Picturing Jerusalem (Original Photos)

(Thanks to the two previous posts, I'm in a visual mood as Friday draws to a close, and Shabbat fast approaches. Click pics for larger images.)

Patience & Change - Jerusalem 2005 (Dave Bender)

Delight lies at the core of heart and mind.

Deep within a father's soul, even the father who's face is stern and heart is cold, yet without doubt there lies the spark of the child, his innermost delight.

Within the child the spark lies as well, perhaps more dormant, quieter, without a flicker, yet there.

The Master of All Things sits in judgment over His world, awaiting the moment His children will call Him 'Father.'

(Courtesy: Chabad)

Jerusalem Sunset - 2005 (Dave Bender)

Picturing Jerusalem - 2005 (Dave Bender)

Shabbat Shalom. See you Saturday night.

Stunning original views of Israel (Photo essay)

Gilad Benari is, as far as I've seen, a stunningly original photographer covering Israel.

It's not the usual touristy stuff, or, "If it bleeds, it leads," pornojournalism, either.

Damn, I wish I had his skill and setup...

To see his work, go here, click on one of the packages, and the file will download, opening in PowerPoint (3.7 meg - no viruses or advert/spyware, as far as AVG antivirus and Adaware tell me).

(And, nope, I don't know him, and this isn't viral marketing)

Any of you out there think you've got really good content about Israel? Drop me a note, and I'll consider posting a link.

Oh, and Shabbat Shalom.

Navy jets arc over Lower Manhattan, as carrier trawls the East River (Photo slide show)

You must check out these hi-rez images of a Memorial Day airshow over Manhattan Island.

Breathtaking stuff...

Yeah, yeah, I know you're already fulminatin', "But this isn't about Israel!" But the views. Geez!

Victor Hanson: Double standards on Israel (Editorial)

Victor David Hanson

What explains most of the world's dislike of Israel?

Since Israeli settlers withdrew from Gaza in 2005, Palestinian terrorists have replied by consistently shooting homemade Qassam rockets at civilian targets inside Israel. Just recently, they've kidnapped a soldier and a hitchhiker (who has been killed) — and promised to do the same to others.

You'd expect these terrorist attacks on Israel to be viewed by responsible nations as similar to the jihadist violence we read about daily around the world — radical Islamists beheading Russian diplomats over Chechnya, plotting to do the same to the Canadian prime minister or threatening murder over insensitive Danish cartoons.

But that isn't the case at all. Israel is always seen as a special exception that somehow deserves what it gets.

Other states can retaliate with impunity, brutally killing thousands of Muslim terrorists, while Israel is condemned when it takes out a few dozen.

When in late 1999 Russians stormed Grozny, thousands of Chechnya Muslims died. Yet the press was mostly silent. Baathist Syria went after the Muslim Brotherhood in 1982, wiping out much of the city of Hama and killing perhaps more than 10,000. Not many U.N. resolutions or international refugee efforts there.

To this day, no one knows the horrific body count from the Islamic insurrection in Algeria. Darfur finally earns occasional airtime, but only after tens of thousands have perished.

But Israel's 2002 "siege" of the West Bank town Jenin, where less than 80 died on both sides, was evoked as "genocide" by those in the Middle East who often deny the real one that took 6 million Jewish lives. When Israel retaliates by air to terrorism, it is dubbed a "blitz" by the press — as if it were akin to the Nazis carpet-bombing London.

Israel's border fence is referred to as a "Berlin Wall," but you never hear Egypt's nearby massive concrete barrier to keep Palestinians in Gaza described that way.

Then there is the open sore of the West Bank "occupation." Even if you forget that a series of offensive wars to destroy Israel in part originated from "Palestine", or that Israel has given up land acquired by war in its perennial hope for "land for peace," what is so unique about the West Bank that drowns out all other crises over contested ground (from islands like Cyprus and the Falklands to entire countries like Tibet)? Why has tiny Israel alone earned more U.N. resolutions of condemnation than all those offered against all other nations of the world combined?

It is not as if Israel is a rogue state. For over a half-century, it's been the only liberal democracy in the Middle East. Israeli scientists have given the world everything from innovative computer software to drip-irrigation technology.

Oil explains some of the weird discrepancy in how the world views certain countries. It warps policymaking. Take away Iranian and Arab petroleum — and thus the risk of another oil embargo or rigged price hike — and Western fears of Middle East oil states would diminish. Naked self-interest determines the foreign policy of most nations.

The size of Israel factors in here as well. Israel has a population of not much more than 6 million and is surrounded by nearly 350 million Muslim Arabs. Most of the world counts heads — and adjusts attitudes accordingly.

The old anti-Semitism is, of course, another ingredient that accounts for the animus shown Israel. Even sensitive, multicultural Westerners care little that Arab "allies" often portray Jews as "pigs" and "apes" in their state-run media. Odious tracts like "Mein Kampf" still sell briskly in Palestine, and Iranian and Gulf money subsidizes a mini-industry of holocaust denial.

Finally, as we know from our own southern border, anytime a successful Westernized nation is adjacent to a poorer Third World country, primordial emotions like honor and envy cloud reason. Rather than concede that Western-style democracy, capitalism, personal freedom and the rule of law explain why a prosperous, stable Israel arose from scrub and rock, Palestinians fixate on "Zionism," "colonialism" and "racism."

No wonder they do. Otherwise they would have to grapple with intractable and indigenous tribalism, gender apartheid, militias and religious fundamentalism, while building an open society based on the rule of law.

In some ways, Israel's values and success most resemble the United States. And that raises a final question: Is Israel hated by the world for supporting us — or are we hated for supporting it? Or is it both?

(Courtesy of JewishWorld Review)

Eulogy for Eliyahu Osheri

Eliyahu Osheri, 18-year-old Jewish resident of the West Bank
community of Itamar, kidnapped and slain by
Palestinian terrorists last Sunday. (Reuters)

From Rebecca Strapp, Jerusalem (courtesy of Judy Lash Balint):

Yesterday I joined a group of several people who desired to pay a shiva call to the Osheri family, mourning their 18 year-old son, Eliyahu, murdered by Arab terrorists last week.

As we approached the Osheri house, we discovered the family sitting shiva in the yard outside. Apparently, the home was too small to contain the large numbers of friends, families, and strangers like myself. I joined the group surrounding Eliyahu's parents. I sat toward the back of the circle and listened and watched the bereaved mother and father. I glalnced behind me and saw a girl, Eliyahu's sister, the source of the horrifying wails at the funeral, who looked like she couldn't be more than ten or eleven, surrounded by a circle of her peers.

The woman sitting next to me reminded me that the town of Itamar (which is populated by around 100 families) has seen its share of tragedies. In the past five years, fourteen members of the community have been murdered in terrorist attacks. I cringed at the thought. And then the woman told me that one of those fourteen had been a dear friend of Eliyahu's. (please see the following link to the unspeakable tragedy of the Shabo family from Itamar: http://www.shechem.org/itamar/eshabo.html).

After sitting with the parents for a little while, I joined a group of three journalists who interviewed Eliyahu's father. The father agreed to speak with the press, for what ended up lasting about an hour. Mr. Osheri spoke of his son's development in the years leading up to his murder last week.

Apparently, Eliyahu was not much of a student in high school. He was not interested in the material being taught. Once he entered a "pre-military" mechina program, however, Eliyahu seemed to turn over a new leaf. His spiritual development progressed very quickly. As his mother had told us earlier, he asked penetrating, thoughtful and deep questions about belief and Judaism. He thrived at his yeshiva.

Mr. Osheri shared with us that Eliyahu's mother had given voice to concern several months back regarding Eliyahu's spiritual growth. His mother worried: "He' s so close to the Almighty now, I'm afraid the Almighty will take him." (How unfortunately prophetic her words were). I was told that when Eliyahu prayed the mincha, afternoon service, it was like watching someone pray the Yom Kippur service.

Eliyahu's father's words left an indelible imprint on me. I kept returning to the picture of Eliyahu smiling, emanating "chein," goodness and a deep spirituality.

After discussing Eliyahu for a while, the questions veered toward Mr. Osheri's own spiritual journey. He shared with us his own path to Judaism. As a non-Jewish child in Australia, he told us, he knew at the age of ten that Catholicism was not for him. He studied East Asian religions in college and found them engaging only on a cursory level. When he lived in New Guinea for two years, he met an architect whose wife happened to be Israeli. This woman encouraged Mr. Osheri to visit and spend time in Israel.

He did. He spent a year living on a non-religious kibbutz. Mr. Osheri explained that it was on that kibbutz that he sensed something special, unique about the Jewish people. The kibbutznikim possessed some sort of intangible spiritual, ethical quality. He asked them the source of that spark. Someone handed Mr. Osheri a pamphlet of "Pirkei Avot," "Ethics of The Fathers." Reading Pirkei Avot, for him, was like discovering a canteen of water in the middle of the desert. Subsequent to his stint on kibbutz, Mr. Osheri returned to Australia where he studied and learned for a year, culminating in his conversion to Judaism.

I was amazed at the quiet, humble and methodical manner in which Mr. Osheri shared such a personal and unbelievable story. Toward the end of the conversation, the Ha'aretz journalist asked him how he would respond to people who think that he should not be living in Itamar. Eliyahu's father softly, yet firmly, answered: "I would tell them to open the Bible and read very closely and discover that G-d gave this Land to only one people, the Jewish people."

On the bus ride back to Jerusalem, I thought about Eliyahu, his parents and his siblings. His parents, such salt-of-the-earth, gentle, spiritual people grieving over the loss of a son. I thought about the people of Itamar, their beautiful town, their idealism. I thought about the little children who were playing in their "gan," schoolyard when I walked through the town. I thought about Mr. Osheri, his spiritual journey and his son Eliyahu, and his own spiritual journey.I thought about Mrs. Osheri, who could not release my hand from hers when I blessed her upon my departure that G-d should comfort her.

These sights are difficult to understand and accept. I am left without words. Only with prayer. For Gilad. For the Osheri family. For the Jewish people. For the State of Israel.

Relatives of Eliyahu Pinchas Osheri during his funeral in Jerusalem,
Thursday, June 29, 2006. (Reuters)

Kassam slams into schoolyard (Video)

Police and security officials view Kassam rocket that hit an Ashkelon schoolyard Tuesday evening.

YNETnews has a brief film clip of the very moment the Kassam rocket fired from northern Gaza slammed into the schoolyard of the ORT Ronson High School in Ashkelon.

While the area the Kassam hit was unoccupied due to summer vacation, parents registering their children for the coming school year were in the immediate vicinity, and paramedics who rushed to the scene treated a number of individuals for shock.

While some residents said they heard the IDF's "red dawn," loudspeaker alert of the incoming missile, others said all they heard was the shreik of the rocket just before it hit.

Excellent commentary on this escalation by Arnold and Frimet Roth of Jerusalem, who lost their 15-year-old daughter Malki in the suicide bombing at the Sbarro restaurant in Jerusalem in 2001.

Isreallycool has a good roundup of events about the "Summer Rains" operation in Gaza.

Kassam rocket hammers Ashkelon schoolyard

Palestinians in Gaza fired a two-engined Kassam rocket into central Ashkelon at about 19:15 Tuesday evening.

There were no injuries in the attack, although several residents were treated for trauma at the
ORT Ronson High School, where the rocket punched a meter-and-a-half hole in the schoolyard.

Security forces say the projectile, reportedly fired from the ruins of the former community of Nisanit in northern Gaza, traveled some 15 kilometers to hit the major southern city, in the first such strike of its kind.

Between Gaza, on the far left and the major coastal city of Ashkelon, some 15 km distant on the right, lies a major power station, strategic national facilities, an oil farm, a national pipeline, chlorine tanks and military facilities. Kassam rocket fire in the last two years has already hit several of these locations.

More at YNETnews.

More at The Jerusalem Post.

More at Haaretz.

'Hold on thar', Baba Amir, I'll do all the thinnin' around here!' (Satire)

Another Tack: Mideastern horse opry (semi-fictional)
---------------------------------
Sarah Honig, THE JERUSALEM POST Jun. 29, 2006
---------------------------------
Outlaw gunslinger Quickdraw, holed up in his hideout, had long been scheming to take over the town. He positioned snipers atop all the surrounding hills and ordered them to fire randomly at passersby. Sometimes Quickdraw's snipers missed, and sometimes they didn't.

Sheriff Straightshooter's resolute undertakings to wallop Quickdraw clinched his electoral victory and that coveted tin badge. To the townsfolks' dismay, however, it emerged that Straightshooter was a bit leery of gunplay. Over the years his fearsome reputation had rendered him anathema to society's more genteel elements. He yearned for their approval. Besides, the circuit judge was on his tail for alleged past hanky-panky.

Straightshooter's overriding priority became the protection of his rear-end from legal assault. His braggadocio notwithstanding, Straightshooter figured that getting Quickdraw mightn't be in his own best interest, even if the community breathed free. Straightshooter therefore quit tracking Quickdraw's assorted crew of cattle-rustlers, horse-thieves and train-robbers in the renegades' roost.

Instead Straightshooter drove all south-of-town ranchers out of the terror fiefdom's vicinity, explaining to the outraged uprooted cowmen that it was for the best. Their presence, Straightshooter asserted, enraged Quickdraw. With them out of his sight there was no pretext for savagery. Quickdraw and his gang would contentedly luxuriate in their newly acquired territory, devote their energies to improving the abandoned spreads, and make an honorable living. In no time they'd become fine upstanding neighbors, the sort you invite over for a summer picnic.

"YOU DON'T know them like we do," screamed the dispossessed families. "These thugs are after the whole shebang. Show them a finger and they want the entire arm." But Straightshooter's savvy mouthpieces branded the homeless settlers "alarmists and panic-mongers." They became so unpopular that nobody cared about their plight. Their atavistic land-fixation might drag the peaceful populace into superfluous bloody confrontations. The eviction of these public enemies was their own private misfortune - one nonetheless highly warranted because the rest of the town was made safer thereby.

However, just to banish any lingering, latent anxiety, Straightshooter assured his voters that "should Quickdraw be up to no good after we give him control of the range, he'll feel the full force of our retaliation. We'll exact a heavy price for unprovoked pot-shots. After our supreme sacrifice for peace, judgmental gentry everywhere will side with us and back all necessary measures to defend our people.

We demonstrated our good will, and good will pays off. Our improved image will afford us freedom of action. We will show Quickdraw that it's downright dangerous to rile us." Stirring stuff. Strong enough to get Straightshooter reelected.

YET, UNCOOPERATIVE salvos continued coming. The citizenry was getting uptight. It was only a matter of time before bodies filled the streets. Buckshot glanced off church walls and shattered schoolhouse windows. Miraculously, the kids were out of harm's way. But lucky streaks are finite. Hesitant murmurs of discontent became audible, particularly on the town's southern outlying fringes, on the wrong side of the track - the one that ordinarily doesn't count.

The newspaper owner, in cahoots with Straightshooter, blasted uncool calls for action. Deputy Sheriff Shimon took on edge-of-town crybabies. "Snipers-shmipers," he exclaimed before saloon groupies, "so what happened already? We've seen worse. Let them hang tough and not disturb our peace with their constant whining."

But despite attempts to downplay the sniping, such a surfeit thereof would be considered war in any other county. Folks might be wondering whether supercilious Straightshooter was pretending to be unperturbed in order to avoid admitting that the ranchers' expulsion had been for naught. Could it be that Straightshooter's hangers-on feared highlighting the fact that, contrary to hype, they had won no perks from non-local citified snobs?

Or could it be that Straightshooter sincerely failed to realize that disengagement had proved a calamity? Could it be that Straightshooter was fanatically addicted to throwing more good money after bad and couldn't resist playing retreat-roulette? Did Straightshooter no longer realize that his bravado, rather than deter, triggered the miscreants' heckling horse-laughs in the vacated homesteads?

Belatedly Straightshooter did fire off a few warning rounds, first at empty wasteland to make sure nobody got hit, then at dirt roads frequented by snipers en route to shooting sprees. A great outcry sounded in the halls of justice far removed from frontierland whenever outlaw riflemen bite the dust. Cosmopolitan guardians of conscience fully sympathized with Quickdraw's vows of vengeance.

Straightshooter seemed jinxed. Some of his return fire had inadvertently struck the gangsters' kin. Sophisticated society was now utterly revolted. Straightshooter was accused of disproportionate breach of propriety.

IF STRAIGHTSHOOTER wants to challenge Quickdraw to a gunfight, dueling rules must be strictly obeyed. These decree that Quickdraw may rely on the backup of any number of bandit gunslingers, use all the pistols he wishes, fire off as many slugs as he can, whenever and in whichever direction he desires.

To keep things on the up-and-up, Straightshooter cannot pull the trigger until Quickdraw has. Moreover, Straightshooter - representing lawful authority - may only aim at Quickdraw's already airborne bullet, ascertaining that only the tip of said projectile is nicked, and only in the final phase of its deployment just before it makes deadly impact.

Sderot school official points to damage from Kassam rocket on classroom. (Photo: Dave Bender)

Unable to own up that unilaterally surrendering strategic holdings was a disastrous gamble, Straightshooter - ostensibly still intent on saving his community from Quickdraw's limitless lust - now plans to cede lots more property east of town.

With settlers out of sight, Quickdraw's pretext for savagery will vanish. Good neighbors will gather for summer picnics. Otherwise, will a real angry Straightshooter show Quickdraw how downright dangerous it is?

Nativ Ha'asara resident examines damage from Kassam at her home, that killed Dana Galkowitz in July, 2005. (Photo: Dave Bender)

Stay tuned for the rerun.

More reports I've prepared on Kassam attacks, injuries and damage here.

Israeli gov't to Palestinians: My tunnel's bigger than yours

"Hoooly City, Robin! Iran's launching nuke-tipped Shihab 3 missiles at Israel, Fatah's firing Kassams and mortars out of Bethlehem at Gilo, and Palestinian drones and hang gliders have been spotted swooping in from Ramallah!"

"Whaddya' we gonna' do, Batman?"

"Quick! Let's take the secret elevator down to the Bat Tunnel, and get the hell outtahere - first!"

"According to the Jerusalem weekly Yerushalayim, the government is spending tens of millions of shekels on an underground bunker and escape tunnel to be used by the prime minister and senior members of the government in case of emergency. A special elevator shaft has reportedly been completed under the area scheduled for future construction of the new building that will house the Prime Minister's Office and official residence in Kiryat Hale'om (the National Precinct).

"In an emergency, the (Bat) elevator would drop the prime minister, senior government officials (and whoever is a "friend of a friend,") underground to a special reinforced bunker, complete with a situation room equipped with sophisticated communications and other equipment, in which the government can continue to meet and function.

"In addition, the shaft connects to an underground escape tunnel, where vehicles will be stored, in case the prime minister or other senior officials have to make a speedy exit from the city. The western exit of the escape tunnel (which the newspaper claims has already been built) is located in Emek Arazim, adjacent to the Route One exit from the city."

You think I'm making this stuff up, right? Wrong, boy blunder.

Talking with Esther Wachsman about terror - UPDATED (Exclusive Podcast)

Family photo of IDF Cpl. Gilad Shalit. (Photo: Ynet)

UPDATE - Tuesday, 0700: (Half an hour after the expiration of Hamas' ultimatum, the "Army of Islam," one of the three Palestinian groups holding Shalit released a statement saying "The discussion is closed; we will not release any information of the fate of the soldier, whether he is dead or alive."

Meanwhile, Knesset security cabinet member Haim Ramon told Army Radio at 07:20 that Israel operated properly in not negotiating with Hamas, and dismissed reports of a possible deal where Shalit would be transferred to Egyptian or French custody, until Israel released Palestinian security prisoners. Ramon said the only place Shalit would be transferred to would be back to his family and home.)

I had the honor of interviewing Esther Wachsman soon after IDF troops killed Hamas mastermind Salah Darwazi, who was behind the abduction and murder of her son, Nachson in 1994. It was a deeply moving, and thoughtful discussion.

It is my fervent hope, with just six hours left as this is posted before the Hamas ultimatum runs out on the threat against the life of Gilad Shalit, that her words are heeded.

May Shalit return safely to his family and home in Mitzpe Hila.

From The Jerusalem Post:

"Esther Wachsman, mother of Nachshon who was kidnapped and killed by Hamas terrorists in October 1994, has told The Jerusalem Post that the army and the establishment have learned nothing from her son's ordeal.

"No one is so blind as those who will not see," said Wachsman poetically, during an interview late Wednesday night."

Read it all.

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From Haaretz:

"I don't know if we're living in George Orwell's "1984" - where good was bad, bad was good, peace was war and war was peace - in Chelm, the city fabled for its stupidity, or in evil Sodom. In any event, this is not the country I moved to 36 years ago out of Zionist enthusiasm, as the daughter of Holocaust survivors.

"At that time I felt that I had the privilege of being part of the history of this new/old country, to get married here, to give birth to my seven sons in the Jerusalem to which we had prayed to return for 2,000 years. There was no mother prouder than me when my oldest son joined the Israel Defense Forces, wearing the uniform of the Golani Brigade, and his two younger brothers did the same. Nachshon was our third son to join the elite Orev Golani unit, and we were very proud that he had fulfilled all the expectations on which he was raised: love for the people, the land and the heritage.

"And then, in October 1994, our Nachshon was kidnapped by Hamas. In a tape that was transferred from Gaza and played on television, he was seen appealing to then prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, with a rifle aimed at his temple, with his hands and feet bound and with a terrorist pushing him to speak. And he spoke: "The group from Hamas kidnapped me. They are demanding the release of Sheikh Yassin and another 200 murderous terrorists from Israeli prison. If their demands are not met, they will execute me on Friday at 8 P.M."

Read it all.

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From YNETnews:

"A senior Hamas government official said Monday that 'the crisis with Israel over the kidnapping of a soldier (Gilad Shalit) should be resolved through diplomacy,' signaling the group may be softening its line after issuing a harsh ultimatum to Israel that expires in less than 10 hours."