Opuscula PLO consulates Should be in PLO cities, not J’lem

JOE BIDEN’S PIPE DREAM of dividing Jerusalem by opening a consulate for the PLO

✡ Violates a treaty between the U.S. and Israel

✡> Fails to benefit “Palestinians” in the PLO/PFLP-controlled areas and Hamas’ Gaza

✡ Promotes a two-state solution by fiat with Jerusalem as capital of both

✡ Is the U.S. “progressives” way to control Biden’s on-going attacks on Donald Trump’s progress toward peace in the Middle East.

 

 

TREATY: The US State Department has confirmed it cannot open a consulate for the Palestinians in Jerusalem without Israel’s authorization. ^{https://tinyurl.com/fkshkw}

Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tennessee) this week proposed a bill to ensure that the only US diplfmatic entity in Jerusalem would be the U.S. Embassy. During a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Wednesday, he asked Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources Brian McKeon about the matter.

“President [Joe] Biden’s proposal to open a second US mission in Jerusalem would begin to reverse the recognition of Jerusalem, and it would divide Israel’s eternal and undivided capital city,” Hagerty said. “I just want to confirm something on the record. Is it your understanding that, under US and international law, the government of Israel would have to provide its affirmative consent before the United States could open or reopen the US consulate to the Palestinians in Jerusalem, or does the Biden administration believe it can move forward to establish a second US mission in the Israeli capital city of Jerusalem without the consent of the government of Israel?”

NO BENEFIT: Currently Muslim residents of Israel (vs. Muslim citizens of Israel) have a Muslim department in the U.S. Embassy. Prior to the relocation of the Embassy to Jerusalem — locating it in a capital city as are all other U.S. Embassies — there was a U.S. consulate in Jerusalem frequented by Muslim residents of Israel.

To open a U.S. consulate in Jerusalem fails to benefit the Muslims of the PLO/PFLP and Hamas-controlled areas. These people still need permission (from all entities) to enter Israel to do any business here, including visiting a U.S. consulate.

BETTER, if the progressives and Biden really want to support the Muslims in the PLO/PFLP and Hamas-controlled areas, place consulates in Ramallah and Gaza City.

It might be that the U.S. State Department is concerned about the safety of its personnel — the memory of the “spontaneous attack”on Benghazi is not distant — it might consider putting a Hamas consulate on the Egyptian side of the border, a border often closed to Gaza residents. Would Egypt accommodate a U.S. consulate for Gazans? Has it been considered by Biden’s handlers?

ONE CAPITAL FOR ONE COUNTRY Jerusalem is Israel’s capital.

Jerusalem is Israel’s historic capital, at least since the time of King David (c. 1035 - 970 BCE).

Jerusalem has been under the thumb of numerous foreign aggressors, but always was Israel’s capital when Jews controlled the country.

Jerusalem also is the focus for observant Jews who pray toward the city rather than, as Muslims do, turn their back on the city for prayer. (They face toward Saudi Arabia.)

Jews have been the dominant ethic group in Jerusalem since David’s time (ibid.)

Jordan illegally occupied Jerusalem (despite a UN resolution that it be a city open to all), and in the process destroyed many synagogues and holy sites. Allowing it to be divided again, with one part a “Palestinian” capital, would result in more destruction of Jewish sites.

Finally DESTROY TRUMP LEGACY: The U.S. Congress passed Public Law 104–45—NOV. 8, 1995 ^{https://tinyurl.com/5a5dr2x7} that authorized moving the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Every six months for more than two decades, U.S. presidents have had to decide all over again whether to move the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Since the Clinton administration, they decided each time to keep the embassy where it is, seeking not to throw a wrench into delicate Middle East peace talks. On Tuesday, however, after signing a waiver putting off the move in June, President Donald Trump informed the Palestinian Authority’s President Mahmoud Abbas that he’s going to recognize the contested holy city as Israel’s capital and begin the process of moving the embassy there. ^{https://tinyurl.com/yr33wnwm}

Despite U.S. presidential cowardice, the PLO/PFLP consistently refused to negotiate peace with Israel even when Israeli leftist politicians offered everything but the demise of Israel as a state. “Delicate peace talks” never were in jeopardy since there were, in fact, no serious effort on the part of the PLO/PFLP.

The incumbent president, in an effort to reverse all of his predecessor’s acts, is promoting a plan to push peace father away.

 

 

 

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

 

 

 

 

Comment on PLO connsulate

Looking at Yitzak Rabin 26 Years After

Yesterday, 19 October 2021/12 Hesvon תשפ"ב marked the 26th anniversary of Yitzak Rabin’s assassination.

As usual, Rabin’s family and followers praised the man’s achievements while carefully overlooking his disgraces.

At least one family member, Rabin’s grandson, remembered to trash Benjamin Netanyahu who, the family apparently believes, incited Rabin’s murder.

In the beginning

Rabin was one of Ben Gurion’s favorites. This is supported by the fact that when Ben Gurion reneged on his agreement with Menahem Begin to share arms and ammunition Begin’s Irgun people brought to Israel on the ship Altalena. Ben Gurion sent Rabin and Hagana troops to seize the weapons for Ben Gurion’s Hagana, leaving Begin and his Irgun fighters defenseless.

When the Altalena finally started to off-load people and materiel, Rabin ordered his troops to open fire on fellow Jews. Sixteen men were killed and scores of others wounded, initially with small arms fire which progressed to heavy machine gun and mortar fire. ^{https://tinyurl.com/us7ejs5y} Began ordered his people not to return fire, thus limiting the number of dead and injured.

Begin ended the murders by surrendering the weapons to Rabin and Ben Gurion.

Oslo

Although Benjamin Netanyahu criticized Rabin’s cave to Arafat at Oslo, he added that Rabin was not a traitor. He was wrong, but he was not a traitor.” ^{https://tinyurl.com/y38p4yuf}

Netanyahu does admit that I have heard this false claim that when extremists within the anti-Oslo camp did call him this, I stood to the side, I was silent, did not respond and even encouraged it,”

It is unclear if the “false claim” was that (a) Rabin was a traitor or (b) that he did nothing to suppress the traitor accusation.

Yonatan Ben-Artzi, a Rabin grandson, attacks Netanyahu on this point at every opportunity.

Foreign bank account

Lea Rabin, wife of Israel's Prime Minister, was fined about $27,000 today (April 18, 1977) for her role in maintaining bank accounts in Washington in violation of Israeli currency regulations.

Newspaper disclosures of the accounts, and the Rabins' subsequent statements about how much they contained, resulted in Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's resignation as the candidate of the ruling Labor Party for a second term in office. Today Rabin told his Cabinet that beginning Friday, the day after Israel's independence day celebration, he would take a leave of absence for the remainder of his current term. ^{https://tinyurl.com/2pdfm2c2} At the time, Israelis were forbidden to have foreign bank accounts. The Rabin’s simply “forgot” about the account and failed to close it before returning to Israel.

Precursor to Abraham Accords?

Rabin's second term as Prime Minister was marked by two historic events - the Oslo Agreements with the Palestinians and the Treaty of Peace with Jordan . Working closely with Shimon Peres, the Foreign Minister and his longtime rival, he masterminded negotiations on the Declaration of Principles signed with the PLO at the White House in September 1993. This won Rabin, Peres and Arafat the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize and opened negotiations with the Palestinians on autonomy in Gaza and some areas of Judea and Samaria and on the establishment of a Palestinian Authority. Then, in October 1994, a Treaty of Peace was signed with the Kingdom of Jordan. This encouraged the development of ties with additional Arab countries in North Africa and the Persian Gulf. ^{https://tinyurl.com/yr5mumwu}

How many Arab countries in North Africa and the Persian Gulf joined Jordan in a peace agreement — or even recognition of Israel? The answer is “zero to none.”

Military genus?

According to Uri Milstein, once considered a leading military historian in Israel, Rabin is a coward who abandoned his troops on the field of battle, was removed from operational missions in the War of Independence and suffered a breakdown during the Six-Day War. ^{https://tinyurl.com/v6fm5v4z}

Labor Party leader Yitzhak Rabin has admitted he did suffer a brief “breakdown” on the eve of the Six-Day War in 1967.

Rabin was Israel Defense Force chief of staff in May 1967, a time of tension in Israel. Egyptian President Gamel Abdel Nasser was said to be massing troops in Sinai and U.N. Secretary-General U Thant had ordered U.N. truce observer forces out of the Israeli-Egyptian border zone.

Rabin told Hadashot that he was working under intense military and political pressures at the time. Responsibility for keeping the IDF instantly ready for battle rested entirely on his shoulders, he said.

One night, his wife Leah insisted he must rest. She called an army medical officer who administered a sedative. Rabin said he slept for the next 24 hours to regain his strength.

Rabin’s 24-hour breakdown was disclosed in 1974 by Gen. Ezer Weizman, who was deputy chief of staff in 1967. Weizman was trying at the time to convince Labor to choose Shimon Peres instead of Rabin as its leader. ^{https://tinyurl.com/e5vydsfe}

Unprepared to lead

As Rabin’s biographer asserted, the Intifada caught him by complete surprise. That is why the defense system arrived at that challenge with the IDF unorganized, unequipped and untrained for the type of war that occupying a hostile nation entailed. And since by that time Rabin had headed the system for more than three years; and since a defense minister’s task is first and foremost to set the defense establishment’s goals – that failure was wholly his.

Rabin displayed in those days the same historic shortsightedness in another arena – South Africa.

The issue was not Israel’s attitude toward the apartheid policy, which Rabin loathed. At stake were Israel’s arms exports to South Africa. Those who saw where history was heading, like then-Foreign Ministry director-general Yossi Beilin, demanded that Israel stop all arms sales to Pretoria. Rabin resisted that effort, assuming Israel could continue to have its cake and eat it, too.

Just as he did not feel the tectonic movement that would soon shake Gaza and the West Bank, Rabin didn’t see, even in 1987, that the apartheid regime was ready to collapse. ^{https://tinyurl.com/5h6wzdvm<,/SUP>}

Whose side was he on?

When terrorists murdered settlers, Rabin condemned “the extremists from both sides”; when thousands protested his policy, he said “I don’t care about them”; and when asked about Golan settlers’ opposition to a territorial deal with Syria, he said that as far as he was concerned “they can rotate like propellers.” ^{https://tinyurl.com/5h6wzdvm}

 

 

 

 

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

 

 

 

 

Comment on Rabin

Opuscula Perspective

This is keyed in Yavne, Israel.

Yavne is fairly close to an Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) air base.

Consequently, the noise of IDF aircraft — and occasionally a single-engine civilian high wing — is common and, for this scrivener, of no concern.

Besides, I grew up with aircraft noise of all types.

 

BUT, I WONDERED TO myself: “What must the noises I find familiar sound like to Israel’s enemies, particularly those stuck in Gaza.”

Gaza’s despotic leadership — Hamas and Islamic Jihad, both Iranian proxies — stupidly make and break cease fire agreements with Israel, fire unguided missiles at Israeli civilian centers, knowing Israel will retaliate.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad use the locals as propaganda tools, hiding war materiel under UN schools, mosques, and other public facilities.

When Israel strikes back, some public facilities are targeted; rarely, civilians — that is, people who neither are aligned with Hamas or Islamic Jihad (IJ) — sometimes are injured or killed. All this makes for great anti-Israel pr in the world’s media. (Never mind that usually only one side of the story is promulgated.)

 

Two points that need to be abundantly clear.

1. Israeli civilians include not only Jews, but Muslims, Christians, Druze, and “others.” The missiles are indiscriminate.

2. A number of Hamas/IJ missiles fall short of the Gaza-Israel border, killing Gaza citizens, children, young adults, seniors: again, indiscriminately.

 

Hamas/IJ sympathizers whine that

a. Gaza lacks Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system

b. A “disproportionate” number of Gazans are injured or killed in Israel’s retaliatory strikes. Do they want Israel to kill its own citizens for “proportional” numbers?

It is a waste of effort reminding these sympathizers that if Hamas/IJ ceased firing missiles at Israelis, Israel would not be retaliating.

The leaders of Hamas and Islamic Jihad — a few ruling from distant countries — should be glad Israel has a relatively solid missile defense. If not for Iron Dome, it is possible Israeli casualties would be far higher, prompting a massive invasion of Gaza, with all the associated “collateral damage.”

 

If there was peace

Granted, peace with Gaza’s rulers is a pipe dream, but imagine if Hamas and Islamic Jihad actually wanted to benefit the people rather than kill or enslave Jews.

Gaza could have

* A deep water seaport

* A restored airfield (https://tinyurl.com/2j4767c7)

* Fresh water

* Fuel for electricity generating plants

* Increased exports to the region and the world

* Relatively unrestricted travel to Israel (employment, medical care) and Egypt (access to Europe)

However, peace won’t happen with Hamas/IJ in control of Gaza.

Gazans who want peace and a better life need to cast off the despots, admittedly a difficult task and one requiring outside help. Unfortunately, that does not mean the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (a/k/a UNRWA). UNRWA would be out of business if Gazans made and sustained a peace agreement with Israel.

The mindset “From the river (Jordan) to the Sea (Mediterranean)” espoused by Hamas and Islamic Jihad must be replaced by one of coexistence with Israel.

Such coexistence has proven beneficial to Egypt and Jordan as well as Israel, and indications are that this also will be true for the nations of the Abraham Accord; nations brought together by former U.S. President Donald Trump.

Could Gaza survive sans the PLO. Would an independent (from Iran and its proxies) survive as part of a “Palestinian” state or even as an independent entity?

When Israel controlled Gaza — Anwar Sadat refused Menachem Begin’s plea to take back Gaza as part of the Egypt-Israel peace agreement — Gaza had a thriving export business.

With a peace agreement with Israel, Gazans would have access to Israeli technology, technology freely shared with other Muslim (and non-Muslim) states.

But peace will not, cannot, happen while Hamas/IJ are in control and in turn are under the control of Iran.

But imagine.

No more missiles flying in either direction.

No more Israelis or Gazans injured or killed in conflict.

An economy that supports a livable income.

Fresh water and reliable electricity for the Strip.

And that is just the beginning.

 

Meanwhile, the planes keep flying about my abode. I’m used to the noise.

But I feel for the ordinary folks in Gaza.

 

 

 

 

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

 

 

 

 

Comment on Perspective

Opuscula

Why can’t Israelis
Speak (and write)
Proper Hebrew ?

HEBREW IS NOT MY “first language.” I struggle with it as I try to read a newspaper or magazine article, or decipher a sign over a business. Never mind that except for prayer books, humashim, and a few other publications, the printed words lack vowel marks — ni’ku’dot.

 

TODAY I ENCOUNTERED

הפרויקטור

I was stymied ; stumped, flummoxed, without a clue.

The word appeared on Page 9 of the Israel HaYom printed edition for July 29, 2001.

Again, no nikudot, but even if there WERE nikudot, I’m not sure I could have deciphered the word.

“ה" was easy enough: “ה" in most cases equals “the.”

טרנזיסטור and ספישל were two words I encountered in my first days in Israel.

(My first Hebrew word, after גלידה — I knew THAT word before I got on the plane — was סבלנות, something I never acquired.)

I saw the word “ספישל” above an ice cream (what else) shop in Tel Aviv — my first trip off the ulpan reservation.

 

Don’t panic. All the Hebrew-alphabet words are defined near the end of this blog. סבלנות.

 

I stood and stared at the word for a good five minutes before someone took pity on me and told me what it was.

Later, working for Tadiran Electronics in Holon (as a tech writer creating English-language documents) I was perusing a Hebrew technical document when I came to an impasse; the word: טרנזיסטור. After breaking my head trying to “sound out” the word, I finally gave up and asked an Israeli engineer.

I’m no Eliezer Ben Yehuda (https://tinyurl.com/wkcwrvuv), but I’m pretty certain Ben Yehuda (right) could have come up with Hebrew words for הפרויקטור and טרנזיסטור . There IS a perfectly good Hebrew word for מיוחד — ספישל

At least with טרנזיסטור, I had reason to believe the word was imported. Words transliterated to Hebrew having a “T” sound get a tet (ט) rather than a taf (ת).

I have an old set of Megiddo English/Hebrew and Hebrew/English dictionaries I bought at the ABC Book Store in Tel Aviv c 1975. (The store is long gone; at least I failed to find it during a recent search.) I also bought 201 Hebrew Verbs, fully conjugated — my latest copy is 501 verbs with examples (!) — so I would finally understand what the ulpan teacher was talking about when she repeatedly mentioned “שבע משפחות.”

The internet is fine, providing it is available. While it is faster to find a word on line, it is not as satisfying as looking it up in a book — and often getting side tracked to other words of interest.

I am a visual learner; I need to SEE a word. Spoken Hebrew, especially when spoken quickly or with a strong accent, gives me pause.

With the written word, I usually am able to identify the shoresh (root) and the context also helps.

I suppose I could, perhaps should, spend more time in front of the television; it might help me with spoken Hebrew.

The problem with Israeli tv news — aside from the typical slant to the right or left, is that here the news is captioned. I don’t know of any way to turn off the captions. Sounds like a good idea, especially when the grandkids are being noisy, but I try to read the captions instead of listening to the speaker.

Unfortunately, I cannot read the captions as fast as they change.

Also, captions are nikud-free.

There is one other problem for me and printed Hebrew: roshi tavot, a/k/a abbreviations.

Hebrew is replete with abbreviations.

Some are understandable in context; many are not.

Worse, some have multiple functions.

Then there are words so new they cannot be found on the internet.

חיתול vs. תיתול

Is תיתול a word or slang that, akin to “פניסתי” will disappear in time. Even The Academy of the Hebrew Language (https://tinyurl.com/cpctc2b5) fails to list תיתול.

 

 

The words המילים

הפרויקטור = the project

פרויקטור = מנהל מיזם — The Hebrew Language Academy

ספישל = special

גלידה = ice cream

סבלנות = patience

טרנזיסטור = transistor

שבע משפחות = seven families

חיתול = diaper

תיתול = disposable diaper

פניסתי = finished

 

 

 

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

 

 

 

 

Comment on Hebrew

Opuscula Some things Never change :

I WAS LOOKING AT SOME OLD (c. 2011) BLOG postings when I read
I used to go to a synagogue that had a Sunday school. The school morning started at the same time the Sunday minyan gathered.

I watched as parents, mothers and fathers, dumped their kids off for classes and then hurriedly left the parking lot/dump off point to accomplish Important Errands such as golf or tennis at the club.

 

THE CHILDREN ARE LEARNING a lesson.

Dump and run.

They will most likely remember this lesson and apply it when, if, they have children of their own.

I admit I did not submit my children to the Sunday School Torture.

I DID take them with me when I went on Shabat and some other occasions.

We walked the few blocks to the synagogue. During that time we explored the neighborhood and talked of many things, but usually not “Of shoes, and ships, and sealing-wax. Of cabbages, and kings. And why the sea is boiling hot. And whether pigs have wings.” (The Walrus and the Carpenter by Lewis Carroll [https://tinyurl.com/bv52sez5] )

V. Lindoe, Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens (https://tinyurl.com/etnva2da)

I usually let the children quietly play outside of the sanctuary until time for the Shema, Amedah, and Torah portion (assuming the rabbi’s speech was brief and to the point). As they grew older, they stayed for more of the service.

Sometimes, during school vacations, they joined me on weekdays.

What my children learned they learned at their father’s side. My eldest spent a summer with his grandparents in Israel and also learned by watching Saba in synagogue.

If a child is dumped at the Sunday school door and never experiences services with a parent — girls need synagogue time, too; this is not 1850 in the old country, where ever that was — the child never will feel comfortable in a synagogue.

Now, my children are grown and I am trying to teach by example my grandchildren.

It is a bit like learning math: you don’t start with calculus, you start by adding one plus one.

First the alphabet, then words, then sentences.

Too many adult Jews who decide to become observant try to take it all on at once.

When they find that is exceedingly difficult, they give up; quit everything.

Shabat IS tough, especially for smokers (I was one once) and those addicted to tv — particularly for young children whose parents use the tv as a babysitter. (Perhaps it is harder for the parents who now have to find ways to entertain the children. Maybe talk “Of shoes, and ships, and sealing-wax. Of cabbages, and kings. And why the sea is boiling hot. And whether pigs have wings.”)

The Walrus and the Carpenter, Unknown
(http://classics-illustrated.com/alice/alice2.html)

Books always are good. Tailor to the person’s age and interest . When my grand-daughter was about 6, we would sit with a Collegiate dictionary where she would look at the illustrations. She’s older now, but sometimes still sits with her Saba and a dictionary — unlike Google, no electricity or Internet required. If the adult is up to it, talk about the parasha — again according to the level of the listener. Of course that may require some pre-Shabat research on the adult’s part. The internet has variations for all levels of observance, all branches of Judaism, and all ages (even geezers).

Children learn by example.

We all know that.

Sometimes we forget.

Bottom line: Dump and run probably is not the lesson we want our children to learn and emulate.

 

 

 

 

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

 

 

 

 

Comment on Don’t dump, don’t run

Opuscula Boycott B&J? Buy B&J? Nothing’s simple

BOYCOTT BEN & JERRY’S.

BUY BEN & JERRY’S

For Israelis, it’s a quandary.

 

Israelis react to Ben & Jerry boycott: https://tinyurl.com/as7uaet8

 

THIS APPLIES ONLY TO ISRAEL.

If the rest of the world wants to boycott Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, that is another matter.

But here, in Israel, boycotting a product made in Israel could put Israelis out of jobs.

I don’t care if the Israelis making the ice cream for the Israeli franchise owner are Jews, Muslims, “other,” religious or not; an Israeli is an Israeli, and an Israeli on the dole because he or she lost a job is a burden on an already burdened economy.

The Israeli franchise factory employs 160 workers and buys from many dairy farms in the area. (https://tinyurl.com/34xcrpef)

 

Who is boycotting​

Is Ben & Jerry’s boycotting sales across the “Green Line?”

The answer is YES.

Not Nestle that sold B&J to Unilever.

Not Unilever that currently owns B&J.

The organization boycotting Israel’s B&J franchise is B&J’s “social conscience” board.

Unilever “inherited” this when it acquired B&J from Nestle.

According to an Israel HaYom article (https://tinyurl.com/34xcrpef), Israeli Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked on Wednesday visited the Ben & Jerry’s factory in Israel in a show of support of its CEO, Avi Zinger, who is fighting the parent company’s recent decision to halt sales in Judea and Samaria.

“It’s not the Israeli Ben & Jerry’s that needs to be boycotted,” she said. “On the contrary, we need to buy Ben & Jerry’s Israel.”

“The CEO of Ben & Jerry’s Israel has been fighting tooth and nail for years against BDS organizations. He refuses to accept the terms of the [parent company] to boycott parts of Israel, and we will do what needs to be done to overturn their decision,” she said.  

Truck at Ben & Jerry's Israel franchise

 

ON THE OTHER HAND

Israel National News (https://tinyurl.com/683rvkn9) headlined: Israeli minister throws her Ben & Jerry’s ice cream into the garbage

Economy Minister Orna Barbivai (Yesh Atid) on Monday responded to Ben & Jerry’s decision to boycott Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria, by throwing into the garbage the container of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream that she had in her freezer.

"With all due respect, your ice creams will not guide us in the decision-making process in the country," Barbivai said in a video she posted, before throwing the ice cream into the garbage.

The article included a video (https://youtu.be/Q-jyuS0hE1k)

 

Who is right? Who is being short-sighted?

 

Options to B&J

If a person in Israel insists on boycotting B&J — that seems like the pot calling the kettle black: boycotting the boycotter — there are a number of ice cream options available in Israel. A partial list of ice cream producers in Israel includes, alphabetically,

A.G. Gilro Ltd., Beit-Shemesh, 9905117 https://gilro.co.il/english/product

American Quality Products Ltd.

Felco Ltd. http://www.fld.co.il/en/home/a/new/

GoldaGlida https://www.goldaglida.co.il

Noga Ice Cream Ltd. Patnership Rehov Hamelacha 6 7152012 Lod

Rio Ice Cream & Sweets Ltd. Netanya

Strauss Israel - Strauss Group https://www.strauss-group.co

In addition to the locally manufactured products, there also are a number of imported products available.

Bottom line: Even if B&J’s “social conscience” board and eventually Unilever exit Israel, Israelis still will have enough ice cream choices to satisfy just about every sweet tooth.

 

If you must boycott

B&J, controlled by its “social conscience” board, is owned by Unilever.

If something must be boycotted, let it be all Unilever products made outside of Israel. Boycotting Israeli-made products is counter-productive.

 

 

 

 

 

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

 

 

 

 

Comment on B&J boycott

Opuscula Polls reveal What pollsters Want revealed

The boldface, over-sized headlines claim

25% of US Jews believe
Israel is an apartheid state

The above headline is from World Israel News @ https://tinyurl.com/c7a2cp84, but it is replicated, in the same or similar words, on multiple web sites.

 

HAS ANYONE SEEN THIS POLL?

Does anyone know

✡ How the questions were phrased?

✡ How were the questions asked?

✡ Who asked the questions?

✡ Where were the questions asked?

✡ Were political affiliations questioned?

✡ Were the respondents’ religious affiliations questioned?

✡ Who were the pollsters and what were THEIR politics?

✡ Have the respondents ever BEEN to Israel?

 

Does your wife know you still are cheating on her?

 

Not alone   Israel education needed, but can it be trusted?

Mitchell Bard, writing for Jewish News Service (JNS) on 22 JUL 21, agrees this polls should be taken lightly.

"They only seem reasonable if the respondents were drawn from Jewish Voice for Peace, J Street and IfNotNow. Such suspicions are supported by the fact the pollster has worked for J Street, which has published similarly dubious poll results." (https://tinyurl.com/ck2jakwc)

In an article headlined: Analysis: Jews gaslighting Jews – poll on US Jews’ attitudes towards Israel (https://tinyurl.com/4r4nrjhw), Dr. Alex Joffe, BESA Center (https://besacenter.org/) writes that A recent poll purports to capture the attitudes of American Jews regarding Israel and politics, but a closer look shows it was presented with a clear narrative arc designed to manipulate the respondents. The article cites specifics that actually answer some of the questions posed above.

 

This scrivener once was obliged to do “Man in the Street” interviews.

I determined what to ask, and I determined who to ask. Finally, I was the person asking the question so I could, via voice inflection and facial expression, give the respondent a clue to the response I wanted.

Naturally I never would try to influence a response. Naturally.

 

Trust? (forexlive https://az705044.vo.msecnd.net)

 

Call me skeptical

Unless I know ALL the answers to the eight questions above, AND until I see/hear the questions, my faith in a questionnaire (poll) is limited, sometimes severely limited.

I’ve “been there and done that.”

When I first read the 25% of US Jews believe Israel is an apartheid state I used a search engine — actually two: Google and Dogpile, the librarian’s choice — to try to find the complete questionnaire.

I failed to find it.

Indeed, I failed to find answers to ANY of the eight questions posed above.

I recently came back to Israel from the U.S.

In the U.S., where I lived the previous 42 years, I mostly resided in Florida and Virginia. (Before making aliyah in 1975, I lived and worked in more than 20 U.S. states.)

While I do know some JINOs who would claim that Israel is an apartheid state. I also know that none — zero percent — had ANY first hand experience in Israel.

The Jews I know mostly are at least “somewhat” observant and none — zero percent — agree with the poll.

That is not to claim all consider Israel to be a modern Gan Eden; all are realists.

 

Greg Perry,, Winnipeg Free Press (https://tinyurl.com/f9xxs8fn)

 

Stay home, stay ignorant

I recall news stories about anti-Israel JINOs and friends who hung out at airports , particularly JFK in New York, to discourage Jewish youth from going on Birthright trips to Israel.

Admittedly, the Birthright trips — my daughter went on one — are designed to favorably impress young people with an “Israel experience.”

Despite that, Birthright cannot, and does not, hide Israel’s deficiencies.

Apartheid, however, is not one of those deficiencies.

Is there racism in Israel?

Yes.

Mostly Euro-Jews looking down on everyone different from them.

(Who rejected the Ethiopian Jews? Euro-Jews. Who accepted Ethiopian Jews? Sefardim and Mizrachim. On the other hand, who wanted to send illegal immigrants from Sudan back to Sudan? The poor Sefardim and Mizrachim of south Tel Aviv, where the illegals encamped. Who rose to the Sundanese defense? The Euro-Jews who live far from crime-ridden south Tel Aviv.)

Some of my best friends are observant Ashkenazim.

Admittedly, some predominately Muslim neighborhoods get less government services than nearby predominately Jewish neighborhoods, but that partially is do to politics — when a neighborhood gives most of its support to political parties that would destroy the state, it is, IMO, “reasonable” that the state would place a lower priority on those neighborhoods.

Scratch my back; I’ll scratch yours. Fact of life.

At the same time, Muslims are integrating into all segments of Israeli society.

“Muslims” is the operative word since Druze, who do not consider themselves Muslims, and other “non-Muslim” Arabs have been found in all segments of Israel society since the country’s founding.

If anything, Birthright is a minor counter to the anti-Israel, anti-Semitism plaguing too many universities in the U.S. and, reportedly, elsewhere.

 

Before you believe

Before believing ANY poll, consider the eight questions asked near the beginning of this rant.

Unless you have all the answers, the poll results are almost useless to anyone except the person or organization sponsoring the poll and the people responsible for both the questions, how they are presented, and to whom they are presented.

 

Opuscula Bibi whines: Bennett is soft On Iran & Biden

Vindication.

More proof.

On 14 July this blog had an entry headed “Publication’s true colors finally exposed to readers” (https://tinyurl.com/639sbbam) in which it suggested former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is behaving as badly as Hillary Clinton or my grandchildren, perhaps worse.

Today, a headline in World Israel News (https://tinyurl.com/mdnr55ue) confirms, at least for this scrivener, yesterday’s effort.

 

THE HEADLINE: "Bennett twiddling his thumbs while Iran goes nuclear," charges Netanyahu followed by a leed paragraph that reads Bennett’s office fired back, accusing Netanyahu of failing to deal with the Iranian threat during his years in power.

Netanyahu missed his chance to act when Donald Trump was U.S. president.

Not only was Trump a strong supporter of Israel, but Muslim countries in the region feared Iran more than they hated Israel, ergo the Abraham Accords.

Now, Trump is gone — perhaps only temporarily — and the leftistS in the U.S. control the White House.

Bennett finds not even luke warm support for an attack on Iran in Washington.

The Abraham Accords, now defunded by the leftists, are tottering — it be a small miracle if they survive the current administration.

What would Bibi do about enemies?

Given he did relatively little during his more-than-a-decade as Israel’s prime minister, even when he had strong support from Washington, what would he do were he in Bennett’s position and had zero support from the White House and the sycophants surrounding the occupants of the nation’s capitol?

Given his lack of action against Iran when he had political support from Washington, why is anyone listening to his sour grapes (right) now than Bennett is at the helm?

Netanyahu has publicly stated his goal is to “bring down the government.”

Like a petulant child, if Netanyahu can’t get his way, he will take his toy (the government) and go home.

Netanyahu has once again driven people out of “his” party, Likud, and he refused a chance to bring in a right-wing, Likud-led coalition by simply stepping down as party head (and therefore prime minister) for a year.

It’s documented.

What can Bennett do?

The reality is that Bennett’s hands are tied.

Washington has abandoned Israel to kowtow to Iran (lifting Trump’s effective sanctions) and restoring the funding to the “Palestinians” that Trump canceled that nearly forced Ramallah to the negotiating table.

Israel could turn Iran into ashes.

Israel could seal the borders to PLO/PFLP areas and its border with Hamas in Gaza. (The Hamas Gaza/Egyptian border is open as long as Egypt is willing to allow traffic through it. Israel does not control Egypt’s actions.)

While much of the Muslim world would privately applaud, it would publicly condemn Israel.

Europe would shun Israel while some secretly would be delighted. Euro-liberals would take to the streets for a new Kristallnacht.

The leftists in North America — lest we forget the Canadians — would gnash their teeth, wring their hands, and send BLMers to destroy anything and everything Jewish in their own countries.

China would see such actions as another opportunity to extend its influence.

Bottom line: Israel would win the battle but loose the hasbara (PR) war, a war it has continued to lose since 1949.

Beyond that, there are some, perhaps many, in Iran that would prefer the ayatollahs to get out of government and return to their madrashas. While the mullahs probably would sacrifice the average Iranian (Persian) to stay in power, Israel — as proven multiple times in Gaza — is less inclined to murder innocents.

 

As an aside: Netanyahu was prime minister for a dozen years. Why didn’t he eliminate Hamas, et al, and put an end to the missile attacks on Israeli civilians? Gaza is a much smaller enemy than Iran and a much lesser threat than Iran. And then there is Hezbollah in Syria/Lebanon. Netanyahu failed to remove it and is rockets.

 

Bennett’s problems

In addition to Bennett’s problems with Washington and Netanyahu’s whining, he also must contend with a government that includes

✡ Likud — Netanyahu’s sycophants and loyalists

✡ Far left parties such as the almost defunct Labor party and Meretz

✡ Anti-Israel parties such as Ra’am

The “religious” parties refused to be part of a government that includes the anti-Israel Ra’am party.

A number of members of the more centrist parties simply wanted to be rid of Netanyahu.

The “Dump Netanyahu” movement

✡ Caused some members to abandon Likud

✡ Forced other right wing and centrist parties to look to other leadership

In order to maintain a coalition of unlikely bedfellows, Bennett and his partner in the leadership, Yair Lapid ,have had to compromise their own political positions. That included accepting Ra’am into the government and naming PLO supporter Ibtisam Mara’ana from the Labor party to the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee (https://tinyurl.com/47xbbahc).

For the good of the country

If Netanyahu really cared about the county that allowed him to lead it for more than a decade, he would do what former national leaders have done: assume the role of “elder statesman,” write (or find a ghost writer) for a book about his real or imagined successes, retire to his home to raise flowers and grandchildren.

Ben Gurion did it.

Menachem Begin did it.

Even Golda Meir did it.

Quiet retirement not to Netanyahu's liking?

He could do as Ehud Barak, Ehud Olmert, Moshe Sharett and find a profitable situation .

He could even convince his buddies in the Knesset to name him president, as Shimon Peres did.

Netanyahu would rather bring down a government before it gets a chance to accomplish anything — accomplishments would make Netanyahu’s years in office look bad — than to accept defeat and retire gracefully “Stage Right.”

He put his ego above his party and he put his ego above a conservative coalition.

He needs to put his ego on a shelf.

Given time, Bennett and Lapid may well have Israelis wishing Netanyahu was at the helm, but for now, he is not, and his whining is unbecoming for a former prime minister.

 

 

 

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

 

 

 

 

Comment on Netanyau whines

Opuscula Publication’s True colors finally Exposed to readers

MOST OF ISRAEL’S NATIONAL MEDIA, tv, newspapers, and on-line publications, are politically left of center; some more than others. (Specifically,, limited circulation/limited interest media, such as that controlled by Orthodox rabbis, are excluded from the “most national media” category.)

One publication stood out as a bastion of conservatism.

Operative word: “Stood.”

Past tense.

 

I USED TO THINK ISRAEL HAYOM presented basically fair coverage, less influenced by the politicians than other publications.

It was to the right-of-center, to be certain.

However,

New name needed

The newspaper is owned lock, stock, and ink barrel by “an unidentified relative” of the Adelson family.¹ On the death of Sheldon Adelson, his widow, Dr. Miriam Adelson, assumed the role of publisher.

While Benjamin Netanyahu was prime minister, Israel HaYom stayed close to its general conservative roots.

However, when Netanyahu was deposed — primarily by his own doing — the paper’s loyalty to the former prime minister took precedence over journalistic integrity.

No matter what the leaders of the current coalition do (or don’t do) they are pilloried by Israel HaYom columnists and headline writers.

Netanyahu could do no wrong (despite his record).

Netanyahu’s foes can do no right — never mind that they have been in office less than 90 days.

In this scrivener’s opinion, the publication should be renamed to

Bibi’s Personal PR sheet

Caveat: I was not, I am not, a fan to Benjamin Netanyahu.

Just like Hillary

Netanyahu and his followers learned from Hillary Clinton and her Democrat sycophants after she lost the 2016 election to President Donald Trump.

Whine.

Claim he could do better.

Disrupt parliamentary discussions.

Exit in a huff.

Promise to “bring down the government” because the man who would be king was deposed.

Childish.

My grandchildren are no worse, and they are 10 and 6.

Frankly, Netanyahu’s behavior, and that of his hangers on is embarrassing.

Embarrassing to the country he used to lead.

Embarrassing to the people who once gave his party their votes.

(In Israel, Members of Knesset (MKs) are elected by party; the more votes (mandates) a party receives, the more members will make it into the Knesset. The Knesset has 120 seats.)

All about Bibi

This is not the first time people have left the Likud party, the party Netanyahu leads.

In a previous instance, several Likud members left the party because of Netanyahu’s flips and flops. The best known of the defectors was former Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir (right).

Shamir was a critic of his Likud successor, Benjamin Netanyahu, as being too indecisive in dealing with the Arabs. Shamir went so far as to resign from the Likud in 1998 and endorse Herut, a right-wing splinter movement led by Benny Begin, which later joined the National Union during the 1999 election. (https://tinyurl.com/snvutxm9)

According to Jonathan S. Tobin, editor in chief of Jewish News Syndicate, “the creation of the so-called unity government was made possible by one man and one man only. And his name is Benjamin Netanyahu. Such a coalition was rendered possible by Netanyahu’s personal untrustworthiness.” (https://tinyurl.com/2awx3d38)

Finance Minister Israel Katz told activists for the ruling Likud that in an attempt to prevent the party’s fall from power, he had suggested that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu step aside temporarily to enable the formation of a right-wing government. (https://tinyurl.com/yxzelhg6)

Netanyahu refused, even though Katz (illegally ?) promised that Netanyahu could continue to reside in the PM’s residence while he “vacationed” for a year.

Bibi and D.C.

Netanyahu had his problems with Washington while the Democrats were lodged in the White House.

During the Trump administration, Bibi and Trump had a warm relationship that led to the Abraham Accords (for which Netanyahu falsely claims credit).

Now that the Obama protege (right) is sitting in the Oval Office and surrounding himself with pro-Muslim/anti-Israel advisors, Netanyahu would hardly be welcome at the White House. (Would Biden snub a prime minister as the chutzpan Obama did?)

The current coalition — it is not expected to last the full four-year term — is more pragmatic, less antagonistic to Washington than Netanyahu following Trump’s defeat.

 

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Sources

1. Wikipedia: https://tinyurl.com/2a9jneac Footnote 9)

 

 

 

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

 

 

 

 

Comment on True colors

Opuscula Ubiquitous Form 17 17 טופס

THINGS ARE DIFFERENT IN ISRAEL, at least for an ex-pat American. 

An aside: Because transliteration is never perfect, this scrivener prefers to write the English-language word in Latin letters followed by the Hebrew word in Hebrew letters: thus > ככה

 

SINCE ARRIVING (THIS TIME) I have spent entirely too much time in a hospital or getting medical tests.

It turns out I have a small malignancy in my left ureter. Eventually it will be removed and, hopefully, that will be the end of my hospital stays and visits.

Over the course of the processes, I have been seen by doctors who work for my insurance company (Macabbi – מכבי) and by doctors who are employed by a hospital.  

USA way

IN THE U.S. with a Medicare Part “C” all-inclusive or “advantage” plan, my primary care physician (PCP) would refer me to a specialist.

If the insurance carrier got involved, that involvement was between the carrier and my PCP.

PCP to me: I’m referring you to a specialist.

PCP to insurer: Insurance company, my patient needs a specialist; this one is on your providers’ list; send a referral to the patient.

Sometimes, the insurance company sent the referral to the PCP and the PCP forwarded it to me.The PCP usually alerted the specialist to expect me to call for an appointment.

In one case I was delayed in making an appointment. The provider called me: When are you coming in?

 

The Israel way

Here, the PCP determines there is a need for specialist intervention, same as in the States.

The patient makes an appointment with the provider.

If the provider is employed by the insurance carrier, the PCP makes a referral and the patient sees the specialist. It’s all in the family.

BUT, if the specialist belongs to a state-funded hospital, the patient needs a referral AND a code on a Form 17 that basically states the insurance company (kupat holim – קופת חולים) will pay the bill.

Two of the first things a new comer learns in Israel are:

1. Savlanute (patience – סבלנות)

2. Form 17 (טופס 17)

Before the specialist outside of the kupat holim can see the patient — more accurately, before the hospital can be paid for the specialist’s time — the patient must have a Form 17 code from the insurer.

Lacking the Form 17, the patient might be billed for the hospital employee’s services

Lacking a Form 17 will not preclude medical care, but it may cause the patient to pay a fee that will be reimbursed by the kupat holim.

 

Just what is ‘FORM 17”

Form 17 is a Financial Obligation Form

The best description I found of Form 17 and its use at on the Anglo-List.com (https://tinyurl.com/xxtjvz4m).

It actually takes things step-by-step.

The Shira Pransky Project (https://tinyurl.com/3au6e4kx) offers 5 Things To Know About Your Kupat Cholim. While it is not “Form 17 specific,” the information is well worth reading.

Emergency care will not be denied for lack of a Form 17.

Once admitted to the hospital, Form 17 goes away for all intra-hospital procedures; e.g., if the hospital doctor determines a CT scan is needed and the hospital has the facility, the patient is scanned with only the doctor’s order; no supplemental Form 17 needed until the patient is discharged.

On the other hand, all “out patient” procedures require a separate Form 17 with the “code” from the kupat holim for each procedure or interview.

Need an MRI? Get a Form 17.

Need to meet with a radiologist? Form 17.

Telephone interview with a cardiologist? Form 17.

Meet with anesthesiologist? Form 17.

 

Bureaucracy vs. efficiency

Bureaucracy wins.

Perhaps because Israel is a nation of clerks — the government employs more people than other industries — bureaucracy is safe and always will prevail over efficiency.

It would be, IMO, more efficient to have a family doctor refer to a service. The fact that the doctor, an employee of the kupat holim ordered the service should guarantee that the service will be paid by the kupah.

The patient should never be bothered to run around to get a Form 17.

Israel is an “SMS” nation, a country that expects everyone to have a mobile phone with Short Message Service (SMS or text messaging).

SMS is the primary form of communication between the kupah and the subscriber (patient) and between the non-kupah vendor (hospital, diagnostic center) and the patient.

Fortunately, if the patient’s Form 17 code failed to arrive before the patient arrives for the service, an SMS message with the code satisfies the vendor.

It sounds efficient, but compared to the U.S. process that normally does not require patient input, it is sorely lacking.

Admittedly, when I had a referral in the States, I printed out the insurance carrier’s authorization and carried it with me to my appointment; just as "CYA" since the vendor should have received the authorization from the insurer.

There I had a printer. Here I have a SMS-capable mobile phone.

SMS is efficient and as long as vendors accept SMS messages, a printer is not necessary.

But having the patient chase after a code from the insurance carrier — when the physician has a contract with the insurer and usually someone who daily deals with the insurer to get insurer approval for a process, the patient should be free of this task.

It’s an old truism: It’s not WHAT you know but WHO you know, and having an on-going relationship with an insurer and service provider expedites things and reduces errors.

If the patient has special requirements, e.g., a walker taller than the usual height, then the patient and the office person who deals with the insurer need to work together.

 

Paperless office?

Not in my lifetime.

SMS does eliminate some paperwork.

But having just signed a dozen times during one pre-operation session at a government hospital, the future of a paperless office is still in the distant future. (Banks are a little better, but a real estate transaction in Israel can cause writer’s cramp. Five pages in the U.S. to sell a house vs. more than 20 pages in Israel to buy an apartment.)

Granted, this scrivener is a curmudgeon and I prefer paper. It doesn’t (usually) get DELeted by accident as an SMS message or email might. It is (for me) easier to read.

But why should a patient have to deal with a form that requires a code from the doctor’s office.

Even if the form is sent to the patient as an email or SMS, it should not be the patient’s job or responsibility to chase down a code for a form used between the doctor’s employer (the kupah) and the service provider.

Israel is a nation of clerks. Let the kupot (health insurers) add one more clerk to handle doctor-to-provider documentation and left the patient try to get well.

 

Will it change?

In a word: No.

There is an organization that claims to help new comers navigate the system.

When it was suggested that one thing the organization might consider as a project — especially since the organization’s founder is a former member of Knesset — the reply was “It’s always been that way.”

Inertia.

 

After thought I know it will sound like “sour grapes,” but I had far less trips for tests when I had open abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) repair and even less for hernia surgery.

To be fair, the hospital (Hollywood Memorial a/k/a Regional) had my medical records and the records followed me from doctor to doctor.

My surgeons' referral persons handled everything with the insurer at the time. All I had to do was show up for the Grand Opening.

 

THAT IS HOW IT IS SUPPOSED TO WORK.

Will progress ever come to Israel?

Will we ever have world peace?

 

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PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

 

 

 

 

Comment on Form `17 – תופס 17

Opuscula Should IsraelGive citizenship Sans restrictions?

THE BIG FLAP IN ISRAEL today is: “Should Israeli citizenship be automatic for non-Jewish spouses?” With one exception, citizenship is automatic for Jews, regardless of level of observance or how the person became Jewish (mother, conversion).¹

 

MY SPOUSE IS A NATURALIZED U.S. citizen. She got a “green card” in 1979 because she was my wife. Citizenship was NOT automatic.

My Spouse had to study U.S. history, learn a little about the U.S. Constitution and its amendmentes, know the names of certain incumbent politicians, and she had to be functionally literate in English.

Moreover, she had to swear that she will uphold the laws of the U.S. and its subordinate levels of government.

She did all that was required and was granted U.S. citizenship.

Should her citizenship have been automatic?

Absolutely NOT.

It was not automatic for the war brides. (My Spouse was not a war bride.)

It was not automatic for refugees who came to America in the early 1900s.

So what is the big deal in Israel?

There are those, primarily on the left, who are proposing that any “Palestinian” who marries an Israeli citizen automatically gets citizenship.

Not “permanent residency,” citizenship.

Unlike the Jew who gets automatic citizenship because he or she is persecuted, whose health and life are threatened as they are even today, the “Palestinian” is not a refugee. He has a government, albeit despotic, and a multitude of options to relocate out of PLO/PFLP and Hamas-controlled areas.

Israel was created as a haven for Jews following the holocaust and the threats from Muslim neighbors in Arab countries.

It is a “Jewish” state, even if many Israeli Jews are more Jewish in name than practice.

Giving automatic citizenship to anyone married to an Israeli citizen is not only “out of synch” with much of the world’s nations, it also could tip the demographics of the small country. (See Citizenship by marriage, below, for countries that expedite spousal citizenship.)

Jewish-Muslim marriages are unusual and not sanctioned by either religion. Civil marriage is possible within Israel or in a neighboring country (e.g., Cypress).

If not by war . . .

Those promoting the instant-citizenship-for-spouses law ignore the natural course of events.

For two weeks observant Jews have been reading, or at least hearing, the story of Pinchas, Zimri, and Cazbi. Cazbi was the daughter of a Midianite big shot who, with her friends, enticed Zimri and his followers to abandon HaShem and follow their god, Peyor.

Pinchas impales Zimri and Cozbi by J.C. Weigel
(https://tinyurl.com/dxs34hbw)

Solomon was no better. His harem of non-Jewish ladies turned his head so much that idol worship was rampant in Jerusalem, right under Solomon’s nose.

It seems the fault lies with the women, but were it not for the willing males . . .

Since the Muslims of the PLO/PFLP and Hamas officially are committed to driving Israel to the sea and making “Palestine” Jewish free, granting “Palestinians” instant citizenship based on marriage to an Israeli citizen seems not just foolish, but stupid. Only a self-hating Jew would promote such a law.

Walk Kelly’s Pogo, right

If the Israeli citizen is in love with a “Palestinian,” let the Israeli move to an area controlled by the PLO/PFLP or Hamas. With that move, the person’s Israeli citizenship is revoked; canceled and never renewable.

It would be interesting to know how a Jewish spouse married to a “Palestinian” in either the PLO/PFLP or Hamas-controlled areas would survive.

Naturalized citizens of the U.S. can lose their U.S. citizenship by committing certain crimes; deportation is a relatively common practice, but perhaps one not invoked often enough. (https://tinyurl.com/6psnyhw5)

Citizenship by marriage

The following is excerpted from the Nomad Capitalist (https://tinyurl.com/57apw7f2)

Belize  If you married to a Belize citizen, however, you can apply for naturalization after just one year of legal residence in Belize.

Brasil  As a permanent resident of Brazil, you can apply for naturalization after four years of “uninterrupted residence” and strong ties to Brazil. However, those who have a Brazilian spouse qualify to apply for a second citizenship after just one year of uninterrupted residence in the country.

Cape Verde  Anyone who marries a Cape Verde citizen is entitled to apply for “citizenship by option” immediately after marriage. If you can manage to find a Cape Verde citizen somewhere – perhaps in Portugal – you can get married and then immediately skip the five-year naturalization path and obtain your citizenship almost immediately.

Columbia  You can speed up the 5-10 year-long process by marrying a Colombian citizen. By marriage, the timeline is shortened to only two years to obtain Colombian citizenship. The only faster way to get your hands on a Colombian passport is if you’re from another Latin country, in which case the timeline is one year.

Ireland  Those married to, or in a registered civil relationship with, an Irish citizen can apply for an Irish passport after one year of “reckonable residence” in the European country, provided they have been married or in a civil union with their partner for three years. The residency requirement prior to naturalization means you’ll be on the hook for the country’s high income taxes for at least one year, and you’ll need to spend a good amount of time in Ireland for at least two years to qualify.

Mexico  You can shave three years off the normal naturalization process and obtain a Mexican passport through marriage. As the spouse of a Mexican, you are entitled to apply for naturalization after just two years of living with that spouse in Mexico.

Poland  Poland allows those with a Polish spouse to become a naturalized citizen after three years of marriage and two years of uninterrupted residence in the country. In addition to being married for three years, you must actually spend the majority of two years in Poland.

Portugal  Portugal requires those who obtain Portuguese residency to live in the country for at least six years before applying for a passport. However, those married to a Portuguese citizen can apply for naturalization more quickly. The process doesn’t even require you to actually spend time on Portuguese soil, meaning you could live overseas with a Portuguese spouse and still qualify. However, while the process is often easier on foreigner spouses, naturalization does require you to learn some of the Portuguese language and have ties to the country.

Serbia  You must have been married to a Serbian for three years, maintain permanent residence, and sign paperwork claiming that Serbia is “your country”.

Spain  Naturalization in Spain is a highly bureaucratic process and usually requires ten years of solid residence in the country. The tax burden for those ten years could be quite high. However, those married to a Spanish citizen are able to apply for Spanish citizenship after just one year of tax residence in the country.

Switzerland  Switzerland offers those married to Swiss nationals a “simplified naturalization” process. You may remember that Tina Turner recently relinquished her US citizenship to become Swiss after fulfilling a rather long twelve year residency requirement. Getting a Swiss passport through permanent residence alone is a slow process. However, the simplified naturalization process allows for spouses of Swiss nationals to apply for citizenship after five years of marriage, so long as they live in the confederation.

Ukraine  Ukraine has a fast track naturalization process for foreigners married to Ukrainian citizens, reducing the timeline to citizenship from five years to only two. However, Ukraine technically does not allow dual citizenship, meaning you are likely to be asked to renounce your current citizenship before claiming a Ukrainian passport.

 

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Sources

1. The one notable exception is Meyer Lansky. TEL AVIV, Sept. 11—Israel's highest court ruled today that Meyer Lansky, an alleged ‘American underworld figure, was not entitled to Israeli citizenship even though he is a Jew. (https://tinyurl.com/3fskax99) Lansky never was found guilty of anything more serious than illegal gambling.

 

 

 

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

 

 

 

 

Comment on Instant citizenship?

Opuscula For Linda Sarsour Ignorance is bliss, History is ignored

Linda Sarsour (right) obviously doesn’t know the history of her claimed religion.

Sarsour rose to prominence as one of the organizers of the first Women’s March on Washington in 2017. She appeared in a video (https://tinyurl.com/y35nuv3x) claiming that:

✡ Jewish King David was a Muslim,

✡ Characterized Jesus (a Jew) as a Palestinian,

✡ Accused Israel of ethnic cleansing,

✡ Lauded the anti-Semitic leader of the Nation of Islam Louis Farrakhan,

✡ Insisted that Israel “is built on the idea that Jews are supreme to everyone else.”

While her comments about ethnic cleansing, Farrakhan, and Jewish supremacy are just her opinions, she is laughably wrong about David, Jesus, and Israel’s alleged “ethic cleansing.”

 

 

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History: Who needs it?

 

BCE vs. BC; CE vs. AD

BCE means Before the Current (or Common) Era; it equates to “BC” or predates Jesus’ supposed birth year.

CE means Current (or Common) Era; it equates to the Latin “AD”

 

According to most authorities ^{1, 2, 3, 4}, Islam got its start in the seventh century of the current era (a/k/a “AD”).

Although its roots go back further, scholars typically date the creation of Islam to the 7th century, making it the youngest of the major world religions.¹

The rise of Islam is intrinsically linked with the Prophet Muhammad, believed by Muslims to be the last in a long line of prophets that includes Moses and Jesus.²

The start of Islam is marked in the year 610, following the first revelation to the prophet Muhammad at the age of 40.³

Islam is an Abrahamic-monotheistic religion based upon the teachings of Prophet Muhammad ibn Abdullah (570-632 CE)⁴

David, Israel’s second king (following Saul), is said to have reigned from 1010–970 BCE.⁵

Even Christians acknowledge that David lived between 1040-970 before Jesus is said to have been born.⁶

Given the evidence, it is impossible for David to have been a Muslim. David lived centuries before Mohammad was born.

When did Jesus live?

Most scholars assume a date of birth between 6 and 4 BCE, and that Jesus' preaching began around CE 27–29 and lasted one to three years. They calculate the death of Jesus as having taken place between CE 30 and 36.^{7, 8}

Again, Mohammad was reportedly said to have been born in the year 570 CE, at least 560 years after Jesus is said to have been born.

Her claim that Jesus was born in “Palestine” is specious.

According to Wikipedia, the term "Palestine" first appeared in the 5th century BCE when the ancient Greek historian Herodotus wrote of a "district of Syria, called Palaistinê" between Phoenicia and Egypt in The Histories.⁹

Note Herodotus wrote a "district of Syria”, making it clear to most people who can read that “Palestine” as an independent entity did NOT exist.

The modern idea of “Palestine” can be laid at England’s political feet. England and France acquired much of the Middle East when they took the land from the Ottoman (Turkish) empire as a war prize.¹⁰

England’s “Palestine” was partitioned by the UN into Jordan (the lion’s share) and a sliver of land to be called Israel. The name “Palestine” was effectively retired.

Egyptian Yasser Arafat’s Palestine Liberation Organization was founded by a meeting of 422 “Palestinian” national figures in Jerusalem in May 1964.¹¹

History obviously is not Sarsour’s strong suit; anti-Semitism equally obviously is her forte.

Given that all the foregoing is easily accessible via the WWW, the suggestion must be that NOTHING originated from the ignorant bigot’s pen or mouth is credible.

A quick comment about her canard that Israel practices “ethnic cleansing.”

In two words: bovine excrement.  

If Israel practices “ethnic cleansing,” why are there Muslims and other Arabs in almost every aspect of Israeli life: academics, courts, government, including the Knesset, police, even military?

If Israel practices “ethnic cleansing,” why are there Muslims trying to come live in Israel?

If Israel practices “ethnic cleansing,” why are Muslims NOT leaving the country in droves?

On the contrary “Palestine” and Gaza DO have “ethnic cleansing.”

A Jew is prohibited by Islamic law from buying land in “Palestine.”

A Jew cannot travel into “Palestine” or Gaza without fearing for his or her life.

 

 

Sources

1. https://tinyurl.com/43xtf7nh

2. https://tinyurl.com/m2c7xcuf

3. https://tinyurl.com/t7f4mkwm

4. https://tinyurl.com/hv8rbv5n

5. https://tinyurl.com/4ej3nk56

6. https://tinyurl.com/34vxafxr

7. https://tinyurl.com/4v5kpuje

8. https://tinyurl.com/btvjbywd

9. https://tinyurl.com/6uudvd2b

10. https://tinyurl.com/h9bw5ku2

11. https://tinyurl.com/uswpz6sf

 

 

 

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

 

 

 

 

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Opuscula Kid at heart: Trains & cranes Still fascinate me

I AM AN EARLY RISER. A “morning person.” Almost always have been.

I take my coffee and tea cookies to the balcony to “slap leather” and greet the day. It’s pretty quiet at 5:30 a.m . in Yavne.

 

FOR MOST OF MY LIFE I lived near an airport. By near I mean within 15 minutes by car (FLL) or bicycle (MIA). I once lived in the final approach to MIA.

I am accustomed to airport noises.

Here, the commercial airport is more than 15 minutes away and Yavne is not in take-off or landing paths; no passenger planes in sight.

We do hear planes — fighters, an occasional helicopter, a single-engine high wing, and what sounded like (I didn’t see it) a C-130.

What I DO hear are trains.

Yavne has two — 2 ! — train depots (“stations” to some).

One, Yavne East is within scooter distance from the balcony. (The scooter has a roughly 12-mile range; the depot is within round-trip range.)

From the balcony I can hear the 6:24 arriving from Ashdod heading north to Tel Aviv.

At 7 a.m. I hear the first southbound train arriving from Tel Aviv.

I don’t hear other trains after 7 a.m.; I‘m “unstrapping” and ready for the rest of my day.

Northbound and southbound trains come through Yavne-East every 60 minutes. Heading north, be at the depot at *:15 to catch the *:24 toward Tel Aviv. Coming from the north, the train arrives on the hour.

Fridays and Sundays the trains are packed; truly Standing Room Only (SRO) as solders (with their packs and weapons) head home (Friday) or back to base (Sunday). Buses likewise are SRO.

At other times, however, the trains offer reliable, comfortable transportation, complete with Wi-Fi and AC outlets (for ubiquitous mobile phones).

It is possible to go to most major cities (and some not-so-major cities) by train. (See route map at the end of this entry.)

Rather than drive, we ride the train to visit kin in a Haifa suburb or in Bet Shean. The depots also are bus stops, so there is no need to depend either on a ride from a relative or shank’s mare.¹

Trains are relatively inexpensive, especially when compared to the price of gasoline.

Cost of driving in Israel^{2, 3}

 

Other options

There are other travel options beside the train.

Egged, the national bus company, goes almost everywhere in Israel. Egged has competition, but it remains the “800 pound gorilla” for inter-city bus travel.

As with the train, a change of vehicles may be necessary depending on time of day and destination.

Buses are air conditioned and fairly comfortable, second only to the train.

Egged’s web site (https://tinyurl.com/yzc4ofro) provides all the information, albeit not as cleanly as Israel Railways.

Inter-city taxis also are available.

The benefit of a taxi is that it is faster than train or bus and it is point-to-point.

There are taxis and taxis. Shereuts are multi-passenger vehicles that squeeze in as many passengers as possible and there are taxis that carry just the passenger(s) who hire it.

When speed is of the essence, a taxi is the preferred method.

There also is a rental car option.

 

Library at the Station

It may not be unique, but it IS unusual.

Israel Railways offers, at selected depots, free lending libraries.

Borrow a book, read it on the train (or at the destination), and return the book on the return trip . . . or return it to another station.

The process is clearly presented on the Israel Railways site at https://tinyurl.com/yf4wrp8d .

The Library at the Station also accepts used books at some depots.

 

A word about cranes

The hed^cq for this entry mentions both trains and cranes.

While there have been a lot of words about trains, herewith a few words about cranes.

No matter where you go in Israel — and no matter how you get there — you are bound to see construction cranes. They are almost as ubiquitous as cell phones.

I often wondered how they were put up and taken down.

The other day, I discovered how: with a portable crane with a l-o-n-g reach.

I watched as some very brave people disconnected crane parts so the parts could be lowered to a waiting truck.

Being a tad acrophobic, there is no way I would volunteer for a job connecting or disconnecting a crane's parts, especially when the activity is more than 100 feet above the ground. (I wonder what these guys think about the Mohawks who work big city high rises.)

 

Crane by David Rosen (https://tinyurl.com/yf8st48w)

 

Sources

1. Shank’s mare: https://tinyurl.com/ygu3rnoy

2. Volume: https://tinyurl.com/yekftcmc

3. Currency: https://tinyurl.com/yfx8744m  

Israel Railways route map (https://tinyurl.com/yhx7ysta)

 

 

 

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

 

 

 

 

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