Delusions of grandeur
The 'Palestinians' believe that they are so important that
the United States will never cut funding to them, come what may. Reports over the holiday indicated that the United States had
threatened to do just that if the 'Palestinian Authority' is disbanded. This is from the first link.
Veteran Fatah leader Qadura Fares told Army Radio that officials in
Ramallah were not overly concerned about the American warnings, as the
main concern of the Palestinian "struggle" was the establishment of an
independent Palestinian state, and not the procurement of money from the
international arena.
"The struggle is for the establishment of a
Palestinian state, so that the Palestinian people will have freedom and
liberty," Fares, the president of the Palestinian Prisoner's Society
told the radio station.
He added that the Palestinians alone were
not responsible for resolving the Middle East conflict, and said that
if the conflict was going to continue, it would continue.
Fares
pointed toward moves that would prolong the conflict, stating that
Israel could go ahead and annex the West Bank and build more settlements
if it wanted to.
The 'Palestinians' would not be saying this if George W. Bush was still President. He would have taken them up on the invitation to cut funding.
Labels: government funding, Palestinian Authority, US foreign aid
Zionist yeshivas join in petition against funding cut
For those who think that it's only Haredi yeshivas that were affected by last week's Supreme Court ruling and Yair Lapid's 'law enforcement,' don't be so smug. A new petition to the Supreme Court is being prepared by
Zionist yeshivas - many of whose students do serve in the army are joining the Haredi yeshivas in a new petition to the Supreme Court. They are arguing that the students should have been made a party to the case and that they too are severely affected by the funding cuts.
"The judges did not hear the voices of the people in their
decision," Attorney Betzalel Smotrich, legal counsel for the joint
effort, stated Sunday. "The factors and implications behind the move did
not take the people into account. This is in stark contrast to all of
the halakhot (Jewish laws) and all principles of justice."
"Hundreds of institutions and thousands of students are bound by a
harsh decision which affects them directly, yet they were not party to
the proceedings before the decision was made - even though there was
nothing preventing the court from allowing them to be present."
The Association of Zionist Yeshivas, the Association of Yeshiva
Administration and Torah Institutions, and the Association of Hesder
Yeshivas are behind the new motion, which asks the High Court to
reconsider the decision to stop funding of studies for students born in
1994, 1995, and the first half of 1996.
The three associations have asked that last week's decision be
cancelled and that the funding already cut for February as a result be
reinstated and transferred to the appropriate institutions.
Only then,
the petition claims, can the proceedings for the decision begin anew -
this time, with the affected parties involved in the decision-making
process.
The petition revealed that the ruling also significantly harmed
Zionist yeshivas, where the majority of students do participate in the
mandatory IDF draft. In addition, all students are affected at the
moment, and not just those born in the specified years.
The motion accuses the High Court of rushing a sensitive and complex
issue. The bill that is known as the Equal Burden of Service law, has
been moving through the Knesset for several months - but the court
decision failed to take into account the many complexities and
ramifications involved. The petitioners question why the decision was
made in haste, instead of letting the Knesset committees finish the
process.
Is the Supreme Court big enough to admit a mistake? Don't hold your breath. And by the way, there was no mistake on Yair Lapid's part. He aims to stifle all yeshivas and all Torah study in Israel. Like father, like son.
Labels: government funding, hesder, IDF, Supreme Court, Yair Lapid, Yeshiva boys
Your tax shekels at work: Government cinema fund finances movie lionizing Bil'in protesters
Every Friday, 'Palestinians' and 'internationals' gather to throw stones at IDF troops in Bil'in to protest construction of the 'security fence' that has been remarkably effective (due to the continued presence of IDF troops in Judea and Samaria) at keeping 'Palestinian' terrorism out of our major cities for the last few years. Now, a movie has been made lionizing the stone throwers. And if you're an Israeli taxpayer, your government - the one that imposes "
McCarthyite restrictions of freedom of speech and democracy" - is
paying for the movie.
The director, who is from Tel Aviv, has been passionate about film since his youth, and it is what eventually directed him out of the army. “My first film I made when I was 16 years old. It was a video clip of The Beatles, actually.” Though he did spend time in the military, Davidi left when he found he couldn’t work within the organization. “It wasn’t a political decision,” he says. “It was just all of my intuition, my stomach, my body, just resented that system and what it does. I was stupid and curious enough to enroll,” eventually finding a way out, unable to conform to the systemic violence around him. “I couldn’t stand that.”
As an outsider, I am struck by what seems to be the inherent dichotomy of a government that would fund a documentary that so effectively illustrates its flaws while humanizing its perceived enemy. It seems like such a contradiction and I am interested in the dynamic, which strikes me as being counter-intuitive. Davidi takes a moment’s pause. “A state is not one thing,” explains. “It consists of a lot of elements, a lot of institutions. They are not all in sync all the time.”
He then goes on to talk about the Israeli Cinema Fund and how it is helmed by professional filmmakers, “good people,” working within the film industry. “Even though it’s governmental money, the government can’t control the content.” Of his own film managing to benefit from funding and ultimately receive acclaim and such positive international attention, he says, “we couldn’t be ignored [by these institutions], and there were people who supported us because they felt this was a story that has to be told. There’s a lot of freedom there to create. If you let yourself believe that what you’re doing is important, and you believe that films are actually meaningful, you will get the support.”
Forgive me, but while I am all in favor of every nut job having the right to say his piece (after all, that's what freedom of speech is about), I fail to see why I have to pay to fund it or to market it, or arrange for it to be shown in theaters that my taxes subsidize. There's a huge difference.
I'll defend your right to say just about anything (short of yelling "fire" in a crowded building), but I shouldn't have to pay for you to get your message out.
Labels: Bil'in demonstrations, freedom of speech, government funding
Israeli 'artists' call for boycott of Ariel Theater Center
You will recall that in August, Israel's suicidal Left called for the boycott of the forthcoming opening of a new theater complex in Ariel. That call was backed by a similar letter signed by American '
artists.' The theater is due to open this coming week, and once again a
letter has been issued.
Three days before the Ariel Cultural Center is set to open in the northern West Bank settlement, artists and academics published an open letter on Friday calling on performers to boycott the theater.
The letter asks the performers to consider that Ariel “is an illegal settlement which violates international law and the Geneva Conditions, which the State of Israel has signed.”
The settlement “was founded for only one purpose: to prevent Palestinians from being able to build an independent state, and by extension, preventing us, citizens of Israel, from having the chance to live in peace in this region,” the letter continues.
Author David Grossman, playwright Yeshoshua Sobol and filmmaker Eytan Fox are among the artists who signed the letter, which has also gained the support of academics such as Prof. Gad Kiner, theater arts department head at Tel Aviv University.
The letter was also signed by actors, make-up artists and lighting engineers.
For the record, Ariel is one of those 'settlement blocs' that President Bush told Israel it could keep under any final status agreement with the 'Palestinians.'
This one even drew a reaction from Kadima's token revenant, Otniel Schneller.
Friday’s letter was also met with criticism from a number of politicians, including MK Otniel Schneller (Kadima), who called on the government to “expand the artists’ awareness and inform them that Ariel is an inseparable part of Israel.”
Schneller, who lives at the Ma’aleh Michmash settlement, which like Ariel is in Samaria, said the artists’ “apartheid letter – which boycotts Israeli citizens” only harms the cause of peace.
“Ariel will be part of Israel in any agreement, and it is up to the heads of the large parties in the Knesset to clarify to Israel prize laureate authors where the peaceful borders of Israel will be,” he said.
Good luck with that. His own party's leader would take us back to the 1949 armistice lines at the snap of a finger if she could.
At the end of the day, this is what the answer to these 'artists' - all of whom receive state funding - ought to be but won't be.
Knesset House Committee Chairman MK Yariv Levin (Likud) said on Saturday that he would call for an urgent hearing of the Education and Culture Committee to debate freezing funding for the artists who signed the letter.
“We must permanently end the funding for cultural institutions and devise new criterion for funding, which will focus on encouraging works that reflect the glorious heritage of our culture,” Levin said.
MK Michael Ben-Ari (National Union) referred to the boycotting artists as “parasites who milk the public coffers” and suggested that if they seek to make a living in performance arts, they should “ask for money from [Palestinian Authority Prime Minister] Salaam Fayyad and not the Knesset.”
Well, yeah, but we all know that if by some miracle the government actually did cut off their funding, they would go the 'High Court of Justice' and get a ruling that it's illegal for the government to cut off funding from those who oppose its existence.
What could go wrong?
Labels: Ariel Theater, boycott Israel, government funding, Israel's suicidal Left
