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.

Israeli Consessions: Palestinian City, Less Roadblocks, New Industrial Zones

Defense Minister Edud Barak met with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and presented her with a 35-page booklet of good faith concessions that Israel will make in the near future.

Among those are the building of a new Palestinian city, or several neighborhoods, near Ramallah, financed by Jordanian businessmen, which is to be inhabited by tens of thousands of Palestinians in an attempt to ease the housing shortage in the area.

Other gestures, meant to show Israel’s seriousness and commitment to peace, without harming the security of Israel’s citizens, includes the removal of the Mevo Horon outpost, in addition to another two that were already removed (these are illegal settlements).

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).

Metal will bring peace to the Middle East

It seems that the first peaceful dialogue to follow the Second Lebanon War comes out of the music scene. Two heavy metal bands, one Israeli and the other Lebanese, met online and joined forces to perform a new song, “Everything We Are”.

“Obviously, the song deals with the last war between Israel and Lebanon, and its implications. It speaks about the silent majority around the world that does nothing while extremists spread their ideals of hatred and violence,” Kfir Gov, leader of the Israeli band, “Seek Irony” told Ynet.

Rab, the Lebanese lead vocalist of “Blood Ink”, and his family reside in northern Lebanon in an area that was mostly outside of the range of the fighting.

“I’ve been listening to this music for as long as I can remember,” Rab, the 23-year-old Christian singer, told Ynet in an email interview.

“The story my family tells is that my sister, who is a metal fan, used to put the headphones on my ears when I was just a month old. She used to put me to sleep listening to ‘The Wall’ by Pink Floyd.

“I somehow grew up in this atmosphere, at age 14, I was already listening to the Scorpions and Aerosmith. Then I discovered the harder styles, and it went on,” Rab said.

Click here to read the rest of this story from Ynet.

Israeli Clothes – Now in Ramallah

The Israeli apparel chain H&O have opened their newest children store in an unlikely place: The Plaza shopping mall in Ramallah.

A source among the owners of the mall APSC said that they are planning to increase future business with Israeli companies and they believe that business can be used as a bridge for peace. “The problem starts when people have no money, and then they don’t have any education and they turn to violence and extremism,” he said. 

I’m not sure it lays down the building blocks for peace, but it certainly can’t hurt… 

Lebanon War Causes Pot Prices to Spike

I kid you not. Another casualty of the Lebanon War – pot prices have increased 8-fold due to increased border security both in the north and the south.

Apparently the border with Lebanon has long since been fertile ground for drug trafficking into Israel, many times with full cooperation between Israeli citizens and the Hezbollah on the other side of the border.

Who says Israel and the Hezbollah can’t co-exist? All we need to do is legalize pot.

Or, actually, keep it illegal.

This post is dedicated with love to Fizz.

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.

Kidnapping is Terrorism

I’m not talking about kidnapping for the sake of kidnapping (not that that’s right either). I mean kidnapping as a means to get money or to settle personal disputes with local authorities authorities.

Today’s kidnapping (and subsequent release) of AP photographer Emilio Morenatti in Gaza today ended well, as (thankfully) have previous kidnappings.

Palestinian militants in Gaza have frequently kidnapped foreign journalists and aid workers in the past two years, usually seeking money or to settle personal disputes with Palestinian authorities.

What I don’t understand here is why. Why kidnap the people who are trying to help you? I can “understand” the kidnapping of an enemy (though in our case it usually results in murder). But why and aid worker or a journalist?

A previously unknown group calling itself the Holy Jihad Brigades claimed responsibility. Its demand for the release of Muslim prisoners held by the United States raised fears that foreign extremists, perhaps al-Qaida, had infiltrated Gaza.

Palestinian security officials, however, said the name was a front for local militants.

Either way, this is not the way to gain sympathy. Alienating those who want to help isn’t the way to go. Even the Palestinian government knows that – that’s why they condemn these acts.

It’s time the people face up to the government they have elected and allow them to do their job. Otherwise, anarchy will prevail, and no type of peace will be possible.

CPJ (Committee to Protect Journalists) Executive Director Joel Simon said today in response, “We’re dismayed that journalists have become pawns of Palestinian groups seeking to exploit them for political purposes. These blatant attacks on journalists will have a chilling effect on their ability to do their work and will ultimately deprive the world of information about this critically important story.” 

If you don’t like what your government is doing, elect a different one. Or run yourself. Just take into consideration that terrorising those who are on your side isn’t quite the way to go.

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.

A Possible Solution from Sydney Students?

I came across this, and while it seems like a cool idea (and temporary solution), I’m not sure it’s feasible and even worth development costs. It’s not like Israel stops everyone at the border crossings just for fun and to torture people. A suicide bomber can easily send the SMS saying that they want to come into Israel to visit their sick cousin, but still try to smuggle a bomb into the country. It’s a great way to tell you what the closest checkpoint is, but I’m sure that they already know (not the bombers, the people in general).

Then again, at least someone has some initiative in trying to make the situation better.

After reading about long queues at Palestinian-Israeli border crossings, and the frustrations and even deaths that can occur as people wait for medical care, a University of Sydney student decided to create mobile phone technology to solve the problem.

After entering your personal details, the reason for your visit and your time of travel into your phone Amal Abdo’s program tells you which checkpoint to go to. It will even give you a unique code to use when you get there.“The phone tracks your GPS location to know which checkpoint is closest to you,” says Abdo, who created the work as part of a final year design project set by new media lecturer Andy Dong.

Her design gives “Israelis the security they want, but at the same time minimises disadvantage to the Palestinians,” she says.

For the rest of the article, click here. 

Most US Jews support Palestinian state

I agree. 

Annual survey conducted by American Jewish Committee reveals most American Jews back Israel’s efforts to achieve peace, but worry that conflict may lead again to war. Majority of respondents disapprove of American government’s handling of Iran’s nuclear threat; most believe anti-Semitism set to increase worldwide in coming years

Ynetnews, Published October 23, 2006, 17:04. 

While American Jews are highly supportive of Israel’s efforts to achieve peace, in the wake of the summer war with Hizbullah a majority remains skeptical about the chances for achieving an overall peace and worry that the conflict may lead again to a regional war, according to a new survey by the American Jewish Committee. Fifty-six percent of American Jews think Israel and the Arabs never will be able to settle their differences and live in peace, while 38 percent believe they will. Regarding the war between Israel and Hizbullah, 55 percent approved, and 35 percent disapproved, of the way the Israeli government handled the conflict in Lebanon in July and August. Similarly, 53 percent approved, and 39 percent disapproved, of the way the US government handled the conflict.

American Jews are evenly divided on the outcome of Israel’s summer war with Hizbullah, with 49 percent saying neither Israel nor Hizbullah emerged the winner, 2 percent saying both were victorious, 24 percent to Israel and 15 percent to Hizbullah.

Despite these mixed results, a majority of American Jews, 54 percent, favor the establishment of a Palestinian state, while 38 percent are opposed. These figures are consistent with AJC surveys since 2001.

AJC’s Survey of American Jewish Opinion, conducted annually since 1997, gauges US Jewish views on the Arab-Israeli peace process, terrorism, Iran, the war in Iraq, perceptions of anti-Semitism, social and political issues in the US such as energy and immigration, and Jewish identity concerns.

The complete AJC survey is available at www.ajc.org.

The complete Ynet article is available here.

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.