Our Memorial to Those That Fought and Died For Israel: Yom ha-Zikkaron

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                    

War Memorial in Israel 

On Monday, April 15th, Israelis will be observing  Yom ha-Zikkaron, or Memorial Day.  Like the United States, it is a day to remember all the soldiers that have fallen in protection of Israel.

Israel has had 7 major wars.  where 9,745 soldiers and security forces personnel have been killed in protecting the civilians of the tiny state just  in miscellaneous engagements and terrorist attacks ever since May 14, 1948.

1. War of Independence:  November 29, 1947-1949                    4,000 soldiers killed
2. Sinai War: October 29, 1956-November 5, 1956                        231
3. Six Day War: June 5 to June 11, 1967                                         776
4. War of Attrition: 1968-August 8, 1970                                     1,424
5. Yom Kippur War: October 6-25,1973                                     2,656
6. First Lebanon War: Sunday, June 6, 1982 -1990                         675
7. Second Lebanon War: July 12-August 14, 2006                         121

One shudders in thinking that the population of Israel in 1948 was only 650,000.  By 1956 we had 1,872,400.  In 1968 we had 2,841,100.  The 1972 census showed we had 3,164,000.  Today we have 6 million Jews and 1.6 million Arab citizens.  We lost 6 million Jews to the Holocaust and have finally regained that many in Israel.  We remember that Moses came with 600,000 to our land in the Exodus.

Israel has paid the price of being our one and only Jewish state.  From 1948 to 1997 there have been 20,093 soldiers killed in combat with 75,000 wounded. With a population of 7.6 million today, this is a high percent. There are 100,000 disabled army vets.

From 2000 to 2005 there have been 1,074 soldiers killed and 7,520 wounded by Palestinians.  By going on to 2010, the total killed jumps to 1,194.

Israel came under attack verbally and by report from Goldstone of South Africa who later rescinded what he had written.  Goldstone shamefully is one of our own, a Jewish man believing all the hateful propaganda said about Israel from people who would like to see her driven into the sea.  He hurt Israel immensely by doing this, as he was truly negligent in getting the facts and instead relied on  hearsay.    He above all people should also have realized that Israel, of all the nations, is not an apartheid state as he had  lived in one himself and should understand the meaning of the world.  The true outcome was that Israeli soldiers have put themselves in harms way in order to protect citizens when in combat.  They have been highly praised by the military allies of the USA for their caution and care.

Resource: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_casualties_of_war
Book: Letters From Israel by Nadene Goldfoot

A Mile From Gaza Border in Israel

What's It Like?

Nadene Goldfoot
Actually, Sderot lies less than a mile from the Gaza border. Eleven months ago Israel had to go into Gaza and bring to a halt the eight years Palestinian terrorists shelled Israel. Now Israel is hit about twice a month, which is a big improvement but still not peaceful.

Children as well as adults had only about a 30 second warning of incoming rockets. Due to donations, the city now has a new indoor playground for the children that has a horizontal climbing wall, mini-soccer field and convertible disco/movie theater. It also has six bomb shelters and rocket-proof, anti-shockwave walls. This opened in June 2009. Now for the first time the children can play without fear.

Israel was complying, I'm afraid, with the world in not being allowed to stop the Palestinians from their terror on Israel's citizens when they started the shelling. Finally the government had to react, and of course they were accused of using too much force. Richard Goldstone put out the horrid Goldstone Report coming down hard on Israel. He was never around nor the UN when children died in Sderot. They didn't even give it a thought as to what life was like for the Israelis for the past eight years. All they do is count casualties, and since the number was higher in Gaza after Israel's incursion, Israel gets the blame.

I wonder if our outlook on life doesn't sway the numbers. Muslim males are rather anxious to meet their 72 virgins while Jews are all for "Life", or as we say, "L'Chaim!". To Life!. I don't know what the Muslim women are anxious about except they seem to be so proud of their terrorist sons. At any rate, we have managed so far to keep our death numbers lower. It also could be that we have fewer numbers to start with, and aim to keep them alive and well.

Resource: Taking the Edge Off War by Hugh Dellios

International Rejection of HRC Decision on Goldstone Report Needed

based on Report from Danny Ayalon in aish.com

by Nadene Goldfoot

The Deputy Foreign Minister of Israel's article about the Goldstone Report calls for an international rejection of HRC's decision on the Goldstone report. Are there many countries brave enough to buck this group? There were about five countries that stood with USA against this decision, and many abstainers. We need them to be vocal and not go along with this travesty.

It's sad to realize that this world is against a very tiny country that has been shelled with missiles for eight long years, mainly into one area of Israel, the southern part right across the Gaza border and into Ashkelon where a very important hospital lies serving both Israelis and Palestinians. When Israel, knowing the mind of a world that discriminates against them because they are Jewish and not Muslims, finally must decide to protect its citizens and broadcasts to the world that if the shelling doesn't stop they will be forced to retaliate, are criticized and face charges in a criminal world court with grave consequences, I throw my hands up in the air. This is not a logical ending to a brave decision of trying to solve a problem when standing alone and being outnumbered. The odds are heavily stacked against us no matter what we decide to do. I've said it before, we are dammed if we do and dammed if we don't.

The only help that could have been suggested by the USA or other European countries probably was to give into demands of giving up more land, like we have already done with Gaza. That turned out to be the biggest fiasco and has led to humungous problems. The world wants to ignore something Israel is very aware of. The goal of the Muslims, Palestinians, or Arabs, whatever they are labeled as, is to drive Israel into the sea. In other words, put an end to Israel and take it over. They haven't even kept this goal a secret but broadcast it well. However, it is an inconvenient truth, a problem to deal with, so I feel our allies just turn a deaf ear and closed mind to it and pretend it isn't so. After all, it doesn't affect their station in life as it does the Israelis.

Resource: http://www.aish.com/print/?contentID=65929817&section=/jw/me

Added 10/27/09 http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/greenberg102709.php3

Goldstone Finds HRC Unfair

The following is from a recent report from Mitchell Bard's research. It's so well done, that I have just posted it here.

Nadene Goldfoot
When the Goldstone Commission released its one-sided report, blaming Israel for war crimes in Gaza, the United States and many other nations denounced it for what it was: an irresponsible and extremely biased report that blames Israel while forgiving the terrorist violence waged against Israeli civilians by Hamas.

The UN Human Rights Council (HRC) wasted no time in weaponizing the Goldstone Report. The HRC was not slated to convene again this year, but met in a special session to endorse the Goldstone Report. By a vote of 25-6, the UN Human Rights Council endorsed the report and recommended that other UN groups follow its recommendations, including the UN Security Council, by referring war crime prosecutions to the International Criminal Court if Israel fails to investigate the war crimes proffered by the Goldstone Commission.328

The resolution was opposed by the United States, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Slovakia and Ukraine. Eleven additional nations abstained while another five withheld their vote completely. Even South African judge Richard Goldstone, primary author of the troubled Goldstone Report stated his displeasure with the HRC's resolution, stating "There is not a single phrase condemning Hamas, as we have done in the report."

The HRC, whose membership includes serial human rights violators such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt and China, has a demonstrated obsession with Israel-bashing. The council has held six special sessions on Israel alone. For all the world's other nations, it has held a combined total of four.

The council ignored testimony from experts such as Col. Richard Kemp, former commander of British forces in Afghanistan, who stated that "During Operation Cast Lead, the Israeli Defense Forces did more to safeguard the rights of civilians in a combat zone than any other army in the history of warfare." This expert testimony fell on deaf ears, as the council had only intended to issue a resolution attacking Israel, as it has done in 80% of all the resolutions it has passed in its entire history.

It was the intention of the HRC to pass a resolution that at a minimum, would damage Israel's image with the possible result of having Israelis charged with war crimes at The Hague.

Israel's supposed peace partner, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who is committed by the Oslo Accords not to engage in acts of incitement against Israel, is leading the public campaign to stigmatize Israel and criminalize its self-defense measures and thereby driving a stake further through the heart of the peace process that President Obama has tried to resuscitate with the assent of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.333 By caving to pressure from Hamas and flaunting this sensational resolution, Abbas continues to demonstrate why so many are concerned that the Palestinian leadership does not yet have the courage or vision to lead the Palestinian people to a lasting, secure and equitable peace with Israel.

I think that Goldstone was most naive not to realize how the HRC would use any inflammatory material against Israel that he produced. He has damaged Israel's life as well as the United States and should have seen it results coming. It was an reprehensible report irresponsibly done by him. As he must have wanted to take such great credit with it being called the "Goldstone" report, he must take the responsibility of it's evil intentions. The horror of it is that he is Jewish claiming only to "help" Israel.

Understanding the Israeli Psyche

by Nadene Goldfoot from Dr. Michael Oren's article, Deep Denial

Even before Israel was born in 1948, its citizens have had to become soldiers. The attacks have not actually stopped. Every man has had to serve one month out of each year in the military doing their milueem duty. Women also serve in this army. In fact, very often they are sergeants training young soldiers. Children are trained as soon as they can walk not to pick up objects on the streets as they might be bombs. Children sit outside school doors checking bags looking for bombs. The whole population is totally aware of the dangers that can befall them.

Michael Oren, the new ambassador from Israel to the USA, points out in his article "Deep Denial" in The New Republic, that Israelis are not prone to flattery. The Hebrew word for flattery is "chanupa". The Yiddish word is "firgun", which is more derisive. A joke told in Israel is that the word is on the exit from the Ben-Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv with a red diagonal line slashing through it along with the warning, "You are now entering a Firgun Free Zone."

Recently Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to the U.N. General Assembly and several Israeli commentators reacted unflatteringly to it. Everyone else applauded, but the Haaretz reporter Tom Segev thought his words were "unneccessary and embarrassing. Gideon Levy thought his words were insulting to the intelligence and demagogic. Aluf Benn, a respected Israeli journalist faulted the speech as failing to address a global rather than Israeli audience.

What he spoke about were some pretty important issues; Iran's nuclear abilities, the Goldstone Report travesty, and their hopes for peace with Palestinians based on security and mutual recognition. The reporters were upset not by those topics but about the Holocaust, his opening. Yet I think the opening explains a lot about the Israeli psyche.

He said that 1/3 of all Jews died in the Holocaust. Almost all Jewish families were affected by this, including his. He said that Ahmadinejad, the biggest Holocaust denier, spoke to this audience the day before about there not being a Holocaust. "Have you no shame, have you no decency?" he asked the audience.

The journalists thought by bringing up the Holocaust that Netanyahu had stooped to Ahmadinejad's level, or gave credibility to him by debating him over a "universally accepted truth." It's been 64 years since the WWII ended and now the validity of it all is in the UN General Assembly, Benn wrote. He felt that with that Ahmadinejad succeeded in instilling doubt.

Israelis are raised with Holocaust history. They are not aware of the world's youth's lack of education about how there was a Final Solution in store for the Jews. Our young American Jews may even be guilty of denial of these facts. This is a difference in our psyche.

Muslims can now think that if Israel was created by Europeans out of Holocaust guilt and it never actually occurred, then their existence is unjust. That's giving them fuel to fight against Israel.

Netanyahu's preamble speaking of the murdering 6 million Jews is important to understand the dangers posed to our 6 million Jews in Israel today by a nuclear Iran and by the Goldstone Report. Speaking about the Holocaust and knowing that it did indeed happen is vital in obtaining peace.

A minority of our American Jews have joined the band wagon in denying the seriousness of our position by joining leftist groups such as J street, where Muslims also have joined. They've developed a very American mentality that may be suitable here in the states, but is not even beginning to grasp the differences in the situation in Israel. This doesn't mean that it's okay to treat Palestinians in a different way from the way we treat members of our own family, but they just don't grasp how close we are to being obliterated. Where an Israeli must be constantly aware of danger and serving, the American only does it rarely if not at all. They might even be thinking the whole affair is an embarrassment for them.

Now Dr. Michael Oren has been asked by J Street to speak at their convention. The last I've heard is that he is declining. If he does change his mind, surely he will give them a "what for" and he may just decide not to give them more fodder for their fight.

Resource: http://www.tnr.com/article/world/deep-denial

The Goldstone Report Smears: A Shunda

Nadene Goldfoot

The Goldstone Report that recently came out of the United Nations as a review of the Gaza War is as expected, considering the source, only worse. Since so many participants are prejudiced against Israel, this is what the little country continually faces. If we're ever judged fairly, it'll probably mean that the Messiah has arrived.

1. Facts are that Hamas fighters did use civilian clothes when fighting Israel. Even journalists saw this.

2. The areas where attacks were being launched were known to Palestinian witnesses and video tapes. That's how Israel found them.

3. Palestinians fired from hospitals and when using ambulences. This was also seen by eyewitnesses.

4. Weapons were stored in a mosque. A 2nd explosion of mosques is consistent with the storage of explosives. There is video evidence of this.

5. Israel brought in humanitarian aid. The amount even increased months after the war ended. The terrorists assert that it decreased. This is false and disingenuous.

6. There are many documented cases of Palestinian militants being killed in clashes in the neighborhood with their own people. They try to assert that the Zeitoun area is pacifist and had no militant groups or rocket fire. If anyone believes that the young Palestinians are pacifists, I have a bridge to sell to you called the Brooklyn.

7. Palestinian eyewitnesses and Israel say that the Fakhoura area was used to fire at Israel and that combatants were killed in the Israeli strike.

The Goldstone Report is made of people that have used double standards. They have produced a very distorted and one-sided document favoring the Palestinian terrorists who have been shelling Israel for the past seven years. They have dismissed admisions of Palestinian guilt and accepted only the denials. One example is of a Palestinian fighter using human shields.

If the information given even suggests Israeli culpability, it is believed but never if information suggests Palestinian guilt.

Contradictions and lies given by Palestinians or pro-Palestinian sources are dismissed or ignored. Anything from Israel can be called a contradiction and a falsehood and is used to blast Israel's credibility.

Palestinian political leaders' statements have not been used to show evidence. The same is not held true for Israel.

Photographs from Israel are not used to determine that what they show are evidence, but no doubt was ever cast on photos from Palestinians. They said they reviewed 1,200 photographs.

They are accusing Israel of discrimination against women because it struck elements of Gaza's food and water infrastructure. It did not charge the Palestinians with violating the convention and should have.

The Goldstone Report is out to justify accusing Israel of war crimes. They have avoided anything smacking of a misdeed from the Palestinians, like the past 7 years of attacking Israel. They will not charge Hamas and other PLO groups of violating international law.

They leave out facts where it is important. Language is played with. They went back to when Sharon visited the Temple Mount in Jerusalem and complained that it is the 3rd most sacred place in Islam and he dared to visit it. Goodness! They left out the fact that it IS the holiest site in Judaism.

We call the recent building of a wall a barrier. It has been very successful in keeping out suicide bombers and terror attacks and was built to protect its citizens from being killed or injured. They refer to it as a wall and we call it a barrier. The majority of it is a fence. They used "wall" almost 50 times and "barrier" 3 times. They never mentioned "fence".

The report claims that Hamas recognizes Israel when in fact they refuse to and never have. Even Hamas tried to clarify this fact only to have the Report say otherwise. Are we surprised that they haven't really listened?

Reference: CAMERA Alert: Goldstone Report- a Study in Duplicity: http://www.camera.org/.