Olmert's Cabinet Meets In Cave To Support Environment
(IsraelNN.com) Prime Minister Ehud Olmert convened his Cabinet in a
Galilean nature reserve Sunday to show support for environmental awareness in
Israel.
Instead of their regular weekly meeting in Israel's capital city, the
cabinet met in a large cave in Beit Shearim, a nature reserve housing the tomb
of Talmudic sage Yehuda Hanassi.
Olmert said the meeting hoped "to tell all of the country's citizens
that we love the country and its natural resources, and that these must be
safeguarded as a matter of routine." During the meeting, the cabinet
passed two resolutions earmarking funds for camping sites and bicycle tracks in
Israel.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Only in Israel
This was recently posted to the Israel National News site- can you imagine the US government...or any other...meeting in a cave? Certainly, this is another only-in-Israel moment!
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Remembering Malki Roth
This was written by the parents of Malki Roth. A beautiful young woman...
The New York Times carries a review of a film called 'Hot House' that goes inside Israeli prisons and examines the lives of Palestinian prisoners. We're not recommending the film or the review ...But we do want to share our feelings with you about the beaming female face that adorns the article. You can see it here.
The film is produced by HBO. So it's presumably HBO's publicity department that was responsible for creating and distributing a glamour-style photograph of a smiling, contented-looking young woman in her twenties to promote the movie.
That female is our child's murderer. She was sentenced to sixteen life sentences or 320 years which she is serving in an Israeli jail.Fifteen people were killed and more than a hundred maimed and injured by the actions of this attractive person and her associates. The background is here.
Neither the New York Times nor HBO are likely to give even a moment's attention to the victims of the barbarians who destroyed the Sbarro restaurant in Jerusalem and the lives of so many victims. So we would be grateful if you would pass along this link to some pictures of our daughter whose name was Malki.
She was unable to reach her twenties - Hamas saw to that.Though she was only fifteen years old when her life was stolen from her and from us, we think Malki was a beautiful young woman, living a beautiful life. We ask your help so that other people - far fewer than the number who will see the New York Times, of course - can know about her.
Please ask your friends to look at the pictures - some of the very few we have - of our murdered daughter.
They are at: http://www.kerenmalki.org/photo.htm And remind them of what the woman in the Israeli prison - the woman smiling so happily in the New York Times - said last year.
'I'm not sorry for what I did. We'll become free from the occupation and then I will be free from prison.'
With so many voices demanding that Israel release its terrorist prisoners, small wonder she's smiling.
With greetings from Jerusalem ,
Frimet and Arnold Roth
On behalf of Keren Malki
The New York Times carries a review of a film called 'Hot House' that goes inside Israeli prisons and examines the lives of Palestinian prisoners. We're not recommending the film or the review ...But we do want to share our feelings with you about the beaming female face that adorns the article. You can see it here.
The film is produced by HBO. So it's presumably HBO's publicity department that was responsible for creating and distributing a glamour-style photograph of a smiling, contented-looking young woman in her twenties to promote the movie.
That female is our child's murderer. She was sentenced to sixteen life sentences or 320 years which she is serving in an Israeli jail.Fifteen people were killed and more than a hundred maimed and injured by the actions of this attractive person and her associates. The background is here.
Neither the New York Times nor HBO are likely to give even a moment's attention to the victims of the barbarians who destroyed the Sbarro restaurant in Jerusalem and the lives of so many victims. So we would be grateful if you would pass along this link to some pictures of our daughter whose name was Malki.
She was unable to reach her twenties - Hamas saw to that.Though she was only fifteen years old when her life was stolen from her and from us, we think Malki was a beautiful young woman, living a beautiful life. We ask your help so that other people - far fewer than the number who will see the New York Times, of course - can know about her.
Please ask your friends to look at the pictures - some of the very few we have - of our murdered daughter.
They are at: http://www.kerenmalki.org/photo.htm And remind them of what the woman in the Israeli prison - the woman smiling so happily in the New York Times - said last year.
'I'm not sorry for what I did. We'll become free from the occupation and then I will be free from prison.'
With so many voices demanding that Israel release its terrorist prisoners, small wonder she's smiling.
With greetings from Jerusalem ,
Frimet and Arnold Roth
On behalf of Keren Malki
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
From a Sudanese African in Israel
A reality check for Bishop Tutu from a Sudanese African in Israel
Disappearance of Bishop Tutu
By Simon Deng
Late last month, I went to hear Bishop Desmond Tutu speak at Boston's Old South Church at a conference on "Israel Apartheid." Tutu is a well respected man of God. He brought reconciliation between blacks and whites in South Africa. That he would lead a conference that damns the Jewish state is very disturbing to me.
The State of Israel is not an apartheid state. I know because I write this from Jerusalem where I have seen Arab mothers peacefully strolling with their families even though I also drove on Israeli roads protected by walls and fences from Arab bullets and stones. I know Arabs go to Israeli schools and get the best medical care in the world.
I know they vote and have elected representatives to the Israeli Parliament. I see street signs in Arabic, an official language here. None of this was true for blacks under Apartheid in Tutu's South Africa.
I also know countries that do deserve the apartheid label: My country, Sudan, is on the top of the list, but so are Iran, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. What has happened to my people in Sudan is a thousand times worse than apartheid in South Africa. And no matter how the Palestinians suffer, they suffer nothing compared to my people. Nothing. And most of the suffering is the fault of their leaders.
Bishop Tutu, I see black Jews walking down the street here in Jerusalem. Black like us, free and proud. Tutu said Israeli checkpoints are a nightmare. But checkpoints are there because Palestinians are sent into Israel to blow up and kill innocent women and children. Tutu wants checkpoints removed. Do you not have doors in your home, Bishop? Does that make your house an apartheid house? If someone, Heaven forbid, tried to enter with a bomb, we would want you to have security people "humiliating" your guests with searches, and we would not call you racist for doing so. We all go through checkpoints at every airport. Are the airlines being racist? No.
Yes, the Palestinians are inconvenienced at checkpoints. But why, Bishop Tutu, do you care more about that incovenience than about Jewish lives?
Bishop, when you used to dance for Mandela's freedom, we Africans all over Africa joined in. Our support was key in your freedom. But when children in Burundi and Kinshasa, all the way to Liberia and Sierra Leone, and in particular in Sudan, cried and called for rescue, you heard but chose to be silent.
Today, black children are enslaved in Sudan, the last place in the continent of Africa where humans are owned by other humans. I was part of the movement to stop slavery in Mauritania, which just now abolished the practice. But you were not with us, Bishop Tutu.
So where is Desmond Tutu when my people call out for freedom?Slaughter and genocide and slavery are lashing Africans right now.Where are you for Sudan, Bishop Tutu? You are busy attacking the Jewish state. Why?
Simon Deng, a native of the Shiluk Kingdom in southern Sudan, is an escaped jihad slave and a leading human rights activist.
Disappearance of Bishop Tutu
By Simon Deng
Late last month, I went to hear Bishop Desmond Tutu speak at Boston's Old South Church at a conference on "Israel Apartheid." Tutu is a well respected man of God. He brought reconciliation between blacks and whites in South Africa. That he would lead a conference that damns the Jewish state is very disturbing to me.
The State of Israel is not an apartheid state. I know because I write this from Jerusalem where I have seen Arab mothers peacefully strolling with their families even though I also drove on Israeli roads protected by walls and fences from Arab bullets and stones. I know Arabs go to Israeli schools and get the best medical care in the world.
I know they vote and have elected representatives to the Israeli Parliament. I see street signs in Arabic, an official language here. None of this was true for blacks under Apartheid in Tutu's South Africa.
I also know countries that do deserve the apartheid label: My country, Sudan, is on the top of the list, but so are Iran, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. What has happened to my people in Sudan is a thousand times worse than apartheid in South Africa. And no matter how the Palestinians suffer, they suffer nothing compared to my people. Nothing. And most of the suffering is the fault of their leaders.
Bishop Tutu, I see black Jews walking down the street here in Jerusalem. Black like us, free and proud. Tutu said Israeli checkpoints are a nightmare. But checkpoints are there because Palestinians are sent into Israel to blow up and kill innocent women and children. Tutu wants checkpoints removed. Do you not have doors in your home, Bishop? Does that make your house an apartheid house? If someone, Heaven forbid, tried to enter with a bomb, we would want you to have security people "humiliating" your guests with searches, and we would not call you racist for doing so. We all go through checkpoints at every airport. Are the airlines being racist? No.
Yes, the Palestinians are inconvenienced at checkpoints. But why, Bishop Tutu, do you care more about that incovenience than about Jewish lives?
Bishop, when you used to dance for Mandela's freedom, we Africans all over Africa joined in. Our support was key in your freedom. But when children in Burundi and Kinshasa, all the way to Liberia and Sierra Leone, and in particular in Sudan, cried and called for rescue, you heard but chose to be silent.
Today, black children are enslaved in Sudan, the last place in the continent of Africa where humans are owned by other humans. I was part of the movement to stop slavery in Mauritania, which just now abolished the practice. But you were not with us, Bishop Tutu.
So where is Desmond Tutu when my people call out for freedom?Slaughter and genocide and slavery are lashing Africans right now.Where are you for Sudan, Bishop Tutu? You are busy attacking the Jewish state. Why?
Simon Deng, a native of the Shiluk Kingdom in southern Sudan, is an escaped jihad slave and a leading human rights activist.
Monday, March 24, 2008
Israel Should Thus Not Apologize
Statement by Israel Ambassador Daniel Carmon, Chargé d’Affaires, a.i.
to emergency meeting of the Security Council
United Nations, New York
1 March 2008
Mr. President, Mr. Secretary-General,
Two days ago, and as a matter of fact a few minutes ago in his briefing, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned Hamas' rocket fire against Israel, and called on Hamas and other terrorist and militant groups to cease all acts of violence and terrorism. He also called on Israel to exercise maximum restraint.
Mr. President, Israel has exercised that restraint for many months now. This has been in spite of the constant firing of rockets and mortar shells on our towns and villages in southern Israel, every single hour, every single day. And this is in spite of Hamas' attempt to carry out terrorist attacks wherever they can target and kill an Israeli.
While Israel has been showing restraint, Hamas has showed no intention of ceasing its vicious attacks. On the contrary. In the past week, since Hamas failed to organize a provocative demonstration in Gaza - a failure that might be seen as a weakness - it has dramatically escalated its rocket attacks and upgraded its capabilities against our people. Grad missiles. Qatyusha rockets. Mortar shells. And Qassams. Since Wednesday, more than 150 rockets were fired at Israel, dozens in the past 24 hours alone.
As I speak to you now, more than a quarter of a million Israeli citizens are in the range of the deadly and murderous weapons of Hamas, care of Hamas, of its backers in the region and their malicious vision.
The Government of Israel should thus not apologize for protecting its citizens.
-------
These are great words. Words that express what so many Israelis feel. This is Israel
to emergency meeting of the Security Council
United Nations, New York
1 March 2008
Mr. President, Mr. Secretary-General,
Two days ago, and as a matter of fact a few minutes ago in his briefing, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned Hamas' rocket fire against Israel, and called on Hamas and other terrorist and militant groups to cease all acts of violence and terrorism. He also called on Israel to exercise maximum restraint.
Mr. President, Israel has exercised that restraint for many months now. This has been in spite of the constant firing of rockets and mortar shells on our towns and villages in southern Israel, every single hour, every single day. And this is in spite of Hamas' attempt to carry out terrorist attacks wherever they can target and kill an Israeli.
While Israel has been showing restraint, Hamas has showed no intention of ceasing its vicious attacks. On the contrary. In the past week, since Hamas failed to organize a provocative demonstration in Gaza - a failure that might be seen as a weakness - it has dramatically escalated its rocket attacks and upgraded its capabilities against our people. Grad missiles. Qatyusha rockets. Mortar shells. And Qassams. Since Wednesday, more than 150 rockets were fired at Israel, dozens in the past 24 hours alone.
As I speak to you now, more than a quarter of a million Israeli citizens are in the range of the deadly and murderous weapons of Hamas, care of Hamas, of its backers in the region and their malicious vision.
The Government of Israel should thus not apologize for protecting its citizens.
-------
These are great words. Words that express what so many Israelis feel. This is Israel
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Remembering - Israel Style
Just over a week ago, an Arab terrorist walked into a holy place in Israel, a place of learning, a place where boys grow into men. A high school, really. A library, a study-hall. Eight young lives were stolen from their families, from their friends, from Israel. The following was written by a "bus passenger" - and posted to various lists.
Every morning I take the number 35 bus line to work. It's a quick ride and usually takes no more than 12 minutes. The third stop after I get on nearby the Jerusalem shuk is directly in front of Yeshivat Merkaz HaRav.
On a recent morning, I found myself a bit anxious, unsure of what I was going to see as we passed by. As I looked around, I saw death notices pasted all over the street and flowers that had been brought by visitors lined the entrance to the yeshiva.
When the bus pulled up to the stop, the driver shut off the engine and stood. With tears in his eyes, he told everyone sitting on the bus that one of the boys killed on Thursday night was his nephew. He asked if everyone on the bus would not mind if he spoke for a few minutes in memory of his nephew and the other boys that were killed.
After seeing head nods all over the bus, he began to speak. With a clear and proud voice, he spoke beautifully about his nephew. He said that his nephew was a person who was constantly on the lookout for how to help out anyone in need. He was always searching for a way to make things better. He loved learning and had a passion for working out the intricacies of the Gemara. He was excited to join the army in a few years and wanted to eventually work in informal education.
As the driver continued to speak, I noticed that the elderly woman sitting next to me was crying. I looked into my bag, reached for a tissue and passed it to her. She looked at me and told me that she had also lost someone she knew in the attack. Her neighbor's child was another one of the boys killed.
As she held my hand tightly, she stood up and asked if she too could say a few words in memory of her neighbor. She spoke of a young man filled with a zest for life. Every Friday he would visit her with a few flowers for Shabbat and a short dvar Torah that he had learned that week in yeshiva. This past Shabbat, she had no flowers.
When I got to work, one of my colleagues who lives in Efrat told me that her son was friends with two of the boys who had been killed. One of those boys was the stepson of a man who used to teach at Brovenders Yeshiva; he comes to my shul back in Riverdale, New York, every Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur to be a cantor for one of the minyanim.
We are all affected by what goes on in Israel. Whether you know someone who was killed or know someone who knows someone, or even if you don't know anyone at all, you are affected. The eight boys who were killed will continue to impact us all individually and as a nation. Each one of us has the ability to make a profound impact on our world.
On Wednesday morning, I was at Ben-Gurion International Airport at 7:00 am with Nefesh B'Nefesh, welcoming 40 new olim to Israel. We will not be deterred. We can not give up. We will continue to live our lives and hope and work for change, understanding and peace.
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
A Land of Miracles
It seems that miracles happen every day in Israel. Two just in the last few days...
This week, an elderly couple had had enough of the endless rocket attacks in Sderot. Seeking some peace and quiet, they finally fled their home to stay with friends...and early in the morning, a rocket was launched from Gaza. It was a direct hit, destroying the house and its contents. There's no question that had the couple been in the home, the story would have ended in tragedy. Houses and its contents can be replaced - though by all that is just in the world, no one has the right to launch endless rockets against an innocent civilian population as we see every day here...but it could have been so much worse.
And, another example was recently published by Israel National News - this is no less a miracle, though not caused by rockets...part of the ceiling in a school collapsed in a place where 2nd grade children should have been...but they weren't...because they were off taking a math test!
This week, an elderly couple had had enough of the endless rocket attacks in Sderot. Seeking some peace and quiet, they finally fled their home to stay with friends...and early in the morning, a rocket was launched from Gaza. It was a direct hit, destroying the house and its contents. There's no question that had the couple been in the home, the story would have ended in tragedy. Houses and its contents can be replaced - though by all that is just in the world, no one has the right to launch endless rockets against an innocent civilian population as we see every day here...but it could have been so much worse.
And, another example was recently published by Israel National News - this is no less a miracle, though not caused by rockets...part of the ceiling in a school collapsed in a place where 2nd grade children should have been...but they weren't...because they were off taking a math test!
Math Test Saved Lives of Petach Tikva Second Graders
(IsraelNN.com)
A concrete ceiling collapsed on a computer workshop in a Petach Tikva elementary school last Friday, during school hours. The class was supposed to have been full of second graders but luckily, they were being held up by an arithmetic teacher who wanted extra time for a test. The room was empty during the collapse. The incident at Neveh Oz elementary school was reported today by Channel 2. An acoustic ceiling as well as a concrete ceiling collapsed on the chairs and computers below them, in a way that was bound to have caused a great tragedy had the kids been present.
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