How Truthful Are UN Reports?

On October 30th, 2009, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon released a report to the UN Security Council in which he said the United Nations took the Israeli allegations about weapons smuggling to Hezbollah seriously, but lacked the ability to independently verify the information. Ban wrote in the report, that the Lebanese government had not informed the UN of a single incident of weapons smuggling to its territory. Michael Williams special envoy for the UN denied knowledge of alleged arms smuggling to the Hezbollah in Lebanon.

In the UN Report it fails to mention that on October 13th 2009 after a tip-off from Israeli intelligence the German freighter Hansa India was discovered carrying Iranian arms and ammunition hidden within containers destined for Lebanon, the Berlin government ordered it to sail straight to Malta where the containers were unloaded and found to contain the Iranian arms.

A mere two days after the publication of the report early Wednesday morning Nov. 3rd, 2009, the cargo ship Francop sailing under an Antiguan flag was stopped by the Israeli Navy some 100 miles west of the Israeli coast near Cyprus in rough seas. The Commander of the Israeli frigate asked permission from the ships captain to board the ship for inspection in accordance with UN Resolution 1701. Once the sailors were invited on board they inspected several suspicious containers and discovered they contained a large hidden consignment of Iranian weaponry bound for Lebanon and the Hezbollah. At a news briefing on Wednesday Nov 4th, 2009, the Israeli Navy commander Brig.-Gen Ronnie Ben-Yehuda acknowledged the interception at sea.

It has been revealed that Iran's national shippers, loaded the Iranian ship, Visea, formerly called “Iran Zanian” and is owned by the official Iranian shipping Corporation IRISL, either at Bandar Abbas or Bandar Imam Khomeini in Iran. It had set sail from Iran under the watchful eye of US and Israeli satellites on the 14th of October 2009. The Visea next docked at Jabel Ali in Dubai on the 18th of October. The Visea headed out of the Straits of Hormuz and into the Gulf of Oman shadowed by the guided missile cruiser USS Anzio of the US Navy's Task Force 151 under the command of Rear Adm. Scott Sanders. The purpose of this task force is to prevent piracy and to monitor Iranian arms smuggling. It has been reported that Israeli military intelligence were also kept informed of the Francop's movements by the Task Force, including the projected times of its passage through the Suez Canal and arrival in the Mediterranean. It has been assumed that both Tehran and Hezbollah expected it to be seized, although they did not know by whom.

The Iranian ship sailed into the Gulf of Aden and around the Saudi Arabian peninsular and through the Red Sea and entered the Suez Canal, reaching the Egyptian port of Damietta on Monday, Oct. 26, 2009. It has been assumed that the Egyptian Navy monitored the arms ship as it passed through the canal to the Mediterranean. However the Egyptians allowed the arms shipment to be offloaded from the ship at the Egyptian port and left for trans-shipment on the docks. The Visea immediately left for the British port of Felixtowe after unloading the containers and from there to Hamburg, Germany. It has been reported that after the seizure of the illicit cargo an international operation to apprehend the Iranian ship Visea was instigated.

The Francop, a German-owned ship operated by a Cypriot company that serves as a “feeder ship,” a ship used to shuttle cargo between regular ports of call, docked at the Egyptian port of Damietta on Nov. 1, 2009. Iran has taken to using these commercial "feeder" vessels such as the Francop to disguise its vast traffic of illicit arms to Lebanon. Ships that sail frequently on regular tours around the Mediterranean ports are less likely to arouse attention. It is by this route of deception that Iran has supplied Hezbollah with thousands of tons of arms and ammunition in the last few months. The route of the Francop begins at Damietta, thence to Limassol in Cyprus and from there to the ports of Beirut, Lebanon, Latakia, Syria, and back. The containers and their hidden weaponry, which had stood on the Egyptian controlled docks for five days, were placed on board. Neither the owners nor the crew knew about the concealed arms cargo in the containers, which had no mention of the weaponry in the ship's manifests. These fictitious documents, which were never checked by the Egyptians, were left behind together with the containers by the Iranian Visea before her departure.

The Francop then set sail from the Egyptian port of Damietta with 300 containers, in which some 50 of them had hundreds of tons of Iranian arms for Hezbollah hidden inside them. Under the watchful eye of both US Naval Intelligence of the Sixth Fleet and by Israeli Intelligence and Israeli Navy warships. It was decided not to take any action at that time because of the ongoing joint US Israeli “Juniper Cobra” military exercise. American and Israeli commanders agreed to hold off seizing the ship until a few hours after the two-week war game ended on Tuesday the 3rd of November. Furthermore the US Chief of Staff was forbidden to embark on direct military action against an Iranian target on direct instructions from Washington. The American administration was fearful of provoking a fresh crisis with Tehran and they were reluctant to act openly so long as nuclear negotiations are still in progress.

Therefore the Israeli government realizing the importance of the Intelligence reports decided to act alone in order to prevent the weaponry reaching Lebanon and Hezbollah. After the inspection at sea by the Israeli Navy and the discovery on board of hidden weapons the ship was ordered to set sail for the port of Ashdod.

Upon arrival it's load of containers were unloaded and searched and some 50 containers were found to be secretly carrying a large consignment of arms concealed between sacks of polyethylene pellets.

What was found was some 500 tons of smuggled arms included boxes of 7.62mm ammunition for the hundreds of Russian made AK-47s assault rifles, hand grenades, 122mm and 107mm Katyusha rockets, Iranian manufactured 120mm, 80mm and 60mm mortar shells and anti-tank missiles inside the containers!

Though US-Israeli intelligence and naval cooperation has made it increasingly more difficult for the Iranians to smuggle arms to the Hamas and Hezbollah, Tehran continues to mask their shipments of weaponry as civilian merchandize - hoping to draw less attention to its deliveries.

In his interview after the capture of the illicit arms shipment Brig. Ben-Yehuda related how this latest consignment was a much larger and deadlier amount of weaponry than that carried by the Palestinian arms ship Karin-A. The Palestinian owned ship was intercepted on September 12th, 2002 in the Red Sea by Israeli forces in Operation Noah’s Ark.

It was later proven, from documents captured in the Israel operation "Defensive Wall" – Homat Magen against the “Palestinians” in the Palestinian Authority Offices in the “Muhkater” in Ramala. That Arafat personally authorized the use of $15 million dollars taken from UN and EU funds earmarked for the improvement of Palestinian infrastructure to purchase the 50 tons of equipment on the Karin-A. These weapons included Katyusha rockets, mortars, sniper rifles, bullets, anti-tank mines, anti-tank missiles, as well as over two and a half tons of pure explosives.

The Negation of Israel and Zionism

After having read the recent E-mail article by Carlos (1) I found it necessary to mention two items of concern for those who believe in Israel, Zionism and the right of the Jewish people to a land of our own.

But ah! what once has been shall be no more!
    The groaning earth in travail and in pain
Brings forth its races, but does not restore,
    And the dead nations never rise again. (2)

There exists a hideous new trend in the on going propaganda war of misinformation by the “haters of Israel”-Hebrew-“ Sonea Yisrael”. I have given these abject haters of Israel in the 'Talkback" dialogues the Hebrew term to describe them for what they are pure and simple. I have encountered these “Haters” countless times on the Haaretz.com Israeli newspaper in English web site.

These "Talk-backers", who come from all over the globe, utilize almost every possible ‘Talkback’ article to spew out such extreme hatred and baseless lies to demonize Israel  that naive readers who do not have the factual historic background will begin to believe their lies and misrepresentations of truth and historical fact.

Take for example former president Jimmy Carter's label ‘Apartheid’ that he applied to the Israeli society, government and its successful security policies. This ‘branding’ of Israel with the term of Apartheid, a mark of Cain to the Liberals and the ‘Leftists’, has sweep through the ‘Haters of Israel” camp like a wild fire.

 “Anathema maranatha! ! was the cry
    That rang from town to town, from street to street;
At every gate the accursed Mordecai
    Was mocked and jeered, and spurned ”(2)

They use the offensive term every chance they get to demean Israel in front of others as well as irk those who support Israel. They enjoy waving it as a ‘red flag’ to taunt and intimidate.

The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs has failed miserably so far to counter Carter’s and the ‘Hate Camp’s” usage of the term ‘Apartheid’. There is a crucial need to fully explain the abject necessity of the road blocks and the security wall which are essential and have proven to be highly successful in curbing homicidal suicide bombers. This new cry of “Apartheid” has become the newest rallying cry and ‘racial’ slur against the right of all Israeli’s to provide for their self defense. This ‘labeling’ is derogatory and it is meant to stir hatred and animosity among the naïve readers.

In addition to what the article says of the Palestinian Authority and their backers going all out to negate the basis of the right of the Jewish people for a Jewish State. They are proceeding with a 'full court press’ to undermine the basis for Zionism which they term as a "cancer" in the heart of the Middle East.

Not only do they now deny the Jewish people our existence as an entity they are working full time in their propaganda war to debase the existence of the "right" of the Jewish people to the land.

A sterling example of which is the story of a deserted nearby "Palestinian" village known as Suhmata, located three kilometers to the east of my home, here in Ma’alot. I came upon their 'story' by chance when I went into Google Earth with my youngest son. It seems that in their web site, which is linked to Google Earth, is part of the "Palestine Remembered" network.

These refugee "minorities of the mandated areas", (as the Arab inhabitants are called in Article 2 of the Mandate for Palestine) are exerting their ‘right’ to the “Land of Canaan” that “predates” the Jewish claim to the ‘Land of Israel’ in their site they state that,“Suhmata, … was a Canaanite village”. Therefore as ‘true descendants of the Canaanite people their ‘right’ to the land predates the Jewish claim to the “Land of Israel”. The hidden connotation behind their wording is that the Jews=Ancient Israelites are and have always been conquers and invaders and usurpers of the ‘Canaanite=Palestinian People’.(5)

Furthermore they continue to erase any vestige of Jewish linkage to the site by denying the origin of the name Suhmata, “…its name originates from Syriac and means light and sunrise.”

What the authors of the above text neglect to mention is that the village of “Suhmata” was originally a Israelite settlement by the members of the tribe of Asher from before the sixth century BCE. A series of excavations was carried out in the upper mound beginning in 1922 by members of the Royal Society of Archaeologists. In their excavation they uncovered coins, pottery shards and a mosaic located in a synagogue which was removed to the Royal Museum in London.

In their site, Suhmata, they claim, “Its known history starts from the Persian attack of 612-627BCE  and that . This attack destroyed the village and its location was changed from the northern to the southern mound.” Their own statement gives the Hebrew name for the site,  שומםor Desolation as it was a Israelite village destroyed by the Babylonian invasion as proven in the dig.

With regards to Suhmata- "Foundations and ruins, some drafted stone, one rock-cut tomb filled with rubbish; probably a Crusading Village This village divided into two distinct quarters occupies two hills near each other, between which is a great birket, partly cut in the rock and partly built. on of these hills is crowned by the remains of a fortress flanked by towers and built with simple rubble; it contained several subterranean magazines, a mosque and various chambers. The foundation is attributed to Dhaher sl Amer It is now three parts demolished and on the place where it stood grow vines and tobacco."- Guerin 1870 page 192 The Survey for Western Palestine

In addition to which the prologue of Josephus’s book Antiquities of the Jews - Book V states:

“How Joshua, the commander of the Hebrews, made war with the Canaanites, and overcame them, and destroyed them,(!) and divided their land by lot to the tribes of Israel.” Furthermore Josephus relates “So Joshua took both Eleazar and the senate, and with them the heads of the tribes, and distributed the land to the nine tribes, and to the half-tribe of Manasseh, appointing the dimensions to be according to the largeness of each tribe.” “The tribe of Asher had that part which was called the Valley, for such it was, and all that part which lay over-against Sidon. The city Acre belonged to their share, which is also named Actipus.”  

This division and destruction of the Canaanites occurs during the time of Joshua Ben Nun approximately 1254BCE-1204BCE. So if the Bible and Josephus tells us that all of the “Canaanites were destroyed” then exactly pray tell just who are these “Palestinians”?

I also wondered just how these “Falestinians” explain away the injunction that the Lord placed on Jacob and Essau to take Canaanite wives and instead Esau marries two wives, both Hittite women, that is, locals, in violation of Abraham's (and God's) injunction not to take wives from among the Canaanite population. In the Book of Genesis Chapter 26:

34 And when Esau was forty years old, he took to wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite.

It should be noted that Josephus Flavius speaks of Titus leading a Cohort of Asyrian cavalry in 66CE that swept up towards Giscala (Gush HaLav), headquarters of Yohanan ben Levi one of the chief commanders of the revolt against Rome,“Vespasian sent against them Titus, with a thousand horsemen” (3)(4) “Placidus, who was come with two cohorts of footmen, and one troop of horsemen, and was sent thither by Cestius Gallus to burn those villages of Galilee that were near Ptolemais.”

Furthermore, Josephus relates how they destroyed Jewish settlements on the way prior to the assault on Jotapata-Yodfat HaGalil in today’s Gush Segev region. Josephus knew the story well since he was the commander known as Joseph ben Matthias.

Josephus further mentions that the Galil was full of Jewish life prior to the revolt against Rome in 66 CE: "…now there are two hundred and forty cities and villages in Galilee”. Book One 46.

This newest ploy by the Palestinian apologists is a major undertaking being pressed by Palestinian Academics, many of whom are descendants of the refugees who fled the “Nakbah” or “tragedy of expulsion”. These same Arab academic apologists are trying their best to equate their story to that of the Holocaust. Their total effort can also be reflected in the article Forsaking Israel by Anne Bayefsky,  

In her article she relates the story of how the;”…United Nations outdid themselves again at the annual U.N. Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.”

In conclusion we who back Israel and the right and need of the Jewish people to a land and home of our own must speak out now and demand our equal rights loudly and clearly.

In the years before the Balfour Declaration, a member of the House of Lords asked Chaim Weizmann, "Why do you Jews insist on Palestine when there are so many undeveloped countries you could settle in more conveniently?"
Weizmann said: "That is like my asking you why you drove twenty miles to visit your mother last Sunday when there are so many old ladies living on your street."

(1) http://www.peacewithrealism.org/headline/ominous.htm

(2) The Jewish Cemetery at Newport Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)

(3) Josephus Flavius The War Of The Jews, Book IV, Chapter 2

(4) Two major Roman historians of the era, Tacitus and Suetonius, who wrote in the generation after Josephus.

(5) “The boundaries of ancient Canaan must be delineated, for in modern times the term Canaan has been used imprecisely. Inasmuch as Canaanites lived within well-defined regional territories or city-states with political and economic ties that drew them variously toward Syria, Mesopotamia or Egypt, geographical; and cultural boundaries can be established. Overall, the territory of Canaan has been described as “the Levant’s southern part, comprising Lebanon and southern Syria” (A. Mazar 1990 a:3) or “Western Palestine (the area west of the Jordan River), whose northern boundary fluctuated between southern and central Lebanon” (Picard 1998:40) More specifically, “Canaan’s boundaries began in the south at Wadi-al-Alrish and reached north to the Lebanon and the Anti-Lebanon Mountain ranges. The Western border was, of course, the Mediterranean, and the eastern was Transjordan (mostly the Bashan) and the Jordan River and Dead Sea further south” (Hacket 1997a:409)  

Anti-Semites and the Palestinian Distortion of Truth

We Jews, and especially those of us who are Israelis, realize from our recent experiences that today’s modern version of the anti-Semites can't tell Israelis apart from the Arabs. These hypocrites do not possess enough basic intelligence or knowledge to make a difference between us. It could be said that modern anti-Semitism does not stem from prejudice, but rather, from abject ignorance. It seems that recently those who harbor dark anti-Semitic thoughts have rapturously embraced the Palestinian cause because of their mutual hatred of the Jews and most importantly the Zionists and Israel.

It is a tendency among the least educated to classify people and to lump all those who are unknown to them together simply because it's more convenient that way. Try asking an anti-Semite for example, “What is the difference between the pale light skinned blue eyed blonds of Scandinavia and the former Soviet Union?” or “Who is from Sweden and just who is from Norway?” Can they tell who is Chinese from Japanese, a Tutsi from a Hutu or an Iraqi from a Kurd? Of course not, yet at a snap mention the three letter word – Jew and they will froth at the mouth.

In the world media, as in the media of the Arab world, Israel is singled out and branded as a blood thirsty monster intent on devouring its poor “defenseless” neighbors. The villainous caricatures of the vile Jew, with the grotesques and distorted faces with the hooked noses, serve both the anti-Semites and the Arab propagandists as one. This slanderous view is constantly expounded by the anti-Semites and their Palestinian cohorts in every venue they find. The two scenes in the recent Turkish melodrama, the first of the supposed IDF soldier murdering the young innocent girl with the smile on her face and the second of the murder of the Palestinian newborn child in the hands of her grandfather, are especially heinous in their anti-Semitic depiction of the Jew.

The pro-Palestinian Arabs and the anti-Semite strive to divert the world’s attention from nations that have engaged in bloody wars that were much crueler than the one between us and the Palestinians. Many of these conflicts have lasted for many years and have left thousands if not millions of people dead with thousands if not millions as refugees. They have tried to pervert historical truth through denial of the Holocaust. Yet in the very same breath they blame the Holocaust for their “Nakbah” –their-the collective Arab disastrous lost in the 1948 attempt to eradicate the Jewish presence in the Palestinian Mandated Territory.

By all estimates a total of 7,000 Palestinians were killed in the 62 years of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Yet, Russia’s attack on the Chechnya has left around 100,000 Chechens dead, of which even the most optimistic accounts place the number of “militants” to be at around 15,000. 

Additionally, how many Bosnian Moslems were murdered in the war with the Serbs? How many Hutus were murdered in Rwanda. What about the crimes of Jordan against the Palestinian refugees during the “Black September” of 1970 or of China’s inhuman occupation and oppression of Tibet and Xinjiang? No one dares to mention the extreme brutality with which the various Palestinian factions deal with one another in Gaza and the West Bank. To them this is irrelevant and unimportant what is most important is the plight of the Palestinians at the hands of the Jews.

In today’s modern world of cable and satellite TV channels with their live news casts, Israel is consistently singled out for special scrutiny. Why is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict the one most scrutinized by the world while the genocidal war in the Sudan with the tragedy of the Christian minority in Dafur is ignored? Of all the conflicts in the Middle East the conflict between the Arab world and the Palestinians against Israel, especially in the Gaza Strip, is a news bite item simply because of the myopic world view and it’s popularity as a news item. Israel is constantly viewed by the world press as a terrible place due to Israel’s replies in self defense to violent and murderous acts of hatred that stems from radical Islamic religious beliefs and anti-Semitism.

For the Jews and Christians Israel is the center of the world because of Jerusalem and its importance in the birth of Christianity. The Moslems envious and conscientious of this fact have attempted to create the “Big Lie” of Palestine and they have recently inflated the importance to the Moslem world of the Mosques on the Temple Mount in recent years to bring the Moslem world out of its ambivalence to the Palestinian cause.

The Palestinians have drawn from the anti-Semites stories that are rehashed versions of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion and the “Blood Libel” such as that which was recently published in Sweden. They tell these new versions not because they are convinced that they are true, but rather, because they don't understand that there is no way in the world that the stories could be true. Like the anti-Semites of old the Palestinians absolve themselves from researching the historic facts for the real truth instead the more absurd and gory the claim the better.

To the anti-Semites and the Palestinians we are accused non-stop of committing Nazi-like crimes in our struggle for our existence against a foe bent on our total elimination. The world has been so blinded by the volume of anti-Semitic Palestinian hatred that they fail to understand that Israel is an enlightened Western democracy. They fail to distinguish Jewish morals from radical Islam's total lack of morality. They cannot tell the difference between our rule of law and our enemies' rule of genocidal hatred. They can not distinguish between a democratic state that constantly investigates and criticizes itself and a terrorist organization. The Palestinians do not reject any means of violence to eliminate us. The Palestinians feel that they have the right to lie ceaselessly and to distort factual historical truth in order to vilify our image worldwide. There is a great, fundamental and irrefutable difference in the Palestinians use of radical Islam's indiscriminate wickedness in the murder of Israeli children in a Pizza Parlor or in a Mall and the killing of children in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead - which was an unforgivable and tragic mistake that happen during combat.

The difference between us Israelis and the Palestinians can be summed up in two simple sentences:
We can erase them –“the Falestinians” - off the face of the earth if we wished, just like Amalek. Yet we are too moralistic to do so.
The Falestinians and the Arabs on the other hand have been attempting to eradicate us for nearly a century. IF they could eradicate us they would do so in a moment without any mercy.

My Reply to Amira Hass

This is a reply I sent in to Haaretz to another infamous article by Amira Hass that stalwart defender of the great Palestinian lie in her latest article, “Family who lost 29 members in Gaza war: We envy the dead”.

In her article, as usual, Ms Hass totally quotes the testimony of an “innocent” Palestinian and she gives his words legitimacy by publishing them in full without a full background check. This is part and parcel of her history of written words in Haaretz. She nary questions the authenticy of those she quotes among the Palestinians in order to bring the full weight of negative criticism only against Israel. Never has she criticized the Palestinians and their leadership in the manner she relays her hypocritical criticism towards Israel.

Here is what I wrote:

To sit comfortably in a nice, clean and safe civilian office far away from the nitty gritty of real life and real death house to house fighting you cannot fathom the totally horrific world of death and surprise that exists in combat. Any soldier who has ever served their country in combat and has walked the walk, knows that when fighting in areas where there are civilians terrible things can and will occur.

I can and will agree with you to an extent that there should not be an excuse for dead civilians. But hindsight is most definitely better than foresight in the true heat of battle. In a combat situation you do not have the time to fully assess who is a civilian and who is not. When bullets, mortar fire and RPG rounds seek you out from all angles and your brain is full of fear of the shrapnel from a nearby IED or grenades and their concussions. You react out of training and the instinct for survival. When fully exposed to the full and very real terrors of warfare, you are filled with adrenalin as you attempt in a split second to determine your next movement fully conscientious that the next sound you hear may be your last. The ever present and constant noise ringing in your ears, the screams of those wounded or killed. Sweaty, dirty, thirsty and full of fear for your immediate survival, you strain with every part of your being to keep yourself focused on staying alive.

In summary, until you have been in the situation where another is just around the corner waiting to kill you, you cannot fully comprehend how mistakes can and sadly do happen.

In this article by Amira Hass, one is given the total impression of war at it’s most horrid form. Civilian casualties are a terrible price and there are many such cases of terrible instances such as these in all war zones. As someone who has been in military service I have seen this too many times.

As to the words written here by Amira, she gives credence to the claim by the Palestinians that the IDF is solely to blame. Let us look again at the testimony. In the testimony it is not fully explained just who killed the Samouni clan family members. There are some contradictions in the story which tell that the death of the family members may not have been caused by IDF fire:
“As was reported here last month - on January 4, under orders from the army (IDF), Salah Samouni and the rest of the family left their home, which had been turned into a military position, and moved to the other, the home of Wael, located on the southern side of the street."

Now what does this indicate to us? It indicates that the IDF was interested in protecting the family and not exposing the Palestinian civilians to danger. Otherwise why risk the lives of IDF soldiers by escorting them to the other house.

"The fact that it was the soldiers who had relocated them, had seen the faces of the children and the older women, and the fact that the soldiers were positioned in locations surrounding the house…” Shows the concern for their safety by the IDF soldiers. Then he continues; “Nothing prepared him for the three shells and the rockets the “IDF” fired a short time later.”

Now I ask you “IF” as Salah Samouni states; “…soldiers were positioned in locations surrounding the house…” and they knew, according to him, that the Palestinian civilians were there then"WHY" would the IDF fire at the house if Israeli soldiers were indeed in the houses next door?

Furthermore from the testimony of Salah Samouni one is given a picture that the entire clan were all pro-Israeli. He even goes so far as to state that in the past several family members worked in the Jewish settlement of Netzarim, which until 2005 was located right next door.

Yet, it is not what is told by Ms Hass that is entirely relevant to the story as a whole. What the readers are NOT informed by Ms Hass is that after Israel’s disengagement from Gaza the terrorist movements converted the now deserted Jewish settlement into a fortified area resplendent with trenches and concrete bunkers. That it's area of once flourishing hot houses, left intact at the behest of the Israelis to encourage farming, where instead leveled and converted into a training ground for fighters. Ms Hass further neglects to mention that mortar fire and rockets were constantly launched from this area on Israeli civilian areas with out warning.

Readers are not informed by Ms Hass that members of the family were not all innocents. Clan members Tawfiq Rashad Hilmi al-Samouni, Muhammad Ibrahim Hilmi al-Samouni and Walid Rahad Hilmi al-Samouni, were affiliated with Islamic Jihad and boasted of this fact to others in Zeitun. There are others from the village who also had once worked with Israelis in the settlements and within Israel proper and they and their son's are not affiliated with the terrorists. An Islamic Jihad flyer even noted that Muhammad and Walid al-Samouni were active in fighting against the IDF in the Zeitun neighborhood. So could they have been fighting from within the houses as is common in street to street fighting? Maybe they had seen the soldiers enter the house and fired RPG rounds thinking there were still soldiers inside?

Ms Hass further fails to explain why they were not in bomb shelters as our civilians were? If the Palestinians are so concerned about their civilians, as we Israelis are, why did they build fortified bunkers for fighting instead of bomb shelters? There is really no excuse for dead civilians other than the fact that if there was no cause for fighting they would be alive today.

Regrets and shows of remorse are those feelings usually expressed by peoples of a higher level of moralistic beliefs. The death of children and other innocents is abhorrent to all who adhere to the value of life. That if the Hamas and the Palestinians had fully accepted the Oslo peace accords and had foregone their inflated dreams the Samouni clan family members would be very alive today.

This article further reinforces the fact that Ms Hass consistently fails, time and time again, to point out to the readers her total lack of criticism of her Palestinian friends and their responsibility in the lamentable loss of life on both sides. Honest readers must question her validity and journalistic authenticity as a news source untainted by some personal agenda. Real journalists of the higher moral plane will relate the whole story, no matter how offensive their stories are, thoroughly researched and based on factual proof, so that they can withstand criticism.

In conclusion, Amira try to remember that as a real journalist and not as a propagandist, "Hearsay is never the whole truth."

Complaints From The Palestinians of Gaza And Israeli Medical Treatment

It causes me to ponder the question if Israel is so terrible, as per the latest UN Commissioned report, why is Israel so violently condemned, for thoroughly checking the backgrounds of those who wish to enter for medical treatment? Some may ascribe to assisting those intent on murdering Israelis, as was in the case of the young female suicide bomber who attempted to enter for "medical treatment". Also if the Palestinian claim that Jews/Israelis are stealing body parts from them then why do they so ardently strive to enter into Israel for treatment?

If the Goldstone report on Gaza is correct, according to the "Haters Of Israel", and we are “War Criminals”. Then why do the sick and feeble among the Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip who desire medical treatment should not be cared for by the UN in European or Arab countries in their hospitals. Surely there would be no fear of their body parts being plundered in their hospitals!

The Palestinians have an operating hospital –Shifa –incidentally built by us Israelis during our occupation with Israeli tax money. However since the return of Arafat to Gaza in 1995 millions if not billions in aid money were used by the successive Palestinian leaders to purchase weaponry and tons of ammunitions, but only an infinitesimal amount has been spent to improve the medical facility. We are constanly reminded of the shortages and lack of modernization in tearful and moving reports by Human Right Watch, CNN and Al Jazerra who put the blame squarely on Israel and the (Non)Occupation as the source for all the terrible woes. Let us not forget those highly intelligent minions of Hollywood stars and statesmen who have a complete and thorough knowledge of the situation!

Now let us review the facts that if the Hamas led government in the Gaza strip had only spent a fraction of the billions, given them in aid since the Oslo Accords, on the construction of additions to Shifa hospital all of their complaints against Israel would be mute.

Also consider this, how much in raw materials sent by the EU and the UN, where used to build defensive positions and bunkers used by the Hamas that could have ben used to improve the civilian infrastructure sewage and water purification centers and most notably all of the medical facilities in Gaza?

I ask, and so should you ask, your governments, why were your tax dollars in millions of supposed relief funds squandered on weaponry and ammunition instead of modern medical equipment and medical supplies? I am also sure that many “Haters of Israel” out there in cyberspace were disappointed when Shifa hospital was not turned to rubble in our Operation Cast Lead, thought it should have.

During the conflict IDF reconnaissance videos, published on YouTube clearly show it’s use as the headquarters and as a place of refuge by the leaders of Hamas. If the shoe had been on the other foot….would they have hesitated for a moment to destroy it. Not many who watched the Western Media remember hearing or seeing the rockets fired by the Hamas at Barzali Hospital in Ashqelon during the Cast Lead operation.

I ask you to consider that since the Gaza Strip has a common border with Egypt, Why do the Palestinians persist on clamoring to cross into Israel for treatment in Israeli hospitals? Why not go through the Egyptian held border crossings to hospitals in Egypt and any of their 21 brother Arab nations? Why do their “Arab Brothers close the door to them? I ask you should there not have been a UN enquiry into this?

Furthermore why do the poor Moslem Palestinians persist on teaching their children and youth to become martyrs instead of learning to become doctors like those upper and middle class Palestinians made wealthy by bribery and embezzlement?

Maybe if the Palestinians in Gaza concentrated on educating and improving their infrastructure themselves then there would be neither conflict nor “occupation”. Anyone who knows the true facts know that the ones responsible for the destruction and lack of civilian infrastructure including modern medical facilities in the Gaza Strip are the Hamas and the Palestinians themselves. Maybe those “Haters of Israel” can answer my question in an intelligent manner.

Why do all the bleeding hearts focus their stupid blind hatred on us and not ask the Hamas and the Palestinians the question “Why not build and educate –and don’t BS me they can’t and it’s because of "the occupation"- with the billions in €-Euros, $-Dollars and £- Pounds they receive?

Instead of building and healing their own the Palestinians buy weapons and preach Shihad? This is their answer in Gaza “Hamastan”.

The Price Of Freedom

As a “Baby Boomer” and the son of a World War II vet and the proud father of a Iraqi War veteran. I wanted to speak to you my fellow Americans. There are those who say that if you look closely in the early morning mist, that hangs motionlessly still, above the hallowed fields and waves both here and there in many far away lands and seas far from home. Never to return, you can see them standing there, those thousands of brave young American men and women who have given their all for freedom, that same freedom all Americans have today.

In that early morning mist if you look hard enough you can see them as they form into ranks for morning call. Their faces still young, their thoughts only of home, of loved ones and family, now gone, all forever now but memories frozen in time. You can see them there as they stand around and joke with each other and make small talk as soldiers do before the call of roll. They light them up and talk of loved ones far away at home.

If you could ask them they would tell you that when the time came they came forward to fight as one to defend the freedom symbolized in that proud red, white and blue. Some were called up and others volunteered. All of them as brave Americans ready to fight to keep the light of liberty alive against the encroaching darkness of evil and tyranny.

Many were, as today, naïve and unknowing of the true horrors of war. There were those who were raised upon stories of glory and pride. “Dulce et decorum EST Pro patria mori,” they would cry. And then there are those special others, who were raised well, with that special pride based on the basic principals that they were taught and have made America great. “One nation (created) under God with liberty and justice for all.” That Supreme Being, Our Lord and Our Maker who created us as he created all, we as the first Pilgrims give thanks unto him for we are all equal since he created us all. In those same hallowed fields there is no room, nor tolerance for blindness based on the difference of color, race nor religion.

Lest we forget, there are those who came as immigrants to our shore as we all did at various times from foreign lands zealously seeking religious freedom and freedom from tyranny. These patriots have unselfishly volunteered and risked their lives throughout our history to show their love and devotion to the land that had given them a new life in Liberty.

So at what price, you ask? What is the value that one can place on the price of freedom? 

Remember the famous last words of Patrick Henry –“Give Me Liberty Or Give Me Death!”

There are those who decry the motives of the government and criticize it. It is their right to do so they scream. Yet, do these same critics even acknowledge that brave young men have paid for this same freedom in their blood? That when a nation sends it’s brave young men to fight and defend our freedom, these same critics who so zealously proclaim the freedom of speech when they protest should be the first in line to volunteer themselves to insure that freedom they so zealously claim but amazingly they are naught.

Our brave young men, those true defenders of life, liberty and freedom, as one will continue to say as of old; “Our’s is not to reason why, Our’s is but to do or die.” Since the price of Liberty and Freedom are dear, it must be made perfectly clear that as of old there will always be a need to shed or give blood to defend them.

Do not forsake them that have fought and died for YOU and fly that Star Spangled Banner with the utmost honor and pride as you give homage and remember them always those brave men that Band of Honored Brothers.

About Truth

"The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth." Niels Bohr (1885 - 1962)

In the 1970's young Palestinian and "Leftwing Anarchists" were taught the fine art of hatred, lies and mis-information from their masters in the KGB while students at Lambada University in Moscow. They were taught that the greater the lie more often told by naïve and uneducated "enlighten liberals", as espoused by Lenin in his famous quote, "A lie told often enough becomes the truth", is epitomized is the motif of their cause. 

We have witnessed the overwhelming success of this manipulation of the truth in the Western liberal media - falestinian dezinformatsiya- through the doctored stories of; Mohammed Dura, The Massacre in Jenin, Kfar Qana and now the "big lie" of the UN School in Gaza. All of these distortions of real facts and details   fabricated into falestinian dezinformatsiya "lies" have been converted into "Truths" by the gullible manipulated western media.

The biases the world media has shown towards Israel is beyond the assumption of conservative or liberal. They are all about; getting ratings, making money from advertisers and doing stories that are easier to cover. 

Western news network readily and unwittingly expose naïve viewers to Palestinian apologetics-read abject distorters of truth, such as Saeb Erakat and Hannan Ashrawi. These two individuals have received prominence due to their abilities to speak English somewhat fluently. 

In very many cases they are interviewed without any Israeli nor pro-Israeli spokesperson to counter their unprocessed, corrupted facts and information. When a person who is considered to be "pro-Israeli" and knowledgeable is also interviewed they are many times deliberately cutoff and not allowed to "rock the boat" of  dezinformatsiya "lies". 

Few readers of the news realize that many western news agencies readily use Palestinian "freelancers / Stringers" as sources. They more than always use tainted material of touched up photographs, faked video tapes and audio recordings manipulated and edited into lies and distortions of the truth.

To most credible sources in the United States and Israel, it is quite obvious that Saeb Erakat and Hannan Ashrawi and other Palestinian sources blatantly abused these media opportunities to fragrantly distort the truth of the facts to the point where you could actually say that they were out right lying.

An excellent example of the manipulation of the press to perpetuate the big lie can be seen in a 1998 BBC interview with Arab eye-witness Hazem Nusseibeh, an editor of the Palestine Broadcasting Service's. 

In this interview he admitted that on the instructions of Palestinian notable Dr. Hussein Khalidi, he fabricated a false press release stating that at Deir Yassin atrocities were committed including murder of children and rapes of pregnant women. 

Another interviewee, Abu Mahmud, emphatically denied the atrocity and rape stories. Nusseibeh, told the BBC that the fabricated atrocity stories about Deir Yassin were "our biggest mistake," because "Palestinians fled in terror" and left the country in huge numbers after hearing the atrocity claims.

Sadly, how well we know that slandering the Jews makes money and improves ratings! This appears to be the policy of the social media TalkBacks. 

Take this quote; posted in response to an article on one of the leading Israeli newspapers in English, from "Steve The Pals"; 

“Bravo. And those students will grow up and serve in the Israel "Defense" Forces, and continue the feat of their predecessors to kill Arab children, abort pregnancies on checkpoints, and continue the theft of the land of Palestine.” 

It seems that the producers of a recent Turkish Telenovella were reading his lines and used them in their horrid scene of the Palestinian father holding his grandchild aloft to be only murdered in cold blood by a "supposed" Israeli soldier.

I have seen on social media where American GI's veterans of Iraq, know what we Israelis are dealing with. I am astounded by the fact that they constantly refer to the Arabs as "Haji's" and "ragheads" and the American public in general refuses to acknowledge their point of view. Why is that?

If a Jew slanders another it is forbidden since we are the "light into all Nations". We can see in news reports - from the back pages mainly-  that millions are murdered in genocidal rage throughout the world especially in Africa. 

Yet the only country that is constantly pointed out for harassment by the UN and the European Union is Israel. Does anyone dare to ask why? 

Could it be that the reason why Israel is so hated by so many liberals is that we show their shortcomings as human beings since they cannot accuse those who do not care about and cherish life as we Jews/Israelis do?

Billions of dollars and Euros have been spent on perpetuating the existence of Palestinian’s in squalid refugee camps for more than sixty years. Never has any country questioned the surrounding Arab nations as to why they have persistently neglected to absorb these Palestinian refugees and turn them into viable citizens. 

Why are we so different? Does anyone acknowledge that the whole issue of displaced Palestinians living in squalid refugee camps is the fault of the UNWRA and the surrounding Arab countries to not extend citizenship and absorb them? 

In direct deference tiny Israel. the sole Jewish country in the world, absorbed more than 900,000 Jewish refugees from 22 Arab countries in it's early years with little monetary assistance.

Here in Israel thousands of rockets and terrorist outrages are committed against a "civilian" population and it these incidents have widely gone unreported or ignored by the world's "Mass Media". 

For almost a decade now rockets and mortars have been fired indiscriminately on settlements in the Negev. During the Second War for Lebanon over 1683 katyusha rockets fell within a five kilometer radius of our home here in Ma'alot. Yet when I invited the CNN news correspondent that gave such "gloomy" and "depressing" reports of the poor Shi'ite civilians from Dahieh  al-Dahiya al-Janubiya in south western Beirut, to come sit with me and my family as Hezbollah six rockets fell less than fifty yards from my house. The bureau in Jerusalem and the home offices in Atlanta, Georgia never acknowledged my email or registered letter invitation.

In essence, when it comes to hatred and despise against Jews, it is allowed, encouraged and widely publicized. 

The image of the meek Jew – in the embodiment of a Woody Allen schlemiel, who is willing to be beaten, robbed, slandered and murdered with ease is the image that sadly the world holds of the Jew. 

The faded images of the black and white photographs of the bodies of the Jews slaughtered in the Kishinev pogroms or of the Jewish community of Hebron show how the world has valued Jewish life.

If there is ever a doubt to the world's apathy than there are the infamous images of the Holocaust- the visions of the "Children of Death". These are the images gloated over and admired by our adversaries. The deep hatred of the Jews manifested in Anti-Semitism in it’s Middle Eastern form goes hand in hand with the Palestinian cause. The epitome of this is the infamous picture of the Grand Mufti Mohammad Amin al-Husayni sitting with Hitler in the meeting with his idol in Berchestgaten. They wish us dead and gone, no more, no less.

Ever since the heroic victory of tiny Israel in 1967 against our Arab neighbors, the new highly publicized characterization of tiny Israel is of the blood lusting Israeli with the blood of innocents dripping either from fangs or from claw like fingers. This revamp of the image of the "Blood Libel" This ideal image of classical anti-Semitism was recently highlighted in a Swedish Newspaper article that purported body parts theft by the Israeli Army is too monstrous to fathom. Just the fact that any modern nation could allow this type of slanderous “information” to be published is atypical of the hatred that has been the plight of Jews through the ages.

The new favorite image of the “Hater’s Of Israel” that is being pushed is that of the "brutal Israeli settler”, made synonymous by Doctor Baruch Goldstein. Alongside this image is that of Jimmy Carter's "apartheid wall". The old adage the more you negate or demonize your opponent the greater your condemnation and hatred of them.

These haters and demonizers cannot suffer any image of a victorious and proud Jew to be shown. These haters of Zion will push to continually villainize Israel at every opportunity no matter how inane the issue. They will utilize all their skills to brand Israel as "blood thirsty" and immoral in every media event they can. No matter how humanitarian we are in our fight with the Arabs. We Jews will always be the "untermunchen" to them, both the despicable and despised. They are and will forever be jealous of us. To them we are the usurpers - just as the Palestinians are claiming in their line of propaganda.

To our Christian friends we are the ones whose image is that of Yakov being blessed above his brother Essau. Our heritage is that ordained and blessed by HaShem to be his inheritors for all time. We are the inheritors of this land it was ordained to us in his name, the one God. No more, no less.

In order for true peace in the Middle East to be successful there would have to be massive re-education with willingness for all Arabs and anti-Semites to wake up and realize the truth is based on facts and not lies. However this does not make for good sound bite for the masses and the pay is good.