— Reuven Rivlin (@PresidentRuvi) January 15, 2016
Shabbat Shalom everyone. Labels: European anti-Semitism, France, French anti-Semitism, Ruby Rivlin
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:22 PM
1 comments
מהבוקר אני רואה כאן ברשת ידיעה מפוברקת על הנשיא ריבלין, לפיה הוא לא ביקר את הוריה של אדל ביטון "כדי לא להרגיז את... http://t.co/cixAgWttCV
— Ben Caspit בן כספית (@BenCaspit) August 3, 2015
The full Facebook post is at that link and its quite short. Here's a much better translation than Facebook will give you. Since this morning, I see a fabricated report on President Rivlin that claims that he did not visit the parents of Adele Biton "so as not to anger the Arabs." This is a cheap and transparent fabrication at an imaginary site from a reporter who does not exist, which does not stop many Right wing degenerates from spreading it and accusing Rivlin of treason. To permit [taking the life] of the country's President, the Right wing ideologue, the picture of beauty and morality.The story I saw - on Arutz Sheva's website - and on which I based my post, was based on an interview with Adele's mother, and said nothing about him 'deserving to die' (God Forbid) or anything similar.
It is apparent that the idiots never end, they just change identities. Rivlin visited the Biton family and said powerful emotional words in the family's home. But the lowlifes of limited intelligence do their own thing. We have learned nothing, and apparently we will not learn anything. This is how it is when there are no brains.
Labels: death threats, incitement, Ruby Rivlin, terror victims
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:21 AM
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“I don't recall President Rivlin, whom I have great respect for, visiting my daughter in the hospital after she was struck by a rock. I don't recall him calling for a public protest when Adelle was attacked. Something is wrong here.” Neither, she said, did Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu visit her in the hospital.
Three year old Adelle Biton was killed last March when an terrorists threw a rock at the car she was riding in as they drove along a road in Samaria. Five Arab teens were arrested in the case, and confessed to throwing large rocks at the Biton family vehicle. A large stone struck Adelle in the head, and she was comatose for nearly two months before waking with permanent, severe disabilities, passing away two years later due to medical complications.
On Friday, Rivlin spoke out against the arson attack last week in the village of Duma, in which an infant was burned to death, and four family members were severely burned. On Saturday night, Rivlin appeared at a rally in Tel Aviv denouncing the attack, which appeared to have been carried out by Jewish extremists.
But while Rivlin and other politicians were quick to speak out against attacks on the Arab population, attacks on Jews – especially religious ones – did not get top priority.Indeed.
Labels: Binyamin Netanyahu, Ruby Rivlin, terror victims
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:59 PM
4 comments
The [former] president, who has been visiting Israel and the West Bank, met with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas Saturday but didn’t meet with Netanyahu or President Reuven Rivlin.
He told reporters that he didn’t ask to meet with Netanyahu or his government, and never has, because it would be a “waste of time.” He told Channel 2 in an interview broadcast Saturday that he requested to meet Rivlin, but the president’s office declined.
Israel officials said last week that Netanyahu and Rivlin had refused invitations to meet with Carter, who was described by an Israeli diplomatic source as “a disaster for Israel,” who holds “anti-Israel positions.”
...
“I don’t believe that he’s a terrorist. He’s strongly in favor of the peace process,” Carter said of Hamas politburo chief Khaled Mashaal. He said Mashaal expressed interest in the Saudis hosting a “peace meeting” and that the Doha-based Hamas leader would recognize Israel’s right to exist based on the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative.
Netanyahu, on the other hand, wasn’t “in favor of a two-state solution,” said the former president, who orchestrated the peace accords between Israel and Egypt in 1979.
Anyone want to take bets on how long it will take for Barack Hussein Obama to make similar statements soon after January 20, 2017? #AskHillary!“I don’t see that deep commitment on the part of Netanyahu to make concessions which [former prime minister] Menachem Begin did to find peace with his potential enemies,” Carter told Channel 2.
Labels: Abu Mazen, Barack Hussein Obama, Binyamin Netanyahu, Hamas, Hillary Clinton, Jimmy Carter, Khaled Meshaal, Ruby Rivlin
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:48 PM
0 comments
President Reuven Rivlin has refused to meet with former US president Jimmy Carter during his upcoming visit to the region, due to his stances over recent years seen as "anti-Israel."What I don't get is why we're letting the creep into the country at all. I don't see any difference between Carter and the many ISM 'activists' we have barred over the years. Maybe Carter has to arrive on a Gaza flotilla for people to get this man's deep hatred for Israel.
In recent years, Carter has become one of the most prominent critics of Israel, notably when during last summer's war with Hamas he denounced the IDF's Operation Protective Edge in Gaza as illegitimate.
An Israeli diplomatic official told The Jerusalem Post's Hebrew sister publication Ma'ariv that the Foreign Ministry recommended Rivlin not meet with Carter, in order to transmit the message that those who harm Israel will not meet with the president.
Carter is reported expected to visit Israel and the Palestinian territories in the coming weeks.
Labels: anti-Israel obsession, anti-Semitism, Jimmy Carter, Ruby Rivlin
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:24 AM
0 comments
Rivlin will be in New York this week to speak at UN Headquarters, for an International Holocaust Remembrance Day event. The President’s Residence had informed U.S. Ambassador Dan Shapiro in early December of Rivlin’s planned visit, and the information was conveyed to the White House.
A senior Israeli official said that at first Rivlin did not want to impose himself on Obama, and that he would be happy to go to Washington if invited by the White House. The deputy spokesman for the White House National Security Council, Alistair Baskey, said that Rivlin had asked in December about the possibility of a meeting as part of his visit to New York, and that there had been contacts between the two presidential bureaus over the matter in recent weeks.
The White House did not suggest a date for the meeting for some time, but on Saturday night contacts became more concrete. The White House suggested that Rivlin come to Washington toward the end of the week, after Obama returns from his trip to India and Saudi Arabia. The White House also updated the Israeli Embassy in Washington.
Journalist Chico Menashe first reported the talks regarding the visit on Sunday.
After consultations, Rivlin finally declined the American suggestion. His advisers explained to the Americans that the two leaders’ schedules do not overlap, because Rivlin is expected to return to Israel before Obama gets back to Washington.
However, beyond scheduling conflicts, it may be assumed that the high tension between the White House and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bureau over the latter’s planned speech to Congress contributed to Rivlin’s decision to forego a meeting at this time. Rivlin did not want a meeting to be perceived by either side as a political move.
The President’s Residence and the White House released coordinated statements last night identical in their wording, that there had been contact between the relevant parties in Israel regarding a meeting while Rivlin was in New York.
“At this stage, it has been agreed not to hold a meeting during his visit, due to the schedule constraints of both leaders, and that a meeting would be scheduled at a later date,” the statement said.In other words, the White House wasn't interested in a meeting until it became a useful tool to 'get' Netanyahu. Rivlin didn't take the bait.
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Binyamin Netanyahu, Ruby Rivlin, Tzipi Livni, US-Israel relationship, Yitzchak Herzog
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:03 AM
0 comments
"This step is one that raises tensions as others do," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said, referring to the freeze on revenue transfers to the Palestinian Authority.
...
The PA regularly fails to stand by its agreements, and owes Israel staggering sums, including over 1.4 billion shekels (over $360 million) in unpaid electric bills.
The PA has responded with intransigence, with onetime Palestinian Arab negotiator Saeb Erekat claiming to AFP Saturday that the move itself constitutes a "war crime."I can't think of any reason why that would be a war crime. Here's Rivlin.
At a closed meeting of more than 30 Israeli ambassadors to Europe, held at the President's Residence in Jerusalem, Rivlin criticized both the PA's unilateral moves and Netanyahu's response, calling it damaging to Israel.
Two envoys who attended the meeting told Haaretz that "President Rivlin said the Palestinian Authority's application to the International Criminal Court in The Hague is an attempt by [PA Chairman Mahmoud] Abbas to evade direct negotiations with Israel and force it into an agreement on its [the PA's] terms, without any Palestinian concessions."
Rivlin further criticized the actions of the Palestinians, calling them a violation of the Oslo Accords, and arguing that the Israeli government should respond - albeit with careful considerations to aid Israel's interests, not harm them.
To that end, he noted, "freezing the transfer of Palestinian tax money is not beneficial to us and not beneficial to them."
"The Palestinians sustain themselves with these funds which also keep the Palestinian Authority functioning. It is in Israel's interest that the PA will function," Rivlin added.
"I was a lawyer until the age of 48, but I would never file a claim for compensation that would end up hurting me," the two ambassadors quoted Rivlin as saying.I'd like to hear whether Rivlin has any other suggested responses. If he doesn't, he should sit and be quiet.
Labels: International Criminal Court, Jen Psaki, Palestinian tax transfers, Ruby Rivlin, State Department obsession with Israel
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:07 PM
0 comments
The Knesset decided only this year to set aside a special day, November 30, to mark the Jewish Nakba. Most school children in Israel know about what was done to the Jews of Kishinev and also about what was done to the Jews in Deir Yassin.
But most Israeli students don't know about Jewish Nakba. They don't know about a long series of pogroms and massacres perpetrated against Jews in most Arab countries. The Kishinev pogroms in 1906 claimed the lives of 29 Jews. A year later, in pogroms in Morocco, 50 Jews were murdered in the city of Settat, and another 30 were killed in Casablanca.
How many high school students know about them? And how many know about the pogrom in Aden in 1948 in which 82 Jews were murdered? And how many know about the hundreds more who were killed during that period in Iraq, Egypt, Syria and Libya only because they were Jews?
The "narratives" have taken control of the university campuses and school system. On their behalf, Israeli students are told "the other side's version of the story." Not that one should belittle the pain of the Palestinians. God forbid. The thing is that there is nothing unique about the Palestinian story in particular. People fled. Some were deported too. But where were things any different?
And yet, the Jewish Nakba vanished into thin air, despite the fact that it was far more severe. After all, the Jews of the Arab states didn't declare war on the Arab countries; they didn't have a leader like the Mufti who was planning and plotting to eradicate all the Arabs – every last one. On the contrary, they were peaceful citizens wherever they were.
* * *
Let's set the record straight. The disintegration of the empires, beginning with the Ottoman, through to the Austro-Hungarian, and on to the British, intensified the demand on the part of various peoples for self-determination – no more multi-ethnic states under imperial rule, but nations with a sense of independent identity instead. Some would call it an imaginary heritage, but that's not important.
The result was huge waves of population transfers, beginning in 1912 and through to the years following World War II. Around 52 million people underwent the experience, including tens of millions in the period after the war.
Millions of Germans, Hungarians, Poles, Ukrainians, Turks, Greeks, Bulgarians, Romanians, Indians, Pakistanis and more and more were forced to leave their birthplaces to make way for national entities, old and new. One would be hard pressed to find a single conflict during the period in question that did not end without a population exchange.
And the same happened in the Jewish-Arab conflict too. When the Peel Commission decided in 1937 on a population exchange, one of the reasons it offered to support its decision was the fact that the Iraqis had carried out against the Assyrian minority, despite earlier assurances to safeguard their rights.Read the whole thing.
The population exchanges between Greece and Turkey also served as a backdrop for the commission's decision. At the time, this was the position held by statesmen, scholars and intellectuals. Furthermore, in 1930, the Permanent Court of International Justice, the highest international judicial instance at the time, approved population transfers by force when it ruled that the purpose of mass population transfers was to "more effectively aid the process of pacification of the Near East."
Labels: Arab genocide, Jewish refugees, naqba, Ruby Rivlin
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:33 PM
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According to Ma'ariv, Mohammed Adnan, the chairman of a group called, the Revolutionary Congregation for Syria's Future, sent Rivlin a letter, stating that "as a Syrian rebel," he was looking forward to "new ties based on honesty and sincerity between the Syrian and Israeli people."Is this Shimon Peres' New Middle East? Or are we going to see a retraction? And by the way, notice no mention of the Golan. Hmmm.
"I will be so glad be to be the first one of the well-wishers to you, Mr. Reuven, president of the State of Israel," Adnan added.
Adnan said that he was "eager for the moment" when both Israel and the Syrian rebels celebrate victory "over the outlaw trinity of the Assad family, Hezbollah, and Iran."
The letter, which is in English, appeared to be written with the help of Google Translate.
Labels: Free Syrian Army, Golan Heights, Ruby Rivlin, Syrian uprising
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:10 PM
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Labels: Harry S. Truman, Ruby Rivlin
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:01 PM
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Rivlin, who won out in a field of five presidential candidates, will replace President Shimon Peres in the position when the 90-year-old steps down on July 27 when his seven year term comes to a close.
Sheetrit and Rivlin went to a second round runoff round after none of the candidates managed to get a majority 61 votes in the first round of voting on Tuesday.
Rivlin lead the first round with 44 votes, followed by Sheetrit with 31 votes, former MK Dalia Itzik with 28 votes, former Supreme Court justice Dalia Dorner with 13 votes and Nobel Laureate Dan Shechtman with only one vote.
Rivlin teared up during a speech to the Likud faction on Monday afternoon, saying "I was born in the [Likud forebear] Herut Party and I never left it for any temptation. Tomorrow may be my greatest hour, but it may be an important time for the whole party, in which one of its sons will become president of our country."
At the beginning of the faction meeting, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu did not mention the presidential race of his own volition, simply answering positively when asked by reporters if he wants to wish Rivlin good luck. Then, the two awkwardly shook hands.
When photographers asked if Netanyahu wants to express his support for the cameras, he said "I already did."Rivlin is opposed to the creation of a 'Palestinian state.'
Labels: Binyamin Netanyahu, Israeli Knesset, Ruby Rivlin, Shimon Peres
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:43 PM
2 comments
On the day that President Shimon Peres hosted Pope Francis, the frontrunner to succeed Peres made clear he does not share their vision of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
What a refreshing change that would be.
Labels: Israeli elections, Middle East peace process, Ruby Rivlin, Shimon Peres
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:49 PM
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"A third person who is involved behind the scenes" did not want him for the job, Rivlin says, describing personal insult he felt from PM and Likud members.I find Sara Netanyahu's role in the Likud deeply troubling.
"It seems to me that there were three people who apparently didn't want me for the job: The head of Yisrael Beytenu, for his reasons, the prime minister, and a third person, who is a person that is always involved, but behind the scenes. I'm not getting into gossip," Rivlin said in an interview with Channel 10 reporter Raviv Drucker.
Sources close to Rivlin clarified that he meant the prime minister's wife.
A week ago, Rivlin made comments to Army Radio that could be understood the same way: "I don't think the prime minister took my criticism of him personally, but I'm not talking about his family."
According to sources close to Rivlin, Sara Netanyahu was dissatisfied with his performance as speaker of the previous Knesset, and saw his attempts at neutrality as attempts to flatter the opposition in order to gain support ahead of the presidential election next year.
Rivlin's voice trembled as he described his relationship with the prime minister on Wednesday, saying he is very disappointed because he felt that was tricked by Netanyahu, who was his friend.
"When I would call the prime minister with doubts because of rumors, he would say to me: How many times do I have to promise you, Rubi? Other good friends would visit me at the Knesset Speaker's Office and say clearly 'who else would he choose, why would the party hurt itself?'" Rivlin recounted.
The former Knesset speaker said he and the prime minister have been friends since childhood, and that Netanyahu even told Rivlin's wife that Rivlin is one of the only people he can trust.
"He gave us a good feeling, and I don't think he was bluffing," the Likud MK said. "It's not nice to mislead friends. It just isn't nice."
The reasoning that Rivlin would use his position as Knesset Speaker inappropriately to promote his candidacy for president is "insulting," he said, and pointed out that he ran for president in 2007 at Netanyahu's request.
Rivlin also said that he had stopped bills that could be embarrassing for Netanyahu, and that the prime minister thanked him for doing so.
"What hurt me most, much more than the fact that I was removed from my position – and I see it as a dismissal – is that my friends [in the Likud] did not get up and say even one word in my favor," Rivlin said of the faction meeting in which Yuli Edelstein was elected new Knesset Speaker.
Labels: Binyamin Netanyahu, Ruby Rivlin, Sara Netanyahu, Yuli Edelstein
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:14 PM
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US President Barack Obama's decision not to visit the Knesset is "worrying," former Knesset Speaker MK Reuven Rivlin (Likud Beytenu) said ahead of Obama's arrival in Israel Wednesday.I don't think it's a question of faith so much as it's Obama trying to circumvent Israel's politicians as if Mrs. Cohen from Hadera is going to put Iran 15 kilometers away because Obama told her it's safe. We're back to Obama's 2008 charm offensives where he thinks he can convince anyone of anything. And frankly, yes, it's offensive but so is this entire trip.
"Three American presidents have spoken on the Knesset stage, as well as [former Egyptian president Anwar] Sadat and leaders from Europe," Rivlin said. "President Obama should speak to the people of Israel through its elected representatives."
According to Rivlin, Obama's decision not to speak in the Knesset is a cause for concern because it shows that he does not have faith in the representatives of the nation to which he is speaking.
Former US presidents Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush have addressed the Knesset in the past. Former president Richard Nixon visited the Knesset, but did not give a speech on its stage.As we now know thanks to Woodward and Bernstein, but did not know then, Nixon had phlebitis in his leg when he was here and probably could not have stood up long enough to address the Knesset.
Rivlin, at the request of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and National Security Council leader Yaakov Amidror, reached agreements with MKs to prevent them from interrupting the US president or demonstrating against him in protest of Israeli agent Jonathan Pollard's continued incarceration, were Obama to visit the legislature.Obama should be forced to face Israel's elected representatives about Pollard and about many other matters.
"Unfortunately, despite these agreements, which were reported to the Americans, President Obama decided not to visit the Knesset, a decision which is in bad taste," he said.
The former Knesset speaker also protested the reasoning for Obama not visiting the Knesset, which is that in his last visit to Cairo, he did not address the Egyptian Parliament.Egypt was a dictatorship then and is a dictatorship now. We're a democracy and that's supposed to be different. I'm sure that in every other democracy he visited, Obama visited the legislature. But I leave it to you readers to check that.
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Israeli Knesset, Ruby Rivlin
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 5:57 PM
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The two-state solution has failed, Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin said Sunday at the official Knesset memorial marking 17 years since the assassination of prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, best remembered for his tenacious efforts to make peace with the Palestinians through the Oslo Accords in the 1990s.
"In so small a space between the Jordan [River] and the [Mediterranean] Sea there cannot be more than one country," Rivlin said. The two-state solution, he continued, is based on the assumption that Jews and Arabs cannot live together and therefore must separate.
"But even today cities and towns across the country refute this claim," he added. "On both sides of the Green Line, Jews and Arabs live with one another," noting how the two peoples study in universities together.
The idea of separation failed at every step along Israel's short history, he continued, not in the 1947 UN Partition Plan, not in cease-fire agreements, not in UN declarations and resolutions, not in Oslo I or II, or any of the subsequent agreements penned by Israelis and Palestinians.Of course, the 'Palestinians' will not agree to live with us in one state either. But it's nice to see that someone who is considered a 'moderate' in the Knesset understands that the 'two-state solution' is a failure. Too bad his party leader doesn't seem to get it.
Labels: Ruby Rivlin, two-state solution, Yitzchak Rabin
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:35 PM
2 comments
I've met him in person (in the speaker's office) - he's really not a hothead. But President Obama's platform shenanigans have struck a raw chord with Rivlin, and he wasn't satisfied with Wednesday night's 'vote' putting Jerusalem and God back in the platform. "I have no doubt that [US President Barack] Obama put Jerusalem back in his party's platform out of political and electoral considerations and because of the sharp criticism from Israel and the US," Rivlin stated.Well, yes. But perhaps on January 20 'American government' and 'Obama administration' will no longer be synonymous.
...
The Knesset Speaker said that the DNC did not remove Jerusalem from the platform "by mistake or because of forgetfulness," and the change was not a coincidence that can be explained away by not paying attention.
"This is a problematic sign, indicating the gradual reduction of the American government's strategic commitment to Israel," he explained.
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Campaign 2012, National Democratic Party, Ruby Rivlin, US-Israel relationship
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:30 PM
1 comments
No, not every Israeli politician is willing to praise President Obama's 'closest cooperation ever' with Israel. In fact, Knesset Speaker Ruby Rivlin blasted Obama and the Democrats on Wednesday in unusually harsh terms due to the changes in the Democratic party platform. US President Barack Obama's administration does not understand the realities of the Middle East, Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin said Wednesday, amid ongoing speculation of a rift in US-Israel relations.National Union party leader Uri Ariel, who is in opposition, was even harsher.
"The fact that the Democrats removed a united Jerusalem as Israel's capital from their platform is more worrying than the argument over Iran," Rivlin told The Jerusalem Post. "The change may have far-reaching consequences."
...
According to Rivlin, anyone who thinks that dividing Jerusalem will bring peace is mistaken, and does not understand the Middle East. "A united Jerusalem will help bring peace and stability," he stated.
MK Uri Ariel (National Union), chairman of the Knesset Caucus for Jerusalem, said Wednesday that "finally, Obama's true face is revealed."Someone had better call Dumb Dumb Debbie to do damage control immediately. Otherwise some of those Jooz might decide it's more important to vote for Israel than for unrestricted abortions.
According to Ariel, Obama previously acted against Jerusalem via surrogates and messengers, but now his actions show his intentions. "We must not worry. With or without Obama, Jerusalem will stay united under Israeli sovereignty forever," the National Union MK added.
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Campaign 2012, Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, National Democratic Party, Ruby Rivlin, Uri Ariel
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 5:19 PM
3 comments
Turkey's Daily Hurriyet reports that Cemil Çiçek, the speaker of the Turkish parliament, has declined an invitation to visit Israel from his Israeli counterpart, Ruby Rivlin (pictured) (Hat Tip: Joshua I).Çiçek thanked the Israeli parliamentary speaker for his "kind" invitation, but said such a visit could only occur after relations between the two countries have improved.Why does Israel's political echelon continue to insist on prostrating itself before the evil Turkish government? Why are our 'leaders' such masochists?
"I am not accepting the invitation for the time being," Çiçek said. "I am sure you know the conditions set by Turkey for the normalization of relations between the two countries."
Labels: Ruby Rivlin, Turkish-Israeli relations
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:58 AM
2 comments
Knesset speaker Ruby Rivlin was being nice and diplomatic when he sent New Year's greetings to governments around the World. But they weren't very happy about it in Jordan. They've sent the card back.Channel 10 News reported on Sunday that the greeting, which Rivlin had sent to heads of parliaments around the world, began with the words “Greetings from Jerusalem the capital of Israel.” Rivlin then went on to describe the Jewish people’s yearning for peace, the challenges facing Israel and the fundamental importance of a democratic and Jewish Israel.The Jordanians are fools. There could be nothing more destabilizing for their country than a 'Palestinian state' to their west with its capital in Jerusalem (God forbid). But as between self-preservation and Jew hatred, Jew hatred will always win out for these people.
“From Jerusalem, the capital of Israel, I send you, all the members of Parliament and the people of your country, best wishes on the occasion of the New Year,” the greeting read. “We know that dreams alone will not bring peace. The challenges facing Israel in recent years are numerous and dangerous: From anti-Semitism to attempts to de-legitimize Israel, from terrorist attacks to the Iranian nuclear project...If we want to live, we must work together in cooperation, against those seeking our destruction. Israel is the state of the Jewish people...We will not compromise, not on the state’s democratic character and not on its Jewish character.”
Channel 10 reported that Taher al-Masri, the Jordanian Speaker, was not pleased with the greeting and after he received it, strongly criticized its contents and especially the assertion that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.
According to the report, al-Masri claimed that Rivlin’s words were racist, misleading and have a political nature. He also he returned the greeting to Israel’s Ambassador to Jordan, Daniel Nevo.
Rivlin addressed the issue during his visit to London and said, according to the report, “The Zionist idea is not against Islam or the Arab countries. We live side by side, the relations with Jordan are important to Israel and through them we also sometimes agree to disagree. I’d be happy to straighten things out in an unmediated manner with the Speaker of the Jordanian parliament.”
Rivlin’s associates told Channel 10 that Rivlin had felt it was important to clarify to all the heads of the world’s parliaments that the political dispute with the Palestinian Authority also revolves around Jerusalem and not just about the ‘settlement blocs.’ They confirmed that the Israeli ambassador had been summoned to a meeting in the Jordanian Parliament during which the greeting was returned to him, but added that he was not reprimanded.
Labels: Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, Jordan is Palestine, Ruby Rivlin
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:42 PM
3 comments
Knesset speaker Ruby Rivlin was in Itamar on Wednesday to open the school year. I received this press release by email from David HaIvri of the Shomron Liaison office. Rivlin opens the school year 5772 in Itamar: "All of Israel is ours."So why did Rivlin come alone? I'd bet there were a lot of MK's who would have loved to accompany him.
Council head Gershon Mesika, who hosted his visit, expressed hope that the government would make it possible to build for children of the town and Samaria, proper structures such as those that exist for every child in Israel.
The Knesset Chairman revealed during his visit that Arik Sharon had considered linking he mountain settlements with the Jordan Valley, "with a view towards strategic depth." The Chairman, Reuven (Ruby) Rivlin, this morning (Wednesday) opened the new school year at the Samaria Regional Council, which got underway in the schools of Itamar in Samaria, on Rosh Chodesh Elul, a day before September 1.
Rivlin, accompanied by Mesika, met with students in Grade 1 and visited the home of the Fogel family and the location of the Hesder Yeshiva study hall, headed by Brig. Gen. (res.) Rabbi Avichai Ronsky, where Rabbi Udi Fogel z"l had taught. The study hall is currently being built in their memory. [Rabbi Ronsky is a former chief rabbi of the IDF. CiJ]
"I chose to open the school year here, out of my identification with and salutation of the people here, who, after suffering such a terrible blow, proved with their courage that no one will beat them and will never withstand the test these people were put to", said Rivlin. "One cannot help but marvel at the resilience of the settlers here. They represent a paragon of strength of Jews returning to their land. Settlement in Israel, Zionism, is settlement policy. Everywhere there are Jews living, there will be studies. I came here to express my hope that as the old year and its curses passes, the new year and its blessings will begin."
From a political perspective, Rivlin noted: "I arrived from Jerusalem, on a road on which both Israelis and Palestinians travel. Peace will be achieved here only when everyone will really want to live together; Itamar is not an obstacle to peace, and it will be achieved if the Palestinians truly desire peace. I visited with Ariel Sharon here at one time, and he brought up the idea to link Itamar and the other settlements in the area with the Jordan Valley settlements, with a view towards strategic depth and territorial continuity. I believe with perfect faith - and I have never changed my views - that all the Land of Israel is ours."
During his visit to the Talmud Torah elementary school in the settlement, he told students in Grade 1: "You are quick to build up the land of our forefathers who built Jerusalem. There is nothing standing in the way of whoever wants to build up the land. The way you sound, it seems like you are already able to enter Grade 2", he complimented the children, and blessed them by saying: "May you be people who can stand their ground and explain their views", and he wished them complete success during the school year.
Council head Gershon Mesika, who hosted the visit, thanked the Knesset chairman for coming to identify with Itamar, and expressed his hope "that the government will manage to give these wonderful children classrooms fit to study in, just like any children anywhere in Israel have. We expect the Israeli government to cease preventing construction of classrooms and schools in Judea and Samaria and to enable each boy and girl to study under the same conditions as any other child in the country."
Mesika, who introduced the Knesset chairman to the Grade 1 students as "the chairman of the Knesset - Uncle Ruby", thanked Rivlin for being a "true friend of the settlement enterprise", and said that "he has many merits in the settlement movement."
Rivlin also visited the Fogel family home, where the attack took place, and received explanations of what happened there. "This is one of the worst criminal acts in the history of the dispute between peoples, the heinous murder of an infant is an atrocity that cannot be grasped by any human being", he said.
The Knesset chairman and the Council chairman crowned their festive visit with a tour and cheese, olive and organic yoghurt tasting at the Giva'ot Olam farm in Itamar.
Labels: Fogel family massacre, Itamar, Ruby Rivlin, school opening
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:50 PM
0 comments
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
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