| Arabs set fire to Jewish fields. They claim Jews set fire to Arab fields. B'Tselem, Peace Now believe the Arabs.noreply@blogger.com (Unknown), 05 May | | B'Tselem tweeted that Jews had set Arab fields on fire last night. The tweet received thousands of "Likes" with respondents calling the arsonists terrorists. Which they are. Except they are Arab, setting fields from the neighboring Jewish community of Givat Ronen on fire. Residents spent hours fighting the blazes. An IDF spokesperson confirmed that security cameras detected three separate fires were set by Arabs at Givat Ronen. Arabs setting fires to Jewish fields is hardly unusual - it happens every year, and it has happened since before the State of Israel was established. But B'Tselem, Peace Now and others immediately believed the lies that these fires were set by "settlers" and spread the slander to thousands of people already primed to believe any lies about Jews. To be sure, there has been arson done by Jewish settlers, and it should be condemned. But it is the responsibility of NGOs to check stories before spreading them, and the track record of Arab media that they mindlessly parrot is not very good in cases like these. Similarly, no one seems to report things like Arabs shooting fireworks directly at Jewish-owned houses in Jerusalem, while the converse would have been front page news...Read More |
From Ian: Matti Friedman: Eight Tips for Reading About Israel From my position as a journalist in Israel, perched on the fault line between Western preoccupations and the country where I live, I'm confronted with a growing perception gap. The gap becomes apparent in conversations with visitors flying in for a brief visit (at least when "flying in" was something that happened) or with those who take an interest in this place from far away. These observers have formed a picture of Israel based on stories — stories that might come from home, from college friends or professors, from a Jewish summer camp or day school, or from journalism. Some of these stories are positive and others negative, but what they generally share is being only tenuously linked to reality. Observers thus find themselves struggling to reconcile the State of Israel as it really is to the narratives in their head — an effort that often ends with either retreat into the imaginary landscape they had in the first place, or frustration with reality's failure to cooperate. It's possible that visitors to any country have a similar problem, but I suspect that Westerners landing in, say, Burundi (to name a country whose population is about the same size as Israel's) arrive with less preexisting information and emotion, making the perception gap less of a challenge. People who live in the liberal worlds of Western Europe...Read More |
From StrategyPage: The Israeli Army has ordered a new guided 120mm mortar shell, Iron Sting, that can use GPS or laser guidance to hit targets with greater precision than any existing guided shell. Iron Sting is also equipped to work with a new digital fire control system that is also entering wide use in the Israeli military. That means 120mm mortars, which are vehicle mounted, can receive target location data from any Israeli ground, air or naval source and quickly program and fire Iron Sting shell at anything within twelve kilometers. While GPS guidance is reliable enough to put the shell within a few meters (ten feet) of the target, laser guidance can reliably hit individual vehicles, bunkers or snipers in buildings. The laser guidance requires someone within a few thousand meters of the target to aim the laser at the target and keep it there for the laser guided shell to hit the reflected laser light. Another advantage of laser guidance is that is harder to jam than GPS. Some GPS jammers can disrupt GPS guidance within several thousand meters. Laser signal disrupters are more expensive and only provide protection for individual vehicles and similar size targets. Israel has been using GPS guided 120mm shells since 2015 and they cost about $33,000 each. Iron Sting is more expensive but considered more effective due to the laser guidance and integration with the new fire control system.
... Unguided...Read More |
From Ian: Ruthie Blum: Mt. Meron and Israel's paradoxical nature On Saturday night, as Tel Aviv's City Hall lit up with the image of the Israeli flag to commemorate the dozens killed and 150 injured in the crowd-crush two nights earlier on Mount Meron, Israelis of all backgrounds came together to light yahrzeit (memorial) candles. Some of the people present at Rabin Square that evening, like others around the country, configurated tea lights in the shape of the numeral 45 – the number of people trampled to death during the Lag B'Omer celebrations. The outpouring of nationwide grief over the victims and empathy with their families was not unusual in a state sadly accustomed to burying citizens who are, by all measures, too young to die. Nor was it novel for Israel's Kan Radio to play sad music, out of respect for the gravity of the hour. The same can be said of the public's lining up in droves, and for hours on end in sweltering heat, to donate blood for the treatment of those still in the hospital. Though less frequent an occurrence, the offer by Israel's national carrier, El Al, of free passage for anyone from abroad needing to pay their last respects or provide bedside comfort to loved ones was also not surprising. Even the fact that Arab villagers from the Meron area in the north rallied to help their Jewish brethren in distress – distributing free food and drink to survivors...Read More |
Al Monitor reports that Palestinians are upset that Jews are visiting - and praying in - an ancient synagogue. Israeli settlers have been increasing their visits to the ruins of the ancient Naaran and Shahwan synagogues in the Jericho area in the West Bank and also performing rituals in them, sparking Palestinian fears about Israeli intentions for the region. Iyad Hamdan, the director of the Department of Tourism and Archaeology in the city of Jericho, told Al-Monitor, "The Shahwan and Al-Dyouk [Naaran] synagogues are two archaeological sites located within the Palestinian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities' sites in the Jericho area and the Jordan Valley." He added, "The archaeological sites are not a place for worship, but the settlers treat them as such and insist on performing Talmudic rituals in the synagogues. More than 50 settlers visit the two synagogues on a weekly basis." Mohammad Jaradat, the director of tourism and antiquities for Jericho governorate, said that although the Shahwan synagogue in the city of Jericho is in Area A of the West Bank, which is under the control of the Palestinian Authority, the visits from Israeli settlers and tourists "stem from the terms of the Oslo Accords, which allowed in its additional annexes the Jews to visit the synagogue which is known [to them] as Shalom Al Yisrael Synagogue." Shalom Al Yisrael means...Read More |
Lara Friedman, the president of the anti-Israel Foundation for Middle East Peace, tweeted: Israel built 5000 housing units in Jerusalem in four months? Anyone who follows the issue of settlements would know instantly that this is a ridiculous lie. The total number of housing units that began being built in all of 2020, in all the territories, was less than half that. If 5,000 units would be built in Jerusalem it would be making world headlines. And to build and complete them in four months would be really remarkable! The very first sentence of the EMHRM article explains the story a little better: "Israel has demolished 31 homes and 27 Palestinian facilities after plans to construct 4,982 new settlement units were approved, since the beginning of this year, the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor said in statement. " So no houses were built - plans were "approved." Most of the planned housing units never get built, as any knowledgeable person on the topic would know. And there are many stages of approval, which means that each housing unit can be "approved" up to eight separate times before actual building! Lara Friedman knows all of...Read More |
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