They Just Don't Get It...Or Do They?

To follow up on my West Bank column, we have two brilliant examples today of Israeli efforts to illegally extend its control into Palestinian areas under the guise of high-mindedness. First, there's Ethan Bronner's report about the Israeli mayor of Jerusalem's plans to clear a Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem. The intent sounds benign: the mayor wants to create a new tourist area near the Old City that will "look like Tuscany" and provide housing for Palestinians in new buildings fitted out with shops and cafes. Sounds great, except for this: The Israeli mayor of (West) Jerusalem has no standing to determine what happens in (East) Jerusalem, which--the rest of the world believes--should be the capital of Palestine. This is an act of arrogance and annexation.

And then there's the Orthodox Union, which is protesting the U.S. State Department's criticism of Benjamin Netanyahu's plan to spruce up some historic sites--revered by Jews and Muslims--on the West Bank as "provocative." Again, note the reasonable tone:

"It is not 'provocative' to invest in and rehabilitate holy/historic sites - that are open to both Jews and Muslims. Nothing PM Netanyahu has proposed precludes a peace agreement.
It is provocative for the Palestinians to assert that there is no Jewish connection to these sites and for them to use this as yet another false basis for refusal to engage in peace negotiations."

The Orthodox Union is right about one thing: The Palestinian assumption that there is no Jewish connection to historic sites that are clearly Jewish is obnoxious. (Indeed, the Palestinian paranoia about archeological efforts to investigate the Temple Mount area in recent years was also an effort to provoke anger among Palestine's infuriated young men.) But the fact remains: Netanyahu has no standing to unilaterally "improve" any historic site on Palestinian lands. It seems to me a deliberate attempt to provoke a violent reaction on the West Bank, an attempt to destroy the improvements that Prime Minister Salam Fayyad is attempting there. And again, as I said yesterday: If Natanyahu is so concerned about these sites, he should appoint a tri-partite commission, including Jews, Christians and Muslims, to select the sites that need restoration and issue the necessary contracts to improve them.

Taken from http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2010/02/26/they-just-dont-get-it/

Hold My Hand by Maher Zain

I hear the flower’s kinda crying loud
The breeze’s sound in sad
Oh no
Tell me when did we become,
So cold and empty inside
Lost a way long time ago
Did we really turn out blind
We don’t see that we keep hurting each other no
All we do is just fight

Now we share the same bright sun,
The same round moon
Why don’t we share the same love
Tell me why not
Life is shorter than most have thought

Hold my hand
There are many ways to do it right
Hold my hand
Turn around and see what we have left behind
Hold my hand my friend
We can save the good spirit of me and you
For another chance
And let’s pray for a beautiful world
A beautiful world I share with you

Children seem like they’ve lost their smile
On the new blooded playgrounds
Oh no
How could we ignore , heartbreaking crying sounds
And we’re still going on
Like nobody really cares
And we just stopped feeling all the pain because
Like it’s a daily basic affair

Now we share the same bright sun,
The same round moon
Why don’t we share the same love
Tell me why not
Life is shorter than most have thought

Hold my hand
There are many ways to do it right
Hold my hand
Turn around and see what we have left behind
Hold my hand my friend
We can save the good spirit of me and you
For another chance
And let’s pray for a beautiful world
A beautiful world I share with you

No matter how far I might be
I’m always gonne be your neighbor
There’s only one small planet where to be
So I’m always gonna be your neighbor
We cannot hide, we can’t deny
That we’re always gonna be neighbors
You’re neighbor, my neighbor
We’re neighbors

So hold my hand
There are many ways to do it right
Hold my hand
Turn around and see what have left behind

So hold my hand
There are many ways to do it right
Hold my hand
Turn around and see what have left behind
Hold my hand my friend
We can save the good spirit of me and you
For another chance
And let’s pray for a beautiful world
A beautiful world I share with you

Let's Share.............

Now we share the same bright sun,
The same bright moon,
Why don't we share the same love?

That might be the whole thing we need: to share.
To create this this islamic community we need to hide or pride and difference and share. we need to think as everyone that they are a part of us. We share a lot of things, but it's just we who never realized it, the sun, the moon, the air we breath in, even the water is recycled all over again, it has never depleted or increased.

What's so great about this world Allah created, the system it endures a cycle that makes things never gone. We just use it again, again and again. It's just a matter of distribution. It's a cycle.
The people who sell buy from other people who sell and they buy from other people who sell, so it's all a cycle, a chain-rule.

And now the hardest part, is to share our heart and our spirit. Unify them, bring it together and let us share the same pain, the same happiness and eventually............. the same victory. Ameen

Music Playlist at MixPod.com

Masjidil Aqsa Attacked!!!!

Clashes at Jerusalem's Aqsa mosque

Israeli troops entered the Aqsa mosque compound last week in a similar incident [File: AFP] Israeli police have entered Jerusalem's al-Aqsa Mosque compound to disperse Palestinian protesters who they said threw stones at police officers and Jewish worshipers nearby. Security forces fired tear gas canisters and stun grenades to disperse the demonstrators following Friday prayers. The Reuters news agency reported that 30 people were injured in the clash. Shmulik Ben Rubi, a Jerusalem police spokesman, said officers "intervened in the compound after stones were thrown at Jewish worshippers at the Wailing Wall" below. Najeh Btirat, an official with the Muslim clerical authority that administers the compound, said the clash followed a mosque sermon on the issue. "The Friday sermon focused on the Islamic sites that are being targeted by Israel and the need to preserve them," he said. About 300 young men threw stones at police after prayers, he said. 'Minimum force' Sherine Tadros, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Jerusalem, reported: "Medical sources are telling us that a lot of the Palestinians who were injured were fired on by rubber bullets from the Israeli police. "But that is something the Israeli police tell us did not happen - they have not been using any ammunition live or otherwise." Mickey Rosenfeld, the Israeli police spokesman, told Al Jazeera that police used only the "minimum ammount of force" against the protesters. "Only stun grenades were used, in fact, to disperse those rioters. Nine of our officers were injured at the scene and treated in hospital," he said. "Our main aim is to continue a calmness - a respectable calmness - on the Friday prayers on the Temple Mount, as well as in East Jerusalem." Skirmishes The compound, which is known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, has been the site of a number of such incidents. Clashes there on Sunday have been linked in part to a decision by Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, to include two sites in the occupied West Bank on a list of Israeli heritage sites. Skirmishes also broke out after Friday prayers in the West Bank city of Hebron, but no serious injuries were reported. A group of about 100 Palestinians protested outside the holy site known to Jews as the Cave of the Patriarchs and to Muslims as the Ibrahimi mosque. Taken from Al Jazeera.com