This Just In: Israel Dismantles: World's Problems End

Arabs: Welcome to your new home. Jews: But where do we hang the mezuzas? (Photo: Pria Bender. All Rights Reserved)

Reposting the link to a classic satire (...at least I think it is), since it seems to be even more timely now than when it first came out.

"My cabinet and I had long discussions about world troubles, and we concluded that our critics are right - all the troubles can be traced back to us. So, in order to resolve "We are dismantling the Nation of Israel. I'm leaving for Poland next week."these issues, we felt it would be best to extend our withdrawal beyond Gaza to include the West Bank and Israel proper."

"We are dismantling the Nation of Israel. I'm leaving for Poland next week."

Read the rest: http://betbender.blogspot.com/2006/07/this-just-in-israel-dismantles-worlds_11.html

Iran: 'Harry Potter a Zionist Plot to Promote Devil Worship'

"If you thought the Harry Potter series was an innocent children's fantasy story, you're wrong, Iran says; it's actually part of a 'Zionist plot.'"


But of course. (Aww geez', we are, like, just so utterly outed now... that image itself is from "Diary of an Elder of Zion.")

Read the rest.

Israel Finds 2000-year-old Bridge, Aqueduct in Jerusalem

Israel Antiquities Authority archaeologist, Yehiel Zelinger, stands alongside a Mameluke-era bridge and aqueduct outside Jerusalem's Old City walls. Construction workers uncovered the site two-weeks ago, while laying pipe for new water lines. The structure was built on the ruins of similar water courses that brought water from springs in Bethlehem to Jerusalem's residents since antiquity. (May 11, 2010) (Dave Bender - All Rights Reserved)

By Dave Bender
JERUSALEM, May 11 (Xinhua) -- The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) on Tuesday announced the discovery of segments of an arched bridge and aqueduct at an excavation site outside the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem.

Yehiel Zelinger, the IAA archaeologist responsible for the dig, termed the find "spectacular."

He said the bridge was originally part of an ancient aqueduct that brought water to the Temple Mount during the Second Temple period (between 536 BC and 70 AD), when an estimated number of 50,000 Jews returned from the Babylonian exile to build the Second Temple on the site of the destroyed First Temple.

Read the rest.


Israel Antiquities Authority archaeologist, Yehiel Zelinger, examines an 1898 topographic map by German archaeologist Konrad Schick of the area outside the walls of Jerusalem's Old City. Water company construction workers there uncovered a Mameluke-era bridge and aqueduct two-weeks ago. The structure was built on the ruins of similar water courses that brought water from springs in Bethlehem to Jerusalem's residents since antiquity. (May 11, 2010) (Dave Bender - All Rights Reserved)

From Shanghai to Jerusalem: A Jewish Refugee Looks Back

Ninety-four-year-old Sarah Ross of Jerusalem is eyewitness to the birth of two modern nations, both led by ancient peoples: China and Israel. She grew up as a Jewish refugee in Shanghai during World War II, and has lived in Israel since 1948.

Text version.

Israel: Just Jew it (developing post)

Which is to say that I'm returning to Israel, to resettle after three amazing years working and living here in Georgia among some pretty amazing folks, both in Atlanta and elsewhere, statewide.


Atlanta skyline. (Dave Bender, All Rights Reserved)

Rav Kook wrote:

"When people are asked why they are unwilling to settle in Eretz Yisrael [The Land of Israel] right now, they have all types of cheshbonot - calculations - as to why now is not the time.

One says his chesbon is that his children need to finish school or college; another's chesbon is that he has to vest his pension, and so on.

If we look in the Torah, though, we will see that before the Jewish people entered Eretz Yisrael, they first killed the King of Chesbon.

Once the King of Chesbon is killed, the decision to move to Eretz Yisrael becomes easy."

In more contemporary terms:

This post will be developed and expanded, as I try to get more nuanced feelings about this whole process of being here and there down on pap- 'er, blog...


Sunset panorama outside the Jaffa Gate of Jerusalem's Old City. (Dave Bender, All Rights Reserved)

Comments welcome.

Israel: Getting Beyond 'Exhaustion' & 'Puppy Love'

An elderly man taking a break on his morning walk, leans against the security barrier in Jerusalem's southern Gilo neighborhood. The several mile long concrete wall protects residents in the facing apartments from gunfire from Arab Beit Jala (see in in the distance), adjacent to Bethlehem. This barrier is not the same as the disputed "Security Barrier," that snakes roughly along the 1967 cease fire line in parts of Judea and Samaria, also known as "West Bank," but was erected for similar reasons: to stop bullets from reaching civilians and schools (in this photo, there's one directly behind the camera) More on this story here. (Photo: Dave Bender, All Rights Reserved)

A powerful pairing - or pairing off - of opinions about the Jewish State:

In "How I’m Losing My Love For Israel," Jay Michaelson, writing in The Forward admits:

"To paraphrase a recent Jewish organizational tagline, I’ve “hugged and wrestled with Israel” for 20 years now. At first, it was all embrace: Zionist songs and culture nourished me like mother’s milk, and on my first trip to Israel I kissed the tarmac at Ben Gurion, as did the other USY (United Synagogue Youth) kids.

"Eventually, the wrestling came to the fore, particularly as I became more conscious of Palestinians, settlements and religious-secular divides. In 2002, I wrote about being “a leftist and a Zionist” and how difficult it was to maintain those dual political identities. And for several years, I’ve argued for a more nuanced approach to Israel advocacy and education than the hail of falafel balls and the bludgeon of Taglit-Birthright.

"But lately I’ve noticed that I’m becoming a candidate for advocacy myself. I’ve loved Israel for decades, lived there for three years, and studied in detail the subtleties of its society and conflicts. And so it is with the sadness that accompanies the end of any affair that I notice my love is starting to wane."

Daniel Gordis replies:

"The truth is, you and I agree about a lot. We’re both worried about some of what’s happening to Israeli society. We’re both tired of all the equivocating (though probably for different reasons). We’d both love some real leadership around here. We’d both like peace. And we’re both exhausted."

"Maybe it’s time we all moved beyond puppy love and ventured into something more mature, a sort of love that knows that the object of our love cannot, and should not, remain unchanged year after year, decade after decade."

Very worth reading.

9/11 Audio Exclusive: Reactions in Jerusalem's Old City

On the evening of September 11th, 2001, I visited Jerusalem’s Old City to gather reactions in the wake of the attacks, as a reporter for The Jerusalem Post newspaper. While some Palestinians celebrated, calling it a fitting response to US support for Israel, other Christian and Muslim Arabs were dismayed by the scope of the horror.

Frightened American tourists from Arkansas and Oklahoma scurried through dark alleys of the Muslim Quarter's Via Dolorosa seeking refuge. In the Jewish Quarter, Jewish seminary students from New York watched the fall of the World Trade Center towers in stunned disbelief on a television at a local pizza parlor. Some managed to contact loved ones, but others called in vain, trying to reach family members thought to have been in Manhattan that morning.

Audio podcast: http://www.davebrianbender.com

Israeli Historian-Author in Surprising NPR Interview (audio)

NPR affiliate KQED hosts Israeli historian Benny Morris to discuss the war in Gaza.

This is a very illuminating, fast-moving discussion. Worth a listen:


Morris, among many other books, authored "1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War," which is considered a standard of reference on the issue by many of his peers.

Morris, a professor in the Middle East Studies Department at Ben-Gurion University in Israel, was once renowned among the bon ton as a hard-leftist in Israeli political terms, but over the last few years has come out with a number of analyses and op-eds tilting toward a distinctly pro-Zionist point-of-view.

Over the years, Morris has taken flak from both the Left and Right over his writings - although, it should be said, that doesn't automatically mean he's actually right down the middle - wherever that may be by your lights.

'The Children's Brigade' (original music video)

Sandy Cash is a stunningly talented singer and songwriter, and a veteran mainstay of Israel's English-speaking folk music scene (and a very active scene it is, too).

Detroit-born and raised, she's also an old jamming friend, and it's wonderful to hear her clear and powerful voice after too many years.

This is the first time I can remember her tackling as horrific an issue as Palestinian child abuse - otherwise known as inculcating tots through teens to love and seek death, ideally via a suicide bombing or attack against Israelis. She writes:

"Palestinian society is raising its children on a steady diet of hate, and teaching them that the total destruction of Israel is imminent. This song is a lesson in the most intractable challenge of the 'peace process.'"

"The Children's Brigade"

This is a video that deserves to be forwarded far and wide.

Gaza: The real reasons Israel - finally - retaliated (Update 4)

High resolution map of the Gaza area. Click on the image for a close-up view. (University of Texas)

Read this, and then feel free to come back and talk to me about the "disproportionate" Israel response to over 10,000 rockets, mortars and terror incursions that have gone largely under and just plain unreported by the international press for, oh, 'bout the last 7-8 years.

I'm here. Listening. Waiting. I dare you. Really.

Update: Click here for a clear, in-depth audio interview with a British resident of Sderot on the current situation.

Meanwhile: A Twitter Kassam feed.


(Courtesy SderotMedia.com)

Above is a amalgam of video clips showing how Sderot residents (and thousands of other Israelis in rocket range of the Gaza Strip) have been living for the past 7 years.

The interviewer is asking the child about the "fun day" activities in Sderot, when they are interrupted by the town loudspeaker announcing "Color Red," the alert for an incoming rocket attack.

Residents have 15 seconds to reach shelter, before the missile slams down. About the same amount of time it took you to read this far.

The rest that follows should be clear enough.
---


Caption: we're not the State's sitting ducks." Young Sderot residents don red and black armbands in a protest against ongoing Hamas-led Kassam rocket attacks from Gaza against their southern Israeli town in 2006. (File photo: Dave Bender)

Resident of an Israeli farm bordering Gaza looking at a hole blasted in a wall of her house by a Kassam rocket, that killed her son's girlfriend in 2004. (Photo: Dave Bender)


View from the other side of the wall of the shattered room. (Photo: Dave Bender)

Here's what local residents throughout the south of Israel are reading this evening:

Dec 27^th, 2008

Israeli Communities within Range of Rocket Fire – Emergency Instructions for Civilian Population

The firing of rockets at Israeli communities surrounding the Gaza Strip is expected to continue over the next few days, and may expand to additional area. Therefore, residents are requested to follow directions for preparing a protected room and act in accordance with the instructions at the sound of an alarm, an explosion, or a "Color Red" alert.

Residents of villages adjacent to the security fence are asked to remain within shelters tomorrow, in close proximity to protected areas, and are requested not to assemble in groups.

All schools and commercial centers will remain closed, with the exception of vital services, such as medical centers, grocery stores and public transit will operate on a limited schedule.

Residents in the rest of the villages within range of up to ten km of the Gaza security fence are directed to ensure that they are no more than fifteen seconds from a protected area. Public gatherings in this perimeter are forbidden.

Residents of towns in the range of ten to twenty kilometers from Gaza , must be able to enter sheltered areas within thirty seconds. This area includes the cities of Ahkelon, Netivot and the surrounding towns. In these towns, gatherings of up to 100 people are allowed to be held only under reinforced ceilings. Commercial activity will only be allowed to take place in reinforced buildings.

Residents of towns in the range of twenty to thirty kilometers from Gaza , must be able to enter sheltered areas within forty-five seconds, and gatherings of up to 500 people are allowed to be held only under reinforced ceilings.. This area includes the cities of Ashdod , Kiryat Gat, Kiryat Mal'achi, Ofakim, Rahat, and the surrounding towns. Educational activity will take place in reinforced buildings only. Commercial activity will only be allowed to take place in reinforced buildings.

A number of important issues for the population:

• The Home Front command has advised the local authorities to open the public shelters. Entrance to the shelters is advised only if they are reachable within the aforementioned time frames.
• Gatherings near rocket attack sites should be avoided. Unidentified objects and rockets should not be approached. In such instances the police should be notified.
• Adhering to these guidelines and entering sheltered rooms - saves lives.
• Additional information can be obtained via the Home Front Command's hot line 1207 and website: www.oref.org.il.

Just sayin'.

Update:

Listening to the Israeli radio stations through the night there (Saturday night here), I hear, over and over, Israeli songs that are always played when there's a genuine "warlike" situation nationally.

Mostly local hits from the 1960's and 70's, along with a smattering of Europop faves. Nothing "nationalistic," or militaristic mind you, just an accent on songs - many of them pretty odes to a simpler day, that have pretty much served as the soundtrack of Israeli society through war and national crisis. Like American's talking about the "good ole' days" of television around the "national campfire."

Ok - slight update: Army radio (one of Israel's most trusted, iconoclastic and non-propagandaish news outlooks, btw), is playing James Brown's "It's A Man's World." Go figgur.'

No massive message here - feel free to add your own, though.

'Dig: Noam Chomsky, Mordechai Vanunu & Edward Said are Jewish. Elie Wiesel is goyish.'

Writing in the Jewish Chronicle, Emanuele Ottolenghi deconstructs a common nihilistic ailment afflicting Jewish intellectuals among the hard Left:

In an essay published in the Jewish magazine Tikkun last January, Bertell Ollman, one of the world’s best-known Marxist theorists, recounted how, on his way into the operating room, he realised that if he did not survive his surgery, he would die a Jew. The prospect was so unsettling that, once healed, he wrote his Letter of resignation from the Jewish people. The reasons were Zionism, Israel, and the support its policies enjoy from other Jews.

Ollman might yet reconsider, but for that to happen, Jews would have to embrace his own version of Jewish identity. Paraphrasing a Lenny Bruce joke, he said:

"Noam Chomsky, Mordechai Vanunu and Edward Said are Jewish. Elie Wiesel is goyish. So, too, all ‘Jewish’ neo-cons. Socialism and communism are Jewish. Sharon and Zionism are very goyish. And, who knows, if this reading of Judaism were to take hold, I may one day apply for readmission to the Jewish people."

Painfully important reading.

Here's Bruce's original Jewish-Goyish rap, and an updated version.

Harry Potter: "Damn. They're on to us. Oy vey."

Harry: "Damn. They're on to us. Oy vey."

Not too sure which is the better satire: the original article, or this rippingly good riposte. And to think: we almost had the Darfur plot sewn up...

In another brilliant example of investigative journalism, the Iranian newspaper, Kayhan, affiliated with the nation's top religious authority, discovered this week that the Harry Potter series of children's books is really a Zionist plot. The article referred to Harry Potter as a “billion-dollar Zionist project", the purpose of which was to “disrupt young minds”.

This discovery represents yet another setback for our conspiratorial efforts. Despite suggestions that J.K. Rowling (the "J" obviously standing for "Jew") being advised to avoid such titles as "Harry Potter and the Matzah Ball Soup", or "Harry Potter and the Wholesale Discount", the Iranians have once again seen through the subtext of Harry's magical world.

Read it all.

The 1967 War 40 Years On: Causes & Consequences (battle videos)

This is a very well prepared, comprehensive site coving the events before, during and apre' la guerre in Israel and the vicinity in June, 1967.

Bookmark this one; it's worth a long, considered look, as the reverberations of that conflict continue to wrack the area 40-years later...

High points:

• Timeline
• Players
• Long-term effects
  
  
  Aish has a good fact sheet, as well:

Why are we talking today about the West Bank and the "Palestinian question"? How did Israel get into this situation where it is reviled as an "occupier" and accused of a refusal to trade "land for peace"?

Prior to June 1967, Israel did not "occupy" any Arab land and did not seek to expand its territory. Israelis were not talking about populating Judea and Samaria or establishing "Greater Israel."

Similarly, Palestinians were not calling for the establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, which was controlled by Jordan, or in the Gaza Strip, which was ruled by Egypt.

And here, is an 11-part (!) series, in English, released by the Israeli government soon after the war. Extensive, and what I take to be exclusive footage shows the course of the battles. The rest of the segments are here.

From the poster:
On Monday June 5, 1967, 14 Arab countries came thundering down on Israel. Their armies far exceeded hers. Their Russian-backed weapons resources were vast. Yet in six dramatic days, the little country not only won a decisive victory, but also changed the map of the Middle East. This was the Six Day War.

Israel At 59: Orthodox Union slideshow

Ok. Shameless self-promotion disclaimer here - but hey, they asked.

So, What Does Israel Mean To You?

(Image courtesy AJC)

This?


This?


This?

Or something in between?

Comments are welcome, and many will be posted here (some with appropriate replies, so be nice...). So, c'mon - speak up.

To see an Israel beyond the headlines, go here and here for features, and here and here for images.