The sonorous call of the ram’s horn – the Shofar – will herald the start of Rosh HaShanah, the Jewish New Year on Wednesday evening, and nearly a month of holidays in the Hebrew month of Tishrei.

As always, IDF soldiers are among the first to heed the call.

Some 17,000 soldiers and their officers this year have attended Selichot services – the prayers asking G-d for forgiveness – conducted by the Military Rabbinate during the Hebrew month of Elul prior to Rosh HaShanah. The services were held in Jerusalem, Tzfat, Tiberias and elsewhere around the country.

Throughout the IDF, preparations are nearly complete for the upcoming holiday, with kitchens busily getting ready with a rich and varied menu for a special New Year’s dinner.

The IDF Food Center is gearing up with about 2.8 tons of honey, 28 tons of apples and 4.5 tons of pomegranates. To toast the New Year, the kitchens will be ready with some 7,000 bottles of grape juice, to be followed by a dinner for hungry soldiers that will include 6.5 tons of fish, 15 tons of chicken thighs, seven tons of beef and 22 tons of turkey. For dessert, army chefs are preparing seven tons of honey cake and three tons of dried fruit.

Special preparations are being made to serve those soldiers who are stationed in outposts, submarines, missile boats and Air Force command sites.

‘Three-Day Weekend Holiday’

This year the two days of the Rosh HaShanah holiday, Thursday and Friday, are followed by the Sabbath, creating a three-day weekend for Jews around the world.

Special foods are served at the holiday meal, including an apple dipped in honey to signify a sweet year. A selection of dishes is arranged on the table, symbolizing blessings for fertility, victory over our enemies, strength and being at the “head and not the tail” (“rosh” in Hebrew is head), among others.

Due to the Sabbath, the day-long Fast of Gedaliah, which traditionally follows the holiday, is delayed until Sunday. The fast commemorates the end of Jewish rule in the Land of Israel following the destruction of the First Holy Temple approximately 2,500 years ago.

10 Days of Repentance

Rosh HaShanah also kicks off the 10-day period known as the Ten Days of Repentance that ends with Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, which this year begins on Friday evening, September 17.

The New Year in Judaism is not a time for parties, but rather is a time of great introspection, and taking inventory of one’s relationship with G-d and with one’s fellow.

Based on the commandment in Numbers 29:1, 100 shofar blasts are dramatically sounded throughout the prayers, “awakening” us to improve our ways.

The “tashlich” prayer is recited on the second day of the holiday over a body of “living” water in which fish are swimming, in which one asks G-d to “throw away” his sins.

Yom Kippur which this year falls on Friday night, September 17, is the only Jewish fast that is not postponed in deference to the holy Sabbath. The holiest day of the Jewish calendar, the Day of Atonement begins at sunset and ends Saturday at nightfall, a total of around 25 hours.

(IsraelNationalNews.com)

The family of Yitzchak and Talia Imas made a special pilgrimage up to the Temple Mount on Tuesday in lieu of the murdered couple, their parents, who traditionally made the trip on the eve of each holiday.

Temple Mount police commander Avi Biton accompanied the couple’s family and friends on their heart-wrenching journey. Also in attendance were Temple Mount activists Rabbi Yisrael Ariel and Yehuda Glick.

As always, all participants in the event first prepared themselves by immersing themselves in a mikvah, a ritual pool. The participants then followed up with prayers and Torah study.

Seven days ago, Yitzchak and Talia were brutally shot to death in a terrorist ambush on Highway 60 at the Bani Nayim junction in Judea, located between Pene Hever and Kiryat Arba/Hevron. Talia was nine months pregnant. In addition to the Imas couple, who left six children behind, Kochava Even-Chaim (who left behind a 10-year-old daughter) and Avishai Schindler, newly married, were also murdered. All were residents of nearby Beit Hagai. The 

Six members of the Hamas terrorist cell that murdered the four Beit Hagai residents were arrested by Palestinian Authority security forces, it was announced late Tuesday. The same terrorists were allegedly responsible for a second shooting attack that took place some 27 hours after the murder, also on Highway 60, near the Rimonim junction. The spot is located about 15 minutes north of Jerusalem, in the Binyamin region of Samaria. Rabbi Moshe Moreno was shot, but survived. His wife Shira, who was also in the car, was injured when the car overturned and landed in a ditch.

The Imas family vowed to continue the tradition of going up to the Temple Mount, despite the tragedy.

Israel news photos: courtesy of Yakir Bezalel

Gaza terrorists launched a mortar attack on children and their parents in southern Israel Wednesday, just hours before the start of Rosh HaShanah, the Jewish New Year.

One mortar exploded close to several kindergarten buildings in a Negev kibbutz, just half an hour before the children were set to arrive.

No one was wounded in the attack, which occurred in the Sha’ar HaNegev Regional Council district, but at least one of the buildings was damaged.

Miraculously, the shell landed between two of the buildings, according to one of the residents, who noted that things “could have ended very differently.”

The school building that was damaged by the explosion had a fortified roof – but no other part of the building is protected. Area officials have been discussing the issue with security personnel, asking for total reinforcement of the community’s public buildings.

Yenina, one of the mothers who brought her son to school not long after the attack explained, “We are continuing as usual – we have no other choice. It’s a holiday today. People’s faces look a lot less happy today, but the buildings are protected and parents are bringing their children to school.

“We heard the explosion – to our great sorry, it was a mortar, which doesn’t activate the Color Red system, the way a Kassam rocket does. So actually, it was the explosion that told us there had been an attack.

“This is the most frightening aspect of the situation, although in actuality, rockets can land anywhere. What’s important to note is that it is not quiet here. Almost every day a mortar or Kassam rocket lands. It happens all the time.”

Overnight, the western Negev was also struck by a Kassam rocket attack launched by terrorists. Those residents of Sderot and the Sha’ar HaNegev Regional Council district who were not cooking and otherwise preparing for the holiday, were rudely awakened by the scream of the Color Red air raid siren at about 2:00 a.m. Within 15 seconds, at least one rocket exploded in the area, but did not cause damage, and no one was wounded in the attack.

Local residents told Israel National News that attacks from Gaza have sharply escalated following Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s trip to Washington D.C. for direct talks with Palestinian Authority Chairman and Fatah Leader Mahmoud Abbas.

Home Front Command recommended Wednesday that kindergartens in the region be kept open in order to provide a safe indoor facility in which children can play for hours leading up to the holiday, which begins at sunset.

Judea, Samaria Crossings Closed

In other security news, the security crossings from Judea and Samaria were closed overnight for the duration of the Rosh HaShanah New Year’s holiday.

Although the holiday does not begin until sunset Wednesday, the crossings closed one minute prior to midnight Tuesday night, September 7, and will not reopen until September 11, one minute prior to midnight late Saturday night.

Per standard practice, persons in need of medical attention, will be allowed to pass through. The passage of humanitarian aid, as well as doctors, medical personnel, NGO members, attorneys and additional professionals will be coordinated by the Civil Administration.

“Additionally, special accommodations were made in light of the Muslim holiday of Eid ul-Fitr for the purpose of family visitations,” the IDF Spokesperson said in a statement.

Border Crossing?

Journalists have been warned by the IDF Spokesperson, who coordinates all statements with the Government Press Office (GPO), to prepare passports and visas as well as standard press credentials to pass through the crossings, in much the same way as one would for travel to a different country.

“In order to pass, media personnel with Israeli or dual citizenship are required to sign release forms prior to visiting the A areas and are encouraged to coordinate their passage in advance with the IDF Spokesperson’s News Desk,” the statement said.
(IsraelNationalNews.com)

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has been talking of “creative solutions” lately, and some reports say he means Palestinian Authority rule over Jewish towns in Judea and Samaria.

Two days ago, addressing his Cabinet after returning from the first day of direct talks with PA leader Abu Mazen in Washington, Netanyahu said, “What’s needed is creative and new thought to solve the complex problems.” He said that in the past, “we have proved that we are ready to go far towards achieving peace, but this time, in order to succeed, we have to learn the lesson and to think in original terms.” He also said he is willing to work towards a “historic compromise,” while ensuring Israel’s security and other national interests. 

Aaron Klein of World Net Daily reports that the specific “creative new plan” under consideration is that the Jewish towns in Judea and Samaria will remain in place – under a form of Palestinian Authority rule.

“Officials in both Israel and the Palestinian Authority have confirmed the plan to this reporter,” Klein wrote, noting no names or level of authority.  He added that PA sources said they held a meeting last week to discuss it.

Abbas Has Often Objected
The PA chairman himself, Mahmoud Abbas, has often stated that he objects to any Jews living in a PA state – and has even announced that he would not accept Jewish soldiers in a NATO force sent to protect a future Israeli-Arab peace.

“I’m willing to agree to a third party that would supervise the agreement, such as NATO forces,” Abbas was quoted as saying by the PA Wafa news agency, “but I would not agree to having Jews among the NATO forces, or that there will live among us even a single Israeli on Palestinian land.” His aide later said that Abbas retracted his opposition to Jewish soldiers in a NATO force.

What the Rabbis Say
Security questions aside, some rabbis living in Judea and Samaria have said in the past that residence in the Holy Land is an important Jewish value no matter who is sovereign. Others feel that the full import of settling the Land can only be attained in a Jewish state – especially if the opportunity to do so exists at the time.

Huge storage depots at Bushehr reactor

Iranhas begun secretly moving some of its most sensitive nuclear research facilities and materials from North Tehran and the Arak heavy water plant to huge storage areas around the newly-fueled reactor at Bushehr, along with advanced missiles from the southern province of Khuzestan, debkafile’s military sources disclose.

The fueling of the Russian-built reactor since its inauguration on Aug. 21 has rendered the location safe from outside air or missile attack for fear of environmental radiation. Tehran is exploiting this advantage to conceal the forbidden facets of its nuclear and missile programs.

Already on Aug. 22, Iran’s National Security Council discussed exhaustively how best to take advantage of this immunity and the large storage depots the Russians had built around the reactor for their heavy equipment to hidie their most secret projects, weapons and materials. Their six-hour session produced a detailed plan which was submitted to supreme ruler Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who is commander-in-chief of Iran’s armed forces. He gave it the go-ahead on Aug. 26.

debkafile’s military sources report that the Bushehr nuclear reactor compound is accordingly in the process of transformation into one of the most important military facilities in the country. It is to be dedicated to four special functions:

1. The relocation of Iran’s clandestine nuclear weapons research center from North Tehran;
2. As hangars for storing advanced missiles, weapons and components the Iranians want to keep under wraps;
3. For research laboratories engaged in the research and development of new weapons systems;
4. Orders went out in the first week of September to start preparing the compound to accommodate Iran’s most advanced ground-to-ground missiles to be moved out of the oil-rich Khuzestan province.

Last week, our Iranian sources report, the work teams with top security clearance who had worked with the Russians on the nuclear reactor’s construction received new orders to start converting the two biggest storage areas to their new functions.

The Russian teams were told remove themselves with their equipment since the space they had occupied for 15 years was being fenced off and declared a closed military zone. Their departure was expedited by the posting of Revolutionary Guards special commandos around the temporary fence to prevent their access.

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As Jews around the world prepare for the Rosh HaShanah New Year’s holiday, North American families this year will have many more options for places to pray than ever before.

The High Holy Days, as the New Year and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement are called, often are a time for scrambling to ante up for the annual synagogue membership.

Paying for one’s synagogue seats can mean added stress after the recession has taken such a large bite out of the family coffers, and often less-than-observant Jews decide to skip the service.

This year, however, quite a number of congregations and Jewish community centers are offering “no-cost” services, or discounted seats for members of the general public. Many advertise in local Jewish newspapers, and some have even taken to issuing public service announcements on the local Jewish radio programs.

The Chabad-Lubavitch Chassidic movement always offers free High Holy Day services at numerous college and university campuses, and in most cities across North America. Locations can be found by clicking here.

A Hebrew University demography professor has announced there were more Jewish births in the past year in Israel than any other time in the history of the State. According to data released by the Central Bureau of Statistics on the eve of the Jewish New Year 5771, the State of Israel has now reached a population of 7.645 million.

Professor Sergio Della-Pergola,  who holds the Professor Shlomo Argov Chair in Israel-Diaspora Studies at the university, said that the a survey he conducted indicates the Jewish population has seen a moderate increase in fertility rates in the past year (2.9 children), with the largest number of births of Jews in the nation’s history.

Della-Pergola attributed the increase to various factors, including the high birth rate in the hareidi religious community and the increase in the general public due to “life satisfaction.” In addition, said the professor, despite the global economic crisis, Israel has enjoyed a relatively positive economic status compared with other countries, which impacts on the fertility rate both in Israel and abroad.

Moreover, immigration to the state is another factor affecting the increase in the population, he said.

“While in Israel this year we recorded an increase of 1.7% in the Jewish population, in the Diaspora there was a corresponding decrease of 0.2% in the number of Jews,” said Della-Pergola.

After the State of Israel, the largest concentration of Jews is found in the United States, with a population of 5.3 million, according to the CBS data. However, the professor notes, this depends on how one defines who is a Jew.

The number of Diaspora Jews in other countries is considerably less: France: 485,000; Canada: 375,000; Russia: 205,000; Argentina: 182,000; Germany: 119,000; Australia: 108,000; and Brazil: 96,000.

Two months after an attempt to break Israel’s naval blockade on Hamas ended in bloodshed, international “free Palestine” activists are at it again, this time planning a larger flotilla accompanied by an airplane, according to Channel 2 News.

The activists are collecting money in San Francisco to fund the new, bigger flotilla. The airplane is to carry aid in an attempt to portray the journey as a humanitarian mission, despite the fact that aid to Gaza can be transferred by land with Israel’s assistance.

The stated goal of the Free Palestine group is to force Israel to hand over Gaza and all land east of the 1949 armistice line to Arab control, and to give Arabs in those areas complete freedom of movement – including the freedom for Hamas in Gaza to bring in goods and people by sea and by air with no supervision.

Israel argues that Hamas would use such freedom to import weapons far more lethal than those it has used to date. Gaza terrorists have previously made efforts to smuggle in advanced weapons by sea, most notably using the ship Karin A, which was intercepted by Israeli troops.

Hamas has managed to smuggle many weapons into Gaza using tunnels from Egypt; those weapons have been used to carry out hundreds of terrorist attacks targeting Israeli civilians in the western Negev.

Israeli officials are said to be following the planned airplane journey with concern, and are readying diplomatic initiatives aimed at preventing the plane from ever taking off to Gaza.
(IsraelNationalNews.com)

The Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas on Saturday said that all Jews living in Judea and Samaria (the so-called “West Bank”) are legitimate military targets, regardless of whether they are men, women or children.

Hamas spokesman Azat al-Ghashek told the London-based Arabic newspaper Al-Hayat that it is “natural” to want to harm any Jew that is found in these areas, as they are “the reserve force of the occupation army on Palestinian land.”

Al-Ghashek was interviewed following last week’s brutal execution of four Jewish civilians near the Judean town of Hebron that left seven Israeli children without parents. Hamas claimed credit for that attack and organized street rallies in Gaza City to celebrate the slayings.

Palestinian terror groups have long argued that even killing Israeli women and children constitutes legitimate military activity since all Israeli Jews eventually serve in the army

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggested to his cabinet on Sunday that he is ready to try something new in order to reach peace with the Palestinians, and hopefully the entire Arab world.

Freshly returned from Washington, Netanyahu briefed his ministers on the renewal of direct peace negotiations between himself and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.

Netanyahu and Abbas met for several hours last Thursday, and were accompanied by US President Barack Obama, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Jordan’s King Abdullah II.

Netanyahu said he came away from the meeting feeling like the Arabs had turned a corner, and were now genuinely ready for peace with Israel.

“There may be some important countries which have yet to stand up for a move of peace, but my impression from their willingness to reach peace despite the attacks reflects a feeling of maturity in the Arab world,” he told the cabinet.

Nevertheless, Netanyahu said Israel would need to learn the lessons of past failed peace efforts and “think outside the box” this time around.

“It’s time to move forward towards peace with the Palestinians and extend it to a wider circle. This feeling stems from my understanding of the meaning of the alternatives, as well as the recognition (of Arab countries) that an agreement with Israel is required,” the prime minister said.

Netanyahu did not elaborate on what new concessions or gestures Israel may be ready to make, but did say that for now his decision to end the self-imposed Jewish building freeze in Judea and Samaria on September 26 “remains unchanged.”

Abbas and the Palestinians have threatened to end the negotiations if Israel does not extend the building freeze indefinitely. They insist that ultimately, all Jewish towns in the so-called “West Bank” must be destroyed to make way for “Palestine.” However, Netanyahu is under immense pressure at home to not extend the freeze, considering that the Palestinians have yet to prove they are truly ready for a lasting peace, as evidenced by ongoing anti-Jewish and anti-Israel propaganda in the official Palestinian media.

Israeli Ambassador to the US Michael Oren said Netanyahu is looking for other ways to keep Abbas at the negotiating table without jeopardizing the current Palestinian leadership.

“We know that President Abbas’s position can sometimes be precarious, and we are trying to find other means of incentivizing him to stay at the negotiating table,” Oren said without elaborating in a conference call with American Jewish leaders.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat gave cause for concern when he said that Netanyahu had agreed to resume negotiations where former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had left them. During his final months in office, Olmert offered to divide Jerusalem and withdraw from nearly all of Judea and Samaria.

Erekat said that Abbas and Netanyahu had decided to meet regularly and forgo the traditional series of meetings between committees representing the two leaders. The goal, said Erekat, is to make hard decisions fast and conclude negotiations up to the point of declaring an independent Palestinians state within 12 months.

Syrian ruler warned off terror by US

The Obama administration has sent Syrian president Bashar Assad a stern warning that he will be held personally accountable and face consequences if Israel and the Palestinian Authority are subjected to a terror campaign - whether by Hizballah or the Palestinian extremist groups based in Damascus, debkafile reports from Washington. The warning went out Thursday, Sept. 2, as Israelis and Palestinians sat down to talk in Washington in the shadow of threats from extremists sheltering under Syria’s wing and after two attacks on the West Bank.
The caution was put in Assad’s hands in Damascus by Fredric Hof, adviser to US envoy George Mitchell as  Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas met for the first time under the aegis of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and support of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Jordan’s King Abdullah.
debkafile’s sources do not know exactly what was said at the interview but Saturday, Sept. 4, they confirmed the severity of the US message to the Syrian ruler.
Our military sources report that last week, Syria and Hizballah took joint steps against a possible Israeli strike against the sophisticated rockets which Hizballah is storing for safekeeping at Syrian bases close to the border and holding ready for immediate use. Hizballah militiamen have been visiting those bases to learn how to use the advanced hardware.
Assad is deepening his military partnership with Hizballah and advancing joint preparations for war under Iranian sponsorship. Last Sunday, Aug. 29, he urged Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri to stand solidly behind Hizballah when they met in Damascus.  The Syrian ruler stressed to Hariri “…the importance of supporting the resistance as the only way to preserve Lebanon’s strength and security against regional threats.”

Our sources report that the hands of Assad and the Iran-backed Hizballah are detected in fomenting terror in another part of the Middle East - Iraq, especially in Baghdad.

Report: US to Continue Supplying Lebanon with Arms

A video that was published on Sunday shows Hizbullah terrorists as they smuggle weapons from the arms cache in the city of Shehabiyeh which exploded on Friday.

The video, which was first broadcast on LBC News on Friday, shows aerial photos taken from above the site of the explosion. At first, thick smoke is seen rising from the weapons cache. Approximately 40 minutes later, Hizbullah activists are seen as they quickly hide weapons from the cache, and then another Hizbullah activist is shown examining the entrance to the cache.

The video then shows senior Hizbullah officials as they arrive on the scene, and then a final clearing of the cache from any weapons which were left in it is shown.

According to Hizbullah, there were no casualties in the explosion. However, media were not allowed near the site of the explosion.

UNIFIL troops in Lebanon said Saturday that they are waiting for the results of an investigation before they draw any conclusions from the occurrence.

Shehabiyeh, is a village located south of the Litani River east of the city of Tyre. This is an area where UNIFIL troops patrol as per the agreement which ended the 2006 Lebanon War

One of the investors in the proposed Islamic center and mosque near Ground Zero in New York once donated to a charity which was later shut down due to its connection to Hamas.

According to an AP report on Friday, Hisham Elzanaty, 51, is among the members of a real estate partnership that paid $4.8 million for the vacant clothing store that is planned to be torn down and replaced by the Islamic center and mosque. This information was confirmed by the developer leading the project.

Critics of the Ground Zero project have pointed to a donation made by Elzanaty to the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development in 1999. According to tax records, Elzanaty gave $6,050 to the foundation, which was the largest Islamic charity in the US at the time. The Holy Land Foundation raised millions of dollars from Americans in the 1990s. The money was supposed to fund schools, orphanages and social welfare programs.

However, in 2001, the US government froze the foundation’s assets and accused it of acting as a fundraiser for Hamas, which has been a recognized terrorist group in the States since 1995. Furthermore, in 2004, the foundation and some of its leaders were indicted on charges of supporting Hamas, and five were ultimately convicted.

During a 2002 interview with Newsday, Elzanaty mentioned his philanthropy activities involving PA Arabs: “When you see people surrounded by tanks and F-16s, you ask how can we help? But you don’t want years later to have a knock on the door and someone asking why did you donate money?”

AP also reported that besides Elzanaty, others also donated to the Holy Land Foundation in 1999, including NBA star Hakeem Olajuwon, the Microsoft Corp., and a medical equipment company owned by General Electric.

Newspaper stories questioning whether the Holy Land Foundation had ties to Hamas began to appear as early as 1993, AP added. Israel banned the foundation in 1997, but the US did not crack down on it until after the September 11 attacks.

Elzanaty’s lawyer told a reporter for WNYW on Thursday that his client had no knowledge of the foundation’s involvement with Hamas when he donated the money, and had intended the donation to go to an orphanage.

Sharif El-Gamal, the developer in charge of the ground zero mosque project said in a statement quoted in the Wall Street Journal: “Hisham is a major investor in the Park51 project. He is one of eight investors all whom agree with me that this project will not be funded in anyway from any country, terrorist organization or entity hostile to America or its values.”

While El-Gamal has so-far not revealed the names of his other financial backers, he has said that the group is diverse and includes Jews and Christians, Polish-Americans, Italian-Americans, and others. El-Gamal and Elzanaty are reportedly the only Muslims in the group.

Three months ago, it was also revealed that Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the cleric behind the proposed mosque, is a major donor to the pro-Hamas Free Gaza movement, which has been behind several attempts to break the Israeli sea embargo on Hamas, including sending the “Rachel Corrie” ship.

The project itself has been a source for controversy in the US, as protests both for and against it have taken place. While the project has been endorsed by politicians such as President Barack Obama as well as New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, others such as former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Sarah Palin have spoken out against the project.

A CNN poll conducted on August 11 found that 68 per cent of Americans oppose the Muslim center project in Ground Zero.
(IsraelNationalNews.com)

Anti-Israel racist hate groups are mushrooming on the Facebook social networking Internet website, with few controls being exerted to stem what is threatening to eventually become a possible riptide sponsored by and catering to anti-Semites and Muslims. At present there are nearly 200 such pages, with hundreds of thousands of members declaring their support in foul language for the trend.

One of the most recent, a  group entitled “F—k Israel” (expletive deleted –ed.) – self-categorized as a “Local Business” has been allowed to remain despite at least four complaints filed against it by Facebook members who say they find it offensive and abusive.

The group features numerous posts, most relating to Gaza or Judea and Samaria, and cursing the State of Israel and America. Also featured are posts from the official website of the military wing of the Hamas terrorist organization. Another post of note is the ridiculous accusation that “Israel did 9/11 … with all the evidence!!”

Under a photo album that depicts a Palestinian Authority Arab bride and groom allegedly getting married while under attack – presumably by Israeli Defense Forces – at least four comments are listed, all saying “F—k Israel” and “F—k Jew.” None have been removed or even flagged for offensive or abusive language.Four people “liked” the photo, which appeared to show a very young woman being wedded to a clearly much older man. The LIFE watermark logo appears in the lower left-hand corner of the photo, indicating that it has been reproduced from LIFE Magazine.

Another photo appears to depict a shower of white pellets raining down from the sky in from of a building with a basketball hoop set up in front., each being chased by a trail of white smoke. No soldiers, no bombs or other weapons are seen. The caption reads: “They cannot hide the truth about what happened, the picture shows the use of white phosphorus against children in UNRWA schools in Gaza. Who are the terrorists? It’s pretty obvious… !!!!!”

More than 46,200 have clicked on the “Like” button to indicate their support for the hatred on this blatantly anti-Semitic group’s page.

One of Many

Although an extreme example, the above is only one of the anti-Israel hate pages on Facebook.  

As a matter of fact, there are exactly 194 groups on Facebook with the name, “F—k Israel.”  This does not include groups with the “F” word misspelled.  Although many are small, with only a few hundred members, at least three boast more than 32,000 votes of confidence, and two have more than 46,000 supporters.

A similar group, “I DO hate ISRAEL!!” has thus far earned more than 49,120 votes of confidence on the social networking site. Another page, “We hate israel” (sic), has more – 163, 993 at last count – and lists itself as a “religious organization.” One group unashamedly calls for the outright destruction of the state – “Destroy Israel LAKNAT…Terbalikkan Buminya  YaALLAH”, which terms itself a club. This group, which posts in the Malay language, has so far won more than 5,225 supporters for its cause, to curse Israel and mourn Gaza.

On each Facebook page there is an option to confidentially report a violation of the site’s Statement of Rights and Responsibilities. A list of reasons for the report from which one can choose includes:

Nudity or Pornography

Impersonating me or someone I know

Racist/Hate speech

Targets me or a friend

Direct call for violence

Excessive gore or violent content, and

Spam

Any member filing a report is asked to certify that they have reviewed the Statement of Rights and Responsibilities and the site’s guidelines, and that they believe the content they are reporting violates abuse standards of Facebook.

After filing a report, an auto-response indicates that the report will be read and reviewed by an administrator and an appropriate action, if needed, will be taken. However, no action has yet been taken by Facebook in the matter of F–k Israel, unquestionably racist/hate speech, which remains functional and available to all.

“It is hate filled garbage,” wrote Facebook member and leading public relations executive Stuart Schnee one week ago. “Please report this page,” he urged surfers with whom he made contact. 

A small handful of members responded that they had complied, but Schnee’s plea went largely unanswered,so far.

One week later, despite at least four formal complaints, the F—k Israel racist/hate speech site remains alive and well, along with the more than 194 others that are easily found on Facebook with a simple, one-click search.

Are you going to do something?
(IsraelNationalNews.com)