Real Israel blog back for “Why I Love Israel” blog carnival this Wednesday!

In the past week, the “I LOVE this country” post has received a lot of attention. As part of broader efforts to show the international community a different side of Israel, Real Israel is being revived for the blog carnival stated in the title to gather and highlight new and old blog posts about what you love about Israel in one post. If you have a blog and would like to participate here are more details. 

What: “Why I LOVE Israel” blog carnival

When: This Wednesday, January 9th, 2008

Where: Real Israel blog

Entries should include…

• Your name as you want it to appear in the post
• The name of your blog 
• The blog URL 
• The title of the post
• The post URL

Posts that qualify for entry include…

• Why you love Israel 
• Unique experiences you’ve had in Israel 

Please note that…

• Entries accepted from blogs only. 
• Only English language posts will be accepted. 
• No more than one post per blog. 

You can learn more about what a blog carnival is here and here. 

If you have any questions feel free to include them in the comments below or to send an email to realisrael@gmail.com. 

Are Palestinians Against Receiving Aid? They’re Shooting Themselves in the Foot

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Yesterday’s terrorist attack was different than most. Not just because “only” two people were killed (talk to their families – see if they care that it was “only” two). In case you don’t know, 4 Palestinians snuck into Israel yesterday and murdered two Israelis who were working at a fuel terminal close to the border. It is believed that they were looking to kidnap Israelis.

The Palestinian gunmen took advantage of Israel’s eases on roadblocks. As part of an agreement made when US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was in Israel, Israel eased many restrictions on the Palestinians, including opening up a checkpoint and removing 50 roadblocks.

A Beautiful Murderer

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I received this by email. I Googled it and found out that it has been published several times on different blogs, but I feel the topic is important enough to publish again. Hopefully others will do the same. This letter was written by the family of Malki Roth.

[Several months ago,] the New York Times carried a review of a film called “Hot House” that goes inside Israeli prisons and examines the lives of Palestinian prisoners. We’re not recommending the film or the review. But we do want to share our feelings with you about the beaming female face that adorns the article.

The film is produced by HBO. So it’s presumably HBO’s publicity department that was responsible for creating and distributing a glamor-style photograph of a smiling, contented-looking young woman in her twenties to promote the movie.

That female is our child’s murderer.

People Jumped Out Windows to Escape

It seems people started jumping out of the windows to escape from the terrorists. A guy is being interviewed and he said about he, along with 15 others, jumped out the windows.

I think that Hamas is taking responsibility because I just got a video from them.

Rockets Hit Sderot and Ashkelon; Land by Preschool

Two rockets landed in Ashkelon this morning, one directly hitting an 8-story building and another landing in a playground. 28 people were evacuated to a nearby hospital. The IDF has pulled out of Gaza, so clearly the rocket fire has nothing to do with our actions there (nor did it stop anything).

A short time later, 3 Qassams landed in Sderot and just south of Ashkelon. Another rocket landed by a kindergarten in Ashkelon where the kindergarten teachers claim they did not even hear the Tzeva Adom (Color Red) warning.

According to Ynet,

Sunday saw dozens of Qassam, Grad rockets and mortar shell fired at the western Negev: Two rockets landed in Sderot – one hit a house and caused several people to suffer shock; and the other hit a power transformer, which caught on fire, causing a temporary blackout in the area.

A Grad rocket fired at Ashkelon on Sunday hit a house in the city’s center. One girl suffered mild shrapnel injuries. Three children were in the house at the time of the Color Red alert – all three rushed to their secure room, thus avoiding any serious injury.

Several rockets fired Sunday landed at Rabbi Yisrael Abuhatzeira’s (the Baba Sali) gravesite in Netivot.

Over 40 Rockets Launched at Israel Yesterday

No, this isn’t a repeat of the post from last week. More rockets landed in Ashkelon, with direct hits in private homes (children hurt).

Today over 20 rockets have been launched towards the Negev, and it’s only 1 pm.

Check out this blog post. It gives a glimpse into 36 hours of constant rocket attacks from the point of view of Laura Bialis, an independent filmmaker whose documentary, Refusnik, will be premiering in the Seattle Jewish Film Festival. Bialis has been living in Sderot. Here is a shortened account of this past weekend. You can read the entire entry here.

Friday, 3:00AM:
Tzeva Adom (Color Red Alert) does not go off, but there is a weird alarm going off– its the thing that goes off after there are several Tzeva Adoms in a row. It wakes us all up, and we don’t know what to do– do we run to the shelter? Maybe it is a mistake. I make a mental note to try and interview someone about the Tzeva Adom system.

1 Killed, Over 40 Rockets Launched at Israel

Over 40 rockets were launched at Israel yesterday from Gaza. One of them hit Sapir College and killed a student, Roni Yechiah, a father of four who underwent kidney transplant surgery several years ago. Several more were treated for wounds.

Earlier yesterday, a rocket hit a poultry factory and later a rocket fell just outside of a Carlsberg beer factory. Several rockets also landed in Ashkelon, one of them landing near a hospital’s helicopter pad.

Hamas – yes, yes, Palestinian government Hamas – claimed responsibility for Wednesday’s attacks.

Sderot to Receive Benefits – Maybe…

You’ve gotta love messed up governments. MK Silvan “Steve” Shalom proposed a new bill that would grant small businesses in Sderot and other towns close to Gaza that have been hit by Qassams several benefits. These include various tax benefits, monetary compensation, and permission to receive extra credit (not the school kind) for businesses who have lost much of their income due to the present situation.

Sounds good, right? Not so much, apparently. The official government position was against it – but the Knesset passed the bill in the first round (of three to get a bill approved in Israel). Even some of the MKs who are in the coalition voted for the bill. Many abstained. 34 voted for the legislation, and 22 voted against. Which means that 64 (!!!) MKs either abstained or did not show up to vote on the bill. In case you don’t know, there are 120 Mks.

I guess they were too busy accompanying former MK Omri Sharon to jail, where he will be serving a 7-month sentence for corruption and fraud connected to his father’s election bid (former PM Ariel Sharon, whose 80th birthday was yesterday).

Murdered Arab will be recognized by Israel as terror victim

Taisir Karaki, the Arab cab driver from Jerusalem who was murdered in Tel Aviv Tuesday, will be recognized by the State of Israel as a terror victim, National Insurance Institute officials estimated.

The decision is pending the approval of the defense establishment.

Karaki was allegedly murdered by Julien Soufir, a new immigrant from France, after Karaki drove him to Tel Aviv. According to suspicion, Soufir invited Karaki to come up to his apartment and use his bathroom, and then slit his throat with a knife.

You can read the rest of the article from Ynet here.

I’m waiting for the announcement that the Palestinian Authority will pay the families of all the victims who died in terrorist attacks carried out by their people. Many of whom were commissioned by Hamas. Which their government.

OVer 50 rockets launched at Israel in the past few days

One of the rockets launched this morning landed inside a classroom at a high school where students were taking their finals.

Luckily, the classroom was empty since it was not fortified, which is the only reason a huge disaster was averted. Several students were hurt in a nearby classroom and all exams were suspended.

The only students who arrived at school today were those who had to take their matriculation exams, and they were placed in fortified classrooms.

Eli Moyal, the mayor of Sderot, said that although the country and Gaydamak had buses take residents to nearby towns, it was only to “catch a breath” and not to get everyone out of the town.

That would be giving them what they want.

Extensive retaliation is being planned for Gaza.

 

Over 20 rockets lauchned today – dozens injured

And this isn’t a war zone? Watch this video from Channel 10 News in Israel. Someone was video taping one of the rocket attacks and the rocket landed just by him – literally. In their back yard.

Israel is going to plan a retaliation, and I’m normally against it, but seriously – over 40 rockets launched in the past 2 days, and this didn’t just start now. Dozens injured, many “only” shocked, but that’s still not normal.

Again, in case this is the first time you’re reading my blog, these rocket attacks are being carried out by the Palestinian “government” led by Hamas (along with Fatah, but they aren’t the ones trying to annihilate us.)

Over 30 rockets launched into Israel over the past 24 hours

One of the rockets landed in a courtyard shared by several residential apartment buildings, wounding a 70-year-old woman. Emergency medical teams evacuated her to the hospital in Ashkelon with injuries to her limbs and stomach.

Earlier today, rockets landed in and around the city as well as near neighboring kibbutzim where children spent the night in bomb shelters.

Schools remained closed in Sderot on Wednesday, which is a problem since the matriculation exams – the finals – are set to begin in the next few days for the high school students. Officials said these age groups would join their peers in Beer Sheva on Thursday for classes until a better solution could be found.

Residents seeking to flee Sderot wrote to businessman Arcady Gaydamak, asking for his help. Like the last time they asked, the billionaire complied, and he sent buses and arranged for hotel accommodations in Beer Sheva and Ashdod (who had a few rockets yesterday).

Over 20 rockets launched yesterday; 7 already launched today towards Sderot and Ashkelon

Israel said it would NOT go into Gaza, and is not planning retaliation. IDF choppers did fire at open fields in Gaza where the rockets were launched from, but there were no injuries.

You can read more details about it here.

10 more rockets launched; it’s only 12:50 am.

Also, 2 mortar shells were fired earlier today at a kibbutz in the south from Gaza. As a reminder: This group is actually their government.

I’m going to sleep. Unlike the people of Sderot, I will sleep peacefully tonight.

I wonder how many more rockets will be launched before I wake up in the morning.

I’ll let you know tomorrow.

13 rockets launched into Israel; Hamas threatens more

Some of us thought that since the Palestinians were too busy killing each other over the last few days that we’d get a break.

Apparently not.

Today 13 Qassam’s were launched into Sderot, a town that has been hit by these rocketsfor years now. 18 people were wounded, including a mother and her son, when one of the rockets hit their home. Other rockets fell all over the city, including another residence and almost completely destroying an elementary school.

Hamas, who IS the government in the Palestinian Authority, has said they will continue to launch more throughout the night.

This is following the 3 rockets launched at Sderot yesterday.

I’m just not understanding how we are supposed to make peace with a government literally led by a terrorist organization.