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Sunday, 19 October 2008
Friday, 17 October 2008
CHAG SAMEACH
This beautiful image was taken from the blog SIMPLE PHOTOGRAPHY (http://islandsofpeace.blogspot.com/)
Sunday, 12 October 2008
FOUR-YEAR JAIL TERM FOR PORTUGUESE NAZI
Four-year jail term for Portuguese Nazi
Mário Machado, leader of a Portuguese skinheads organisation, Hammer Skins, speaking to the press outside the court at Monsanto on Friday, October 3 Photo: LUSA 
THE LEADER of the Portuguese extreme right Nazi-style ‘Hammer Skins’ organisation, Mário Machado, has been sentenced to four years in prison.
For the first time in Portugal, a collective of judges has handed down prison sentences for racial discrimination and inciting racial hatred.
On Friday, the court at Monsanto in Lisbon found 31 out of 36 defendants – all skinheads –guilty of racism and crimes of a racist nature.
Of these, six were handed down prison sentences, five were absolved, while the others received suspended prison sentences, were awarded fines or given community service orders.
The longest prison sentence was awarded to Paulo Maia, who was given six years, while Mário Machado and Vasco Leitão – both linked to the extreme right party Partido Nacional Renovador (PNR) – were given four years.
Paulo Maia was found guilty of racial discrimination, kidnapping, aggravated incitement, actual bodily harm and holding illegal arms. It was Maia who, two years ago in Amadora, shot and injured two men for racial reasons. Judge João Felgar also handed down a five-year prison sentence to defendant Pedro Isaque.
Playing to the press by giving a Nazi salute, Mário Machado, the figure who has attracted the most media attention over the past two years for his outspoken rhetoric, said that “blacks and gypsies were the ones that should go to prison”.
Before the sentences were handed down, Mário Machado said that even if he were to be condemned, he would continue to defend “nationalist ideas” and accused the Prosecutor Cândida Vilar of being part of a “Masonic mafia” which also included the Minister of Internal Administration, Rui Pereira, of whom he called its “Grand Master”.
When the judge announced that Nuno Themudo da Silva was not guilty, supporters of the accused, present at the court session, clapped enthusiastically. Nuno Themudo da Silva was on a conditional suspended sentence for his alleged part in the death of a Cape Verde Portuguese citizen, Alcino Monteiro, in Bairro Alto, Lisbon, in July 1995.
Outside the court, the president of the PNR, José Pinto Coelho, called the court case a “political show trial”. “What can you expect from a regime such as this which is corrupt, Masonic and Marxist,” he said.
SOS Racismo, an organisation which helps support racial minorities from racism, congratulated the judges on their decision. “For the first time in Portuguese history, inciting hate against others because of race is seen as a crime, one which cannot be concealed behind the argument of freedom of expression,” said a spokesman.
Wednesday, 8 October 2008
ISRAEL WILL USE "DISPROPORTIONATE FORCE" IF ATTACKED
taken from B'NAI ELIM (http://bnaielim.blogspot.com/)
Israeli general warns Hezbollah of harsh response
By JOSEF FEDERMAN JERUSALEM (AP) —
Israel will use "disproportionate force" if Hezbollah guerrillas attack Israel, a senior military commander said in published comments Friday, adding that any village used to fire missiles against the Jewish state will be destroyed.
Maj. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot, who commands forces along Israel's northern border, issued a similar threat against Syria.
Eizenkot spoke to the Yediot Ahronot daily more than two years after Israel fought an inconclusive 33-day war against Hezbollah. That war, in which Hezbollah lobbed some 4,000 rockets and missiles into Israel, was widely seen as a failure, and Eizenkot has been busy rehabilitating the army's readiness since taking up his post in the aftermath of the fighting.
Eizenkot said Israel would show no mercy on Lebanese villages that harbor Hezbollah fighters. Israel has repeatedly complained that Hezbollah fighters used residential areas for cover, limiting Israel's ability to respond.
Eizenkot stressed that this is "not a recommendation," but a plan approved by the highest levels. "If fire is carried out from Shiite villages in Lebanon, this is the operational plan: Very aggressive fire.
" He said Israel would use what he called the "Dahiya doctrine," a reference to the southern suburbs of Beirut where Hezbollah's headquarters are located. During the 2006 war, Israel destroyed dozens of buildings in Dahiya, including the offices of Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah.
"What happened in the Dahiya quarter in Beirut in 2006 will happen in every village from which Israel is fired upon. We will apply disproportionate force upon it and cause great damage and destruction there," he said. "From our standpoint, these are not civilian villages, they are military bases.
" In the interview, Eizenkot warned Syria against launching missiles into Israel. "Everything I said about Hezbollah, regarding punishment and severe harm, is all the more true for a country that has assets." He also indicated Syria could be punished for Hezbollah's actions.
Syria is a key backer of Hezbollah. Despite the recent resumption of indirect peace talks with Syria, Israel believes the Damascus regime continues to help rearm Hezbollah. There was no immediate response from Hezbollah or Syria. But Nasrallah has warned in recent weeks that Hezbollah's response to a future Israeli incursion will be more fierce than what took place in 2006.
The 2006 war broke out when Hezbollah fighters burst across Israel's northern border, killing three Israeli soldiers and capturing two others. More than 1,000 Lebanese, mostly civilians, and 159 Israelis died in the fighting. The war ended with a U.N.-brokered truce, and in July, the bodies of the two abducted soldiers — believed to have died during or shortly after their capture — were returned to Israel in a swap with Hezbollah.
The cease-fire has largely held, but Israel believes Hezbollah has replenished its arms supplies with Iranian and Syrian help.
Eizenkot said "dozens of rockets" are concealed in homes in Shiite villages throughout southern Lebanon. He said Hezbollah has sent fighters to Iran for training, and Iranian military trainers have been spotted in Lebanon.
"You can see today the walls behind which the rockets are concealed, ready for launching. At the moment of truth, the walls will be knocked down — and the rockets fired.
" While Hezbollah has beefed up its capabilities, Eizenkot stressed that Israel has also greatly improved its training, readiness and intelligence since the war.
"I have great force relative to what existed then. I have no excuse for not achieving the objectives that will be assigned to me," he said.
Copyright © 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved
Sunday, 5 October 2008
SKINHEADS SENTENCED
Lisbon - Portugal's main skinhead leader was Friday sentenced to 4 years and 10 months in prison, judicial sources said. Mario Machado, leader of the Portuguese section of the Hammerskin far-right group, was found guilty of racial discrimination, illegal possession of weapons, threats and violence.
Six others were also handed prison terms, the length of which was not immediately given.
Seventeen were given suspended prison sentences, seven were handed fines, and five were acquitted.
Machado and 35 other suspects were detained in November 2007 on charges including attacks against Africans and dark-skinned Portuguese.
Police seized firearms, munitions, knives, clubs, baseball bats and racist pamphlets.
Sunday, 28 September 2008
ISRAEL - NO HELP FROM THE U.S. (BUSH)
taken from B'NAI ELIM (http://bnaielim.blogspot.com/)
Bush Rejected Israeli Plan to Hit Iran Nuclear Sites
U.S. President George W. Bush rejected an Israeli plan to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities earlier this year and he is not expected to support a strike for the remainder of his term in office, the London Guardian reported today (see GSN, Sept. 25).
The United States and Israel are concerned that Iran’s nuclear program involves weapons development, an allegation Tehran has steadfastly denied.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert proposed the attack to Bush in May during a private discussion in Jerusalem, according to high-level European diplomatic officials. Olmert accepted that Bush’s refusal to support a strike was “where they were at the moment, and that the U.S. position was unlikely to change as long as Bush was in office,” one source said.
Bush said he would not support military action against Iran because an attack was unlikely to destroy all of the country’s nuclear sites and Tehran has promised to retaliate against U.S. military targets and oil trade in response to such an assault.
Israel would face major obstacles if it attempted to attack Iran without U.S. backing, one official said, noting that Iran’s Natanz uranium enrichment facility “lies across Iraq and the U.S. has total control of Iraqi airspace.”
Olmert spokesman Mark Regev played down the Guardian report.
"The need to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons is raised at every meeting between the prime minister and foreign leaders. Israel prefers a diplomatic solution to this issue but all options must remain on the table,” he said (Jonathan Steele, London Guardian, Sept. 25).
Russia and the United States have agreed on a new resolution regarding Iran’s nuclear program to be put forward at the U.N. Security Council, the Associated Press reported. The resolution would propose no new sanctions but would reaffirm the last three rounds of penalties to illustrate that the council would pursue its demand for Iran to halt uranium enrichment activities (John Heilprin, Associated Press I/Yahoo!News, Sept. 26).
Meanwhile, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran must produce its nuclear power plant fuel indigenously because it could not count on other nations to provide it with a steady supply, the Associated Press reported.
Iran’s uranium enrichment program could produce nuclear power plant fuel but also highly enriched uranium for nuclear weapons.
"What guarantee do we have that they would give (the nuclear fuel) to us?" Ahmadinejad told journalists during his visit to the U.N. General Assembly meeting in New York. He said Western firms had backed out of major contracts with Iran following its 1979 Islamic revolution: "Iran paid billions (and) Western countries pulled out … Who do we take our complaints to?"
Ahmadinejad added that he is not worried that the United States could strike Iran’s nuclear sites.
"We're not concerned at all that a confrontation will occur," he said. "What (factors) demand a war?" (Brian Murphy, Associated Press II/Google News, Sept. 26).
International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei has called on the United States to pursue direct dialogue with Iran in order to defuse the nuclear standoff, Agence France-Presse reported today.
In handling nuclear diplomacy with Iran, "it is not Europe who is in charge, but the United States," ElBaradei told the German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung in an interview published today.
"The faster there are direct negotiations, the better are the chances of reaching a solution," he said. "If the United States sits down at a table with North Korea, a regime that is not considered democratic and which also possesses nuclear arms, I don't understand why they can't negotiate with Iran” (Agence France-Presse I/Spacewar.com, Sept. 26).
Sunday, 21 September 2008
Sunday, 14 September 2008
Friday, 5 September 2008
Monday, 1 September 2008
ISRAEL = APARTHEID ???
by Rabbi Warren Goldstein
When the Arab world is ready to make peace, Israel will be there.
Two weeks ago the editor of the largest newspaper in South Africa, The Sunday Times, wrote an article saying that Israel applies apartheid to Palestinian Arabs. In this scandalous accusation, he joins Jimmy Carter and others who have defamed the Jewish state.
The apartheid label is very dangerous. If it sticks, Israel's ability to defend itself diplomatically and militarily will be severely weakened. International pressure on South Africa's apartheid government eventually played a major role in ending its power. The apartheid label is calculated to break the resolve of the Israeli people, who are called upon to make terrible sacrifices for our Jewish state. Who wants to die for apartheid?
As Jews, we must fight this kind of mass defamation of our people. Israel's security and Jewish lives all over the world depends on it, as well as our historic God-given mission of being "a light unto the nations." To say that Israel is an apartheid state is as wildly outrageous as the blood libels of Europe.
To answer the editor of South Africa's Sunday Times, I wrote an article which he kindly published in last week's newspaper. Here follow its arguments:
To accuse Israel of apartheid is to diminish the victims of the real apartheid -- the men, women and children of South Africa, who suffered for centuries under arrogant, heartless colonialism, and then for decades under the brutal policies of racial superiority, oppression and separation inflicted by the National Party. If everything is apartheid, then nothing is apartheid.
In the State of Israel all citizens -- Jew and Arab alike -- are equal before the law. Israel has none of the apartheid legislative machinery devised to discriminate against and to separate people. It has no Population Registration Act, no Group Areas Act, no Mixed Marriages and Immorality Act, no Separate Representation of Voters Act, no Separate Amenities Act, no pass laws or any other of the myriad apartheid laws.
On the contrary: Israel is a vibrant liberal democracy which accords full political, civil and other human rights to all its people, including its one million-plus Arab citizens, many of whom hold positions of authority throughout the Jewish state -- including that of cabinet minister, Knesset member and judge at every level of the judiciary, the Supreme Court included.
All citizens vote on the same voters' roll in regular, multiparty elections, and there are Arab parties and Arab members of other parties in the Knesset. Due to Israel's proportional representation system, Arab voters, although a minority, have often been partners in various coalition governments and influenced major long-term decisions affecting the country.
Arabs and Jews live and work together, share all public facilities, including, importantly, hospitals and schools, and also malls, buses, cinemas and parks. Israel protects religious freedom and has been very sensitive and respectful in its management of the holy sites of all religions, granting easy access to everyone.
Arab Israelis, like all their compatriots, can express themselves and act freely as members of a transparent and open, democratic society, where criticism of the government in an aggressively free press is the norm.
In fact, Israeli Arabs enjoy more freedom and rights than do any other Arabs in the Middle East, where autocratic governments suppress democracy and freedoms, such as freedom of expression and of association, including outlawing labor unions. Israel is the only truly free democracy in the Middle East.
If there is apartheid in the Middle East, then it is the apartheid in Arab states against Jews, Christians and women, who are all denied the most basic human rights and treated as second-class citizens.
Most Arab governments do not even allow Jews to visit, let alone live. In fact, more than 800,000 Jews have been expelled from Arab countries over the last five decades, where they lived peacefully for centuries, albeit with inferior status.
In 1967, as a result of a defensive war thrust upon it, Israel captured the territories known today as the West Bank and Gaza. Since then the status of these territories and their occupants has been unclear. It is incorrect legally, factually and even morally to speak of an occupation, which implies there was once a Palestinian entity in these territories, and that this is now occupied by Israeli forces.
Before 1967 the West Bank was controlled by Jordan, and Gaza by Egypt. We should not speak of the "occupied territories," but more accurately of "disputed territories."There has never been a Palestinian state in all of history. By contrast, the State of Israel is the third Jewish state on the same land, the first dating back 3,280 years to when Joshua led the Jewish people into the land of Israel. Furthermore, Israel has strong claims to the West Bank, which is part of the biblical Israel that the Jews have always lived in. One of the holiest sites of Judaism is there - Hebron, where the founding fathers and mothers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Sarah, Rebecca and Leah, are buried.
Apart from the city of Jerusalem, the ancient capital of the Jewish people from the times of King David, the West Bank and Gaza were never annexed, pending the resolution of their status. For decades Israel tried to negotiate with various parties to permanently resolve the future of the disputed territories, but is still in search of a genuine peace partner to represent the Palestinian Arabs.
Yasser Arafat demonstrated his inability to relinquish his dream of destroying Israel when he rejected prime minister Ehud Barak's incredibly generous offer at the Camp David talks in 2000 - a rejection which even Prince Bandar, the official representative of Saudi Arabia at the talks, described as a crime.
And now Hamas, which states in its founding constitution its aim of destroying Israel completely, is the democratically elected majority party of the Palestinian people.As an example of what they are talking about, the apartheid accusers point to Israel's security fence and checkpoints, which limit the movement of people from the disputed territories into the internationally recognized borders of the State of Israel. In this they are also wrong.
After the collapse of the Camp David talks, Arafat and other Palestinian groups dispatched suicide bomber after suicide bomber into Israel, targeting Jewish civilians. In the past eight years, terrorist attacks have led to more than 1,300 civilians being murdered and 10,000 wounded by the human guided missiles of the Islamic suicide bombers.
Given Israel's relatively small population, proportionately, such carnage in South Africa would mean more than 10,000 murdered and more than 80,000 injured. What would we South Africans do if so many of our fellow citizens were blown up by suicide bombers? Appreciate for the moment what this would mean in the context of the US, where the murder of about 3,000 people at the World Trade Center bombings led to the invasion of two countries. Proportionately, had the US sustained similar causalities to those suffered in Israel, almost 80,000 Americans would have been killed and about 600,000 injured.
The trauma inflicted on the Israeli people from the relentless barrage unleashed by the Palestinian leadership, enjoying widespread support from its people, is indescribable. Israel erected a security fence to shield it from the attacks launched from the disputed territories across its internationally recognized borders. Every sovereign country is legally and morally entitled to erect a fence to defend its people from attacks launched from the outside.
The fence has been remarkably successful and has reduced successful suicide bombings by up to 90 percent. Israel relies on the most fundamental moral and legal principle - the right to self-defense. Never before in recorded history has any nation endured such civilian casualties and responded with such restraint.
The security fence is a defensive instrument, and the most humanitarian one possible in a situation where the alternative is heavy military action which would result in the death of thousands.
None of this has anything to do with apartheid, and everything to do with an ongoing war over the disputed territories, and over the very existence of the Jewish state. After nearly 2,000 years of exile, persecutions and genocides, the Jewish people are surely entitled to a tiny strip of country to call their own.
If there is an analogy to the South African situation, it is that Israel is like the African National Congress, which was forced into the armed struggle because it had no partner for peace. As soon as the National Party came around to wanting genuinely negotiations, the situation was resolved. Our South African experience has taught us that you cannot make peace unless both parties to the conflict wish to resolve it.
When the Arab world is ready to make peace, Israel will be there. Let us all pray to God that this happens soon so that the misery and suffering of all can be brought to an immediate end.
The writer is chief rabbi of South Africa.Author Biography:Rabbi Goldstein is the Chief Rabbi of South Africa.
taken from B'NAI ELIM (http://bnaielim.blogspot.com/)
Sunday, 31 August 2008
Friday, 15 August 2008
SUMMER READINGS (1)
I' m a lucky fellow. Today I was presented with a book by a dear friend of mine:
"Battles of the Bible: A Military History of Ancient Israel by Chaim Herzog & Mordechai Gichon"
Well, another book for my summer readings, a special one wich I just can't wait to get started with.
I thank you my dear for remembering my endless appetite for books and for trying to satisfy it.
cover of the Portuguese edition
Thursday, 14 August 2008
PAUL NEWMAN - WEEKS TO LIVE ?
Paul Newman has 'weeks to live'
Reuters
Paul Newman has reportedly told friends and family he wants to die at home after being told he only has "a few weeks to live".
The Hollywood superstar - who is thought to be suffering from terminal lung cancer - has now finished his chemotherapy sessions and has told wife Joanne Woodward and the couple's three daughters that he wants to spend his final days at his home rather than the New York cancer hospital where he was being treated.
A close family friend told the MailOnline website: "Paul didn't want to die in the hospital. Joanne and their daughters are beside themselves with grief."
The 83-year-old actor - who co-owns a motor racing team - has reportedly started getting his business affairs in order in preparation for his death.
The friend added: "He gave a prized car - a Ferrari with his racing number 82 on it - to a long-time pal. The sudden move angered his children. It's especially hard for them to come to grips with what's going on.
"The word they've been given is that he has only a few weeks to live."
As well as three daughters with Joanne, to who he has been married since 1958, Paul has two daughters with ex-wife Jackie Witte.
Paul is widely considered to be one of the greatest actors in Hollywood, having starred in classic movies including ‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid', ‘The Sting', ‘The Hustler' and ‘Cool Hand Luke'.
Throughout his career, Paul has been nominated for 10 Academy Awards and won one of the prestigious awards for his role in ‘The Color of Money' in 1986.
YOSSI HAREL - THE REAL ARI BEN CANAAN
Yossi Harel
(1919 - 2008)
Yossi Harel (Hebrew: יוסי הראל), born Yosef Hamburger, was the commander of Exodus 1947 and a leading member of the Israeli intelligence community.
Yossi Harel was born in Jerusalem in 1919. He was a sixth generation Jerusalemite. At the age of 15, he joined the Haganah, the clandestine military organization of the Jewish community in Palestine. At the age of 20, he joined the Special Night Squads set up in Palestine by Captain Orde Wingate to fight Arab bands, where he earned a reputation for bravery. He played a leading role in the clandestine immigration enterprise in pre-state Israel, commanding four Aliyah Bet ships: Knesset Israel, the Exodus, Atzma'ut and Kibbutz Galuyot. By the time he was 28 he had been responsible for about 24,000 immigrants that had come in under his command, more than one-third of those smuggled into the country secretly between 1945 and 1948.
Pre-state period
In 1941, the Palmach was established as the elite force of the Haganah, and Harel soon joined it. He was sent by the Palmach to work with Aliyah Bet in assisting Jews to enter Palestine illegally (the number of Jews allowed to enter the territory was restricted following the British government's publication of a White Paper in May 1939).
In mid-1946 Harel was sent from Palestine on a secret mission to transfer gold to Jewish agents in Greece so they could bribe officials in European governments to speed up the transit of Jews to Palestine.
Harel chartered a 15-ton trawler with a crew of four and boarded it at sea after leaving the coastal settlement of Bat Galim in a rowing boat. Because of storms the journey to Greece took three weeks, but eventually the mission was accomplished successfully and with it Harel's reputation as a brave, reliable and efficient soldier was established; it was later to be crucial in his selection as the commander of the Exodus operation.
Yoram Kaniuk, a friend of Harel's and also his biographer, related that David Ben-Gurion and Shaul Avigur (commander of the Aliyah Bet illegal immigration campaign and founder of Shai, the Haganah intelligence service) had marked him out as suitable to command the clandestine immigration ships because in addition to his leadership skills and fighting prowess, “there was something very hevreman [sociable] about him. He was not the kind of clap-you-on-the-back hero. He was a man of manners, the type who didn't raise his voice. He was a man of conscience and a daring fighter.”
Perhaps the high point in Harel's career was not the more famous Exodus, according to an earlier article in Haaretz by historian Dr. Aviva Halamish. It was the two-and-a-half week voyage of the Knesset Israel. The ship set sail in November 1946 from Yugoslavia with 4,000 souls on boad. According to Halamish, this voyage brought to the fore the contrasts between the Yishuv, the Jewish community in pre-state Israel, and the clandestine immigrants, who were Holocaust survivors and “carried their struggle with them.” Inspired by the story of the Knesset Israel, the poet Natan Alterman wrote in the newspaper Davar of the “division of labor” between the two groups.
Exodus 1947
Yossi Harel was appointed to command the ship Exodus 1947, the immigrant ship which tried to make it through the British blockade to Palestine after the Second World War with 4,553 Jewish refugees on board, while it was still in Italy undergoing its refitting and conversion from a Chesapeake Bay steamer to a passenger ship capable of carrying thousands of refugees. Between June 29 and July 6, 1947, 4,553 Jews from displaced persons camps in Germany were transported to Sète, a little town 85 miles west of Marseilles where, on July 11, they boarded the ship.
Under Harel's command, Exodus set sail for Palestine on July 12, 1947 and, after it had left French territorial waters, the British cruiser Ajax and several destroyers escorted it to Haifa with the aim of arresting it and preventing the immigrants from entering Palestine.
Harel planned with the skipper, Yitzhak (Ike) Aaronowitz, that close to the coast of Palestine they would “get rid” of the British escort. The plan, Harel later recalled, was “to turn off all the ship's lights at a given moment, stop suddenly so that the unwary destroyer would pass us by, and then change our course by 90 degrees and steam away at full speed ahead - 18-19 knots - with all the lights out.” On board, Harel also prepared the stiffest possible resistance against any potential British attempt to board the ship.
On Friday, July 18, when Exodus was 22 miles off the coast of Palestine, Harel was informed by the British that his ship had entered the territorial waters of Palestine and that he had to shut down the engines and surrender. With five British destroyers closing in, Harel felt he could not implement his plan of evasion and instead ordered his captain to ignore the British warning and head straight for Haifa harbour.
When Harel failed to obey the British command, Exodus's bow was hit and a detachment of troops attempted to board the ship. But under Harel's leadership the British troops were driven back by a volley of canned goods, bolts and potatoes.
British commandos soon managed to take the ship's wheel, however, by which point several holes had been made in the ship's wooden structure. Harel - after a strenuous argument with his skipper, who was keen to continue fighting - ordered the immigrants to cease their resistance and allow the ship to be towed into Haifa. Three Jews and a British soldier died during the operation.
The next day members of the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP), who happened to be in Palestine on a fact-finding mission, witnessed the transfer of the refugees to three British transports which were to return the Jews to Europe. This affair greatly affected UNSCOP in its decision to recommend an end to British Mandate in Palestine and argue for the creation of a Jewish state in part of the territory. Exodus was often described as “the ship that launched a nation.”
One more mission
Five months after the Exodus affair Harel was put in charge of an even bigger operation, which was to bring to Palestine 15,000 illegal immigrants from Romania. Harel took commmand of two vessels: the Pan York and the Pan Crescent and on December 27, 1947 led the ships from Burgas in Bulgaria to Palestine.
Two days later, while crossing the Sea of Marmara, Harel was alarmed to see the outline of six British vessels - two submarines and four destroyers - waiting in the darkness to stop the ships.
The situation was dangerous and potentially explosive, but Harel negotiated with the British and secured agreement that, rather than be forced back to Romania, the ships might proceed to Cyprus, where thousands of refugees were already interned. Harel was later smuggled back to Palestine.
A successful career
During Israel's War of Independence Harel acted as adviser on naval reorganisation to the prime minister David Ben-Gurion and was sent to America to purchase vessels for a future navy. The Israeli navy was established in November 1948 and Harel was one of the candidates to lead it, but the job eventually went to Paul Shulman, a graduate of the Americal naval officers' school in Minneapolis, with Harel becoming his deputy.
Soon after the War of Independence, Harel retired and became bodyguard to President Chaim Weizmann; he then moved to Los Angeles to study mechanical engineering. As chief of staff, Moshe Dayan called him back to Israel in February 1959 and made him head of Unit 131, a division of military intelligence responsible for secret groups in enemy countries, designed to operate primarily in time of war. It also operated the Israeli spy ring that collapsed in Egypt in 1954. A year later he retired from the Israel Defence Forces to pursue a successful business career, though it served also as a cover for his continuing work for Mossad. He spent the last few years of his life collecting avant-garde Russian art.
Harel is the subject of a biography in Hebrew by Yoram Kaniuk, Exodus: The Odyssey of a Commander (1999), which has been translated into many languages. He rose to fame after the release of the 1960 Otto Preminger film Exodus, which was based on the Leon Uris novel by the same name. His character in the novel, Ari Ben-Canaan, was portrayed by Paul Newman.
In 2007, Harel received the Exodus prize, awarded by the Italian government to those who promote peace and humanitarianism. The prize is awarded every year at La Spezia in Italy, where the Exodus refugee ship was renovated.
Harel dies at age 90
Harel died in Tel Aviv on April 26, 2008 at the age of 90. His daughter Sharon said Harel suffered cardiac arrest at his Tel Aviv home. “He was an extraordinary, unusual man, very brave, very modest and very lucky because he was able to touch the lives of so many people,” she said.
“History has proven that you cannot defeat refugees,” Harel was quoted as saying two decades ago by the now-defunct Israeli newspaper, Hadashot. “It starts now with one boat. After that, dozens more will come,” he said.
Harel is to be buried at Kibbutz Sdot Yam, near Caesarea.
Sunday, 10 August 2008
Sunday, 3 August 2008
ACCIDENTS ?...NOT BY A LONG SHOT
(taken from B'NAI ELIM (Sons of the Mighty) :http://bnaielim.blogspot.com/)
by Steven Shamrak…
in portrayal of the Jews in Bible and attitude of the Church toward Jews during Christian discourses. From the acceptance of Christianity by the Roman empire Jews have been used to having to hide the fact that the Roman occupiers of Judea and Samaria were responsible for the death of the Christian saviour. Later, Rome could not allow itself to be blamed for his death after adopting the religious ideas of a Jewish sect. Therefore, Judaism had been chosen as a convenient patsy.
One would think that this attitude is ancient history, but even during the recent celebration of World Youth Day in Sydney, which was portrayed as a positive and joyful occasion with some attempts of religious reconciliation, this anti-Jewish bias attitude of the officialdom of the Catholic Church was still in play. For example, during the re-enactment of the Last Supper, which was apparently a Pesach (Passover) Seder meal, an actor who was playing the character of the Jewish man, Jesus, shared with other 12 Jews, Apostles, not the traditional Jewish Pesach bread Matzos, but a Lebanese pitas. Even after lip service by the current Pope about reconciliation with Jews, the Lebanese pita is more acceptable to the taste of the official Catholic anti-Semites than Jewish Matzos.
It is the deed not empty, deceitful and convoluted words and apologies that is important and make sense! Anything else is just a smoke screen to cover up and hide the ugly past and present behavior of the Catholic Church toward Jews!
A 5 year old girl and four militants (terrorists), members of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades - the armed wing of Hamas, were killed on Friday in an explosion in a car outside Gaza City. – Why was a child taken for a ride in the car with terrorists? According to international law, using civilians as a human shield is illegal, but anti-Israel international hypocrisy does not care!
Hurting Helping Hand. Arab relatives of the sick man at the western Galilee village of Kabul threw rocks at a Magen David Adom ambulance which had been called to help him.Food for Thought. by Steven Shamrak
The PA and Hamas, with the support of many international 'Jew-lovers', cry poor and demand that Israel open her borders and allow so-called Palestinians to work in Israel. In return, they have been consistently showing their appreciation by killing Jews including their Jewish employers. Hypocrisy must end. Let them depart and live happily in Sinai, far away from Jews, where they will not be able to blame us for their own made ugly 'misfortune'!
Rail Inspector Savagely Beaten by Arabs. An Israel Railways employee was beaten last Thursday by a group of Arab youths. A group of young Arabs confronted him at his guard post at a railway crossing near Atlit, demanded his weapon, and savagely beat him when they discovered he was unarmed.
When Bad Politic Overrides Common Sense. Shin Bet chief tells Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that Hamas has been taking advantage of the truce in order to plant mines in wide areas in the Gaza Strip: "Hamas today has missiles which can reach Kiryat Gat and maybe even Ashdod… This is one of the reasons I objected to the ceasefire," he said. "I'm not saying how we should do thing, but in order to fight terror we have no choice but to be present in the area." (…and remove the source of terror!)
Hamas Praises Attack as "Natural Reaction". Eleven people are being treated for physical injuries and shock after an Arab tractor driver smashed a bus and at least two cars and tried to run over pedestrians. The terrorist, from Eastern Jerusalem, drove his tractor from a work site in the Yemin Moshe neighbourhood and turned on to King David street before he was killed. Hamas praised Tuesday's bulldozer attack, saying that it was a "natural reaction". (Isn't it time for Israel to make a decisive 'Reaction' against enemy terror and them 'react somewhere else? I wonder how would Americans or Europeans feel if an Arab tractor driver attack them in the centre of Washington, London or Paris?)
Deterrent will not Work.
Since January 1, the IDF, Israel Police and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) have arrested close to 80 Arabs from East Jerusalem on suspicion of involvement in terrorism. Jerusalem has seen random terror stabbings and attacks over many years. Security officials said a daily presence of security forces is needed inside East Jerusalem and Arab towns. It would add to Israel's deterrence and cause a potential terrorist to rethink his plans. (Only the transfer of these enemies from the Jewish land will end this terror. Anything else is just a short-term 'patch job'!)
Ugly Face of Enemy. Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah has suggested another deal with Israel, this time offering details on missing soldiers in return for Israel's freeing PA terrorists.
Milestone in a Battle for Jewish Rights. The Supreme Court has ordered yet another eviction of Arab squatters and the return of a home to its Jewish owners. The home in question is located in the renewed ancient Jewish neighborhood built around the 2,000-year-old gravesite and tomb of the Tannaitic Sage Shimon HaTzaddik, half a mile north of Damascus Gate. (When Jewish Rights are concerned the Israeli 'politicly correct' justice system takes its time!)
Quote of the Week:
"Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty" - Thomas Jefferson – It is time for "Timid" Jews, and not only Jews, to become self-respectful and take our liberty back!
Another Delusional Politician. Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain said in interview that international sanctions against Iran can stop it from developing the ability to produce nuclear weapons. He added that a military option does not have to be considered at this point. (While Chinese are buying oil at any cost and Russia is supplying military technology for cash, why would sanctions work? Strangely, Sen. McCain is considered to be more knowledgeable than Sen. Obama on foreign affairs!)
Israeli Arabs in Al-Qaeda Plot. Six young Arabs from Israel and Eastern Jerusalem were arrested by Shin Bet in June and July this year for allegedly setting up an al-Qaida-affiliated terrorist network and plotting to shoot down US President George W. Bush's helicopter earlier this year. Some of the Arabs arrested were students at Hebrew University.
Hizballah: War not Over. Sheikh Naim Kassem, deputy secretary-general of Hizballah, said on Saturday, July 19, that abductions of more Israeli soldiers may not be ruled out. He declared that his pro-Iranian Shiite terror group remained at war with Israel. (I wonder when Israeli politicians will realise that!)
Stupid Idea from Israeli Left Again. Meretz MK Yossi Beilin called on European countries to declare how many Palestinian refugees and their descendants they would be willing to absorb as part of any future peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. (Why must the EU, but not the 60 Muslim countries, including 22 Arab ones, absorb a terror-infested population of a fake Palestinian nation? Europe has its own problem with the millions of Muslims it has allowed in!)
Tell Me Who is Your Friend… The Arab League has attacked International Criminal Court prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo's request to arrest Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir on charges of genocide in Darfur.
Rats are the Best Weapon Against 'Rats'. The Palestinian Authority's official news agency Wafa accused Israel of using rats to drive Arab families out of their homes in the Old City of Jerusalem. In the past the news agency, which is controlled and funded by PA President Mahmoud Abbas's office, has accused Israel of using wild pigs to drive Palestinians out of their homes and fields in the West Bank. (Must Jews come to Arabs homes and clean their rubbish to stop rat infestation?)
Corrupt Political System Sustains Corrupt Politicians. Fifty-nine percent of Kadima members do not want Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to run again for the leadership of the Kadima party. Two-thirds of the party's members want the Prime Minister to suspend himself from office. (In spite of six corruption investigations, a failed war in Lebanon, PR disasters and the consequences of prisoner exchange and lack of public support, Israel's political system does not allow the removal of the 'ill' Prime Minister from the office.)Another "Symbolic" Road to Nowhere. French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner has called for the European Union (EU) to display a "European Roadmap" as part of a larger role in trying "to help bring peace to the Middle East." This "will be the moment to propose a form of partnership that will take more account of the symbolic, and real, weight of the European Union…
"Blair Doubts Peace. Israel, as usual, at Fault! A day after he was prevented from visiting Gaza by an assassination threat, Tony Blair raised doubts for the first time that a peace deal could be concluded between Israel and the Palestinians by the end of the year. He said: "The political situation in Israel makes it difficult to continue being optimistic about reaching a peace treaty between the Israelis and Palestinians…" (Is not the unwillingness of Islamic thugs to recognise Israel and stop terrorism the real reason? This is the 'unbiased' position of the international community's envoy to the Middle East!)
Sunday, 20 July 2008
Friday, 18 July 2008
THE EVIL CULTURE OF HEZBOLLAH
* (taken from Yaacov Lozowick's Ruminations blog - http://yaacovlozowick.blogspot.com/)
It has been a hard day in Israel, one of those days where we all unite in mourning. For better or worse, Israelis are good at that.The swap this morning of five live Lebanese prisoners, one of them a cold blooded murderer, for the dead bodies of Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser, tells you all sorts of fundamental things about Israel, but I'm not going to repeat what has been said endlessly all day long. If you didn't follow the Israeli media, there are two good summaries in the New York Times, here and here.
It has been a hard day in Israel, one of those days where we all unite in mourning. For better or worse, Israelis are good at that.The swap this morning of five live Lebanese prisoners, one of them a cold blooded murderer, for the dead bodies of Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser, tells you all sorts of fundamental things about Israel, but I'm not going to repeat what has been said endlessly all day long. If you didn't follow the Israeli media, there are two good summaries in the New York Times, here and here.
In the early afternoon of July 12th 2006, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah knew that all he was holding were two dead bodies. I don't know what international law has to say about such things, nor am I much a fan of international law in any case. I do know that international custom dictates rules of behaviour regarding POWs, and no-where is there even the slightest possibility of justifying Nassrallah's two-year refusal to give any indication about the conditions of his "prisoners". Even when everyone knew the two men were no longer alive, even when the agreement on the exchange had been signed, even then he and his spokesmen still did their utmost to torture the family members with hints that perhaps, just maybe, who knows...
Despicable. As are the celebrations in Lebanon this evening of the return of the hero, Samir Kuntar, whose heroism consisted of murdering a young man in front of his daughter, and then smashing her head on a rock. Worse than despicable, he and everyone who celebrated this "liberation".
But it has occurred to me this afternoon that Nassrallah's actions should have been despicable even by the weird moral standards or lack of them in his own society. As the IDF began pounding the Dahiya, the Hezbollah section of Beirut that evening of July 12th, and it was becoming clear that those crazy Israelis were going to inflict lots of pain, why didn't he call in a representative of some third party - the Turks, say, or the Norwegians - and tell them that since all he had were two dead bodies, the Israelis should call off their fury and their attempts to retrieve the two kidnapped men. He would have saved the lives of lots of Lebanese, including many hundreds of his own loyal men.
As if that was ever a consideration for him.
Sunday, 13 July 2008
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