By
Mike Packer
I haven't posted anything for a while because whatever I wanted to say was being covered by so many other people a whole lot better at it than me so I left it up to them.
Saying that, there is something that's riling me at the moment and that's the attempts by the Arabs to delegitimize and erase any trace of the religion of my people! The first monotheistic religion that has been around for five thousand years and gave birth to two others.
.Those two others are Christianity and Islam. Christianity evolved from the teachings of a Jew from Galilee into the faith that bears His name today. The second religion was, basically, stolen from us 3400 years after we were firmly established in our faith. My accusation of theft is based on the fact that the founder of this religion (he who must not be named) in his travels around the Middle East in his younger days was exposed to both of the monotheistic religions in the region at the time. Being on the border of insanity as he was he decided to form his own religion but came to the conclusion that to call himself G-d would bring ridicule upon himself he decided to call himself a prophet. He chose the Jewish faith as the basis for his dogma and usurped all out prophets and teachers and rewrote the bible to his own liking.
Over the eons Christianity has evolved into the religion of "Peace", "Love your neighbour as yourself", "blessed are the meek", etc. whereas Islam has still a long way to go to educate its followers in what a tolerant religion and a "religion of Peace" actually is. It has to learn that in this day and age that marauding gangs of religious fanatics that try and coerce people into converting to their religion is not accepted anymore. The dark ages have long gone the way of the Dodo and they should try and get on to the same page as the rest of us.
In Muslim countries other religions are barely tolerated if not illegal. Saudi Arabia for all its airs and graces trying to hobnob with Old World royalty or cultured scions of high finance should be made to remember that 80 years ago they were dirt poor goat farmers living in tents and no amount of money will take the smell out of their clothes. But, lo, along comes oil and the western world is brown nosing for all it's worth.
Has all this money bought any tolerance? No, on the contrary, it has allowed the goat herders to buy modern weapons and pursue their intentions with gusto and the EU, Russia and the US are applauding them from the wings! One would have thought that with western money a touch of culture would transfuse into the "Religion of Peace". But, no, as any Christian who dares to bring a bible into Saudi Arabia will soon find out or any Bhuddist in Afghanistan, or Hindu in Pakistan, or Jew in the land of their forefathers.
Smoothstone blog wrote the following:
The Obama administration criticized Israel Wednesday for designating two Jewish holy sites supposedly on Palestinian territory as Israel national heritage sites but the dumb bastards in the Obama administration seem to forget that Rachel’s Tomb and the Tomb of the Patriarchs are indigenous to the Jewish people and were there thousands of years before the fabricated “Palestinians” fraudulently claimed the territory to be theirs. “Hebron” is Jewish. It’s a Biblical town. It is Israel’s most ancient city, resting place of Abraham, Issac, Jacob, Sarah, Rebecca and Leah, site of the anointment of King David and the tombs of Jesse, his father, and Ruth, and until 1929, when Arabs slaughtered 67 innocent Jews while praying in their synagogue, had a significant Jewish population. Those 67 Jews were slaughtered for no other reason other than that they were Jews and mind you, that was 38 years before the “occupation”. For Muslims and their apologists in the White House, history starts anew each day especially when it favors the fabricated “poorpalestinianpeepull”. Sad, isn’t it, that the Arabs, who control more land than any other ethnic group on the planet besides the Russians, are simply unwilling to share even the tiniest sliver of the Middle East with the Jews. Equally sad, is the United States telling Israel, a sovereign and legitimate nation, what it can or cannot do within its own borders.
The names mentioned above Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, Rebecca, Leah, Jesse, Ruth, are all Jewish patriarchs and matriarchs who died thousands of years before the birth of He Who Must Not Be Named and have no connection with Islam whatsoever except for the fact that they were stolen from our bible. Another religious crime is the fact that the Arabs posing as a non-existant people called "palestinians" have been trying to erase all evidence of Jewish presence on the Temple Mount where the first and second Jewish temples were built and destroyed thousands of years before the birth of Islam and the Arabs.
The Arab claim to Jerusalem is false. It was never an Arab city nor the capital of an Arab state nor is it really a true holy city to Islam. The Jewish religion considers Jerusalem the central point of its faith, it is towards Jerusalem we pray five times a day. At all Jewish weddings the words "if I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its cunning" and at this time of year at the end of our Passover meal we recite the words "next year in Jerusalem the rebuilt". Jerusalem is the Capital of the State of Israel and the recent, ugly, insulting pressure being applied on us to relinquish our beloved city into the hands of Arabs who are intent on finishing the Third Reich's work is intolerable.
To add insult to injury todays newsletter from Arutz Sheva (Israel National News) has the following:
A senior PA official claims that the Obama administration backs pro-PA rallies in Jerusalem. The claim was reported by investigative journalist Aaron Klein of WorldNetDaily. According to the official, United States diplomats have encouraged Arabs to protest in parts of Israel's capital in order to pressure Israel to evacuate neighborhoods. The US administration does not recognize Israel's claim to key parts of the capital, including much of eastern and northern Jerusalem as well as the Old City and City of David.
So, I ask you, is this the act of a friend? What right does the current US Administration have in trying to alter the status of our Capital city?
I would like to remind you, dear reader, that between the years 1948-1967 the eastern part of Jerusalem was occupied, illegally by the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan during a war of aggression against the fledgling State of Israel. During that occupation the most Holy sites for two of the three monotheistic religions were restricted areas in violation of the UN Mandate for Palestine. In 1967 during the Six Day War Israel reclaimed the city and opened the religious sites for all religions to worship freely including Islam.
If only that freedom was reciprocal. The Jewish worshippers at the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron under the authority of the PA is constantly being harassed and after the Israeli Government declared the Tomb a Jewish Heritage site Moslems started rioting as they did when the rebuilt Hurva Synagogue in the Old City of Jerusalem (destroyed by the Jordanians during their occupation) or as they do every Friday when Jews attempt to pray on the Temple Mount which the Muslims deem verboten to Jews.
So why is it that our "friends" in Europe and the United States find it necessary to delegitimize our desire to practice our faith in our homeland? Is it because deep down inside they are jealous that after five thousand years our faith is still going strong? Do they find that the ghetto Jew shouldn't be protecting himself like he didn't in WWII?
Well, my friends, I have one thing to say; we are here and here we'll stay. We have endured worse hardships than what you are throwing at us now and have survived.
Read more!
Friday, April 2, 2010
Friday, August 28, 2009
Jordan's purge
by
Mike Packer
Debkafile has a new post today (here) about King Abdullah of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. He has decided to purge his army and government of "Palestinians". This is surely a sign that he is very afraid of the "Palestinian" element in his country where they constitute over 50% of the total population.
In my opinion this is just another form of pressure on Israel to create a second "Palestinian" state in the Middle East, the first being the Kingdom of Jordan itself. It is apparent that the Arab strategy is to force the International Community to believe that the "Palestinians" have nowhere to go which is very far from the truth as most "Palestinians" are originally from the states in the area neighboring Israel such as Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and as far away as Morocco and Algeria. Abdullah's attempt to keep the "Palestinians" as perpetual "refugees" is just a continuation of the status quo that started in the 1930's and continues to this day. Not only has he decided to purge the army and government but he has decided to rescind the Jordanian citizenship that was granted to the "Palestinians" that moved to Jordan since 1948.
Israel must reconsider its "peace" treaty with Jordan and take steps in deporting all Jordanian citizens from land under Israeli jurisdiction. Maybe this threat will change Abdullah's mind, although I doubt it, and put the pressure on this upstart king into accepting the fact that his country was created for the specific purpose of ensuring a state for the population that was there at the time of the formation of the Hashemite Kingdom and not only for the population of Beduins that the Hashemites imported to bolster their kingdom.
Its about time that Abdullah realized that his Kingdom is still in existence only because Israel has always been there to protect it as it did with his father and the formation of a "Palestinian" state in the "West Bank" is his worst nightmare. Read more!
Mike Packer
Debkafile has a new post today (here) about King Abdullah of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. He has decided to purge his army and government of "Palestinians". This is surely a sign that he is very afraid of the "Palestinian" element in his country where they constitute over 50% of the total population.
In my opinion this is just another form of pressure on Israel to create a second "Palestinian" state in the Middle East, the first being the Kingdom of Jordan itself. It is apparent that the Arab strategy is to force the International Community to believe that the "Palestinians" have nowhere to go which is very far from the truth as most "Palestinians" are originally from the states in the area neighboring Israel such as Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and as far away as Morocco and Algeria. Abdullah's attempt to keep the "Palestinians" as perpetual "refugees" is just a continuation of the status quo that started in the 1930's and continues to this day. Not only has he decided to purge the army and government but he has decided to rescind the Jordanian citizenship that was granted to the "Palestinians" that moved to Jordan since 1948.
Israel must reconsider its "peace" treaty with Jordan and take steps in deporting all Jordanian citizens from land under Israeli jurisdiction. Maybe this threat will change Abdullah's mind, although I doubt it, and put the pressure on this upstart king into accepting the fact that his country was created for the specific purpose of ensuring a state for the population that was there at the time of the formation of the Hashemite Kingdom and not only for the population of Beduins that the Hashemites imported to bolster their kingdom.
Its about time that Abdullah realized that his Kingdom is still in existence only because Israel has always been there to protect it as it did with his father and the formation of a "Palestinian" state in the "West Bank" is his worst nightmare. Read more!
Thursday, August 13, 2009
J'Accuse
By
Mike Packer
I was perusing the JP online edition the other day when an article caught my attention.My blood pressure probably rose by about 20 points necessitating the swallowing of a pill to rectify the situation. This brought on a great desire to write this essay.
I am a British citizen by birthright and have experienced British ineptitude in a number of countries spanning two continents. This instance was the last straw.
The British have a lot of damn gall to meddle in other peoples affairs and I accuse their governments for the ills that curse Africa, the Middle East, The Indian sub-continent and everywhere else that they have had their dirty little fingers. Take my former country of abode, Zimbabwe, as an example.
The white population of that former British colony took matters into their own hands when Britain tried to force black majority rule. They declared unilateral independence and tried to stave off what eventually occurred. Britain forced International economic sanctions on the government of Rhodesia and supported the terrorist organization run by the Marxist extremist Robert Mugabe. Mugabe eventually became the President of what became Zimbabwe and proceeded to destroy the country economically. Today with the highest inflation of any country in the world the worst health of any country in Africa, Zimbabwe is the legacy of British stupidity and is in dire straits unless it is rescued and preferably not by Britain.
Now take my present country of abode, Israel:
In the early 1920's the League of Nations, in good faith, awarded the British government (HMG) the Mandate for Palestine “Whereas recognition has been given to the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine and to the grounds for reconstituting their national home in that country.”. The British accepted that mandate and proceeded to violate its purpose almost from the outset.
Article 6 of the Mandate reads:
"The Administration of Palestine, while ensuring that the rights and position of other sections of the population are not prejudiced, shall facilitate Jewish immigration under suitable conditions and shall encourage, in co-operation with the Jewish agency referred to in Article 4, close settlement by Jews on the land, including State lands and waste lands not required for public purposes."
The British proceeded to apply a quota on Jewish immigration in violation of the Mandate but, surprisingly, Arab immigration grew in leaps and bounds. From 1922 to 1944 the Jewish population grew from 83,000 to 553,000 while the Arab population increased from 670,000 to 1.2 million. The British government explained the Arab increase to "natural" causes.....talk about rabbits! I defy any nation to increase its population 100% by "natural" means in 20 years!
In further obscene violation of the Mandate Britain gave 75% of Palestine to the Hashemite family with total disregard of Article 5:
"The Mandatory shall be responsible for seeing that no Palestine territory shall be ceded or leased to, or in any way placed under the control of the Government of any foreign Power."
This was, perhaps, a boon to the fledgling Jewish State as the majority of the population of what became the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan was, in fact, "Palestinian" thus making the claim for a "two state solution" to the Arab/Israeli conflict just another excuse to torment Israel and Israelis.
During the period 1922-1947 hardly a word was heard from the League of Nations or its inheritor the United Nations over Britain's blatant violations.
I accuse HMG as an accessory before and after the fact of the Holocaust and a direct contributor in the deaths of millions of our parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, brothers and sisters who perished in the Nazi camps because HMG refused to allow them to immigrate into the Jewish homeland as mandated by the International community of 1922. HMG proved to be as virulently antisemitic as the Nazi government of the 1930's and 40's and was aided and abetted by the Arab world and particularly by the forefathers of the "Palestinian" people led by the British appointed Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin el Husseini.
When the time came for HMG to abandon the Mandate and run with their tails between their legs they added insult to injury by handing over many strategic positions in the country to the Arabs. During the war of Independence in 1948 the immigrants that finally arrived in the Jewish homeland were being conscripted into the army the minute they stepped foot on Israeli soil. They went willingly and not a few to their deaths within 24 hours of arrival. All this in the shadow of the Holocaust and after living in "displaced persons" camps in the aftermath of the second world war.
So, I say to HMG; get your dirty little noses out of our business, we will build houses for Jews anywhere we want in the area that was returned to us after 2000 years of abandonment. None of your nefarious machinations will prevent it and your flagrant interferance in our internal affairs is an insult to the memory of all those millions that you, so willingly, aided in their demise.
. Read more!
Mike Packer
I was perusing the JP online edition the other day when an article caught my attention.My blood pressure probably rose by about 20 points necessitating the swallowing of a pill to rectify the situation. This brought on a great desire to write this essay.
I am a British citizen by birthright and have experienced British ineptitude in a number of countries spanning two continents. This instance was the last straw.
The British have a lot of damn gall to meddle in other peoples affairs and I accuse their governments for the ills that curse Africa, the Middle East, The Indian sub-continent and everywhere else that they have had their dirty little fingers. Take my former country of abode, Zimbabwe, as an example.
The white population of that former British colony took matters into their own hands when Britain tried to force black majority rule. They declared unilateral independence and tried to stave off what eventually occurred. Britain forced International economic sanctions on the government of Rhodesia and supported the terrorist organization run by the Marxist extremist Robert Mugabe. Mugabe eventually became the President of what became Zimbabwe and proceeded to destroy the country economically. Today with the highest inflation of any country in the world the worst health of any country in Africa, Zimbabwe is the legacy of British stupidity and is in dire straits unless it is rescued and preferably not by Britain.
Now take my present country of abode, Israel:
In the early 1920's the League of Nations, in good faith, awarded the British government (HMG) the Mandate for Palestine “Whereas recognition has been given to the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine and to the grounds for reconstituting their national home in that country.”. The British accepted that mandate and proceeded to violate its purpose almost from the outset.
Article 6 of the Mandate reads:
"The Administration of Palestine, while ensuring that the rights and position of other sections of the population are not prejudiced, shall facilitate Jewish immigration under suitable conditions and shall encourage, in co-operation with the Jewish agency referred to in Article 4, close settlement by Jews on the land, including State lands and waste lands not required for public purposes."
The British proceeded to apply a quota on Jewish immigration in violation of the Mandate but, surprisingly, Arab immigration grew in leaps and bounds. From 1922 to 1944 the Jewish population grew from 83,000 to 553,000 while the Arab population increased from 670,000 to 1.2 million. The British government explained the Arab increase to "natural" causes.....talk about rabbits! I defy any nation to increase its population 100% by "natural" means in 20 years!
In further obscene violation of the Mandate Britain gave 75% of Palestine to the Hashemite family with total disregard of Article 5:
"The Mandatory shall be responsible for seeing that no Palestine territory shall be ceded or leased to, or in any way placed under the control of the Government of any foreign Power."
This was, perhaps, a boon to the fledgling Jewish State as the majority of the population of what became the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan was, in fact, "Palestinian" thus making the claim for a "two state solution" to the Arab/Israeli conflict just another excuse to torment Israel and Israelis.
During the period 1922-1947 hardly a word was heard from the League of Nations or its inheritor the United Nations over Britain's blatant violations.
I accuse HMG as an accessory before and after the fact of the Holocaust and a direct contributor in the deaths of millions of our parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, brothers and sisters who perished in the Nazi camps because HMG refused to allow them to immigrate into the Jewish homeland as mandated by the International community of 1922. HMG proved to be as virulently antisemitic as the Nazi government of the 1930's and 40's and was aided and abetted by the Arab world and particularly by the forefathers of the "Palestinian" people led by the British appointed Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin el Husseini.
When the time came for HMG to abandon the Mandate and run with their tails between their legs they added insult to injury by handing over many strategic positions in the country to the Arabs. During the war of Independence in 1948 the immigrants that finally arrived in the Jewish homeland were being conscripted into the army the minute they stepped foot on Israeli soil. They went willingly and not a few to their deaths within 24 hours of arrival. All this in the shadow of the Holocaust and after living in "displaced persons" camps in the aftermath of the second world war.
So, I say to HMG; get your dirty little noses out of our business, we will build houses for Jews anywhere we want in the area that was returned to us after 2000 years of abandonment. None of your nefarious machinations will prevent it and your flagrant interferance in our internal affairs is an insult to the memory of all those millions that you, so willingly, aided in their demise.
. Read more!
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Oppressed Majority
By
Mike Packer
My post this week is a change from my usual efforts in explaining and trying to find a meaning to the Arab/Israel conflict. Today I wish to address a civil problem that is plaguing certain areas of my country.
It is the problem of agricultural theft perpetrated, in most cases, by the Arab citizens of Israel. I would like to start by narrating to you, dear reader, two anecdotes as a background.
. The first one is personal and occurred when I was the security coordinator on the kibbutz that I live on. The security coordinator on our kibbutzim is, in comparison to small towns in rural America, the local sheriff and in accordance with the job is a member of the Border Police which is a branch of the regular Police force. The job is not full time as the incidence of crime perpetrated by kibbutz members on kibbutzim is virtually nil (zero cases in the seven years that I served) so my duties were limited to nightly patrols in the immediate area in a Police jeep accompanied by uniformed volunteers.
The area I live in is called the Jezreel Valley and is considered to be the bread basket of Israel. Apart from the usual field crops we have a large area of aquaculture where the kibbutzim in the area raise fish in intensive ponds for market.
On one particular night around 1 a.m we were surprised to see a van leaving through a gate surrounding one of the ponds in the area, finding this suspicious we gave chase in our jeep with lights flashing and sirens wailing. It took about ten minutes for the vehicle we were chasing to eventually come to a halt and in the course of the chase we could see equipment being thrown out of the windows of the van. On stopping we approached the vehicle in a calm fashion and asked the driver to open the rear of the van. He refused but we insisted that it was our right to inspect his vehicle and it would be worth his while to accommodate us. He eventually relented and walked around to the back of the vehicle, opened the door and removed a wheel wrench from a cargo pocket on the side and turned to attack me with it. A punch to the nose persuaded him to desist and he was duly arrested with his companions.
As an aside I would like to mention that the price of fish on the market in Israel (depending on the fish) for St. Peters fish, which is a local delicacy and one of the cheaper fish, is about NIS20 per kilo (about 5 bucks). The ponds can hold at harvest time about three to five tons of fish depending on the size of the pond. So the average heist in one nights work for a crew of 3 to 4 perpetrators could be in the region of a ton of fish. Not a bad nights work with a profit of 10-15000 shekels.
After arresting the suspects we walked back along the road and picked up the equipment that was strewn along the road shoulders. This was an assortment of catch nets and rubber boots which we loaded back into the truck and proceeded to accompany our suspects to the local Police station for booking.
Entering the Police station I (as arresting officer) approached the desk sergeant to make my report when the leader of the suspects started shouting at me that my life was now worthless and proceeded to threaten my death. He was immediately locked into one of the cells and the desk sergeant added the threat to the report.
The next day I was called to the regional commanders office and informed that my suspects had been released by the courts with the excuse that there was a "lack of public interest" in the case. I was surprised and asked about the threat to my life, a felony crime in Israel as I was a Policeman. He told me the judge threw it out of court because of "Police brutality" after I had struck the suspect with the wheel wrench in self defense. Needless to say I resigned from the force.
The perpetrators went on to a long life of arrests and releases. They were Arabs who lived in the area.
The second anecdote happened in one of our neighboring settlements that raises goats for milk and meat. This settlement has an Arab village neighboring it with which they have cordial relations accept for one small thing, theft of goats. The Arabs were partial to goats and over the years the losses to the Jewish community mounted up. Complaints to the Police were to no avail nobody was ever caught.
One night two members of the Jewish community were out late for one reason or another and on their way back to their homes they caught two Arab youths red handed with a couple of goats each. The two perpetrators were apprehended and knowing that Police intervention would again be to no avail the Jewish settlement members took the law into their own hands, stripped the youths naked, sprayed them with red paint and sent them home.
The families of the Arab youths complained to the Police and the courts handed down an 18 month sentence to the two Jewish goat owners.
Now, Dear Reader, you ask WTF has all this got to do with a political blog?
Well, its like this; On June 18 edition of the Hebrew weekly B'sheva published an article in which was the following:
"It is hard to imagine a lynching in Israel’s pastoral, sun drenched south - the Negev - but sheep grower Oz Davidian is alive only because he was able to break away for a few seconds from the Bedouin marauders who attacked him on his own property in broad daylight. He managed to dial the emergency hot line, causing his attackers to flee, not before they told him: “You will leave this place dead or alive. We will destroy your livelihood until you run away”. Davidian needed stitches and surgical care. The Bedouins who tried to murder him are out of jail until the case comes to court.
Two weeks ago, Davidian woke up to discover that all his sheep had disappeared. Israel’s Border Police used scouts to find where the thieves, local Bedouins, had hidden them. The 30-40 complaints he has filed in the Ofakim police station over the last two years have had no deterring effect as the police simply interrogated and then released the offenders."
The sad thing is that because of catastrophic losses and understaffed law enforcement offices a few of the Jewish farmers have given up on their land and let the Arabs take over.
Fortunately there are a few Zionists left out there who care about their country and are willing to do something about it. My grandfather who came to Palestine in 1906 and settled in the lower Galilee joined a group called "HaShomer" (The Guardian) that patrolled the area they lived in on horseback and defended their flocks from Arab marauders. Two years ago a young Israeli combat officer resurrected The Guardian unit and is doing the same thing. IsraelNationalNews.com in their daily newsletter of July 1st published an article called "Defending Zionist Farmers: The 'Jewish Guards' Rise Again" by Chagit Rotenberg in which they wrote;
Yoel Silberman, a combat officer, took an extended leave from the IDF to found the “New Guardians” group. He realized that his family, third generation farmers from Tzippori in the Galilee, were going to lose their livelihood if he didn’t take action to guard their property. During the three-year period prior to Yoel’s initiative, his father filed over 250 complaints against Arabs who cut his fences, caused tens of thousands of shekels worth of damage and threatened his life. Most of the police files were closed as being of “insufficient interest to the public.”
“One day we took our flocks out to graze on our land north of the (Jewish) Galilee town of Hoshaya”, he recalls, “and found that Arab flocks had broken in. We got them out, but four Israeli Arabs from the nearby village arrived and began punching us and throwing rocks. They called my father to tell him that they intend to kill me. Border Police were there, but they and their vehicle were attacked as well. The next time they cut our fence, my father went to the police while we held up their flocks. Arabs followed him into Hoshaya, beat him and stole his car right in front of the town’s offices. They were freed after several days in jail."
All these incidents would have had different consequences if our judicial system was not so one-sided. We have become a nation of "goody two-shoes" because we have been brain washed into considering the Arabs as an oppressed" minority in Israel. Unfortunately the opposite is true we have an oppressed majority. The judicial system in Israel has been abducted by Amnesty International and by the ethics of retired Supreme Court President Aharon Barak. I won't go into the details but recommend, Dear Reader, that you read Caroline Glick's article "Israel's Democratic Challenge" found on her blog site at http://www.carolineglick.com/e/.
The Arab population in Israel has, in recent years, become totally unafraid of the Law of the Land. The Police are reluctant to enter Arab villages in fear of reprisals from the local population leaving the Jewish citizens of Israel to either give up or take the law into their own hands. Hence the resurrection of the "HaShomer" group. It is because of the years of left wing governments that have tried to appease the Arabs that has brought the Arab population to believe that they are above the law.
The same goes for our foreign policy vis-a-vis the "Palestinians".
But, hopefully, all is not lost, and with the courage of the likes of Yoel Silberman and his religious zionists volunteers we might be able to reclaim our country. The right thing to do will be to reorganize the Supreme Court and make it a court for the people of the Jewish State.. Read more!
Mike Packer
My post this week is a change from my usual efforts in explaining and trying to find a meaning to the Arab/Israel conflict. Today I wish to address a civil problem that is plaguing certain areas of my country.
It is the problem of agricultural theft perpetrated, in most cases, by the Arab citizens of Israel. I would like to start by narrating to you, dear reader, two anecdotes as a background.
. The first one is personal and occurred when I was the security coordinator on the kibbutz that I live on. The security coordinator on our kibbutzim is, in comparison to small towns in rural America, the local sheriff and in accordance with the job is a member of the Border Police which is a branch of the regular Police force. The job is not full time as the incidence of crime perpetrated by kibbutz members on kibbutzim is virtually nil (zero cases in the seven years that I served) so my duties were limited to nightly patrols in the immediate area in a Police jeep accompanied by uniformed volunteers.
The area I live in is called the Jezreel Valley and is considered to be the bread basket of Israel. Apart from the usual field crops we have a large area of aquaculture where the kibbutzim in the area raise fish in intensive ponds for market.
On one particular night around 1 a.m we were surprised to see a van leaving through a gate surrounding one of the ponds in the area, finding this suspicious we gave chase in our jeep with lights flashing and sirens wailing. It took about ten minutes for the vehicle we were chasing to eventually come to a halt and in the course of the chase we could see equipment being thrown out of the windows of the van. On stopping we approached the vehicle in a calm fashion and asked the driver to open the rear of the van. He refused but we insisted that it was our right to inspect his vehicle and it would be worth his while to accommodate us. He eventually relented and walked around to the back of the vehicle, opened the door and removed a wheel wrench from a cargo pocket on the side and turned to attack me with it. A punch to the nose persuaded him to desist and he was duly arrested with his companions.
As an aside I would like to mention that the price of fish on the market in Israel (depending on the fish) for St. Peters fish, which is a local delicacy and one of the cheaper fish, is about NIS20 per kilo (about 5 bucks). The ponds can hold at harvest time about three to five tons of fish depending on the size of the pond. So the average heist in one nights work for a crew of 3 to 4 perpetrators could be in the region of a ton of fish. Not a bad nights work with a profit of 10-15000 shekels.
After arresting the suspects we walked back along the road and picked up the equipment that was strewn along the road shoulders. This was an assortment of catch nets and rubber boots which we loaded back into the truck and proceeded to accompany our suspects to the local Police station for booking.
Entering the Police station I (as arresting officer) approached the desk sergeant to make my report when the leader of the suspects started shouting at me that my life was now worthless and proceeded to threaten my death. He was immediately locked into one of the cells and the desk sergeant added the threat to the report.
The next day I was called to the regional commanders office and informed that my suspects had been released by the courts with the excuse that there was a "lack of public interest" in the case. I was surprised and asked about the threat to my life, a felony crime in Israel as I was a Policeman. He told me the judge threw it out of court because of "Police brutality" after I had struck the suspect with the wheel wrench in self defense. Needless to say I resigned from the force.
The perpetrators went on to a long life of arrests and releases. They were Arabs who lived in the area.
The second anecdote happened in one of our neighboring settlements that raises goats for milk and meat. This settlement has an Arab village neighboring it with which they have cordial relations accept for one small thing, theft of goats. The Arabs were partial to goats and over the years the losses to the Jewish community mounted up. Complaints to the Police were to no avail nobody was ever caught.
One night two members of the Jewish community were out late for one reason or another and on their way back to their homes they caught two Arab youths red handed with a couple of goats each. The two perpetrators were apprehended and knowing that Police intervention would again be to no avail the Jewish settlement members took the law into their own hands, stripped the youths naked, sprayed them with red paint and sent them home.
The families of the Arab youths complained to the Police and the courts handed down an 18 month sentence to the two Jewish goat owners.
Now, Dear Reader, you ask WTF has all this got to do with a political blog?
Well, its like this; On June 18 edition of the Hebrew weekly B'sheva published an article in which was the following:
"It is hard to imagine a lynching in Israel’s pastoral, sun drenched south - the Negev - but sheep grower Oz Davidian is alive only because he was able to break away for a few seconds from the Bedouin marauders who attacked him on his own property in broad daylight. He managed to dial the emergency hot line, causing his attackers to flee, not before they told him: “You will leave this place dead or alive. We will destroy your livelihood until you run away”. Davidian needed stitches and surgical care. The Bedouins who tried to murder him are out of jail until the case comes to court.
Two weeks ago, Davidian woke up to discover that all his sheep had disappeared. Israel’s Border Police used scouts to find where the thieves, local Bedouins, had hidden them. The 30-40 complaints he has filed in the Ofakim police station over the last two years have had no deterring effect as the police simply interrogated and then released the offenders."
The sad thing is that because of catastrophic losses and understaffed law enforcement offices a few of the Jewish farmers have given up on their land and let the Arabs take over.
Fortunately there are a few Zionists left out there who care about their country and are willing to do something about it. My grandfather who came to Palestine in 1906 and settled in the lower Galilee joined a group called "HaShomer" (The Guardian) that patrolled the area they lived in on horseback and defended their flocks from Arab marauders. Two years ago a young Israeli combat officer resurrected The Guardian unit and is doing the same thing. IsraelNationalNews.com in their daily newsletter of July 1st published an article called "Defending Zionist Farmers: The 'Jewish Guards' Rise Again" by Chagit Rotenberg in which they wrote;
Yoel Silberman, a combat officer, took an extended leave from the IDF to found the “New Guardians” group. He realized that his family, third generation farmers from Tzippori in the Galilee, were going to lose their livelihood if he didn’t take action to guard their property. During the three-year period prior to Yoel’s initiative, his father filed over 250 complaints against Arabs who cut his fences, caused tens of thousands of shekels worth of damage and threatened his life. Most of the police files were closed as being of “insufficient interest to the public.”
“One day we took our flocks out to graze on our land north of the (Jewish) Galilee town of Hoshaya”, he recalls, “and found that Arab flocks had broken in. We got them out, but four Israeli Arabs from the nearby village arrived and began punching us and throwing rocks. They called my father to tell him that they intend to kill me. Border Police were there, but they and their vehicle were attacked as well. The next time they cut our fence, my father went to the police while we held up their flocks. Arabs followed him into Hoshaya, beat him and stole his car right in front of the town’s offices. They were freed after several days in jail."
All these incidents would have had different consequences if our judicial system was not so one-sided. We have become a nation of "goody two-shoes" because we have been brain washed into considering the Arabs as an oppressed" minority in Israel. Unfortunately the opposite is true we have an oppressed majority. The judicial system in Israel has been abducted by Amnesty International and by the ethics of retired Supreme Court President Aharon Barak. I won't go into the details but recommend, Dear Reader, that you read Caroline Glick's article "Israel's Democratic Challenge" found on her blog site at http://www.carolineglick.com/e/.
The Arab population in Israel has, in recent years, become totally unafraid of the Law of the Land. The Police are reluctant to enter Arab villages in fear of reprisals from the local population leaving the Jewish citizens of Israel to either give up or take the law into their own hands. Hence the resurrection of the "HaShomer" group. It is because of the years of left wing governments that have tried to appease the Arabs that has brought the Arab population to believe that they are above the law.
The same goes for our foreign policy vis-a-vis the "Palestinians".
But, hopefully, all is not lost, and with the courage of the likes of Yoel Silberman and his religious zionists volunteers we might be able to reclaim our country. The right thing to do will be to reorganize the Supreme Court and make it a court for the people of the Jewish State.. Read more!
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