Sheikh Palazzi Responds

Here are two letters and two responses as printed this past week in the London Times.

I turned to Sheikh Palzzi for his comments. They follow at the end.

Sir, In his letter of Sept 12 Dr Ahmad Abou-Saleh denies the statement by David Selbourne (Comment, Sept 9) that “Islam is not a religion in the conventional sense”. This is to deny its origin and history and beginnings as a politico-religious ideology. Its creator shed blood to expand and conquer.

During the Battle of the Trench in AD627, Prophet Muhammad ordered the massacre of 700 Jews and Christians. In the Topkapi Museum in Istanbul, one may still see the sword of the Prophet Muhammad and the swords of the first three caliphs.

No one is ever going to find the sword of Jesus Christ, Lord Buddha or Guru Nanak.

RANDHIR SINGH BAINS

Gants Hill, Essex


Sir, Most reliable historians will strongly disagree with Randhir Singh Bains’s account of the Battle of the Trench in AD627 (letter, Sept 13).

The offending tribe was Banu Qurayza, entirely Jewish — no Christians were executed after the battle. More crucially, the individuals killed were able-bodied males who had violated a peace treaty with Medina (the Muslim capital at the time) by attacking the city at the same time that it was under siege by a large Meccan alliance army.

The Banu Qurayza had one aim: to wipe out the men, women and children of Medina while they were vulnerable. As such, their treachery demanded a severe punishment.

The individuals concerned refused the application of Islamic law to deal with their crimes, which would have spared their lives.

HANNAN BHATTI

Prestatyn, Denbighshire

Sir, After the Banu Qurayza surrendered after a 25-day siege of their defensive towers, they were judged not by the Prophet but by Sa’ad ibn Mu’adh, a chief of their former allies, the Aws, using Jewish law. This prescribes harsh treatment for the conquest of a city as a matter of course, even when betrayal is not in question: “When the Lord thy God hath delivered it unto thy hands, thou shalt smite every male therein with the edge of the sword: but the women, and the little ones, and the cattle, and all that is in the city, even all the spoil thereof, shalt thou take unto thyself.” (Deuteronomy 20:12)

The swords of the Prophet, as well as those of the caliphs, signify that they were real people living in a real, very hostile world. The swords were used to defend the fledgeling Muslim community from a tidal wave of aggression unleashed upon it by a pagan society. It is easy to level allegations of aggression on someone fighting for his rights against great odds. For example, the sixth guru, Har Gobind, famous for girding two swords, or the tenth, Gobind Singh, who spent his whole life in battle and gave Sikhism its martial character.

Communal harmony is the need of the hour. Irresponsible comments perpetuate hardened attitudes.

NADEEM AHMED NASIR

Bradford, W Yorks

Dear Mr. Medad,

I basically agree with the comments of Nadeem Ahmed Nasir and Hannan Bhatti: the battle of the Trench involved no participation of Christians, and the Banu Qurayza were condemned to the capital punishment not for being Jews but for their treachery in war. The judge who condemned them was not the Prophet Muhammad but Sa’ad ibn Mu’adh. The Prophet Muhammad did not sheed blood "to conquer", but in self-defense against an enemy - the Pagan Arabs of Mecca - who have repeatedly tried to kill him and to massacre the Muslims as a whole.

The case of Buddha was evidently different, since from one side he was preaching absolute non-violence, and from another he effaced no persecution of his community. However, after him one of his followers, emperor Ashoka, resorted to the sword to compel most of India to reject Hinduism and to accept Buddhism.

Moses was also compelled to lead the Children of Israel to fight against their enemies, and his successor Joshua had to conquer by the sword the Land which God promised to the Jewish people.

As for Guru Gobind Singh, who is the real founder of Sikhism as it exists nowadays, he not only resorted to the sword, but made wearing a sword on of the five distinctive features of the Sikh community, to the point that until today every observant Sikh, apart for wearing the turban, also wears a sword, even if small and symbolic.

Even for what concerns Jesus, sources dealing with his attitude toward non-violence are contradictory. According to Matthew 26:52 he said, "Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword", but according to Luke 22:36 "He said to them, 'But now let the one who has a moneybag take it, and likewise a knapsack. And let the one who has no sword sell his cloak and buy one'."

Consequently, what David Selbourne considers "unconventional" in Islam is also common to other religions.

Best regards,

Sheikh Abdul Hadi Palazzi

Rosh Hashana also means...food.

And so, we have this story:-

Just in time for the High Holy Days, a pair of prominent Jewish leaders are putting the City Council's two Jewish aldermen on notice: They risk incurring the wrath of God if they push to repeal Chicago's foie gras ban.

"Beyond the Kosher dietary laws, God has told us to do what is 'good and proper in the eyes of God,'" Rabbi Asher Lopatin of Anshe Sholom B'Nail Israel Congregation wrote to Aldermen Burton F. Natarus (42nd) and Bernard Stone (50th).

"The cruelty inflicted on animals in the production of foie gras is unspeakable. It is undeniably disgusting in the eyes of God and in the eyes of any civilized person."

Jana Kohl, former director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies, accused Natarus and Stone of reneging on a "vow" made personally to Kohl to support the foie gras ban as a statement against animal cruelty.

In an angry letter to the two political cohorts, Kohl promised to do "everything in my power to defeat your misguided efforts."

"As the only two Jewish members of the Council, it's particularly shameful and disgraceful of you to turn your back on our cherished concept of 'tikun olam,' namely our obligation to make our world a better, more compassionate place," wrote Kohl, whose grandfather founded Kohl department stores.

'I don't get intimidated'

Stone reacted with signature sarcasm to the pressure he is receiving from Jewish leaders just four days before Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year that kicks off the 10 Days of Atonement.

Referring to Kohl, he said, "She threatened my Jewish heritage. She obviously doesn't understand that Jews only know chopped liver. They don't know foie gras."

Turning serious, Stone categorically denied that he had promised Kohl he would stand behind a foie gras ban approved by the City Council on April 26 by a vote of 48 to 1.

"I indicated that I found it repugnant that they were torturing animals. I still find that repugnant. But it now becomes a question of the credibility of the City Council," he said.

Asked whether he intended to back off, Stone said, "You know me better than that. I don't get intimidated that easy."

Natarus could not be reached for comment.

Violent Islam

THE former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey of Clifton has issued his own challenge to “violent” Islam...He made it clear that he believed the “clash of civilisations” endangering the world was not between Islamist extremists and the West, but with Islam as a whole.

“We are living in dangerous and potentially cataclysmic times,” he said. “There will be no significant material and economic progress [in Muslim communities] until the Muslim mind is allowed to challenge the status quo of Muslim conventions and even their most cherished shibboleths.”

...Arguing that Huntington’s thesis has some “validity”, Lord Carey quoted him as saying: “Islam’s borders are bloody and so are its innards. The fundamental problem for the West is not Islamic fundamentalism. It is Islam, a different civilisation whose people are convinced of the superiority of their culture and are obsessed with the inferiority of their power.”

Lord Carey went on to argue that a “deep-seated Westophobia” has developed in recent years in the Muslim world.

Lord Carey was delivering a lecture titled The Cross and the Crescent: The Clash of Faiths in an Age of Secularism, at Newbold College, Berkshire...He described the two civilisations as “polarised and uncomprehending” and said that the Danish cartoons controversy last March showed “two world views colliding in public space with no common point of reference”.

(Kippah tip: Melanie Phillips)

Oh, well, so something got lost in the translation

JERUSALEM (Reuters) -

Something always gets lost in translation, but usually not an entire city.

"Jerusalem. There is no such city!" the Jerusalem municipality said in the English-language version of a sightseeing brochure it had published originally in Hebrew.

The correct translation: "Jerusalem. There is no city like it!"

Carrying a photograph of the brochure, Israel's Maariv newspaper said Wednesday tens of thousands of flyers had been distributed before city hall realized its mistake.

You Must Go Here

You must go here.

BBC satirical take-off.

An example:

Is Reuters Stammering?

Here's their headline that caught my attention:-

Israeli troops raid West Bank bank
20 Sep 2006 06:20:58 GMT
Source: Reuters

West Bank bank?

Which reminds me that the late Morty Dolinsky, former head of the Government Press Office (and also North American betar), was aksed by a reporter, British, I think, about the "West Bank".

"'West Bank'?" he said. "I only bank at Leumi."

Another Jewish Legislator

Senator George Allen, a Virginia Republican, issued a statement confirming his Jewish ancestry.

“I embrace and take great pride in every aspect of my diverse heritage, including my Lumbroso family line’s Jewish heritage, which I learned about from a recent magazine article and my mother confirmed,” Mr. Allen said in a statement.

The issue was injected into the campaign on Monday in a debate with Mr. Allen’s Democratic opponent, Jim Webb, when a panelist asked Mr. Allen, a former governor, if his mother was Jewish.

“To be getting into what religion my mother is, I don’t think it’s relevant,” he responded angrily.

But the campaign, which had earlier found itself on the defensive over Mr. Allen’s reference to a volunteer for Mr. Webb as “macaca,” apparently decided to try to defuse the issue quickly by putting out a statement acknowledging his family ties.

It was apparently the first time Mr. Allen, a practicing Presbyterian, had done so publicly, and he said he learned of his ancestry only through an article last month in The Forward, a Jewish publication.

“Some may find it odd that I have not probed deeply into the details of my family history, but it’s a fact,” Mr. Allen’s statement said. “We in the Allen household were simply taught that what matters is a person’s character, integrity, effort and performance — not race, gender, ethnicity or religion.”

Before the question arose in the debate, Mr. Allen had mentioned that a grandfather had been incarcerated by the Nazis. He said in his statement that he had never known the circumstances surrounding that chapter in his family history.

Who else now after Madeleine, William Sebastian and Allen?

And what about this anecdote?

When asked Monday what his trip this week to Ireland has to do with possible presidential ambitions, NY Mayor Bloomberg he dismissed any connection but then pointed out two notable presidents of Irish decent: John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan. ''To the best of my knowledge, we've never had an independent candidate who was Irish ... or, for that matter, not Irish,'' he added.

(For the record, Bloomberg is neither Irish nor a member of a third party. He is Republican and Jewish, of Eastern European descent).

As reporters' ears perked up, he abruptly abandoned the presidential history lesson and tried to get back on track about the real reason he's going to Ireland, to dedicate a memorial to the ''Irish'' division of the ''Fighting 69th,'' the New York National Guard's 69th Infantry Regiment.

But a follow-up question reeled him back in -- what about becoming the first Jewish president?

The mayor ducked.

''Somebody once said when Barry Goldwater was running: 'That figures, the first Jewish president would be an Episcopalian' -- a very clever remark,'' he said.

Nomi Teplow's New Song

Nomi Teplow's new song.


(Kippah tip: Michael, her husband)

New Mel Gibson Game

Play a new game with Mel Gibson.


(Kippah tip: BigB)

"Open" Government (and where's Olmert's tape?)

Hungary PM: we lied to win election

The prime minister of Hungary has confirmed the legitimacy of a leaked tape recording in which he says his government lied to win April's election and "lied in the morning; lied in the evening" during office.

The recording comes from a speech Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany gave to a closed party meeting shortly after his Socialist-Liberal coalition took office for a second term.

In the leaked speech, parts of which have been played on Hungarian state radio, he argued that major economic reforms were needed. "There is not much choice. There is not, because we screwed up," he said. "Not a little: a lot. No European country has done something as bone-headed as we have," he continued.

"Evidently, we lied throughout the last year and a half, two years. It was totally clear that what we are saying is not true."

"You cannot quote any significant government measure we can be proud of, other than at the end we managed to bring the government back from the brink. Nothing. If we have to give account to the country about what we did for four years, then what do we say?"

"We lied in the morning; we lied in the evening," he said.

Will anyone find the Olmert tape?

And soon?

Another Protest Angle on Ahmadinejad

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran, has become an international celebrity, brandishing his nuclear program—and his yearning to wipe Israel off the face of the earth. He is visited by such personages as U.N. secretary-general Kofi Annan and Mike Wallace of 60 Minutes. In their conversations with him, neither has asked the swashbuckling leader about "honor killings" by the government of women charged with having committed "adultery."

As human rights lawyer Lily Mazahery, president of the Legal Rights Institute reports, "in 99 percent of these cases, the accused women have received no legal representation because, under the Shariah legal system, their testimony is at best worth only half the value of the testimony of men."

And there is no single executioner. These are mass murders by stone-throwing members of the community, having the kind of festive time common among American mass lynchers of blacks, when the murderers brought their children to join in the fun. In Iran too, kids are present to witness the sinners' redemption.

The capital crime of adultery, Mazahery has explained to World Net Daily, "includes [under Shariah law] any type of intimate relationship between a girl/woman and a man to whom she is not permanently or temporarily married. Such a relationship does not necessarily mean a sexual relationship.

"Further, charges of adultery are routinely issued to women/girls who have been raped—and they are sentenced to death." (Their unpardonable crime is to have been raped.)

During the continuous coverage in this country of Iran's nuclear threat and its crucial support of terrorists in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East, there has been scarcely any mention of this horrifying dimension of the culture of Iran: sangsar, the stoning to death of women.

Here and more.

Violence - A Serious Doctrinal Issue

Nowadays Islam is the only major religion in which violence is a serious doctrinal issue.

That line is from this op-ed in the London Times and here is some more:

The question is not whether the quotation from the Byzantine emperor Manuel II Palaeologus is offensive: it is.

The question is whether the emperor is justified in what he said. His main thrust was at least partly justified. There is a real problem about the teaching of the Koran on violence against the infidel. That existed in the 14th century, and was demonstrated on 9/11, 2001. There is every reason to discuss it. I am more afraid of silence than offence.

The Pope’s actual quotation is not just a medieval point of view. It is a common modern view; even if it seldom reaches print; it can certainly be found on the internet. “Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and then you shall find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.”

Is it true that the Koran contains such a command, and has it influenced modern terrorists? The answers, unfortunately, are “yes” and “yes”.

The so-called Sword Verse from Chapter 9 must have been in the emperor’s mind: “So when the sacred months have passed away, Then slay the idolaters wherever you find them.

“And take them captive and besiege them, and lie in wait for them in every ambush.”

London Trip Summary

It is not my usual want to do a very "personal" type of posting. I am, or try to be, straight to the point. I quote an article, quotation or event, give you the link to make sure you readers can check to see if I am cheating, note where I excerpt and then let you draw you own conclusions while leaving you with my own impressions in a telegraphic fashion.

I do that because I find writing more takes up too much time and, hopefully, it really isn't required nor necessary. It isn't that difficult to comprehend my opinions, viewpoints, satire or humor.

But, I was in England last week and in addition to leaving you with a link, I think you deserve a bit more. So, here it is.

Okay, weather was nice although a bit of rain in the evenings. Stayed at the Croft Court which is what we call a pension. Breakfast was, well, inadequate. Nothing warm except the water. No porridge, no Eggs. Oh, there was toast but the machine would get stuck, the bread would burn and the smoke would set off the fire alarm. So, I had the choice of four types of bread, five types of dry cereal. Milk (regular or skimmed), tea, coffee and spreads. That's it folks. TV had 8 channels. Two in dubbed German. No CNN, Sky, just BBC news, well, sort of.

Got in late Monday evening as the plane had to go in to a holding pattern upon arrival and then had its parking bay blocked by another plane. One hour delay. Was picked up by taxi and driven in to Golders Green (A598) and arrived just before 11 PM. Went out and managed to get a meal of southern fried chicken (3 pieces) and French fried, aka chips.

Decided to hang around the neighborhood after going to Machzikei HaDat on Highfield and dropping off a bottle of wine to my dear friends the Graus' (their granddaughter just got married and I will tell you about the Sheva Brachot later). As it was a bit muggy, simply strolling around in the city would make me hot, tired and sweaty. No good for the evenings program.

Looked for two books that were to have been republished after be out-of-print for decades – by Louis Jacobs (Seeker of Unity and Tract on Ecstasy if you must know) but the "Hebrew bookstores" still hold him and his writings in cherem. There was really nothing else to shop for and (a) my wife brought me back some things from her trip to the States in the summer; and (b) it's awfully expensive there. So, I relaxed, more or less. Also my right knee is slowing me done so I didn't want to overdo it as I did in December when I walked from Paddington Station all the way over to New Bond Street and from there to Charing Cross Road to the bookstores of Foyle's and Blackwell.

And as it turned out, the books, published by Vallantine Mitchell, hadn't quite made it off the presses. I made other arrangements with the Steimatzky store. So, I was lucky that I didn't go in.

Ate lunch at Blooms and waited to be picked up at 5 PM and driven into the city. Destination, John Adam Street to the Royal Society of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce where some 200 people gathered in the Great Room to listen to us all.

The BBC producer staff was pleasant and fun and the program went well. As you could hear. Afterwards we were served Kedassia-supervised meals including one for the Muslim, Bobby Sayyid.

An item that didn't make the edited-down, 43 minute version (we recorded 1:20 minutes actually). One woman asked "What about the Gazans and their humanitarian problems? What can the international community do?" I popped up: "take away their Kassams". I think Rabbi Melchior was upset that they kept challenging him with me and that he, perhaps, would have wanted to be viewed as an international, rather than a local/regional, figure. For example, I also pointed out that even the so-called "extremist camp" of Gush Emunim has its own Rabbi Menachem Forman from Tekoa who has met with Hamas (Melchior wouldn't confirm that he would be willing to meet with them). I also noted that he hadn't ever invited Sheikh Abdul Hadi Palazzi of Italy to join his conferences.

Well, that all ended at 9:30 for me as I had to get back, by BBC-taxi, to Golders Green for the Sheva Brachot where I dined on Mexican/Latin American fare at La Fiesta (amazing how many Kosher eateries there now are there. When we were there during 1975-77, there were three kosher restaurants).

The next day was also lazy for I was to be picked up at 11:30 AM for Heathrow. Met Malvyn Benjamin on Golders Green Road and then, at the airport, was picked up by Beate and Joe Gellert and taken into the King David Lounge. Bourbon, tea, nuts, cookies & cakes, newspapers and Mincha minyan.

And we landed at 10:15 PM and Chai-Ad Hoffbauer picked me up and we were home by 11:45.

That's all, folks.

Remember Anan What's-His-Name?

U.S. Holds AP Photographer in Iraq

Remember Adnan Hajj?


Well, another photojournalist is in trouble.

The U.S. military in Iraq has imprisoned an Associated Press photographer for five months, accusing him of being a security threat but never filing charges or permitting a public hearing.

Military officials said Bilal Hussein, an Iraqi citizen, was being held for "imperative reasons of security" under United Nations resolutions. AP executives said the news cooperative's review of Hussein's work did not find anything to indicate inappropriate contact with insurgents, and any evidence against him should be brought to the Iraqi criminal justice system.

Hussein, 35, is a native of Fallujah who began work for the AP in September 2004. He photographed events in Fallujah and Ramadi until he was detained on April 12 of this year.

BBC staff gets in hot...sand?

There's a video going around of some BBC staff spoofing the Middle East

Seems the BBC has come under fire for allowing its senior journalists to make a spoof video which makes fun of war in the Middle East. The film - based on Peter Kay's (Is this the way to) Amarillo? - was made to mark the departure of a BBC news editor for rival news channel Al-Jazeera.

Renamed (Is this the way to) Al-Jazeera? it features BBC staff singing and dancing in front of images of missiles being fired and tanks rolling across the Arabian desert. It also contains Arab stereotypes and makes joking reference to Osama Bin Laden, the PaIestinian conflict.

The video (click here; may load slow) has been condemned by an Arab rights group as 'insenstive and puerile', as well as being potentially offensive to Muslims.

The three-and-half-minute long video was made for BBC London assistant editor Simon Torkington, who is leaving the Corporation to work for Al-Jazeera International in Qatar, along with his wife, former ITV news anchor Shiulie Ghosh.

The video was shown Mr Torkington's private leaving party last week, but has since been put on the Internet by a BBC insider angry that it was made with licence fee-payer's money.

It features BBC executive Ian Wade in the Peter Kay role, wearing an open necked shirt revealing a luxuriant chest wig and oversized golden medallion. He is joined by around ten BBC staff, some of whom wear Arab-style head-dresses and one of whom wears a false beard. After dancing in front of video footage of the invasion of Iraq, the group are seen inside BBC London's office: messing around on a stairwell and crammed into a lift. One of the reporters even sports a Muslim prayer cap - commonly known as a topi - as he dances around with his shirt off. The lyrics have been reworked. The song now starts: "When the day is dawning. On a muggy old Doha morning. How I long to be there. With Osama who's waiting for me there." And it ends: "Though it may be harder I'll be reporting on the Intifada. Just beyond the sand dunes there's a world so new. Of jilbabs and palm trees. And there's camel poo."

P.S.
For a British army skit based on the same song, go here.

If You Read Hebrew - My Op-ed on Altering the Electoral Propaganda Law

I published an article, in Hebrew, at the NFC site run by investigative journalist Yoav Yitzhak, here.

It deals with the obliteration of the current electoral law regarding political advertising in the electronic media as proposed by then Central Elections Committee Chairperson Dorit Beinisch and now President of the Supreme Court.

This move would eliminate the ability of small, marginal, sectional parties (Arabs, Chareidim, immigrants, etc.) to obtain a fair hearing before the electorate as well as favoring the power of the media clique, as well as the owners of the same, to sway public opinion.

In Memoriam

During the recent war in Lebanon, Yossi Katz's former AMHSI student & dear friend, MICHAEL LEVIN, fell in battle.

Yossi wanted to do something to insure he is remembered and that his legacy of heroism & Jewish commitment is passed on.

So, he designed a basebal card in his memory and had 5000 printed which he is giving out to all AMHSI students here in Israel and to all USYers & RAMAH campers in Philly(Mike was from Philly and was active in USY & RAMAH) and to Hebrew School kids in Philly from Mike's Shul.

The front & back of the card are uploaded here.

I'm Proud, Too

This is making the rounds...

With war raging in the Middle East, with global terror reaching new heights, with global anti-Semitism on the rise, I thought it might be a good time to reflect on why I'm proud, more than ever, to be a Jew.

I'm proud to be a Jew because Jews don't kidnap.

I'm proud to be a Jew because Jewish education does not consist of teaching martyrdom and hatred.

I'm proud to be a Jew because my religious leaders and religious services don't whip me into a frenzy to kill others.

I'm proud to be a Jew because in the middle of a war, Jews still demonstrate and protest to protect the rights of the Arab-Israeli minority to voice their opposition to the war.

I'm proud to be a Jew because even when Israel is wrongly and falsely accused of killing innocent civilians, Jewish leaders apologize immediately for any loss of life-instead of celebrating these deaths by passing out candy and shooting celebratory gunshots into the air.

When the world accuses Israel of massacre in Jenin-when the world accuses Israel of bombing civilians on a Gaza beach-when the world accuses Israel of shooting a child cowering against a wall-when the world accuses Israel of bombing a Lebanese apartment building killing 56 civilians-when all of These accusations turn out to be totally false-to be vicious anti-Semitic lies-and when all along I knew in my heart that these stories just could not be true-and I'm later proven to be right-then I'm proud to be a Jew.

I'm proud to be a Jew because the Israeli Army is so, so good, that when it takes more than four weeks to wipe out a sophisticated enemy who has prepared six years for this war, the world criticizes the IDF for not getting the job done quickly.

I'm proud to be a Jew when my army, the Israeli army, drops leaflets and makes calls to Lebanese citizens on their cell phones to warn them to evacuate before bombing begins.

I'm proud to be a Jew when the democracies of the world talk about fighting the war on terror, but only Israel is left alone to bear the burden of eradicating Hezbollah, the proxy army of Iran and Syria.

I'm proud to be a Jew when entire Israeli towns in the north-Nahariya, Kiryat Shimona, Safed, are reduced to ghost towns due to the constant shelling, and yet not one looter has appeared to empty out the property of others.

When Israel must defend its very right to exist, when it must fight a well armed enemy representing the Islamic fascists, as President Bush has called them, when Israel must conduct this war on terror with its hands tied behind its back so as not to take an innocent life lest the media have something true to report, that it must fight this war of survival under the cloud of "disproportionality", as if thousands of Katusha rockets falling on its citizenry is somehow "proportionate"-when Israel simultaneously pushes back these threats both in the North and in the South under the added pressure of a biased media, then I'm proud to be a Jew.

I'm proud to be a Jew when the Edinburgh Scottish film festival tells an Israeli director to stay home although his film is being screened and the director says "No, I'm coming."

I'm proud to be a Jew because Mel Gibson is not a Jew.

I'm proud to be a Jew when the UN's Human Rights Commission consists of countries like Syria, Libya and Iran and Israel is not asked to join.

I'm proud to be a Jew when magician David Blaine announces his trip to Israel next week to entertain the children living in bomb shelters and tells the press he's doing it to encourage other performers to stand up for Israel and its right to defend itself.

I'm proud to be a Jew when a Russian/Israeli businessman single-handedly creates not one but two tent cities on the beach to house Israelis fleeing the North and provides shelter, bedding, food and drink, showers and bathrooms-all done without red tape in a matter of 24 hours-to house over 6,000 Israeli's, one of whom described it as a "poor man's Club Med."

I am proud to be a Jew when Israelis on the left and on the right support the government's decision to fight-when 97% of the country is united in its own defense-when Israeli's from Jerusalem give shelter to families from Haifa-when food from the Negev is donated to feed soldiers at the front-when the IDF deploys soldiers on special assignments to deliver diapers to shelters and to entertain and calm the frightened children.

I'm proud to be a Jew when the three weeks preceding Tisha B'Av reminds us of the terrible things we have endured as a people, and, as a nation-and yet immediately thereafter, Hashem offers us consolation, redemption and hope-plus the promise that we shall defeat our enemies, that we shall endure, that Am Yisrael Chai.

And I am proud to be a Jew because when we proclaim that God is on our side, we have the book to prove it.

The Al-Dura Case in Court

Long posting with lots of background:-

A.

French TV sues over al-Dura killing

Almost six years after the September 30, 2000 Gaza Strip gun battle in which Muhammad al-Dura, 12, was killed, the Paris Lower Court of Justice on Thursday will hear a defamation case pressed by French state-run TV channel France 2 against individuals who claim the footage aired that day showing the death of the boy was a hoax.

Philippe Karsenty, 40, the leading defendant, claimed the video taken by Palestinian cameraman Talal Hassan Abu Rahma is a blatant forgery. Head of a Paris-based media analysis company named Media-Ratings, Karsenty sent a communique to most of the editorials of French and foreign media in November 2004 about what he termed the "deception," "farce," "imposture" and "fake death" of Dura. The terms of the communique were made public by Media-Ratings' Web site.

Following publication, France 2 and its Jerusalem bureau chief Charles Enderlin, who had voiced-over the controversial footage, sued for defamation.

Contrary to France 2's extremely discreet attitude, Karsenty publicized the upcoming court hearing widely, hoping the media would pick up again the whole polemic around Dura's death.

The footage showed an adult and a young boy crouching between two barrels filled with concrete in front of a wall. The two looked terrorized by the ongoing gunfight, the adult apparently trying to shelter the boy from the bullets. The next shot showed the boy lying apparently dead.

Enderlin was not on the scene but he voiced-over the footage according to the information given to him by Abu Rahma. He explained that the footage showed a father and his son caught in a gunfight and that the boy was killed by shots coming from the IDF position at the Netzarim junction. France 2 offered the video for free to all television stations.

Dura was instantly turned into an icon of the Palestinian people. Arab stations aired the footage again and again.

The following day, Enderlin quoted on France 2 an official IDF statement saying it regretted the loss of human life and denouncing the cynical use of women and children by the terrorists.

On October 2, 2000, Enderlin interviewed then deputy chief of General Staff Maj.-Gen. Moshe Ya'alon, who said: "The child and his father were between our position and the place from which we were shot at. It is not impossible - this is a supposition, I don't know - that a soldier, due to his angle of vision, and because one was shooting in his direction, had seen someone hidden in this line of fire and may have fired in the same direction."

The IDF eventually acknowledged there was a "high probability" that its bullets had hit Dura.

Unhappy with these statements, OC Southern Command Maj.-Gen. Yom Tov Samia initiated a reenactment of the scene at an IDF firing range, intending to prove the boy was hit by Palestinian fire.

Based on Samia's conclusions, Karsenty and his supporters have ever since relentlessly attacked both Enderlin and France 2. Enderlin is a long-time bete noire of numerous French Jews who cannot stand his allegedly anti-Israel reports. According to France 2 news editors, almost all of Enderlin's reports are harshly criticized by both pro-Israel and by pro-Palestinian viewers,

Karsenty's Web site developed a theory according to which the whole scene was a forgery, that Dura was not killed in front of the camera, and insinuating that the boy was in fact alive. Based on an analysis of the footage filmed by Abu Rahma prior to Dura's death, Karsenty claimed that he was filming fake shoot-outs and staged casualties.

Speaking to The Jerusalem Post, Enderlin said, "I don't mind people elaborating any conspiracy theory about me and France 2 and writing about it. Another French guy even made a fortune by writing a book about 9/11 saying that it was a missile that hit the Pentagon. I can accept any polemic; what is unacceptable is to be publicly insulted and be called a liar. This is why we sued Karsenty, not for his eccentric theories."

The Paris court will have to state whether Karsenty's accusations against France 2 and Enderlin are acceptable. Karsenty will have to produce hard evidence supporting his opinion. If he fails to do so, he could be fined up to 12,000.

B.

Paris prosecutor calls for dismissal of al-Dura libel case

The defamation case pressed by French state-run TV channel France 2 against individuals who claim the footage aired September 30, 2000 showing the death of 12-year-old Muhammad al-Dura was a hoax was brought to court on Friday.

Philippe Karsenty, 40, the leading defendant, failed to prove his claim that the video taken by France 2's Palestinian cameraman Talal Hassan Abu Rahma was a blatant forgery.

Karsenty was submitted to a very thorough cross-examination by the judge, who seemed to think that he did not bring conclusive evidence to support his assertion that France 2's Jerusalem Bureau Chief Charles Enderlin who had done the voice-over for the controversial footage was a liar and a forger.

The public prosecutor thus surprised the court when he asked for the dismissal of the case against the defendant on account of his good faith.

He said France 2 should have called to the bar the medics and reporters who were present during and after the shootout.

The court's decision was deferred to the end of October. The judge is not compelled to follow the conclusions of the public prosecution.

At least five other France 2 defamation lawsuits against Karsenty are due to be brought to court in the coming months.

C.

Comments of EH

It appears the Al Dura Trials are off to a surprisingly good start. Both Nidra Poller and Professor Richard Landes contacted me last night, and they are very pleased.

If the defamation charges are dismissed, then we're on our way to correcting an enormous injustice.

It could be an enormous blow to the international media's credibility. It could expose the depravity of the Palestinian Arab propaganda machine It could offer Israel an opportunity to rehabilitiate and rebuild her PR capabilities. It could be a coup for justice and accountability, as it would expose the grave consequences that this entire epsiode has had on the region and the world.

But we need the public to pressure the mainstream media into covering this - The bloggers are doing a great job.


Suggest you read

Nidra's account on the trial (excerpt below)

The court was divorcedŠ I should say the court was above the atmosphere that reigns in French society today, in the media, in politics. That¹s why I was so surprised. I felt like I was in the presence of a certain French decency that is hardly manifest anywhere else these days.

Richard's account on the trial (excerpt below)

Then came Madame la Procureur de la Republique [This court-appointed official represents ³la société civile,² and summarizes from the point of view of the public interest how to he or she reads the evidence presented and finally makes a recommendation]. A screen writer could not have written a better speech. All the best tropes of civil society honesty, accountability, fairness, transparency, context, the dangerous powers of an uncriticized quatrième état (fourth estate), the right of the public to know, and therefore the responsibility of France2 to show the tapes of their cameraman Talal abu Rahmeh the fact that what Phillipe had said was in fact defamation of Charles Enderlin¹s reputation as a journalist, but that the evidence more than supported such an accusation

And some Local Islamic News

Islamic Movement head: J'lem destined capital of caliphate

Israeli Arab Muslim cleric Sheik Ra'ad Salah declared that Jerusalem will soon become the capital of an Islamic nation at a rally in the northern town of Umm al-Fahm, Israel Radio reported on Friday.

The leader of the Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement Salah, told a crowd of 50,000 gatherers that Israel's occupation of the Temple Mount was nearing its end.

He then said comatose former-prime minister Ariel Sharon and President Moshe Katsav, who is currently under investigation for alleged sex crimes, were "paying the price" for damaging Jerusalem's al-Aqsa Mosque

.


What damage?
The damage caused by their undermining the soil balance by creating two new underground mosques?