I thought long and hard when I was asked about the grass-roots feelings of us Israelis concerning the Palestinian goings-on at the United Nations this week. All the big hitters, from both the Palestinian and the Israeli sides, are in New York for the opening of the UN session. Not to mention President Barack Obama's presence at the General Assembly.

The US President opened with a supportive-of-Israel speech that knocked our collective socks off. The Arabs mostly hated it. The Israelis mostly loved it. Who would have thought? 

Almost since his inauguration some three years ago, Obama has been the bête noire of huge numbers of Jews around the world, including many Israelis. Yet just last week, the lead story in the Sept 18th edition of "New York Magazine" was subtitled: "Barack Obama is the best thing Israel has going for it right now".

On the other hand, also last week, for the first time in 90 years, voters in New York's District 9, which includes large numbers of Jewish voters, chose a Republican candidate and not a Democrat. A slap in the face to the President. What is going on?

President Obama's main message was that the recognition and establishment of a Palestinian State must eventually come about, but will not happen through votes in the United Nations. Samuel Goldwyn once famously said: "A verbal contract is not worth the paper it's written on". Apparently the US President thinks pretty much the same value applies to UN declarations declaring a new member state, authoritative as that declaration may be. Read more

Unfortunately, it's still awfully hot on the streets of England. Jonathan Danilowitz with a take on the riots that the cops can't seem to stop:

Last night I watched clips of the rioting in London. Fearless youths taunted the unarmed, unprepared police. And the police, apparently out in droves, were next to useless. The rioters fired cars, smashed windows, looted – and the police seemed helpless.
 

 

It’s been going on for four days now.
 

I cannot abide violence, especially violence for its own sake. I also cannot help but recall how peaceful (and effective) Israel’s demonstrations have been  The government is finally sitting up and listening. I also cannot help but recall how the world came down on Israel like a ton of bricks because of Israel’s alleged ‘out-of-proportion’ (and effective) response to the rockets fired from Gaza at civilian Israeli targets. Israel is always accused of over-reacting.
 

 

Hey Mr. British Prime Minister! Wanna stop the riots? Start having real men (and women) using real equipment on the rioters. Stop pussy-footing and being politically correct. Do it now! Before it’s too late. Before other hate groups in England (and Britain) understand that they can do what they like there.

Israel is aflame. Figuratively.

It began weeks ago, with doctors protesting their low salaries; then the nurses joined in complaining there are not enough staff positions to cope with overcrowded wards. Then a national campaign began because of the high price of dairy products, and that soon spread to other consumerables. Recently “the students” (a wide-ranging designation if ever there was one) began a campaign to achieve affordable housing. They were joined by “young couples”, and then by single mothers, working mothers, the aged, the disabled, the unemployed – all yelling for price reductions, lower taxes, affordable health care, affordable housing.

The protests have been largely a-political, although it didn’t take long for politicians to spot the niche. Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu is taking flak from all sides, even though the situation – a result of years of social justice errors and geo-political issues – is far from his making.

Israel’s economy is strong. Israel recovered quickly from the world financial crisis, and real estate prices have remained stable (part of the problem apparently). Israel’s currency stands up well to market forces and unemployment is at an all-time low. Tourism is at an all-time high, restaurants are packed, hotels booked solid for the summer. Read more

Full disclosure: I was born into and brought in an observant, almost orthodox Jewish family. Shabbat, kashrut, chagim, Zionism; the full Monty. In later years I became even more observant: tfillin every day, strict Sabbath observance – you get the picture. Today I am a proud Jew, a very proud Zionist. I live in Israel. And I am a complete atheist. Religion plays no part in my life – except to annoy and ruin it.

I know there is a paradox here: Why live in Israel, why claim to be a Zionist, if I’m not even “Jewish”? For all those who cannot live with this paradox, stop reading right now. I cannot solve or resolve it. I live comfortably within this equation. I am terribly proud to be Jewish, proud of my background, proud of my small-town-South Africa upbringing. I have just grown to detest all religion.

Let me clarify that a bit: I hate religious coercion. I hate being ruled by any religion based on other men (yes, they are invariably men) telling me how to live my life, what to wear, what to eat, where to live (ok I like that one – Judaism dictates living in Israel), when and how to pray, whom to marry, how to divorce, who to hate, who can be killed, who can be enslaved, whether to accept “strangers”, who is a whore, a bastard (and for how many generations), when I can turn on and off the lights, when I can cook, etc etc etc.

Jewish tradition is rich and beautiful, user-friendly and thoughtful, kind and welcoming, family-oriented and charitable. What’s not to like? Why the disillusionment? What have I discovered, that still burdens others?

Today’s Judaism as dictated by rabbis of various religious streams is vicious, divisive, discriminatory, cruel, oppressive, sexist, and anti-democratic. In short, unbearable. This very week Israel is being rocked by a scandal where two senior rabbis who were summoned to give police testimony – simply refused! “We are above the law. The police have no right to question us. We know better”, was their message. The background (ugly as it is) is irrelevant. These religious leaders see themselves as so special, that they are even above the courts, above our entire justice system. I cannot respect a religion with such a credo. Moreover, their supporters, hooligans of the lowest order, created havoc, blocking roads, storming the courts, insulting the Israeli justice system. Read more

The Propagandist's Israeli correspondent Jonathan Danilowitz goes berserk on Queers Against Israeli Apartheid in the Real Israel's Blog -- not to mention their cowardly enablers in Toronto:

QAIA – a gay group – totally ignores the homophobic Arab states and they are oblivious to the massacres presently going on by Arab governments against their own protesting citizens in Egypt, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Tunis, Libya, Syria, not  to mention Turkey, North Korea, Uganda, Zimbabwe – the list is long. The racist anti-Semitism of the hate group is obvious, clear and defined.
 

 

The Toronto City Council, and especially the mayor, made it clear, and rightly so, that the Toronto Pride Parade would lose its funding from the city if the organizers allowed the hate group to fan the racist flames during the parade. All thinking people applauded the decision. Except that without the funding, the parade would not go on, and the Toronto City Council desperately wants the parade – it brings tourist, business & income to the city.
 

In an act of cowardly avarice (money-grubbing greed) the City Council of Toronto overturned their own decision, by deciding to sanitize the hate speech of QUIA by calling it “freedom of speech”. Wow.

Extracts from a press release of the Syrian Reform Party.

Washington DC, June 5, 2011. The Reform Party of Syria has learned today, from intelligence sources close to the Assad regime in Lebanon … “ the [Syrian] regime has paid hundreds [of farmers] … $1,000 each to show-up [on the Syrian-Israel border] and $10,000 to their families should any of them succumb to Israeli fire. In Syria, an average salary is about $200 a month …
 

“It is obvious, with this action, Assad wants to divert the attention of the world away from his own massacres and brutality”.

Bashar al-Assad “inherited” Syria from his father Hafez. (That’s how it works in those tyrannical autocracies). These are dictators who will do anything – ANYTHING - to remain in power. In 1982 Assad senior ordered his troops to quell an uprising against him in the town of Hama. Reliable figures show that he massacred about 20,000 Syrians, in cold blood. It’s hardly worth quoting figures here on just how many Syrians the government has murdered during the current so-called “Arab spring” uprising – the figures mount daily, almost hourly. Those are Syrians firing on their own brethren. Not some outside enemy infiltrators.

According to Syrian TV sources, on Sunday the Israel Defence Forces killed 25 Syrians on the Golan Heights. According to IDF sources – historically rather more reliable and accurate than Arab sources in general, Syrian sources in particular – four people, trying to enter Israel illegally, were shot after they refused to withdraw. Read more

It's been about a year now since I began doing English tutoring at Arab schools in Jaffa. It's a volunteer job, arranged through a local NGO geared at improving Jewish-Moslem and Israel-Arab relations. An admirable and peaceful aim, to be sure. The kids are mostly about 10 years old, boys & girls, largely Moslem, but some Christian Arabs too. (Why did I think Arab kids were more polite and better behaved than our Jewish youth? It seems that kids are kids - noisy, rowdy and out to avoid learning at all costs. Ok, I'm exaggerating, but humor me will you?) My two bêtes noires there are Ahmad and Mohammed, both sweet boys, but determined to make my life a misery.

Sunday was "Yom Hanaqba" in Israel. That is the Arab name for the day Israel was established in 1948, the day the Arab world now nominates as "Disaster Day". Sunday was horrific, with Syrian & Lebanese attempts to broach Israel's border and repudiate her sovereignty. Several Israeli soldiers were injured, several Arabs killed and many injured. What a waste of human life.

Eli Hertz, writing in "Myths & Facts" explains why Yom Hanaqba is the fault of the Arabs, and why their suffering (and we cannot deny that they suffer) is all their own fault, but can be alleviated at the drop of hat - if they would only accept the legitimacy of Israel. He writes:

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The Propagandist is no stranger to haters. We get hate mail on a fairly regular basis. Roughly half of the comments submitted about our articles are so devoid of a discernible point, yet filled with such defamatory statements or just pure invective that we delete them (If you're curious, check out The Propagandist's comment policy).

It doesn't stop there. Our fellow propagandists like Real Israel editor Jonathan Danilowitz often have to distinguish between providing a platform for democratic and free expression, or disseminating hostile rhetorical sludge.

Someone recently added comments to four of my recent blogs. She/he (maybe it?) used foul language, inane remarks, vulgar falsehoods and outright lies. I decided to allow the posts, in the interests of transparency and democracy. We are all entitled to our opinions, be they from a guttersnipe or from a doctoral professor.

Italian activist Vittorio Arrigoni was held captive by a radical Islamist terror organization. That much we know, because the terrorists kidnapped him and used him as a bargaining chip in their efforts to free their own terrorist leader, apparently held by Hamas, in Gaza. They had issued formal threats, with deadlines, to execute Arrigoni if their demands were not met.

We also know for sure that the Italian activist was strangled to death. His body was recovered on Friday.

Lo and behold, everyone in terrorist-ridden Gaza is now lamenting his death. Everyone denies any knowledge of his capture, everyone is shedding crocodile tears.  Arrigoni was very pro-Palestinian, very anti-Israel. But Hamas has the chutzpah to claim that Israel  - no less - is behind the murder. Get this right: He was working in Gaza, and although he was very pro-Palestinian, he was captured by Islamic terrorists, used a bargaining chip for the release of another Islamic terrorist held by Hamas - yet Israel is to blame.

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The Propagandist's Israel-based contributing writer Jonathan Danilowitz delves into the bizarre and potentially deranged mindset of activists like those in the Toronto-based Queers Against Israeli Apartheid:

Many countries today have enacted and enforce laws similar to those of apartheid South Africa. Jewish people may not enter Saudi Arabia (religious discrimination) and women there are not allowed to drive (gender discrimination). Millions were displaced and killed recently in Sudan because of government-supported racial discrimination. Australia’s semi-secret “White Australia” immigration policy,  intended to allow only white “Europeans” to immigrate, lasted for years. Belgium is divided on linguistic lines, Iran’s laws call for homosexuals to be stoned to death, India’s apartheid caste system is alive and well in spite of lip-service legislation to the contrary, and Sunni- versus Shiite-Moslem discrimination (and bloodshed) thrives in most, if not all, Moslem countries.