"Only Eretz Yisrael will protect our people"- Yehudit Katzover on the settlers' struggle
The former First Lady of Kiryat Arba, Mrs. Yehudit Katzover of Women in Green on religious Zionists' struggle to preserve the Jewish homeland.
IDF's Auschwitz fly-over - a reminder to the anti-Semitic rousers of the UN's Geneva Durban II
"Triumph of the Return" Israel Air Force F-15 Jets manoeuver over Auschwitz
On Holocaust Remembrance Day, the IDF Spokesperson's office memorializes the 6 million Jews who were murdered at the hands of the Nazis and their collaborators. Millions of Jews and other victims of the Nazis were imprisoned, enslaved and murdered at Auschwitz and her sister camps (1939-1945).
On September 4, 2003, the Israeli Air Force flew three F-15 jets over the Auschwitz concentration camp - in tribute to the Jewish people's continued strength and triumph over past adversities.
This visit was a testament to the world that the saying "never again" is not just a slogan.
Many of the participants were the children and grandchildren of Holocaust survivors.
On Holocaust Remembrance Day, the IDF Spokesperson's office memorializes the 6 million Jews who were murdered at the hands of the Nazis and their collaborators. Millions of Jews and other victims of the Nazis were imprisoned, enslaved and murdered at Auschwitz and her sister camps (1939-1945).
On September 4, 2003, the Israeli Air Force flew three F-15 jets over the Auschwitz concentration camp - in tribute to the Jewish people's continued strength and triumph over past adversities.
This visit was a testament to the world that the saying "never again" is not just a slogan.
Many of the participants were the children and grandchildren of Holocaust survivors.
Israel Prime Minister Netanyahu's Holocaust Memorial Day presentation
PM Binyamin Netanyahu spoke at Yad Vashem during the Opening Ceremony marking Holocaust Martyrs and Heroes Remembrance Day on April 20, 2009.
"America in the Middle East - 1776 to today" speech by Jerusalemite, Prof. Michael Oren
America's historical involvement with the Muslim world and Israel, respectively, precedes its recognizing Israel's independence in 1948.
Professor Michael Oren (author of "Power, Faith, & Fantasy: America in the Middle East 1776 to the Present") explains the role that Zionism and the Islamic world have played since America's founding.
The speech is presented to benefit Childrens' Hospital Los Angeles', "Teen Impact" cancer therapy program. Learn more at Celebrate Life with Hope.
Professor Michael Oren (author of "Power, Faith, & Fantasy: America in the Middle East 1776 to the Present") explains the role that Zionism and the Islamic world have played since America's founding.
The speech is presented to benefit Childrens' Hospital Los Angeles', "Teen Impact" cancer therapy program. Learn more at Celebrate Life with Hope.
Purim: The Miracle of Jewish Survival
A primer on the history and meaning of Purim by Rabbi Mordechai Becher
Lessons of Purim apply to our contemporary world
One of the most ancient and persistent enemies of the Jewish people was the nation of Amalek, the first enemy to attack the Jews after the Exodus from Egypt. A descendant of the Amalekites, Haman, had ascended to the position of "prime minister" of the Persian Empire. This rabid anti-Semite planned an empire-wide pogrom to eliminate the Jewish people. He chose the date for this mass murder by casting lots. In Persian, the word for lot is pur. The plural form is Purim, hence the name of the holiday.
The heroine of the Purim story is Esther, a devout Jewish woman who was forcibly taken as a wife for Achashverosh. She and her uncle Mordechai, one of the religious leaders of that generation, were instrumental in saving the Jewish people from annihilation. After uniting the Jewish nation in repentance and prayer, they set about exposing Haman's plot to the king. Haman and his equally wicked sons were executed when Achashverosh learned that he had planned to kill Queen Esther's nation. The Jews were permitted to defend themselves against their enemies on the appointed day for annihilation, and were totally victorious. Mordechai and Esther recorded the events of Purim in the prophetically inspired Megillat Esther (literally, Scroll of Esther). The Megillah is read publicly on the night and day of the Purim festival.
Three years after the events of Purim, King Darius, the son of Esther and Achashverosh, allowed the Jewish people to return to Israel and rebuild the Temple. The Temple was rebuilt exactly 70 years after its destruction, as predicted by Jeremiah.
Reminder of the metaphysical, spiritual essence of the world
On Purim we celebrate the fact that the hand of God guides us, even at times when we do not see open miracles or obvious Divine intervention. When we read the Megillah, we are not awestruck by dramatic changes in the laws of nature, but by a series of seemingly disconnected events that ultimately resulted in the salvation of the Jewish people. Achashverosh executed his first wife and chose the beautiful Esther as his new queen. These are not miracles, but behavior to be expected from a despotic king. Nor was it a miracle that Mordechai once saved the king from an assassination plot, thereby earning his gratitude. Each event, in and of itself, was not miraculous or even exceptional. When seen in retrospect however, the series of events is seen as engineered from Above for the purpose of evoking repentance from the Jewish people and then saving them from danger.
This theme of allusion may also be the reason behind the custom of wearing costumes on Purim. The masks and costumes show that truth always lies beneath the surface, that the physical world conceals the true spiritual reality.
The reading of the Book of Esther by The Happy Minyan of Los Angeles precedes their revelry.
Challenge to overcome Amalek in every generation
While the events of Chanukah were principally a threat to our spiritual survival, Purim recalls a threat to the physical existence of the Jewish people. Haman attempted to physically destroy every Jewish man, woman and child. We celebrate our deliverance from this threat with mitzvot that focus on the physical. We give money to the poor and gifts of food to our friends; we eat a festive meal and drink wine.
Giving gifts to one another also promotes unity among the Jewish people. When first proposing his evil plot to Achashverosh, Haman described the Jewish people as a "scattered and dispersed nation." He did not mean only that we were geographically dispersed, but that we were not unified, and thus would be easy prey for our enemies. (On a spiritual level, we also understand this to mean that when the Jewish people are disunited, God does not protect them fully. National unity brings about spiritual wholeness and closeness to God.) To counteract this situation, the Sages decreed that we must be concerned with the welfare and friendship of our fellow Jews. We strengthen Jewish unity by giving gifts to the poor, food to our friends, and by celebrating together with festive meals. (Courtesy Rabbi Mordechai Becher: Gateway to Judaism; The what, how, and why of Jewish life) available from Artscroll Publishing.
One of the most ancient and persistent enemies of the Jewish people was the nation of Amalek, the first enemy to attack the Jews after the Exodus from Egypt. A descendant of the Amalekites, Haman, had ascended to the position of "prime minister" of the Persian Empire. This rabid anti-Semite planned an empire-wide pogrom to eliminate the Jewish people. He chose the date for this mass murder by casting lots. In Persian, the word for lot is pur. The plural form is Purim, hence the name of the holiday.
The heroine of the Purim story is Esther, a devout Jewish woman who was forcibly taken as a wife for Achashverosh. She and her uncle Mordechai, one of the religious leaders of that generation, were instrumental in saving the Jewish people from annihilation. After uniting the Jewish nation in repentance and prayer, they set about exposing Haman's plot to the king. Haman and his equally wicked sons were executed when Achashverosh learned that he had planned to kill Queen Esther's nation. The Jews were permitted to defend themselves against their enemies on the appointed day for annihilation, and were totally victorious. Mordechai and Esther recorded the events of Purim in the prophetically inspired Megillat Esther (literally, Scroll of Esther). The Megillah is read publicly on the night and day of the Purim festival.
Three years after the events of Purim, King Darius, the son of Esther and Achashverosh, allowed the Jewish people to return to Israel and rebuild the Temple. The Temple was rebuilt exactly 70 years after its destruction, as predicted by Jeremiah.
Reminder of the metaphysical, spiritual essence of the world
On Purim we celebrate the fact that the hand of God guides us, even at times when we do not see open miracles or obvious Divine intervention. When we read the Megillah, we are not awestruck by dramatic changes in the laws of nature, but by a series of seemingly disconnected events that ultimately resulted in the salvation of the Jewish people. Achashverosh executed his first wife and chose the beautiful Esther as his new queen. These are not miracles, but behavior to be expected from a despotic king. Nor was it a miracle that Mordechai once saved the king from an assassination plot, thereby earning his gratitude. Each event, in and of itself, was not miraculous or even exceptional. When seen in retrospect however, the series of events is seen as engineered from Above for the purpose of evoking repentance from the Jewish people and then saving them from danger.
This theme of allusion may also be the reason behind the custom of wearing costumes on Purim. The masks and costumes show that truth always lies beneath the surface, that the physical world conceals the true spiritual reality.
The reading of the Book of Esther by The Happy Minyan of Los Angeles precedes their revelry.
Challenge to overcome Amalek in every generation
While the events of Chanukah were principally a threat to our spiritual survival, Purim recalls a threat to the physical existence of the Jewish people. Haman attempted to physically destroy every Jewish man, woman and child. We celebrate our deliverance from this threat with mitzvot that focus on the physical. We give money to the poor and gifts of food to our friends; we eat a festive meal and drink wine.
Giving gifts to one another also promotes unity among the Jewish people. When first proposing his evil plot to Achashverosh, Haman described the Jewish people as a "scattered and dispersed nation." He did not mean only that we were geographically dispersed, but that we were not unified, and thus would be easy prey for our enemies. (On a spiritual level, we also understand this to mean that when the Jewish people are disunited, God does not protect them fully. National unity brings about spiritual wholeness and closeness to God.) To counteract this situation, the Sages decreed that we must be concerned with the welfare and friendship of our fellow Jews. We strengthen Jewish unity by giving gifts to the poor, food to our friends, and by celebrating together with festive meals. (Courtesy Rabbi Mordechai Becher: Gateway to Judaism; The what, how, and why of Jewish life) available from Artscroll Publishing.
'Israel Defense Force is the most conscientious army in the history of warfare' - British Army Colonel redresses antagonistic BBC TV news interviewer
Former British Army Colonel, Richard Kemp, defended Israel's unprecedentedly conscientious war effort from maligning by the BBC-TV.
"From my knowledge of the IDF ... I don't think there has ever been a time in the history of warfare when any army has made more efforts to reduce civilian casualties and deaths of innocent people than the IDF is doing today in Gaza," Colonel Kemp told the BBC's global television audience. ...
"Hamas, the enemy that they're fighting, has been trained extensively by Iran and by Hezbollah to fight among the people to use the civilian population in Gaza as a human shield - and they factor their use of the civilian population as a major part of their defensive plan. So even though Israel, the IDF is taking enormous steps to reduce civilian casualties, it's impossible when the enemy is using them as a shield."
Media's dishonesty debunked: 'IDF civilian casualty ratio in Gaza - 3-times safer than Coalition Forces in Iraq or Afganistan'- independent network TV news report.
Despite Hamas' campaign to provoke civilian casualties by Israel's defensive incursion, Israel's Channel 2 News quotes military intelligence reports that only 288 of 1134 casualties were civilian.
This should update mainstream-media regurgitation of previously-demonstrated Hamas' questionably-credible allegations of Israel's disproportionate-response to curtailing 9-years of Palestinian rocket-terrorism against Israelis.
In Iraq & Afganistan, the U.S. Coalition Force's ration of civilian to combatant casualties ratio is 1 to 1. The conscientious Israeli conduct limited civilian casualties to only 1 out of 3, despite Palestinian government endeavors to sacrifice innocent Palestinians civilians to generate greater U.N. and international financial aid to Hamas.
"From my knowledge of the IDF ... I don't think there has ever been a time in the history of warfare when any army has made more efforts to reduce civilian casualties and deaths of innocent people than the IDF is doing today in Gaza," Colonel Kemp told the BBC's global television audience. ...
"Hamas, the enemy that they're fighting, has been trained extensively by Iran and by Hezbollah to fight among the people to use the civilian population in Gaza as a human shield - and they factor their use of the civilian population as a major part of their defensive plan. So even though Israel, the IDF is taking enormous steps to reduce civilian casualties, it's impossible when the enemy is using them as a shield."
Media's dishonesty debunked: 'IDF civilian casualty ratio in Gaza - 3-times safer than Coalition Forces in Iraq or Afganistan'- independent network TV news report.
Despite Hamas' campaign to provoke civilian casualties by Israel's defensive incursion, Israel's Channel 2 News quotes military intelligence reports that only 288 of 1134 casualties were civilian.
This should update mainstream-media regurgitation of previously-demonstrated Hamas' questionably-credible allegations of Israel's disproportionate-response to curtailing 9-years of Palestinian rocket-terrorism against Israelis.
In Iraq & Afganistan, the U.S. Coalition Force's ration of civilian to combatant casualties ratio is 1 to 1. The conscientious Israeli conduct limited civilian casualties to only 1 out of 3, despite Palestinian government endeavors to sacrifice innocent Palestinians civilians to generate greater U.N. and international financial aid to Hamas.
Video: 'Why Hamas should be prosecuted for perpetrating war-crimes,' describes international legal expert Irwin Cotler
There is "almost no comparable example" anywhere in today's world of a group that so systematically violates international agreements related to armed conflict, delineates Irwin Cotler - a former Canadian Justice Minister, MP and law professor at Montreal's McGill University.
Hamas is committing at least six violations of international law, Cotler explained in this exclusive, video interview filmed live in Jerusalem.
"First, the deliberate targeting of civilians is, in and of itself, a war crime," he noted, referring to the Hamas rockets fired at southern towns for eight years.
"A second war crime is when Hamas attacks [from within] civilian areas and civilian structures, whether it be an apartment building, a mosque or a hospital, in order to be immune from a response from Israel," he went on. "Civilians are protected persons, and civilian areas are protected areas. Any use of a civilian infrastructure to launch bombs is itself a war crime."
Third, he explained, "the misuse and abuse of humanitarian symbols for purposes of launching attacks is called the perfidy principle. For example, using an ambulance to transport fighters or weapons or disguising oneself as a doctor in a hospital, or using a UN logo or flag, are war crimes."
The fourth violation, "of which little has been made, is the prohibition in the Fourth Geneva Convention and international jurisprudence against the direct and public incitement to genocide. The Hamas covenant itself is a standing incitement to genocide. [Similarly,] just before this fighting started, I saw Hamas leaders on television referring to Israel and Jews as the sons of apes and pigs."
The fifth crime relates to the scope of the attack on civilians, which upgrades the violation to a crime against humanity. According to Cotler, "when you deliberately hit civilians not infrequently but in a systematic, widespread attack, that's defined in the treaty of the International Criminal Court and international humanitarian law as a crime against humanity."
The sixth war crime for which Hamas is responsible is the recruitment of children into armed conflict.
"Hamas is a case-study of each of these six categories of war crime," said Cotler. "There has to be moral and legal clarity as to responsibility. When Israel responds and civilians are killed because Israel is targeting an area from which rockets were launched, then it is Hamas which bears responsibility for the deaths, and not Israel, according to international law." (Print article written by Haviv Rettig Gur published in The Jerusalem Post
Hamas is committing at least six violations of international law, Cotler explained in this exclusive, video interview filmed live in Jerusalem.
"First, the deliberate targeting of civilians is, in and of itself, a war crime," he noted, referring to the Hamas rockets fired at southern towns for eight years.
"A second war crime is when Hamas attacks [from within] civilian areas and civilian structures, whether it be an apartment building, a mosque or a hospital, in order to be immune from a response from Israel," he went on. "Civilians are protected persons, and civilian areas are protected areas. Any use of a civilian infrastructure to launch bombs is itself a war crime."
Third, he explained, "the misuse and abuse of humanitarian symbols for purposes of launching attacks is called the perfidy principle. For example, using an ambulance to transport fighters or weapons or disguising oneself as a doctor in a hospital, or using a UN logo or flag, are war crimes."
The fourth violation, "of which little has been made, is the prohibition in the Fourth Geneva Convention and international jurisprudence against the direct and public incitement to genocide. The Hamas covenant itself is a standing incitement to genocide. [Similarly,] just before this fighting started, I saw Hamas leaders on television referring to Israel and Jews as the sons of apes and pigs."
The fifth crime relates to the scope of the attack on civilians, which upgrades the violation to a crime against humanity. According to Cotler, "when you deliberately hit civilians not infrequently but in a systematic, widespread attack, that's defined in the treaty of the International Criminal Court and international humanitarian law as a crime against humanity."
The sixth war crime for which Hamas is responsible is the recruitment of children into armed conflict.
"Hamas is a case-study of each of these six categories of war crime," said Cotler. "There has to be moral and legal clarity as to responsibility. When Israel responds and civilians are killed because Israel is targeting an area from which rockets were launched, then it is Hamas which bears responsibility for the deaths, and not Israel, according to international law." (Print article written by Haviv Rettig Gur published in The Jerusalem Post
At Jerusalem Conference, Israeli candidates address Jews' domestic and global-relations concerns
 |
| Obama pulls Netanyahu towards concessions to cede land to Palestinian state led by Abbas |
The 2009 Jerusalem Conference focused on the "New Leadership and New Direction" that will emerge this year in Israel and the United States following the national elections in both countries.
Former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who leads the Likud Party, discusses maintaining the Jewish integrity, demographically and politically, between life in Jerusalem, East Jerusalem, and Yesha.
Tzipi Livni of 2008/9 Kadima Party addresses Jerusalem Conference (English translated)
Compiled speeches by MK Maj. Gen. Danny Yatom (Labour); Dr. Martin Kramer, historian / political analyst; MK Yuval Steinitz (Likud, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Defense Readiness); and MK Dr. Arieh Eldad (National Union).
After Netanyahu's Jerusalem Conference speech, he convened with his
fellow party member Dr. Yuval Steinitz and Ichud Leumi (National Union)
party Chairman Yaakov Katz. Katz asked the Likud chairman what his plans
are for a coalition after the Israel elections. Netanyahu responded, "We will establish a broad coalition based on all the Zionist parties - blue and orange."
Strategic analysis by Jerusalem Post's Yaakov Katz pre-Gaza incursion proves prescient
The Jerusalem Post's Military Editor, Ya'akov Katz, warned in December of the IDF's risks in military action against Palestinian rocket war-crimes against Israeli civilians.
"Defiance," Holocaust movie reminder that anti-Judaism is a classic self-revealer of fascism
"Defiance" - the story of the Bielski Brothers' resistance against Jew-hatred and genocide in Eastern Europe opens worldwide today.
A screening panel of (pictured from left to right) the publisher of the Hollywood Reporter, Eric Mika, Defiance director, Edward Zwick, and ntnti-Defamation League Exec. Director, Abraham Foxman, discussed themes in the movie and the ongoing issue of combating Jew-hatred.
In this exclusive interview with Democracy Broadcasting, Defiance director, Edward Zwick, intimates the personal and biblical Jewish influences involved in the structure and making of this movie.
A screening panel of (pictured from left to right) the publisher of the Hollywood Reporter, Eric Mika, Defiance director, Edward Zwick, and ntnti-Defamation League Exec. Director, Abraham Foxman, discussed themes in the movie and the ongoing issue of combating Jew-hatred.
In this exclusive interview with Democracy Broadcasting, Defiance director, Edward Zwick, intimates the personal and biblical Jewish influences involved in the structure and making of this movie.
Director Zwick also reveals themes of historic Jewish defense and vindication in this interview today with columnist Jeffrey Goldberg in The Atlantic, "Ed Zwick on Passivity, Jewish Power, and Hamas"
"I think it might have been Leon Wieseltier who led me back to read the Book of Judges or the Book of Joshua to see just how much of a warrior culture this always was. The notion of self-defense is implicit in the David and Goliath story, in the Maccabee story, in the Bar Kochba story. It was all there. I would say that Schindler's List, as powerful as it was, seemed to have continued with a particular iconography of victimization and passivity. That was the iconography with which I had grown up and to which I had grown accustomed. ... The Jews were massacred, if you will, by the Germans not because they didn't resist but because they couldn't resist. ... There is pride to be taken in all the different aspects of people's response to the Holocaust. There was bravery. You read about people in the worst of circumstances who found courage in a thousand different ways. But this is a more explicit way, represented in this film..."
Gan-Israel Pre-School
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