More mendacious propaganda at Open Zion, Peter Beinart’s weapon of words bunker:

One of the only mixed modes of transportation in Israel is the Jerusalem Light Rail—which, as it was originally built to connect surrounding Israeli settlements to central Jerusalem, is hardly equally inclusive to Palestinians. Historically, when the light rail system was first constructed, it uprooted several Palestinian neighborhoods, further displacing many Palestinians who once lived in Jerusalem. Now, though the train passes through several traditionally Arab neighborhoods, the stations are named in Hebrew rather than Arabic. A. The light rail does not connect “Israeli settlements.” It connects the Jerusalem neighborhoods of Neveh Yaakov and Pisgat Ze’ev and French Hill. (By the way, Neveh Yaakov was attacked, destroyed and ethnically cleansed of its Jews by Arabs in late 1947). B. No “Palestinian neighborhoods” were uprooted. That is simply untrue.

C.  The stations are name in Hebrew, yes.  That is the language of the country.  However, Arab place names are also voiced out over the loudspeaker.  For example, Damascus Gate (in English), Sha’ar Shchem (in Hebrew) and Bab El-Amud in Arabic.  The stops in Arab-populated neighborhoods are sounded off as Bet Hanina and Shuafat and Es-Sahil in all languages with no special Hebrew alteration.  Shimon HaTzaddik, though, is not called Sheikh Jarrah.  (Shimon HaTzaddik neighborhood was also ethnically cleansed of its Jews in early 1948).

D.  The Light Rail was originally built to ease mass transportation problems and then, to avoid charges that the city’s Arab population would be discriminated against, tracks were purposefully laid through those neighborhoods.

The writer is a liar.

Visit My Right Word.

In a definite setback for their ethos, the violent Palestinian riots over the past week were mis-founded: Israeli Health Officials from the Abu-Kabir Forensic Institute announced today that Arafat Jaradat’s death last week was not the result of poisoning or physical violence against him.

Palestinian administrative detainee Arafat Jaradat’s autopsy found no evidence of poisoning or physical violence, stated a report released by the Health Ministry on Thursday.

Jaradat died on Saturday in the Megiddo Prison. The Abu Kabir Institute of Forensic Medicine continues to run tests to determine the cause of death. (Dr. Itay Gal) YNET So who can we blame for Palestinian violence? Settler violence [TM] and Price Taggers [TM]? Ooops. Seems like the Palestinians fabricated that too.

The Shai District Police found that the alleged “price tag” incident which took place at the West Bank village of Kusra was fabricated.

The police findings show that the claim, stating that six vehicles were set on fire, is untrue and that the Israeli identification card presented by one of the village residents was lost in the area a few days prior. (Itamar Fleishman, YNET). Fair readers, do not be alarmed.  There many do-gooders over at Haaretz concocting new slanderous stories as you read these very lines.

But here’s a photo of Palestinian violence below….just in case you want to remind yourself what’s really going on.

Photo: Tazpit News Agency

Visit The Muqata.

The Golan Heights generally is not under the US government’s microscope when it comes to the “peace process,” but Israel’s go-ahead last week for exploring oil there left the State Dept. looking like dummies for not being able to explain how it views the area.

The United States never has recognized Israel’s 1981 annexation of the Golan Heights and previously has tied it with a peace treaty with Syria, which not even the most dreamy-eyed State Dept. official mentions anymore.

When a reporter brought up the matter of the oil license at the daily media briefing in Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman Victoria Nuland last week, she said Foggy Bottom would discuss the issue with the Israeli government. The license concerns the United States even more because the company is listed as being based in the United States, and one of its investors is former Vice President Dick Cheney.

The journalist nudged deputy spokesman Patrick Ventrell for an answer on Wednesday, and his muddy response left the question unanswered.

He asked, “Is there any red tape they [American companies] have to go through with the State Department, with others in the U.S. Government?” concerning who has jurisdiction over the Golan Heights.

“The United States doesn’t recognize Israel’s claim to the Golan Heights, does it?” asked the reporter.

An uninformed Ventrell kept trying to say that security for the company is the issue, and when pressed to relate to the matter of who has sovereignty, he lamely answered, “Look, it’s a very complicated legal scenario we have here. I’d have to get the lawyers to give me a full readout on where we stand on the Golan Heights. Suffice it to say there’s a major security issue right now because we have violence spilling over the border as well.”

He added he would be “happy” to look into it.”

It now is 2013, 32 years after Israel annexed the Golan Heights. By the way, at a Cabinet meeting a week after the Six-Day War in 1967, Israel officially offered Israel officially offered to return the Golan to Syria in exchange for a peace agreement.

The Arab world’s Khartoum Resolution two months later rejected the offer, stating there will be “ no peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel [and] no negotiations with it.”

The State Dept.’s fuzziness is rooted in tradition. President Gerald Ford in 1975 wrote Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin that the United States has not finalized its position on the Golan Heights but, don’t worry, it will one day and will consider the Israeli position that the Golan Heights is not to be surrendered.

In 1991, United Nations Security Council, of State James Baker is presumed to have told Syrian President Hafez al-Assad, Basher’s father, that the United States did not recognize Israel’s annexation of the Golan.

Now, Ventral is “happy” to find out where the United States stands, with Syria on the edge of self-destruction, let alone Lebanon.

We can expect the State Dept. to come back with a foggy answer, suitable for Foggy Bottom, that the United States does not recognize the Golan Heights as Israeli territory but that its future will be determined in the peace process.

Next question for Ventrell and Nuland: “What is a peace process?”

Rock-throwing Arabs hit a soldier in his eye Monday and then rioted when solders fired back, aiming at the lower parts to minimize injuries in what is the latest of dozens of weekly Arab attacks that have been so routine that they are rarely reported.

The only exception is if someone is serious injured or murdered, which was the unfortunate case last week. In what was a real-life cowboys and Indians scene, Israeli police chased after an Arab vehicle carrying Arab workers without permits to work outside of Judea and Samaria.

The Arab driver tried to escape by reckless driving, and he crossed the white line, crashing into a car driven by a 29-year-old resident of Susiya, located between Be’er Sheva and Hevron.

The young man, Yenon Levanon, was killed instantly, and the Arabs were wounded lightly.

Murderous driving, usually by Arabs, is routine on the roads in the Negev, heavily populated by Bedouin, and throughout highways in Judea and Samaria.

The dangers are two-fold. If a driver is lucky enough to travel in his car without begin hit by an Arab driver who passes another passing car on a curve uphill, he still has to deal with dozens of firebomb and rock-throwing attacks.

This is not the “Third Intifada” that the IDF has been warning about; it is the continuation of the First Intifada from the late 1980s, which took a break during the euphoria of the eve of what was supposed to be the culmination of the Peace Process in the last 1990s, when the so-called “Second Intifada” or Oslo War began.

The State Dept. is careful to relate to President Obama every shack Jews erect in Judea and Samaria.

It is doubtful how much information he gets on Arab terrorist attacks, if the Associated Press is any guide.

Reporting Monday on Arab riots in support of Palestinian Authority prisoners on a hunger strike in Israeli jails, the news agency referred to “demonstrations,” such as one in Bethlehem where  Israeli forces dispersed several dozen activists who blocked a road on Monday.  AP added, “There were no reports of injuries.”

After telling readers that one hunger striker reportedly is in critical condition, AP reported, “Israel is holding some 4,500 Palestinians for charges ranging from throwing stones to undertaking deadly militant attacks. Their incarceration is a sensitive issue for Palestinians, who see them as heroes of the Palestinian liberation struggle.”

That is the end of the report , but it is not the end of the story. AP did not report that in the past week alone, Arabs carried out 29 Molotov firebomb attacks against Israeli soldiers and civilians, including one on a public bus, another on a Jewish women driving near Kedumim, east of Karnei and Ginot Shomron in Samaria, and two on Rachel’s Tomb (Kever Rachel).

The Palestinian Authority claims Kever Rachel actually is a Muslim holy site, even though Islam was founded more than 2,000 years after Rachel died. The site is not holy enough to dissuade PA Arabs from attacking Jewish worshipers there. Besides firebombs, PA terrorists also hurled two grenades last week.

If Obama were to keep a diary of security incidents in Israel in just one week, he would discover:

– Hevron Arabs threw rocks on children in a playground in the Avraham Aveinu neighborhood of Hevron;

– PA Arabs fired at Kibbutz Migdal Oz on erev Shabbat, apparently careful to wait until the Muslim day of rest was over on Friday;

–  Arab Knesset Members, as part of their public service to the country, joined Palestinian Authority Arabs for Prayers at the Ofer jail, near Jerusalem, to show solidarity for hunger strikers. After prayers, hundreds of Arabs threw rocks at soldiers, two of whom were lightly inured;

– PA Arabs rioted at Efrat, a “settlement” of several thousand families five miles south of Jerusalem, at Beit Haggai, which borders Hevron to the southwest, and at Beit El, another “settlement” of more than 1,500 families in Samaria;

– Rock-throwing Arabs, trying to cause fatal accidents, managed to wound an eight-year-old in the face at Beit El and a driver whose windshield was smashed at one of the terrorists’ favorite locations, the village of Azoon on the road between Kfar Saba, at the northern edge of metropolitan Tel Aviv, and the Jewish communities of Maaleh, Ginot and Karnei Shomron;

Some 3,000 vines, situated near Shiloh in Samaria, were destroyed over the past few days, it was discovered this morning.

The vineyards are visited every few days during this season, so the precise time of the destruction is unclear.

The damage is estimated at 200,000 NIS.

Footprints leading to the Arab village of Kutzrah were discovered by IDF trackers during their initial investigation. About a year ago, a 1/4 of an acre was destroyed in the same vineyard.

“This morning we discovered the difficult scene of some 3,000 destroyed vines,” Itamar Weiss, a worker at the vineyards, told Tazpit News Agency. “This is the fourth time this vineyard has been targeted in the past years.”

Israeli Police said an investigation has been launched to discover the culprits.

Weiss said that residents “expect these crimes to be treated with the same force that crimes throughput the rest of Israel are treated and investigated.”

This incident is one of many attacks apparently executed by Arabs against Jewish agriculture and farming in Judea and Samaria.

In the beginning of November 2012, Tazpit News Agency reported that a herd of some 400 goats was stolen from Avraham Hertzlich, a farmer from the Benyamin area.

An olive grove near Shiloh, owned by Erez Ben Sa’adon, was vandalized at around the same time. Many of the trees were uprooted or cut down, and the irrigation system was damaged.

About a month ago, 70 heads of sheep were stolen from a pen in Sussia.

Israel is abuzz with talk of President Obama’s upcoming visit – his first trip to the Jewish state as president. Speculation is rife that he would not put his prestige on the line in this manner unless he was confident his pressure on Prime Minister Netanyahu would bear fruit.

What precisely will Obama be pressuring Netanyahu to do? For starters, he will want to see a resumption of negotiations with the Palestinian Authority. One might ask why Netanyahu would have to be pressured to talk with the PA, when he has been calling for exactly that ever since he assumed office in 2009.

Here is where current events are actually shaped by their perception and bias. Though the P.A. is the party that refuses to come to the table, the popular understanding is that this is Israel’s fault. The P.A. repeatedly declares that talks cannot begin unless Israel freezes all construction throughout all of Judea and Samaria (Yesha) – and even the areas of Jerusalem liberated in the Six-Day War.

Chief P.A. negotiator Saeb Erekat even went so far as to say a construction freeze is not a “condition” for a resumption of negotiations, but rather “obligations that Israel is required to fulfill” even without talks.

Thus, those who are predisposed to the Arab narrative are quick to conclude that if Israel is not meeting the P.A.’s demands – it must be Israel’s fault.

Left unmentioned in the popular discourse is the “been there, done that” aspect: In late 2009, Israel declared a ten-month construction freeze, exactly for the purpose of jump-starting talks with the P.A. “We hope this decision will help launch meaningful peace negotiations,” Netanyahu declared at the time. American officials hailed the decision as “substantial” and “unprecedented.”

But it wasn’t enough for the P.A. For nine months it refused to come to the table, even as Israel suffered economically and Netanyahu suffered politically from the freeze. The ten-month moratorium was not acceptable, the PLO said; it must be “infinite.”

Only in the last month of the freeze did the P.A. deign to resume negotiations. Its nearly exclusive demand was that the freeze must continue indefinitely – or else the fledgling talks would end even before they started.

Israel did not fall for the trap, ended the freeze as scheduled, and negotiations have been stuck right there ever since.

Yet when Obama comes to Israel next month and demands that the talks begin once again, to whom will the demand be addressed? To Israel, of course: Stop building those schools and houses immediately, and let the P.A. come to the table. And yes, that includes Ramat Eshkol, Gilo and other Jerusalem suburbs, as well as the settlement blocs – Abbas won’t have it any other way.

Hints that this is the unfolding scenario are evident from many quarters. The New York Times reported over the weekend that the Israeli government is considering a new settlement freeze, and prominent public figures have been quoted of late supporting exactly that, at least partially. Among them is outgoing Cabinet minister Dan Meridor (Likud), who said that Israel should restrict building beyond the Green Line to Jerusalem and major settlement blocs.

Similarly, National Security Advisor Yaakov Amidror, more on the hawkish end of Israel’s political spectrum, warned that continued Israeli construction in Judea and Samaria would lead to a deterioration in Israel’s international standing.

From Netanyahu’s office – not from Netanyahu himself – have come statements that a new settlement freeze is not on the table. During the election campaign, Netanyahu said as much many times, and even the #2 party in the soon-expected government coalition, Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid, said it objects to a building freeze during negotiations.

Nonetheless, Yesha leaders are far from relaxed, and with good reason. They know the very fact that a freeze is again being discussed so widely does not bode well.

Incidentally, the PLO Executive Committee has also announced that resumed talks are conditional on not only a “complete halt to settlement activities, including in East Jerusalem,” but also the release of all terrorist prisoners. And there’s more: Israel must also accept the recent U.N. resolution recognizing the P.A. as a non-member observer state.

The P.A. sees Obama’s visit as a great opportunity, “although we need deeds and real U.S. pressure on Israel rather than meetings,” said Abbas spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh. “We wish the U.S. administration will exert pressure on Israel to stop settlement expansion, in order to lay the ground for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on the Palestinian territory within the borders before June 4, 1967.”

When I last spoke with “S.” in the Knesset, he was eager to talk about the  recent achievements of the squads of activists, anonymous to the general public, the ones who work with the best and most industrious MK’s, and who remain anonymous because of this work.  “What, we don’t deserve some appreciation?” he asked.

Usually they don’t get any, as they have no time to advertise themselves.

I would like to take this opportunity, then, to write a few words about the anonymous soldiers who operate the system behind legislation, land purchases, and the like.

One such anonymous activist, originally from Kibbutz Kfar Etzion, is the treasurer of a large organization involved in settling Judea and Samaria.  He has backup in the form of a towering colleague who does his work not at the Knesset, but at government ministries.  He moves around their halls familiarly, exhibiting greater expertise than the ministers and brandishing an encyclopedic knowledge covering virtually every hill beyond the Green Line.

Yet the real strength of this dynamic duo, residents of the mountains of Shiloh, is in their quiet ability to crunch numbers into magical combinations of the ethereal and the corporeal: ethereal numbers of primary voters whose power they wield upon corporeal politicians.  “In their hands,” commented an MK with humorous reference to the Yom Kippur prayers, “we are like clay in the hands of the sculptor.”

Another is known as the “high priest,” the great redeemer of lands in Jerusalem, who is exceeded sometimes only by his disciple D., an elite IDF commando officer.  In the hands of the high priest, the shoulders of any politician quickly turn to putty when he begins to jostle them–quite literally.  Only Bibi no longer gets the treatment, due to his body guards.  I, for my part, have learned to put some distance between us when he starts speaking …

Next there is the “wandering Jew,” once a lieutenant colonel in an elite IDF unit, now a resident of the Mount of Olives, traveling through Jerusalem on his bicycle, picking the political dealers, placing them in his olive press, squeezing out whatever pure oil they have to offer, and putting it all in the menorah (candelabra) of Torah and settlement of the Land of Israel.

Then there is the happy mother (of eleven, so far), her ear eternally sporting not an earing but a dangling telephone as she stitches up the next political deal.

And there are the youths from the settlements and outposts who come visiting, exhibiting a better understanding of economics and policy than the government bureaucrats with whom they meet.

In the halls of the Knesset there is no shortage of lobbyists making a profit off of crony capitalism.  They’re readily identifiable in the cafeteria, whispering amongst themselves, organizing, brokering.  Many are party insiders, using their political abilities to help those in business link up with those in power.  The greatest of them—“the mixer,” as he called himself in a moment of candor—was exposed at the end of the Olmert trial, trying to protect his associate to the bitter end.  He and the other big fish don’t bother with visits to the Knesset anymore.  They send agents, or else have the legislators themselves meet them at fancy restaurants elsewhere.

So it bears appreciation that there also are people whose aim is to use their abilities for the benefit of the public, not to aggrandize themselves, even though they are able, sharp, and industrious enough to make off the way the self-interested lobbyists do.

What the altruistic lobbyists do is a big deal.  Lobbying is very delicate, painstaking work.  It requires knowledge of both the interests behind the lobbying and the interests of the target, a parliamentary committee member or other official who must be made to provide the goods.  The tricks of the trade are well-guarded secrets, and those in the know are not rushing to expose them … which is why they will not be exposed here …

Also to be left a secret is the chain of action and advocacy that ends in an accomplishment, like a land purchase in Judea and Samaria. For our purposes, just consider all the tasks that the anonymous activists had to complete: locating the landowner, raising funds, delivering the money, often coordinating with ministers in the run-up to a cabinet meeting.  In general, the people doing this quiet work are not interested in being Knesset members or ministers.  What they are doing now is what matters to them.

After 35 years, Ariel’s visionary, founder and longstanding mayor, Ron Nachman was ready and willing to take anyone to task. After all, what other city of 20,000 residents enjoyed the extensive services that Ariel offers? Even cities with much larger populations couldn’t compare. As Ron was fond of noting, Ra’anana can’t boast anything like the Eshel Hashomron Hotel. Modi’in doesn’t have an institution that even remotely resembles Ariel University. And how many cities in Israel can take pride in two industrial parks with a combined 200 factories?

Ron Nachman was proudly and decidedly secular from the outset. He was determined to build a city in Samaria that would not resemble the Gush Emmunim communities of his religious counterparts. Theirs was a Biblical commitment. His was about security. They spoke of the Tanach. He spoke of Zionism. They rejoiced in their middle-of-the-night outpost maneuvers. He prided himself on government approval every step of the way. He simply would not allow another community of tens to hundreds of families to the east of the Green Line to suffice.

Ron’s family founded the city of Nes Tsiyona in 1883. Almost a century later, Ron had the singular notion of following suit by creating another Israeli city where the Jewish State needed it most.

Instead of gathering the traditional 10 to 20 founding families for his new initiative, Ron got 6,000 people to join him. This initial group was named the “Tel Aviv Nucleus,” with the resolute objective of attaining national legitimacy for their ambitious endeavor.

Two tents and a camel quickly became temporary homes and roads. Semi-detached, cottages, private villas and apartment complexes followed. Highway 5 now connects Tel Aviv to Ariel, servicing tens of thousands of vehicles on a daily basis.

Today, Ariel is the regional hub for Samaria and much of the Jordan Valley. When residents of the surrounding communities need to go to the bank, visit their doctor at any of Israel’s four national health clinics, or do their grocery shopping, they come to Ariel. When the women of Eli want to have a women’s recreation evening, they make use of Ariel’s Sports and Recreation Complex. And when communities and municipalities in Samaria want to host a memorable event, the Ariel Regional Center for the Performing Arts is the natural venue.

LEADERSHIP IS an individual quality, and the top of the mountain can be a lonely place. No one else really seemed to comprehend Ron’s vision, but today Ariel maintains a consensus status within Israel. No sovereign Israeli government has considered compromising Ariel. It has remained part and parcel of the State of Israel within the framework of every proposed negotiation, including those of prime ministers Barak and Olmert who offered up to 99% of Israeli controlled “disputed” lands to the Palestinian Authority.

But what about the other communities in Judea and Samaria? Who would safeguard their future? Ron served in the 13th Knesset from 1992-1996 and fought the Oslo Accords tooth and nail.

Successive U.S. presidents, ambassadors to Israel and U.N. representatives were all well aware of Ariel, but refused to draw near. They preferred to ignore the city and its dynamic mayor in the hope that they just might disappear.

An interviewer once asked him, “how can you [the Israelis] build in Occupied East Jerusalem?” After asking the interviewer to repeat the question as a stall tactic, Ron responded: “I just came from my hotel room, where I searched for proof that this land belongs to the British. I found a Bible there, but it made no mention of London. It didn’t speak of Washington D.C., Paris or Berlin. But do you know how many times the word Jerusalem appeared? And you’re asking me if we have rights to our capital city?”

Perhaps because of his convictions, in the Diaspora, Ron Nachman felt like he fell between the cracks. Reformed and, more often than not, Conservative Jewish communities tended to keep their distance, as in most cases their party lines did not allow them to associate with “settlers.” Orthodox Jewish communities, on the other hand, were too parochial to partner with Ron’s diversified worldview and their conventional sensibilities of what a reborn biblical city should look like.

Although lasting relationships with Jewish groups and individuals in the Diaspora were few and far between, Ron developed a unique, personal connection with the Land of Israel. The land had a way of speaking to him. It awakened within him a sense of history, heritage and promise.