How the American occupation of Florida occurred.

How the American occupation of Florida occurred.

Palestinian Authority: Israel “Opening For Itself The Gates Of Hell.”

by Samuel Sokol, Five Towns Jewish Times

Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas declared this week that the killers of 45-year-old Rabbi Meir Avshalom Hai are “Shahids [Martyrs] of the Palestinian revolution.”

The president’s personal representative, Tayeb Abd Al-Rahim, conveyed his condolences to the families of the terrorists, affiliated with the banned Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades organization, saying that “without doubt, what the occupation authorities have carried out is a wild and barbaric act and a deliberate, malicious assassination in cold blood.”

The Bethlehem-based Ma’an news agency reported that President Abbas “vowed to seek prosecution for Israeli leaders he termed war criminals” in regard to operation Cast Lead, ignoring the two recent attempted suicide bombings originating from territory which he controlled.

Twenty thousand individuals, including top PA officials, attended funerals for the slain gunmen, who were reported in the Arab press as having been “assassinated…as they slept.” The Fatah leader was quoted as defining the killing of the terrorists as part of a “policy of assassination.”

After protests were made by PA officials and a public demand was made for an investigation into Israel’s actions by B’tzelem, the United States contacted National Security Adviser Prof. Uzi Arad for clarification. Arad defended Israel’s actions in killing the terrorists.

The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades was affirmed as the armed wing of Fatah during the movement’s 2009 convention in Bethlehem. Brigades members are sheltered by and receive payment from PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, who is widely perceived as a moderate in western circles.

Abu Mahmoud, a senior commander of Fatah’s armed wing threatened that suicide bombers would “turn Israel’s night to day” in response to the killings.

In an official statement, the Brigades declared, “We won’t stand around doing nothing and the blood of holy warriors will not have been spilled in vain. The enemy won’t see anything from us besides the language of blood and fire.”

According to reports from the WAFA news agency, PM Fayyad visited the house of mourning for the terrorists, accompanied by PA Police Director-General Major General Hazem Atallah.

November was an extremely quiet month in regards to terrorism, according to figures published on the website of Israel’s General Security Service (GSS). However, on Monday, Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak stated, “We definitely see, over the last two or three days, an awakening of terror activity in Judea and Samaria.”

In December, Arabs from Judea and Samaria attempted to infiltrate Israel in order to carry out suicide attacks in Jerusalem and Ashkelon.

On December 3, the IDF spokesman’s office related that three explosive devices had been found and neutralized in Bet Ummar, southwest of Bethlehem. A number of days afterwards, two pipe bombs were found on a PA resident at a checkpoint near Jenin. A pipe bomb was also discovered on a road near Hebron and was detonated by sappers.

There has also been a spate of rock throwing attacks against Israeli vehicles. On December 25 a four-year-old girl was lightly injured when a firebomb was thrown at the car in which she was riding, and a woman was moderately injured by firebomb hurled at a bus near Negohot two days later.

The council of Jewish communities of Judea and Samaria (Yesha) issued a statement that “the murderous shooting attack in Samaria is a direct result of the policy of lifting restrictions on the Palestinians, removing necessary roadblocks in Judea and Samaria, and transferring the responsibility for security to those whose ranks have produced many terrorists who murdered Jews. As in similar incidents in the past, once again the gestures aimed at Abu Mazen [Mahmoud Abbas] carry a price tag of Jewish blood.”

Abbas shahids 5TJT

In a related development, Israel’s Supreme Court decided to open up route 443 in Judea/Samaria to Arab traffic. The road was originally closed to Arabs at the outbreak of the second intifada in light of attacks on Jewish travelers.

The ruling is vexing to settlement leaders; the court admitted last year that the physical safety of Jews using the road would be compromised were Palestinian Authority Arabs given unrestricted access.

According to the IDF spokesman, a roadside bomb was uncovered as recently as December 17 along route 443, planted by the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.

National Union parliamentarian Uri Ariel blasted the court decision, saying that “it has again been proven that the security of Israel’s citizens is worth less than the comfort of travel of the Palestinians” in the eyes of the Supreme Court.

Fatah members have indicated that there exists a possibility of a third Intifada against the Palestinian Authority, due to the PA’s security coordination with Israel. The PA’s military forces, trained by American General Keith Dayton, sometimes work together with Israeli security forces in Judea and Samaria.

Former GSS director Avi Dichter told army radio that while the PA security forces are strong in fighting their rival Hamas, they are lax in taking action against Fatah forces.

Chareidi Patrol: Vigilance or Vigilantism?

by Samuel Sokol, Five Towns Jewish Times

Chareidi residents of the Ramat Bet Shemesh Bet neighborhood have formed a neighborhood patrol in response to a string of break-ins by Arab laborers working on the many building projects throughout the city.

There are no hard numbers as yet, but in the two weeks since the founding of the “vaad ha’shemirah,” the number of burglaries by Arabs is rumored to have dropped dramatically.

Residents of the Sheinfeld neighborhood, a Modern Orthodox area that borders Ramat Bet Shemesh Bet, are uncomfortable with the idea of the patrol. A local resident, who spoke with the Five Towns Jewish Times on condition of anonymity, admitted that a neighborhood watch is a good idea in principle, but expressed reservations about the people leading the group.

Posters have been plastered on walls throughout the chassidic neighborhood, which contains a sizable expatriate population from such chareidi centers as Bet Yisrael and Meah Shearim in Jerusalem, calling on residents to volunteer for the patrol.

Two of the men listed on the broadsheet are known members of a small group of zealots, known as “kannoim,” who have terrorized the community of Bet Shemesh in recent years, engaging in stone-throwing, physical assaults, and threats against those found to be in violation of the group’s value system. Some residents have expressed their reservations regarding the new patrol, fearful that it will soon be used to enforce the moral standards of the Bet Shemesh kannoim.

Dov Lipman, a local rabbi, was quick to point out that the situation in Bet Shemesh has been relatively calm in the past year. However, in the past, local residents have been threatened with violence by some chassidim who moved into the neighborhood and were disturbed by the sight of televisions in their neighbors’ homes.

The throwing of rocks at cars on Shabbat and attacks on women whose skirts were deemed unacceptably short were a regular occurrence in the area for some time. The situation had become so bad at one point that an Egged driver whose bus was attacked pulled his gun and shot in the air in order to ward off his attackers.

According to neighborhood residents, many, if not most, of the local chassidim object to the methods of the kannoim, who only number a few families, but other residents have been terrorized into acceptance of their ways.

Rafi Goldmeier, a popular Israeli blogger who lives in the adjacent Ramat Bet Shemesh Alef development, described one of the men listed on the signs as a patrol organizer, as a leader of the zealots who has “sat in jail a number of times for his violence around the neighborhood.” In a statement to the Five Towns Jewish Times, that individual denied any connection with Shabbat demonstrations.

A. Eizenbach, one of the leaders of the community patrol, explained that his group deals only with the issue of break-ins and does not have a connection with any other type of activity. He denied both reports that his organization works in conjunction with the local police and that the police have been harassing patrol members. We could not reach Bet Shemesh police chief Kobi Cohen for comment.

Due to pressure and threats of violence from the zealots, projects such as a new school for national-religious girls in a primarily Modern Orthodox neighborhood have been slowed. The zealots claim that the neighborhood is theirs and that a Zionist school impinges on the sanctity of the area.

The presence of older rabbis in the neighborhood, who have begun reining in the young men, and the formation of a national-religious community patrol, have been credited by some with calming Bet Shemesh.

"sevivon" at the Pentagon

US Army band playing "sevivon" at the 2009 X-mas concert.

QOTD

Journalists, like all groups of people, are subject to a “herd” mentality, in which one looks around for the dominant “take” on matters and places subsequent information within that framework as a way to avoid saying something so “off base” that it is embarrassing. This is especially true of foreign reporters who do not know much of the past and present of their assigned subjects. As a result, much news tends to replicate itself, and offer the reader a minimum of “alternative” takes. Much of this lies hidden behind a kind of neutral language that, nonetheless, reflects such conventions and consensual approaches. How do we discover underlying paradigms and discourage the pack mentality of journalists? Such a question poses immense challenges to us all.
-Richard Landes

INSS contests Bibi’s “economic peace” model

By Samuel Sokol, Five Towns Jewish Times

The Tel Aviv University affiliated Institute for National Security Studies’ most recent strategic assessment has expressed doubts upon the viability of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s concept of economic peace.

According to the Israeli premier, bolstering the economy of the Palestinian Authority is a necessary prerequisite to a negotiated political settlement. Economic development, according to Netanyahu, "gives a stake in peace for the moderate elements in the Palestinian society."

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, however, blasted Netanyahu’s suggestion, describing the Arab-Israeli conflict as a political issue, requiring a political solution.

In an essay entitled Economic Peace: Theory Versus Reality, Nizan Feldman, a research fellow at the INSS, raises several issues with Netanyahu’s theories, including the 9 percent economic growth in the PA before the outbreak of the second Intifada in October 2000.

Netanyahu has explained his ideas by positing that economic growth must be coupled with military deterrence in order to create the necessary preconditions for peace. Netanyahu has stated that “economic peace relies on two forces: Israeli security and market forces.”

Feldman disputes Netanyahu, stating that “The rationale behind the models of economic liberalism supports this claim only to a limited extent, because it does not formally explain how reducing violence and expanding cooperation lead to a compromise on core political issues.”

“However,” Feldman continues, “even if we assume that reducing violence is a necessary condition for political negotiations between the sides, the model refers to interactions between states and has not been applied to cases in which one side has yet to achieve independence [as is the case with the Palestinian Authority].”

PA Prime Minister Fayyad has proposed a similar ideal of economic development as Netanyahu. However, while Netanyahu has urged economic development as a means to bring the Arabs to the negotiating table, the central rationale behind Fayyadism is the creation of viable economic and beaurocratic mechanisms for the establishment of an independent state within two years.

IMF assessments project that total growth for fiscal year 2009 in Judea and Samaria will total 7 percent.
Despite this, “the current improvement in economic indicators does not demonstrate a higher standard of living or the achievement of sustainable growth,” according to Feldman, and the ability of the PA to maintain sustainable growth is unproven.

The goals of Netanyahu and Fayyad seem to be at loggerheads, with Netanyahu urging closer ties between the state of Israel and the Palestinian Authority, and Fayyad urging economic independence, a political move that may well damage the PA’s internal economy.

Feldman expressed his support for Israel’s role in developing the economy of Judea and Samaria’s Arabs, but added a caveat.

Thinking that by bolstering the Palestinian Authority’s economy Israel can succeed in breaking down irreconcilable differences on core political and social issues is wishful thinking according to the INSS.

“Not only does an Israeli focus on economic cooperation in the absence of political negotiations not contribute to the maturation of conditions for future political negotiations between the sides; it is also liable to give the Palestinians an opportunity to take unilateral steps that can reduce Israel’s scope for political maneuvering,” wrote Feldman.

There are many social, religious and political issues underlying the conflict and many of the core issues remain unresolved, such as the status of Jerusalem and the refusal of the Arabs to recognize Israel as a Jewish state.