Enough! (Updated)

Michael L.

Hana Levi Julian, writing in The Jewish Press, tells us:

Suspected Arab rock throwers have allegedly murdered a Jewish Israeli motorist as he was driving late Sunday night in the southern Jerusalem neighborhood of Armon Hanatziv...

Alexander Leiblovitch, 64, was driving the vehicle when it was hit by a barrage of rocks and careened out of control, striking an electricity pole at around midnight.

Leiblovitch was mortally wounded in the crash, stated Jerusalem District Police spokesperson Luba Samri.

“The driver who was involved in the accident… apparently as a result of rock-throwing … died at Hadassah Ein Kerem Medical Center,” she told media.

Stoning Jews is a time-honored tradition in the Arab world and North Africa.  Western leftists like to think that Arabs stone Jews out of righteous opposition to the alleged "Israeli Occupation of Palestinian land," but this is false.

Arabs in the Middle East have indulged themselves in the Jew-Stoning Tradition for at least fourteen centuries.  The only difference is that now they claim to do it for reasons having to do with "social justice," rather than Koranically-based anti-Jewish malice.

Anyone familiar with my writings can easily predict my response to this kind of thing.  It is attempted murder and should be treated as such.  Anyone over the age of thirteen endeavoring to kill another person in Israel through stoning should be shot in the leg and thrown into either prison or a juvenile detention facility.  The parents of children who throw stones should be charged with a crime or heavily fined in order to discourage such behavior.

In any case, the Israeli government has an obligation to its citizenry to crack down on this kind of thing.  Netanyahu is calling an "emergency meeting" of the Security Cabinet in order to determine how they wish to proceed.

I very much hope that they come down hard.  They need to make it painfully clear that anyone in Israel who pelts anyone else with stones is going to pay a major price for that behavior.  Again, it is attempted murder and Israel needs to do whatever it must do to make it stop.

Each and every person in the picture above throwing stones should be identified, tried in court, and thrown in prison.  What's an appropriate prison term for attempted murder?  In California, anyone convicted of first-degree attempted murder - which means that "the attempted murder was willful, deliberate, and premeditated" - faces a life sentence in a California state prison facility with the possibility of parole.

Furthermore, "If the first-degree attempted murder was committed against a peace officer, firefighter, or other protected person who was engaged in the performance of his/her duties, you face the same sentence, but must serve a mandatory minimum 15-year sentence."

That sounds fair to me.

Update:

The Jerusalem Post reports:

Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, vowed late Tuesday "to use all nececessary means" to "combat stonethrowers, those who hurl Molotov cocktails, and those who detonate pipe bombs and shoot fireworks with the aim of doing harm to police and civilians."...

The government resolved late Tuesday to re-examine rules of engagement that determine the extent to which IDF combat troops are permitted to use live fire. It also agreed to establish a minimum punishment that includes heavy monetary fines on parents who permit their children to engage in violent rioting.

 From the Comments in the JP:

MULTIFACETED • an hour ago

Alexander Levlovitz your blood will be avenged, your son is flying back home, we will do the correct thing here

for your memory Z"L

Oh, for chrissake.

MarkyMark • an hour ago 

Throwing stones at Jews is part of the Arab culture and has been for many generations and many hundreds of years. It has nothing to do with resistance or any of the other falsehoods being spread by the brainwashed and blinded Fallastinian loving left wing m0r0ns.

According to historian Benny Morris the practice of throwing stones at Jews is a venerable one in the Middle East, symbolic of Jewish degradation under Muslim rule. Morris quotes a 19th-century traveler: "I have seen a little fellow of six years old, with a troop of fat toddlers of only three and four, teaching [them] to throw stones at a Jew."  [William Shaler, American Consul to Arab Algiers from 1815-1828, reported that the practice of Muslims throwing rocks at Jews was commonly seen.The practice of Arab rioters throwing stones at Jews was seen in the 1948 Anti-Jewish Riots in Tripolitania, Libya.

Ayup.

Sweet_binky • 5 hours ago

That picture shows there is practically no difference between "Palestinian" Arabs and the KKK in the U.S. Racist Rednecks that speak a different language.

My guess is that Sar Shalom would quite agree.

Peter Hagyo-Kovacs • 5 hours ago

When I was living in Jerusalem, I went for a bike ride from Jerusalem's Forest of Peace and met and talked to a group of Palestinian youth from Silwan, but after I continued riding into Silwan with the goal to "ascend" to Jerusalem and up to the City of David, they crossed through the village and started chasing me throwing stones and shouting "Yehudi! Yehudi!" It was insane! Those were just little kids, and thankfully I was fast enough on my mountain bike and wearing a helmet to avoid any injury, but it could've ended badly otherwise as we read of what happened to Mr. Levlovitz. My sympathies to his family and friends, and the Israeli police and other anti-riot units for a very difficult job. May they be blessed with wisdom and success! PM Netanyahu is doing the right thing.

Well, G-d bless Peter.

I just hope that Netanyahu has the will to follow through on promises.

A Quick Shout Out to the Jerusalem Post

Michael L.

Listen guys, you're taking a good product and wrecking it.

The problem is not the content.  You have plenty of excellent content and many fine journalists and writers.

The problem is that your website is so heavily laden with code and various pop-ups that it is exceedingly difficult to read from a home computer or private lap-top.  What is the point of going to the Jerusalem Post if the screen is going to constantly freeze-up?

I will not access that excellent content because you have made it too damn difficult for me to do so.

I will not read the Jerusalem Post if doing so is little more than an exercise in frustration, which is precisely what it is.

Look at the Times of Israel.  Leaving content aside, the browsing and reading experience is much, much better.  It's not even close.  The TOI is user-friendly while the Jerusalem Post is anything but.

You guys need to figure a way to trim back the excessive code so that people without high-speed corporate internet connections can read your material without it turning into a major hassle.

Let me know when you do.

Thanks.

The Single State?

Michael L.

{Cross-posted at the Elder of Ziyon and Jews Down Under.}

For years I thought that the only reasonable solution to the ongoing Arab war against the Jews was the two-state solution.  A single state solution, we were told, would either undermine Israel as a democratic state or it would undermine Israel as a Jewish state.  Israel could be Jewish, democratic, or with boundaries from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, but it could not be all three at once.

Those who insist upon this formulation - and I was one for years - are raising reasonable concerns, but there is one thing that proponents of the two-state solution seem never to take into account: the Arabs do not want it.  For almost one hundred years the Palestinian-Arabs have absolutely refused to share the land and tell us on a daily basis that they will never accept Jewish sovereignty on a bit of "historic Palestine."

There must come a point when we understand that no means no.

There must come a time when we take them at their word.  This being the case, Israel must act unilaterally because there is simply no other choice.  This should not be considered a burden.  It should be considered liberating.  Most of my readers will know that Palestinian-Arab dictator Mahmoud Abbas is, yet again, threatening to quit.  Well, I hope he does quit and I sincerely hope that after he does so Israel rips up the Oslo accords and henceforth refuses to acknowledge the PA, the PLO, Fatah, and Hamas.  It is absolutely pointless in negotiating with, or cooperating with, any of these groups because they are dishonest, utterly corrupt, and filled with the spirit of malice toward the Jewish people.

The Jews in Israel should not have to live with such violent and toxic hatred in their midst, coming from the children of the people who forced us into second and third-class non-citizenship for thirteen hundred years.  The Jews are no longer dhimmis in that part of the world - and are thus no longer required to ride mules, rather than horses - and the Arabs don't like it.

Well, I say, too bad.

The Land of Israel is the land of the Jewish people and has been for almost four thousand years, and that includes today's boundaries of Judea and Samaria.  We are willing to share, but no one is going to tell me that Judea is Arab rather than Jewish.

This being the case, I have argued in recent years that Israel should declare its final borders, remove the IDF to behind those borders, and - as we say - toss the keys over the shoulder.  I have usually been careful, however, not to advocate for the single-state solution.  I am not Israeli and believe that it should entirely be up to the Israelis to make that determination.

I still believe so.

However, I am becoming less and less convinced that a single state that includes Judea and Samaria, and the eastern section of Jerusalem, cannot be both Jewish and democratic.  What many on the hard-left would argue is that if Israel were to claim sovereignty over the ancient Jewish lands of Judea and Samaria then it is under an obligation to give the entire Arab population in those regions fulls rights to the franchise.  They believe, of course, that doing so would threaten the Jewish character of the state, which is precisely what they want to begin with.

But this is false.

What I would recommend, if Israel were to extend its authority onto the entirety of Judea and Samaria, is offering qualified local Arabs a pathway to Israeli citizenship.  Qualification would require that any particular family or individual under consideration would have no known violent history toward Jewish people and no known history of incitement of hatred toward Jews or Israel.

Those who are not qualified for citizenship, that is, individuals or families with a history of either violence or incitement to violence would be ejected from the country.  This is neither non-democratic, nor illiberal.  The Jews are among the most persecuted and oppressed people in the history of the world.  The Romans decimated our numbers two thousand years ago and the Europeans and Arabs have kept those numbers artificially low ever since.  This being the case it is only common sense, if not basic human decency, for the Jews of Israel to protect their children by removing the threats to them.

This is no more non-democratic than throwing a rapist in prison.

As for the rest of the local Arab population in the annexed Jewish regions I recommend a pathway to full citizenship.  Like pretty much everyone else in Israel they would be required, if they wish citizenship, to give two or three years of community service.  If after that period the individual has shown himself to be free of malice toward either Jews or Israel then that individual should be offered the franchise.

This broad plan - and, yes, obviously, the "devil would be in the details" - would keep Israel Jewish on traditional Jewish land while remaining a democratic country.

Democracy, it should be noted, is never a perfect system in implementation, nor is it a suicide pact.  There are always restrictions, which is why Puerto Ricans are denied the right to vote in US national elections.  They are under American sovereignty, but they do not have full rights to American citizenship, yet no one sane is claiming that the United States is a non-democratic country.

Israel is in a very tough spot, however.  It has a hostile American president who is about to turn an enemy country, Iran, into a nuclear regional power that will rearrange relationships and alliances throughout the region as the Sunni Arab states race to get their own nuclear weaponry.  Zionism is undermined because if Zionism means anything it means that no longer will non-Jews get to determine whether Jewish people live or die.

The significance of Obama's deal with Iran from a Jewish perspective is that Obama has basically handed Zionism over to the ayatollahs.  In two years or ten years they will decide the fate of the Jewish people, simply because Barack Obama is handing them the car keys.

In the mean time, Israel should solidify its position by declaring its final borders as it plans, and perhaps implements, its response to the Iran deal.

Broken Ribs: A Personal Note

Michael L.

Little Charlie Buckets

Well, now I've done it.

I am laid up.

I have a small terrier mutt named Little Charlie Buckets.  Buckets is fifteen pounds of pure terror.  He's a little hellion, and Laurie and I love him, but he's also a perfect pain in the ass.  The other night around 11PM - as I was watching television and kanoodling around the web - he suddenly leaped up like a crazed maniac, howling into our backyard like he was chasing the Babadook.

I tend to have high blood pressure (shocking, I know) and when he does that kind of spontaneous screaming into the night it shoots my blood pressure through the roof.  So I jumped from the couch and ran outside to make sure that he was not having a confrontation with, if not the Babadook, a friendly local skunk.

My backyard is small, but two-tiered.  Directly off the dining room is our patio, where my smoker-grill stands at the ready, and a short wooden stairway that leads up to garden beds.  As I went running up those stairs I tripped, fell, and snapped two ribs.

{Stupid Charlie Buckets.}

Nonetheless, I can't help but notice that Corbyn took Labour.

This does not bode well.

Standing Up

Michael L.

{Also published at The Jewish Press and Jews Down Under.}

Writing in the Times of Israel, Elhanan Miller tells us:

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon on Wednesday declared as “unlawful organizations” two Islamic Movement groups who harass Jewish visitors to the Temple Mount, rendering membership or financing of the groups illegal.

The move came in response to an appeal by Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan last month, following an increase in verbal and physical violence by activists from the Murabitun and Murabitat groups, composed of men and women respectively, against religious Jews visiting the holiest site in Jewish tradition, where the first and second Temples once stood.

Israel's policies on the Temple Mount represent its integrity as a nation.

Israel's current policies of forbidding non-Muslim prayer on the Mount and limiting non-Muslim access to the site represents a measure of national uncertainty.  It is symbolic of a major crack that goes right down the Zionist vision of a free and secure Jewish national home.  It represents the measure of Jewish resolve... or lack of it.

This news story, however, is hopeful.

That Israel maintains a prejudicial policy in regards the Mount is a disgrace.  All people of any religion should be allowed access to the site for the purpose of prayer, if they so wish.  It should not matter whether the individual is Muslim or Christian or Jewish or Rosicrucian or Pastafarian.  Any other policy is illiberal, unjust, and not representative of the kind of Enlightenment political principals that Israel is grounded upon.

These Muslim groups that are organized specifically to harass Jews on the Mount, or at least all non-Muslims, are absolutely despicable.  I almost hesitate to embed a video of their behavior because I find it heinous and hard to watch, plus I know that my readership is likely well aware of it.  The one below is a little something that I nabbed from the Elder.



It is utterly obnoxious for these hideous women in their full burqas to scream "Alahu Akbar" at Jews visiting the holiest site to the Jewish people and I sincerely hope that Israel is honestly committed to preventing this kind of behavior in the future.

There is much to admire in Moshe Dayan, but his decision to hand over the Mount to the Waqf - whatever that is, exactly - does not speak well for the man and Israel has been paying for it ever since.  The Arabs use the site as a sort-of wedge.  They want to dislocate us from wherever we are within our traditional home and the Temple Mount, given its significance, is the perfect place to start.

The ironic thing, of course, is that even as they seek to make non-Muslim lives miserable anyplace within the Arab world, they simultaneously claim that Jews are trying to oust them from the Mount, even as Israeli policy favors them above everyone else.

What I would love to see is for Israel to simply take over the site.  Start by expelling every soul and then implement a policy of access that is fair and equal to all.  They will scream bloody murder from the Muslim capitals throughout the world, but so what?  They hate us already - and have continually done so for fourteen centuries due to religious reasons - so what difference does it make?  If they complain to the Europeans or the Obama administration, simply tell them in a straight-forward manner that it is Israel's new policy to allow everyone equal access.  Even hostile elements like the Obama Administration are in no position to suggest that a just policy is somehow unjust... maybe.

Meanwhile, Sheikh Ekrima Sabri, former mufti of Jerusalem, called the decision “illegal, illegitimate and inhumane.”

“This is an assault on al-Aqsa, because these women defend al-Aqsa,” the Muslim cleric told The Times of Israel in a phone interview Wednesday. “It shows that the Jews covet al-Aqsa mosque and want to drive all Muslims out of it.”

Sabri dubbed the decision “a dangerous precedent that takes place nowhere but in the occupation state of Israel.”

The racism embedded in such a statement is obvious and sincere.  "These women defend al-Aqsa"?  Yes they defend it from the filthy Jewish presence on the holiest site to the Jewish people.

In any case, I am pleased to see Israel beginning to stand up for itself on this issue.  It is, at least, a step in the right direction.

From the comments:

Joel Mayes

You Jews learned alot from the Nazis.

Well, there you have it.  Jews seeking equal access to the holiest site of the Jewish people means that we are just like Nazis.

The logic is impeccable.

The eternal question, of course, is, "Why do they hate us so much?"

In the case of the "Arab street" it is due to religious reasons.  These are not good reasons, but at least they are comprehensible reasons.

The Europeans have no excuses and I am sure that they will do well to trade their tiny Jewish minority for a large influx of refugees from throughout the Arab world.

How you can help strike a blow against BDS

Sar Shalom

One of the critical elements in promoting BDS is the misinformation that the movement spreads about how boycotting Israel will help the Arabs. One person working diligently to counter this misinformation is Maxwell Federman who is working on a documentary titled Working Together about Arabs and Jews working together. He has a kickstarter campaign for the funds needed to produce this documentary. I'll simply state that if you want a project like this to happen, that there's another two days to help see that it does.

{Editor's note - Kickstarter, for those of you who may not know, is simply an app for people to raise cash for projects and even small businesses.  I am not yet sold on this kind of thing when it comes to small businesses, but it makes sense when standing up for something that you believe in.}