Frankly, for all of the ink spilled printing newspapers in this country, there has not been much noteworthy news to chew over in more than a month. A combined European American fleet remains stationed off of Lebanon -- there since October 2006. The American fleet off the Persian Gulf remains and continues to grow while America makes noises about attacking Iran. German ships still remain off the Horn of Africa near Somalia and Ethiopia.
Reviewing the non-news from the Middle East, there is a new “government” in the “Palestinian Authority” (PA) which is attempting to relieve the cash shortage that has crippled the PA since Hamas ousted the PLO in elections in January 2006. The Israeli cabinet spent until 13:30 (it was cold outside the Prime Minister’s Office Building where I stood patrol yesterday in a jacket that was too thin for the cloudy day) Sunday debating what to do over this government, finally voting 19 to 2 to boycott it (according to the Jerusalem Post) while Qassam rockets continued to fall on Israel from the Gaza Strip.
According to Hatzofé's main news section, "the Palestinian Authority is going out to the diplomatic world to struggle to obtain recognition for the new government." The article, written in Hebrew, talks about the planned trips of the new foreign minister and finance minister of the "Palestinian" Authority to Europe and the United States. While Washington appears to be hostile to the new cabinet, the Israel Herald reports that "Britain, Europe, open door to new Palestinian government".
All this is not really news, not even the rockets falling from the Gaza Strip on Israel. The European states have always taken a more tolerant view of Hamas than the American and Israeli governments.
In more non-news, Israel National News (Arutz Sheva) reports that a "Poll Shows Israeli-Arab Holocaust Denial, Support for HizBallah". Apparently a new University of Haifa study finds an "alarming" trend of Holocaust denial, sympathy with HizBallah, and belief that they will one day become citizens of an Arab state of "Palestine".
The survey, conducted by the university's Dean of Social Studies Sammy Smooha, found that 28 percent of Israel's Arab citizens believe the Holocaust never happened. This percentage rose the more educated those asked were. Of college and high-school grads, nearly one third believe the Holocaust to be fiction. When you consider the nature of the content of the Arab news media, this is no surprise at all. More educated people tend to absorb more thoroughly what their own media tell them.
While the belief that the murder of over six million Jews is fictional is not surprising, the sympathy for HizbAllah is. In spite of the fact that tens of thousands of Israeli Arabs were forced into bomb shelters during the war against HizbAllah, 48 percent, nearly half of them, believe that HizbAllah's shelling of Israel's northern residents was justified. The same percentage believes that the kidnapping of IDF reservists Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser was justified, and 90 percent considered Israel's bombing of Lebanon constituted war crimes.
In yet more non-news, an Iranian ex-pat is writing a book that will further these distorted views. Counterpunch.org reports that Sasan Fayazmanesh, chair of the Department of Economics at California State University, Fresno, is writing a book tentatively called The United States and Iran: Sanctions, Wars and the Policy of Dual Containment, due out this summer - which chronicles the US, Israel, and Iran relation since 1979.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - jewish brother
ayatollah khomeini used to say something!
to wash every jew to sea! watch for iranian water canons too! :D
2 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
National Socialism and Anti-Semitism in the Arab World, by Matthias Küntzel is for the next fool who wants to call Israel a Nazi state or an apartheid state.
Read the link. It will remind you who are the spiritual heirs to the Nazi party in today's world.
3 - moonraven
Ruvy,
1. It's "THE PROOF of the pudding is in the eating". If you are going to use sayings at least get them right.
2. This "fool" says Israel is a Nazi and apartheid state--no shade of doubt about that.
3. Iran is a great country with an enormous culture and history. Israel--on the other hand--should be de-countrified.
4 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Gosh, Marthe,
"...the next fool..."
I whistled your name and you came a-running.
Either you didn't read the link, or your ideology will not let you accept the truth about these monsters. And yes, Marthe you are ruled by ideological beliefs as deep as your roots, whether you admit them or not. So don't bother arguing...
Nevertheless, you are right about the saying. "The proof of the pudding is in the eating." My bad for not catching it, and the editor's bad, for not catching it either.
Iran is a great country - that is going to face terrible destruction in the near future. Those are my ideological beliefs, and they, like yours, are as deep as my roots - about 110 generations worth of roots.
Thank you for stoppin' by.
5 - moonraven
Iran will probably prevail.
The US and Israel, however, will not.
Good news for me.
6 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Marthe, if you're going to keep stopping by, I'll put on the coffee for you. Do you like humus or jam on your pita? Or would you prefer coffee cake?
The U.S. will not prevail. Iran will not prevail. You've already seen what has happened to Iraq.
There will likely be terrible destruction in this country, and the "State" of Israel may well cease to exist. But in the end there will be a Jewish entity that will prevail - and the Arabs WILL NOT rule here ever.
By the way, did you say you wanted sugar in your coffee - or honey?
7 - moonraven
Coffee: straight
Pita: Mutab'l, please
You see, Ruvy, Iraq was history long before the US invasion. It was one of the pieces that the winners of WWI created in order to prevent the fusion of Arab/Muslim countries.
Iran is a whole different kettle of fish--I doubt that it even misses that part of Afghanistan. (Maybe some residual phantom pain....)
Israel has a history of disappearing. It will again.
The US hasn't been around long enough for anybody to even miss it.
Of course it may be all academic if the Mayans and Hopis are right about the end of the Fifth World. Supposedly Dec. 21, 2012. Yesterday I read an alternative date: November 28 (my birthday!), 2011.
8 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Marthe,
I see we look at the same kinds of signs for "drastic change" to occur. My own sources tell of Indians meeting at various campfires around the States warning of a disaster in the near future. There are several cycles to look at, and the Hopi and Maya Long Cycle is just one of them. But others may occur before 2011 or 2012. There are a number of cycles in our rabbinic calendar that come to a close in the next couple of years.
In any event, the Talmud posits that the messiah will have completed his tasks by the rabbinic year 5790, or 2030. By completing his tasks, I mean that there will be a Temple on whatever remains of the Temple Mount, the enemies of this nation will have been crushed (this would include the U.S government, the EU and the Vatican, as well as Iran) and it is entirely possible that a reconciliation between the Children of Abraham will be underway (see Isaiah 60).
And, as I said, a different Jewish entity will be firmly in place.
Enjoy the pita, mutab'l and coffee. I have to get my beauty sleep.
9 - moonraven
The difference is that you have faith--and I don't.
10 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Then we understand each other clearly, Marthe.
Goodnight.
11 - JustOneMan
False Advertising - This is NOT news from Israel. This post is sounds more like the ramblings of a member of a cult who is desperrate to justify their belief that they are Gods chosen people.
Very sad!
JOM
12 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
The Washington Times reports on the rearmament of HizbAllah. The article ends with the following:
13 - JustOneMan
yawwnnnnn....no we are quoting old newspaper stories....how pathetic!
jom
14 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
It keeps you reading, JOM. That'll do for me.
15 - JustOneMan
gee...more like watching and old feeble, impotent, demented man eating matzo soup in a dinner...
Borrrrrriiiiiinnnngggggg....
16 - Victor Plenty
To be called boring by JOM is to receive high praise indeed. Not nearly so great as having Moonraven call you a Nazi, but both of these esteemed personages have a knack for calling things the exact opposite of what they really are.
Congratulations, Ruvy.
17 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Thank you for the kind words, Victor. I don't like Marthe's politics, but I can appreciate the contribution she could make to the website if she chose to write articles.
She writes with the perspective of an outsider who is determined not to be a victim of history.
She didn't call me a Nazi, by the way. That was the appellation she stuck on the State. It's wrong, but Israel is not a democracy except in the notional sense. The elite that runs this country does not recognize the legitimacy of any vision for the country other that its own, and this has effectively killed off any democracy that might have developed here. Instead, it has left us with a kulturkampf between Jews that will kill the legitimacy of the State, and a crippled foreign and domestic policy that will result in war and much destruction here.
18 - moonraven
Maybe I should have just said "fascist" state?
19 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Actually, Marthe, it is only my pickiness about using political labels correctly that stops me from agreeing completely with you.
The State of Israel is a notional democracy quickly moving towards a totalitarian state (hidden by parliamentary "procedure"). Zionism has become a shadow of what it was supposed to be (all predicted by rabbinic messianic tradition); the joyous culture of building a country (that was once Zionism) has become substituted with a pathetic imitation of American and European culture and a regime that does not even believe in what it pretends to. As I've pointed put elsewhere, it is on its way to collapse.
20 - moonraven
Fortunately, it will go down when the US bites the dust.
21 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
One of the reasons I expect this government to collapse is found in this story in Arutz Sheva about blatant double standards in the way justice is administered here.
The story reads in part,
It then continues to cite how Border Guards who mistreat Jews are treated:
22 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Iran seizes up to 15 British troops in the Persian Gulf
By AP AND JPOST STAFF
This article from the Jerusalem Post is about how Iran is provoking a confrontation with western powers. While I should be surprised - I did not expect this kind of event to occur for several months yet - it is this kind of event that can bring about an attack on Iran.
At the present time, according to the Post and the AP, the British Ministry of Defense is ".... urgently pursuing this matter with the Iranian authorities at the highest level and ... the Iranian ambassador has been summoned to the Foreign Office," the ministry said.
"The British government is demanding the immediate and safe return of our people and equipment."
We'll see how this all develops.
23 - Les Slater
"I did not expect this kind of event to occur for several months yet - it is this kind of event that can bring about an attack on Iran."
Sounds rather suspicious to me. The U.S. certainly has a long history of such provocations like Ton kin Gulf incident. I wouldn't put it past Britain to do likewise.
24 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Les,
Nice to see you here.
The reason I expect to see more of a provocation from Iran is the prophecy from Daniel [Daniel 11:40-41] quoted above.
But I could be wrong. The Hebrew reads as follows. "B'ét ketz yitnagáH mélekh hanégev..." which can be translated as "at the time of the end, the king of the south shall push at (or attack)". A "push" could be the blustering threats along with a minimal military provocation (such as we see in the story). But somehow, I think it will be more.
Gotta run.
Sabbath has arrived, and I have to be OFF this computer. Shabbat Shalom.
25 - Les Slater
Iranian state television reported that Iran has summoned the top British diplomat there, to protest what Iran said are British sailors illegally entering Iranian waters.