A different sort of terrorism
I have never felt so vulnerable.
Usually, your average every day news here in Israel has to do with war in this part of the country or another. Of course, it’s not that it’s not that THAT situation has changed or anything (i.e. siege on the Gaza strip, Kassam rockets, etc.), but suddenly I find myself at a position where, for a change, the most immediate danger I am facing has to do with me being a woman.
One week ago, one of the most dangerous rapists this country has known (probably the most dangerous in the past 10 years) escaped, in central Tel Aviv (and no, I’m not talking about our president). Benny Sela, a vicious and extremly violent serial rapist, terrorised Tel Aviv (and central Israel) women for 2 years before they caught him and brought him to trial about 7 years ago. He recieved the longest prison sentence ever given to a sex offender. Thanks to the disproportional stupidity of Israeli police, he managed to flee on the way to the courthouse in Tel Aviv, a week ago, and has yet to be traced. Sela is highly intelligent and highly psychotic. His M.O. consisted of finding the most practical victim (single women or young girls on their own) and stalking his prey, breaking into their apartments when they were most vulnerable – deep in sleep, alone in the house. He attacked all over Tel Aviv, even at its very hub, as well as other cities in central Israel. His profile indicates it is only a matter of time before he is unable to help himself and starts attacking again. Right now, he could be anywhere.
So, being a young single woman living in a ground floor apartment in the very centre of central Tel Aviv, within about 15 minutes radius of the spot where Sela fled, you can imagine I am feeling a bit hunted these days. Walking home just now from visiting my flatmate at the cafe where she works, I have never felt so jumpy – and most harrowingly, have never yearned more for the presence of (friendly) male company. This perhaps pisses me off the most, being a fairly feminist and independant chick, to find myself feeling so dependant on males.
Sexual terrorism is so rampant in the middle east and yet it seems to get much less attention than political terrorism – is being picked out and namelessly victimized for your gender any less outrageous than being victimized for your nationality?
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Following up on previous posts regarding Darfur, I thought I’d add my bit. The subject of Darfur is actually rather unfamiliar here in Israel – which is extremely ironic. Perhaps even more ironic and cynical is the fact that some refugees from Darfur have ended up in Israel, coming via Egypt – and they have been imprisoned for being citizens of a so called enemy state. So a state that has been founded by survivors of genocide, legitimized in part by that genocide, is paying attention to the victims of another genocide solely by treating them as criminals and locking them up. Nice.
What is worst is that I find that hardly anyone knows about this (hardly anyone knows what Darfur is), seems we are selfishly preoccupied with our own internal problems, when we are the people who have the biggest moral obligation to aid in this matter.
I did this simple composition as part of a Photographics class assignment last week, and hung it it up in the design school hall with some other compositions, with intent to be provocative and insert the name Darfur into people’s conciousness, make them research what it means, and make them think about who we are and what are the moral duties stemming from our roots. The image should be quite familiar, I think, and the text translates to “Darfur is here” which is also a bit of a paraphrase on an Israeli slogan from a few years back about the Occupied Territories (yesha) “Yesha is here”.
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Very interesting, both parts. I assumed Israelis would be naturally sympathetic to Darfuris, since they both regard themselves as victims of Arab Muslim-sponsored terrorism. Though, the Darfuris have it worse, without doubt.
The part about sexual terrorism is very poignant, though I’m sure the situation for women is better in Israel than it is in places like Cairo, Baghdad, and Damascus. I think regular harrassment is more prevalent in the Arab cities, but violent crimes like rape are probably lower.
Warning: The following comment is humungous. I feel passionately about this issue and can relate to this “sexual terrorism.”
I generally agree with Patrick.
Not with this statement, though.
It is often said that Bahrain has the most amount of rapes in the Gulf, and I don’t think I have much of a reason to deny that.
When you know more than two rape victims personally, you just know that the situation is BAD, especially since both of them couldn’t do much about it. If you go to the police station, they don’t even issue a statement about this. They apologize, and tell you off. As a matter of fact, there have been cases where police men themselves were accused and proven guilty of rape. Victims have nowhere to go.
The chances of women getting raped in Bahrain, and I would say the Gulf in general, is really high. If you’re a single woman, and you’re driving back alone from a gathering at a friend’s house or a late dinner, you’re going to be followed. It has always happened to me, I don’t remember a time where my heart doesn’t beat in fear while driving back home late at night. I hate being followed, mostly because I know that if something happens to my car, I will most likely be attacked/raped/robbed.
These sorts of issues are rarely ever covered in the media, so people tend to ignore them, and that’s why nothing is being done about it. No campaigns, no activists, and surprisingly not even the victims want to share their stories and prevent these things from happening in the future, because being raped harms your reputation badly. You’re no longer a “virgin,” and no one wants to marry a rape victim. You wouldn’t be pure enough.
Like Patrick said, I don’t think it’s this bad in Israel. In Muslim societies it’s much worse, and men get away with a lot. Can you even imagine what must be happening in Saudi Arabia if the law is almost always on the man’s side? Women usually have to live with this. If you get raped, you’re forced to swallow your pride. Your reputation will be stained for life. No one wants that, so women bottle it up, which is what both of the women I know did for the sake of their own reputation. I know they’re suffering because of this, though. It’s not an easy secret to keep.
It’s worth noting that it’s not only women who get raped – men do too, especially young boys. There have been many of these cases in the Arab world which we rarely ever know about, I usually hear about these things through human rights conferences where people share their personal stories, many of which are just horrific. Very depressing that nothing is being done about most of the issues raised.
I don’t even wanna talk about all the forced prostitution – that just angers me too much. It’s the worst kind of rape ever; they have no home to go back to, and they get raped more than once on a daily basis for someone else to make money out of their torture.
There is no support, and a ZERO tolerance policy. The law is never on their side because these prostitutes (mostly Asians and Eastern Europeans) are there illegally anyways, they have no “right” to be in the country to begin with, and if they report themselves, they will go to jail, which has happened. Even in Dubai, as surprising as that may sound. And that’s IF they escape, which they never do, that’s why we never hear about it.
Some of them were smuggled as a result of the Balkan wars, too, like the Albanians for example. Girls as young as 12 were sent to our countries to be abused by perverted disgusting pigs. OK, I said I won’t talk about this and I did, and now I’m fuming.
I never heard the term “sexual terrorism” before, but it’s a good way to describe these things. War is not the only thing that leaves us emotionally scarred. Imagine how many women get raped, and how many men get away with it, especially in the Arab and Muslim world. If you combine all of these numbers, I assure you, it’s a new war of itself. Too many people end up getting hurt, even killed sometimes. War is not the only threat to our existence. We measure the importance of things through media, and we don’t realize the fact that this contributes to our overall corruption as human beings.
In the Gufl, I think our laws are pretty weak and vague when it comes to this, mostly because we’re denying the fact that this happens often, but I don’t think as often as it happens in places like India and Pakistan. I read somewhere that the number of men who get away with rape per year is like, a dozen thousand, or something just as shocking, and at least 5 women in that region get raped per hour. I need to pull up the stats again, lots of female scholars wrote about this but people have to dig for such info. These essays and studies never comes to you, you always have to go out of your way in order to find it. I guess people don’t consider it important enough to include in magazines and journals.
And apparently that invites a zero amount of coverage.
Someone is going to make a documentary about this one day, maybe 10 years from now, and people will say, “WHAT WERE WE DOING 10 YEARS AGO?”
Same thing happened with Rwanda. If Hollywood pays attention, everyone will. We’re just that pathetic.
This made me laugh very hard, by the way.
I think rape rate in South Asia are the highest, well that’s just based on reported cases. Considering how only a very few woman will come forward gives me a sick feeling in my stomach… I don’t know why, but I just feel so useless knowing this. Why isn’t this being the topic of discussion by the media or anyone important considering the number of victims out there.
If I ever talk about it, the women themselves will shut me down, so I can’t even get support from the group that is most affected by this the most. These selfish women make me very mad.
The societies in South Asia and Middle East makes me sick considering how they punish the victim rather than the criminal. Even if the law punishes the criminals, the society will punish the victim till the day she dies.
I also know few rape victims and I sometimes wish I was old enough to understand it when it happened, so I could have done something about it. Every time I think about it I just feel so sick to my stomach and useless, but I know I couldn’t have prevented it. Things like this makes me hate men in general. Well just another group of people to hate for me, I guess.
I consider humans as scums and men are at the top of the list.
Classic Jina quote.
This thread gives me an idea for a new campaign. I shall start working as soon as the new MEY is up. If no one’s doing anything about this, I can’t just complain about that, I have to at least give it a shot.
I agree that we should do something about it and I think calling it as “sexual terrorism” is very valid.
I vote for the “sexual terrorism ” as a start point for a t-shirt. I am definitely interested in buying some cheap t-shirts for my students as rewards, but they will have to be appropriate.
Honestly I didn’t think much about women’s rights until we had our second daughter. And then I really was struck by the fact that I had to think about things, like equality that I hadn’t really thought about. Of course Keiko and were both Bahais and we knew the teachings were very clear on the rights of women above men, in one case. and predictions that there will not be peace until women achieve equal political power. But those teachings were small comfort in dealing with a non Bahai world of Southern California.
) I have posted on this topic before, so I shouldn’t repeat myself.
Then when we decided to come to Japan, as far as women’s rights go, it was like going back to the US in the 1950′s (just to pick a date
We first lived in one of the more beautiful parts of Northern Japan. And there are old temples nearby, and a castle park, and the crime rate (certain kinds of crime) were very very low, and the friendly people, and the kind people. But my wife had something happen to her that she HAD NEVER HAD HAPPEN IN DIRTY, CRIME RIDDEN, DISGUSTING LOS ANGELES.
Go and ask your Japanese female friends if they have never been sexually harassed. I wonder what their answers will be. And second where did they live.
It is of course the recent experience that made me think of the awful situation my female neighbours of the region must go through in the less feminist societies around me, and think of the concept of sexual terrorism. I tend to think that Israel, as a fairly liberal Western minded place and supposed democracy, doesn’t have it as bad as other Middle Eastern states in sexual terrorism, though I couldn’t be 100% sure on that. After all, our own government is ridden with sexual offenders, just look at what is preoccupying the media these days – our own president is on trial for rape, not to mention the previous minister of Justice (!!!)… I for one, have never been raped but I’ve been sexually harassed twice, once at a place of employment and the second time at a busy bus station in the middle of the day. The first time, I was 17 and complained to the boss, and was convinced not to say anything because “he has a wife and children, he is very sorry, he didn’t mean anything bad” (so if he’s such a family man why did he corner a teenager in a secluded room and tried to kiss her?). Many girls I know have stories like that, and it amazes me to realize what a blase attitude we have about it, it is just an accepted part of life. This whole Benny Sela issue also highlighted the backwards attitude we have here in Israel – not only did it bring up so many stories about other rapists (we have never had a serial killer but we have plenty serial rapists!) but I didn’t know what short sentences, in my opinion, sex offenders get here. Sela, as I mentioned in the post, got the longest sentence ever given to a sex offender – of 35 years, for 13 charges of rape (there were many more but the evidence didn’t hold up in court for some). Do you know when he committed the rapes he got the 35 years for? in between his 1 to 2 year prison sentences that he got for previous sexual offences. And what’s 35 years for a monster like that? he was 28 when jailed. So when he’s 63 he’ll be free – he has plenty more time to go about raping freely, a beast like that should never be let out in society.. and he’s the only rapist to ever get this much, the rest will be out much sooner. This is outrageous to me. And all this is a matter that involved more of the upper class (Sela operated in hip young Tel Aviv mostly) so it got a lot of attention, there is plenty that goes on in the poorer parts of the country that is even unreported. So I’m not altogether sure the situation is that better off here.
And if we mention the sex trade – I am so embarassed to say that Israel is one of the top countries (if not the world leader) in human trafficking of the female persuasion.
This goes largely unpublicized, it has only recently been spotted by Amnesty and world organizations, and this exactly why it has flourished here. It is atrocious – the women are kidnapped under this pretense or another from Eastern Europe (usually they are promised lucrative work in Israel so they can finance their poor families) by brokers who transfer them to Bedouins who move them across the Israeli-Egyptian border which is fairly unsecured, to the Israeli pimps. The transfer process includes walking in the desert with hardly any food or water for weeks, being raped and abused by the bedouins in charge on the way – and when they are given to the Israeli pimps they fair no better. They are hostaged in Tel Aviv apartments, physically abused and forced to prostitute for a few dozen shekels a client (15-20 clients a day). A while ago, a few East European hostage prostitutes died in a fire that broke out in the apartment their pimp locked them in.
And this is so widespread – here in Tel Aviv, the cars get filled every night with advertisments for “discreet massages” (I flick this cards off my windshield several times a day).
It is nothing other than terrorism indeed. I feel the graphic design wheels in my head starting to turn already..
Very descriptive of the Israeli armed forces and national tendencies. Since the whole is comprised of the parts, is it any surprise that Sela’s is a perfect mirror image of the so-called State of Israel?
I wouldn’t say better, but I think it’s much easier for women there to do something about it. You can raise charges and actually win a case. For us, you raise charges and all you get is humiliation, and a horrible reputation to go with it. Really, you are hardly framed as the victim. People claim that you must’ve “asked for it” because of the way you dress, the way you look, or the fact that you were driving alone late at night. I think Israelis are generally more open-minded when it comes to this, and the law isn’t half as corrupt. I mean if even the president himself is being charged for this, think of what happens in a society where ANYONE with connections can get away with anything, including murder. It happens all the time. Hell, even torturers in political prisons have gotten away with everything despite the overwhelming amount of evidence of their rape, abuse, etc.
We had a time period where hundreds of females were raped, many of which were below the age of 25. They were daughters and wives of political prisoners. Everyone got away with it. How are we not supposed to live in constant fear when the system is that corrupt?
Lilu, Jina and I are seriously thinking of starting a campaign, possibly sometime around the 20th of December after our new site is running. Do you think you can be our representative from Israel? Reporting these facts from there, showing that Israel is no better off than the rest of its neighbours? It’s very important to provide an official source for this. Currently, there is none on the internet that focus on our region and we’d like to change that.
[Edited] How can there be cases, and convictions on the one hand and systematic refusal to accept complaints.
[Edited some more.]
I’ve edited your immature insults and leave it up to you to grow up the next time you choose to write a comment.
As for your concern:
Who refused to accept complaints? I’m talking about irresponsibility here. The police can rarely ever do something about these situations because they don’t have the technology (or even energy) required to investigate on these matters. The police will not make a big deal mainly because I don’t think they regard this as a serious crime, the attitude has always been “oh, you were raped? that’s unfortunate, just be careful next time.” I have both met and heard of women who had these reactions. There is no protection against these things. Nothing is being done to decrease the amount of rape in the country.
I love IP checks:
inetnum: 82.194.62.0 – 82.194.62.63
Asphaltic (AKA kkbhandarkar,) you sexist loner (who could ever forgive your comments in this post?) I knew it was only a matter of time before you start posting under a new name.
You are very embarrassing, and to think that you consider yourself a “grown man.” What are you doing on the internet insulting young women with opinions? Shouldn’t you be beating your wife and watching Iqraa TV instead?
Chauvinistic men like you disgust me greatly.
“Uri” (Asphaltic) is sidetracking to an unrelated place. Israeli militarism is not the issue. This is about being a woman in the Middle East, or being a woman anywhere for that matter (or not even neccesarily being a woman as not just woman are subject to sexual abuse and to national ignorance about it). Sela’s sexual terrorism has nothing to do with nationality and being Israeli, only about being a sick psychotic human being – he is motivated by psychosis and not ideology.
Esra’a, I think a campaign focusing on sexual abuse in the ME is a great idea and I would love to take part, I just hope I can do it justice with my busy schedule (I barely even find the time to blog..). I’d focus on human trafficking mostly as far as Israel goes. Fill me in on the details please! and why are we paying any attention to sad and bored weirdos like Asphaltic…????
Asphaltic is a “grown” Bahraini man who has something against opiniated and independent women. I’d love nothing more than to ignore this troll, but some of these sick fools need to be confronted because I know of their kind. They’re scattered around the Arab world like roaches, poisoning young minds with their ignorance and idiocy. I think he’s developing a phobia against female bloggers, I know I’m not the only one he annoys with his insults and threats.
You definitely don’t need to worry about time management, I don’t think this will take up much of your time. You can for example e-mail me any article you find and either Jina or I will post them depending on who’s free at the time. We do this with most of our campaigns. Despite me being a student with a part-time job, I always need to make some time for the campaigns that Mideast Youth leads, so you can count on me to post everything you don’t have the time to post, and then you can comment on these issues when time allows you to.
I think you might be able to find a lot of articles about this in Israel, you may just need to do some extra research and maybe talk to the appropriate organizations about these things. I’m sure someone, somewhere, has the same concerns and wants to do something about it, so what I’ll be focusing on is finding those people and try to get as much info as I can about it. The only problem is that I’ll need to double check things for accuracy (personal stories, reports, etc) before posting, and sometimes we don’t have the info required to make sure everything is factual.
It’s great that you’re willing to help out though.
Asphaltic/Uri
You are not a man, you are a coward.
Edit: Below is the rantings of a lonely chauvinist geezer. Beware.
You’d better remember have the horrorto which you and your state subject the Palestinians 24/7 since 60 years. Wrap up and leave the land you have, it it not yours. God does not weald a physical stick. And till the rest of the Israel rapists of people to leave with or before you from Palestine. It is not yours.
You and your Bahraini ‘girl friend’ i.e. serf should now realize how important a man is for your own security and your feeling of it, suckers.
You should realize how important a woman is for your own existence, you pitiful child. Why are you so bitter towards females, especially those who apparently outsmart you?
You impress me by being so reckless about what happens to Palestinians and concentrate all your energy on pitiful/imagined complaints growing at the speed of weed in your head; both by the daily dose of poisons ingested in you by your Israeli friends, i.e. masters, and by the cancer inside which you refuse to have excised by IqraaTV.
It appears to be that you were the very same guy who was harassing me in the Israel/Bahrain relations thread. Seems to me that you’re a racist loon who a) never refuted any argument directed against your rants, b) hates women, and c) spews hatred towards our Israeli friends, even though some of them are pro-Palestinian.
If you weren’t so illiterate, you’d know that almost all of the Arabs here are passionately pro-Palestinian. How is this website in any way supporting the Zionist movement, something you constantly claim? Why, because we choose to speak to fellow Israelis? Because we consider them our friends? Because we’re interested in their culture and beliefs? Is learning and promoting dialogue amongst conflicting nations such a crime?
If you keep your trolling up, we have no choice but to ban your IP. That should teach you a valuable lesson called “grow the fuck up.”
This is my 6th warning to you now. Every comment of yours has been against our comment policy and all of us have eaten enough of your shit. That’s it, no one’s going to be nice to you anymore, your IP will be the very first (and hopefully last) to be banned from viewing and posting on this website. Congratulations on this world record. Surely we’re not the only ones to do this. You have a long history of being a jerk.
That’s only the way women fancy about having sex with a man. They do not till about it when it’s about having it with birds of the same feather. They wake up beleiving it only when it’s had with a man.
Wow, you’re sick.
Walla fesheelih bint al Bahrain titlaffad bhalwaqahaat.
How nice, how was it like?
Roo7 wal, 7ata ma7mood gal inak mob rayal. Yahil, o akthar min yahil ba3ad. Main chayif roo7ik? Leish itkalim il niswan chithee? 3abalik akhaf minak? Wein il i7tram will “objectivity,” hah?
Wallah tlawi3 chabdee.
Consider your IP banned.
Befriending the enemy is High Treason. Never commit it.
… Says the wife-beater.
Okay, this child has been banned from posting now. How ironic Asphalic, you’ve been silenced by a woman! Mwahaha. Welcome to the future.
A cold fish once worte: I consider humans as scums and men are at the top of the list.
A man replied: You stink! shut up.
I am a man, men don’t hit women. You must be a pussy if you are beating up a woman… do you also beat up little boys?
You do realize that he also justified rape in this thread, right? Implying that women secretly want it.
The only thing women secretly want is his crotch on fire.
Esra’a, I dare contest your description of this dude, his use of unsophisticated female body part obscenities kinda proves he is not a grown Baharaini man but rather a small (I’ll go with you on Baharaini) child or teenager who didn’t hear that Beavis and Butthead have been out of fashion years ago. He is quite the waste of online space and your energy, as he gets his kicks thinking he is making any sort of influence on someone and therefore will find any way to override the IP bans and keep vying for attention. The only way to get rid of him, like those boys in grade school, is to just let him vent and ignore it for the flatulence that it is until he realizes we don’t wanna play and grows tired of this site, then he will go elsewhere.
It gives me an idea for a post about the sad state of bored Middle Eastern teenagers though (the leaders of tomorrow etc. etc.)
But hey, Baharaini kid, thanks for upping the popularity of this thread! 31 comments, though most sadly unrelated to the important issue at hand, but who cares what the means are when the topic is such an important one! woo hoo!
Oh I know. Our youth is pretty corrupt in that sense. I’m still in denial when it comes to that, it’s a hard thing to accept.
In any case though its posts will continue to be deleted. I have alerted other moderators about it and they’ll just help me clean things up by deleting anything posted by this spam bot immediately.
From now on if you see him/her/it posting, ignore the thing. This is what happens with our unemployed, you see. Just pray that one day this thing will get a life.
Anyways, I’ll keep you updated on the campaign. We got the necessary domains yesterday.
Our youth is a sad state as well, I am really worried about them being responsible for my social security needs when I’m old and frail. (Jees, how old are we that we are talking this way??????)
Anyhow, Beavis’ll probably disappear soon on his own, once his mom gets her next electricity and phone bill there will probably be consequences to face. Too bad though, I was beginning to grow fond of his presence, he’s making us Israelis look good..
(ok I know I shouldn’t stoop so low but I just couldn’t help myself)
Don’t worry, this child hardly represents our majority.
I’d like to think so, anyways.
What an interesting article – and what amusing comments!
Lilu – defend yourself. Seriously… there are plenty of reasonably priced self-defense classes in TA. Learn kung-fu (the ability to castrate a man in 0.2 seconds does wonders to your feeling of personal security). Buy pepper-spray (120 NIS per can, 80 NIS with discount). Buy a modified cattle prod/baton.
Or just ask my wife to walk you around – we live in the same area. She has a brown belt in Judo and was a hand-to-hand combat instructor in the army
I’m thinking of going to Iran so they can train me using those “Israeli vases.” Lilu should come too.
Raccoon, I got the pepper spray today (38 NIS, 30 with discount… where did you see at 80 NIS? they ripped you off
). As for male castration, well some guys I went out with may testify to my abilities in that area, and I don’t need a cattle prod – as a graphic design student I am well trained in the use of a cutting knife, and have plenty of them lying around the house.
All this doesn’t matter though – I still feel threatened, knowing this is a violent psycho, he is simply unpredictable and that is what terrifies me so much. I wake up 5 times a night expecting to see a figure over my bed. It’s the idea of the guy being out there, and no amount of pepper spray will ever fix that.
Lilu – uhm, I was talking of the pepper-spray gun, not can… as a Raccoon I don’t have enough memory space to hold all the info for a complete and coherent sentence together in my mind
Seriously, though, this whole Benny Sella hysteria is just too much. It’s one guy on 3 million women… given the ages, let’s say even a million women. One guy on a million women. You have a better chance of your ancient Bauhaus building’s roof collapsing and crushing you to death than being attacked by Benny Sella. You have an immeasurably greater chance of being run over while crossing Ibn Gvirol than being crushed by the roof of your house. Being scared of Benny Sella is like being scared of sharks on the beaches of Tel Aviv. I mean, sure, it can happen… but is extremely unlikely. The man’s psychological evaluation states that he will not try to rape anyone while under pressure… and I think that being hunted by a whole state is quite a stressing experience.
You fell victim to media hype
Seriously, though, I believe that if women were more capable of defending themselves, violence against women would decrease. If every potential rapist or just an ars who feels like harrassing a woman would know that she’s probably able to turn him into a whimpering pile of broken bones, sexual harrassement would stop.
My Egyptian friends use old spray deodorant. Only one of them ever had to use it before. There’s no pepper spray where we are.
The thing is, when someone’s robbing or attacking you at gun point, you really can’t do much.
Actually, I can do back flips, does this count? He’d be too amazed to shoot.
I might actually get an applause rather than a gun shot. I can train myself to be a smooth talker. “Hey, what’s up? How are you these days? How about you handing me that gun, eh?”
Esra’a -
Uhm. Standard advise for women threatened with rape is “be as disgusting as you can be”. Defecate and urinate on yourself. Stick two fingers down your throat a vomit. Sure to serve as a turn-off.
There really isn’t much you can against a gun… unless you have one of your own and are the fastest ‘slinger in the East. And if you’re being robbed at gunpoint… well… some cash is well worth a bullet-hole-free existence. When I was traveling in robbery-prone areas, I carried two wallets – a hidden one with my real stuff and a fake one with some money. Just in case
PS
Backflips and smooth-talking… you COULD probably amaze any potential attacker into a stupor
Now Esra’a, and in a gesture of goodwell towards you, I invite you respectfully to read the real me defending a woman under my other pseudo (Haji Zaal) in Mahmood’s Den (on 03 Dec 2006 at 10:27 pm Haji Zaal). Here is the link: http://mahmood.tv/?p=2985#comment-68476. She became subject to unfair treatment there, as you will surmount by yourself.
I have the honour to lend support to worthwhile causes. I am not sexist. If there was anything right about Israel, or if it ever has any right to exist, I would be a staunch supporter of her. It so happens that I think that it has no right to exist in the form it is.
Now would you please stop calling me names? If you upset others, they have a right to react. Only pigs go to the slaughterhouse quite happily and by the million every year. I guess that’s why you fight for what you think is right. Allow me to do the same, please.
Khalas? Truce?
Maybe from now on I should walk around with shit-stains, so that the only looks I get are the “ewww” ones, which I wouldn’t mind as much.
Asphaltic, you are sounding more mature now. This is your first post in this blog that isn’t directly insulting.
Most Arabs here are not supporters of Israel, but you need to learn how to distinguish between the Israeli government and the Israeli people. You can’t claim that we’re traitors to our people and our faith merely because we choose to befriend the “enemy.” You insulted Lilu just because she’s Israeli, and that is not acceptable. You also insulted Jina many times even when he politely corrected you when you thought he was a woman.
You are frustrated with what’s going on, and we understand that. All of us are just as frustrated, as Arabs and as Israelis, but this is how we choose to deal with things. Nothing is possible without dialogue and understanding. If you don’t agree, and if you wish to remain so hateful, then I don’t think you belong in this blog. This is for people who truly want change.
Everyone here has different opinions about a lot of heated subjects, no one has reacted in the manner which you resorted to. If you recall your first post in this thread, you will understand the reactions. I didn’t even insult you in my first post, I refuted your argument and tried to ignore your harsh insults.
That was before I found out that you were the same guy who has been harassing me and other writers for what seems like weeks now.
You also post under multiple different accounts. The first visit here, you posted as a woman. Remember? You also claimed that your name was “Esra” too. Why can’t you just be yourself?
Don’t try to deny any of these things, instead you should try to apologize and you and I can get along much better. If you deny these things, I can refresh your memory. Everything is saved and attached to the same IP address you’ve been posting under.
Yallah, khalas. Please try to be polite and understanding from now on, I’d really appreciate it. Inta min il ba7rain, i7na ahal.
Note: This comment was originally deleted, but I left this part to make you all hoot with laughter:
I used to commit this mistake in my youth, and you resemble me in that. I am a banker, an executive, an investment manager, a lawyer and a CFA Charter holder, who also attended executive programmes of US business schools, e.g. Columbia, NY, alongside CEO’s of Furtune US companies..
Stop treating your visitors as high school students, and yourself as a drunken preacher of righteousness.
Yeah, and I’m Julia Roberts.
Wait a minute wait a minute -
I know I said I’d ignore the guy but I just have to ask, are we really supposed to believe that an individual who uses such childish profanities as Asphaltic, under his many pseudonyms, greatly used throught this thread, is a mature executive / investment manager / banker / lawyer / graduate of Columbia business school programmes? Someone of that caliber and life experience is surely supposed to have some style, some class, some dignity and self assurance – not to mention a decent knowledge of the English language – and should be able to conduct a civilised and enlightened discussion with minimum of respect and open mindedness to his audience. I should also think such a person would have quite the busy schedule to be chatting online all day, under so many nicknames and IP addresses.
Sorry, I don’t buy it. I saw the comments that were deleted – that is not the doing of a respectful grown up. I’d take anything he says with a BIG grain of salt.
Racoon – I didn’t know there was a pepper spray gun, but in any case it sounds a bit heavy to put on a keychain… I’m fine with my can so far.
Look, I know the statistics and the psychological profile on Sela, but I can’t help but have my misgivings for several reasons. First of all, alot of it is publicized by the police – and hey, can you blame me if I’m skeptical about anything those inept morons say these days? Second of all, everyone seems to agree that Sela is very intelligent and also unable to control himself for too long and at some point he will attack again. As more time goes by and he is free, that possibility is getting closer, and if he is still in Tel Aviv he is just as likely to do it in the center where I live (where he has operated before). I’m sort of in the victim profile – single girl, ground floor apartment, quiet street in the center, alone at home alot. Bottom line, he is a psycho, therefore unpredictable – and as a woman, knowing what he did to his other victims, the possibilty of what might happen if I should be so unlucky is paralysing. No offence but maybe this is something only a woman can really understand – how frightening just the idea of being raped is. And as for his stress – he is also profiled as narcisist and megalomaniac, and even I don’t have any faith in the police – so the guy who so easily managed to outwit them (and still does!), I’m not sure he’s feeling that stressed right now. I’m willing to bet as more time goes by, his confidence is probably just growing.
I’m not usually much of a wuss, I travelled with confidence by myself in more third world countries than Israel with much worse treatment to women, and it’s not that I’m planning to flee the city or anything.. but I called it terrorism for a reason – it’s the same anxiety that I feel when there’s predictions of terrorist attacks and I’m riding the bus. The danger is there but unpredictable, and therefore leaves me feeling helpless, that’s what makes it so bad.
Or girl, at this point we don’t know for sure, he’s posted under everything. An Israeli, a woman, a self-hating Jew, and now a banker/lawyer/rapist.
Anyways, I saw this documentary once about the right way to attack. Okay, it wasn’t a documentary. It was anime. But it helped. If you feel unsafe, you should always keep your weapon of choice within reach. For me that’s difficult to do, I mean, let’s say you’re walking alone in the street. You’re clutching your purse. A guy comes, out of nowhere, unexpectedly, I’d have to deal with my shock first. He’d see me reaching out for something in my bag and he’d probably karate my ass to the floor.
That’s why I think shit stains are the best.
In all seriousness, I’d be totally helpless in this kind of situation. I’m very light, if I even attempted to punch his face I’d break my own knuckles.
I’m a fast runner though. I outrun street dogs. But if he had a gun, which most do, it wouldn’t be wise to run.
I would think so, too. I have similar feelings often. Hell, I hear about rapists and murders in neighboring countries and I pay extra attention to where I go and what I do. It’s just an automatic reaction.
That’s the worst part, not having faith in those who are supposed to protect you. I’d say that’s how most women who go through this must feel, especially if the police have yet to prove that they’re capable of helping you in that kind of situation.
Yeah, the police have once again proven themselves to be a bunch of useless neanderthals. Disgusting, really – it would have been comic if it wasn’t so sad. They are likely to help you if they can… but they are a bunch of bumbling fools with inflated egos, by and large.
And yeah, it’s probably something that doesn’t resonate too much with men. I am a large Raccoon, and harrassement from civilians is not something I generally have to fear.
But seriously – people, and especially women, ignore martial arts all too often. It’s a pity. I know my niece is starting to learn kung-fu as soon as she’s 3 years of age. My brother wouldn’t have it any other way (nor would I).
And Esra’a – there are techniques for dealing with surprise… and most situations… in martial arts. Wish I could outrun dogs, though
I cheat. But I can’t reveal my special techniques in public.
Street dogs are awful. Everyone in my village goes through shit because of them.
Hey, I tried. I failed miserably. I couldn’t physically take it anymore. You won’t find anyone doing this really professionally where I’m from. Or rather, you won’t find affordable ones who do. With the several clubs I tried this with, you leave the first day of class with a broken nose, displaced shoulder, deformed face, low self-esteem, etc. I dreaded it. I’d actually rather be attacked than go through these lessons weekly.
Mr. Raccoon do you know any good videos that sort of teach this? My friend can kick a lot of ass but she is 100% self-taught. Apparently she learns through videos. She never tells me which ones, she’s one of those arrogant “just for me” types.
Hmmm. Mr. Raccoon sounds extremely weird – how can you call someone who eats garbage “mr”?
Hmmm… it’s a bit of a problem if you don’t have any good clubs. I was lucky – my father has second dan in Karate, and a good soul from my kibbutz is a kung-fu master. Maybe someone in your family knows someone reliable that can teach you the basics? Or get a bunch of women together a hire a private teacher? Once you have the basics, you can develop the rest yourself from watching people and animals fight. Especially cats – they have some amazing ways to tackle larger predators.
Some pain is, I am afraid, inevitable. Shouldn’t be quite as bad as you’ve described, though… but both my teachers always joked that martial arts are for masochists. Especially in the beginning – it’ll hurt and it’ll be humiliating. Well worth it, though… I fondly remember the moment I cracked my kung-fu teacher’s ribs (not on purpose, of course) after 5 years of having the floor wiped with me
And sorry, I don’t know any videos for it. Uhm. I am not sure how much you can learn from tutorials – usually, a teacher or at least a sparring partner are vital.
Nah, they’re all midgets. Actually my sister does that thing, what do you call it, the combination of yoga and boxing. Her Filipino friend kicked the hell out of her attackers – 2 big guys tried to rob her and she pretty much sent them to the hospital. I should ask her to teach me some basic moves.
I shall start observing.
Martial arts is good, but is not good in a street fight. Maybe if I ever come to where you live I’ll teach you. Growing up in a ghetto teaches you stuff.
watch this vidio of israeli force hitting two terrorists on the night of 14.01.07
http://one.revver.com/watch/144448
Just how should Isreal treat Darfuri refugees? These Darfuri, unlike the southern Sudanese are muslims who just a few years ago were sworn to destroy Isreal at the behest of their Arab masters. Why is it these particular muslims cannot seek refuge in some nearby Arab muslim country among their muslim brothers?????????