rachamim
Bluelighter
- Joined
- May 23, 2006
- Messages
- 7,769
MrBlonde: On news sources, it depends on your langauges. If you speak Hebrew, rather read it and understand it, there is a plethora of sources I could point you to. In English, I like to vary my sources for a balanced opinion. I do read Ha'aretz, in English, but it is a pain because for some reason the page reloads every 30 odd seconds and you have to rescroll to your last point, etc.
I also read the Jerusalem Press for a Centrist lean, and Arutz Sheva for the rightist view. Also , in English, the Palestinian Chronicle which is the PA mouthpiece (I read HAMAS website as well but that is only in Arabic as far as I know). Also al Manar for Hezbollah's obnoxious viewpoint. al Manar has a video channel as well but only in Arabic I think.
I am a news junkie (among other things hahahah). I try to read all the listed ones every day but I do have 1 or 2 day lapses especially when travelling, etc.
I like news for data and events, I do not like it for forming my political outlook which is a huge problem in Israel. I think it is a fact (I remember seeing it) that we have more news sources per capita than any other nation on the planet. It IS a fact that we have the most authored books per capita so either way we are voracious readers. Sometimes though, all the sources can become confusing and thus lose their value.
On the house, it was actually , way back in the day, part of a huge compound which my Clan inhabited (not all of us but ALOT of us). It is a stone's throw (no pun intended haha) from the Cave, and in fact if you are in the Jewish Quarter, Tel Rumeida ,you have to walk right past the house to get to the Cave. It is why the Govt. delayed the eviction/disposession, because the parsha on Suhruh (Sarah) was being read the Shabbat after the High Court Ruling, and it is a traditional Pilgrimage route on that Shabbat! Literally tens of thouands of religious and/or nationalist Jews march from Rumeida, right past the house, and to the Cave! Imagine them trying to drag kicking and screaming Jewish women and children from the house in that crowd!
Anyway, I told about it in my BL Blog, so I will not hijack the thread (whoops, already have) only to say that in 1929 my paternal grandfather who was the Chief Rabbi of Hebron (Rav Slonim Dwek) as well as a director of what would become Banc L'eumi was standing on the stoop pleading with the Arabs to leave the Jews alone (they offered to leave our family alone but not any Ashkenazim , many of whom sought shelter in our home) and when my grandad, holding my eldest uncle told them all Jews are as one, they stabbed grandad to death and literally ripped my eldest uncle (almost 4 years old) to pieces with their hands.
My father was less than 2 at the time and was right behind him holding onto his own mum as toddlers do. Many in the house ended up slaughtered, while some like my mum, grandad's second wife (he was polygamous), and 4 guests along with females in my family and tiny children managed to live. I do not know why, after ripping my 3 year old uncle to pieces they left Dad alone but it was one of those things you cannot really figure out. Supposedly things happened to grandmum but it is better left unsaid.
Anyway, the Brits then made all Jews leave the city, go to Jerusalem in British busses where my father and grandmother, along with the second wife, went to live in the Clan's most popualous place, which was then Alleppo in what is now Syria.
We personally lost millions in US Dollars worth of property in 1929 value and there was never even talk of reperations, etc. from the Brits, from ANY Arabs, and Israel has never moved to try and press the issue but then there were many slaughters throughout the land both in 29 and other times.
In 1993 some in my family began talking about trying to get back some of our land, you know with Oslo and all the faux-hopefullness in the air with Rabin and Arafat taking tea together. We did buy 2 buildings, which we still have in Rumeida, which originally were ours, for a total of 600 K US. In 2004, after 5 years of haggling we were able, using 4 shell companies (well they are real companies owned by us, 1 is construction, 1 is land management,etc. but shell in the sense that we had to hide the Jewish ownership,etc.) and a Jordanian partner of ours to get around it being a death penalty offence for any Arab to sell land to a Jew in PA and HAMAS controlled areas (still is a capital offence).
We paid more than 2X what the lot was worth, only a half built foundation was on the lot, out house having been destroyed by Arabs long ago. We built the building, and as soon as it was half way habitable , through 2 organisations we recruited families (20) to live in it. It is 4 stories tall, quite a nice place.
The "Palestinian" we "bought" it from, started getting death threats from his Bedua partner who threatened to go to the PA and denounce him as a collaborator, which would mean death for him and his sons. The "Palestinian" then files with the local police, first PA and then Israel's Civil Administration and says our tenants were squatters who broke in and began living in the house. He of course does not mention who built the fuc#ing house.
Police go, find no proof of his claims, and so they do not evict anyone. Now he then is in the glare of the Arab spotlight. Feeling the heat he files suit against the 4 companies and the Jordanian to take back the property from them claiming fraud. Finally last year he was compelled to admit that he did in fact sell the property (court refused to even look at the video of the sale!!!), but said the sale was never completed. Remember, the 700K was 2X what it was worth!!!
To this day the High Court, and every other court has refused explicitly to review or rule on actual onwership and instead focuses on other periphery issues!
It is enough to make me livid so let me put it to rest here. After the latest court ruling we sent my 1st Cousin from NYC, Moishe Avraham Dwek (aka Morris Abraham) to represent our interests, but we had SHAS (the Sephardi political party) as well as Rav Ovadiah Yosef (former Chief Sephardi Rabbi in Israel, and also the current Chief Rav) on out side and even a SHAS MK moved into the house with his family.
The Court did not rule that the Govt MUST evict, only that it COULD and therefore the Govt had immense latitude to do whatever it wanted, and incredibly in that most Jewish of places, it decided Jews should not be there!!!!!!!
What does the future hold for the site? Well it is still incredibly heated and is being tied, by nationalists, to Migron and other Outpost cases so it may continue to stir controversy for years to come. We lost our money I am sure but on a whole it does not represent that much for the Clan (with more than 10 thouand male members) but the sentimental value is incalucable. No price can be put on that land.
In the end some "Palestinians" will live there, and Chevron (Hebron) will become al Khalil and Machpela will be called a mosque and naive and/or nefarious Westerners will continue to lap up Arab propaganda and consider us to be villains.
What a world...
I also read the Jerusalem Press for a Centrist lean, and Arutz Sheva for the rightist view. Also , in English, the Palestinian Chronicle which is the PA mouthpiece (I read HAMAS website as well but that is only in Arabic as far as I know). Also al Manar for Hezbollah's obnoxious viewpoint. al Manar has a video channel as well but only in Arabic I think.
I am a news junkie (among other things hahahah). I try to read all the listed ones every day but I do have 1 or 2 day lapses especially when travelling, etc.
I like news for data and events, I do not like it for forming my political outlook which is a huge problem in Israel. I think it is a fact (I remember seeing it) that we have more news sources per capita than any other nation on the planet. It IS a fact that we have the most authored books per capita so either way we are voracious readers. Sometimes though, all the sources can become confusing and thus lose their value.
On the house, it was actually , way back in the day, part of a huge compound which my Clan inhabited (not all of us but ALOT of us). It is a stone's throw (no pun intended haha) from the Cave, and in fact if you are in the Jewish Quarter, Tel Rumeida ,you have to walk right past the house to get to the Cave. It is why the Govt. delayed the eviction/disposession, because the parsha on Suhruh (Sarah) was being read the Shabbat after the High Court Ruling, and it is a traditional Pilgrimage route on that Shabbat! Literally tens of thouands of religious and/or nationalist Jews march from Rumeida, right past the house, and to the Cave! Imagine them trying to drag kicking and screaming Jewish women and children from the house in that crowd!
Anyway, I told about it in my BL Blog, so I will not hijack the thread (whoops, already have) only to say that in 1929 my paternal grandfather who was the Chief Rabbi of Hebron (Rav Slonim Dwek) as well as a director of what would become Banc L'eumi was standing on the stoop pleading with the Arabs to leave the Jews alone (they offered to leave our family alone but not any Ashkenazim , many of whom sought shelter in our home) and when my grandad, holding my eldest uncle told them all Jews are as one, they stabbed grandad to death and literally ripped my eldest uncle (almost 4 years old) to pieces with their hands.
My father was less than 2 at the time and was right behind him holding onto his own mum as toddlers do. Many in the house ended up slaughtered, while some like my mum, grandad's second wife (he was polygamous), and 4 guests along with females in my family and tiny children managed to live. I do not know why, after ripping my 3 year old uncle to pieces they left Dad alone but it was one of those things you cannot really figure out. Supposedly things happened to grandmum but it is better left unsaid.
Anyway, the Brits then made all Jews leave the city, go to Jerusalem in British busses where my father and grandmother, along with the second wife, went to live in the Clan's most popualous place, which was then Alleppo in what is now Syria.
We personally lost millions in US Dollars worth of property in 1929 value and there was never even talk of reperations, etc. from the Brits, from ANY Arabs, and Israel has never moved to try and press the issue but then there were many slaughters throughout the land both in 29 and other times.
In 1993 some in my family began talking about trying to get back some of our land, you know with Oslo and all the faux-hopefullness in the air with Rabin and Arafat taking tea together. We did buy 2 buildings, which we still have in Rumeida, which originally were ours, for a total of 600 K US. In 2004, after 5 years of haggling we were able, using 4 shell companies (well they are real companies owned by us, 1 is construction, 1 is land management,etc. but shell in the sense that we had to hide the Jewish ownership,etc.) and a Jordanian partner of ours to get around it being a death penalty offence for any Arab to sell land to a Jew in PA and HAMAS controlled areas (still is a capital offence).
We paid more than 2X what the lot was worth, only a half built foundation was on the lot, out house having been destroyed by Arabs long ago. We built the building, and as soon as it was half way habitable , through 2 organisations we recruited families (20) to live in it. It is 4 stories tall, quite a nice place.
The "Palestinian" we "bought" it from, started getting death threats from his Bedua partner who threatened to go to the PA and denounce him as a collaborator, which would mean death for him and his sons. The "Palestinian" then files with the local police, first PA and then Israel's Civil Administration and says our tenants were squatters who broke in and began living in the house. He of course does not mention who built the fuc#ing house.
Police go, find no proof of his claims, and so they do not evict anyone. Now he then is in the glare of the Arab spotlight. Feeling the heat he files suit against the 4 companies and the Jordanian to take back the property from them claiming fraud. Finally last year he was compelled to admit that he did in fact sell the property (court refused to even look at the video of the sale!!!), but said the sale was never completed. Remember, the 700K was 2X what it was worth!!!
To this day the High Court, and every other court has refused explicitly to review or rule on actual onwership and instead focuses on other periphery issues!
It is enough to make me livid so let me put it to rest here. After the latest court ruling we sent my 1st Cousin from NYC, Moishe Avraham Dwek (aka Morris Abraham) to represent our interests, but we had SHAS (the Sephardi political party) as well as Rav Ovadiah Yosef (former Chief Sephardi Rabbi in Israel, and also the current Chief Rav) on out side and even a SHAS MK moved into the house with his family.
The Court did not rule that the Govt MUST evict, only that it COULD and therefore the Govt had immense latitude to do whatever it wanted, and incredibly in that most Jewish of places, it decided Jews should not be there!!!!!!!
What does the future hold for the site? Well it is still incredibly heated and is being tied, by nationalists, to Migron and other Outpost cases so it may continue to stir controversy for years to come. We lost our money I am sure but on a whole it does not represent that much for the Clan (with more than 10 thouand male members) but the sentimental value is incalucable. No price can be put on that land.
In the end some "Palestinians" will live there, and Chevron (Hebron) will become al Khalil and Machpela will be called a mosque and naive and/or nefarious Westerners will continue to lap up Arab propaganda and consider us to be villains.
What a world...
dude i envy u to have a contsant supply man that would be bliss
(disreguarding all the bull shit that comes along with it)
