They love iPhones but despise Britney Spears (Michael Lumish)

Yikes!

{But can you have one without the other?}

The primary religions of the Middle East are, obviously, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

Each tends, speaking in broad terms, toward a universal perspective or a non-universal perspective.

Each tend to be, more or less, political or non-political.

I recognize that such broad characterizations invite noting the exceptions.

There are Jews who want to see the imposition of Torah law within Israel. That is what Meir Kahane wanted. There are Christians in the United States who would be delighted to live in an American Christian Fascist Theocracy. It is alleged that Sinclair Lewis said, "When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross." And there are people of Muslim origin throughout the world who would very much prefer not to live under al-Sharia, thank you very much.

Nonetheless, there is a continuum among the religions of the Levant between the universal and the non-universal, the political and the non-political.

What I outline below is a sort-of pedagogical tool for considering the great religions of the Levant and how they relate to one another and to the rest of us today. It is not meant to be definitive, but is a construct that offers a way to consider current vital political questions around the Middle East. These questions include the Caliphatic dreams of many Muslims, the pulverization of Christians living within Muslim lands, and the efforts of the Jews of the region to hold-off a violent never-ending onslaught of hate.

Judaism

Judaism, the first of the great three religions of the Levant, tends to be neither universal, nor political.

Judaism has never been a universal religion in the sense that it has never insisted that non-Jews must conform to the faith.

Nonetheless, the Jewish people represent the most inclusive nation in the world because anyone can join it via the faith. The Jews are a people like the French are a people and like the Japanese are a people, but if I were to move to Tokyo and learn the Japanese language and convert to Shinto, I could never actually be Japanese.

However, any Japanese person who converts to Judaism is a Jew.

Period.

Judaism, today, is also non-political. That is, virtually no Jews are calling for Israel, or any other country, to be ruled by the Torah. This does not mean, however, that Israel is entirely secular. There is an article in today's (6/2/16) Times of Israel by Amanda Borschel-Dan that discusses criminal penalties within Israel for Jews who marry outside of the rabbinate.

This represents the lingering of religious-based law within Israeli society - and it is a terrible law - but it does not define that country.

Whatever anyone might want to say about the Jewish State of Israel it is very definitely not a theocracy.

The rabbinate may have some power, but it is the secular government that rules.

Christianity

Christianity is universal but, today, generally not political.

Christianity is universal because at the heart of the faith is the idea that the only way to come to know G-d - and thus the only way to come to heaven - is through devotion to Jesus Christ. Christian theology, unlike Jewish theology, is universal in the sense that its religious ideology applies to every soul on Earth. If you want to know the Truth of the Father than it must come via the testimony of the Son.

However, Christianity today is, like Judaism, generally non-political. The European Enlightenment of the seventeenth-century forced a schism between Church and State that holds. Virtually no one is calling for any country to be ruled according New Testament principles. Even die-hard, right-wing Evangelical Christians in Nebraska are not calling for the US government to be ruled according the will of Mathew, Mark, Luke, and John.

Islam

Islam is both universal and political.

Islam, like Christianity, is universal. That is, the only way to gain entrance to Paradise is via the prescriptions of the Prophet Mohammad. The difference is that within Christianity we are taught to turn the other cheek, whereas within Islam we are taught to head-chop the infidel.

Within Christianity there is the notion that the unrepentant sinner will be damned to eternal hell-fire.

Within Islam there is the prescription to crush the Infidel in this world, as well.

Thus Islam, in its political aspect, is far-and-away the most aggressive of the three.

Sharia forms the primary legal basis of the Muslim countries. This is why they hang Gay people from cranes in Iran, stone adulterous (or allegedly adulterous) women to death in Pakistan, and flay the skin of bloggers critical of Islam in Saudi Arabia.

As has been often noted, Islam has simply not gone through the Enlightenment changes and reforms that both Judaism and Christianity have.

The Islamic states have a generalized revulsion toward modernity even as they embrace the technological products of modernity.

They love iPhones but despise Britney Spears.

At the same time, the focus of their studies tend to be more Koranic than scientific and this is why the Caliphitic Dreams of so many Muslims can never be fulfilled. The Muslim governments can never hurt the western states by beating us over the head with the Koran. 

What they can do, and what they are doing, is shooing their "excess population" into the West, most particularly Europe.

Germany and Sweden are leading the way toward a new Europe.

Europe in the future - if not the West, more generally - is going to become more racist, more anti-Semitic, more homophobic, and more misogynistic.

The great irony is that it is the western-progressives, who supposedly stand for none of that, are leading the charge.

Michael Lumish is a blogger at the Israel Thrives blog as well as a regular contributor/blogger at Times of Israel and Jews Down Under.

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Arab sites celebrate Mohammed Ali's antisemitic statement

Arab and Muslim sites are commemorating the death of perhaps the most prominent Muslim convert, boxing great Mohammed Ali.

And the thing they like about him most seems to be his antisemitism and anti-Zionism.

Both Islam21C and Middle East Monitor lovingly quote Ali from a 1980 interview:

You know the entire power structure is Zionist. They control America; they control the world. They are really against the Islam religion.

That's pretty much pure antisemitism there, under the guise of "anti-Zionism."

The sites also quote when Ali visited a Lebanese UNRWA camp in 1974, where he said he wanted the state of Israel to be destroyed:

“In my name and the name of all Muslims in America, I declare support for the Palestinian struggle to liberate their homeland and oust the Zionist invaders,” he said during his visit.

Over 1700 people shared this photo of Ali in the Lebanese camp on Twitter. Not one of them asked why Lebanon keeps its Palestinian Arab brethren stuck in those ghettos without basic human rights over four decades later.

Because they are so "pro-Palestinian."

Ironically, Ali's grandson identifies as a Jew.

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The hysteria versus the reality on the Temple Mount

Ma'an, the Western-funded news agency, reports in Arabic:

Dozens of extremist settlers stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque on Sunday morning, in memory of the "naksa," the occupation of Jerusalem in 1967, to coincide with the tours and provocative marches on the doors of the mosque and in the streets of Jerusalem's Old City under Israeli police protection.

The director of Al-Aqsa Mosque, Sheikh Omar Kiswani said that 208 settlers stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque through the Mughrabi Gate, in small groups, tightly guarded by Israeli police and special forces.

Al-Kiswani said the Israelis started their tour at the Moroccan gate, before moving on to the al-Qibli and al-Marwani mosques on the compound, and then to Bab al-Rahma area. Some of them attempted to perform religious rituals but were prevented from doing so by guards.

Sheikh Kiswani stressed that the settlers have no right to storm Al-Aqsa, blaming the Israeli government and the Israeli police responsibility tense situation in the Far eve of the holy month of Ramadan.

The Islamic Waqf denounced the provocative practices that took place by the settlers in the Aqsa Mosque.

Jews peacefully visiting the Temple Mount is the top story in Ma'an today in both English (where the rhetoric is toned down) and Arabic.

This hysteria is published day in and day out in Arabic media worldwide.

But last year secular Israeli journalist Shlomo Eldar decided to visit the holy spot to see what the fuss was all about. He published the truth in Al Monitor:

I did not visit the Temple Mount for religious, political or ideological reasons. Rather, I came as a journalist wishing to know what the commotion is all about. I wanted to find out firsthand whether the Palestinian allegations that the Al-Aqsa Mosque is in danger are founded. Has Israel really changed the sanctified status quo at the Temple Mount or is it — as Israeli officials claim — the unbridled and deliberate incitement by the northern chapter of the Islamic movement in Israel and by Palestinian Authority (PA) officials that sparked the current wave of terror?

Visiting the compound is possible only through organized groups or those that get organized on the spot. That’s why I asked to join a tour of the Temple Mount Heritage Foundation headed by right-wing activist Yehuda Glick, who heads the LIBA Initiative for Jewish Freedom on the Temple Mount. To my surprise, however, I discovered that I was the only tourist in the initiative, which is why I was privileged to have a private tour guide who gave me a detailed overview of the history of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount.

Orna — a certified tour guide and a secular woman — volunteers once a month, as do many other tour guides, to provide a free-of-charge professional tour “without religious, political and ideological agendas,” for anyone who wants to see the site and be informed.

When we arrived at the entrance gate another surprise awaited me: Hundreds of tourists from around the world were lining up, waiting patiently for the visiting hours. Buses packed with tourists parked close to the Western Wall parking lot. Column after column of visitors from different countries joined the long meandering line that sprawled all the way from the entrance to the Old City's Dung Gate. Naively, I thought that only a handful of people, mainly from right-wing Israeli groups that insist on changing the existing order, would come to visit this hot spot.

As it turns out, tourists have a priority accessing the compound. When a group of Jews gets organized, it has the last priority to enter. Jews wishing to visit the Temple Mount are assigned police officers, border police soldiers and Waqf security guards who make sure they bring no Jewish ritual objects whatsoever. They are also forbidden from praying, bowing, sitting down, quietly reciting prayers, bringing a prayer book, a photo of the compound or a Star of David. They are allowed to bring nothing that could potentially upset Muslim worshipers and stir up more tension. Before going in, Orna carefully stashed all the photos, drawings and maps she was carrying under the stairwell so as to meet the stringent visiting restrictions. Standing next to the long line of tourists were five Jews wearing skullcaps. Once organized as a group, they waited for the instructions of the security guards to let them in. After going through a rigorous security check at the entrance gate, they were assigned border police soldiers as well as Waqf security guards that surrounded them throughout the visit. As soon as they set foot in the plaza, the women of the Mourabitat (organized Muslim activists) started shrieking in loud voices: “Allahu akbar.” This was the first time I saw from up close the women who have been recruited by the northern faction of the Islamic movement in Israel and who receive pay for participating in the mission to “defend the Al-Aqsa Mosque.”

At the farther perimeters of the entrance, some 20 women in a religious study group were sitting down in a circle and reading the Quran. On a knoll across from there, outside the structure, were the Mourabitoun — the men — who were also having a Quran class. When they noticed the religious Jewish men they, too, started shouting in loud voices — which blended in with the yelping of the women — “Allahu akbar.”

Unflustered by those chants, the small Jewish group continued to walk slowly along the plaza all the way to the entrance to the mosque, which is marked by a strip on the ground. That’s where they stopped for fear that they would cross into an area that is prohibited. From there they proceeded to take another round along the plaza. Then they left the compound escorted by the guards and the Allahu akbar yelling.

I drew closer to the group of Mourabitoun men. I pulled out my cell phone and took their picture. All of a sudden a few Waqf guards showed up, demanding that I hand over my device, claiming that I had taken a photo of a sight that cannot be photographed.

“I have no objection deleting the forbidden photo,” I told one of the guards, who made sure I deleted all the photos showing the Mourabitoun and Mourabitat at the Temple Mount as well as photos of the Waqf security guards around the mosque. However, they did let me keep a photo of myself against the backdrop of the mosque. But then another group of Waqf security guards showed up with their commander (which is what I inferred from the tone of his voice and the orders he bossed around to his subordinates.) They demanded that I be removed from the Temple Mount because, according to them, I had violated the rules. “Nobody told me I couldn’t take photos of the worshipers,” I tried to explain. To support my argument, I added that I had taken the photos openly and in the presence of the security guards. “If I had known that you can’t take pictures of the Mourabitoun, would I have done so in front of your own eyes?” I wondered out loud.

Raising his voice, the commander of the Waqf detail said forcefully, “Get him out right now. Khalas! [That’s enough!] Out.” As they started escorting me to the exit gate, a border police soldier stationed at one of the security posts showed up where the altercation was taking place. At that point an argument about sovereignty at the Temple Mount ensued. “You have no right to remove any visitors from the plaza,” the soldier told his Waqf counterparts, who insisted on removing the “rogue tourist.”

One of the Waqf officials turned to me in English and said, “Here, we make the decisions. Here, we call the shots. Here, we are kings — the rulers.” He kept repeating the word “king” over and over. “Nobody can dispute what we say,” he argued. “We determine who comes in and who goes out and what they can or can’t do. We are the sovereigns at Al-Aqsa Mosque.” The border police soldier tried to calm him down, telling him that those were not the procedures and that decisions have to be made jointly. Yet, the Waqf guard insisted that they were the sovereign and that they had been explicitly ordered to banish me.

This ended my visit to the Temple Mount, from which I learned that if Waqf officials have the authority and ability to decide who gets to visit the compound and who fails to meet the threshold criteria, the Al-Aqsa Mosque is therefore not in danger.

Knesset member Ghattas alleged that Israel was deepening its control and occupation, yet I don’t understand what he saw. The Waqf security guards are densely deployed at the Temple Mount compound, going to great lengths to make sure that only small groups of Jews get to visit the site compared to the thousands of tourists that are allowed to visit almost uninterruptedly. While keeping order and security at the Temple Mount and at Al-Aqsa Mosque is shared jointly by Israel and the Waqf, the tension awards the Palestinian almost total control of who is allowed into the Temple Mount and who isn’t. This, of course, stands in total contrast to the Palestinian allegations that Israel has changed the status quo and that Al-Aqsa is in danger.

Even an Israeli journalist had believed the hysteria without question, until he decided to look at the situation first-hand.

The reality is that Jews are peacefully visiting the Temple Mount and are subject to rigorous restrictions that secular tourists and Muslims are not. And every time they visit the Muslims make a big deal out of it in order to create a situation where Jews would be banned altogether.

And to a large extent, the strategy has already worked.

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Martin Carthy and Dave Swarbrick: Byker Hill

Dave Swarbrick died this week, a full 17 years after the Telegraph published his obituary. But what the paper said then remains true:

Dave Swarbrick, the violinist and singer ... was one of the most influential folk musicians of the 1970s and 1980s, especially with the group Fairport Convention. A small, dynamic, charismatic figure, "Swarb"—cigarette perched precariously on his bottom lip, unruly hair flapping over his face, pint of beer ever at hand—could electrify an audience with a single frenzied sweep of his bow. He never failed to produce a dramatic effect, whether on fiddle or mandolin, whether playing in tiny folk clubs or at huge open air festivals

Here he is with his regular collaborator Martin Carthy - the pair have featured here before.

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US State Dept pays for anti-Israel incitement on Palestinian TV show

From the NYT:

“Mr. President!” a woman called out to Waad Qannam at a rally last week in East Jerusalem. “We want you to represent us!” The crowd cheered passionately, even though Mr. Qannam was actually running for president on a reality television show.

In the United States, a reality television star is the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. For Palestinians, it’s the other way around: A candidate chosen on a television show is the closest they have come to an elected leader in more than 10 years.

“This is just a show,” acknowledged Mr. Qannam, one of three contestants who made it to Thursday night’s finale of “The President.” “But people are hungry for a leader.”

The show, now in its second season, began with 24 contestants culled from more than 1,200 applicants who had to take a series of exams on Palestinian politics, international law, development and gender equality. Each week, contestants shadowed a Palestinian minister or business person, then told a panel of judges what they had learned and how they would improve on the job.

On Thursday night, the three finalists all had similar platforms: Boycott Israel. Designate East Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine. Bring about a reconciliation for the bitterly divided Palestinians between the West Bank and Gaza. (Six of the candidates in the round of 24 were from Gaza, though none made it to the final round.)

“The President” — broadcast on the Maan satellite network to large audiences in Gaza, the West Bank and elsewhere in the Arab world — was funded mostly by a State Department grant to Search for Common Ground, a nongovernmental group that focuses on conflict resolution.

AP adds:

The prospects of reaching peace with Israel rarely came up, and when the topic was mentioned, contestants tended to take strong positions against Israel.

Qannam said Israel was responsible for the current wave of Israeli-Palestinian violence and said he wouldn't call on Palestinians to stop stabbing attacks.

Why does the US fund a reality TV show in the PA? They have other TV series that seem to be able to pay for themselves without outside help.

And why is the State Department paying for a TV show that not only urges the audience to boycott Israel and tacitly condones stabbing Israeli civilians?

American tax dollars are paying for anti-Israel incitement that is far more popular than the total of all of the "peace" initiatives that the State Department has ever sponsored in the territories.

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06/04 Links: Incitement rife in Palestinian textbooks; 35 years on: mission to bomb Saddam’s nuke reactor

From Ian:

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Incitement rife in Palestinian textbooks

In almost every study conducted by researchers looking into incitement in Palestinian textbooks, materials have been found which breach the Palestinian Authority's pledges to halt anti-Israel incitement in schools.
Researchers have been surveying Palestinian school textbooks frequently over the past few decades to see if they have inciting material, such as the non-recognition of Israel as a sovereign state or the glorification of terror attacks and terrorists.
The schools researched in the various surveys are all public schools under the control of the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian Ministry of Education.
It turns out that in the vast majority of Palestinian textbooks, Israel isn't on any maps in any form. Israeli cities within the 1967 Green Line - such as Acre, Haifa, Nazareth, Jaffa, and others – are presented as being Palestinian cities. There are only a few schools which use textbooks that show a difference between PA controlled areas and Israel.
The IMPACT-se group looks into the issue of what governments teach their children and put in their textbooks worldwide in an attempt to determine how peaceful and tolerant a society is. They also looked into the school curriculums in the PA.
According to Chairman Marcus Sheff, "we looked for characteristics of peace and tolerance. We investigate education systems all over the world. We search using objective criteria written by UNESCO, and use these criteria to rank the peace and tolerance in children and in the society itself. There is a definite and clear correlation between the level and peace and tolerance and political violence in a society."

PHOTOS: PA President Abbas’ Dedication Of Street In His Name Backfires

A West Bank municipality’s decision to name a street after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has backfired, with street signs vandalized and a great deal of abuse on social media.
Abbas dedicated the street in the town of Bir Zeit last week with pomp and circumstance.
The naming of the street was “a token of appreciation for [Abbas’] efforts to better the lives of the Palestinian people and his efforts to realize the dream of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital,” the municipality said in a statement.
Less than a week later, the sign was vandalized and Abbas’ name erased from it. The official media ignored the incident, but it went viral on social media, accompanied by many comments ridiculing the President, some of them accompanied by a picture of the tweeters raising their middle finger.
“The youth of Bir Zeit couldn’t stand that sign for more than a week,” Beesan wrote.
“We congratulate our great leader, the liberator of Jerusalem and the crusher of the Jews, Mahmoud Abbas, for the naming of a street in Bir Zeit after him,” Dr. Khalil Awadi wrote ironically.

Michael Lumish: Israel is Insane # 2: Criminalizing Unauthorized Marriage?

Writing in the Times of Israel, Amanda Borschel-Dan tells us:
There are criminals sitting in the Israeli Knesset: legislators who have either performed weddings outside the state’s religious authority, or who have personally been married in such ceremonies.
The Jewish state is one of the only places in the world where it is illegal — with a potential jail term of two years — for Jewish couples to marry as they wish.
I am speechless.
Really?
Two years in prison for Jewish couples to marry outside of the state's religious authority?
I have to tell you, if Israel intended to make a law designed specifically to alienate secular Jews then they could not have done a better job then in enacting this unjust legislation.
This law gives fodder to western-left Israel-Haters while, simultaneously, pushing secular Jews out of the pro-Israel community.

TV report: Netanyahu ‘said yes’ to regional peace efforts in call with Kerry

In a telephone conversation with Secretary of State John Kerry on Thursday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “said yes” to new efforts led by Egypt and Saudi Arabia for regional progress toward peace, an Israeli television report said.
The call was made on the eve of Friday’s Paris peace summit, and was a factor in the summit’s vague concluding communique, which Kerry helped negotiate, and which did not set a firm date for the international peace conference Paris wants to host by the year’s end, the Channel 2 report said.
Netanyahu also spoke by telephone with France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault hours after the summit ended, and told him that France and its allies would best advance peace prospects if, rather than pushing their own initiative, they pressed Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas into resuming direct talks with Israel, a source close to the prime minister said. Netanyahu also told Ayrault that France’s bid to host an international conference could wind up complicating regional efforts that might actually have a chance of making progress, the source said.
Ayrault reportedly initiated the call in order to update Netanyahu on the session. The prime minister also told the French foreign minister that he opposed Paris’s idea of setting up working groups to discuss core issues such as security arrangements for a peace accord. “Israel will deal with its own essential security needs,” Netanyahu said, according to a senior Israeli source.
Dore Gold, the director general of the Foreign Ministry, told The Times of Israel earlier this week that Israel was hopeful that improved ties with Arab states would ultimately yield Arab pressure on the Palestinians for substantive progress.

Netanyahu to French FM: Direct talks better than peace summit

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Friday spoke to French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, in the wake of the international peace summit that was held in Paris.
A diplomatic source said that Netanyahu reiterated Israel's positions and stressed that it would be better if France and its partners would encourage Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas to accept Netanyahu’s invitation to sit down for direct negotiations.
Netanyahu also stressed in the conversation with Ayrault that the French peace initiative could harm regional efforts which have the potential to succeed.
During Friday’s summit, which was not attended by Israeli or Palestinian Arab representatives, the international community committed to try and push Israel and the Palestinians to resume peace talks under a French-led initiative.
Indirect peace talks between the two sides collapsed more than two years ago, and Ayrault warned that the diplomatic void meant the prospect of a two-state solution to the decades-long conflict was in "serious danger", according to AFP.

Erekat hails French initiative, rejects direct talks

Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) secretary-general Saeb Erekat hailed Friday's international meeting on the Middle East peace process held in Paris as a "significant step" on the path to peace.
"The Paris meeting is a very significant step and its message is clear: if Israel is allowed to continue its colonization and apartheid policies in occupied Palestine, the future will be for more extremism and bloodshed rather than for coexistence and peace," he said in a statement quoted by AFP.
Erekat also rejected Israel’s call for direct talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA), saying Israel had failed to abide by previous commitments.
"The multilateral approach of the French Initiative is needed in order to provide us with a clear mechanism of implementation and monitoring," he said.
During Friday’s summit, which was not attended by Israeli or Palestinian Arab representatives, the international community committed to try and push Israel and the Palestinians to resume peace talks under a French-led initiative.

Bennett says he backs Palestinian autonomy ‘on steroids’

Jewish Home leader Naftali Bennett said Saturday that while he vehemently opposes the establishment of a Palestinian state, he does back the formation of “a Palestinian autonomy on steroids.”
The education minister told Channel 2’s “Meet the Press” that such an agreement would include imposing full Israeli rule over Area C, which constitutes over 60 percent of the West Bank.
Bennett has previously spoken of a “Stability Plan” in which Palestinians living in areas A (under full Palestinian control) and B (under joint Israel-Palestinian control) would govern themselves, without Israeli interference, but without true independence. Area C, which houses all Israeli settlements, would be annexed to Israel. The tens of thousands of Palestinians living in that region would be offered full Israeli citizenship, under the plan.
In the interview, segments of which were aired on Thursday, Bennett said he was not opposed to holding talks and pursuing diplomacy with the Palestinians but warned that he would topple the Likud-led government if necessary in order to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Saudi calls on Israel to accept 2002 Arab peace initiative

The international conference held in Paris on Friday seeking to revive the Israeli-Palestinian peace process has concluded with a call from Saudi Arabia to adopt the 2002 Arab peace initiative, which would lead to normalization of ties between Israel and Arab states.
"The Arab initiative from 2002 is the best proposal for the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," said Adel al-Jubeir, the foreign minister of Saudi Arabia, which is considered one of the more pragmatic Arab nations.
The Arab peace initiative, also known as the "Saudi initiative," called on Israel in 2002 to withdraw from the Golan Heights, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. It also called for an independent Palestinian state to be established with East Jerusalem as its capital and for a "just solution for the refugee issue." In return, all Arab states will normalize their relations with Israel and declare the end of their conflict with it.

Israel provides ICC with information on 2014 Gaza war

Israel has transferred information on its 2014 conflict with Hamas in the Gaza Strip to the International Criminal Court at The Hague, a prosecutor with the ICC said Friday, but Jerusalem issued a hasty clarification noting that it does not recognize the court’s authority.
According to the Walla news website, the handover of information marks Israel’s first cooperation with the ICC on its investigation of alleged war crimes by Israeli troops and settlers and Palestinian militants during what is known in Israel as Operation Protective Edge.
But The Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem later issued a statement responding to the comments by the prosecutor at the ICC, and insisted that Israel does not accept the authority of the court to discuss the matter of the IDF’s conduct during the 2014 war.
“There is no change in Israel’s position. As known, Israel does not recognize the court at The Hague as authorized to discuss the matter. As previously published, Israel is conducting a dialogue with the office of the prosecutor on the matter of the court’s lack of authority.”
The probe, which the ICC classified as a preliminary investigation, pertains to 66 reports of alleged crimes said to have occurred since June 13, 2014 in and around what the court defines as “Palestine” — a term it applies to the Hamas-run Gaza Strip and the Palestinian Authority’s West Bank, as well as East Jerusalem.

UN Secretary-General Blames Israel for Palestinian Terror

In a report released on June 2, 2016, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon blamed Israel for the slew of Palestinian shootings, stabbings, and car ramming attacks terrorizing Israelis since October 2015. The report, "Economic and social repercussions of the Israeli occupation on the living conditions of the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, and the Arab population in the occupied Syrian Golan," does not even mention Palestinian incitement to terror and hatred fueling the violence. The "humiliated"? The perpetrators, not their Jewish victims fighting back in self-defense since 1948.
In the words of the report, "Tensions and violence erupted in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, particularly in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, in October 2015, in the context of prolonged occupation, settlement expansion and settler violence and in the aftermath of clashes at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, with Palestinians perceiving Israel as trying to change the status quo at the holy sites. On 26 January 2016, in his remarks to the Security Council on the situation in the Middle East, the Secretary-General highlighted the growing frustration felt by Palestinians, linked to Israeli actions that were chipping away the viability of a Palestinian State and the ability of the Palestinian people to live in dignity; in a briefing to the Council on 22 October 2015, his deputy referred to the stifling and humiliating occupation that had lasted almost half a century."

Report: Hezbollah digging tunnels, placing rockets on border for next conflict with Israel

Lebanese terror organization Hezbollah is preparing for its next conflict with Israel by digging terror attack tunnels, tracking IDF movement and positioning its large arsenal of rockets along the northern border with Israel, Lebanese daily newspaper as-Safir reported Saturday.
The report comes as a flurry of articles are being published marking the 16 anniversary of Israel's withdrawal from southern Lebanon, in which the two countries were in engaged in the so called South Lebanon Conflict from 1985 to 2000.
"Resistance fighters are watching, making preparations and digging tunnels so enemy soldiers and settlers are losing sleep", the newspaper said.
"Observations of advanced electronic infrastructure and night-vision goggles are closely watching the border fence, which are able to transmit real-time information," the report added.
The newspaper noted that the "preparations are being established so Hezbollah fighters can participate in combat at any moment."
The report additionally addresses the terror tunnel infrastructure Hezbollah is creating along the northern border with Israel, taking notes from their jihadi militant counterpart Hamas.
The paper describes the level of sophistication the tunnels are being built with, saying that they include underground ventilation systems which prevents moisture from damaging equipment.

Ramallah fumes at Jordanian meddling in question of Abbas’s successor

Surprising an interviewer from a well-known Palestinian website two months ago, famed Palestinian man of letters Sari Nusseibeh said the concept of a Jordanian-Palestinian confederation should be reconsidered.
The idea of a confederation has been almost completely discredited in recent years — a process that began with a 1988 announcement by the late King Hussein of Jordan that he was giving up his claim to Palestinian-controlled territories.
The comments by Nusseibeh, the president of Al-Quds University, were thus widely perceived among Palestinians as an irrelevant example of his unusual musings and doings, such as his ill-fated 2003 peace initiative with former Shin Bet chief and ex-Labor MK Ami Ayalon.
The remarks did spark some dialogue, in particular among some of the older generation and the more affluent tiers of Palestinian society – the business people and merchants. Ultimately, however, it is clear that the Hashemite royal family has no interest in reviving the initiative.

Israel to ease West Bank, Gaza movement during Ramadan

Israel announced Friday it was relaxing restrictions on the movement of Palestinians to and from the West Bank and Gaza Strip during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
The measures, similar to those of previous years, were announced by COGAT, the unit which manages civilian affairs in the West Bank under the auspices of newly appointed hardline Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman.
Up to 500 people from the Gaza Strip will be allowed to attend Friday prayers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem over the holy month, set to begin on Monday.
In addition, 200 Gaza residents will be allowed to visit relatives in the West Bank during Ramadan, and 500 Palestinians from the West Bank will be authorized to visit family in Gaza, COGAT said.
Israel will also allow 300 Palestinians living abroad to visit relatives in Gaza, and 500 West Bank Palestinians would be permitted to travel out of Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv.
There will be additional allowances for the Muslim holidays which follow the end of Ramadan.

State Department Won’t Reopen Investigation Into Edited Tape

The State Department said Friday that it would not revive a probe to discover who was responsible for ordering the deletion of press footage from the agency’s public video archives.
State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the agency had “exhausted” its efforts to investigate the incident through an earlier inquiry, The Hill reported.
The deleted section of the 2013 press briefing showed Jen Psaki, a top administration spokeswoman, acknowledging that the administration had misled media about secret nuclear talks between the United States and Iran in 2012.
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R., Calif.) called on the State Department’s inspector general to look into the edit on Friday.
Toner said the agency’s watchdog could still decide to launch its own probe, but noted that any phone records potentially leading to the official responsible would already be deleted.
“In tampering with this video, the Bureau of Public Affairs has undermined its mission to ‘communicate timely and accurate information with the goal of furthering U.S. foreign policy,’” Royce wrote in a letter to State Department Inspector General Steve Linick. “This is all the more troubling given that the video in question dealt with hugely consequential nuclear negotiations with the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
State Department spokesman John Kirby revealed Wednesday there had been a “deliberate request” to scrub the footage.
Psaki has denied involvement in ordering the edit.

State Department: ‘There’s a Lot of Overblown Rhetoric’ About Video Deletion

State Department spokesman Mark Toner described Friday the outcry over the department’s intentional deletion of a portion of a 2013 briefing video showing the Obama administration possibly deceiving about Iran nuclear deal as “overblown.”
Speaking at the State Department daily press briefing, Toner was defensive as he took questions from reporters about the video edit that has received great scrutiny from some in the media this week.
“I understand and I appreciate the tough questions that you all are asking us in this room, and we are doing our best [to] answer,” Toner said. “But there’s a lot of overblown rhetoric beyond this room about what happened and what transpired.”
The State Department admitted Wednesday that someone inside the Bureau of Public Affairs called a video editor on December 2, 2013, to cut several minutes of video out of that day’s press briefing during which then-spokeswoman Jen Psaki effectively admitted that the administration had previously lied about nuclear negotiations with Iran.

White House Omits Another Damaging Line About Iran Deal From Briefing Transcript

The White House omitted a potentially damaging line from the official transcript of a press briefing by spokesman Josh Earnest last month, ABC News reported Thursday evening.
On May 9, Fox News reporter Kevin Rorke asked Earnest if he could categorically state that no senior Obama official had ever lied about the Iran nuclear deal.
Earnest said, “No, Kevin.” It was followed by a brief, awkward silence before Earnest launched into talking points about the deal enhancing national security.
However, ABC reported this line did not make it into the transcript of the briefing at WhiteHouse.gov. The transcript reads out the rest of Earnest’s comment after he made that admission, but the “No, Kevin” is not there:

Backgrounder: The BDS Movement

While the Obama administration has expressed approval of backdoor, or BDS-lite, sanctions of the kind introduced by the EU, a number of U.S. states are taking action on their own to combat the BDS movement. Some have passed legislation sanctioning companies that discriminate against Israel, notably South Carolina Illinois, and Indiana. Similar legislation is currently before the New York state assembly, as discussed by Romirowsky and Benjamin Weinthal in a widely-read New York Post oped.
As several Middle East Forum researchers and fellows have underscored, sanctions advocated by BDS and backdoor BDS activists aren't oriented toward helping Palestinians. All sanctions targeting the highly interconnected Israeli-Palestinian economy will bring down Palestinian living standards. As Romirowsky illustrates, even those that specifically target Israeli settlements "hurt the very constituency they claim to represent" by putting Palestinian laborers in the West Bank out of work.
The BDS movement is about defaming the world's lone Jewish state, pure and simple. That is why, as Campus Watch west coast representative Cinnamon Stillwell explores in a recent article, the BDS movement has tried to shut down a program that sends American Muslims to Israel to meet with Jewish, Muslim, and Christian residents in order "to explore how Jews understand Judaism, Israel, and Jewish peoplehood."

BDS – the enemy within

The connection between the BDS campaign, Nakba Day and Tel Aviv University can be made through academics employed by the university.
Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders has stated that calls to boycott the Jewish State fall within the limits of free speech.
His statement comes in the wake of Israel’s annual State Comptroller’s report highlighting Israel’s abysmal failure to confront the ever-growing Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel. Blame is placed on the Foreign Ministry as well as the new Ministry of Strategic Affairs and Public Relations, set up in 2013 with a hefty budget to deal specifically with BDS. This campaign is making powerful inroads, especially in the world of academia – a matter that should be of deep concern, recognizing that leadership, both national and Jewish, will evolve via campuses.
It was interesting to read the recent front-page interview in The Jerusalem Post with Prof. Joseph Klafter, president of Tel Aviv University, who expressed concern about the spread of the BDS movement and its detrimental effect on students. He noted that a BDS campaign, which started in the UK, “was initially on a small scale, but now that it is widespread in the US, it has grown to be very worrisome.” However, he felt it had not affected Israeli faculty members.
Contrary to the views of his “boss,” Israeli anthropologist Dan Rabinowitz, who heads Tel Aviv University’s prestigious school of environmental studies, feels the cold wind of isolation.
He states that many Israeli professors are being shunned at a personal rather than a university level. They experience snubs at academic conferences and struggle to have their work published in professional journals.

Gaza terror smuggling again not newsworthy for the BBC

The list of thwarted attempts to smuggle materials and goods into the Gaza Strip for the purposes of terrorism continues to grow, with the latest items including rifle scopes and drones, motors and metal piping.
As has been the case in the past, the BBC elected not to report these latest smuggling attempts. That of course means that when the BBC states (as it frequently does) that “Israel says” that the restrictions on the import of weapons and dual-use goods into the Gaza Strip are for reasons of security, audiences have an insufficient understanding of the background and the facts to be able to put that statement in its correct context.

Arrest of terror cell highlights BBC News’ faulty framing

That messaging is consistent with the BBC’s usual framing of terrorism against Israelis as being ‘explained’ by the outcome of the Six Day War. The implication is of course that if there were no “occupation of the Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem”, there would be no conflict and no terror.
The flaw in that framing – at least for members of the BBC’s audience hoping to enhance their understanding of the topic – is that the terrorist organisation to which the suspected planners and the perpetrator of the April 18th bus bombing belong does not share Jeremy Bowen’s view that the events of June 1967 are the root of all problems.
Hamas (along with additional terror organisations) makes it amply clear in both words and actions that Israeli disengagement from land taken in a defensive war against Arab countries (which previously occupied the same territory themselves) does bring about an end to terror and conflict because for them – as currently noted in the corporation’s profile of Hamas – the whole of Israel is ‘occupied’.

Jeremy Bowen’s annual reminder of why BBC coverage of Israel is as it is

There is nothing “away from the public gaze” about the anniversary Jeremy Bowen chose to mark by broadcasting this particular item on national radio and – as can be seen in the examples in the related articles below – Bowen does not mark that anniversary “quietly”: he in fact makes a point of recounting the story annually.
But whilst the story and its yearly narration by the BBC’s Middle East editor are not novel, it does provide some insight into why the corporation’s coverage of Israel is as it is because it reveals what lies behind the long-standing approach to that country adopted by the gatekeeper of BBC Middle East content.
JB: “Sixteen years ago this week my friend and colleague Abed Takkoush was killed by the Israeli army. Abed was Lebanese from Beirut. He’d worked for the BBC since the [Lebanese] civil war started in the 1970s. Abed was in his early 50s with three boys and a wife. His business card said ‘driver producer’. He was a fixer: the kind of person without whom foreign correspondents could not function. We rely on people like Abed around the world, though he was exceptional because of his experience, his sense of humour and his bravery. He used to pick me up in his battered Mercedes taxi when I arrived at Beirut airport and accelerate away into the traffic, boasting that he was a better driver than Michael Schumacher. Istill miss him when I arrive at the airport and he isn’t there. I’ve never had the heart to delete his phone number from my contacts book.
In short, the BBC has allowed Jeremy Bowen to use this item to once again promote the unsupported, unproven and unfounded allegation that Israel deliberately targets and kills journalists/civilians. And yet, for the last decade (since the creation of the position of Middle East editor in 2006) the man shooting that accusation from the hip at every opportunity has also been the person entrusted with ensuring that BBC coverage of Israel is accurate and impartial.
That, sadly for the BBC’s reputation, says it all.

Turkish paper compares Merkel to Hitler after Germany votes to recognize Armenian genocide

Multiple Turkish news agencies on Saturday compared German Chancellor Angela Merkel with Adolf Hitler after the Bundestag earlier this week declared the Armenian massacre of 1915 a genocide.
One glaring example came from the Turkish newspaper publication Star Gazetesi, who posted a picture of the German leader with her name printed above her upper lip in block lettering, made to look like Hitler's infamous "toothbrush" mustache.
The resolution, recognizing the scope of Armenian suffering for the first time in Germany, states that the Armenians' fate exemplified "the history of mass exterminations, ethnic cleansing, deportations and yes, genocide, which marked the 20th century in such a terrible way."
It also acknowledges that the German Empire, then a military ally of the Ottomans, did nothing to stop the killings.
In response, Turkey's Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said on Friday that by passing the resolution, the German parliment was making a "historic mistake".
Turkey earlier recalled its ambassador to Germany on Thursday in protest against the parliament resolution that came at a time when Europe is looking for Ankara's help in the migrant crisis.

Chrome drops app used by anti-Semites to spot Jews

Google’s Chrome browser on Friday apparently removed an app used by white supremacists to identify and harass Jews online. A link to the app’s page led to an error message and informed users: “Item not found. This item may have been removed by its author.”
As Mic reported Thursday, the Chrome plugin highlighted Jewish names with multiple parentheses, or what the “alt-right” — a fringe conservative-white nationalist movement — calls an “(((echo))).” The so-called Coincidence Detector was available free in the Google Chrome store.
The product description read: “Coincidence Detector can help you detect total coincidences about who has been involved in certain political movements and media empires.” There was even a suggestions tab to submit Jewish names to be added to the algorithm.
Chrome allows any developer to create and add an app to their store, offering step by step instructions on how to complete the process.
The plugin, last updated Thursday, was being used by 2,518 people and had a five-star rating (based on 94 reviews).

Tech Expert Says Israeli Entrepreneurs ‘Unparalleled’ in Innovation, Lack Ability to ‘Tell Their Story’

Israelis are great tech innovators, but fall short when it comes to marketing their wares, a startup adviser told Inc. magazine recently.
“Israel is the number one place for tech entrepreneurs and the quality and quantity of innovation here is unparalleled,” said Hillel Fuld, a New York native who moved to Israel to get involved in the country’s tech scene. “Israel is a fantastic environment for startups and we have some of the world’s leading R&D talent…There is a long list of Israeli companies reaching the level of global tech leaders. [But] the biggest hurdle for Israeli entrepreneurs is their ability to tell their story and going to market.”
Fuld explained that some companies focus so much on engineering and developing technology, and get so “deeply rooted” in the process, that they often lose focus on the “why” aspect of it all. He added, “Subtlety isn’t really a part of Israeli culture and that definitely manifests itself in the local marketing talent through a stronger focus on sales and less long-term marketing. Lastly, most Israeli companies often relocate their sales and marketing to the US, but that is also a trend that is beginning to shift with more local companies beginning to do their marketing locally.”
Fuld is a co-founder of ZCast, a company that focuses on live interactive podcasting, and has worked as a mentor to help startup tech companies “tell their story, create strategic partnerships and scale their operation,” according to his LinkedIn page. He has been a contributing writer and featured guest for numerous publications — such as TechCrunch, Mashable, CNBC and Forbes — for his expertise on the Israeli tech scene.

IBM to acquire EZSource

IBM has announced that it plans to acquire EZ Legacy (EZSource), an Israel-based application discovery company, to help developers quickly and easily understand and change mainframe code based on data displayed on a dashboard.
“By adding EZSource’s technology to our enterprise DevOps and API management offerings, we are making it easier and faster for developers to modernize key applications that previously were manually intensive and many times required specialized skills,” said Ross A. Mauri, general manager, IBM z Systems.
EZSource was founded in 2003. It is a leader in enterprise application understanding and management with offices in Israel, UK, US, Switzerland, Japan and Romania.
EZSource says it has more than 40 clients worldwide including ING Life, Maybank and 7-Eleven.

Israeli Start-Up That Simplifies Online User Experience Raises $50 Million

WalkMe, an American-Israeli high tech start-up that simplifies the online user experience, has raised $50 million in its latest round of fundraising to reach a total of $92.5 million,Haaretz reported.
The latest round was led by the New York-based venture capital firm Insight Venture Partners along with existing investors including Greenspring Associates and Scale Venture Partners.
WalkMe, founded in Israel in 2011, has 270 employees in San Francisco and 160 in Israel. Its platform integrates existing software and websites to help users navigate through complicated or confusing Internet services. The start-up has seen five-fold annual revenue growth during the last two years.

Israeli Utilities to Help Romania Reduce Water Loss, Conserve Energy

Romania’s largest water utility, Raja Constanta, signed cooperation agreements with Jerusalem’s Hagihon water utility and with Israeli water-management company Utilis during a business seminar led by the Israeli commercial attaché’s office in Bucharest on May 30.
“About half of Romania’s population is not connected to central drinking water and sewage treatment networks,” said Matan Safran, the Israeli Ministry of Economy and Industry’s trade representative in Romania. The seminar in Constanza, held on the shores of the Black Sea, culminated six months of meetings and bilateral visits meant to identify Israeli technologies that could meet the various Romanian water utilities’ needs for treating drinking water, finding and managing leaks, conserving energy, and increasing efficiency.
According to the agreement with Hagihon, professional bilateral delegations will travel to both countries and Hagihon will help Raja Constanta prepare for various challenges – above all, the reduction of water loss. Utilis will help Raja Constanta identify underground leaks by using its specialized satellite technology.
Safran said the agreements “will create a permanent bridge for sharing information, knowledge and technology between both countries. I am certain that we can help more Israeli companies enter the Romanian market, which is in need of new technologies.”

Israeli startup presents $14,000 unhackable phone

An Israeli-produced super-secure smartphone worthy of a James Bond movie has been unveiled in London by an Israeli start-up company.
Celebrities Tom Hardy and Leonardo DiCaprio were among those present at the launch.
The Solarin Android, produced by Sirin Labs and available through Sirin’s own London store and at Harrods from June 30, offers a unique security shield activated by a security switch and deactivated by biometric ID, encrypted emails, secure calls and messaging services, and special anti-cyber threat detention and prevention software.
Tal Cohen, CEO and co-founder of Sirin Labs said in a statement: “Cyber-attacks are endemic across the globe. This trend is on the increase. Just one attack can severely harm reputations and finances. Solarin is pioneering new, uncompromising privacy measures to provide customers with greater confidence and the reassurance necessary to handle business-critical information.”

Israeli Startups Get Google Grants to Develop Accessibility Technology for the Disabled

Two Israeli nonprofits are among 30 international winners of Impact Challenge grants from Google to promote technological innovations that will make the world more accessible for people with disabilities.
Beit Issie Shapiro in Ra’anana received two grants. The first, for $1,000,000, was to develop a free product that will allow people with limited mobility to operate smartphones with head movements. The beta product, developed with the startup Sesame Enable, is now being distributed to individuals in Israel for testing before a global rollout.
Beit Issie Shapiro also received $700,000 to develop “Makeathon-in-a-Box” in conjunction with Tikkun Olam Makers, a project of the Tel Aviv-based Reut Group. Makeathon-in-a-Box is a template for community make-a-thons, which bring together inventors and people with disabilities to build prototypes for new solutions to accessibility challenges. Prototypes that come from the make-a-thons will be open source, and featured solutions will be available for purchase on Tikkun Olam Makers’ website.
National health-support organization Ezer Mizion of Bnei Brak won a $400,000 grant for its project with Israeli startup Click2speak to develop a keyboard controlled by eye tracking.

“They Did It”: How The Economist Reported Israel’s 1967 Victory

“They Did It.” Thus ran the laconic headline of The Economist on June 10, 1967, above a grainy, black-and white photograph of an Israeli tank behind rubble. In six days, Israel had tripled in size by conquering the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Sinai Desert and Golan Heights—and the British newspaper crowed with triumph.
This Jerusalem Day, one year before the fiftieth anniversary of this historic pivot, offers a special opportunity to look back at how a major actor in the foreign media celebrated Israel’s “astonishing” and “brilliant” victory. “Nothing quite like this has happened since John Kennedy pulled the rug from under Nikita Khrushchev over Cuba in 1962,” wrote the dazzled editors. Looking back, it is difficult to believe that Western media coverage of Israel was ever so nauseatingly gushing. “Israel’s tank commanders are unusually bright and tough,” kvelled the paper’s Jerusalem correspondent. “Israel has the most intelligent [infantry] sergeants in the world.”
The Six-Day War concluded on June 10, but The Economist had already gone to print when it appeared that Israel had won a “two-day campaign,” before the final push on the Golan Heights in the final days. Indeed, the paper warned—and this as the ceasefire came into effect on all fronts—that “unless the Syrians follow the Egyptian example, they will be clobbered (and rightly) by the Israelis too.”
In assigning responsibility for the war, The Economist was unambiguous in endorsing the Israeli position. If the decision to go to war is a calculation of expected loss of life from combat versus inaction, it is “difficult to argue that they [the Israelis] were wrong” in light of Egyptian President Gamel Abdel Nasser’s threats to commit a massacre. Egyptian and Syrian leaders, therefore, were singularly to blame for “not behaving like sane men.”
Looking forward, The Economist argued that Israel would have to cede territories it had captured. Here, the editorial line was confused. On the one hand, the editors argued that Israelis were “entitled to use their victory to get some rock-solid security within their present frontiers,” and were moreover “in a position to insist on it.” But on the other, The Economist was not talking about a comprehensive, final settlement as a condition for withdrawals. Instead, Israel should make an “initial act of self-abnegation” after receiving some basic concessions: namely, “safe[ty] from Syrian guerrillas” and “guarantees of safe access to Eilat,” either by an Israeli position at the Tiran straits or an international force that Egypt would not be at liberty to expel again.

35 years on, IAF pilots recall daring mission to bomb Saddam’s nuke reactor

Thirty-five years after Operation Opera – the Israeli air attack that destroyed Saddam Hussein’s nuclear reactor at Osirak, retired IAF officers and Mossad agents revealed hitherto unknown details of the operation on Friday.
In an expose aired on Channel 10, Col. (Ret.) Ze’ev Raz, who led the June 7, 1981 raid, said that Air Force technicians “recognized that flying to Iraq and back” — some 2,000 miles in all — was slightly beyond the range of our jets, so we used all sorts of tricks to extend it.”
The Israeli Air Force could not rely on US flying tanker planes for mid-flight refueling at the time, and Israeli refueling capabilities, then in the making, would not be operational until 1982, by which point intelligence assessments were that the nuclear reactor would go online.
The strike could not be delayed, and therefore innovative methods for making the fuel last were introduced. All eight F-16As made it safely back; even 35 years later, however, the specifics of how they did so were kept secret.

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The ruins of St John, Boughton: the most haunted site in Northamptonshire

Boughton is a chocolate-boxy village just north of Northampton where for decades the wealthy of that town have chosen to live. Today it is threatened by its remorseless expansion.

But less than a mile to the east everything changes. This is the original site of Boughton and there you will find the ruins of the church of St John.

The Victoria County History described it thus in 1937:

The ruins of the old church of ST. JOHN stand to the north-east of Boughton Green on a site which falls from west to east. The building consisted of chancel, north chapel, nave, and west tower with spire and was of 14th-century date, but the remains have long been neglected and are undergoing a gradual process of disintegration by the agency of weather and the unchecked growth of ivy. The site is thickly overgrown and at the west end is a confused mass of rubble, broken gravestones, brambles, and nettles. Where the walls stand to any height their architectural features are generally hidden by ivy. Bridges, early in the 18th century, described the building as then 'in ruins, without a roof, the walls in several parts levelled with the ground', (but the tower and spire stood till about 1785.

But things were worse in the 16th century:

the rabbits invaded the churchyard itself, making the place so dangerous that the inhabitants were afraid to go to mass for fear of breaking their necks. It was said that the bones dug up by the conies would fill a scuttle and 'that a man can go skantly in a corner of yt but he shall fynde it full of dead mennes bones, a thing most pytyous to be seen'. One of the parishioners stated that a 'great number of conyes have so underminded the church yarde of Bouckton that it wold abhorre any Crystiane manys harte in the world to see it'.

Today the ruins are picturesque, but the steeply sloping churchyard makes it difficult to explore and there are disconcertingly recent burials.

There is also a spring issuing from beneath the east wall of the ruined chancel, making one think that this must be an ancient site whose sacredness predates Christianity.

It also has the reputation of being the most haunted site in Northamptonshire.

The Ghost Book says:

Around two hundred years ago, a young couple had been married only a few hours when the groom dropped dead. Grief stricken and unable to live without her love, the young lady ended her own life next to her husband's grave.

And it continues:

Following on from the tale of the doomed newly weds, the most famous ghost is said to be that of a beautiful red haired woman. She entices male passers by, and asks for a kiss. Be warned, for the legend follows that if you receive a kiss from this young woman, you will come to your death exactly a month after. 

This is said to be the fate of William Parker. He was passing by the churchyard on Christmas Eve in 1875 when he met a beautiful red haired girl. She invited him to sit with her for a while. After saying farewell, the young woman vanished and sure enough, William died exactly one month later, to the day. 

Again, on Christmas Eve, a moaning spirit makes his presence known. It is believed to be the spirit of Captain Slash, but why would he haunt the churchyard? Perhaps he is in search of the other members of his gang, ready to patrol the highways once more. 

The spirits of children have been reportedly seen amongst the grave stones. There is evidence that several children are buried on the site. 

A figure of a woman in white robes, and a headless man have also been seen.

I did catch sight of something in the corner a couple of times, but when I turned my head it had gone.

There was no sign of the beautiful redhead, Captain Slash or the ghost children, but I did take a lot of photographs.

And in my experience such things are more likely to appear if you print those photos in black and white.

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The greatness of Muhammad Ali and the decline of boxing

In his pomp Muhammad Ali was just about the most recognisable man on the planet. Supreme as an athlete, he risked everything that had earned him to stand up for his people and for what he believed to be right.

One reason for his extraordinary fame was that he was a great athlete in a sport that enjoyed a popularity it hard to imagine today.

Heavyweight boxing was the blue riband event. In the years of rationing after the second world war British men like Bruce Woodcock, who were really no more than middleweights, had to take on American heavyweights so we had someone to compete in it.

When I was a small boy the great heavyweight bouts were global events of extraordinary significance. I have a clear memory of listening to them on the radio late in the evening.

So much so, that when I was in New York I went to look round the foyer of Madison Square Garden, where so many of those great fights were held, just so I could say I had been there. (Admittedly, the recent Clapton and Winwood concert there may have had something to do with it too.)

Time moves on and sports lose popularity. In the first year of this blog's life I wrote:

Thirty years ago the British heavyweight boxing champion was just about the biggest name in sport - think of Henry Cooper. Can you name the current holder of the title without using Google? I can't.

That would have to read 42 years ago today. There are several credible British heavyweights around today, but I have not idea if any of them is British champion.

I fell out of love with boxing when Michael Watson suffered brain damage in a bout with Chris Eubank. That had been an era when there were great British middleweights - Watson, Eubank, Nigel Benn - and their clashes made for wonderful fights.

It was magnificent when Eubank got off the canvass and from God knows where found a punch to knock Watson out and win the fight. But the damage it caused convinced me that professional boxing was insupportable.

I did watch Eubank's son Chris Eubank Jr fight Nigel Blackwell. The younger Eubank is clearly a very talented fighter, but I found the proceedings sickening.

Not just because Blackwell ended up in a coma and almost died, but also because of the dishonesty of the commentators.

It was clear almost at once that Eubank could unload combinations on Blackwell's head at will and that Blackwell lacked the weapons to stop him. Yet the commentators talked up the idea of Blackwell fighting back right up until the point that the fight was stopped.

The nearest equivalent to Muhammad Ali today in talent and personality is Usain Bolt. It is hard to see how a boxer could ever achieve that sort of fame again.

Until things change (and they will), you have to put your money on the next sporting figure to matter beyond sport in the way Ali did being a footballer.

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