Hezbollah, the Terrorists, Gain Power in Lebanon

The army chief in Lebanon, General Michael Suleiman, just became its president. His party will create a new cabinet, and have expressed that they will be using Hezbollah's expertise in fighting Israel.

Hezbollah, Party of God, is a Shi'a terrorist organization in Lebanon. Lebanon has about 3 million people, and the Shias make up about 40% of the people. The Christians there are a minority, and are against it as they feel it is trying to destabilize the community.

It started in about 1982 after Israel invaded Lebanon to stop the terrorists and had allowed a Christian militia run by Major Hadad, friend of Israel to go in and fight the terrorists. They followed their own agenda and slaughtered the Muslims in camps. Israel's Sharon was blamed for the action. He said he did not know that they would do such things. They gained strength in 2000 when Israel was forced to end a 20 year occupation of Southern Lebanon. Then when Israel was attacked in 2006, Israel was shelled. Rockets fell in Safed. It was a draw.

The Hezbollah are followers of the Ayatollah Khomeini, and funded by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. They are also financially supported by Iran's government and Syria as well as the Lebanese. From them they also receive training, weapons, explosives, help politically, diplomatically and organizationally. They are receiving finances of from $200 million to $500 million including $100 million from Iran.

They have three main goals written in 1985;

1. Get rid of western colonialism in Lebanon

2. punish the Phalangists (Christian militia)

3. Have Islamic government in Lebanon like that in Iran.

Now : Primary Purpose:

4. Destruction of Israel and kill all the Jews. Does not recognize UN creation of Israel.

The Shia Lebanese support Hezbollah.

This is the group who has their facts all mixed up. They believe that Israel has "occupied all of the area" and all of "Palestine" is occupied Muslim land and that Israel has no right to exist. They started the kidnapping of Western hostages and suicide bombings. They attacked the US marines in Beirut and killed 241 of our soldiers. They are the inspiration for Palestinian terrorists. They've taken on the Palestinian cause and plan to also fight against Israel.

What they will do is kill any chance for the Hamas terrorists to enter into an agreement with Fatah, unite and form a state of Palestine. Israel now has to worry about being attacked from the north as well as the south. No wonder that Syria did not go along with Olmert's offer of the Golan in exchange for a peace, which now seems to have been against the Israeli law anyway. Olmert cannot give away land without the government's okay. They are under the umbrella of Iran and the Hezbollah. They are in no position to make peace with Israel.

Oregonian Newspaper 5/26/08

Reference: BBC News

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

www.discoverthenetworks.org/groupProfile.asp?grpid=6256

What Was Palestine?

There is still confusion about Palestine and who it belonged to. The Ottoman Empire aligned itself with Germany in the First World War. They lost, so the League of Nations, which was the first type of United Nations, took over the area and gave the administration duties to Great Britain, calling this "The British Mandate". It was not considered a state, but a mandated area. Their job was to administer the area, which means that their duty was to manage the affairs. This is not the same thing as creating a state belonging to a people. The few Arabs and Jews that lived there were not a country.

The land was quite desolate. Nothing had been done with it since the Jewish people were conquered by the Romans in 70 AD. The ground lay untouched, some areas becoming swampy while others were drying up and turning into a desert. Originally, it had been the land of Israel and Judea, two thriving Jewish states.

Reference: Wikipedia Encyclopedia

http://www.jafi.org.il/education/100/maps/mandate.html

Hizballah Captured West Beirut

Israel Doesn't Mix In

Hizballah just took 5,000 men from the South and captured West Beirut. Israel was urged by Washington to intervene in Lebanon's civil conflict, but stayed out of it. For once, I am glad that Olmert and foreign minister Tzipip Lvini decided this. We are seen as conquerors of Palestinians and are not when we simply defend ourselves. We were not being attacked. That may come soon, but I believe it's much better to stay out of it at this time. Now Hizballah, the Shiite militia, Iran's surrogate army waltzed in unchecked for its second victory in two years.

American intelligence estimated that Hizballah could retaliate against northern Israel with 600 missiles a day. That would have hit my old city of Safed for sure again.

USA is mad at us if we do and mad at us if we don't. Right now they're very mad at us for our passivity. They wanted us to surprise-attack by bombing their positions in South Beirut. In fact, we have been very passive, not doing much to stop the daily rocket and missle attacks on our civilians these past years. Bush asked the Middle East Countries to confront Hamas and isolate terror-sponsors Iran and Syria. Doesn't he know that all these countries except Israel are in cahoots with the terrorists? USA wouldn't come to our aid, just as they didn't in the last melee with Lebanon. I ask myself what Golda Meier would do, and my answer is just what Olmert did this time. Not mix in; not yet.

Reference: Debkafile: Exclusive Report

Osama bin Laden's Fallacy

by Nadene Goldfoot

This Al-Qaeda chief is quite angry about Bush celebrating Israel's birthday in Israel. He vowed that the Muslims would fight and not give up one inch of Palestine in a taped message today.

He tells a history that comes out of a fictitious novel. He and his people have told the same lies so often that they probably believe it themselves.

As Victor Sharpe recently wrote, a two state solution was offered the Arabs 86 years ago and they turned it down then and have been doing so ever since. They only began to get the idea of having their own state after the 1967 war, which they started and lost. Then, what they really wanted was the little state of Israel minus the Jews.

Jordan took advantage of the offer and gained 35,000 sqare miles that was handed over to Emir Abdullah in 1922. There went most of what was to be the Jewish state. The land called Palestine was never a state; it was a named area, named from the Romans to eradicate the Jewish heritage. It was overseen by the Ottoman Empire, and when they crumbled, Great Britain was given the mandate to oversee the area. Then, there were very very few Arabs living there and none of them had any reason to want their own state. They had wandered there from their other homelands surrounding the area when looking for work.

As for our occupying Arab territory, it isn't true, either. If the Arabs hadn't attacked us in 1967, we wouldn't have won the war which in turn gave us the land. Originally it had been ours, and it was a surprise blessing to get it back. It was a lesson: fight Israel and you will lose not only the war but more. The land was not the "Palestinians" anyway. It was under Egypt and Jordan's control.

They were given the opportunity at every step of the way to have their own state, and they always refused the offer. Unlike Israel, we took the sliver we were finally given when originally we were promised the whole territory of Palestine. We were grateful. The Palestinians are not of the same ilk. They're just greedy, intolerant and hateful.

Bin Laden is a real trouble-maker. He has encouraged Muslims to support the war in Iraq in order to help the Palestinians. He calls the present rocket attacks on Israel the "Gaza massacre", referring to the retaliation from Israel. He must be absolutely mad to think that Israel would quietly sit and not respond to constant shelling in its land. There is not a country in the world who is that insane. We are not going to retaliate with slings and arrows, for heavens sake. They're firing rockets at us, and eventually the peacemaker Olmert gets around to appeasing the people of Sderot and Ashkelon and surrounding area with a retaliation hoping to squelch further attacks. It must make the Hamas terrorists joyous when we do this, as then they have fodder for their mill of hateful propaganda about Israel. Their little soundbites of "not give up one inch of Palestine" causes most Americans to conclude that Israel is taking Palestinian land and that's what the fight is all about. Heaven help us!

Reference: Yahoo News by Lydia Georgi "Bin Laden slams West over Israel, vows to fight on.

Victor Sharpe: The Two-State Solution is 86 Years Old

Israel Must Live

by Nadene Goldfoot

Israel and Judea were two Jewish states that existed long before Jesus was born. By 70AD the last of them were vanquished by the Romans, though some Jews remained while many were marched off to Rome as slaves. For over 2,000 years we have prayed that we would not forget Jerusalem, and hoped to be there again.

After roaming the world for all these years, settling in places and feeling comfortable for a while, then finding our presence unwelcome and having to pick up and move again or be killed, we are supremely happy to have regained our homeland, named Israel in May 14, 1948. It took the many pogroms in Russia and finally the Holocaust of the WWII to make us realize that it was imperative that this generation move us back again, or we would be wiped out forever.

Our welcome home was the hardest ever with the Arabs turning against us and attacking the minute we were declared a state by the United Nations. To everyone's surprise, our Holocaust survivors and new immigrants pulled together and fought off the attack, and all other attacks since then. There hasn't been hardly a day gone by that the citizens of this country hasn't had to be mimicing the Spartans, becoming soldiers as well as civilians, ever wary of terrorist attacks and outright wars with the goal of wiping Israel off the map.

The hardest thing I cannot understand is that the world sees the Palestinians as the oppressed ones. Have they not wanted to see that they are the ones doing the attacking and the threatening to wipe Israel out? The people themselves are being oppressed, but by their own leaders, not the Israelis who are doing more than their share of trying to be fair with them. In fact, Israelis feel no animosity towards the Palestinians. At the same time, the Palestinians have been brain-washed into believing that Jews are evil and must be wiped out, and their leaders swallow hook, line and sinker the old Protocals of Zion, a Nazi doctrine filled with lies about Jews.

The United Nations should have been the place to solve problems, but has become the meeting place for the Arab world where they continue their hatred towards Israel. People have no time nor interest in reading about the history of these two peoples, and care less, only greedily swallow the propaganda that they hear about the Israelis.

It seems that our ability to protect ourselves has caused people to hate us. Yes, we now have a strong army, but does the world realize that it takes every person in Israel under 18 to be in it, men and women? We number only about 5 million people and 2 million Arabs that make up the population of Israel. That we even have Arab citizens should make people wonder, for we cannot go to other Arab countries and be citizens there, though we did have many living in Arab countries before the birth of Israel who were living as 3rd rate citizens in most of them. It was a better situation than being killed in the holocaust, but not great. We all yearned daily for our own country. We yearned for over 2,000 years. There was no body of people ready to help us establish our country again. We organized and did it ourselves, with the U.N.'s acceptance.

The reason that Israel has had to do things that have become propaganda pieces, like mow down a palestinian home, is to try to stop terrorism. They could have rounded up people and shot them, as Arab countries have done, or gassed them like Iraq did, but destroying a home was the worst they wanted to do to people. They just didn't do it for fun.

Like the son who complained after killing his parents that he was an orphan, the Palestinians attack the Israelis and then complain about their hardships. If they didn't have hardships, they couldn't get the world's attention. I think they do these things on purpose.

Now Iran is calling Israel names and saying they will wipe out Israel. It's a big threat taken very seriously by Israel. At Israel's 60th birthday, we are all worried about the continuation of Israel's existence. We've waiting so long to see its creation and know from history what can be for us. We've given the world so much in the line of industry and medicine. Yet there are people who could care less if we exist or not, and many who wish we didn't.

Israel is a tiny speck in the world. The Arab countries are bountiful taking up a large land mass. Don't let this little speck that is an endangered species die. The first step needed is understanding that Israel is not the bad guy, but has always been the fall guy or scape goat in this world. They have been trying to do the right thing, and share the same ethics as the rest of the Western world, but are battling an enemy that wants their destruction, not their neighborliness.

Upgraded 3/27/19 

USA Financial Aid to Israel

Most of America's financial aid to Israel came after Israel's 1967 War. The state of Israel, which has about 1/1000 of the world's population, is of an unusual importance and interest to the USA, and does receive more than its size would indicate. The United States recognizes that Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East. Many Americans feel they have a moral obligation to support Israel, both Jews and non-Jews.

In fact, Israel is like the surrogate for the USA in the region. They have been called the hit-man for the G-dfather, who is the USA. In many ways Israel is the middleman for USA industries. Israel is the testing ground for weaponry. Israel is advancing US intersts in the region. In other words, USA is supporting its only partner in the Middle East.

This is why 1/3 of the US foreign aid has gone to Israel. USA voted for Israel's birth in the United Nations and has been supportive ever since in varying degrees. When you receive money from someone, you feel obligated to meet their conditions. This problem has been discussed in Israel. It has its good and bad points. It would be nice to not rely on another country's expectations, but Israel is not ready to unfetter its harness to the USA just yet. With the threat of Iran in the present, for both Israel and the United States, Israel needs its friends. I just pray that the next president of the United States is up to keeping the friendship between these two countries intact.

Reference: Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, RMEA.com

Where Does Palestinian Money Come From?

I've often heard the complaint that Israel is receiving more money than other places, and people see no reason for it. How about the Palestinians? How much money have they been receiving?

UNRA is the deep pockets for the Palestinians. UNRA has a cash budget of $384+ million dollars. In 2008 the USA pledged about $150 million to it, or 39% of their budget. The other big donors are the European Commission, the United Kingdom, Sweden and Norway. All the Arab countries together with their big oil profits contributed only about $2.5 million dollars or -1% of the budget. In that, the United Arab Emirates gave $1 million, Kuwait $1.5 million, Oman $25,000 and Egypt $10,000. Saudi Arabia gave nothing. At least they are not on the list. Though the Arab League have pledged their money, several have failed to fullfill their promises.

Israel alone donated more to UNRWA than most of the Arab states. After Israel transferred responsibility of the Palestinian populations, they didn't control any refugee camps, so stopped contributing in 1997.

Palestinians were receiving millions of dollars from UNRA when Jewish refugees from Arab countries received no international assistance. The numbers of refugees in both places were about the same. Jews were being killed in the Arab countries at the time, probably due to the creation of Israel and the wars there. Then again, the status of Jews in Arab countries were not always the same as the other Arabs. In most places they were tolerated as dminnies, a rather 3rd rate status similar to Blacks in the 1840's in Oregon.

Who is UNRA? This stands for United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration. It was started in 1943 from the WWII experiences. Being a part of the United Nations, which is very heavy now with Arabs who always vote against Israel, it is interesting that they give so little an amount, expecting the USA to give so much.

Besides receving UNRA funding, Palestinians receive billions of dollars in International Aid, mostly from Europe, the USA and others far away. They are receiving almost 900 million every year from this pocket. However, about half a million Palestinians are being forced by their leaders to remain in the camps, as they have from 1948 under their leader's control. Their leaders have not built anything with the monies.

It's interesting that when Israel left the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian leaders insisted that Israel demolish all the homes of the Jewish settlers that had lived there. The reason was that they wanted to build high-rise apartment buildings. Of course, nothing has happened. They're too busy firing rockets at Israel, I suppose. Building would be a sign of peace.

In retrospect, I have wondered what they are doing with all this money. One can gather that they are using it for weaponry against Israel. I'm glad that the other Arabs have not fullfilled their donations, then.

Reference: Mitchell Bard

Israel's Electric Car in 2010

Israel just had its coming out party for its new electric car run on a battery. A Danish company is its partner in this endeavor to produce the Renault-Nissan sedan. Being not everyone has a car, and gas must be extremely expensive in Israel, this is just the ticket. It's too bad they didn't invent one to run on solar power, though, as they have plenty of sun.

With this car, you can recharge the batteries at home, or get a new one if you're on the road and go 150 miles or more. In Israel, everything is so close, so that I foresee most people charging theirs at home or at the office.

For people affected by noise, this car is perfect. It has an extremely quiet engine. Look for this car to be on Israel's road by 2010.

Resource: http://www.projectbetterplace.com

Washington Post

Benjamin Netanyahu Speaks Out

"If the Arabs put down their weapons today, there would be no more violence. If the Jews put down their weapons today, there would be no more Israel." BB. (Benjamin Netanyahu)

Benjamin Netanyahu recently spoke on CNN from New York. . When interviewed, he said that the Palestinians in Gaza were rocketing us, and we were responding. It’s a one way street. The attacks are not motivated for political means. They are attacking to destroy the state of Israel.
When asked why he thought it improper to talk with Hamas., he asked why we should when we know that their goal is the destruction of Israel. We did talk with other countries like Egypt and Jordan and gained a peaceful outcome. Hamas is an inplacable enemy. There is no viable end result in talking with them.

Resource: CNN

Ahmadinejad's Name Calling

Israel is starting to celebrate a momentous feat; its 60th birthday. Iran's Ahmadinejad said it was doomed to disappear as he dwelt on ways to help that goal along. He called Israel a stinking corpse that can't be revived with a birthday party and said the Israeli regime was a fake. He said its existence was being questioned and the regime is on its way to annihilation.

He then went on to say that Israel was like a dead rat that had reached the end after being slapped by the Lebanese. This raving man has not recognized Israel. Since he became president of Iran in 2005, he has constantly provoked international outrage by saying that Israel is doomed to disappear. He has even gone as far as to deny the Holocaust, or at least say that it wasn't as bad as it was. He definitely wasn't invited to the birthday party.

Reference: Yahoo news

Rumor has it that when Ahmadinejad screams about Israel, people become frightened about oil, and the price per barrel goes us. Iran does have a lot of the world's oil. Somebody had better stick a sock in his mouth so it doesn't go up any farther. Israel takes the threats very seriously. I'm sure they're contemplating more than a sock in the mouth in order to survive.

Isreael's Medical Accomplishments

Israel's Medical Accomplishments
Nadene Goldfoot

Israel has developed a lot of medical technology that helps the world. I didn't believe it at first, thinking it was something like Gore's bragadocia, but Israel developed the CT Scan and magnetic resonance imaging (the MRI). What would we be doing without these diagnostic tools?

Other items of biotechnology account for over half of all scientific publications. Scientists in Israel have learned to produce a human growth hormone and interferon which are a group of proteins used against viral infections. Copaxone, a medicine used in treating MS was developed in Israel.

They've also come up with a controlled-release liquid polymer to prevent tooth plaque from accumulating, a device to reduce swellings of the prostate gland whether or not it is benign or malignant, botulin to correct eye squint, and the miniturre camera in a capsule you swallow used to diagnose gastro-intestinal diseases.

"Israel’s universities [51] and research institutes [52] are largely government-funded, and each of these has established its own research authority and commercial limb.

For example, the Neuromedical Electrical Stimulation Systems Ltd. (NESS), a glove-like device that can stimulate movements in a paralyzed hand or arm, was designed at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. [53]

Over the decades there have been a multitude of Israeli-created medical technologies that save and improve lives. A small sampling:

Given Imaging’s PillCam video capsule: A disposable, miniature video camera contained in a capsule that can be easily ingested by the patient. The PillCam redefines the way medical professionals diagnose gastrointestinal disorders;

[54]

MediGuide: An accurate new imaging technology enables doctors to track the progress of miniature medical devices used during surgery; [55]

LifeMel Honey: Made by bees fed on a special therapeutic nectar, a special honey reduces anemia and builds the immune system of cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy; [56]

Arbel Medical: New IceSense technology will potentially remove breast lumps and tumors with cryotherapy, a method of surgery that uses extreme cold to kill diseased tissue. [57]"

These are but a few of the benefits that have been coming out of Israel.

Reference: www.mfa.gov.ilMFA/Facts about Israel in Science and Technology

The Israel Project

Update 3/27/19 

Which Came First-The Rockets or the Blockade?

The peace talks could collapse between Israel and the Palestinians. I haven't noticed much peace happening. Rockets have been falling on Sderot constantly since Israel pulled out of Gaza about a year ago. Yet, the Palestinians are threatening us to end the talks. I'm not sure if that would be such a great calamity, since they're getting nowhere. What is that old saying? All talk and no action?...

Palestinians told Israel that Israel had to change its course and accept a more conciliatory approach in negotiations. Conciliatory means to unite, to win over, to gain as goodwill by pleasing acts, to make compatible, to reconcile. We are a stiff-necked people by reputation. I suppose we said something silly like; if you stop firing rockets at us, we will lift the blockade.

Then there's the road map from Annapolis. Evidently we haven't read it right. The Palestinians have done a terrific job, they say. We were expected by the Palestinians to freeze our settlement activity, which means we were not to build in any way.

Fayyad had met with Israel's foreign Minister, Ms. Tzipi Livni. The Palestinians only had the commitment of reforming its financial sector. They had donors give money that was needed by Palestinian authorities. This probably means that the oil rich Arabs gave them some money in promises that I've heard has not turned into cash as yet. They promise but haven't delivered. That sounds familar to me; peace but not stopping the shellling. He said they need about $1 billion dollars to meet its obligations for the second half of this year. Last year they were lucky to find someone in Paris pledge $7.7 billion to the Palestinians over 3 years and was meant for their reform and development programs. The pledgers have since then lost their optimism. Only $215 million of about $835 million pledged by the Arab League nations has been given to the Palestinians. The shortage of money contributes to the economic and humanitarian crisis in the "occupied" territories. We have left there but somehow we are still occupiers.

Livni, in turn, told Fayyad that we removed 60 road blocks, one major checkpoint and other things that constricted the Palestinians' movement. Also, 5,000 work permits had been granted to Palestinians needing work inside Israel. I have a feeling that the work is for construction! By removing these preventatives to terror, we are taking a big risk. We need to see that the Palestinians will actively fight terrorism before we go any farther.

Condoleeza Rice keeps saying that she expects Palestine to be created by the end of the year while Bush is still in office. She actually thinks this is possible. She referred to Ireland as an example of conflict that didn't see an ending just before peace was declared. I don't think they were as brainwashed as the Arabs seem to be. Also, the terrorists in the Middle East get a reward of 72 virgins when they do something terrible for the cause and die. That didn't happen to the Catholics or the Protestants.

Somehow, all the Palestinians problems of spending their money on making rockets to kill Israelis instead of helping their people are Israel's fault. If we weren't there in the first place, they wouldn't have to shoot us.

Reference: Associated Press.

Arab Conception of a Truce

A meeting was just called in Cairo, Egypt with the Palestinian terrorists. They decided to call a truce with Israel, and Egypt will do the speaking.

The problem is that the concept of a truce with Arabs is not the same as with other people. We see it as meaning cease-fire which usually leads to peace talks. The word has a different meaning in Arabic. They use the word "hudna", which is nowhere like our truce. It is time-out period that they use to refresh and re-arm themselves. We have seen this happen more than 13 times already.

So my excitement has been abated. An example of this occurred in the beginnings of Islam. Muhammad in 628 AD had a 10 year truce or hudna with the Arabian tribe of Quraysh. His Islamic forces used this time to become stronger in the first few years, then attacked and defeated the unwaring tribe. They use this example to justify their actions as they are emulating Muhammad.

Arafat saw Oslo as a "temporary and tactical maneuver", not time to work at a permanent reconciliation between the Arabs and Israelis. That's why thousands paraded in Gaza with signs saying "We worship Allah by killing Jews."

In 2003 Collen Powell, US Secretary of State ended his trip to the Middle East thinking the Palestinian leaders would announce a hudna. Newspapers thought it was of major importance after seeing 33 months of violence.

Now Condoleeza Rice is to appear in the Middle East. This is when Egypt will probably announce the terrific "truce" the Palestinians are offering.

Israeli General Amos Gilad had said that this hudna is a threat to any kind of peace. The road map called for the Palestinians to "arrest, disrupt, and restrain" terror leaders. They are not to grant them an opportunity to regain their strength.

Colin Powell stated that he wanted the violence to be under control and to end, not by a cease-fire, but to go beyond that.

Unfortunately, most of the media do not understand the difference or have any any understanding of what this implies. Languages exemplify large differences in meaning. This is a big one.

Reference: New York Times

honestreporting.com

omdurman.org

No Rest For Ashkelon's Hospital

How would you feel if a Qassam rocket landed in your backyard? That's what happened near Ashkelon, Portland's sister city yesterday. It caused the woman to go into shock and she had to be treated at the hospital. Nine rockets hit Sderot, which is a little closer to the Gaza strip where the terrorists shoot rockets. It caused building damage, but no one was killed. That's probably because they have a one minute warning and are becoming more proficient in getting to the shelters quickly.

The Rafah Refugee Camp if home to many terrorists. A Hamas commander was in his car and Israel's forces were able to pinpoint his car and hit it. He had been involved in the kidnapping of the IDF soldier, Gilad Shalit, who has never been returned.

The ongoing war caused a 62 year old man to be killed and three militants were wounded in Gaza.

Reference: Haaretz Newspaper