January 27th was International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration (death) camp, and in many countries, the USA and mostly European ones, special gatherings were held on that day, some with prayers. It is a day to remember the Nazi “Final Solution” of exterminating the Jews. It is needless to say that the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum held a special ceremony, although Israel’s personal Remembrance Day is actually on another date. It is so important that the holocaust which cost over six million Jewish lives should not be forgotten. Israel school children have special lessons on this subject although in Arab schools here it is usually not mentioned, and in many Muslim countries they insist that the holocaust never happened. Minister of Information and Diaspora Yuli Edelstein, addressed the European Parliament on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, and said that Israel will make sure that another Holocaust never happens again. He also mentioned the Wannsee Conference on January 24th, 1942 in which the fate of millions of European Jews was sealed.
The computer hacker problem here is still not over, there were more attacks from the Saudi Arabian attacker(s) and in return Israeli hackers brought down the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency, Iran’s Press TV and more. If the Arabs continue, the Israeli hackers say they will do so too, and in harsher fashion. So we hope this will stop.
Posted in Observations
European countries, especially France, Germany and Britain have imposed new sanctions on Iran, on their central bank and they will stop buying oil, but this will evidently only start in June or July. Hopefully Iran will now stop developing nuclear weapon power, but so far they have only said they will close the Straights of Hormuz if sanctions are imposed, but Britain and others will see to it that they are kept open. About 15.5 million barrels of oil a day, or a sixth of global consumption, flow through the Straights from countries surrounding the Persian Gulf. Saudi Arabia will then supply oil instead of Iran, but prices will probably rise.
The Jerusalem Mufti (religious leader) Sheikh Muhamed Hussein gave a speech a few days ago and quoted a supposed passage by the Islamic prophet Muhammad that calls for the killing of Jews. Prime Minister Natanyahu called for an investigation of this incitement, saying,”These are grave words that the world needs to condemn.”
On Sunday, a new arrangement between the Israeli Defence Forces and Israel Railways came into effect, eliminating free rides on most trains between the hours of 6 and 9 a.m. on Sundays. This arrangement is evidently to save the IDF money and to reduce overcrowding during those hours , as so many soldiers return to their bases after weekend passes. Extra buses (without need to pay) were supplied, but many soldiers arrived late and there was much disorder. Maybe next week the arrangements will be better.
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Tags: A planned missile defence drill together with Israel and the U.S.A. which was to take place in April has suddenly been postponed by the US till later in the year. Evidently they don’t want to anger Iran or some Arab states just now, because of the present tension in our region, and don’t want to add to it? The drill was supposed to see the deployment of a great number of American troops and different sophisticated US missile defense systems in Israel.Three illegal new settlements in the West Bank were lately demolished by Israeli forces, much to the anger of the Jewish settlers. The evacuated settlers responded angrily, but the Police said the evacuation was carried out as usual. However this goes to show that nothing new is allowed to be built there.There is now a municipal strike all over the country, which includes nearly all municipal services like parking inspectors, garbage collecting, school buses, security guards at educational institutions, social services and more. The union organizing this strike say it is protesting against a recent decision to increase property tax, as well as “populist laws” that direct money away from education, transportation, welfare, the environment, pensioners, culture and many others. A union member said,” The government is taking money from its citizen’s pockets in order to fund others. We will not allow them to hurt our residents.” Since the strike started two days ago, garbage is already piling up in the streets. Hopefully an agreement will be reached soon.
Much of the news here in Israel during the last week concerns a hacker (maybe hackers in the plural) from Saudi Arabia who say he (they) managed to obtain from the internet about 400.000 Israeli credit card numbers, names, addresses and telephone numbers and published them on a website. He (they) have threatened to publish more. The credit card companies examined the list and are prepared to cancel affected cards for phone or internet use, and also issue new cards. They also gave details for people to check if their cards were on the list and have urged their customers to remain calm, that they were taking all required steps to secure credit accounts. They said that actually only hundreds of authentic card numbers were published.A law was passed this week to provide free education to children from the age of three (kindergarden). Up to now, free education was given only from the age of 5 .There had been many objections to this, especially as the money for this project is to be taken from other important undertakings including security, and many said only working mothers should get this priority, and some said only children of parents who had served their country by doing army service should receive this. But somehow, the law managed to get passed and will come into affect beginning with the new school year in September.Another meeting between an Israeli and a Palestinian representative took place in Jordan, it was said to be friendly and took about 3 hours. But will there be an outcome to it? The Arabs’ first demand is for land, but from experience we have learnt, that after land has been given, the “peace part” is forgotten by them. We returned the whole Gaza Strip, and what did we get for that? The Hamas terrorist organisation took over, and rockets were and are still being shot into Israel - no end to that yet, although it no longer makes any headlines. We also returned the whole Sinai Peninsula to Egypt, and now with the Muslim Brotherhood taking over in that country, the chances of continued peace are in question. There have also been shootings across the border - so what will the future bring?
The United States have made a $29.4 billion sale of fighter jets to Saudi Arabia, saying this will boost Israeli security in the region, though I personally think just the opposite, we are not “exactly” best friends with Saudi Arabia and hope these planes won’t be used against us in the future. But the U.S. say this is especially to curb the influence of Iran. There is rising tension in the Persian Gulf, Iran is testing long-range missiles there and has threatened to stop the flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz in the Gulf if it became the target of an oil export embargo over its nuclear developement ambitions.Last week I mentioned the problems with the ultra-orthodox Jews (Haredim) in some of our towns, because they want segregation in public places, between men and women. Since this subject was much talked about in the media, they feel that they are being attacked verbally, and on Saturday held a demonstration in Jerusalem. But their method of demonstration caused even more anger amongst nearly the whole population, because many of these protesters were wearing yellow stars or the uniforms of Holocaust death camps, and even dressed their children in them.The Yad Vashem (holocaust museum in Jerusalem) Chairman rightly said,” There is no room for such shameful behaviour. It hurts Holocaust survivors and disrespects the memory of the Holocaust.” He called on the haredi leaders to act against those who abused the memory of six million Jewish victims of the Nazis (of whom both my parents , brother and sister are part)This evening Israeli and Palestinian negotiators will face each other in Amman, (Jordan) for the first time in 16 months to discuss how and whether diplomatic negotiations will proceed. The Palestinians demand complete ending of constructions in the settlements and East Jerusalem and acceptance of 1967 lines as a basis for a two-state solution, but don’t agree that the one be a Jewish state. But Prime Minister Netanyahu’s spokesman said that the talks should be held without any preconditions, and should deal with all issues. Israel has already once stopped building for 9 months in the hope of getting talks, but this unfortunately did not come about, because of further Palestinian demands. Now we are grateful to Jordan’s King Abdulla for hosting the talks, and hope something positive will come of them.
Haifa is a mixed city, we have Christians, Muslims and Jews living in harmony, and every year in December each of these three religions has a religious holiday. For a great number of years now, the Haifa municipality have arranged what is called “the festival of festivals” during this month for all, and as always it is attended by a great number of people, also many tourists, in our town. There are street shows, singing, dancing, museums free for all and many other kinds of entertainment, and the restaurants belonging to all religions are fuller than ever. And whilst talking of Haifa, I must mention a Muslim delegation from India who are visiting Israel, led by Muhamed Asif, one of the leading politicians in India. Haifa’s mayor made a special reception for them too.The Jewish orthodox religious fanatics seem to be getting more active from day to day, and now most of their actions are directed against women and even very young girls. (These are not the same fanatics I mentioned in an earlier blog). They want women to sit at the back of buses apart from men, in some districts to walk only on one side of the street, not to appear as singers in concerts, and even spit on them if they think they are immodestly dressed. They want street advertisments to show only men. They want only male workers in supermarkets and much more. True, it is only a small group, and they act mostly in the town Beit-Shemesh and in Meyir Sharim in Jerusalem, but they seem to make the headlines lately. Some have been arrested, but no real serious action seems so far to have been taken, although Prime Minister Natanyahu and other politicians have spoken strongly against this behaviour. Natanyahu said ,”In liberal, western democracies the public space is open and secure for everyone – men and women alike. There is no place here for any harassment or discrimination. The government will use all the legal tools at its disposal to combat the exclusion of women in the public sphere, but said this was not only a legal issue, rather also a social one.This is an issue of public and social norms, and therefore I call on all public leaders and spiritual leaders to work against this phenomenon.” But this is only “talk”so far. We’ll have to wait and see what will be.