HAPPY HANUKKAH

Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis on Hineni

Self-Defense is not a Crime of War:Testimony at the UN

UN Watch Oral Statement
Delivered by Colonel Richard Kemp, 16 October 2009

UN Human Rights Council: 12th Special Session

Thank you, Mr. President.

I am the former commander of the British forces in Afghanistan. I served with NATO and the United Nations; commanded troops in Northern Ireland, Bosnia and Macedonia; and participated in the Gulf War. I spent considerable time in Iraq since the 2003 invasion, and worked on international terrorism for the UK Government’s Joint Intelligence Committee.

Mr. President, based on my knowledge and experience, I can say this: During Operation Cast Lead, the Israeli Defence Forces did more to safeguard the rights of civilians in a combat zone than any other army in the history of warfare.

Israel did so while facing an enemy that deliberately positioned its military capability behind the human shield of the civilian population.

Hamas, like Hizballah, are expert at driving the media agenda. Both will always have people ready to give interviews condemning Israeli forces for war crimes. They are adept at staging and distorting incidents.

The IDF faces a challenge that we British do not have to face to the same extent. It is the automatic, Pavlovian presumption by many in the international media, and international human rights groups, that the IDF are in the wrong, that they are abusing human rights.

The truth is that the IDF took extraordinary measures to give Gaza civilians notice of targeted areas, dropping over 2 million leaflets, and making over 100,000 phone calls. Many missions that could have taken out Hamas military capability were aborted to prevent civilian casualties. During the conflict, the IDF allowed huge amounts of humanitarian aid into Gaza. To deliver aid virtually into your enemy's hands is, to the military tactician, normally quite unthinkable. But the IDF took on those risks.

Despite all of this, of course innocent civilians were killed. War is chaos and full of mistakes. There have been mistakes by the British, American and other forces in Afghanistan and in Iraq, many of which can be put down to human error. But mistakes are not war crimes.

More than anything, the civilian casualties were a consequence of Hamas’ way of fighting. Hamas deliberately tried to sacrifice their own civilians.

Mr. President, Israel had no choice apart from defending its people, to stop Hamas from attacking them with rockets.

And I say this again: the IDF did more to safeguard the rights of civilians in a combat zone than any other army in the history of warfare.

Thank you, Mr. President.

Address by PM Netanyahu to the UN General Assembly

UN Photo/Marco Castro

Courtesy Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs


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.

A Nation Deserving Freedom

Zionist Freedom Alliance

The Ettinger Report:Jewish Occupation or Roots in Judea and Samaria?

Straight from the Jerusalem Cloakroom #226, July 31, 2009

Yoram Ettinger, Jerusalem

1. President Obama's claim – enunciated during his June 4, 2009 speech at Cairo University – that "the aspiration for a Jewish homeland is rooted in a tragic history [The Holocaust] that cannot be denied," ignores thoroughly-documented Jewish roots in the Land of Israel in general and in Judea & Samaria in particular.

2. World renowned travelers, historians and archeologists of earlier centuries, such as H. B. Tristram (The Land of Israel, 1865), Mark Twain (Innocents Abroad, 1867), R.A. MacAlister and Masterman ("Palestine Exploration Fund Quarterly"), A.P. Stanley (Sinai and Palestine, 1887), E. Robinson and E. Smith (Biblical Researches in Palestine, 1841)), C.W. Van de Velde (Reise durch Syrien und Palestinea, 1861), Felix Bovet (Voyage en Terre Sainte, 1864) – as well as Encyclopedia Britannica and official British and Ottoman records (until 1950) refer to "Judea and Samaria" and not to the "West Bank." The latter term was coined by the Jordanian occupation of Judea and Samaria following the 1948/9 War.

3. The term "Palestine" was established by Greek Historian Herodotus, and adopted by the Roman Empire, in an attempt to erase "Judea" from human memory. "Palestine" was a derivative of the biblical Philistines, arch rivals of the Jewish nation, non-Semites who migrated to the area from the Greek islands and from Phoenicia in the 12^th century BCE ("Plishtim" – the invaders - is the Hebrew word for "Philistines").

4. Most Arabs (Semites from the Arabian Peninsula), who reside between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean, have their origin in a massive 19^th-20^th century migration from Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and other Moslem countries.

5. Almost all Arab towns and villages in Judea and Samaria have retained biblical Jewish names, thus reaffirming Jewish roots there. For example:

*A-Dura is biblical (and contemporary) Adora'yim, site of King Rehoboam's and a Maccabees' fortress.

*A-Ram is biblical Haramah, Prophet Samuel's birth and burial site.

*Anata is biblical (and contemporary) Anatot, the dwelling of the Prophet Jeremiah.

*Batir is biblical (and contemporary) Beitar, the headquarters of Bar Kochba, the leader of the Great Rebellion against the Roman Empire, which was crashed in 135CE.

*Beit-hur is the biblical (and contemporary) Beit Horon, site of Judah the Maccabee's victory over the Assyrians.

*Beitin is biblical (and contemporary) Bethel, a site of the Holy Ark and Prophet Samuel's court.

*Bethlehem is mentioned 44 times in the Bible and is the birth place of King David.

*Beit Jalla is biblical (and contemporary) Gilo, where Sennacherib set his camp, while besieging Jerusalem.

*El-Jib is biblical (and contemporary) Gibeon, Joshua's battleground known for "Sun, stop thou in Gibeon and the moon in the valley of Ayalon," Joshua 10:12.

*Hebron - named after Hevron, Moses' uncle and Levy's grandson – was King David's first capital for 7 years, the burial site of the 3 Jewish Patriarchs and 3 Jewish Matriarchs.

*Jaba' is the biblical (and contemporary Geva, site of Jonathan's (son of King Saul) victory over the Philistines.

*Jenin is the biblical (and contemporary) Ein Ganim, a Levite town within the tribe of Issachar.

*Mukhmas is biblical (and contemporary) Mikhmash, residence of Jonathan the Maccabee and site of King Saul's fortress.

*Seilun is biblical (and contemporary) Shilo, a site of Joshua's tabernacle and the Holy Ark and Samuel's youth.

*Tequa' is biblical (and contemporary) Teqoah, hometown of the Prophet Amos and currently known for its home grown Ginger.

Where Are The Jewish People Safe?

An Interview with Israeli US Ambassador Michael Oren

Israel FM Liberman on the Durban II Conference

Statement by FM Liberman on the Durban II Conference :
Communicated by the Foreign Minister's Bureau

Israel has decided to boycott the international conference supposedly promoting the struggle against racism, which will open tomorrow (20 April, 2009) in Geneva, because it reached the regretful conclusion that instead of discussing issues regarding the international struggle against racism and xenophobia, the conference will once again serve as a platform to denigrate Israel and single it out for criticism. This was the case with the first Durban Conference in 2001, during which the real issues on the international agenda were ignored in favor of unfettered attacks against the State of Israel.

An international conference, in which Ahmadinejad - a racist known for his constant preaching of Israel's destruction - is not only invited to participate, but is welcomed as a central speaker, clearly demonstrates the forum's true goals and character.

Israel cannot ignore the fact that the conference, which is hosting a serial Holocaust denier, is taking place precisely on the day in which Jewish people commemorate the six-million Jewish victims of the Holocaust, murdered in Europe by Nazi Germany and its followers.

The State of Israel expresses its gratitude to those countries who have already announced that they will boycott this conference of hypocrisy opening tomorrow in Geneva, and calls on other countries to follow their example.

Destiny by Choice

In precarious times, whether life presents us with miraculous happenings, or it simply gives us a matter of choice, we always have a say to our destinies.

We can choose to turn back to the old ways, we can fight, we can go with the flow and join the senseless masses, or, out of an innate sense of belief in what is right, we can pioneer on...to the unknown... much as our Jewish ancestors did in their deliverance from Egypt.

When commanded to leave Egypt, the Jewish people were were not only being chased by their enemy, but as they headed toward freedom, they were confronted by another obstacle: the Red Sea

En route to freedom, the Jewish people were divided.

One group, filled with fear, wanted to give up, return to Egypt and go back into slavery.

Another group decided that there was no way they were returning to a life of slavery and wanted to fight their enemy to their death.

A third group felt that going back wasn't an option, so they decided to try to escape into the desert a different way. They knew they would never make it to the Land of Israel since they were heading in the wrong direction.... This was a dead end choice.

The fourth group knew that a change was necessary. As seemingly impossible as it was, there was only one decision to make. They kept moving forward.

This group was led by Nachshon ben Aminadav from the tribe of Yehuda. Without a second thought, he jumped into the water and moved forward. First, the water reached his knees, then his waist, then his chest. A few more steps, and it appeared he would drown. But he had faith. When the water hit his neck, the miracle happened, and the sea split.

Every Passover, when we tell the story of the Haggadah, we recall what happened. We need to be reminded that change -- all positive change -- requires risk and requires strength.

Sara Esther Crispe
TheJewishWoman.org.

Holiday Hijacking

Hamas supporters along with NIMN (a group with The Kapo Syndrome) aim to target Jews preparing for Passover in Toronto.

Project One Soul has been alerted to this rally by prominent Canadian lawyers, activists, and journalists.

An anti Israel demonstration called "APARTHEID ISN'T KOSHER" is scheduled to take place on Sunday, April 5 from 1:00 - 3:00 in the afternoon at the LCBO in Rosedale, 10 Scrivener Square (Summerhill subway) to boycott Israeli wines.

It's being organized by "Coalition Against Israel Apartheid" and "Not in My Name", who will be picketing for the "Palestinian struggle" just a few days prior to Passover.

To counteract this kind of disgraceful demonstration, we are urging EVERYONE to visit the LCBO store by the Summerhill subway on the afternoon of April 5 (between 1 + 3 pm).

Use this as an opportunity to buy Israeli wines for either your Passover or Easter celebration.

Anti Israel demonstration protests such as the one described above will not pay off.... and in fact will cause an increase in Israeli wine sales.

Live in peace, dayenu.

"The Blessing of a Broken Heart"

Lisa Robins performs in "The Blessing of a Broken Heart"

"The Blessing of a Broken Heart" is a stirring theatrical experience adapted from a book of the same title by Sherri Mandell. The production was first developed and performed by the San Diego Repertory Theatre to sold out crowds and won the Edgerton New American Play award .

The one woman multimedia play tells the story of an American Jewish woman, Sherri Mandell, whose search for meaning leads her to Israel where she marries her husband Seth, and begins to raise a family. The pivotal event in this moving production is when her eldest child, Koby, 13 years of age, is killed in a brutal terrorist attack.

Before the curtain goes up, Seth Mandell explains that “The Blessing of a Broken Heart", is a moving chronicle of loss and hope.

As the audience becomes immersed in Sherri's story, we see how she and her husband ultimately turn their grief to action as they start Camp Koby in Israel for other victims of terror.

“The Blessing of a Broken Heart", reaches across cultures as it depicts the universal emotions that follows the loss of one Jewish woman, and her families heroic search for new purpose and meaning following personal tragedy.

The riveting theatrical production of “The Blessing of a Broken Heart", was performed in Toronto on March 26 at the invitation of The Canadian Friends of The Koby Mandell Foundation.

"Something of Historic Proportion is Happening"

By Pamela Geller : Atlas Shrugs

I am a student of history. Professionally I have written 15 books in six languages, and have studied it all my life. I think there is something monumentally large afoot, and I do not believe it is just a banking crisis, or a mortgage crisis, or a credit crisis. Yes these exist, but they are merely single facets on a very large gemstone that is only now coming into a sharper focus.

Something of historic proportions is happening. I can sense it because I know how it feels, smells, what it looks like, and how people react to it. Yes, a perfect storm may be brewing, but there is something happening within our country that has been evolving for about ten—fifteen years. The pace has dramatically quickened in the past two.

We demand and then codify into law the requirement that our banks make massive loans to people we know they can never pay back? Why?.....

.....I have never been so afraid for my country and for my children as I am now.....


Pamela Geller is the author of Atlas Shrugs, writeatlas@aol.com
Geller’s publishing career began at The New York Daily News and subsequently took over operation of The New York Observer as Associate Publisher. She has been the Senior Vice-President Strategic Planning and Performance Evaluation at The Brandeis School.

The Global Reawakening of Anti-Semitism

by Doris Strub Epstein

A capacity audience in Toronto listened intently as Irwin Cotler, just returned from the founding conference of the Inter-parliamentary Coalition for Combating Antisemitism (ICCA) in London, sounded the alarm loud and clear, on the dangerous escalation of anti-Semitism in the world.

The former Canadian Minister of Justice, McGill professor of law and currently Liberal MP, Cotler was legal counsel for Andre Sakharov, Natan Sharansky and Nelson Mandela. He has been at the forefront in the struggle for international human rights and justice for years. Intense and eloquent, he spoke with passionate sincerity and conveyed the need for immediate action to combat the convergence of anti-Semitism and anti Israelism that characterizes the new antisemitsm.

“What we are witnessing today,” he said, “is a new sophisticated, globalizing, virulent and even lethal anti-Semitism, reminiscent of the atmospherics of the 30’s, and without parallel or precedent since the end of The Second World War.”

He traces the new version of the old Jew hatred to the United Nations’ “Zionism is Racism resolution”, which the late US Senator Daniel Moynihan said “gave the abomination of anti-Semitism the appearance of international legal sanction” but has gone far beyond it.

This new antisemitism is less against individual Jews; it attacks the collective Jews, the State of Israel. This starts a reaction of assaults on individual Jews and Jewish institutions. Quoting Per Ahlmark, former leader of the Swedish Liberal Party and Deputy Prime Minister of Sweden from the ICCA conference, he said, “In the past, the most dangerous anti-Semites were those who wanted to make the world Judenrein, ‘free of Jews’. Today, the most dangerous anti-Semites might be those who want to make the world Judenstaatrein, ‘free of a Jewish state’.”

The most lethal type of the new anti-Semitism has genocidal intent such as the state sanctioned, nuclear, genocidal anti-Semitism of Ahmadinejad’s Iran, which threatens to “wipe Israel off the map”, calling it “a cancerous tumour to be excised” and the Jewish people, “evil incarnate”.

Genocidal also are the charters, and policies of such terrorist movements as Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah and Al-Qaeda, that call for the destruction of Israel and the killing of Jews anywhere.

Religiously sanctioned genocidal anti-Semitism is manifested in the “incendiary and inflammatory metaphors heard in mosques and media, where Jews and Judaism are characterized as ‘defilers of Islam, cancerous tumours, bacteria – so commonplace, and (heard with) no outrage.

“Where there is incitement to genocide, there is an obligation to act,” he says, and invokes the Genocide Convention of 1948.

Ideological antisemitism disguises itself under the cover of anti-racism and human rights, and is cloaked in the authority of international law. “Israel is delegitimized –if not demonized- by the indictments of racism, nazism and apartheid, the embodimentof all evil. This triple racism warrants the dismantling of Israel as a moral obligation. This characterization allows for terrorist ‘resistance’ to be deemed justifiable.”

“Legalized antisemitsm is even more sophisticated and insidious. Under the banner of human rights, operating under the protective cover of the UN, the singling out of Israel and the Jewish people for differential and discriminatory treatment in the international arena is ‘legalized’.”

For over 35 years the UN Commission on Human Rights consistently began its annual session with Israel being the only country singled out for indictment, even before the hearings commenced, he explained. Even after the Commission was replaced in 20006 by the UN Human Rights Council, they continued to condemn Israel in 80 per cent of the resolutions, while the main human rights violators of our time continued to enjoy immunity.

Cotler noted that he was speaking on the 60th anniversary of the Genocide Convention and the 60th anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights, “both violated again and again.”

Summing up, Cotler stated, “Israel is the only state in the world today, and the Jews the only people in the world today, that are the object of a standing set of threats by governmental, religious and terrorist bodies seeking their destruction. The London Declaration (the ICCA) recognizes that ‘where there is incitement of genocide signatories (to the Genocide convention) automatically have an obligation to act.’ “ And the time has come not just to sound the alarm but to act,” he told the galvanized audience.

He urges all Canadians to join forces and create coalitions. “This is not just a Jewish cause, it is a just cause. It deserves the support of all who seek a just cause.”

March 8, 2009
Doris Strub Epstein is a journalist based in Toronto.

A Time to Fight

DEFIANCE is the story of The Fighting Jews - The Resistance Fighters. I saw it last night and was riveted to my seat for the entire film.

Alot of WW II drama paints the Jews as victims, but not this one.

DEFIANCE gets the facts right.

A deeply moving true story told by Director Edward Zwick (Glory, The Last Samurai, Blood Diamond), this is a film that everyone should see - especially the new breed of Holocaust deniers that spend their precious time attempting to rewrite history.

Watching DEFIANCE was especially moving to me - as it reminded me of the young Holocaust survivors who spent time at our home when I was a child, their arms seared with tatooed numbers, recounting to me the sadness and fear of being separated from their murdered parents, running for their lives and hiding in haystacks.

Daniel Craig, Liev Schreiber and Jamie Bell give credible and spell binding performances as they take on their challenging roles with complete integrity - all the while playing kick ass Jews. In Daniel Craig's performance we are reminded of his role in the film Munich where he says "Don't F*ck With The Jews"

"The story is disturbingly profound and compelling. There's one lead theme that resounds throughout the entire movie "We may be hunted like animals, but we will not become animals". As the leader, Daniel Craig's character, Tuvia, keeps getting confronted by this. He tries to be an idealist, and his brother, Liev's Schreiber's character, Zus, thinks that kind of mindset would only invite threat and danger. But as the story progresses, Tuvia gradually realizes that they're in the middle of war and the lines between justice and humanity have become uncertain in these desperate times."

Sound familiar?

DEFIANCE is a WW II photo realist movie that doesn't hide or glamorize war but shows the intense reality of what happens when a people band together against overwhelming evil and somehow survive the terrible obstacles they are forced to confront.

Lost in the Blur of Slogans

Ishmael Khaldi, is a Muslim as well as a proud Israeli citizen, and currently holds the position of Deputy Consul General of Israel in San Francisco.

In his article, Lost in the Blur of Slogans, published in the San Francisco Chronicle, Mr. Khaldi reveals both the organizers and followers of "Israeli Apartheid Week" to be ignorant, misinformed bigots with dangerous and deeply rooted anti-Semitic ideologies.

For those who haven't heard, the first week in March has been designated as Israel Apartheid Week by activists who are either ill intentioned or misinformed. On American campuses, organizing committees are planning happenings to once again castigate Israel as the lone responsible party for all that maligns the Middle East.

Last year, at UC Berkeley, I had the opportunity to "dialogue" with some of the organizers of these events. My perspective is unique, both as the vice consul for Israel in San Francisco, and as a Bedouin and the highest-ranking Muslim representing the Israel in the United States. I was born into a Bedouin tribe in Northern Israel, one of 11 children, and began life as shepherd living in our family tent. I went on to serve in the Israeli border police, and later earned a master's degree in political science from Tel Aviv University before joining the Israel Foreign Ministry.

I am a proud Israeli - along with many other non-Jewish Israelis such as Druze, Bahai, Bedouin, Christians and Muslims, who live in one of the most culturally diversified societies and the only true democracy in the Middle East. Like America, Israeli society is far from perfect, but let us deals honestly. By any yardstick you choose - educational opportunity, economic development, women and gay's rights, freedom of speech and assembly, legislative representation - Israel's minorities fare far better than any other country in the Middle East

So, I would like to share the following with organizers of Israel Apartheid week, for those of them who are open to dialogue and not blinded by a hateful ideology:

You are part of the problem, not part of the solution: If you are really idealistic and committed to a better world, stop with the false rhetoric. We need moderate people to come together in good faith to help find the path to relieve the human suffering on both sides of the Israel-Palestinian conflict. Vilification and false labeling is a blind alley that is unjust and takes us nowhere.

You deny Israel the fundamental right of every society to defend itself: You condemn Israel for building a security barrier to protect its citizens from suicide bombers and for striking at buildings from which missiles are launched at its cities - but you never offer an alternative. Aren't you practicing yourself a deep form of racism by denying an entire society the right to defend itself?

Your criticism is willfully hypocritical: Do Israel's Arab citizens suffer from disadvantage? You better believe it. Do African Americans 10 minutes from the Berkeley campus suffer from disadvantage - you better believe it, too. So should we launch a Berkeley Apartheid Week, or should we seek real ways to better our societies and make opportunity more available.

You are betraying the moderate Muslims and Jews who are working to achieve peace: Your radicalism is undermining the forces for peace in Israel and in the Palestinian territories. We are working hard to move toward a peace agreement that recognizes the legitimate rights of both Israel and the Palestinian people, and you are tearing down by falsely vilifying one side.

To the organizers of Israel Apartheid Week I would like to say:

If Israel were an apartheid state, I would not have been appointed here, nor would I have chosen to take upon myself this duty. There are many Arabs, both within Israel and in the Palestinian territories who have taken great courage to walk the path of peace. You should stand with us, rather than against us.

Ishmael Khaldi is Deputy Consul General of Israel for the Pacific Northwest. This article appeared on page A - 11 of the San Francisco Chronicle, Wednesday, March 4, 2009

USA, Canada, Israel to boycott U.N Durban II conference

The Obama administration has decided to boycott the United Nations Durban II conference "against racism" in Geneva in April, along with Canada and Israel, out of concerns for anti-Semitism.

The conference revisits the 2001 Durban conference in South Africa that devolved into an anti-Jewish free-for-all.

The 2001 Durban conference hosted and encouraged the grass-roots antisemitism which is broadening on campuses and in Trade Unions.

Preparations for a draft Durban II document have seen Iran leading several nations to focus attention on Israel's defensive and retaliatory actions at the exclusion of far more sinister and deadly actions taken by other nations, and to block the inclusion of anything that might guarantee Jewish protections – including mention of the Holocaust – at the same time inserting harsh penalties designed to guard Islam against "insult."

Now that the United States is withdrawing from the conference, European nations are expected to follow.

This swift and clear-eyed decision demonstrates that the U.S. government speaks with a consistent moral voice against the singling out of Israel for condemnation in the United Nations, and is determined to engage in a fight against racism that is free from the politicization and hatred that has plagued the Durban Review Conference process.

I Chose Love

'Slumdog Millionaire' composer A.R.Rahman wins 2 Oscars February 22. 2009, proclaiming, "All my life, I had a choice of hate and love. I chose love, and I'm here". Music and film can bring people together despite boundaries of race, nationality and religion.

American sculptor Robert Indiana, also chose Love over Hate.

LOVE sculpture by Robert Indiana (American) on the corner of 6th Avenue and 55th Street in Manhattan, NY.

AHAVA sculpture by Robert Indiana, Israel Museum, 1977. Ahava means Love in Hebrew.

Netanyahu to Form Israel's Next Government

Israel's President Shimon Peres, shakes hands with Likud Party leader Benjamin Netanyahu, during their meeting at the President's residence in Jerusalem Friday, Feb. 20, 2009. giving him formal permission to put together the country's next government.

Netanyahu says, "I accept the task you have assigned me with humility and with a profound appreciation for the enormous responsibility that you have placed upon me...the responsibilty to achieve security for our country, peace with our neighbors and unity among people"....

Urging Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni of the Kadima Party to join his government, Mr. Netanyahu said, "Let us unite, let us join together and ensure our future, our children's future and our country's future...The great victories occurred when we ...stood together as one during moments of truth. Today, we face such a moment of truth".

I accept the task you have assigned me with humility and with a profound apperciation for the enormous responsibility that you have placed upon me...the responsibilty to achieve security for our country, peace with our neighbors and unity among people....

The great victories occcurred when we ...stood together as one during moments of truth. Today, we face such a moment of truth.

Israelis Vote

With a state-of-the-art multimedia installation, The Azrieli Towers display the early results of the Israeli parliamentary election.

This rotating sign shows Israeli Foreign Minister and Kadima Party leader Tzipi Livni and Likud Party leader and ex-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who are locked in a struggle for power after inconclusive election results - with both claiming victory

leaving the kingmaker role of Israeli politics, to rising politician Avigdor Lieberman, leader of Israel's right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu Party, who masterminded the hottest slogan in this Israeli election campaign ; "Without loyalty, there is no citizenship."

The Protectors of Civilization

"He whom neither slaughter nor torture of thousands of years could destroy, he whom neither fire nor sword nor inquisition was able to wipe off the face of the earth, he was the first to produce the oracles of God, he who has been for so long the guardian of prophesy, and who has transmitted it to the rest of the world - such a nation cannot be destroyed. The Jew is as everlasting as eternity itself". Tolstoy


Tolstoy's words declaring the Jewish People the Protector of Civilization ring loud and clear much like this historical image of an ancient paving stone depicting the Judaic image of a Menorah. Created 2000 years ago, this paving stone is triumphant over time, recalling the collective solidarity and the deep spiritual continuity of a people who etched their presence into the monumental stones of biblical times, as they wandered the Judean desert, then built a civilization called Israel.

People! Stand your Moral Ground

In the following article, The Handwriting on the Wall, 

Brigitte Gabriel courageously says it the way it is....

During this first month of the New Year 2009, we have seen some stunning developments, that, considered together, should leave absolutely no doubt about
the rising radical Islamic threat on our doorsteps
in North America.

I have been warning Americans since 2002 about this threat, and that the threat is not just confined to terrorism. This is not a "war on terror". Terror is a tactic, one of many in the arsenal of radical Islamists.

I have been declaring, to anyone that would listen, that Islamists are well on their way to subverting and transforming Europe, and they are riding that wave here to America.

I have told my personal story, of how Islamists, step by step, took over my country of Lebanon. How they used our freedoms and commitment to tolerance and multiculturalism against us to further their ultimate ends. And how they are using the same strategies and tactics against us in the West.In just the past three weeks we have seen:

• A violent Islamic protest in Britain, where an angry mob shouting "Allahu Akbar" chased yes, chased dozens of British policemen for blocks. You must see this video to believe it! (Please be warned there is offensive language and profanity). Click here to see this shocking video.

Read the entire article.

"Unclench Your Fists": Barak Obama's Message to Terrorists

January 20, 2009 : The hopeful Barack Obama, new President of The United States, gestures during the inaugural parade in front of the White House in Washington, shortly after proclaiming ...


"We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense"…


"...and for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror"....


..."and slaughtering innocents"......


" we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken;"...


..."you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you."…


"To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward. To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society's ills on the West"...


..."know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy.".…


"To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist."
Excerpts from the inaugural address in Washington, January 20, 2009. delivered by President Barack Obama, the 44th President of the United States.

UK Colonel Applauds History's Most Humane Army

Speaking recently on the BBC, Colonel Richard Kemp from the British Army states:

“I don’t think there has ever been a time in the history of warfare when any army has made more efforts to reduce civilian casualties and deaths of innocent people than the IDF is doing today in Gaza.”

" Manufacturing the holy weapons is our mission
and we know how to acquire weapons", says Abu Ubaida,
from the armed wing of Hamas."

A Ceasefire?

Terrorists in Hamas-ruled Gaza agreed Sunday to a week long cease-fire with Israel, after three weeks of violence, but vowed to fight on as long as troops remained in the battered enclave.

Mocking peace efforts and defying both the Israeli and international initiatives to prevent Islamic terrorists from replenishing their vast stock of rockets and deadly weapons, Hamas simultaneously vows to rearm, as they are known to do during a ceasefire.

His face hidden and masked by the Arab kefiyah, Ubaida proclaims that should Israel fail to pull its troops out of the Gaza Strip within a week, Hamas will take action again.

Citizens Unite for Israel

At Dundas Square, Toronto citizens in Canada, calmly show their support for Israel

defying a loud and provoking crowd who hurl
anti Israel and anti American rhetoric
through a barrier of police on horseback.



Italian M.P's behind Israel

Photo: Fiamma Nirenstein

“This is the square of the Italian Parliament in Rome, Piazza Montecitorio… where you can see a lot of Israeli flags… Members of the Parliament…from all political sides… took the stage …. speaking about the role of Israel, its right to self defense, its moral height, its fight in name of all of us, of our civilization and values, against the wild hate of the Islamic jihad represented by Hamas."

Well, yesterday night many people, Ministers and Members of Parliament, composed a very new, interesting puzzle of opinions. I think that when you are not overwhelmed by exotic thirdworldism, the images of children educated as hate machines, the speeches of jihad leaders, from Ahmadinejad to Nasrallah, to Haniyyeh, that deny the Holocaust and promise death to Jewish and Christians too, have on us a result of great disgust.”

Fiamma Nirenstein

United Nations Turns a Blind-Eye to The Hamas Covenant

The real question is...

Why is The United Nations taking the fundamentalist group Hamas seriously when the Hamas Covenant actually calls for the elimination of the Jewish people and the destruction of The State of Israel ? ...

...and why the disturbing silence amongst nations...?

It's common knowledge by now that the real goal of Hamas is to push Israel into the sea... to challenge the democratic values upon which America and the west operate, and to target all Jews wherever they may be.

Why the disturbing silence ?

From Article Seven of The Hamas Covenant:

"The Islamic Resistance Movement is one of the links in the chain of the struggle against the Zionist invaders.....

The Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him salvation, has said:

"The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him. Only the Gharkad tree, (evidently a certain kind of tree) would not do that because it is one of the trees of the Jews." (related by al-Bukhari and Moslem)."

A Ceasefire?

Cease fires with Hamas are useless, according to their own words written in their charter:
From Article Thirteen of The Hamas Covenant:
"There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors."


Remember...
The Israelis unilaterally pulled out of Gaza in 2005, hoping that the Palestinians would be true to their word and trade land for peace...

but that did not happen....

Hamas has the highest regard for the acquisition of destructive weaponry - fuelling millions of received international dollars into building their arsenal of weaponry, showering Hamas rockets down on Israeli towns, and thus provoking Israelis to defend their citizens and their country. For years, Hamas has pursued the path of confrontation and violence with Israel, using international financial contributions to pursue violence when they could be moving forward using this money to feed and educate their own people.

Who is Protecting the Children?

In 1972 Golda Meir stated: "We will have peace with the Arabs when they love their children more then they hate us (Israel)...".

By the year 2000, Project One Soul started seeing horrific images of Palestinian children being used as as human shields. We quickly published these indelible images as a wake up call to the western world, asking the obvious questions.

Palestinian children are used as "human shields" in the front lines of premeditated clashes. Where are the parents of these children?

Hate is what these toddlers learn in kindergarten. The nursery rhymes they are taught are about shedding Jewish blood and their highest ambition in life is to become a suicide bomber.

When you give your child a gun, if he survives, what kind of man will he become?

http://www.projectonesoul.com/israel2/israel2.htm

Over the nine years that have ensued sincen 2000, the intolerable practices by Hamas terrorists of using their children as human shields, inciting them to hate, and teaching them that their life's goal must be the elimination of the Jewish people and the destruction of Israel, has escalated as shown in the following video. Please watch:

All Caught Up

From the book A Letter in the Scroll by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks:

"It had to do with Jewish destiny. Collectively the Jewish people had looked in the mirror and said, We are are still Jews. And by that they meant more than a private declaration of faith, "religion" in the conventional sense of the word. It meant that they felt part of a people, involved in its fate, implicated in its destiny, caught up in its tragedy, exhilarated by its survival. I had felt it. So had every other Jew I knew."

The amazing thing that strikes me as I read this book is its relevance right now. And it's relevance 50 years before it was written, 200 years before that. It seems we are part of a giant meta narrative that retells the same story over and over. It's devastating that we live through this war again and again, and yet truth be told, when you look at the story backwards, from the end, we have always survived. We learn, we change, we adapt, but we remain Jews, we hold our brothers and sisters near, and our principles dear.

150 C.E. A Biblical Israelite carved the Star of David, the symbol of the Jewish people, in stone, thereby sealing the collective identity of the Jewish people to the land of Israel.

P1S Mumbai Memorial Video

Project One Soul was there after the Mumbai attacks, to mourn the lost life and stand in solidarity with the New York community.