Ehud Olmert and Tzipi Livni seem to prefer the risk of Kassams to the chance of another IDF operation going wrong. In other words, Jewish blood is cheaper than the blood of our enemies and those who harbor and support them.
As Israeli citizens we need to send a clear, strong message to our government: It is morally repugnant to continue allowing the citizens of Sderot and the Western Negev to live under enemy fire for the sake of "diplomatic grace."
What the US has accomplished in the Middle East should not be completely obscured by reaction to the Iraq Study Group's report. Most importantly, the overpowering military response to terrorism has painted in bold strokes the clear consequences for foreign leaders who would provide refuge to terrorists, and has proved Americans anything but the paper tigers or passive victims some would have us be.
And because of us, those news photos of enfranchised grandmothers standing before ballot boxes with proudly purpled thumbs are now forever part of Muslim consciousness, and will rise to confront any who seek a return to the past in Iraq, Afghanistan and beyond. Neither Islam's anti-democratic elements nor others elsewhere who rail reflexively against America will ever efface such images.
Minority Sunni dominance in Iraq is gone forever. That Iraqis now struggle to put an "Iraqi face" on the democracy our resolve has birthed perhaps isn't as incongruous as it presently appears: Isn't accompanying factional strife the norm rather than the exception for emerging democracies? And doesn't Kurdistan already stand out as a success story?
All this has registered powerfully on the Arab street, even as policy critics choose but to despair.
The following are three proposals on how to deal with the Iranian crisis. Based on regrouping our 'detterent' against crazed islamic leaders and at the same time buying time as these 'enemies' regroup themselves to obviously fight another day.
1.Strengthen dissident groups that live in Iran in an attempt to overthrow the existing government.
2. A Nuclear strike in the very unlikely event of a direct nuclear attack by Iran,
3. Preemptive military (conventional) strikes on Syria and the Palestinians.
The 751 No-Go Zones of France
They go by the euphemistic term Zones Urbaines Sensibles, or Sensitive Urban Zones, with the even more antiseptic acronym ZUS, and there are 751 of them as of last count. They are conveniently listed on one long webpage, complete with street demarcations and map delineations.
What are they? Those places in France that the French state does not control. They range from two zones in the medieval town of Carcassone to twelve in the heavily Muslim town of Marseilles, with hardly a town in France lacking in its ZUS. The ZUS came into existence in late 1996 and according to a 2004 estimate, nearly 5 million people live in them.
Comment: A more precise name for these zones would be Dar al-Islam, the place where Muslims rule. (November 14, 2006)
This article is reproduced from Daniel Pipes mailing list
Ehud Olmert and his right hand men have continued their diplomatics
trips to the United States and have been quick to criticize Arkadi
Gaydamak for paying out of his own pocket for Sderot residents to get
a brief respite from the daily shelling by heading to the tranquility
of Eilat.
Whilst if I was PM right now I would also realise the poitical threat
of an Oligarch like Gaydamak reaching out to the nation since his
intent is quite obviously to run for Knesset office. However the end
result is the same he is working on the ground to help the situation
whilst the government fails to stem the tide of terrosim at its roots.
The IDF and government have not found a solution to the Kassam rocket attacks from Gaza. At the same time they offer apoplectic apologies for unintentionally killing non-combatants in Beit Hanun. The government's basic error is not seeming to realize that we are at war with our neighbors.
War means noncombatants killed on both sides. No war was ever won unless the issue of harming noncombatants was not allowed to interfere with aggressive military planning. Israel's obsessive concern over collateral damage will make victory forever impossible, and every military man knows it.
The skewed morality behind this obsession: Having our citizens suffer is less immoral than having the enemy's citizens suffer. Yet in war, as in sports, "Nice guys finish last." Except that in Israel's case, there would be no "next season."
One day Napoleon and the czar of Russia were talking about their respective Jewish populations. The czar proudly said: "In Russia, we have government-sponsored pogroms, we draft young Jewish boys into my army and we stomp on the filthy Jew whenever possible."
To which Napoleon replied, "Really? In France, we have Liberty, Equality and Fraternity! Jews are full French citizens, free to participate in society, indistinguishable from the rest of the citizenry."
The czar was aghast. "How can you allow them to carry on like that?"
Answered Napoleon: "Look - you kill your Jews your way, I'll kill my Jews my way."
Why have Israel's government and people not loudly demanded the creation of an efficient, professional ideological warfare department to influence Arab and non-Arab public opinion?
For months Palestinians have been shelling Israeli towns and villages. Where were the photographs and footage showing the damage? Did Israel ask the Security Council for a special session on the attacks from Gaza, even if there was little hope of the UN considering Israel's complaint?
Well-orchestrated Palestinian propaganda forced the council to issue an anti-Israel resolution; only a US veto saved the day. Yet the perpetrators are those who initiated the rocket firing. Israel retaliated and caused civilian casualties.
"Are Democrats' gains in House good for Israel? Party leaders insist traditional US support won't be harmed" sounded rational since most nations are wondering the same thing. Then a reporter posed a concern that the Democrats might be "more evenhanded." That gave me pause. As an Israeli citizen, I want teh USA government to be evenhanded.
Is Israel sacrosanct when it comes to criticism? If that's the case, don't you cease to be an "adult" nation, and become a "challenged" child of the US? And if that's the reality, should the US give its daughter dangerous toys?
Evenhanded means being honest with everyone involved.
I find the "Peres bill" another example of undemocratic Knesset action. The present law allows the Knesset to change voting and election procedures by a simple majority when it suits it ("Olmert tries to put out fire sparked by reform plan," November 12).
Two basic reforms are needed: (1) Election or voting procedure changes must be made by 60% of the Knesset; and (2) they should not come into effect until the following Knesset, and should not apply until after the immediate upcoming election.
We must root out the corruption and self-interest the present law allows.
I would like to remind the elderly, diehard atheist Zionists of Kibbutz Ruhama, who object to the building of a synagogue on their kibbutz, of Ruhama's past history before the present-day kibbutz came into existence.
It was founded in 1912 as the first Jewish settlement in the western Negev, the most southern part of the country inhabited by Jews. The land was purchased on behalf of a group of Russian Jewish religious idealists called Sha'are Israel, who financed its development under the sole management of my late grandfather, Zvi Hirshfeld, a young religious Jew from Riga, Latvia. Together with a group of hard working young Jewish idealists, he prepared for crops, dug a well and built a water tower and other buildings on land legally purchased from local Beduin. Sha'are Israel hoped to come later and settle on the land.
If "Jewish history, the Bible and Jewish thought are all important" to the Ruhama veterans, I would have thought they'd show more tolerance toward a synagogue - one that would, moreover, help increase the profits of their guest house.
Yitzhak Rabin was a good son of Israel who served his country with honor and dedication. His assassination was a heinous crime and the killer, Yigal Amir, should have been executed. However, the deification of Rabin by the Israeli Left is a gross insult to his memory, as the motive is purely political.
But there is no need for those many citizens who mourn and respect Rabin, yet reject defeatism, appeasement and self-flagellation, to abandon his legacy.
Rabin's legacy is too big to be squeezed into the Left's corner.
Police Chief Insp.-Gen. Moshe Karadi said Monday that 12,000 policemen would be deployed to man the Jerusalem Gay Pride Parade scheduled for this Friday.
Karadi told Israel Radio that his forces would need to receive reinforcements from elsewhere in the country, adding that resultant weakening of forces in other areas was part of the consideration in urging a cancellation of the march.
Israel's Police Chief said that although he respected the right any group's freedom of expression and its right to march, he advised against the Gay Pride Parade going ahead because the tremendous risk to public safety overrode this right.
"We had to weigh up freedom of expression on the one hand against human life on the other, but unfortunately (Attorney-General Menahem) Mazuz told us to find another alternative to canceling the march altogether," Karadi told Israel Radio.
Police were expected to hold emergency meetings early Monday morning with representatives of the Open House, which organizes the Jerusalem Gay Pride Parade, to try to reach an agreement on an alternative route for the march in light of the surprise decision by Mazuz on Sunday evening to deny police requests to suspend the march.
At a time when blatant anti-Semitism (not always disguised as "anti-Zionism") is sadly on the increase in Britain, it is good to know that an imaginative program of events will be held there to mark six decades of our national independence.
During 2008, your correspondent reports, "Israeli and British educators" will tour the UK, visiting schools, universities and Jewish communities, and leading seminars "on a wide range of common experiences." Who will choose these educators and what kind of experiences will they impart to their audiences? It is an undeniable fact that, in the not so distant past, some of Israel's cultural ambassadors have given British listeners a decidedly negative picture of the Jewish state.
This issue will be of particular concern to ex-Merseysiders like myself, since "a large-scale event" is scheduled to take place in our home town, Liverpool, which has been designated "European City of Culture" for 2008.
Is it too much to hope that those organizing the celebrations, headed by Ambassador Zvi Heifetz and Zionist Federation chairman Andrew Balcombe, will for once ensure that Israeli speakers will include a few veteran British olim - the people who are best equipped and motivated to address Jews and non-Jews alike?
I see that another person was killed by a driver with multiple traffic violations. May I suggest the following policies:
I saw a documentary called The Forgotten Refugees about the history and mass exodus of these Jews, and this movie is one way to dispel the myths that cloud our understanding of the conflict. It is a shame that out of all places, it has not been widely distributed in Israel.
The world must know that more Jewish refugees were created as a result of the conflict than were Palestinian refugees. The world must know that it is those Jews who were forced out of their homes where they flourished for thousands of years - before Islam was even a religion - that make up the majority of Israel's population.
Immigration Absorption Minister Ze'ev Boim and top leaders of the ministry are wasting large sums of taxpayers' money on their multi trip, empty purpose tripping around the world.
Instead, they should be here working on the economy so that Israel would become a magnet instead of a repellent. Tourists don't arrive in the numbers they should and too many and immigrants and native Israelis leave because of problems finding work and affordable housing, low wages and high taxes.
Fast-track economic and government reforms and Israeli governments will have fewer problems attracting and keeping a larger Israeli population.
I am writing as chairperson of UNRWA's Advisory Commission - comprising 21 member governments and three observers - whose mandate is to advise and assist UNRWA's commissioner-general in the execution of the agency's program.
During its most recent meeting in Amman on September 27-28, the commission deliberated on the report of the UN Board of Auditors referred to in your article and was satisfied with UNRWA's responses to the report's findings. Despite the points raised in the auditors' report, UNRWA is not being mismanaged and it did receive a clean bill of health, unlike the article suggests.
The article reports on a letter from two US congressmen to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, commenting on this auditor's report, in which the suggestion is made that UNRWA is grossly mismanaged and that its refugee camps may foster terrorism. These are serious allegations, but to the writer's credit he notes that the allegations of the congressmen "do not jibe with a close reading of the audit." He also correctly points out that the congressmen's letter could undermine UNRWA's constructive regional role and could be detrimental to US efforts to stem the crisis in the occupied Palestinian territory. In spite of these accurate comments, the impression created by other parts of the article is that UNRWA is mired in mismanagement and may be conducive to terrorist activities. This impression is incorrect and must be dispelled.
Under its present leadership the agency has taken courageous steps to modernize and strengthen its management. UNRWA has embarked during 2006 on a substantive process of management development, which will address most of the issues raised by the auditors. The article omits this important fact. The centerpiece of the reform effort is a three-year organizational development process that will improve the way the agency manages its operations and will thereby enhance the impact of its services. As such the reforms will address the issues raised by the auditors in a thorough, systemic way. The fact that the reform process is endorsed by refugee-hosting countries as well as by donor countries is a measure of the confidence UNRWA's stakeholders place in the agency's management.
Contrary to the audit report, your article does not acknowledge the extremely difficult circumstances in which UNRWA is compelled to operate. The agency's record of humanitarian service to Palestine refugees could not have been achieved without sacrifice and risks by its staff. Indeed, the UN Board of Auditors report acknowledges that some of the procedural delays and administrative complications identified were directly attributable to difficulties faced by the agency's staff in gaining access to its headquarters in Gaza.
Rather than suggesting that UNRWA camps would foster terrorism, UNRWA should be commended for the fact that it has always been a force of stability in the region. In the West Bank and Gaza Strip it delivers essential services, the continuation of which are in Israel's and the international community's interests.
The agency's management is not only genuinely committed to reform, but also conscious of the need to translate reforms into optimal delivery of services to Palestine refugees. For all these reasons, UNRWA deserves our continued support and encouragement.
FRANS MAKKEN
Netherlands, Representative to the, Palestinian Authority, Ramallah
Movedhave begun and speculation is rife. Natan Sharansky has left the Knesset so he can make a real difference outsite Poltics, fuelling rumours he's positioning himself to be nominated for President of Israel.
Natan Sharansky would bring to the office of president a large measure of dignity that is lacking today. He would not bring much political baggage, as would Ruby Rivlin on the Right, Collette Avital on the Left, and even Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, who would be mired in the country's religious-secular problems.
Though Sharansky is of short physical stature, he is virtually a giant among the people of Israel!
Most Israelis have no clear understanding of what the president did or did not do. This may even still apply to those deciding on his indictment. But almost all of us have already formed an opinion.
While the accusations are repulsive, even more so is the release by the police and other agencies of what may or may not be going on - a cheap way of currying favor with the media or besmirching a man's character while a difficult and sensitive issue is being investigated.
If the accusations are valid, a trial will reveal all the squalid details. If not, they aren't our concern. Some of us here have learned that keeping one's mouth shut is a virtue; clearly many in the government have not.
While the media may publish them, the stories originate with agencies whose duty is to protect the privacy of those they deal with. They have failed miserably. They need to be investigated as well - without leaks
Arcadia - the South African Jewish Orphanage - is celebrating its centenary and over its 100 years of existence has taken care of more than 3,000 children in residence in Arcadia and has helped an even greater number who were never in residence.
It is estimated that up to 5 percent of the South African Jewish population would have a direct connection with Arcadia and they or their parents or grandparents would have lived in or received help from Arcadia. Also it is estimated that in earlier days, 50 percent of South African Jewish families would have been financial members of Arcadia.
Arcadia still exists in Johannesburg, taking care of Jewish children in need and is still in need of our financial support.
More than 120 "children" (including many now living in Israel) have recorded their memories of Arcadia in a book 100 Years of ARC Memories and have raised funds to print 4,000 copies, which are on sale in the UK, US, Canada, Israel, Australia and South Africa to raise funds for Arcadia. All proceeds on sale of the book go direct to Arcadia.
Last week, Mahmoud Abbas, chairman of the Palestinian Authority and head of Fatah, said: "It is not required of Hamas, or of Fatah, or of the Popular Front to recognize Israel" (Al-Arabiya, October 3). We must also remember that Hamas, leaders of the PA, openly calls for Israel's destruction, as does Fatah's Charter. Both the Saudi Arabian initiative and the Abbas-backed "Prisoners Document‚" call for the "right of return," which is clearly incompatible with Israel's existence as a Jewish state.
This is also consistent with Palestinian views. A September poll, carried out by the Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace, found that 57 percent of Palestinians support terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians within Israel's pre-June 1967 borders. Another poll the same month conducted by the Center for Opinion Polls and Survey Studies at An-Najah University found that 61.3% of Palestinians support terrorist attacks upon Israelis inside Israel.
On top of all this, not a single map in the PA or in any Arab country displays a country called Israel, only "Palestine."
The hijacking crisis was ended on 10 October when Egypt gave free passage to the hijackers in exchange for the fredom of the rest of the hostages. However US Navy jets quickly intercepted the chartered Egypt Air 737 carrying the terrorists and forced it to land in Italy.
Four were tried in Italy and sentenced to long prison terms. Abu Abbas, the mastermind and planner unfortunatly escaped jail and stands convicted in absentia. Abbas was arrested by US forces in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, in April 2003 and died in custody in March 2004. A post mortem examination showed he died of heart disease.
The irony of the story is the boat continued its jinxed life until it caught fire and sank in 1994.
Sep. 25, 2006 update: Pope Benedict reaffirmed this point, this time even more forcefully. In the course of a statement to Muslim ambassadors, he quoted the Nostra Aetate issued by the Second Vatican Council:
The Church looks upon Muslims with respect. They worship the one God living and subsistent, merciful and almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, who has spoken to humanity and to whose decrees, even the hidden ones, they seek to submit themselves whole-heartedly, just as Abraham, to whom the Islamic faith readily relates itself, submitted to God.
The pope endorsed this 1965 statement by calling it "the Magna Carta of Muslim-Christian dialogue."
There are worrying double standards today amongst Muslims, where they are proud to defame other religions, calling Jihad on infidels, to call Jews pigs and Christians crusaders.Lets sit back and take stock of this situation shall we. I read in the paper recently that if logic would prevail, then this whole Pope - Islam situation should be headlined:- Nearly 5,000 Christians were displaced in riots
Pope Calls Islam Violent, Muslims Go on Violent Rampage...
The irony in this whole situation is evidently so ludicrous as to have blind sided the average man on the street. Indeed its almost laughable.
Since the Pope made his remarks :
- Six were injured on September 20th during this rampage.
- 18 churcheshave been torched and left in riuns
- 20 Christian homes burned to the ground
- 40 Christian shops in Dutse, the capital of Jigawa state in Northern Nigeria have been put out of busines.
- A nun has been brutally stabbed to death
In another shocking development in what is fast appearing as a global trend of anti-zionism, a number of Irish academics have agreed to boycott Israeli Universities and Academics. More than sixty Irish professors and lecturers have signed an open letter to the EU requesting that it cease financial support and all payments (incuding cooperation) with Israeli universities and academics.
First published in the popular Irish Times in September, the Irish are also pressing academics globally to unite against what they term "Israel's policy of violent repression against the Palestinians in the Occupied Territories, and its aggression against the people of Lebanon". Teaching staff representing every Irish University have lent their name to this ludicrously anti-zionist document.
In the letter, carefully drafted to avoid a sense of anti-semitism, the Irish are quoted as:
"We call for a moratorium on any further such support to Israeli academic institutions, at both national and European levels. We urge our fellow academics to support this moratorium by refraining, where possible, from further joint collaborations with Israeli academic institutions."
The letter ends with the ultimatum to Israel "Such a moratorium should continue until Israel abides by UN resolutions and ends the occupation of Palestinian territories."
This action is worrying and should be condemmed by all for the following reasons:
1. Israeli universities let alone its teaching staff cannot be held accountable to the policies of its government regardless of right or wrong.
4. The letter fails to mention any background to Israels actions, not does it make any effort to condemn terrorism in its ugly incarnation in the Palestinian culture.
This open letter is the 4th attempt by Irish academics to boycott Israeli universities. Last year members of the Association of University Teachers voted to cease all cooperation with Haifa and Bar Ilan universities, and in earlier this year, the NAT attempted to pass a similar resolution amongst its members.
It is surely time for the world to speak up against this academic racism. In America we are seeing similar oubursts by scholars and so called teachers. Are we paying tax to have our children indoctrinated by terrorist sympathisers / virilant anti-semites? This leftist policy of indoctrination must end, we must institute a fair and balanced curriculum of debate and discussion and avoid this wilful posture of antagonism.
TEL AVIV (Reuters) - In October 1973, with its forces battling to repel invasions by Egypt and Syria, Israel did what had previously been unthinkable: It briefly wheeled its nuclear-capable Jericho-1 missiles out of their secret silos.
That, historians believe, was picked up by U.S. spy satellites and stirred up fears in Washington of a catastrophic flare-up between the Jewish state and the Soviet-backed Arabs. Message received, an urgent American shipment of conventional arms to Israel was quick to follow, and helped turn the war.
With Israel's current arch-foe Iran seen gaining the ability to produce nuclear weapons within a few years, and preventive military options limited, some experts now anticipate another "lifting of the veil" on the assumed Israeli atomic arsenal.
Were that to happen, experts say, the objective would be to establish a more open military deterrence vis-a-vis Iran and perhaps win Israel's nuclear option formal legitimacy abroad.
"No one should simply assume that Israel would stay where it is now with its ambiguous capability if Iran becomes a nuclear power," said Professor Gerald Steinberg, head of the Conflict Management Programme at Bar-Ilan University near Tel Aviv.
"Israeli policy is likely to change, in order to demonstrate that the country has continued strategic superiority," he said.
Israel neither confirms nor denies it has the Middle East's only nuclear weapons, under an "ambiguity" policy billed as warding off enemy states while avoiding a regional arms race.
Steinberg said this might be abandoned only as a last resort to persuade a nuclear-armed Iran that it stood to suffer far greater devastation in any full-blown future conflict.
"It's not desirable, but this is about survival," he said.
Iran, the world's fourth largest oil exporter, says its nuclear programme is for energy needs alone. But calls by its President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for Israel to be "wiped off the map" have fuelled Western calls for the programme to be curbed.
MUTUALLY ASSURED DESTRUCTION?
Talk of a nuclear stand-off between Israel and Iran has sparked comparisons with the "mutually assured destruction" formula that reigned during the Cold War and, more recently, between India and Pakistan.
But those precedents assume a parity that may not exist with Israel and Iran. Militarily advanced Israel is geographically small and vulnerable. Iran's atomic ambitions are at fledgling stage but its large size could help it survive a major strike.
"The use of a nuclear bomb against Israel would completely destroy Israel, while (the same) against the Islamic world would only cause damage. Such a scenario is not inconceivable," former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said in a 2001 speech.
There is also speculation that Ahmadinejad might welcome an apocalyptic confrontation, meaning the idea of a deterrent would not work. Yet he answers to Iranian clerics who work by committee and thus provide a rational set of safeguards.
Reuven Pedatzur, defence analyst for the respected Israeli daily Haaretz, proposed that the country, under U.S. guidance, go public with its nuclear capability in the hope of building back-channel ties with Iran and establishing mutual deterrence.
"Israel cannot continue to rely on it (ambiguity policy) if Iran has nuclear weapons. This is because ambiguity leaves too many grey areas. The enemy cannot know with certainty what the red lines are and when he is risking an Israeli nuclear response," he wrote.
"There must be a deterrent policy that will leave no room for misunderstandings," he added. "Thus, for example, we would make it clear that the identification of any missile launched from Iran in a westerly direction means, as far as we are concerned, the launch of an Iranian nuclear missile at us."
Declaring capabilities is one way for a nation to becomes an official nuclear power. The other is a controlled atomic blast.
"If the Israelis really have any doubt about the credibility of their deterrence, they could conduct a nuclear test, say, in the Negev desert," said Gary Samore, a former adviser on nuclear non-proliferation in the U.S. National Security Council under President Bill Clinton.
But he said the diplomatic fall-out of such a move would draw scrutiny away from Tehran and further alienate those Arab nations willing to endorse Western pressure on the Iranians.
"It would be a godsend for Iran," Samore said.
NPT IN QUESTION
Israel did not sign the 1970 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. It thus kept its main nuclear facility, outside the desert town of Dimona, exempt from inspection. It has received billions of dollars in aid from Washington, whose laws ban funding states with unregulated non-conventional arsenals.
A nuclear weapons test by Israel would effectively blow away that U.S. blind eye. Iran, in turn, could withdraw from the NPT and argue that it should not be subjected to sanctions. After that, other Middle East states would likely seek atomic arms.
Avner Cohen, author of the seminal study "Israel and the Bomb", has suggested that Israel seek to form a new nuclear pact along with India and Pakistan, which refuse to join the NPT.
"Such a protocol might permit them to retain their atomic programmes, but inhibit further development. It could also require cooperation with international nuclear export controls, prohibit explosive testing of nuclear devices, and call for the phased elimination of fissile material production," Cohen said.
Iran would not be able to join such a pact, he added, as it has violated the NPT by pursuing unauthorised nuclear projects.
Cohen poured cold water on the idea of Israel seeking mutual deterrence with a nuclear-armed Iran, noting that during the Cold War parity was achieved only after Washington and Moscow scraped through two crises -- over the 1948 Western airlift to Berlin and the 1962 deployment of Soviet missiles in Cuba.
"The sense of stability associated with mutually assured destruction grew out of a learning curve," he said. "Israel had its learning through crisis, especially the 1973 war. Do we have time for the Iranians to learn? Will they learn?"
The officials told WND the office of Lebanese Prime Minister Faud Sinora sent a letter last week to Abbas Zakir, the Palestinian Authority's most senior representative in Lebanon, outlining the alleged Hezbollah weapons transfers into Palestinian camps. The letter noted "unusual activity" in and near the Palestinian camps, including the coming and going of trucks suspected of carrying weapons.
Palestinian groups, including Fatah and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, maintain armed bases in Lebanon, mostly in the al-Naemeh province just south of Beirut and in the Bekaa Valley, near Lebanon's border with Syria and Israel. Fatah is the party of PA President Mahmoud Abbas.
Livni said she also spent time appealing to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to fulfill UN resolution 1701 including the return of the abducted IDF soldiers. Whether her appeals will do anything but fall on deaf ears as they usually do remains to be seen.
Now as in the past, international leaders appease their governments and quieten their people by making overt condemnations and formal and firm requests. Then to flip the coin and appease the Arab terrorists, the verbal cease and no action is taken. Though perhaps this time it will be different!, perhaps this time Kofi Annan in his final few months in impetant power may actually try and leave a positive legacy behind him.
Livni added she had met with 30 representatives of Arab states including the more moderate ones who share Israel's concern over Iran's nuclear armament.
So according to Livni all is good on the islamist front, we'll get our soldiers back and the Iran will be quashed by its neighbours !!
THE STORY OF GEDALIA
After the destruction of the First Temple 2,500 years ago, the majority of the Jewish people were exiled to Babylon. The conqueror, Nebuchadnezzar, eventually eased some of his harsh restrictions and allowed some Jews to remain in the Land of Israel. He even appointed a righteous Jew named Gedalia to administrate the territory. Gradually, more Jews who'd escaped from the horrors of the war into neighboring countries began to return to their homes in Israel.
Gedalia was realistic about the limitations of Jewish sovereignty. He understood that for their own self-preservation, the Jews in Israel needed to fully cooperate with the nation who had conquered their land.
But this political subservience was intolerable to some Jews. A man named Yishmael ben Netaniah, spurred on by jealousy and foreign influence, arose and ignored the King of Babylon. On the third of Tishrei, Yishmael treacherously killed Gedalia as well as many other Jews and Babylonians.
ANSWER ON YOM KIPPUR
In the aftermath of Gedalia's murder, the Jews feared reprisal from the King of Babylon. They thought to flee to Egypt to save themselves. But since Egypt was a morally corrupt society, the Jews were in a quandary -- weighing the physical threat against the spiritual danger. So they turned to the prophet Jeremiah, who was secluded in mourning, to ask for advice.
For an entire week, Jeremiah pleaded with God for an answer. Finally, on Yom Kippur, he was answered. Jeremiah called the Jews and told them to stay in Israel and everything would be alright. God was planning to make the Babylonians act mercifully toward the Jews, and before long, all the exiled Jews would be permitted to return to their own soil. But, Jeremiah told them, if the Jews decided to go to Egypt, the sword from which they were running would kill them there.
Unfortunately, the prophet's words did not penetrate, and the people refused to believe. All the Jews remaining in Israel packed their bags and went down to Egypt. They even kidnapped Jeremiah and took him with them! Now the destruction was complete; the Land of Israel was completely barren.
You can guess what happened next. A few years later, Babylon conquered Egypt and tens of thousands of Jewish exiles were completely wiped out. The lone survivor of this massacre was Jeremiah. His prophecy had become painfully true.
The initial event -- the murder of Gedalia -- has been likened to the destruction of the Holy Temple, because it cost Jewish lives and brought the end of Jewish settlement in Israel for many years. The prophets therefore declared that the anniversary of this tragedy should be a day of fasting. This day is the third of Tishrei, the day immediately after Rosh Hashana.
LESSONS FOR THE FAST OF GEDALIA
Lesson #1 -- The Jewish people had sunk to one of their lowest levels in history. The Temple was destroyed, the majority of Jews were exiled, and things looked hopeless. But God changed their desperate situation and had the righteous Gedalia appointed. Yet Gedalia was murdered by a Jew and all hope was wiped out.
It was at this point that Jeremiah prayed to God for some insight and assurance. This was during the 10 days between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. This story is memorialized to teach us an important message for these days: No matter how far away you are, you can return and God will forgive you.
Lesson #2 -- The Jews who went to ask Jeremiah for advice were subconsciously sure that God would give the answer they wanted to hear. So when God answered differently, they rebelled.
Yet these were not evil people. What happened?
Though these Jews were in one sense dependent on the will of the Babylonians, they were unwilling to be dependent on the will of God. The lesson is that attaching oneself to God means following Him at all times, not just when it happens to coincide with what you want.
A good rule in life, when faced with a tricky moral dilemma, is to ask yourself: "What would God say? What does He want me to do?"
Lesson #3 -- When one Jew murders another, it is a deep, terrible tragedy, which can have enormous historical repercussions. There is no excuse for such violence. Do we have philosophical and political differences? We must work them out with calm and tolerance. It is the only acceptable way
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