In a month Israel will have a general election. It will be unusual in more than one way. The sraeli Knesset (parliament) of 120 members is elected by proportional representation. there are no true individual candidates. We vote for a party (of which there are about 18 running) and based on the percentage of votes … More A Strange Election
Chairman Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority recently announced that the PA will refuse to accept any part of the money that Israel collects as withholding tax on the salaries of Palestinian workers employed in Israel. Under the original agreement Israel set aside those funds and delivered them to the PA because the PA had … More A Palestinian Temper Tantrum
After 25 years the observer force of 64 members of TIPH will be packing their bags and going home. TIPH stands for Temporary International Presence in Hebron. It was established in 1994 to try to keep down violence between the Arab and Jewish communities in the city.. The current observers come from Italy, Turkey, Norway, … More End of an Era
When one lives in Israel there are still lotd of Holocaust survivors or their descendants that you hear about regularly. So the reports that so many people in the world know so little about the holocaust seems quite strange, Hearing about the rise in worldwide antisemitism from various political leaders adds to feeling that it … More International Holocaust Remembrance Day
The US Agency for International Development (AID) is due to cease operations in )Palestine on 31 January. It isn’t a surprise. Especially since the President of the Palestinian Authority essentially told US President Trump to Go to Hell (literally – “may your house be destroyed”) and said he wanted no more help after The US … More US AID to Palestine is Closing Down
We’ve had rain and high winds since Sunday. It’s wonderful for the country, but not so nice for some of us. We left the Scrabble club early last night in order to avoid bad driving conditions, It took us almost a half hour longer to go into Jerusalem. The trip home was not quite as … More The Rain and Wind Continue
The Israeli Knesset voted to disband itself and call for new elections. The British Parliament has similar system An elected government can stay in office for a full term (in Israel that’s 5 years) or, if feeling confident, can call for a new round of elections to strengthen their position. They can also be forced … More Elections =and Confusion
I received this today. The content speaks for itself. The PA’s Apartheid land laws American-Palestinian sentenced to life imprisonment with hard labor for selling land to Jews. In 2014, Mahmoud Abbas passed legislation raising the punishment for selling land to Jews to life imprisonment with hard labor. 64.4% of Palestinians support the death sentence … More Palestinian Land Laws –
This past week has been marked in the area around my home by cold and rainy weather. The coming week looks like it will be the same. I’m happy to see the rain, because in this part of the world water is a very precious resource. but the cold temperatures are a different matter. I’m … More A Cold and Wet New Year
The Taylor Force Act is an American Law that withholds funding to the Palestinian Authority in an amount equal to what the PA spends rewarding terror. The money is simply placed in a frozen status for up to 2 years before it can be allocated to other use. The law is named for an American … More The Force in the Taylor Force Act.
Wetherhorn 