Fortress High School for Israeli Kids
by Aron Heller
For the first time in years, the children of the
Israeli town of Sderot can study in peace. Living
under constant threat of rocket fire from militants in the nearby Gaza Strip,
their schooldays were often interrupted by mad dashes to bomb shelters. But
yesterday, they started the school year safe from attack in a new, fortified,
rocket-proof school building.
The
$US27.5 million ($26.5m) structure features concrete walls, reinforced windows
and a unique architectural plan all specifically designed to absorb and deflect
rocket fire. Notices on the walls of the "Shaar Hanegev" High School
remind the 1200 students of their new reality: in case of a warning siren, it
reads, stay put.
"You
can finally teach without constantly worrying about what to do when there is a
rocket attack," said Zohar Nir-Levi, the principal of the junior high
school inside the complex. "You can concentrate on your studies. It used
to be that even before you said 'hello' in the morning you were telling people
where to run."
In
the 12 years since rockets began raining down on Sderot, less than 2km from
Gaza, residents say life has often been unbearable. Eight people have been
killed, hundreds wounded and nearly everyone in the working-class town of about
24,000 has been traumatised by the frequent wail of sirens and explosions… The Israeli military
says about 440 rockets have been fired so far this year. (Most residents of Sderot are suffering from PTSD -
does the world care that they are subjected daily to Arab terror? Anti-Semitic
bigots are only care about ‘poor Palestinians’!)
Disgraceful
Act of Israeli Government
On Sunday Israel
completed evacuation of Migron, culminating years of legal wrangling in a case
that has become a rallying cry for Jewish patriots who opposed any withdrawal
from Jewish land claimed by the fake Palestinian people.
Gush Katif
all over Again
Minister of Strategic Affairs Moshe Yaalon gave
residents of Migron a hard choice: leave their homes willingly, or fight
eviction and risk homelessness. Yaalon argued that only families that cooperate
with eviction should be allowed to use caravans in the Givat HaYekev site
created to replace Migron homes. (Why is the Israeli
government still self-destructive? Smart people are supposed to learn from
their mistakes!)
Food
for Thought by Steven Shamrak
Police killed 44 miners in
Playing Political ‘YoYo’ Game
Mahmoud
Abbas has decided not to apply at the General Assembly session next month. The
decision stands in contrast to last year, when the PA asked the Security
Council to admit them as a full member state. Analysts expect the Palestinians
to resume their campaign after the US presidential election. (They know that this application violates the Oslo
Accords, as long as Israel is pushed into diplomatic a corner, nobody cares!)
Not so Friendly ‘Gesture’ with the Help of Israel’s
‘Friend’
Egypt has deployed US-made
surface-to-air missiles (SAMs), and tanks near the border with Israel, in a
breach of the 1979 peace treaty. “Right now, all of the (Egyptian) heavy
weapons have been deployed along the Israeli border,” a defence source said.
The Boeing-produced Avenger air defence system, also deployed near the Israeli
border, contains the Stinger surface-to-air missile and was supplied to Egypt
over the last five years. Meanwhile, the United States Department of Defence
has awarded an $8.7 million contract to United Technologies for support of
F100-PW-229 engines for Egypt’s order of 20 F-16 Block 52 multi-role fighters. (Deployment of SAMs in Sinai is a de facto cancelation of
the peace treaty with Israel!)
Anti-Jewish Justice Controlled by Self-Haters
President
Shimon Peres commuted the prison sentences of seven Israeli Arab terrorists.
Among the terrorists who will be freed are Kareem Younis and his cousin Maher
Younis Ma’ara who were involvemed in the murder of IDF soldier Avraham Bromberg
in 1980; and Walid Daka, who was convicted of involvement in the murder of IDF
soldier Moshe Tamam in 1984. Last year, after it was announced that Gilad
Shalit would be freed for more than a 1,000 terrorists, activists protested
outside the homes of both Neeman and Peres, demanding that they release Jewish
prisoners serving time in Israeli prisons. The Justice Minister, however, did
not act to release the prisoners as has been demanded by their families.
Must the World Provide for Corrupt Terrorist Welfare
Entity?
The
Gaza Strip will not be "liveable" by 2020 unless urgent action is taken
to improve water supply, power, health, and schooling, according to the United
Nations' most comprehensive report on the Palestinian territory. "The
population of the Gaza Strip will increase from 1.6 million people today to 2.1
million people in 2020, resulting in a density of more than 5,800 people per
square kilometre," according to the United Nations report. (Corrupt PA and Hamas officials build luxurious villas and
fat personal bank accounts. They have no interest in water supply, power,
health or the environment!)
PA Academics are Against Normalisation with
Israel
PA academics published a
statement strongly criticising a German-sponsored Israeli-Palestinian academic
project, initiated by al-Quds University and the Hebrew University, aimed at
enhancing understanding between different cultures. The academics denounced the
project as a form of normalisation with Israel and pointed out that cooperation
between Israeli and Palestinian academics was in violation of a ban issued by
the Palestinian Council for Higher Education. (Isn’t
it a violation of the Oslo Accord? Why must only Israel honour all these
useless and fake agreements?)
Without Naming Iran - UN Denounced Threats from Iran?
In a speech at the Non-Aligned
summit in Tehran, Ban Ki-moon said: "I strongly reject threats by any
member state to destroy another or outrageous attempts to deny historical facts
such as the Holocaust," he said. "Claiming that Israel does not have
the right to exist or describing it in racist terms is not only wrong but undermines
the very principle we all have pledged to honor.
(Convoluted diplomacy does not work - anti-Semitic bigots and culprits must be
named and shamed! UN has never had a problem with naming Israel in its
anti-Israel bigotry!)
Iran Made Another Step Toward A-bomb
Iran has doubled the capacity of
its Fordo nuclear facility in defiance of UN Security Council resolutions and
sanctions. A report, circulated to the International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA) member states on Thursday, but not published, showed that Iran now has
around 2,000 uranium-enrichment centrifuges installed compared with around the
1,000 it had in May, at Fordo. (Why is it not
published?)
Quote of the Week:
"From a technical military point of view,
Israel does not require any kind of coordination with the Americans. There is a
concern that the Americans will learn of the date for an attack and try to
prevent it in different ways. The Americans (Obama) have not given the Israelis a feeling that they
are true partners in the operative arena, in the past two years. On the
contrary, the IDF has identified preventive American activity against an Iran
operation. This is particularly evident in the grave matter of the leaks
regarding Azerbaijan in the past, about the Kurdish region, and recently in the
publication of the flight paths to the target. All this is being produced by
our ally, with the cooperation of one of the largest media platforms in Israel,
which serves and assists the Obama administration against the government of
Israel. The Americans are the ones who are feeding some of the arch-pundits
with damaging information." - Amnon Lord, Israel's veteran journalist.
Self-Haters are Against the Levy
Report
by Moshe Dann
A recent
letter to PM Netanyahu opposing the Levy Report organised
by the Israel Policy Forum (IPF) and signed by 40 critics of Jewish communities
built in
Touted as
‘American Jewish leaders’, the individuals who signed, (except for those
associated with the Reform Movement, Eric Yoffee and
David Saperstein), represent no organisations or
constituencies. They are mega-buck philanthropists, very wealthy businessmen
like Charles Bronfman, Lester Crown, Marvin Lender, owner of Lender’s Bagels,
and Richard Pearlstone, financier and real estate
mogul, who bought their way into Jewish communal organisations,
Susi Gelman (heiress to the
Levi Strauss fortune), Edith Everett who runs a family foundation, some
corporate lawyers, a few academics, a former Clinton advisor, and two former US
ambassadors to Israel.
IPF was
founded in 1993 with PM Rabin’s blessing to support the Oslo Accords and
counter AIPAC - and to carry out propaganda campaigns as part of a network of
American organisations with a similar purpose, like
Americans for Peace Now, and New Israel Fund, and left-wing Israeli NGOs like
ACRI, B’Tselem, etc, think tanks like INSS and the
Peres Center for Peace.
IPS’ first
president was Jack Bendheim, a wealthy businessman (Phibro and PAHC holdings) and philanthropist living in
According to
Prof Ofira Seliktar,
(Divided We Stand) in 1996 the IPF, led by Bendheim,
along with billionaire S. Daniel Abraham (SlimFast),
and Sara Ehrman (Americans for Peace Now) played a
major role in convincing then-President Clinton and Secretary of State Albright
to apply more pressure on PM Netanyahu for further withdrawals, halting
settlement activity and concessions to Arafat as part of the Wye Agreements... (Having money
or fame, does not automatically imply national loyalty or ‘brain’!)