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ISRAEL

GOOD NEWS FROM ISRAEL FROM MICHAEL ORDMAN

 www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com

Many of Israel’s positive achievements are truly “towering”.  Its Iron Dome and David’s Sling defense systems have intercepted more hostile aerial attacks than all other global defense systems combined over the last 50 years. Michael Ordman

This defense technology, known as SDI- Strategi Defense Initiative was initially named “Star Wars” by skeptics and detractors in 1983 when President Ronald Reagan delivered a nationwide address committing to deploy research and development of missile defense systems. The then Democrat Congress was decidedly against the project. Edward Teller Hungarian-American theoretical physicist and chemical engineer was enthusiastic about SDI’s development, but it was Lieut. Gen. Daniel O. Graham, who propelled and championed the technology.

As Newt Gingrich said of General Graham in his eulogy:

  “Your leadership helped President Reagan launch the Strategic Defense Initiative, which has brought us ever closer to ending the threat of nuclear annihilation.”…..“This nation owes Dan Graham a great deal. And one day soon, we will have a system to protect us against some fanatic or deranged leader who wants to blow up part of America to make a point.”

Today fanatic and deranged leaders want to blow up Israel, and the fruits and legacy of Daniel Graham’s efforts thwart hat genocidal plan.

His memory is a blessing.  Rsk

 

POSITIVE NEWS IN A WAR
 
Billionaire survivor gives message of hope. (TY WIN) 94-year-old Holocaust survivor Sir Frank Lowy gave a powerful and emotional Thanksgiving Day speech to ex-hostages and their friends. The Israeli-Australian multibillionaire drew from his life experiences to give them strength and resilience. (see here previously). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlYNiYrirLk
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Lowy
 
The most interceptions in 50 years. According to the CEO of Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, “David’s Sling and Iron Dome systems have intercepted more targets than all the other air defense systems worldwide combined over the past 50 years”. He also reassured everyone, there is no shortage of interceptors.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/hujfzh9fx
 
From MSG to Sheba hospital. (TY WIN) Ishay Ribo performed to thousands at Madison Square Gardens (see here previously). But he is just as at home playing to the wounded and their families in hospitals, or traveling to numerous military bases, and even funerals to use his talent for good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2avqYHVlp0
 
Therapeutic farm for treating trauma. Before Oct 7 2023, Sivan Shefer founded “Dialog with Animals”, just 4 miles from Gaza, training dogs and their handlers to treat people with disabilities. She now runs “Dialog for Life” – one of 15 initiatives of the Restart NGO, designed to help wounded IDF soldiers restart their lives.
https://www.israel21c.org/israelis-from-shattered-communities-turn-to-innovation/
https://restartglobal.org/en/home/   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXYFcjs20m8 (self-explanatory video)
 
Respite in San Diego. (TY Nevet / ADL) The San Diego Jewish Academy (SDJA) has just welcomed 95 students from the Israeli region of Sha’ar Hanegev, which suffered severely from the Oct 7 2023 Hamas onslaught. The Israelis receive respite and the San Diego students build connections to Israel.
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2024/11/18/san-diego-jewish-academy-welcomes-95-students-from-war-torn-shaar-hanegev-in-israel/   https://www.jewishinsandiego.org/shaarhanegev
 
Christians support olive harvest. NGOs Genesis 1-2-3 Foundation and NewPersia.org have brought a group of American Christians to Israel as part of the “Root and Branch” initiative, which brings Christians and Jews together to rebuild livelihoods in Israel. They are currently involved in harvesting olives from century-old trees.
https://unitedwithisrael.org/watch-christians-unite-to-support-israeli-olive-harvest-during-wartime/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZedArbJ2T1g

Ben-Gvir’s call to curtail volume of Muslim call to prayer mimics Saudi Arabia’s by David Isaac

https://www.jns.org/ben-gvirs-call-to-curtail-volume-of-muslim-call-to-prayer-mimics-saudi-arabias/

While Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has been accused of attempting to ignite a “religious war,” his push to limit the volume of Muslim calls to prayer follows similar efforts in several European countries and even in the cradle of Islam itself.

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s announcement on Nov. 30 that he had instructed Israeli police to enforce noise ordinances on mosques by issuing fines and confiscating loudspeakers was met with outrage from Arab Knesset members, the Palestinian Authority and even Hamas.

The terrorist group urged Palestinians to “reject this criminal decision and take action to prevent the occupation authorities from tampering with our sacred sites and religious practices.

Arab-Israeli MKs Ahmed Tibi of the Hadash-Ta’al list and Mansour Abbas, leader of the Ra’am Party, accused Ben-Gvir of attempting to ignite a “religious war.” 

Early-morning Muslim calls to prayer are a simmering problem in Israel. Ma’ariv reported in February that since the outbreak of the Swords of Iron War, Israeli police have noted that most mosques’ calls to prayer have increased in volume “in a significant manner, which caused serious harm to residents.”

Two imams from the Great Omari Mosque of Lod were arrested on suspicion of increasing the decibel level of its public address system, the report said. They were released with a warning.

Amnesty International’s antisemitic agenda Ruthie Blum

https://www.jns.org/amnesty-internationals-antisemitic-agenda/

Amnesty International released its latest broadside against Israel on Thursday, accusing the Jewish state of committing genocide in Gaza. The nearly 300-page report—“‘You Feel Like You Are Subhuman’: Israel’s Genocide Against Palestinians in Gaza”—is typically mendacious.

Laden with hyperbolic hostility and “proof” gleaned from bogus Hamas data, it portrays Israel’s defensive war against the Iran-backed terrorists as the deliberate attempt by a villainous regime in Jerusalem to annihilate a whole population of Palestinians.

Talk about the inversion of reality—par for the course with the “human-rights organization” that makes a mockery of its mandate. In truth, every accusation in this polemic masquerading as research could and should be directed at Hamas.

Indeed, every word of the diatribe-disguised-as-research could and should have been penned about Hamas. According to Amnesty’s summary of the document, “International jurisprudence recognizes that the perpetrator does not need to succeed in their attempts to destroy the protected group, either in whole or in part, for genocide to have been committed,” since “the commission of prohibited acts with the intent to destroy the group, as such, is sufficient.”

Uh, yes. Hamas failed to achieve its genocidal goal prior to, during and since Oct. 7, 2023. But the will was and still is there.
There’s antisemitic irony for you. According to Amnesty’s own definition, both the acts committed and the intent behind them meet the criteria for genocide.

The genocide lie Accusing Israel of carrying out a new Holocaust is factually wrong and morally repulsive. Brendan O’Neill

https://www.spiked-online.com/2024/12/05/the-genocide-lie/

It’s official: loathing Israel has become the ultimate luxury belief. You can’t swing a Daunt Books tote bag in polite society without hitting an Israel hater. This week we’ve seen artist Jasleen Kaur use her Turner Prize victory speech to damn Israel’s ‘genocide of the Palestinian people’ as the assembled dignitaries in the hallowed halls of the Tate rattled their jewellery in agreement. We watched as Juliet Stevenson, the luvvie’s luvvie, titillated a gathering of affluent socialists with her mellifluous censure of Israel for its ‘massacre of the Palestinian people’. She was wearing a keffiyeh. Of course she was. The radical middle class rarely leaves the house without first pulling on that sartorial signifier of virtue.

And now, to top it off, the cunning stunts of Led By Donkeys have got hearts racing in posh coffee houses everywhere by accusing Israel of genocide. Yesterday, the beardy bros of this most grating of campaign groups took a break from berating the oiks for voting Brexit to berate Israel for fighting back against the army of anti-Semites that attacked it on 7 October. They rolled out a giant banner in Parliament Square saying: ‘YES IT’S A GENOCIDE.’ If I had their time, money and insatiable urge to make a media spectacle of my moral rectitude, I’d roll out a banner saying: ‘No it isn’t, you twats.’

Nothing better confirms that Israel-bashing has become a status-conferring belief among the upper middle classes than its showy embrace by Led By Donkeys. For this outfit, founded by four craft-beer tossers in Stoke Newington, is the very physical embodiment of the depressive doctrines of the metropolitan elite. They’ve spent years bewailing Brexit and slamming the Tories and deriding the idiot ‘gammon’ who vote for such things. They call themselves a ‘guerilla operation’ but really they’re the activist wing of a bewildered establishment that can’t believe the great unwashed keep defying its moral instructions. And now they’ve added Israelophobia to their charter of correct-think.

Amnesty International and Balaam’s Talking Ass by Seth Mandel

https://www.commentary.org/seth-mandel/amnesty-international-and-balaams-talking-ass/?vgo_ee=3xxTz8o1O%2F7d9HuBtB3FmsUQj67wDM1s4yaaaNXdMJo9QsM%3D%3AZGXaMR29aKIE%2FybP91c7nT%2BH2%2BYeFvok

It’s hard not to take some enjoyment in the absolute disaster of Amnesty International’s new report on Israel, in which the infamous NGO blew the biggest moment of its nefarious existence. Surely one can appreciate a modern reenactment of the biblical tale of Balaam’s Talking Ass.

In that story, the Moabite king hires the prophet Balaam to curse the Israelites. Along the way, God sends an angel to stand in his way, but only Balaam’s she-donkey can see the angel. The donkey swerves and Balaam beats the animal. On the third attempt, the angel successfully blocks them and the donkey lays down in surrender. Balaam beats the donkey again, but this time she speaks: “What have I done to you that you have beaten me these three times?”

They argue, and God’s angel reveals itself to Balaam, who is embarrassed by the whole ordeal. When Balaam ultimately tries to curse the Israelites, he finds that God has put only words of praise in his mouth.

Balaam, then, is unable to execute the sole purpose of his mission. To add insult to injury, his own donkey observed God’s messenger before he did.

Amnesty International’s leaders came to curse the Jews, failed, and were revealed to be sub-donkey intellects in the process.

Here’s what happened. Amnesty has produced a report accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza. It was intended to be the capstone of the organization’s work. But a funny thing happened on the way to the forum.

Trump to Hamas: If Hostages Aren’t Released, ‘There Will Be ALL HELL TO PAY’ There’s a new sheriff in town. Hugh Fitzgerald

https://www.frontpagemag.com/trump-to-hamas-if-hostages-arent-released-there-will-be-all-hell-to-pay/

The President-elect has sent his message urbi et orbi: Hamas must free all the hostages it holds before Trump takes office on January 20, or THERE WILL BE HELL TO PAY. More on his warning can be found here: “Trump warns ‘all hell to pay’ if Gaza hostages not released by Inauguration Day,” by Hannah Sarisohn, Jerusalem Post, December 2, 2024:

President-elect Donald Trump took to his platform Truth Social on Monday afternoon following the IDF’s confirmation that Hamas killed American-Israeli Omer Neutra on October 7 and has held his body hostage since.

Trump did not mention Neutra by name but wrote that “everybody is talking about the hostages who are being held so violently, inhumanely, and against the will of the entire World, in the Middle East – But it’s all talk and no action!”

Trump continued, saying, “Please let this TRUTH serve to represent that if the hostages are not released prior to January 20, 2025, the date that I proudly assume Office as President of the United States, there will be ALL HELL TO PAY in the Middle East, and for those in charge who perpetrated these atrocities against Humanity.”

Those responsible will be hit harder than anybody has been hit in the “long and storied History of the United States of America,” Trump wrote.

“RELEASE THE HOSTAGES NOW!” he said.

Israel forces Iranian plane to reverse course over Syria The Mahan Air aircraft was suspected to be transporting weapons to Hezbollah in violation of the Lebanon ceasefire agreement • IDF eliminates Hezbollah cell near a church in Southern Lebanon. Joshua Marks

https://www.jns.org/israel-forces-iranian-plane-to-reverse-course-over-syria/?utm_campaign=Daily%20Syndicate%20Emails&utm_

Israeli fighter jets on Sunday night intercepted an Iranian plane over Syria suspected to be transporting weapons to Hezbollah, forcing it to return to Tehran.

The operation was part of efforts to maintain the Nov. 27 ceasefire agreement that ended over a year of hostilities between Israel and the Iranian-backed terror group.

The “Letter of Guarantees,” an annex to the agreement, underscores the United States’ commitment to collaborating with Israel to counter Iran’s destabilizing activities in Lebanon, including halting the transfer of weapons, proxies and materials into Lebanon from Iranian territory.

Additional provisions in the two-and-a-half-page U.S.-Israel side deal reportedly include guarantees of Israeli operational freedom against Hezbollah violations of the ceasefire.

The Israel Defense Forces is authorized to counter immediate threats in Southern Lebanon, such as observed preparations for a Hezbollah rocket launch, and also to address emerging threats, for example the digging of tunnels or arms transfers, if Lebanon’s government is unwilling or unable to act.

According to a 2022 report by the Alma Research and Education Center, Mahan Air serves as the Islamic Republic’s main cover for transporting weapons.

US follows France in warning Israel over ceasefire violations Restraint “from all sides” is necessary for the truce to hold, U.S. sources told Israeli media.

https://www.jns.org/us-follows-france-in-warning-israel-over-ceasefire-violations/?utm_campaign=Daily%20Syndicate%20Emails&utm

Washington has backed up Paris’s assertions that Israel is violating the terms of last week’s ceasefire agreement with Lebanon, that formally ended 14 months of hostilities with the Hezbollah terrorist group.

U.S. presidential envoy Amos Hochstein, who played a pivotal role in brokering the deal, conveyed a message to officials in Jerusalem that they are not abiding by the truce terms, Ynet reported on Monday.

Sources told the Hebrew news outlet that the Americans believe that there have been violations on the Israeli side, primarily its use of surveillance drones over the skies of Beirut.

The sources stressed that for the ceasefire to hold, “restraint is required from all sides.”

Paris, a member of the Washington-led monitoring mechanism overseeing the Israel-Lebanon ceasefire agreement, had accused Jerusalem of committing 52 ceasefire violations, according to Hebrew media reports on Sunday that cited French diplomatic sources.

The sources alleged that Israel had bypassed the established channels for reporting violations before taking action.

The reports also claim that three Lebanese civilians were killed and highlight an increase in Israeli drone activity, claiming that low-altitude flights over Beirut had resumed.

The Gentle Art of Negotiating with Terrorists by Daniel Greenfield

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21170/negotiating-with-terrorists

Offering to negotiate with Islamic terrorists is a statement of weakness. Jihadists only offer to negotiate out of fear, weakness or to entrap us, and they assume we do the same thing. Nothing would ever convince them that we genuinely want to live in peace with them, or that we prefer alternatives to violence. So any time we offer to negotiate, they see it as weakness or a trick.

If our diplomats ever understood this cultural reality, they would stop being baffled when the negotiations fall apart.

Western liberals believe that peace will be achieved when all the wars end, but peace in the Muslim world is not a permanent state; rather it is a temporary truce in an endless war. Liberals tell us that the problem is a lack of understanding, but the lack of understanding is coming from them.

The first rule of negotiating with Islamic terrorists is don’t. The second rule is if you do it, do it with heavy artillery.

Islamic terrorists don’t negotiate. They make demands in hopes of securing concessions without actually giving up anything. Only the most dedicated historian could find an example of a negotiation process during which the Islamic terrorists made an actual concession, followed through on it, and did not later take it back or turn right around and go back to terrorism.

The most prominent counterexamples are the three decades of negotiations between Israel and Islamic terrorist groups, which initially won a round of Nobel Peace Prizes and then degenerated into an endless war during which the terrorists took back every concession they ever made, did not follow through on any of them, and used Israeli concessions to become a much worse threat.

Negotiating with the Taliban, Hezbollah and Iran all had the same end result.

Offering to negotiate with Islamic terrorists is a statement of weakness. Jihadists only offer to negotiate out of fear, weakness or to entrap us, and they assume we do the same thing. Nothing would ever convince them that we genuinely want to live in peace with them, or that we prefer alternatives to violence. So any time we offer to negotiate, they see it as weakness or a trick.

POSITIVE NEWS FROM ISRAEL FROM MICHAEL ORDMAN READ IT ALL

Late news from Israel hints of a tenuous cease fire in Lebanon against Hezbollah. Put that news in the “we’ll see” category. The one thing that never ceases in Israel, 24/7, even during war, is the ongoing and outsize research and development of technology, medicine, and science to bring succor and hope to billions of people in in the world. To his enormous credit Michael Ordman’s weekly newsletter details the foregoing.  rsk

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com