Ichud Leumi (The National Union)

For what it is worth, these guys are going to get my vote. Check out their web site to see where they stand on the different issues facing the nation.

What Disengagement?

We're back in the Gaza Strip again:

The government authorized the IDF to send ground troops back into central Gaza Tuesday, following an early morning roadside bomb explosion and a rocket-propelled grenade attack that killed one soldier and wounded three others, one seriously.

Hamas warned that it has not agreed to a "calm" and that its previous ceasefire announcement is dependent on Israel's re-opening Gaza crossings to all commercial traffic.

"This is a serious attack," Defense Minister Ehud Barak told soldiers during a visit near a base close to the scene of the attack and at the same time it occurred. "We cannot accept it and we will retaliate. I do not think there is any point in saying how."

He carried out his threat within hours as troops reached Khan Yunis in central Gaza. Local residents reported tank fire and Israel Air Force jets over the area. Arab sources also reported that the Air Force struck a terrorist target, killing or wounding three people, but the IDF has not confirmed the counterterrorist action.

Hamas responded with mortar fire on the Eshkol region, causing no damages or injuries but returned the area to the status quo of the days before the Cast Lead operation against the terrorist infrastructure in Gaza.

The attack on the IDF patrol occurred around 8 a.m., after two or three terrorists were seen by local Arabs to be planting the roadside explosive that was detonated as an army vehicle passed.

Troops opened fire immediately, and one Arab was killed. His identity was not confirmed, and Gaza sources claimed he was a farmer.

The attack came at the same time United States Middle East envoy Sen. George C. Mitchell was scheduled to confer with Egyptian officials prior to his arrival in Israel tomorrow.

And so it goes.

The Sad Results of Intermarriage

Read "Israeli woman seeks reunion with her children in Gaza".

Name The Rabbis

Do you know who these Rabbis are? They were recently caught on the Cosmic camera. Guess your best!



Update: No guesses? I'm disappointed! From left to right: Rabbi David Cohen, Rabbi Yisrael Ganz, Rabbi Azriel Orbach

HH #201

Click.

The Gazans Are Not Innocent!

It's about time that this was said!

Cosmic X in the Gaza Strip

You see some weird things when you check your statistics. Here I have a visitor from Khan Yunis, which is strange enough. What's even stranger is the page he visited:

More War Crimes By Hamas

Here a mosque was used to fire on Israeli troops and store weapons. And the creeps complain about civilian casualties!

Please Pray For IDF Officer Aharon Karov

From INN:

IDF officer Aharon Karov was critically wounded Monday night in Gaza by a blast from a booby trap. Karov was married only a week and a half ago to Tzvia Mordechai, and the morning after his wedding, he was off to war.

Aharon, who is from the Samaria community of Karnei Shomron, is a second lieutenant in the Paratroopers Brigade. He commanded a company in ground fighting in North Gaza until being injured. Before joining the army, Aharon studied in a yeshiva (school for religious study) in Netzarim, one of the Jewish communities destroyed in the 2005 Israeli Disengagement from Gaza.

Aharon's family has asked that the public pray for his recovery. His Hebrew name is Aharon Yehoshua Ben Chaya Shoshanna.

Two and a half weeks ago, before Operation Cast Lead began, Aharon received leave from his unit to attend the traditional Sabbath celebration before his wedding. On the morning of that Saturday, the air force began bombing Gaza. Aharon had just finished the Sabbath prayers and sat down to eat lunch when his commanders decided to call him back to base in case a ground offensive in Gaza began.

The following week, Aharon was in the army preparing for the ground offensive set to begin any moment. On Tuesday evening his commanders decided to allow him to go home to prepare for his wedding on Thursday night. Aharon and Tzvia were married as planned, but the next morning the IDF already called Aharon back to base. By Saturday evening the army had begun its ground offensive, and with them, Aharon Karov in command of his Paratrooper company.

On Monday night, Aharon was wounded critically and two other soldiers moderately from a blast within a booby trapped home in Northern Gaza. Searches of the home after the blast uncovered another explosive device and a Hamas military vest.

Aharon's father, Rabbi Zev Karov, explained how a newly married groom could make such a sacrifice. "According to Jewish law, in a war of self defense even a newly married groom must fight," he explained. "More than that, [Aharon] is a commander who knows his soldiers, has prepared them, and knows what must be done. He couldn't just leave them on their own." Karov added that, "The bride was at first shocked, but then she understood that sometimes personal interests must be second to the common good."

What is really strange about this is the article that Rabbi Zev Karov published in last Shabbat's issue of Rosh Yehudi. Here's a scan of the article:



Update: You can see a press conference with Rabbi Zev Karov here.

Update: Here's the video in English.

They Were Wrong (Part 2)

Here's a recording of Yitzchak Rabin saying with absolute certainty that rockets will never be fired on Israel from the Gaza Strip. Remember this one for Rabinfest (Hat tip to Rafi).

They Were Wrong

Look at what the clowns thought that the "disengagement" would bring us (Hat tip: The Muqata):



The video is misleading with regards to Netanyahu's postition regarding the disengagement:

Netanyahu threatened to resign in 2004 unless the Gaza pullout plan was put to a referendum, but later lifted the ultimatum. He submitted his resignation letter on 7 August 2005, shortly before the Israeli cabinet voted 17 to 5 to approve the initial phase of withdrawals of the Gaza Disengagement Plan. Netanyahu's resignation went into effect 9 August 2005, two days after he submitted his letter.

Shifa Hospital Must Be Destroyed

Shifa hospital in Gaza has become a refuge for Hamas operatives:

Hamas is using Gaza's Shifa Hospital as a meeting place and even distributed salaries to its operatives there over the weekend, Public Security Minister and former Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) head Avi Dichter said Monday morning.

Speaking on Army Radio, Dichter noted that "on Saturday, January 10, which is the day salaries are distributed in Gaza, several Hamas commanders who cannot come out of hiding were given their salaries at their hiding places. But those commanders who can move around Gaza made their way to Shifa Hospital to receive their wages."

Regarding Israeli intelligence reports that the Hamas leadership had taken refuge in Gaza's Shifa Hospital, Dichter said that the "Shifa Hospital has long ago ceased to be just a hospital, just as the UNRWA humanitarian and health services in Gaza long ago ceased to be just humanitarian services providing food and medical services."

"UN schools in Gaza long ago stopped being just schools," the minister said. "All these services and places are refuge for Hamas terrorists and commanders."

Asked why Israel was not acting against Shifa Hospital, Dichter answered that an attack on a hospital could not be carried out "for obvious reasons."

"Shifa is in the middle of a very crowded area in Gaza and you would have to get through half-a-million Gazans to get to the hospital and arrest Hamas people there. So that's not doable. Striking the hospital is out of the question for obvious reasons. So in this case we have to just bite our tongues," he said.

The former Shin Bet chief said that is was common knowledge in Gaza that Hamas holds meeting in the hospital. "Shifa Hospital, which is situated in the more wealthy western part of Gaza City, is a very big hospital, but you can hear from the Palestinians who visit there, it is somewhat of an open secret, that Hamas commanders walk around the hospital, in some instances wearing doctors' robes," he said. "In some cases, the Hamas commanders kick medical teams out of rooms so that they can hold meetings."

The Shin Bet told ministers last week that Hamas leaders were hiding in a basement bunker built by Israel under the Shifa Hospital complex in Gaza City. The basement at the hospital was refurbished during Israel's occupation of the Gaza Strip, Haaretz reported on Monday. The United Nations insists that it keeps Hamas members out of the schools, clinics and other institutions it runs in Gaza.

Sorry Dichter, but if the Hamas is using the hospital as a refuge it must be bombed, just as Israel did not hesitate to bomb mosques that were being used by the Arabs for military purposes. Our citizens' lives are worth more than the terrorists and their hospitals.

HaRav Amos Netanel Speaks

From INN:

On Friday, Rabbi Amos Netanael and his wife Malki phoned two of the tank crew members who fired on a building in which the soldiers were taking refuge. In addition, they wrote them a letter full of love and encouragement:

“Dear tank crew #... of Company …. of Regiment …, who are fighting night and day with valor and self-sacrifice on behalf of our nation and land.

"We know that our son Yoni fell as part of the great military campaign at the hands of our own forces. We feel a deep inner need to tell you, with all of our life-strengths, that we love you and embrace you tightly.

“Fatal friendly fire incidents are an unavoidable part of every war and of our ability to defeat the enemy on the battlefield. Yoni went out to war knowing this, and we, his parents, sent him off to war knowing this as well.

“It was not you who hit Yoni!

“Yoni died for the Sanctification of G-d’s Name at the time that G-d decided his time on earth had reached its end. You were the pure angels who had to carry this out.

“We find comfort in the fact that your pure hands struck at him, and not the defiled hands of our wicked enemy – for Yoni could not have been felled by any impure hand.

“It is important for us to tell you that we love you with all the warmth of our hearts, you are like our own children… Please, we ask you, keep up the same great spirit that beat in Yoni’s heart – the spirit of faith, of strength, daring and love, and we will then know that Yoni continues to live forever within you.”

You can see an interview with Rav Netanel (in Hebrew) here. This my friends is what true faith is all about!

HH #200

This is a milestone!

Background: Gaza and Cast Lead

Here's a video from the IDF Spokesperson's Unit.



The video has its ups and downs. The attempt to differentiate between Hamas terror and Fatah terror is pathetic. At the end of the video you can see two politicians whose bad decisions are largely responsible for the current mess: Ehud Barak who was behind the Lebanon withdrawal and Ehud Olmert who was Sharon's right hand man during the "disengagement". (Now that we are thoroughly "engaged" again, even the leftists must admit that the term "expulsion" is no doubt more accurate.)

UNRWA Must Go!

We've really had enough of them. The day the refugee problem is solved is the day that UNRWA bites the dust, and a lot of jobs and money disappear. The interest of UNRWA to perpetuate the refugee problem is quite clear:

According to the U.N. aid agency for Palestinian refugees, up to 825,000 of Gaza's 1.5 million inhabitants claim refugee status. These Gazans receive food rations and other assistance through the United Nations, including medicine, education, and even jobs via UNRWA.

While the refugees benefit from UNRWA, the organization benefits more from the refugees. These refugees are the organization's raison d'etre. Accordingly, UNRWA has zero incentive to resolve the Palestinian refugee problem; ending the refugee problem would render the agency obsolete.

The interests of the refugees and UNRWA are so intertwined that UNRWA is staffed in situ mainly by local Palestinians—more than 23,000 of them—with only about 100 international United Nations professionals. While the U.N. High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) and UNICEF (United Nations International Children's Fund) avoid employing locals who are also recipients of agency services, UNRWA does not make this distinction.

Thus, in the interest of self-perpetuation, UNRWA seeks to maintain the violent status quo in the Middle East, even if it means turning a blind eye to terror.

We're sick of UNRWA institutions serving as bases for terror. Get them out of here!

See this as well.

I Hope That Shoshi Greenfeld is Not Right

Read her article (in Hebrew).

IDF: Hamas Used UN School to Fire Mortars

(IsraelNN.com)

Hamas fired mortar shells from a United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) school in Jabalya before the IDF retaliated with aerial bombing that killed Hamas terrorists as well as children, according to an initial IDF investigation.

"Amongst the dead at the Jabalya school were Hamas terror operatives and a mortar battery cell who were firing on IDF forces in the area," the IDF said. "We face a very delicate situation where the Hamas is using the citizens of Gaza as a protective vest," according to IDF spokesman Brig. General Avi Benayahu.

The military said that it appeared "a number of mortar shells were fired at IDF forces from within the Jabalya school. In response to the incoming enemy fire, the forces returned mortar fire to the source." The IDF added that most probably a secondary explosion from explosives within the building added to the destruction.
A number of mortar shells were fired at IDF forces from within the Jabalya school.

This isn't the first time that Arab terrorists have fired mortar shells from UN schools (Mortar Bombs Shot from UN School in Gaza 29 Oct. 2007):

Captain Yonatan Netanel z"l

One of the soldiers killed in the "friendly fire incident"was Captain Yonatan Netanel. I know Yonatan's father, Rabbi Amos Netanel quite well. Rabbi Amos is an educator par excellence who teaches/supervises at Talmud Torah Morasha. Below is a letter that Rabbi Amos sent to the parents of his students a couple of days before his son was killed. It tells a lot about the man and his family:



Update: Apparently Yonatan z"l was killed in a different incident than the one I linked to above.

Another Quickie

1) Rafi is hosting jpix 22.

2) Did you see that Biur Chametz put up a post?

A Quickie

1) Check out HH #199

2) Please pray for our soldiers. Today after Mincha where I work (a fairly large minyan of about 30 people) we read the entire book of Psalms (about 5 chapters for each guy).

3) I wish that I had some more time to write. Be well y'all!