Hitting Ashkelon Has No Bad Effect on Peace Process, Says Abbas

Wednesday's violence started when Israel finally had an airstrike in Southern Gaza after being bombarded by rockets into Sderot and now hitting Ashkelon. They killed 5 of the Qassam Brigade terrorists. The terrorists were seen carrying out a special operation against Israel. Militants responded by "firing barrages of rockets at Sderot" and killed an Israeli civilian. By Thursday they shot Katyusha-style rockets into Ashkelon which lies 10 miles north of the Gaza Strip. with 120,000 people.

The Ashkelon Marina was hit by a rocket on Saturday afternoon, wounding two residents. Outdoor cafes and bars were empty at lunchtime on Sunday, even though the weather was fine.

A long-range rocket hit outside the apartment house of Meram Levy, mother of two small children. This caused all the windows to shatter. Her husband and she sleep in shifts to listen to their new public address system alert.

Sunday afternoon, terrorists fired two more rockets into Ashkelon. One damaged a house. 16 people were in shock after this happened. One rocket landed near a kindergarten. 12 katusha rockets hit Western Negev.

Two shorter-range Qassam rockets, made in Gaza, fell inside Israel. Also hit was Netivot, a desert town in Israel.

Monday Condoleezza Rice visits Egypt. Abbas, head of Fatah which is located in the "West Bank" , complained that our IDF forces were destroying the peace process. We pulled out of Northern Gaza early Monday after a two-day operation against the squads firing rockets into Israel. Of course, the terrorists firing rockets were perfectly all right, he thinks. That is not destroying the peace.

Now that Israel knows that they can hit Ashkelon, they must strike back to protect their citizens. The IDF was trying to hit places where rockets were stored, and unfortunately, the terrorists store them in or near civilian homes. They also aimed at manufacturing facilities, a command center, and armed men. Israel must defend itself in a situation like this.

When Israel pulled out, Gazans had a victory rally of 20,000 people and fired more rockets into Israel. Among the Hamas terrorists are a wing called the Qassam Brigades, and Islamic Jihad and Popular Resistance Committees. They cheered, but all suffered casualties. Abbas of Fatah said that contacts with Israel had been temporarily suspended. He feels we are the aggressors. Evidently to him, firing rockets into Israel is not being aggressive. Abu Obeida, Qassam Brigade spokesman said they would continue firing rockets. In fact, if the terrorists and Israel have a truce, Zahar, spokesman for Hamas, said they would continue to train and make weapons. This is what Olmert fears. A truce would only give the terrorists time to prepare their fight against Israel.

Hamas may ask for a multinational force to protect the West Bank and the Gaza Strip from Israel. I wonder if it would work the other way, also, and be able to stop the terrorists from shooting rockets into Israel.

Reference: The New York Times
Jerusalem Post Newspaper
Yahoo News reported by Ibrahim Barzak, Ass. Press writer

Obama and Israel

Nadene Goldfoot
Obama said at a recent APAC forum: We should all be concerned about the agreement negotiated among Palestinians in Mecca last month. The reports of this agreement suggest that Hamas, Fatah, and independent ministers would sit in a government together, under a Hamas Prime Minister, without any recognition of Israel, without a renunciation of violence, and with only an ambiguous promise to "respect" previous agreements.
This should concern us all because it suggests that Mahmoud Abbas, who is a Palestinian leader I believe is committed to peace, felt forced to compromise with Hamas. However, if we are serious about the Quartet's conditions, we must tell the Palestinians this is not good enough.
But as I said at the outset, Israel will have some heavy stones to carry as well. Its history has been full of tough choices in search of peace and security.



My concern is that we've had some heavy stones to carry all along. We give in at every meeting and give land, but our opponents never do. We can't even get them to recognize us other than a target for killing. In order to accomplish his goal, I'm afraid he'll put added pressure on Israel to "give" another small piece of our already extremely small state. Jerusalem is land I'm thinking about. I'm not willing to part with one speck of it. If there is to be a Palestine next door to us, it will only come when they recognize and accept us and not do harm to us. They already live in East Jerusalem. We haven't kicked them out. I think it's safer all around if it remains under Israel's authority, considering what happened when Jordan was in control. For what they have done to us for 60 years of being terrorists and warring, I think we can say that they've never even had the option of taking Jerusalem from us. Israel has carried far too many heavy stones. It's the future Palestinians whose turn it is now.

Another problem I foresee is Abbas, who is said to be a moderate. Fatah is not as moderate as they should be. I'm afraid it's a ruse. One cannot be too naive. They talk with Hamas and plan. If Obama wins I would pray that he be wary of their intentions and promises. During February the Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority (PA) Salaam Fayyad issued a poster to honor the 43rd anniversary of Fatah's party depicting Israel, Judea, Samaria and Gaza draped in an Arab headdress with a rifle and Yasser Arafat and honored the late terrorist George Habash by having 3 days of mourning, which included flying PA flags at half mast and publicly praising him as a great Palestinian hero. Mr. Fayyad is one of the "moderates" who is said to promote peace.

George Habash's terrorists murdered hundreds of Jews and Americans and instigated suicide bombings and airplane hijackings, were involved in the Munich massacre and murdered an Israeli cabinet minister, Zeevi. Even Fatah's office in Washington praised George Habash and dared to ask members of Congress to sign a book of condolence. American Jews who questioned Mr. Fayyad are just now realizing that the PA leadership is not moderate or peaceful. As they put it, "It's just Yasser Arafats in suits and ties. " Obama, our Israeli leaders had spoken with our enemies, but they were fully aware of whom they were speaking to. Our next president must have his or her eyes wide open and not be gullible. This must be the most important foreign relations skill. This is what I worry about. Enough with the heavy stones for Israel to carry. We've done our share already.

References: Obama speech to AIPAC
2/27/08 Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations: Palestinian PM Fayyad refuses to answer question about PA's honoring terrorist Habash & PA/Fatah Poster erasing Israel.

Portland's Sister City Ashkelon Hit For Third Time Overnight

Ashkelon and Sderot were hit with 21 missiles overnight. The rockets came in two waves for the third day in a row. five people were injured when two crashed into a house. Dozens of shock victims were treated. Eleven Qassam missiles exploded at Sderot early Saturday.

Ashdod, 27 km from Gaza and north of Ashkelon, is preparing its defenses now. They have 12 alert systems ready. Ashkelon had none. Ashdod is a port.

Olmert returned from Japan with his meeting with Condoleeza Rice and was presented with the facts that the IDF was prepared to target the Hamas rulers, and had gone after them with troops backed by tanks. Five Israeli soldiers were injured; two very seriously. Olmert is more of a peacenik than Obama, but realizes that Israeli cities cannot sit back and be attacked. They want to get Hamas and other terrorist groups involved out of northern Gaza where the missiles are coming from. Then Israel can avoid occupying Gaza again.

The terrorists know what their actions are causing, so they in turn have taken steps. They've taken over civilian homes as headquarters and have stocked them with ammo, water and food for three weeks of war. They are not using cell phones. Instead they are using children as runners with messages. Thousands of missiles and rockets are stored in homes and schools and refugee camps. This is the reason there have been casualties on their side. Evidently their leaders think they are dispensible.

Reference: Debka file: geraldrobins.

Today's Letter Against Israel: Israel's "Crimes"

Nadene Goldfoot
It just amazes this Portland born Israeli how much people are against Israel on the basis of hearsay. I doubt if a lot of people actually read about the history of Israel. They conclude their negativity from propaganda that they somehow pick up.

Today's letter made me think of this. Here is my response.

Letter to the Editor,
In response to the letter from William Seaman, "Israel’s crimes ignored", I ask, " Is it a crime to protect your citizens from attacks?" That’s precisely what Israel has had to do. Israel discovered that Fatah puts its rocket artillary in the midst of its own population to do the very thing that you are condemning Israel for; that of hitting the population. What they are achieving is negative propaganda against Israel, and that’s their aim. The Israel blockade was done in lieu of going in and killing everyone. Israel has now developed weapons that are better at pinpointing targets. This is war, but the terrorists hide behind their population.
Israel left Gaza completely, and their reward has been constant shelling. Now Ashkelon, Portland’s sister city, has been shelled for the second time. The rockets have a longer range. Palestinians refuse to recognize Israel, which means to leave Israel alone in peace and to have a neighborly relationship with them. This goes against their charter which is to drive Israel into the sea. Until they have a change of heart, Israel must defend itself.

What I had no space to reply to were the completely incorrect charges that he makes against Israel. The charge of occupying and expanding its theft of Palestinian land is so wrong. Here we inherited Gaza from the 1967 attack on Israel from the Arabs and fortunately for us, won, but by doing so came to inherit Gaza from the Egyptians! After leaving the area completely, we are charged with occupying and expanding. I'm beginning to lose my patience with people. As a teacher, I am disgusted with people's obvious prejudices.

Here we have one of the smallest states in the world either attacked by surrounding Arab states or by disgruntled stateless Palestinians who now say they want their own state but can't stop shooting at us in order to achieve this goal and this small state is the bully in the neighborhood because it doesn't lie down and die. It has the audacity to want to protect itself.

The logic of some people today just floors and disgusts me.

Ashkelon, Our Sister City, Hit by Rockets

Today Ashkelon, our sister city in Israel, was hit by long range Iranian -made Grad rockets from Gaza terrorists that they smuggled in through Egypt.

Ashkelon is only 11 miles north of Gaza. One of several hit an apartment building and one landed near a school and injured a 17-year-old girl.

I lived in Ontario, Oregon for at least 12 years. I know that it was only 12 miles to Vale, Oregon. That seemed so close. To think that rockets could be fired from there to Ontario and injure and kill people is shocking. Now I live in Gresham, and it's at least 12 miles to my son's home in Portland. That's how close the terrorists are to our sister city in Israel.

In the past, more than 24 rockets have hit the Ashkelon area and did not find a target. The latest round of rockets was the most intense so far, and the building hit was the first. Two days ago, a rocket exploded in the parking lot of Ashkelon's Barzilai Hospital.

Since the terrorists now have longer range missiles, they have new targets. Sderot, a town with 20,000 residents has been hit the most. They lie just 1 mile from Gaza. On Wednesday an Israeli father of 4 was killed that hit the Sderot community college.

Ashkelon is a city of 110,000 residents. The rockets fired at it have the range of about 14 miles. Hamas is also upgrading its Qassams which they mass produce in Gaza, and they will have the range of 12 miles, though their range now is 10 miles so they fall just outside of Ashkelon at this time. Its residents want a warning system like Sderot has. They have no protection. The hospital also needs fortifications for the emergency room, maternity ward and surgery departments. They had better get protection quickly as Israel is not planning any ground offensive right now.

The Israeli army finally struck back on Thursday from Midnight into the afternoon in an effort to cease their firings. They are targeting rocket squads. The problem is that these squads are situated in populated areas on purpose. Israel's defense minister said that he would not be afraid to reoccupy Gaza if necessary in order to stop the attacks. Ehud Barak said Israel has not wanted to go into Gaza again but that an offensive is an option.

Condoleeza Rice met with Olmert in Tokyo. She urged calm on all sides. She's worried about the humanitarian situation in Gaza. I wish she'd talk to Hamas terrorist officials about that. It's they that bring on the situation in Gaza. There's not much that Israel can do until the terrorists stop firing rockets at us. Olmert may be calm in Tokyo, but I don't think anybody else is, especially those within range of the firings; Ashkelon.

Reference: USA Today

Hezbolla and Hamas's Value of Life

Nadene Goldfoot
I just watched a video on my computer this morning by a famous news reporter reporting the 2006 war between Israel and Lebanon. Though Keven explained how media can be used as propaganda, he continues to do exactly that and presented a very one-sided program viewing the Lebanese Hezbollah as innocent victims and Israel as the advanced technically armed army, and therefore the bad guys.

There are some differences. Israel received statehood after waiting 2,000 years for it. We never forgot Jerusalem, and remembering it has been in our prayers ever since. "Next year in Jerusalem" is said every year by our families. Israel was born again May 14, 1948 through the U.N.'s vote. We are a certifiable state.

One of the things we have had to do is to keep an army and be updated in whatever armies use. The difference between the USA and Israel's army is that every man and many women in Israel have to serve. We're a very small group of people. Work just about comes to a halt and no one takes your place when there is a crisis. The population becomes the army.

I was there in 1982 when Israel went into Lebanon and saw this firsthand, being I was living in Safed, which is very close to Lebanon. Suddenly all the men teachers were called into service and I volunteered to cover their classes. It was horrible. It was a traumatic time for all of us, more so for the civilians-turned-soldiers who had to rush to their posts.

We work very hard to protect our citizens from the attacks of terrorists, which continue at this time from Gaza. When you're attacked, you have to try to stop it. I am appalled at the populations who have been taught to hate us, our neighbors in Lebanon and Gaza. They attack us and then cry and scream when we retaliate in defense. Do they think we will just throw stones at them? It's like a teeny dog attacking a huge dog and getting the worst of it. One has to have the sense not to take on an opponent who will obviously win.

So I come to the conclusion that our enemies do not value the life of their compatriots. They use them as pawns in their propaganda fight against us. Getting people to side with them is more important than the lives they say they are working for. All their crying and screaming means that they have succeeded in rousing their people in a hatred for us. They cry for Israel to lift its import and export punishment and return the electricity to them, but they continue to bomb us. We have had to use something as punishment for attacking us, thus the cutting of electricity during certain hours and hurting them economically. What we should have done was just go in and attack them with our army, I suppose, and kill them all. I think that's what they would have done to us, and is what Iran is threatening to do with atomic weapons. They have bombed our station that supplies them with electricity and then they cry about it. These people are showing that their value system is completely different from ours.

We will not be driven into the sea, as our neighbors have threatened to do to us. We are fighting very hard for a "next year in Jerusalem and another year in Jerusalem." We mean to stay, cousins. Since there are millions and millions of Arabs and only about 5 million Jews, I am grateful that the numbers of casualties reflect this difference between countries. If we lost the same numbers as they, it would certainly be lopsided. Kevin, realize the difference in population when you print loss of lives on both sides. Perhaps percentages would be a more accurate number. And remember, we didn't start this war. We don't want it or need it.

Israel, Barak Hussain Obama and his friend, Louis Farrakhan

Nadene Goldfoot
Yesterday's Oregonian had an article in it that Farrakhan is giving his support to Obama. Obama had attended the church that was very friendly with Farrakhan. I wondered about Farrakhan's background and feelings towards Jews and Israel.

Farrakhan is the acting head of the Nation of Islam. He is a well-known advocate for African American interests. How does this affect his views about Jews and Israel? He is known to be antisemitic, though he denies these charges. One reason he is charged with being antisemitic is because when Jessse Jackson ran for president in 1984, Jesse referred to New York City as "Hymietown". He thought he was speaking off the record, but it was printed in the paper. In retaliation, Farrakhan said, in reply to Jesse Jackson receiving death threats, " If you harm this brother, it'll be the last one you ever harm." The chairman of the anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith (ADL) called Farrakhan "the new Black Hitler", and others called him that, also. My personal feeling about all this, from only this piece of information, is that Jesse Jackson was anti-semitic. Farrakhan was just mad about the death threats. However, Farrakhan took things too far with a speech praising Hitler. He was censured by the United States Senate for the speech. In fairness, Farrakhan did mention that he wasn't proud of Hitler's evil toward Jewish people. ..and don't compare me with your wicked killers.

He had his own gripe against us Jews. He said that Jewish distributors blocked his plan for Nation of Islam cosmetics and toiletries sold under the Clean and Fresh label. Important hair product companies serving Blacks refused to do business with him. One company that was worried was Johnson. He felt that if he did business with Farrakhan others would boycott his other products. This caused Farrakhan to feel that blacks would not be free unless they have a different relationship with Jews. What this had to do with Jews, I do not know. I doubt that George E. Johnson is Jewish.

We had amongst our Jewish population a group that is not assisting in Israel's existence in any way. It is the extreme Orthodox group called Neturei Karta, and of course Farrakhan had made friends with them. They feel that G-d alone will bring us back to Israel, and man can not help.

In Febraury 2006 at an NOI event in Illinois, Farrakhan stated that "These false Jews promote the filth of Hollywood. It's the wicked Jews, the false Jews that are promoting lesbianism, homosexuality, and Zionists have manipulated Bush and the American government on the war in Iraq. I'm afraid we see his true feeling about us in this speech.

Other famous quotes are that he wants to see black intellectuals free...I want to see them not controlled by members of the Jewish community. Frankly, Minister Farrakhan, Jews could not possibly control any intellectual. And nobody can control our intellectuals, either. He has gone on to say that "Dewey, Kant and Hegel, and the rabbis that wrote the Talmud, make blacks inferior. Now that is slamming our Talmud and all the rabbis who wrote it; in essence slamming our religion. Whatever has caused him to rant in such a way against us could be his friends in the Muslim environment, who don't like us, either. How he has convinced himself to think that our Talmud makes blacks inferior is beyond me. This tells me that he has never read the Talmud; not one page. Has he read that Moses had a black "Cushite" wife? How does he explain that? How about the Queen of Sheba coming with her entourage to visit with King Solomon? How about the Black Ethiopians who are now living in Israel and were Jews dating way way back. From a very primitive people who tried to cook their lunch on the plane with a bonfire to soldiers in the army who are now becoming commanders, we put faith in people and do not treat them as inferiors. We were slaves for 400 years in Egypt and remember that event every year at Passover. We were treated as inferiors by the Nazis in Germany. One of our commandments that we still follow is to treat others as you would have others treat you. Being people and not angels, some of us must slip up once in a while. But as a group, we try very hard to follow our ethics. Our religion is not a racial one, but a conglomerate of people who have decided to take the faith. How about the young Jewish kids who went to help the Blacks in the south in the 60's? Are we teaching our children that Blacks are inferior? Of course not.

Farrakhan has referred to Jews, Palestinian Arabs, Koreans, and Vietnamese as "bloodsuckers", has said that "Murder and lying comes easy for white people." At least we are not alone in his hatred for others. I think it's delightful that he puts us and the Palestinian Arabs together as a group to hate.

He has called Judaism a "gutter religion," but when called on it, denies it. Instead, he says he called it a "dirty religion," and when he says this, it has a particular meaning. He says it means a distorted faith which emerges from its manipulation by hypocrites or sinners. So he's calling all of us Jews sinners and hypocrites with a distorted religion.

This man is one year older than I am. He appears to be full of hatred for Jews and naturally for Israel since he does not respect Israel's faith. This is the man who has befriended Obama, and being a minister, has given lots of sermons. How much affect does he have on the decisions Obama makes?

Fox News is talking about this subject right now. I'm not alone with this worry. Barak Hussain Obama is younger than my son by nine years, and I'm still telling my son not to go running at night in Portland. I do worry about the feelings towards Jews that this presidential candidate has picked up despite what he says as a politician. Actions speak, too; not just nice words.

One thing that Obama has done is to choose Zbigniew Brzezinski as his Foreign Relations advisor. Brzezinski, a Harvard Professor from Poland who became a US citizen in 1958, was a part of the Carter team. He supports Walt and Mearshimer's criticism of Israel that Rabbi Stampfer of Portland, OR spoke against. Anyone who listens to advisors with this type of opinion is not going to come to the aid of Israel. I have also written about the Walt and Mearshimer tome in this blog below.


Reference: My blog on Democratic Candidates for President, Obama, on this blog below
Wikipedia on Louis Farrakhan. http://www.politico.com/,