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Guest Post: What's Next In The Middle East?
Submitted by John Aziz of Azizonomics
What's Next In The Middle East?
While the missiles, planes and rockets fly over Gaza and Israel, both Hamas and the Israeli government have been engaged in a battle of social media.
Hamas:
And Israel:
It is a battle to shape the perceptions of the rest of the world.
The IDF appears so far to have the upper hand in terms of social media, having notched up 143,000 followers on Twitter, although Hamas’ al-Qassam Brigades are in swift pursuit having just climbed above 20,000 followers.
Yet to view this as a simple conflict between Hamas and Israel is too superficial. It ignores the history and the context. This is a much bigger and broader tapestry.
Israel‘s escalating air attacks on Gaza follow the depressingly familiar pattern that shapes this conflict. Overwhelming Israeli force slaughters innocent Palestinians, including children, which is preceded (and followed) by far more limited rocket attacks into Israel which kill a much smaller number, rocket attacks which are triggered by various forms of Israeli provocations — all of which, most crucially, takes place in the context of Israel’s 45-year-old brutal occupation of the Palestinians (and, despite a “withdrawal” of troops, that includes Gaza, over which Israel continues to exercise extensive dominion). The debates over these episodes then follow an equally familiar pattern, strictly adhering to a decades-old script that, by design at this point, goes nowhere.
And Michael Chussudovsky writes:
On November 14, Hamas military commander Ahmed Jabari was murdered in a Israeli missile attack. In a bitter irony, barely a few hours before the attack, Hamas received the draft proposal of a permanent truce agreement with Israel.
“Hours before Hamas strongman Ahmed Jabari was assassinated, he received the draft of a permanent truce agreement with Israel, which included mechanisms for maintaining the cease-fire in the case of a flare-up between Israel and the factions in the Gaza Strip.”(Haaretz, November 15, 2012)
F-16 fighter planes, Apache helicopters and unmanned drones were deployed. Israeli naval forces deployed along the Gaza shoreline were involved in extensive shelling of civilian targets.
While Israel continues to enforce extreme restrictions on the lives of Palestinians, it has been inevitable that organisations like Hamas who promise resistance against Israel and Zionism will thrive. And while Hamas has thrived, Israel has continued to impose sanctions and restrictions. Both sides have been locked into a cycle of brutal retaliation (and a particularly suicidal cycle for the Palestinians).
In the latest skirmishes, Hamas has inflicted three Israeli casualties in rocket strikes, the Israeli military has already assassinated two high level Hamas commanders, and carried out successful strikes on dozens of Gazan targets resulting in thirty deaths.
But Israel and Hamas share a deeply interwoven history. The WSJ notes:
“Hamas, to my great regret, is Israel’s creation,” says Avner Cohen, a Tunisian-born Jew who worked in Gaza for more than two decades. Responsible for religious affairs in the region until 1994, Mr. Cohen watched the Islamist movement take shape, muscle aside secular Palestinian rivals and then morph into what is today Hamas, a militant group that is sworn to Israel’s destruction.
Instead of trying to curb Gaza’s Islamists from the outset, says Mr. Cohen, Israel for years tolerated and, in some cases, encouraged them as a counterweight to the secular nationalists of the Palestine Liberation Organization and its dominant faction, Yasser Arafat’s Fatah. Israel cooperated with a crippled, half-blind cleric named Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, even as he was laying the foundations for what would become Hamas.
And co-operation has continued between Hamas and Israel, even while they throw rockets at each other, and even while Hamas continues to receive funds and weapons from Israel’s major rivals, including Iran. Upon Ahmed Jabari’s killing, Haaretz noted:
Israel killed its subcontractor in Gaza.
The political outcome of the operation will become clear on January 22, but the strategic ramifications are more complex: Israel will have to find a new subcontractor to replace Ahmed Jabari as its border guard in the south.
Co-operation between Hamas and Israel should not be surprising. The two factions of hardliners — on one side Hamas, and on the other side Netanyahu’s coalition — validate each other’s existence. Without a state of perpetual enmity, the hardliners would find themselves marginalised. Nothing strengthens Hamas in Palestine like an Israeli rocket attack, and nothing strengthens Likud and Yisrael Beitenu in Israel like a Palestinian rocket attack.
However, Israel’s co-operation with Hamas may now be at an end. The surprise strike on Jabari may well be a sign that Hamas is to be cast aside and driven out of Gaza. This seems like the beginning of a new era in the middle east.
Now that the American election is out of the way, Netanyahu may be stepping toward engaging with Iran.
John Glaser, writing for AntiWar.com lays out one theory:
Israel, lest we forget, instigated this resumption of missile exchanges last week when two Palestinian civilians were shot and killed and Israeli tanks intruded into Gaza, prompting Gaza militants to respond by targeting Israeli soldiers, which then gave Israel an excuse to unleash successive airstrikes. And Israel had numerous chances to pacify the situation, considering Hamas publicly offered to establish a total ceasefire and Egypt appeared about to broker a truce between the two. Israel has intentionally inched towards escalation from the beginning. Are we to believe this isn’t strategic?
A ground invasion, and a reoccupation of Gaza by the IDF could be the first step toward engaging Iran. It would allow for Israel to dislodge Hamas, and create a buffer between Israel and Egypt, and the forces of the Muslim Brotherhood. The Morsi government in Egypt has pledged to support the Palestinians — but is this a bluff? Does Egypt have the capability or the desire to really oppose Israel? Does Iran really have the capability or the desire to oppose Israel in a more active way? Ultimately, Iran may have no choice, as Netanyahu is certain that they are on the nuclear threshold.
The world is in motion. Israel is playing its cards. The intent? To create facts on the ground that cement Israel’s position as the dominant power in the middle east for the next century.
Now, Iran’s move.
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... the two countries are allies, or at least they were before Obama arose.
Folks at the top in Israel have been saying publically that they have gotten more support from the Obama Administration than any other American Administration. The supposed rift between Obama and Netanyahu is an irrelevant side show. The real work is continuing full-bore among the worker-bees of both governments.
You may be right, but if not then they would still say the same thing.
Then, why is O-Phone starting color revolutions all around Israel with the result being the MB (Sharia) takes over.
He overthrew Libya, Egypt- two secular states. Now he's going after Syria and Jordan.
He has removed what-10-experienced flag officers from command.
His best friend is the PM of Turkey.
And best of all, if you watch him real carefully next Ramadan, you will observe he wears no jewelry during that period.
President Jarrett is now conducting secret negotiations with the country of her birth- Iran.
Hmmmmm
And yet - Folks at the top in Israel have been saying publically that they have gotten more support from the Obama Administration than any other American Administration. The supposed rift between Obama and Netanyahu is an irrelevant side show. The real work is continuing full-bore among the worker-bees of both governments.
What's next in the Middle East? LOL. There won't be peace until the whole world is Jewish
What if the fine folks in Gaza stop firing missles into Israel? I wonder what would happen....hmmm....very, very complicated.
Hmmm...israel returns Pal's stolen lands and ship the jews back to where they originated.
There won't be peace until the whole world is Jewish ...
If you knew Jewish, you would know that they refuse to be missionaries. They don't care if you become a Jew or not. Ask one and see.
Couldn’t help logging back in. Watching a movie on TCM.
The British could not find the money to divert troops to support the Arabs in a revolt against the Turks during World War I. Instead, serving as liaison officer with the Arabs, Lawrence led a sequence of raids towards the railway lines providing the Turkish army while in the field, and seized the port of Aqaba.
Lawrence of Arabia (1962) trailer
Now, let’s rewrite the above statement using 2012 DHS trigger words.
How come those Arabs speak perfect English during this entire movie? Winks
Goodnight
It is impossible to have a sane discussion of insanity!
These are all morbid social habits, on all of the sides.
saved ---- bitchez!
Aziz has always been outspoken against Israel.
In Aziz book Israel cannot do any good.
I wonder whether Azis is from an Arab origin (his name sounds Arab).
My last name is Anderson and I have white skin and blue eyes and I hate the fucking Israeli Jews.
Analyze that!
Aziz, you will do all of us a favor if you stick to economics.
For whatever reason you always criticize Israel as it is to blame for all that is wrong.
You are obviously biased against Israel - as your posts reflect.
I wonder why is that you are so biased.
Maybe due to your Arab origin?
I wonder why is that you are so biased.
Maybe due to your Arab origin?
__________________________
Absolutely. For 'americans', the group is all.
A pen on a table.
Person: "there is a pen on the table."
'Americans': "-what group does this person belong to, to tell that there is a pen on the table?"
'Americanism' is all about submission.
Fudge, I asked a question of the assorted thumpers.
Scratch that. Have a nice day.
Aziz, I'm disappointed that you being quite economy-literate omitted this simple question:
What if the fine folks in Gaza stop firing missiles into Israel?
What would happen....hmmm....is that too complicated for you to contemplate?
They'd continue getting it up the ass. Obviously.
Does it get any stupider than this?
Oy Vey Mr Durden, how carefully you choose your " authoritative " sources of explanations among the leftist-anti Israel camp ! My congratulations for your malicious distortion of facts and history ! Well Mr Durden you are in love with the deep roots of muslim hate speech ! That's really nice to se how a so-called " progressist " like you prefer to reach the medievalists of Islam....what a funny disguise . May I suggest you to settle among them, to better integrate into their mindframe ? Your wife and kids will really benefit from their civilization.For you I see a snitcher job ...of jews or westerners..you are really worth of it.
Wow. That was interesting.
the dog collar of israel is a super prestige label to wear on lapel when you pretend to belong to upper echelon oligarchy; like Louis Vuitton bags or chanel #5.
Oh darling, I must get one of those to wear to the White house. You know, when all those rich bearded medievalists come there to pay their dues to DC's overlords of oil patch, we have to show our superiority in original ways. We LOVE their money and their oil but not their impression they be our peers.
Interesting how you say "jews and Westerners". Last time I checked Jews are westerners (albeit usurpers). Its not just "leftists" who are getting sick of this piece fo shit called Israel. Conservatives all over the place are aligning against the little filthy fake nation.
It is hard to avoid hitting civilians in Gaza there are so many of them. The Geneva Conventions do NOT protect civilian populations being used as camouflage by fighting forces so firing rockets and mortars from residential districts automatically makes them military targets. What Israel is doing eludes me - it is simply that we now live in a world with no solutions - simply a world of Chaotic Malfeasance because The West lost any moral coherence by having Adults behave like Children by waging Illegal Wars in sequence from Kosovo onwards and NATO behaving ike a power-drunk brawler - now Germany is being instructed by the US to move Patriot Rockets to the Turkish/Syrian frontier without Bundestag approval.
People are simply trying to make facts on the ground because it is a multipolar world with no predominant power.......the US has evolved from a President who sh@gs Interns to Afghanistan-based Generals who sleep with doctors' wives in a sort of cabalistic arrangement. It is hard to take it seriously. They say Putin is ill........the Chinese have only just found a new thug to take charge.........
They like to use human shields. I saw some surveillance a good while back. They had munitions stored in neighborhoods, next to playgrounds.
Israelis need to send in assassins to knock off the leaders 1X1.
You can hardly hit a target w/o killing civilians.
Then, the arabs inflate the already bad body count for more PR effect.
Putin : did he eat his own polonium? That would be poetic. checkmate! As GAry K would say!
The Geneva Conventions do NOT protect civilian populations being used as camouflage by fighting forces so firing rockets and mortars from residential districts automatically makes them military targets.
____________________________
'Americans' against with this canard?
On the paper, the proposition is false.
But 'americans' make it sound as it could matter.
'Americans' have always exercized a selective application of the law ('american' rule of law)
What the Geneva convention states is useless. 'Americans' do not even care about the rules they set themselves, see multiple examples with stuff like 'american' middle class hero, A. Jackson stomping the Indian legal right to their lands. Could not make it clearer.
But due to their nature, 'americans' feel their urge to sell the idea that they can govern themselves, that if their laws were other, they would abide by them.
Wich is another blatant thick lie.
Live blog feed from the war zone, exclusive insights about the situation as Israel enters decisive battle with the globalist enclave in Gaza, all available in this link:
http://essential-intelligence-network.blogspot.com/2012/11/israel-launch...
checked it out. You're stupid. Says in there that CNN is putting up fake wounded pictures of Pals. CNN is ran by Jews you fucking moron.
hopefully someone will shoot a rocket and kill Netanyahy and his psycho sons.
When an Israeli bus or night club was blown up by Islamic "terrorists" (the west funds all or most such persons and groups):
1. All Israelis of both genders (except those with connections) are subject to conscription. There are so many IDF members that the IDF transports them on public transit including bus. At all bomb sites, Israeli first-responders remove all IDF members in uniform. Then and only then are cameras allowed on scene to record civilian casualties.
2. Night clubs were targets because they are populated by young Israelis, all of whom eventually serve in the IDF where they are trained to kill Palestinians (who Jews consider non-human mongrels, same as all other goyim).
Little tid bits hidden in Rabbi-run MSM.
Remember that cute little lovely inscription in the Jew's gift to Schindler in Rabbi Spielberg's movie "Schindler's List"? The movie version of the inscription goes, "If you save one life you save the whole world" or thereabouts. Rabbi Spielberg got several international awards and recognition for his Rabbi love fest, especially because of the words in this special inscription depicting Rabbinical love and goodness.
You missed something though. The real vs. from the Talmud is: "If you save one Jewish life, you save the whole world."
This stuff is getting to where somebody is gonna miscalculate.
Wrong, John!
Iran is much closer to nuclear weapon capability than even Israel knows, nerver mind the naive West.
Now is the critical time to complete its capability so at attack by Israel must be forstalled. Hamas is the handservant of Iran and has received instructions to create a diversion. Hence the rocket fire the past weeks intended to provoke retaliation. An effective strategy that seems to be working.
the clash of civilization meme continues; Israel the Templar state, now Potus openly behind it; and it will move to other places. The dynamics of this initiative, with GWB who played at Godfroy of Bouillon taking Irak like it were JErusalem of oil, to avenge Manzikert of 9/11 and chastise the Assassins creed of Afghan Alamut, now broadens its vista.
This time there is no Saladin to face the west but look out for the emergence of a new MAmeluke breed, patriots and fanatics.
Saint Louis and Mansourah, the sands of time never allowed the >Templars to drink wine for long in their fortress of Krak of Chevalier. What begets crime finishes always in Nemesis. But it takes a Nguyen Giap of Nam to make neo-colonial Crusaders eat humble pie; twice fold. We don't have that patriotic fervour in ME today except in shia IRan, not sunni Arab lands.
Nettenya election ploy makes the ante higher for those who remember. The key to Arab renaissance lies in Egypt, largest nation, and its eclosion will take generations, alas. Whereas Saud and surrogates are trapped in an ideology that denies enlightenment to islamic lands, all the while opening the oil tap to feed the western empire. But that is a thousand year old story of obscurantism defeating western thread of knowledge, found and then irredeemably lost by their illustrious ancestors.
Israel is showing to the world that being bad is acceptable if the other side is worse in its convoluted, sterile, corrupt resolution. Bitter lesson of history, political power play is a relative game without absolutes.
Play on Sisyphus as we never learn. Without patriotism and without enlightenment the arabs stay what the bedouin Sauds have imposed on the masses; subdued and effete in oil fed corruption. Its the curse of black gold everywhere!
Wow. A lot of intense comments and geopolitical stuff. Good for me, because while your focus is on the Israel/ Hamas conflict, I will be diligently using my home equity to corner the market on Twinkies and Ho-Ho's.
Some 'americans' lunch on Twinkies...
Some Chinese Citizenism citizens lunch on puppies .... and then de-lunch on their roadsides.
But when it comes to Chinese hypocritizenism, it is always do as I say, not as I do ....
Palestinians have NO right to defend themselves.
i hope u are joking; or else you be not Hannibal but cannibal.
do we have a sec of state?? anyone, hard at work in the ME ?? no last we heard she was having hang nail surgery in ,was it, South Africa?? Her PR team better get photos of her plane landing under fire in Monaco or some other dangerous vacation spot.
Nope, he is an 'american'.
The cartoon tells it as it is. It portrays cities from 'american' nations being shelled.
Quite unfortunately, 'american' nations have bombed a lot of nations. Never bought those nations a right to retaliate.
'Americans' are bullies at heart. And bullies never factor in their own acts of aggression in the equation.
Bullies, when relation blow comes, always picture themselves as victims.
Suits well as 'american' taste for victimhood is so high.
The west's highest, sacramental, religious icon: holocaustiantiy.
2nd: war
there was a plan to put (poor) yids in Madagascar
the wealthy ones having taken the control of UK, US, etc.. long before
not sure arabs were consulted on their will to have their parasit cousins (remember the story about ismael & israel ?) in their heimat...
Everyone should read this,
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/10/20121027145235386715.html
If not for the very powerful jewish lobby in the US Israel would have been dismantled by the UN years ago. I would love to see a peaceful settlement but with Israel stealing water, land and resources for over 60 years and continuing to do so I don't see it happening anytime soon.
'Americans' do what 'american' are best for.
You mean pointing out Chinese hypocritizenism?
The wok calling the kettle black --- such richly humorousings.
But it is part of Chinese Citizenism, so just bear with it ...
Iran is already playing its cards in Syria, and so is Israel, the US, and the Saudis. We will see the fighting in Syria intensify greatly.
If you haven't seen the ghettos and slums of the Middle East - country after country - then you are missing some key information. You have to wonder why it is so all across the Arab world. It all cannot be blamed on Isarel, the US and Britain. What you see on video blogs and in movies like Hurt Locker just barely scratches the surface.
What a pathetic post. How many blacks do you think so-called "God fearing" whites hung for looking at a white woman? How many years ago do you think that was?
The great alleged god-fearing President Lincoln orchestrated the brutal, horrific, ugly, bloody death of about 700k fellow Americans. That wasn't that long ago in the overall history of man or nations.
Obama recently blew to smitherenes (via drone attack) an American citizen named Anwar Al-Awlaki, then two weeks later did the same to his 16 year old son, also an American citizen. The courts say this action is "unrewiewable" so Obama is judge, jury, and executioner, period. Per NDAA Obama could paint a "T" for terrorist on any American anywhere and their life is over with no one knowing even what happened to the person, like they were taken by alien abduction never to be seen or heard from again.
It's against the law for me or any regular citizen to know how many innocents we killed with drone attacks. You say, well, we're doing good, killing the enemy. Ten years ago there were about 30k AQ in Yemen. How many today? Over 100k.
Stop passing racist nationalist judgement on the rest of the world, desiring it to confirm to your standard of loveliness or income. All or most of the wealth you see here is stolen from the unborn. They might have something to say about that but they're not here yet to curse us
The trend is clear guys. First , 50Cent and Floyd Mayweather. Then Trump vs Cuban...it's pretty obvious israel took this opportunity to start a Hamas vs IDF twitter battle. Tis the season.
Apropos of little, perhaps, but might it not be time for everyone to transfer, or at least share their "deep concern" for an abused people (both sides can be happy with that unclear term) somewhere else? For example, I read in the paper that babus (bureaucrats) in the Indian Govt collated figures showing that since 2000, an average of fifty people per day die in police custody in India. That's about 200,000 souls, which exceeds the combined number of deceased (via conflict) Palestinians and Israeli during that time. I'll bet not 1% of you were aware of this factoid, though so many of you have pages of research at-the-ready to support your horse in this ME race.
Is there only one issue in the world? Isn't there enough "concern" to go around? Please don't tell me the plethora of click-baiting articles here is all about bigotry and has nothing whatsoever to do with genuine concern! Oh my.
I don't care.
I'm not going to lift a finger to support either side.
Go ahead and kill yourselves.
Good luck to both sides.
Now to more pressing issues, where can I find ding dongs?
I would take Aziz article further; this is about the Jewish Genocide of the Palestinians and also it looks like Israel is finally making its move after sitting quietly through most of the Western orchestrated "Arab-Spring".
They have began their operations against Syria, Lebanon, and Gaza...openly now, while the Jordanians and Egyptians are just entering the "Arab-Srping" or in the Aftermath. Iraq has been destroyed.
What Israel is doing is building a middle east empire; a satellite like empire for the big Families that control all power in the US and Europe. This is what this is all about. Netanyahu is a puppet like the U.S. presidents, that works diligently for this future empire.
They have admitted it themselves that they want the land from the Ephrates River through Jordan, Syria, and Egypt.
And as far back as 1952 Moshe Dayan (a total fanatic extremist), the president of Israeli defense, said:
"our task consists of preparing the Israeli army for the new war approaching in order to achieve our ultimate goal, the creation of an Israeli empire."
The reason none of this resolves is because the big FAMILIES, many of which are "royal" in Europe, cannot be distinquished from Jewish or Christian any more, as the Royal houses have inter-bred with each other and the "Khazars" from the south over time.
Israel was NEVER set up because they were victims or for their "Jewish state"...it's just a smoke screen. It is all about controlling the Middle East by these families. The ugly Queen of England was in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain recently. She supports these kinds of regimes. They love the extremists because they are more useful in fooling everyone.
Al Qaeda is the same as Hamas....It looks like Hezbollah is too. Meanwhile Israel is pulling the SAME EXACT play-back they have in the past. I don't see how the Palestinians will survive unless there is a way to stop the Jews.
But it looks like the Jews are going to complete another genocide/ethnic cleansing at some point.
The West needs to disentangle itself from these big powerful families that sit behind the curtain pulling all the strings. The Idiot UK masses keep forking over their rights and money to these in-breds. And if Americans don't wake up we are going to find ourselves openly being controlled by these people.
Your hope the people of the west will suddenly wake up and see the puppet strings is admirable yet hopeless. Even if everyone did know, what could we all do? It can't be stopped. They have the system in play and intend on playing it out.
Otherwise great post, you basically nailed it.
Israel is going after the "Greater Israel". The biblical promised land is from the Nile to the Euphrates. A good map is here: http://www.dangerouscreation.com/2010/04/is-this-greater-israel/ Once they have it they will indeed be "Dwelling in safety" setting the stage for Ezekiel 38. This is the most convinced I have been that Israel will inhabit the whole land (Greater Israel) in our time. Syria is already in a civil war and would have to fight on two fronts, The peace treaty with Eygpt is frail and near death and with the fresh uprisings in Jordon I would not be surprised to see fresh attacks coming from the Jordanian side of the west bank. Add to this that they are calling this operation the "Pillar of Defense", one can only imagine they are alluding to the "pillar" God led them through the wilderness with to the "promised land" after the exodus. Just my opinion of course.
He did not think this up. This has been an analysis that has been around for a while.
The Mosaic/Levitical law came to an abrupt and permanent end in 70 AD when God destroyed the Hebrew Temple.
Without a temple, there is no such thing as the OT religion described therein. For instance, Deuteronomy commands every Hebrew male to vist the temple twice per year under penalty of death, no excuses accepted, including the excuse that there's no temple.
Innocent naive persons and some outright lying evil doers such as Rabbis and their sycophant/slavish evangelical "Pastors" mistake the "end of time" in Revelation in the NT with the "time of the end" of the Mosaic/Levitical era. Every curse that "futurists" wait to come in the future was already visited upon the 1st C Hebrews for the sins of that generation and every prior Hebrew generation. The reason the end of the Mosaic Law sounds so spectacular is because it closes for ever God's dealing with these "special" people. God now deals with human beings only in the realm of spirit.
The entire era of God dealing with man in the physical realm of structures called "temples" is done, over, kaput, gone, nada, zilch...
Jesus told Peter to forgive 70 x 7 times, or 490 times, which happens to be the number of years from Daniel's prophecy of the "end" to 70 AD when God concluded his dealings with the Hebrews. IOW, after 490 years God's mercy came to an end, and He visited his wrath upon the Hebrews for all the innocent blood of the prophets they killed (they cut Isaiah in half next to the temple), Paul of Tarus, Jesus Christ, Peter, etc.)
The NT states Jesus disappeared in a cloud and would re-appear in the same way. Every OT appearance of God in a cloud was to pass violent judgement. Almost the exact metaphoric language of destruction appearing in Revelation appears several times in the OT. It is simply the way the people of this land in this time frame talked and thought, same as we say, for instance, "It's raining cats and dogs." Have you ever looked outside for animals in the sky after hearing such words? I didn't think so.
Ioudaios, Hebrew, and Israelite are Biblical words. The word "jew" first appeared in history in 1775 AD and no one prior to 1775 AD was a Jew because there was no such thing as a Jew because the word did not exist. Every time "jew" appears in Scripture it is a lie, one of the worst hoisted upon mankind.
A government civil servant in Israel has sole final authority to give the official label "jew" to anyone on earth. Many persons, including one stereotypical NY "Jew" interviewed on NPR, moved to Israel and applied for official "Jew" status and were refused by this Israeli civil servant.