להיתקע במעלית בניו יורק זו יכולה להיות חוויה מלחיצה למדי. שלשום (ד') זה קרה לראש הממשלה בנימין נתניהו ולרעייתו, שרה.
בני הזוג באווירה רגועה יותר צילום: עמוס בן גרשום, לע''מ
לאחר שראש הממשלה סיים את נאומו בפני חברי ועידת הנשיאים במלון פלאזה, מן המפוארים שבמלונות ניו יורק, הובילו אותו ואת רעייתו אנשי היחידה לאבטחת אישים למעלית צדדית, המשמשת כמעלית שירות. לאחר שכולם נכנסו לתוכה יצאה המעלית לדרכה ולאחר דקה נעצרה ונתקעה.
המאבטחים נלחצו שמא מדובר באיזושהי מזימה, אולם התאמצו לשמור על קור רוח. בשלב מסוים אמרה שרה בבדיחות דעת: "ביבי יודע להיחלץ ממקומות מסובכים יותר".
גורם שנתקע באותה מעלית סיפר כי נתניהו לא צחק, אלא שמר על ארשת פנים רצינית והאיץ במאבטחים לנסות ולפתור את הבעיה. המאבטחים השיבו: "אנחנו מחפשים דרך לצאת מפה".
נתניהו השיב, ספק בצחוק ספק ברצינות: "אתם לא מחפשים, אתם מוצאים. ובינתיים אני מציע לא להילחץ ולא להכביר במילים, אנחנו צריכים את החמצן".
רק לאחר כחצי שעה הצליחו המאבטחים, בסיוע קציני הביטחון של המלון, לשחרר את המעלית ולפתוח את דלת המתכת.
וציין: "ראש הממשלה שמר על קור רוח", אולם לפי הגרסה הנפוצה יותר, דווקא שרה נתניהו שמרה על קור רוח וחוש הומור, בעוד שבעלה, יוצא סיירת מטכ"ל, דווקא נלחץ.
נתן אשל, ראש הסגל במשרד ראש הממשלה, ששהה גם הוא במעלית התקועה, אמר: "אילו היו בידי נתניהו כלי פריצה, הוא בוודאי היה מצליח לצאת מזה".
Thanks to E.
*************
And now the REAL results: amazing what a few threats on one's life can do:
Netanyahu hints at flexibility on Jerusalem
By Uriel Heilman · July 7, 2010
NEW YORK (JTA) -- It was an otherwise wholly unremarkable stump speech before a friendly audience in New York.
On Wednesday evening at Manhattan’s Plaza Hotel, the Israeli prime minister addressed a roomful of more than 300 Jews on
the subjects of Iran, his government’s eagerness for direct peace talks with the Palestinians and the swell meeting he had just
had with President Obama at the White House.
But then, in an off-the-cuff remark to a question on Jerusalem from the audience, Benjamin Netanyahu dropped a hint that his
government’s insistence on Israeli sovereignty over all of Jerusalem might not be ironclad.
“Everybody knows that there are Jewish neighborhoods in Jerusalem that under any peace plan will remain where they are,”
Netanyahu said in response to the question read by the executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major
American Jewish Organizations, Malcolm Hoenlein.
The implication of Netanyahu’s remark -- that other neighborhoods of Jerusalem may not remain “where they are,” becoming
part of an eventual Palestinian state -- was the first hint that the Israeli leader may be flexible on the subject of Jerusalem. Until
now, Netanyahu has insisted that Jerusalem is not up for negotiation.
While the prime minister surely did not intend the gathering under the aegis of the Presidents Conference to serve as his forum
for opening up negotiations over Jerusalem, the impromptu remark before an audience of prominent New York Jews and a
handful of elected officials cast a slim ray of light on what Netanyahu thinks might be the Israeli capital’s ultimate fate.
It was significant as well because Netanyahu’s true intentions regarding the peace process remain largely opaque, the subject
of much debate from Washington to Ramallah. Netanyahu was a latecomer to the two-state position -- endorsing the idea of an
eventual Palestinian state only a year ago, after much prodding by the United States -- and the governing coalition he has
assembled is comprised largely of right-wing parties that do not believe in the current Palestinian Authority as a partner for
negotiations.
In public, President Obama declared Tuesday that he believes Netanyahu is genuinely committed to seeking a two-state
solution.
“I believe that Prime Minister Netanyahu wants peace. I think he’s willing to take risks for peace,” Obama told reporters following
his Oval Office meeting with Netanyahu. “And during our conversation, he once again reaffirmed his willingness to engage in
serious negotiations with the Palestinians around what I think should be the goal not just of the two principals involved but the
entire world, and that is two states living side by side in peace and security.”
Privately, however, some U.S. administration officials have expressed doubts about Netanyahu’s ability to make good on that
vision. Other Obama supporters have questioned Netanyahu's commitment to that goal, and the Palestinian Authority
leadership says Netanyahu’s interest in negotiations is not serious.
“Words, not deeds,” was the assessment of chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, who dismissed Netanyahu’s lip service to
the peace process in an interview Tuesday with The New York Times. “We need to see deeds.”
Netanyahu insists he is serious about peace talks, and that it is the Palestinians who are playing games.
“You either put up excuses or you lead," the Israeli leader said in his New York speech. "I want to enter direct talks with the
Palestinian leadership now,”
“I think we can defy the skeptics,” he said, recalling the doubters that abounded when Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin
began talking to Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in the lead-up to the Camp David Accords, and when Richard Nixon visited
China. “This is a challenge I’m up to.”
Was it hyperbole or a sign of the legacy Netanyahu hopes for himself?
If Netanyahu is interested in following Begin and Nixon’s model, leading a conservative government to a historic rapprochement
with a longtime foe, eventually he will have to include Jerusalem in negotiations with the Palestinians; they won't sign a peace
deal without it. If not, Netanyahu is trying to pull the wool over the eyes of the skeptics.
“This is going to be a very, very tough negotiation, but I’m prepared to negotiate,” Netanyahu insisted Wednesday. “But I cannot
engage between someone who won’t sit at the table.”
Very truly yours,
Eli Kowalsky, Managing Member
KENSINGTON CAPITAL PARTNERS, LLC
62 William St., 4th Floor
New York, NY 10005
212-825-9000 Voice; 212-825-9400 Fax; 917-407-4682 Mobile
www.kensingtoncp.com
Further Updates:
400 Rabbis to Bibi: they are saying exactly what I just said: BIBI, YOU HAVE TO STAY FIRM!
- Rabbis Show Letter from Sharon Promising Disengagement Gains
Av 4, 5770, 15 July 10 09:17
by Gil Ronen
(Israelnationalnews.com)
The Rabbinical Congress for Peace (RCP) marked the fifth anniversary of Israel's disastrous withdrawal from Gaza by publishing a letter the group received from then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon dated July 18, 2005. The Rabbis had handed Sharon a Torah Ruling against ceding land but Sharon chose to ignore it.
"I believe that today, the benefit, peace and security of the Nation of Israel require the evacuation of the Gaza Strip, an area in which there is no chance of establishing a Jewish majority and which everyone knows will not be part of the State of Israel in a permanent accord,” Sharon wrote.
“At the same time, we are transferring the brunt of our efforts to the most important areas for safeguarding our future: the Galilee, the Negev, Greater Jerusalem, the settlement blocs and the security zones.
“I initiated the Disengagement because it is the best vehicle for a basic change in the national situation of the Jewish people. The departure from Gaza will have a decisive positive influence on all fields of life in Israel: security, economy and the quality of life in the country.”
Along with the letter from Sharon, the RCP re-published the Torah Ruling signed by almost 400 rabbis forbidding surrender of any land to foreigners. “The Disengagement proved again that the Torah Ruling against relinquishing land to enemies because it will make it easier for them to conquer the land is valid today more than ever,” the rabbinical forum said.
The Rabbis expressed their “amazement” that Israel has established various inquiry committees on different issues but “has still not found time to set up an inquiry committee to investigate the heinous crime committed by the Israeli government of uprooting thousands of Jews from their homes through a Disengagement which led to hundreds of casualties and to the deterioration of Israel’s security to an all-time low.”
Flotilla is result of retreat“We hope that the Terkel Committee that is investigating Israel’s actions in trying to impose a Gaza Strip naval blockade will also investigate the genesis of what led to this situation,” said Rabbi Avrohom Shmuel Lewin, RCP Director-General. “The Committee must investigate what caused Israel to lose its deterrence. Turkey or any other country never dared to send provocative ships against Israel in the past.”
Rabbi Joseph Gerlitzky, Rabbi of Central Tel Aviv and Chairman of the RCP, said that for the past twenty years the RCP has corresponded with and met dozens of politicians and prime ministers and presented them with the Torah Ruling against giving up land to foreigners, an act which will only weaken and harm Israel’s security. Unfortunately, he added, the consequences predicted by the Halacha (Jewish Law) materialized against the opinions of all so-called “advisers, strategists and political analysts.”
“It did not take long before everyone saw Sharon’s colossal mistake,” the RCP stated. In his letter, the rabbis added, “He wrote that the Disengagement will bring peace and prosperity to the Negev, to greater Jerusalem, to the settlement blocs , and enhance Israel’s security, and we all saw the thousands of rockets that struck the Negev, we now see the threat facing greater Jerusalem and the continuous settlement freeze and the enormous concessions in Judea and Samaria which were a direct result of the disengagement from Gaza (and the implementation of the Oslo accords), exactly as the Rabbis warned in their Ruling based on the Jewish Code of Law.”
'The Torah screams'“Yet there are still those don’t learn from the past and believe that if we further concede, further withdraw, and be more flexible to U.S. demands and find favor in the eyes of the world they will fight Iran for us. The government also thinks that by begging the Palestinians to negotiate it will gain world respect and succeed in preserving Israel’s basic security needs.
“But the Torah does not change, the Rabbis stated, “it still screams and warns that any negotiations based on withdrawing from land under Israeli control will lead to incessant bloodshed and instability in the region.”
The RCP expressed some satisfaction over a slight resumption of building in the outskirts of Jerusalem but said this is not enough and demanded massive construction in all parts of Israel.
Rabbi Moshe Havlin, Chief Rabbi of Kiryat Gat and vice-chairman of the RCP, called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to follow in the footsteps of Sharon. Rabbi Havlin warned that every day that Israel refrains from construction in Jerusalem or in Judea and Samaria displays another concession to pressure and just leads to additional demands and stronger pressure than before.
“Mr. Netanyahu, the majority of Americans lack faith in President Obama and he cannot force Israel to do anything if you say no. Mr. Obama is trying to make political gains at the expense of Israel’s security and if you stand firm without wavering, the pressure will stop,” Rabbi Havlin said.
However, Bibi , with his D.M. EHUD BARAK, is not listening to the rabbis, obviously; so now, compliments of Israel, thank you very much...
- Russia Supplying PA With 50 Armored Vehicles
Av 9, 5770, 20 July 10 04:58
(Israelnationalnews.com) Russia's Foreign Ministry said it has sent 50 armored vehicles to Jordan, for transfer to the Palestinian Authority. The vehicles will be moved over to the PA in coordination with Israel. The PA is receiving the vehicles for free. Russian army officers have already trained PA security personnel on how to use and maintain the vehicles.
Apparently:
( according to SHmuel)
The Russians have been trying the same 50 APC deal for several years. All previous governments scuttled that.
And Mordechai says:
"Thank you VERY VERY much for this heads-up; this item, taken together with the widespread attack training that we've been hearing for the past couple of days (I've checked with friends in your area as well as the rest of Yehuda/Shomron) - not only is the pattern the same everywhere, but so is the army's response; it's no longer "weddings", rather, now it's "they finished their Bagrut (senior final exams)" and are therefore shooting as an expression of unrestrained joy. The pattern heard in the several locations I have checked is the same: 15 or 25 rounds, two minute rest, then again, continuing for one and a half to two and a half hours, mid-morning, early evening, and then again late night.
New armored vehicles together with the expenditure of ammunition that widespread training involves show a strategic commitment of resources to the first strike attack option, and are therefore key indicators of readiness for such an attack."
......And now this:
http://israeltruthtimes.blogspot.com/2010/08/didnt-i-repeatedly-tell-you-that-turkey.html
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