Saturday, November 3, 2018

A Heritage Lost To Blind Hatred

In June of 2015 I had written this and posted it on the Times of Israel where I had once published my Blogs before a certain individual on the editorial board found fault with my views as a pro Zionist not in line with the Kumbaya policies she believed in.

In light of the recent racially linked murder, at the “Mother Emanuel” Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, a lot has been said in the news and on the pages of the social media concerning the linkage of the Confederate “Battle Flag” –the stars and bars, to anti-Negro (Afro-American) hatred. As my Facebook acquaintance Shia Altman mentions in his recent Blog; “Take Down The Flag”

“Even if one thinks the flag does not represent racial hatred in some way, and I think it does or in the very least is being used to do so, it represents those who wanted to separate from the United States, be it for “States’ Rights” or to defend slavery.”

So as a Southerner, born and bred, I started contemplating; “What is the history behind the whole story?”

Personally, I say it is way past time to lower and remove the Stars and Bars to the museums. However as Shia reminded me in his Blog, to many of us in the South it is part of the proud “fighting’ heritage of the South. To very many in the South it is almost sacrilegious to remove the Confederate Battle Flag. You might say it is the final blow for them as it is truly the “Night they Drove Ole Dixie Down”.

Virgil Caine is my name and I drove on the Danville train
’Til Stoneman’s cavalry came and tore up the tracks again.
In the winter of ’65, we were hungry, just barely alive.
By May the 10th, Richmond had fell.
It’s a time I remember, oh so well.

The night they drove old Dixie down
And all the bells were ringing,
The night they drove old Dixie down

Before continuing I wish to present, as I always do, some historical background and point out to “Youz Yankees” that the South (The Confederate States of America) had three flags. The flag which is causing the controversy is the one known as the Confederate “Battle Flag” (or the battle flag of the Army of Northern Virginia, commanded by General Robert E. Lee). It was designed by William Porcher Miles of South Carolina.

Southern Heros

Here is a Color lithograph from 1896 showing four versions of the flag of the Confederate States of America. Standing at the center are Stonewall Jackson, P. G. T. Beauregard, and Robert E. Lee, surrounded by bust portraits of Jefferson Davis and Confederate Army officers. Clockwise from upper-left corner: Gen. Braxton Bragg, Gen. P. T. Beauregard, Jefferson Davis, Alexander H. Stephens, Lt. Gen. T.J. Jackson, Gen S. Price, Lt. Gen Polk, Lt. Gen Hardee, Gen J.E.B. Stuart, Gen J.E. Johnston, Lt. Gen Kirby Smith, John H. Morgan, Albert Sidney Johnston, Gen. Wade Hampton, Gen John B. Gordon, Lt. Gen Longstreet, Gen A.P. Hill, Gen Hood.

South Carolina Secessionist flag of Miles’ design was inspired by one of the many “secessionist flags” flown at the South Carolina secession convention in Charleston of December 1860. The specific flag that inspired him was a flag with a blue St George’s Cross (an upright or Latin cross) on a red field, with 15 white stars on the cross, representing the slaveholding states, and, on the red field, palmetto and crescent symbols.

What is very interesting to note is that there is a Jewish connection to the flag:

Miles received a variety of feedback on this design, including a critique from Charles Moise, a self-described “Southerner of Jewish persuasion”. Moise liked the design but asked that; “the symbol of a particular religion not be made the symbol of the nation”. Taking this into account, Miles changed his flag, removing the palmetto and crescent, and substituting a heraldic saltire (“X”) for the upright one. The number of stars was changed several times as well. He described these changes and his reasons for making them in early 1861. The diagonal cross was preferable, he wrote, because, “it avoided the religious objection about the cross (from the Jews and many Protestant sects), because it did not stand out so conspicuously as if the cross had been placed upright thus”. He also argued that the diagonal cross was “more Heraldric [sic] than Ecclesiastical, it being the ‘saltire’ of Heraldry, and significant of strength and progress”.

According to historian John Coski; 
“The “Saint Andrew’s Cross” (also used as the flag of Scotland), had no special place in Southern iconography at the time, and if Miles had not been eager to conciliate the Southern Jews his flag would have used the traditional Latin, “Saint George’s Cross” (as used in the old ancient flag of England, a red cross on a white field). A colonel named James B. Walton submitted a battle flag design essentially identical to Miles’ except with an upright Saint George’s cross, but Beauregard chose the diagonal cross design.”
 What Southerners were taught about their heritage.

The Confederate “Battle Flag” was mainly carried into battle to inspire and lead the “Son’s of the South”. The ‎‎Stars and Bars is still emotionally symbolic for Southerners who wanted to honor those brave, barefoot, ‎‎starving young men in tattered butternut brown (Not Grey) uniforms who fell defending their lands. Many of those young men were proud woodsmen from the hills of Northern ‎‎Alabama who had advanced gallantly and bravely in tight rows across the deadly fields at Gettysburg in Pickets charge or up the hill to the Little Round top only to be mowed down in the ‎‎withering hail of lead.

Many of them that died that hot July day were not slave owners they were just plain farmers who believed that their rights as free Americans were being challenged by those in the North. They were motivated by honor among ‎‎brothers to fight. They had fought outnumbered and out gunned by a highly industrialized modern ‎‎army for four long bloody years in the deadliest conflict ever faced by Americans for their ‎‎rights as free men to do as they wish. ‎‎

Entitled “Bonnie Blue Flag Most famously” or the “Bonnie Blue Flag” was used as an unofficial flag during the early months of 1861. It was flying above the Confederate batteries that first opened fire on Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor, in South Carolina beginning the Civil War.

The Bonnie Blue Flag” also known as “We Are a Band of Brothers”, is an 1861 marching song associated with the Confederate States of America. The words were written by the Ulster-Scots entertainer Harry McCarthy, with the melody taken from the song “The Irish Jaunting Car”. The song’s title refers to the unofficial first flag of the Confederacy, the Bonnie Blue Flag but the words reflect the true spirit of why the South separated from the Union.

We are a band of brothers
And native to the soil,
Fighting for the property
We gained by honest toil;
And when our rights were threatened,
The cry rose near and far–
”Hurrah for the Bonnie Blue Flag
That bears a single star!” .
Hurrah! Hurrah!
For Southern rights hurrah!
Hurrah for the Bonnie Blue Flag
That bears a single star.
As long as the Union
Was faithful to her trust,
Like friends and like brothers
Both kind were we and just;
But now, when Northern treachery
Attempts our rights to mar,
We hoist on high the Bonnie Blue Flag
That bears a single star.

For many of us in the South we were taught that the Stars and Bars was symbolic ‎‎of a proud pioneering heritage of freedom and homesteading. The movement of the American frontiersmen inspired by those like Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone to ‎‎claim the Appalachians and the vast forest areas to the west. Those “free men” many who had themselves once been “indentured servants” went west to build a free “god fearing” country from the “honest toil” of the land.

For those of us born 100 years after the Civil War in the South this was the version of the heritage of the proud American that was taught to us.

We were taught that the “Carpetbaggers” as Northerners were called always liked to take the higher moral ground and claim that the war was to free the slaves, which to us in the South was not why the war began. Most northerners apparently think that the institution of slavery was only in existence in the south, when in fact it was all over the United States when the war began. Throughout the years young American school children have been told that the Civil War was fought ‎‎‎over slavery in the South. But this is NOT entirely true. In fact, there were many Afro-Americans held as slaves in the North as well.

“During most of the British colonial period, slavery existed in all the colonies. People enslaved in the North typically worked as house servants, artisans, laborers and craftsmen, with the greater number in cities. In 1703, more than 42 percent of New York City households held slaves, the second-highest proportion of any city in the colonies after Charleston, South Carolina. But slaves were also used as agricultural workers in farm communities, including in areas of New York and Long Island, Connecticut and New Jersey.”

Maryland is a fine example of a state that fought on behalf of the Union, yet over half of the state was in fact pro-slavery. To claim that the south was exclusive to this scourge would be totally false and biased. History is written by the winners, and much of what people are taught in school about the war is biased and taken as gospel by the masses. Truthfully, Abraham Lincoln was neither for or against slavery, he was for preserving the Union. He admitted this himself many times, and in fact said that if he could keep the Union whole by not freeing the slaves, he would do that, or by freeing some of the slaves and leaving others, that he would also do that as well. So much for the “Great Emancipator” that folks build him up to be.

Most people don’t realize that the majority of the soldiers who fought for the south didn’t fight to keep slavery alive, and that many didn’t own a single slave actually. They fought because they felt they needed to protect their homes from a foreign invader, which is what was happening.

It is true that the great majority of slaves were indeed held in the “Black Belt” states of Virginian, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi and Louisiana. They had large Negro slave populations from the times of British Colonialism because they had developed an agricultural economy dependent on commodity crops. Its planters rapidly acquired a significantly higher number and proportion of slaves in the population overall, as its commodity crops were labor-intensive.

It is estimated that more than half of all white immigrants to the English colonies of North America during the 17th and 18th centuries came as indentured servants. Many Germans, Scots-Irish, and Irish came to the colonies in the 18th century, settling in the backcountry of Pennsylvania and further south

At first the English Crown had emptied out it’s prisons of impoverished Scotsmen, Englishmen and Irishmen. The number of indentured servants among immigrants was particularly high in the South. These “White Men” –and women, who were originally brought in through the “Indentured Servant” program could not endure the grueling work in the hot humid fields or in the muddy rice fields of the wide coastal areas. Many were rebellious and if they escaped, they were hard to find because they could easily fade into the sympathetic population.

The plantation owners found that the major problem with indentured servants was that many left after several years, just when they had become skilled and the most valuable workers. With the improvement of the British economy in the late 17th and early 18th centuries from profits realized in the new colonies abroad meant that fewer workers chose to go to the colonies.

As time went by the need to hire cheap slave labor created the impetus for the slave trade in Afro-Americans in states like Virginian, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia where cotton reigned supreme and so did large plantations with aristocratic land lords many of them descendants of English aristocracy who were British Loyalists who received their lands in grants from the Kings of England. Oh yes Charlestown and the coastal regions of the “Linas” North and South were “big” slave states. These states had large holdings that necessitated the use of large groups of slaves to till the hot humid low coastal rice fields.

True historically the majority of Southerners who had very small family-based farms or homesteads rarely owned slaves. But that is not the issue.

The question that must be asked here is; “What issue was worth splitting the nation in two and fighting a terrible war over, at the cost of 600,000 lives? States rights or Slavery? And what state right was being questioned?

The objective of what the South sought was not to end the Union but to preserve slavery. There would have been no secession, no Confederacy and no war had the South not been intent on maintaining its “peculiar institution.” Slavery was the raison d’etre of the Confederacy. The “liberty” the Confederacy sought to preserve was the liberty to own human beings.

So now knowing the truth the reality is that the Civil War was not fought to end slavery; it was fought to defend slavery.

As to the use of the Confederate “Battle Flag” as a hated symbol of blind racism.
  
Ever since the rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan in the early 1920’s with the post World War I rise of racial and immigrant hatred. The Stars and Bars – the ‎‎Confederate “Battle Flag,” had increasingly become identified by with it’s usage by the KKK with the utmost blind racial hatred.‎‎

‎‎During the 1950’s the Stars and Bars was usurped to become symbolically identified together with hoods and white sheets to be the centerpiece of abject white supremacist hatred. This vile hatred reached it’s zenith during the Civil Rights period of the ‎‎‎1960’s.

The flag was a centerpiece, along with Nazi Aryan symbols, in the “preaching’s” of William ‎‎LutherPierce III. Pierce was a prominent anti-Semite, anti-Zionist and American (read Aryan) white nationalist (supremacist) an associate of George Lincoln Rockwell, founder of the American Nazi Party.

Pierce ‎‎was one of the most influential ideologues of the white nationalist movement for some 30 ‎‎years. His follower David Ernest Duke has continued to spread Piece’s rabid hate filled slanderous teachings. Duke’s an American White ‎‎nationalist, writer, right-wing politician, and a former Grand Wizard of the Knights of the Ku ‎‎Klux Klan, has also defamed the southern heritage by his use of the Stars and Bars with his ‎‎philosophies of white supremacist and ardent anti-Semitism /Judaism and utterly vile anti-‎‎Zionism.

Dukes has aligned himself with every venue of hatred of Jews and Zionism from Iran, the Palestinians and Hezbollah. He is one of the chief sources of rabid anti-Semitism on the World Wide Web. 
It should be noted that prior to Iran's hosting of the "Holohoax", during the rise of extreme hate filled anti-Israel , anti-Zionist period of the Mahmoud Ahmadinejad leadership. White "Aryan Race" hatred and the KKK where nearly extinct thanks to the work of Morris Dees and the Southern Poverty Law Center. It was Ahmadinejad and the Ayatollah's of Iran who gave rebirth through a huge influx of funding to David Dukes, the extremism American white nationalist, politician, antisemitic conspiracy theorist, Holocaust denier, and former Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. 
The massive Iranian funding of the anti-Zionistic Jew hating organizations, linked to the philosophies of William Luther Pierce III a prominent American white nationalist came under the "watch" of President Clinton and Obama's administrations.

So the "Big" question is just why is the mainstream media only now making "Jew Hatred" a big story now while ignoring the ugly extremely vile and violent "Jew Hatred" against Zionism and Israel backed by Pro-Palestinian groups on hundreds of University and College Campuses through out the USA and Canada?


And if any action should be taken it should be to outlaw and ban the spreading of YouTube videos of abject and ‎‎utter racial hatred narrated by William ‎‎Luther Pierce or David Duke’s through the use of social media on the Internet to influence young naive Americans and even Europeans.



Thursday, August 23, 2018

Data City Management


Most of today's modern municipal governments are comprised of municipal departments that manage the day-to-day management of the city through the use of computers and through various information input programs of low "Technology readiness levels" (TRL).
Because of this and the low technological abilities of many city employees, much of the day to day city management /work is still recorded in various non-technological means such as excel sheets, word documents on individual computers, unrecorded calls or handwritten notifications. 
In most cities, where there are departmental computer systems this information is recorded on various "servers or silos" that do not recognize nor communicate with each other. In many Municipalities it is the norm that critical information and hours of staff time is lost because it is not; "saved" nor retained by being filed, or stored in a systematic manner on a central data hub that would allow for rapid search and recall of the already accomplished work or previously completed forms by municipal clerks or employees. The information from one department that may be essential for the answer to a problem in another department may not be realized due to the non-communication and sharing that could be realized through a centralized data hub. 
This loss of data and hours of work, on a yearly basis, costs municipalities an unknown amount of city budgetary funds in information that may be vital to another department or simply saved to be used again.
The major points to be considered: 

In most cities the varied sources of municipal data are not shared causing "Data Stagnation" and "Data Loss". The possession of the departmental data is too often closely guarded by zealous departmental clerks as though controlled by feudal landlords. 

"Unshared Information":  The issue is not just how to extract the data from the varied departments, but how to formalize, accumulate, analyze and interpret the different forms of data-sets from city wide departments and sources into one finite set. 

Creation of a central data hub / set 
Improved Technology readiness levels" (TRL) will enable: Those first, or key areas, that can benefit the most from refined city-wide data management and efficiency will be in the management of city resources specifically in the use of, disposal of and need for: water, waste and energy. 

Improved data management can allow for better assessment, monitoring and improving of those areas that directly affect the constituents in the fields of health, housing, safety, movement or traffic flow. Improved data collection can also improve the revenue systems that sustain the municipality and its inhabitants. 

The need for rapid data transfer in real time, due to the digitalization (computerization) of everything, implies that we are increasingly reliant on data analytics to enhance city management and recognize the fundamental fact that data is at the heart of all modern Municipal management. Cities striving to become more responsive must have access to rapid Internet connections to enable the "IOT" to work efficiently so vital information will be shared in "real time". Another essential building block in the "Technology readiness levels" (TRL) is the need for a trained and technologically efficient staff. These are the necessary basic components that will facilitate the sharing; securely, quickly and seamlessly of large quantities of data among city departments and staff.

Smart cities are based on data it is a simple fact. 

In a "Smart City" if you want data, you need sensors. It’s not like roads, buildings and street lights will wake up magically and start chatting about the weather. We need sensors to see, hear, smell, taste and feel on their behalf. A platform can then aggregate all their data and use it to make (or propose) decisions at speeds exceeding human capacity. For example; street lights that have data sensors and CCTV for live "real -time" monitoring positioned at key locations; like city traffic points and major roadways to help identify problems, assist in emergencies, crime and repairs. These sensors need to be connected through a rapid internet connection so that they can be effectively monitored by trained and educated staff. This is where "Technology readiness levels" (TRL) are a must.

To begin the process. 

The first step to treating your city’s data as an asset is to establish a clear authority body to oversee the data inventory process and this is where a trained Municipal Data Analytic Team comes into force. Since cities usually have an unknown number of data-sets across multiple servers, databases, and computers, the first major step in developing an overall city data management system is the incorporation of a Municipal Data Analytic Team who will complete the integration and narrowing down of which data-sets. Their first job will be to make a municipal city-wide inventory of overall accumulate data from all city sources. They will also need to plan how to make future inventory updates. This "reorganization" of data is one which requires robust data management and an astute Chief Data Officer to lead the analysis that only a Municipal Analytic Team can provide. 
Without this proper reorganization, cities will continue the uphill battle to interconnect information and deliver a sustainable, prosperous and efficient living environment for their residents and this can ONLY be made possible by a thoroughly trained Municipal staff who create the data inventory. The Municipal Analytic Team can then utilize the acquired data and analytic systems and processes to recommend and facilitate projects for the good of the constituents (residents). 

The important points to remember:

Knowing what data your city collects leads to efficiency, and increases accountability. It also eases citywide reporting, decision making, and performance optimization. 

Managing a data inventory reduces risk and uncertainty by creating a checklist for security and compliance requirements and improves a city’s ability to designate accountability for the quality of the data collected and created. A municipality gains the ability to deliver results by its acceptance and creation of a culture of using its data assets, enhanced abilities to properly and efficiently access the information collected from archived municipal files, in various city department and from the public sector in a centralized data platform. 
Because cities may have thousands of datasets across multiple servers, databases, and computers, it’s helpful to narrow down which datasets should be included in the inventory overall and how to plan for inventory updates in the future. Remember the collection of data from varied sources and departments is made possible by a thoroughly trained Municipal staff with high or better yet advanced "Technology readiness levels" (TRL). 

The Municipal Analytic Team then can easily utilize the acquired data and analytic systems and processes to recommend and facilitate projects for the good of the constituents (residents). 

The changing nature of the technologies themselves, our homes and our urban environments, are turning modern municipalities into landscapes populated by more and more connected “IOTs”. The "Things" are equipped with many different sensors for data capture and cities need data- analytics to rapidly process and "ingest" the data. This need for rapid data processing drives the growing need for inter-operable platforms and standards that will provide municipalities the advantage in successful sustainable management.

Supporting the need to gather, collate, and present Municipal data in a legible way is a fundamental requirement if we are to cope with future demands and to make our cities resilient. Deriving value from data is a central and an essential to building block in the evolution of smart cities and delving into bigger-picture information is key to generating insights. 

Data is the key to giving municipalities the knowledge they need to direct their investments wisely.

Saturday, July 21, 2018

Israels Nationality Law

There are many highly vocal critics of Israel's new Jewish Nation-State Law, specifically the Arab and Druze Knesset members, who say they are outraged not only because the law defines Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people, but also because the new legislation does not include the phrase "full equality of rights for all citizens."

If these great thinkers had checked they would have realized it to be redundant to add those words since the new law DOES NOT rescind any previous law.

From The Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel:
"The State of Israel will be open for Jewish immigration and for the Ingathering of the Exiles; it will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.
We appeal - in the very midst of the onslaught launched against us now for months - to the Arab inhabitants of the State of Israel to preserve peace and participate in the upbuilding of the State on the basis of full and equal citizenship and due representation in all its provisional and permanent institutions."
 "We extend our hand to all neighbouring states and their peoples in an offer of peace and good neighbourliness, and appeal to them to establish bonds of cooperation and mutual help with the sovereign Jewish people settled in its own land."
And then there is the 1992 Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty, which stipulates:
"The purpose of this Basic Law is to protect human dignity and liberty, in order to establish in a Basic Law the values of the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state."
"Fundamental human rights in Israel are founded upon recognition of the value of the human being, the sanctity of human life, and the principle that all persons are free; these rights shall be upheld in the spirit of the principles set forth in the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel."
Here is the excerpt of the Amendment to the Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty  (5752 - 1992):
Amendment of section 1 (1) Section 1 shall be designated 1(a) and shall be preceded by the following section: Basic principles
1. Fundamental human rights in Israel are founded upon recognition of the value of the human being, the sanctity of human life, and the principle that all persons are free; these rights shall be upheld in the spirit of the principles set forth in the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel.
So, if Israel's pre-existing laws and its Declaration of Independence remain unchanged and guarantee equal rights to all citizens, exactly WHAT is behind the Israeli Arab leaders' fierce attack on the Nation-State Law?

Intelligent and enlightened individuals surely must ask the question: "Is it really because they are worried about equality or is it something else?

The answer can be found in their own statements: they are basically opposed to the idea of Israel being the homeland for the Jewish people. (Which is THE main point of the Palestinian's- to undermine and Negate the State of Israel.)

They know full well that the Nation-State Law does not affect the Arab citizens' status and rights as equal citizens of Israel.

Arabs who remained in Israel after the 1948 War of Independence have full equal rights under the law. 

There are those, who claim they face constant discrimination, citing inferior services and unfair allocations for education, health and housing. 
However these detractors have never compared their status to that of Jews or other minorities that remain captive in Arab Lands. 

For example in Saudi Arabia and the Maldives, only Muslims are allowed to be citizens. In both of these countries, the open practice of any religion other than Islam is forbidden specifically Christianity and Judaism, which are supposedly accepted by Islam and one truly wonders why no one ventures to mention this outrage!

WHY? Yes, why? Have WE Israelis taken this step and formalized Israel's character / existence as a "Jewish State"  it is very simple really.

In his article from March 25th 2015 "Encountering Peace: Palestinians – Get over it and recognize the Jewish Nation State" by Gershon Baskin. He states;
"I know that the concept “Jewish” is complex. Most Palestinians and many non-Jews confuse Judaism as a religion with Judaism as a nation, as a people. They say, why should there be a Jewish state – referring to Israel as a theocracy – a state of a religion. Israel’s Jewishness, though, is much more than that, in fact, Israel is a civil state not a religious state or a theocracy. While laws of personal status (inherited from the Ottomans – also in Palestine) are controlled by the religious clergy and communities, the laws of the State of Israel are civil laws not religious laws."
Then there is the major issue felt by most Israelis:
"When I am asked ...(by the Israeli audience) .... Why do the Palestinians refuse to recognize the Jewish people’s right to a state?
Why can’t the Palestinians recognize Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people?
I tell them(the Israeli audience) that the Palestinians recognized Israel and that should be good enough, but it is not. They (the Israeli audience) say that the Palestinians have never accepted the right of the Jewish people to have a state of their own in their ancient homeland and that the Palestinians only recognized Israel because Israel is strong today, but that if Israel were not so strong?" 
That is indeed the issue! Would the Palestinians deny Israel’s right to exist if they were stronger? Would they deny us once more of our "homeland"?

The threats by which we live day in, day out without stop for more than 70 years by our blood thirsty enemies that surround us is VERY real. The cries in Arabic from the followers of ISIS (Islamic State), the speeches of the Ayatollahs in Iran, the hate from Hezbollah, Hamas, Syria, Lebanon. The Falestinian Terrorism has struck a deep chord in the minds of the Israeli Jewish voter who ever since the debacle of the "hope for peace" died in the suicide bombings that erased the chords of the cheerful Meretz Political theme song that lead to the election of Yitzhak Rabin in 1992. The majority of Israelis have progressively moved to the "right".

In the last elections the Israeli people have voted strongly in favor of the right-wing parties and in Benjamin Netanyahu. Fear is the factor that explains why they voted for the "Right". Most Israelis really do live in fear; and many of us suffer from PTSD. The Middle East is a very dangerous and scary place to live and we feel that we stand ALONE.

"Many Israelis believe that the Palestinians do not really accept the legitimacy of Israel’s existence and are not really prepared to make genuine, lasting peace. Many Israelis speak about a “two-stage solution” not a “two-state solution,” meaning that the Palestinians are willing to make peace with Israel today because Israel is strong and the Palestinians are weak, but one day soon, that will change and then Israel will be wiped off the map. Those Israeli views are empowered by the continuation of incitement against Israel and Jews in the Palestinian media and in textbooks."

"This is not made up, it is real, it is a great concern to the Israeli government and the Israeli people and it must be confronted by Palestinian leaders and by the Palestinian people." 

Here are some points to consider from the controversy regarding the "Nationality Law"

Basic Law: Israel as the Nation State of the Jewish People
1 — Basic principles:
  • The land of Israel is the historical homeland of the Jewish people, in which the State of Israel was established.
  • The State of Israel is the national home of the Jewish people, in which it fulfills its natural, cultural, religious and historical right to self-determination.
  • The right to exercise national self-determination in the State of Israel is unique to the Jewish people.
2 — The symbols of the state:
  • The name of the state is “Israel.”
  • The state flag is white with two blue stripes near the edges and a blue Star of David in the center.
  • The state emblem is a seven-branched menorah with olive leaves on both sides and the word “Israel” beneath it.
  • The state anthem isHatikvah.”
  • Details regarding state symbols will be determined by the law.
3 — The capital of the state:  Jerusalem, complete and united, is the capital of Israel.

4 — Language:
  • The state’s language is Hebrew.
  • The Arabic language has a special status in the state; Regulating the use of Arabic in state institutions or by them will be set in law.
  • This clause does not harm the status given to the Arabic language before this law came into effect.
5 — Ingathering of the exiles: The state will be open for Jewish immigration and the ingathering of exiles.(This clause is of special importance to ALL Jews of the Diaspora due to our experience during the days of the rise of Nazism in Europe in the 1930's)

6 — Connection to the Jewish people:
  • The state will strive to ensure the safety of the members of the Jewish people in trouble or in captivity due to the fact of their Jewishness or their citizenship.
  • The state shall act within the Diaspora to strengthen the affinity between the state and members of the Jewish people.
  • The state shall act to preserve the cultural, historical and religious heritage of the Jewish people among Jews in the Diaspora.
7 — Jewish settlement:  The state views the development of Jewish settlement as a national value and will act to encourage and promote its establishment and consolidation.

8 — Official calendar:
The Hebrew calendar is the official calendar of the state and alongside it the Gregorian calendar will be used as an official calendar. Use of the Hebrew calendar and the Gregorian calendar will be determined by law.

9 — Independence Day and memorial days:
  • Independence Day is the official national holiday of the state.
  • Memorial Day for the Fallen in Israel’s Wars and Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day are official memorial days of the State.
10 — Days of rest and Sabbath: The Sabbath and the festivals of Israel are the established days of rest in the state; Non-Jews have a right to maintain days of rest on their Sabbaths and festivals; Details of this issue will be determined by law.

11 — Immutability: This Basic Law shall not be amended, unless by another Basic Law passed by a majority of Knesset members.

A quick reminder to EVERYONE. Here is the preamble of the League of Nations "Mandate for Palestine" I have high-lighted the important points to remember:
Source: League of Nations 10 August 1922
'PALESTINE" -The Palestine Order in Council.
WHEREAS the Principal Allied Powers have agreed, for the purpose of giving effect to the provisions of Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations, to entrust to a Mandatory selected by the said Powers the administration of the territory of Palestine, which formerly belonged to the Turkish Empire, within such boundaries as may be fixed by them;
And whereas the Principal Allied Powers have also agreed that the Mandatory should be responsible for putting into effect the declaration originally made on November 2, 1917, by the Government of His Britannic Majesty, and adopted by the said Powers, in favour of the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people,
it being clearly understood that nothing should be done which might prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine,
or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country; And whereas the Principal Allied Powers have selected His Majesty as the Mandatory for Palestine; And whereas, by treaty, capitulation, grant, usage, sufferance and other lawful means, His Majesty has power and jurisdiction within Palestine."
Now for further clarification I will quote two authors. I will begin with an excerpt from "Get Over It—Israel Is the Jewish State" - from the July 19th 2018 edition of the WSJ by Eugene Kontorovich, and then "The Case for Israel's Jewish state law"  from the Jerusalem Post of July 18th, 2018 by Emmanuel Navon.

Eugene Kontorovich begins by assessing that:
"Israel’s Basic Law would not be out of place among the liberal democratic constitutions of Europe—which include similar provisions that have not aroused controversy. The law does not infringe on the individual rights of any Israeli citizen, including Arabs; nor does it create individual privileges. The illiberalism here lies with the law’s critics, who would deny the Jewish state the freedom to legislate like a normal country.
The nation-state law declares that Israel is a country established to instantiate the Jewish people’s “right to national self-determination.” It constitutionalizes symbols of that objective—the national anthem, holidays and so forth. There is nothing undemocratic or even unusual about this. Among European states, seven have similar “nationhood” constitutional provisions."
Navon on the otherhand sees the passing of the Nationality Law as necessity with regards to the judicial "leftist"  activism of Israel’s High Court of Justice in the past two decades. 
"After 70 years of independence, Israel still lacks a written constitution. This is an anomaly, but not one that is going to be remedied any time soon because of unbridgeable gaps between Israel’s political parties. Constitutions are the cornerstone of democracies; they define the identity and purpose of the state; they determine the powers of the three branches of government; and they protect individual rights.
 Israel has “basic laws” that determine the powers of the three branches of government (such as Basic Law: The Knesset) and that protect individual rights (such as Basic Law: Human Dignity and Freedom), but not a basic law that defines the identity and purpose of the state." 
Until now Israel does not have a Constitution and Basic Israeli laws are continuations of British Mandatory Law based on the English penal codes and basic laws.
According to Navon the; " Basic Law: Israel Nation-State of the Jewish People was passed to fill that void." 
"To some, filling this legal void was unnecessary since Israel is de facto a nation-state and since its Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel does define the identity of the country (“We hereby declare the establishment of a Jewish state”) and its purpose (the national independence of the Jewish people).  In fact, passing this new basic law was necessary because of the judicial activism of Israel’s High Court of Justice in the past two decades." 
In his continuation in the article Navon lays out several examples where the Israeli Supreme Court made decisions that underminded Israel’s identity as a nation-state i.e. the "Zionistic" or "Jewish" nature of the State.
"In 1992, the Knesset passed two basic laws: one on “human dignity and freedom” and one on “freedom of occupation.” Justice Aharon Barak (who presided the Supreme Court between 1995 and 2006) proclaimed a “constitutional revolution” after the passing of those two basic laws. What Barak meant was that the High Court of Justice could now strike down laws passed by the Knesset if deemed “unconstitutional” (i.e. incompatible with the two new basic laws).  Nowhere in the basic law does it say that the court is entitled to use them to strike down regular legislation. Yet Barak unilaterally granted that power to the court in a 1995 ruling.
 The “constitutional revolution” has affected Israel’s identity as a nation-state.  The basic law on “human dignity and freedom” states that Israel is a “Jewish and democratic state.” But what happens when Jewish and democratic values conflict? 
No problem, Barak wrote in 1992: "In case of a conflict, the word “Jewish” shall be interpreted by the court “with the highest level of abstraction.” In other words, it shall be ignored.
Theoretically, the court could use in its rulings Israel’s Declaration of Independence, which defines Israel is a Jewish state. Yet the court itself ruled in 1948 that the Declaration of Independence has no constitutional value. 

 Kontorovich continues:
"Another controversial provision of the law declares “the development of Jewish settlement” to be a national value that the government should promote. It is understood to refer to encouraging population dispersion into the periphery of the country. This essentially restates policy adopted by the international community in 1922 in the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine, which sought to “encourage . . . close settlement by Jews.” 
Again, the provision is only declaratory of values, and does not prescribe or authorize any particular policies. By contrast, the state constitution of Hawaii authorizes land policies to promote homesteading by ethnic Hawaiians, and provides preferential land polices for them.
Moreover, the measure comes against a backdrop of land policies that discriminate against Jews. The Israeli Supreme Court has ruled controversially that Arabs have a right to create residential communities in Israel that exclude Jews. A separate case denied the corresponding right to Jews. In Jerusalem, the Palestinian Authority prescribes the death penalty for Arabs who sell land to Jews. The new Basic Law does not even negate either of those injustices; it merely creates a normative counterweight.
Gershon Baskin in his article from March 25th 2015 "Encountering Peace: Palestinians – Get over it and recognize the Jewish Nation State" writes:
"...first every country in the world which is recognized as a nation state of one people has minorities in its midst. If those states are democratic there are guarantees for the protection of the rights of the minorities. Germany is the nation state of the German people, but millions of Turks live there. No one questions the rights of the Germans to define their state as the nation state of the German people while guaranteeing the rights of the Turkish citizens who live there. The same is true for every other nation state."
Emmanuel Navon in his article "The Case for Israel's Jewish state law"  gives a prime example of the absurdity of the "High Court of Justice.":  
"THE COURT’S activism, combined with the “highest level of abstraction” with which Barak interpreted Israel’s Jewishness, were soon to be felt. The court ruled that a Jew cannot purchase a plot of land in a Bedouin village (Avitan case, 1989), but that an Arab can build a house in a village established by the Jewish Agency (Ka’adan case, 2000)."
Netanel Fisher in his Opion Piece on Ynet "The truth about Israel's Nationality Law" states:
 "Indeed, the court has already expanded the interpretation of "human dignity" and granted constitutional protection to the value of equality. The court rejected government decisions and laws whose violation of equality was unjustified in its opinion."
"Moreover, the court inserted the value of equality into the Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty even though the Knesset did not include it explicitly it in the language of the original law. This is, of course, another reason why Knesset members are suspicious and unwilling to introduce the word "equality" into the new law. Based on the Supreme Court’s history of very loose interpretation of existing statutes, the Knesset is legitimately concerned that the Court might one day decide, for example, that in the name of equality, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from the territories can become citizens of Israel through marriage, or that the Israeli religious marriages system should be annulled. These are legitimate questions, but they should be left to the legislators, the people’s representatives, not to the Supreme Court."
Here is just how the Pro-Falestinians and their lackeys atempt to manipulate the Israeli Supreme Court System and our "Democracy"
"The court was petitioned twice by NGOs (in 2006 and in 2012) to cancel Israel’s citizenship law so as to impose on Israel the Palestinian “right of return” through the back door via fictitious marriages. Though the court rejected both petitions, it did so with a razor-thin majority of six to five."
For years the Communist inspired left wing Israeli's anti-Zionist camp who are possessed with an almost sick psychopathic self-hatred of their Jewishness, have tried to eliminate Jewish symbolism by using the Supreme Court to attempt to eliminate the vestiges of "Judaism and Zionism". As Navon points out:   
"Other laws and symbols related to Israel’s Jewish identity are not immune from petitions at the High Court of Justice. The “Law of Return” (which grants automatic immigration rights to Jews) might one day be struck down for being discriminatory;"
This absurd hatred by the "unhappy citizens", "Left Wing" and Arab Lists-parlimentary parties in the Knesset, have even challeged the Israel’s national anthem in court for ignoring the feelings of the Arab minority because it expresses the Jews’ two-millennia faithfulness to our land and fails to mention our "Non Jewish" population.
These "unhappy citizens" are now even challegening the countries flag (which only has a Jewish symbol) as NOT representative of them.

These same "unhappy citizens", "Left Wing" and Arab "Taxpayers" could petition the court against the spending of their money on the preservation of Jewish identity in the Diaspora. Therefore..." until the passing of the basic law on Israel as a nation-state, the court had no constitutional basis to reject such petitions and to protect Israel’s Jewishness. Now it does."

Navon continues with further examples of areas where these "unhappy citizens", "Left Wing" and Arab  opponents to the law claim that declaring Hebrew the country’s official language, while granting Arabic a “special status,” affects the rights of the Arab minority.
Nor does Israel have official religions, and nothing in the new Basic Law changes that. In this respect, Israel is more liberal than the seven European countries with constitutionally enshrined state religions.

Perhaps the best evidence that Israel needs a constitutional affirmation of its status as the sovereign Jewish nation-state is the eagerness of so many to denounce as undemocratic measures that are considered mundane anywhere else.

Would they say the same of the French constitution, which establishes that “The language of the Republic is French” (Article 2) while only recognizing “regional languages” as belonging to the “patrimony of France” (Article 75-1)?  Being a nation-state is compatible with the civic equality of minorities. Israel is no exception in that regard.   

The right to national self-determination was recognized as a universal one by the League of Nations after World War One. The Jews are entitled to that right like any other nation. Unlike the United-States and Canada, but like most countries is the world (including in Europe), Israel is a nation-state. Yet the Jews’ right to self-determination is still being challenged both internationally and domestically.  Thanks to the nation-state basic law, Israel’s Jewishness is no longer assailable at home.  

Many revisionist historians tend to forget that on June 30, 1922, a joint resolution (the Lodge Fish Resolution) " was; 
"Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled. That the United States of America favors the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which should prejudice the civil and religious rights of Christian and all other non-Jewish communities in Palestine, and that the holy places and religious buildings and sites in Palestine shall be adequately protected." [italics in the original]
By favoring the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people as outlined in the Mandate for Palestine from the Treaty of Serves and this US Resolution. It confirmed the irrevocable LEGAL right of Jews to settle in the area of Palestine – which in 1922 extended from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.


MK Avi Dichter (Likud), who sponsored the bill, explained his reasons for passing the law.
“We are enshrining this important bill into a law today to prevent even the slightest thought, let alone attempt, to transform Israel to a country of all its citizen,"
"When I listened attentively to the Joint List MKs, it was impossible to miss their clear words: 'We, the Arabs will win, we are in our homeland, we were here before you and we'll be here after you.' This Basic Law is the clear-cut answer to those who think that and it is clear: You were not here before us and you will not be here after us,” 
"The most you can do is to live among us as a national minority that enjoys equal individual rights, but not equality as a national minority,”
MK Amir Ohana (Likud), who headed the Knesset Joint Committee of the nationality bill also said;  that the vote marked a “defining moment” in Israel’s history.
We don’t have 21 national nation-states like the Arab nation. This is a historic Basic Law that for the first time explicitly consolidates the different components of the State of Israel’s character. As the nation-state of the Jewish people,” he said.





Friday, June 29, 2018

Rasmea Oded and Kumbaya

It is truly amazing the continual gall and gullibility of  ordinary people in the world, especially Western leaders, to be consistantly bamboozled by the Lies and Liars of Falestine.
One truly has to wonder when will these "Kumbaya" whimps wake up and see the real story?
No wonder "John the beheader" of ISIS fame could not believe how easy it was for him to behead victim after victim while EX (TG) President Obama played golf.

In the latest chapter of bamboozlment, Prince William paid his expected visit to the "UNOCCUPIED" Ramallah headquarters, known as the Mukata of the Mahmoud Abbas crime syndicate otherwise known as the "Palestinian Authority".

While in the meeting place with the Godfather of the Palestinian Authority and unbeknownst to the "Little Prince" the cynical Palestinian leadership issued a "message" to it's people in Arabic- in every manner of communication - stating;
"We support anyone who murders a Jew and we will take care of their families if they are killed or imprisoned by Israel." 
Meanwhile, as they sat for the press Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas  "happily smiles and lies" to Prince William and other world leaders and dignitaries by stating in English:
"We are committed and "serious" in our desire to achieve peace with Israel and we are "committed" to combating terrorism."

While they are merrily chatting the Palestinian Authority issues a statment -albeit for local consumption in Arabic that;
"Palestinian prisoners are our national icons and symbols of defending freedom, our dignity while confronting oppression and subjugation."
The Palestinian government vowed that it would; "not abandon the prisoners and the families of the martyrs."

As I have pointed our countless times previously many readers and viewers of the world media do not get the truth of the conflict in the Middle East from "unbiased" news sources, These readers and viewers do not realize that they are not being told the "real story".
The actual unbiased truth is that these Arabs, who killed or maimed Jews, were killed by the Israeli army or police during the perpetration of attacks of "terrorism" on innocent civilians. These "Terrorists" are called shaheeds (martyrs) and are cast as role models to be copied and imitated by Palestinian youth in the media of the Palestinians whether in the Palestinian Authority of Hamas controlled UNWRA schools.

That these "martyrs" include Arabs who stabbed, ran over or blew themselves up during suicide bombings on civilian bus lines or in restaurants which murdered innocent civilians, Jews and some non-Jewish in Israel.

Of course, there is nothing new about the Palestinian tradition of glorifying the bloody murder of civilians young and old -Jewish Israelis who are ALL settlers to the terrorists.
Much has been said about the policy of naming schools and squares after these murderers in Palestinian cities, villages and refugee camps in Judea and Shomron aka the "West Bank" and the Gaza Strip.

However, this horrific honor of glorifying shaheeds (martyrs) is also being practiced by Palestinians descendants living abroad throughout the world.
The most widely know case is of Reem's Bakery in Oakland California with a mural of Rasmea Odeh.
Reem's Bakery in Oakland California and Rasmea Odeh have been lionized by anti-Zionists and and anti Israel Palestinian sympathizers.

Few of these bamboozled and brainwashed Liberals realize the truth behind the glorfication of Rasmea Odeh, who was honored and cherished by the epic member of the Nacba Tragedy Tourists, Linda Sarsour as well as Liberal leftwing feminist "Resistance" supporters like "anti-Zionist rabbis' Ellen Lippman and Barat Ellman.

These feminists claimed Oded, as; “a Palestinian woman who embodies the Palestinian history of dispossession, struggle and resilience.”

That these "supposedly intelligent" women and the Liberal Leftist backers at the time of the Media Covered demonstration ignored Oded's complicity in murder and terrorism and blissfully ignored and shuffled the story aside!

There was No show of remorse nor acknowledgement whatsoever that this cherished member of the feminist “resistance” an “icon of the Palestine liberation movement.” Rasmea had been an active  participant and organizer for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

They lie and ignore the well documated proof that Odeh confessed in a highly detailed account just one day after arrest, along with other co-conspirators, how she planted a bomb in a Jerusalem supermarket in 1969 that murdered Hebrew University students Leon Kanner and Eddie Joffe.
And that in cold calculation she had rigged a second device on a delay trigger at the SuperSol supermarket to go off when unarmed medic and rescue responders were to arrive. Luckly it was found and defused mere seconds before it was to go off.

Linda Sarsour, "anti-Zionist rabbis' Ellen Lippman and Barat Ellman have downplayed the fact that Odeh obtained her US immigrant visa in 1994 and her citizenship in 2004 frauduently. In both applications, she failed to disclose her arrest and convictions in the bombings because as she claims she was a "freedom fighter". The mere fact that she lied and pleaded guilty to falsifying her immigration applications was soft peddled and downplayed by the ususal Jew haters but by Leftist anti-Israel and anti-Zionist Jews. In fact the evidence of Rasmea’s immigration fraud was based on the indisputable facts and her own false answers.In the end she was rightly convicted a second time in federal court in Detroit.

And as can be readily seen in the News Media, the frenzy of seething hatred of anti-Zionist Jews, who have blown fuses in their explicit anger towrds Israel's love for President Trump, have reached the zenith of hate.
One wonders what excitement we will see next week....and to paraphrase Sonny and Cher...."And the hate goes on"