Ynet News: Horror in Samaria: Terrorist murders family of 5

Terrorist stabs five family members to death in settlement of Itamar early Saturday; three children, including baby girl, among victims. Paramedic describes horrific sight, toys next to pools of blood

Yair Altman Latest Update: 03.12.11, 06:20 / Israel News

Horror in Samaria: A terrorist infiltrated the West Bank settlement of Itamar, southeast of Nablus, early Saturday and stabbed five family members to death.

Troops launch manhunt for terrorist Photo: Ido Erez

The shocking attack occurred around 1 am as the terrorist entered the family home and murdered three children aged 11, 3, and a baby girl along with their parents. The victims were apparently sleeping as the killer came in.

Itamar residents reported that shots were heard in the area; the terrorist managed to flee the scene.

Ambulance in Itamar (Photo: Ido Erez)

Three other children at the home, a 12-year-old girl and her two brothers, aged 6 and 2, were able to escape to a nearby house and inform their neighbors of the attack.

The terrorist who carried out the massacre cut the fence surrounding Itamar and entered the home of the victims through the window, an initial probe of the murder showed. Authorities could not immediately discount the possibility that more than one attacker was involved in the murder.

'Toys next to pools of blood'

Following an initial report of the incident, large IDF and police forces rushed to the site. The Air Force also joined the effort to track down the terrorist, deploying numerous aircraft in the area. The night’s sky was lit up with flares, as special IDF and police forces were called in to assist in the manhunt.

The IDF Spokesman’s Office said “troops are scouring the area in search of the suspect. The IDF is performing inspections at all crossing points set up in the region.”

IDF troops near Itamar (Photo: Ido Erez)

Magen David Adom ambulance service teams pronounced the victims dead at the scene. MDA spokesman Zaki Heller said the ambulance service got a call around 1 am and dispatched large teams of paramedics to the area.

“When rescue forces entered the house they encountered a very difficult sight...There were five people there who were hurt. We could do nothing but pronounce them dead,” he said.

Paramedic Kabaha Muayua was among the first responders at the site and described the horrific scene he encountered.

“We could not help the first four stab victims. Following an inspection of the scene I spotted an infant of about three who still had a pulse. We engaged in lengthy resuscitation efforts but had to pronounce him dead,” he said. “The murder scene was shocking. Kids’ toys right next to pools of blood.”

Paramedic Gil Moscowitz, who serves as MDA’s director of operations, said teams dispatched to the home discovered “parents and three children who were brutally murdered.”

“The parents were lying next to each other in their room…we found three bodies in the master bedroom; the two parents and a baby,” he said.

‘Government must back settlers’

Yesha Council Chairman Danny Dayan, who arrived at the site, appeared shocked by the brutal attack.

“This is no doubt one of the most terrible attacks in recent years," he told the reporters on hand.

Dayan at entrance to Itamar Photo: Ido Erez

“Words cannot describe the extent of the horror and pain,” he said. “Those tempted to think that the Palestinians ceased their acts of murder see that they do not shy away from any tactic and any Jewish victims, regardless of how young they are.”

“The time has come for the government to regain its senses and start backing up the settlement enterprise, which remains vulnerable on the frontlines,” he said.

The settlement of Itamar, which is surrounded by Palestinian villages, has been the site of murderous attacks in the past. In June of 2002, a terrorist entered the community and opened fire, killing Rachel Shabo and three of her seven children, Neriya, Tzvika, and Avishai. Yossi Twito, who commanded the local security team at the settlement, was also shot to death in the attack.

Ynet News: The price of moderation

Op-ed: Supporters of two-state solution have sown seeds for the de-legitimization of Israel

Martin Sherman Published: 03.06.11, 19:13 / Israel Opinion

“…The maximum that any government of Israel will be ready to offer the Palestinians … is much less than the minimum that any Palestinian leader can accept.” Maj.-Gen. (res.) Giora Eiland, Febuary 2009

The foregoing citation from the former chairman of Israel's National Security Council underscores the essential futility of pursuing what has become to be regarded as the sine qua non for a resolution of the Palestinian issue and hence a lasting Middle East Peace - and by implication for eradicating the basic cause of friction between the West and Islam: The two state solution.

Future historians will be baffled as to how such a manifestly disastrous and unworkable concept came to be so widely and warmly embraced - not only by those who had a vested interested in feigning support for it, but by those who had a vested interest in exposing it as the duplicitous subterfuge it is. They will be mystified as to why - despite the fact that it entailed devastatingly detrimental consequences for all involved - both Arabs and Jews - it became the acknowledged hallmark of refined reason.

An instructive example was the recent defense, by prominent Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, of Israel's right to present its case which focused on the February 2010 incident at UC, Irvine, when Ambassador Michael Oren was prevented from addressing students by Palestinian hecklers. What made this particularly egregious in Dershowitz's eyes was the fact that Oren was "a moderate supporter of the two-state solution", thus, inadvertently perhaps, hinting that this would not be so had he opposed such an approach.

The point that many well-intentioned pro-Israeli advocates seem be to missing is that it is precisely "moderate supporters of the two-state solution" that have in large measure sown the seeds for the de-legitimization of Israel. While initially this contention may appear somewhat counter-intuitive, the logic behind it is unassailable. For, once the legitimacy of a Palestinian state is conceded, the de-legitimization of Israel cannot be avoided. The chain of reasoning for this is clear:

If the legitimacy of a Palestinian state is accepted, then necessarily any measures incompatible with its viability are illegitimate. However, Israel's minimum security requirements necessarily obviate the viability of Palestinian state.

Israel’s security requirements

Ever since Abba Eban's characterization of the 1967 Green Line as "Auschwitz Borders" it has been generally accepted that such a frontier cannot afford Israel acceptable levels of security – except under wildly optimistic and unrealistic assumptions. Iconic Labor party moderates such as Yigal Allon declared that "One does not have to a military expert to easily identify the critical defects of the armistice lines that existed until June 4, 1967," warning that for Israel they could herald "the physical extinction of a large part of its population and the political elimination of the Jewish state."

Shimon Peres concurred that the 1967 lines "constituted almost compulsive temptation to attack Israel from all directions …" and warned that "without a border which affords security, a country is doomed to destruction in war."

Significantly, both Allon and Peres derided the oft-aired claim that modern weaponry largely diminished the strategic value of geographical expanse and topological structures. Allon observed that it "... not only fail to diminish the value of strategic depth and natural barriers, but in fact enhance their importance; while Peres again concurred that with the advances in modern military prowess "the defensive importance of territorial expanse has increased."

This view has been endorsed by US military experts. A study conducted by the US Joint Chiefs of Staff to inform the president on the security concerns of Israel advised that "the security of Israel required Israel to receive parts of the territory of the West Bank as essential to its defense….(including) the prominent high ground running north-south."

Eugene Rostow, who as under-secretary of state was the senior US diplomat involved in the formulation of UN Security Council Resolution 242 and hence clearly familiar with the its intent, remarked that "all the studies of the Israeli security problem reached the same conclusion – from the security point of view, Israel must hold the high points in the West Bank and areas along the Jordan River."

The position of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was reaffirmed by a 1974 US Army Command and Staff College study which also concluded that Israel must control the high ground east of the central axis along the West Bank's mountain ridge.

In a recent study by a host of senior Israeli military and diplomatic figures - including a former IDF chief of staff, a former head of Military Intelligence and the National Security Council, and ambassadors to the UN, US and France – concluded that to maintain minimum security requirements Israel must retain control of the mountain range in Judea and Samaria that commands the coastal metropolis, the Jordan Valley, and the air space up to the Jordan River

So what do these minimum requirements, which require Israeli control of wide swathes of territory in the "West Bank," entail for the viability of Palestinian statehood?

Solomon’s wisdom

The answer is provided by an article, The Myth of Defensible Borders, in the January edition of Foreign Affairs. In it, the authors Omar Dajani and Ezzedine correctly point out that:

“A policy of defensible borders would...perpetuate the current sources of Palestinian insecurity, further delegitimizing an agreement in the public's eyes. Israel would retain the discretion to impose arbitrary and crippling constraints on the movement of people and goods... For these reasons, Palestinians are likely to regard defensible borders as little more than occupation by another name.”

Recent events in the Mid-East, with the specter of an ascendant Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan and Egypt, are hardly likely to contribute to reducing Israeli threat perception and thus serve only to heighten the incompatibility between a viable Palestinian state and a secure Israel.

Thus, by accepting the admissibility of a Palestinian state, one necessarily admits the inadmissibility of measures required to ensure Israeli security. Conversely any measures required to ensure the viability of Israeli security, necessarily negate the viability of a Palestinian state.

Accordingly for Israel to regain legitimacy, the notion of a Palestinian state must be discredited and removed from the discourse over the resolution of the Israel-Arab conflict.

This of course easier said than done. For rolling back the accumulated decades of distortion, deception and delusion that have become entrenched in the collective international consciousness will be a Herculean task. But the immense scale of the task cannot diminish the imperative of its implementation.

For the unpalatable - and unfashionable - truth is that between the (Jordan) River and the (Mediterranean) Sea, there can prevail (and eventually will prevail) either total Jewish sovereignty or total Arab sovereignty.

The side that will prevail is the side whose political acumen is the sharper and whose political will is the stronger. Indeed, never has the biblical wisdom of Solomon been more apt: Whoever agrees to divide that which is dear to him, will – at the end of the day- lose all of it. The Jews must realize that they can either be master of all the land west of the Jordan or none of it – and sooner that the better.

Ynet News: Jew-hatred in Holland

Dutch government won’t pay for security of Jews, while anti-Semitism continues to grow

Manfred Gerstenfeld Published: 02.13.11, 20:13 / Israel Jewish Scene

The Dutch government continues to refuse to pay for the security of its threatened Jewish citizens. The Jewish community has stated on various occasions that it is the only group in society which cannot organize activities without including guards or other security measures.

The other week during a debate in a parliamentary commission on the current anti-Semitism in the Netherlands, several MPs asked the Dutch government to pay for the Jews’ security. However, Minister of Security and Justice Ivo Opstelten stuck to the position of his predecessors saying that security is the responsibility of the Jewish community itself and if necessary, of the local authorities. The latter are rarely willing to pay for these expenses.

Chief Rabbi Binyomin Jacobs. Frequently insulted in public

Photo courtesy of Rabbinical Center of Europe

The Dutch Parliament has existed for almost 200 years. The first plenary meeting ever on contemporary anti-Semitism took place last June after a series of articles in the media about anti-Semitic incidents. One article in the prominent daily NRC Handelsblad was titled: “Anti-Semitism is more than an incident. It is normal.” The fact that a second parliamentary meeting was called for a few months later is a sign that nothing has been solved.

The main targets of anti-Semitic harassment in public are a small number of Jews who are recognizably attired as such. In past weeks, several newspapers have reported that Rabbi Raph Evers, the head of the Dutch Jewish Seminary, no longer travels on public transportation because of the harassment he encounters there. He walks out on the street as little as possible. Chief Rabbi Binyomin Jacobs is also frequently insulted in public. His home is fitted with an alarm system which links him directly to the police. Jacobs says 35 year ago, no one insulted him.

What were not mentioned in the Dutch media are the experiences of those Jews who had been repeatedly harassed and now live elsewhere. One Dutch Jewish youngster living in Jerusalem told me that while he was a student at Amsterdam University, he earned a living working in a supermarket in the center of town. He wore a small yarmulke. He was insulted at work on the average twice a week with calls like: “cancer-Jew” of “Hamas Hamas, Jews to the gas.” All of this harassment came from customers of Moroccan ethnicity.

I also interviewed another youngster now living in Jerusalem, who wears ultra-Orthodox garb. A few months ago he visited his parents in the Netherlands. When he changed trains after arriving from Belgium at the Dutch border station Rozendaal, he was immediately shouted at in English by a man with a heavy Dutch accent: “You killed Jesus.” At his arrival in Arnhem, where he exited the station through the back door, he was insulted as well. The same happened when he left from the same station. During his stay in The Netherlands he hardly left his parents’ home.

Non-selective immigration policy

Only limited parts of the Dutch Jewish community encounter substantial anti-Semitism. Besides the aforementioned harassment of recognizably dressed Jews, it impacts mainly on Jewish children in schools and through insults in the workplace. The Jewish community now explicitly blames the disproportionately large role in anti-Semitic incidents of Muslims who account for six percent of the population. The most problematic elements come from the Moroccan, and to a lesser extent, Turkish community.

Over the past decades, Dutch governments have non-selectively allowed in 1.6 million non-Western immigrants, about 10% of the population. Of these, one million originate in Muslim countries where anti-Semitism is far stronger than in the Netherlands. It is thus not surprising that the percentage of anti-Semites among these immigrants is substantially higher than among the local Dutch population. One could put it differently: the Dutch government has for many years followed an anti-Semitism-promoting immigration policy.

It would be desirable to undertake a detailed poll on anti-Semitism among Muslim immigrants as compared to the autochthonous population. One could then also analyze to what extent this anti-Semitism is fueled by families, mosques, schools, friends, or foreign incitement. This would be very useful in the battle against one of the main sources of anti-Semitism. Such an investigation would be, however, far too big a betrayal of Dutch taboos.

Last week’s parliamentary debate had its origin in the media discussion engendered by my book “The Decay: Jews in a Rudderless Netherlands.” It quoted senior Dutch politician and former EU commissioner Frits Bolkestein stating that recognizable Jews should advise their children to leave for the United States or Israel.

However, the book did not focus on anti-Semitism. It had two major themes. The first one, that Jews have a symbolic importance in the Netherlands which goes far beyond the real importance of the community, and the second was that by watching the interaction of the Jewish community and Dutch society at large, one obtains a prism on many aspects of the functioning and problems of Dutch society.

The recent discussions and debates have borne these two points out once more. Minister Opstelten stated that there would be zero tolerance for anti-Semitic incidents and registration of incidents at school. However, the Dutch police are unlikely to be able to become more efficient in the coming months. It is also unlikely that recognizable Jews can soon walk unhindered in certain parts of the country in the near future.

Approximately 10 years ago, there were major inquiries and debates in Dutch society about government failures of post-war restitution of Jewish assets looted in the Holocaust. One of the many criticisms about the Dutch government’s handling of the situation was that it had wrongly charged the surviving Jews for the administrative services involved in returning what was looted from them because the Dutch government could not protect them during the occupation.

A commission of inquiry said that this was a public duty and thus needed to be provided free of charge.
 
One wonders whether in the future, investigators will conclude that the Dutch government has misbehaved against the Jews once again by failing to pay for their protection and that of their institutions, which is also, clearly, a public duty.

Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld has published nineteen books, several of which deal with European anti-Semitism

Mending Hearts...Building Bridges: Children Currently in Israel

Children Currently in Israel

Who is in Israel This Week: 06/02/11

Save a Child's Heart is currently treating seventeen children:

 Before surgery

 After surgery

ANGOLA

 Julia Mario Macaco, Angola

Julia is an 11 year old girl. She lives with her father who is a fisherman and her younger sister who is 8 years old. Her mother also has a heart disease and must live in another city so that she can be nearer to hospital. Julia cannot go to school because the walk from her house is too far and she does not have the energy to walk the distance. Julia likes to clean the house, wash dishes and likes paying with sand and bottles. She never gets tired of listening to the Lion King soundtrack and she loves singing along. She is strong willed and very bright. Julia is a loving and friendly child, who has captured the hearts of all of the SACH staff.

INDONESIA

 Kevin Audy Azizi, Indonesia

Kevin is a one year old boy from Indonesia. When he was 8 days old, he was diagnosed with a congenital heart disease. His mother was unable to afford the high cost of the operation and so contacted a friend to see if he could help. The friend carried out research and discovered Save a Child's Heart. After sending over the necessary medical documentation, Kevin's mother was told that we could help her son and on 15th Decmeber, exactly 4 months after their initial contact with us, Kevin arrived in Israel with his mother for his life-saving heart surgery.

IRAQ

 Rawa, Iraq

Rawa is an 8 year old boy from Iraq.

 Akar, Iraq

Akar is a 4 year old boy from Iraq.

PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY

 Mansour, Palestinian Authority

Mansour is a two month old baby boy from Jabalia, Gaza. He was diagnosed with a heart defect one week after birth through a regular check up. He has two sisters aged 4 and 2. His mother is a college student and his father works in construction.

 Shaban, Palestinian Authority

Shaban is a one week old baby from Torqueman.

 Basheer, Palestinian Authority

Basheer is a two month old baby boy from Beit-Lahya, Gaza. He was diagnosed with a heart defect at birth. He has one brother aged 3 and one sister aged 1. His brother was also born with a heart defect (hole) but it healed by itself. His mother is a housewife and his father is a gardener. They live in an asbestos house which includes one room and a kitchen and bathroom and which is based on governmental land.

 Mahmad, Palestinian Authority

Mahmad is a six month old baby boy from Jabalia, Gaza. At the age of two months he was diagnosed with a heart defect after he appeared blue. He has two sisters aged 4 and 2.5 years old and one brother aged 6 years old. His mother is a housewife and his father is unemployed.

PANAMA

 Migdalia Milagros Cedeno Artega, Panama









Migdalia is a 1 year old girl from Pacola in Panama. Her mother doesn’t work and her father is a driver. She has 5 siblings - 2 sisters aged 13 and 6 and 3 brothers aged 19, 17 and 11. Her family live in a 4 bedroom house, which is a one hour drive away from the local hospital. Her parents found out about her heart problem when she was 20 days old. Her heart problem affected her developmental growth so we are delighted that a few weeks after her operation she took her first steps in the SACH house! Migdalia loves eating milk with cereal though her favourite food is potatoes. She enjoys playing with dolls and balls and since coming to Israel, she has slowly begun to show her strong willed, independent personality.

PHILIPPINES

 Alexia Vien Castro, Philippines

Alexia is a 16 month old girl from the Philippines.

TANZANIA

 Ester Samuel Ndakata, Tanzania

Ester is a 9 year old girl from Tanzania. She is a Massai child living in an orphanage, run by Sister Angelika Wohlenberg for female Massai orphans. When Esther fell ill, Sister Angelika took her to Mater Hospital in Nairobi, Kenya, and was told that Esther needs heart surgery otherwise she will not live for more than two years. Unable to afford the high costs associated with her surgery in Nairobi, it was recommended that Sister Angelika contact Save a Child's Heart for help. For the full story of how Ester reached Save a Child's Heart, please click here.

Ester loves reading, doing puzzles, listening to music and especially watching movies. She is very bright and has arrived in Israel with lots of homework so that she does not fall behind in her studies. She goes to an English speaking school so her level of English is very high. Ester is an outgoing and friendly child and within a day of being in the Save a Child's Heart children's home, she was getting involved in all of the acitvities. She was accompanied to Israel by Sara, a German volunteer who was working in the orphanage where Ester lives.

A TV report from the Israeli Channel 2:
http://www.mako.co.il/news-channel2/Friday-Newscast/Article-6bfccaded061e21004.htm

ZANZIBAR

 Kassim Makame Hilali, Zanzibar

Kassim is a 13 year old boy from Zanzibar. He is the 4th child in a family of 7 chidlren. He likes playing games and eating fish and rice. He was diagnosed with a heart disease when he was 6 years old. He cannot go to school because of ill health. He feels too breathless. Kassim’s ambition is to become a pilot. Kassim is a very talented and artistic boy. He is a shy boy and although it would be easy for him to be meak in the house, he always gives his best in the house activities.

 Nassor Salum Nassor, Zanzibar

Nassor is a 14 year old boy from Zanzibar. He is the eldest of his 2 siblings. Nassor lives with his grandmother. His father is a shopkeeper and his mother is a housewife. He goes to school, a one hour bus ride away from his house. Nassor was diagnosed with a heart disease when he was 4 years old. His ambition is to be a doctor when he’s older. He enjoys playing football and he likes to eat rice and chicken. Nassor brings a lot of playfulness to the Save a Child's Heart children's home. He is also very creative when it comes to arts and crafts.

 Zainab Adibu Abdalla, Zanzibar

Zainab is one and a half year old girl from Zanzibar. She is the youngest child in her family of seven. She was diagnosed with a heart disease soon after she was born. Her mother is a housewife and her father works in the Ministry of Health as a mason. Zainab is a very loving child and will anyone love who is forthcoming with themselves. She easily falls asleep in anyone's arms. She is a very peaceful and delicate child.

Ynet News: 'Troops reassured me as I went into labor'

Shirin Muhammad Salamin, 27, recounts positive experience of giving birth to baby boy in military ambulance with help of IDF soldiers

Omri Efraim Published: 02.08.11, 08:09 / Israel News

Shirin Muhammad Salamin, a 27-year-old Palestinian woman residing south of Jericho, lies exhausted but overjoyed in the maternity ward at the Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem. She had a decidedly different delivery experience than that of the rest of the women on the ward.

Sgt. Gilad Nesher in class simulation Archive photo: IDF Spokesperson's Unit

"It all started in the evening. I went to sleep with pain which grew stronger around 11 pm," she relates. "The family called an ambulance, but it couldn't make it to our house, which is situated at a mountain top, because of the rain. They called an Israeli ambulance but that didn't work either. Eventually my family took me down to the road where we met soldiers inside the army's ambulance."

The baby was delivered by the soldiers and the army medic. "I was alone inside the army's ambulance, my mother and the rest of my family didn't come with me, and I was scared. But the soldiers reassured me throughout the ride. At one stage I literally felt the baby come out and the soldiers put a blanket and helped me give birth. When he came out, they smiled at me and him and asked me to talk to him in order to calm him down. They gave me the baby and let me breastfeed him."

IDF sources said the baby later had trouble breathing. After resuscitating him, the baby and mother were flown via an Air Force helicopter to the hospital. Both are doing well.

Despite the language barrier Shirin says she had no difficulty communicating with the soldiers. "The soldiers were speaking to me and the baby the whole time and made sure we stayed calm."

Shirin is grateful for the care she was given and says she would like to meet the soldiers who helped her. "I would like to thank the soldiers who greatly helped me and wish them health," she says.
 

"There is a great deal of satisfaction in giving life," Sergeant Gilad Nesher, a paramedic who treated the woman and child, told Ynet earlier.

AFP: Synagogue torched in Tunisia: Jewish leader

(AFP) – 22 hours ago

TUNIS — Arsonists set fire to a synagogue in the southern Gabes region of Tunisia, a leader of the local Jewish community said Tuesday.

"Someone set fire to the synagogue on Monday night and the Torah scrolls were burned," Trabelsi Perez told AFP, criticising the lack of action by the security services to stop the attack.

Worshippers visit the Ghriba synagogue in Djerba, southern Tunisia

"What astonished me was that there were police not far from the synagogue," added Perez, who is also head of the Ghriba synagogue on the island of Djerba, the oldest synagogue in Africa.

Twenty-one people were killed, including 16 European tourists, when Al-Qaeda bombers attacked Ghriba in April 2002.

Copyright © 2011 AFP. All rights reserved.

A Book Is Man’s Best Companion

A Book Is Man’s Best Companion

This is a universal idea that transcends all cultures and civilizations. Ever since writing systems were invented in ancient civilizations, human beings have been using books to share their emotions and their experiences, their fears and their joys, and to advance knowledge.



This “sharing” of knowledge and experience, of history and values, is at the heart of the Aladdin Online Library and its translation of major works into different languages. The books in this library are a collective call to conscience and to vigilance, addressed to every reader, so that ultimately the forces of reason and dialogue shall prevail.

The first works on the shelves of Aladdin are books that throw light on some of the darkest pages of history, the universal symbol of human suffering, the Holocaust.

Members of the Experts Committee of the Aladdin Online Library, intellectuals from different cultures, firmly believe in the necessity of sharing values based on mutual knowledge and mutual respect, rejection of conflicts of memory and all forms of Holocaust denial and trivialization. Their aim is to promote a greater knowledge of our common and specific cultures, more particularly those of Muslims and Jews.

Jacques Andréani,
Ambassadeur de France
Chairman of the Experts Committee

.