If You Live 40km From Gaza, You Have 60 Seconds

I came across The Home Front Command, which has a special page with instructions to various cities within range of rockets being fired by Hamas into Israel--on what kinds of precautions to take.

Below is a map that divides cities into zones showing how much warning they have of incoming rockets, depending on how far they are from Gaza.
The fact that even Be'er Sheva is within range of Hamas is frightening.

The page gives directions, based on which zone the city falls into, on what procedures to follow.

Israellycool writes that Tel Aviv and Rishon Letzion are already preparing bomb shelters.
Meanwhile Muqata has posted a map indicating that Hamas rockets can travel as far as 60km into Israel.

Below is a list found on the left hand side of the page, giving links on how to act in certain kinds of emergencies. The last few might be found on a website on emergency situations in the US--but the first 3 are not:

One can only hope that the Israeli government knows what it is doing and has the wherewithal to finish off the job it has assigned for itself in defense of Israel, because it is already clear that the safety and security of Israel's citizens are not priorities of the world bodies who like to describe themselves as humanitarian.

Technorati Tag: Israel and Hamas and Gaza.

Emergency Briefing By Mishmeret Yesha

I saw this on a mail list:

January 1, 2009 Emergency Briefing by Mishmeret Yesha

Dear Israel Supporters!

We have just received a phone briefing from Mishmeret Yesha's Director
of Operations, Mr. Yisrael Danziger.
I transcribe it below from memory as bet I can.

As you may already have heard, the head of Hamas in Damascus has
officially proclaimed the current conflict the "Third Intifada". The
roads in Yehuda and Shomron are being rocketed and land mined. The IDF
security coordinators have warned Mishmeret Yesha leaders of
intelligence for a possible 60 terrorist attacks. The mainstream media
will not inform you of explosions on the roads of Yesha due to a
chronic case of political correctness.

The IDF Army Corps of Engineers Unit has placed an emergency request
to Mishmeret Yesha for special bulletproof vests for the Caterpillar
operators that have to enter Gaza FIRST. They are the ones on the
forefront of the whole Gaza operation. Mishmeret Yesha has received a
number of emergency requests for Medic and other bulletproof vests.

WE URGE ALL SUPPORTERS OF ERETZ YISROEL TO COME TOGETHER AND SUPPORT THE SAFETY OF ISRAEL'S CITIZENS AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, OUR LIVES. WE ASK YOU HOLD EMERGENCY COMMUNITY MEETINGS TO RAISE FUNDS FOR MISHMERET YESHA'S EFFORTS.

Some possibilities include a live phone conference with Mr. Danziger
for an event, or even a personal visit just for the cost of paying his
airfare to your community.

Mr. Danziger can be reached in Israel at
011-972-52-468- 9991 Mobile
011-972-2-624- 6885 Fax

Mr. Danziger's e-mail address is guards24(at) zahav.net. il, but there's
no telling when he'll be able to get to his e-mail. He often crawls
into bed, exhausted after long, grueling days of handling emergency
situations for Yesha's residents. As he always says: "The type of
stuff we have to deal with in a day, some people don't deal with in
their lifetime."

As the US Representative of Mishmeret Yesha, I can be reached at (650)
992-0512 or alex(at)clubmaoz. org. I will mail/e-mail you all the
materials about Mishmeret Yesha's history and current projects (help
with designing a website is desperately needed as well).

The donations can be mailed to

Mishmeret Yesha
25 King George Blvd
Jerusalem 94261

or to

PO Box 100566
Brooklyn NY 11210–9997

Some emergency basic needs:

$32,000 for water packs for Medic Vests

$250 each ceramic plates to insert into the vests that are ready to
go, but are just awaiting the plate insertion.
Each vest needs two plates: front and back.

Please make your checks payable to Central Fund of Israel with a memo
"Mishmeret Yesha." For credit card donations, a Paypal account has
just been set-up and the link will be available in 3-5 working days.

Technorati Tag: Israel and Yesha and West Bank.

Gaza Roundup 5.5 Is Up!

Jack is still busy doing yeoman's work searching for posts about Operation Cast Lead. You can catch the latest roundup in the series here.

Technorati Tag: Israel and Gaza and Hamas.

Gaza War Refugee Forums

Gaza War Refugee Forums

Welcome to Negev Refugee Hosting

THURSDAY, JANUARY 1, 2009 AT 07:19AM
The purpose of this website is to pair people who wish to escape bombardment to get in touch with people willing to host them. Please help spread the word.

המטרה של האתר הזה הוא לעזור לאוכלוסיה של הדרום הנמצא מתחת אש ע"י יצירת קשר בין האנשים הצריכים להתארח כדי להנצל מהפצצות והאנשים המוכנים לארח אותם.זו כאן עינין של פיקוח נפש וכל המארח מקיים מצוות הצלת נפשות והכנסת אורכים.

על כן כל מי שצריך מקום להתארח נא להרשם בקבוצה

כל מי שמוכן ורוצה לארח אנשים נא להרשם בקבוצה ותבדוק הרשימה השנייה למצוא אנשים הצריכים להתארח

אנו מודים לכם על שיטוף הפעולה שלכם למען הצלת עם ישראל ומקווים למשיח בקרוב!!!

Residents of the south. If you live in any of the afflicted areas such as the Gaza belt, Ashkelon, Ashdod and/or any area that is currently under fire and you wish to find accomodations during this time, please post on our boards with a way in which potential hosts can contact you. Please include information such as number of people and if you are willing to help with food expenses while being hosted.If you are reluctant to post any info on the forum, then please just contact me directly at toratyisrael@gmail.com.

Residents of the rest of the country. If you wish to do the mitzvot of pikuach nefesh (savinga life) and hacnasat orchim (hosting guests) then please post contact info and any terms or conditions that you may have on the host forum. If you are reluctant to post any info on the forum, then please just contact me directly at toratyisrael@gmail.com.

Le but de ce site est de faire le lien entre les personnes se situant dans les villes en danger sous les bombes les villes du sud et qui ont besoin d`etre abrites dans des villes voisines avec les gens habitants justement d`autres villes et qui sont pret a recevoir des invites.

Pour toute personne desirant se faire invite ,vous etes prie d`entrer vos coordonnees dans la rubrique guest et vous pouvez aussi regarder dans la liste voisine pour trouver des hotes potentiels

Il en est de meme pour les personne desirant inviter ,vous etes prie d`inscrire vos coordonnees dans la rubrique host.

Nous vous remercions de votre participation et vous rappelons que tout celui qui sauve une ame semble a une personne qui sauve tout un monde.

Avec l`espoire d`une delivrance somplete et rapide!!

amen

-----

Update on Thursday, January 1, 2009 at 09:27AM by Shmuel Sokol
The Jewish Agency for Israel's "Babayit Beyahad" ("At Home Together")
project is arranging home hospitality for residents of the communities of
"Otef Aza"?who are under attack.

Families able to offer respite hospitality would be most welcome.
Telephone 1-800-200183 to offer your help!

I am also informed that you can contact

Ohr Meir & Bracha
Terror Victims Support Center
ph: Sarit 052 7686633
Office: 02 582 4630

Technorati Tag: Israel.

"Pray For The Gazan Boy"

And he isn't the only one.

PRAY FOR THE GAZAN BOY

Rabbi Avi Shafran


No, I’m neither a prophet nor a covert Israeli operative. Yes, it was only a day after I distributed a column taking the New York Times to task for refusing to call Hamas a terrorist organization that Israel launched its offensive against Hamas in Gaza. But, really, I had no foreknowledge of the fact that Israel’s leaders would do anything more in response to the shelling of its towns by Hamas and its friends than offer the sort of statements that have been issued for years after such terrorist onslaughts.

But they did do more, in the hope – may we merit its fulfillment – of crippling the infrastructure of the murderous entity to its south. And, true to form, The Times avoided the “T” word, going only so far as to identify Hamas on first mention as a group “which Israel and the United States brand as a terrorist organization.” According to informed sources, Israel and the United States have also branded the sun hot and the Pope Catholic.

Similarly true to form was Hamas itself, whose spokesman Fawzi Barhoum, according to the very aforementioned newspaper, “called for revenge in the form of strikes reaching ‘deep into the Zionist entity using all means,’ including suicide attacks.” Still no you-know-what-word, though.

There was more of interest in the paper’s reportage, too. In a dispatch by veteran Times reporters Ethan Bronner and Taghreed El-Khodary that appeared on December 30, the scene at Gaza’s Shifa Hospital was vividly brought alive.

“Armed Hamas militants in civilian clothes roamed the halls,” they wrote. “Asked their function, they said it was to provide security. But there was internal bloodletting under way.”

The report then described how a young woman came to the hospital seeking her wounded husband. She asked a “militant” to help her but was turned away. Fifteen minutes later, however, she saw her spouse being carried out on a stretcher and watched as, lying there helplessly, “he was shot in the left side of the head.” The fatal bullet was administered by a terro – a “militant,” that is – presumably convinced that the man on the stretcher, who had been incarcerated by Hamas before an Israeli bomb liberated his prison, had collaborated with Israel. So charged Sobhia Jonaa, a lawyer with the Palestinian Independent Commission for Citizens’ Rights.

Perhaps some ray of hope lies in the possibility that the man killed on the stretcher was indeed cooperating with Israel and not just someone from a different clan than his killer. If there are in fact Arabs unlike those whose angry faces adorn the front pages of papers worldwide, who realize that Islamist terror-mongers do not bode well for the Arab umma, that is true reason to celebrate.

As it happens, an undeniably hopeful spark was reported in the very same Times story.

Highlighting the saga of Gaza families lamentably displaced by the bombings, as civilians unfortunately are in even the most justified wars, the reporters interviewed the members of one such family, whose home stands next to a Hamas compound.

After recounting “the utter fear and panic they all felt as the missiles hit,” the father of the family’s bemoaning of the fact that “we have no shelters in Gaza” and his expression of concern for his elderly, paralyzed mother, one of the reporters had the idea of asking the man’s 13-year-old son for his view of the situation.

The boy, taking, as the dispatch put it, “an unusual stand for someone in Gaza,” responded: “I blame Hamas. It doesn’t want to recognize Israel. If they did so there could be peace. Egypt made a peace treaty with Israel, and nothing is happening to them.”

Were only such insight and common sense as contagious in the Palestinian world as hatred and violence have been.

Kudos to The Times for including the quote. But brickbats, too, for taking the astoundingly irresponsible step of actually identifying the quoted boy by name.

Pray for him.

© 2009 AM ECHAD RESOURCES

[Rabbi Shafran is director of public affairs for Agudath Israel of America.]

Technorati Tag: Israel and Hamas and Gaza.

Cut Off US Aid To Israel? First Cut Off Aid To Hamas From Ohio!

From Pajamas Media:

The Jerusalem Post reported on Monday that Israeli Defense Forces aircraft bombed suspected Hamas terror laboratories located at the Hamas-run Islamic University of Gaza (IUG).

According to the article, IUG professors were using the labs to build explosives for the terrorist organization. A BBC report confirmed that the IUG science building was the target of the Israeli retaliatory strikes.

Thus far unreported is that the IUG science and technology lab was financed and constructed with the assistance of the Dublin, Ohio-based Arab Student Aid International (ASAI). In fact, the IUG website has a page dedicated to ASAI’s ongoing contributions to the Hamas institution and specifically mentions the labs financed by the Ohio Islamic group. Additionally, the ASAI website promotes its assistance in creating the IUG science and technology center, which was completed in 2002.

Apparently Islamic University of Gaza has other uses as well:

Abbas' Special Forces, which raided Hamas' stronghold last weekend, were looking not only for arms but also for any lead on kidnapped Israeli. Palestinian sources say Shalit was held at university for most of his time in captivity but was relocated in mid-October

Campus life has changed quite a bit since I went to college.

At Israpundit, Jerry Gordon makes a suggestion:

Shouldn’t the Saudi- backed charity, Dublin, Ohio-based Arab Student Aid International (ASAI) have its IRS 501 c3 designation revoked by the US Treasury as an accomplice to a State Department designated foreign terrorist organization, Hamas? We belive that this is something for Treasury Undersecretary for Financial Intelligence and Terrorism, Stuart Levey to act on before the Bush Administration turns out the lights on January 20th.

No reason for the government to give terrorists a bailout too.

Technorati Tag: Israel and Hamas and Gaza.

Looks Like Gaza Has Both Guns AND Butter

Back on December 12, The Globe and Mail reported:

In fact, coupled with a large surplus of fruit and vegetables intended for markets in Israel, the vast majority of people here aren't wanting for food.

Reports that as many as 50 per cent of children are suffering from malnutrition are exaggerations, says Khaled Abdel Shaafi, director the United Nations Development Program.

"This is not a humanitarian crisis," he said. "It's an economic crisis, a political crisis, but it's not a humanitarian crisis. People aren't starving."

So, have things changed now that Israel's operation in Gaza is entering it's 5th day? Some who have you think so. According to John Podhoretz:

The Gaza story is about to take the standard turn, with the accusation that Israel is fostering a different kind of disaster by blockading food supplies to suffering Gazans. Indeed, the U.N. refugee bureau, whose management of the Gaza refugee camps has been one of the world’s foremost scandals for the past three decades, is claiming it has no wheat grain its coffers. Only it’s not true, according to another UN agency, the Jerusalem Post reports:

The UN’s World Food Program contacted the IDF on Wednesday and said that it would not need to transfer more food into Gaza, since its stockpiles were full and would last for another two weeks. [emphasis added]

Well, it sure is good to know that things have not changed much since September:

Check out Memeorandum.

Technorati Tag: Israel and Hamas and Gaza.

A Good Indication Of Which Party Is Really Better For Israel

It is the argument that will not die: which party--Republicans or Democrats--is better for Israel. If we assume that the proof is not declarations by Party leaders, but rather what the actual rank and file say, the answer is obvious:

Sixty-two percent (62%) of Republicans back Israel’s decision to take military action against the Palestinians, but only half as many Democrats (31%) agree. A majority of Democrats (55%) say Israel should have tried to find a diplomatic solution first, a view shared by just 27% of Republicans.

While 75% of Republicans say Israel is an ally of the United States, just 55% of Democrats agree. Seven percent (7%) of Democrats say Israel is an enemy of America, but only one percent (1%) of Republicans say the same. For 21% of Republicans, Israel is somewhere in between, and 28% of Democrats agree.

The results about how Israel should have first tried diplomacy may also indicate which party is more reliant on the MSM as opposed to really keeping up on the news--something we've seen indicated before. Let's not forget the 6 month truce--and the continuation of Kassams from Gaza during that time.

In any case, one thing that we can take away from this poll:

Party members say what keeps Jews happy and gets votes for the candidates.

The rank and file tell it like it is.

Also, check out Memeorandum.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad

Technorati Tag: Israel.

Yarchei Kallah In Israel January 19-22--Update

From an email from Agudath Israel:

1) Some airlines have slashed prices for travel to Eretz Yisroel in time for our Yarchei Kallah.

2) We are pleased to announce that the following Gedolei Torah will present Divrei chizuk and shiurim at the upcoming Yarchei Kallah to be held in Yerushalayim January 19-22, 2009

• HaRav Aaron Leib Steinman
  
• HaRav Nosson Tzvi Finkel
  
• HaRav Boruch Dov Povarsky
  
• HaRav Yitzchok Zilberstein
  
• HaRav Boruch Mordechai Ezrachi
  
• HaRav Asher Weiss
  
• HaRav Mechel Silber
  
• HaRav Dovid Cohen
  
• HaRav Pinchas Friedman
  
• HaRav Avrohom Tzvi Direnfeld
  
• HaRav Dovid Feinstein
  
• HaRav Nisan Kaplan
  

3) All Yarchei Kallah registrants are invited to a Yarchei Kallah Hakdama Shiur to be given by Reb Shlomo Gottesman on Sunday, 15 Teves/ January 11th 2009 at 10:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. at Yeshiva of Brooklyn, 1200 Ocean Parkway (first floor shiur room). Please confirm your participation to torahprojects@agudathisrael.org to enable us to prepare adequate materials.

Technorati Tag: Israel and Yarchei Kallah.

The Irony of Modern Day Anti-Semitism In Spain

Soeren Kern, Senior Analyst for Transatlantic Relations at the Madrid-based Grupo de Estudios Estratégicos / Strategic Studies Group, writes about a recent study done by Pew Research in his post, Spain’s ‘Jewish Problem’. The poll indicates that:

nearly half of all Spaniards have negative views of Jews, a statistic that marks Spain as one of the most anti-Semitic countries in Europe. According to Pew, 46 percent of Spaniards hold negative opinions of Jews, up more than double from the 21 percent of Spaniards with such views in 2005.

Apparently Spain is also unique among European countries in that the percentage of Spaniards who hold a negative opinion of Jews is actually higher than the percentage who hold a favorable view.

Yet there is something that makes these results difficult to understand:

The survey data on Spanish judeophobia raises many questions, including one that seems never to have been asked: How many contemporary Spaniards have actually ever met a Jew? Not very many, it would appear. In fact, Spain today has one of the smallest Jewish communities in Europe; the country has only 12,000 Jews out of a total Spanish population of 42 million, which works out to less than 0.05 percent.

While those who did the Pew survey claim that this can be explained by the number of those who are right wing, Kern blames the results on something--or rather someone--else: Socialist Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, who took office in 2004.

• Zapatero is known for anti-Israel and anti-Jewish outbursts such as "It is understandable that someone might justify the Holocaust."
  
  
• Zapatero has made a point of trying to strengthen Spain's ties with the Arab world.
  
  
• Zapatero has refused to visit Israel and has referred to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Arabas as a 'cancer'--in reference to Israel.
  
  
• Zapatero has blamed Spain's economic problems on the Jews.

So where is the irony in Spains--and Zapatero's--Anti-Semitism referred to in the title?

Kern concludes:

But just as Spaniards get smug about their perceived racial superiority, along comes a new study which implies that many Spanish anti-Semites actually have Jewish blood. An examination of the genetic signatures of the Spanish population shows that 20 percent of contemporary Spaniards have Jewish origins. As it turns out, far more Jews than previously thought did not comply with the order to leave Spain back in 1492 and simply converted to Catholicism instead.

How surprised many of the Anti-Semitic Spanish would be to know the truth behind their roots.
But to top it off:

Many of those conversos tried to blend in by adopting surnames that indicated trades or professions. One such Sephardic name is Zapatero, which means shoemaker.

Technorati Tag: Israel.