That's right - as I sit here working ... a rocket was launched at my country, as two were yesterday, one the day before. Two days ago, it was two people treated for shock, before that, a direct hit on an empty warehouse. The building destroyed, but thankfully no one was hurt. And so it continues.

Until this morning when a man, a foreign worker who came from far with the hope of earning money and perhaps returning to his family...got up and went to work in the fields of our country. He works in a hot house, growing wonderful produce in a land of sunshine and little water. And a rocket slammed into the hot house...and he died. It would be, I think, more appropriate to say he was killed, to say he was murdered. Yes, that's what I'll say - this morning a man was murdered in my country because in a nearby place there is a people and a culture that finds it acceptable, even holy, to murder.

I don't yet know the man's name - I do know I never met him and never will. His body, or what is left after being hit by a rocket hard enough to kill, will likely be returned to his family - the end of a dream, a nightmare just begun.

And in a far off land, President Obama may or may not hear of this attack; he may or may not think of that poor man's family, of the agony of that innocent family. No, sadly, President Obama is more upset about Israel building in our own capital and of our rebuilding a synagogue in the exact location in which it was destroyed by other Arab violence and hatred.

A man died today - and President Obama is calling on Israel to work towards peace. The irony, the stupidity, the misguided righteousness is enough to make you sick.

Each time Israel does something the Arabs do not like, there are two responses they issue. Sometimes, I feel like they reach into a hat and select one. It is always the same - either they are going to end the peace process...to which I desperately want to ask...WHAT peace process...or, they are threatening yet another Intifada.

For those unfamiliar with the term - an Intifada is a fancy word for mindless rioting and terrorism. Intifada is a code name for firebombs and stone attacks...but worse - suicide bombers in our malls, our buses, our restaurants. Intifada means - open season on murder...the more innocent, the younger, the better.

This week, the threat cards are being played for two reasons. The first is that Israel is daring to approve new apartments for families in our capital, Jerusalem. The new apartments would be in the north of Jerusalem (not the eastern areas as some inaccurate news outlets are reporting). The apartments would be built on unoccupied lands - open fields, directly adjacent to and within the area of Ramat Shlomo - a neighborhood I can see from my office window.

No, I'm not saying the Israeli government was particularly adept in how it handled the announcement, but there was more politics than reality in the US response and condemnation and a fair amount of stupidity in the US failure to understand the facts on the ground.

More curious, however, than the Ramat Shlomo fiasco...is the second reason why the Arabs are threatening yet another Intifada. In 1948, the beautiful Hurva synagogue was destroyed during our War of Independence. That was in May, 1948 after the United Nations voted to divide Palestine into two states - a Jewish one and an Arab one.

The day we declared the re-establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine and named that country Israel - five Arab nations invaded, promising they would push the Jews into the sea. They called out to the Arab residents and told them to leave their homes, to get out of the way of the incoming Arab countries and by and large, they did. They left...but the rest of their plan didn't work. Israel not only held onto the land promised to us...or most of it, we even captured much of the land that would have been an Arab state. This is the price of violence and war...when you choose war, sometimes you lose. They lost.

The synagogue in the Old City of Jerusalem was lost...as was the entire Old City. Where for thousands of years Jews have prayed...suddenly, we were denied access to our holiest of sites, the last remaining wall of the Holy Temple, last destroyed in 70 CE (the Western Wall is actually a retaining wall and not part of the Holy Temple structure itself).

There were no cries of religious intolerance from 1948 to 1967, no international demands that Jews have access to the Temple Mount. US presidents and Popes didn't decry our inability to worship...nor did they care that hundreds of graves, centuries old...were destroyed, their tombstones broken, scattered, and used to build latrines by the Jordanian army.

The Hurva synagogue lay in ruins...when Israel recaptured the Old City of Jerusalem in 1967, our leading general, Moshe Dayan, did a very stupid thing...stupid because the world took our generosity for granted, our sacrifice was for nothing. The Temple Mount is the site where our two Temples were built, the site where Abraham almost sacrificed Isaac. Christian belief says it is the site of the ascension and Muslim tradition credits Mohammed with ascending to heaven from there as well. On that fateful day in 1967, Moshe Dayan gave the Temple Mount to the Arabs because on the ruins of our Temple, they had built a mosque (a common practice that they repeat on top of many synagogues and churches to stake their claim).

In any case, after Jerusalem was again in our hands...we opened the city to all religions. For 19 years, we could not pray or touch the Western Wall and yet not even 19 days have passed where we have blocked Arabs from tending to the place. Sometimes, like today, when the Arabs are pulling their latest Intifada card and promising violence, there are restrictions -but still, thousands of Arabs are allowed where Jews are not.

So for the last 60+ years, the Hurva synagogue ruins have filled the place...but slowly a few years ago, Israel began rebuilding it - as fine and beautiful as it ever was. It is located in the middle of the Jewish quarter - a good 5 minute walk from the Western Wall and the Temple Mount...that is fact - I have walked the path many times.

From the site of the Hurva synagogue, you walk between numerous stores, down about 100 steps...perhaps even more. You walk across a large, open plaza...and only then do you approach the Temple Mount...and yet, the Arabs are threatening another Intifada because we dared to rebuild the synagogue.

They say we are trying to "Juda-ize" Jerusalem and I am torn between anger and amusement. There is no reason to make something that is inherently Jewish...Jewish again. Jerusalem - was founded...by the Jews, sustained and nurtured...by the Jews. It is our city, our capital, our promise, our destiny.

We have been prepared to share it and live in peace but where we were driven from it once, we never will be again. Tonight in Jerusalem, we celebrate the rebuilt and reopened Hurva synagogue.

For this, the Arabs threaten. Hamas even says it is grounds for war. End of peace process...Intifada...war - I wish someone would tell the Arabs that their ongoing threats are useless and prove their lack of credibility.

But more, I wish the world would tell the Arabs that it is violence that got them where they are today - trying desperately through hatred and terrorism to get what they could have gotten 60 years ago with a simple positive answer to the United Nations.

That boat sailed long ago - or rather, that boat was torpedoed by the Arab nations and lies in ruin below the sea. If there is a peace process, it will not be served by threats and if they do not learn to live with the Hurva synagogue rebuilt on the very spot where it stood 60 years ago...there is no hope.

There will be another war, another Intifada, another wave of terrorism. I am as convinced of that as I am that the US administration will continue to grovel whenever and wherever it can. I have seen one son go to war. It is more than any mother should have to see and yet I come to realize that it is very likely war will come to my family again.

I don't know when or why, but judging from the past, it is likely the reason will be as senseless as today's threats. We rebuilt a synagogue the Arabs destroyed 60 years ago...on land that is ours, always has been and always will be. The Arabs can learn to deal with it, or they can threaten us.

Just as there are always two responses from the Arabs to pretty much any occurrence in the Middle East, there are two realities they must learn. The first is simply that we will rebuild and, if we have to, we will fight. the second is that time runs in only one direction - forward. You cannot rewind the clock - not a day, not a month, and certainly not 60 years.

Four years ago, I went around Gush Katif in its last days and as I visited each settlement for what I knew would be the last time, I went into each synagogue…and took a stone. Sometimes it was a piece of the floor, now broken as the holy ark and benches were removed; sometimes a piece of the decorative wall outside that welcomed people as they arrived for prayer.

The first stone came from Kfar Darom. The second from Moshav Katif…and so it went. I quickly realized that if I didn’t write the name of each place on the stone, I would never remember where it came from and so my friends gave me a pencil and with that I wrote the names. Netzer Hazani, Atzmona, Ganei Tal…and so it went. I didn’t tell anyone about the stones. I don’t know why exactly, only that I felt that I had stolen something precious, something that wasn’t mine and yet, had I left it there, it would be lost to all of us.

In Kfar Darom, someone had left a picture of the Lubavitcher Rebbe on the floor in the synagogue. I took that too and put it with my other pictures – there was no shame there, but the stones were carefully wrapped and kept in a box. They sat there more than two years while I pondered what to do with them.

I thought of donating them to a local synagogue, but changed my mind. I thought of somehow building it into the concrete and stones of the home I am building, but changed my mind. I lent them once to my city for a display of items in honor and memory of Gush Katif, and worried frantically until they were finally returned.

At a loss as to what to do, who to ask, what to say…I kept inside me this painful feeling that I had done something wrong…that in the midst of the horrible suffering of so many people, 9,000 people and communities…I had taken something without permission. Would anyone really care that I had a bunch of stones when lives had been torn apart? My mind went over and over what I had done. Why? Why had I taken them? There was no one left to ask, when I took the stones. And had I not taken them, they would simply have been left to be abandoned by the Israeli government, desecrated by the Palestinians. So logical and yet nothing brought me comfort or lessened my shame.

One day while driving, I thought of Rachel Saperstein. She and her husband had welcomed me to Gush Katif a number of times. I went there with foreign guests, journalists, and Rachel and Moshe explained why expelling Jews and destroying Gush Katif was meaningless, stupid, and dangerous. They welcomed my parents and my daughter and me when I made a more personal visit, and Rachel answered the phone when I called her. And while I had collected stones, Rachel had gone on to create Operation Dignity (www.operationdignity.com) – a meaningful and real way to help the people of Gush Katif, with dignity and honor…and I had collected stones.

Deeply embarrassed, I told her about the stones…and she was enthralled, excited, grateful. How can you thank me for stealing from you? I wanted to ask her and not once did she make me feel that I had desecrated, destroyed, stolen. She did the rest. Rachel called and arranged for someone to take the stones.

“Please, don’t use my name,” I told them. They didn’t really understand but they respected my request and came and took the stones. It was so hard for me to part with them. I asked them to take care of them, silly, I said to myself. They are holy, I wanted to tell them – all that is left of so many beautiful synagogues.

I imagined what could be done with the stones, but didn’t suggest.  It wasn’t my place, my suffering, my synagogues that had been destroyed…and they weren’t really my stones. A talented artist could build something, a memorial to the synagogues. Something to share with others, something to remember and to stand. Something holy. Something precious.

A few days ago, someone called me and invited me to a special event honoring those who had helped the communities of Gush Katif during and after the expulsion. I was a bit embarrassed – what had I ever really done to help them? I’d tried but hadn’t really accomplished anything. I never thought once of the stones when they called. It was the dedication of a Legacy Center, directed by Mochi Better to remember and educate people – and three artists were commissioned to create beauty out of sadness. Ayala Ben-Simchon and Anat Yaakov decorated some of the walls, and Ayala Azran from Neve Dekalim, now in Ein Tzurim was given the stones with which to create an everlasting remembrance for the synagogues and for Gush Katif. In one artistic piece, she captured the sea and the trees, and the communities…the synagogues…with a piece from each one, a stone, my stones.

My stones which were collected after all the people had been taken away. My stones which I took, without permission and kept in a box waiting to understand what I was meant to do with them.

My stones…which were never mine…have been returned to the amazing people of Gush Katif and they have been turned into a thing of beauty, as once these same people had turned all of Gush Katif into such beauty. Even in my wildest imaginings, I could not have pictured the symbolism and intricate work that the artist managed to add. Ayala created a lasting memorial.

Somehow knowing that those precious stones had been returned and were now back with the people of Gush Katif brought back again the sadness of those times when Israel unilaterally and insanely imagined it could make peace alone. It also brought a strange sense of peace…which also shames me. The people of Gush Katif are not home. For more than four years, Israel has refused to properly see to their needs after so improperly destroying all that they had built. Until the people of Gush Katif are properly settled and allowed to channel all the energy and creativity and love that is so much a part of them into rebuilding, the stones will never really be at peace.

I long to see the stones again, to touch them, to apologize. I guess I shouldn’t apologize for taking them from Gaza. There they would have been as abandoned and desecrated as the rest of the stones from which they were taken. But I will apologize for there having been a need to take them. I will apologize for the indignity of having been stored in a temporary box for two years, as the people of Gush Katif have been “stored” for four years now. And I will finally part from my stones, knowing that their future, like their past, is now once again back with the right people, the good people, of Gush Katif.

Planting a Tree...and a Child...in Israel

Seasons in Israel are so different than they were in the United States. In the US, they seemed to gently glide, one into the other. Summer gave way to cooler nights and then the leaves began to turn all manner of wonderful colors. Fall had arrived. The frost came and the nights became colder. Winter. And so it went, season after season, each marked by a gradual changing of the weather. Each season came with a bit of warning, a taste before the fury of the cold or the heat. Fall and spring were welcome breaks from the extreme and provided the glide into the next.

In Israel, like life itself, the seasons are less defined, more drastic. One day the cold comes; winter...but what happened to the fall? And then it suddenly gets hot and summer has arrived; somehow spring never really comes to Israel. Of course, the temperatures are less extreme than they were where I lived in the States. Snow here is rare; summer's typically hotter and drier.

One thing that marks the transition between winter and summer is Tu B'Shevat - it's the new year of the trees. Yes, that's right - even the trees can celebrate their own fresh start. Tu B'Shevat is when the almond trees start to blossom and you know that though winter hasn't finished, the land is reawakening already. In America, Tu B'Shevat was the time we donated a few dollars to have someone plant a tree in Israel.

Many decades ago, a diplomat from Burma came to Israel on a visit. He toured the land and then congratulated the surprised Israelis. He was so impressed by Israel's "deforestation" plan that had cleared huge areas of trees. His country, you see, is covered with trees and in order to settle and make place for cities and homes, they must knock down the trees - a difficult and time consuming process at that time.

Israel has no deforestation plan - quite the opposite. We plant - everywhere we can, even in the desert. One of Israel's great innovations was drip irrigation - a method to minimize water usage while maximizing growth. So what does this all have to do with us?

Well, on Friday, I finally gave in and stole time with my husband and youngest son. We drove to a nursery and bought flowers and flowers...and a tree, and not a terribly small one either and then we returned home and planted it in our backyard.

Shmulik and my younger son dug the whole and together with their father struggled the tree into place. I've planted other trees in Israel - long ago the first time I came to Israel at the age of 16, several years ago in a different home that we had bought, and now in this home. Each time, there is such an incredible feeling of connection with this land.

With this tree, I plant myself that much deeper. And as I gazed out this morning at the thriving tree, strong in the ground, its leaves proudly fluttering in the wind, I realized that I have planted my life here and more, the lives of my children. With each son that enters the army, with each daughter that performs her national service, our roots grow deeper, stronger, wider. The almond trees are blossoming, and so too, is my family.

I am humbled by both, grateful for both.

The Gift of Peace

What a misleading title that is...the gift of peace. No, I don't really believe Israel and the Middle East will see peace any time soon. I could point fingers at the Arab countries who refuse to accept our existence, to the Palestinians who continue on the path of violence. I could list the rock throwing, firebombing, ongoing rocket attacks and tell you how many Arabs were caught with how many knives this week in varying lengths.

I could write of our current and past leadership that showed weakness to an enemy that thrives on it and to a world that accepts, again and again, the injustice of blaming the victim rather than finding the true cause.

There is no gift of peace any time soon in the Middle East - no matter what other leaders such as Barack Hussein Obama mistakenly believes or wants to believe. His suggestion that everyone is responsible for blocking peace...Netanyahu, the right-wing, the left-wing, perhaps the last man on the moon...shows he understands nothing.

I can tell you of increasingly dangerous armaments, or Iran's nuclear plans and Europe's blindness. I can write of Al Qaida, Hamas, Hezbollah - all born of the same violent cloth, and I can write of all that threatens the future here and where you are too...but that would be the opposite of my direction for today.

Because despite all that I have written so far, the truth is simply that peace will come - today, in fact...in not so many hours.It will come for a brief time only - sad, but true...at last so far. Today is Friday - the first day of our brief weekend, the last work day for some. It's a day of preparation here in Israel - we are preparing for tomorrow.What I love about Fridays is that they represent endings and beginnings.

We are saying goodbye to the past week - whatever we didn't do...we let go. It will be there on Sunday and need to be done. Whatever disappointments we had, whatever didn't go right...Sunday will come and allow us yet another chance to correct it. So we end and know on Sunday we will begin again.Shabbat, Saturday, is about cleansing - your house, your body, your mind, your soul.

It's about taking time to make a bigger, better meal than you had time for the rest of the week. Taking more time for your family, longer discussions - and not about work and daily pressures. It's about putting away the trappings of this world - the phones, the computers, the televisions, the cars...whatever.It is so symbolic of where I am in my life.

Shabbat is the day in between last week and next week - and yet it has a character all its own. It is a moment of calm because psychologically you really do succeed in forgetting the past and the future. If ever time were to stop...this is the moment we would want to hold. If tomorrow never comes...we can actually relish staying here in this moment.Elie is finishing the army.

Shmulik is beginning. This transition period has its own character, its own sweetness. What will Elie do after the army? Will he really leave it or choose at the last minute to continue (as some do)? I don't know and won't know until one or the other happens.Will Shmulik go into the Tank Division? So far, it is looking strongly that he won't. Kfir? Givati? Golani? Does it really matter in the end? I won't know where he is going for a few more days or weeks.

But there is peace coming today - peace in having Shmulik home, in knowing that Elie is returning right after Shabbat for a special course he will attend next week. Peace in knowing that he isn't really in a dangerous place. His checkpoint, though surrounded by Arab villages, is in a relatively quiet place and the base itself is well located and secure. Next week, he'll be sleeping at home each night - a whole week of seeing him each evening.

There is peace in the smell of food filling the house; the candles set and ready to be lit on the small table near the mirror. The gift of peace is one that comes each week with the Sabbath...and leaves with it as well. To live in a world of quiet, of family, of home - it is a taste of better times to come. When? I don't know but with the Sabbath comes the knowledge that we can survive the whole week, month, year, and the decades and centuries because each week we are given that small bit of time in which we pull into ourselves and our families.

May God grant peace to the world, to Israel, His people.

May He grant peace to the medics and rescue workers who have returned from Haiti; and to little Wadley Elysee, a six-year old Haitian child suffering from severe heart defects. Wadley's medical record was sent to Israel several months ago, but there was no way to get him to Israel for surgery that he needs to save his life. Without the surgery, Wadley would probably not live to see the age of 10. While in Haiti, Israeli doctors took the time to find him amidst all the chaos and destruction. Wadley and his mother were flown back to Israel with the returning aid mission and he will soon have his surgery, another gift from Israel. May Wadley know the peace of Shabbat and live a long and healthy and happy life.

And finally, to my sons - to the three...and to the two. To each of them, to all of them. May you always cherish the Sabbath as a time of peace, no matter what wars you are called upon to fight in the future. May you be safe everywhere you go, blessed for your service and know that wherever you go, you take my prayers and my love.

Shabbat shalom.

Thoughts that Break the Heart

There is a debate going on in Israel now - two sides, each in agony.

There are those who say Gilad Shalit has been in captivity too long. We have to do all, we owe all, to bring him home. More than three years, Hamas has gotten away with violating international law by denying Israel and his parents their basic right of contact with their son. For more than three years, Hamas has refused to allow international representatives such as the Red Cross, to even see Gilad, confirm he is well treated, safe, healthy. Unimaginable agonies, unbearable torture. His parents have lived with all of this, traveling the world, begging them to listen, to do something for this boy who grew into a man without them. He was 19 when he was taken, as my Elie was 19 when he entered the army. Today, Gilad is 23-years-old...his parents have missed so much in those years. It is enough.

There are those who say that leaving Gilad in captivity breaks all that we hold dear. We don't leave a soldier behind; morale will fall among incoming troops if they can't believe their country will do all to bring them home.

All this, in varying degrees, might be true. That is one side of this great divide. They will agree to release 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, their identity and crimes almost unimportant, for the one son that Hamas holds. Yes, they smile sadly, the numbers are absurd, but what can we do? We can't leave Gilad there; would you leave Gilad if he were your son? Look now, in the mirror and answer that question for yourself. If it was your son, could you, would you, leave him there?

On the other side of this great divide, are those who say that though they want Gilad home, it cannot be at any price. We must think of the future, says this group. We must think with our heads and not our hearts. Hearts are for feeling, for rejoicing and for mourning - the head is what we must use. These 1,000 - beyond the absurdity of the equation - are murderers, terrorists - convicted security prisoners who were not strolling on the beach when they were taken into custody. Some have murdered and the blood of their victims thrills them. They yearn for more, promise there will be more.

It was Hamas and the Palestinians who created the concept of proportionality. Look, said Hamas - yes, we shot 124 missiles into Israel in November, 2008 and even more in December, 2008 - but look what Israel did in January, 2009. Our missiles mostly missed and hit open fields. We only killed a few, maimed a few, traumatized a lot, but really, how much actual damage did we do? Israel - they hit their targets; the artillery smashed the buildings from which we launched rockets and even if the buildings were attached to others that fell too...look at the damage. Proportionality! Where, says this group of Israel, where is the proportionality in releasing 1,000 for 1?

Within this group that agonizes over Gilad no less than the first group, are Arnold and Frimet Roth - two nice people who never wanted to do more than raise their children in Jerusalem, in Israel, in a place they love. Their daughter, Malki was friendly and outgoing. I know, though I never met her, because we are friends with a young woman who was Malki's friend and was on her way to meet Malki on a beautiful August summer day in Israel in 2001.

But this young woman never got there. Instead of meeting Malki, she heard the news. Sbarro Pizzeria had become the latest suicide bombing...15 people, including young Malki and seven other children, died that day. Murdered by a terrorist couple who slipped through a checkpoint, the young Palestinian man carrying a guitar filled with explosives with a woman on his arm to give him cover.

There is a great divide in Israel - do we release Malki's female killer, who served but 5 years of 16 consecutive life sentences, who to this day, wishes she had killed more. She said, in an interview just a while back, "I am not sorry for what I did. I will get out of prison and I refuse to recognize Israel’s existence…"

This woman helped murder 15 people...destroy families forever. She is one, only one of 1,000. Those who are against the prisoner deal include huge numbers of soldiers in the standing army. There is no loss of morale there. They worry about Gilad; they want Gilad home; and they tell their parents - if it was me, don't allow this deal. Don't let them release 1,000 for me.

And where am I on this great divide? I am sitting on the fence, with the third large group of people. We on the fence are in unspeakable agony. Our hearts aching, our eyes filled with tears. We are parents who cannot for a moment imagine the horror, the agony of years slipping knowing our child needs us and we can't answer that call. We are Israelis and Jews - so incredibly proud of our country, our army, our people, for worshiping life and not death; for having values that focus so much on a single life that we would even consider the absurdity of trading 1,000 for a single life.

One day, I am for the deal - not because I believe it is just (it isn't); not because I believe it is in Israel's best interests (it isn't), but because I just can't bear the suffering any longer. I can't face another day of knowing Noam and Aviva Shalit are suffering, that Gilad is alone.

The next day, I am against the deal because I know that what we release today, will sneak back in to murder and kill again. There will be more funerals, more pain - unspeakable, horrible agony. Lives crushed, families torn apart and so many more parents who will mourn like Frimet and Arnold Roth.

On those days, when I am against the deal, I want to point out the simplest of truths. What we should do is call up Hamas and the German mediators and say:

Good morning and thanks for your efforts...really. But, no thanks. We realized that despite all, this is a bad idea because these terrorists and murderers will just come back and kill and kidnap again. So, let's stop and think. It is, as you clearly know, very important to us that Gilad comes home...but we cannot endanger others in the future. So, here's the deal. Pick one prisoner - any one you want. We don't care how despicable, how inhumane this person is. We're willing to release the most vile creature who has done the most horrible things. Hey, we released a child-killer last time...so why not another? Pick one. You know what, because, like you, we realize the value of Gilad compared to what we are holding in our prisons - so have a great day. Pick two.

You want that Ahlam Tamimi, the Sbarro murderer? You want Marwan Barghouti? They are yours. We don't care. That's our deal. It's a bargain really - two for one. We can send them to you within the hour,  just say the word.

Oh, by the way, we forgot to mention something. If you don't want this deal; Israel is finished with negotiating. We are shutting off OUR electricity that we have been pumping into Gaza all these years. We are stopping shipment of OUR fuel that we have sending to Gaza. We are closing deliveries of everything but food and medicine.

Turkey has plentiful water. A ship from Turkey takes how long? 12 hours? We are shutting off OUR water that we have been pumping into Gaza. Tell Turkey to fill the tankers and start shipping in their water...they certainly have more than we have. A few years back, we contracted to buy shiploads of water from them. We even paid for it and then donated the water right back after an earthquake there. So, we'll give them 24 hours to begin shipping water to Gaza.

And your sick people...the ones who travel regularly to Israel for medical treatments...tell them we wish them luck. Maybe you can go to Cairo, although their medical care isn't anything near as good as ours, but that's your problem, not ours.

So, there's our deal - two Palestinians for one Israeli, and we keep supplying you with fuel, electricity, water, and medical care as we have for yours...or, no deal and no Gilad, no electricity, no water, no fuel…

So, do let us know and please tell Gilad that we love him and are doing this for him too because hopefully, one day soon, he'll come home and marry and have children. And he shouldn’t have to worry about their being kidnapped or blown up in a pizzeria.

For Gilad and all of Israel, we aren't going to release 1,000 for one...we're going to be more than reasonable. You have 24 hours to decide...2-1 offer ends and the electricity, water, and fuel stops.

That is the answer many in Israel want to deliver to Hamas. They stand today, on one side, and beg Israel’s leaders to listen, just as Gilad’s parents and huge numbers of Israelis sit on the other side.

I sit here on the fence, shamed that I can't at least move to one side and even more shamed that I can't look in the mirror to ask myself what I would do; I can't answer the question if it was my son. I don't think my heart could continue to beat, my head continue to think, my lungs continue to breathe and so, like much of Israel, I sit here shamed and saddened, knowing that others will soon make this decision and either Gilad will be betrayed, or Malki will be betrayed…and worst of all, Gilad’s children and my own will likely pay the price.

Could it be real this time?

How many times can you fall for the same trick? The same lie?

How many times can someone yank your cord, pull your chain? The answer is directly related to how much you care and the depth of your need.

Israel as a nation keeps falling for the same propaganda, the same trick, the same lies. Each time, our hearts fly, our hope soars, our eyes fill...and then each time, our enemies rejoice as we realize we've been fooled again. They laugh at our gullibility and how easy it was for them. Just a rumor is enough to set us to hoping, to praying.

They play us so perfectly, each time, every time, all the time. They did it last year, last month, last week and likely this week too.

Gilad will be free next Friday - this is the latest in a long series of rumors. Gilad has been transferred to Egypt awaiting release - that was the last time...or perhaps the time before that. This time it is Hamas.

Once it was Hezbollah - Ehud and Eldad are alive. Hurry, make the deal. They would hint of injuries and talk of exchanges while denying us even a glimpse. Despite all evidence, they are alive...don't you want them, they taunted us?

Germany is negotiating for Ron - then it was Hezbollah too, and the Iranians, maybe Syria. Maybe he is alive, maybe he is dead. Don't you want him? A child grows up without her father; a woman made a widow while her husband yet lives.

Back to Lebanon and Hezbollah - mothers who want to believe, need to believe. Last time it was three soldiers. Last time it was two soldiers. This time, it is one soldier. Last time they were dead...returned to us in coffins. This time, he is alive. We believe, we pray, we believe, we hope. Please, let him be alive; let him come home this time.

Over and over, their faces haunt us and the need to bring them home burns inside of us - almost to the point of desperation...almost to the point, they hope, that we will make a deal beyond all reason. In their equation, Gilad is worth 1,000 prisoners - a mere video showing him reading from a piece of paper is worth 20.

We needed to believe Ehud and Eldad are alive...against all odds, against all evidence. And so we believed and seeing their coffins being unloaded as we turned over a child-killer and other terrorists, alive and well to return to their celebrations, was a massive kick in our collective stomachs and souls. We felt sick and nauseous. They celebrated with their guns shooting in the air; we cried bitter tears. Again, all lies. Again, they give us mutilated bodies. Again, we mourn.

But Gilad is alive, we tell ourselves. We have seen him. They have dared to show us videos. He looks thin, but healthy. He's beautiful. He has to come home. We have to bring him home.

Hamas says negotiations are going well. Hamas says we have made progress...

We lost a lot of faith, as a nation, when Ehud and Eldad were returned to us, only to be buried. Hamas understood this and played us yet again.

They knew they could not get away with claims and so they dangled videos - close enough to see, to hear, but not to touch. For days, we all watched Gilad over and over again. We looked at his eyes, how he moved his hands. The shuffle near the camera, the little smile he gave. This is a game they are playing, Gilad told us. You know it; I know it, but bring me home.

Our hearts broke, as Hamas knew they would. Today, the phone beeps and the Internet sites carry the news - Gilad will be free next Friday on the eve of a Muslim holiday.

Could it be real this time?

Are we falling, yet again, for Hamas' emotional torture and blackmail?

Will we ever stop being so gullible?

No, the answer is no. We will always weep, always worry, always pray to bring our sons home. We do not glory in martyrdom and death. We want our sons with us, alive, well, safe, home. Yes, we will cry a river of tears between now and next Friday, and a river more if these rumors prove, yet again to be false.

That once bothered me, that Hamas could play us for the weakness of caring for a single life of a single soldier to such a crippling extent. But I see what they are, what they have become. I see a society that encourages its children to hate and to die. That is what comes from the violence they preach, from the value they place on their own lives. No, I would rather my son believe he is the center of my world, than believe he is expendable. I would rather he worship a God who loves him and his people and commands that he seek life, than that he worship a god who calls for Jihad and Shahid and death.

No, it no longer bothers me that Hamas plays us so perfectly. I would rather live in a society that can be fooled, time after time after time, because ultimately what it shows is that we are a country built on hope, on love, on life.

I hope, I pray, that Gilad Shalit will come home next Friday to a family that has waited more than three long, horrible years for his return, to a country that has stood by his family, and by him.

It will be another hard week for Gilad's family while they wait and see if this is yet another example of Hamas' inhumane and barbaric torture. It will be a week in which we all pray that this nightmare has finally ended and that Gilad will come home alive and well.

I have little doubt that Israel will be called upon to release hundreds of prisoners for Gilad, including murderers and terrorists. I have little doubt those we release soon, will return to their ways and we will capture them yet again in the future. I have little doubt Hamas will try to kidnap another Gilad and so it will all return again and again.

I don't have a solution; I don't believe we can change who we are and what we are and so we will cry this week, each week, every week. But we will also celebrate. Hopefully we will celebrate Gilad's coming home...but even if we don't, we will celebrate living in a country that cares enough about its sons to encourage them to live and not to die.

Ron Arad, Gilad Shalit, Ehud Barak and Israel

I've been thinking a lot about Gilad Shalit for many months which. considering he's been held by Hamas for more than three years, isn't unusual. Gilad Shalit's situation is every soldier's mother's nightmare. Only death can be worse than what the Shalit family has endured and there are times when I wonder if even death is worse.

So many say to me, "Come on, you don't really believe he is alive, do you?"

I have to confess, I do. I have no evidence, no strong believe, no facts on wish to base this presumption. I recognize that it is an emotional decision - it hurts to much to think that once again this is only the twisted tortured workings of Hamas, though I know that they, Hezbollah, have done this very thing countless times so successfully.

It is Hamas that continues to violate international law without punishment or even large-scale condemnation from anyone but Israel and a few stragglers. Certainly the Red Cross has taken no action; the UN has predictably done nothing. Silence reigns from the majority of European leaders. To their collective shame, no international representative has been allowed to see Gilad, to check on his condition, to demand regular contact with his family. And worse, no sanctions, no demands, no punishment, no real consequences have been levied against Hamas for this indecency.

This is so different from how Israel treats Palestinian prisoners, so different from the college degrees many of them are earning, so different from the regular visits they receive with their families. And yet, Israel is afraid to trigger the anger of the world by even temporarily suspending the rules that Hamas has systematically and completely ignored for years. Why does a Palestinian sitting in our jail for security crimes, even murder, have the right to see his family, to hear of his children and his parents, while Gilad gets nothing, sees nothing?

The case of Gilad Shalit reminds us too clearly of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, and yet the differences are startling and have to be mentioned. There was clear evidence that at least one of the two soldiers had died during the cross-country attack on the Lebanese border, and that the second would have been, at best, in critical attention. Knowing how the Arabs, Hamas, Hezbollah, whatever, focus on causing injuries rather than healing them, it was always doubtful that any surviving soldier would have received the necessary treatment to survive.

Beyond all corruption, beyond all hatred and friction they caused in our society, I find no forgiveness for the simple failture of the Olmert government to prepare us, the people, to accept the very real possibility that both soldiers had died in the raid and all the moment when we would be faced with bodies and not live soldiers. The army and government only really tried to make us believe this towards the end, almost two years and a war later. By then, we were no longer ready to really accept it. A humiliating prisoner "exchange" was agreed upon and there was a collective gasp, when Israel first saw the coffins and realized we had been praying and hoping for two years - all in vain.

All indications are that Gilad Shalit was taken alive. Common sense says the conditions under which he has been held have likely been barbaric, that Hamas certainly is not interested in his comfort. Bargaining tool or not, Gilad remains a soldier of Israel, a child of our hearts. And herein lies the second worry I have. There is a scene in my mind that I know Hamas will never let us play out.

It is of the tens of thousands who would line the streets to welcome Gilad home, the outpouring of a nation, the tears of all mothers. What wouldn't we do to have Gilad home...and doesn't Hamas know this.

In the days before Purim and Passover and the High Holidays each year, we know that our enemies will attempt to launch an attack. Our joy is an insult to them, our happiness their undoing. They will not want us to celebrate Gilad's homecoming and they will do something, anything, to prevent that. More than what Gilad has endured in the last three years, the next few weeks and months may well determine his condition.

And that brings us to Ron Arad. This is the other extreme. We know he was taken alive; we know he survived in captivity for some time. Just as we failed to bring Gilad home, we have failed Ron Arad and his family. Today's news report that Arad died in captivity, some 9 years after his capture, feels like a knife to the heart. Deep in my soul, I doubted that he could have lived this long, and wasn't even sure I wanted to imagine a life time of waiting to come home for him. And yet, thinking of him dying alone and seemingly abandoned brings no comfort either.

I am not an advocate of releasing prisoners at all cost. Returning Ron or Gilad in exchange for future kidnappings and more terrorist attacks has never called to me. But where each Israeli government has failed is in the effort to make the world fight this battle.

Magen David Adom should not be part of the International Red Cross and no representatives should be allowed to visit or work in Israel until they make an effort to see Gilad - a real effort that includes threatening the Red Crescent with expulsion and a cessation of all aid and work in Gaza. People say this is collective punishment - has not our nation been collectively punished by suffering three years without Gilad?

The United Nations should not be allowed to continue operations. Immediate work by UNRWA should be stopped immediately until Gilad is brought home. Let the schools close, the camps shut down. No food, no medical aid. Nothing. The world will say this is unfair but what has been done to Gilad and his family is not fair either.

International leaders want to meet with the Palestinians - they should refuse to do so until it is clear that the Palestinian leader is ready to release a statement against violating international law - including the one that requires Hamas to have Gilad examined by international representatives.

Finally, I'm left with sadness when I think of Ehud Barak's recent words. Ill-timed though they were, insensitive to be sure. Ehud Barak is correct - we cannot pay any price for Gilad Shalit. But his mistake is in talking to Israelis when he should be talking to the world. He said, "We are not in western Europe or North America.' This was his way of saying that Israelis must deal with living in the Middle East and the enemies that we have. He is correct - which is why he SHOULD be talking to the Europeans and Americans.

We know where we live and it is natural to agonize for our missing son. Noam Shalit said it best - stop talking, Defense Minister Ehud Barak - at least stop talking to us. Tell the Europeans to stop sending in aid, until Hamas sends Gilad out. Tell them that we understand a prisoner deal must be made and we are ready.

Not to release murderers - because we aren't asking for a murderer. Not to release terrorist masterminds, as we too are not asking for this. We will release as many innocent prisoners as we can - those who perhaps violated the law by being where they were not allowed to be and perhaps those of that sort - all in exchange for Gilad.

No, it won't be thousands, possibly not even 450. But it will be like for like, as is the only way to ensure future kidnappings aren't encouraged. No, the Arabs won't be happy with this but they will accept it - because they need UNRWA schools which should be closed; they need Red Cross assistance, which should be stopped; and they need money from the European Union, which must be delayed. They will not risk international isolation over the life on one soldier, one boy. Gilad isn't worth that much to them - only to us.

Gilad Shalit is not Ron Arad...not yet. But he could be if our governments fail to demand that the world recognize what we already know. We are dealing with an organization that does need international support. Shut it down or force it to comply be refusing any more aid and support now...and Gilad will come home.

We Defeat Ourselves - JTA Blows the Call

Finally, after court battles  and legal haggling and endless delays, the man was clear to reclaim what the courts carefully had determined was his. Whole volumes can be written on how much evidence the man had to provide, how many times he had to provide it, how many lawyers he paid and how many appeals were filed. Finally, the end of the legal wrangling had arrived and the man went with several others to hand out eviction notices. The Arabs seemed to have been expecting them and began pelting them with rocks. In an attempt to defend themselves after two had been hit by rocks (one in the head and one in the chest), one 63-year-old man pulled out a gun and shot in the air.

As is often the case when an Israeli fires into the air, several Arabs complained to the police that they had been injured. It is a known phenomena to many. One Jew fires a single bullet in the air, five Arabs fall and claim to be injured. The media rushes to condemn the violence. The police rush in, separate the parties and begin an investigation. Quietly, weeks later, the police announce no one was injured, the Jews did nothing wrong. Of course, as is often the case, the so-called violence was on page one of major newspapers; the retraction some dozens of pages later, buried deep inside the newspaper, if they even bothered to print it.

In this case, in our latest incident, one Arab insisted he had been shot in the hand and showed the police a scratch. Had the man been hit, explained the Israeli who shot in the air, the man would have lost his hand because of the nature of the bullets he had in his gun. The police confirmed that it was physically impossible for this injury to have been caused in the manner in which the Arab claimed and yet several major news outlets reported this ”shooting” as fact.

No, there were no injuries among the Arabs and the police quickly released the Jews that had been taken into custody based on Arab charges and complaints. Not until after they had been detained, their Sabbath violated, and one man almost denied vital, life-saving medication. Not until the news had their story – no matter how inaccurate it was.

What is amazing is not the story – told so often in various fabrications, but how Israeli media covered the news report. In Jenin, several years ago, there was a talk of a great massacre. One claimed 500 dead, another thousands. At its high, reports of even 5,000 dead filtered out. No, months later the evidence could not be ignored. Not 5,000, not thousands, not 500, not even 100. Fifty-two – and the vast majority gunmen/militants/combatants. We are in the midst of the same lies now with the Goldstone Report and Gaza.

Today, I heard the story directly from someone who was there, one of seven, the wife of the man who fired into the air. She explained to me that it was only when the Arabs started advancing towards her and throwing rocks at her, that her husband raised his gun. They did not come seeking violence, but were quickly surrounded and attacked by a mob. They advanced towards her and her husband went to defend her…and even then, he kept his head and his training. He fired into the air, to distance the rioters and gain help for his wife and friends.

This is Israel - we must defend ourselves. This is, as the man later told the police, our country and if someone throws stones at you when you have broken no law (unlike the people illegally living in the old man's house), you have the right to self-defense. Why would a 63-year-old man seek trouble, he asked the police? He has a pace-maker, for heaven’s sake and was born in the days right after the Holocaust, during a time when Jews did not know how to defend themselves. He defended himself on Friday, and his wife, and the State of Israel arrested him and put him in jail based on the false claims of witnesses who had every reason to lie and no reason to tell the truth.

I have doubts whether anyone from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) spoke to any of the Jews involved in the incident - it certainly doesn't seem so from the ridiculous headlines they used: "Jews arrested in brawl over home ownership."

A brawl? Doesn't that give the hint of guilt on both sides? Jews with the backing of the Israeli courts went to issue eviction notices to illegal residents and were attacked with stones. This is a brawl? One wonders whether it is perhaps time to buy JTA a dictionary.

The absurd title is only one inaccuracy. Of course, no one was injured among the Arabs; no one was shot in the hand or elsewhere. According to the witness I spoke to, the police watched the video she had taken and quickly agreed that the claims were false and that there was no way any Arabs were shot by this man's bullets.

Also, telling, however, is the file name (URL address) of the JTA article. While they decided to be a bit more diplomatic in the headlines, the assumption of guilt was there in the file name: http://jta.org/news/article/2009/11/01/1008854/right-wing-jewish-activists-detained-after-brawl-with-arabs-in-jerusalem.

Note the name – “right wing Jewish activists.” Why were they labeled as such by JTA? Was it because they dared to attempt to uphold the court ruling? Was it because they dared to defend themselves? The JTA knows nothing of these people; I have met several.

The JTA, with no evidence and little in the way of facts, has failed to deliver accurate reporting by choosing to apply words it hopes will prejudice the reader. There was no brawl in our homeland on Friday. There was an attempt to serve justice. One that was thwarted by violent Arabs and close-minded police. And there was an attempt to blame the victims of violence by denigrating what happened (a brawl??), and using political labeling to undermine their action.

We defeat ourselves when we surrender our rights and allow others to be granted victory by our cowardice.

Instead of Excessive Apology

by Zev Jabotinsky, 1911

translated from Russian by Boris Shusteff

from Giving Moral Ground, The Maccabian Online, August 1997

We constantly and very loudly apologize... Instead of turning our backs to the accusers, as there is nothing to apologize for, and nobody to apologize to, we swear again and again that it is not our fault... Isn't it long overdue to respond to all these and all future accusations, reproaches, suspicions, slanders and denunciations by simply folding our arms and loudly, clearly, coldly and calmly answer with the only argument that is understandable and accessible to this public: 'Go to Hell!'?

Who are we, to make excuses to them; who are they to interrogate us? What is the purpose of this mock trial over the entire people where the sentence is known in advance? Our habit of constantly and zealously answering to any rabble has already done us a lot of harm and will do much more. ... The situation that has been created as a result, tragically confirms a well known saying: "Qui s'excuse s'accuse." We ourselves have acquainted our neighbors with the thought that for every embezzling Jew it is possible to drag the entire ancient people to answer, a people that was already legislating at the time when the neighbors had not even invented a bast shoe. Every accusation causes among us such a commotion that people unwittingly think, 'why are they so afraid of everything?' Apparently their conscience is not clear.' Exactly because we are ready at every minute to stand at attention, there develops among the people an inescapable view about us, as of some specific thievish tribe. We think that our constant readiness to undergo a search without hesitation and to turn out our pockets, will eventually convince mankind of our nobility; look what gentlemen we are--we do not have anything to hide! This is a terrible mistake. The real gentlemen are the people that will not allow anyone for any reason to search their apartment, their pockets or their soul. Only a person under surveillance is ready for a search at every moment.... This is the only one inevitable conclusion from our maniac reaction to every reproach--to accept responsibility as a people for every action of a Jew, and to make excuses in front of everybody including hell knows who. I consider this system to be false to its very root. We are hated not because we are blamed for everything, but we are blamed for everything because we are not loved...

We may apologize only in rare, unique and extremely important moments when we are completely confident that the Areopagus in front of us really has just intentions and proper competence. We do not have to apologize for anything. We are a people as all other peoples; we do not have any intentions to be better than the rest. As one of the first conditions for equality we demand the right to have our own villains, exactly as other people have them. Yes, we do have provocateurs and draft dodgers, and it is even strange that we have so few of them under current conditions. Other people have also these kind of "good," and, in addition, they have embezzlers, and pogrom-makers, and torturers--so what-- the neighbors live and are not ashamed.... Do our neighbors blush for the Christians in Kishinyov who hammered nails into Jewish babies' eyes?" Not in the least,-- they walk with head raised high and look everybody in the face; they are absolutely right, and this is how it must be, as the persona of a people is royal, and not responsible and is not obliged to apologize...

We do not have to account to anybody, we are not to sit for anybody's examination and nobody is old enough to call on us to answer. We came before them and will leave after them. We are what we are, we are good for ourselves, we will not change and we do not want to.

Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu Speaks Before the United Nations

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Nearly 62 years ago, the United Nations recognized the right of the Jews, an ancient people 3,500 years-old, to a state of their own in their ancestral homeland.

I stand here today as the Prime Minister of Israel, the Jewish state, and I speak to you on behalf of my country and my people.

The United Nations was founded after the carnage of World War II and the horrors of the Holocaust.  It was charged with preventing the recurrence of such horrendous events.

Nothing has undermined that central mission more than the systematic assault on the truth. Yesterday the President of Iran stood at this very podium, spewing his latest anti-Semitic rants.  Just a few days earlier, he again claimed that the Holocaust is a lie.

Last month, I went to a villa in a suburb of Berlin called Wannsee. There, on January 20, 1942, after a hearty meal, senior Nazi officials met and decided how to exterminate the Jewish people. The detailed minutes of that meeting have been preserved by successive German governments. Here is a copy of those minutes, in which the Nazis issued precise instructions on how to carry out the extermination of the Jews.   Is this a lie?

A day before I was in Wannsee, I was given in Berlin the original construction plans for the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. Those plans are signed by Hitler’s deputy, Heinrich Himmler himself.  Here is a copy of the plans for Auschwitz-Birkenau, where one million Jews were murdered.  Is this too a lie?

This June, President Obama visited the Buchenwald concentration camp.  Did President Obama pay tribute to a lie?

And what of the Auschwitz survivors whose arms still bear the tattooed numbers branded on them by the Nazis? Are those tattoos a lie?  One-third of all Jews perished in the conflagration.  Nearly every Jewish family was affected, including my own.  My wife’s grandparents, her father’s two sisters and three brothers, and all the aunts, uncles and cousins were all murdered by the Nazis.  Is that also a lie?

Yesterday, the man who calls the Holocaust a lie spoke from this podium.  To those who refused to come here and to those who left this room in protest, I commend you.  You stood up for moral clarity and you brought honor to your countries.

But to those who gave this Holocaust-denier a hearing, I say on behalf of my people, the Jewish people, and decent people everywhere: Have you no shame?  Have you no decency?

A mere six decades after the Holocaust, you give legitimacy to a man who denies that the murder of six million Jews took place and pledges to wipe out the Jewish state.

What a disgrace!  What a mockery of the charter of the United Nations!  Perhaps some of you think that this man and his odious regime threaten only the Jews.  You’re wrong.

History has shown us time and again that what starts with attacks on the Jews eventually ends up engulfing many others.

This Iranian regime is fueled by an extreme fundamentalism that burst onto the world scene three decades ago after lying dormant for centuries.  In the past thirty years, this fanaticism has swept the globe with a murderous violence and cold-blooded impartiality in its choice of victims. It has callously slaughtered Moslems and Christians, Jews and Hindus, and many others.  Though it is comprised of different offshoots, the adherents of this unforgiving creed seek to return humanity to medieval times.

Wherever they can, they impose a backward regimented society where women, minorities, gays or anyone not deemed to be a true believer is brutally subjugated. The struggle against this fanaticism does not pit faith against faith nor civilization against civilization.

It pits civilization against barbarism, the 21st century against the 9th century, those who sanctify life against those who glorify death.

The primitivism of the 9th century ought to be no match for the progress of the 21st century.  The allure of freedom, the power of technology, the reach of communications should surely win the day.    Ultimately, the past cannot triumph over the future. And the future offers all nations magnificent bounties of hope.   The pace of progress is growing exponentially.

It took us centuries to get from the printing press to the telephone, decades to get from the telephone to the personal computer, and only a few years to get from the personal computer to the internet.

What seemed impossible a few years ago is already outdated, and we can scarcely fathom the changes that are yet to come. We will crack the genetic code.  We will cure the incurable.  We will lengthen our lives.  We will find a cheap alternative to fossil fuels and clean up the planet.

I am proud that my country Israel is at the forefront of these advances – by leading innovations in science and technology, medicine and biology, agriculture and water, energy and the environment. These innovations the world over offer humanity a sunlit future of unimagined promise.

But if the most primitive fanaticism can acquire the most deadly weapons, the march of history could be reversed for a time. And like the belated victory over the Nazis, the forces of progress and freedom will prevail only after an horrific toll of blood and fortune has been exacted from mankind. That is why the greatest threat facing the world today is the marriage between religious fanaticism and the weapons of mass destruction.

The most urgent challenge facing this body is to prevent the tyrants of Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons. Are the member states of the United Nations up to that challenge? Will the international community confront a despotism that terrorizes its own people as they bravely stand up for freedom?

Will it take action against the dictators who stole an election in broad daylight and gunned down Iranian protesters who died in the streets choking in their own blood? Will the international community thwart the world’s most pernicious sponsors and practitioners of terrorism?

Above all, will the international community stop the terrorist regime of Iran from developing atomic weapons, thereby endangering the peace of the entire world?

The people of Iran are courageously standing up to this regime.  People of goodwill around the world stand with them, as do the thousands who have been protesting outside this hall. Will the United Nations stand by their side?

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The jury is still out on the United Nations, and recent signs are not encouraging. Rather than condemning the terrorists and their Iranian patrons, some here have condemned their victims. That is exactly what a recent UN report on Gaza did, falsely equating the terrorists with those they targeted.

For eight long years, Hamas fired from Gaza thousands of missiles, mortars and rockets on nearby Israeli cities. Year after year, as these missiles were deliberately hurled at our civilians, not a single UN resolution was passed condemning those criminal attacks.  We heard nothing – absolutely nothing – from the UN Human Rights Council, a misnamed institution if there ever was one.

In 2005, hoping to advance peace, Israel unilaterally withdrew from every inch of Gaza.  It dismantled 21 settlements and uprooted over 8,000 Israelis.  We didn’t get peace.  Instead we got an Iranian backed terror base fifty miles from Tel Aviv.   Life in Israeli towns and cities next to Gaza became a nightmare. You see, the Hamas rocket attacks not only continued, they increased tenfold. Again, the UN was silent.

Finally, after eight years of this unremitting assault, Israel was finally forced to respond. But how should we have responded? Well, there is only one example in history of thousands of rockets being fired on a country’s civilian population.  It happened when the Nazis rocketed British cities during World War II. During that war, the allies leveled German cities, causing hundreds of thousands of casualties.   Israel chose to respond differently.  Faced with an enemy committing a double war crime of firing on civilians while hiding behind civilians – Israel sought to conduct surgical strikes against the rocket launchers.

That was no easy task because the terrorists were firing missiles from homes and schools, using mosques as weapons depots and ferreting explosives in ambulances. Israel, by contrast, tried to minimize casualties by urging Palestinian civilians to vacate the targeted areas.

We dropped countless flyers over their homes, sent thousands of text messages and called thousands of cell phones asking people to leave. Never has a country gone to such extraordinary lengths to remove the enemy’s civilian population from harm’s way.

Yet faced with such a clear case of aggressor and victim, who did the UN Human Rights Council decide to condemn? Israel.  A democracy legitimately defending itself against terror is morally hanged, drawn and quartered, and given an unfair trial to boot.

By these twisted standards, the UN Human Rights Council would have dragged Roosevelt and Churchill to the dock as war criminals.  What a perversion of truth.  What a perversion of justice.

Delegates of the United Nations,

Will you accept this farce?

Because if you do, the United Nations would revert to its darkest days, when the worst violators of human rights sat in judgment against the law-abiding democracies, when Zionism was equated with racism and when an automatic majority could declare that the earth is flat.

If this body does not reject this report, it would send a message to terrorists everywhere: Terror pays; if you launch your attacks from densely populated areas, you will win immunity. And in condemning Israel, this body would also deal a mortal blow to peace.  Here’s why.

When Israel left Gaza, many hoped that the missile attacks would stop.  Others believed that at the very least, Israel would have international legitimacy to exercise its right of self-defense. What legitimacy?  What self-defense?

The same UN that cheered Israel as it left Gaza and promised to back our right of self-defense now accuses us –my people, my country – of war crimes?  And for what?  For acting responsibly in self-defense.  What a travesty!

Israel justly defended itself against terror.  This biased and unjust report is a clear-cut test for all governments. Will you stand with Israel or will you stand with the terrorists?

We must know the answer to that question now. Now and not later. Because if Israel is again asked to take more risks for peace, we must know today that you will stand with us tomorrow. Only if we have the confidence that we can defend ourselves can we take further risks for peace.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

All of Israel wants peace.

Any time an Arab leader genuinely wanted peace with us, we made peace. We made peace with Egypt led by Anwar Sadat.  We made peace with Jordan led by King Hussein.  And if the Palestinians truly want peace, I and my government, and the people of Israel, will make peace. But we want a genuine peace, a defensible peace, a permanent peace. In 1947, this body voted to establish two states for two peoples – a Jewish state and an Arab state.  The Jews accepted that resolution.  The Arabs rejected it.

We ask the Palestinians to finally do what they have refused to do for 62 years:  Say yes to a Jewish state. Just as we are asked to recognize a nation-state for the Palestinian people, the Palestinians must be asked to recognize the nation state of the Jewish people.   The Jewish people are not foreign conquerors in the Land of Israel.   This is the land of our forefathers.

Inscribed on the walls outside this building is the great Biblical vision of peace: “Nation shall not lift up sword against nation.  They shall learn war no more.” These words were spoken by the Jewish prophet Isaiah 2,800 years ago as he walked in my country, in my city, in the hills of Judea and in the streets of Jerusalem.

We are not strangers to this land.  It is our homeland. As deeply connected as we are to this land, we recognize that the Palestinians also live there and want a home of their own. We want to live side by side with them, two free peoples living in peace, prosperity and dignity.

But we must have security.  The Palestinians should have all the powers to govern themselves except those handful of powers that could endanger Israel.

That is why a Palestinian state must be effectively demilitarized.   We don’t want another Gaza, another Iranian backed terror base abutting Jerusalem and perched on the hills a few kilometers from Tel Aviv.

We want peace.

I believe such a peace can be achieved.  But only if we roll back the forces of terror, led by Iran, that seek to destroy peace, eliminate Israel and overthrow the world order.  The question facing the international community is whether it is prepared to confront those forces or accommodate them.

Over seventy years ago, Winston Churchill lamented what he called the “confirmed unteachability of mankind,” the unfortunate habit of civilized societies to sleep until danger nearly overtakes them.

Churchill bemoaned what he called the “want of foresight, the unwillingness to act when action will be simple and effective, the lack of clear thinking, the confusion of counsel until emergency comes, until self-preservation strikes its jarring gong.”

I speak here today in the hope that Churchill’s assessment of the “unteachibility of mankind” is for once proven wrong.

I speak here today in the hope that we can learn from history — that we can prevent danger in time.

In the spirit of the timeless words spoken to Joshua over 3,000 years ago, let us be strong and of good courage.  Let us confront this peril, secure our future and, God willing, forge an enduring peace for generations to come.

Recently, I’ve got another crazy who has picked up my email. He writes, “JEWS ARE THE COWARDS YOU DID 9-11.” Beyond bad punctuation and a shameless love affair with the ALL CAPS button, this man loves red highlighting and large fonts. He does, however, sincerely hate Jews. “YOU TOOK AWAY SCHOOL PRAYER YOU MADE SURE ROE VS WADE PASSED YOU ARE SICK BASTARDS.”

He loves to make threats. He threatened the US President. He apparently doesn’t like African Americans either. He doesn’t like police officers – at least we are in good company, and he warns the Jews of America, “We will go to NYC,Los Angeles,Miami, Chicago,Boston, San Fransisco,Dallas,Atlanta, Philadelphia,Camden and West Palm Beach and bring our guns to your temples.”

Besides seriously needing to learn how to use the keyboard and spell checker, I’ve met this man’s type and he doesn’t frighten me. The one that frightens me is a much simpler and quieter person. The above emails came from one man and were sent to an ever-growing list of active Jews and others he has identified, myself among them. Some live in Israel, some in the US. Some I know personally or by reputation – most fine people, who happen to be Jews.

On the list was one email, one of those emails that don’t identify the person’s name (“patriot” followed by a number and the domain). The voodoo guy was Patriot10. I wondered if this was the return of Mr. Voodoo man and so I searched the Internet and found this second email address associated with a man named Robert. No real connection confirmed with the first one, who was named Ross.

I let it go until I got an email from Robert, “Sorry, guys, but I'm simply not interested in pro/anti-semitic arguments....from EITHER side. So, please take me off this list, else I'll have to block everyone, which is time-consuming.”

Now what bothers me is that this guy received several hate-filled emails from John (the eloquent guy with the broken keyboard) and never responded. It was only after I wrote to the group suggesting that John “probably believes his own lies” and asked “do they get dumber than this?” that Robert was prompted to stop his silent participation in these emails.

In the face of evil, we have two options. We can answer back, or we can remain silent. Robert chooses silence. He doesn’t have time for arguments that are either “pro/anti-semitic.”

I’m left puzzled as to what a pro-Semitic message is? He equates messages of hate with those that condemn them. They are all lumped together into pro or anti. One calls for murder, the other for incarceration of evil. To Robert, they are equally bothersome. He has no time for “EITHER” side.

In the absence of good, evil triumphs. In silence, hatred reigns. John is clearly a disturbed individual that makes me very happy to live in Israel, far from his sick and demented mind. He is clearly tormented with thoughts that Jews perpetrated 9/11, control the US government, have the police under their thumbs, and apparently control medical science enough to create swine flu.

I have never been bothered by the Johns of the world. I accept their sickness as something against which I must fight. I use words and reason, and the Johns fall into nothingness. No, John doesn’t bother me nearly so much as Robert. The Johns of the world wanted the Holocaust; the Roberts of the world allowed it to happen. The Johns of the world in another religion attacked the World Trade Center, the trains in Madrid, the buses in London and cafes and buses and malls here in Israel. But the Roberts of the world allow the Johns to spread, to attack innocents so long as the Johns don’t bother them or take too much of their time.

You defeat John by being on guard, but understanding the sickness that fills his mind and the hatred that poisons his soul. What I have never learned to do, is understand the Roberts. I don’t know how to defeat someone who does not believe in standing for what is right against what is clearly wrong. Part of me wants to know, part of me knows I never will. Perhaps the saddest thought I have right now is that it is Robert and not John who will defeat the world, if we let him.

A Question and A Request

Tomorrow night begins Holocaust Remembrance Day in Israel. I have a request. Wherever you are in the world - tomorrow night as darkness sets in, light a candle and think of the six million Jews and the millions of non-Jews who were murdered by the Nazis during World War II.

Maybe tomorrow night I'll write about my visit to Poland a few years ago - but right now, I want to write about something else. I just read that today a group of partisans, fighters who fought the Nazis in the forests of Europe, anywhere and any way that they could, visited an air force base today. Israel is home to thousands of Holocaust survivors. They have lived here since the beginning - leaving the gas chambers of Europe to help build a nation.

Especially at this time of the year, as the annual commemoration of those horrible years arrives, we honor them and we listen to them, to the nightmares they still suffer, the fears they still have, the scars they still carry. Today, they had a request for our pilots. A request, and a question.

More than half a century ago, they faced an enemy that wanted, needed, dreamed of annihilating our people. They know such evil existed in this world and they know that it still exists. One woman asked an officer in our air force if our pilots could reach Iran. “They can reach anywhere,” he answered.

I love that answer for its simplicity. He did not explain about Iran's nuclear infrastructure, spread over many sites, miles apart. He did not speak of the hatred they knew better than most; he did not talk of oil nad political maneuverings. He did not speak of America and if it would talk or act this time, as it failed to do for them. He did not speak of other European nations, of the silence that murders as effectively as poison gas. He did not talk of how much uranium the Iranians have, when their nuclear development will reach critical mass. Instead, he offered them a simple answer carrying the reassurances these survivors needed. Yes, he was explaining, we can stop them. No, we will not be helpless again. No, you have nothing to fear and yes, this time they will not succeed because we will stop them. We will not depend on others; we will do for our people now what we could not do then.

An air force plane slowly rolled past the group, and the partisans began to clap. The pilot wanted to honor them; they gave their honor right back. Israel has given them a home, a land, and the courage to live after learning all that would encourage a person to want to die. More than a decade ago, one of our defense ministers went to Poland, to the site of the Warsaw Ghetto. In a sad and solemn tone, he spoke to those who could no longer hear him. He told them that the air force of Israel had come to pay their respects.

They'd come 50 years too late to save them, he explained, but they'd come to Warsaw. It was a promise that the air force would never be too late again. We would fly to Yemen, to Ethiopia, to Uganda. We would fly to Iraq and to Sudan, and we may yet fly to Iran.   A few years after that defense minister was in Warsaw, an Israeli pilot, son of a Holocaust survivor, honored those who died in Auschwitz by flying over the concentration camp. It was a message to his grandparents who had died there and to all the world. See us. Hear us. Know that this time, this time we can reach anywhere, not because we want to, but because we know that in this world, we have to.

Today, another survivor made her own request of the air force of Israel, “What I ask of you is to make sure that there will not be another Holocaust.”

Tomorrow night, when you light that candle, please think of my son Elie, a young and handsome soldier, one of tens of thousands of strong, proud young men who guard Israel today and tomorrow. Think of them because what they do, they do for this precise reason. Tomorrow night, my son will guard Israel. Our sons will guard the skies of Israel, the borders, the seas. Europe and America did what they did more than 60 years ago, and we know what they did not do. We know the railways to Auschwitz were not bombed and we know deals were not made. People were sent back to die rather than given refuge.  

Today, Israel can send the bombs, make the deals, and offer refuge. It is an unbelievable thing, to ask a young man to make sure there will not be another Holocaust, but that survivor's request was made to Israel and today, as our sons stand on our borders and fly our skies, they assure us all that they will honor that request, even if it means flying to Iran.

Click here to see: Israeli Air Force - flying over Auschwitz, 2003

We are a democratic country; so much so, we allow our enemies into our government and from the podium of our parliament, they have the freedom to call for policies that would destroy us.

Our current enemies, those who pose the most immediate threat lie to our north. This is Hizbollah land, where according to their leader Hassan Nasrallah, "We have discovered how to hit the Jews where they are the most vulnerable. The Jews love life, so that is what we shall take away from them. We are going to win, because they love life and we love death."

Our enemies lie to the northeast. This is Syria. My son spent many months on the Golan Heights, including some tense days waiting to see how the Syrians would react after Israel sent planes to destroy a building widely believed to be the beginnings of a nuclear reactor. My son fought near Gaza to help stop the rockets being fired against Israel.

Our enemies lie further to the east. This is Iran, led by a madman who promises that he will do all he can to accomplish in minutes more than what Adolf Hitler accomplished in six years of war. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has made it clear in words and actions that he is after a nuclear bomb and that his goal is to wipe Israel off the face of the earth. Believe him.

This site archives articles about many issues, including:

• A running "tally" of anti-Semitic attacks worldwide (for 2008, 2007, 2006)
• Articles about aliyah, and Five Reasons to Come to Israel
• Our enemies, in their own words
• Barnard/Columbia's shameful decision to grant tenure to Nadia Abu El-Haj, a "professor" of anthropology who poisons scholarship with in her political agenda
• Life in Sderot
• About the Holocaust
• And much more

An Israeli Soldier's Mother

From the time our children are born, we accept that our identity has changed. We were so many things, and continue to be. But in the moments after we give birth, and in the years that follow, we become something so much more. I have been a mother for more than 20 years, and now, as I see my oldest son enter the army of Israel, I become a soldier's mother. To read my ongoing blog: http://israelisoldiersmother.blogspot.com/.

Blogging not only opens new doors in terms of outreach, it is also quite addictive. Here's another blog I'm running: http://thisisisrael.blogspot.com/ - This is Israel.

---

"We have discovered how to hit the Jews where they are the most vulnerable. The Jews love life, so that is what we shall take away from them. We are going to win, because they love life and we love death."

             -- Hizbullah General Secretary,  Hassan Nasrallah

Nasrallah is right - we Jews love life and they love death. But he is wrong - it is not what makes us vulnerable, it is what makes us invincible.

We have the choice to be strong...or to bow to our enemies. We must tell the world, we are going to win because we love life, because we love our land, and because we are destined to live in this country, this land, for eternity. The people and the nation of Israel lives!

Part of this living is remembering what was done in the past so as to prevent it from happening in the future. Several sections on this site are dedicated to this principle. These include:

• Partial Report of Anti-Semitic Attacks by country in 2008 (in progress)
• Partial Report of Anti-Semitic Attacks in 2007 (including summaries)
• Partial Report of Anti-Semitic Attacks in 2006 (including summaries)
• Having A Son in the Army
• About the Holocaust

About Life in Israel

Today, as with most days - Palestinians fired rockets at our cities, probably attempted to infiltrate our cities or smuggle weapons in order to perpetrate attacks against us. Our response must be...even if you succeed today, and sometimes you will...you may hurt us, but you will never defeat us.

Ultimately, Israel is about spirit. Every day in Israel, we are reminded of the things that could only happen here. For a few examples, click here.

Remembering the Lebanon War II

Do you know what a Katyusha rocket sounds like? Click here to see and listen to a katyusha. Some sound bites from this war:

• Dan Gillerman, Israel's representative to the UN, recently said, "When you sleep with a missile, sometimes you don't wake up."
• Lebanese President Emil Lahoud, "I support the Hizbollah because they liberated our land"  and called Hizbollah "a symbol for steadfastness and dignity." See When You Sleep with a Missile.
• Click here for more on...War in the North including a blog from a resident of Karmiel who wrote from her work in a hospital in the north (Resident's Blog) and an article on what the war should be called War of the Captives. Len, a resident of Haifa took pictures of what happened in Haifa during the war. Click here to see a list of the Presentations and download them. (Please be patient, it may take a moment to load, but the images are important and the message one worth the delay).

Remembering Gush Katif and its brave people:

On the right is a picture of a Kassem Rocket fired at Moshe and Rachel Saperstein's home in Neve Dekalim. This was one of more than 6000 rockets and mortars fired by Palestinians hoping to drive the Jews from their homes. In the end, it was not the Palestinians...but Ariel Sharon that accomplished this - to his everlasting shame and guilt.

Click here for a brief tour of what was stolen from the people of Gush Katif, and the people of Israel.

Poland

After a trip to Poland, I began documenting what I'd seen, what I'd learned, and most importantly, what I felt. In the months and years since my trip, I find that once you have been to Poland, you can never quite see the world in the same way again. Here are a few of the articles related to that trip:

• Auschwitz
• Story of the Chelmno Baby
• Treblinka
• Jedwabna

I have begun a section to document my visit  Poland: from a Jewish perspective. I hope to add many more pictures in the coming weeks, and perhaps expand the pages to include other countries as well. Also, please see: www.polandjews.com for more information.

If you have comments about this site, please write to me at .

Western Wall, Jerusalem

Golan Heights, Israel

Judean Desert

Masada

Who links to me?

Background of PaulaSays.com:

I'm hoping that something that seems inherently egotistical can be explained as something else. For quite a few years, friends and relatives have said they enjoy my articles and I should do something about saving them, publishing them to a wider audience, etc.

PaulaSays.com is a step in this direction. Although I hope the site will grow, at this point, it contains articles that I have written (most have been published either in Israeli or US newspapers, or are located in e-magazines and Internet News sites such as IsraelNationalNews.com and IsraelInsider.com.

Other Interests:

WritePoint

Writing articles soothes the soul, but probably not the checkbook. So, some 15+ years ago, I founded WritePoint Ltd. WritePoint is a leading technical writing company in Israel involved in all manner of documentation and training. Several years ago, we opened the Training Center in Jerusalem. WritePoint is based on a simple concept: offer your clients loyalty and quality that stands the test of time - and they will stay with you. Many of our clients have been with us for years, some for more than a decade. We are always interested in working with new companies. WritePoint's website can be viewed at www.writepoint.com.

MarcShoret

MarcShoret is a list of MARCOM professionals in Israel and abroad. Currently there are more than 220 members on the list and the first annual conference is scheduled for November 2 in Binyanei Hauma in Jerusalem. For more information, see: www.marcshoret.com.

Techshoret

Techshoret is a list of technical writers in Israel and abroad. Currently, there are more than 1800 list members. More than just a list, Techshoret is a community of people who share the same professional interests, for the most part live in the same country, and are interested in learning and teaching each other.

As list owner and one of the moderators of the list, I have the interesting job of helping list members, processing messages and handling problems and, most of all, seeing that the list runs smoothly and politely. The list also features a resume database for technical writers. The Techshoret website can be viewed at www.techshoret.com.

Years ago, I was talking to a left-leaning friend and was taken aback by something he said.

"I have nothing in common with them," he said, and to make sure I understood, he named the types of people he was talking about. He meant the ones who live in "Beit Haggai, Otniel."

"But you speak the same language, live in the same country, have the same religion," I protested. “How could you not have so many things in common with any Jew, every Jew, anywhere?”

"We use the same words, but don't speak the same language, definitely don't live in the same country and don't share religion either." We talked a bit but nothing I said could change his mind, nothing he said convinced me he was right either.

"But I'm one of 'them' too," I said, desperate to explain. It wasn’t possible. I had moved to Israel, grown up with the belief that there is this unseen connection, felt to the depths of my soul. We are all responsible, one for the other. We are one people. I am those very people he despised, I thought to myself.

"No, you aren't."

"Yes, I am,” I finished the discussion with sadness, “I am no different from them and if you have nothing in common with them, you have nothing in common with me - and we both know that isn't true."

I was saddened by the discussion, but let it go. What more could I say to prove my point...and hadn't he said enough already? A few years passed and the Israeli government announced it would unilaterally remove the Jews from Gaza and sections of northern Shomron (Samaria). I was against the decision on many levels, all levels. My friend was as strongly in favor as I was against. We talked, we debated, we discussed, we never agreed.

I didn't believe the day would come, I prayed that it wouldn't. He anticipated it, relished the idea of it coming. I saw destruction; he saw salvation. I sat and watched as my country, my army did the unthinkable. It made a mockery of our political system, a joke out of our army. It brought, as I expected it would - rocket attacks, more deaths, and war. Ashkelon will burn, we warned our fellow Israelis, I warned my friend.

"But then we can do what normal countries do. We can flatten them."

"We won't," I countered already feeling the frustration and helplessness. The same weakness that leads us to expel our own people will cripple the government and prevent us from stopping the rockets that will surely hit Ashkelon - and even Ashdod.

"One rocket," my friend said. "One rocket after we pull out and they’re finished."

“We’ve had rockets and we didn’t finish them,” I told him. “The world won’t allow us to do anything.”

“They will when we are out of Gaza,” he said, though I knew he was wrong.

We pulled out of Gaza and destroyed some of the most beautiful and productive communities in our land. I dreaded going to see my friend. I couldn't stand to see him gloat at his victory and Israel's loss. Finally, I had no choice and with great reluctance I went.

“So,” he began.

“So,” I answered, wondering if after so many years our friendship would end.

“I took vacation to watch,” he said, “I took three days off work and just watched.”

I took a deep breath. I too had watched. Hours and hours and tears and tears had been spent. I cried till I could not cry any more, and then amazingly enough, I cried more. I went to the Western Wall to watch as the communities arrived and were welcomed. I cried there and felt shame.

Maybe I hadn’t done enough. Maybe we never really deserved those communities we had built and the amazing people who had lived there. They sang, they showed strength, while I felt defeated. I didn’t want to hear, couldn’t listen to what I knew my friend was going to say. I remember breathing in deeply, trying to decide if it was better to finally let myself explode or to keep silent.

“And I cried,” he said. “I cried when I watched the dignity of the people and what we did.” I released the breath I had taken and held. He had cried. Cried when people with whom he supposedly had nothing in common were pulled from their homes; cried when he saw how we had broken them. People who had turned sand into unimaginable beauty. He had cried.

I looked at him and I remembered his words from so many years before. A thought I had found so foreign, so incomprehensible at the time came to me and settled in my heart. For the first time in my life, I knew that he’d been right, or at least partially. “Do you remember when you told me you had nothing in common with those Jews who lived in Beit Haggai and Otniel?” I asked him.

“Yes,” he answered.

“I didn’t think it was possible at the time, but now I agree. I have nothing, nothing, nothing, in common with a Jew who could have watched the expulsion of the Jews from Gaza and not cried.” You didn’t have to agree or disagree with it, I decided, but no matter what you felt, you had to cry.

This morning, a terrorist attempted to murder Jews in Beit Haggai. He entered the small village with a knife, as another terrorist entered the small village of Bat Ayin recently. That time, the brave terrorist attacked two children, murdering a boy of only 13 and seriously wounding a 7-year-old before a Jewish father ran and confronted the terrorist, who fled, typical of the coward he was.

This morning, a person was lightly wounded before the terrorist in Beit Haggai was eliminated.

“You Orange People were right,” my friend told me a few months ago. No, he still believed that the expulsion was correct, but that it was done at the wrong time, in the wrong way. It brought us nothing, gave us nothing. The rockets fell, as we said they would. The cities burned, as we knew they could and the government did little. We didn’t flatten Gaza, even during this past war. The world didn’t understand, as he thought they would.

This morning we were given the miracle we were denied last time in Bat Ayin. This time, thankfully, it was the terrorist that lay dead and not a Jewish child.

Every Jew today must feel relief, it could have been so much worse. Every Jew must be grateful that the Jews of Beit Haggai and Otniel are safe in their homes today, safe to live in the land we all love, speak the language we all share. Whether you agree or disagree with them, we all have this commonality. Today, we are all Jews from Beit Haggai.

Why I Hate CNN...

There are two stories on CNN tonight, one about a cat and one about a woman. The cat was put to sleep after a relatively short battle with cancer; the woman lives in northern Israel. I cannot say whether CNN visited the animal hospital where former-White House cat, Socks, was put to sleep, but apparently, there is nothing in dispute. As for the woman, CNN apparently needs to lend doubt to the incident and couldn't be bothered to send a reporter or call the hospital for verification and so the headlines reads, "Israel claims woman hurt in rocket attack." Notice the "claims"?

It doesn't surprise me that CNN appears to have more sympathy for a dead cat that lived a long and relatively happy life, than it does for a woman who was "apparently" enjoying a leisurely day off of work when "apparently", suddenly, without warning, a rocket "apparently" crashed into her house and she was "apparently" wounded - or so Israel claims.

It seems rather silly that CNN is ready to accept the supposed death of Socks, who in fact did not die of natural causes. CNN states as fact that the cat has been losing weight since November, and even knows when Socks was born (in 1989, if you are interested) and yet, amazingly enough, CNN has problems concluding that the artillery fire that was shot FROM Israel INTO Lebanon AT the location FROM WHICH two katyushas were fired were actually fired as a response. According to CNN:

The Israeli army fired artillery toward the village of Qlayleh, close to the port city of Tyre, according to the Lebanese army said. However, it is not known if the attack was in response to the rockets fired toward Israel.

So, CNN knows that Israel fired artillery (no "claims" there). It apparently doesn't know how to draw a line between points A and points B - as in - they fired at us, and we fired back. Sometimes, I prefer Elie's response to things and his was so perfect when I read him the article. He asked CNN a simple question, "how stupid are you?" 02.21.09, 21:52 Two mortar shells were fired at Israel from Gaza and apparently landed in Shaar HaNegev Regional Council.
Like my son, I have no clue...but I do suspect that it is so much more involved than sheer stupidity, though clearly there is a good dose of that as well.


Here is CNN's article - with a bit of wondering on my part:

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- A woman was injured Saturday when a rocket landed in northern Israel, a spokesman for the Israeli police said.

Gee, when Socks died, you quoted a source, but assumed as fact in the headlines.

The Israel Defense Forces fired artillery toward the source of the fire, an army spokesman said, but he could not say from where the rocket originated.

OK...when you say the army spokesman could not say from where the rocket originated, could you be more specific? Does the army typically reveal to CNN sensitive information such as exact locations? That it came from Lebanon is obvious. The Arabs know where it came from, as does Israel. Did your reporter ask specifically and the Israeli spokeperson said, "we don't know where it came from"? Did CNN ask and the Israeli spokesperson said, "we are not at liberty to divulge this informatoin"? What does CNN mean, what is it trying to imply, by saying "he couldn not say from where the rocket originated?" The clear implication would be that Israel didn't know. Given Israel's demonstrated abilities in the area of pinpointing targets (like the mastermind of rocket attacks or a terrorist on a motorcycle), this would indicate CNN's stupidity much sooner than it would indicate a lack of knowledge on Israel's part. If what was implied, and what would then be so hard to believe (that Israel fired on an unidentified target "somewhere" in Lebanon), it would seem to me that an exact quote should have been used because the clear implication of how this was phrased was that Israel didn't know the source. Obviously, Israel has advanced satellite technology, so clearly this is CNN's attempt to make it seem like Israel simply shot back, blindly.

Officials said the rocket landed in the Western Galilee region of northwestern Israel, which borders Lebanon. The Lebanese army said two rockets were fired from Lebanon toward Israel, but they failed to reach Israeli territory. According to the Lebanese army, the rockets landed east of Naqoura, a coastal town just north of the border with Israel.

Well, all I can tell you is that the injured people - oh, and CNN, there were three injured people, not one, were in Israel, as were the six others treated for shock and the two houses that were damaged. If you are wondering, why not go look - it's kind of hard to miss the damage of a rocket hitting a house. If you have two contradictory stories, doesn't it behoove CNN's readers for CNN to get out and check the facts? Also lacking in this report is the reality that on the Lebanese side, you have an army that hasn't been able to stop something like 7 rockets being fired from their territory in the last few weeks.

The Israeli army fired artillery toward the village of Qlayleh, close to the port city of Tyre, according to the Lebanese army said. However, it is not known if the attack was in response to the rockets fired toward Israel.

Isn't that interesting. CNN knows that Israel fired towards Qlayleh - no "claims" there. No citing the Lebanese as claiming something. And then the "duh" factor. CNN does not know if the Israeli response (notice they call it an attack) resulted from rockets firing towards Israel. This is equivalent to not knowing whether the policeman shot the robber because he was robbing the house, or simply because he felt like shooting the man, who happened to be stealing the poor family blind. Of course, one could ask CNN to define how many times Israel has fired artillery into Lebanon when it wasn't retaliating for incoming rockets, but CNN probably wouldn't answer - too busy reporting about poor Socks, the cat.

The last time rockets were fired from Lebanon toward Israel was January 14, but they did not cause any casualties. The Israeli army retaliated against the source of the fire, according a statement issued by the Israeli army that day.

Notice that this is important to CNN, to point out that there were no injuries and that Israel retaliated. So, apparently while CNN cannot confirm that the Israeli army fired in retaliation (and therefore must cite army courses), it can confirm that there were no casualties. And more importantly, it seems, the most significant part of this attack was not that Israel's population was terrorized, its sovereignty violated. No, what is significant is that there were no casualties. Canada, you may fire into Michigan, but only if you promise not to hit anything. England, don't complain if France fires at you - this too, according to the world of CNN is not really a big deal, if France misses. And, what I am left with is a sick reality that CNN has a desire to garner sympathy for a poor cat that had once been homeless, but was taken into the most famous house in America, where he was loved and sheltered for the rest of his long life, but not for a woman who was in her own home when a rocket came plowing into it. CNN's attempt to question Israel's right to respond, it's questioning the obvious connection between someone firing katyusha rockets into Israel and Israel's military response a short time later, and its ongoing attempt to downplay the significance of previous attacks from Lebanon by quantifying injuries on our side as the measure of the seriousness of the attack, result in only one clear message. 22:45 02/22/09: Arab terrorists fired a missle at Ashkelon Saturday. The rocket exploded south of the town at about 10:45 PM.
The one clear conclusion from this, and many past reports, is that CNN has no right to claim it practices fair and impartial journalism - unless it relates to a dead cat.