Who's to Blame? [Israeli Jew swears at Arab]

Arutz Sheva ^ | 1-14-07 | David Wilder

[SJackson]

Over the past few days, Israeli media and blogs around the world have been chewing, regurgitating, and chewing again, a short video filmed in Hebron a few months ago. The video shows Hebron resident Yifat Alkobi yelling and cursing some of her Arab neighbors, the Abu Isha family. They live across the street from the Alokobis and the other 17 Jewish families in the Tel Rumeida neighborhood.

Of course, for the Israeli media, this kind of film is similar to a big piece of chocolate cake with cream and a cherry on top. A live portrait of the 'monsters of Hebron.' Jewish monsters, of course.

However, all those having a field day over the Yifat video have either forgotten, or never knew, or prefer to ignore a number of important facts.

1. The Tel Rumeida neighborhood, the highest Jewish neighborhood in the city, perching atop a hill, faces, to the north, the Harat A-Sheikh Hills. These hills were abandoned by Israel to the Arabs exactly ten years ago as part of the infamous Hebron Accords. All Israeli security forces were removed from Harat A-Sheikh.

When the Olso War (a.k.a. the Second Intifada) began in October 2000, on the eve of Rosh HaShanah, Tel Rumeida came under attack from those hills. Terrorists shot from there into Tel Rumeida for two years. All the caravan homes, comprised of pasted-together plasterboard walls, were hit by Arab gunfire and are full of bullet holes. One Friday afternoon, when the Alkobi's firstborn daughter Tziporah was playing outside, a terrorist lined her up in his rifle scope and fired. The bullet missed Tziporah's head by a few centimeters.

2. Just over eight years ago, an Arab terrorist penetrated the Tel Rumeida neighborhood at about 11:00 pm, entered the home of Rabbi Shlomo Ra'anan from a back window and stabbed to death the 63-year-old rabbi in his pajamas. The terrorist could not have perpetrated his attack without 'inside information' gleaned from - who else? - Arab neighborhood residents.

3. About a year and a half ago, following the expulsion of 10,000 Jews from Gush Katif and northern Samaria, a group of radically extremist Arab organizations - headed by the European Union-funded International Solidarity Movement - and joined by groups like Anarchists Against the Wall, the Christian Peacekeeping Team, Ecumenical Escorters, and with tacit support from the Temporary International Presence in Hebron (TIPH), decided to focus on Tel Rumeida. Their goal was wiping the Jewish presence there off the map. Of course, the ends justify the means: the group's participants are instructed to physically intervene against Israeli security forces: "The project will be activist-oriented. Unlike other organizations, the project work will not be 'witness'- or 'presence'-oriented.... Assertively advocate for Palestinians of Tel Rumeida - physically intervene when soldiers or settlers attack Palestinians."

These so-called activists, all foreigners, openly incite the Arabs against Israeli security forces and civilians. Their actions are overtly provocative, attempting to draw both Israeli adults, children and soldiers into violent situations, which they then selectively film, for use by media and Internet. Of course, the films are professionally edited, so as to leave out segments they clearly are not interested in being witnessed by the public at large.

So, too, with the "Alkobi video." The events leading up to the public version can be left up to your imagination.

4. A true, short story, about the family in question, the Abu Isha clan (which has been transformed by ISM, et al. into the Hebron media PR family of the neighborhood). A number of years ago, one of the Jewish Tel Rumeida families had a broken piece of furniture. Their across-the-street neighbor, Mr. Abu-Isha, was a carpenter and, very naturally, they brought their broken chair to him to be fixed. When he completed the work and they asked the cost, he replied, "I don't take money from neighbors." It seemed that the days of the Messiah arrived; children from both families began playing together - Jewish and Arab children playing in Hebron.

One day, as happens with children all over the world, the kids had a fight and this one went home crying and that one went home crying. A little while later, the Jewish woman heard someone knocking at her door. When she opened it, one of the Abu-Isha clan stood there and started screaming at her. (Did you see it on the Internet?) After a little while, he turned around and went home.

Shortly afterwards, a soldier stationed in the neighborhood approached the woman and asked her if she wanted to issue a complaint against the man who had screamed at her. She responded that she didn't understand Arabic and she had no idea what he had said.

The soldier replied, "I understand Arabic. He said he was going to come back with a knife and kill all of you." Needless to say, the kids stopped playing together.

In conclusion, it is also important to try and keep events in proportion to their actual significance. For example, yesterday I read in an Israeli Internet news site about a man who murdered someone because of an argument between two dogs. One dog bothered another dog in a coffee house in Haifa and, as a result, a man was stabbed in the heart and killed. The murderer was convicted and sentenced to eighteen years in prison, but appealed the harshness of the punishment. Israel's illustrious Supreme Court accepted the appeal and reduced the sentence by three years, leaving the killer in jail for fifteen years. As Israeli punishment goes, I expect he'll be out after ten.

Did you know anything about this story? Which seems to be more significant: a Jewish woman yelling at an Arab woman, or a man who was convicted of killing another man because of a dog, and whose jail sentence was reduced due to its extreme severity?

And finally: What really happened? What's shown in the video? A woman yelling at another woman. Now, let me ask you, when was the last time you yelled at someone - a co-worker, a spouse, a child? Hand on your heart. Did you ever have a dispute with a neighbor and 'let go'? Did it make international news headlines?

On Israeli news - Voice of Israel headline news - one of the reports said that Yifat Alkobi from Hebron has been ordered by police to submit to interrogation. If she doesn't appear, then an arrest warrant will be issued. This is headline news? Only because it's an Arab and a Jew in Hebron.

Yifat didn't take a gun into their house and shoot anyone; she didn't go inside and turn the house inside out. She yelled at an Arab woman. Maybe her choice of words was 'undesirable,' but believe me, I've heard worse. And - great confessions - even I've lost it at times and used some pretty coarse language. I know a few righteous people who've never used such words, but not too many of them.

Again, the difference is Jews and Arabs in Hebron, incitement, provocations and a well-placed video camera. And, of course, a firm target: let's get the Jews out of Tel Rumeida.

In reality, that's the whole story. So you tell me: Who's to blame?

[SJackson]

A thread on the incident.

On tape: Palestinians harassed in Hebron ‘cage’

Maybe they could send in European observers. Kind of a Temporary International Presence in Hebron TIPH. Oops, that won't work.

TIPH observers leave Hebron after riot

[SJackson]

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[samtheman]

One Friday afternoon, when the Alkobi's firstborn daughter Tziporah was playing outside, a terrorist lined her up in his rifle scope and fired. The bullet missed Tziporah's head by a few centimeters.

The gist of this article is true, but the inclusion of details like this one is questionable. How do we know that "a terrorist her up in his rifle scope"? Did the terrorist describe doing so later? And how do we know that the "bullet missed Tziporah's head by a few centimeters"? Was there high-precision radar in operation in the back yard?

Don't get me wrong, I'm sure the writer basically has the story straight, but one of the things that so is sickening about the leftist press is the way they throw around loose "facts" that are often not "facts" at all.

I hate those kind of "facts", no matter what the source.

[SJackson]

Obviously there's no way of being certain as to centimeters, though the distance of the miss is irrelevant to me, the point is that they target children. I would have used the Shalhevet Pass [see next post[ incident were I the author.

[SJackson]

Sniper kills Jewish baby in Hebron
By Ellis Shuman  March 27, 2001

 

Yitzhak, Oriyah and Shalhevet Pass
(Hebron Jewish community)

 

Palestinian sniper fire killed ten-month-old Shalhevet Pass yesterday evening in the Avraham Avinu neighborhood of Hebron. The gunfire also wounded her father Yitzhak, 24, as they stood in the entrance of the neighborhood.

Shalhevet was killed instantly by a bullet wound to her head, fired by a sniper positioned on a rooftop in the Abu Sneneh neighborhood which overlooks the Avraham Avinu area, and which is under Palestinian control. Oriyah Pass, Shalhevet's mother, who was with the family at the time, was unharmed. Shalhevet Pass is considered the youngest victim of the Intifada on either side of the conflict so far.

Israel Defense Forces responded to the attack by firing

"We demand that all this territory be recaptured and the terrorists be wiped out." Noam Arnon - Hebron community spokesman.

machine guns and tank shells in the direction of a building in Abu Sneneh identified as the source of the sniper attack.

Some 16 Palestinians were reportedly wounded in the shelling. A curfew and tightened closure were imposed on Hebron last night and residents of Abu Sneneh were asked to evacuate their homes.

An Israeli military spokesman said the evacuation order for Abu Sneneh was "not unusual." Such demands had been made in Hebron in the past, and were dismissed by Hebron residents as "noise." "We want to feel free to shoot back without harming civilians," the IDF spokesman explained.

The Pass family, following discussions with Rabbis and other officials, announced this morning their intention to delay the funeral of their daughter until the Israeli army recaptures the Abu Sneneh hills. A spokesman for the family said that they hoped their decision would help prevent additional funerals.

The Prime Minister's office issued a statement yesterday blaming "the Palestinian Authority… for the acts of violence and terror that led… to the murder of an infant and the wounding of her father in Hebron."

PA Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo told Reuters there is "no evidence" the infant was killed by Palestinians. "We believe that the atrocities of the occupation are responsible for all the crimes that have claimed the lives of Palestinians and Israelis," Rabbo said.

Ha'aretz reported that a Fatah activist said those who shot the Israeli baby "acted on their own. ... Despite the enmity with the settlers, it's impossible to forget that the victim was a baby that didn't even know she was a settler," the activist said.

Settlers call for response
After the attack, Noam Arnon, a spokesman for the Jewish settlers in Hebron, called for an immediate retaliation against the Palestinian militants. "We demand that all this territory be recaptured and the terrorists be wiped out. There is no other solution. The head of the snake must be crushed," Arnon said.

The leadership of the Hebron Jewish community held an emergency meeting last night, demanding that the hills surrounding Hebron be retaken by the Israel Defense Forces. The leaders announced plans for demonstrations to be held outside the Arab market, next to the Avraham Avinu neighborhood. Representatives met with Prime Minister Sharon and called on him to fulfill his campaign promise to restore security to the residents of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip.

Col. Noam Tivon, commander of the Hebron brigade, told Channel One news that, "This city has seen many violent incidents. I hope there's no flare-up." Tivon said he "understood" the settlers' anger.

Israel Radio reported late last night that no serious military action is expected immediately following the Hebron shooting. Yoni Ben Menachem, the station's diplomatic correspondent, explained that Prime Minister Sharon does not want to be sucked into a response that would benefit Yasser Arafat at the Arab summit this week in Amman.

Defense Minister Ben Eliezer told reporters that the IDF would "find the time and place" to respond.

 

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http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Terrorism-%20Obstacle%20to%20Peace/Memorial/2001/Shalhevet%20Tehiya%20Pass

Shalhevet Tehiya Pass

                      

Mar 26, 2001 - Shalhevet Pass, age 10 months, was killed by sniper fire at the entrance to the Avraham Avinu neighborhood in Hebron.

Shalhevet, seated in her stroller, was going with her parents to visit her grandparents in the Avraham Avinu neighborhood in Hebron. A Palestinian sniper opened fire from the Abu Sneneh neighborhood on the hill opposite. Shalhevet was fatally wounded by a shot to the head. Her father, Yitzhak, was moderately wounded in both legs.

Her parents, Yitzhak and Oriya, have been married for about two years. Shalhevet was their first child. Yitzhak is a yeshiva student. Oriya, who grew up in Hebron, works as a teacher's aide in a nursery school.

The family has known terrorist attacks in the past. In November 1993, Oriya's father was attacked and seriously injured by two axe-wielding Palestinians on his way to morning prayers near the Machpela Cave. In January 1996, Oriya's sister, Orital, then 14, was stabbed in the back by a Palestinian near the Hebron market. This past March 10, Yitzhak's brother was shot in the leg while visiting the family in Hebron.

Shalhevet was buried in the ancient Jewish cemetery in Hebron.

 

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ISA arrests murderer of 10-month-old Shalhevet Pass
(Communicated by the Prime Minister's Media Adviser)

http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Government/Communiques/2002/ISA%20arrests%20murderer%20of%2010-month-old%20Shalhevet%20Pas

The ISA, along with IDF forces, recently arrested Tanzim operative Mahmud Muhammad Mahmud Amro, 26, a resident of Wadi Alhariah/Hebron. During questioning, he admitted perpetrating the murder of 10-month-old Shalhevet Pass on March 26, 2001.

Following the murder, Amro was detained by the Palestinian Police, but was released shortly afterwards.

Amro has also been involved in numerous attacks in the Hebron area in the past two years.

[Leftism is Mentally Deranged]

Typical liberal nonsense. More outrage over words than the terrorist attacks, the suicide bombings against Israel.

[SauronOfMordor]

The gist of this article is true, but the inclusion of details like this one is questionable. How do we know that "a terrorist her up in his rifle scope"? Did the terrorist describe doing so later? And how do we know that the "bullet missed Tziporah's head by a few centimeters"? Was there high-precision radar in operation in the back yard?

Well, if a bullet hole appears in a wall a short distance from the child, and there were no other likely targets, then it can be assumed that the child is a target. I'm not saying that's how they based their assertion, just that it's possible to make plausible assumptions based on the evidence observed after the fact.

Also, you WILL know if a supersonic bullet passes close to your ear, due to the sharp "crack" of the bullet's sonic boom

[dervish]

Oh my gosh -- a neighbor yelling at a neighbor -- call in the UN -- it is a crime against humanity.


If this is the worst B'Tzelem could get on the Hevron Jews there must not be much to get.

I saw the footage. Ridiculous! What B'Tzelem and CNN 'forgot' to explain is that fence designed to protect Jewish inhabitants from actual violence not mean words.