Tuesday, November 25, 2008

WAITING FOR PEACE? FORGET IT.

by Victor Sharpe
I've never posted anyone else's essays before, but Victor is an old friend of mine and an excellent writer who has something very important to say. His essays have been on other websites, and he is also an author of a book, Politicide. Nadene

Islam will never accept Israel unless Islam itself undergoes a reformation. But by its very nature it cannot do so and still be called Islam. That said, there is no future for the Jewish state if it keeps on believing that one day the Muslim world will accept it and live in a true and lasting peace as, for example, Holland and Belgium live peacefully side by side.

The only way forward for Israel is to accept the dismal fact that so long as it remains a Jewish and non-Arab state it cannot ever have peaceful neighbors who will not at every opportunity wish to destroy it. That being so, Israel must continue to prosper and thrive as a state in the knowledge that it can never let down its guard. It must ever be on its guard as were the biblical watchmen on the ancient walls of Jerusalem.

But even with such a threat hanging over it like some Arab sword of Damocles, Israel can survive and grow. Even though the Jewish state yearns for peace, as all other civilized societies do, the very external threat can be turned to great advantage militarily, politically, socially and economically. Nothing keeps internal division at bay and concentrates the mind more than when the barbarians are at the gate.

What is remarkable is that since the great Zionist leaders of the likes of Herzl, Jabotinsky, Ben Gurion, Begin and Shamir have passed, there has been a long and depressing parade of weak and incompetent Israeli leaders and politicians who have brought unnecessary disaster down upon the state. The worst ever is the present caretaker prime minister, Ehud Olmert, whose idiocy is simply incomprehensible. Here is a man, deeply flawed and under police investigation for alleged corruption who seems driven by some infernal force to harm his own nation and aid and support her enemies by turning a blind eye to every Palestinian Arab provocation and act of naked aggression.

Along with defense minister, Ehud Barak, who is arguably one of the worst and most incompetent men ever to be entrusted with that vital portfolio, Olmert grovels at the feet of the Palestinian Authority’s Mahmoud Abbas. In response to veiled threats from Abbas that Israel must give to him everything he demands or else, the Israeli premier ignores the suffering of his people under bombardment in Sderot and Ashkelon and, instead, frees 250 Arab thugs who will immediately return to murdering Israeli civilians. Abbas is a miserable Holocaust denier whose very crime should place him beyond the pale for every Israeli leader.

From prime ministers, Rabin, Peres, Netanyahu and Sharon down to Olmert and would be prime minister, Tzippi Livni, all have been resistant to accepting the sad but awful truth that even if Israel shrunk to one down town city block in Tel Aviv, the Arab and Muslim world would still not recognize a Jewish state or agree to live with it in peace and harmony. Why not? The answer to that question is Islam itself.

True peace can never be achieved between Muslim and non-Muslim nations. Islam mandates the faithful to spread their religion through territorial conquest or, as in the case of Israel, by reclaiming what Muslims believe they have lost.

Even though the native and indigenous peoples of Israel are the Jews, and even if the Land of Israel was given to the Jewish people in an eternal covenant with God, it does not matter to the Muslim, for wherever the Muslim foot has once trod triumphal, that territory is forever regarded as Islamic. If such territory is lost to Muslims, then the belief is that Allah has been diminished and the land must be retaken, however long it may take.

So Islam cannot and will not accept Israel. After all it is a Jewish state, governed by its Jewish inhabitants, and living in its very own ancestral and biblical homeland. But for the Muslim faithful, every part of it must become Muslim again. Until that time comes it will be considered by Muslim Arabs as within the Dar al Harb, the House of War. Peace then is merely a mirage in the desert sands.

World leaders, essentially those who are secular and western, fail to understand the Muslim mindset. Israeli leaders, who of all people should understand and know better, still fall into the fatal trap of believing that the western model of lasting peace between nation states can equally apply in the Middle East between Muslim and non-Muslim nations. It is a fallacy.

These leaders cling to the notion that the conflict between Israel and the Arabs in general, and between Israel and those who call themselves Palestinians in particular, is territorial. It is not. It is theological. It is, indeed, part of the existential conflict that has existed between Islam and the rest of the world since the 7th century.

Judaism and Christianity are considered by the followers of Islam to be in error. The Muslim belief is that Mohammed was given the final and complete divine revelation and Islam is therefore superior to the earlier two faiths, whose followers it calls the “People of the Book.” So now the Muslim cry is, “There is no God but Allah, and Muhammed is his prophet.” Islam, therefore, is considered by the faithful as superior over all other faiths and peoples. It is a theological, “Islam uber alles.” Herein is the fundamental fault line, which may never be bridged.

Much of the Islamic world now feels empowered, as perhaps, never before, and seeks global domination with renewed vigor. This is the tangible and growing threat to the world; not global warming.

There are many Muslims who remain faithful adherents to Islam but who have rejected the jihadist call for Islamic supremacy throughout the world. Hopefully the West will find some Muslim nations who have learned to accept a “live and let live” policy with their non-Muslim neighbors. But the overwhelming strength of the jihadists may be too much for them to overcome and it seems a bleak and remote possibility that true moderates within Islam will one day prevail.

That may come in time, but for Israel that time is still far, far away. Tolerance and pluralism must remain a goal but it can only be achieved by world leaders understanding finally that Israel has yet to find within the Arab and Muslim world a true and genuine peace partner.

The policies of the Jewish state must be ordered within the recognition of that reality; somber and depressing as it may be. But only when world leaders understand the nature of Islam’s theological rejection of a genuine and irrevocable peace with Israel, and Israeli leaders realize the uselessness of trading tangible and ancestral land for a delusional “land for peace,” will a long and overdue reality finally enter the conflict.

I firmly believe that the majority of Israelis yearn for a valiant, honorable and stalwart leader, versed in his people’s history and faith, who will arise to tell those Arabs and Islamists who remain wedded to violent jihad against Israel that they will now find a new Israeli resolve to concede not one inch to their implacable aggression, enmity and deceit. Nor will the groveling that has characterized too many Israeli leaders in the past continue.

Dhimmitude, the humiliating condition that Muslims historically imposed upon both their Jewish and Christian subjects, must not ever again be tolerated in any future relationships between Israelis and their Arab enemies.

What we witness today is Israeli caretaker Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, bending the knee constantly and making endless concession to the deceitful leader of the Palestinian Authority, the Holocaust denying Mahmoud Abbas.

This Arab leader is not interested in peace with Israel. He is interested only in taking what ever he can from the foolish Olmert and giving nothing, absolutely nothing, in return. And that is because as a Muslim he is not permitted to make peace with a non-Muslim. Yet the terminally obtuse Olmert, and so many liberal and leftwing Jews inside and outside of Israel, remain infuriatingly blind to these simple facts.

Israeli leaders of the future must understand that the frigid cold peace that exists between Israel and Egypt, and Israel and Jordan, is no more than an armistice. They must realize once and for all the historical fact that Islam does not and cannot make a permanent peace with a non-Muslim neighbor.

Islam mandates that only when the non-Muslim enemy is stronger and cannot at the time be defeated, can a ceasefire (dressed up as a peace treaty) be accepted for the good of the umma (Islamic community).

But as soon as the enemy is considered weak and foolish through making, for example, pointless peaceful overtures and concessions, then war is an obligation demanded by the Quran. For this reason, the Arab and Muslim world launched its many wars against the Jewish state. Only by God’s grace did Israel survive but at a terrible cost in Jewish blood.

Such new Israeli leaders must look to the Torah and into their own people’s biblical history. They must see again the nature of their enemies as spelled out in crystal clarity by the Almighty through the words of the Jewish prophet Jeremiah:

“They dress the wound of my People as though it we’re not serious saying, Peace, peace, but there is no peace. We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of health, and behold trouble!”

I think of the disasters that Israeli leaders like Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres and Yossi Beilin brought upon the Jewish state. They were the architects of the Oslo Accords, which we now more accurately call the Oslo War.

The premise of those failed accords, which have inflicted terrible suffering on so many Israelis, was for Israel to accept that its ancestral and biblical lands can be given away to implacable enemies in order to make them peaceful and accept what was left of the Jewish state. It predictably failed for all the reasons stated above.

The Midrash teaches that we are like a sheep among seventy wolves. Only the great Shepherd (God Almighty) can protect us from all of our enemies. We are instructed to do what we can to defend ourselves. But at this time it seems that no recent Israeli government has been able to face the task of protecting the residents of Israel. Look how the communities of southern Israel groan under the Arab missile blitz from the Gaza Strip while the Israeli Government of Ehud Olmert remains ever timid to the point of national humiliation. We must pray to God, the true guardian of Israel, to protect us.

In this I am mindful of the Jewish prophet, Joel, who reminded the ancient Jews that the covenanted land must never be given away, for as he said:

“In those days and at that time when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, I will gather all nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. There I will enter into judgement against them concerning My inheritance, My people Israel, for they scattered My people among the nations and divided up My land: Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision.”

Joel, speaking God’s words, then proclaimed: “The Lord will roar from Zion and thunder from Jerusalem; the earth and the sky will tremble. But the Lord God will be a refuge for His people, a stronghold for the people of Israel.”

Copyright © Victor Sharpe 2008

Victor Sharpe is the author of the highly acclaimed book: Politicide – The attempted murder of the Jewish state.

Monday, November 24, 2008

United Nation's 180 degree Change
On November 29, 1947, the United Nations voted to establish a Jewish State of Israel. The Palestinians were also offered a state, but they refused it, and we Jews accepted the little piece that remained and was to be for us. Originally we were to have a much larger section that was laid out in the Balfour Doctrine. After experiencing the WWII where 6 million Jews were slaughtered, we knew we needed our own piece of land to flee to. Faced with extinction, we could not get out of Germany or other European countries once the dealth knoll was tolled.
The Arabs continued to refuse an offer of their own state even till now, after 60 years. What they want is their own state minus Israel, and they haven't achieved that. It isn't as if they really need another Arab state. There are already 22 Arab states in the world. Israel is the only Jewish one.
Israel has been more than eager to be fair with The Arab "Palestinians" who have kept attacking and shelling us at every conceivable moment, even after the declaration of our state of Israel. They have actually lived better than they ever did under Arab hands. Egypt was terrible by comparison. The only reason Israel has had to deal harshly at times is because of their constant attacks on civilians. It has never been and army against army thing; it's always hitting women and children; in buses, schools, stores, etc.
The United Nations today is topheavy with Arabs. This reflects the postion they have taken today. November 24th, the United Nations is commemorating its annual International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People with a movie showing Jews are like Nazis. They will also have an exhibit mourning the 60 years of Israel's existence! This is the U.N. that sits in New York City that is bashing Israel again.
Israel's actions are not of squashing the Palestinians. We are not taking them to death camps and killing them. We merely are trying to prevent attacks on Israelis and we get blamed for methods other than death, and we are the ones being attacked! What position we do take is lied about and exaggerated beyond belief. They're not scaring us or making us back down and flee, which is what they want. For this the U.N. condemns us.
Kofa Anna referred to November 29th as "a day of mourning and a day of grief." They will all be grieving for the suffering of the Palestinian people at Israeli hands. Isn't it interesting that they never grieved when the Arab countries themselves attacked Israel together like a pack of dogs for no reason other than to drive us out because we were Jews? That was in 1948, 1954, 1967, 1973, and later when they attacked with possible biochemical warfare and everyone in Israel, Arab alike, had to wear gas masks?
Israelis have been living under a mental pressure for 60 years of knowing that they are living in a neighborhood of nudniks who hate them, and yet they survive and produce creatively. They remain stalwart in their knowledge that Israel's survival is a must to the survival of the Jewish people. We haven't been called a stiff-necked people for nothing, and the Arabs are finding that out.
If anything, the U.N. should be mourning the stubborness of Yasser Arafat and his legion of not making peace with Israel and taking the offer of having a state of their own, not the Israelis. Their greed of wanting the whole pie has led to their not having a state. We're just not stupid enough to say, "Hey, create a state next to us. Take our precious city of Jerusalem, though it means everything to us. Don't recognize us, and for sure keep on wanting us to be driven into the sea. We won't mind being wanderers again for the next 2,000 years." No, we had to wait for 2,000 to get this teeny teeny piece of land in the Middle East back again, and we're not about to leave it. We've offered the olive branch to you dozens of times. Take it or not. We're here to stay.
My last thought: When the United Nations was created when I was a little girl, I thought it was the panacea for all future wars. The world was saved. People would discuss problems and not make any future wars. How wrong I was. Power is everything.
Resource: Camera: leegreen@camera.org
My own thoughts on the situation.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Iran's A Bomb, But Israel's Guilty of Bloviating
In the article, "That Iranian "Bomb"? it is said that Iran has enough material to make one bomb, and that we shouldn't worry, and that also means Israel is not to worry. However, Israel, being much closer to Iran than the USA, does worry about it. Because of the comment by former Israel Defence Forces chief of staff Moshe Ya'alon, who works with Benjamin Netanyahu , that Israel is ready to attack if necessary, it is felt that Israel should sit down and shut up! They said that Israel's hawks were bloviating. By the way, bloviate means to speak pompously and excessively, to expout ridiculously. It's not a word in my old Webster's 7th New Collegiate Dictionary, but was used by Harding in the 20's.
How brazen of the certain people to think that those living in the Middle East do not know how to speak with their Middle Eastern enemies. Knowing that Israel can retaliate has kept the hordes off their backs, literally. Israel has to be tough. If Israel says it is ready, and already did something similar last year that is now showing the traces of uranium in the spot bombed, I'd be a believer. That ability to play poker just may be the thing that keeps Iran from overrunning Israel with an A bomb. That's all they need, by the way; one bomb.
What would America do if it were threatened by China with the A bomb? If America was called every name under the sun and was told it would be no more? How many threats does it take to make one a believer? We've got it. Iran does not like Israel. Iran wants Israel expelled. Gone. Wiped out. How many times in history have we been told not to worry? We were told that Germany had no plans to attack, and they did. You can't just sit back and say that everything is going to be okay. You have to be prepared.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

United Nations Pressure on Israel, No Others

Nadene Goldfoot
Monday Israel allowed trucks into Gaza to bring in necessary items. The United Nations continues to pressure Israel to keep the gates open, saying that hundreds of thousands are without food and fuel.
They know that the gates are closed because the Gazan terrorists, Hamas, have continued to shell Israel with rockets. I haven't noticed them telling the terrorists to stop shelling Israel. They never blame the terrists, but turn the problem around. Karen AbuZayd of the UN simply said that Israel should open the gates because the warehouse's food is gone. Navi Pillay aid the blockade breached international and humanitarian law.
It is certainly against the law to fire rockets into Israel. That is not humane. This fact is ignored. The bullies hurt a country, then call foul because they have been punished. I can't believe the logic.

The Oregonian is implying that the terrorists are increasing their attacks on Israel because this is the end of a negotiated truce made 5 months ago that certainly has ended, what with shelling Israel for two weeks daily. Barak is keeping the crossings closed because of continuing rocket fire. How else can the terrorists see that their attacks are unwelcome? Are they trying to get the whole Israeli army into Gaza? They are instigating a fight by attacking, and all we have done is close the gate that would open if the shelling stops.

 Israel's ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva was as exasperated as I feel. ..."Hamas, which invests all of its resources in arms and terrorism instead of providing for civilians that it brutally controls," said Aharon Leshno-Yaar. He contradicted the UN comments in that water and electricity were still flowing and 33 trucks loaded with supplies were in Gaza on Monday. More are waiting to enter once the attacks of rockets stop.

Israeli tanks went into Gaza Tuesday and were hit with mortar fire. They were followed by a bulldozer and military jeep. They were there to clear the land along the border, a routine operation to find explosive devices. The tanks, though fired upon, did not return fire. There were no casualties.
Israel has said that if the rocket firing persists, they will hit back hard.
Continue reading the next blogs to find further information on the Gaza situation.

Oregonion November 19th page A8 Israelis make brief sweep into Gaza.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Freeing Terrorists While Rockets Rain
Israel decided Monday to open a gate to Gaza to let needed supplies enter after the two week old closure because of the rocket attacks. The Hamas terrorists have continued their attacks, however, by firing 6 rockets at Southern Israel.
David Milliband, Britain's Foreign Minister was planning on visiting Sderot, the town right in the path of terrorist rockets in Southern Israel. It was not known if he was there at the time.
Five months ago the Hamas terrorists and Israel had signed a cease fire agreement, but Israel has continued to suffer from attacks.
In the meantime, Israel is freeing 250 terrorists from prison as a good will gesture.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Ashkelon Mad After Friday's 5 Grad Missile Strikes
Cannon Fodder, Not Us
Ashkelon is very unhappy about the way Sderot has been bombarded with missles from Gaza, and is not about to let that happen to them. Ashkelon lies a little farther to the north from Sderot, and has not been struck with longer range missles. Itamar Shimoni, resident , says they will not be quiet and simply wait on the government and army to protect them, which hasn't happened for Sderot with the present government. They're not cannon fodder, he stated. Sderot has been enduring attacks for 7 years, and they don't want that to happen to them. With elections coming up in February, I don't think Likud will let that happen.
Others are asking why they are still supplying electricity, fuel and water to terrorists who are bombarding them. Terrorists are demanding more, like trucks with supplies and food while they get away with shelling Israel. They think they are being imposed upon, not admitting that they bring discomfort upon themselves for their actions. They are not getting away with having their cake and eating it, too.
Barak, Minister of Defense, is afraid to take a firmer stand because of the 2nd Lebanon War fiasco. He stated he is not a minister of war. It seems that in his mind he is dammed if he does and dammed if he doesn't take an agressive stand, so only opts to close the gates to Gaza. It's praiseworthy that he has taken this stand, but when a major city like Ashkelon is being hit with newer missles that are long ranged, he may have to think again about it.
Some feel that Tzipi Livni's stand has caused Hamas to be brazen and take this action of attacking Israel, thinking they will not suffer repercussions. She's very much to the left, as well as Olmert. Olmert's wife was very active in the Peace Now movement. I don't think there has been a similar group in the Palestinian sector.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/128399

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Ashkelon Hit Again Today
Portland's Sister City Attacked
Hamas has said today that Ashkelon, which is 15 kilometers from Gaza, will now be hit by grad rockets from Iran which have a range of 25-kilometers. They are encouraged to attack since Israel is not fighting back after the pummelting Ashkelon took yesterday with 6 Palestinian Grads and Sderot hit with 11 Qassam missles. Ashkelon's town hall opened the public bomb shelters. Ashdod, which is north of Ashkelon ordered shelters prepared.
An 82 year old woman in Sderot suffered shrapnel wounds and 22 people were in the hospital in shock. People were told to stay in shelters. they don't know what will happen on Sunday, which is a work day in Israel.
Community leaders and ministers want an effective military campaign against the terrorists before more rockets rain down on the southern part of Israel. They also agree with me in that the truce is no more. It's a farce.
Reference: Debkafile: Special Report

Friday, November 14, 2008

Ashkelon Hit Twice From Grad Rockets
In Israel on Friday, 5 grad Soviet-made rockets that are long range, hit Ashkelon twice. They have a range of 15 miles, which tells you how close Ashkelon is to the Gaza border.
Then the terrorists fired 8 Quasam rockets at Sderot, and 2 damaged a building and hit one civilian with shrapnel. Other people suffered from shock. The nearest hospital is in Ashkelon, which was also being hit.
This was the 11th day of bombarding Israel. Pundits are saying that this threatens a five-month truce. I say that after all this, the truce has been broken.
The EU is pressuring Israel to let supplies into Gaza. It is reported that they have no shortage of bread. Hamas has shut down their power plant and is rationing electricity they receive from Egypt and Israel. They need toner for their printers , tires and other items.
Israel has not allowed trucks into Gaza since November 4th when Israel had to destroy a tunnel the terrorists had dug in order to kidnap Israeli soldiers and infiltrate into Israel in order to kill. Hamas reported that 6 gunmen were killed at that time. Altogether since then 12 Hamas gunmen have been killed.
Mahmoud al-Zahar, Hamas leader, feels that Hamas can commit acts of terror but that Israel is not allowed to retaliate. Israel feels otherwise. They insist on defending their soldiers and citizens when in peril. Ehud Olmert said that Israel would not tolerate the rocket fire and this forces them to continue to apply economic pressure on Hamas with the border crossings.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081114/wl_nm/us_israel_palestinians_10/print;_ylt=AtB1Qsd2zM9FdOxERsFzya9n.3QA

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Hamas and Fatah in Disagreement
Hamas, a terrorist organization from Gaza, just can't wait to create its state of Palestine, but they cannot agree with Fatah, who has the upper edge by being the party living in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, as to when to hold elections! If they can't agree on this, imagine what other important aspects they shall never agree upon.
In the meantime, it was found out that a Muslim charity organization called "Union of Good Hope" is an undercover organization to gather money for Gaza and West Bank terrorists, and Americans have been warned not to to contribute to it.
Undivided Jerusalem
Jerusalem's new mayor, a successful businessman and secular, is Nir Barkat, 49 years old. He won on the stand of not dividing Jerusalem. His role model is New York's mayor, Michael Bloomberg. The Religious parties voted for him also, though he had left the Kadima party after learning about their plans to divide Jerusalem. Nir wants to make it a center of international renown, the undivided capitol of Israel. It is the eternal capitol of the Jewish people.
The Palestinians want East Jerusalem, or all of Jerusalem, as the capitol of their state. Nir is planning on expanding Jewish neighborhoods to the eastern section. " The status of Jerusalem is a main sticking point in the US-brokered Middle East peace talks." 250,000 Palestinians live there. Though most Palestinians boycotted the election, there were those that voted.
"Jerusalem has to stay unified," he has told AFP.

Monday, November 10, 2008

Land for Peace Opinions

Nadene Goldfoot
Olmert sees the cup half empty in that his outgoing advice is to give up East Jerusalem and the "Arab territories "gained in 1967 for peace.

Others have reminded us that all our giving up of land has never gained us any peace. We just wind up giving another piece of Israel to the Arabs which gets them a closer advantage in shooting at us.

I feel that not one inch of land should be given up for the reason cited above. The Palestinians have not changed their charter to accept Israel among the nations of the Middle East, and they state that they wish to destroy Israel. Therefore, giving up more land will gain us nothing. It gains us nothing to go backwards.

Thursday, November 06, 2008

Out of Science Fiction: Israel Creates Defense System


Israel has just invented the TROPHY, a new defense system that the USA will be able to use in Iraq. It is something that creates a bubble around a vehicle, like a tank, and uses radar for defense. The bubble is an invisible force field. It is used against RPG's, (Rocket Propelled Grenades) which are worse than IED'S.


Mike Tobin in Jerusalem has just reported this amazing development that was thought of only in science fiction.


Ashkelon, Portland's Sister City Hit Again
Blaming the Wrong Party: Israel
Whatever is happening, the press manages to word it so that Israel gets the blame. The headline in the Oregonian today said: Retaliatory airstrikes threaten to undo Gaza truce. Of course, Israel is the one with the planes, so we get blamed. They seem to forget little things in their choice of a headline like what was happening to cause the strike. It seems to me that the peace is broken everytime that a rocket has been fired from Gaza into S. Israel, but the world never comes out with ....undoing the peace. It's only mentioned if Israel retaliates or attempts to stop the aggression.
On Wednesday morning in Israel, Hamas terrorists in Gaza fired 35 Qassam rockets at Israeli civilians in southern Israel. Two rockets hit Ashkelon, which is 9 miles from Gaza. Two women and a 13 year old girl were treated for shock.
Since the June 19th ceasefire, Hamas and other terrorist groups in Gaza have fired more than 50 rockets and mortars at Israel. Rockets and mortar have killed 24 Israelis and wounded more than 1,000 since 2001 when Palestinian terrorists started firing rockets at Israel. These attacks have also caused thousands of Israelis to suffer from PTSD, Post-traumatic stress disorder, just like our U.S. soldiers have in wars in Vietnam and in other wars.
The terrorists had been busy digging tunnels to aid them in kidnapping Israeli soldiers. Israel discovered them when they found the digging just 820 feet from the Israel-Gaza border. They had to be destroyed, and an air attack was the only method. It was a limited operation.. This tunnel was a "blatant violation of the calm or cease fire." They had found it was ready for use, and they had to act immediately
The Hamas terrorists are backed by Iran. They provide $20 million to $30 million dollars annually in weapons and training. It's no wonder than Israel has needed loans from the USA. Not only these outright gifts from Iran provide weapons, but weapons are smuggled to them from Egypt. Since September 2008, 200 tunnels were in operation along the 8 mile Egypt-Gaza border. Through these tunnels they smuggle weapons, money, people, drugs and other things into Gaza. They even smuggle weapons from the sea with small ships that drop containers of weapons a few miles from the coast.
They have fired more than 2,700 rockets and mortar shells at Israeli civilians in 2008. Since Israel withdrew from Gaza in August of 2005, 5,800 rockets have been fired at Israel. No one seems to be upset by their constant barrage on Israel except the Israelis. No one complains about the Palestinians breaking any peace.
Reference The Oregonian Newspaper: November 6, 2008 Rataliatory airstrikes threaten to undo Gaza truce page A10
The Israel Project: press@theisraelproject.org. Iran-backed Terrorists Fire 35 Rockets at Southern Israel

Saturday, November 01, 2008

The Gaza Strip and Israel

Israel was created in 1948, and immediately attacked by all the Arabs. Some Arabs, not many, were living in Palestine at the time. Some heeded their leaders’ advice and fled the area, only to become refugees. Those that stayed became Israeli citizens and make up 20% of the population of Israel. The Gaza Strip stretches for about 22 miles and is only 8 miles wide. The Egyptians attacked Israel in 1948 and went into the Negev and by December Israel had driven them out, except for the Strip. That's how it came to be.

After the war Egypt controlled the Gaza Strip and its more than 200,000 inhabitants but refused to let them into Egypt. Not only that, but Egypt wouldn’t allow them to move to any other country.

In June of 1949, Israel offered to accept the refugees if Egypt agreed to give up Gaza, but Cairo refused. Egypt’s handling of the Palestinians was so bad that Saudi Arabian radio said that Nasser’s regime in Gaza was like Hitler’s rule in occupied Europe in WWII.

In 1952 UNWRA was set up with a fund of $200 million dollars to provide homes and jobs for these refugees, but it wasn’t used at all.

In 1956, Egypt blockaded the Straits of Tiran and Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal. Nasser was fighting against Israel. He said his hatred of Israel was very strong and that there was no sense in talking about peace with Israel. 17 maritime powers said at the UN that Israel had a right to transit the Strait. The closure of the Strait of Tiran was the casus belli in 1967.

We had a war that started June 5, 1967 with Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, and poised and ready to also attack were the armies of Iraq, Algeria, Kuwait, Sudan and the whole Arab nation. Israel came into control of the Gaza Strip by winning the war in six miraculous days. The Gaza Strip was originally in Egypt’s hands . At the end of this 1967 Six-Day War, it fell to Israel because Egyptian forces were ready to launch attacks from Gaza into Israel. We kept sovereignty over the area because the Arab leaders rejected Israel’s offers to return conquered territories in exchange for peace. Every Arab state had rejected UN resolutions 242 and 338. They had called for peace negotiations and the establishment of recognized borders for all states in the region.

The 1967 census found 352,000 people living in the Gaza Strip of whom 172,520 were Arab refugees.

Ralph Garroway, former director of UNRWA, said in 1958 that the Arabs don’t want to solve the refugee problem. They want to keep it like an open sore like a weapon against Israel. Arab leaders don’t give a damn whether the refugees live or die.

Israel kept control of the Gaza Strip and ceded all of the Sinai peninsula in its peace treaty with Egypt in 1979 because Anwar es-Sadat didn’t want to rule over more than one million Palestinians in the Strip anymore.

Israel provided economic assistance. Palestinians in the Gaza Strip were moved from camps to new homes. This caused protests from Egypt, who had done nothing for the refugees when it controlled the area. Arabs were given freedom of movement. They were allowed to travel to and from Jordan. Israel was treating them humanely. That was bad for aspiring terrorists who were not willing to accept Israel’s presence.

By 1994, Yassir Arafat rose to power after the Oslo Accords. The Gaza Strip was the center for terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians. In 1995 Israel built a fence around the whole Strip, with guarded crossing-points. This stopped terror attacks.

Arafat died in 2004 which gave rise to Hamas’s leadership in the Strip. Rocket attacks against Israel rained from Gaza, sometimes 80 per day, hitting civilian sites in Israeli communities in and near the Strip, like S’derot. This is still happening.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon saw the the Palestinian leaders were not enforcing peace that Arafat had signed for at Oslo. Sharon wanted to show the world that he was all for peace, so had Israeli citizens move out of Gaza Strip in August of 2005, and also had several Jewish communities in the northern part of the West Bank move out also.

It was most costly to move 9,000 Israelis out of the Gaza Strip who had been in their homes for 35 years. Israel felt that they had to move because of the Arab’s hatred of Jews is so great that it would be hard to protect them. However, more than one million Arabs are settled peacefully in Israel without need for protection. Israelis felt that putting the Gaza Strip under Palestinian control would be starting the peace process. We haven’t had peace. Shelling of rockets continues, even now because in January 2006, Palestinians in Gaza voted for the Hamas terrorist group, who won on the stand of destruction of Israel and establishing an Islamic state from the river to the sea.


Israel had voted for peace while the Palestinians voted for terrorism. It appears that everyone is now trying to get Israel to return to the armistice lines of 1949, thinking that will bring peace.

The Arabs were threatening, planning and trying to destroy Israel at that time. They attacked us on three sides. This war cost Israel in 6 days twice as many dead in proportion to her total population as the USA lost in 8 years of fighting in Vietnam. For 18 years the Arabs had done hostile acts against Israel, had broken every relevant paragraph in the Armistice Agreements of 1949 which everyone had signed. It meant nothing to the Arabs.

Reference: Myths and Facts by Mitchell G. Bard and Joel Himelfarb

Big Lies: demolishing the myths of the propaganda war against Israel by David Meir-Levi

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia by Dr. Geoffrey Wigoder, D. Phil,

Battleground, Fact and Fantasy in Palestine bySamuel Katz