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| Thursday, Oct 22 '09, Cheshvan 4, 5770 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
1. Former Ambassador Says Damage Control Needed on Goldstone by Gil Ronen  Former Israeli Ambassador to the U.N., Dore Gold, said Wednesday that Israel can do much to minimize the damage caused by the Goldstone report as it is transferred to the U.N. General Assembly and Security Council. The name of the game now, said Gold, is the Security Council and the Hague International Court. “These are the determining bodies because if the General Assembly decides to transfer the report to the Hague Court then we could find ourselves in a similar situation to the one we were in several years ago, with regard to the [securit fence.” Gold, who heads the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, told Arutz Sheva: “This is a very complex strategy, but first of all we need to remember that there are several states that are also dealing with terrorism that we need to bring over to our side. It was very jarring that the French suddenly walked out of the vote.” “The British who are dealing with Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Iraq can understand the situation we are in, when all sorts of Islamic groups operate from within civilian areas. Countries like France and India also deal with this in North Africa and those countries need to be made to realize this and identify with us. We also need to strengthen the United States in which large sections identify with Israel. We need to show them that this report contains many untrue facts – such as, for instance, the claim that terrorists did not operate from within mosques. This is a claim we can easily refute.” Dr. Gold rejects the contentions that Israel was wrong not to cooperate with the Goldstone Committee's investigators. “There are enough Israeli elements that tried to give the committee materials and were rejected by its representatives. We in the JCPA sent materials to the committee but they ignored them. There were IDF officers and British officers who wanted to testify but they were ignored.” Comment on this story 2. Police Free ‘Settler’ Mother after Separating Her from Baby by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu  Police freed a nursing mother and resident of Samaria Wednesday evening after having snatched her from a vehicle and separated her from her four-month-old baby for approximately seven hours. The woman was being driven by a friend to a court hearing for her husband, whom Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) officials arrested three weeks ago. A gag order has been placed on the case and the name of the woman cannot be published at this time. Her husband has not been allowed to obtain a lawyer. He was arrested during the Sukkot holiday at an apartment in the center of Israel, according to the spokesman for the community where the family lives. Police officers arrested her Wednesday afternoon, without explanation, and took her to Petach Tikva, where activists, including members of the Women in Green organization, protested what they called a “kidnapping” similar to an act of a “Third World nation.” Her friend took care of her baby girl and her three other children until police freed her, after ignoring her earlier pleas for release so she could feed her infant. Comment on this story  3. Indyk Justifies PA's Intransigence by Hillel Fendel  Martin Indyk, a former US Ambassador to Israel, justifies the PA’s refusal to accept Ehud Olmert’s offer of 97% of Judea and Samaria. Speaking in a panel discussion President Shimon Peres’s “Facing Tomorrow” Conference in Jerusalem on Wednesday evening, Indyk was asked if he felt the Arabs had missed an opportunity when they rejected Olmert's generous peace offer. Indyk explained away the PA’s intransigence by saying, "The prime minister [Ehud Olmer was about to have an indictment filed against him, and the foreign minister herself [Tzipi Liv specifically told both the Americans and the Palestinians: Don't you dare sign the agreement.” Indyk apparently ignored the explanation given by PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas himself for his rejection. Abbas said that what Olmert had offered, including Jerusalem and 95-98% of Judea and Samaria, was simply “not enough,” reports correspondent Haggai Huberman. As recently as three months ago, Abbas described his vision of peace as follows: “…a return to our lands in all areas in the 1967 borders. We will not relinquish a single inch of the West Bank, whose area is over 6.2 thousand sq km. It is inconceivable to allow any country to be deprived of its territorial contiguity and its water sources… In general, we do not agree to changing the 1967 borders.” Furthermore, chief PA negotiator Saeb Erekat told the Jordanian daily Al-Dustour this past June that though Olmert had offered to give the PA territory equal in size to 100% of the land occupied in 1967 by means of a land swap, the PA had no reason to agree. Erekat said the PA would not agree to a land swap before Israel recognized the Palestinians' right to sovereignty over all the territory occupied in 1967 – and added that there had been a steady erosion in Israel's position over the years, and therefore there was no reason to rush into accepting the Israeli proposals. Indyk’s remarks were rejected on another front by former Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. Contacted by Army Radio this morning about Indyk’s accusation, she said, “I had no reason to work behind Olmert’s back because I said publicly that I rejected his plan.” She also said that she was not involved in the Olmert-Abbas contacts, and that she objected to the settling of thousands of Arab refugees in Israel and to the loss of Israeli control over Jerusalem. Indyk served as US Ambassador to Israel in the mid-90’s and the early 2000’s, but had no official role during the recent Olmert-Abbas talks. Comment on this story 4. Doctor Denies Sharon Ready to Emerge From Coma by Hillel Fendel  Dov Weisglass, a top aide to former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, made headlines this morning (Thursday) when he quoted doctors as saying Sharon might soon emerge from his coma-like state. Doctors at Sheba Hospital, where he has been hospitalized for over three years, said afterwards there were no such indications. Attorney Weisglass was a close friend and confidante of the former prime minister, and advised him extensively regarding the Disengagement/expulsion of Jews from communities in Gush Katif and northern Shomron in 2005. Weisglass told Voice of Israel government radio that doctors told him that Sharon is in “a high place in terms of steps towards waking up.” Sharon is in a “not deep coma state,” Weisglass said. Other reports have said that Sharon’s eyes are often open, and it is hard to know whether he understands what is being said to him. At least one of four close relatives and friends - Sharon’s two sons, Omri and Gilad, Gilad’s wife, and Dr. Shlomo Segev, his personal physician - visits him every day. There is “no particular reason for optimism,” Segev said later on Thursday, adding that nothing has changed, and that there is “no indication” that Sharon will emerge from his semi-conscious state any time soon. Sharon was elected Prime Minister in February 2001, and was re-elected in early 2003. He was unseated from this position only by the massive brain hemorrhage and subsequent coma that struck him in January 2006, shortly before the national elections that brought Sharon’s Kadima party, headed at the time by Ehud Olmert, to power. Comment on this story  5. 30-Day Memorial Service for Arad Chief Rabbi Ben Tzion Lipsker by Hana Levi Julian  Wednesday night found several hundred Arad residents making their way towards the Central Synagogue of the city to mark 30 days since the death of the Chief Rabbi of Arad, Rabbi Benzion Lipsker, zt'l, three days prior to Yom Kippur. Children were playing in the yard outside the synagogue, where tables of soft drinks, fresh fruit and baked goods had been set up -- one for the men and a separate one near the women's entrance. As men prayed the evening service, women slowly trickled into the building, some wearing long skirts and hair coverings ranging from scarves and hats to stylish wigs. Sephardic accents mixing with Ashkenazi greetings. A young girl slipped past to allow an elderly woman to reach out to the rabbi's wife. Gripping her hand, the old woman's eyes filled with tears before she brought the touch of the Rebbetzin's hand to her lips in the traditional Sephardic gesture of respect before moving away. The Sephardic Chief Rabbi of the State of Israel, Rabbi Shlomo Amar, led the list of top rabbinical leaders who spoke at the memorial service. Rabbi Naftali Lipsker, the rabbi's nephew and currently director of the Chabad-Lubavitch Youth Organization branches in Israel, directed the ceremony. He related a quick anecdote about a woman in an airport who was unwilling to believe the news that Rabbi Lipsker had died after demanding that a Chabad emissary she encountered call him on the phone. "No way," she exclaimed. "Rabbi Lipsker is a man filled with life! He cannot be dead." Rabbi Yehuda Yaroslavsky, Chief Rabbi of Kiryat Malachi and who served with Rabbi Lipsker on the Chabad Rabbinical Court, also spoke, as did the current Chief Rabbi of the city, Rabbi Yosef Albo -- and Rabbi Meir Druckman, Chief Rabbi of Kiryat Motzkin. "It is simply unbelievable that three months ago -- three months ago! -- I was talking to him on the phone, I in the north, he in the south," Rabbi Druckman told the crowd. "We were very close. But I noticed then that his voice was shaking, and asked him, 'What's wrong?' And he told me that his medical situation wasn't good." The rabbi, who said that he had been determined to attend the memorial service despite the distance -- Kiryat Motzkin is hours away from Arad -- also noted that he had another purpose in mind. "Rabbi Lipsker could not tolerate the world of lies," Rabbi Druckman said. "Whatever he thought, he said. And sometimes it cost him dearly. There is no doubt that it also cost him his health. But there comes a time when one must state the truth as one sees it, regardless of the consequence. That is the legacy of Rabbi Lipsker," Rabbi Druckman said. "People, you must allow [his successo to do his work," he warned. "You must allow Rabbi Yankele Mendelson to do the work without breaking his health." Rabbi Yaakov Mendelson, about whose health Rabbi Druckman expressed such concern, closed the program with a story about his father-in-law, the rabbi whose shoes he now must fill. "What did we lose?" he asked. "A woman who came to the hospital [to visi was heartbroken to discover that she was too late, and demanded nonetheless to have a few moments alone with him, which we allowed. We had no idea who she was. "'You don't know who Rabbi Lipsker was,' she told us. Yad L'Achim (a Jewish outreach organization) brought a woman with three children to Arad at the last minute before the Sabbath eight years ago, and dropped her off without any provisions. The rabbi got a call -- 'Can you help? There is no food!' And he responded, 'No problem.' 'She didn't believe him, of course. She didn't believe any rabbi could put together an entire Sabbath in two hours -- how could that be? And yet within two hours, there he was at her door, with grape juice and challah and kugel and everything else she needed to make the meals for the entire Sabbath, with panim yafot ("a beautiful face").' 'That is who your Rabbi Lipsker was,' she told us. "He blessed the children of the city on the first day of every Hebrew month, wearing his kittel (white robe for Yom Kippur) -- why? Because, he told me, 'For me, it's Kol Nidre (the first prayer of the Yom Kippur service) that the children should learn Yiddishkeit, they should know about Judaism. "He was a man of truth," Rabbi Mendelson stressed. "Whatever he thought, he said -- but with love." Comment on this story 6. Anti-Terrorist ‘Beast of Burden’: Israel Unveils New Robot by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu  Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI) unveiled a new “robotic platform” at the Seoul International Aerospace and Defense Exhibition this week and is expecting hundreds of millions of dollars in orders for the anti-terror machine. REX acts as a “beast of burden” through its ability to carry up to 200 kilograms (440 pounds) and is designed to assist groups of 3-10 ground soldiers on operational and logistical missions for up to 72 hours. The robotic vehicle follows the lead soldier from a given distance,” explained Ofer Glazer, head of innovation at IAI. “Using simple commands, including 'stop', 'fetch', and 'heel', the lead soldier controls the robot without being distracted from the mission at hand. Controlling the robot in this way allows for intuitive interaction and rapid integration of the product on the field within a short time frame." IAI also has produced other robots, including the Guardium robotic patrol vehicle and the semi-robotic aircraft towing system, called Taxibot. The government-owned company, the largest aerospace and defense industry in Israel, Israel Aerospace Industries was established in 1953 as Bedek Aviation Company, five years after the establishment of the State of Israel. The company has become a world leader in aircraft conversion and modernization programs, unmanned air vehicles (UAVs), communication programs and defense electronics. One of those who led the company was an American Jews, Al Scwimmer, who had moved to Israel to help bujild the country. Comment on this story 7. From Kaifeng to Kibbutz: Chinese Descendants of Jews Come Home by Hana Levi Julian  For the first time, a group of seven descendants of the Jewish community of Kaifeng, China has moved to Israel.The new arrivals, who were brought here by the Shavei Israel organization, arrived at Ben-Gurion airport late Tuesday night. The city of their birth, Kaifeng, sits on the banks of the Yellow River and was home to a flourishing Jewish community for more than a millennium. "I am very excited to be here in the Holy Land," said Yaakov Wang, one of the new immigrants. "This is something that my ancestors dreamed about for generations, and now thank G-d I have finally made it." Wang said that he eventually hopes to become a rabbi, so that one day he can help other Kaifeng Jewish descendants to learn more about their heritage. "We received special permits from the Interior Ministry to bring them here for a year on tourist visas, during which time they will prepare for conversion. Once they complete the conversion, they will then receive Israeli citizenship and be considered new olim," Shavei Israel chairman Michael Freund told Israel National News. "The group will be staying at Kibbutz Sde Eliyahu, near Beit Shean, where they will study in the Hebrew ulpan." From the airport, the group went straight to the Western Wall in Jerusalem, where they recited the "Shehecheyanu" blessing, and then burst into a chorus of traditional Hebrew songs. "It took us more than two years to get the requisite permits from Israel's Interior Ministry to bring them over, but it was worth the wait," said Freund. "This is an historic event," he said, adding that, "Kaifeng's Jewish descendants are a living link between China and the Jewish people, and it is very moving to see the remnants of this community returning to their roots". At its peak, during the Middle Ages, Kaifeng Jewry numbered about 5,000 people. But widespread intermarriage and assimilation, as well as the death of the community's last rabbi, brought about its demise by the middle of the 19th century. Scholars say there are still hundreds of people in Kaifeng who cling to their identity as descendants of the city's Jewish community. In recent years, a growing number have begun to express an interest in studying Jewish history and culture. Based in Jerusalem, Shavei Israel reaches out and assists "lost Jews" seeking to return to the Jewish people. For more information, contact office@shavei.org. Comment on this story | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Everyday of Freedom is an Act of Faith for my writings ============> http://robertoscaruffi.blogspot.com for something on religions ===> http://scaruffi1.blogspot.com
Thursday, 22 October 2009
http://www.web-view.net/Show/0XFA093E69AFC5FDE6D54210A9C767D9EAA56DEF2B44CF57B98186735DBD637488.htm
