chamsa

2011-10-05T01:00:00.000+02:00

http://exposing-me.blogspot.com/

...

a-hundredandtwenty

2011-06-14T01:03:00.001+03:00

when that time comes I KNOW I will be:

My other blogs

2011-03-24T00:04:00.001+02:00

http://beachdiary1.blogspot.com/

http://memgwalksthrulife.blogspot.com/

Back

2010-04-14T19:19:00.003+03:00

;-)

Yes, I'm gonna re-open this blog. This time it's gonna take a different turn. No politics (perhaps only a little) - No 'beach only oriented' postings - see my other blog...

I'm going to write here what I want to - on any subject I want to and openly. I thought about opening a new blog to write away what's on my mind and heart and keep it totally private without anyone being able to see what I write. BUT, if I'm afraid of what I write I think I should be more afraid of myself because that means I got things to hide (hiding things suggests being afraid in my eyes).

So here it goes.

From my next entry I am going to reclaim my first blog I ever had (this one) and pick up the thread.

and another year....

2010-03-13T17:18:00.002+02:00

though everything is a continuation of the previous...

Not to speak about what a difference a year makes...

2009-03-24T15:34:00.001+02:00

What A Difference A Day Makes :D

2008-01-29T01:21:00.000+02:00

Tse.!!

Mother

2008-01-27T13:51:00.000+02:00

Today it is exactly 11 years ago my mother died. She would have died on the 26th, her breath stopped for over 5 minutes that day - 5 minutes I was on the phone talking with my daughter in Israel, congratulating her on her birthday. But, the moment the doctor stopped telling me what happened and she heard my voice she 'came back' - She waited. Not dying on the 26th, my daughter's birthday (which she doesn't celebrate anymore anyway since she turned religious but only on the hebrew date) -

Mother, my modest, extra-ordinary emotional and warm hearted mother, though I can't visit your grave and don't know if I will have the money to transfer your remains to the grave next to Pa before they dish your bones, please be assured of my everlasting, thorough love for you. Even, if at times, it didn't feel like I loved you.

Tse.

PS. I decided to make a tribute to her. The following are the singers she held high. Judy Garland for which she felt so much sorry, because according to her she had such a sad life, the following, Bing Crosby was her absolute 'star' -like she admired him over the top, thought the world of him, the third a song that made her burst out in tears - the singer, the melody, the words.... the ambiance. My mother was such a honest - and righteous person, it was hard for her to recognize injustice covered up by the traditional culture she lived in - but it bothered her, while not knowing exactly what it was that hurt her about it... hearing this song again makes me cry as well.., and the fourth a Dutch singer with whom I performed on Toppop with as a model (for my long blonde hair, which words appear in the lyrics) and made her so proud, an appearance I made on Dutch tv only a few months before I left the Netherlands - a decision that until this very day haunts me as to the hurt that caused her- a song she played many times after I left, thinking of me.... Like I now feel how much it hurts to have a child far away :(

A Heart

2008-01-12T22:20:00.000+02:00

Video link here

Yechezkel 36...

24. For I will take you from among the nations and gather you from all the countries, and I will bring you to your land.
25. And I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you will be clean; from all your impurities and from all your abominations will I cleanse you.
26. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit will I put within you, and I will take away the heart of stone out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.
27. And I will put My spirit within you and bring it about that you will walk in My statutes and you will keep My ordinances and do [them].
28. Then will you dwell in the land that I gave your fathers, and you will be a people to Me, and I will be to you as a God.

Tse.

2008 - ...where every neighbor is our friend. . .

2007-12-31T13:20:00.000+02:00

I'd like to wish everybody a healthy, happy 2008 - a year in where all your wishes come true without hurting eachother.

Tse.

Not Nice People

2007-12-23T08:33:00.000+02:00

The Black Panthers (in Hebrew הפנתרים השחורים), PaPanterim Hashkhorim) are an Israeli protest movement of second generation new immigrants from Islamic countries, called Mizrachi Jews.

[. . . ]

On May 18, 1971, "The Night of the Panthers", between 5,000 and 7,000 demonstrators gathered in Zion Square in Jerusalem in a militant protest against the racial discrimination.

[. . . ]

Prior to the demonstration, representatives of the Panthers had met April 13 with Prime Minister Golda Meir, who characterized them as "Not Nice People".

(Wikipedia)

For photos from that time and quotes spoken by "Black Panthers" click here

For the article on which I quote below (A Salute to the Black Panthers), click here

[...]However, from today’s 30-year retrospective, and after engaging in a thorough research of my own, I state without hesitation that the ‘Black Panthers’ were the ground-breaking catalyst for the Mizrahi struggle in Israel. Israel before March 1971 was a different Israel than that of after March 1971. In the former, the economic and cultural oppression was accepted by Mizrahim with submissiveness, except for short rebellious outbursts which were repressed with an iron fist by the government and its Mizrahi collaborators, as in the case of the Wadi Salib Uprising in 1959. [...]

The Black Panthers’ uprising was begun by a group of young, unemployed, dropout residents of the Musrara neighborhood located at the border between East and West Jerusalem - a neighborhood whose Western (Israeli) half came to be as a result of the expulsion of its original Palestinian inhabitants during the War of 1948. Due to its peripheral status at the border with the then Trans-Jordanian side of Jerusalem, the early years of the neighborhood were characterized by issues of daily security,which ended in the wake of the ’67 war, because both the Eastern and Western halves of Jerusalem came beneath Israeli municipal and police control. The neighborhood was then housed by 650 Mizrahi immigrant families, the majority of whom came from North Africa, with a minority coming from Iraq. [...]

The ultimate language of the Black Panthers, for the first time directly attacked the manipulative myth that ‘Security precedes everything’, by which the governments of Mapai [Labor] silenced every protest. They claimed very clearly and directly that a state in which there is such an unequal economic situation of Mizrahim (and of Arabs – as said in certain places, mainly by Bitton and Shemesh) has no right to exist. This was expressed by Martziano’s radical words regarding the division of the cake: “Either the cake will be shared by all or there will be no cake”. [...]

The Black Panthers were also the first to make the connection between the concepts of ‘class’ and ‘ethnic group’. They often compared the way the new Russian immigrants were treated by the absorption authorities (in the early 70s), with the second generation of Mizrahim who were still living in dire poverty. Thus they added another layer of comparison which previously existed in the collective consciousness– that of the absorption of Ashkenazim, and Mizrahim in the early years of the state. In this way, they completely undermined arguments of ‘Modernization’ and a ‘sociology of Backwardness’, which was based upon cultural rather than class analysis. In this, the Black Panthers preceded the class-oriented sociologists in Israel who appeared not accidentally, only after the era of the Black Panthers became the focus of their research. [...]

The Black Panthers’ greatest achievement was their ability to unmask the issue of the Mizrahim by presenting it as a permanent issue on the political, public and academic agenda in Israel. No one could pretend anymore that the problem was only a matter of ‘subjectivity’ or related to the set of priorities in Mizrahi homes, as Golda Meir once advised: “Let them stop all those family celebrations. Let them learn how to manage their budget rationally. Let them work hard for their rights. They should begin by having smaller families”. From then on it was clear to everyone that the problem exists – though it is continually avoided to be addressed.[...]

....the Panthers prompted a Mizrahi cultural awakening reflective of the cultural oppression of the Mizrahim which began immediately after their first protest and which continued in tandem with the breakdown of Mapai’s hegemony. Initially it was music that blossomed forth, followed by poetry and prose, and above all, academic research. Later came cinematography and the arts. [...]

I would like to emphasize the courage and devotion of the group of youngsters from Musrara who stood up against the forces of oppression and confronted the state headed by Mapai on both the ideological and physical levels. It is sad to note that since the confrontations of the Black Panthers, not one Mizrahi movement has emerged which dared to carry out a direct and brave confrontation with the state.[...]

Black Panthers Founder, Former MK Marciano Dies At 58 - "He always spoke of the poor residents of Jerusalem and never mentiioned his own financial situation"

Sa'adia, respectable, admirable human being, Yedid Nefesh, who's death was hardly mentioned on all of the 3 major tv stations while filth bags like Olmert would probably reach world press coverage, Zichronkha Baruch - May You Rest In Peace...

Tse.

L-I-S-T-E-N-!!!

2007-12-21T13:39:00.000+02:00

nobody (no not you son lol) can understand what music has brought me, inspired me, encouraged me and shown me the way.... comfort me and was there to be my friend.

It's our bulbul

2007-12-19T08:07:00.000+02:00

Israeli society in the coming days will be pushed to decide what will
become the national bird. Finally, we must address a truly significant question.
But our indecision is hard to comprehend: Of the 10 contestants who made it to the final round, it is clear which is the winning bird, the one who represents
Israeliness in all its glory.
[...]
The bulbul, of course. It suits us because of its name - stolen from the
Arabic like humus and falafel, which became the "Israeli national dish" exported
in our name - and because of its distribution: It is present everywhere in
Israel. It flies in circles and wanders around, but remains local. And also
because of the noise that it generates without interruption.
[...]
And if that is not enough, the bulbul, unlike any other bird, does not
limit itself to chirping and dancing as a form of communication. In other words,
a handshake and polite greeting is not its style. Two bulbuls that meet are so
overcome by affection that they trample each other's heads, touch, taunt each
other, and jump around as if they ate from the same mess kit for years. In
general, the bulbul's posse comes before everything. In veteran couples they
settle on branches of a loquat tree. Representatives of each sex or a pair of
same-sexed bulbuls are typically monogamous, but the important thing is that the gang is all there and that they are never alone.
[...]
Those who object to the choice of the bulbul because of the sexual
innuendos associated with its name (slang for "penis" in Hebrew) are missing the main point. That folksy usage of the unpretentious bird's name to describe the male genital organ proves the extent to which the bird is loved by the masses.
This is not a crude or insulting expletive, but a childish term of affection
that illustrates how Israelis relate to themselves: oversized, pampered infants
forever.
[...]
There is no doubt that the bulbul is ours: loud, quick to anger, lavishing
gregarious affection, and in love with his friends. He makes noise as he brags
to his pals about his exploits, and calls himself affectionate names. He doesn't
stop singing even as he is joyfully robbing fruit from others in true bulbul
style.

By Aviram Golan - Haaretz Com.

Tse.

Burning Skies

2007-12-16T20:03:00.000+02:00

One of the most beautiful things people here can enjoy without other people letting them pay for it or placing borders to cross are the magnificent skies.

Every Saturday I walk to the beach and each time, like the first time, when arriving there until leaving, I am overwhelmed. Perhaps you would be too if you see things like this.

The beach was my starting point in Israel. I should damn it. I should be angry at it. I thought it was Paradise here and it turned out to be like Hell. But, I can't. I look out over the huge vastness until the water turns into sky, listen to the music the sea is roaring up from his belly and feel the waves rolling towards the sand after having been broken further away on my tired feet, refreshing them... giving them power, stimulating this feeling all the way up all through my body, my mind.... my heart.

For 30 years now I am going to the beach (although not all those years every Saturday, lol) and it feels like I am visiting a friend. One that is always there, that has mood-changes - sometimes angry sometimes calm- but one that will never leave me....

Like music, the sea is my heaven....

(this photo I took last week onn Saturday)

Tse.

My favorite reporter - talking to PEOPLE

2007-12-12T21:23:00.001+02:00

=============================

my favorite journalist being the guest of Hamas a couple of years ago (approx.)

it is this reportage that is always in my mind when talking about Hamas, Israel, Fatah etc.

it also makes me feel very sad.

People.....

Tse.

Pride & Honor

2007-12-08T10:59:00.002+02:00

The Palestinian Authority must not recognize Israel as a Jewish state, head of the Higher Arab Monitoring Committee Shawki Khatib said Friday during a Hadash party annual convention in Nazareth.

I am convinced now that for Arab Israeli leaders this whole schpiel of not wanting to recognize Israel as a Jewish state is nothing more than an absurd game of 'pride & honor" - so childish, so immature and so ridiculous that nobody is even paying attention anymore as to HOW ridiculous this has become.

What is wrong to live as a minority in a State that would provide you better living conditions than any other state around where you would be the majority and is labeled as you would prefer? (that is soon as you are not regarded as a threat to the state anymore).

Nothing. Nothing is wrong with that. I am sure many Arab-Israeli's would prefer to live their private lives in dignity, honor etc. by being able to provide a good life for their families with freedom of speech and expression, worship etc.. However, there come the so-called 'leaders' and indoctrinate them that that is not enough. That that is not good. They should feel humiliated because the state is a Jewish state. No matter their personal lives would be honorable, respectful etc. and represented proportionally.

No, it is not enough there are so many "Muslim" states, "Arab" states around, NO!! These 2 by 2 meters of land must be "Arab" (Or "Muslim" - according to Hamas etc.) as well.

Greedy people always overeat. . . that is what will happen finally. Here is some advise 4'ya from one of my personal "heroes":

Tse.

מצבי רוח

2007-12-06T13:01:00.000+02:00

We are Arabs, we are Jews....

2007-12-04T21:05:00.000+02:00

we are all different kind of nationalities - all different people, but we want peace for the whole world..... we want to have a good time, instead of killing each other.....

AbdelkaderSaadoun tells you what I want,

enjoy,

Tse.

desert "hate"

2007-12-01T18:42:00.000+02:00

Yep, you got it, yet another pretending to be a so-called "peace" activist while spreading hate. Get to know Desert"Hate". Another populist trying to be famous because of the hate he holds inside of him.

Shouldn't people like him be banned from humanity?

Tell me. I want to hear - why hate is so popular these days that people like him, living comfortably in the most luxurious homes within Israel feel compelled to become 'popular' on the account of other people.

Tell me. Please. I don't understand those haters like him. I really, honestly, don't.

I can just feel nauseous - that's why I stopped reading him a long time ago. Weren't it that he appears on the (famous but treacherous) Sabbah's palestine blog aggregator, I would happily like to pretend those hateful people were non-existent and quite dead.

Tse.

ah, yeah, it goes without saying that he has not published my comments. just like any other chicken that is afraid of the truth disturbing his glorious fame into hate-dom.

***********************************************

2-12-2007

a 'development' :D :D :D

the abovementioned hate-blogger has responded on his own blog. Don't worry DesertHate I don't ever copy from your site at all, and also don't read your blog, but unfortunately you do show up at the Palestinian Blog aggregator and thus I get to see at least a part of it - so far for the mystery of me ever reading your blog (anymore, because in the beginning I wasn't convinced of your ill-will and hatred). So, the following is -to say the very least - completely weird and a lie:

... yet they copy and paste everything I say and post it on their own sites.

Don't get flattered. I will absolutely NEVER post hateful things - and since your site is a hate site, you won't see any quotes from your blog here. (except this one to show the absurdity of your claim). Now go on spreading hate, spoiled yuppie!

Perhaps -one day- you will grow wise and realize that spewing all this hatred to a side you don't feel connected with is just recalling hatred by return. So much for 'peace'.

Israel tells the U.N. - "never again"

2007-11-30T09:39:00.000+02:00

Source

Gillerman: UN giving Palestinians fictitious sense of reality

'Arab refusal to recognize the existence of our Jewish state has been at the core of the Palestinians’ inability to achieve a state of their own,' Israeli ambassador to United Nations tells General Assembly members during discussion titled 'International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People'
Ynet

NEW YORK – The United Nations General Assembly conducted a discussion Thursday marking 60 years since the vote ending the British mandate and establishing in its stead two states- one Jewish, the other Arab. Nevertheless, instead of celebrating the event, Arab states continued to force on fellow member nations an annual discussion under the title "the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People."

The discussion has taken place every year since 1967 and is organized by the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People and attended by the Palestinian's permanent observer at the UN. Israel's ambassador to the UN Dan Gillerman boycotted the discussion in protest for two years due to the event's one-sidedness, but this year he decided to change his stance and participate.

"The air in Annapolis was filled with the hope that by working together we can realize a peaceful and better tomorrow. I have no doubt that this sense of optimism was felt by all those in attendance. Yet, back here in New York, standing before this august Assembly – in a place so distant from Annapolis in body, mind, and soul – I cannot help but wonder whether today’s debate will contribute to the promise of Annapolis," Gillerman told Assembly members.

Click here to view special page on UN's vote on Partition Plan

"After all, this Assembly hall is also the birthplace of the annual 21 resolutions defaming Israel – with a litany of predetermined, impractical, and completely biased conclusions – that have only given the Palestinians a fictitious sense of reality and a discourse of rights without responsibilities, both of which render the United Nations completely incapable of playing a meaningful role in addressing the conflict.

"It is all the more bewildering that of late the Jewish character of the State of Israel has been called into question. Last week, as Israelis and Palestinians set out for Annapolis, a veteran Palestinian negotiator said “the Palestinians will never acknowledge Israel’s Jewish identity," he said.

The Israeli ambassador continued to say that "the resolution that gives the 29th of November significance – General Assembly resolution 181 – speaks of the creation of the 'Jewish State' no less than 25 times. Even before that, the notion of a Jewish state in the land of Israel was cemented in the 1922 League of Nations British Mandate on Palestine, which put into effect the Balfour Declaration of 1917 to establish a national home for the Jewish people.

'Arabs made a fatal choice'

"The Arab refusal to recognize the existence of our Jewish state has been at the core of the Palestinians’ inability to achieve a state of their own. When the Jews accepted the UN partition plan, the Arabs made a fateful – and indeed fatal – choice to reject it and invade the newly borne Jewish state, rather than coexist with it," he told the General Assembly.

According to Gillerman, "had the Arabs accepted the UN’s decision, there would have been two states, one Jewish and one Arab, all this time, for the past 60 years."

The envoy added that he "hopes the winds of Annapolis will blow to the north, to this very hall. For there could be no better time for the nations of the world – and in particular the moderate Arab and Muslim states in this hall today – to show their commitment to the Israeli-Palestinian process.

"And there could be no better place than here at the United Nations –where for decades Israel has been discriminated against and singled out, contrary to the fundamental principles of the UN Charter – for Members States to tell Israel and the Palestinians that they support our dialogue," he said.

Tse.

humor

2007-11-25T14:19:00.000+02:00

I've been asked to write something positive. OK, I can't. I don't write when ordered namely. However to show a little spark of my twisted humor, I attach herewith a photo I took some days ago when one of the guys building the concrete tower that is going to take away yet another piece of my view on the skies opposite me made me laugh that much that I had to photograph him -

This is my humor (nobody else was laughing) -------- or,

do I have a dirty mind?

Let me know :D

Tse.

Romance

2007-11-22T10:01:00.000+02:00

Does it still exist?

Tse.

edit:

yesterday exactly, precisely as I was reading Yudiths blog "occupied" about the earthquake that hit Israel a few days ago I thought something was wrong with my body. It started trembling. Then, as the ventilator near me started to make noises as it was swept against the door it is standing near, I realized this might have nothing to do with my body and more with the earthcrust.

it is a WEIRD feeling being 'sort of' swayed from side to side but nothing too obvious so you have no idea at all what is going on at the moment, but........

as I was reading about the earthquake (as mentioned above) I most definitely experienced an earthquake... It was later confirmed at the haaretz site as a 'light' one.

Today I came across some photos of a site I visit often because it gets me in a mood of heavily innocence (not knowing what would be with the area here at that time) - and encountered a photo of "Jerusalem after the earthquake of 1927" - I thought I might place it here. It somehow fits into this nostalgic mood I seem to be in lately:

Here : it's on top of this post: blogspot is quite restricted when it comes to outlay grrrrrr

the link to MANY great photos of the time before any demonizing politics invaded it but people just were people living their lives:

Here

Sabbah and other so-called 'peace' blogs

2007-11-18T11:15:00.000+02:00

they are fake. I am now completely convinced that the only reason they are still existing is because they deny everybody with a different opinion (and thus ground for dialogue) to place their comments there.

I've had this on a blog called "Sabbah's Blog" where my -good mannered but opposite- opinion postings were systematically deleted. I took it that he's afraid of me. I still think so. So, with that you can differentiate between 'honest' blogs and those set up just for their personal (virtual) 'fame' thing (like this Mr. Ray Hananiya I wrote about in the past and this Sabbah guy for instance) to boost their ego.

Well, I must say that these phony bloggers probably only find 'support' with like-wise people: people that are too weak to go into dialogue. Now, that baffles me. How come people cannot look through their obvious personal obsessional hate that has nothing to do with wanting PEACE?

Anyway, I write this because I stumbled upon an article at a blog (where my comments weren't published either) that tells about the 'zionist' preventing mr. Sabbah from plumping down his hatred on . . . .facebook LOL. He - Mr. Whining Sabbah - doesn't allow for freedom of speech on his own blog, and is complaining (and of course taking full advantage of the situation by blackmouthing the 'zionists' who have nothing to do with it) about others following his example but now doing it to him instead. LOOOOLLL - really, hypocrites are so obvious that those following them cannot (or I think mostly do not want to) see the hypocracy and for all clearly seen lies behind their words anymore.

I though I write this down here, since it is ME sorta 'sticking my neck out' trying to confront them in their 'devil's caves' while they themselves are too much cowards to even try to publish my comments in their 'own territory'.

If you wonder what I'm talking about here is the link. Refrain from laughing out loud, because honestly: it just is too pathetic :D

Tse.

The link to the blog I posted comments on about it, but weren't published (pay attention to how they misuse the word "peace"

Mr. Sabbah, the question is :

DO PEOPLE WANT TO REACH A SOLUTION?? especially you who gains his 'popularity' on distributing hate!

?

2007-11-14T01:59:00.000+02:00

tse.

Yes, I'm ashamed

2007-11-04T23:55:00.001+02:00

to be posting twice in one day, but..... I won't now for some time. I noticed there are daily around 50 readers of this blog (one day some more and another day some less) that's why I thought some of those might be interested to read into some AUTHENTIC history of this land we are all quibbling about. These accounts have been drawn up by a rabbi in Palestine in 1840 (or thereabouts) and is REALLY very interesting (also shows you how UN-united this land has always been, with way more diversity than being told in nowadays political propaganda for score points on 'ownership' - and this goes both ways).

I found this following piece a tad bit racist - but on the other hand in the stories that are told in the link I provide underneath, racism was also applied towards the jews so, I suppose, that was the trend then, as it still is in many cases now.

Mislamin

The name Mislamin, Mussulman, is etymologically derived from the root Salem, “perfect, complete, enlightened, faultless,” or a man who has attained perfection in all his relations. The title or expression Malim, “master, or doctor,” is a term of offence to the Mahomedans, wherefore they are never addressed by it.

Should a Mahomedan be called or addressed in this manner unawares, he asks very angrily and offended, Ana Malim, “Am I only a master or learned man?” You have then to apologize, and to say that this offence was committed without thought, without any intention of wounding his feelings. The salutation Selam Alikun, “Peace with you,” should only be used among Mussulmans, but not from a non-Mahomedan to a Mahomedan, unless to offend him and be offended in turn by his rude reply. A non-Mahomedan has to address a follower of the Koran with Alla vi, “God be present.” Selam should be used only by and to a Selamen, Mislamin.

The only pity is, that the poor Mislamin is perfect already at his birth, and thus brings his perfections with him in the world like the animal, wherefore he has no necessity for any cultivation or improvement. But in modern times it appears that the Mahomedans do not regard themselves any more as so completely perfect, and are not so particular with the different titles, and tacitly submit to be styled once a while “learned, doctor, or master.”

Ladies & gentlemen, I present to you: Rabbi Joseph Schwarz

Tse.

"We Oppose"

2007-11-04T07:56:00.000+02:00

Source: Syrian Times

Jordan opposition parties against normalization with Israel

AMMAN
SyriaTimes
first
31-10-2007
The Jordanian national opposition parties higher coordination committee has called for stopping all forms of normalization with the racist Zionist entity, renewing opposition to the Wadi Arava treaty and all treaties and agreements with the Zionist enemy.

In a press statement made by the committees spokesman, the first secretary of the Jordanian Democratic Peoples, party, Ahmad Youssef, the committee called on the Jordanian government not to support the meeting that was called for by the US administration, warning of dropping Palestinian refugees right to return, Judaising Jerusalem and the continuation of aggression and blockade on the Palestinian people. ‏

The committee condemned blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip and reduction of fuel and food supplies, calling on the Arab League and its member states to act urgently for stopping the policy of collective punishment against the Palestinian people for being a war crime and organized terrorism. ‏
It also confirmed support to the Iraqi people in strengthening their steadfastness in the face of attempts of partition.

Aaaaaahhhh shouqi-ya-shouqi,

Tse.

Sir, you lack personal sophistication!

2007-11-01T14:21:00.000+02:00

That is what a community in the Galilea told someone applying to buy land in or near that community. Except for the disgusting fact that it is pretty obvious they were shunned because they are Arab, I still don't get this 'community-thing'? Who the hell has power over where people live? Other people? Who are those 'commissions' that let others go through "psychoanalytical tests and interviews with the community's admissions board"?? Admission to what? Who are those community boards? How dare they 'select'? Wasn't "selection" too much of a trauma barely 70 years ago to make enough of an impression to last? (And don't do it to others)
Here you can find the story about the Arab-Israeli couple and the High Court

A week ago I coincidently watched a news item about a school called 'Beit Yacov' (in Emanuel) - I found some discussion about this here (in Hebrew, it says basically that girls of ashkenazi and mizrachi descend are separated from each other IN school and outside on the school premises, and that the school even has erected a wall so they can't see each other in the schoolyard). Same thing. . . "people" thinking that they are better than others. It seems that under the religious this is quite a common thing. I can only ask:

"What Will You Say On Judgment Day" ?

Tse.

Cheaky Jews ;-)

2007-10-23T15:06:00.000+02:00

According to biblical law, farmers must let the land of Israel "rest and lie fallow" every seventh year, which means no planting crops, no picking fruit and no working vineyards.
[...]
n past years, farmers have circumvented the law by symbolically "selling" their land to a non-Jew for the year.

Hahahahaaa.... this is SOOOO fake. Unbelievable.
But:

This year, some Orthodox Jews want that loophole to be closed and are turning to Palestinian farmers for their kosher vegetables—an ironic twist in a region gripped by conflict over land ownership.
[...]
A vendor at a Tel Aviv market said a shortage of goods sanctioned as kosher had forced up prices. "(The Orthodox) have the shmita and they buy from the Arabs, that's their religion, and now the prices have gone up dramatically," he said, giving his name only as Sami.
[...]
In Hebron, Palestinian merchant Ghaleb Abu Sneineh stood near his fruits and vegetables as Orthodox Jews, members of a local shmita committee which is responsible for implementing the law in their communities, selected their produce.
[...]
The Jewish law has affected the Palestinian economy by increasing demand for Palestinian produce and inflating prices.
"Vegetable prices are high ... Especially tomatoes, because the Israelis buy hundreds of tonnes from the Palestinian farmers," Abu Sneineh said.

source

Tse.

Olmert: go home you bastard

2007-10-19T13:33:00.000+02:00

Source

Report: Israel withheld information on Gabriel Dwait

IDF's intelligence branch knew what happened to man who drowned three years ago and whose body was returned this week in exchange deal with Hizbullah, but State did not bother to update his family, Yedioth Ahronoth reports

You heartless monster residing in your multimillion dollar mansions and totally out of contact with humanity, go, go, go...... you dirty creep. How dare you keep this information from a family that is searching for its son for 3 years??

Are you real, Olmert? I find it hard to imagine a person, a human being, is able to do what you have done. If there will ever be a demonstration demanding you to go, to leave this country even, I will walk up front. You sent soldiers to their death for your 'prestige' - you are even too afraid to face their families on remembrance days, and you treat people like dirt - evidence is this liitle piece of totall ignorance to confirm this again.

Olmert: you are SCUM!!!!!!!!

Tse.

I feel humiliated

2007-10-17T22:48:00.000+02:00

. . . said a 33-year old woman today on the radio (Reshet Bet) - when asked how she felt about living in Israel.

She is a single mother of triplets and works for a living - well... what should be 'living'. She makes 3,400 NIS bruto (netto 3,200 NIS) a month and pays $550 a month rent. The bituach leumi (socials security services) pay her child allowance of 110 NIS per child per month.

NIS 3,530 - minus around 2,000 NIS ($550) rent leaves her with 1,500 NIS to live from in a family of 4. That leaves: water, electricity, arnona, telephone, food, clothes, kindergarten. . .

She said it is a struggle deciding which bills to pay each month, because obviously she can't pay all bills. She was slowly drowning.

She was asked how it feels....

"I feel humiliated'

"Why?"

"Because I'm not given a possibility to earn a respectful living here"

*********************************************************

I hope she won't send her boys to the army when they grow up. I mean: what for? To "live" like that?

An angry
Tse.

Free Burma

2007-10-04T17:40:00.000+02:00

I saw this first at Saudi Jeans.
I want to subscribe to it.

Tse.

What the heck?

2007-09-23T08:05:00.000+02:00

I was trying to find a newsarticle, that was mentioned at Nizo's, about a double passport holder who was apprehended in Lebanon in connection with the murder of a Lebanese citizen. Being that the passport holder supposedly is Israeli, it sounds interesting. I can't find this story anywhere :(

Anyway, during my (google) search I stumbled upon the following which left me with my mouth wide open. I really didn't know. Did you?

Visa Application for Lebanon.

Restricted entry: The Government of Lebanon refuses entry to holders of Israeli and Palestinian passports. . . [...]

I knew about Israeli passport holders (duh!) - but Palestinian passport holders as well? Isn't that a bit strange? Especially seen in the light that Syrians don't need a visa at all (they're separately mentioned in the conditions for visa application in the above link) as well as most other arab citizens.

Palestinians are 'the enemy' as well?

Anyway, I thought this was interesting since 'we' Israeli's are shouting loud about the refusal having us (in peaceful manner :D ) in Lebanon (look at the criticism Lisa got and the reactions to that from Israeli's), but what is the excuse for refusing Palestinians? Seems like their passport 'situation' (and with that their space for moving around) is way more f-ed up yet, you never hear about that...

(and yes, yes: I know - 'israel' is the main 'perpetrator' restricting the palestinian freedom to move around. but this is a known fact and besides is argued -even if thought of as falsely- because of the situation. with lebanon though it's really strange since they are not in the same situation and have no reason at all to refuse visas to Palestinians).

Tse.

"If only he could see my scars"

2007-09-21T13:08:00.000+02:00

Although, I'm not a great believer in seeking repentance for sins one single day a year, because I believe this should be part of everyday living, and soon as someone finds out he has hurt someone else or caused any other inconvience one should try to correct it - there is something about Yom Kippur that makes me stand in awe. I can't explain why or what.

Aish pretty much express my feelings concerning what it means to be jewish (the way I see it).

Here are some parts for Yom Kippur:

"If only he could see my scars"

"If only we had the ability to see into other people's background and thus be able to appreciate their position.

[...]

Our sages teach us that our oblivion, our unawareness of the full ramifications of every harsh word and action, lasts only until the day of death. Then every soul stands in judgment and is made to witness, nay experience, the unedited video of his or her own life.

[...]

That is precisely what hell is: the inner inferno of remorse when we realize the full scope of the injury we have wrought. No external fire can compare in burning intensity to the regret we will each feel when we perceive the suffering we ourselves have caused.

And this is what I don't agree with:

We do not have to wait until the day of death to face and deal with all our harsh words, all our abusive actions. God has given us the gift of Yom Kippur, a day that has the potential to wipe clean our slates.

[...]

It is as if God presses the "Delete" button, and all the murky mess on our soul's screen disappears.

Sorry, I don't subscribe to this - I just CANNOT believe people can live ignorantly all year round and in one single day erase their sins.

Source: AISH

You should read it. It's an interesting observation of AISH - notwithstanding my disbelief in the meaning of Yom Kippur as they (and generally jews) explain it, it could be good advise not and never to jump to harsh reactions.... You never know which wounded nerve you hurt.

===============

Prayers for Yom Kippur

Gmar chatimah tova,
Tse.

Meltingpot? Well, whadda'ya say?

2007-09-16T14:07:00.000+02:00

Source = Ynet

Melting pot or not
An Ethiopian, Arab, Russian, strictly Orthodox, Ashkenazi and Sephardi go out to find a job, rent an apartment and enroll a child in kindergarten. Discrimination? Racism? Absolutely.

An Ethiopian, Arab, Russian, strictly Orthodox, Ashkenazi and Sephardi man of the same age group and same educational background were sent by Yedioth Ahronoth to look for a job, find an apartment and enroll a child in kindergarten. Will their ethnicity have an effect in 2007 Israel? The answer, unfortunately, is yes.

The six were chosen to represent the different sectors of society. They approached more than 400 restaurants, cafes, apartments for rent, and kindergartens in 22 cities - from Kiryat Shmona to Eilat – in each conversation the applicant's background was mentioned either directly or in a roundabout way.
The Ashkenazi caller, Itai Unger, received the most positive answers and encountered no expressions of racism. The Sepharadi Yehuda Peretz arrived second while the strictly Orthodox and Russian immigrant arrived in third and fourth place respectively.
Yet, more than half of the calls made by the Ethiopian representative, Senbato Tamanu, resulted in a refusal and dozens contained derogatory remarks. Following closely, with more than 70 percent negative answers and numerous phone-slamming, was the Arab caller Said Hanin.

Following are some examples:
Tel Aviv

In the kindergarten in the upscale Dan neighborhood, Senbato, Itai and the strictly Orthodox, Yisrael, received positive responses. Said, on the other hand, was told that "we're booked, there are no vacancies."
The waiter position was no more relevant when Boris called but magically became available again for Itai.
Jerusalem

The kindergarten teacher from Pisgat Ze'ev in Jerusalem chatted happily with Boris in fluent Russian. Senbato as well was answered positively but when Said called the answer was: "I don't want to hang up on you but you better look for another place."
At 4:50 pm Yehuda was invited for interview in a food stall in the Mall. At 5:00 pm Said was told "we are not hiring at he moment." At 5:15 pm Itai was asked to come in the next day for an interview.

Haifa

Three competed on the waiter's job in a coffee shop: Boris, Yisrael and Itai. Boris and Yisrael received negative answers while Itai was summoned for a job interview.

Said, who had many failures in other cities, received positive answers when trying to enroll a child in kindergarten and when asking to rent an apartment.

Bat Yam

At the café Senbato applied for a job, they asked for an "espresso-machine's operator" certificate and explained "the machine we use is very complicated." Itai, on the other hand, was asked to attend a job interview even though he said he had no experience.

Holon

After many repeated calls, Holon turned out to be racism-free. All six representatives received positive answers. When Said asked the landlord "don't you mind that I'm an Arab?" the answer was: "Not in the least."

For your knowledge,
Tse.

Friends

2007-09-15T21:13:00.000+03:00

"I know". . .
"Huh". . .
"I've dreamed about it". . .
"Whaat?". . .
"Well, I dreamed. . ." and she started telling me what I wanted to tell her about. . .

In my youth I was half of the time at home and half of the time at 'my second home' - with what I saw (and they me) as my second family. At home with mum and dad I was only child and my parents had me at quite an 'old age' (well, in those days - in these days it is very normal to have children that late) - At my second home I was one of 7 'children'. The one closest to me was a girl my age. We hang out together, got into trouble together, had a whole 'gang' of boys 'protecting' us (brothers and their friends) and most of all: we laughed - ALL THE TIME.

To see something humoristic in almost everything was normal for us. The most embarassing moments were laughed away. Not just regular laughing but we never stopped, we had tears running over our cheeks all the time, we couldn't sometimes get out of it - and kept on laughing.
Many people felt as we were making fools of them, but that just wasn't true. We would laugh about ourselves and our blunders just as hard - if not harder.

Then I came to Israel, and I never, ever laughed that way anymore. As a matter of fact: I've never cried as much in my whole entire life as I've done here in Israel. Just a matter of wrong choices. . . and getting deeper and deeper in it. I'm not regretting it though - but suddenly I'm fed-up with that. As a matter of fact, I'm fed-up with that for a long time already but didn't realize it. Just laugh. I just want to laugh. I want to have fun (again) - and so when I had her on the phone the other night, although the things I had to tell her and she me were serious we were laughing -again- for 90% of the time. It's so wonderful to be able to laugh. It's like you distance yourself from the graveness of things and lift yourself above it all.

Anyway, I want to dedicate this post to my friend/sister(s) - Over the years we haven't been in contact very often, but we always knew when something was happening to the other:

One day I thought: "she pregnant" - I phoned her. .. . "How do you know?? I haven't told anybody yet!" - Then, one night I dreamed that one of her brothers (also a friend of mine) fell into my arms crying his eyes out and I phoned her again: "Your father.... ?" "Yes, he died yesterday", she said....

So that's why when I phoned her to tell about my decision - I actually didn't have to say anything. We know. 3600 kilometers apart, but this is a friend. I'm proud to say: this is MY friend. A friend for life.

A very grateful,
Tse.

BethLehem or Lehem. . . ?

2007-09-07T10:25:00.000+03:00

As I got out of the bus bringing me to the trainstation where I was to meet Yaeli for a socializing meeting in an area that was least problematic for people belonging to two peoples in one land separated by a complexity of the consequences of misuse by extremists/political greed to meet, the sign on the crossroad:

over 1 million people silently suffer from hunger

caught my eye in such manner that it follows me through the whole sequence of events and thoughts about it that led up until writing about this meeting just now and made it hard for me to do so (the writing) because it plays such a huge part in it - for me.....

Dalia made a dazzling 'come-back' at the gnblog after a break - by simply inviting whoever was interested to meet in 2 days time. ("action speaks louder than words" was the first thing that entered my head - click here to listen)

Many were interested, few were able to come due to a variety of reasons. In the end, Yehuda (who I am ashamed never noticed before virtually - sorry Yehuda!), Yaeli (who I only knew of that she was the same person from her blog step by step as the Yaeli from gn when I saw her - sorry Yaeli!), obviously (but not that obviously considering the difficulties of being mobile in the region where she's living) Dalia, Ramzi (the only one I 'know' rather long, I think 2 years, Ramzi?) and me - were able to make it.

After meeting with Yehuda and his lovely daughter and having a 'stop-over' at his also very lovely home in Jerusalem, we were on our way (me totally confused, hahaaa... it was okay to enter with a car with an Israeli license plate, but it was not advisable to walk around with a kipa, LOL) - to a meeting that as far as I can feel it is the kind of meeting that many are trying hard to prevent - by both Israel's government with it's stigmatizing separation policy and Palestinian extremists who don't like to leave a chance to misuse good intentions unused. Just imagine, that Israeli's will find out that regular Palestinians are just people like everyone else and no murdering terrorists and Palestinians will find out regular Israeli's don't approve of humiliating them and don't think themselves worth more than the Palestinians.

The meeting up at a road in (what they say, but I have no knowledge of geographical surroundings anyway) Gilo was -to me- HILARIOUS. Sad, if you think it was necessary, but sometimes the absurd makes me focus on the ridiculous side of it more, and has me in stitches. I truely felt as in a James Bond movie.... meticulously warding off anyone who might get an air of our 'secret mission' - LOL.

Of the meeting at the restaurant you can read in Yehuda's blog. It was nice, I felt totally at ease (which made me feel at unease, because I usually feel at ease everywhere and with everybody and afterwards have people tell me "but didn't you notice this?" "or that?" - which I haven't... but I pushed that away and relied on my gut feelings). Still I think we must have looked out of the regular there. I went to the restroom inside the restaurant and a group of men sitting there abruptly stopped their conversation when I walked by and looked at me euuhmmm. . . 'with great interest' - must have been my dazzling appearance for sure LOL - (this is a joke).

Yehuda also writes about the meeting at Ramzi's home, but my feelings about it are different. When Ramzi's father began telling about the humiliations he encountered for going to the city that his family has lived and/or worked in - I started to feel guilty. Why would I, definitely having my roots in the Netherlands although feeling completely Israeli after 30 years here, be able to visit that city freely and he not? To be quite honest, I would trade this 'freedom' without a moment's hesitation for being able to live in a wonderful house with a view in where I seem to disappear completely, relaxing me totally and get out of this stressed shamble of an appartment near the biggest highway in Ramat Gan - But, that's not the point. They must have worked hard for it and made the right decisions, which latter I am guilty of not having done....

There have been many instances on -mostly Dutch but also Lebanese- forums in which I was asked the question if I don't feel guilty 'stealing land from the original inhabitants' - and my reaction has always been (and will stay because I can't relate to outsiders sticking their nose in as if they're angels and I am the devil while I think they should first stick their hands into their own bossoms) very firmly: NO. Actually, I still think I'm not stealing land..... however to stand in front of a man personally, eye to eye, and as a relatively newcomer being able to move freely on the land his family lived on for ages while he can't, makes you feel guilty. It makes me feel guilty anyway. (and yes, I know: security, shooting in one's own foot, blablabla.... it all flushes down the drain when not talking politics but from man to man - and that should be the basic point. After all, everybody 'speaking for us' should be doing so for 'us' right? 'The" man....

We were given hospitality and friendliness that I recognize from my in-laws: arab. Afterwards I didn't feel comfortable with it - because this is not a matter of 'how much money one has' (no-one is obligated to spend that money on a bunch of total strangers - meaning not family or long-time friends, or on whatever one decides one wants to spend their money on) - but on manners I have come to feel familiar with, although not -as I wrote- comfortable. But, I accept.

Still.............. considering this and the sign of hungry people I spoke of in my opening (lehem in hebrew means bread) - here comes my integrated impression and conclusion which takes on the form of a question..

Why and how can a people of which 1/7th live in such poverty that they hardly have anything to eat - leave alone the humiliation of their children not being able to adventure into the same opportunities people with money are given in this country - hold on to a principle and not to the 'facts on the ground' - being: the demand and insisting on a respectful daily life, being given the same chances everyone else are given and the same quality of life - for the sake of it being called a 'jewish home'? What is this home if you don't have what to eat? Last night I saw in the news a mother living in a tent, having her son in a fighting unit in the IDF (meaning that, comes time, he will have to put his life in danger defending the 'jewish homeland') while his mother lives in a tent and when he's having his 'after' - he's sleeping in a tent????????

Excuse me.... I'm confused. I am very much for a jewish homeland, seen the facts on the ground that so many israeli's are born here and this is their homeland - and comparing the map of probable discrimination grounds (being jewish) - to the rest of the middle east - but I ask, sincerely (!) ask: what for in heaven's name? To have nothing to eat? To gamble on your children's life for what exactly? To make the life of people like Ramzi's father unbearable, come home and have no place to sleep - see your mother suffer in a tent?

I am for one fed up being led into false pretences: sure - there are extremists out there that want to see the 'jewish homeland' destroyed - but, what will they destroy? The fridge that's empty? The tent a soldier's mother, father and siblings is living in? Or the economy of Israel only the 18 families that are in charge of this country are relying on??

sorry, getting emotional.... gotta stop. I sure haven't got this experience integrated in the overall picture yet as can be noted -

Although you'd think this is my first 'experience' out 'in the territories' - it is not..... that's why I'm even surprised at myself, my good friends from Gaza that were here and with me before the IntifadaII I've lost contact with and they lived in a refugee camp - still.... those times were different: they could leave their children at my place and I could visit them without a hesitation. Was a solution too close in which power could be lost for the infuential then??

Tse.

peaceloving dj's get your xxx over here ;-)

2007-09-02T01:01:00.000+03:00

If you think you can put a radio-show together I found you a nice station to direct your energies to (and, most probably, have your voice heard as well relating to the promotion of peace.... )

It looks like you can send in your shows and they will broadcast it. What good it will do - I have not the faintest clue since they're located in the UK and the root of the problem lies here, in our very own Middle-East, but. . . it's still better than nothing.

Here you go, and if you get rich and famous from it, don't forget who mentioned it to you :D

Welcome to Salaam Shalom Radio

Tse.

Suddenly. . .

2007-08-25T19:38:00.000+03:00

sometimes, a sudden event, word, song, occurence or anything at all throws me like lightening to a place and event or period in time that I hadn't thought about for loooooonggg.....

a link to a song on a forum that wasn't meant to make me all sentimental because we were joking had me hold my horses and threw me in a mood that has taken hold of me.... I write about it and I am busy with it now.... after this posting I'm going to lock it away again. like pushing a button - my survival button.... so many things happened that can make me sad and angry at myself - but then I wouldn't be able to go on living anymore - not that I would kill myself of course, but the sadness would take over and prevent me from . . . thinking, acting and behaving normally.

the link underneath is of a very old dutch song, called smartlap - the title of the song is 'loon van de arbeid' - but I've never known that, it were a few words 'the chorus' that suddenly fought their way into my long-distance memory and made me meet......... my mother

who used to love 'smartlappen' - sentimental old dutch songs about 'life' and difficulties in life -

I still can hear her sing the words - and know and feel what she felt - and remember how I rebelled against it, because I didn't want to be a 'softy' like she was -in my eyes- that time.

Moeder niet huilen - Mom don't cry
het word beter misschien - it'll maybe get better one time
Moeder ik kan er je tranen niet zien - Mom I can't stand to see your tears
Kheb nooit geweten het doet me zon pijn - I never knew it hurts so much
het loon van der arbeid zo bitter kon zijn - the wage of work could be this bitter

I'd like to say publically on a blog: mom, I'm soooooooo sorry - and wish I could tell you in person.....

My mother saw her neighbors shot to dead by the nazis in front of her eyes in WWII, her brother decided to become a sailor and thus escape being put to work in Germany - but he never returned home, he was killed by the nazis as well.... it left my mother in a psychiatric hospital, she just couldn't cope with it........ she underwent electrical shock treatment (a huge shame in those days) and then, she met my father and she so much wanted a child.... It took them 3 years - and finally I came,

she used to tell me she was overhappy that she had a girl, because a girl would never leave home to go abroad.........

and then I went abroad... it was stronger than me,

Soon as I arrived in Israel I knew here I have to live. . .

and I never thought about her feelings, never - or only that every mother misses her children if they go abroad... I had NO idea about the emotional and physical devestation I caused her:

soon after I emigrated two of her sisters died and she had a mental breakdown
- she never recovered from.

Up until her death she had a sad life - she was a hypersensitive person - she couldn't, again, cope.....

A few days before her death she told me "it wasn't only you that caused this sweetie, you must not reproach yourself for that" - but I never had..... reproached myself for her fate..... and I told her simply "OK, I know" -

and today I heard, completely by accident this song - and I heard her sing it again and for the first time I really, really 'connect' and 'see' and by my God: I reproach myself, I accuse myself and I hope (and know, because she just was that kind of a non-rancuneus person) that she'll forgive me,

Mom, years afterwards I cannot stand to see your tears :(

Link to the song: click on the arrow, it's in Dutch...

Tse.

Lovebirds and-other-things

2007-08-08T16:02:00.000+03:00

We have discovered that the lovebirds my daughter owns are gay. After research I am absolutely convinced by it since they extensively make out every day and they've well reached the age of fertility ------ but no eggs. Nothing wrong with gay birds but if you were waiting for baby lovebirds this is kind of a disappointment. The little rascals, they had us fooled ;-)

Sunday I had to go to Hadassa Ein Kerem. I hadn't been in Jerusalem for over one-and-a-half year, so it's not like I'm there every week or month even. My luck: as we arrived to enter the city the disabled people had sat themselves down in the middle of the highway and started to demonstrate (probably against the poor allowances Israel is famous for giving its citizens). In any normal town the police would direct the demonstrators to the pavements - but, not in Jerusalem. There they got a very special way of handling this: they simply close the whole town. No traffic in or out of Jerusalem and inside one big, huge, unoverseeable balagan. When I arrived at the Central Station by foot there were no busses anymore around and the Station looked like on Yom Kippur: desolated roads (the mall was doing good business though). After 6 hours the traffic mess was still there but maybe this time because the Holocaust survivors were planned to demonstrate as well that day. I will attach some photos.

(can you notice I'm a bit fed-up writing about politics?)

Take care whoever may read this,

Tse.

Life, Love, the Wind & the Flute. . .

2007-07-21T12:08:00.000+03:00

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Having a easygoing character (some may say: no personality) brought me into situations not foreseen or anticipated by me. It was the wind of life I let take charge of my life. . . It was "different" I would go after. Therefore I would go everywhere fate placed me. But. . . fate had a 'lesson' for me in store:

I fell in love.

To a totally different person than me. Which, I saw as a challenge... There are so many truths 'out there' - I couldn't understand this person, but I loved him - a feeling way stronger than my brains warned me against. I'm a fighter, but a 'good' fighter: "we will survive, we'll manage, we'll solve anything that is out to separate us without losing our own core identities" - Unfortunately, this was a one-sided endeavor. The partner's was "my way, or the high-way" - I didn't recognize it in time (and even if I did... I can't control my feelings who are -to say the least- having their own logics, or better: no logics at all).

And thus, I came to live a life of 'adjusting' myself, engulfing and sinking deeper and deeper into a world that became my world but I felt a stranger to. A stranger in my own world.... Which doesn't mean we didn't fight (argue) - but actually nothing changed... and although some side-roads were taken, it still led in the same direction: one I knew I didn't want to go to.

Then, there's music ;-)
My life-savior. When I hear music I can 'disappear' and float upon daily-life to 'wherever' the particular song takes me. (This is a remnant of my wish: to let someone/thing lead me - although I'm less optimistic with people leading me anymore).

We generalize all the time, yes me as well, although it goes against my very basic feelings. It's 'easier' - for 'protection' - when you know someone belongs to a certain 'group' it's supposed to give you basic 'knowledge' of that person. . . If it's a Palestinian (he could turn and stab you), If it's an Israeli (he never tells the truth and is only out for his personal gain), If it's a Dutchman (he's naive and boring), If it's a Lebanese, If it's an American, If it's a Muslim, If it's a Jew, If it's a ........................

and then, you hear music

From Palestine, from the Netherlands, from Israel, from Lebanon, from the U.S., Islam based music or Jewish based music - and -if music is your life-buoy- you look right through the generalizations and find connecting points with everybody, everywhere. And, if you don't, just let fate take you like it took me to find out that maybe it hasn't landed you in the spot you'd rather be at a particular moment and it seems everything else you've done was wrong, but it sure has brought you some wisdom you seemed to lack before taking off into the unknown- (I had to listen to Umm Kalthoum 24/7 when I came to Israel and thought Arabic music is horrible - being confronted with it for the first time in my life. Now, I wish I could speak Arabic just to understand every song in that language I like, because it's one of the most emotional genres I know of now). Meaning the 'familiarization process" did have points in it I was meant to learn.

Tse.
(with thanks to N. who introduced this song to me)

the best of prayer is song

abstaining from all that will come
forgetful of all that has passed
give the flute then and sing
in singing is Justice for the heart

Full translation

al-Manar vs. Israeli Haredim

2007-06-29T08:31:00.000+03:00

Okay, I didn't intend to post a new posting so soon, but this really knocked me out. When I was communicating with a staunch Hizb member I was told the song a Lebanese female singer produced showing her support for the Hizb was boycotted at al-Manar tv, since she was female and men are not allowed to listen to females (not to music in general, but especially not to female singers). Although this is far from 'my world' as I would like to live in (and chose to live in) - I respected (and still do) that people, both men and women, chose to adhere to such 'rulings' and be happy with it. And then, this morning......... I stumbled upon this article at Ynet, telling about a male singer not being allowed to sing anymore on Haredi radio stations because of his hi-pitched voice that sounds like a woman (the radio stations received angry phonecalls from its listeners it says) - loooooooool.

Listen to Fayzakov sing "Neshama Sheli"

Tse.

memes....arghhh

2007-06-26T12:35:00.000+03:00

Lirun tagged me,

1. I knew to read and write way before I even entered kindergarten. My father used to teach me and get angry at me when I made a mistake. (in a good sense, he was one hell of a great father, although he liked the alcohol a bit too much on parties and such things).

2. I vividly remember like it happened y'day that I'm sitting in grade 1 (aged 6) and am looking outside of the classroom at the garden - thinking "I wish I was that flower, so I could be outside and feel free"...

3. Dancing with a "man" (owoooh) - of 33 at the age of 18 I asked him if he'd like to be 18 again. He answered "sure, but knowing what I know now" - being as old as I am now, I disagree (that time I didn't and couldn't obviously hold an opinion) - It is innocence that gives that beautiful color to youth...

4. I'm such a music freak that for everything I hear or do a song 'pops up' in my head (shame emoticon here) - all my memories are 'tagged' by songs... The song for this period of time is "Hold me now" of Tanya Stephens that keep on playing in my head....

5. Music can change my mood. It is not like I chose the song according to my mood but the other way around: my mood changes when I hear music randomly.

6. I am a person that is living according to her feelings. Unfortunately my feelings are the element that lead me. No matter how many times and how much I try to get 'brains' take over, it's no use: my feelings decide... For me. In everything.

7. I'm 50 & still learning everyday, not sure about anything, everything or anybody and everybody. I don't know if I admire young people totally convinced of their opinions or think they're silly (because I changed mine so often).

8. If you look at the palm of my hand, you'll see a child's hand. If you look at the outside you'll see a lady of 90 years of age or more. It looked like that since I can remember when. I think it's the metaphore of my existence: a child and a elderly - comprised into one being, making life's balance swing all the time to opposite directions. Never any tranquility.

9. My grandmother (from mom's side) pretended to know to read 'cards' and has predicted me since early childhood I would go live 'across the sea' - her prediction materialized. Since the Netherlands are across the sea from Israel.

10. I'm a 'personal space' freak as well. Personal space is thus much important to me that I can foresake my own benefits because I have to be fair and acknowledge that 'space' of someone else...

Tse.

PS....Israelidiary, consider yourself tagged :D

Mixed up

2007-06-23T20:43:00.000+03:00

I'm too mixed up, confused - because of personal things, to post anything :-(

I will leave a song to get you in the mood.... I'm experiencing:

Tse.

Israel/Palestine - In My Heart

2007-06-13T11:16:00.000+03:00

Tse.

AIC - Administrative Detention....

2007-06-08T18:05:00.000+03:00

Listen to this PodCast of a peace-worker (not activist, activists in my eyes are as bad as any warmongering individual) arrested and placed in administrative detention for 2 years without even having the right to know what were the charges held against him....

This is a painting he made in prison. If you go to the link above you'll see more paintings of his hand. What got me was the 'away' look on the faces of the people he portrays. It's like they're part of the furniture, without soul, without will, just to physically 'be' there and mentally somewhere else. Sad.....

Anyway, this site I place to show the 'other side' that wants peace and having their conditions, just like 'us' - but we're having the same goal: peace. Obviously. Why isn't the government of Israel recognizing basic human rights to these people? I don't understand. Of course, Israel has the right to defend herself and her citizens ALWAYS and in ANY WAY and I support that for 100%. But, this is not necessary for the defence of this country. This is harassing people, making their lives even more miserable than it is already. For nothing.... for no good reason... As it seems even to counter peace-loving Palestinians.

No. This is NOT the right way Israel has the right to exist. When will Israel see this? When will it recognize that in order to be recognized to exist because of righteous reasons, it has to act righteous?

Again: One Life Is One World.... don't destroy a world there won't be where to live anymore at last.

Tse.

PS, could someone, please, please pretty please inform me where I can find the following clip online? Or where I can download it? (It's Parfum de Gitane of Anouar Brahem)

Anouar Brahem – Parfum De Gitane

Ray Hanania Scam

2007-06-04T12:08:00.000+03:00

There is this person that is posting all over the net (ynet, MEY etc. and having his own website of course) - called Ray Hanania. He was the one having a post up at MEY in which comment's section the partiality and downright hatred towards Israel of that site was uncovered by me. As said, I refuse to post on hypocrite hate-sites anymore (for true hate-sites I hold no restraint since I love honesty, even if that is plain hatred) - and he commented on something I wrote - namely this:

Listen, Tsedek, Israel’s government has and continues to do many bad things. I don’t hear many Jewish Americans, who support Israel, openly condemn the hate speech that takes place in Israel.

so,

I wrote him the following email:

Hi Ray,

I saw your reaction to me at the posting you wrote before last.

Since that forum disgusts me and I still like to comment,

here is my answer:

http://chamsa.blogspot.com/

Have a nice day,
[my name]

Guess what I got back?

The only person spewing hatred and demonizing seems to be you ... you don't criticize, you hate. It's terrible. And you don't like criticism and when you get it you hate. Hate seems to be your answer and you keep your eyes closed ... thanks for sharing but I don't really read hate sites

Ray Hanania

Mr. Ray Egotripper - you can't stop praising yourself (see the NUMEROUS postings you placed all over about yourself and how 'good' you are) - but when someone brings in arguments you don't like (like at your ynet column) you refrain from answering because you accuse people of hate.

YOU are the one that has found a system to escape answering to criticism by simply accusing your 'opponents' of hatred. I am so sorry that I defended your right to write whatever you like in your ynet column so often. You, Mr. Ray Egotripper are simply not worth it. That's why I'm writing this blog entry, because my return email only stating:

good you showed your true face now, Ray. thanks.

came back being blocked as 'spam'.

Have yourself a nice ego-polishing profitable life over our backs, mr. Ray Hanania - you're yet another person added to the hypocricy list that's getting longer and longer all the time. For a 'moderate' you sure are too hateful when someone prove you're wrong - I hope they will realize that at ynet and give your place to someone that's really worthy of sounding his opinion that publicly, for you, sir - most certainly are not.

Tse.

Are you in for a good laugh?

2007-06-04T08:27:00.000+03:00

Then read the article linked below :D
I mean.... how deep can you get into denial-mode?
How fast do you need to spin in order still to look trustworthy?
Ask Amnesty International :D

Why do you think you are widely perceived as being biased in Israel? What steps to you think your organization can take to improve your image in Israel?

Donatella: "I haven't seen any comprehensive statistics. That is your conclusion that Amnesty is widely perceived as biased.

For detailed background information on NGO's you may want to explore NGO monitor's website (link hereunder). It astounded me that anything to do with Ford is even remotely taken as legal initiative to be behind "human rights" - noticing what role "Ford" played in Nazism. The Ford Foundation btw was also one of the main financial contributors behind the Durban NGO's demonization mission to call Zionism - racism. And still they're allowed to fund under false pretexts?

Anyway, Mrs. Donatella (family of the teenage mutant ninja's probably) rather prefers to live in her own little world in which she is locked up - and it's true comedy for others who are honest enough not to take advantage of the stage she's built herself and her group to watch her spin and spin in order to try to justify her so very obvious political bias.

Enjoy,
Tse.

Article

NGO Monitor

PS - people and organizations like that are in my opinion a very big reason PEOPLE (like in Israeli's and Palestinians) - grow further apart from each-other and develop immunity for each-other's suffering, because of being demonized by those groups. If not this biased and politically founded report, my first thoughts and feelings would have gone straight away to the mother of Khaled Daud Faqih, the baby that is mentioned in the article, and I would be thus disgusted by the pain this has caused her that I'd condemn a-n-y-o-n-e that would do such a thing.

Thanks, Donatella - for successfully kidnapping the attention to yourself and your inhumane organization. This is my message to you and the likes of you!

MidEastYouth

2007-06-03T11:15:00.000+03:00

MidEastYouth forums have a tendency of blocking out everything that's not comfortable for them to hear. You may only criticize Israel but if Israeli posters confront them with things being said in the arabic world, they are being accused of having 'superior' feeling towards arabs. EXCUSE-ME??? This con website pretending to be looking for peace doesn't know the first thing about freedom of speech if it says things not comfortable for them to hear it. Personal attacks with false accusations are being made for those having the guts to post or comment something they don't want to hear. Even if it is packed in a cottonwool resembling package so not to hurt anyone's feelings. STILL, they find it in their capacity to twist and spin and take everything out of context (like twisting the subject on which you commented around and giving it a whole new subject) -

You give examples, you say you know something about a certain subject and they jump on you wanting to deligitimize your opinion by trying to cast doubt on what your integrity. I've completely had it with them.

I also have message for them FOR ALL of them posting there:

IF (!!!!) - 'you' at mideastyouth, ever really (and I mean REALLY) want to be a peaceforum, you start by controlling your demonizing-hysteria when someone posts something you don't like to hear and refrain from killing messengers. I am quite an 'average' Israeli, wanting peace for all and wanting justice for all and wanting nobody to suffer, INCLUDING Palestinians, (duh!) - So, if (!!!) you really want to search for peace and not just pretend: you've gotta talk to 'us' (average Israeli's) in the end. Because you know what? Only 'we' can make peace. Not your shitty little forum - not all of its members in the 'outside' world playing mr. and mrs. beautiful-conscience, nobody: just 'we', the Israeli's and Palestinians. And since you've already banned a Palestinian (because he was rude or something to that extend, as you claim) and many Israeli's already just walked away from your hypocricyforum, you are having a forum build on hot air, just to make yourself feel good.

And that, Esra'a, I think is exactly why you are having this forum: to shine-up your own self-image. Because for us, you reach nothing but more desperation for our hopes in 'you people' looking at you and your hypocricy.

The Sandmonkey? "No good source" - Memri? "No good source" - Yoni - "No good source" - eventhough all of them bring you things that ARE said in the arabic world you chose to focus on the messenger to distract the attention away from the things being said there. Now, that's OK. Only you apply a whole set of different rules for whoever feels the need to demonize Israel. You FORCE people to demonize Israel, or else...... they're at least with the Mossad or something, or anything else very "devillish" like a 'zionist' (WOW!!!!! a zionist, go hide quickly - you wouldn't want to see a zionist, mrs. prejudice). I have 20.000 times more respect for unbrittled hate-declarations than this self-righteousness based on prejudice and slimey hidden emotions that seem to like only Israeli's that agree with you in demonizing Israel.

This is for you Esra'a and MEY, or wait............. he didn't say this either *_* it's memri, so when translated by them, everybody speaking hate about Israel in the Arabic world goes free and are angels, you must think you live in Paradise already!

Enjoy your egotripping, girl - you seem to need it!

Tse.

Sands of Passion

2007-05-24T12:48:00.000+03:00

Seen on Mideast Youth posted by a blogger called D.B. Shobrawy whose blog is here - I can't help but repost this for whoever reads here to see it as well, I was in stitches when I saw it. I know of course that posting such satyrical clips about this subject by a jew is somewhat seen differently than had it been posted by an Arab, but my intentions are not bad: I just think it's very funny, that's all.
If anyone has a nice satyrical clip about jews, israeli's or whatever I'm supposed to "be" - I'd like to see that as well :D

Have fun:

Tse :D

Iranian Code Pink Zionist Gay Conspiracy

2007-05-24T09:25:00.000+03:00

Iranian Code Pink Zionist gay organization infiltrating muslim countries & muslim communities

When I thought I've seen it all I read the above 'link' while I was reading this blog (which also removed my comment; what is this thing with bloggers that don't allow for freedom of speech?? - Except that..... it isn't a link LOL. Click everywhere on the letters or the picture itself and nothing will happen, you will be taken nowhere :D So, in between all the "images" this blogger uses to manipulate his readers into what he wants, there is this of a self invented 'pink zionist gay conspiracy' - Man!!!! I bet you are scared, sir, this really sounds very serious and I advise you to take shelter because you never know what these pink, gay, zionists conspiracists can do to you.

On a happier note, I finally found a forum other than the usual 'peace-communities' that allows for Palestinians and Israeli's to talk to each-other. Unfortunately though, it has only a few single members and not that many topics yet. Also discussion hasn't started. Hopefully this will change and more members will join. Although sometimes I'm under the impression opponents in this conflict seem rather tired of each-other and cannot even bring up the energy to get into debate because both feel it's futile. Such a pity since now it seems human lives are worth less than words....

At yet another blog I was accused of being not as 'human' as I pretend to be (whatever that means). Only because I re-iterated the all-known fact that as soon as terrorists mix between civilians it is already too late anyway (meaning the reaction when those terrorists attack others can only bring hardship upon those civilians they are hiding behind). It seems the Lebanese Army has been shelling the Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr el-Bared indiscriminately. I have read that in several places so that might very well be true. On the other hand, still more Lebanese soldiers got killed than terrorists and civilians together, so it's not like they don't take chances in their effort to counter those terrorists of Fath el-Islam. Morally speaking I find this a complicated matter. Of course I'm 100% pro-elimination of terrorists but on the other hand every life is a world and if innocent people's lives are the price to eliminate those terrorists - you destroy one world each time...

To end my rant, I have a message for Mr. PalestineFreeVoice, inventor of the subject of this posting:

Have one on me, sir - and don't forget: they're all part of the life-threatening Code Pink Zionist Gay Conspiracy :D :D :D

Tse.

Iechsie-fiechsie

2007-05-20T20:52:00.001+03:00

I had written a comment on "sabah's blog' to a posting he wrote with a circulation letter addressed to the Rolling Stones super-over-dramatizingly asking them not to come to Israel for a concert but to boycott Israel instead.
He has deleted my comment. Such a spoiled mummy's-boy. Darn I never get to understand those shortsighted people who only want to hear themselves and stick their fingers in their ears when someone is opposing their opinion and making them look ridiculous. Doesn't he realize he is only fooling himself? Poor guy :-(

this is the posting to which he desires not to hear anything else but 'yay+amen'

He doesn't realize maybe but he is contributing that while exercising my right to vote - I will ALWAYS vote for people like that to stay on the other side of the Ocean ;-)

This is for you sucker:

Tse.

Terrorattacks are being called hatecrimes from now on....

2007-05-15T08:47:00.000+03:00

Here and here

are the stories of the father of 4 that was murdered by a French new immigrant yesterday in Tel-Aviv.

A French immigrant confessed on Monday to the murder of an Arab taxi driver in an apparent hate crime, police said.
The immigrant and his brother invited the taxi driver to their Tel Aviv apartment on Yona Hanavi Street "for coffee" after he had driven them from Jerusalem.

Police said the throat of 35-year-old Taisir Karaki of Beit Hanina had been slit and his body bore the signs of a violent attack.

The sincere question is being asked if the house of the terrorist will be demolished now [who are we kidding?] -

Also, the talkbacks: it is crazy but even this henous despicable act is defended by some in those talkbacks. However, luckily enough [or is it sadly enough?] - all of these hateful comments seem to come from abroad. As one Israeli woman wrote there:

I would like to mention, that unlike here, the Hebrew website is full of messages of condolences for the victim's family and utter disrespect for the murderers. I don't know who are the people from USA, UK, Singapore whatever that can't show compassion for the victim of this terrible crime, yet another result of the senseless tragedy of our region. It's obvious that regular Israelis, who endure this pain every day and not just read about it online, understand this for what it is - a cruel, unnecessary murder of an innocent civilian, a father and a provider for a family with 5 children.
May he rest in peace.

Thank God at least for that. It shows once again that from afar you cannot FEEL connected because the basic involvement sentiments in your everyday reality are lacking.

Karaki's father, Yasser Karaki, told Haaretz his son, who was married and the father of four children ages six to 12, had driven the children to school and set off for work at 8:30 A.M. "He was a good guy, he was not involved in politics; all he wanted to do was make a living for his children," the elder Karaki said.

I go with the first commentor in the Haaretz link above:

"For this you came from France?" - 05:13 / spare us

Rest in peace Taisir,

Tse.

Not wanting to clash

2007-05-09T11:58:00.000+03:00

Oh Ali!!

2007-05-07T09:32:00.000+03:00

I don't know how 'you' are reading the talkbacks of the various online newspapers, but most of the time I sit here chuckling behind my pc.

Here follows the latest joke, as commentary to an article called

Hizbullah: Siniora government more hostile than Israel

1) Siniora gov more hostile
What a joke ! How did the hizbullies manage to rearm under the noses the UN and leb government ? How did all these new rockets get there. with the help of Syria and who else ? hmmm it make you think does'nt it ?
Simon, South Africa
====================
8) to 1)
Hizbollah did rearm..that's right but they did that without the acceptance of the Lebanese government..The Lebanese government and on the top of it Al Sanioora tried his best to stop feeding hexbollah with weapons during the war not now but he couldn't bocz our Hezbollah state which I consider much much stronger than the Lebanese government warned him.

We Hezbollah are not a state within a state. We are the state.
Ali, Lebanon
====================
10) A state within a state
to no 8# Israel wont make the same mistake twice !
Simon, South Africa
====================
11) to 10) remember my name and what you said
" to no 8# Israel wont make the same mistake twice ! "

If the so called states makes another attempt, I recommend to all your follow intruders in the so caleld Israel, to run away because this time we will be really ready for u guys...

Don't hide but run, run really far.....
Ali, Lebanon
====================
13) to Ali
Ai ya Ali, bechiyat Ali, shut your "JORA" already, will you...
Nina, TA
====================
16) bunch of losers
loooooool
Ali, Lebanon
====================
17) #16
ali,

let me give you one word of advise.....it is really not too smart on your part to believe your own illusions.

next time, israel will be taking off the white gloves, shutting its ears to national outcries, bombing the entirety of lebanon and rendering you and hizbullah permanent cave dwellers without ever seeing the light of day.

it is such a shame that you can't warn yourself ahead of time. israel did you a favor by stopping its bombing of lebanon. nasrallah and his descrepit jihadies couldn't have handled more months of this constant bombings. this is why they sent saniora to the un to cry and beg israel to stop and this is why nasrallah admitted after the war that if he knew israel will react like this, he would have never started this war.

please be careful of what you wish for because it may come back to bite you in your ass. do not ever underestimate your enemy. we can take you out and we could have if it wasn't for the world and you crying "stop".
[anonymous]
====================

Sometimes I feel I'm reading the feedback of a computer game in which the contenders are bluffing themselves into being the best players....
Or, to say it in the words of "Ali": looooool

Tse.

PS - Leb. or Isra. we both should start better listening to the good things Leb. has to offer and, dance, dance, dance.....

Is 18 a magical number?

2007-05-05T09:31:00.000+03:00

Well not for me (yes, I'm "back" blogging).

Source:

Eighteen Families Own Israel
Numerologists Unsurprised

Ben Murane

Concentration of wealth in Israel has increased, announced a study published by Business Data Israel in February. According to the study, just eighteen families earn one-third of Israel’s commercial revenues, totaling approximately 44 billion dollars. This revenue counts for 32 percent of income within the State of Israel, but does not reflect the families’ inherited wealth, savings or any income from investments outside the country. The families’ earnings increased four percent from the previous year.

The Labor party responded to the statistics, saying they were proof that former finance chairs and current Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu parceled off state-owned industries to cronies during their pushes for privatization. “It’s no coincidence that of the 18 families, at least seven are considered Olmert’s close friends,” the party said in a statement.

Meanwhile, one in four Israelis is below the poverty line, according to the National Insurance Institute’s January poverty report. It stated the number of poor Israelis since 2000 has increased by 600,000 to a total of 1.6 million people in 2005.

While many Israelis were disheartened by news of the country’s widening economic disparity, numerologists were tickled that the number eighteen continues to appear in Jewish life.

Tickled? Very funny (NOT).
It's like Israel is their private business....
Blow them.

Tse.

2007-04-26T22:13:00.000+03:00

Maybe I'll be back, maybe I won't.
This is IT for now.......

Tse.

Hold me now ....

2007-04-25T20:44:00.000+03:00

don't cry, don't say a word, just hold me now........what do you say when words are not enough?

Tse :-(

Jew or Israeli?

2007-04-24T16:26:00.000+03:00

Article about the outcome of a poll asking this question to Israeli Jews. Quite surprising actually it is not. Secular Jews find themselves foremost Israeli while religious Jews think of themselves as Jews first. What's new?

Are you an Israeli first, or a Jew?
In a poll conducted on the eve of Israel's 59th Independence Day, 50 percent of respondents said they were Jewish first, 45 percent said they were Israeli first and the remaining five percent said that both titles did not represent them.

Eighty-two percent of religious respondents said they were more Jewish compared to eight percent who said they were more Israeli. The gap among the strictly-Orthodox population is the largest: 92 percent said they felt more Jewish compared to five percent that sees itself as more Israeli.
Among secular Israelis, 72 percent said they were more Israeli compared to 23 percent who said they were more Jewish. Among respondents who view themselves as conservative, 64 percent said they were more Jewish and only 27 percent said more Israeli.
[...]
According to Becker, there is an erosion of values perceived as 'Israeli' and in their stead people have begun to identify more with Judaism. Becker said that this is not necessarily people latching on to Judaism as a religion, but as a nationality, a culture and spirituality, a community with historic and familial roots.

What are you?

I'm an Israeli Jew, wonder where that fits in?

Tse.

Source

Sh'ma Israel

2007-04-22T20:16:00.000+03:00

הלב בוכה בשקט ו-כשהלב שותק הנשמה זועקת

Pray.......

Listen:

שפיות זמנית - הקיץ...

Tse.

Edit: I wanted to add this

DAMN IT @&*#@

2007-04-14T15:29:00.000+03:00

Go read here and see what I mean with all my postings about the HUGE failure of Israel being a 'light upon the nations'. My eyes are bulking, my heart breaks and I feel this uncontrollable anger rise in me when I read about this, this, this and this - GRRRRR &*@%$@

Read her blog... it is the story of how a country can ya'ani legally dissolve any right on decent, dignified, existence people have if they haven't got enough money to compete against stinking dollar-hunting hyena's. This is no 'light upon the nations': that superficial hi-tech image they want to transmit to the world of "enlightened democracy" - this is a clique, millionair's club.

The home is almost empty. Even the refrigerator and cooker have been taken away (i believe this is in fact illegal). All they have, are the beds they sleep on. And a TV donated by a friend, which has receipts stuck on it, to prove it doesn't not belong to the family, so it will not be taken away.
The 17 year old girl is seriously considering going into prostitution: "she can make far more money that way", so she said.

As a believer in Judaism I am convinced that not your enemies will finally bring about your destruction but your worship of the fake-God called Money - because for your people you show absolutely no respect....

Tse.

[Exodus 23:7] “Keep thee far from a false matter; and the innocent and righteous slay thou not: for I will not justify the wicked.”

HIV-free Israeli-Melons

2007-04-13T20:54:00.000+03:00

Sorry this one is too good to let go, gotta have some part in the fun as well, not only hardships :D :D :D

Here

it says:

'Israeli melons have AIDS'

Text message spreading through Saudi Arabia claiming melons entering the kingdom from Israel are infected with AIDS causes frenzy. Officials deny rumors.

The rumor, despite being denied several times, has gained so much steam in the Arab world that it made it to the front page of one of the most important Arabi language newspapers.
Many received an SMS supposedly from the Saudi Interior Ministry saying, "Please forward quickly."

Goodgolly Hahahahaa....

But wait!!!!

Head of the center for chemicals and toxins in Mecca, Dr Ahmad Elias also stressed that there was no truth to these rumors.

Dr. Ahmad Elias? Dr. Elias?? Like the Jewish name Elias??

OMG :D this must be true then, those melons are definitely infected with AIDS - it's all a 'zionist conspiracy' Dr. Elias :D With a name like that you thought you could fool us, hey? Hahahaha...

I'm in stitches (sorry it's not nice to laugh about your fellow-human beings, but this is just too hilarious) -

Tse.
Over and Out with a Huge, Huge smile on my face :D

Wonderful world, beautiful people

2007-04-12T21:31:00.000+03:00

Third of Holocaust survivors poor :-( Having worked for a lawyer's office that amongst other things dealt with the insurance money of an Italian Insurance company involved in insurance claims from Holocaust survivors, I only know TOO well how much money those 'intermediaries' are making out of it. This is not a sum of hundreds, but of billions of dollars.... all out of the money they pretend to claim on behalf of their clients - the rightful owners (that had insurances on in Europe when the Holocaust erupted). Those 'directors' go out to tropical resorts to 'negotiate deals' - 'discuss agreements' - 'sign contracts', fare magnificent on 'commissions' and 'interest' and live their live in luxury - but in the meanwhile........ as you can see:

a third of the Holocaust survivors in what is supposed to be 'their homeland' - live under the poverty line not even being able to obtain the most basic human needs (like hearing aids, medicines, etc.) . Great going, Israel.... Kol Hakavod :-(

Especially seen that the Holocaust monies have made a story of their own already, called the Holocaust-industry - you (Israel) foresake the people whose fate you use and misuse for the justification in almost everything you do, leaving those where it is all about -PEOPLE- that have suffered things that are too horrible to even imagine and you use in your justifications - out in the cold. Israel: j'accuse !!!!!!

If you will go on as a bloodsucker taking advantage and then let PEOPLE suffer (look at Lirun's mashtaf story and now this) - and will not show humanity & compassion- you: Israel, will be doomed. "A light upon the nations" - is supposed to have a heart... Where is yours, Israel? Where?

Tse.

Here:

Many of the survivors suffer from mental distress and loneliness, and lack proper social and family support networks. Some 50,000 to 60,000 survivors are in need of some level of nursing, as 73 percent of this population is over the age of 76, and about a fifth is over 86.

and here:

Sillywillie

2007-04-08T17:20:00.000+03:00

I know, I'll always stay that irrational, emotionally imbalanced sillywillie with whom not logic discussion is possible. I fly from the Lebanese lfpm forum reacting to someone who wrote that Israel won't exist anymore in another 25 years by stating that I will defend it till my last drop of blood (and I mean it) to feeling the tears roll over my cheek when reading that Zakhariya Zubeidi was shot at this afternoon. I don't know why but... I like him. I would probably kill him first if I could if he would point a gun at 'my neighbor' (indicating boys that I know from the time they wore diapers and are in the IDF now) - but until such time whenever I see a photo of him and hear he's been in harm's way - I mostly feel like taking him in my arms (motherly) and trying to soothe him. I have no idea how I can mix these feelings of killing to defend and holding him close to my heart to comfort him assimilate together. But I do.

Many bloggers who 'know me' - have been introduced already to the 'Arna's Children' story. The DEEP, DEEP tragedy of kids looking forward to their future - releasing some of the tension of everyday life by joining and enjoying a theater group for children in Jenin - end up with most of them being dead - except for Zakhariya, who's at this very moment and since long the 'most wanted' on Israel's hitlist. There's a 'hand of the devil' taking control of us, all of us, here in this region, because....

how does a promising and good-natured child (Yusuf Sweitat) for instance end up being a terrorist that guns innocent women he doesn't even know down in Hadera (in 2001) before being shot dead by police? How come this kid is turned into a pawn of this game the whole world is playing with our lives if he specifically declared he loves theater, he loves life.... how? I would kill him (Yusuf) as well. I would really, if I could stop him from killing innocent lifes that day in Hadera. Without a second thought even.

But that doesn't mean I don't mourn for the life of such a sweet boy with high hopes that was so tragically wasted only because he lived in the wrong time at the wrong place and was witness of death and destruction he couldn't bear to see......

So, back to Zakhariya, the only one still alive from that theater-group - He was shot at today, sustained injuries in the shoulder and is fine he told ynet reporters. Why do I feel concern for him and was rather shocked to hear about this attempt on his life? He said he would 'fight the occupation till the end' - so he's a potential killer of 'my neighbor in the IDF' for whom I care a lot about and much than Zakhariya (whom I've never known except for through the news of course). Why?

(Because he looks cute LOL - nah, just jokin' - although I do think he looks very good)

It must be something his eyes tell me. They're not sad and not happy, they don't really show any hate in them.. but they got a look that tells you he's 'given up' and doesn't care anymore because anyway he can't change the situation other than by puting his life in the scale. The life of a boy whose mother opened up her house to let 'Arna's Children' theater group dream of a future....

and was killed in front of his eyes.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3385454,00.html

http://www.geocities.com/lawrenceofcyberia/palbios/pa13000.html

Yossi killed Atari :-(

2007-04-04T18:20:00.000+03:00

Maybe not spectacular news but I find it so sad. Also: unbelievable. Why would an elephant kill another elephant all of a sudden while they're living together for so many years ?

Of course, nobody is Dr. Dolittle and can speak their language, so who knows what they have been saying to each other over all those years?

Poor Atari :-(
Poor Yossi as well, since human hands created unnatural conditions (in the wild male elephant herds don't live together with female herds and here they were made to do just that) there's a killer elephant living in Ramat-Gan's safari right now...

The first link shows Yossi, the pride of the safari for so many years because him being the largest elephant in the whole wide word, and the second link takes you to the story of the 'murder'.

Tse.

http://www.safari.co.il/content.php?id=22

http://www.safari.co.il/article.php?id=288

Howie and others:

2007-04-01T21:06:00.000+03:00

http://www.nrg.co.il/online/1/ART1/563/865.html

Just to keep you updated. Cause, you and others are pretending this is a 'thing of the past':

חייל משוחרר ממוצא אתיופי לא הורשה להיכנס למועדון ה"ברקה" בב"ש, בעוד לחבריו הקיבוצניקים לא עשו בעיה. בעל המועדון: "מדובר בטעות באבחון"

Problem in identification? My ass <*_*>

Tse.

For Palestinian refugees, return is not a question

2007-04-01T04:10:00.000+03:00

http://article.wn.com/view/2007/03/31/For_Palestinian_refugees_return_is_not_a_question_8/

For Palestinian refugees, return is not a question

4.5 million Palestinian refugees live in dozens of refugee camps across the Middle East in precarious conditions.

By Sakher Abu El Oun - JABALIYA REFUGEE CAMP, Gaza
At 85, Abdelrahman al-Mabhuh still believes he will one day leave his miserable refugee camp in the Gaza Strip and return to lands that were once his in neighbouring Israel.

"The Israelis will be defeated and chased off our country. I saw it in a dream, it will happen in 11 years," he is sure.

The Jabaliya refugee camp is today the biggest Palestinian refugee camp in the Middle East, where over 106,000 people live in density and squalor.

Mabhuh is one of about 760,000 Palestinians who fled or were driven away from their homes in the months before and following the creation of the Jewish state in May 1948.

Almost 4.5 million Palestinian refugees and their descendants live today in dozens of refugee camps across the Middle East in precarious conditions, and their plight is seen as the biggest stumbling block to peace.

Israel vehemently rejects any suggestions of a return for the refugees, arguing the influx would effectively erase the Jewish character of the state, while Palestinians view the right of return as sacred in solving the decades-old conflict.

When Arab states unanimously adopted this week a plan offering full normalisation of ties with Israel in exchange for the return of all occupied Arab lands, creation of a Palestinian state and the return of refugees, the Jewish state balked at the latter element of the Arab peace plan.

But the recent flurry of peace diplomacy hardly left an impression on Mabhuh, who grew up in the today-vanished village of Batani just a few kilometres (miles) away from the Gaza Strip.

The right of return is not subject to any negotiations, he says.

"We will never give up. They chased us away from our paradise and we have since fought for our return," he says as he adjusts the keffieh chequered scarf on his head.

Like many Palestinian refugee families, Mabhuh has kept the key to his Batani home, a symbol of his desire to return and of the Palestinian national cause.

The grandparents of 40-year-old Suheila al-Taluli lived before the 1948 war in the village of Dimra, not far from Batani, and again of which no trace has remained.

"My grandmother told me before she died many stories about her village. She would often break down in tears from the memories and pain," she says.

"She raised her children on love of the cause. One of them died as a martyr and others are today in Israeli prisons," she says.

Sitting in front of her ramshackle home, Taluli's neighbour, Latifa al-Hilu, is too old to remember her age, but she keeps a vivid image of her home in the village of Beit Jirja where today stands an Israeli community.

"It was a beautiful two-storey house. My father fell sick when he heard that it was destroyed after we left," she says.

"We lived there comfortably with the income from our fields. Today we live on humanitarian aid, but we will return one day," she promises.

"Nothing in this world will make me give up my right of return. Jabaliya is not my home. Home is the village where my parents and grandparents were born and sooner or later we will return," says Suheila, whose family also came from Dimra.

According to the United Nations, Palestinian refugees and their descendants numbered 4.45 million by the end of 2006, with 1.85 million living in Jordan, 442,363 in Syria and 408,438 in Lebanon, in a total of 95 camps.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Friday that the return of any Palestinian refugee was "out of the question".

"I'll never accept a solution that is based on their return to Israel, any number," the premier said in an interview to the Jerusalem Post English-language daily.

Well then - here we have it....
No hope for progress, because the past will haunt and tries to take over the future
People are and will die for it
Is it worth it?
Is land actually worth the life of human beings?
Why are they being kept in those conditions anyway?
Nobody ever asked himself that question?
Why aren't they given the chance to live in decency and dignity and care for their future generations?

It's sad.

PEOPLE!!!!!

2007-03-26T02:10:00.000+02:00

For the commenters in my former two postings (the 'anonymous') here's my reply:

No more hunger and thirst
But first be a person who needs people

People, People who need people
Are the luckiest people in the world.

Tse.

I've reconsidered: people who need people are NOT the luckiest people in the world.....
pity.

Speaking as a mum......

2007-03-23T20:18:00.000+02:00

When I speak as a mum, I'm not speaking as a Palestinian....

Article in Hebrew of interview with the family who's three young children were purposely murdered in front of their eyes while 276 bullets were fired on them.... :-(

There's also the videoclip to watch.

What makes me really sick to my stomach are the comments underneath that article. GRRRRRRR. People have become monsters :-(

Tse.

http://www.nrg.co.il/online/1/ART1/560/447.html

Sleeping with the enemy

2007-03-23T03:25:00.000+02:00

http://www.globalgayz.com/g-palestine.html

During my visit to Drima's blog (the Sudanese Thinker) I got to surf 'around' for 'real-life' stories, as these are the ONLY things ever that matter for me (I'm just sick and completely tired and nauseous of the hi-jacked 'stories' that serve one goal only and alone and that is to make one-another look bad in the eye of whichever 'side' you're against).

Therefore, I will try and bring to 'you' these stories from 'real-life' rather than propaganda tools, in order to get as much as possible a picture of PEOPLE in the middle east in this very region without trying to blacken someone -but to improve on things that have not yet caught up in the modern way of thinking, even if there are people who don't want to think 'modern' and find it is sinful, but in everyday life (and I'm truly speaking experience here) - can be and are the best of friends with the subjects they seem to condemn.....

Happy reading, here's a part of the accounts of the people living it:

Almost 2 years of bitter fighting, trust between Israelis and Palestinians has never been lower. But in a packed, smoky nightclub on the edge of Jerusalem’s ultra-Orthodox Mea Shearim district, the gay communities from both sides still bridge the growing divide, breaking down racial and political barriers as Jews and Arabs defy traditional stereotypes and threats of suicide bombers.

Tse.

Wisdom

2007-03-14T13:48:00.000+02:00

I have been reading anecdotes of Mullah Nasruddin, who seems to be quite well-known around the Middle-East and region.

For who are reading here and haven't had the pleasure of these wisdoms yet, here follows an example with warmest recommendations to read more:

The dervish Nasrudin entered a formal reception area and seated himself at the foremost elegant chair. The Chief of the Guard approached and said: "Sir, those places are reserved for guests of honor."

"Oh, I am more than a mere guest," replied Nasrudin confidently.

"Oh, so are you a diplomat?"

"Far more than that!"

"Really? So you are a minister, perhaps?"

"No, bigger than that too."

"Oho! So you must be the King himself, sir," said the Chief sarcastically.

"Higher than that!"

"What?! Are you higher than the King?! Nobody is higher than the King in this village!"

"Now you have it. I am nobody!" said Nasrudin.

=======

Nasruddin used to take his donkey across a frontier every day, with the panniers loaded with straw. Since he admitted to being a smuggler when he trudged home every night, the frontier guards searched him again and again. They searched his person, sifted the straw, steeped it in water, even burned it from time to time. Meanwhile he was visibly more and more prosperous.
Then he retired and went to live in another country. Here one of the customs officers met him, years later.
"You can tell me now, Nasruddin," he said. "Whatever was it that you were smuggling, when we could never catch you out?"
"Donkeys," said Nasruddin.

Read about him:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasreddin

Tse.

A life....

2007-03-11T23:55:00.000+02:00

As I, 2 weeks overtime for giving birth to my son and with my 5 year old daughter on my hand, reached the third floor on my climb to the fourth where we just had bought an appartment a lady was standing there telling me "shalom, I'm Simcha" - Well, obviously I greeted her back and thought about how nice it was of her to come out of her house to greet me. Next thing she offered me her childcare services 'if' I'd ever needed them. She told me she had taken care of many children whose mom's went out to work and they all been satisfied. I didn't plan to work after giving birth so I thanked her and the conversation went on to almost pushing me to have tea with her some day.

Well......... this woman was almost all the time on the stairs, or outside and I saw a lot of her, had talks with her and she showed me her bathroom in which she had raised chickens (not for fun, for eating). She told me about her immigration from Iraq to Israel, about her time in Pardess Katz -where I also had lived for a period of time- and I really liked her. Her sons liked me, I liked them - one of her sons even found a solution for my mentally ill dog when I had to give him away. That was a terrible ordeal because accompanied with a lot of heartache and also almost impossible. I mean: nobody wanted a seven-year old dog, everybody wanted a puppy - let alone a seven-year old mentally ill dog. I'll be forever grateful to Simcha's son who I still see from time to time.

We used to discuss the atmosphere of our block of flats in Ramat Gan and the difference between here and Pardess Katz. She missed it. She missed walking outside and meeting half the neighborhood having always time to chat to eachother. She missed the people... (although Pardess Katz is a 15 minute walk from Ramat Gan). I told her about my experiences there: how - after my daughter was born and I (having no family or friends that could help me) came home from the hospital with a baby in my arms I just had to take care of all by myself I was met by the neighbors of my block soon as I stepped out of the taxi with throwing candies at me, and a lot lulululu calls (for me, a person that had just moved in there and they hardly knew) and compliments on the sweet baby together with wishes for 'bli ayin ha-ra' etc. and how, one morning a neighbor knocked on my door and said 'I'm here to show you how to bath the baby' since she had picked up somewhere that I was afraid to do it for the first time and confidently stripped daughter off her clothes, set up the bath and showed and taught me how to do it. I told her about how a few evenings a week different neighbors would just knock on the door and walk in to visit. How I never ever had to look for a babysitter since if one neighbor would be busy accidently there were another 10 orso in my block who would exit their doors and offer to do it before I could utter even one word. The friendliness and the warmth that that people carry with them and that shone out over everybody that was taken up in their midst. Pardess Katz is looked down upon - soon as you say you're from Pardess Katz you called off a stigma on yourself. I was proud to carry that stigma although it -as is almost always- is intended to do exactly the opposite. I've lived there only for 1 year of which 3 months were spent abroad, but I'll never forget that special togetherness I experienced there. Eventhough my whole house (which didn't contain that much) was robbed empty while being abroad ;-)

Simcha told her stories about Pardess Katz and we agreed: there's nothing like it.

Simcha liked to complain. O boy did she complain: about her neighbors, about her 'poor' existence, about the difficult times, about how she felt not understood, about everything. But - she never cursed and always complained with a laugh, making it a joke. It's that 'typical' trade many Iraqi ladies have btw. If there was a celebration of some kind, you could count on Simcha - she would sit and sway and clap her hands like a child totally in extasa from joy and she knew all the old arabic songs.

Anyway, today I heard she passed away. I hadn't seen her around for quite a long time already, and wondered - but didn't want to intrude. And then, I saw her last week a few days before she died, as if to say goodbye: half of her that is. She just seemed to have faded away into a shadow of herself. We met, how can it be else LOL, on the stairs and we spoke but not too much because she had trouble climbing up and her son was waiting upstairs and he always is a big talker so I spoke more with him - But, for one moment when we talked about the nice weather there was that wonderful happy glimpse that made her face shine again as in old times when she confided in me that she'd been to the moadon (club).

I thought long about her afterwards and also that unfortunately she looked like she was not going to make it very long anymore, but who could have imagined that it would come so soon?

The death of people still has a big impact on me, no matter she was an old woman, no matter how many people I knew passed away - it keeps on having this imminence of never again. That's a tough, almost incomprehensible, thing... so I just had to write this eventhough it's not bloggerstuff and eventhough she was 'just' an old neighbor.

Simcha, yihie zichronech baroech.

Tse.

ps - I don't know why - but this is the song that came directly up in me when I heard about Simcha...

purim

2007-03-04T18:24:00.000+02:00

I went to buzzing, fizzing, dynamic, bubbling Tel-Aviv today.....

Last week I had to go there and came back walking a route that simply lifted my spirits in such manner that I thought I had to do it over again one time with camera. But, I know that a second time around is never as good as the first... However,

today was even more cheerful and alive and certainly, although differently, spirit-lifting. I took photos (just a pity that I'm too shy to ask people if I can take a picture of them - cause there were so many nice outfits for Purim walking around, and most of them worn by adults LOL ) and those photos can be seen on my photolink at flickr (link underneath this posting).

One of the bastot at the Carmel sjouk sold cd's and stuff and the sales lady was dancing away behind the counter. Obviously, as a music freak I was most attracted by all the different sounds blaring out of every separate basta -going through arabic, mizrachi, salsa, reggae and sentimental old english songs- but I just had to buy a cd at the dancing lady's basta (also tried to take her picture but she just bent) - so, don't ask me how, I just clicked on everything 'yes' 'yes' 'yes' and I had the songs copied on the computer. Therefore, three songs of this cd I've upped for whoever feels like mizrachi-dance indulgence :)

Btw: did anybody know that in Shinkin there's a basta on the pavewalk that sells designer shirts for dogs? One of them I especially liked: "wanted, bitch for long-term relationship" ;)

Anyway just wanted to post these photos and music to give a SLIGHT impression of Tel-Aviv this morning for people not able to be there.

Tse.

http://flickr.com/photos/74177812@N00/

http://www.speedyshare.com/193884596.html

http://www.speedyshare.com/742470628.html

http://www.speedyshare.com/724594458.html

Only this:

2007-03-03T18:21:00.000+02:00

I translated a small article that was published in the Ma'ariv printed version newspaper of this weekend and posted it at the MidEast Youth forum. I only link to it, not because I'm too lazy to copy/paste :-) but because MidEastYouth is a nice place which needs all the reference it can get.

Go meet my internet friends there:

http://www.mideastyouth.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=2835#2835

Tse.

Purim Sameach everyone!

Tagged

2007-02-24T19:06:00.000+02:00

I've been tagged by Drima http://www.sudanesethinker.com/2007/02/19/tagged-by-raccoon/#comments

he's taking revenge on me boohoooowww

cause I tagged him last time.

Anyway I'm supposed to tell a bunch of things about me that nobody knows.

I've been thinking and thinking and came up with nothing LOL.

So, if there's anything anyone wants to ask:

go ahead ;)

Sorry Drima: this one was too difficult for me....

Tse.

Afraid to leave your home....

2007-02-24T17:43:00.000+02:00

"Everyone here is disgusted by what's happening in the Gaza Strip," said Shireen Atiyeh, a 30-year-old mother of three working in one of the Palestinian Authority ministries. "We are telling the world that we don't deserve a state because we are murdering each other and destroying our universities, colleges, mosques and hospitals. Today I'm ashamed to say that I'm a Palestinian."
Ayman Abu Khalaf, a 40-year-old businessman, said he was seriously considering moving with his family to Jordan because of the growing state of anarchy and lawlessness in the PA territories.
"The situation is very dangerous and many people are afraid to leave their homes," he said. "I'm very worried about the safety of my children. There are many armed gangs and everyone is afraid. If the situation does not improve, I will take my family and go to Jordan. This is not the Palestine we want to live in."

Further to our 'conversation' Nobody, in my previous posting in the comments section:

do you still think that the overall mentality of the Palestinians in respect to their children is one of not caring? Have you ever tried to look beyond the facade of the media and propaganda and short video clips on tv and public-opinion scoring organizations showing groups of children wildly passionate throwing stones at soldiers and conclude that 'the' Palestinian parents must be a special sort of parents letting their children go out to harm's way?

More and more as we get to actually HEAR from those 'hidden' Palestinians - in Dutch called 'the great grey mass" because they are never given the chance to relay the real thoughts existing in day-to-day life and their opinions - don't you agree that there are way more connecting elements existing between the 'sides' than those separating them?

I'm not trying to be politically correct. I'm not looking for castles in the air. I'm not trying to hold on to a SHRED of hope. I'm trying to encourage to look unabashed at your fellow human beings and admit that there's nothing wrong with their basic instincts as protecting parents, but for only a small amount of seriously twisted people anyway.....

.... and not fall into the trap extremists set for everyone to believe in and the media is so profoundly working on to enforce...

AlGhaliboon:
is an extremist. Don't take her/his superficial 'we' 'you' game as speaking for people he/she pretends to 'represent' - he/she doesn't represent the Palestinians, but only her/his very own ideal and that of the group of people that is evenly selfish as he/she is.

Tse.

link:

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1170359774215&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull

We have been made instruments of war....

2007-02-13T09:47:00.000+02:00

http://www.forward.com/articles/a-plea-for-peace-from-a-bereaved-palestinian-fathe/

A Plea for Peace From a Bereaved Palestinian Father

Bassam Aramin | Fri. Feb 09, 2007

I fought with my daughter on the day she was shot.

On her way out the door to school, Abir announced, in that way children have of doing, that she would be playing with a friend that afternoon rather than coming straight home to study for an exam scheduled for the next day. She was 10 years old, smart, dedicated to her schoolwork and still a little girl.

She wanted to play. I told her to not even think about it.

If I could tell her anything now, it would be: Go. Do whatever you want. Play.

Because now, she never will. She will never laugh again, never hear her friends calling her name, never feel the love of her family wrapped around her at night like a warm blanket.

Abir, the third of my six children, was shot in the head as she left school January 16, caught in an altercation between Israel Border Guard troops and older kids who may or may not have been throwing rocks. She died two days later.

I know what the Israeli army has said about the incident, and I know what Abir’s older sister Arin saw with her own two eyes: Abir was running away from the troops when she suddenly stopped and fell, and blood splattered onto the ground. An independent autopsy confirms the most likely cause of death: a rubber bullet, through the back of Abir’s head. I have that bullet in my house, because poor Arin, watching her sister get shot, picked up the bullet and brought it home. I was not surprised when the Israeli army tried to blame Abir for her own death. First we were told that she was among the rock throwers; then we were told that “something” blew up in her hands — though her hands remained miraculously in tact— before she could toss it at the Border Guard jeep.

I was not surprised, but the anguish that such fabrications cause my wife and me is hard to express. Our baby was killed — must her name and innocence be desecrated, as well?

It would be easy, so easy, to hate. To seek revenge, find my own rifle, and kill three or four soldiers, in my daughter’s name. That’s the way Israelis and Palestinians have run things for a long time. Every dead child — and everyone is someone’s child — is another reason to keep killing.

I know. I used to be part of the cycle. I once spent seven years in an Israeli jail for helping to plan an armed attack against Israeli soldiers. At the time, I was disappointed that none of the soldiers was hurt.

But as I served out my sentence, I talked with many of my guards. I learned about the Jewish people’s history. I learned about the Holocaust.

And eventually I came to understand: On both sides, we have been made instruments of war. On both sides, there is pain, and grieving, and endless loss.

And the only way to make it stop is to stop it ourselves.

Many people came to support and comfort us as Abir lay dying, her small face chalk white, her eyes forever closed. Among those who never left my side were a number of men I have recently come to love as brothers, men who know my past, and who share it. Men who, like me, were trained to hate and to kill, but who now also believe that we must find a way to live with our former enemies.

Israeli men. Every one of them, a former combat soldier.

These men and I are members of Combatants for Peace. Each of us, 300 Palestinians and Israelis, was once on the front lines of the conflict. We shot, bombed, tortured and killed. We believed it was the only way to serve our people.

Now we know this not to be true. We know that to serve our people, we must fight not each other but the hatred between us. We must find a way to share this land each people holds in the depths of its soul, to build two states side by side. Only then will the mourning end.

I will not rest until the soldier responsible for my daughter’s death is put on trial, and made to face what he has done. I will see to it that the world does not forget my daughter, my lovely Abir.

But I will not seek vengeance. No, I will continue the work I have undertaken with my Israeli brothers. I will fight with all I have within me to see that Abir’s name, Abir’s blood, becomes the bridge that finally closes the gap between us, the bridge that allows Israelis and Palestinians to finally, inshallah, live in peace.

If I could tell my daughter anything, I would make her that promise. And I would tell her that I love her very, very much.

Bassam Aramin lives in Anata, just outside of Jerusalem.

May I admire you, sir? May I sit in silence out of utmost respect for you? May I cry for your hurt? May I then quitely put my arms around you and embrace you and may I please call you brother?

Tse.

Lebanese anti-semitism...

2007-02-06T18:52:00.000+02:00

This morning I wanted to post about my outrage at the fact that -although Lebanon is 'the enemy' it is showing on tv silly, unworthy sicko's like Lebanese poet Marwan Chamoun who's seriously spreading anti-semitism - gush, can't he just demonize the actual facts?

The traditional anti-Semitic blood libel in which Jews are accused of murder and using blood for religious purposes has once again found expression in the Arab world, this time in a TV broadcast in Israel's northern neighbor, Lebanon.

In a video clip translated by MEMRI, the Middle East translation institute, Lebanese poet Marwan Chamoun says: "How many of us Lebanese, or even Arabs, know anything about the Talmud? Or about the book, Exposing the Talmud? Or about the book, Pawns on the Chessboard?"

"When somebody gets married, instead of chocolates, I give him one of these books. Whoever reads this for the first time feels a chill of horror and disbelief. He cannot believe it."

But then - now - I quite understand that poor creature. After all who can blame a person for being terrified of us, of me: with my horns and reptile-tail?

Blow him and blow everybody that willfully WOULD love to believe these devillish demonizations.

I rather look at normal people.....

Tse.

Link:
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3361434,00.html

Bettah late than nevah

2007-01-31T08:00:00.000+02:00

Although at the house religious judaism is being presented to me with principles that make me feel disgust and aversion for it, I'm still totally convinced that that interpretation of it is totally off. I have no idea where the inspiration for this fanatic, blinded, extreme shortsighted agression comes from, no idea where this is being indoctrinated - or indoctrinated is maybe not the right word - if you're not prone to it, you will not let it influence you? However, luckily there are more than enough jewish religious sources available to contradict the things people at my house are believing in and think it is judaism.

The first arab minister was appointed in Israel last week. Finally. Better late than never. The arab knesseth members were obviously (hahaha, such surprise) against Raleb Majadele's 'taking part in a *zionist* government' (blablabla) - those same self-centered arab knesseth members do nothing komma nothing for the arab israeli's and are busy all the time polishing their ego's abroad in the arab countries. Also his appointment was opposed by the israeli 'right' and 'left' - you can read all about that in the link provided hereunder - however this opposition (except for lieberman's of course) was not directly related to the appointment but rather to political games between right and left having nothing to do with Raleb Majadele in fact.

Rabbi Naftali Rothenberg wrote about this at ynet and again I was confirmed in my interpretation of judaism because of his approach:

The state, which was established to correct a historic injustice suffered by a people banished from its country and by persecuted people lacking rights in the Diaspora, was more than 50 years late in applying its moral argument to its own minorities, by allowing them to exercise their full rights and join the establishment as equals.

Anyway, good luck to Raleb who is still a minister without portfolio but that may change soon (with all the investigations against knesseth members and ministers - today Haim Ramon's verdict for example).

The link to the article and Van Leer's Institute (Rabbi Rothenberg staff member)

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3358870,00.html

http://www.vanleer.org.il/default_e.asp

Tse.

Who questions Israel's legitimacy?

2007-01-21T02:54:00.000+02:00

Let's not turn to anti-Arab racism
Rabbi David Forman Nov. 14th, 2005

History has proven over and over again that when a nation is faced with both an economic crisis and a security threat, the foundations of democracy can be readily sacrificed. But, it is under extreme circumstances that a nation is ultimately tested. For Jews, this is a serious matter. To bolster the country economically and militarily by trampling the basic rights of others is to deny the very values on which we Jews were born as a people.

[...]

In light of our present behavior, we should ask ourselves: Did we return to our ancestral homeland to become a nation like all other nations? If we teach our people the tactics of our historical enemies, will we not begin to look and act, at least in the eyes of others, as having assumed the posture of our most despised persecutors?

Whose image do we want reflected in the mirror – a Prophet or a Pharaoh? Israel and the Jewish people are at a crossroads. What hangs in the balance is not the matter of the territories, nor even the issue of war and peace. What hangs in the balance is the very face of Jewish civilization.

[...]

Ultimately, by introducing racist laws, it is not others, but we who are challenging our own legitimacy as a people and a nation.

http://rhr.israel.net/lets-not-turn-to-anti-arab-racism

Rabbis For Human Rights...

Amen
Tse.

personal

2007-01-13T15:04:00.000+02:00

I've always been reluctant to place personal stuff on the internet. First: what use does it serve? Second: who would be interested in one human being out of a few billion walking this earth? However...

since blogging itself is done from one's very own perspective and thus experiences mixed with one's own character and therefore is a 'personal' thing more than anything else ... maybe I should openly be as vain as we, bloggers, are anyway - by thinking that the story I gotta tell is worth being told (only where it serves relevance to the social/political conflict we are ALL experiencing in this region of course).

So, here it goes...

in 2 days time I'll 'celebrate' my 50th birthday... up until 3 years ago - I was looking forward to every birthday I was granted to live (I'm a late-bloomer or no 'bloomer' at all ~ it feels like my emotional world stayed stuck in my childhood years of simplicity and till now, although very hard to defend in a world where plain square moral integrity seems to need academic 'degrees' to analyze, found it -simplicity- my anchor on which I could always rely in order not to lose myself).

However... the past 3 years have been different and this year looks like it's gonna be the worst. Simplicity and personal integrity contains the control only over oneself and, there are people, even very -very close, that cannot and will not let their worldview be influenced by what I think. And, rightfully so - of course. Still... they clash. The worldviews that -when they filter down - are in effect the essence of one's character = a person...

While I'm calling for 'extremists' such as AlGhaliboon to please speak with me, recognize that we are all humans with feelings, no matter which side of the fence you're located at... at my house I'm struggling that very same battle.

Where once the only real good friends we had were muslim and jewish arabs and where palestinians were met without the hautain 'treatment' they received from ashkenazi jews (not all, but still it was very much notable) on terms of equality as it should be anyway - extremism has taken root in my house (not home - I can't feel at home where I'm met with fanaticism).

Maybe that sorta explain the very critical position I'm taking in my postings regarding Israel. What you don't want that happens to you, do not inflict that upon someone else as well. But, they are... doing it.

I love this country dearly. Spent the first 25 years only complaining about it ;) The people, so loud, so impertinent, the education they were giving their children that placed them above good manners and reasonability like they were a kind of miniature kings and queens - it sorta vanished, blended into a mixture that I find way more 'healthy' than the average European sneakyness.

I love this country dearly. But my heart cries... It cries even harder now I came to experience personally, in a private life manner very close to me, that religious fanaticism is inexplicable and a two-way road - each side keeping the other alive - and people like me are squeezed between the by-passing radicals each furying ahead in their own direction...

I love this country dearly. I've never 'done' drugs and don't intend to (although sometimes it surely sounds very attracting LOL) - but that day in late December 2005 - when I got outta the taxi in Jerusalem and heard the moazin of the al-Aqsa and the humming of praying jews underneath near the Western Wall while at my left side Christian bastot were selling religious souvenirs - I felt high. That must have been the closest someone has ever come to feeling PERFECTLY at peace, feeling 'this is how it SHOULD be"...

Where did men come in anyway to claim 'power' over whatever when religion is concerned? What is religion worth if it would take the almightly power of God and place it in the hands of men?

I fight people like you, AlGhaliboon... I fight the people at my house (and it hurts and no-one can have any idea of how difficult this is - but) .... I fight and fight and fight... and through all this just remember religious bigots such as you (including the people that were once close to me at my house) - that MY victory is that I won't lose faith - I won't let go of MY religion: the religion that I am convinced was the root message of ALL religions: the preaching of tolerance, respect, recognition, equality - in short the religion of PEACE!

MY victory is that I won't lose ME.

Tse.

PS... above is a bit of a dramatic post I realize - and I am certainly no drama-queen (I hope, LOL) so here's another 'look' on things:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewPnbjiyRXA

The good, the bad & the ugly

2007-01-06T16:48:00.000+02:00

The good:
[...]Two teenage refugees who escaped the massacre in Darfur traveled via Cairo, Sinai and Israeli jail to finally find refuge at Kibbutz Tse'elim. 'This is our family,' the two say[...]

[...]Another surprise awaited him when he was invited to drink tea in the kibbutz's Bedouin tent. The tent reminded him very much of the refugee villages he had passed on his way, but the smell of smoke from the campfire and the taste of the tea that was cooked there reminded him of home. When his friend, A., who is also from Darfur, explained to him that the tent was a tourist attraction, M. burst out laughing. It was the first time he had laughed for many days.[...]

[...]But it is not just them; the entire kibbutz is lending a hand. The secretary solved the bureaucratic difficulties, one woman volunteered to teach them Hebrew and another to take care of their daily needs. "Someone has to supervise that they are eating properly and that they don't lack for anything," says Shulamit.[...]

[...]judging by their behavior in the family's home after only one week, the youths feel very much at home there. They ask Shulamit to prepare their favorite drink (chocolate) and run off to play with the computer when the adults are talking. "This is our family," A. says with unabashed pride.[...]

The bad:
[...]M., who is 16, managed to escape when his village was attacked almost three years ago by Arab militias. Like many others, he wandered from village to village and town to town until he reached the capital, Khartoum. There he was told by a group of survivors that his parents, sister and two brothers had not been so lucky; they had all been killed. M. who was only 14 at the time,[...]

[...]The story of A., who is 17, is very similar to that of his friend. He fled for his life, along with his family, when his home village of Kurma was attacked in 2003. His first stop was at a refugee camp in a nearby village, Nalma, where they arrived one night after a massacre in that village. "Everyone was dead there," he says. "There were men, women and children and we saw all the bodies. There were many bodies. I saw my father was in shock. He was never the same after that." A few days later, the camp where they were staying was attacked. In the flight from the camp at night, A. lost touch with his parents, brothers and sisters, and to this day has no idea whether they survived or what happened to them.[...]

The ugly:
[...]M. and A. were caught together while they were trying to cross the border in September 2005 and were taken together to jail.[...]

[...]When jail got really bad, the two declared a hunger strike together; in response, the prison authorities separated them. The one time that M., normally introverted and quiet, lost his cool and tried to resist the policemen, was the day they tried to put him back in his cell alone. The price for him was a broken left arm, which has not yet completely healed. For A., it meant a weekend in the Ofek prison for juvenile delinquents, which was accompanied, he says, by a terrible fear - "I didn't care where they took me but I was afraid M. would lose heart and do something to himself."[...]

[...]Musa is still a boy, "about 17," he says, his large, coal black eyes fixed on the floor. An orphan from
Darfur, he has been on the run since gunmen shot and killed the aunt who raised him and set fire to the family hut, burning alive his young cousins.

His escape led him through Egypt and across the Sinai Desert into Israel. Here, instead of finding the freedom he sought, he has spent a year in prison under an Israeli law that jails infiltrators from enemy countries. He is one of about 220 Sudanese being held in Israel, most of whom have come in the past 18 months.[...]

http://www.israelfordarfur.org/refugeesinIL.html

*************************************************************

This was 9 months ago. I wonder how they're doing now....

Israel - homeland of the jews - jews that have been victims of genocide - jews whose Torah orders them to be a light among the nations..... why is it so dark in the jewish homeland - and so cold?

Israel - in 1949 you've inserted a special clause into the Geneva Conventions :
"requiring countries to differentiate between refugees from enemy countries and enemy nationals, citing the example of Jewish refugees seeking safety in England from Nazi Germany."

Israel - why do you measure with two measurements? Why do you trample on all of the principles you were supposed to defend, to shine your light on and show how it should be done? Don't you know.....

that the only right to exist is through practising what you've been preaching for centuries?
those centuries you were persecuted.... maltreated.... discriminated.... killed.... and:

you are failing!

I'm a jew. I believe in God. I believe jews are the 'chosen people' - but in the true meaning of the word, Israel..... a chosen people - as an example - whose light stems from the Torah and it's humane message towards mankind.....and:

you are failing!

The only way to win a battle is by showing your heart - a cause without a heart can't exist - not for long, anyway.

Wake up, Israel - go and look for your heart, before it's too late :(

Tse.

In spite of their desperate SOS signals, ships from East Germany, Norway, Japan and Panama had already passed them by.
The Israeli captain and crew immediately offered food and water and decided to bring all the passengers on board. These were the first of three groups of Vietnamese refugees to be rescued and resettled. In the years 1977 through 1979, Israel welcomed over three hundred Vietnamese refugees. Now there is a thriving Vietnamese community in Israel....
“It was a natural act to us, Mr. President. We remembered, we never have forgotten, the boat with 900 Jews [The St. Louis] having left Germany in the last weeks before the Second World War… traveling from harbor to harbor, from country to country, crying out for refuge. They were refused… Therefore it was natural that my first act as prime minister was to give those people a haven in the land of Israel”.

See, Mr. AlGhaliboon?

2006-12-20T09:23:00.000+02:00

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3342231,00.html

Jews hold Hanukkah ceremony in front of Iranian embassy
[...]
A short while after the start of the ceremony, dozens of Hizbullah supporters tried to disrupt it, protesting against Israel with the aid of a loudspeaker.

Always attacking....

the year hope withered

2006-12-15T22:55:00.000+02:00

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10414868

The Year Hope Withered

[...] Eight kilometres away in Gaza City, Adeeb Zarhouk, 44, is a man used to hard work and 4am starts to support his wife Majda, 44, and their seven children. For 20 years he was employed in Israel as a freelance metalworker and electrician, and then for five working for an Israeli company in the now flattened Erez industrial zone on the northern edge of Gaza.
But this morning he apologises for being asleep when we call.
Each day, he hopes for a request to install a TV satellite or do another odd job. "But the phone hasn't rung for two weeks. Nobody has any money to do these things."
Zarhouk is the human face of the 64 per cent increase in "deep poverty" among Palestinian refugees in the past year.
He is naturally cheerful but, as his wife prepares a three-shekel (about $1) family breakfast of beans, felafal and a few tomatoes, he says: "When I'm at home by myself I start crying. When your son asks you for half a shekel and you don't have it ... "
Zarhouk gets up to wash the tears from his eyes. Then he says that although as a refugee he earned US$240 ($349) a month on a three-month UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency) job programme, he now owes $540 in rent.
Who does Zarhouk, who voted Fatah in the last election, blame? "I blame democracy," he says with a flash of sarcasm. "The whole world wanted us to have democracy and said how fair had been our election. The problem is they didn't like our result."[...]

People like Zarhouk I used to work with for many, many long years. At the pharmaceutical office, at the im- and export office, at the hi-tech office - they'd used to be everywhere. We privately represented some constructors here in Israel - just doing the PR work for them - obtaining new jobs, customers. Handing out business-cards etc.

It hurts me so much seeing that these very decent, friendly and honest people are victims of this hell-hole of a region kidnapped by 'leaders'. Where has humanity gone in these times? Can this happen just like that? I feel his sadness very personally, this misery, this hopelessness... Why??? We used to joke around, tease each-other with 'racial'jokes anyone who's an outsider would take offense to, but brought tears to our eyes from laughter. And now? His tears are mine, I break down completely when I see people crying (anyone) and knowing that adult men who haven't hurt a fly have gotten in a situation that's so desparate and hopeless they shed tears in secret simply breaks my heart ...

Tse.

"You can bomb the world to pieces, but you can't bomb it into peace.”

Vitamin - shot....

2006-12-09T16:46:00.000+02:00

Why I love Israel.

A leisurely, but energetic, walk from Ramat-Gan to Tel-Aviv Hilton-beach

Looking down at the small beach near the perfect blue sea seeing a happy bunch of people on small plastic chairs near small plastic tables - on towels, on the rocks

Descending the steep path towards that same beach arriving at the 'restaurant' hearing Bob Marley coming outta the loudspeakers, song after song............. "Is this Love?"

Without much ado laying yourself down on the sand - head upon purse - with half-closed eyes facing the sun - absorbing the music, the sun, the happy voices around you, the sound of the sea

After Bob gets replaced by other music and the sun starts to disappear from time to time behind sheeplike cottonwool clouds picking up your purse, tying your shoes to it, strolling barefoot through the water northward bound - sun a lot weaker now throwing a million crystal-shining little stars on the rippling tiny waves in front of your feet ....

Looking sideways to where a new flare of music comes from at the boulevard and seeing people, regular bypassers taking advantage of the opportunity and dancing on cheerful tunes, a full square - randomly gathered people - dancing, happy, giving themselves over to the tunes and the steps - they all roughly seem to know.

The first songs I watched being danced to were popular arab songs - sung in arabic and everybody seem to know them according to the measure of them singing along with them and they sure knew how to dance to it - as one big happy group (the saudi's I've seen on tv dancing on tunes like this in this way would surely get jealous of the passion these people put into it, hahahaa)

I left away from the boulevard towards the sea-line while a Spanish version of an old Yardena Arazi song was being played ...

Only to find, some 300 meters further on that different melodies caught my ears and while I looked where they came from I saw a bunch of hippy-like people dancing to the tunes of 'peace' music - As I got closer I heared all songs they were singing were about that subject, calm, relaxing peace-songs with fitting dance-steps....

My 3rd encounter with open-air music on this wonderful noon/afternoon was when I went up to the boulevard to get my feet washed and dried and put my sneakers on in order to go home: an american group of some 5-6 people, musicians, were singing life religious songs through their hifi equipment, having quite a gathering around them - and then I heard it: they were preaching a christian faith - Hahahahaa.. this is forbidden in Israel, but they were sunny, bright and having a lot of people listening to their music. Next to me two men sat talking with a very friendly woman who turned out to be on the 'christian mission' LOL. I've only encountered these things in the Netherlands before with Hare Krishna people. Jews don't go out and try to convert others, although they do hand out shabbath-candles with the accompanying prayers on flyers to other (secular) jews......

No medicines or psychologists are needed if you have this near-by when you're down and having problems. This was like a vitamin-shot no remedy can triumph.... Music, sun, disorganized happy and less-happy people.....

That's why I love Israel,

Tse.

Disappointed

2006-11-30T22:08:00.000+02:00

I'm disappointed. Probably it was to be foreseen, because my 'approach' to everything always raises eyebrows and is misunderstood generally (no, I'm not complaining - just stating a fact) - but - that's it: that's me, can't help it - I am who I am.

At http://www.michaeltotten.com/
I saw this person posting nicked "AlGhaliboon" and he wrote he's a hizb-member. Boinggggg.... My curiosity flared up full force. You see: I'm an unaccepting person. He wrote "I'm your enemy" - (to MJT, American - and I'm Israeli so I'm just a tiny bit more his 'enemy' thinking along these lines) - besides, the hizb is an official full-fletched terrororganization by Israeli standards and I don't know any better (although as of this summer I know not all supporters -contrary to 'members' - are automatically linked to anything near 'terror' ideology) - but I can't see through this organization/country/religion/generalization-veil that hides people behind it. Why would a Lebanese guy I don't know call himself my enemy just because I'm Israeli? He doesn't know me. I can't accept it.

I started reacting to his comments on above blog, he answered (about Israel of course, sigh) and lied. He gave a whole list of 'conditions' (upon my request) under which the hizb would recognize Israel's existence. (That I know it's a lie I read later on at a forum where he wrote down the basic principle of the ideology the hizb has taken from Iran (Wilayat al-Faqih) which states among other things "Israel is a cancerous state and needs to be removed" )

I intruded on his blog. He responded, less polite than at the comments section of MJT's blog and very defiant, but still: reaction shows looking you in the eye (seeing you as a human being). Every time I got to the 'human aspect' of things - he bailed out and wrote about strategics or how good the hizb is militarily. Technical details etc...

Now, via a pm on a forum I asked him a question about something he wrote on that forum (and I didn't wanna go off-topic, since twice they already removed a reaction of mine that was 'off-topic') that puzzles me, and did not receive a response.

So, I'm disappointed..........

I wanna know the people (human beings) behind those blocks of enemy lines - that walk around with in their head those assumptions that the country I live in is such a horrible country which is only after more and more land and being greedy and ruthless to obtain exactly that - and based on those assumptions have developed the idea that my existence should be 'wiped from the face of the earth'. I wanna know people like that because I want them also to know me, I want them to know that real flesh and blood people live in Israel, no pawns or military targets or machines programmed with devillish greed without a heart - but people just like them. Him. Alghaliboon. Isn't that the biggest common denominator - being human?

:(

Tse.

Enemy infiltration

2006-11-20T10:21:00.000+02:00

Whuhaaha.... couldn't let this one pass by without mentioning it here. I am just awake but it feels I'm still dreaming reading this:

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3330195,00.html

Training jet hits porcupine, 2 troops lightly injured
Plane hits porcupine upon landing. Soldiers take off again and land safely, then transported to hospital

I can just imagine it:

"sudden demand of breeding porcupines in Middle-East"

"newest weapon in the struggle against Israel: porcupines"

"price of porcupines sky-rocketed"

"no Israeli jet able to take-off anymore due to sudden infiltration of porcupines"

Ahum....

Okay, back to reality: poor porcupine!

Tse.

Terror?

2006-11-17T12:14:00.000+02:00

“I do not accept the comparison between terror attacks and our defense operations,” Livni declared, addressing the extensive criticism due to the high civilian death toll in the Beit Hanoun strike last week.

“The terror groups aim their acts at the civilian population, at kindergartens, and think of civilian casualties as a great victory. We do all we can to avoid hitting civilians and we educate our children not to hurt innocents. This is the complex reality we must face. I know that most Israeli citizens understand the complexity of the situation and don’t follow empty slogans,” she said.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3329242,00.html

Is this so? I mean: I KNOW what 'we' (generalizing for simplicity's sake) teach our children, and she's right. But, from many comments on various forums there seems to be a whole lot of people who don't think so. They, and not only they, regard the IDF (that is made up of our children) as the ruthless aggressors killing indiscriminately. They take their account from the number of Palestinian victims compared to that of the Israeli.

On the other hand, I also read contradicting stories telling how cruel the IDF is acting against innocent Palestinians. And then there is the case of the many 'incidents' where innocent Palestinians got killed by them.

Still I believe in principle she's right in her defenition of terror. But, the so-called 'collateral damage' and 'collective punishment' bit - somehow falls in my vocabulary under 'terror'.

Complex? Ya'betcha!

My friend...

2006-11-07T19:04:00.001+02:00

...Hana

is one person I admire. She's not beautiful, far from that. She's not super-intelligent, far from that. She's not adorable or overfriendly, far from that....

but she's got survivor's instincts.

She was born and raised in a religious family somewhere here in Israel. She got married to a religious man from her own environment as being streamed into such marriage, since in those circles that's the path to take.

But then, after having 4 children and feeling more and more suffocated - she made a decision. Divorce.

She left the house with nothing. No job, no money, not even her share of the house's value, since she left that for her kids - so they wouldn't have to undergo extra changes and get them even more upset if they'd have to move.

She left Nethanya - got herself a job and rented worn-down, very depressing flats in Tel-Aviv - one after the other since every time a new obstacle arose and she had to leave. I visited some of those flats and felt gloomy...

Then, since she did want to 'live' she started participating in trips for singles. In those 3 years I've seen her going from hope to (almost) tears (she never cries). "It is suuuuuuuch a nice guy... soooo sweet." And then: they found themselves other girl-friends.

Her last boy-friend left her because her money ran out. She'd taken loans just to survive and participating on trips around the country -with him. Soon as she told him she couldn't afford it anymore, he dumped her.

Now she's taken up 3 jobs to start re-paying those loans, that she took in the first place to get rid of the overdraft and the bank was very pleased to supply her (grrrrr).

She's working from 07:00 am to 23:00 pm and when I asked her if it wasn't difficult she said "of course, but that's what there is". I asked her if, with all the problems and while not loving her husband that time she was satisfied with the present situation rather then enjoy the 'good life' under those terms, if it was worth it.... She replied without one moment's hesitance: "I'm free, of course I prefer this".

It is extremely difficult to unchain yourself outta the religious community -especially when you're born into it. It must have broken her heart to leave her children (no way a divorced woman gets custody of her kids if her husband is religous here). It for sure has landed her in the most depressing flats to live in since then. It got her in financial debt. She's still single, no boy-friend. She sees her children once in 2 weeks at her mother's place where her husband allows their children to see their mother while she puts on her headscarf and 'decent' clothing (meaning all-covered-up clothes from toe till chin).

All this and I keep thinking:

BUT FREEDOM'S JUST ANOTHER WORD FOR NOTHING LEFT TO LOSE.......

but I admire her for controlling her feelings. I would have broken down completely already, I know for sure....

Tse.

Day of Atonement

2006-09-30T23:43:00.000+03:00

Yom Kipur - Day of Atonement...

Tonight at sunset starts the most holy and solemn day in Jewish religion - Yom Kipur, the day jews show repentance and reconciliation. Everything will close in the country except for emergency services and the roads will be empty from traffic. Children will bring out their bycicles and ride the roads freely - except for one or other ambulance on an emergency pick-up assignment. (which is very dangerous btw... every year children get hurt by unexpected vehicles). Hundreds and hundreds of children riding their bycicles taking over the highways. So sweet :)

The whole of the country will breath an atmosphere that you won't find here any other day of the year. Very special - very impressive - very, very quite (and that's the oxymoron in Israel, at least where I live - in a city's center). Synagogues will be filled with praying people - on seats reserved weeks in advance at a handsome price. They'll be praying the "shlichot" (forgiveness prayers) and start with "Kol Nidrei" (Armaic for All Vows).... And of course: they'll fast.

For me, fasting represents the "main theme" of this day since I think it's terribly difficult to fast for 25 hours - which of course means no drinking as well.. and even before I understood the meaning of Yom Kipur had to undergo the horrids of fasting which keeps my mind concentrated on only fluids, LOL.

This long introduction because today I read an interesting article in Yedioth Ahronot.

Dvar Torah
Torah Portion: Ha'azinu (listen)
On Shabbat Shuva, with Yom Kippur approaching, it is fitting that we focus upon this thought: Human life is a supreme value...

See? That's what I like about Judaism: its focus on the respect human live deserves, no matter how one wish to reach this conclusion, either because it is written in the Torah and you dully follow the rules therein or because you take a directive out of it like this and contribute it to God's wishes - to respect the creatures He created because by respecting those creatures (humans) you are paying the highest form of respect to God (the latter is my personal interpretation).

Although there are no unequivocal answers to all the questions that we face, there can be no doubt that the sanctity of life is a supreme value. The classical source for this is the Mishna Sanhedrin (4:5)

Therefore man was created singly, to teach you that whoever destroys a single soul of Israel, Scripture accounts it as if he had destroyed a whole world; and whoever saves one soul of Israel, Scripture accounts it as if he had saved a whole world.

Of course, the words “of Israel” do not appear in the manuscripts (after all, Adam was not “of Israel”), inasmuch as this mishna conveys a universal message

The life of any person is equivalent to a “whole world.”

And then:

Even when lives are unavoidably lost in war, we must guard against the complacency . . .

This got me thinking about the "defense" of Israel lately and more specifically the last Lebanon war. So many civilians were killed - and although I'm not an army person so I wouldn't know whether that could have been prevented -

It got me thinking about the "collective punishments" against the Palestinians - "each live is equivalent to a whole world" - is the opposite of collective punishment -

It seems both are contradictionary to regarding saving one live as saving the whole world...

I think "Israel" needs to stand still for one moment this Yom Kipur and reflect. Maybe go back to these roots. Since I got the feeling that human life is not taken within the guidelines of the teachings of the Torah, the roots of Judaism (and, in my eyes, Israel's right of existence) - which I do so admire and feel "one" with.

"Enemies want to destroy us" - It's a valid conclusion. I know, I see... But... if and whenever possible "enemies" should be separated in Israel's reactions to prevent their awful mission from the rest. One live is equivalent to a whole world, and if that thought would be used in Israel's defense I think, personally, that Israel would stand a better chance, public opinion-wise but far more importantly: moral-wise - to overcome the hate its existence seems to have created....

For further reading on Yom Kipur and the Torah portion I am talking about above:

http://www.jew-jews-judaism.com/rec/3-Yom-Kippur-Day-of-Atonement/

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3309206,00.html

Gmar Chatima Tova
Tse.

Lebanese??

2006-09-15T19:16:00.000+03:00

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3304257,00.html

'Hizbullah youths' train in terrorism'
Thousands of children, teens prepare for apocalyptic battle against 'evil'
[. . . ]
"Hizbullah wants to create a new generation of operatives for its own ranks who will take part in its violent campaign against Israel," the report states.
[. . . ]
Hizbullah's Mahdi Scouts was established by the terror group in 1982 and operates under the jurisdiction of the Lebanese Ministry of Education. According to the Center for Special Studies, the Scouts have about 42,000 Lebanese males and females between the ages of 8-16 organized into 499 groups.

Whahaah?? How can one complain about separation by one group of the population if this gets governmental approval? Read this whole article, and please, anybody, tell me how this can be rhymed into ONE country, ONE people, ONE army?

I'm shocked...

I also have a question for anyone kind enough to explain this to me please:

Do Sunni muslims also believe in the Imam Mahdi resurrection, as the Shia's do? And, the conditions (unrest in the world) to make this gonna happen? Or is this typically a Shia version of the Islam?

Tse.

Gotcha :)

2006-09-10T02:02:00.000+03:00

I've been tagged by my dear friend Fadi at Fairy Tales:
http://fk450.jeeran.com/

so, here it comes, LOL:

1- Do you like the look and the contents of your blog?
The look could be better but the contents I like (duh!!!) - meaning that I like the way those subjects are addressed, not the subjects themselves - since almost all of them are expressions of human suffering because that bothers me the most (and is unexplicable to me) ...

2- Does your family know about your blog?
They know I've got "A" blog, but since they're not into the virtual experience, they hardly seen it.

3- Can you tell your friends about your blog? Do you consider it a private thing?
No, I haven't told my friends about my blog. I could, if I wanted to - but I don't want to. I like to keep some niches "for me alone".

4- Do you just read the blogs of those who comment on your blog? or you try to discover new blogs?
You wouldn't wanna know LOL - I'm "all over the place" - like I'm on a discovery-trip - never seem to get enough of it.

5- Did your blog positively affect your mind? Give an example.
Most certainly: yes. For me it has brought down walls that instinctively existed behind generalizations MSM gets you into consciencely or unconsciencely. I am very positively affected that I can comment on someone's blog in Saudia or Iran and find that out there are people with whom I've got things in common. It's a wonderful experience.

6- What does the number of visitors to your blog mean? Do you use a traffic counter?
I once had one. But it dissappeared when I changed the template and I have no idea how to get it back...

7- Did you imagine how other bloggers look like?
Look like externally: vaguely. But characterlike: yes.....

8- Do you think blogging have any real benefit?
Yes. I'm convinced. Somehow, slowly, major concepts are gonna be changed by it. "People who are people who are.... " will in the end have more sympathy and understanding for each-other than for patterns they've been born or grown into and were laid out by the society that surrounds them.

9- Do you think that the blogsphere is a stand alone community separated from the real world?
No. The things you read there, or communicate through it, you carry with you into "the real world". At least, I do.

10- Do some political blogs scare you? Do you avoid them.
No & no. As long as they're written by people and not by "professionals" representing institutions; those I do avoid not because they scare me but they don't interest me.

11- Do you think that criticizing your blog is useful?
Hahaha... yep. I'd welcome that. But I think my blog is not that popular that anybody could be bothered to spend the energy doing it, LOL.

12- Have you ever thought about what happen to your blog in case you died.
No. Que sera, sera....

13- Which blogger had the greatest impression on you?
There is one blogger that I admire for the words he wrote that say exactly what I think ... Charles Malik:
http://inlebanon.blogspot.com/2006/04/comments-on-israellebanon-and-israeli.html
"Not knowing about "them" is the worst crime we can commit.
It invalidates them as humans, as if they don't even matter.
They are Stalin's faceless enemy, the rabid dog, the evil blood suckers whom it is righteous to kill."

14- Which blogger you think is the most similar to you.
Fadi, you gave the answer I feel is right for me as well: all.... everybody's got a little piece of me in them.

15- Name a song you want to listen to?

So much things to say - Bob Marley...

16- Ask five bloggers to answer these question on their blogs?
1. Lisa Goldman (are you reading this Lisa?)
2. Free Cedar
3. Drima
4. Osaid Rasheed (whenever he's got time, LOL)
5. Drew Catt

Tse.

Cry

2006-09-08T21:43:00.000+03:00

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3301423,00.html

Father of Or Shahar, killed in Lebanon day before his 21st birthday, eulogizes his son during memorial ceremony.

"Are you aware of our terrible feeling of guilt as parents who did not succeed in properly safeguarding the one-time gift of life we gave out sweet child from the hands of an arrogant and blocked clumsy authority? The heart explodes!"

Is the government there for us, or are we here for the government?

My heart cries reading the above... those poor parents... the lost of life of the thing most precious to them while feeling it was for nothing, for a bunch of presumptious stupid idiots who think about prestige first and human lifes afterwards.

The heart of that father explodes, my tears just exploded reading about his pain, seeing the photo of his son (in above link), such a handsome, enjoying life looking boy.... whose life was erased, taken away by the decision of a snob who can keep on sleeping at night in his multi-million dollar home in Jerusalem.... while for these parents- as many, many others- life won't ever be the same anymore and will carry a huge hole in their heart...

How can Olmert still sleep at night?

Tse.

Anonymous

2006-08-29T04:42:00.000+03:00

Anonymous Hi :)

I don't think terror is a way of resistance. It isn't for the Basks, it isn't for the IRA's, it isn't for Iraqi insurgents. I still don't believe that one's struggle has to be fought over the dead bodies of civilians. I truely believe nobody has the right to commit alternative killing (meaning: to take the live of someone else than anybody guilty of doing the same thing).

You wrote before you think every Israeli over 18 is "guilty", but I don't see it that way at all. There has to be some flexibility in each-other's demands. Israeli's won't leave Israel and Palestinians won't leave their claims for a autonomous, independent country (so both have to let go of their claim to wanna own ALL of this land) - and what we are having here right now are extremist Palestinian groups that hi-jack their people's cause while providing the Israeli extremists excuses that- if there would be, say, an extreme right-wing party in government right now - would go out to an all-out war. I think many people just can't seem to understand that what is seen by Israeli's as the "Palestinian problem" can be violently crushed within a few days. King Hussein of Jordan has done it before, it happened to the PLO in Lebanon as well... In Kuwait Palestinians were expelled during the Gulf war...

I'm not bashing about Israel's military abilities right now, and I'm most certainly not defending violence - but my disgust for violence goes both ways. I'm most certainly NOT saying that's what the Palestinian People deserve, on the contrary (I'm stipulating what terror-groups having taken their fate in their hands are doing to them) ... I'm just saying play it up too loud and think what can come from it. Not something you would like, I think. Certainly not something I would like, most definitely not.

The Palestinians are at the losing end of this conflict -and people on the losing end sometimes have to make WISE decisions, not only follow their feelings (which are anger) because that brings them nowhere. If you lose at any game you play you can't be announced the winner by throwing your opponent's pawns off the table. You gotta think out a strategy to improve your position IN the game.

Terror is NO strategy. If anything at all, it is playing right in the hands of the extremists of "the other side" - hardening the population of the "other side" to your problems, your hardship - because they feel victimized themselves and therefore diminishing your own chances to your right for equality, freedom, justice and independence.

ALL the hardships the Palestinian people go through right now stems forth from that awful decision to proclaim the Intifada II - the "wall", the internal checkpoints, the closing of the borders for social as well as working purposes....

and no. There was no peace-settlement before the Intifada II. Things were also not that great for the Palestinians. But at least they stood at the beginning of a freeway that could, and in my opinion certainly would, lead them to their goals while as now, they're heading backwards full speed :(

Who would force them to sign an agreement they wouldn't agree with? Who could stand in their way trying to obtain their rights if they don't overstep those of others (like with suicidebombings)? Governments are chosen by the people in democracies so that would have been the final test to test if the Israeli people are "guilty".... But they never got the chance. (Sometimes I think this whole thing is a conspiracy anyway LOL)

Whether Israel was right or wrong (and, they WERE wrong - to keep on building settlements while negotiating peace - to start settlements alltogether in my eyes, but halas) doesn't matter really. The result is what counts - and the result is that terror is making Israel stronger and stronger and stronger all the time because it signals: "no matter what you do, we'll attack you anyway - we want you eradicated from here...." and that means "you OR me" i/o "you & me" (looking for solutions that satisfy both) and in a "final combat" everybody knows who would win.

Tse.

Redefining the Palestinian Cause

2006-08-25T19:25:00.000+03:00

http://www.benadorassociates.com/article/19880

Two postings in one single day - am I a "true" blogger now ? LOL - It's a long article but I wonder if there are anymore people out there seeing it this way? Please comment, don't feel shy :)

REDIFINING THE PALESTINIAN CAUSE
by Amir Taheri
Gulf News
August 23, 2006
While Iran and Hezbollah celebrate their "strategic divine victory", the real losers of the Lebanon war may be the Palestinians.

The war pushed the Palestinian issue into the background. With media spotlight shifted to Lebanon, the conflict in Gaza and the West Bank dropped out of headlines.

The narrative woven by Iran and Hezbollah around the Lebanon war is designed to achieve three goals:

To turn Palestine from a political issue into a messianic cause. This means that Palestine is no longer about such issues as statehood, boundaries, security and diplomatic recognition.

The redefined Palestinian cause is about "wiping the Jewish stain of shame" off the map as a prelude to driving the US and its allies out of the Middle East.

To make the redefined Palestinian cause into a small part of a much bigger cause: that of challenging the global domination of the "infidel" led by the United States and creating an Islamic world order.

To transfer control of the Palestinian cause to "the Ummah". This means that no Palestinian leadership, not even Hamas, has the right to make a deal with Israel without the consent of whoever happens to lead the Ummah at any given time. (Currently, Iran and Hezbollah claim leadership.)

If this narrative succeeds, the achievements of three decades of diplomacy, which culminated in almost universal consensus over a two-state solution, could be in jeopardy.

Iran has always opposed the two-state solution. It proposes a "one-state" solution that envisages the reunification of the whole of Palestine as put under the United Nations mandate after the Second World War and the return of all Palestinian refugees.

In such a "greater Palestine", Jews would become a minority in a majority Arab state. The hope is that most Jews would then emigrate rather than live under Arab-Islamic rule.

The one-state solution was backed by all Arab states and a majority of Muslim countries, until 1979 when Egypt made peace with Israel. In 1994, the Palestine Liberation Organisation, led by Yasser Arafat, endorsed the "two-state" formula.

By the mid-1990s, for a majority of Arabs and Muslims, Palestine was no longer a cause but a political issue to be resolved through negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

The only Arab country to continue to defend the "one-state" policy was Libya. In 2003, the "two-state" formula received a boost when President George W. Bush committed the US to its implementation.

Some Palestinian radicals may be happy that the "two-state" formula is challenged by Iran and its allies, including Syria, Hezbollah and parts of the Hamas leadership. However, the truth is that, whenever Palestine became a cause exploited by others for ulterior motives, Palestinians ended up as losers.

In 1948, the Arab League turned Palestine into a cause and prevented its solution as a political problem. It rejected the partition proposed by the UN, provoked a war that it lost and then did everything to prevent the settlement of the refugees.

The Second World War produced more than 50 million refugees in some 60 countries across the globe. By the mid-1950s, all had been resettled all except the 450,000 Palestinians that the Arab League insisted on maintaining in camps as the living symbol of its "cause".

After the 1952 coup d'etat in Egypt, it was the turn of Pan-Arab nationalists to seize control of the Palestinian "cause".

The late Jamal Abdul Nasser's pan-Arab ideology was aimed at creating a single state to encompass all Arabs. To pan-Arabs, the idea of a narrow Palestinian nationalism was abhorrent. During the Cold War, the Soviet-bloc also made use of Palestine as a cause.

Today, it is the turn of pan-Islamists.

They dream of a universal Islamic state, either under Iranian Shiite leadership, as is the case with Hezbollah, or under the leadership of Salafi movements. In their vision, there can be no distinct Palestinian identity, let alone Palestinian nationalism.

Mohammad Khatami, the former president of Iran, has dismissed nationalism as an illegitimate child of the European Enlightenment that, he believes, led to colonialism, imperialism and world wars.

Thus, the idea of a nation-state of Palestine is a western concoction, alien to Islam. Even the "one-state" formula, the fusion of Israel and Palestine, is only an intermediate step. Such a state would eventually be absorbed into the single universal Islamic domain Dar Al Islam.

The Palestinians, including Hamas leaders, need to do some hard thinking. Do they want their problem to be transformed into a messianic cause again and geared to larger strategies in the shaping of which they have no part?

As a problem, Palestine could be resolved through political, diplomatic and economic means. As a cause, however, Palestine could be an excuse for the "clash of civilisations".

The Palestinians must insist that while Iran has the right to pursue its strategies, it has no right to annex Palestine as part of a "bigger cause".

What the Palestinians urgently need is a state of their own based on their national identity.

Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is wrong in putting his predecessor Ariel Sharon's policy of unilateral withdrawal from the West Bank on hold.

For the two-state formula to work it is imperative for Israel to decide exactly where it wants its frontiers to be drawn. Once it is clear where Israel wants to be, it would be possible to discuss where Palestine could be as a state.

One of Iran's goals in the Lebanon war was to undermine the two-state formula and advance its one-state alternative. By freezing the two-state formula, Olmert may be playing into Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's hands.

the Story continues.....

2006-08-25T04:10:00.000+03:00

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3295510,00.html

Seems like more former SLA family-members left in south-Lebanon after the Israeli withdrawal of 2000 have received threats from the hizb and are trying to find refuge in Israel to unite with their family members now...
Amir Peretz gave the OK to let them in - but they're still waiting outside the border. Even in this the IDF is poorly organized :( What's wrong with them???

Hizbullah 'settles score' with SLA families
Eight Lebanese family members, former SLA members, arrive at northern border next to Metula Thursday, request to enter Israel following Hizbullah threats to hurt them. Defense minister instructs IDF to grant them entry, but until now, only one allowed to cross border

Drama on the northern border: Eight family members from Lebanon, former members of the Soutern Lebanese Army, arrived Thursday afternoon within 10 meters of the border next to Metula and requested IDF authorization to enter into Israel following Hizbullah threats to cause them physical harm. It turns out that this is a real phenomenon in which Hizbullah members threaten family members of former SLA members.

A few days ago a 30 year-old Lebanese woman crossed the security fence in the Metula area along with her three children to reunite with her husband, a former SLA member who left Lebanon with the IDF’s withdrawal from the country in May 2000. Following an IDF interrogation the woman spent a few hours at the Kiryat Shmona police station, where it was determined that she had no intention of carrying out an attack in Israel. The husband was eventually located and met with his family later that night.
It is estimated that families of former SLA members residing in south Lebanon have been subject to repeated threats of physical violence since the ceasefire came into effect.
Defense Minister Amir Peretz instructed the IDF to grant the family members entry into Israel and ordered to offer them humanitarian aid, until their situation and the circumstances of their flight from Lebanon are examined. However, as of now, the eight have yet to gain entry into Israel.

An IDF force on the northern border reported the presence of the Lebanese refugees on the border to the commanders of the Northern Command and to the Kiryat Shmona police station. As of now, it has been decided that the issue will be handled only by the IDF. Some of the family members felt unwell because of the intense heat in the area, and residents of Metulla transferred bottles of cold water to them by way of the IDF.

Towards Thursday evening, one of the family members, who was severely wounded in his limbs and face 10 years ago when Hizbullah inserted explosives in his belongings, was brought into Israeli territory. This incident occurred while the man was collaborating with Israel.

The talbacks underneath this article in the link given above are real nasty :(
Don't people have feelings anymore??
Or are they just pretending to be Lebanese to create a wrong image?

Tse.

A Happy Ending, for a change.....

2006-08-23T00:28:00.000+03:00

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3294569,00.html

SLA family reunites after 6 years

The woman, who hadn't seen her husband since Israel withdrew from southern Lebanon in May 2000, said she had been threatened by Hizbullah operatives in her southern Lebanese village.

The woman was accompanied by two sons and a daughter aged 14, 12 and seven.

...

Under a law passed in Knesset for SLA members and their families, the woman and her children can apply for Israeli nationality.

As everybody must have noticed by now, I've got a weak spot for love-stories ;-)

Torn apart by incomprehensible wars, I'm so happy to see at least this family united and receiving a fair chance to happiness under safe conditions....

That husband hasn't seen his children for 6 years (!!!). The youngest was only 1 year old when he had to leave them.... I can only imagine what it must have been like for him :(

Ya'woman!!! You've got guts approaching the border as if it isn't DA firepit of hostility. WELCOME to Israel, you courageous soul, from the bottom of my heart....

Tse.

Am I going mad, or is it the world?

2006-08-16T23:48:00.000+03:00

Additionally, he said that Hizbullah’s refusal to disarm does not violate the resolution, as the terror group’s weapons will be kept in storage and not be displayed in public.

In an interview given to al-Jazeera Fadlallah seemed to have said the above...

That's grande!! I mean.... how would anybody think of that? "I have no weapons - because they're in storage..." HUH??? What about owning them? Should that word have been stipulated in the resolution (1701)?

Tse.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3292160,00.html

Breakaway

2006-08-09T12:33:00.000+03:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSmQksPxONU

http://www.links2love.com/lyrics_kelly_clarkson_breakaway.htm

I'll spread my wings and I'll learn how to fly
I'll do what it takes till' I touch the sky
I'll make a wish Take a chance Make a change
And breakaway

Out of the darkness and into the sun
But I won't forget all the ones that I loved
I'll take a risk Take a chance Make a change
And breakaway

Wanna feel the warm breeze
Sleep under a palm tree
Feel the rush of the ocean
Get on board a fast train
Travel on a jet plane, far away

And breakaway

Definition?

2006-08-01T15:51:00.000+03:00

Israel has to perform the worst of atrocities to achieve the highest justified goal: to exist....

If the artery of evil is not staring you in the face but hide behind innocent, peace-loving people - and dafka those people (but also soldiers) become the victims in the course of deterring that evil from getting dangerously close to their demonical goal of destroying your existence, which is a God-given right for everybody on earth, is it then still moral to defend that right?

Weapons are only smart weapons in hands of smart people. The target Israel is fighting at this moment is but a temporary target while everyone knows the real danger lies in Teheran, Damascus... and any other country whose dictator buys off his corruption and power by controllably allowing extreme religious fundamentalists to blossom and to focus on a "common enemy" rather than to risk the chance of losing his power. Why is Israel afraid to take out the heart -the artery- of that evil that poisons foreign societies from within and allows for a continuous flow of deniers of our existence, people that hate us while not even knowing us? And why does it top things off by supplying "evidence" they're "right" by circumventing this artery of evil and let the people that are being brainwashed by this evil become Israel's victims?

This is what keeps me busy lately....

So?

Tse.