del.icio.us Digg it Furl StumbleUpon

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.

While Israel was transferring 127 truckloads of medical aid, diapers, and basic food supplies to the Palestinians, 4 people, backed by several different terrorist organizations, took advantage of these open crossings to enter Israel and murder 2 workers at the fuel terminal (through which, by the way, Israel has been transferring over 75,000 liters of fuel a week to the strip). At the same time, the Palestinians shot more than 50 rockets and mortal shells at Israel. For the record, the purpose of the terminal is to transfer fuel, food, and medical supplies to the Palestinians.

By the way, this is not the first time that the Palestinians have taken advantage of the humanitarian crossings: This has happened quite a few times before. There have been terrorist attacks at the Karni crossing – in January 2005, 6 people were murdered. The Erez crossing also had quite a few terrorist attacks.

Here’s my question: Why in G-d’s name would you (the terrorists and terrorist organizations) take advantage of the places that help your own people? You yell and scream to the world that you are being mistreated and neglected, and when Israel eases restrictions and transfers literally tons of humanitarian aid to your own people on a daily basis, you do the one thing that could torpedo these acts.

You are shooting yourself in the foot. In Hebrew there is a saying, “You are spitting in the well you drink from.” That is actually quite literal here. So Israel is in a position where it’s damned if it does, and damned if it doesn’t. If Israel stops transferring aid – they are committing a Holocaust and are an apartheid. If they keep it going – they’re idiots. After all, while they are helping the Palestinians, the Palestinians are helping themselves to taking Israeli lives.

If Israel makes border crossings more difficult and opens up roadblocks again – it is, again, being an apartheid, committing a Holocaust, and sins against humanity. If it keeps the status quo (the present status quo), its own citizens are in danger.

Israel has been passing much humanitarian aid to the Palestinians for quite a while. Almost 20,000 truckloads (close to half a million tons) of humanitarian aid and supplies, including food and fuel, have been transferred to the Palestinians since this summer.

Let’s pretend for a moment that terrorist attacks help you achieve your purpose of getting a Palestinian state. Let’s put aside the fact that surveys SHOW that most Israelis are for a Palestinian state. How does forcing Israel to stop providing aid or making it harder for your own people to get around serve your purpose?

Is it really worth not getting the fuel and medical supplies and food from the Israelis just to prove to the world that Israel is the Big Bad Wolf?

You are risking the lives of thousands of people for the murder of a few. I’m not expert aboutIslam – I know very little. But I know that Islam is against suicide and is supposed to be a peace-seeking religion. And surely it must be about protecting its own, right?

This isn’t even close to being the only example of Palestinians torpedoing themselves. Take for example the employment situation. The Palestinian economy is in the rocks. Let’s “ignore” the fact here that, while Arab countries support the Palestinians fight against the Zionists (Israelis don’t exist), their money is only good for terrorism, not to help their “brothers.” You can also ignore the fact that millions of dollars are transferred to the Palestinians from the US government (and Israeli government) but the people don’t get to see it.

Israel allows for a certain number of Palestinians to work inside Israel proper. (Forget the fact that we have our own homeless and unemployment issues). The recent concessions made towards the Palestinians included increasing the number of Palestinians who can work inside Israel. (Remind me how many Mexicans cross the border every day to work inside the US, please?) Just today, the Shabac, one of Israel’s intelligence agencies, publicized that they were able to stop a terrorist attack that was to be carried out by two Palestinian workers at a restaurant in Ramat Gan. (Sorry – it’s in Hebrew – I couldn’t find the English version yet.) This is only today’s example, but it’s not a new one.

Israel can’t make all of the concessions and measures of good faith without receiving something on their end. We’re not asking for anything material – all we want is for the Palestinians to stop murdering innocent people and stop launching dozens of rockets and mortars on a daily basis.

Israel has tried to meet you halfway. It’s time you do the same.

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).

Additionally, Israel will transfer 25 armored vehicles to the Palestinians, ease travel restrictions for Palestinian public figures, and build new intersections for the Palestinians in the Hebron area. Israel will also help advance the establishment of industrial zones in Jericho and Hebron and increase the number of Palestinian laborers allowed to work in Israel to 5000.

Barak also announced that 700 Palestinian police officers would be allowed to enter Jenin, and that a checkpoint and 50 roadblocks will be remove, in an effort to ease the Palestinians’ movement between the West bank towns of Jenin, Tulkarem, Ramallah, and Qalqilya.

Palestinian businesspeople through the crossings will undergo easier security checks and the daily quota of people allowed to pass will increase to 1,500 from 500.

Barak also suggested upgrading the infrastructure of aiding the Palestinians waiting at the crossing at a cost of about US $2.4 million, transferring 325 cars and logistic equipment from the IDF to the Palestinian security organizations, including generators, blankets and first aid kids, and the bulding of a sewage purification device in the Beit Hanoun area.

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).

I fail to understand why anyone would vote against a bill whose sole purpose to assist those who have been hurt most. I’d think we want to promote small businesses, especially those run by people who remain on the front lines instead of running away.

Recent reports have estimated that, as of Feb 20, 2008, over 400 qassam rockets have been launched at Israel since the beginning of 2008. By comparison, 2007 saw a total of 1,150 rockets. 2006 saw even more – 1,488.

I’m not sure that the government is “doing nothing” as everyone thinks about the situation in Sderot and neighboring towns, but I DO know that things are only getting worse. Insted of meeting them half way and, in the very least, giving them financial assistance, they take the stance of “giving them money won’t solve the situation, so why even bother?”

It makes a difference. It’s enough to watch the footage of 8 year old Maria stroking her 10-year-old brother Yossi, who was just hit in the shoulder by a Qassam, trying to convince her father to move. Her father tries to convince her they should stay – a sentiment many in Sderot share, telling her she’ll have to go to a new school, find new extra curricular acitivities, but she doesn’t care. “So we’ll go to a new school. So we’ll make new friends.” She wants to go to Ashkelon.

Thing is, just like the disengagement brought Palestinian gunfire (rocketfire) closer to Israel and Sderot, if everyone leaves Sderot, not only do they accomplish driving us out of our own country, but they are even closer to Ashkelon and other bigger towns, which they already have the capability of reaching.

I am not taking sides on the political spectrum – I have my opinions and I will keep them to myself. I don’t think that my being on either side of the political spectrum makes any difference.

One of the first rules of being a leader – whether it’s leading a country or a company or a department – is to not only make commentary on bad situations, but offer a solution. Unfortunately, I can’t think of one right now. Clearly whatever happens, people will lose out, the question is, why does it feel like nothing is being done at all?

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.

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… 

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.

 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.

“The Israelis have misunderstood the period of calm in last few weeks and months. This was the calm before the storm,” Abu Abir, spokesman of the Gaza-based Popular Resistance Committees terror organization, told WorldNetDaily.

“The Palestinian resistance will carry out very soon a big offensive that will include shootings of rockets for a distance farther then until recently; it will include tunnel attacks and suicide attacks inside Israel,” Abu Abir said.

The terror leader urged Israel to respond with a Gaza assault.

“We wish Israel will come in (to Gaza) in a bigger way because we will turn the entire area of the Israeli operation into a big cemetery filled with Zionist soldiers,” Abu Abir said.

The Popular Resistance Committees is an umbrella of several terror groups, including Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Islamist sections of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the declared “military wing” of Abbas’ Fatah party. Israel says the Committees carries out terror attacks at the direction of Hamas.

Abu Ahmed, the northern Gaza commander of the Al Aqsa Brigades, told WND today his group decided to participate in the coming spate of theatened attacks from Gaza.

“The United States is pressuring Fatah leaders like (Gaza-based Fatah strongman and former PA security chief) Mohammad Dahlan into collaborating with them and dismantling the Palestinian government. We will not let the US dictate the future of the Palestinian people,” Abu Ahmed said.

Abu Ahmed said while his cell of the Brigades will work with Hamas, other Al Aqsa Brigades cells may not.

Asked whether his group is planning to attack Israel in order to stall the dismantlement of the Hamas-led government, the Committees Abu Abir replied, “No. But these attacks will mark to our people that the enemy is Israel. Killing Israelis hurts the Americans and the Israelis and this is who we should target. Not each other.”

The last major Hamas-led attack from Gaza was a well-coordinated raid through a tunnel of an Israeli military station at the Gaza border during which Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was kidnapped. The attack, which took place in June, resulted in the first large Israeli ground assault of the Gaza Strip since the Jewish state vacated the territory last August.

Israeli security officials say they have received multiple attack warnings against the same military station in recent weeks. They also said they received warnings of possible tunnels dug from Gaza into nearby Jewish communities.

Hamas won a majority of Palestinian parliamentary seats in elections earlier this year. According to multiple press reports Abbas has been considering dismantling the Hamas-led PA.

As Palestinian president, Abbas has the authority to abolish the PA and establish an emergency government that he would head for three months, at which point new elections would be held. Under certain circumstances, Abbas can maintain and lead the emergency government indefinitely, usurping Hamas’ power

Major Hamas-Fatah clashes are feared if Abbas dismantles the PA, said Israeli and Palestinian security officials.

Last month Hamas and Fatah engaged in heavy gunfights in Gaza, Judea and Samaria after negotiations to establish a national unity government between the two appeared to have fallen through.

Even if any Hamas-directed attacks are not carried out, Israel might still conduct a major military operation in the Gaza Strip in the near future, according to senior Israeli Defense Force officers speaking to WND yesterday.

The IDF officers said the Israeli military is set to present battle plans for approval by the government here later this week for a large-scale Gaza offensive. The IDF assault, a version of which includes reoccupying the Philadelphi Route between Egypt and Gaza, is aimed at blocking weapons smuggling routes, confiscating weaponry already transferred into Gaza, halting the rocket-firing at Jewish communities and badly damaging Gaza’s terror infrastructure.

The officials said the offensive is “crucial” for Israel’s security and would be the largest military operation launched against Palestinian terror groups in Gaza since Israel evacuated the territory last year.

The statements follow the regular firing of rockets by Palestinians in Gaza aimed at nearby Jewish communities and continued reports that massive amounts of weaponry have been smuggled into the territory from neighboring Egypt.

Meanwhile, if Abbas indeed dismantles the Hamas-led Palestinian government, there are fears Hamas might target both Israeli and regional United States interests.

A report in Time Magazine this past weekend quoted several anonymous Hamas sources claiming the US was urging Abbas to dismantle the PA. The sources, speaking to Time anonymously, said clandestine meetings were held in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank to discuss the possibility of targeting the US

The report said the Israeli intelligence estimate is that for now Hamas will restrain from targeting the US, but if its government is toppled such restraint could dissipate.

Speaking openly to WorldNetDaily on Sunday, Abu Abdullah, a leader of Hamas’ so-called military wing in Gaza, confirmed the Time report.

“The Americans are supporting Israel unfairly and are playing a leading role in the conspiracy against the (Hamas led) Palestinian government. All Palestinians feel a hatred toward the American government and wouldn’t mind attacks (against it), but for now we are limiting our fight to Palestine,” said Abu Abdullah, who is considered one of the most important operational members of Hamas’ Izzedine al-Qassam Martyrs Brigades, Hamas’ declared “resistance” department.

Abu Abdullah warned to WND that if the Hamas government is “toppled” with the help of the US then “all options are open.”

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.

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.

There it is. There’s not a centimeter that we can call our own. But don’t take Zahar’s word for it. Listen to a speech later the same day.

The occasion was the Silver Anniversary observance of Al-Quds Day, a national festival of protests the length and breadth of Iran, meant as a tribute to the Jewish-occupied Holy City of Jerusalem (Quds in Arabic)

The speaker was Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose opening reference to Israel said that there was no reason for Israel to exist.

“This regime, thanks to God, has lost the reason for its existence,” Ahmadinejad told thousands at a Death to Israel pep rally in Tehran.

“Efforts to stabilize this fake (Israeli) regime, by the grace of God, have completely failed… You should believe that this regime is disappearing,” he said.

In a uniquely Mideastern mirror image of Theodore Herzl’s 1897 prediction that a Jewish state would be founded “Perhaps in five years, but certainly in 50,” sworn enemies of Zionism have begin consoling themselves with the belief that relief from Israel’s existence is just a matter of time.

These days, Jews have begun to suspect the same thing.

The comments of Nobel Laureate Yisrael Robert Aumann, who last week voiced doubts regarding Israel’s long-term ability to survive, have reverberated far from the West Bank college where they were delivered.

“If we don’t understand why we are here, and that we are not America or just a place in which to live, we will not survive,” Aumann told a gathering at the College of Judea and Samaria in Ariel.

“The desire to live like all the nations will sustain us maybe another 50 years, if we are still here.”
Of course, the Death to America types might argue that the United States is no place to live, either.This is probably the point at which I should make my confession. For some reason, all this talk of Death to Israel has fueled my optimism about this place.At play, I want to believe, is what may be called the Herzl Inversion Principle, which states: If you dream it, it will boomerang.”

Around here, where you’re not likely to get what you dream about anyway, things tend to blow up in your face in a way that has all the earmarks of a personal affront.

Just ask the Israeli right, which worked tirelessly for the election of Ariel Sharon, and wound up with the obliteration of all settlements in the Gaza Strip, and the erasure of four in the West Bank.

Just ask the Israeli left, which worked tirelessly for the election Amir Peretz, and wound up with Avigdor Lieberman.

Be careful what you wish for. Or, as Ahmadinejad himself said in the Al-Quds Day stemwinder:

“Don’t complain tomorrow.”
From: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/778763.html

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.

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.

If you think that no Israelis opppose the building of the wall then you are wrong. We would much rather this money go towards helping the poor and homeless in our country, to help with hunger, education, etc. We have plenty of domestic problems that have gone almost completely unaddressed since the inception of the country for the simple reason that if you can’t ensure your citizens are safe, you can’t expect to work on welfare.

No one here wants to starve anyone, Palestinian or otherwise. When you have terrorist orgainzations (excluding Hamas since basically for the past year at the very least they haven’t carried out any acts of terror) threatening to send in terrroists on our holiest of days, sometimes we have no choice but to disallow any of them to enter our country. Even then they get through.

Speaking of Hamas, however, they still don’t recognize our right to exist and still call for the destruction of our country. So while they have temporarily (their words) halted terrorist attacks, they still openly state that we should be wiped off the face of this earth. A large portion of the problems they are having nowadays is because they refuse to recognize Israel and enter peace talks. You can’t possibly expect us to withdraw all our troops and let palestinians get everything without getting anything in return.

We already pulled out of the Gaza strip and misplaced thousands of people. In return we only got more terrorism and nothing in return. So, yes, it was unilateral and it was intended to be, but you’d think one act of good will would be returned with another. It’s the only way peace can be achieved. There is no relationship in the world where one person gives and gives and gives and the other side doesn’t. One will end up breaking up with the other.

As for calling any organization trying to establish their country a terrorist organization, that is true in cases where excessive killing is used as the only means. You’re right about Israel having resistance organizations that assisted in establishing the country. Yes, they also resorted to physical harm, though they went more for blowing up bridges. There were several organizations struggling to help create the state of Israel, and the moment that it was declared these ceased to exist.

The Haganah and Palmach became part of the Israeli army (they didn’t have any terrorist activities anyway – they didn’t believe in violence, those were the Irgun and Lechi), and the irgun and lechi were invited to join israeli forces as well.

Ben Gurion, the first prime minister of israel, almost caused a civil war in the case of Altalena, preferring to shoot his own people (israeli jews) than let them smuggle arms into jerusalem with the sole purpose of attacking arabs. You can read more about that here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altalena

As for Liberman, eyes are wide open right now. The labor party is threatening to leave the coalition if Liberman gets out of line, and Liberman in resopnse has stated that he does not intend on changing the directin the government has been going in.

I can understand the election of Hamas in a way – the Palestinians are desperate for a leadership that will do something, and hamas acted, even if it was by blowing hundreds of israeli women and children to pieces. You think we don’t have hundreds of dead children? you don’t see the pictures because we do not publicize them out of respect for the dead (which, by the way, why open caskets don’t exist in Judaism).

You’re right, the cell phone solution is a band-aid, and not a very effective one. mostly one of those with disney characters on it. My point about that article was that people are trying to take care of the symptoms in order to alleviate the pain as much as possible so that an actual diagnosis can be found and treated.

I await the day where someone will suddenly think up a solution to solve the problems on both sides. I think Israel has a lot to offer the palestinians. thousands of them work in israel anyway, and were the terrorism to end, more would be able to work in our country, which would help them economically.

For years they were the victims of Arafat’s government where the funds they received went to fund themselves instead of assisting the palestinians who needed it for their infrustructure, education, and even food and medications.

Regarding the illegal settlements being built I think they are wrong: they are illegal because the government does not approve either, and you have seen that they have torn them down. yesterday or the day before there was a meeting adn articles about pulling out of those territories voluntarily. i’m not sure i’ve seen it in english, but i can find it for you if you’d like. Most israelis (again, not extremists and fundamentalists) agree that we shouldn’t build these settlements, and if makes you feel any better, we are often perplexed by why people would choose to build those settlements to begin with.

Israelis and palestinians have worked together before, and it saddens me that it is more than anything due to our governments (though i do see the palestinians government more to blame here than ours) that we don’t cooperate more. You can read stories all the time about israelis who donated their family members’ organs to palestinians and vice versa. There’s no reason this can’t go on into other categories as well.

Israelis aren’t anti-arab, which you can see both by our peace treaties with jordan and egypt (not to mention tourism with egypt, and former tourism with jordan until the intifada broke out in 2000), as well as the large amount of israeli arabs.

I think the biggest problem facing us right now is the fact that while israelis accept palestine’s right to exists, our right to exist is still not recognized my most arab and muslim countries, which you can’t deny (i can point you to many sources – from Ahmadinejad to palestinians officials to the hezbollah). I think once our mere existance is accepted and recognized, we will then have some more common ground upon which we will be able to begin building two states for two peoples.  

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. 

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.

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.