Tzedek-Tzedek

  Motsei Shabbat, 20th August, 2011  We pray and mourn for our brother and sisters in the South, where there are mounting casualities from the terror and rocket attacks in Eilat, Beersheva, Ashdod, Ashkelon..and indeed everything within 40km of Gaza. From the narrow view from Bet Shemesh, we are also keeping a wary eye on those ranges. In the Molten Lead campaign, in the winter of 2009/10, Hamas fired a huge quantity and variety of rockets at every Israeli town within 45km of Gaza. At that point Bet Shemesh, at 50 km from Gaza,  became a refuge for around a thousand school kids from the South; Lema'an Achai took a leadership role, in partnership with the Municipality, Ezrat Achim, Shaalei Torah, the Community Centers, and many schools in Bet Shemesh who took in kids during that one month period of terror. Bet Shemesh stands ready, should there be a need, to host as many civilians as need refuge here. However, if the current conflict continues, a...

[Published on Tzedek-Tzedek with kind permission of Yocheved Golani] Breaking News: Police in  Gaza  just announced the discovery of an arms cache of 2000  semi automatic rifles with 250,000 rounds of ammunition, 10 anti-tank  missiles, 4 grenade launchers, 20 tonnes of heroin, £50 million in forged   SWISS and USD  banknotes and 25 trafficked Ukrainian prostitutes all in a semi-detached house behind the Public Library in GAZA .  Local residents were stunned.  A community spokesman said: "We're shocked. We never knew we had a Library!!"

Initiated and funded by the Turkish organization IHH, a convoy or flotilla of nine ships is heading towards Israel ’s coast, in a bid to break Israel ’s blockade on Gaza . The first and only successful attempt to break the naval blockade on Gaza was in August 2008 by the “Free Gaza Movement” when 44 people from 17 countries sailed from Cyprus on two small boats. Since then, several reported attempts have been made, none of which succeeded. The organizers claim that the flotilla consists of nine vessels carrying 800 passengers, including international activists and journalists, and 10,000 tonnes of aid. They are due to arrive off Israel's coast on Friday. This will be the largest and most extravagant attempt yet, and is personally backed by Turkey ’s increasingly hostile (to Israel ) Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. A counter-flotilla has been organized by Israeli activists, and on Saturday some 30 Israeli ships set sail "to counter the Turkish flotilla." ...

The US president said the goal is clear: "two states living side by side in peace and security."  JPost 23/10/09 They say the more you repeat a lie, the more people will believe it. The political goal of "two states living side by side in peace and security", has become a mantra since the Midde East Road Map was promoted by George Bush in 2002. That Road Map was adopted by the Israeli Government under Ariel Sharon in 2003 (with certain reservations). The "Disengagement" (scorched-earth retreat) by Israel from Gush Katif was described by George Bush in April 2004: "These steps will mark real progress toward realizing the vision I set forth in June 2002 of two states living side by side in peace and security, and make a real contribution toward peace. " For the still-new President Obama to echo that mantra at the UN General Assembly today, seems uneventful and, well, sort of obvious. A bit like saying "we are united in our fight ag...

"Today," Netanyahu said, "is the day Israel uprooted approximately 10,000 Israelis - men, women and children - from their homes. To our regret, Gaza has become a base for Hamas-led, Iran-sponsored terrorism. Thousands of rockets and missiles have been fired at us." (Binyamin Netanyahu, August 2009, who voted in favor of the "Disengagement" from Gaza in 2005) http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1248277950920 I did not imagine that we would leave Gaza and they would fire Qassams from there; I did not imagine that Hamas would show so strongly in the elections. (Shimon Peres, President of Israel , 5/7/2008 ) http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/981392.html Olmert has already said that his convergence plan, which called for a unilateral pullout from most of the West Bank, has been shelved, and he has described the withdrawals from Lebanon and the Gaza Strip as failures. (9/1/07) http://www.haaretz.co...