From Lionheart: Defense of the Promised Land

Genesis 12:3
"I will bless
those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse."

Deuteronomy 30:3
"The LORD your God will put all these curses
on your enemies who hate and persecute you."

That is the promise the people of Israel have when confronted with the people of the Worlds condemnation for their righteous actions in defending their land from the Islamic militants of Hamas in Gaza whose only goal is the complete removal of the State of Israel from its borders so that the land can once again become a desolate Islamic State.

This is a foundational teaching within Islam that all Moslems know and must adhere too, they believe that once a land has been conquered through Jihad and has become an Islamic Nation ruled by Moslems then that land is eternally Islamic and if at any time another people take over rule of the land then all Moslems everywhere must fight Jihad to reclaim rule. A non-negotiable religious tenet within Islam.

Beware Spain because the leaders of the Jihad already have their eyes on Andalusia for its re-conquest, and beware all other Nations that the Jihad is seeking to conquer in today's Global Jihad because once conquered Moslems everywhere must then fight eternally to keep the land which is the legacy we are leaving behind for our children.

Once Islamic eternally Islamic, this is the aim of Jihad (Holy War) and you only have to look at how Islam has spread like the plague across the globe to see that. Spread through Jihad (Holy War) by Mohamed in the 7th Century turning lands and people into dark suppressive Nations. This conquest of lands by Islam has been emulated by all Moslem forces throughout the ages since Mohamed because it is written as a religious obligation on all Moslems into the pages of their holy books through the example that he himself set, with today when we look around us being no different.

Israel is so important and is the number one contention in the Islamic mind for several reasons, (one) It is the land where the Biblical prophets lived their lives, the ones Moslems have stolen to make their religious belief credible who they profess were all Moslem, (two) They believe that Mohamed their false paedophile prophet was taken up to heaven and landed on the Temple Mount where the Dome of the Rock and Al Aqsa Mosque now sit, which is the second most holy place in their religion, (three) After centuries of conflict within the Holy Land it had become an Islamic dominated area so once Islamic always Islamic, so for Jews to now be in control is abhorrent to them so they will fight for eternity to reclaim rule (four) The Jewish people rebuilt their Nation upon the land after 2000 years of exile, so for Jews to now rule the land which houses the second most holy place within Islam is an abomination for the entire Islamic World.

The entire Islamic World wants Jerusalem back under Moslem rule and has the Palestinian people to try and achieve it. Jerusalem is the most Holy place on Earth that has seen history converge upon its soil throughout the ages through Religion and Holy War just as it is today.

Atheists, Agnostics and all other belief systems cannot change the facts no matter how hard they want too and it doesn't matter when they blame religion for all wars, because it is how it is that will never be changed.

Today's contention over there in Israel is one more chapter in the life of the Holy Land that is being played out in our life time. This is the land that God 'Promised' to the Jewish people as their inheritance, a place where they were to return after their exile from the four corners of the World. A piece of soil on the Earth to build as their homeland before the End of humanity unfolds and the truth of the story of mankind is revealed.

(Or do you think there is no story to us and our creation, that we all evolved from germs?)

Hamas in Gaza are just one piece of the Islamic Worlds puzzle as they seek to annihilate Israel, the apple of Gods eye. The Palestinian people and Hamas are nothing more than a tool for the entire Islamic World to use as a proxy army against the common enemy the Jewish people.

A universal teaching within Islam states that their 'End of Times' will not come until the Earth has been cleansed of all Jews, this is why the Islamic world was aligned with Hitler during the Second World War during the Holocaust?

They believe that in the End even the rocks will cry out 'hey Moslem there is a Jew behind me come and kill him'.

So what better thing can there be for the Islamic World than to have an extreme Islamist movement in the shape of Hamas living on the ground in Israel's backyard with which to use to target and attack the Jewish people. Hamas have provoked Israel into this War with them so Israel should destroy them no matter what the cost, or how long it takes, for the sake and safety of their homeland, and then remove all existential threats to their future survival like the Iranian Nuclear project that is looming like a dark storm cloud on the horizon.


If all the Islamic Nations surrounding Israel were that concerned about the plight of those the World now calls Palestinians then why have they not opened up their borders and allowed them to come and live in their lands so that there can be peace in the region?

Its not like there are tens of millions of them that would be hard to integrate into their large Islamic Nations and societies, in comparison we have more Moslems living in Britain now and we are a tiny little Island.

If those Moslem lands around Israel did take in the Palestinian people who are their Arab relatives it would completely defeat the end goal of the global Islamic religion because they would then no longer have a proxy army on the ground in Israel with which to fight the Jews with as they seek to re-conquer the Holy Land and take back Jerusalem.

This is today's War for the Holy Land.


Look back in history and you will see War after War for the Holy Land with control passing through different peoples hands throughout. Amongst those Wars you will see Christian Knights from England and throughout Europe who were forced to take up arms to defend Christian pilgrims from warmongering murdering Moslems in their generation as they sought to travel and experience the place on Earth where God incarnate as man walked the Earth, so why should today be any different?

Of course it is not; the only difference is the age in which we are now living, how the War for control over the land is being fought, and who actually rules the land now.

The Christian pilgrims are still traveling to the spiritual birth place of their religion and it is the Jewish people who are now providing them the security and safety from Moslem aggression and murder, with support from America which is still a beacon of light within Christendom.

Why do you think the Islamic World calls America the Great satan and Israel the little satan. A little like for example, a Bishop on the chess board positioned and supporting the Knight in battle.

Biblical prophecy foretold thousands of years ago is coming to pass in our lifetimes, but if you have never set foot in a Church, never sat under a Christian minister preaching and teaching the Word, and have no concept about the reality and beliefs of Christians that are based upon the Bible then you will never ever see or understand present World events. It doesn't mean that Christians are wrong in their perceptions of what is unfolding because you do not believe it; it means that you have no concept or understanding so are void of the truth.

The Bible tells us that Israel is called the "Promised Land"; it is the land that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob promised to the Jewish people as their homeland.

Through Gods interaction with the Jewish Nation in the Holy Land and their disobedience towards Him as a people, he banished them from the land to be a people living amongst the Nations with no homeland of their own. The Lord God Almighty being a loving God said that in the 'End times', before the final chapter of humanity as we know it would come to a close He would bring them back once again to the land that He had promised to their forefathers. He would gather the Jewish Nation from the four corners of the World back to the Promised Land, which is what has been happening over the last 60 years.

This is exactly what happened after the 2000 year dispersal of the Jewish people on May 14, 1948 when Israel was reborn as the Jewish State.

Now Jewish people from all over the World are making 'Aliya' back to their ancestral homeland, as inheritors of their forefathers promise.

Exodus 6:8
God said to
Moses, "And I will bring you to the land I swore with uplifted hand to
give to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. I will give it to you as a
possession. I am the LORD."

Isaiah 5:13
"Therefore my
people will go into exile for lack of understanding; their men of rank
will die of hunger and their masses will be parched with thirst."

Ezekiel 39:28
"Then they will know that I am the LORD
their God, for though I sent them into exile among the nations,"

Isaiah 66:8
"Who has ever
heard of such a thing? Who has ever seen such things? Can a country be
born in a day or a nation be brought forth in a moment?

Ezekiel 36:24
"For I will take you out of the nations; I
will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your
own land."

Ezekiel 37:21
"I will take the Israelites out of the
nations where they have gone. I will gather them from all around and
bring them back into their own land."

The Jewish Nation have a living story being played out with the Lord God Almighty that has spanned thousands of years as documented in the Bible, with prophecies foretold being played out today in our future time frame of history from when they were first written.

As Christians we too are now a part of that living story after Jesus came into the World as the 'New Covenant' between man and God, giving us a way into the new Kingdom on Earth that leads to eternal life.

The Bible is Gods revelation to mankind, of past, present and future events that are leading up unto the End of Time, and woven into the Book is His plan of Salvation for mans soul which is a simple message of Love and Acceptance that leads to eternal life.

What is happening in the 'Promised Land' is all documented in the Bible, and the more you look and understand, the more you can see because revelation is being played out before our very eyes with Nations aligning themselves against other Nations in the Nuclear age ready for the Great War called Armageddon that is foretold will take place in Israel at a place called Megiddo.

The TV will not tell you this truth about humanities life story taken from the pages of the Bible or educate you on the subject so most people are oblivious to the reality of what is actually unfolding upon the Earth around them. People just see current events as a consequence of different actions, and in the back of their minds hope for the best while leaving the seriousness of reality to others, rather than seeing what is unfolding as a divine plan that has been playing out for thousands of years and then working out what it means to them and their place in that plan before its too late.

Israel and the Jewish State is fulfillment of a 2000 year old promise to the Jewish people and they have turned the land from an inhospitable arid land under Arab Moslem control into a land flowing with milk and honey and made it a safe haven for their people. The only democratic Nation in the middle of vast Islamic lands, and it is their divine right to defend their borders at 'all costs' from 'all'enemies who would seek to remove them from their promise. This includes Hamas in the south who they are now at War with, Hezbollah in the north who they went to War with in 2006 who have now started to send rockets into Israel, and the Islamic Republic of Iran who is the State sponsor supporting both these Islamist terror groups on Israel's borders who is itself seeking to build nuclear weapons with the support of Russia to use against Israel so as to remove the Jewish State from the map and usher in the Islamic End times.

This is the President of Iran's stated goals and beliefs whether you know that or not.

Catastrophe looms but we know how the story ends because it is written into the pages of our Holy Book and it is very clear that the Living Gods hand is upon Israel and its people when the enemies surround her.

Isaiah 41:11-13
"All who rage against you will surely be
ashamed and disgraced; those who oppose you will be as nothing and
perish. 12 Though you search for your enemies, you will not find them.
Those who wage war against you will be as nothing at all. 13 For I am
the LORD, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you,
Do not fear; I will help you.

Read the Old Testament and see for yourself how Almighty God has revealed Himself to the Jewish people and led them throughout the ages, through the good times and the bad times, as they have experienced joy and suffering from being the people He chose to reveal Himself through.

Ezekial 37:27 - 28
My dwelling place will be
with them; I will be their God, and they will be my people.
28 Then the nations will know that I the LORD
make Israel holy, when my sanctuary is among them forever.'

The EU which represents all the Nations that are coming together to make the European Super State is coming out condemning Israel for its righteous actions against Hamas and demanding an immediate cease fire from them.

When Britain and America invaded Iraq and Afghanistan in 'The War on Terror' did Israel demand an immediate cease fire?

I think not; so why should Israel listen to our leaders now?

It is Israel's divine right to secure its borders and make its land a safe place for its people, that is what all peoples from all Nations expect from their leaders so they should be left alone to defeat their enemies no matter what the price or the consequences.

Israel as a Nation is on the front line in Islam's Holy War against our Judeo/Christian civilization so we should all support them as they take the battle to the Islamist movement of
Hamas just like we are doing with Al Qaeda in Iraq and Afghanistan.

We are all in this together even though our leaders seem to be on the side of the Islamists, anything not to upset and inflame the Moslems because everyone knows what happens when they are inflamed; they go into suicide mode!

Europe including Britain is now swamped with the Islamic religion; with thousands of terrorist supporters marching violently on our streets recently against Israel, so how long until things erupt again like on 7/7 and destroying our peace and security in this part of the World?

Here is a short video about the EU's stance on Israel and the Islamic World.

Rockets from the North and South.

Cross posted by Findalis of Monkey in the Middle

As if Israel doesn't get enough rockets fired into her from Hamas, it seems that Hizbollah, embolden by truce talks, is flexing its muscles.

A Katyusha barrage was fired Thursday at the Nahariya area in the Western Galilee. Police reported that two people were lightly wounded and evacuated to the local hospital. Several residents were treated for shock.

Police sappers received reports of at least two rocket hits, one in town and another in the surrounding area.

The rocket in Nahariya damaged several solar water heaters and caused windowpanes to shatter in four buildings in the area.

Residents rushed to take cover in shelters and fortified areas, as children throughout the town were making their way to school.

The Magen David Adom emergency services raised their alert level to the maximum following the attack.

The Home Front Command instructed the residents of Nahariya and the neighboring community of Shlomi to remain indoors and in fortified areas or shelters, while the inhabitants of the Western Galilee communities have been instructed to remain close to fortified areas.

The rockets hit an old-age home. But targeting civilians is ok for Muslims only. Jews may never do this according to the MSM and other Dhimmified outlets of anti-Semitism.

Rocket's landing site in Nahariya (Photo: Ahiya Raved)

Hizbullah's television station al-Manar reported of the Katyusha attack at northern Israel, but did not attribute the fire to the organization.

The IDF shelled the areas in southern Lebanon from which the Katyushas were fired.

Military sources estimated that the attack was carried out by a Palestinian organization and not by Hizbullah, in light of the type of rockets used.

The Northern Command convened for an urgent meeting to evaluate the situation, and will discuss the possibility that the region could flare up if the armed groups in Lebanon decide to launch attacks to show their solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza.

Hizbullah forces have been put on the highest alert level this week, the London-based Arabic-language newspaper Al-Hayat reported on Tuesday.

Earlier in the week Ynet reported that Lebanon was anxiously following the developments in Gaza. According to Al-Hayat, Hizbullah raised its alert level after Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak called up thousands of reserve soldiers and said some of them would be deployed along the northern border.

Reports of truce talks have made Hizbollah rethink their position. They need to show solidarity to Hamas, but are scared that if Israel does destroy Hamas, it will turn its attention towards Lebanon and Hizbollah.

Already talk is that rockets will soon hit Tel Aviv and that the West Bank will be firing rockets into Jerusalem. That will be unacceptable to Israelis on all sides of the political spectrum.

Now is not the time for truce talks, the time of talking is over. Now is the time of fighting. Fighting for one's homes, one's families, one's nation. Now is the time for Israel to once and for all time wipe Hamas out! And God grant Israel the strength to do what it needs to do.

We Are Losing the Global War on Terror

by Roger W. Gardner

What is the Global War on Terror?
The Global War on Terror. Why does the very name we have chosen for this monumental global conflict contain the seeds of our coming failure? The answer is simple. The name itself is prima facie evidence of our inability, or our adamant refusal, to face the hard truth about the real nature of this war. It is yet another example of our willful ignorance and our moral cowardice. Who are we fighting? Who are our enemies? Are we fighting some mysterious group of anonymous terrorists? Who has declared war against us, against the entire Judeo/Christian West? And finally, if we are afraid to even mention the name of our sworn enemy, how on earth can we ever expect to win this bloody war?

The unnamed enemy is Islam. Not some small fanatical group of Islamists, not some zealous band of religious extremists, but just plain, old-fashioned Islam. Islam has unequivocally declared war on the infidels. And we have unequivocally decided to deny the existence of this declaration. By conveniently defining this to be some amorphous "War on Terror", we have deluded ourselves into thinking that it is something altogether different, something far less dangerous and pervasive than it really is. We have denied the existence of the monster who threatens us, and therefore we firmly believe that the monster ceases to exist.

Am I the first to remark on this cowardly game of semantics? Of course not. But despite all these prescient admonitions and warnings, has anything actually changed? Have we become more, or less, willing to honestly confront our enemies? To honestly name the name, Islam, bloody Islam?

On the contrary. As time has passed we have become ever more entrenched in our shameful state of denial. From the President on down we have steadfastly refused to name our adversaries for fear of upsetting them. Consequently, our adversaries grow stronger every day and they mock our weakness and our indecision. Now, ironically, for fear of making waves, we are facing a catastrophic Islamic tsunami.

Where is the War on Terror?
Where is the center of this so-called War on Terror? Iraq? Afghanistan? The entire Middle East? A legitimate case can be made that the center of the War on Terror today is in Gaza. Hamas, the semi-hidden face of Islam, is the personification of the real enemy. The rockets that fall daily on Sderot are the chosen weapons of this war. And how have we in the West chosen to support this War on Terror? We have shamefully blamed the victims. We have publicly admonished the Israelis for fighting this proxy War on Terror for us. We have condemned their efforts in the sanctimonious halls of the EU and the UN. We have passed innumerable resolutions naming the Israelis themselves as the real threat to peace. Yes, if ever there was a perfect paradigm for this War on Terror it must be in Gaza. And we have abandoned our only true ally in this entire blood-soaked region and taken the side of the enemy.

Do we really hate the Jews that much? Is the world's eternal historical antisemitism so pervasive, so potent, that we would rather see Hamas and Hezbollah win? Do we secretly desire to see Israel "wiped off the map"? Do we hate the Jews so much that we would prefer to see Ahmadinejad actually get the bomb? Is our Western Civilization really that crazy? Is there some other logical explanation for our pathetic behavior?

The center of the War on Terror
Islam is the unnamed enemy we have refused to engage. Instead, we seek conciliation and accommodation. We offer compromise and denial. Anything to avoid confrontation. We will go to any lengths to avoid naming Islam as the enemy. This, then, is the true center of our War on Terror. Right here, in the heart and soul of our inglorious Western World. This is our Ground Zero. This is where the great battle has already been fought and lost. Here, in our prestigious halls of government and our great courts of justice, here in our liberal ivy-league universities and our self-congratulatory myopic media. Here, in our recent inexplicable election, an election wherein 49% of the electorate poled firmly believed that our most threatening problem was the economy (stupid), and an incredible 9% believed that it might actually be the threat of terrorism.

The question is no longer whether or not we have the will to prosecute this War on Terror, this War against Islam; we have already proven to our undying shame that we do not have the necessary will. Our only major concern now in this War on Terror has been how to get our troops back home. Exhibiting an adolescent impatience, we don't want to hear about the cost of our withdrawal. We don't want to hear about the consequences of our cowardice. We don't want to hear what the enemy thinks about all this. We just want them home.

Have we truly become a generation of cowards? Do we really fear war more than we fear subjugation? Have the leftists in our midst really won? Have they finally succeeded in producing a generation of self-loathing anti-patriots, America-bashers, who find more in common with our enemies than with their own nation?

Unfortunately, oh, so unfortunately, thus far, all of our actions and inactions, culminating in the moral travesty of our recent elections, seem to say, Yes. - rg
-------------------------------------------------
A note from Radarsite: It seems that I am not alone in my assessment of Islam. In a poll on Radarsite's sidebar titled "Is Islam itself the problem?", 83% of the respondents (414 of 498) answered "Yes." - rg

About that Norwegian doctor in Gaza

Cross-posted by Gary Fouse
fousesquawk



Dr Mads Gilbert



There has been a lot of press attention directed toward a certain Norwegian doctor named Mads Gilbert, who is presently in Gaza treating victims of the on-going war in a Gazan hospital. Dr Gilbert, who is part of the so-called Norwegian Aid Coalition, has been interviewed by the BBC, CNN, ABC, NBC and CBS to name a few. Of course, Dr Gilbert (who can be seen in the photo wearing a Palestinian kaffiya), is quite critical of Israel.

As part of Dr Gilbert's criticism of Israel, he states that to date, he has seen only one or two Hamas fighters who have been killed or injured. All the rest have been civilians. That is an interesting observation given the fact that Hamas doesn't have a uniform to wear. They are dressed in civilian clothes. Of course, that is part of their pattern of hiding behind civilians, making sure that their rocket launchers are situated in the midst of civilian locations like schools, residences and hospitals, and generally making sure that their own people take maximum casualties so that they (Hamas) can play the international press like a violin.

The fact is that the Israel IDF is taking more precautions to limit Gazan civilian casualties than is Hamas-a fact lost on the international media, which is singing the Hamas line.

What the media is also conveniently leaving out is the background of Dr Gilbert. The fact is that Dr Gilbert is a member of the Norwegian Rodt party (Red Party). In short, he is a communist.

Well, what's wrong with that you ask. Isn't the Cold War over? Are we still looking for a communists under every bed? Try this hat on for size: After 9-11, this good doctor cheered. he voiced support for this atrocity committed against the US. His comments were made to the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet.

But perhaps, the network you heard interviewing Dr Gilbert in Gaza didn't tell you that, so that you could know where this man was coming from.

This is what the media is doing, folks-on an international scale. During the American election, didn't we witness the same thing (our media openly taking sides)? Every day, Hamas is going to take the photographers to film the innocent victims that they (Hamas) are helping to create so that we can see them on the front page of every newspaper. They won't show you the innocent Israelis hurt or killed by Hamas rocket fire. As Dennis Prager pointed out on his radio show today, did you ever see a front page photo of any of the slaughtered victims in the Congo? Of course not.

The next time in the coming days that you see or hear Dr Gilbert being interviewed, check and see if the network mentions anything about Gilbert's background.

And The World Turns A Blind Eye.

Cross posted by Findalis of Monkey in the Middle


In the 1930's the world turned a blind eye on to what Hitler's Germany was doing to its Jewish population. Anti-semitism was acceptable in all nations, and the majority of people in most nations wished they could do the same.

Then came the Holocaust and the world was shamed into a more civilized manner. Anti-semitism was the venue for the fridge on the very far right, the neo-Nazis, the Skinheads, the KKK.

Not any more.

For it has raised its ugly head. Not only in Muslim nations where it is state policy, but in every nation in Europe, Canada and now the United States. Outside of Israel, there is no nation in this world that a Jew is truly safe.

Europe:

Assailants rammed a burning car into the gates of a synagogue in Toulouse, in southwest France, Monday night.

A Jewish congregation in Helsingborg, in southern Sweden, was attacked Monday night by someone who "broke a window and threw in something that was burning," said police spokesman Leif Nilsson. And on Sunday slogans, including "murderers ... You broke the cease-fire," were daubed on Israel's Embassy in Stockholm.

In Denmark, a 27-year-old Dane born in Lebanon to Palestinian parents is alleged to have injured two young Israelis last week in a shooting police suspect could be linked to the Gaza crisis. Belgium ordered police in Antwerp and Brussels to be on increased state of alert" Tuesday after recent pro-Palestinian protests ended in violence and arrests.

Jews in the small Strasbourg suburb of Lingolsheim in eastern France woke up Tuesday to find graffiti with words like "assassins" spray-painted on the outside walls of their synagogue. The community filed a complaint for "degradation of a place of worship," the mayor's office said.

Not being satisfied with just protesting, the anti-Semities are turning to looting after their "peaceful" protests.

Great Britain:

The number of anti-Semitic attacks in London has risen sharply following Israel's land assault on Gaza, Jewish community groups said today.

Their leaders have compiled a dossier of attacks against Jews which will be handed to seniors officers in the Metropolitan police.

The attacks include claims of:

• An attempt to burn down a synagogue in north-west London.
• An assault on a Jewish motorist who was pulled from his car and punched.
• A gang of youths chanting anti-Semitic slogans as they tried to enter restaurants and shops in Golders Green.

The Community Security Trust, which is responsible for the safety of Jews in Britain, has also noted the emergence of anti-Semitic graffiti in Jewish areas across London.

Slogans sprayed on walls include: 'Kill Jews' and 'Jews are scumbags.'

The trust has now logged 24 anti-Semitic incidents - most of them in London - in the past week. Police are said to be stepping up patrols in Jewish areas.

On New Year's Eve, a man was pulled from his car just as he was about to drive off and assaulted by three men whom he described as being of Arab appearance.

The victim did not suffer any serious injury. The same night a gang of youths alarmed locals in Golders Green by trying to enter Jewish shops while chanting anti-Israeli slogans.

Joey Ben-Yoav, manager of nearby Met Su Yan, a kosher Chinese restaurant in Golders Green, said: "It was scary. They were waving flags and shouting. It felt like if we went out they would hit us or something.

'They walked past a few Jews and just shouted 'Jew' at them. They did not look like they were in the mood for making peace.'

But I have come to expect that from Great Britain now. They are practically a Muslim nation with the implementation of Shar'ia Law, and no-go areas for Muslims only.

New Zealand:

A memorial monument to prime minister Yitzhak Rabin in Wellington, New Zealand was defaced with red paint during a demonstration on Monday against the IDF operation in Gaza.

According to Web site Stuff.co.nz, about 100 protesters converged at the monument in Lambton Quay, where Wellington Palestinian Group spokesman Don Carson criticized the lack of New Zealand government response, calling it weak and one-sided, and urged it to enter talks with Hamas.

"Let's send a message to our politicians to damn well do something," he said.

One of the demonstrators, Father Gerard Burn, then sprinkled red paint, mixed with a drop of his own blood, on the monument to mark the killing of hundreds of Palestinians and the seizure of their land.

Members of the crowd chanted "They kill, they lie but Palestine will never die", "Allahu Akhbar" and "Free, free Palestine".

I see the Catholic Church is back up to its usual anti-Semitic behavior. The old Kill the Jews chant will probably be standard in Father Burn's church every Sunday now.

View at LiveLeak

Canada:

Ontario’s largest university workers’ union is proposing a ban on Israeli academics teaching in the province’s universities, in a move that echoes previous attempts to boycott goods and services from the Jewish state.

The resolution, proposed by CUPE’s Ontario University Workers Coordinating Committee, is in protest against a Dec. 29 bombing that damaged the Islamic University in Gaza.

“In response to an appeal from the Palestinian Federation of Unions of University Professors and Employees, we are ready to say Israeli academics should not be on our campuses unless they explicitly condemn the university bombing and the assault on Gaza in general,” said Sid Ryan, president of CUPE Ontario.

The resolution is still being drafted but the union said it will seek to prohibit Israeli academics from speaking, teaching or researching at Ontario universities. The CUPE committee will distribute the resolution to its members at the end of the month.

It will be put to a vote at the committee’s annual conference in February.

Why does this not surprise me? Canada which prides itself on civil behavior has turned into a haven for hatemongers and anti-Semites.

The United States:

Chicago:

A bottle of flammable liquid was hurled at one of Chicago's oldest synagogues, catching fire but not causing major damage.

No one was injured in the incident early Monday at Temple Sholom of Chicago.
Chicago police and the Chicago fire department are investigating the arson as a hate crime. No one was in custody Monday.

Police officer Daniel O'Brien says the fire burned itself out and never ignited the North Side building. He says investigators are working to get surveillance equipment from the area.

Roger Rudich, president of the temple, says the arson was unsettling but not damaging.

Rallies in Anaheim, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and other US cities.

And then this:

Subject: `stop the killing` campaign at U.S. synagogues
To: nyprotest@lists.riseup.net
Date: Sun, 04 Jan 2009 08:41:02 -0800
Subject: NO MORE DEMOS

No more demos. No more signs, chants, pithy t shirts. No more marches to nowhere.

And DEFINITELY no more emails to Congress, or heart-felt messages to Change.Gov and Obama, begging the conspirators to stop the conspiracy.

We each one of us is responsible - and we each one of us must take action. We cannot rely on Others to do it for us.

Here is an excellent article, with a detailed list of actions we can take, from James Petras.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21613.htm

I have strongly suggested to many different so-called action groups, that we immediately institute a program of visits to every synagogue in the USA, on Friday evenings and Saturday mornings, and rise in each congregation and - in dignified firm and unemotional voices - repeat “STOP THE KILLING”– We need to go in groups of 3-4, to insure that we have 1 person as a defensive shield, and one as a video camera witness, recording everything.

Jews especially should be doing these actions. We will face harsh treatment, and possibly physical attack, but our message must be resolute and continue week after week.

I see no possible legal impediment to this. The public, and certainly Jews- cannot be barred from entry to the services, and it will be extremely hard for the Synagogues to enforce exclusion. If they do, we can speak on the front steps, on the street, in the parking lot.

The Jews of America must be confronted with their clear responsibility- far more than complicity-in the mass murders, occupation, and forced starvation of the people of Palestine.

And the MSM sees none of this, doesn't report any of this, turns a blind eye.

In 1933 the world turned a blind eye when Germany slid down the slippery slope that led to the Holocaust. In 2009 the world is again turning a blind eye to anti-Semitism in their own lands. The media is giving approval for the rhetoric, the violence. The police half-heartedly investigate, and the politicians in each nation say nothing, do nothing to stop it.

And Jews around the world pray for this cycle to end.




But fueled by groups like CAIR, it will only get worse.

How the Gaza Tunnels into Egypt Work

Cross-posted by Maggie @ Maggie's Notebook

Photo Credit: AP 8/1/2007

A tunnel underneath Rafah. At the end of October 2007, the Israeli military said 70 tons of explosives have been smuggled into Gaza through the tunnels since the Gaza takeover.

I have wondered about the tunnels underneath Gaza into Egypt. How do they work? How could they work. The Telegraph tells us how it goes down in Gaza's Tunnel City:

...deep beneath the watchtowers and fences of Gaza's 10-mile long border with Egypt, a sprawling warren of hand-dug burrows now supplies everything from food, petrol and designer jeans through to guns, drugs and black market Marlboro cigarettes. Tunnel gangs charge premiums of up to 150 per cent on their cargos, raking in tens of thousands of dollars a week and making the excavation business one of Gaza's few growth industries.

"We bring through laptops, clothes, computers, medicines, mobile phones and even people," said Hisham al Loukh, 23, another tunneller. "There was even a bride from Egypt who came through one recently to get married to a man in Gaza."

The first tunnels underneath Gaza's perimeters were dug years ago, when they were they were primarily to smuggle weapons and explosives for use against Israel. But it is during the blockade of the past year that the tunnellers' hazardous craft has really come to the fore. On some estimates there are now up to 500 passageways across to Egypt, mostly clustered around the town of Rafah, which straddles the border.

The tunnels usually surface in the gardens of villas on the Egyptian side of Rafah, where many residents are either sympathetic to the Palestinian cause or willing to lend their properties in return for a share of the lucrative profits.

Each member of a tunnelling gangs, usually working in day and night shifts of 10 men each, earns around $15 per metre of passageway dug, which counts as a decent wage in an area which currently has 80 per cent unemployment. But as even the briefest of sojourns down into one of the tunnels makes clear, it is a risky living.

Entering one requires perching precariously on a makeshift wooden chairlift, which is then lowered down the 30 foot deep shaft by a winch powered by a sputtering petrol generator. As in the Second World War film classic The Great Escape, the tunnel's walls are propped up with makeshift wooden planks, and equipped with ventilation pumps to freshen the musty, damp air at the bottom. Diggers then use small electric drills to carve a path through the thick clay soil, steering their way by hand-held compass.

The media, today, focuses on Israel's closed-border policy during the last cease fire as the catalyst for the tunnel runs - and the cause of a dire humanitarian crisis. Israel say the borders were closed to turn public opinion in Gaza against Hamas.

The speaker in The Telegraph report is a 22 year old male who says he must tunnel to feed his family. When the tunnels cave in, which he says happens often, he holds his breath, waits and so far has made it to safety, but deaths and injuries are not infrequent.

There are also rumours that Hamas rakes in millions of dollars by imposing an unofficial "tax" on all tunnelled goods, although Dr Ahmed Yousef, a senior advisor in Hamas's foreign ministry, denies such claims.

Israel has insisted that if the terrorism against Israel would stop, Gaza borders would remain open.

Tunnel entrepreneurs are now enjoying such good business, however, that they now have a vested interest in the status quo. In recent months a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel has raised hopes that the economic blockade might be eased, but some in Gaza fear that should that ever look like happening, local tunnel owners will sabotage it by paying militants to fire rockets into Israel again.

Norwegian Doctor in Gaza Supported Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.

by Barbara W. Sowell; cross-posted from Faultline USA

Claims by Norwegian Doctor Mads Gilbert that Israel is intentionally targeting Palestinian civilians and not just Hamas, need to be taken with a large dose of salt. Following 9-11 Gilbert supported terrorist attacks on the United States.

The Spectator reports today that last night the BBC TV News featured a “highly partisan report about Gaza” by Jeremy Bowen. The pro-Hamas report failed to mention “a direct hit yesterday by a Hamas rocket on a kindergarten in Ashdod.”

The BBC also failed to tell its viewers that “every single journalist and media utterance coming out of Gaza is controlled by Hamas.”

The highlight of the BBC TV report was an interview with the now famous Dr. Mads Gilbert. Gilbert is the Norwegian doctor who claimed that Israel is deliberately targeting civilians and that “We’re wading in death, blood and amputees.” (See “Norwegian Doctor in Gaza Says This is an All-Out War on Civilians” in today’s Digital Journal)

According to The Spectator, Gilbert isn’t just an innocent long-suffering humanitarian doctor.

Gilbert was presented as just an ordinary doctor. But Gilbert appears not to be just an ordinary doctor. He is a political activist and member of the Norwegian Maoist ‘Red’ party. Not only is he viscerally hostile to Israel and a long-standing activist in the Palestinian ‘solidarity’ movement, but he even supported the 9/11 attacks.

Additionally The Spectator reports that after the attack on the World Trade Center on 9-11, Gilbert not only defended the moral right of “the oppressed” to attack the United States, he also stated that he supported terrorist attacks on the United States.

“If the U.S. government has a legitimate right to bomb and kill civilians in Iraq, they have also suppressed a moral right to attack the United States with the weapons they had to create. Dead civilians are the same whether they are Americans, Palestinians or Iraqis.’ On the direct question whether he supported the terrorist attacks on the United States, Gilbert said: ‘Terror is a bad weapon, but the answer is yes, within the context I have mentioned.”

The Strile Eye reports that Gilbert and surgeon Erik Fosse are currently the only European health care workers on the Gaza Strip and that they are in Gaza on behalf of the Norwegian Aid Commitee (NORWAC).

The Norwegian Aid Committee (NORWAC) states that it is a humanitarian organization that works mainly with health care issues. “Our work is based on the principle of solidarity and equality regardless of religion, race and ethnic belonging.”

Almost all of NORWAC’s projects now center in Lebanon, Palestine, Egypt and Sudan. NPRWAC’s partners include: Palestinian Red Crescent Society - Lebanon branch, National Institution of Social Care and Vocational Training, Rabab al - Sadr Foundation, Marouf Saad Social and Cultural Foundation, Martyr Foundation, Islamic Health Society, Abu Jihad al - Wazir Institute for the Disabled, Palestinian Red Crescent Society,The Palestinian National Authority, Ministry of Health, Palestine Red Cross Society - Syria branch.

The Norwegian Aid Committee (NORWAC) appears to have no involvement with Israel.

 

Technorati Tags: Dr Mads Gilbert,Gaza,Palestinian,Norwegian,doctor,Israel,BBC,Norwegian Aid Committee (NORWAC)

Roland Burris at the Beach

Cross-posted by gary Fouse
fousesquawk


(Tip of the hat to the great Don Martin)


Today, Roland Burris was denied entry to the US Senate.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/blogentries/index.html?bbPostId=Cz8neME9DYOr5Cz34JXBtDpWXHBDX1VI6iJgNSCzDF8ggOm9NtP

A Plea to George Bush and Barack Obama- Speak Out Against Anti-Semitism

Cross-posted by Gary Fouse
fousesquawk


German synagogue 1938



Since I began my blog almost two years ago, I have written often about the topic of anti-Semitism, specifically, my worries that we might be seeing a resurgence of it around the world and even here in the US. With the situation in the Middle East, my fears are increasing. A week ago, right here in Irvine, two local synagogues were defaced with pro-Hamas posters. On December 30, in a pro-Hamas demonstration in Ft Lauderdale, some protesters carried banners that said, "Nuke Israel", while a few taunted Jews with cries of "you need bigger ovens." Add to this the increasing anti-Semitism in many European countries, and what we have is a dangerous situation that may even lead to a second Holocaust. It is high time for our outgoing President, George Bush and our in-coming president Barack Obama to publicly speak out on this issue.

I am exaggerating you say? What do you think will happen to the people in Israel if they are ever overrun by their Palestinian enemies? Of course, that would have to be aided and abetted by the Arab world at large (and, of course Iran with their emerging nuclear weapons), but don't discount the possibility. Who in 1920 would have thought that there would have been a Holocaust in the first place?

Naturally, the above scenario would also require the indifference of America and the Western world to the fate of Israel's Jews. But is that such a far-fetched idea? Clearly, the attitude in Europe is pro-Palestinian. Ironically, only Germany, with its unique history, feels any responsibility to Israel and the Jewish people. In addition, many in America are becoming weary of Israel's efforts to defend itself. Jews are being seen as blind supporters of Israel, though that is not universally the case.

So now, we have blatant expressions of anti-Semitism in Europe, where the small Jewish communities feel threatened and scorned. It should be pointed out that most expressions of hate seem to be coming from the Arab, North African, and other Muslim populations of those countries, but there seems to be no outrage coming from the native populations. And at home, the Israel/Palestinian problem is being exacerbated by increasing expressions of anti-Semitism.

Who are the perpetrators of these acts of hate directed against Jews here in America? In the case of the Irvine synagogues, we don't know. A couple of years back, there were violent rampages in San Francisco and Seattle carried out by lone perpetrators (Muslims) directed against Jews. The press, after the initial reports, quickly buried the stories because of their obvious implications.

On our college campuses we see the problem as well. It is not just the various Muslim Student Unions who are guilty, though I have repeatedly condemned the anti-Semitic speakers they have brought to the UC-Irvine campus. They are aided and abetted by radical, America/Israel-hating professors who actively stir up demonstrations directed against Israel. And make no mistake, these professors are not from the right; they are from the far-left, with few-if any exceptions. As pointed out in the essay I just cross-posted, which was written by Tammi Rossman-Benjamin, universities like the University of California at Santa Cruz are bastions of indoctrination aimed against Israel. Only Jewish students and young College Republicans will speak for Israel-at risk to their grades and their physical safety. What an environment for a young Jewish student to attend college in these days.

That leads to my final point, and I want to say it carefully because I am not looking to whip up feelings against our Muslim communities. I don't want to see violence and vandalism directed toward them or their mosques any more than against Jews. They, however, must understand that whatever feelings they have brought with them from their countries of origin, whether they be based on religion or the Israel situation, must be left at the door. We cannot tolerate a resurgence of anti-Semitism in this country that is even partially fueled by the feelings of immigrants.

True, we in the US are hardly at the point of a 1938 Kristallnacht pogrom, but the warning signs are here. It is time for us as Americans to nip it in the bud. It should start with our national leaders; hence my call for Bush and Obama to speak out in defense of our Jewish citizens. Obama can be especially effective because most of his support comes from the left-and yes, the black community in America is not immune from anti-Semitism either. Someone needs to effectively counter the words of the Louis Farrakhans, Cynthia McKinneys, and Amir Abdel Malik Alis. That would be Barack Obama.

Between George Bush and Barack Obama, they can influence not only their own contituencies, but send a message that even their respective opponents should accept and applaud. The time to do it is now.

Hooray For Pallywood!

Cross posted by Findalis of Monkey in the Middle

Pallywood you ask? What the heck is Pallywood? Where the heck is Pallywood?

Pallywood, a portmanteau (word formed by joining two others and combining their meanings) of "Palestinian" and "Hollywood", is a buzz word that is used by pro-Israel media-watchdog advocates to describe "media manipulation, distortion and outright fraud by the Palestinians and other Arabs. The term has been publicized in part by Boston University professor Richard Landes, as a result of an online documentary video he produced called Pallywood: According to Palestinian Sources, highlighting specific instances of alleged media manipulation. In other words, it means a propaganda lie done by the Palestinians, eaten up by the Main Stream Media as truth and disseminated as the truth by the Main Stream Media.



In Pallywood Landes shows Arab-Israeli conflict-related footage that was taken mostly by freelance Palestinian video journalists. He argues that systematic media manipulation (which he dubs "Pallywood") dates back to at least the 1982 Lebanon War, and argues that broadcasters are too uncritical of the veracity of Palestinian freelance footage. He focuses in particular on the case of Muhammad al-Durrah, a 12-year-old Palestinian who was widely reported to have been killed by Israeli gunfire in the Gaza Strip on September 30, 2000 at the beginning of the Second Intifada. The shooting was filmed by a Palestinian freelance cameraman and aired on the France 2 television channel with narration by the veteran French-Israeli journalist Charles Enderlin, who was not present at the incident. It made worldwide headlines and the conduct of the Israel Defense Forces was heavily criticized internationally, severely damaging Israel's public standing on the world stage. Landes questions the authenticity of the footage and disputes whether al-Durrah was killed at all, arguing that the entire incident was staged by the Palestinians. He asserts that the incident shows that "Palestinian cameramen, especially when there are no Westerners around, engage in the systematic staging of action scenes."

Pallywood



View at YouTube

If this was the only source of truth on the internet, then we would have a lot of work to do alone. But we have a couple marvelous resources at our disposal. One of them is Honest Reporting. Honest Reporting is a non-profit organization dedicated to bring out the truth in what is actually and truthfully happening in the Middle East, specifically Israel.

Honest Reporting



View at YouTube

Another resource is Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA).

From their website:

Founded in 1982, the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America is a media-monitoring, research and membership organization devoted to promoting accurate and balanced coverage of Israel and the Middle East. CAMERA fosters rigorous reporting, while educating news consumers about Middle East issues and the role of the media. Because public opinion ultimately shapes public policy, distorted news coverage that misleads the public can be detrimental to sound policymaking. A non-partisan organization, CAMERA takes no position with regard to American or Israeli political issues or with regard to ultimate solutions to the Arab-Israeli conflict.
The scope of the problem
Inaccurate and distorted accounts of events in Israel and the Middle East are to be found everywhere from college radio stations to network television, from community newspapers to national magazines, and, of course, on the Internet. In recent years misinformation about the Middle East has also surfaced in fashion magazines, architectural publications, encyclopedias, professional reference works, geography textbooks, travel guides, and even dictionaries. Frequently inaccurate and skewed characterizations of Israel and of events in the Middle East may fuel anti-Israel and anti-Jewish prejudice.

How CAMERA works

CAMERA systematically monitors, documents, reviews and archives Middle East coverage. Staffers directly contact reporters, editors, producers and publishers concerning distorted or inaccurate coverage, offering factual information to refute errors. CAMERA members are encouraged to write letters for publication in the print media and to communicate with correspondents, anchors and network officials in the electronic media. CAMERA's combination of rigorous monitoring, research, fact-checking, careful analysis, and grassroots efforts have had a documented impact.

CAMERA has been trying to keep the media outlits honest and truthful in their coverage of events in the Middle East. So far they have had limited success.

The last resource that I will mention is the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI). Many reports here on Monkey in the Middle come directly from them. You know its from them when you see this banner:

If you click on the banner you will get a link back to the report from them.

From their Website:

About Us

The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) explores the Middle East through the region's media. MEMRI bridges the language gap which exists between the West and the Middle East, providing timely translations of Arabic, Persian,Turkish, Urdu-Pashtu media, as well as original analysis of political, ideological, intellectual, social, cultural, and religious trends in the Middle East.

Founded in February 1998 to inform the debate over U.S. policy in the Middle East, MEMRI is an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit, 501 (c)3 organization. MEMRI's headquarters is located in Washington, DC with branch offices in London, Tokyo, Rome, Baghdad, Shanghai, and Jerusalem. MEMRI research is translated to English, German, Hebrew, Italian, French, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, and Japanese.

Three great resources for the truth against the lies of Pallywood and Arab media. With the help of Honest Reporting, CAMERA, and MEMRI, we all should be able to counter the lies that are being disseminated by Pallywood.

Now here is where you come in. Get informed about the truth. Tell others about the truth. When you see false information on the news, contact them with an e-mail with the truth. If enough of us do that, the lies of Pallywood will be seen as what they are lies and lying propaganda.

To contact the Media here are some useful links:

Television

CNN on their website
Fox News can be contacted by email: yourcomments@foxnews.com,
CBS News has a form at the bottom of their website that you can use.
NBC News has a comment page for NBC and MSNBC news.
ABC News has a comment page for its news service.

Print

The New York Times has a comment page.
The Washington Post has a comment page for both its on-line paper and regular paper with phone numbers for both.
The LA Times can be contacted by email: readers.rep@latimes.com
Chicago Sun Times has a contact page with its address and phone number.

You are now armed with the facts, lets all get out there to make the media tell the truth and not push the lies.

Hamas Suffers and Hizbollah Remains Quiet.

Cross posted by Findalis of Monkey in the Middle




For all its ranting and raving, Hizbollah has kept very quiet these last weeks.

Thousands of supporters of the militant Hezbollah group swarmed Beirut's southern suburbs Friday, demanding Israel lift its blockade of the Gaza Strip.

The Hezbollah's supporters, including black-clad Shiite women with their children, waved flags and carried banners denouncing the Gaza blockade as they marched in the neighborhoods devastated by Israeli airstrikes in the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war.

Chants of "Death to America" and "Israel is the enemy of Muslims" rang out from the crowd.

The protests were in response to a call by Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah to people across the Arab and Muslim world to help end the siege and support the Palestinians in Gaza.

Full Story

Yet there hasn't been a repeat of the 2006 War between Israel and Hizbollah. It isn't due to the UN and their fake Resolution 1701. The resolution that Hizbollah has repeatedly violated with UN support and help. It isn't because they now recognize Israel's right to exist. And it isn't because they have no real fighters left.

The real reason that Hizbollah, a group aligned with and funded by Iran, is not attacking Israel is that they might be too overstretched and cannot wage the same war with Israel that they did in 2006.

The Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia has taken root in South America, fostering a well-financed force of Islamist radicals boiling with hatred for the United States and ready to die to prove it, according to militia members, U.S. officials and police agencies across the continent.

From its Western base in a remote region divided by the borders of Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina known as the Tri-border, or the Triple Frontier, Hezbollah has mined the frustrations of many Muslims among about 25,000 Arab residents whose families immigrated mainly from Lebanon in two waves, after the 1948 Arab-Israeli war and after the 1985 Lebanese civil war.

An investigation by Telemundo and NBC News has uncovered details of an extensive smuggling network run by Hezbollah, a Shiite Muslim group founded in Lebanon in 1982 that the United States has labeled an international terrorist organization. The operation funnels large sums of money to militia leaders in the Middle East and finances training camps, propaganda operations and bomb attacks in South America, according to U.S. and South American officials.

U.S. officials fear that poorly patrolled borders and rampant corruption in the Tri-border region could make it easy for Hezbollah terrorists to infiltrate the southern U.S. border. From the largely lawless region, it is easy for potential terrorists, without detection, to book passage to the United States through Brazil and then Mexico simply by posing as tourists.

They are men like Mustafa Khalil Meri, a young Arab Muslim whom Telemundo interviewed in Ciudad del Este, Paraguay’s second-largest city and the center of the Tri-border region. There is nothing particularly distinctive about him, but beneath the everyday T-shirt he wears beats the heart of a devoted Hezbollah militiaman.

“If he attacks Iran, in two minutes Bush is dead,” Meri said. “We are Muslims. I am Hezbollah. We are Muslims, and we will defend our countries at any time they are attacked.”

Full Story

Iran and through its proxy, Hizbollah, has made it no secret that they have been aiding rebels, Muslims and drug lords in South and Central America in an attempt to disrupt American interests. Take the tractor plant Iran built and has manned in Venezuela.

Iran is pursuing increased political and economic cooperation with Venezuela and Sudan as part of a series of calculated foreign policy moves that looks certain to exacerbate an already tense stand-off with the Bush administration.

Faced by growing pressure from the US, Britain and other European countries over its nuclear activities, Tehran is anxious to win international support for its position. High-level meetings have been held in recent weeks with Russia, China and numerous Arab and Muslim states.

"We have intensified our diplomatic activity to explain the situation to other countries," Hamid-Reza Asefi, the Iranian foreign ministry spokesman, told the Guardian.

But Iranian cooperation and investment in Venezuela, which is led by George Bush's tormentor-in-chief, President Hugo Chávez, and new business ventures with Sudan, where the US has said genocide is taking place, may be viewed as a bridge too far in Washington. It regards all three countries as "rogue" states.

"Our relationship with Venezuela has improved a lot," Mr Asefi said. "We have good cooperation in construction, oil and gas, and in infrastructure projects. Our people are busy there making houses, roads, dams and in transport."

There were about 100 Iranians working in Venezuela, Mr Asefi said, providing "know-how and knowledge". Both countries are significant oil producers and members of Opec. Iranian officials have estimated that actual and planned investment in Venezuela could ultimately total $9bn (£5bn).

Mohsen Shaterzadeh, deputy industries and mines minister, said this week that the two countries had finalised an agreement to build a giant car plant in Venezuela. Iran will have a 51% stake in the project.

Tractors are another of Iran's strengths. Mohsen Khadem Arab-Baghi, who heads the Iran Tractor Manufacturing Company, said the company is expected to make up to 30,000 tractors by March 2007. Though its products are exported to 30 countries, "our greatest target market is Venezuela, which accounts for $85m of our tractor exports," he said.

Full Story

Iran is not known for its tractors, on the other hand, one of my South American sources who has lived in that area said about it:

I never could figure out why a huge Iranian tractor factory was in the least agricultural state of Venezuela, but very close to the jungle with it's uranium deposits. They brought in hundreds of Iranians and their families to work there. We were the only non Venezuelans in the town besides the Iranians.

Hundreds not just 100 of Iranian workers in an area with very little agricultural production, near the jungle and more importantly, near uranium deposits. Any guesses on what they really were doing there?

Hizbollah lost between 10,000 and 20,000 fighters in 2006, they are spread through out Europe, Asia, South and Central America, Mexico, Canada and the US. There are hundreds of "sleeper cells" in Europe, Canada and the US alone. And is it any wonder to all why Hizbollah is watching what is happening in Gaza to Hamas, and wondering if it can survive an onslaught from Israel again.

Hamas Terrorists

Cross posted by Findalis of Monkey in the Middle



The daily update from the IDF

View at YouTube

IAF planes have recently targeted dozens of tunnels used by the Hamas terror organization, located along the Rafah border. The Hamas tunnel network is used for the smuggling of weapons, for the movement of Hamas terror operatives from the Gaza Strip and back, and is an integral part of the operations in which Hamas purchases and is supplied with weaponry. During the operation, IDF forces hit dozens of terror operatives.

The aerial and artillery forces also assisted the Ground Forces by attacking armed gunmen approaching the Ground Forces and striking launching areas from which Hamas fired rockets at the IDF and at Israeli civilians.

In addition, the IAF attacked over forty additional targets throughout the Gaza Strip. These targets included a tunnel rigged with explosives, a number of weaponry storage facilities, among them houses of Hamas terror operatives– one of which housed an underground tunnel, a number of weapons manufacturing sites, rocket launching areas, and a rocket launcher itself.

Also today (Jan.4), 80 trucks with humanitarian aid were transferred into the Gaza Strip via the Kerem Shalom crossing.

More than 30 rockets have been launched at Israel since this morning, landing in heavily populated areas and damaging a number of structures, including a kindergarten in Ashdod, which was closed at the time by the Home Front Command due to the rocket attacks perpetrated over the past week by Hamas.

IDF Artillery and Helicopters Strike Hamas Terrorists Involved in Gaza Fighting 4 Jan. 2009

View at YouTube

Famous "Overreactions" in History

Cross-posted by Gary Fouse
fousesquawk



Israeli Army invades Gaza 2008




Normandie Invasion 1944




Japanese surrender to Allies 1945




Charles Manson arrested




Liberation of Kuwait




Berlin defeated 1945

Ethics Training in Illinois

Cross-posted by Gary Fouse
fousesquawk


William Ayres
Distinguished Professor of Education
at University of Illinois at Chicago


It has been announced that 200 Illinois State Government employees will be attending an ethics seminar at the University of Illiois at Chicago this week. Speakers from Governor Rod Blogoyech's office will be participating. At first glance, this seems to be a good thing-ethics training for an entity that apparently is in dire need. Of course, I may have noted a smirk from some of you at the mention that some of the speakers will be from the Governor's office. It goes deeper than that, however.

I have never been in politics-and never will be. However, I have spent almost 30 years in law enforcement, and I can say with total honesty that I never took a dime that didn't belong to me. I don't need any lectures on ethics from anybody.

During my career in law enforcement, while 99% of the people I worked with were honest, there was an element of corruption-as there inevitably is. A handful of the agents I worked with in DEA's Los Angeles office went to prison for corruption. It has led me to look at this issue of corruption with a certain perspective, and I should add that corruption must be discussed within an American perspective because in many poorer countries, corruption plays a different role within that country's culture. (For example, when I worked in Thailand, there was quite a bit of corruption with the Thai police-in a nation where the average cop made about 30 dollars a month.) While not condoning it, we understood it and tried to work around the problem by identifying counterparts we could work with.

The point I am leading to is that in America, if you show me a corrupt cop, I will show you one that was (in 99% of the cases) dishonest when he or she was hired. I cannot say with certainty if that percentage would hold in politics. In law enforcement, however, I feel the blame lies in the hiring. You cannot teach ethics and honesty to an adult who is already corrupt and dishonest. Law enforcement hires are supposed to undergo an extensive background investigation. That is where you concentrate. For those who slip through, punishment against public corruption should be draconian (firing and prosecution).

Similarly, when I was teaching at Concordia University in Irvine a few years back, all teachers had to go through a mandatory sexual harassment training course. To me, it was an insult. The onus should be on the institution to hire quality people who are not so inclined. You can give them all the material with the rules and regulations you want, but if that person is so inclined, it is going to happen.

So back to the Illinois training program, which, if I am not mistaken, is already compulsory. Is this going to eliminate the problem? Hardly. More likely, it will just make the state look good-at least on paper. Until the state of Illinois cleans up its act, with help from a stern legal system, and uses more care in selecting its employees, the problem will continue.

Final point: Let it not be lost on us that the seminar is being held at the University of Illinois at Chicago. That is where ex-Weather Underground bomber William Ayres is a "Distinguished" professor of Education. When it comes to the issue of faulty hiring, is this not ironic to say the least?

Looks like a case of the pot teaching the kettle how not to be black.

Lies, Lies, and More Lies!

Cross posted by Findalis of Monkey in the Middle




Hamas and its supporters are becoming the Masters of Lies. In Islam lying is not a sin, but permissible:

In the Hadith, Mohammed emphasizes the same concept. From "Ehiaa Oloum al-Din," by the famous Islamic scholar al-Ghazali, Vol. 3: PP.284-287:

One of Mohammed's daughters, Umm Kalthoum, testified that she had never heard the Apostle of Allah condone lying, except in these three situations: 1) For reconciliation among people. 2) In war. 3) Amongst spouses, to keep peace in the family.

And Hamas claims it has been at war with Israel (whom they call the evil Zionist entity) since their foundation.

The Hamas Charter

So I shouldn't be surprised to see this story:

The Hamas terrorist organization announced Sunday that it had kidnapped two Israeli soldiers in the first stage of the ground invasion of IDF troops into Gaza.

The statement, made to foreign television stations, is totally untrue, according to the IDF Spokesperson's Unit, as was the statement Saturday night that 10 IDF soldiers had been killed in the first assault.

Propanganda and disinformation is an inherent part of the psychological warfare used by Hamas to weaken the Israeli resolve, said Israeli officials. It is gamble used in the hope that news services will pick up the report and disseminate it before the truth becomes known. The goal is to confuse and frighten the Israeli readers and break their determination to continue the operation.

The Reuters news agency apparently did not bother to check the facts before its initial publication of the Hamas statement, nor did it include a counter-statement from the IDF confirming or denying the veracity of the claim.

During the 2006 Second Lebanon War, a Reuters staffer was caught faking a photograph of damage from IDF bombing in a Beirut suburb to make it appear as though Israel has massacred the neighborhood instead of using pinpoint surgical strikes as it had. The staff member was reportedly dismissed.

Full Story

Why am I not surprised to see that Reuters not checking out a story. The once noble news agency has sullied itself down to a mockery of its earlier self. In 2006 it published a faked photograph by Lebanese freelancer Adnan Hajj. Not only was that photograph was faked, but it turned out that the majority of his photographs and stories were all faked.

The truth is vastly different in this case:

Golani troops and IAF helicopters foiled an attempt by Hamas to kidnap a solder in a tunnel near Gaza City Sunday morning. The IDF refused to comment on the report.

The incident was said to have occurred after Golani troops entered a Hamas command center in a house on the eastern outskirts of Gaza City and discovered smuggling tunnels underneath. A clash broke out between the troops and Hamas terrorists, who began to drag away one soldier, according to Israeli and foreign media.

Helicopter cover and efforts by his comrades forced the terrorists to release the solider. The IDF refused to discuss the incident, saying it would not comment on "rumors," but its spokesmen on Sunday denied a Hamas claim to the media that it had kidnapped two soldiers. The denial was issued after Reuters published the report, and the source of the claim may have been the clash that was not reported until Monday morning.

Full Story

But we should expect the lies. The lie of the Siege of Gaza. The lie of the starving children. The lie of thousands of civilians killed. 51 dead is not thousands. Pretty soon Hamas will be claiming that hundreds of thousands have died, they have captured a whole company (including their support personal), and that none of their fighters thugs have been killed.

I'll let the videos speak for themselves:

From Elder of Ziyon

Gettin' Mighty Crowded




View at YouTube


Save the Gazans




View at YouTube

You have the facts in front of you, make the right call.


http://www.suntimes.com/news/blogentries/index.html?bbPostId=Cz8neME9DYOr5Cz34JXBtDpWXHCz4voh4V3G9VJCz1Si0a0A9hBP