I dedicate this posting to him, so
that all who read this should know the debt we owe to him.
An international lawyer, born and
educated in Montreal, Grief made aliyah in 1989 and served as a legal
adviser in international law on matters pertaining to the Land of Israel for the
ministry of Professor Yuval Ne'eman, during the administration of Yitzhak
Shamir.
As he did his extensive research,
Grief developed the thesis that de jure sovereignty over the entire
Land of Israel was vested in the Jewish People as a result of the
Resolution of the San Remo Conference, adopted in April 1920, which made
reference to the Balfour declaration.
He lectured and wrote on this
issue extensively, and in 2008 authored his comprehensive treatise, The
Legal Foundation and Borders of Israel under International
Law.
Here you can see a position paper
on the subject he wrote for the Ariel Center for Policy Research:
And here an
enlightening video in which he makes his thesis clear:
~~~~~~~~~~
Baruch Dayan HaEmet.
Receive our gratitude, Howard Grief, and rest in peace.
~~~~~~~~~~
And here a personal
note:
It's been a hard lesson,
but I'm learning it: there are only 24 hours in a day. Right
now, as much as I am motivated to write these posts frequently, there are a
host of other matters to which I must devote time: a significant project on
behalf of Israel, conferences, etc. And the personal: a bat mitzvah
of a granddaughter, visiting with relatives from abroad.
And, not to be forgotten, kaitana
savta (Camp Grandma), coming soon, which means grandchildren sleeping here and
going on outings with me. Not only a time I treasure and measure as a
great priority, it is an experience that keeps me sane, provides
perspective, and strengthens me for the work I do.
And so my friends, know that all
is well, but that in the coming weeks my postings are likely to be less frequent
than is my norm. I will post to the best of my ability.
~~~~~~~~~~
The Middle East is on fire:
It goes from awful to horrendous to catastrophic.
Inside of Syria, the fighting
continues with enormous intensity, most notably in the two-week long battle
for Qusayr, near the Lebanese border. Reports there are of 400 killed and
1,000 wounded since the beginning of the battle. The humanitarian
situation is said to be horrendous, with doctors having run out of
supplies.
See: http://imra.org.il/story.php3?id=61149 scroll
down.
Recently Hezbollah's leader Sheikh
Nasrallah declared, with regard to battling on behalf of the Syrian troops,
particularly in Qusayr:
"We will continue to the end of
the road; we accept this responsibility and will accept all sacrifices and
expected consequences of this position."
This was hardly an altruistic
position, as Assad's Syria is Nasrallah's lifeline and source of armaments.
Qusayr is near the Lebanese border and provides the pathway for the transmission
of those armaments.
Hezbollah reportedly has
11,000 fighters there now. Qusayr had been in rebel hands, but Assad's
troops are attempting to retake the city; there has been no decisive winner as
the battle goes back and forth.
~~~~~~~~~~
What is happening, however, is
that the presence of Hezbollah in Qusayr has spurred rebel action in Lebanon, in
retaliation.
According to the Lebanese National
News Agency, on Friday night 16 mortars and rockets were fired from Syria into
the Hezbollah Shiite stronghold of Baalbek, a major
population center in the Bekaa Valley.
As a result,
sectarian Sunni-Shiite tensions inside of Lebanon have also
increased.
~~~~~~~~~~
The other day, a spokeswoman for
the US State Department said:
"We demand that Hezbollah withdraw
its fighters from Syria immediately."
An exercise in
powerlessnes.
Obama is still speaking obliquely
about arming rebel forces, which likely would have the effect of prolonging and
intensifying the war, not ending it.
~~~~~~~~~~
At the very same time (see the
same imra source cited above), Iraq is seeing the worst violence since 2008. A
UN envoy describes Iraq as "ready to explode." During May there
were somewhere between 600 and 1,000 deaths (depending on source cited) and
well over 1,000 injuries.
While the political issues here
are complex, in large measure the violence is the result of growing sectarian
tensions -- a seriously disgruntled Sunni minority (which had ruled the country
under Saddam Hussein) responding to a Shiite majority and the
government.
~~~~~~~~~~
I had cited Dore Gold the other
day, in an article about the impending break-down of the borders of Arab
states that were arbitrarily drawn after WWI. And here we see the
handwriting on the wall, folks: Increasing sectarian tensions, Sunni vs.
Shiite. The old borders are, in the end, unlikely to hold them, as Arabs
move across those borders to join with others of the same Muslim
sect.
We see this tendency in the TV
sermon last Friday of cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi in Qatar, who advised Sunnis
everywhere to go fight against Assad. Denouncing Assad's Alawite sect (an
offshoot of Shiite Islam) as "more infidel than Christians and Jews," he
said that, "Everyone who has the ability and has training to kill ... is
required to go."
Declaring that there is no more
common ground between Sunnis and Shiites, he charged Shiite Iran
with trying to "devour" Sunnis.
~~~~~~~~~~
And in Turkey (which is 80% Sunni
Muslim but not Arab): Days of exceedingly serious riots, directed at the
Islamist government of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan. Protesters
clashed with riot police and set fire to buildings belonging to the ruling AK
(Justice and Development) party. Some of the worst violence took place in
Istanbul, where demonstrators set up barricades, as well as in other major
cities.
The rioting began when government
plans were announced for the redevelopment of Istanbul's Taksim Square,
which has traditionally served as a rallying point for mass
demonstrations, But it quickly morphed into something a great deal more
serious.
Credit: Telegraph
(UK)
Security is tight as Erdogan
blames the riots on "foreign extremists" and calls Twitter a "menace."
Protests are being voiced about
the excessively tough methods employed by Turkish security forces.
Other sources of discontent
include limitations on alcohol, the massive Syrian refugee problem, which people
believe has not been handled well, and the relationship with the
Kurds.
Analysts are not in agreement as
to whether this can be seen as the Turkish version of the "Arab
Spring."
~~~~~~~~~~
Speculations about delivery of
those Russian S-300 missiles to Syria have been enough to make one's head
spin: Some are in Syria already, they're on the way, they are being
used as a threat and aren't coming...
What seemed to me most significant
as those speculations circulated was a statement by Defense Minister Moshe
Ya'alon, that, should the missiles arrive, "we'll know what to do."
It seemed pretty clear to me that this man was not bluffing: Israel was not
about to sit still while Syria took possession of equipment that would
not only shift the balance of power with regard to Israel attacks inside of
Syria, but would permit the Syrians to hit commercial planes over Ben Gurion
Airport.
It was just a question of when in
the process of Syria setting up those missile installations we would hit -- the
key factor being taking them out before they were operational.
~~~~~~~~~~
Prime Minister Netanyahu delivered
a similar message to Putin
when visited Russia last month, saying that the delivery of those missiles “is
likely to draw us into a response, and could send the region deteriorating into
war.”
What seems obvious now is
that the Russians also understand that Israeli leaders were not
bluffing.
Now Ya'alon has told the Knesset
Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that, if Russia does decide to deliver
those missiles to Russia (something not yet clear), “it will happen only
in 2014.” (Emphasis added)
According to the Russian
daily Kommersant, the S-300 missiles would only be delivered in
the second quarter of 2014. What is more, they would not become operational
for another six months because of required testing and
training.
While a Lebanese paper,
al-Diyar, reported that Putin has offered Assad other
"effective and powerful weapons,” but obviously not as
effective as those S-300 missiles.
And Israeli sources have learned
that Syria has only paid one-third of its contract with Russia. “It is not clear
to me that the Russians are interested in transferring the weapons. Right now,
it’s more of a threat,” said Channel 2′s Ehud Ya’ari,
OK, then, A signal lesson in being
tough and resolute.
~~~~~~~~~~
Ah that Obama and company would
learn something from this.
See the comment by Avraham Ben-Zvi
that "Obama is no Kennedy":
"Unlike during the Cuban missile
crisis, the [Russians have] identified a profound and basic leadership void in
Obama's Washington."
~~~~~~~~~~
I remain aghast that in the face
of all this Mideastern violence and upheaval Sec. of State Kerry remains focused
on the "peace process."
But at least our Defense Minister,
Moshe Yaalon, see straight. Yesterday in his briefing before the
Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, he said that:
"The crux of the matter is
education in the Palestinian Authority, and if I open a PA textbook and see that
Israel doesn't appear on the map, or that Tel Aviv is designated as a
settlement, and when a 3-year-old boy is brought up to admire suicide bombers --
you can sign any agreement and in the end it will blow up in your face."
He also spoke about the very real
threat of terror coming from Judea and Samaria, which is prevented by the IDF,
which has freedom to operate. The implications of pulling back, then, are
glaringly obvious.
~~~~~~~~~~
Mahmoud Abbas, who functions as PA
president (but is NOT president because his term of office expired in January
2009, and new elections were never held) has now appointed a replacement for
Salam Fayyad, who retired as PR prime minister:
Rami Hamdallah, the
British-educated linguist professor and president of an-Najah University, and a
man with no political experience or affiliations. Guess that's one way to
quell partisan fighting about which candidate would be best.
A man like this is going to
appeal to Western governments, which is likely a key reason for his
selection by Abbas, who did not consult the PLO before making his
announcement.
One has to wonder what would
prompt this man to take such a position and what was said to him behind closed
doors.
Barak Ravid opines that "His
chances of success are so low that some would say agreeing to take the post is
akin to taking a suicide mission."
~~~~~~~~~~
A expression of outrage that must
be shared:
President Shimon Peres is about to
celebrate his 90th birthday with a huge bash. Outrageous enough, but
that's not what's got me here.
Within the same time frame as this
event, there will be other events sponsored by the Jewish National Fund
(Keren-Kayemet LeYisrael). Former president Bill Clinton will celebrate
with Peres and give a talk on sustainability at the Peres Academic Center in
Rehovot, which is where the birthday will be celebrated. (The precise
connection to this event and other JNF events is not clear.)
The Clinton fee for this -- which
will go to the Clinton Foundation -- is $500,000. And JNF is paying
it! Got that?
Are you incensed yet?
JNF, which takes Jewish money
ostensibly so that trees can be planted and Israel can be developed, paying
Clinton half a million dollars. JNF defense is that this will promote an
increase in activities. And I say, garbage.
I ask, please, that you register
your protest to JNF and let them know you're not only angry, but finished
donating to them.
Means of
contact provided on the website: customerservice@jnf.org and (888) JNF-0099.
Regional offices can be located
here: http://www.jnf.org/about-jnf/in-your-area/.
~~~~~~~~~~
Let's end on a positive
note.
"The official PA daily reported on
a visit by the PA Minister of Health, Hani Abdeen, to Israel's Hadassah Hospital
in Jerusalem. The daily noted that 30% of the child patients in Hadassah are
Palestinians and that the Israeli hospital is training '60 Palestinian medical
interns and specialist physicians who will be returning to the [Palestinian]
Authority areas to carry out their work.' The hospital has a special program to
train Palestinian doctors to treat cancer among children, reported the PA
daily."
~~~~~~~~~~
©
Arlene Kushner. This material is produced by Arlene Kushner,
functioning as an independent journalist. Permission is granted for it to be
reproduced only
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proper attribution.
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See my website at
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