Asian students visiting Israel 'speak science'

By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH  08/27/2012 

Jerusalem is hosting the Asian Science Camp for the first time; 2012 is dubbed the "Year of Asia in Israel."



Photo by Judy Siegel

With young people in the Far East becoming a powerhouse in the sciences, Israel excelling as a start-up nation and each side not knowing much about the other, the Asian Science Camp (ASC) is being hosted in Jerusalem by the Foreign Ministry and the Science and Technology Ministry, among others.
Over 220 brilliant university students and senior high school pupils, from Asia, aged 17 to 21 have joined nearly 40 Israelis counterparts for the week-long program of lectures by world-class Israeli researchers, including Nobel Prize winners and their counterparts from Asia.

The opening event took place at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University Givat Ram campus on Sunday. Among the laureates are Prof. Aaron Ciechanover, Prof. Robert Aumann and Prof. Roger Kornberg, Prof. Lee Yuan-Ti (chemistry, from Taiwan) and Prof. Makoto Kobayashi (physics, from Japan).

President Shimon Peres addressed the participants at the opening.

The foreigners come from Australia and New Zealand, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Nepal, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Turkey, Vietnam, Taiwan, Georgian, Myanmar, Turkmenistan, Armenia and the United Arab Emirates. The Israelis include Arabs and Jews. Some of the countries represented have no diplomatic relations with Israel and are Muslim.

The idea of ASC was co-proposed seven years ago by Prof. Yuan-Tseh Lee from Taiwan, who received a Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1986, and Prof. Masatoshi Koshiba of Japan, who became a physics Nobel laureate in 2002. This year was the first the ASC is being held in Israel, where very few of the foreign participants had been before.

Many had never met a Jew – or an Israeli – before and thought it was a “dangerous place” to visit – a misconception they said became apparent within hours of their arrival.

The Foreign Ministry has dubbed 2012 “The Year of Asia” in Israel, and the government has allocated NIS 4 million for the event, which is to include tours of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. The organizers said they wanted to “create a platform for identifying the next generation of Asian scientists and create ties of friendship through the universal language of science.”

Foreign Ministry directorgeneral Rafi Barak said “it was important for the State of Israel to create participation by as many countries as possible. The ASC conference here has more delegations and participants than ever before.”

HU president Prof. Menachem Ben-Sasson said the science camp gave his university the opportunity to host the event and deepen the positive image of Israel in academia and science and to make ties with young people who are sure to lead scientific research in their countries.

Kaito Ogiyama, an 18-yearold biology student from Tokyo Metropolitan University, said he had already begun his studies, as universities begin their first semester in April.

“All I knew about Israel was Jews and war, but nothing else. I already like the food.

We will hear what Israeli Nobel laureates have done,” he said, eating lunch at Givat Ram that included meat, vegetables and rice, served quite differently from what he was used to.

Htoo Zaeni Oo Mg, a 20- year-old electrical engineering student from Myanmar said his father is an official in his country’s department of agriculture.

“I know that Israel is very good at designing and building aircraft,” he said. “It’s a beautiful country. I had been afraid to come; some friends said Israel is dangerous. But it isn’t,” said the citizen of Myanmar, which has a population of 60 million.

Aia Bowirrat, a Hebrew-speaking Israeli Arab from a village near Um el-Fahm, has completed high school with high marks and wants to apply to the medical school at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa. Her father has a doctorate in neurology.

“He works in Nazareth and does research articles, and I help him,” said Aia, who has four sisters.

“The human body is fascinating. I want to be a brain surgeon,” she said. She heard about ASC two months ago, when her physics teacher recommended her.

“Sometimes I feel discrimination here, but I am not angry at Israel. Sometimes it’s frustrating, especially for Arab students. Medicine is hard enough. There are many obstacles. But I believe in myself and what I can do. I prefer to study medicine here and not go abroad,” she said.

“I have met wonderful students here; there is such a variety of cultures, but we all speak science.”

A Lesson on Jerusalem

The new light rail system has come in for a lot of criticism during its construction and the current running in period. Jerusalemites have justified reasons to complain. However, one complaint by a British member of Parliament is so fatr removed from reality, one wonders on which palnt he is living.

The following article represents the reality

David Ha'ivri Published April 27th: 2012 ,   http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4221402,00.html

During my recent visit to the British Parliament, I heard concern from a number of members that Jerusalem's new light rail system was built as a "tool of Israel's apartheid.” This type of claim can leave one baffled - where do you start explaining, when an intelligent elected official hits you with a claim that is so totally off base? Aside from the issue of priorities, since people are being killed by Assad daily in Syria, it is so hypocritical for world leaders to ignore that massacre and waste their time and effort in seeking out something to pin on Israel.

In Israel's War of Independence in 1948, part of Jerusalem was captured by the British-trained Arab Legion of Trans-Jordan, who held the city for 19 years, until it was again united in the miraculous Six Day War of June, 1967. During the 19 years of Jordan's illegal occupation of Jerusalem, Jews were barred from access to holy places in the city. Jewish doctors and nurses were massacred while trying to reach the Hadassah Hospital, located on then-isolated Mount Scopus.

 Only after Israel's Defense Forces reunited the holy city were members of all religions again allowed access to places holy to them (aside from the Temple Mount, which maintains limited access for non-Muslims.)

Jerusalem today is a city with total population of about 760,000 people - about 65% Jewish, 35% Muslims, Christians and others. Anyone who visits the city will see a mix of people from all ethnic backgrounds and all religions taking part in all aspects of the city's culture and commerce. Like it or not, apartheid is not a fitting description for the reality of Jerusalem today.

Hebrew and Arabic

The city of Jerusalem incorporated its light rail public transportation system this year. The light rail is intended to relieve traffic congestion, and to save the city from some of the air pollution of exhaust fumes from the cars and buses that it will replace.

The light rail is now 14 kilometers long with 23 stops. It starts in the Pisgat Zev neighborhood in the north and runs though Beit Hannia and Shuafat, passes by the Old City through the center of town, runs along Jaffa Street past the central bus station and ends at Mount Herzl.

The track passes though and stops in both Jewish and Arab neighborhoods. I have taken the train and noticed that both Jews and Arabs are regular commuters. All of the train’s signs, tickets, ticket machines, and public announcements are made very clearly in both Hebrew and Arabic. Signs of station names are posted in both Hebrew and Arabic.

Knowing the facts firsthand, it is strange for me to hear discussions in British Parliament about the light rail being segregated and a “tool of apartheid.” Why, I ask, do people buy into such baseless libel and propaganda?

Jerusalem Continues to Reduce Gaps in Arab Neighborhoods

The inauguration of the first post office in Issawiya, Jerusalem is a landmark event, which follows an intensive year of infrastructure upgrades in Arab neighborhoods. Improvements in Issawiya include:

*Upgrading entrances to the neighborhood *Paving roads *Installing speed bumps throughout the neighborhood *Installing supporting walls and safety fences

*Upgrading roads and fixing damage *Improving drainage systems *Adding garbage cans *Installing new streetlights

Mayor Nir Barkat participated in a tour and ribbon cutting ceremony in the Issawiya neighborhood of Jerusalem on Wednesday, 04.01.12. Wednesday's dedication followed a year of unprecedented upgrading of the infrastructure of the neighborhood, with the maximum adjustments to the needs of the residents. In the framework of the tour, the first post office in the neighborhood—with 1,050 mail boxes—was inaugurated, followed by the unveiling of the sign of the newly named "Al-Madras Street".

Throughout the current administration, the municipality of Jerusalem has worked to improve the quality of life for Arab residents of Jerusalem. Under the leadership of Mayor Nir Barkat, the municipality explored practical solutions for postal services in Arab neighborhoods. A suitable and accessible post-office building was located and renovated with financing of the municipality (NIS 17,000). The "Israel Postal Company" supplied 1,050 mail boxes. The post-office will be operated in coordination with local Community Administration.

Mayor Barkat: "I'd like to thank local officials for understanding the importance of opening a post office in Issawiya for the benefit of all residents. Today we are naming and dedicating the first of 86 roads that were, up to this point, unnamed. There is much work left to be done, but what we have accomplished together thus far is nothing short of exceptional."

Mukhtar Darweesh thanked Mayor Barkat for his visit to Issawiya: "I am happy that you came to dedicate the new street, new school, and improved roads of Issawiya. We thank you for the cooperation, for serving our residents, and for helping to improve their lives."

The post office in Issawiya represents one example of the revolution in postal services begun by Barkat. Besides the renovation of the building and establishing a post office in the neighborhood with municipality financing, a post office has also been opened in the Jabal Mukaber neighborhood and in the future, a post office will be opened in the Ras-al-Amud neighborhood. The reopening of the post office in Abu-Tor is underway.

In 2011, significant infrastructure improvements took place, including upgrading the eastern and southern entrances to the neighborhood, the installation of supporting walls on Munir Hassan road, safety fence installation, repairs to the asphalt of the sidewalks and the installation of road bumps. The Department of Sanitation improved drainage, added 2 large retention pools, replaced 10 garbage cans and added 6 new ones. The Illumination Department at the Municipality Improvements Section installed 17 new streetlights and the Maintenance Department repaired holes and paved several roads.

Mayor Barkat said of the upgrades to the Issawiya neighborhood: "It is our duty to invest in the Arab neighborhoods of the city and to reduce the gaps that are a result of decades of neglect by the government and the municipality. We will not accept a situation in which residents of Jerusalem do not have decent roads, mail, and other basic services. These investments improve the quality of life of Jerusalem residents and the results can already be seen, felt and heard."

In Israel there is Free Speech!!

This week there is a major conference in Jerusalem of European lawmakers and politicians who are members of an organization called “European Friends of Israel”. Unlike many such speeches today in places such as Edinburgh University, Rutgers, and other locations that are interrupted and subsequently cancelled because groups who claim to be working for “human rights” won’t allow people to hear any view except their own, this speech was not interrupted.

In his opening speech, Prime Minister Netanyahu addressed the gathering with the following words which are unlikely to appear anywhere in the main stream media:-

I learned that 2500 years, ago the Greeks took the ropes of the bridge across the Bosporus. They burnt the bridge after they won the war against the Persians. They took the ropes and put them in the Acropolis, in the Parthenon, as a testament to their values, the values that they safeguarded in the battle for freedom.

So there were two sources of freedom for Western civilization that grew out of these two places. One was in Athens and the other is in Jerusalem. People say, “well, you don’t really have an attachment to this land. We are new interlopers. We are neo-crusaders.” If I could I would invite each of you into my office. You would see a display of antiquities from the Department of Antiquities. And from the place next to the Temple wall, the Western Wall, from around the time of the Jewish kings, they found a signet ring, a seal of a Jewish official from 2700 years ago, and it has a name on it in Hebrew. You know what that name is? Netanyahu. Now, that’s my last name. My first name, Benjamin, goes back a thousand years earlier to Benjamin the son of Jacob who with his brothers roamed these very hills.

So we do have some connection to this land, but we recognize that others live in it too. We want to make peace with them but we have this basic millennial connection to this land. Part of the campaign against Israel is the attempt to distort not only modern history, but also ancient history. It is said that “There was no Jewish Temple” – did you hear that one? Well, I’d like to know where were those tables that Jesus overturned? Were they in Tibet? There’s an attempt to rewrite history – ancient and modern and to deprive the Jewish people of their connection to their ancestral homeland and this is why I so welcome the fact that you come here to Israel, to Jerusalem – perhaps next time to my office. .

And the Terror Attacks Continue

Although the month of October showed a significant decline in the number of attacks: 44 attacks as opposed to 88 attacks in September, that is still more than 1 per day. Following are some of the statistics but let's realise that there is a steady consistancy of attacks. One can never know when or where attacks are likely to occur and thus it is amazing that trauma and stress levels do not seem to be increasing. Can you, dear reader, imagine living in this type of environment? It certainly does not seem to bother the international human rights network.

The decrease in the number of attacks is prominent in the area of Jerusalem (6 attacks as opposed to 31 in September) and the Gaza Strip (18 as opposed to 38 in September). The Judea and Samaria area maintains a similar number of attacks (20 compared to 19 in September).

With regard to casualties in terror attacks, there were no fatalities in October, much like in September, except for one Israeli (a security officer) who was injured (October 14) as a result of a firebomb in Jerusalem, contrary to September which resulted in 6 Israeli casualties.


The Judea and Samaria area and Jerusalem where most of the attacks (25 out of 26) were in the form of Molotov cocktail throwing (43 out of 50 in September).

Following is a profile distribution of attacks in October according to regions:

The Gaza Strip – 18 attacks (38 in September): 3 rocket launchings, 10 mortar shell launchings, 4 small arms shootings, and 1 AT launching.

Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem – 26 attacks (50 in September): 1 small arms shooting, 25 Molotov cocktail throwing (6 in Jerusalem).

High-trajectory launchings from the Gaza Strip
Throughout October 2010, 3 rockets and 20 mortar shells were launched towards Israel (in 13 attacks) - 1 every 2/3 days - compared to 16 rockets and 23 mortar shells in September (in 30 attacks).

The Jerusalem Car Accident Video

Following the Mohammad Al Dura case which was eventually found to be a staged "film" after going trough the courts for 7 years, one would have thought the media wold have learnt, - some hope!!

Lenny Ben-David (BlogCentral, http://tinyurl.com/28ghky9 ) comments on the latest Pallywood production "Palestinian Boy Hit By Israeli in Car in East Jerusalem", see View the Video (YouTube)


The film clip showing an Israeli car hitting two Arab children in Silwan on Friday was horrifying. No one can sit quietly and indifferently while children - any children - are hurt before your eyes. Thank God the children survived and were not seriously injured.

Then came the subtext: The children were part of a gang attacking the driver with rocks, and rocks can most definitely kill. (NOTE - the rear windows of the car had been smashed) The boys, emboldened by some militant organizer, covered their faces to avoid identification and arrest. There's no doubt of their intention and premeditation.

The driver was David Be'eri, a leader of the Jewish residents in Silwan. Be'eri's son was in the car.The story and YouTube clip spread around the world in nanoseconds. Arab witnesses charged that the "settler" deliberately ran down the children.But, I've now watched the clip scene-by-scene and in some parts frame-by-frame, and there's a deeper, even sinister, subtext. Most viewers focus on the victims. It's natural. They don't notice at least eight still photographers in addition to the video cameraman.

With the exception of one photographer standing across the street, all the others filmed the scene from the same vantage point at the bottom of the hill. There could have been more. The photographers cold be identified as:
1. Black baseball hat/gray hoodie with strap over shoulder.
2. White tee shirt and jeans across the street
3. Black shirt with gray stripes
4. Blonde woman
5. Green tee shirt
6. Striped polo shirt shows up once the boy's on the ground
7. Later a photographer with a long-sleeve gray shirt shows up riefly.

Many questions need to be asked.

Who invited them and coordinated the time and place?
Who recruited the boys? Did they plan to ambush dafka David Be'eri's car?
Was it an attempt to reenact the iconic death of Mohammed Dura, the boy allegedly killed by Israeli soldiers in 2000 in what we now know was a fake propaganda stage show?

Watch the clip and see how the photographers buzzed around the boy taking pictures while he was on the ground. Only one photographer went through the motion of extending a hand.

Was their sense of humanity suppressed by their hopes of a Pulitzer prize?Also watch as the wounded boy is manhandled and forcibly stuffed into a car against his will.

As a former medic, I was shocked and amazed that the boy survived the mistreatment he received after he was hit by the car. After such an initial trauma, first responders know that there is a likelihood of neck, head and spine injuries.

That was no way to evacuate a casualty, and if - or more likely when - the boy is presented before the press, the cause of his injuries should be judged accordingly.

Every photographer at the Silwan site bears responsibility for the children's injuries. They were tools in the hands of a dangerous propagandist, and they answered the summons to capture the "action" on film. Their presence incited the kids. Then the cameramen stood by as a child laid injured. Until the photographers fess up as to who dispatched them, they should be treated as accomplices to the crime of endangering the children.

Well Wouldn't You Know?

(Thanks to Rhonda Spivak)

Although few would say so publicly, every one of the handful of East Jerusalem Arabs I spoke with in the last two weeks said that he would rather live under Israeli sovereignty than under Mahmoud Abbas’s Palestinian Authority.

In the Arab market in the Old City of Jerusalem, I met Asem, who sells soccer jerseys and sports wear. In his shop, there is a soccer jersey with the name PALESTINE in big letters on a blue background. Asem tells me there is no national soccer team for PALESTINE, but "but we have the shirt.”

But, although he sells a soccer jersey saying PALESTINE, Asem is in no rush to have East Jerusalem become the capital of a Palestinian state under PA President Abbas. When I ask him if he would prefer to live under Abbas in a state of Palestine, rather than under Israeli sovereignty, he gives me the opposite answer of what I expected.

“No, I would rather live under Israelis than under Abbas. Abbas is a thief like Arafat was. But I would rather have Abbas than King Abdullah.”

When I ask him why he prefers to stay under Israeli rule than PA rule, he answers, “At least here I can say what I want. In Syria, if you say what you want, you can go missing forever. In Jordan too. And under Abbas, too. It is chaos there [under PA rule]. Abbas can stay in Ramallah, and stay out of Jerusalem.”

Asem’s Palestinian friend in the shop nodded in agreement. Asem did say that it’s not that he liked Israel per se, but that if given the choice, he prefers it to being ruled by the PA. He continued, “There are some nice homes in Ramallah. You know who lives in them. Abbas and his people. Not all of the other Palestinians. They are kept poor.”

Akram, a taxi driver living in Wadi Joz in East Jerusalem echoed Asam’s sentiments in wanting to remain under Israeli instead of Palestinian rule.
“Abbas, he should stay in Ramallah and not come to Jerusalem. We don’t need him here. We are different than Palestinians in Ramallah and elsewhere. They [the PA] are all “mamzerim’[bastards] and corrupt. I want to be Israeli. I have my Israeli identity card and I want to get my bituach leumi [national insurance benefit]. Who knows what it would be like to live under PA rule? But I don’t want to try it.”

Wadi Joz is a neighborhood where religious Jews have been trying to buy homes.
“There are Arabs who will sell for a lot of money but they do it quietly so no one will know. They make the deal but they make the possession date a long time away,” says Akram, who is pleased to tell me that his brother is entering the Israeli police force.

Moussa, a taxi driver waiting outside the Western wall tells me his name is “Moshey,” which is the Hebrew name for Moussa. Moussa is also definitive that he doesn’t want East Jerusalem to be a capital of a Palestinian state under Mahmoud Abbas. “It’s a balagan there in the West Bank [under Abbas]. I would keep my Israeli identity card...Baruch Hashem, I should live under the Israelis... It wouldn’t be better under Abbas.”

When Moussa says the words “ Baruch Hashem”, I can’t quite believe my ears. Did I hear you correctly saying Baruch Hashem, just like religious Jews do? Moussa smiles. “Yes, I speak like everyone else around here. I guess I picked up the expression.”

Firas, an Arab, who lives in Jerusalem’s Abu Tor neighborhood also says he isn’t in any rush to be under the PA, and is fine with the fact that there are “both Jews and Arabs who live in Abu Tor.”

“Who knows what kind of State there will be under Abbas. All my life I’ve lived under Israeli rule, so I don’t know anything else. But I don’t think my life would be better under the PA,” he says.

"If Music Be the Food of Love"

Thus spoke Duke Orsino in Shalespeare's "Twelfth Night". And, if this is true, then the efforts of the Jerusalem Music Center in general and the family of my good friend who died some 11 years ago, will surely bring love not war to this region.

We attended, what was for us, a unique evening at the Jerusalem Music Center (JMC) for the launch of a sponsored program aimed at the development of young musicians.

The JMC is situated in one of Jerusalem’s most picturesque corners, see photograph, in the first Jewish neighborhood established outside the walls of the old city.

The Center has the mission of nurturing young musicians from the whole spectrum of Israeli society. It provides opportunities for Israeli music students to meet and learn from internationally renowned artists.

The special evening to which we were invited was to launch the David Goldman program for outstanding young musicians in conjunction with the Jerusalm foundation. As close friends of the Goldman family from our life in the UK, it was an emotional evening as it was attended by the late David's widow and her children and grandchildren.

The family have supported young musicians also in the UK but here in Jerusalem, these young talented people have a unique opportunity in a unique setting.

We were treated to performances by a number of quartets during the evening and were able to mingle with the students for coffee and cake at the end of the evening.

A prime aim of the center is also to develop co-existence and it seems this aim is succeeding. Let's hope that "the food of love" takes the place of hatred and jealously and helps to build a better future for all.

Come On - It's Only a Funeral !!

This week was a sad, sad week. Our daughter in law’s Mother sadly passed away at a very young age. A woman of incredible strength of character who spent the last 18 months of her life according to her own plans down to the last detail.

Now why write a blog on such a subject? As is typical of such a woman, she had decided prior to her death that her final resting place should be on the Mount of Olives, a place where other members of the family were buried nearly a hundred years ago.

Such a decision is not a simple one in this troubled region. The day of the funeral coincided with the “Day of Rage” called by the extremist factions of the Palestinians in Jerusalem to protest that the official opening of the Hurva synagogue in the old city which was, it was claimed, “the first step in the building of the third temple”. Such rumours have always, in the past, motivated the Palestinians to violence, a classic example being the genocide and sacking of the Jewish community of Hebron in 1929.

To respect the wishes of the deceased, plans were made for the funeral. Following many words spoken by the family members in the funeral parlour, the mourners made their way to two protected buses and started the journey to the final testing place. The planned route immediately had to be changed as violence had broken out in one of the neighbourhoods through which we had planned to pass.

After stopping to consult with the police, who were to be seen everywhere and needed to be assured it was only a funeral we were planning to attend; the procession proceeded with a security escort to the Mount of Olives, where the final burial took place. It seems that one family who tried to follow the buses made a wrong turning and ended up with their car being stoned. They did not make it to final burial service.

Speaking to one of the security personal as we waited for everyone to board the buses for the return journey, I was told that several factions of the Palestinians in the West Bank and Jerusalem are constantly trying to incite trouble, with calls from the mosques and the media to the general population go out on to the streets and cause trouble. Our security services are doing a great job in keeping this under control.

Thankfully, the return journey, again with security escort, was uneventful. I was told that other funerals planned later in the morning were not so lucky.

Such is life in this troubled land

Sheikh Jarrah was a Jewish Neighbourhood

The recent protests in Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem against the eviction of two Palestinian families from a house has brought international condemnation of Israel has come from a variety of sources, including the UN. But the events in Sheikh Jarrah are part of a larger history that the international community never seems to take into account. So reports Seth Frantzman, see link at the end of the blog

What is today called Sheikh Jarrah in the 19th century included two Jewish neighborhoods known as Nahalat Shimon and Shimon HaTzadiq. Sheikh Jarrah was primarily a Jewish neighborhood from 1876 onwards and remained so up until 1948.

ACCORDING TO research carried out by Prof. Ruth Kark of the Hebrew University the Jewish housing developments were bordered by villas constructed by Jerusalem's leading Arab families that began building in Sheikh Jarrah in the 1870s. By 1918 the total number of Muslim houses in the neighborhood had grown to thirty.

In December of 1947 fighting broke out between Jews and Arabs in Jerusalem. Initially the leading Muslim families asked Arab fighters from outside the city to leave their neighborhood, and the Jews there, in peace. By March 1948, however, Arabs from a unit called "al Shabab" [The Youth] invaded the neighborhood and set the Jewish synagogues and houses on fire, causing the residents to flee.

Sheikh Jarrah was not the only Jewish neighborhood in east Jerusalem destroyed in the war. Silwan, where Yemenite Jews had settled in 1882 was also taken over along with the Old city's Jewish quarter which was razed.

After 1948 East Jerusalem passed into Jordanian control and in this period the city's Christian population declined from around 30,000 before 1948 to some 11,000 in 1967.

THE UN was involved in settling Palestinian refugees in East Jerusalem. The disputed houses in Sheikh Jarrah were actually handed over to the Hannoun and Gawi families in 1956 under the auspices of UNWRA. The Jewish community which actually owned the properties was not consulted. Neither was the Jewish community consulted when graves on the Mount of Olives were destroyed beginning in 1956.

Many of the disputes about East Jerusalem have their origins in what happened between 1948 and 1967, a period so often ignored by historians, governments and activists. The UN was NEVER given authority to resettle Palestinians in Jewish property, yet this is what they did. Before condemning Israel, the UN should first apologize for their theft of Jewish property without compensation. The Jewish properties in question might well have been left in ruins, like part of Nahalat Shimon and the grave of Simon the Just was. In fact none of the rampant destruction of Jewish sites in Jerusalem was condemned by the UN during the period of Jordanian rule.

Had the international community cared then as much as it does now perhaps the disputes would not have come about. If people understood more about the period of Jordanian rule one might better understand the actual history of the city, rather than focusing merely on Israeli actions and Palestinian victimization.

For more on this read http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1251145166123&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

The Israeli Jerusalem Rat

This recent newspaper report has got to take first prize in the ability to stretch people’s "imagination". I wonder when the BBC will pick this up as surely they will!!

The report published by two Palestinian newspapers – one of which, “Al-Hayat Al-Jadida” is an official Palestinian Authority organ directly controlled by the office of PA President Mahmoud Abbas - are accusing Israel of releasing rats to chase away the Arab residents of Jerusalem."

According to the PA papers on July 18th, this amazing creature, the "Israeli-Jerusalem" rat, no doubt secretly developed in Dimona, or other secret place is:

- Immune to rat poison
- Aggressive and larger than usual
- Unafraid of cats and able to scare them away
- Highly fertile, with females giving birth to 140 young rats a year, four times the normal average

and now best of all!!

- Able to distinguish between Jewish and Arab neighbors!!.

Now there is a non military way to solve the woreld's problems!!

Row over Religious Dig

Sky News is running a story “Unholy Row over Religious Site Dig” in a prominent place on its broadcasts which is in fact a new version on an old theme, and one that always ignores the important facts which are available to any competent reporter.
http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30200-1312506,00.html

Any dig undertaken by Israel is always viewed with suspicion whereas the untold damage to antiquities, when the Palestinians undertake “development work” at the Temple Mount, is conveniently ignored.
From a contact who lives in the area reviewed in this story and travels around the neighborhood during her day to day business, she reports that :-

The main digs are taking place in what used to be the Givati Parking lot, which is almost directly across from the Dung Gate in the Old City. The other main digging area is right next to the City of David visitor’s center. The parking lot definitely had no houses on it before the digging, (as claimed by the Sky News reporter) and I'm pretty sure the area next to the visitor’s center was empty as well.

The digging is taking place tens or hundreds of meters underground, and is actually not digging out anything new, but they have discovered tunnels from Herod's time, and they are clearing them out. The tunnels were used by the pilgrims coming to the Temple on the three main holidays of Sukkot, Pessach and Shavuot). If the Arabs have qualms about these tunnels, they'll have to take it up with Herod.

As for home and businesses being destroyed, that is total nonsense. I drive through Silwan on a daily basis, and nothing has changed. The roads are certainly not cracking, and the businesses are all open and receiving customers.

Once again a reporter is led by the nose and disconnects his brain during the journey and consequently an ignorant public is being brainwashed by incompetent reporting

"Now just where did the term "Palestinian" come from?"

Attended a conference this week, there were participants from many European countries. The object of the conference was to try to find ways of combating anti Semitism.

As the opening speaker put it, whereas in essence, the self declared elites of Europe found it necessary in the past to whisper their views in the corridors or over tea, they now feel able to openly declare their views and consequently it has become open season to deligitmize the sate of Israel.

Sitting next to one participant from Norway, he asked me “where is information available on the origin of the term “Palestinian”. Having been asked this question by a strong supporter of Israel prompted me to offer the following in this current blog. The full information can be found at http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/myths/mf1.html#b

The term "Palestine" is derived from the Philistines, an Aegean people who, in the 12th Century B.C.E., settled along the Mediterranean coastal plain of what are now Israel and the Gaza Strip. In the second century C.E., after crushing the last Jewish revolt, the Romans first applied the name “Palaestina” to Judea (the southern portion of what is now called the West Bank) in an attempt to minimize Jewish identification with the land of Israel. The Arabic word "Filastin" is derived from this Latin name.

Jews entered the Land of Israel about 1300 B.C.E., and the second king, David, established Jerusalem as the capital around 1000 B.C.E. The northern part of Israel lasted until 722 B.C.E., when the Assyrians destroyed it, and the southern kingdom survived until the Babylonian conquest in 586 B.C.E. The Jewish people enjoyed brief periods of sovereignty afterward before most Jews were finally driven from their homeland in 135 C.E.

In fact, if not for foreign conquerors, Israel would be 3,000 years old today.

Prior to partition, Palestinian Arabs did not view themselves as having a separate identity. When the First Congress of Muslim-Christian Associations met in Jerusalem in February 1919 to choose Palestinian representatives for the Paris Peace Conference, the following resolution was adopted:

“We consider Palestine as part of Arab Syria, as it has never been separated from it at any time. We are connected with it by national, religious, linguistic, natural, economic and geographical bonds.”

In 1937, a local Arab leader, Auni Bey Abdul-Hadi, told the Peel Commission, which ultimately suggested the partition of Palestine: "There is no such country [as Palestine]! 'Palestine' is an invented. There is no Palestine in the Bible. Our country was for century’s part of Syria."

The representative of the Arab Higher Committee to the United Nations submitted a statement to the General Assembly in May 1947 that said "Palestine was part of the Province of Syria" and that, "politically, the Arabs of Palestine were not independent in the sense of forming a separate political entity."

A few years later, Ahmed Shuqeiri, later the chairman of the PLO, told the Security Council: "It is common knowledge that Palestine is nothing but southern Syria."

Yes, There is Snow

This blog focuses on the environment. Today, saw the first real snow for some years in Jerusalem. Schools were closed; so many families spent a day together. The traditional snowman was built, the clothes were dried out and the family gathered together to watch a video. More snow is forecast for the next day, possibly two so the ritual will continue.

Here on the Carmel Mountain in Haifa, we are probably not quite high enough for snow but the storm gave a friend of ours a great opportunity for photographing of the waves lashing the coast. We have had quite a bit of rain and we have heard the Sea of Galilee has risen 5 cm but we need that almost every day for the month of February to give us a fighting chance of avoiding rationing in the summer

Improving the environment is now the internationally stated gaol. However, words are not enough, there needs to be action taken.

A great new project has started in over 20 schools in the Bet Shemesh ( situated between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv ) to educate children on the issue of the protecting the environment, by giving them the tools to calculate their own and their school’s ecological footprint.

The organization “Sviva Israel” introduces the concept of the three “R”s, - reduce, reuse and recycle to the children to understand the role they can play in improving their lifestyle. The lesson plan gives the example of three children who drink 10 half litre bottles of coke a week. One decides to reduce the quantity he drinks to two bottles, the second buys 5 litre bottles instead of the 10 half litre bottles, the third continues to drink the 10 half litre bottles but pledges to recycle them

The web site www.svivaisrael.org has a questionnaire to allow you to calculate your personal ecological footprint. I did it – the results are quite frightening. If everyone lived my lifestyle, we would need 3 earths to meet the need.

We all really need to think about our life patterns

Will the Snow Arrive This Year?

The grandchildren in Jerusalem are getting excited about the possibility of snow this week. Even those in the Tel Aviv area are making their plans to visit Jerusalem if snow arrives. Whether their parents are involved in these plans remains to be seen!!

A heavy fall of snow in Jerusalem happens only once in 5-7 years so the children want to make the most of it. Temperatures are expected to reach freezing levels Tuesday night during the inclement weather, which is forecast to begin Monday night and continue through Thursday.

If it does happen, schools will close giving the children every opportunity to enjoy the snow to its maximum.

It is reported that the Jerusalem municipality is on standby to clear streets and salt main roads to prevent freezing, while the city's hotline will be manned by extra staff.

The Mayor of Jerusalem announced that all homeless people in Jerusalem will be offered the option of staying in hotels during the inclement weather expected in the area.

The Jerusalem Post reported that according to the plan dubbed "Warm House," Welfare officials in the city have been instructed to provide shelter for all the homeless people until the cold front passes. Further, all Jerusalem residents are being asked to phone the municipality to report any homeless person who is on the street.

If the snow does arrive, we need to pray that it also falls on Mount Hermon since in the spring; it is the melting snow which helps to fill the Sea of Galilee. We are not making any headway in filling up the Sea this winter. In fact today it was reported that in 2007 there was only 50% of the average rainfall. It is not going to be long before the government has to consider rationing.

We typically collect rain water on our balcony each winter and use it during the summer to water our plants. However, whereas in the last few years we have had 120-150 bottles by the winters end, we are well down on the number of bottles stored this year.

Maybe we will have to smell a bit more in the summer and take fewer showers!!!