Coteret

Not.

But that’s what Haaretz seems to think. A front-page investigative report in this morning’s edition (December 1 2009) finds that Machanaim a US 501c3 tax exempt charity is funding the Task Force to Save the Nation and the Land (aka SOS Israel)

the organization that offered every soldier refusing to evacuate a settlement, and the Kfir Brigade soldiers who publicly demonstrated their opposition to evacuation, NIS 1,000 for every day they spend in military prison

After asking Defense Minister, Ehud Barak, why he has not asked the US government to desist from indirectly funding sedition in the IDF and questioning why an NGO engaged in blatantly illegal activity enjoys a “clean bill of health” from the Registrar of Associations, the article ends with

The Knesset will hold a discussion on the subject of transparency of contributions that non-profit organizations receive from abroad. The event, which will be hosted by Improvement of Government Services Minister Michael Eitan, is being organized by the NGO Monitor organization, which is based in Jerusalem.

Stunning. Gerald Steinberg is not the partisan hack I claimed he was. The Knesset conference will demand transparency for all NGOs. Perhaps we can also expect that the agenda will also include a discussion of the sovereignty-threatening instance of right-wing NGO “lawfare” reported in this morning’s Jerusalem Post, the Legal Forum for the Land of Israel’s High Court of Justice petition against the settlement “freeze.”

A quick look at the Hebrew version of the report, however, reveals that hell has yet to freeze over. It questions NGO Monitor on what action it has taken on Machanaim/SOS Israel and gets a vague response.

Disappointing but revealing: The night editor at the English edition, forced to abridge the report, actually assumed that the conference would deal with this issue. After all, its organizer is a group calling itself  an “NGO monitor.”

RELATED POSTS: Exposing Gerald Steinberg and NGO Monitor | Israel Harel, Zionist Strategist (on NGO Monitor’s fundamentalist allies) |Globes on the hypocrisy of right-wing “democrats” |

RELATED POSTS:  Yediot: Settlers quickly find ‘freeze’ workaround | Settler attacks on Palestinians upset even the most chauvinistic Israeli pundits | [Video] IDF “concerned” that soldiers are participating in settler “revenge attacks” [but doing next to nothing about it]

Yaron London, an elder statesmen of Israeli journalism, television personality and respected intellectual, has a reputation for saying what others think. In his Yediot column this morning (November 30 2009) he had this to say about law enforcement on settlers in the West Bank

Israel’s governments have accustomed us to the sense that the rebellion of the annexers of the occupied territories is a law of nature, or perhaps a version of “cops and robbers,” in which the cops are not real police officers and the robbers no more than good boys disguised as criminal offenders.  Youthful folly should not be punished, perhaps only gently reprimanded, and the policemen and soldiers will quarrel with them cautiously.  Some of the buildings will be demolished, and then rebuilt, demolished, and so on and so forth, until the spineless jellyfish known as the state is worn down, and they will remain standing.

Full translation after the jump.

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RELATED POST: Yediot column: Israel “the spineless jellyfish” has no will to stand up to lawless settlers

Settlers lay mock foundations

Zvi Singer and Itamar Eichner, Yediot, November 30 2009 [page 6]

Immediately after the prime minister announced a settlement construction freeze, settlers in a number of settlements rushed to lay fake foundations in areas that had been cleared for construction. Their goal was to make the sites in question appear in the aerial photographs to be taken by the Defense Ministry as if they contained buildings in mid-construction, the foundations of which were already fully laid.

The settlers, it appears, knew in advance about the Defense Ministry’s intention to take aerial photographs thanks to a document that fell into their hands, and they prepared in advance accordingly. The construction freeze orders stipulate the cancellation of construction permits that had already been issued for thousands of housing units because the foundations for those housing units were not laid. Read more…

On November 25 2009, Yesh Din, an Israeli human rights group that monitors law enforcement on settler violence in the West Bank, published a data sheet, demonstrating that 69 documented cases of Palestinian olive tree destruction by settlers in the first ten months of 2009 had resulted in zero indictments.

Matti Golan is a veteran Israeli journalist not known for being a bleeding heart, to say the least. He has a daily column in Globes, an evening business daily, read by the Israeli financial elite. Apparently Golan read an Haaretz report on the issue and had this to say

Anyone who reads this column knows I don’t have much patience for the complaints and grievances of Arabs…

[But] I thought we, especially the people of faith among us, maintained that we are “not like them,” that we are “better than them.” Yet here we have the settlers, people of faith, saying that actually we are like them. So what was all that talk about the supremacy of Jewish spirit and values?…

And a question to the police: you have to answer the charge that for four years you did not manage to prove even one of dozens of incidents of cutting down trees that the Arabs complained about. How is that possible? Would you handle complaints by Jews the same way?

A full translation of the column can be read after the jump. You can see the original clipping here.

Incidentally, Human Rights in Yesha, whose media release Golan references, is another pro-settler group engaged in what NGO Monitor defines as “lawfare”, but which Gerald Steinberg’s organization mysteriously fails to monitor. More about Steinberg’s hypocrisy here.

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Americans raid settlements

Ben Kaspit, Maariv, November 25 2009 [page 5]

The Americans are taking off the gloves and going into the field: In the past few days, American diplomats, who apparently belong to envoy George Mitchell’s team, have started to travel through Judea and Samaria and tour the Jewish settlements there, holding interviews and inquiries with the local leaders and other settlers, in order to get the feel of the situation on the ground.

The first of these diplomats arrived on Monday in the settlement Efrat.  This is Cindy-Noga Trin, a diplomat stationed at the US consulate in Jerusalem, who appears to belong to envoy Mitchell’s team.  She visited Efrat, a large Jewish settlement, and interviewed Council Chairman Oded Revivi at length, and four additional residents (one of whom is a relative of Ari Harrow, the prime minister’s bureau chief).

Trin arrived in a bulletproofed van, accompanied by a driver and security guard, and was businesslike and polite.  She took out a thick notebook and filled it diligently.  Every word that came out of the mouth of Council Chairman Revivi, a lieutenant colonel in reserves, who was elected to his post about a year ago, was written down and filed.  “We want to get a feel on the situation on the ground,” she said to Revivi, “my next stops are Kiryat Arba, and then Tapuah junction.”

The conversation was similar to a cross-examination.  The bizarre part of the event was when the US diplomat repeatedly asked Revivi, “why aren’t you continuing to build?” and “who is preventing you from building?”  Revivi explained that Efrat had not received building permits for the past eight years.

Trin persisted: “The city is supposed to reach 30,000 residents, you have master plans here, who is stopping construction?  And how long haven’t you received permits?”  Revivi explained: “Here, in Givat Hazayit, in the heart of the settlement, there is no expansion of the perimeter line, there are plans here for 400 housing units, the Housing Ministry completed the infrastructure at an investment of millions, but the land is not being marketed.”  Trin asked, “why?” and Revivi said that he had no idea, and showed her two other hills (Givat Hadagan and Givat Hatamar) with the same problem.

Trin took an interest in the way of life in the settlement, the sources of livelihood and the relations with the Arab neighbors.  Revivi planned a tour for her in the nearby village, Wadi Nis, and coordinated the matter with the Arab residents, but Trin’s appearance with a large bulletproofed vehicle and security guards caused the village residents to change their minds.

Revivi told the American diplomat about the good neighborly relations with the village residents.  “There is no fence between Efrat and the Arab villages.  Together with our Arab neighbors, we fought against the fence and won,” he said.  “This is the only place where Arabs and Jews demonstrated today and prevented a fence.  Our Arab neighbors have called twice to warn us against terror cells that were on their way here, and the warnings proved to be true.  We provide Wadi Nis with doctors, medicines and water, we renovate their water lines, they work here, we visit there, the relations are excellent and there are friendships and a lot of mutual help.”

Revivi told Trin that although the American initiative looked like a clever way to bypass the relationship between the governments, he was very glad for it.  “President Obama is trying to solve this conflict by means of satellite footage,” he explained.  “If he were to go out into the field, see things up close, understand that we live here with our neighbors in coexistence and study the everyday life here, he would understand the complexity of the story better.”

The meeting lasted for more than an hour, in which Cindy-Noga Trin filled a notebook in small handwriting.  The feeling, Revivi said later, was of a painstaking and detailed cross-examination.  She did not miss a word, and wrote everything down.  When she asked him who was stopping the construction, Revivi raised an eyebrow, since it is the Americans, and mainly Trin’s boss George Mitchell, who are the address for this question, but he answered nonetheless.  Afterwards, Trin met with Boaz Columbus, principal of the high school in Karmei Tzur, and with Ora Yanai and Rahel Goshen, Efrat residents who belong to the founding generation of the settlement.  The last one to be interviewed was Eve Harrow, a relative of Ari Harrow, who deals with public relations.

This surprising visit to Efrat is supposed to be the first of a series.  The Americans are descending on [the settlements] in the field.  Mitchell is determined to understand what is happening on the ground, and to compare what is happening with what he is being told.  All this is taking place a few days before Prime Minister Netanyahu’s expected announcement of a construction freeze in the settlements—an announcement that will probably not satisfy the Palestinians.  Mitchell may be trying now to rectify the errors of the past and to check what is being done on the ground before he issues statements and demands that could complicate the situation of the sides.

In order to understand the dangers of this campaign, and how hypocritical the demand for “freedom of worship” is, it’s important to remember that Yitzhar’s Od Yosef Hai yeshiva was originally located at the tomb. Just last week the yeshiva’s dean published “The complete guide to killing non-Jews.”

Back to Joseph’s Tomb

Roi Sharon, Maariv, November 19 2009 [page 6]

The right wing has marked its next target: nine years after the IDF’s withdrawal from Nablus, right wing groups plan to restore the Jewish presence in Joseph’s Tomb.

The new initiative was born as a result of the current security situation in the Palestinian Authority territories, after many roadblocks to the Palestinian cities were removed. After the removal of the Hawara roadblock near Nablus, illegal visits to Joseph’s Tomb increased. Contrary to earlier years, when Joseph’s Tomb worshippers would infiltrate in the depths of night using various bypass roads, in recent months worshippers enter during daylight of day and via the main roads.

The promoters of this initiative are the hill top folks, residents of Samaria’s settlements, rabbis and long time settlers. A group of several dozens has united under the name “the Nablus core,” and in recent days began circulating a position paper which states: “for nine years now Joseph’s Tomb remains burnt, desecrated and abandoned…it is time to remove the stain.”

An epistle to be sent to Samaria residents in the coming days states: “for nine years Joseph’s Tomb has been forsaken and there is no Jewish presence in the city of Nablus. Nine years have passed since the destruction, burning and pogrom. We all recall and are pained with the sight, how hundreds of savages who defeated the Israeli Defense Forces, broke, burned and rejoiced. Have we forgotten? Have we grown despondent? We are determined to change the situation: not to forget. Not to grow despondent.”

“The vicinity of Od Yosef Hai Yeshiva in Nablus today stands abandoned, even though this is Israeli territory according to all opinions and even according to Israel law,” states the letter. “Never has their been an official decision concerning this shameful abandonment, it was executed quickly and unannounced, under pressure, at a time when the IDF was an all time low. Today there is no security impediment to dwelling in the area again, and it is realistically possible to secure the place. Today the roadblocks are all open, and every Arab from Balata enters and leaves Nablus freely, traveling to all destination of Judea and Samaria. And only we shall remain shut out?”

Organizers plan on recruiting as much wide spread support as possible through PR campaigns. As a second phase, organizers plan to pitch a protest tent at the entrance to Nablus. In the future they will attempt a march into the city towards the tomb. In the last phase, a massive entry into the vicinity of the tomb is planned, with the goal being to remain there.

Benny Katzover, who is involved with the initiative, told Ma’ariv last night that “the basic demand to allow Jews free worship is an elementary one which no people in the world would give up, and it is also mandated by the miserable Oslo Accords — just as is the case with Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem. We must battle in order to change this intolerable situation, in which this sacred place remains in a state of disgrace, destroyed and shattered, and Jews may enter it only once a month in the dead of night.”

This morning’s (November 17, 2009) Israeli media runs a flurry of criticism of the settlers, settlements and government inaction against them.

Yediot’s senior military analyst, Alex Fishman, who is also chairman of the Israeli Military Correspondents Chamber and hardly a bleeding heart, is appalled. In an analysis piece placed alongside news reporting on the latest chapter of the settler-soldier rebellion in West Bank, he rails

What is the greatest chutzpah? To establish, in an illegal settlement, an illegal factory that produces temporary structures for more illegal settlements. And to do so openly, in the light of day, under the nose of the government and with the knowledge of the law enforcement agencies. In fact, this is not just chutzpah. This is anarchy.

[...]

we, with our own two hands, are providing the rope that will be used as a noose for the [Israeli-Palestinian diplomatic] negotiations.

Full text of the article is below, note that also contains a wealth of previously unreported details on the issue.

Stop the anarchy

Analysis, Alex Fishman, Yediot, November 17 2009 [page 7]

What is the greatest chutzpah? To establish, in an illegal settlement, an illegal factory that produces temporary structures for more illegal settlements. And to do so openly, in the light of day, under the nose of the government and with the knowledge of the law enforcement agencies. In fact, this is not just chutzpah. This is anarchy.

Such an illegal factory for trailers exists, for example, in Havat Gilad in the southern Hebron hills. There are two other such anonymous factories in the West Bank, and this is no coincidence. It is much safer and convenient there. The law enforcement agencies are liable to stop trailers that are manufactured inside the Green Line at the crossings, or at least monitor their passage into the West Bank. To drive trailers from inside the Green Line to the West Bank, you need permits, whereas in the West Bank, you don’t need any permission from anyone.

Moreover, the trailers produced have amazing qualities: they are capable of merging into the scenery, and then suddenly popping up, like mushrooms after rain, on these or those hills. In the settlements of Kochav Yaakov and Eli, for example, 12 trailers suddenly popped up to house new immigrants from France. Straight from the plane to the trailer. And how do they get water and electricity? The head of the local authority, who receives a salary from the Interior Ministry, approves it, the regional engineer signs, and everything is legal.

This is what the settlers call “natural growth,” and they expect, that using this argument, the State of Israel will face the Americans with clean hands. The prime minister and defense minister persuaded envoy Mitchell that there is childbirth in the territories, and indeed there is “childbirth.” Including new immigrants from France. Everyone seems to think that the Americans are idiots and that they can be sold a bill of goods forever. Then they’re insulted that Obama makes faces at Netanyahu and doesn’t believe him.

It doesn’t need to be mentioned that the prime minister and the ministers know very well about these tricks, but they prefer to close their eyes. There is no law, no judge, and nobody enforces any law in the territories. So is it any wonder that this anarchy has trickled down into the army as well? Why not, what will they do to them? Nobody should be surprised if the displays of protest in the army against the evacuation of buildings and settlements only continue and gain momentum. After all, these soldiers receive a few days in the stockade—as if they’d committed a traffic violation—and become, automatically, heroes.

Today the protest is by means of signs, tomorrow the protest will be expressed in acts, in disobeying orders, in sedition. The army is paying a price for the fact that there is no law in the territories, that everyone does as they see fit. The chief of staff will have no choice but to come to the defense of the army that is beginning to slide down the steep slope of politicization and put an end to this, even in a brutal fashion. Because there is already a smell of political mutiny in the air.

And what was the soldier’s protest about yesterday? About two illegal buildings that were demolished in the settlement of Negohot. An observer from the side might have thought for a moment that the State of Israel had decided to stop illegal construction in order to create an appropriate atmosphere to make a renewal of the negotiations with the Palestinians possible. But the building demolition in Negohot is a joke. In the last few months there has been a momentum of construction taking place in the territories, of hundreds of buildings in dozens of settlements. Ever since the American demand was raised to completely freeze construction in the settlements, and ever since Netanyahu’s Bar Ilan speech about two states for two peoples, there has been a race taking place on the ground: to squeeze in as much as possible. Along with the illegal construction taking place, old construction permits suddenly show up that have not been implemented for many years. Every concrete base ever poured and then frozen has come back to life and sprouted walls.

The prime minister and defense minister managed to reach a compromise with the Americans making it possible to complete the construction of about 3,000 units already in various stages of construction, all in order to buy industrial quiet with the settlers and appease them and their supporters in the government. 3,000? They’re laughing. Nobody, including in the government, has any idea how many legal and illegal construction starts there are on the ground today.

It’s not that the Palestinians are saints and constantly seeking ways to return to the negotiations. But we, with our own two hands, are providing the rope that will be used as a noose for the negotiations.

A responsible government can stop this anarchy. Even if there are no negotiations with the Palestinians, it must instruct the OC Central Command to issue a military order to freeze all construction in the territories—with or without a permit—until further notice. Every construction will be discussed separately. With no winking. When the army realizes that the political echelon is serious, that will help it instate order in its ranks.

Channel Ten TV’s military affairs correspondent reported Monday evening that “these [see video below] pictures give the IDF a serious headache,” because

They show soldiers who join rioting settlers and using their IDF-issue weapons.  Soldiers manning an observation post of the Etzioni Brigade, which is the Bethlehem brigade, were amazed when their security cameras spotted two of their comrades out there. Corporal Baruch Brandoi of the anti-terror school and Sergeant Nahman Alfasi of the Artillery Corps, both residents of the settlement of Bat Ayin, took their M-16′s and joined their friends on a revenge campaign against the nearby Palestinian village of Hirbat Zafa. The incident took place shortly after the lethal ax attack in Bat Ayin. The settlers wanted revenge. A group of settlers started throwing rocks at the Palestinian village. The Palestinians responded in kind, but then came the two armed soldiers. Brandoi fired 26 rounds and kept firing even after the Palestinians have fled.  Alfasi fired 12 rounds. [Full translated transcript here.]

The “headache” was not bad enough, apparently, for the IDF to put some serious effort into disciplining these soldiers, despite the extraordinary evidence.

Presenting the pictures before the court, the military prosecution argued that the two soldiers were under no life threat and thus had no reason to open fire, but was forced to make a plea bargain deal with them, and each of the shooters was handed down a sentence of 21 days in the military prison.

The de facto parallel hierarchies – military and rabbinical — that the many fundamentalist combat soldiers owe allegiance to have been a major problem for IDF operations in the West Bank for some time. One only needs to skim through Yesh Din‘s numerous publications in order to understand how blurred the lines between the IDF and settler paramilitaries have become.

LATEST UPDATE — August 30 2010: Max Blumenthal reports from a conference supporting the rabbi (older updates at bottom.)

The ultra-fundamentalist Od Yosef Hai yeshiva in the West Bank settlement of Yitzhar is infamous for its involvement in settler violence against Palestinians. Memorably, one of the students fired a homemade “Kassam” rocket at the neighboring village of Burin in June 2008. This morning, Maariv reports that the Yeshiva’s dean has just published on the proscribed dos and don’ts (mainly the former) regarding the killing of gentiles. Here are some choice excerpts.

“In any situation in which a non-Jew’s presence endangers Jewish lives, the non-Jew may be killed even if he is a righteous Gentile and not at all guilty for the situation that has been created…When a non-Jew assists a murderer of Jews and causes the death of one, he may be killed, and in any case where a non-Jew’s presence causes danger to Jews, the non-Jew may be killed…The [Din Rodef] dispensation applies even when the pursuer is not threatening to kill directly, but only indirectly…Even a civilian who assists combat fighters is considered a pursuer and may be killed. Anyone who assists the army of the wicked in any way is strengthening murderers and is considered a pursuer. A civilian who encourages the war gives the king and his soldiers the strength to continue. Therefore, any citizen of the state that opposes us who encourages the combat soldiers or expresses satisfaction over their actions is considered a pursuer and may be killed. Also, anyone who weakens our own state by word or similar action is considered a pursuer…Hindrances—babies are found many times in this situation. They block the way to rescue by their presence and do so completely by force. Nevertheless, they may be killed because their presence aids murder. There is justification for killing babies if it is clear that they will grow up to harm us, and in such a situation they may be harmed deliberately, and not only during combat with adults.”…In a chapter entitled “Deliberate harm to innocents,” the book explains that war is directled mainly against the pursuers, but those who belong to the enemy nation are also considered the enemy because they are assisting murderers.

A full translation of the Maariv article can be read after the jump.

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