Staying in the West Bank

This is my second visit to Israel and the second time I have stayed in a residence in the West Bank. Both times the experience has been quite different than what anyone who reads the modern press would expect. It is nothing like what you think.

Also, I have been delving into the background of both settlements, from this visit as well as my last visit back in 2003. Not surprisingly, the facts have little to do with what the press generally reports. And even when they do report honestly, they simply do not provide the important information that would provide some proper context. I myself have been astonished today with some of what I learned, as it was completely unexpected. For example, do you know that many of the land records for here in the West Bank are still kept in Istanbul, Turkey?

As I mentioned previously, however, it is difficult to post here in Israel. Though the internet service is fine, my laptop is beginning to show its age and to function too slowly for this work. Also, I want to include pictures, and I won’t be able to add them easily probably until I get home.

So stay tuned. It will be worthwhile reading.

In Israel

After a plane journey that took far longer than it should, I have finally arrived at my brother and sister-in-law’s place in Israel. It is rainy, windy, and colder than normal. Yuch.

The Sabbath begins shortly, so I will be off line until tomorrow. On Sunday I will be doing some sightseeing with family. Posting will be difficult here, but if I have the chance I will. If not, I will write up something when I get home.

Off to Israel

For the next week my posting might be lighter than usual. Today I am heading to Israel to visit family and do a bit of sightseeing. Whether I have sufficient access to the internet to keep up with events as well as continue to post will not be clear until I get there and get settled in.

In the meantime, I will also be celebrating my sixtieth birthday while in Israel. If you have been a regular reader of Behind the Black and would like to help me celebrate this milestone with a donation to the website, I would be most grateful. The tip jar is located at the bottom of the right column, just below the search box.

An Israeli company has discovered a giant off-shore oil and gas field within Israeli territorial waters.

An Israeli company has discovered a giant off-shore oil and gas field within Israeli territorial waters.

“The quantity of gas discovered in the licenses, and the high probabilities, make it the third largest offshore discovery to date,” according to Israel Opportunity chairman Ronny Halman, quoted by Globes. He added, ”This quantity guarantees Israel’s energy future for decades, and makes it possible to export Israeli gas, and boost the state’s revenues without worrying about gas reserves for domestic consumption.”

“The Iranian nation is standing for its cause and that is the full annihilation of Israel.”

Iran’s military chief of staff: “The Iranian nation is standing for its cause and that is the full annihilation of Israel.”

They’ve said it multiple times. They mean it. They believe in genocide and intend to carry it out. And they will soon have the atomic bomb.

But don’t worry. In America the Democrats are making sure contraceptives are free to everyone.

All the arguments used against Israel for taking a preemptive strike against a nuclear Iran are wrong.

All the arguments used to convince Israel not to take a preemptive strike against a nuclear Iran are wrong.

We must also add these words by Iran’s “Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution” Ayatollah Khamenei:

The Zionist regime is a real cancerous tumor that should be cut and will be cut.

Like Hitler, who in Mein Kampf told the world exactly how he intended to exterminate the Jews years before he had power, the Iranians have been quite blunt about what they intend to do once they have atomic weapons. This time, we should take them at their word, and stop them before they can do it. And since the U.S. isn’t likely to do it, the Israelis should.

Muslim students found guilty of conspiring to disrupt Israeli ambassador meeting

Eleven Muslim students have been found of guilty of conspiring to disrupt a speech of the Israeli ambassador.

The defendants, who are all in their early twenties, were convicted of one count each of conspiracy and disturbing an assembly and could face jail terms of up to a year, probation or community service at sentencing.

As I’ve said previously, I think it a mistake to prosecute these students for their impolite and disgusting behavior. It only makes them martyrs, something they surely don’t deserve.

How the Palestinian Authority trains children to hate

How the Palestinian Authority trains children to hate:

Classroom incitement has been thoroughly documented as has hate-teach and hate-preach on PA TV and radio, where Jews and Israelis are represented as demonic figures; and the need to wipe Israel off the map is a frequent theme in the eulogies of suicide bombers, martyrs whose deaths in terror attacks intending mass murder endear them to Allah. The goal seems to be to create a seething, raging population of young people far more interested in wiping Israel off the earth’s face than in achieving peaceful coexistence.

And they do not wait until the children start school. Palestinian Authority and Hamas preschool television and radio programming could be called Terrorism for Tots; and such programming continues well into high school. A Hamas weekly program starred a Palestinian version of Mickey Mouse, Farfur, who tells children to pray until there is “world leadership under Islamic leadership” and in the meantime to oppose the “oppressive invading Zionist occupation.” Farfar is ultimately beaten to death by an enraged Israeli “settler,” and is replaced by an intrepid young bee who buzzes the same message to the preschool viewers. Similar messages are encouraged in the classroom with supplementary material and teacher-guided self-expression that encourage martyrdom and glorify terrorism and terrorists.

Read the whole thing. As the author notes, “Can a government so filled with hate and bigotry that they crucify their own children on the cross of jihad and Jew-hatred realistically be expected to develop a nation that will work toward peace?”

Israel security forces foil multiple terrorist attacks in Jerusalem, arrest dozens of Hamas militants

Explain to me again why the Palestinians deserve a nation? Last month Israel security forces foiled a terrorist attack planned by Hamas in Jerusalem.

The main cell charged with carrying out the attack was based in Hebron [in the West Bank]. The cell was in touch with the Hamas headquarters in Syria, and the date of the attack was set for August 21. The planned attack involved a fire extinguisher which contained six kilograms of explosives. The device was supposed to be carried by a suicide bomber in a bus or a mall in the Pisgat Ze’ev neighborhood in Jerusalem.

Israeli rocket victims sue Gaza flotilla organizers

I like this: Israeli victims of the Gaza rocket attacks are suing the Gaza flotilla organizers.

The complaint argues that since supplies that are delivered to Gaza run the risk of being seized by the Hamas government for use by its military wing, the defendants’ acts “amount to both a conspiracy to injure and a conspiracy to use unlawful means,” and that “the defendants are acting in concert with Hamas to achieve harm on the plaintiff.”

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