Lilos SWI Blogs.

The song, “Rivers of Babylon”, was popular when I was younger J. It was performed in the 1970s by the disco group Boney M. The band was hugely popular in Europe and Israel some 35 years ago. I still remember the melody.

The song’s lyrics were taken from Psalm 137, including some words from Psalm 19:14.

By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down;
ye-eah we wept, when we remembered Zion.

By the rivers of Babylon, (oh yeah yeah)
where we sat down (yeah yeah)
Ye-eah we wept……… 

Well, this week the group performed at Ramallah, but the local music festival prevented it from performing one of its biggest hits - because it mentioned the Jewish people’s yearning for the Land of Zion.

According to the news, lead singer Maizie Williams said Palestinian Authority concert organizers told her not to sing “Rivers of Babylon.” The organizers said they asked for the song to be skipped, because they found it “inappropriate”.

Muslim and Arab culture in general, tend to vehemently deny the connection between the People of Israel and the Land of Israel to the world and to themselves as well.

Yet the Bible – the book that Western civilization is built around –contains thousands of verses that establish the connection without a possible doubt. - The Jews’ yearning for Israel and the Divine commandment of settling in Israel is among the most central themes of the Holy Book, if not the most central one. Repeatedly in the Bible, G-d exhorts the Jews to obey his commandments or suffer banishment from the Holy Land.

“I don’t know if it is a political thing or what, but they asked us not to do it and we were a bit disappointed that we could not do it because we know that everybody loves this song no matter what,” Williams said. “I believe you should entertain wherever you are asked to entertain, whether it is Israel, whether it is Palestine, whether it is Lebanon, where ever it is, we go,” she added.

Don’t you love this song? I do.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nm1g8FFRArc  

With love - Lilo

Last week Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu added two key biblical sites to his list of about 150 national heritage sites. This action ensures that these heritage sites are kept in good shape for the worshippers.

Fifteen years ago, standing outside Ma’arat HaMachpela, the Tomb of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs in Hebron, Ariel Sharon declared, “What nation in the world has such a monument, where all the leaders of the people are buried, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob and Lea?! All foreign diplomats should be brought here, all visiting tourists should be brought here, and all Israeli school children should be brought here! This is our roots!”

Netanyahu’s action upset the Palestinians. They threw rocks and burnt tires. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said this move could spark what he called a “religious war.” Obama, himself a Muslim, sides with the Palestinians and criticized Israel Wednesday for designating the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron and the matriarch Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem as Israeli national heritage sites.

The same day the East coast was warned to expect a strengthening storm to cause immobilizing blizzard damage. -The worst of the storm is yet to come, even as drenching rain is falling in eastern New England and snow is already accumulating and making roads slippery in the northern mid-Atlantic. Meteorologists expect the storm’s worst to take place from Wednesday evening into Friday morning in most areas as winds, snow, rain and related problems increase in intensity.

Coincidence or consequence?

Both Rachel’s Tomb and the Cave of the Patriarch’s are very important heritage sites to Jews and Christians and require upgrading and preservation. Rachel’s Tomb is the site of her actual grave and the spot is covered by a large rock and eleven stones resting upon it, signifying the eleven sons of Jacob still alive upon her death. The Tomb of the Patriarchs is the oldest structure built by Herod and is worthy just for that little known fact. The ancient building housing the graves of Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebecca, Jacob and Leah, according to tradition.

It was in the city of Hebron, that Avraham’s wife Sara died. It was here that David was proclaimed king and ruled for 7 1/2 years before going on to Yerushalayim and turning it into his capital.

In 1929, Arabs broke into a Yeshiva and massacred more than 50 people in cold blood. Because of the constant Arab violence, the Jews of the city were forced to leave.

The riots were instigated by Hajj Amin al-Husseini who had been appointed by the British as Mufti of Jerusalem. The riots started on Friday afternoon, August 23rd. Hordes of marauders attacked every Jew they saw. The next Shabbos, Aug. 24th, thousands of Arabs armed with knives, axes and pitchforks launched an attack on Jewish homes. The bloodthirsty mob killed, wounded and tortured the Jews in a most barbarous manner. Three days later, the British loaded the remaining Jews on trucks and evacuated them from the city.

In 1948, the U.N. gave this city to the Arabs and no Jew was allowed to enter it. It was only in June of ‘67 (the Six-Day War) that the Arabs fearing revenge, surrendered to the Israeli Army without a single shot being fired and Jews could once again pray at the Meoras Ha’Machpelah.

Jews have always lived in this holy city except when they were banned to live there by their foreign rulers.

What makes Palestinians think it belongs to them?  It was only in 1976 that they formed their movement. Before that they were Jordanians or something else.

Muhammad created his religion only in 610 C.E., after he had some dreams. This was over 4000 years after Abraham had bought a burial plot in Hebron, the Cave of Machpela, in which he buried his wife, Sarah. It clearly is, and always has been, a Jewish heritage place.

On Saturday the sixth annual Saban Forum began in Jerusalem and Ramallah. The two-day forum runs through Monday, and is supposed to be a dialogue between senior officials from both countries on US-Israel relations and Middle East strategic issues such as the Iranian threat, Syria and the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, will be held behind closed doors.

Attending are former US president Bill Clinton, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg and Senators Joe Lieberman and Lindsey Graham - the highest-level US delegation ever to attend the conference.

Among the Israeli participants are Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Kadima leader Tzipi Livni, Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman, Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) director Yuval Diskin and Director of Military Intelligence General Amos Yadlin.

The delegates are scheduled to meet with Bank of Israel governor Stanley Fischer to discuss economic development.

Unique to this year’s event, the delegates travelled today to Ramallah to meet with Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salaam Fayad.

Founded in 2004, the Saban Center for Middle East Policy has been working to promote independent policy dialogue between Israel and the US. Founder Haim Saban called the timing of the event “a critical moment in US-Israel relations.”

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat announced Sunday that the PA they is preparing to ask the United Nations to recognize an independent Palestinian state in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, without Israel’s consent because they are losing faith in the peace talks. - A senior Palestinian official told Fox News that the Palestinian Authority plans to call for Palestinian statehood through a UN resolution in the next few weeks — a similar maneuver to that by which Israel was created.

Despite widespread assumptions the U.S. would veto any such U.N. Security Council resolution, the PA negotiator said that in initial discussions, the Obama administration did not threaten to veto their conceptual unilateral resolution.

“There is no substitute for negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority and any unilateral attempts outside that framework will unravel the existing agreements between us and could entail unilateral steps by Israel,” Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told a high level gathering of Israeli and American policy makers at the Saban Forum in Jerusalem on Sunday night.

Both Palestinians and some Israelis believe that there is growing support in the international community for such a measure.

Asked to comment on the plan, an American official said that such a UN resolution, while
not a cure-all, could be expanded upon eventually. Still, he added: “It’s a measure
that would make you feel good for five minutes. Then what?”

The Palestinians seek an independent state that includes the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem - areas captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war.
The Palestinians already declared independence unilaterally on Nov. 15, 1988. The declaration was recognized by dozens of countries, but never implemented on the ground.

For Israel, the creation of a Hamas-controlled, Iranian-influenced Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria-the heartland of the Jewish people and key to Jewish national security-would amount to national suicide.

But G-D has only one plan, because unlike man, he sees the end from the beginning (Isa. 46:9-10). We don’t have to look far in the Bible to see that Israel is in G-D’s eternal plan. He doesn’t have a “Piece Plan” - he has a “Peace Plan” - for Israel and the whole world.

The Palestinans cry out that they can’t exist, if they are not connected as one state. Everyone is listening to them. The poor Palestinians people have to live behind a wall.

Why? - Because they kept sending suicide bombers into Israel and that was one way for Israel to protect itself.

America built a wall on it’s border with Mexico also. Is anyone upset about that?

If a newly created Palestinian state were created, it would cut the land of Israel into two pieces.

That doesn’t seem to bother anyone, except the Almighty.- “For the day of ADONAI is near for all nations: as you did [to Israel], it will be done to you: your dealings will come back on your own head.” (Obadiah 1:15)

Mar. 2, 2009
YVONNE GREEN , THE JERUSALEM POST

I’m a poet, an English Jew and a frequent visitor to Israel. Deeply disturbed by the reports of wanton slaughter and destruction during Operation Cast Lead, I felt I had to see for myself. I flew to Tel Aviv and on Wednesday, January 28, using my press card to cross the Erez checkpoint, I walked across the border into Gaza where I was met by my guide, a Palestinian journalist. He asked if I wanted to meet with Hamas officials. I explained that I’d come to bear witness to the damage and civilian suffering, not to talk politics.

What I saw was that there had been precision attacks made on all of Hamas’ infrastructure. Does UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon criticize the surgical destruction of the explosives cache in the Imad Akhel Mosque, of the National Forces compound, of the Shi Jaya police station, of the Ministry of Prisoners? The Gazans I met weren’t mourning the police state. Neither were they radicalized. As Hamas blackshirts menaced the street corners, I witnessed how passersby ignored them.

THERE WERE empty beds at Shifa Hospital and a threatening atmosphere. Hamas is reduced to wielding its unchallengeable authority from extensive air raid shelters which, together with the hospital, were built by Israel 30 years ago. Terrorized Gazans used doublespeak when they told me most of the alleged 5,500 wounded were being treated in Egypt and Jordan. They want it known that the figure is a lie, and showed me that the wounded weren’t in Gaza. No evidence exists of their presence in foreign hospitals, or of how they might have gotten there.

From the mansions of the Abu Ayida family at Jebala Rayes to Tallel Howa (Gaza City’s densest residential area), Gazans contradicted allegations that Israel had murderously attacked civilians. They told me again and again that both civilians and Hamas fighters had evacuated safely from areas of Hamas activity in response to Israeli telephone calls, leaflets and megaphone warnings.

Seeing Al-Fakhora made it impossible to understand how UN and press reports could ever have alleged that the UNWRA school had been hit by Israeli shells. The school, like most of Gaza, was visibly intact. I was shown where Hamas had been firing from nearby, and the Israeli missile’s marks on the road outside the school were unmistakeable. When I met Mona al-Ashkor, one of the 40 people injured running toward Al-Fakhora - rather than inside it as widely and persistently reported - I was told that Israel had warned people not to take shelter in the school because Hamas was operating in the area, and that some people had ignored the warning because UNWRA previously told them that the school would be safe. Press reports that fatalities numbered 40 were denied.

I WAS TOLD stories at Samouni Street which contradicted each other, what I saw and later media accounts. Examples of these inconsistencies are that 24, 31, 34 or more members of the Fatah Samouni family had died. That all the deaths occurred when Israel bombed the safe building it had told 160 family members to shelter in; the safe building was pointed out to me but looked externally intact and washing was still hanging on a line on one of its balconies. That some left the safe building and were shot in another house. That one was shot when outside collecting firewood. That there was no resistance - but the top right hand window of the safe building (which appears in a BBC Panorama film Out of the Ruins” aired February has a black mark above it - a sign I was shown all day of weaponry having been fired from inside. That victims were left bleeding for two or three days.

I saw large scoured craters and a buckled container which appeared to have been damaged by an internal impact (its external surfaces were undamaged). Media accounts of Samouni Street don’t mention these possible indications of explosive caches (although the container is visible on media footage). The Samouni family’s elder told me during a taped interview that he had a CD film of the killings. As far as I’m aware, no such film has been made public. He also told me that there are members of his family who have still not been found.

The media have manufactured and examined allegations that Israel committed a war crime against the Samounis without mentioning that the family are Fatah and that some of its members are still missing. They have not considered what might flow from those facts: that Hamas might have been active not only in the Samouni killings but in the exertion of force on the Samounis to accuse Israel.

THE GAZA I saw was societally intact. There were no homeless, walking wounded, hungry or underdressed people. The streets were busy, shops were hung with embroidered dresses and gigantic cooking pots, the markets were full of fresh meat and beautiful produce - the red radishes were bigger than grapefruits. Mothers accompanied by a 13-year-old boy told me they were bored of leaving home to sit on rubble all day to tell the press how they’d survived. Women graduates I met in Shijaya spoke of education as power as old men watched over them.

No one praised their government as they showed me the sites of tunnels where fighters had melted away. No one declared Hamas victorious for creating a forced civilian front line as they showed me the remains of booby trapped homes and schools.

From what I saw and was told in Gaza, Operation Cast Lead pinpointed a totalitarian regime’s power bases and largely neutralized Hamas’s plans to make Israel its tool for the sacrifice of civilian life.

Corroboration of my account may be found in tardy and piecemeal retractions of claims concerning the UNWRA school at Al-Fakhora; an isolated acknowledgment that Gaza is substantially intact by The New York Times; Internet media watch corrections; and the unresolved discrepancy between the alleged wounded and their unreported whereabouts.

The writer is a poet and freelance writer who lives in London. Her collection Boukhara was a 2008 Smith/Doorstop prize winner. She also translates the poetry of Semyon Lipkin, the Russian World War II poet.

Bold printed headline in American newspapers read: “Israel rejects truce, attacks Gaza.” - That makes readers think that Israel is the villain, the aggressor. Hidden in small print, a few words simply mention that Gaza militants previously fired rockets into Israel. Most readers will read right over these words. The media fails to make it clear that Hamas has shelled Israel’s civilian population for eight long years before Israel finally decided to do something about it.

Just two weeks ago Hamas refused to extend even that partial cease-fire and began intensive rocketing Israeli kibbutzim, towns and cities on the average of 40-50 attacks a day. Why should Israel accept a truce with them now?

Hamas has long threatened to hit major Israeli cities. Their weapon of choice are Katyusha rockets manufactured in China and Iran, packed with screws, bolts and ball bearings to maximize casualties, and topped off with ammonia to increase explosive power.

Hamas fired 52 rockets on strictly civilian targets on Thursday, focusing on Israel’s 5^th, 6^th and 13^th biggest cities – Ashdod, Beersheva and Ashkelon. Yesterday our city of Beersheva was hit 8 times by Grad katyushas, while Ashkelon was hit 9 times.

The 122 mm Grad-model has been used recently to hit Sderot, Netivot, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Gan Yavne, Kiryat Malachi, Kiryat Gat, Rahat, moshavim just outside of Beersheva and now Beersheva itself. These rockets were smuggled through Yemen, Eritrea, and Sudan, and finally brought across the very porous border with Egypt. Hamas demands that these borders (the Philadelphi Corridor) be thrown wide open so they can resupply and continue rocket attacks against Israel. After all, the IDF was able to destroy some of their weapon smuggling tunnels.

Israeli intelligence reported that Hamas terrorists were hiding in hospitals and maternity wards, wearing the clothes of doctors and nurses.  They were moving rocket launchers into crowded residential neighborhoods, - thus their success in shooting over 45 rockets into

Israeli towns this morning alone.

A mosque used for storing rockets was destroyed. In Muslim tradition, mosques have sometimes been gathering places for encouraging, stirring up and supporting jihad. They have been used to shelter combatants and as a base from which to attack unbelievers. In recent UAV reconnaissance flights over Gaza, Israeli drones have positively identified terror leaders gathering and using mosques as command and control centers – to brief ground forces and distribute rockets. Though such behavior is not an accepted part of modern Western culture, the Islamist use of houses of worship in jihad or holy war has definite historical precedent in the Middle East.

Though the IAF air attacks have been comprehensive, the military forces of Hamas are still untouched. This terror army is waiting for an Israeli incursion, convinced that they will be able to inflict heavy casualties on the IDF. Roadside IEDs (improvised explosive devices), huge explosives concealed under newly paved roads, anti-tank and shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles certainly await the IDF.

There is something weird happening. The Saudis, Egyptians and Jordanians are all saying that Hamas is the cause of this war.  Why do they suddenly all agree on condemning Hamas? After all it is an Islamic Terrorist Group that wants to destroy Israel as much as they do.

I think there is something fishy going on. “Something is rotten in the State of Denmark”.

Most of us know that Hamas and Hezbollah are puppet groups of Iran.  Over the past few years Iran has been able to dominate Lebanon with Hezbollah and Gaza with Hamas. Both groups, Hamas and Hezbollah, are funded by Iran. - While the US and others keep trying to force the two-state-disaster on Israel, the fact that Islamic Terrorists are building strongholds in both Gaza and Lebanon with the assistance of Russia, China and North Korea seems to be over looked by the US Administration. 

Bush hasn’t given up on his Road Map to Hell, and the two state solution.  He also knows that there is no chance of that ever happening as long as Hamas is in charge of Gaza.  BUT, if he can remove Hamas from power and the PA takes control, the door is wide open for the so-called “Palestinian” State to become a reality.  While the rest of the world is calling for a cease fire, Bush is clearly saying: “Not until Hamas is removed from power.” 

 

Which brings into question what are the Israeli goals? Are they to bring about a two state solution? 

In the meantime over 15,000 well trained Hamas fighters are staying underground, waiting on the Israeli ground troops to move in, knowing they will lose their fight, but they are not afraid to die for Allah as long as they can kill some Jews.  In fact they don’t care how many Arabs in Gaza are killed because - the higher the number - the better for the media war. 

While we wish for an Israeli victory in Gaza, such an outcome could have a dangerous downside, the handover of Gaza to the PLO’s Mahmoud Abbas and his Palestinian Authority.

Dec. 28, 2008
JPost.com Staff , THE JERUSALEM POST

Hamas could have prevented the “massacre” in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said Sunday in Cairo.

“We spoke to them and told them ‘Please, we ask you not to end the cease-fire. Let it continue,’” Abbas said during a joint press conference with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit. “We want to protect the Gaza Strip. We don’t want it to be destroyed.”

Abbas called on Hamas to renew the cease-fire with Israel to avoid further bloodshed in Gaza.

Aboul Gheit also attacked Hamas, saying the group had prevented people wounded in the Israeli offensive from passing into Egypt to receive medical attention.

“We are waiting for the wounded Palestinians to reach Egypt. They aren’t being allowed to go through,” he said.

Asked who was to blame for the dire situation in Gaza, the foreign minister replied: “Ask the party that controls Gaza.”

He added that the meeting of Arab foreign ministers meeting in Cairo Wednesday should call on Hamas to extend the truce.

Meanwhile, Egypt summoned the Israeli ambassador on Sunday to brief officials in Cairo about the Israeli military action.

Saturday, December 27, 2008

Terrorists inflating casualty numbers?

Media reports count of civilians dead
in Gaza airstrikes using Hamas totals

When Islam is involved, a truce not a truce as we Westerners understand it. I tried to explain this concept in an earlier blog: http://lilo97423.wordpress.com/2008/06/20/truce-or-hudna .

The Arabic word “hudna”, is often translated as “cease-fire”, and has a distinct meaning to Islamic fundamentalists, well-versed in their history. The term comes from the story of the Muslim conquest of Mecca. Instead of a rapid victory, Muhammad made a ten-year treaty with the Quraysh tribe. In 628 AD, after only two years of the ten-year treaty, Muhammad and his forces concluded that the Quraysh were too weak to resist. The Muslims broke the treaty and took over all of Mecca without opposition.

Hamas uses a “truce” as a tactic aimed at allowing the party declaring the hudna to regroup while tricking an enemy into lowering its guard. When the hudna expires, the party that declared it is stronger and the enemy weaker. Whenever Hamas has acquired enough weapons, they use them again against Israel. – So, you see, in truth, - there is no truce!

The “hudna” began to unravel last Tuesday. Who started it? The Palestinians had used the time during the cease fire to build another one of their militant tunnels. When IDF troops discovered it, they entered Gaza to destroy it. That set off battles in which seven Palestinian gunmen were killed. The fighting sparked a wave of rocket attacks from Gaza at Israeli border towns.

It seems to happen every time Condolezza Rice travels to Israel trying to create “peace” according to the Saudi peace-plan. Hamas is either celebrating her arrival with rockets or trying to say: “That’s what we think of you!” - But she doesn’t seem to listen either way.

Gaza’s 10-day missile blitz has damaged homes and parked vehicles, forcing tens of thousands of inhabitants in the towns and villages around the Gaza Strip to spend hours in shelters or under cover.

Israel National News reported on Friday that Gaza terrorists aimed a barrage of Kassam rockets at the coastal city of Ashkelon, just a few hours after attacking Jewish communities in the Gaza Belt. They were not certain if the rockets were Kassams or the longer-range Katyusha rockets. One 70-year-old woman suffered shrapnel wounds in the attack and was taken to Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon. A number of people in the city – including children — were treated for emotional trauma and shock. Earlier in the day, Hamas terrorist launched ten Kassam rockets at Jewish communities in the western Negev. Seven of the homemade missiles exploded in the rocket-battered city of Sderot. Two slammed into areas close to Ashkelon, further to the north.

An eyewitness reported: “Here in Ashkelon we had today a barrage of missiles or rockets falling. I was shopping downtown for Shabbat when the siren start sounding, the store was with a lot of people and there was no place for shelter anywhere. We heard the bombs falling behind us, and I decide to go home right away, when I go out again the siren sound and people where running all over, crying it was awful then the bomb fell about a block of where I was standing, just midst to a huge school with thousand of kids there. Kids were let out and they were crying and running home. The traffic was stacked and crazy and everybody was shouting or crying. Finally I got home with a headache and the blood pressure very high. All the rockets fallen down near my home for I live in the center of the city. What else can I say it is hard to see all the people out of control and suffering. So far the economy here has been sustained but people had lost the jobs in the region and stores have no customers. Now  it is 4 PM, they stop the Kassams, Baruch Hashem and we hope to have a peace full Shabbat….”

Yet, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, defense Minister Ehud Barak, and chief of staff Lt. Gen. Gaby Ashkenazi decided at a special conference Friday evening, Nov. 14, to refrain from responding to the Palestinians’ 10-day missile blitz from Gaza.

Sderot Mayor David Buskila told reporters: “It is sad to be a citizen of a country that cannot deploy its army to give an immediate response to this phenomenon.”

How many more rockets will it take until Israel responds and defends its citizens?