This is everyone's favorite word about the Middle East these days. Sectarian violence has taken Iraq into the abyss. The elected Iraqi Prime Minister cancelled meetings with leaders from other political parties -- or more accurately ethnic and religous-based interest groups. The Iraqi government is less and less in control and Iraq is starting to look more like Afghanistan every day.
And this just in -- apparently a Jewish Israeli carried out a firebomb attack on the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth, Israel. The attacker is currently barricaded inside the basilica, revered by Christians as the spot where Mary learned from the angel Gabriel that she was to give birth to Jesus. A large mob of protestors has emerged and is actively protesting the attack.
This is really off the wall, because usually the greatest tension in Nazareth -- which is one of the mostly Palestinian Arab towns inside Israel near the Sea of Galilee -- is between Christian and Muslim residents. Recently, a plan to build a large mosque near the Basilica of the Annunication has been a point of controversy in the city. There are few Jewish Israelis living in Nazareth, and today's attacker apparently came all the way up from Jerusalem to carry out the assault.
Ha'aretz newspaper in Jerusalem reports that the attacker is known to have a "mental illness," and he allegedly carried out the attack with help from his Chrisitan wife? Not sure what's going on here. We'll have to wait and see after a full investigation.
In any case, there was an attack on the Isareli Arab community. This latest violence directed against the Israeli Arab community (about 1 in 5 Israelis identifies as Arab) comes less than a year after an Israeli soldier opened fire on a busload of Israeli Arabs near the Sea of Galilee, killing four. The Israeli Arab community, which has a long history of "second-class citizen" status in Israel, is subject to constant discrimination and violence from the non-Arab majority.
By coincidence, Ha'aretz newspaper reported today on another aspect of the Israeli government's treatment of Arab citizens. Ha'aretz details the Israeli army's systematic expulsion of Bedouin citizens (a traditionally nomadic Arab ethnic group) from the Negev desert.
UPDATE 1:30PM: AP reports that authorities have removed the attackers from the basilica and tear gas was used to disperse the crowd of protestors. The basilica suffered damage including blackened walls but no apparent structural damage in the attack. Several people were injured in the incident, including the attackers who met resistence from worshippers in the basilica when they started throwing gas canisters and firecrackers around.
The Israeli government is stressing that the two main attackers -- an Israeli Jewish man and Chrisitan woman who are married -- have a history of mental disorders. The couple are known to have planned to carry out attacks on churches in Israel (see update below for more info), according to Israeli officials. Why they weren't closely monitored or under arrest for plotting terror attacks is unknown. Whether this "mental illness" is legitimate or a cover for a Israeli nationalist movement is unknown as well. We'll have to wait and see what further investigations turn up. Stay with the Important Blog for more information, because apparently CNN.com isn't interested in covering this story. (CNN has no headline about this story on its front page, as of this writing.)
UPDATE: 2:23PM
The alleged attacker has been identified by Ha'aretz as Haim Eliyahu Havivi. Police say that this man has actually made attempts to attack churches in the past, notably the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem and the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. Isareli Arab MK's are demanding to know why this man hadn't been arrested after displaying clear intentions to attack Israel's Chrisitian community.
CNN still has no headline about this story on its front page.
And this just in -- apparently a Jewish Israeli carried out a firebomb attack on the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth, Israel. The attacker is currently barricaded inside the basilica, revered by Christians as the spot where Mary learned from the angel Gabriel that she was to give birth to Jesus. A large mob of protestors has emerged and is actively protesting the attack.
This is really off the wall, because usually the greatest tension in Nazareth -- which is one of the mostly Palestinian Arab towns inside Israel near the Sea of Galilee -- is between Christian and Muslim residents. Recently, a plan to build a large mosque near the Basilica of the Annunication has been a point of controversy in the city. There are few Jewish Israelis living in Nazareth, and today's attacker apparently came all the way up from Jerusalem to carry out the assault.
Ha'aretz newspaper in Jerusalem reports that the attacker is known to have a "mental illness," and he allegedly carried out the attack with help from his Chrisitan wife? Not sure what's going on here. We'll have to wait and see after a full investigation.
In any case, there was an attack on the Isareli Arab community. This latest violence directed against the Israeli Arab community (about 1 in 5 Israelis identifies as Arab) comes less than a year after an Israeli soldier opened fire on a busload of Israeli Arabs near the Sea of Galilee, killing four. The Israeli Arab community, which has a long history of "second-class citizen" status in Israel, is subject to constant discrimination and violence from the non-Arab majority.
By coincidence, Ha'aretz newspaper reported today on another aspect of the Israeli government's treatment of Arab citizens. Ha'aretz details the Israeli army's systematic expulsion of Bedouin citizens (a traditionally nomadic Arab ethnic group) from the Negev desert.
UPDATE 1:30PM: AP reports that authorities have removed the attackers from the basilica and tear gas was used to disperse the crowd of protestors. The basilica suffered damage including blackened walls but no apparent structural damage in the attack. Several people were injured in the incident, including the attackers who met resistence from worshippers in the basilica when they started throwing gas canisters and firecrackers around.
The Israeli government is stressing that the two main attackers -- an Israeli Jewish man and Chrisitan woman who are married -- have a history of mental disorders. The couple are known to have planned to carry out attacks on churches in Israel (see update below for more info), according to Israeli officials. Why they weren't closely monitored or under arrest for plotting terror attacks is unknown. Whether this "mental illness" is legitimate or a cover for a Israeli nationalist movement is unknown as well. We'll have to wait and see what further investigations turn up. Stay with the Important Blog for more information, because apparently CNN.com isn't interested in covering this story. (CNN has no headline about this story on its front page, as of this writing.)
UPDATE: 2:23PM
The alleged attacker has been identified by Ha'aretz as Haim Eliyahu Havivi. Police say that this man has actually made attempts to attack churches in the past, notably the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem and the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. Isareli Arab MK's are demanding to know why this man hadn't been arrested after displaying clear intentions to attack Israel's Chrisitian community.
CNN still has no headline about this story on its front page.
hey douchie,
it's me, bob. did you ever get arond to compiling the data from your biased media project? why haven't we seen a post on this yet?
Ha'aretz newspaper in Jerusalem reports that the attacker is known to have a "mental illness,"
- it's so interesting when Jewish folks carry out attack, the perpetrator(s) are always suffering from some type of "mental illness" to indicate that rational, law-abiding Jewish folks are not capable of violence
Erik,
The left-wing newspaper you quote from, Ha'aretz, was clear in mentioning that the man who detonated firecrackers (not bombs) inside this church "had a history of mental illness."
But this is clearly in opposition to the PLO terrorist gunmen (whose mental capacities were intact) who stormed Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity in 2002, desecrated Christianity's holy shrine, leaving it stinking of urine and human waste . One of the Armenian monks, Narkiss Korasian, explained how the palestinians "stole everything, they opened the doors one by one and stole everything... they stole our prayer books and four crosses... they didn't leave anything." (http://www.israelnationalnews.com/article.php3?id=1059)
II. Not to mention the complete destruction and burning of Judaism's and Christianity's holy site of Joseph's tomb in Biblical Shechem (modern Nablus) in 2003! The site contained the very bones of Jacob's son Joseph.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=44303
*Here are pictures from that disgusting event:
http://www.israel-wat.com/y1.jpg
http://www.israel-wat.com/kever3.jpg
http://www.israel-wat.com/y1b.jpg
III. We also cannot forget the hostile vandalism that was perpetrated by workers of the Muslim Waqf Authority in engraving the word "Allah" into the very priceless historical stone of the eastern wall of the Biblical temple at Judaism's Temple Mount last year:
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=79391
When will due outrage be evinced? When will we see a comprehensive realization occur, that the so-called Palestinian cause and Israeli cause are anything but analogous?
I am waiting for that day.
--LM
I was just wondering about those "media bias project" results myself...
I was just wondering about those "media bias project" results myself...
Thanks for remembering, Bob and Awesome -- I haven't had the time to write up the results yet, but rest assured there will be a full report about the Media Project shortly. If you'd like to examine the Project and draw your own conclusions, I'll be more than happy to post them here at the Blog as well. This is a collaborative project, after all.
Laslos notes two other terrible moments in recent years involving sectarian religous tensions in the Isareli Palestinian conflict.
Of course, two (or three) wrongs don't make a right.
Laslos conveniently ignores the facts of the 2002 tragedy at the Church of the Nativity, where Isareli soldiers laid seige to the building for several days. BUt this is beside the point. This was a regrettable incident, and two wrongs don't make a right.
The fact that the perpetrator of the terror attack in Nazareth this week wasn't placed under arrest after his previous violent outbursts is troubling. More troubling is the constant fear and second-class status that Arabs with Israeli citizenship (Jewish and non-Jewish) have to deal with. The incident in Nazareth highlights this crucial problem in Israel that we all must work to better if Israel is to achieve -- as I hope it does -- a just and viable society.
Let's hope that a full investigation reveals what happened here.
Also, thanks to the Anonymous Important Commenter above for pointing out a definite trend: often when white people commit terror attacks -- this attack in Nazareth or Oklahoma City or the unabomber -- the terrorists are portrayed as mentally troubled.
But when non-white terror attacks take place, often the entire culture is portrayed as insane and entire races become characterized as terrorists.
Erik,
Re-examine the facts of the 2002 assault on the Church of the Nativity for me, please. Remember why the IDF was staked out in front of the place for several days: wanted PLO gunmen had cowardly ran into the holy site and used that structure, and the Armenian monks as (human) shields in their ongoing campaign against the "Zionist entity."
And of course, the pali gunmen left behind their signature calling cards: feces and vandalism.
***As an side, please don't tell me the remarks, when white people commit terror attacks -- this attack in Nazareth...the terrorists are portrayed as mentally troubled. But when non-white terror attacks take place, often the entire culture is portrayed as insane... are indeed your words??
Because if they are your words, it positively identifies your position as coming from a new, unprecedented level of ignorance (I thought we were making progress together, bro, come on). I know it can be very hard to wrestle with fallacious bigoted stereotypes you might have heard from racist, pre-WWII sources you might have used over the years, but Jews aren't "white"—they're Semitic exactly like all Arabs.
So, you will need to give up that silly notion. You don't want me to lose the immense respect I've gained for you over these past months, Erik, do you?
--LM
Just to clarify, whoever is posting as "the most awesome person on earth" is impersonating me.
The details of the seige of the Church of the Nativity are not important in this discussion. Both Israelis and Palestinians were to blame for that atrocity, and the desecration of the Church is unacceptable.
I could bring up the time in 2002 when Israeli soldiers deficated and vandalized all over the Palestinian Authority's offices in Ramallah, but this is irrelevant to the point of this post.
The point here is to note that the Israeli government -- with all its military might -- could not stop one of its citizens from carrying out a terror attack. How can the Israeli government expect the PA -- which has a relatively powerless police force -- to stop all Palestinian citizens from carrying out terror attacks?
There is no military solution here. The only way to peace is through a negotiated agreement which respects both the Palestinian's and the israeli's inherent right to live in peace.
If I spoke to quickly about the race issue in Israel, allow me to clarify.
Whiteness is of course contextual, like all racial categories. Generally in Israel, Ashkenazim have white status, while Mizrahim and Sephardim as well as Palestinian and other Arab citizens of Israel have non-white status.
In the world at large, of course, Jews have a more complicated status which is often non-white.
I regret if I took this knowledge for granted, but I know that the important readers are quite sophisticated so I assumed that they understood this dynamic.
Generally in Israel as in the US, when people with white status commit terror attacks, it is assumed that the white individuals are "crazy," but when non-white people (like Arabs) commit terror attacks, the entire race is stuck with a "terrorist" label. This is racism at its worst.
Ah that's incredible. I'm not even going to BEGIN to meticulously disect and hold a classroom lecture on how your comparison is not analogous. Besides, I don't really feel like repeating myself today.
What I will say, however, is that Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jews do not view themselves as "the white guys" and the "non-white guys", respectively. They view themselves as all being somehow blood relatives (which is true) and more importantly, all of one faith. Sephardim and Ashkenazim inter-marry all the time and the only really polarizing element, if one wants to use such an exaggerated word, would be the specifics of Torah observance or their different pronounciation of Hebrew
(Israel's official pronounciation is Sephardic, by the way).
And thanks for generously complimenting me as being sophisticated, by the way.
--Laslos