The Mystery of Hate, by Yair Lapid

Stumble It!

A while back, Yair Lapid, an Israeli journalist (and now news anchor) wrote this column. I’m not sure who translated it, so if someone knows, please let me know. For those of you who aren’t Israeli, this sheds quite a bit of light on how we feel.

The Mystery of Hate

by Yair Lapid

Hundreds of years of fighting, six and a half wars, billions of dollars gone with the wind, tens of thousands of victims, not including the boy who laid down next to me on the rocky beach of lake Karon in 1982 and we both watched his guts spilling out. The helicopter took him and until this day I do not know whether he is dead or survived. All this, and one cannot figure it out.

And its not only what happened but all that did not happen – hospitals that were never built, universities that were never opened, roads that were never paved, the three years that were taken from millions of teenagers for the sake of the army. And despite all the above, we still do not have the beginning of a clue to the mystery of where it all started: Why do they hate us so much?

I am not talking about the Palestinians this time Their dispute with us is intimate, focused, and it has a direct effect on their lives. Without getting into the “which side is right” question, it is obvious that they have very personal reasons not to stand our presence here. We all know that eventually this is how it will be solved: in a personal way, between them and us, with blood sweat and tears that will stain the pages of the agreement. Until then, it is a war that could at least be understood, even if no sane person is willing to accept the means that are used to run it by.

It is the others. Those I cannot understand. Why does Hassan Nasralla, along with tens of thousands of his supporters, dedicate his life, his visible talents, his country’s destiny, to fight a country he has never even seen, people he has never really met and an army that he has no reason to fight?

Six Rockets Launched at Israel on Friday

Rockets are still being launched into Israel despite IDF activity in the area that they generally come from (duh!)

Two were launched this morning and an additional four this afternoon.

Luckily, no injuries were reported, though there was structural damage where they landed in residential areas.

In an earlier post, there was a comment about if Israel ends the occupation, then no more rockets will be launched at it.

Thing is (and I added that in my reply), I don’t believe it will end at all even if we pull out today, for the simple reason that these rockets aren’t being launched at us because of the occupation.

They’re being launched as us because we exist.

Exaggerated Conspiracy Theories

I’m sick and tired of people complaining all the time.

I’m sick and tired of people making excuses.

I’m sick and tired of people blaming others for their mistakes.

I’m sick and tired of people not owning up to their actions and consequently resigning their posts.

But more than anything, I’m sick of conspiracy theories, more specifically the Jewish ones.

I’m sick and tired of people blaming the Jews for everything. If something is wrong, blame it on Israel. It’s like in my old job, when I worked in television. I dealt with everything that had to do with the tapes, and there was a producer who didn’t like me very much.

Every time that something would go wrong, she would blame me, even if it wasn’t my fault. The highlight was when the soundman accidentally pressed a button that made a fart sound go off on live TV. When we were off air, the producer yelled at me.

So I yelled back. Do I look like a sound man?! WTF?!

The point of my rant is this: today I saw that the Daily Star in Lebanon said today that Israel’s attack on Lebanese factories was due to us losing bids to them in the international market.

In what world would a country lose hundreds of lives for milk?! Are you insane?! Okay, so maybe the folks got pissed, but get real! No one would call the army to bomb a city because of a lost bid to sell dairy products to UN forces in Lebanon?

As opposted to some countries we know, Israel values the life of its citizens, and would never consiously put them at risk.

Especially not for cottage cheese.

Get real.

Four Rockets Launched at Israel Today – Several Wounded

The Israeli Defense Forces’ recent operation in the Gaza Strip has been specifically designed to shut down the operations that keep sending rockets into southern Israel.

In the past year alone, around 300 Qassam rockets have been launched into Israel from the area of Beit Hanun.

For the entire article, click here.

Hamas: Militant Died While Digging Tunnel to Fight Israel

A Hamas militant died today while digging a tunnel to be used in the Islamic group’s fight against Israel, Hamas said in a statement.

A 20-year-old from a refugee camp in Gaza died “while fulfilling his holy mission in an underground tunnel… while he was preparing with his brothers and colleagues… to shake the Zionist entity,” the Hamas statement read.

This is actually the first time Hamas has officially announced that one of its members had died while digging tunnels used tboth to smuggle weapons from Egypt and to enter Israel to carry out terrorist attacks.

For perspective, in June Hamas militants used one of these tunnels to enter Israel and atack a military post, killing two soldiers and kidnpaping Gilad Shalit who, so far, has not returned home.

5 Qasam Rockets Launched at Israel

Two rockets were launched on Saturday and three more this morning at Israel. One of today’s rockets landed in Palestinian lands.

For more details, click here.

Terrorist Attack In Israel Thwarted

Gaza resident tries to sneak 6 kg of explosives into Israel through Karni Crossing, to Palestinian resident of Tulkarm. Police: ‘We have no doubt we prevented terror attack in Israel’

The Shin Bet, in cooperation with Southern District Police, in recent days thwarted an attempt to smuggle explosives from the Gaza Strip into Israel through the Karni Crossing, it was released for publication Wednesday.  

A number of Palestinian laborers tried to smuggle the explosives with the apparent aim of carrying out a terror attack in Israel. At the start of the week security forces discovered six kilos of standard TNT hidden inside an iron cage used to transport goods from Gaza into Israel.

The same day, three Israeli truck drivers from the Negev were detained for questioning for suspected involvement in transporting the explosives. 

An interrogation of the suspects revealed that Mahmoud Samih Abu Nagi, a Palestinian residing in Sheikh Radwan in Gaza who works at the Karni Crossing coordinated the transfer of the explosives into Israel.

Meanwhile, the same night Rami Samir Abid, 25 from Tulkarm, who was allegedly supposed to collect the TNT once it reached Israel, was arrested at his home.

Terrorists: Major Attacks Against Israel on Their Way

 How can you say we’re not being provoked? How can you say the Palestinians want peace when they themselves are treatening us with rocket attacks and suicide bombing with the sole purpose of provoking at attack on Israel???

This is an article from WorldNetDaily

By: Aaron Klein, WND

Several senior terror leaders in Gaza told WorldNetDaily that terror groups allied with Hamas in the Gaza Strip are planning a series of large-scale attacks against Israeli positions near Gaza “within the coming days,” including rocket attacks, suicide bombings against Jewish communities and raids of Israeli military posts.

Palestinian and Israeli security officials said they are aware of the attack plans. Israel said it beefed up security at Gaza border crossings.

The Palestinian officials said the threatened large-scale attacks, which they claimed may be imminent, are meant to provoke an Israeli military response in Gaza that would unite the Palestinians and thwart any attempt by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to dissolve the Hamas-led Palestinian government.

An Olive Branch for an Eye

When I was snoozing this morning between alarm rings, I realized that there is a fundamental difference between Israel and the Palestinians that will prevent peace from occuring in the region.

While the Israeli government acts against the Palestinians when provoked, Israeli individuals don’t.

The bible says “an eye for an eye” but the people don’t implement it. That is, if every person who was personally vicitimized in any way (which, unfortunately, is almost everyone – there is not one person in Israel who hasn’t lost someone or has a friend who lost someone) in this conflict (general conflict, not the recent Lebanese war) were to implement  the “eye for an eye” rationale, both our peoples would be wiped off the earth.

The Palestinians need to put faith in their elected government. For heaven’s sake – they have a government! Why all the resistance organizations? Put faith in your elected government to “revenge” for you or act in your name.

If you continue to take “an eye for an eye” literally (or whatever the Quran says), then this will never end.

Smile When You Hear Death to Israel

What is it about saying Death to Israel that makes so many people feel so good?

Why is it, that so many people find so many ways to say it?

You can literally hear a new one every day. Sometimes twice.This was, in fact, Death to Israel Weekend on the radical Islamist network. On Friday, Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahar kicked things off at a rally in Khan Yunis, bringing down the house by declaring that Israel is “an abomination in the Middle East” that will someday “disappear.”“We will never recognize Israel, and in the end the [fate of] Zionists will be like that of the Crusaders, the Persians and the English, who left,” said Zahar, a founding father of Hamas.

“We want all of Palestine, every centimeter, from the river to the sea, from Rosh Hanikra to Rafah. If we can form a state within the 1967 borders we will do so, but this doesn’t mean that we will relinquish our right to every centimeter of Palestine’s land.”

There it is. No room for us Jews. No room for our history, our past presence here. No room for our common ancestry with the Palestinians. No room for Abraham. He was, after all, not from here. He was from Mesopotamia. Let him go back.

A Response to Bloggers Seeing Israel in the Wrong

This post is actually a comment I left on someone else’s post. I’ve decide to post it on my blog as well since I feel that it contains a lot of important information and points I would like to make. I have posted several other similar comments on other sites, so I will probably post these in the future. This is the post in almost its entirety (minus a personal commendation to the blogger himself).

Not ALL Israeli soldiers are saints, but hardly any army in the world can claim that. It’s enough just to mention the pictures from Iraq with the
US and British soldiers to prove that point. However for the most part these are 18-year-old kids and 35-year-old men who would like nothing more than to be at home.

As for the wall. If you ask almost any Israeli (and I’m not talking about any extremists or fundamenstalists), you will hear that in an ideal world we wouldn’t need to wall. It’s uglying up our country as well. We don’t want it. but the documented proof is that stince that wall has gone up, the amount of suicide bombers making it into Israel has decreased dramatically.

The Palestinian government is doing a great job (I’m being completely serious here) in stopping terrorists. I know they do a lot to make sure they don’t get through, and they work religiously with Israel on this. (Again, I am being serious.) When you couple that together with the roadblocks and the border points, they are extremely efficient together at stopping ALMOST all the suicide bombers from getting through into
Israel.

Unfortunately, the system is not yet working perfectly. In an ideal world, and the world that Israelis hope is nearby, Israel won’t have to put up roadblocks anymore and we would be able to depend 100% on the Palestinian government to stop any potential terrorism from entering our country.

Jewish Refugees from Arab States Campaign for Recognition

Did you know that almost 1 million Jews have been kicked out of Arab countries? It’s not just Palestinians who have been kicked out of their land. Not to mention the fact that most of the Palestinians who left in 1948 left of their own will, not because they were forced to leave. The proof is in the Israeli Arabs. They were all offered to remain under Israeli rule. Back to the news at hand.

World Jewish groups began a global campaign this week calling for recognition of Jews from Arab countries as refugees in theMiddle East conflict.

“The world sees the plight of Palestinian refugees, and not withstanding their plight, there must be recognition that Jews from Arab countries are also victims of the Arab-Israeli conflict,” said Stanley Urman, executive director of Justice for Jews from Arab Countries (JJAC).JJAC, a U.S.-based coalition of Jewish organizations, is one of the groups coordinating the campaign, which aims to record testimonies of Jews who fled in the face of persecution, list asset losses and lobby foreign governments on their behalf.

Jewish groups have estimated that since 1948 at least 900,000 Jews have been forced to leave their homes in Arab countries such as Egypt, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen. At least 600,000 went to Israel. The rest sought sanctuary in France, Britain, the United States and other countries. A meeting of Jewish groups in Jerusalem yesterday marked the first concerted effort to put the issue on the world agenda. Linda Abdel Aziz, who fled to Israel in 1971, is one of many thousands of Jews born in Iraq who left or were expelled as conditions deteriorated due to discriminatory legislation, pogroms and public executions. Abdel Aziz has recorded her testimony in the campaign. Her father, Jacob, who stayed behind in Iraq, disappeared in 1972, and family members believe he was executed by the ruling Baath party regime for being a Jew. “We did not interfere in politics but we were persecuted. We are all haunted,” said Abdel Aziz, 56.  

Weekend Rocket and Mortar Shell Tally

So far this weekend, 7 Qassam rockets and 5 mortar shells have been fired at Israel, mostly hitting the town of Sderot. Sderot gets Qassams fired at it almost on a daily basis, and has been for years. For those of you who are wondering, Sderot is not what anyone would call “the territories” and were Israel to withdraw to the ’67 lines, Sderot would remain in Israel. That is, of course, other than those who think that Israel has no right to exist in the first place. 

In other “positive” news, Palestinian Foreign Minister al-Zahar stated during a Hamas rally that Israel is “an abcess” on the Middle East, which has no historical, religious, or cultural justification, and Hamas will never recognize the Zionist state. 

How are we supposed to make peace with a government that doesn’t recognize our right to exist? And as if that’s not enough, al-Zahar said yesterday that Hamas has not ruled out the option of kidnapping more Israeli soldiers to attain the release of Palestinian security prisoners held in Israeli jails. For the record, these prisoners they want released – they all have blood on their hands, meaning they either physically carried out a terrorist attack, were caught on their way to carry one out (which happens more often than Israelis would like to consciously recognize), or helped plan one. 

I’m sure that when we release this prisoners to Hamas (AKA a terrorist organization who has claimed thousands of Israeli lives over the years) they will surely place these people in jail. 

Right. 

Better late than later

I was going to start this blog in the summer after I finished my studies for my masters degree, but 5 days before my last exam, the war in Lebanon broke out. Since I worked 15- to 17-hour days during the war, I delayed opening this blog, even though its importance back then outweighs now by far. On the other hand, the situation was so volatile that perhaps it’s better this way, and now I can begin with a “fresh” start. 

A little about myself first. I am originally from Houston, Texas and I moved to Israel in 2001, in the middle of the second Initifada. Since I lived in Israel from the ages of 8-14, it didn’t seem weird to me anyway. I double-majored in advertising/public relations and print journalism, and I just finished my masters degree in political science and public communications. 

I decided to start this blog for several reason, but first and foremost to have an outlet for my frustration regarding the portrayal of Israel in the media and world-wide public opinion. Also, I think that most people with anti-Israel and anti-Semitic remarks are mostly un-educated. By uneducated I do not meet did not complete middle school or college. I mean these are for the most part people who have not received a balanced report of the on-goings in the Middle East, and more specifically Israel. Therefore, in addition to current events news about Israel, I will also be posting good news aboutIsrael. Scientific breakthroughs, venture capital investments, and any other cool things going on. 

Did you know that any time there is a natural disaster Israel is among the first countries to offer search and rescue assistance? Israel always sends its squads – among the best in the world – to assist, though its assistance has been declined by fundamentalist Muslim countries. I will also be having updates in the blog about old current events stories. You know the kind, where Israel is accused of massacring thousands of Palestinians (The “Jenin Massacre” in April, 2002), but later on, when official UN reports come out saying no such massacre occurred, no one hears about it because, at best, it is reported by the obituaries. Or Israel flat-out killing a 13-year-old child only to later find out that it was Palestinian gunfire that did the job.  I will address both these cases later on, especially the “Jenin Massacre” since it is one of my case studies in my thesis. 

DId you know that we have rockets fired at us almost every single day and have for years? Didn’t think so, but I’ll keep you updated about that as well.

I hope you find this blog interesting and informative. I very much welcome any questions and suggestions you may have, and if I have the information and knowledge, I will post a blog about the requested topic. Feel free to email me at realisrael@gmail.com with any comments or questions.