Yishai: 'Greater Israel' outdatedRetaining all the settlements in Judea and Samaria is unrealistic, Shas ["Sepharadi Guardians of Torah" party] chairman Eli Yishai said Monday.
"The vast majority of settlers understand today that we will have to make territorial compromises," he said in an interview with The Jerusalem Post, just days after the National Union and the National Religious Party formed a joint list with the understanding they would not join a government that supports territorial compromise.
"Talk about holding onto all our settlements was relevant 20 years ago," he said. "Today it is outdated."
Yishai emphasized Shas's moderate diplomatic stance at a time when polls forecast Kadima and Labor, two parties that support territorial compromise, obtaining nearly half of the seats in the Knesset.
"We and the Palestinians drink the same water, breathe the same air; we have to move ahead," he said. "Palestinians also understand that terrorism does not pay, and economic pressures will eventually force them to negotiate with us."
"[Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef] never changed his opinion in support of territorial compromise within the framework of a peace agreement," Yishai said. Nevertheless, he reiterated Yosef's opposition to unilateral territorial concessions or negotiations with Hamas, saying, "The disengagement from Gaza will go down in history as a colossal mistake."
"The rav foresaw the rise of Hamas after disengagement," Yishai said. "It strengthened the radical elements. We could have signed a peace agreement with [Palestinian Chairman Mahmoud Abbas] and strengthened more moderate voices."
Regarding the demolition of nine homes in the Amona outpost on February 1, in which more than 200 people were injured, Yishai said that if he had been in the government he would have allowed settlers to dismantle the buildings on their own.
But he also denounced settler violence, saying, "I am against radical behavior. There is no excuse for raising a fist against a policeman or a soldier. Extremists among the settlers are making the situation ugly."
Erez guards to receive trips to Europe, Eilat
The civilian security guards who were on duty at the time of the attack on the Erez crossing Thursday morning, as well as Givati Brigade soldiers who participated in the gun battle, will be awarded a trip to Eilat with their partners, Eli Orgad the owner of the White Snow Security company told The Jerusalem Post."All those who were on duty in the morning will receive a holiday for two in Eilat, all expenses paid," he said.
On hearing of the attack, Orgad arrived at the site accompanied by a psychologist, who was on hand to speak to the guards and assist them, he said.
"There are not enough words to praise their actions and their rapid response," he said referring to his employees.
Hadass Markovitch and Amos Segev, two guards who helped to kill the terrorists, will receive a trip for two to Europe, at a destination of their choice, said Orgad.
The company was established 25 years ago, and last month started operating at the crossing.
Currently 100 security guards are deployed at the crossing, but in the future the number will swell to 200, he said.
"Since our arrival at the crossing, the Palestinians are aware of the changes in the security detail and know we mean business," he said.
That last line... what does that mean?
Could it be that the enemy is more frightened of private security firms than they are of the much lauded IDF? Is the posting of private guards more of a deterrent against terrorism?
Here we have a clear, concise answer for those who worry about who will defend our villages in Judea and the Shomron after secession.
And what an incentive they offer to their soldiers: trips to Eilat and Europe! It makes the state's custom of awarding cheap brass medals attached to pieces of colored schmatah seem pretty niggardly.
Outpost residents respect law, want respect
Tamar Asaraf home in Hayovel is six months old ... Though Asaraf said her home is on public land that her family properly leased from the state, Peace Now claims the permanent homes here, as well as some of the caravans, are built at least partly on Palestinian land.The organization has petitioned the High Court to force the government to carry out demolition orders on the permanent structures here and in Haresha, a community northwest of Ramallah. The two communities thus have the unwanted distinction of being the next two illegal outposts where forced evacuations and demolitions could occur.
Though Hayovel sits atop a mostly baron hill studded with shrubs, where cold winds penetrate even thick clothes on a winter's day, the spirit of the place drew Asaraf to move here eight years ago, she said. Nevertheless, if the police do come to demolish her home, Asaraf would not protest violently, nor passively, as did many in Gush Qatif, to spare her children the experience. She said that few people here, if anyone, would react like the protesters at Amona, an assertion backed up by Shlomo Bushan, 26, a former resident of Neveh Deqalim who came here after the disengagement from the Gaza Strip.
"We don't support what the people in Amona did; the people here aren't like that," Bushan said. "We don't intend to struggle. It would probably be the same as it was in Gush Qatif."
News Item:
Were settler girls sexually assaulted?
Disturbing accounts: Settlers claim that police officers molested girls during outpost evacuation, Ynet receives additional testimonies from educators and rabbis regarding girls complaining of sexual abuse by police.
"Police officers rubbed up against us and touched our chest and intimate body parts. They used dirty words while doing it. One policeman said: 'Come, I'll screw you'…We felt like we were being raped." (The testimony of a girl in Amona.)
Such police behavior is disgusting and any cop who participated in it should receive a good thrashing in the nearest town square.
On the other hand, what did the girls and their parents expect? The same families who would never think of sending their girls to train as combat soldiers (and rightly so!) proudly sent their daughters out to war in Amona.
Truth be told, the "national-religious" camp has always had an ideological problem with proper separation of the sexes in public gatherings. Their youth group Benei `Aqiva has been grappling with this question for decades. Witness this week's rightist pep rally in Jerusalem. I wouldn't want to give anyone ideas, but a policeman who wanted to "cop a feel" from a "settler chick" could simply have stood in Zion Square on Monday night as throngs of teenaged girls pressed up against him. Our hareidi friends never would have allowed such a mixed gathering, and neither should we.News Item:
A 60-year-old woman was killed Sunday morning when an Israeli Arab stabbed five Israelis in a service taxi in Petah Tiqwa.
Magen David Adom paramedics evacuated the woman to Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva, where she succumbed to her wounds.
Four other passengers were wounded in the incident. Two men in their 30s were listed in very serious and serious condition, while two other people were in moderate condition.
The 23-year-old attacker reportedly boarded the taxi in Petah Tiqwa. When it stopped near the Ossem factory on Rehov Jabotinsky, he pulled out a knife and began "wildly" stabbing the other passengers, eyewitnesses said.
Several passersby and workers from the factory surrounded the stabber, beat him with wooden planks, and restrained him. The man was taken into police custody and interrogated.
Police said that his motive appeared to be nationalistic.
What a pity that the State of Israel doesn't have the time, resources or manpower to deal with "minor attacks" such as this one. They simply don't have the personnel. The Israeli police are too busy galloping across the Samaritan hills, imposing law and order in the "lawless" Shomron, beating up unkempt settler children who want to live on unoccupied hilltops and raise goats.
Then, there's the matter of those vigilante passers-by who beat the alleged attacker with wooden planks. What sort of thing is that? It seems that even the staid citizens of
It would all be quite funny if someone's savta weren't lying dead in
So, how do we help prevent future attacks of this sort?
The answer is: allow individuals and companies to discriminate. The bus or cab driver is the first line of defense against terror attacks. He must be allowed to refuse any suspicious-looking fare, even if "suspicious" means looking "too Arabesque." Companies known to discriminate well will find themselves in great demand. Companies which habitually pass up our Yemenite and Sephardic brothers, fearing that they are "terrorists," will find themselves shunned by these communities. Very quickly, drivers will develop a keener eye. If not, other companies will enter the fray with drivers more adept at differentiating between wild-eyed Moslems and our darker complected brothers.
Another line of defense is to stop accepting cash fares on buses and sherut taxis. Accept only pre-paid tickets. This puts part of the responsibility for screening upon the cashier who can speak to the customer, detect a suspicious accent and request some sort of reliable ID (not necessarily a state-issued one). Tickets might also be purchased from automatic vending machines with pre-paid magnetic cards which could double as picture ID cards. Again, such pre-paid cards would be available only from trained cashiers.
Even our leftist friends, who wring their hands in concern over the transportation needs of the Arab community, might find these solutions interesting. After all, under a completely free market in public transportation, Arab drivers and companies could concentrate upon servicing the special needs of their communities -- even passing up us "sons-of-pigs-and-monkeys" if they so choose.
If Israeli public transportation were opened up to unlimited competition and the restrictions against discrimination lifted, we would very quickly find that we had safer, cheaper, and more responsive PT alternatives. Most importantly, we'd have fewer dead grandmothers on our cities' streets.
News Item:
The IDF has announced that it has removed soldiers securing the Jewish village of Yitzhar in Samaria this afternoon. Military sources in Central Command said the decision to pull the soldiers out on today came after "a spate of recent verbal and physical attacks on soldiers guarding the settlement." A soldier was allegedly beaten to the ground and his communication device was taken from him.
Great! Now that the government has given up the pretense of "protecting the settlements," the residents can stop paying taxes and spend the money on a REAL security service -- one that doesn't hide behind cement barriers, afraid to shoot back at the enemy. Rest assured that a private security firm will never try to evict its employers.
-- Uri DeYoung, Democratic Republic of Israel
From Jerusalem Post Talkback:
Re: Democratic Republic of Israel
Sgt. Barney Rosen - USA
02/03/2006 01:09
Democratic Republic of Israel, where have we heard that before? All of the communist dictatorships use that title and how democratic were they. The freaks inhabiting this "Democratic Republic" are lucky they are dealing with Israeli soldiers, this old Viet nam veteran would stomp them at least and depending on what they did would use his weapon.
Whoa, sarge! Put down the weapon for a minute! The "Democratic Republic of Israel" refers to the current state that worships at the armpit of unlimited democracy -- like the commie "workers' committees" which claim the right to do what they want with the property of others. It was my obtuse commentary on the current State of Israel. Sorry. My fault. However, if you'd bothered to read what I'd written, you'd see that I'm no communist.
