Chancellor Merkel's Spokesman's Confusion

Chancelor Merkel's spokesman, Ulrich Wilhelm, said that his government "greatly regrets the recent decision to allow the construction of new homes in east Jerusalem." While I understand everyone's need to jump on the "settlement" bandwagon, the statement was made in reference to Gilo.

Well that simply won't do. It's one thing for the German Chancellor's office to make a statement regretting that Jews can't live where they want in Israel, it's quite another to get her geography completely wrong! So I wrote a letter to the Chancellor's office.

Madame Chancellor,

With all due respect, as someone who I admire as a stateswoman, it grieves me to learn that your government "greatly regrets the recent decision to allow the construction of new homes in east Jerusalem" referring specifically to the Gilo neighborhood. It must be terribly embarrassing to learn that Gilo is not anywhere near the area commonly referred to as "East Jerusalem" or more accurately, the area of Jerusalem under Jordanian control from 1948-1967.

The neighborhood of Gilo is located at the extreme southern end of Jerusalem. Gilo is part of the contiguous municipality of the City of Jerusalem. It is analogous to confusing Lichtenrade with Kaulsdorf.

Gilo is also the neighborhood that came under sniper fire from Palestinian terrorists in an adjacent village in December 2000 (http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/MFAArchive/2000_2009/2000/12/Pictures%20from%20Gilo-%20Community%20under%20Siege%20-%20Decemb)

I hope you can correct this faux pas in a statement in the near future.

Not my most eloquent work, but passable. Do I expect a mea culpa? Why yes, I do.

To contact the chancellor's office:
http://www.bundeskanzlerin.de/Webs/BK/En/Service/Contact/contact.html

Goldstone: Judge For Hire

Seriously, now. Can this get any more ridiculous?

Former South African Judge Richard Goldstone, who censured Israel for alleged war crimes while fighting Hamas terrorists, once kept a 13-year-old in jail for protesting against his country’s Apartheid policy, according to investigative journalist Ashley Rindsberg.

Source.

I guess they picked him because he's a professional hatchet man. The fact that he's a Jew was only icing on the cake when the UN picked their man.

This just proves that the Cast Lead "inquiry" was stacked against Israel from beginning to end. Israel was right not to participate in this stupid nonsense.

The next move would be for Israel to "examine closely the benefit of continued membership in the United Nations." That'll make people sit up and take notice.