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1. Happy Birthday to You, Israel 62
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu kicked off Israel’s 62nd birthday as a modern state with a clear message to the world that the united city of Jerusalem is not up for grabs. The same theme was pounded home by Knesset Speaker and veteran leader Reuven Rivlin.
The holiday began with traditional torch lighting ceremonies, the most prominent being at Har Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem. Those who were given the honor to light the torches included 91-year-old Sarah Shpechner, who was a Palmach parachutist in Europe during the Nazi occupation.
Former IDF colonel Tzvi Levanon, now age 79 and director of the HaGanah Veterans Association, 84-year-old Avraham Greenzeid, who fought the Nazis as an officer in the Soviet Red army, and Ethiopian immigrant and IDF officer Major Doctor Avraham Yitzchak, also were among the torch lighters.
Video courtesy of Channel 1
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released statement that referred to the capital, stating that “We are here because this is our land. We've returned to our land, to our city - Jerusalem - because this is our land; this is our city.”
Speaker Rivlin warned against “fatal segregation” of Arabs and Jews, and secular and hareidi religious Jews, in Jerusalem
In contradiction to Prime Minister Netanyahu’s statements to the Cabinet Sunday morning that Israel does not have to consider the demands of outsiders, meaning the United States and Europe, to divide Jerusalem, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Monday, “The tension that is developing with the United States is not in Israel's interest."
Without referring to Jerusalem per se, he said that Israel must deal “with the core issues at the heart of the conflict" with the Palestinian Authority, meaning the status of Jerusalem and the PA demand to allow the immigration of millions of Arab claiming ancestry in Israel.
Independence Day Videos
Independence Day: Where it All Began - A visit to the hall where the state was declared.
Independence Day: Publicize the Miracle - National-religious communities throughout Israel conduct Independence Day prayers outside.
Independence Day: A Chat about Dosh the Cartoonist - A talk with the son of Dosh, the late illustrator who created "Srulik," the cartoon character that symbolized the State of Israel.
2. Israel Rejects Turkish Request to Buy Arms
by Hana Levi Julian
Israel has declined a request by Turkey to purchase several different military systems, including an anti-tank guided weapon and a missile system for its navy.
The request by the Turkish government was rejected by Israel's SIBAT, the defense assistance and export organization, which is currently reviewing each order on a case-by-case basis.
Turkey said it wanted to buy the Spike non-line-of-site (NLOS) anti-tank guided weapon, the Namer heavy infantry fighting vehicle, and the Israel Aerospace Industries' (IAI) Barak 8 theater-defense missile system for its navy, according to UK-based Jane's Defence Weekly.
Israel did, however, deliver the last of 170 upgraded M60A1 main battle tanks (MBTs) to the Turkish military on April 7 through a joint contract between Israel Military Industries (IMI) and Turkey's Aselsan, shepherded along by Columbia.
The move is seen as a response to Turkey's increasing anti-Israel rhetoric and the pro-Islamic leanings in its foreign and domestic policies.
An Israeli defense official was quoted by the military publication as saying, “Ties with Turkey will never be the way they once were. We are being very careful which systems we sell them, due to the growing Islamic trends in the country.”
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Recep Erdogan harshly criticized Israel during and following its counter terrorism Operation Cast Lead in Gaza, which ran from December 28, 2008 to January 20, 2009.
Since that time, relations between the two countries have steadily deteriorated, a trend reflected in Turkey's decision in October 2009 to bar Israel's Air Force from participating in the joint Anatolian Eagle exercises. Turkey ultimately chose to cancel the drill rather than back down in response to pressure from the United States and Italy, who were also set to participate.
As a result, Israel has also been searching for new air space in which to conduct long-range training exercises, since Turkey has refused the IAF use of its air space. Recently the Defense Ministry has been exploring the possibility of renewing a 2006 agreement to deploy IAF fighter jets in Romania.
3. Modern Israel at 62: Tiny Country and Huge Success
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
Modern Israel, only 62 years old Monday night, is a world leader in society, technology medicine and dozens of other fields. National-religious Rabbi Shlomo Aviner says, “TImagine what we could do if the world were not against us.”
Israel as a country dates back to the time of King Saul, although the Jewish tribes settled there in the days of Joshua, Moses' successor. Its ancient success is recorded in the Bible with the compilation of the Book of Psalms by his successor King David, whose son King Solomon built the First Temple.
Following the Destruction of the Second Temple and the subsequent end of Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel for 2000 years, the modern State of Israel has astonished the world with its achievements since it was established in 1948.
Israel, only a fraction of one percent of the Middle East land mass and 2 percent of its population, Israel has the highest ratio of university degrees per capita in the world. The country, by a large margin, produces more scientific papers per capita than any other nation in the world and has the highest number of scientists and technicians per capita in the world.
With those achievements, it is not surprising that Israel has the highest number of PhD's and the highest number of physicians per capita in the world.
Israel also is the only nation in the world that entered the 21st century with a net gain in its number of trees.
Taking care of Jews around the world, the nation is the largest immigrant-absorbing nation on Earth while respecting other religions. It is the only country in the Middle East where the Christian population has grown over the last 50 years and is the only country in the Middle East where Christians, Muslims and Jews are all free to vote.
Despite all its success, Israel also leads the country in United Nations Security Council resolutions against the Jewish State. Of the 175 U.N. Security Council resolutions passed before 1990, 97 were directed against Israel. Of the 690 U.N. General Assembly resolutions voted on before 1990, 429 were directed against Israel.
Nevertheless, Israel is undeterred. Critics of anti-Israeli boycotts often point out that those supporting sanctions of Israeli products and inventions would have to live without cellular phones, which were developed in Israel, and would gave to forego many life-saving drugs that were discovered and made in Israel.
Anti-Zionists also would have to do without anti-virus program for their computers because there were first developed in Israel, as was voice technology and instant messaging. In the early 1980's, IBM chose an Israeli-designed computer chip as the brains for its first personal computers.
In the field of economics, Israel hosts the world's largest wholesale diamond center and is responsible for most of the cut and polished diamonds in the world. It also has the largest number of companies on the NASDAQ stock exchange, outside of the United States and Canada.
Another modern marvel is the revival of the Hebrew language, the only dead language that ever was revived.
The revival of Torah learning is no less marvelous after the Holocaust, and the number of yeshivas, Torah scholars and Torah publications is astounding.
The ”People of the Book,” as Jews are known, publishes in Israel more books per capita than any other country and has the most independent and free Arabic press in the Middle East.
4. Netanyahu Speaks at Jerusalem Site of 1967 War, Quotes Bible
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu spoke at Ammunition Hill in Jerusalem on Remembrance Day and quoted the Biblical prophet Isaiah, “A staff will emerge from the stump of Yishai and a shoot will sprout from his roots.”
The Prime Minister noted that 182 olive trees surround the site of a key battle in the Six-Day War in 1967. “Each one of them commemorates one of the 182 sons, fathers, brothers and husbands who fell in the campaign for Jerusalem,” he said. “Every one of these trees dedicated to one of the fallen symbolizes life out of the grief.”
Ammunition Hill “symbolized a wounded city, a city cut in half, and in its heart--a wall" before the capital was reunited, he added, in an obvious reference to his announced refusal to capitulate to Palestinian Authority and American demands to divide Jerusalem.
He pointed out that the new light railway system under construction connects Jerusalem neighborhoods that were separated during the Jordanian occupation in the city after the re-establishment of Israel in 1948.
“Twice we have paid the heavy cost of liberating the siege on Jerusalem–first, during the War of Independence, and again, when the city was bombed during the Six-Day War,” the Prime Minister said on the day commemorating the loss of fallen soldiers and victims of Arab terror.
“Today, children play in the trenches of Ammunition Hill and in other former battle sites,” he added. “Over the years, we have learned that the olive branches of peace will only be attained if we are strong and are willing to defend our country as did those who have fallen here….
“It is the ancient decree to establish a country here whose magnificence will last for generations, a country that through its very existence and the building of its future justifies the painful sacrifice. Independence Day and Memorial Day are an indelible part of each other. We know that the former is impossible without the latter. If only it were different.”
5. UC Berkeley Bill to Divest from Israel Temporarily Thwarted
by Avi Yellin
Pro-Israel students from the University of California at Berkeley won a minor victory last week against the campaign for their school to divest from companies doing business in Israel. Last week, student senators, professors, local activists and guest speakers battled over the issue of divestment for over nine dramatic hours with the pro-Israel side scoring a temporary win in an environment where they feel under constant attack.
A bill passed by the student senate on March 17 urging divestment from two corporations that supply the IDF with equipment was vetoed on March 24 by the Association of Students President Will Smelko. The ASUC (Associated Students of the University of California) meeting over an attempt to overturn the veto was attended by a mass of Bay Area community activists sporting Yasser Arafat-style black and white kaffiyehs, along with people passing out green stickers on "war crimes."
One of the speakers who co-authored the original bill was student Emiliano Huet-Vaughn, an activist with the anti-Zionist International Solidarity Movement and a former student of the London School of Economics, where he unsuccessfully attempted a similar Israel divestment campaign. Also supporting the bill and explaining why via telephone was Richard Falk of the United Nations.
Opening remarks opposing the bill came from Israel’s Consul General for the Pacific Northwest, Akiva Tor, who argued that divestment bills will only make an Israeli withdrawal from Judea and Samaria more difficult to implement. Tor told the crowded room that “Israel wants to end the occupation.”
Local Zionist Freedom Alliance leader Yehuda Katz, who was at the event lobbying student senators to oppose the bill, criticized Tor’s remarks as counter-productive. "With respect to the Consul General," Katz told Israel National News. "Either we have a right to our country or we don’t. Opposing the bill on grounds that it prevents us from ethnically cleansing Jews from their homes and shrinking our country’s borders is playing into the hands of those who call us occupiers in our own homeland. The only way to educate the community and change anti-Israel perceptions is to stand up for our legitimate rights and make people understand the justice of the Zionist struggle. This is especially true in regards to Jewish rights in Judea and Samaria."
Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } One former student senator and Indian campus community leader Meghana Dhar produced a list of UC Berkeley investments, proving that the entire bill is pointless as there are currently no investments in the two companies said to be doing business with the IDF. According to Dhar, the true purpose of the bill was not actual divestment but rather the further demonization of Israel on campus.
Twelve student senators of the 20 member ASUC initially opposed the veto and needed only one more vote to achieve the necessary two-thirds majority to overturn it. Minji Kim, a student senator of Korean background who initially supported the divestment bill when she genuinely believed it to be about war crimes, ultimately abstained, preventing divestment supporters from achieving their aim and reportedly inviting accusations of her personal responsibility for the deaths of Arab children.
While pro-Israel advocates were celebrating their 6am victory Thursday morning, student senators from the CalSERVE party that had initiated the bill pulled off a last-minute political maneuver to allow the veto to be reintroduced for another vote next week. Pro-Israel student activist Matthew White told INN that he is confident that the re-vote will finally defeat the divestment bill but cautioned that nothing is for certain.
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6. New 'Jews for Palin Group' 'Takes Aim at Obama
by Hillel Fendel
A new Jewish organization has been started in the United States – openly supportive of Sarah Palin, but its bottom-line goal appears to be opposition to President Barack Obama and his tilt against Israel.
The group was officially formed Sunday in honor of Israel’s Independence Day by Jewish communal activist Benyamin Korn, former executive editor of the Jewish Exponent of Philadelphia, and other academic, religious and community leaders.
The group’s opening declaration began as follows: “The Obama administration’s tilt against Israel, its tacit acceptance of a nuclear-armed Iran, and its weak approach to combating Islamic terrorism all pose a direct challenge to Jewish Americans. Governor Sarah Palin has described the ‘Obama doctrine’ in United States foreign policy as ‘coddling our enemies while alienating allies.’ Ms. Palin has emerged as the leading public voice in opposition to President Obama’s dangerous new direction.”
The new national organization of Jewish Americans for Sarah Palin is backed by a website named “JewsforSarah.com – A Home Page for Jewish Independents.”
The group has much praise for Palin, while acknowledging that the former vice presidential candidate is not now currently running for office. It concentrates, however, on criticism of Obama, noting that prominent Jewish leaders have recently publicly challenged his foreign policy in extreme terms. Former New York City Mayor Ed Koch is quoted as “excoriating” his fellow Democrat for "demeaning and slandering [Israel]… There is a foul whiff of Munich and appeasement in the air.”
In addition, Anti-Defamation League leader Abraham Foxman is cited for proposing a possible Jewish march on Washington to protest Obama's slant against Israel. The new group further states, “World Jewish Congress President Ronald Lauder has taken out full-page ads in major American newspapers to criticize Obama for pressuring Israel to retreat to the ‘indefensible borders’ of 1967.” It also notes that Sen. Joseph Lieberman has characterized the president's refusal to include militant Islam in his list of terror promoters as "offensive," and said it “contradicts thousands of years of accepted military and intelligence doctrine to 'know your enemy.’"
The new organization, which has not yet had contact with Gov. Palin, further notes that Obama has betrayed his own campaign promises: “The suddenness of the president's change in his policies toward Israel, after having campaigned vociferously in 2008 as a friend of the Jewish state, has caught many in the American Jewish community off guard. No longer.
“President Obama's disgraceful personal treatment of Israel's prime minister on his official visits to Washington and the ugly personal tone that the president has injected into U.S.-Israel relations has angered even many of his supporters and driven Obama's popularity to an all-time low among the Israeli public… We believe it is time for American Jews to declare independence from President Barack Obama, and we believe that Gov. Sarah Palin's heartfelt and unflinching support for America-Israel friendship reflects the true spirit of the American people, among whom love and respect for the Jewish state has never faltered."
7. Deputy Foreign Minister Ayalon's Message for Diaspora Jews
by Arutz Sheva staff
Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon addressed Diaspora Jews in honor of Israel's Independence Day and recalled the many sacrifices Jews made in order to create the State of Israel, as well as the many challenges and attacks that Israel has faced and continues to face.
Ayalon's message follows:
This year we celebrate 62 years since the re-establishment of the State of Israel and 150 years since the birth of the Zionist visionary Theodore (Binyamin Ze'ev) Herzl. We can look around our nation and take enormous pride in what we have achieved in the short few decades since Jewish sovereignty returned to the land of our fathers.
Herzl famously wrote "If you will it, it is no dream" over 100 years ago, but unfortunately he died only a few years later. His dream, a Jewish State, would, against all the odds, be recreated in its ancient land, as he prophetically stated, less than five decades later.
Today, most of us do not know a time without the State of Israel. Few alive remember the battles, the struggles and sacrifice that the early Zionists and even early Israelis had to endure to ensure that Herzl's vision would not remain a dream. Too many take the presence of Israel for granted and it has allowed us to become complacent about its role and its future. We must never forget that we are a reborn nation surrounded by many enemies intent on our destruction through various means.
When David Ben-Gurion read aloud the Declaration of Independence at the Tel Aviv Museum in 1948, the ink had barely dried before five Arab armies invaded our infant state to destroy us militarily. For many decades afterwards, Arab armies would attempt to destroy Israel on the conventional battlefield, but none were successful. Today, we can claim with pride that we have the strongest military in the region, and those hostile to us learnt that they can not defeat us this way.
Next, our enemies tried to defeat us economically. The Arab League initiated a boycott against our state when we were welcoming hundreds of thousands of our brothers and sisters from across the globe. They gave ultimatums to every company in the world, telling them that if they conduct business with the Jewish State, they will not be able to conduct business with any of the Arab states. This was extremely difficult for the new state, but fast forward today we have one of the strongest economies worldwide and we are about to join the OECD, the forum of the most powerful global economies.
After this too failed, our enemies began an unconventional and terrorist war against Israel. Israelis and Jews have been butchered in their thousands by extremists who chose their death over our life. Although no one can argue that the threat is 100 percent extinguished, we have once again managed to beat this scourge and today far fewer innocent people are being killed by terrorists, even though there are daily attempts.
Having failed on so many occasions and learning the lessons, our enemies have sought a new attempt to defeat us. This is through the current delegitimization campaign and so-called ‘Lawfare'. This may become our toughest battle yet. Our enemies know that they have distinct advantages over us that are difficult to contend with. They have an automatic majority in international institutions and have created a systematic and orchestrated system to tar the Jewish State as akin to the Nazis or the racist Apartheid regime. They prevent us from speaking on campuses, having our voice heard in forums and deny our freedom of speech because they know that if our voice is heard loud and clear then our enemies' flawed narrative will collapse.
Although few know it, or report on it, the Organization of Islamic Conference clearly stated on a number of occasions that they initiated the Goldstone Commission. How many of those who scream about Israeli war crimes know that they are the mouthpiece of ugly autocratic oppressive regimes? How many of those who read about the attempted arrest of Israeli officials in Europe realize that these attempts are initiated, supported and funded by those in our region who will not allow a woman to vote and oppress their own people?
However, the verbal terrorism and attacks on our legitimacy will fail just as every other tactic before it. Nevertheless, to win this battle we must reinforce education and understanding of our history and purpose. We need to further the understanding of our historical, religious, moral and legal rights. Too few of our people understand that our modern legal national rights are not based on history, religion or the Holocaust, as important as each of these are, but because the international community came together in 1920 as rarely seen before and conferred national rights in Eretz Yisrael to the Jewish people.
Less than a week after we celebrate Israel's Independence Day, we will commemorate 90 years since the San Remo Conference. Few nations in the world can show such a determined and unified statement of intent for their national aspirations. When we add this to the corpus of international statements, resolutions and treaties, we will find that although we are perhaps the only member of the United Nations whose legitimacy is regularly questioned, few nations on earth have such modern legal instruments as the Jewish State to cement our legitimacy. We need to learn these facts and to teach them to others.
On this, Israel's Independence Day, many see the glass as half-empty. We have so many challenges and obstacles to overcome. However, we should remember our achievements. In a time when intellectual property will become the greatest resource of the 21st century, Israel stands at the forefront of innovation and technology. Israel's inventions and technological knowledge are making the deserts bloom in Africa, saving millions of lives through its medicinal innovations, creating alternative energies and securing the future of many people around the world.
We have continued Herzl's vision, even after our independence, and we are dreaming of bigger and better things to come. This is why we have a bright future, and with your help we can make it even brighter, not only for Israel, but also for all the people who are inspired, assisted and supported by Israel. We hope to see you here during Israel's 63rd year since our reestablishment and help celebrate the dream of the Zionist visionary that was born 150 years ago.
