Category Archives: Arab/Israeli Conflict

Jerusalem to Tel Aviv: How the anger shifted

Arab/Israeli Conflict,

In the wake of a terrorist attack in Tel Aviv, Michael Horesh writes about how the anger has shifted:

If I normally write about business in Israel and primarily in Jerusalem, the events of last night force me to discuss what happened in Tel Aviv.

Two young Palestinians, dressed up as orthodox Jews, ordered coffee at the popular Max Brenner restaurant in the trendy Sarona market complex in central Tel Aviv. Nothing wrong in that, except that once they had calmly finished their drinks, they slew at point blank range four fellow customers. The security camera captured the massacre.

Since the Autumn of last year, Israel, and particularly Jerusalem, has been the subject of a number of horrendous terrorist incidents. They typically involved random stabbings of innocent civilians.

However, the attack in Tel Aviv has created a new atmosphere, one that has captured the viewpoint of just about all Israelis, whatever their political or religious take. After the anguish, a feeling of deep, deep, deep anger has rushed to the surface. So what was different about last night?

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Touring the ‘West Bank’ with Machsom’s Watch

Arab/Israeli Conflict, Israeli Society

By Uri Pilichowski, published in The Times of Israel:

Over the summer, tour groups come to our house in Mitzpe Yericho to meet “real settlers” and hear about life in Judea and Samaria — what the world calls the West Bank. Looking at our glorious view of Jericho, the Jordan Valley and the Jordanian mountains, I talk about the religious, legal and national right of the Israeli people have to live in this small strip.

During the Q & A part of one group’s visit, I was asked if I have empathy for Palestinian suffering. I answered that of course I had empathy for their suffering — Jews wish suffering on no one. I expressed my hope that one day there would be peace between our people and all suffering would stop.

Inspired by that interaction and many more left wing friends’ challenges to see things from the Palestinian perspective, I joined an uber­left wing organization, “Machsom Watch” to take a tour around the West Bank and see the “occupation caused” suffering of the Palestinians. The goal, as our guide quoted President Obama’s charge to Israeli University students, was to “Put yourself in the [Palestinian’s] shoes. Look at the world through their eyes.” Read more »

What Will Christian Leaders in Bethlehem Say Now?

Arab/Israeli Conflict, Christian Churches

This post by Dexter Van Zile appeared in the Times of Israel:

It’s crunch time for Palestinian Christian leaders, especially those living in the city of Bethlehem.

Palestinian terrorists are murdering and crippling Israelis in the streets of Jerusalem by running them over in cars. They are stabbing unsuspecting Israelis to death.

Leaders in the allegedly “moderate” Palestinian Authority are accusing Israel of contaminating Muslim holy sites and calling for more violence against Israelis.

They are starting to talk like Hamas about the impossibility of allowing Jewish sovereignty on land previously governed by Muslim rulers.

What we see has all the makings of a Third Intifada that will cost hundreds, if not thousands, of people their lives. It will make life more difficult for both Jews and Arabs.

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Tom Gross: Is the BBC really ‘pro-Israel’?

Arab/Israeli Conflict, Media

From the National Post:

Some 5,000 rowdy demonstrators chanting anti-Israeli (and, in some cases, blatantly anti-Semitic) slogans brought traffic to a virtual standstill outside the BBC’s central London headquarters in Portland Place last week. They were protesting what they claim to be the BBC’s “pro-Israel” bias.

The next day, the BBC flagship Today radio news program (a program which is near compulsory listening for the British political elite, including the prime minister), ran an item on the demonstration, examining the absurd proposition that the BBC – which for decades has been at the forefront of providing a worldwide platform for Palestinian extremists (one correspondent, Barbara Plett, even admitted on air that she cried in sorrow when Yasser Arafat died) – was in fact “pro-Israel.”

“Are the protesters right? Have we been biased at the BBC in favor of Israel?” BBC anchor Mishal Husain asked her guest Greg Philo, professor of Communications and Social Change at Glasgow University.

Philo responded: “I’ve had many senior journalists at the BBC saying they simply can’t get the Palestinian viewpoint across… the Palestinian perspective is just not there.”

Leaving aside Husain’s own bias against Israel, which was well documented by watchdog organizations at the time of the last major Hamas-Israel flare-up in November 2012, the claim by Philo, and the choice to use him as the studio guest, is bizarre.

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Christian pastor arrested and expelled from Palestinian Authority

Arab/Israeli Conflict, Christian Churches

From the Jerusalem Post:

As I write these words, one week ago this morning, at this very hour, I was sitting in Bethlehem’s Palestinian Authority police headquarters. I had been sent to a separate room, an adjacent office to the one where phone and passport had been taken and remained. In spite of my objections, in spite of the PA interrogator’s pledge of hospitality, personal texts were being read. Under the watchful eye of a de facto guard, I crossed my legs, shut my eyes, relaxed with deep breaths and wordlessly prayed. It was Thursday morning, 19 June 2014.

For the past six months I have been living in Beit Jala. It is a mostly Christian community in the Bethlehem District. The Church of the Nativity was a fifteen minute walk from my room. Like the little town of Bethlehem, Beit Jala is on the other side of Israel’s security barrier. According to Oslo agreements, it is part of Area A, under governmental control of the Palestinian Authority. Still, it is common to see Westerners on the street. Bethlehem is visited by more than a million tourists every year. Most, I think, do not understand they have left the umbrella of Israel’s sovereign protection. With the exception of a few risk-takers, none of these visitors are Israeli. It is against the law for them to be in the Bethlehem district. Large red signs are posted at area entrances. They read, “This road leads to Area ‘A.’ Entrance for Israeli citizens is forbidden. [It is] dangerous to your lives and is against Israeli law.” Surprising to many of my friends, I felt safe. Until last Thursday morning.

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