TROUBLING
DOUBLE STANDARD: OUTCRY OVER GAZA DEATHS BUT NEAR SILENCE OVER IRAQ, SYRIA:
From Iraq comes news that 40,000 Yazidis, a religious minority chased from
their homes by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), are dying from lack
of food and water. These stranded refugees are in danger of joining, in
harrowing numbers, the 6,000 other Iraqi civilians butchered this year by ISIS.
No less victimized at the moment are the Kurds, gruesome photos of whom were
paraded by ISIS on Twitter, and Iraq’s Christian communities, decimated in the
recent blitz of Mosul.
Renounced even by Al Qaeda for its
brutality, ISIS is making life unlivable in Iraq and beyond. Of course, it’s
not just the region’s religious minorities facing expulsion and massacre. The
Syrian civil war’s death toll has exceeded 170,000. Conservative estimates
count civilians a third of the total dead, including 15,000 women and children;
others have reported a much higher percentage of innocents. Children are still
the primary victims of Boko Haram in Nigeria and in South Sudan, and if anyone
thinks that innocent civilians are being spared daily horror in Libya, Mali,
Eastern Ukraine and North Korea, they haven’t been reading the news. The protesters,
commentators, NGO workers, human rights activists, and others, who spent the
last month vilifying Israel’s campaign in Gaza more than Arab regimes did, are
not ignorant of these non-Gaza tragedies. Many of those who found themselves
more outraged by Israel than by ISIS are, in fact, educated, globally-engaged
westerners who sincerely believe Israel’s war against Hamas violated morality
and international law. One main reason for this is plain old anti-Semitism,
masquerading as anti-Zionism. Observing mass protests, where Europeans hurl firebombs
at local synagogues to protest decisions being made 2,000 miles away by a
government in Jerusalem, one can see the world’s oldest hatred at work. (Fox)
NETANYAHU:
THE BATTLE AGAINST ISLAMIC TERRORISTS: “WILL SOON COME TO A THEATER NEAR YOU”:
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said in a media interview August
8th that the threat from Islamic terrorists is real, and will spread to
other countries if the terrorists are not stopped. "This is a danger I've
been pointing to, it's not a spin, it's not a whim, it is a clinical diagnosis
of a pathological movement that is sweeping our area but will soon come to a
theater near you and it has to be stopped now." Netanyahu said the
terrorists are under Iran's "nuclear umbrella," adding, "If Iran
itself can intimidate the US with intercontinental ballistic missiles carrying
nuclear warheads, then we bring history into a different threshold altogether."
(Fox) “He shakes
the nations in the sieve of destruction.” Isa 30:28
African-American
Aliyah: Joining Judaism and Israel Under Fire
by
Yoni Kempinski, IsraelNationalNews.com
For
Malachi and Tanya Avital Ben-Yehuda of Riverdale, New York, terrorist rockets
peppering southern Israel were inconsequential compared to their firm dedication
to the Jewish faith and homeland. They are an African-American couple who
converted to Judaism four years ago, made aliyah (immigration) to Israel on
July 21, even as counter-terror Operation Protective Edge continued and terror
rocket attacks raged.
Not only did they immigrate - they arrived
at an absorption center in Be'er Sheva in the south where rockets were falling.
They plan to move to Ashkelon which has been a main target of Hamas. Speaking
to Arutz 7 in NYC before departing to the Holy Land, Malachi, a
55-year-old former American serviceman, recalled how their rabbi was surprised
by their decision, saying, "You want to make aliyah? You just converted!"
For Malachi the decision
was obvious. "We wouldn't change it for the world, we wouldn't go back,
even at this time, we want to go forward," stated the new immigrant.
"We love the land of Israel,"
Malachi said while on his aliyah flight approaching Israel. After being
around the world, he recalled how he and his wife arrived in Israel and
"just wanted to kiss the ground, and I just felt like I was a part of the
land, like I was supposed to be here, and my wife feels the same way."
Tanya, a 51-year-old retired New York City
corrections office, concurred, saying "we understand the situation that's
going on, and we've chosen to live here. We've chosen to show the terrorists
that we're not afraid and that we support Israel."
"This is the best time to come,"
added Malachi, noting the strong message of making aliyah under fire. In the
month of July, 546 American Jews made aliyah unintimidated by the Hamas rocket
fire, including a flight of 109 Lone Soldiers[1]
immigrating and immediately beginning their army service.
CHRISTIANS: ‘WE ARE DYING, AND THE WORLD IS
TOO BUSY WITH GAZA TO CARE:’ As
the orgy of condemnation against Israel in the wake of the Gaza war continues,
Christians in Iraq are doing their best to be heard above the din while they
still have a voice. The radical Sunni movement ISIS, now known simply as the
Islamic State, has been happy to have the Gaza war as cover as it completes its
conquest of northern Iraq. “We can do anything now the world is looking only to
Gaza,” an Islamic State official said recently.
The UN Special Rapporteur on minority issues,
Rita Izsák, acknowledged that in Iraq “religious minorities are being targeted
and their members subjected to abductions, killings or the confiscation of
their property by extremist groups.” And yet, the world body continues to focus
disproportionate (they like the word) attention on Israel and its conflict with
Hamas, a fact that had Israeli Ambassador Ron Prosor fuming as he addressed the
UN General Assembly recently: “It might be too much to ask you to stand on our
side in this battle between civilization and barbarism, but at least have the
decency to swallow your selective outrage while Israel wages war against the extremist
groups seeking to eradicate the values that we all hold very dear,” he said.
Prosor accused the UN of complicity in the slaughter taking place in Iraq and
elsewhere thanks to its “allowing organizations like Hamas to continue to exist
in the Middle East.” (Israel Today/Ryan Jones)
ISLAMIC
STATE FORCES MASSACRE HUNDREDS OF YAZIDI MINORITY IN IRAQ:
Islamic State terrorists have killed at least 500 members of Iraq's
Yazidi minority, burying some alive and taking hundreds of women as slaves, an
Iraqi government minister said on Sunday. Human rights minister Mohammed
Shia al-Sudani accused the Sunni Muslim insurgents - who have ordered the
Yazidi community to convert to Islam or die - of celebrating a "a vicious
atrocity" with cheers and weapons waved in the air. Sudani said
that news of the killings had come from people who had escaped the town of
Sinjar. "We have striking evidence obtained from Yazidis fleeing Sinjar
and some who escaped death, and also crime scene images that show indisputably
that the gangs of the Islamic State have executed at least 500 Yazidis after
seizing Sinjar," he said. "Some of the victims, including women and
children were buried alive in scattered mass graves in and around Sinjar."
Kurdish regional president Masoud Barzani urged his allies to send arms to help
his forces hold off the terrorists, who have bases across the Syrian border.
Barzani said, "We are not fighting a terrorist organization, we are
fighting a terrorist state." (J. Post)
NEWT
GINGRICH SPEAKS OUT ON RADICAL ISLAM: ISIS, HAMAS AND BOKO HARAM: BELIEVE THEIR
INTENTIONS: Former Republican
Presidential Candidate and former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich
said on Saturday that ISIS, Hamas and Boko Haram want to impose Islam
by force on the world: Grim, unyielding and violent reality is beginning to
confront the American political establishment with facts from which it cannot
hide.
For 35 years, since Iranians seized the
American Embassy on November 4, 1979, and kept the Americans in it as hostages,
the United States has been at war with radical Islamists. Year after year since
then, they have grown more militant, more sophisticated and more numerous. Now,
in an arc of terror from Boko Haram in Nigeria through Hamas in Gaza to ISIS in
Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, there is a clear wave of vicious religious warfare
being waged against civilization by fanatics who openly promise and engage in
genocidal killing. To understand why I link ISIS, Hamas and Boko Haram,
consider the language of their own statements. Why not take them at their word?
ISIS has made its murderous intentions painfully clear. It has proven in town
after town that it will force people to convert to Islam or it will kill them
in numbers that are now being called genocidal. The group has also made clear
that it views its mission as a worldwide war.
"I say to America that the Islamic
caliphate has been established," a spokesman for the group
said Thursday. He warned that the group will attack America and
"will raise the flag of Allah in the White House." Its actions give
us no choice but to acknowledge that ISIS means what it says. (CNN/Newt Gingrich)
News
items above and below are reprinted
with
permission from: JNN NEWS, PO Box 7411,
Jerusalem
91073, ISRAEL
HAMAS
HAS THE SAME GENOCIDAL IN-TENTIONS AS ISIS: Many people
seem to be confused or deluded into believing that Hamas does not have the
similarly genocidal intentions as ISIS. Its charter is a useful starting point.
"Israel will rise and will remain erect until Islam eliminates it as it
had eliminated its predecessors," it says. What does "eliminate"
mean, you might ask? More from the charter: "The Hamas has been looking
forward to implementing Allah's promise whatever time it might take. The
prophet said: The time will not come until Muslims will fight the Jews and kill
them; until the Jews hide behind rocks and trees, which will cry: ‘O Muslim!
there is a Jew hiding behind me, come on and kill him!’"
As Americans and Europeans beg for
cease-fires, it is useful to see Hamas' attitude toward such arrangements. From
"Article Thirteen: Peaceful Solutions, [Peace] Initiatives and International
Conferences": “Peace initiatives, the so-called peaceful solutions, and
the international conferences to resolve the Palestinian problem, are all
contrary to the beliefs of the Islamic Resistance Movement. For renouncing any
part of Palestine means renouncing part of the religion - the movement educates
its members to raise the banner of Allah over their homeland as they fight
their Jihad. There is no solution to the Palestinian problem except by
Jihad," it concludes. "The initiatives, proposals and international
conferences are but a waste of time, an exercise in futility.”
Of course, the Charter of Hamas was written
in 1988, so maybe they have mellowed? During this current struggle, while
Westerners were begging the Israelis to be reasonable, an imam amplified Hamas'
position in a public, televised sermon. "Our doctrine in fighting you [the
Jews] is that we will totally exterminate you. We will not leave a single Jew
alive, because you are alien usurpers of the land..." Obviously the organization
exists for the same genocidal mission as ISIS. (CNN/Newt Gingrich)
IMAM
BLASTS HAMAS FOR USING CIVILIANS AS HUMAN SHIELDS: During
a recent televised debate, a French-Moroccan Imam lashed out at Hamas for using
civilians as human shields. The Imam, Rachid Birbach, said in the debate, which
aired on France 24 TV on July 24 and was translated by the Middle East Media Research
Institute (MEMRI): “I cry my heart out at night over the plight of the
Palestinians, but unlike those who say that this is an Israeli-Palestinian
conflict, I say that it is a conflict between Israel and Hamas. We must
understand this,” said Birbach. “I don't understand why Hamas opposes peace in
such an insane manner. They reject this. When Egyptian diplomacy intervened and
proposed a ceasefire, Hamas rejected it,” he added. “I'd like to make myself
clear: I support Gaza and Palestine. I am against oppression. The Palestinian
people are caught between a rock and a hard place: between the Israeli
bombardments, on the one hand, and the abuse and siege by Hamas, on the other
hand – and the latter is even more terrible. Hamas has been using them as human
shields,” he said. Hamas has openly boasted about the "success" of
its strategy of using civilians as human shields during Operation Protective
Edge, and the IDF has published extensive evidence of the practice. By
contrast, the IDF has dropped leaflets, sent phone messages, and issued general
warnings to all civilians within range of upcoming airstrikes to prevent
further harm. (Arutz-7)
Greek Orthodox Priest
Defends
Israel www.IsraelToday.co.il
Father
Gabriel Nadaf, a leader in the Greek-Orthodox church in Israel and a staunch supporter
of the State of Israel, dispatched a letter to ambassadors from various
countries stationed in Israel, calling on them to support Israel’s government
and the IDF during Operation Protective Edge , to unite and fight terrorism and
“to safeguard the Holy Land.” Father Nadaf is a strong supporter of Arab Christians
joining the IDF and is considered the spiritual father of the Israeli
Christians in the IDF. He has been attacked because of his support of Israel,
his family has been assaulted and threatened, and the church has even
threatened to excommunicate him.
Father Nadaf wrote: “Edmond Burke, the 18th-century Irish philosopher and political theorist, said, ‘The only thing necessary for evil to win is for good men to do nothing.’ Therefore, we are all brothers in the face of evil, with no regard to religion, race, and faith. The outcry about the atrocities we are crying out together. As the spiritual father of the Israeli Christians Forum, who encourages the recruitment of Israeli Christians to the IDF and full integration of Christians into the Israeli society, I would like to turn to you with a plea to support and back Israel, our Holy land, and its defense forces.
SO MANY MIRACLES
Naomi
Ragen
The soldiers in Gaza were switched out with other units in order to
rest. This story was told by one of these soldiers:
"I and my friends captured a number of
Hamas terrorists. When they were interrogated, we asked them, 'If you have
so many tunnels that come into Israel, and that are built 25 feet under the
ground and reach to Beer Sheva, Why until now have you never used any of
them for terrorist attacks? To kidnap or kill Israelis?' And this is what
he answered:
“'For twelve years we have been building
these tunnels and waiting for the right moment, when we were trained and
ready. We decided that the time would be this year on Rosh Hashana,
2014. We chose Rosh HaShana because most of the soldiers get leave to go
home and there aren’t a lot on guard duty, and it’s a two-day
holiday. Hamas would go through the tunnels we’ve built over twelve years
and capture Israelis. In every tunnel we’d send two, three dozen armed
terrorists and kidnap civilians, women, children and bring them back to Gaza
through the tunnels. And then Israel couldn’t bomb the tunnels because of
all the Israeli civilians inside them. We would occupy the entire country and
rule Israel and kill all the Zionists. For years we were planning this and it
was going to happen in two months. Your attacks on Gaza destroyed our plans.'
The
young couple behind the woman in the burka got married in this tunnel dedicated
to death.
The person who sent this to me added this:
“Many religious people asked after our three boys were found dead: What
happened to all our prayers? So you see, this is what happened. God heard
us. And because of these three martyred boys, all of Israel was saved from
a terrible
massacre. All the things that we have seen this summer are one miracle after
the next. Continue to pray and strengthen each other. And give thanks
to God who watches over the Jewish people."
"We can forgive the Arabs for killing our children. We cannot forgive them for forcing us to kill their children. We shall have peace with the Arabs when they will love their children more than they hate us."
--Golda Meir