Wednesday, September 3, 2014
Dear Family & Friends,Life in Israel is wonderful, gorgeous, pleasant. The weather is cooling toward Fall/Stav (in Hebrew). Some grandkids are happy to be home from summer in America ?more to arrive soon. A birthday girl gave us all blessings tonight. I?m just now listening to Antonín Dvorák?s 9th, his New World Symphony. You can actually Google his name & hear the 9th on YouTube. What wonderful technology we have today. Although Dvorák wrote it while visiting America, it always made me feel as if I was ?coming home? driving up the mountains in the Galilee here in Israel many summers ago ? long before I could stay permanently here in Israel. Now I really feel like I?m home. I am content. I have many loving friends & family.
We have wars & other battles, in the Media, the UN, EU, & more to fight. Are we at risk here doing so? Perhaps. But, Israel seems to be safer than many other Western countries today?like my ?old home country?: America.
President Barack Hussein Obama doesn?t seem to know how to defend America (being infiltrated through the porous Mexican border by Islamic Jihadis to endanger our democracy, freedom & lives.) How could Obama possibly know how to defend the only vibrantly Living Democracy in the Middle East, the Jewish State of Israel?
Please note the Muslims in his Administration from my Gaza War Diary of yesterday. I?m not criticizing they?re being Muslims. No, that would be outright racism. I?m admonishing their racism against us. Their CVs are horrific. They admire the Jihadis. Some have worked for the Muslim fundamentalists. Now they populate too many White House departments as ?experts? & ?advisors? to the American President. Why are they there? Perhaps Obama is more comfortable with them. It is known that Obama was born a Muslim & educated in an Islamic ?Madrassa? in his youth. So what does his early education teach us about him (or him about the rest of us)? Study it. What Muslim kids are taught today will shock & scare you. Or it should if you want the world to survive with freedom & human rights as listed in the American Constitution & the Israeli Declaration of Independence of May 1948. Today you can see what Muslim Arab children learn here in Israel in their UNRWA schools which prepares them to hate & kill Jews.
Rosh Hashanah is coming. A few serious prayers to G-d would help. During the current 57 day Gaza War, the people of Israel experienced a powerful uprising of Jewish Unity. The tragic 3 weeks while our 3 boys were missing & then discovered brutally murdered, primed us with overwhelming ?achdut? (unity). Women & girls made Challah, prayed Tehillim (Psalms), lit Shabbos candles 18 minutes early to pierce the Heavens that G-d would bring our 3 boys home safe.
During the War we witnessed many miracles: Bombs fell where people weren?t or had just been, or the children weren?t in the rocketed kindergarten. One incident: Our soldiers approached a house. A woman came out in a ?suicide bomb belt? with the trigger in her hand. Our soldiers wouldn?t shoot her but, knew she would kill them. They shouted: ?Shma Yisrael,?.? Wonders of wonders, she burst out crying. She was a Jewish woman, in an abusive marriage to an Arab Muslim, with 3 children, forced to try to be a Martyr or they would kill her children. Our soldiers rescued her; went in a rescued her children & I think I remember, she had a sister also imprisoned in an Arab Muslim ?marriage? with children who we also rescued.
Israel has a NFP organization that helps rescue & care for rescued women, girls & children, called Yad L?Achim. Sadly, the need for its services have a very long history, which I witnessed during the 1973 Yom Kippur War. I was in Israel with Manny. After his photo tour in the Sinai, he went up to the Golan with his cameras. I spent that day with the IDF Chief Quartermaster, Chezi Ovadia. He had 3 missions on which I accompanied him. 1. Check if the IDF had enough supplies for the soldiers? Sukkot. 2. Visit Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yosef to receive his letter, declaring the Ethiopian Jews were ?true Jews from the Tribe of Dan & anyone who helped them would be truly blessed?. 3. Then, we checked on whether Yad L?Achim needed any assistance in their latest rescue of a Jewish woman & her children from an abusive Arab Muslim ?marriage?/ kidnapping. Apparently, then & now, it?s a sad story but too many of our Jewish girls are seduced by a charming, handsome guy who pretends to be Jewish, showers her with gifts & attention, supplies love & she marries him ? to become his 3rd or 4th wife ? literally his slave. Polygamy is encouraged in Islam. Gaza has so many people married within their own families that genetic illnesses are rampant.
Another Gaza miracle: Posted in: Middle EastPosted: July 20, 2014
Read more at http://www.inquisitr.com/1364461/israel-miracle-gaza-strip-hamas-complain-their-god-changes-the-paths-of-our-rockets-in-mid-air/#KekzoaUO1iAE9xyI.99
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Aug. 5, 2014 1:46pm by Sharona Schwartz
Israelis have reported experiencing two miracles of nature which protected them during the fighting with Hamas in Gaza.
Col. Ofer Winter, an Israel Defense Forces brigade commander who is a religious Jew, attributed the way his soldiers were protected in Gaza to a divine miracle. In an interview with the Israeli newspaper Mishpacha, Winter described the unusual occurrence that might have come straight out of the Bible. The Times of Israel reported:
He said that a predawn raid that was intended to make use of the dark as concealment was delayed, forcing the soldiers to move toward their objective as the sun was about to rise. The soldiers were in danger of being revealed in the light but, Winter recalled, a heavy fog descended to cover their movements until the objective was achieved.
?Suddenly a cloud protected us,? he said, make a reference to the clouds that the Bible says protected the Israelites as they wandered in the desert. ?Clouds of glory.? Only when the soldiers were in a secure position did the fog dissipate, he said.
?It really was a fulfillment of the verse ?For the Lord your God is the one who goes with you to give you victory,?? Winter said, referring to Deuteronomy.
The experience was also reminiscent of the pillar of cloud that protected the Israelites as they escaped from Egypt & crossed the Red Sea, as described in the book of Exodus.
A second miracle was reported by a group of religious Jews who in early July, right before the fighting broke out, traveled to southern Israel to harvest wheat in advance of the biblical sabbatical year. According to the biblical mandate, Jews are supposed to allow the land of Israel to rest during the entire final year of the seven-year agricultural cycle which begins next month & is observed on Israeli farms. That means no planting or harvesting occurs for the year.
Aharon Samet told the Israeli radio show ?Upside Down? that a great miracle occurred thanks to the fact that they had to harvest more wheat than usual to comply with the biblical mandate. ?This year we are before the sabbatical year, & we need to harvest wheat for two years. We plowed the land up & down looking for wheat that was sown late what with the rains that fell late this year,? Samet said. ?On Kibbutz Sufa on the Gaza border we found an entire field that was sown in mid-January, which is considered very unusual.? They harvested the wheat & didn?t give it another thought.
Image source: Israel Defense Forces
Only weeks later when the fighting between Israel & Hamas was at its peak did Samet & his friends realize the significance of their actions.
On July 17, 13 Hamas militants infiltrated from Gaza via a tunnel into Israel at the exact spot near Kibbutz Sufa where the men had been farming. The terrorists were shocked to discover that their natural camouflage ? the giant wheat field that they were counting on ?had disappeared. The now empty field allowed IDF surveillance to spot them as they emerged from their holes & to repel their attack by dropping a bomb on them from above.
?Many lives were saved by the grace of Heaven,? the Israeli radio station Kol Hai commented.
Of the events he experienced, brigade commander Winter concluded, ?When a person is in a life-threatening situation he connects with his deepest internal truths, & when that happens, even the biggest atheist meets God.? Soldiers experience so many miracles that ?it is hard not to believe [in God],? Winter said.
(): ): (: )J
To check my ?miracle? facts above, I Googled ?Miracles in Gaza War? & saw a wonderful list!! Check it out. Maybe I?ll add more tomorrow.
Some grim reading here. But, it is necessary backgrounder material. Better we see the news up front in real time ? as Manny (Dad/Saba) would say, then have it meet us in a dark alley. Eyes wide open, please. Pay Attention. Think Defensively, then the really bad guys can?t get you. That?s true everywhere.
Have a wonderful, quiet, peaceful night, All the very best, Gail/Geula/Savta/Mom
Sep. 3, 2014 12:27pm
The Media Line Condemns Brutal Murder of Steven Sotloff
The Media Line condemns the brutal murder of its colleague Steven Sotloff at the hands of ISIS killers. We are proud to have had Steven write for The Media Line & honor his integrity & dedication to journalism & humanity. The Media Line extends our deepest sympathies to Steven?s family. A dual US-Israeli citizen, Steven was ahead of the pack in reading events, present & future, in the Middle East. Many of his observations recorded for The Media Line as far back as 2012, form the nexus of today?s headlines, including warnings of the very threat that took his life. Steven?s extensive travels throughout the Middle East were motivated by his fascination & admiration for the region, & his respect for the citizens of the Arab world. Islamic State released a video that shows the beheading of Sotloff, who went missing in Syria about a year ago. Sotloff filed often for The Media Line, Time, Foreign Policy & other publications. The White House confirmed that Sotloff, 31, was murdered by the same masked man who killed fellow-journalist James Foley last month. In the video, the masked man says ?I?m back, Obama, & I?m back because of your arrogant foreign policy toward the Islamic State.? As in the Foley video, Sotloff is dressed in an orange jumpsuit, & is on his knees in a desert, presumably along the border of Iraq & Syria. Sotloff went missing in Syria a year ago, & was believed to be held together with Foley & several other Americans. The news of Sotloff?s brutal killing comes after his mother made an emotional plea for her son?s life in a video last week. The Islamic State fighters said they would kill a British citizen, David Cawthorne Haines, next, if there is no change in US policy.
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US journalist executed by ISIS was Israeli citizen
ISRAEL HAYOM News Agencies & Israel Hayom Staff
U.S. confirms authenticity of video issued by Islamic State showing beheading of Miami-born journalist Steven Sotloff ? ISIS warns governments to end ?evil alliance of America against the Islamic State? ? President Barack Obama: Justice will be served.
Steven Sotloff, American journalist whose beheading features in a gruesome video issued Tuesday by the Islamic State group, was an Israeli citizen who had lived & studied in Israel.
Sotloff, the grandson of Holocaust survivors who migrated to Florida, came to Israel in 2008 to pursue an undergraduate degree at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya. His Israeli citizenship & Jewishness were suppressed by the media while he was alive in an effort to protect him from his Islamist captors.
Steven Sotloff, American journalist Credit: Reuters. Photo credit: Reuters
Sotloff, 31, was captured by ISIS terrorists in northern Syria last August while working as a freelance journalist & covering the civil war ravaging Syria. His captors were apparently not aware of his Israeli citizenship or his Jewish faith.
?We refused to acknowledge any relationship with him in case it was dangerous for him,? said Avi Hoffman, editor of the Jerusalem Report magazine, which had published Sotloff?s work.
The Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, quoting a former fellow captive, said Sotloff had kept his Judaism a secret from the Islamist insurgents, pretending he was sick when he fasted for the Yom Kippur holiday.
The Islamic State group released the video on Tuesday, two weeks after a similar video was released in which American journalist James Foley was also beheaded.
In the video, a masked figure also issued a threat against a British hostage, named as David Haines, & warned governments to back off ?this evil alliance of America against the Islamic State,? warning against U.S. airstrikes in Iraq.
U.S. President Barack Obama declared on Wednesday that Americans would not be intimidated by the ?horrific? IS tactic. He vowed that ?justice will be served? after the U.S. verified the authenticity of the video.
Obama said at a news conference while traveling Wednesday in Estonia that Sotloff?s & Foley?s deaths only unite Americans. He said Americans would not forget & that the country?s reach is long.
In the video, the executioner appeared to be the same British-accented man who appeared in the Aug. 19 video featuring Foley, & it showed a similar desert setting. In both videos, the captives wore orange jumpsuits.
?I?m back, Obama, & I?m back because of your arrogant foreign policy toward the Islamic State, because of your insistence on continuing your bombings & in Amerli, Zumar & the Mosul Dam, despite our serious warnings,? the masked man said in the video. ?So just as your missiles continue to strike our people, our knife will continue to strike the necks of your people,? he said.
In the video, Sotloff describes himself as ?paying the price? with his life for the U.S. intervention in Iraq.
On Tuesday, following the release of the video, the White House said that Obama was sending three top officials ? Secretary of State John Kerry, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel & counterterrorism adviser Lisa Monaco ? to the Middle East ?in the near-term to build a stronger regional partnership? against the Islamic State terrorists.
U.S. officials also said Obama had ordered 350 more U.S. military personnel to protect the large American Embassy in Baghdad, bringing up to about 820 the number of U.S. forces working to bolster diplomatic security in Iraq.
?The president has made clear his commitment to doing whatever is required to provide the necessary security for U.S. personnel & facilities around the world,? White House spokesman Josh Earnest said in a statement. ?The request he approved today will allow some previously deployed military personnel to depart Iraq, while at the same time providing a more robust, sustainable security force for our personnel & facilities in Baghdad.?
The White House said the additional troops heading to Baghdad would not serve in a combat role. Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby told reporters that as long as ISIS poses a threat to the Mosul Dam, the United States would continue targeting it.
Asked by a reporter to give clear picture about the situation on the ground at the Mosul Dam & why the United States keeps launching airstrikes at that location, Kirby said: ?Because [ISIS] keeps trying to take it back. As I said last week, as long as they continue to pose a threat to the facility, we?re gonna continue to hit ?em. & we are.?
Sotloff?s mother, Shirley, appealed last Wednesday for her son?s release in a videotaped message to Islamic State?s self-proclaimed caliph, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
In the video it released last month, Islamic State said Foley?s death was in retaliation for U.S. airstrikes on its insurgents, who have overrun wide areas of northern Iraq. The United States resumed airstrikes in Iraq in August for the first time since the pullout of U.S. troops in 2011.
The raids followed major gains by Islamic State, which has declared an Islamic caliphate in areas it controls in Syria & Iraq.
Iraq?s outgoing foreign minister, Hoshiyar Zebari, condemned ?this savage killing ? an example of savagery & evil,? & said it was evidence of the need for Iraq & the West to defeat Islamic State. ?We have a common enemy & the whole world is moving in the right direction to stop this savagery & brutality,? Zebari said. ?The whole world is standing united against [ISIS]. They must be defeated so these horrid scenes will not be repeated.?
Iraqi Shiite Muslim politician Sami Askari, who is close to outgoing Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, said: ?They are trying to scare the Americans not to intervene. I don?t think Washington will be scared & stop. ? This is evil. Every human being has to fight this phenomenon. Like cancer, there is no cure. You have to fight it.?
British Prime Minister David Cameron condemned Sotloff?s apparent decapitation as ?an absolutely disgusting & despicable act (by) barbaric terrorists.? He said he would convene a meeting of his security crisis team on Wednesday.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius called the killing a ?further illustration of the barbarity without limit of this caliphate of terror that must be fought with the utmost determination.?
Obama did not answer questions from reporters as he boarded his helicopter on the White House South Lawn en route to a military base outside Washington, before flying on Air Force One bound for Estonia.
The video triggered new calls from Obama?s critics in the U.S. Congress for more decisive action against Islamic State forces. Critics accused the president of dithering after he said last Thursday: ?We don?t have a strategy yet,? to confront the operations of the militant group in Syria. ?Whenever American air power has been employed, in coordination with reliable partners on the ground, [IS] has been devastated. It?s a tactic that should be aggressively pursued both in Syria & Iraq,? said Sen. Lindsey Graham, a leading Republican voice on foreign policy.
The U.S. military announced its latest air strike on Islamic State forces, saying U.S. aircraft on Monday destroyed or damaged 16 of the group?s armed vehicles near the Mosul Dam in northern Iraq.
Sotloff?s colleagues described him as a dedicated journalist & gifted writer who had filed in-depth reports from across the Middle East. He covered unrest in Libya for Time Magazine in 2012 before his kidnapping in Syria.
Time Editor Nancy Gibbs said that Sotloff ?gave his life so readers would have access to information from some of the most dangerous places in the world.?
Filmmaker Matthew Van Dyke, a friend of both Sotloff & Foley, said the two had been aware of the dangers in Syria, but their passion to tell the story drove them to accept the peril.
?They believed that the story needed to be told & they weren?t going to let the risks stop them,? Van Dyke said. ?They took precautions and, unfortunately, even if you do everything right, sometimes in Syria things go wrong.?
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A Look at Steven Sotloff?s Reporting Style
Follow Virtual Jerusalem on & Date Posted: 2014-09-03 18:43:33
In this handout image made available by the photographer, American journalist Steven Sotloff (center with black helmet) talks to Libyan rebels on the Al Dafniya front line, 25 km west of Misrata, June 2, 2011.
Steven Sotloff, the journalist beheaded Tuesday by the Islamic State, was Jewish & a dual U.S Israeli citizen whose detailed & colorful reporting told stories of ordinary people caught in conflicts across the Middle East. Among articles filed for a range of publications, Sotloff reported stories from the Arab world to the Jerusalem Report. He would often begin articles with personal anecdotes illustrating the tumult & desperation of war. In one story for the Report, he introduced readers to a boy foraging for wood:
Etienne de Malglaive via Getty Images
Muhammad Sidqi took a break from chopping the thick trees that sheltered Aleppo?s Sahur Park. The blisters on his hand made holding the heavy wooden axe painful. Its dull blade only prolonged the laborious task. Sidqi was one of many foraging for wood around Aleppo on a cold January day. What made him different though was his age ? just 12 years old. ?
When the winter cold first hit Aleppo, Sidqi scavenged through abandoned schools & factories for wood. But after the residents of the city had pillaged everything ? including the wooden paneling from ceiling beams ? to heat their frigid homes, Sidqi?s family was forced to find alternative sources of wood.
He filed from across the region to the Jerusalem Report, from the revolution in Egypt to the uprising in Bahrain: ?My soul, our soul, we offer to you,? the crowd of 30,000, divided between veil-clad women & men, chanted as Sheikh Ali Salman, religious leader of the Shi?i opposition movement al-Wefaq, took to the stage to speak. Wedged in an open field between Salman & the giant banner of him that had been draped around an office building across the street, the throngs waved their Bahraini flags wildly.
Though the largest campaign rally of Bahrain?s election season was ignored by most local media outlets, the Shi?a who came out in force did not seem to mind. They want political power & will exploit any opening the regime offers them to attain it.
Ilene Prusher, Sotloff?s editor at the Jerusalem Report, wrote at Ha?aretz that Sotloff ?relied a lot on what we would call man-on-the-street interviews or ?vox pop,? which help readers understand what average people are thinking, & he was good at weaving in color & context, both crucial tools in the journalist?s toolbox.?
Sotloff moved on to write for other outlets, including Time magazine, filing several pieces from Libya. In one report, shortly after the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Sotloff visited the scene of the attack: A visitor rings the doorbell to a large gated villa in Benghazi, & a gardener slowly opens the heavy metal door. He welcomes guests with a big smile, offering them tea before giving them a guided tour of the sprawling grounds with its swimming pool & hefty trees, which obscure the view from prying eyes. But the villa is not just another secluded house owned by a wealthy Libyan seeking privacy. It is the most sensitive crime scene in the world. But while Sotloff traveled throughout the region, he maintained his contact with Israel. Sotloff visited Israel last year for a wedding, according to a story in the Times of Israel on his Israeli connections.
?He had such energy. Depending on how well you knew him, he was either abrasive or he was like a teddy bear,? Hillary Lynne Glaser, who studied alongside Sotloff at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, told the Times of Israel. ?I saw that nice soft side where all he wanted was to explore & find a girlfriend, find someone other than his roommates whom he could complain to about the state of Israel & embrace his travels with.?
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Israel raises alarm over Islamist militants on its borders
Reuters & Israel Hayom Staff
Israel is ?a legitimate target for Muslim militants all over,? warns al-Qaida specialist ? Meanwhile, official says U.N. observer force on the Israel-Syria border ?is collapsing? & ?has not been relevant for at least two years.?
credit: Reuters
Israel?s frontier with Syria, where militants recently kidnapped 44 U.N. peacekeepers, has become a magnet for Islamist activity & Israel itself is now a target, Defense Minister Moshe Ya?alon & security analysts said on Tuesday.
The Nusra Front, an al-Qaida-linked group fighting Syrian President Bashar Assad, has established a major presence in the region & is poised to carry out attacks across the borders where Syria, Israel & Jordan converge, analysts said.
Meanwhile, Iran is seeking to expand its influence in the region via its support for Assad & the Lebanese terrorist group Hezb?Allah, which are allied against the Sunni insurgency in Syria, Ya?alon said. ?Iran?s fingerprints can be seen in Syria, including on the Golan Heights, in attempts to use terror squads against us,? Ya?alon told an economic conference.
?We now have Jabhat al-Nusra [the Nusra Front], which is basically al-Qaida, on the border with Israel, & Israel is a legitimate target for Muslim militants all over,? said Aviv Oreg, a retired Israeli intelligence officer & a specialist on al-Qaida.
Oreg said it was only ?a matter of time? before the Islamist groups now engaged in fighting in Syria turned more of their attention towards Israel. ?I cannot tell you exactly when, but it?s very risky. It only needs one suicide bomber to cross the fence & attack an Israeli military patrol or a tractor full of farmers going to work in the fields,? he said.
But while Israel may be alarmed, it is not clear that Israel is a strategic priority for Nusra or other radical Sunni Muslim groups.
Their focus since 2011 has been the overthrow of Assad, a campaign that has bogged down from infighting in their ranks & Shiite Muslim Hezb?Allah?s intervention on the side of Assad.
If Israel is attacked in any serious way, the retaliation would likely be intense, setting back the insurgency & opening the way for Assad?s forces to further reclaim the initiative.
Israel has bolstered its forces on the Golan Heights, with armored patrols keeping a close eye across the frontier, sometimes passing within 300 meters of Nusra fighters. The plateau, scattered with fruit farms, vineyards & rocky peaks, looks down across the plains of southwest Syria, where Nusra & other groups, including the secular, Western-backed rebel Free Syrian Army, can be seen battling Assad?s forces.
After three years of fighting, opposition forces control patches of territory to the west & south of Damascus, including a portion of the 375-kilometer (225-mile) border with Jordan. This has allowed thousands of foreign fighters from both the Arab world & Europe to cross into Syria, including an estimated 2,000 Jordanians. At least 10 Israeli Arabs have also gone to Syria, five of whom were later detained after returning home, according to Oreg.
The frontier between Israel & Syria has been administered by the United Nations since 1974, a year after the last war between the two countries. It consists of an area of separation, a narrow strip of land running about 70 kilometers (45 miles) from Mount Hermon on the Lebanese border to the Yarmouk River with Jordan.
About 1,200 U.N. soldiers are involved in monitoring the separation zone, in what has been for most of the past 40 years one of the world?s quietest peacekeeping missions. That changed with the uprising against Assad, & the area is now precarious.
Stephane Cohen, the former chief liaison between the Israeli army & the U.N. Disengagement Observer Force, said the U.N.?s mandate was now meaningless. With the Philippines, Ireland & other contributing nations set to withdraw from the mission, it was questionable whether the United Nations could continue monitoring the area. ?UNDOF is collapsing & the mandate has not been relevant for at least two years,? said Cohen, now a defense analyst with the Israel Project, a pro-Israel advocacy group.
?Eighty percent of the border area is now in the hands of [Syrian] opposition forces,? he said, adding that if more nations withdrew, the militant presence would only rise.?
For now, Israel is merely remaining vigilant.
?We have to be very cautious about our retaliation policy,? said Oreg, emphasizing that the priority should be to keep careful tabs on the Nusra Front & other groups? capabilities, while sharing any intelligence judiciously.
Meanwhile, the U.N. has continued negotiating with anti-government rebels in Syria in an effort to release the 44 peacekeepers being held hostage since last week.
Clashes erupted between the fighters from al-Qaida-linked Syrian rebels & the members from the U.N. peacekeeping force on Aug. 30, after the militants surrounded their encampment, activists & officials said, as the international organization risked being sucked further into the conflict. Several dozen peacekeepers managed to escape, but 44 Fijian peacekeepers are still in the hands of the militants, who have said that they want the group to be removed from the U.N. terrorist list, want humanitarian aid delivered to parts of the Syrian capital Damascus, & want compensation for three of its fighters they say were killed in a shoot-out with U.N. officers, in exchange for the peacekeepers? release, according to Fiji?s military commander.
The commander did not say if the demands would be seriously considered. He said the U.N. had sent hostage negotiators to Syria to take over discussions from military leaders.
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Warning bells on the Golan by Prof. Nissim Dana
In contrast to the accepted norms in the Western world ? countries like the United States & Canada, & in Europe ? where religion is an internal matter for different sectors of society & is generally considered a private endeavor stemming from a personal choice for a person or community, in Islamic countries religion plays a prominent role in the collective consciousness. This applies to individual lifestyles, but is also an element which dictates the behavior of many countries in the region where we live.
Let us quickly review some of the issues arising from the pivotal role religion has played in civilian life: the religious radicalization of Islam in Turkey, the years-long bloodbath occurring in Syria, the revolution in Egypt that gave rise to Islamic fundamentalist elements (Muslim Brotherhood & Salafis), the internal strife in Lebanon involving Shiites (Hezb?Allah), Christians & Maronites, Sunnis, Alawites & others.
The Syrian Golan Heights is populated by Alawites, Druze & Muslims, among others. Two religious groups ? the Alawites & Druze ? are seen by classical Islam as heretical. At the foundation of their faith is the concept of ?taqiyya,? or in other words: [Deception - GW] Adherents may conceal their religion when they are under threat, persecution, or compulsion from the dominant religion. Muslims are well aware of this practice, which is why these ?infidels? live in constant fear amid the Muslim majority.
Coalitions in the Middle East are complex & are predicated on religious & belief-based principles. The current tidal wave of Islamic extremism aptly expresses the aspirations of the Islamic State group (ISIS) to target all infidels or suspected heretics, such as Christians, Yazidis, Druze, Kurds & Alawites. It is not coincidental that ISIS, the Nusra Front, rivals of the Syrian regime & other Sunni gangs are all taking aim at the rule of Alawite Syrian President Bashar Assad. Many dozens of Assad?s soldiers ? if not hundreds as many have claimed ? have been executed in cold blood by ISIS & other Sunni gangs.
A few days ago a similar attempt was made against the Druze in the village of Dama, where ISIS forces were met with stout resistance & courageously turned back with heavy casualties.
In recent years we have been witness to a sweeping & diverse Islamic awakening in Europe as well, beginning with ?occupation? (?Islam is the future?) accompanied by physical violence. History shows that this awakening goes hand in hand, among other things, with anti-Semitism. The beheading of enemies, as perpetrated by ISIS, is not new in Islam:
The prophet of Islam, Muhammad, used this method, & others, in his war against the Jews of Arabia. After laying siege to one of the Jewish tribes (Banu Qurayza), he exploited their lack of preparedness on the Jewish Sabbath, & attacked & murdered many hundreds of them in cold blood. [Muhammed decapitated 800 Banu Qurayza (Qaraish) men, selling the Jewish women & children into slavery. This was his breaking of the Hudabaiya Treaty of 10 years within 2 years when he was militarily stronger. Gail Winston **]
Will the Western countries, most of which are Christian, internalize what is transpiring here & be willing to display active resistance against these brutal gangs? The current signs point to this not being the case.
Israel, until now, has maintained a neutral posture on these ruthless clashes taking place all around it, but I am afraid that sooner or later it will need to face these gangs. Considering the circumstances, Israel must take the initiative & build a joint front with the Druze, Alawites, Christians, Yazidis & other ?infidels? in the war against these merciless gangs ? & the sooner the better.
Professor Nissim Dana is an expert in Middle Eastern religions & the director of the Multidisciplinary Department for Social & Humanities Studies, Ariel University.
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FREEMAN CENTER BROADCAST September 2, 2014
Islamic State vows to reach ?Palestine? & ?kill the barbaric Jews? ?Islamic State warns it has sleeper cells in the West, raises the stakes with beheading of American?
Islamic State militants parade in Mosul. (photo credit: REUTERS)
?Report: (JPost) Suspect in Foley beheading was once rapper known as ?L Jinny? Islamic State?s English-language publication inspires potential recruits with graphic images & messages of jihad while vowing to strike down every ?obstacle on its path to Palestine.?
ISLAMIC STATE
The organization calling itself the Islamic State has risen from the fog of war in Syria & Iraq in recent months & drawn the attention of the world with major victories on both sides of the Euphrates River that have claimed swaths of territory for its declared caliphate, or Islamic State.
Now in the organization?s new English language publication, Dabiq, aimed at young Muslims in western states, the extremist organization declared, ?Islamic State will do everything within its means to continue striking down every apostate who stands as an obstacle on its path towards Palestine.?
Denouncing the ineffectiveness of other Arab states & organizations in carrying out the ?will of Allah,? the magazine vows that, ?Its [Islamic State's] actions speak louder than its words & it is only a matter of time & patience before it reaches Palestine to fight the barbaric Jews & kill those of them hiding behind the gharqad trees ? the trees of the jews(sic).?
The Islamic State recently brought attention to the large & growing number of westerners in its ranks with the video of American journalist James Foley?s execution, at the hands of a masked IS militant speaking English in a British accent.
The shocking video & revelation that the American hostage?s killer might be a British citizen turned jihadist led a man hunt to identify the man. Assessments by Britain?s two intelligence & security agencies led to the positive identification of 23-year-old British-born Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary, nicknamed ?Jihadi John? by his colleagues.
Western countries are well aware of the issue. ?I don?t think this video changes anything. It just heightens awareness of a situation which is very grave & which we?ve been working on for several months.? British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond told the BBC.
Now the Islamic State is producing a slick new magazine in English which caters to potential recruits around the world to answer the ?call to Hijrah,? migration to the Islamic State.
The publication does away with the often poetic translation of Arab prose found in other jihadist propaganda & writes in plain English that young Muslims in Europe or the United States can relate to.
The publication?s second issue opens by telling its readers, ?The first priority is to perform hijrah from wherever you are to the Islamic State. From the state of the infidel to the state of Islam.?
Al-Qaida has an English language publication of its own titled Inspire, but the Islamic State?s new periodical demonstrates the movement?s prowess in creating an image for itself with graphic illustrations & a slick format.
Captioned high quality pictures show Islamic State jihadists, or mujahadeen, in the field & graphically gruesome executions of the movement?s enemies.
In everything it does, Islamic State?s writers justify the movement?s terrorist activities & militant strategy with the movement?s overall aspiration to establish a caliphate, or state ruled by the movement?s strict interpretation of Islamic Law.
FREEMAN CENTER BROADCAST September 2, 2014
For Zion?s sake I will not hold my peace & for Jerusalem?s sake I will not rest.? Isaiah 62.
FREEMAN CENTER FOR STRATEGIC STUDIES P.O. Box 35661 * Houston, Texas 77235-5661 * E-mail: bernards@sbcglobal.net OUR WEB SITE < www.freeman.org >
OBAMA?S CURIOUS RAGE:
CALM WHEN IT COMES TO PUTIN, ISIS & HAMAS, BUT FURIOUS WITH ISRAEL.
By BRET STEPHENS WallStreetJournal ? Sept. 1, 2014 6:32 p.m. ET
Barack Obama ?has become ?enraged? at the Israeli government, both for its actions & for its treatment of his chief diplomat, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. ? So reports the Jerusalem Post, based on the testimony of Martin Indyk, until recently a special Middle East envoy for the president. The war in Gaza, Mr. Indyk adds, has had ?a very negative impact? on Jerusalem?s relations with Washington.
Think about this. Enraged. Not ?alarmed? or ?concerned? or ?irritated? or even ?angered.? Anger is a feeling. Rage is a frenzy. Anger passes. Rage feeds on itself. Anger is specific. Rage is obsessional, neurotic.
And Mr. Obama?No Drama Obama, the president who prides himself on his cool, a man whose emotional detachment is said to explain his intellectual strength?is enraged. With Israel. Which has just been hit by several thousand unguided rockets & 30-odd terror tunnels, a 50-day war, the forced closure of its one major airport, accusations of ?genocide? by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, anti-Semitic protests throughout Europe, general condemnation across the world. This is the country that is the object of the president?s rage.
Think about this some more. In the summer in which Mr. Obama became ?enraged? with Israel, Islamic State terrorists seized Mosul & massacred Shiite soldiers in open pits, Russian separatists shot down a civilian jetliner, Hamas executed 18 ?collaborators? in broad daylight, Bashar Assad?s forces in Syria came close to encircling Aleppo with the aim of starving the city into submission, a brave American journalist had his throat slit on YouTube by a British jihadist, Russian troops openly invaded Ukraine, & Chinese jets harassed U.S. surveillance planes over international waters.
Mr. Obama or his administration responded to these events with varying degrees of concern, censure & indignation. But rage?
Here, for instance, is the president in early August, talking to the New York Time?s Tom Friedman about Russia & Ukraine:
?Finding an off-ramp for [ Vladimir Putin ] becomes more challenging. Having said that I think it is still possible for us, because of the effective organization that we have done with the Europeans around Ukraine, & the genuine bite that the sanctions have had on the Russian economy, for uä÷to!asr°´f at a fair accommodation in which Ukra?nian sovereignty & inpependej0` is st:il reck4kized but there i?Gclso r?ºfgnition that Ukraine do?s have historic ties `o Russm2) the m2oority$
This isn?t even condemnation. It?s an apology. For Mr. Putin. Benjamin Netanyahu should be so lucky.
Now think about what, specifically, has enraged the president about Israel?s behavior. ?Its actions & its treatment of his chief diplomat.?
Actions? Hamas began firing rockets at Israel in June, thereby breaking the cease-fire it had agreed to at the end of the last war, in November 2012. The latest war began in earnest on July 7 when Hamas fired some 80 rockets at Israel. ?No country can accept rocket fire aimed at civilians,? White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the next day, ?and we support Israel?s right to defend itself against these vicious attacks.?
On July 15 Israel accepted the terms of a cease-fire crafted by Egypt. Hamas violated it by firing 50 rockets at Israel. On July 17 Israel accepted a five-hour humanitarian cease-fire. Hamas violated it again. On July 20 Israel allowed a two-hour medical window in the neighborhood of Shujaiyeh. Hamas violated it. On July 26 Hamas announced a daylong cease-fire. It then broke its own cease-fire. On July 28 Israel agreed to a cease-fire for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr. The rocket attacks continued. On Aug. 1 Israel accepted a 72-hour cease-fire proposed by the U.S. Hamas violated it within 90 minutes. On Aug. 5 Israel agreed to Egypt?s terms for another three-day cease-fire. Hamas violated it several hours before it was set to expire, after Israel announced it would agree to an extension.
If Hamas had honored any of these cease-fires it could have saved Palestinian lives. It didn?t. Mr. Obama is enraged?but not with Hamas.
As for Israel?s supposed ill-treatment of Mr. Kerry, the president should read Ben Birnbaum?s & Amir Tibon?s account of his secretary?s Mideast misadventures in the July 20 issue of the New Republic. It?s a portrait of a diplomat with the skills & style, but not the success, of Inspector Clouseau. Mr. Obama might also read Ha?aretz columnist Ari Shavit?s assessment of Mr. Kerry?s diplomacy: ?The Obama administration,? he wrote in July, ?proved once again that it is the best friend of its enemies, & the biggest enemy of its friends.?
Both Ha?aretz & the New Republic are left-wing publications, sympathetic to Mr. Obama?s intentions, if not his methods.
Still, the president is enraged. At Israel. What a guy.
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ISRAEL HAYOM
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman: Gush Etzion reflects wide consensus in Israeli society & will remain part of Israel in any future peace deal ? PM Netanyahu tells visiting U.S. Congressmen: We are fighting common battle against enemies of mankind.
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Tuesday defended Israel?s internationally criticized announcement recently that a nearly 1,000-acre tract of land in Gush Etzion is to be declared state land.
?The official policy of the government of Israel is first & foremost to focus on the settlement blocs that would clearly remain under Israeli sovereignty in any [future peace agreement with the Palestinians],? Lieberman said at a press conference in Jerusalem on Tuesday. ?Gush Etzion reflects a wide-ranging consensus in Israeli society, & it?s clear to everyone that as part of any [future peace deal], Gush Etzion would remain a part of the State of Israel,? Lieberman said.
Earlier on Tuesday, Finance Minister Yair Lapid took a different approach, criticizing the announcement. ?I have supported & will support the strengthening of the settlement blocs in Judea & Samaria, but what good does [the expropriation announcement] do at this time?? he said, Lapid characterized the move as ?underhanded opportunism? that was done without cabinet approval. ?It simply harms Israel,? he said.
The U.S. on Tuesday again called on Israel to reverse the decision. ?We are deeply concerned about the declaration of a large area as ?state land? to be used for expanded settlement building,? U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a statement that echoed comments by an unnamed U.S. official on Sunday.
The European Union on Tuesday condemned the Israeli move, issuing a statement saying, ?Settlements are illegal under international law, constitute an obstacle to peace, & threaten to render the two-state solution impossible.?
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may travel to New York in three weeks to take part in the annual U.N.