POLL: Jerusalem Arabs Prefer Living Under Israeli Sovereignty

So much for apartheid. A recent poll conducted by American Pechter Middle East Polls and the Palestinian Center for Public Opinion revealed that the majority of Arabs in East Jerusalem would prefer to live in Israel if a Palestinian state were formed.

Ynet News reports:

"The study also showed that Jerusalem's Palestinian residents were interested in keeping their Israeli Identity cards and enjoying the State's health and social benefits. Some 35% of them said that Israeli citizenship is their preferred citizenship and only 30% chose to be citizens of the future Palestinian state. An additional 30% said that they didn't know, or preferred not to answer the question.

And what would the neighbors say? When asked "if most people in your neighborhood” would prefer to become citizens of Palestine or of Israel: 31% estimated that most people prefer Palestinian citizenship; 39% estimated that most people prefer Israeli citizenship; and 30% declined to answer or said they didn’t know."

The poll has shocked a lot of people, even me. Still, it's a testament to the fact that people abroad make the conflict out a lot worse than it actually is, that they respond a lot more radically than most of the people in the thick of it.

I wonder what the anti-Zionists will say about this one.

Homer Simpson is the Solution to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict....

... because he's someone they can all get pissed off at together!

It's no secret that somewhere along the line a few years back, The Simpsons stopped being funny. I have no idea when since I only watched the show only a little more than half-heartedly, but I'd say season 9. In the past year or so, it's gotten funny again, though the humor is really different than before. I'm guessing they got new writers.

Anyways. I just saw this JPost article. Even if I had still given up on the Simpsons by now, it's reason enough to watch this one episode. I'm glad the show is funny again; a Simpsons Israel episode definitely deserves to be funny.

Oh, and happy late St. Patrick's day! This at least is one thing to look forward to after college; I can finally start celebrating it with Guinness and pinches instead of textbooks and essays. It always falls around finals season for us college folk.

Bibi Tells Obama 'No' On Flying UN Flag Over Jerusalem

Seems like Obama thinks it's his duty to solve the Israeli-Palestinian crisis single-handedly.

Arutz Sheva reports:

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu vowed at the Mercaz HaRav yeshiva in Jerusalem Thursday night that the Israeli flag will continue to fly over the Western Wall (Kotel). The first prime minister in years to appear at the venerable yeshiva on Yom Yerushalayim (Jerusalem Day), he ignored U.S. President Barack Obama’s apparent trial balloon that he wants to see the United Nations flag fly over the Old City holy sites.

[...]

Prime Minister Netanyahu declared, "The flag that flies over the Kotel is the Israeli flag... Our holy places, the Temple Mount -- will remain under Israeli sovereignty forever.”

Nevermind the insult of the suggestion to fly the flag of the UN over Jerusalem in place of an Israeli flag when the UN has been so obsessed with damning Israel and holding it to insane double-standards. Nevermind the audacity and slap in the face such a suggestion entails. Nevermind that.

Anyone who's been following Obama's stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can spot from a mile away the ulterior goal of Obama's desire to have a UN flag flying over Jerusalem. First comes the flag, next a suggestion of constructing a UN building in Jerusalem, then giving that building some legal authority in the city, and before you know it Israel has lost control of Jerusalem so that part of it can be given to Fatah to placate their insane demand of East Jerusalem. Which begs the question... how stupid does Obama think Bibi is?

Bibi's response is music to the ears, soothing for the soul and reassuring on the mind. Bless this man for having the courage to stand up for Israel and say 'No' to Obama. A man of this caliber has been a long time coming to Israel in this modern day.

IDF Soldier Dances With Palestinian Children

You probably won't see Hamas doing this with Israeli kids. Or any kids at all.

Bigoted Professors and Palestinian Murderers, Hypocrisy

A Palestinian went on a rampage with a pickaxe and knife today through a West Bank settlement, ending in the murder of a 13 year-old Jewish teen and the murderer's escape. It seems killing Jewish teenagers with pickaxes is helping end the Israeli "occupation" or bring peace. This just shows that a Palestinian state alongside Israel will only create more problems for the Jewish state.

The hypocrisy of the Palestinian Authority (or any Palestinian authority) knows no bounds. The PA has now issued a death penalty for any Palestinians who sell land to Jews or Israelis, apparently oblivious of the fact that Israeli has given the Palestinians an immense amount of land over the past 60 years and gotten squat in return.

I had an interesting experience two days ago in a "Political Islam" class. The professor, last name Petrovic, which doesn't sound Arab in the least, opened the first lecture of the course with this line:

"Christianity is a religion most authentic in times of suffering. Islam, on the other hand, is a religion of success."

I ran that through my head for five minutes and couldn't find an explanation for it in which he was not trash-talking Christianity and asserting Islamic "superiority". What does Christianity- or any religion besides Islam- have to do with Political Islam? Nothing, certainly not enough to be mention as the first topic of discussion in the class.

Petrovic then went on to call Jesus a "failure" within the first half hour. I promptly packed my papers and left the class. I contacted the School of Social Sciences yesterday and they pointed me to Petrovic's right to free speech.

How many other teachers are spewing this hate speech in their classes, hiding behind the right to free speech the same way flag burners and anti-Westerners living in the US do? How many professors are poisoning the minds of their students with this irrelevant and entirely unnecessary filth, all the while hiding behind its title as "legitimate discourse"?

I expect better from academia. I guess my standards are too high.

Khaled Abu Toameh

While a large portion- if not majority- of Arab-Israelis are hostile time bombs just waiting to explode, there's always an exception to the rule. Khaled Abu Toameh is a Palestinian Muslim Arab-Israeli journalist who used to write for the PLO, and surprisingly he's one of the most respected voices on the Mid-East conflict. For good reason.

This is an article Toameh recently wrote. I had the fortune to see him speak at our campus. The man is to be commended for his open-mindedness; he brings a healthy and refreshing moderate and unbiased view of the conflict to the table. He focuses not so much on the conflict but more on how Yasser Arafat and the PLO are primarily responsible for the Palestinians' current predicament. His personal experiences in Israel and the Palestinian territories has brought out in him a very unique persepctive on the conflict.