Ten former IDF soldiers rescued a US citizen and her two-and-a-half-year-old son from a Palestinian village in the Tulkarm area where they had been held captive for three years, Israel Radio revealed on Wednesday morning.

The woman, who had married a young Palestinian man she met in the United States, was being held in his house, together with their son, according to the radio report.

The man's first wife and four children from his first marriage also lived in the house. The woman's husband allegedly hit her, prevented her from leaving the house threatening her that if she succeeded in escaping, she would never see their son again. He also warned her that if she left the home, she would be arrested by the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency).

After efforts to bring about the woman's release by contacting Palestinian Authority officials failed, the woman's parents contacted a Jewish American man who had served in an elite IDF combat unit. He contacted friends in Israel, and they planned the rescue operation for several weeks, gathering intelligence on the family's routine.

The rescue was successfully carried out on Monday, with no one hurt, according to the radio.

Mother and son were taken to the US Consulate in Jerusalem and left for Ohio on Tuesday.

"Giora," one of the men who took part in the rescue, told Israel Radio that while the IDF had not been aware of the operation, the US Consulate was updated about every step of the mission.

"The rescue mission was planned in a similar way to operations carried out during my time in the military, in a way that ensured no lives were endangered," Giora said.

The family promised a financial reward to the men for freeing their daughter, Giora said, insisting, however, that "We didn't do it for the money."

There was no immediate response from the US Consulate.

JerusalemPost

Here Are 5 Amazing Ways You Can Say
Happy New Year to Israeli Soldiers.
1. Send a soldier a Rosh HaShanah care package and personal blessing for the New Year at www.thankisraelisoldiers.org.

2. Find young people who served in the IDF and invite them for a holiday meal. (Wondering where to find young Israelis? They are waiting tables at your local kosher restaurant, selling dead sea products in the mall, shlepping furniture, running the
school's security or working out in the gym at the JCC. Give them the care and love
that we all crave this time of year and bring a soldier home for the New Year.)

3. When Israeli soldiers are maligned, stand up and defend them. Educate people about the morality and ethics of Israeli soldiers.
(To read the IDF Code of Ethics, visit IDF English Doctrine of Ethics.)

4. Say a prayer when you go to Temple or Synagogue for the
safety and success of Israeli soldiers.

5. Email your appreciation and support to the parents of an IDF soldier and send it to info@thankisraelisoldiers.org. They are so proud of their children yet, like any parent, they often spend sleepless nights and stressful days when their children's safety is at risk. We will make sure that they receive your notes of blessings, appreciation and solidarity.

Click here to Send your New Years Blessings and Packages to Israeli Soldiers.

Shana Tova to you and your family. May you be blessed with a sweet New Year
filled with great joy, wisdom and true peace.

Thank you for showing your gratitude & support to Israeli soldiers
with Thank Israeli Soldiers.

thank israeli soldiers

450 Grooms Wed GIRLS Under Ten In Gaza

by Paul L. Williams, Ph.D.

http://www.thelastcrusade.org

A gala event has occurred in Gaza.

Hamas sponsored a mass wedding for four hundred and fifty couples. Most of the grooms were in their mid to late twenties; most of brides were under ten.

Muslim dignitaries including Mahmud Zahar, a leader of Hamas, were on hand to congratulate the couples who took part in the carefully staged celebration.

"We are saying to the world and to America that you cannot deny us joy and happiness," Zahar told the grooms, all of whom were dressed in identical black suits and hailed from the nearby Jabalia refugee camp.

Each groom received a gift of 500 dollars from Hamas.

The pre-pubescent girls, dressed in white gowns and adorned with garish make-up, received bridal bouquets.

"We are presenting this wedding as a gift to our people who stood firm in the face of the siege and the war," local Hamas strongman Ibrahim Salaf said in a speech.

The wedding photos tell the rest of the sordid tale.

The International Center for Research on Women now estimates that there are 51 million child brides now living on planet earth and almost all in Muslim countries.

Twenty-nine percent of these child brides are regularly beaten and molested by their husbands in Egypt; twenty six percent receive similar abuse in Jordan.

Every year, three million Muslim girls are subjected to genital mutilation, according to UNICEF. This practice has not been outlawed in many parts of America.

The Islamic practice of pedophilia dates back to the prophet Muhammad, who amassed eleven wives and many concubines after the death of his furst wife Khadijah in 619 A.D.

After Muhammad's elderly wife, Khadijah, died in 619 A.D., he amassed eleven wives. He arranged the visits to the tents of his women around their menstrual cycles. His capacity for sexual congress seemed to be boundless. Sahih Bukhari, one of the most revered Islamic texts, recounts: "The Prophet used to visit his wives in a round, during the day and night, and they were eleven in number. I asked Anas, "Had the Prophet the strength for it?' Anas replied, ‘We used to say that the Prophet had the [sexual] stamina of thirty [men].'"[1]

For in-between treats, the Prophet kept a stable of concubines, including Reihana, his Jewish captive. His wives and mistresses were compelled by Islamic law to satisfy his sexual needs at any time of the day or night, and the Prophet reserved the right to enjoy them "from the top of their heads to the bottom of their feet."[2]

This might not appear shocking to students of the Kinsley Report, except for the case of Aisha, Muhammad's favorite wife. Aisha was the daughter of Abu Bakr, the Prophet's closest friend and most faithful follower. As soon as Muhammad laid eyes on Aisha, he became to fantasize of having sex with her. There was a problem with this fantasy. Aisha, at that time, was a small child of four or five, while Muhammad was a middle-aged man of fifty.[3]

Still and all, the Prophet wasted no time in making his fantasy a reality. When Aisha turned six, Muhammad asked Abu Bakr for his daughter's hand in marriage. Abu Bakr thought that such a union would be improper - - not because Aisha was a mere child but rather because he considered himself Muhammad's brother. The Prophet quickly brushed aside this objection by saying that the union was perfectly right in the eyes of Allah. Abu Bakr consented. And Muhammad took the little girl as his new bride.

When they were married, Muhammad, in his mercy, permitted Aisha to take her toys, including her dolls, to their new tent.[4] The marriage was consummated when Aisha was nine, and the Prophet fifty-three.[5] The three year waiting period was not caused by Muhammad's concern of sexually molesting a child but rather by the fact that Aisha contracted some disease which caused her to lose her hair.[6]

Pedophilia was not only practiced by Muhammad but also sanctioned by the Quran. In its discussion of the waiting period required to determine if a wife is pregnant before divorce, the sacred text says, "If you are in doubt concerning those of your wives who have ceased menstruating, know that their waiting period shall be three months. The same shall apply to those who have not yet menstruated"(65:4). Those who think that modern Muslims have abandoned this teaching should study the pictures and videos that accompany this article and recall the words of Ayatollah Khomeini, the most famous Islamic cleric of the 20th Century:

A man can have sexual pleasure from a child as young as a baby. However, he should not penetrate; sodomizing the child is OK. If a man penetrates and damages the child, then he should be responsible for her subsistence all her life. This girl, however, does not count as one of his four permanent wives. The man will not be eligible to marry the girl's sister. . . It is better for a girl to marry in such a time when she would begin menstruation at her husband's house rather than her father's house. Any father marrying his daughter so young will have a permanent place in heaven.[7]

[1] Sahih Bukhari, 1:268, translated by M. Mushin Khan, Muslim Student Association, The University of Southern California, 2001, http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/fundamentals/hadithsunnah/bukhari/

[2] Ibn Ishaq, Sirat Rasul Allah, pp. 525-526.

[3] Sahih Bukhari, 5: 235.

[4] Ibid., 8:151, 5:234.

[5] Ibid, 5:62, 63.

[6] Ibid, 8:151.

[7] Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Tahrirolvasyleh, volume 4 (Gom, Iran: Darol Elm, 1990), p. 186.

Despite the disappointing outcome of the DRC, Israel expresses its satisfaction that accusations and incitement directed against it in the original drafts were omitted from the Concluding Statement. (Communicated by the Foreign Ministry Spokesman)

The State of Israel regrets that the Durban Review Conference, whose declared purpose was to address prejudice, a scourge afflicting millions around the world, was exploited to focus instead on a specific conflict that is exclusively political in nature. Not surprisingly, the only national leader who chose to participate in the Conference was Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, who stands out among Holocaust deniers in the world, and who delivered a vitriol and hate speech at the Conference. Already in the planning stages of the Durban Review Conference, statements were made by Iranian and Syrian representatives belittling the Holocaust. Iran, Syria, and Libya were the countries that played a prominent role during the preparations for the Durban Review Conference and during the deliberations at the Conference itself. In the preparatory documents for the Durban Review Conference, systematic attacks were made against Israel, libeling it with absurd charges of racism, apartheid, and genocide. No other country was singled out. This gross injustice was due to the preparatory committee's politicization and hijacking by the worst human rights offenders in the world.

During the deliberations at the Durban Review Conference itself, the Iranian delegate rudely and repeatedly interrupted the representatives of the Jewish organizations, attacked the Conference President for his moderation in conducting the deliberations, and demanded time and again that the Jewish organizations be punished when they spoke out against the massive human rights violations of the Iranian regime. This attitude at the Conference sadly reflected the Iranian regime's brutal silencing of its critics at home. Despite the disappointing outcome of the DRC, Israel expresses its satisfaction that accusations and incitement directed against it in the original drafts were omitted from the Concluding Statement. However, the Statement most regrettably reaffirms the flawed DDPA of 2001, which Israel and other countries firmly oppose. Not surprisingly, Iran, Syria, and Libya were the countries that insisted on including in the first paragraph of the DRC's Concluding Statement the reaffirmation of the 2001 DDPA, which had mentioned the Middle East conflict, twisting its political nature into an allegedly "racist" one by describing the Palestinians as victims of "foreign and racist occupation."

The flaws of the Durban Review Conference brought about the active opposition and the principled withdrawal of many countries. Prominent in safeguarding human rights in their territory, these countries understood that the DRC would become a platform for incitement, and they, therefore, chose not to be a part of it. Thus, they rejected the attempts of a number of extremist states to manipulate the conference and pervert its aims by dedicating it to the denigration of Israel. The withdrawal of many countries and the fear of additional withdrawals led the organizers of the Conference to close the Concluding Statement already at the beginning of the DRC. Israel's consistent and principled position that it would not participate in the Durban Review Conference, together with the withdrawal of many other democratic countries, contributed to the improvements that were made in the Concluding Statement. It has also made the UN consider downscaling Durban-related events in the future, and keeping inflammatory discourse away from the concrete work that needs to be done in genuinely fighting racism. It became clear, both at "Durban 1" and "Durban 2" that many of the issues that came to dominate the debate had essentially nothing to do with a bona fide discussion on racism.

While the DRC was a failure, Israel is hopeful that, by exposing its strident flaws, a drastic improvement of the Durban process will take place. The Jewish people has suffered for centuries from racism and xenophobia, persecution and genocide. Israel, as the state of the Jewish people, remains fully committed to the values of tolerance, democracy, and human rights. The necessary struggle against racism and xenophobia will always find in Israel a willing and ready partner.

3 May, 2009

Israel Opens a Special Website for the Pope's Visit

(Communicated by the Foreign Ministry Spokesman)

The Government of Israel has just inaugurated a special website dedicated to the upcoming pilgimage of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI to Israel, set to take place between the 11th and 15th of May, 2009.

The website, presented in eight languages (English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, Italian, German and Hebrew), contains textual and audio-visual information on the Papal pilgrimage, Israel-Vatican relations, Christian communities in Israel and Christian holy sites throughout the country.

The website will provide regular updates throughout the course of the visit.

The website will also provide live broadcasts of events during the Pope's pilgrimage, including a visit to Yad Vashem Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Memorial (11 May), masses at the Garden of Gethsemane (Jerusalem, 12 May) and at the Mount of the Precipice (Nazereth, 14 May), as well as visits to the site of the Last Supper (12 May), and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher (15 May).

The site may be accessed at the following address:
http://PopeinIsrael.org.il

by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu

(IsraelNN.com) Kadima has pulled ahead of Likud and now holds a two-seat edge with 91 percent of the votes counted. The ballots of soldiers, who usually favor nationalist parties, will be tallied on Wednesday and may cause a near tie between the two leading parties.

Kadima now is projected to win 29 seats in the Knesset, two more than Likud. In third place is Israel Is Our Home (Yisrael Beiteinu), with 15 Knesset Members, followed by Labor with 13 MKs, Shas with 11 MKs and Meretz with only three seats.

Ichud Leumi (National Union) is projected to win four mandates, compared with three for the Jewish Home faction. United Torah Judaism (UTJ) will win four seats, according to the returns. Three Arab parties will increase their Knesset representation by two and will have 11 MKs, according to the preliminary results.

In a speech to supporters, Likud chairman Binyamin Netanyahu said that the voters clearly have made their choice for a government of nationalist and religious parties, which have the potential of forming a government with at least 64 Knesset Members.

"The government under my control will have to deal with very difficult challenges," he commented. Netanyahu singled out the threat of a nuclear Iran and the current economic crises as the immediate issues that must be dealt with

Kadima chairwoman Tzipi Livni claimed victory and called on Netanyahu to join a national unity government, an offer he refused last September when she tried to form a coalition after taking over from outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as head of Kadima.

Voter Turnout Higher than Usual; Arabs May Surprise Pollsters

(IsraelNN.com) Voter turnout Tuesday was 50.4 percent as of 6 p.m. (11 a.m. EST), 3.4 percent higher than at the same hour in the previous election in 2006, despite vicious winds and drenching rains in the north. The voter turnout in 2003 was slightly higher than Tuesday' figures.

Observers expected the voter turnout to be smaller than it usually is because of inclement weather, a factor which usually favors parties whose voters are more committed, mainly Meretz, Ichud Leumi (National Union), Jewish Home and other religious factions.

However, the high turnout also may reflect a growing number of young voters who are casting ballots for the first time and who are more ideologically oriented.

The presence of Ichud Leumi (National Union) delegates as voting monitors in the northern Arab city of Umm el-Fahm spurred riots and rock throwing and may spur angry Arabs to vote instead of boycotting the election.

The turnout of Arab vote was expected to be lower than usual as protest against a Knesset Election Committee decision to invalidate two Arab parties for being anti-Israel. The High Court overturned the decision. Another reason cited for an Arab election boycott is Arab indignance over the war in Gaza.

The three Arab parties now represented in the Knesset have issued a first-ever joint call for Arabs to participate in the election. Only 56 percent of Israeli Arabs voted in the last election in 2006 and elected nine Knesset Members to the 17th Knesset. Pre-election polls indicated there will be between 6-9 Arab MKs in the 18th Knesset.

In the 2006 election, 63.5 percent of Israeli citizens voted, 5.4 percent less than in 2003. The all-time low of 62.3 percent was recorded in 2001, when Ariel Sharon scored a landslide victory with 40 Likud mandates,

Voting turnout in Israeli elections traditionally had been relatively high, ranging from 75.3 percent to 86.9 percent between 1949 and 1999 before the sharp drop in 2001.

President Shimon Peres and all party leaders called on all eligible citizens to cast a ballot despite a growing percentage of frustrated citizens who think "there is no one to vote for."

Israel National News announces all night election coverage including a live TV broadcast and an up-to-the-minute - Elections Results Page

Finally something that should have been done long ago. Please sign and forward to as many people as possible, Jews and non-Jews alike.

If you go to the web site you'll find a very moderate, rational, non-inflammatory condemnation of the way Hamas has waged its war against Israel.

http://www.petitiononline.com/tap12009/petition.html

British academics in another world

By FresnoZionism

The latest action by the cabal of British anti-Zionist academics almost strikes me dumb. It’s impossible to find words that adequately express my disgust at the expression of support for the completely barbarous Hamas from intellectuals in a supposedly civilized country (although history shows that ‘civilization’ can be a thin veneer indeed).

They wrote, in part,

• The massacres in Gaza are the latest phase of a war that Israel has been waging against the people of Palestine for more than 60 years. The goal of this war has never changed: to use overwhelming military power to eradicate the Palestinians as a political force, one capable of resisting Israel’s ongoing appropriation of their land and resources…
  
• Israel must lose. It is not enough to call for another ceasefire, or more humanitarian assistance. It is not enough to urge the renewal of dialogue and to acknowledge the concerns and suffering of both sides. If we believe in the principle of democratic self-determination, if we affirm the right to resist military aggression and colonial occupation, then we are obliged to take sides… against Israel, and with the people of Gaza and the West Bank. I am not sure how they plan ...Read more

Ending the West's Proxy War Against Israel

Stop funding a Palestinian youth bulge, and the fighting will stop too.

By GUNNAR HEINSOHN | From today's Wall Street Journal Europe

As the world decries Israel's attempt to defend itself from the rocket attacks coming from Gaza, consider this: When Hamas routed Fatah in Gaza in 2007, it cost nearly 350 lives and 1,000 wounded. Fatah's surrender brought only a temporary stop to the type of violence and bloodshed that are commonly seen in lands where at least 30% of the male population is in the 15-to-29 age bracket.
[Commentary] Barbara Kelley

In such "youth bulge" countries, young men tend to eliminate each other or get killed in aggressive wars until a balance is reached between their ambitions and the number of acceptable positions available in their society. In Arab nations such as Lebanon (150,000 dead in the civil war between 1975 and 1990) or Algeria (200,000 dead in the Islamists' war against their own people between 1999 and 2006), the slaughter abated only when the fertility rates in these countries fell from seven children per woman to fewer than two. The warring stopped because no more warriors were being born.

In Gaza, however, there has been no demographic disarmament. The average woman still bears six babies. For every 1,000 men aged 40-44, there are 4,300 boys aged 0-4 years. In the U.S. the latter figure is 1,000, and in the U.K. it's only 670.

And so the killing continues. In 2005, when Israel was still an occupying force, Gaza lost more young men to gang fights and crime than in its war against the "Zionist enemy." Despite the media's obsession with the Mideast conflict, it has cost many fewer lives than the youth bulges in West Africa, Lebanon or Algeria. In the six decades since Israel's founding, "only" some 62,000 people (40,000 Arabs, 22,000 Jews) have been killed in all the Israeli-Arab wars and Palestinian terror attacks. During that same time, some 11 million Muslims have been killed in wars and terror attacks -- mostly at the hands of other Muslims.

What accounts for the Mideast conflict's relatively low body count? Hamas and their ilk certainly aim to kill as many Israelis as possible. To their indignation, the Israelis are quite good at protecting themselves. On the other hand, Israel, despite all the talk about its "disproportionate" use of force, is doing its utmost to spare civilian deaths. Even Hamas acknowledges that most of the Palestinians killed by Israeli air raids are from their own ranks. But about 10%-15% of Gaza's casualties are women and minors -- a tragedy impossible to prevent in a densely settled area in which nearly half the people are under 15 and the terrorists hide among them.

The reason for Gaza's endless youth bulge is that a large majority of its population does not have to provide for its offspring. Most babies are fed, clothed, vaccinated and educated by UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. Unlike the U.N. High Commission for Refugees, which deals with the rest of the world's refugees and aims to settle them in their respective host countries, UNRWA perpetuates the Palestinian problem by classifying as refugees not only those who originally fled their homes, but all of their descendents as well.

UNRWA is benevolently funded by the U.S. (31%) and the European Union (nearly 50%) -- only 7% of the funds come from Muslim sources. Thanks to the West's largesse, nearly the entire population of Gaza lives in a kind of lowly but regularly paid dependence. One result of this unlimited welfare is an endless population boom. Between 1950 and 2008, Gaza's population has grown from 240,000 to 1.5 million. The West basically created a new Near Eastern people in Gaza that at current trends will reach three million in 2040. Within that period, Gazans may alter the justifications and directions of their aggression but are unlikely to stop the aggression itself.

The Hamas-Fatah truce of June 2007 allowed the Islamists again to direct all their energy on attacking Israel. The West pays for food, schools, medicine and housing, while Muslim nations help out with the military hardware. Unrestrained by such necessities as having to earn a living, the young have plenty of time on their hands for digging tunnels, smuggling, assembling missiles and firing 4,500 of them at Israel since 2006. While this gruesome activity has slowed the Palestinian internecine slaughter, it forced some 250,000 Israelis into bomb shelters.

The current situation can only get worse. Israel is being pushed into a corner. Gazan teenagers have no future other than war. One rocket master killed is immediately replaced by three young men for whom a martyr's death is no less honorable than victory. Some 230,000 Gazan males, aged 15 to 29, who are available for the battlefield now, will be succeeded by 360,000 boys under 15 (45% of all Gazan males) who could be taking up arms within the coming 15 years.

As long as we continue to subsidize Gaza's extreme demographic armament, young Palestinians will likely continue killing their brothers or neighbors. And yet, despite claiming that it wants to bring peace to the region, the West continues to make the population explosion in Gaza worse every year. By generously supporting UNRWA's budget, the West assists a rate of population increase that is 10 times higher than in their own countries. Much is being said about Iran waging a proxy war against Israel by supporting Hezbollah and Hamas. One may argue that by fueling Gaza's untenable population explosion, the West unintentionally finances a war by proxy against the Jews of Israel.

If we seriously want to avoid another generation of war in Gaza, we must have the courage to tell the Gazans that they will have to start looking after their children themselves, without UNRWA's help. This would force Palestinians to focus on building an economy instead of freeing them up to wage war. Of course, every baby lured into the world by our money up to now would still have our assistance.

If we make this urgently needed reform, then by at least 2025 many boys in Gaza -- like in Algeria -- would enter puberty as only sons. They would be able to look forward to a more secure future in a less violent society.

If the West prefers calm around Gaza even before 2025, it may consider offering immigration to those young Palestinians only born because of the West's well-meant but cruelly misguided aid. In the decades to come, North America and Europe will have to take in tens of millions of immigrants anyway to slow the aging of their populations. If, say, 200,000 of them are taken from the 360,000 boys coming of age in Gaza in the next 15 years, that would be a negligible move for the big democracies but a quantum leap for peace in the Near East.

Many of Gaza's young -- like in much of the Muslim world -- dream of leaving anyway. Who would not want to get out of that strip of land but the international NGOs and social workers whose careers depend on perpetuating Gaza's misery?

Mr. Heinsohn heads the Raphael Lemkin Institute at the University of Bremen, Europe's first institute devoted to comparative genocide research.

Original Article Link: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123171179743471961.html