Obama to Netanyahu: Jerusalem Must Be Divided Again!

By Findalis


During the campaign, then candidate Obama said the following at an address of AIPAC:

Let me be clear. Israel's security is sacrosanct. It is non-negotiable. The Palestinians need a state that is contiguous and cohesive, and that allows them to prosper — but any agreement with the Palestinian people must preserve Israel's identity as a Jewish state, with secure, recognized and defensible borders. Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided.

It seems that is another lie from this Master of Lies. For now it is US Policy to hand over to the Palestinians all of East Jerusalem, including one of the most holiest sites in Judaism: The Western Wall.

The United States State Department made it clear Tuesday that Jewish neighborhoods in eastern Jerusalem are “settlements,” which U.S. President Barack Obama has called “illegitimate."

U.S. officials previously have used the term “settlement” to describe the Har Homa neighborhood, opposite the neighborhood of Gilo on the southern end of Jerusalem. Like French Hill, Ramot and eastern Talpiot, it was restored to Israel in the Six Day War in 1967 and officially annexed to Jerusalem in 1980. Approximately 300,000 Jews live in these neighborhoods.

Reporters covering the daily State Department press briefing have recently asked tough-than-usual questions concerning what they see as the United States trying to determine the future borders of a Palestinian Authority state instead of allowing Israel and the PA to negotiate directly.

In Tuesday’s session, reporters peppered State Department assistant spokesman Robert Wood with questions on how the Obama administration can continue to insist on a halt to all building for Jews in eastern Jerusalem as well as Judea and Samaria in light of solid support from within Israel for Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.

Netanyahu told the Cabinet this week that Israel has complete sovereignty over all of Jerusalem and decides issues such as building permits. Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon declared on Tuesday, “Israel will continue to operate in accordance with its vital national interests... Our right to rule and develop Jerusalem is irrefutable.”

Even Intelligence Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor, one of the most dovish Likud Knesset Members, who previously has favored the idea of surrendering the strategic Golan Heights to Syria, took up the cause for Jerusalem Tuesday.

So now the sovereignty of Jerusalem, the capital of Israel, is to be placed in the hands of terrorists. No longer will Jews be allowed to worship or live in Jerusalem. No longer will Jewish homes, schools and synagogues be allowed to remain standing. And the Western Wall will once again be used as a urinal as it was under Jordanian rule.

It seems that Obama never learned history in those fancy schools that he attended. So here is a little history lesson for him:

Before 1865, the entire population of Jerusalem lived behind the Old City walls (what today would be considered part of the eastern part of the city) Later, the city began to expand beyond the walls because of population growth, and both Jews and Arabs began to build in new areas of the city.

By the time of partition, a thriving Jewish community was living in the eastern part of Jerusalem, an area that included the Jewish Quarter of the Old City. This area of the city also contains many sites of importance to the Jewish religion, including the city of David, the Temple Mount and the Western Wall. In addition, major institutions like Hebrew University and the original Hadassah hospital are on Mount Scopus, in eastern Jerusalem.

The only time that the eastern part of Jerusalem was exclusively Arab was between 1949-1967, and that was because Jordan occupied the area and forcibly expelled all the Jews. Jerusalem is one issue on which the views of Israelis are unanimous: The city must remain the undivided capital of Israel.

Israel will never give up one inch of Jerusalem. Not today, tomorrow, next week, next year, not ever.

As Eliezer ben Yisrael wrote:

For the first time since the year 70, there is now complete religious freedom for all in Jerusalem. For the first time since the Romans put a torch to the Temple, everyone has equal rights (You prefer to have some more equal than others.) We loathe the sword- but it was you who forced us to take it up. We crave peace, but we are not going back to the peace of 1948 as you would like us to.

We are home. It has a lovely sound for a nation you have willed to wander over the face of the globe. We are not leaving. We are redeeming the pledge made by our forefathers: Jerusalem is being rebuilt. "Next year" and the year after, and after, and after, until the end of time- "in Jerusalem"!

President Obama remember these words:

Jerusalem is being rebuilt. "Next year" and the year after, and after, and after, until the end of time-
"in Jerusalem"!

Yerushalaim Shel Zahav (Jerusalem of Gold)



View at YouTube

Sphere: Related Content

Cure For Radiation Sickness

by Findalis


What started out as a cure for radiation sickness resulting from cancer therapy, could become a weapon against the effects of a dirty bomb or nuclear weapon detonated by a terrorist group.

Medication that can protect humans against nuclear radiation has been developed by Jewish-American scientists in cooperation with a researcher and investors from Israel. The full story behind the dramatic discovery will be published in Yedioth Ahronoth's weekend edition.

The ground-breaking medication, developed by Professor Andrei Gudkov – Chief Scientific Officer at Cleveland BioLabs - may have far-reaching implications on the balance of power in the world, as states capable of providing their citizens with protection against radiation will enjoy a significant strategic advantage vis-à-vis their rivals.

For Israel, the discovery marks a particularly dramatic development that could deeply affect the main issue on the defense establishment's agenda: Protection against a nuclear attack by Iran or against "dirty bomb" attacks by terror groups.

Gudkov's discovery may also have immense implications for cancer patients by enabling doctors to better protect patients against radiation. Should the new medication enable cancer patients to be treated with more powerful radiation, our ability to fight the disease could greatly improve.

Read the full story here.

The implications for the world are enormous. Victims of a Radiological attack could be effectively treated for the effects of Radiation Sickness, thus the terror effect of such an attack would be minimized.

Countries that don't have access to this drug would be at a disadvantage. Countries that threaten nations with nuclear attack who have this drug in their possession are neutralized. In effect, this drug silences Kim Jong Il of North Korea. For although he has a nuclear weapon, with this drug available, the short and long term effects upon the human body is no longer a major worry.

The FDA is expected to approve this drug within a few years. Hope for cancer patients and for the rest of us who worry not if but when some nutcase or terror group gets a hold of nuclear material and tries to destroy a city with it.

Sphere: Related Content

Now I've Seen Everything!

by Findalis

This one has to go into the record books for one of the dumbest criminals ever. There is no other term to use.

A high-ranking white supremacist on the run from US federal authorities was arrested on Monday night in a south Tel Aviv hideout.

33-year-old Micky Louis Mayon, one of America's 100 Most Wanted criminals, and a member of the Ku Klux Klan, was arrested in a Florentine apartment by the National Immigration Authority's newly formed Oz enforcement unit.

Mayon is wanted in the US on charges of racist assaults, setting fire to vehicles belonging to federal agents, and a host of violence incidents.

The Oz unit was acting on intelligence relayed by Interpol, which informed authorities here that Mayon had entered Israel illegally.

He is said to have moved apartments often in order to evade police, but his efforts proved fruitless on Monday when a delicate operation by the Oz unit saw officers break into his hideout and arrest him.

Oz unit members have the powers of a police officer but can only use them in cases of illegal entry into the country.

Mayon was the subject of an American arrest operation in November 2007, but officers soon realized he had flown to Israel on a one-way ticket. Earlier that year, he reportedly fired his gun in the air repeatedly after being involved in an argument with an African-American. US authorities have described him as a dangerous fugitive.

Oz Unit head Tziki Sela said Mayon was surprised to be arrested, but cooperated with the officers. He has been transferred to a Holon jail facility, where he underwent an immigration hearing. He was then taken to an Israel Prison Authority jail facility.

Did he really believe he could pass in Tel Aviv as a Jew or a Zionist? What made him think that he would be safe and secure in Israel?

Maybe Israel will become the new haven for criminals and their like. One day the Israel Oz unit could be apprehending such notables as Osama bin Ladan, the heads of Hamas and Hizbollah, and Ahmadinejad when the people of Iran finally kick him out.

Sphere: Related Content

Making The Truth Known At The UN

By Findalis



The United Nations Human Rights Condemn Jews for All The Evils In the World Council set up a Commission headed by South African Judge Richard Goldstone (an attempt on their part to give the illusion of impartiality) held hearings last week in Geneva. A delgation from Israel attended to give voice to the victims of Hamas' violence.

Bearing Witness to the UN in Geneva: Noam Bedein Presents Sderot’s Case to UN Judges

by Noam Bedein

On July 6th, I traveled to Geneva to testify before the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict. Participating in the delegations were Ashkelon Mayor Benny Vaknin, Dr Alan Marcus the director strategic planning branch in Ashkelon, Ophir Shinhar of Sapir College, and Dr. Mirelda Sidrer who was injured during a rocket attack on a medical facility at the Ashkelon mall.

*From left to right: Ashkelon Mayor Benny Vaknin, Dr. Mirelda Sidrer, Hillel Neuer and Dr. Alan Marcus.

The Israeli delegation also included Noam Shalit, who impassionedly spoke on behalf of his son, Gilad, who was abducted three years ago by Palestinian terrorists and has since been held by Hamas.

The Israeli government officially refused to cooperate with the UN mission, since the UN investigation had already formulated conclusions asserting that Israel had committed war crimes during the December-January war.

At the same time, however, the head of the UN fact finding mission, South African Judge Richard Goldstone, told the Israeli media that he would like to hear both sides of the conflict. "The aim of the public hearings was to let the face of human suffering be seen and to let the voices of the victims be heard."

In preparation for the Geneva hearing, the UN mission invited the Sderot Media Center , a Sderot NGO, to prepare material, footage and information regarding the impact of the Gaza bombardment of the Israeli civilian population in the Negev during the Gaza war. The UN Mission aimed to at obtain an unofficial Israeli perspective.

Before the UN hearing in Geneva, the Israeli delegation received a briefing from Hillel Neuer, head of NGO 'UN Watch.' Neuer provided background on the UN fact finding mission and the agenda of each judge on the UN investigating board.

During the days leading up to the testimony, it was not easy to sleep - as the only resident of Sderot and the western Negev in this delegation, knowing that there would be only 30 minutes to convey how aerial terror has devastatingly impacted the civilian population of Sderot.

At the same time, the UN afforded an opportunity for Sderot Media Center, which specializes in communicating the human story of Sderot and life under continuous rocket terror to decision makers around the world , to finally reach the UN.

While the delegation got ready to testify in the “lion’s den,” it was less than sobering to know that one of the UN judges included Professor Christine Chinkin from London. In a Sunday Times article published on January 11th , Judge Chinkin supported the allegation that “Israel’s bombardment of Gaza is not self defense, it’s a war crime.”

Israeli reporters in Geneva asked hard questions:

Why testify before a such a ‘neutral’ judge who claims that Israel does not have the right to defend her citizens and whose actions “ amount to aggression violating international law and human rights law?"

Why testify when the government of Israel itself has boycotted the investigation which already formulated it allegations against Israel before the investigation commenced?

However, the presence of a UN invited delegation from Israel created a precedent.

Hillel Neuer of UN Watch noted that never in the 16 years of operating in Geneva had there ever been a time when the UN invited and even sponsored a delegation from Israel to give testimony - until now.

This time, the UN provided an opportunity for ordinary people from Israel to make their voices heard across the world. It was an honor as a resident of Sderot to partake in such an event.

Yet the long road to peace and justice for Sderot and Negev residents does not end before a panel of UN judges or a commissioned report.

Residents of Israel who act as witnesses to terror against the Jewish people, are obligated to speak up and convey the experience of what it is like to live under sustained rocket attacks-defined as a terror act and crime against humanity.

*Noam Bedein in the main hall of the UN Headquarters before testifying.

After screening two short videos in front of the panel of UN judges, which depicted the 15 seconds that Sderot residents and their children have to run for their lives when the rocket alarm is activated by impending Gaza rockets, I concluded my presentation with the following thoughts and questions.

“I do not have enough fingers, to count on my hands the amount of times rockets exploded just a few meters from a kindergarten--would any other western democracy in the world tolerate even one rocket being fired towards their territory? Why is it that we must wait, until a kindergarten or classroom packed with children, is struck directly by a rocket in order for Israel to gain international support, to protect and do what is right for our own people?"

US President Barack Obama put it best when he visited a devastated home in Sderot during the 2008 campaign:

"If somebody was sending rockets into my house where my two daughters sleep at night, I’m going to do everything in my power to stop that, and would expect Israel to do the same think."

There were no questions or reactions from the UN judges. We will all have to wait, along with all the residents of southern Israel, to peruse the Geneva verdict on the war when the UN Mission report will be released in September.

*For more news coverage on the Israeli delegation in the UN and SMC's presentation, click on the news sites below:

Ha'aretz: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1098377.html

Israel National News: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/132246

Jerusalem Post: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1246443732048&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull

This Kangaroo court that the UN set up came to their conclusion that Israel had no right attacking Gaza and had committed hundreds of War Crimes. But is that the truth? Let us see:

More facts or more blame?

by Anav Silverman

The UN Fact Finding Mission will likely heap more blame against Israel

The three-week Gaza war has been keeping the UN obsessively busy with months of inquiries and a fact-finding mission into supposed Israeli war crime violations.

In May, the UN came out with a report accusing Israel of “negligence or recklessness” in the Gaza war. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he would seek compensation from Israel for damages amounting to $11 million to UN facilities. Led by Ian Martin, former head of human rights group Amnesty International, the UN inquiry said Israel was at fault for nine incidents where UN property was damaged.

The 184-page report blamed Hamas for one case of damage, stating that a Palestinian rocket fired at a UN warehouse had caused $29,000 in damages, while attributing all other damages to Israel.

Indeed, the report apparently did not point out the millions of dollars in damages that Hamas rockets caused in the southern region of Israel or call for an investigation into the nine Israeli schools that Gaza missiles struck during the war.

Israel’s deputy UN ambassador Daniel Carmon told Reuters that the report was one-sided. “We were really shocked to see a report where the board is limiting itself to the facts of damages only, ignoring the context, ignoring that there is war against terrorism.

According to The Australian, the UN inquiry apparently made no mention of the UN’s initial accusation that Israeli shells directly hit a UN school in Jabaliya, killing more than 40 civilians.

UN officials accused the IDF of firing a mortar rocket at an UNRWA school on January 6, killing 43 people. CNN, France24, China Daily, Indian, Express BBC World, and the Israeli Haaretz all ran headlines stating that an Israeli strike Killed 40 people at UN School. The New York Times added the word “reportedly” in its headline.

Only one international newspaper, the Canadian Globe and Mail came out three weeks later with a follow-up story to the UN allegation, entitled Account of Israeli Attack Doesn’t Hold up to Scrutiny.

Reporter Patrick Martin found that physical evidence and interviews with several eyewitnesses including a teacher in the UNRWA school yard at the time of the shelling revealed that no one inside the compound had been killed. "Those who died were all outside on a street where the mortar shells landed."

According to the Globe and Mail article, the teacher who was interviewed refused to give his name because he said UNRWA staff told him not to talk to news media.

Furthermore, the article points out that John Ging, UNRWA’s operations director in Gaza, blamed Israel for the confusion over where the victims were killed. “Look at my statements...I never said anyone was killed in the school. Our officials never made such allegations.”

‘Clerical error’

Indeed, in the European Observer (Jan. 7), Ging condemned the attack as “horrific” and suggested that Israel knew it was targeting a UN facility. “We have provided the GPS co-ordinates of every single one of our locations,” he told the BBC in response to the alleged Israeli attack on the school. “It’s very clear that these are UN installations.”

Only on February 2, 2009, did the United Nations finally admit that it had made a mistake - calling the misleading statements “a clerical error.” According to Haaretz, Maxwell Gaylord, the UN humanitarian coordinator in Jerusalem, admitted that IDF mortar shells fell in the street near the compound and not in the compound itself. “We would like to clarify that the shelling and all of the fatalities took place outside and not inside the school," said Gaylord.

Meanwhile, the damage had been done. The misleading UN statements and media coverage had led to international outrage with strong condemnations against Israel popping up everywhere.

Not surprisingly, a clerical error of such significance was simply not deemed newsworthy by much of the international press. Except for the Canadian Globe and Mail, and Israeli newspapers including Haaretz, little international media coverage was given to Gaylord’s statements.

By June, the UN Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict was spearheading another investigation. Led by South African Judge Richard Goldstone, the UN investigation has focused its investigation in Gaza, interviewing Hamas along with Palestinians. Israel has refused to cooperate in the investigation, citing anti-Israel bias by the investigation's sponsor, the UN Human Rights Council, who has issued numerous reports on Israeli treatment of Palestinians but little on the Palestinian rocket terror impacting southern Israelis.

The UN fact finding team includes Christine Chinkin, a law professor at the London School of Economics who signed an editorial published in the Sunday Times in January calling the Israeli offensive a war crime.

Come September, when the UN report is due, can one really expect an impartial, objective examination of the Gaza war? The recent comments of a Hamas official perhaps summed it best. In an AP news article (June 9), Ahmed Yousef said that he hoped the UN report would be "like ammunition in the hands of the people who are willing to sue Israeli war criminals."

These are dark days for Israel. Hamas can attack Israeli cities with impunity and the world says nothing, does nothing. But let Israel strike back and the world screams bloody murder. Hamas purposely uses schools, hospitals and mosques as rocket firing bases, training centers and ammo dumps, the media and the world give them a pass on it. Yet International Law is very clear on this issue:

Hamas exploits schools, mosques, hospitals and cultural centers to carry out its attacks in flagrant violation of article 51 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. This factor is minimized or ignored by numerous NGOs, and the emphasis is placed on Israel to avoid civilian casualties. But international law is clear: in cases of human shields, civilian deaths that result are clearly the responsibility of Hamas and not Israel.

Like usual Hamas will be looked upon as a victim of terror while the true victims will be condemned and vilified. Why? Because they are Jews. Because the world (especially those on the left) are upset that they stopped Hitler from destroying the Jews. Because the world would like to finish the job the great Muslim Savior: Adolph Hitler started, but never got to finish.

You can help change this trend. You can write, call or e-mail your Congressman, your Senator, the President, your local newspaper. Tell someone how you feel about this! Remind them that Israel left Gaza in 2005 with the promise that it will bring peace, and that it was the Palestinians who kept attacking Israel, bring upon themselves the destruction that happened in Gaza.

And if you are able to, you can support the Sderot Media Center. The few dollars you donate goes a long way. Just click here and follow the instructions.

And please, remember the people of Sderot in your prayers. Pray for the peace of Israel.

Sphere: Related Content

Sderot: Iran and A Cinemateque

by Findalis



Just 2 separate articles on the occurring violence that is happening in Sderot from Gaza:

Iran too close for Israel's Comfort

by Noam Bedein

While the world follows Iranian developments from the grandstands of YouTube, the people of southern Israel have had front row seats for some time now.

When Iran's protege, Hamas, staged a coup in Gaza that placed 1.4 million Palestinians under 'Hamastan' military rule, no one thought of how southern Israelis would be affected. Located less than one mile away from Sderot, Gaza's dramatic developments would come to affect everyone in the region.

Before Israel disengaged the Jewish communities from Gaza in August 2005, the Palestinian Authority had promised vast properties of some of these communities to Hamas. Four months later, in January 2006, Hamas won a stunning victory in the Palestinian Authority legislative elections, which resulted in the Mecca Accord of March 2007, which obligated the PA to share all foreign assistance with the Hamas organization.

All this placed Hamas in a strategic position from where it could launch attacks on Israel, even before the Hamas military coup.

Iranian Hamas terror tactics have dominated the lives of the people of Sderot. A town battered by sustained attacks for eight years, Sderot has become the only city to remain under continuous siege in the 21st century.

Sderot woman overlooks her home, damaged in a Qassam attack during the recent Gaza war.

Photo: Noam Bedein

In 2008 alone, the Hamas-controlled Gaza regime fired over 3,300 rockets, mortars and Grads towards the Western Negev and southern Israel, 50 percent more than the previous year.

Five months after Operation Cast Lead, Hamas has fired over 215 rockets during the Hamas-Israel 'ceasefire.' Is anyone even keeping track of the number of failed ceasefires that Israel has held with Hamas in the past two years?

For Sderot residents, the knowledge that this has been Israel's third failed ceasefire with Hamas is not surprising.

In a June 17 appearance at the Knesset, Israel Security Agency director Yuval Diskin warned that "Hamas is continuing to increase its strength, manufacture longer-range rockets and smuggle rockets of a far superior quality,". In that light,every citizen of southern Israel knows that a massive escalation is around the corner, which will force more than one million Israelis in southern Israel into the seeming safety of protected rooms and bomb shelters.

Shoshana Swissa, a kindergarten teacher in Sderot recently told Sderot Media Center that ”Even today, in these relatively quiet days in Sderot, every single morning we exercise a drill for the 3-year-old children in our kindergarten. The staff teaches them how to run in 15 seconds towards the safe room when the Color Red alert siren sounds. ”

Turning the Gaza Strip into an Iranian military buffer zone

During Israel's second ‘ceasefire’ with Hamas, between June 2008- December 2008, Hamas did not waste any time building up its military capabilities. Israeli intelligence sources confirm that Hamas dug between 400 and 600 smuggling tunnels that connected Sinai and Gaza in order to “import” guns, missiles, explosives, money,and terrorists, along with oil, fuel, metal, cloths, electronics and even a lion for Gazan's zoo - earning the Hamas regime between 30-50 million dollars a month from the digging of the tunnels and the goods smuggled through.

The Iranian influence and involvement with the Gaza Strip peaked during the summer of 2008, when hundreds of Iranian missiles were smuggled in, to be fired massively only a few months later at southern Israelis during Israel's last military operation in Gaza.

Meanwhile, the Hamas regime trained tens of thousands of children and woman in Gaza during summer 2008, in anticipation of an Israeli counterattack to the Hamas reign of missiles.

Accepting Iran, accepting Hamas

Hamas today has become more acceptable as a resistance organization among political sectors worldwide. The most recent acceptance overture was made by the former US president Jimmy Carter, who visited Gaza this June and asked the European Union to take Hamas off the charts as a terrorist organization.

It should come as no surprise that a terrorist organization like Hamas, which has killed and wounded thousands of Israeli by suicide bombings and rocket fire, is now accepted as a legitmate governing body. If Iranian President, Ahmedinejad is invited to open a UN Conference on Human Rights and is then invited to meet with the Swiss President, then Western embrace of Hamas is just around the corner.

In the meantime, Sderot and southern Israel can only gear up for another round of rocket fire in the near future.

If Iranians really want to know where all their money from the sale of oil is going to they only have to look at 3 places: Their nuclear program which IS attempting to build an Nuclear bomb, Hamas and Hezbollah. With poverty in their own land, food prices soaring and violent crackdown on dissent, Iran is more concerned with providing weapons to Hamas and Hezbollah, then anything else. If you ever wondered where the Kassams that Hamas still fires into Sderot and the rest of Israel come from, look no further than Iran.

Bringing Israeli and Arab Worlds Together at the Sderot Cinemateque

by Anav Silverman

In a region where rockets have hammered civilian residents for the past eight years, the local Sderot Cinemateque remains a popular pastime for residents looking to enjoy a film. As the only rocket-proof cinema in Israel, the Sderot Cinemateque was built eight years ago, right around the time when the first Qassam slammed into Sderot.

The rocket-proof cinema allows local residents to enjoy a film uninterrupted when the rocket alarm, or Tzeva Adom sounds to warn residents of impending Qassams from Gaza. It remains a popular hangout regardless of rocket fire.

A week ago, I had the opportunity to watch a film at the Cinemateque during the eighth annual Cinema South Festival which was held from June 7-12. The festival features the films of graduate students studying in the Department of Film & TV at the local Sapir College. The festival also screened Israeli films that were awarded top prizes abroad as well as international films from Mexico, Hong Kong, and France.

International festival guests included filmmakers Carlos Reygadas from Mexico, Thierry Michel from Belgium, Osvalde Lewat-Hallade of Cameroon and Abi Feijo from Portugal among many others.

I had the opportunity to watch Ajami, one of the featured films of the festival,along with the hundreds of other area residents and international guests. Ajami, named after the largest Arab neighborhood in Jaffa, was co-directed by Israeli Yaron Shani and Jaffa-born Arab, Scandar Copti. The film tells the story of two Muslim Arab brothers and is set against the background of a revenge murder, gangs, Bedouin revenge squads, a Christian Arab godfather and Israeli police.

Ajami was filmed in Arabic -and most of the actors were from the Ajami neighborhood. The mostly Israeli audience at the Sderot cinemateque, myself included, followed along by reading the Hebrew subtitles below.

The film has won international acclaim and was shown in France’s prestigious Cannes Film Festival this past May.

In an interview with the New York Times, the directors of the film, Copti and Shani described their relationship outside of directing of the film, to which both wrote the script. When Shani’s city, Ashdod, was targeted by Gaza rockets in the recent war, Copti called him and said “Take your daughter and your wife and leave.” According to the NYT article, Shani does the same for Copti. Both the directors and the cast where present at the screening in Sderot.

There was something quite unique about watching Ajami in an Israeli rocket-proof theater on the Gaza border. In area that has been devastated by rockets and trauma, it is cultural events like the Cinema South Festival which brings hope for a normal reality that citizens on both sides of the Gaza border continue to seek.

Strange that a movie theater has to be bomb-proof, isn't it? But that is the reality of life in Sderot. Sderot is a small town that has faced the brunt of rocket attacks for 9 years now. Israel was guaranteed that if they "ethnically cleansed" Gaza of all Jews the rockets attacks would cease. The Israelis did just that in 2005, and the attacks got worse.

Now President Obama is singing the same song: "If you "ethically clean" Judea and Sameria of all Jews, there will be peace!"

Right, and I have a bridge in Brooklyn for those who believe this lie to buy.

Unless the PA is willing to be demilitarilized, there can never be peace. Strange as that sounds, it is not Israel who is anti-peace (regardless of what the Useful Idiots of Free Gaza keep saying), but it is the thugs and murderers of Hamas and the PA who will never accept a Jewish nation, never accept Israel and never stop their attacks.

Yet the world loves Hamas. It cries make peace with Hamas. How can one make peace with them when they have openly stated that their goal is the total destruction of Israel and the death to all Jews world-wide?

Again I ask you, my reader to pray for the people of Sderot, to pray for an permanent end to the rocket attacks, and if you are able to, to donate a few coins to the Sderot Media Center. They do such good work in the city of Sderot. Just click here and follow the instructions. All the funds collected go directly to helping the people of Sderot.

Sphere: Related Content

I am willing to meet any Arab leader, even in Riyadh

by Findalis


In an unprecedented speech at Tel Aviv's Bar-Ilan University, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu spoke those words.

In the same speech he uttered the words: Palestinian State. The first Prime Minister of Israel to do so. But he also laid down quite a few conditions for there to be peace between the 2 peoples:

“I turn to you, our Palestinian neighbors," he said, let us start negotiations for peace immediately. I say to you – we want to live with you in peace and good neighborly relations. I want our children will dream of a better future and realize it. That we will put our energy into plowshares and pruning scissors, not swords... I do not want war. No one in Israel wants war. Let us join hands and work at peace. There is no end to the flourishing we can bring to our two nations."

"The simple truth," he added however, "is that the root of the conflict is the refusal to accept the Jewish people’s right to exist in its historic homeland. Whoever thinks that the enmity to Israel is the result of our occupying Judea and Samaria is confusing cause and effect." He then enumerated instances of Arab belligerence against the Jews in the Land of Israel before 1967.

The closer we come to a peace the more the Palestinians move away, he said. "Every retreat by us was met with thousands of suicide terror bombings and rockets."

"We vacated the Gaza Strip to the last centimeter and received a rain of missiles on our communities and our children. Hamas and Hizbullah keep saying that their aim is to free Akko, Beersheva and Haifa. Even the moderate Palestinians, even now, are unwilling to say the simplest thing: Israel is the state of the Jewish People and it will stay that way.”

He added: "In order to achieve peace one needs courage and honesty on both sides – not just the Israeli side. The Palestinian leadership must recognize Israel as the state of the Jewish people."

“The demand to settle Palestinian refugees inside Israel is incompatible with the continued existence of Israel as a Jewish state," he said. "It is possible to solve this problem outside the borders of Israel. There is wide national agreement about this among us.”

"Judea and Samaria are not a foreign country for us. This is the land of our forefathers. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The right of the Jewish people over our country does not come from the suffering we have been through. Some say if it weren’t for the Holocaust there would be no State if Israel. But I say that if Israel had been established n time there would not have been a Holocaust," Netanyahu said.

Netanyahu reiterated Israel's long standing desire for peace. A desire held by all Israelis since the founding of the nation in 1948.

"Peace has always been our objective," Netanyahu began. "Our prophets always envisioned peace; we bless each other with Shalom; our prayers end in peace."

The prime minister said that he was willing to meet any Arab leader anywhere.

"I turn to Arab leaders: Let's make peace, I am ready," Netahyahu said. "I am willing to go to Damascus; Riyadh, to meet anytime and anywhere."

Netanyahu also warned of the threat emanating from Iran, saying, "The biggest threat to Israel, and the middle east and all of humanity is the meeting between radical Ismalism and nuclear weaponry."

Netanyahu called on the Palestinians to "begin peace talks immediately, and with no preconditions."

The prime minister continued to speak of the heavy toll the ongoing conflict has taken, mentioning his being a bereaved brother.

"I don't want war. Nobody in Israel wants war," he said to applause.

"If the advantages of peace are so clear, we must ask - why is peace still far? What is perpetuating the conflict for over 60 years? We must reach the root of the struggle," Netanyahu ascertained.

"Let me use the most simple words - the root of the struggle is the refusal to recognize the Israel as the Jewish state. The initial Arab refusal was to a Jewish state in any location, before Israeli presence in the West Bank," continued Netanyahu.

"The closer we get to an agreement with the Palestinians, the further it is rejected. We tried a withdraw with an agreement, without one, a partial withdraw and offered a near-complete withdraw. We uprooted Jewish settlers from their homes, and got a barrage of missiles in return," he said of the Gaza pullout.

"Sadly, even the Palestinian moderates won't say the most simple statement - Israel is the Jewish national state, and will remain such.

"To achieve peace, courage and honesty are needed from both sides. The Palestinians must say - 'enough with this conflict. We recognize Israel's right to exist, and want to live by their side.'

"A public Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish nation-state is a precondition for regional peace," Netanyahu said.

Now for the $64,000 question:

Did Netanyahu sell out? NO! He did not call for an freeze on Settlements, Jerusalem was to remain in Israeli hands, nor did he call for the ethnic cleansing of Jews from Judea and Samaria (The West Bank).

What he did call for is very simple:

1. Recognize Israel as a Jewish Nation.
2. No militarized Palestinian Nation.
3. No Law of Return for Palestinians.
4. Jerusalem, the city of David would be always be part of Israel.

The next round goes to the Palestinians, who if history is any indication of their intentions, will reject this out right.

Now what will Obama do?

Sphere: Related Content

A Simple Question

By Findalis

Courtesy of DryBones:



Now this is a very simple question. Why are the Palestinians forcing Jews out of their land, in effect creating a Jew-Free State, Judenfrei (Ethnic Cleansing) and the Israelis have to keep their Arab population? And why is the world letting them get away with it?

Could you imagine the uproar if Israel did that to her Muslim population. The world would be condemning Israel until the cows came home.

But the Muslim world is demanding that all Jews be removed from the West Bank and Jerusalem. Yes Jerusalem! Jerusalem was a Jewish city before there ever was a Mecca, before Jesus walked the land, before Muhammad was even born, before the Romans conquered Italy. There has been Jews living in Jerusalem for over 3500 years.

This is unacceptable! If Israel has to resettle Jews out of the West Bank, then all Muslims living in Israel must be resettled into the West Bank.

If Palestine is to be Judenfrei, than Israel should be free of Muslims.

Sphere: Related Content

Homily To The Muslims.

By Findalis

Book of Obama, Chapter 6

It came to pass that on the 4th day of the month of June, the Anointed One journeyed to the land of the Pharaohs. In the city of Cairo, where no Pharaoh had ever walked, the Anointed One, spoke to the assembled at the Hall of Learning.

I carry to you the goodwill of MY people of America and the peace of the Mosques of America: assalaamu alaykum.

We in the West have kept the Muslim down in the gutter for too long. We have colonized your lands, stolen your property and kept you in ignorance. But I will CHANGE that.

On 9/11 you attacked us, and we were angry. But that is now over. We can work together without us mentioning 9/11, all is forgiven.

This CHANGE will not be easy. This CHANGE will not take place overnight. It will take a year or two, but I will bring CHANGE and HOPE to all the Muslim world.

I tell you that I am a Christian, but MY father, grandfather and brother were all Muslims. I spent many years as a boy in a Muslim land. I worked with Muslims in Chicago. And I learned your history. How you developed Algebra (actually invented in India) , the Magnetic Compass (invented in China), pens and printing(invented in China), all the while bringing peace, prosperity, and harmony to the world ( as long as the Christians, Jews and Hindus paid a special tax and lived as second class citizens). Your level of medicine rivaled that of the modern world of today (that is if you like dipping fly wings into your tea and drinking it to cure disease). How you brought about the Renaissance and Enlightenment (both would have come earlier if Muslim armies hadn't invaded Europe).

I know that Muslims were fundamental to the establishment of the United States. That Muslims fought in our wars, served in government, stood for civil rights, started businesses, taught at our Universities, excelled in our sports arenas, won Nobel Prizes, built our tallest building, and lit the Olympic Torch (all within the last 50 years). We were first recognized by Morocco (that is after France, Great Britain, and Spain).

You have a bad misconception of ME. MY America is Muslim friendly with a Mosque in every state and 1200 in the nation. We welcome Muslims with open arms. You are free to force your women to wear your burkas, insist on forcing Christians and Jews into a Dhimmi role, and kill your female relatives if they upset your honor. Just don't show anti-Semitic pictures. Don't yell your true feelings of hatred in the world.

We are all humans. We must all respect that.

I will state it again: America is not at war with Islam. (So please don't attack us again, right?)

I will not keep MY troops in Afghanistan or Iraq. I will have them away from those lands within a few years. (I'm gonna need them to destroy Israel.) We will keep up the illusion of fighting the extremists with the help of of the Muslim world. (I know you don't want them to lose and I need to save face.) We will defeat them together. (Or not, they are useful to keep the sheep scared.)

I will bring a solution to the Palestinian problem. It is all the fault of the Israelis. They will do what I will say. There will be peace. For I will make Israel give the Palestinians everything that they want, and the Palestinians will not have to do anything. And if there isn't peace, then I will blame the failure on the Israelis.

I will allow Iran to have Nukes, and will make everyone give up theirs instead. That way the Muslim world can have as many Nukes they wish to force their will on others.

I grant Freedom of Religion to all Muslims. The 7 million Muslims in America (There are no more than 3 million Muslims in America) have such freedom. That is why we welcome efforts like Saudi Arabian King Abdullah's Interfaith dialogue (How many churches and synagogues are there in Saudi Arabia?) and Turkey's leadership in the Alliance of Civilizations (As long as non-Muslims accept the Dhimmitude).

The right of women to wear the hajib I give freely. You should educate them, but remember your faith does not allow them to be treated equally.

I give you the gift of Democracy. But only the Democracy that you want. I urge you to treat your non-Muslims with dignity, but remember they are Dhimmis and you know the rights they are to have.

And then He spoke from the Koran, He spoke the words of peace and understanding.

The assembled in the Hall of Learning rose in great cheers. For He will give them the world on a platter and they have to do almost nothing. No more cries of: "Death to Israel!" No more whispers and planning. All they have to do is sit back and let it happen.

But a wind began to stir. The discord of dissent was coming from the Holy City. The Leader of the Hebrews, Netanyahu arose. He spoke the words of discourse loud enough for all to hear:

NO WE WON'T!!!!!!!

Sphere: Related Content

Jordan, West Bank Should Become a Palestinian State

By Findalis



From Memri

Lebanese Writer Farid Salman: Jordan, West Bank Should Become a Palestinian State, Which Will Absorb the Refugees

Following are excerpts from an interview with Lebanese writer Farid Salman, which aired on OTV on May 6, 2009.

View the clip here.

"Jordan is An Invention... I Don't Know Whether to Laugh or Cry When I Hear a Jordanian Say That He is Jordanian... He Has Forgotten That He's Palestinian"

Farid Salman: "Jordan is an invention. Transjordan, which was an emirate, and later became the Hashemite Kingdom, is part of Palestine. Britain created it in order to crown one of the sons of Hussein, from the Arabian Peninsula, over part of Greater Syria - over Palestine. This continues to be the perpetual reason... Without removing it, the Palestinian issue will not be resolved. It's impossible."

Interviewer: "Some people in Israel talk about the Jordanian option..."

Farid Salman: "They are right."

Interviewer: "In the days of Abba Eban..."

Farid Salman: "We missed an opportunity with Abba Eban."

Interviewer: "This is why the Black September battles of 1969 and 1970 took place, and the crisis was shifted here, to Lebanon. But King Hussein stabilized his throne..."

Farid Salman: "It wasn't him. The English stabilized the throne. Glubb Pasha did it for his grandfather, and the English continue to do so to this day. The Israelis also [stabilized the Jordanian rule]. The Zionist regime in Israel is against peace. It doesn't want peace.

"Abba Eban was one of the most important people in Israel, but we did not know how to benefit from him, and eventually the Zionists got rid of him. They sent him to teach in America, thus removing him from the scene. He could see the truth.

"Today, I don't know whether to laugh or cry when I hear a Jordanian say that he is a Jordanian, and that there are Palestinian refugee camps in Jordan. He has forgotten that he is a Palestinian. What do you mean 'Jordanian?' The East Bank is just like the West Bank. The Jordanian king was behind the war in Lebanon. He sent the Palestinians to Lebanon. We must not forget the role that Jordan played in Lebanon." [...]

The Anti-Zionist "Jewdanians... Have Now Gained Power, Along With Obama"

"With regard to Israel, I am very optimistic. For 40 years, I have been writing about this issue - about Zionism and about the people I call 'the Jewdanians' - that group of Jews around the world who are against the Zionist philosophy and state. They have now gained power, along with Obama. They began..."

Interviewer: "With the plan of the first Bush..."

Farid Salman: "In Madrid..."

Interviewer: "Yes."

Farid Salman: "They are the ones who brought Obama to power. They supported him financially. A few weeks ago, they announced that they were establishing a lobby. Until now, they operated behind the scenes, but now it is out in the open. An existential Israeli crisis has emerged among the Jews themselves - between the Zionists and the non-Zionists. The Zionists in power today - Lieberman and Netanyahu - no peace plan can possibly emerge from them. They will bring about a Jewish crisis in Israel and worldwide, and I believe they will be the losers. If they do not lose, that will be the end of the Zionist regime in Israel."

"When A Palestinian State Is Established, And Jordan Becomes The Palestinian State, Along With The West Bank... It Will Invite The Palestinians"

Interviewer: "That is the solution, in your view?"

Farid Salman: "Of course. When this happens, we won't need Israeli approval for the resettlement

Interviewer: "Can the Jewdanians, who support Obama, realize what the solution is, and grant the Palestinians the Right of Return?"

Farid Salman: "We have turned the Right of Return into a casus belli... Let me tell you something - when a Palestinian state is established, and Jordan becomes the Palestinian state, along with the West Bank..."

Interviewer: "That is the solution, in your view?"

Farid Salman: "Of course. When this happens, we won't need Israeli approval for the resettlement... Once there is a Palestinian state, it will invite the Palestinians. Jordan can receive 30 million [Palestinians]. In New York alone, there are 20 million people."

Interviewer: "Do you think that we are at the beginning of a process of the collapse of regimes in the region?"

Farid Salman: "Of course."

Interviewer: "Like dominoes, one will lead to the toppling of the other?"

"There is a Plan to Increase the Number of Sunnis by Resettling the Palestinians in Lebanon"

Farid Salman: "Undoubtedly. There is no other solution for the Middle East. Who invented the story of refugee resettlement in Lebanon? Let's be clear - the Sunnis. Al-Hariri did, and his sister continues in his path. The Palestinian ambassador in Lebanon is their accomplice."

Interviewer: "Abbas Zaki?"

Salman: "Him, along with Fuad Siniora. There is a plan to increase the number of Sunnis by resettling the Palestinians in Lebanon. They are the ones talking about resettlement. The day the Palestinian issue is resolved, and they have a state - in Jordan, the West Bank, wherever it may be..."

Interviewer: "Arafat used to say: 'Give me a state even on the back of a donkey.'"

Farid Salman: "Wherever it may be... Half a million Palestinian in Lebanon will go to their state. End of story. We won't be needing the approval of Israel or the world. It will be their state, and they will be invited there. End of story."

For those of you who don't know your history or who some of the people mentioned are, I'll explain:

Jordan as a nation never truly existed in ancient history. There is mention of a Kingdom of Petra, the region that is now Jordan has been conquered by the the Persian Empire, the Seleucids, the Romans , and Muslim Arabs. So in ancient times no nation called Jordan ever existed. Nor did it exist until April 11, 1921 when Great Britain decided to reward their "good friend" Emir Abdullah with 78% of the Palestinian Mandate (that was reserved by the League of Nations for a homeland for Jews). Thus Jordan, or as it was called then, Trans-Jordan was born.

It was after the 6-Day War, when Israel finally regained control of the West Bank that Trans-Jordan became simply Jordan.

Thus in fact, Jordan is the true Palestinian nation.

Black September was an attempt by the PLO (headed by Yassir Arafat) to overthrow the government of Jordan and replace it with the PLO. The Jordanian military thwarted the attempted overthrow and assassination of King Hussein, and the Jordanian government kicked out removed the PLO and their supporters from Jordan. They fled to the only nation which would give them sanctuary: Lebanon.

Abba Eban was an Israeli statesman. Born in Cape Town, South Africa on February 2, 1915. a graduate of Queens College, Cambridge, he was Israel's first ambassador to the United Nations and was elected Vice President of the UN General Assembly in 1952. He is considered one of the fathers of modern Israel, and a giant in diplomatic circles. He set the tone for Israel's diplomatic efforts for the last 63 years. He died on November 17, 2002.

A bit of history. But the reality is that the 2 State Solution that is being touted by the EU, UN and the US is looking like a pipe(bomb) dream each and every day. The Palestinians do not want it, they want all the land from the river to the sea as the Hamas and PLO charters both specify. And now it is not just the far right who are opposing the 2 State Solution, it is the mainstream Israelis who oppose it too:

Minister of Strategic Affairs Moshe (Boogie) Yaalon believes that the time has come for Israel to “free itself from the failed paradigm” of the “two-state solution.” Yaalon spoke Tuesday at a meeting of MKs dedicated to finding an alternative to the creation of a Palestinian Authority-led Arab state.

While the creation of a PA-led state in Judea, Samaria and Gaza is perceived as a necessity both in Israel and worldwide, such a state would not solve the Israel-PA conflict, said Yaalon. In fact, he said, it is doubtful that the possibility of creating such a state exists, due to Arab and Muslim reluctance to take any step that would imply recognition of Israel or compromise on Arab claims to the entire Land of Israel.

Israel's mistake lies in accepting a-symmetrical talks with the PA, Yaalon said. From the beginning of talks, he explained, Israel has accepted the idea of a Palestinian national movement with the PA as its representative, while the PA has resolutely refused to accept the Jewish national movement of Zionism or the idea of a Jewish homeland in the land of Israel.

Furthermore, while the PA demands that Arabs and Muslims be allowed to live in Israel, Israel accepts that a PA state would not have Jewish citizens, he said. And while Israel gives in on crucial issues such as the status of Jerusalem or the borders of a PA state, the PA refuses to bend in the slightest.

Read the full story here.

No proposal that Netanyahu would bring to the negotiating table will ever satisfy the Palestinians, and no proposal that they bring would be allowed by any Israeli Knesset. Thus the region is at a stalemate, and this time President Obama will not be able to charm Netanyahu or the Israelis into making a deal that would effectively destroy their nation.

The time has come to recognize and remember the true history of the region, and sent the PA, Hamas and the rest of the Palestinians back to the two-thirds of the Palestinian Mandate, back to Jordan, the real state of Palestine!

Sphere: Related Content

Sakharov Widow: World Ignores Shalit Due to Anti-Semitism

By Findalis


Not many of the readers of this blog will recognize or remember who Andrei Sakharov was, or his widow Yelena Bonner. Or what they did for human rights and freedom in the Soviet Union. Many say that the Soviet Union would never had collapsed but for the tireless work of that remarkable couple.

In the field of human rights, Yelena Bonner is not only an expert, she is one of the leading authorities. She speaks with the voice of the oppressed, having lived through the horrors of Stalinism and Soviet repression. There are very few in the world that can truly speak with such moral authority. Recently she gave a speech at the three-day Oslo Freedom Forum, a gathering in response to the Durban II conference. Here is some of that speech:

…At the age of 14, I was left without my parents. My father was executed, my mother spent 18 years in prison and exile. My grandmother raised me and my younger brother. The poet Vladimir Kornilov, who suffered the same fate, wrote: ‘And it felt that in those years we had no mothers. We had grandmothers.’ There were hundreds of thousands of such children…

…Read Sakharov’s Memoirs. It’s a pity his Diaries haven’t been translated; they were published in Russia in 2006. Apparently, the West isn’t interested now in Sakharov.

The West isn’t very interested in Russia either, a country that no longer has real elections, independent courts, or freedom of the press. Russia is a country where journalists, human rights activists, and migrants are killed regularly, almost daily. And extreme corruption flourishes of a kind and extent that never existed earlier in Russia or anywhere else. So what do the Western mass media discuss mainly? Gas and oil -- of which Russia has a lot. Energy is its only political trump card, and Russia uses it as an instrument of pressure and blackmail... Russia will remain the way it is now for decades, unless there is some violent upheaval.

…They say people are coming together -- but in reality, they are growing apart. And that isn’t because an economic depression suddenly burst forth, and swine flu to boot. [It] began on September 11, 2001. At first, anger and horror was provoked by the terrorists who knocked down the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center and by their accomplices in London, Madrid and other cities, and by the shahids, suicide bombers who blew themselves up at public spaces like discotheques and wedding parties, whose families were rewarded $25,000 each by Saddam Hussein.

Later, Bush was blamed for everything, and as always, the Jews -- that is, Israel… So it is about Israel and the Jews that I will speak... At one time, the Nobel Peace Prize was the highest moral award of our civilization. But after December 1994, when Yasser Arafat became one of the three new laureates, its ethical value was undermined. I haven’t always greeted each selection of the Nobel Committee of the Norwegian Storting with joy, but that one shocked me. And to this day, I cannot understand and accept the fact that Andrei Sakharov and Yasir Arafat, now posthumously, share membership in the club of Nobel laureates.

In many of Sakharov’s publications… [he] wrote and spoke about Israel. I have a collection of citations of his writing on this topic. If it were published in Norway, then many Norwegians would be surprised at how sharply their contemporary view of Israel differs from the view of Sakharov. Here are several citations from Sakharov: …

“All wars that Israel has waged have been just, forced upon it by the irresponsibility of Arab leaders.” “With all the money that has been invested in the problem of Palestinians, it would have been possible long ago to resettle them and provide them with good lives in Arab countries.”

…Now, a new motif is fashionable (in fact it’s an old one): ‘Two states for two peoples.’ It sounds good. And there is no controversy in the peace-making Quartet, made up of the U.S., the UN, the EU, and Russia (some great peace-maker, with its Chechen war and its Abkhazian-Ossetian provocation). The Quartet, and the Arab countries, and the Palestinian leaders (both Hamas and Fatah) put additional demands to Israel. I will speak only of one demand: that Israel accept back the Palestinian refugees. And here a little history and demography are needed.

According to the UN’s official definition, refugees are considered those who fled from violence and wars, but not their descendants who are born in another land. At one time the Palestinian refugees and the Jewish refugees from Arab countries were about equal in number -- about 700-800,000. The newly-created state Israel took in Jews (about 600,000). They were officially recognized as refugees by the UN Resolution 242, but not provided with any UN assistance. Palestinians, however, are considered refugees not only in the first generation, but in the second, third, and now even in the fourth generation. According to the UN Works and Relief Agency’s report, , the number of registered Palestinian refugees has grown from 914,000 in 1950 to more than 4.6 million in 2008, and continues to rise due to natural population growth. All these people have the rights of Palestinian refugees and are eligible to receive humanitarian aid.

The entire population of Israel is about 7.5 million, of which there are about 2.5 million ethnic Arabs who call themselves Palestinians. Imagine Israel then, if another five million Arabs flood into it; Arabs would substantially outnumber the Jewish population. Thus, created next to Israel will be a Palestinian state cleansed of Jews, because in addition to the demand that Palestinian refugees return to Israel, there is also the demand that Judea and Samaria are cleansed of Jews and turned over to Palestinians – while in Gaza today there is not a single Jew already.

The result is both strange and terrifying, not only because Israel will essentially be destroyed... Because the plan “two states for two peoples” is the creation of one state, ethnically cleansed of Jews, and a second one with the potential to do the same thing. A Judenrein Holy Land - the dream of Adolph Hitler come true at last. So think again, those who are still able, who has a fascist inside him today?

And another question that has been a thorn for me for a long time. It’s a question for my human rights colleagues. Why doesn’t the fate of the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit trouble you in the same way as the fate of the Guantanamo prisoners?

You fought for and won the opportunity for the International Committee of the Red Cross, journalists, and lawyers to visit Guantanamo. You know prison conditions, the prisoners’ everyday routine, their food. You have met with prisoners subjected to torture. The result of your efforts has been a ban on torture and a law to close this prison. President Obama signed it in the first days of his coming to the White House…

But during the two years Shalit has been held by terrorists, the world human rights community has done nothing for his release. Why? He is a wounded soldier, and fully falls under the protection of the Geneva Conventions. The Conventions say clearly that hostage-taking is prohibited, that representatives of the Red Cross must be allowed to see prisoners of war, especially wounded prisoners, and there is much else written in the Geneva Conventions about Shalit’s rights.

The fact that representatives of the Quartet conduct negotiations with the people who are holding Shalit in an unknown location, in unknown conditions, vividly demonstrates their scorn of international rights documents and their total legal nihilism. Do human rights activists also fail to recall the fundamental international rights documents?

And yet I still think (and some will find this naïve) that the first tiny, but real step toward peace must become the release of Shalit. Release - and not his exchange for 1,000 or 1,500 prisoners who are in Israeli prisons serving court sentences for real crimes.

Returning to my question of why human rights activists are silent, I can find no answer except that Shalit is an Israeli soldier, Shalit is a Jew. So again, it is conscious or unconscious anti-Semitism. Again, it is fascism.

Thirty-four years have passed since the day when I came to this city to represent my husband, Andrei Sakharov, at the 1975 Nobel Prize ceremony. I was in love with Norway then. The reception I received filled me with joy. Today, I feel Alarm and Hope (the title Sakharov used for his 1977 essay written at the request of the Nobel Committee).

Alarm because of the anti-Semitism and anti-Israeli sentiment growing throughout Europe and even further afield. And yet, I hope that countries, their leaders, and people everywhere will recall and adopt Sakharov’s ethical credo: “In the end, the moral choice turns out to be also the most pragmatic choice."

It is time for the world to stop trying to appease the Arabs and listen to the truth. The true obstacle to peace in the region is not caused by Israel, but by the Arabs, who couldn't destroy Israel in battle and will attempt to destroy Israel through diplomatic means. And the world will let them. For it is acceptable to hate and despise the Jews. It is time for the world to listen to the voice of a woman who lived under some of the worst repression that humanity has imposed upon others. It is time to bring Gilad Shalit home.

Sphere: Related Content

Sderot to Congress: Don't Finance Terror!

By Findalis


From the Sderot Media Center

Rockets still fall upon Sderot and Southern Israel. Even with a "cease-fire", Hamas will not stop firing rockets.

Ceasefire broken again: Qassam slams into western Negev on Sunday

By Anav Silverman

This week Kibbutz Kfar Aza mourned the death of Jimmy Kedoshim, a husband and father of three, who was killed last year in a Palestinian mortar attack on May 9, 2008. The mortar, fired from northern Gaza, struck Kedoshim, 48, in the backyard of his home. Kedoshim’s death was the first caused by mortar fire since Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005.

A day after Kedoshim’s memorial service, the Kfar Aza community was reminded once again that Palestinian rockets still threaten the region. On Sunday, May 10, 2009 a Palestinian Qassam rocket slammed across Kibbutz Kfar Aza, this time landing in an open area in the Regional Council of Sdot Negev and Sha’ar HaNegev. No injuries or damages were reported.
Kedoshim was a well known and beloved figure in the Kfar Aza community.

“The death of Jimmy Kedoshim was devastating for the entire Kfar Aza community,” Karen, a Kfar Aza mother told Sderot Media Center last year. Jimmy, a professional sky diver, raised his three children on the Kfar Aza kibbutz with his wife Anna.

*YNET News contributed to this report.

The media cries that these are homemade rockets, they do little damage and cause very few injuries and deaths. I have a proposition for the members of the media then. Someone will go over to your house with a gun and fire randomly into your home. They will do this for the next 8 years. The media will not cover the event, the police will not stop it. No bullet fired will be aimed. What will YOU do? After all they are just bullets of a small caliber, they do little damage and cause minimum injuries.

You see how your argument is faulty?

US Representatives Continue to Petition Congress on Gaza Aid

by Anav Silverman

Back in March, Sderot Media Center director, Noam Bedein held a special briefing with US Congressmen and their advisors on Capitol Hill, where he highlighted the rocket situation in Sderot and southern Israel in a meeting initiated by the EMET organization President, Sarah Stern.

A day previously, on Monday March 2, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had pledged $900 million at a conference in Egypt set to raise billions of dollars for Gaza reconstruction after Operation Cast Lead.

Following the meeting between Bedein and the Congressmen on Capitol Hill, Democratic Representative Shelley Berkley (D-Nev) sent a letter to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, which demanded that the aid to Gaza be delayed as long as the rocket fire continues and Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier captured by Palestinian terrorists three years ago, remains captive by Hamas.

Joining Berkley in her efforts to place conditions on the $300 million in US aid for Gaza, is Representative Elliot Engel (D-N.Y.). Three weeks ago, Reps. Elliot and Berkley drafted a letter to the chairman and ranking member of the House Appropriations Committe; Congressmen David Obey and Jerry Lewis respectively. Reps. Eliot and Berkley stated that "we are concerned that - in the aftermath of Hamas’ unprovoked attacks on Israel - sending hundreds of millions of dollars to Gaza without conditions will send precisely the wrong message at the wrong time"

In addition, the Congressmen also added that “ it is essential that we not simply write a “blank check” for the Gaza-based Palestinians to continue" its missile attacks on Israel.

“We must instead send a message that the United States will help with the needs of the Palestinians if--and only if--they meet the conditions of the international community to recognize Israel, renounce terrorism, and commit to all agreements that they have signed with Israel. Not only has Hamas failed to meet any of these conditions, it has not stopped raining rockets on Israeli territory and still holds captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. It is essential that we condition our funding for Gaza on Hamas’ complying with these basic demands.

Read the full letter below.

April 28, 2009

The Honorable David R. Obey, Chairman

The Honorable Jerry Lewis, Ranking Member

Committee on Appropriations

H-218, The Capitol

Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Chairman Obey and Ranking Member Lewis:

We write to you today regarding the President’s request for supplemental funding in fiscal year 2009. It has come to our attention that within President Obama’s request is $900 million in funding for the West Bank and Gaza. We are concerned that - in the aftermath of Hamas’ unprovoked attacks on Israel - sending hundreds of millions of dollars to Gaza without conditions will send precisely the wrong message at the wrong time.

In late 2008, Hamas intensified its missile attacks on Israel, using Gaza as a launching pad to terrorize the population of Sderot and other communities in southern Israel. Even after Israel withdrew completely from Gaza in 2005, the unprovoked assault by unguided rockets of terror continued. The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) finally retaliated against these attacks, after showing incredible restraint for many years, destroying a great deal of Hamas’ infrastructure within Gaza. While the IDF attempted to minimize civilian casualties, there was damage to many areas in Gaza. The blame for this, however, rests firmly on Hamas’ shoulders, as they began the unprovoked shelling on Israeli cities and were warned repeatedly that the continued shelling would bring a strong response from Israel. Further, Hamas conducted its combat operations from heavily-populated civilian areas and, thus, was responsible for the protection of the civilians in the area. Indeed, this use of unarmed men, women, and children as human shields was shocking and disgraceful.

It is, therefore, essential that we not simply write a “blank check” for the Gaza-based Palestinians to continue acting this way. We must instead send a message that the United States will help with the needs of the Palestinians if - and only if - they meet the conditions of the international community to recognize Israel, renounce terrorism, and commit to all agreements they have signed with Israel. Not only has Hamas failed to meet any of these conditions, it has not stopped raining rockets on Israeli territory and still holds captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. It is essential that we condition our funding for Gaza on Hamas’ complying with these basic demands. Without such links, Palestinians will see the U.S. as providing aid while Hamas continues to terrorize the Israeli people, with no consequences from the U.S. government.

We urge you to condition our funding on reciprocal actions from Hamas. Thank you for your attention to this important matter. We look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

Shelley Berkley

Member of Congress

Eliot Engel

Member of Congress

*The JTA News Service contributed to this report.

The United States has pledged $1.1 billion to Gaza. This is effectively giving $1.1 billion to Hamas. For the only funds that are going to Gaza are going to Hamas. Do you believe for one moment that any of the allocated funding will go to rebuild homes, schools, etc...? If you do I got a bridge to sell you in Brooklyn. It is an antique, but in very good condition (real cheap too).

This has got to end. There should be no funds sent until:

1. Hamas recongizes Israel not only has a right to exist but is a Jewish nation.
2. The return of Gilad Schalit safe and unharmed.
3. The immediate ceasation of all attacks on Israel.

After those 3 points are met, then the $1.1 billion in aid should be sent.

It seems that the Obama administration is hell bent on the destruction of the Jewish Nation. Call or write your Representative today! Don't allow your tax dollars to be sent to a terrorist organization. Make your voice heard!

Sphere: Related Content