JERUSALEM NEWS
NEWS AND INFORMATION
Events, happenings, and Opinions Concerning
Israel, Israelites, Judah, and Everyone Else
Jerusalem News-769
Jerusalem News-769
11 Iyar 5768, 16th May 2008
Contents:
1. LENNY BEN-DAVID:
On zero population
growth, Condi & condoms
2. Maayana
Miskin:
PMW.
Hatred of US a Pillar of PA Ideology
3. Lenny Ben-David Blog:
Articles worth Noting
4. Is Israel the Happiest Country in the World?
5. Jerusalem from a haredi
point of view: Photos
6. Ashkelon
Attack Launched From Jewish Town Destroyed by Sharon
7. Bush to Knesset:
U.S. stands with Israel,
Masada
will not fall again
###################################################
================================================
================================================
###############################################
1. On zero population growth, Condi &
condoms
LENNY BEN-DAVID , THE JERUSALEM POST May. 13, 2008
www.jpost.com
/servlet/Satellite?cid=1210668627389&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Take your favorite houseplant and do something stupid: put it in the
freezer. Within two hours it will be irreversibly dead.
Like plants, human communities and families grow, flower, reproduce and
spread their roots. Unless someone does something stupid and attempts to
"freeze" them.
On May 2, four ministers of the "Quartet" - comprised of US Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice, and representatives from Russia, the United Nations
and the European Union - expressed "deep concern at continuing settlement
activity and called on Israel to freeze all settlement activity, including
natural growth."
Rice and her partners are opposed to all settlement activity, not just the
planting of a rickety caravan on some wind-swept hilltop in Samaria. They
are opposed to building in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Har Homa, to new
apartments in the city of Ma'aleh Adumim, or new housing in the Gush Etzion
town of Efrat. They do not give any dispensation to Jerusalem's new
neighborhoods. They are opposed to construction in settlement population
centers despite President Bush's assurances of April 14, 2004 when he wrote:
"In light of new realities on the ground, including already existing major
Israeli populations centers, it is unrealistic to expect that the outcome of
final status negotiations will be a full and complete return to the
armistice lines of 1949 [the 1967 lines]."
How serious is that Bush commitment? National security adviser Stephen J.
Hadley admitted in a January briefing that Bush's 2004 letter was aimed at
helping prime minister Ariel Sharon win domestic approval for the Gaza
withdrawal. "The president obviously still stands by that letter of April
2004, but you need to look at it, obviously, in the context of which it was
issued," he said. Is the "context" of 2004 different from the context of
2008?
The Quartet makes clear that the "natural growth" of Jewish communities is
taboo. That means Zero Population Growth, or even negative population
growth. It is a call for no new apartments for growing families and no
construction of health clinics, kindergartens or schools. What would that
mean for the ultra-Orthodox Jews in the burgeoning West Bank towns of Betar
Illit and Kiryat Sefer, where children under 17 comprise two-thirds of the
population? The "knitted kipa" national religious communities are not too
far behind in the size of their families. Shas politicians could never
accept such a diktat.
How does the Quartet plan to stop the natural growth of these Jewish
communities? With procreation police? Campaigns advocating birth control?
"Sorry," the religious Jews will respond, "we gave at the ovens." In their
case, ZPG stands for "Zionist Population Growth."
A FEW years ago, an imprudent ad agency placed posters of bikini-clad models
at bus stations in ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods. Within hours the stations
and posters were toast. A few months later, an anti-AIDS poster campaign was
launched with a picture of a condom. Incredibly, the posters in the
ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods were left unscathed. Why? Probably because the
residents had no clue what the product was. These are neighborhoods where
televisions are banned and late-night activities do not include watching Jay
Leno.
Large families mean larger apartments. Married children mean a demand for
nearby housing. The ultra-Orthodox community of Mea She'arim was visited
recently by US Ambassador Richard Jones, who showed just how much he was out
of touch with his audience when he expressed concern "about where things are
built in Jerusalem... Sometimes people do have to move to a different
location. They cannot always stay close to their families." Would an
American ambassador ever make such a statement in an Arab society where sons
traditionally stay close to their fathers and clans?
Incredibly, it is a tragic fact that the government of Israel actually
approved the Quartet's road map in 2003, with its restrictions on
settlements and natural growth. The Israeli government, which at the time
included several right-wing ministers, expressed 14 "reservations," but they
have no standing in talks with the US government or the other members of the
Quartet. And not one of those reservations included opposition to the
"natural growth" restriction.
To use a rabbinic term, the restriction is a gezera (decree) that the
community cannot bear.
So why did Israel's leaders accept such a decree?
Perhaps the answer lies in the fact that government leaders who supported
the road map live primarily in the tony coastal plain, have few children, or
have children living on the West Bank of the Hudson, the Rive Gauche of the
Seine, a government-granted homestead in the Negev, or eventually in a state
correctional facility.
Compare those leaders with two gentlemen very dear to me who passed away
last week. Joseph Black, my father-in-law, made aliya at the age of 92 and
moved into our home in Efrat. (Is that defined as "natural growth?") When he
died at the age of 97, we were comforted by his six grandchildren (our
children) and seven great-grandchildren, all of whom live in relatively new
homes nearby. Our neighbor, Ernie Alexander, died at age 85 while we were
still sitting shiva. His tribe numbers some 60 children, grandchildren and
their offspring.
Virtually all live in Israel, and most live "over the Green Line." They
prove that "natural growth" is an irrepressible and irresistible force.
The writer served as deputy chief of mission in Israel's embassy in
Washington. He blogs at
www.lennybendavid.com <
2.
PMW:
Hatred of US a Pillar of PA Ideology
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/126172
by Maayana Miskin
Excerpts:
(IsraelNN.com) The Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) watchdog group has released a
report warning that hatred of the United States is a pillar of the Palestinian
Authority's ideology.
As US President George W. Bush lavished praise this week on Palestinian
Authority (PA) and Fatah Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, the latter broadcast on the TV
station which he controls a stinging message: the US is "the greatest Satan in
the world." --Palestinian Legislative Council Member Najat Abu-Bakr (Fatah), PA
TV, March 3, 2008.
The full 30-page PMW report examines statements made in the PA media over the
past several years regarding the PA's affinity for countries such as North
Korea, Cuba, and Venezuela, which are all openly anti-American.
"Significantly," the report warns, "the affinity that is felt for such
geographically distant non-Muslim countries... is precisely because these states
publicly challenge and express loathing for the US." The report also examined
statements showing PA officials' loathing for the United States, such as a Fatah
legislator's recent claim that the US is "the greatest Satan in the world."
PMW staff found that the attack on the World Trade Center in New York City on
September 11, 2001 was a frequent theme of anti-American cartoons in PA
newspapers. Each year, the papers print cartoons, often on or shortly before
September 11, depicting the Muslim world, particularly Iraq and "Palestine," as
the true victims of the attacks. America is depicted as the aggressor.
"No Arab land is safe from the grand American conspiracy, and there is no Arab
nation that is not threatened either internally or externally with slaughter"
--Al-Hayyat al-Jedidah, November, 2006.
3. Lenny Ben-David
Blog:
Articles worth Noting:
http://lennybendavid.com/
Looking for a Solution to the
Palestinian Refugee Problem?
Close UNRWA
http://lennybendavid.com/2008/04/looking-for-solution-to-palestinian.html
Excerpt:
According to the CIA's Factbook, life expectancy in Gaza and the West Bank
stands at 73 years; in Egypt and Morocco 71 years; in Yemen 62 years. The
Palestinians owe UNRWA for their 92 percent literacy. In Egypt literacy stands
at 71 percent, Morocco 52 percent, and Yemen 50 percent.
4. Is Israel the Happiest Country in the
World?
The article below:
Why Israel Is the World's Happiest
Country
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JE13Ak01.html
by Spengler
claims that Israel is the happiest nation on earth!
I am not sure of the author actually lives here or not or what he bases his
figures on.
If he does live here, he must have written the piece on a good day.
5. Jerusalem from a
haredi
point of view: Photos
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3543299,00.html
6.
Ashkelon
Attack Launched From Jewish Town Destroyed by Sharon
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/126176
by Ezra HaLevi
(IsraelNN.com) The Iranian-supplied Grad-type rocket fired at an Ashkelon mall
Wednesday was launched from the former Gaza Jewish fishing village of Dugit,
which was evacuated and destroyed by Israel in the 2005 Disengagement for the
stated purpose of strengthening Israel's security.
Hamas-affiliated Popular Resistance Committees Spokesman Muhammad Abdel-Al told
World Net Daily Wednesday that the attack, which wounded dozens, including
children, was launched from Dugit, located along the coast in northern Gaza.
Dugit's residents, mostly secular Jews who made a living fishing in the
Mediterranean, left reluctantly, but without a struggle in 2005, when then-Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon announced his diplomatic plan to unilaterally withdraw the
IDF from Gaza and destroy all the Jewish towns there. More than 9,000 residents
were evicted from their homes in the operation.
At the time, residents and other opponents of the plan warned that the
communities would be used as terrorist training camps and staging grounds for
terrorist attacks.
Abdel-Al hailed Wednesday's attack as a "symbolic act" that proved the
effectiveness of PA Arabs' policies of launching attacks on Jewish civilians to
achieve concessions from Israel's government. "Our launching from Dugit is a
sign of success," Abdel-Al told World Net Daily's Aaron Klein. "Mark my words,
just as we liberated Dugit, so we will liberate Ashkelon, Jaffa, Jerusalem, Tel
Aviv and Haifa."
In 2005, then Prime Minister Ariel Sharon implemented his Disegagement Plan in
which Israel demolished 21 Jewish towns in Gaza and 4 in northern Samaria,
forcefully expelled the Jewish residents, and handed the Gaza area over to the
Palestinian Authority.
In his speech to the Herziliya Conference in 2003, Sharon explained that "the
purpose of the Disengagement Plan is to reduce terror as much as possible, and
grant Israeli citizens the maximum level of security... These steps will
increase security for the residents of Israel and relieve the pressure on the
IDF and security forces in fulfilling the difficult tasks they are faced with.
The Disengagement Plan is meant to grant maximum security and minimize friction
between Israelis and Palestinians."
7. Bush to Knesset: U.S. stands with
Israel, Masada
will not fall again
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/983716.html
By Reuters
Extracts:
In an historic address to Knesset on Thursday, U.S. President George Bush
reiterated America's commitment to Israel and said his country was "proud to be
Israel's closest ally and best friend."
Bush, on a three-day visit to Israel on the occasion of its 60th anniversary,
told a special session of Knesset that "Masada will not fall again," in
reference to the Roman-era desert fortress which he visited earlier in the day.
The site is a national symbol in Israel of Jewish fighting spirit and
self-sacrifice against powerful enemies and overwhelming odds.
Bush pledged in his address that the United States has an unbreakable bond with
Israel.
"Some people suggest that if the United States would just break ties with
Israel, all our problems in the Middle East would go away," Bush said in his
prepared address.
"This is a tired argument that buys into the propaganda of our enemies, and
America rejects it utterly. Israel's population may be just over 7 million. But
when you confront terror and evil, you are 307 million strong, because America
stands with you."
In his address, Bush called Israel "the freest democracy in the Middle East" and
criticized the United Nations for routinely leveling human rights complaints
against it.
He criticized the deadly tactics of extremist groups and denounced
anti-Semitism, especially by those who want to wipe the nation off the map.
"We believe that religious liberty is fundamental to civilized society so we
condemn anti-Semitism in all forms whether by those who openly question Israel's
right to exist, or by others who quietly excuse them," Bush said.
Bush hammered home his view that democracy could prevail against extremism in
the Middle East, where he has struggled to push his "freedom agenda."
His strongest criticism was aimed at Iran, Israel's main foe in the region. He
also told Knesset members that letting Iran acquire nuclear weapons would be an
"unforgivable betrayal of future generations."
To See Previous Issues
Jerusalem News Archives
Join the Brit-Am Ephraimite Discussion Group
Just Send an
e-mail
with "Subscribe" in the Subject Line
and in the Message
Main Page
Your Offerings and Orders for our Publications
