SEE UNDER "QUOTATION OF THE DECADE?" FOR CHURCHILL'S DESCRIPTION OF ISLAM
"How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property‹either as a child, a wife, or a concubine‹must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men. Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities. Thousands become the brave and loyal soldiers of the Queen; all know how to die; but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science‹the science against which it had vainly struggled‹the civilisation of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilisation of ancient Rome." ~~ Sir Winston Churchill ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred. You cannot build character and courage by taking away men's initiative and independence. You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could, and should, do for themselves. ~~ Abraham Lincoln ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Power and deceit are tools of statecraft, yes. But remember that power deludes the ones who wield it--making them believe it can overcome the defects of their ignorance. --Count Flambert Mutelli, early speech in Landsraad Hall of Oratory. NAME THIS AUTHOR AND BOOK!!!
Showing posts with label UN Human Rights Council. Show all posts
Showing posts with label UN Human Rights Council. Show all posts
The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) also known as the Kill the Jews Commitee has voted that Israel committed War Crimes against the Mavi Marmara on May 31.
A report by three United Nations appointed human rights experts Wednesday said that Israeli forces violated international law when they raided a Gaza-bound aid flotilla, killing nine activists, earlier this year.
The UN Human Rights Council's fact-finding mission concluded that Israel's naval blockade of the Palestinian territory was unlawful because of the humanitarian crisis there, and described the military raid on the flotilla as brutal and disproportionate.
Israel has maintained that its soldiers acted in self-defense when they shot and killed eight Turkish activists and one Turkish-American aboard the Mavi Marmara on May 31. Israel Defense Forces released footage showing its troops coming under attack as they tried to board the boat.
The Human Rights Council blamed Israel prior to the investigation and it is no surprise that they condemn after, said Andy David, a spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry, referring to the 47-member body's resolution in early June condemning the raid.
This is the same organization headed by that bastion of Liberty and Human Rights: Libya.
Yes they excel in the pursuit of human rights for all people. You can find such outstanding examples of their humanity here, here, and here.
Or listen to the words of Kristiana Venelinova Valcheva, a nurse from Bulgaria.
I am Kristiana Venelinova Valcheva, a nurse from Bulgaria. To make my identity clearer I will add a few keywords - Bulgarian medics, hostages, inquisitions, Libya, Qaddafi, death sentence, issued trice.
If someone told me eleven years ago that these words would become my "visit card", I would laugh. Because eleven years ago my life, the lives of my husband, Dr. Zdravko Georgiev, of another four Bulgarian nurses and the Palestinian doctor Ashraf., as well as the lives of our families were cut in the middle - before and after 1999.
It all began on February 9, 1999, in Benghazi. On that day we, five Bulgarian nurses, were abducted in a gangsters' manner by the Libyan authorities. They abducted us from our homes and workplaces, threw us into a bus with our hands, eyes and mouth tied, and carried us overnight one thousand and hundred kilometers away to Tripoli 1,100 km. In Libya they call this a lawful arrest.
We did not know why this was happening and what was coming after. We did not know that we ware a part of a sinister scenario of a dictator. We did not know that what was awaiting us were eight years and a half in the hell of the Libyan prisons.
For 14 months they kept us at a school for police dogs. For 14 months we were subjected to barbaric torture, humiliation and mockery.
They stretched me at a window frame and beat me with sticks and cables. Night after night they forced us to stand on one leg with our hands raised and if anybody tried to put his second leg on the floor out of exhaustion, that one would be mercilessly beaten. They would beat us over the soles of our feet, and then make us run with our feet swollen and black of beating, blood and lymph flowing from them. They injected me with drugs, undressed me totally naked, bind me to a metal bed and then the worst started -- inquisition by electrical shock.
You see that under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights every Muslim nation is allowed to torture, falsely imprison, rape and even murder any non-Muslim in their land. So it is ok for Libya or any other Islamic nation hellhole to do what they want without any repercussions from the rest of the world. In fact they are rewarded for their actions!
Is the assessment given to the IDF by Colonel Richard Kemp (Great Britain) to the UN Human Rights Council 12th Special Session, 16 October 2009 Debate on Goldstone Report.
The Goldstone report (you can read this work of fiction here) is based on lies, innuendos, and hearsay. There is no factual data in this work of fiction (the conclusion was made way before the members of the committee were picked) and it is considered the honest truth by the Obama Administration trying to appease their Muslim masters. It is the only way Obama and his Muslim cohorts can "legally" destroy Israel (since the Muslims are too incompetent to do it with an army).
The world will not listen to reason and the truth. The world has already decided on the verdict (with the great appeaser Barack Hussein Obama leading the way to the slaughter [His his idol Hitler would have been so proud of him!]).
I ask you, truthseeker, to listen to the words of this British hero, and judge for yourself.
I am the former commander of the British forces in Afghanistan. I served with NATO and the United Nations; commanded troops in Northern Ireland, Bosnia and Macedonia; and participated in the Gulf War. I spent considerable time in Iraq since the 2003 invasion, and worked on international terrorism for the UK Government’s Joint Intelligence Committee.
Mr. President, based on my knowledge and experience, I can say this: During Operation Cast Lead, the Israeli Defence Forces did more to safeguard the rights of civilians in a combat zone than any other army in the history of warfare.
Israel did so while facing an enemy that deliberately positioned its military capability behind the human shield of the civilian population.
Hamas, like Hizballah, are expert at driving the media agenda. Both will always have people ready to give interviews condemning Israeli forces for war crimes. They are adept at staging and distorting incidents.
The IDF faces a challenge that we British do not have to face to the same extent. It is the automatic, Pavlovian presumption by many in the international media, and international human rights groups, that the IDF are in the wrong, that they are abusing human rights.
The truth is that the IDF took extraordinary measures to give Gaza civilians notice of targeted areas, dropping over 2 million leaflets, and making over 100,000 phone calls. Many missions that could have taken out Hamas military capability were aborted to prevent civilian casualties. During the conflict, the IDF allowed huge amounts of humanitarian aid into Gaza. To deliver aid virtually into your enemy's hands is, to the military tactician, normally quite unthinkable. But the IDF took on those risks.
Despite all of this, of course innocent civilians were killed. War is chaos and full of mistakes. There have been mistakes by the British, American and other forces in Afghanistan and in Iraq, many of which can be put down to human error. But mistakes are not war crimes.
More than anything, the civilian casualties were a consequence of Hamas’ way of fighting. Hamas deliberately tried to sacrifice their own civilians.
Mr. President, Israel had no choice apart from defending its people, to stop Hamas from attacking them with rockets.
And I say this again: the IDF did more to safeguard the rights of civilians in a combat zone than any other army in the history of warfare.
Thank you, Mr. President.
Col. Richard Kemp, CBE, served in the British Army from 1977 - 2006. He was Commander of British Forces in Afghanistan, an infantry battalion Commanding Officer, worked for the Joint Intelligence Committee and COBR and completed 14 operational tours of duty around the globe.
Richard Kemp was appointed Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE), Military Division, in recognition of his intelligence work in Northern Ireland in 1992–1993 and was awarded the Queen's Commendation for Bravery as a commander in the United Nations Protection Force in Bosnia in 1994. He was appointed Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE), Military Division, in the New Year Honours 2006 for his service in relation to the London bomb attacks in 2005, and for his work for the British and US governments in Iraq the same year.
Thousands have watched his testimony. Now is the time to turn his words into action. Write to your Congressman, to your Senator, remind them that lies do not make a truth no matter how many times you tell them. Remind them that you vote, that you support Israel, and will not vote for them if they do not do all that they can to get the President to use our veto in the Security Council when this pack of lies comes up for a vote.
There is truth and there are lies. Goldstone is a lie.
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.
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:
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:
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.
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Sderot Student, 23, Addresses UN Human Rights Council in Geneva
Liraz Madmony, 23 of Sderot, grew up under Palestinian rocket fire for eight years of her life. Although a rocket has never directly hit her home, Liraz has experienced the terror of rocket explosions countless times. "We don't have a bomb shelter in our house," she recently told SMC. "Every time, the Tzeva Adom is set off, our family races to the shower, the only room that is most 'secure' from a rocket attack."
Liraz Madmony with Israeli representative to the UN.
Liraz is a law student in a Ramat Gan college in central Israel and is heavily involved with student organizations such as WUJS (World Union of Jewish Students). "Many times I've missed my law classes and student activities because of the rocket attacks. It's almost impossible to lead a normal life when you are forced to live under with warning alerts and raining rockets."
While Liraz admits that balancing life as a college student and a resident in a war-zone can at times be very difficult, she recently found the time to share her story with the world community. Thanks to a trip coordinated by UN Watch two weeks ago, Liraz Madmony addressed the UN Human Rights Council Special Session on Gaza in Geneva, on behalf of the European Union of Jewish Students (EUJS) on January 12, 2009.
"It was a very moving moment for me," says Liraz. "Here I was standing in front of all these people--in Geneva, Switzerland--representing the people of Sderot and all our years of suffering and terror."
Liraz is just a normal person, leading a normal life, wanting only the rockets to stop. In the last 8 years dozens of UN resolutions were passed condemning Israel. Not one has ever been passed condemning Hamas. And yet Israel is suppose to accept all the resolutions passed by the UN.
From 90210 to Sderot: Get the Story Right!
I just returned from a two week visit to Israel. I spent my last weekend in Sderot and the Western Negev. One year out from volunteering in Sderot, I have written this piece on the international media's lack of context in covering the current conflict between Israel and Hamas.
Hundreds of journalists from all over the world just left Sderot and the surrounding areas covering the current conflict between Israel and Hamas. Where were they one year ago? Where were they four years ago, eight years ago? I spent six weeks volunteering in Sderot exactly one year ago, and I can tell you, the journalists were no where to be found.
Unfortunately for Israel, it took eight years for the international community to understand that innocent civilians in a western democracy live daily under the current threat of rocket fire. During this time, the range of the threat expanded from a tens of thousands to over one million innocent Jewish and Muslim Israeli citizens.
In these eight years, has the UN Security Council ever condemned nearly a decade of rocket fire on innocent civilians of one of its member states, Hamas’ use of human shields, and its use of schools, hospitals, and mosques to store and launch rockets at Israel?
Are you laughing at me for even thinking to ask such a question? Well you should be, because why would anyone assume the international community to be, um, sensible?
Maybe they could be just a little rational? Nah, that’s just too silly!
Furthermore, has any news organization mentioned the fact Israel is the only western democracy in the entire world that has a significant - let alone any - part of its population living under the threat of daily rocket fire?
“Oh it’s just Israel, who cares right?” “They can take it?” Or rather, “Maybe they deserve it, right?”
Well you know what I have to say that...
I’d also like to thank the international media for providing ZERO context for the humanitarian issues of the Palestinian people.
Let me describe to you a little bit of Israel’s commitment to helping the Palestinians suffering from the wrath of their authoritarian, fanatical terrorist rulers, Hamas.
From the beginning of Operation Cast Lead, December 27, 2008, until January 12, 2009:
- 926 truckloads (22,046 tons) of humanitarian aid were delivered to Gaza
- 449 dual nationals were evacuated from Gaza
- 3000 units of blood were donated by Jordan and transferred into Gaza
- 5 ambulances were donated by Turkey and transferred into Gaza
- 5 ambulances were transferred from the West Bank to Gaza on behalf of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society
- 34 people were evacuated to Israel for medical needs
On Jan. 7, 2009, the IDF decided it would ceasefire for three hours each day in order to let humanitarian aid reach civilians in the Gaza Strip.
I love when this gets mentioned, and they say three hours is simply not enough. So, Israel should stop defending its civilians all together, fully commit itself to giving aid to the other side, and allow terrorists to fire rockets at it and threaten one million of its population?
Do you find it a tad bit odd that Israel is forced not only to defend its own citizens, but those of its enemies as well? Well I don’t...I mean, isn’t every western democracy supposed to do that during wars? Duh!
I got a question for you Mr. and Mrs. International Media.
Israel is the bad guy? Are you kidding me!
What does Hamas do for Israeli civilians? Oh yeah, they’ve been terrorizing them with rockets for the last eight years!
What other country, when immersed in a full scale war, commits itself to providing humanitarian aid to their enemy? Oh yeah, Russia!
I am suppose to accept that the world media isn’t biased against Israel. And then I am suppose to acknowledge the Tooth Fairy and Easter Bunny too. Right. If it was not so tragic, I would laugh.
An Illusion of Normalcy?
An uncertain calm rests upon Sderot at the moment. The sounds of war have disappeared, replaced by the sounds of a city slowly coming back to life. The click of the intercom followed by the voice that repeatedly stated Tzeva Adom, followed by the rocket explosion a few seconds later seems to be something of the past.
But daily news reports on Palestinian terror activity from Gaza are constant reminders to Israelis in Sderot and the western Negev that the calm remains seemingly temporarily.
Israel declared a unilateral ceasefire on Saturday night, January 17 at 2:00 am, which ended Operation Cast Lead, a 3-week offensive against Hamas. It was Israel's longest offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, following two brief military offenses in the Gaza Strip in 2004 and 2006 in response to Qassam attacks that killed two Israeli girls, and wounded several other civilians.
Sderot children play around protected shelters.
Two day after the ceasefire was declared; Palestinian terrorists fired 8 mortar rockets at Israel on Tuesday morning, January 20. Palestinian militants also opened fire on IDF soldiers in Gaza. On Tuesday evening, the last of the IDF troops had pulled out of Gaza before the inauguration of US President Barack Obama at 6 PM. Israel time.
On Tuesday, January 27, Palestinian terrorists carried out the first deadly attack on Israel since the ceasefire concluded. An Israeli soldier was killed on Tuesday morning when an explosive device set at the Kissufim crossing along the Gaza Strip border exploded as an IDF force patrolled the area. Another officer was seriously injured, with one leg amputated and another severely damage. Two other soldiers suffered from extensive shrapnel wounds, but were categorized as lightly hurt. They remain hospitalized.
IAF jets struck a weapon manufacturing site in the Rafah area late on Wednesday night, in response to a Kassam rocket fired from the Gaza Strip at Israel several hours earlier.
t was the IDF's first attack on a building inside the Strip since the end of Operation Cast Lead.
The Kassam was fired at southern Israel a day after Gaza operatives breached the cease-fire with a deadly bomb attack along the border.
The rocket hit an open area in the Eshkol region, causing no casualties or damage.
Hamas can violation a cease-fire and the world says nothing. Israel strikes back and there are riots in the streets. Can anyone see a double standard here? I do.
Like always, Israel will do what it has to do to survive. And like always I once again send out a plea for donations for the Sderot Media Center. The donation you give goes directly to the victims of the terror. To donate either click the logos on the top or bottom of the page or go here. The people of Sderot will be very grateful.
Many times NGO's have been asked to speak in front of many United Nations organizations. And every time a pro-Israel group has spoken, they have been stopped by one or another Muslim nation. Most of the time it hasn't been recorded, but this time it was recorded.
Jewish lobby groups have long claimed that United Nations councils that discuss matters related to the Middle East are outright anti-Israel. The UN watchdog organization Eye On The UN has released a 3-minute film of a session of the UN Human Rights Council calling it a blatant case of silencing a pro-Israel speaker.
On September 18, 2008, the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva discussed Item 7 on the agenda: "the human rights situation in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories." Time was allotted to hear comments from NGO's at which time a Joint statement of B'nai Brith International and the Coordinating Board of Jewish Organizations was read. The B'nai Brith representative said:[the above video starts with his statement]
"The discussions under this agenda item are not only repetitive in the sense that speaker after speaker accuses Israel of all conceivable human rights violations without any reference to human rights violations committed by Palestinians. These are not only committed against Israeli civilians, but against other… "
At this moment in the film clip, the president of the council interrupted and gave the floor to Egyptian representative Elchin Amirbayov, Vice President of the Human Rights Council, who made a point of order:
"When we allowed and welcomed the participation of NGO's in the work of this council, we expected this to be serious input… But I am sorry, I don't see any seriousness… No amount of diversion can cover what is happening in Palestine. Those who cannot address the facts and the issues on the ground, should not try to distort and waste the time of the council and waste the time allocated to NGO's. This is not seriousness... We did not hear a single serious statement thus far."
The president of the council accepted the point of order by the Egyptian representative.
Imagine yourself a young mother with a one-year old child. Imagine that you have only 15 seconds from when the warning is sounded to get to safety or you and/or your child will be injured or killed. This is the reality for those mothers who live in Sderot. Mothers like Dena Cohen.
With her baby in her hands, Sderot mother Dena Cohen has only 15 seconds to dash to safety when she hears the warning siren of an impending rocket attack ring out across her hometown of Sderot.
On Thursday, she was the first resident of that city to address the United Nation's Human Rights Council and to give them an intimate portrait of what it was like to live under the constant rocket threat from the Palestinians in neighboring Gaza.
She spoke on the same day that Archbishop Desmond Tutu addressed the council and condemned Israel's 2006 shelling of the Palestinian village of Beit Hanoun, in which 19 civilians were killed.
"All human life is equal and all innocent suffering is tragic," said Cohen. But, she told the Council, it should also understand what it is live on the Israeli side of the border, knowing that a rocket could fall at any time.
Cohen, 22, who has a one-year-old son, said, "Every night, before falling asleep, I face the same dilemma. What will happen if a rocket falls on my son's room?"
"We have fifteen seconds between the alarm and the explosion. Fifteen seconds to run to the closest shelter. In which direction to go? How to react?" she asked.
During the winter, she said, a rocket fell near their home, shattering the windows.
Eight-year-old Osher Twito, who lost one of his legs in a Kassam attack. Photo: Ariel Jerozolimski
A shard from that rocket injured their eight-year old neighbor, Osher Twito, who lost his leg as a result. His eighteen-year-old brother was also seriously wounded, Cohen told the Council.
"I will never forget their cries. Every time the alarm sounds, I know that this situation can happen again, or even end more tragically," Cohen said.
Sderot, she said, is a city in shock. At any moment an alarm can sound that would send its 20,000 residents racing for cover.
Since Israel withdrew from Gaza, the Palestinians there have launched thousands of rockets in the direction of the south, she said.
"I would like to ask: Does my baby not have the right to be protected? Does he not have the right to life?" said Cohen.
The Council is dominated by Muslim nations and has been widely cited for frequently and heavily criticizing Israel while virtually ignoring rights problems elsewhere in the world.
Tutu tried to strike a balanced tone Thursday when he said that the council should look at suffering of both Israelis and Palestinians.
But he also said in compiling a report on Israeli-Palestinian violence for the council that he had been struck by the lack of international concern for Palestinians.
"The international community is failing to fulfill its role in respect of the suffering of the people of Gaza," he said.
Desmond Tutu should go back to South Africa and look to the injustice and discrimination in his own land. His place is there. It is well known to the world that Desmond Tutu, like so many Africans is an anti-Semite and would love to see every Jew in the world killed. Heck he would love to be doing the killing.
Dena Cohen doesn't have the world's media on her side. They side with those who are trying to kill her and her son. Those who wish, like Desmond Tutu and Barack Hussein Obama, to finish the job that Hitler started. No one cares about Dena Cohen in this world. In other news from Sderot:
Rocket fire from Gaza breaks ceasefire again By Spencer Ho
A Qassam missile fired by terrorists in Gaza struck just outside of a residential neighborhood in the west end of Sderot, causing a small brush fire at a construction site.
No injuries were reported.
This was the first incident of Qassam fire in the western Negev since terrorists fired two Qassams Aug. 25, after which Defense Minister Ehud Barak closed crossings between Gaza and Israel, except for humanitarian purposes, for nearly two days.
The cease-fire is over it seems. As if the rockets ever stopped. More and more Israelis will be running for cover. Code Red will sound and they will have only 15 seconds to get to safety. How many more Osher Twitos will there be? How many more mothers will grieve over their sons and daughters? How long do the people of Sderot and the Western Negev have to live through this horror.
I ask you to dig deep into your pockets and to click the logo below. Give a little or a lot. The money you give goes directly to the people of the area. And feel free to cross post this at will.
In early 2009 the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) will be holding a large conference to deal with the world's human rights issues. Will they be addressing the ongoing genocide in Darfur? Will they finally address the inequality of women in Muslim nations? Will they address the systematic murder of homosexuals, Christians and Baha'i in Iran?
Support for Israel has never ranked high on the United Nations’ agenda. And the upcoming World Conference Against Racism, scheduled for early 2009 in Geneva, Switzerland, presents a valid case. Many observers are concerned that the UN-sponsored event will simply serve as yet another a platform to launch attacks against Israel -- as the previous world anti-racism conference did in Durban, South Africa, seven years ago.
Even by the standards of the organization’s traditional antagonism toward the Jewish State, the U.N.’s 2001 Durban gathering marked a low point. To the extent that “racism” was discussed, it was only to condemn Israeli policies. Little wonder that the conference, known as “ Durban I,” is largely remembered as a U.N.-backed assault on Israel.
Now it’s back. And if early evidence is any guide, Durban II, as the Geneva event is already being called, will be a replay of its predecessor. Consider that the chair of the conference’s planning committee is Libya, whose longtime leader, Muammar Gadhafi, has recently claimed that the Israeli Mossad aims to assassinate Barack Obama. The vice chair of the conference, meanwhile, is communist Cuba. And the fact that Iran's president has notoriously called for Israel’s destruction has not, expectedly, prevented it from playing a key leadership role in the upcoming conference.
Nor does it bode well for Durban II that its agenda will be set by the 56-member Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC). In particular, the conference will consider responses to “Islamophobia.” In this connection, the OIC’s members will consider what they regard as the problematic Western right to free speech. Referring to the cartoons of the prophet Mohammed published in Danish newspaper Jyllands Posten and to “Fitna,” Dutch politician Geert Wilders’s documentary about Islam, OIC Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu recently promised to send “a clear message to the West regarding the red lines that should not be crossed.” He went on to warn Western countries to “look seriously into the question of freedom of expression.”
For their part, Western countries should make clear that they will not allow the OIC to dictate what can and cannot be said about Islam. Instead, they should shift the focus onto the OIC. Instead of concerning themselves with alleged Western prejudices, Islamic states would do well to ponder the rampant racism in the Muslim World. Darfur, where an estimated 300,000 Muslims have been killed by their fellow Muslims, prompting the United Nations to call it the worst human rights disaster in the world, would be a logical starting point. From there, the OIC might consider the continued bloodshed between Shiites and Sunnis, and the fanatical suicide bombers who have claimed the lives of thousands of their co-religionists. One need hardly look to the West to find “Islamophobia” in action.
As for “racism,” the conference’s nominal subject, it is worth bearing in mind that slavery - the most racist of practices - endures in the Islamic world even as it has been abolished in the West. In OIC member states like Sudan and Mauritania, Arabs still keep black African slaves. Sudan 's president, Omar al-Bashir, who was indicted by the World Court for human rights abuses in Darfur, is reputed to have black slaves in his own house. According to NGO reports, some 200,000 southern Sudanese have been enslaved during Bashir’s reign, a practice that the UN has charged is “deeply rooted in Arab and Muslim supremacism.” (Such grim statistics did not deter the Sudanese Minister of Justice from demanding, in a stunning act of hypocrisy, reparations for historical slavery during Durban I.) And while Mauritania legally abolished slavery in 1980, it is still practiced secretly. Even Muslims in the West have not accepted its ban on slavery. For example, four Arab princesses were found in July living in Brussels with 17 slaves.
The persistence of slavery in the Muslim world is not, of course, surprising. In August 1990, the Cairo Declaration of Human Rights was affirmed by the 57 member states of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC). It stated that Islamic Sharia law is the sole source of the Islamic perspective on human rights. And slavery is codified in Sharia law. It is doubtful, naturally, that this detail will be much discussed during Durban II.
In light of recent history, it makes sense that Israel has decided to boycott next year’s conference. Canada has also decided to boycott Durban II, and other Western countries should consider following the Canadian example. It’s the height of absurdity for free nations to have to endure lectures on human rights from its preeminent abusers. In 2001, they could have claimed to be unaware of the conference’s sinister agenda. Seven years later, ignorance is no longer an excuse or an option.
Geneva, Sept. 8, 2008 — After new UN rights chief Navanethem Pillay addressed the 47-nation Human Rights Council for the first time today, independent human rights organization UN Watch praised her “inspiring life example as an anti-apartheid advocate,” yet expressed deep concern over her remarks praising the UN’s preparations for a follow-up to the troubled 2001 Durban world conference on racism. Her defense of the Durban process was immediately hailed in the plenary by Pakistan on behalf of the Islamic states, Egypt for the African bloc, Cuba for the Non-Aligned, Russia and South Africa.
Without mentioning their names, Pillay criticized the current absence in the UN deliberations of Canada, the U.S. and Israel, as well as similar threats to walk out of the already controversial April 2009 conference made by the French, U.K. and Dutch governments.
“I do not believe that ‘all or nothing’ is the right approach to affirm one’s principles or to win an argument,” said Pillay. “Should differences be allowed to become pretexts for inaction, the hopes and aspirations of the many victims of intolerance would be dashed irreparably. For these reasons, I urge those governments that have expressed an intention not to participate to reconsider their position,” she said.
According to UN Watch, Pillay “is shooting in the wrong direction. Why is the high commissioner aiming her fire at the world’s most tolerant democracies, instead of at racist tyrants like Sudan’s Omar al-Bashir and Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who, under the chairmanship of Muammar Qaddafi’s Libya, have already begun to hijack the conference?,” asked UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer.
In her speech, Pillay praised the African states’ recent preparatory conference, held in Abuja, Nigeria on August 24-26, as “productive.”
“In fact,” said Neuer, “the Abuja conference utterly failed its stated mission, and was a major setback for the anti-racism cause and millions suffering around the globe. Its concluding declaration failed to say a word for the victims of Sudan’s atrocities in Darfur, or those other African governments perpetrating ethnic violence. Instead, it explicitly attacked free speech and singled out Israel — exactly what the UN’s highest officials promised Durban II wouldn’t do. The high commissioner ought to be taking on the hijackers of the anti-racism conference, instead of the few that seek to resist them.”
“We remind the high commissioner that in 2001, the most virulent and inciteful language of the Durban declaration was removed only under the pressure of European threats to walk out, as the U.S. and Israel did. So too now, the threat of Western non-participation remains the only force with the slightest chance of preventing the conference from degenerating into an out-and-out fiasco,” said Neuer.
An early draft of the April conference’s outcome document, released by a UN planning committee on Friday, reserves space to include provisions adopted by the African conference in Abuja. The Abuja text calls on states “to refrain from condoning incitement to racial and religious hatred and violence under the pretext of free speech” (par 13). It also expresses “concern about the plight of the Palestinian people under foreign occupations” (par. 32). The rest of the document focuses on Western practices today and in the past against people of African descent.
I do not expect that the Geneva conference aka Durban II will be any different than the first Durban conference. Darfur will not be discussed. Women's rights will not be discussed. Gays, Christians and Baha'i will not be discussed. Slavery will not be discussed. But Israel and Judaism will be condemned over and over and over again.
I am glad that at least 3 nations will not be attending this hatefest. Israel, Canada and the United States already have said, "Thanks but no thanks!" to the hatemongers. It is time for the rest of the Free World to come on board and reject this obscenity.
The Veterans Hospital in Tucson needs our help!!! They have contacted Soldiers' Angels with a list of needs for their patients. Soldiers Angels needs your help in making some of these come true.
Below you will find just a small portion of needs that are immediate. You can also find this list posted on the Soldiers Angels Forum at www.soldiersangelsforum.com you will be able to find lots of great information there for our deployed and vets.
If you are sending a monetary donation please follow the link and indicate the State you are in.
COMFORT ITEMS- $350/MO Dry Skin Cream Slipper Socks-No skid Catheter bag covers Shaving Cream Hand Lotion Baby Shampoo Hand Soap Roll on/Spray Deodorant Denture Cleaner Underwear (men and women (all sizes) Toothbrushes Denture Grip Socks (white) Talcum Powder Nail Clippers Toothpaste Ladies hand and body lotion Backpacks Disposable Razors Comb/Brushes Shawls Shaving Cream/small Knitted Caps Travel Alarm Clocks Ball Caps Tote Bags Shower Shoes Pocket Size Needle and Thread Kit Heart pillows for cardiac patients Lap Robes (3x5 or 5x7)
GUEST SERVICES 30 cup coffee makers Coffee supplies (reg. & decaf) Music CDs Stamps Writing Paper and Envelopes Prepaid Phone Cards for patients’ RECREATION Puzzle books Crossword Puzzles Pencils Video tapes & DVDs (movies, educational) DVD Player
Sports equipment (basketball, tennis rackets & Tickets for entertainment & sporting events Balls, badminton set, Frisbees, football)
If you can send just one item that would be great!!! If each person sends one thing we will make a difference! They are also needing those who can volunteer time at the hospital just contact the Voluntary Services Dept. For information.
Mail Items to:
Department of Veterans Affairs Southern Arizona VA Health Care System – Voluntary Services 9-135, 3601 S. Sixth Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85723
PLEASE HELP US HELP THOSE WHO FOUGHT FOR OUR FREEDOM!
Surrender is NOT An Option Banner
My Favorite Speeches and Other Items of Interest
George Bush's March 28, 2007 Discusses Economy, War on Terror During Remarks to the National Cattlemen's Beef Association;http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/03/20070328-2.html
Mitch McConnell's March 15, 2007 Funding For Troops, Not Timelines for Retreat; http://mcconnell.senate.gov/record.cfm?id=270747&start=1
Ronald Reagan's June 12, 1987 Tear Down This Wall Speech; http://www.reaganfoundation.org/reagan/speeches/wall.asp
Vice President Cheney's March 12, 2007 Remarks at the AIPAC 2007 Policy Conference; http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/03/20070312.html
Winston Churchill Quotes
A prisoner of war is a man who tries to kill you and fails, and then asks you not to kill him.
Although personally I am quite content with existing explosives, I feel we must not stand in the path of improvement.
Although prepared for martyrdom, I preferred that it be postponed.
Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.
Battles are won by slaughter and maneuver. The greater the general, the more he contributes in maneuver, the less he demands in slaughter.
Danger - if you meet it promptly and without flinching - you will reduce the danger by half. Never run away from anything. Never!
I always seem to get inspiration and renewed vitality by contact with this great novel land of yours which sticks up out of the Atlantic.
I am an optimist. It does not seem too much use being anything else.
I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.
I like a man who grins when he fights.
I was only the servant of my country and had I, at any moment, failed to express her unflinching resolve to fight and conquer, I should at once have been rightly cast aside.
If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time-a tremendous whack.
In war as in life, it is often necessary when some cherished scheme has failed, to take up the best alternative open, and if so, it is folly not to work for it with all your might.
It is no use saying, 'We are doing our best.' You have got to succeed in doing what is necessary.
Moral of the Work. In war: resolution. In defeat: defiance. In victory: magnanimity. In peace: goodwill.
Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.
Never, never, never give up.
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism.
One ought never to turn one's back on a threatened danger and try to run away from it. If you do that, you will double the danger. But if you meet it promptly and without flinching, you will reduce the danger by half. Never run away from anything. Never!
Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.
Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.
The first quality that is needed is audacity.
The nose of the bulldog has been slanted backwards so that he can breathe without letting go.
The truth is incontrovertible, malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end; there it is.
There is no such thing as public opinion. There is only published opinion.
These are not dark days: these are great days - the greatest days our country has ever lived.
They are decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all-powerful to be impotent.
True genius resides in the capacity for evaluation of uncertain, hazardous, and conflicting information.
Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival.
War is a game that is played with a smile. If you can't smile, grin. If you can't grin, keep out of the way till you can.
War is mainly a catalogue of blunders.
We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.
We shall draw from the heart of suffering itself the means of inspiration and survival.
When the eagles are silent the parrots begin to jabber.
When you are winning a war almost everything that happens can be claimed to be right and wise.
You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life.
Ronald Reagan Quotes
"The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they're ignorant: It's just that they know so much that isn't so."
Above all, we must realize that no arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenals of the world, is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women. It is a weapon our adversaries in today's world do not have.
All the waste in a year from a nuclear power plant can be stored under a desk.
Approximately 80% of our air pollution stems from hydrocarbons released by vegetation, so let's not go overboard in setting and enforcing tough emission standards from man-made sources
Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!
Concentrated power has always been the enemy of liberty.
Double, no triple, our troubles and we'd still be better off than any other people on earth. It is time that we recognized that ours was, in truth, a noble cause.
Facts are stupid things.
Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.
Freedom prospers when religion is vibrant and the rule of law under God is acknowledged.
Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves.
Governments tend not to solve problems, only to rearrange them.
History teaches that war begins when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap.
How can a president not be an actor?
How do you tell a communist? Well, it's someone who reads Marx and Lenin. And how do you tell an anti-Communist? It's someone who understands Marx and Lenin.
I have wondered at times what the Ten Commandments would have looked like if Moses had run them through the US Congress.
I will stand on, and continue to use, the figures I have used, because I believe they are correct. Now, I'm not going to deny that you don't now and then slip up on something; no one bats a thousand.
In Israel, free men and women are every day demonstrating the power of courage and faith. Back in 1948 when Israel was founded, pundits claimed the new country could never survive. Today, no one questions that. Israel is a land of stability and democracy in a region of tryanny and unrest.
Let us ask ourselves; "What kind of people do we think we are?".
Man is not free unless government is limited.
My philosophy of life is that if we make up our mind what we are going to make of our lives, then work hard toward that goal, we never lose - somehow we win out.
No mother would ever willingly sacrifice her sons for territorial gain, for economic advantage, for ideology.
Of the four wars in my lifetime, none came about because the U.S. was too strong.
Our forbearance should never be misunderstood. Our reluctance for conflict should not be misjudged as a failure of will. When action is required to preserve our national security, we will act.
Protecting the rights of even the least individual among us is basically the only excuse the government has for even existing.
Some people wonder all their lives if they've made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem.
The ultimate determinant in the struggle now going on for the world will not be bombs and rockets but a test of wills and ideas - a trial of spiritual resolve: the values we hold, the beliefs we cherish and the ideals to which we are dedicated.
The United Sates has much to offer the third world war.
There are no easy answers' but there are simple answers. We must have the courage to do what we know is morally right.
To paraphrase Winston Churchill, I did not take the oath I have just taken with the intention of presiding over the dissolution of the world's strongest economy.
Today we did what we had to do. They counted on America to be passive. They counted wrong.
We are never defeated unless we give up on God.
We have the duty to protect the life of an unborn child.
We must reject the idea that every time a law's broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions.
We will always remember. We will always be proud. We will always be prepared, so we will always be free.
Within the covers of the Bible are the answers for all the problems men face.
You know, if I listened to Michael Dukakis long enough, I would be convinced we're in an economic downturn and people are homeless and going without food and medical attention and that we've got to do something about the unemployed.
Eleanor Roosevelt Quotes
No one can make you feel inferior without your consent
When you click on the website link below, a world Map comes up showing what strange & dangerous things are happening right now in every country in the entire world & is updated every few minutes.
This "map" updates every 310 seconds...constantly--24/7, 365.
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