The “Jenin Massacre” proved that the Durban Strategy could be used successfully to wage political war. The Israeli government and military were unprepared to defeat this attack. Eventually, the facts began to replace the myths, but by then, the demonization campaign had already achieved its goals. On the basis of the Jenin fabrications, the first round of BDS (boycotts, divestment and sanctions) efforts began. This template was repeated many times afterwards, and perfected in the selection of Judge Richard Goldstone (a confidant of HRW’s Kenneth Roth) to head another pseudo-investigation based again on NGO allegations and inventions. ... Belatedly, Goldstone had the courage to acknowledge that the framework was biased against Israel, and the NGO “evidence” did not support the allegations. The campaign against Israel did not operate in a vacuum. Tracing the accounts of the battle of Jenin through selected articles in the New York Times is instructive.
Late tonight, an Israeli official said as many as 200 Palestinians had been killed in Jenin. Most, he said, were armed men. Palestinian resistance in Jenin, the fiercest that Israeli forces have encountered, appeared to be ebbing. ... The Israeli Army continued to block journalists from entering Jenin, saying it feared for their safety. But Israeli officials were also nervously looking ahead to the eventual withdrawal, fearful that Palestinians would try to present the many corpses as evidence of an Israeli massacre. Palestinians accuse Israeli ground forces of firing randomly into their neighborhoods. But many soldiers and Israeli officials said the Israeli Army was acting morally, and was even endangering its own men by applying force cautiously in an effort not to harm civilians.
In the middle of the article, Bennet quoted a young man who claimed that his mother and brother were killed by "...bullets from an Israeli helicopter...," but he makes no judgment about the credibility of his witness or whether he attempted to verify the story.
On April 14, 2002, Bennet followed up with Refugee Camp Is a Scene of Vast Devastation. Bennet described two bodies he had seen in a tour of Jenin given by "local guides." Both bodies are apparently those of children; no others are described.
While he mentions that the number of dead could have been one and two hundred according to Israel or much higher according to the Palestinians, these examples went to show that non-combatants were killed. No doubt his guide realized this. Bennet should have emphasized what role his guide had in determining what he reported.
In general these reports discuss how both Israel and the Palestinians were attempting to frame the events in Jenin, but the specific, personal accounts come mostly from the Palestinians and the general arguments come from Israeli officials. Bennet, then, was consciously or not, helping frame the debate in a way that gave greater weight to the Palestinian narrative.
Since he visited the Jenin refugee camp last week and expressed his horror at what he saw, Terje Roed-Larsen, the chief United Nations representative here and the man who began the secret contacts that led to the Oslo agreements, has come under an unusually harsh personal attack by the Israeli government. He has been accused of ''record-high audacity'' and ''anti-Semitic ideas,'' and officials in the prime minister's office have talked of having him expelled. The attacks may be the most furious the 54-year-old Norwegian has faced, but they are hardly the first. As an active supporter of the land-for-peace process that he helped begin in Oslo a decade ago, he has been assailed by both Israeli and Arab foes of the agreements. His denunciations of suicide bombings have also prompted some accusations of bias from the Palestinians. ''I feel supremely confident because I know I did the right thing and I know I'm doing the right thing,'' Mr. Roed-Larsen said in a telephone interview. ''Any decent human being in that place on that day, seeing corpses dug out just below the surface, smelling the stench of decay, would have been shocked and horrified. That is not an accusation. That is a reaction to human tragedy.''
As an aside it's quite remarkable that Schmemann could write (without irony) that Palestinians considered Larsen's condemnations of suicide bombings as a sign of bias. If they really believed that (and if he does too) it's an indictment of their society (and of his own moral compass.) Moreover, Schmemann also ignored the role Larsen played in covering up the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers a year and a half earlier.
Schmemann also quoted then-UN Secretary General Kofi Annan defending Roed-Larsen, on account that the Norwegian never used the term massacre. Still as the BBC reported, Roed-Larsen's language about Israel was quite harsh:
A United Nations envoy has said that the devastation left by Israeli forces in a Palestinian refugee camp in the West Bank is "horrific beyond belief". Terje Roed-Larsen, who toured the Jenin refugee camp on Thursday, said it was "morally repugnant" that Israel had not allowed emergency workers in for 11 days to provide humanitarian relief.
Did Roed-Larsen need to say "massacre" to have been slandering Israel? And why didn't Schmemann quote from Dr. David Zangen who had been in Jenin?
"I was incensed by Larsen's remarks. He must not be allowed to continue with these lies", stated Dr. Zangen to Maariv. "I was there during the fighting, and I saw close up what was happening. I know that the IDF did everything it could to prevent civilian casualties. It is clear to everyone that if the IDF had resorted to aerial bombardment or heavy artillery, we would have completed [our mission] in the refugee camp within half a day, without suffering any casualties on our side. We did not adopt that policy, and we took risks in the fighting, in an attempt to rescue those innocent civilians that were caught up in the battles. Anyone who says that Israel carried out a massacre is lying and inciting the Arabs. Instead of acting to bring about reconciliation and peace, Larsen is creating hatred."
This article was more like a press release defending Larsen than a news story.
The United Nations study supported previously published accounts that said 52 Palestinians were killed in the Jenin refugee camp, along with 23 Israeli soldiers. In one of the study's equivocal judgments, it reported that "up to half" of the Palestinian dead "may have been civilians." The United Nations report, attributed to Secretary General Kofi Annan, was largely based on published accounts and descriptions by humanitarian groups and other organizations, because Israel blocked the United Nations from conducting a first-hand inquiry unanimously sought by the Security Council. Israeli officials said they had feared an investigation by the United Nations would be biased.
And how did everyone react?
Today, Israeli officials seized on the conclusions as validating their version of the fighting in Jenin, a battleground of the 22-month conflict now accorded nearly mythic status by both sides. The Israeli Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying that the report "overwhelmingly negates this Palestinian fabrication" of a massacre. Palestinian officials called the report an important step but expressed frustration that the United Nations conducted a limited inquiry.
Bennet opened his report describing the UN's findings as "...dismissing as unsubstantiated Palestinian claims that 500 people were killed." Of course it would have been more appropriate to write that the report refuted exaggerated Palestinian claims. Israel needed to seize nothing.
Nor did this report inspire a follow up editorial to "Inching Forward in the Mideast" from April 30, that called for a fact finding mission acknowledging that Israel had been vindicated.
A year later reporter Greg Myre reported, New Battle Over Jenin, on Television. The article was about Pierre Rehov's "The Road to Jenin," "Jenin Diary -- The Inside Story," by Sgt. Gil Mezuman, and "Jenin, Jenin," by Mohammed Bakri. Even after acknowledging the results of the U.N. investigation, Myre added:
But many Palestinians still argue that Jenin was a massacre, and point to the Israeli Army bulldozers that crumpled apartment buildings in the center of the camp as an example of excessive Israeli force they say has been commonplace during 30 months of fighting. ''This is a film that saw things from an Israeli point of view, and I do not think it reflects reality inside the Jenin refugee camp,'' Fares Qadura, a Palestinian legislator, told Israeli television during a discussion after the program.
By doing this Myre gave credence to a demonstrably false story.
Though she didn't work for the New York Times, in July 2002 the Philadelphia Inquirer's ombudsman, Lillian Swanson made a very telling observation that applies to much of the American media:
So it goes in the media war, where American newspapers - by most accounts, far more pro-Israeli than their western European counterparts - take it on the chin from both sides. And keep on reporting.
It would be more correct to say that American newspapers are less anti-Israel and therefore more accurate than European newspapers. But Swanson (now the managing editor of the Forward) couldn't bring herself to acknowledge that Israel was in the right, even implicitly.
The NGO's cited by Prof Steinberg had accomplices in their goal of undermining Israel - the media.
2) Pesach 5762
Of course the Israeli attack on Jenin and the wider Operation Defensive Shield did not occur in a vacuum. Israel had been suffering from organized terror originating in territories controlled by the PA for 18 months when Defensive Shield was launched. Pesach of 2002 (5762 in the Jewish calendar) though, with the terror attack on a Passover Seder in Netanya was especially horrific.
The NGO and media assaults on Israel were especially noxious. The peace process and the legitimization of the PLO were premised on a commitment of Yasser Arafat to renounce terror and to fight future terror against Israel. The so-called Aqsa intifada demonstrated Arafat's insincerity and perfidy. Israel paid a terrible price for trusting its security to the nascent Palestinian Authority.
Yet every step Israel took to defend itself was criticized by these advocates of peace, whose premise had been shown to be false. Targeted killings of terrorists became "extrajudicial killings," checkpoints "humiliated" the Palestinians, military actions were "excessive force" and land used for building the security fence to hinder terrorists' access to Israel were "illegal expropriations." Instead of condemning Arafat's betrayal of the peace they promoted, the NGO's and media sought to prevent Israel from defending itself. There were few Palestinian violations of Oslo that evoked sustained outrage from these hypocrites; that was reserved for Israeli self-defense.
During Pesach ten years ago, there was too much tragedy and loss in Israel. But there was also some remarkable heroism. Haim Smadar was killed, but his sacrifice probably saved more than twenty lives.
Haim Smadar, who worked as a guard at a school, was only working as a security at the supermarket in Jerusalem's Kiryat Hayovel neighborhood during the Passover holidays. He usually guarded in a school, but it was closed for the holiday. On Friday afternoon, a 16-year-old female Palestinian suicide bomber, wearing a belt of explosives around her waist, walked into the supermarket on Friday afternoon and blew herself up. Haim Smadar, the security guard, who prevented the bomber from going deep inside the store, was killed in the blast along with Rachel Levy, a shopper; 28 people were injured.
Smadar, who was born in Tunisia, reportedly overheard the young terrorist warning Arab women near the store to move away. He didn't worry about his own safety; according to witnesses his last words were "You are not coming in here. You and I will blow up here."
In his final act, Haim Smadar demonstrated true courage.
Video: Seder night massacre first responder gives a tour of the Park Hotel
Marc Kahlberg is a retired Israeli Police Detective and counter terrorism expert. He analyzes the Park Hotel 2002 Suicide bombing from the perspective of a first responder.
Video: 10 years since the Park Hotel Seder Night massacre
Last week was the 10th anniversary on the Gregorian calendar of the Seder night massacre at the Park Hotel in Netanya. One Family brought together the massacre survivors last week for a reunion. It was very moving, as you will see in the video below.
Falistian was with her boyfriend that night, she recounted Tuesday. Her parents, both of them in their seventies, would be celebrating the holiday at the Park Hotel. At midnight, her boyfriend turned on the television and heard the news. She rushed to local hospitals but did not find her parents. At 5a.m. she was called to identify them at the Tel Aviv morgue. Falistian spoke of her struggles in the years since. She credited an Israeli organization, One Family, which assists terror victims and organized the hotel memorial, with helping her regain her bearings.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon made four critical decisions during the second intifada. In three cases, he set his ideology aside and ignored his basic instincts. He decided to build a separation fence, which significantly reduced suicide bombings in Israel; he did not assassinate Yasser Arafat (it will be a surprise if this is ever proved otherwise; Sharon’s uncharacteristic restraint in this matter averted a rift with the Bush administration); and he led the withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, which drew broad international backing for Israel. And then there was Sharon’s most important decision: Exactly 10 years ago, at the end of March 2002 and following months of hesitation, he sent Israeli troops into the dense casbahs of the West Bank cities and the narrow alleys of the refugee camps. Some of the methods were brutal, but Operation Defensive Shield suppressed Palestinian terrorism, including Hamas and Fatah’s deadly suicide bombings. Though its impact was not fully apparent until three years later, the operation restored normalcy on both sides of the Green Line. Even though the second intifada claimed seven times as many Israeli lives as the Second Lebanon War, most Israelis seem to have erased it from their memory.
Toward the end of the article, the reporters make a very important point:
West Bank Palestinians are indeed better off now than they were at the height of the intifada and compared with their counterparts in the Gaza Strip. But the relative economic stability is no guarantee against a new flare-up. There is growing frustration in the West Bank, in part due to Israeli indifference.
Any progress reported about the Palestinian usually fails to acknowledge this. During the early years of the Oslo Accords, Arafat built a "suicide factory" in the areas under his control. It took Defensive Shield to destroy that infrastructure. Israel was condemned for a phony massacre in Jenin and "disproportionate force" generally, and for building a security barrier. Ignored in all the condemnations is why Israel had to do all that to restore normalcy to its citizens. But as Harel and Issacheroff note, Defensive Shield benefited the Palestinians too. The pessimistic note the reporters strike is unfortunate. It is probably due more to the feckless leadership of the Palestinians than anything Israel has done or could do.
His greatest passions were Torah and Israel, and he combined the two by studying for the rabbinate in the Merkaz Harav Kook yeshiva. He came to Israel after high school graduation, and never returned to America. He married a girl from kibbutz - a second-generation survivor who wanted to help repopulate a Jewish people decimated by the Holocaust - and they had nine children. Shmuel was their third. ... At the shiva last week, Iky told of a coincidence, or unis as we all call it, that so often occurs in our small world. Iky was a counselor at Bnei Akiva's summer seminar program for 12th graders in Pennsylvania, where one of the participants was Rina Tolchinsky. Iky had a major influence on Rina, and would later help her to make aliya. Her son, Matanya Robinson, served in the same unit as Shmuel. On Monday, Matanya was mortally wounded in Jenin. Shmuel, a medic, rushed to his side to try to save him, and it was there that the two of them were killed in a spray of bullets.
2) The international IDF
Back in 2003, Israel inducted its first Eskimo into the IDF:
Tomorrow morning, Meir and Dafna Ben Sira, residents of the village of Nir Etzion south of Haifa, will take their oldest daughter Eva to an induction center and, like all the other proud parents, will watch her get on the bus to commence two years of army service. Eva is headed for a squad commanders' course, somewhere in the south. The Ben Siras realize that, during her service, Eva is in for some astonished questioning; after all, the smiling, quiet young woman with the long black hair and dark, almond-shaped eyes looks a little different from the average Israeli female conscript. Eva was born in Alaska to a Yupik Eskimo mother and a Cherokee Native American father. A check of the archives of the army's Bamahane magazine, which for years has tried to track soldiers who come to Israel from remote places, indicates that she is evidently the Israel Defense Forces' first Eskimo soldier.
One of these soldiers is Vun Zon, a new recruit who came to Israel all the way from China. Zon arrived to Israel in 2007, after finding out his grandfather was half-Jewish. When asked about Zon, his commanders spoke with great admiration. “To tell you the truth, it’s the first time we ever commanded a Chinese soldier, and it was definitely a great experience,” said one commander. “His joy of life and sheer happiness is unlike anything we had ever seen in a soldier. He understands Hebrew perfectly now, and has really made big progress integrating into Israeli society.”
3) Maikel Nabil Sanad Maikel Nabil Sanad is among the "Facebook" revolutionaries in Egypt. Though he's been jailed for his activities, he gets less attention that others - I suspect because he's unapologetically pro-Israel. Jackson Diehl had a great profile of Sanad yesterday:
For writing this, Nabil was arrested, hauled before a special military court and summarily sentenced to three years in prison, for “insulting the armed forces.” At first, few Egyptians supported him: Like the Obama administration, they believed that the Supreme Military Council that replaced Mubarak was committed to establishing a democracy and yielding to civilians. Moreover, Nabil was an outlier, even among Egypt’s secular democrats. He is not just of Coptic Christian origin but an avowed atheist; not just anti-military, but a conscientious objector who refused to serve; not just pro-Western, but pro-Israel — a stance than almost no one in Egypt dares to espouse. “There are still 20 beliefs in Egypt that are considered crimes,” Nabil told me. When I asked how many of them he held, he grinned: “Probably the majority of them.”
Politically, you and I have much in common, as we both lie firmly on Israel's left. (In the religious-Zionist circles in which I run, that makes me a bit of an oddball.) I, like you, have significant moral and political misgivings about the occupation, which we both understand to be an existential threat to Israel's status as a Jewish and democratic state. I agree that American and Israeli Zionism require some important new conversations that will expand the range of what is currently being said. More, I thought it important for Zionists to hear directly from Palestinians in more robust ways than television sound bites allow. But Open Zion quickly staked out its territory in the troubling location where left-wing Zionism drifts into post-Zionism which drifts into anti-Zionism. Perhaps that is the wave of the future—the result, as you suggest, of young American Jews' discovering real or imagined contradictions between liberalism and Zionism. You offered that generation an opportunity to debate the questions concerning them: Must we leave Zionism completely, or can we remain ambivalent Zionists even today? Should we boycott some, all, or none of Israel? But if those are the questions of central concern to tomorrow's leadership, the Jewish people is in significant self-induced trouble. If those are the questions of great concern to today's young Jews, I can only stake my own territory elsewhere.
In related news, despite the media blitz Beinart's "The Crisis of Zionism" still has not achieved the status Beinart likely hoped for.
There is one and only one effective answer to terror
Ten years ago on Thursday (on the Gregorian calendar, after more than 100 Israelis had been murdered by 'Palestinian' terrorists in the space of a month, the IDF gave the only effective response to 'Palestinian' terror: It used force against the terrorists in Operation Defensive Shield.
Ten years ago on Thursday, after terrorists killed more than 100 civilians in one month, the IDF launched Operation Defensive Shield, and sent its soldiers deep into West Bank cities and towns.
Palestinian gunmen set up ambushes in residential areas.
They killed 30 IDF soldiers, and wounded 127.
But Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other terrorist organizations suffered greater casualties in Jenin, Nablus, Ramallah, Kalkilya, Hebron and Tulkarm. The offensive began a turn-around that eventually succeeded in ending the second intifada’s deadliest wave of suicide terrorism.
“Unfortunately, this operation proved that the only way to stop terrorism is with force,” Rami Igra, a former senior Mossad official, told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday.
“Before the operation, there was an explosion in Israel often. Afterward, it came to a stop,” he said.
Igra stressed that the construction of the West Bank security barrier, and the intelligence effort that came after the offensive, were as pivotal in ending suicide bomb attacks as Defensive Shield.
Ultimately, he argued, the offensive was a “clear slap to all those on the Israeli Left who believe in diplomatic means. More than anything, this symbolizes the differences in approach between us and the Palestinians.”
The cultural differences with radical Islamist elements are enormous, and the threat can only be dealt with using force, Igra said.
While Israel believes that it is possible to reach compromises, “de facto, this isn’t true from a Palestinian perspective,” he added.
Israel is forced to maneuver in a “game of violence, though this is not our wish,” he continued.
Operation Defense Shield succeeded in stemming terrorism from the West Bank, but it did not convince Palestinians to abandon the path of war and the notion that they can one day destroy Israel, Igra said, adding, “This has been a 100-year-old struggle.”
There's a lesson there not only for Israel's Left, buy also for the Left generally. The only effective answer to terrorism is force. It may be force in combination with other tactics, but without force, one cannot fight terror and without the deterrent threat of force once cannot control it once it is defeated.
'Palestinian Authority' Television interviews released terrorists praising Seder Night Massacre planner
Oh yea, they want peace.
'Palestinian Authority' television, which is controlled by the 'Palestinian Authority,' interviews released terrorists who heap praise on Abbas al-Sayid, the planner of the Seder night massacre, who remains imprisoned - at least for now. Abbas Al-Sayid is serving 35 life sentences and 150 years for planning a suicide bombing in Netanya in 2002 at a Passover Seder in which 30 Israelis were killed, and another bombing in 2001 in which 5 were killed and 100 wounded.
Let's go to the videotape.
If they keep lionizing terrorist murderers, I'm sure it will lead to 'peace.'
Here's a video about some of the 'Palestinian heroes' who were released as part of the terrorists for Gilad trade on Tuesday.
Let's go to the videotape (Hat Tip: The Beguiling Avigayil - daughter #1, child #1). A transcript follows and I will have a comment after that.
The Palestinians are celebrating! They are getting 1027 of their heroes in a prisoners swap. Who are these heroes? Who are these brave "freedom fighters" and why where they in prison for the first place?
Walid Anjas, was sentenced to 36 life imprisonments for taking the lives of 36 people in 2002 in three separate terrorist attacks at the "Moment" bar in Jerusalem, at a students' restaurant in the Hebrew University and a night club in Rishon Le-Tzion city. All of his victims were innocent civilians, many of them teenagers. Anjas spent 8 years in jail before being released. The Judge wrote in his verdict that "whoever puts all of his efforts in taking the lives of women, men and children with no compassion, does not deserve to be among human beings".
Abdel-hadi Ganaim was sentenced to 16 life imprisonments, after killing 16 bus passengers by high jacking the bus and driving it off a cliff on July 1989.
Hossam Badran was sentenced to17 years in prison for his responsibility for the massacres that took place between 2001 and 2002 at the Tel Aviv Dolphinarium night club, at the Sbarro pizzeria in Jerusalem, at the Matza Restaurant in Haifa and at the Park Hotel in Netanya (during the Passover celebration), killing entire families.
Ahlam Tamimi was sentenced for 16 life imprisonments for her responsibility to the murder of 16 people, among them children and babies at the Sbarro pizzeria in Jerusalem in August 2001. In 2006 she claimed she would have murdered again if had the chance.
Amana Muna was sentenced for life imprisonment after using an Internet chat to tempt 16-year-old Ofir Rahum to come from Ashkelon to Ramallah, where he was ambushed and shot to death (January 2001).
Aziz Zalha was sentenced to 40 years in prison for brutally murdering two Israeli reserve soldiers who on 2000 got lost on their way and accidently arrived in Ramallah. Zalha became famous worldwide when he waved his bloody hands through the window of the building where the murder took place. In his verdict the Judges stated, that this incident revealed human nature in its lowest form. Neither a glimpse of compassion, a bit of humaneness, nor a trace of mercy could be found that day in Ramallah.
Each one of them will be welcomed with ceremonies, flowers, celebrations... Streets will be named after them... These are the Palestinian heroes...
Note that it's not just Ismail Haniyeh and Hamas who are celebrating the terrorists' release. The first celebration was being run by 'moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud AbbasAbu Mazen.
Planner of Seder Night massacre among those to be released (including the entire list)
Somebody find Naomi Ragen (she was at the Park Hotel that night) quickly and tell her about this.
The list contains includes Walid Anajas, who was convicted for his involvement in the bombing of the Moment Cafe in Jerusalem in 2002. Twelve civilians were murdered and 54 injured in the attack.
Also on the list is Nasser Yataima, convicted of planning the 2002 Passover Seder suicide-bomb attack on the Park Hotel in Netanya, in which 30 civilians were killed and 140 were wounded.
Also included is Chris al-Bandak, the only known Christian member of the Fatah Tanzim terror group, convicted of several shooting attacks which claimed the lives of two Israelis and seriously injured a third in 2002.
Musab Hashlemon, of Hebron, sentenced to 17 life sentences for dispatching two suicide bombers to Beersheba, will be released. Sixteen civilians were murdered when the bombers detonated themselves on two buses in central Beersheba in 2004.
Hashlemon was released in the previous prisoner exchange deal for Elhanan Tenenbaum, when Hashlemon was a minor Hamas operative, according to Maariv. He will be deported to Gaza.
Ibrahim Jundiya, sentenced to 12 life sentences for dispatching a suicide bomber to a Jerusalem bus in 2002, will also be deported to Gaza. Eleven bus passengers were murdered in the bombing which occurred in Jerusalem's Kiryat Menahem neighborhood.
I'm posting an Excel sheet with the full list of those to be released below. Concentrate on the ones marked LS (for Life Sentence). The numbers in front of LS are the numbers of 'life sentences' to which they were originally sentenced.
Video: 'Palestinian Authority' honors Seder night massacre mastermind
Earlier this week, I posted about 'Palestinian Minister of Prisoner Affairs' Issa Qaraqi accusing Israel of harvesting 'Palestinians' organs. I mentioned some of Qaraqi's past misdeeds, including his honoring Abbas al-Sayid, the planner of the Seder Night massacre in which 30 Israelis were murdered and 140 wounded on the Seder night in 2002.
Now, I have video of Qaraqi's visit to al-Sayid's family. Machsom Watch has nothing on him, except that they're Jewish.
Let's go to the videotape.
Just to emphasize, in case you missed it: Qaraqi is Fatah, not Hamas. He is a member of our 'moderate' 'peace partner's organization. He's Abu Mazen's man.
Passover is coming up in a few weeks, and the 'Palestinians' are trying in their own unique way to get into the Holiday spirit: They are honoring the family of the imprisoned terrorist who planned the Seder night massacre nine years ago.
The photo in the PA daily shows the PA minister handing the family an honorary plaque from the PA. Terrorist Al-Sayid's name and the PA logo are visible on the plaque. (In the photo the rest of the print is too small to read.)
"Minister of Prisoners' Affairs, Issa Karake, and a delegation from the Ministry of Prisoners' Affairs visited the home of [the family of] prisoner Abbas Al-Sayid in Tulkarem. Al-Sayid has maintained an unlimited hunger strike for the past 21 days, and has been transferred from solitary confinement at the Ramon prison to solitary confinement at the Israeli hospital in Ramle. Karake warned of the severity of prisoner Al-Sayid's condition, following a deterioration of his health in the wake of the strike. He placed the responsibility for [Sayid's] life and health upon the Israeli government and the prison administration, and called for a response to the demands for an end to his solitary confinement, which has continued for over six months, in difficult conditions." [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, March 29, 2011]
Thirty Israelis were murdered in the Seder night massacre. You can read Naomi Regan's chilling account of it (she was there) starting here.
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
Shavua tov v'Shanna tova, a good week and a good year to everyone.
