It's not an ethnic stereotype. It's a cultural reality. I say this as an American of Arabic heritage someone with close to 30 years of journalistic experience covering this part of the world. Here's the way it works in the real world. Picture yourself at an Arab bazaar. You find a nice item you wish to purchase. You haggle back and forth over the price for what seems like an interminable time. Finally, when you think you have agreement on the purchase price, the seller says: "You forgot about the bakshish." Then it starts all over again.
Under the Oslo Agreement the Palestinian Authority (PA) was committed to protecting Jewish and Christian Holy Sites, and to ensure access by all. The Arab strategy (supported by Western Media Revisionism) is to claim that each and every Jewish Holy place is rightfully a Muslim site and deny Jews access, and then they desecrate and destroy the very places they had recently deemed "holy." Why do Arabs restrict Jews from praying at Joseph's Tomb when the Israelis do not restrict Muslims from praying at their 'holy sites'?
The Arabs play 'bakshish' card
By Joseph Farah,
Dec 14, 2005
You've all heard of Arab traders.
They are famous throughout the world.
It's not an ethnic stereotype. It's a cultural reality. I say this as an American of Arabic heritage someone with close to 30 years of journalistic experience covering this part of the world.
Just when you think you have finally struck a deal with an Arab, he plays what I call the "bakshish" card.
There are many ways to explain the term "bakshish." It can mean a bribe for the seller for cutting you such a great deal. It can mean a "tip" or gratuity. Or, more precisely, I have always thought of it as a way to up the ante, raise the stakes, even nix a deal that is already all-but consummated.
Here's the way it works in the real world. Picture yourself at an Arab bazaar. You find a nice item you wish to purchase. You haggle back and forth over the price for what seems like an interminable time. Finally, when you think you have agreement on the purchase price, the seller says: "You forgot about the bakshish." Then it starts all over again.
Last weekend, the Palestinian Authority played its bakshish card in its continuing efforts to raise the stakes in demands on Israel for land concessions. The PA's Office for Religious Affairs claimed the Western Wall revered by Jews since A.D. 70 as the last structural remnant of the Second Temple.
You've seen the pictures of Jews worshipping at the Western Wall, sometimes called the "Wailing Wall." You've seen the TV video streams of Jews sticking prayers scrawled on tiny pieces of paper into the cracks of the wall. For nearly 2,000 years, it has been considered along with the Temple Mount it supports the only truly holy site for Jews all over the world.
Now, the Arabs say it legitimately belongs to Muslims only. Bakshish.
This shouldn't be surprising, given Muslims claim no Jewish temple ever stood upon the Temple Mount, despite overwhelming archaeological and historical evidence to the contrary.
So now the Western Wall, the most Jewish piece of real estate in the world, is on the negotiating table.
It's a move so audacious, it is mind-boggling.
But, ultimately, Israelis have only themselves to blame.
A little history is in order.
In 1967, Israel was surrounded by Arab armies hell-bent on a coordinated attack by Egypt, Syria, Jordan and other Arab countries. Badly outnumbered and outgunned, Israel's only hope was a pre-emptive attack, which was launched June 6. In a lightning-like strike, Israeli forces attacked first on three fronts. In what we now call the Six-Day War, Israel rolled up the Egyptian Army, the Syrian Army and captured Judea and Samaria from Jordan, Gaza and Sinai from Egypt and the Golan Heights from Syria. Israel could have gone much further all the way to Damascus and Cairo if the Jewish state had desired.
Most significantly, however, Israel captured all of Jerusalem including the Temple Mount.
And what did the Israelis do with the only Jewish holy site in the world? Nearly immediately, after this miraculous, hard-fought victory, Israel's secular leaders turned administrative control over the Temple Mount to Muslims.
They apparently believed this act of "good will" would be perceived as a demonstration that the Jewish state only wanted to live in peace with its neighbors. But the Arabs saw it as an act of appeasement, a show of weakness, not strength.
In effect, Israel turned over to the Arabs the most Jewish piece of real estate to the Muslims a move that chipped away at Israel's very legitimacy. You see, if the Jews don't have an absolute claim to the Temple Mount, how can they defend Jewish control of Tel Aviv or anything else?
It was not only a huge strategic and political blunder that has never been rectified, it was also, in my personal opinion, an offense to the God of Israel the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Most Israeli political leaders don't really believe they have a biblical mandate to the land. They don't want to defend that. They don't want to stand on that promise. They prefer to rely on their own military might and compromise.
If Israel has a claim to any land in the Middle East, and I believe it does, that claim begins with the Temple Mount. Turning over control to radical Muslim clerics hasn't bought any good will for Israel. On the contrary, it has brought the Jewish state 38 years of terror and strife.
Every time Israel makes a land concession to the Arabs, it encourages more demands, higher stakes, the dream of annihilation more of the old bakshish.
Joseph Farah
Joseph Farah is founder, editor and CEO of WND, a nationally syndicated radio talk-show host, and a nationally syndicated columnist with Creators Syndicate.
The millions of Israelis who opposed the withdrawal from Gaza do not seek personal vindication for being right. They didn't warn against the withdrawal to advance their careers or make their lives easier. Indeed, their careers were uniformly harmed. They did it because they were patriots. They felt it was their duty to warn their countrymen of the danger, hoping to avert the disaster we now face. They should be listened to now. And their voices should be empowered by those who shunned them, because only by listening to them will we develop the arguments and the legitimacy to do what needs to be done and stop fighting to lose, again and again and again.
"Analytical interpretations" are merely a type of 'entertainment', whose connection to reality and logic is flimsy. Many of them previously believed in communism, and embittered the lives of many people. Today, they believe in 'Peace Now', and bring all these troubles upon us. Their god is called 'Peace Now' or 'human rights'. This is exactly the sin of idolatry taking one value and worshipping it, without giving consideration to balance with other values. It is generally believed that religious people are less realistic, because they rely more on their faith than on an objective analysis of reality, whereas people lacking faith are able to analyze a situation objectively, and as a result, their short-term assessments are more accurate. If the mainstream Israeli media were honest, they would broadcast the taped recordings of all the leaders responsible for the Oslo Accords and the retreat from Gaza, so everyone could hear their foolish promises, and realize just how distorted their ability to correctly analyze the situation is.
Gaza Strip: "First, the IDF must enter, clean up the terror nests, and destroy the launch sites. Afterwards, Nahal he'ahzuyot [paramilitary settlements] are to be established, which will later be granted civilian status and become flourishing communities that will weaken Hamas. The creation of communities will make it possible to crush the Hamas economic, social, and propaganda infrastructures." The government of Israel must make hard decisions: does it want to placate the international and internal leftist domestic arenas, or to fulfill its duty to its citizens?
Al Qaeda, Hamas, Fatah or any other of the many groups blanketing the region, need money and weapons to be viable. They need state sponsors and the states that sponsor them want something in return. Terrorist groups find sponsors the way that Renaissance artists found patrons, they show off their skills and wait for someone to come calling with money and guns. And then they perform for their patrons. Hamas is not fighting for Palestinian nationalism, which was already a fiction manufactured by Soviet propagandists looking up to prop up a Greater Syria, but to support the aims of Iranian and Egyptian domestic policy.
The American spirit has been overwhelmed by the European model of social democracy at home and appeasement and treachery abroad. But all the dependency champions who celebrated on Tuesday night cannot stop the coming storm. The greatest advantage Obama had going into the election was not demography but the fact that the full consequences of his statist economic policies and his pro-jihadist foreign policy have not yet been felt.
"The Balfour Declaration was not an impetuous or sentimental act of the British government, as has been sometimes represented, or a calculated measure of political warfare. It was a deliberate decision of British policy and idealist politics, weighed and reweighed, and adopted only after full consultation with the United States and with other Allied Nations."
Definition: King's Calendar Chronological Research
The Premise: Between the 5th and 3rd centuries BCE (but continuing down to at least 104 BCE), Sectarian redactors transcribed the legitimate 'solar year' chronological records of Israel and Judah, into an artificial form, with listed years as each comprised of 12 months of 4 weeks of 7 days, or 336 days per year, thus creating a 13th artificial year where 12 solar years existed.
When the Synchronous Chronological Data provided in the Books of Kings and Chronicles for the Divided Kingdom Period are measured in years of 336 days, the synchronisms actually align. [Refer to Appendix 5. to see how it synchronises the Divided Kingdom Period]
About the KingsCalendar Publisher
R.P.BenDedek is the owner and Editor of KingsCalendar.com which was originally set up to publicize his research results into the Chronology of Ancient Israel. Those results were published under the title: 'The King's Calendar: The Secret of Qumran'.
Whilst there have been many attempts to solve the chronological riddle of the Bible's synchronisms of reigns of the kings of Israel and Judah and their synchronism with other Ancient Near Eastern Nations, no other research is based on a simple mathematical formula which could, if it is incorrect, be disproved easily. To date, no one has been able to dismiss the mathematical results of this research.
Free to air Academic articles set forth Apologetics for and results of his discovery of an "artificial chronological scheme" running through the Bible, Josephus, the Damascus Documents of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and Seder Olam Rabbah.
During the current economic downturn, this book has been drastically reduced in price but will eventually rise as the economy improves.
Check the Chapter Precis Page to see details of each chapter and to gain access to the Four Free to Air Chapters
R.P. BenDedek writes social commentaries and photographic 'Stories from China' both at KingsCalendar, and as a contributing columnist at Magic City Morning Star News in Maine USA.
(He has been teaching Conversational English in China since 2003 and currently (2013) is teaching in Suzhou City Jiangsu Province.)
Rules of Evidence Series at Kingscalendar.
Part 1. The Law, Rules of Evidence & Archaeology Part 2. The Law, Rules of Evidence & Archaeology Part 3. The Law, Rules of Evidence & Archaeology Part 4. The Law, Rules of Evidence & Archaeology
In Jerusalem, a female CNN journalist heard about a very old Jewish man who had been going to the Wailing Wall to pray, twice a day, everyday, for a long, long time.
So she went to check it out. She went to the Wailing Wall and there he was walking slowly up to the holy site. She watched him pray and after about 45 minutes, when he turned to leave, using a cane in a very slow fashion, she approached him for an interview.
"I'm Rebecca Smith from CNN. Sir, how long have you been coming to the Wailing Wall and praying?" "For about 60 years." "60 years! That's amazing! What do you pray for?" "I pray for peace between the Muslims and the Jews. I pray for all the hatred to stop and I pray for all our children to grow up in safety and friendship." "How do you feel after doing this for 60 years?"
