Israeli soldier's Letter to a Palestinian Family in Gaza

Part of a letter sent by a reserve Israeli soldier

I can surmise that you are intelligent and educated and there are those in your household that are university students. Your children learn English, and you are connected to the Internet. You are not ignorant; you know what is going on around you. Therefore, I am sure you know that Qassam rockets were launched from your neighborhood into Israeli towns and cities. How could you see these weekly launches and not think that one day we would say "enough"?! Did you ever consider that it is perhaps wrong to launch rockets at innocent civilians trying to lead a normal life, much like you? How long did you think we would sit back without reacting? I can hear you saying "it's not me, it's Hamas".

My intuition tells me you are not their most avid supporter. If you look closely at the sad reality in which your people live, and you do not try to deceive yourself or make excuses about "occupation", you must certainly reach the conclusion that the Hamas is your real enemy. The reality is so simple, even a seven year old can understand: Israelwithdrew from the Gaza strip, removing military bases and its citizens from Gush Katif. Nonetheless, we continued to provide you with electricity, water, and goods (and this I know very well as during my reserve duty I guarded the border crossings more than once, and witnessed hundreds of trucks full of goods entering a blockade-free Gaza every day).

 Despite all this, for reasons that cannot be understood and with a lack of any rational logic, Hamas launched missiles on Israeli towns. For three years we clenched our teeth and restrained ourselves. In the end, we could not take it anymore and entered the Gaza strip, into your neighborhood, in order to remove those who want to kill us. A reality that is painful but very easy to explain. As soon as you agree with me that Hamas is your enemy and because of them, your people are miserable, you will also understand that the change must come from within.

I am acutely aware of the fact that what I say is easier to write than to do, but I do not see any other way. You, who are connected to the world and concerned about your children's education, must lead, together with your friends, a civil uprising against Hamas. I swear to you, that if the citizens of Gaza were busy paving roads, building schools, opening factories and cultural institutions instead of dwelling in self pity, arms smuggling and nurturing a hatred for your Israeli neighbors, your homes would not be in ruins right now.

 If your leaders were not corrupt and motivated by hatred, your home would not have been harmed. If someone would have stood up and shouted that there is no point in launching missiles on innocent civilians, I would not have to stand in your kitchen as a soldier.

You don't have money, you tell me? You have more than you can imagine. Even before Hamas took control of Gaza, during the time of Yasser Arafat,millions if not billions of dollars donated by the world community to the Palestinians was used for purchasing arms or taken directly to your leaders bank accounts. Gulf States, the emirates - your brothers, your flesh and blood, are some of the richest nations in the world.

If there was even a small feeling of solidarity between Arab nations, if these nations had but the smallest interest in reconstructing the Palestinian people - your situation would be very different.

You must be familiar with Singapore. The land mass there is not much larger than the Gaza strip and it is considered to be the second most populated country in the world. Yet, Singapore is a successful, prospering, andwell managed country. Why not the same for you? My friend, I would like to call you by name, but I will not do so publicly. I want you to know that I am 100% at peace with what my country did, what my army did, and what I did.

However, I feel your pain. I am sorry for the destruction you are finding in your neighborhood at this moment. On a personal level, I did what I could to minimize the damage to your home as much as possible. In my opinion, we have a lot more in common than you might imagine. I am a civilian, not a soldier, and in my private life I have nothing to do with the military. However, I have an obligation to leave my home, put on a uniform, and protect my family every time we are attacked. I have no desire to be in your home wearing a uniform again and I would be more than happy to sit with you as a guest on your beautiful balcony, drinking sweet tea seasoned with the sage growing in your garden.

The only person who could make that dream a reality is you. Take responsibility for yourself, your family, your people, and start to take control of your destiny. How? I do not know. Maybe there is something to be learned from the Jewish people who rose up from the most destructive human tragedy of the 20th century, and instead of sinking into self-pity, built a flourishing and prospering country. It is possible, and it is in yourhands. I am ready to be there to provide a shoulder of support and help to you. But only you can move the wheels of history."

Regards, Yishai, (Reserve Soldier)
Resource: Sent from Cousin Denise Bremridge (partial letter)
[Originally published in Hebrew in Maariv - an Israeli daily newspaper]

Radical Islam Take-Over of USA

Nadene Goldfoot

Probably because of the Nazi writing of the "Protocols of Zion," Jews are very hesitant to come out with "The Emperor Has No Clothes," but this is what is happening. Islam is trying to take over America. They have realized that they can't win over America with their military prowess, so they're using brain-washing techniques instead.

Many young men in prisons have converted to Islam and are accepting the radical viewpoints. The video below tells of a Muslim doctor in the states that started to research how radical Islam started taking over his beloved country after 9/11, and has tried to reach out to other Muslims but has been vilified by his own people. Now he is an outcast and has been called a "dog." The mob mentality is ruling a people who have never learned to think or reason for themselves.

There are 1.3 billion Muslims in the world and it is growing. One out of four, 1/4 of the Muslims in the states think that suicide is okay to achieve their goal. This political Islam only offers its people hatred, not love. The Holy Land Foundation, CAIR, and a Muslim leader, Mr. Alumondin, support terror groups in the United States.

People should realize that there is no freedom of religion in Muslim countries like Saudi Arabia. Other religions are against the law. This is a war between the freedom of democracy and barbarism. We are battling for Western civilization. Will we stand up for our freedom that we dearly love and that has made us a model country? That is the question. Events in Europe and England show that the Muslim law of Sharia is getting closer and closer. I just watched a video showing a mob of Muslims chasing English police down the street while shouting, "Allah Akhbar!"

Right now our own United States expects Israel, the only democratic state in the Middle East, to accept whatever Hamas wants to do, which is to destroy Israel. At least that is what it seems to me with our leaders blaming Israel for responding finally after 8 years of shelling from Hamas. Then Israel is blamed because the count of dead is greater on the Palestinian side than on the Israeli side. The USA must realize that we are not trying to get killed, while killing is considered a victory for Hamas ! One cannot discuss peace with a group whose goal is to destroy you. If Israel is destroyed, America will be next.

It's very difficult to imagine a take-over of a religion for me. This has been thrown at Jews so often by the Nazis and other similar groups. It's odd because Judaism is the smallest group in the world, and the Muslims are about to take over the size of Christianity, growing amazingly fast considering all their restrictions and connection with death. Yet, what we stand for is in a completely different direction than Islam. They are our opposite. We are for life, peace and democracy. We ask three times at least, "Are you sure you want to become Jewish?" of anyone who seeks to convert to our religion, while the Muslims have historically converted by the sword and hope to have the world converted to Islam, even by force.

The following was sent to me by a Christian friend. The 30 minutes of watching will be an education. It's a wake-up call.

Reference: http://blip.tv/play/AdmXMI6nSg
P.S. A film review that I just found in my this month's Hadassah magazine on page 47 is about "The Monster Among Us". It's about a radical Islamist and right-wing gangs demonstrating and the bruised victims of these attacks. Allen Mondell and Cynthia Salzman Mondell present this film about headstones in England that have been smashed, mullahs telling people to kill Jews in Belgium and the Netherlands and France. Melanie Phillips, British journalist says it's open season on Jews. Others say they fear another Holocaust.
Resource: Hadassah Magazine, February p. 37, and http://www.mediaprojecdts.org/. --Zelda Shluker. Media Projects, Inc. has been making
documentary films and educational videos for 35 years. Founded by filmmakers Allen Mondell and Cynthia Salzman Mondell, Media Projects specializes in films that explore social issues and community
concerns.
Our films have won numerous national
awards and have been selected for prestigious screenings in the United States and abroad. Some have received specialized theatrical distribution and have aired on PBS and national cable networks.

Muslims in London Dealing with Police

Continued report from Tamar Boussi in Jerusalem

"I am also attaching a video from London. It is a shocking scene of a mob of supporters of Islamic terrorism chasing a large group of London police officers down the streets of London for many blocks. Given that Britain is one of the countries that feels it is qualified to tell Israel how to handle the terrorists, this is a question to ponder--How much attention should we give to international opinion and advice?"

Tamar, I would say that the British police in this incident have failed completely. It is scary to think that they cannot protect themselves. Many places in Europe have already had problems with the Muslims who seem to be taking over neighborhoods and have been aggressive towards Jews. I would say that international opinion and advice is to be taken with a grain of salt. We need to use our own intelligence and moral understandings. As we say, the youtube example is a "shunda'.

What rankles me is their yelling: "Free Palestine!" There never has been a country of Palestine, and they have been given all of Gaza and half of the West Bank already. What they want is all of Israel. They are a brain-washed hot-headed group of hatred who have been fed a pack of lies and are so gullible to believe it all. They know the British police are not armed and take joy in threatening them. Now they will be power hungry to do more harm. This irrational behavior is what is scary. You can't deal with it if you are sane. You can't discuss anything with them.

Resource:
Nadene Goldfoot
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97hyDRjdXCE

Palestinians: Alien Mind-Set

Continued interview of Israeli soldiers by Tamar Boussi of Jerusalem

EVERY SOLDIER I HAVE TALKED TO HAS USED THE WORD "SCARED" USUALLY MORE THEN ONCE, WHAT WERE THE MOST FRIGHTENING THINGS FOR You?

First every house or building is wired, they wire their own houses, the schools that their own children attend, hospitals, the mindset is so alien to us that we have to keep reminding ourselves of the danger in every step we take. They would rather have a family of 8 blown up in their own house than 8 different Arabs blown up in different places and if it is a school full of kids all the better, as they understand that the publicity is good for them. They think that if they kill Israelis that’s good and if a lot of Arabs die that is even better, as it is blamed on the Israelis and that is the publicity they want, women and children are the best publicity.

The second most frightening thing, maybe even the first is the tunnels. Gaza is a mass of tunnels everywhere, some of these tunnels are big enough to walk in standing up with electricity and other necessities. They use them for everything; not just to smuggle other terrorists, money, weapons and what ever else they want. They run from house to house as well, the top leaders are in comfortable tunnels under the hospital, they know we won’t bomb the hospital so they are safe. The other use of tunnels is a major goal they have of kidnapping soldiers, THAT is very scary. If you are walking anywhere near any kind of cover, a hand might reach out and grab a leg and try to drag you into the bush or a camouflaged tunnel. We sleep on the floor of vacant houses, which we have searched, while we sleep a floor tile will move and a hand reach out to grab an arm, a leg or whatever and drag you under the house into a tunnel. Thank G-d they did not succeed, only because we learned from past incidents.

Getting into their heads is hard and frightening. They don’t mind how many of them die, while for us one soldier is too many. Every life is precious, even theirs—what can anyone do?

WHAT DO YOU FEEL HAS BEEN ACCOMPLISHED? We will have failed if we leave without Gilad Shalit. No way we can do that! We don’t want to go home until we are finished. This ceasefire was political, not practical. My hope is when their leaders stick their heads out of the tunnels they are hiding in. They will be so shocked by what they see, they will not want to attack Israel again. They haven’t seen the devastation. Everywhere destroyed grey concrete buildings surrounded by rubble covered with a grey-black smoke.

WHAT DO YOU THINK THE PEOPLE OF GAZA FEEL NOW THAT THERE IS QUIET:

Quiet is the right word because it is not over –the people really do hate us, they don’t know anything good about us, only that they are suffering, even though some of them know Hamas is the problem, most don’t think that way. I would say 99% they hate us. Hamas will get billions from the international community and most of it will go to rearm themselves and to continue to educate their children, not be equipped to make a life for themselves but to hate us. Their cynical use of their children is the long run problem.

Resource: Interview by Tamar Boussi of Israeli soldiers who fought in Gaza

Why Israel Kept Reporters Out of Gaza

from Interview by Tamar Boussi residing in Jerusalem

"WHY DO YOU THINK THE MEDIA WAS KEPT OUT?  I HEARD A REPORTER ON FOX NEWS CHANNEL SAY, "THAT IT WAS BECAUSE THEY DIDN’T WANT THE ISRAEL SIDE OF THE STORY TOLD:" (laughter from the soldiers standing there)

Of course we want our story told, but we learned from Lebanon, the press was everywhere, they were constantly getting in the way, we had to be always aware of them, to be sure they don’t get killed, sometimes we couldn’t take an action we wanted to for fear of hurting them. They think war is a card game (no offense to you) but it is life and death, we can’t be out there thinking "how will the media see this". Gaza is one of the most crowded places on earth, we have to avoid hitting civilians and the press which seems to feel it should be able do anything and be anywhere they want. I saw a soldier in another unit, who couldn’t take a shot at the guy pointing a gun at him, because a reporter was in the way-- That was Lebanon, this was one of the things that made this action much easier.

Resource: from interviews by Tamar Boussi of soldiers who fought in Gaza.

Dumb and Dumber: Mitchell's Same Old Peace Plan

Palestine and Israel

by Nadene Goldfoot

The United States and Europe assume that the Palestinians want peace. Could they possibly be wrong?

The Palestinians were offered their own state in 1948 when Israel was created. They rejected the idea and immediately attacked Israel with five Arab states. Surely they were carrying out the dictive to kill Jews and certainly not to reside next to them. After 60 years of attacking Israel, things have not changed. Their charter has not changed. Their behavior has not changed, except to get worse. They have elected Hamas, under the pressure of the United States to hold elections. Hamas has nothing in its charter to have a state or to live peacefully next to Israel. That tells us a lot about what its people desire.

Fatah is assumed to behave better, only they seem to differ from Hamas only in that they are more secretive in their resistance to Israel. Fatah boasts that their terror cells in Gaza also fired upon Israel just as Hamas fired missiles against Israel. Fatah has terror cells called Aksa Martyrs. They claim that during Operation Cast Lead, their terrorists fired 137 rockets and mortar shells at Israel. This means that Israel was fired on by both groups. Abbas claims that his people did so because they are living under Hamas rule, but from 2000 to June 2007, when Hamas kicked Fatah out of Gaza, most of the weapons smugglings operations in Gaza were done by Fatah, who did the most firing at Israel. Most suicide bombers from Judea and Samaria were members of Fatah. It isn't the moderate group that they claim to be, unless they call this action moderate.

There are those that lay the blame on Israel constantly saying if only this or that was done, they would be nice people. They blame Israel for not being supportive of Arafat and now Abbas! They were the leaders trying to do Israel in and were always attacking, and we should have been more supportive? Perhaps Madeleine Albright, Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice think that America should have been more supportive of Hitler, then. Shouldn't we now support people who want to kill us? What kind of convoluted thinking is this?

1. They continue: If only Israel had kicked out the Jews of Gaza earlier. Israel removed all the Jews in Gaza and handed the ruins of their villages and farms to Fatah in September 2005.

2. If only Israel had removed its roadblocks and expelled Jews from their homes in Judea and Samaria;

3. If only Israel had prevented all Jewish construction beyond the 1949 armistice lines; Since 2000 Israel has stopped Jewish building in Judea and Samaria.

4. Only Israel is asked or told to give, give, give up land to the Palestinians. The Palestinians are not told to do anything in regards to Israel, like be good neighbors. There are no expectations for them.

Then Arafat and now Abbas would have been more popular and would stop their terrorist forces.

These people receive a salary from the PA which is funded by the US and Israel. So Israel is forced to fund the very people who want to see their total destruction by the forces that be.

Mitchell has been selected again by the Democrats. Again, he'll go for a plan first created by Tom Friedman, then copied by Saudi Arabia, who was praised by Obama by being so brave, the PLO's peace plan. Mitchell told Arafat that the conditions were that he had to make 100% effort to prevent terror. That was funny because it was he who called the shots of terror. Clinton's administration used the old nod-nod-wink-wink attitude of Palestinian terrorism since 1994. They allowed things to happen. Mitchell said that Israel and the Palestinians were equally to blame for the terror of the Palestinians against Israel. I guess that's like blaming a girl for being raped. (If only she had dressed like a boy). Well, today she might not have been safe at that. This meant that Arafat wasn't responsible for anything in Clinton's eyes. He could say that their attacks didn't come from him, that he was doing his 100% good old try at resisting.

I must say that Hillary Clinton has been much more supportive of Israel, and also feels that they have a right to respond when attacked. That is 100% improvement from her husband's attitude. I hope she has some knowledge that she could share with Mitchell and help him to become more understanding or caring about Israel's future.

By the time Bush got in, he didn't go along with Mitchell's plan or Mitchell. After all, he was a Republican and had to get some different players on his team. The scene had shifted to finding Israeli children's body parts on the walls of bombed pizzerias and bar mitzva parties that had to be scraped off in order to bury them. Bush didn't cry "moral equivalence" at this point. Even he could see that Israel was enduring a lot of attacking and was unlike the Palestinians. However, his plan copied the Clinton Plan, formed the Tenet Plan, the Road Map Plan and then the Annapolis Plan, so there wasn't that much difference.

Like the others, Obama sets his table with Palestine's creation as the centerpiece. Everyone is bound and determined to create this 2nd state made up of murderous hearts ready to kill Israelis. How lucky we are! They feel that the only other solution is to absorb Palestinians into Israel, which is an even worse idea.

I say that some of the other 22 Arab states should absorb them, such as Saudi Arabia. They are so helpful and so in need of people. They have a large body of land and very little constituents.

Wouldn't they like these Palestinians living next to them?

Israel has been attacked over and over again by 5 nations at one time, and Israel has won despite the odds. Israel has gone along with having a Palestinian state only to be attacked. The Palestinian people have done nothing to show that they would be good neighbors. They have done just the opposite. It's like having an open mental institution next door with no one controlling the inmates who are killers.

Now the heads of state, Marshall as representative, expect Israel to give again as if we haven't already done so and it never gains us any peace. After doing the same thing over and over and over and over, one would think that this behavior is not getting us anywhere. Repeating an action that gets you nowhere is crazy. I'm not for giving land for peace anymore. How about doing what the USA has done. If you attack us, we take your land. For every bomb shot into Israel, we take 25 KM of land. At that rate, we might take back all of Gaza.

Many Arab states attacked Israel including all the Palestinians. They lost the attack. The land is legitimately part of Israel. Israel does not have to give up land but has done so in the name of peace. Peace has not come. Israel being attacked and not responding is now a thing of the past. Israelis have had enough!

Mitchell made the statement at Tel Aviv U. last month that "the US and Israel must cling to the delusion that Palestinian statehood will bring about a new utopia, for the alternative is unacceptable and should be unthinkable." This indeed is a delusion that should be dropped for sanity's purposes. We must not delude ourselves, but look at the picture sanely. Here is a people who do not want their own state and who probably could not manage it at all given the free reign to do so. They are killers and not lovers of anything, including their own children. They think dying is terrific.

Mitchell is making the same old pitch with nothing new. He's not as creative or fair as Obama makes out to be. When Obama steps up to the plate, G-d help him to be understanding and fair with Israel. Haven't we gone through enough with such dreamers?

Update: 1/30/09 Former Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces and now member of the Likud party, Moshe Yaalon said: "From the dawn of Zionism until this day, the source of all terrorist attacks has been the refusal of the Arab world to recognize Israel's existence. Until this changes, we will remain the target of violent terrorist activity. The '67 borders are not a solution to rocket attacks, suicide bombs or more conventional forms of warfare. The two-state solution has failed and to my mind is now irrelevant. Even before the [war with] Hamas, a two-state solution was a mistaken fantasy—now it's even more irrelevant."

Resource: The Jerusalem Post, Jan 23, 2009 by Caroline Glick "History's Tragic Farce".

Peace Lasted One Week

Nadene Goldfoot

The Palestinian terrorists are at it again. One week of peace was all they could take. They planted a large bomb near the Gaza border so that an Israeli Patrol would get hit. A Bedouin tracker, an Israeli, was killed and one of our officers was badly wounded while two others were lightly wounded.

Israel says that it will react this time to attacks. It will not wait for 8 years to do something about it. Bibi, Livni and even Clinton say that we have the right to respond to these attacks.

So much for expectations from Hamas. Of course they are blaming Israel. What else have they to do?

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1232643759070&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1059172.html

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090127/wl_nm/us_palestinians_israel_8

What Is Hamas, Anyway? Look At Muslim Brotherhood Charter Here

Nadene Goldfoot

The Hamas charter, a theological covenant with Allah, which takes the motto of its parent organization, The Muslim Brotherhood, as its own: states the following:

Allah is its goal, the Prophet its model to be followed,
the Koran its constitution, Jihad its way,
and death for the sake of Allah its loftiest desire
Article Seven of the covenant justifies its anti-Semitic mission to obliterate Israel with the notorious hadith authenticated by the two most authoritative hadith scholars in Islam, Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim:
The hour of judgment shall not come until the Muslims fight
The Jews and kill them, so that the Jews hide behind trees and stones,
And each tree and stone will say: 'Oh Muslim, oh servant of Allah,
there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him ...

Now, as one can see, Hamas's charter states to kill Jews, and Jews live next door to them in Israel. Until this terrorist organization, officially deemed a terrorist organization in 1995 by presidential order and again in 1997 called a foreign terrorist organization, changes course and reverses their charter into a peaceful statement, Israel can not trust them at their word at all, like Jimmy Carter does.

Why is the monograph which is an apologia for Hamas written by Sherifa Zuhur taken seriously by the U.S. Army War College, then? Are they siding with Hamas? Sherifa is a woman PhD in Middle East History. She has been at MIT, U of C, Berkeley, USLA, and the American U in Cairo. Her BA is in Political Science and Arabic and Arabic Literature and her Masters is in Islamic Studies. She is obviously siding with Hamas and forgetting what it's charter stands for. The US Army War College needs to remember this fact.

One needs to remember that the Middle East is different from our Western experiences. There is a story about a scorpion and a tortoise who want to cross the sea. The scorpion promises to direct the tortoise if he would give him a ride on his back. The tortoise agrees. In the middle of the sea the scorpion bites the tortoise. Of course he dies in the middle of the sea. This is the Middle East.

I'm sure Sherifa knows this story. How the American army can be led to think that the Hamas is not a terrorist group is beyond my comprehension. I only hope there are still some people around who think for themselves and will not allow themselves to be brainwashed.

Reference:  http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0109/emerson012609.php3

Jimmy Carter Trashed Israel Again

Nadene Goldfoot

In plugging his new book about the Middle East and Peace, ex president Jimmy Carter continually knocked Israel on the Today Show this morning. He started by calling the Gaza fight a debacle, then continued to say that Israel had never restored provisions to Hamas. He refused to recognize that Hamas is a terrorist group, and kept saying that they always kept their word with him. He said that you can trust Hamas. Then he blatedly said that Hamas never fired a shot until after 11/4/when Israel finally fought back. Such lies just made my stomach turn.

Carter continued saying that if they don't adopt his provisions, things will go bad. It seems that he still thinks he is calling all the shots and has done the most good for the area. He likes Mitchell, as he is tougher than anyone else in dealing with Israel and the Arab countries.

Interestingly, he mentioned Obama calling up all the surrounding Arab countries and forgot Abbas's name but when prompted, recognized the unnamed was a Fatah leader, but according to his memory, Israel was not called. At least he never mentioned it. That may be true.

So from what I understood of this interview, Hamas is a trustworthy group, not terrorists, who never fired a shot at Israel. It was only Israel who attacked and went into Gaza for no reason. Thank you Mr. Carter, for your anti-Israel views. It makes understanding your previous books so much easier. You're just against Israel no matter what.

Reference: January 26, 2009 Today Show 8:45 am. Interview Jimmy Carter

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/28815679/ video of Carter's interview

The Problems of Verifying Facts From Gaza

Gaza Doctor: Hamas Exaggerated Gaza Death Toll

Nadene Goldfoot
- 600 Killed, Mostly Fighters, Not 1,300 - Yossi Bar (Maariv-Hebrew)

The Italian newspaper Corriere della Serra Thursday quoted a doctor at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City saying that, despite Hamas and UN claims, most of those killed in Gaza were young men who were members of terror groups. “The number of deaths was between 500-600...most were young men between 17 and 23 who were recruited into the ranks of Hamas, which sent them to be slaughtered,” he said. Journalist Lorenzo Cremonesi confirmed that only 600 people were killed, and not 1,300 as was widely reported, based on hospital visits and discussions with families of the victims.

“It was strange that the non-governmental organizations, including Western ones, repeated the number without checking, but the truth will come to light in the end,” said the doctor. “It's like what happened in Jenin in 2002,” he said. “At the beginning they spoke of 500 dead; afterwards it was clear there were only 54 dead, at least 45 of them fighters.”

Hamas Doesn't Always Wear A Uniform: 750 Killed

Jan. 22, 2009YAAKOV KATZ and JPost.com staff , THE JERUSALEM POST
Despite a report by Lorenzo Cremonesi, a correspondent for Italy's Corriere della sera, that the number of Palestinians killed in Operation Cast Lead did not exceed five or six hundred, Israeli defense officials on Thursday said there were around 1,300 Palestinians killed during the fighting in Gaza and that a majority of them were Hamas operatives.

The IDF's Gaza Coordination and Liaison Administration has already compiled a list with 900 names of Palestinians killed during the operation, out of which 750 are believed to be Hamas operatives.
The IDF estimated that two-thirds of those killed were gunmen affiliated with Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other Palestinian terror factions. At least 500 are believed to have been members of Hamas's military wing.
Hamas, defense officials said, purposely covered up the number of dead and on Sunday claimed that only 48 members of its military wing had been killed. Many bodies belonging to Hamas operatives were being stored - officials said - in the morgue in Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.

The vast majority of the Hamas operatives killed were not wearing uniforms to disguise their affiliation, another reason for the exaggerated estimate of civilian casualties by the United Nations.
The IDF's Military Intelligence has set up a team to come up with a comprehensive list including the names and affiliation of all of the Palestinians killed during Operation Cast Lead. The list, officials said, would be completed in the coming two weeks.

In addition to reporting that no more than 500 or 600 Palestinians were killed in Gaza during the IDF operation, Cremonesi, who based his report on tours of hospitals in the Gaza Strip and on interviews with families of casualties, assessed the number of wounded to be far lower than 5,000, the number quoted by Hamas and repeated by the UN and the Red Cross in Gaza.

"It is sufficient to visit several hospitals [in the Gaza Strip] to understand that the numbers don't add up," he wrote.

In the European hospital in Rafah, one of the facilities which would presumably be filled with wounded from the "war of the tunnels," many beds were empty, according to Cremonesi. A similar situation was noted in the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, and in the privately-run Amal Hospital Cremonesi reported that only five out 150 beds were occupied.

Cremonesi interviewed Gazans who echoed Israel's insistence of how Hamas gunmen used civilians as human shields. One Gazan recalled civilians in Gaza shouting at Hamas and Islamic Jihad men, "Go away, go away from here! Do you want the Israelis to kill us all? Do you want our children to die under their bombs? Take your guns and missiles with you."

"Traitors, collaborators with Israel, spies of Fatah, cowards! The soldiers of the holy war will punish you. And in any case you will all die, like us. Fighting the Zionist Jews we are all destined for paradise. Do you not wish to die with us?" the religious fanatics of Hamas reportedly responded.

Other Palestinians told Cremonesi of Hamas operatives donning paramedic uniforms and commandeering ambulances. A woman identified as Um Abdullah, 48, spoke of Hamas using UN buildings as launch pads for rockets.

Cremonesi reported that he had difficultly gathering evidence as the local population was terrified of Hamas.

Lest We Forget Our Jewish Refugees

Nadene Goldfoot

One of the second groups of people to enter "Palestine" were Jewish refugees from the 2nd World War, the survivors of the Nazi Holocaust. Many just got off a boat only to find themselves handed a gun in the stuggle to live. All these Jews were undernourished people from the German camps that were used to gas and then cremate Jews. They survived long enough to help establish Israel. The book, "Exodus", by Leon Uris tells of the stuggle to get to Eretz Yisrael. This epic is about an Israeli freedom fighter involved in the birth of Israel which was in the midst of enemies. We're still surrounded by the same enemies and finding out that force is the only thing our enemies respect. This book as been made into a movie.

Palestinians have not been the only refugees in the world. Their predicament was created by their own decision to leave their homes, thinking the Arabs would win the fight and they would return to take over all the Jews' homes. When little Israel won the fight, their leaders chose to keep them in camps to gain pity. If they couldn't win one way, they'd try another.

When Israel was created in 1948 by the United Nations' vote, 820,000 of our Jewish brethren living in Arab countries were forced to flee without their belongings between the years of 1947 and 1949. They have never been compensated by Arab governments for their losses. They came to Israel as refugees.

Besides that, those living in Arab countries were upheld as of dminni status, second class citizens with the results of not having priviledges of true citizens. Often many times they even had to pay taxes for things others did not have to do. This is why Israel was created in the first place; as a place to Jews to come to when the world turned against them.

The Arab countries would not take in the Palestinian refugees. All seemed to think it best they stay in refugee camps. Finally, many did get into Jordan, and the two groups had a bloody war with each other. Now Jordan is made up mostly of Palestinians. The king even married a Palestinian girl. The same did not happen with the other countries.

Russia is a country without G-d. It seems that they prohibited people from attending church or synagogue. Israel has taken in many of these Jews and their descendants who were not permitted to know about their own religion. While I lived in Israel, I was in an Ulpan with many other Russians. My own grandparents were Russian and were immigrants to the states. In a class of 40 people, about 3/4 were Russian English teachers. My husband and I and other American and English teachers made up the other quarter. While we Americans did not give up our American citizenship, Russia did not allow dual citizenship, so they were there to stay, and hopefully never wanting to return, anyway. The problem is that they give up the chance of seeing family, and that's hard to do.

The world has had many refugees, but none have lasted as long as the Palestinians. They still are receiving handouts from the United Nations, paid mostly with money from the United States. Usually the Arab countries are in arrears to pay their fair share of the money for them. These refugees are not seeking a better life, but are being encouraged by other Arabs to stay in this position. It curries hatred for Israel, which is their goal in life.

Things Done in the Name of Peace

Since 2005

1. Evacuated all of Gaza Strip, and handed it to Palestinians.

a. Uprooted 21 Israeli settlements

b. 9,000 Israelis (1,700 families) moved from

2. Evacuated 300 square miles of West Bank for Palestinians.

a. Uprooted 4 Israeli settlements

3. Uprooted 21 Israeli settlements in Gaza.

Total Israelis moved from both places: 9,000 (1,700 families) Gazans would not allow any Jews to live in their area, though Israel is made of 20% Arabs of those who stayed and their descendants. That 20% Arab population number 1.2 million and are citizens. Being a citizen of Israel means freedom of speech, religion, press, and the right to vote.

1. Finally after 8 years of patience and pleading which led to no avail, we tried to stop the attacks on our civilians.

2. Although the terrorists hid behind women and children, we tried our best to just hit their arsonal. It is impossible to not cause casualties this way when their people mean so little to them.

We did the following things during Operation Cast Lead:

1. 1,365 truckloads of humanitarian aid brought into Gaza; basic food commodities, medication, medical supplies, blood units, various donations from other governments.

2. 33,580 tons of aid into Gaza. Two weeks ago World Food Program needed to cease shipments because warehouses were at full capacity.

3. 440,000 gal. fuel to Gaza

4. 980,000 leaflets to Gazans to stay away from terrorists and weapons storage

5. 30,000+ telephone calls of warning of airstrikes.

6. 36 adult Palestinians and 2 children taken to Israel for medical treatment.

Reference: The Israel Project; press@theisraelproject.org

Day 22-Israel Stopping Operation Lead

The USA, along with Great Britain, Italy, Germany and France and Egypt, have promised that they would help in keeping weapons from getting to Hamas in the Gaza, so Israel has ceased fire after its 22 day fight with the terrorists at 2:00am, but will remain deployed in Gaza. When it is sure of safety for Israelis, it will leave.

Hamas has not gone along with this cease fire. It is not known how all these countries will keep arms from getting to Hamas. " The defensive operation was designed to dismantle the infrastructure of Hamas, which has fired more than 10,000 rockets, mortars and missiles at Israel since 2001. [2] Hamas’s terror campaign is backed by the Islamic Republic of Iran, the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism and a chief sponsor of Palestinian terrorism. It provides Hamas about $20 million -$30 million to Hamas annually and also trains Hamas operatives in Iran and Syria.

Update: Since Israel began the cease-fire, Hamas has fired 16 rockets and mortars at Israeli civilians . They also shot at Israeli troops in northern Gaza. Fawzi Barhoum, Hamas terrorist spokesman said, "This will not mean an end to resistance." Later on Sandy Hamas declared their own ceasefire, holding it only if Israel removes its troops from Gaza within a weeks and open all Gaza border crossings. Olmert said that Irael would take action of defense if the rocket attacks continued." It's a standoff right now.

Reference: The Israel Project press@the israelproject.org Ceasefire Update: Gaza by the Numbers

Taking Chunks Out of Israel

The surrounding 22 Arab countries of Israel are 640 times larger than tiny Israel yet they expect Israel to turn over all the West Bank, Gaza Strip, the Golan Heights and half of Jerusalem... territory they lost after they started the 1967 war! We've given up the Gaza Strip and look what it got us; constant shelling of rockets forcing our citizens to live under deadly conditions. The Arabs certainly wanted a piece, all right, not peace. In fact, they want all of Israel, as little as it is. It says so in their charter.

Israel is only 8,367 square miles, or 21,671 sq. Km, including the West Bank right now. Obama will be in power in a few days, and he has made it known that he wants to see a "Palestine" created out of the West Bank immediately. Israel is shrinking.

After saying for 2,000 years that never are we Jews to forget Jerusalem, the plan is to take over much of that beloved city and make it part of Palestine. No one seems to care that it is a Jewish city, and was the capitol of Israel from King David's day on. It is not a holy city to Arabs.

Hamas has made it known that they do not go for a state of "Palestine" alongside Israel. They will never go along with Fatah in this matter. It will be interesting to see how Obama forces them to accept and stop fighting Israel. Hillary Clinton is said to intend pursuing Syria as a friend and will pressure Israel to surrender the Golan Heights to them. The very fact that the Israeli town of Kiriat Shimona, the town where my favorite department store is, is only 3 miles from the base of the Golan Heights. Controlling that would give the Arabs an ideal spot to bomb Israel. That's why we have been holding on to it; for protection! Obama will speak from Damascus, Syria to strengthen US ties to the Muslim world.

The only help Israel is going to get is from itself. Though Livni's cabinet has thought that the USA was such a terrific friend, facts are not showing it. The USA abstaining on voting on Resolution 1860 when it could have voted no shows a shift in backing Israel. Livni selecting a woman, Shalev, who is not a professional diplomat, was not a good move. Both Livni and Olmert have been kidding themselves about USA's support. Rice has been pushing the USA to accept Iran as a nuclear power by wrongly going along with thinking that Iran ended its nuclear weapons program in 2003. They're chomping on the bit to attack Israel, as shown by their dastardly remarks about Israel. If they attack, it no doubt will be with atomic weaponry. The USA put the Hizbullah terrorists of Lebanon above importance of Israel. The US actually forbade Israel from attacking the Lebanese government targets because Rice wonted to believe that the pro-Western March 14 movement was in charge of Lebanon when they were actually governed by Hizbullah. Therefore, Israel did not win any fight with Lebanon. Now Hizbullah is in charge of southern Lebanon and has rebuilt its arsenals. The result is that the USA has given Lebanon money and guns. Perhaps that is what the "Palestinians" think will be coming their way, too.

Reference: Geography of Israel http://www.masada2000.org/geography.html
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0109glick011609.php3

Letter to the World from Jerusalem

By Eliezer Ben Yisrael- aka Stanley Goldfoot

Monday, May 12 2008 @ 12:54 CDTContributed by: JDLViews: 397

The following was written by Stanley Goldfoot, using the pseudonym Eliezer Ben Yisrael. Goldfoot, a Jew from South Africa who emigrated to Eretz Yisrael after hearing a speech by Ze'ev Jabotinsky, published this poem in the first issue of his English language newspaper, The Times of Israel, in June 1967. Goldfoot passed away in 2006, at the age of 92. His words live on today, and they will live on forever and ever. . . .

I am not a creature from another planet, as you seem to believe.I am a Jerusalemite -- like yourselves, a man of flesh and blood.I am a citizen of my city, an integral part of my people.I have a few things to get off my chest.Because I am not a diplomat, I do not have to mince words.I do not have to please you, or even persuade you.I owe you nothing.You did not build this city; you did not live in it; you did not defend it when they came to destroy it.And we will be damned if we will let you take it away.There was a Jerusalem before there was a New York.When Berlin, Moscow, London, and Paris were miasmal forest and swamp, there was a thriving Jewish community here.It gave something to the world which you nations have rejected ever since you established yourselves -- a humane moral code.Here the prophets walked, their words flashing like forked lightning.Here a people who wanted nothing more than to be left alone, fought off waves of heathen would-be conquerors, bled and died on the battlements, hurled themselves into the flames of their burning Temple rather than surrender, and when finally overwhelmed by sheer numbers and led away into captivity, swore that before they forgot Jerusalem, they would see their tongues cleave to their palates, their right arms wither.For two pain-filled millennia, while we were your unwelcome guests, we prayed daily to return to this city.Three times a day we petitioned the Almighty: "Gather us from the four corners of the world, bring us upright to our land; return in mercy to Jerusalem, Thy city, and dwell in it as Thou promised."On every Yom Kippur and Passover, we fervently voiced the hope that next year would find us in Jerusalem.Your inquisitions, pogroms, expulsions, the ghettos into which you jammed us, your forced baptisms, your quota systems, your genteel anti-Semitism, and the final unspeakable horror, the Holocaust (and worse, your terrifying disinterest in it) -- all these have not broken us.They may have sapped what little moral strength you still possessed, but they forged us into steel.Do you think that you can break us now after all we have been through?Do you really believe that after Dachau and Auschwitz we are frightened by your threats of blockades and sanctions? We have been to Hell and back -- a Hell of your making. What more could you possibly have in your arsenal that could scare us?I have watched this city bombarded twice by nations calling themselves civilized.In 1948, while you looked on apathetically, I saw women and children blown to smithereens, after we agreed to your request to inter-nationalize the city.It was a deadly combination that did the job: British officers, Arab gunners, and American-made cannons.And then the savage sacking of the Old City, the willful slaughter, the wanton destruction of every synagogue and religious school; the desecration of Jewish cemeteries; the sale by a ghoulish government of tombstones for building materials, for poultry runs, army camps -- even latrines.And you never said a word.You never breathed the slightest protest when the Jordanians shut off the holiest of our places, the Western Wall, in violation of the pledges they had made after the war -- a war they waged, incidentally, against the decision of the UN. Not a murmur came from you whenever the legionnaires in their spiked helmets casually opened fire upon our citizens from behind the walls.Your hearts bled when Berlin came under siege. You rushed your airlift "to save the gallant Berliners."But you did not send one ounce of food when Jews starved in besieged Jerusalem. You thundered against the wall which the East Germans ran through the middle of the German capital -- but not one peep out of you about that other wall, the one that tore through the heart of Jerusalem.And when that same thing happened 20 years later, and the Arabs unleashed a savage, unprovoked bombardment of the Holy City again, did any of you do anything?The only time you came to life was when the city was at last reunited.Then you wrung your hands and spoke loftily of "justice" and need for the "Christian" quality of turning the other cheek.The truth is -- and you know it deep inside your gut -- you would prefer the city to be destroyed rather than have it governed by Jews.No matter how diplomatically you phrase it, the age-old prejudices seep out of every word.If our return to the city has tied your theology in knots, perhaps you had better reexamine your catechisms.After what we have been through, we are not passively going to accommodate ourselves to the twisted idea that we are to suffer eternal homelessness until we accept your savior.For the first time since the year 70 there is now complete religious freedom for all in Jerusalem.For the first time since the Romans put a torch to the Temple everyone has equal rights. (You prefer to have some more equal than others.)We loathe the sword -- but it was you who forced us to take it up.We crave peace -- but we are not going back to the peace of 1948 as you would like us to.We are home.It has a lovely sound for a nation you have willed to wander over the face of the globe.We are not leaving.We are redeeming the pledge made by our forefathers: Jerusalem is being rebuilt."Next year" and the year after, and after, and after, until the end of time -- "in Jerusalem!"

Reference: Jewish Defense League

Spare the Pieties on Gaza

Tevet 11, 5769, 07 January 09 11:25 by by Jack Engelhard (IsraelNN.com)

Frankly, given a choice, I prefer the skinheads and other brutes who express their anti-Semitism openly. In such places, we know the enemy. But please spare me the pieties and the righteous indignation of those "good people" protesting throughout Europe against Israel's defensive operation in Gaza. True, thousands have taken up banners in support of Israel. At the same time, however, the streets of Europe (and even some in America) are in an uproar. These are the "humanitarians" - the good, the noble, the refined, who chant "peace."

Now you're up and about? Now you speak? Where were you when, throughout the years, thousands of jihadist bombs fell on Israel? The streets of Europe were empty. There were no pictures in the newspapers of grieving Jewish mothers and fathers. You called it "peace" as long as the Arabs were doing the killing and the Jews were doing the dying. All was well with the world. Suddenly, as Israel answered back, you found your Cause; and how self-righteous you are in your Cause. You are the best and the brightest of Europe. You are educated. You attended the finest schools. You care for the birds, the bees, the bears, the trees. You favor free speech and freedom of religion. Strange it is that the one and only place in the Middle East that shares your world-view is Israel, and it is Israel that you slander. Israel is a Jewish State. Is that your problem? At the first hint of Jewish self-defense, how quickly you show your true colors. I've seen the photos of your candlelight vigils along the streets and boulevards of Europe, all of it; all these tears in the service of those terrorists whom you call your brothers. Indeed you are related to Hamas (and Fatah) as once before, a mere generation ago, you were related to Hitler's stormtroopers. Your angelic faces are touching - and disgusting. Your hypocrisy is transparent and nauseating. You speak of disproportion. You want proportion? Give Israel a population of 300 million residing in 22 countries, similar to the Arab Muslims who surround and ambush Israel - instead of five and a half million Jews in one single country. There's plenty of "proportion" coming from your BBC, which delights in presenting one side of the story and picks up where Der Sturmer left off. Now, with this type of "news", we know how Europe was conditioned for a Holocaust. Already we see Nights of Broken Glass. Thank you, Europe, for reminding us why America was discovered just in time (and why Israel was redeemed many generations too late). You dare judge Israel? In your deportations, your expulsions, your forced conversions, your inquisitions, your pogroms, you have no moral authority over Israel or even within your own borders. You gave all that up from 1492 to 1942. To those on the Left who sought peace, well, dear peace-lovers, peace brought this on. "Land for Peace" made this happen, as Land for Peace became Land for Jihad. "Painful Concessions" caused this war. "Goodwill Gestures" backfired. Want more "peace"? Give up the Golan Heights. Give up the entire West Bank. Give up Jerusalem. Imagine the "peace." As for those "innocent civilians" in Gaza, they were given a choice and they chose Hamas. They chose this pestilence. As for those "refugee camps" - why are they "refugee camps" when Israel handed over all that territory for a nation to be built in peace and security alongside Israel? Why are all Palestinians automatically refugees even after they've been given a home? The only true refugees are the thousands of Israelis who were driven from Gaza and still live in trailer parks. No tears for them in this world that still dreams of Auschwitz. On this day, in response to a column I wrote about Theresienstadt, someone responded that I was incorrect; that Theresienstadt was not a prelude to Auschwitz, but rather "a vacation resort." I wrote back wishing this person a lifetime in such vacation resorts. I wish the same lifetime vacation resorts to all those parading throughout the streets of Europe with banners crying, "Death to Israel." God bless the IDF! Go Israel!
www.IsraelNationalNews.com
Reference from cousin Denise Bremridge nee Goldfoot

A Letter From David to Gazan Neighbors

"My friend, from Zichron Yaacov Israel, sent this to me from her friend. "

A letter to the citizens of Gaza from a concerned neighbor

Dear neighbor,
My name is David and I live in Israel, thirty minutes (or one minute rocket time) from you, in a beautiful house by the woods. I hope someday to have you over for a cup of tea. We have a lovely view from the balcony. On a clear day we can see our jets bombing your neighborhood.

I think it's time we had a heart to heart. It's time you knew the truth. After all, what are neighbors for? You might have wondered why both you and your parents were born in a refugee camp. Why is it that even though we live only 30 minutes apart, I live in prosperity and you live in poverty and filth? Why you live in despair and hatred while we live in hope and love.

Here is the truth, neighbor:
There really was a Holocaust. I realize you've been taught otherwise. I know, that ever since you were a small child you've been told that the Holocaust is something the Jews fabricated to justify taking your land. Well, dear citizen of Gaza, it really happened. Not very long ago. It happened. And guess what? It's NEVER going to happen again. The time in history when Jews were led to slaughter, persecuted, raped and pillaged is over and will never recur. Never. Now we have our own country. Now we have the bombs. We will never forget what was done to our people and you better not either.

We don't hate you. We don't hate anyone. Jews are a peaceful people. We do not want your land. We don't want oil. We don't want to rape your women or murder your children. We never tried to force our religion on anyone. Our eternal capital, Jerusalem, is open to all faiths to love and to worship. We treat your Arab brothers who live among us as equals. Our hand has been extended to peace with our neighbors since day one. We have proven this time and time again through numerous negotiations and extensive compromise.

We ask only for one thing. Leave us in peace. That's right. We have no other demands. Just leave us in peace. It's as simple as that. If you don't, we will fight back ferociously and mercilessly. We will destroy your homes and your cities. We will make your miserable lives even more miserable. If you don't want this to happen any more, leave us in peace.

Our soldiers are not motivated by hate but by determination. We embrace life and will do anything to preserve it. However, we will kill and die to protect our land and our way of life. That's what they should be teaching in your schools instead of useless lies.

A terrorist is a terrorist. Sorry to be the one to break the news, but it's about time somebody told you that a terrorist is nothing more than a coward. Not a hero. Not a Shahid. There is nothing heroic in blowing yourself up amongst a crowd of woman and children. Anybody can do it. Anybody can hide inside a school or a mosque and blindly fire rockets into cities, hoping to kill as many babies as possible. There is nothing courageous or admirable in these acts of cruelty. To take pride in an act of terror is pitiful and pathetic. I know you've been raised to believe the contrary, but it is a lie. I have seen how your children are taught to commit suicide. How your suicide bombers are glorified. This is tragically sad. A real hero faces his enemy and doesn't hide in schools and hospitals. A real hero protects his people and will die for them but not among them.

Israel exists and it belongs to the Jewish People. I've seen your school books. I know that Israel has been omitted from your maps. Contrary to what you've been told, the State of Israel really does exist. Look outside your window. We are here and we are not going anywhere. Dear Palestinian neighbor, it's time to deal with the facts. We love our beautiful little country. We will protect it with our lives. You are not getting it. This was explained to you in 1948. You got your country and we got ours. Your arrogant and stupid leaders promised you that you will get the whole thing. Thousands of lives have been lost for nothing. It's NEVER going to happen! While you have been foolishly drooling over our land instead of nurturing your own, we have built one of the most beautiful and successful countries on Earth. We have done it not to spite our greedy neighbors, but rather in spite of them. We've planted forests and quenched the desert. We've drained wetlands and culivated fields. We built universities, opera houses, superhighways, hospitals, skyscrapers and stadiums. We have millions of refugees, but no refugee camps.

You could do the same. Focus on what you have and not on what you will never have. It takes love, hard work and determination. We can help. We have experts and scientists helping developing nations across the globe. Accept the facts, lay down your weapons and join us in making this great region of the planet even greater.

Remember, we're neighbors.
David -- Sarigim, Israel – Jan. 9th, 2009

Lies From Palestinan Media Sympathizers: White Phosphorus Usage

Nadene Goldfoot

The Palestinian Hamas representatives are so good at relating false facts that are so contrary to reality of their purpose or history. Today a Palestinian professor from Bethlehem University was on KBOO, a Portland radio station, and was debating in some fashion a representative of our Portland Community who is supportive of Israel, Bob Horenstein. I heard such a distortion of history that it was appalling to me from this professor. I might add that Bob was not given any time for rebuttal of facts. Under these conditions, he did a terrific job.

In the same fashion, the Palestinians are bantering about another false claim. They are saying that Israel is using phosphorus in it's fight against Gaza terrorists. In truth, Hamas themselves have been using white phosphorus as a weapon against Israeli civilians during this conflict. On Tuesday, a mortar shell fired from Gaza into Israel contained white phosphorus.

A regional council's security chief said, "the potential danger of using such a rocket is enormous. It is far more dangerous than other Qassam rockets and mortal shells. This is an escalation in the type of explosives the Palestinians use on civilians. We challenge Human Rights Watch to condemn this attack in the same way it has falsely condemned Israel.

I won't wait for the international media such as organizations like Human Rights Watch who is always condemning Israel. Then media such as The Guardian, Times of London, Christian Science Monitor and CNN just repeat HRW's claims without really checking into the claims because they are into their "humanitarian focus" and condemn or even report this development against Israel. They seem to be in cahoots with the Palestinians and report biased information all the time.

Surprisingly, the International Red Cross is corroborating Israel's claims, and has stated that it had no evidence to suggest that white phosphorus is being used improperly or illegally by Israel. Israel does use it to create smoke or illuminate a target. It's not being used in any other way. This is a legitimate use under international law. It is not being used to burn down buildings or consciously put civilians at risk. The spokesman for the Red Cross was Peter Herby and he was telling the Associated Press. Thankfully, one person has the guts to be honest about what Israel is doing.

Reference: Honest Reporting UK Media "War Crimes" Phosphorus Charges Rebuked action@honestreporting.co.uk www.honestreporting.com

Blasting Aid Truck Was Hamas, from Mitchell Bard

(January 12, 2009)

"Who killed the Palestinian driver of an aid truck and wounded two others as their convoy made its way into the Gaza Strip through the Erez crossing during the January 8, 2009, "humanitarian cease-fire?"
Predictably, the UN immediately blamed Israel and the media reported the allegation that IDF tank shells blasted the truck. According to the Magen David Adom medic who said he took the Palestinians to an Israeli hospital, the truck actually came under Hamas sniper fire. A spokeswoman for the hospital treating the injured Palestinians supported the Israeli account when she confirmed that the two surviving Palestinians were being treated for gunshot wounds (Jerusalem Post, January 8, 2009)."

Dr. Bard also stated that 1,100 Israelis have been killed by terrorists since 2000.

Immediately, Israel is blamed for whatever happens. People can't believe that we're not out for blood, but to finally protect our citizens.

In fact, today Hamas raided 100 aid trucks and sold the contents to the highest bidders. UNRWA is in charge of taking care of the trucks, not Israel. Israel had a cease fire for 3 hours from 10:00am to 1:00pm to create a humanitarian corridor for the trucks. This happened at the opening of Kerem Shalom and Karni crossings.

Israel has figured that 900 Palestinians have died so far, of which 400 definitely were Hamas terrorists. Many of the others were Hamas operatives. Hamas is not wearing their uniforms, so it is hard to tell who is who.

http://www.britannica.com/blogs/author/mbard%20 Mitchell Bard's Fact Sheet #66.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1231424932109&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

The United Nations cease fire bill for Hamas and Israel did not even mention Hamas's name. All the blame was put on Israel. The Oregon resolution passed both in the House and Senate, which shows that our state is fair and our leaders much better informed. I'm proud of those that voted for it.

That doesn't help Israel, though. It wasn't a world decision. Hamas has refused it, and it was not a good bill for Israel. It would accomplish nothing in the position of stopping the shelling of Israel. So the war is continuing. 20 Grads hit Israel today from Hamas bombers, but Amir Mansi, leader of the terrorist Hamas, in charge of these Grads, was killed while firing one.

Another resolution, the American H.Res.34, recognizing Israel's right to defend itself against attacks from Gaza, supports the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. It passed the House by a 390-5 margin, after passing the Senate by a unanimous voice vote.

This says that Hamas must end the rocket attacks against Israel and verifiably dismantle its terrorist infrastructure. The administration is to work to support a ceasefire in Gaza that prevents hamas from retaining terrorist infrastructure. All nations are called on to condemn Hamas for embedding fighters and weapons among civilian populations and lays blame for the casualties in Gaza on hamas. egypt is to intensify its efforts to halt smuggling between Egypt and Gaza. Gilad shalit, the kidnapped Israeli soldier is to be released immediately. It supports a two-state resolution that is sustainable.

Reference: Rayburn house office Bldg, Washington, DC 20515, Office of Greg Walden OR-02.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/01/10/israel.gaza/index.html?section=cnn_latest

Gaza's Size Compared with Other Places

Communities of Arabs living in Gaza are often called "Refugee camps". It is the Palestinian Authority that governs the Gaza Strip that prevents these people from moving into permanent housing. This now is in the hands of Hamas. The PA or Hamas have taken a "politcal decision" not to touch the camps. It is not true that they are the world's most densely populated places.

Israel is not responsible for the refugee camps of the Arab Palestinians.

The Gaza Strip has a population density of about=9,533 people per square mile (CIA Factbook figures) in an area of about =139 square miles. This is the same size as 2 Washington, D.C.s laid side by side, which has the density of=9,378 people per square mile. This is 4,167 people/sq km (1.5 million people, 360 sq. km.) from George Galloway reference or 4,270 people/sq km (1,537.269 people as on July 2008 for 360 sq km) from CIA projection.

Palestinian Territories (Gaza and and West Bank) from Wikipedia: has 4,018,332 people in 6,020 sq km with 667 per sq km.

Gaza: 9,533 people per sq mi

New York City has a land area of 321 sq mi is larger than the Gaza Strip but has a population density of 26,517 people per sq mi. This is 2.78 times the density of people per sq mi than exists in Gaza.

In Manhattan in the Upper East Side lives 109,628 people per sq mi, which is 11.5 times more dense than Gaza and 1.37 times the density of Rafah and Jabaliya.

The Lower East Side/Chinatown is 93,413 sq mi and the West Side/Upper has 98,436 sq mi. Each neighborhood has a population density higher than the 80,000 people per sq mi in Rqfah and Jabaliya.

Density in Israel and Other Places

Israel as of 2004 UN records has 7,180,000 people/22,072 sq km; 325 per sq km

Tel Aviv, Israel has 7,445 people/sq km vs Gaza Strip with either 4,167 people/sq km or 3,822 people sq km 385,000 people are in 51.8 sq km. Tel Aviv metro area including suburbs has 5,050 people/sq km (2.3 million people, 453 sq km.)

Mumbai, India has 27,209 people/sq km.

Kolkata, West Bengal, India 24,000 people/sq km

Hong Kong has 6,352 people/sq km.

Singapore has 6,252 people/sq km

Moscow, Russia has 4,900 people/sq km

Tokyo/Yokahama, Japan has 4,750 people/sq km

Warsaw, Poland has 4,300 people/sq km

London, England has 5,100 people/sq km

USA has 301,140,000 people living in 9,629,091 sq km with 31 per sq km.

Jordan has 5,702,776 people living in 89,342 sq km with 64 per sq km.

Saudi Arabia has 24,573,100 people living in 2,149,690 sq km with 11.4 per sq km.

Bahrain has 1,046,814 people living in 720 sq km with 1,454 per sq km

Lebanon has 4,011,,000 people living in 10,452 sq km with 386 per sq km.

Kuwait has 2,686,873 people living in 17,818 sq km with 151 per sq km.

Egypt has 72,850,000 people living in 1,001,449 sq km with 72 per sq km.

The world as of 2004 had 6,733,164,238 people living in 148,940,000 sq km. of land. This is a
density of 45.21 people per sq km. This is not including oceans.

City Mayors site: from Bob Horenstein "Correction of Arab Propaganda"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wikiKolkata

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_population_density

How Do I Explain Israel's Actions in Gaza?By Aron Moss

Rabbi Aron Moss lives in Sydney, Australia. He teaches Kabbalah, Talmud, and practical Judaism.

Question:
I am the only Jew in my office, so I face a daily barrage of questions about Israel's actions in Gaza. I don't know who appointed me as Israel's spokesman and I am not armed with the answers. Can you help?

Answer:
At times like this, each one of us becomes an ambassador for Israel. Even if you don't agree with everything Israel does, any decent person must stand up for Israel's right to self-defense.
We can leave the military and political issues to the experts, but we should all be clear on the moral questions raised by this war. Let's look at a few of the most commonly asked questions.

Q: How can Israel justify killing civilians if their intent is to crush Hamas?
A: The death of innocents is a tragic inevitability of war. Our hearts go out to all those caught in the middle. The sad fact is that the Palestinian people are being held hostage by Hamas. Just as it is clear that Hamas is morally culpable for any harm done to Gilad Shalit, the Israeli hostage that they hold, so too are they culpable for the fate of Palestinian innocents amongst whom they hide. A civilian who is killed while being used by a terrorist as a human shield is a victim of the terrorist, not the Israeli army, who does not target innocent civilians.

Q: Isn't Israel's response a bit disproportionate?
A: If Israel's purpose was to take revenge, then perhaps the question of "proportion" would apply here. But Israel is waging a defensive war. In war, you don't measure your response to the enemy by what they have done to you in the past, but rather by what needs to be done to stop them from attacking you. Israel must destroy Hamas' capability to continue shooting rockets at Israeli cities. Israel's actions are proportionate to the present and future threat, not just the damage done in the past.

Q: Doesn't Israel understand that they are just creating more terrorists? The anger and fury at Israel as a result of bombing Gaza will only make more people want to join Hamas.
A: Feelings of frustration, anger, fear and rage do not make you into a terrorist. A culture of death and an education of hate does. Israel doesn't need to do anything to create terrorists - Islamic extremism does that - but Israel must act to destroy those who threaten its people.

Q: Hamas indeed has a militant wing, but it also does a lot of good. They are responsible for social programs, educational projects and humanitarian work in Gaza. By destroying Hamas, Israel also destroys all the good they do. Aren't we demonizing a group that is not all bad?

A: If a serial killer also happens to volunteer for his local hospital, has donated money to an orphanage, and looks after his ailing grandmother, he is still a serial killer, and he and the threat he represents must be treated as such. The danger he poses far outweighs the concern for any good he may do.

Q: By using violence, how is Israel any better than its terrorist enemies?
A: That is as ridiculous as saying that a woman who fights off an attacker is no better than her attacker. Israel would not touch Hamas if Hamas would stop sending rockets and suicide bombers into Israel. Israel seeks to live in peace with its neighbors; Hamas and its allies seek to destroy Israel, no matter what Israel does.
There is a world of difference between the Hamas terrorists and the Israeli soldiers. The Hamas terrorist seeks violence as a way of life; his aim is to sow war and death. For the Israeli soldier, war is a necessity, and a moral duty, because Israel's citizens are being attacked and innocent lives are being threatened. The Hamas terrorist seeks to maximize civilian casualties; the Israeli soldier does everything in his power to minimize them.
The Hamas terrorist fears times of peace, because then he has no purpose. The Israeli soldier dreams of a time when peace will reign. Then, the Israel Defense Force will be made joyously redundant, as "one nation will not lift a sword against another nation, and they will no longer learn to wage war".

Resource: Chabad on line

What Israel Gave Up In The Name Of Peace

When 6 Arab nations attacked Israel in 1967 and lost, Israel found itself controlling Gaza. I point out that we didn't go out and attack Gaza to gain the area. Egypt had been in control before that. Israelis lived in Gaza as well as Palestinians. In order to bring about peace, Israel pulled out completely from all of Gaza in August of 2005. That meant that 21 Israeli settlements were uprooted. People left their business and homes for the Palestinians. The whole area was given to the them. See my blog article on the History of Gaza. http://israel-nadene.blogspot.com/2008/11/gaza-strip-and-israel-israel-was.html

To Leave, Israel Had To Dismantle

They dismantled 38 synagogues in Gaza.

New schools had to be found for their 5,000 school age children.

Daycare centers that had to close amounted to 42.

Kindergartens that closed amounted to 36.

Elementary schools that were closed amounted to 7.

High schools that were closed amounted to 3.

There were 48 graves uprooted in the former Gush Katif Cemetery in Gaza, including 6 graves of residents murdered by terrorists.

Not only Gaza, but we evacuated our own people out of the "West Bank" amounting to 300 square miles. This means that 4 settlements were uprooted here.

About 9,000 Israelis, including 1,700 families lived in Gaza and the northern West Bank. All were moved out in the name of peace.

The problem of rehousing this many people was great in a state where most people were living in high rise apartment houses such as what I had been living in in Safed in the North. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had to obtain 320 mobile homes for temporary housing for the settlers. He had to find an area to put them.

It took 45,000 Israeli soldiers and policemen to participate in the withdrawal. Many settlers did not want to leave.

The cost of Israel to withdraw the settlers was estimated at $1.7 billion.

166 Israeli farmers were moved out of the Gush Katif Community in Gaza along with 800 cows, which made up the 2nd largest dairy farm in Israel. The people of Gush Katif produced and exported flowers, of which $120 million was the value of the flowers and they lost this following the evacuation. 10,000 people were employed in agriculture and related industries here, which is including 5,000 Palestinians. All this has been lost.

There was even a zoo, the "Katifari" that was home to hundred of animals an this had to be moved.

What did it gain us? Peace? No, eight years of shelling, PTSD to most of the Southern part of Israel, death and injuries to thousands.

What are the Palestinians doing in Gaza? Most are still on the dole of the United Nations. They are not creating the same industries that Israel had going.

Resource: My cousin in South Africa: By the numbers...

The Israel Project: press@theisraelproject.org Subject: Gaza by the Numbers

The Koran and the Jews

We Americans have been taught to respect all religions, rightfully, but Islam is a religion that does not follow this concept. Terrorists have zeroed in on certain aspects in their Koran that are giving them a free hand to kill Jews and Christians. I note that Jews are considered "infidels", also. Anyone that isn't a Muslim is an infidel.

The story as I remember it goes back to around 700AD when Mohammed lived in an area also populated with Jews and Christians, both called, "People of the Book," and he wasn't a part of this group. His people had no book. He was an illiterate man, with a pretty good memory, so heard stories from each of these religions from their book. Finally somehow he wrote his own book, either by learning to read and write or to get help, and presented it to the Jews, trying to get them to switch over and follow him, which he thought would be an easy thing to do. They didn't leave their religion, of course, which angered him immensely. Possibly that is why he has such a hatred for us. We wouldn't convert.

Remember, Mohammed did have quite a time of convincing even his own tribe to follow his teachings. He wound up having to convince people with a sword over their heads. It wasn't easy. He wasn't really a popular man, as I remember reading.

Now it's the fastest growing religion and the 2nd largest religion in the world. On this earth there are 1,482,596,925 Muslims as of 1996. That means that 26% of the people in the world were Muslims. By 2000 they should have numbered 1,902,095,000. Today, it must be at least two billion or more people that are Muslims. Their growth rate is also due to having four wives and many many children that each man is allowed.

In Australia their growth rate was 257.01% from 1989 to 1998. In North America they have enjoyed a 25% growth, either by birth, conversion or immigration. Interestingly, in Latin America they have seen a decline of -4.73%, probably due to a higher popularity of Catholics, though the Christianity growth rate in 94-95 was only 1.46%.

Being that Jews make up only about 1% of the total world population, we have seen a growth rate in Israel, but I doubt if we have much a rate in the USA. We do not proselyze. It's a religion that you are born into if your mother is Jewish. We have always taken in converts that have requested it and are indeed serious in doing so.

Views of Islam Towards Jews

Posted by Abdulameer on 01/06/09 at 3:58PM
Here are some "troublesome" passages from the Koran. Any reader can verify on the Internet that the Koran really does say these things.

--Surely the vilest of animals in Allah’s sight are those who disbelieve. (8.55)
-- The unbelievers are your inveterate enemy. (4:101)
-- Mohammed is God's apostle. Those who follow him are ruthless to the unbelievers but merciful to one another. (48:29).
-- It is unlawful for a believer to kill another believer, accidents excepted. (4:92)
-- Believers, take neither the Jews nor the Christians for your friends. (5:51)
-- Make war on them (non-Moslems)until idolatry shall cease and God's religion shall reign supreme. (8:40)
-- Fight against them until idolatry is no more and God's religion reigns supreme. (2:193)
-- The true believers fight for the cause of God, but the infidels fight for the devil. Fight then against the friends of Satan. (4:76)
-- We will put terror into the hearts of the unbelievers. (3:151)
-- I shall cast terror into the hearts of the infidels. Strike off their heads, strike off the very tips of their fingers. (8:12)
Muhammad, who all religious Moslems are required to consider the perfect model to follow, said this:"You (i.e. Muslims) will fight with the Jews till some of them will hide behind stones. The stones will (betray them) saying, 'O 'Abdullah (i.e. slave of Allah)! There is a Jew hiding behind me; so kill him.' "
"I have been ordered to fight with the people till they say, "None has the right to be worshipped but Allah,.."
"Whoever changes his Islamic religion, kill him." Vol. 9:57
"No Muslim should be killed for killing a Kafir" A Kafir, according to Wikipedia, is an apostate, and infidel, an unbeliever, someone who does not recognize Allah or Muhammad, who hides the truth, a rejector, ingrate.
There are many more quotations like these from the Koran and the sayings of Muhammad (Hadith). What will Zahar tell us about these verses which are considered sacrosanct by all believing Moslems -- even if they have never read the Koran.

There is hope. In the book, The Faith Club, by Ranya Idliby, a Muslim, Suzanne Oliver, a Christian, and Priscilla Warner, a Jew, all living in New York, get together to solve the problems of recognizing, learning and understanding about each other. I'm sad to say that the Jewish lady knew less than the others about their own faith, and that the Christian seemed to be the more educated in hers, though I'm not surprised. I thought Ranya was wonderful, but I doubt if she was aware of these parts of her Koran. Their book led to the formation of groups similar to theirs in searching for answers, which is a very good thing. I believe that all three were very spiritual ladies, as demonstrated by their search.

This certainly could be the underlying cause of enmity between the Arabs and the Jews in the Middle East and why the Palestinians have been so against having Israel as a neighbor, which was also demonstrated in 1948 when 6 Arab nations attacked Israel at its birth. In trying to force these two different religious groups together in peace is not even on the same level as Ireland's Catholics and Protestants. They at least are both Christian groups. You could say our differences started in 700AD.

There was a time when Jews lived in Arab lands. The Ottoman Empire even invited us there to help out in certain areas, and we left the Russian Empire and its pogroms and headed for Turkey. We never suffered persecution as we did in the Western countries, but were held in 2nd position as citizens under the class of dminnis. Somehow those more enlightened Muslims tolerated us. Times have changed.

What saddens me is to see the Palestinians cheering as they hear of a Jewish person that was killed. Long ago when we left Egypt, we also cheered as the Pharoah's charioteers drowned in the sea that had allowed our passage through, and we were chastised by G-d not to do so, that they also were his children. You'll notice that we haven't cheered in this Operation Lead or any other time. It saddens us to see life taken, also. It's not our choice to kill and we're not trying to, only in self defense. We're trying to get rid of the ammunition and the tunnels that bring it in.

http://www.mideastweb.org/hamas.htm

http://www.islamicweb.com/begin/results.htm

http://www.palestinecenter.org/cpap/documents/charter.html