It's Nakba Day.Terrible:,900,000 lost their homes, land, wealth & citizenship....https://t.co/hvKqs3weZr #Nakba #NakbaDay https://t.co/9DvwdC2JrV— Neville Chamberlain (@nevillechmbrln) May 18, 2016
Labels: Jewish refugees, Naqba day, War of Independence
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:50 AM
3 comments
Labels: Israeli Arab, Jaffa, Norway, War of Independence
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:01 PM
0 comments
Look at Haaretz map of Israel land "grab" Fits 1969 US Rogers Plan - armistice borders w "insubstantial alterations" pic.twitter.com/l0sWxfzR3U
— Lenny Ben-David (@lennybendavid) September 1, 2014
The Gush Etzion bloc's core communities were founded before Israel's establishment in 1948 on land purchased by Jews in the 1920s and 1930s. Arab soldiers destroyed the communities when they fought against Israel's founding during the 1948 war.If the entire pretext for forcing Israel to give up all the land that was liberated in 1967 is what the UN calls 'the inadmissibility of conquest by force' then why was it okay when the Arabs forced the Jews out of Gush Etzion in 1948? Why is the UN not advocating undoing that conquest by force?
Labels: anti-Israel obsession, Barack Hussein Obama, Gush Etzion, John Kerry, Obama's obsession with Israel, Obama's obsession with Palestinians, State Department obsession with Israel, War of Independence
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:19 PM
1 comments
Various shots of the large crowd gathered at Jerusalem's Haifa Road - location of the bomb explosion. Damaged buildings, rubble, glass etc. Children posing, looking at camera. Many orthodox Jews in traditional black suits, white shirts and hats seen. Several shots of the people clearing rubble.And of course, that should be Jaffa Road, not Haifa. I actually think the date on this is wrong. There's a list of Irgun attacks during the pre-Independence period here. I think it's this one:
Labels: Irgun, Jerusalem, War of Independence
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:13 PM
0 comments
Labels: Hadassah Hospital, Palestinian terrorism, War of Independence
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:44 AM
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Labels: Jewish refugees, War of Independence
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:19 PM
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Israel’s rights and justness are grounded in truth. But today truth isn’t worth as much as it used to be. Those who fight for it find themselves routinely maligned as close-minded extremists. Those who trounce it are congratulated for being open-minded and fair.If you live in the Washington DC area, your Federation donations are funding Theater J. Makes you want to send your money elsewhere, doesn't it?
Last month Theater J announced its Spring 2014 schedule.
The schedule includes a play called The Admission.
Authored by an Israeli named Motti Lerner, the play is a dramatization of what is euphemistically known as the “Tantura Affair.”
In 2000, Maariv published an article describing the Master’s thesis of a student at the University of Haifa named Teddy Katz. Teddy Katz’s thesis purported to document a previously unknown massacre during Israel’s War of Independence. He alleged that in May 1948 the IDF murdered 250 Arab civilians after winning a battle in the town of Tantura.
The article caused an uproar. Veterans of the battle sued Katz for libel. They won. Indeed, in testimony before the district court judge Katz admitted his thesis was a fabrication.
Katz later recanted his admission and appealed the decision to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court upheld the ruling that Katz had libeled the soldiers. The university appointed a panel of scholars to review his research materials. They found Katz had fabricated statements he alleged came from interviews with eyewitnesses.
The university cancelled its acceptance of Katz’s thesis.
Had that been the end of that, the “Tantura Affair” – that is, Katz’s blood libel against the IDF – would have been long forgotten. But Katz’s academic supervisor, then-senior lecturer at Haifa and celebrated anti-Israel propagandist Ilan Pappe, refused to let the truth get in his way.
Pappe rewrote the history of the “Tantura Affair.” In Pappe’s telling, Katz heroically revealed the truth about the evil core of the Jewish state, and was then persecuted for going against Zionist orthodoxy.
...
For his part, Lerner, who has dramatized Katz’s blood libel, was quoted by The Washington Post saying that his purpose wasn’t to tell the truth, either. “The play is trying to suggest that these historical memories [of what happened at Tantura] have to be explored and revised continuously in order to create a solid basis for reconciliation between the two people.”
The “revised” – that is, false – memory Lerner seeks to create serves a clear purpose. By portraying the Jews as murderers and as the aggressors in 1948 and the Arabs as their victims, he wishes to convince everyone that it is okay for the Arabs to continue seeking Israel’s destruction, and for the world to keep pressuring the Jewish state for more unilateral concessions. Only if justice is solely on the side of the Arabs is it possible to promote “compromises” in which the Jewish state makes endless concessions to the Arabs, and in return receives terrorism, war and hatred.
The true history of Israel’s War of Independence in which local Arabs, assisted by invading Arab armies attacked the Jews of Israel with the declared purpose of annihilating them, is inconvenient for the likes of Lerner and Pappe. They have no use for the fact that every area conquered by the Arabs was rendered Jew-free, by massacre or expulsion. They certainly don’t want anyone to know about the heroism of Jews who defended themselves and their nascent state, and prevailed, albeit at great cost.
Labels: American Jews, blood libel, lies, War of Independence
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:18 PM
0 comments
The Post's correspondents then proceed to opine that Hebron is among "Jewish settlements in the West Bank that are considered by Palestinians and much of the world to be illegal under international law." In other worlds, Jews don't belong in Hebron. Out with Jews -- they have no business settling and living in Hebron ("Troops deaths put strain on Mideast peace talks," page A7, Sept. 23).
Unfortunately, this description of the Jewish presence in Hebron leaves much to be desired. There's far more to Hebron's history and religious importance.
So let's fill in the empty blanks left by the Post:
- Hebron is one of Judaism's four holy cities. The other three are Jerusalem, Safed, and Tiberias.
- Hebron is also the oldest Jewish community in the world.
- While the article acknowledges Abraham's purchase of the Cave of Machpelah, it fails to point out that this is the burial site of the Jewish patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the matriarchs Sarah, Rebecca, and Leah. In contrast, Muslims can claim only a single tie to the Tomb: Abraham. After Abraham, the generational family tree divides between the next Jewish patriarch, Isaac, and the separate forbear, Ismael, who is not Jewish and not buried in Hebron. Jews have much greater biblical claims to Hebron than Muslims. By a margin of 6 to 1. Giving them equal status with Jews doesn't tally with the Book of Genesis.
- Hebron's Jewish renown also includes the crowning of King David and his seven-year reign in Hebron before moving to Jerusalem.
- Jews lived in Hebron almost continuously for a thousand years throughout the Byzantine, Arab, Mameluke, and Ottoman periods.
- Only in 1929, when an Arab pogrom murdered 67 Jews, did Hebron become Judenrein, but even then for only a relatively short period.
Labels: 1929 Hebron massacre, anti-Israel media bias, Hebron, mainstream media, War of Independence, Washington Post
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:43 PM
2 comments
He is alluding to how there was such a short time-gap between the days when the "refugees" were invited to move to neighbouring Arab countries and the occasion when the SAME Arab countries started screaming at the UN to force Israel to take them back.So why is the World letting the Arabs, including the 'Palestinians,' to rewrite history?
In short -- He admits (albeit tacitly) that the Arab nations invited the "refugees" to come over to their countries, while the Arab armies would slaughter the Jews, all the while promising the "refugees" that they could return to their homes once the Jews were destroyed.
And the second they lost the war, the Arab nations changed their colours completely on the matter of the "refugees"
Labels: Palestinian refugees, Syria, United Nations, War of Independence
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:21 PM
0 comments
Labels: Palestinian refugees, War of Independence
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:46 PM
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Baka was established in the late 19th century after the completion of the Jerusalem Railway Station. The station created the nucleus of a commercial center that eventually attracted wealthy Arab, Christian and Armenian families from the Old City who built mansions there in the 1920s. [3] The neighborhood had an agricultural character until the 1950s.
During the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, the neighborhood was left on the Israeli (western) side of the dividing line between West Jerusalem and East Jerusalem. Its population changed, as with many neighborhoods on both sides of the dividing line.I'd be curious to hear why Ben Ami thinks it's okay to live in a house that was confiscated from Arabs (who probably fled) after the War of Independence, but not okay to live in a house that was built on empty, ownerless land in Judea and Samaria (or on land in Judea and Samaria that was owned by Jews before 1948 and was ethnically cleansed by the illegal Jordanian occupation from 1948-67).
Labels: J Street, Jeremy Ben Ami, Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, War of Independence
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:11 PM
1 comments
[Tirawi] said that the Palestinians have struggled since the Balfour Declaration and would pursue their struggle "until we achieve our national goals - the establishment of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital and the right of return for Palestinian refugees. We will pass this goal from one generation to another."
Tirawi, in an interview with the Palestinian London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi daily, said: "To those who consider the settlements of Bet El and Ma'aleh Adomin to be Israeli, we say to them and to all that Haifa, Jaffa and Acre are Palestinian and will remain Palestinian."
Tirawi said that Fatah's "political program" has not changed since it was established more than four decades ago.
"Fatah is a movement that was created to liberate Palestine and establish a Palestinian state," he explained. "But the Palestinian, Arab and international objective circumstances have changed, leading to a recession in positive national achievements. Yet in spite of these circumstances, Fatah will surprise everyone by showing that it remains committed to the national project."
Asked about efforts to resume the peace talks between the PA and Israel, Tirawi said that the "liberation of Palestine and the establishment of a Palestinian state have their elements - beginning with the armed and popular struggle led by Fatah for many years and ending with the negotiations [with Israel]."The Balfour declaration was made in 1917. Fatah was established in 1965, two years before there was an 'occupation' in the 'West Bank.' Clearly, Tirawi doesn't mean to endorse the 'two-state solution' except possibly as a temporary measure on the way to destroying the Jewish state.
Labels: 1949 armistice lines, Fatah, Six Day War, Tawfik Tirawi, two-state solution, War of Independence
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:19 AM
0 comments
“As a result of the 1948 Nakba (catastrophe),” the document read, “when two-thirds of the Palestinian population were forcibly exiled from their homes by Zionist militias prior to the creation of the State of Israel, almost half of the valley is now considered No Man’s Land (NML) an integral part of the Occupied State of Palestine.”
The Latrun Valley, the document continued, “is well known for its rich water resources and fertile land.”
According to the paper, Israel occupied the area during the Six Day War and “ethnically cleansed” three villages left standing after 1948, before completely wiping them off the map as well.
The paper said that following the forced displacement of the Palestinian inhabitants, the Jewish National Fund, in cooperation with Canada, built Canada Park “over the site of the villages.”
“Preventing Palestinians from making use of the Latrun area is part of Israel’s systematic attempt to turn the occupation of Palestinian land into annexation,” the document read.
“The Latrun Valley holds enormous potential for Palestinians, including its fertile lands, water resources, archeological sites and religious shrines. It is a vital and integral part of the State of Palestine as defined by the 1967 border.”I actually know someone who is so pro-'Palestinian' that she won't set foot in Judea or Samaria. Even she uses the Jerusalem - Tel Aviv highway. And the Israeli response?
One Israeli official was stunned by the Palestinian campaign over Latrun, saying it was as if the Palestinians were moving the goal line backwards.
Referring to US Secretary of State John Kerry’s push to restart Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, the official said, “It’s almost as if every time we move forward, or every time there is a prospect of moving forward, the Palestinians bring up an issue which they know is a game breaker.”
The Palestinian decision to make this an issue, the official continued, “raises concerns as to their seriousness.”
He characterized as “very troubling” the Palestinian bid to bring this issue “out of deep freeze” now, and said it raised questions about “their attitude to the peace process.”
All peace plans have always put Latrun inside Israel, the official said.
“No Israeli government, no Israeli prime minister, can seriously entertain that this area would be going to the Palestinians.
Instead of dealing with the very issues that Kerry is asking the sides to deal with, it appears the Palestinians are playing games and regressing to hard-line positions that should have been left behind years ago,” he said.But this sort of 'negotiating' needs to be met by officials on the record and not by anonymous officials who cannot be identified. Until Israel's government says loud and clear 'ad kan' (until here), this sort of negotiating through the media is going to continue, and the Arab demands will just increase.
Labels: John Kerry, Latrun, Palestinians, Six Day War, two-state solution, War of Independence
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:36 AM
4 comments
The massacre, by Arab Palestinians, of some 80 passengers and defenders in the Hadassah convoy to Hadassah hospital on Mt. Scopus in Jerusalem, on April 13, 1948. The victims were mostly doctors, nurses and other staff. The massacre had been planned long in advance, but was "spun" as a reprisal for the raid on on Deir Yassin by the Irgun and LEHI. The British authorities deliberately refrained from stopping the massacre, and British soldiers collaborated in it. Unlike the Deir Yassin raid, this massacre was planned in advance, a deliberate crime against medical personnel and civilians.Historian Dr. Alex Grobman provides some background (Hat Tip: Gates of Vienna).
Once the partition of Palestine was approved by the United Nations on November 29, 1947, the violence against the Jews intensified. The equivalent of a Red Cross medical convoy comprised of non-combatants including doctors, nurses and university faculty and students was ambushed by Arabs in the Sheikh Jarrah section of Jerusalem. Although The British High Commissioner and the British Secretary of State personally gave their assurances that these convoys would be protected by British troops and police, seventy-eight Jews were murdered.
The attack, which lasted seven hours, began at 9:30 a.m. and took place less than 600 feet from the British military post. The British watched from the sidelines. Jewish appeals for help were ignored until mid-afternoon. But by then the Jews had either been burned alive in buses or shot. There were 28 survivors, only eight had no injuries.
Among the dead were the founders of the new faculty of medicine, a physicist, a philologist, a cancer researcher, the head of the university’s department of psychology, and an authority on Jewish law. A doctor who waited four years to marry the nurse he loved was killed when he went to say good bye to his patients before leaving on his honeymoon.
One victim, a doctor, treated the Arab peasants in the village of Isawiye on Mount Scopus two weeks prior to the attack. Yet Arabs claimed that the ambush was a heroic act, and the British had no business intervening even at the last-minute: They did not want a single Jewish passenger to remain alive.
Thousands of furious Jews attended the funeral and lined the streets of the procession. British indifference was responsible for this loss of life. The British Army dismissed the ambush as retaliation for an Irgun attack on the Arab village of Deir Yassin. Official Arab response was that they had heard that Jewish gangs were assembled near Hadassah Hospital and Hebrew University. R.M.Graves, the British appointed Chairman of the Jerusalem Municipal Commission, said “…the Arabs do not realize that the killing of doctors, nurses and university teachers was a dastardly outrage.”Read the whole thing.
Labels: Hadassah Hospital, Palestinian terrorism, War of Independence
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:35 AM
0 comments
On Tuesday 5th March, the British Consul General Sir Vincent Fein left Birzeit University after students protested against his visit.
Sources from the public relations office at Birzeit University confirmed that the consul left the campus after groups of students and members of the Student Council protested against the Consul's planned visit to the university Tuesday.
The sources told PNN that the protest came on a historical background, that Britain was the reason behind the Palestinians' crisis and their conflict with the Israelis. However, the sources denied rumors that the students attacked or assaulted the Consul.Yeah, right. If it weren't for the Brits, thousands of Jews might have escaped the Holocaust and its aftermath and made it to Israel, the Jews would have been armed in the War of Independence, the Arabs would not have been given every strategic nook and cranny before the War of Independence started, and as a result, the 'Palestinians' might have all left Israel in 1948. Britain is (most of) the reason behind our conflict with the 'Palestinians' today. If the Brits hadn't been here, we probably would have a nearly 100% Jewish state, and the Arabs that remained might not have been 5th columnists.
Labels: British anti-Semitism, Palestinians, War of Independence
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:31 PM
0 comments
Labels: IDF, Machal, War of Independence
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:53 PM
2 comments
The film is the result of a five-year effort headed up by Walter M. Newman, who grew up a few blocks from Stone’s house.
Newman – a retired official with the Environmental Protection Agency who helped supervise the Boston Harbor cleanup – was researching the founding of Israel and noticed that Stone’s name “kept popping up,” he said recently. “I decided to investigate what the heck Dewey had been doing.”
Newman scoured the records at the American Jewish Historical Society office in Boston, where Stone’s papers are archived. “There were so many things, so many wonderful things,” he said. “It was an eye-opening experience.”
The Stone that Newman recalled from his youth was a charismatic leader in the Jewish community, hardly the kind of person one would expect to be part of what amounted to a smuggling ring. “There were whispers around Brockton that he was somehow involved with the state of Israel, but nobody knew exactly what he was involved in,” said Newman, 76, who now lives in Sharon and Florida.
Stone became captivated by Palestine after hearing a speech in Boston in 1940 by Chaim Weizmann, the head of the World Zionist Organization and later the first president of Israel. A renowned chemist, Weizmann was drumming up support for a research university in a future Jewish state.
After his talk, Weizmann invited Stone and a few others back to his hotel room, where they chatted until the wee hours of the morning. The next day, Stone drove Weizmann to Harvard, where he was giving another speech. On the way, they stopped in front of MIT – the very model of the university Weizmann sought to build.
“It was at that moment that the seed of hope that this dream might really be achieved was planted within me – sitting in a stationary car with a silent visionary,” Stone wrote, as quoted in the documentary.
After the war, as the full extent of the Holocaust became apparent, Stone worked behind the scenes on both military and diplomatic efforts to forge a Jewish state. He teamed up with a fellow Massachusetts businessman, Harry Levine of Leominster.
Suspecting that the FBI was tapping his phone, Stone made calls from his sister’s house to procure ships and surplus US weapons. In the documentary, nephew Ted Teplow, of Cambridge, recalls being up in his bedroom doing homework and overhearing his uncle on the phone. “We were all told not to talk about it,” Teplow, now 84, said in an interview with the Globe. [One of Ted Teplow's sons is a prominent revenant today. CiJ]
...
But just a few months before Israel was to declare independence, the State Department had persuaded President Harry S Truman to reject recognition. Truman went so far as to shut the White House doors to Zionists.
Weizmann, who was waiting anxiously in New York, expressed his frustration to Stone in a meeting on March 12, 1948. That night a visibly shaken Stone returned to Boston, where he was honored at a B’nai B’rith dinner along with Frank Goldman, the national head of the organization.
Goldman asked Stone what was the matter. Hearing about Weizmann’s predicament, Goldman said he might have a solution. He had just attended a Kansas City B’nai B’rith event recognizing Eddie Jacobson, who had been Truman’s partner in a clothing store business. Why not see if Jacobson would intervene with his old pal, Goldman suggested.
After collecting coins for a pay phone from fellow dinner guests, Goldman and Stone hustled into the lobby to call Jacobson. Stone arranged to meet Jacobson in New York and introduce him to Weizmann. Realizing the gravity of the situation, Jacobson hopped on a train to Washington to meet with Truman. The president agreed to see Weizmann, provided he came in the side door.
After hearing out the Zionist leader, Truman did an about-face and recognized Israel.Read the whole thing.
Labels: Boston, personal stuff, War of Independence
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:59 AM
0 comments
Labels: IAF, War of Independence
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 5:37 PM
1 comments
"One dramatic instance of the use of the Gra Goral was in the identification of the bodies of 12 members of the Lamed Heh (the Convoy of 35, with the Hebrew letters lamed and heh being equivalent to the numbers 30 and 5, respectively ). The 35 fighters, members of the Haganah pre-state militia, were killed in January 1948, during the War of Independence, at the foot of the Arab village of Tzurif, during their attempt to reach the Etzion Bloc of Jewish settlements, south of Jerusalem. The bodies of the fighters were mutilated by the Arab attackers who killed them, and only in 1951 were the corpses gathered. By that time, it was possible to identify only 23 of the bodies conclusively.
The chief rabbi of Jerusalem at the time, Tzvi Pesach Frank, ruled that the identification of the remaining bodies would be determined by the Gra lottery, and the task was assigned to the revered Jerusalem sage Rabbi Aryeh Levin.
The identification took place in Levin's beit midrash, in the presence of representatives of the bereaved parents. Twelve candles were lit, the Bible was opened at random seven times and Rabbi Levin ruled that as they stood in front of the remains of each of the fallen fighters, the last verse on the page had to include the name, or an allusion to the name, of each of those whom they were trying to identify. "How amazed everyone was when one of the verses that first appeared was 'The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein,' a verse that [in Hebrew] begins with the word 'to the Lord,'" which is abbreviated in Hebrew with the initials lamed-heh. "Moreover, to everyone's amazement, every page spoke unequivocally. In the first verse they reached there was a specific name that clearly identified one of the fallen ... One after the other ... the identity of the fallen was determined." (Quoted in "A Tzaddik in Our Time: The Life of Rabbi Aryeh Levin," by Simcha Raz, who also provides the official minutes of the lottery. ) While a lottery was often used for private matters, here the lottery was conducted for the purpose of a decision of great public significance."May we be privileged to see God Avenge the blood of the 35.
Labels: Goral HaGra, Gush Etzion, War of Independence
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 5:12 PM
1 comments
The questions now are: What was the real cost of these wars to the Arab world and its people. And the harder question that no Arab national wants to ask is: What was the real cost for not recognizing Israel in 1948 and why didn’t the Arab states spend their assets on education, health care and the infrastructures instead of wars? But, the hardest question that no Arab national wants to hear is whether Israel is the real enemy of the Arab world and the Arab people.
I decided to write this article after I saw photos and reports about a starving child in Yemen, a burned ancient Aleppo souk in Syria, the under developed Sinai in Egypt, car bombs in Iraq and the destroyed buildings in Libya. The photos and the reports were shown on the Al-Arabiya network, which is the most watched and respected news outlet in the Middle East.
The common thing among all what I saw is that the destruction and the atrocities are not done by an outside enemy. The starvation, the killings and the destruction in these Arab countries are done by the same hands that are supposed to protect and build the unity of these countries and safeguard the people of these countries. So, the question now is that who is the real enemy of the Arab world?
The Arab world wasted hundreds of billions of dollars and lost tens of thousands of innocent lives fighting Israel, which they considered is their sworn enemy, an enemy whose existence they never recognized. The Arab world has many enemies and Israel should have been at the bottom of the list. The real enemies of the Arab world are corruption, lack of good education, lack of good health care, lack of freedom, lack of respect for the human lives and finally, the Arab world had many dictators who used the Arab-Israeli conflict to suppress their own people.
These dictators’ atrocities against their own people are far worse than all the full-scale Arab-Israeli wars.
In the past, we have talked about why some Israeli soldiers attack and mistreat Palestinians. Also, we saw Israeli planes and tanks attack various Arab countries. But, do these attacks match the current atrocities being committed by some Arab states against their own people.The Arabs' real enemy is not Israel. But unfortunately, the Arab spring has just replaced secular dictators with Islamic dictators (a point I'm not sure the author noticed). So long as the Arab world is ruled by Islamic dictators, it won't reconcile itself to Israel and it will continue to destroy itself from within.
Labels: Arab-Israeli conflict, Arab-Jewish relations, War of Independence
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:17 AM
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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