JERUSALEM NEWS
NEWS AND INFORMATION
Events, happenings, and Opinions Concerning
Israel, Israelites, Judah, and Everyone Else
Jerusalem News-739
Jerusalem News-739
22 Adar-1 5738 28 February 2008
Contents:
1.
Arutz
Sheva
Wednesday
(1. HAMAS KIDS' TV RABBIT: EAT THE DANES, BUT NOT DANISH FOOD
(8. ARIEL SHARON TURNS 80, SON
OMRI GOES TO JAIL
2. Barack Obama
and Israel
3. English countryside could be changed forever
4. The Swift Bird Annual Pilgrimage to surviving Wall of the Second Temple
5. Kuwaiti paper: Mughniyeh
hit 'only first step'
6. Ben Gurion
Airport ranks best in Mideast
7. US Abortion Group Targets Blacks
1.
Arutz
Sheva
Wednesday
http://www.IsraelNationalNews.com
Feb. 27 '08, 21 Adar 5768
Extracts:
(1.
HAMAS
KIDS' TV RABBIT: EAT THE DANES, BUT NOT DANISH FOOD
by Ezra HaLevi
Extracts:
A Hamas-run children's TV program aired recently encouraging hatred of Denmark,
the West and Israel. The show's star, a rabbit named Assud, threatens to "bite
and eat" the Danish if they republish cartoons of Islam's founder, Mohammed.
"If they repeat it we will kill them," Assud explains to the young viewers. "I
will bite them and eat them!"
The program focuses on the call to boycott Danish and Israeli products. "Denmark
and the West are targeted because of the Mohammad cartoons in a Danish
newspaper," Palestinian Media Watch Director Itamar Marcus points out in a
recent dispatch. "Israel is targeted because it exists."
(8. ARIEL SHARON TURNS 80, SON
OMRI
GOES TO JAIL
by Gil Ronen
Extracts:
Former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon turned 80 on Tuesday, more than two years
after he was rendered comatose by a stroke.
Life to date
Ariel Sharon was born Ariel Scheinerman on February 27, 1928, in Kfar Malal, to
Lithuanian Jews Shmuel and Dvora Sheinerman. The family arrived in Israel before
World War 1. They supported the dominant socialist party Mapai but refused to
participate in Bolshevik-style public revilement rallies against the
Revisionists following the murder of Labor politician Chaim Arlozorov. According
to Sharon, his parents were then expelled from the local health clinic and the
village synagogue. The farmers' cooperative truck wouldn't make deliveries to
their farm nor collect produce.
In 1942 at the age of 14, Sharon joined the Gadna, a paramilitary youth
battalion, and later the Haganah, the underground paramilitary force and the
Jewish military precursor to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
War hero
As a platoon commander in the Alexandroni Brigade, Sharon was severely wounded
in the groin by the Jordanian Arab Legion in the Second Battle of Latrun in the
1948 War of Independence.
In the early 1950s he formed and led Unit 101, Israel's first Special Forces
unit, which carried out a series of military raids against Arab targets that
helped bolster Israel's morale and fortify its deterrent image. A few months
after its founding, Unit 101 was merged into the 202nd Paratroopers
In the 1956 Suez War Sharon commanded the 202nd Brigade, and carried out an
attack on the Mitla Pass in which 38 Israeli soldiers were killed. He was later
criticized for recklessness in provoking an unnecessary battle.
In the 1967 Six-Day War, Sharon commanded the most powerful armored division on
the Sinai front which made a breakthrough in the Kusseima-Abu-Ageila fortified
area.
He retired from the army and was instrumental in establishing the Likud party in
July 1973. However, he was called back to the IDF at the start of the Yom Kippur
War and assigned to command a reserve armored division. Sharon helped locate a
breach between the Egyptian forces and thrust through it toward the Suez Canal.
He violated orders from the head of Southern Command by exploiting this success
to cut the supply lines of the Egyptian Third Army, bridging the Suez Canal and
advancing to within 101 kilometers of Cairo, encircling the Egyptian Third Army.
This move was regarded by many Israelis as the turning point of the war in the
Sinai front.
Pro-Yesha politician
Before the 1977 elections Sharon formed his own list, Shlomtzion, which won two
Knesset seats and merged with the Likud after the elections. Sharon became
Minister of Agriculture.
During this time, Sharon supported the Gush Emunim movement and was viewed as
the patron of the settlers' movement. He used his position to encourage the
establishment of a network of Israeli settlements in Judea, Samaria and Gaza ("Yesha"),
doubling the number of Jewish settlements in those regions during his tenure.
Many years later, Sharon told political activists: "Everybody has to move, run
and grab as many (Judean) hilltops as they can to enlarge the (Jewish)
settlements because everything we take now will stay ours... Everything we don't
grab will go to them."
Sabra and Shatila
After the 1981 elections, Prime Minister Menachem Begin appointed him Minister
of Defense.
During the 1982 Lebanon War, while Sharon was Defense minister, the Sabra and
Shatila massacre took place. A judicial committee of inquiry in Israel found the
IDF indirectly responsible for the massacre and charged Sharon with "personal
responsibility." Sharon had to forfeit the post of defense minister but stayed
in the cabinet as minister without portfolio.
After Binyamin Netanyahu lost the 1999 elections to Labor head Ehud Barak,
Sharon became leader of the Likud.
Prime Minister
On September 28, 2000, Sharon and an escort of over 1,000 Israeli police
officers visited the Temple Mount complex. Arabs responded used the event as an
excuse to begin a campaign of murderous rioting on a massive scale, which had
been planned in advance. Barak's government collapsed and Sharon was elected
Prime Minister in February 2001. He launched Operation Defensive Shield against
terrorists in Judea and Samaria and began planning and construction of the
"security fence" in Judea and Samaria.
Sharon was allegedly involved in a corrupt deal known as the "Greek island
affair" involving the purchase of an island near the coast of Athens for
building a multimillion-dollar resort complex. The charges against Sharon were
dropped in 2004.
U-turn and Disengagement
In May 2003, Sharon endorsed the Road Map for Peace put forth by the United
States, European Union, and Russia, and announced his commitment to the creation
of a Palestinian state. According to journalistic investigations, Sharon's
sudden change from hawk to extreme dove occurred as part of a deal between him
and leftist elements in the judicial system and media, involving the dropping of
corruption charges against him.
In January 2005 Sharon formed a national unity government that included
representatives of Labor. Between August 16-30 2005, Sharon expelled 9,480
Jewish settlers from 21 settlements in Gaza and four communities in northern
Samaria. Israeli soldiers bulldozed every settlement structure except for
several former synagogues, which were later looted and burned by Arabs. The IDF
then left Gaza. The retreat and expulsion were euphemistically referred to as
"the Disengagement."
On November 21, 2005, Sharon resigned as head of Likud, and dissolved parliament
to form a new party called Kadima ("Forward"). He suffered a massive stroke on
January 4, 2006, and entered state of a permanent coma.
Following Sharon's incapacitation, Ehud Olmert replaced him as Kadima's leader.
2.
Barack
Obama
and Israel
by Ed Lasky
http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/01/barack_obama_and_israel.html
Extracts:
One seemingly consistent theme running throughout Barack Obama's career is his
comfort with aligning himself with people who are anti-Israel advocates. This
ease around Israel animus has taken various forms. As Obama has continued his
political ascent, he has moved up the prestige scale in terms of his associates.
Early on in his career he chose a church headed by a former Black Muslim who is
a harsh anti-Israel advocate and who may be seen as tinged with anti-Semitism.
This church is a member of a denomination whose governing body has taken a
series of anti-Israel actions.
As his political fortunes and ambition climbed, he found support from George
Soros, multibillionaire promoter of groups that have been consistently harsh and
biased critics of the American-Israel relationship.
See also:
Obama Is Our First Muslim Presidential Contender In The Same Way That Clinton
Was Our First Black President
http://pajamasmedia.com/xpress/phyllischesler/
3. English countryside could be changed
forever
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/global/main.jhtml?xml=/global/2008/02/27/noindex/eaeng126.xml&CMP=EMC-expat2008
4. The Swift Bird Annual Pilgrimage to
surviving Wall of the Second Temple
Birds of Pray
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1203847475853&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
by ETGAR LEFKOVITS
They have been dubbed the birds of the Western Wall.
They are mentioned in the Book of Jeremiah, and are believed to have come
through Jerusalem as spring approaches for thousands of years.
And when the small black-brown birds known as Common Swifts arrive in the holy
city at the same time every year, they do not pick just any home for their
breeding ground and resting place; they choose the retaining wall of Judaism's
holiest site.
Their decision to stop at the Western Wall is no small matter: the migratory
birds spend most of their seven-year lives in the air, eating insects, drinking
- and even sleeping - aloft for years at a time.
The Swifts stop flying only for nesting, which they don't do in treetops like
other birds but in cracks of buildings and structures.
For the birds, who spend most of the year in the warmth of southern Africa,
Israel is the first stop on their post-winter tour before heading to Europe.
Typically, they arrive in Israel at the end of February and spend 100 days in
the country, some mating and laying eggs while the younger ones explore the
area; they can also be found outside Jerusalem, including in Tel Aviv, Haifa and
as far south as Beersheba.
The Western Wall is an old and tall structure, where large crowds gather,
creating a current of hot air moving upwards toward them, making it an ideal
place for mating, nesting and laying eggs.
The birds' decision to nest in the crevices of the Western Wall is also
attributed to the site's easy access, and the fact that the 17-cm.-long birds
are able to find room - and warmth - inside the structure, said Ulrich Tigges, a
German expert on Common Swifts who carried out a study on the Swifts of the Wall
in 2002.
After receiving an e-mail from American-born Rabbi Yosef Cornfeld, who had
noticed the birds for years during morning services at the Wall, Tigges came to
Jerusalem and discovered nearly 90 nests in the Wall's crevices, mostly in the
middle on the men's side of the Wall.
He said 120 to 130 Common Swifts come to the Western Wall every spring, with
nearly half the nests used by pairs of birds for breeding, while others prepared
the site for breeding the following year.
"They need a covered location and the Western Wall provides the ideal nesting
place," Tigges said.
"The author of the Bible must have been a bird-watcher," he said.
Thousands of Common Swifts pass through Israel each spring, said Dr. Yossi
Leshem, a bird expert at Tel Aviv University.
After the first Common Swifts were sighted last week, the Jerusalem Municipality
organized a nature event at the Western Wall plaza marking their arrival. The
event took place Tuesday evening and was coordinated with the Society for the
Protection of Nature in Israel. Rabbi of the Western Wall Shmuel Rabinovitch
read from the Book of Jeremiah, and Tel Aviv Deputy Mayor Yael Dayan gave a more
secular reading on the birds' annual homecoming.
"The Jerusalem Municipality welcomes the Common Swifts on their return to the
Western Wall," a sign read in Hebrew.
The birds seem to know a thing or two about timing, choosing to arrive at the
Western Wall about half an hour before sunset after spending the day flying
outside the city.
"Their flight is full of joy and their swiftness is breathtaking," said
Jerusalem resident Shira Twersky-Cassel, a poet and bird lover who is a
ninth-generation descendant of the Ba'al Shem Tov.
Then, as the sun started to set, the birds - first one, then another, then a
third and finally a group of couples - suddenly appeared in the sky just above
the Western Wall, sometimes calling to one another and circling before speedily
and elegantly descending into their nests in the crevices of the golden-white
stones and falling out of sight.
5. Kuwaiti paper:
Mughniyeh
hit 'only first step'
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?c=JPArticle&cid=1203343709715&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
By DIANA ELIAS AND JPOST.COM STAFF
Extracts:
"The assassination of Hizbullah arch-terrorist Imad Mughniyeh was only the first
in a string of assassinations that Israel is planning to carry out against
senior figures of Hizbullah, Hamas and perhaps even Iran," Kuwait's Al-Jarida
newspaper quoted Israeli sources as saying on Wednesday.
According to the sources, "The Mughniyeh assassination was a link in a long
chain of operations. After Mughniyeh there will be a second stage and a third
stage, which will target Hizbullah and Hamas. This could prompt Iran to take
action, which will force Israel to target it."
"This operation restored the Mossad's status and its dignity," the Israeli
sources were quoted as saying, "that, and the bombing of the Syrian installation
in Dir al-Zur last year." On September 6, the IAF reportedly destroyed a
suspected nuclear site deep in Syria.
6. Ben
Gurion
Airport ranks best in Mideast
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3511386,00.html
In the survey, Israel's Ben Gurion national airport was ranked the best
passenger terminal in the Middle East and was rated the second best airport in
the category of terminals with 5-15 million passengers a year, after Central
Japan.
The ASQ rankings are based on the results from nearly 200,000 questionnaires
completed by passengers in 2007. The survey captures the passenger?s immediate
appraisal of 34 airport service factors, from check-in through to departure at
the gate.
Brit-Am Comment: A relative of mine just returned from a tour of part of the USA
with stops of in Italy and Britain.
He said that BG Airport was by far the most attractive he had seen.
7. US Abortion Group Targets Blacks
Planned Parenthood: Wanting fewer blacks 'understandable'
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=57526
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