Massive rocket barrages launched from Gaza

     

     By launching 600 rockets  in 30 hours from positions within the civilian population of Gaza,    the  terror organizations are committing a double war crime: the targeting of Israeli civilians     while using their own civilian population as human shields. ‎ (Incidentally almost 400 landed     in open areas and nearly 200 were intercepted by the Iron Dome system )

Following sniper attacks on Israeli soldiers that took place yesterday (Friday, 3 May 2019),  wounding of two IDF officers, the Hamas and Islamic Jihad terror organizations initiated today  (Saturday, 4 May) a massive ‎rocket attack of over 430 rockets that were launched on Israeli  towns and villages in southern Israel. Several Israeli civilians were injured in the attacks,  including one fatality. The shelling also caused severe damage to homes and property. In response to the rocket attacks, the IDF targeted terror facilities belonging to the Islamic  Jihad and ‎Hamas terror organizations in the Gaza Strip, destroying dozens of terror targets  including an Islamic Jihad terror tunnel from Rafah, rocket launchers, underground weapons manufacturing facilities and terror ‎training bases. The rockets were launched from positions within the civilian population of Gaza. The terror organizations are thus committing a double war crime: targeting Israeli civilians on the one  hand while using their own population as a human shield on the other. Both terror organizations, Hamas and Islamic Jihad (which acts as an Iranian proxy), are  acting against the interests of the residents of the Gaza Strip and are the main barrier to  the peaceful ‎development of the Gaza Strip. Hamas, which also receives direct support  form Iran, ruthlessly rules the Gaza Strip and bears full responsibility for any attack. This  murderous regime holds the residents of the Gaza Strip captive and endangers their lives. Israel’s Iron Dome anti-rocket system was activated dozens of times on Saturday to intercept  the barrage of rockets launched at Israeli communities from Gaza. Israel will continue to   do its utmost to defend its citizens and ensure their security against the aggression of  the terror organizations controlling the Gaza Strip.‎ The rocket barrages come shortly before a potentially tense month, with Ramadan,  Israel’s Memorial Day and Independence Day, Nakba Day, and the one-year  anniversary of the opening of the American Embassy in Jerusalem. The IDF is also preparing for violence ahead of Eurovision, the finale of which  will take place in Tel Aviv on May 18 with thousands of tourists expected to attend.

How does One Understand This Idiotic Mindset?

D.C. Synagogue will mourn Palestinians, ignore Israeli Independence Day

Stephen M. Flatow..01 May '19..

A prominent synagogue in Washington, D.C., will mark Israel’s 71st birthday by mourning “Palestinian losses” alongside Israeli terror victims, and refrain from holding any kind of Israeli independence celebration.

It’s the latest example of an appalling “both sides” mentality that blurs right and wrong, good and evil, and Israel and its would-be destroyers.

On Tuesday evening, May 7, Israelis—and Jews around the world—will hold solemn Yom Hazikaron ceremonies to remember the approximately 25,000 Israeli Jews murdered by invading Arab armies and Palestinian Arab terrorists since 1948.

But at the Sixth and I Historic Synagogue in the nation’s capital, a different kind of ceremony will be held. Called the “Israeli-Palestinian Memorial Day Ceremony,” participants will gather together for what they describe as “a memorial based on the values of hope, solidarity and non-violence. Hear from Israelis and Palestinians as they share their families’ stories of loss.”

Yes, Palestinian Arabs have been killed in the course of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

But that doesn’t make them all “victims.” And that doesn’t mean they should all be “mourned.” That doesn’t place them all on the same moral level.

In the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs, Israel is the victim and the Palestinian Arabs are the aggressors. Nobody is saying Israel is perfect. No country is perfect. No army is perfect. But we still should be able to make the basic distinction between right and wrong. We still should have enough sense to distinguish between cops and robbers.

( This is a pathetic attempt at moral equivalence without any semblance of understanding of the Palestinian mentality)

ANNIHILATION!

Guest posting from Grandma's army   May 01, 2019 

During the Passover holidays I visited “Jewish” Salonika, the second largest city in Greece and the capital of Macedonia. Since Jews all over the world will be commemorating Holocaust Day tomorrow, we were interested to learn what became of the local Jewish community during WWII. Unbelievably, we were told that 98% of the community perished in concentration camps! 

To compound the tragedy -  the physical extermination of Salonikan Jews was followed by almost total oblivion about the history, influences and accomplishments of the city’s Jews.

The first Jews are thought to have arrived in the region in 513 B.C.E. and remained uninterrupted throughout the Roman and Byzantine eras. However, it was the influx of the 20,000 Jews who fled the Spanish Inquisition in 1492 and found refuge in Ottomon Saloniki, which created an autonomous Jewish city. At least two thirds of the total population were Jewish. Salonika was dubbed “Mother of Israel” and “Jerusalem of the Balkans”.

David Ben-Gurion and Yitzhak ben-Zvi (both former Prime Ministers) visited Salonika in 1911 to study a functioning Jewish society - which could serve as a model for a future state of Israel.

In 1913 the essentially Jewish city was annexed to Greece from the Ottoman Empire. After Greece achieved independence of the Ottoman Empire, it made the Jews full citizens of the country in the 1920’s.

Following the German occupation during 1941-43, the ancient and vibrant Jewish community of Salonika in Greece was completely destroyed.

The Germans  began with the destruction of the largest Jewish cemetery in Europe - desecrating 500 years of Jewish history and half a million gravestones. The desecration of the dead was part of the Nazi’s plan to dehumanize the living. With the destruction of the Jewish cemetery, the Germans swiftly began transporting the Jews of Salonika to the death camps. Human bones and broken tombstones were used as building materials – by the local Greek government, the Germans, the local churches, and members of the community. 

The following picture depicts the beginning of the end in the ironically named Freedom Square. In July 1942, 9,000 starving Jewish men, aged 18-45 were forced at gunpoint by the German occupiers to assemble in the scorching sun to be registered for forced labour.

It was only in 2014 that the silence about the Jews was suddenly broken when the Greek press triumphantly reported the name of the winner of the Nobel prize for literature, Patrick Modiano, a Jew whose origins are from Salonika. 

The present mayor is the first major figure in Salonika to take concrete and symbolic steps to restore the city’s Jewish heritage.

IDF soldier born to Gaza parents commended for excellence

His mother and father moved to Israel 30 years ago and had two sons here, both of whom chose to convert to Judaism and enlist in Israeli military after being encouraged at home; on Independence Day, 21-year-old Sergeant A., will receive a citation of excellence

Korin Elbaz Alush|Published:  04.24.19

He was born to Muslim parents who relocated from the Gaza Strip to Israel some 30 years ago, and in two week’s time - on Independence Day - he is going to be a recipient of a special citation of excellence from the head of his division. Ironically, the family lives in Sderot, a city that has for years been suffering from rocket attacks fired by Gaza militants.  

The 21-year-old Staff Sergeant A., is a career soldier in the Technology and Logistics Division and is currently preparing for an officers' course he is about to start.

His parents moved to Israel when the borders were still open. They managed to successfully assimilate and build new lives over the border where they became parents to two sons, one of whom is Sergeant A. The two boys decided to convert to Judaism and later enlist in Israel Defense Forces.

He began his service supervising military workshops and was later appointed as the head of the planning and development division. In the last few months, before deciding to sign-up for the officer's course, he served as operations officer of his platoon.

"I didn’t think I’d be able to achieve that, it’s a dream come true," Sergeant A., said about receiving the citation of excellence. “Since I became a career soldier, I’ve worked insane hours and tried to do my best. I’m happy that it’s been appreciated because they told me they’re giving me the citation for my hard work.”

The soldier said his parents are also Israeli patriots and his fathers had dreamt about his sons enlisting in the military. "Our parents are very excited about the ceremony," he said, adding that when he told his father he’s going to be an officer, the father broke into tears of joy. "My family is the main source of my strength, to have complete support from them is not a given,” he added.

The sergeant's extended family still lives in Gaza, but he says he’s not in touch with them and would never visit them even if he could. “I barely speak Arabic,” he said. “When the parents speak to me in Arabic, I always answer in Hebrew. I always felt Jewish, and Judaism was an inseparable part of me even before the conversion.” He said he celebrated the Passover at his parents’ house.

The soldiers says he doesn’t try to hide his Gazan roots from either his friends or the military. "It's always accompanied by follow-up questions, but I'm Jewish and Israeli, and proud of myself and my parents who chose to come to Israel."

Arab Writers – Sadat was Right

 ( With thanks to MEMRI   https://tinyurl.com/yyupvffs)

Against the backdrop of U.S. President Trump's March 25, 2019 recognition of Israel's sovereignty over the Golan, and the 40th anniversary of the peace accords between Israel and Egypt, the Arab press, and especially the Egyptian press, published articles criticizing the Arabs' and Palestinians' handling of the conflict with Israel. The writers argued that the "all or nothing" attitude to the conflict, which has led the Arabs and Palestinians to reject every proposed solution, has caused a steady erosion in the proposals presented to them, while allowing Israel to consolidate its control of the occupied territories. They added that the U.S. recognition of Israel's sovereignty over the Golan proved the wisdom of Egyptian president Anwar Sadat's decision to make peace with Israel and thereby regain Sinai, as opposed to the folly of the peace rejectionists, whose obstinacy has left the Golan and Jerusalem in Israeli hands.

a) Ahmad Al-Tawwab, a columnist for the Egyptian government daily Al-Ahram, (Mar 25^th 2019) criticized the Arabs and Palestinians for rejecting every proposed solution to the conflict with Israel out of a misguided belief that, by digging in, they will eventually get the best possible deal. He wrote: "We must reassess the bizarre belief that has prevailed for many years among many Arab politicians and intellectuals, especially Palestinian ones. Opportunities were missed and better alternatives failed to materialize, each subsequent solution offered was worse than the one before”

b) Fatah member and former Palestinian Authority (PA) minister Nabil 'Amr made similar statements in his column in the London-based Saudi daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat (Mar 30^th 2019). He wrote: "Seven decades after the Arabs and Palestinians rejected the [1947] Partition Plan, the question is whether they were right or wrong in doing so. There are different answers. Those in favor of 'all or nothing' still think that rejecting [the plan] was the right decision. But those who believe in agreements and in the principle of 'saving what can be saved' consider this a bitter mistake that led to losses and no gain. The past is past and talking about it will not change it

c) Egyptian author and journalist Salah Montasser wrote in his column in the government daily Al-Ahram (April 1^st 2019): "When Anwar Sadat felt, in late 1977, that the effects of the [1973] war were evaporating, he initiated the peace agreement with Israel. Before making his historic visit to Jerusalem, he visited Damascus and offered [then-]president Hafez Assad to join him in making peace, as he had joined him in making war. But Hafez Assad, as well as [Iraqi president] Saddam [Hussein], [PLO leader Yasser] Arafat, and [Libyan president Muammar [Qaddafi] attacked Sadat's [initiative], and he had to choose between appeasing the rejectionist Arabs or carrying on alone. At the time Egypt was accused of excluding itself from the Arab-Israeli conflict, and these accusations are still being heard today... as though the Arabs were doomed to wage endless war and could not seize an opportunity [to end it], [an opportunity that came] before Israel had built any settlement

d) Nashwa Al-Hofi, a columnist for Egypt's Al-Watan daily (Mar 24th 2019), wrote: "Sadat... attained a victory for my country that restored [its] honor, humiliated Israel and ended its arrogance... He restored Sinai, whereas the other Arab territories we are currently demanding have not been restored. He regained the territory thanks to his foresight... He triumphed over the pen-pushers who do nothing but sit in air-conditioned offices and reject [every proposal] out of ignorance, narcissism or lack of vision. He fought calmly and patiently, insisting that Egypt's flag fly over all of its territory...

United Colors of Bandages: Israel’s Secret Sauce

http://www.thetower.org/7258-united-colors-of-bandages-israels-secret-sauce/  

Jews from 130 countries who speak more than 100 different languages have immigrated to Israel. Nearly 70 years after its founding, Israel is a technological powerhouse, in part because it is one of the most diverse places on the planet, with citizens originating in the Middle East, Africa, Iran, Asia, Europe, and North and South America, and with large numbers of Jews, Christians and Muslims.

One outstanding example of this diversity is a partnership between a Jewish Israeli medic who created a revolutionary bandage and a Bedouin Israeli factory owner who employs women to manufacture it.

Bernard Bar-Natan first started thinking about bandages in the 1980s, a few years after he moved to Israel from Brooklyn. When he enlisted in the medic corps of the Israel Defense Forces, he was shocked to learn that the army’s standard bandages were made around World War II and had not been modified since then. All the bandages had a pad in the middle and gauze strings on each side, and Bar-Natan was taught to grab a stone and add additional bandages over a wound to quell the flow of blood. Not only were these methods unsanitary, they required medics to carry large numbers of bandages.

By the early 1990s, Bar-Natan had a prototype of a new concept. With the help of an Israeli government grant and accelerator program he launched his business, but he lacked a way to mass-produce his Emergency Bandage until he found an unlikely group to help him: Bedouins in northern Israel.

Bar-Natan met Ahmed Heib for the first time in 1996. An acquaintance in the garment industry made the introduction, thinking the two could help each other. Bar-Natan needed a manufacturer for his bandage, and Heib owned a factory. Their initial meeting was awkward. On the surface, the two had little in common: Bar-Natan was a cosmopolitan Jew from Brooklyn, while Heib was a Muslim who grew up in a rural backwater, infamous for its crime and gangs. “He didn’t know who this Ahmed guy [was],” Heib says. Bar-Natan seconds Heib’s assessment: “I thought tailors were only called Mr. Cohen,” he jokes.

Heib, with his low-cost business model and deep knowledge of tailoring, turned out to be the perfect partner for Bar-Natan. Heib initially worked with Bar-Natan through his small factory on the first floor of his house in Tuba-Zangariyya, a town of roughly 6,000 – mostly Muslim Bedouins – near the Jordan River.

The more Bar-Natan and Heib worked together, the more they developed a friendship – especially after two of Heib’s children died at birth. As Bar-Natan’s company grew, so did Heib’s business. He expanded his factory to three floors capable of producing millions of bandages a year. All 50 of his employees are women. “I know that if I didn’t have this factory here, these women would not be working,” Heib says.

Bar-Natan’s bandage has been a success. Today, the Australian military, the New Zealand military and most NATO countries have adopted it. It’s also standard issue for the U.S. Army, the Israel Defense Forces and the British Army. Diversity and innovation go hand in hand, Israeli innovations like the Emergency Bandage are saving lives and making the world a better place.

Second Temple Burial Grounds Looted

By World Israel News Staff

The ancient burial caves on the outskirts of Jericho date back to the Second Temple era, and are apparently part of the extensive burial grounds of the Hasmonean palace uncovered at the site. The cave was recently exposed in the course of landscaping work carried out by local Arab farmers, who rolled tractors over the site to prepare the ground for agricultural work.

Professor Rachel Hachlili of Haifa University’s Zinman Institute of Archaeology, who studied this region, identified these caves as the largest Second Temple-era burial ground in Israel.

Hikers who visited the site over the weekend were appalled by what they found: Human remains were strewn everywhere on the freshly-tilled ground, the catacombs were thoroughly ransacked and looted, and the sarcophagi (burial caskets) that had been resting in the caves for over 2500 years had disappeared.

The hikers were part of the group “Protecting the Eternal,” a new initiative of Regavim, an Israeli nonprofit focusing on land issues. Naomi Kahn, director of Regavim’s international division, said “Protecting the Eternal is an initiative that seeks to protect historical sites that are being erased mostly through looting but also in a targeted way by the PA [Palestinian Authority] through massive destruction to erase evidence of the Jews’ historical ties to the Land of Israel.”

Antiquities theft and destruction of archaeological treasures is rampant – in fact, it has become nearly commonplace  – throughout Judea and Samaria. In this case, ancient catacombs were wiped out by illegal quarrying despite the constant stream of alerts, warnings, and documentation we sent to the Regional Commander for Antiquities in the Civil Administration, the body responsible for law enforcement in the area.

Yakhin Zik, Director of Operations at Regavim: “The loss of our archaeological record and the ongoing failure to protect and preserve our heritage is an incomprehensible disgrace. The government must approve additional manpower and create standards that will ensure the preservation of antiquities and the severe punishment of looters.”

Moshe Gutman, who leads “Protecting the Eternal,” adds: “The time has come for those who make declarations about their commitment to our national legacy to open their eyes to the ISIS-style destruction that is happening all around us. I call upon the Prime Minister to take responsibility. It is inconceivable that a civilized country tolerates the plunder and devastation of word cultural heritage sites.