12/31/2009

McNamara Ground Operation Coffee Machine-Arabic Study

This Nigerian guy who tried to blow up a Northwest flight from Amsterdam as it was landing here in Detroit studied Arabic for a bit in Yemen. However it was that he decided to carry out an anti-Christian revenge mission in the name of the modern proponents of terrorism, "What a waste of his intellectual journey!" I say.

If only he had had a chance to work with the American working class...We studied Arabic in the age of dinosaurs, when we studied with Charles Pellat, who came from the Sorbonne to teach us about Al-Jahiz, and right here in Michigan, we studied with Charles Bellamy, who helped edit with Ernest McCarus a wonderful selection of Modern Arabic Poetry. I'll have to scan it and put it on my private web site.

Also, now in the midst of teaching English, I speculate on whether the words and vocabulary with which Arabic literature and newspapers discuss the issues now is not almost completely different from the words and vocabulary of typical pre-intermediate English courses which select from the topics of the developed world, and use words like "systemic," as Obama was prompted to use. A word with no meaning which all the newsmedia seem to understand immediately.

I got a rude shock in my English teaching to Saudi's yesterday when I prepared an episode of Carl Sagan's Cosmos to show the excitement of the first Voyager 1 pictures in 1979. It was completely confusing to them...and I realized it was because the planets have completely different names in Arabic.

12/03/2009

Café de Flore, Paris-notes du 21 novembre 2009



This is my blog from the first day in Paris. Here is a picture of the woolen fashions of Paris in the late fall, and a picture of Michael Moore's film advertised in a Parisian Kiosk in Sevres Babylone.

I have been so busy preparing my English lessons, with only the thought of doing things like making power point explanations of Grammar, or putting quizzes on Blackboard CT that I almost forgot the promotional ticket on KLM that I had reserved two months ago to spend the Hajj vacation in Paris.

Paris is such a stimulating intellectual expereince for me. Even on the Plane, KLM had the Saturday le Monde(le monde is always pubished the day before in the afternoon; so the Friday afternoon--i.e. Saturday--issue was already in Amsterdam for the 7:15 am flight to Paris CDG. There was a fascinating interviews with a biographer of Camus, Olivier Todd, on Camus and Sartre. Camus is in the news now because Sarkozy wants to "Pantheonise" him--have him buried with Napoleon in the Pantheon. I had confused Camus with Sartre, who, en fin de compte, malgré son gauchisme, was against the Algerian rebellion against French colonialism. Camus, though a pied noir, born in Algeria, supported some of the early uprisings of the Algerians. But mostly he was a writer for the writer's sake. He joined the PC francais, but denied it for a chance to go to the US on a visit during the Witch hunt era, --a fact which his biographer finds strange, since he was such a believer in honesty.

I took some pictures right in the Airport to show you how nice CDG is. I am staying at the Jules Ferry Youth Hostel, right near Place de la Republique and Bastille. I went to the Louvre today because on the Plane, I watched a documentary about the 1911 theft of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre!!! Yes, an italian immigrant carpenter, a certain, Mr. Perugia, who had worked for a time putting the mona lisa in a glass frame, walked in on a Monday when the museum, in those days was closed and had no guards, or at least only minimal guards while the workers moved paintings around and such types of cleaning. He kept the painting in his room for two years, the police never found him, and then took a train to Florence after writing to an Italian art dealer that he wanted to bring the Mona Lisa back to Italy. The art dealer consulted with the head of the Ufizzi and decided to meet him to see if he were a prankster or not. They took the painting, recognizing it as the original, left him in the hotel and sent the carbinieri to arrest him. He was put in jail for two years and then released. The Mona Lisa was on display in the Ufizzi for a month--long lines came to see it. So the wish of the thief became a reality before the Italians did indeed return the Mona Lisa to the Louvre.

My first day in Paris, the day the plane arrived was everything I could have wanted it to be. Michael Moore's new film, Capitalism, a Love Affair, was in the kiosks because it is coming out Nov. 27. I bought a "carnet de dix" and took my favorite busses and watched the people in the sunshine and last day of autumn, a sort of Indian Summer with people in simple "vestes" ou un "pull", rairly with the famous black woolen coats of the Parisians in Winter.

At a little before 4pm, I was looking at the posters outside the Comédie Française, Théatre du Vieux Colombier, in the 6th arrondissement, when a young man, perhaps a teacher, offered me a free ticket to the 4 o'clock show because the people he had invited--perhaps his class? had not come. So I treated myself to my first experience in this branch theater of the Comédie Française. It was an interview with the costume designer, coutumier, of the Comedie Francaise, a certain Renato Bianchi. The librarian--archiviste--of the Comédie Française was the main sort of master of ceremonies getting two actual actors, comédiens, from the Comédie Française, (on the program, the actors are referred to as "sociétaires de la Comédie Française") to comment on Renato's work with them as they all sat on stage and spoke in their wonderfully articulated French--especially the comédiens. The young archiviste; Agathe Sanjuan had spliced together some readings of the historic descriptions of the costume rules in the Comédie Française, and these were read by a student (eleve comedien) of the Comédie Française. Also wonderfully read. Finally they had some pictures of the costumes and Renato went into some detail on the change that happened when he came where there was a desire for researching the authenticity of costumes. He said it was sort of archaeological work. They bought a whole bunch of old period clothes from Italy. Further on in the program they talked about the tissue of the costumes, and later again on how the costumes are made to fit the actors. Finally, they showed pictures of Renato and his assistants turning the blue lines on the "tissue" which they had used to fit the actor, into sewed cloth for another "essai." and then the final cutting. Renato talked a long time about what was going on in the blue lines--almost trade secrets, that was hard to understand, but I could see why when, later, just before closing because time was running out, Agathe asked him to comment on what someone who wanted to be a "costumier" should study, and Renato said he or she should study to be a couturier. I don't know how we would translate couturier in English. But, of course it is the special tailor who designs "la haute couture," not necessarily a "tailleur," or taylor.(I just passed a men's "tailleur" near the Opéra, before writing this, which had a video in the window of the tailor cutting and fitting like Renato in the Comédie Française At one point Renato said a very telling thing. He said that in the old days when you apprenticed to be a couturier, you were CORRECTED. But that now no one ever corrects you. It made me realize that the fitting that goes into the European or British suit, with it's padded shoulders, for example, is really out now. The American look is just casual sloppy, doesn't enhance the body. By a freak, here too was a connection with my trip from Dammam. KLM provided a taxi-limosine from Al-Khobar to Bahrain airport to catch the KLM plane to Amsterdam, and during the taxi ride, we watched part of an American series where young aspiring fashion designers compete in the fashion world. Everything was "create an iconic image of New York for this shoot"--they were given the choice of the best photographers and models and then had to make an iconic new york shot. They just dressed a model in a tee shirt and had him eating hot dogs with mustard, or another dressed a model in old boots and a brown sack and had him throw a blanket in extasy has he saw the Stature of Liberty on the Staten Island ferry. Yet another commissioned an African American friend in the sewing trade to make an evening dress out of the American flag. All this TV stuff strikes me as being SO patriotic as everything has to be in the US as it goes to war in 3 different places to protect itself from "terrorism."

Such a difference between how the Parisians wear clothes. Especially the women. Every woman has someting different. A yellow scarf here, black tights with boots of various kinds, even blue jeans with a big patch of black and white cotton repairing a pretend tear in the rear end, wonderful assortment of sweaters of various lengths.
The men, too, sometimes wear jackets--"coutourier jackets?" with the sort of "bulkiness" of design similar to the costume Renato was making in the slides at the Comedie Francaise, as he fitted an actor who was to play a man with a big (artificial) stomach. You don't see what they wear for sale in the deparment stores. They just seem to invent them from what they have in the home. Black is especially prevalent in Paris, and like the Parisians, I was able to buy a black wool coat made in China in Saudi Arabia, which gets a lot of cheap things from China, for about $40 instead of $400. But it looks just as good.

Café de Flore, Paris-notes du 23 novembre 2009

Notes for the 22

Below is a short video which I shot from the bus number 68 from Sevres Babylone to Place Clichy for lunch at Flunch. The 68, and the 94 pass through the Louvre, Carousel. You can hear the bumpiness as the bus goes over the cobblestones that still remain in this stretch of the Paris streets in front of the Louvre.

Cocteau at Comedie Francaise\ Just missed it

The Reserve, by Russel Banks translated into French and read by an actor of the Comedie Francaise.

Russel Banks is not to be confused with the revolutionary fighters Russel Means and Dennis Banks in the US. The Reserve, by Russel Banks seems to me more of this E.L. Doctorow stuff where the American writer tries to show his progressiveness by writing with references to Sacco And Vanzetti, the Haymarket Martyrs, etc.

Like many things American, the French are more in tune to our « leftist » history than most Americans. Dashiel Hammet is in an Expo here in Paris this winter and also you see articles on him in the Kiosks.

Bought Les monstres, started reading in Starbucks

Umberto Eco is coming to Louvre. Thoughts on the Medieval Esthetic and his Lists.

Lists are the same. The same happened in the Middle Ages in the East, no, as far as the greek esthetic. It is just that the Middle East kept the Roman Law and its traditions whereas Luther and the teutonics dispensed with it . That is why the English are so much against Sharia perhaps. But the Arabs had Aristotles, Poetica, too. So, in reality they had the same esthetics. And a comparison between Homer’s lists, like Eco does, and the lists of the Medieval Arab historians should be made : Maqrizi, Lisan al-Arab. However there is no Dante, no Ariosto. Or is Jahiz that ?
Shakespear’s Macbeth witches seene is a list—the observations of astronomers in Tus, Maraqha, Baluchistan are lists.


On things Italian. Umberto Eco is invited to the Louvre ! Le Louvre invite Umberto Eco. And La comedie francaise is playing La Grande Magie by Eduardo De Filippo.
Eduardo De Filippo with Dario Fo is the most famous post war author-actor in post WW2 Italy. He made L’Abito nuovo in collaboration with Luigi Pirandello. He wrote La Grande Magie in 1948 and has been an actor in the cinema. I hope to see a matininee of it (La Grande Magie) on Sunday at 14h.

As for Umberto Eco, I had previously only associated him with « The Roman de la Rose, » Which I think was made into a film with Sean Connery. But he is a writer about many things relating to history of Art. I cama cross a book of his in the Louvre bookstore, in the Carrousel du Louvre, just inisde the entrance to the Louvre, where you don’t have to pay to go inside :Umberto Eco, Art et beaute dans l’esthetique Medievale Grasset 1997 Italian original Arte e Bellezza nel estetica mediavale 1987.
He notes what I came up against in 1971—that people don’t accept that there was an aesthetic in the Middle Ages. I must buy the book, I thought to myself as I was in the Louvre bookstore.

Then I cam areound a corner and say that there wss a whole table of Umberto Eco books and that he was coming Wednesday for a signing of his book published under the Louvre’s own « habitants du Louvre « series : Vertige de la liste : Traducion du tete d’Umberto Eco : Myriem Bouzaher. He willl be signing the book today, so if I’m not to shy I’ll go meet him. His book on lists relates to what I have frequently thought about Islam. That the Histories are essentially lists. In this sense, they are a form of Art. This idea of seeing lists in art by umberto Eco is very good.

En bas, video du Louvre vu du bus 68, allant a Place Clichy pour manger au "Flunch."


11/15/2009

Shati' Tea and Falafel Shop, Gaza

The oranges are just starting to turn yellow now. A sign that winter is here. Egypt will be exporting oranges to Saudi Arabia, ours not. The blocade by Israel continues. Abbas has said he will not run again because there is no point in having a "Palestinian Authority," since Israel does not want to stop settlement activity.

9/04/2009

From my apartment


Ca c'est ce que j'ai cuisiné se soir: boulettes(tres minces) de mouton haché melangé avec du persil et de l'ail, cuit au four avec pommes de terre, tomates, et onions.
Il s'appelle saniyyat batatas wa lahme: dish of potatoes and meat.

A coté il y a une boite turque qui etait pour les tomates turque, dans laquelle il y a des dates saoudiens en saison.
Et derrière, quelques peches turques. Les peches de Bursa, en Turquie: formidables. Mais il ne faut pas manger les fruits que 2 heures après le déjeuner.

6/28/2009

McNamara Ground-ops lunch room coffee machine


If only we could get Palestinian olive oil, and grapefruit from the southern Lebanon coast...in Detroit, where the late Michael Jackson began his career with Motown Records. Here is a picture of these precious foods, available at the coop store in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Michael Jackson may have been able to buy Palestinian Olive oil and Jaffa oranges(but from Lebanon) when he was in Bahrain recovering from the horrid trial against him.

6/23/2009

from my apartment-watching BBC on Iran

The coverage of the pro-Ahmedinajad and pro-Musawi movements in Iran continues on BBC TV. The BBC often points to the crisis of the regime because of the Guardian council's not recognizing the request of the Musawi supporters to hold new elections. Of course, this is kind of wishfull thinking on the part of the BBC and western govenmemts, who persist in their old grudge against the Iranians for having ousted the Shah and the SAVAC secret police in 1979. While the BBC and now, as of yesterday Ban Ki Moon of the UN, criticize the alleged crackdown on the Mussavi demonstrations, they do have a point in that there are deep divisions in the Iranian capitaist regime right now, and the pro-Mussavi and pro-Ahmedinajad movements are a reflection of this.
The BBC did not and has not interviewed the point of view of workers and farmers in Iran, but rather only the middle class sectors of north Tehran. Ahmedinajad has support, probably, among the poor, and among the Revolutionary Guards and the Basij, but he too, is wavering on whether give up Iran's centrifuge uranium production in order to end the sanctions on Iran.

6/18/2009

6/04/2009

Fishawi Tea Shop, Cairo

Obama came to Egypt early this morning; so the streets were cleared so that nobody could throw the occasional shoe at him. Here in the Hussein area, we're disappointed he didn't bring his wife and children to show that Egypt is still good for tourism and that Egyptians are friendly. He just lectured us about Islam the way he has gotten used to doing lecturing the CEO's of General Motors, as if he's serious about little people's concerns.

5/13/2009

Ismael Shammout of Lydda and Khan Younis, Gaza



I bought some wonderful oranges from Sidon, even this late in the season. They are smaller than the Egyptian navel oranges, which I am told were originally from Palestine. These oranges from southern Lebanon must be what the original oranges of Palestine must have been like before the european settlers cleared the coast of oranges to make way for cement parking lots and apartment houses in Tel Aviv.

The box said Shamouti, in English, and I looked up in Google to see if that were the name of a certain type of orange. Instead, Google found references to Ismael Shammout, the famous Palestinian artist who did the famous picture of the man, like Aenaes fleeing Troy, but carrying the whole burden of the refugees on his back. Click on this link to see a series of paintings Shammout (and his wife, Tamman Al-Akhal?) made on the history of Palestinians in exile. And on this link to see his biography, as it was posted on a McGill listserve of Palestinians in Exile. My friend, who Crystal Kessler used to call, Che Guevara because of his beret, at AUC was from McGill...nice old listserver here. What was his name, he must have become quite a famous Arabist now.

5/10/2009

Shati Tea and Falafel Shop, Gaza

An unusual admission of the lies which the Israeli establishment gives about the so-called "Temple Mount" was given in a New York Times article yesterday. But most interesting was this link to the History of Jerusalem page of Al-Quds University.

Also interesting is this link to my old geocities page of journals, which I have preserved on my umich.edu web

5/08/2009

Jeoffrey's Cafe, Dhahran


Voici ma bicyclette devant le café. Jim et Ed sont venu me parler de ceci et cela cet apres midi.

2/13/2009

Cafe de Flore, Paris--a note on Mary Magdalen

It's coincidental that Mary Magdalen, from Al-Majdal, an industrial suburb of Ashkelon, came to Provence on a mission to spread the faith. Many of the Palestinians who were forced to leave their homes in 1948 Palestine and moved to the Gaza strip were from Al-Majdal.

2/09/2009

Café de Turin, 5 Place Garibaldi, Nice


Feb. 9 2009: Savoured a coffee this morning here, visiting the new Nice tram system and the one euro bus to Cap Ferrat. I walked from Port Jean, Cap Ferrat, up across the cap to la Mauresque, which was the villa that W: Sommerset Maughm lived his last days in.

1/27/2009

Obama interview with Al-Arabiyya

Maybe the reason Al-Arabiyya has kept Hanan Al-Masri off the screen is that they wanted to get the first interview in the Arab and Muslim world with Obama, as they did today.

1/19/2009

From my apartment

Watching the BBC, its reporter finally allowed in to see the destruction. 50,000 Palestinians are still living in schools since their homes have been bombed to smithereens, particularly in the north, near the borders of 1948 Israel. Audio in Arabic about Israeli tanks continuing to be placed on the areas directly adjacent to Israel's southern border.

1/18/2009

From my Apartment

the Cease fire by the Israelis seems to be real. Al-Arabiyya is showing pictures of the villages north of Gaza city in ruins after what the bombs and tanks did there.

1/17/2009

Jan. 16--22nd day: Up the coast from Shati' Tea and Falafel Shop, in Beit Lahiya

The occupying forces bombed and sent phosphorous shells in the UNRWA school in Beit Lahiya this morning, killing two people and wounding others who were taking refuge there. There was also intense tank fire against residents in Khan Younis, a little than mid way down the coast. Shortly, I will put a recording of the Al-Arabiyya TV report from Beit Lahiya. The UN secretary general, Bi Kam Moon criticized Israel quite forcefully from where he was in Lebanon. Tel Aviv is considering calling a unilateral cease fire. With great lies and fanfare Olmert did call for a unilateral cease fire about 12 midnight Saudi time, just in time for the evening news in the USA.

1/16/2009

Shati' Tea and Falafel Shop, Gaza



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The Palestinian minister of the interior, whom the occupation forces killed with an F16 missile grew up in Shati', born there in 1953. There was a sort of quiet in Gaza city today, but Hanan Al-Masri reported on Al-Arabiyya that there was shelling by occupation forces in Shaj'iyya, east Gaza City which is a very famous area from the first intifada. She got reports of further occupation forces shelling in Khan Younis, where the famous Mamluke city center is and which has many popular supporters of Hamas.





BBC is saying that Hamas has rejected the cease fire, but they are just picking on a speech by Khaled Meshal at the Doha meeting. Hamas has agreed to the Egyptian - French proposal. Livni is in the US with Rice, rushing there after the "mistake" the occupation forces made yesterday of bombing the UN warehouse and burning alll the supplies while Bi Moon was there. Below is a good response to a prof in Beersheba who "explained" on the New York Times why Israelis are united behind the actions of the occupying forces. Also, below that is a comment I made that was published in the comments blog of this professor. IN RESPONSE TO THE STRANGE WAY ISRAELIS ARE UNITED BEHIND THE BOMBING: Here is a good comment to a Beersheba Professors article in the NEW York times explaining how frightened Israelis are by the rockets. 1. An absolutely ridiculous essay. You whine about the terror of hearing rockets everyday, while ignoring the reason why Hamas sends those rockets. Hamas knows that rockets will never “defeat” Israel. The point is to remind Israelis that there is a destitute Palestinian population that has no chance of improving its lot as long as Israel continues to strangle it economically. How convenient is it for you to forget the root causes of this: - no trade allowed with the outside world - constant power shutdowns - constant land grabs (including the wall built on Palestinian land) - arbitrary imprisonment and killings with no legal proceedings (Israel is police, judge and jury) Lets look at the reality of the situation, this is really very similar to other historical eras. For years South Africa maintained the same policy as Israel - boxing in the indigent population while maintaining that it was necessary to contain terrorists. In Nazi Germany the same thing was done in the ghettos. Yes these comparisons are ugly, but they hold true if looked at objectively. Its time to hold Israel accountable for its actions. All necessary humanitarian aid to Palestinians should be deducted directly from aid now given to Israel. A trade embargo should be imposed on Israel also, It makes no sense for the US and the world to continue to subsidize this insanity. Once Israel also feels the pain of economic isolation it too will decide that such policies will never be productive. And here’s mine on Jan15th at 10am 1. The Occupying Forces are running the war very carefully on the ground so as to continually allow Hamas to fire rockets at Bersheeba and Ashkelon. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that the rockets are fired from the fields as close as possible to the Israeli border, that is to say OUTSIDE the poplulation centers. Yet the Israeli Air force and apache helicopters are striking targets all over the Gaza strip, and, even today, in the south west part of Gaza city, the elegant area just south of the French Cultural Center and the British Council. For days, they have demolished houses in Jabalia and Beit Lahia, but totally ignored the fields between Jabalia and the Erez crossing. So the rockets keep coming. I believe that that is the strategy of the high ups in the Israeli establishment. They need the rockets to keep coming in order to keep Israeli public opinion on their side, while they carry out a massive destruction and bloodletting of the various parts of the Gaza strip. Nor does it take a rocket scientist to see that with all the high tech stuff available in Israel, some teenager couldn’t have invented a rocket that would intercept a Qassam in mid flight. But, oh no. The Israeli government wouldn’t want to do such a simple thing to protect its citizens!! “Israel has to teach the Palestinians a lesson.” — 3011

1/15/2009

Tell El-Hawa, Gaza Jan.15, 20th day UN Headquarters shelled by Occupying foces


Here is the recording on from TV Arabiyya, in a quicktime movie where the movie is blank because I do not have the means to record the tv. This is Hanan al-Masri telling the announcer in Saudi Arabia, whose name is Mohammad, that she has to leave because of the smoke. A reporter from Dubai TV, wearing his "press" vest was wounded in the same building. Hanan is quite calm, but says she has to go, in good classical Arabic, right to the end.
Although Al-Arabiyya has some problems with a picture feed from Gaza now that the Occupation Troops have entered the Tell El-Hawa part of Gaza, they get phone calls from all over the strip of individual Gazan's trying to get news out of what is happening. By broadcasting these, Al-Arabiyya hopes to be able to help the civil defense crews get to places where they are needed. Below is a woman speaking on the telephone from a building were there are several families huddled inside and there is a fire which has started.


Taghreed al-Khodeiri, reporting for the New York Times from Gaza reports: "Residents of the Tel el-Hawa district in south-western Gaza City said Israeli shelling and shooting had gone on all night and that the local Al Quds Hospital was under fire."

The picture above is of the fire in the UNWRA headquarters in Tell El-Hawa, Gaza.
This is a very elegant neighborhood, just south of the French Cultural Center and the British Council where English lessons used to be given to students who could never get to Jerusalem anyway to take the TOEFL because the Israelis kept the borders closed so often.

Tell El-Hawa Jan.15 morning

The Occupying forces simply follow their old roads, made from the time when they had actual military settlements in Gaza. Having bombed to smithereens the farm villages to the north of Gaza city, Jabalia and Beit Lahia, and machine gunning the poorer areas from the sea(Al-Shati) and from the air(As-Shaji'yya to the south and east of Gaza city), last night the occupying forces began moving north from the old Israeli settlement of Natzarim arriving with tanks in Tell el-Hawa, where there are tall buildings and many people, also the univerities and Book fair expositions parks. Here is the report from Hanan Al-Masri describing the reports of movements of Israeli troops to Tell El-Hawa. She gives no indication that in about an hour later, the very building where she was reporting from would be filled with smoke and she would have to leave. So this is the last TV Arabiyya, possibly, from the Shurook Building in Tell El-Hawa. (Also, at 1:00 Saudi time, noon Gaza time, Al-arabiyya got a telepone call from a woman with people trapped in Burj Istakhbarat with many families and children. This building is in Tell El-Hawa and quite near the Al-Arabiyya broadcast center. The BBC reporter reported that the tanks were getting near to where he was, too.

1/14/2009

Palestinian voices from Zeitun in my apartment


As we reported in "From my apartment 17th day of the Invasion," Red Cross ambulances were denied permission to get into Zeitun, to the east of Gaza City. Well, today, Al-Arabiyya interview a van load with some women who were able to get out of Zeitun. I was not able to catch the first part of the interview where the matriarch spoke of how she tried to explain to the Israeli troops that they were Jordanians. That they had already been kicked out of the west bank in 1967. Then I turned on the tape recorder when her 15-year-old daughter was talking. This is the first description I have heard of what the ground troops of the occupying forces are doing in the villages surrounding Gaza city while the F-16's and Apache helicopters demolish buildings in Gaza city itself. She describes how the occupying forces banged on their door and entered the house. They even questioned her about her "shobah" and the reporter says, "What's a shobah?" and she says, "It's just a paddle we use to stir flour to make bread." I couldn't quite understand, but it seems the occupying forces thought even that was a weapon and they arrested her brothers and threw all the children on the street(the pavement?). Below is the recording. I preserve it here on Blogger for the melodious tones--to me--of the Palestinian accent.





Later, after this live report from inside Gaza, near where the service taxis and bus-vans come, Al-Arabiyya reported that Hamas representatives at the peace talks in Cairo had agreed to the Egyptian cease fire. At first BBC tried to say that Al-Jazeera was reporting that the Hamas spokespeople in Damascus did not agree to the cease fire. But I saw Al-Jazeera and they carried the Hamas press conference in Cairo live, where the spokesperson--I forget his name--said the Egyptian brother would be carrying the Hamas agreement to the ceasefire to the Israelis.

The delay will give the Israelis more time to bomb and make mayhem tonight and they will probably disagree to to abide by the cease fire since it obligates them to stop the bombing, withdraw, and open the borders with Gaza.



An hour before midnight Saudi Time, the New York Times grudgingly put in the news that Hamas had agreed to the cease fire in an article about how some Israeli groups were calling for a war crimes investigation(NYT did not mention that Richard Falk, Princeton emeritus has called for Israel to be brought before the World Court for War Crimes) with this picture of destruction in Gaza city today, Wednesday, Jan.l 14, 2009. The picture above is credited to Hatem Moussa/Associated Press

1/13/2009

Shati' Tea and Falafel shop: Tuesday January 13-18th day of the invasion of Gaza

The Israeli military let a few members of the Red Cross come into Gaza for 5 hours this morning. Katherine Ritz of the ICRC visited al-Shifa hospital and then reported to BBC's Zeinab Badawi on what she saw.

BBC got video out of a typical Red Crescent ambulance trip right after an bombing. As Katherine Ritz reported, children are becomming casualties increasingly.

1/12/2009

From my apartment on the 17th day of the Israeli Attack on Gaza



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Al-Arabiyya reports from inside Gaza that the Israeli troops are preventing Red Cresecent ambulances from reaching wounded in Zeitoun, and that the Israelis are still bombing on the outskirts of Gaza city, in Beit Lahia, not yet in Gaza city itself. The New York Times, which relies only on the Israeli generals, says that the tanks and called-up reservists are entering Gaza city. Below, and in the RSS feed, is the January 11th voice of Hanan Al-Ashrawi, member of the Palestine National Assembly, speaking to the BBC from Ramallah about the importance of quickly stopping the war on Gaza.

1/09/2009

Shati' Tea and Falafel Shop, Gaza

January 9, 14th day of the Israeli invasion of Gaza. There is fear tonight that the third phase of the Israeli invasion will start soon, with the troops coming into the "camps" part of Gaza and shooting their way among the houses. In the video is the voice of Hanan Al-Masri reporting tonight on Al-Arabiyya TV.

McNamara Ground Ops Lunchroom, Detroit

We listened to this BBC World television interview on "Hard Talk" with Osama Hamdan, representative of Hamas in Beirut

1/08/2009

From My Apartment

Midnight Saudi Time(11pm in Gaza)January 8:
I just heard Osama Hamdan, a Hamas spokesperson in Beirut, interviewing with a Saudi channel called Iqra and then in English on BBC's Hard Talk. One can see why Israel and the US don't like Hamas: they are excellent defenders of the right of the Palestinians not to live under occupation.

Also heard that the Israeli soldiers killed an aid worker, a foreigner, in Gaza today and that the UN has had to suspend all aid to Gaza.

Jan 8th, 13th day of the bombing--What You Don't Know About Gaza

From the Jan. 8 New York Times
"OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR
What You Don’t Know About Gaza

By RASHID KHALIDI
Published: January 7, 2009
NEARLY everything you’ve been led to believe about Gaza is wrong. Below are a few essential points that seem to be missing from the conversation, much of which has taken place in the press, about Israel’s attack on the Gaza Strip.


THE GAZANS Most of the people living in Gaza are not there by choice. The majority of the 1.5 million people crammed into the roughly 140 square miles of the Gaza Strip belong to families that came from towns and villages outside Gaza like Ashkelon and Beersheba. They were driven to Gaza by the Israeli Army in 1948.

THE OCCUPATION The Gazans have lived under Israeli occupation since the Six-Day War in 1967. Israel is still widely considered to be an occupying power, even though it removed its troops and settlers from the strip in 2005. Israel still controls access to the area, imports and exports, and the movement of people in and out. Israel has control over Gaza’s air space and sea coast, and its forces enter the area at will. As the occupying power, Israel has the responsibility under the Fourth Geneva Convention to see to the welfare of the civilian population of the Gaza Strip.

THE BLOCKADE Israel’s blockade of the strip, with the support of the United States and the European Union, has grown increasingly stringent since Hamas won the Palestinian Legislative Council elections in January 2006. Fuel, electricity, imports, exports and the movement of people in and out of the Strip have been slowly choked off, leading to life-threatening problems of sanitation, health, water supply and transportation.
The blockade has subjected many to unemployment, penury and malnutrition. This amounts to the collective punishment — with the tacit support of the United States — of a civilian population for exercising its democratic rights.

THE CEASE-FIRE Lifting the blockade, along with a cessation of rocket fire, was one of the key terms of the June cease-fire between Israel and Hamas. This accord led to a reduction in rockets fired from Gaza from hundreds in May and June to a total of less than 20 in the subsequent four months (according to Israeli government figures). The cease-fire broke down when Israeli forces launched major air and ground attacks in early November; six Hamas operatives were reported killed.

WAR CRIMES The targeting of civilians, whether by Hamas or by Israel, is potentially a war crime. Every human life is precious. But the numbers speak for themselves: Nearly 700 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed since the conflict broke out at the end of last year. In contrast, there have been around a dozen Israelis killed, many of them soldiers. Negotiation is a much more effective way to deal with rockets and other forms of violence. This might have been able to happen had Israel fulfilled the terms of the June cease-fire and lifted its blockade of the Gaza Strip.
This war on the people of Gaza isn’t really about rockets. Nor is it about “restoring Israel’s deterrence,” as the Israeli press might have you believe. Far more revealing are the words of Moshe Yaalon, then the Israeli Defense Forces chief of staff, in 2002: “The Palestinians must be made to understand in the deepest recesses of their consciousness that they are a defeated people.”


Rashid Khalidi, a professor of Arab studies at Columbia, is the author of the forthcoming “Sowing Crisis: The Cold War and American Dominance in the Middle East."
More Articles in Opinion » A version of this article appeared in print on January 8, 2009, on page A31 of the New York edition."

Cats-me-Jeddah Video...Jan 8, 13h day of Israeli Attack on Gaza Map

Map. I look sort of stupid smiling in the video, below. I noticed that I could upload videos to blogger, so I put some old pictures of me, some cats near my apartment in Jeddah two years ago, and some pictures of the old houses in Jeddah, to make a "video" background for a recording from Al-Arabiyya TV reporting from Gaza in the morning. It makes me nostalgic to see these names and places that I knew,from 1996, which are now under intense bombing. Below is report direct from Gaza in Arabic, from Al-Arabiyya's TV connection inside Gaza city. I have put this report from this morning by Hanan Al-Masri, as an Arabic background to this video, cats-me-Jeddah.

Stupid Thomas Friedman on Gaza

I just copied and pasted this because it is classic Thomas Friedman stupidity and lying. Below it are some good online reactions of readers, to it, however.



Op-Ed Columnist
The Mideast’s Ground Zero
comments (313)


By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Published: January 6, 2009
The fighting, death and destruction in Gaza is painful to watch. But it’s all too familiar. It’s the latest version of the longest-running play in the modern Middle East, which, if I were to give it a title, would be called: “Who owns this hotel? Can the Jews have a room? And shouldn’t we blow up the bar and replace it with a mosque?”


That is, Gaza is a mini-version of three great struggles that have been playing out since 1948: 1) Who is going to be the regional superpower — Egypt? Saudi Arabia? Iran? 2) Should there be a Jewish state in the Middle East and, if so, on what Palestinian terms? And 3) Who is going to dominate Arab society — Islamists who are intolerant of other faiths and want to choke off modernity or modernists who want to embrace the future, with an Arab-Muslim face? Let’s look at each.

WHO OWNS THIS HOTEL? The struggle for hegemony over the modern Arab world is as old as Nasser’s Egypt. But what is new today is that non-Arab Iran is now making a bid for primacy — challenging Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Iran has deftly used military aid to both Hamas and Hezbollah to create a rocket-armed force on Israel’s northern and western borders. This enables Tehran to stop and start the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at will and to paint itself as the true protector of the Palestinians, as opposed to the weak Arab regimes.

“The Gaza that Israel left in 2005 was bordering Egypt. The Gaza that Israel just came back to is now bordering Iran,” said Mamoun Fandy, director of Middle East programs at the International Institute of Strategic Studies. “Iran has become the ultimate confrontation state. I am not sure we can talk just about ‘Arab-Israeli peace’ or the ‘Arab peace initiative’ anymore. We may be looking at an ‘Iranian initiative.’ ” In short, the whole notion of Arab-Israeli peacemaking likely will have to change.

CAN THE JEWS HAVE A ROOM HERE? Hamas rejects any recognition of Israel. By contrast, the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority, which controls the West Bank, has recognized Israel — and vice versa. If you believe, as I do, that the only stable solution is a two-state one, with the Palestinians getting all of the West Bank, Gaza and Arab sectors of East Jerusalem, then you have to hope for the weakening of Hamas.

Why? Because nothing has damaged Palestinians more than the Hamas death-cult strategy of turning Palestinian youths into suicide bombers. Because nothing would set back a peace deal more than if Hamas’s call to replace Israel with an Islamic state became the Palestinian negotiating position. And because Hamas’s attacks on towns in southern Israel is destroying a two-state solution, even more than Israel’s disastrous and reckless West Bank settlements.

Israel has proved that it can and will uproot settlements, as it did in Gaza. Hamas’s rocket attacks pose an irreversible threat. They say to Israel: “From Gaza, we can hit southern Israel. If we get the West Bank, we can rocket, and thereby close, Israel’s international airport — anytime, any day, from now to eternity.” How many Israelis will risk relinquishing the West Bank, given this new threat?

SHOULDN’T WE BLOW UP THE BAR AND REPLACE IT WITH A MOSQUE? Hamas’s overthrow of the more secular Fatah organization in Gaza in 2007 is part of a regionwide civil war between Islamists and modernists. In the week that Israel has been slicing through Gaza, Islamist suicide bombers have killed almost 100 Iraqis — first, a group of tribal sheikhs in Yusufiya, who were working on reconciliation between Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds, and, second, mostly women and children gathered at a Shiite shrine. These unprovoked mass murders have not stirred a single protest in Europe or the Middle East.

Gaza today is basically ground zero for all three of these struggles, said Martin Indyk, the former Clinton administration’s Middle East adviser whose incisive new book, “Innocent Abroad: An Intimate Account of American Diplomacy in the Middle East,” was just published. “This tiny little piece of land, Gaza, has the potential to blow all of these issues wide open and present a huge problem for Barack Obama on Day 1.”

Obama’s great potential for America, noted Indyk, is also a great threat to Islamist radicals — because his narrative holds tremendous appeal for Arabs. For eight years Hamas, Hezbollah and Al Qaeda have been surfing on a wave of anti-U.S. anger generated by George W. Bush. And that wave has greatly expanded their base.

No doubt, Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran are hoping that they can use the Gaza conflict to turn Obama into Bush. They know Barack Hussein Obama must be (am)Bushed — to keep America and its Arab allies on the defensive. Obama has to keep his eye on the prize. His goal — America’s goal — has to be a settlement in Gaza that eliminates the threat of Hamas rockets and opens Gaza economically to the world, under credible international supervision. That’s what will serve U.S. interests, moderate the three great struggles and earn him respect.

More Articles in Opinion » A version of this article appeared in print on January 7, 2009, on page A27 of the New York edition.


COMMENTS:

Tom, your book on the Sabra and Shatila massacres was very fine and inspiring, but the same rigour is lacking in your comment on Gaza.

It is not acceptable when a massacre of this scale is occurring to obscure or ignore the horror with this sort of lofty, geopolitical analysis.

We are talking here about a pogrom, inflicted by the Jews upon the Palestinians. And unfortunately, it's only the latest in a long list of pogroms, and they persist only because commentators such as you, Tom, refuse to look the thing clearly in the face and call it what it truly is.

Robert Fisk in today's Independent UK makes the compelling analogy with the Balkan wars of the 1990s. He also clearly itemizes the israeli lies used to minimize or undermine objections to these pogroms.

The worst lie, of course, is that one is anti-Semitic to oppose Israeli in any way, shape or form. That tired and abused fiction no longer has any currency in Europe, although it is trotted out with regular frequency in the United States, and is still used quite effectively to silence media doubts.

Just to be clear, it is not anti-Semitic to object to Israel rounding up 1.5 million people, half of them children, in a confined space, and then bombing and butchering them block by block.

And it is not anti-Semitic to question, when contemplating this long list of appalling Israeli pogroms, whether Israel is actually fit for sovereignty, or whether the US funding upon which it is entirely dependent is a wise investment given Israel's spectacular failure to live in peace alongside its neighbours in accordance with the binding peace deal achieved more than 25 years ago (Jimmy Carter, Oslo, UN Resolution 242).

It is also not anti-Semitic to wonder what on earth the US media thinks it's doing "reporting" on a massacre in a way that assumes some sort of equivalence between 4 Israelis killed over 8 years from Hamas rocket fire, and 650 people blasted to bits in little more than a week.

There is an shameless, endless parade of Israeli apologists on US media, mouthing endless unchallenged lies, such as the fiction that Hamas broke the cease fire.

It did not. Israel broke the ceasfire. Twice.

And what about the fiction that this is part of the "war on terror?" Israel would have us believe they are fighting Hamas on behalf of all of us.

It is not. Israel's narcissistic rage has nothing to do with anyone except themselves. But unfortunately for the rest of us, Israel's claim that this is part of the "war on terror" guarantees that we all will share in the suicide bombings that will follow as surely as night follows day.

That is why it is essential that the lies have to stop. It is also why the US media has to start doing its job properly.

And it is also why the international community has to contain Israel, and enforce a little more respect - through consequence - upon both Israel and its champion, the United States.

The Israeli and US leaders responsible for this should be referred to the International Criminal Court.

Israel's funding must be cut, and Resolution 242 enforced, by states other than the United States if necessary. Enforcement of 242, including withdrawal from all occupied lands, must be a condition of Israel's continued statehood.

If this does not happen, Israel and by implication the United States can expect to find that all other Western nations decline to participate in any way, shape or form in continuing the fiction that the state of Israel deserves their support.

Because it very obviously does not.


— S., New York


Avi Shlaim has a piece in the Guardian today called, "How Israel brought Gaza to the brink of humanitarian catastrophe." Comparing the same events in that article with their descriptions by you, Mr. Friedman, is like comparing black to white or wet to dry. In fact, they are directly opposite.

To your contention that the regional hegemony is Iran, he says it's Israel. To your contention that Hamas "overthrew the moderate Fatah", he says Hamas seized power to thwart a Fatah coup of a unity government that elected majority Hamas had set up with Fatah, but Israel refused to recognize. To your contention that Hamas refuses to recognize Israel's right to exist, he says they repeatedly said they would; but only inside pre-1967 borders. To your contention that this is about a struggle between radical Islamists and modernists, he contends there has been more than a little Greater Israel and a contention within Israel over the true goals with respect to Palestinians.

The two pieces are so far apart that only one can be right on the facts, Mr. Friedman. He has names and dates. You have only the standard stock phrases. If they'd come from a political entity, one would have called them 'talking points'. What do you know of Israel's National Information Directorate, Mr. Friedman?

— ondelette, San Jose

There are two Ground Zeros, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Applying that title anywhere else diminishes its meaning and treats those events lightly.


— Alan, Japan

Fishawi Coffee Shop, Jeddah

This is the 8th of January, 10th of Muharram at the coffee shop in the old city of Jeddah. Before coming to the coffee shop we listened to Al-Arabiyya TV with Hanan Al-Masri reporting from Gaza. I made this little video of my life in Jeddah, when I was there last year, with some pictures of my neighborhood and the old city. In the background of the pictures is the voice of Hanan Al-Masri reporting on the Israeli bombings in Beit Hanoon, Beit Lahiya, and Shaj'iyya. Hearing her Palestinian accented voice reminds me of my life in Gaza in 1995-96, but I don't have any pictures to go with it. Video Audio Only

1/07/2009

Hanan Al-Masri from Gaza reporting Jan. 4th (Arabic recording)

I saved this on the web as, for me, at least, I like to hear the report from Gaza in the Palestinian accent of an Arab woman). On the TV, though, she appeared a bit haggared from what were probably sleepless nights.
Link to sound file

Hanan Ashrawi's voice from Ramallah

Hanan Ashrawi in English, speaking on BBC World TV about the Israeli Ground invasion in the evening of January 4, 2009. Link and download

1/06/2009

Shati' Tea and Falafel Shop, Gaza

The situation is terrible. The Israelis are inflicting the most casualties, and
bombing the most here on the narrow streets of Shati' and on the area of Shaj'iyya--areas where most of us are refugees from 1948 Israel. This whole attack on Gaza
is like the long history of Israeli attacks on Lebanon. The Israelis have some sort
of theory that they can make the original residents of the Gaza strip, those who have been living on the old Archaeoligical Tells since the Bronze age will somehow resent us new arrivals and clamp down on us. Officially we watch the Israelis talking to the western media saying they are not against the people of Gaza, but only
against Hamas. But Hamas is also the people. When the Israelis say they are against Hamas, but not the people: it is their code word for saying they are not against the original Gazans but only against the pasky Palestinians.

1/05/2009

Shati' Tea and Falafel Shop, Gaza

Tonight there is heavy bombing in Beit Hanoon, and the southern part of Gaza City, Shajiyya. The Israelis have cut the Gaza strip into five sections so no medical or food supplies can come up to us from Rafah. The Israeli navy off the coast is also shelling us here at the Shati'(Beach) camp tonight, and the Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiyya television stations farther up the hill from the coast here have their generators running ongoing television reports. But for us here on the old refugee camp on the beach, there is no electricity. The Israelis have cut it off.

Our Tea and coffee shop didn't make the map on the New York times.

The December 6 New York times, surprisingly gives the names of one family that was killed near this tea and falafel shop--the best falafel in the Middle East--this Monday night:
"Haitham Dababish, emergency chief at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, said that seven members of the Abu Aeisha family were killed earlier Monday after an Israeli naval shell hit their house in the Beach refugee camp in western Gaza City. The father, mother and five of their children died."

From my apartment

As I sit in my apartment, I can watch the scene in Gaza through my little TV screen. Both Al-Jazeera, which I saw at Al-Nakheel restaurant eating an 8 rial falafel plate, and Al-Arabiyya have TV views of Gaza at night. The electricity has been cut off in most places in Gaza; so all we can see are the occasional explosions in Jabalia. Just watching this shows how close Jabalia is to Gaza city. In fact, I used to walk to visit friends in Jabalia from my apartment and English school near the Palestine mosque. It was a nice walk, first along a large wide street, and then along narrow lanes of houses with small gardens behind the walls.

When you think about this Israeli invasion, it is typical of the general role of Israel in the Arab world, and that is to push back, and destroy development.

Fishawi Coffee Shop, Jeddah

During the morning hours here in Jeddah, people have reported that they can hear Hanan Al-Masri reporting direct from inside Gaza on for Al-Arabiyya. It had been reported from my apartment last night that the television feed into Gaza might have been cut, but it seems to be working all right now. Perhaps Hanan Al-Masri only works during the daylight hours. After all, reporters need some rest.

1/04/2009

Shati' Tea and Falafel Shop, Gaza

Al-Shifa hospital to the south of this famous falafel shop reports that 27 children were killed in the bombing and the ground invasion in the Beit Lahia area today. Israel now controls most areas around Beit Lahia, in walking distance from us...a pretty long walk, however.

Shati Tea and Coffee Shop

Most of the customers of this tea and Falafel shop stayed in their houses today, as the bombing and shelling continues from the air on the second day of the ground invasion. Some cameras from AP filmed us going out in our horse and donkey carts at the end of the day to get water. There is very little water. With the Israeli troops cutting off Gaza city from the south, the aid cannot get to us from the Rafah Egyptian crossing. The old busses to Rafah, of course cannot go through the new Israeli army check points and the aid from Rafah cannot get through. Al-Shifa Hospital just south of this tea shop on the coast reports the death toll since the bombing began 9 days ago is 507.

From my Apartment

January 4, 2009 Tonight, the news channels cannot get the television feed from Ramattan Gaza Live. Perhaps the Israelis have intensified the ground and aerial assault to such a degree that Hamas can no longer run its television station. Also Al-Arabiyya seems to have lost its contact with Hanan Al-Masri broadcasting direct from Gaza. Fortunately I still have a cassette recording of her.

BBC world did interview Hanan Ashrawi in Ramallah. The Israeli ground forces now control the farm fields around Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoon on the north, after considerable fighting in which about 25 civilians were killed. They are reported to have moved south of Gaza city which is mostly farm fields and orange orchards, accross the sites of the Bronze age cities like Tell Farah to their old fortified compound and settlement of Nasiriyya, on the sea. In the south, they are surrounding Rafah, their favorite place of bulldozing, where Rachel Corrie was killed by one of the military bulldozers, made probably by Caterpillar in the US.

Al-Arabiyya, like BBC is reporting that the Israelis have divided Gaza into three separate areas.

Depressing that the World can't stop Israel from repeating in Gaza what it does in the West Bank: imposing its military settlements inhabited by armed settlers.

You can download and hear the BBC World TV interview with Hanan Ashrawi here.

(During my lunch break from teaching today, I was able to record Hanan Al-Masri telling Al-Arabiyya about the movements of Israeli ground forces in Beit Hanoon and Beit Lahiya. You can download it here to hear her.

1/03/2009

From my apartment

January 3, 2009
Now, on one side I see the buildings and coast of Gaza, and on the other an Israeli Army photo showing the Israeli soldiers walking with their back packs and guns into the Gaza fields at night through the green night goggles film.

From my apartment

From my a apartment on the eastern side of Saudi Arabia, I can look out over Gaza city through the tiny screen of my television. At nine thirty Saudi Time(GMT+3) I heard that the Jami' Filastine, the Mosque of Palestine in Gaza had had a bomb dropped near it. I used to live at the corner of Shari' Filastine and Shari' Tariq ...the same tariq who gave the name to Gibraltar. The mosque was only about 40 meters from my apartemt where the English Center was. It is also an area of clothing factories and many African Palestinians live there.

I well remember the barber shop I used to go to in the street opposite the Palestine mosque. It is at the top of a slope that goes down to the sea. Not far from our English Language Center was a secondary school where the priciple helped us get permission and license from the Palestinian Authority to have a school.

The Israelis started their ground assault tonight and there is fighting in Beit Hanoon, near the Erez Crossing. There is also fighting in Beit Lahia. Two Israeli soldiers have been killed. The Israeli army entered Gaza at three entry points, called ma'abir in Arabic: Beit Hanoon, Shaji'iyya, and Rafah in the South. Shaji'iyya goes rignt into Gaza City and is a quarter not far from where I marched with a funeral demonstration from the Palestine Mosque to the Israeli settlement of Nasriyya in 0ct 1995.

At about 10 o'clock Saudi time, 9 o'clock Gaza time, I heard the report from inside Gaza on Hamas TV(Ramattan Gaza Live) which is carried by Al-Arabiyya tonight...that the Israeli Navy was lobbing bombs at the coast of Gaza City. This would be Mukhayyam Shati, a maze of one story houses with corrugated tin roofs where the original refugees kicked out of Ashkelon had to settle.

This is the ninth day of the Israeli attack on Gaza. Up until now it had been constant bombing of administrative buildings and mosques, causing 430 deaths and thousands of wounded.

I guess the direct reports of the Al-Arabiyya are only during the day, when I am teaching. Now the TV is the night view from a tall building in Gaza and labeled Ramattan Gaza Live, which is the Hamas TV station, bombed in the first days by the Israelis, but apparently still working.

Shati Tea and Falafel Shop, Gaza

This was an e-mail to be on the New York Times OpEd page in response to an OPED of Benny Morris. Three days passed and the New York Times did not publish my letter; so here it is:


I take the opportunity of the pot hole made by an amateur rocket that hit the ground in Beersheba New Year’s Day, or New Year’s Eve, to remind readers of the New York Times that Beersheba and Ashkelon on Israel’s southern border were formerly inhabited by the ancestors of the current population of the Gaza Strip. Scholars, like Benny Morris, who writes the only Op-Ed on Gaza so far in the NYT, could cite page paragraph and line of the historical record of the Palestinian Exodus from Ashkelon, which is still vivid in the memories of the sons and daughters of the original refugees living in Gaza today.
A little knowledge of the facts would explain why sending a baking powder powered rocket to thud down in Ashkelon, Sederot, or Beersheba is no more than a symbol of attempting to right the record of history. In fact, it is precisely the expression of what actually happened when Israel was created that is most upsetting to the State of Israel and the reason for its war on Gaza. If Israel would agree to give Palestinian Muslims and Christians equal rights in Israel, rather than refusing to give back the land to those who were forced to leave in 1948, there would be no rockets from Gaza, or Helium balloons floating over from Khan Yunis with pictures of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
It is always Israel’s dis-information campaign that escalates something—in this case the Qassam rockets on Ashkelon—to make it difficult for the Palestinians, or for anyone trying to support decency and justice—to explain that they were expelled from their land and 500 villages bulldozed in the post 1948 era. Who knows--perhaps the linkage that “experts” are making between Hamas and Iran, is to cover up the fact that the fledgeling state of Israel destroyed the archaeological remains of the Shi’a mosque where the Martyr Hussein’s head was venerated in Al-Majdal? Majdal, the industrial area of Ashkelon and the home town of Mary Magdalen, of “DaVinci Code” fame is where many of the residents of Shaj’iyya, and Jabalia are from. Shaj’iyya, which means “the brave”—perhaps because its kids would always protest the killing of a schoolmate by marching 7kms to burn tires in front of the Israeli Farms near Tel Farah, (where Flinders Petrie started the science of Archaeology, by the way) is on the slope descending from the Greek Orthodox church area of Gaza city. Shaj’iyya was bombed today, as was Jabalia in the first day of what will now be a week or so of targeted assassinations of people according to their postal addresses. Some of the new names of people we learn from these targeted assassinations, Nizar Riyan, for example, will help remind the world of the history, the civilization, and the fighting people that Israel is bent on covering up.