Doc's Talk: Tamir Must Go Home

Thursday, September 06, 2007

Tamir Must Go Home

Comment:She admits to imposing her political ideological positions into education requirements-shame,shame!MKs Miller, Orlev Sock it to Education Minister Tamir Tuesday's special mid-recess Knesset session was called not only to deal with the Olmert government's planned concessions to the Arabs of Judea and Samaria, but also to discuss the alleged anti-religious and anti-Zionist policies of Education Minister Yuli Tamir of the Labor Party.
Only three Knesset Members spoke: MK Zevulun Orlev (National Religious Party), who blamed Tamir for trying to impose her left-wing ideology on Israel's educational system; Russian immigrant MK Alex Miller (Yisrael Beiteinu), who spoke from the heart about the importance of Jewish values in winning wars; and a rebuttal by Minister Tamir.
MK Orlev opened by saying that he and his colleagues had asked for the special session "because of Minister Tamir's recent decisions: to cut, by 50%, the amount of post-high school National Service girls placed in organizations dealing with strengthening Jewish identity in public schools, and also to prevent public religious school graduates from teaching Judaism and Zionism."
With 100 National Service girls in the visitors' gallery, Orlev said these decisions are in line with Tamir's approach of making "decisions based on her ideology, even more so than her left-wing predecessors such as Yossi Sarid, Shulamit Aloni, and Amnon Rubenstein... For instance, she recently gave the order to ensure that school textbook maps show the pre-1967 borders that separated Judea, Samaria and Gaza from the rest of Israel." Orlev said this was in opposition to an Israeli government decision - "proposed by a Labor party minister," he noted - shortly after the Six Day War.
Minister Tamir also recently approved adding the Arab version of Israel's War of Independence - namely, that it was a "nakba," or "tragedy" - to Arab schoolbooks. Specifically, she approved a Grade 3 textbook "Living Together in Israel," which was written by Arabs who left their homes during the 1948 War of Independence and claim that Israel took their land. "The Arab narrative deserves to be told in Israel," Tamir explained at the time.
Orlev, a former Director-General of the Education Ministry, called upon Prime Minister Olmert at the time to fire Tamir for making an "anti-Zionist decision that erases Jewish history and denies the State of Israel as a Jewish state."
"And this most recent political decision," Orlev told the Knesset, "is a grave one. It has nothing to do with the curriculum; Minister Tamir well knows that National Service girls are not replacing teachers, but are just part of an enrichment program, beyond the regular school schedule."
Orlev emphasized that no replacement was found for the girls to teach values of Judaism. "In addition," he said, "the Education Minister knows that there are not enough Jewish studies teachers even inside the public school system curriculum - yet here too she is cutting. This, despite our ongoing shock at the tremendous ignorance in Jewish studies among our students..."
Law States that Torah Must be Taught
"This issue is an existential issue for our country," Orlev said. "It cannot be that the Minister of Education, a member of the government, is not aware of the very goals of public education. Seven years ago, the Knesset Education Committee decided that the 'principles in the Declaration of Independence and the values of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state' must be instilled. How can these values be instilled if teaching jobs such as these are cut and Judaism can't be taught? Also history of the Land, and the Torah of Israel, and the like - these are all in the law, requiring the Minister of Education to do everything possible to instill these values."
"Who gives you the right to censure principals and schools who are interested in these girls?" Orlev asked Tamir from the Knesset podium. "The principals in 700 [secular] schools want them to teach Judaism in their schools. Shulamit Aloni also tried to stop this, but the principals refused to let her, and so she backtracked."
Within the Coalition
Orlev concluded by saying that he expects the religious and nationalist-camp ministers, such as Ze'ev Boim and the members of Shas and Yisrael Beiteinu, to make their position known as well.
Alex Miller Speaks from the Heart
MK Alex Miller (Yisrael Beiteinu) also spoke out against Tamir's policies. In the thick Russian accent of one who immigrated to Israel just 15 years ago, he expressed the hope that values such as love of the Land of Israel and Jewish culture would continue to be taught:
Much has been said about the last war. Its final results will become clear only later, but what's clear is that any war that breaks the national spirit is not a victory...
When soldiers enlist in the army, they learn combat skills and the like - but from where will they get their spirit? What type of spirit can they have if their educational system teaches them about the Naqba and draws the Green Line as a legitimate border? It appears that the Minister of Education wants to be the Palestinian Minister of Education, and is forgetting that her job is to teach Zionism to our youth and to help them forge their Jewish identity...
Your job, Mrs. Education Minister, is to restore Jewish pride and strength to the nation. You must imprint a Jewish stamp of values from the kindergartens and all the way through junior high school and even beyond. It's not an easy mission, but one that is no less important than achieving good grades and report cards. [Referring to the bravery shown by soldiers in the past war:] To save lives, it is not necessary to be a medical student; sometimes it's enough just to be a top student in Zionism.

Minister's Rebuttal
Minister Tamir, a founding member of the extreme left-wing Peace Now organization, did not deny that the issue was one of ideology: "MK Orlev, you won't teach me Zionism and Judaism! I'm just as Jewish as you are! The argument here is just that you want the hegemony, you want more money. We are in favor of pluralism, and we say that everyone can vie for a piece of the cake..." She said that she plans to hold a public tender in which Reform or humanist Jews will also be able to teach Judaism.

Huh? Do you buy this last statement? Do you not expect morefrom an Education minister? If not, then i pity you!

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The IDF’s Minorities in Numbers and Pictures

In honor of IDF Diversity Week, we present diversity through numbers and pictures. Each year, more and more Muslims, Christians, Druze, Bedouin and immigrants from around the world take on the responsibility of defending Israel.

MUSLIMS:

Muslim Arab Israelis are not required to draft in the IDF, but there are many who volunteer. In 2013, there were over 200 Muslims serving in the IDF and over 300 in the reserves.

Bedouins:

Bedouins are nomadic Muslims who were in Israel when modern borders were set in place and are now considered Israeli citizens. They are not required to draft but a growing number choose to enlist. In 2012, there were over 1,400 Bedouin Muslim soldiers doing regular IDF service and almost 1,500 in the reserves.

Read more:http://www.idfblog.com/2014/02/27/truth-idf-numbers-pictures/#more-34027

Are you aware that in 2013, Middle class taxes go up-significantly?

In January of next year, the federal income tax rate for middle-class taxpayers is scheduled to rise from 25 percent to 28 percent, and the payroll tax is scheduled to rise from 13.3 percent to 15.3 percent… This drives the marginal tax rate based on the aforementioned three taxes to 48.12 percent. Add in state and local property, corporate, excise, and other state and local taxes, and the percentage of each additional dollar that is taxed hovers around 50 percent… When half of each additional dollar earned is taxed away, taxpayers experience a disincentive to start businesses or expand existing ones. This leads to fewer jobs being created.

Why is HAMAS Inside Tampa Schools?

Clare Lopez

Kelly Miliziano, who teaches history classes at Steinbrenner High School in the Tampa, Florida area apparently thinks it’s perfectly OK to invite a senior official of a HAMAS-affiliated organization into her classroom to discuss Islam with her students. According to local media reports, not only has this been going on for years, but in spite of the civil and criminal proceedings that could result from such reckless negligence, the Hillsborough County school superintendent, Mary Ellen Elia, and the chairman of the school board, Candy Olson, also expressed approval for students under their responsibility to be exposed repeatedly to guest speaker, Hassan Shibly, who is the Executive Director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in the Tampa area.
More...

Did You Know... Ignoring the Call to Islam will Bring Jihad

‘Conquest through Da’wa [proselytizing] that is what we hope for. We will conquer Europe, we will conquer America! Not through sword but through Da’wa.’
-- Yousef al-Qaradawi , Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader The Arabic word ‘Da’wa’ means the “call to Islam.” But do not think that Da’wa is the same thing as an invitation to an optional holiday event. The classical Islamic doctrine of jihad mandates that enemies must be given the opportunity to convert to Islam or pay the jizya tax before it is permissible to attack them.
Clare M. Lopez

Who is being discriminated-facts tell the truth

Religious bias

Hate crimes motivated by religious bias accounted for 1,409 offenses reported by law enforcement. A breakdown of the bias motivation of religious-bias offenses showed:

65.4 percent were anti-Jewish.
13.2 percent were anti-Islamic.
9.5 percent were anti-other religion, i.e., those not specified.
4.3 percent were anti-Catholic.
3.8 percent were anti-multiple religions, group.
3.3 percent were anti-Protestant.
0.5 percent were anti-Atheism/Agnosticism/etc.

http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/hate-crime/2010/narratives/hate-crime-2010-incidents-and-offenses.

On March 31, 1977, the Dutch newspaper Trouw published an interview

with PLO executive committee member Zahir Muhsein. Here's what he said:

"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct "Palestinian people" to oppose Zionism.

For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan."

In March 1977, Zahir Muhsein, a PLO executive, said:

"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct Palestinian people to oppose Zionism."

"For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan."

The Arab Apartheid

Ben-Dror Yemini
In 1948, the Arab countries refused to accept the UN partition proposal and they launched a war of annihilation against the State of Israel which had barely been established. All precedents in this matter showed that the party that starts the war - and with a declaration of annihilation, yet - pays a price for it. Between 550,000 and 710,000 Arabs fled because of the war and a larger number of 850,000 Jews were expelled or fled from Arab countries (the "Jewish nakba").
Population exchanges and expulsions were the norm at that time, occurring in dozens of other conflict points and affecting about 52 million people. In all the population exchange precedents that occurred during or at the end of an armed conflict, there was no return of refugees to the previous region, which had turned into a new national state.
Only the Arab states acted completely differently from the rest of the world. Instead of assimilating the refugees, they crushed them despite the fact that they were their coreligionists and members of the Arab nation - instituting a regime of apartheid. So the "nakba" was not caused by the actual dispossession, which had also been experienced by tens of millions of others. The "nakba" is the story of the apartheid, oppression, abuse and denial of rights suffered by the Arab refugees at the hands of the Arab countries. (Maariv)

International Law and Military Operations in Practice - Col. Richard Kemp

"Islamist fighting groups study the international laws of armed conflict carefully and they understand it well. They know that a British or Israeli commander and his men are bound by international law and the rules of engagement that flow from it. They then do their utmost to exploit what they view as one of their enemy's main weaknesses. Their very modus operandi is built on the correct assumption that Western armies will normally abide by the rules, while these insurgents employ a deliberate policy of operating consistently outside international law. "

Lost Historical Moments

What Rabin’s last Knesset speech really said:repudiation of a Palestinian state

Rabin ruled out a fully sovereign Palestinian state :

“We view the permanent solution in the framework of State of Israel which will include most of the area of the Land of Israel as it was under the rule of the British Mandate, and alongside it a Palestinian entity which will be a home to most of the Palestinian residents living in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. We would like this to be an entity which is less than a state, and which will independently run the lives of the Palestinians under its authority.”

Rabin ruled out a total withdrawal from Judea and Samaria and thus a return to the pre-June 1967 borders :

“The borders of the State of Israel, during the permanent solution, will be beyond the lines which existed before the Six Day War. We will not return to the 4 June 1967 lines.”

Rabin ruled out withdrawing form the Jordan Valley:

“The security border of the State of Israel will be located in the Jordan Valley, in the broadest meaning of that term.”

Rabin ruled out uprooting settlement blocs, like the Gush Katif bloc in Gaza (which was subsequently uprooted by former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon):

“The establishment of blocs of settlements in Judea and Samaria, like the one in Gush Katif.

AND

Rabin ruled out removing any settlement before coming to a full peace agreement with the Palestinians:

“I want to remind you: we committed ourselves, that is, we came to an agreement, and committed ourselves before the Knesset, not to uproot a single settlement in the framework of the interim agreement, and not to hinder building for natural growth.”

Rabin insisted on Israel retaining full security control of the borders with Egypt and Jordan, contrary to Israel’s relinquishment of the Philadelphia Corridor on the border with Egypt:

“The responsibility for external security along the borders with Egypt and Jordan, as well as control over the airspace above all of the territories and Gaza Strip maritime zone, remains in our hands.”

Correcting Oslo Myths-Part 2

3) Kuttab laments that the post-1993 Oslo process resulted in a Palestinian Authority "whose ministers and legislators are not guaranteed passage between Gaza and the West Bank ...."

Before free passage or other perquisites, PA leaders were obligated, among other things, to eliminate the terrorist infrastructure in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, end anti-Israeli, antisemitic incitement in schools, mosques, and communications media, and resolve all outstanding issues through peaceful negotiations. They met none of these commitments, sometimes bolstering terrorism and greatly increasing incitement.

4) Kuttab complains that under Oslo the PA got "lightly armed police ---- but no real sovereignty over the land or contiguity between our communities in Gaza and the West Bank."

Oslo agreements repeatedly were revised, regardless of Palestinian non-compliance, until the authorized number of police grew from 8,000 to 40,000. Though they were to be the only armed forces in the territories, Israeli estimates early in the second intifada put the number of gunmen - police, "security services," terrorists, and armed gangs - at 85,000. Their armament reportedly included not only heavy machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades, but also anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles.

Sovereignty was to be negotiated in the envisioned 1998 "final status" talks - after a five-year period of confidence-building. Palestinian leadership chronically undermined the process. Palestinian terrorism made the 1993 - 1998 Oslo period more deadly for Israelis than the 15 years preceding it.

The United States doesn't have contiguity between the lower 48 states and Alaska and Hawaii; territorial contiguity between the West Bank and Gaza Strip - that is, through the 20 miles of Israeli territory between them - was never promised and would destroy Israeli contiguity.

5) "Palestinians have been made to endure hundreds of checkpoints in the West Bank, an eight-foot wall deep in our territories, and tight Israeli control over borders."

The security barrier is not "deep in Palestinian territories," but rather encompasses less than 8 percent of Judea and Samaria, and is mostly a fence, rarely a wall; the land in question is not "our [Palestinian] territories" but disputed territory to which, according to the authors of U.N. Security Council Resolution 242, Jews as well as Arabs have claims; and there are no international borders, only the 1949 armistice lines with Jordan. Under 242, borders remain to be negotiated. As for checkpoints - like the security barrier and "tight Israeli control" - Palestinian Arabs precipitated these measures themselves. No terrorism and there would be no fence or tight Israeli control and few checkpoints - like before the first intifada.

Correcting Some Oslo Myths

1) In Oslo "Israeli, Palestinian and other world leaders promised that ... Palestinian sovereignty would be solidified."

No, they didn't. The 1993 Declaration of Principles and subsequent Oslo agreements outlined a process by which final status negotiations about the West Bank and Gaza Strip would be reached. The process required an end to anti-Israel terrorism and incitement and a commitment to peaceful negotiations. The PA, Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and other terrorist groups, sabotaged the process from the start.

2) "The reality is that, in defiance of U.N. Security Council Resolution 242, which states that it is inadmissible to occupy land by force, Palestinian territories are still under foreign military occupation."
Wrong again. Resolution 242 (1967) does note "the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war." It also affirms the right of every state in the area "to live in peace with secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force." There were no "Palestinian territories." Jordan occupied the West Bank, Egypt controlled Gaza. Israel did not have "secure and recognized boundaries," so retention of some of those territories was possible under 242. Israel is not a "foreign" military occupier in the West Bank but, pending final negotiations, the lawful military administrator as a result of a successful war of self-defense.

Doc's Talk