One for you and one for me: Central Elections Committee bans Zoabi, Marzel
The Central Elections Committee has voted to ban 'Israeli Arab' MK Hanin Zoabi and Rightist candidate Baruch Marzel. The vote to ban Zoabi wasn't even close - 27-6. The vote to ban Marzel was much closer 17-16. Zoabi's ban is likely to be overturned by Israel's Leftist 'Supreme Court.'
Zoabi said following the vote that the High Court would "have its say,"
on the decision. "I did not have high expectations that most of the
members of the Elections Committee would follow the fundamental rules of
democracy that they are bound by. This is a political committee in a
Knesset that has a majority of right-wingers and racists," she said.
"There
is no legitimate, legal basis to disqualify me, as was made clear by
the attorney-general and previous High Court decisions on attempts to
unseat me as a representative of the Arab public," she added.
Foreign
Minister Avigdor Liberman, whose Yisrael Beytenu party initiated the
petition, said after the decision that Zoabi's place was clearly not in
the Knesset, but rather with the "Hamas terrorists in Gaza."
Liberman said he hoped the High Court would not allow a "supporter of terrorists, including those on the Mavi Marmara to run in Knesset elections in the Jewish state."
Central
Election Committee chairman and Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein both
came out against the move, arguing that such disqualifications
undesirably get the High Court involved in the political process.
However, Likud, Bayit Yehudi, Yisrael Beytenu, Shas, Yachad and the
Zionist Union supported disqualifying Zoabi.
Israel's 'Supreme Court' has nothing against terror supporters, and Zoabi is likely to be reinstated.
At the swearing-in ceremony for the new Knesset, the 11 'Israeli Arab' MK's walked out during the singing of Israel's national anthem(Hat Tip: Shy Guy).
The inaugural ceremony for the 19th Knesset ended with the singing of
Israel's national anthem, HaTikva, during which 11 Arab MKs stood up and
left the procession, refusing to be present while the national anthem
was sung.
And you were wondering why we call them a 5th column?
Ram and Erlich were outplayed in the first set, but edged the Swiss team in a tight second set tiebreak and clinched the win thanks to a single break of serve in the third set.
It won't be getting any easier for the Israeli duo, with No. 1 seeds Bob and Mike Bryan waiting in the last eight at Wimbledon.
"This is a massive achievement," Ram said. "We were very nervous at the start, but we got our act together in the second set. It is amazing to beat Roger Federer, but I insist that this win is just another step towards the big goal."
And here's the other highlight of the day:
Yakov Toumarkin became just the second Israeli swimmer to ever reach an individual Olympic final, recording a result of 1:57.33 minutes in the 200-meter backstroke semifinals, equal to the Israeli record he set in the morning heats, to advance from eighth place overall to Thursday's final.
The 20-year-old, who became the first Israeli to win two medals in a single European Championships earlier this year, follows in the footsteps of Eitan Urbach, who ended the 100m back final in eighth place in the 2000 Sydney Games.
As much as I really haven't been following the Olympics, and I'm disgusted that there was no moment of silence, I would like nothing better than to see the Nazis and Islamists on the IOC forced to play HaTikva (our national anthem).
Rabbi Meir Kahane was right: Do you really expect the Arabs to sing a national anthem about Jewish yearnings?
Rabbi Meir Kahane used to warn that one day the Arabs would rise up and refuse to sing Israel's national anthem since they have no use for the yearning of a Jewish soul. That day has already come. So instead of facing up to that reality, our Leftists are trying to change it.
The Leftist 'Jewish' Daily Forward commissioned Neshama Carlebach (who reads this blog, if I'm not mistaken, and in whom I am deeply disappointed) to make up a politically correct version of HaTikva, our national anthem. Basically, the politically correct version removes all Jewish content except for the word Zion at the end (and the fact that Jerusalem is not referred to as al-Quds at the end). It's an Israeli anthem - not a Jewish one.
For those who don't want to hear a woman singing even on tape, you can just watch the English subtitles - the changes are highlighted and obvious.
Let's go to the videotape.
Are we a Jewish country or are we a 'country of all its citizens'? If this anthem is adopted, we take a symbolic step toward the latter.
The current focus of [post-Zionist] attack is the wording of the national anthem, “Hatikva,” which Haaretz tells us, “ignore[s] the existence of an Arab minority in the State of Israel – a minority for whom this land is also their land.”
According to the paper, “No Arab citizen who had any self-respect, political awareness or national consciousness could sing these words without committing the sins of hypocrisy and falsehood.”
Elsewhere, we are told why this is so: “Independence Day is not a holiday for Israeli Arabs. Sixty-four years ago, they lost their land and their national honor.”
I am trying to get my head around this. Is one of the nation’s major newspapers really calling on the public not only to understand the sorrow the Arab minority feels that the genocidal attempt of its ethnic-kinfolk to obliterate the Jewish population failed, but to take far-reaching steps to accommodate this sadness?
Really?
How are we to assuage their melancholy at having “lost their land and national honor” in their failed Judeocidal effort? Are Jews really expected to forgo the victory and to suppress the expression of their national identity to alleviate the discomfort of the defeated? One cannot but wonder what the consequences would have been had the fortunes of war been reversed? And how are we to restore their “national honor” (much less their ‘land”) – or to compensate them for their loss – without de-Judaizing Israel and deconstructing the Zionist ethos.
But that is what the post-Zionists are really aiming at. However, to achieve this goal of dismantling the status of Israel as the nation-state of the Jews, they first have to achieve an intermediate goal: to decouple Israel from its Jewishness, to denude, and then break, the bond of kinship between the State of Israel and the Jewish people.
Hence the assault on the Jewish emblems – first the anthem, next the flag, then the Law of Return. After all, why should the Jewish Diaspora have unfettered access to the country and not the Palestinian diaspora?
This is a question the post-Zionists – and Haaretz – will doubtless be raising soon in editorials.
Israeli rower won gold medal, sang national anthem on her own
Some of you may recall an incident about six weeks ago in which Kuwait didn't have a recording of Kazakhstan 's national anthem... and played the Borat joke version instead. I still laugh thinking about that one.
Here's a very different and much more moving story. An Israeli won a rowing competition in Italy. The Italians didn't have a tape of HaTikva, Israel's national anthem. So the winner picked up a microphone and sang it herself. And the winner... is kind of special.
Knesset Law Committee Chairman calls for removal of 'Israeli Arab' judge who would not sing national anthem
Knesset Law Committee Chairman David Rotem has called for the removal of 'Israeli Arab' Supreme Court Justice Salim Joubran after Joubran refused to participate in singing Israel's National Anthem at the conclusion of the installation ceremony for new Supreme Court Chief Justice Asher Grunis. Joubran's silence was shown on live television by Israel's Channel 2 (I have not found the video yet) according to Israel Radio.
A number of MKs from the right wing spoke out against Joubran’s silence during the swearing in of new Supreme Court President Asher Grunis, with Likud’s Tzipi Hotovely saying that such actions are what cause the Supreme Court to lose its status in the eyes of the public.
Yisrael Beiteinu MK David Rotem, who heads the Knesset’s Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, said he would turn to Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman and act to remove Joubran from his chair.
Earlier in the year, MK Michael Ben-Ari pushed to legislate a law which would make army or national service a mandatory criteria for being appointed as a judge in the Supreme Court.
The law was nicknamed the “Joubran law,” and Ben-Ari said on Tuesday evening that Joubran’s silence during the anthem was proof of its necessity. “Who ever doesn’t like the anthem can leave,” he said. “I promise I won’t beg him to stay.”
Rabbi Meir Kahane warned that this would happen. But no one wanted to listen. Instead, Kahane was branded a racist and a terrorist. And Joubran is not a racist?
By Israeli Left's standards, the US is a fascist country
I went to a Jewish day school in Boston, and as a young child, I can remember standing up, putting my hand over my heart and saying the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.
Israel's Ministry of Education has issued a directive for the coming school year calling on all Jewish (not Arab - they're exempt because they might find it offensive) kindergartens to sing our national anthem once a week. Now I can think of some sectors of Israeli society that might find HaTikva (our national anthem) offensive. But I doubt anyone expected the vehement opposition from Israel's Leftists.
Did you know most Americans would be considered fascist by a significant portion of Israel’s left? Neither did I, until a few days ago. But that’s the inescapable conclusion from the left’s reaction to a new Israeli Education Ministry directive requiring Jewish kindergartens (Arab schools would be exempt) to start the week by raising the Israeli flag and singing the national anthem, Hatikvah.
“It looks like a competition between members of the Likud [the ruling party] to see who can push us faster into the arms of fascism,” thunderedProf. Gabi Solomon of the University of Haifa.
“Part of a growing trend of inculcating nationalistic and militaristic values,” screamed an Arab nongovernmental organization.
“This directive is reminiscent of education in a totalitarian society; it gives me the shivers,” charged a lecturer at a leading teacher’s college [Hebrew only].
“It’s brainwashing,” added a kindergarten teacher.
There's a lot about Israel's Leftists that would probably come as a surprise to a lot of Americans. Evelyn Gordon sums it up as follows:
But what most Americans don’t realize is that what Israeli leftists term “anti-democratic” includes a lot of things Americans would consider perfectly legitimate. For instance, Israel’s leading civil rights organization, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, asserts that a law denying state funding to commemorations of the Nakba (literally, “catastrophe,” the Arabic term for Israel’s establishment) “crosses a red line in suppressing freedom of expression.” Yet how many Americans would feel that “freedom of expression” required their government to actually finance ceremonies mourning their country’s establishment as a catastrophe?
Hopefully none, but in the age of Obama one cannot be too sure of that.
Haifa law school skips HaTikva (our national anthem)
At the University of Haifa's law school graduation on Thursday, there was something missing. HaTikva, Israel's national anthem (link in Hebrew).
The university claims that it is 'investigating' why the anthem, 'which is played at every university activity,' was left out. Students speculated that it was due to the large number of Arab students in the university. Instead of playing the anthem, students were asked to rise to release balloons into the air.
Video: Bergen-Belsen survivors sing HaTikva, now Israel's national anthem
At 8:00 Sunday evening Israel time - about 15 minutes before this post goes live - a siren will go off here in Israel marking the beginning of Holocaust Remembrance Day observances (although Holocaust Remembrance Day is normally observed on 27 Nissan, this year it is pushed off to 28 Nissan so that preparations will not begin on the Sabbath).
In this video, you will hear Jewish survivors of the liberated Bergen-Belsen concentration camp singing HaTikva (the Hope), which was destined to become Israel's National Anthem.
Let's go to the videotape (Hat Tip: Danny Ayalon via Twitter).
A heavy load and a moral victory for Israel against Iran
I'd like to show you video of the medal ceremony of the 105 kilo category of the World Weightlifting Championships in Poland last week.
Let's go to the videotape.
For a full explanation of the video, go here. But this is the sweetest part:
The two athletes mounted the podium to receive their medals, together with the third-placed competitor from Germany. Britva and the German shook hands. But when Britva offered his to Khodadadi, the Iranian refused it.
That unsporting gesture didn’t prevent Khodadadi from being rebuked by the Iranian authorities for standing alongside an Israeli. According to Radio Zamaneh, “the Head of Iran’s National Athletic Organization had earlier written a letter to the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, to receive instructions on how to handle situations where Iranian athletes have to confront Israeli athletes.” You don’t need a wild imagination to figure out what those would have been.
I'm amazed that the Iranian didn't just forfeit which is what they usually do to ensure that they don't lose to Israelis. Maybe the Iranians were super confident that Khodadadi would win. I guess he won't be competing anymore.
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
