1/ Tonight, Jews in Israel commemorate Lag B'Omer (the 33rd day of 49 days b/w Passover and Shavuot).
The Talmud says on Lag B-Omer a plague stopped killing 12,000 pairs of Rabbi Akiva's students.
Celebrations in Meron & Jerusalem at graves of sages. Pics from ~ 120 yrs ago.
2/ Lag B'Omer. One sage is Shimon Hatzadik, buried in Jerusalem. Easier to reach than the Meron celebration in the Galilee.
To this day, schools take their kids for hikes into nature, like the rabbis who hid to learn Torah.
I found & colored this pic & ID's it as Lag B'Omer, 1918
3/ Now mix some Talmud & history: 24,000 of Rabbi Akiva's students died in a plague because they didn't "show each other respect." No one else hit by plague?
He was known for "love your neighbor as yourself." His disciples didn't show respect for their fellow students?
4/ Akiva was a great rabbi & a nationalist who supported Bar Kochba's revolt vs the Romans. Did the 24k die resisting the Romans? Learning Torah was a capital offense, but did they fight?
One text said the terrible plague was called "askaria." In Turkish, "askar" is a soldier.
5/ This is a coin minted by Bar Kochba (Koziba) showing the Temple & a lulav set used on Sukkot. The number of branches is fewer than we use today. Why? Rabbi Akiva's teaching said to use fewer, & Bar Kochba followed his rabbinic patron.
Akiva was tortured to death by the Romans.
6/ Normally on Lag B'Omer Israel is ablaze with bonfires. Some suggest it commemorates signal fires of the rebellion.
Kids make bows & arrows (to replay the rebellion?) Pic 2 from the US Holocaust Museum.
7/ It is suggested that Lag B'Omer was a day when the Jewish forces vs Rome celebrated a victory. There weren't many of those.
For centuries, the rabbis & Jewish texts downplayed nationalist stirrings, considering the destruction of the Temple & the subsequent Bar Kochba revolt.
Dessert: I found this undated pic in Library of Congress & had to figure out where, when, who.
Enlarging it, I found a British army camp on the northern ridge, just 4 months after capturing the city -Lag B'Omer, April 1918. Kids were going home in the Old City after their outing.

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More from @lennybendavid

9 Apr
1/ Remember this NYT-Administration
Collaborative leak on the #Saviz
sabotage?
"Israel-Iran Sea Skirmishes Escalate as Mine Damages Iranian Military Ship"
It is so dangerously wrong & stupid on many levels. The Administration official who outed Israel... nytimes.com/2021/04/06/wor…
2/ Administration official who "outed" Israel gave legitimacy to Iranian retaliation & regional escalation.

NYT called #saviz a "military" ship. It was registered and presented itself as a civilian cargo ship. A more correct description would be "pirate" ship.

The official...
3/ The NYT/official said the #Saviz sabotage was timed to coincide with the US resumption of the #Irandeal negotiations in Vienna.

Balderdash! If #israeli naval commandos were responsible, such a mission 1500 km from Israel would have had months of planning, a ship/sub in ..
Read 4 tweets
28 Feb
Where does the humiliation of Saudi Arabia originate?
“Obama’s Foreign-Policy Guru, @brhodes NYT, May 5, 2016

"By eliminating the fuss about Iran’s nuclear program, the administration hoped to eliminate a source of structural tension between the two countries, which ...
1/n
@brhodes: eliminate tension bw US and #Iran
"would create the space for America to disentangle itself from its established system of alliances with countries like Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Israel, and Turkey." 😱
3/ @brhodes & the humiliation of #Saudi:
“The Democratic Renewal,” Foreign Affairs, October 2020

"The US has never been more tightly aligned with Israel, Saudi Arabia, & the UAE…. US has never been more hostile toward Iran. Terminate the..."
Read 4 tweets
10 Nov 20
#SaebErekat played a big role in a presentation I made to the @CNN Board of Directors in Atlanta in 2002.
I had finished a month-long content analysis of CNN's coverage of the Palestinians' terror war against Israel's civilians and Israel's Operation Defensive Shield.
1/
2/ I went thru many pages of transcripts. CNN's ME/West Bank correspondents were horribly biased.
CNN's Atlanta crew was stellar, starting w @BillHemmer. He challenged #SaebErakat's fake news.
The Board was impressed that the Atlanta crew was also challenging CNN's reporters.
3/ Let's go to the transcripts. Hemmer & Erekat, Apr 14, 2002.
HEMMER: You brought up Jenin, & you used the word massacre there. Earlier this wk, you said 500 Palestinians were killed there. Do you still stand behind those numbers in the refugee camp?..."
Read 6 tweets
9 Nov 20
The Palestinian tycoon who is suing Britain over 1917 Balfour declaration | Ahram Online english.ahram.org.eg/News/389526.as…

Munib al-Masri's law suit is insane, particularly so when you see his palace in Nablus. "We live in a big prison."
1/
2/ Pictures of Nablus (Shchem). That's Masri's palace that overlooks the overcrowded Balata refugee camp with ~30,000. Balata's area is probably smaller than Masri's estate.
Masri's worried about the Balfour Declaration when he should be worried about "Après moi, le déluge."
3/ Masri & his Nablus palace.
The alleys of Balata refugee camp nearby.
Who lives in "a prison?"
Who should be suing whom, Munib?
Read 5 tweets
7 Nov 20
1/ #PresidentElect #Biden scares some Friends of #Israel bc of a big flare-up when Israel announced settlement bldg when VP Biden arrived on March 9, 2010.
Biden condemned the news, realized it wasn't an Israeli policy shift & made up w Bibi.
But the White House wouldn't have it Image
2/ Read my analysis of crisis from 10 yrs.

Inside the White House, Rahm Emanuel's axiom ruled: "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste, & what I mean by that is an opportunity to do things that you didn’t think you could do before."
pjmedia.com/blog/lenny-ben…
3/ SecState Hillary Clinton blasted #Netanyahu on the phone for 43 minutes.
Pres advisor Axelrod on TV: Israel' move was “very destructive … an affront … an insult. … What it did was it made more difficult a very difficult process.”
NYT's Roger Cohen weighed in w WH message. Image
Read 6 tweets
26 Oct 20
Analysis | What do ordinary Arabs think about normalizing relations with Israel?

POINT OF ORDER! This article and poll were produced by the #Qatar/Moslem Brotherhood propaganda center in Doha, headed by a man suspected of being a Hizbullah spy.
1/
washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/…
2/ How could the Washington Post publish this?

#Qatar is opposed to the normalization of Arab states and Israel.
Qatar gives aid and refuge to #Hamas.
Leaders of Muslim Brotherhood live in Qatar.
Pic: MB head Yusuf al-Qaradawi w Sheikha of Qatar and serial rapist Tariq Ramadan
3/ #Qatar is in a diplomatic war with much of the Arab world.
In 2017, responding to Qatar's support for terrorism and sponsorship of its Al Jazeera propaganda arm, Saudis, UAE, Bahrain, Egypt broke diplomatic relations & launched a boycott.
Guess the nations the writer attacks.
Read 10 tweets

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