everyone's favorite non-Jewish Jew), as Tuvia, and Liev Schreiber, as his angrier younger brother Zus, is stirring.
Here's one story about the latter-day Zvi Bielski from his son Zus:
My dad came to visit me in Israel when I was in the Army. First he told me not to go—but when he came to visit he was so proud. He took the gun out of my hands, handled it like a pair of sneakers. 'Never have your gun on safety,' he told me. He was a great father, but he was hard to impress. I used to skydive, and once I had a videotape made—a cameraman jumped out with me. I couldn't wait to get to Brooklyn to show it to Dad! So I showed him the tape. Nothing, no expression. So, finally, I say, 'Pop, did you see that shit!' He looked at me: 'So? You had a parachute, didn't you?'
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Let there be G-dcast
From the mind of Jewish t-shirt maven Sarah Lefton comes G-dcast, a new animated series of Torah commentaries as told by a different Jewish celebrity each week. Check out the first episode below, which features Rabbi Lawrence Kushner.
New episodes will be posted each Monday at g-dcast.com.
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On the Web,
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