Why Worry About Vatican Recognition of ‘Palestine’?

Site where John the Baptist is said to have conducted the rite in the Jordan River. Photo: Hana Levi Julian

May 22, 2014 - Italian journalist Giulio Meotti has written an impassioned op-ed on the Arutz Sheva website this week (May 20, 2014) scoring the Vatican for its impending implicit recognition of the so-called “State of Palestine” due to the itinerary of Pope Francis, set to begin next Sunday. 

His ire is understandable after one performs Google search of the term "Bethlehem" and sees that on a number of Christian travel sites, the Palestinian Authority has already been granted de facto recognition as a sovereign state: what comes up is "Bethlehem, State of Palestine."

The Pope begins his two-day visit to the Holy Land on Sunday, May 25 (the day of Ukraine's presidential elections) with a helicopter flight from Amman to Bethlehem -  where he will be entertained with the usual flourishes provided by officials in the Palestinian Authority.

Far be it from anyone in the PA, much less its propaganda specialists, to avoid co-opting a priceless political opportunity like the visit of the head of the Roman Catholic Church.  Even if his first stop logically takes place at the church erected on the spot where Jesus, the founder of his faith, was born. 

What else could one expect?

So they will drag him here and there, to various photo ops and of course to lunch with the classic “suffering Palestinian refugees” in the Deheishe “refugee camp” which by now has more mansions than the town that I live in -- and which already in 1982 had satellite television long before my neighbors did. They used to keep most of the broken-down shacks lined up for show along the road on the old Route 60 – but since they built the bypass road, I wonder if they even still exist. I hope so – they have to have something for the Holy See to see, after all.

Mr. Meotti writes that history repeats itself, and indeed it does. He is quite right. In 1974 the Vatican “implicitly recognized the Palestinian (sic) Liberation Organization, but not the State of Israel.” For 50 years after its founding, in fact, the Vatican did not recognize the Jewish State, nor was it ever mentioned in any Papal statement prior to the 1980s, he points out. The Vatican had no problem establishing warm ties with the most vicious regimes on earth, however, including that of Nazi Germany – a fact that appears to upset Mr. Meotti very much.

“Apparently, the Vatican considered only the State of Israel undeserving of its recognition,” he writes.

But why on earth would Israel want such recognition? That, I can't understand at all.

Archaeologists have uncovered the remains of an ancient mikvah -- the ritual pool mandated in Torah for purification -- at the excavation of the Jewish community of Qumrun in the Judean Desert.  Photo: Hana Levi Julian

Why would an ancient Jewish nation, and a reborn Jewish State desire recognition from a Roman Catholic Church that has set itself up as an independent state within a sovereign nation? 

For that matter, why would anyone be surprised by the Vatican’s acceptance of the Palestinian Authority’s violation of the very Oslo Accords that it swore to uphold?

The Vatican’s own sovereign status set the model for that of the Palestinian Authority’s attempt to establish an Arab state within Israel’s borders, hence its support. 

Roman Catholic political anti-Semitism is far from new; it’s just more slick these days, a little more spit and shine. I myself was a victim of that vicious anti-Semitism for years as a child in Hamden, Connecticut. My childhood friends hopefully had no comprehension of the rot they spewed; as a tearful young child I did not understand why they were flinging pennies in the street and hurling epithets about my parents. We were the only Jews.

Acceptance by such an entity would confer acceptance to a brotherhood of evil.

Is that what Israel wants?

Yes, it is good to dwell in peace together – but let it be in true peace, with mutual respect and recognition of the right that each has to exist in the Land. Co-existence, true peace, was written in our Torah millenia ago. 

In Leviticus (Vayikra), parsha (chapter) 19, Kedoshim: 19:34 that point is made clear: The stranger who sojourns with you shall be as a native from among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. I am the L-rd, your G-d.

But a Palestinian Authority state from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea?  Or an Arab state within the borders of Israel, backed by Iran and intent to destroy us?

Not bloody likely, even with recognition from the Pope. 

Israel's Knesset Burying Law to Exempt Female Draft Dodgers?

Are Israeli lawmakers quietly trying to bury a law that would punish young women for dodging the draft?

Perhaps. A report broadcast on Voice of Israel public radio pointed out that a law passed two years ago was never really enacted.

In 2012, the measure made it illegal for a secular young woman to lie to the IDF about her religious observance. A special Knesset committee was appointed to “fine tune” the details on the law, and that was the end of that.

In the United States, this is the strategy known as “let’s bury it in committee for a while till things cool off.”

But Jews don’t forget – or forgive – as easily as others. And sure enough, the “Hidush” organization is up in arms. Attorney Uri Regev, head of the secularist NGO, released a statement saying, “The burial of the law against female draft dodgers is a disgusting act of defrauding the public.” He went on and on in a rant that was boring and frankly, ridiculous.

"Two years ago, the Knesset celebrated and took full credit for the amendment to the law, which will make it possible to put female draft evaders on trial. One could have expected it to ratify the regulations, the moment it received them. It is hard to imagine a possible reason for failing to do this, and continuing to protect the female evaders. Up until two years ago, thousands of young women evaded service by taking advantage of a legal loophole. In the last two years they have been riding roughshod on the law with the Knesset’s direct patronage.

"The burial of the Female Draft Evaders’ Law is further proof of how corrupting the connection between religion and politics is. The MKs’ failure to act is made much more serious by the fact that they were debating and planning, at the same time, to lengthen the period of service of women in the IDF. This is a clear example of the actions that cause the Knesset to lose all of the voters’ trust. It is also the kind of case that force the High Court to intervene in the Knesset’s work. If the MKs do not want the High Court to force them to convene and ratify the regulations, they had better do their jobs.”

But why bother?

This is silly. Why force women into the military if they don’t want to go? What exactly are you expecting them to do? Are you going to force them to hold a gun, to face the enemy, to kill a terrorist threatening your family? Or did you simply want them there so they can get the Major’s coffee in the morning?

Can they actually do anything useful if they are so terrified they cannot face the thought of putting on the uniform? What sort of human being even thinks of forcing an 18-year-old girl into military service?

It’s bad enough that we as a nation are forced to mandate our sons into this position. As Jewish men and women, we know the need for defense of our People and our Land. We have trained our youth to defend themselves, their families and their People and those who live together with us, and they do it incredibly well.

But isn’t it odd that it is Hidush making these demands? With all the screaming about “equalizing the burden” and how the big, bad yeshiva people aren’t doing their part, here we find a secularist NGO aiming at teenage girls. Where have you been hiding? And why now?

This phenomenon is not new.

Up to this point, all Israeli teens entered the military at age 18 except those disabled in some way, or studying full time in yeshiva if they were male; females who were religiously observant and could prove it were automatically exempt as well. So were all Christians and all Arabs. Druze, Bedouin and Circassian young men have for many years volunteered; they comprise the IDF’s best tracking units, among other special forces.

But many secular Israelis have found ways to get out of serving; some went abroad. Others managed through professional sports and other means.

The military itself provided some with options that were more palatable: there were those who became doctors and went to medical school in exchange for later service, but for a longer tour of duty. The army even picked up the tab for their education. Some became members of the entertainment corps; they sang their way from one stage to the next. Others became broadcasters and journalists for the army’s radio station, Galei Tzahal, and its magazine, HaMachane. Nowadays one can also try out for the Cyber Defense Unit – but this means you have to be really good in computers.

In the past few years the IDF created new units and developed a few programs that made it easier for the observant sector to enlist as well; thus the Shachar Kachol unit came into being, as did the Nachal Hareidi Brigade. Both are uniquely tailored to the needs of observant men. In the latter unit, men learn to fight the enemy in ways few ever do. That unit has scored some impressive victories, a few at high cost.

War has many faces, some bloodier than others. Why force a girl to wear any?

Not that I oppose military service. I personally believe it to be a good thing. When I arrived in this country at the age of 24, I tried to enlist – only to be told I was “too old.” A brand new immigrant from the United States and child of two Jewish war veterans, I was outraged to discover that women at that age are already over the hill for the Jewish State. Worse, the IDF recruiting officer informed me with a grin that the best thing I could do for my country was to “get married and have babies.” That was the “Zionist thing for a woman to do” at my age, he told me. In 1979, Haifa, not Jerusalem.

So much for Israel’s idea of female soldiering. I am still not real clear about why the state persists in drafting girls these days, but I believe there should be no penalty if a girl decides not to go. At the end, it’s her loss.

Some girls want to enlist and look forward to the day that they will. These young women should have the right to join and should not encounter that famed glass ceiling when they do. It’s long past the time when we need to force young women to the front. We are no longer a nation of just a few thousand, and this is no longer 1948.

It’s time to let Israel grow up, Atty. Regev. And let the military grow up, too.

2014 Technion Valedictorian is Israeli Arab Woman

This year’s valedictorian at Haifa’s Technion University – the “MIT” of Israel – is an Israeli Arab Muslim woman.

So much for the “apartheid state” claim of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

Mais Ali-Saleh grew up speaking Arabic in her small village outside of Nazareth in the Galilee.

She learned Hebrew at elementary school and high school, in the same way that many Israeli Jews learn Arabic as a second language in their public schools.

Ali-Saleh, currently an obstetrics-gynecology resident at Carmel Hospital in Haifa, says she went into the field because she knows many Arab women prefer female doctors.

She told Diana Bletter at The Huffington Post that Arabs, and in particular Arab women, have more freedom, liberties and academic opportunities in Israel than in any Arab country.

She suggested that the BDS movement switch from pursuing an academic boycott to encouraging academic life in the Palestinian Authority. She also encouraged those interested in peace to focus their energies on pressuring Arab nations to emulate Israel’s academic freedoms and democracy, and support more success stories like her own.

The Bill in the Night

The Bill in the Night

It's not a good idea to leave the Holy Land for any real length of time if you live here.

At least, it's not a good idea if you have not first deposited a very large amount of money into your bank account to cover standing orders left with utility and credit card companies. It has taken more than six weeks for me to untangle the mess I encountered upon my return this time around, and I am still working out the snarls.

The latest is a wrestling match with the country's telecommunications giant, Bezeq. Dealing with customer service from this firm is a little like trying to hang on to an oiled seal in the surf. Here's how it went this time around:

"Hi, I'd like to discuss my phone bill. I know the line is cut off for non-payment -- I was out of the country for an extended period -- and I need to straighten out the finances."

"That's fine, please give me your identification information."

This is already a problem because I have spent the past year trying to get the phone company to change the name on the account. My husband, of blessed memory, left this world nearly two years ago. But Bezeq is dedicated to perpetuating his presence by refusing to change the account to my name. I explained the problem, and it took 15 minutes to convince the representative it needed to be dealt with. 

"Please send me a copy of your identification card."

"I do not have a fax machine and cannot send you a scan by email because you have cut off my phone and internet line."

"Oh, right. Well, you need to pay the bill and then we will restore it."

"Fine. But please change the name on the account."

"No problem. Send me your identification card, please."

You see the way this is going.

"Is there a way I can pay this bill in cash? The bank has bolixed all my credit cards and everything else on the account."

"No."

"Then how can I pay you?"

"You will have to come to a service center. The closest one is in Be'er Sheva (an hour away)."

"I am not spending half a day in order to pay a phone bill, sorry. Find a better solution."

"You have to pay the bill. Find a credit card. Or pay it online."

"You have cut off my internet line, and anyway I have no credit card. I am perfectly willing to pay it in cash, and you must have some outlet where I can pay this bill in cash here in town. This is ridiculous. Figure this out. That is YOUR job, not mine."

"It is YOUR bill, YOU pay the bill."

"It is YOUR company, YOU figure it out if you want me to pay it. YOU find a solution to this problem. It's not my fault you have a stupid policy. Figure out a way for me to pay you in real money for a change."

"Hm. Well, let me check this list here.... okay. There is a store call Tzeing . . . have you heard of it? It is located in the business center in your town, and it is open from 7 pm to 11 pm. You can pay the bill there in cash."

"You're kidding, right? I am nearly 60 years old, alone, and you want me to go to a kiosk that I don't even know, that is ONLY open from seven to eleven at night, to pay a bill of hundreds of shekels, in the dark center of town? REALLY?? SERIOUSLY?? With all the Sudanese here in town?? What planet are you on?"

"That is the only place that is on this list where they accept cash in payment without a paper bill. You were getting emailed bills."

"Hey -- that is not MY fault. I requested mailed bills months ago. Why weren't they sent? And why am I being billed for services I never received? For that matter, why am I being billed for a month in which my service was cut off??"

"You have to pay this bill. I cannot help you until you do. Then I can talk about reducing the fee."

"This is garbage. I think I am going to simply change companies altogether. I don't really need this line. We never use it anyway. I just need the internet."

"As it happens, when you pay it, there is a new package with a reduced rate."

"That's not doing me any good if I cannot pay the thing. Figure out a solution or we are NOWHERE."

"I don't have a solution."

"Then it's not getting paid and we are both screwed."

"Why don't you go to the post office and get a one-time temporary credit card? A lot of people use those."

"Huh? What's that? Explain."

"There are credit cards that you can buy for a given amount of money, and then you simply use it to pay the bill."

"SO WHY THE HELL DIDN'T YOU SAY SO IN THE FIRST PLACE?????????"

"I didn't think of it. Sorry."

"I'll go get one now."

"Great. Call me back. We'll cut the fees by 20 percent starting next month."

Reflections on the Rockets' Red Glare

As the Sabbath waned in a Tel Aviv hospital last Saturday afternoon, the last flickering energy of the Lion of Israel entered the World to Come. With that, former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon joined his predecessors and passed into history.

Although Mr. Sharon's passing was said to be peaceful, his enemies and those of the State of Israel were unable to resist a parting shot; several, to be precise. Terrorists in Gaza launched a barrage of rocket attacks aimed at the former prime minister's ranch that night, and again just a short time after his body was interred on the property next to that of his wife.

Yet despite the violence and the body barely cold, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry didn't miss a beat, rushing to again press Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu for concessions to the Palestinian Authority so they would "stay in the process" for the final status talks.

Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon, a seasoned military intelligence professional, knew this truly to be "theater of the absurd," as he finally called it, exasperated with the ridiculous charade being played out in the public eye. He was forced to "apologize" for his words; in international diplomacy, honesty is rarely the best policy. It is only Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, Israel's "axe man," who can generally get away with such behavior. He has carefully cultivated the image of being a man of no culture at all.

Nevertheless, it is important to realize that Mr. Ya'alon spoke the truth. Equally important is the fact that although the prime minister himself cannot endorse it, the defense minister's statement likely could not have been made without Mr. Netanyahu's tacit agreement.

I'd like to believe that Ariel Sharon would have been proud of Ya'alon's statement, once upon a time, in the days before Gush Katif. . . before his own government expelled so many Jews from their homes and destroyed their livelihoods in 2005. We cannot judge him -- that is for the Heavenly Court. It is impossible to know what he would have or could have done following the Disengagement from Gaza because his career was summarily cut short just five months later by the massive stroke that silenced him for all time. 

What we do know is that we have had no peace since the day Israel's security forces drove their brethren from their own homes. Even back then, we had no "peace partner" in the Palestinian Authority despite having shown "good faith" -- we evacuated an entire region for its use, rendering it entirely Judenrein. Instead, the fully functioning greenhouses we left for their use were destroyed, and towns that could have become new villages and campuses became instead terrorist training camps and missile launching sites.

Upgraded technology allowed those so-called "peace partners" to create newer and better weaponry. They improved their ability to kidnap hostages -- including an IDF soldier. We were later forced to exchange more than one thousand jailed PA Arab terrorists, among them hundreds of multiple murderers, in order to secure his safe return. 

In the eight years that Mr. Sharon lay comatose in his hospital bed, more than 10,000 rockets, missiles and mortar shells were fired at southern and central Israel, reaching as far north as Tel Aviv. Hundreds of men, women and children were wounded; many died. Tens of thousands have been permanently disabled due to the trauma they suffered.

And yet they continue to live in their communities and life goes on. It's a beautiful region, southern Israel. Why shouldn't they live in their homes? Israel has learned how to protect its people despite the attacks, and the people have learned to deal with them. 

Now the United States is pressuring Israel to repeat the process in the Jordan Valley,  Judea and Samaria, on an exponentially wider scale, and to include Jerusalem -- Israel's capital city, the holiest place on earth -- in the bargain. Jerusalem of Gold, the city of David, the heart of the People of Israel . . . for which every Jew has yearned through millennia. Where Jews have lived for more than three thousand years. 

I am no gambler, nor am I a prophet, but I wonder whether the Palestinian Authority wouldn't prefer a state of war to a true peace at any price. 

I do not believe there will be an agreement -- I believe there will be an agreement to disagree, quiet and unstated, understood and acted out. Everyone knows that no PA leader has any real mandate to ink an agreement on behalf of the Arab people living in Judea, Samaria and/or Gaza. Those regions are not united and never were. Nor will they ever be, because those peoples are not one people. They are as diverse as their ancestors were. It is time that "outsiders" give them the credit due them and begin to understand who they are.

It is impossible for any PA leader to sign an agreement because the next person to lead that entity has the choice to simply ignore what was signed. And more often than not, they do.  For this reason in addition to all the others, Israel cannot and must not sign stupid agreements with the PA. They are not worth the paper on which they are written. Everyone in the Middle East knows this. Apparently only the Americans have not figured this out.

Welcome to the neighborhood, Earthlings. May I offer you some Bedouin tea?

A Small Negev Visitor Brings Terror to Our Home

It's amazing how quickly one's attention at work can be diverted by a shriek.

Even if you're a writer, accustomed to screaming all around you, there's a certain type of scream that comes with terror that cannot be ignored.

Such a scream split the air around me this afternoon when my teenaged daughter frantically demanded my attention, outside my home office. I never allow anyone to pull me out of my home office during work hours -the quality of this scream was clearly out of the ordinary.

As the shrieking escalated, I got up and ambled out -- until I saw what was inspiring the noise.

My eyes widened.

What clearly looked like a poisonous spider was crouched on the back of my favorite sofa and it looked like it was sneering at me.

The thing was nearly as big as my hand.  "It can move VERY fast," my daughter whispered. "Be careful."

An unnecessary warning, that last. I rapidly estimated what it would take to either trap it or kill it -- but at least, to find a way to get it contained.

My eyes flicked first to the large blue plastic basin, but that seemed too big. "What if it crawls out from under it?" my daughter said. Good point.

I narrowed it down to a Revereware sauce pot. Spider stew, anyone?

I wondered if I would have to kasher the pot after this -- then discarded the idea altogether. The pot was still too big. Saved by the size.

I realized suddenly as it began to move that I was making a big mistake in my thinking. "I don't want to TRAP it," I thought to myself. "This is the enemy. A threat to my family. I want to KILL it."

My brows lowered, and it occurred to me that a large flat book was much more the thing. Clearing a space and kicking extraneous items out of the way, I prepared to do battle.

The creature's seven legs (yes, seven with brown and black markings, ugly as hell) started picking their way leisurely across the back of that sofa, and then down a cushion and into the seat. Stealthily, I poked the cushion aside.

It raced up the sofa and up to the top of the back, to what it perceived was safety -- right on top of my son's baseball glove.

Thwack!

I struck it dead on, a direct hit. And then another, as its body fell twitching to the cold stone floor, where I stomped on it with a shoe for a good measure.

Eyes blazing, I informed my daughter the enemy was vanquished.

Three hours later, I am still shaking.

I have always hated spiders.