Israellycool

Sounds like the lead in to a joke, but it’s not.

Rabbi Shlomo Didi* knows Lake Kinneret well. As rabbi of the Jordan Valley and a resident of Tiberias, Didi has not only married couples beside the Kinneret, he has also offered prayers for rain along its shoreline, which has receded markedly.

On Monday Didi was again praying for rain - but this time, he was not alone. He was joined by Ian Clark, the priest of the Scottish church, and Muhammad Dahamshe, the Imam of Kafr Kana.

“A joint prayer does not consider differences of religion,” says Didi. “There is one god, we are all human beings and are all praying to the same god.”

“The dismal condition of the Kinneret threatens each and every one of us,” said Shimon Kipnis, general manager of the Scots Hotel, which initiated the joint prayer, and on whose beach the prayers were held. “We see how the shoreline is receding and that the water level is nearing the ‘black line.’ The purpose of this event was to unite all the religions and offer a joint prayer to the creator of the universe, that he bless us with a rainy season.”

Kipnis added that creating cooperation between the three religions was one of the hotel’s objectives, and that calling upon the representative clerics was a natural step.

“They were only too happy to accept my suggestion,” said Kipnis.

Dozens of artists who also participated in the event sat on the beach and painted the service.

“Rain is a blessing that brings joy, and we have to pray for it,” said Didi, who also serves as rabbi for the kibbutzim. Some of those present at the prayer service related Monday that the rabbi’s previous prayers had been answered, and were indeed followed by rainfall.

“We hope that his prayers will be answered this time, too.”

* not to be confused with this man

From the Jerusalem Post:

[click image to enlarge]

Of course,given that the Israeli was injured by a palestinian-thrown rock, it would have been logical to have included a picture of palestinian rock throwers.

Then again, logic is not the Jerusalem Post’s strong point.

From the Free Gaza mailing list:

Dear friends,
Israeli journalist, Amira Hass has been arrested as she attempted to cross back into Israel from Gaza, after spending three weeks there (coming into Gaza on one of the Free Gaza Movement boats).  Over the past few weeks, Hass has been filing on the ground reports from Gaza about life under the siege.

Hass, the child of Holocaust survivors, became the first and only Israeli journalist to be ever based in Gaza, moving there in 1993 to live and work.  Today, she is still the only Israeli journalist to based in the Occupied Palestinian Territories moving to Ramallah in 1997.  Three weeks ago, she once again became the only Israeli journalist to enter Gaza since the current illegal Israeli siege began, as not only has the Israeli military have prevented Israeli journalists for some time and recently also began preventing foreign journalists from entering Gaza.

Please find below the brief article on her arrest which appeared in the Haaretz, the paper she writes for.

In solidarity,
Kim
www.livefromoccupiedpalestine.blogspot.com
www.directaction.org.au

Last update - 16:44 02/12/2008

Haaretz journalist Amira Hass arrested for illegal stay in Gaza

By Tomer Zarchin, Haaretz Correspondent
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1042654.html

Haaretz correspondent Amira Hass was detained by Sderot police last night for having entered the Gaza Strip without a permit.

By order of the army, Israeli journalists have been barred from entering Gaza since the abduction of soldier Gilad Shalit in June 2006.

Hass was stopped by soldiers at the Erez Checkpoint, on the Gaza-Israel border, as she was returning to Israel from the Strip. Upon discovering that she had no permit to be in Gaza, the soldiers transferred her to the Sderot police.

When questioned, Hass pointed out that no one had stopped her from entering the Strip, which she did for work purposes.

Chief Superintendent Shimon Nahmani, commander of the Sderot police station, said Hass had entered Gaza by sea three weeks ago.

Hass was released under restriction, and Nahmani said her case will be sent to court in the coming week.

Israel Press Council chairwoman Dalia Dorner, a former Supreme Court justice, commented that even journalists are subject to the law and the council cannot defend a reporter who breaks the law. Instead, she said, local journalists ought to petition the High Court of Justice against the army’s order.

I assume they meant “Say no to terrorism,” but given they are from a Hizbullah-funded school, methinks they really are all for it.

Previously: Now There’s an Idea

After previously claiming that the Mumbai Chabad House massacre was “a theatrical statement of hate” whose intended audience was India, with the attackers “cynically exploiting anti-Semitism in order to further inflame world opinion and curry favor with the Muslim jihadi set,” clueless blogger Richard Silverstein admits he may have been wrong.

Well, kind of:

http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/2008/12/01/did-mumbai-terrorists-torture-jews/

Thanks to reader Alex Stein for forcing me to write a post I hate to write with every fiber of my being. An Indian news report claims that many of the Mumbai hostages were tortured before being killed and that the Chabad hostages were tortured most brutally of all. IF (and I stress “if” because stories like this must be confirmed and reconfirmed before they are accepted as truth) this story is true, it could set back Jewish-Muslim relations years if not decades. Not to mention, that it will further alienate Israeli Jews from believing it is possible to live in peace with the region’s Muslims.

Ya think?

Interestingly enough, Silverstein has a hard time understanding how the constant terrorist attacks on Israeli soil led many of us to this conclusion a long time ago. In fact, according to his worldview, anyone who has formed this conclusion is a bigot.

Further, if it is true, then I will have to withdraw my earlier claims that anti-Semitism was an ancillary part of the strategy involved in this attack. If the Jewish victims were tortured savagely, then it will lead me to believe that there are much stronger links to Al Qaeda than I previously believed. Until now, I’d never thought that Pakistani militants hated the west and Jews specifically as Al Qaeda does. I’d thought their cause was more locally-determined. If the news is correct, then I think Pakistan, India and the entire region have a much bigger problem on their hands then previously thought.

Notice how it is the possibility of torture that has led Silverstein to rethink things. Had the terrorists merely murdered the Jews without torturing them, he would not have revised his conclusion.

Finally, I would urge that when and if they find the mastermind of this attack that he should be tried before an international tribunal. The horror of these acts needs to be addressed not by the justice system of a single country, but by international justice. The world needs to universally condemn such brutalism.

Curiously, Silverstein has never shown such indignation towards the palestinian masterminds of terrorist attacks against Israelis.

I don’t wish to offer unsolicited advice to my Muslim readers, friends and others, but the Mumbai attack appears to have been done in the name of Kashmir, Palestine and Muslim suffering in general.

Now, much like after 9/11, it is critical that the world hear from sane Muslims that this is a way they reject utterly and absolutely. To do so does not mean that Muslims must renounce their criticism of, or grievances against conditions they face.  It means they must ostracize those who kill in the name of Islam or Muslim suffering.

Like Hamas for example?

I have been dedicated to Muslim-Jewish dialogue for many, many years.  This horrific story will not deter me from my commitment.  But it will set back all of our good work by so very much.  I simply cannot understand the bestial savagery that lurks in the human mind (and note I said “human” mind and not “Muslim” mind–since the beast lurks in all of us).

Finally, I want to again emphasize that Alex provided only a single Indian source to confirm the torture claim.  The Times of India, one of the nation’s most respected papers doesn’t mention this story [see UPDATE below].  Further, that news source does not name any of the doctors it quotes.  Unnamed sources in this situation should not be considered reliable.  Other previous elements of the Mumbai terror story were shown to be false on further investigation. It’s entirely possible that this claim too will prove false, though I fear it may not.  If anyone can confirm that this report is false, please let me know ASAP.

UPDATE: Thanks again to Alex for pointing me to this Times of India story that acknowledges the possibility of torture, but in a very preliminary and tentative way, unlike the Rediff story.

Notice how Silverstein is exacting such high standards of proof before he will accept as fact the torture story. Yet bring him the most flimsy hint of IDF or Jewish misdeed, and he’s all over it like a rash.

From the Middle East Times:

Al-Sharq (QATAR): Azhar Sheikh’s Handshake With Peres Sparks Crisis in Egypt Parliament – The Muslim Brotherhood parliamentary bloc in Egypt Thursday denounced the handshake between the top cleric of al-Azhar, Sheikh Mohammed Tantawi, and Israeli President Shimon Peres during a U.N. General Assembly interfaith meeting in New York this month. The Islamist group said the handshake provokes the sentiments of the Egyptian people and harms the image of al-Azhar, the highest Muslim Sunni authority, at a time when Israel is besieging “our people in the Gaza Strip.” The lawmakers demanded an apology from Tantawi.

The MEMRI blog follows up:

In response to photos published in the Egyptian and Arab press showing Al-Azhar Sheikh Muhammad Sayyed Tantawi shaking hands with Israeli President Shimon Peres, Tantawi stated that he hadn’t known who Peres was and that the handshake was by chance, not intentional.

He added that on this occasion he had shaken the hands of over 20 people all at once, instinctively and with good intentions.

Source: Al-Jarida, Kuwait, December 1, 2008

The shocking photograph is flying through Islamist message boards.

Jew Cooties is of course a horrible disease, and it is communicable, so now Sheikh Tantawi cannot touch anyone else until he goes through a painful decontamination procedure which is a cross between the process used to clean up people exposed to high doses of nuclear radiation, and an exorcism.

Of course, after this scandal, he is now washed up as a leader of Al Azhar. It appears that he might be growing his beard to get a new job as a department store Santa.

When Hollywood actor Paul Newman died a little over a month ago, I noted that even the Iranians marked his death.

Now Iranmania is reporting that they are holding a film festival in his honor.

Iran’s 27th Fajr International Film Festival will commemorate the late American actor Paul Newman, the secretariat of the festival announced in a press release, MNA reported.

Several films in which Newman starred will go on display during the festival, which will be held from February 1 to 11, 2009 at various Tehran theaters.

Born in 1925 in Cleveland, Ohio, Paul Newman acted in more than 80 films. He produced ten films and was the director of six movies.  He was one of the few actors who successfully made the transition from 1950s cinema to that of the 1960s and 1970s.

He went on to become one of the top box office draws of the 1960s, starring in such classic films as “The Hustler”, “The Prize”, “Hud”, “Cool Hand Luke”, and “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”.  He also produced and directed many high quality films, including “Rachel, Rachel” for which he received an Oscar nomination for best picture. Nominated nine times for best actor, he finally took one home an Oscar for his performance as an aging pool shark in “The Color of Money”.

A caring and supremely generous man, he is the founder of “Newman’s Own”, a successful line of food products that has earned in excess of $100 million, every penny of which the philanthropic movie icon has donated to charity.

On September 26, 2008, Newman died at his longtime home in Westport, Connecticut, of complications arising from lung cancer.

No word yet on whether they will be screening Exodus.

Why is it that people pick their nose in full view of everyone else when they are in their car? Do they believe that their car windows are opaque and that others cannot see them up to their wrist? Or there something about being in your car that makes you feel untouchable, or at least impervious to the stares of others?

In an MSNBC report on some Muslim reactions to the Mumbai terrorist attacks:

Many Muslims said they are worried such carnage is besmirching their religion.

“The occupation of the synagogue and killing people in hotels tarnishes the Muslim faith,” said Kazim al-Muqdadi, a political science lecturer at Baghdad University. “Anyone who slaughters people and screams `Allahu Akbar’ (God is Great) is sick and ignorant.”

I would have thought the killing of people in aforementioned synagogue would also have tarnished the Muslim faith. But what do I know? I’m just a Jew.

And further on in the report:

“I think that Muslims should raise their voice against such actions. They should forge a coalition to fight such phenomena, because it harms them and damages their image,” said Ali Abdel Muhsen, 22, a Muslim engineering student in the West Bank city of Nablus.

How about because it is morally reprehenisible?

Yes, clearly there are Muslims out there who condemn such attacks since they tarnish the image of Islam. What I want to hear more of are Muslims who condemn such attacks because they are plain wrong.

The Mumbai terrorists reportedly gave some special attention to their Jewish victims (hat tip: LGF reader Anand).

They said that just one look at the bodies of the dead hostages as well as terrorists showed it was a battle of attrition that was fought over three days at the Oberoi and the Taj hotels in Mumbai.

Doctors working in a hospital where all the bodies, including that of the terrorists, were taken said they had not seen anything like this in their lives.

“Bombay has a long history of terror. I have seen bodies of riot victims, gang war and previous terror attacks like bomb blasts. But this was entirely different. It was shocking and disturbing,” a doctor said.

Asked what was different about the victims of the incident, another doctor said: “It was very strange. I have seen so many dead bodies in my life, and was yet traumatised. A bomb blast victim’s body might have been torn apart and could be a very disturbing sight. But the bodies of the victims in this attack bore such signs about the kind of violence of urban warfare that I am still unable to put my thoughts to words,” he said.

Asked specifically if he was talking of torture marks, he said: “It was apparent that most of the dead were tortured. What shocked me were the telltale signs showing clearly how the hostages were executed in cold blood,” one doctor said.

The other doctor, who had also conducted the post-mortem of the victims, said: “Of all the bodies, the Israeli victims bore the maximum torture marks. It was clear that they were killed on the 26th itself. It was obvious that they were tied up and tortured before they were killed. It was so bad that I do not want to go over the details even in my head again,” he said.

Corroborating the doctors’ claims about torture was the information that the Intelligence Bureau had about the terror plan. “During his interrogation, Ajmal Kamal said they were specifically asked to target the foreigners, especially the Israelis,” an IB source said.

It is also said that the Israeli hostages were killed on the first day as keeping them hostage for too long would have focused too much international attention. “They also might have feared the chances of Israeli security agencies taking over the operations at the Nariman House,” he reasoned.

No doubt just a “theatrical statement of hate….cynically exploiting anti-Semitism in order to further inflame world opinion and curry favor with the Muslim jihadi set.”