L’incontournable du Sinaï-pour ceux qui ne veulent pas stagner sur Sharm el Sheihk- c’est bien sûr la montée nocturne au Mont Moïse (Djebel Moussa en arabe). Je l’ai fait cinq ou six fois mais, malgré les années qui passent et qui me rappellent à mon age, c’est toujours une merveille !

Bien sûr n’imaginez pas vous retrouver seuls là-haut… Les tours opérators mettent le site en avant sur leurs programmes… Il y a vingt ans j’ai eu le privilège d’être quasiment seul au sommet mais cette époque est révolue et attendez vous à grimper en file indienne avec des touristes du monde entier, du guatemala à la russie. Les russes sont partout en ce moment; ils rattrapent les années d’enfermement… Malheureusement, ils se comportent en touristes de base et j’avoue ne pas avoir beaucoup de sympathie pour eux, tant ils sont envahissants et souvent incorrects.

Le must, c’est de monter de nuit pour assister au lever du soleil. Il faut quitter l’hébergement vers 2H00 du mat (tout dépend bien sûr de la saison… pour dormir un peu plus). La montée dure environ 2H30 à 3H00. N’ayez pas peur: il y a environ 1000 mètres de dénivelée (un peu moins même). Mais il faut tout de même un minimum d’endurance. Les personnes qui ont mal aux genoux par exemple, s’abstenir…. Car la montée se termine par une bonne demi heure de marches d’escaliers très inégales. Les chameliers sont omniprésents…pour venir en aide aux personnes en difficulté, et les dromadaires aussi ! Moyennant 10 à 15 euros, on peut monter au bas des marches à dos de dromadaire. C’est déjà çà !

Arrivé en haut, choisir son coin.   Ah ! j’ai oublié : se vêtir chaudement. Le sommet est à 2285 m d’altitude, donc à 6H00 du mat il fait frais, voire froid. Les bédouins louent des couvertures, ne pas hésiter à en prendre une.

Attendre….. et là…. le miracle s’accomplit

Join a strange safari in the desert hunting, not rare animals, but an equally endangered prize – absolute silence

A morning walk in the emptiness of the Sinai.

“Quante volte ho salito la ripida scalinata che porta dall’infelice Via Cavour alla solitaria piazza dove sorge la chiesa abbandonata! e sempre ho cercato di tener testa allo sguardo corrucciato e sprezzante dell’eroe, e mi è capitato qualche volta di svignarmela poi quatto quatto dalla penombra di quell’interno, come se anch’io appartenessi alla marmaglia sulla quale è puntato il suo occhio, una marmaglia che non può tener fede a nessuna convinzione, che non vuole né aspettare né credere, ed esulta quando torna ad impossessarsi dei suoi idoli illusori.” 

Sigmund Freud, Der Moses von Michelangelo.

Nei primi mesi del 1914 la rivista Imago pubblica un piccolo saggio anonimo sul Mosè di Michelangelo. Perché l’autore voglia rimanere nell’ombra è presto detto: non si è mai occupato veramente d’arte e quindi il suo testo può essere facilmente tacciato di dilettantismo. Inoltre teme che qualcuno spieghi maliziosamente l’irresistibile attrazione provata per il personaggio. Non è forse vero che si identifica con quell’ingombrante figura, che si sente un profeta?

Michelangelo Buonarroti, Mosè. Roma, San pietro in Vincoli.

Freud spiega di essere stato attratto dall’enigma che grava sull’opera michelangiolesca: questa contiene sì un messaggio oscuro e ambiguo, ma possiede al tempo stesso una sorprendente forza di penetrazione. Risiederebbe in ciò la causa delle numerose interpretazioni contrastanti. Basandosi sulla narrazione biblica (Esodo 32,7 32-35), mette a fuoco una serie di incongruenze tra testo sacro, iconografia consolidata e interpretazione michelangiolesca. Una tradizione secolare ci mostra solitamente un Mosè diverso: la guida di Israele, arrestandosi nelle sua discesa dal Monte Sinai, alla vista del suo popolo adorante un simulacro d’oro, distrugge le tavole della legge scagliandole contro il suolo. Mosé dunque è sempre raffigurato in piedi. Perché mai Michelangelo l’ha voluto mostrare seduto concedendosi una libertà senza precedenti? Con molta onestà Freud riconosce che non si tratta del primo caso. Esiste una piccola statua realizzata da Nicola di Verdun e conservata presso L’Ashmolean Museum di Oxford che attesta senza ombra di dubbio una seconda tradizione. Mosè è seduto e si liscia pensosamente la barba.

Alcuni dei dettagli presi in considerazione da Sigmund Freud

Le tavole, ad esempio, sono tenute capovolte ma, a causa dell’improvvisa visione e del gesto di afferrarsi la barba, sono scivolate e trattenute a stento dal braccio. La brusca rotazione del capo insieme allo scivolamento delle tavole portano al gesto istintivo di avvicinare la mano al bordo di pietra; così facendo la mano trascina verso il lato destro del torace il fluente ammasso di riccioli.La conclusione è folgorante: l’insieme di questi elementi rivela il residuo di un momento trascorso con un iniziale scatto d’ira, seguito dal suo superamento e concluso da un atteggiamento di calma. Mosè sarebbe raffigurato nell’atto di “soggiogare la propria passione a vantaggio e in nome di una causa alla quale si è votati”. Mosè, come Michelangelo, può domare il proprio furore e innalzarsi al di sopra della sua stessa natura. Aggiungo le tavole fatte disegnare da Freud.

Schema delle tre "fasi" ipotizzate da Freud

Troparion

Greek usage (Tone Plagal 1)

Let us praise the all-lauded and noble bride of Christ,

the godly Catherine, the guardian of Sinai and its defense,

who is also our support and succour and our help;

for with the Holy Spirit’s sword

she hath silenced brilliantly the clever among the godless;

and being crowned as a martyr, she now doth ask great mercy for us all.

Slavic usage (Tone 4)

Thy lamb Catherine, O Jesus,

Calls out to thee in a loud voice:

I love thee, O my bridegroom,

And in seeking thee, I endure suffering.

In baptism I was crucified so that I might reign in thee,

And died so that I might live with thee.

Accept me as a pure sacrifice,

For I have offered myself in love.

By her prayers save our souls, since thou art merciful.

The Holy Great Martyr Catherine was the daughter of Constus, the governor of Alexandrian Egypt during the reign of the emperor Maximian (305-313).

Living in the capital, the center of Hellenistic knowledge, and possessed of a rare beauty and intellect, Catherine received an excellent education, studying the works of the greatest philosophers and teachers of antiquity.

Young men from the most worthy families of the empire sought the hand of the beautiful Catherine, but she was not interested in any of them.

She told her parents that she would enter into marriage only with someone who surpassed her in nobility, wealth, comeliness and wisdom. Catherine’s mother, a secret Christian, sent her to her own spiritual Father, a saintly Elder living in a cave outside the city, for advice. After listening to Catherine, the Elder said that he knew of a Youth who surpassed her in everything. “His countenance is more radiant than the shining of the sun, and all of creation is governed by His wisdom. His riches are given to all the nations of the world, yet they never diminish. His compassion is unequaled.”

This description of the Heavenly Bridegroom produced in the soul of the holy maiden an ardent desire to see Him. “If you do as I tell you,” said the monk, “you will gaze upon the countenance of this illustrious man.” In parting, the Elder handed Catherine an icon of the Theotokos with the divine Child Jesus on Her arm and told her to pray with faith to the Queen of Heaven, the Mother of the Heavenly Bridegroom, and She would hear Catherine and grant her heart’s desire.

Catherine prayed all night and was permitted to see the Most Holy Virgin, Who said Her Divine Son, “Behold Thy handmaiden Catherine, how fair and virtuous she is.” But the Child turned His face away from her saying, “No, she is ugly and unbelieving. She is a foolish pauper, and I cannot bear to look at her until she forsakes her impiety.”

Catherine returned again to the Elder deeply saddened, and told him what she had seen in the dream. He lovingly received her, instructed her in the faith of Christ, admonished her to preserve her purity and integrity and to pray unceasingly. She then received the Mystery of holy Baptism from him. Again St Catherine had a vision of the Most Holy Theotokos with Her Child. Now the Lord looked tenderly at her and gave her a beautiful ring, a wondrous token of her betrothal to the Heavenly Bridegroom (This ring is still on her hand).

At that time the emperor Maximian was in Alexandria for a pagan festival. Therefore, the celebration was especially splendid and crowded. The cries of the sacrificial animals, the smoke and the smell of the sacrifices, the endless blazing of fires, and the bustling crowds at the arenas defiled the city of Alexandria. Human victims also were brought, the confessors of Christ, those who would not deny Him under torture. They were condemned to death in the fire.

The saint’s love for the Christian martyrs and her fervent desire to ease their sufferings compelled Catherine to speak to the pagan priest and to the emperor Maximian. Introducing herself, the saint confessed her faith in the One True God and with wisdom exposed the errors of the pagans. The beauty of the maiden captivated the emperor. In order to convince her and to show the superiority of pagan wisdom, the emperor ordered fifty of the most learned philosophers and rhetoricians of the Empire to dispute with her, but the saint got the better of the wise men, so that they came to believe in Christ themselves.

St Catherine made the Sign of the Cross over the martyrs, and they bravely accepted death for Christ and were burned alive by order of the emperor. Maximian, no longer hoping to convince the saint, tried to entice her with the promise of riches and fame. Receiving an angry refusal, the emperor gave orders to subject the saint to terrible tortures and then throw her in prison.

The Empress Augusta, who had heard much about the saint, wanted to see her. She prevailed upon the military commander Porphyrius to accompany her to the prison with a detachment of soldiers. The empress was impressed by the strong spirit of St Catherine, whose face was radiant with divine grace. The holy martyr explained the Christian teaching to them, and they were converted to Christ. On the following day they again brought the martyr to the judgment court where, under the threat of being broken on the wheel, they urged that she renounce the Christian Faith and offer sacrifice to the gods. The saint steadfastly confessed Christ and she herself approached the wheels; but an angel smashed the instruments of execution, which shattered into pieces with many pagans standing nearby. Having beheld this wonder, the Empress Augusta and the imperial courtier Porphyrius with 200 soldiers confessed their faith in Christ in front of everyone, and they were beheaded.

Maximian again tried to entice the holy martyr, proposing marriage to her, and again he was refused.

St Catherine firmly confessed her fidelity to the heavenly Bridegroom Christ, and with a prayer to Him she herself lay her head on the block beneath the executioner’s sword.

The relics of St Catherine were taken by the angels to Mount Sinai.

In the sixth century, the venerable head and left hand of the holy martyr were found through a revelation and transferred with honor to a newly-constructed church of the Sinai monastery, built by the holy Emperor Justinian (November 14).

St Catherine is called upon for relief and assistance during a difficult childbirth. Pilgrims to her monastery on Mt Sinai are given souvenir rings as a remembrance of their visit.

Astronomie: Ce punct de pe bolta cerească este opus zenitului?

R: nadirul

Ştiinţă: În ce an a fost lichefiat hidrogenul de către medicul şi chimistul scoţian James Dewar?

R: 1898

Cine cântă melodia On to the Next One?

R: Jay Z

În ce zi a lunii noiembrie s-a născut scriitorul Eugen Ionescu?

R: 26

Poduri: Ce cartiere din New York leagă podul Verrazano, numit după celebrul explorator italian Giovanni da Verrazzano?

R: Staten Island şi Brooklyn

Peninsule: Ce formă are peninsula Sinai?

R: triunghiulară

No livro de Êxodo, podemos ver como o Senhor é maravilhoso…

O Senhor livrou o seu povo das mãos dos egípcios, abriu o Mar Vermelho para o seu povo passar. Ele fez o

maná  para alimentar o seu povo e ainda fez com que a água saísse da rocha quando eles ainda estavam no deserto…

Mesmo quando o seu povo errava, o Senhor ainda teve amor e misericórdia pelo seu povo.

Podemos aprender no livro de Êxodo o quanto devemos ser obedientes ao Senhor, aprendemos também,

como o Senhor é poderoso.

Enfim, o Senhor é maravilhoso!

Eu aconselho a vocês que lessem o livro de Êxodo, que é uma excelente fonte de aprendizagem. Até mesmo

para os dias atuais.

No livro de Salmos, no capítulov 136:10-25, trata sobre esse evento.

“Àquele que feriu o Egito nos seus primogênitos, porque a sua misericórdia dura para sempre;E tirou a Israel do meio deles, porque a sua misericórdia dura para sempre;

Com mão poderosa e braço estendido, porque a sua misericórdia dura para sempre;

Àquele que separou em duas partes o mar Vermelho, porque a sua misericórdia dura para sempre;

E por entre elas fez passar Israel, porque a sua misericórdia dura para sempre;

Mas precipitou no mar Vermelho a Faraó e ao seu exército, porque a sua misericórdia dura para sempre;

Àquele que conduziu o seu povo pelo deserto, porque a sua misericórdia dura para sempre;

Àquele que feriu grandes reis, porque a sua misericórdia dura para sempre;

E tirou a vida a famosos reis, porque a sua misericórdia dura para sempre;

A Seom, rei dos amorreus, porque a sua misericórdia dura para sempre;

E a Ogue, rei de Basã, porque a sua misericórdia dura para sempre;

Cujas terras deu em herança, porque a sua misericórdia dura para sempre;

Em herança a Israel, seu servo, porque a sua misericórdia dura para sempre;

A quem se lembrou de nós em nosso abatimento, porque a sua misericórdia dura para sempre;

E nos libertou dos nossos adversários, porque a sua misericórdia dura para sempre;

E dá alimento a toda carne, porque a sua misericórdia dura para sempre.”

Além disso, os Salmos 106, 105 e 78 também falam sobre esse evento na história. Mas, para entender melhor estes Salmos, leiam o livro de Êxodo.

Ler o livro de Êxodo é muito bom para os cristãos, e a história é muito cativante. É uma história que prende a nossa atenção!

Porém, para ler Êxodo, tem que ler primeiro Gênesis. Pois se não ler o livro de Gênesis, não entenderá o livro de Êxodo. Leiam, pois é muito interessante! Vai servir muito para nós que servimos ao Senhor, nosso Deus.

Tomorrow, 25 November, is the feast of St Catherine the Great Martyr of Alexandria (ἡ Ἁγία Αἰκατερίνη ἡ Μεγαλομάρτυς της Ἀλεξάνδρειας, hē Hagia Aikaterinē hē Megalomartys tēs Alexandreias). It is also the commemoration of Isaac Watts, famous hymnwriter, in the Church of England calendar (and surely those of other churches too).

13th-century icon of St Catherine from Mt Sinai

Popularly, Catherine is associated with her eponymous wheel that makes it gyratory appearance at fireworks displays, symbolising the first attempted means of her martyrdom. Her legend tells of a young virgin woman who contended in dialogue with the pagan Emperor Maximinus Daia (308–13), successfully converting to Christianity his wife and courtiers, countering their philosophical arguments. The frustrated emperor ordered her tortured to death on the breaking wheel, which broke when she touched it, and so she was beheaded. Angels carried her body to Mt Sinai, where her tomb now lies.

The Catherine legend is problematic for a number of reasons. Although that does not mean that there is no real woman behind the legend, almost none of legend seems to be substantial. Maximinus is a hate figure in Christian history, being ruler of Syria and Egypt and accused of restarting the persecutions against Christians after Galerius, his adoptive uncle, had put an end to Diocletian’s persecutions. Maximinus was also part of the post-Diocletianic struggle for power opposing the party of Constantine (considered the victor of Christendom). It makes sense to see the Catherine legend in this political atmosphere. Surely, there must have been martyrdoms in Alexandria in this period.

Poster for Alejandro Amenábar's 'Agora'

However, the legend seems to have accreted another similar, yet quite opposite, legend: the legend of Hypatia (Ὑπατία). Hypatia lived in Alexandria from the late fourth century, dying in 415. She was a brilliant philosopher of the Neoplatonic tradition, skilled in logic, maths and astronomy. She taught in Alexandria, numbering a future bishop as one of her students. Problematically for the Christian community of the city, she was a pagan. A power struggle for the city was taking place between its bishop Cyril and its prefect Orestes. A mob of monks from the Nitrian Desert had previously attacked Orestes, injuring him. Hypatia was believed to be using her influence as a highly respected professor in favour of Orestes. Believing this, the Nitrian monks, led by Peter the Reader, surrounded Hypatia’s carriage, pulled her out, stripped her and dragged her through the streets. Accounts of her death at the hands of the monks have been variously dramatised in disturbingly sadistic detail. Socrates Scholasticus, a Christian historian of the fifth century, has a sympathetic account of her brutal murder, clearly dismayed by the action of his coreligionists. The legend of Hypatia, however, became powerful anti-Christian propaganda in the hands of the dwindling old Graeco-Roman aristocracy and educated elite. She has remained an icon of reason against the assaults of intolerance and religious extremism. The end of the GW Bush regime in the United States was perhaps as good a time as any to revisit Hypatia, as done in film Ágora by Alejandro Amenábar, with Rachel Weisz as our 21st-century Hypatia.

I can understand the Catherine legend having much to do with guilt-fuelled counter-propaganda against the embarrassing Hypatia legend. It is certainly a disgusting blot on the church if we are guilty of rewriting history to turn our shame into a symbol of our suffering under persecution. Perhaps more sad is the daily severe discrimination met by today’s Christian community in Egypt, the Copts.

I don’t know if it counts for anything, but 25 November is also 29 Hathor in the Coptic calendar, and the height of the month named for the goddess Hathor.

Isaac Watts

The story of Isaac Watts is over a millennium away from the stories of Catherine and Hypatia. Born in another great port city, Southampton, in 1674, his father was twice imprisoned for holding to nonconformist religious practices: he was not a member of the state church, the Church of England. The Act of Uniformity of 1662 had put severe constraints on those who chose to worship in manner not in accordance with that of the state church. Although showing great academic promise, Watts was unable to study at Oxbridge due to his refusal to accept the rules of the state church. Instead he went to an academy in Stoke Newington, that was set up for the benefit of nonconformists. Many others would have submitted in name alone to the state religion in order to progress in life, but Isaac Watts was steadfast in the independence of his belief.

Watts became a dissenting minister in Stoke Newington. While there he wrote a hugely influential work on logic, which became the official text on the matter in the Oxbridge universities that had denied him on religious grounds. He opposed the imposition of trinitarian doctrine on dissenting ministers by the movement’s conservative wing, upholding their right of each to formulate their doctrine in accord with their reason. This has lead to thoughts that he was a unitarian, something that is not apparent from his writings. Shunned and opposed in life, Isaac Watts is the Father of English Hymnody. The hundreds of hymns he wrote are a unity of passionate faith commingled with doctrinal clarity, unsurprising for a great logician perhaps. However, few in the Church of England who gladly sing When I survey the wondrous Cross or Jesus shall reign where’er the sun realise the radical man behind those words and the intolerant hatred of him and those like him by our church.

So, tomorrow, let’s celebrate Catherine and Isaac, for there is plenty to celebrate. But let us also contemplate Hypatia and Watts the rejected dissenter, better to understand our place in the history of religious intolerance.

RAMON    RAMONET     RIU  ENLACES A SINTESIS DE “OBRAS PRINCIPALES”. (LINKS TO THE OWN MAIN RESEARCH SYTHESIS).

SINAÍ Y MOISÉS:   “LOS 10 MANDAMIENTOS”

NEW-NUEVO:VARIAS PPS  PRESENTACIONES

      http://rrriu.blogspot.es/1256049960/

RELIQUIAS DE SAN PEDRO ENCONTRADAS EN GERONA

MONTSERRAT, SINAI, GIZEH, SUPERFACES: ARARAT-OLIMPO,etc.

MONTSERRAT ES LA GANGA DEL GRIAL (Mi lienzo)

LOS “REX DEUS MUNDI“:   JOSÉ Y ELIMBURGA

Mt. MONTSERRAT:UNA
CARA EN FOTOSATÉLITE

TORO: ESCULTURA
PREHISTORICA INEDITA

SINAI: CABEZA “CORNUDA”
EN FOTO DE SATELITE

“MARE DE DEU DEL CLAUSTRE” DE SOLSONA

TRES ESTRELLAS DE DAVID ” DIBUJADAS” EN CYDONIA (MARTE)

ARNAU DE   TORROJA; 9º GRAN MAESTRE TEMPLARIO

GIZEH: ROSTRO CERCA DE LA FAMOSA ESFINGE

A N A V A N A
(NOVELA INÉDITA)

ZIMBABUE: UNA GRAN CABEZA MODELADA EN SU ACROPOLIS

 SUS RELIQUIAS y ALTAR DESCUBIERTAS ENTERRADAS EN “SANT PERE DE RODA”

MACHU PICCHU: EL MISTERIO DE SU FUNDACION

PROYECCION DEL  FENOMENO MEGALITICO

LA CARA DE MONTSERRAT ASOCIADA A LOS ASNOS (EN MI LIBRO)

SIMBOLO “L’ORANT”DE PEDRET (RESTRINGIDO)

“ONUTORO”/PSICOIDÍLICAS (NOVEDAD 08.08.08)

ESCLARMONDA DE FOIX Y GUI CAP-DE-PORC

CREENCIAS ENTORNO AL “PEDRAFORCA” (PROTEGIDO)

Join a strange safari in the desert hunting, not rare animals, but an equally endangered prize – absolute silence

A morning walk in the emptiness of the Sinai.

 

Causes

Finally, we come to the question, how did the war start? It is fair to say that the seeds for this war were planted in 1949, when the Arab armies trying to destroy the nascent Israel were routed, and that the Suez Crisis of 1956 raised tensions in the region even more. But to call those things causes of the Six Day War is like saying World War One caused World War Two; and since the Franco-Prussian War caused World War One, and the Napoleonic Wars caused the Franco Prussian War, we can say that the French Revolution caused World War Two. This is too much of a stretch. Without going back to far, the buildup to the Six Day War started three years earlier, in 1964.

In that year, Levi Eshkol, Israel’s prime minister, and Yitzhak Rabin, its chief of staff agreed on the aims of Israel’s defence policy for the first five year plan for the military. The plan said that the State of Israel did not wish for more territory. Israel would not initiate conflict with an Arab state but if war were imposed on it, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) would move swiftly into the enemy’s territory and destroy its war infrastructure.

More significantly, it was the year border clashes with Syria got deadlier. There were three sources of tension on the border: the demilitarised zones, water and Palestinian guerrillas. Moshe Dayan, Defence Minister during the Six Day War, said that in at least 80% of the clashes with Syria, “We would send a tractor to plow someplace where it wasn’t possible to do anything, in the demilitarised area, and knew in advance that the Syrians would start to shoot. If they didn’t shoot, we would tell the tractor to advance farther, until in the end the Syrians would get annoyed and shoot.” The Israelis were provoking the Syrians.

In addition, the water issue began in 1964. Israel began withdrawing water from the Jordan River. At a conference, the Arab League approved a $17.5m plan to divert the Jordan river at its sources, drastically reducing the quantity and quality of Israel’s water. Knowing that Israelis would not sit back while their country dried up, the same conference also created a United Arab Command to protect the project and prepare for an offensive campaign. The Palestinian Liberation Organisation, or PLO, was yet another outcome of the conference. The Arab League began construction on its diversion plan the next year. The IDF attacked the diversion works in Syria in 1965, exacerbating the border tensions that led to the war.

In February 1966, an extreme left wing, anti-Zionist Baath regime took power in Damascus. It called for a popular war to liberate Palestine and sponsored Palestinian guerrilla attacks on Israeli targets. These guerrilla attacks were not about to wipe Israel off the map, but they fanned the flames of mutual hostility between Israel and Syria.

Palestinian guerrillas, mainly Arafat’s Fatah, carried out 122 raids between January 1965 and June 1967. They were mostly staged from Lebanon and Jordan, but the guerrillas were largely armed, trained and run by Syrian general staff. In response to one such attack, the Israeli Defense Forces attacked the village of Samu on the West Bank. Dozens of Jordanian soldiers were killed. The attack shocked King Hussein and exposed his military weakness. On April 7, 1967, following a border skirmish, the Israeli Air Force shot down six Soviet-made Syrian MiGs in an air battle. The Syrian government was in a rage. The countdown to the Six Day War had begun.

Because the survival of the Baath regime was important to the USSR, the Soviets sent a report to Nasser that Israel was concentrating its forces on its northern front and was planning to attack Syria. The report was false. Some who were observing at the time said that, although the Soviet warning about Israel’s amassing troops on its northern border was wrong, the Israeli cabinet was planning to attack Syria and the Soviets had gotten wind. Nasser knew the report was untrue but he felt that, as the Arab world’s leadership was in question, he could not fail to act. Syria already had a defense pact with Egypt. There is general agreement among historians that Nasser neither wanted nor planned to go to war with Israel. What he did was brinkmanship: pushing Israel to the brink and hoping war would not be necessary.

He did so for several reasons. First, he could not afford to look weak in front of his restive public. A major share of his army was already in the Sinai, and it would have been humiliating to pull them back. Second, the other side of the coin, continuing the troop buildup would enhance his status at home and in the Arab world. Indeed, reactions to the move were, in Michael Oren’s words, “enthusiastic, even ecstatic”. Finally, if there was no imminent threat to Syria, Nasser could take credit for increasing Egypt’s troop presence in the Sinai without fear Israel would attack. After all, he had already been assured it would not.

Nasser sent a large number of troops into the Sinai, removing the UN troops already there, and closed the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping. The Straits were important because, although few Israeli vessels actually transversed the Straits, it was where Iranian oil tankers exporting to Israel sailed. But more importantly, according to Aharon Yariv, Israel’s chief of intelligence, failure to act to end the blockade of the Straits would make Israel lose its credibility and deterrent capacity. These tools have been essential for Israel ever since.

In all countries, the masses were whipped into a war frenzy. They heard about the hourly radio reports from Arab countries about Israel’s impending doom, and the general feeling was of a noose tightening around the nation’s neck. Israel’s Holocaust survivors were particularly scared when Israeli newspapers likened Nasser to Hitler. According to Charles Krauthammer, “It is hard to exaggerate what it was like for Israel in those three weeks [before the war]. Egypt, already in an alliance with Syria, formed an emergency military pact with Jordan. Iraq, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tunisia, Libya and Morocco began sending forces to join the coming fight. With troops and armor massing on Israel’s every frontier, jubilant broadcasts in every Arab capital hailed the imminent final war for the extermination of Israel. ‘We shall destroy Israel and its inhabitants,’ declared PLO head Ahmed Shuqayri, ‘and as for the survivors–if there are any–the boats are ready to deport them.’”

Everyone predicted a war. Eshkol was expecting a war; Cairo Radio said “our forces are in a complete state of readiness for war”; Syria’s government said “The war of liberation will not end except by Israel’s abolition.” Israel’s preemptive strike on its enemies was justified to end the tension and the fear–to stop waiting to die and start fighting to survive.

On May 12, in a newspaper interview, Rabin said “the moment is coming when we will march on Damascus to overthrow the Syrian government”. On May 19, Rabin told his generals, “[t]he politicians are convinced they can solve the problems through diplomacy. We have to enable them to exhaust every alternative to war, even though I see no way of returning to things the way they were. If the Egyptians blockade the Straits, there will be no alternative to war.” Nonetheless, Rabin also did not think Nasser wanted war.

On May 30, King Hussein flew to Cairo to sign the mutual defense pact with Nasser. An Egyptian general was appointed commander of Jordan’s army. On June 3, two Egyptian commando battalions were flown to Jordan, and on the following morning an Iraqi mechanised brigade crossed into Jordan and moved to the Jordan River. Egypt and Iraq, traditional enemies, signed a mutual defense pact.

Israel attacked when it did because it obtained approval from the US. Robert McNamara, US Secretary of Defence, gave Israel a green light to attack Egypt. However, Dean Rusk, Secretary of State, said he was outraged that Israel attacked at all.

What was the most important factor in starting the Six Day War? At a glance, it would appear to have been Nasser and Egypt’s amassing of troops in the Sinai and closing of the Straits of Tiran and Gulf of Eliat. The closing of the Straits was an act of war in itself. But historians disagree with this explanation. First, there is evidence that Nasser did not want war. His public was highly belligerent but he knew Egypt could not simply defeat and occupy Israel. He had learned from the Suez Crisis of 1956.

Second, there are alternative explanations. Avi Shlaim says that border skirmishes with Syria were the main cause of the war. “Israel’s strategy of escalation on the Syrian front was probably the single most important factor in dragging the Middle East to war in June 1967″. Israel had been forced to abandon its plan to divert water from the Jordan in the central demilitarised zone to the Negev desert (southern Israel) in 1953. The Arab states, led by Syria, poked and prodded Israel by diverting the Jordan River. Israeli and Syrian troops clashed and Israel gained the upper hand. “Having been defeated in the water war,” says Shlaim, “the frustrated Syrians began to sponsor attacks on Israel from their territory by Palestinian guerrilla organisations.” The violence escalated.

Michael Oren believes that, because (arguably) water politics led to fighting on Israel’s northern border, more than anything else, “the war would revolve around water.” The Arab League’s plans to take most of Israel’s water was provocation bigger than its threats, and the dry noose was the catalyst for Israel’s decision to strike.

Diplomacy came to naught. Tempers were not defused, the noose was not given any slack, and the push to war continued. At 07:45 on June 5, Israel attacked Egypt, beginning the Six Day War and setting in motion all the conflicts and killings Israel has suffered or delivered since.

Bibliography

Oren, Michael: Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East
Finkelstein, Norman: Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict
Shlaim, Avi: The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World
Morris, Benny: Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881-2001
Charles Krauthammer: Prelude to the Six Days: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/17/AR2007051701976.html

The complete Short History of the Six Day War can be found at http://www.scribd.com/doc/22787004/A-Short-History-of-the-Six-Day-War.

Conduct

Why did Israel win the Six Day War? There are a few reasons. First, it attacked preemptively. Israel’s attack may or may not have been justified (though, as I will explain in the third section, the historical record implies that it was) but it was a surprise. Surprise attack is a good strategy. Second, Israelis generally felt that their backs were against the wall. The prevailing feeling in Israel before the war had been one of fear (which, again, we will go into in the final section of this account), and when fear is translated into fight (as opposed to flight) it is deadly. The prevailing feeling among Arabs was hubris. Third, Israel had superior forces, and relied on air power at the beginning of its campaign. Fourth, the Arab armies had poor leadership and organisation, and were not as prepared, as numerous or as mighty as they had thought. This section will expatiate on the most important events of the war.

By 07:30 on June 5, 200 Israeli planes were aloft and heading to Egypt. A Jordanian radar officer noticed and radioed his commanding officer in Amman. The officer in Amman relayed the information to Cairo. However, the Egyptians had, just the day before, changed their codes and had not notified the Jordanians. The Israeli aircraft destroyed most of Egypt’s air force and antiaircraft weapons on the ground.

Now in control of the air, Israel sent tanks across the Sinai desert. They suffered many casualties but still did better than the Egyptians. Major General Ariel Sharon, prime minister during the Second Intifada, was commander of one of the most powerful of the armoured divisions that took the Sinai. Battles continued and Israeli tanks kept advancing. By day 4, there was no more doubt that the Egyptians were defeated and that Israel had taken the Sinai.

A few hours after the attack on Egypt, the US consul-general in Jerusalem mused that Jerusalem might have been spared the violence that was raging around the region. At first, things were calm. King Hussein of Jordan, which controlled East Jerusalem and the West Bank, received a phone call from Nasser saying that Israel had suffered great losses. The Iraqis told him their aircraft were already engaging with Israel’s. Hussein ordered the attack.

Bombs from planes and cannons shook Israel for a few hours but then Israel performed two lightning strikes that destroyed Jordan’s planes and airfields. They took other positions in Jordan, and over the next two days occupied much of the West Bank. This new territory included the Old City–East Jerusalem. Jews were ecstatic. This was a big cause of their feeling at the end of the war that God was truly on their side: not only had they triumphed over seemingly (but not actually) overwhelming odds, but they had taken back the holy lands of Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) and the now united holy city of Jerusalem.

On day 2, Nasser declared, erroneously, that the US was actively aiding Israel in the fighting. He asked the USSR for equal assistance to ward off the Americans. Radio stations in Syria, Jordan and elsewhere claimed, also erroneously, that American or British planes and ships were causing all kinds of trouble. As a result, mobs attacked American embassies throughout the Middle East. Ten oil-producing Arab states including Saudi Arabia and Iraq limited or banned oil shipments to the US and Britain. This began the 1967 oil embargo and the use of the “oil weapon”.

The United States continued monitoring the conflict from a distance. The USS Liberty, breaking with the 6th Fleet, came close to the Sinai coast. Yitzhak Rabin, then Israeli chief of staff (later prime minister), had warned that all unidentified vessels traveling at high speed would be sunk. The Liberty was not identified fast enough, and Israeli jets and boats attacked it. The ship was badly damaged and 34 American crewmen died. The US and Israeli governments both conducted inquiries and found that the attack was an accident. However, some US diplomats and officials say it was not. The Israeli government later paid nearly $13m in settlements. To this day, there are many unanswered questions about the USS Liberty incident.

Back to the front. Syria had also believed the reports that Israel was nearly defeated but nonetheless moved with some caution. When the Israeli Air Force was finished with the Egyptian Air Force, it turned its attention to the Syrian Air Force. In the evening of the first day of the war, the Israelis destroyed two thirds of Syria’s fighter jets. Several Syrian tanks were put to rest as well. Syria’s army began shelling positions in northern Israel but were soon pushed back again. By day 5, the battle for the Golan Heights was raging. The Golan Heights are a plateau bordering Israel, Syria and Lebanon. In two days, they became an occupied territory and in 1981 were annexed (like East Jerusalem but unlike Gaza and the West Bank) by Israel.

After the last gun had been fired over the Heights, the war was over. The ceasefire was signed the next day, on June 11th. Israelis proved to the world that it took more than some local bullies to bring it down. But its troubles were not over.

Yesterday, we saw the consequences of the Six Day War. Part 3 will show us how we got to June 5.

On June 5, 1967, Israel went to war with its neighbours. By June 10, Israel had more than tripled in size. In a decisive victory in six short days, Israel defeated Egypt, Syria and Jordan, who in turn had help from Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Morocco, Algeria, Sudan and Tunisia. Soon dubbed “the Six Day War”, this short, regional conflict would go on to have enormous implications for Israel, the Middle East and the peace and security of the world.

This series of posts will summarise, in three parts, the causes, conduct and consequences of the Six Day War. It attempts to give a simple but not simplistic account of the facts, inasmuch as the facts can be ascertained from noteworthy historical accounts of the war.

This account will begin with the consequences, followed by the conduct of the war in its most important events and finally, the war’s causes. We start with the consequences of the Six Day War in order to show the reader the enormous impact this small war has had, and why he or she should continue reading.

Consequences
The Six Day War’s consequences were numerous and far-reaching, and some of them plague the region to this day. The changes of perceptions of threats in the area, the 1973 Yom Kippur War and subsequent Egypt-Israel peace accord, the hostage massacre at the Munich Olympics and the increased importance of the Middle East as a Cold War hotspot are some of the war’s short term outcomes. I will attempt to outline the longer lasting ones here. They are the rise of Islamic fundamentalism, the occupation the Palestinian territories and military and nonmilitary conflict.

First, the rise of Islamic fundamentalism, or Islamism, or jihadism, or whatever you want to call it, is an indirect consequence of the Six Day War. Before the Six Day War, Pan-Arabism was the motto of the day. Egypt, under Gamal Abdel Nasser, had become the leader of a kind of anti-colonial, anti-Israeli, socialist movement in the Arab world. This movement was a source of unity and the reason why Arab states combined their armed forces on the eve of the Six Day War. In a very unusual act as governments go, Egypt and Syria had even united under one state to form the United Arab Republic, though only for three years. Nasser was very charismatic and popular and, in the lead up to the Six Day War, was assured a win by those around him.

One year before the Six Day War, in 1966, Nasser ordered the execution of Sayyid Qutb, a leading intellectual member of the Muslim Brotherhood. Qutb was not a terrorist (and the Brotherhood is not a terrorist organisation), but he played a big role in the rise of Islamic terrorism. When he was executed, he was made a martyr. His ideas spread and “jihadist” organisations like al-Qaeda followed them.

The transnational Islamist movement arose in a vacuum. After the Six Day War, the Arab leaders (the losers) bickered and fought. Each heaped culpability on the others and suddenly, unity was no longer a priority. Some leaders, such as Jordan’s King Hussein, wanted a peace accord with Israel, while Nasser engaged Israel in the pointless but deadly War of Attrition. Pan-Arabism thus discredited, Islamic fundamentalism became the new ideology of the Muslim world. While most Muslims do not fall under this banner, Islamism has attracted people from countries as diverse as Indonesia, Morocco, India, Iraq, Britain and Spain. And the main target of anger and terrorism in the name of Islam has been Israel.

In the second lasting consequence of the Six Day War, Israel acquired the Sinai Peninsula, the Golan Heights, the West Bank of the Jordan River, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. It occupies the last four of these to this day. The return of the Sinai to Egypt was the major reason that Egypt and Israel were able to sign a peace agreement in 1978. Israel and Jordan signed a peace accord in 1994 but return of the West Bank was not part of the deal. It was believed that the Golan Heights could be returned to Syria and the West Bank to Jordan for peace accords, but they were not. The Heights were not of sufficient importance to Syria and peace with Syria not of sufficient interest to Israel to ever make the exchange. And no one wants the Gaza Strip. What problems these territories have caused.

The acquisition of territory by conquest and the settling of it with the conquering state’s citizens are both strictly prohibited by international law. With the exception of East Jerusalem, which the vast majority of Israelis refuse to give up, the government of Israel once hoped that the occupied territories could be returned for peace treaties (“Land for Peace”). At the same time, however, it was allowing Jewish settlers into all areas of the territories. Settlements began springing up everywhere. Settlements in the Sinai were uprooted to return the land to Egypt, and settlements in Gaza were removed in 2005 for reasons we will not go into here. But there are still half a million Jewish settlers in all the occupied territories. Going into all the trouble they have caused for both Israel and the Palestinians is the subject of the book “Lords of the Land” by Idith Zertal and Akiva Eldar; suffice it to say, the occupation and settlement are the primary reasons the Palestinians are angry.

Third and most important, and related to Israel’s territorial gains, it may be fair to say that all major violence against Israelis and Palestinians since June 1967 has been due to the consequences of the Six Day War. One consequence of the 1948 war, the first Arab-Israeli war, was the beginning of the Palestinian refugee problem. The Six Day War exacerbated it. The Palestinians were pushed in greater numbers into refugee camps in places like Lebanon and Jordan. Palestinians were a big presence in western Jordan, and around 1970 had almost carved out an autonomous enclave on the East Bank of the Jordan River. The Palestinian organisation Fatah, led by Yasser Arafat, conducted border raids on Israel and fought with Jordanians as well.

In September of 1970 (“Black September”), Palestinians attempted to assassinate King Hussein. They also hijacked airplanes and, after removing the hostages, blew them up on television. The Jordanian army attacked and, after a year of fighting, drove them out of Jordan to Lebanon.

The Six Day War is also known as the third Arab-Israeli war; the fourth one was in 1973; and the fifth one was Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in 1982. The Lebanese Civil War broke out in 1975, and after a short time staying out, Arafat’s guerrillas entered the fray. The Israeli Defense Forces, or IDF, entered Lebanon in an attempt to shore up a friendly government and take out the Palestinian Liberation Organisation. For some time it occupied Beirut, but was forced to retreat to a small part of southern Lebanon that it held as a buffer. Israel’s invasion is generally held as the progenitor of Hizbullah, which prodded Israel into violence several times since, most evidently in the 2006 Lebanon War. In what many Israelis saw at the time as unprovoked and unnecessary violence, in 1982, the IDF killed several thousand Lebanese, enabled the massacre of more than 800 Palestinian refugees and suffered more than 600 casualties.

The occupation of the territories turned the IDF from a defense force into a police force, setting up checkpoints, defending settlers and bulldozers, arresting and shooting Palestinians for violating curfews. This oppressive policing of Palestine led to the first Intifada. The typical image of the Intifada is the Palestinian boy throwing rocks at Israeli soldiers. The first Intifada was an uprising against Israeli control of the Palestinian territories and lasted for six years. The second Intifada, characterised less by stones and more by suicide bombings, also lasted several years (when it ended is disputed) and a third one may be in the works.

Contrary to what many Israelis believe, the Intifadas were spontaneous, not planned. They were not the attempted destruction of the State of Israel by the Palestinians but may be likened more to the Warsaw Ghetto uprising against the Nazis: people were herded into terrible conditions and handled with violence. Only the most sheeplike people would not consider fighting back. Things have not gotten any better in the occupied territories and there is no solution in the works. The Palestinians were the real victims of the Six Day War, a war that, in the minds of too many people, has never been resolved.

Tomorrow, we will look at the conduct of the war itself.

When it comes to all types of Jew haters, big rallying call is to REMEMBER THE USS Liberty.

The USS Liberty was a monitoring vessel anchored off the Sinai coast during the Six Day War in which Israel

attacked Syrian, Jordanian, and Egyptian troops massing for an attack on the Jewish state. This preemption

shocked Arab forces bent on a second try at genocide of the Jews in Palestine.

The American ship in the course of the war was accidently attacked by Israel warplanes. 34 American sailors died and 174 were wounded. Anti-semites have accused Israel of doing this on purpose thousands of times. Yet they have never given a decent reason why Israel  might do this.

Of course the main reason theory give is that Jews hate everybody.

A very poor and incredible story. Many sailors have called for more investigations but the American military has  said the first investigation was thorough enough.

It key fact dismissing wild stories of purposeful Israeli involvement is what I use here.

ALL THE SURVIVORS HAVE NEVER SIGNED ANY DOCUMENT CONDEMNING ISRAEL.

AND THE SURVIVORS WERE THERE.

Manuel sagte am Freitag in einem Kommentar:

Es ist ganz typisch, daß der Islam eine Art „Lähmung“ seiner Gegner hervorruft, einen paralysierten Zustand, das Gefühl, „daß man ja eh nichts machen kann“…

In OROP Wüste (S. 55f) beschreibt Reich, wie „Stille“ und „Stumpfheit“ sich bei Ausbreitung von DOR (abgestorbene und dadurch giftig gewordene Orgonenergie) über die Landschaft legt. Die Vögel verstummen, alles sieht traurig aus und verliert an Spannkraft, die Atmosphäre funkelt nicht mehr, alles wirkt und wird schwarz, depressiv und abgestorben. Genauso ist es, wenn bekennende Moslems die Szene betreten: die Stimmung kippt, als würde eine schwarze Wolke sich niedersenken. Auf diese Weise werden zunächst Stadtviertel, dann ganze Länder Teil Saharasias.

Wo immer sich Moslems niederlassen, verweigern sie die Assimilation, beuten wie selbstverständlich das Sozialsystem aus, verlangen Sonderrechte und schließlich Dominanz. Typisch dafür ist das Verhalten, der dänischen Imame, die, nachdem sie im „Karikaturenstreit“ von 2005 vor dänischen Gerichten kein Gehör fanden, sich mit teilweise selbst gefälschten Karikaturen (Mohammed aus islamischer Sicht? Als Schwein, Päderast und Sodomist!) an die islamische Welt wandten, damit diese Dänemark zur Räson bringt. Tolle Gäste! Tolle „Einwanderer“!

Überhaupt Dänemark als beliebiges Beispiel:

Mit vier Prozent Anteil an der dänischen Gesamtbevölkerung beanspruchen die muslimischen Einwanderer über 40 Prozent der gesamten dänischen Sozialausgaben.
[Sie] stellen aber die absolute Majorität aller verurteilten Vergewaltiger – was unter dem Gesichtspunkt, daß praktisch alle vergewaltigten Frauen nicht muslimisch waren, eine politische Zeitbombe sein dürfte.
Ähnliche disproportionale Ergebnisse gibt es für nahezu alle Bereich mittlerer und schwerer Kriminalität.

Wo immer sich Moslems niederlassen, hinterlassen sie eine Wüste. Man schaue sich nur an, was sie aus „Felix Arabia“, dem einst blühenden Mittleren Osten, Nordafrika und dem Byzantinischen Reich gemacht haben!

Besonders vielsagend ist in diesem Zusammenhang die Satellitenaufnahme unten. Zwischen der israelischen Negev-Wüste und dem Sinai (der in einem Anfall von nicht nur selbstmörderischem, sondern verbrecherischem Wahnsinn 1982 an die Araber zurückgegeben wurde) verläuft eine schnurgrade Linie. Auf israelischer Seite ist der Boden grau-grün-bräunlich, die Wüste lebt und verwandelt sich bei den seltenen Regenschauern in ein Blumenmeer, während auf ägyptischer Seite die gelbe Farbe auf eine tote Wüste hinweist, die bei jedem Regen weiter ausgewaschen wird. So ist es in jedem Bereich: von der Sexualökonomie, zur Wirtschaft, zur Bildung – in allem zeigt sich der Gegensatz „ORgon versus DOR“.

Polemik, Übertreibung, Ignoranz, Islamophobie, Rassismus? Man höre doch bitte, wie der ehemalige Moslembruder Hamed Abdel-Samad das Leben in Ägypten aus sexualökonomischer Sicht beschreibt!

Ähnliches konnte man vor 1989 mit dem sozialistischen Äquivalent zum Islam erleben, wenn man zwischen der Bundesrepublik und der „DDR“ hin und her wechselte. Nicht nur die Menschen, sondern sogar die Natur waren depressiv und „ver-DOR-t“.

Det femte och sista avsnittet i min serie artiklar på temat “Det judiska Polen” kommer att handla om den kommunistiska antisemitismen efter Andra världskrigets slut, kulminerande i en kampanj 1967-70 som tvingade merparten av Polens omkring 25 000 judar att lämna landet. Läs i sammanhanget gärna vad Judiska muséet har att anföra:

http://www.judiska-museet.a.se/utstallningar/1968_pl.stm

Åren 1948-53 kom i Sovjetunionen och Östblocket att präglas av stort upplagda antisemitiska och antisionistiska kampanjer, något som givit upphov till beteckningen “de svarta åren” när det gäller den judiska befolkningen i dessa områden. “Inom Sovjetunionens gränser förde man efter kriget två kampanjer av ideologisk och politisk natur”, heter det i Judehatets svarta bok av Eriksen, Harket, Lorenz (Albert Bonniers förlag, 2008). Dessa båda kampanjer benämndes den “antinationalistiska” respektive den “antikosmopolitiska” kampanjen och riktade sig alltså direkt mot judarna.

Dessa kampanjer hade sitt ursprung i sovjetdiktatorn Josef Stalins grundläggande antisemitism. Det började med våldsamma angrepp på judisk nationalism i slutet av 1947 och fortsatte med mordet på Judiska antifascistiska kommitténs (JAK)  ledare Solomon Mikhoels i januari 1948 och den därpå följande arresteringen av nästan hela JAK-ledningen. Sedan rullade det på i allt vildare fart. I Judehatets svarta bok läser vi:

“Från 1950 och framåt vidtogs hårdare åtgärder mot judarna. De åtalades och avrättades för att vilja förvandla Krim till en judisk republik och ett ‘brohuvud för den amerikanska imperialismen’…Den antisemitiska politiken kulminerade då flera hundra läkare arresterades mellan oktober 1952 och februari 1953, samt med den efterföljande processen mot framstående läkare som ägde rum i Moskva 1953.”

Av 37 åtalade läkare var 17 judar. Åtalspunkterna gällde att man redan mördat två ledande sovjetpolitiker, planerade en sammansvärjning mot staten och ville mörda Stalin samt sålt sig till amerikanerna. En pogromstämning mot Sovjetunionens judar byggdes upp inför vad som, av allt att döma, var planerat att bli en kommunistisk förintelse mindre än ett decennium efter den nazistiska. Till all lycka hann dock Stalin avlida innan någonting sådant kunde iscensättas, och efter Stalins död förklarades den judiska “sammansvärjningen” ha varit ett fabrikat av myndigheterna. De fängslade läkare som fortfarande var i livet frisläpptes.

De antisemitiska excesserna i Stalins rike spred sig som ringar på vattnet i det sovjetdominerade Östeuropa. Judehatets svarta bok igen:

“Den sovjetiska kampanjen mot kosmopoliter, internationalister och spioner tog upp klichéer liknande dem som tidigare använts mot judarna. Kampanjen fortplantade sig Tjeckoslovakien, Ungern, Bulgarien, Polen och Östtyskland (DDR). Processerna hade tydliga antisemitiska, antisionistiska och antiisraeliska drag. Internationellt mest känd blev rättsprocessen mot den judiske tjeckiske kommunistledaren Rudolf Slánský – en process där antisemitismen förklädd till antisionism blev den bärande beståndsdelen. Förhören och processerna genomfördes under sovjetisk ledning.”

 Rudolf Slánský avrättades 1952.

Slánský arresterades i november 1951 och dömdes året därpå till döden. Han gavs den övergripande skulden för Tjeckoslovakiens ekonomiska förfall och påstods ha lett en “titoistisk-sionistisk-kosmopolitisk” sammansvärjning. Bland 14 åtalade var elva judar. Åtta dömdes till döden, de övriga till livstids fängelse. Slánskýprocessen följdes av flera liknande skådespel fram till 1954. 233 dödsdomar, varav 178 verkställdes, utfärdades, och drygt 35 000 personer ådömdes långvariga fängelsestraff; 22 000 spärrades in i arbetsläger utan dom. Alla dessa var inte judar, men alla processer hade en rabiat antisemitisk ton.

I Polen användes landets traditionella antisemitism som redskap av det styrande kommunistpartiet vid två tillfällen: 1956 och 1968. Vid båda tillfällena lämnade många judar landet. Antisemitismen i mitten av 1950-talet hade sitt ursprung i att en fraktion inom kommunistpartiet gav “de stalinistiska judarna” skulden för övergreppen under den polska stalinistepoken, då Boleslaw Bierut haft makten. Eftersom det inte var alldeles enkelt att efter judeförintelsen under Andra världskriget helt oförblommerat angripa “judarna”, tvingades man sätta in antisemitismen i ett inte helt orimligt politiskt sammanhang. I en rad polska städer skedde, särskilt år 1957, grova antijudiska övergrepp samt skändning av judiska begravningsplatser. Gamla konspirationsteorier återupplivades.

Mellan 1956 och 1959 beräknas så många som 50 000 judar ha lämnat Polen, och två tredjedelar av de polska judar som valde att återvända till hemlandet från Sovjetunionen under senare delen av 1950-talet emigrerade vidare. Strax före ingången av år 1960 fanns cirka 30 000 judar kvar i Polen.

Så kom Sexdagarskriget 1967, då Israel sopade golvet med de arabiska aggressorerna och erövrade bland annat Sinai, östra Jerusalem, den så kallade Västbanken och Golanhöjderna. Resultatet blev en “antisionistisk” – det vill säga som alltid i realiteten en antisemitisk – våg i Östblocket. Den polske kommunistledaren Wladyslaw Gomulka gav den antisemitiska kampanjen en symbolisk start genom att i ett tal den 19 juni 1967 tala om polska judar som “femtekolonnare”, det vill säga anhängare av staten Israel vilken bekämpades av Östblockets arabiska allierade.

Gomulka talade om polska judar som “femtekolonnare”.

Snart nog beskylldes Polens judiska befolkning för allt möjligt ont, särskilt sedan stora studentdemonstrationer 1968 - liksom på andra håll i Europa – krävt yttrandefrihet och demokrati. Judar angavs vara pådrivande i “den amerikanska imperialismens, den västtyska revanschismens och världssionismens gemensamma antipolska konspiration.” Judarnas patriotiska lojalitet ifrågasattes, judiska medlemmar sparkades ut ur det regerande kommunistpartiet, judar anklagades för förtal mot staten, judar mobbades på arbeten och i skolor. Till slut uppmanades Polens judar att helt enkelt lämna landet, eftersom de ju var “främlingar”, “kosmopoliter” och “sionister.”

De pogromstämningar som skapats under åren 1967-70 ledde till att större delen av landets omkring 25 000 judar emigrerade. Bland dem som hamnade i Sverige kan nämnas publicisterna Dorotea Bromberg, Jackie Jakubowski och Maciej Zaremba.

Gomulka tvingades slutligen, efter en minst sagt växlingsrik karriär, avgå i december 1970 för att ersättas av Edward Gierek som högsta kommunisthönset i Polen. Några av läsarna har kanske hört följande historia om Gomulka och hur fort den politiska vindkantringen kunde gå i kommunismens Polen, men jag drar den ändå:

En ny fängelseintern leds in i en cell i Polen någon gång under det kommunistiska styret. I cellen sitter redan tre modstulna herrar mot en av gallerväggarna. Vår nykomling presenterar sig och frågar sedan mannen närmast honom: “Nå, min vän, hur har du hamnat här?” Mannen tittar missmodigt ner i golvet innan han svarar: “Jag skrek ‘Död åt Gomulka!’ vid en demonstration.” Samma fråga till näste man i ordningen som knappast är gladare han. Svaret blir: “Jag ropade ‘Leve Gomulka!’” Nykomlingen vänder sig sedan till den dystre gamle mannen med kal hjässa som sitter ihopkurad längst bort från honom. “Och hur är det med dig?” blir frågan. Gamlingen tittar upp med plågad blick och svarar: “Jag ÄR Gomulka.”

This is an old anecdote already, in the middle east things change quickly so i urge you to double check this information.

It was a sunny Hamsin morning in the Outskirts of Tel Aviv, I woke up with a terrible headache and after breakfast I was anxious to explore the country I had Arrived just a few weeks earlier. I made a little day pack containing some thins that might be appropriate for a day in Tel Aviv at this time of the year, including a bathing suit and a jacket for the evening when it tends to get cooler.

I had just arrived from Europe and over there I met really interesting people, one of them who was actually working in a Tel Aviv shopping mall and that connected with me in a special way, so I decided it was a good idea to look for her although I had no clue whatsoever if I could find her. I only new the name of the store she worked a couple of days a week and the approximate location of the store. Anyway I had nothing better to do so I went out with the idea of spending a couple of hours in the search and finally end up having a beer by the Mediterranean sea… who would imagine that that same day I was going to end up smoking Narguila (shisha) with a Bedouin on the shores of the Red Sea in the Sinai peninsula. Life is quite interesting if you let it too.

Anyway this post is about how I got there, improvising all the way through it since I had no idea of what was going to happen, and along the way I added some advises that I got from doing things like this.  

So, there I was just before lunchtime in a  shopping mall in Tel Aviv looking for a store, and hoping that my friend would be there at the time, and against all odds when I entered the store, she walked in just behind me. My friend was off that day but came to say Hello to their co workers since she lived pretty near to the job place. We chatted and decided to go for a coffee, long story make short, we decided to take the weekend off for exploring Israel a little bit more.
As in the past weeks I have wondered through some cities already and she lived in Israel for more that a year, it was hard to find a place that non of us had visited before and we would both be interested in visiting, until we said Eilat, and here is how the trip begins.

The port city of Eilat is the southern most point of Israel and lies on the banks of the Red Sea, from here you can literally see Jordan and Egypt. The city is quite small and the waterfront is covered by massive 5 stars hotels and resorts. To get to Eilat is a simple but long ride or an expensive plane ride. Israel is a very small country and its relatively easy to move from point A to point B with the local government busses called Egged. The main terminal in Tel Aviv is called “Tagana a merkasit” and there are Egged busses and some private lines operating.

The terminal is a quite busy place, with a shopping mall in the first 2 floors and with tight security operating at all times. As in all Israel but here in particular you must be really careful of never leaving your bags unattended and be cooperative with all security matters, bags and people are checked at all entrance points to the terminal. Eilat busses depart from the last platform on the 4th floor you can either buy the ticket to the driver or in the window located at the center of the building in the 4th floor. its recommendable to buy some snacks and water before boarding since the ride can be long, dry and tiring.

Busses leave every hour or so and its an average of 5 to 6 hours to get there although sometimes can take longer depending on transit conditions and the route the bus takes. They are all equipped with AC There are 2 main routes to get there but different bus numbers, including the 790 (direct bus), 390, 393 and 394. Additional busses leaved from Haifa, Jerusalem, Ashdod and Afula. The main road goes through the Negev desert, and passes by the dead sea, Dimona and Be’er Sheva. Advanced booking is available and recommended on summer times or weekends.

Me and my friend just arrived at the terminal and went straight to the platform, the bus was almost full and closing its door when we arrived and got the ticket with the driver. The bus was half full with young tourist and half full with soldiers returning home. Rides in Israel are always like this, young soldiers carrying their unloaded M16’s in the bus, chatting and listening to music with their phones. Generally they are very open to talk in English about anything, even what they do in the army and their opinions about life in Israel, the conflict and so on.

The ride to Eilat is one of my favorite bus routes ever. The trip begins by leaving Tel Aviv, a though task at rush hours, but as it was midday it was not so hard this time. After leaving the outskirts of the city the bus goes down the mountains to reach the Dead Sea and Masada, from there crosses some little towns until arriving at Be’er Sheva the last city before the Negev desert. Then through the Negev you can see some kibbutzim and Israel most remarkable achievement: crops, in the middle of the arid desert they grow almost every thing. At this point the bus makes a stop at a rest area. There are two main rest areas and in both of them you can get supplies for the rest of the trip.

When we arrived our intention was to stay in Eilat, but the town seemed too much for us, not what we where looking for at all, so after a few phone calls to let our family and friends know, we headed to Sinai, in search of the magical experiences along the Red Sea shores.

After you arrive to Eilat you need to get to the Border, its not possible to walk and there are two main options for the independent traveler: Get the number 15 bus from the Eilat bus terminal or take a taxi. A taxi is preferable since busses have a limited schedule, get it before hand if you plan to get the bus. Once off the bus there are metered taxis waiting in the main exit. At the moment of writing the Taba terminal was open 24 hours 7 days a week, with exception of important National Holydays on both sides. Once on the terminal the process of exiting Israel is quite straight forward. Like in all important buildings there is a security check upon arrival and after there is a border fee that must be paid in the Entrance of the Terminal, then proceed to Immigration and passport control, there are no security checks at this point, but be considerate of the following facts: Egypt is a Muslim country, be respectful in your dress and during Ramadan abstain from eating and drinking in public. Also be reminded of the delicate situation between Israel and its Arab neighbors, as you are arriving from Israel you can be a target for a terrorist attack, be careful of your surrounding at all times.

Once the process of exiting Israel is terminated, you have to pass through a last gate indicating the way to Egypt. You will walk next to a road in No Mans land, with barbed wire on both sides of the road and watchtowers on both edges. When you get to the Egyptian side, go straight to the Entrance building located on your right. First you will be screened and your luggage inspected, this is quite a tedious process and Egyptian officials are very tough and demanding, maybe because you come from Israel or because they are tired. They inspect all luggage through fully in search of narcotics   and weapons. To get into Egypt There are two options: If you are only crossing to the Sinai Peninsula you must fill in your paperwork and head straight to passport control. If you are going to Cairo, Alexandria or the rest of Egypt, you need to purchase a Visa stamp before completing papers and then head to passport control.

Once out of the Terminal passports are checked again 2 or 3 times, once at the gate and others once on your transportation onward into Egypt, on military checkpoints along the road. There are minibuses and taxis, price for the latest one must be negotiated in Advance. If you are planning to travel to Cairo you must first head to Sharm al Sheik or other big city with onward public transportation. For passengers heading through the Suez channel into El Cairo there is an additional security and passport check.

Once we crossed into Egypt was getting dark already, and the first thing I noticed is how laid back and relaxed Egyptians seemed to be. After leaving the terminal building a guard had to chase us cause he had forgotten to check that we had a proper entry stamp, then groups of 4 or 5 soldiers sat down chatting, drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes played jokes with us, as we tried to bargain for a taxi to some beach. We took a white cab and experienced first had how really bad and dangerous is driving around here, with goats and Sheppard’s on the road, cars without lights going on the opposite way, and the rule of the honk.

The driver intentionally missed his way and took us to another place for us to check out, that finally was the best place I ever been, Paradise swear where Salaam, the Bedouin owner, treated us excellent. We decided to stay, paid the driver and had dinner. Finally by the end of that long day, there I was, In the Sinai peninsula in Egypt, Smoking a Narguila with a Bedouin the the shores of the Red Sea…

To come back to Israel we took a minibus that the Bedouin had arranged for us, the process is almost the same to return but you have to be aware of the following:
Israel security at this point is extremely rigid, Do Not make any jokes or commentaries and always follow instructions of military and civil personnel inside the terminal. The atmosphere is of high tension and the presence of heavy armed soldiers and lots of security adds to the tense feeling.
There is a security check of documents just as you cross the gate into Israel, this is carried by armed military. After that you have to deposit all your belongings in a X ray machine, and be questioned by a security agent that will ask what you were doing in Egypt, who sis you meet, what do you do in Israel, etc. When this process is finished you may take your bags and proceed to a passport control. In some cases there might be additional search of your belongings and of you. Again, the slightest complain here might get you delayed for hours, so just follow all directions given to you. After you are cleared a sticker is placed on the cover of your passport and you are supposed to stand in line for passport control. After your passport is stamped you exit the terminal and might wait for the bus, or take a cab into Eilat.

November 3, 2009. Source: Cheap Flights

British Airways has launched a new thrice weekly service from London Gatwick Airport to the popular Egyptian holiday resort of Sharm El Sheikh.

The new connection is being operated by a Boeing 777 configured with three cabins, offering a choice of World Traveller, World Traveller Plus and Club World.

Sharm El Sheikh recently knocked Majorca off the top spot in a list of the most popular holiday destinations for Brits during the October school half-term.

The resort – renowned around the world for its pristine beaches and top-class diving sites – witnessed a 142 per spike in bookings during the autumn break.

“As one of the top tourism sites in Egypt and around the world, Sharm El Sheikh is a key destination not only for British Airways, but for our valued clients and for the tourism industry in Egypt,” commented Mervat Alfy, country commercial manager for BA in Egypt.

“The re-launch of British Airways flights to Sharm El Sheikh links the top leisure destinations in both Egypt and the UK, opening the door to a whole new world of holiday travel experiences.”

The British flag carrier had previously operated services to the Egyptian resort through franchise operator GB Airways, which it sold to easyJet in March 2008.

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