Friday 26 June 2009
Free Him Now - ADL
An Israeli soldier is being held hostage by the terrorist organization Hamas since his capture in the summer of 2006. The continued captivity of this young man with little word as to his fate is unacceptable and a clear violation of international protocol.
Cpt. Gilad Shalit, 21, was kidnapped on June 25, 2006 during a cross-border attack by the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas on a military installation near Kibbutz Kerem Shalom in southern Israel. Two soldiers were killed and three wounded during the raid. Shalit is still being held by Hamas at an undisclosed location in the Gaza Strip.
On July 16, 2008, the bodies of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, the two Israeli soldiers kidnapped by Hezbollah from Israeli soil on July 12, 2006, were returned to Israel as part of a prisoner exchange. Their kidnapping sparked the 2006 Lebanon War. Over the two years the soldiers were held captive, Hezbollah never provided information as to the soldiers condition or fate. The return of their bodies was the first acknowledgement by Hezbollah that the soldiers were dead.
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Anti Defamation League - Free Him Now
Israel Matzav: SS Moonbat blocked by Cyprus
SS Moonbat blocked by Cyprus
'Activists' from the 'Free Gaza' movement, including former US Representative Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.), were held up by Cypriot authorities who insisted on inspecting their dinghies before letting them try to run a blockade and enter Gaza. Israel Matzav: SS Moonbat blocked by CyprusDepartment chief Sergios Sergiou said that a fishing boat and a small ferry that the Free Gaza Group were to use for the trip from Cyprus to Gaza had not undergone safety inspections which would take "at least a few days" to complete.
"It's a dangerous trip," Sergiou told the Associated Press. "The vessels must undergo a general inspection before they are allowed to go."Read All at :
Israel Matzav: Chavez steps up attacks on Jews
Chavez steps up attacks on Jews
The Chavez thugocracy in Venezeula, with which President Obama decided to restore ties on Wednesday, has stepped up its attacks against Jews recently, with two serious attacks in the last ten days (Hat Tip: Jonah Goldberg). Read All at :
Israel Matzav: Chavez steps up attacks on Jews
Israel Matzav: Of course the UN is silent!
Of course the UN is silent!
Claudia Rosett decries the UN's silence on Iran. And she knows why the United Nations couldn't care less about what's going on in Iran: Israel cannot be blamed. Israel Matzav: Of course the UN is silent!Not until June 22 did Ban finally return to the subject of Iran. And even then, Ban did not step forth before the cameras himself. At the regular noon press briefing, Ban's spokeswoman, Michele Montas, delivered a long list of announcements, replete with notices of assorted public service awards, and of the demise of a man who served from 1976 to 1981 as the spokesman for former U.N. Secretary General Kurt Waldheim. There was nothing on Iran.
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Israel Matzav: Fatah boasts about lynching two Israeli soldiers in 2000
Fatah boasts about lynching two Israeli soldiers in 2000
One of the most heinous acts of the early days of the 'intifadeh' was the lynch of two Israeli soldiers in a Ramallah police station in October 2000.On October 12, 2000, two Israeli soldiers (Vadim Nurzhitz and Yossi Avrahami[1]), entered Ramallah and were arrested by the Palestinian Authority police. According to Israeli sources, the men were reservists, who on their way to reporting for duty entered Ramallah by mistake; Palestinian sources claimed that the men were armed and "dressed in civilian clothes, apparently on an undercover operation"[2], but their bodies in military uniform can be seen in photographs[3] and in video footage broadcast later on the TV. It was also reported that rumours were "circulating through the mob that the captives belonged to the feared and hated undercover units of the Israeli army which dress as Arabs" [4].
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Israel Matzav: Fatah boasts about lynching two Israeli soldiers in 2000
Israel Matzav: What Keith Dayton hath wrought
What Keith Dayton hath wrought
American General Keith Dayton (pictured) is training the 'Palestinian police' to take over for the IDF in the 'Palestinian' cities, and eventually to become an armed force against Israel. Israel has responded by allowing the 'Palestinian police' to control some cities and towns in Judea and Samaria. In fact, Israel just announced today that the IDF will drastically reduce its presence in five 'Palestinian' cities; Dayton's forces are to be given control.Read All at :
Israel Matzav: What Keith Dayton hath wrought
Israel Matzav: Multi-Culturalism run rampant
Multi-Culturalism run rampant
They told us that if we voted for John McCain, we would get a President who didn't give a damn about democracy or human rights. And they were right.In this week's issue of Forbes Anne Bayefsky rips the Obumbler's gutless policy on Iran (Hat Tip: Memeorandum).
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Israel Matzav: Multi-Culturalism run rampant
Israel Matzav: Human Rights Watch slams Hamas over Shalit
Human Rights Watch slams Hamas over Shalit
This is one of those moments.
Human Rights Watch, which recently went on a fundraising tour to Saudi Arabia, issued a statement Wednesday urging Hamas to allow kidnapped IDF Corporal Gilad Shalit contact with his family. Israel Radio reported that Human Rights Watch backed it up by placing an ad in Thursday's al-Quds, a 'Palestinian' daily, urging the same thing. Hamas authorities should immediately allow Sgt. Gilad Shalit of Israel to communicate with his family and to receive visits from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)," Human Rights Watch said Wednesday, a day before the third anniversary of his captivity. "Hamas's prolonged incommunicado detention of Shalit is cruel and inhuman and may amount to torture," Human Rights Watch said.
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Israel Matzav: Human Rights Watch slams Hamas over Shalit
Israel Matzav: Obama ensures there will be no negotiations with the 'Palestinians'
Obama ensures there will be no negotiations with the 'Palestinians'
Herb Keinon has a piece of spot-on analysis in Thursday's JPost that concludes that the Obama administration's focus on 'settlement' construction has ensured that no negotiations between Israel and the 'Palestinians' will take place in the foreseeable future. Whether this was Obama's intention or not, his hard line on the settlements has effectively made Israeli-Palestinian negotiations dependent on a complete settlement freeze, something the Netanyahu government - because of its political makeup and Netanyahu's desire for political longevity - is simply not going to do.
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Israel Matzav: Obama ensures there will be no negotiations with the 'Palestinians'
Israel Matzav: Three long years
Three long years
Three years ago today, Hamas terrorists tunneled underneath the Kerem Shalom crossing point into the Gaza Strip, murdered two IDF soldiers, and grabbed then-19-year old Gilad Shalit and took him hostage. Shalit has been held almost incommunicado in the Gaza Strip ever since. As JPost pointed out in an editorial on Wednesday: Hamas has held Schalit incommunicado. Violating international law and human decency, and although Hamas prisoners in Israel are permitted visitors, Gaza's rulers have refused to allow even the Red Cross to see their Israeli hostage.
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HAMAS IS NASTY
Hamas is Nasty
Do you ever get the feeling Hamas (and others of its ilk) use the terminology of human rights and democracy cynically? When it serves them, they're all for it and swear by it, but if it doesn't serve them, not? If so, you won't be surprised to hear this story (Hebrew only).
B'tselem, an Israeli so-called "human rights" group which focuses mostly on Israeli infringments and rarely on Palestinian ones, to the extent many of us find them factually challenged, has published an ad in the main West Bank newspaper (Al Quds) calling for the exchange of Gilad Shalit for many Palestinians held by Israel. Shalit was kidnapped three years ago yesterday, and contrary to international law and all that, no-one has seen him since, his family has no way of communicating with him, the Red Cross never visits him, he has no access to any sort of legal proceedings, nothing.
Why in the West Bank, you ask? After all, Shalit is being held (probably) in Gaza?
Because in Hamas-controlled Gaza B'tselem wasn't allowed to publish their ad. Asked to comment, the spokesperson of B'Tselem had no official explanation, but said that they assume ("anachnu manichem") that in Gaza the press isn't very free.
B'tselem, an Israeli so-called "human rights" group which focuses mostly on Israeli infringments and rarely on Palestinian ones, to the extent many of us find them factually challenged, has published an ad in the main West Bank newspaper (Al Quds) calling for the exchange of Gilad Shalit for many Palestinians held by Israel. Shalit was kidnapped three years ago yesterday, and contrary to international law and all that, no-one has seen him since, his family has no way of communicating with him, the Red Cross never visits him, he has no access to any sort of legal proceedings, nothing.
Why in the West Bank, you ask? After all, Shalit is being held (probably) in Gaza?
Because in Hamas-controlled Gaza B'tselem wasn't allowed to publish their ad. Asked to comment, the spokesperson of B'Tselem had no official explanation, but said that they assume ("anachnu manichem") that in Gaza the press isn't very free.
taken from :Yaacov Lozowick's Ruminations
HOMOSEXUAL RIGHTS IN ISRAEL
Homosexual Rights in Israel
The annual Gay Parade will march this afternoon in Jerusalem. No counter demonstrations are expected, probably because the Haredi community is collecting its powder for the large demonstration they're planning for Saturday afternoon against a municipal parking lot that will be opened near their neighborhood; this is turning into the first major test of the political mettle of our new mayor, Nir Barkat. The Gay Parade is a distraction so will be ignored.
Personally, I don't know what the Gay Parade is for. It originated in New York, a town that loves parades about everything, in the 1970s when gays were campaigning for acceptance. Jerusalem doesn't generally have political parades, and anyway, what are the local gays demonstrating for?
A few weeks ago the research unit of the Knesset posted a paper they'd prepared about the legal status of gay marriages in Israel and elsewhere. (In Hebrew, of course). It tells that there are seven countries in the world that recognize gay marriages, Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Norway, Sweden, Canada and South Africa; also, five States in the US. Then there is a larger group, though not that large, that recognizes varying forms of civil arrangements. Israel is near the top of that group, with arrangements that are functionally the same as marriage, without the name.
I followed this up by checking with Dan Yakir, the legal counsel of ACRI (the Association of Civil Rights in Israel), and one of the prime movers of the matter. Dan agreed with me that the legal rights of homosexuals in Israel are mostly guaranteed, and there isn't much left to kvetch about. He even agreed with the logic of my position that marriage itself, being a cultural and religious institution with many layers of meaning to it, is better left alone, and told me that's also the position of the Supreme Court. He'd probably like it otherwise, but he can see the sense of the compormise.
I'd have you compare this with the Arab world, but that would be snarky of me. So compare it to Asia Africa or South America, instead.
Personally, I don't know what the Gay Parade is for. It originated in New York, a town that loves parades about everything, in the 1970s when gays were campaigning for acceptance. Jerusalem doesn't generally have political parades, and anyway, what are the local gays demonstrating for?
A few weeks ago the research unit of the Knesset posted a paper they'd prepared about the legal status of gay marriages in Israel and elsewhere. (In Hebrew, of course). It tells that there are seven countries in the world that recognize gay marriages, Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Norway, Sweden, Canada and South Africa; also, five States in the US. Then there is a larger group, though not that large, that recognizes varying forms of civil arrangements. Israel is near the top of that group, with arrangements that are functionally the same as marriage, without the name.
I followed this up by checking with Dan Yakir, the legal counsel of ACRI (the Association of Civil Rights in Israel), and one of the prime movers of the matter. Dan agreed with me that the legal rights of homosexuals in Israel are mostly guaranteed, and there isn't much left to kvetch about. He even agreed with the logic of my position that marriage itself, being a cultural and religious institution with many layers of meaning to it, is better left alone, and told me that's also the position of the Supreme Court. He'd probably like it otherwise, but he can see the sense of the compormise.
I'd have you compare this with the Arab world, but that would be snarky of me. So compare it to Asia Africa or South America, instead.
taken from : Yaacov Lozowick's Ruminations
Sefer Chabibi Deepest Torah: KORACH: THE COMING OF THE THAW
KORACH: THE COMING OF THE THAW
by Rabbi Baruch Binyamin Hakohen Melman
Korach was a man ahead of his time. Rather than labeling him as the wrong man at the right time, let us say he was the right man at the wrong time. NOW is his time.
Korach asked Moses who put him over all the people to rule over them? For his insolance against a righteous humble man such as Moses, who was the epitome of the reluctant leader, he suffered a very strange punishment. But rather than seeing it merely as a punishment, we can view his fate as similar to a living time capsule - a time capsule of brazen effrontery and fearless confrontation.
Time capsules are meant to be dug up and retrieved in the future. Moreover, the Torah teaches that Korach went down ALIVE (hayyim) into the pit (NUM 16:33). At the time of Mashiach he would once again be retrieved. His rebellion against Moses was just his rehearsal. Now is his time. The cameras are rolling as the capsule is opened. The genie of freedom is released.
Korach was a man ahead of his time. Rather than labeling him as the wrong man at the right time, let us say he was the right man at the wrong time. NOW is his time.
Korach asked Moses who put him over all the people to rule over them? For his insolance against a righteous humble man such as Moses, who was the epitome of the reluctant leader, he suffered a very strange punishment. But rather than seeing it merely as a punishment, we can view his fate as similar to a living time capsule - a time capsule of brazen effrontery and fearless confrontation.
Time capsules are meant to be dug up and retrieved in the future. Moreover, the Torah teaches that Korach went down ALIVE (hayyim) into the pit (NUM 16:33). At the time of Mashiach he would once again be retrieved. His rebellion against Moses was just his rehearsal. Now is his time. The cameras are rolling as the capsule is opened. The genie of freedom is released.
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Sefer Chabibi Deepest Torah: KORACH: THE COMING OF THE THAW