By David Verveer
I am proud to live in a democratic country, an island of humanistic freedom, in the middle of backward autocratic Islam regimes. Having said this, I have to admit that due to historic and semi-religious reasons, my country has laws which are unjust, and horrible cruel to people who for reasons which are illogical can not and do not want to live according medieval Talmudic rules.
Israel has not yet succeeded in separating religion from the state, because a coalition agreements made 60 years ago by our first Prime Minister David Ben Gurion and the religious political parties, a status quo on religious rulings stagnate justice and common sense in Israel ever since.
In Israel, the term refers to an informal agreement conducted in 1947 between the secular leadership of the Zionist movement in Palestine and leaders of the Orthodox Jews, which created a framework for the establishment of the laws in the country. This agreement lays out ground rules for the relationship between state and religion in four major issues: Shabbat, education, Kosher, and matrimonial law. It has been more or less maintained throughout the country's existence.
Especially the last, the matrimonial law does injustice to citizens with other or no-religious affiliations, in Israel a Christian can not marry with a Jew. Even though, if they marry abroad, the state recognizes the marriage, however, if the woman isn't Jewish, their children are not considered Jewish. Mixed marriages are frowned upon, and the non Jewish partner will meet problems from birth till death, he even will not be buried at the municipal cemetery.
But this status quo deals also with other rulings, in Israel, in places which did not have on Shabbat regular bus services, after 50 years still remain without public transport from nightfall Friday night until one hour after nightfall Saturday night.
There are some towns with public transport on Shabbat, for historical reasons or because they have a mixed Arab Jewish population.
In Jerusalem, the very orthodox group of Ashkenazi Jews (Nature Karta) rioted last week, as the Municipality opened on Shabbat a gratis parking plot, in order to cope with the congestion of vehicles serving the tourists visiting the old city and holy places.
They burned waste bins, broke traffic lights, fought with the police, all based on (in their opinion) a break in the status quo agreements.
Sale of non kosher food is prohibited inside the city perimeter, which caused the blossoming of malls on the outskirts of the towns, that are generally open on Shabbat, but this of course does not serve the poor, who do not posses private transport to reach the malls.
I am of course revering only to the Jewish municipalities, and the Arab towns are crowded on the Sabbath with Jews from the region, this of course, indirectly promotes the integration.
I don't expect that in the near future there will be any change in the status quo laws, as the religious parties are needed in order to get a majority government, medieval, unjust, but facts of life.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
At the Israeli Super market
By David Verveer
I am a little tired on defending Israel on the Internet, not only because I can not persuade anybody, who is already convinced that Israel is an apartheid state and are guilty of all imaginary racist crimes, but also because our daily life (and those of our neighbors) is relatively normal.
Take for example our Super market at the mall, when you shop there, you realize that stories written by passing through, one-day visitors, who are pre-determined to provide a pre- opinioned articles about the actual internal conditions between the local Arab and Jewish population groups. My town, Kfar Saba borders with several Arab town and villages on the north and south side, and in the East to the Green Line (the border between the Palestine Authority run Autonomy and future state of Palestine, with the Palestinian town of Jaljuliah.
The towns Kfar Saba and Jaljuliah are today separated by the famous Wall, and a main toll road that connects the southern and central part of Israel with the North. People living in Jaljuliah were in the past allowed to enter Israel, and many were employed in the building trade.
Since the second Intifada, and result of continues terrorist rates, the Separation Wall was erected, and today, only with permits such as medical emergencies and treatment, the Jaljulians are permitted to enter Israel.
But as mentioned before, I do not want to talk about politics, and I am not trying to defend the history or actions of the politicians and extremists.
Our supermarket, where from the outside you see the town Jaljuliah and the separation wall, 2 km further, is build on the eastern border of the town, however, only 15 km to the west, you find the Mediterranean coast, as this is the waist of Israel, named the Sharon region. Our town is in actual fact the business center for many, the Arab triangle of Arab towns and villages in the neighborhood, the settlers living in settlements on the other side of the Green line, and of course, the local population.
The town has approx. 90,000 inhabitants, but it serves a population of double this number of people, visiting, working and buying in Kfar Saba.
This heterogeneous population can be seen daily at the super-market, were you will see Palestinians in their traditional clothing, religious Jews, non too religious Arabs and Jews, with all skin colors, from very black (Jews from Ethiopia, Arabs who descent from Nubian parentage), to very blond Jews coming from all over the world.
Also the personnel of the super market belongs to different population groups, and can you find that the lady who operates the cash register, with a traditional Arab shawl covering her hair, next to a lady, who's Russian accent is very strong, and immigrated to Israel only a few years back.
In order to keep the clients happy, you can find numerous articles and typical dishes for all sectors, from Iraqi pitas, to Russian types of cheese and yogurts, special salads and pastries, typifying the variation in world taste, and now, with the summer holydays, small children of all colors and greed, run around, trying to persuade their mothers to buy sweets and cokes and ice-cream. And after coming home, having spent two hours of shopping in this population rainbow, I read the comments and attacks on Israel in the media, and wonder, what in heavens name, they are talking about Israeli racists, as more integration is simply impossible.
I am a little tired on defending Israel on the Internet, not only because I can not persuade anybody, who is already convinced that Israel is an apartheid state and are guilty of all imaginary racist crimes, but also because our daily life (and those of our neighbors) is relatively normal.
Take for example our Super market at the mall, when you shop there, you realize that stories written by passing through, one-day visitors, who are pre-determined to provide a pre- opinioned articles about the actual internal conditions between the local Arab and Jewish population groups. My town, Kfar Saba borders with several Arab town and villages on the north and south side, and in the East to the Green Line (the border between the Palestine Authority run Autonomy and future state of Palestine, with the Palestinian town of Jaljuliah.
The towns Kfar Saba and Jaljuliah are today separated by the famous Wall, and a main toll road that connects the southern and central part of Israel with the North. People living in Jaljuliah were in the past allowed to enter Israel, and many were employed in the building trade.
Since the second Intifada, and result of continues terrorist rates, the Separation Wall was erected, and today, only with permits such as medical emergencies and treatment, the Jaljulians are permitted to enter Israel.
But as mentioned before, I do not want to talk about politics, and I am not trying to defend the history or actions of the politicians and extremists.
Our supermarket, where from the outside you see the town Jaljuliah and the separation wall, 2 km further, is build on the eastern border of the town, however, only 15 km to the west, you find the Mediterranean coast, as this is the waist of Israel, named the Sharon region. Our town is in actual fact the business center for many, the Arab triangle of Arab towns and villages in the neighborhood, the settlers living in settlements on the other side of the Green line, and of course, the local population.
The town has approx. 90,000 inhabitants, but it serves a population of double this number of people, visiting, working and buying in Kfar Saba.
This heterogeneous population can be seen daily at the super-market, were you will see Palestinians in their traditional clothing, religious Jews, non too religious Arabs and Jews, with all skin colors, from very black (Jews from Ethiopia, Arabs who descent from Nubian parentage), to very blond Jews coming from all over the world.
Also the personnel of the super market belongs to different population groups, and can you find that the lady who operates the cash register, with a traditional Arab shawl covering her hair, next to a lady, who's Russian accent is very strong, and immigrated to Israel only a few years back.
In order to keep the clients happy, you can find numerous articles and typical dishes for all sectors, from Iraqi pitas, to Russian types of cheese and yogurts, special salads and pastries, typifying the variation in world taste, and now, with the summer holydays, small children of all colors and greed, run around, trying to persuade their mothers to buy sweets and cokes and ice-cream. And after coming home, having spent two hours of shopping in this population rainbow, I read the comments and attacks on Israel in the media, and wonder, what in heavens name, they are talking about Israeli racists, as more integration is simply impossible.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Het gebrek aan evenredigheid in de kritiek op israel
Door David Verveer
Waarschijnlijk zullen jullie zeggen: Daar is hij weer, nog eens probeert hij de misdaden van Israël goed te praten, maar dat is onjuist, ik en veel van mijn lands genoten proberen zoveel als mogelijk en als eenvoudig mogelijk de moeilijke situatie van ons bestaan uit te leggen.
Anti-Israël en Anti Joods hoeven deze post niet te lezen, want aan hun is een logische redenering zo wie zo, verloren, en het accepteren van het bestaan van Israël niet aanvaardbaar.
Zij die zeggen dat we zonder meer de zogenaamde vluchtelingen terug moeten nemen, of dat we bombardementen op Israëlische steden, zelfmoord terror en andere Palestijnse wandaden moeten toestaan, zijn natuurlijk van overtuiging dat wij, Israël, geen recht hebben voor bestaan, zij zullen zeggen dat geheel of gedeeltelijk Israël alle landen heeft geroofd van die arme lieve Arabiertjes.
Tegen deze redenering kunnen we natuurlijk niet argumenteren, want dat heeft geen zin, die mensen zijn absoluut blind, en willen niet onze waarheid horen.
Maar voor de normale man, die elke keer over Israël en hun misdaden hoort, en leest over de onmenselijke Israëlische soldaten, die elke morgen voor ontbijt een paar Palestijnen uitmoorden wil ik proberen om nogmaals op een redelijke manier, onze kant van het conflict te laten zien.
Ten eerste, Israël is in 1948 uitgeroepen en vecht sinds die tijd hun onafhankelijk oorlog, op en aan met een of meerdere Arabische buurlanden en terroristen. Israël is een democratie, waarbij we met coalitie regeringen, het land regeren. Er is geen een werkelijk grote partij, en op het ogenblik hebben we een centraal rechtse coalitie, die de centraal linkse coalitie van verleden jaar heeft verplaatst.
De Israëlische staat heeft ongeveer 75% Joden (van vele verschillende groeperingen) en 25% Arabieren, Christenen, Druzen en Bedoeïen. Alle legale inwoners hebben de zelfde rechten, en Integratie van de verschillende bevolking groepen is vergelijking van sommige Westerse landen, veel beter, maar natuurlijk niet volmaakt.
Israël is omringt met Arabische landen, namelijk Egypte, Jordanië en Libanon, de Palestijnse gebieden liggen tussen Jordanië en Israël, en de Gaza enclave, een stripje woestijn, waar de Egypte de vluchtelingen in kampen hebben gesloten, en die daar de laatste 60 jaar leven en broeden. In al de boven genoemde landen zijn Palestijnse vluchteling kampen, die gevoed worden door de UN (UNWRA).
De Palestijnen, en hun nazaten hebben geen rechten en worden door de Arabische leiders als zweep gebruikt tegen Israël.
Tot nu toe heeft Israël alle oorlogen gewonnen, en kunnen we het ons niet veroorloven om te verliezen, want dat betekend het eind van de staat en ons leven. De Palestijnse vluchtelingen hebben het moeilijk, maar niet door Israël, maar omdat ze dus niet op gevangen worden door de landen in waar ze wonen.
Gaza heeft 3 grens overgangen met Israël en een met Egypte. Israël boycot Gaza, om de gekidnapte Israëli soldaat terug te krijgen, maar laat humanistische hulp konvooien door, daar in tegen Egypte heeft zijn grens gesloten met Gaza, en laat alleen geselecteerde mensen door. Gaza is over genomen door Hamas, een terror organisatie die Israël niet herkend en in hun manifest heeft geschreven dat de Joden in de zee moeten worden gedreven.
Na 8 jaren van bombardement uit Chaza op Israëli stadjes en dorpen, heeft Israël dit jaar een militaire actie gevoerd tegen de Hamas waarbij een paar duizend Gazans zijn omgekomen en 10 Israëliërs.
Veel valse onjuiste verhalen zijn in omloop over die oorlog, meestal onjuist en niet bewezen, zelfs als de UN er achter staat, soms is het fout gegaan, en zijn onschuldige mensen gesneuveld, maar men moet niet vergeten dat in een over bevolkte gebied, het heel moeilijk is om een bloedeloze oorlog te voeren, tegen terroristen, zonder slachtoffers.
Natuurlijk heeft Israël het modernste oorlog gereedschap gebruikt, dat voor een persoon niet betrokken en niet in dezelfde situatie, overdreven er uit ziet, maar zoals in medische operaties, men gebruikt het beste, om volledig succes te hebben, zelfs als het unfair klinkt, voorbij zijn de dagen dat van beide zijden katapulten worden gebruikt.
Nogmaals, oorlog is geen geintje, als je moet vechten moet je ook winnen.
Israël heeft geen nederzettingen in Gaza, en heeft geen verplichtingen om het Terrorist stukje land te bedruipen, maar wereld druk op Israël en druk van Israëliërs zelf, maakt het mogelijk om de humanistische konvooien, elektriciteit en water te leveren.
In het verleden, meeste Gazaans werkte in Israël of voor Israëlische bedrijven, na de Hamas de macht overnam, mogen ze Israel niet binnen (behalve voor medische noodzaken).
De Palestijnse gebieden is een soort van autonomie, bestuurd door de Fatah die door Yasser Arafat is opgericht. De Palestijnen hebben twee terroristen oorlogen (Intifada) tegen Israël gevoerd, maar nu zijn hard bezig met te proberen zelfstandigheid te krijgen, maar daar zullen we later over spreken.
In de Palestijnse gebieden (een stukje land dat nooit zelfstandig is geweest en werd bezet door Jordanië, Turkije en Ottomanen, Romeinen Grieken en Perzen, is bevolkt door Arabische Palestijnen die ongeveer dezelfde DNA als de joden hebben, en waarschijnlijk van de 10 Joodse stammen afstammen en bekeerd zin door de Islam, (en een klein deel Christenen), en natuurlijk hebben we de eerder genoemde vluchteling kampen.
Behalve deze inwoners hebben we ook de Joodse nederzettingen, (mensen die zeggen dat ze historische rechten hebben op het land en nederzettingen hebben gebouwd op heuvels.
Deze nederzettingen zijn politiek niet accepteer-baar bij de UN (en ook niet bij meeste Israëliërs) alhoewel ze meestal zijn gebouwd op plekken waar geen Palestijnen woonden.
Het is niet een kwestie van land-roof, maar een kwestie van troeven en argumenten. Zoals er in Israël veel Arabieren wonen, zou het logisch zijn dat Joden in het Palestijnse gebied wonen, maar als ik eerder heb geschreven, we hebben hier niets aan logisch denken.
Een ander probleem is Jeruzalem, en ook hier vele opinies en een knoop die heel moeilijk is om open te maken. In 1948 heeft Israël de oude stad niet kunnen heroveren en bleef het in Jordaanse handen. In 1967 heeft Israël Jeruzalem en de west-bank heroverd. Israël heeft Jeruzalem als hoofdstad uit geroepen, wat niet geaccepteerd wordt door de UN en meeste landen. De stad heeft de omgeving van Arabische dorpen van over de grens van 1967 aan Jeruzalem toe gevoegd.
De inwoners van de Arabische dorpen hebben sociale rechten in Israël, welke ze vol op benutten (AOW en ziekenfonds).
De Palestijnen willen deze Arabische dorpen en het oude stadsdeel van Jeruzalem terug hebben, en dat hun hoofdstad maken.
In het oude stads-deel zijn de heilige plaatsen voor Christenen, Arabieren en Joden, en niemand wil deze opgeven. Er zijn vele oplossingen in de lucht, maar zal dit waarschijnlijk nooit volledig opgelost worden. Een idee om de heilige plekken internationaal gebied te maken zo iets als het Vaticaan, is aanvaardbaar bij meeste Israëlisch maar niet bij de Palestijnen.
Een ander probleem is Hebron, waar vroeger (voor de oorlogen) Joden woonden, en nu her bevolkt is door een groep van fanatieke Joden, die niet willen horen om Hebron op te geven omdat daar de graven van onze voorvaders Abraham, Jacob en Izaäk zijn, die het graf hadden gekocht. He is natuurlijk zin loos om die fanatieken uit te duiden dat deze voor vaders ook de voorvaders van de Palestijnen zijn, maar al dit is een deel van ons kruitvat.
Veel Palestijnen werken in Israël, (illegaal en legaal). De laatste jaren, na de dood van Arafat is de economische toestand met de Palestijnen aanmerkelijk verbeterd, ook is er minder terror.
De Golan hoogte (gebergte in het noorden van het land, veroverd van Syrië) is een politieke kaart, die opgelost moet worden in vrede onderhandelingen tussen Israël en Syrië.
De Libanees grens is de internationale grens, behalve een klein stukje grond dat door Libanon word op geijsd maar oorspronkelijk tot Syrië behoord (Shaba farms). Israël wil het terug geven aan Syrië, daar de inwoners dat eisen.
We hebben geen grens met Irak en Iran, maar Iranees anti Israël nucleair programma is een bedreiging voor Israël en de Westerse wereld.
Nog een paar zinnen: wij, de Israëliërs haten de Arabieren niet, wij zijn opgericht door Joodse vluchtelingen van uit de gehele wereld, merendeel na de Holocaust. Wij hebben weinig alternatieven dan ons zelf te verdedigen tegen de vijand die ons wil uitroeien, desondanks dat het land, het heilige land word genoemd, niemand van ons, wij niet en de vijand niet, zijn heilig (maar misschien schijnheilig).
Ik zeg het weer, kritiek op Israël is goed en opbouwend, maar kritiek gebaseerd op onjuiste verhalen en rumoer is niet eerlijk, zoals verhalen over moord in Jenin en Gaza, Ik hoop dat ik de situatie (of het voornaamste) heb uit gelegd, ik heb nergens jullie verwezen naar argumenten van andere mensen, maar U kunt alles zelf opzoeken op de Internet, en nu, als iemand iets over het Midden Oosten schrijft, probeer ook de andere kant te begrijpen.
Waarschijnlijk zullen jullie zeggen: Daar is hij weer, nog eens probeert hij de misdaden van Israël goed te praten, maar dat is onjuist, ik en veel van mijn lands genoten proberen zoveel als mogelijk en als eenvoudig mogelijk de moeilijke situatie van ons bestaan uit te leggen.
Anti-Israël en Anti Joods hoeven deze post niet te lezen, want aan hun is een logische redenering zo wie zo, verloren, en het accepteren van het bestaan van Israël niet aanvaardbaar.
Zij die zeggen dat we zonder meer de zogenaamde vluchtelingen terug moeten nemen, of dat we bombardementen op Israëlische steden, zelfmoord terror en andere Palestijnse wandaden moeten toestaan, zijn natuurlijk van overtuiging dat wij, Israël, geen recht hebben voor bestaan, zij zullen zeggen dat geheel of gedeeltelijk Israël alle landen heeft geroofd van die arme lieve Arabiertjes.
Tegen deze redenering kunnen we natuurlijk niet argumenteren, want dat heeft geen zin, die mensen zijn absoluut blind, en willen niet onze waarheid horen.
Maar voor de normale man, die elke keer over Israël en hun misdaden hoort, en leest over de onmenselijke Israëlische soldaten, die elke morgen voor ontbijt een paar Palestijnen uitmoorden wil ik proberen om nogmaals op een redelijke manier, onze kant van het conflict te laten zien.
Ten eerste, Israël is in 1948 uitgeroepen en vecht sinds die tijd hun onafhankelijk oorlog, op en aan met een of meerdere Arabische buurlanden en terroristen. Israël is een democratie, waarbij we met coalitie regeringen, het land regeren. Er is geen een werkelijk grote partij, en op het ogenblik hebben we een centraal rechtse coalitie, die de centraal linkse coalitie van verleden jaar heeft verplaatst.
De Israëlische staat heeft ongeveer 75% Joden (van vele verschillende groeperingen) en 25% Arabieren, Christenen, Druzen en Bedoeïen. Alle legale inwoners hebben de zelfde rechten, en Integratie van de verschillende bevolking groepen is vergelijking van sommige Westerse landen, veel beter, maar natuurlijk niet volmaakt.
Israël is omringt met Arabische landen, namelijk Egypte, Jordanië en Libanon, de Palestijnse gebieden liggen tussen Jordanië en Israël, en de Gaza enclave, een stripje woestijn, waar de Egypte de vluchtelingen in kampen hebben gesloten, en die daar de laatste 60 jaar leven en broeden. In al de boven genoemde landen zijn Palestijnse vluchteling kampen, die gevoed worden door de UN (UNWRA).
De Palestijnen, en hun nazaten hebben geen rechten en worden door de Arabische leiders als zweep gebruikt tegen Israël.
Tot nu toe heeft Israël alle oorlogen gewonnen, en kunnen we het ons niet veroorloven om te verliezen, want dat betekend het eind van de staat en ons leven. De Palestijnse vluchtelingen hebben het moeilijk, maar niet door Israël, maar omdat ze dus niet op gevangen worden door de landen in waar ze wonen.
Gaza heeft 3 grens overgangen met Israël en een met Egypte. Israël boycot Gaza, om de gekidnapte Israëli soldaat terug te krijgen, maar laat humanistische hulp konvooien door, daar in tegen Egypte heeft zijn grens gesloten met Gaza, en laat alleen geselecteerde mensen door. Gaza is over genomen door Hamas, een terror organisatie die Israël niet herkend en in hun manifest heeft geschreven dat de Joden in de zee moeten worden gedreven.
Na 8 jaren van bombardement uit Chaza op Israëli stadjes en dorpen, heeft Israël dit jaar een militaire actie gevoerd tegen de Hamas waarbij een paar duizend Gazans zijn omgekomen en 10 Israëliërs.
Veel valse onjuiste verhalen zijn in omloop over die oorlog, meestal onjuist en niet bewezen, zelfs als de UN er achter staat, soms is het fout gegaan, en zijn onschuldige mensen gesneuveld, maar men moet niet vergeten dat in een over bevolkte gebied, het heel moeilijk is om een bloedeloze oorlog te voeren, tegen terroristen, zonder slachtoffers.
Natuurlijk heeft Israël het modernste oorlog gereedschap gebruikt, dat voor een persoon niet betrokken en niet in dezelfde situatie, overdreven er uit ziet, maar zoals in medische operaties, men gebruikt het beste, om volledig succes te hebben, zelfs als het unfair klinkt, voorbij zijn de dagen dat van beide zijden katapulten worden gebruikt.
Nogmaals, oorlog is geen geintje, als je moet vechten moet je ook winnen.
Israël heeft geen nederzettingen in Gaza, en heeft geen verplichtingen om het Terrorist stukje land te bedruipen, maar wereld druk op Israël en druk van Israëliërs zelf, maakt het mogelijk om de humanistische konvooien, elektriciteit en water te leveren.
In het verleden, meeste Gazaans werkte in Israël of voor Israëlische bedrijven, na de Hamas de macht overnam, mogen ze Israel niet binnen (behalve voor medische noodzaken).
De Palestijnse gebieden is een soort van autonomie, bestuurd door de Fatah die door Yasser Arafat is opgericht. De Palestijnen hebben twee terroristen oorlogen (Intifada) tegen Israël gevoerd, maar nu zijn hard bezig met te proberen zelfstandigheid te krijgen, maar daar zullen we later over spreken.
In de Palestijnse gebieden (een stukje land dat nooit zelfstandig is geweest en werd bezet door Jordanië, Turkije en Ottomanen, Romeinen Grieken en Perzen, is bevolkt door Arabische Palestijnen die ongeveer dezelfde DNA als de joden hebben, en waarschijnlijk van de 10 Joodse stammen afstammen en bekeerd zin door de Islam, (en een klein deel Christenen), en natuurlijk hebben we de eerder genoemde vluchteling kampen.
Behalve deze inwoners hebben we ook de Joodse nederzettingen, (mensen die zeggen dat ze historische rechten hebben op het land en nederzettingen hebben gebouwd op heuvels.
Deze nederzettingen zijn politiek niet accepteer-baar bij de UN (en ook niet bij meeste Israëliërs) alhoewel ze meestal zijn gebouwd op plekken waar geen Palestijnen woonden.
Het is niet een kwestie van land-roof, maar een kwestie van troeven en argumenten. Zoals er in Israël veel Arabieren wonen, zou het logisch zijn dat Joden in het Palestijnse gebied wonen, maar als ik eerder heb geschreven, we hebben hier niets aan logisch denken.
Een ander probleem is Jeruzalem, en ook hier vele opinies en een knoop die heel moeilijk is om open te maken. In 1948 heeft Israël de oude stad niet kunnen heroveren en bleef het in Jordaanse handen. In 1967 heeft Israël Jeruzalem en de west-bank heroverd. Israël heeft Jeruzalem als hoofdstad uit geroepen, wat niet geaccepteerd wordt door de UN en meeste landen. De stad heeft de omgeving van Arabische dorpen van over de grens van 1967 aan Jeruzalem toe gevoegd.
De inwoners van de Arabische dorpen hebben sociale rechten in Israël, welke ze vol op benutten (AOW en ziekenfonds).
De Palestijnen willen deze Arabische dorpen en het oude stadsdeel van Jeruzalem terug hebben, en dat hun hoofdstad maken.
In het oude stads-deel zijn de heilige plaatsen voor Christenen, Arabieren en Joden, en niemand wil deze opgeven. Er zijn vele oplossingen in de lucht, maar zal dit waarschijnlijk nooit volledig opgelost worden. Een idee om de heilige plekken internationaal gebied te maken zo iets als het Vaticaan, is aanvaardbaar bij meeste Israëlisch maar niet bij de Palestijnen.
Een ander probleem is Hebron, waar vroeger (voor de oorlogen) Joden woonden, en nu her bevolkt is door een groep van fanatieke Joden, die niet willen horen om Hebron op te geven omdat daar de graven van onze voorvaders Abraham, Jacob en Izaäk zijn, die het graf hadden gekocht. He is natuurlijk zin loos om die fanatieken uit te duiden dat deze voor vaders ook de voorvaders van de Palestijnen zijn, maar al dit is een deel van ons kruitvat.
Veel Palestijnen werken in Israël, (illegaal en legaal). De laatste jaren, na de dood van Arafat is de economische toestand met de Palestijnen aanmerkelijk verbeterd, ook is er minder terror.
De Golan hoogte (gebergte in het noorden van het land, veroverd van Syrië) is een politieke kaart, die opgelost moet worden in vrede onderhandelingen tussen Israël en Syrië.
De Libanees grens is de internationale grens, behalve een klein stukje grond dat door Libanon word op geijsd maar oorspronkelijk tot Syrië behoord (Shaba farms). Israël wil het terug geven aan Syrië, daar de inwoners dat eisen.
We hebben geen grens met Irak en Iran, maar Iranees anti Israël nucleair programma is een bedreiging voor Israël en de Westerse wereld.
Nog een paar zinnen: wij, de Israëliërs haten de Arabieren niet, wij zijn opgericht door Joodse vluchtelingen van uit de gehele wereld, merendeel na de Holocaust. Wij hebben weinig alternatieven dan ons zelf te verdedigen tegen de vijand die ons wil uitroeien, desondanks dat het land, het heilige land word genoemd, niemand van ons, wij niet en de vijand niet, zijn heilig (maar misschien schijnheilig).
Ik zeg het weer, kritiek op Israël is goed en opbouwend, maar kritiek gebaseerd op onjuiste verhalen en rumoer is niet eerlijk, zoals verhalen over moord in Jenin en Gaza, Ik hoop dat ik de situatie (of het voornaamste) heb uit gelegd, ik heb nergens jullie verwezen naar argumenten van andere mensen, maar U kunt alles zelf opzoeken op de Internet, en nu, als iemand iets over het Midden Oosten schrijft, probeer ook de andere kant te begrijpen.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
The morning, I woke up and did not find Israel mentioned on the Internet
By David Verveer
I realize that I have paranoid reactions in my quest to search every morning the world internet media on anti Israeli articles, comments or travel stories, in which the author reports his impressions of the terrible plight of the Palestinians and Arabs by the cruel hands of the Israeli oppressor.
It seems that I need such an emotion in order to get me sufficiently angry to reply with counter attacks in the form of reactions or sometimes called talkbacks.
You must understand that I as retired person turned the defense of the nation as my holy duty, due to the fact that at my age, they do not need me at the border with a rifle, I am unsuitable for the civil guard, but by defending my country on the internet, I have the pleasant feeling that indeed, I am doing something for the nation.
Especially, as I read, write (with mistakes) and speak several European languages, I find plenty of sources to annoy me, coming from the USA, UK, The Netherlands and Belgium, from people who throw phrases and unreal historical evidence in the air, and if I (and many of my country men) would not have reacted and explained the truth (in our point of view at least), half truths, lies and fabricated stories, are repeated by two or three people, and suddenly turn into historical facts, because where there is smoke, there is fire. But believe me; this expression is wrong, as nobody can differentiate between smoke and water vapor, by sight only.
I always wonder why these attacks are one-sided, choosing sides for the Palestinians, while everybody realizes that they use terror to gain their goal in destroying Israel, while Israel with all its faults, is a democratic country. I suppose there are two main reasons for this, the first, because the European pity for the underdog (especially far away, and not in your own backyard), and secondly, the Islamic immigration to the Western world, which create two main streams of feelings, anti and pro Islam, why, I am not sure, for that one should talk to professional people, I only report what I see and feel.
It could be that these feelings are caused by the anti-immigration movements on the far right, which you can find in nearly all Western countries, who are stirring up the anti-foreigners feeling of the less educated middle and lower classes, and as counter reaction on these anti-immigration movements, the idealistic left, who despites racism, but does not realize that they are being used by the Islam propaganda.
But coming back to the Israel – Palestinian conflict, is nowhere related and does not have any connections to the Islam invasion to the West, but is used as available scapegoat, to simplify the causes for both sides of the Islam and Christian/Jewish conflict. Israel is fighting its war of Independence (for the last 61 years), made and makes many mistakes, like any other nation and government, but certainly does not practice land-theft, murder and war crimes, of which it is daily accused by the media.
The Israeli integration of its minorities, sects and religions is not something artificially created by law, but a natural mixture of the different groups of people, Jews, Arabs, Druze and Bedouin, which are undivided in religious, orthodox, Islam and Christians, right and left, extremists, nationalists, etc.
For example in the Meir hospital in Kfar Saba, like all medical services in the country, both the medical staff and the patients are Arabs and Jews, totally integrated, but this is not mentioned in the press, mentioned are fictional massacres in Jenin, or fabricated stories on cruelties in the Gaza and Lebanon war, which as mentioned before, became historic facts on the merit of unfounded rumors.
Of course, my writing won't convince anyone, there is always somebody who quotes or miss-quotes a lecture or article written by XY, who is either an Anti-Israel Jew, or works for impartial organizations like the Red Cross, UN and WHO, which realize who are buttering their bread.
But do you imagine my surprise the other day, reading the newspapers thoroughly, Israel or Palestinians were not mentioned, stories about who killed Michael Jackson, Obama on Iraq, the scandals about the Prime Minister of Italy, bank crashes in the USA, temperatures rising and deniers who tell us that the temperatures are going down, North Korea trying out new weapons, Iran killing their own people, this film star appeared in the nude, that one committed suicide, all juice information, but did they forget us, and we not anymore the center of the world? What did we do, that they lost interest. Desperately I started opening opinion discussions, who generally after the first twenty comments dealing with the subject at hand, irrelevant if we talk about health, Islands national shortage in funds, turns automatically to the Israel-Palestine conflict, the behavior of the Jews / Israelis (most people do not realize the difference between the two), but at no reveal, even the riots of the extremists in Jerusalem, in order to free a mother from house arrest, as she starved her three year old son, real interesting stuff, but nobody cares. Then I realized what keeps me running, why I spend hours behind the computer, this gives me the will to live, that way I hopefully fight problems such as Parkinson and Alzheimer, in short, I enjoy fighting for the good cause.
When I recognized my hobby, suddenly I saw that anti Israel propaganda reappeared on the web, stupid accusations, ridiculous fiction, and all those hypocritical stories which daily bloat cyber space, got my adrenaline running again.
I finish this one sided, but emotional post by thanking all those Anti-Israel haters, the anti-Semitists, the Don Donquichotes which fight windmills, and those other idiots who write nonsense, without having any knowledge about the conflict, the region or the problems at hand, who never move from their chair in front of the PC, in short my lifesavers. Have a wonderful day, and don't hesitate to make a fool of yourself.
I realize that I have paranoid reactions in my quest to search every morning the world internet media on anti Israeli articles, comments or travel stories, in which the author reports his impressions of the terrible plight of the Palestinians and Arabs by the cruel hands of the Israeli oppressor.
It seems that I need such an emotion in order to get me sufficiently angry to reply with counter attacks in the form of reactions or sometimes called talkbacks.
You must understand that I as retired person turned the defense of the nation as my holy duty, due to the fact that at my age, they do not need me at the border with a rifle, I am unsuitable for the civil guard, but by defending my country on the internet, I have the pleasant feeling that indeed, I am doing something for the nation.
Especially, as I read, write (with mistakes) and speak several European languages, I find plenty of sources to annoy me, coming from the USA, UK, The Netherlands and Belgium, from people who throw phrases and unreal historical evidence in the air, and if I (and many of my country men) would not have reacted and explained the truth (in our point of view at least), half truths, lies and fabricated stories, are repeated by two or three people, and suddenly turn into historical facts, because where there is smoke, there is fire. But believe me; this expression is wrong, as nobody can differentiate between smoke and water vapor, by sight only.
I always wonder why these attacks are one-sided, choosing sides for the Palestinians, while everybody realizes that they use terror to gain their goal in destroying Israel, while Israel with all its faults, is a democratic country. I suppose there are two main reasons for this, the first, because the European pity for the underdog (especially far away, and not in your own backyard), and secondly, the Islamic immigration to the Western world, which create two main streams of feelings, anti and pro Islam, why, I am not sure, for that one should talk to professional people, I only report what I see and feel.
It could be that these feelings are caused by the anti-immigration movements on the far right, which you can find in nearly all Western countries, who are stirring up the anti-foreigners feeling of the less educated middle and lower classes, and as counter reaction on these anti-immigration movements, the idealistic left, who despites racism, but does not realize that they are being used by the Islam propaganda.
But coming back to the Israel – Palestinian conflict, is nowhere related and does not have any connections to the Islam invasion to the West, but is used as available scapegoat, to simplify the causes for both sides of the Islam and Christian/Jewish conflict. Israel is fighting its war of Independence (for the last 61 years), made and makes many mistakes, like any other nation and government, but certainly does not practice land-theft, murder and war crimes, of which it is daily accused by the media.
The Israeli integration of its minorities, sects and religions is not something artificially created by law, but a natural mixture of the different groups of people, Jews, Arabs, Druze and Bedouin, which are undivided in religious, orthodox, Islam and Christians, right and left, extremists, nationalists, etc.
For example in the Meir hospital in Kfar Saba, like all medical services in the country, both the medical staff and the patients are Arabs and Jews, totally integrated, but this is not mentioned in the press, mentioned are fictional massacres in Jenin, or fabricated stories on cruelties in the Gaza and Lebanon war, which as mentioned before, became historic facts on the merit of unfounded rumors.
Of course, my writing won't convince anyone, there is always somebody who quotes or miss-quotes a lecture or article written by XY, who is either an Anti-Israel Jew, or works for impartial organizations like the Red Cross, UN and WHO, which realize who are buttering their bread.
But do you imagine my surprise the other day, reading the newspapers thoroughly, Israel or Palestinians were not mentioned, stories about who killed Michael Jackson, Obama on Iraq, the scandals about the Prime Minister of Italy, bank crashes in the USA, temperatures rising and deniers who tell us that the temperatures are going down, North Korea trying out new weapons, Iran killing their own people, this film star appeared in the nude, that one committed suicide, all juice information, but did they forget us, and we not anymore the center of the world? What did we do, that they lost interest. Desperately I started opening opinion discussions, who generally after the first twenty comments dealing with the subject at hand, irrelevant if we talk about health, Islands national shortage in funds, turns automatically to the Israel-Palestine conflict, the behavior of the Jews / Israelis (most people do not realize the difference between the two), but at no reveal, even the riots of the extremists in Jerusalem, in order to free a mother from house arrest, as she starved her three year old son, real interesting stuff, but nobody cares. Then I realized what keeps me running, why I spend hours behind the computer, this gives me the will to live, that way I hopefully fight problems such as Parkinson and Alzheimer, in short, I enjoy fighting for the good cause.
When I recognized my hobby, suddenly I saw that anti Israel propaganda reappeared on the web, stupid accusations, ridiculous fiction, and all those hypocritical stories which daily bloat cyber space, got my adrenaline running again.
I finish this one sided, but emotional post by thanking all those Anti-Israel haters, the anti-Semitists, the Don Donquichotes which fight windmills, and those other idiots who write nonsense, without having any knowledge about the conflict, the region or the problems at hand, who never move from their chair in front of the PC, in short my lifesavers. Have a wonderful day, and don't hesitate to make a fool of yourself.
Monday, July 20, 2009
Who are actually the Israelis?
The Israeli
In my last post, I tried to analyse what causes the increasingly anti-Israeli opinions in the Western media, in the reactions on the post, the writers repeatedly spoke about the Israeli, like it was one homogenous type of people, but that is far from truth. David Ben Gurion, Israel's first prime minister once told a visitor that in a gathering of 3 Israelis you have at least 5 political opinions, and indeed, the Israelis are divided by different approaches to religion, or other religion, by country of origin (of their forefathers), Ashkenazim or Sephardi or mixtures of both, minorities, tribes and sects, right, left, revisionists, far left, and all these groups, and most likely I forgot to mention many, are again under divided in splinter groups, which argue with each other, and are /or not represented in the Israeli Parliament (the Knesset). In small political parties which are either in a coalition or in the opposition.
But don't make a mistake, there are issues on which we have a majority consensus, which enables the Democratic Government to reign, generally it never finishes its full term, and is dissolved after average 3years of the 4 years term, with calling for new elections, which brings in new splinter parties that eventually torpedo the government after some years, and there we go again.
Abroad, you here about extremists such as Liebermann, Israel's current foreign minister, whose party has 5 of the 120 seats in the Knesset. He was born in Moldavia, but after immigrating to Israel, became a student leader, and continued to meddle in politics after graduation, he joined the Likud party, became its political headman during Netanyahu's first government, but his political opinion was too extreme for the middle right Likud party, thus he left and next elections he headed a Russian immigrants ultra extreme party, who is now part of the coalition government (second term).
Lieberman is a settler, but wants to exchange land with the Palestinians, in order to get rid of part of the Israeli Palestinian towns and villages of the Arab triangle, north of Kfar Saba. Those Israeli Arabs, who are represented in the Knesset, do not want to be Palestinians, but are happy with being irrational opposition to the government. One of their leaders is Doctor (Med) Ahmed Tibi, an outspoken Israeli Arab, who was the political adviser of the late Yasir Arafat. You think this is complicated, you have not heard anything yet. The Arab parties who have 11 representatives in the Knesset are a peculiar entity in the picture, they demand more equality for the Arabs, call themselves Palestinians, but try to get them to cross permanently the green line to the P.A., they won't accept it, as their living conditions are much higher than the Arabs and Palestinians living in the region.
The Israeli Muslims do not serve in the army (the historical reason for that was that they would not fight their brothers, but today, they simply earn three years of their lives, a privilege they don't want to give up).
On the other hand, the Bedouins (nomadic tribes, which slowly are settling in townships and villages in the north and the south of the country.. They volunteer for the army, are engaged as scouts and path-finders, and indispensable in order to safe guard the borders. In the above mentioned 11 Arab members of the Knesset, one of them represents the Bedouins. The Bedouins do not consider themselves Palestinians, however, they are engaged in a long lasting fight with the Israeli government on grazing and farming rights and ownership of the land.
The Druze is another Arabic mountain tribe, fierce fighters, with a seperate secret religion, living in three main clusters, the Golan and Syria, In Lebanon and our own Israeli Druze living on the Camel and in the Galilee. They are patriotic in the three countries they live, they go to the Israeli army, they reach high ranks and volunteer for the most dangerous missions. Even though, they they claim to be discriminated by the Government, their loyalty to Israel is never in doubt.
Funny enough, they vote mostly for the right, as socialism is far from their thoughts.
Another peculiar group are the Muslim Circassians a group out of the Caucasus, replaced by the Turks a hundred year ago, they serve also in the Army, and lately they are investigating the possibility to return to their homeland.
Than we have the Israeli Palestinian Arabs, divided in numerous political and religious groups, Muslims and Christians, claiming to be the original Palestinians, which is true, and according the DNA tests, originating from Jewish tribes who were converted to the religion of the conqueror (some say the 10 lost Jewish tribes). They live integrated and semi integrated between the Jewish population, in Arab neighborhoods (Haifa, Jerusalem, Accra, Tel Avis-Yaffo, Lidda, Ramla, Beer Sheba) or Arab towns such as Umm El Fahum, Nazareth, Iblin and Tira. There is no forced integration, but judging what goes on in my home town, where many of the professional force are Arabs, it is a fact of life. To explain this, you need to understand, that Jews and Arabs (Semites) look the same, and if they do not wear special tribal clothing, they are difficult to be recognized as minorities. In generally they are not friendly with the Palestinians on the other side of the Green line, whom they distrust and consider problematic.
Coming back to the Jewish Israeli, which can not as easily put in groups as the minorities, we will start with the small extremist section called the Nature Karta, an orthodox group living mainly in Jerusalem and Bnei Barak, anti Zionists (they believe that only God with the help of the Messiah is permitted to order return to the holy land). They are these peculiar Jews who appear at the court of Ahmadinejad, demonstrate against Israel in Brooklyn and riot in Jerusalem about parking lots on Sabbath and arrest of an pregnant mother who starved her son. Of course they do not serve in the army, and are financed by their brothers in the US. They dress and look like people from a Polish ghetto 200 years ago, and their language is Yiddish, as Hebrew is forbidden, as it is the language of the holy bible. They oppose Israel's democratic rule and thus don't vote for Parliament.
Looking more or less the same, but less extreme are the Ashkenazim Hasidim, which do participate in the democratic life of Israel, even participate in the coalition government. They represent around 5 seats in Knesset, are divided between themselves (followers of different Rabbis and schools, which originate out of Russia, Latvia, Hungary and Poland). Some try to evade compulsory army services out of religious beliefs, but also serve in hyper religious army units
Their political outlook depends mainly on who is offering more, and even though, bound to the status quo agreement, which was reached in the early days of the nation, they fight to increase more religious supervision on kashrut, sabbath and family laws.
Then we have the National religious parties, also nicknamed “the knitted cipas” to which most but not all the settlers belong. They are extreme right, Zionist nationalists, who belief in greater Israel, led by religious leaders, they make the life of the Palestinians hell. One of their disciples, Yigal Amir murdered Israel's prime minister Yitschak Rabin. They are still a minority, but with the current government they gain power. I suppose that when the reactions on my post referred to the Israelis, they generally referred to this group of Jews.
Another religious orientated political group is the Shas party, lead by Rabbi Ovadia Yoseef. They are a Sephardi (mainly Moroccan) group, which have their own education chain and have 11 representatives in the Knesset. Rav Yoseef is well known for his religious rulings, some rather peculiar in our eyes, but admired by his followers. Shas is part of the current coalition and supports the settlers aims, even though, not many settlers belong to Shas.
The Likud (the party of Netanyahu) is originally a revisionist party following the writings of Zeev Jabotinsky, they are nationalists, and call themselves Central right orientated. They have 27 seats in the Knesset, were severely damaged when former PM Ariel Sharon split the party and created the Kadima party (Ehud Olmert and Zippi Livni) who got 28 seats, but could not form a coalition.
There is nearly no distinction between the Likud and Kadima, the Likud a little more to the right and Kadima a little to the left, but both are central parties and both suffer from scandals and court cases.
After the summer recess, some parliament member are expected to jump from Kadima to the Likud, not out of ideals but for seats in the Government.
Then we have the Israeli Labor party, with Ehud Barak, the Minister of Defense, a central left party, original Government party of David Ben Gurion, today watered down to only 13 seats.
The Labor party is in actual fact splitting in two separate parties, one in the coalition and one in the opposition. The opposition has 6 members and the coalition also 6, one lady is in between, and has not yet decided which side to choose.
The Meretz party (a far left orientated party) in the opposition, backs subjects such as New left, Rights for Homosexuals, Global warming, Peace now, against the Settlers, for Human rights, etc. They were reduced down to 5 seats in the last elections, as their ideals do not appeal to the young Israelis.
Now for the proper order I need to add immigrant organizations, which are not political associated, even though, most people from the former Soviet Republics are right leaning, or anti left.
Another group which I forgot to mention are the Russian Christians which immigrated several years back from the Communists to Israel claiming to be Jewish (right of return), and here openly admitted to be practicing Christians.
And the black Ethiopians,claiming to be Jewish from the King Solomon period, the Indians claiming to be from the ten lost tribes, the Black group from the USA, living in Dimona, an Indian tribe from Peru, and I could go on like this for some time, but I believe you got the picture.
All these people somehow belong to the Israeli nationality, and when you write the Israelis do this or that, you are talking to enormous mixture of different people, different colors and different origin, but most of all, proud to be Israeli. While after 50 odd years in Israel, I am still a newcomer, my children and grandchildren are Tsabres (Israelis to the bone).
In my last post, I tried to analyse what causes the increasingly anti-Israeli opinions in the Western media, in the reactions on the post, the writers repeatedly spoke about the Israeli, like it was one homogenous type of people, but that is far from truth. David Ben Gurion, Israel's first prime minister once told a visitor that in a gathering of 3 Israelis you have at least 5 political opinions, and indeed, the Israelis are divided by different approaches to religion, or other religion, by country of origin (of their forefathers), Ashkenazim or Sephardi or mixtures of both, minorities, tribes and sects, right, left, revisionists, far left, and all these groups, and most likely I forgot to mention many, are again under divided in splinter groups, which argue with each other, and are /or not represented in the Israeli Parliament (the Knesset). In small political parties which are either in a coalition or in the opposition.
But don't make a mistake, there are issues on which we have a majority consensus, which enables the Democratic Government to reign, generally it never finishes its full term, and is dissolved after average 3years of the 4 years term, with calling for new elections, which brings in new splinter parties that eventually torpedo the government after some years, and there we go again.
Abroad, you here about extremists such as Liebermann, Israel's current foreign minister, whose party has 5 of the 120 seats in the Knesset. He was born in Moldavia, but after immigrating to Israel, became a student leader, and continued to meddle in politics after graduation, he joined the Likud party, became its political headman during Netanyahu's first government, but his political opinion was too extreme for the middle right Likud party, thus he left and next elections he headed a Russian immigrants ultra extreme party, who is now part of the coalition government (second term).
Lieberman is a settler, but wants to exchange land with the Palestinians, in order to get rid of part of the Israeli Palestinian towns and villages of the Arab triangle, north of Kfar Saba. Those Israeli Arabs, who are represented in the Knesset, do not want to be Palestinians, but are happy with being irrational opposition to the government. One of their leaders is Doctor (Med) Ahmed Tibi, an outspoken Israeli Arab, who was the political adviser of the late Yasir Arafat. You think this is complicated, you have not heard anything yet. The Arab parties who have 11 representatives in the Knesset are a peculiar entity in the picture, they demand more equality for the Arabs, call themselves Palestinians, but try to get them to cross permanently the green line to the P.A., they won't accept it, as their living conditions are much higher than the Arabs and Palestinians living in the region.
The Israeli Muslims do not serve in the army (the historical reason for that was that they would not fight their brothers, but today, they simply earn three years of their lives, a privilege they don't want to give up).
On the other hand, the Bedouins (nomadic tribes, which slowly are settling in townships and villages in the north and the south of the country.. They volunteer for the army, are engaged as scouts and path-finders, and indispensable in order to safe guard the borders. In the above mentioned 11 Arab members of the Knesset, one of them represents the Bedouins. The Bedouins do not consider themselves Palestinians, however, they are engaged in a long lasting fight with the Israeli government on grazing and farming rights and ownership of the land.
The Druze is another Arabic mountain tribe, fierce fighters, with a seperate secret religion, living in three main clusters, the Golan and Syria, In Lebanon and our own Israeli Druze living on the Camel and in the Galilee. They are patriotic in the three countries they live, they go to the Israeli army, they reach high ranks and volunteer for the most dangerous missions. Even though, they they claim to be discriminated by the Government, their loyalty to Israel is never in doubt.
Funny enough, they vote mostly for the right, as socialism is far from their thoughts.
Another peculiar group are the Muslim Circassians a group out of the Caucasus, replaced by the Turks a hundred year ago, they serve also in the Army, and lately they are investigating the possibility to return to their homeland.
Than we have the Israeli Palestinian Arabs, divided in numerous political and religious groups, Muslims and Christians, claiming to be the original Palestinians, which is true, and according the DNA tests, originating from Jewish tribes who were converted to the religion of the conqueror (some say the 10 lost Jewish tribes). They live integrated and semi integrated between the Jewish population, in Arab neighborhoods (Haifa, Jerusalem, Accra, Tel Avis-Yaffo, Lidda, Ramla, Beer Sheba) or Arab towns such as Umm El Fahum, Nazareth, Iblin and Tira. There is no forced integration, but judging what goes on in my home town, where many of the professional force are Arabs, it is a fact of life. To explain this, you need to understand, that Jews and Arabs (Semites) look the same, and if they do not wear special tribal clothing, they are difficult to be recognized as minorities. In generally they are not friendly with the Palestinians on the other side of the Green line, whom they distrust and consider problematic.
Coming back to the Jewish Israeli, which can not as easily put in groups as the minorities, we will start with the small extremist section called the Nature Karta, an orthodox group living mainly in Jerusalem and Bnei Barak, anti Zionists (they believe that only God with the help of the Messiah is permitted to order return to the holy land). They are these peculiar Jews who appear at the court of Ahmadinejad, demonstrate against Israel in Brooklyn and riot in Jerusalem about parking lots on Sabbath and arrest of an pregnant mother who starved her son. Of course they do not serve in the army, and are financed by their brothers in the US. They dress and look like people from a Polish ghetto 200 years ago, and their language is Yiddish, as Hebrew is forbidden, as it is the language of the holy bible. They oppose Israel's democratic rule and thus don't vote for Parliament.
Looking more or less the same, but less extreme are the Ashkenazim Hasidim, which do participate in the democratic life of Israel, even participate in the coalition government. They represent around 5 seats in Knesset, are divided between themselves (followers of different Rabbis and schools, which originate out of Russia, Latvia, Hungary and Poland). Some try to evade compulsory army services out of religious beliefs, but also serve in hyper religious army units
Their political outlook depends mainly on who is offering more, and even though, bound to the status quo agreement, which was reached in the early days of the nation, they fight to increase more religious supervision on kashrut, sabbath and family laws.
Then we have the National religious parties, also nicknamed “the knitted cipas” to which most but not all the settlers belong. They are extreme right, Zionist nationalists, who belief in greater Israel, led by religious leaders, they make the life of the Palestinians hell. One of their disciples, Yigal Amir murdered Israel's prime minister Yitschak Rabin. They are still a minority, but with the current government they gain power. I suppose that when the reactions on my post referred to the Israelis, they generally referred to this group of Jews.
Another religious orientated political group is the Shas party, lead by Rabbi Ovadia Yoseef. They are a Sephardi (mainly Moroccan) group, which have their own education chain and have 11 representatives in the Knesset. Rav Yoseef is well known for his religious rulings, some rather peculiar in our eyes, but admired by his followers. Shas is part of the current coalition and supports the settlers aims, even though, not many settlers belong to Shas.
The Likud (the party of Netanyahu) is originally a revisionist party following the writings of Zeev Jabotinsky, they are nationalists, and call themselves Central right orientated. They have 27 seats in the Knesset, were severely damaged when former PM Ariel Sharon split the party and created the Kadima party (Ehud Olmert and Zippi Livni) who got 28 seats, but could not form a coalition.
There is nearly no distinction between the Likud and Kadima, the Likud a little more to the right and Kadima a little to the left, but both are central parties and both suffer from scandals and court cases.
After the summer recess, some parliament member are expected to jump from Kadima to the Likud, not out of ideals but for seats in the Government.
Then we have the Israeli Labor party, with Ehud Barak, the Minister of Defense, a central left party, original Government party of David Ben Gurion, today watered down to only 13 seats.
The Labor party is in actual fact splitting in two separate parties, one in the coalition and one in the opposition. The opposition has 6 members and the coalition also 6, one lady is in between, and has not yet decided which side to choose.
The Meretz party (a far left orientated party) in the opposition, backs subjects such as New left, Rights for Homosexuals, Global warming, Peace now, against the Settlers, for Human rights, etc. They were reduced down to 5 seats in the last elections, as their ideals do not appeal to the young Israelis.
Now for the proper order I need to add immigrant organizations, which are not political associated, even though, most people from the former Soviet Republics are right leaning, or anti left.
Another group which I forgot to mention are the Russian Christians which immigrated several years back from the Communists to Israel claiming to be Jewish (right of return), and here openly admitted to be practicing Christians.
And the black Ethiopians,claiming to be Jewish from the King Solomon period, the Indians claiming to be from the ten lost tribes, the Black group from the USA, living in Dimona, an Indian tribe from Peru, and I could go on like this for some time, but I believe you got the picture.
All these people somehow belong to the Israeli nationality, and when you write the Israelis do this or that, you are talking to enormous mixture of different people, different colors and different origin, but most of all, proud to be Israeli. While after 50 odd years in Israel, I am still a newcomer, my children and grandchildren are Tsabres (Israelis to the bone).
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Does the negative public opinion on Israel matter?
The phenomena of Israel bashing, sometimes combined with old fashioned antisemitism, seems to be gaining strength in the daily world written and cyber media. The reasons for these unfavorable reactions might be blamed on extremist proclamations by the current democratic elected Israeli government, however, I doubt that, as the anti Israel feelings seems to increase with the time, and not with a sudden jump, due to the new rightist coalition in Israel.
Some claim that Israel becomes un-popular because its successful campaign against terrorism, others say that its un-compromising harsh handling of the Palestinians, makes Israel the culprit of the media, but that does not make too much sense, as at the same time, but in other regions, terrible things happen, like in China, Sudan, Iran and Iraq, however, those happenings get only a few lines in the press, while Israel conducts a reprisal action against continues terrorism, Israel is blamed with war crimes, and look who is writing this, correspondents from countries deeply involved with murky and bloody handling of terrorists in far away countries such as Afghanistan, and don't forget the innocent victims, but that doesn't reach thefront page.. The honest reports of Israeli soldiers admitting sometimes not to adhere precisely to the Geneva convention in their fight against terrorists hiding and shooting from behind civilians, is blown out of proportion, but 8 years of bombardment of innocent civilians by those Islamic crooks, and terrible terrorist acts of blowing up airplanes, buses and people, is accepted as normal, as Israel stole their land.
Arguments explaining and repeating the origin and development of the Palestinian and Israeli conflict, including repeating that there was never in history a Palestinian entity, and the region was ruled by conquering nations such as Romans, Greek Ottoman Turkish, British and French, until the Israeli nation was proclaimed backed and approved by the UN, and after numerous wars against Arab nations trying to drive the Jews into the sea (a strife which can still be seen in their Manifesto).
But the anti-Israeli feeling might be caused by an entirely different reason, which is based on “loving the underdog”, as the Israeli actions are generally successful, and being a Palestinian kept virtually prisoners in refugee camps in Jordan, Lebanon and Gaza, conserved for a later day, in order to over run Israel, based on right of return as demanded by the Arabs. Those Palestinians in the refugee camps have no rights, no nationality and are living in deplorable conditions, fed by the UN. Funny enough the Palestinian on the West Bank (Palestinian Authority with Israeli supervision) have a much higher standard of living than their unfortunate brothers in the Arab countries. Not to mention the Israeli Arabs who are complaining but are not prepared to give up their Israeli citizenship and immigrate to future Palestine. But those facts and figures never reach the Western media, as nobody wants to know the truth, and when somebody occasionally write about the conditions of Arab Israeli population, this is shouted down as Israeli propaganda.
But let us look at still another point of few, millions of Arabs have immigrated in the last 3 decades to Europe and the US, and in number they start gaining political strength, but not only in democratic ways but also by terror acts and riots (Paris, London, Amsterdam, Berlin, etc.). The crime world is run by these groups, they are openly against integration, but remember, most of them are not Palestinians, but from Morocco, Turkey, from the African continent, who adopted an Anti-Israel and Anti Jewish hatred as combining Islamic force, but the number of Palestinians participants are minimal. But these large numbers of Islamic people in the European society, is somehow and unjustly blamed on the Israel Palestine conflict, while it in reality, did have nothing to do with the Islamic invasion of Europe.
Another reason might be a peculiar hand out from the Nazi Period, a type of reverse guilt feeling, which is expressed in “why should I feel guilty what has happened to the Jews during the second World War, most likely they deserve this treatment, look how they treat the Arabs”.
In actual fact, the reason of Anti Israel-ism is not very important, it does not bother too much in the daily life of the average Israeli, we regret it, we don't understand and deserve it, but accept it as a fact of live. But we have to remember that we can not let down our guard, we have to maintain at all cost the upper hand, as loosing means drowning, as the other side won't have any mercy.
We will survive, if we continue to lead in technology, (which is our main export article), and articles writing about our so called land theft, and war crimes will not influence the commercial relations between the EU and USA, it is regretful, but we can live without your love, we have overcome bigger problems and survived. Fairness and objectivity are not part of the modern society, but remember, we will assist you, when the dark forces overtake your democracies, and the Islam will take over.
Some claim that Israel becomes un-popular because its successful campaign against terrorism, others say that its un-compromising harsh handling of the Palestinians, makes Israel the culprit of the media, but that does not make too much sense, as at the same time, but in other regions, terrible things happen, like in China, Sudan, Iran and Iraq, however, those happenings get only a few lines in the press, while Israel conducts a reprisal action against continues terrorism, Israel is blamed with war crimes, and look who is writing this, correspondents from countries deeply involved with murky and bloody handling of terrorists in far away countries such as Afghanistan, and don't forget the innocent victims, but that doesn't reach thefront page.. The honest reports of Israeli soldiers admitting sometimes not to adhere precisely to the Geneva convention in their fight against terrorists hiding and shooting from behind civilians, is blown out of proportion, but 8 years of bombardment of innocent civilians by those Islamic crooks, and terrible terrorist acts of blowing up airplanes, buses and people, is accepted as normal, as Israel stole their land.
Arguments explaining and repeating the origin and development of the Palestinian and Israeli conflict, including repeating that there was never in history a Palestinian entity, and the region was ruled by conquering nations such as Romans, Greek Ottoman Turkish, British and French, until the Israeli nation was proclaimed backed and approved by the UN, and after numerous wars against Arab nations trying to drive the Jews into the sea (a strife which can still be seen in their Manifesto).
But the anti-Israeli feeling might be caused by an entirely different reason, which is based on “loving the underdog”, as the Israeli actions are generally successful, and being a Palestinian kept virtually prisoners in refugee camps in Jordan, Lebanon and Gaza, conserved for a later day, in order to over run Israel, based on right of return as demanded by the Arabs. Those Palestinians in the refugee camps have no rights, no nationality and are living in deplorable conditions, fed by the UN. Funny enough the Palestinian on the West Bank (Palestinian Authority with Israeli supervision) have a much higher standard of living than their unfortunate brothers in the Arab countries. Not to mention the Israeli Arabs who are complaining but are not prepared to give up their Israeli citizenship and immigrate to future Palestine. But those facts and figures never reach the Western media, as nobody wants to know the truth, and when somebody occasionally write about the conditions of Arab Israeli population, this is shouted down as Israeli propaganda.
But let us look at still another point of few, millions of Arabs have immigrated in the last 3 decades to Europe and the US, and in number they start gaining political strength, but not only in democratic ways but also by terror acts and riots (Paris, London, Amsterdam, Berlin, etc.). The crime world is run by these groups, they are openly against integration, but remember, most of them are not Palestinians, but from Morocco, Turkey, from the African continent, who adopted an Anti-Israel and Anti Jewish hatred as combining Islamic force, but the number of Palestinians participants are minimal. But these large numbers of Islamic people in the European society, is somehow and unjustly blamed on the Israel Palestine conflict, while it in reality, did have nothing to do with the Islamic invasion of Europe.
Another reason might be a peculiar hand out from the Nazi Period, a type of reverse guilt feeling, which is expressed in “why should I feel guilty what has happened to the Jews during the second World War, most likely they deserve this treatment, look how they treat the Arabs”.
In actual fact, the reason of Anti Israel-ism is not very important, it does not bother too much in the daily life of the average Israeli, we regret it, we don't understand and deserve it, but accept it as a fact of live. But we have to remember that we can not let down our guard, we have to maintain at all cost the upper hand, as loosing means drowning, as the other side won't have any mercy.
We will survive, if we continue to lead in technology, (which is our main export article), and articles writing about our so called land theft, and war crimes will not influence the commercial relations between the EU and USA, it is regretful, but we can live without your love, we have overcome bigger problems and survived. Fairness and objectivity are not part of the modern society, but remember, we will assist you, when the dark forces overtake your democracies, and the Islam will take over.
Friday, July 17, 2009
de dag dat ik allochtoon werd
De dag dat ik allochtoon werd
Door David Verveer
Ik ben in Nederland geboren, zoon van Nederlandse Joden, een half jaar voor de tweede wereld oorlog, en volgens de Nederlandse opinie ben ik dus volbloed Autochtoon van geboorte, want mijn familie leeft al 350 jaar in Den Haag, en voordien in Amsterdam.
Mijn huidskleur en accent zijn typisch Haags, mijn ogen staan ongeveer in de zelfde plaats als onze Hollandse jongens, Jan, Piet of Henk, dus zoals het gezegde gaat, als het kwakt als een eend, er uit ziet als een eend, en loopt als een eend, dan zal het wel een eend zijn. Maar moet ik jullie teleur stellen, ik ben geen autochtoon, des ondanks mijn vader als verzet strijder het leven heeft gegeven voor zijn vaderland, ik zijn zoon, ben op een zekere dag ineens allochtoon geworden. Ik moet bekennen dat Allochtoon te zijn, op zich zelf, heel weinig uit maakt, speciaal als je net als ik, in het buitenland woont, als ik om mij heen kijkt, zie ik alleen maar allochtonen, en de (Nederlandse) autochtonen hier in Israël zijn erg schaars.
Toen tijdens mijn werk in Iran, in de tijd van de Sjah, mijn vrouw een baan kreeg als secretaresse van de toenmalige vertegenwoordiger van Israël (er was geen Ambassadeur), was de eis dat de echtgenoot van de potentiaal secretaresse van de pseudo Ambassadeur ook de Israëlische paspoort zou hebben, anders kon ze de geheime dossiers niet behandelen. Daar ik niets tegen de Israëlische nationaliteit heb, integendeel ik er tamelijk trots op ben, kreeg ik dus een Israëlische paspoort.
Een jaar later, toen ik mijn Nederlandse paspoort wou verlengen, kwamen ze op de Nederlandse Ambassadee in Tel Aviv, tot de ontdekking dat ik ook eenIsraëlischh paspoort had, direct werd mijn Nederlandse paspoort ongeldig verklaart, en sinds die dag ben ik dus volbloed allochtoon.
Volgens de Nederlandse wet, mag men geen dubbele Nationaliteit hebben, alleen maar als de plaatselijke wet het afzeggen van de lokale nationaliteit verbied, zoals bijvoorbeeld de Amerikaanse regering, dan mag je je Nederlandse paspoort behouden.
Opmerkelijk is het feit dat toen ik een jonge jongen was direct na de oorlog en natuurlijk in de oorlog, toen was ik ook iets anders, ik was toen een Joden jongetje, die tijdens de Moffen geen recht op leven had, en daarna, nooit als vol werd herkent, daar de kinderen van mijn leeftijd geen idee hadden wat Joden waren, of waarom we dus opgejaagd en vermoord werden tijdens het bezet, en thuis bij hun geen uitleg wed gegeven, bleven wij vreemde eendjes (wat is het vandaag met eenden).
Ik weet dat een keer door een stelletje kwajongens als Rot Jood ben uit gemaakt, en toen ik niet reageerde, zijn ze iemand anders gaan uitschelden. Ik begreep het gedeelte van Jood, maar waarom rot jood, brillejood, voddenjood zou ik begrijpen,maar rot jood.
Ik moet bekennen dat na de oorlog was er bijna geen openlijke antisemitisme, want als ik eerder heb geschreven,mijn mislukte afkomst kan niet uit mijn gezicht te lezen zijn, en werd ik als gewoon geaccepteerd. Mijn beste vrienden waren katholiek, en gingen net als ik naar Zondag school, ik om Joodse en hun om Katholieke dingen te leren, en middags waren we alles vergeten, en speelde we ridders of cowboys.
Ik ben benieuwd dat als ik (en maken jullie geen zorgen, want dat gebeurt niet, naar Nederland zou willen emigreren, zou ik dan bang moeten zijn voor Meneer Wilders, en zijn partij, of zou ik kunnen onderduiken als pseudo autochtoon,
Door David Verveer
Ik ben in Nederland geboren, zoon van Nederlandse Joden, een half jaar voor de tweede wereld oorlog, en volgens de Nederlandse opinie ben ik dus volbloed Autochtoon van geboorte, want mijn familie leeft al 350 jaar in Den Haag, en voordien in Amsterdam.
Mijn huidskleur en accent zijn typisch Haags, mijn ogen staan ongeveer in de zelfde plaats als onze Hollandse jongens, Jan, Piet of Henk, dus zoals het gezegde gaat, als het kwakt als een eend, er uit ziet als een eend, en loopt als een eend, dan zal het wel een eend zijn. Maar moet ik jullie teleur stellen, ik ben geen autochtoon, des ondanks mijn vader als verzet strijder het leven heeft gegeven voor zijn vaderland, ik zijn zoon, ben op een zekere dag ineens allochtoon geworden. Ik moet bekennen dat Allochtoon te zijn, op zich zelf, heel weinig uit maakt, speciaal als je net als ik, in het buitenland woont, als ik om mij heen kijkt, zie ik alleen maar allochtonen, en de (Nederlandse) autochtonen hier in Israël zijn erg schaars.
Toen tijdens mijn werk in Iran, in de tijd van de Sjah, mijn vrouw een baan kreeg als secretaresse van de toenmalige vertegenwoordiger van Israël (er was geen Ambassadeur), was de eis dat de echtgenoot van de potentiaal secretaresse van de pseudo Ambassadeur ook de Israëlische paspoort zou hebben, anders kon ze de geheime dossiers niet behandelen. Daar ik niets tegen de Israëlische nationaliteit heb, integendeel ik er tamelijk trots op ben, kreeg ik dus een Israëlische paspoort.
Een jaar later, toen ik mijn Nederlandse paspoort wou verlengen, kwamen ze op de Nederlandse Ambassadee in Tel Aviv, tot de ontdekking dat ik ook eenIsraëlischh paspoort had, direct werd mijn Nederlandse paspoort ongeldig verklaart, en sinds die dag ben ik dus volbloed allochtoon.
Volgens de Nederlandse wet, mag men geen dubbele Nationaliteit hebben, alleen maar als de plaatselijke wet het afzeggen van de lokale nationaliteit verbied, zoals bijvoorbeeld de Amerikaanse regering, dan mag je je Nederlandse paspoort behouden.
Opmerkelijk is het feit dat toen ik een jonge jongen was direct na de oorlog en natuurlijk in de oorlog, toen was ik ook iets anders, ik was toen een Joden jongetje, die tijdens de Moffen geen recht op leven had, en daarna, nooit als vol werd herkent, daar de kinderen van mijn leeftijd geen idee hadden wat Joden waren, of waarom we dus opgejaagd en vermoord werden tijdens het bezet, en thuis bij hun geen uitleg wed gegeven, bleven wij vreemde eendjes (wat is het vandaag met eenden).
Ik weet dat een keer door een stelletje kwajongens als Rot Jood ben uit gemaakt, en toen ik niet reageerde, zijn ze iemand anders gaan uitschelden. Ik begreep het gedeelte van Jood, maar waarom rot jood, brillejood, voddenjood zou ik begrijpen,maar rot jood.
Ik moet bekennen dat na de oorlog was er bijna geen openlijke antisemitisme, want als ik eerder heb geschreven,mijn mislukte afkomst kan niet uit mijn gezicht te lezen zijn, en werd ik als gewoon geaccepteerd. Mijn beste vrienden waren katholiek, en gingen net als ik naar Zondag school, ik om Joodse en hun om Katholieke dingen te leren, en middags waren we alles vergeten, en speelde we ridders of cowboys.
Ik ben benieuwd dat als ik (en maken jullie geen zorgen, want dat gebeurt niet, naar Nederland zou willen emigreren, zou ik dan bang moeten zijn voor Meneer Wilders, en zijn partij, of zou ik kunnen onderduiken als pseudo autochtoon,
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Didn't Shakespeare ask, what is in a name?
Didn't Shakespeare ask, what is in a name?
By David Verveer
Finally the first wise decision, in the 100 day old Bibi's coalition government, now that Don Katz de la Mancha instructed to erase all road signs of Arab place names. You realize the terrible confusion of the Arab visitors and tourists, following road signs, seeing El Kotz has just disappeared and a new site of Jerusalem has been build by those Zionists.
Let us ignore the minor problems of the Israeli road system, like the great number of casualties due to bad roads and lack in funds, can you imagine something more worthy that changing road signs. I hope when they are going to execute this urgent task, they will also change the signs stating Herzliyya, (Herzlia), Ranannah, (Raanana) etc., as they are looking ridiculous in the eyes of the English readers, but remember the signage makers are paid by the number of letters.
Another samples are Akko (Accra), Ceasariah (Keasariah), I wonder what will be decided on Haifa (Chaifa) or Kfar Saba (Kefar Sava), it will be interesting, confusing and costly, but well worth it, money well spend, we will show them who is the boss, Jabotinski would have been proud of his disciple.
I read somewhere that Minister Katz decided also to continue the railway to Elath, even though, financially this is considered a waste of money, but like a great leader before him, Herod the Great, he will be remembered for his great construction works.
Why in actual fact we do not call Katz, Mr Cohen Tsedek, or Potz when he disagrees that Jerusalem is named by Arabs el Kotz.
By David Verveer
Finally the first wise decision, in the 100 day old Bibi's coalition government, now that Don Katz de la Mancha instructed to erase all road signs of Arab place names. You realize the terrible confusion of the Arab visitors and tourists, following road signs, seeing El Kotz has just disappeared and a new site of Jerusalem has been build by those Zionists.
Let us ignore the minor problems of the Israeli road system, like the great number of casualties due to bad roads and lack in funds, can you imagine something more worthy that changing road signs. I hope when they are going to execute this urgent task, they will also change the signs stating Herzliyya, (Herzlia), Ranannah, (Raanana) etc., as they are looking ridiculous in the eyes of the English readers, but remember the signage makers are paid by the number of letters.
Another samples are Akko (Accra), Ceasariah (Keasariah), I wonder what will be decided on Haifa (Chaifa) or Kfar Saba (Kefar Sava), it will be interesting, confusing and costly, but well worth it, money well spend, we will show them who is the boss, Jabotinski would have been proud of his disciple.
I read somewhere that Minister Katz decided also to continue the railway to Elath, even though, financially this is considered a waste of money, but like a great leader before him, Herod the Great, he will be remembered for his great construction works.
Why in actual fact we do not call Katz, Mr Cohen Tsedek, or Potz when he disagrees that Jerusalem is named by Arabs el Kotz.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
the world and grandfather's village
The World and my Grandfather's village
By David Verveer
The title of this post might indicate something entirely different than what it really means. I live in a town (about 90.000 inhabitants) in the Israeli coastal Sharon plain, with the romantic name of Kfar Saba (Grandfather's village). The real origin of the name is unknown, but it was already mentioned with this name during the Roman and Byzantine periods, some historians claim that it originates from a Saba clan which lived in the area, but according my grandchildren, Kfar Saba is named Grandfather's village because their grandfather lives there, and whom am I to argue with them.
The site of our town has strategic value, as it was one of the caravan stops on the ancient Spice road to the Far East. The traders would arrive in Egypt and follow the coastal road, and turn inland taking the Salt Valley road, where now the towns of Zichron Yaacov / Furadis are. This coastal road was a small passable strip between the coastal swamps and the Shomron hills. Not only traders use this road but also armies conquering and fighting forces of the Egyptians, the Syrians, the Arabs, Romans, Crusaders and anybody involved in the region.
A Chan - ruins of a hostel from the Byzantine period can be seen, just outside Kfar Saba in an Arab village name Jaljuliah, apparently using the caravans for refreshing horses and getting fresh provisions.
This ancient trader's road became also the green border, after Israel's war of independence, and today is the border between the Palestinian West Bank and Israel.
The towns Qualquilia and Kfar Saba are and were neighbors, today divided by a high wall, as during the second Intifada, Kfar Saba suffered severely from terror acts by Qualquilians.
Kfar Saba is neighboring in the west with Jewish Raanana, and in the north with the Israeli Arab Triangle of a cluster of Arabic villages and towns. To the south we find Jaljuliah, mentioned before, which is the Biblical Gilgal haSharon and the Jewish town Hod hasharon. Kfar Saba is only 15 kilometers from the sea, and the area can be considered the smallest strip of Israel. The distance to Tel Aviv, the commercial capital of Israel is also around 15 Km, this explains the main function of Kfar Saba, as middle class home for people working in the Tel Aviv region.
As I mentioned before, Kfar Saba is nearly surrounded by Arab towns and villages, and provides services (administrative, health, educational and of course shopping) to a wide region of central Israel. Even though, we do not talk about it too much, integration of Israeli Arabs is complete, they sell in shops and malls, and they work at the post office or any other service in town, they work at the Meir hospital as doctors, nurses and medical staff, without any discrimination or racist problems, even not during hectic war times, such as the Gaza offensive, a few months back. I failed to mention that the Palestinian Arabs from the region do most of their shopping in Kfar Saba, and many Kfar Saba citizens go to the Arab towns in order to buy cheaper vegetable and fruits, get their cars fixed or go to dentists, who charge much less than their Jewish counterparts in Kfar Saba.
I don't claim, Kfar Saba is trouble free, we suffer still from car thefts from West Bank criminals, however since the border dividing wall, and it is less often.
In actual fact, even though, a border and wall divide us from Qualquiliah, there is much cooperation between the two towns, with its mayors meeting often in order to discuss neighborhood problems and actions.
Please note, the town Kfar Saba is not built on Arab owned land but was bought during the Ottoman and Mandate period by the Lord Rothschild foundation. The Arabs in the area mostly remained there during the War of Independence, and still live at the same place in relative prosperity, (not withstanding local financial municipal problems, due to failure in getting their citizens to pay their taxes).
When I read in foreign newspapers about the problems and discrimination between Arabs and Jews in Israel, I wonder if we live on another planet and the Israel mentioned in their reports is another place, dark and cruel. As I have lived in many places on our globe, I dare to claim that discrimination in Israel is much less than for example London, Antwerp, Amsterdam, Berlin or Paris.
I think that the foreign press is confusing the environment in Gaza or the West Bank with that of Israel, indeed, there is still a conflict going on, 5 minutes away from Kfar Saba, were Hamas and Fatah fighters kill each other and attack Israeli troops in name of Allah, which you might call occupation, true that extremists settlers behave as dictators in the territories, which we try, not always very successfully, to curb, but that is a temporary situation, as I hope and presume that both forced agreements and pressure from the U.S. and E.U. will solve these disputes. I don't try to white wash the deeds of some of my country men, I am against colonizing, but European opinions claiming massacre and land theft and other war crimes is far from the truth and unfair to the Israeli, remember all wars in the region were instigated by the Arab countries or terrorists organizations, please take in account, Israel can not afford to lose a war, we have nowhere to go, other than drowning in the sea, as some of our enemies still have written in their manifest.
By David Verveer
The title of this post might indicate something entirely different than what it really means. I live in a town (about 90.000 inhabitants) in the Israeli coastal Sharon plain, with the romantic name of Kfar Saba (Grandfather's village). The real origin of the name is unknown, but it was already mentioned with this name during the Roman and Byzantine periods, some historians claim that it originates from a Saba clan which lived in the area, but according my grandchildren, Kfar Saba is named Grandfather's village because their grandfather lives there, and whom am I to argue with them.
The site of our town has strategic value, as it was one of the caravan stops on the ancient Spice road to the Far East. The traders would arrive in Egypt and follow the coastal road, and turn inland taking the Salt Valley road, where now the towns of Zichron Yaacov / Furadis are. This coastal road was a small passable strip between the coastal swamps and the Shomron hills. Not only traders use this road but also armies conquering and fighting forces of the Egyptians, the Syrians, the Arabs, Romans, Crusaders and anybody involved in the region.
A Chan - ruins of a hostel from the Byzantine period can be seen, just outside Kfar Saba in an Arab village name Jaljuliah, apparently using the caravans for refreshing horses and getting fresh provisions.
This ancient trader's road became also the green border, after Israel's war of independence, and today is the border between the Palestinian West Bank and Israel.
The towns Qualquilia and Kfar Saba are and were neighbors, today divided by a high wall, as during the second Intifada, Kfar Saba suffered severely from terror acts by Qualquilians.
Kfar Saba is neighboring in the west with Jewish Raanana, and in the north with the Israeli Arab Triangle of a cluster of Arabic villages and towns. To the south we find Jaljuliah, mentioned before, which is the Biblical Gilgal haSharon and the Jewish town Hod hasharon. Kfar Saba is only 15 kilometers from the sea, and the area can be considered the smallest strip of Israel. The distance to Tel Aviv, the commercial capital of Israel is also around 15 Km, this explains the main function of Kfar Saba, as middle class home for people working in the Tel Aviv region.
As I mentioned before, Kfar Saba is nearly surrounded by Arab towns and villages, and provides services (administrative, health, educational and of course shopping) to a wide region of central Israel. Even though, we do not talk about it too much, integration of Israeli Arabs is complete, they sell in shops and malls, and they work at the post office or any other service in town, they work at the Meir hospital as doctors, nurses and medical staff, without any discrimination or racist problems, even not during hectic war times, such as the Gaza offensive, a few months back. I failed to mention that the Palestinian Arabs from the region do most of their shopping in Kfar Saba, and many Kfar Saba citizens go to the Arab towns in order to buy cheaper vegetable and fruits, get their cars fixed or go to dentists, who charge much less than their Jewish counterparts in Kfar Saba.
I don't claim, Kfar Saba is trouble free, we suffer still from car thefts from West Bank criminals, however since the border dividing wall, and it is less often.
In actual fact, even though, a border and wall divide us from Qualquiliah, there is much cooperation between the two towns, with its mayors meeting often in order to discuss neighborhood problems and actions.
Please note, the town Kfar Saba is not built on Arab owned land but was bought during the Ottoman and Mandate period by the Lord Rothschild foundation. The Arabs in the area mostly remained there during the War of Independence, and still live at the same place in relative prosperity, (not withstanding local financial municipal problems, due to failure in getting their citizens to pay their taxes).
When I read in foreign newspapers about the problems and discrimination between Arabs and Jews in Israel, I wonder if we live on another planet and the Israel mentioned in their reports is another place, dark and cruel. As I have lived in many places on our globe, I dare to claim that discrimination in Israel is much less than for example London, Antwerp, Amsterdam, Berlin or Paris.
I think that the foreign press is confusing the environment in Gaza or the West Bank with that of Israel, indeed, there is still a conflict going on, 5 minutes away from Kfar Saba, were Hamas and Fatah fighters kill each other and attack Israeli troops in name of Allah, which you might call occupation, true that extremists settlers behave as dictators in the territories, which we try, not always very successfully, to curb, but that is a temporary situation, as I hope and presume that both forced agreements and pressure from the U.S. and E.U. will solve these disputes. I don't try to white wash the deeds of some of my country men, I am against colonizing, but European opinions claiming massacre and land theft and other war crimes is far from the truth and unfair to the Israeli, remember all wars in the region were instigated by the Arab countries or terrorists organizations, please take in account, Israel can not afford to lose a war, we have nowhere to go, other than drowning in the sea, as some of our enemies still have written in their manifest.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
The world and my Grandfather's village
The title of this post might indicate something entirely different than what it really means. I live in a town (about 90.000 inhabitants) in the Israeli coastal Sharon plain, with the romantic name of Kfar Saba (Grandfather's village). The real origin of the name is unknown, but it was already mentioned with this name during the Roman and Byzantine periods, some historians claim that it originates from a Saba clan which lived in the area, but according my grandchildren, Kfar Saba is named Grandfather's village because their grandfather lives there, and whom am I to argue with them.
The site of our town has strategic value, as it was one of the caravan stops on the ancient Spice road to the Far East. The traders would arrive in Egypt and follow the coastal road, and turn inland taking the Salt Valley road, where now the towns of Zichron Yaacov / Furadis are. This coastal road was a small passable strip between the coastal swamps and the Shomron hills. Not only traders use this road but also armies conquering and fighting forces of the Egyptians, the Syrians, the Arabs, Romans, Crusaders and anybody involved in the region.
A Chan - ruins of a hostel from the Byzantine period can be seen, just outside Kfar Saba in an Arab village name Jaljuliah, apparently using the caravans for refreshing horses and getting fresh provisions.
This ancient trader's road became also the green border, after Israel's war of independence, and today is the border between the Palestinian West Bank and Israel.
The towns Qualquilia and Kfar Saba are and were neighbors, today divided by a high wall, as during the second Intifada, Kfar Saba suffered severely from terror acts by Qualquilians.
Kfar Saba is neighboring in the west with Jewish Raanana, and in the north with the Israeli Arab Triangle of a cluster of Arabic villages and towns. To the south we find Jaljuliah, mentioned before, which is the Biblical Gilgal haSharon and the Jewish town Hod hasharon. Kfar Saba is only 15 kilometers from the sea, and the area can be considered the smallest strip of Israel. The distance to Tel Aviv, the commercial capital of Israel is also around 15 Km, this explains the main function of Kfar Saba, as middle class home for people working in the Tel Aviv region.
As I mentioned before, Kfar Saba is nearly surrounded by Arab towns and villages, and provides services (administrative, health, educational and of course shopping) to a wide region of central Israel. Even though, we do not talk about it too much, integration of Israeli Arabs is complete, they sell in shops and malls, and they work at the post office or any other service in town, they work at the Meir hospital as doctors, nurses and medical staff, without any discrimination or racist problems, even not during hectic war times, such as the Gaza offensive, a few months back. I failed to mention that the Palestinian Arabs from the region do most of their shopping in Kfar Saba, and many Kfar Saba citizens go to the Arab towns in order to buy cheaper vegetable and fruits, get their cars fixed or go to dentists, who charge much less than their Jewish counterparts in Kfar Saba.
I don't claim, Kfar Saba is trouble free, we suffer still from car thefts from West Bank criminals, however since the border dividing wall, and it is less often.
In actual fact, even though, a border and wall divide us from Qualquiliah, there is much cooperation between the two towns, with its mayors meeting often in order to discuss neighborhood problems and actions.
Please note, the town Kfar Saba is not built on Arab owned land but was bought during the Ottoman and Mandate period by the Lord Rothschild foundation. The Arabs in the area mostly remained there during the War of Independence, and still live at the same place in relative prosperity, (not withstanding local financial municipal problems, due to failure in getting their citizens to pay their taxes).
When I read in foreign newspapers about the problems and discrimination between Arabs and Jews in Israel, I wonder if we live on another planet and the Israel mentioned in their reports is another place, dark and cruel. As I have lived in many places on our globe, I dare to claim that discrimination in Israel is much less than for example London, Antwerp, Amsterdam, Berlin or Paris.
I think that the foreign press is confusing the environment in Gaza or the West Bank with that of Israel, indeed, there is still a conflict going on, 5 minutes away from Kfar Saba, were Hamas and Fatah fighters kill each other and attack Israeli troops in name of Allah, which you might call occupation, true that extremists settlers behave as dictators in the territories, which we try, not always very successfully, to curb, but that is a temporary situation, as I hope and presume that both forced agreements and pressure from the U.S. and E.U. will solve these disputes. I don't try to white wash the deeds of some of my country men, I am against colonizing, but European opinions claiming massacre and land theft and other war crimes is far from the truth and unfair to the Israeli, remember all wars in the region were instigated by the Arab countries or terrorists organizations, please take in account, Israel can not afford to lose a war, we have nowhere to go, other than drowning in the sea, as some of our enemies still have written in their manifest.
The site of our town has strategic value, as it was one of the caravan stops on the ancient Spice road to the Far East. The traders would arrive in Egypt and follow the coastal road, and turn inland taking the Salt Valley road, where now the towns of Zichron Yaacov / Furadis are. This coastal road was a small passable strip between the coastal swamps and the Shomron hills. Not only traders use this road but also armies conquering and fighting forces of the Egyptians, the Syrians, the Arabs, Romans, Crusaders and anybody involved in the region.
A Chan - ruins of a hostel from the Byzantine period can be seen, just outside Kfar Saba in an Arab village name Jaljuliah, apparently using the caravans for refreshing horses and getting fresh provisions.
This ancient trader's road became also the green border, after Israel's war of independence, and today is the border between the Palestinian West Bank and Israel.
The towns Qualquilia and Kfar Saba are and were neighbors, today divided by a high wall, as during the second Intifada, Kfar Saba suffered severely from terror acts by Qualquilians.
Kfar Saba is neighboring in the west with Jewish Raanana, and in the north with the Israeli Arab Triangle of a cluster of Arabic villages and towns. To the south we find Jaljuliah, mentioned before, which is the Biblical Gilgal haSharon and the Jewish town Hod hasharon. Kfar Saba is only 15 kilometers from the sea, and the area can be considered the smallest strip of Israel. The distance to Tel Aviv, the commercial capital of Israel is also around 15 Km, this explains the main function of Kfar Saba, as middle class home for people working in the Tel Aviv region.
As I mentioned before, Kfar Saba is nearly surrounded by Arab towns and villages, and provides services (administrative, health, educational and of course shopping) to a wide region of central Israel. Even though, we do not talk about it too much, integration of Israeli Arabs is complete, they sell in shops and malls, and they work at the post office or any other service in town, they work at the Meir hospital as doctors, nurses and medical staff, without any discrimination or racist problems, even not during hectic war times, such as the Gaza offensive, a few months back. I failed to mention that the Palestinian Arabs from the region do most of their shopping in Kfar Saba, and many Kfar Saba citizens go to the Arab towns in order to buy cheaper vegetable and fruits, get their cars fixed or go to dentists, who charge much less than their Jewish counterparts in Kfar Saba.
I don't claim, Kfar Saba is trouble free, we suffer still from car thefts from West Bank criminals, however since the border dividing wall, and it is less often.
In actual fact, even though, a border and wall divide us from Qualquiliah, there is much cooperation between the two towns, with its mayors meeting often in order to discuss neighborhood problems and actions.
Please note, the town Kfar Saba is not built on Arab owned land but was bought during the Ottoman and Mandate period by the Lord Rothschild foundation. The Arabs in the area mostly remained there during the War of Independence, and still live at the same place in relative prosperity, (not withstanding local financial municipal problems, due to failure in getting their citizens to pay their taxes).
When I read in foreign newspapers about the problems and discrimination between Arabs and Jews in Israel, I wonder if we live on another planet and the Israel mentioned in their reports is another place, dark and cruel. As I have lived in many places on our globe, I dare to claim that discrimination in Israel is much less than for example London, Antwerp, Amsterdam, Berlin or Paris.
I think that the foreign press is confusing the environment in Gaza or the West Bank with that of Israel, indeed, there is still a conflict going on, 5 minutes away from Kfar Saba, were Hamas and Fatah fighters kill each other and attack Israeli troops in name of Allah, which you might call occupation, true that extremists settlers behave as dictators in the territories, which we try, not always very successfully, to curb, but that is a temporary situation, as I hope and presume that both forced agreements and pressure from the U.S. and E.U. will solve these disputes. I don't try to white wash the deeds of some of my country men, I am against colonizing, but European opinions claiming massacre and land theft and other war crimes is far from the truth and unfair to the Israeli, remember all wars in the region were instigated by the Arab countries or terrorists organizations, please take in account, Israel can not afford to lose a war, we have nowhere to go, other than drowning in the sea, as some of our enemies still have written in their manifest.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
The Israeli Luftgescheft multipurpose patch
The Israeli luftgescheft multipurpose patch
By David Verveer
I like to make from the beginning, I am not talking about the invention of the 21st century, the heart attack prevention patch that indicates that the wearer will get a heart-attack 30 minutes before it happens, I hope it doesn't work, as who wants a heart attack? No I am dealing with a multipurpose plaster, which has an USB outlet, which one can connect to the PC on one side, and the plaster on the other side.
This multi-purpose patch is glued to the upper belly, and will report the blood flow of the patient, heart speed, and other medical facts of the wearer. This invention was developed by a team of scientists, and financed by several inventors. A company was formed called "luftgescheft" and soon can de traded at the Tel Aviv bourse.
The inventor Dr. Chan Tarish, at a meeting with the press told the audience about the invention, how it operates and who will benefit from it. The multipurpose-patch is still in development stage, and the expected date of reaching the market will depend on getting the O.K. from the ministry of Health. The inventor warned that sudden breakdown of the system could mean two main reasons, or power failure on one side, or death of the patient., when this happens, one should not panic, but check if the PC gets it power supply, if of course the power supply is working, Hevrat Kedisha's phone number is written on the patch.
On a question of the audience, if the multipurpose patch also helps to stop smoking, the inventor showed his patch on his breast, and told the press that for reasons not clear yet, the patch gets un-comfortable hot when smoking, which made him stop, around two weeks after starting wearing the patch.
Another journalist asked if the patch works on Microsoft software or Linux, and if failing health won't interfere with the proper operation of the PC. The Inventor thought it would not affect software or hardware, but further investigation would be required.
However, he said the company is working on a disk-on-key type of device, which would be attached to the plaster, and could provide all the software of the P.C.
One of the share holders is Ezekiel the private butcher of the prime minister, who was found guilty on selling kosher meat in a non-kosher zone, and by the way, his wife Jackeline runs a beauty parlor in Jerusalem's Merhavia neighborhood, where many of the wives and partners of the MKs go for their weekly make-up.
The prime minister, when asked, told us that he does not handle the meat provision of the Prime ministers household, and that he never had laid eye on the butcher, nor was aware of his problems with the law. The police was asked to investigate these rumors, which might be related to the Dudu Topaz case.
Last news: The Albanian financing firm "the upside-down Pyramid" indicated their interest in buying 30% of Ezekiel's stock, no further information is available yet.
Monday, July 6, 2009
De Volkskrant Opinie Reacties
De Volkskrant Internet Opinie Reacties
Opinie van het publiek is erg belangrijk als toets materiaal voor de regeerders, maar ook voor de journalist, die aan de hand van de reacties kan peilen hoe de publieke opinies zijn over het onderwerp onder discussie.
Theoretisch is dit dus de beste manier om een democratische politieke opinie te formuleren, maar in mijn opinie, deze theorie werkt niet in de Nederlandse Volkskrant Opinie sectie, daar de deelnemers (een zeer beperkt groepje van schrijvers), alle opinie stukken verteren en omdraaien om over sommige hobby paaltjes te spreken, bij voorbeeld, Israël / Palestijnen, Islam in Nederland. De 2de wereld oorlog / nazie, Wilders, enz.
Of het onderwerp van het opinie stuk gaat over de kwaliteit van de verse groene haring, na ongeveer 20 to 30 reacties hebben we het weer over de bezetten gebieden van Palestina) misschien is dit een beetje overdreven, maar kijk de laatste 10 onderwerpen die behandeld zijn in de Volkskrant, en je zal zien dat men niet ge-interesseerd is op Unix Gelderse Worsten als onderwerp, maar een aanloop nodig heeft voor zijn stokpaardje. In een artikel dat heet `waar blijft Koran kritiek, de reacties gingen over, zonder enige reden naar de inhoud van de Talmoed (Joodse uitleg van de Bijbel), die ten eerste heiligste boek van de Joden werd genoemd, wat ik, zo ver ik weet, onjuist acht, daar we maar een heilig boek hebben (en de heiligheid is dubieus) en dat is de bijbel (oude testament).
Maar het artikeltje ging niet over de Talmoed of de Mishna (uitleg van de Talmoed) maar over de Koran.
Dan hebben we van die echte wijzen, die een tekst aanhalen, die door een of ander persoon is gepubliceerd met feiten die ongegrond zijn en niets hebben te maken met de werkelijkheid, maar als ze dus aangehaald worden in de reactie zijn er al twee mensen overtuigd dat dit de waarheid is, zoals bijvoorbeeld, een Washington expert in de seksualiteit van sprinkhanen schreef dat de stad Qalqiliah, in het Palestijnse gebied is omringt door een discriminatie muur, en de arme inwoners moeten door poorten om naar buiten te gaan, een verhaal, dat als ik niet in een stadje naast Qalqiliah zou wonen, 15 kilometer van de zee van daan, me tot huilen zou dwingen, maar ik ben naar mijn balkon gegaan, en heb gezien dat de schrijfster dus dubbel zag van teveel wijn, en de grens muur (die gaat op een eeuwen oude karavaan weg, die de laatste 60 jaar de groene grens was' ongeveer 5 kilometer lang is en Palestina van Israël buffers.
De leugen op zich zelf is niet erg, maar dat de persoon die dat herhaalt om een punt te maken, het kon controleren op Google Wold, of Google Search, om te weten dat dit verhaaltje is gefantaseerd, maar inderdaad helpt in de argumenten, van de ene tegen de andere.
Na drie honderd reacties, op en neer, de schrijvers gaan over naar een nieuw opinie stuk, deze keer over Wilders, zo ver ik weet een Nederlandse politicus, maar ja, dat drukt de gijn niet in, hij is anti Islam, dus gaan we weer de joden, Israël en de Holocaust er bij halen, en als ik het goed begrijp, dat Wilders een Zionistische spion is (hij is een half jaartje in Israël geweest, en zijn apartheid politiek, heeft hij in Israël geleerd).
Er zijn 4 groepen van opinies:
1 – anti Joods – Israël (von der Dunk, en aanhang) ander Joods geluid, calvinisten
2 - pro Israëli (extremisten en anti/extremisten)
3 - kofie stoel idealisten met principe
4 – niet behoren tot de drie groeperingen, maar even proberen om te laten zien dat ze het artikeltje hebben begrepen / of niet natuurlijk..
Wat ik niet begrijp is dat niemand over de Somali piraten schrijft, of over de Darfur crisis, moord en doodslag in Iran en Irak, niet te vergeten Pakistan en Afghanistan, en jongens Korea wil Japan en de USA aanvallen met nucleair wapens, de hoeren worden verdreven van de wallen, waar moeten de toeristen nu naar toe. Is het enige onderwerp interessant genoeg, Israël en de Palestijnen?
Als jullie het nog niet begrepen hebben uit de tekst, ik ben een Israëliër van oorsprong Nederlander, (naar van daag de dag Allochtoon van nationaliteit, die op zijn ouwe dag, Nederlandse kranten leest, en elke keer verbijsterd istaat, hoe de tolerante Nederlanders zijn uit gegroeid in een discriminerend volk, die zijn verleden heeft vergeten.
Mijn excuses aan mijn oud leraares, jufrouw de Vries, die probeerde mij goed Nederlands te leren, maar helaas, droevig mislukt is.
Opinie van het publiek is erg belangrijk als toets materiaal voor de regeerders, maar ook voor de journalist, die aan de hand van de reacties kan peilen hoe de publieke opinies zijn over het onderwerp onder discussie.
Theoretisch is dit dus de beste manier om een democratische politieke opinie te formuleren, maar in mijn opinie, deze theorie werkt niet in de Nederlandse Volkskrant Opinie sectie, daar de deelnemers (een zeer beperkt groepje van schrijvers), alle opinie stukken verteren en omdraaien om over sommige hobby paaltjes te spreken, bij voorbeeld, Israël / Palestijnen, Islam in Nederland. De 2de wereld oorlog / nazie, Wilders, enz.
Of het onderwerp van het opinie stuk gaat over de kwaliteit van de verse groene haring, na ongeveer 20 to 30 reacties hebben we het weer over de bezetten gebieden van Palestina) misschien is dit een beetje overdreven, maar kijk de laatste 10 onderwerpen die behandeld zijn in de Volkskrant, en je zal zien dat men niet ge-interesseerd is op Unix Gelderse Worsten als onderwerp, maar een aanloop nodig heeft voor zijn stokpaardje. In een artikel dat heet `waar blijft Koran kritiek, de reacties gingen over, zonder enige reden naar de inhoud van de Talmoed (Joodse uitleg van de Bijbel), die ten eerste heiligste boek van de Joden werd genoemd, wat ik, zo ver ik weet, onjuist acht, daar we maar een heilig boek hebben (en de heiligheid is dubieus) en dat is de bijbel (oude testament).
Maar het artikeltje ging niet over de Talmoed of de Mishna (uitleg van de Talmoed) maar over de Koran.
Dan hebben we van die echte wijzen, die een tekst aanhalen, die door een of ander persoon is gepubliceerd met feiten die ongegrond zijn en niets hebben te maken met de werkelijkheid, maar als ze dus aangehaald worden in de reactie zijn er al twee mensen overtuigd dat dit de waarheid is, zoals bijvoorbeeld, een Washington expert in de seksualiteit van sprinkhanen schreef dat de stad Qalqiliah, in het Palestijnse gebied is omringt door een discriminatie muur, en de arme inwoners moeten door poorten om naar buiten te gaan, een verhaal, dat als ik niet in een stadje naast Qalqiliah zou wonen, 15 kilometer van de zee van daan, me tot huilen zou dwingen, maar ik ben naar mijn balkon gegaan, en heb gezien dat de schrijfster dus dubbel zag van teveel wijn, en de grens muur (die gaat op een eeuwen oude karavaan weg, die de laatste 60 jaar de groene grens was' ongeveer 5 kilometer lang is en Palestina van Israël buffers.
De leugen op zich zelf is niet erg, maar dat de persoon die dat herhaalt om een punt te maken, het kon controleren op Google Wold, of Google Search, om te weten dat dit verhaaltje is gefantaseerd, maar inderdaad helpt in de argumenten, van de ene tegen de andere.
Na drie honderd reacties, op en neer, de schrijvers gaan over naar een nieuw opinie stuk, deze keer over Wilders, zo ver ik weet een Nederlandse politicus, maar ja, dat drukt de gijn niet in, hij is anti Islam, dus gaan we weer de joden, Israël en de Holocaust er bij halen, en als ik het goed begrijp, dat Wilders een Zionistische spion is (hij is een half jaartje in Israël geweest, en zijn apartheid politiek, heeft hij in Israël geleerd).
Er zijn 4 groepen van opinies:
1 – anti Joods – Israël (von der Dunk, en aanhang) ander Joods geluid, calvinisten
2 - pro Israëli (extremisten en anti/extremisten)
3 - kofie stoel idealisten met principe
4 – niet behoren tot de drie groeperingen, maar even proberen om te laten zien dat ze het artikeltje hebben begrepen / of niet natuurlijk..
Wat ik niet begrijp is dat niemand over de Somali piraten schrijft, of over de Darfur crisis, moord en doodslag in Iran en Irak, niet te vergeten Pakistan en Afghanistan, en jongens Korea wil Japan en de USA aanvallen met nucleair wapens, de hoeren worden verdreven van de wallen, waar moeten de toeristen nu naar toe. Is het enige onderwerp interessant genoeg, Israël en de Palestijnen?
Als jullie het nog niet begrepen hebben uit de tekst, ik ben een Israëliër van oorsprong Nederlander, (naar van daag de dag Allochtoon van nationaliteit, die op zijn ouwe dag, Nederlandse kranten leest, en elke keer verbijsterd istaat, hoe de tolerante Nederlanders zijn uit gegroeid in een discriminerend volk, die zijn verleden heeft vergeten.
Mijn excuses aan mijn oud leraares, jufrouw de Vries, die probeerde mij goed Nederlands te leren, maar helaas, droevig mislukt is.
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