יום חמישי, 6 בדצמבר 2012

Elder of Ziyon Daily News

Elder of Ziyon Daily News

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The first minyan on the Temple Mount in 913 years (updated - not quite)

Posted: 05 Dec 2012 06:13 PM PST

Something rather momentous happened on Monday.

A group of ten Jewish men prayed together on the Temple Mount.

From Times of Israel:


Likud politician Moshe Feiglin on Monday violated the unwritten rule that prohibits Jews from practicing religion on the Temple Mount, as he prayed at the holy site.

Feiglin, a political hard-liner, is No. 15 on the Likud list for the upcoming elections and head of the Jewish Leadership faction within the right-wing party, a nationalist group defined by many as extreme.

Footage obtained by Channel 10 showed a group of Jews, including the likely future MK, as they prayed on the Temple Mount.

Though there is no law against Jews praying on the Temple Mount, for years both Israeli officials and the Islamic Wakf — the religious group in charge of managing the site — have told Jews not to carry out religious ceremonies or prayers at the site, for fear of violence and a potential outbreak of riots.
The video makes it clear that this wasn't a few people praying - this was a minyan, as opposed to other times that individuals prayed on the Har HaBayit.

When was the last time there was a minyan on the Temple Mount? One might think it was before the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, but there is much evidence that Jews visited the site, off and on, for hundreds of years afterwards through the Byzantine era. In a fascinating paper by Gedalia Meyer and Henoch Messner about the halacha and history of Jews visiting the Temple Mount, we learn:
Following the Arab conquest we have very little information concerning Jewish activity on the Temple Mount. Unlike during Byzantine times, there is no indication that the Muslims prohibited Jewish visitation to the site. The first solid report of what was going on during this time comes in the early 12th  century when Jerusalem was already in the hands of the Crusaders. This report is found in a rarely referenced book called  Megilas Hamegila by Avraham ben Chiya. He was a rabbi who is believed to have lived in Barcelona and was occasionally quoted by the Abarbanel, among others.

On page 99, he mentions that the Arabs had good relations with the Jews. He says that the Jews were even permitted to have a synagogue on the Temple Mount, which they used on holidays to serve in place of the sacrifices that had been offered in the Beis Hamikdash.

This synagogue was destroyed when the Crusaders came [in 1099], and since that time the Jews were prohibited from entering the Temple Mount area.
The fact that there was an actual, functioning synagogue on the Temple Mount in the 11th century is not well known.

Any way you look at it, this visit on Monday was historic.

The Islamic media noted that Feiglin visited, and that he "attempted to perform Jewish and Talmudic rituals," but there has been no note about the prayer quorum. Certainly there have been no riots as Muslims have threatened for years.

(h/t Yerushalimey)

UPDATE: There was a minyan for several days on the Temple Mount when Jerusalem was liberated in 1967. From a letter by Rabbi Shlomo Goren, chief rabbi at the time:
In the framework of the function of the Military Rabbinate, we held organized study and prayer on the Temple Mount -- Shacharit (morning service), Mincha (afternoon service), and Ma'ariv (evening service), and Torah reading on Shabbat, Monday, and Thursday on the Temple Mount Plaza itself, inside the Mugrabi Gate, near our study center. Once, the Waqaf people tried to close the Shevatim Gate, on the northeastern end of the Temple Mount, from a gathering of officers of the Military Rabbinate that was held on the Temple Mount. We broke through the gate and entered. That taught them the Temple Mount is ours officially and practically.

On the 9th of Av, 5727 (1967 CE), I held a Mincha service for a small group on the Temple Mount Plaza across from the steps going up south of the Dome of the Rock, a place that is permissible to enter according to all Halachic authorities. This Mincha service on the 9th of Av on the Temple Mount raised many reactions in the media in Israel and abroad. Jewish writers hostile to religion in the State started incitement against our efforts to renew Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount.

In the midst of deliberations, in both governmental and religious frameworks, about renewing Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount and building a permanent synagogue on the open southern plain, the Minister of Defense told me, to my great surprise, that he decided to pass the auspices and responsibilities for all arrangements on the Temple Mount to the Islamic Waqaf. He ordered me to take the Torah study center of the Military Rabbinate down from the Temple Mount and to remove all officers of the Temple Mount. From then on, according to him, the Military Rabbinate has no responsibility for the arrangements there, and I should stop organizing Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount. I accepted the order with anger and pain, and I told the Minister of Defense that this is likely to bring about a third destruction, since the key to our sovereignty over Judea, Samaria, and Gaza is the Temple Mount.

(h/t Dr. Mike Cohen)

Bonus links!

Posted: 05 Dec 2012 03:00 PM PST

Ian's linkdump was too long already...and people keep sending me excellent stuff.

Elliott Abrams interview on ABC Australia: (h/t Ahron S)
ELLIOT ABRAMS: You know I think it's been greatly exaggerated. Again, it's not some kind of right-wing plot. Rabin and Barak both planned to build in E1. The Clinton parameter, the Olmert plan, all assumed that E1 would be part of Israel in its final settlement.

The thing is you've got a town, Ma'ale Adumim, of 40,000 people that's like a balloon tethered to Israel by one road and that's just never going to stand. I don't understand really the argument that it destroys the possibility for Palestinian states.

EMILY BOURKE: But is it not the case that it virtually bisects the West Bank and renders a Palestinian state unviable?

ELLIOT ABRAMS: No, I think that's wrong. There are two ways to solve the problem. Build a road that is east of Ma'ale Adumim where there's about 15 miles as I recall it between Ma'ale Adumim and the Jordan River. Or there's a road that goes between Jerusalem and Ma'ale Adumim. So build an overpass or build an underpass.

But the notion that it makes a Palestinian state impossible, I mean it's ironic that this argument comes the week after the UN has declared there is a Palestinian state. I mean they admitted the Palestinian state as a non-member state of the United Nations. They raised the status from into each a state.

So I just don't think it makes it unviable. You just build an overpass or an underpass. It is not a decision to construct. There will not be one shovel hitting the earth. It's just another stage in this endless planning stage that has been going on for about 30 to 40 years. It is not a decision to construct anything in E1.

Richard Behar in Forbes: My Family In Israel: One Direct Hit, Two Near Misses -- And The Brainwashing Behind The Rockets (h/t many)

Hurriyet Daily News: Is Hamas real or a bad joke? (h/t RK)
Hamas' rhetoric stinks of death, nothing but death – indiscriminate death. Be it "our" death or "the enemy's." And it never metamorphoses into something more humane, something less nihilist. Most recently, in an interview with Today's Zaman, Gaza's Hamas prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, confidently spoke of "defending and liberating Jerusalem," and "fighting the enemy forever." According to Mr. Haniyeh, the nearly 200 dead Palestinians – including Palestinian children killed by errand Hamas rockets – proved Hamas' "prowess." He called the eight-day fighting a "victory."

When journalists are legitimate military targets (Gary Osen)
Whether the IDF targeted terrorist leader Muhammed Abu Shamala as it contends, or Hamas operative and Al Aqsa TV cameraman, Hussam Salama as Hamas claims, human rights groups cannot retain credibility by describing strikes on Al Aqsa TV or its personnel as "the targeting of journalists." In doing so, they unwittingly aid terrorist organizations like Hamas in their concerted effort to transform journalism into warfare by other means.

Europe Once Again Shows that Palestinian Violence Pays, by Evelyn Gordon in Commentary:
That is a microcosm of what's wrong with the peace process as a whole: As far as most of the world is concerned, bilateral Israeli agreements are binding on one side only: Israel. Thus it's perfectly fine with the Europeans for the PA to violate one of its cardinal commitments under the peace process: that all disputes will be resolved through negotiations rather than unilaterally–or as the 1995 Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement put it, "Neither side shall initiate or take any step that will change the status of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip pending the outcome of the permanent status negotiations." But it's an outrage, completely beyond the pale, for Israel to respond by doing something that no signed agreement actually bars it from doing: In no agreement did Israel ever promise to halt construction in the West Bank or East Jerusalem.

Douglas Murray in The Spectator: Did Israeli settlements in the West Bank kill the two-state solution?
When did the dream of a two-state solution die? When it became clear that there are already two Palestinian states – the Hamas-run Gaza and the Palestinian Authority-governed West Bank? Or when the extremists of Hamas fired thousands of missiles into Israeli cities? Or last week when the 'moderates' of Fatah once again refused Israeli offers to go to the negotiating table and instead moved to circumvent their only negotiating partner via a diplomatic coup at the UN?

No, in the eyes of portions of the UK government as well as the international community, the two-state solution is threatened not by these consistent, physically and diplomatically violent moves; but by everybody's favourite subject: Israeli settlement building.

Driving in Neutral: Hillary Clinton Explains the Israel-Palestinian Conflict (Barry Rubin)
Yet in policy terms at the very moment of culmination for a Palestinian Authority three-year effort to wreck any peace process by unilateral independence and when Hamas has decided the moment has come for a jihad backed up by the Islamist tidal wave in the region, Clinton and the Obama Administration are obsessed with Israel not making even more concessions.

E1 is a mountain…not a statement (Paula Stern, TOI blog) (h/t Josh)
What we have is a mountain – not a very tall one, smaller even than the ones next to it on three sides. That's all E1 is – a mountain. It is barren, but for a road that snakes its way up to a midpoint where a large police station has been built. No one lives there – no one has. Some trees, a lot of rocks, a traffic circle at the base – that's all.

A 1955 memo from David Ben Gurion: (h/t Silke)
We're in a difficult situation with the Arabs, because when they wish to destroy or murder, they don't have to kill hundreds of us at a time. Instead, they make our life miserable day by day. Maybe they can't do otherwise, since they're afraid to send an entire military unit against us. So they send a small squad, and the squad crosses the border and waits for nightfall. Under cover of darkness they wander around until they find an object or a person, and they destroy it or kill the person. Their intention is to do this for years and wear us down...

We can't do what they do, even if we wished to, because we can't kill civilians, say to start killing Arab civilians we meet along the way..

So we have two options. We can resign ourselves to this situation, or we can not resign ourselves to it. This government was created to not resign itself to such a situation. I announced this in the Knesset.
The Deadly Israeli House, at Sultan Knish (h/t Serious Black)
According to the New York Times, which is never wrong, building more houses makes peace impossible. Peace, which is not in any way obstructed by rockets, suicide bombers, unilateral statehood bids and declarations of war, comes up against only one obstacle. The stout unyielding wall of the Israeli house.

Midweek linkdump

Posted: 05 Dec 2012 01:00 PM PST

From Ian:
Palestinians: What The UN Brought by Khaled Abu Toameh
"There has been no mention of peace process or coexistence with Israel. The belligerent and defiant tone of Fatah officials sent the message that the Palestinians are now headed toward confrontation with Israel -- not peace."

Europe Loud on Settlements, Quiet on Terrorism
"The Palestinian representative to the UK was not summoned to the Foreign Office when Palestinians unleashed what some in Israel have called a "third intifada" on Israel, with lethal rockets launched in their hundreds into Israeli civilian areas."

Netanyahu: Conflict with Arabs is Not About Settlements
Netanyahu: The entire conflict between Israel and the Arabs is over their denial of Israel's right to exist.

Jerusalem Mayor: No City in World Regulated by US President
Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat: "We need to connect the E1 area to Jerusalem without any reservations at all."

After PA UN Bid Israel Should Extend Jerusalem's Municipal Lines and Embrace Levy Report
"The post-Oslo conduct by Mahmoud Abbas and Arafat – role models of intra-Arab subversion and international terrorism, Holocaust deniers and allies of the Communist Bloc, Khomeini, Saddam Hussein Bin Laden, North Korea and Hugo Chavez – has reaffirmed that the PLO does not change its spots, only its tactics. Mahmoud Abbas is not troubled by the size – but by the existence – of the Jewish State in the Middle East."

Thomas Friedman Furious that Israel Ignores US Concerns
Thomas Friedman strikes again. The NY Times' Middle East guru decides Israel's "far right" is arrogant for ignoring US concerns.
"His conclusion reflects a view of foreign media and Western leaders that was defined in a Netanyahu government statement Wednesday as ignoring "the map" of Israel's security. Virtually all Israeli parties, with the exception of the Arab factions and the ideological left-wing Meretz party, reject any idea that Israel would surrender major Jewish population centers in Judea and Samaria."

Canada's $300-million humanitarian aid to Palestinians under review

Photo Expose of 'Routine' Arrests of Terrorists
The IDF carries out arrests of terrorists and searches for weapons almost every night. Commander tells Arutz Sheva how it is done.
"The IDF officer said that each arrest of a terrorist has a domino effect because the information gathered from those who are arrested helps the IDF discover the location of other terrorists."

CAMERA: Foul Play: Reuters' Gaza Stadium Captions
"Captions for a series of Reuters photos yesterday featuring a Gaza soccer field hit last month in an Israeli airstrike ignore the widely noted IDF report that the field was used as a rocket-launching site."

CIF Watch: Two footballers cited by Chris McGreal as endorsers of anti-Israel petition flatly deny signing it
Former Chelsea player Didier Drogba denied signing the petition, and wrote the following on Twitter: "Please note I did not sign this petition or give my support to this initiative."
Additionally, Newcastle midfielder Yohan Cabaye says he, too, didn't sign the anti-Israel petition. According to the Daily Reporter, Cabaye says that he "has never been a signatory" to the campaign.

PMW: "No force can remove the weapon from my hand" - song at Fatah ceremony glorifying violence VIDEO

We strapped ourselves with explosives... and praised [Allah] for the Martyrdom" - song on PA radio VIDEO


MEMRI: Jibril Rajoub: Fatah Will Not Lay Down Swords before the Return of the Refugees VIDEO


ElBaradei Attacks Morsi and States: I Was at the Concentration Camps and Saw the Crematoria VIDEO

Western Sahara May Also Request UN Observer Status

Anna Wintour: Send Our Gal to Damascus!
"I do believe that, if justice were to be done, Anna Wintour really would be given an ambassadorship. And, in my judgment, she would be the perfect person to represent us in Damascus. She is certainly well connected."

Frankly, Syria, we don't give a damn
After Assad's envoy complains about Israeli participation at anti-corruption conference, Jerusalem's envoy to Vienna snaps back: 'With all that's going on in Syria, we really don't care'

Egypt: Jihad organization accuses judges of implementing 'Zionist' scheme

NYC synagogue bomb plotter pleads guilty, faces 10-year sentence and deportation
'I intended to create chaos and send a message of intimidation to New York's Jews, warning them to stop mistreating Muslims,' says Ahmed Ferhani

Unabated Anti-Semitism in Paris: Vandals Target Kosher Pizzeria
Anti-Semitism once again hit the streets of Paris over the weekend, when large swastikas were scrawled on a kosher pizzeria.

Stand With Us: Alan Dershowitz speaking at the 2012 StandWithUs Festival of Lights VIDEO


The Man Behind Iron Dome
Once-maligned Labor politician Amir Peretz explains how he saw what many decorated generals did not

'Righteous gentiles' honored in Poland
Israeli ambassador confers posthumous recognition to men and women who saved Jews during the Holocaust
"Joined by Wladyslaw Bartoszewski, a former Polish foreign minister, Israeli ambassador Zvi Rav-Ner conferred medals on the six Poles, some of whom were executed by the Nazis for providing aid to Jews in hiding."

Soldier's Story: From India to IDF
Young soldier recalls his journey from northeastern India to Kiryat Arba to the IDF.
"Like many of his peers, 19-year-old Betzalel Gin is enlisting in the IDF. Jin's story, however, is unusual: he was born in northeastern India, and came to Israel with his family after his parents connected to their family's roots in the lost tribe of Menashe."

Alanis Morissette plays like she oughta know in TA
"Throughout her performance, Morissette expressed support to the Israeli people, and at some point in the concert the band organ played the traditional Hebrew song, "Hine Ma Tov" (Here Is What's Good) which the audience immediately recognized and sang along to."

Israel's State Archive Releases Golda Meir's Chicken Soup Recipe
The Israel State Archives blog released the recipe over the weekend, a recipe that at one point was being considered by Koor Industries for mass production.

45 countries have higher rates of poverty than Gaza

Posted: 05 Dec 2012 11:30 AM PST

From IndexMundi:


Population below poverty line

1Chad80
2Haiti80
3Liberia80
4Congo, Democratic Republic of the71
5Sierra Leone70.2
6Nigeria70
7Suriname70
8Swaziland69
9Zimbabwe68
10Burundi68
11Sao Tome and Principe66.2
12Zambia64
13Niger63
14Comoros60
15Honduras60
16Namibia55.8
17Guatemala54
18Mozambique54
19Senegal54
20Malawi53
21Mexico51.3
22Bolivia51.3
23South Sudan50.6
24South Africa50
25Madagascar50
26Kenya50
27Eritrea50
28Lesotho49
29Gambia, The48.4
30Cameroon48
31Guinea47
32Tajikistan46.7
33Burkina Faso46.7
34Sudan46.5
35Nicaragua46.2
36Yemen45.2
37Rwanda44.9
38Belize43
39Djibouti42
40Cote d'Ivoire42
41East Timor41
42Angola40.5
43Mauritania40
44Mongolia39.2
45Grenada38
46Gaza Strip38
47Benin37.4
48Colombia37.2
49Papua New Guinea37
50El Salvador36.5

The total number of areas ranked is 157, meaning that Gaza has a lower poverty rate than about 30% of all countries worldwide.

But you already knew that from the amount of media coverage of poor people in those other 45 countries, of course.

By the way, there are more poor Saudis than there are Gazans altogether.

ElderToons: Tom Friedman knows the root of the problem!

Posted: 05 Dec 2012 10:00 AM PST




Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4

Gaza exporting beds to Tunisia - through Israel

Posted: 05 Dec 2012 09:00 AM PST

The General Union of Palestinian Industries in Gaza announced that a shipment of 150 beds will be exported from Gaza to Tunisia tomorrow.

This will be the second furniture export from Gaza this year.

Although Hamas claims that Egypt is going to open up the Rafah crossing for exports, this shipment is being transferred through the Kerem Shalom crossing, where Israel will transport it to the nearby Nitzana/Ouja crossing to Egypt. From there the shipment will be sent to Tunisia.

Yes, Israel is cooperating with Gaza exporters and Egypt to send furniture to a hostile Islamist Arab country that doesn't recognize Israel.

I'm sure that this proves Israel's racism somehow.

West Bank university celebrates terrorism in "art exhibit"

Posted: 05 Dec 2012 07:15 AM PST

BirZeit University, near Ramallah, has set up what they call an "art exhibit" which is really an anti-Israel hatefest and  celebration of Hamas terror.

No, this isn't in Gaza.

PA refuses to pay for toddler's bone marrow transplant. Guess who did?

Posted: 05 Dec 2012 05:30 AM PST

From COGAT:
A two-year old Palestinian boy from the West Bank underwent a bone marrow transplant three weeks ago. The procedure, which was done at the Tel Hashomer hospital, was funded by the Civil Administration after the Palestinian Authority refused the family`s request to fund the procedure.

"This procedure will save the child's life," explained Dalia Bessa, the Health Coordinator for the Civil Administration. "When this sort of procedure is needed and the Palestinian Authority refuses to fund it, the Civil Administration steps in, in order to save lives." The Civil Administration funds hundreds of operations and medical treatments each year, besides this transplant. The budget for medical treatment for Palestinians is 7.5 million NIS; these funds are invested in Palestinians who require transplants and other forms of medical care.

Besides undergoing the transplant, the child is under the care of a social worker who has been attending to the child and family's needs throughout the duration of the hospital stay. "My position entails taking responsibility over Palestinian patients from the minute they are admitted until they are released from the hospital, while coordinating with the Civil Administration and Dalia Bessa," said Baloum Raid, a social worker who coordinates the hospitalization of all Palestinian patients at Tel Hashomer.
The PA apparently believes that the $130 million it pays every year to terrorists in Israeli prison, and to the families of dead terrorists, is more important than to pay to save their own children's lives.

COGAT is part of the IDF.

Which means that the Israeli army puts a higher priority on saving Palestinian Arab lives than the PA does.

Somehow I missed this story in the BBC and the New York Times.

Hamas' logo for its 25th anniversary shows its priorities

Posted: 05 Dec 2012 02:43 AM PST

Hamas is planning a huge celebration this coming Saturday for the 25th anniversary of its founding.

Here is their official logo:


A celebration of indiscriminate attacks against civilians! Yay!

But clueless Western "experts" will continue to claim that Hamas really supports a peaceful, two-state solution.

(Last year's logo was also noteworthy - as it showed a weapon emerging from the Dome of the Rock.)
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